The Valkyrie Option

by Markus Reichardt

  The Desert Fox’s gamble had worked. It took Allied commanders a full day to regain sufficient control for an organized advance. By then most Wehrmacht units had a 20 kilometer head start on them.

  ‘It would be a measureless disaster if Russian barbarism overlaid the culture and independence of the ancient states of Europe.’

  Winston Churchill to Anthony Eden, 1942[41]

  ‘…a Europe dominated by a single overwhelming power spell[s] danger to American security.’

  Admiral WD Leahy, Chief of Staff to ROOSEVELT[42]

  11:00 am 24 July

  Underground War Rooms

  Storey's Gate, Whitehall

  Churchill had called for Brooke the moment he found out that Eisenhower had called for a meeting of the utmost urgency. The Prime Minister had seen a copy of the Montgomery/Rommel picture barely half an hour after breakfast and was steeling himself for what he knew would be a tumultuous meeting. Seeking strength in numbers he had Eden to stay on for the encounter with SHAEF.

  'Keep your pen handy for your memoirs, Anthony' Churchill joked awkwardly, 'this could very well be a key moment for the alliance... either way.' He handed him the Montgomery/Rommel picture. 'The Desert Fox certainly sprung this one on Monty.'

  The tall, aristocratic foreign secretary stared down at the image, his eyebrows rising in surprise. 'I see your point Prime Minister.' He handed back the image. 'And yet we should remind our American allies that armistice and peace treaties are made by agreements written on paper and signed by leaders, not handshakes by generals.'

  'Indeed, Anthony, that went out with Wellington, but the problem is that the Americans are a far more visual people. To them the image of these two great captains shaking hands on the cover of every newspaper...'

  Eden did not care to remind his boss that he was half-American himself.

  Eisenhower came through the door like a drill sergeant after a bad parade. A cigarette clenched between his teeth had gone out and apparently been forgotten. It fell to the ground as the American straightened to attention briefly. 'Prime Minister, Mr Eden.' The tone of his voice pushed the thermometer down a few notches. Without waiting for a response he came straight to the point.

  ‘Prime Minister Churchill I believe you have been handed a copy of a photo taken at the meeting in General Montgomery's HQ. We discussed this meeting yesterday and I outlined my concerns to you about the possibility of General Montgomery unintentionally having taken steps or made statements which commit the Allies to a particular course of action. You and Field Marshall Brooke assured me that this had not taken place. It seems Sir,..'he paused for effect,' that General Montgomery did indeed take the kind of action that I was concerned about. Berlin is talking about an armistice and the cessation of hostilities. My President has instructed me to ascertain your views on the matter, especially with regards to making a joint statement of future intent for the continuation of hostilities.'

  Behind him the door was opened and Brooke slipped in. Eisenhower was so intent on Churchill that he only noticed the CIGS once he approached the table. A curt nod was all Brooke got. For Churchill the pause was not helpful. It was clear Eisenhower was looking for a very specific response.

  'You are suggesting that we issue a statement in which we outline our response to the German armistice proposals. It would certainly have to address the lack of clarity which the Germans have created and are bound to create around this picture.' Eden's language was diplomacy at its best, meant as a way to get the American to calm down and discuss business. But the Foreign Secretary had badly misread SHAEF's intentions. Instead of using the opening given to him by the Englishman's choice of words, Eisenhower exploded at their apparent evasiveness.

  'The statement can wait! Prime Minister, what I would formally like to know first is whether in view of the fact that General Montgomery has obviously exceeded his authority, you intend to discipline him.'

  Brooke cut in before Churchill could. All his dislike of the American suddenly venting itself. 'You are suggesting we sack Monty , General Eisenhower ? May I remind you that he is the Commanding Officer of all Commonwealth troops in that theatre.'

  Eisenhower was not about to give ground.' And for the past few weeks he's been telling me how he is grinding down the Germans and how everything is going according to plan. Every time things did not go as planned it was always someone else who was at fault. I have backed him even when he has patently let me out of the loop and then let me down. Operation GOODWOOD cost us more than 400 tanks…. and thousands of dead and wounded. And all I got was a request for more tanks. This time it is his mess and his alone. And’ he paused again for effect’ he formally reports to me.'

  Before Brooke and Eisenhower could take their long pent-up dislike to new levels, Churchill cut in. 'General Eisenhower there are I believe bigger issues at stake here. What Monty did and what it means depends entirely upon what your President and I decide the Alliance will do. Right now I would prefer some illuminating comments concerning the view from Washington. You have already mentioned something about continued hostilities. Am I correct in assuming that the President is still considering the issue?'

  'Yes Prime Minister it is the President's opinion that we went to war over principle s and must continue to fight it on principle. Germany started it, the Russians are our Allies, Europe needs to be liberated. Roosevelt regards the liberation of Europe as an essential precondition to a lasting post-war peace under the aegis of the United Nations.'

  ‘You shall find no disagreement from me on those principles, General’ the Prime Minister was cautious but firm, ‘however I have not heard mention of our nations individual national interests. I therefore suggest that I talk to the President at some length about this matter. I know that delays our response and our action in the field. But in truth General I believe history can wait a bit on such critical decisions.'

  'Very well Prime Minister, direct contact with the President does seem to be the best way. I must however inform you that on one matter his mind may already be made up. He has asked me as SHAEF to request relieving General Montgomery at the next meeting of the War Council. I intend to carry out the orders of my commander-in-chief and I believe that there will not merely American voices supporting this motion. In view of your discussion with the President, I will await its outcome.'

  Before conferring with Washington, the Prime Minister carpeted his bomber chiefs. There was little value in blasting Portal and Churchill knew it. Portal’s role was ceremonial, given the personality Bomber Harris brought to the job. So he went straight for Harris. Since early 1944, the Prime Minister had had enough of Bomber Command’s empty promises and the need to paper over differences between him and his American counterparts and therefore no longer supported the Bomber Offensive. Harris dismissal had been openly discussed and only avoided by formally subordinating his activities to Eisenhower and the D-Day preparations, as an alternative. Even then the headstrong Harris, a man of limited refinement and even less subtlety had found ways to continue his offensive against German towns. Since then, relations between Harris and his Prime Minister had generally been good and this setback on its own would not have poisoned it. But Harris misjudged Churchill’s mood badly by downplaying the setback in his opening comments. Unable to explain why his airfields had been caught napping or even directly admit that that was what had happened, he compounded the situation by suggesting that the RAF Fighter Command redirect more night fighters to base protection.

  “So you see no need to reconsider your strategy in light of last night’s events?’ Churchill finally cut to the chase.

  “Absolutely none Prime Minister bar the need for some increased base security as mentioned…”

  “Air Marshall Portal” Churchill turned on Harris boss” You have anything to add?”

  Caught by his desire to defend his subordinate and the need to speak his mind Portal wavered, giving Churchill his opening. “Gentlemen I believe that this event requires a complete review of your
strategy. By your own admission Air Marshall, he fixed Harris with an icy stare, we lost about 1 000 well-trained men in one go never mind the planes and the wounded. Bomber Command is in no position to resume these sorties for the next few days. I would like you to think very hard about the value of sustaining this effort in view of the changed political circumstances in Germany. Both of you may wish to have a discussion with CIGS about our manpower situation.”

  Harris did not know when to stop. “Prime Minister the changed political circumstances in Germany make it all the more important that we press on. The death of Hitler has shaken the population hard, with a few more hard knocks from Bomber Command civilian morale may very well break within days. ..”

  “Even if each sortie only costs half as much as last night, Air Marshall, there will be no Bomber Command left in a matter of days.”

  No taller than Churchill, Harris drew himself up to his inconsiderable height. “Prime Minister we agreed at the outset that these were necessary losses for what remains in my view a war-winning strategy.”

  “Air Marshall, I daresay that I thought I had made myself clear: political considerations suggest otherwise.” He held Harris gaze. “But let me spell them out for you: Not only has Bomber Command not broken the German military industrial capability, but your penchant for wholesale destruction of civilian areas is creating a human disaster on a scale that it affects our post-war policies. Who is to govern this ruined and de-housed population. And where in an impoverished Europe will we find the resources to bring Germany back to life? If the Germans break, our ground forces are unlikely to move faster eastward than they are moving now. However, the Russians will if the Wehrmacht stops resisting. There is geopolitics involved here, post-war geopolitics, that must be taken into consideration. For the same reason I put it to you that the realm is gradually reaching the limits of its manpower resources. Losses like those last night cannot be sustained no matter what you say. Politics suggests that they would be expended for no real value and would very possibly counter-productive for the stability of post-war Europe in the wars immediate aftermath.”

  “Prime Minister, the enemy remains unbeaten….”

  “Nonsense Harris” Churchill cut him short with a wave of the cigar. “The enemy has asked for terms about which we are still thinking. They have already formally announced the end of the Axis alliance cutting loose both Japan and the North Italian puppet state. My decision stands, Air Marshall Portal, the CIGS will forward you instructions later today for Bomber Command to rebuild its bases but to cease all bombing raids against civilian targets for the moment.“

  Harris shot out of his chair like a pitbull with rabies but managed to control himself at the last moment. He stood there for a few seconds while his superior gathered his coat. Churchill did not look up. “That will be all Harris. Come back when Bomber Command has developed some alternatives that take account of the new political realities. Talk to me about how we can make the Germans leave behind as much plunder as possible, without losing too many English lives or treasure in the process.”

  While Harris stiffly exited, Churchill reached for the next item in his file; a clipping from the Times and an accompanying note from Anthony Eden from the Foreign Office. George bell, Bishop of Chichester and a member of the House of lords had made a major speech about the need to seize the opportunity presented by the assassination of Hitler. Bell, who for years had been one of the most outspoken proponents of the need to negotiate with any German opposed to Hitler, had come out all guns blazing. With Hitler gone he had informed his fellow lords, there was finally proof of his long-standing argument that there was ‘another Germany’, a Germany that was part of Europe and no threat to it. It was no up to Britain to seize the moment in order to fight against the common enemy – Bolshevism. Eden who had previously described Bell as a good German bishop, had simply scribbled next to the article, ‘another tirade from that miserable priest.’ But Churchill was intrigued, like many others he had warned about the dangers of bolshevism before raising the alarm about Hitler’s intentions. It remained to be seen what the broader public response would be.

  24th July

  Bern/Washington

  Allen Dulles was just as eager as he openly welcomed the hulking Hans Bernd Gisevius in his office for the first time. He was not disappointed. Gisevius frantically pressed more than 40 pages of descriptive biographies and an assessment of the new leadership in Berlin written by himself and some of the junior officers of the Bomb Plot, into the astounded Dulles hands. ‘Please make sure that this reaches the President. It is important that he understands the people on the other side’. And while Dulles hastened to do so, his own boss in Washington was busy covering up his previous oversight. Before the new Gisevius material could even be read to him over the radio-telephone or shoved into the diplomatic pouch, the OSS chief decided that the time had come to repolish his image in his boss’ eyes: The OSS memorandum which fluttered onto Roosevelt’s desk on the afternoon of the 24th of July began with the fateful bland comments: ‘The developments did not come as a great surprise except to the extent that there were reasons to doubt whether any high command officers of the German Army, who had remained in positions of power after the successive purges, would have the courage to act.’ It then summarized most of the key points picked up from German broadcasts but could do little to cover the fact that Donovan, having discarded most of Dulles material before, was groping in the dark.[43]

  “Donovan seems to have forgotten that I can read newspapers too!” Roosevelt snorted and tossed the crumpled brief into the wastepaper bin. The President’s anger at the ass-covering note from OSS was all the greater as the coup had deprived him of his principal source of information in the German leadership. With the abrogation of the Pact of Steel, Japan’s ambassador to Germany, General Oshima no longer enjoyed any access to the top decision-making levels in Berlin. Even before the war, American code breakers had broken the cipher in which the warrior diplomat with the near-photographic memory communicated his conversations with the Nazi high and mighty to Tokyo. Roosevelt had become accustomed to reading the near verbatim transcripts of discussions between Oshima and Hitler, Göring, Himmler, Ribbentrop and some of the Field Marshalls.[44] Even worse, his other window into the enemy’s mind, had become useless as well. Hitler’s former media chief ‘Putzi’ Hanfstaengl, had fled Germany before the war and was co-operating with another one of the ROOSEVELT espionage organisations, that had regularly passed on his material to feed the President’s appetite for high-level tittle-tattle. Hanfstaengl knew only a few of the new guard in any way and could offer only generic insight.

  When he chosen Donovan to head the espionage apparatus, ROOSEVELT had done it out conviction that the Irish-American was a breath of fresh air in a sea of conformist thinking. Maybe only one in ten of his memorandums were worth pursuing but with Oshima’s information gone, Donovan’s evasive bureaucratic language hit a raw nerve. Now with the coup in Berlin challenging the very rationale of his war strategy, Hanfstaengl useless and Oshima’s messages gone, here was Donovan covering his bureaucratic ass, telling him he had no idea.

  The OSS memoranda that reached his desk over the following 48 hours went straight into the ‘to-be filed bin’. With Berlin’s new leaders more comfortable on the phone than with detailed edicts on the teleprint, even the British Bletchley Park operation was no longer as useful as it had been. What they were decrypting was information about what area what German unit would be vacating over the next few days and what route it would take. What good was tactical detail when you needed to get inside the opponents head. Hans Bernd Gisevius had made his trip in vain. Donovan’s 40 pages of biographical detail would be picked up a generation later by surprised presidential historians, who would severely criticise the President for ignoring this valuable information. For the moment a frustrated ROOSEVELT was flying blind.

  Chapter 3

  There was no excuse for the way Roosevelt treated Churchill. FDR was naïve. B
ut one must make allowances for the spirit of the times. If Roosevelt had resisted Soviet demands, a big slice of the US intellectual community would have accused him of provoking Stalin

  Henry Kissinger [45]

  I know there is not room enough on earth for both German militarism and Christian decency

  President Roosevelt March 1945[46]

  Should Germany be dismembered or gradually converted to an ally to meet Russian threat of 20 years hence? I suggested the latter and feel certain that we must from now on regard Germany in a very different light. Germany is no longer the dominating power of Europe, Russia is.

  Field Marshall Lord Alanbrooke

  Entry in War Diary, July 27th, 1944

  July 25th

  London/Washington

  It was the call both leaders had sought to avoid but both knew had to be made. At the urging of Marshall and Eisenhower on the American side and Alanbrooke on the other, FDR and Churchill arranged to have a long-distance telephone conference. Churchill, eight years older was senior in every way except that unlike Roosevelt he was not a head of state and yet rank and the disparity of power were enough to activate – even after all these exchanges – in invariable deference to the younger man. “Mr President, we need to talk about the future.’ Roosevelt by contrast always sought to rely on informality to reach the Prime Minister, ‘Yes Winston we do.’ There was too much interference in the line for Churchill to discern any sentiment in the voice. But a monosyllabic President could only mean one thing: trouble. FDR was usually a chatterbox.

  The Prime Minister came straight to the point: ‘I have conferred with my cabinet and it is our recommendation that we grant the Germans their ceasefire, while stressing that this does not in any way imply an end to the conflict. From what we can ascertain Rommel has already begun moving his men back towards the German border. We should insist that continued withdrawal of all their forces back to their own territory must be a precondition for the maintenance of that ceasefire.’