by James R Benn
I had no idea how these things worked. It might be as simple as a telephone call or as complicated as a coded message left at a blind drop. Maybe the information would be sent to Moscow by the diplomatic pouch, or by radio. It might take days or weeks, but I was certain that justice of a sort would soon find Kiril Sidorov, as the NKVD took him in the dark of the night, arrested him as a traitor and spy, and threw him into Lubyanka Prison, perhaps in the same cell where Tadeusz Tucholskihad been held. Perhaps he’d have a trial, but it didn’t matter. The verdict was already decided. Kiril Sidorov had betrayed his family and the Motherland. The executioner would become the victim.
Perhaps then, souls might sleep. His, at least.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
THE EVENTS DESCRIBED in this novel regarding the Katyn Forest Massacre are true. Based on written orders issued by NKVD head Lavrentiy Beria, and co-signed by Joseph Stalin and other members of the Soviet Politburo, approximately twenty-two thousand Polish officers, policemen, and other professionals held by the Soviets were executed at Katyn as well as at other locations in the Soviet Union. Since the first graves were uncovered at Katyn, the entire murderous affair became known by that name.
When evidence of the massacres emerged, the western response was focused on maintaining the alliance with the Soviets, whose offensives were grinding down the Germans in advance of the D-Day invasion of Europe. Winston Churchill privately agreed that the Soviets were responsible, but his public statements pointed to German guilt. The Katyn Manifesto, published in England in 1943, placed the blame for the massacre on the Soviets, based on information obtained from Poles who had been released from Russian prisons. The author, Geoffrey Potocki de Montalk, was arrested by Scotland Yard’s Special Branch for his writings and imprisoned for the duration of the war.
The American government also participated in the Katyn cover-up. Navy Lieutenant Commander George Howard Earle III, President Roosevelt’s special emissary to the Balkans in 1943, was ordered by FDR to compile information on the Katyn Massacre. Earle’s conclusion in 1944 was that the Soviet Union was responsible. FDR rejected the report, stating that he was convinced Nazi Germany had committed the atrocities. When he ordered Earle’s report suppressed, a frustrated Earleformally requested permission to publish his findings. FDR issued a written order to desist. To ensure his silence, Earle was reassigned and spent the rest of World War II in the Pacific on the island of American Samoa.
In 1990, the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation admitted Soviet responsibility for the killings, but declined to categorize them as war crimes or genocide, thereby sidestepping the possibility of charges being filed against surviving perpetrators.
When Billy arrives in London in January 1944, he witnesses the start of an actual German air offensive that became known as the Baby Blitz. The Luftwaffe had assembled a force of over five hundred aircraft and in January ’44 began a series of mass attacks, the largest since 1941. The raids continued for three months, and although they came as a surprise to the British, they were not a success. The Luftwaffe loss of bombers was high, which contributed to their ineffectual response to D-Day in June 1944.
The Liverpool Underground shelter, minus Archie Chapman, was a well-organized shelter, with the facilities described. Many Londoners did continue to sleep in the Tube stations long after the original Blitz was over, and it is easy to imagine them snug in their bunks with satisfied smiles, as their neighbors made do with a cold floor.
Operation Frantic, a series of shuttle bombing raids, commenced in June 1944 to support Soviet offensives that coincided with the D-Day invasion of Normandy. It was originally conceived on a grand scale, but the Soviets resisted the idea of large American bases within their borders. The raids did complicate German defenses, but only a small contingent of U.S. personnel was ever stationed in the USSR.
The beautiful and haunted Dalenka is fictional, but the Three Kings was an underground Czechoslovakian anti-Nazi organization. Its members were all killed in action or executed.
Kim Philby was the true-life head of MI6 Section 6, responsible for all intelligence matters in the Mediterranean. He was also a Soviet agent, originally recruited by his Cambridge tutor, and operated successfully until his defection to the Soviet Union in 1963. During his senior tenure at MI6 during the Second World War and the Cold War, Philby betrayed numerous secrets to the Soviets, including the names of British and American agents who subsequently were tortured and executed. Philbybelieved he held the rank of colonel in the NKVD, and would be received as such when he ultimately was forced to defect to the Soviet Union. Instead, the NKVD ignored him for ten years, during which he descended into alcoholism. He betrayed even his loyal English wife, who had remained with him, as he seduced the wife of another British traitor, Donald Maclean. He died in 1988.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
WHILE IT IS true that writing is a solitary endeavor, the end result can be improved through the thoughtful efforts of others. Two people stand out for special acknowledgment of their contributions.
Laura Hruska, Soho Press publisher and editor, has taught me more than I thought there was to know about the fine art of editing. Like a master mechanic who tunes an engine before a race, the work of a superb editor such as Laura works imperceptibly to smoothly speed the story along.
Deborah Mandel, my wife and now fellow writer, has willingly endured many readings of each manuscript, giving me valuable suggestions for improvements and clarity along the way. Her loving and constant support is a blessing.
Copy of the NKVD memo from Beria, ordering the execution of Polish officers. Signed by Stalin and other members of the Soviet Politburo.
Table of Contents
TITLE PAGE
COPYRIGHT PAGE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
AUTHOR’S NOTE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS