by Jack Fernley
‘So let us once again rehearse our strategy.’ Both von Greim and Reitsch were beginning to tire of Werner Conze’s schoolmasterly approach. They had often spoken of this stage on the long journey from Berlin to the Americas, had run through the plan only two days earlier in Trenton, yet he was insistent on a further rehearsal. It piqued Reitsch in particular. The designated führer was Ritter von Greim, but Werner Conze clearly felt he was more than his equal.
‘I’m not entirely sure this is necessary. I am not some dolt who can’t remember anything, you know,’ von Greim expressed his annoyance.
‘I’m not suggesting you are, Generalfeldmarschall. But this is vital. If we play our cards well over the coming days, we will have achieved the first stage of our plan. Remember: stage one, infiltrate, win the Americans’ confidence by bringing them previously unknown victories—’
‘All of which we know they would have achieved without our help.’
‘Hanna, that makes no difference. The important foundation of myth creation is not the truth, but what people perceive to be the truth. What is truth? What people take to be the truth. The story is everything, not facts. Our aim is simple: to make it appear that we – or rather, the Generalfeldmarschall here, is responsible for both Trenton and the forthcoming victory at Princeton. This creates the conditions for our ability to start the second stage: the ideological battle for the very soul of this revolution – or rather, to put something into the soul of the new America beyond these half-baked, flimsy concepts of liberty and freedom. Generalfeldmarschall, humour me, how do the events of the next few days play themselves out?’
Grudgingly, von Greim gave the answer Conze was awaiting.
‘Today Washington will receive news that General Cornwallis has departed New York with a large force, the aim to restore Trenton and crush him. There will be discussion in the war conference of a response. There will be those who suggest that the army should immediately retreat and avoid conflict. The leader of that cause will be Mercer, especially now Lee has departed to Congress, where his attempt to have Washington removed from the leadership will fail once news reaches them of the victory at Trenton. Washington will receive full authorisation from Congress to direct the war as he sees fit, which almost gives him dictatorial powers, although he will not realise their full implications or perhaps not want to. But we shall. He also has to convince his men to stay with him for a further month, rather than keep to the terms of their contract. He will bribe them to stay.’
‘Good, very good.’
Reitsch could not hide her disdain for Conze’s patronising tone, nor for that matter, could von Greim.
‘I’m pleased you think I can remember so much, Werner,’ he said with a sting. ‘At this war conference, I allow the debate to begin, but crucially – you see I do take in all your details, Conze – crucially, I have to make a stand before Washington outlines his thoughts. I will suggest that we keep no more than a skeletal resistance in Trenton. That we first prepare for an assault by Cornwallis on Trenton by organising defences to the north of the town, but we take the main body of the Continental Army south by the Assunpink Bridge. I will argue that we use the Pennsylvanian Riflemen and our Stormtroopers to hold up Cornwallis, so that he is unable to take the town before nightfall. We retreat across the river. Then, using the backwoods, we launch an offensive against the British forces at Princeton. From there we immediately move on, although, and this is different I believe to previous . . . what would you say? The previous time when this event happened? This time, we will raid the British supplies at New Brunswick and make off with them. That will be your job. To secure those supplies.’
Conze nodded his assent then asked: ‘And the battle?’
‘Well, if the battle follows the previous battle – this is all very peculiar, sometimes I find it very difficult to understand how all this works, this notion we are changing a past we already know. I wish the science was a little clearer.’
Conze shrugged. ‘It makes no difference. You need not understand it.’ That derogatory tone again.
‘The battle will be fierce on the outskirts of Princeton; there will be a time when the Colonists in the rear will panic and start a retreat. At that stage Washington assumes control on the field and saves the day. I must engineer a situation where instead I rally the troops before he has that opportunity, to win the acclaim for myself.’
‘Excellent. Very excellent. But there is a further—’
‘Mercer. Mercer must perish. He is Washington’s key confidant. He will throw himself into the battle around that time, but he will be isolated and receive multiple wounds. We must allow him to die. The loss of his closest, and earliest, confidant will hurt Washington, who, surrounded by those young men, Knox, Greene and Hamilton, will look to Baron von Steuben for experienced advice. We shall make an ally of Gates, who is already alienated from Washington. We will need him to bring the north-east colonies to our side.’
‘Excellent! Our Stormtroopers are ready to play their part. I would say they are itching to see battle. I have a number of small improvements to better the original American plans to harass the British along the Princeton road. In the next few days, we will firm up our reputation for valour and for tactical cleverness. The first stage will be well on its way to completion.’
‘And the second part, Werner? How goes the fight for the soul?’
Conze could hardly miss Reitsch’s sarcastic tone now.
‘As you will understand, Hanna, the battle for the soul is far more difficult and longer than any physical battle. One has to have the cunning of the fox, but the stamina of a lion hunting its prey. The battle for the soul is underway.’
‘Is it? Or have you simply found some girl you want to fuck?’
Conze smiled. He was a handsome man until he allowed himself a smile, when his face appeared crooked. He was not a man much given to good humour, and his smile undermined the charm that he was so keen to use on others.
‘I was unable to bring my own sandwiches to this picnic, unlike yourself, Hanna.’ He cast an eye over the hurriedly made bed. ‘I see no reason why I can’t look to find my own pleasures. Besides which, we say we look to win the hearts and minds, don’t we? My plan remains the same. We use the Pennsylvanian Riflemen as our entry point. This fellow Hand, as our research suggested, will be the perfect foil. We shall win him over and through him, his men. Then over the next few months our ideology will spread, like a virus, through this army and on to the Colonists’ townships and villages. It will be a contagion, like history has never seen before.’
‘No further word from Alfried Krupp?’ asked von Greim.
‘No. I suspect he is still moaning about the quality of accommodation. By the time we reached New York on that boat, I was close to wanting to kill him. Such a bourgeois dilettante!’ roared Reitsch.
Von Greim laughed out loud. ‘I’m afraid that three hundred years of luxurious living has not left the Krupps with much of an understanding of how most people live in the twentieth century, let alone the eighteenth.’
‘It’s that poor chap Schmeisser I feel sorry for,’ said Hanna. ‘Alfried has decided him unworthy of any role aside from his manservant, when he is possibly the true genius of this entire campaign.’
‘Yes, you’re probably right, my dear. It is Schmeisser, his understanding of weaponry, that will change things here for ever. Forget our plans, our tactics, no matter how modern, if he can find the way to give our troops the Sturmgewehr 44 or the Maschinengewehr 42, we will have victory within two years, if not sooner. From there, we no longer have history to follow. From that moment on, we will be writing history anew.’
‘Indeed, we are the masters of the future now,’ Conze said in agreement.
‘And now we are at war, we must give you a suitable rank Werner. This Herr Doktor, philosopher, warrior may play well in the salon, but you require a proper rank for the battlefield and to establish your position among the men. So, I award you the title of Obergruppenführer.�
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Conze blushed, ‘That is—’
‘Indeed, that is the senior most rank of the Stormtroopers. It indicates to all that you are second only to myself in command of the troops.’
‘This is a most wonderful honour. I am truly indebted sir.’
‘Congratulations Werner, sorry Obergruppenführer!’ Reitsch said before kissing him warmly.
‘There is one other appellation I have been considering. It is time for us all to say goodbye to our beloved friend Robert Ritter von Greim. From now I can only be addressed as Friedrich von Steuben. Even in private, my dear.’
‘That may prove difficult, darling. Friedrich. It lacks a certain . . . a certain something.’
‘Although more noble sounding than Robert, and more fitting to the age, I would counter,’ said Conze.
Von Greim pulled his bottom lip up, ‘I know nothing of that. This is our age now. We cannot return to the lives, the world we left behind. We understood that when we entered Bewilogua’s infernal machine.’
‘Ah, do you think often of that moment, Generalfeldmarschall, when we took that step into the unknown?’
Von Greim paused. He did. He often thought of it. There had been so little time to understand the implications of the journey. By necessity they had to agree to the mission almost immediately. No time to question Bewilogua’s obscure calculations and insistence they would land perfectly in Berlin in 1775. The scientist confident because he had sent a scout ahead (or rather back) with a mission to leave a message in a steel canister buried at a specific point in Dahlem, a canister newly discovered, close to a hundred and seventy years after it had been buried. Not until he found himself standing in the green fields around the eighteenth-century village of Dahlem, welcomed by that very scout, had Robert Ritter von Greim begun to understand what he had left behind or the risk involved. There were still times when he would awaken in a wet sweat, his dreams punctured by the memory of the violence of the travel, the noise, the nausea, the bone-crushing pain of the transition, the headaches they all suffered in the weeks that followed. He did not understand the science, all he knew was they could not return and he was glad only because he would never again have to experience such agony.
Sensing her lover’s discomfort, Hanna broke the silence: ‘I think only of the feeling of nausea from that journey. That and the sanitary sacrifices we have made!’
NINETEEN
Washington was flushed. He had been addressing the troops in the same square in which Rall had paraded his men before Christmas. As he entered the house on Queen Street now serving as his headquarters, Washington’s colouring was caused less by moving from cold to warm, and more by the news Alexander Hamilton had just delivered: Cornwallis was on the march from New York.
The commander-in-chief entered the main dining room to find Mercer, Sullivan, Knox, Greene, Cadwalader and von Steuben awaiting him.
‘General, were you successful in persuading the men to stay their leave?’
‘Aye, Nat, I was. I begged them to stay to our cause for another month. I gave much flattery about their efforts over the last few days and the forthcoming triumphs we will enjoy. However, I am not convinced it was my flowery rhetoric that convinced them, more the bounty of ten colonial dollars per man.’
‘To be paid at month’s end?’
‘If only. Hard cash up front is required. That much was made clear. Given that most of them seem to be without winter uniform or even boots, I am a tad sympathetic. I hope the funds will arrive tomorrow, or the efforts will be in vain. That said, the news from New York may render everything achieved worthless.’
‘Cornwallis? He marches?’
‘He does indeed, Hugh, he is already on the road. The question, gentlemen, is how we should respond.’
‘His force is much greater than ours?’
‘Alexander has the details,’ Washington signalled for his aide-de-camp, hovering in the background as usual, rarely keen to voice an opinion, preferring to record events for posterity. Always nervous in the company of the generals, he cleared his voice before saying huskily, the tone betraying his anxiety.
‘Our report, a good source from the city itself, is that he leads close to ten thousand men. He aims to leave some at Princeton, under the command of Colonel Mawhood to bulwark the town and the sizeable supply depot he has settled there. At our roll calls this morning, we have fewer than eight thousand men under our command, which includes the Hessians the baron brought to us.’
‘The numbers are against us then,’ murmured Cadwalader.
‘What of his artillery, Alexander?’ asked Knox.
‘We believe they have twenty-five cannon. Each bigger than our six pounders.’
There was shaking of heads among the assembled staff.
‘Gentlemen, we have a number of opportunities before us, but we have little time to dither. What are your thoughts?’ asked Washington.
Mercer opened the debate. ‘We have to avoid the possibility of an open engagement between our forces and Lord Cornwallis’s. We are not prepared, in number or ordnance, to succeed in such a task. Nor are our men any match for the British Army coming at them in open formation. They will be cut to ribbons. As painful as it may sound, I believe, we must recross the Delaware and take our army towards the safety of Philadelphia.’
‘Sir, if I may,’ responded Nathanael Greene. ‘I agree that we cannot sustain a force in direct combat. However, we have recently achieved a great victory. With Trenton we have established ourselves as a force to be reckoned with. I would argue we stay this side of the river and prepare for the spring here, right here at Trenton. Stay here and men will return to us, new men will join us. I would also argue that we can defend Trenton, through earthworks and other devices, and hold the town.’
‘We have little enough time to prepare the necessary defences. We will still be digging them when the enemy is upon us.’
‘But, General Mercer, if we fall back again, we will lose any advantages our recent exertions have provided us with. We cannot keep crossing and recrossing the Delaware like some halfwit who has lost his map.’
‘Nat, Cornwallis’s forces will not be the unprepared garrison that awaited us at Trenton.’ It was Sullivan, moving to support Mercer. ‘This will be the English army in all its glory, with Cornwallis at its head. Ten thousand men. Hessian Jägers. English Dragoons. Infantry and cavalry. Twenty-five cannon, Hamilton says. They will pound us into the ground. The enlisted men will flee, regardless of the extension the General has achieved today. The war will be lost.’
‘I agree that the risk is too great, sir.’ Knox now entered the debate. ‘May we reflect for a moment on the outstanding good fortune that we enjoyed at Trenton. We crossed under terrible conditions that for once worked to our advantage. The garrison was, as Nathanael says, unprepared and, of course, we had the added benefit of Baron von Steuben and his men holding the bridge. Our men remain unproven when such favourable conditions do not exist, and I fear for what might occur if we engage the enemy directly.’
‘We are all in agreement with that, Knox.’ Mercer was exasperated with the younger man’s gift for platitude. ‘The question is what to do.’
‘Well, your plan for a further recrossing of the Delaware has a flaw: the boats we used have already been sent upstream. Many of them returned to their rightful owners. It would take a day, maybe two, to get enough Durhams and the like downriver again. There is only a small chance we could evacuate all the Continental Army before Cornwallis arrives.’
Washington turned to Cadwalader. ‘John, you are a man usually spoiling for a fight, what say you?’
‘Indeed I am, sir, and my men are spoiling even more than ever after we were unable to join the attack on Trenton. But my usual desire for engagement has been softened by the arguments I have heard. We stand to gain little by holding fast in Trenton. We are ill prepared to deliver a knockout, and I fear we may only be inviting Cornwallis to deliver just that to our own side. He will be smarting after Tr
enton. The British will hit us with everything they have and we could lose an army before we have even fully savoured the victory just won. On balance, I would agree with our General Mercer. We should begin the evacuation immediately, boats or no boats. We could return by way of Crosswicks, from which my militia has just come to Trenton. I say, let’s hasten to Philly.’
‘Baron von Steuben, your thoughts?’
Von Steuben stood up from his chair at the back, paced around the room, paused for maximum effect and then strode to the map table, placing his palms flat on the table, before saying:
‘First, war is the art of the unexpected. Warriors win when they do what their opponents think is impossible. What is Cornwallis expecting from you? He expects you to run. Because that is what you have been doing for, for how long? Running. Running away. At the very best, he might imagine your pride is bursting after Trenton, and you may defend the town against him. As we speak, he is probably ordering all the supplies necessary to start a siege of Trenton, or planning the laying out of his cannon around the town. I suspect that may be what he hopes you are planning to do, given the new confidence among you. But I must agree with General Mercer, it would be foolish to look to hold this town. I have overseen and been part of many sieges in Europe, and Trenton is not in a state to hold out. One whiff of grapeshot, let alone a fusillade of cannon, and the town will be lost. It is, I’m afraid, General Greene, indefensible.
‘However, I cannot agree with Generals Mercer and Sullivan that we should therefore retreat to Philadelphia. I have not yet visited Philadelphia. I am sure it is a fine city, but I have no desire to visit it yet. Take the army to that city and it will disappear among the populace, ten-dollar bounty or not. An army must maintain itself in the field. Moreover, by retreating to Philadelphia you create the paradox of weakening the city while appearing to strengthen it. You will lay open the road to the city. Cornwallis will simply march past Trenton and attack your capital, his troops fresh and ready for the fight. The best you could hope for is that you force him to lay siege for the winter. The likelier outcome is that he will seize the city and scatter you to, well, the Indian lands, I presume.