Nexus Deep (Kirov Series Book 31)

by Schettler, John

  “True, but he’s already done that once, and might attempt it again. If I might make an outlandish proposal at this point, the whole problem we are now discussing could be simply bypassed.”

  “Bypassed?”

  “Correct. We are debating the preliminaries for an invasion of Sicily. Might I suggest that we have another look at Sardinia? At present, the Sicilian Narrows remain contested waters. The combination of enemy minefields, submarines, air attacks from Sicily and even a possible Naval sortie by the enemy as I have described are very real. Nor can we cross those waters off Sicily with an invasion fleet without first reducing and occupying Pantelleria and Malta. However, at present we are masters of the Balearic Sea. We have strong airfields at Barcelona, and can also make that a good naval supply port. We occupy Mallorca, and have been developing and expanding the facilities at Palma there, and we have Algiers. All these bases are beyond the effective reach of the Luftwaffe, and all three can be used to launch an invasion of Sardinia that can pass over seas I can control, and this requires no preliminary attack on an outer bastion such as Malta.”

  “But what about communications with the Eastern Med?” said Alexander. “Our difficulties in Syria were largely due to the fact that it took so long to get reinforcements to us round the Cape and through Suez. Shouldn’t we open the Med—east to west—and eliminate that condition?”

  “In due course,” said Tovey. “That would be done, but under conditions far more favorable to us once we have Sardinia. I speak now from a purely naval standpoint. If I’m asked to cover an invasion against either Sardinia or Sicily, I find the former to be a much easier task. I can operate in the Central Med, just as Lord Nelson did to keep the French Fleet bottled up at Toulon. There I would be beyond enemy air power, but if I must cover landings on Sicily, my fleet must come within range of enemy fields on both Sicily and Sardinia, particularly to cover landings in the southeast of the island, and this is one reason why I advocate taking Sardinia first, and making it our own unsinkable aircraft carrier.”

  “Wouldn’t this invite the same response from Admiral Raeder?”

  “Yes, but I would be facing him directly, and not looking over my shoulder if I have to transit the Sicilian Narrows to cover the Husky landing plan.”

  Marshall spoke up now, for he had considered this and opted for Sicily. “To my thinking, we can cover Sicily better with our air force. It’s only 150 miles from Bizerte to Marsala or Trapani, and a little less from Tunis. The problem is the plan. We can’t invade Sicily without having to reduce Malta first. It’s only this insistence that we land south of Catania, on the southeast tip of the island, that makes Malta an imperative pre-requisite. Once we’re ashore at Trapani, we move to take Palermo, and then along the northern coast to Messina, which will force the enemy to abandon their positions in southeast Sicily, or be completely cut off.”

  “Sound thinking,” said Tovey. “Yet I might also add that Cagliari on Sardinia is only 140 miles from Bizerte. The real question in all of this is what we expect to achieve by targeting either island? If we take Sicily, then where do we go?”

  “Right into the toe and foot of Italy,” said Montgomery. “We’ve already planned four such operations, under the code names Buttress, Goblet, Musket and Slapstick . If taking Sicily alone doesn’t knock Italy out of the war, then that should do the trick.”

  “Alright, let’s assume that knocking Italy out is a good objective,” said Marshall, “but that doesn’t mean the place will suddenly be neutral. The Germans will occupy the whole peninsula, and have every reason to do so. They’ll save the 20 million tons of coal they now ship Italy annually, and then they would seize all the Italian rail stock, along with their Navy. Beyond that, they’ll retain all the naval and air bases, maintaining a threatening presence in the Central Med, which will force us to go in there after them if we want them out. Can you imagine trying to fight your way up that peninsula? The terrain is tailor made for the defense, and you’d be at it a year or longer. Let’s not forget that our real effort against the Germans must come across the English Channel, and as soon as possible. Every resource, every ship, every division we commit to operations against Italy, is one less we have to use for the main event—France.”

  “If I may,” said Tovey. “This is where the occupation of Sardinia gets interesting again. It’s nearly 200 miles by air from Palermo to Naples, and to Rome, that distance increases to just over 260 miles. However, from airfields around La Maddalena, Rome is only 170 miles or so.”

  “My thoughts exactly,” said Patton. “If you want me to land on Sicily, I’ll do it, and I’ll take Palermo and Messina as well. But General Marshall has a point about fighting our way up that peninsula. That’s no place for a swashbuckling old cavalry officer like me. We’ll be bogged down there for months, if not a year. Yet if we do take Sardinia, we outflank anything they have in Southern Italy, and we can make an easy jump to the beaches north of Rome. You want to knock Mussolini out of the war fast? That’s the way to do it, right in the kneecap; not by tickling his foot.”

  “There is some merit to that,” said Eisenhower. “If we do land in the south, and get stuck, then we’ll have to plan a subsequent invasion to unhinge that defense. Striking north of Rome would probably force any German presence in the south to retreat north, and fast. We could then occupy all of southern Italy to get useful ports and airfields without having to fight for it, and both Sicily and Malta wither on the vine and die like rotten fruit.”

  “What about the German garrison there, and dare I say, the Italian troops as well?”

  “I would think the Germans would see the writing on the wall and try to evacuate Sicily once we landed in Sardinia. As for the Italians, they would likely stay put, but if we force Italy to the negotiating table, and get an armistice, we won’t have to fight them.”

  Marshall thought about that, and then nodded his head, as if coming to some inner decision. Montgomery had devised a terribly complex operation. He wanted to clear Pantelleria in a week’s time, then invade Malta by sea, which would take another two to three weeks. Then he had insisted, somewhat conceitedly, that the landing on Sicily would be under his command, and take place on the southeast end of the island. Patton’s troops were to land on his left, essentially covering his flank as he pushed north for Messina, or moving to clear western Sicily after the enemy retreated. After that he wanted to invade the toe and heel of Italy and start the long push north.

  “General Brooke?” he asked.

  “Well, I was going to say we go bald-headed for Sicily. It would probably be the stronger blow, but considering Sardinia, it would at least afford us a base to bomb all of Italy and southern Europe, and it would likely be easier to undertake. However, it doesn’t open the Med, and it might not force Italy to the negotiating table. In my mind, we must continue serious planning there in any case, for if the Sicily plan is deemed impractical, we need an alternative operation this year. Brimstone seems to be the only other ticket we have.”

  Chapter 8

  “It might be easier to hit Sardinia and then go right to Rome,” said Marshall, “but would the Germans conclude we intend to bypass Sicily? What if they don’t, and then hold their troops in the south.”

  “Then they’d be in for a rude awakening when we go for Rome,” said Eisenhower. “It’s clear that we can cut them off by hitting Central Italy after we take Sardinia. But we won’t get there any time soon if we have to fight our way up through Sicily and all of the south.”

  That was going to be a real grind, thought Marshall, and it was not likely that that Monty would get far before he was stopped in that rugged terrain. It had taken him many months to push from Algiers to Bone! That meant the Allies would probably have to plan subsequent invasions, all aimed at flanking the German defensive lines across Italy. It would tie up shipping, landing craft, supplies, and divisions in the Med for months, and set back planning for Roundup, the main landing in France. God only knows how long it will take before
Montgomery finally gets to Rome.

  “The ports and airfields aren’t as good on Sardinia,” Admiral King put in. “They would have to be expanded. And if those airfields put our fighters in range of Southern France and Italy, then the inverse is true. Wouldn’t they be subject to enemy interdiction?”

  “No more than our fields were in Tunisia,” said Eisenhower. “They couldn’t lick us there, and they won’t control the skies over Sardinia either, or Sicily, for that matter. Hap, isn’t that right”

  “Well,” said Air Force General Hap Arnold. “To hold fields secure on Sardinia, I think we’d also need to chase the enemy off Corsica.”

  “I’m all for that,” said Lord Mountbatten. “Getting airfields on Sardinia and Corsica is a major advantage. It also lets me plan commando raids anywhere along the coast of Italy, for what that’s worth.”

  “Well, gentlemen,” said Tovey. “We’d better reach some decision soon. If we go with General Montgomery’s plan, then the landing craft will have to be transported all the way around the cape, because we’ll be staging from Alexandria, Benghazi and Tobruk, now that we’ve got that cleaned up. If, however, we go for Sardinia, we can bring the landing craft in through the eastern Med to the ports I mentioned earlier, and much sooner.”

  “I didn’t like Brimstone earlier,” said Marshall. “The Joint Chiefs didn’t like it either. But then again, they aren’t exactly keen on the need to knock Italy out of the war, as we see France as the main objective. As I said earlier, I favored Sicily as the first objective—a quick hop from Tunis. But this Malta business complicates that considering the plan Montgomery has devised. That issue concerning the landing craft is important. In the States we have a saying: Time is money, gentlemen. It will take both time and shipping resources to clear Malta, putting all that shipping at risk not once, but twice before we get boots on the ground in Sicily, and probably another month to clear that island. I can then see two or three more amphibious operations before we get north of Naples. In that light, I’m starting to agree with Eisenhower and others here. The road to Rome is much shorter through Sardinia.”

  Montgomery folded his arms, lips pursed, giving Admiral Tovey a look. He knew that he might have to tussle with Patton here over where to land on Sicily, but he never thought that someone in his own camp would shift the whole strategic plan to another island, particularly the Navy. Marshall continued.

  “Look… Both Sardinia and Corsica are very lightly defended now. If we were to move quickly, they could be had for a few Shillings, to put it in terms our British friends will easily grasp. But as for landing on the toe of Italy and fighting your way north, you’ll have to invest Pounds Sterling to do that, and a lot of time. Consider taking Sardinia. Then we’re poised to strike north of Rome, and we can move in air power on those islands to hammer Toulon, Marseille, Genoa and La Spezia. Those ports will all be within our fighter radius.”

  “Yet you’ll be leaving the Germans, with strengthening air power, in our rear.” Montgomery pointed out the obvious.

  “You can look at it that way if you want,” said Marshall, “but both Arnold and I think Tedder would probably say they can neutralize that. Yes, we’d be leaving Sicily on our flank, just as you do with any major offensive that penetrates the enemy line. Once we get fighters thick as fleas on Sardinia, then Sicily is cut off. Your Admiral Tovey put his finger on that rather nicely.”

  Brooke gave Montgomery a sidelong glance, and decided he had better step in. He knew that his own war planners had also favored Sardinia, and he had to put them in line to give Monty free reign to devise this plan. Now it was meeting a strong challenge from the Americans, and it was not the battle he, or Montgomery, thought they would be fighting. He decided to broaden the focus of the discussion to another consideration.

  “There is one other option,” he said. “It’s one our Mister Churchill is particularly fond of, and I told him it would be given a fair hearing. Knocking out Italy is a fine political objective, but Hitler will be quick to occupy the place, as General Marshall pointed out. Then, from a military standpoint, the quick punch at Rome from Sardinia flanks what is likely to be a long campaign in the south. Yet we have other difficulties, and General’s Alexander and Wilson will speak to those. Rommel is in Damascus, and Guderian is in Baghdad, and they can only be there for one reason—Turkey. While not a declared member of the Axis, Turkey is certainly cooperating with Hitler, and German supply lines to both Rommel and Guderian rely on the rail lines through Turkey. Mister Churchill believes that if we could convince Turkey they’ve made a grave mistake, their support might shift to our side, and that would see the Germans forced out of Syria and Iraq in short order. Therefore, the Prime Minister proposes we revisit Crete, with the aim of then jumping right into Greece.”

  “Yet if we tee that up first,” said Montgomery, “then Mussolini is likely to remain in the fight, and the terrain in Greece is no more inviting than that in Italy.”

  “I suppose it will come down to which we see more desirable—Italy knocked out of the Axis, or Turkey welcomed into our Alliance. General Alexander? General Wilson?”

  “We were hard pressed a month ago,” said Alexander, “but Rommel has stopped at Damascus, and Guderian has stopped at Al Hillah. In both cases, we’ve seen the withdrawal of vital mobile forces from those theaters. The Germans pulled out their number one unit, the Brandenburg Division, and that gave Guderian pause, and it was of great relief to Jumbo Wilson.”

  “That’s putting it lightly,” said Wilson. “They had us on our back foot, though I thought we could hold out and keep them from taking Basra and Abadan until help arrived. Getting in those fresh troops from Perth and Burma helped us immensely. Then, when Guderian lost his Brandenburgers, things started looking a good deal better.”

  “The same can be said for our situation in Syria,” said Alexander. “Hitler has taken the Wiking Division from Rommel, and in fact, we’ve learned that Rommel has even been recalled to Berlin. Intelligence does not think he’ll be returning. Frankly, I think they’ve seen their highwater mark, and the initiative will be shifting our way soon. If, however, anything could be done to persuade Turkey to shut down the Bosphorus, the German position in both Iraq and Syria collapses immediately. They will have no recourse but to withdraw.”

  “And where will those divisions go?” said Montgomery. “To my mind, they would then use them to reinforce France and Italy. At the moment, we have them at a disadvantage. Now is the time to strike Italy and knock her out, and not after we chase Rommel and Guderian from their ill-conceived pursuits. Those campaigns have already run their course. They’ll dry up all on their own.”

  “Will they?” said Brooke. “Hitler is very reluctant to give up territory, as we have seen. He could issue a stand fast order for both theaters, and that will mean we’ll have to maintain a good many divisions in Iraq and Syria that could be put to much better uses. I should also say that that Prime Minister considered Iraq as the most serious threat to the Empire of the war. If Guderian ever should get to Basra and Abadan, even if he can’t stay there, then he would certainly wreck those facilities and refineries if we push him back. The image of those oil fields burning has haunted Mister Churchill, and a good many others, for some time. He is somewhat relieved now that Guderian has halted his advance, but that could change along with Hitler’s whims. He could, for example, go over to the defense in Syria, and then send two more Panzer Divisions to Guderian.”

  “Yes,” said Marshall, “but I’m inclined to agree with General Montgomery on this point. Now is the time to get after Italy, while the enemy is still disorganized after Tunisia, and before Hitler starts transferring units to the West. We can see how removing the German threat in Syria and Iraq is important to the British Empire, but removing Italy does a good deal more for clearing a way to Germany itself. Again, I must remind you all that the United States believes the principle attack to defeat Germany must originate from England, and cross the Channel. However, we do see so
me merit in collaring Mussolini, and the operation proposed against Sardinia and Corsica also opens up the possibility that those islands, or territory we take in Northern Italy, can be used to stage a subsidiary landing in southern France. That’s the way to Germany, not through the Balkans. You could take back Crete, or even land at Athens, but what if Old Man Turkey is not impressed? Take Rome, however, and that’s the end of the line for the Italians. Then we don’t sit here talking about fighting in Italy, we start getting serious about fighting in France.”

  “Interesting,” said Tovey. “I’m not an Army man, but since we hold Spain, doesn’t that also permit the buildup of strong forces there, say at Barcelona? They might offer strong support for an invasion of Southern France, even if it were a secondary operation to the main attack across the channel. All the more reason to have Sardinia and Corsica in hand.”

  “Firebrand and Brimstone ,” said Eisenhower. “Those plans are looking fairly good to me.”

  They were back to the Hot Potato that Sardinia had become, and Brooke thought it best to put off any decision on this until he could confer with Churchill. He also had one other item on his agenda that he needed to cover.

  “Well gentlemen,” he said. “We’ve a good deal to chew on tonight. Hopefully, we can reach a consensus before this conference ends. We’ll be mopping things up in Tunisia soon, and there’s no time to waste. In that I’ll have to agree with General Marshall—time is money, and a currency we can ill afford to squander. There is one thing more I was advised to share with you all, and it could weigh heavily on all these plans….”

  Brooke stood now, and Montgomery yielded the podium so he could address everyone directly. “Gentlemen,” he said. “This concerns something old, and something new, which both appeared over London on the night of February 1st. It looked to be nothing more than another air raid, only this time the Germans used a Zeppelin to make a high altitude bombing run over London. That might seem quaint, given the destruction they’ve achieved with simple bombers, but this airship delivered something quite unexpected. What I am to say now must be held at the highest level of secrecy, and no one outside this room is to hear a word of it. I trust to the integrity of every man here, and know that will be the case.”