THE TEN THOUSAND

by Harold Coyle

  "Well, Colonel, you have me. You, of course, know that the rail lines are intact. The Germans have not stopped civilian traffic. I doubt if they will, since this is still just an affair between the United States and Germany. So I don't get your point."

  "You are quite right. There is no need to lay rail. But that does not mean that you cannot, as you say, grease the skids a little so that your command can slide into Germany just a little easier."

  Dixon looked at Vorishnov as he tried to figure out what the Russian was up to. Finally he shrugged. "Obviously you have something in mind. I am, as the saying goes, all ears."

  "There is, serving with one of your ranger companies, a Russian major who, while I was serving here in Czechoslovakia, commanded a Desant, or special purpose air-assault detachment in the Central Group. He speaks German fluently and is passable with his Czech. One of his tasks as a Desant detachment commander was to travel throughout southeastern Germany posing as a truck driver in order to learn all he could of the area in preparation for the day when he would lead his detachment there in advance of an invasion of Germany." Then, realizing what he had said, a sly smile lit Vorishnov's face as he quickly added, "If, of course, aggression by NATO had forced the peace-loving Soviet Union to launch such a counteroffensive."

  Dixon grinned at Vorishnov's sudden backpedaling on the invasion issue. "Of course."

  Continuing with his discussion, Vorishnov quickly got to the point. "This major, Major Nikolai Ilvanich, also happens to be in temporary command of the ranger company he is with. Given his experience as a commander of a Desant detachment, his knowledge of our proposed area of operation, and the group of elite soldiers in hand, I have little doubt that he could give your brigade the extra margin of safety that it will need to make this operation a reality. Besides, he and his company are being held at a hospital just north of here as if they were prisoners. I see no reason why we should not put them to good use."

  Dixon, always one to take advantage of every opportunity to stack the odds in his favor, liked the idea. Before saying so, however, he asked Vorishnov if Ilvanich, a Russian, would risk his life in an American operation, leading American troops.

  A smile came to Vorishnov's face. "When I was a student at the General Staff Academy, we had a tactics instructor who enjoyed a little joke now and then. One day he presented a tactical problem to our class. We were told to place ourselves in the role of a tank division commander who had broken through the main NATO defensive belts and was headed west to the Rhine River. Our problem was that two NATO divisions were being thrown against us, with a German armored division coming at our flank from the south and an American armored division advancing from the north. The instructor asked us to determine which threat we should deal with first, the German division or the American, and then explain our reasoning. A classmate of mine, a very clever if arrogant fellow, quickly finished weighing the pros and cons of both options. He stood up and announced that we must turn against the German division first. The tactics instructor, making a great show of it, pounded on his desk and yelled, 'No, no, no. You're wrong!' Shocked, and a little embarrassed, but determined to prove his point, my classmate started to enumerate the reasons for his decision. Again the instructor cut him off, yelling this time, 'The Americans, you must deal with the Americans, first and always.' Frustrated, my classmate finally blurted, 'But why? Why always the Americans? Why leave the Germans till later?' With a sly grin the instructor stated, 'That is obvious. As soldiers, we must always deal with business before pleasure.' "

  Dixon chuckled. He had heard the same story, but with different nationalities, before.

  Then suddenly Vorishnov's entire demeanor changed. When he spoke, his tone was cold and serious. "A resurgent Germany armed with nuclear weapons is something that Russia cannot live with. This fight which we are about to enter is not simply between the United States and Germany. It is a struggle to crush an evil thing in the womb, before it can endanger decency and humanity again."

  Vorishnov's sober statement didn't need any further comment. After taking one last look around, Dixon turned to Vorishnov. "Well, the corps commander promised me anything that I wanted. Let's take a ride over to that hospital where they're holding your major hostage and see if he's interested in having some fun."

  From his tank, Second Lieutenant Ellerbee watched his brigade commander and the Russian colonel climb into a humvee and drive away. As they did so, his heart sank. Ellerbee had been sitting there for the better part of an hour watching Colonel Dixon, trying to screw up enough courage to go over and protest the manner in which he and his platoon were being treated by Captain Kozak. But just as he was about to, just when he had built up enough gumption, Ellerbee talked himself out of it. No, he reasoned, odds were, if he did, the colonel would ignore him. Or, Ellerbee told himself, Colonel Dixon would tell him that, based on his personal performance in the Ukraine, he deserved it, or that Kozak, as the commander, could run her company as she saw fit. No, he convinced himself, it would be futile to complain.

  Then, when he had given up, Ellerbee saw Dixon looking right at him. Maybe, just maybe, Ellerbee thought, the colonel would recognize him, come over, and ask him how things were going with his platoon. Now, Ellerbee reasoned, if the colonel asked, then it would be all right to complain. Then it wouldn't sound like sour grapes or simple bitching. He had been told once that so long as the senior officer asked, it was okay to give an honest answer. Ellerbee had no sooner psyched himself up when a soldier who had been serving breakfast to the company came up and offered the two colonels some more coffee. Dixon turned his head away from Ellerbee, accepted the coffee, and continued his conversation with the Russian colonel.

  Ellerbee was still sitting on top of his tank bemoaning his fate and freezing when Dixon and Vorishnov drove off. Sighing, Ellerbee quietly resigned himself to his fate. He would be stuck there, serving under an airhead female captain who treated the male soldiers in her command like trash during an operation that had about as much chance of succeeding as a snowball's chance in hell. This was not, Ellerbee thought, what he had joined the Army for. This was nothing but horseshit, pure and unadulterated horseshit.

  Having completed his morning inspection of his now widely dispersed company, Captain Seydlitz was about to settle down to enjoy the wurst and roll he had picked up in a town along his route when his battalion commander's vehicle came into sight. Quickly stuffing the food back into its bag and dumping it behind the seat of his small open-air Volkswagen jeep, Seydlitz prepared to greet his commander. How fortunate, he thought, his timing had been. It was good that he had inspected the company before the battalion commander arrived to conduct one of his notorious unannounced inspections. Of course, there was always the possibility that his platoon leaders and tank commanders had failed to correct the deficiencies that Seydlitz had discovered in his own inspection. Not that it mattered to him, for as long as he had done his duty as an officer and troop commander, he could not be faulted.

  When the battalion commander's vehicle stopped, the commander didn't bother to get out before he started talking to Seydlitz. "You have one hour to prepare to move your company, Captain." Elated over his battalion commander's announcement, Seydlitz reached down and grabbed his map case on the seat of his jeep before hurrying over to his commander's vehicle. Giving Seydlitz time to open his map before he began to rattle off his orders, the battalion commander looked about. "Can you be ready in an hour?"

  Seydlitz, glad to be able to do something to break up the dull routine of dry fire drills and inspections, all but shouted out in great enthusiasm, "If necessary, Herr Oberst, we will be ready in five minutes."

  The battalion commander's response sounded more like a warning than encouragement. "You wouldn't be so excited if you understood the magnitude of the mess our fearless Chancellor in Berlin has created."

  Standing before his commander, Seydlitz stared at him, wondering what exactly his commander was talking about. Seeing the puzzled look on his subo
rdinate's face, the battalion commander, as a way of venting his own frustration and at the same time informing him what was in store for their commands, began telling Seydlitz everything that he knew at that moment. "We will assemble the battalion here," he said, pointing at a spot northeast of Marktredwitz on the map Seydlitz held. "From there we will move to an assembly area southeast of Chemnitz via the E51 and E441 autobahns. By the time we arrive there, the brigade commander expects to be in receipt of further orders that will tell us where we go from there and what will be expected of us."

  The battalion commander paused before he explained these new orders to his attentive but bewildered company commander. "It seems that despite what the American President is saying, and the moves by American units left here in Germany appear to support her position, the Americans in the Czech Republic are massing on the Czech border south of Chemnitz and Dresden. There exists, according to Army intelligence, the very real danger of a move by the American corps into Germany aimed at recovering the nuclear devices we seized from them."

  Seydlitz thought about that for a moment before he asked the question that had been bothering every German officer, from General Lange right down to Seydlitz's battalion commander. "And what, Herr Oberst, are we expected to do if the Americans do make such an effort?"

  He did not get an immediate answer. Instead, the battalion commander pondered the question himself. When he and the commander of the other active duty battalion had met with their brigade commander earlier that morning to receive their orders for the pending move, that very question had been debated for over half an hour. After years of working hand in hand with the American Army, the very idea of suddenly turning on them was a shock. While the division order pointed out several times that it was their duty to defend Germany against any and all invaders, there was a very real question as to whether the Americans, a member of NATO with basing rights in Germany, would really be invading Germany or simply be violating their status of forces agreements, agreements signed by both nations that governed the stationing of forces in Germany that were still technically in effect. The brigade commander, only half jokingly, commented that if the Americans came forward in road march columns and not in battle formation, then this would be a simple matter for the police. "In that case," he blandly stated, "all the police will need to do is arrest the senior commander for conducting a road march without permission or proper documentation." Such attempts to make light of their moral dilemma, however, did not answer their question. Finally the brigade commander ended the session by stating that it could come down to each commander doing what he believed was morally correct given the situation he found himself in. To this he added a warning. "Until that time comes, if it ever does, we will carry out our orders."

  Seeing that his commander was lost in his own thoughts and that no answer was forthcoming, Seydlitz came to attention. "Will that be all for now, Herr Oberst?"

  Looking up with sad eyes, the battalion commander shook his head. Then, as an afterthought, he added, "Be prepared for long delays and no resupply once we get started. For the first time since the last war, the German Army will have two corps and six divisions, with all attached and supporting active duty units, in motion at once, and all headed in the same direction. Added to that we may see reserve units, provided the Chancellor is given his wish and the permission to activate them, scrambling to join up with their parent brigade. And," the battalion commander added with a flourish, "just to make this whole affair more challenging, American logistical and support units that were left in Germany are already on the road. They will be converging on the Grafenwöhr and Hohenfels training areas from all over southern Germany in preparation for storing their equipment and leaving Germany per the Chancellor's demands."

  Unable to think much beyond the scope of his own thirteen Leopard II tanks, Seydlitz could not imagine why, given Germany's excellent road system, such movements should be a problem. No doubt, he thought, his commander was simply exaggerating. Then another thought came to mind. "Who, Herr Oberst, will replace us here at this border? If we leave here, the Americans will be free to slip into Bavaria."

  Looking at Seydlitz for a moment, the battalion commander shook his head. "That, Captain, is highly unlikely. If the Americans intend to march to the sea for ports of embarkation, or try for the nuclear devices as the General Staff suspects, they would be taking the long way around by going through here. Everything points to an effort to break out of the Czech mountains onto the North German Plain where there is room to maneuver, and then to the sea. Besides, by marching through Bavaria, the Americans would never come close to the storage sites west of Berlin where the nuclear devices are. But," he added, "just in case, the 1st Mountain Division will be deploying north from the Austrian border to replace us, although their primary mission will be to keep the American units assembling at Grafenwöhr and Hohenfels from slipping across the border to join the Americans already in the Czech Republic."

  Visualizing a map of Germany in his mind and considering the logic of what his commander had told him, everything made sense to Seydlitz. Though the 1st Mountain Division lacked the ability to stand up to a mechanized force, it would have more than enough to contain the American support units assembling in Grafenwöhr and Hohenfels. Satisfied, he pointed out that one of his platoons manning a roadblock ten kilometers from where they stood was out of radio contact due to a mountain that blocked radio transmissions. Since he would have to drive over to that platoon's location to contact it, and he had less than an hour to get moving, Seydlitz asked his battalion commander if he was finished with him.

  Unable to provide his subordinate any further information or guidance, the battalion commander told him no, there was nothing else, and left. Seydlitz, like thousands of junior officers like him, began to set into motion the German Army's great leap into a nebulous situation, unsure of itself, its role, and, most importantly, where its duty and loyalty truly lay.

  13 JANUARY

  With the babble of the World News Network early-morning report providing background noise, Ed Lewis and his chief assistant sat down to go over Lewis's schedule for the day. Neither man paid much attention to the news commentator until he announced that they were cutting over to the White House, where the President's press secretary was about to hold a short press conference. For the first time, Lewis acknowledged that the television was on, asking his assistant to turn the volume up. As he did so, Lewis settled back in his seat, propped his feet up on his desk, and prepared to listen to the latest official statement from the White House.

  The prepared text was, as usual during such situations, rather bland and contained few specifics. In a nutshell, all it announced was that President Wilson had ordered the immediate withdrawal of non-essential American military personnel and their dependents from Germany. Dependents, alerted the day before, were already flooding into points of embarkation. The Army and Air Force support units still in Germany that had not participated in the Czech operation had begun to concentrate at the Grafenwöhr and Hohenfels training areas, where they were, according to the presidential spokesman, to prepare their equipment for temporary storage. Lewis, of course, already knew all about these actions. What he was waiting for was the question-and-answer session. Only then would he be able to gauge how well Big Al's movements and his grand deception plan were succeeding.

  The news correspondents in the White House briefing room didn't waste any time. The CBS White House correspondent was on his feet firing away before the President's press secretary could acknowledge him. "There are reports from Reuters this morning that the American forces in the Czech and Slovak republics, rather than preparing to stand down to a lower state of readiness, are in fact massing on the Czech border south of Berlin. The Reuters report claims Chancellor Ruff and his government view these moves as both threatening and provocative. The German Army, according to the report, is redeploying forces to counter this threat. How do you explain this in light of what you just stated?"

  Th
e press secretary shuffled his notes before looking down at the CBS correspondent. "I am sure you are well aware that tensions are quite high over there. I have no doubt that the Germans are overreacting to harmless moves. No doubt the forces that this news story, which I have not seen, is talking about are those that were involved in the Ukrainian operation and are simply completing their withdrawal from that country."

  The CBS correspondent, as well as most of the other reporters and correspondents in the room, wasn't satisfied with this explanation. Pressing his point, the CBS correspondent countered. "While what you say may be true, why would those forces be shifted all the way to the German border and not around Prague or Pizen where the rest of the Tenth Corps was deployed? And what of the reports from Prague yesterday of massive movement of American forces out of that city headed north?"

  The presidential press secretary was now beginning to become visibly uncomfortable. "I am sorry, but those are questions best asked of the Pentagon. We do not keep track of every unit here. Now if we could continue."

  The press secretary pointed to a reporter from the Washington Post, who jumped up and hammered him. "If, as you say, the President is in fact meeting all the demands of the German Chancellor, how do you explain the news story being aired by WNN this morning of Chancellor Ruff's public statement that the movement of American forces is designed to threaten Germany and is not, as President Wilson's statement claims, meant to defuse the situation?"

  The frustrations of the presidential press secretary were obvious as he grasped the podium with both hands and glared at the Washington Post reporter for several seconds before even attempting to answer his question. Satisfied that all was beginning to unravel as they—Wilson, Big Al, and he—had hoped, Lewis told his assistant to turn the television off before they continued.