1920: America's Great War-eARC (10 page)

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When his father died, he would be crowned Kaiser Wilhelm III. For now, he was the Crown Prince and he wished his father a long and happy life. He also wished his army would move a lot faster. The thirty-eight-year-old general knew he’d been given command of these armies, collectively known as “Army Group Crown Prince,” because of his royal heritage. Despite that implicit handicap, he’d worked hard and studied intensely to make himself a good general and a good leader, and he had largely succeeded. He was a professional and would not make mistakes.

Even though it was frustrating, he accepted that armies sometimes moved with maddening slowness, in particular over difficult terrain and when looking for an enemy that wasn’t visible but might pop up at any time. The crown prince also knew von Moltke the Elder’s dictum that even the most careful and well thought out plans fell apart when an attempt was made to implement them. So be it. It was sometimes referred to as the “fog of war.”

The prince had divided his forces into three very unequal prongs. In the east, along the Texas border, it was virtually an all-Mexican show. They wanted Texas back and they could have it. Already swarms of less than well trained Mexican soldiers were streaming into Brownsville and Laredo. Good, he thought. It would keep them out of his hair. He had little respect for Mexican President Carranza and even less respect for Carranza’s army. In the crown prince’s opinion, Texas was a sideshow, intended to siphon off American responses while the conquest of California took center stage.

Thus, the remaining two prongs were given over to California. Planning and execution of the invasion of California were handicapped by the miserable terrain south of the American border. The Mexican border to the west was interrupted by the Sea of California and the wastelands of the Baja Peninsula; there was absolutely no good place for a large army to assemble on the Mexican side. There was plenty of land but it was barren and there were few decent roads and no trains. Bringing in food and ammunition could only be done with great difficulty. He’d managed to get a brigade of two infantry regiments and one detachment of cavalry assembled at the squalid Mexican city of Tijuana, but that was all the area could support. That brigade was now moving cautiously northward towards San Diego. Too cautiously, in the prince’s opinion. Despite some nibbling attacks, it was beginning to appear that the intelligence they’d garnered was incredible but correct—there was no significant American military presence in and around San Diego. German airmen had attacked what might have been a belated attempt to build some defenses near Los Angeles, but there was much that was puzzling about that incident.

Geography dictated that the main German thrust come from the south and east of the California coast. German forces were massed south of the border near the town of Mexicali. They had begun to cross the border and advance patrols had penetrated a number of miles. Better, they had connected with the railroad line from Yuma to San Diego. This would facilitate the movement of troops over the low mountains that shielded San Diego. Both the army and the navy needed a port to gather supplies, and taking San Diego was an admirable solution.

The crown prince was also thrilled to be out of Mexico. It was a stinking island of corruption in a sea of incompetence. The Mexican Army was a joke, and the Mexican government a prime example of brutal incompetence and criminality. It galled him to have to pretend to accept that packet of filth named Carranza as a head of state. The crown prince’s father was a true head of state. His father was the head of a vast empire as were the others in his extended family, such as the Czar of Russia and the King of England. Mexico was a joke in comparison. And when the United States was defeated, Imperial Germany would truly be the only major power in the world and perhaps Germany’s Second Reich would indeed last for a thousand years, just like the First Reich.

The prince and his staff frequently wondered just why the French had tried to establish an empire in Mexico sixty years earlier and, more important, just how had the wretched little brown people managed to defeat the French? The few Mexican Army detachments he’d included in his assault on California would function as rear echelon guards and supply soldiers, providing they didn’t steal too much. They would also serve as cannon fodder, he decided mirthlessly, should such situations arise. He would not waste the lives of good German soldiers. Mexicans were another matter entirely.

The German armies would advance north and west into California, after first ensuring that the army was entirely over the border, in proper position, and with sufficient supplies. While he agreed that there would be minimal defense from the Americans, he didn’t feel like handing them even a small victory on a platter. The ambush of that probing cavalry force was still on his mind. If the cavalry commander hadn’t been killed, he would have been court-martialed for stupidity. According to the German embassy in Mexico City, the American press was making much ado about what the crown prince thought wasn’t even worthy of being called a skirmish.

There were other differences between Mexico and the United States. For instance, the signs in the United States were in English, which he could read, instead of Spanish, which he couldn’t. Also, the homes and businesses were neater and more prosperous looking, and why not? As much as he disliked the citizens of the United States, they were far preferable to the dirty and illiterate people of Mexico.

He hoped he and his army would never have to return south of the border, except, perhaps, for a victory parade or a well-deserved vacation. Both he and his father knew how close Germany had come to defeat along the Marne River near Paris in September of 1914. The German Army had suffered grievously in a bloodbath of monumental proportions that was all the more terrible because it was so unexpected. The ability of modern weapons to slaughter soldiers had been horribly underestimated.

Before the 1914 war was completely over, German armies had suffered nearly six hundred thousand casualties. He shuddered. A hundred thousand casualties a month could not be sustained by any nation. Therefore, there would never again be a war on the European continent between the major nations. Modern killing was just too efficient. Such sustained losses might also result in a revolution, such as the ones that were ripping apart the Russian and the Ottoman empires.

Therefore, Germany would seek its conquests elsewhere. First had been Mexico and now California. It had taken four years of planning and action to initially bring in a small force to Mexico, have it accepted by the pliant Wilson, and then enlarge it with every ship that docked. Now the man who would be Kaiser Wilhelm III had an invasion force of a quarter of a million that, once they got organized and onto California soil, would advance inexorably and take San Francisco. It would be the final and crowning jewel in the reign of his father.

The kaiser, the prince, and his generals all vowed never again to repeat the mistakes of 1914. The prince would not divide his forces. He would not allow his generals to ignore or disobey orders. He would insist on constant communications between his units, unlike the way the kaiser’s generals operated in 1914. They would use telephone, telegraph, couriers, and pigeons if necessary to maintain contact.

Nor would he take the Americans for granted. Even though it seemed that there was little in the way of organized resistance, the crown prince recalled just how desperately the French had fought before finally collapsing. The prince would also ensure that his forces had the bulk of their supplies within reach before advancing. That might mean a slower advance than the generals in Berlin, including his father, might wish, but it was the prudent way to conquer.

Finally, the army had learned its lesson. There would no longer be attacks by massed ranks of infantry. The Americans might not have the large numbers of machine guns and artillery that his Germany Army had, but what weapons they did have could prove deadly. His force was limited in size and reinforcing it would be difficult; therefore, he would not waste lives.

Artillery rumbled in the distance and the crown prince cursed. He’d told his generals to fire only at viable targets and not to just shoot an area because it looked suspicious. They could not squander precious supplies shooting at shadows.

More artillery thundered and the prince swore again.

He heard the sound of a train whistle and grinned, his good humor returned. He urged his horse over a low rise to where he could see a long train on the tracks and it was headed west. He thanked God that the United States had such a fine railroad system. Not as good as Germany’s, of course, but very good indeed when the great size of the United States was considered. When he’d realized that it was nearly three thousand miles from San Francisco to Washington, he’d been aghast. But now he and his army could move over the smallish mountains and into San Diego without further delay. Some of the men on the train saw him and waved. He laughed and waved back. The world was good. And it was becoming a German world.
Pax Germanica.

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On returning to his desk at the Presidio, Luke decided to take a few moments to catch up on news and events. First, he was delighted to see that the United States had formally declared war on Imperial Germany. Apparently there was some thought that an official declaration would not be made because of possible repercussions, but transcripts and recordings of the last meeting between President Lansing and the German ambassador had been so inflammatory that anything else was impossible.

The attacks on California and Texas, coupled with the German ambassador’s arrogance had galvanized the nation. Reports said President Lansing was cheered by Congress and that the vote in both houses was unanimous. Even the diehard pacifists couldn’t deny that the United States had been invaded, and that the invader, Imperial Germany, had declared its intention to siphon off four states from the Union.

A confidential report said that California wasn’t quite as cut off from the rest of the world as was first feared. Trans-Atlantic cables ran from San Francisco and Seattle to points west and then around the globe where they wound up in Washington D.C. It took several hours to get there, but it was far better than several weeks, or even months. Better, the telegraph and rail lines from Seattle eastward had not been destroyed. Luke and the rest of the army’s intelligence community wondered why not and concluded that a spring thaw might find a group of German saboteurs where they’d frozen to death when a sudden storm hit them. So much for German infallibility and omnipotence, he thought. Luke did not feel sympathetic to the thought of a bunch of frozen Krauts.

National Guard troops from Washington and Oregon were moving into the northern passes to rebuild the telegraph lines and protect the one open railroad from a second German try. The destroyed rail lines would not be rebuilt before spring—if the Germans let them, that is. Colonel Nolan felt the Germans would garrison the passes and glumly said that only a few men would be required to hold them against any American advance.

National Guard troops in California had been activated by the Republican Governor of California, William Dennison Stephens. It had been rumored that Stephens was going to order the poorly trained and inexperienced guard to attack the Germans, but prompt action by President Lansing had put an end to that suicidal nonsense. The California National Guard was now under the control of General Liggett.

There was fighting in Texas between Mexican Army units and Texas National Guard, but that was not Luke’s immediate concern.

“Welcome home, soldier.”

Luke looked up and saw the friendly grin of Major Ike Eisenhower. “Good to be back and gather my wits,” Luke said, “but I’d much rather be down south gathering info than reading about it.”

“Couldn’t agree more,” Ike said, pulling up a chair. “Here I am, supposed to be making plans and I have nothing to plan with. I even envy Patton. He gets to ride around and actually try to accomplish something, even though it might result in his getting his butt kicked every now and then.”

“So what’s going to happen, Major?”

“Nothing that isn’t all that obvious,” Ike said. “The Krauts will very shortly take San Diego, if it hasn’t fallen already. Then they will move north and into the Central Valley where it’ll be easier for them to march. They will then keep on north until they can turn west and fall on San Francisco. Before that, however, I’m certain one prong will continue to move along the coast and take Los Angeles, which will give them a second major port.”

“San Francisco is their goal, isn’t it?”

“In my opinion, yes,” Ike said. “Does Colonel Nolan agree?”

“Yes, and again, it’s fairly obvious.”

“At least General Liggett and Admiral Sims have agreed to try to agree on strategy,” said Eisenhower, “Although it would be nice to have one overall commander.”

Luke laughed. “Not in this man’s army and navy.”

“Speaking of navies, Luke, you are aware that three of our new battleships did make it to Seattle, along with a handful of cruisers and destroyers, and maybe a few submarines before the Germans hit Mare Island and destroyed the three older battleships. Apparently our surviving ships were chased by the German fleet which then decided not to enter Puget Sound because so much of it is British and they don’t want to antagonize the Brits, at least not yet. Since the Krauts destroyed our coastal forts in Puget Sound as well here, there wouldn’t have been much we could have done to stop them. Sims told Liggett we actually have what he called a ‘fleet in being’ that we can use to tie down German naval units.”

“Wonderful,” Luke said. “I wish we had an army in fact instead of a fleet in being.”

He was about to say something further when an enormous explosion struck the building and sent both of them to the floor. Smoke and dust filled the room. They scrambled to their feet, astonished to be unhurt, and ran outside through where part of the wall had collapsed.

Another explosion rocked them as a second shell impacted near them. They hit the ground again as more debris fell on them. In the nearby city proper, people were running and screaming. Several civilians, including women and children, lay in bloody heaps, some unmoving.