Crescendo Of Doom (18 page)

Lütjens thought. “How long for this refueling operation?”

“Four hours, six at the most.”

“And where could the British Force H be in six hours?”

Adler drew an arc with his compass anchored at the present position plotted for Force H. “That is their farthest on, twelve hours from now. If we complete our refueling in six hours, then run at 30 knots on this heading to the northwest, we would be here, south of Sageres Point, Portugal. From there we can run up past Lisbon before turning on a more westerly course into the Atlantic. They cannot catch us.”

“That assumes they move northeast from their present position. What if they sail due north?”

“They would be closer to a possible intercept plot, at least with their faster ships. Yet they would pose no threat to us.”

“What about that aircraft carrier?”

“What? Those old
Swordfish?
Don’t forget Marco Ritter is over there on the
Goeben
. Our Messerschmitts will make mincemeat of them. As for their faster cruisers, they would not dare attack us.”

“That will never be their intention, Adler. They will shadow us.”

“Yet we can prevent even that, Admiral. Between the
Goeben
and the speed we have with the
Kaiser Wilhelm
, we can chase those cruisers off without much trouble.”

The
Kaiser
was one of Germany’s new Plan Z ships, a fast, well armed
Panzerschiffe
that could run at 36 knots and fight with six fifteen inch guns. It was a match for a British battlecruiser, and would pose a dire threat to British heavy cruisers, as many had a top speed of just 32 knots. In effect,
Kaiser
could not only catch them, it could also kill them, and the normal British plan of shadowing a fast capital ship with cruisers could be easily frustrated, or prevented altogether.

Lütjens listened to his Kapitan, thinking Adler had given the matter a good deal of thought. He is clever, this one, he thought. He is considering logistics, speed, and all our assets in hand, not just his own ship. Yes, this is a different kind of operation, not just a pair of fast raiders, as in the early runs by
Scharnhorst
and
Gneisenau
. Now we have a real task force here, with each ship contributing some unique asset to the overall mission. I have the
Goeben
, a fast light carrier with a little sting, some air defense, and enhanced air search capability for my battlegroup.
Kaiser
is a marvelous scout ship in the van, or a perfect sheep dog if posted as a rear guard against nosy British cruisers. And
Hindenburg
can face any ship the British have with every prospect for victory… unless we run into another ship armed with those naval rockets.

How pervasive are they? We took hits in the Norwegian Sea, and now in the Med. In both cases the only ship that was involved in each action was their fleet flagship, HMS
Invincible
. Hoffman was trying to persuade us that there was another ship up north, a fast battlecruiser, but we have not heard anything of it since that big engagement last June, and in every case where Raeder probed British defenses in the Iceland gaps, we encountered no naval rockets. Yet
Invincible
comes to the Med, and lo and behold, these naval rockets blacken my ships before I could even close with my enemy. So it is my belief that
Invincible
carries these rockets, and no other ship. And the British Flagship is far behind me now, and of no concern.

One day there may be a day of reckoning with that ship, and what a battle it might be. But not today… Today we have the wide Atlantic before us, fat with convoys, and the British now feel the real sting in the loss of both Gibraltar and Malta. They may still hold out in the Eastern Mediterranean, but the west is ours, and
Invincible
will be three weeks around the cape now.”

He smiled. “Adler, you will make a good fleet Admiral one day. Very well, begin your refueling operation, but see if you can accomplish it in four hours. I want to leave Gibraltar well before dawn.”

“A wise precaution,” Adler agreed. “I will see that the orders are transmitted at once.”

“Do so, and then we must discuss how we coordinate our movements with other elements of the navy, as well as our undersea boats. Don’t forget, the British still have good ships up north in their Home Fleet. We may have left their flagship in our wake, but now that they know we are heading into the Atlantic, they will make every effort to stop us once we get there.”

“I have news on that, sir. We have intercepted their fleet communications ordering the battlecruisers
Renown
and
Repulse
south to reinforce Force H.”

“Battlecruisers? No fast battleships?”

“Not in the signals we were able to decode.”

“Most interesting. See what they have done with this, Adler? The Royal Navy is a fleet, perhaps the most experienced and professional naval force in the world. No, I am not ashamed to say that, nor do I take anything away from our own fleet in doing so, yet you must give these men, and the ships they command at sea, the respect they are due. Those two battlecruisers make a little difference in our thinking, do they not? They run at 32 knots and have six 15-inch guns each. One might be a match for our
Kaiser Wilhelm
, and two would certainly rule the day in such an engagement. Yes, we can chase off their cruiser shadow, but they are pushing more chips onto the table, and upping the ante. Now we may be facing a shadowing force composed of these two battlecruisers.”

“Perhaps,” said Adler. “I remind you that the man who put a bomb into the HMS
Renown
, and laid up that ship in dry dock for the last ten months, is right here with us aboard the
Goeben
—One of Marco Ritter’s protégés, Hans Rudel. Perhaps he can repeat his performance, and there we have an ace to trump this battlecruiser shadow.”

“Touché,” said Lütjens. “Perhaps you are correct, Kapitan, but I have studied the Royal Navy for quite some time, and I have a gut feeling that they will find some way to engage us before we find their convoys. A day of reckoning is at hand.”

“And I welcome it, sir.” Adler had a gleam in his eye now. “Because I won’t leave all the fighting to this young
Stuka
pilot. No, I plan on seeing what the British battlecruisers think they might do when
Hindenburg
darkens their horizon, then we will see what this day of reckoning holds. Because when this ship engages the enemy, the Lord Almighty will come with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire.”

Lütjens smiled. “So you are a poet as well, Kapitan Adler?”

“No sir, just a good Christian soul. That is Isaiah, Chapter 29, Verse 6.”

Part VI

The Gathering Storm

“They sicken of the calm who know the storm.”

―
D. Parker

Chapter 16

Far
to the east, Popski came in with a message that was a matter of some concern. Fedorov had been huddling with Troyak, trying to determine if they could hold on at Raqqah until the British got there, or if he was simply risking the lives of his men, and the Argonauts as well. It was clear to him that, in spite of the edge they had with their modern weaponry, they would soon be badly outnumbered.

The German 7th Machinegun Battalion had already appeared from the west, coming down the long road back to Aleppo. Another formation had landed by air, in spite of the mauling given them by the X-3 helicopters. Then the first elements of the retreating German 65th Luftland Air Landing Regiment began to appear on the road leading south to Dier ez Zour.

The
fighting was hot near the bridge over the Euphrates. There elements of the German 7th Machinegun Battalion had been trying to suppress the defense on the northern bank by putting down a withering fire from their MG-32s. But the Argonauts had good positions, and whenever the enemy mounted a rush at the far end of the bridge, they were met by equal fire from their assault rifles. At one point, the Germans moved up a truck, trying to advance behind it for cover, but the hand held AT weapons made an end of that enterprise.

Earlier that day, Troyak had ten marines in the town itself, where they encountered German paratroopers from Ramcke’s battalion trying to infiltrate. They joined with fire teams from the Argonauts, and a brisk firefight ensued. The German troopers were good. They knew how to lay down covering fire, slowly advancing to secure a building, and then using it as a base of fire to support further movement. They were testing the defense, trying to gauge just what they were up against, and concluded this had to be an elite force, all armed with SMGs, and with some amazing hand held weapons that were very powerful.

Troyak’s Marines held, then counterattacked, and methodically drove the Germans from the strongpoint they had seized. Zykov would again have reason to boast how good his weapon was when he had to clear a room.

Fedorov was nonetheless worried about the situation. There were only ten men in the town now, and Troyak had told him they could not cover that zone with the forces they had.

“What do you think, Sergeant? Can we hold here?”

“We’ve beaten them off for now,” said Troyak. “Our firepower is just too good when well concentrated, but we’re no more than 50 men. Just putting five men on each of those two hills there overlooking the airfield takes half my Marines, and that is not an adequate defense, even with the firepower we have. As for the town itself, it’s too porous. We stopped them today, but they’ll be able to infiltrate there tonight. Our night vision goggles will surprise them, but they have at least a battalion on that flank now. It will be hard to stop. We just don’t have enough men to cover that town, hold those bridges, and this airfield as well. Pick one place to hold, and I’d give us better odds, but I don’t see what good it will do the British for us to be holding this airfield when they get here.”

“What about the bridges? Can we hold those if we concentrate our entire force?”

“Possibly, but the ground on the northern end is quite exposed. The enemy will have mortars, and once they get into that town they can fire from concealed positions that won’t be easy to hit with the helicopters. If they know what they are doing, they could hurt us here.”

“Oh, they know what they’re doing alright,” said Popski. He had just come in from the KA-40, overhearing the end of Fedorov’s conference as he arrived. “But I’m afraid all this talk is academic now.”

“What do you mean?” Fedorov could see he had something more to say.

“We’ve just got word from your ship. It comes right from that fleet Admiral of yours. We’re to pull out and return at once.”

“Pull out? Did Volsky say anything more?”

“All I got was the order to return. You can get on the radio and confirm if you wish. Argonauts say they got the same treatment. They’re to get back to their own ship as soon as possible.”

“Something must be up at sea,” said Fedorov, thinking.

“You’ve heard Rommel’s on the move again?” There was a glint in Popski’s eye. “That might have something to do with it.”

“Well. That settles it then,” said Fedorov. In one sense he felt relieved. The burden of being responsible for the lives of the men here was no longer on his shoulders. All he had to do was get them safely back to
Kirov
.

“Sergeant, get the men to the airfield, and be certain nothing is left behind this time. I want an accounting of every shoelace. We’re going home. If we have the fuel, I just may make one more landing along the way. The rail line south from Aleppo could use another demolition. That might keep it closed a couple more weeks.”

The men moved out, and he found himself wondering what this summary recall was all about. Rommel was moving again, and Kinlan’s force had mostly been in Syria. That could mean there’s trouble in Libya, and that the fleet has to take action to intervene. I’m Captain of the battlecruiser
Kirov
. Volsky was gracious in letting me run amok out here for so long.

He looked about him, noting the hills he would not see his men fight for, the forsaken airstrip, the gleam of the Euphrates to the south. This desert terrain beguiles a man in time, he thought. It’s a sea of sand, and I’ve been maneuvering out here like a sea Captain, but now it’s time I got back to my real duties on the ship. Something tells me there’s more to worry about than holding these bridges.

He was correct.

* * *

On
the first of May, even as Rommel kicked off his drive east from Mersa Brega, Fedorov had arrived back aboard
Kirov
, and was welcomed onto the bridge.

“Good to see you again,” said Admiral Volsky. “Now that our Captain Navigator is back, the ship can actually do something more than steam in circles off Alexandria.”

“I didn’t expect to find you so far east,” said Fedorov.

“That is because we have business that we must now discuss.” Volsky briefed Fedorov on what they were going to attempt, which was a matter of some concern.

“Run the Straits of Gibraltar? That is going to be very dangerous, sir. We could be facing a great deal of enemy air power.”

“We understand that, but the German battlefleet has left Toulon and is already heading for Gibraltar. Admiral Tovey believes he has no choice but to attempt this. I have been trying to dig out information from your library, Fedorov, but perhaps you can make my task a little easier. What will we be facing?”

“Well sir, the enemy will certainly have planes here in their bases along the Libyan coast, and at Malta. That will be the first test. After that, we must run the Sicilian narrows, with a lot of Italian air power on Sicily, and the German bases around Tripoli. Getting around that will be difficult enough, and if we do attempt it, the enemy will certainly have an opportunity to sortie against us from their bases in Italy and Toulon. Once we get past the southern cape of Sardinia, I don’t think the Vichy French will bother us, but as we approach Gibraltar, the Germans could have both air strikes and U-Boat screens there”