Grand Alliance (Kirov Series) (39 page)

“It is also occupied by the
Italian armor and motorized divisions. They will form a kind of trip-wire to
delay any move by the British into Tripolitania. Our forces will stage here,
just where you ordered Rommel to take up his blocking position before he ran
off into Egypt. I have finally talked some sense into the man, and he now sees
the wisdom of your earlier orders. He told me personally that he would obey his
Führer’s instructions and build a strong defensive position.”

There, Paulus had couched the
decision to withdraw to Mersa Brega as something that was in accord with
Hitler’s own wishes. The bird was out of the oven, and now he only needed to
baste it well.

“You have an uncanny eye for good
defensive ground, my Führer. How you managed to determine this from a simple
map like this is astounding, but I saw that ground personally when I was there,
and it is one of the best defensive positions in North Africa. Rommel has
posted both his divisions there, and they will soon be joined by a third, the
90th Light Motorized Division. The delivery of 1200 trucks from the French at Tripoli
allowed us to deploy this unit much sooner than we might have otherwise. So now
the other troops you have scheduled for this buildup are staging at Toulon and
Naples.”

“Other troops? What other
troops?” Hitler had been mollified by the flattery Paulus had used, but now he
asked a difficult question. He was given to issuing quick orders and then
forgetting all about them when he wished. The matter of further reinforcements
would be somewhat delicate, so Paulus had to be cautious here, and adroitly
changed the topic briefly.

“Rommel and I have discussed how
to handle these new British tanks, but it will need more troops and
particularly more artillery.”

“Artillery? Why not more tanks?”

“Because they are useless against
this new enemy armor. That was very clear from the reports I read on this
encounter. We cannot use the new blitzkrieg methods in these circumstances. Instead
we must used well tried infantry tactics and good artillery, just as we did in
the first war.” Paulus knew that Hitler had fought in that war. The trenches of
WWI were the place where he had learned virtually everything he knew about
combat.

“You remember it well, do you
not?” Paulus continued, taking Hitler back to those days in his mind. “When the
first tanks made their appearance they were a fearsome new threat, but we
adapted. They were few in number, and could be resisted by stout hearted
infantry in good defensive positions—troops who will hold their ground even if
overrun by enemy armor—with even better shock troops to back them up when the
time came to hit back. The British cannot storm a position like the one you have
chosen at Mersa Brega with a few new tanks, and if they try, they will face a
sea of infantry that will wash over them like a storm of steel. That is the way
we defeat these new tanks of theirs—we will pound them with artillery and then
send in the infantry, just as we did before. Even our own blitzkrieg tactics
are vulnerable if the enemy is resolute and holds the shoulders of our Schwerpunkt.
We must do this now—hold like good armor on those battleships! Yes, I stopped
at Toulon to have a look for myself.
Hindenburg
was hit and damaged, but
the armor held, my Führer. In just the same way we will hold the line here and
let them waste themselves trying to break through. Then, when they are
exhausted, we can release our mobile units in a strong counterattack as
before.”

Hitler was silent, brooding, but
Paulus could see something smoldering in his dark eyes. He had been a veteran
of many hard engagements in the first World War, Ypres, the Somme, Passchendaele
and the Marne, earning numerous citations for bravery and the Iron Cross 1st
Class. Ironically, he had stumbled into the rifle sights of a British soldier, Private
Henry Tandey, who had decided to let what he thought was a wounded and unarmed
man go safely back to his lines. Hitler still remembered the incident.

“Then we fight a defensive battle
now?”

“For the moment. That was your
wish, my Führer. So we will establish a strong position there at Mersa Brega,
and build up strength behind it like water behind the dam—troops and
supplies—we need both in abundance if Rommel is ever to move east again. It is
a thousand kilometers to the Suez Canal.”

“Well he cannot march that
distance with foot soldiers!”

“No, my Führer, but good
motorized infantry divisions can get him there. We must have mobile artillery
to support them, and by all means, air power. This is the real genius behind
your plan. I knew it when I saw you had selected the Herman Goering Brigade for
service in North Africa.”

Hitler could not recall this, but
he listened as Paulus explained. “With those troops there, Rommel’s requests
for air support will get top billing. I have looked over the list of units you
proposed for the Afrika Korps. They will do the job, my Führer. With the 90th
Light, Grossdeutschland Regiment, 1st Mountain Division and the Goering Brigade,
we will have the good veteran troops we need to stand against anything the
British throw at us. And once we stop them, then we hit back, just like we did
when you won that Iron Cross.” Paulus pointed to the medal that Hitler still
proudly wore.

Now Hitler recalled that he did,
indeed, order the troops that had taken the Rock of Gibraltar to move to Italy
for service in North Africa. But that had been when he was flush with the
victory Rommel had handed him in overrunning all of Libya. He had been willing
to overlook the fact that Rommel had disobeyed his orders to do so, and now the
thought of rewarding both disobedience and defeat with the commitment of these
elite troops seemed to gall him.

“Not so fast, Paulus,” he said.
“I must tell you that I have been having second thoughts about this business in
North Africa. Greece has fallen, and we have the Balkans in our possession now.
I have troops sitting right on the Turkish frontier at this very moment. One
good push and we can take Istanbul and seize the Bosporus.”

“It will do us no good as long as
the Soviets still control the Black Sea,” Paulus warned.

“That was why I allowed Raeder to
move my battleships into the Mediterranean!” Hitler’s cheeks reddened as he
said that, his tone just beneath the level of a shout. “Now look what he has
done with them! I am told that
Hindenburg
and
Bismarck
will both
need repairs, and Raeder is asking me to send the steel to Toulon. Where did
the British get these new rocket weapons? Why is it we knew nothing of this
development until they were firing them at our ships? Now I am told the British
have tanks that are impervious to our finest guns. This is an outrage!”

“I agree, my Führer, and I am
certain we will quickly catch up with them. I have also seen the prototypes of
our own new rocket designs, and they look very promising.”

“Yes? Well they will look much
more promising to me when I hear they are firing at British ships.” Now Hitler
leaned over the map table again, a sullen expression on his pallid features.

“I did not get here by chance,
Paulus,” he said, a strange tone in his voice. “I was meant to be here. Yes, we
will pour everything we have into research on these new weapons. And we will
get newer and better tanks as well. The proposals are already on my desk, and
we will soon show the British that two can play at this game. But now I must
decide about the Russians. What you say is true. As long as the Soviets control
the Black Sea, then we will be unable to ship the oil through from Orenburg. So
that will now be my number one priority. Understand? We will build up strength here,”
he pointed at the borders near Moldavia and the Ukraine.

“I will smash through and take
the Crimea—take the bases the Soviet Black Sea fleet must use if they are to
impede those oil shipments. Once I have the Bosporus, and the Crimea, then no
further occupation of Turkish territory will be necessary. So why should I send
more troops to North Africa when I can put them to good use here?” His fist
came down hard on the Turkish frontier, but Paulus held his composure, waiting
for the storm to abate.

“A wise strategy,” he said.
“Unless the British reinforce Turkey, as you know they will as long as they
remain a strong and viable force in the Middle East. If we do not support
Rommel now, what will they do with all the troops they pull from East Africa? I
can read a map as well, my Führer. First they will put down this rebellion in
Iraq that poses a threat to their own oil production. Then they will chase the
Vichy French out of Syria, and after that, you will see British troops in
Turkey and possibly even Iran to open a front against the southern borders of
Volkov’s key oil production centers in the Caspian. There is only one way to
prevent that—by keeping the British well occupied with a credible threat to
Egypt. You must keep the pressure on them and force them to send troops into
the Western Desert. Starve Rommel and he will just sit there swatting flies.
Feed him and there is a chance we can push east again. This is a man you can
rely on, in spite of recent setbacks. And there is another axis of attack that
we can open against Egypt as well—Crete.”

“Crete?”

“Of course, my Führer. Again you
correctly point out that it must be taken to prevent the British from
establishing strong air bases there. Now is the time for that—and this should
be done before the Bosporus operation, and certainly before you contemplate any
move on the Crimea. That means war with Soviet Russia, and do not think it can
be confined to the southern region. The front will extend all the way to the
Baltic, and once that begins it will suck in every division we have like a maelstrom.
No. First Crete, then we have those bases to threaten Alexandria and the Suez,
instead of British bombers over the oil fields of Ploesti. After Crete, we have
the option of strongly reinforcing Syria, and stopping the British plan to support
Turkey while also posing a direct threat to Palestine.”

“Syria? Palestine? And how do you
propose I get the troops there with
Hindenburg
and
Bismarck
laid
up in the repair yards at Toulon? The Italians took a sound beating and have
withdrawn their navy to La Spezia. I cannot send troops to the Levant by sea
with the British fleet still at Alexandria. Must I rely on the French Navy?”

“I have spoken to Raeder on
this,” said Paulus quickly. “Yes, these new naval rockets the enemy uses have
become a real problem, but he has ideas on how to deal with that. The British
fleet also took heavy losses in the recent engagement, and we did prove one
thing that Goering will certainly agree with—air power trumps naval power,
particularly in narrow, confined waters like those of the Aegean and
Mediterranean Sea. This is why we took Malta—to prevent the British from using
air power to interdict our naval supply lines to North Africa. Now that we have
that in hand, we can build up a strong force behind Rommel, and the British will
have to answer that. They are scraping up every division they can find—Indians,
Australians, South Africans. Yet here we sit with 150 divisions twiddling their
thumbs when a decisive move now in the Middle East could secure your right
flank for the planned drive against the Crimea. Everything you have planned is
correct, my Führer, entirely sound. But to succeed we must make certain the
British cannot interfere as I have described, and the time to do that is now,
before
we open the war against the Soviets.”

“Yes, yes, I have heard all of
this from Halder and Keitel. They have been talking to Raeder as well, and now
they both believe Crete should be the next operation, but I am not so sure.”

“It is not a question of either
or,” said Paulus. “Crete was always a target of your overall strategy.” He
continued to present everything as Hitler’s own personal plan. “Goering says he
has over 1100 planes in Greece. The British have fewer than fifty on Crete. Now
is the time to strike there, while our superiority in air power is
overwhelming. You saw how Student’s Fallschirmjagers took Malta. They were able
to do so because the British did not have time to build up defenses there. But
you know they will on Crete—particularly if we do not keep the pressure on them
in North Africa. Attack Crete now and it may fall easily. Then we can
contemplate a move against Cyprus and Palestine—by air, my Führer. We can use
our overwhelming air power to land troops by air. Once there, the Vichy French
in Syria can help supply them. It is either that or the British will take the
whole region in time. You know this as well as I do.”

Hitler narrowed his eyes,
thinking deeply, remembering those terrible battles against the dogged British
army in the last war. Paulus was correct. The British were a rock that would
sit stubbornly on his flank if it was not smashed and destroyed… or buried…”

“Very well,” he said slowly,
standing upright and nodding his head. “Get Rommel the troops and supplies he
needs. Use any forces that seem practical. But get rid of the British, Paulus.
Understand? I will give you until Summer. After that….”

He said nothing more.

Chapter 33

The
time had finally come
for Fedorov to return to the ship, and the KA-40 lifted off in a whirl of
blowing dust. He looked out as they gained altitude, seeing the elements of
Kinlan’s brigade in company sized positions on the desert below. He knew it
would not be long before the Germans were over-flying them as well. Kinlan had
only so many air defense missiles in train.

He turned with a heavy heart,
seeing Troyak sitting stolidly with the Marines, and realizing that he had
neglected them for some time. He gave the Sergeant a long look, apologizing.

“Sergeant Troyak, I want to thank
you for your patience and conduct in this situation. I know it was not easy for
you when I ordered the men to stand down, but it was necessary to save what
could have become a very serious situation.”