The Moscow Option (34 page)

‘No, of course not. They couldn’t catch anyone. Most of the Arabs they killed were women and children. And it must have been a Jew who did it anyway. The SS can’t tell the difference.’

‘How many of them are here in Hebron?’

‘SS? About forty.’

‘Right. We’ll arrest their commander, HaupsturmFührer Hanke. I’ll suggest to OKH that he be court-martialled, and the rest of them disciplined. I expect I’ll be told to mind my own business, but this is still an OKH area; the SS have no right to take action without my agreement. And I certainly would not have agreed to this madness. We’ll have every Arab in the Middle East gunning for us after this.’

Rommel walked up to his sleeping quarters. Through the window he could see a bright crescent moon rising above the houses of Hebron. It had been a hard day. And a more decisive one than he yet knew. His reaction to the SS reprisal massacre would spark off a major crisis in the Army’s relationship with its Führer. Rommel himself would not escape unscathed. By the end of the year he would be commanding a panzer army on the Eastern Front.

At the Wolfsschanze Hitler had emerged from his bed at the customary afternoon hour to hear of Eichmann’s assassination in Palestine. According to his adjutant the Führer took the news with apparent diffidence. If so it was one of his pre-storm calms. After glancing through the situation reports from Russia he summoned Brauchitsch from Lotzen.

The Field-Marshal arrived an hour later. He had not yet heard of Eichmann’s unfortunate demise, and had no idea of the reason for this peremptory call to heel.

Inside the map-room Hitler was studying the deployment of divisions on the Eastern Front. ‘The SS
Totenkopf
Division is to be transferred immediately to Palestine,’ he said, without looking up. ‘How soon can this be accomplished?’

In a more prudent mood Brauchitsch would have picked a suitable figure out of his hat and left it for Halder to argue the matter at a later date. But on that particular afternoon the Field-Marshal was not feeling prudent. The tone of his conversation with Model was still irking him. This time he would stand up to Hitler.

‘SS
Totenkopf
is needed for the forthcoming Vologda attack, Mein Führer. General Küchler is already of the opinion that his forces are insufficient for the tasks allotted them. I do not think . . .’

Hitler’s mood snapped. ‘All I hear from General Küchler is excuses. There are insufficient forces. There is insufficient fuel, insufficient ammunition. Insufficient everything. It’s all I hear from you generals. “We can’t make it.” You can’t make Vologda, you can’t make Jerusalem. Any minute now I shall be hearing from General Guderian that he can’t make Baghdad. And why can’t you make it? I’ll tell you why. You lack the necessary will. It is cowardice, that’s what it is. And you hide this cowardice behind obsolete strategic ideas. All this General Staff training, it is only an exercise in caution. Moscow - you had to take Moscow. Though Moscow is nothing, one more city, that’s all. And as a result the Russians are still fighting. If you had attacked in the south as I had ordered we would have been in the Caucasus six months ago, and there would have been none of these problems.’

Hitler paused for breath. Brauchitsch waited for the tirade to continue. But to his surprise the Führer now spoke calmly, in an almost friendly fashion.

‘It has been a great responsibility. I realise that. You are tired, no longer able to perform the tasks that are necessary. What we need now is a pitiless dedication to National Socialist principles, not the professional ability that is learnt in the staff colleges. I am the only one who can lead the Army in this manner, so I am relieving you of your command.’

‘As you wish, Mein Führer.’

Brauchitsch departed. The Führer of the German Reich turned back to the huge wall-map. The armies of the Wehrmacht were chess-pieces spread across his global board. Now the world would be given reason to tremble.

In England 12 September was a fine late summer day. At Lords the cricket season came to a close, with the Australian Air Force trouncing the RAF by 277 runs. Across North London Tottenham were hitting six goals past Charlton Athletic. In Doncaster Sun Chariot won the St Leger at nine to four.

General Brooke had not noticed any of this. He had, as usual, been working all day, and looking forward to a Sunday at home with his wife. He was just preparing to leave when a summons arrived from the Prime Minister. Apparently there were vital matters to discuss.

Within an hour Brooke was seated in the back of a car en route for Chequers. It had been a hard week, but a satisfying one. The Americans were beginning to arrive in strength at last, both in Britain and the Middle East. They had already dealt the Japanese a sharp blow off Panama. And the Germans had been stopped by Monty and Jumbo Wilson. Leaning back in his seat, freed from the minutiae of work, Brooke felt a sense of relief. Though his mind warned him that it was not yet time for unrestrained optimism, he could not help feeling that the worst was over. ‘We are going to win,’ he murmured to himself.

At around 9.30pm the car pulled in outside the front entrance of Churchill’s residence. The PM, resplendent in his green and gold dragon dressing-gown, ushered Brooke into his study. ‘I’ve been thinking about the reconquest of Egypt,’ he exclaimed, as Brooke lowered himself into the proffered armchair.

(Facts amidst the Fiction)

The proverbs quoted at the head of chapters 3, 5(Kuybyshev), 5(Tokyo), 5(Berchtesgaden), 9 and 12 are all to be found in the International Thesaurus of Quotations (Penguin, 1976). The other chapter quotes come from the following sources - chapter 1: from ‘Pledging My Time’, Blonde on Blonde (CBS, 1966); chapter 2: quoted in Werth, A. Russia At War (Barrie and Rockliff, 1964); chapter 4: quoted in Watts, A. The Way of Zen (Pelican, 1962); chapter 5 {London)Washington): from ‘The Note-Books’, The Crack- Up (Penguin, 1965); chapter 6: from The Waltz; chapter 7 quoted in Bryant, A. The Turn of the Tide (Fontana, 1965); chapter 8: a joke not used in the final screened version of Go West, quoted in Adamson, J. Groucho, Harpo, Chico and sometimes Zeppo (Coronet, 1974); chapter 10: from ‘Ambulance Blues’, On the Beach (Reprise, 1974); chapter 11: from Penguin Dictionary of Modern Quotations (Penguin, 1971).

The ‘Eighth Army ditty’ and Victor Serge quote heading chapters 12 and 13 are purely fictitious.

Very selective bibliographies of certain topics appear below under the relevant chapters. Certain books, however, do not fit into convenient geographical categories, and some that I have relied upon extensively are: Liddell Hart, B. History of the Second World War (Cassell, 1970); Parkinson, R. Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat (Hart-Davis MacGibbon, 1973); Bryant, A. The Turn of the Tide (Fontana, 1965); Roskill, S. The War At Sea (vol 2) (HMSO, 1957); Bekker, C. The Luftwaffe War Diaries (Macdonald, 1967).

Chapter 1

I

Churchill is supposedly reading the report submitted by the Thompson Committee on 15 July 1941. The intercepted Japanese message is quoted in Feis, H. The Road to Pearl Harbor (Princeton, 1950), p. 249. All other quotes are from The Times, New York Times and Daily Mirror of 4 and 5 August 1941.

II

The meeting at Novy Borrisov did indeed occur, and ended as inconclusively as described. Dr Werner Sodenstern is a fictitious character. Hitler had confirmed Goering as his successor on 22 June 1941.

Chapter 2

The three basic sources I used for the purely military side of the German-Russian war were: Seaton, A. The Russo- German War (Barker, 1971), Carell, P. Hitler’s War on Russia (Harrap, 1964); Clark, A. Barbarossa (Hutchinson, 1965).

I

Quotes from Führer Directives 21, 32, 33 and 34 are taken from Hitler’s War Directives ed. Trevor-Roper, H. (Pan, 1966). The findings of the Zossen war-game are reported in Goerlitz, W. Paulus and Stalingrad (Methuen, 1963). The German supply situation in the summer of 1941 is exhaustively discussed in Leach, B. German Strategy against Russia (Clarendon, 1973).

II

The situation in Moscow in the summer and autumn of 1942 is described in Werth, Russia at War; Cassidy, H. Moscow Dateline (Houghton Mifflin, 1943); Mann, M. At the Gates of Moscow (Macmillan, 1963).

Chapter 3

Principal sources used for North African War: Playfair, I.S.O. The Mediterranean and the Middle East Vol III (HMSO, 1963); The Rommel Papers ed. Liddell Hart, B. (Collins, 1953); Barnett, C. The Desert Generals (William Kimber, I960); Moorehead, A. The Desert War (Hamish Hamilton, 1965); Carell, P. The Foxes of the Desert (Macdonald, 1960); Strawson, J. The Battle for North Africa (Batsford, 1969); Connell, J. Wavell (Cassell 1964/9) and Auchinleck (Cassell, 1959); Mellenthin, F. W. Panzer Battles (Cassell, 1955).

II

Rommel’s war with the insect world is quoted in The Rommel Papers, pp. 149-50.

III

Churchill’s telegram to Auchinleck, and the latter’s reply, are quoted in Churchill, W. S. The Second World War Vol 6 (Cassell, 1964) pp. 23-4.

Chapter 4

For the events leading up to the Pacific War see particularly Feis, H. The Road to Pearl Harbor (Princeton, 1950) and Toland, J. The Rising Sun (Cassell, 1971).

II

The telegram delivered to von Ribbentrop is quoted in Feis, Road to Pearl Harbor, p. 329.

Chapter 5

Kuybyshev

The evacuation of Soviet industry is described in some detail in Werth, Russia at War.

Tokyo

Captain Yorinaga is a fictitious character, but the information he gathers together was actually available to the Japanese Navy in the spring of 1942.

Chapter 6

The attack on Malta is based upon contingency plans discussed in Playfair, Mediterranean and Middle East; Bekker Luftwaffe War Diaries; Edwards R. German Airborne Troops (Macdonald and Jane’s, 1974); Kesselring, A. Memoirs (William Kimber, 1953); Ciano’s Diaries 1939-43 (Heinemann, 1947).

II

Lieutenant Johnston is a fictitious character.

Chapter 7

II

The Middle East Defence Committee Report was actually submitted on 9 May 1942, and is quoted in Playfair, Mediterranean and Middle East, p. 203.

III

Principal sources consulted for the political situation in the Arab world were: Hirszowicz, L. The Third Reich and the Arab East (Routledge and Regan Paul, 1966); Schechtman, J. The Mufti and the Führer (Yoseloff, 1965); Stephens, R. Nasser (Pelican, 1971); Sadat, A. Revolt on the Nile (Wingate, 1957); Warner, G. Iraq and Syria 1941 (Davis- Poynter, 1974).

VI

German/Italian occupation policy in Egypt is based on plans discussed by Hirszowicz in chapter 12 of Third Reich and Arab East.

VII

Rommel’s conquest of Egypt is based on the plans he drew up shortly before the First Battle of Alamein. See the sketch- map on p. 259 of The Rommel Papers.

Chapter 8

My version of the Battle of Midway naturally relies on the numerous accounts available of the real battle. The best of these is Fuchida, M. and Okumiya, M. Midway: The Battle that Doomed Japan (Hutchinson, 1957). Another book I relied on was J. D. Potter’s biography of Yamamoto, Admiral of the Pacific (Heinemann, 1965).

I

Nimitz’s pre-battle instructions are quoted in Smith, P. C. Midway (NEL, 1976), p. 56.

Chapter 10

Cairo I Tel el Kebir

The good Dr Schrumpf is quoted in Hirszowicz, Third Reich and Arab East, p. 263.

Wolfsschanze

Hitler’s obsession with oil is mentioned by Carell on p. 578 of Hitler’s War on Russia.

London

Wavell’s appreciation is quoted in Strawson, Battle for North Africa, p. 18. The Brooke quote is taken from Bryant, Turn of the Tide, p. 366.

Baghdad/Rafah

The British defence of Palestine is based on contingency plans discussed by the War Cabinet’s Joint Planning Staff, now available as War Cabinet paper CAB79. For discussions between the Palestinian Jews and the British authorities in the real war see Hurewitz, J. C. The Struggle for Palestine (Norton, 1950).

Ankara

For Turkey’s role in the real war see Von Papen, F. Memoirs (Andre Deutsch, 1952); Lewis, B. The Emergence of Modern Turkey (OUP, 1968); Hostler, C. W. Turkism and the Soviets (Allen & Unwin, 1957).

Chapter 11

I

Quote from Ciano Diaries, 10.3.42. For other indications of souring German-Japanese relationships see entries for 14.4.42,21.4.42 and 24.4.42.

IV

The Japanese did in fact believe that Saratoga had been sunk.

Chapter 12

II

The ‘impassable’ Wadi Hareidin was used by General Yoffe’s division to split the Egyptian defences in June 1967.

IV

The mountain track leading up from the Jaffa-Jerusalem road to the villages of Biddu and Nebi Samuel was used by both Richard the Lionheart in 1191 and Uri Ben Ari’s armoured brigade in June 1967.

Epilogue

Mordechai Givoni, the German railway guards, the Soviet partisans, and HauptsturmFührer Hanke are all fictitious characters.