Altered States – Volume II. Darkest Hour

Chapter 23

July 18, 1940

Raeder and Doenitz sat at the conference table, waiting nervously for the meeting they had both come to dread. The Fuhrer himself was coming to assess the plans now being laid for the continuation of the war, and determine the role the Kriegsmarine would take as they developed. Abwehr Intelligence Chief Canaris sat in his dignified silence, an aristocrat, ever scheming, and holding far too many reins of power as far as Raeder was concerned. Lastly, Luftwaffe Air Chief Hermann Goering was also present, sitting like a sullen bullfrog at the other end of the table, his arm resting on a fat binder that Raeder eyed suspiciously from time to time.

No doubt I will first receive a scolding over what has just happened in the Denmark Strait, thought Raeder. Canaris is here to sort out the intelligence. Well, I have read Lindemann's report ten times, and still cannot believe what he asserts. Hoffmann said the same, and the damage to Gneisenau was plain to see. Then comes Kranke’s ignominious performance in Operation Wunderland and the loss of the Nurnberg. He was sent there with explicit orders to scout out the state of Soviet naval development in the far north, and to find this ship Hoffmann and Lindemann have been bawling about-not to start a war!

Raeder had spent a full hour scouring Kranke after ordering him to take the first plane from Narvik and return to Wilhelmshaven to account for himself.

“A 5.7 inch gun that could hit you at over 26,000 meters? I find that difficult to believe Kranke.”

“Then come and look at my ship! We took seven hits at that range. Seven!”

“All from secondary batteries?”

“Thank God, yes. They would engage us and then slip away, every quarter a hour. It was as if they were simply playing with us. But they had something more at the end. I detached Nurnberg to get after that damned marauder… and then the missile came.”

“And why were they shooting at you, Kapitan? Enlighten me on that, for I gave you specific orders to scout the area, and not to engage.” It was only then that Raeder learned of Kranke’s hidden agenda, and one given to him by highly placed officers in OKW.

“Was Jodl privy to this? Keitel? Yes, they were. Am I correct? They put you up to this, did they not? They would like nothing more than to start things boiling along the Polish and Russian frontier. They don’t believe we can get their troops across the Channel, and so they look East, to Soviet Russia. But I tell you now, Kranke. A two front war is the last thing we need. I have argued it endlessly. Why should we repeat the same mistakes that were made in the first war? Surely Hitler must see this, and if he has been poisoned by the likes of Jodl and Keitel, I must do everything in my power to get him to see reason. Then you go off taking pot shots at Russian ice breakers! Are you insane? Those were not your orders!”

On and on it went, until Raeder determined that those were, indeed, Kranke’s orders, even though they had not come from him. He had half a mind to tender his resignation then and there, and to tell Hitler that if it were not his to command the navy then he should find another. Now he looked suspiciously at Canaris.

That man knows entirely too much, he thought. And one thing he knows is that I am determined to force the issue of the war into the Mediterranean. Could the Abwehr Chief have been behind Kranke’s insubordination? Perhaps, he thought. Canaris is a navy man. He knew Kranke, and if anyone could get to that man it would be Canaris.

The more he thought about this, the more he began to see a devious plot here. Why would Kranke listen to Jodl or anyone else at OKW? But Canaris is another kettle of fish. Yes, he could have been the one that put Kranke up to this deliberate provocation. Canaris has been busy in Spain since the Spanish civil war. He speaks the language fluently, is very cozy with Franco, and I have heard that he has been quietly working to maintain Spanish neutrality.

Yes… Canaris. This was the man behind everything, the man with a hand in everyone’s pocket. If Spain remains neutral, then my plans for an attack on Gibraltar will be compromised. We need access to Spanish territory to do that. So what does Canaris do? He arranges this little dance with Kranke when he gets wind of my Operation Wunderland. He knows the kindling is piled high along the Russian border, and now he lights the match. Look at him, sitting there as if this were an afternoon tea. I must be very careful here. I am already on thin ice now after Lindemann’s failure and the loss of Nurnberg and Sigfrid, not to mention the Altmark. I have much to account for, and Canaris is going to enjoy watching me squirm. The question is how to prevent this incident from becoming a pretext for war against Russia? How to prevent it from destroying my plans in the Mediterranean?

The sound of heavy footfalls echoed in the hall and seconds later the door burst open. The SS guards surveyed the room darkly and announced the arrival of the Fuhrer of the German Reich, Adolf Hitler. He stepped into the room, giving the three men there a narrow eyed look as they all stood to attention.

“Very well,” Hitler looked immediately to Raeder, as if the other men were not even present, and spoke the words the Admiral knew he would hear this day. “Explain yourself, Raeder. Tell me… why do all the new ships you've been building have holes in them? Tell me why there has not been a single British transport ship sunk during your operation. Tell me what this nonsense is about a British ship firing rockets, and driving off the finest battleships in the world! And when you are done with that, tell me why, after six years of steel and sweat in the shipyards, all these ships seem good for little more than running home for repairs?” The Fuhrer folded his arms, his eyes smoldering, standing like a carved statue, implacable.

“My Fuhrer,” Raeder began, not knowing where in the list he should start. Begin with any success you have, he realized, and hope you can somehow get this man to learn the lessons you yourself have taken here with this hard medicine.

“The operation was not without its successes. It was never designed to seek an all-out engagement with the Royal Navy, but merely to test the mettle of their strengths, and stand as a trial for our own ships, some fresh from the shipyards and entering battle for the first time. The experience we have gained was invaluable, particularly regarding the use of aircraft carriers in operation with the fleet.”

“Oh? What about Gneisenau? Where is the Nurnberg? Where's that nice shiny new destroyer you built for me? Thank god only two of these ships were sunk!”

“That was regrettable, my Fuhrer, but combat at sea always entails the risks that ships engaged may be damaged or sunk. This is why I gave specific orders to Lindemann not to seek a major engagement that would place our capital ships at risk of sustaining severe damage.”

“But they were damaged, Raeder. Bismarck, Tirpitz, and Gneisenau are now in the repair yards.”

“Yet none hurt seriously enough to impede their operations in the near future, my Fuhrer. Tirpitz sustained a minor torpedo hit, but one that proved again the necessity of protecting the fleet with additional air power.” Raeder glanced at Goering as he spoke. “In like manner, the damage to Bismarck simply involved the loss of a single secondary battery which can be replaced in a few weeks time. As for Gneisenau, the hit that ship sustained was more significant, and will take several months work to repair, but otherwise the ship is sound and seaworthy. Yet in taking this blow, we have discovered that our enemies may now have achieved a level of technical proficiency in another area that can pose a grave threat.” He looked at Canaris now.

“You are speaking of these rockets?” said Hitler.

“What else, my Fuhrer? Yes, the rockets! We are working on them ourselves, so do not be surprised that our enemies have done the same. Only they appear to have achieved something here that is well beyond our capabilities at this moment. These were shipborne missiles, and they proved to be decisive in each and every engagement, as much for the initial shock value as anything else.”

“What about this, Canaris?” Hitler looked to his Abwehr Chief now. “Why is it we have heard nothing of this?”

“Because there has been nothing, sir. My agents have found no evidence that the British have an advanced rocket project ready for deployment.”

“Then who was firing at my ships? The Americans?”

Canaris shifted, poised, a half smile on his face. “My Fuhrer, we have no information that would in any way confirm that.”

“Raeder? Tell me more about these rocket weapons. Clearly my intelligence Chief can tell me nothing!” Hitler’s displeasure was obvious, but Canaris sat unmoved.

“I have interviewed all the senior officers involved in the operation,” said Raeder, chastened but yet determined. “They described these weapons as fast, accurate, and having great range-a range exceeding that of our most powerful naval guns. They were undoubtedly a secret project. These missiles move like lightning. They strike with pinpoint accuracy, and the one that nearly hit the Graf Zeppelin was fired from well over 100 kilometers away.” He left the full weight of that statement out there, watching the reactions of the other men.

“From a ship?” Now it was Goering who spoke, a look of astonishment and disbelief on his face, cheeks red, and the light of enjoyment in his eyes flickering behind it all. “You expect me to believe that the British have a missile that can fire at such range and still hit anything? This is ridiculous! If they could fire such a missile from a ship, then they could line them up all along the English Channel and rain them down upon our troops in France, yet we have seen nothing.”

“The survivors from the destroyer Sigfrid will beg to differ with you, Aviation Minister Goering. They clearly saw something. That was the reason Sigfrid was sunk. It was cruising right alongside the Graf Zeppelin and took the blow that was intended to strike the carrier. Yet there was no enemy ship within 100 kilometers at the time. Bohmer’s planes searched for an hour, and yet saw nothing. It has been suggested that the ship was sunk by a submarine, yet reports from over 100 eyewitnesses all clearly state that the weapon was airborne, a rocket. Admiral Doenitz has assured me that no submarine in the world today could have carried or launched a weapon with sufficient fuel to achieve that range, and a warhead heavy enough to do what we saw happen to Sigfrid.”

“The British have these weapons on all their ships?” Hitler tapped the table impatiently, looking from Raeder to Canaris.

“We were not certain,” said Raeder. “At first we believed at least one ship was equipped with them, perhaps one of their battleships being held in reserve, or even one of their carriers. This is what we thought-until the loss of Nurnberg.” There is no way around the ice pond now, thought Raeder. I will just have to skate across.

“Sunk by a British ship?” Hitler waited.

“Not the British, my Fuhrer,” Canaris said quietly. “We believe this ship was Russian.”

“Russian? You are telling me that Russians have these weapons? They cannot build anything that would remotely challenge our battleships. How could they do this?”

“The question of how is no longer relevant, my Fuhrer. It is becoming more and more apparent that they were, indeed, behind these missile attacks which so confounded Admiral Raeder’s plans here. And they were clearly responsible for the Nurnberg incident. Air Minister Goering may shed some light on this.”

Goering nodded. “We had planes out from Narvik and Tromso, covering the withdrawal of Raeder’s ships after his failed operation.” Goering twisted the barb a bit, his eyes alight. “A ship continued north, shadowing our own units and eventually moving around the North Cape to Murmansk, and was photographed during that transit on two occasions. The naval ensign of Soviet Russia was clearly evident. I have the photographs with me if you would care to see them. More photos were obtained during Operation Wunderland, which was undertaken, in part, to obtain more information on this ship and the new weapons it employed. Am I not correct, Raeder?” Goering tossed the hot potato back, smiling.

“Of course we were suspicious. We knew there was a ship, but it was not clear as to the nationality. So yes, I told Kranke to see what he could find out with Operation Wunderland.”

“And we paid a very high price for that information,” Hitler was not happy. “The loss of Nurnberg was shameful-an embarrassment! Now to hear this may have been a Russian ship makes the sting and the insult even worse. This is clearly an act of war! Are you telling me the Russians have now openly sided with the Royal Navy in combat against our ships?”

“That appears to be the case, my Fuhrer,” said Raeder. “Yet the incident can also be interpreted as a simple act of self-defense. Kranke was given no order to engage Russian shipping in the far north-at least not by me. In fact, I ordered him to avoid engagement. If he was given those orders by someone else then let that man account for the loss of Nurnberg.” He glanced at Canaris now, his suspicion obvious. “If Kranke had followed my instructions we would not even be discussing this.”

“Oh, but we would be discussing it, Raeder,” said Hitler. “The damage to all those other ships was more than enough reason. If it was caused by a Russian ship, then I will have the head of Sergei Kirov on a platter!”

Hitler seemed to simmer with that, his eyes shifting from Goering, to Canaris, to the map on the table in front of them. He knew that Raeder had long opposed open hostilities with the Soviet Union. The Admiral much preferred a strategy that would see the navy lead the fight against England. He had been given Operation Seelowe to chew on, but nothing was discussed concerning Barbarossa, and Hitler did not want to open that can of worms now.

“Are you certain this was a Soviet ship?” asked Hitler, folding his arms again.

“Admiral Doenitz concurs with the assessment of our analysts in section I-M,” said Canaris, referring to the naval intelligence arm. “The ship is not of British design. It is something entirely new, completely unexpected. We can only conclude that it was a highly secret project, perhaps being tested on a maiden voyage even as we thought to blood our ships with this operation.”

“Not quite,” said Hitler. “We thought to blood the enemy’s ships.”

“And this we did,” said Raeder quickly. “One of their fast battlecruisers, HMS Hood, was battered to a near hulk in the engagement with Bismarck and Tirpitz. It was also struck by our Stuka dive bombers! Another, HMS Renown was sent to the shipyards in a successful air strike by the brave pilots and air crews of Graf Zeppelin. Hoffmann had good hunting with Scharnhorst and Gneisenau as well. His detachment sank Birmingham and heavily damaged the Manchester, a pair of cruisers to put on the scales for Nurnberg. Dorsetshire and Sussex were driven off as well, and with damage. The battle would have been a complete victory, were it not for the sudden appearance of this mysterious ship-this Russian ship, as we now have come to believe.”

“Then why was it not sunk?” Hitler was struggling to contain his anger, but it was apparent.

“These weapons it deployed, missiles with such accuracy and power, were not something to be trifled with. Until we could learn more about them I wisely chose to cancel the planned breakout into the North Atlantic and return our fleet to friendly ports. I stand by that decision, because this development concerning the rocket weapons deserves our most serious consideration. If the Russians have such weapons we must learn everything possible about them, particularly if war may come of this incident. But I must advise extreme caution here, gentlemen. Until we know what we are up against, no open declaration of war should be made against Soviet Russia. Remember also that Britain is isolated. If the war moves East, Soviet Russia will surely choose to ally with the British…” The implications were obvious and did not need to be spoken.

There, thought Raeder, a little butter on the bread at last. For that is the point of all this. Someone got to Kranke to stir things up, but now I have said it, as plainly as I could. This war must not move East.