Nexus Deep

Chapter 7

Admiral Nelson had been operating from the Maddalena Islands for many reasons, and now he sought to put some of them in writing in an appeal to the First Lord of the Admiralty in a letter dated 21st June, 1804. He settled sideways in his chair, favoring the bruise on his side that had bothered him for some time. For months on end, he would ride the restless swells of the sea, and could think of only three occasions when he set foot off the decks of HMS Victory in that time. To say that he was relentless, and endlessly patient at the same time in his watch on the French at Toulon, would be an understatement.

Lord Nelson had just related the disposition of his fleet, which was largely gathered off Toulon, daring the French to sally forth and engage. He had most of his ships of the line, with triple rows of cannon on either side, a formidable presence at sea, and sheer destruction when he set them loose to war upon the enemies of the Crown.

Tonight, he was writing to the Right Honorable Lord Melville, First Lord of the Admiralty, to see if he might impress upon him the importance of a certain island—Sardinia.

“Either France or England must have it,” he wrote, “and the loss to us would be great indeed. From Sardinia we get water and fresh provisions; the loss would cut us off from Naples except by a circuitous route, for all the purposes of getting refreshments, even were Naples able to supply us.”

Nelson had spent countless hours drafting his long-winded orders to this ship or that, directing them to seek out wood for the fires, and fresh water and provisions, always along the accommodating coast of Sardinia. He considered its position as absolutely essential to the logistical support of the Royal Navy in the Med, and so he presently had all of 15 heavy ships, the backbone of his fleet, covering that island by standing off Toulon, for he deemed the threat of an easy French occupation of Sardinia to be most dire.

Nelson knew that the French had a large garrison of over 7,000 men at Toulon, and all they wanted was one day when his watch might falter. In that single day, they could be quickly ferried to Sardinia, and Napoleon would have the place. Yet to be here, off Toulon, also meant that he could not have his ships at La Maddalena, which was his preferred roosting place. So on this night, he was petitioning Lord Melville for more ships, carefully prefacing this letter with a dispatch listing the dispositions of his entire fleet.

He had 15 ships off Toulon, two on either side of the straits of Gibraltar, six at Malta, five in the Adriatic protecting the trade ship routes, four more at Naples courting the favor of the Monarch there. That left him with only a handful of ships elsewhere, carrying messages and dispatches, under repair, provisioning, or limping back to Gibraltar after storm damage. Then he made his pitch….

“I can barely keep a sufficient force at sea to attend to the French Fleet. I have no ships to send to Maddalena, but not less, my Lord, than ten Frigates, and as many good Sloops, would enable me to do what I wish, and what, of course, I think is absolutely necessary…. If I were at your Lordship’s elbow, I think I could say so much upon the subject of Sardinia, that attempts would be made to obtain it; for this I hold clear, that the King of Sardinia cannot keep it, and if he could, that it is of no use to him; that if France gets it, she commands the Mediterranean; and that by us it would be kept at a much smaller expense than Malta. From its position alone, it is worth fifty Maltas.”

One had only to look at the map to see what Nelson knew implicitly. Sardinia sat between the Tyrrhenian Sea to the east, and the Central Med. It had good ports and anchorages at Cagliari in the south, where a squadron of frigates could vex and harry ships approaching the Sicilian Narrows, or attempting to enter the Tyrrhenian Sea. There was a bay that served as a good anchorage at Oristano on the west coast of the island, and Porto Torres was north near Sassari. From there ships could get out into the Central Med easily, and patrol the waters between Sardinia and Mallorca.

Lord Nelson’s favorite haunt was in the northeast, which would later become the Italian naval base at La Maddalena. It was an excellent anchorage and commanded the Bonifacio Strait, which Nelson could close any time he choose. This would force the enemy over the tip of Corsica if they wished to enter the Tyrrhenian Sea, and went a long way towards denying the French access to the Eastern Med. From that anchorage, Nelson’s fleet could also send out patrols to survey the coast of Italy, including the ports at Livorno, La Spezia, and Genoa, and the French ports of Nice, Toulon and Marseille.

Malta could do none of that. In fact, it could do nothing at all, for as the Allies now contemplated where to go after Tunisia decades later, in 1943, it was still in enemy hands.

“Malta,” said Montgomery. “It sits like a steel barb south of Sicily, right astride the sea lanes from Benghazi and Tripoli, which means our plan to invade Sicily simply cannot proceed unless we first reduce and occupy that bastion. It is as important now to the Germans and Italians as it once was to us, and we simply must have it.”

He was addressing a large and distinguished audience, which included Generals Marshall, Eisenhower, Patton, Brooke, O’Connor, Alexander and Wilson; Admirals King, Tovey and Mountbatten, and Generals Arnold and Tedder for the respective Air Forces. Dubbed the TRIDENT conference, which had originally been scheduled to take place in Washington D.C., it was now happening in London, and on the 25th of May 1943, even while the last embers of the fighting in Tunisia were cooling. The group would meet to review the many plans put forward for future operations, and then reach a consensus that would go to Churchill and Roosevelt for final approval. Montgomery was called to give his front row seat military appraisal of how the Allies should now proceed, and Patton would do the same.

“Yet consider the time involved in planning such an attack,” said Eisenhower.

“It’s been in the works for some time,” Montgomery countered. “The Germans took the place with a lightning quick airborne drop.”

“Yes, but that option is simply not on the table for us any longer.” Eisenhower had conferred with the Air War Planning Division over the prospects of an Allied airborne operation over Malta, and the report he had received was discouraging. When the Germans took the place, they had liberal air cover flying from bases on Sicily, under 100 miles away. Malta was now 250 air miles from fields around Tunis and Bizerte, and 220 miles from Tripoli.

Malta already had a strong Luftwaffe presence, which had been too far off to do much in the battle for Tunisia, except cover the eastern outlet of the Sicilian Narrows, but was a real threat to any airborne operations, particularly when backed up by fighters from Sicily.

“Malta will have to be taken by sea,” said Eisenhower, “just like the Operation Corkscrew plan for the seizure of Pantelleria. We’ll have to clear them both before we contemplate any serious invasion of Sicily—unless we scrap your plan altogether and revert back to the Operation General Patton proposed against Palermo. Frankly, I have my doubts about that one as well. In the meantime, some of the planners, including your own British team, are still advocating Sardinia as an alternative. In fact, you folks drew up plans for the invasion of Sardinia in 1941—Operations Yorker and Garroter.”

“Circumstances were entirely different back then,” said Montgomery. “In my opinion, Malta might be reduced by a combined naval and air bombardment, followed by a quick landing staged from Tunis and Tripoli. In effect, we use our naval/air power to clear the way for the sea based invasion General Eisenhower now suggests. As for Pantelleria, we can neutralize that this very month, and at least have commandos there by June 1st. The operation against Malta could then be launched as early as June 15th.”

“Perhaps Admiral Tovey could speak to the possibility of reducing Malta by sea power.”

Tovey spoke in response: “It would mean that our heavy ships would have to run the Sicilian Narrows, and under threat of air attack from Sicily the whole while. We’ve achieved dominance in the air over Tunisia, but that may soon be contested. The Germans are already strengthening the Luftwaffe in southern Italy and Sicily, and Sardinia as well. A further consideration is that Admiral Raeder’s fleet remains a clear and present danger. A major naval operation against Malta would invite Raeder’s fleet to sortie—not against Malta, but towards the Sicilian Narrows, effectively threatening our naval line of communication back to Algiers, Oran and Gibraltar. Unless Raeder is decisively defeated, that threat would persist in any operation aimed at Sicily, particularly the southeastern tip of that island as in General Montgomery’s plan. In that light, I might propose that Admiral Cunningham lead this attack on Malta, with my squadrons waiting northeast of Algiers to deter any such move by Raeder—in effect, forcing him to transit the Tyrrhenian Sea if he sought to intervene.”

“His fleet would have to run the Straits of Messina again,” said Admiral King.

“True, but he’s already done that once, and might attempt it again. If I might make an outlandish proposal at this point, the whole problem we are now discussing could be simply bypassed.”

“Bypassed?”

“Correct. We are debating the preliminaries for an invasion of Sicily. Might I suggest that we have another look at Sardinia? At present, the Sicilian Narrows remain contested waters. The combination of enemy minefields, submarines, air attacks from Sicily and even a possible Naval sortie by the enemy as I have described are very real. Nor can we cross those waters off Sicily with an invasion fleet without first reducing and occupying Pantelleria and Malta. However, at present we are masters of the Balearic Sea. We have strong airfields at Barcelona, and can also make that a good naval supply port. We occupy Mallorca, and have been developing and expanding the facilities at Palma there, and we have Algiers. All these bases are beyond the effective reach of the Luftwaffe, and all three can be used to launch an invasion of Sardinia that can pass over seas I can control, and this requires no preliminary attack on an outer bastion such as Malta.”

“But what about communications with the Eastern Med?” said Alexander. “Our difficulties in Syria were largely due to the fact that it took so long to get reinforcements to us round the Cape and through Suez. Shouldn’t we open the Med—east to west—and eliminate that condition?”

“In due course,” said Tovey. “That would be done, but under conditions far more favorable to us once we have Sardinia. I speak now from a purely naval standpoint. If I’m asked to cover an invasion against either Sardinia or Sicily, I find the former to be a much easier task. I can operate in the Central Med, just as Lord Nelson did to keep the French Fleet bottled up at Toulon. There I would be beyond enemy air power, but if I must cover landings on Sicily, my fleet must come within range of enemy fields on both Sicily and Sardinia, particularly to cover landings in the southeast of the island, and this is one reason why I advocate taking Sardinia first, and making it our own unsinkable aircraft carrier.”

“Wouldn’t this invite the same response from Admiral Raeder?”

“Yes, but I would be facing him directly, and not looking over my shoulder if I have to transit the Sicilian Narrows to cover the Husky landing plan.”

Marshall spoke up now, for he had considered this and opted for Sicily. “To my thinking, we can cover Sicily better with our air force. It’s only 150 miles from Bizerte to Marsala or Trapani, and a little less from Tunis. The problem is the plan. We can’t invade Sicily without having to reduce Malta first. It’s only this insistence that we land south of Catania, on the southeast tip of the island, that makes Malta an imperative pre-requisite. Once we’re ashore at Trapani, we move to take Palermo, and then along the northern coast to Messina, which will force the enemy to abandon their positions in southeast Sicily, or be completely cut off.”

“Sound thinking,” said Tovey. “Yet I might also add that Cagliari on Sardinia is only 140 miles from Bizerte. The real question in all of this is what we expect to achieve by targeting either island? If we take Sicily, then where do we go?”

“Right into the toe and foot of Italy,” said Montgomery. “We’ve already planned four such operations, under the code names Buttress, Goblet, Musket and Slapstick. If taking Sicily alone doesn’t knock Italy out of the war, then that should do the trick.”

“Alright, let’s assume that knocking Italy out is a good objective,” said Marshall, “but that doesn’t mean the place will suddenly be neutral. The Germans will occupy the whole peninsula, and have every reason to do so. They’ll save the 20 million tons of coal they now ship Italy annually, and then they would seize all the Italian rail stock, along with their Navy. Beyond that, they’ll retain all the naval and air bases, maintaining a threatening presence in the Central Med, which will force us to go in there after them if we want them out. Can you imagine trying to fight your way up that peninsula? The terrain is tailor made for the defense, and you’d be at it a year or longer. Let’s not forget that our real effort against the Germans must come across the English Channel, and as soon as possible. Every resource, every ship, every division we commit to operations against Italy, is one less we have to use for the main event—France.”

“If I may,” said Tovey. “This is where the occupation of Sardinia gets interesting again. It’s nearly 200 miles by air from Palermo to Naples, and to Rome, that distance increases to just over 260 miles. However, from airfields around La Maddalena, Rome is only 170 miles or so.”

“My thoughts exactly,” said Patton. “If you want me to land on Sicily, I’ll do it, and I’ll take Palermo and Messina as well. But General Marshall has a point about fighting our way up that peninsula. That’s no place for a swashbuckling old cavalry officer like me. We’ll be bogged down there for months, if not a year. Yet if we do take Sardinia, we outflank anything they have in Southern Italy, and we can make an easy jump to the beaches north of Rome. You want to knock Mussolini out of the war fast? That’s the way to do it, right in the kneecap; not by tickling his foot.”

“There is some merit to that,” said Eisenhower. “If we do land in the south, and get stuck, then we’ll have to plan a subsequent invasion to unhinge that defense. Striking north of Rome would probably force any German presence in the south to retreat north, and fast. We could then occupy all of southern Italy to get useful ports and airfields without having to fight for it, and both Sicily and Malta wither on the vine and die like rotten fruit.”

“What about the German garrison there, and dare I say, the Italian troops as well?”

“I would think the Germans would see the writing on the wall and try to evacuate Sicily once we landed in Sardinia. As for the Italians, they would likely stay put, but if we force Italy to the negotiating table, and get an armistice, we won’t have to fight them.”

Marshall thought about that, and then nodded his head, as if coming to some inner decision. Montgomery had devised a terribly complex operation. He wanted to clear Pantelleria in a week’s time, then invade Malta by sea, which would take another two to three weeks. Then he had insisted, somewhat conceitedly, that the landing on Sicily would be under his command, and take place on the southeast end of the island. Patton’s troops were to land on his left, essentially covering his flank as he pushed north for Messina, or moving to clear western Sicily after the enemy retreated. After that he wanted to invade the toe and heel of Italy and start the long push north.

“General Brooke?” he asked.

“Well, I was going to say we go bald-headed for Sicily. It would probably be the stronger blow, but considering Sardinia, it would at least afford us a base to bomb all of Italy and southern Europe, and it would likely be easier to undertake. However, it doesn’t open the Med, and it might not force Italy to the negotiating table. In my mind, we must continue serious planning there in any case, for if the Sicily plan is deemed impractical, we need an alternative operation this year. Brimstone seems to be the only other ticket we have.”

Chapter 8

“It might be easier to hit Sardinia and then go right to Rome,” said Marshall, “but would the Germans conclude we intend to bypass Sicily? What if they don’t, and then hold their troops in the south.”

“Then they’d be in for a rude awakening when we go for Rome,” said Eisenhower. “It’s clear that we can cut them off by hitting Central Italy after we take Sardinia. But we won’t get there any time soon if we have to fight our way up through Sicily and all of the south.”

That was going to be a real grind, thought Marshall, and it was not likely that that Monty would get far before he was stopped in that rugged terrain. It had taken him many months to push from Algiers to Bone! That meant the Allies would probably have to plan subsequent invasions, all aimed at flanking the German defensive lines across Italy. It would tie up shipping, landing craft, supplies, and divisions in the Med for months, and set back planning for Roundup, the main landing in France. God only knows how long it will take before Montgomery finally gets to Rome.

“The ports and airfields aren’t as good on Sardinia,” Admiral King put in. “They would have to be expanded. And if those airfields put our fighters in range of Southern France and Italy, then the inverse is true. Wouldn’t they be subject to enemy interdiction?”

“No more than our fields were in Tunisia,” said Eisenhower. “They couldn’t lick us there, and they won’t control the skies over Sardinia either, or Sicily, for that matter. Hap, isn’t that right”

“Well,” said Air Force General Hap Arnold. “To hold fields secure on Sardinia, I think we’d also need to chase the enemy off Corsica.”

“I’m all for that,” said Lord Mountbatten. “Getting airfields on Sardinia and Corsica is a major advantage. It also lets me plan commando raids anywhere along the coast of Italy, for what that’s worth.”

“Well, gentlemen,” said Tovey. “We’d better reach some decision soon. If we go with General Montgomery’s plan, then the landing craft will have to be transported all the way around the cape, because we’ll be staging from Alexandria, Benghazi and Tobruk, now that we’ve got that cleaned up. If, however, we go for Sardinia, we can bring the landing craft in through the eastern Med to the ports I mentioned earlier, and much sooner.”

“I didn’t like Brimstone earlier,” said Marshall. “The Joint Chiefs didn’t like it either. But then again, they aren’t exactly keen on the need to knock Italy out of the war, as we see France as the main objective. As I said earlier, I favored Sicily as the first objective—a quick hop from Tunis. But this Malta business complicates that considering the plan Montgomery has devised. That issue concerning the landing craft is important. In the States we have a saying: Time is money, gentlemen. It will take both time and shipping resources to clear Malta, putting all that shipping at risk not once, but twice before we get boots on the ground in Sicily, and probably another month to clear that island. I can then see two or three more amphibious operations before we get north of Naples. In that light, I’m starting to agree with Eisenhower and others here. The road to Rome is much shorter through Sardinia.”

Montgomery folded his arms, lips pursed, giving Admiral Tovey a look. He knew that he might have to tussle with Patton here over where to land on Sicily, but he never thought that someone in his own camp would shift the whole strategic plan to another island, particularly the Navy. Marshall continued.

“Look… Both Sardinia and Corsica are very lightly defended now. If we were to move quickly, they could be had for a few Shillings, to put it in terms our British friends will easily grasp. But as for landing on the toe of Italy and fighting your way north, you’ll have to invest Pounds Sterling to do that, and a lot of time. Consider taking Sardinia. Then we’re poised to strike north of Rome, and we can move in air power on those islands to hammer Toulon, Marseille, Genoa and La Spezia. Those ports will all be within our fighter radius.”

“Yet you’ll be leaving the Germans, with strengthening air power, in our rear.” Montgomery pointed out the obvious.

“You can look at it that way if you want,” said Marshall, “but both Arnold and I think Tedder would probably say they can neutralize that. Yes, we’d be leaving Sicily on our flank, just as you do with any major offensive that penetrates the enemy line. Once we get fighters thick as fleas on Sardinia, then Sicily is cut off. Your Admiral Tovey put his finger on that rather nicely.”

Brooke gave Montgomery a sidelong glance, and decided he had better step in. He knew that his own war planners had also favored Sardinia, and he had to put them in line to give Monty free reign to devise this plan. Now it was meeting a strong challenge from the Americans, and it was not the battle he, or Montgomery, thought they would be fighting. He decided to broaden the focus of the discussion to another consideration.

“There is one other option,” he said. “It’s one our Mister Churchill is particularly fond of, and I told him it would be given a fair hearing. Knocking out Italy is a fine political objective, but Hitler will be quick to occupy the place, as General Marshall pointed out. Then, from a military standpoint, the quick punch at Rome from Sardinia flanks what is likely to be a long campaign in the south. Yet we have other difficulties, and General’s Alexander and Wilson will speak to those. Rommel is in Damascus, and Guderian is in Baghdad, and they can only be there for one reason—Turkey. While not a declared member of the Axis, Turkey is certainly cooperating with Hitler, and German supply lines to both Rommel and Guderian rely on the rail lines through Turkey. Mister Churchill believes that if we could convince Turkey they’ve made a grave mistake, their support might shift to our side, and that would see the Germans forced out of Syria and Iraq in short order. Therefore, the Prime Minister proposes we revisit Crete, with the aim of then jumping right into Greece.”

“Yet if we tee that up first,” said Montgomery, “then Mussolini is likely to remain in the fight, and the terrain in Greece is no more inviting than that in Italy.”

“I suppose it will come down to which we see more desirable—Italy knocked out of the Axis, or Turkey welcomed into our Alliance. General Alexander? General Wilson?”

“We were hard pressed a month ago,” said Alexander, “but Rommel has stopped at Damascus, and Guderian has stopped at Al Hillah. In both cases, we’ve seen the withdrawal of vital mobile forces from those theaters. The Germans pulled out their number one unit, the Brandenburg Division, and that gave Guderian pause, and it was of great relief to Jumbo Wilson.”

“That’s putting it lightly,” said Wilson. “They had us on our back foot, though I thought we could hold out and keep them from taking Basra and Abadan until help arrived. Getting in those fresh troops from Perth and Burma helped us immensely. Then, when Guderian lost his Brandenburgers, things started looking a good deal better.”

“The same can be said for our situation in Syria,” said Alexander. “Hitler has taken the Wiking Division from Rommel, and in fact, we’ve learned that Rommel has even been recalled to Berlin. Intelligence does not think he’ll be returning. Frankly, I think they’ve seen their highwater mark, and the initiative will be shifting our way soon. If, however, anything could be done to persuade Turkey to shut down the Bosphorus, the German position in both Iraq and Syria collapses immediately. They will have no recourse but to withdraw.”

“And where will those divisions go?” said Montgomery. “To my mind, they would then use them to reinforce France and Italy. At the moment, we have them at a disadvantage. Now is the time to strike Italy and knock her out, and not after we chase Rommel and Guderian from their ill-conceived pursuits. Those campaigns have already run their course. They’ll dry up all on their own.”

“Will they?” said Brooke. “Hitler is very reluctant to give up territory, as we have seen. He could issue a stand fast order for both theaters, and that will mean we’ll have to maintain a good many divisions in Iraq and Syria that could be put to much better uses. I should also say that that Prime Minister considered Iraq as the most serious threat to the Empire of the war. If Guderian ever should get to Basra and Abadan, even if he can’t stay there, then he would certainly wreck those facilities and refineries if we push him back. The image of those oil fields burning has haunted Mister Churchill, and a good many others, for some time. He is somewhat relieved now that Guderian has halted his advance, but that could change along with Hitler’s whims. He could, for example, go over to the defense in Syria, and then send two more Panzer Divisions to Guderian.”

“Yes,” said Marshall, “but I’m inclined to agree with General Montgomery on this point. Now is the time to get after Italy, while the enemy is still disorganized after Tunisia, and before Hitler starts transferring units to the West. We can see how removing the German threat in Syria and Iraq is important to the British Empire, but removing Italy does a good deal more for clearing a way to Germany itself. Again, I must remind you all that the United States believes the principle attack to defeat Germany must originate from England, and cross the Channel. However, we do see some merit in collaring Mussolini, and the operation proposed against Sardinia and Corsica also opens up the possibility that those islands, or territory we take in Northern Italy, can be used to stage a subsidiary landing in southern France. That’s the way to Germany, not through the Balkans. You could take back Crete, or even land at Athens, but what if Old Man Turkey is not impressed? Take Rome, however, and that’s the end of the line for the Italians. Then we don’t sit here talking about fighting in Italy, we start getting serious about fighting in France.”

“Interesting,” said Tovey. “I’m not an Army man, but since we hold Spain, doesn’t that also permit the buildup of strong forces there, say at Barcelona? They might offer strong support for an invasion of Southern France, even if it were a secondary operation to the main attack across the channel. All the more reason to have Sardinia and Corsica in hand.”

“Firebrand and Brimstone,” said Eisenhower. “Those plans are looking fairly good to me.”

They were back to the Hot Potato that Sardinia had become, and Brooke thought it best to put off any decision on this until he could confer with Churchill. He also had one other item on his agenda that he needed to cover.

“Well gentlemen,” he said. “We’ve a good deal to chew on tonight. Hopefully, we can reach a consensus before this conference ends. We’ll be mopping things up in Tunisia soon, and there’s no time to waste. In that I’ll have to agree with General Marshall—time is money, and a currency we can ill afford to squander. There is one thing more I was advised to share with you all, and it could weigh heavily on all these plans….”

Brooke stood now, and Montgomery yielded the podium so he could address everyone directly. “Gentlemen,” he said. “This concerns something old, and something new, which both appeared over London on the night of February 1st. It looked to be nothing more than another air raid, only this time the Germans used a Zeppelin to make a high altitude bombing run over London. That might seem quaint, given the destruction they’ve achieved with simple bombers, but this airship delivered something quite unexpected. What I am to say now must be held at the highest level of secrecy, and no one outside this room is to hear a word of it. I trust to the integrity of every man here, and know that will be the case.”

Then he told them what British intelligence had surmised about the attack on London, and what it could mean for the future course of the war. “All that considered,” he finished, “this device was not of a very great explosive yield. Still, if it had struck a more populated area, casualties would have been a good deal higher. Now this whole thing presents two questions. The first is whether Germany has more of these weapons. We’ve seen nothing of this since February 1st, but that doesn’t necessarily mean their cupboard is empty. The second question is what this means for operations of the sort we have gathered here to discuss. Can you imagine such a bomb exploding directly over our invasion fleet, no matter which island we might choose in our deliberations?”

The silence in the room was ample testimony to the gravity of that prospect. Every man there was seeing some terrible bright flash in his mind, a force so strange and powerful that it could sweep pieces right off the chess board of battle. It was no longer a question of divisions, or naval squadrons maneuvering to overwhelm the enemy. Now they could simply be extinguished in one fell blow.

“My God,” said Patton. “Whoever dreamt this thing up must surely be in league with the devil himself. Where’s the honor in using a weapon like that? There’s no valor in this kind of war. It’s simple butchery.”

“Yes,” said Brooke, “It is, but I might also say that our own concept of strategic bombing as a means of breaking the enemy morale is quite callous. In fact, the policy calls for making the cities we target physically uninhabitable, and instilling in the population the constant fear of personal danger. The wording is quite plain in the directive laid out in September of 1941. Our strategic bombing campaign is to do two things, produce destruction, and fear of death. That’s certainly what Hitler was about when he started the Blitz, and we’re responding in kind. We started with Lubeck and Rostock in March of ’42, but those were small raids of two and three hundred planes. Now we’ve ramped it up to thousand plane raids, a continuous bomber stream to overwhelm the defenses of the target city. Operation Millennium did that over Cologne a year ago, and bomber command estimates we destroyed 60% of the town. In that light, this new weapon is no different in its aim. Last March, we put over 34,000 tons on the Ruhr. We estimate this weapon was not too much more than 1,500 tons of TNT equivalent.”

“But its use as a tactical weapon is something to consider,” said Montgomery. “A blast of that size, delivered at the right place and time, could completely unhinge an offensive.”

“Yes,” said Brooke. “Yet we have come to believe that this weapon was a prototype. We’ve no way of knowing whether they have more of these bombs ready, and we’ve teed up several countermeasures, both offensively and defensively. We’re going after their special weapons programs with much more fervor now, and we’re also going all out to get high altitude fighters. That was why they used something old to deliver this new terror to London, a high climbing Zeppelin, which was above our Spitfire ceiling when the attack was made. What this means for us now is obvious. We thought we had a decisive edge with our own conventional strategic bombing campaign, but, with this weapon, Germany is back in the game, and they don’t have to come with mass bombing raids as we do. This single Zeppelin delivered explosive tonnage that would have required us to use over 200 Lancasters. We also believe they can put this bomb on a single plane. It may even be light enough to be carried by a fighter-bomber, which means they could deliver it much more accurately if they chose to risk losing that plane. I’m also told by people in the know that the explosive yield of such a bomb can be dramatically increased. It’s just a question of how much uranium is used for fuel. A weapon could be made to yield ten times what we saw over London, or more. This is rather disturbing, to say the least.”

Admiral Tovey was sitting in dark silence, for deep within his mind, he saw the clear memory of that terrible mushroom cloud billowing up over the North Atlantic. That was the first he had seen of this weapon, though he could not trace his present life path back to that moment. There had also been another incident in the mid-Atlantic west of Gibraltar. He had been leading the fleet against the Germans, when Rodney met her fate, and a terrible explosion had gushed up from the sea, glowering over the scene for hours after that engagement. He had seen this weapon used twice, and never wished to see one again.

Patton was so very correct. There was no skill or valor in this kind of war—no strategy. The Bomb made talk of covering forces, strategic choke points, and all conventional operations of war, frivolous. The next war would simply be wanton destruction. The armed forces would exist simply to deliver their terrible weapons of destruction, and the world would burn. That Russian Captain Fedorov had told them of this. In his time, far in the future, this was the war they were facing when his ship had vanished… to appear here, where the fledgling infant demon that would one day devour his world was first given birth.

Chapter 9

It was a week before Hitler could throw off the pallor of anger and frustration that the demise of 5th Panzer Army had caused. He had lost North Africa, and knew that German forces could never fight there again. Now the Allies in the west were surely planning new offensives. Sicily would likely be the next objective, and to defend there he now had to find fresh divisions to send into Italy. Mussolini had seen all his colonial ambitions in Africa defeated, and was now a very shaky partner. Would his army continue to fight to defend their homeland? Would his navy fight?

In the event they would not stand with Germany any longer, and attempted to sign an armistice with the Allies, Hitler had ordered planning to begin for the occupation of the entire Italian peninsula, and the seizure of the Italian fleet. It would be called Fall Achse, or “Case Axis,” but was now a working plan under the codename “Operation Alaric.” It would be a plan to rapidly disarm the Italian Army in Italy, and gain control of that vital terrain.

The wolf was let in the front door by the Italians after Tunisia, for Hitler immediately promised Mussolini that he would send German troops to insure the defense of the Italian mainland. Herman Goring was rapidly commandeering new equipment from the factories, and collecting units from his Luftwaffe ground units to rebuild his Panzer Division. He promised the Fuhrer it would be ready to send to Sicily before the Allies could invade. Hitler then ordered that the collective forces that had been transferred to Sicily before the final demise of the 5th Panzer Army would be used to begin rebuilding one of the divisions lost, the 15th Panzer, only lack of ready equipment would see this division rebuilt as a Panzergrenadier Division.

The bulk of the personnel that had once made up 7th Panzer Division was already in France, rebuilding as it received new equipment, and Hitler gave orders that the 10th and 21st Panzers would also be rebuilt there, though only one of those, (the 21st) was rebuilt in the real history. But none of those forces would be ready, except Goring’s division and the new makeshift 15th Panzergrenadiers.

There were also a lot of men that had been rehabilitating in France from the vanquished Army, and Hitler ordered that they should be collected to rebuild the 90th Light Infantry Division that had been lost in Tunisia. New recruits would have to flesh out those ranks. The need to suddenly reinforce the West, in both the Balkans and in Italy, was happening at a time when OKW was trying to devise its strategy for the next phase of the war against the Soviets, and it led to a conference at OKW that would be the German equivalent of the Allied TRIDENT meeting.

The successful defensive action initiated by General Manstein in April had restored the front in the south and punished the Russians by nearly destroying two full armies, the 63rd and 1st Guards. Only the Mechanized elements of the latter had the means to evade the trap that Manstein launched with Steiner’s Korps, augmented by the 57th Panzer Korps, which he transferred from the Caucasus. The remaining rifle divisions assigned to 1st Guards Army perished in the counterattack put in by von Knobelsdorff’s 48th Panzer Korps, which then advanced on Belgorod to relieve the German units that had been cut off there when Hitler declared it to be a Fortress.

In this action, the deep salient north of Kharkov achieved by 5th Tank Army and Katukov’s 1st Tank Army was abandoned by the Soviets. Then Knobelsdorff’s Korps, supported by 1st SS and the Reichsführer Brigades, sealed off that breach and relieved Belgorod. Unfortunately, the enemy resistance thickened north of that city, and efforts to again reach Prokhorovka and rescue Oppenlander’s 305th Division were called off.

Both sides took losses, though those of the Soviets were more severe. In exchange, they gained all the ground between the Oskol River and the Upper Donets, preferring to see their operation Red Star as a minor victory for pushing the Germans off their front along both the Psel and Oskol Rivers. They had, at one point, a very large bridgehead over the Middle Donets, and clear roads to the Dnieper, coming within 15 kilometers of Kharkov as well.

After the action was concluded, the new front extended from the western Psel above Sumy, down to Tomarovka, which was still held by Model’s 2nd Army. It then ran east to Belgorod, held by Korps Raus, before turning south along the line of the Upper Donets, with Kempf now commanding the 4th Army all the way to the big bend near Chuguyev. General Heinrici had become one of the casualties of the operation when Hitler went looking for scapegoats. He was relieved for withdrawing from his positions at the secret urging of OKW Chief Zeitzler. Knobelsdorff’s Korps remained in the north as the ready mobile reserve, with 6th, 9th and 11th Panzer Divisions, but Dietrich’s 1st SS Division would now rejoin Steiner’s Korps.

The Soviet 3rd Guards Army still retained a large bridgehead north of Chuguyev, but the Germans retook that city, and drove Kuznetsov’s 1st Guard Army, the Popov Group, and Malinovsky’s 2nd Shock Group to a line between Pechengi on the Donets bend, and Kupyansk on the Oskol River to the east. This front was anchored on the Donets Bend by the Nordland SS, deemed to be a division suitable for stubborn defense, but not one having offensive strength required to become a part of Steiner’s Korps. East of the Nordland division, the Germans placed the infantry of Group Hollidt, and 54th Korps under Fetter-Pico, backstopping that line with the 57th Panzer Korps, containing 17th Panzer, and 29th and 3rd Panzergrenadier Divisions.

Both those last two units had been send to Italy in the real history, but now they would have to remain on the Ostfront, for this area was deemed to be the most vulnerable to any new Soviet offensive. The bulk of their mobile formations had been driven back into the region between the Donets and Oskol Rivers, and there the Germans identified the mobile elements of Kuznetsov’s 1st Guard Army, with the 1st Shock Army providing the infantry to complete this 1st Shock Group. Then Popov’s mobile units joined Malinovsky to form the new 2nd Shock Group, which also contained 2nd Shock Army.

These were powerful forces, which still had offensive capability, and Manstein stated that the German front opposing them would need to be strongly buttressed by the retention of the 57th Panzer Korps in that sector. The Queen on the board, Steiner’s Korps, would become the German Strategic Reserve, and it would be placed near the major objective the enemy had sought with Red Star, the great city of Kharkov.

A meeting was now convened with Zeitzler, Model, Kempf, Kluge, and Manstein in attendance, all meeting with Hitler to decide the German strategy for the late Spring and early Summer. The decision whether or not to launch Operation Downfall in May was also riding in the balance as that conference began. That was all part of the real overriding concern, the need to gain and retain the initiative on the field in the east for the remainder of 1943. The Soviet Operation had convinced both OKW, and Hitler himself, that the Soviets were slowly developing offensive capability of an alarming strength. They could be expected to try again wherever they had failed, and now the Generals had to decide what to do. Zeitzler made the opening remarks, hoping to cement the idea the Generals had agreed upon.

“It is my belief, and that of General Manstein as well, that we should wait for the enemy to strike first, and then conduct counteroperations similar to the successful attacks made by Manstein in April.”

“Doesn’t this yield the initiative to the enemy?” said Hitler immediately.

“Temporarily,” said Manstein, “for we would again be employing the concept of elastic defense. The Russians wanted Kharkov, and they may try for it again, though I am now inclined to think they want to reach and cross the Middle Donets as their primary objective this summer. Good for them I say! In fact, I would fold back our lines if they attack with their strongest shock groups, and invite them to cross the river again, and fall right into the same trap that we used to defeat them a few weeks ago.”

“Fold back our lines? I do not like the sound of that at all,” said Hitler. “General Heinrici was all too fond of folding back his lines, and he is no longer in command of his old army.”

“Heinrici’s front on the Oskol River was not essential,” said Zeitzler, feeling he should at least defend the man. “We needed to hold the Upper Donets, and that we did.”

“Except the region north of Chuguyev. The enemy still has his foot in the door there,” said Hitler, “and he should be pushed back over the river with all speed. As for the line between the Donets and Oskol at Kupyansk, that front is now protecting very valuable terrain. The Donets must not be crossed again in the south. It is the last major barrier between the enemy and the coal mines of the Donets Basin, which also screen Rostov, the gateway to our Army Group in the Caucasus.”

“All the more reason why 57th Panzer Korps must remain there. It cannot return to the Caucasus, nor can it be made available to go to the west after this unfortunate business in Tunisia.”

“But we must find new forces somewhere,” said Hitler. “Turkey is watching these developments closely, and we cannot permit anything to threaten our position there. You may continue to advocate these risky maneuvers, General Manstein, folding back your lines in the face of an enemy attack, but in my mind, terrain yielded to the enemy is not always recovered easily, as we have seen. We may have stopped the enemy Spring offensive, but we are not on the eastern Psel any longer, are we? We are not on the northern Oskol River either. Sergei Kirov has already spoiled breakfast. Don’t go thinking I will now want to give him my lunch! I want no more talk of folding back the lines, or inviting the enemy to take anything from us he does not pay for. For this reason, I reject the notion that we should wait for him to strike us first. This conference is to decide our own offensive operations, not to contemplate defense, elastic or otherwise.”

Zeitzler and Manstein had both spoken before the meeting, and this was what they expected to hear from Hitler. They had decided that it would be fruitless to engage in a two-day struggle with the Führer over this issue, and so the conference then moved quickly to offensive options, with all eyes on the map.

“Very well,” said Zeitzler. “Then we must now decide whether Untergang should be launched against Leningrad, and if so, when that would be most prudent. General Manstein?”

“It is clear that we cannot conduct that offensive while also contemplating offensives here in the south. If Untergang is launched, that is where Steiner must go, which means we will be forced to the strategic defensive in the Kharkov Donets sector. The enemy is clearly planning his defense against any thrust towards Leningrad, and yet look at all the forces he has brought to the Donets!”

“You believe they will renew their offensive here?” Zeitzler asked the question, though he already knew the answer.

“Of course they will, which is why I proposed an elastic defense to stop them as we did in April. If Untergang is launched in May, do not think the enemy will sit quietly on our porch here while we drive on Leningrad. He will attack, and with everything he has along the Donets—aiming to seize all that valuable territory that you are keen to protect, my Führer. Our other option is to instead pre-empt his offensive here with an attack of our own, and see that to a successful conclusion, with the aim of destroying the enemy’s power to conduct further offensives here before we launch Untergang.”

“I agree with that proposal,” said Model. “Mine is a defensive army, but I would rather see us after the enemy than sit waiting for him to come for us again. What are the prospects for our own offensive?”

“Three options have been identified,” said Zeitzler. “The first is Operation Habicht (Hawk). It will involve an attack across the Donets north of their 3rd Shock Group bridgehead, concurrent with an attack from the vicinity of Kupyansk—a pincer operation against the large group of mobile formations that remain between the Donets and Oskol Rivers. The second option is to widen those pincers by staging the attack from a point east of the Oskol River in the south, and at Belgorod in the north. This would attempt to pocket all the enemy forces along the upper Donets as well as those on the river gap sector, a much more enterprising offensive now coded Operation Panther. Opinions?”

“The second is too ambitious,” said Model immediately. “Where would those pincers meet?”

“One would drive on Valuki from the south, the other on Stary Oskol in the north.”

“Those objectives are far apart, and so both pincers will also be widely spaced. This will become nothing more than two unsupported attacks. I vote no on such a plan, and rather prefer the tighter attack that Operation Habicht proposes.”

“I think I must agree,” said Manstein. “For Panther we would have to reinforce both 48th and 57th Panzer Korps to make them strong enough for the job, and the most likely means of doing so would be to split Steiner’s Korps in two. I would prefer to keep his forces united as one mailed fist. Furthermore, the terrain east of Belgorod does not favor an attack to the east as in the Panther Operation. We would have to cross a series of rivers, and push through heavily wooded ground. For Habicht, all we have to do is force the crossing at Volchansk, then drive that pincer southeast along the main road and rail. The southern pincer can drive past Kupyansk, and then swing to the northwest. They should meet about here…” He fingered the map, “At Verliki Burluk.”

“That does not gain us much ground,” said Hitler. “Operation Panther gives me all the terrain back that we lost in April.”

“Only if it succeeds,” said Manstein, “and I have my doubts about that, as does General Model. Our objective with Habicht is not to gain terrain, but to destroy the three enemy shock groups we pocket—five or six armies. If we do that, the terrain will come to us as a bonus, and we will have destroyed their offensive potential against Army Group South for the foreseeable future. Then Untergang may proceed in the Summer, perhaps as early as June.”

“Is there another option?” Hitler was still not satisfied.

“Kursk,” said Zeitzler. “Operation Zitadelle. We could strike from the Bryansk-Orel sector on one side, and from the vicinity of Belgorod, only this time that group drives north and west, with the objective being the capture of Kursk and defeat of all the enemy forces within that bulge. General Kluge? You command Army Group Center. What is your opinion?”

“What will I use to attack from the north? I have already sent 42 Korps and 48th Panzer Korps to the Kharkov sector. The only way to get any offensive steam would be if I received fresh panzer divisions, unless you plan on returning Knobelsdorff to my command.”

“The plan calls for 48th Panzerkorps to remain in the south.”

“Then I would need fresh panzers. Will the 24th Panzerkorps be refitted and returned to the front?”

“I’m afraid not,” said Zeitzler. In fact, we must also withdraw its last division, 22nd Panzer. The division fought bravely in April, a real life-saver for Model’s flank, but it is simply worn out.”

“Then perhaps the divisions sitting in Army Group North?”

“Out of the question,” said Hitler. “No further forces will be withdrawn from that Army Group.”

Kluge shrugged. “Then I regret to say that I do not believe that Army Group Center, as it is presently structured, is capable of mounting and offensive from Bryansk that has the slightest chance of ever reaching Kursk. At best, I could put in a spoiling attack, and then the main effort would have to come from the south, which I assume would be a combination of Knobelsdorff and Steiner.”

“That attack alone might be enough,” said Zeitzler.

“Yes,” said Manstein, “but it leaves that large grouping of forces unfought between the Donets and Oskol, and behind our main offensive. I don’t like that, and I would suggest that Habicht be launched first to destroy those two Soviet Shock Groups.”

“How much time do you think we have here, Herr General?” Hitler began to lecture again. Time was also money in his mind. “The Habicht operation would take two or three weeks, and there goes May. If we then move forces to launch Operation Zitadelle, another week is lost and it will be late June before we could then begin to contemplate Untergang, possibly even July. I think we must choose one or the other. Habicht is a little bite that hardly fills the stomach, and leaves us hungry for more in Panther or Zitadelle. I think we would be better just to form up for Zitadelle and attack. Kursk is a worthwhile objective, and attacking in great force from the south should get us there. I will see what I can do to strengthen your assault force, General Kluge. My thinking leans towards Zitadelle. Prepare for that as the main operation.”

It was a strange echo of the decision made in the old history. Then, there had been no consideration for an Operation Untergang, but the strategic situation in Army Group South was very much the same as it was before, with one exception. Manstein still had forces deep in the Caucasus….