Breakthrough (The Red Gambit Series) (15 page)

It was a fair point.

“Ok then
,
Brad. You sort your forces out, dropping back to
wards
the
Rhine
only
if you must
,
and
only as a last resort
. Tie in with Devers and McCreery. I will speak to both now, Devers first. I will also speak to Alexander and see if he will cut some
more
forces out to send around
Switzerland
to secure the bottom end of the
Rhine
.”

A staff Captain placed a sheet of paper in front of Ike and retreated.
Scanning as he spoke
,
Ike was able to pass on some good news.

“It seems we have some more Air coming on line too
. We are steadily making good our losses. According to what i
s in front of me now
,
we are at 7
0% of pre-action numbers and climbing.”

“
Well that’s just fine and dandy
,
but we are going to need those boys to do miracles
,
Ike.”

“Yes indeed
,
Brad, as they’
ve been doing since day one.”

Placing the paper back on the table
,
Eisenhower concluded his call.

“Get it done
,
Brad
,
and blow everything as you fall back. Every rail junction, every bridge, every airfield, every supply dump. Leave them nothing
,
and hinder their advance to the maximum.”

“Will do, Ike.
Good day to you Sir.”

“Good day to you
,
and good luck
,
General.”

Pausing to sign off the aircraft replenishment report
,
Eisenhower communicated the decision to his staff and commenced his calls to the senior commanders.

             
The four Germans sat opposite Eisenhower,
their
coffee
s
untouched,
impassively
listening
as he described the military decision
s taken that afternoon,
decision
s
that would temporarily
condemn the greater part of Germany to
Soviet
occupation.

             
The Tech-4 sat in the corner, making her normal record of the meeting.

             
For the benefit of Dönitz and Von Vietinghoff
,
a military map had been prepared and Eisenhower rose
from the table
to approach it.
The two
German
officers took their cue and joined him, whereas Speer and Von
Krosigk
watched on.

             
Ike quickly went through the situation
that
had been updated at 5 o’clock to include the
threat to
Augsburg
and
fall of
Frankfurt
, as well as the withdrawal from
Nürnberg
. There was no way to dress up the disaster that was unfolding
in these men’s
homeland
.

He mapped out the
ongoing
withdrawal, ending on the
most
upbeat
note, namely his
decision not to fall back to the
Rh
ine
immediately but to set up other
line
s
to the east
, buying time to make sure the great water barrier was as impregnable as it could possibly be
.

Eisen
hower finished and stepped back as
Goldstein
finished his translation, permitting the two to do their own closer examination.

Dönitz swept a hand over south-west
Germany
and fired a question at Von Vietinghoff.

Goldstein
spoke.

“Herr Dönitz asks if it is truly necessary to concede so much ground
,
Sir.”

Eisenhower went to move forward
,
but was beaten to it by Von Vietinghoff.

The ex-General jabbed a finger at a few places on the map and spoke swiftly, so much so that
Goldstein
had not even started to translate before he was finished.

“Herr Von Vietinghoff says that no defence can be
sustained for long
at any of the points he indicates
, despite the assurances you have just given,
and that the
Rhine
is the first and last line that can be manned
and held
in time
. A slow gradual withdrawal is the best solution
.”

Eisenhower nodded and inclined his head to acknowledge Von Vietinghoff’s understanding of the military position. He also realised that something had
just
been said that he simply had not properly understood himself until that moment.

“First and last line indeed
,
gentlemen. We will stop them on the
Rhine
,
and then we will roll them back.”

Goldstein
ended his translation and waited for the response.

It came from Von Vietinghoff, and was in
perfect
English.

“To the Polish Border and beyond, Herr General.”

Eisenhower’s words
were
repeated
back at him
,
at a time when such an advance seemed impossible to contemplate.

The two Germans returned to their seats
, offering up a small explanation of the situation as they saw it for the benefit of the two politicians.

When they had finished
,
Eisenhower drew hard on his cigarette and stubbed it out before he posed the big question.

“I have been hearing good reports about your
soldiers and their
willingness to serve. I wonder when we might see some forces free to send forward into action?”

Eisenhower had heard a number of reports, not all of which were good.
‘
Agent
s
provocateurs
’
within the rank
s causing trouble
,
and
there had been
desertions by
a number of men from the forming up camps. Even a report of a bloody fight
near Emmerich
,
which ended with over forty men dead and hundreds hospitalised.

‘Maybe that is why I feel like I do?’

It was Speer that spoke up
,
and he candidly confirmed every rumour Eisenhower had heard to be true, detailing additional problems
,
as yet unsuspected by the Allied
Commander
.
Polish
troops, the least forgiving of the Allies, had ransacked
a G
erman
holding
barracks in
San Bonifacio near
Verona
. The
Polish
troops were outnumbered and quickly resorted to firearms, the resulting
fire fight
leaving eighteen Poles and
forty
-nine Germans dead
,
with dozens more injured on both sides.

Throughout the German forces
,
a common problem had emerged.
German officers had fought long and hard, bound by their oath to the
person of the
F
ührer
,
Adolf Hitler
. The Council had
immediately instigated a new oath to the state of Greater Germany.
Soviet
agents amongst the officers had caused great unrest on the matter, citing the unconstitutional nature of the Council
that
was
enforcing the new oath.

In Jülich
,
the unrest had developed into violence, resulting in the deaths of seven officers.
More violence had flared in
Freiburg
, where another five men were lost.
Speer confirmed that General
Oberst Guderian was engaged in a tour of the forming-up camps
,
and at each he openly retook the oath
as an example
, dealing with the concerns of officers head-on
, and
with great success.

Whilst it was good for Eisenhower to hear that the Council was doing its bit, the important question had not been answered. Not wishing to
interrupt,
he eased himself in his chair and went for another cigarette.

It was Dönitz who did the job for him. Leaning across to Speer
,
he tapped the folder in front of the former Minister of Munitions and spoke softly.

Speer conceded with a nod of the head and opened the folder, extracting a set of papers
,
which he offered up to Goldstein.

When the report was in Eisenhower’s hands
,
Speer
read aloud in German
,
which Goldstein at first
translated
but
a raised hand from
Eisenhower
stopped him, the General’s
own copy of the document
being
typed
in English.

Eis
enhower scanned the list, conscious of Speer’s voice in the background
,
but distracted by the content before him.

Organised on 1944 lines
,
the forces presently assembled
should have
represented a lifeline to a hard pressed Eisenhower.

But.

‘Get a grip General! Snap out of it
,
and don’t look a
gift horse
in the mouth.’

Eisenhower cleared his mind and felt the better for it.

The
full tank division was most welcome, as was the motorised infantry one.
However,
a further
nine
complete infantry formations was the eye-catch
ing figure that leapt up at Ike, albeit that the units were spread from
Holland
down to
Italy
.

One of the formations
was a complete 1945 formation
, the 319th Infanterie Division,
which
had served
for four years
as
the
garrison
for
the
Channel Islands
.

Another of the divisions was heavily motorised with a tank element a
nd represented a former Panzer-G
renadiere style division
,
now
named the
Europa
Division
. With the sole exception of that unit, the other German
divisions
carried the nomenclature
of
their former
deployment
.

Scanning down the list
,
it was obvious that some support elements were missing from one or two of the formations but, all in all, he was being given an Army
of eleven divisions
,
plus change, all
fit to go in harm’s way.

He reminded himself that these units were also comprised of good fighting troops, men already tested in battles such as those to come.

Turning the sheet over
,
projections of
a second and third tranche of units over the coming months
drew his attention, the figures seeming to offer up so much hope at a time of near despair.

With the return of prisoners of war from
Canada
and the States
,
numbers would be further boosted. Certainly, Ike mused, unit strengths could be maintained with reinforcements.

Another piece of the report suggested training with allied weapons and equipment in
case of shortages as captured G
erman stocks became denuded, although there was a reference to a report from Minister Speer to come.