Breakthrough (The Red Gambit Series) (28 page)

“Excellent.
I am called to the Kremlin for 8pm”, taking an automatic look at his watch, “For a meeting with the General-Secretary, so we should have time to drop you wherever you need, Comrade?”

“
My appointment lies in the same place
. I am ordered to brief
the General-Secretary
and Marshall Beria
.
As is normally the case for me
,
I have no time
allotted
,
so
I suspect I will simply follow you
,
Comrade Marshall.”

Zhukov nodded, his respect for the woman increased as no fools ever crossed that threshold
more than once
,
and hi
s
understanding of her calm acceptance of his offer of a lift
was
complete.

‘
If she can stand before
those two
,
then she certainly won
’
t be
worried about
sharing a car with her Commander-in-Chief.
’

“Excellent Comrade,
PodPolkovnik
.
Now, before we land perhaps you might give me your name and tell me how you came by that pretty trinklet?”

Zhukov pointed a finger at her G
old
S
tar.

“Yes Comrade Marshall. I am
PodPolkovnik
Tatiana Nazarbayeva of
Polkovnik
General Pekunin’s personal staff
,
and I got this on the
Kerch
.”

Zhukov felt strangely, and for him
,
worryingly at ease with the female officer as she spoke modestly of her combat
operations.

So much so that their conversation shifted smoothly into the GRU assessment of the present combat operations and the first he knew that they were on the ground was the hard bump of a poor landing from a fatigued pilot.

Zhukov and his staff swept off the aircraft,
speeding
towards two
ex-Wehrmacht Horsch 108 staff cars
, sat
idling on the apron.

Nazarbayeva assembled her files and briefcase
,
and then
moved swiftly after the hurrying group, her limp becoming more noticeable as her pace increased.

Despite the promises he made to himself as he hurried from the aircraft
,
something made Zhukov turn and beckon the GRU officer into his car, turning her from the second vehicle to which she had been heading.

The conversation struck up again, the woman’s analysis excellent, her observations reasonable and
well
thought out.

Only when the Horsch halted at the gates of the Kremlin did the exchange of views and information cease.

Dismounting from the vehicle
,
Zhukov wished her well and formally took his leave, receiving an immaculate salute from Nazarbayeva.

Striding up the stairs, his staff keeping pace behind him, he wondered if he would ever see the woman again, not knowing that his life and hers were
, from that moment,
inextricably linked.

Zhukov had given his presentation to the GKO
,
and received assurances as to replacement weapons, materiel and personnel across the board. The failure to adhere to the
assault
timetable had been explained and,
unusually, accepted without histrionics and threats. The normal vitriol was directed against those who were behind the lines
,
and whose failures contributed to the engineering and equipment shortages, plus those who were failing to ensure safety in the logistical tail.

That meant that the bald
Marshall
had the rare pleasure of seeing Beria hounded by the General Secretary for the failure of his NKVD security force to protect rail lines and bridges. Such pleasures were best sampled without showing satisfaction, as the woun
ded Beria was a beast to fear.

The meeting was closed and the GKO dissolved,
some to instigate the decisions of the meeting, others to their
homes and beds,
leaving solely Stalin and Beria with Zhukov.

Beria, still smarting from the
admonishments he had recently received, sat silently and obviously deep in thought.

The General Secretary hid his amusement and ordered more tea.

“Comrade Marshall, the GRU will be giving us a briefing shortly. It will be of interest to you I have no doubt
.”

“Yes Comrade General Secretary, I travelled here with the GRU officer in question. I gave her a lift to the Kremlin as our plane was diverted and she had no vehicle.”

“Ah, so you have met our Nazarbayeva. Your thoughts?”

Zhukov didn’t need to think.

“A remarkable woman for sure, Comrade General Secretary.”

Stalin waved his pipe stem at the still silent Beria, a moment of rare humour surfacing.

“Marshall Beria seems to think so too.”

The eyes flicked up to look at Stalin and quickly went down again
,
but Zhukov saw enough to understand in their coldness that Nazarbayeva had an implacable enemy in the NKVD chief.

“Let us see what she brings to us this evening. Lavrentiy.”

The Generalissimo motioned his man to the phone and
felt
satisfaction that he was obviously still hurting.

The summons was issued and Beria slipped back into his
seat
as Stalin beckoned Zhukov to a chair by his side, the three sat together almost as judges in a court, a sight which caused Nazarbayeva a moment’s pause as she entered.

Stalin, strangely affable, motioned the GRU officer forward with his pipe.

“Comrade
PodPolkovnik.
I understand from
Comrade
Marshall Zhukov that you are already acquainted?”

“Yes Comrade General Secretary, that is correct.”

“Excellent. Formalities over. Please begin.”

“GRU sources in
London
inform us that the British will shortly be able to field a
new force of a
minimum of four full Infantry and one
tank
division
formed from men who were
,
until recently
,
prisoners of the Germans. They can also rejuvenate existing divisions by bringing units up to full strength.”

This was not news to anybody in the room and had been anticipated.

“Our information is that in basic infantry terms the British will profit from the fact that they made few technological advances during their war years, and so we should expect the new formations to be as effective as their existing ones are proving.”

Zhukov could understand that
,
and an almost imperceptible nod gave Nazarbayeva encouragement.

“Unless the British use older vehicles
,
the new tank division will probably not be ready for deployment for some time to come. We cannot assess that precisely.”

Neither had the NKVD report Beria had submitted some hours before.

Nazarbayeva moved immediately into a thorny area.

“
Comrade General Secretary, we have uncovered a problem.
RAF losses, indeed allied air losses in general
,
are not as reported.”

A moment’s pause as the information was absorbed.

“Go on
,
Comrade,” Stalin’s voice bereft of its usual cutting edge for once.

“A GRU officer gained valuable
paper
intelligence from an RAF base the army overran
,
and we have compared that to our own
air force’s
claims. Allied losses were actually just over half of what was being
submitted in our Regiment’s reports
.”

Zhukov replaced his tea cup and spoke bluntly.

“An isolated case, Comrade?”

The GRU officer shook her head as she spoke.

“Unfortunately not, Comrade Marshall.
Once this
came to light
,
I ordered a further examination of captured enemy air force records and compared them with our own stated claims.
From me
m
ory
,
the b
est case was
a claim of
ten
,
when the real number was eight shot down
. On one occasion, a regimental commander claimed ten enemy aircraft destroyed when the RAF record clearly states solely one loss due to air combat.”

Pausing for a moment, Nazarbayeva delivered a killer line.

“There were no instances when our claims were equal or less than recorded allied losses, Comrade General Secretary.”

Zhukov remained silent, absorbing what he had just been told. Beria remained silent as his report had made no mention of this possibility whatsoever.

Stalin spoke first.

“Propaganda
,
Comrade Colonel?”

Zhukov was impressed. Many officers would hedge their bets at this point but not this one, the reply bold, clear and unequivocal.

“No Comrad
e General Secretary. These are S
quadron and
,
in one case
,
Wing records. These would be a true reflection of
events. To do otherwise would be lunacy.”

Zhukov took the lead
,
although he suspected he knew the answer to his question.

“So, if that is true, what does GRU think is the present status of the Allied
air forces
?”

“Comrade Marshall, intelligence has seen a
marked
reduction in enemy air
activities
over the course of the campaign. I believe we have allowed ourselves to ally this reduction with the figures
our air regiments have
quoted for their losses, rather than think through the whole situation.”

A soft cough and Nazarbayeva ploughed onwards.

“Our attacks on the 6th caught them by surprise
,
and we caused great casualties, as well as
inflicting
damage to facilities. Clearly the effectiveness of the allied air forces dropped
.
However
,
I believe we have overstated the casualty effect and underestimated the disruption effect. They are sorting out their logistics and organisation
,
and I believe that this is why we are now seeing an increase in the tempo of their air operations, combined with new units arriving almost daily.”

Selecting a single page document
,
Nazarbayeva produced three copies, handing over her own to Zhukov and proceeding from memory.

“Comrade General Secretary, these figures were received an hour before I left Headquarters. On the left-hand column you will see estimates of enemy air stren
gth based upon claims from our R
egiments. On the right you will see the figures supplied by a GRU agent within the RAF.”

The figures were, if true, a disaster in the making.

“We have claimed that in air and ground combat over 50% of the enemy aircraft available on 6th August have been destroyed, and that reinforcements have been slow in arriving, boosting that overall figure to no more than 55%
remaining
.”

Zhukov was only barely listening as the figures were in his hand
and screaming at him
.

“The reality is that their air force is presently between 75-80% of 6th August figures. It is important to remember that this
figure
also includes large numbers of heavy bombers
,
so the equation between fighters, fighter-bombers and light to medium bombers is more favourable than it would otherwise have been.”

No-one there failed to understand that these figures were disastrous, if true.

“And your source
,
Comrade
PodPolkovnik?
How accurate are these figures? Could your agent be playing games for both sides here?”

Beria leant back again, observing that his questions had given the woman a moment’s pause.

“This agent provided us with accurate information throughout the German war. He is well placed
and trusted. More importantly
,
he is an ideological agent and does what he does because he believes in our common cause. If he were compromised
,
I am certain
he would use the appropriate code and inform us
.”