Opening Moves (The Red Gambit Series) (106 page)
Read Opening Moves (The Red Gambit Series) Online
Authors: Colin Gee
Sucking greedily on his cigarette, Ike looked at a passing orderly and gave her the universal hand signal for coffee.
The smile that came back made Ike’s morning nearly as much as the coffee when it arrived.
Perfect.
Bringing his mind back to the problems at hand he started at the top of the map as usual.
As he examined the British positions, he received a brief note from McCreery’s headquarters. Hamburg had been held by a thread but, by all accounts, the commies had pushed very hard. Reinforcements were being moved in but such levels of combat could not be sustained indefinitely and withdrawal was an increasing possibility to preserve his force.
Ike nodded to himself, understanding that if such a decision had to be made it was McCreery’s to make.
As he put down the British report, he decided on another cigarette and a general appreciation of the front before the rescheduled main briefing, or rather the second main briefing of the day.
Across the towns and villages of Germany, the Red flags flew, more now than earlier, showing the successful advances of the Soviet Army.
Eisenhower’s first decision had been a preservation of his force, something that had been reasonably successful to date. He winced as he reflected on Gottingen and the events that resulted from the issues there, and hoped above hope that his units could escape. Gottingen was a mistake, an error of judgement by both himself and Bradley, for which historians would criticise them well into the next millennium.
The relative failure of the spoiling attacks had wasted some valuable assets and that lesson was learned.
Ike leant forward and examined a one page listing on major ground units on their way to Europe.
Outwardly, he exuded confidence that the Allied line would hold until the new forces arrived, at which time they would start rolling back the enemy.
Politically, the US Government appeared totally committed and had swung its industry back fully into wartime production, or at least had stopped the process that was converting factories back to peacetime production.
Materiel wise, he did not expect shortages, nor were problems anticipated with the very necessary liquids of war, although Soviet sabotage had caused a blip for two days.
It was in manpower, and more specifically trained manpower where his problems would come.
A man can be trained to hold and fire a rifle quite quickly, but to understand military manoeuvre and tactics was a longer process. Specialist troops took even longer, and losses in those had been quite high in the last few days.
Without a doubt, there would be an issue with pilots for a while but the training programmes had not been reduced as many others had, something that Ike hoped would prove advantageous.
Lighting up another cigarette, a new line of thought developed
‘Specialists?’
If it was going to be a problem for the allies, would it be a problem for the Reds?
His brain sought an example. The Red Army was full of artillery troops, but it was known that literacy levels were low and that the units were run by officers who understood the mechanics of war. The soldiers were there just to discharge their orders and not perform technical duties over and above those learned by rote and performed like automatons, or at least that was the belief.
‘So, is that the same for others units?’
An interesting thought.
Ike stubbed out his cigarette, using his free hand to beckon a newly arrived Hood to his side.
“Good morning Sir. How may I be of service?”
“Good morning Thomas. I hope your trip was successful?”
Colonel Hood had spent a day away liaising with the French at their new headquarters in Nancy.
“Yes Sir it was. I will have the report ready for your evening brief.”
Unusually for Hood, he drew closer to his Commander and whispered conspiratorially.
“I will also prepare a separate report on a matter I became aware of. Someone was indiscrete within my earshot Sir, and I believe you may wish to know of it, but not officially.”
“Intriguing statement Thomas, I shall look forward to it. Thank you. Now, for this moment, I want you to scare me up some information on the Soviet specialist units, artillery, engineers, and the like.”
“For what specific purpose Sir?”
“I’m looking to get a feel of their deployment and use, which are performing as they should or as expected and which are not.”
The Colonel made a note on a small pad, his pencil working furiously. Ike sensed rather than saw that the man needed further focus.
“I see our forces having difficulties with specialists, from pilots through to drivers, Thomas. I want to know if the Red Army has similar issues ok? The more information I can get on them at the moment the better.”
“I understand fully General.”
The Colonel came to attention and went on his way, seemingly ignoring but actually just not hearing Eisenhower’s parting words.
“And I will look forward to your reports later Thomas.”
Ike took another cigarette and turned to the head of the small queue that had formed.
“Good morning Anne, and how are you this morning?”
Receiving the normal response, a report changed hands. There was a contrite apology and covering explanation as to how some parts of it had been missed for the last few days.
General Clark had sent a message regarding the extraordinary visit he had received from an escaping officer of the Waffen-SS, and the intelligence the man had passed him, enabling some sort of early warning to go out, saving many lives.
USAAF Intel had done some work on the information therein and generated some interesting possibilities. Using the escaping prisoners debriefs, cartographical interpretation and civilian reports, Intelligence had identified five other possible sites for the same sort of concealment, all of which were in central and southern occupied Germany.
RAF Air Recon and British Military Intelligence had picked up twitches at three of the locations but found nothing conclusive.
Photos taken by a Spitfire reconnaissance aircraft over the forest south-east of Gardelegen showed what looked like smoke from a fire in the woods, but as the annotation stated, it could as easily be a steam train, plus there was evidence of increased road traffic to the area to add to the pot.
The large wooded area between Suhl and Schmeidefeld had drawn attention because of the ferocious AA fire that greeted some passing Thunderbolts, who were driven off by the swift arrival of Soviet fighter aircraft. Both photo-recon aircraft sent out had not returned, in itself a possible pointer.
The final possibility was underlined and emphasised in Red.
‘Where the hell is Ceske Kubice?’ enquired Eisenhower of himself, and then aloud of the Captain.
“Czech border region, approximately fifty miles north-east of Regensburg Sir.”
Most significantly, this was intelligence from an on the spot source, albeit more negative than positive input.
‘Villagers cannot use this road; this area of woodland is now restricted and guarded by army and NKVD units. Curfew imposed commencing two hours before dusk.’
Ike read and reread the next line.
“Increase in train traffic, particularly at night time. Tuesday night 12. Wednesday night 17.”
He looked at the Captain encouraging her response.
“Contact has been lost with the informant. No messages since Thursday Sir.”
As Ike read on he felt his senses start to sharpen, hairs prickling on the back of his neck, wondering if the clandestine Manchurian units had actually been located.
“Anne, make me another copy and then pass it onto Marshall Tedder. Ask him to provide me with a strike plan to hit these targets tonight. Please tell him I consider this a matter of the highest priority.”
Impressed with the importance of her mission, the pretty young officer fairly skipped away to do her commander’s bidding.
Eisenhower moved to the next offering, reports on submarine attacks in the Atlantic. One particularly unwelcome paper recorded the sinking a full troopship returning to Europe with veteran soldiers and striking an entire tank-destroyer group from the Allied inventory.
As he read the painful pages, his attention was suddenly piqued by a highly polished pair of shoes that halted a respectful distance from his chair.
He finished the paragraph and slid his thumb into position to show him where he had to start reading from and looked up.
His eyes took in the immaculate vision of Rear-Admiral Sir Roger Marais Dalziel and knew that something good was about to happen.
Standing, he responded to the naval salute offered up by Dalziel and then extended his hand.
“Excellent timing Sir Roger, I need to speak to you about the Atlantic.” Moving his head slightly to address the waiting officers.
“Unless anything is particularly urgent, please give the Admiral and I fifteen minutes gentlemen.”
A chorus of mutters indicated nothing of epic importance and the space suddenly belonged solely to Ike and the British officer.
Extending his hand to the adjacent chair, Eisenhower resumed his seat and poured coffee for both of them.
“Actually I do want to speak about the Atlantic but by the look on your face you have something you want to tell me Sir Roger?”
“That I do Sir, and hopefully I will brighten your day.”
Reaching into his ancient briefcase the intelligent officer extracted a report laden with the external paraphernalia of utmost secrecy.
“Your eyes only for now Sir, if you please.”
Eisenhower nodded his understanding.
“Want to give me the précis Sir Roger?”
“I thought you’d never ask Sir,” he smiled the words as much as spoke them, “Rather proud actually. We found two more communist agents at Bletchley, bringing the total to four.”
“And this is good news Admiral?” Eisenhower was imagining the horrors these agents, well placed in his communications, could have wrought.
“I understand your angst General. There has been damage but it has already been done and we will learn the lessons of that. What is more interesting is the future and how we may profit from this debacle.”
“We will profit by not making the same mistake again I would imagine,” Ike spoke abruptly, not in irritation but aware that there was something else.
“Ok Admiral, hit me with it.”
“They all now work for us, Sir.”
That statement opened a very intriguing line of discussion.
Eisenhower had eaten heartily of his evening meal and felt as full as he had done for a long time.
He had gone back out into the main room to sit and look at the situation map as he enjoyed a large coffee.
Colonel Hood approached carefully, similarly stuffed with beef and onion stew, potato cakes, turnip and carrots, all covered with the finest thick gravy.
“Good evening Sir.”
“Colonel Hood. Dinner lies heavy on you too eh?”