Three Kings (Kirov Series) (25 page)

“Welcome to the party,
gentlemen,” said Wavell. “Our situation at sea is as precarious as our
prospects for reinforcing Greece while trying to hold off the Germans in the
Western Desert.”

“Precisely,” said Tovey. “You
have not yet started moving troops to Greece, though I see the shipping
gathered here in the harbor to do exactly that. I must tell you, General
Wavell, that given these movements on the part of the enemy at sea, I do not
believe the navy can dispose to cover your planned reinforcement operation for
Greece until we can achieve at least parity with the enemy. Admiral
Cunningham’s plan to catch them napping at Taranto was our bid to go one up on
the Italians. Now, however, with the French and Germans weighing in, the whole
balance of the war at sea in the Mediterranean is now on the fire. Naval
supremacy would be much preferred for your movement to Greece, but being
outnumbered eight to four in capital ships at the moment, we cannot give you
that luxury, nor any assurance that your divisions will ever reach Greece
safely.”

Tovey had played his hand, and
Wavell listened, realizing that naval operations were at the heart of the
matter, in spite of what Churchill wanted now, or what he had determined to do
himself. If he could not move his divisions safely, then they would simply have
to stay where they were.

“Well,” he said quietly. “These
developments will force me to wait. Mister Churchill won’t like it, but I shall
have to hold the ANZAC divisions here in Egypt for the time being. Yet given
that order of battle you have just handed me on the German strength in the Balkans,
it appears we will not have much time at all. As to the movement of the Italian
ships, I must leave that to the Royal Navy. I’ll have enough to deal with on
the ground in Libya.”

“We’ll deal with the Italians
easily enough,” said Cunningham, his confidence unbowed.

“We
must also consider the French and German squadrons,” Said Tovey.

“Yes,
but at the moment those ships are still well west of Sicily. If we make a hard
run at Malta now, the Italians will have to cover this German parachute
operation, and come looking for us.”

“That
they will,” Tovey shrugged. “They’ll have six battleships at sea now from this
latest report.
Duilio
and
Andria
Doria
have just left Taranto.”

“And
we’ll have four. Good enough.” Cunningham was ready for a fight, though he knew
the odds were against them now, an unusual situation for the powerful Royal
Navy.

Tovey
was more cautious. “Now we see the hardship imposed on us with the loss of
Gibraltar,” he said grimly. “Somerville would normally be in the Western
Mediterranean with three more battleships in Force H, and we always had two
good arms when we thought to spar with the Italians. Now we’re fighting with
one arm tied behind our backs., and two other fellows have jumped in the ring!
There is no way we can expect help from Force H. Even if Somerville could run
the Straits of Gibraltar and survive the thickets of U-boats and
Stukas
there, he would soon find himself facing the entire French Squadron at Toulon,
lately reinforced by the battleship
Normandie
from Casablanca. Throw
Bismarck
and
Hindenburg
into the mix and any sortie on his part would be
suicidal. So we’re in this fight alone here, gentlemen, and as I count it now,
we will be outnumbered eleven capital ships to four adding in both
Strasbourg
and
Dunkerque
, and two to one in cruisers and destroyers.”

There
was a long silence and Cunningham folded his arms, looking at the map. The
second knock on the cabin door seemed loud when the adjutant came again with
another message. Wavell took it and read quietly, expecting it was an update on
the situation on Malta, but seeing more bad news instead. He cleared his
throat, and the other men looked up from the map, waiting.

“Well,”
he began. “It seems we have lost our General O’Connor.”

Nikolin
had been quietly translating all this, whispering near Fedorov, who shrugged
when he heard this news. He knew that O’Connor had been captured during
Rommel’s advance, just as he was about to turn operations over to General
Neame
. He had hoped to prevent that at this meeting, but it
seemed fate had a way of keeping its hand on the back of a man’s neck, no
matter what world he served in. Yet this time the news was different.

“O’Connor’s
plane ran afoul of a German fighter and was damaged,” said Wavell. “They ran
south into the desert to evade and were forced to make an emergency landing
somewhere north of the oasis country near Giarabub and
Siwa
.
The Italians still have troops at Giarabub, and we have a few patrols operating
out of
Siwa
. We got one radio message, then lost
contact. The good news is that O’Connor is alive, but given his circumstances
surviving out there in the desert is no easy matter. The Italians might be also
out looking for the plane if they saw it go down. I would hate to lose a man
like O’Connor, but his chances may be very slim.”

Fedorov’s
eyes brightened at this, a quiet fire there, and he whispered in Admiral
Volsky’s ear, an urgent tone in his voice that even Wavell could pick up from
where he stood across the table. On the spur of the moment, he had come up with
another of his crazy ideas.

Chapter 21

“This
news seems to have your interest,” Wavell said in Russian,
catching Fedorov’s eye.

“Excuse
me, sir,” said Fedorov. “After such a brilliant campaign against the Italians
it would seem a cruel fate to lose General O’Connor at a time like this.”

“That
it would,” said Wavell. “I shall have to make arrangements to see that General
Neame
hangs on to what is left of the Western Desert Force.
This General Rommel has moved like quicksilver, and stolen back everything
O’Connor had in hand after his operation out west. Losing O’Connor will be salt
in the wound, but we may be deprived of his services for some good while.”

Now
Admiral Volsky cleared his throat, speaking up.

“Well, he
said quietly. “Then we must do something about this situation. Yes? I have some
very good men aboard my ship, and the means to get them anywhere in the desert
in a matter of hours.”

“A
matter of hours?” Wavell smiled politely. “The desert is quite extensive out
west, Admiral. It is well over 250 miles to Giarabub from Alexandria, and given
the terrain and lack of useful roads, that is a journey of many days.”

“I can
put men on the ground there today if you wish. We can go by aircraft.”

“By
air? I suppose you could fly into
Siwa
, but we have a
patrol there from our Long Range Desert Group. Perhaps they could handle the
matter and spare you the trouble. The Italians have a few fighters at Giarabub
that could cause problems for any air search we attempt. That said, it could
take days or weeks for desert patrols to locate O’Connor’s plane.”

Volsky
smiled. “We can find it by nightfall. We have some special equipment we can use
to conduct a search for this aircraft. It will stand out as a heat source in
the desert, will it not? We have equipment that can find it, even at night. As
for the Italian fighter planes, they will pose no threat. Our aircraft can make
use of the rockets we demonstrated earlier, and defend itself quite easily.”

Wavell
raised an eyebrow at this, somewhat surprised. “Well… if you’d care to have a
go at it, I can send word to my people at
Siwa
to
expect company. I don’t wish to sound discouraging, but it may be more
difficult to locate this plane than you believe, Admiral.”

“We
have a way of overcoming such difficulties, General Wavell. I will give the
order for the search and rescue operation to proceed at once. Mister Fedorov?
You seem very eager to see General O’Connor safely returned to the fold here.
This sounds like a good job for our Sergeant Troyak and the KA-40. Please
handle the matter for me.”

“Thank
you, sir. I would be honored.”

“And as
to your other problem,” Volsky now turned to Admiral Tovey where he was still
consulting the map with Cunningham. “It would seem that my ship is available to
help you even those odds.”

Tovey
looked over his shoulder, then turned to face the Russians with a grateful nod.
“I thank you for the offer,” he said. “Yet we still have that delicate
political issue to consider—a Russian ship pulled into the conflict when your
own country has not yet openly declared war on Germany, let alone Italy. If you
were to become an active combatant here that could cause… difficulties.”

“True,”
said Volsky, “but I have given this some thought since our last discussion when
you informed me of your Admiralty’s decision to relieve our watch on the
Denmark Strait. It seems the whole question comes down to the flag flying from
our main mast out there, and it occurred to me that is something that can be
easily changed.”

Wavell
needed no translation to realize what Volsky was suggesting now. His instincts
were as good as his Russian, and he immediately knew that Volsky was offering
to re-flag his ship under British colors.

“Your
government would permit this?” he said directly to Volsky.

“This
may come as a surprise to you and others here,” said Volsky, “but while I am
empowered to represent the interests of Sergei Kirov’s Soviet Russia, I also
remain an independent
force de jure,
as the French might put things. I
can act on my own accord, and exercise my own judgment here. It was my
intention to attend this meeting as an observer and advisor, yet the situation
you describe seems quite dire. How can I claim to stand with you as an ally,
and yet stand aside when it comes to battle, particularly in a situation like
this?”

“Your
government makes the claim of alliance with Great Britain,” said Wavell
directly in Russian. “Are you saying they have empowered you to assume the role
of an active combatant?”

Volsky
knew this question would arise, and he had informed Sergei Kirov that it might
be necessary to take a more active stance in the war. Kirov had simply replied:
“Do what you must. We stand ready, and if the Germans want to do anything about
it, let them try.” Volsky knew that he could not tell Wavell he was operating
independently of the Soviet government without raising suspicions and questions
he would rather not answer here, so he and Sergei Kirov had determined what he
might do—re-flag the ship.

“The
Americans have lately sold you a number of destroyers for use in the Atlantic,
have they not?” Volsky smiled. “Consider this an offer to lend the Royal Navy
the support of my ship—all authorized by my government. Think of it as a kind
of lend lease. The only condition I impose will be that my vessel remains under
my direct command, crewed by my men as it stands. Otherwise, I am willing to
re-flag and fight in cooperation with your Royal Navy, and I think I can even
the odds considerably in this grave hour.”

“A very
generous offer,” said Cunningham. “Yet that makes it eleven to five in capital
ships. You realize what you now propose, Admiral Volsky? If we choose to fight
here, we do so with the intention of placing our entire force at considerable
risk. I assume the Admiralty has no qualms about that?” Now he looked to Tovey,
lately dispatched by their Lordships at Whitehall.

“If
they had any hesitation, our Mister Churchill has beaten that out of them by
now.” At this they all smiled, for they knew, without any doubt, that Churchill
would be the first to demand the Royal Navy now beat to quarters and come to
the defense of Malta.

“Yes,”
said Cunningham. “Churchill will raise the flag high and sound the trumpets in
the House of Commons, but it will be our ships and guns on the line, and our crews
at battle stations here. I remain assured that every man will do his utmost,
but I am a realist as well. Even with your ship thrown in, odds are that we may
face certain defeat, no matter what we do.”

“Which
leads us to the question of whether we should spend the coin we have in hand
now on Malta, or save it for a darker hour that may yet come.” Wavell raised
the one question that had not yet been considered. “You have just informed me
that we haven’t the strength to guarantee the safety of our planned
reinforcement of Greece. Remember also that my force here relies on a supply
line stretching over 12,000 miles by sea. And we also have troops on Crete and
Cyprus that will need to be supported. If we lose what naval power we now have,
those islands will be in jeopardy as well.”

“True,”
said Tovey. “If the Germans are now planning to move on the Middle East, then
we must preserve a strong naval presence in the Eastern Mediterranean. We must
have the means of preventing the Germans from projecting power against Egypt
and Palestine, and the islands you mention, General Wavell. The navy is the one
tool for that job. If we use it now in defense of Malta we must be resolute,
but ever mindful of the consequences should we lose our battle. I remind you
that things have not gone as well for the Royal Navy as we might have expected.
Our initial encounter with the Germans in the North set us back for some
months. We only now have the services of the Battlecruiser Squadron and Admiral
Holland on that watch, and thank God for
King George V
and
Prince of
Wales,
now that we have those ships at sea. Yet we remain spread very thin.
Somerville needs all of Force H just to keep an eye on the two French
battleships still at Casablanca. We will need everything we have here to save
Egypt and Palestine. So I put it to you all—should we fight now? The
consequences of a defeat here will have dramatic repercussions.”