Beyond the Shield

by Nachman Kataczinsky

  His orders were to start with the farthest targets and not to worry about the enemy infantry. He found a panzer two miles away, designated it to the gunner and issued the order to fire. While he was deciding on the next target his tank fired and the Panzer IV was hit by a sub-caliber 120mm tungsten penetrator. The result was spectacular: the tank exploded with the turret lifting off and landing ten feet away. The next one did the same, killing and injuring scores of their accompanying infantry. Wolf knew he could kill a much heavier tank than the Panzer IV at 3 miles but targets farther than 2 miles disappeared behind a curve of the valley.

  He kept shooting at panzers coming out from behind the bend until they stopped emerging. At closer ranges there were not many panzers moving. The valley floor was littered with burning tanks, dead soldiers, and burning German half-tracks. Wolf carefully examined the slopes leading down to the valley floor. With moderate magnification he could see infantry in Waffen SS uniforms digging in on his right where the lightly forested slope wasn’t too steep.

  Wolf decided they were not worth wasting an explosive shell on and settled in to wait for new developments. He didn’t have to wait very long. German infantry was cautiously infiltrating the valley. They were weaving in between the burning tanks and skillfully using the terrain for concealment. In the meantime the sun was completely down behind the mountains and the valley was getting dark.

  ***

  Esther Frumin’s story was interesting but unusual only in one aspect. When Germany attacked the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, Esther and ten other girls from her high school class were on a field trip with their history teacher who, unbeknownst to them, was a NKVD officer. As it turned out, the teacher was a decent man – this was the unusual aspect of the story. He told his charges that by the time they’d make it back to town the Germans would likely already be there. He also told them that the Nazis treated Jews badly and they were not likely to survive if they went back. The teacher offered to put the girls on a train going east into Russia, as far away from the Germans as possible. Of the eleven girls only two decided to return to the village; the others took the offer and ended up in the Soviet Union. Esther and a friend got as far as Samarkand in Uzbekistan. In the old history she was the only member of her family to survive the Holocaust. In the altered history, she spent a year far away from her family, fending for herself in a country under siege, with little food and no knowledge of what was happening to her parents and brother.

  After a month sharing an apartment in Beer Sheva with Sheina Hirshson, Esther went to a Ben Gurion University Career Councilor. She wanted to know what options would be open to her after she became fluent in Hebrew.

  They were sitting in the councilor’s tiny office in the administration building.

  “Your options depend on how hard you want to work and what your interest are,” the councilor said.

  Esther didn’t need to think about what she wanted. “I want to study medicine. I finished one year of medical study in Samarkand and I really liked it.”

  The councilor looked skeptical. “Medical schools of this era are not considered adequate. So having finished a year at one of those is no asset.”

  “What do I need to do to be accepted into a medical school in Israel?”

  “You would have to take an exam. It’s not easy. They test your knowledge of physics, chemistry, math and life sciences. Only the top scorers are accepted.

  “Our medical schools grant a degree after six years. If you have a bachelor’s degree in biology or other life science you may be accepted into a medical school and your degree might be counted as an equivalent of up to two years of med school.

  “Your best bet is enrolling in biology or biochemistry classes and trying to switch in a year or two. Since our population grew so much so fast all the universities are expanding their medical schools and building new ones, so in a couple of years the competition may be not as fierce.”

  ***

  SS Colonel Otto Skorzeny and two assistants came to Paris on a morning train from Berlin. They had a complicated assignment: to assassinate Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, the commander of Army Group D, currently occupying France and the Low Countries, in a way that would not look like a French Resistance attack and make clear what awaits anyone opposing Hitler.

  Skorzeny got all the help he needed from the local Gestapo. He changed his uniform to that of a Wehrmacht colonel and went to explore the scene. He determined very quickly that the military headquarters at Hotel George V, where Rundstedt spent most of his time, would be difficult to access. An assassination there would be difficult due to the presence of so many armed guards and officers on duty.

  Skorzeny decided that Rundstedt’s living suite was a much easier target. It was in a different wing of the hotel, well-protected against resistance or commando action but vulnerable to an inside job. In addition, to Skorzeny’s delight, several senior SS officers had their lodgings two floors below the Field Marshal’s rooms. Skorzeny decided on the most direct approach. He had the local Gestapo chief secure rooms at the hotel for himself and his two assistants. He used a false name and wore some makeup to conceal the easily recognizable scar on his face.

  The actual operation proved to be very simple. The three SS officers went up to the fifth floor at two in the morning. The two guards outside Von Rundstedt’s suite were stabbed by Skorzeny’s assistants. The slight commotion caused one of the guards inside to open the door. He was beckoned by Skorzeny and stabbed as soon as he was outside the room.

  The three assassins entered the suite and shot the last guard, using a silenced pistol. They knew that an orderly and a secretary were in the suit, but didn’t try to find them. The door to the main bedroom was unlocked. Skorzeny entered and shot the sleeping von Rundstedt in the head. The three left the suite and the hotel. A Gestapo car waited for them around the corner.

  ***

  Admiral Canaris was somewhat surprised to hear that von Rundstedt has been assassinated. The Field Marshal had not been on the first list of suspects. He was killed in a manner that left no doubt that it was a sanctioned assassination to intimidate other potential conspirators. The admiral notified his co-conspirators of the new danger and advised everyone to take special precautions.

  Canaris’ warning saved von Manstein’s life and cost the life of Otto Skorzeny.

  When the assassin entered von Manstein’s unguarded bedroom in a building next to the Army Group South headquarters in Donetsk and shot at the figure in the wide bed he was seized by several guards waiting in an ambush inside the room. In the ensuing scuffle Skorzeny managed to stab two of them and was shot in the shoulder by the third. He was given medical attention and then interrogated none too gently. Skorzeny was loyal to the Fuehrer but he learned that the Gestapo was not the only entity in the Reich that knew something about torture. His injured shoulder was used to the torturer’s best advantage. He was not allowed to pass out and when the shoulder was numb Skorzeny was brought into a cell equipped by the Soviet NKVD. It included hooks on the walls with piano wire and other implements. He was promised either a quick death if he confessed or days of torture, including loss of limbs.

  After one of his eyes was squeezed out of its socket Skorzeny wrote down the orders he received from Himmler and the fact that Himmler told him the orders came from the Fuehrer. After signing the document he was dispatched, as promised, by a shot to the back of his head.

  ***

  As darkness descended on the valley the sounds of battle died down. The German troops tried shooting flares in an attempt to illuminate the scene. They stopped after artillery responded to the source of every flare.

  The Israeli sharpshooter sections moved forward. They were not snipers trained to conceal themselves and wait long periods for a target. These troops were equipped with .50cal sniper rifles with day/night scopes. Their objective was twofold: to dispose of as many enemy officers and noncoms as possible and to make the rest afraid to move. They discovered a lot of movement am
ong the Germans. Crews with horses were trying to move burned out tanks to clear a passage for tomorrow’s attack, infantry units were moving up on the slopes of the valley, and new units were arriving from the direction of the Brenner Pass. The sharpshooters didn’t interfere with the operation to open the road.

  With night vision and their heavy rifles the Israelis could hit targets at a mile and a half. They started by killing the team leaders of the groups climbing the ridges. Most of the climbers were stopped but some decided to crawl and there was enough ground cover to allow them to do so.

  Wolf was extremely tired, especially after the hard work of replenishing the tank’s ammo, but he couldn’t sleep and so took the first watch. The tank’s auxiliary engine was murmuring quietly in the background, keeping the tank warm and the batteries charged. Wolf set the motion detectors to warn him of any movement and concentrated his attention on his main display, which showed a combined infrared and enhanced light picture of the area in front of his tank.

  After close to an hour of nothing happening and almost falling asleep, a bright spot moving on the display caught his attention. It disappeared almost as soon as it appeared. Wolf increased the magnification and concentrated on the area where he had seen the light. There was movement at the top of the ridge defining the southern edge of the valley. His ranging laser told him that this was almost three miles away. The movement stopped but by now Wolf had the coordinates and doubled the magnification. There was a blind built into the slope with the opening facing Wolf. He decided to alert his platoon commander.

  “Blue, this is Blue Three.”

  A voice responded, “Blue Three this is Blue. What’s the problem?”

  “I see what looks like a concealed observation post with two people inside.” Wolf transmitted the coordinates directly to his commander’s computer.

  “Blue Three information received. I’ll deal with it. Out.”

  Ten minutes later the company commander’s tank fired a high explosive shell into the observation post. The hit was spectacular in the dark.

  A couple of seconds later Wolf’s radio came on. “Blue Three this is Blue. The commander removed the threat and asked me to express his thanks. Blue out.”

  The rest of the night was uneventful for the tank crew, except for one strange incident. A short time after the observation post was taken out, a salvo of six rockets was shot by the Germans. The launcher was behind the bend of the valley and invisible to Wolf, although it was clearly visible on the drone’s images. The rockets fell to the side of the Israeli position but without an observer to correct the aim no more were fired. A couple of minutes later artillery opened up on the German position and a big explosion lit up the sky – a Nebelwerfer ammunition truck was hit.

  Wolf went to sleep as soon as his watch was over. He lay down in the empty infantry compartment and, after what seemed only minutes, was shaken awake by the driver who had the last watch.

  The light outside was gray and uncertain, full of shadows offering concealment, except when viewed through the tanks sensors. These showed clearly that the Germans were on the move.

  Israeli artillery opened up again at targets too far away for Wolf to see. The floor of the valley in front of him was almost clear of debris: the Germans did an excellent job of moving the dead tanks and half-tracks off the main road. They arranged the burned out hulls to make a barricade for infantry to hide behind.

  A fresh batch of panzers rolled into the last two miles of the valley. As far as Wolf could tell from the overhead drone’s images there were about sixty of the tanks, with only a fraction within his sight and no more panzers behind this batch.

  The company commander came on the radio. “Prepare to repeat yesterday’s protocol.”

  They waited. The Germans didn’t move. They were also waiting for something. Ten minutes later Wolf’s tactical display blinked a red alert symbol and a message: “Incoming hostile aircraft at 80 miles and closing.” They waited for almost half an hour. The display showed a group of planes over the Brenner Pass, then almost on top of Wolf’s tank. Almost but not quite. The anti-aircraft defense went into action.

  Wolf wondered what happened: Why would they let the German planes get so close? In fact it was a calculated move by the regimental command – to reveal a minimum of their true capabilities and strike a maximum blow to the enemy’s morale.

  The Luftwaffe group was clearly visible. It consisted mostly of Junkers Ju-87 “Stuka” dive bombers and a few Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters. Just as the bombers were about to go into a dive to attack the Israeli positions they started exploding. The simplest and least expensive radar directed missiles in the Israeli arsenal dispatched all 36 bombers. The fighters tried to run for it but none of them escaped.

  The German armor was immobile for close to forty minutes while their command tried to decide on a new tactical solution. Finally some of the tanks turned around and started moving back. Soldiers began digging positions for the remaining tanks.

  After a short consultation at the regiment command post the order came to move forward and finish the Nazis off.

  Wolf’s orders were simple: move forward and destroy tanks or anything else that was armored and not dead yet. The Israelis moved several tanks abreast covering the floor of the valley. Namer armored Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFVs) were intermixed with the tanks. About half the force stayed in position to serve as a reserve and take care of any surprises.

  Wolf was surprised within the first ten minutes. The Germans had concealed an intact Panzer IV behind several burned out hulls. Now the panzer opened up at the closest Merkava tank from a distance of barely four hundred feet. The 75mm armor piercing round hit the Merkava in the front left side of the turret. A modern 120mm round would have done some damage; the 75mm round bounced off, leaving an inch deep gash on the surface. The noise inside the Merkava was very loud and the crew, none of whom had experienced a hit before, was startled.

  Wolf reacted quickly despite the surprise and started slewing the turret for a shot but didn’t fire – the panzer’s crew was abandoning the tank. They realized that their puny gun only attracted the monsters’ attention and knew what was bound to happen next. They were somewhat mistaken. The Namer IFV rolling behind Wolf’s tank opened up at the panzer with its 25mm high velocity gun. In a couple of seconds the panzer was burning merrily.

  Later, when thinking about the battle and discussing it with friends, Wolf was always amazed at the Germans’ fighting spirit. Their infantry did its best to stop the assault. They threw grenades, tried to throw anti-tank mines under the tracks and even tried to swarm the tanks and the IFVs. None of this had any chance of success since the Trophy defense systems of the tanks and the Iron Fist installed on the Namer killed the attackers and destroyed anything they could throw at the vehicles, while the tanks’ and IFVs’ machine guns contributed their deadly fire.

  This fighting spirit lasted only as long as the troops thought they might have a chance to survive and inflict damage. Some of the ferocity was brought out by the large Israeli flags that all the vehicles carried. The sight of the Star of David seemed to make the SS crazy.

  After Wolf’s tank advanced about three miles the picture changed abruptly. The German infantry stopped attacking and ran; the surviving panzers also tried to escape. This was difficult in a narrow valley with steep inclines on both sides. Some of the infantry did get away but not many. The regimental commander estimated that close to thirty thousand Germans died in the eight mile stretch between the Brenner Pass and the town of Vipiteno. No panzers or any other mechanized equipment survived.

  The command post of the SS group positioned close to the Brenner Pass retreated as soon as they figured out that defeat was imminent. They didn’t survive: Cobra helicopter gunships went after them. The combination of rockets and fast-firing Gatling Mini-Guns brought on their speedy demise.

  Two SS Panzer divisions ceased to exist. The survivors were on the run, mostly into Austria and Germany carrying the
news of a terrible Jewish army moving on Germany.

  After the battle Israeli combat engineers removed the explosives they had installed to close the valley as well as the mine fields. None of this turned out to be necessary but, like Jacob’s platoon commander said, “You never know what a crazy Nazi is capable of.”

  Two days later, at a company level debriefing discussion, Wolf questioned the company commander. “We have seen the Germans fight and later run but I have seen none trying to surrender. Why?”

  “The infantry did see the SS surrender, when our soldiers were out of their armored vehicles. Maybe the Nazis were too intimidated by the armor, though that’s unlikely. I think that they were afraid of the Star of David flags on our vehicles and figured that we would kill them all anyway. We captured about three thousand prisoners of war. Not a large number compared to the number of dead.”

  “What will we do with them?” Wolf asked.

  “That’s not my decision and command doesn’t ask my opinion, which is lucky for the SS. I heard that they’ll be transferred to the Italians who, by the way, don’t like them much either.”

  Chapter 9

  October 1942

  The head of the Mossad gestured for his guest to sit. “I have an assignment for you. It’s going to be somewhat dangerous but one you might enjoy.”

  The man sitting in front of the Mossad chief was in his early forties, close to six feet tall and built like a bear.

  “You know I enjoy peace and quiet.”

  “It’s going to be peaceful and quiet indeed. I want to you to join our legation in Moscow. Your new name is Avram Zaretzky and you are a member of the Palestine Communist Party. Zaretzky was born in 1900 so you are aged appropriately.

  “You met Leopold Trepper, one of the founders of the party, before he was expelled by the British in 1929. He may or may not remember your name but you need to remember him. Right now he is the head of the Soviet Red Orchestra spy ring in Germany, though he spends most of his time in Paris. Read his file from when he was in Palestine, it may be important.