Winter Storm

by John Schettler

  “Then build more, Mister General Secretary. You have factories in Orenburg?”

  “Of course, but up until now, I have not thought it necessary to expand my airship fleet. That will change, but this brings to mind the reason why I raise this topic. Siberia… It has all that endless space for the Soviets to fall back upon, and endless resources. It is providing a safe haven for Sergei Kirov’s factory relocation program, and this man Karpov has recently struck a very dangerous bargain with the Soviets. He has agreed to send the bulk of his land forces in the west to aid the Soviet cause, and is actively recruiting volunteers to serve in new divisions. Some of these troops are already at war with you, fighting your Panzergruppe 2 near Tula. More are on their way. Make no mistake, the Soviets will fight tooth and nail for Moscow, and the Siberians are sending them another large Shock Army to make certain your generals will never sit in the stateroom of the Kremlin as you boasted earlier. They are already assembling at Perm and other eastern cities.”

  “Well a lot of good you have done me, Volkov.” Hitler wagged a finger at his guest now, as if dressing the man down. “Your ridiculous squabbles with the Siberians have pushed them into the enemy camp. Why did you break the Omsk accord? You promised me you would deliver Siberia, and look what you have done. Now you fly about in these absurd Zeppelins, launching fruitless raids on the Siberians, and for what reason? You merely antagonize them further!”

  “That was regrettable, but it became a personal matter…”

  “A personal matter? What? Between you and Kolchak?”

  “Kolchak is dead. He was never going to be a factor in the outcome of this war in any case, but this other man, this Vladimir Karpov, he is dangerous. I tried to reach an accord with him at Omsk, but he threatened me—my very existence. It became necessary for me to act, because he is working on a project, a very secret project, of which you know nothing whatsoever. And one other thing. He took something else in trade from Sergei Kirov besides those five Zeppelins. The Soviets have also delivered that ship we spoke of earlier—directly to his personal control.”

  “The battlecruiser? The ship with these new naval rockets?”

  “Correct. You saw what they did to the Italian Navy, and your own ships as well. Now he is sailing east to confront the Japanese.”

  “Preposterous, just as I said earlier. You were ranting on and on about the futility of building battleships. Well, the Japanese have a good number of these aircraft carriers. They will make short work of this Soviet battlecruiser, and hopefully put an end to these rocket prototypes it carries. For they can be nothing more than that, Volkov, just prototypes. If the Soviets developed this technology as you assert, and if they had these weapons in numbers, they would have already given them to the British. But there has not been a single instance of their use for months.”

  “Oh? My intelligence indicates rockets defended the British in North Africa against your Stukas.”

  “What? I was never told that!”

  “There are many things you were never told, but listen now and I will tell you a few more. The Soviets have weapons programs just like the secret project we are working on, and they may be getting very close to a working prototype. We believe this ship may be used for trials of that weapon, just as it was used to test their new naval rocket designs, and their new radar sets. In fact, they may even be closer to deployment than anyone believes. Do you begin to see more in the movement of this ship to the Pacific?”

  Volkov knew he had the Führer’s attention now, and it was time for the big lie. He knew he could never just come out and reveal the whole truth about that ship, or even his own origins and identity. But the Germans had already felt the bite of these advanced modern weapons, so he was playing on a very real fear in Hitler’s mind. His line was baited, and now it was time to try and catch his fish.

  “You believe the Soviets have a working prototype of this weapon?”

  “Possibly.”

  “On that battlecruiser? Why would they deploy it in that manner? Wouldn’t it be far more useful to put it on a bomber and visit Berlin?”

  “That, too, remains a real possibility, but at the moment, your Luftwaffe is still very strong, and the airspace over Berlin is well defended—against traditional aircraft.” There was the bait, twitching and curling on the line. “It was interesting how Karpov was able to bomb your city with utter impunity. He simply flew higher in his obsolete airship than any plane in your inventory. Suppose he drops something else the next time he tries that little trick? In fact, this raid on Berlin may have been designed to simply test that possibility.”

  “I see…” Hitler was listening very closely now. “But this ship… You say you believe it may have a prototype weapon?”

  “That is a real possibility. They deploy it there, and why not? All of their other advanced rocket technology is on that ship, which is why it can defend itself so well. It can see and shoot down planes before they even get within range. In fact, given that advantage, and with the weapons we fear they may already have, that ship could single handedly destroy an entire navy. And now this Vladimir Karpov has it under his thumb, and he is sailing east to the Pacific, most likely to see about the matter of all that Siberian territory the Japanese are sitting on. He will have a ship that can sink the Japanese aircraft carriers as easily as your own Graf Zeppelin was dealt with, and he will have these terrible, accurate rockets that can deliver a warhead to land based targets as well. Any major city in Japan could be hit by a missile, and if my fears are borne out, that city would be utterly destroyed, with one blow, if they do have a working prototype.”

  Volkov already knew it was not a question of if here. Kirov certainly carried nuclear weapons, this he knew for a fact, given that he was a naval intelligence officer. Yet he had to speak of the threat in this manner with Hitler now, as he could not simply come out and tell him the full story.

  Hitler’s silence was testimony to the fact that Volkov’s own missile had struck home. The Führer was finally beginning to see the real threat implied by these advanced wonder weapons, a subject that would be dear to his heart for many years to come, should he survive to live them.

  “We are racing to catch up,” Volkov pressed. “Yet now everything is on the razor’s edge. If they do have a prototype, that ship is where it will be harbored. And if they do ever get a mind to overfly Berlin again with one of these obsolete Zeppelins…” He gestured to his own ship now, hovering silently in the skies above the Wolf’s Lair, clearly visible out the wide windows of the conference room.”

  “I begin to understand why you have come here today,” said Hitler. “You believe they mean to test this prototype against the Japanese.”

  “Precisely. They will use it as a threat, possibly to force the Japanese to concede their lost territories.”

  “Tojo will never comply with such a threat.”

  “Perhaps not… until he sees what these new weapons can do.”

  “And if this is all true,” said Hitler, “and this test is successful?”

  “Karpov could knock the Japanese out of the war before they even get started. Yes, Herr Hitler, the backward Siberians are now a major strategic threat. I hope I’ve impressed at least that much upon you in this discussion. However, I know how this can be avoided, and the threat completely neutralized. I know where the new weapons development facilities were relocated, in Siberia, as I have told you earlier. Yes, I know exactly where they are, and I have a plan…”

  “Tell me,” said Hitler, a captive audience now.

  Volkov smiled. “That is exactly the reason I came here, because to realize this plan, Herr Hitler, I will need your help, and the able assistance of the German military.”

  Chapter 24

  “Where is this facility?” Asked Hitler, his eyes widening, now those awful dark empty portals that would devour the entire world with their hunger.

  “In Siberia. Near Kansk, to be specific.”

  “Kansk? Isn’t that the location of tha
t little raid you mounted recently?”

  “Now you begin to see why I have already tried to attack this place. The first was a mere reconnaissance, the second a raid in force, but I was surprised by the sudden appearance of this Vladimir Karpov, a man I thought had perished in that Zeppelin crash over the English Channel. Well, as it turns out, that was merely a cover story.”

  “Obviously,” said Hitler. “Though I gave the matter no concern, nor the man himself, until this moment. Go on…”

  “Karpov flew to meet with Kirov in Moscow,” said Volkov, “Following that, he had the temerity to overfly Berlin and test his prospects for a successful attack on your city. Yes? He then flies to London, his presence there covered up by that story about the storm over the English Channel. That even fooled my people, and they are very good! Well he was probably there to consult and coordinate plans with the British. And then what happens? The next thing we know, Karpov is rubbing cheeks with Sergei Kirov again, inviting him to relocate all his munitions and arms plants in Siberia, offering him raw materials and well trained rifle divisions, men who are opposing your drive on Moscow at this very moment. In return, what does he get? Five Zeppelins, and the most advance ship in the world comes into his greedy hands, along with all the weapons that ship now carries! Sergei Kirov paid a much higher price for Siberian support than you realize.”

  “Indeed,” said Hitler, finally seeing how all the pieces of the puzzle came together.

  “So now Karpov commands the ship that has bedeviled your navy,” said Volkov, “challenging and besting the fruit of your entire Plan Z naval building program. My intelligence service was always suspicious of the sudden uptick in activity around Kansk. It was a backwaters region, far from the front lines, but now we see why. It was located there for reasons of security. Few planes can reach it, certainly none that I possess have the range. Only my obsolete airships can pose a threat to it, and this solves the riddle of why I would bother mounting that raid that went so badly. It was ill planned, but next time, I will get things right, because I never make the same mistake twice, rest assured.”

  “So you intended to attack and destroy that facility?”

  “Of course, but both operations were foiled. The first reconnaissance mission involved only two airships, but it was stopped by the unexpected presence of a Soviet airship on the scene, and ground troops which used a new weapon to take down the Oskemen, that was one of the ships I sent on that mission.”

  “A rocket weapon?”

  “Something very much like one. My intelligence services have obtained the plans, and I will make a little gift to you soon. Well then, Soviet involvement in that incident did not escape my notice. I subsequently learned that the naval arsenal for these new rocket weapons was located in that very same area, and so my recent raid was, in part, meant to destroy that facility, or better yet, to gain control of it long enough to get away with a prototype.”

  “I see…” Hitler nodded, following all of this with great interest now. In spinning out this web of deceit, Volkov was drawing on half truths, for in his day, Kansk was indeed the site of a Russian naval weapons armory, and many modern missiles and other warheads were stored there, though they were all some 80 years beyond his grasp, or so he believed… Until he learned the full truth about Ilanskiy. That was something he could never tell Hitler about, but the picture he was painting for him now would hopefully be very compelling, and gain the support he was needing to carry out a plan he had hatched in his devious mind long ago.

  “To make a long story short, that is where the weapons development plants were relocated, priceless technology, prototype rockets, all just sitting there for the taking. My attempt to do so was foiled by Karpov. Yes, I will give him one thing, he is a very skilled Fleet Admiral, and I lost some very good men in that ill fated raid.”

  “You said you have a plan,” said Hitler, eager to learn more.

  “Karpov thinks he’s beaten me now. He plopped a few divisions down at Kansk and the nearby hamlet of Ilanskiy, where he has established his new fleet headquarters. Why choose such an isolated place, I wondered? Now we both know. Well, it is said that while the cat is away, the mice will play. I plan on revisiting Kansk and Ilanskiy, only this time I will take my entire airship fleet. My last raid involved only a small portion of that fleet, only eight ships in the beginning, and my reinforcements arrived too late. This time I will take everything I have, all sixteen airships in one massive mailed fist. Each ship can lift a full company, and my men are drilling for the mission even now, eager to avenge their fallen comrades, who were dealt with very badly after that last mission.”

  “Sixteen companies?” Hitler shook his head.

  “More like twenty, as I will rig out my biggest ships to carry as many men as possible.”

  “That is still hardly enough to oppose those rifle divisions on the ground there. You may be a fine leader and statesman, Mister Volkov, but you are not a military man. Any of my Generals would advise you that you would again be simply wasting these resources and throwing those men away in such an operation.”

  “Which is why I come here to you,” said Volkov deftly. “ I need your expertise, your support for planning and logistics, and above all, your finely trained troops.”

  “My troops? I’m afraid that is a little far for my panzer divisions to go.”

  “But not for your Falschirmjaegers…” There it was, the request, the close, and the next man who said a word would lose, as Volkov knew very well. So he waited, saying nothing, simply looking Hitler in those empty black eyes.

  “You want my airborne troops?” said Hitler.

  “What else? You are correct about the panzers.”

  “And you want them for another attack on these facilities—against three Siberian rifle divisions? Madness!”

  “Against one Siberian Rifle Division, the 78th. The others were both moved to the Ob river line as a defensive garrison, as most of the troops that were posted there have been shipped east to fight Guderian. Such an insult… The Soviets conspire with the Siberians, they attack your ships at sea with their new wonder weapons, and all before there was even a declaration of war. They conspire with the British, and may have even assisted with the development of this new heavy tank they have deployed in North Africa. Then Karpov actually bombs Berlin, before marching off his best trained divisions to kill Germans in front of Moscow. Such an insult, and you do nothing…”

  The darkness in Hitler’s eyes began to smolder now, a fire kindling there that seemed a ravenous hunger, driven by his growing anger. Volkov knew just how to stoke that flame, and the lure he had used, the mystery of these new wonder weapons dangling at the end of his hook, was all he really needed.

  “You do nothing! Well I propose that we end that miserable situation, and show this Vladimir Karpov exactly who he is dealing with now. Here is my plan. I can lift sixteen to twenty companies.”

  “That is no more than a few regiments,” said Hitler.

  “Yes, but my airships are quite fast. They can deliver those troops, and then race back to our airfields to take on additional forces. And your Luftwaffe can lift a good deal more.”

  “What? We have no more Zeppelins. Planes we have in abundance, but, if I am not mistaken, that location is well beyond their range, even if we were to use captured airfields in Russia.”

  “But not if your planes flew from my territory,” said Volkov. “I have airfields at Oskemen, and several new fields we built near Novosibirsk to support our Ob River campaign.”

  “Which got you nowhere,” said Hitler, unconvinced.

  “True, because I needed those troops elsewhere, but I still have several divisions in that sector. I stood down that attack merely to put my enemy off his guard. By opening my Volga offensive, I convinced Karpov that my main effort would now be in the west, against the Soviets. This was, in part, a good reason why he could afford to send all those divisions to Sergei Kirov. He now has only four divisions in Western Siberia, one at Kansk, a
nd the other three have moved to the Ob River line defenses.”

  “What about all his troops in the far east?”

  “Yes, he has another twelve divisions there, mostly around Irkutsk and Lake Baikal. He needs to maintain that force level against the Japanese Kwantung Army, which has fourteen divisions at my last count. You see, the Siberians, with Karpov sailing east, are just about to initiate open hostilities with the Japanese, and Tojo will not like that one bit. They will surely act against the Soviet defenses at Irkutsk, and so all those troops in the far east will be well occupied.”

  “That is a reasonable assumption,” said Hitler, warming to the strategic questions around this strange proposal.

  “Now then,” said Volkov. “Here is the plan. You have an excellent, proven airborne strike force in your 7th Flieger Division.”

  “Most of those troops are still in northern Syria,” said Hitler.

  “And you also have the 22nd Air Landing Division in reserve in the Russian theater. Thankfully, you took my good advice and avoided a debacle at Crete. Malta was a much better catch, as Crete can be pounded and hounded from both the sea and from airfields in Italy. Rest assured, you will not regret your decision to cancel Operation Merkur. Yet the objective here is far more enticing, perhaps the greatest intelligence cache of the entire war, advanced missile designs, just sitting there waiting for us to pounce and take them.” That was, of course, the big lie, but Volkov told it with a very straight face.

  “And your plan?”

  “Strike like lightning, come like a winter storm, seize those facilities, and reap the harvest.”

  Hitler did not seem very enthusiastic. “You want German troops to support such an operation? I’m afraid that will be out of the question. I cannot commit such a valuable asset so far from our supporting lines. Besides, I have other operations planned for our Falschirmjaegers. I can offer you air support, but not troops.”

  “Perfectly fine. I do not need your troops, just the transport planes from your 11th Fliegerkorps. I have a full airborne division, though I can only lift one or two regiments at any one time, as you just pointed out. But Germany has a substantial airlift capability. Your transport planes can reach my territory easily enough. Simply muster them at Constanta on the Black Sea, then fly across that sea to reach my airfields in the Caucasus. The Soviets will see this as part of your operations against that vital sector, and that will serve as a good cover story. We will leak the information that a German supply operation is underway to the Caucasus. Once there, they can transfer by night to Astrakhan, and then on to our forward air bases.”