World War Three 1946 Series Boxed Set: Stalin Strikes First

by Harry Kellogg

  His group had done surprisingly well. The Turk, Said, was a very capable young fellow who seemed to know his men and their limitation. The Turk reminded him of himself 10 years ago. Ten years, and another war, ago. This war was just as brutal. One issue, he couldn’t get out of his mind, was all the propaganda efforts that the US Army manufactured during World War Two. The Office of War Information beat into their brains stories of how valiant the Soviet Army and people were in their struggle against the evil Nazis.

  Now, of course, their efforts to demonize the Soviets seemed laughable when contrasted with their earlier attempts to humanize them. Hell, he remembered as late as December of 46 when Life magazine came out with a Christmas edition featuring Soviets celebrating the holidays. He found it very strange how enemies become allies and allies become enemies. Often our leaders can’t figure out who the enemy is and mistakenly send young men and now, women out to kill one another.

  The Captain had heard that there were former Nazi SS units fighting with us in the Pyrenees and Japanese units in China. How in the hell are you supposed to keep your enemies straight, he thought. The bottom line was that whoever tried to kill you or your squad mates was your enemy, including those children he had killed in Germany. Both of those little kids had found a way to point and shoot at him and his men, killing a number of his friends. He knew he had to stop thinking about those kids, otherwise he would go off the deep end like before.

  In front of him was a clear challenge, a whole squad of armored cars. They were the true scourge of this desert kind of fighting. Too fast to out run, yet they were tough enough to withstand most small arms fire. One of the most annoying things about the armored cars was the fact that a normal antitank round, whether fired by a bazooka or antitank gun just went all the way through them in half of the cases and didn’t even explode inside them. The armored cars, in turn, just started to hose down your position while the rest of the squad flanked you.

  Engaging the cars was a situation to be avoided at all costs and that was why his command very rarely attacked them. But, now the Captain had a good weapon and gunner to use it. Before Corporal Mike had bought the farm, he had found the perfect weapon and trained one of the Turks in using it…Said…yes, that was it, Said. The Turk had been given a Soviet antitank rifle. It was a PTRD-41 and shot a huge 114 mm bullet. The rifle was just powerful enough at long range to punch through an engine block or take out the driver, and then gunner of an armored car. Sometimes, Said was so good with the gun that he could take out the driver and the gunner with one shot, if the angle was right. With Said, they now actively sought to engage Soviet armored cars. In three weeks they had taken out 24, but who was counting.

  In three weeks they had taken out 24, but who was counting.

  December in Iraq

  December brought more gains to the Soviet forces invading Turkey and Iraq. On 15 December, the Soviets were temporarily halted near Bara, Iraq by RAF planes. Tempests and Mosquitoes mounted a fierce bomb and rocket attack on the Reds’ ground forces. The Soviets had outrun their air cover and the British were at the end of their range. With the cessation of attacks on Britain by the VVS, the RAF decided to try and defend its vital oil fields in Kuwait and Iraq. Most of the Brits’ troops were tied up in holding the Pyrenees Line. The massed fighter bomber operation was the next best thing for slowing up a mechanized enemy formation.

  No NATO ground forces had shown up to impede the progress of the Red Army, but there was constant harassment from the air. The raids conducted by the 15 th Air Force were devastating to a Soviet ground force without their accustomed air cover. The Reds’ antiair guns fought with great élan, but were too few to stem much of the attacks.

  The opportunities to hide a tank around Bara were slim to none. Most vehicles went from being feared weapons of war to targets in minutes. The few Stalin’s Fire SAMs sent with the lead forces were quickly destroyed by the fighter bombers before they could setup. The SAMs were basically static units that could be moved. However, they were not capable of quick deployment and were of no use against fighters and fighter bombers.

  There were harassing forces like the merry band led by Captain Marsh. The Captain had finally decided to learn all the men’s names in his unit, but was unable to pronounce the Turkish ones. His group took what they wanted, from whomever they wanted, in their zeal to kill Red Army soldiers. And, they were very good at pillaging and killing.

  Sargent Bill stayed sober and was able to set many a tank trap and mine. Sargent Clem had taught three of the Turks to kill a T34 with a grenade, and they were happily doing just that to the tune of two or three a week. Corporal Frank turned out to be quite a leader and took the four other Turks under his wing. The Captain regularly let the Corporal’s section work independently of the main group. His section ran flanking maneuvers that very often saved their bacon in fire fights.

  Corporal Mike was cut in half by a stray 23 mm cannon round shot by a passing Sturmovik. The Beast took a second run at their group after they had shot down his wingman. Actually, when they examined the wreckage it was a wingwoman. A female body was found inside the uniform, when they had examined it. Captain Marsh supposed that was why her wingman was so pissed off.

  Captain Marsh wondered if the Red Army was running out of male pilots or was it just such an equal society that they regularly let women fight? He only knew that he had stopped his Turks from desecrating the still warm body. He wondered how the pilot would have fared if she were caught alive. The Captain had seen a case where a rather effeminate male prisoner was being gang raped in a POW camp by Turkish guards, but he didn’t think that was the usual. Most men are just pigs and controlled by their dicks if not by their women, he concluded. It was one or the other in most cases.

  His group had done surprisingly well. The Turk, Said, was a very capable young fellow who seemed to know his men and their limitation. The Turk reminded him of himself 10 years ago. Ten years, and another war, ago. This war was just as brutal. One issue, he couldn’t get out of his mind, was all the propaganda efforts that the US Army manufactured during World War Two. The Office of War Information beat into their brains stories of how valiant the Soviet Army and people were in their struggle against the evil Nazis.

  Now, of course, their efforts to demonize the Soviets seemed laughable when contrasted with their earlier attempts to humanize them. Hell, he remembered as late as December of 46 when Life magazine came out with a Christmas edition featuring Soviets celebrating the holidays. He found it very strange how enemies become allies and allies become enemies. Often our leaders can’t figure out who the enemy is and mistakenly send young men and now, women out to kill one another.

  The Captain had heard that there were former Nazi SS units fighting with us in the Pyrenees and Japanese units in China. How in the hell are you supposed to keep your enemies straight , he thought. The bottom line was that whoever tried to kill you or your squad mates was your enemy, including those children he had killed in Germany. Both of those little kids had found a way to point and shoot at him and his men, killing a number of his friends. He knew he had to stop thinking about those kids, otherwise he would go off the deep end like before.

  In front of him was a clear challenge, a whole squad of armored cars. They were the true scourge of this desert kind of fighting. Too fast to out run, yet they were tough enough to withstand most small arms fire. One of the most annoying things about the armored cars was the fact that a normal antitank round, whether fired by a bazooka or antitank gun just went all the way through them in half of the cases and didn’t even explode inside them. The armored cars, in turn, just started to hose down your position while the rest of the squad flanked you.

  Engaging the cars was a situation to be avoided at all costs and that was why his command very rarely attacked them. But, now the Captain had a good weapon and gunner to use it. Before Corporal Mike had bought the farm, he had found the perfect weapon and trained one of the Turks in using it…Said…yes, that was it,
Said. The Turk had been given a Soviet antitank rifle. It was a PTRD-41 and shot a huge 114 mm bullet. The rifle was just powerful enough at long range to punch through an engine block or take out the driver, and then gunner of an armored car. Sometimes, Said was so good with the gun that he could take out the driver and the gunner with one shot, if the angle was right. With Said, they now actively sought to engage Soviet armored cars. In three weeks they had taken out 24, but who was counting.

  In three weeks they had taken out 24 , but who was counting.

  Figure 21 - Soviet PTRD – 41 AntiTank Rifle

  Chapter Eight:

  Combat

  Figure 22 - T-34 on the move

  Marsh’s Marauders

  They were doing quite well for a rag-tag group of American’s and Turkish soldiers who rarely understood each other when speaking. They had developed a kind of sign language that included body, facial, and hand gestures that stood them well in combat.

  They had been heavily engaged and killed many a commie. They had taken losses as well.

  Two of the Turks had gotten carried away one night and attack an outpost with those God Damn knives of theirs. They ran into a sentry that was actually awake and he shot them both at close range. A week ago, the group had almost gotten into a fire fight with another commando group led by a Sergeant Mankowitz.

  The two men shot had been cousins of the new group’s Turkish leader, a guy named Nazik. Naturally, he was very upset. Nazik realized it was their own fault for thinking they were such good warriors. Back home, they had both been students, and had never killed a man before the Soviets attacked. Each cousin had accounted for himself well. They had reached Nazik’s goal of 12 before they were killed. The oldest had killed over twenty, they speculated.

  The Turks like to speak of their exploits and how many men they killed. Captain Marsh tried to forget as much as he could so he could sleep at night. It didn’t work. The only thing that worked was some drug they gave him and drinking himself into a coma. Neither sedative was available in his current circumstances. So, he didn’t sleep much and that is an advantage in times of danger.

  Sergeant Mankowitz was a throwback of a sergeant. He was tough as nails as well as a very good leader and teacher. He seemed to really have bonded with his Turkish compatriots.

  This combined group was becoming very well known among the Soviets as well at HQ back in Cairo. They were looking for heroes and his group fit the bill. A bunch of misfits that had a “Skill for the Kill” as a newspaper article had said

  All of the Americans in this group were holding up just fine. They had picked up another three strays…or deserters for all he knew. As long as they performed it didn’t matter. He definitely wouldn’t turn his back on the guy named Brokowski. They called him Bull behind his back. He stood about 6’5” and was perfectly proportioned just bigger than he should be. He was probably handsome as well, but Marsh saw something wicked in the man. More than once, he had to keep the oaf from killing his own squad members, and then there was the time with that woman, young girl actually.

  They had rescued her from a squad of Cossacks who had more than paid for their crimes. She had curled up into a ball after they had gotten through killing her former tormentors. The way Brokowski kept looking at her gave Marsh the creeps and he was sure the girl was not in the least bit happy about it herself.

  It turns out she was a very distant relative of one of the new Turks. They decided to take her to a Red Cross unit they had passed by a couple of hours ago. A bunch of do-gooders out in the middle of a war was something you didn’t forget easily. The whole time they were working their way to the area where they spotted the group before, Bull was trying to get as close to the girl as possible. She instinctively knew what he wanted and kept putting others between Bull and herself. Finally he had just picked up one of the Turks that was in his way and placed him to the side. This caused quite a stir which he totally ignored and just kept touching her hair. It was so menacing that the poor girl shook so bad that she couldn’t walk and urinated where she stood.

  Two of the Turks started to shout at Bull. He finally paid them some attention when one hit him over the shoulders with a piece of wood. He turned slowly and grabbed the guy so quickly that no one had time to draw their guns and shoot him. But, all Bull did was to pick up and thrown the Turk about 20 feet, then he turned and started to stroke the girl’s hair again.

  The Turks were massing for an assault on Bull when a couple of Soviet Armored cars could be heard coming down the road and that snapped Bull out of his obsession. They dealt with the armored cars and Bull was wounded severely in the incident. He lost his left arm to a 20 mm cannon round and that was it. The Captain was sure he could have been saved but Bull just kept taking the tourniquet off and even in his weakened state, no one could keep him from tearing it off. He bled to death in less than three minutes rather than live with one arm.

  All in all, the group was relieved that Bull Brokowski was dead. He was very good at killing Commies, but something about him made everyone sure he was good at killing his former friends and squad members as well.

  When you stand back and look at a guy like Brokowski and how easily he died you suddenly realize the fragility of the human body. Yet, the girl had demonstrated just how strong the human spirit can be. Her little, frail body had withstood much more abuse than Bull had, even when he lost his arm. Here, she was going to try and make a new life despite the things she had seen and her torture. This small, little thing was stronger than Bull who just couldn’t live with the thought of not being perfect.

  Hell, the Captain had heard of this guy with no hands. He had lost them in an accident while in the service. He now had two hooks. He had heard that the fellow was up for Best Actor, Academy Award. [cv] The, Actor Harold Russell, demonstrated the strength of the human spirit in overcoming physical challenges. Bull’s suicide in contrast, showed that without his outward strength he was no match for life’s realities. Captain Marsh decided he spent enough time thinking about that psychopath.

  Tomorrow was Christmas Eve and maybe the Red Cross folks would help them celebrate. Lord knew his group needed a respite. As he looked around at his company-sized unit, he couldn’t help but think of all they had seen and done in a few short months. True, they had retreated hundreds of miles. In the end, they had made the Reds pay for that ground many times over.

  What the Captain didn’t know was that his 12 Americans were the last ones alive out of the original 250 sent as Combat Advisors to assist the Turkish government in its time of need. They had actually done quite well considering the conditions and resources they were saddled with. The Turkish Army had benefited from their guidance. If they had been giving more support, they might have given the Soviets a nice big black eye. Unfortunately, that was not the plan.

  In fact, this slow retreat back to the Suez Canal was the plan. NATO was to put up just enough resistance to egg the Reds on to their destruction. Too much opposition and the Reds might decide to dig in. An entrenched Red Army would require a huge change in plans and negate the only true advantage the NATO forces had over the Soviets.

  Maneuver was the key to winning this war. With its massive amphibious capability, NATO forces could land anywhere there was a beach or lowlying area. Attacking an entrenched and very skilled opponent on his terms was suicide. The American strategists recognized they could not overcome a dug-in enemy. That is why they had decided to rely on the strategic bomber and the atomic bomb.

  Unfortunately for NATO and the Americans, the Reds knew all about the American plans for using their planes and bombs. The VVS had prepared for an escalated and expanded air war in earnest in 1945 when it was apparent that the Germans were defeated. The Soviets had invented the perfect response and now it was NATO that had to adapt to the new realities of modern war.

  Lurking About

  US Army Captain Mario Fiat was taking a big chance, one that could cost him his life. He was dressed as a Turkish laborer and was makin
g his way along the Bosporus. His mission was to confirm the destruction of the defensive works that guarded the Turkish Straights. General Eisenhower needed firm intelligence on just how thoroughly the Turkish military had destroyed their own creations. NATO needed them gone, if their future plans were to work.

  The destruction had to be so complete that it would take months and vast resources to, once again, rebuild them to their former effectiveness. The plan was to make them so hard to repair that the Soviets would keep putting the project on the back burner until it was too late.

  The forcing of the Turkish Straights had not been tried for thousands of years and the planners at NATO wanted it to be as simple as possible. Hopefully, some Soviet official would not wonder why the Turkish forces had spent so much manpower on dismantling their own defenses. These defenses had once been the most formidable in all of Europe. Now, they lay in ruins.

  He noticed that many of the defensive emplacements facing west from both sides the Straights had been purposely left in place, giving the appearance of being largely intact to the untrained eye. What Captain Fiat saw would make the top brass happy. The Turks had outdone themselves. He only hoped it would not be too obvious to some nosey Red officer who has the pull to start immediate repairs. He estimated that it would take a good two months from a dead start to rebuild the defenses. The new emplacements would be needed to withstand the forces of NATO.