The Valkyrie Option

by Markus Reichardt

  That night Rommel threw his last mobile reserves into the fray setting up a defensive screen running southwest from Warsaw along the rail line to Petrikau. Another 30 000 ROA men were also hastily railed from their training grounds south of Danzig, most of them without their heavy equipment. Probing attacks from 8th Shock Army came away with a bloody nose pushing the main axis of the Soviet advance southwards. Elsewhere Soviet tanks encountered penal units comprised mainly of former camp guards. These they just brushed aside, often literally rolling over them. Three days later the Germans managed to secure a continuous holding position, temporarily containing the breakout, which was running away from its logistics. Zhukov also realised that with the heavy losses at Modlin, there were limits to his supplies. It was not the strategic victory he had sought, but Warsaw now was reduced to a forward position with a triangular salient to its rear. The Russian Marshall was certain that his next effort would seal the city’s fate.

  Scraping together every available garrison unit and drawing forces away from Manstein’s line in the south, Rommel managed to patch together a line running southwesterly from Warsaw to just west of Lodz; from there south to Radomsko and from there via Kielce back to the Vistula. To the south the 1st Ukrainian front under Konjev had pushed across the Vistula tributaries and taken Tarnow. Krakau one of Poland’s most significant cities now lay in range of Konjev’s guns.

  Things could have been much worse for the Germans but to the north of Warsaw the taking back of the front had freed up sufficient mobile battlegroups to frustrate Rokossowski’s 2nd Byelorussian Front as it tried to push northwards into eastern Prussia. Pushing northwards to within 50 kilometers of the Prussian border, his troops found the marshy terrain unsuited to rapid and favourable to the guerrilla tactics which both Polish and the scattered German units now employed. With fuel and shells going to Zhukov, Rokossowski’s advance slowed.

  11 January

  ReichsChancellery

  Berlin,

  The building was almost deserted except for a few ceremonial guards who kept up appearances. Real decision-making had ceased in the building the week before. In effect the Government had come to a stand-still awaiting the time to hand over power to the approaching allies. Nonetheless the bureaucrats kept coming with questions, issues to be resolved, crises that needed management. It was natural to defer decisions upward and so Goerdeler and his cabinet kept coming back.

  Stauffenberg, whose health had taken a knock over the past days, kept attending, even though as he wondered what decisions could possibly still be expected of him. For Germany the war was over, this was now an assisted rescue operation. Ironically enough it was left to Speer the ultimate technocrat to resolve issues. His ministry, responsible for most resource allocations in the Reich - and that included food - had become last man standing. It was his men who made sure food and fuel went where it was needed. It was his men who kept the railways going and the people from starving. The winter of 1945 had turned into one of the harshest of the century and everyone was feeling it. It was Speer’s men who kept the wheels of the Reich moving as more and more of the Reich came under allied control.

  In effect the meeting had consisted of Speer briefing the Chancellor and the cabinet about decisions already taken. Witzleben chimed in with a very brief update on allied progress and the number of looters who had been shot out of hand by military police. In the past two weeks allied progress had been uneven but nonetheless encouraging. There had been incidents when some emotional officer or unrepentant Nazi had caused trouble, but on the whole it seemed that the occupation was proceeding peacefully. The news from behind the line of allied advance was also positive. Except for the French units in the Saar region, Allied soldiers were behaving honourably towards the population, coming not just as conquerors and but also saviours. British troops were now on the outskirts of Hamburg and Hannover, Americans had occupied Frankfurt and the Black Forest region as far east as Ulm. Von Witzleben closed with. “If this pace continues they will be in Munich within the week, and in Berlin within twelve days. “

  “One thing I do not understand, Chancellor, Feldmarschall, is why they do not simply land their planes here and declare the matter over?” It was Leber. They must certainly have the capability and know that we would not oppose it. “

  “Yes Minister, you are right, but it is still the military men in charge on the other side and if I were them I too would argue that just in case we – the Germans – have a change of heart anyone stuck in Berlin would be too far from the frontline to be rescued.”

  “So in a way it is a bad sign politically?’ Leber rested his chin on his hands, “They still expect us to put up a fight?”

  “Only they know the answer.”

  And with that the meeting closed, most ministers quickly departing for the shelter of their own ministries where they would continue to act as if their decisions still mattered. Most in fact were writing down their thoughts of the past years. Thoughts they hoped would help explain what they had done or omitted to do during the dark years. Someone, history or human would judge them, that much they knew. How this judgement would happen, was, they hoped, in part up to them.

  Leuschner, looking tired caught up with Stauffenberg and Speer on the way out. “After a few pleasantries he asked the question that had been bothering him for days.” You know the thing I cannot get over is how complete the collapse of Hitler’s state was once he was gone and the SS leadership was decapitated. Were we just lucky to avoid civil war or was there something deeper?”

  “Feldmarschall von Manstein once said to one of our comrades who came to ask for his help, that Germans make bad revolutionaries.” Stauffenberg’s tone was almost flippant but then he glanced at Speer. As the only survivor from Hitler’s cabinet, Speer had kept his words and deeds focussed on the technical issues since July 22nd. No-one had had any doubt that the short burst in increased war material production had been due to his genius and that of his team. “ The funny thing is that it was like waking up out of a dream; a dream where you could remember almost everything. He gave us all hope; hope and pride after the horrors of the Great War and the inflation the allies caused which wiped out so many existences. He fed on this desperation and unified us behind a seemingly good strong alternative. I think that by the time Claus was able to kill him, even those among us able to delude ourselves, struggled to avoid the obvious conclusion – namely that this was going to end in Armageddon. Maybe what happened was that when everyone woke up the next day, the new regime’s talk of peace, kept the Home Front happy, while the soldiers in the front lines just went on fighting. Maybe very little changed for them. That’s perhaps why you never got any real counter-revolt. For my part I only noticed the removal of the hooked cross from my office or from the cabinet room days after it had happened, I was just too pre-occupied with survival. “

  “Survival.” Leuschner savoured the word. “Maybe it is all about that.” He turned to Claus “Well General Stauffenberg, whatever happens I want you to know that there will always be at least one person who will be grateful for having been given a second chance. Whether we did the best with that second chance will not be ours to judge. “

  January 11th

  Churchill -Truman telephone call

  London-Washington

  Churchill had understood from the start just how little Truman had been involved in Roosevelt’s decision-making process. This was, Churchill understood, not just a function of the brief tenure but also something that dated back to Truman’s predecessor Wallace. Wallace, Churchill recalled to his cabinet colleagues had not played a role in policy-making. Therefore Churchill restrained himself for a few days before calling Truman on the transatlantic line. But when he did, he had a long list of issues, at the top of which was Poland.

  After a few pleasantries and condolences, Churchill came straight to the point. “Mr President, my cabinet is considering our options as we continue to occupy Germany. My commanders tell me that this will be complete by the
end of the month. Inevitably the issue of Poland and its future dispensation will arise. I would welcome a discussion on the matter. My Government has recognised and throughout the war given shelter to the representatives of the Polish Government in exile. These are members from all of Poland’s pre-war parties operating as a loose coalition and awaiting a return to normality in their country before formally relocating there. At the same time we have the Lublin provisional Government, established by Stalin and representing only the communist Party of Poland. We have no faith in their protestations that they will allow the participation of progressive individuals in their administration. In the area under their control – or rather the control of the Red Army – there have been mass arrests, shooting and detentions of almost anyone supporting parties other than the Communists. Josef Stalin has made it clear that he is only willing to contemplate a Polish Government in which the London exiles are selectively incorporated into his group. Poland is as good as at war with itself, but Stalin seems determined to take the land by force for his Poles. Russia supporting one side, and curiously the Germans giving succour to ‘ours’. “

  Truman, took a deep breath, he instinctively liked Churchill’s direct style. “As I understand it the issue goes deeper: Stalin wants to hang on to what he got when he and Hitler divided up Poland. In other words he wants to keep his reward for being Hitler’s friend and he wants our ok. Poland was a product of the Great War, her borders are young. But if you ask me whether I understand what was agreed upon between my predecessor and the Soviets at Teheran I will have to confess that I do not understand it all. Especially not when I think about a stable Europe “

  Quietly Churchill sent a great thanks to the Almighty. Truman had in a few sentences gotten to the heart of the matter, the through away remarks with which Roosevelt had told Stalin that America would not protect the country from whatever dispensation the Soviet union sought to impose. For days the PM had worried about how to broach the topic of Roosevelt’s abandonment of the Eastern Europeans to Truman. It was clear, Truman saw matters in a different light.

  What Churchill could not know was that Roosevelt had fobbed off quite a few of the eastern European delegations onto others in his party and Truman had been one of those who had received delegations from Americans of Eastern European ancestry, Polish-Americans notably among them. Their warnings and the briefings from Roosevelt’s cabinet members had all led him to one conclusion; that Roosevelt’s rhetoric had not matched his deeds. One of the things Truman had done before becoming Vice President had been to look into just how close the Democratic Party had come to loosing. His conclusion had been a very simple one: the East European and Catholic vote had deserted the party in droves. More importantly LaGuardia had called up and passed on the Vatican message from earlier in the year. The New York Party chief had made it clear that Roosevelt had reluctantly gone along. Truman’s mind was made up. He had not liked joining the Soviet Union in an alliance in 1941, and he had no intention of being his party’s grave-digger, which was certain to happen if Poland fell to Stalin.

  “Yes, the borders are an issue. In 1941, even when the Nazis were knocking on the Kremlin’s door, one of the first demands Stalin placed before us was that we recognize the border he and Hitler had agreed to in 1939. Effectively that border took a third of Poland. Then there was the issue of the persecution of minorities and the disappearance of the polish officer class”

  “And now he’d like us to sign up to that. I never quite believed the story about the Germans being responsible for massacring the polish officers at Katyn. I do not like it.”

  “Mr President, I will concede that there are some in my and your administration who would argue that border details are not important enough to rebuff the Soviet Union’s security concerns. There is an argument that Russia needs a buffer between itself and Germany.”

  “Fine but a stronger Poland would make a better buffer than a weak, partially dismembered one.”

  “In any case, “Churchill went on” while the borders may indeed be a detail, the sovereignty of Poland is not. We declared war on Germany in 1939 to protect her sovereignty and independence. For a long time we lacked the means to project our power into central Europe to do so. Now we are in a position to do just that.”

  “I agree, once we have occupied Germany, we continue eastward into Poland until we link up with the Russians. Then we can talk about how to restore the legitimate Government to its position. If Stalin then wants to argue about a place for his crowd, let him contest that in an open election.”

  Churchill could hardly believe his ears. “Mr President can I confirm that we are discussing a shift in formal policy here.”

  “We are Prime Minister, we are. I am the President.”

  Extremely relieved Churchill moved on to the other Eastern European countries and in the end the two men agreed on a large amount of policy details, which the British PM had not been able to wring out of Roosevelt. Truman was not willing to budge on many of the economic issues dear to British hearts for the moment but Churchill came away with a clear belief that Truman contrary to Roosevelt had few illusions about dealing with the Soviets. It was Churchill conceded a very satisfactory conversation. The United Nations had been mentioned once and the PM was not sure he remembered what the context had been. Far more significant Truman had said nothing about the colonial empires.

  The next day a joint communiqué went out stating that the United States and the United Kingdom wished to see free and fair elections supervised by the three powers in Poland, Hungary and all other nations liberated from the oppression of Nazism.

  January 13th

  The Kremlin

  Moscow

  It took all of Molotov’s self-control not to wither in the face of Stalin’s outburst which followed the communiqué. Molotov let it all wash over him. He realised that to survive this he would have to find a silver lining.

  When Stalin’s temper finally abated, he fixed his Foreign Commissar with an icy stare. “This is the work of Churchill, he must have convinced that naïve American to follow his revanchist line. And since Zhukov failed to take Warsaw, our troops are not where they should be, namely entering Germany.

  That morning Stalin had taken stock of the situation in his Stavka meeting. It all boiled down to resources. With their counter-offensive the Germans had weakened the Red Army more than they knew. Railway stock in particular had been affected and was now limiting his ability to get things moving. The fact that the Americans were no longer sending as many trucks over under Lend and Lease also showed. Zhukov had launched his offensives the moment he had built up resources for a single hard punch, confident in the belief that once the German line was ripped open, simple momentum would carry the Russian tanks westwards. His follow-up at Magnuszew had yielded satisfactory results but the Marshall lacked the strength to exploit the situation. Worse there were reports of more of those traitorous ROA units of Vlasov’s being fed into the line. Knowing their fate if they were to be taken prisoner, they fought tenaciously. Chief of staff Antonov had spoken of another 30 000-strong unit.

  Now Zhukov had run out of steam and at great cost. He needed at least another two weeks to try again and by then the Germans were certain to have strengthened their lines by then. But in two weeks the AngloAmericans would certainly have reached Poland’s western borders, depriving him of his role as victor and conqueror, depriving him of his spoils of war. Now he would have to trade a role in Germany’s future for something, possibly even an allied role in Poland. Rage welled up again.

  He glared at Molotov, pushing Zhukov out of his mind. There had to be some diplomatic response.

  “If I may comrade” Molotov’s voice betrayed nothing of the nervousness of the Foreign Minister ‘ I believe that we have an opening here. The communiqué is quite explicit that it talks about Great power supervision for the elections in all the countries liberated from the fascists, including Germany. I would suggest that they have mistakenly allowed us a role in west
ern Europe. “

  “They will argue that no elections are needed in countries like Norway and Belgium because the existing Governments are simply returning from exile. That will be their excuse to worm their way into our sphere of interest. “

  “Is it worth testing, Comrade. If they deny us a role, then we have a legitimate reason to prevent them from interfering the elections that will bring the progressive regimes we seek to power in the countries such as Poland.”

  Stalin was not convinced, but had no good answer “I will think about your ideas.” And with that a grateful Molotov slipped out of his boss’s office.

  Two hours later, Beria and nuclear academician Kurchatov found Stalin in a slightly better mood. Having considered his options Stalin had sent a simple message to Stavka. All units must attack to secure as much ground as possible within the two, maybe three weeks remaining prior to the allied arrival. Nothing was to be spared in gaining ground. Any commander not advancing within 48 hours would answer to him personally. He had one last throw of the dice and he intended to play it. The two priority targets designated were Warsaw and Budapest. Possession, as he mused to himself afterwards was after all nine-tenths of the law.

  Then he followed up with Molotov and a set of specific instructions with respect to Albania and Yugoslavia. Neither of those little partisan leaders were to develop sudden delusions about national liberation movements aloof from the Communist International. Of that cave-dweller, partisan leader Enver Hoxha in Albania he was almost certain, of Tito less so. There had been no response to his critical message from Belgrade. Beria also reported zero success in finding alternatives to the partisan Marshall. Via the paranoid Rankovic, Tito controlled the Communist Party of Yugoslavia so tightly and was so genuinely popular that no-one, not even people whose families Beria’s men threatened would turn against him. And for the moment Stalin fumed, he just did not have the resources to deal with a potential partisan war in that mountainous country. With lend-lease materials, particularly trucks no longer being shipped in meaningful volumes, his logistical resources were already stretched to the limit. With the damage it had done to Russian logistics, Wintererwachen was proving to be more successful than its planners had dared hope. There were some losses even Stalin’s iron will could not speedily replace.