The Eve of Abounding Wickedness

by Mark Spaid

  “That’s good, Goering. Better than we expected.”

  “Yes, Mein Fuehrer.”

  “I’m glad for your sake because if the invasion had failed you would’ve been shot.” Goering looked at Hitler and nodded. He knew that even before the invasion and he’d been on edge for days expecting either a smashing victory or a bullet in the head. As Goering stood he was handed a communique.

  “Mein Fuehrer, we’ve taken three cities and captured two British fighting corps. About five thousand men.”

  “Well done again.”

  Operation Sea Lion: Week Two

  Five hundred tanks were landed and when they were assembled into groups they moved forward rapidly almost without opposition. What few tanks and artillery the English had were powerless against stronger German units and equipment. The Wehrmacht pushed relentlessly through the tiny country. They took the southwest tip of England then moved northeast, veering off to take Wales, which was essentially undefended. Bristol fell as the Germans veered to surround London. The English army moved to defend London and that played into German hands. Round the clock bombing had reduced the city to a burning horror.

  “Mein Fuehrer, Birmingham is ours.” Hitler sat up with a big smile.

  “Now, we move on to London.”

  “Yes, and I hope we can get a capitulation within a week or two.”

  “Churchill?”

  “He and his cabinet are holed up at 10 Downing Street.”

  “Good and the Parliament?”

  “They’re in the Parliament building. We’ve captured a dozen or so trying to get away.”

  “Good job and now the King.”

  “He and his family are at Buckingham Palace.”

  “As I have said before it’s not to be bombed or attacked in any way.”

  “Yes, Mein Fuehrer but what’ll we do with him?”

  “He and his family will remain in the palace.”

  “As prisoners?”

  “After a fashion, yes.”

  Operation Sea Lion: Week Four

  “Mein Fuehrer, I have great news!” Goering shouted as he rushed into the room where Hitler was sitting and reading a report.

  “Yes.”

  “The English have asked for terms.”

  “What a glorious moment!” Hitler proclaimed as he got up and pranced around the room. “What terms?”

  “They want the King to be unharmed and left alone in the palace.”

  “Done.”

  “They want Churchill and the cabinet to be whisked out of the country to America.”

  “Never! That scoundrel Churchill will be taken back to Berlin to stand trial!” Hitler was getting wound up like no one but he could.

  “That’s all they asked for.”

  “They must surrender their navy intact.”

  “Yes, they’ve agreed to that; it’s in the treaty.”

  “Good…tell them our conditions on Churchill and the cabinet.”

  “Yes, Mein Fuehrer.”

  Two Days Later

  “We have Churchill and the cabinet in custody and the navy has been turned over to us,” Goering reported with a big smile.”

  “Good,” Hitler said… “what about their ships that were out to sea?”

  “They’re steaming towards England as we speak.”

  “What’s the inventory?” Hitler asked.

  “Captain!” Goering shouted and a German naval officer reported and stood at attention.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Captain Oller, what’re the ships we’ll be getting from the English?”

  “Sir, seven aircraft carriers.” Hitler’s eyes lit up at that and he smiled at Goering.

  “Excellent,” Hitler said.

  “Go on, Captain,” Goering said.

  “Fifteen battleships, sixty cruisers, one hundred and seventy destroyers, seventy submarines, numerous escort and supply ships.”

  “Outstanding, Captain,” Hitler said as he smiled and slapped his knee.

  “That’s all, Captain,” Goering said.

  “Goering, you know I doubted your suggestion when you came to me in thirty-nine and begged me to forego the invasion of Russia until we’d knocked England out of the war. You were right and now we have control of the waters around all of Europe and North Africa will be ours.”

  “Along with the oil supply when we move into the Middle East,” Goering added.

  “That’s right,” Hitler said and rubbed his hands together.

  “The formal surrender document will be signed tomorrow morning in the Parliament building.”

  “Are all members under arrest?”

  “All but six who’ve disappeared. We think they may’ve fled to Ireland and then the United States.

  “Well, it can’t be helped,” Hitler said. “ Now, we tell them tomorrow and it needs to be a part of the surrender document, that if any government officials try to start a shadow English government in a foreign country then the King’s safety and the safety of his family cannot be guaranteed.”

  “Yes, Mein Fuehrer.”

  One Day Later

  “We have the document just as you want it, Mein Fuehrer,” Goering said as he handed it to Hitler. They were sitting in a back room off of Parliament.

  “Okay, are they assembled?”

  “Yes, the King’s here, most of Parliament and Churchill. He’ll sign along with King George.” Hitler nodded as he finished perusing the instrument of surrender.

  “Herr Goering, everyone’s here. They’re waiting for the Fuehrer,” A Luftwaffe officer said.

  “Well, Goering, this is our big moment. Let’s go,” Hitler said as he all but danced out of the room. Goering went first and as he made it to the center of Parliament he came to attention.

  “Stand for the Fuehrer of the Third Reich, Adolph Hitler.” Everyone stood even the English though they did it reluctantly and without a smile. Himmler was there along with Goebbels, Borman, Ribbentrop, Hess, Heydrich and a litany of other top Nazis. Hitler gave the Nazi salute then sat down followed by everyone else. There was a table in the center of Parliament on which was placed the document to be signed. Hitler was seated in the middle of a row of chairs that also held King George, Churchill, Lord Halifax and many others. Hitler and Goering would sign for the Germans. Italy was aligned with Hitler but Mussolini was not invited. Hitler didn’t like to share the spotlight with anyone to which any of his party members could attest. He was one of the original, it’s all about me, personalities. As he sat waiting for the ceremonies to proceed, he had a smirk on his face, one that he wore often and the more countries he conquered the bigger the smirk became. He’d suffered through privation and had experienced hunger and failure as a young man. The cause was simple…he was lazy. He could’ve helped himself and eased his condition but he had no ambition or work ethic. The quintessential lazy no good for nothing. His father died when he was young and his mother had to work endlessly to support three kids. He could’ve found a job as a paperboy, a delivery boy or any number of other jobs open to kids but he’d rather sit around and complain about his plight and blame somebody else. To him the reason was the Jewish conspiracy to impoverish all non-Jews and to enslave the world with their Zionist mission. All nonsense, of course, but that’s how his mind worked. People have called Hitler crazy…not the case. He had a warped sense of the world around him. But he was not clinically insane by any definition. His anti-Semitism was certainly a part of his thinking but a larger part was his paranoia that encompassed the whole world. Everyone was out to get Hitler, especially anyone who dared to argue with him. So, his bitterness about not being born into money and privilege turned him into an obsessive hater of everyone and every group who opposed him. Any friend of Hitler’s and that notion in itself is an oxymoron would do well to introduce him by saying, ‘this is my friend Adolph; don’t disagree with him’.

  “The instrument of surrender is before us on the table,” Goering said. He was to lead the ceremony as he was the architect
of the successful invasion. “The document cedes political and military control of the England and all the British Empire to the Third Reich and it’s Fuehrer, Adolph Hitler. As a condition for acceptance of this agreement, the King, his family and entourage will be allowed to live in Buckingham Palace and will live there unencumbered with the Germans administering the country. Now, to sign the document the Fuehrer of the Third Reich will come forward. Hitler got to his feet and sauntered over to the table. Goering handed him a fountain pen and Hitler signed then the pen was placed in a ceremonial box of its own. King George was next as he was the official head of state in England. Granted Parliament and the Prime Minister actually wielded power in England but the King was still the head of state. King George walked slowly to the table. There were tears in his eyes and his hand trembled as he signed but he did it then sat down and lowered his head. He felt responsible for losing his country and the Empire to the Nazis. No one was responsible let alone the King but he took the blame. Goering signed then Churchill. He was tight lipped and never displayed any emotion except for the obvious hatred he had for Hitler. Churchill sat down and folded his arms. Johann Ribbentrop signed as foreign minister for Germany and finally Lord Halifax as foreign secretary for England. “The surrender is complete and copies of the original will be forwarded to the British Foreign Ministry and the Reich Chancellery. The original will be kept in the German archives in Berlin. The ceremony is over…all rise,” and everyone stood. Hitler left first to a heavily guarded car and it sped away. King George was escorted out and back to the palace. Churchill was taken into custody along with Halifax. They and the entire cabinet were held prisoners in the Parliament building.

  The Nazis quickly established their kind of society complete with censorship of the press, media, entertainment, education, clubs and organizations, etc. Religion was not prohibited but not encouraged. The English and Scots still ran everyday institutions. The citizenry went to work and to school. Libraries were purged of all books not conducive to National Socialism, which was three-quarters of the collection. Textbooks in schools were redacted or replaced with new ones from the Nazi point of view. There was resistance but it was met brutally and soon the number of rebels dwindled. Shooting of large numbers of hostages is a certain deterrent to guerilla activity. There were a handful who continued but they had few recruits and in time even the most ardent enemies of the Nazis saw the futility in resisting. If there was peace then the people were allowed to do many of the things they’d done previously. The Swastika flag hanging over Parliament, Buckingham Palace, London Bridge, etc. was a shock at first but it’s surprising how quickly people can become used to something even if they find it distasteful. Goering had been right, thanks to the four Nazi time travelers. Now, in the new Time Frame, Hitler had a chance to achieve his aim…world conquest.

  Hitler and Goering returned to Berlin and there were celebrations for weeks honoring the victory in England. Parades, banquets, festivals, dancing, singing, eating, drinking, etc. The Nazis paraded up and down the streets of Germany by the thousands with the sidewalk lined with people waving and cheering their glorious warriors. Hitler and his band of thugs were at their high point and at Goering’s behest the German economy was put on a full war footing. No more consumer goods, all factories were producing planes, tanks, trucks, jeeps, guns, uniforms, etc. With England out of the war the Germans overran North Africa and moved into what is modern day Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Oil was plentiful and they shipped back millions of barrels to be converted into gasoline. That was something that people could now get cheaper in Germany except for the fact that few people had cars.

  Most importantly to the Nazi dreams of further conquest was their programs for exotic weapons. Three things in particular could give them a huge advantage over Russia and the United States. 1. Jet aircraft capability, 2. Rockets and 3. Nuclear weapons. In late 1941, German engineers were working feverishly on jet planes and were very close to making a prototype. Werner von Braun led a team of scientists and engineers, who were perfecting rockets for the transmitting of bombs. Werner Heisenberg and a group of physicists were working around the clock developing an atom bomb. The Germans needed one thing to put them in a position of invincibility…time. Hitler had to be persuaded to wait. The quick and decisive victory over England with very little loss of life on the German side was intoxicating to a megalomaniac/egomaniac like Hitler. He could easily begin believing that Germany was unbeatable and that he was a military genius like Alexander, Caesar or Napoleon. Nothing could be further from the truth. Hitler’s qualifications as a military leader were very mediocre. He was in the infantry in World War I, though he never rose above the rank of corporal despite being decorated for bravery. There are no records to verify why but knowing his personality and hatred of any criticism, even the constructive kind, one could see him objecting to anything he didn’t find agreeable, insulting or disobeying officers’ commands and any number of other unsoldierly behaviors that would get him busted down to private. Then his heroic actions as a dispatch runner, an exceedingly dangerous job could earn him promotion back to corporal. That being said, aside from his bravery in the line of fire, he was no military man. Officers planned the invasions of Poland, France and England. Any notion of invading Russia and the inevitability of success by Hitler were purely fanciful and not based on any understanding of military tactics or strategy by the Fuehrer. He was a politician and nothing more…a good one to be sure but without a shred of military acumen.

  Hitler was anxious to invade Russia because of the incredible success he had in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Holland, France and England and because he was not a very patient person. Goering was there to remind him of the need to wait until Germany had the necessary arms and armaments. Normally, Hitler would’ve ignored Goering and pressed ahead but the result from England due to Goering’s idea and planning convinced Hitler that he should listen to his second in command. Because of Goering’s displayed genius Hitler replaced Rudolf Hess with Goering as the number two man in the party and the government. So, if anything happened to Hitler Goering would be the leader of the Nazi party and Germany. So, Hitler waited impatiently as Germany built a huge arsenal of planes, tanks and ships. The ships they inherited from England ballooned the size of their navy and they’d been adding to it ever since, using the shipbuilding yards on the English coast. They were better building facilities than what Germany had and more and better ships could be built faster. They would need an enormous navy to attack the United States, which they knew they’d have to do eventually. By early 1944 they were producing jet fighters and bombers. In the summer of 1944, von Braun had solved the guidance system problems for the rocketry program. The early rocket launches had been successful in getting the rocket off the ground and traveling to the target but it was impossible to know where it’d land. They needed to be accurate within a hundred yards so they could successfully plan an attack. Von Braun had accomplished that so, now they were ready to mass produce and soon by October of 1944 they had two thousand operational rockets. Each rocket carried a large load of TNT and when they hit it created damage reminiscent of the blockbuster from World War I. Nothing close to an atomic bomb but it could level a dozen buildings and if it landed in a troop concentration, five thousand casualties could occur. That, ultimately is what the Germans needed when attacking Russia. The preponderance of Russian bodies was what worried Goering and all the high command. Germany couldn’t match the number of potential Russian soldiers. Sixty-five million Germans against one hundred and seventy million Russians is not workable odds in the attackers favor. So, Germany needed an advantage and the new weapons were the answer. Once they were finished the invasion could proceed.

  “What do we know about what’s happening inside Russia?” Hitler asked Goering as they sat inside the Berghoff discussing strategy for the invasion. In the alternative Time Frame under which Germany was now proceeding Goering and Hitler were inseparable. Himmler, Goebbels,
Borman and others were superfluous. They all tried to get close to Hitler but failed.

  “Stalin conducted a purge in thirty-eight and now agents are reporting he’s ready for another,” Goering answered.

  “Who’s he after?” Stalin was paranoid beyond anything imaginable. Thus, he conducted purges every few years to wipe out anyone who might be thinking about killing him and taking over.

  “His high command and top KGB officers.”

  “That’s good,” Hitler said.

  “Yes, it couldn’t come at a better time just on the eve of our invasion.”

  “How soon?” Hitler asked. He couldn’t hide his desire to attack Russia.

  “When we have a stockpile of atom bombs.”

  “Okay, when will that happen?”

  “I’m in touch with Heisenberg and Hahn and they’ve solved the symmetrical shock wave problem. Now, they can build a bomb.” The Germans were working on the bomb at a remote location in the southeast part of the country…code name Valkyrie.

  “How long before they test?”

  “Two weeks.”

  “Will it work?” Hitler asked.

  “There’s no doubt.”

  “What kind of damage?”

  “That’s the question and they’re not sure.”

  “How can they know they’re far enough away when they test?”

  “They won’t know until they detonate it.” Hitler sat back and sipped on his tea. There wasn’t much to say until they heard from Valkyrie.

  Three Weeks Later

  “Mein Fuehrer!” Goering yelled as he came running into the main lodge at the Berghoff.

  “What is it Goering?” Hitler asked as he just woke up from a brief nap.

  “Heisenberg has sent a telegram. The bomb worked.” Hitler sat up smiling.