Soldiers and Marines Saga, page 37
The two generals on the phone did not appear to know the secretary was listening on her extension when they discussed the new 132nd Division and the elderly West German general brought out of retirement to lead it.
“It’s a disgrace. Poor old Frankman. He should have been left to tend to his garden.”
“No Heinz. You’re wrong. It’s quite a smart idea and it’s going to cost the Russians a lot of men and armor. Who knows, it might even make the difference between who wins the war and who loses.”
“Impossible.”
“No it’s not. If that division is not formed, all those old men will be at home during the war drinking beer. Now they have filled up that useless forest with anti-tank mines and obsolete machine guns and anti-tank guns.
Then he continued with a grin on his face as he chatted with his friend.
“Naturlich the Ivans can take it. But they’ll use up men and munitions to do it, men and munitions that otherwise will be brought against our divisions.”
“And those old men will do better than you think. They won’t be able to retreat and you don’t have to have a modern weapon and be healthy and fit to sit in a hole and shoot Ivans when they are coming through the trees only ten meters away. It will be like a forest Stalingrad only this time it will be our Stalingrad and the Russians who do the attacking and dying.”
“Ach, the Russians are too smart for that. They’ll just by pass it and let it wither away. Half the men there will go home when they run out of beer.”
“No they won’t. There will be a deception to encourage the Ivans to attack. Do you know those old run-out tanks we send to Grafenwehr for target practice?”
“Ja. So?”
“Well some of them have been trucked up there and spread around the open areas, but badly camouflaged so they can be seen for sure when the Ivans fly over or use their satellites. They will think the place is full of armor. They’ve even put gasoline lanterns in some of them, if you can believe it, so they’ll give off a heat signature for the Russian satellites to see. The Russians will attack for sure.”
The secretary listened intently and that evening went to a local dress shop to buy a new dress. She and the store proprietor will be arrested when the war begins. The Germans will wring their contacts out of them and then either shoot the or sentence them both to life in prison.
******
Things are not going nearly as well at the Netherlands port of Dordrecht. That’s where the eight civilian ferries that are both ocean-going and big enough to carry large trucks are being gathered together in a safe harbor to save them from Russian air attacks. It’s not a coincidence that Dordrecht is near, very near, where the tanks and other equipment drawn from various German divisions are being assembled to build a mobile reserve in case things go badly for NATO.
In fact, although neither the German soldiers nor the ferry captains know it yet, the time is coming when the ferries will load the armor and dash up the coast and unload it at various points in East Germany.
All the ferries have arrived and are ready to be loaded. The problem is that many of the German tanks and the four-wheel drive pickup trucks we’ve come to call “Milch Cows” because they are carrying extra ammunition and barrels of fuel for the German Leopards, are stuck in the refugee traffic jams on the German autobahns and roads. They are slow in arriving.
When the German armor and Milch Cows do get through to the staging area for NATO’s new mobile reserve, they are carefully loaded on the big ferries and, after they are on board, married up with their Milch Cows, supplies, and equipment. This is being done, it is explained to the troops and anyone who asks, so they can be moved further south without getting stuck on the crowded roads.
Each of the ferries is being carefully loaded under the watchful eye of a man in civilian clothes who usually wears a funny green hat when he works. The men are Navy Beachmasters. They are not wearing their funny green hats because we do not want anyone to know who they are here. The Beachmasters only know that the German tank and Milch Cow teams they are loading need to be able to come off the ferries together and go straight into action.
Once aboard the ferries, the German soldiers are forbidden to leave. Their cell phones and laptops have been confiscated so they can’t be used. Only when the ferries are fully loaded and a few hours away from their destination will the troops learn that they have gone north instead of south and that the funny green hats are once again the insignia of America’s Beachmasters, the navy experts who command the landing phase of a seaborne invasion.
Our plan is simple as all good plans are.
The ferries will sail north, hopefully through the Kiel Canal but around Jutland if the canal is closed, and off load their panzer columns at the civilian ferry docks at five ports on the East German coast. Each ferry will be quickly unloaded, and then each team of a German Leopard tank and two Milch Cows will make a hell for leather cavalry charge along a specific route towards its various objectives all over East Germany—the airfields in East Germany air and the East German bridges we will deliberately leave up.
Why will those bridges be left up? That was the question constantly being asked in Washington. Yesterday the Secretary of Defense was present when I spoke with the President and once again he asked why our swimmers will not be targeting them. The official answer is the one he got—we don’t have enough swimmers. The real answer, of course, is based on the fact that it is Russian military doctrine to reinforce successful offensives and ignore those that are failing.
“Mr. Secretary,” I explained over the secure line after I inquired to make sure no one else is in the President’s office except the Dick Spelling and the Secretary, “as you know Sir, we want the Warsaw Pact to move its forces now located in the northern part of East Germany to reinforce what appears to be a successful offensive. They will think it is a success because the West German divisions in the north will deliberately allow their units to be pushed back.” This line better be secure or we’re in real trouble.
Then I explained once again in the hope the Secretary of Defense would understand.
“Mr. Secretary, if the bridges further south are brought down by our swimmers, the ones we leave up in the north will be the only ones available for the Warsaw Pact to use to exploit what they will think is a successful breaking of our lines. And the only Warsaw Pact troops available to use them will be those who are still in the northern part of East Germany.
"When enough of the Warsaw Pact forces in the north move far enough west over the bridges we leave up, we’ll be able to launch a major counter-invasion aimed at cutting them off and letting them wither away due to the lack of supplies.
"What we intend to do is similar to what the Israelis did to defeat the Egyptians in nineteen fifty-six and again in seventy-three when the Egyptians crossed the Suez Canal. The Israelis won both those wars by getting in behind the Egyptian invaders and cutting them off from their supplies and reinforcements.
“Basically, Sir, the West German armor teams on the ferries will tear up the Warsaw Pact rear in East Germany on the north side of the border and the armored force hidden in the “forest fortress” will tear it up on the south side – taking airfields and key points all the way to the Czech border and on into it.
“When that happens, Mr. Secretary, the reinforcements and the Russian and East German front line troops will be trapped without access to their supplies and destroyed.” At least that is the plan and it better work or we’re screwed.
“As you can understand, I hope, Mr. Secretary, the counter offensive we need to launch to do that cannot begin until enough of the Russian and East German armor moves out of the way by crossing the border to exploit what they think is a successful breakthrough into West Germany.”
I think the Secretary gets it and won’t try to interfere. I hope so. The last thing we need is for a bunch of inexperienced staffers in the White House or Pentagon trying to telling us how to fight the war thousands of miles away. They tried that in Vietnam and it didn’t work; and it sure as hell won’t work in Europe. On the other hand, I’m an American officer and the President is the Commander-in-Chief; if he orders the bridges destroyed I’ll grit my teeth and destroy them under protest.
“But one thing, Mr. Secretary, and everyone else listening in, please do not mention this to anyone on your staff or anyone overseas, and certainly not to your German and NATO counterparts. Their staffs are almost certainly penetrated and yours may be as well.”
Even our own generals are being kept in the dark in an effort to keep the secret.
Chapter Four
Satellite photos confirm the NSA reports that the Warsaw Pact is moving its forces into their jumping-off positions for the invasion. It’s still not certain but at the moment it looks as though the war will start sometime early tomorrow morning. But Moscow may have waited too long. At least that’s what I devoutly hope and pray.
All but two of the first thirty brigades of Marines are fully formed up in their kasernes and getting used to German, French, and British food and their new communications gear and Israeli missiles. The divisions have been ordered to give them as much time as possible to get ready before asking the Commandant for permission to commit them to battle.
The final transport of motorcycle skirmishers arrived from the airborne divisions and ranger companies two days ago in everything from buses and trucks to private cars and motorcycles. Today they are all on the Harley Davidson “dirt bikes” that came out of one of the Detachment’s warehouses and deploying to their initial battalion staging points in various parts of West Germany.
Each company of twenty is accompanied by a “Mutti,” a mother truck with spare parts and tires, and five gallon cans of gas and various other supplies. The junior officers who are the company commanders are on bikes and armed to the teeth like everyone else.
******
Hangars Eleven and Twelve at the Metz Air Force Base were side by side beehives of activity, roaring engines, and shouting men. Forklifts were offloading pallets from a stream of American five ton cargo trucks that pull into the hangars under the watchful eyes of tough-looking German FSK Special Forces troops and engineers from the German airborne division.
As soon as they arrive each pallet is carefully unpacked and its contents inspected by the three men on the penetration team who will use it. Then they repack it and it is lifted into the cargo hold of a German Air Force C-130 or its German-made counterpart, the Transall.
Each three-man team will be dropping with two pallets. Everything each team is taking is divided equally between the two pallets so that each team can proceed with its mission even if one of its pallets is lost. There are forty-two teams and they will be going in every troop carrying Transall and C-130 the Luftwaffe can put in the air, all nineteen of them.
And it is no wonder the FSK and airborne troops are watching closely and aren’t allowed to leave the building or make phone calls. They’ve just been given their operational orders and know they’ll be parachuting into Russia as early as tonight—and then spend the next six months to a year, and maybe even longer, blowing bridges and pipelines.
Their objective is to prevent the Russian armies fighting NATO from getting reinforcements and supplies from the eastern half of Russia—Siberia— where a good part of the Russian army’s troops and supplies are currently located on the rail line running along the Chinese border.
Other groups of FSK and airborne troops and similar groups of American Special Forces and SEALs and the British and Australian SAS and SBS are loading planes elsewhere. They will jump into East Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland. What they will do in Poland, if they go at all, depends on what Poland does when the war starts. Each group does not know about the others.
******
A somewhat comparable scene was underway in all four of the large hangars at the much smaller Reims airport. Packs of explosives and scuba gear were being laid out and inspected by the Marine and Coast Guard swimmers who will use them. The helicopters to carry them were already staged in several empty fields and pastures a few miles away and were being checked and rechecked by anxious mechanics and flight crews. They will swoop in to be loaded at the last minute.
The men don’t know it yet but the helicopters will arrive in about thirty minutes.
Mike Morton, now Rear Admiral Mike Morton, was there watching like a hawk. He knew many of the Marine swimmers and they were openly commenting on his new stars.
“Jeez Mike, I mean Admiral. It’s good to see you again. I got to admit I never thought I see you as an Admiral.”
“I’m as surprised as you are, Sammy. What it means is that what you guys are doing here is really important. They had to give someone enough clout to get you guys whatever you need to do the job and get back home safely; turns out to be me. Those bridges have got to go or our guys on the ground are going to be in deep shit.”
Most of the swimmers were anxious and rightly so. Some were talking too much and too loudly. Others were quiet. They had just read their mission orders and were locked away without their cell phones and laptops, out of contact with the rest of the world. They may swim as early as tonight.
It’s basically the same on both sides of the border as anxious troops from various nations arrive at their assigned positions. Though they don’t know it, almost every one of them is praying that there will be no war, and if there is, it will start somewhere else and be fought far away by somebody else.
******
About the only forces not in position and ready to go are the much vaunted, and noticeably absent, carrier groups of the U.S. Navy, particularly those of the Pacific Fleet. They’re finally on the move but the main part of the Pacific Fleet hasn’t even reached the Panama Canal or Capetown, let alone made it past Cuba where the Russians and their allies may or may not be lurking and ready to pounce. The submarines and the rest of the navy are on station, however, and ready to fight.
Perhaps it’s just as well that the carriers and the Navy and Marine planes on them are delayed. The Air Force clans are gathering and the German and other European airports and auxiliary fields are stuffed with planes.
Chapter Five
Night is coming and the troops on both sides of the German border are getting increasingly anxious. Otto Klausen, and I have been on the phone all day with our senior commanders and, repeatedly, with the President and the German chancellor—they are all anxious and worried. And so am I, though I’ve been trying not to let it show.
Almost all of the key civilian decision makers are now dispersed in various secret locations in case the Russian do the unexpected and launch a nuclear attack. For that matter, the key members of the NATO staff, including me, are dispersed for the same reason plus a very real concern that there may be Spetsnaz raids on our headquarters. We are at the highest possible level of alert and a “war warning” has gone out to all NATO forces.
There is little doubt in anyone’s mind that Russian Intelligence long ago knew where the NATO commander would set up his headquarters in the event of a war. So three years ago one of Dave Shelton’s guys scouted up some alternative locations and arranged for the Detachment’s communications guy, newly promoted Brigadier Bobby Geither, who was then a passed over lieutenant colonel, to set up a secure communications system for them.
What Bobby came up with is four civilian-appearing trucks with line of sight signal capacities and the ability to clip into existing civilian and military hard lines so we don’t reveal our locations by using cell phones. The trucks are, in effect, mobile location transfer stations.
That’s why today I’m actually more than ten miles away from the closest truck, in the cellar of a second rate office and apartment building in the almost deserted little city of Weinheim.
Several years ago, without informing NATO or anyone else civilian or military, Bobby and a handful of our guys quietly ran dedicated telephone lines from this building, and several others in similar out of the way German cities, to various places some distance away where the message transfer trucks might be parked. Using them makes our calls and messages untraceable back to us.
Similarly, no one travels to the various headquarters except by cars that look like commercial taxis—so there are no military vehicles or men in uniform to be spotted by satellites or photo recon drones. The taxi drivers are in civilian clothes and carry wicked-looking little submachine guns under their baggy jackets.
In my case, they’re the Marine guards from the Detachment. They stay in the building at all times so their weapons can’t be seen. Some of the Detachment’s Marines are still at the Detachment. They are guarding the old French army base and its warehouses just in case the Warsaw Pact intelligence agencies somehow found out about it.
******
I just received a call from the President. Our worst fears are realized: The National Security Agency’s intercepts report the Russians and East Germans are moving into their jump-off positions for an attack scheduled to start early tomorrow morning at 0217.
We’re as ready as possible. All of NATO’s units are in their assigned positions and in a couple of hours British Intelligence will use its contacts in Russia to send target coordinates to the various Russian “retaliation” artillery units, the ones that earlier received the hoaxed orders telling them to stand by to instantly react to NATO provocations.
Around noon the National Security Agency confirmed the orders to standby to launch “retaliation” artillery barrages have been received by a number of the Russian artillery units in East Germany. As of an hour ago they have not yet been countermanded. My fingers are crossed.
As it stands, this evening at 2141, four hours and thirty-six minutes before the Warsaw Pact has scheduled its attack, British Intelligence will attempt to place a message to the Russian “retaliation” artillery units. It will order them to stand by to retaliate because NATO artillery is expected to begin firing to provoke some units into an early attack that will upset the Warsaw Pact timetable.
