Soldiers and Marines Saga, page 43
Such an attack on the Russian sector by the NATO troops in West Berlin can’t be done prematurely or the East German strategic reserves might be used to retake the city, and then head back west again in time to block our invasion forces. That’s why we’re going to wait and launch our attack at the same time our ferry-borne armor lands on the East German coast and attempts to rush south across East Germany and Czech Republic to take the airfields and block the key river crossings.
There's also another reason why we'll wait—because we don't want the Warsaw Pact's Berlin troops to appear to be available to be used elsewhere; if they're already heavily engaged in fighting in and around Berlin they are less likely to be quickly moved westward to attack our armor coming out of the “forest redoubt” and off the West German ferry boats.
In any event, the idea that the East Germans will not try to take West Berlin is, at least so far, proving to be true. The East Germans initially moved their forces around a bit, but there is no indication that an attack is imminent. To the contrary, everything seems normal.
Of course, it could well be that moving their troops around and letting us see more of them is to camouflage the fact that some of their units have been sent west to join the main invasion force. That’s what I think they are doing. Pretty smart move, actually.
******
Schulter’s penetration team and the thirty-six other teams that made it to their drop zones are rushing to set up their permanent camps. Three days ago they were in trucks driving to the hangars containing their equipment and the planes to fly them into Russia. At the moment, as the sun begins to go down on the second day of the war, virtually all of them, including Schulter and his two airborne engineers, are on the ground in Eastern Russia and in the final stages of total exhaustion.
We initially dropped forty-two teams into Russia to cut the Trans-Siberian Railway and the oil pipelines. One dropped far off course in the middle of nowhere, three were apparently lost due when their German C-130 flew too low as it swept down a forested river valley in the dark, and one, NSA reports, though its men can’t be contacted and warned because their cell phones are not working for some reason, is about to be attacked by a lightly armed Russian police team responding to a reported sighting of a criminal gang that had been terrorizing the area.
Our first penetration team is about to be lost and a whole bunch of relatively untrained and under equipped Russian police are likely to join the great commune in the sky.
Both of Schulter’s men are combat engineers, demolition experts trained in the use of explosives. They are also long-time career feldwebels in West Germany’s airborne division and highly proficient with other weapons. The team’s primary objective is an important railroad bridge; its second objective is a big culvert cut into the side of a mountain overlooking the railroad and the service road running alongside of it.
Taking out the culvert didn’t seem like a big deal to me. But one of the detachment’s German officers was trained as a civil engineer before joining the army and saw it as an easy target that will significantly lengthen the time it takes the Russians to get their equipment in to rebuild the bridges.
When the teams finish with the bridge and the culvert they’ll settle down and use the old anti-tank grenades and fifty caliber sniper rifles on their pallets to knock out any trains that make it past the other teams. They have been particularly instructed to target locomotives and the equipment that might be used for bridge and track repairs.
******
Totally exhausted after moving supplies and equipment into what will be their backup camp, Schulter decided that he and his engineers will spend their second night in Russia crowded together in their small two man winterized mountaineering tent. It was so warm in the tent with all three of them in there that they left the flap open and slept jammed together on their sleeping bags instead of in them.
The night was totally silent except for the sounds of the surrounding forest and the men’s snores. In the morning they’ll get up before dawn to hide the tent and start the trek back to their first camp. When they get there they will begin preparing to blow bridge and, in so doing, put another major cut in Russia’s railroad link to the Chinese border.
******
Things are quite different at the power plants. Ruggles was watching the darkened gate and reported the arrival of more and more of what seem to be Czech police cars with flashing blue roof lights. Finally, right after dawn, a uniformed Czech policeman approached waving a white handkerchief.
“Yo Boss,” Ruggles shouted, “guy coming in with a white flag. In a green uniform with a funny hat. Looks unarmed.”
The man coming in alone and unarmed was to be expected according to his operations order. Captain Morris quickly reread the order again for about the tenth time and shoved it back into the inside pocket of his jacket. Then he squared his shoulders and walked out to meet the new arrival.
Morris was twenty-four years old and seriously determined not to let anyone see how young and inadequate he feels. The new arrival, almost certainly a police officer, was unarmed and energetically waving a white handkerchief in his right hand.
“Do you speak English,” Morris asked after he stopped about seven or eight feet from the policeman and the policeman put his handkerchief back in his pocket?
“English?” Morris repeated. The man shook his head.
“No?” Morris asked with a question in his voice. Then he shrugged. “Bad luck for you,” he said with a disgusted look.
Morris’ written orders are explicit: Be tough and confident. Don’t yield an inch and don’t negotiate. Blow the reactor the first time they do not immediately do exactly what you order them to do.
“Go get someone who does,” Morris commands. “One man,” he said as he held up one finger. Then he made a shooing gesture with the fingers his other hand.
The policeman doesn’t understand the words but he certainly catches their disdainful tone and the gesture was clear. He trudged back to the ever growing number of police cars and flashing blue lights. After a minute or so later a different police officer trudged out, once again waving a little white handkerchief.
“I speak English. What is going on here?”
“What is going on here is that you dumb fucks are so fucking stupid that you invaded West Germany and killed some Americans. Now you are going to pay. Really pay. Big time pay. Do you understand?”
The police officer obviously didn’t but he nodded and agreed as he been taught to do. “Ja. I understand.”
“Okay. Here is the situation. I’m Captain Morris of the United States’ 10th Airborne Division Engineers. We’ve captured this here nuclear power plant of yours and set explosives, big armor-penetrating shaped charges, in the control room and around each of the three reactor cores. We’ve got them wired to each other and to various control points my men are manning.”
Then, after a pause, Morris explained a bit more.
“All we’ve done so far is turn off the power and shut down the reactors. But one move against us, no matter how small, or a use anywhere in the world I was told to emphasize the word anywhere by any Warsaw Pact country of poison gas or any other weapon of mass destruction, and the reactors in this here power station will all be blown to hell and back. Every goddamn one last one of them. You got that?”
Then Morris gave a mean smile and closed the conversation.
“I don’t know about you, dickhead,” He snarled, “but when that happens me and my men going to run upwind as fast and as far and as fast as we can run. When we run, I suggest you and your comrades out there consider joining us. You can come back and check things out in about two hundred years. But until we blow it up your power station is gonna be off the air, until you withdraw every one of your troops from Germany. Every goddamn last one of them.”
That ought to get their attention. It sure as hell would get mine.
“Oh, and we’ll be sending out your civilians in a few moments. They are unharmed because we are civilized people. Unlike you communist assholes, we don’t invade and bomb our neighbors and kill women and children. Have a nice day.”
Then, Morris turned and walked back to the control room, disgustedly saying something over his shoulder and shaking his head as he walked away.
“Dumb shits. Killing Americans. I ought to just blow the fucking thing to hell and gone and be done with it.” I didn’t need to pretend to be pissed and I sure as hell will blow this fucker if I have to, Morris thought as he walked back to the control room.
The Czech police lieutenant stood aghast and unmoving for a second, and started to say something. Then he turned and hurriedly walked back to the ever increasing numbers of people and flashing blue lights at the gate.
About half an hour later the front door opened and the civilians in the facility began to leave. Before they left Morris followed his instructions and made sure they each got a quick tour to see the explosive packs at each of the reactors and the various wires running to each of them from at least three different positions.
As the Czechs were leaving he motioned over the guy in the white coat who understood English and said something slowly and distinctly.
“Tell those assholes out there to be careful and not to even think about doing anything stupid or trying to get inside the fence. My men are spread out and each and every single one of them is under orders to blow this place immediately if there is even the slightest hint of trouble. Do you understand?”
“Yes, I am understanding.”
“What you also better remember to tell the people out there is that my men don’t need my permission to blow the reactor and they’re nervous because of all the activity out at the gate, very nervous. So you better warn those people out there not to do anything to set them off. Do you understand?”
This time the man merely nodded.
******
The senior officers on Ivanov’s staff sat rigidly impassive as they listened to him speak with Moscow.
“Yes, Comrade President, it is true the Americans and fascist Germans have destroyed many of our planes and bridges just as we have destroyed many of theirs. That is why we are moving planes from the east into the battle and they are moving planes from America and their Pacific bases.”
“The thing to remember, Comrade President, is that this is only the second day of the war and our armies are already across the border and winning even though we have not yet launched our two big offensives.”
“Yes Comrade President, that is correct. This afternoon, exactly on schedule, we will open a new front in the south along the Danube and through Austria.”
******
I was at the Twelfth German Armored division headquarters getting briefed on the local situation when the flash message came in from NSA, via Spelling and Klausen—within hours the Russians will be opening a new front in the south by invading Southern Germany and Austria. It is a disappointment because we had hoped they would move in the north, but it is not a surprise.
General Klausen informed me that, as we’d previously agreed and discussed in detail, he’s already ordered various German airborne companies and the remaining FSK Special Operations troops to reinforce whatever Austrian troops, if any, are defending the Austrian bridges and passes. They have been standing by ever since the war began and will lift off in a few minutes as soon as their helicopter transports arrive.
Upon receiving the NSA message Klausen instantly called the commander of the Austrian army, General Gert Tallens, and alerted him that the Russians and Czechs are coming and that within the hour we will be dispatching helicopter-borne troops to help him hold the key bridges and passes. And destroy them if necessary. General Tallens, Klausen reported to me ten minutes later when we spoke, was effusively grateful for the help.
A few minutes later Generals Macefield and Forstmann begin realigning NATO’s air missions to provide air support for the Austrians and West German troops in the south.
Just because the Russian move is expected does not mean we’re happy campers.
We’ve been going after the Warsaw planes wherever we can find them so this doesn’t in any way reduce our overall capacity to fight in the air; but shifting planes south substantially reduces the ground support we can provide to our ground troops engaged in the Fulda area. The planes of the Pacific Fleet are still eight days away. If I understand the implications of this morning’s weather briefing, the planes from the Enterprise, the only American carrier in NATO’s Mediterranean fleet, are still at least 48 hours away from becoming available.
The army of neutral Austria is in the field and fully deployed along its northern border and interior passes. It’s been deployed for several weeks and is as ready as it will ever be. Unfortunately, the Austrian army is quite small and lightly armed. It’s going to need all the help it can get and we have no choice except to provide it.
If we do not help the Austrians, the Russians, Czechs, and Hungarians will not only be able to launch an offensive down the Danube Valley towards Munich, but they’ll also be able to move down through the passes in the Austrian Alps and attack Germany in the rear.
******
According to a follow-up call I got from Dick Spelling, the German Chancellor and the President are both in the process of calling the Austrian Chancellor to warn him of the imminent attack and tell him help is already on its way. A few minutes later, the President reached me at the Ninth Division headquarters where I was visiting. He had bad news.
“General Roberts, I’m sorry to have to report that the Austrian Chancellor, Alois Weissberg, is apoplectic with rage. He says Austria is going to remain neutral and that his troops have been ordered to fight everyone who invades Austria including, it seems, Americans and West Germans.”
Other than the Marine division that is forming up with the cadres from Korea, our troops in Southern Germany are almost exclusively German. The problem is that we have fewer than twenty of our one hundred or so motorcycle companies behind them to fill gaps and the new Marine division is nowhere near ready for even a token appearance.
The three German divisions in the south do, however, each have a Marine brigade. That’s important because the Marines can function as each division’s reserve—it means we can deploy a six brigades in front of the Russians instead of the three the Russians are expecting.
A few minutes later, after yet another conference call with Klausen and Spelling, I ordered the two German divisions deployed along the Polish border and ten more motorcycle companies moved south from the central front. These are all fresh and fully equipped units that have never been in combat.
By the end of the day we’ll have as many as eight West German brigades across the southern front with four Marine brigades in reserve and thirty companies of motorcycle skirmishers to fill any gaps that develop. We’ll also have a weakened central front.
We are also moving south the relatively small armor and artillery units of Germany’s First Airborne Division and America’s 10th Airborne. Those are the divisions from which we have been constantly pulling infantry and engineers for special operations.
If at all possible, we’ll use only the airborne divisions’ armor and artillery here in the south and hold the majority of their men, their elite airborne infantry, for the big airborne operation I have in mind to launch at the same time we invade the Baltic coast and turn lose the armor in the Forest Fortress – the Warsaw Pact airfields.
After a bumpy chopper ride back to headquarters and consulting with Dave Shelton and Mike Morton, I also decided that tonight we’ll send in our swimmers to cut the Budapest-Prague-Vienna railroad bridges and more of the secondary road bridges over the Danube. The bridges over the Danube in Hungary and the Czech Republic have already been destroyed. Tonight the two rail bridges over the Danube in Austria will join them in order to slow the Warsaw Pact advance.
And wonder of wonders, civilians are still being allowed to evacuate Berlin by train and road; the swimmers assigned to take down the bridges they are using will continue to stand by. The main problem at present time, according to the latest briefing, is finding enough German train drivers willing to make the trip and bring the civilians out.
******
Late in the afternoon the Nickel-Dime’s radio net came alive with reports of enemy movement to the front. I didn’t see a thing. The grenadier officer or whatever he is must have simultaneously received a similar report—he suddenly leaned forward on his elbows and raised his binoculars.
“Fire it up, Bobby,” I ordered as I searched the trees ahead and, without even looking, unclipped the tank’s SAM. Seconds later there was a big puff of black smoke as the Patton’s engine turned on and began its telltale rumble.
“What do you see, Willie?” was the anxious reply almost simultaneously from both Bobby and Freddy. The guys have all heard the battalion radio chatter and are anxious. So am I.
“Nothing yet. But be ready to put it in gear in case we have to move back in a hurry.”
There it is. “Movement beyond the trees; helicopters.” I shouted a couple of minutes later. Seconds after that two Hind helicopters came in over the trees heading just to our left. Almost instantly the closest one let loose with a salvo of rockets. I couldn’t even get my SAM sighted before they were gone. “Shit.”
Suddenly the Hinds reappeared and made a big loop for another firing run. This time I pulled the trigger and fired without waiting for the “capture” tone—and missed by a country mile. Christ, that was dumb. I hope those motherfuckers didn’t see where it came from.
As I fired so did other shooters including two of the German grenadiers in their fox holes immediately to my right. They both stand up in their hastily dug holes and let loose.
There are at least six SAMs heading in its general direction when the second Hind makes a fatal mistake—it turns away from the tree line and exposed the heat coming out of its engine’s exhaust pipes.
