Breakthrough (The Red Gambit Series) (25 page)

Again the British had come up trumps, finding that
thousands of
returning POW’s volunteered to go to the front again. This meant that many under strength infantry units received a trained influx, albeit of men who in many cases needed more meat on their bones after time in captivity. It was also enabling the British to form some new divisions
that
would be available in a relatively short time, again an extremely positive piece of news.

The French too followed suit, although their men had been in captivity longer and were less aware of the rigours of modern combat. None the less, manpower was always welcome.

Conspicuously absent was any talk of another force in preparation by the French
,
and Eisenhower, not officially knowing, could not ask
on its
progress or
availability.

His two selfs surfaced momentarily.

‘Now why is it we don’t argue about those suckers?’

‘Beats me, General.’

A word to
Colonel Hood
should secure him the information he needed on the ex-SS Foreign Legion units.

‘
Later.
’

For now
,
Ike could see
the same
Thomas
Bell
Hood hovering with Captain Foster, both looking fit to burst.

Lighting up and taking a deep draught of his coffee
,
he becko
ned both forward
,
unaware that a
forty year old mother of three
was about to set before him the information needed to
start
stop
ping
the Russians.

“Good morning Anne-Marie, Thomas. This will have to be brief as I have….”

“Sir, Captain Foster has something very interesting
and you
are
going to want to hear it.”

Colonel Thomas Bell Hood was a southern gentleman and
not prone to interrupting his Commander in C
hief.

Unusually i
rritated but curious
,
the under-pressure Eisenhower held his tongue and very deliberately extracted a cigarette before inviting the information
.

“Sir, my apologies. It is just that this is gold dust
,
Sir.”

“OK Thomas. Things are a little fraught around here so let’s move on. What have you got for me?”

“Well Sir, you directed
me
last week that
I
should look at
Soviet
capabilities, particularly their trained manpower.
”

“Indeed I did
,
Colonel, and I assume you have found something of note?”

Hood could have swung into the presentation but he wasn’t that sort of man. Foster had sniffed it out first
,
so he deferred to her so she would get the credit.

“Sir, Colonel Hood tasked a number of us with looking at availability, behaviour and losses of the various speciality branches of the Red Army.”

She laid out
five
reports before her General.

Indicating the first report she continued.

“This is low-level intelligence report originating from 12th Group. It gave me my first real
indication
,
Sir.”

Inclining her head so she could quote from it she placed her finger under the relevant section.

“
Soviet
bridging units seem slower to respond than expected, sometimes appearing after some hours or not appearing at all. This causes inevitable delay for the
Soviet
advance.”

“OK Anne-Marie. I got that. And?”

“This
is an extract I obtained from the
interrogation
report
of
the German General Karl Burdach, commander of the elite 11th Infanterie Division in
Russia
.”

Again she found the passage and read it aloud.

“
Soviet
engineers were
numerous
,
as well as being
extremely effective and competent.
Temporary bridges to get infantry across water obstacles could spring up in a matter of minutes and more substantial ones in a few hours. They should take much credit for the rapid
Soviet
advances
,
for as quick as we could knock them down, it seemed they were putting them up just as quickly and continuing the advance.”

Not stopping Foster reached across for the third document.

“Here we have some rough timings that I have gathered from intelligence reports. It appears that water obstacles are causing unexpected delays to the
Soviet
advances. This information has been out there all the
time;
it was just a question of bringing it all together.”

This time the woman did not recite, permitting her General to scan the list.

Eisenhower’s interest had already been aroused but he was now looking at evidence that the blowing of bridges was having a huge impact on the
Soviet
advance.

“Is there more
,
Anne-Marie?”

“Yes Sir. Intercepts which have been partially decoded seem to indicate that
Soviet
bridging
units
are now, in the main, Army Group assets at the very least. This would limit their availability
,
and could explain why there is a delay when they do arrive on site.”

Ike lit another cigarette, his mind working overtime.

“However
,
Sir, it is in behaviour that I find unusual activity which could be the biggest clue of all.”

She slid the last piece of paper under Ike’s gaze.

“
This is a post-combat report from the British
605
Squadron. They had b
een tasked with an attack on a
Soviet
engineer bridge
laid over the
Fuhse
River
at Groß Ilsede.”

She realised her omission immediately
but was swiftly rescued by Hood, who
grabb
ed a small map and pointed out the location. T
he
military
importance of maintaining a bridge there
was immediately obvious
.

“Thank you
,
Thomas.
Proceed, Captain.”

“Well Sir, they failed to bomb it because it wasn’t there.”

“I’m sorry?”

“The engineers had packed it up and moved
it
off
,
and as far as we know
,
there is still no bridge at Groß Ilsede
,
which has to be causing logistical difficulties for them
.”

Eisenhower looked at the map, and back to the RAF report, moving on over each piece of paper in turn.

His officers stood back respectfully to await his response.

“So you are telling me that
the
huge
Red A
rmy is running out of bridges?”

Captain Foster cleared her throat.

“Sir, what I believe is that the Red Army is conserving its bri
dging assets, be that bridges,
qualified personnel
or both
.
That is a departure from
their norms. According to the
German
interrogations this is unusual activity, again not the norm. They have changed the way they are controlled
for a reason
.”

Again, a nervous cough.

“Combat reports indicate that water obstacles are more of a problem to the
Soviet
s, even those which should be relatively easily overcome. We have a report that assets in place are being recycled prematurely, affecting their logistics
, probably
in favour of maintaining the advance
.”

Colonel Samuel Rossiter USMC was waved down and immediately responded to Eisenhower’s hand-signals.

“Sam, I want your opinion of this.
Again, if you please, Anne-Marie.”

Consuming another cigarette
,
he stood back and listened to it all again as Rossiter received the full brief.

“Well Sam, what do you think?”

“Can you give me two minutes please
, Sir?
I have something
that
can contribute to these proceedings.”

“OK Sam. Quick as you can please.”

The Colonel almost bounded out of sight
,
and Ike
fired off more of
his hand signals, this time encouraging a steward to bring coffee for the four officers.

Rossiter was back before the coffee was finished
,
so Ike calmly indicated the Marine’s own full coffee cup.

“Right. Before you give me that,” he indicated the paper in Rossiter’s hand, “Sam, what is your take on this?”

“She sold me
,
Sir.”

“As she has me. Well done Anne-Marie, well done.”

The smile on her face was worth the wait for Rossiter’s bombshell.

“So now then
,
Sam, what got you running?”

Rossiter’s identity as head of
OSS
was
still not
known
but he had, in his own right, recently been established as part of the Military Intelligence liaison team within SHAEF
,
and it was wearing that hat that he brought his information into open discussion.

“Sir, as you know
,
the
Soviet
s do not trust the
Polish
Army and have placed them in occupied
Poland
,
where they will only be called upon to defend their own country from seaborne invasion.”

“Indeed
Sam, and I also know you and the British have numerous agents in place reporting back. Might I assume one of them is responsible for that piece of
paper?
”

“You may
,
Sir. This is from the Brits and it came in this morning. The report comes from someone within the 4th
Polish
Engineer Brigade. He speaks of turning over any and all bridging equipment to the
Soviet
s on the 3rd August. He also speaks of how his unit is being employed to dismantle selected engineer bridges in
Northern Poland
. These are then transported to the west.
He describes how volunteers were sought to do engineering duties behind the front lines in
Europe
.
”

Something lit up in Eisenhower’s mind.

“The 3rd?
You say the 3rd?”

“Yes Sir, although the preparation order to do so came through some time before that,” and finding the information he sought
,
Rossiter looked straight into his commander’s eyes, “On the 23rd July
,
Sir.”

“
Good god. T
hey were stripping bridging assets out before
the
combat losses, so they were obviously short
prior to
starting
this
goddamn
mess, as well as being prepared to risk Poles putting up their bridges. Short on qualified personnel too
possibly
?”

Neither Colonel ventured an opinion.

The captain had no such qualms.

“I believe that they are short on both assets
,
Sir.”

“
Explain please
,
Anne-Marie.”

She took the plunge.

“My apologies
,
Sir. I presented what I knew. I left something out and I was going to explore it more when time permitted.”

“Go on.”

“I have not seen one report of a
ssault bridging engineer works
in combat
,
and yet the
Soviet
s are trained for it
,
and
most certainly
are renowned for it
. It struck me as odd at the time
,
Sir.”