Read Initiative (The Red Gambit Series Book 6) Online
Authors: Colin Gee
Initiative (The Red Gambit Series Book 6) (80 page)
Trews | _ | Scottish tartan trousers. |
V2 | _ | German long-range rocket, also known as the A4. |
Vár | _ | The Norse Goddess of oaths and agreements. |
Vickers Windsor | _ | British four-engine heavy bomber. |
VNIIEF | _ | Soviet Union's Central Research Institute of Experimental Physics. |
Winchester M-12 | _ | US pump action shotgun with an external tube 6 shot magazine. [12, 16, 20, and 28 gauge.] |
Winchester M-69 | _ | US bolt-action .22 rifle fitted with a suppressor. |
Wolf | _ | Marriage of a Panther hull and a Panzer IV turret. |
Wound Badge in Gold | _ | Awarded for five or more wounds due to hostile action, or total blindness, loss of manhood, or severe brain damage. |
X7 Rotkäppchen | _ | German wire-guided AT missile used during WW2. Literally 'Red Riding Hood', the missile apparently enjoyed success against the IS series of heavy tanks. |
XXI Submarine | _ | Also known as the Elektroboote, this was the ultimate in WW2 submarine design. |
Zis-151 | _ | Soviet six-wheeled heavy truck |
Zis-6 | _ | Soviet six-wheeled heavy truck |
ZSU-12-4 | _ | Soviet SPAA mount with 4 x 12.7mm DShKm machine-guns. |
ZSU-12-6 | _ | Soviet SPAA mount with 6 x 12.7mm DShKm machine-guns. |
Rosignoli, Guido
The Allied Forces in Italy 1943-45
ISBN 0-7153-92123
Kleinfeld & Tambs, Gerald R & Lewis A
Hitler’s Spanish Legion - The Blue Division in Russia
ISBN 0-9767380-8-2
Delaforce, Patrick
The Black Bull - From Normandy to the Baltic with the 11th Armoured Division
ISBN 0-75370-350-5
Taprell-Dorling, H
Ribbons and Medals
SBN 0-540-07120-X
Pettibone, Charles D
The Organisation and Order of Battle of Militaries in World War II
Volume V - Book B, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
ISBN 978-1-4269-0281-9
Pettibone, Charles D
The Organisation and Order of Battle of Militaries in World War II
Volume V - Book A, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
ISBN 978-1-4269-2551-0
Pettibone, Charles D
The Organisation and Order of Battle of Militaries in World War II
Volume VI - Italy and France, Including the Neutral Countries of San Marino, Vatican City [Holy See], Andorra and Monaco
ISBN 978-1-4269-4633-2
Pettibone, Charles D
The Organisation and Order of Battle of Militaries in World War II
Volume II - The British Commonwealth
ISBN 978-1-4120-8567-5
Chamberlain & Doyle, Peter & Hilary L
Encyclopaedia of German Tanks in World War Two
ISBN 0-85368-202-X
Chamberlain & Ellis, Peter & Chris
British and American Tanks of World War Two
ISBN 0-85368-033-7
Dollinger, Hans
The Decline and fall of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan
ISBN 0-517-013134
Zaloga & Grandsen, Steven J & James
Soviet Tanks and Combat Vehicles of World War Two
ISBN 0-85368-606-8
Hogg, Ian V
The Encyclopaedia of Infantry Weapons of World War II
ISBN 0-85368-281-X
Hogg, Ian V
British & American Artillery of World War 2
ISBN 0-85368-242-9
Hogg, Ian V
German Artillery of World War Two
ISBN 0-88254-311-3
Bellis, Malcolm A
Divisions of the British Army 1939-45
ISBN 0-9512126-0-5
Bellis, Malcolm A
Brigades of the British Army 1939-45
ISBN 0-9512126-1-3
Rottman, Gordon L
FUBAR, Soldier Slang of World War II
ISBN 978-1-84908-137-5
Schneider, Wolfgang
Tigers in Combat 1
ISBN 978-0-81173-171-3
Stanton, Shelby L.
Order of Battle – U.S. Army World War II.
ISBN 0-89141-195-X
Forczyk, Robert
Georgy Zhukov
ISBN 978-1-84908-556-4
Kopenhagen, Wilfried
Armoured Trains of the Soviet Union 1917 - 1945
ISBN
978-0887409172
Korpalski, Edward
Das Fuhrerhauptquartier [FHQu], Wolfschanze im bild.
ISBN 83-902108-0-0
Nebolsin, Igor
Translated by Stuart Britton.
Stalin’s Favourite - The Combat History of the 2nd Guards Tank Army from Kursk to Berlin. Volume 1: January 1943-June 1944.
ISBN 978-1-909982-15-4
Never was anything great achieved without danger.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Kenneth Strong, Chief of Military Intelligence to SHAEF, stood as his visitor was ushered in.
“General Gehlen. Good afternoon. Tea?”
The head of the Germany’s Military Intelligence Section shook his head.
“I’m afraid not, General Strong. I have only a little time. This is an unofficial call, as I told your aide. I must not be missed.”
In itself a curious statement, and one that piqued Strong’s interest.
“I’m all ears, General.”
No words came. Instead, Gehlen extracted a set of pictures from a grey folder and set them out on the desk.
“What am I looking at, General?”
“The Soviet Union’s May Day parade this year. I can only apologise, but I did not have sight of these pictures until yesterday, otherwise I would have brought them to you much earlier.”
Strong was puzzled.
“But we had a briefing document through, with pictures your agents took on the day… didn’t we?”
Gehlen sat back in his seat and shrugged.
“Yes, you did. These were not considered of sufficient quality to have been included in the original submission, neither did they appear to contain anything not covered elsewhere in the original briefing documents.”
“But they obviously do, or you wouldn’t be here, eh?”
“What do you see, General Strong?”
“Big bloody tanks, big bloody bombs, and some…”
“The bombs, Herr General.”
Strong concentrated.
“Big blighters, like I said. I assume the technical people have run up some numbers?”
“I regret that there were no pictures of these bombs in the original submission, Herr General. Otherwise, I would have been in your office many weeks ago.”
Strong screwed his eyes up, trying to make a deeper appreciation of the grainy photographs.
“Allow me to show you another photograph set, Herr General.”
Four more pictures were laid out, photos of excellent quality, precise and defined, showing a large bomb.
“These weren’t taken in Moscow in May, I’ll warrant.”
“No, Herr General. They were taken at Karup air base in Denmark on 12th December.”
Gehlen left it all hanging in the air and waited for Strong to put it all together.
“They look the same… admittedly these Moscow ones are a trifle fuzzy, but I think… and clearly you think, they’re the same, or at least born of the same bitch.”
The German intelligence officer could only nod.
SHAEF’s Intelligence Chief had a bell ringing in the back of his brain.
“Karup?”
Strong searched his mind and found the answer in a second.
“Bloody hell! Karup!”
“You understand the problem, Herr General.”
“Karup. Where the special unit is based.”
“Yes.”
“But the special unit has only recently formed there…”
“Yes… but…”
“But the advance units have been there for ages.”
“Yes, Herr General. The base was adapted in anticipation last year.”
Strong returned to the two sets of photos.
He knew no weapon had been deployed to Europe as yet.
Examining the Red Square photos again, the British officer posed the only question that really mattered.
“So what the merry hell are these?”
“The Karup unit started using weapons called Pumpkin bombs, which have the same size and ballistic characteristics, so I am told.”
Which roughly meant, German Intelligence has someone within the unit who supplied that very information.
“A B-29 bomber went missing in December last year… the 13th to be precise. Nothing remarkable, it was on a Pumpkin test-bombing mission in the southern Baltic. I think I now know where it went.”
“It came down in Russia?”
“It most certainly would seem so, Herr General, for I suspect these items paraded in Moscow are copies of the exact same Pumpkin bomb shown in the photos from Karup.”
The two locked eyes and the possibilities flowed silently back and forth.
Strong gave voice to their fears.
“Or are they?”
Gehlen stood.
“That, General Strong, is something our agencies need to find out very, very quickly.”
“Hai.”
The whispering voice responded in a controlled fashion, such was the tension throughout the submarine.
Adding an extra knot of speed gave Commander Nanbu Nobukiyo more opportunity to control his passage, the strong current having dragged the huge submarine a little closer to the Moroccan shore than intended.
“Up periscope.”
The gentle hissing of the extending tube was the loudest sound in the submarine, and drew more than one crewman’s attention.
Nobukiyo aimed the periscope at the lights of the Spanish town of Tarifa. He found the flashing light that marked the promontory.
“Mark.”
First officer Jinyo made a note of the bearing and checked the ship’s clock.
The periscope swivelled towards the Moroccan village of Eddalya, a normally sleepy place that tonight seemed wide-awake, courtesy of two men who were handsomely paid to light a beacon of celebration on the sea shore, ostensibly to hail the formation of the Moroccan Democratic Party for Independence but, in actuality, to provide a navigational point of reference for the passage of some vessels of interest to the Soviet Union.
I-401, Nobukiyo’s craft, was second in line, the procession of four vessels led by I-1, with I-14 bring up the tail, sandwiching the two huge Sen-Tokus.
Nobukiyo easily found the beacon.
“Mark.”
Jinyo moved to the navigation table and handed the two bearings and times to the navigation officer.
Within seconds, the map showed two intersecting pencil lines, marking I-401’s present position.
“As it should be, Commander.”
“Depth forty metres. Time to turn?”
Jinyo checked the navigator’s work.
“Three minutes, Commander.”
“Up periscope.”
Nobukiyo repeated the process of getting bearings.
He took a quick sweep round and saw nothing that troubled him.
“Down periscope.”
“We’ve drifted south, commander.”
“Increase speed by two knots…recalculate.”
The two senior officers exchanged looks as the navigator fretted over his map and slide rule.
“Depth is approximately three hundred and sixty metres here, yes?”
“Yes, Commander.”
The navigator interrupted.
“Seventy seconds to turn, Commander.”
Nobukiyo grunted by way of reply.
The clock slowly made its way to the appropriate point.
“Lieutenant Dosan. New heading?”
The navigator never looked up from his table.
“Zero-eight-eight, Commander.”
“Come to starboard. Steer course zero-eight-eight. Make our depth one hundred and thirty metres.”
The orders were repeated, and the huge submarine turned and dropped further into the waters where the Atlantic and Mediterranean mixed.
Nobukiyo thought about the other submarines breaking through the straight at the same time, and of yet others ships, vital to the plan, many miles behind them.
Still out in the Atlantic were the support ships I-353 and the Bogata Maru, the latter now returned to the original German look as the German freighter ‘Bogata’, although Japanese crew managed her, and the submarine tender modifications were retained.
Bogata had been anchored on the protected east side of the island of Deserta Grande, one of the Madeira Islands.
Beneath her keel, I-353 lay on the bottom by day, surfacing by night, waiting until other arrangements could be brought to fruition.
In the South Atlantic,
Nachi Maru and Tsukushi Maru, two submarine tenders under Allied orders, and laden with returning prisoners of war, were ready to do their part when needed.
The
Hikawa Maru 2, a hospital ship, also carried Allied servicemen being repatriated, as well as other things more crucial to Operation Niji.
Nobukiyo snatched himself from his musings and put his mind firmly back on the mission in hand.
Commander Nobukiyo took up his seat and closed his eyes, displaying no nerves about the venture they were now engaged in.
After all, many German U-Boats had successfully done the same journey, and in times when the Allies were much more aware.
Now that peace, such as it was, ruled the world, the passage would be that much easier.
Nobukiyo certainly hoped so, for the Black Sea was still a very long way away, even with the Turks turning a convenient blind eye.
Perhaps, by the time it came for them to exit the Mediterranean and seek the freedom of the Atlantic once more, things might be different, but they would climb that mountain when it was there in front of them.
Until then, there was one small fact that constantly niggled away in the back of his mind, a fact he did not care to share with any of his crew.
It announced itself once more, and he felt a chill run down his spine.
As he conned his submarine into the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea, his mind battled to put the fact back where it belonged.
He failed, and his processes suddenly all locked on to the one inescapable fact.
Once in the Mediterranean, no U-Boat had ever made it out.
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