The Invasion of 1950 (50 page)

It just sounded like bravado to him.

Chapter Forty-Two

Berlin, Germany

The
Fuhrer
was
not
happy.

Himmler kept his head down and watched as Hitler worked himself up into a rage. The Führer’s
rages had been coming more and more frequently over the past few years – he could move rapidly from a thoughtful cultured man to a screaming child throwing a temper tantrum – but it was rare to see him so persistently angry. The SS doctors employed specifically to monitor the Führer’s
health had warned that the Führer’s
mind was stronger than his body, but his body was on the verge of breaking down completely. Hitler should, by rights, have been removed to somewhere where he could spend his last few years in peace, but Himmler, staring at him, found it impossible to countenance such a suggestion.

He looked at the small man to whom he’d given his loyalty and wondered, again, what would happen when Hitler died. By Himmler’s own estimate, made privately and kept solely in the confines of his own head, the
Fuhrer
had less than two years before his heart gave out or some other part of his body failed. Himmler had no wish to speed Hitler’s end – he loved and respected Hitler too much to even consider hurting him, let alone killing him – but it pained him, seeing the man who was responsible for so much being brought down by his own body.

He would have healed Hitler in an instant if he had the power, but not even the most gruesome experiments in the concentration camps had yielded a medicine or procedure that would save Hitler’s life. The SS doctors had worked with a total absence of medical ethics and created all manner of miracles, from transplants to the perfect contraception, used to prevent the sub-humans from breeding, but they hadn’t found anything that could be used for Hitler. He might see the next year, but Himmler suspected that it wouldn’t be long before Hitler finally passed away. When that happened….

“Treachery at the highest levels,” Hitler thundered, spittle flying from his mouth. Himmler watched with growing concern; he had seen Hitler fake a rage before, but this one was distressingly real. “Who is to blame for our defeat?”

Field Marshal Erich von Manstein spoke before Himmler could inject anything. This was a more important matter than anything else, even though he wanted to see the Army humbled; he didn’t want that to happen at the expense of overall victory. Britain would belong to Germany.

“
Mein Fuhrer
, the British were able to stop one of our pincers and prevent it from stabbing deep into their vitals,” he said grimly. He might have been one of Hitler’s favourites, but the bearer of bad news was never popular at Hitler’s court. Hitler might order him stripped of his rank and exiled at any moment. “That was nothing more than a local victory, one that Rommel was rapidly able to turn to his advantage and use to convince the British that further attacks were a bad idea.”

Hitler was unconvinced. “I want details,” he snapped, his voice sounding marginally calmer. “What happened and why?”

Manstein paused for a moment. When he responded, he spoke in a careful, calm voice. It was as if he were speaking to a wild and dangerous animal. “The first attacks were completely successful. Rommel moved up his two main striking units, the 7
th
Panzer and
Das Reich
and punched through the British lines at the critical locations. Successive attacks by our infantry prevented the British from closing the gaps and in fact, hours into the fighting, the gaps had been torn wide enough to prevent the British from closing them. The main striking forces charged onwards and rapidly surrounded Colchester before pushing deeper into British territory.

“At this point, there were a number of local British counter-attacks and Rommel made the decision to seal off the cities, like we did at Leningrad, rather than risk the losses involved with taking them directly,” he continued. “The main body of the assault force moved to reinforce 7
th
Panzer, but…at that moment, the British launched a major counter-attack. General Rommel therefore ordered a pause to consolidate his gains before resuming an advance.”

Himmler was almost impressed. Manstein had taken what was, to all intents and purposes, a defeat and turned it into something that Hitler, while far from happy, could live with. It wasn't the easy victories of 1939 and 1940, but then, Hitler had been just as nervous as the rest of them during that period when they had taken a new and almost untried army into battle against the dreaded French Army and their British allies. Hitler, too, had feared them; Himmler sometimes wondered if the light treatment of the French under the New Order was a remnant of that fear.

“I see,” Hitler said, his eyes darkening. His face was returning to normal, much to Himmler’s relief; he didn’t want Hitler to have a heart attack in public. It would be harder to conceal the Führer’s
death until he had his own plans underway for taking complete power in the
Reich
. “When will Rommel go on the offensive again?”

“He believes that he will be reinforced sufficiently within two weeks and, by then, he hopes to have consolidated his gains and wipe out or capture most of the pockets of resistance,” Manstein said. “We will be focusing on delivering as much in the way of supplies as Rommel needs, as well as regenerating the air force units that took part in the battle, including the ones that were weakened by the British.”

His voice droned on. Himmler listened thoughtfully, considering the private report he’d received on the side; the losses had been much heavier than anyone had predicted. The pessimists had predicted that Rommel’s forces could get brutally hurt –
would
be – but they’d never suggested just how bad it actually was. Rommel had lost well over ten thousand men and hundreds of vehicles; the scale of the defeat would have been disastrous under any previous regime.  The British had been hurt too…but how badly?

“This is beside the point,” Himmler said suddenly. Everyone in the room, even Hitler, looked at him with some surprise. It wasn't like him to take control of the meeting, at least not when military matters were involved. “Our priority is defeating the British and ensuring that their country enters the New Order on our terms. Can we hold the lodgement if the British counter-attack before the reinforcements are in place?”

Manstein nodded. “The British would meet our own infantry, dug in and positioned for defeating any armoured thrusts of theirs,” he said firmly. “Our antitank weapons are actually better than theirs and our infantry more experienced, so I believe that we could hold the lodgement itself for much longer, if necessary.”

“Good,” Himmler said. “That leaves us with one question. What are we going to do about the British Navy?”

All eyes turned to
Generaladmiral
Erich Raeder, who looked unhappy. “I wanted to attempt to block the Panama Canal, but I was forbidden from doing so or engaging the British Navy anywhere near American units,” he said. “The net result of that is that the British Far Eastern Fleet has passed through the Panama Canal, met up with troop transports from Canada, and is proceeding to Britain at high speed. This force is accompanied by three older American battleships, officially to prevent the British from getting any ideas of invading Panama, but effectively preventing us from engaging them as well.”

“They’re lying,” Himmler said flatly. “The British have quite enough problems without adding the United States to their list of enemies. This is daring us to open fire on American ships.”

Admiral Canaris smiled thinly. “The American Government’s official position is that the United States is not involved in the fighting and expects to remain that way,” he said. “Unofficially, they are definitely providing a high degree of support to the British, including several shipments of weapons and a few thousand volunteer soldiers. Their ships are providing additional convoy escorts for any convoy that happens to include an American ship, and, as you can imagine, that is all of them.

“I don’t know if the American Government can push this much further without some assistance from us,” he continued, “but President Taft has clearly decided to use the conflict to his advantage, at least in some ways. Dewey left Taft with a series of problems, but he has shown himself able to use the war to his advantage. How it will work out in the long run remains to be seen, but at the moment, we must reckon the Americans to be actively supporting the British, and to all intents and purposes, to be at war with us.”

“They will pay for this,” Hitler thundered, his face darkening again. “A mere command could send hundreds of bombers to flatten New York, and our submarines will sweep their ships from the sea!”

Himmler found himself, for once, trying to talk the
Fuhrer
out of something. “
Mein Fuhrer
, the priority for the moment is the British,” he said. “The task of confronting the United States and bringing it into the New Order will have to wait until we have defeated the British. Then  expand our own armed forces to the point where we could launch a major offensive against the United States.”

Hitler rounded on him. “And could they stand against our might if we dealt them a mighty blow?”

Himmler scowled. “We could not make the first blow fatal,” he said very calmly. “If we failed to make the blow shattering, the Americans would build up and crush us under the sheer weight of their industrial production.”

He found an ally in Speer. “In ten years, our industry will expand to the point where we can break the Americans,” the industrialist said. “Until then, we can ignore the Americans and watch as the British fume in helpless rage, aware of what they could do with American support, but helpless to get it and bend it to their use.”

“America will one day fall,” Hitler said, promising the room. “And so, what are we going to do about the British fleet?”

“We believe that the American ships will escort them until they reach Ireland,” Raeder said. “The Americans took over the former British bases in Eire and expanded them during 1942, as part of Roosevelt’s increasingly desperate attempts to convince the American public to join the war. The Irish Government, despite maintaining an official neutrality, has reluctantly agreed to serve as a transhipment point and, we fear, should also be considered an enemy nation by now. The British reinforcements will unload on Ireland, ship or fly over to Britain, and march up to join the front-line”

He paused.

“The British Navy will then move to destroy the
Kriegsmarine
, and it is there that we must defeat them,” he said. “The British fleet will be numerically superior to ours, but we have advanced technology and the support of land-based aircraft. Our capability to use tankers to support our aircraft will present the British with a series of technological surprises such as they have never imagined.”

Hitler, always keenly interested in new technology, listened with the greatest of attention.

“This will stun the British as our forces attack their fleet directly,” Raeder assured him. “As soon as they realise that their aircraft have been caught out of position, they will be forced to react to us, at which point we will launch our carrier aircraft to join the strike and complete the destruction of the British carriers and their battleships. Once that is completed, the seas will be completely under our control, and we will reinforce at will before taking London and ending the war.”

“Excellent,” Hitler said. His voice seemed much happier now. “I will, of course, examine the plans and maybe add my own refinements, but on the whole, I approve of your plans. The invasion of England is in good hands.”

“Thank you,
Mein Fuhrer
,” Raeder said. “I will ensure that the pilots are aware that you are thinking of them when they go into battle.”

“Regardless, I am disturbed by Churchill’s success at rallying the British to continue their resistance,” Hitler said, changing the subject without missing a beat. “Why does he continue to embrace opposition when it is so futile?”

Himmler knew the expected answer.

“Because Churchill is an old reactionary dog who doesn't understand that his time is past and his teeth have fallen out,” he said, remembering some of the jokes that were told about Churchill on Radio Berlin. The British leader was frequently caricatured in German newspapers, sometimes to hilarious effect, sometimes in mockery that irritated even Himmler. “He feels that as long as he can hold the hope of American assistance, he can save the remains of his crumbling empire.”

Hitler rounded on Joachim von Ribbentrop. “And how have the Iranians responded to our proposal that they invade Iraq and India at once?”

Ribbentrop hesitated. He had just come back from a series of diplomatic missions to German allies looked tired. His competence, too limited to be trusted with anything too serious, was curtailed to making nice with people, although Philby had reported, much to Himmler’s private delight, that Lord Halifax had regarded Ribbentrop as a fool, a moron, and a babbling lunatic. The very idea of sharing anything with Lord Halifax made Himmler smile. He wouldn’t have expected that they had any points in common.

“They are on the verge of moving into Iraq,” he said finally, foregoing the fact that they had been on the verge of moving ever since the war began. It wasn't really a coincidence that most of their army units were kept in the north of Iran. “They are waiting for the British to be soundly defeated before they advance.”

“Then they will only have to wait two weeks,” Hitler said thoughtfully. “And so, how can we strike at Churchill himself?”

“My reports from London suggest that Churchill is a very isolated figure,” Himmler said smiling. “If he were to be removed, then the British Government would be in disarray, maybe even willing to consider a compromise peace.”

Hitler looked thoughtful. His whims reshaped the face of Europe. He had had Stalin crawling on the ground in front of him and kept Mussolini in power, rather than having him replaced with a more competent pro-German Italian, and there were thousands of those. He tolerated Franco rather than sending in the Panzers to avenge the occasional insult; he encouraged the French to settle in North Africa, just to alter the demographics of France. Deep inside, Himmler wondered if Hitler respected Churchill, at least on some level, or maybe it was just the desire to have Churchill grovelling in front of him as well. Atlee wouldn’t really have made a good substitute.

“He may have to be removed,” Hitler agreed finally. “How do you intend to accomplish this miracle?”

“I think that had best be kept between you and me,” Himmler said after a long moment. Someone had been passing on information to Britain, and when that person was caught, his fate would serve as a warning for a thousand years. “Churchill will die, and his successor will make peace with us.”