Winter Storm (24 page)

Volkov
knew he had the Führer’s attention now, and it was time for the big lie. He
knew he could never just come out and reveal the whole truth about that ship,
or even his own origins and identity. But the Germans had already felt the bite
of these advanced modern weapons, so he was playing on a very real fear in
Hitler’s mind. His line was baited, and now it was time to try and catch his
fish.

“You
believe the Soviets have a working prototype of this weapon?”

“Possibly.”

“On
that battlecruiser? Why would they deploy it in that manner? Wouldn’t it be far
more useful to put it on a bomber and visit Berlin?”

“That,
too, remains a real possibility, but at the moment, your Luftwaffe is still
very strong, and the airspace over Berlin is well defended—against traditional
aircraft.” There was the bait, twitching and curling on the line. “It was
interesting how Karpov was able to bomb your city with utter impunity. He
simply flew higher in his obsolete airship than any plane in your inventory.
Suppose he drops something else the next time he tries that little trick? In
fact, this raid on Berlin may have been designed to simply test that
possibility.”

“I
see…” Hitler was listening very closely now. “But this ship… You say you
believe it may have a prototype weapon?”

“That
is a real possibility. They deploy it there, and why not? All of their other
advanced rocket technology is on that ship, which is why it can defend itself
so well. It can see and shoot down planes before they even get within range. In
fact, given that advantage, and with the weapons we fear they may already have,
that ship could single handedly destroy an entire navy. And now this Vladimir Karpov
has it under his thumb, and he is sailing east to the Pacific, most likely to
see about the matter of all that Siberian territory the Japanese are sitting
on. He will have a ship that can sink the Japanese aircraft carriers as easily
as your own
Graf Zeppelin
was dealt with, and he will have these
terrible, accurate rockets that can deliver a warhead to land based targets as
well. Any major city in Japan could be hit by a missile, and if my fears are
borne out, that city would be utterly destroyed, with one blow, if they do have
a working prototype.”

Volkov
already knew it was not a question of if here.
Kirov
certainly carried
nuclear weapons, this he knew for a fact, given that he was a naval
intelligence officer. Yet he had to speak of the threat in this manner with
Hitler now, as he could not simply come out and tell him the full story.

Hitler’s
silence was testimony to the fact that Volkov’s own missile had struck home.
The Führer was finally beginning to see the real threat implied by these
advanced wonder weapons, a subject that would be dear to his heart for many
years to come, should he survive to live them.

“We are
racing to catch up,” Volkov pressed. “Yet now everything is on the razor’s
edge. If they do have a prototype, that ship is where it will be harbored. And
if they do ever get a mind to overfly Berlin again with one of these obsolete
Zeppelins…” He gestured to his own ship now, hovering silently in the skies
above the Wolf’s Lair, clearly visible out the wide windows of the conference
room.”

“I
begin to understand why you have come here today,” said Hitler. “You believe
they mean to test this prototype against the Japanese.”

“Precisely.
They will use it as a threat, possibly to force the Japanese to concede their
lost territories.”

“Tojo
will never comply with such a threat.”

“Perhaps
not… until he sees what these new weapons can do.”

“And if
this is all true,” said Hitler, “and this test is successful?”

“Karpov
could knock the Japanese out of the war before they even get started. Yes, Herr
Hitler, the backward Siberians are now a major strategic threat. I hope I’ve
impressed at least that much upon you in this discussion. However, I know how
this can be avoided, and the threat completely neutralized. I know where the
new weapons development facilities were relocated, in Siberia, as I have told you
earlier. Yes, I know exactly where they are, and I have a plan…”

“Tell
me,” said Hitler, a captive audience now.

Volkov
smiled. “That is exactly the reason I came here, because to realize this plan,
Herr Hitler, I will need your help, and the able assistance of the German
military.”

“Where
is this facility?” Asked Hitler, his eyes widening, now
those awful dark empty portals that would devour the entire world with their
hunger.

“In
Siberia. Near Kansk, to be specific.”

“Kansk?
Isn’t that the location of that little raid you mounted recently?”

“Now
you begin to see why I have already tried to attack this place. The first was a
mere reconnaissance, the second a raid in force, but I was surprised by the
sudden appearance of this Vladimir Karpov, a man I thought had perished in that
Zeppelin crash over the English Channel. Well, as it turns out, that was merely
a cover story.”

“Obviously,”
said Hitler. “Though I gave the matter no concern, nor the man himself, until
this moment. Go on…”

“Karpov
flew to meet with Kirov in Moscow,” said Volkov, “Following that, he had the
temerity to overfly Berlin and test his prospects for a successful attack on
your city. Yes? He then flies to London, his presence there covered up by that
story about the storm over the English Channel. That even fooled my people, and
they are very good! Well he was probably there to consult and coordinate plans
with the British. And then what happens? The next thing we know, Karpov is rubbing
cheeks with Sergei Kirov again, inviting him to relocate all his munitions and
arms plants in Siberia, offering him raw materials and well trained rifle
divisions, men who are opposing your drive on Moscow at this very moment. In
return, what does he get? Five Zeppelins, and the most advance ship in the
world comes into his greedy hands, along with all the weapons that ship now
carries! Sergei Kirov paid a much higher price for Siberian support than you
realize.”

“Indeed,”
said Hitler, finally seeing how all the pieces of the puzzle came together.

“So now
Karpov commands the ship that has bedeviled your navy,” said Volkov, “challenging
and besting the fruit of your entire Plan Z naval building program. My
intelligence service was always suspicious of the sudden uptick in activity
around Kansk. It was a backwaters region, far from the front lines, but now we
see why. It was located there for reasons of security. Few planes can reach it,
certainly none that I possess have the range. Only my obsolete airships can
pose a threat to it, and this solves the riddle of why I would bother mounting
that raid that went so badly. It was ill planned, but next time, I will get
things right, because I never make the same mistake twice, rest assured.”

“So you
intended to attack and destroy that facility?”

“Of course,
but both operations were foiled. The first reconnaissance mission involved only
two airships, but it was stopped by the unexpected presence of a Soviet airship
on the scene, and ground troops which used a new weapon to take down the
Oskemen
,
that was one of the ships I sent on that mission.”

“A
rocket weapon?”

“Something
very much like one. My intelligence services have obtained the plans, and I
will make a little gift to you soon. Well then, Soviet involvement in that
incident did not escape my notice. I subsequently learned that the naval
arsenal for these new rocket weapons was located in that very same area, and so
my recent raid was, in part, meant to destroy that facility, or better yet, to
gain control of it long enough to get away with a prototype.”

“I
see…” Hitler nodded, following all of this with great interest now. In spinning
out this web of deceit, Volkov was drawing on half truths, for in his day,
Kansk was indeed the site of a Russian naval weapons armory, and many modern
missiles and other warheads were stored there, though they were all some 80
years beyond his grasp, or so he believed… Until he learned the full truth
about Ilanskiy. That was something he could never tell Hitler about, but the
picture he was painting for him now would hopefully be very compelling, and
gain the support he was needing to carry out a plan he had hatched in his
devious mind long ago.

“To
make a long story short, that is where the weapons development plants were
relocated, priceless technology, prototype rockets, all just sitting there for
the taking. My attempt to do so was foiled by Karpov. Yes, I will give him one
thing, he is a very skilled Fleet Admiral, and I lost some very good men in
that ill fated raid.”

“You
said you have a plan,” said Hitler, eager to learn more.

“Karpov
thinks he’s beaten me now. He plopped a few divisions down at Kansk and the
nearby hamlet of Ilanskiy, where he has established his new fleet headquarters.
Why choose such an isolated place, I wondered? Now we both know. Well, it is said
that while the cat is away, the mice will play. I plan on revisiting Kansk and
Ilanskiy, only this time I will take my entire airship fleet. My last raid
involved only a small portion of that fleet, only eight ships in the beginning,
and my reinforcements arrived too late. This time I will take everything I
have, all sixteen airships in one massive mailed fist. Each ship can lift a
full company, and my men are drilling for the mission even now, eager to avenge
their fallen comrades, who were dealt with very badly after that last mission.”

“Sixteen
companies?” Hitler shook his head.

“More
like twenty, as I will rig out my biggest ships to carry as many men as
possible.”

“That
is still hardly enough to oppose those rifle divisions on the ground there. You
may be a fine leader and statesman, Mister Volkov, but you are not a military
man. Any of my Generals would advise you that you would again be simply wasting
these resources and throwing those men away in such an operation.”

“Which
is why I come here to you,” said Volkov deftly. “ I need your expertise, your
support for planning and logistics, and above all, your finely trained troops.”

“My
troops? I’m afraid that is a little far for my panzer divisions to go.”

“But
not for your Falschirmjaegers…” There it was, the request, the close, and the
next man who said a word would lose, as Volkov knew very well. So he waited,
saying nothing, simply looking Hitler in those empty black eyes.

“You
want my airborne troops?” said Hitler.

“What
else? You are correct about the panzers.”

“And
you want them for another attack on these facilities—against three Siberian
rifle divisions? Madness!”

“Against
one
Siberian Rifle Division, the 78th. The others were both moved to the
Ob river line as a defensive garrison, as most of the troops that were posted
there have been shipped east to fight Guderian. Such an insult… The Soviets
conspire with the Siberians, they attack your ships at sea with their new
wonder weapons, and all before there was even a declaration of war. They conspire
with the British, and may have even assisted with the development of this new
heavy tank they have deployed in North Africa. Then Karpov actually bombs
Berlin, before marching off his best trained divisions to kill Germans in front
of Moscow. Such an insult, and you do nothing…”

The
darkness in Hitler’s eyes began to smolder now, a fire kindling there that
seemed a ravenous hunger, driven by his growing anger. Volkov knew just how to
stoke that flame, and the lure he had used, the mystery of these new wonder
weapons dangling at the end of his hook, was all he really needed.

“You do
nothing! Well I propose that we end that miserable situation, and show this
Vladimir Karpov exactly who he is dealing with now. Here is my plan. I can lift
sixteen to twenty companies.”

“That
is no more than a few regiments,” said Hitler.

“Yes,
but my airships are quite fast. They can deliver those troops, and then race
back to our airfields to take on additional forces. And your Luftwaffe can lift
a good deal more.”

“What?
We have no more Zeppelins. Planes we have in abundance, but, if I am not
mistaken, that location is well beyond their range, even if we were to use
captured airfields in Russia.”

“But
not if your planes flew from my territory,” said Volkov. “I have airfields at
Oskemen, and several new fields we built near Novosibirsk to support our Ob
River campaign.”

“Which
got you nowhere,” said Hitler, unconvinced.

“True,
because I needed those troops elsewhere, but I still have several divisions in
that sector. I stood down that attack merely to put my enemy off his guard. By
opening my Volga offensive, I convinced Karpov that my main effort would now be
in the west, against the Soviets. This was, in part, a good reason why he could
afford to send all those divisions to Sergei Kirov. He now has only four
divisions in Western Siberia, one at Kansk, and the other three have moved to
the Ob River line defenses.”

“What
about all his troops in the far east?”

“Yes,
he has another twelve divisions there, mostly around Irkutsk and Lake Baikal.
He needs to maintain that force level against the Japanese Kwantung Army, which
has fourteen divisions at my last count. You see, the Siberians, with Karpov
sailing east, are just about to initiate open hostilities with the Japanese,
and Tojo will not like that one bit. They will surely act against the Soviet
defenses at Irkutsk, and so all those troops in the far east will be well
occupied.”

“That
is a reasonable assumption,” said Hitler, warming to the strategic questions
around this strange proposal.

“Now
then,” said Volkov. “Here is the plan. You have an excellent, proven airborne
strike force in your 7th Flieger Division.”

“Most
of those troops are still in northern Syria,” said Hitler.

“And
you also have the 22nd Air Landing Division in reserve in the Russian theater.
Thankfully, you took my good advice and avoided a debacle at Crete. Malta was a
much better catch, as Crete can be pounded and hounded from both the sea and
from airfields in Italy. Rest assured, you will not regret your decision to
cancel Operation Merkur. Yet the objective here is far more enticing, perhaps
the greatest intelligence cache of the entire war, advanced missile designs,
just sitting there waiting for us to pounce and take them.” That was, of
course, the big lie, but Volkov told it with a very straight face.

“And
your plan?”

“Strike
like lightning, come like a winter storm, seize those facilities, and reap the
harvest.”

Hitler
did not seem very enthusiastic. “You want German troops to support such an
operation? I’m afraid that will be out of the question. I cannot commit such a
valuable asset so far from our supporting lines. Besides, I have other
operations planned for our Falschirmjaegers. I can offer you air support, but
not troops.”

“Perfectly
fine. I do not need your troops, just the transport planes from your 11th
Fliegerkorps. I have a full airborne division, though I can only lift one or two
regiments at any one time, as you just pointed out. But Germany has a
substantial airlift capability. Your transport planes can reach my territory
easily enough. Simply muster them at Constanta on the Black Sea, then fly
across that sea to reach my airfields in the Caucasus. The Soviets will see
this as part of your operations against that vital sector, and that will serve
as a good cover story. We will leak the information that a German supply
operation is underway to the Caucasus. Once there, they can transfer by night
to Astrakhan, and then on to our forward air bases.”

“Yes,
but a very long way to go,” said Hitler, considering the matter.

“I will
prepare several designated locations along the way for the planes to land and
refuel. The RAF does this all the time. They leap frog across Africa to fly in
planes to Egypt, and we will show them we have the same capability.”

“Are
your forward airfields within range?” asked Hitler. “Our JU-52s can make no
more than a thousand kilometers on one mission, sometimes even less.”

“Yes,
old Aunty Ju hasn’t got the legs for a long haul. But her big sister does…”
Volkov smiled.

“You know
about…”

“About
the JU-252 project? I have the plans, Herr Hitler. As I have said, my people
are very good. Rest assured, your secret is safe with me. I understand
production has been underway for some time now?”

“Something
tells me you more than understand,” said Hitler, his eyes narrowed,
uncomfortable with the thought that this man knew such a thing. The JU-252 was
Germany’s replacement for the Ju-52 transport, and it was a plane that had much
better range and carrying capacity. Hitler had a mind to use it both for long
range air supply missions in Russia, and to augment his growing airborne
capability. He had no doubt that Volkov might also know of these plans. Hitler
wanted a plane that could transport these troops over much longer distances,
and he entertained many ideas about how he could use such a force. Now Volkov’s
daring plan began to capture his imagination, and he wanted to know more.

“And
after our planes reach your forward bases? Then what?” Hitler folded his arms,
waiting.

“Then
my sixteen airships lead the way. We spearhead the attack by seizing the
airfields at Kansk. That will be our first objective, so that your planes can
fly directly there from our forward bases. I will not even need the full
Fliegerkorps. Two regiments will do—perhaps 300 planes. The JU-52’s can do the
job. I have mapped it all out, and with this plan, we could build up our forces
very quickly. That would give me a full division on the ground in those crucial
early hours. That was the real reason I failed last time—insufficient airlift
capacity.”