“That is what Karpov would probably do,” said Fedorov.
“Yes, Karpov sees power as a blunt instrument. He exercises considerable guile to get himself into a position to use it, but when the time comes for its application, he fails miserably. Do you think Hitler would make peace if we stop his attack on Gibraltar this way?”
“No sir, I do not. Look what the Americans did to Japan when they first firebombed Tokyo, then dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, and still that was not enough. It required Nagasaki as a further demonstration that annihilation was at hand should the Japanese not surrender. They did not know how many atomic weapons America possessed at the time. There were only three, but they might have had fifty for all the Japanese knew.”
“Interesting,” said Volsky. “We have only three-the same power that the Americans will have five years from now. Would they be enough to win this war, or at least bring it to a halt? This is the nightmare I have considered ever since we made the decision to stay here and side with the allies. Yes, it means that we might kill a great many people if we use these weapons. Then I weigh that against the millions that will die in this war, and think the cost may not be too high. It is a real dilemma, Fedorov.”
Then Volsky summed things up. “So on the one hand we see the limitations of our Moskit-II missiles, and how powerless we are to effect events involving land operations. Then on the other hand we hold a hammer that could smash Berlin and probably even kill Hitler in one blow.”
“But would it end there sir? Would we also have to smash Orenburg and Volkov, and then Karpov too? And what about Imperial Japan? Their empire begins from a much stronger position in the Pacific than they had in our history. Might it not take all our warheads to tame that dragon?”
“I see what you mean,” said Volsky. “We get dropped into the midst of the greatest war humanity has ever fought. Sometimes I feel like that fellow in the American shark movie.”
“Shark movie? Oh yes-you mean Jaws?”
Yes, the one where he is throwing chum over the side and the great shark suddenly appears.”
“Who can forget that scene.” Fedorov smiled.
“Well I see this war,” said Volsky, “and in spite of all the power we have now, I sometimes think we are going to need a bigger boat. Tovey and the British know this to be true. They know they cannot defeat Germany on their own. All they can do is try to hold on as best they can.”
“Agreed, sir. They desperately need the Americans to enter the war as soon as possible. They are the bigger boat I think you speak of. But if Karpov doesn’t get them to declare war on Germany early as he did once, then it will be up to the Japanese to light the fire that prompts the United States to enter the war.”
“Pearl Harbor? Do you think it will happen in this time line, Fedorov?”
“That is a very real possibility, but as Tovey said, it will be a long wait until December of 1941, and we may have to face our hour of paradox before then.”
“So here is something you can put that scheming mind of yours to work on, Fedorov.” Volsky tapped his Captain on the shoulder. “How can we get the United States into the war as soon as possible?”
“They seem likely to sit for some time while they build up their armed forces, sir. But America can be roused to sudden anger, as we have seen. When their old battleship Maine blew up mysteriously in Havana harbor, they used it as a pretext to go to war with Spain. ‘Remember the Maine, to hell with Spain’ became their battle cry in the Spanish-American war. Then there was the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915. It was a British ship, but there were 128 Americans aboard, and it enraged the country, hastening their entry into WWI. Pearl Harbor had an even more dramatic impact.”
“Indeed,” said Volsky. “Then how could we create a similar incident here if the Japanese do not take the matter into their own hands?”
“You mean sink an American ship?”
“I know it sounds treacherous, Fedorov, but we must consider all our options now. This war is simply too big for us to manage. It is too big a weight for Britain to carry. You know this. It will be a year or more before they can even contemplate real offensive operations that could make any difference in this war. And what will they do? They cannot invade France alone. In fact, they could not even invade North Africa alone to deal with the Vichy French. Tovey was just telling us that. We need a bigger boat, Fedorov, and there is only one nation on this earth that can build it-The United States of America. Only they can build the planes tanks and ships that will eventually stop Germany and win this war.”
A bigger boat… A bigger bomb. That had been the mentality that drove the nations of the world to the edge of annihilation. General MacArthur would sum it up in a speech to the nation after Japan’s surrender when he said of the use of war to resolve disputes: “We have had our last chance. If we do not now devise some greater and more equitable system, Armageddon will be at our door.”
Yet here, in the year 1940, Armageddon was still impossibly far away, over years of struggle and difficult sacrifice to be made by millions. For now, it was still about that bigger boat, the ships that Germany and Great Britain had built in their arms race before the outbreak of hostilities. And the largest and best ships on either side were now locked on a collision course to meet in the crucible of war.
Chapter 30
Admiral Lutjens had signaled farewell to Graf Zeppelin two hours ago, just before he made his bombardment run past the Faeroes. The vital aircraft carrier would not be risked in an Atlantic sortie at this time. Its role was restricted to provide air superiority on this mission, something Marco Ritter delivered with his characteristic bravado and skill. The carrier would return to Bergen with an escort of light cruisers and destroyers, and the heavy units would press on at high speed to make their breakout run to the Atlantic.
Ritter lingered in the skies over the Faeroes until he was satisfied that the British had no surprises there. They had not seen a whisper of enemy carrier based aircraft, leading Lutjens to believe that they had caught the British by surprise. Satisfied that the operation was successful, it was now time to find a friendly deck to land his 109-T, but strangely he signaled to his two wing mates to follow him south.
“Where are we going?” Klaus Heilich called on the short range radio channel.
“Just follow me, and you will see in good time.” Ritter banked away, his wing mates following smartly, and all three planes dove to a lower altitude. It was not long before they broke through the low clouds, heading east away from the Faeroes, skimming right down on the deck above the fitful sea. The roar of his planes engine thrummed with reassuring power, and Ritter smiled as he rode the wave tops. Then, looming out of a fog bank ahead, he saw the ship he was looking for, laughing when he heard the surprised voices of his wing mates.
“A little secret, Klaus,” he called on his radio. “That is the Goeben, our Flugdeckkreuzer, and we are all going to join them. Some of our best pilots are on that ship for this mission, Hafner, Brendel, Ehrler, so you had better mind your business!”
The ship was one of Admiral Raeder’s little surprises, a hybrid between a fast cruiser and a light escort carrier, with a small air squadron of 12 planes. There were already six fighters aboard, and three Stukas. Ritter’s flight would complete the squadron and, as the three fighters gained a little altitude to overfly the ship, they gawked at the sleek lines and unusual design. The forward section looked like one of the new Panzerschiffe cruisers, with a typical conning superstructure, a single stack, and two twin gun turrets forward with 28cm guns, just like those on the Scharnhorst. The barrels had been designed as spares for the battlecruisers, but had been worked into this design and put to better use instead of leaving them in the warehouses. Aft of this section the remaining two thirds of the ship was a flight deck, about 20 % shorter than the deck of the Graf Zeppelin.