The Patriarch nodded in understanding. For two months he had been forced to hide in basements and in one case a cave, to evade the Russian government. It had stiffened his resolve immensely. “Father, get word to our brethren in the services. Tell them God is hearing their voices. We urge them to let their consciences help them decided what to do. Tell them that God is always with those who desire righteousness and good. They have the blessings of the Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus,” he said calmly.
“Holy Father, if you are captured…”
The Patriarch held up his hand. “Be at peace, my son. Our cause is the cause of our Holy Father. I will not rest until his will is done,” he said.
The morning brief was not going well. “We can’t just keep throwing men and equipment into this. Production cannot keep up with our losses,” said the Defense Minister. “I don’t care what the generals say. We are bleeding like a butchered cow. I have pushed the production facilities to the breaking point, and we still are losing up to 100 aircraft a week. I won’t even go into the tanks. We are now bringing back some of our older models just to keep up. Then there are the people. No one is making their enlistment quotas. Now even the older men are refusing to leave their homes. If we cannot stop this hemorrhage, our efforts will be catastrophic. Now you want us to pull all our forces together for a giant push to the Channel. We are doing it, but it means leaving our eastern shores vulnerable. I have also stripped our forces from the oil fields and northern areas. Everything will go. I have also cut the rest and rebuilding of our already hard worked divisions and ordered them back to the front. We will make this big thrust, but it had better work,” he said firmly.
“It must work!” demanded Borodin. “The rest will work itself out in time. The American incursion on our east coast is a feint. Nothing more. The forces in Georgia and Ukraine must use what they can to stop the Turks and the other Allies.”
“That is easy for you to say,” shouted another minister. “In one month they have taken Baku on the Caspian Sea. Their forces are already on the other side of the Caucasus Mountains and moving west! By the time they reach Stavropol we won’t have a force left to engage them. And what about the Spanish and Italians? They are already in Moldova! The Moldovan government sent a message saying they do not have the forces to stop them and will remain neutral. At this rate, the forces will join up within the month. I have heard that their General Richardson is making plans to liberate Kyiv!”
“It won’t make any difference! Once our forces get through France, there will be no supplies to maintain their efforts,” countered Borodin, his anger rising.
“And what of our supplies,” said the Transportation Minister. “Our people are still in the dark. I have reports of people freezing to death each day. I have no fuel to run the trucks for the general population and the food shortages are getting dire,” he said calmly.
“It will just be for a short time more,” said Borodin. “The priority is our armed forces. We Russians can take whatever it costs in order to achieve a victory,” he said.
The Minister looked him square in the eyes. “You have been saying that for four months now. It has been a terrible winter so far and we still have another month of it. Now even our army is having difficulty getting their supplies through. You are correct. This big push of yours had better work,” he said with a hint of warning.
Borodin slammed his hand on the table. “Enough! I have heard enough bickering. We will all get behind this effort and that is an end to it!” he demanded. “Anyone not doing his part will find himself in a gulag in Siberia. Go back to your offices and make this happen!” he insisted before turning and storming out the room.
The Ministers looked at each other and gathered their papers. As they began leaving the room one of them murmured, “Now I know what it was like in the Fuhrer’s bunker.”
Several nodded at him as they silently left the room.
The cold was so bitter no one dared venture out of a building. With the fuel almost gone and the electricity still off, school had been cancelled until everything was restored. In most homes, the families had resorted to purchasing a wood stove to provide some heat. Several old buildings in the city had been ravaged to obtain wood for burning. In many cases, windows were taken out and flue pipes shoved through the openings, then anything nonflammable was used to seal it back up. There were no cars on the road and even the trains had stopped running. It was a surprise when the residents heard a train making its way down the tracks. The long blast of its horn echoed between the buildings in the driving snow. Many residents peered out the window in hopes that some relief was finally arriving. Instead they saw a train loaded with military vehicles headed south. Upon closer look, the tanks and equipment looked different. Only when they saw an American flag flying from one of the cars did they realize what was happening. It also came with another realization. Russia was losing the war.
Aboard the train, General Harold Bryant looked out his window at the stark houses and countryside. He couldn’t imagine how people lived in this wasteland. At the same time he was thanking his stars that it was the dead of winter. Since using the LCACs to come across from Sakhalin Island, they had only encountered very weak resistance, mostly soldiers who didn’t want to be there anyway. It had been a stroke of luck about the train. He had expected to have to travel the 800 miles from Sakhalin to Vladivostok by truck. But sitting in the rail yard on one town were ten locomotives and hundreds of cars set aside because there was no fuel to run them. He then found out that the train service hadn’t been on line in over a month. To the army, fuel was not a problem, so he decided to replicate what the Russians had done in southern Poland. Within one day everything was packed onto the rail cars and they began moving out. It would take one more day before reaching Trudovoy on the outskirts of Vladivostok. By then, he hoped the second surprise would be waiting. It would be fun working with the Koreans again.
“It’s a massive buildup,” said the intelligence briefer. Using a pointed, he pointed to the various places where they were seeing assets being moved. “They are still bringing in troops, tanks, planes, artillery and almost every other kind of military supplies. They are using mostly rail lines,” he said pointing to specific main lines heading toward the western front. “Over the past week they seem to be moving people and equipment from the east coast and the northern territories to these locations. Just yesterday they began moving some equipment and troops from around their oil rich provinces.”
“It goes with what we believe. They are going to mount a massive attack along the Polish border to break through to France and the Channel,” said General Pol. “With these numbers, they could well do it. Our forces could never withstand such an attack,” he said.
“How well, I know it,” said Hammond. “If they break through across here, it will cut off the supplies for the Spanish and the Italians. That would leave Richardson holding the bag. Her supply lines are getting pretty long,” he said.
“I wonder why they are ignoring the army on their east coast?” asked Dortmund. “They must know it would let us take Vladivostok.”
“Yes, but I am figuring they don’t really care about that as much. Remember, this is over in Siberia. Even they don’t like going outside over there in the winter,” said Hammond. He thought for a second. “How soon before they reach their objective?”