“An entire new Korps?
“Yes, my Führer.” Himmler smiled. “I have designated these units 9th SS Hohenstaufen Division, 10th SS Frundsberg Division, and a very special unit, one that was first suggested to me by my associate, Artur Axmann, our leader of the Hitler Youth Organization. We have strong young men there, he said. Why not build a division? So this is exactly what we are hoping to do. It will be called the 12th SS Hitlerjugend Division. It will be seeded with a cadre provided by one of our finest divisions, the 1st SS Leibstandarte. They will impart the training, and harden the character of these young men, and I have every hope that this division will become one of the finest in all the SS. Would you approve of this division formation?”
“Of course! This is an excellent idea, Himmler. You and Axmann are to be commended. I give you full authority to see that this new Panzer Korps gets the finest equipment available. This is most encouraging. At a time when my Generals go about moaning that they cannot even find a single infantry division to fulfill their objectives in the field, making one excuse for their failures after another, you come to me with real fire in your belly, and a steel fist. We could not prevail without you. Well done! The Leningrad operation is still several months off, so use that time well to get ready.” Hitler loved good news, particularly news of this kind, more divisions to provide grist for his ever churning mill of war.
“Thank you, My Führer,” said Himmler, very gratified. Then he lowered his voice, leaning a bit closer as if to confide something of great importance. “There is something else I wished to discuss with you, not concerning these new troops, but more to the objectives of this war. The Abwehr has been diligent, but my own intelligence service has come upon information that you will find most disturbing.”
What he would say next would bring the stiff breeze of a sea change to the entire war, and send Hitler’s tossing bark off to stormy waters, to the far side of revenge.
Chapter 27
Hitler gave Himmler a quizzical look, the lines of his brow deepening. “What information?” He waited while Himmler reached into his brief to produce yet another map.
“My Führer,” it has been evident to me for some time that your vision for the Third Reich’s future depends on securing the resources and the Lebensraum our people will need. We have already secured many of the territories mandated for occupation in Generalplan Ost—all except the Caucasus.”
“Manstein will see to that region in due course,” said Hitler.
“Of course,” said Himmler, “but I do not have to remind you that more than half of that area is presently occupied by the armies of Ivan Volkov’s Orenburg Federation. If you will note on this document, his troops are now holding some most desirable objectives, principally, the key oil and gas centers of that entire region. Look here—Maykop, and here at Grozny, and of course the big development at Baku. But note these other areas I have marked in red. They are all areas where my SS intelligence service has learned that Volkov is planning significant new oil and gas development. Note this area near Stavropol, and this big area here at Astrakhan. We knew there were prospects there, for Volkov has been quite busy in those areas with his Oil Brigades.”
“That is all good oil that will soon be coming to the Reich when Manstein completes his operations in the Kuban.”
“Perhaps,” said Himmler, coating the remark with a patina of uncertainty. “Now look here…” He pointed to the Caspian sea. “Note the areas I have colored in amber. Those are also potential new oil fields of great value, extending throughout the whole of the Caspian Sea. This one here is perhaps the biggest, Kashagan, and very close by, this field I have colored grey at Tengiz is already being developed by Ivan Volkov. That is not all. There are potential fields at Aral, all through this region, and all through eastern Turkmenistan and southeast Uzbekistan.”
“Astounding,” said Hitler. “How did you determine this?”
“This document came to me through an agent that will be known only as ‘Fedorov.’”
“A Russian? How can such information be trusted?”
“That is merely a code name,” said Himmler, though in fact, it was a name that was now well known to the Allied cause, that of Captain Fedorov himself, of the battlecruiser Kirov. His astute mind saw that the fracturing of the Soviet Union could be the most fatal contamination to the time line of all. Ivan Volkov presented the most difficult problem for his own plan, conspiring with Admiral Volsky, Director Kamenski, and now even Vladimir Karpov, to try and cleanse the meridian of all outside influences. To do so, he had to deal with Ivan Volkov, and so he came up with another of his great schemes, to feed information to the Germans concerning Volkov and his obvious objectives for this war, and begin to paint the Orenburg Federation in shades of deepening grey. The document Himmler was now showing the Führer had come directly from Fedorov, a detailed map of all the oil and gas development viable through the year 2021 in all the territories Volkov now controlled.
“I ask you to consider this map in another light,” said Himmler darkly. “Please note that all these oil regions are presently occupied by Volkov’s Orenburg Federation—even Maykop, the principle objective of Manstein’s Kuban operation.”
“He will yield it when our troops arrive,” said Hitler firmly.
“Perhaps,” Himmler said again. “Yet look at it, my Führer. Compare it in size to all these other regions Volkov now controls. It is but a minor field according to this information, a bone he throws us while he gets all the meat! These others near Stavropol and certainly Astrakhan are orders of magnitude bigger. And all these untapped resources in the Caspian Basin are many times bigger than those presently being drilled at Baku.”
“Then you are saying that this information was developed by Volkov himself—these are prospects he has already assayed?”
“It appears so,” said Himmler. “I note that we recently seized Baba Gurgur, where Guderian only had one regiment of Fallschirmjagers to guard those facilities. I also note that Volkov has posted two large divisions there as well. What is the whole aim of your Operation Phoenix? It has been a dramatic success—cutting both the pipelines through Syria, seizing Kirkuk, and now the British have scrambled to save the last of the developed fields in that region at Basra, and they have even seized the Iranian fields at Abadan.”
“Oil, my Führer. Resources! This is what the Japanese Army struck south to obtain in the Dutch East Indies. This is why we strive to defeat the Soviet threat, and why you have sent Guderian into Iraq, and now send Manstein into the Caucasus. And look who sits on all those resources—Ivan Volkov! My Führer, I do not have the same faith as you might have concerning that man’s fealty to the Reich. It seems to me that he has cleverly manipulated our alliance to further his own designs. Look what happened at Volgograd. Our troop needs in the south for Edelweiss forced Manstein to turn that whole operation over to Volkov’s Armies! The only German troops now east of the Don are a few heavy artillery siege guns.”
Hitler nodded, a deepening shadow growing in his mind as Himmler spoke. He had often considered the outcome of the war, and what part the Orenburg Federation would play in that. Initially he had considered Volkov his puppet, keeping pressure on the Soviets along the Volga, and tying down many divisions there. But now, as his eyes played over the map, he saw so much more in the aims and intentions of Ivan Volkov.
“That man will control all the oil,” said Hitler. “All we will have under our direct control will be these new fields we are securing with Operation Phoenix.”