Yet here he was, meting out a dozen divisions to Kesselring in Tunisia, including all Rommel’s forces, and then committing another dozen more to Operation Phoenix. Yet he had now sent 17th and 11th Armies, and several independent Korps, to prosecute Operation Edelweiss—24 divisions, as much as all the forces he had deployed against the Allies in the West! Manstein was going to kill 50 Soviet divisions in the Kuban if he prevailed, only to bring the Reich a little closer to oil that Volkov now controlled. Tunisia was now the only thing preventing the Allies from striking at Italy or Southern Europe once they regained control of the Med. Operation Phoenix was the only real chance he had at securing the vital oil he needed, and here was Guderian, coming like a beggar for more troops, just like Rommel was forced to do. Himmler was correct. All this must change.
“My Führer, it was your plan to destroy the Soviet Armies in the Kuban, and thus free up all the troops Manstein now commits to Operation Edelweiss for use against the Soviets, or in the West. Yet I think that will never come to pass. I think that once we take the Kuban, all those troops will have to simply sit there, facing off along the demarcation line between Volkov’s Armies in the Caucasus, and our Armeegruppe South. There they must sit, for the duration of the war, useless to us for further operations. Why? Because Volkov presently has 1st Kazakh Army here, on the line of the River Salsk. He has his 3rd Army here, headquartered at Stavropol, obviously to control all these potential new oil fields. Then he has his Army of the Kuban at Maykop, and another army in Georgia controlling all the Black Sea Ports. Do you think he has any intention of withdrawing all those troops after Edelweiss?”
“Of course not,” said Hitler, the realization so striking to him now that he could not believe he had not seen it all before. “This map makes that quite clear.”
“Yes,” said Himmler. “And he has three armies near Volgograd, and another forming at Guryev, now moving to Astrakhan. He is building up, my Führer. He has no intention of abandoning any of this territory, or demilitarizing it once we link up after Operation Edelweiss.”
“He did so along the lower Don.”
“But there is no oil there,” Himmler quickly pointed out. “In fact, it would be my guess that once the Kuban is cleared, he will seek to negotiate with us for control of that entire province, ostensibly so that he can extend his pipelines to Rostov, and so forth. All that will take time, and he can delay such operations as long as he wishes. Frankly, I do not think we will ever see a drop of his oil. Why would he wish to strengthen us? And once the fields at Ploesti run dry, Volkov will be sitting there, ready for war with us, and knowing we may not have the oil to prosecute another war after we exhaust ourselves destroying the one great enemy that has bedeviled him for decades—Sergei Kirov.”
“He doesn’t have the weapons to face us,” said Hitler; “the tanks and artillery…”
“Oh? Who will get all the Soviet factories that have relocated to Siberia? He made an accord with Vladimir Karpov once before. What is to stop him from doing so again? And if he were to join Sergei Kirov this year—what then? He can trade his oil to the Soviets for tanks and artillery, even as he dangles it before us for our servitude to his war aims now.”
That struck Hitler like a thunderbolt. Volkov! That scheming bastard has been planning this all along, but now he will soon see the price of his duplicity. My revenge will be swift, and final.
He stood up straight, taking a deep breath, a new light of discovery and fiery determination in his eyes. “Herr Himmler,” he said with a grave tone in his voice. “You have brought me much more than all these new SS divisions today. So very much more….”
Part X
Harbinger
Chapter 28
Events in Russia in late January and early February were very limited. The weather remained brutally cold in the north and central latitudes, but less so in the south. Hitler decided that Operation Edelweiss would proceed, for he had to eliminate the Kuban pocket and become master of that province, and he had every intention of denying it to Volkov, or using it as a bargaining chip in the tense negotiations that would soon transpire.
The Soviet Army managed one big push south of Orel towards Bryansk, which sent Hermann Balck’s 11th Panzer into the breach, and also prompted Hitler to rescind his long standing order that nothing staged for Operation Downfall against Leningrad would be touched. He ordered 1st and 8th Panzer Divisions to move by rail to the threatened sector, followed by four more infantry divisions. It was months yet until the scheduled start date for Operation Downfall, weather permitting, so he told himself there was plenty of time to reclaim those units down the road. That was what Himmler’s revelation of all these new SS formations had done, many building out much earlier than in Fedorov’s history. Hitler was now less stingy in response to a crisis on the field, doing more than simply ordering the defending troops to stand and fight to the last man.
As for Fedorov, his clever ploy to feed German intelligence that map of all the oil and gas operations that would become so significant in the region had a most dramatic effect. Hitler had just sent seven fresh divisions and three more brigades to stop the Bryansk operation, a force that was bigger than everything he had sent to Rommel over two years’ time. He did this on a moment’s notice, realizing at the same time how little support he had given to the war effort against the recalcitrant British Empire.
Yet now he had seen Guderian complete a dramatic thrust that delivered all of Northern Syria and Iraq to his control in a matter of weeks. Then, just as it seemed that Operation Phoenix had transitioned into a static and unwinnable battle for Baghdad, Himmler’s revelations had produced a decided sea change in the Führer’s thinking. He was going to smash the British, sending anything that was necessary to do so. He was going to get the oil he had so long coveted for the Reich, and he was not going to see Ivan Volkov shoulder his way into further control over that most strategic of all resources. If he could produce seven division to stop the Soviet attack at Bryansk, then he could do the same to ensure his victory in Iraq.
A message was sent to Guderian to make plans to renew his offensive south at the first opportunity. “45th Infantry Division now enroute, one of several reinforcements to be assigned to your command. Given your need to focus on Iraq, it therefore remains impractical that you should also be burdened with the administration of forces in Syria. It has therefore been decided to appoint an overall Theater Commander to administer the needs of both armies, and you will retain full command of the Army of Iraq. It is also anticipated that an offensive will be renewed against Southern Syria and Palestine, and as you cannot manage both, the new Theater Commander will take full charge of all operations in Syria, effective March 10, 1943.”
That commander was to be Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, who was informed of Hitler’s offer and decision not ten days after his return from Tunisia. The will to intervene dramatically in the Middle East was now finally there. If Rommel could not get to Egypt through Libya, then let him try through Syria and Palestine. It was now just a question of logistics, and Hitler set his new Wizard at OKW, General Zeitzler, to the problem at once.