The vehicle stopped, and the tour commander got out of the vehicle, taking his binoculars, camera and pocket tape recorder with him. Weaving around the tall, slender pine trees he made his way to the edge, leaning up against one of the trees at the outermost edge of the forest.
“Jackpot!” he said to himself.
He didn’t need the binoculars to establish that a large unit was arrayed across the wide open space in front of him. He positioned the binoculars in front of his face and scrutinised the vehicles. Something didn’t seem right. It kept niggling at him, but he just couldn’t put his finger on it. The sudden coughing sound of cold engines starting made him jump, clouds of blue smoke engulfing some of the tanks. After a few minutes, some of the armoured personnel carriers started to move, getting into a position of line-of-march. They were getting ready for a road march, thought Rawlings. He heard a rustle behind him and turned to see his colleague, Sergeant Ade Duffy, approaching.
“What have we got here then, Will?”
“Looks like elements of a motor rifle regiment.”
“Getting ready to move out, I’d say.”
“I think so too. Look! Look to the right. More poking out of the trees on the far side of the clearing.”
“Got them. Look like command vehicles poking their noses out of the trees. Elements of a division?” Suggested Duffy as he lowered his binoculars, scratching his head, brushing bits of foliage caught in his hair from the branches he had walked under.
Rawlings zoomed in with the binos. “That’s a BTR−60 PU moving out of the trees. So, what have we got? T-62s, BTR-60s…”
“It’s getting lighter now. I’ll nip and get the longer camera lens. Back in a tick.” Duffy made his way back to the vehicle, picked out the 400mm mirror lens, another SLR camera body and returned to the treeline. “Any change?”
“Ade, that’s a Polish unit, I’m sure of it.”
“Don’t be bloody daft. It’s just part of this big exercise.”
“Take a look for yourself. Check out the uniforms.”
Duffy put the camera strap around his neck and scrutinised the unit again with his binos, focussing in on one of the tank crew. Although the light was still not perfect, he could make out the distinctive black coveralls and the floppy black beret he knew to be the uniform of Polish tank crew.
“Christ, you’re right! What the hell are they doing here?”
“Look right: ammo carrier.”
Duffy scanned right and could see an ammunition carrier alongside a T-62. “They’re loading tank rounds.”
“Take some photos, Ade. Then we need to get out of here. Something’s not quite right about this.”
“Aren’t they just a part of Hammer?”
Rawlings turned to his colleague. “There are no Polish units involved in Hammer.”
“Shit.”
“Come on. Take some pictures and then let’s get out of here.”
Chapter 16
The Prime Minister pushed back her chair and walked over to the large map of the world on the wall behind her. She swept her hand across the continent of Europe and paused for a moment as it hovered over Germany, before turning back to face the seven men sitting around the long meeting table opposite her. No longer the flimsy tables pushed together as a temporary measure, but a full-sized oak table brought onto the site at her request: a fitting piece of furniture for the reduced Cabinet that was now assembled there, again, meeting in the United Kingdom Government Emergency War Headquarters at Corsham. The 240-acre complex was built over thirty-metres underground, intended to be the hub of the UK’s alternative seat of power in the event of a major worldwide conflict and, in the worst case, a nuclear exchange. Nicknamed ‘Hawthorn’ by some journalists, at a kilometre long, it was designed to accommodate the entire Cabinet Office and supporting civil servants: up to 4,000 people.
“It seems the Russian Bear is growling again,” said Lawrence Holmes, the Swansea-born politician, as he brushed back his well-coiffured hair. “Things are taking a worrying turn, Prime Minister. The Russian Exercise Hammer 84 seems to be growing out of all proportion.”
“More reports, Lawrence?”
“Yes,” responded the Secretary of State for Defence. “One of our military liaison missions has reported Polish troops active in one of the restricted areas in East Germany.”
“Polish troops in the GDR?!”
“Yes, Prime Minister.”
“They are certain it was Polish troops they saw?”
“Yes. They are experienced operators.”
“I assume they extracted themselves safely?”
“Yes, Prime Minister, but we have noted an upsurge in surveillance, and the authorities, both Russian and East German, are becoming more aggressive towards the missions we have over there.”
Holmes looked across at Thomas Fletcher, the Chief of Defence Staff (the CDS). Fletcher was the professional head of the British armed forces and the most senior uniformed military adviser to the Government. “General Fletcher, you have some more intelligence for us?”
“Yes, Secretary, Prime Minister. First the shooting of the American military liaison mission officer.”
“A Major Mortimer, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, Prime Minister,” responded the CDS, not surprised that Harriet Willis would know the man’s name.
“We must send our condolences, Lawrence.”
“I’ve seen to it, Prime Minister. Continue, General.”
“We believe that he was attempting to photograph a tank storage shed and its contents near Ludwigslust.”
“And where is that, General?” the PM queried.
“About one-hundred-and-twenty kilometres north-west of Berlin. He was shot by a Soviet sentry.”
Holmes turned towards the PM. “The level of military activity being experienced by ours and the American missions in East Germany is exceptionally high. The CGS has further updates for us. General Hamilton, if you please.”
The Chief of the General Staff pulled a sheet of paper closer to him, scanned it then looked back up. “The report from our liaison mission regarding the Polish unit is most disturbing. To see a Polish unit training in a Soviet exercise area is not unusual in itself. But for a full Polish division to be seen in East Germany at the same time as a large Soviet exercise is in full swing is unheard of. The unit in question, we believe to be the 12th Polish Motor Rifle Division, was observed in the Templin training area. It was seen loading live ammunition and preparing for a road march.”
“And the significance of that, General?”
“Exercise Hammer 84 is primarily a Soviet exercise, Prime Minister, and we have not been advised, per protocol, that Warsaw Pact countries were involved.”
“Could it just be a training exercise?” Asked Jeremy Chapman, the Home Secretary. “Are the Poles just taking the opportunity to use a vacated training site?”
“That is possible, Home Secretary, but I do have other sightings that make that option unlikely.”
“Let him continue, Jeremy, and all will become clear.”
The Home Secretary nodded, and the CGS continued. He picked up a report. “Brixmis have photographed TELs, Transporter, Erector, Launcher vehicles, travelling by rail in the vicinity of Finowurt. They’re not certain of the type, but they could only be Scud, Scarab or Scaleboard.”