As they crossed the Soviet frontier into China, “Shtein” took the occasion to reintroduce himself to the men he had broken out of prison, which included Wilfried Strik-Strikfeld, Helmuth von Pannwitz, Timofey Domanov, Andrei Shkuro, Pyotr Krasnov, and last but most definitely not least, Andrei Andreyevich Vlasov. These were the most influential anti-communist Russian leaders of the Russian Liberation Movement, whom the Ukrainian Insurgent Army was promised military assistance to aid in their escape from custody, and from the Soviet Union. Most of them had an idea who “Shtein” really was, but none of them had ever really met him personally. “Shtein” was none other than the renowned Abwehr spy “Artur Holmston” and commander of Sonderkommando R and the First Russian National Army, General Boris Smyslovsky.
As Smyslovsky and the other leaders of the Russian Liberation Movement reached the Chinese Turkestan city of Urum-chi, where there had already been a training facility set up and expatriate Russian troops and Soviet Red Army deserters were already being armed and formed into units. The generous American and Chinese military aid helped make all this possible, and now they would begin to hold up their end and infiltrate the Soviet frontier, to strike at the very heart of the communist juggernaut and bring it down, for good.
Intelligence in WWIII 1946
2150
Eastern Shoreline,
Near Vladivostok, U.S.S.R.
It was getting darker sooner, and brutally colder, and their time was up. Time for them to go. Markov had spread the word among his men that they would be on the move tonight; that the fishing trawler would meet up with them at the arranged time and place, to take them to a place only he knew at this moment. To this point, he had been successful, and he hoped that it would stay that way.
All the men met up where they had stashed their boats a couple weeks before and dug them out, began inflating them for the quarter-hour trip back. Halfway through the chore, a patrol of NKVD Frontier Guards passed by them… they stopped what they were doing and hid in the shadows and hoped that nothing out of the ordinary was noticed. A short while later, the NKVD patrol went away to investigate something more worthy of their malevolent attention. The men resumed, with renewed haste, their task and promptly cast off from the shoreline. During the trip out, Markov couldn’t help but review the information that they had gathered in his head: there was little in the way of Red Fleet units here, as most of them had been transferred west before the war, to supplement the Baltic Sea and Black Sea Red Banner Fleets. What the Red Fleet had at its Pacific Headquarters was pathetic: an ice breaker and a motley collection of coastal gunboats, most dating back to the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. All the modern equipment was going to the NKVD Sea Frontier Guards. Navy men would grumble a bit about it, but never too loudly, for fear of disappearing into of one of the many infamous bottomless salt mines that the region was notorious for. As for the Red Army, there were mostly Category B units, mostly manned by invalids from the last war, still wishing to continue doing their patriotic duty. Who was Uncle Joe to deny them that? All the first-line Army units were either west, occupying Europe, or in Manchuria, training the Chinese communists, who got walloped shortly after the new Chinese president, came to power. The Red Chinese took a hard hit, but the rumor has it that they’re gearing up for a counter-offensive, and just received tons of captured equipment from western Europe that they’re trying to make usable…
Markov notices a bright wavering light on the water: fire, and in the spot where the trawler was supposed to be. He passed the word along for his men to be ready, especially as they slowed the rubber boats down and began to use paddles to maneuver silently around the flaming oil slicks and debris on the water. Markov spotted it first: an NKVD Sea Frontier Guard Lend-Lease patrol torpedo boat. At that moment, he decided that he and his men were going to take it. Markov signaled to the men to creep as close as possible to the PT boat without being seen. In what seemed like hours, Markov and his men finally reached the side of the ship and rushed the boat as savagely as possible, taking out the crew as quickly as possible, killing a few outright, and tossing the rest into the freezing waters of the Sea of Japan, to die a slow and agonizing death of hypothermia. They quickly pull their rubber boats aboard to deny the Russians any chance of escape, and open up the throttle to head to the friendly waters of Japan, if they had enough fuel. Markov hauled down the NKVD ensign and hoisted the Stars and Stripes, the one that he’d stowed with their escape gear. They would still get their information back to Far East Allied Headquarters and the plan might yet still proceed.
Home Front in WWIII 1946
0930
Hangar Number One,
Temporary Command and Control Base,
Andrews Air Force Base
(formerly Andrews Army Airfield),
Outside Langley, Virginia
The day was a bit chilly and overcast, but there was nothing that could ruin this day for the men and women assembled here today. They all stood at attention for the President of the United States of America, Mr. Harry S Truman, as he passed them all down the aisle, on his way to the hastily-built, but well-constructed, dais. President Truman takes his seat, and everyone else takes theirs.
“In well-deserved recognition of the service and sacrifice that your military arm has given and continues to give, it is on behalf of the American people that I, acting in concert with the United States Congress, grant you concrete appreciation for your service and sacrifice” President Truman looks to his left, to a serious-looking General of the Army, Carl Spaatz, the newly-appointed Commanding General, U.S. Army Air Forces, then to his right to U.S. Army Chief of Staff, General of the Army, Dwight Eisenhower, and then continues, “by separating the Air Forces from the Army and granting them an independent military branch of their own, The United States Air Force. Carl Spaatz has been confirmed by the United States Senate as its very first Chief of Staff, with the newly-created rank of General of the Air Force.”
“As you all know, this war with the Soviets was none of our own contrivance, but by God, we will finish it! If Uncle Joe thinks he can lick us with his stolen Nazi wonder-doodads, he has another thing coming! We have the power of righteousness on our side!” By this time, President Truman was pounding on the lectern positioned on the dais, causing the microphones to feedback a few times, “And as long as we have the power of righteousness on our side, we cannot go wrong!” At that, all the Air Force personnel were on their feet, loudly whooping and hollering, chanting things such as “USA! USA!”, “Smash the Reds!” or “Remember Frankfurt!” the last chant was an allusion to the battle which incurred the loss of the bulk of the USAAF’s aircraft in Continental Europe and a fair number of irreplaceable combat personneclass="underline" pilots, aircrew and ground crew, and the need for the new military branch to exact its vengeance.