“The remaining eleven divisions that have survived the Red assault, are making their way to the defensive line. Because of ‘Operation Louisville Slugger’, they were able to separate themselves from the Reds, and are making their way south to get rearmed and put into the new line. As you know, sir, the defensive positions were picked a long time ago just for this contingency. We should be able to hold with fifteen full-strength divisions. Even with their recent losses, the Reds are fielding close to eighty divisions, with more coming.”
“Sir, we have indications that Denmark will be the next to fall under communist domination.”
“Are we able to assist them?”
“Not in any significant way sir. We can keep the Reds away from parts of the coast but we can’t go too far into the Baltic at this point for fear of Soviet submarines and sea-mines. We could give them a hard time, but we would be risking too much to do so in my opinion. The chances of a major tactical defeat are too great for not enough comparable gain. Again, our only hope would be to slow them down, and delay the inevitable.”
“Supply is still not a concern for the Soviets who are still living off the land, and off of our supply depots. We have to pull them deeper into Southern France, and eventually increase the length of their supply line. It will take at least six months before they develop infrastructure and will be able to take advantage of their newly-acquired territory. Believe it or not, the people of some of the conquered countries have vaguely communist sympathies at the moment and we don’t expect much in the way of partisan attacks in the short term. The Soviets have been remarkably restrained compared to what they did in Germany. From what we can gather, they’ve been treating the civilian population pretty well, even by our standards.”[21]
“From what MI-6, and the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe’s G-2, tells us, we cannot expect any serious sabotage efforts until the fall, at the earliest, and then only if the Soviet soldiers strip the countryside bare, and go on a rape, pillage and burn campaign. There is a tremendously strong wait-and-see attitude; ‘Workers’ Paradise’, and all that crap.”
“General Kenney, where are we on planning the bombing campaign?”
“Well, sir, it’s just going to take time to ramp up our forces again. We’ll test their air force, within the next thirty days, to see how they plan on countering the B-29. As of May, 1945, we estimated that they had no real counter to the Superfortress, but who knows what they’ve cooked up in the meantime. As you know, sir, our plan is not to hit them from England, so we have to develop our other bases first. We are shooting for October, to begin the destruction of the Soviet Empire. We will hit them, and hit them hard, but in the meantime, we have to concentrate on building up the necessary infrastructure, and counting on the Army to keep them away from our new bases.”
“We know that Stalin is aware of our lack of atom bombs, and the means to deliver them, so we have to be very careful in using the four we currently have on hand. If the correct target presents itself, we may try and fly a raid, armed with a couple of atomic bombs. This will be just to let the public know we are striking back, and to encourage any rebellions among the Soviets’ newest allies. Per your policy, we will stay away from using the atomic bomb in Western Europe.”
“We have extremely limited knowledge on where a good target might be, that is within fighter-escort range. I’m not sending in naked bombers, until we know their defensive capabilities. The few conventional bombing raids the British have launched were met with stiff resistance, but nothing we haven’t seen before. Their losses were acceptable. They have yet to reach very far into enemy territory, nevertheless. Their raids have involved less than 300 bombers, and the losses were under 15%, which is high, but again, acceptable at this stage in the war.”
“It does more harm than good to bomb blindly at night on our former allies in Europe. Their factories are still in ruins, and their cities burned out. We must be patient, and wait until we can reach out and hit the Soviets where it hurts, hitting them hard, in conjunction with our counterattacks.”
“Admiral, it sounds like the navy will be our left jab, for the time being. Moving and sticking, and moving to keep ’em off balance. Is that the plan?”
“Yes, Mr. President. Using our mobility, we will use our conventional forces to run interdiction raids, concentrate on supply depots, and to keep them away from the coasts, as much as possible, and we will be able to greatly assist at the flanks of the projected defensive line, which is being constructed, as we speak. We will be busy, sir, and I’m sure old Ivan will feel our jabs, until we can follow up with a right hook.”
“Let me put this into boxing terms. The Navy and Marines keep jabbing, and moving, and wearing ’em out. The Air Force goes for the body, and makes ’em drop their hands. Then, in the end, the Army starts throwing haymakers, until we connect with the head. We wear ’em down, and then knock ’em out. Is that about it gentlemen?”
“YES SIR, MISTER PRESIDENT! YES SIR!”
The Kremlin,
Moscow, The U.S.S.R.
June 23th, 1946
05:13 hours
“Sokolovsky thinks he can keep me in the dark about his defeat until after he can give me a victory Novikov? I hope you know better? Explain to me, very carefully, why your planes did not discover these boats that did this damage?”
“Esteemed Comrade, we have discovered that they used the combined air assets of twenty aircraft carriers in an extremely confined space, to create an umbrella over the fleet of battleships that did this. Let me make this clear, if I may… these were not boats. Maybe they were relics of a by-gone era, but they can still be considered a serious threat, if we can’t attack them, because of the air superiority provided by both the planes from England and the carriers. We have to expect that at the focal point of the attack, you can overcome strategic superiority for a limited time. That is what happened.”
“It was Sokolovsky’s fault for not recognizing the danger, and waiting to evaluate the situation further. That many resources concentrated in one area by your enemy, should convince any logical person that caution is advised.”
“From what I understand, Sokolovsky ignored…”
“Enough! I’ll let him think he has kept me in the dark, and see what ‘victory’ he presents me with. Only then, will I decide his fate. You need to concentrate on providing me with such victories. Think very hard, Novikov… very, very hard.”
July 3rd, 1946
30 miles from Le Havre, France
Headquarters of the Northern Group of Forces
11:23 hours
“Filipp, old Bagramyan did his job as he was told and we now have Denmark to present to Stalin. It was very fortunate that it happened without complications… now, how can he complain? What was done with few casualties, in a few days and it shuts the door on the toy boats of the British and American fleets. A new country joins the Soviet Republics, in a matter of a week.”
21
Communist sympathies in Europe — Post War — A History of Europe Since 1945 pages 198-222 by Tony Judt