“Well Marshal, you have not received a command to report to Moscow, so all must be well.”
“Yes, it seems we have dodged a possible bullet. Stalin probably is thinking like I am; that this was a major failure of Soviet air forces, and that arrogant con-man, Novikov. If I had not been blind I would have avoided the whole affair. How can you not know that there is a massive fleet just off the coast? It was a ridiculous display of ineptitude.”
“Get that clown on the phone and find out what he is going to do about those boats so we can finish this phase of the operation, and get our troops out of Paris. Paris and Soviet discipline do not go well together.”
101st Combat Engineer Battalion,
26th Infantry Division
July 4th, 1946
“How are we going to do this?”
“What the hell do you mean?”
“They’ve got over one hundred-fifty divisions coming at us, and we got like… twenty-five?”
“Shut up, and look around you. Look at where we are. You ever heard of King Leonidas of Sparta, and his three hundred?”
“Of course, but this is still nuts to think we can do this.”
“Hey, as long as we don’t have to move those ‘Pushings’ and can keep our air-superiority, we can do this, and we can do it here. This is the perfect setup: all our flanks are covered, and they can only bring a limited number of forces against us at any time. Plus our twenty-five divisions will be fully-equipped, and dug in, and we finally have some of those veterans back. Shit, those guys know what they’re doing. Don’t forget, they took on the Tiger and Panther tanks of the Germans. The T-34 and T-44 will be like old times to them. We probably won’t have to worry about the JS-2, at least for a while. I guess they’re breaking down, just like our Pushings.”
“But, man that’s over five-to-one odds.”
“Come on and really think about this. Our artillery is a match for theirs. Our air force is getting stronger every day. All they’ve got is numbers and with this setup we are going to use quality, instead of quantity to stop them cold. They’re at the end of a very long supply line, and it’s got to be hurting them soon.”
“Ha, ours is longer than theirs. It sure takes a lot of supplies to bring us here, and keep us here.”
“That’s true. I never thought I would say this, but thank God for the navy.”
“Yeah… Thank God for the navy.”
“Now, shut up and dig.”
Operational Group Bolt
S.P. Penkin, Commander
July 4th, 1946
09:03 hours
“This is getting frustrating Vasily. The Americans are just out of reach. They stay just far enough ahead, that we can’t catch them yet, they can turn on us, at any moment and punch us in the face and then run again.”
“Shhhh… AH! GOT IT!”
“Good catch. Let’s see what a fish from the Dordogne taste like.”
“Did you hear what fine treasures that those pirogue-eaters from the 18th gathered from the Americans they captured; cigarettes, liquor, watches, lighters; just amazing things. Oh, I want to catch some Americans so very badly. Why do they run? Don’t they want to fight us godless communists? The quality of their weapons is breathtaking. Every tank has its own radio. You don’t have to filter their fuel, and all the parts fit perfectly. I think we have to win very soon, before their factories smother us in all this decadent western luxury.”
“No wonder they fight so badly. Who would want to leave their land of plenty to fight for these French, and what’s left of the svolochy Nemetski? Soon we will be rid of them, but all their little treasures will go with them.”
“I have yet to catch one, myself. Maybe we can get one, before they get on their boats and float away.”
Chapter Eight:
The First Raid
No. 3 Group,
RAF Bomber Command,
RAF Mildenhall,
Office of Group Captain W.H. Merton
July 5th, 1946
“Ralphie, I understand that we finally have a target worthy of going after? Not much in the way of acceptable targets since we’ve gotten back up to strength. The bloody Bolshies have moved so fast, and from what MI-6 tells us they don’t have much of a supply train thus far. They have been living off the land, as it were, using our own supplies to defeat us. Not particularly sporting, I must say.”
“Don’t worry Willy, we’ve come up with a grand target. It’s an American supply depot that the Soviets are about to overrun and use. It’s still going to be heavily defended by their own air cover, but it should be a good test of things to come. We can gauge just how well they can counter our future raids by what they can bring to bear on this operation. It is quite ironic that we shall destroy a U.S. military asset, and that the Soviets are trying to save it.”
“It will be our Lancs and Lincolns against their Yakovlevs and Lavochkins, eh? I’ve always wanted to take the measure of those Yak-9’s and La-7’s. The Germans had a hard time of it, but under vastly different circumstances. We shall see how the Soviet pilots’ skill matches up to our Spits, and the bombers’ guns. They’ll find that it’s rather like attacking a porcupine whilst a hound is nipping at your hindquarters. I dare say, the Bolshies have never seen a two hundred-plane raid of escorted heavy bombers before.”
“I’m sure they will have some tricks up their sleeves, and we are to be the guinea pigs. The Yanks have not yet recovered from their initial losses, when they were caught on the ground. Our bombers will not be able to fly as high, or fast, as the Yanks’ Superfortress, but it should be a good indication of what to expect.”
“At the least, we won’t have any flak batteries to put up with. The target is still behind our lines. We just can’t spare the ground forces to destroy it, at this time. It is truly a perfect test run for us.”
“Yes Ralphie, it is an odd situation, but one in which we shall persevere. It is well within the range of our Spits. I will welcome their presence; always good to have little friends around. I was made to understand that a few Mustangs will be joining us to add to the fun.”
“Yes, they will handle the high-cover to let our Spits do what they do best lower down. Doubtless, they will drop down to join the fun, once things heat up. They do love to “boom and zoom,” as the Yank pilots say.”
“They’d be best off not get into a turning fight with the Reds’ Yaks and Lavs. That’s what our Spits are for. I do hope they don’t get in the way. Their time will come, soon enough. From what I understand, the whole strategy is to bomb the Reds to rubble, and then walk into Moscow.”
“That sounds fairly uncomplicated, but one has to wonder what Stalin was thinking. He must have studied what we did to the Jerries, and to the Japanese.”
“Just you make sure Ralphie, that our boys are on their toes, and don’t get caught napping or get complacent. This is a dangerous foe; whom I believe must have a plan to counter our bombers. Otherwise, Stalin is a fool, and I do not get that impression that he is.”