Kirov Saga: Hinge Of Fate: Altered States Volume III (Kirov Series) (20 page)

Volsky
had said enough to tip his British counterpart off as to the need for secrecy
and vigilance, but he did not tell Tovey anything more about the fate of that
operation, or that one of the men he was most worried about from that unseen
future, one of those dark angels, was named Ivan Volkov. Nor did he reveal the
fact that another man at large had been a member of his own crew, the former
Captain of the mighty
Kirov
. Volsky had decided to reveal nothing of the
operation that was then underway at Ilanskiy, or its vital purpose. Tovey had
enough to chew on as it was.

 
Kirov
departed, heading west to take up the post Volsky had agreed to watch in the
Denmark Strait. This gave Tovey the time he needed to work out with
King
George V
and
Prince of Wales
, two most welcome additions to his Home
Fleet. It was not long, however, before other dangerous men, well known to
Tovey himself, began to make plans and arrange meetings of their own.

* * *

Hitler
had his doubts
about the conference as his train made its way through Vichy France under heavy
guard. Was he making the right decision here? Was Canaris correct in pointing
out how unstable and unreliable Franco and Spain might be as an ally?

It was raining, and the gloomy
weather seemed to settle over the whole affair, promising failure and an end to
all the grandiose plans that had been argued and debated for months. Now it
would all come down to this, a final meeting arranged in a train car at Hendaye
on the Franco-Spanish border, and no one would have thought that this simple
rain storm could have unhinged the entire strategy of the war in the West. But
that is exactly what the gathering weather front threatened to do. It would not
be the silver tongued arguments of the negotiators, or even Hitler’s blistering
personality and iron will that would decide the day.

It was going to be something
quite different.

* * *

In
the late summer of
1940, the Germans were faced with any number of alternatives. Flush with
victory, and with new allies flocking to their banner, Hitler believed his
forces were invincible. While many now argued the time had come to consider
taking the war to Soviet Russia, Admiral Raeder continued to advocate strongly
for alternative operations aimed against Britain. The most direct approach
would have been Operation Seelöwe, the planned invasion of England, but as it
progressed, Raeder continued to identify more and more obstacles to its
success. Germany had no amphibious ships worth the name. It had few craft
suitable for landing operations or cross channel assault, particularly to move
heavy armor or mechanized support units and their artillery. Beyond that, the
strength of the Royal Navy was unbowed, and the recent engagement in the
Denmark Strait did little to convince Hitler that the new Kriegsmarine he had
ordered was as yet ready for the job.

Goering stepped up at this point,
claiming he could smash the British with his Luftwaffe, and this confident
boast, coupled with a request for a delay until the Spring of 1941 for Seelöwe,
led Hitler to issue the following orders:

“An attempt must be made to
prepare the operation (Seelöwe) for 15 September 1940. The army should be ready
for action by then. The decision as to whether the operation is to take place
in September or is to be delayed until May 1941 will be made after the air
force has made concentrated attacks on southern England for one week. The air
force is to report at once when these attacks will commence. If the effect of
the air attacks is such that the enemy air force, harbors, and naval forces,
etc., are heavily damaged, Operation SEA LION will be carried out in 1940.
Otherwise it is to be postponed until May 1941.”

Even as Goering launched his air
force at Britain on “Eagle Day” in August of 1940, Raeder continued to advocate
strongly for a second alternative, a way to defeat Great Britain by taking a
more indirect approach through the Mediterranean. “Take Gibraltar, Malta and
the Suez Canal, and you have all but destroyed the British Empire outside the
UK. What good are their colonies in the Indian Ocean when they are completely
isolated? Then we have a direct link to the Oil from Orenburg. It can flow
through the Bosporus to ports in Southern France and Italy, and once these
routes are established, all the resources we need will be in hand. Then Soviet
Russia will have no option but to sue for peace, or to join the Axis as
Orenburg has done.”

“Yes,” Hitler agreed, “But
remember this as well—
Britain’s hope
lies in Russia and the United States. With Russia smashed, Britain’s last hope
in Europe would be shattered. Germany then will be master of Europe and the
Balkans. Russia’s destruction must therefore be made a part of this struggle.
The sooner Russia is crushed the better, and the Spring of 1941 would be the
time to begin. Can this operation against Gibraltar be completed before then?”

“It could be launched this
winter, my Führer, assuming Franco agrees. All that would be required would be
a few divisions, yet the fruit such a victory returns in the harvest will be
considerable. How many divisions will be necessary for the struggle against
Soviet Russia? How long before we have a clear decision there, and secure rail and
sea connections to the Orenburg Federation? Your Generals tell you three
months, but I think it will be very much longer.”

“And you tell me three months
will take me all the way to the Suez, Raeder. Can I believe you any more than
Jodl?”

“Take Gibraltar first, and watch
the dominoes fall, my Führer. I am certain of it.”

It was a compelling argument, and
one that Hitler began to show more and more interest in, particularly when Jodl
and others began to look on it with more favor when it became evident that
Goering could not deliver on his promise to smash the R.A.F. The incredible
sacrifice of the British fighters in their stalwart duel with the Luftwaffe
would finally put an end to Hitler’s dream of Operation Seelöwe. Hitler told
Halder to continue the planning, but as nothing more than a deception to keep
psychological pressure on the British. Now his thoughts turned south to
Gibraltar.

A
British fortress since the early 18th century, ‘the Rock’ was a bastion of
Royal Navy sea power and the crucial link between her Atlantic and
Mediterranean forces. If the Germans could capture it they would gain a
commanding position from which to influence both naval theaters, along with a
deep water port that could hold and service all their biggest ships. There was
no comparable port on the Atlantic French coast, and the capture of Gibraltar
would drive a wedge of steel into the heart of the Royal Navy.

Hitler listened, seeing the
opportunity but yet hesitating for two reasons. What would Britain do in
reprisal? Would they seek to mount an amphibious operation through Portugal?
Would they land in Morocco or French West Africa? The head of the Abwehr,
Admiral Canaris, had argued just that, but when Goering saw how he attempted to
persuade the Spanish Foreign Minister to discourage the plan against Gibraltar,
he took steps to intervene. Canaris was seen to be the obstructionist he was,
and his influence was minimized by an unexpected troika of all three arms of
the German military, Raeder, Goering and Jodl.

OKW finally agreed. Before
anything was decided about the East, the West should be held secure. Now that
Italy had also joined the war on Germany’s side, it might be possible to drive
the British from North Africa, Egypt, and isolate them from their colonies in
the Middle East and India. The British Empire would be broken in two, and
crumble.

Hitler decided the matter. He was
the planner that would unhinge all other plans and force his will on the world,
or so he believed. The war in the West would now supersede his plans for the
invasion of Russia. France was already courting alliance, and only Spain and
Portugal remained holdouts on the continent. Detailed plans for the operation
against Gibraltar had been drawn up and completed by the Wehrmacht ahead of
schedule, and soon they were personally signed by Hitler.

Now there was only one question:
Would Franco cooperate?

Preliminary negotiations were
underway at that very moment. Franco’s list of demands had run on and on. He
worried over British reprisals should he join the Axis, a blockade or possibly
even an invasion on his Atlantic coast. He suggested that any German troops
involved would have to wear Spanish Army uniforms as a point of honor. He asked
for thousands of tons of wheat and other resources to feed his shattered state.
He fretted over the possibility that the United States would shut down their
extensive Telecom system in Spain. In the end Hitler became so frustrated with
the man that he exclaimed he would rather have a tooth pulled than speak with
him again.

Urged on by Raeder, Hitler had
agreed to this one final meeting on the Franco-Spanish border to secure Spain’s
cooperation. If those negotiations failed, Barbarossa was still sitting quietly
in his back pocket. The only obstacle to Raeder’s plan was Franco’s Spain.
Would he join the Axis, or at the very least cooperate with Germany in the
initial phase of the Mediterranean campaign?

Ever equivocating, and a master
of playing one side off against another, Franco was proving to be a difficult
fish to haul in. Canaris also seemed to be quietly undermining the effort to
move Operation Felix along, suggesting that Franco, and Spain itself would be a
shaky and unreliable partner. At Raeder’s urging, Hitler agreed to meet with
Franco and his foreign minister to see for himself if the man could be relied upon,
and then persuaded to cooperate with the plan.

Hitler knew what Franco wanted,
nominal administrative control over Gibraltar after it fell to German hands,
military and economic aid, a slice of the French colonies in Tangiers and
French Morocco across the straits. All this could be arranged, for without
Spain, the Gibraltar operation was as problematic as Operation Seelöwe, and
Hitler always had Barbarossa if Franco proved to be adamant.

Yet none of that mattered,
really. Things had already been quietly decided by another man, witless,
unknowing, yet slowly tightening a screw on the hinge of fate that would soon
decide the future course of the war.

Chapter 18

Hitler’s
train pulled into
the little railway station at Hendaye, the rain still pattering on the roof as
it came to a halt. No one imagined that a rainy day in Spain was threatening to
make an end of all these plans and devices; all these directives and
negotiations. No one knew how it had been foiled. In fact, in the history
Fedorov knew, the rain prevailed, just as it might have here if not for the
diligence of one simple man the previous day.

He was not one of the
negotiators. There were no medals on his chest or titles attached to his name.
He was not one of the planners, scheming and brooding over maps. No. Juan
Alfonso was just a simple janitor, last man on the shift the night before the
meeting in Madrid. He was supposed to make all the final checks, working
through the train car by car to see that all was in order, for this was no ordinary
train.

The following morning the
Caudillo himself, Francisco Franco, would be riding in this train, along with
Foreign Affairs Minister Ramon Serrano Suñer. They would travel to Hendaye on
the Franco-Spanish border for a secret meeting with the Führer of Germany,
Adolf Hitler himself, and his own Foreign Affairs Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop.
There the two sides were set to negotiate the possible entry of Spain into the
war on the side of the Axis powers, a stroke that would have grave implications
for the entire course of the war.

It was raining that night in
Madrid, and the forecast called for more rain the following day. Juan Alfonso
was nearly done with his work that night. He checked the engine and coal cars
to see that all was in readiness, then inspected the wheels and undercarriage
of each car. Tired and cold, he ventured inside to dry off and eat a bit of
cheese that he had in his tool kit.

Alfonso looked around as he sat
in the main coach, listening to the sound of the rain on the roof and thinking
that tomorrow would see all these important men here in that very car, perhaps
sitting right there where he sat at that very moment. Then it happened, the
tiny spill of water from above, just a few drops at first, falling on his pant
leg, but then more until a steady drip had developed, slowly building a pool of
water on the floor of the car.

He looked up, seeing the row of
screws in the ceiling and wondering if something might be loose there. It was
very late, and he was very tired, but the longer he sat there, the more he
realized that he could not go home just yet—not until he stopped that leak. Who
knows, perhaps Franco would be seated in that chair, and if it rained again
tomorrow…

He opened his tool box, hearing
the dry squeak that was, in fact, the hinge of fate at that moment. Juan
Alfonso reached for his screwdriver, and slowly stood up, getting a nice fat
drop of rainwater on his cheek for his trouble. We’ll see about that, he
thought, testing each screw until he found two loose candidates. Yes, that was
the problem. The cowling was loose there, and the water was slowly working its
way through.

He paused a moment, thinking,
then fished about in his tool box until he found a pocket knife and the old
chamois cloth he used here and there in his work. He could spare just a little
here, he thought as he carefully cut a strip away. Then he loosened the screws
enough to allow him to work the chamois into the crevice there, poking and
prodding with his pocket knife until the cloth was tucked away, completely
unseen, before he retightened all the screws again. There… That was all it
needed. The leak was stopped.