Chapter Three Hundred Eighty-Seven
2nd July 1944
Moscow, Russia
As Molotov walked across Red Square he thought about how he had just gotten off the phone with Marshal Tukhachevsky. The Marshal had assured him that the plan was working and that he would grind the Germans down long before they reached Moscow. Molotov had made the call after he had received reports of the German Army massing on the roads south of Moscow. At the same time, the Germans and their Allies had renewed their efforts in the north and west. What was left of the Army was spread precariously thin. Tukhachevsky had said that it would play out exactly like it had in the past in Ukraine, the German Army would advance until they over extended and then be forced to fall back in order to save their Army.
The Marshal had assured Molotov that even if the Germans broke through the current defense line, there was another one right it that was even stronger on the Oka River. Like before he was certain that he could withdraw in good order except this time he’d easily be able bleed them white in the hills and forest. The Germans would still be trying to reach the city when autumn rains came and snow fell. Regardless of what had happened the prior winter the two greatest Field Marshals in Russian History, Mud and Winter, would have the last word. He must have said the same thing to Stalin because the General Secretary was positively buoyant this afternoon…
That was when Molotov heard it. Overhead was another one of those interminable flying bombs that the cursed Germans loved so much from the sound of it. Why couldn’t they give it a rest for once?
That was when the airplane changed course and started firing rockets at a building across the river. Molotov caught a glimpse of the swept back wings as it screamed past seemingly centimeters over his head. People were scrambling for cover as some of the rockets went long. They were exploding in the river and even the Square itself. Molotov felt the sickening realization fill him. The Germans largely had control of the air. They would have seen every move that Tukhachevsky had made yet still they had played into his hands like they had in the past. Or had they… What if they were trying to get Tukhachevsky to fully commit in the south for some reason.
Molotov ran back to his office and picked up the phone and demanded to speak with the Marshal immediately only to be told that he couldn’t because the building that housed the Moscow phone exchange had just been hit. He learned in the following minutes was that phones were down and the radio stations were gone as well. He seen some of that himself from Red Square. The Luftwaffe had just cut off Moscow from the rest of the Soviet Union during what he feared were about to be several crucial hours.
Yelets, Lipetsk Oblast, Russia
It was time. Kat had been briefed on the role that the SKA was to play in the coming hours. She in turn had briefed the command staff of the SKA. They were to fulfill one of the most basic missions that they could perform in the field. But just getting there was where it proved complicated. Kat had sat in on all the planning meetings and pointed out some of the expected pitfalls. She had performed a mission like this herself in Belarus a couple years earlier. Small teams inserted in cover of darkness to perform one specific task and hopefully not get killed in the process.
Kat herself was sorely tempted to break her promise to Kira and lead one of the teams herself but she realized that would be a mistake on her part. Sometime after dark the helicopters started to take off and head north. As always staying behind felt wrong to her and she worried that it would be another sleepless night. To pass the time Kat went to the mess tent and helped herself to the mysterious black sludge that was being passed off as coffee. At least it was hot and theoretically caffeinated.
“You mind if I sit here?” Oberst Koch asked.
“It’s your camp, Sir” Kat replied, “You don’t need my permission.”
“Still, it’s nice to ask first, Major” Koch said.
“I guess” Kat said. It was not as if there was a dearth places to sit. She suspected that this might be yet another attempt to gauge her mental state. That probably meant that Doctor Holz was on the verge of passing through again. She steeled herself to speak with the Oberst when to her surprise he started pulling papers out of a folder and filling them out. Kat could tell with a glance that the papers had nothing to do with her. So, she wasn’t the only one who didn’t like being required to wait like this. The thought occurred to her that she really needed to stop winding herself up like that.
“Does this ever get easier, Sir?” Kat asked.
“It doesn’t” Koch said, “And the higher you rise the further removed you are from the action but your decisions carry greater weight. If that makes any sense.”
“It makes perfect sense” Kat said taking another sip of her coffee, she was trying to place the taste, rusty nails, oven black and battery acid? That was silly, what would battery acid even taste like?
“You seem to be able to handle it so far” Koch said, “Continuing the training even though no one holds you to it, it sets a good example.”
Not really, Kat thought to herself. She did that to keep from going insane. If she wasn’t tiring herself out with physical exertion then her mind would race and before she knew it the black depression that haunted her life would come crashing down on her like a ton of bricks. It was the classic story of Kat’s life. Doing all the right things for reasons that were not just wrong but profoundly selfish.
“I do my best, Sir” Kat said. Wishing that were true.
Stupid Luck and Happenstance.
- Thread starter Peabody-Martini
- Start date
And I'd hope never be under the command of someone for whom it does get lighter.
He should have been born 50 years or so earlier and in England, with Scotland as a close second
.Wolvogel's battle plan is gonna be audacious and outrageous and will present Tukhachevsky with a problem that looks like 1 + 1 and whose answer is chartreuse.
If I had a metal shop I'd probably make up a test run just for fun. Probably offer them for sale to AH.com members.
The cat cutouts once they are known to be from the SKA they are going to be collected as souvenirs by German and Allied troops and they will disregard the warnings about mines and other boobytraps that had been set up.
This will lead to a number of dead and wounded "souvenir hunters" among the German and Allied forces.
This will lead to a number of dead and wounded "souvenir hunters" among the German and Allied forces.
Yes, but so did the mania of trying to get a Luger in our OTL, but a lot soldiers die from bad luck and their own stupidity. Personaly I have seen the result of such. During a peace mission there was a stretch of road, where the only safe place was the tyr tracks (Sinai, old combat zone, mines left behind, etc). SIOP was never step outside your car. Still somebody needed to piss and could not wait 5 minutes. He stoped and only got one step away from his car, right on a antipersonal mine (lost his lower leg).
Not much point, I read about how "Scare Cats" had been around for decades a few years ago. Then I found them on a website named for a major South American river.
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Part 33, Chapter 388
Chapter Three Hundred Eighty-Eight
3rd July 1944
Moscow, Russia
It had taken hours but they had finally gotten the phone service restored in the early morning hours. As soon as news started coming in from the front it was even worse than Molotov had imagined. There were reports of attacks all along the front. The original German axis of advance on the road from Voronezh had been reinforced so the forces engaging them couldn’t disengage. There were reports from Chomutowo which had been a quiet sector until now. Apparently, there was now an Army Corps moving through there, obliterating everything in their path. The teams of saboteurs were back in force. He was getting flooded with trains blowing up, supply depots burnt, critical infrastructure like radio or radar stations were coming under mortar and rocket attack.
If Tukhachevsky was going to execute his plan he needed to do it fast before something else went wrong or Stalin found out. Molotov picked up the phone but before he made the call he hung back up. Just what could he afford to say.
Near Stupino, Moscow Oblast, Russia
Emil watched the glider came in, the designers had built the things to carry the same weight as a railroad boxcar. What they didn’t seem to factor in was aerodynamics or inertia. The gliders in question were basically boxcars with wings and when they landed everything on board tended to go flying out the front. This one was no different than the rest that he’d seen over the last hour since he’d landed. This one hit the ground and nosed over, a wing hit the ground which caused the whole thing to spin around. Emil was wondering just how much effort that would be involved in digging out whatever supplies were on board. Lucky for them most of those things were durable enough to not be destroyed by rough treatment. As Emil watched a Luftpanzer tore through the front of the glider. How about that, the Paras were going to have armored support on this mission.
That was when the scouts started to make their way back to the landing zone. According to them the defensive line that the Russians had kindly built for them along the north bank of the Oka river were manned by skeleton crews. In the event of the Russian Army retreating from their current positions. They were in for quite the surprise when that happened. His objective was to take the Russian positions, prevent any reinforcements from getting through and to capture the bridges intact if he could. It looked like he would get all of that and more. The Russians had two Corps worth of Green Devils in their rear and they didn’t know it yet. Emil smiled at that thought. It was already a good day and it was about to get better.
Yelets, Lipetsk Oblast, Russia
Kat had fallen asleep sometime about dawn. When she awoke she discovered that aside from a few mechanics, cooks and sentries she was the only one there. About the time she’d fallen asleep there had been a mass air drop up north near the Oka river. It had been the SKA teams that had set up the radio beacons and hopefully eliminated the opposition to the Fallschirmjäger Corps when they had arrived over the landing zone. Apparently, Oberst Koch had ordered the remaining personnel on base to let her sleep. He had also left orders saying that she was in charge until either he came back or she got new orders. Everyone else had remained with the rest of the Paras or had gone north. In doing so they had left her behind.
Kat didn’t know if she should be furious that she’d been ditched or happy that Koch had trusted her with the responsibility. Kat was drinking her coffee, marveling at how awful it was in the too quiet mess tent when she looked up and saw the individual who she least wanted to see right now.
It was said that to mention the Devil was to summon him. The night before Kat had been worried that Koch might ask probing questions ahead of a visit from Doctor Holz. Well, here he was.
“Good, Katherine” Doctor Holz said, “I heard that you finally managed to get a few hours of sleep which is good.”
Kat hadn’t seen him in months, not since the last time he’d come around Judenbach. He had been inquiring about her mental and physical health then. She didn’t figure that he would be interested in anything else now. She was relieved to learn that she was wrong.
“I was sent here to Yelets so that I could set up a surgical hospital” Doctor Holz said “And my understanding is that you know more about these new helicopters than anyone. I was hoping that you would want to help out? Being at loose ends for the moment and all.”
Kat knew that Doctor Holz held a rank that was equivalent to an Oberst in the Medical Corps. It made perfect sense that he would be the one sent to perform such a task and that he would seek out someone with the needed expertise but that left an important question.
“Shouldn’t this already have been set up?” Kat asked.
“You would think so” Doctor Holz said, “But the powers that be have had us in Voronezh until just a few hours ago and that is proving to be a bit too far away from things.”
“Typical” Kat said, “If only they spent as much time planning for how to clean up their messes as they did in creating…”
“That’s well and good, Kat” Doctor Holz said, “While I don’t disagree that doesn’t help us with the problem at hand.”
“What do you mean?” Kat asked.
“I mean your outfit has shifted elsewhere and you were volunteered to help out here” Doctor Holz said, “There’s a battle going on just a few kilometers from here and any second wounded are going to start arriving.”
“To here?”
“Yes” Doctor Holz said, “To here.”
So, that was the real job that Koch had stuck her with, Kat thought to herself. Oberst Koch had best hope that the Russians killed him because that was nothing compared to what Kat was considering doing to him for this.
3rd July 1944
Moscow, Russia
It had taken hours but they had finally gotten the phone service restored in the early morning hours. As soon as news started coming in from the front it was even worse than Molotov had imagined. There were reports of attacks all along the front. The original German axis of advance on the road from Voronezh had been reinforced so the forces engaging them couldn’t disengage. There were reports from Chomutowo which had been a quiet sector until now. Apparently, there was now an Army Corps moving through there, obliterating everything in their path. The teams of saboteurs were back in force. He was getting flooded with trains blowing up, supply depots burnt, critical infrastructure like radio or radar stations were coming under mortar and rocket attack.
If Tukhachevsky was going to execute his plan he needed to do it fast before something else went wrong or Stalin found out. Molotov picked up the phone but before he made the call he hung back up. Just what could he afford to say.
Near Stupino, Moscow Oblast, Russia
Emil watched the glider came in, the designers had built the things to carry the same weight as a railroad boxcar. What they didn’t seem to factor in was aerodynamics or inertia. The gliders in question were basically boxcars with wings and when they landed everything on board tended to go flying out the front. This one was no different than the rest that he’d seen over the last hour since he’d landed. This one hit the ground and nosed over, a wing hit the ground which caused the whole thing to spin around. Emil was wondering just how much effort that would be involved in digging out whatever supplies were on board. Lucky for them most of those things were durable enough to not be destroyed by rough treatment. As Emil watched a Luftpanzer tore through the front of the glider. How about that, the Paras were going to have armored support on this mission.
That was when the scouts started to make their way back to the landing zone. According to them the defensive line that the Russians had kindly built for them along the north bank of the Oka river were manned by skeleton crews. In the event of the Russian Army retreating from their current positions. They were in for quite the surprise when that happened. His objective was to take the Russian positions, prevent any reinforcements from getting through and to capture the bridges intact if he could. It looked like he would get all of that and more. The Russians had two Corps worth of Green Devils in their rear and they didn’t know it yet. Emil smiled at that thought. It was already a good day and it was about to get better.
Yelets, Lipetsk Oblast, Russia
Kat had fallen asleep sometime about dawn. When she awoke she discovered that aside from a few mechanics, cooks and sentries she was the only one there. About the time she’d fallen asleep there had been a mass air drop up north near the Oka river. It had been the SKA teams that had set up the radio beacons and hopefully eliminated the opposition to the Fallschirmjäger Corps when they had arrived over the landing zone. Apparently, Oberst Koch had ordered the remaining personnel on base to let her sleep. He had also left orders saying that she was in charge until either he came back or she got new orders. Everyone else had remained with the rest of the Paras or had gone north. In doing so they had left her behind.
Kat didn’t know if she should be furious that she’d been ditched or happy that Koch had trusted her with the responsibility. Kat was drinking her coffee, marveling at how awful it was in the too quiet mess tent when she looked up and saw the individual who she least wanted to see right now.
It was said that to mention the Devil was to summon him. The night before Kat had been worried that Koch might ask probing questions ahead of a visit from Doctor Holz. Well, here he was.
“Good, Katherine” Doctor Holz said, “I heard that you finally managed to get a few hours of sleep which is good.”
Kat hadn’t seen him in months, not since the last time he’d come around Judenbach. He had been inquiring about her mental and physical health then. She didn’t figure that he would be interested in anything else now. She was relieved to learn that she was wrong.
“I was sent here to Yelets so that I could set up a surgical hospital” Doctor Holz said “And my understanding is that you know more about these new helicopters than anyone. I was hoping that you would want to help out? Being at loose ends for the moment and all.”
Kat knew that Doctor Holz held a rank that was equivalent to an Oberst in the Medical Corps. It made perfect sense that he would be the one sent to perform such a task and that he would seek out someone with the needed expertise but that left an important question.
“Shouldn’t this already have been set up?” Kat asked.
“You would think so” Doctor Holz said, “But the powers that be have had us in Voronezh until just a few hours ago and that is proving to be a bit too far away from things.”
“Typical” Kat said, “If only they spent as much time planning for how to clean up their messes as they did in creating…”
“That’s well and good, Kat” Doctor Holz said, “While I don’t disagree that doesn’t help us with the problem at hand.”
“What do you mean?” Kat asked.
“I mean your outfit has shifted elsewhere and you were volunteered to help out here” Doctor Holz said, “There’s a battle going on just a few kilometers from here and any second wounded are going to start arriving.”
“To here?”
“Yes” Doctor Holz said, “To here.”
So, that was the real job that Koch had stuck her with, Kat thought to herself. Oberst Koch had best hope that the Russians killed him because that was nothing compared to what Kat was considering doing to him for this.
Shadow Master
Banned
Kat is NOT happy, lol. On the plus side, are we seeing the beginnings of a German M.A.S.H. units medevac capabilities?
Complete with speakers and the "Ride of the Valkyries" or is that "Boots and Saddles" ala "Apocalypse Now" - how I love the smell of napalm in the morning".
I hope the designers of the gliders located the cockpit like the OTL 747 - the cockpit's above the main fuselage to facilitate large loads and it also keeps the pilots out of the way of the cargo in a crash.
I would guess that this would be the equivalent of the ME 321, so yes they would be above the load.