Fiction

The following is a work of fiction by Duri Price, detailing the breakthru of the Axis forces in the Caucasus region during the Europe Aflame Campaign with Faron Bell.

5/2/1940   

Marshal Timoshenko closed his eyes and wondered what had come first; his loss of faith in God, or God's loss of faith in him. He'd been born and raised in the Russian version of what the Westerners, in their typical self-centered way, called Eastern Orthodox Christianity. That belief system predated both the Roman Orthodox beliefs and the first glimmerings of civilization in Russia, but it had technically died with the Czar, itself a title that was a relic of the empire that had nurtured the 'Eastern Orthodox' beliefs. All given way to the Dialectic of the Proletariat and Communism... which was in imminent danger of becoming extinct as well in this part of the world.

     When he opened his eyes nothing had changed. The damned Germans were still enmeshed with the Red Army all around the Stalino area, 150km Northwest of Rostov, and 750km from Stalingrad. They had opened their spring offensive with supplies stockpiled all along the railheads leading back to Germany, with most of their units at or near full strength, and with the Red Army still weakened from both the previous summer offensives and the loss of Murmansk and it's Lend-Lease material.  His defensive efforts had held them for over two months, but the Ukraine is superb tank country in good weather, as he knew quite well from his days as a Cavalry officer. A week ago they had finally broken through, and they'd poured everything they had into the breach.

     "Marshal, message from the 4th Guards." said his aids voice.

    Timoshenko turned his head, replied "Yes?". He waited a moment, then said; "Don't just stand there looking dyspeptic Vassily. Give me the news.". 

   Lt. Gordinova stiffened, then said "Comrade Marshal, 4th Guards reports they have lost contact with the 31st Army.  They are cutoff again, along with the staff of Stalingrad Front HQ group.".  This admission came out clipped, obviously uncomfortable despite the experience he had had recently with delivering bad news.

    Timoshenko nodded heavily, closed his eyes again; "Nichevo...." he said. It can't be helped.

     'Vassily' Gordinova turned pale, could feel his stomach clench. In the past six months, since his predecessor had gone off to lead the 22nd Army and die with it in the Pripet Marshes, he had brought a great deal of bad news to his superior.  The crossing of the Dnieper, the fall of Kiev, the encirclement of almost half a million men East of the Dniester, the loss of Murmansk and the catastrophic failure of the attempt to retake it in late Fall by amphibious assault from the Barents Sea. More recently the crossing of the Kerch Straights and the fall of Novorossik to airborne and land assault had been the worst, until the past two weeks.

     They had used the winter carefully. 'Marshal Winter' had provided the Red Army with time to dig, in frozen ground in many places. They had dug entrenchments stretching for nearly 300km in depth in some locations, with most of the work being in the Ukraine. When the German spring of '40 offensive had opened it had slammed into that defense with much more force than expected. But the depth of the defense was it's protection and allowed the Red Army time to absorb the shock. So they had stood and fought, falling back slowly, but still maintaining a line against the Germans stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea.

     After the first month though the constant pressure had started to tell, and the Russian line had thinned. It was becoming increasingly hard to find fresh units to plug the gaps with, and by three weeks ago, at the beginning of April, the Red Army was thinning dangerously all across the south.

     Lately his job seemed to be more like that of a man reading a list of names of the condemned. The Estonian front was disintegrating, and the only thing holding it together was that the Axis had mostly Romanians up there instead of Germans. But that wasn't much relief, because those Germans were instead in Finland where they were helping the Finns assault Leningrad. And successfully, because the Red Army was almost shattered. Very few units at anything like full strength, and all of those newly raised and inexperienced. Those units didn't last long either, not against the Panzer Divisions.

     When Leningrad fell in mid April of '40 and Gordinova had brought the news to Timoshenko, the response had been the usual taciturn, "Understood. Thank you Vassily.". When the Swedes declared war on the Rodinia two days later he had received the same response. When the Germans began their latest breakthrough in that same week and trapped one of the few elite Army-sized units remaining in the Red Army, along with the headquarters staff that had been forward deployed with them Timoshenko had taken the news silently, which had made Gordinova uncomfortable simply because it was atypical. But then he had organized a counterattack that had briefly opened a route to the 4th Guards, and looked like it would allow the Red Army to extract those 50,000 men. The counterattack was simultaneous to a massive assault on Leningrad in an attempt to take that city back. The Leningrad counterattack was a disaster that had resulted in the destruction or dissolution of almost half of the attacking army, but the attempt to relieve the 4th had looked like it would succeed.

     But the damned Germans had attacked the pocket at its neck, threatening to cut it off again before the 4th could withdraw. And they had attacked everywhere else as well, pushing into any gap they could find, or through burned-out and shattered Red Army formations with no regard to their flanks or rear. If the Red Army had any strength left they could have encircled and annihilated dozens of Wehrmacht divisions.

     There was nothing left. The Red Army units were immobilized by the chaos. No one knew where the German units were unless they were actively being attacked by them. Regiments, Corps and whole Army groups were losing communication with each other and with HQ, and the odds of extracting either the 4th or the formations sent in to try to retrieve it were dropping dramatically by the hour.

     And still, until just now, each message had been met with, "Understood Vassily.  Thank you.".

 

    "Vassily, could you please get me a cup of tea? Take the time to find some milk while you're at it, if you please." said Timoshenko, still looking at the unintelligible and obviously no longer accurate map spread out before him.

   Gordinova didn't move. "Comrade Marshal, Comrade Commissar Malenkov wants to speak with you." Gordinova said, delivering the second half of the bad news he had to bring.

    Timoshenko closed his eyes again, and said "Yes Vassily, I know. Tell the Comrade Commissar he can see me in a moment.".

   

   Gordinova almost said something further, but as he felt the nausea in his stomach he knew it wouldn't matter. Nichevo. Better to go get the tea. And take his time. Malenkov wouldn't be able to deliver his message in person, but Gordinova was tired of pronouncing death, and soon he probably wouldn't need to again.

     As his aid left Timoshenko opened his eyes again, looking at but not seeing the map in front of him. It's done; no sense wasting time or words he thought. Time to find out who was right about Orthodoxy, if anyone. At the moment he rather hoped it was the Communists....

 

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