Hammer of God (Kirov Series Book 14) Read online

  Kirov Saga:

  Hammer Of God

  By

  John Schettler

  A publication of: The Writing Shop Press

  Hammer Of God Copyright©2014, John A. Schettler

  Discover other titles by John Schettler:

  The Kirov Saga: (Military Fiction)

  Kirov - Kirov Series - Volume I

  Cauldron Of Fire - Kirov Series - Volume II

  Pacific Storm - Kirov Series - Volume III

  Men Of War - Kirov Series - Volume IV

  Nine Days Falling - Kirov Series - Volume V

  Fallen Angels - Kirov Series - Volume VI

  Devil’s Garden - Kirov Series - Volume VII

  Armageddon – Kirov Series – Volume VIII

  Altered States– Kirov Series – Volume IX

  Darkest Hour– Kirov Series – Volume X

  Hinge Of Fate– Kirov Series – Volume XI

  Three Kings – Kirov Series – Volume XII

  Grand Alliance – Kirov Series – Volume XIII

  Hammer Of God – Kirov Series – Volume XIV

  Crescendo Of Doom – Kirov Series – Volume XV

  Paradox Hour – Kirov Series – Volume XVI

  Award Winning Science Fiction:

  Meridian - Meridian Series - Volume I

  Nexus Point - Meridian Series - Volume II

  Touchstone - Meridian Series - Volume III

  Anvil of Fate - Meridian Series - Volume IV

  Golem 7 - Meridian Series - Volume V

  Classic Science Fiction:

  Wild Zone - Dharman Series - Volume I

  Mother Heart - Dharman Series - Volume II

  Historical Fiction:

  Taklamakan - Silk Road Series - Volume I

  Khan Tengri - Silk Road Series - Volume II

  Dream Reaper – Mythic Horror Mystery

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  Kirov Saga:

  Hammer Of God

  By

  John Schettler

  Kirov Saga:

  Hammer Of God

  By

  John Schettler

  Part I – Strokes of Heaven

  Part II – Uncertainty

  Part III – Forgotten Few

  Part IV – Scimitar

  Part V – Lap of the Gods

  Part VI – Catch 22

  Part VII – Wolf in the Fold

  Part VIII – Lock & Key

  Part IX – Stalemate

  Part X – Petrov’s Defense

  Part XI – Edge of Chaos

  Part XII – The Precipice

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  Author’s Note:

  For readers who might be dropping in without having taken the journey here from book one in the Kirov Series, this is the story of a Russian modern day battlecruiser displaced in time to the 1940s and embroiled in WWII. Their actions over the many episodes have so fractured the history, that they now find themselves in an alternate retelling of those events. In places the history is remarkably true to what it once was, in others badly cracked and markedly different. Therefore, events in this account of WWII have changed. Operations have been spawned that never happened, like the German attack on Gibraltar, and others will be cancelled and may never occur, like Operation Torch. And even if some events here do ring true as they happened before, the dates of those campaigns may be changed.

  This alternate history began in Book 9 of the series, entitled Altered States, and you would do well to at least back step and begin your journey there if you are interested in the period June 1940 to January 1 1941, which is covered in books 9 through 11 in the series. That time encompasses action in the North Atlantic, the battle of Britain, German plans and decisions regarding Operations Seelöwe and Felix, the action against the French fleet at Mers-el-Kebir and Dakar, and other events in Siberia that serve as foundations for things that will occur later in the series.

  Three Kings was a “bridge novel” leading you into 1941 with the British Operation Compass and the coming of Rommel and his Afrika Korps. But three timely reinforcements arrive for Britain—from most unexpected places! In Grand Alliance those forces join the action on land and sea in two major engagements to stem the Axis tide. Hammer of God now takes us to the decisive months leading up to the German attack on Soviet Russia, and the war now takes a decided new turn into the ancient lands of the Middle East. Here two vital campaigns were fought in Iraq and Syria to secure Britain’s tenuous position in Egypt, only this time the Germans have a few surprises of their own as another thread of Fedorov’s beloved history begins to unwind.

  -J. Schettler

  Part I

  Strokes of Heaven

  “The hardest strokes of heaven fall in history upon those who imagine that they can control things in a sovereign manner, playing providence not only for themselves but for the far future—reaching out into the future with the wrong kind of farsightedness, and gambling on a lot of risky calculations in which there must never be a single mistake.”

  English Historian Sir Herbert Butterfield

  Chapter 1

  Fedorov had been dreading the meeting in Alexandria, but the presence of Admirals Tovey and Cunningham, and the support of both General O’Connor and Brigadier Kinlan had conspired to make it much more bearable. They had come to initiate a new member into the grey priesthood of the knowing—those who grasped the full truth concerning Kirov and the newly arrived 7th Brigade. The ability to speak directly to Wavell in Russian eased the language barrier, but it was still difficult to simply come out with the story of all that had happened in the desert.

  Wavell displayed the expected surprise and disbelief, but here he had Admirals, Generals and Captains off strange Russian ships in front of him, and they all held fast to the same belief. Beyond that, he knew very well that he had no armored force in the southern desert. It had been all he could do to send a single battalion from the 6th Australian Division there to cover Siwa and try to scout out the enemy position at Giarabub. In the end, the argument that had finally won him over was the simple fact of Rommel’s retreat. The Germans had been set to roll in on his last strategic reserve in theatre, the 2nd New Zealand Infantry Division. The battle had been joined, and he had also sent the Carpathian Brigade in to try and backstop the position at Bir el Khamsa. As the first reports of the action came in, he soon received an urgent communication from O’Connor.

  “Presently on the enemy flank and with good force in hand. I propose to attack at dawn. The lack of details had proved to be most aggravating, and Wavell could not imagine what O’Connor was talking about. What force might he have scraped up that could threaten the enemy flank? That said, the intrepid O’Connor had appeared like a mad Jinn on the blood red dawn, and something had come surging out of the southern desert with a vengeance. It had struck the enemy like the Hammer of God, and sent the entire German Afrika Korps reeling with shock, and Wavell could not argue with that result. By the time he had thought to get forward to see what was happening, he had a message in hand that an urgent meeting had been called in Alexandria. There he heard the combined testimony of all these other respected officers, all serious minded men. Tovey and Cunningham were fresh from battle at sea, and here before him now was a man he had no knowledge of whatsoever, Brigadier Kinlan. There he stood, his odd uniform soiled by the desert, looking like a sensible, competent British serving officer—from a distant future that Wavell could not even begin to imagine.

  Six hours later he was a different man.

  They had gone over everything together, and then another strange gentlemen was
introduced, and Director Kamenski had a long, quiet chat with Wavell. This moment had come to them all, each man present. They had all suffered the same shock, the wrenching disorientation, the disbelief. Yet they had all come to accept their fate in time. They were now believers.

  It wasn’t until the discussion turned to plans and strategy that Wavell could even begin to gather his thoughts. The realization finally struck him like that same Hammer of God, but he suddenly realized that he had that hammer in his own strong hand now, and could wield the most powerful weapon any man had ever been given in this world. So he put aside all his shock and disbelief and pressed his thoughts on what they might now achieve with this godsend.

  “Gentlemen,” he said. “What, then, do we propose to do? And how in the world are we to communicate all this to our government? I have been in receipt of cables from the Prime Minister every other day. If he has not already been informed, he will want a summation of the current situation in the Western Desert from me forthwith. What in the world am I to tell him? Just last week I was stressing the lack of transport and the complete inadequacy of our current armored forces. He was proposing every sort of counter to the enemy advance, right down to naval landings on the coast road behind Rommel’s lines. In short, he had no effective understanding of what we were facing here, and could not imagine why we were not able to prevent Rommel’s advance. He insisted we chop off the turtle’s neck, as he put things.”

  “Well,” Admiral Tovey smiled. “It seems you have done exactly that. The details may not be important—only the result. The Prime Minister will certainly take heart in knowing we’ve set Rommel back on his heel. But I cannot imagine that we can continue on without him knowing what has happened here. Captain Fedorov has stressed the grave importance of restricting the knowledge we have shared with you, and I am in full agreement with that. But the Prime Minister must be informed. It is a hard hour, when we come to the realization that the world we are living in is not what we thought it was. It takes courage and time to stand up after that. Yet we need only focus our minds and hearts on one thing now—how can we prevail?”

  “That will be the same question the enemy is asking,” said Cunningham. “They have seen the rockets fly, and smelled the burning steel. Though they may have no idea what really befell them, both at sea and on land, they will still be set on finding a way to redress that situation.”

  “So we must be resolute,” said Tovey, “and we must press our advantage to the fullest while we can. The support of both Admiral Volsky, Miss Fairchild, and Brigadier Kinlan has been decisive. We have turned the enemy back on both fronts, but this struggle is far from over.”

  Wavell nodded gravely as he spoke up now. “As I am in regular communication with the Prime Minister, perhaps I can handle the matter of his briefing. But realize that what happens to that information after it is disclosed will not be a matter I can control.”

  “That is the dilemma,” said Fedorov after he heard the translation. “The more this knowledge spreads, the greater the chance that it will act like a poison in this world. It must be restricted, the most closely guarded secret of the war. Surely a man like Churchill can understand that.”

  “I believe he will,” said Wavell. “In the short run he is likely to send Foreign Secretary Eden here to investigate and report. I can’t see how we can avoid his knowing about all of this. And what about the War Cabinet? The list goes on and on. Who do we include in this little club, and who is to be shut out?”

  “Perhaps it would be best if we arrange a meeting with Churchill here, away from the hubbub of the War Cabinet and the politics involved,” said Tovey. “Might we persuade him to come out and have a look around himself?”

  “I would be delighted to make the invitation,” said Wavell, “and I suppose if we all put our names to it, with the strongest possible request that he come here, good old Winston will likely be so curious as to what this is all about that he would swim here, if he couldn’t fly.”

  That brought a much needed round of laughter, though it was short-lived when Wavell revealed the most recent message he had received from Churchill. “More than a simple communication, this is a directive, dated Feb 14, 1941. The Prime Minister stresses the importance of taking every advantage of our recent victory, and states that every effort must be made to cut the enemy’s lines of communications by sea to North Africa.”

  “He had undoubtedly heard the results of our recent battle,” said Tovey, “though he has not yet received my full report. I have received that directive as well, and Mister Churchill seems adamant that we are to mount the most aggressive naval campaign possible. The Admiralty wants us to bombard Tripoli, and that failing, to block the harbor by sinking a ship.”

  “That was undoubtedly Admiral Pound’s suggestion,” said Cunningham. “Hasn’t he learned of the condition of my fleet?”

  “He knows we lost Queen Elizabeth, and that Malaya is damaged,” said Tovey. “Yet he still strongly suggests that every effort must be made, and went so far as to say that any losses must be accepted to achieve this aim—the strangulation of enemy supply routes to North Africa—even if we lose another battleship. They suggest we should commit Warspite to the task.”

  “That is out of the question,” said Cunningham, and Tovey was quick to agree.

  “I will inform them of the true condition of Malaya,” he said. “The ship is holed beneath the water line, and badly beaten up. I doubt it will be serviceable for at least a year, and that leaves only Invincible and Warspite available until I can move new forces here from Somerville, though they’ll take some time getting round the cape.”

  “Yes? Well my latest communication from Churchill is most alarming. He is now proposing to try and kill two birds with a single stone by sending both Rodney and Nelson through the Straits of Gibraltar as escorts for a convoy of reserve tanks for Wavell.”

  “Through the straits?”

  “Quite so. The Admiralty seems to think the recent engagement has the enemy in as bad a condition as we are. They believe the convoy has a good chance of winning through—tiger convoy, or so the Prime Minister is now calling it.”

  “Well, the enemy battleships may be in the shipyards of Toulon for the moment, and taking repairs, but don’t they realize the German still have U-boats? Somerville says he tried to slip a fast destroyer through and it never came back. Now Rodney and Nelson are fine ships, but at a little over twenty knots top speed, they will make fine targets in those constricted waters.”

  “I’m afraid this is probably my fault,” said Wavell. “I was bellyaching to the Prime Minister over our lack of serviceable tanks here, and their importance in any operation of any consequence. He was none too happy about our inability to send any meaningful reinforcement of Greece.”

  “That will be on my plate,” said Tovey. “Given the ferocity of the engagements we have recently fought, it should not be difficult to explain the consequences we would have faced in losing a division at sea. We’ve beaten the enemy off for now, but at significant cost. While the Italians have withdrawn to La Spezia for the moment to lick their wounds, and the Germans and French to Toulon and Taranto, they are nonetheless capable of posing a serious challenge, and the enemy air superiority in the Central Mediterranean makes any move as the Prime Minister suggests a rash endeavor.”

  “Yes? Well he will consider every enemy convoy that gets through to be a serious naval failure,” said Cunningham. “It says as much in his directive. He seems convinced the deck armor on the Nelson class is impervious to the bombs delivered by German Stukas.”

  “Well I have made arrangements to get us more help here,” said Tovey. “If we are to have any chance of doing what the Prime Minister directs concerning Tripoli, then we’ll need aircraft carriers first. The rocket defense put up by our friends from tomorrow was formidable, but German planes come much cheaper than the missiles they’ll be forced to use if we rely on them too often. I’ve already ordered Glorious to join us with more fighters, and
she is en-route. I’ll settle the matter of Rodney and Nelson as soon as I can communicate with Somerville. We still have Richelieu and Jean Bart to worry about at Casablanca, and if we take those battleships he’ll have only Valiant. The battlecruiser squadron is getting back on its feet after that beating we took up north, so we may be able to pull that off if I send Somerville a battlecruiser. The Prime Minister will have to be patient.”

  “Patient?” said Wavell. “He’ll be like a bulldog with a rope in his mouth, and this directive will not be the last. His most recent communication informs me the Americans have taken up patrols in the Denmark Strait zone, and that this should relieve our concerns in the North Atlantic.”

  “True, but he drafted that some weeks ago, before having the information we are now preparing to disclose,” said Tovey. “Once he sees the big picture, then we can settle things down to a real plan.”

  “Yes,” said Wavell. “The disintegration of 2nd Armored on the retreat east was a mystery to him. He simply has no conception of the conditions here, and how unreliable our equipment is.”

  “It would seem that my brigade can redress that,” said Kinlan.

  “Well you are a most welcome knight at our round table here,” said Wavell. “Arthur has come back from Avalon at the eleventh hour. Yet knowing Churchill, the moment he learns we have the services of Brigadier Kinlan, he will stop at nothing to put them to good use.”