Tide Of Fortune (Kirov Series Book 20) Page 19

  “Sounds logical,” said Fletcher.

  “And also dangerous,” said Halsey. “Jack…. That’s where we’ll have to meet them, right there in the Solomons. There’s a whole string of islands out there up for grabs, and we need to get in on the action before they take all that prime real estate and set up shop. Something tells me that if we can stop them there, then we can turn this mess around and get moving again.”

  “The Aussies will be happy to hear that,” said Fletcher.

  “Yes they will,” Halsey nodded. “Because if we don’t stop them there, then Australia is next. We can’t lose them, they’re too damn valuable. The Aussies are the only thing stalling the Japanese drive on Singapore now. So once we get thing squared away, our primary strategic mission is to keep the lines of communication open to Australia. If we lose Australia, then this thing just might get out of hand. Believe me, if someone as dumb as me knows that, then the Japanese certainly know it too. So we can’t drop the ball. If we do, who’s going to spank Tojo? Certainly not the Siberians.”

  The two men had a good laugh at that, but for another man, it would soon be no laughing matter. He was determined to make a difference in this affair, and had the means of doing so, along with a plan.

  * * *

  “Alright,” said Karpov. “Plot me a course for the Sea of Okhotsk. We’re going to begin operations on Kamchatka and Sakhalin Island. Those territories will be the first to be liberated, and if the Japanese want to try and reinforce them, they’ll pay the price.”

  “How can you possibly operate against those places?” asked Fedorov. “It is nearly 2000 kilometers from Magadan to Yakutsk, and that’s on an unpaved road that can only be used when it is frozen in winter.”

  “Correct,” said Karpov, “but you forget my airship fleet. I’ve had the Far East Airship Division moving troops to Magadan for some time, and if my brother can deal with Volkov, the balance of power could change. Then I would have more airships I can devote to strategic movement of land forces. I have enough lift now to carry a full brigade. The transport ships from Magadan can move the rest.”

  “But those airships can only provide limited air support against the Japanese. What if they move squadrons of fighters to oppose you?”

  “They can try, but with Kirov at hand, I can project a lethal air defense umbrella over any chosen landing zone. And do not write off my airships so quickly. They are vulnerable to heavier guns, but not the typical machineguns most fighters carry. We have amazing self-sealing gas bag linings. I’ve assembled a nice little fleet at Magadan—five destroyers, over 20 transport ships, icebreakers, and a full division in reserve. Another will be raised shortly.”

  “Then you are planning an offensive against Japanese held territories?”

  “Where else? I have opened negotiations with the Americans, and I am trying to persuade them to support me as they did with the British in those lend-lease convoys. I have the gold to pay for anything they will sell me. The gold mines near Magadan will provide anything I need. At the moment, the Japanese presence in Kamchatka is very weak, and they don’t have much more than a few battalions on Sakhalin Island. They simply do not think we pose any threat, which is why they ignore me now, though they may think twice after they see their flagship limp home. I have an operation all ready to go, under the code name Plan 7. It was triggered the moment Volkov decided to strike at Ilanskiy again. We’ve been preparing an offensive for a good long while, in spite of all the troops I’ve sent Sergei Kirov. We’re going to hit them, and let them know we mean business. Once I show the Americans I can take and hold territory, and then offer them airfields for their bombers on Kamchatka and Sakhalin Island, you will see how things change.”

  Fedorov nodded, seeing Karpov with new eyes now. The man had a strategic plan. He had been husbanding resources, troops, weapons, supplies, transport shipping, and he was planning to stage a daring attack somewhere that was very likely to succeed, unless the Japanese got wind of it.

  “So this is why you are not dead set on pursuing the Kido Butai.”

  “Correct. I’ve done what I intended here. I’ve declared war, made my demands, initiated hostilities, and shown them just how powerless they are against Kirov. I don’t suppose they even know what they are up against, but they will certainly know who they are facing in battle soon enough. Once I establish a secure lodgment, clear Kamchatka and Sakhalin, then they will sit up and take real notice. That’s when my little war with the Japanese really starts. In the meantime, see if Nikolin has any signals intercepts. I’ve got to find out what has happened at Ilanskiy.”

  Part VIII

  Rain of Fire

  “If you're going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire…. It's the only good fight there is.”

  —Charles Bukowski, Factorum

  Chapter 22

  Like all plans it was risky, even daring, in spite of ever effort to make it seem certain. It had been tried twice before, the first merely a mission born more of curiosity and spite than anything else. Ivan Volkov wanted to know why there seemed to be a slow accumulation of men and material at a small hamlet in Siberia, far behind the front. And he wanted to get rid of a troublesome airship Captain at the same time. That mission, ill equipped as it was, might have discovered something quite unexpected there at Ilanskiy, a prize worth more than a hundred divisions, and one far more powerful, in fact, than all the armies on this earth.

  Yet other men had also come that day, their minds and strong arms fixed on destroying that prize. They foiled Volkov’s first foray, saw him lose his two airships, and destroyed that prize, at least for a time. It was not really understood. After that raid, Vladimir Karpov sought out the men who had built that humdrum railway inn, and gathered the best carpenters and engineers he could find to build it anew.

  The second raid was much more purposeful, supported by three airship divisions and carrying a full regiment into battle. Yet it was foiled by the sudden and unexpected arrival of Vladimir Karpov on his newest and most powerful airship. The ensuing battle saw six airships fall on Orenburg’s side, three on the Siberian side, and almost dropped the General Secretary of the Orenburg Federation into Karpov’s hands. Volkov escaped by the narrowest margin, steaming and planning ever since that defeat to come to this battlefield again.

  Third time is the charm, or so it is said. All the mistakes of the previous two missions were analyzed and discussed by the Admirals and Generals. The element of surprise had been turned against them, they had insufficient supply, one airship division had been late to the field of battle, their covering ground support fire was caught up in the airship duel… The list was a long one. Thus their plan was now bigger and more elaborate than the other two combined. Now the full might of the Orenburg Air Corps would be dispatched, all of 16 airships. They would carry a reinforced regiment to the scene as before, but behind them would come over 300 German transport planes carrying another full air landing division to the airfields near Kansk, if they could be secured in a timely manner.

  That was the first risk in this plan, that and the weather itself. December in Siberia was harsh and cold. Both men and equipment would suffer, and the airships could not brave the high altitudes where they would normally cruise. Instead they would come in low, hoping to hover and quickly dispatch their initial assault regiment to begin the attack on key objectives.

  There were two airfields at Kansk, the larger settlement west of Ilanskiy on the Trans-Siberian rail line. Four high mooring towers for the Siberian airship fleet had been constructed, with three more at Ilanskiy, one for each of the ships still active in the Siberian fleet. Karpov was making this the center of his fleet operations, his Pearl Harbor in the endless stretches of Siberian wilderness, and just as the Japanese fleet received their orders to attack, the airships of Orenburg were climbing slowly away from their long shadows, heading east like a massive pod of whales.

  Secur
ing those vital airfields was the first objective. Unless this could be done quickly, the forces of Orenburg could not build up enough strength on the ground to carry the day. Geography would also pose a challenge to the attack planners. Kansk was on the western side of the Kan River, with marshy banks and few good bridges. Ilanskiy itself was flanked on the east by a massive bog. This was one reason Volkov and his generals had decided to attack in December, in spite of the bad weather. The cold would freeze those rivers and bogs, making those imposing terrain barriers crossable.

  Yet the fact that two of the three airfields that would receive reinforcements and supplies were in the west at Kansk, still meant that all those troops landing there would have to move 15 miles over land to the main objective at Ilanskiy. The Siberians would also have reinforcements arriving from both east and west on the Siberian rail line, so selected teams would have to set up blocking positions, destroy the line, and serve as a delaying force. It would not be enough to simply take Kansk and then move east from that town to Ilanskiy. Kansk would have to be held, for those airfields would be needed for the second lift, bringing the vital supplies in that the troops would need for battle. And they would also be essential should the mission call for any withdrawal.

  To task a single reinforced division with all these objectives, and the responsibility of controlling the entire battle zone between Kansk and Ilanskiy, was stretching the limits of what might be militarily possible. But Volkov was determined to do just one thing with this assault, get to that railway inn and destroy it. He had contemplated trying to go there again himself, and cast his fate to the wind on that back stairway, but then realized that the unknowns were simply too great. This time he merely meant to strike that weapon from his enemy’s hand, undoing all of Karpov’s careful planning and engineering, and laying waste to his enemy’s airship fleet at the same time.

  The plan had designated seven assault landing zones throughout the sector, as close to those airfields and key objectives as planners could find them. The airships were useful in delivering troops to the ground, but they would be very vulnerable to enemy artillery or heavy flak guns while hovering low for an unloading operation. So the sites had been placed out of range of the enemy guns, their position carefully noted by a man captured in the second raid, Volkov’s old Intelligence Chief Kymchek. He had “turned” to avoid a pounding by Grilikov, but still remained loyal to his old boss, and was secretly signaling operatives and agents in the region, and sending back information on the garrison strength and deployments of Siberian troops at Ilanskiy and Kansk.

  That defense would see a full Siberian Rifle Division on hand, the fighting 78th. One regiment was at Kansk, beefing up the garrison troops there. The 131st was fully motorized, so that it could move quickly along the roads to Ilanskiy if ever needed there. That smaller town had two regiments, one the 40th Siberian Rifles and another more elite force in the 11th Siberian Guards. The third regiment of the 78th was 15 miles further east at Nizhny Ingash, where they had been improving the rail line, expanding the depot, and laying in supplies for the division.

  Karpov left three airships on permanent station. The heavy cruiser Talmenka was moored on tower number 1 at Kansk, very close to the north airfield there. To other A-Class cruisers, Angara and Abakan, were moored on towers 5 and 6 at Ilanskiy. The former was close to the airfield just north of the town, and the latter on the banks of the great bog that flanked it to the east. That would put it right near the vital railway inn, which would be within range of its recoilless rifles.

  Sixteen to three seemed the overwhelming odds that Volkov was counting on, but the Siberian fleet had been strongly reinforced when Sergei Kirov gladly sent every airship he had in exchange for the Siberian divisions that were now struggling with the Germans near Moscow. Narva, Riga and Orel had accompanied Tunguska for a time, then moved in and out of Ilanskiy, relieving the three airships there on occasion. The fleet would swap those two divisions between that point, and Irkutsk on Lake Baikal, the Far East Front against the Japanese.

  Two more airships were en-route from the far south, Odessa and Rostov, the latter to be renamed Omsk by Karpov when it joined the fleet, as he had plans to get that city back from Volkov in short order. Then there was the latest addition to the fleet, Baikal, the second Tunguska class ship fresh off the assembly lines. Two more units from the old fleet were on permanent station at Irkutsk, the original flagship named for that city, and the Novosibirsk. They were big ships, like the venerable old ship destroyed in the last battle here, Big Red, but they still had a lot of firepower.

  That was Karpov’s real edge. His airships were bigger and better gunned than those of the Orenburg fleet, which had lost its largest and most powerful ship when the flagship Orenburg went down with Big Red, nearly taking Volkov to a fiery death along with it. If the entire Siberian fleet could be gathered here, it would make the odds sixteen to twelve, and the edge in Siberian firepower made that almost even when recoilless rifles were totaled. Volkov was counting on surprise again, and hoping to chop up the Siberians in detail, destroying the fleet garrison ships first, then overwhelming reinforcing units as they arrived.

  The early hours might favor Orenburg in the air, though the initial assault regiment would face steep odds until that air landing division could deploy through the airfields. Whether the plan included enough force to achieve its single objective now remained to be seen. Even if they did succeed, Volkov knew that there would be nothing to prevent Karpov from rebuilding that inn again.

  He knew he could never really take it and hold it, but by destroying it he was buying valuable time, neutralizing one Ace in his enemy’s hand, if only for a while. Like the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he also hoped to lay waste to the enemy fleet, and the facilities they had built here to support it. That would neutralize Karpov as a mobile threat for at least six months. In that interval, his hope was also on the advance of Manstein and Steiner’s SS Korps in the south. If they could link up, he hoped he might finally convince Karpov that his struggle on the Soviet side was futile. Had he truly taken the measure of his enemy, he would have realized that was a foolhardy thought. Yet it is said that fools rush in, where angels fear to tread, and that operation was now about to get underway, a few weeks after Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.

  So the Admirals and generals argued over the plan for some time after Volkov secured those transports from Germany. The navy was confident it could now deliver air superiority, but the army was nervous. The plan had but one heavy assault regiment that could be lifted by the sixteen airships. Originally it had been split with separate battalions targeting both Ilanskiy and Kansk, but one General opposed the plan, saying the entire force should be committed to Kansk at the outset, its sole aim being to get those two vital airfields.

  Another General thundered that they should simply drop the entire assault regiment at Ilanskiy, blow up that railway inn and be done with it, but the failure of that approach in the last raid saw it discarded. Eventually, the more cautious plan was adopted—get the airfields at Kansk, isolate and destroy that garrison, then build up and move east, hoping blocking forces on the rail line east would delay enemy reinforcements long enough to win the day.

  ‘Operation Firestorm’ was about to begin

  They came in from the north, following a route that had been well chosen to avoid the air patrols and radar sites further west at Krasnoyarsk. They crossed the Yeseni River well north of that city, continuing east through heavy cloud cover that hid even the massive bulk of the fleet. About 45 minutes later they made the final turn south an hour before sunrise, even as the bows of the carriers in the Kido Butai were also turning for the final run down to Pearl Harbor. It was not long before they descended, seeming to form out of the slate grey mist and sky, solidifying from the heavy clouds as they fell.

  In that early morning hour, the T-Class cruiser Talmenka was just finishing its pre-flight check on Tower 1, ready to begin its dawn patrol. Eight airships would soon
converge, heading for the two designated Assault Landing Zones on either side of the river that meandered through Kansk. Six of the eight ships in those first two divisions would move to ground level and offload the assault teams, while the other two made directly for Tower 1, intent on smashing Talmenka.

  Rifle companies off the Kungur and Samara were the first on the ground, sliding rapidly down the long assault ropes that now dangled like dark trailing tentacles from some great jellyfish above. They formed up, the shrill whistles of the Lieutenants followed by the growl of noncoms, and within minutes they were racing towards the west end airfield, Kansk North. In the distance, a warning bell began to ring, prompting a Sergeant high up on Tower 1 to turn his head. The low ground mist was so thick that he could barely see the airfield a little over one kilometer to the west. But the early warning radar crews were finally reaching their stations to see a scope filled with blotches. The airships had come in as low as possible in their final approach, and should have been detected, but no one was watching.

  Rifle squads of the 131st Motor Rifle Regiment were up and out of the farm houses that served as their quarters, bleary eyed, grabbing rifles and helmets, and rushing towards the airfield. High up on the tower, the Sergeant dropped his clip board pre-flight mooring checklist and ran to the nearest phone, cranking it and ringing up the bridge.

  “Sir! There is something going on at the airfield. I can hear small arms fire.”