The Headquarters of
Oberbefehlshaber Süd were a bustling hive of activity at the best of times. Unlike the minuscule sardine can that was the Headquarters of the
Befehlshaber der U-Boote, Admiral Dönitz in France the Vienna Headquarters of Field Marshal von Kluge were located in three adjoining buildings grouped around the Palais Augarten, the 17th Century feel of the park and the buildings marred by the gigantic Wireless antennae and the comings and goings of German and Soviet Army vehicles.
Reason for the recent surge in activity was the progress that the Allied forces in Austria had made, and history would mark today, the 20th August 1942 as the date when the Axis Command for the first time felt actual panic over anything the Allies did. The breakthrough left them less than 200 kilometres from Vienna and still the Führer refused to release the reserves, and Stalin, while receptive could do little since Austria fell into the German area of Command. Having just sent a message to the OKW, again imploring them to release the reserve, Field Marshal von Kluge came to realize that one way or another the next few days would decide his future. After pausing for a few seconds, he shook his head as if to chase his inner weakness and the sensation of squeezing in his chest. He shrugged it off and walked towards the map room as if nothing had happened, while inside him the pain only increased. But he was a German Field Marshal, and he refused to acknowledge weakness in an hour of need, even though the pain now extended to his left arm.
He made it into the map room and opened his mouth to speak but instead he collapsed to the floor and was dead before coming to rest. It was later determined that Generalfeldmarschall von Kluge had died of a simple heart attack brought on by stress and a weakened heart due to an undiagnosed case of Coronary disease.
What was instantly clear was that Oberkommando Süd had been decapacitated and the hour it took to hunt down von Kluge's second in Command, General der Infanterie Harpe who was in a Staff Car somewhere between Budapest and Vienna, coming back from a Staff Conference with the Hungarian High Command. The delay brought about by this not only allowed the Allies to cover almost thirty miles without significant resistance before halting in the later afternoon, it also critically delayed the German reactions to incidents farther south. At first however the news was communicated to Berlin where it was met with confusion. While there were several good Officers capable of taking over, few were senior enough or had Hitler's good graces. In fact there were only three men that could technically do it, but Guderian was currently in Moscow together with Zhukov trying to get a view of the mess that was the Far Eastern Front, while von Manstein was currently en route on the Trans-Siberian Railway to Omsk, officially to do the same thing as Guderian but rather from a more 'forward' point of view, while behind closed doors some said that it was because Manstein had said less than pleasant things about certain contingency plans that the OKW had been working on since the fall of Rome to the Allies. Thirdly Field Marshal Rommel was currently heavily engaged with the French who were always trying to get out of the mountains and into the countryside and could hardly be expected to abandon his command at the drop of a hat in the middle of a major battle. So for the moment Harpe was made acting OB-Süd as soon as he could be reached as he entered the limits of the former Austrian Capital. However by that time farther south Allied aircraft and most of the Mediterranean Fleet (such as it was these days) had begun what some believed to be Churchill's attempt and eradicating the shame of Galipoli and invaded occupied Albania.
Operation Downfall, however important it would turn out to be later on was not on the mind of most who met in a non-descript Office in Budapest that afternoon. Great care had been taken that the men would arrive unseen the night before, and that they were seen only by the most trusted of the Regent's men. Representing Bulgaria was the vice Chairman of Parliament Dimitar Peshev, pushed to the sidelines by both the authoritarian regime of Tsar Boris III and the pro-german stance of most of the executive, representing the interests of the King of Romania but not his Prime Minister was Doctor Bumbescu, close friend of the young King[1]. Miklós Horthy was quite obviously representing Hungary and his mere presence told the others of the sincerity of the situation.
After drinks were exchanged, Horty spoke.
“The British and their Allies can practically spit across the Hungarian border. The Yugoslav Monarchists have all but taken most of the country, and we have reports of at least two British mechanized Cavalry Divisions supporting them. The Germans keep yelling louder for me to deploy I Army to Austria instead of ceeping them where they are now. Let's face it, the Germans and the Soviets will soon have been ejected from the Balkans and then the British can dictate their will. We must decided what to do, and frankly if we can speak with one voice, the British might be more willing to listen.”
Murmurs of general agreement went through the room.
Bumbescu, ever the diplomat, voiced his objections first. “Forgive me for saying this, but His Majesty isn't exactly the one who dictates Romanian policy, as much as he might want to, and we all have Army groups from either of our benefactors sitting across the border. In fact, I firmly believe that both Berlin and Moscow have plans to act against what you seem to be proposing.”
Before anyone could accuse the King of cowardice, he raised his hand. “However, if His Majesty were to regain control of Romania and could be assured Bulgarian and Hungarian support then the Romanian Armed Forces will fight, rest assured of that, especially if it means that the British stop boming Ploesti.”
Peshev nodded, indicating agreement with this positon.
“We too have been 'asked' on when our troops can be deployed beyond our own borders. So far we have managed to stall especially the Soviets with saying that we need them to guard against incursions from Yugoslavia, but our General Staff believes that this will not fool them for longer. In fact we have already made tentative contact with the representatives of the King of Yugoslavia, and if need be we can use that as a channel to the British.”
That was news to everyone else, and Horty had to digest this news before laying out the position of his own country.
“As you know, we have troops that are already in the perfect position to either fall in the flanks of the Allies should they besiege Vienna or into that of the Germans should they hold them where the front is now. The big question now is, what are we going to do? We cannot allow our countries to be ravaged by a war not of our own making.”
Peshev had to suppress a disgusted snort. It had been Horty who had jumped at the chance of carving some of the ancient Crown lands of St. Stephen off Yugoslavia and whose troops had actively taken part in the invasion of the same country. Still, the man did have a point. Hungary had, for all it's support to the Axis, been a lukewarm supporter of Greater Germany since the little Austrian Corporal had signed the alliance with the abortive Georgian Prest, what with Horty being a more devout Christian than most of the upper Axis leadership.
“If anything,” Horty went on, “if we jump ship now, we can expect lenient terms.”
Again true, Peshev admitted to himself. Italy might have been ravaged by the war almost everywhere north of Rome, but they had the Germans and the Soviets to thank for that, unoccupied southern Italy was mostly left alone even though the British were systematically purging the civilian administration of the Facists. They had recently ceeded control of Italy south of the old German Gustav Line to the Italian Government, and it was rumoured that an Italian co-belligerent Army was being raised too. Between them the Balkan nations had Armies of various degrees of effectiveness and could also hand the British the biggest European oil deposits outside the Soviet Union.
That alone would make an impressive barganing chip, if only Bulgaria was allowed to keep the Monarchy, and he strongly suspected that this also held true for Romania.
“But what is to stop the Soviets and the Germans from simply rolling across our borders? We cannot hope to hold them on our own.” Bumbescu asked.
Horty only smiled and the others watched as the Admiral without Navy or coastline folded out papers.
“Our men in the staffs of the Axis powers have asked some discreet and seemingly innocent questions.”
Everyone noted the use of 'Axis powers'.
“From what we know we could do the following. I Army is as you know perfectly positoned to ward off any attacks by the Axis reserves around Vienna, the remainder of our Army, including I Armoured Divison which is equipped with the latest model of German Tanks is purposefully kept in eastern Hungary. All in all twenty-five Divisions of which six are already in position. The remaining could easily be deployed to hold the rest of our borders within half a day, in fact we have plans for this already.”
Admitting this was a great risk, but it showed the others his sincerity.
“I have been instructed by his Majesty to tell you that Romania has currently sixteen Divisions in the field.” Pehsev said, “but if we were to mobilize all our reserves and call for volunteers we could raise another four Militia Divisions within two weeks, probably more after that.”
“Bulgaria has twelve Divisions and an independent Armoured Brigade.”
Horty gave a wolfish smile. “That means overall we could give the Allies fifty-three Divisions. The question is, if we do it, will our soldiers and Civilians support it?”
“We would fight against both Russians and Communists, Bulgaria will fight.”
“As will Romania. Marshal Antonescu might be a power-mad bastard, but he doesn't have the support of the people.”
“Hungary will too. Admittedly it was a mistake to wed ourselves this close with Germany, and....”
“But what about the Iron Guard, or the Arrow Cross in your very own country, Admiral?” Peshev asked, having resigned himself to playing the Devil's advocate.
“I cannot speak for the Iron Guard of course, Mr. Chairman, but the Arrow Cross will bloody well do what it's being told, especially since doing otherwise would mean even more active support for the Communists.”
Horty paused.
“Also, if we play this right, the Arrow Cross at least can be a willing tool in our extracting ourselves from the Axis powers.”
No more words were forthcoming.
In the decades to come legends would rank around the meeting, as almost everything was ascribed to it by Historians and laymen alike, but no minutes were taken and neither of the men ever disclosed the actual words. All that history recorded for certain was that this very evening secret, sealed orders were delivered by trusted men to various Hungarian, Romanian and Bulgarian commands and offices. What is also known that when the deadly tired men emerged the following morning, a previously scheduled state visit for Marshal Antonescu in Hungary suddenly received close attention by the Hungarian secret Service and that in map rooms all over Europe the Albanian charts were dusted off and that the seditious plans of the minor axis powers received a new urgency...
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Griffin, this one is for you.
While I hate to use anti-communism as a deus ex machina even more than I have already, I feel that TTL those groups will follow whoever leads them the farthest away from Moscow.
[1] Who is still alive btw.