Chapter XXXI
In which a magnificant dinner is had.
- Please, Hans, would you be so kind to let them in? - asked Anna, hearing the doorbell ring.
- Of
course, dear! - Hans went to the door to open it. Wilhelm was standing at the door, alone. - Oh, it's
only you?
- Yes, it's
only me. Who did you expect, Hermann Göring?
-
Who? No, I meant it's you
alone. I thought all of you would all arrive
together.
- No. Martin said he has one more thing to take care of before he can come and Joachim went with him,t oo. They sent me ahead to tell you that. Actually, Martin said I should make up some excuse for them, which I won't do. May I come in now?
- Yes, of course, I'm
sorry! How was your
trip?
- It was comfortable enough, thank you.
- Anna is still in the
kitchen, but she is
almost done with the dinner! I also have to help her, but in the
meantime, you could sit down at the
table. It is already
prepared. - and with that, he returned to the kitchen, leaving Wilhelm alone.
Instead of sitting down and waiting, Wilhelm decided to take a look around the flat. It wasn't large, but it was enough for the young couple. They only had one bedroom, but a big enough living room to fit the table enough for six people if need be. The table had plates and silverware for five: Anna, Hans, Martin, Joachim and himself. The room also had an armchair and a sofa, a small tabble with a radio and a bookshelf. Wilhelm stepped to the shelves and looked through the books. Most of them were probably leftover from the previous owner, as they didn't really look like what either Anna or Hans would read: a book on some mathematical theories, another one on herbs, a collection of essays about strategy. He took that book from the shelf to examine it. About half of the authors were Prussian, but there were also French, British, even Russian ones. The essays were translated to German. He already read a few of them back at the Academy.
The doorbell rang again. Anna's voice was heared from the kitchen:
- Wilhelm, would you be so kind to...
- Of course. - he went out into the hall and opened the door. It was Joachim. He was in his uniform as well.
- Good e... Oh, it's you.
- Is there a problem with that?
- No, why would there be? But I didn't expect you to open the door.
- Why not? I was the only one to arrive on time it would seem, so it would only be fitting for me to handle the late arrivals.
- Yeah, sure. Anyway, what's that? - asked Joachim pointing at the book in Wilhelm's hand.
- It is a collection of words written on paper. It is called a book. - Joachim ignored his sarcasm. - I found it on the bookshelf in the living room and it looked interesting. Where's Martin?
- He will be here shortly, don't you worry about it. Excuse me. - he went into the kitchen as well and returned with another set of sliverware. - We'll need these.
- Is that so? Did I miss something?
- You most certainly did. Like the reason for Martin to be late.
- Martin is always late, he never really needed any reason for that. - He paused for a bit. - Do I know her?
Joachim was surprised.
- How did you know?...
- Please. I take this as a no, then.
- Well, I don't think you do, no. She's from Romania. Her name is Alexandreina, and she worked at the German embassy there until two weeks ago when Romania and Hungary joined the war. She was sent to Berlin to help with the cooperation of the two nations, and now works in Martin's office, but reports directly to Bucharest. - he was interrupted by the doorbell. - That must be them! I'll let them in!
Joachim went out to the hall and let the two last guests in. Martin brought a bottle of champagne this time. Hans brought another chair and they all entered the dinning room, except for Anna, who still had some finishing touches to make.
- Alexa, you look
magnificent! - Hans had the pleasure of meeting her in Martin's office a week earlier, and Joachim also met her before they turned back for the bottle.
- Thank you, Hans. - she turned to Wilhelm as they were sitting down. - I'm afraid we haven't met yet, my name is Alexandreina Kobori. You must be Wilhelm von Walsrode. I heared a lot about you.
- I'm flattered. - Wilhelm kissed her hand. - The pleasure is all mine!
- I see you are getting acquainted - Anna appeared in the door, with a huge pot with the soup in her hands.
The meal was magnificent as always. They talked about many things, except for the war. It felt very far away now, and that is hardly surprising. The Soviet Union, the great adversary in the East was defeated, its hated despot, Joseph Stalin removed and the best the Western Allies could do against the Reich so far was some laughable attempts to invade the port of Wilhelmshaven or Kiel and to send thousands of bombers to their doom over the cities of Germany. Yet, after they finnished the dinner and all the family trees of each and every one of themselves, it was inevitable to arrive at this topic. There was very little else going on in the Reich.
-
Anyway - started Hans - Joachim, could you tell us about that great
battle? Out on the
seas?
- But Martin already wrote everything about it, didn't he?
- Of course I did!
- But you
surely know more!
- I wasn't there, you know. I only serve in the harbour, not on the ships themselves.
- But you get reports and stuff, don't you? - joined Anna as well. - And you surely speak with some of the Captains of those ships!
- Alright, alright. I did talk to the First Lieutenant of the
KMS Peter Strasser last week and he told me a little bit about it. It happened like this:
The Nordsee Flotte made contact with the British 29th Navy on the first of August near the Coast of Holland. It was only a couple of reconnaissance planes, so all they could do was report the position and bearing of the enemy fleet: they were heading North. Admiral Raeder immediately ordered the Flotte to pursue. They followed them to the Fisher Bank, which is the area to the North of the Netherlands and the West of Denmark, where the air wings of the Flotte were able to engage the enemy ships during that night.
The Battle of Fisher Bank. The HMS Revenge
tries to close in on the Nordsee Flotte to keep them away from the HMS Furious
. The biggest flaw in this maneuver is that the Nordsee Flotte didn't want to get close in the first place.
The fleet consisted of a Carrier, a Battleship and three Light Cruisers. It was clearly no match for our glorious Kriegsmarine. But it was raining that night and the British used that to their advantage, getting away, only being damaged, but not destroyed. Still, the rain and the darkness must have confused them as well, because they retreated into the wrong direction! And Admiral Raeder was still on their tail, too. They were attacked again a few hours later in the area known as the Heligoland Bight, off the coast of Germany, near Wilhelmshaven.
The Battle of Heligoland Bight. After pursuing the heavily damaged British Fleet, Nordsee Flotte engaged them again, sinking two ships.
By then, all five ships were heavily damaged. Two Light Cruisers, the
HMS Galathea and the
HMS Orion were sunk during that battle. But it was still not over, oh no! Admiral William Milbourne James, commander of the British Fleet retreated back towards the British Isles this time, but they were caught with their pants down again during that night. Or were they?!
The Battle of Silverpit. The reinforcements were no great help for the British, losing three more ships along with an entire Destroyer Flotilla.
Another British Fleet happened to be nearby and answered their requests for help. That other Fleet had two Battlecruisers, a Light Carrier, a Heavy Cruiser, another Light Cruiser and a Destroyer Flotilla as well. By that time the
HMS Furious was already crippled and was hit at the middle under its flight deck by a well-placed torpedo, basically splitting the ship in half in a large bang! Aircrafts were tossed around by the explosion like little pellets of paper! And it was soon followed by the Light Carrier
HMS Hermes, the Light Cruiser
HMS Cardiff and the entire
20th Destroyer Flotilla. By the way, did you know that the
HMS Hermes was the very first purpose-built Carrier of the World to be laid down?
The British ships sunk during the series of engagements: the HMS Hermes
, HMS Orion
, HMS Galathea
, HMS Furious
and HMS Cardiff
.
-
Purpose-built? - asked Hans. - What does
that mean?
- Apparently you can build Carriers unintentionally! - said Martin, making the girls giggle and Wilhelm sigh. - You know, you are trying to build a Battleship, but then you forget to build that huge tower on it and you also forget the guns, and you end up with a flat ship which can be used as a floating airfield. - Martin was quite amused by himself, as usual.
- You know, Martin, you are not as stupid as you might try pretending to be. Carriers actually were built sort of like you just described, although it was completely intentional to leave out the conning tower and the naval guns. They were started as Heavy Cruisers or Battlecruisers, but the buyer changed his mind during construction. For example, the
HMS Furious was started as a Battlecruiser for the so-called Baltic Project during the Great War, a plan to land on the shores of Pomerania, within a hundred miles from Berlin with the hopes of quickly reaching the capital and ending the War. That never happened, and the three ships of the same class were decommissioned, then in 1920, they were rebuilt as Carriers.
- It truely is an impressive feat - said Wilhelm - on the Kriegsmarine part to deal such a blow to the Royal Navy, although from what I heared about the Naval arm of His Majesty's forces, it would take much, much more to bring them down then sinking a couple of their Carriers.
- True, and I wouldn't argue that this victory would hardly be comparable to the Heer's achievements defeating Soviet Russia. Still, it is a step forward. Anyway, how about the other fronts? What's the news from China?
- Oh, don't even ask... - said Martin. - You remember how convinced I was about the military might of the Japanese? Not anymore. It is a complete disaster what they are doing now.
- The British
landing near Hong Kong? I heared about
that, too!
- Yeah, well, it goes nowhere. The Imperial Japanese Army keeps them separate from the port in Hong Kong, and without a source to resupply, they won't last long.
- Then what's the problem?
- The problem is that for that to achieve, the Japanese pulled all of their forces from Indochina, and the French are nearing the Chinese border already!
British forces landed near Hong Kong shortly after the defeat of the Soviet Union. They made some minor progress, but the most they could achieve was causing some confusion in the Japanese ranks. It was still enough for France to take back most of Indochina, even if only temporarily.
- Hmm. That sounds familiar, doesn't it? - said Wilhelm. - Back in thirty-six? Franco's Push?
- The one that lost them the Spanish Civil War? Yeah, I remember. I don't think the consequences can be so dire in this case, but it is still rather worriesome.
- Agreed.
- Come on guys, it's not that bad! - said Alexa, trying to ease the mood. - And your Reich has made some progress on the fields of diplomacy recently, too!
- Yeah, like what? - Martin was still upset by the failure of the Japanese he held in such high regards.
- Like Bulgaria. They signed the Tripartite Pact recently.
- Yay. That's like hundred thousand underequiped and undertrained conscripts for the great cause.
- Then there's Saudi Arabia! Von Ribbentrop visited the country a few days ago, and they probably will be the next in line.
- Hmm. That will tripple the amount of sand in our Alliance! - said Martin with a smirk on his face. - We could use that to break down the aircaft of the Allies!
- And what about those new trade deals?
- The ones we made with the Soviet Union?! - Martin was outraged. - Do I even need to comment on that one? They are the enemy for crying out loud!
- Stalin was the enemy, and he is dead. The new government seems quite reasonable, and with the British blockade, the Reich needs those rare materials!
- I don't care what you say, it still was a stupid idea...
- Well, if you don't care what I say, then I might just as well go! - And with that, she was already out.
- Alexa, wait! I didn't mean it like that... - Martin was running after her.
There was a short silence after the two left. Joachim was trying to hold his laughter back, Hans was shocked, Anna was angry about Martin's behaviour and Wilhelm was far away in his thoughts already when they started their bickering. He was thinking about that collection of essays.
- Hans! Would you mind if I borrowed that book of yours?
-
Which one?
Wilhelm stepped to the bookshelf and took the book he was eyeing with earlier.
- This one. I read some of the essays in it during my studies at the Academy, but some of the authors, especially the Russian ones were not really accessible at the time. I would very much be interested in what they wrote. It's best learn from the mistakes of others. Or so they say, anyway.
- Actually,
that one is not mine. It's
Anna's.
Wilhelm was surprised. Then he remembered Anna's fascination with soldiers in general. That would explain the book. The girl was blushing, which made Wilhelm feel uneasy.
- Oh, I see. Well, I'm sorry for asking, I...
- No, don't worry! - Said Anna. - You can take the book if you want to. But promise me to bring it back once you are finished! It was my father's you know.
- I promise I will bring it back as soon as I can!
- That's enough for me.
- Thank you!
- Well - said Joachim standing up from the table - It's getting late, isn't it? I will have to get back to my lodging before they lock me out.
- If you can wait a few minutes, I can get you there by car. - Wilhelm turned to Hans. - Can I use your phone to call my driver?
Index