Chapter XXXIV
In which the German advance in Europe slows down.
- And where are you going now?
- To
Amsterdam, capital of the Kingdom of the Netherlands...
- But that city is not even taken yet...
- I
know! - Hans was on the verge of mental collapse. -
Why do they
have to send me on the front all the time?!
- Don't be such a baby. You won't be sent to the front, only following it as closely as possible. - Wilhelm tried hard to sound conforting. - You couldn't help too much anyway... - But instead he was rather arrogant as usual. - Still, it can only be better than say, Istambul. Although that city is at least in the hands of our allies now...
Bulgaria took Istambul in early November. Turkish defenders were completely disorganized and scattered all over the country, showing virtually no resistance.
- Don't listen to him, honey, you are a very brave man! I know you won't get hurt! - Anna also tried to sound conforting but she sounded more worried than even Hans, if that's possible. - Just promise me that you will write often!
- Alright,
alright! - Hans tried to gather all his courage. In all honesty, he did change during the last few months. He almost became a man. - I will write as
much as I can, and I also promise that I will do
everything within my abilities to come back
unharmed.
- Of course you will! - Anna seemed reliefed. She turned to Wilhelm. - And what about you? Where are you going?
- My unit is holding the line near Hasselt, Belgium. The French have started massive redeployments behind their lines. I guess they are trying to face the bulk of our forces with the bulk of their forces.
- That
does make sense, doesn't it?
- At a glance, yes, of course. Unless they overdo it, exposing their flank to our friends.
- On the Italian border?
- Precisely. Or even the Maginot Line. That fortress chain is fearsome indeed, but only if manned properly.
- And do you think that they will do that?
- I can't say for sure. What I do know is that the Allies still have enough forces on the Maginot to make a frontal assault there impossible or too costly at least, while our advance is nowhere near the planned schedule in the Low Countries either. And winter is already here.
-
Now that you
mention it... Anna, where is my
overcoat?
- I'll get it for you, darling! - she left the room in a hurry.
-
Thank you! She's
such an angel,
isn't she?
- Yes, she certainly is. Although I'm not entirely sure if your overcoat is in complete harmony with the army regulations regarding clothing on duty.
-
Wait! You
don't mean... You
can't!
- Yes, I can,
you can't. Well, not unless the circumstances become so dire that your superiors start wearing civilian garments as well.
-
But! But...
- Here! - Anna returned with the overcoat. Hans recieved it from Frau Liebigstein as a wedding-presnet. It was form his late husband, a Colonel in the Austro-Hungarian Army in the Great War. He used it during the Italian Campaign. It was a very old coat, but still in pretty good condition.
- Come to
think of it, that's
not a civilian coat!
- No. But not a Werhmacht uniform either. Don't worry, you will probably have proper clothing issued to you soon enough anyway.
- You should take it with you, just in case. I don't want to have you catching some nasty disease while I can't look after you! Whatever would I do without you! - Anna caringly kissed Hans on the forehead.
- Alright, alright. If you have everything packed, we should move out. You don't want to miss the train, do you?
- No, of
course not. - Hans turned to Anna and kissed her for the last time for the following few months. - I will
miss you!
- Me too! Be careful, will you?
- I
will, I promise.
- Farewell, Anna. Let's go.
*** *** *** *** ***
- You know, I still don't understand why would they take Hans to the front.
- They did not send him to the front, Anna. He was just as close to the front, if not closer, during his stay in Leningrad, and he got back practically without a scratch. He even brought back a dog, for Christ's sake! - Martin didn't really like the dog too much, and the feeling was mutual.
- I know, but that was in Russia. Those are practically barbarians!
- It still took half a year to defeat them with your almighty über army.
- Alexandreina Kobori! What does that supposed to mean? Do you have a problem with the Werhmacht?
- No, not as such. But I had about enough of your lectures and praises and glorifying of these... Crusaders, as you call them.
- Admit it, Martin, Alexa has a point. You do have a tendency to overpraise the army. They surely have their strong points, like my Hans, but they can't be invincible.
- Blasphemy!
- Martin, calm down...
- How could I calm down when you are disrespecting the guardians of our freedom?!
- First, take a deep breath...
- Alexa, you are not helping.
- You know what? I don't care. - Martin was quite peeved. - You can't spoil my great mood whatever you do.
- Oh, and why is that?
- Well, if you really want to know, I have some great news I wanted to tell Anna, but now I changed my mind.
- What news?
- It's not really important. It only concerns the army. The one Alexa was insulting just now! The same one your husband serves in, I might add...
- Hey, that's not fair! I wasn't insulting...
- Martin, don't be childish! What news? Does it also concern Hans?
- Well, it might...
- Then tell me!
- No, you are not interested anyway. You and your little friend here! All your freedoms and luxuries are provided by the Wehrmacht that guards you while you sleep! They stand on the front and they do their job and they don't expect your thanks, but they deserve your respect!
- But I'm not even German...
- It doesn't matter, they guard your sleep as well, even though it is questionable if you are even worthy of it or not!
- Martin, could you get back to the part about my husband? Who is also your childhood friend, remember?
- Now you are interested, arn't you? If your lovely little husband is involved, then suddenly it becomes important! Let me tell you something! Everyone on the front is someone's husband, someone's son and quite a lot of them are also fathers!
- See? You are getting carried away again. Get back to the point already! What's up with Hans?
- But that is the point, don't you understand? Anyway, it was only three days, why are you so worried already?
- Martin!
- Alright, alright... I got word this morning that Amsterdam was taken. The Marine-Sturm Korps will no doubt be moved there pretty soon. That means Hans will have a decent bed and probably some warm food for the most part in the next few weeks at least. But if you can see the bigger picture, the more important thing is that with the air fields in Amsterdam, the Luftwaffe can start bombing London within the week!
- Well, that sure sounds good. - Said Alexa. Anna almost fell off her seat.
- What's wrong, Anna? That is good news... - Alexa went to the kitchen for a glass of water.
- Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry... - She was still a bit pale. - It's just... This thought just occured to me and it was very frightening... You said that the Luftwaffe can reach England from Amsterdam.
- Yes. It is a very important city and port strategically. A great victory.
- Yes, but it goes both ways. If the Lutwaffe can bomb London, then the Brits can bomb Amsterdam as well! And if it is important for us, then it is important for them, too! What if they try to take it back? What if my poor Hans and his unit get cut off?
- Oh, don't you worry, those are some very tough soldiers, they know what they are doing. Remember how many times the Allies tried to take Wilhelmshaven so far? They don't stand a chance!
*** *** *** *** ***
November 25, 1940
Somewhere in Turkey
Spent over three weeks in Turkey. Huge improvement over Russia. Less mud, no mosquitoes, no fighting. No warm food or bed either. Redeployed to Central Turkey by train. Opportunity to get a shower was nice.
*** *** *** *** ***
- Joachim! I'm so glad you could come! - Martin was sitting behind his desk in his office, slurping coffee. - I haven't seen you in ages!
- Tell me about it! It's the first time I could get away from the base ever since we rebased to Amsterdam two weeks ago.
- I've been in Amsterdam last week. Man, it's such a dump!
- Don't be unfair, it's ought to be that way after two weeks of constant bombing and heavy fighting. I visited the Netherlands on a business trip some years ago and it was pretty nice.
- Were the ladies nice, too? - Martin put down the coffee and started on his sandwich.
- As a matter of fact, yes. But I seriously can't believe how can you live on those things.
- What, women?
- No, the coffee and sandwiches!
- And you know what I can't believe? When do you have the time to cook anything decent? Oh, wait, you don't! You eat at the officer's mess hall! So stop lecturing me on what I should eat and what I shouldn't, alright?
- Good point. And how are you nowadays, anyway?
- Don't even ask. Things have been dreadfully slow lately, the front is getting bogged down. I need victories to write about! My boss is getting on my nerves! He seems to think that I am responsible for the advance slowing down!
- That is ridiculous!
- Of course it is, but what can I do? He is my boss, you know...
- No, I mean that thing about the advance slowing down. Take Turkey for example. Bulgarian forces are on the outskirts of Ankara.
- Do I look like I care about Turkey? I want real victories! Like ones that actually matter!
- Alright, then there are these two Spanish Battleships the Nordsee Flotte sunk today?
After a series of engagements, the Nordsee Flotte managed to sink the ARE Espana
and ARE Jaime I
.
- Nah... Wait, what? I didn't know about that! When did that happen?
- Early this morning. I was just leaving the base when the radio call came in to the base. I thought you knew about all this stuff. Maybe I shouldn't have told you...
- Of course you should have! What, do you think I'm a spy or something?
- Well, you do tend to act somewhat strangely sometimes...
- Hahaha - Martin laughed out - You are funny! Seriously, I'm writing the newspaper! I tell people what's going on, that's what I do. If the Brits can read German, they can read our successes, too. Not that they don't know about them anyway! Still, I wouldn't call that spying... But back to the point. Two Spanish battlejunks won't save the day.
- Okay, then how about that British carrier that was engaged by the Luftwaffe last week?
Six Carrier Air Groups engaged above the Mouth of the Thames. Despite the bad weathe the I. Fliegerkorps caused serious damage to the British aircraft.
- That was the aircraft of the carrier, not the carrier itself. Big difference. It's old news.
- And the Dutch submarine flotilla we sunk a week ago?
- Is Dutch. Enough said.
- Admiral Raeder also intercepted an invasion fleet from New Zealand just three days ago. That should count to something, they sunk all the transports, along with a French cruiser, the
Foch!
A joint French-New Zealander fleet intercepted in the English Channel. All four transport flotillas were sunk along with the French cruiser Foch
.
- That's almost something. Unfortunatelly all the New Zealander troops were put on shore in Brugge. And they can't even get back home now, so they will fight our troops. Not that impressive. Come to think of it, the only really interesting thing that happened during the last week was Japan finally securing Hong Kong, pushing the British out of China.
- Alright, so you think that the attack on the Low Countries will get nowhere.
- No, I didn't say that. The Wehrmacht has mopped up almost all resistance in the Netherlands and have already entered Belgium. It is getting somewhere, only takes its damn time to do so. This campaign started almost a month ago. If you can remember, we have already created multiple huge pockets in the Soviet Union in that time. Most of our earlier campaigns were long over in a month!
- You can't really compare those. The minor campaigns were hardly any challenge for a proper army and the Soviet Union was completely and utterly unprepared for our attack! In hindsight, it is hard to believe after the rising tension and buildup but they weren't even mobilized. It took several months to force them to surrender only because Russia is so huge!
- You know, you are right! I think it's time to change tactics here. If I can't work with our own major successes, I can still build up the image of the Allies. The bigger they are, the harder they fall! Time to make those democrats even more evil than the communists!
- I'm not sure that's really what I meant...
*** *** *** *** ***
November 30, 1940
Erzurum, Turkey
I have a bit more time to write now. The war in Turkey is over. Seargent Martinovic says the government will flee to London now. Again, the men debate over where we are going now. Some say we will turn towards India, going through Persia. Others say we will go down through Syria, Iraq and to North Africa. Seargent Martinovic is still of the opinion that they should just shut up and follow orders. Well, if I'm good at anything, than it's following orders.
Seargent Martinovic is not too optimistic about the coming campaings. He said it doesn't really matter which way we go, there will be very little resistance, so the men will get lazy and weak. The men argued that there was little to no resistance so far. Seargent Martinovic said that was exactly his point.
The men also speculate that there will be even more poverty wherever we go so there won't be any warm food or bed for a long time still. Have to admit, it would be nice to have a full night's sleep for a change. Seargent Martinovic is right, we really are getting lazy and weak.
Either way, tomorrow we will get our new orders.
Index