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Merkels Operation Walküre - Story Only

Chapter II, Part 33: One small Step
Peenemünde, October 3rd 1944, 11:48:

Wernher von Braun stood in the command bunker situated near the rocketry testing ground. On June 20th an Aggregat 4 rocket had reached 175 km height and therefore had been the first man-made object in space. Since the Event much had happened: At first he had been arrested, but he had been released shortly after, in equal parts because he knew how to work people to his advantage and also because – as it turned out – he was deemed necessary for the German rocketry and space programs. Indeed, he had been appointed as head of the German Space program of the DLR with. Prof. Oberth as his advisor. And although they had to learn much first, they learned quickly. Many German firms had been producing integral parts for space agencies all over the world before the Event, including engines and such. Those developments hadn't grinded to halt; no, instead new line-ups of rockets were to be made public soon.

But today von Braun wanted to test technology. As the Aggregat 4 was available in large numbers and cheap to produce, they were used in many of his tests, including today. The mission was to send a small satellite into orbit. It would be nothing else but a satellite with a sender to send signals to all radio operators on Earth. With that step, the German government hoped to once again show their technological advancement to the world and to impress the population of neutral and enemy states in the hope of shortening the war.

The countdown started. Zehn...Neun...Acht...Sieben...Sechs...Fünf...Vier...Drei...Zwei...Eins...Zündung.

The rocket launched into the air. Only a little while later the rocket had reached her destination and launched the 15 kg satellite 'Hündchen' (small dog).

Soon von Braun was notified by Oberpfaffenhofen that the launch had been a success. For about two weeks the satellite would send signals to Earth before it would burn to scraps when it re-entered atmosphere. Von Braun knew very well that this was only a small step compared to what was still to come. And he also knew his work was only funded because the German government wanted to develop an ICBM while using their civilian satellites as smokescreen to hide it from their own citizens. Hidden like the fact that also several dozen Aggregat 4 were secretly prepared to launch chemical weapons once the WAllies would use WMD. As a first step to retaliate. Such an attack would be nearly as deadly as a nuclear attack.

To Von Braun all that didn't matter much. He wanted to fly to the Moon, spread humanity all over the solar system and if London had to be reduced to a wasteland to make that happen, then so be it.
 
Chapter II, Part 34: The Battle of Kiev, Part I
Kiew, October 15th-November 5th 1944

Letters from Kiew by Valentin Alexandrowitsch Sjuganin

October 12th:

Dear Swetlana,

I can't tell you where I am, but tomorrow we are going to go to the front. Finally! Since the death of Pjotr I longed to see this day. Finally, I can extract revenge for my brother and fight those damned Nazis. Finally, I´m being given the chance to defend Mother Russia. I will take care of Andrej, I promise, as much as I can do...

Your Valentin



October 13th:

...We're on the way to Kiew. The Nazis have forces our troops to fall back behind the Dnjepr. Odessa was encircled and surrendered today. It is a shame! We need to attack. However, the weather is bad and prohibits any offensive actions on a large scale. So, we shall defend Kiew. The generals say we are safe behind the Dnjepr, but we won't give up half of the city. No, we won't! We will fight and hold the city entirely. And when weather is better we'll drive the Nazis out of Russia. To Berlin!...


October 13th
Post scriptum:


Swetlana, I can't express how sad I am to give you the news of your brother's death. We were brought to our positions near the front when this thrice damned German plane appeared. It was more a flying gun as far as I remember; an ugly thing. A rocket destroyed some of the trucks and forced us to halt our advance. We were ordered to take cover, so we jumped out of our truck. I thought Andrej was behind me but when I turned around he was just standing there on the road, staring at the plane. I ran to him and tried to drag him off the road, I really did, but in this moment the plane came back and strafed the column. Even the mighty T-34s were destroyed by its gun spiting fire upon us. The last round fired hit Andrej only a second before we reached cover. We buried him next to the street and marked the grave. I wish I could have done more, I truly do. If I had only been more cautious.


October 14th:

...We just had arrived at our position when we were ordered to attack. I never saw so big and mighty tanks. Nearly all of the ordinance we fired was useless. And then their counter attacks commenced. We had to retreat. Many more of us are dead by now. Alexej, Wladimir, Pjotr. I still think about Andrej. Why didn't he move...


October 15th:

...We are back in Kiew. We were ordered to hold the suburbs of the city on the Eastern bank of the Dnjepr. And then the Germans came. As if they knew where we were, they targeted us before we could really react. I could escape and retreat to our line. The suburbs are lost...


October 16th:

...Now we are in a house bloc, which can't be stormed so easily. And indeed, we could repel one Nazi attack already.


October 17th:

I am on the run. They came in the night. We had no chances, they knew, where we were. The doors were thrown open, a grenade was thrown in and then they entered and killed the survivors with their guns. I was able to take cover on the balcony and then escape via the fire escape. Halfway down there was a German soldier waiting, as surprised at seeing me as I was at seeing him. I was faster and killed him. He somehow looked like Andrej. He couldn't have been much older. Now I am looking for a new unit while hoping that I won´t get caught by the Germans...


October 18th:

I found several survivors of other units. We could hide in the ruins of the city, but we are still on the wrong side of the river. Tonight we´ll try to go east...


October 19th:

Finally, we managed to reach our troops again. I could catch some sleep, but now we have to consolidate the position.


October 20th:

We got the order to make a counter attack on the Germans. I don't think it is the brightest idea...

P.S.: I made it back. It was a catastrophe. The Germans seemed to know, what we wanted to do and gave us an especially warm welcome. The man before me was hit in the head by a single shot. The whole head exploded. Literally.



October 21st:

We got a new political officer. He threatened to shoot anyone who retreats again. He ordered us to start another counter attack...

P.S.: The results were very similar as to our previous attempts. The Germans in their positions could kill us before we were really in range. We retreated after nearly half of our unit was picked off by the Germans. The PO was so pissed. He shot on of the soldiers. Next time he threatened he´d order the whole unit to be shot for insubordination.



October 22nd:

The Germans attacked again. And again, we had to retreat. And I fear we need a new PO, as the one we had was 'killed by the Germans'. He was raving about us being cowards and threatening to kill all of us, so one of the guys put a bullet in his head. We all swore to keep it a secret. We finally reached a new point, where we could put up a new defence line.


October 23rd:

The Germans attacked again. Not us, but the units next to us. We could do little to assist them...


October 24th:

The Germans. Again. And again. And again! We tried to defend, but in the end, it was futile. We lost the last way back to our line, as the last bridge over the Dnjepr was destroyed by our comrades. We're about 30 and currently trying to find another way to the other side of the river. It is too cold to swim and we can't build a boat. But a float, perhaps. If we find material, that is. And if the Germans don't catch us.


October 25th:

Again, we had contact with the Germans. And afterwards we are now down to eight. They did not take any PoWs. However, as we did the very same I even can't blame them. It is a fight to the last man. And it seems we're losing...


October 26th:

I love you. I always did. However, it seems this is meant to be my last letter. Not only is this the last piece of paper I have, but I am alone now. We were eight yesterday. Iwan stepped on a mine and was torn apart in front of our eyes. Three others were killed by a tank gun. Another one became victim of a sniper. Anatol and Mischa were killed while on the run by the Germans. I´m the last one. I haven't slept since the day before yesterday and had nothing to eat since then, too. I am tired and hungry. Furthermore, I lost my gun. I got a rifle instead but I have only a single round left. I will use it wisely. I love you. Adieu.
 
Chapter II, Part 35: The Battle of Kiev, Part II
Somewhere in Kiew, October 26th

Three German soldiers of Infanterieregiment 492 Wedding were patrolling in the western part of the city which had been in German hands for a few days already. However, there still were several bands of Soviet soldiers active; soldiers, that hadn't made it to their own troops across the river – Therefore they needed to be very cautious. Currently they were investigating a sound that had come from a derelict house. They slowly approached the building only to find a young-looking Soviet soldier, who – when he noticed them nearing – tried to grab the rifle that leaned to the wall next to him. Reacting on instinct, one of the German soldier shot him in the shoulder.

"Let me finish him," Gefreiter Hamil Öztürk said.

"Don't," Hauptgefreiter Abdul Rahman said. "We took a few prisoners already, why not make him another one? He´s only a boy."

"They are barbarians," Obergefreiter John Objingwe spat. "They nearly killed us yesterday, when we found that baby. The bed of the little one was a single mine. Only because of Günther we were able to save the little one."

"I know, I know," Abdul tried to calm him. "I´m no murderer, though. I won´t kill a defenceless boy!"

"Okay, okay. Hamil, let him live," Objingwe ordered.

"He's a Russian after all. I joined to kill some Thommies." Rahman said off-handedly.

The others thought Öztürk was too blood thirsty and prone to violence. They didn't like him, but he was on their side, so they let him be.

"Okay," Öztürk said. "Let´s get him to HQ.

"By the way, what exactly did happen to that baby?" Rahman wanted to know.

"I´ve heard that Lieutenant von Werner volunteered to take care of him." Objingwe answered. "He lost his wife during the strike and his child, a daughter I think, now lives with his mother. He always planned for her to have a little sibling. Iwan, as he calls him, is in the best hands. Von Werner is great with little ones. The Lieutenant told me that his Lena is in the very same age."

"And the authorities?" Rahman asked. "They just let him take a baby?"

"It´s not as if there´s anyone left to claim him," Objingwe shrugged. "It seems he talked to the Major, who talked to the General. The General just became grandfather a few days ago; twins, if I recall correctly, so he was very agreeable to the Leutnant taking care of him.

Iwan got lucky. He will be sent to Germany today. The Lieutenant´s mother has moved back with his Lena to his grandmother, to the estate the family did own in Silesia. Somewhere near Breslau, I heard. It seems at least for now he is allowed to take care of the little one. He even plans to adopt him. I think in this situation there will be no big problems doing so."

About a quarter of an hour later soldier Valentin Alexandrowitsch Sjuganin was delivered to the PoW camp the Germans had provisionally installed in Kiew. His wounds were treated and he would later be sent to a camp near Cologne.
 
Chapter II, Part 36: The Battle of Kiev, Part III
Near Kiew, 30.000 feet AGL

The night was cloudy and neither stars nor the moon were visible behind the white shrouds. Complete darkness had descended upon the land, which lent itself to the nature of the operation that was about to commence. Hauptmann Christian Schröder was mentally re-checking all the important bits of the plan he was about to pull off. He would be the first one to jump into the darkness from a Transall transport plane. His Fallschirmjäger would follow him afterwards.

The plan was to capture key locations in and around Kiev in order to make way for the Bundeswehr to install bridges over the Dnjepr, one each north and south of Kiew. With the bridges erected, the soldiers would be able to cross the river and encircle the city. After its fall, Kiew then should be the bridgehead for Operation Wintersturm, the offensive of Heeresgruppe Süd. The aim was to capture the Ukraine and get into good position for the spring/summer offensive to take Baku. Not that Christian had been explicitly told about that, it was mostly his own estimates and guesses

But right now, there was no use in worrying over what might happen; he had an operation to see through. He jumped and then he was falling. There was only darkness around him, the only way to differentiate between up and down the lights shining from the city. To Christian the fall felt like an eternity, but he knew from experience that it would take barely three minutes for him to reach the ground. Soon, his feet stood on solid ground again – a field outside the city – which he and his fellow soldiers immediately secured for the following units.

Only 15 minutes later he heard the helicopters. Soon after the Jägerregiment 1 was disembarking. The first Soviet soldiers were arriving on the scene, but were repelled with heavy losses on their side due to his men. Soon after they send more troops, but the German ground attack helicopter and bomber were there as well. The attack of the Soviets was repelled. Tiger helicopter and A-10 Warthog were attacking enemy tanks, while Fw 190 dealt with infantry, using Napalm- and cluster bombs. After another three hours, the bridge was ready.

The unit north of Kiew had had more problems, but after the delivery of Wiesel 1 and 2 tankettes and another air strike they were also able to complete their task. When the first light of the day hit the horizon both bridges were ready and German forces were crossing them.


Brigadegeneral Georg v. Boeselager led his 1. Kavalleriedivision over the provisory bridge south of Kiew. His 11.500 men were to reinforce the Fallschirmjäger that were waiting on the other side and was supposed to meet the 1. Kosakendivision that was moving in from the north. All so that they could close the ring around Kiew. The Bundeswehr used mainly cavalry, as the terrain was too muddy after the rain of the weeks before for their heavier machinery. Today the rain had finally stopped, but the temperature was still at chilly 10 degrees Celsius.

After about an hour he received intel that the Soviets were amassing cavalry in this area as well. Like the Germans the Soviets had to rely on cavalry because of the weather conditions. Boeselager recalled an age-old wisdom: A cavalry attacking meant success. A cavalry being attacked meant defeat. He needed to attack the Soviets before they could attack him, even though he wouldn't get much air support as the plains currently in use were busy securing the two bridges.

In the following minutes, the German cavalry prepared to attack in the old way – meaning without support from modern war machinery. For the Soviets the German attack came as a bad surprise as they had no idea that German troops were already so deep in their territory. With lances and sabres the German cavalry attacked the Soviets, who were unable to form a coherent defense line and therefore were soon forced into retreating. The retreating cavalry took a Soviet infantry division with them as well, which had come to support the cavalry. In the chaos, the Germans were also able to hit the retreating Soviet infantry.

For Boeselager it was a great success. However, he couldn't help but feeling that maybe this was the last time a classical cavalry charge would be used in anything else but historical re-enactment. His chase of the Soviets had to be stopped, though, after hearing that the Cossacks were in trouble and were in need of support.

They had also engaged the Soviet forces, albeit with heavier losses than the Germans in the South as their surprise attack was not so effective. Furthermore, they had to face Soviet tanks, which were slowly making their way onto the battle field. For the German anti-tank soldiers accompanying the trek it was easy to take the first one out by using MILAN missiles fired from a thrower mounted on the carriage of a former 3,7 cm PAK of the cavalry, but there were simply too many tanks to counteract every single of them. To turn the tides of the battle in their favour the Cossacks found the most daring solution: A direct attack on the enemy tanks. They used Panzerfäuste to shot at the enemy tanks while riding and managed to destroy several of them. Soon the tanks had difficulties with continuing their advances due to the muddy ground and were enclosed by the Cossacks. Some tank crews decided to surrender, while others fought. Most of them were merciless slaughtered. When Boeselager's 1. Kavalleriedivision appeared on the scene, the Cossacks had already won the battle

However, the horses and the men were too exhausted to continue, so they built up defence positions. They had succeeded in enclosing Kiew and soon infantry would arrive, followed by tanks and other heavy machinery.

In the following days, the Germans built up better positions to enclose Kiew. The Eastern part of the city was attacked from all sides and on November 5th the Soviets caught in there surrendered. Small groups were still resisting for some days, though, before German troops were able to get to them.

Kiew had fallen.
 
Chapter II, Part 37: On Patrol
30 nm NE off Brest, October 17th 1944

The patrol Lt. Ainslie was currently on seemed to be a relatively harmless one. His submarine, the HMS Thrasher, had been on three patrols ever since the Event had planted a Germany from the future on the middle of Europe. Ainslie didn't buy the official position of his own government any more, indeed, this Germany must have come from the future, for the losses they were inflicting on Britain were truly horrendous.

The Luftwaffe attacks on Britain continued being an absolute disaster for his own country: By now 56 submarines in the yards had been destroyed, a further 18 had been sunk, forcing them to rely on US built boats. Another 22 boats had been sunk while trying to sink German ships en route to or coming from Norway. The German convoys were very well defended by now, turning trying to attack them into suicide missions. Patrolling near the French coast was, at least for the time being, slightly less dangerous.

But, alas, you should never tempt fate, for Ainslie patrol had soon turned into a nightmare: His boat had been attacked by a Ju 88 bomber, which had surprised his crew as it had been dark night and yet the plane still had found them. The boat had been slightly damaged by the bombs, but a gunner had been hit by strafing.

They continued on afterwards and had even tried to attack a small convoy guarded by some M-Boats. He had failed to hit anything but was depth charged in return, which meant that he needed to get his boat back to port as fast as possible for repairs. Unfortunately, they hit a mine on the way back, flooding the front torpedo room. Luckily the boat could still run, although only at five knots. Worse, compass and clock were destroyed, which meant Ainslie had to guess their current position. He had ordered periscope depth as his boat was still in enemy waters.

Suddenly he saw a silhouette in the moon light. Yes, there was a ship. But what type? A smaller vessel. Ah, a corvette of the Flower class. He let out a sigh of relief. It seemed they were farther north than he had expected.

A moment later he stood on the bridge and hailed the corvette with lights as he didn't dare to use the wireless. The corvette turned soon after- and fired. The shell fell wide.

"What are they doing? They are attacking an Allied craft!" he cursed loudly and repeated the signs. A second shell was fired. This time it was a near miss, which led to even more damages though.

"Idiots!" he shouted. The third shell was a direct hit. And soon after he realized his boat was under attack of a German vessel. He ordered to abandon the boat and wanted to go below to make sure that any sensitive information was destroyed when the fourth shell hit and threw him into the cold water. The next he saw was the corvette ramming his boat and sinking it.

Only 12 survivors were found, including Lt. Ainslie. He soon got to know what had happened: His boat met the German Flower class corvette PA-3 looking for a submarine spotted in this area several hours before. This boat was one of four captured in France in 1940 and completed for the Germans.
 
Interludium IV: Lead Poisoning on Elbe River
Hamburg, October 20th, 1944, 7:15:

The best thing about commuting to work was the short trip with their ferry. At least Martina Kleber thought so. She loved to watch the dawn, when the first rays of the sun reached the sky, illuminating Hamburg and the Elbe river. As always there were few passengers on the ferry at this early time. And as always Martina was looking from the roof railing. Soon they would reach Landungsbrücken, where she would disembark. She could see the Elbphilharmonie, where work had been suspended for the time being due to the war, the museum ships Rickmer Rickmers and Cap San Diego and a swimmer who seemed daring enough to brave the cold water of the river.

'No,' she suddenly realised, 'that isn't a swimmer. He doesn't move.'

***

For Kommissar Eduard Tramsen the Event had brought little good into his life. He had joined the NSDAP in March 1933 only because it made it easier to make career. He didn't believe in their ideology at all, which was why he never partook in any ceremonies beyond what was expected of the normal citizen, therefore 'saving' him from ever receiving an official rank in the party. He was a so called 'Mitläufer'. However, that had still been enough to demote him. He was now a simple Kommissar, who also lost his comfy post in the bureau and had to actually go out on the streets. He was back in the homicide department in the harbour area of St. Pauli with a new partner, Ali Yüksel. An uptimer, who seemed to think he knew everything. Well, it definitely could have been worse: Some of his former colleagues had been fired and lost their pension.

"Hei..." he started but caught himself just in time. "Guten Morgen." He desperately hoped that no one had noticed his slip.

"Heil Hitler, Genosse Tramsen!" Ali of course had noticed and didn't care much for the scandalised looks his greeting earned him from the onlookers. "You can keep your coat on. We have a body."

"Okay, where do we have to go to?" he asked while they both went outside to their car. It was an old blue VW Passat with over 300.000 km driven. A wonder it still worked. Both didn't like it, but it was still better to drive than the alternative. A VW Beetle, built in 1939, without heater.

"Landungsbrücken. It seems, someone wanted to go swimming this morning and underestimated the danger." Ali replied.

**

They arrived there five minutes later. The dead body was lying on the stretcher of an ambulance.

"Good morning, Dr. Müller." Eduard greeted the coroner, a woman of about 50 years with red hair and glasses that magnified her eyes so much that it made her look like a beetle. Ali just said "Moin" and walked up towards one of the police men standing nearby, leaving it to Eduard to talk to the woman.

"So, who do we have here?" he inquired.

"We don't know yet," Dr. Müller replied, lips pursed into a thin line as if it was an insult to her professional integrity. "The face is severely mutilated and his stint in the Elbe certainly didn't help, either. However, it looks like he was shot, as there is this hole on the side of his head. Whether he was alive or already dead when it happened, I can tell you later."

"Effective as always," Eduard complimented her. Before he could continue, Ali interrupted them, having finished talking to the police man.

"Ede, I talked to the policemen of the harbour police and they were able to find the wallet that they seemed to think belonged to the dead. The name of the dead is Ernst Thälmann." Suddenly both Dr. Müller and Eduard looked at him. Ali was silent for the moment.

"Do you know who he is?" he asked.

"Yes," both replied somehow simultaneously.

"Ernst Thälmann was the head of the KPD. He was killed by the Nazis in 1944, I think. Erm, in OTL." Dr. Müller told them. "Thälmann tried to re-establish the KPD, but the functionaries in Moscow forbade it."

"How do you know that?" Eduard asked

"It was a big story in DER SPIEGEL a while back," she replied. "It seems that Moscow wasn't very fond of him. They prefer Ulbricht."

"Well, it seems that someone certainly stopped him. But why did they destroy his face?" Ali asked.

"Maybe whoever murdered him didn't actually do it," Dr. Müller mused. "Maybe they just threw him into the Elbe and he, I don´t know, got stuck in a ship´s screw. I´d need to do some further testing in the labs to be certain."

"So, we have an acute case of lead poisoning." Ali remarked. "Good. If it had been some creepy murderer with occult reasons to destroy faces, this would have become so much more difficult."

"There is another thing," Dr. Müller remarked and pointed towards the legs of the victim. "The rope at his legs. It seems they were tied to something heavy."

"Ah, I see," Ali murmured. "So, the Al-Capone-method of getting rid of a body. Ah, I have a theory. It was the Mafia. He borrowed money from the Mafia and could not pay it back."

'Typical. Another wild theory that he announces as soon as there are some clues in one direction. Well, to be fair, he is joking.' Eduard thought. He was interrupted in his thoughts by voices from behind.

"All right gentlemen. This is a case for the Staatsschutz, as this may be a political murder," a man in a black suit said. He showed them his badge and with that Eduard and Ali were off the case.

"Well, at least we don't have to deal with the politicians. Let them have the case," Eduard said.

"I really want to get this case, though," Ali said mournfully. "Would have been fun."

"We will get a new case soon," Eduard assured him. "Maybe with hot hookers, or something." In the comforts of his mind he could admit, though, that he was quite happy to not be involved in this case anymore which players seemed to be involved as far as Moscow.

"Are you okay?" Ali asked.

"Yes, I am okay. No problems," Eduard replied.

"I think the best is to get a second breakfast." Ali said. "I think a minced meat roll would do it."

"Hrmpf." Eduard said while Ali was joking.

It was in this moment that they got a call from their boss: They should return to the harbour. Another dead body had been found near the Elbphilharmonie. And this time the Staatsschutz did not want the case, because the dead was only just a tramp.

When they arrived at the scene, the coroner was already there in the person of Dr. Helmuth Lange, a downtimer and ardent Nazi-supporter. Nobody knew why, but somehow, he had managed make it through the "Purge" – as it was called by the Nazis who had been incarcerated during it. He kept quiet now, well aware of his precarious situation, but nobody liked him every much. Eduard certainly didn't, as did Ali. He took on his uttermost professional behaviour and began asking his questions.

"Good morning Dr. Lange," Ali greeted him gruffly. "So who is the dead?"

"He´s a gipsy from Romania," Lange replied, an ugly sneer marring his face. "I used to see him quite frequently around Kennedy Bridge, where he was asking the car drivers for money at the traffic lights. He claimed to be invalid but I was always sure that he was just pretending and now I can finally prove it! Look here. His legs are completely healthy!"

"And how did he die?" Eduard inquired. It was a stupid question, because, well, the victim´s throat had been slashed, but it was part of the procedure.

"Well, you´d be the worst cop I´ve ever met if you can´t tell me," Lange replied. "Maybe someone he played felt betrayed and ended his charade. At least he´s not a proper German…"

Eduard coughed, trying to interrupt Lange´s no doubt rant about racial purity of the Arians. True, he had been in the NSDAP as well, but only because of the societal pressure: Good jobs had only been available to party members, but he had never been able to stomach their more inhuman opinions. Knowing what would later become of those people that the Nazis saw as 'sub-human' kept him awake at night. It would continue to do so until the day he would die.

"Erm," he said, "can you tell me when he died?"

"Well... I would say between 20 o`clock and 4 o'clock. Hmm. I bet he died later, between 1 o'clock and 4. The temperature of the Elbe makes it a bit difficult to say for now. I can give you more later." Lange replied.

"Is there anything else?" Eduard asked, every second he had to spend in the other person´s presence making his skin crawl.

"There is, indeed!" Lange exclaimed. "The rope was tight to the feet. The knot wasn't very professional, so I guess he was tight to something heavy."

Ali and Eduard looked at each other, communicating without words. Were there more similarities?

The place where the dead had most likely been thrown into water was the Entenwerder Park at the Elbe as Ali got to know soon after. But due to the Staatsschutz swarming over the whole area, they didn't enter and drove away, hoping that no one had recognised them.

"That are way too many coincidences," Eduard remarked.

"Yes," Ali agreed. "Unless you believe two persons not knowing each other, who were killed the same way, is coincidence. I don't think they will find any traces at Entenwerder. If both were chained to something heavy, they couldn't have been killed there. The river would never have brought them so far downstream."

"That sounds quite right," Eduard said. "If I were the killer – or the killers – I would throw them off a bridge. Here. The A-1 bridge. At night, with barely any traffic, they might have done it without being noticed."

"We need a team there. And divers!" Ali exclaimed.

He thought about the situation. As did Eduard. Five minutes later the team for securing the evidences was on the way as was a diver.

"I hope, our friends at the State Protection Department take their time to realize that they were wrong," Ali remarked.

"Since when are the guys there that intelligent?" Eduard chuckled.

"So you do know what jokes are!" Ali exclaimed.

"No, not really," Eduard replied. "I am a German, so I obviously can´t be good at jokes."

"Hey, I´m German, too, and my jokes are good!" Ali retorted.

"Well, that just proves my point, because your jokes are horrible!"

Both men laughed.

"Okay, here we are. That's the place where our gypsy used to stay for the night," Ali said. They were standing in front of a small inn that offered cheap accommodations for the desperate. The owner didn't look very happy when they introduced themselves as officers, but with a lot of grumbling and suspicious glances aimed at them he did unlock the room the victim had used, but except for quite a hefty sum of money hidden under the mattress there was nothing of interest to be found. Nobody at the inn knew anything, but they did get a name of an associate: Another gypsy who could usually be found at Central Station.

When they arrived at the train station, they did indeed find the victim´s friend, but when he saw them, his eyes widened in fear and he started to run. Cursing under their breaths (or in Ali´s case very loudly) they took up pursuit and ran after the man. Several times he nearly managed to evade them, but in the end he tripped over a woman´s umbrella and landed on the ground where Ali managed to put his handcuffs on the man.

A moment later they were at the watch of the Bundespolizei. There they got the possibility for a first interview.

"So who's this? Mircea Ilescu?" Ali said. He looked at the man, who still was enchained with handcuffs. The man didn't say anything and pretended not to understand German. Eduard looked at the identity card and confirmed. "Yes, that's him. His card say so and it looks too good to be forged. At least with the sums he can pay." he added. Ali looked at the card and asked him again. "So you're Mircea Ilescu?" "Ich nix verstehen." the man just said. "Oh, I bet he can understand us very well." Ali said. "I don't bet." At least in this case. You would win." Ede said. "I have an idea. I think, we should arrest him murdering this..." "Adrian Ior... erm." Ali interjected and had to look at a paper with the name of the victim. In the meantime Ede continued. "We have a dead Gypsy. We need a suspect. This is another gypsy. This one here ran away and didn't stop after we called police. He is guilty."

"Wait!" Mircea had become pale. "Wait! Adrian is dead?" "I knew it! You can talk German!" Ali said with a happy sounding. "Yes, he is dead, I fear. If not, well, we might have problems with Zombies." Ali showed him a photo of his dead friend. Mircea nearly vomited. He was clearly shocked. "I didn't do that! He was my friend." Mircea started to cry. "In fact, he was my cousin." He needed some moments, until he finally calmed down a bit. "We left Romania to find work. We are gypsies. There we were nothing. Here..." "What has happened last night?" Ede said with a mild sound. He wanted to stop telling him the whole story. "Well, after work..." "You say begging is working?" Ali interrupted him. Mircea just shrugged and continued. "After work we went to a bar on St. Pauli. We have money, don't do anything, so we are at least tolerated there. I got contact to a Romanian woman, but he didn't. The girl and I left the bar. What happened to him after that, I don't know."

An hour later the story of Mircea was verified and he could go. Ali and Ede knew at least the last place the victim was seen alive.

As it was lunch time, they went into the Schweinske restaurant at the Central Station where both of them ordered a Schnitzel with fries. Eduard already knew that Ali also ate pork. He may be a sunni muslim, but he ate pork and drank alcohol like anyone else.

Just when they were ready to pay, Eduard's mobile rang. After some difficulties he managed to pull it out of his pocket, which left him feeling quite satisfied as it had been not even two weeks ago that he had still needed Ali´s help to do that.

His mood instantly soured, though, when furious colleague from the Staatsschutz started to complain on the other end of the line, asking why his team was working on the bridge. Even explaining their reasons why did not change anything. Eduard was ordered to call them back. Though they had to give up all evidence, the results they had received before handing everything over had been promising: There were traces of a black car or transport being there. It must be damaged, as there was a trace of black car paint on a blood trace at one point on the bridge. The diver had also found two concrete blocks, which he thought to be the relevant pieces. Despite this the Staatsschutz did not take over their case - yet.

After lunch both drove to the place where the victim had been seen alive for the last time, a pub on St. Pauli. It was not meant for rich people. Everyone could see that. But the barkeeper, who was also the owner, knew, that Adrian had left the building as one of the last, moving into direction of Sternschanzenpark. Tracing the way the victim must have waked, they found nothing, but while going back they noticed a freshly broken branch hanging on a tree and some slightly damaged bushes. They followed the traces until they reached a small and secluded clearing where they found traces from blood. They were pretty sure that this was the place where both victims had been murdered murdered. But what happened there in the night?

The only other person around was a junkie sitting on a bench nearby and watching passers-by with a vacant stare. After threatening him with taking him into custody and thus cutting him off his drugs the junkie told them the whole story: He was there because he needed drugs, which had been more difficult to get after the Event; well, only more 'traditional' drugs such as Cocain or Heroin. Meth, on the other hand was aplenty and easy to come by. Only stuff produced in Germany was available. New shipping routes and sources had to be put into place and until then the drug business was undergoing big upheavals as some players lost all their money and power while others suddenly surged to the top. Who couldn't deal with the new situation would end up like Thälmann and the other guy.

The other problem was, that with the German passports and working permits many Africans had received, the number of small-time dealers had been vastly reduced, leading to a supply shortage while the demand was still high as ever.

By now the junkie was panicking. He told them that Bert, his dealer, hadn't been where he usually received customers on the night the killings had taken place. Instead there had been three thugs with guns waiting at the place. The man told them that he had seen Thälmann and the other man with those criminals before he had hastily retreated. He couldn't identify all of them, but he was pretty sure that one of the thugs had looked like Honni.

"Honni?" Ali repeated incredulously.

"Yes. But that can't be," Kevin, the junkie, replied. "He was much younger. And Honni is dead, anyway."

"Honni? Who is Honni?" Eduard asked confused.

"The former leader of the so called GDR, the Soviet occupation zone." Ali answered. With his smart phone he googled a picture of Honnecker in the 1950s. Kevin recognized him. They sent Kevin to the department, where he could make an official testament and look to some pictures of known KPD men

"Well, that makes sense." Eduard said. "Thälmann founded his own KPD, a fact with which Moscow is not pleased with. He received a warning but continues anyway. Then he gets an invitation to come here. Perhaps he thought that Stalin finally changed his mind..."

"…and all he gets is a bullet in his brain," Ali finished. "We have no proof, yet. Only this junkie. This is nothing that´s gonna impress a judge."

"I know. But it is enough to get us a talk with Mr. Hohenecker."

"Honnecker. Erich Honnecker. He was ousted shortly before the Berlin Wall fell in 1989," Ali replied.

"Let's see where he might have been. I call the department. They can talk to the hotels..."

"I already know."

"How?" Eduard asked, completely confused.

"Facebook. The junkie wasn't the only one who saw him. Here is a picture of him while entering a certain building. But I don't know the building," Ali told him.

"But I do." Eduard said. "It was a house the KPD used for secret meetings. The Gestapo got wind of it and closed it down. They obviously think because of the Gestapo no longer existing they can use it again."

"Then let's have a look there."

While driving to the house Eduard and Ali were privy to a conversation over the police radio:

Voice 1: "This is the Landesamt für Verfassungsschutz. What are you doing at that particular house?"

Voice 2: "This is the Landeskriminalamt, Staatsschutz. We are conducting a razzia aiming to catch several suspected murderers."

1 (angry): "This house was observed by us to keep an eye on communist agitators. You just destroyed four months of hard work. Mark my words, that will have consequences!"

"Ouff!" Ali exclaimed. "If we had come a little bit earlier, we would have been in some serious Schiet ['shit', lower German] now."

"Yes, indeed," Eduard agreed. "It seems the LKA somehow drew the same conclusions as we did, but they haven't yet made connections we were able to deduce, because if they had we would have been taken off the case long ago."

"Right. But we have another problem now," Ali remarked as he turned the car around and drove back. "We don't have any clue where to look for Honecker. And we simply can't avoid the higher-ups any longer. We need to tell them about what we found." Eduard pursed his lips in disapproval.

"You´re right." He had hoped the case would drag on a little bit longer so that he wouldn't be forced to go back to the boring and repetitive street patrolling. "You're right. But..."

"I don't believe it! There he is!" Ali interrupted him, pointing animatedly at some passer-by.

"Who?" Eduard wanted to know, confused.

"Honecker! The man over there!" He pointed on a man in his thirties, with a light brown coat and widow's peak walking along street. The man seemed nervous and tried too much not to be noticed which only made him more stand out.

"Then let's take him in and have a little chat."

Ali parked the car about 30m in front of Honecker. Eduard walked towards Honecker while Ali pretended keen interest in the wares behind a shop´s window before finally entering the shop. Honecker´s gaze flickered over both of them but he seemed to disregard them immediatelly.

He was just past the shop Ali had entered when Eduard´s colleague stepped back on the street behind Honecker. "Moin Honni. Police. We need to schnacken ['talk'] a bit."

Honecker turned pale and tried to run but Eduard obstructed his way and forced him to an abrupt halt. "Mr Honecker, you are arrested. Everything..."

"I know my rights. I won't tell you anything!" he shouted at them, clearly agitated.

"We'll see," Eduard remarked.

30 minutes later they were sitting in the interrogation room of the nearest police station.

"I won´t say anything before I talked to my attorney." Honecker stated.

"Fair enough. That's your right," Ali agreed.

"Mr. Eduard Thomas is on the way," Eduard informed Honecker.

"Mörder-Ede? Oh-oh," Ali commented.

Eduard did not like the attorney as well. He was an attorney that had no morals and defended even the vilest of criminals all the while throwing huge shows at court. More often than not, though, it was not successful and sometimes even counterproductive.

"Well, perhaps you won´t even need him," Eduard remarked. "We might let you go soon. We have not much against you and the raid should give us enough material to get at the men behind the scenes."

"What men? What do you want from me? What is it even that you accuse me of?" Honecker wanted to know.

"The murder of two people." Ali said. "Yes, I think our position is not good. We have little to keep him here any longer."

"Indeed," Eduard agreed. "We likely have to set him free."

"Exactly," Ali sighed. "And we should hurry before he´s able to sue us."

Eduard nodded. "But isn't it dangerous for him?"

"Why?" Ali asked. Eduard noticed Honecker listened to their exchange quite attentively.

"Well, he´s taken in and immediately let go, so maybe whoever´s behind this might think he´s turned," Eduard guessed.

"Hmm. No. I don't think so. Or is there something we need to know, Honni?"

If someone could become paler than pale, then Honecker did quite an admirable job at it. His "No!" was very silent.

"Well, if the KPD thinks he was our agent..." Eduard started.

"...then he is soon as dead as Thälmann," Ali finished.

"Okay, Herr Honecker, I think you can go," Eduard told the shaking man.

"Wait, aren't you in love with your former prison warden? And didn't you talk to the Gestapo? We need to know this in order to determine if you need police protection."

"Ali, it is okay," Eduard interjected. "He said there was nothing. So, he can go."

"Okay, folks, I want a deal," Honecker finally caved in.

A young police officer knocked at the door and told them that Mr. Thomas had arrived.

"Send him away!" Honecker insisted. "He was hired by the KPD!"

Being told that his 'client' had no need of his services put an impressive scowl on Mr. Thomas' face but, alas, there was nothing he could do and so he had to leave the precinct. Fifteen minutes after his departure the case´s prosecutor, Dr. Wilhelmine Meister, arrived as well.

"So, Mr. Honecker," she started with a no-nonsense attitude that could probably melt steel. "You want to make a deal. Before we can even offer you something we needed to hear what you know."

"But then you have everything!" Honecker exclaimed.

"No, we need to know what you were to say hypothetically if you were to confess," Meister explained. "It is just a hypothetical story you tell us. If we can make a deal out of it, you would have to officially confess. If we don't, well, nothing will happen. Nothing can be used by court." Honecker licked his lips nervously.

"Okay, hypothetically speaking," he started. "I would tell you that when I left prison I wanted to get a position in the KPD, but that party is now Ulbricht's. He is the undisputed leader. The party´s leadership had decided that Thälmann needed to go. The man just didn't listen, even though he had been warned several times."

"And who gave this order?" Meister asked.

"I don't know," Honecker shrugged. "But, hypothetically speaking, such an order must come from very high above. I can only think of Ulbricht having the clout to get it through. At the very least he must have agreed with it as without his okay such a course of action would have never been taken."

"I see," Meister mumbled. Speaking up she asked: "What happened then?"

"Well, I had some, erm, problems getting into good position," Honecker explained a little ashamed. "So they told me to go to Thälmann and tell him the party leadership changed their mind and he should come to the park at night. He believed that Stalin had fired Ulbricht and that he would take his place. He was so naive..." Honecker paused. "I met him at the east entrance of the park and took him to the place they wanted me to bring him."

"They?" Meister prodded.

"Mielke," Honecker answered. "Erich Mielke. And two others I don't know. One was called Hans and the other Franz. I sincerely doubt, though, that those were their true names."

"Mielke. Erich Mielke? From Berlin?" Dr. Meister wanted to know.

"Yes, I think he was from Berlin. And he was also the man, who gave us the order to kill Thälmann."

"And the other two?"

"They could have been twins," Honecker continued. "Big, muscled, not very intelligent. Hans was about 1,90 and Franz would have crossed the 2m mark easily. I can try to give you more details later."

"If we come to an agreement," Meister said. "What occurred next?"

"As soon as we arrived Thälmann was shackled. He was completely surprised. But so was I."

"In how far?"

"Well, Mielke told me I had to shoot him and he made it very clear that my fate would be the very same as his if I refused. So, I shot him."

"You shot him?" Meister repeated with raised eyebrows.

"Yes, I did," Honecker swallowed. "I shot him. It was either him or me and, well, I quite like living. I had to tie the body to the concrete block. But then there were some noises. One of the goons – I think it was Hans – went looking for it and came back with the gypsy. But Mielke just nodded towards Hans and he cut the gypsy's throat." Honecker made a slashing gesture over his throat. "They made me tie that body to the other block. Then Hans and Franz took over the bodies while Mielke and I went home." A long pause followed. "Hypothetically speaking."

"Yes, that's definitely worth something," Dr. Meister said. "I suggest you hire another attorney, so we can finalize a deal. I could offer you three years and parole after two. As a first offer."

Ali and Eduard, who had been silently sitting beside Dr. Meister, hadn't said anything at all during Honecker´s confession and now that they knew everything there was nothing left for them to do, so they left the room – only to come to face with the officer from the Staatsschutz.

"You idiots!" he cursed. "This was our case."

"Calm down," Ali spoke. "We didn't know until now that..."

"Do you take me for a fool!? I..."

It was in this moment that Dr. Meister exited the interrogation room. "Ah, meine Herren, good work. Oh, Hauptkommissar Kiesewetter, it´s so nice to see you. You´re surely here to tell these exceptional officers how happy you are for their success. You have another case closed."

Kiesewetter said nothing and stormed away in contempt.

"Miesewetter. How he has risen so far, I don't know," Dr. Meister said. "Well, thank you, anyway."

Later that day, that Eduard was at home again. His wife was meeting with friends somewhere in town, so it was his duty to watch over the children, which gave him time to ponder the case again. He still wanted to go back to desk duty, but he also could no longer deny that working a case had been a thrill he didn't know he had missed until now. He emptied his beer and called Ali. He wanted to celebrate their success tomorrow. His wife could watch the children then.
 
Chapter II, Part 38: Of Bridges, Gates and Skyscrapers
Hamburg, October 20th 1944, 10:15:

Even though he had been hired as Mr Trump´s legal counsel, Dr. Peter Voss (V) didn't plan to give up his law firm completely as he thought it wiser to have an additional source of income, although the attorney he hired would do most of it. Right now, Voss was visiting the Vier Jahreszeiten, where Mr Trimp was staying at the moment.

Fräulein Koops (K) opened the door after he had knocked.

K: Ah, Dr. Voss. Nice to see you again. How are you?

V: I am fine, thank you. Is Mr. Trump...

K: He´s here. The boss is waiting for you.

She led him into the living room of the apartment, which had been transformed into some kind of office.

V: Good morning, Sir. How are...

T: I am fine, I´m fine. I really like this direct attitude of the Germans. You get to the point without much fuss. Anyway, did you buy the real estate for my sky scraper?

V: Erm, no, sir. I couldn't. The owner of the place is unwilling to sell. I...

T: What? DIDN'T I MAKE IT ABUNDANTLY CLEAR THAT I WANT TO BUILD A HOUSE THERE? MONEY IS NO QUESTION EITHER. I THOUGHT YOU WERE ABLE TO EXECUTE THIS TASK, A VERY SIMPLE ONE INDEED! AND YOU WERE NOT ABLE TO DO SO! YOU'RE FIRED!

Dr. Voss was completely caught off guard as he had never experienced such aggressive and immature behaviour with his clients before.

V: Mr. Trump, as I already tried to tell you, there already is a yard there, which is currently working on many ships for the German navy. As we are still at war with several powers they wouldn't even be allowed to sell their grounds to you even if they wanted. I did find an alternative, but as I am fired now, you can look it over yourself. [Throws paper on the desk.] Anyway, I don't like to be screamed at. It is a kind of behaviour that is below anything I could expect as both your legal counsel and especially as human being. You should really try to change your behaviour, although I have my doubts it is possible. Good day, sir.

Dr. Voss was just turning, when Mr. Trump started to laugh. Dr. Voss looked at Ms. Koops, who looked as confused as he was.

T: Wait, wait. I like anyone who says his own opinion. So, before you decided to leave, tell me at least what you have.

V: Well, I could not find a place near the yard, but here... [Pointing at one of the papers.]

T: There´s nothing but bridges there!

V: Yes, but that is intended. For the time being this is the only place in the whole of Hamburg where such a skyscraper is possible.

Trump looked at him. The "why" he couldn't speak out loud before Dr. Voss resumed.

V: The reason is that skyscrapers are only allowed to be build outside the former city wall or at the former gates. The wall has been dismantled in the 18th century but the gates are still important landmarks, such as the Dammtor or the Berliner Tor. The Hafencity is the only other place. And no skyscrapers, either. The tall buildings are usually not allowed to disrupt the skyline of.

T: But this place is out of question, though. There is nothing there. Nothing! Is that a joke?

V: No, Sir, it isn't. As you rightly saw, this place is near the Elbe bridges. For most real Hamburgers, the crossing of the Elbe over these bridges also means coming home. When you drive over the bridges you enter old Hamburg proper. And because of that such a building would be a kind of gate to Hamburg. The first impression of the city, so to speak. And there won´t be 'nothing' for long: The other end of the Hafencity is going to be constructed there.

T: I see. Hmm. First impression. Gate to Hamburg.

V: Sir, this is still not more than a plan. It is not yet near the point one could order the people to start building. At first you need to buy this 12.000 m² real estate from the city. Then you need to invest up to one billion Euro. And you need an acceptable design. A 08/15 building would not be accepted, I fear.

T: 08/15?

V: Standard. There are already some ideas which might be valiable. I have several architect bureau contacts here. Some even made first scratches in the hope you take a liking to them. Like this one, having been inspired by a sail.

T: Good idea. 350 m high...

V: Erm, currently they think about a skyscraper of up to "about 200 m". So, everything above 210 m would be a problem.

T: I see. That are problems I have to deal with then. Fräulein, erm, please make an appointment with the mayor. I have to talk to him.

V: There are many who are against this deal.

T: That is to be expected. Good work! You're hired again.

V: Perhaps you can help Mr. Scholz as well. Currently Hamburg has another problem: The Elbphilharmonie. It has been a money sink ever since its inception. That changed after the deal of 2012 but after the Event it might have been reverted back.

T: Oh, I see. If I invest something there I can get better terms here. Great!

K: Mr. Trump, we could get an appointment with Mr. Scholz next Tuesday.

T: Excellent. And try to contact those architects. I want more proposals until Monday. Dr. Voss, can you please make preparations for the founding of a corporation?

V: Sir, the contracts are already being worked on. I expect them back on Monday as well.

Dr. Voss had expected such a step and had ordered his new staff to prepare them. They would be ready soon.

T: Thank you, Dr. Voss.

K: I show you the way out here.

Out of the room Dr. Voss asked Ms Koops.

V: Is he moving so fast every time?

K: Well, I don't know.
 
Chapter II, Part 39: New Orders
Bay of Danzig, October 20th 1944, 11:15

The carrier Deutschland was still conducting training exercises. Other warships nearby were doing the same, from escorting warships, hunting submarines to ship gunnery training. The bridge was crowded. Korvettenkapitän Heinrich Ehrler was directing the training flights.

"Tell this idiot to attack the old Hessen and not the modern Bremen. Did he at least learn our warship silhouettes?... No, he´ll try it again. Better he tries landing now than later... No, we need another recce plane in the air. I want..."

In this apparent chaos no one noticed Admiral Ciliax leaving the bridge. Admiral Krause, the Flottenchef, had just arrived from a meeting with Großadmiral Saalwächter in Rostock.

CX: Herr Krause, were you able to talk to the Großadmiral?

KR: Yes, I was, but unfortunately without any success.

CX: It can't be. We need more time.

KR: I know that, but he doesn't, even though I tried to convince him. I even mentioned the fate of the armoured frigate SMS Großer Kurfürst, which sank after only 25 days after commissioning due to an accident because of the lack of training.

CX: And?

KR: And? He just told me I had more than 25 days.

CX: Our ships are manned, but many men are wet behind the ears. They need more training. I just spoke to Ehrler and he completely agrees with me as well.

KR: It´s not me that you have to convince of that. However, Saalwächter told me that there´s no time left, because it seems the Allies will try to resupply the Soviets, something we cannot allow to happen.

CX: They should send some more Tornados to Norway, instead.

KR: They won´t. The 24 planes of the 2nd squadron of MFG 1 are all we have. The 1st squadron is in the Med and all the other Tornados are used elsewhere. And the 1st squadron won't be sent to Norway because we don't have any modern vessels in the Med.

CX: There´ve been several days when we couldn't exercise because of the weather.

KR: I know. Saalwächter knows. But circumstances…

CX: Okay. I will log in a written protest, though.

KR: Already did that, my friend.

CX: Hopefully we will just sit in the harbour and do nothing except training, at least this year.

KR: One can only hope. However, I still think the Allies will be giving us trouble.

CX: Well, when they try, we´ll have enough fire power to blow an entire fleet to hell.

KR: But what if they send more ships than we can deal with with our weapon systems?

CX: Then we´re gonna do it the old way: With guns and torpedoes. But we need more training for that as well.

KR: Yes, indeed. If something happens to me, you´ll be the one in control of the whole fleet. As we don't have another carrier here, you should take command of the battleship division then.

CX: I will do so.
 
Chapter II, Part 40: Fleet Review
Öksfjord, Alta fjord, October 30th 1944, 14:30

Two men were hiding in a small cabin which was usually used to process fish. There was a small opening in one of the walls through which one could see the fjord spread out right in front of them. The cabin was big enough for one person, but right now there were two; Ole and Thor who were part of the Norwegian resistance.

Ole: Thor, I still think it is too dangerous to have two men in here for such a long time.

Thor: I totally agree. However, London wants to have at least two witnesses when the ships come.

O: All we see are M-Boats coming and going.

T: They want to get more information, especially about these ominous new ships the Germans have built.

O: Do you believe in the German propaganda?

T: Of course not. Do you?

O: No, it is ridiculous.

T: Indeed. Time travelling: completely ridiculous.

O: There! Ships are coming.

T: German M-Boats again.

O: But look: Destroyers!

T: And look: They have dual turrets. I never saw a German design like this.

O: These have to be the new German ships. Only a small gun turret. Not more than a single 7,6 cm gun and perhaps some light flak. But what are those containers?

T: I don't know. Damn, I only have one reserve film for the camera and there are more ships to see now than there were in the years before.

O: Shit. There! That must be the cruisers Köln, Leipzig and Nürnberg. But the fourth I can't remember ever seeing before; 4 twin turrets.

T: Me neither. Wait! Over there, the heavy cruisers. Two, no, three Admiral Hipper class cruisers.

O: I thought, we sank one at Oslo back in '40?

T: We did.

O: But then they only should have two.

T: Yes, they should, indeed. But they seem to have three now.

O: There! Battleships. That must be the Tirpitz. I can't identify the other one, though; it looks similar to the Gneisenau, but it´s got dual turrets.

T: And there is even a second one. Seems to be the Tirpitz.

O: That can't be. That ship is over there!

T: A third battleship of the Bismarck class?!?

O: So it seems... Boy, that is a huge carrier. That can easily carry hundred planes.

T: That is no Graf Zeppelin class carrier. It is bigger.

O: And probably better.

T: Much better I fear.

O: Ah, there are at least some ships we know. The pocket battleships.

T: Yes. Two ships. As we were told.

O: There are more of these... frigates. At least the British call them.

T: They seem more like small cruisers. And again, those containers. What are they for?

O: Torpedo tubes?

T: Unlikely. These frigates over there have even greater guns.

O: And a slightly different kind of container as well.

T: Indeed. I have the feeling that these containers will cause us some problems.

O: And there are some destroyers and M-Boats.

T: At least they´re all here now.

O: And not too early. I don't know, what's going on, but I do know it will cause us trouble. So many ships; the Germans must plan something.

T: Yes, they do. We must inform London.

O: Yes, do that. I will wait here a little longer.

In the night London received the news about the German fleet in Norway. Only hours later Ole and Thor, among some others, were arrested because of their espionage.
 
Chapter II, Part 41: Anchors Aweigh!
USS Iowa, Reykjavik, November 1st 1944, 11:15

Admiral Raymond A. Spruance entered the cabin of Vice Admiral Willis A. Lee.

WL: Back from Norfolk I see. Any news?

RS: Yes, I received orders from Admiral Ingersoll: We are to attack the German fleet in Norway.

WL: You can´t be serious! Don't they know the capabilities of German´s new weapons? We´re gona lose many ships and men.

RS: Yes, we will, but Ingersoll got the order from Leahy, who got the orders from Roosevelt himself. It seems our president wants a victory before the elections.

WL: Then he´ll continue to wait, because that ain´t gonna be it.

RS: I, too, have doubts, but the plan is good.

WL: To quote a famous field marshal: No plan survives first contact with the enemy.

RS: The German ships are potent ship killers, however, they can´t field more than eight of these ships and maybe a battleship and a handful cruisers.

WL: And the reports of those other ships?

RS: Although there´s reasonable proof, I´m still wary to completely trust them. And even if they are partly true we have too many ships to not win. And herein lies the problem: Usually, after taking heavy losses a fleet should retreat. However, we are ordered to attack no matter our losses, because even if each of our ships is sunk the result will be considered a victory if the German fleet is destroyed as well.

WL: I see.

RS: Also, Stalin continues to demand more supplies. If we can keep the route to Murmansk open we probably will be able to keep the Soviets in the war.

WL: And when shall we sail?

RS: Tomorrow evening.

WL: I will give the necessary orders.
 
Chapter II, Part 42: Echoes from the Past
Near Kiew, November 3rd 1944, 500 m AGL

Hauptmann Sönke Petersen had just delivered his payload. He had flown many sorties, but this was to be his last mission. Tomorrow his unit would be relocated back to Germany as the fights around Kiew were dwindling down and it was finally time to service the plane. The good old Hs 123 would be replaced by Fw 190 A-8 planes.

He was already missing his current plane, a totally outdated one, to be brutally honest. A biplane, slow but extremely robust and manoeuvrable. The planes had been upgraded, so instead of 2 7,92 mm MG they carried 2 MG 151/20 20 mm guns. Today he had only dropped some bombs on a Soviet artillery position.

Petersen could already see the river. Soon he would land the plane and tomorrow he would be sent back home to become a flight instructor.

This way your combat service ends, he thought. The next moment he could see the silhouette of another plane approaching through his night vision goggles. It was another bi-plane, but bigger than his. Probably a Polikarpow Po-2 night bomber.

Instantly, Petersen decided to attack. His guns were fully loaded and he had used little fuel on the misson. He climbed slightly to attack from the rear and above. It was easy to get behind the Po-2 with a top speed of only 155 kph. His Hs 123 wasn't really that fast either, but 340 kph was fast enough to catch the Soviet plane. In the last moment he saw the Soviet plane turning out the engine to make a gliding attack without noises. Standard procedure. And yet that also meant he could be heard better. And indeed, the plane started the engage again and tried to turn. But he was already in range. He fired his guns and hit the bomber. The Po-2 went down, hit the treetops and exploded on the ground.

Petersen knew the enemy would likely send some more planes within the next few minutes, which would give him enough time to get back into position. And indeed, he had not waited for long, when he saw the next bomber. Knowing what he had to expect, Petersen already attacked before the enemy was even able to notice him. The plane exploded in the air.

Ugly way to go, Petersen thought. But better you than my comrades or me.

He turned to get back into position but this time the enemy was faster. He spotted the plane already about a kilometre away heading directly towards him, so he decided to attack from the front. Again, his guns fired. The Soviet pilot had not seen him until it was too late. He tried to turn but his engine had been hit and so he, too, crashed to the ground in a fiery inferno.

Three victories were enough, Sönke thought, but then he saw a fourth bomber.

It was a repeat of his first kill: He ascended, came from behind and fired. The plane wnt down and crashed in the woods, setting them aflame as it exploded. Just as Sönke wanted to turn his plane around, a MG salvo barely missed him. He craned his neck and saw another Po-2 flying behind and trying to attack him.

'You must have balls to attack me, lad', he thought. The next salvo that came actualy managed to hit his plane, yet due to his superior armour nothing was damaged. Sönke sped up and turned. A third salvo missed. He turned to get behind the Soviet bomber, but the Soviet had started to ascend before making a small dive and turning to the left. He followed. The Soviet executed an Immelmann and then turned to the right to avoid him, but now he was in no position to fire.

'Damn!' Sönke thought. He missed the plane as the Soviet turned again. Apparently, the Soviet pilot assumed that he had escaped Sönke and changed course. Sönke had waited for this moment, though, and pressed for another attack. But the Soviet pilot must have sensed the manoeuvre and turned, barely avoiding being hit. Sönke followed and fired again. This time he did so blindly and hoped the enemy plane would be there. But after six rounds were fired, his cannons remained silent.

"Fuck!" he exclaimed. 'I need to disengage quickly. No ammo left.'

Sönke turned but his enemy didn't and continued to fly in a straight line. From his position he could see that the Soviet was in dire straits: His engine was burning and the rudder had been hit, making the plane nearly uncontrollable.

Cautiously, Sönke manoeuvred his plane next to the Soviet bomber. The pilot seemed to be unconsciousness, the navigator was dead. Sönke tried hailing the pilot, but there was no reply forthcoming. Deciding that something needed to be done, Sönke carefully manoeuvred his plane next to the Soviet´s until their wings were nearly touching each other. It should shake the plane and indeed the Soviet pilot woke up.

Sönke beckoned the Soviet pilot that he was to follow him with some hand gestures that the other was able to understand. The Soviet acknowledged and tried to turn the plane to the right direction, which he only managed after some difficulties. Sönke contacted his base and told them that they would have a 'guest', so that they would have everything ready for their arrival.

Shortly before landing the Soviet´s engine became too hot, which forced the pilot to shut it down completely. The speed was barely enough to carry the Soviet plane to the base, but in the end they both managed to land safely.

The ambulance was already there and it was only when the Soviet pilot climbed out of his broken-down plane that Sönke noticed that it was no man: Natalja Alexandrowna Neklin was her name, aged 22. She was brought to the next MASH by helicopter as she was hurt in the abdomen. It didn't look that good for her, but here she at least had a chance at survival. Sönke could barely believe that he had fought one of the infamous night witches. Nine of them were now on eternal patrol, among them Jewdokia Berschanskaja, the commander of their unit.

For his achievements, Sönke would be awarded with the Ritterkreuz. It would be the end of his combat career. He would use his free time for some holidays and for visiting his parents on the farm near Plön.

Sometimes, though, his mind would wander back to Natalja.
 
Chapter II, Part 43: Going for a Walk
Near Agnetendorf, Lower Silesia, October 3rd 1944:

Although it was just a Tuesday, the day was also a holiday. A national holiday celebrating something in the future, something which would never come to pass; something for which the old man was thankful for. Because if it were to happen, it would mean that he would have to leave his home, expulsed by the Poles. However, this course of history would now never happen.

Just thinking about this time-travel-nonsense was liable to cause him a headache. Well, it wasn't really nonsense, was it? It had happened, after all. And so a new future had to be built, built on the ashes of the old one.

He had felt relieved when his last work had been completed. Relieved, but yet he still got the feeling that there was still something to be done. He was better now due to the UT medicine and he would likely have some more years to his life. But what should he do with them? Finishing one of the works he had started but never finished? Maybe; he would have to think about it. But still there was something else to do. Something he couldn't really see yet. The Ancient Greeks had been his last topic. That was finished now, though. Maybe about the Event? Science-fiction? Not his favourite topic, though.

He decided to go for a walk in the nearby Riesengebirge. In the mountains he could get some new ideas. But today the new ideas he had hoped for eluded him.

Perhaps, he mused, he was thinking too much about this. He should think about something else. In this moment he saw the dark rain clouds slowly approaching his position on the horizon. In the next minutes it would start to rain. He didn't want to risk getting another cold, not after he had been cured of the last one, so he descended from the mountains, just in time to seek refuge in an old abandoned barn. He watched in the rain pouring down and the lightning dance across the dark sky from the sanctuary of the shelter he had found himself in and wondered if maybe this was some sort of sign.

He was torn out of his reverie when he heard a noise coming from the back of the barn. Before the thunder and rain had downed it, but now he could make out some strange mixture of music, explosion and voices. Carefully he walked towards where the noise was coming from. Behind a wooden crate a boy of perhaps twelve years sat, a strange device in his hand. For a few moments the boy didn't notice him, too engrossed in whatever he was holding in his hands, but then he looked up.

"Hi," was the only thing the boy said before looking back down on his device.

"Hello," the old man greeted back a little bit unsure. "Who might you be?"

"I´m Tobi," the boy replied. "Tobias Angerer." He closed the device of his and put it in his lap.

"I haven't seen you around before," the man remarked. "Are you new to Agnetendorf?" The boy nodded.

"Yes, I am. My dad is a clerk and was sent to Hirschberg to help upgrading the local offices there. I guess nobody there´s able to work with a computer. Perhaps only an abacus," the boy replied.

Now the old man´s curiosity was piqued. "So where do you come from?"

"Augsburg."

"And you left your friends there?" the old man continued his line of qestioning

"Yes."

The old man was somehow bemused by the boy´s the monosyllabic answers. "And you don't have many friends around here?"

"No," the boy sighed. It was obvious that he wanted to use the device by the way he fidgeted with his hands, but he refrained from actually doing it. "It´s... difficult."

"Oh, most things are," the man couldn't help agreeing.

"Well, a few months ago I was playing with my friends in Augsburg," the boy started to explain. "Then the Event happened and everything went, well, wrong. At first Pa was reactivated, because he´s a reserve officer. Then Dad was sent…here." It seemed that the boy was lonely and had just barely managed to not to insult him by speaking badly about this place.

"Pa? Dad?" the old man asked confused

"I´ve got two dads," the boy said, defiance shining in his eyes, just daring the old man to contradict the boy´s statement.

"Erm, how...?" The old man was more shocked than he wanted to show.

"My Pa and my mother come from a small village in Bavaria. There the people are very... conservative, that´s what Pa calls them," the boy started to explain. "Mom didn't like men like she was supposed to and Pa didn't like women like he was supposed to, so when they met they decided to marry each other. Only my great-grandma knew everything. She died two years ago, but before that she told me the whole story because she thought I deserved to know it." He swallowed, trying to keep the tears away when he thought about his beloved great-grandmother.

"She told me that both of my parents had been in relationships outside their marriage when I was born. Dad – who wasn't really Dad back then – was okay with all of it, but my mother´s girlfriend got really jealous and outed Pa and Mom. Pa didn't really care, but Mom lost all her friends and even worse, her own father said he didn't want her anymore. And he was the most important person in her life! She died in a car accident when I was two, because she was driving too fast.

In the following months we went to Augsburg, where Pa finally married Dad. We were happy there, but then the Event came." He paused for a moment. "I don't even know why I´m telling you."

"Sometimes we just need to unburdened ourselves, even if it´s to a total stranger," the old man reasoned. "So, your father was sent here to Hirschberg and now you´re having difficulties finding new friends, because you're from Bavaria, you're an up-timer and you have two fathers."

The boy just nodded.

"And now you're playing in this barn in order to hide from the world?" It was just a guess the old man made. The boy didn't say anything, but from the way he clenched his fists the man assumed that he had been right.

"Don't worry. I won´t tell anyone," he promised. "And what's that?" he asked, pointing at the now silent device in the boy´s lap. A change of topic would do the boy only good.

"That's a PlaystationVista," the boy beamed, pride obvious in his voice. "Dad bought it for me last Christmas. Pa was against it, because he thinks I´m already watching too much TV anyway."

"I won´t tell anyone." the old man reassured. "Show me how it works." He really was very curious.

"Well, this is the controller. This is..."

Two hours later, when the downpour had stopped, both of them left the barn to go their separate ways. Tobi had a new friend, who had invited him and his fathers to dinner when they had the time. And Gerhart Hauptmann had a new topic for his next work.
 
Chapter II, Part 44: The Battle of Alta, Prelude
The Battle of Alta

Prelude, en route to Norway, November 5th, 18:29:


They had been at sea for three days. Vice Admiral Lee was in his cabin, and not becasuse of the weather. The storms protected him from being detected. The Germans had only a few long range MPA available and they were used nearly everywhere. Accordingly, great areas of the oceans remained without surveillance. Normally the European Arctic Ocean was much more densely controlled, but not now. He estimated the Germans must have planned something elsewhere. And indeed Operation Boulogne had started, in which most available Tornado and MPA were to be employed. So only four Tornado bombers were left in Norway. But of course he didn't know that. Even if he had known he would have had his doubts. At first he had hoped only to deal with the Tirpitz, but now a whole fleet had appeared. And they were at Alta, not Tromsö. The latter was no problem, but now he had to sacrifice more ships and men. And would he really succeed in destroying the German fleet? There were three Task Forces en route. A British one of mainly escort carriers, then his group of fleet carriers and a last group with battleships and cruisers. He had expected to be attacked today, but the storms had prevented it. He didn't know yet, but his luck was about to run out Far above his task force, a German SAR-Lupe satellite had detected the ships. Only a short time later the alarm bells rang on the German ships. They would engage the enemy. And the storm was about to end, with more advantageous conditions for the German fleet. Somehow Lee couldn't suppress a feeling his distant relative Robert E. Lee had had before the battle of Gettysburg.

In the morning hours the Allies' planes would start to attack the Germans.
 
Chapter II, Part 45: The Battle of Alta, Phase I: Das Große Tontaubenschießen
Phase I, the carrier battle

Off Norway, November 6th, 02:38:


The only carrier battle in the Atlantic Ocean in WW2 took place off Norway. The first attack was flown by the Luftwaffe. The four Tornado bombers would engage a group of ships identified as fleet carriers. Each Tornado carried two GBU-24 Paveway III laser guided 2.000 lb bombs. However, the group of the British escort carriers had taken a position in front of the fleet carriers so the German pilots mistook them as their primary target. Still, their attack was deadly. It completely surprised the British. They had not even detected the fast and low flying planes until it was too late. In two attacks the Germans hit eight of the 12 escort carriers. Seven were sunk outright and the last had to be scuttled. The British admiral decided that enough was enough and retreated, against the direct orders of Vice Admiral Lee.

The Luftwaffe had problems to repair the planes for another attack as certain spare parts had been redirected for Operation Boulogne. They were ordered back to Germany and would be flown in, but that would take several hours.

Before dawn the first wave of USN planes were launched from the carriers.

Korvettenkapitän Heinrich Ehrler, MJG 5 Eismeer, was taking part in this mission as well. They had launched before dawn from the German battle carrier Deutschland. 76 Fw 190 T, a navalized version of the FW 190 A8-U11, were to intercept the enemy planes starting from five fleet and four light carriers. About 400 enemy planes were coming towards them. The AWACS had given the German pilots a good intercept vector. And now the dawn had finally come. His planes were coming directly out of the sun. They would attack frontally and launch their A4M rocket. They hoped to destroy the dense pulks of SB2C planes.

And there they were. In order to avoid detection, KKpt Ehrler waggled the wings of his plane to give the sign to attack. That was repeated by the other planes. Each group of 24 planes was tasked to attack a different group. His group, Eisbär, was the first to attack. They launched their rockets and soon the first US bombers strated to go down. It was a massacre at first as they were completely surprised. Then the Fw 190 attacked with their guns, two MG 131 and four MG 151/20 cannons per plane. With the rockets Ehrler claimed two, another one followed soon after by the guns. The SB2C seemed not to be too manoeuverable as they could hardly avoid being hit. An F6F tried to get behind him but was shot down by his wingman. He wanted to concentrate on the next Helldiver, when a plane crossed his path. It was Eisbär-14. That pilot shot down the other SB2C before changing to the plane Ehrler had targetted. This was also shot down. Ehrler cursed. Soon he saw that pilot attacking another group of Helldivers. He launched his rockets from maximum distance but the salvo hit four Helldivers, downing all of them. However, a Hellcat was now behind Eisbär 14. And the manoeuvres he took were insufficient to shake his pursuer. Ehrler cursed again and came just in time to shoot down the Hellcat. In this moment he was attacked by yet another Hellcat. He saw the "fingers of death" barely missing his plane. Again his wingman came to his aid. He gave order to retreat to make another attack run after regrouping. But Eisbär 14 continued to attack, downing another three SB2Cs. Ehrler could only give the order to attack again, much earlier than he had wanted. That again surprised the American pilots as they had not expected to be attacked that soon again. At 80 kilometres' distance to the German fleet he gave the order to disengage. The Germans had lost 12 planes. Four pilots were rescued later. In contrast, 15 Hellcats and 188 Helldivers were shot down. Of the rest, 66 were splashed by SAMs before retreating.

Lt JG George H.W. Bush was flying his TBF Avenger at a much lower altitude which gave him a ring-side seat to witness the massacre of the dive bombers. "Poor sods." he thought. He was from USS San Jacinto. Now his bad feelings about this mission grew. The German air defences would attack them soon and with no holds barred.

He was very correct, but not at first. The British sent in 105 strategic bombers to attack the German fleet. It should have happened in port but now they were to attack a moving fleet at sea, something very difficult for heavy bombers. But they were not to reach their targets in the first place. At a distance of 160 km the bombers were attacked by SM-2 missiles of the German air defence frigates. After 70 of 72 missiles hit, downing 68 planes - two more were lost after landing - the British retreated.

Lt JG Bush and his comrades were able to get much closer, although some fighters and some missiles claimed their share. He could see the German ships already when the frigates launched RAM-missiles. The torpedo bombers dropped like flies. His own plane was also hit and crashed into the sea. He barely managed to bail out. He was lucky. It was another massacre. Only three bombers could launch their fish, before being shot down too. No hits were observed. Bush was soon fished out of the water by the frigate Sachsen.

At this very moment Ehrler and his surviving 64 planes were landing on their carriers. They now wanted to attack. Ehrler was sure Eisbär 14 would not fly with him.

An hour later a pilot stood on the flight deck. He had been a civilian pilot before the Event. He was sure he could serve in the Luftwaffe. He was somehow transferred to the navy and here he was now. He had barely managed to pass all the tests. Some, where he might have failed before, he was allowed to pass because of the circumstances. And his medical problems, or better psychological, were not known yet, as his medical files had not yet been transferred from Lufthansa to the Navy. That would happen soon though. And he severely doubted he would be allowed to fly after that. A new test would come, a more thorough one. He had help, but he doubted he would be able to pass. And although Ehrler didn't ground him, also because of the necessity of having every plane active, he knew that this was to be his last flight in the navy. Perhaps the last flight of his life. In this situation he needed help. But there was no help. No help he wanted at least. Only a last flight. And he lived for flying. It was like a drug to him. He only felt alive in the air.

He knew there was a possibility. If this was to be his last flight it should be one for the history books. He went belowdecks to write a short letter. He didn't want to at first, but now it seemed more appropriat. After finishing the letter, he went to the office of Ehrler. Perfect. His secretary had just left for the head and Ehrler was not there as well. The computer was still running. The pilot was bale to find the tasking order. Yes, he had expected that. He was to be one of 16 pilots performing CAP. He exchanged the names of him and one of the pilots of the attack wing. Weberknecht. He was a good dog fighter. Good solution. So just printing the sheet. Yes, finished. Then he went on to the plane arming plan. Yes, of course. No offensive weapons. Just his guns and R4M rockets. He changed that as well. One SC 1800 "Satan". Good. Then going to the ordinance department to prevent a "misunderstanding". When he was asked why, he just said it would be a secret mission and that he knew, he had not enough spirit to come back. Again, special mission.

Lukas Weberknecht was somehow astonished, that he would fly CAP instead of the attack, but he really didn't mind. So that wasn't any problem. And as strictest radio silence had been ordered he would not be asked before it was too late.

Yet another hour later he was flying to attack the enemy carriers. The other planes used the LT 1000 Friedensengel II aerial torpedo. Well, it was a gliding torpedo. Once launched wings would deflate and let the torpedo glide. About 10 m above sea level a device would launch a DM2A4a torpedo. It would then use its active sonar seeker to find and destroy a ship. To prevent ships being torpedoed by more than one fish, the seeker was programmed to go into attack mode at a distance of only 500 metres. At a greater distance, the active sonar would only roughly guide the torpedo in the general direction of a target. The He 111 bombers from MKG 26 would attack from the other side of the enemy fleet with the same ordnance.

The attack was well under way. The torpedoes were launched. A ship of anything below cruiser size would be sunk by a single hit as the torpedoes were fused for proximity detonation under the keel of their targets. Larger ships likely needed two or three hits. But that wasn't his way.

"Indianer, 12 o'clock!" someone barked. Indeed there the enemy CAP was. The FW 190 would then attack the CAP to protect the gliding torpedoes before disengaging once the eels were launched. He just flew straight through the enemy fighters coming from the front. He fired his guns until they were empty. Two F6F Hellcats went down, his kills numbers 9 and 10. But now he had broken throgh the fighter screen. His plane was damaged. He still had enough speed to keep ahead of the pursuing Hellcats.

"Eisbär 12, what are you doing?" he heard Ehrler's voice. Eisbär 12 was the call sign of Weberknecht. He didn't answer but let his smart phone play "Highway to Hell" and "Hell's Bells". Oh, he knew there were two enemy fighters behind him. They would soon become a problem. But suddenly one of them exploded and the other was forced into a dogfight. "Thank you, Kamerad." he radioed. "Eisbär 14?" was the answer. "Yes, thank you, sir." He was close to one of the fleet carriers. He began his dive. The FW 190 had not been designed as a dive bomber but that was no problem for him now. He just dived. There would be no return.

"Eisbär 14. What are you doing? Stop it!" he heard Ehrler say. Bang. His plane was hit by flak and he was too fast and too low to follow the order. "Banzaiiiii!" he cried. A moment before impact he released the bomb. Only fractions of a second later the plane and the bomb crashed into USS Lexington. The bomb smashed through the deck and hangar and exploded in the torpedo storage room. This explosion was so tremendous it destroyed the nearby rocket store and the bomb store as well. Sympathetic explosions occurred almost immediately. His plane smashed through the deck as well and exploded in the hangar igniting the AV gas station. Here, too, explosions followed.

From outside nothing seemed to happen. There was a damaged deck, yes, smoke, yes, but nothing else. This moment seemed to last an eternity. Indeed it was less than 30 seconds. A yellow flash shot out of the hole his plane had created. Then several huge explosions could be seen. The complete aft part of the ship exploded. The forward part remained afloat but started to list quickly before finally capsizing and sinking. Little more than 30 men could be rescued in the aftermath.

For a moment the fighting lulled. It was a moment to take breath. The Germans used it to disengage. Four German and 16 American planes were shot down.

The torpedoes were launched and attacked the fleet from two sides. Every single carrier was hit and sunk. Indeed only six destroyers were left unscathed. One had even used the depth charges to get rid of an incoming torpedo. It had been a massacre.

Later, after finding the letter, Lt. Andreas Lubitz was found to be mentally ill. New regulations followed. However, he was decorated with the Honour Cross for Valour, officially for his first combat mission.
 
Chapter II, Part 46: The Battle of Alta, Phase II: The Empire strikes back
Phase 2: The Empire strikes back

Lt. Robert Brunner looked out of his periscope. His boat, HMS Terrapin, had been drifting through the Ocean in the hope to get a chance to attack German warships. Originally he should have been in the Pacific, but with the loss of so many ships his boat was needed here. And he didn't like, what he saw. The full German fleet. They were out of range and even if they were chances were very good they would die. Like so many boats, which were lost the months before. But perhaps this was the chance to survive. Then this huge carrier turned. "She wants to recover her planes?" he correctly assumed. Soon the ship was in range. The range was far from being optimal, but he would likely hit the carrier if he fired a full spread of six torpedos on that leviathan. He hesitated for a small moment as he knew he would likely being detected soon after. Still he gave the order to attack. Six torpedoes were fired.

Only moments later the Germans had detected the torpedoes and were looking for him. The frigate Emden launched a helicopter. Indeed Brunner had been luck in that the two Fairey Gannet ASW planes on station had either a damaged engine and could not start while the other had sunk HMS Tally Ho 60 nm in the South East. And the helicopter of Emden was not ready in time. Now it was.

While the helicopter was starting his six fish ran towards their target. Three missed wide, another one could be evaded by manoeuvering the carrier. Two others hit, however. One hit the bow. The damage there was relatively light. The second hit amidships. For a moment the ship's power blacked out. The Deutschland took on a list and wasn't able to recover or launch any planes. Luckily the planes were able to land on the nearest air base on land. Three of them did not make it, the pilots bailing out to be picked up by SAR patrols. One had to ditch shortly before the coast, another made a belly landing on the land and a third pilot bailed out. The Deutschland wasn't in any danger of sinking but could only make 10 kn. She turned towards safer waters

Lt. Brunner transmitted his position and that he had torpedoed a German carrier to his HQ. At this moment a sonar buoy hit the water. He heard a "Ping", soon followed by another one. Then shortly after another "Ping" was heard, which came closer quickly. His last thoughts were with his family when the torpedo exploded after hitting the boat close to the sail. That explosion killed him. Five men managed to escape by the bow torpedo tubes, but only three made it on the surface and only one could be rescued by the Germans. The other ones died of exposure shortly before being rescued.

On Deutschland 68 crew members were killed. The most prominent was Admiral Krause, the commander of the fleet. He died falling from the stairways on the way to bridge by breaking his neck.

On Tirpitz Admiral Ciliax, after the first shock, took over command, announcing via voice traffic: "This is Admiral Otto Ciliax. As you heard Admiral Krause is dead. For the time being I take over command."

He was just ready when other news came in: "Herr Admiral", a young Leutnant reported, "we have incoming ships. Sixty-plus destroyer sized contacts are steaming towards us at great speed."

Phase 3 of the battle had just begun. The battle of the missiles.
 
Chapter II, Part 47: The Battle of Alta, Phase III: Missiles!
Phase 3: Missile Battle

On USS Iowa Admiral Lee cursed. He had lost his carriers. In exchange, one German carrier was in dire straits. He himself would rather retreat than attack. But his orders were clear and strict. He had to attack. So he ordered his 64 old destroyers to attack the enemy. He knew very well that they were no match for the Germans. However, he hoped to use them as decoys. Hopefully the Germans would use their "missiles" or however their rockets were called to sink these old ships. The ships were manned with a rudimentary crew. Every single one oft he men was a volunteer. They knew about "great risks". Thus he ordered to attack the Germans. And there they were, steaming towards the enemy at flank speed.

On Tirpitz Admiral Ciliax was taking stock of he situation. "That is madness!" he thought. "Or a plan. Perhaps a plan that we have to spend all of our missiles on them." he spoke loudly. He spoke more to himself. "Herr Admiral, strong enemy forces are following these destroyers. An E2-C Hawkeye just got them. They are about 100 nm behind."

Ciliax smiled. "I got you." He now knew it was a trap. But he also didn't want to avoid a battle as well. "Leutnant, contact the fleet. The class 122 frigates shall fire their Harpoon missiles at the destroyers. They are still a potential danger. Once this is done they shall with Deutschland. The other frigates are to attack the leading large contact once it is in range. They shall keep their position close to Deutschland as well. The rest of the fleet is to attack in a more classic way."

Soon, 64 Harpoon missiles were fired at the Allied ships. Three of them failed and one was shot down by flak. The other 60 hit. 58 of these ships were damaged to such a degree that they sank at once or were left in a sinking condition. The other two were damaged beyond repair. The commanders of the four surviving destroyers started to rescue the survivors. Rumors of this defeat started to spread in the fleet.

An hour later, at sunset, USS North Carolina, the lead ship of the battleships was hit by 32 Harpoon missiles fired by the Sachsen class frigates and the Baden-Württemberg. The harpoons' pop up manoeuvres enabled tham to attack the relatively weak deck armour. It was the equivalent of 32 500 kg bombs hitting the battleship, which soon took a heavy list and was on fire. Half an hour later the ship capsized and exploded, when the fire reached the magazines. Over 900 men of the crew were lost.

Still Admiral Lee ordered to keep course and attack. On Tirpitz the same orders were given. Phase 4, the classic sea battle, started.
 
Chapter II, Part 48: The Battle of Alta, Phase IV: Das Große Norwegische Schiffeversenken
Phase 4: Gunfight

Both fleets went on interception course. Lee was confident. He had more ships with more guns. He would now have the chance to do his duty. Indeed his plan was succeeding, to his own surprise. The Germans had fired their missiles. So he thought, at least. Now he could meet them head-on. It was dark outside, but that didn't matter. His ships had RADAR. Only mere minutes later a young lieutenant came to the bridge telling RADAR was failing. And it was failing across the whole fleet. They were about thirty nm away from the German fleet according tot he latest report. Lee cursed. It had been too easy until now.

Indeed the German ships had installed RADAR jammers, which were able to block the RADAR frequencies of the US. The German RADAR was not similarly impaired. Additionally they got targeting information by the frigates. Accordingly, the whole German fleet had complete situational awareness.

Lee ordered the destroyers to take the lead and being the eye of the fleet. 50 destroyers were ordered to reconnoiter. Only minutes later, when they had no visual contact with the destroyers, the Germans jammed the USN's radio frequencies as well. Lee cursed once more. He gave the order for the cruisers to attack from the south while the battleships would change to a northerly heading. With this pincer movement he tried to split the German fleet down the middle and to overwhelm them. He assumed the German ships could not use RADAR as well, at least at these distances.

Korvettenkapitän Willi Müller still had his doubts. He was the leading artillery officer of the battleship Tirpitz. He was used to use RADAR, yes, but to such an extent? He had orders to fire blindly, completely trusting the data of Leutnant Lars Kreisler. Kreisler was the man who had developed the target program, even before the navy had seen the need. It had happened purely by chance, as he had tried to program a computer game. This had gotten him notice by the BND and the navy. Only because a soldier had answered him some questions on Facebook. So he was "invited" to join the navy. And there he was. 175 cm, 120 kg and wearing nerd glasses. His twin, Marius, had nearly the same physical stats and was relieved to be able to stay at home. Lars had finished his program and it had been disseminated to the fleet. Today, it would be put to the test, without the benefit of proper testing in a more controlled environment. That this test would be the greatest sea battle since Jutland nobody could have imagined. Lars was calm. He opened a bottle of Coca-Cola, nobody really knew where he had gotten it from, but nobody asked. That would change, if his program didn't work. But then he might no longer be there, anyway. In any case, he drank while sitting at the laptop looking at the data of the enemy fleet.

"Herr Kapitän," he said, "here is the data of the lead ship of the enemy. It looks a lot like a North Carolina class battleship." He started another program and the blueprints of the North Carolina class popped up. With all potential weaknesses. "At least he started to talk like a soldier!" Müller thought. At least he wasn't addressed as "Meister" (Master) any more. This man will never be a good soldier he thought. But who cared about that anyway. He looked at the data. Distance 28.566 m., bearing 315°. That would be the point to target, if he fired now. He gave orders to the effect. Never before a ship could hit another moving ship at these distances with artillery. He looked out of the bridge windows. Of course, nothing could be seen. It was too dark and fog would come soon. After 20 seconds he got notice the guns were reloaded. And he got a new firing solution. "Fire." he said. Yet another 20 seconds later this was repeated. At this moment Bismarck started to fire on her target and yet a moment later Gneisenau joined in.

Captain Cooley on USS Washington cursed. Nearly out of the blue turret B was destroyed by a direct hit. Other heavy impacts straddled the ship. And nobody could see a thing, save some flashes over the horizon. Only 20 seconds later new impacts occurred. This time a near miss caused some flooding. The third salvo again caused two hits. The first destroyed a 5" DP twin turret, but the shell did not explode. The other did start a fire at the stern of the ship. He was under heavy fire but could not detect the enemy. He could see USS South Dakota being under attack as well. And likely USS Indiana. But darkness and fog were too great to say for sure. Soon after he felt another shell hit his ship.

Ten minutes later his ship was burning and listing. The bow gun turrets had been put out of action. Half of the 5" guns were destroyed as well. Finally he had gotten permission to retreat home, when the disaster happened. Three hits occurred, nearly simultaneously. The boiler rooms were put out of action and more water spread into the ship through new leaks. As electricity was now gone the leak pumps could be used only by hand. They were unable to remedy the situation as more water than was pumped out of the ship rushed in through the leaks. USS Washington was a sitting duck However, the enemy ceased firing on them. This didn't matter much as the ship was doomed after yet another leak was discovered, caused by an earlier near miss. Cooley asked the accompanying destroyer to take over the crew. His ship was sinking.

On USS South Dakota it didn't look better. After the first salvos a fire had started, which soon burned out of control. Captain Stillman ordered to fight the fire and to stay in formation. His guns couldn't fire any more, but he would be a target to fire upon. And it seemed the enemy didn't change the target. Nevertheless, the ship soon lost speed and had break from the formation. The ship slipped burning into the night like a huge torch, glowing a dark red. There were no survivors, as no destroyer did try to help the ship's crew. Nobody offered the help nor no one asked for. Likely Captain Stillman and the crew of the bridge were already dead.

USS Indiana was listing to port and tried to counterbalance the flooding with counter-flooding. 32 hits were too much though and she had to be given up.

After USS Washington turned to port Tirpitz ceased to fire on her and switched to the next target, USS Massachusetts. At the distance of over 23.000 m, the shells came in a too steep an angle for the armour belt of 31 cm to matter much. However, that was about to change as the fleets came ever closer. Still there was some time and USS Massachusetts was soon damaged badly by the fire of Tirpitz. Several fires spread and the ammunition magazine for turrets A and B had to be flooded, rendering both turrets useless. The Captain held her in line though to remain as a target and hopefully draw fire away from the undamaged ships. And that did work. After quarter of an hour, just when he arrived the "safe" zone, in which the armour belt could not be penetrated, a flooding occured due to the damage incurred over the course oft he engagement. Speed was reduced to 12 kn so he decided to break away to save his ship. With the lights of the first sun rays his ship would be eventually detected by the Germans and sunk by 70 torpedo bombers.

USS Alabama became the next target of Bismarck once USS South Dakota was a burning wreck drifting away. She was about 26.000 m away when Bismarck started to fire. She was like an amateur boxer taking one heavy blow after the other from a heavyweight pro. Her forward part was burning, her bow was much deeper in the water and A turret had been destroyed. After about 10 minutes a catastrophic hit took place. A shell impacted near the front magazine. It actually was a dud. However, it ripped open the bulkheads between the raging fires and the magazine. Half a minute later the order was given to flood the magazines, but it was too late. The fire reached the dud shell, which caused it to explode. The explosion caused a sympathetic explosion in the forward magazine. The ship exploded most spectacularly and sank within a few minutes.

Up to this moment the Germans had sunk or damaged six enemy battleships without the enemy firing a single shell. However, the sinking of USS Alabama seemed to be a kind of turning point. The wind started to increase, dissolving the dense smoke. Finally the US forces could at least detect the enemy position as they saw the muzzle flashes. Admiral Lee was astonished to see the enemy in such a distance. He ordered his four Iowa class battleships to attack the German ships. They sped up to 33 kn and attacked.

Firing star shells the USN finally could locate the Germans at a distance of about 15.000 m as the fog started to clear. The Germans had stopped the murderous fire, because they had few shells to fire. Most of the 38 cm shells had been spent, also not thinking the enemy would indeed risk more ships. But they did. The impunity zone regarding the armoured belt was about to 18.000 m. So only at 15.000 m distance from Tirpitz the three German battleships restarted their bombardment again, as Gneisenau was in range. USS New Jersey was the only target. In the next five minutes the ship received 41 hits and was settling by the bow. The ship called some destroyers to take over the crew. Soon it would list to port and capsize.

This was the moment the German battleships had no ammunition left. And things got worse. Due to a malfunction the German radio jammers failed to work. The USN could communicate between each other again.

In the meantime the cruisers had joined the battle. The two German pocket battleships targeted the heavy cruisers from a range of 20.000 m. The 300 kg 28 cm shells fired by them could penetrate 180 mm armour at this range. The enemy cruisers had an armour belt of up to 15,2 cm. At first USS New Orleans was the target. She was hit six times within the first two minutes. She was already burning fiercely when another shell hit her and slammed into the front ammunition magazine. The ship exploded. USS Minneapolis was targeted by Admiral Scheer. After receiving her fourth hit she could not hold the line and tried to turn to evade fire. That didn't work. In the next five minutes she was hit by six more shells and had to be abandoned.

USS San Francisco had been the next target of Lützow. After being hit by 9 shells she had to turn due to the damage. She started to roll over to starboard and soon capsized after two more hits. USS Wichita was attacked by Admiral Scheer once USS Minneapolis had been sunk. She was hit by 10 shells before she exploded, when a fire reached her aft magazine.

Due to a misunderstanding both pocket battleships fired on USS Baltimore. In a short time she was hit 12 times and started to sink.

The light cruisers didn't have a much better stand. Here at ranges of 18.000 m the three German heavy cruisers started to fire. USS Birmingham, USS Santa Fe and USS Mobile were all in sinking condition after being hit by at least 12 20,3 cm shells. USS Vincennes, USS Pasadena and USS Springfield followed soon after. Now the German light cruisers started to engage the enemy as well. But due to the fog dissipating the Germans were detected and the US light cruisers started to fire. This became more critical, as the German heavy cruisers had also spent much ammo. However, the USN had here as well problems to find the real distance. But that would not last long.

The German frigates had also problems defending the carrier. 50 enemy destroyers were en route to the damaged carrier. 30 of them were destroyed by the RBS 15 Mk. 3 missiles fired by the German frigates Stuttgart and München. But that didn't stop them. The destroyers of both German DT combat groups were detached but would not come in time. So the frigates went to intercept the enemy fighting it with the 76 mm and 127 mm guns. It was a clash of the escorts. The USN paid dearly, as the German guns were radar guided and fast firing. However, Rheinland-Pfalz, Niedersachsen and Emden were seriously damaged by the guns. And three Fletcher class destroyers could break through to attack the carrier.

Admiral Lee stood still on the bridge of USS Iowa. The USN had paid dearly, but in the end the plan should work. With overwhelming powers the German navy could be beaten. They could replace the losses much sooner than the Germans. Although the losses were horrible. Especially the loss of so many crew members.

Only 5.000 m away the German destroyer ZA-1 Marwitz (ex USS Meredith) was joining the battle. Due to an accident the commander had been injured shortly before the ship should go to Norway with the rest of the fleet. As replacement Fregattenkapitän Hendrik van der Boon was taken. Van der Boon was a former Dutch officer, who lived in Germany with his German wife. When war started he decided to join the German navy. He had accepted the case of defense at once, after Art. 5 of the NATO-chart was activated. He had been about to take command of former Dutch marines, when the accident had happened. So he had the "simple" task to get the destroyer to Norway. There he would be replaced and would finally take the command of the marines.

But the voyage wasn't simple. At first engine problems forced the ship to return to Wilhelmshaven. They had just come to Heligoland! After a few days the problems were solved, but after leaving Trondheim both RADAR and radio broke. He had cursed. The radio last radio message he got was an order for the fleet to leave Alta. In the night he didn't realize at first there was a battle going on- and his ship in the middle o fit. Only when hearing the firing of heavy guns he had realized that something was very wrong. He ordered the ship to battle stations. And cursed again, as his crew wasn't ready for a real battle.

He had no idea where the own forces were nor where the enemy was. He wanted to take a course nearing the Norwegian coast, when his ship passed a fog bank. He was stunned as there an Iowa class battleship was dead ahead only 1.000 m away. He ordered to turn 180° and to fire all torpedoes on this ship. He prayed silently. Of course his ship was challenged to identify but soon recognized as US destroyer. That rapidly changed when he turned and the German flag was recognized. His ship was soon straddled by 12,7 cm shells of the three battleships but could escape into the fog again. He ordered full speed ahead and a zigzag manoeuvre. His was hit four times though. The engines were hit, but could make it a few moments more. Indeed it was enough to save his ship.

While turning his torpedo crew managed to fire four torpedos. Three hit USS Iowa. The Iowa class had a construction fault as the forward magazine is severely vulnerable to underwater hits. One of the torpedos struck in exactly this spot. The ship exploded. Admiral Lee and the crew were killed. There were no survivors. Ironically the USS Iowa was hit by US 21" Mark 15 torpedoes, the ones the destroyer had been captured with. There had simply been no time to exchange the torpedoes. That should have been done at Alta.
 
Chapter II, Part 49: The Battle of Alta, Phase V: The Great Mutiny
Phase 5: The final

The destruction of USS Iowa is considered the beginning of the end of the Battle of Alta. A hundred kilometers away U-461, a former Soviet Juliett class submarine, surfaced and fired 4 P-500 (NATO code SS-N-12) at the battleships. Like huge Panzerfäuste the missiles hit USS Wisconsin. The ship immediately listed to starboard. After half an hour the ship capsized and sank.

The orders of the USN ships were clear: attack at all costs. The losses, however, were so high, that the loss of the commanding admiral and the disruption of the chain of command led to severe problems. As several captains elected to follow the orders, attacking disregarding the losses, the crews started to rebel. The chaos was complete. In some cases commanding officers decided to retreat, in violation of their orders. In other cases the COs decided to attack. That was too much. The Great Mutiny began. Starting on USS Missouri, the last surviving battleship, Captain Callaghan was arrested and the crew raised the white flag. Over radio they surrendered. That also happened on USS Canberra, USS Pittsburgh, USS Biloxi, USS Houston and USS Miami and 15 destroyers as well. USS Wilkes Barre, USS Astoria and USS Reno and 10 destroyers retreated at high speed.

The Germans did not pursue them as they had little heavy ammunition left. Indeed they had spent nearly everything they had. They could not resume the battle anymore and would have been an easy prey, if the USN had attacked. Or if the USN had had more ships. They didn't come out without any problems though. Three frigates were damaged, and one of them, Emden, had to be scuttled. The others were damaged beyond repair. This loss was even worse, as a frigate would be built in years. Also the number of Harpoon missiles spent was high. They couldn't be replaced that easily as well.

The Allied losses were much higher. They, too, couldn't hope for replacement soon after as well. Losing 8 escort carriers, 5 fleet carriers, 3 light carriers, 9 battleships, 5 heavy and 6 light cruisers sunk, additionally three submarines and 121 destroyers, as well as a battleship, 2 heavy, 2 light cruisers and 15 destroyers captured, 45.894 sailors dead or missing, 30.852 men POW and 8.976 men wounded this had become the most bloody sea battle of all times, as the Germans lost 382 men dead or missing and 158 wounded as well. They had lost three frigates and a carrier severely damaged.

With the damage of the carrier Deutschland the German plans for an eventual strike into the Atlantic had been postponed. The Deutschland would not be back in action before nine months had passed, too late to see further action. For the Allies the loss was more dramatic, not only because of the losses in material and men. The route to Murmansk was closed and could not be re-opened in the foreseeable future.
 
USN Fleet Distribution, January 1, 1945
Distribution of US ships by Federal Executive Order No. 9510, December 1st, 1944

Pacific

CV

USS Enterprise
USS Saratoga
USS Exeter
USS Hornet
USS Wasp

CVL


USS Princeton
USS Belleau Wood
USS Cowpens


BB

USS Pennsylvania
USS New Mexico
USS Idaho
USS Mississippi
USS Tennessee
USS California


CA

USS Louisville
USS Portland
USS Indianapolis

CL

USS Nashville
USS Phoenix
USS Boise
USS Honolulu
USS St. Louis
USS Cleveland
USS Columbia
USS Vicksburg
USS Topeka
USS Dayton



Atlantic

CV
USS Intrepid
USS Hankock
USS Bennington



BB
USS Colorado
USS Maryland
USS West Virginia
USS Wyoming
USS New York



CA

USS Pensacola
USS Salt Lake City
USS Chester


CL


USS Astoria
USS Wilkes-Barre
USS Reno
USS Brooklyn
USS Vickburg
USS Montpelier
USS Denver
USS San Diego
USS San Juan
USS Oakland
USS Atlanta
USS Oklahoma City
USS Amsterdam


Training

CV

USS Ranger

CL

USS Savannah
Omaha class

Med:


CVL

USS Independence
USS Monterrey


BC

USS Guam
USS Alaska

CL

USS Duluth
USS Flint
 
Deutsche Marine, 01.01.1945
Berlin, December 29th 1944, 20:00:

Geheime Verschlusssache!!!

Fleet list of the German Navies

29.12.1944

Kriegsmarine fleet:

BB (7):

Iowa class:

Alta (ex USS Missouri)

Bismarck class

Tirpitz
Bismarck (II)

Scharnhorst class

Gneisenau (with 6 38 cm guns and 20 12,7 cm/45 SK C/41)

Littorio class

Friedrich der Große (ex Impero; 9 38 cm/52 SK C/34 and 20 12,7 cm/45 SK C/41)

Cavour class

Maria Theresia (ex Cavour)

Bretagne class

Tegethoff (ex Provence)

BC (2):

Dunquerque class
Scharnhorst (II) (ex Strasbourg; 6 38 cm/52 SK C/34 and 15 15 cm/60 SK C/25)
Blücher (II) (ex Dunquerque; dito)

PB (2):

Deutschland class

Lützow
Admiral Scheer

PD (2):

Deutschland class
Schleswig-Holstein
Schlesien

CV (3):

Midway class
Deutschland (under repair)
Preußen
Graf Zeppelin

CA (8):

Admiral Hipper class
Admiral Hipper
Prinz Eugen
Seydlitz

Zara class

Von der Tann (ex Gorizia)

Trento class

Radetzky (ex Bolzano)

Baltimore class

Admiral Graf Spee (under repair/refit) (ex USS Quincy II)
Gustav Stresemann (ex USS Canberra)
Friedrich Ebert (ex USS Pittsburgh)


CL (14):

Emden

Nürnberg

K class

Köln

Leipzig

La Gallisionière class

Breslau (ex La Gallisionière)
Stettin (ex Jean de Vienne)

de Ruyter class

Königsberg (II) (ex de Ruyter)

Capitani Romani class

Kolberg (ex Mario; with 8 15 cm/48 TbsK C/36)
Pillau (ex Sulla; dito)

Etna class

Danzig (ex Vesuvio, with 6 15 cm/48 TbsK C/36)
Küstrin (ex Etna, dito)

Cleveland class:

Hannover (ex USS Biloxi)
Kiel (ex USS Houston)
Schwerin (ex USS Miami)


DL (3):

Guépard class
ZF 8 (ex Valmy, 4 15 cm/48 TbsK C/36)

Mogador class
ZF 9 (ex Mogador, 8 15 cm/48 TbsK C/36)
ZF 10 (ex Volta, dito)

DD (57):

Type 1934

Z 4

Type 1934A

Z 5
Z 6
Z 10
Z 14
Z 15

Type 1936

Z 20

Type 1936 A

Z 23
Z 24
Z 25
Z 28
Z 29
Z 30

Type 1936A (Mob)

Z 31
Z 32
Z 33
Z 34
Z 37
Z 38
Z 39

Type 1936B

Z 35
Z 36
Z 43
Z 44
Z 45

Type 1936C (OOC Note: Skippy repaired the ships damages and so they were nearly ready for launching, so that she decided to complete them as well)

Z 46
Z 47

Type 1942

Z 51

Gerard Callenburgh Class (1)

ZH 1 +

Le Hardi class

ZF 11 (ex Le Hardi, 6 12,7 cm/45 SK C/41)
ZF 12 (ex Corsaire; dito)
ZF 13 (ex Epée; dito)
ZF 14 (ex Lanquenet; dito)
ZF 15 (ex Fleuret; dito)

Soldati class

ZIT 1 (ex Corazziere; 4 12,7 cm/45 SK C/41)
TA 33 (ex Squadrista; dito)

Maestrale class

ZIT 2 (ex Maestrale)

Freccia class

TA 31 (ex Dardo)

Navigatori class

TA 44 (ex Antonio Pigafetta)

Turbine class

TA 14 (ex Turbine)

Sella class

TA 15 (ex Crispi)

Beograd class (4 12,7 cm SK C/34)

TA 43 (ex Beograd)

Dubrovnik class (4 12,7 cm SK C/34)

TA 32 (ex Dubrovnik)

Alan M. Sumner class (6)

ZA 1 Marwitz
ZA 2
ZA 3
ZA 4
ZA 5
ZA 6

Fletcher class (10)

ZA 7
ZA 8
ZA 9
ZA 10
ZA 11
ZA 12
ZA 13
ZA 14
ZA 15
ZA 16

Destroyer Escorts (5):

GZA 1(ex HMS Cottismore)
GZA 2(ex HMS Cattistock)

GZA 3(ex HMS Lauderdale)
GZA 4(ex HMS Oakley)

GZA 5(ex HMS Aldenham)

TB (80):

Type 1923

Möwe
Kondor
Falke

Type 1924

Jaguar

Type 1935

T 1
T 2
T 3
T 4
T 5
T 7
T 8
T 9
T 10
T 11
T 12

Type 1937

T 13
T 14
T 16
T 17
T 18
T 19
T 20
T 21

Type 1939

T 22
T 23
T 24
T 28
T 30
T 31
T 32
T 33
T 34
T 35
T 36

Type 1940

T 61
T 63
T 65

Type 1941

T 37
T 38
T 39
T 40
T 41
T 42

le Fier class

TA 1
TA 2

Sleipner class

Löwe
Panther
Leopard
Tiger

enh. Sleipner class

TA 7
TA 8

Pomone class

TA 9 (ex Bombarde)
TA 10 (ex La Pomone)
TA 13 (ex Bayonnaise)

Curtatone class

TA 16 (ex Castelfidardo)
TA 19 (ex Calatafimi)

Palestro class

TA 17 (ex San Martino)
TA 18 (ex Solferino)

Kawakaze class

TA 20 (ex Kawakaze, ex Intrpido)

Indomito class

TA 21 (ex Insidioso)

Pilo class

TA 22 (ex Guiseppe Missori)
TA 35 (ex Guiseppe Dezza)

Ciclone class

TA 23 (ex Impavido)
TA 25 (ex Ardito)
TA 26 (ex Intrpido)

Ariete class

TA 24 (ex Arturo)
TA 27 (ex Auriga)
TA 28 (ex Rigel)
TA 29 (ex Eridano)
TA 30 (ex Dragone)
TA 37 (ex Gladio)
TA 38 (ex Spada)
TA 39 (ex Daga)
TA 40 (ex Pugnale)
TA 41 (ex Lancia)
TA 42 (ex Alabarda)
TA 45 (ex Spica)
TA 46 (ex Fionda)
TA 47 (ex Balestra)

Spica class

TA 49 (ex Lira)

FF (4):

Type Kanonerboten Design 1937
K 1
K 2
K 3

Artevelde class

K 4 Lorelei (ex Artevelde)

FS (26):

Flower class

PA 1
PA 2
PA 3
PA 4

Gabbione class

UJ 202
UJ 205
UJ 206
UJ 207
UJ 208
UJ 2221
UJ 2222
UJ 2223
UJ 2224
UJ 2225
UJ 2226
UJ 2227
UJ 2228
UJ 6081
UJ 6082
UJ 6083
UJ 6084
UJ 6085
UJ 6086
UJ 6087
UJ 6088

Mehrzweckboot (1)

MZ 1

SC (62):

Type XXIII

U 2321- 2371; U 4701- 4712

SS (126):

Type XXI
U 2501-2552; 3001- 3044; 3501- 3530

MB (193):

Type 1935 (47)

M 1 - 4; 7; 9; 10; 12- 23; 25; 27- 38; 81- 85; 102- 104; 131; 132; 151; 154- 155; 201- 206; 251- 256; 254 +

Type 1940 (119)

M 261- 267; 271- 279; 291- 296; 301- 307; 321- 330; 341- 344; 347- 348; 361- 371; 373- 378; 381- 389; 401- 408; 411- 413; 415- 416; 421- 428; 431- 434; 436- 438; 441- 446; 452- 456; 460- 463; 470- 476; 484; 486; 489; 495- 496; 329+, 380+, 438+

Type 1943 (13)

M 601- 607; 801- 806

Type 1916 (14)

M 566; 72; 75; 584; 98; 102; 104; 509; 110; 117; 122; 126; 145; 157+

PF (188):

Type 1933 (7); training only

S 7- 13

Type 1934 (3); fast sub chaser

S 14- 16

Type 1937 (7)

S 18- 22; 24- 25

Type 1939 (8)

S 30; 33; 36; 54; 57; 58; 60; 61

Type 1939/40 (140)

S 26; 28; 39; 40; 42, 45, 47- 52, 62, 64- 69, 72, 76, 79- 86; 89- 92; 95; 97- 101; 103; 105; 107- 110; 112- 118; 120; 122- 123; 127; 130- 133; 135- 136; 138- 140; 142- 146; 148- 150; 167- 184; 185- 231*; 301- 305*; 701- 709*

Type MAS (7)

S 501-507

Type S 1931 export (16)

S 601- 604, 511, 512, 621- 631

Additionally R-Boats

Bundesmarine fleet

DG (1)

Class Z 103B (1)

Mölders

FG (18)

Class F 122 (8)

Bremen
Niedersachsen CTL
Rheinland-Pfalz CTL
Emden +
Köln
Karlsruhe
Augsburg
Lübeck

Class F 123 (4)

Brandenburg
Schleswig-Holstein
Bayern
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

Class F 124 (3)

Sachsen
Hamburg
Hessen

Class F 125 (1)

Baden-Württemberg

Type MEKO A-200 (ex Algerian; 16 RBS 15 Mk. 8; 1 12,7 cm LW; 1 32 cell VLS Umkhonto SAM; 2 3 cm Seahawk Mk. 2 guns; 6 MU 90 ASW TT) (2)

Stuttgart
München

FS (6)

Type Tarantul I (1)

FS Rügen (ex Hans Beimler)

Class K 130 (5)

Braunschweig
Magdeburg
Erfurt
Oldenburg
Ludwigshafen am Rhein

SC (4)

Class U 205 mod. (1)

U 10

Class U 206A (3)

U 15- 17

SS (13):

Class U 212A (6)

U 31- 36

Dolphin class (ex Israeli, 2)

U 37 (ex Tanin)
U 38 (ex Rahav)

Class 209-1500 (ex Egyptian, 2)

U 39- 40

Project 641B Som (ex Soviet; NATO Tango) (1)

U 434 (ex B 515)

Project 651 (ex Soviet; NATO Juliett) (1)

U 461 (ex K 24; ex B 124)

Oberon class (ex British; 1)

U 41 (ex HMS Otus)

PG (10)

Class S 143A (10)

S 71 Gepard
S 72 Puma
S 73 Hermelin
S 74 Nerz
S 75 Zobel
S 76 Frettchen
S 77 Dachs
S 78 Ozelot
S 79 Wiesel
S 80 Hyäne

MB (20)

Class M 332 (8)

Fulda
Weilheim
Sulzbach-Rosenberg
Bad Bevensen
Grömitz
Dillingen
Datteln
Homburg

Class M 332B (Minentaucher; 2)

Bad Rappenau
Rottweil

Class M 333 (5)

Kulmbach
Überherrn
Herten
Laboe
Passau

Class M 352 (5)

Ensdorf
Auerbach/Oberpfalz
Hameln
Pegnitz
Siegburg

This list includes the museum ships. The Kriegsmarine Uboats of the types II, VII and IX are excluded.

(II) means ships renamed after a ship lost in the war.

+ ship sunk
CTL Constructive Total Loss
 
Chapter II, Part 50: Operation Boulogne
Operation Boulogne, November 6th 1944:

Operation Boulogne was planned as a series of German air strikes meant to put a decisive end to the war, pushing the American public to withdraw their support for Roosevelt´s war strategy and damaging his chances at re-election while also severely diminishing American war making potential. The operation itself consisted of several air strikes at targets in North and Central America. As all of the modern Tornado jet were all deployed at the Eastern front they – as well as five MPA 350 Tiamat MPA and all available Me 264 – were rerouted to Brest which was to be the base of the operation. Six Tornados and several MiG 29 and Me 262 were used to secure the base against any Allied attempt at disrupting the operation.

The strike therefore consisted of the remaining six Tornados, twenty-seven Me 264 and five MPA 350 Tiamat MPA planes, the latter of which had been dubbed "Devil of the Atlantic" by Churchill himself for the many losses of warships and merchant vessels they had inflicted on the Allies. To fuel all those planes, they were accompanied by four A310 MRTT and 2 A330 MRTT.

The strike force was to attack five different locations, the first of which was the Chalk River and Montreal Laboratories in Canada, which where utterly annihilated by the six TAURUS cruise missiles that had been fired at each target. The air forces stationed in Canada only managed to respond when the Tornados had already left Canadian air space.

The success of this attack managed to severely set back the Manhattan project as the people behind it decided to rebuild the whole infrastructure anew at new sites as all existing ones were considered compromised due to German intelligence. This, of course, required more resources and time as just using existing infrastructure would have as new factories and laboratories had to be built from scratch. The level of secrecy was high but also in vain as German satellites were soon able to pick u the suspicious activities in remote areas anyway.

The second target were the locks of the Panama Canal. Being over eight thousand kilometres away, the only planes able to reach the location was the MPA 350 Tiamat which needed to be refuelled for the task. Flying to the closest point within shooting range a single MPA 350 Tiamat launched all of its sixteen Pilum bombs which managed to destroy the locks and two ships that had been near them, rendering the canal unusable for much of the year. While interceptors were able to launch in time they were unable to stop the attack as they were unable to reach the necessary altitude to effectively combat the German strike force.

Third target on the German list were the oil refineries around Galveston Bay and in Louisiana. Two Tiamat were attacking the respective sites, effectively destroying oil worth many million Dollars. Here, too, the air defence was too late to get off the ground to be of any use.

The fourth target was the Philadelphia Navy Yard. The 16 Pilum bombs managed to destroy the whole facility, amongst others the nearly completed USS Antietam, the USS Valley Forge, USS Los Angeles and USS Chicago.

All of these attacks were hard blows to the US war economy, yet it was the fifth attack that was supposed to break the spirit of the American people. The target: New York City. The first wave of attacks hit the Brooklyn Navy Yard, destroying the USS Kearsarge, USS Oriskany, USS Reprisal, USS Coral Sea and USS Hawaii. While the yard may have been destroyed, the greatest damage, though, was the destruction of the water pipes underneath it which should proof itself fatal in the coming hours.

Half an hour later the Germans struck again: Twenty-seven strategic bombers of the Luftwaffe, each armed with six GBU-16 laser guided bombs, started to attack harbour facilities and ships all over the city. Ammunition stocks and transports meant for the European theatre, oil tanks and warehouse were set ablaze, exploding and taking with them their surrounding buildings. Oil leaking all over the affected areas spread the fire to locations that had been spared during the attacks as well.

Aggravating the situation further was the fact that due to the previously damaged water pipes the firefighters were unable to effectively combat the fires all over New York as the water pressure was too low, meaning that the fires could ravage nearly undisturbed. At the end of the night 12,814 people had died, over forty merchant vessels, four carries and a battle cruiser currently in the process of being built destroyed.

The psychological effect of these attacks on the American population was profound, but not in the way the German planers of the attack had hoped. While the attacks had destroyed the century old illusion of invincibility that America had until now enjoyed, it united the people behind President Roosevelt who gave a historical speech shortly after the attacks, promising to extract revenge for this "Night of Terror" or as others called it "Night of Infamy". He would win the next election by a wide margin.

To calm the upset citizens, the USAAF command promised to restructure the defence of the East Coast while also calling back some units back to the homeland to show presence. New York Harbour was partly out of commission for three months, Brooklyn Navy Yard for six while the Panama Canal was impassable for a whole year and the refinery capabilities nearly halved.
 
Chapter II, Part 51: Elections
Washington, White House November 8th 1944, 08:45:

Elliot Roosevelt entered the Oval Office where his father, his mother, his brother Franklin D. jr., J. Edgar Hoover, Henry Morgenthau, General of the Army George C. Marshal and James V. Forrestal, secretary of the navy were already waiting for him.

"The last results were just published. Mr. President, congratulations, you´ve been re-elected." he said, his voice full of pride.

"Thank you, Lord, for answering my prayers," Eleanor Roosevelt proclaimed loudly. The next few minutes was a buzz of people congratulating Roosevelt for being re-elected as president.

"Gentlemen," he finally said when they had all quieted down. "I think we have to thank the Germans for their air strike; without it we might have had a much closer run." In the privacy of his mind he could admit that he probably would have lost the election otherwise.

"Polls show that that the attack is indeed the main reason for your re-election," Hoover confirmed. "The peace faction is currently discredited. However, no one knows how long that will last..."

"Yes, yes, but who cares?" Eleanor interrupted him. "My husband is the old and the new president!"

"Of course, Ma'am." Hoover agreed not without glowering at her. For him the only thing of importance was to keep his position and continue to protect America from all threats possible. He doubted, though, that Roosevelt´s victory would mean that the president could govern totally unopposed for the next four years. He needed to make preparations, should Roosevelt be ousted during his next term.

"It doesn´t matter," Roosevelt interjected, putting an end to their verbal exchange. "We need to go on back to business. James, how on Earth could the Germans attack us without the intelligence apparatus noticing?"

"Sir, we can assume that the Germans would have lost the battle if we had pressed until the end," Forrestal started to explain. "First reports indicate that there was no heavy counter-fire from the battleships and the cruisers had reduced their fire as well. Our destroyers were nearly able to engage the enemy carrier. The loss of USS Wisconsin is probably the worst, though, of all the things that could have happened."

"They´re American soldiers, goddamn! Their sore purpose is to fulfill their oaths. They knew that it was a dangerous mission. The only thing they had to do was to just stand their ground and fight," Roosevelt barked.

"Sir," Marshal intervened, "a soldier may die in battle, that is the harsh truth. But he still must have the hope that he might be able to come back. There are quite a few men who might be willing to be sent on, erm, special missions. A whole fleet, though, is another matter..."

"No, it isn't!" Roosevelt exclaimed, becoming more furious by the second. "It isn't. They are soldiers. They have to obey strict orders."

"Sir, there will be a point at which the morale will break," Marshal added.

"The Soviets can send whole army groups into doom," Roosevelt retorted. "Why is it then, that we as the mightiest nation on Earth, can't send a single fleet into combat?"

"Sir, the Soviets have political officers with them," Marshal pointed out. "A common Soviet saying goes 'You might die on the battlefield, but you will die if you desert."

"The idea is great, even if the execution is a little bit brutish," Eleanor chimed in. "Maybe our troops would be more effective if we were to introduce them as well?"

"We should be careful," Forrestal said, his aghast expression conveying what he wouldn't say to the First Lady´s face. "Congress will never go for it. Political officers don´t go over well with either them or the population."

"What if we re-name them," Morgenthau suggested. "Morale Officers perhaps. Anyway, how they are called isn't important. What they do is."

"And I think we should calm down and try to find another solution," Elliot interrupted the discussion.

"No way!" his mother replied aggressively. "Germany is too great of a danger, we need to destroy them!" Elliot just sighed and looked to his brother for help, but Franklin just shrugged at him helplessly.

"And what if the Soviets make peace?" Franklin jr. asked.

"They won't." Roosevelt replied resolutely. "Stalin had too many losses and is greedy. He won´t give up now."

"However, there is something to consider: Even if the Soviets make peace, we're just about 1.000 km from Berlin. We need to act and we can act," Roosevelt continued. "Marshal, carry on with Operation Capri."

"From Italy to Berlin you not only have to cross 1.000 km held by the enemy but also the Alp mountains. And if the Soviets make peace before we reach Germany proper..." Elliot couldn't finish the sentence, as his father interrupted him again.

"The Soviets won't make peace. We can and we will win."

"I agree, darling." his wife said. "However, I trust Churchill even less than I trust Stalin. The British are weak and with the right insensitive they will fall under the sway of German 'peace'."

"I don´t trust the English, too," Roosevelt agreed. "And I have made some preparation for such a case."

"But what if..." Franklin jr. was interrupted again by his father.

"If, if, if," the president barked. "We will win. This attack was a sign of the Lord. Our miracle. We'll win. Even if we have to destroy Germany."

"Still we need to make some adjustments, sir," Marshal interjected. "We need to switch off electricity in the Atlantic cities at night and we need to restructure the Manhattan Project as well."

"Yes, I agree." Forrestal said. "Also I don´t know how long we can keep up with our war economy. People are already grumbling about everything going towards the army..."

"It´ll be kept up as long as it's needed," Eleanor interrupted him. "The Germans seem to be doing fine with their economy. You aren´t so unpatriotic so suggest that the United States won´t be able to keep up with some European backwater, are you?"

She´s completely delusional, Hoover realised. There would be severe upheavals in the US economy if the war continued for much longer, every smart person could see that. Anyway, Hoover would remain silent. Later he should talk to Forrestal and Marshal, though, to prepare for the time when they needed to leave the sinking ship.
 
Chapter II, Part 52: Thoughts of a Left
Hamburg, November 6th, 18:52:

Spiegel Online Website

S.P.O.N. – If in doubt to the left

by Jakob Augstein


Déjà vu

A déjà vu is defined as the illusion of remembering scenes and events when experienced for the first time. Several months back, I tried to warn of this moment and like Cassandra my warnings went unheeded. But now the moment has come: Chancellor Merkel is about to make the very same mistake Adenauer made before her. The Nazis can turn their coats and carry on as if nothing had happened. Only appointing Mr. Globke as chief of the chancellery she did not dare, but if she carries on she might as well do it.

We had the chance to change this country. We had the chance to make this land more just. But instead we threw it away. Nazi officials can just swear on the constitution and get their jobs back. Prussia has been resurrected and with it the militarism of the old days that ultimately led to two World Wars and millions of dead. We resumed old naming conventions of our war ships, celebrating dubious figures of our history. We continue to have generals of the Wehrmacht leading forces, forces engaged in the very same war of aggression started by the Nazis. We are continuing World War Two!

A change is needed. A change we must enact. Not making the same mistakes we know are mistakes from painful lessons history has taught us. Half a year ago we got the chance to start over again: To make a social, peaceful and equal Germany. Slowly but surely this chance is vanishing in front of our eyes, never to come again. And who is the vanquisher of that dream? Our very own Chancellor Merkel, who has done nothing.

Instead she trudges along the same old path again; a path, which led us into World War II. A path, which led us into doom. Merkel is the wrong person to lead German in these tumultuous times. But what is even worse is the SPD is supporting her! They are complicit in committing the very same mistakes. A former membership in the NSDAP is not per se a reason to be denied party membership any longer! While I agree that there are few cases in which this would be acceptable the volume of new members the SPD is receiving speaks for itself. An even greater betrayal, though, is the fact that the SPD refused to nationalise the corporations of the industrialists who helped Hitler fuel his war machinery. The IG Farben may have been dissolved, but instead of the state, its parts were restored to its former owners. Citizens peacefully protesting against such decisions are put into prison and forced to work against their will.

And the war? A chancellor committed to her promise of seeking peace would have stopped it by now. If Chancellor Merkel wanted peace, there would be peace. But when I woke up today we still led this war. We still fight on. The lie that this war is a defensive one, should be destroyed. Maybe in the beginning it was, but it hasn't been for months. Now it´s an aggressive one. A war to conquer land.

We need to resist against a war that has already destroyed this country once. We need to resist, because otherwise there might be nothing left to rebuild anymore.
 
Chapter II, Part 53: Cutting Losses
London, bunker of the British government, November 7th, 06:50:

Winston Churchill sat on his chair at the desk of his office. He looked at the whisky in the carafe in front of him. He was deep in thoughts, when Secretary of State of War Percy Grigg knocked on his door.

Churchill looked at him. Without greeting the prime minister of the Empire asked: "Are the rumours and the German figures true?"

"Yes, sir," Grigg answered bluntly. "The exact figures are even worse. We lost..."

"I don´t want to know it," Churchill interrupted harshly. "I have one simple question: Can we defend Britain in case of a new BoB or an invasion?"

Grigg sighed defeatedly.

"I see," Churchill replied without emotion in his voice. Grigg's expression was enough to know the answer. If Russia was knocked out of the war, the answer would be 'No'. Churchill had had this discussion before. If Russia managed to fight on, well, Germany might still win. He looked at the bottle again, but he refrained from filling up his glass again.

"Thank you," he dismissed Grigg. Churchill then asked his assistant to get Anthony Eden for him.

The man arrived only a few minutes later.

"It is over, Anthony," Churchill opened without preamble.

"Are you drunk again?" Eden raised his eyebrows at him.

"No, I never was soberer as I am now," Churchill replied. "Since yesterday I haven´t drunk anything but water." Churchill looked at the bottle. "No, it is truly over. We should negotiate with the Germans, as long as we still have some leverage to negotiate with. Who knows how tomorrow is going to be like…" He sighed.

Eden took a breath, looked down on the floor and then again to Churchill. "I hate that I cannot refute you."

"I want you to select a trustworthy man to go to Lisbon," Churchill told him while he started to write a letter. "I want him to get this to the German embassy there. Absolutely discretely. We need to negotiate a peace deal."

"And why so secretly?" Eden wanted to know.

"I don't trust Roosevelt," Churchill replied. "I never really did. He holds no love for Britain. If he gets winds of this, who knows what he might do. He might even move against us. We could do nothing against. No-" Churchill sighed again and paused for a moment. "No, we need to make peace to cut our losses."

"Yes, I see. I will do so as soon as possible." Eden said and left the room.

Churchill looked at the Whisky. He didn't open the bottle though. He hoped he had done right.
 
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