Hammer of God (Kirov Series Book 14) Read Online Free PDF

maintain the secrecy of this small group of confederates, now how could
he convince Churchill not to take the wrong turns in the long war ahead that
could waste time and cost lives. After some discussion of his ship, its operations
in both the Atlantic and Mediterranean, they finally returned to the issue of
Crete, and Fedorov shared the same warning he had given Wavell earlier.
    “All the forces presently at
Crete were reinforced by two full brigades of tough Australian infantry, veterans
of the Greek campaign, yet they could not stop the German attack, and the whole
affair lasted no more than ten days time. The Germans will also be emboldened
by their success at Malta in making this attack.”
    “But might they not be over
emboldened by that same success,” said Churchill? “Isn’t this an opportunity
for us to face down and come to grips with this elite German airborne force,
and put our best troops on the line against it? Breaking it would surely give
the Germans pause, for if we were to yield the island without a fight, the
Germans would turn their glaring eyes on Cyprus next, and from there it is only
one short airborne hop to Palestine.”
    “In that you are correct, sir,
and in the history I know, the forces committed to Crete made the Germans pay a
very high price for the island, so high in fact that Hitler forbade the use of
the airborne divisions in any other similar assault for the duration of the
war.”
    “Then that alone is sufficient
reason for us to do everything possible to defend the place.”
    “You could do so, but without the
guarantee that the Germans would again sustain heavy losses. I must tell you
now that we are not the only men that may be tampering with the course of these
events. There are others, and one other man is of the gravest concern. While we
stand here with you, he has instead chosen to ally himself with Hitler and his
Nazi regime, and may be advising the Germans even as I offer this foresight in
your planning. I am speaking of Ivan Volkov, and what I will tell you now will
be every bit as shocking as the presence of General Kinlan’s brigade in this
distant desert outpost.”
    “Ivan Volkov? My God,” said
Churchill. “Is anyone else coming to dinner? Out with it man, I want to hear
everything you have to say.”

 
     
    Part II
     
    Uncertainty
     
     
     
    “Certainty about
prediction is an illusion. One thing that history keeps teaching us is that the
future is full of surprises and outwits all our certitudes.”

Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
     

 
    Chapter 4
     
    The door opened slowly and
he entered, the dark shiny band of his hat catching the light as he strode
boldly forward. The click of his boots on the hard wood floor echoed a
confidence that also stiffened his posture, and hardened the lines of his
shoulders. At his side he carried a ceremonial baton, with a jeweled handle of
the finest leather and a metal tip. His uniform was immaculate, charcoal grey
trimmed in black, and his breast was gilded with the gold and silver of medals.
    He was born in the heart of the
capital, Berlin, Fritz Erich Georg Eduard von Lewinski, the son of a Prussian
general, but raised more by his aunt than his own parents. Unable to have
children, she had all but adopted the young Fritz Erich as her own son, even to
the point of giving him the name she had borrowed from another Prussian general
when she married Georg von Manstein. And so the man who might have grown up to
be General Lewinski, instead was christened General Erich von Manstein, and he
soon distinguished himself as one of the most able and capable generals in the
German Army.
    The son of two generals served in
the first war, taking part in the capture of the citadel of Namur, being
wounded at the battle of the Masurian Lakes, and later was at Verdun and the
Somme. He was so talented that he was one of the select group of only 4000
officers the German Army was permitted to retain after the First World War.
When Heintz Guderian