“And what of the American battleships, Admiral? The Nevada is doubtless joining her sisters, thus constituting a serious fleet in being.”
To the German command’s dismay, the Nevada had somehow been refueled and rearmed. It was presumed from smuggled supplies and another useless protest would be lodged with the British.
The Nevada had emerged from the night and bulled her way past the destroyers and light cruisers loosely blockading Puget Sound. One destroyer had been sunk and a cruiser damaged with no apparent harm to the Nevada.
“The Americans have three battleships at sea,” said Hipper, “whilst we have ten. I am not concerned about them. In fact, let them come and do battle instead of attacking convoys. They are wretched cowards,” he sniffed.
Hipper exuded confidence, but he couldn’t quite hide his lingering doubts. Even though the American force would be smaller in numbers, it would still be quite formidable. The Bayern was the only German battleship with fifteen-inch guns. The others had twelve-inch batteries, with the exception of the Nassau and Posen, which only had eleven-inch main guns. The three American battleships all had fourteen-inch weapons. The Bayern could sink any one of them, but what if she was attacked by two or by all three?
Hipper had decided that would keep his battleships together so the smaller American force could be overwhelmed. And why the devil hadn’t the kaiser permitted at least one other of the Bayern’s sisters to accompany her, or even some of the lighter battlecruisers that had cost so much and accomplished so little? The majority of the German High Seas Fleet had stayed at home, left to stare at the Royal Navy.
Prudently, Hipper had ordered all convoys to remain in Cam Ranh Bay until the Americans had been destroyed.
Hipper continued. “As I understand it, sir, your attack will be with a degree of urgency. Haven’t the Americans broken through in the south?”
The prince sighed. “They have, but not in great numbers and they are five hundred miles away. I made a mistake, Admiral. I assigned an inexperienced general and an inexperienced regiment to guard the southern approach as replacements for the duplicitous Mexicans. Their commander was ordered to avoid a full battle. He was told to nibble at them as they had nibbled at us in our advance northward. He was to keep between them and their target, whether it was San Diego or the Central Valley. But no, the fool decided to make a heroic stand against a much larger American force. He lost half his men and, fortunately for him, his life. Thank God the senior surviving officer, a major named Rommel, had the presence of mind to continue destroying the railroad tracks as he and the remnants of the regiment fled north. The Yanks will be delayed for some time.”
“A shame, but mistakes do happen,” Hipper said. “Trotha is still cursing himself for letting the Americans escape from Puget Sound.”
“War is imperfect,” the prince said. “After we take San Francisco, I will detach a corps and send it south to squash the Americans before they can bring additional troops. Yes, you may join in the attack on the city. It will occur in only a few days and, yes, the idea of your ships rampaging in San Francisco Bay is intoxicating. I almost wish I could be on the bridge of the Bayern when you blast the Americans.”
Hipper laughed. “Consider yourself invited, sir.”
The prince smiled. “But understand that you may be fog bound when we do attack. You must not take unnecessary risks with the fleet.”
“Trust me, sir. I will be brave, but discreet. If we cannot see the Golden Gate, we will not move. I have absolutely no intention of going down in history as the German admiral who rammed his fleet onto the California coast.”
“When and where?” Ike wondered and Luke had no answer. The American lines ran about fifty miles across from just south of Santa Cruz on the Pacific coast to south of Modesto where they veered north and petered out in the foothills. Each side scouted the other to prevent an end around, but the Germans didn’t seem interested in trying such a maneuver and the Americans lacked the capability to pull it off.
The German works paralleled the American’s and were, on average, a mere mile away from them. There was sniping and patrolling all along the lines. Casualties were light, but this was scant comfort to those who were killed and wounded in the skirmishes. Each side was waiting. The Germans were gathering their strength and the waiting would be over very shortly.
A knock on the door to his office and a burly sergeant stuck his head in, “Got a prisoner for you, sir. General Eisenhower thinks you should talk to him.”
Luke smiled and stood up. “What the general wants, the general gets.”
The prisoner was under guard in a converted conference room. A pair of thuggish goons from the provost marshal’s office glared down at him. They had billy-clubs in their hands and twirled them menacingly. The German was in his very early twenties and looked frightened. A slight, wiry youth, scarcely out of his teens, his eyes darted around the room and at the angry Americans who looked like they wanted to kill him, which was the impression that Luke wanted them to give.
Luke sized up the situation and ordered the others out. Now he would be the good-guy interrogator. He offered the young man water and food. The boy brightened considerably.
“What’s your name, son?”
“Hans, sir, Hans Kessler.”
“And where are you from?”
“Sir, I was born and raised in Innsbruck.”
Luke stiffened. Innsbruck was in Austria and, even though the Austrians had declared war on the United States as dutiful allies of Imperial Germany, the act hadn’t meant much. Austria was a long ways away. Or was it? Had the young Austro-Hungarian emperor, Karl I, been talked into a more active role by the belligerent and domineering kaiser?
A roast beef sandwich arrived along with a couple of cookies and a glass of Coca Cola. Kessler proceeded to devour them as if he was starving. Of course, a healthy young man like him could be desperately hungry in a matter of hours.
“What did you do before you joined the army, Hans?”
“I worked on the mountains with my father and brothers. Sometimes we taught tourists how to ski and sometimes we had to rescue the fools when they got hurt or lost.” He grinned. “Sometimes the women were very grateful.”
Luke laughed along with the prisoner and thought that maybe he wasn’t as young or innocent as he first thought. “Along with skiing, did you do any real mountain climbing?”
Kessler rolled his eyes. “A lot, sir, and that’s why I’m here. I got drafted into the Alpine Corps and then my regiment was sent here. They say we volunteered for it, but I don’t remember volunteering for anything.” He shrugged. “Of course, nobody in any army ever volunteers for anything.”
Ike had found the prisoner’s information intriguing enough to ask for an audience with the two senior military commanders.
Luke summarized the prisoner’s testimony. “In short, he’s a member of an elite Austrian Alpine regiment that’s now in California and listed as volunteers. Their job is to probe the hills and mountains around San Francisco and gather information as well as finding weak points in our defenses.”