“We're also trying to get the local farmers to stand on their own feet, that's a tough one because they've had the spirit hammered out of them. They don't even complain and when farmers don't complain, that's a real problem. The criminal thing is the soil here is rich, this area should be a rice bowl. Now, with hard work, we can get it back to the 14th century. The government is sending a mass of aid through various agencies, fertilizer and farm equipment, seed, livestock, investment money. That's a lot of wealth going through a poor area. My guess is that much of the stuff coming in is going astray. Lot of petty banditry and the odd truck hijacking around here?”
Songkitti nodded. “Exactly so. We have some troops here we are using as guards for truck convoys. You'll need to work out some schedules and a better system of truck convoying.”
“Troops sir, that brings us to the external problem. The Japanese. They never liked it when we took everything west of the Mekong and they don't like it now. They tried to call an early end to the war white we were still within sight of our own border and when the King's Ambassador refused, they didn't like that. They tried to force us to stop and they didn't like it when she beat them. Now, their China campaign is winding down, they must be thinking of how much they don't like us. Sir, when I was given the tour around here yesterday, the border troops looked awfully thin.”
Songkitti sighed. This Lieutenant had spotted it right away. Man or woman, Chulachomklao turned them out well. “Lieutenant, I have two infantry divisions, the 9th and the 11th, scattered all over the recovered provinces. From the South China Sea to the Lao highlands. I can spread them along the border and what will that achieve?”
“Nothing Sir, They'll be spread too thin. Defeated in detail.”
“Very good. So, they have to be held back as a counter-attack force. But that leaves the border almost bare. Smugglers' paradise of course. The border defenses have to buy time until we can concentrate 9th and 11th, then organize a counter-attack. All that's along there to do that are the villagers, we've distributed arms of course. The old-fashioned Type 45 rifles and other stuff we had before we re-equipped with German arms. And the stuff we took from the French, Mostly Berthier rifles and Chauchat machine-guns. No heavy stuff, the villagers couldn't use it even if we gave it to them. And there are Border Patrol Police mobile units.”
“Mobile units Sir?”
“On bicycles.” Songkitti looked embarrassed. An old military principle. If a unit had nothing to fight with, give them a flamboyant name. “I doubt if they can hold more than a few hours at most.
“So another thing I want you to do. The roads here run back to the Tonle Sap and Battambang. If the Japanese break through and get onto those they can overrun our whole position. Leaves the roads to Bangkok wide open and all that's there to stop them are the two Cavalry divisions in the strategic reserve. I want you to make up a plan to block the roads around here. We have landmines, some ours, some we captured from the French. How many, we don't know, its never been inventoried. Find out. And try to work out how we can commandeer trucks to turn into roadblocks. That's enough to be going on with. Dismissed.”
Sirisoon went back to her office and rejoined the effort to restore some semblance of order to the Army's administration. Hours later, she returned to her quarters for some sleep. On her mind was the thin line of Border Patrol Police and armed villagers along the border with Japanese Indochina. Before sleeping, she took her Mauser out of its rack on the wall and carefully cleaned it.
HMS Xena, At Sea, Off Jutland
Despite the fact that Xena had never been out of the North Sea since she'd left Rosyth, she had all the appearance of a submarine that had been on patrol too long. Beards were growing unkempt and the food had descended from the monotonous to the indescribably boring. She had spent the last few days probing around the entrance to the Skagerrak and trying to establish the pattern of contamination coming out of the Baltic. They had the answer to that now and it wasn't good.
“No way, Swampy, no way at all I'm taking this boat in there. Baltic's out through the narrows anyway and with the Kiel Canal gone, there's no other way.”
“Robert, the contamination readings are lower than they were around Rotterdam.”
“Agree. They are here. But look at the gradients. The way they rise as we head towards the narrows, we could get into trouble between readings. There's something flushing the muck out of the water and it’s all coming out here.”
“The winter.” Swamphen's voice was thoughtful. “It was a really bad winter, all over Europe and Scandinavia. Worst on record. Snowfall was two or three times the average. The climatologists haven't agreed why yet. Some say it was the bombing, some say just a normal fluctuation. Some say the next ice age is overdue and this is just the first sign of it. That's true by the way, the next ice age is overdue and the global temperature trends all show the planet is cooling. Global cooling is a problem and the bombing may have pushed us over the edge.
“Doesn't change what happened last winter though. A lot of snow, far more than the average, and its all melting. Most of that water goes into the Baltic and its flushing the contamination towards the North Sea. I bet if we go really deep around here, there's a freshwater stream down below that's almost glowing in the dark.”
“Just like the underwater Rhine. Swampy?” Swamphen grimaced, the absence of that phenomenon had been a blow for him. He'd been so sure it was down there. “Anyway, it’s that glowing in the dark bit that's worrying me. I'm starting to be concerned about the effect radiation is having on the pressure hull. Embrittlement and all that.”
Swamphen was surprised by the reference. Most scientists had a picture of Royal Navy officers as being very well educated in their professional sphere but with limited knowledge outside that. It wasn't so, he'd found that out often enough. As a group, they knew a lot about a lot and if they didn't know something, they knew how to find out about it. Swamphen guessed that Fox had been reading up on the effects of radiation on metals. How he'd discovered where to get the information onboard a submarine was a good question.
“It shouldn't be a problem, not at these levels. Look, we've got all these readings from the south of the Skagerrak, how about heading south and west then swinging around and taking readings from the north and west'.' That'll give us an idea of the shape of the contaminated area out here, then we can head for home. We've enough bad news to keep everybody in the vapors for weeks as it is.”
Fox quickly ran through the fuel and food status in his mind. “Very well, we'll do that. We've got another ten days out so we can do this properly and still get home. But, no matter what those readings are. I'm not taking Xena into the Baltic. If anybody goes there, it'll be a surface ship. It’s too hot for a submarine, literally and metaphorically.”
Headquarters, Second Karelian Front, Riga, “The Baltic Gallery”
There were strangers present at today's meeting. That was unusual, unique in fact. Usually it was just him and Rokossovsky. And the Russian aides of course, like the one who had escorted him in, the one wearing her beret on the back of her head. Rommel understood the code now. A woman soldier wearing her beret on the back of her head was a “campaign wife' of a senior officer. If she wore her beret squarely on top of her head, she was unattached - and available.
“Erwin, I would like to introduce you to the representatives of Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Their governments have asked that they be allowed to attend today's meeting since our discussions will affect a large number of their nationals.”