In came the six Fritz-X glide bombs, which had much smaller warheads at 320kgs, but they were all armor piercing. Two would splash harmlessly into the sea, sending wild geysers of seawater up into the morning air. One struck the hull of the destroyer Bezposhchadny (Merciless), ripping through to gut the ship with its fire. The fourth hit that same pack of destroyers, moored side by side, and hit the forecastle of Sposobnyi, (Capable), killing everyone on the bridge and striking with such force that it plunged right on into the lower compartments, nearly piercing the bottom hull before it exploded. The destroyer’s sides were ripped open by the blast and it began to sink.
The last two Fritz glide bombs were near misses on the cruiser mooring station, but now the last nine V-1s were falling in eerie silence, their engines cutting out unexpectedly, even though they remained on target as guided by Fafnir above. Down came the black crows, with five smashing into the harbor facilities on land, one striking a main quay, another blasting into a fuel tank farm, a third merely blasting warehouses by the wharves.
Of the last four, two would miss, falling into the bay, but two were on target for the big squat shape of the Sevastopol. The first would strike the forward deck, the heavy warhead easily penetrating the 50mm armor and plunging deep into the ship. The explosion sent raging fires right through the open door to the magazine of the forward turret, and there was another large secondary explosion.
The second, and last V-1, plunged into the sea just four feet from the hull, and the explosion was severe enough to buckle the sides of the battleship and send seawater careening in through three shattered hull plates. It was that first hit that had done the real damage, and within ten minutes, Sevastopol was down at the bow, shipping water and doomed to go nose first into the silt and mud of the harbor bottom. The long column of heavy smoke billowed up into the clear sky, and the crewmen aboard Fafnir cheered with elation.
Now, high above the city, the other three Zeppelins hovered at high altitude. Soon their aft mounted bomb racks opened, and down came a rain of traditional unguided bombs. They might have delivered all of 8000 kilos of bombs, but the 2000kg weight of each of those three V-1s had reduced this final bomb drop to just 2000kg. Yet that was going to send eight 250Kg bombs down from each of the three airships, mostly directed at the harbor area of the city. They had been modified to carry incendiary warheads, and now the whole harbor began to explode with fire, the smoke darkening and thickening as the bombs fell.
It was nowhere near the devastating blow that Japan had delivered at Pearl Harbor, but on that Tuesday morning in the sleepy cold city, it was enough to severely shake the enemy with the shock of what these new weapons could do. The Germans believed they had just announced that turnabout was fair play, unaware that their Soviet enemies had never designed or deployed the devastating naval rockets that had gutted the Graf Zeppelin—at least not in 1943.
So the Germans had the ironic satisfaction of seeing their own aerial Zeppelins deliver vengeance for the carrier that had been named for one of their ancestors. Fafnir, Fraenir, Asgard and Aegir had struck a fateful blow, sinking Sevastopol, damaging the cruiser Chervona Ukraina so badly that it was out of the war, and gutting those two destroyers. Hitler was elated when he got the news that his new wonder weapons had actually worked, and when he was handed photo recon images of the burning harbor, he smiled.
Fat Hermann Goring was at his right arm, his baton tucked under one arm, beaming. Hitler turned to him, a fire in his eyes, as if he was seeing something far away, but now so near that he could grasp it in his right hand.
“Build more,” he said. “Double the production budget for your Zeppelin program immediately. I want all the first twelve to be ready for service by June of this year, and another dozen by year’s end. Do you know what this means, Herr Reichsmarschall? With those Zeppelins I can deliver seventy-two Sturmkrähe to the heart of London like one mailed fist, right in Churchill’s face. If I can do this to one harbor with only four such ships, imagine what two dozen Zeppelins could do to New York! Build them, as fast as you possibly can.”
“I will do so,” said Goring. “But there will be an issue with helium. Our supplies are very limited.”
“Don’t worry about that,” said Hitler. “I am told where we can find all the helium you will ever need, and I have already taken steps to secure it. I intend to redouble efforts to secure the Caucasus, so we will get to Maykop and Baku soon. We already have a rail line linking up to Volkov’s oil production sites near Astrakhan and the Caspian Basin. But now we will take all the rest.”
“All the rest?” Goring raised an eyebrow.
“The oil!” Hitler exclaimed. “That was the whole point of all our Armeegruppe South operations in the first place. I was on to the right idea long ago when I sent troops into Syria, but we were unable to support a large enough force logistically at that time. I have corrected that deficiency. Now I can support Armeegruppe Irak over the improved Turkish rail lines, and we are already positioning troops for the invasion.”
“Syria? Again?”
“Where else? The first units have already assembled at Aleppo. My Brandenburgers put the light garrison there to flight in a half a day, and the city is ours. Now we move south into Syria, and more, we move east to Irak—to Baba Gurgur, where we can get all the helium we require.”
Hitler had his Amerika Bomber, and now he was going after the helium and fuel oil he would need to sustain that Zeppelin fleet. Twenty-four this year, he thought, then we double production again next year. I will burn London, New York, and Boston. My Black Crows can fly, and they will wreak havoc when I let them loose over those American cities. They want war with Germany? I will give them one, because there is one more arrow in my quiver that they know nothing about. Yes, that strange ship that Kaiser Wilhelm delivered… and so much more….
Part V
Humbugged
“Napoleon has humbugged me, by God; he has gained twenty-four hours’ march on me!”
Chapter 13
Hitler remembered all too well the long discussion he had with Manstein over Raeder’s plan to move deep into the Middle East. Manstein had laid out all the possibilities, and the logistic difficulties, as well as the countermoves he expected from the enemy, even before Barbarossa was launched.
“If I were the British commander, I would use Cyrenaica as a defensive buffer, and move as many troops against Syria as possible. Once I eliminate the French there, I secure my right flank, effect a conjunction with Turkey, protect the oil in Iraq and Iran, and open all those lines of communication even into Persia. Where is the largest oil field in the world? Right there in Iraq at Baba Gurgur near Kirkuk. That is what the British wish to hold, or at the very least deny us access. Where else can Britain operate? They certainly won’t invade Portugal any time soon, or attempt any campaign against French West Africa. Your buildup in Libya will prevent them from entering Tripolitania. So they will have no choice but to operate as I describe, and seize Syria and Irak before the notion to do so enters our minds.”