“We did have that information that a lot of new equipment was moving there. Wasn’t that unit a Panzer Division? Perhaps they mean to flesh it out again.”
“Perhaps…. But didn’t they pull part of Model’s force out and send it south? Didn’t 3rd and 4th Panzer Divisions move right on through Kharkov and continue on south?”
“The last report we have on them puts the two of them at Dnipropetrovsk. That’s been their big refit and replenish base for units they rotate in and out of Army Group South.”
“Yes…” said Turing, thinking.
“This business about Halder being replaced is something new,” said Twinn. “We’ve finally identified the new appointee—it’s Zeitzler. Here’s the file on him.” He handed Turing a plain manila folder with the usual profile, photograph, bio, and noted capabilities based on his past assignments.
“Ah,” said Turing. “He’s a chess player, and he likes to develop early.” He read from the brief: “‘Noted ability to manage and move large mobile formations at the Korps or Army level. Former Chief of Staff for the 1st Panzer Army under von Kleist. Managed the move of German forces through Ardennes region for Case Yellow.’ That was Fall Gelb, the invasion of France. Well, he certainly buggered us good with that one, didn’t he? Then he led 1st Panzer Armee as part of Army Group South, right through the Ukraine to the Black Sea coast. He took Kiev… crossed the Dnieper… ‘Demonstrated exceptional ability to maintain pace of operations and move supply to forward units.’ So the man is a logistical wizard. Yet this new appointment is a bit surprising. Hitler had to pass over Jodl, Kleist and Keitel to hand him the baton at OKW. I don’t like it. Wasn’t Hitler at Kiev last week?”
“We thought as much, but it was never confirmed. They move those armored trains he uses about like they were playing a shell game.”
“I’ll bet he was there,” said Turing. “Because Manstein was there. We know that from that radio intercept we picked apart two weeks ago. I’m willing to bet the two of them had a nice long chat, and now look at all these developments. Peter, the pot is stirring. We’d better grab our bowls and spoons and get a taste before they serve it all up! So that Brandenburg Division went to Odessa…. You might be right. They may be rebuilding it as a Panzer Division again. After all, once you’ve worn a Tux you never feel quite the same in that old tweed coat again.”
“No,” said Twinn, looking over the next page. “Here’s the latest… Lightfoot just tattled that it was being put on the trains again.” That was a code name for a special agent in place. And Twinn’s latest pronouncement raised Turing’s hackles.
“So soon? Then it was no beach party on the Black Sea coast for them after all. I don’t like it. If they moved that unit to Odessa for any other reason, then it’s making a major redeployment, not simply a refit. Now where could they be going….” He reached for a map. “Everything else they move through Odessa either ends up in Greece or Italy. Could they be trying to reinforce their position at Tunis?”
“That’s a far leap, isn’t it?” Twinn suggested.
“Perhaps, but if they take the line through Bucharest to Sofia, then they can get over to the Albanian coast easily, and from there it’s just a short hop to Bari and then just 40 miles overland to all that Italian shipping at Taranto. That gives them a ticket to either Tripoli or Tunis, and a whole lot of trouble for either front when they arrive. You know… This movement of the 15th Infantry Division into the port of Toulon might figure into this. Word is that the Germans have pulled Falschirmjaegers off the line there. That gets me very nervous.”
“They’ve been fighting in Algeria since we chased them away from the Canaries,” said Twinn. “Those cats must be very tired. Perhaps they just need a rest.”
“Perhaps…” The interval of silence after that always meant that Turing was rotating tumblers in his mind, sorting through reams of data that had come through his desk, assessing, analyzing, considering. He looked up at Twinn, a searching expression on his face. “Rolling stock,” he said. “We know where their shipping assets are to enable a move for a big division like the Brandenburgers by sea. Where’s the rolling stock to move it over land?”
“Just a moment….” Twinn went over to his desk. “Here it is… 57 cars out of Vienna through Budapest to Sophia. Another 40 a day later.”
“That’s a big move,” said Turing, “but most everything has been going to Kiev from there. This smells odd, doesn’t it? Why Sophia?”
“Well Alan, you just had the Brandenburgers headed that way in your head a moment ago, didn’t you?”
“Sophia is the hub of a wheel,” said Turing, still working all this out in his mind. “From there they can move to the Albanian coast as I’ve suggested, or south to Athens, southeast to Istanbul or back up through Bucharest to Odessa. Those trains are for the Brandenburgers, that much is clear.”
“Why do you say that?” asked Twinn.
“Because they’ll drop off those bastards at Sophia, then send that stock back to Odessa. They’ll need new rolling stock for them to go anywhere else. So then… We’ll want to get a quiet tweet off to Mockingbird. He’ll solve this puzzle for us, won’t he?”
That was another agent in place in Bulgaria, and they could ask him to verify the movement of the Brandenburgers once and for all—assuming they did go southwest to Sophia as Turing was suggesting.
“Mockingbird,” said Twinn. “Yes I read his file yesterday. Fairly hum drum.”
“Look at it again,” said Turing, his voice climbing a rope as if he were on to something.
Twinn produced the file, and smiled. “My, my, it is hum drum stuff indeed, but not to you, my dear Alan. He says the Orpo showed up in force there at Sophia the day after Christmas.” That was the German’s organic police force, short for the Ordnungspolizei. They often worked in close cooperation with the Army when a big move was underway, particularly in rear areas like this. These units, sometimes called the Grüne Polizei, or ‘Green Police’ because of their uniforms, took on wide ranging responsibilities: highway patrols, escort for high ranking officers and officials, city police, coast watchers, fire brigades, night watchmen, bridge security.
“Yes,” Twinn continued. “Mockingbird says the Greens showed up in force. Lots of Te-No troops, Funkschutz and Bahnshutz men.” The Te-No troops were men from the Technische Nothilfe, translating as ‘Technical Emergency Aid’. It was an engineering Korps over 100,000 strong that was often used for public works, road improvement, and railroad construction. The Funkschutz were troops specializing in radio security for installations and overall transmission integrity. It was also their job to ferret out men like Mockingbird who might be transmitting information to the enemy. The Bahnshutz men were railway police.
Turing nodded, a light dawning in his eyes. “Does he indicate where any of these men went after they arrived at Sophia?”
“Right you are, Turing,” said Twinn, finally pulling on the same rope that Turing had been climbing in his mind these last few minutes. “A few moved into Serbia, and he mentioned the SS Prinz-Eugen Division was getting marching orders there. Others posted to 12th Army—that’s the reserve Army covering Greece, Albania and the Turkish border. It looks like a good many were seen passing through Haskovo. Mockingbird has a lady friend there.”
“I see,” said Turing, overlooking the impropriety. Yet everything he had heard served only to feed a growing sense of alarm in his mind, and now it was accompanied by that feeling of restless anticipation, tinged by trepidation, for he sensed that something very big was underway here, and had been underway for some time, right beneath the noses of men like Mockingbird and Lightfoot. They’d been sending in the pieces of the puzzle, in all those hum drum reports that ended up on the desks of Turing and Twinn for passing review. They were the last sieve in the layered filters that sifted through all this intelligence, and for a very good reason. They connected the dots like few others ever could.