“I think I agree with George,” Bradley said. His army had been slowly moving up through the more formidable defenses above the Niagara River, and now was approaching the city of Hamilton, on Lake Ontario. “We now outnumber them in all areas. If they weren’t such good and tenacious fighters, we would have crushed them a long time ago. As it is, George now has room to maneuver and should do it.”
Ike nodded. Patton did have room to maneuver. Bradley was still more or less constrained by the lake to his right, which left a relatively narrow front. He thought he knew what his generals were planning.
Ike smiled and lit a cigarette from the one that was down to a glowing ash. “Let me guess, George, you want Brad to exert all the pressure he can against the krauts fronting him while you do the same with yours. Then you’ll launch an attack on their right flank and try to get in their rear.”
Patton grinned. “Right, and then then they’ll turn their flank and extend their lines to cover us, weakening them badly. Maybe they’ll even have to take units from in front of Brad to keep from falling apart. Either way, we win. When they’re stretched thin enough, we’ll attack in overwhelming force and they’ll collapse. It’s worked before. If I remember my history, Grant did it to Lee outside of Petersburg and Richmond. Just like Lee, the Germans will reach a point where they’ll be too weak to defend everything.”
“And it ended the Civil War,” Bradley added just a little gratuitously. Ike didn’t need the history lesson.
“When can you launch your end run?” he asked. Bradley was already exerting all the pressure he could, so the possible final move would be up to Patton.
“Tomorrow,” he responded. “I’ve been positioning my boys for a couple of weeks now.”
Ike grinned. “Bastard.”
The meeting broke up. Patton and Bradley left to fly to their respective commands. Ike got on the radio to Marshall who was very pleased. Roosevelt, he said, had been taking all kinds of grief from the Canadian government in Ottawa to stop destroying Ontario. The Canadians were wondering if it was necessary to destroy Canada in order to save it. While efforts had been made to limit bombing to military targets, too many of those were located in civilian areas. Also, when the Germans took a stand in or near a town, that town was invariably obliterated. The Canadian people were utterly shocked by the devastation that was being wreaked upon their land. Some were blaming the US, arguing that the response to the German attacks on the US should not have been so massive.
Neumann could read maps as well as the next man, and it was apparent to him that the Americans were going to continue their attacks until the over-extended German lines collapsed. Thus, it was time to play his trump card, his prisoners.
Altogether he had a little more than three thousand of them, both civilian and military. Moving them would take hundreds of trucks and he didn’t have more than a few score. He’d broached the topic to Guderian and been told that the military had priority over any vehicles, and that he could solve his own problem if he wanted to move the prisoners. Neumann had argued the point to no avail. Even invoking Hitler’s name had changed nothing. Hitler was a world away in Berlin, while Guderian was surrounded by Americans in North America.
Guderian had ordered Neumann to not harm the prisoners. Neumann had agreed, but his promise was a lie. He reported to a higher authority, Himmler and Hitler, and would not be ordered around by a mere field marshal. The survival of the Reich in North America was at stake.
He looked out his office window. It was almost dawn and he was in Toronto. He had a terrible headache that was like a hammer pounding between his eyes. He’d planned on being at either the camps or the farm but instead he’d gone to a party thrown by that Nazi sympathizer from the U.S. State Department, Dylan Wade. The idea had been to bolster the morale of those pro-Germans in Toronto and the party had included influential Canadian civilians who needed to be convinced that the Americans would ultimately fail.
He’d intended to leave early, but he’d been smitten like a school child by a lovely young lady named Sherry. They’d had far too much to drink and, when he’d suggested that they go back to his office for some privacy and some more champagne, she’d agreed.
His office was actually a suite with a cot in a separate room and a private bath. He recalled having some more champagne and kissing her passionately. He also recalled sliding her dress down to her waist and kissing her exquisite breasts while she exposed and fondled his manhood. After that his recollections were dim at best.
Had he fucked her or not, he wondered while his headache continued to pound. Well, he could call her up and ask her if he could only remember her last name. Hell, had she even told him? He’d awakened on the couch in his office and the place had been a mess. He’d first attributed it to their wrestling around on the desk and elsewhere, but now he had a nagging feeling that all was not right.
He called the commandant of the civilian prison and informed him that the prisoners were to be on the road and heading north on foot as soon as possible with the military prisoners right behind them.
“Sir, that’s already been done,” he was told. “A large number of trucks and busses arrived during the night and took them all away.”
“By whose orders?” Neuumann almost screamed.
The commandant was puzzled and stammered his reply. “Your orders, sir. It was on your stationery and had your signature. We were ordered to hurry and we did. They were escorted by Canadian civilians and police. The last of them left a couple of hours ago.”
Chapter Twenty-four
Sherry Piper hugged Sam Lambert with a ferocious intensity. Behind them, the last of the trucks and buses carrying the prisoners from the two camps drove by.
“Tell me it was worth it,” she sobbed.
“We got the prisoners and we got a ton of information from that snake’s office, Sherry. Yeah, it was worth it.”
At least he hoped it was. He’d gotten from Sherry the fact that the bastard had passed out before he could consummate the deed, but he knew that she’d been pawed and undressed by the man who was responsible for both her rape and her brother’s death.
“I could have killed him, but I just couldn’t do it. He killed my brother and so many others, but I couldn’t bring myself to take his life.”
“Just as well,” Sam said gently. “It would have haunted you forever.”
She’d been through enough. He didn’t think she was the type who could savor bloody vengeance. She had been brave beyond words, but there was a point beyond which she couldn’t handle things, and killing a sleeping Neumann was one. Neumann would get to live for a while longer.
She thought she had put enough knock-out drops in his drink to kill a horse, but obviously she was wrong. When he finally passed out, she just stood above him for a few moments, half naked and in shock. She’d finally gathered her wits, straightened her clothes, and gotten Tinker into the room to steal anything that looked important. While he did that, Sherry found Neumann’s stationery and typed out an order sending the prisoners on their way. She had no idea what Neumann’s signature looked like, but figured that the prison guards didn’t either.
A few yards away from them and out of earshot, Grant watched as the last vehicle passed by. The military prisoners had cheered, while the civilians showed a range of emotions. Basically, they were still scared.
“What now?” asked Landry.
Damn good question, Tom thought. He’d always wanted an independent command, and now he had one. But what the hell had he inherited? He had Landry’s small company of Rangers as a core, but the next best unit was Lambert’s detachment of police from Toronto and other local communities. He had several hundred Canadian volunteers from the reserve units in the area and he felt that they might give a good account of themselves when the Germans who had to be chasing the prisoners showed up. Many of them had served in the First World War, which was both a benefit and a curse. They had combat experience, but now, more than twenty years later, many were long in the tooth and out of shape.