“Appendix ‘A’ deals with naval allocations and, as such, is of limited interests to us, except to say that Diaspora is doing exactly what we hoped and more so.”
Chuikov, the roughest by nature of the gathered Commanders, speed-read and gave vent to his surprise.
“Govno!”
“I think you will find I am correct Comrade Colonel-General.”
There was a general ripple of laughter, especially as Marshall Zhukov was rarely given to public displays of humour.
Chuikov started to rise to his feet.
“Apologies Comrade, I was just surprised by this,” he indicated Appendix ‘B’.
Zhukov gestured the man back down into his seat, knowing that Chuikov may well be rough by nature, but he had stood his ground when no other had stood, Hero of the Mamayev Kurgan in Stalingrad.
He liked the man immensely.
“I think Comrade Chuikov expresses it well. The list of units they are sending to China will definitely inconvenience Vasilevsky but is undoubtedly of advantage to us.”
There was no intended humour in that and, in any case, Rokossovsky stood requiring the floor.
“Comrade Zhukov, is this information accurate? Has it been tested?”
The man, never given to excessive verbiage, resumed his seat.
Zhukov nodded accepting the sensible question.
“Comrade General Pekunin has received this through his own agents and assures the General Secretary of its factual nature.”
A small rumble of positive noises needed to be quelled before he could press on.
“In fairness, our beloved Marshall Beria,” such talk was safe amongst Military men, even Konev, “Has not been able to verify this list, but then you wouldn’t expect him to would you?”
The rivalry between GRU and NKVD was the stuff of legend.
“I think we must look at this report with a view to believing it to be true. After all, Pekunin’s lot have done well for us so far.”
Chuikov stood and was given the floor by Zhukov.
“I note from this list that a number of formations that we anticipated would be deployed in my area of operations are no longer slated for Europe. If this second phase of our attack proceeds as we have planned, then the front opposite me will be weakened by the Allied movement’s we anticipate into Southern Germany and Austria.”
That was window dressing for his next question, nay statement.
“In that case, are we planning to initiate phase three earlier and also proceed with the Iberian option?”
Holding out his palms in surrender, Zhukov cut straight in before others could get a word in.
“Wait Comrade. I appreciate your aggressive intent but we cannot yet be sure what assets the Allies will move from Italy northwards when we unleash our armies. Let us not get ahead of ourselves.”
Zhukov paused.
“And while we are on the subject, NKVD seems to feel that the Spanish change of position will be of little effect, a view I am inclined to agree with.”
There was no contrary view put forward, although there certainly would have been had Nazarbayeva’s report been to hand.
Indicating the next covered area on the rear wall Zhukov stepped aside as the orderly repeated his unveiling.
“This is the situation you are all aware of.”
Sitting down he gave the floor to his deputy Malinin who stepped forward, ready armed with long handled pointer.
“Comrades, our progress has, for the main part, been less than we would have hoped. However the purpose has been served and served well.”
As he started speaking, another staff officer was distributing the latest figures on losses and strengths.
“I cannot recall the figures from memory but you will see that overall we are not suffering casualties as we expected, either in manpower or equipment.”
Clearing his throat, he added a cautionary note.
“Except for air, where the losses have been murderous. Operation Kurgan was a brilliant success and their ground attack assets were decimated. Huge casualties were inflicted upon their command and control facilities, as well as their early-warning sites.”
He noted that the officers were all consuming the figures in front of them so paused to draw their attention back to him.
“The air regiments have suffered grievous loss in maintaining our command of the daylight airspace, for that IS what we have Comrades. Night time is a different matter, and as you will all know, we are suffering problems with logistics because of deep penetration heavy bomber raids on rail and bridge facilities.”
He added as evenly as he could.
“I have no need to remind you of that problem Comrades.”
Konev choked silently on a piece of chewy ham and Malinin took advantage of the respite to swallow some water.
“Our night capabilities are greatly eroded; fighter squadrons have been reduced to well below 50% strength in the vast majority of cases, night-bombers…”
Night Bombers; well they all knew that story.
“The Comrade General Secretary has ordered a review of our night air provisions as a matter of urgency.”
That this review was not to be conducted by the commander of Soviet Air Forces Europe was because the man was already in his grave, a result of a visitation from an NKVD squad.
“On the ground we are looking extremely healthy.”
Slapping the pointer against Denmark, he started his full brief.
“The Germans have two divisions, their former garrison troops, sat opposite our forces in Denmark. No aggression, except patrolling. No problem for us, although note that the Fascists went over in record time, and as complete unit’s.”
That was a monkey on everyone’s back.
“Comrade’s Beria and Pekunin have means to ensure that such cooperation between the Fascists and the allies will not be so smooth elsewhere, and will in fact further undermine their capability and capacity to fight.”
No one asked because they all knew Malinin didn’t know either.
“The purpose of our controlled, broad front attack was to draw enemy forces into disposition as early as possible and to conceal our intentions as best we could.”
“It was also felt that it was important to permit Diaspora to get underway and affect Allied strategic thinking before we showed our complete hand.
Everyone there knew that and not everyone had agreed with it. However.
“This seems to have worked exactly as was planned, as can be witnessed by the document Comrade Marshall Zhukov has just discussed with you.” Not so much of a discussion they all thought, but the list was impressive none the less, and if those soldiers were going to the land of the slant-eyes instead of Europe then that was all the better for them.
“Our attacks on their command and control were not as successful as we were first told. We discovered this very morning that Montgomery is actually alive, but incapacitated. The other major players we did not hurt. Losses amongst our paratroopers and special personnel were extreme, as we expected.”
Wishing to be upbeat, he ventured into an area initially of little concern to the military minds there.
“The Zilant operation was wholly successful, with the four locations purged as was hoped. Not of great significance for us of course but with the bonus of many dead experienced allied officers, including some Corps and Divisional commanders of key American and British units.”
There was no point in mentioning casualties.
“The Allies in defence are quite stubborn, although some units are better than others. Intelligence officers in your respective headquarters have compiled a list of fighting qualities based on combat reports, and in general those divisions which arrived in Europe within the last six months of the fighting tend to be less capable than those who arrived before.”
“In general, it was how we were expecting. The Americans are more aggressive than their British Allies, but generally not as competent in the attack, making many basic errors that have been punished by our forces.”