“True enough, Corporal. If that is an invitation, it is one I accept. Thank you.”
At eight o’clock precisely, Gisela Jourdan drained the last of the second bottle of Moselle, one that had arrived with the Major.
They had rutted like wild animals until about an hour ago, when the last of four orgasms had sent Kovelskin into a deep sleep.
She had experienced two herself, and was glad her orders had now taken her down this path.
Deciding on a cigarette, instead of toast, for breakfast, Jourdan pondered the recent events.
Everything seemed fine, except for her nagging concern over one small matter.
The man had been offered a choice between his country and his family, and within a few hours, had betrayed his family with very little enticement.
That was a concern she shared when next she reported to the telephone contact known as ‘Captain Logan’, and one that he subsequently shared by a number of people with the OSS.
Europe was in darkness, in some places silent, in others the business of dying continued, although on a smaller scale, as the armies mainly drew back from each other.
Security at the Dutch airfield of Maaldrift was airtight, as the first of the aircraft made its approach.
At the same time as the tones of the ‘Moonlight Sonata’ played centre stage to the entrapment and subversion of Major Kowalski, the arrival of the bombers took place. The music would have been an eminently suitable backing to the arrival of the new aircraft, the latest boost to the Allied arsenal in Europe.
Each one came in alone, each too precious to risk to the vagaries of night air co-operation missions.
Deliberately timed at ten minutes apart, it took nearly two hours for the dozen aircraft to arrive, a further hour for them to be secreted away around the newly refurbished airfield, hidden from prying eyes in secure, but disguised buildings, built for the purpose.
Sergeant Riley, late of the Grenadier Guards, but now serving in a special duty company, grizzled to his comrades.
“I’m fucking cold.”
A Welsh Corporal, Jones, another guardsman on light duties following injuries, could only agree.
“It’s brass monkeys, so it is, Sergeant, brass monkeys!”
Blowing on his hands, Riley watched enviously, as the last of the big planes disappeared into a hillock that wasn’t a hillock, the disguised doors closing on what was obviously a warm interior.
“So what the fuck was the fuss about, eh? Just another load of brylcreams arriving to eat all the fucking bacon, eh?”
Jones spoke with conviction.
“It’s special they are, Sergeant. All silver and huge.”
Riley spat in disgust.
“They all think they’re special, Taff, the fucking lot of ’em.”
“Sergeant.”
The Grenadier guard looked down at the boy, his helmet almost sinking him into the collar of his tunic.
Guardsman Joseph Newton was eighteen and a half, and had not yet experienced any of the horrors that war had to offer.
“Did I not say speak when you are spoken to, Young Joe?”
Riley wondered if he were going soft, but he had a special affection for the young lad, keen as mustard, always with his head in the manuals.
“Sergeant, they are special, honestly.”
Both NCO’s knew better than to argue.
“OK, son, what are they then? Fortresses? Liberators?”
Riley dried up, as he exhausted his knowledge of US four engine bombers.
“No Sergeant. They’re B29’s, and they can fly higher and further than anything else in the world.”
And that night, the first snows of winter fell.
List of figures
Fig #51 – European locations of ‘Stalemate’.
Fig #52 – Junction of Routes 317 & 323, near Wolfegg, Germany.
Fig #53 – Defensive positions, junction of Routes 317 & 323, near Wolfegg, Germany.
Fig #54 – 1000hrs, The Brahmsee Gap, Germany.
Fig #55 – Soviet developing attack on the Brahmsee Gap, Germany.
Fig #56 – The Argen River Crossings, Germany.
Fig #57- Soviet assault on the Argen River, Germany.
Fig #58 – Argen River Assault – Soviet location codenames.
Fig #59 – Soviet developed attack, the Argen River, Germany.
Fig #60 – The situation at 1400hrs, Sittard-Geleen, Holland.
Fig #61 – Soviet Assault developments, Sittard-Geleen, Holland.
Fig #62 – Sittard-Geleen. The Breakout.
Fig #63 – The Locations of Operation Thermopylae, Alsace.
Fig #64 – The Aubach River, south of Ebersheim, Alsace.
Fig #65 – Trap on the Aubach River, south of Ebersheim, Alsace.
Fig #66 – The ambush of Soviet 19th Army, Operation Thermopylae, Alsace.
Fig #67 – The Battleground, Barnstorf, Germany.
Fig #68 – First Assault, Bloody Barnstorf.
Fig #69 – Immolation, Bloody Barnstorf.
Fig #70 – The Allied Nations.
Fig #71 – Rear cover of ‘Stalemate’.
Bibliography
Rosignoli, Guido
The Allied Forces in Italy 1943-45
ISBN 0-7153-92123
Kleinfeld & Tambs, Gerald R & Lewis A
Hitler’s Spanish Legion – The Blue Division in Russia
ISBN 0-9767380-8-2
Delaforce, Patrick
The Black Bull – From Normandy to the Baltic with the 11th Armoured Division
ISBN 0-75370-350-5
Taprell-Dorling, H
Ribbons and Medals
SBN 0-540-07120-X
Pettibone, Charles D
The Organisation and Order of Battle of Militaries in World War II
Volume V – Book B, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
ISBN 978-1-4269-0281-9
Pettibone, Charles D
The Organisation and Order of Battle of Militaries in World War II
Volume V – Book A, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
ISBN 978-1-4269-2551-0
Pettibone, Charles D
The Organisation and Order of Battle of Militaries in World War II
Volume VI – Italy and France, Including the Neutral Conutries of San Marino, Vatican City [Holy See], Andorra and Monaco
ISBN 978-1-4269-4633-2
Pettibone, Charles D
The Organisation and Order of Battle of Militaries in World War II
Volume II – The British Commonwealth
ISBN 978-1-4120-8567-5
Chamberlain & Doyle, Peter & Hilary L
Encyclopedia of German Tanks in World War Two
ISBN 0-85368-202-X
Chamberlain & Ellis, Peter & Chris
British and American Tanks of World War Two
ISBN 0-85368-033-7
Dollinger, Hans
The Decline and fall of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan
ISBN 0-517-013134
Zaloga & Grandsen, Steven J & James
Soviet Tanks and Combat Vehicles of World War Two
ISBN 0-85368-606-8
Hogg, Ian V
The Encyclopedia of Infantry Weapons of World War II
ISBN 0-85368-281-X
Hogg, Ian V
British & American Artillery of World War 2
ISBN 0-85368-242-9
Hogg, Ian V
German Artillery of World War Two
ISBN 0-88254-311-3
Bellis, Malcolm A
Divisions of the British Army 1939-45
ISBN 0-9512126-0-5
Bellis, Malcolm A
Brigades of the British Army 1939-45
ISBN 0-9512126-1-3