Von Altendorf nodded. This explained certain things he had noticed over the past two days.
Von Brauchitsch then gave von Altendorf another jolt. “He is planning a coup.”
Despite his wish to appear to be having a normal conversation in front of their other colleagues, von Altendorf head jerked around in surprise. This was serious news! He quickly composed himself. He decided nobody had noticed. “Very, very interesting,” was all he said.
“Yes, and very serious. He wants us, and the European Alliance to help him. Not with military intervention or anything clumsy like that. I think he is personally convinced that the Germany of today will not contemplate military adventurism in any form. His plan is much more subtle.
It appears that the Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Armed Forces, Marshall Zhukov, will play a part in the coup, but more of a supporting role than an active one. It will be his job to position certain regiments in Moscow to ensure an orderly transfer of power in the event that Stalin is overthrown. Or dies.
However, Zhukov is also one of those who are viewed with suspicion by the paranoid Stalin. The Marshall needs a sound reason to move his soldiers into Moscow, otherwise Stalin will immediately suspect the worst, denounce him, and make him disappear.
Khruschev wants us and the Alliance to provide him with that reason.”
He sipped the lukewarm coffee the Luftwaffe stewardess brought each of them.
“As you know, the Soviets are extremely sensitive to foreign troop movements close to their border. They almost always regard these as a potential prelude to an attack. If Poland were to hold military exercises close to their border with Soviet occupied Poland, Zhukov would have a perfect excuse to reinforce the Red Army in Eastern Poland. Under normal circumstances, such an event would then alert ourselves and Germany would also take precautionary measures by beefing up our own forces on our Russian border. We would also find it necessary to sound an initial alert to the European Alliance.
This is exactly what the coup plotters want. Once the tension escalates a little, Marshall Zhukov’s precautionary reinforcement of his troops in Moscow would, in Stalin’s view, seem entirely reasonable.
This is, of course, assuming Stalin is in one of his more lucid moments, and he is not having a conversation with God, or Rasputin, or someone from Mars,” he added facetiously.
“Once Zhukov’s troops are in Moscow, Comrade Khrushchev and his supporters would then do whatever they are planning to do, with Stalin. Exactly what that is was not disclosed to me.
Once that part is over with, Zhukov, as a good and loyal soldier of the Soviet Union, will then declare his loyalty to whatever government is seen to be in charge in Moscow.
Thereafter the border tension will de-escalate as rapidly as it grew, with the reason that ‘it was, after all, only Poland exercising its right to hold military excercises in their own country.’
We will then have a Soviet Union without the monster Stalin.” He waited for von Altendorf’s reaction.
The Foreign Minister took a few minutes to mull over what he had heard before he replied.
“It certainly sounds like a feasible plan. It’s like a giant game of chess! There are risks, of course, and I always worry about the law of unintended consequences. Also, I have to ask, are we not better off with devil we know, rather than an unknown quantity such as Khrushchev and co? Personally I have no doubt that Khruschev would be a much more moderate and enlightened ruler than Stalin. But it is still something that should be considered.
Also, if we are to take this risk, we need something concrete from the Soviets as a quid pro quo for our co-operation.”
“Exactly,” von Brauchitsch answered. “Khruschev proposed that following the successful outcome of the ‘game’, there would be a Soviet withdrawal from Eastern Poland. Furthermore, he is prepared to immediately enter into arms limitation talks with us, the Alliance, China and Japan. He doesn’t mind the Americans also being involved as long as they don’t try and take the moral high ground, and they leave their naïve liberal equality thinking at home.
His aim is to free up money normally spent on defence, and spend it on infrastructure and social improvement.
He also seeks closer friendship and increased trade on a preferential basis with Germany. He hinted that ideological change in Russia was not out of the question, given time. Who knows, Werner, a future non-communist Soviet Union might even apply to join the Alliance!” This last sentence was spoken with a great smile.
He carried on.
“I mentioned earlier, a paper he gave me last night. Being a true Russian, he obviously thought that anyone would view his proposal as some sort of subterfuge or trick. That is how a Russian would look at such things. He was desperate to prove his bona fides. The paper he gave me, disclosed the true production numbers of Russian aircraft and tanks over the past two years. And it is far higher than we thought. The same document gave the locations of the secret factories in Siberia where these additional munitions are manufactured. With this information our own intelligence services should be able to uncover something.”
They both reverted to silence while they thought through the ramifications of what had been proposed to them.
Von Altendorf stared up at the aircraft ceiling. His mind a whirl of conflicting thoughts and emotions. While he was filled with trepidation about Germany committing itself to such a potentially dangerous course of action, he also saw the tremendous opportunity it presented.
Before their flight finally landed in Berlin they had both agreed on the way forward.
The first priority was to discuss the matter openly at tomorrow’s scheduled meeting of the Governing Council. No secretaries taking minutes would be allowed to attend, and all present would be reminded of the dire need for absolute secrecy. For now and for many years to come.
If the Council agreed to proceed, it would be recommended to them that the management of the operation be delegated to the Chancellor, the Foreign Minister, and the Defence Minister. This would be a practical measure for ease of operation.
Again, assuming that this was acceptable, the three person operations team would then need to have a highly confidential discussion with Field Marshall Rommel. As Supreme Commander of the European Alliance, he would have to be made aware of the ploy. They were confident Rommel would play his part.
As expected, most of the Governing Council were initially nervous about ‘operation nothing’ as it was named. Beck and Speer, however, were positive and had no hesitation in giving their immediate and enthusiastic support for the idea. The remaining Ministers dutifully also eventually gave their support, but with not quite the same enthusiasm as the others. It was still a unanimous decision.
Later, at different meeting, Field Marshall Rommel had assessed the project instantly. He grasped the pitfalls and the probability of failure or success. He was all for it. The Alliance would play its part.
Now came the delicate part. Persuading the Poles to do their bidding, and hoping that the Polish leadership could keep their collective mouths shut! This was the biggest single worry for von Brauchitsch, and they debated for some hours on how to approach it.
Before any further action was to be initiated, von Brauchitsch had made an arrangement with Khrushchev that the Russian would signal all was ready on his part, by personally unveiling a monument to Soviet workers in the small town of Dubno, eastern Poland. If he was not ready, he would not attend the ceremony.