“And Voronezh?”
“Let them have it if they want it,” said Zhukov. “That cauldron we have Model in will be nothing more than a witch’s brew of torment for that army. I will keep pressure on it, but make no effort to liquidate it just yet. What was it Napoleon said? Ah, never interfere with your enemy when he is busy making a mistake.”
“General Zhukov,” said Kirov. “You have already surprised me greatly with this offensive, and it has certainly caused the enemy much grief. I will therefore authorize any transfer of forces you deem necessary, and yes, if you can get back Bryansk or even Kirov, the boost to morale would be invaluable. I commend you on your generalship, and express every confidence in the planning and execution of these offensives in the time that remains this winter. I will also do everything possible to see to this shortfall of supplies, and will send rail repair crews presently in the Leningrad sector to aid in this.”
That easy cooperation between Kirov and Zhukov would now stand in stark contrast to the adversarial relationship between Hitler and his Generals. Zhukov would take his laurels, but he could not help commenting on that count.
“I thank you, Mister General Secretary, “but I must tell you that the enemy had the means to stop this offensive long ago. They simply refused to use it. Perhaps they saw our attack as intending exactly that, interfering with their plans for the new year spring offensive. That was true in part, but they could have stopped us much sooner, and should have.”
“There is discord at OKW,” said Berzin. “My operatives have even learned that several key officers have considered resigning their positions. Thus far none have had the temerity to directly challenge Hitler, and the Führer has not changed his mind about fighting this winter as he did the last. He has reiterated his stand fast order, and specified that no division, anywhere on the front, should be moved without his permission. It seems more than one German General has been pilfering any available reserves they could find. Hitler, himself, has again assumed overall control of daily battlefield operations, and reduced OKW to the level of mere staff officers.”
“That will be the end of them,” said Kirov, for both he and Berzin knew quite well that this had happened once before. The Material they still had was replete with examples.
“Well then,” said Kirov. “Do as you suggest, General Zhukov, but before you leave, let us drink some good champagne and celebrate this new year. It will be our year, our time to take this war to the enemy in a way he might never expect. We have taught him to beware of General Winter, but this year we must learn how to beat them in the spring and summer as well.”
He raised his glass, watching the bubbles in rising from some unseen point at the bottom and making that jubilant journey to the top. Somehow, this effort had convinced him that the darkest hours of the war might be over, even if they were to lose Volgograd one day soon. They would hold on, and as Fedorov had told him decades ago, they could win.
“Gentlemen,” he said with a smile, “to 1943!”
Chapter 36
A good deal would happen on other fronts in those last months of the year, though we will not have time to visit every chapter of this long war. In the Pacific, October and November saw Yamamoto muster his 1st and 2nd Carrier Divisions at Truk, and proceed to the New Hebrides. He arrived too late to prevent another regiment of US Marines from moving from Samoa to Fiji, and by the time he bulled his way east towards the island, the American carriers had withdrawn.
His thinking continued to be dominated by the need for a decisive engagement with the US Navy but it was not to be in late 1942. With Halsey hospitalized, Nimitz pulled his last two fleet carriers out, waiting for the arrival of the Essex. He knew he could not face the Kido Butai again with only Enterprise and Wasp, and would not risk losing those valuable ships. They played cat and mouse, with small raids against Japanese occupied Wake Island, and the Marshalls. They also provided distant cover for convoys bound for Samoa, slipping away before the Japanese could seek to engage them.
It was a case of ‘pick on someone your own size,’ and the last months of 1942 saw the US intervene in French Polynesia, clearing out the last of the French Navy there, occupying the Society Islands, and taking Tahiti for a distant supply base. It was about 2500 miles from Truk to Fiji, a distance that already strained Japanese fleet units to try and maintain a secure supply line. Tahiti was over 4300 miles from Truk, farther away than Pearl Harbor, and so it was simply too far off to consider bothering, and would become a secure rear area base for the Americans.
With carrier superiority in late 1942, Yamamoto was able to keep his troops on Fiji supplied and reinforced, but the US had enough there to hold their enemy in check. A jungle stalemate resulted, with neither side able to push the other off the island, and Nimitz was soon proposing a different plan altogether to begin taking the war to the enemy. Once he built up carrier strength, he would be ready to fight again, and possibly decide the issue in the South Pacific, but that would happen in 1943.
Essex joined the fleet in late October, but spent the last two months of the war learning how to operate in a fast carrier group. By December, Nimitz would receive a few more Christmas presents. Two more in the class were rushing towards completion, the Bon Homme Richard was renamed Yorktown II, and the Cabot was renamed Lexington II. They would both start sea trials in January, hoping to be ready later in that month. With them would come a family of three children, the first being the escort carrier Independence, and then a pair of twins, two more hybrids that had been rushed to completion after the battle in the New Hebrides where Shiloh and Antietam proved their worth.
There had been seven New Orleans Class hulls built out as heavy cruisers, but two more were left in the shipyards as the war broke out. Hull numbers eight and nine, became the Gettysburg and Vicksburg, a concession to the concept of the hybrid scout carrier that could look for enemy forces and allow the fleet carriers to use all their planes in the strike role. They were also seen as possible commerce raiders, and at 36 knots, were fast enough to evade most ships that might outgun them, and harass, or even sink an enemy cruiser with their planes. So when Yamamoto finally did get another chance at taking on the US fleet, it would be much bigger than he imagined.
By January of 1943, there would be five fleet carriers in the Pacific again, one escort carrier and the four hybrids. Against this, Japan would also have her five remaining fleet carriers, and five light carriers. As Yamamoto had feared, the US was building carriers faster than he could sink them. As the new year dawned, there would soon be a relative parity between the two sides again, and the shadow boxing would end. It was time to fight.
In the west, the first order of business for the British was to establish a garrison in Spain in the event the Germans ever thought to return. With the Canary Islands now secure, most of what was once 110 Force there was pulled out and moved to Spain, along with reserve troops that had been guarding Madeira. They would join the 29th and 36th Brigade Groups, and the 10th Armored Division there. The 6th Armored, and all of 3rd Infantry Division, would move to North Africa to join the 43rd Wessex Division and form Montgomery’s Algerian Corps. It was further augmented with the 33rd and 34th Armored Brigades, one each operating with those two infantry Divisions.