Richtengden remained silent. He no longer had the strength or desire to object.
That's right, the General looked closely at his subordinate and calmed down a little. Nobody cancelled the order to destroy the Russian marksman, who, as it turned out, was also a spotter. The human intelligence has already been tasked to locate him, but I don't think it's going to be easy or particularly fast. Major Schliemann is a prisoner, and now you are the only Abwehr officer left, who knows our enemy's habits well. I want to hear your thoughts on what action we should expect from him next. And your suggestions, if, of course, you have any.
The Kiev pocket, Richtengden answered without a second's hesitation.
And more specifically?
The Russians will not be able to break our defenses. The motorized corps of Army Group Center will prevent them from breaking through the front, unless
Go ahead, Colonel.
The marksman showed himself a master at targeting heavy artillery and aviation. The howitzers do not have enough range to support a strike directed from inside the ring, and our artillerymen will not sleep either they will not let the Russians quietly smash our troops. Our aviation dominates the air, and no TB-3s or Red dive bombers can support the advancing Soviet units, even with an ingenious spotter. But this is in the daytime.
Do you think they will go for a breakthrough at night?
I am sure of it. The Russians had already used this trick at Uman, and they almost succeeded then.
Yes. But, as you correctly noted, "almost".
They didn't have air support that time, but they will have it now. I had already experienced the delight of a nighttime bombing once, and believe me, I wouldn't want to experience it again.
I see you've given a lot of thought to the situation, the General stood up and walked over to the map showing the current situation on the eastern front, You are right, the Russians have already made two attempts to break through the encirclement, accompanied by counter-strikes from the outside. Both attempts ended unsuccessfully and were accompanied by heavy losses on their part. As a result, the situation of the encircled units only worsened. Now our troops have split them into two isolated pockets, and General Field Marshal von Bock estimates that only units of the enemy, still holding a small area west of Romny have any chance of a breakthrough.
They will strike this or next night, General, said Richtengden confidently, and if the Russian marksman is there, which I do not doubt, our troops will be attacked by night bombers. The marksman always uses tactics that once proved to be effective, repeatedly. Recall the situation with the bridge over the Dnieper. Almost immediately after its destruction, the Russian again used heavy howitzers to destroy the barrier put up by Major Schliemann. Now he had a positive experience with the bombers. I'm pretty sure he'll want to do it again, but on a new level and on a different scale.
And do you know how to stop it, Colonel?
We've had this problem before, Richtengden nodded. British bombers fly to bomb our cities precisely at night, and the Luftwaffe has learned well how to drop the Royal Air Force's Wellingtons from the sky. I have an acquaintance, Major Helm, and I have encountered him on some cases before the war. Now he is working on introducing the latest advances in radiolocation into the air defense system of our cities. He informed me that at the beginning of August, the range tests of the Lichtenstein onboard radar was successfully completed in Rechlin, and a group of engineers from Telefunken had installed several such stations on night fighters based at Leeuwarden. At first, our pilots made faces when too many external antennas were attached to their planes. In this case, the aircraft does lose speed, and the weighting of the nose leads to a decrease in controllability.
However, Oberleutnant Becker[1] in his Dornier equipped with an on-board radar shot down the Wellington flying to bomb Hamburg on the night of August 9-10. In his next night flights he scored five more impressive victories.
And you suggest that I convince the Luftwaffe command to move these planes near Kiev?
Not only them, Herr General. The marksman points the bombers at the target using radio communication. We'll need the best jamming systems we can find in the Reich, if we really want to upset the Russians' plans.
It's not going to be easy, Colonel, especially in terms of night fighters. I'm afraid I'll have to get approval from the very top.
The Russian will almost certainly be aboard one of the bombers. He can't know we have fighters able to reach the target without using ground searchlights, and that gives us a chance to close the marksman issue once and for all.
The General strode thoughtfully through the office and stopped again at the map.
Perhaps I'll find the right words for Admiral Canaris, he nodded to his own thoughts. The liquidation of the Russian troops encircled near Kiev is now considered the most important task on the entire Eastern Front, and no one wants to jeopardize it. Get ready, Colonel. You're flying into Guderian's Second Panzer Group today. I expect a detailed plan of the operation with a list of everything you need within an hour.
* * *
Note, this gun has its own specificity high muzzle velocity. Accordingly, when shooting at an airborne target, you have to make a much smaller deflection than usual.
Lena nodded seriously, but it was obvious that for her it was just words, and she did not yet understand how to put it into practice.
Well, if it's clear to you, then let's shoot at the wooden model.
At my request, Ignatov made a rather crude wooden model of a Messerschmitt. I did not need a detailed reproduction of the enemy plane, but it was necessary to accurately match the size ratio of the mockup to the real fighter. We naturally did not have the opportunity to conduct practical firing on the planes, but we could have plenty of fun simulating this fascinating process.
Once again, the model is 40 times smaller than the real target, but it is also much closer to you, so when you shoot at the real enemy, it will look exactly the same as you see it now.
I showed Lena two thin strips about a meter long, semi-rigidly fastened to the mockup, With this simple device I will simulate the flight of a Messerschmitt. You point the gun at the target using deflection and pull the trigger. No shot, of course, but every time I'll tell you if you hit or miss.
I finally figured out how to use my abilities to train our sniper to shoot at aerial targets. After all, promises have to be kept, and I didn't consider it possible to put it off any longer. The computer told me if the weapon was correctly aimed at the moment of firing, and Lena could practice as much as she wanted, or rather, as long as the superiors let us do it.
The "plane" made a standard U-turn, approaching the target, and I heard the dry click of the trigger.
Missed! The deflection needs to be further reduced. In addition, the bullet went slightly above the target. We start again. I need you not just to hit the hull of the plane, but to hit the cockpit, the engine, or the fuel tank on my command. Let's go!
Snap!
Missed! The deflection was normal, but the bullet went lower. You incorrectly accounted for the angle of lift of the plane when exiting the attack. One more time!
Snap!
Bingo! Already better, you punctured its vertical stabilizer. The target, unfortunately, is still combat-ready. Are you ready? Let's keep going!
Missed!
Comrade Senior Lieutenant, allow me to address you!
I turned around. Sergeant Nikiforov was standing at the exit to the courtyard.
You are ordered to report immediately to the office of Comrade Senior Major.
This could only mean one thing: the decision on my proposal has finally been made. I wonder what it is. I nodded to Lena and walked quickly toward the building.
* * *
The weirdness started towards the end of the day. First, the pilot received an order from air division headquarters to prepare for takeoff and await the arrival of a special NKVD representative, who was to be received on board and given access to surveillance equipment.
Lieutenant Kalina had landed his twin-engine Pe-2R at the airfield only a few hours before, and he knew very well, that the rare breaks in low cloud cover gave very little chance of seeing anything below. Besides, the Germans were just rampant. It was a good thing that the bomber, converted into a reconnaissance plane, was almost as fast as the Messerschmitts, but they still had to run away twice at full speed and even to shoot. They, of course, brought back some pictures, but Kalina himself clearly understood that, by and large, this flight was in vain.
And now he has to fly again, diving into that cloudy mess again, taking fire from the ground and constantly fearing attacks from enemy fighters. And then there's that special representative
The hum of the engines distracted the Lieutenant from his thoughts. A PS-84 transport plane, escorted by three fighters, was coming in for a landing. To the Lieutenant's surprise, the Yaks did not leave for their airfield, but began to approach after the transport plane.
This is your cover, Lieutenant, said the squadron commander, who approached discreetly from behind, and nodded toward the Yaks.
And why should I be honored like that, Comrade Captain? Kalina pulled off his flight helmet and ruffled his hair.
It's not for you, said the commander, with a chuckle, you're under the command of the senior lieutenant of state security for the duration of the flight. You and I are better off not knowing the name of this comrade, but any order he gives you is a law.
A rather young officer in a NKVD uniform was heading toward them at a brisk pace from the transport plane. Kalina put his helmet back on and prepared to report in full form.
* * *
The commander of the German African Corps, General Erwin Rommel, watched grimly as his divisions were loaded onto transport ships. The port of Tripoli was full of tanks, guns, tractors and other military equipment. The infantry divisions from France and Italy were to temporarily replace his troops, which had already gained experience fighting in the desert. They had to make a long journey to Russia, to the Eastern Front.
The Führer's order was a thunderbolt from a clear sky for Rommel. In Africa, a real success was emerging. The morale of British and Australian soldiers was shattered by the crushing defeats of the spring-summer campaign, they were forced to leave Benghazi, Sidi Omar and Al Saloum, German-Italian troops took the deep-water port of Tobruk under tight siege.
And now he could just forget all these victories. There will be no new offensive in Egypt, no decisive storming of Tobruk. Despite the unambiguous order received from Berlin, Rommel did not know how to look the Italian generals in the eyes. He felt like a traitor, even though it was not he who made the decision to replace his tanks with infantry. And besides, the General couldn't shake the feeling that he had had a victory stolen from him, a real big victory, which might have been the pinnacle of his military career.
Well, he guessed that one could see better from Berlin, and Moscow really was much more important than Tobruk, Al-Alamein or even Cairo, but at the moment Rommel was in no way relieved by this understanding.
Chapter 2
The Pe-2 took off when it was no more than a couple of hours before sunset. A bomber converted for air reconnaissance purposes, was gaining altitude easily.
I pointed out the course to the crew commander and took the gunner-radio operator's seat.
Pe-2. Soviet World War II dive bomber. In the Soviet Air Force it had the nickname "Pawn". It was originally designed as a high-speed high-altitude fighter. The Pe-2 was used not only as a bomber, but also as a reconnaissance aircraft. Maximum speed 540 km/h. Practical ceiling: 8,700 m. Practical range 1,200 km. Bomb load up to one ton. Firearms (1941) four ShKAS machine guns (7.62 mm).
The three fighters that made up our cover stayed slightly above our Pe-2, keeping a close eye on the aerial situation. We flew directly over the clouds, which had become a little less dense by evening, and sometimes we could see the earth between the clouds. At times the cloud cover became multi-layered, and then we lost sight of our escort for a while.
We passed the front line more or less calmly, but then the problems began immediately. Neither Lieutenant Kalina nor fighter pilots saw any danger yet, but the enemy air surveillance service was well organized, and our flight over the forward positions of the Germans did not go unnoticed.
Four Messerschmitts were approaching us from the southwest. They were still quite far away, but they were flying confidently, and it was never in my plans to meet them.
Course north-northwest, I ordered the pilot and duplicated the command over the radio to the Yaks.
Of course, I wasn't going to actually scout the area satellites were much better for that, but I had to at least visit the areas that would later be bombed, otherwise I would have to answer a lot of uncomfortable questions again. Naturally, no one knew about it except me, and everyone else involved, including the Germans, took what was going on with complete seriousness.
The enemy was extremely negative to the idea of our reconnaissance flight over their territory. We changed course, and this resulted in the Messerschmitts sent to intercept us just not finding us. Nevertheless, more and more ground observers saw us, and soon the computer alerted me to the appearance of three more pairs of enemy fighters in dangerous proximity.
Of course I was jamming, but frankly, I didn't want to jam the Germans' communications at all. I had already abused this opportunity several times when there was simply no other way out, but the Germans are not idiots, and are quite capable of putting two and two together and realizing that their problems with communication occur exactly in those places, where this strange Russian appears. However, I was going to remedy this situation by arranging a dozen other similar anomalies a little later in various places, including not only the Eastern Front, but also Europe and even Africa. This, of course, should have been taken care of earlier, but
After about half an hour, it was clear that we couldn't dodge another unpleasant encounter. We were almost caught in a pincer movement between the enemy planes, and now all that was left was to choose the most inconvenient course for the Germans, which I did. As a result, the main part of the pursuers stretched after us in a long chain of planes flying from different directions and at different altitudes, but we had no way to dodge a pair of Messerschmitts, which flew almost toward us.
"Blackbirds", attention! Enemy at two o'clock. Height two and a half, I warned our escort. Don't change the course.
Comrade Senior Lieutenant of State Security, maybe it would be better to change course? the crew commander had not yet seen the enemy, but he did not dare to question the information about him, If we are discovered, there will be a whole crowd of Messerschmitts here in ten minutes.