Nexus Deep (Kirov Series Book 31) Read online

  Kirov Saga:

  Nexus Deep

  By

  John Schettler

  A publication of: The Writing Shop Press

  Nexus Deep, Copyright©2017, John A. Schettler

  The Kirov Saga: Season One

  Kirov - Kirov Series - Volume 1

  Cauldron of Fire - Kirov Series - Volume 2

  Pacific Storm - Kirov Series - Volume 3

  Men of War - Kirov Series - Volume 4

  Nine Days Falling - Kirov Series - Volume 5

  Fallen Angels - Kirov Series - Volume 6

  Devil’s Garden - Kirov Series - Volume 7

  Armageddon – Kirov Series – Volume 8

  The Kirov Saga: Season Two ~ 1940-1941

  Altered States – Kirov Series – Volume 9

  Darkest Hour – Kirov Series – Volume 10

  Hinge of Fate – Kirov Series – Volume 11

  Three Kings – Kirov Series – Volume 12

  Grand Alliance – Kirov Series – Volume 13

  Hammer of God – Kirov Series – Volume 14

  Crescendo of Doom – Kirov Series – Volume 15

  Paradox Hour – Kirov Series – Volume 16

  The Kirov Saga: Season Three ~1942

  Doppelganger – Kirov Series – Volume 17

  Nemesis – Kirov Series – Volume 18

  Winter Storm – Kirov Series – Volume 19

  Tide of Fortune – Kirov Series – Volume 20

  Knight’s Move – Kirov Series – Volume 21

  Turning Point – Kirov Series – Volume 22

  Steel Reign – Kirov Series – Volume 23

  Second Front – Kirov Series – Volume 24

  The Kirov Saga: Season Four ~1943

  Tigers East – Volume 25

  Thor’s Anvil – Volume 26

  1943 – Volume 27

  Lions at Dawn – Volume 28

  Stormtide Rising – Volume 29

  Ironfall – Volume 30

  Nexus Deep – Volume 31

  Prime Meridian – Volume 32

  Kirov Saga:

  Nexus Deep

  By

  John Schettler

  Kirov Saga:

  Nexus Deep

  By

  John Schettler

  Part I – Minerva’s Curse

  Part II – Operation Chariot

  Part III – Time is Money

  Part IV – Zitadelle

  Part V – Rumyantsev

  Part VI – Confrontation

  Part VII – One Small Step

  Part VIII– The Road to Taranovka

  Part IX – Twenty Divisions

  Part X – Collapse

  Part XI – Curious Marbles

  Part XII – Balance of Terror

  Author’s Note:

  Dear Readers,

  The process winds its way to the conclusion of yet another volume. It’s no mean task to produce a new series book in just 60 days. Keeping to my discipline of completing at least one eight-page chapter per writing day, I need 36 days of writing to get my first draft. There is also research and simulation design involved for the battles, which can be quite time consuming. After that, it is all about texturing, sandpapering, proofing to eliminate my inevitable typos. Like Karpov with his missiles, I get most everything, but sometimes, as he would say it, “something gets through—something always gets through.” That said, it’s usually not anything big enough to sink the ship.

  I listen to the whole manuscript using Ivona Voice Brian (UK), and I find it to be the highest quality voice reader I’ve ever heard. He helps me to spot my ‘though vs thought’ typing issues, and also lets me listen to the dialogue between characters to assess how it all flows. In many ways, I punctuate to please Brian more than to pay homage to established rules, though I mostly keep to them in any case. In effect, I have punctuated the manuscript so that Brian sounds more natural when reading it aloud, and I have even created a custom pronunciation dictionary to coach him on proper names, German, Japanese and Russian.

  This volume now takes us into Mid-1943, with big events unfolding on both the east and west fronts. As there was no disaster at Stalingrad in this alternate history, the real “Turning Point” in the war happens here in these crucial months. Both the Soviets and the Western Allies have now realized that they have gained parity on the battlefield against the formerly unbeatable German Army. One might argue that it was only lack of German military commitment that allowed the US and British to drive inexorably from Casablanca in Operation Torch, to the final battle at Tunis, but logistics truly ruled the day on that account. There were only so many divisions that ports like Tunis, Tripoli, Bizerte and Benghazi could support, and to use them, the Axis navies had to at least have parity with their foes.

  After the big battle off Fuerteventura during Operation Condor, it seemed that the Axis fleets never again mounted a strong challenge to Tovey in the West, and if they could, there was always Kirov to weigh in heavily on the Allied side.

  Yet it was not mere naval dominance that sealed the fate of the Axis position in North Africa, but also a dramatic shift in the balance of power in the air. By July of 1943, the Allies had not only local air superiority, but actual air supremacy in the theater as a whole. That really put the screws to the German supply effort into Tunisia, and this volume will present the conclusion of the war in North Africa. (Meaning I can now finally produce the next battle book to mate with Foxbane and present the entire uninterrupted history of the North African Campaign over those two volumes.)

  In the east, Manstein has had his hands full of late, fighting battles with Hitler, and on the ground against an increasingly powerful Soviet Army. In this volume, he will perceive a palpable change on the field, that Turning Point that he takes to be a harbinger of bad things to come. Even Hitler will be forced to see Germany’s situation differently, and he will have to make some very sweeping changes in this book to try and stem the Red tide.

  In the meantime, the main character based “missions” are all on track, with things happening in 1804, 1908, and also 1943. Those story lines will come into more focus in the Season Four Finale and through the Premier of Season 5. As I’m writing the series at the pace the war was actually fought, it may be this time a year from now before we see the landings in France, but that will all depend on what the Generals decide. As you will see in this volume, they make choices their historical counterparts did not, and who knows where the war will lead things. Now, deep in 1943, we have some great action ahead as the Allies look to clear North Africa and knock Italy out of the war, and, at the rate things are going, Sergei Kirov and Zhukov will set their sights on the Dnieper soon.

  Enjoy! - John Schettler

  Part I

  Minerva’s Curse

  “Dull is the eye that will not weep to see

  Thy walls defaced, thy mouldering shrines removed…”

  —Lord Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage

  Chapter 1

  On the morning of May 1st, 1943, the battleship HMS Nelson eased away from her anchorage at Alexandria and turned her long, heavy bow out to sea. Right in her wake the formidable presence of the old battleship Warspite moved slowly into formation. Things were heating up in the Med, and Admiral Cunningham had received some alarming intelligence that the Germans were about to make a very significant move. Their Black Sea Fleet, a formidable group consisting of Frederick de Gross, Bismarck , the fast battlecruiser Kaiser Wilhelm , carriers Prinz Heinrich and the Goben , escorted by three Italian light cruisers and six German Destroyers, was finally on the move.

  The enemy had been masters of the Black Sea, destroying the last remnants of the Soviet fleet there, and harassing the
far coastline of Georgia as the Germans pushed into the Caucasus. It moved from Novorossiysk to Sevastopol, and on occasion to Constanta, but this time it was heading for Istanbul. From there it would be an easy move through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles into the Aegean Sea, and that meant trouble. The dark steel shadow that had once held the Allied fleets at bay in the Central Med was returning.

  Cunningham set his flag aboard Nelson , proud to have it there, and at his side was a new Captain for the ship, the Honorable Guy Herbrand Edward Russell, taking over for Captain Jacomb, who was going into retirement after long service that began as a Midshipman in 1909. Russell was a good man, coming over from the Heavy Cruiser Cumberland , and a veteran of all the action in the Canary Islands Campaign, where he had been Mentioned in Dispatches for conspicuous gallantry in the face of enemy fire. He was fated to meet and sink the German battlecruiser Scharnhorst in the Battle of North Cape, but in this history that rendezvous would have to wait. Bigger things were alive on the sea that morning, and Russell, with Nelson , was going out to meet them.

  “Fine day for a brawl,” he said to Cunningham. “Do you think they mean to try us, sir?”

  “We have to assume that,” said Cunningham. “The Turks are skittish about allowing warships through the Bosphorus. A pity we didn’t get this news earlier. We might have tried to get bombers in there to stop them.”

  “The Aegean has been the Luftwaffe’s playground for months,” said Russell, “particularly after we lost Crete. Now bombers out of Benghazi and other fields in Libya have to go right over all those lovely airfields on Crete and dance with Jerry’s fighters.”

  “That’s not the real problem,” said Cunningham. “With Rommel sticking his nose into Damascus, and O’Connor a thousand miles away in Tunisia, our own air forces have been split in two. We’ve barely enough to cover both fronts, but it looks like we’ve finally stopped Rommel.”

  “Could this move by Admiral Raeder have anything to do with the campaign in Palestine?”

  “I doubt it. What would they do, shell the Germans on the coast near Tartus? It wouldn’t be worth the effort, or the risk.”

  “Then might they have a go at the Suez Canal?”

  “Oh, they’d love nothing more than to put that out of action, and that’s why we’re here. Our first job is to put up a steel wall in the Eastern Med and dare them to come for us. But I rather think they’ll have other business. I believe they’ll turn west once they get down near Crete under friendly air cover, and make for the Ionian Sea. From there, Taranto would be a save harbor, or they might even be so bold as to try the straits of Messina. A pity we lost Malta in a situation like this.”

  “We could get after them, sir.”

  “We could, but not until we know their course is truly west, and not south. No Captain, this is a defensive sortie, as much as I’d love to take Raeder by the lapels and give him a good shaking. He’s got a ten-knot speed advantage on us, so if he does take a westerly course, we’ll never catch him. It will have to be up to the air force. All we can do is make a brave show here and thumb our nose at him. I’m afraid Raeder won’t risk his ships in any action with us now. His real trouble is in the Central Med. Tovey’s been putting the squeeze on their supply runs into Tunis and Bizerte with Operation Retribution . That’s what I think this movement is all about.”

  “Then you believe Raeder will try to break the blockade?”

  “If he can. First he has to get his ships west and into the Tyrrhenian Sea, and the Air Force might get after him in the Straits of Messina. After that, if he does get through, he might lay over at Naples and operate from there with what remains of the Italian fleet.”

  “We gave them a good thumping a few weeks back,” said Russell.

  “That we did,” said Cunningham.

  The Captain was referring to the attack made on the Italian base at La Maddalena, in the Straits of Bonifacio between Corsica and Sardinia. In April, the Americans had sent 84 B-24 Liberators to bomb the place, sinking the Heavy Cruiser Trieste, a pair of motor torpedo boats, and damaging the cruiser Gorizia so badly that she had to be towed to La Spezia. It was all part of Operation Retribution , a move to neuter the Italian Navy, choke off supplies to Tunisia, and eventually allow Allied ships through the Sicilian Narrows, opening the whole of the Med to friendly sea traffic.

  That would not happen just yet, for the enemy had one more card to play in that game, and it was his Ace. Admiral Raeder’s fleet represented a powerful threat, and Nelson was out that day to stand the first watch.

  “Perhaps we can keep Raeder in port,” said Cunningham. “Our bombers can reach Naples easily enough, so he might have to run off to La Spezia with the Italians, or even return to Toulon. Then we’ll have to watch him like a hawk, for one day or another, he’ll have to come out and face his last hour.”

  “Well sir, we might be slow, but those nine 16-inch guns can still deliver a good punch,” said Russell. “Let’s hope Nelson will be there to join the action. That would be a grand show.”

  * * *

  Even as HMS Nelson turned north to take up her watch, the man that ship was named for was standing his own patrols out to sea, and from that very same base that had been bombed by the American B-24s. It’s strategic position in the Bonifacio strait allowed him to anchor his Mediterranean Fleet at the Maddalena Islands, and lie in wait for the French out of Toulon.

  Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté was ailing, but determined. He had been bothered by a hacking cough of late, something he was often prey to with his endless hours at sea. With his flag aboard HMS Victory , he had been at sea since February of that year, operating from La Maddalena, and sending squadrons of two and three frigates to cruise off Toulon and spy on the French.

  “Bad weather again today,” came the voice of Nelson’s Flag Captain, Sir Thomas Hardy.

  The Admiral looked up, as if noting the grey skies for the first time, and nodded. “Any further dispatches from our patrols off Toulon?”

  “Not yet,” said Hardy, “though Arrow is expected hourly.”

  “The moment the French Fleet leaves that port, it can have as many destinations as there are countries in these waters,” said Nelson. “They have designs upon Sardinia itself, and would like nothing more than to occupy the island, which would deny my squadrons these waters as a preferred station to stand this watch. Well, let them try. We are in right fighting trim. I never saw a fleet altogether so well officered and manned. It’s the weather that bedevils me as much as the French, but if I am to watch them, I must be at sea, and if at sea, I must contend with bad weather. If our ships are not fit to stand bad weather, they are useless.” [1]

  “Well sir, word is that they’ve no more than a fistful of fighting sail there at Toulon, though Admiral La Touche is undoubtedly been sent to remedy that.”

  “Indeed,” said Nelson, “well I should like to take his charge, and my preferred remedy would be to see that fleet at the bottom of the sea.”

  Nelson’s opposite number on the side of the French was one Vice-Admiral Louis-Rene Madalaine La Touche Treville, a man who had had been dueling with British frigates since the time of the American Revolution. He had only lately come to Toulon from Boulogne, where Napoleon ordered him to organize the massive fleet of transport ships to be used for the invasion of England, and to repel British raids led by Nelson on that port in an attempt to unhinge that plan. So the two men had little love for one another, and now La Touche was at Toulon reorganizing a part of the fleet that would soon meet Nelson at the famous Battle of Trafalgar.

  With only seven ships of the line and three frigates, La Touche nonetheless kept up a regular patrol off the port to discourage British reconnaissance, which was frequent, as Nelson was eagerly waiting for the French to sortie so he could catch La Touche at sea and engage. It would never happen, at least under La Touche, who would die in just a few months of a fever. Another Admiral would take his place, Pierre-Charles Villeneuve.

/>   At this time, Admiral Nelson had chosen the excellent anchorage off the Maddalena Islands, Sardinia, as his principle operating base to keep an eye on the French. That small island was at the eastern end of the Bonifacio Strait, the narrow waters between Corsica to the north and Sardinia to the south. Nelson would, indeed, send small groups of two or three ships to Toulon to keep an eye on the French, and on one occasion, La Touche sortied with four ships of the line and three frigates to drive off a squadron of three British ships. He then boasted in a letter that he had driven off the entire British fleet, putting Nelson to flight, which rankled the British Admiral.

  “I’ll make him eat that letter if I catch him at sea,” warned Nelson. “I’ll put the damn thing right down his gullet. He dared venture out with seven ships before returning to port. If he carries on with this game, I will soon put salt on his tail, and my ships will make his look like a plum pudding!”

  “Indeed, sir,” said the Captain. “On the matter of letters, the secretary has prepared the drafts from your dictation last evening. If you’d care to review them, I have them at hand.”

  “There was the matter of the Cameleon , and I should look that one over,” said Nelson. “Good of Captain Raynsford on the Morgiana to clue us in on what’s been going on in the Adriatic. I sent her up with the Fish Ships some months ago, and Raynsford’s report was quite enlightening. I have therefore ordered Captain Thomas Staines and Cameleon to get up there and deal with those French Privateers.”

  Nelson took the sheaf of papers from the Captain, reading that order carefully to make certain it was drafted as he wished. “Catching them by surprise is the key,” he said. “So this order was noted as most secret. I think it also wise to get a general order off to all ships in the fleet, that they are on no account to interfere with Captain Staines, or demand sight of his orders.”