Stormtide Rising (Kirov Series Book 29) Read online

  Kirov Saga:

  Stormtide Rising

  By

  John Schettler

  A publication of: The Writing Shop Press

  Stormtide Rising, Copyright©2017, John A. Schettler

  KIROV SERIES:

  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

  Kirov Saga:

  Stormtide Rising

  By

  John Schettler

  Kirov Saga:

  Stormtide Rising

  By

  John Schettler

  Part I – The Last Dance

  Part II – Sturmflut

  Part III – Swan Song

  Part IV – Victoria Park

  Part V – Steel Veins

  Part VI – Quicksilver

  Part VII – Baghdad

  Part VIII– Bridges to Nowhere

  Part IX – Sea Change

  Part X – Harbinger

  Part XI – Turncoat

  Part XII – Quantum Karma

  Author’s Note:

  Dear Readers,

  After the shock and surprise of finding that Takami was not the only warship from 2021 to challenge Karpov’s reign of terror, Kirov narrowly averts disaster. Once again, Karpov resorts to the last extreme to repel the dangerous attack by stealth jets that his helicopters have been unable to see and track. The string of glide bombs unleashed by Admiral Kita’s F-35’s seemed, at first, to be much less of a threat than the fast moving missiles Kirov might fling at its enemies, yet they prove to be very accurate, capable of delivering a saturation attack that simply puts too many weapons on target for the ship to defend itself. As Karpov himself grimly admits, something always gets through.

  His resort to the use of one of his three precious nuclear warheads to blast one wave of the glide bomb attack out of the sky, was still barely enough to save the ship. Friedrich Nietzsche wrote that: “One must still have chaos in oneself to give birth to a dancing star.” Karpov, though sobered and wizened by his experience, still has that chaos within, which is why he does not hesitate to manifest it in the world about him. He unleashed his star, and saved the ship, and yet his final resort to speed and endurance remains unspoken testimony to the danger he now perceives, not only to the ship and crew, but to the soaring artifice of his ambitions; his lofty position as head of the Free Siberian State, and his aspirations to restore Russia’s lost territories, seized by Japan so long ago after his failed sortie to 1908. He has unfinished business there, as we shall see at the end of this volume.

  In the meantime Ivan Gromyko has taken Kazan north to go carrier hunting, though he risks detection in a dangerous environment where his enemies can launch helicopters from nearly every ship in their task force, each one capable of finding and killing his sub.

  We will return briefly to naval matters at the outset of this volume, to the admirals on every side as they assess their current situation, Tovey, Karpov, Kita, and Raeder. But Adolf Hitler also makes a number of appearances here that will have a dramatic effect on the course of events, both at sea and in Operation Phoenix . Regarding that, our hero Anton Fedorov, has been quietly at work behind the scenes, leaking information to German intelligence that has a most dramatic effect.

  As Admiral Raeder sees the very existence of his surface fleet now at stake, he gets a new and most unexpected mission, a last dance for his warriors at sea to prove their worth. Then we return to the Tunisian Front where Erwin Rommel will also strive to regain lost glory with Operation Sturmflut , (Stormtide.) There he jousts with a most capable opponent in George Patton, and the outcome weighs heavily on the career tracks of both men.

  Vladimir Karpov is not the only man with chaos in his soul, and the will to unleash the full measure of every weapon at his command. The Führer makes a most surprising attack in this volume, and then we return to Heinz Guderian’s invasion of Iraq. It will lead him inevitably to the heart of that country, the sprawling, steamy city of Baghdad, which he must take to have any hope of continuing on to the south. Reluctant to fight that battle of attrition, he has no choice, and a detailed presentation of that struggle sits at the heart of this volume.

  The action at Baghdad was simulated at company level on a scale of 125 meters per hex. To do so I had to obtain a map of the city as it was in the 1940s, and I will post a number of battle maps for all that action here on the web site. (But be advised that they can be spoilers for that action. I note which map depicts the events within the narrative to make for safer viewing at the appropriate time). For the fighting in Tunisia, I’ve just placed a general reference map online so you can find the towns mentioned and get to know the geography that so influenced that battle.

  As Stormtide Rising concludes, I again reserve the last segments for Karpov, Kirov and the situation in the Pacific as both sides take a hard look at what may lie in store for them, and make a startling decision. Enjoy!

  - John Schettler

  Part I

  The Last Dance

  “ So the darkness shall be the light,

  And the stillness the dancing.”

  — T.S. Eliot

  Chapter 1

  Admiral Tovey sat at his desk in his office at Scapa Flow, a weariness on him that he had felt for some time. He had even resorted to time off ashore, taking leave in the Scottish highlands, but the harsh winter had put an end to that. He had never seen such cold, deep bone chilling cold in the north, and the ice was advancing faster than ever before.

  That heavy winter had settled over Russia, freezing that front to a near standstill, a winter worse than that of 1941 where the Germans had suffered so badly in the smoldering ruin of Moscow. The lack of high tempo operations had given some respite to the supply situation for the Russians. Their factories continued to operate in the bitter conditions, but they were still in desperate need of any support they could get.

  Tovey sighed, signing the orders drafted on his desk that morning, and in so doing he did not then realize that he was about to set
in motion a chain of events that might take the head of his opposite number in the German Navy—Admiral Raeder—and have far reaching consequences for operations in the Med, the fate of Rommel and Kesselring in Tunisia, and the lifeline Britain relied on for oil from the Middle East. Big things have small beginnings, Pushpoints that can seldom be seen where they lurked in the haystack of time. His signature on that order was one of them.

  * * *

  After the disastrous and heavy losses sustained by Convoy PQ-17, the Allies had been forced to suspend artic convoys to Murmansk. The new German naval base at Nordstern remained a dangerous barb in the flank of any operation teed up for the Norwegian Sea or Arctic region. So it was with some hesitation that Tovey finally approved the order to begin a new series of convoys bound for Murmansk, and the first two were already on their way, Convoys JW-51A and JW-51B. They were carrying 202 tanks, over 2,000 other vehicles, 87 fighters, 33 bombers, 11,500 short tons of fuel, 12,650 short tons of aviation fuel and just over 54,000 short tons of general supplies and ammunition. With the winter closing in, they had but a brief window of opportunity to reach Murmansk, for even that port was experiencing increasing difficulties with ice.

  King George V and the cruiser Jamaica were the heart of the heavy Cover Force for Convoy JW-51A on December 15, of 1942. (Berwick would have gone in Fedorov’s history, but that ship had been sunk in this telling of events). Six other destroyers formed the Close Cover, and they would be opposed by only three German U-Boats. Tovey was encouraged when that convoy slipped through the thin German U-boat screen undetected, and in the thick arctic weather and polar night, it was never spotted by the Luftwaffe patrols.

  The second convoy was therefore ordered out immediately, sailing from Loch Ewe on the 22nd of December. This time the Heavy Cover Force was to be handled by the battleship Anson , with cruiser Cumberland and five destroyers, with a further cruiser force of Jamaica and Sheffield , and six more destroyers in immediate escort. As fate would have it, the convoy ran afoul of gale force winds just after Christmas of 1942, and was scattered. In the operations undertaken to locate the stragglers and reassemble for the run to Murmansk, the German U-354 spotted the merchant ships, and raised the alarm.

  Eager to get back into the good graces of the Führer after the stunning loss of the fleet flagship Hindenburg in the Med, Admiral Raeder immediately ordered Operation Regenbogen , or Rainbow, hoping to find a pot of gold. He had the older pocket battleship Deutschland up north near the cape, (which had not been renamed Lutzow in this history), and the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper was also there. Both ships were ordered out to look for the British convoy, escorted by six destroyers under Vice Admiral Oskar Kummetz.

  They would find their quarry in that murky Arctic night, and a confused and scattered action resulted which saw all the British heavy forces too far off to intervene. The two German raiders thought they would make a quick end of things, but the gallant defense put up by those six escorting destroyers kept them at bay. The Hipper took damage, though the Germans sunk the minesweeper Bramble and Destroyer Achates , and battered the escort leader Onslow with five hits, one of which seriously wounded her Captain Sherbrooke.

  Yet none of the 14 merchantmen were sunk, and when the British cruiser force arrived on the scene, the wary Admiral Kummetz, having orders not to risk his heavy ships, quickly retired. As sea battles went, it was a small affair, with gallantry on the British side, particularly from Captain Sherbrooke. Yet it was to have far reaching consequences, for Hitler had been informed about it, and he had been waiting on the outcome, eager for news of the raid.

  Admiral Raeder had refused to directly contact the German ships to gain their report, as the standing order was for radio silence until they reached safe waters. This twelve hour delay saw Hitler become increasingly irate and impatient for news, and when he finally learned that the British had reported the safe arrival of the convoy, he was outraged. To make matters worse, when the report from the German side finally came in, Hitler learned that his fleet had lost the destroyer Eckholdt .

  In a comedy of errors, the German destroyer saw a ship they believed to be the Admiral Hipper, and moved to form up with her—but it was the British cruiser Sheffield , which blasted the Eckholdt so badly that the destroyer broke in two.

  “Look!” Hitler shouted, throwing the report at Admiral Raeder, whom he had summoned to account for the debacle. “Our Kapitans cannot even tell the difference between our ships and the enemy! This is the same blatant incompetence that undoubtedly led to the loss of the Hindenburg . Why do I invest all these resources, countless hours, steel and sweat, to build you this naval facility at Nordstern? What has the surface fleet ever done of note in this war? All you have done is waste fuel, ammunition, and resources. You could not hold the Canary Islands or prevent the Allied landings at Casablanca. You could not even keep the Straits of Gibraltar closed! I should immediately decommission all these useless ships, and turn the entire navy over to Döenitz and his U-boats. They are the only ships sinking enemy tonnage these days.”

  Admiral Raeder endured the insults, saying nothing back, for he knew it would only prompt Hitler to continue with a litany of further complaints and accusations. He also knew that the very existence of his surface fleet had been in grave jeopardy ever since the loss of the Hindenburg , a moral blow that was heavier than any other he had sustained in the war, even worse than the sinking of the Graz Zeppelin and Gneisenau .

  He said nothing of the fact that five British battleships had been sunk, with another lying wrecked at anchor in Alexandria. That was yesterday in Hitler’s mind, and he took many of those sinkings for granted, saying they were nothing more than obsolete ships from the last war, except for the Prince of Wales.

  Hindenburg’s loss had imposed a quiet timidity on the entire German Surface fleet, and the ignominious fate of the Tirpitz in its last big engagement with PQ-17, losing propulsion and towed from the scene by the Scharnhorst , was an embarrassment Raeder had spent long months trying to live down. Only the strange sortie made by Captain Heinrich aboard Kaiser Wilhelm had given him one sweet moment of victory. The prize it delivered had delighted Hitler, a prize more dangerous than anyone first realized for a good many months after that incident.

  Enduring the storm tide of Hitler’s tirade, Raeder waited like a stolid seawall, biding his time. When the other man had finished, Raeder said one thing: “My Führer, in war there will always be losses, and any engagement like this can produce them. This was but a single old destroyer, and it was the weather and darkness that really saved that convoy, not the British fleet. The Kriegsmarine has fought gallantly in every engagement, even in the face of these new enemy weapons. And there is one thing you should not forget in all of this—we have put a weapon of great power into your hands….”

  Hitler had been standing with his back to Raeder, but now he slowly turned. “Yes Raeder, that little surprise delivered by the Kaiser Wilhelm will count for something. I will grant you that much. Yet you have been busy in the shipyards, or so Goring tells me all too often, but to what end?”

  Goring… He had been a thorn in Raeder’s side for years, jealous of the fuel and resources that the navy was consuming, and becoming more and more of a problem as his Luftwaffe sustained heavier losses. The two men had recently quarreled over orders issued to the navy by Goring on the revised supply protocols for Tunisia. Raeder had intervened, rescinding those orders and telling Goring to mind his own business, but the Air Marshall had taken the quarrel to Hitler. As always, he again complained that Raeder was also undertaking unauthorized ship conversions, using the lion’s share of steel and oil, and presented a host of other complaints.

  “We are completing the new series of fast ocean going destroyers to escort our new fleet carriers,” the Admiral explained.

  “Did I not tell you to cease production on the Oldenburg?” Hitler eyed him reproachfully.

  “That order was obeyed. I gave orders to halt the buildout of that ship as a Hinden
burg class battleship, but there was that beautiful hull, just sitting there, and it would have been a waste to simply scrap it at that time. Do you know what the Japanese have been doing in the Pacific? They are taking all their unfinished battlecruiser hulls, and even cruiser hulls, and they are converting them to aircraft carriers. They know that is the real future where surface fleets are concerned—carriers, not these lumbering battleships that you complain about. So I ordered Oldenburg to be converted the same way. It cost us very little to build out that hull as an aircraft carrier, and in just a very few months, it will be recommissioned as the Brandenburg . What better way to celebrate this new operation you have launched, led by that very same division?”

  “You have built me another aircraft carrier?” Hitler shook his head. “Now I will have to persuade Goring to build you enough planes to use on the damn thing. What have the others done? They sit around in the harbors, just like all the battleships, because if they do go to sea, all it will take is one of these new rocket weapons to destroy them. My new Zeppelins have done more than all your carriers combined!”

  “That will soon change,” said Raeder. “You will see. Goring and I will put aside our many differences long enough to see to the successful outcome of Operation Merkur. I have Prinz Heinrich and the Goeben at Toulon. I have the Kaiser Wilhelm , and also one more ship—the Bismarck . It has completed repairs and is now ready for operations again, if you will permit me to use it.”

  Hitler gave him a narrow eyed look. “The Bismarck? I never thought that ship would sail again. Will it do anything more than its brother ship Tirpitz?” There was an edge of sarcasm in Hitler’s tone.

  “My Führer, Tirpitz has not sailed since the engagement with PQ-17, but it is now fully operational again. Its very existence there at Nordstern is a great psychological weapon. It forces the British to keep many of their newer battleships in Scapa Flow, when they might otherwise be in the Med supporting the Allied effort at strangling Kesselring’s armies in Tunisia. In fact, Allied intelligence undoubtedly knows Bismarck is ready for operations. They have tried to bomb it three times, but scored no hits. Now it is time to make that threat real again, and Operation Merkur is the perfect opportunity.”