Opening Moves

“Some bastard will be counting trees for this!”

Stalin sat back down with a thud and picked up his pack, fumbling for a cigarette. He sought out a match and ran it down the desk in his anger, puffing agitatedly, until a sudden calm descended upon him as quickly as his anger had risen.

“Last time we spoke of this agent you quoted 100% reliability Lavrentiy, 100%.”

Having weathered the brief but extremely dangerous storm, a relieved Beria spoke with assurance. “Alkonost has never let us down Comrade General Secretary.”

“Let us hope that continues. Send the preparatory action code immediately.”

Stalin paused to wrestle with an issue in his mind, which he swiftly resolved.

“The other agents must also be ordered to prepare to act. Even though we have not heard from them, send the code to prepare to all your agents within Manhattan.”

Beria nodded his assent and, deciding to hold on to the other files until later, made to leave the room.

“Tell me comrade. This agent, Alkonost. What sort of man do we pin our hopes on here?”

Replying with extreme care for the benefit of the microphones, Beria paused before the door and turned.

“This agent is in the right place Comrade, and there has never been failure. Alkonost will do well enough. Until later Comrade General Secretary,” and with a nod of the head he was gone.

Outside the room, Beria walked through the building, gently unburdening himself of the stresses of that meeting. As he climbed into his car to make the journey back to his office, he could not help but smile. What would the Boss say if he knew that the fate of Kingdom39 and more was in the hands of a twenty-five year old woman? The smile faded as quickly as it arrived as the possibility of Alkonost failing made its presence felt in his head. In that event, the age and gender of the agent would not matter to Beria, for he would be long dead.

1100 hrs, Monday, 2nd July 1945, The Kremlin, Moscow, USSR.

At 1100 hrs precisely the group convened again, this time in Stalin’s office. By prior agreement only Marshalls Zhukov, Vasilevsky, Chief Marshal of Aviation Alexander Novikov and Admiral of the Fleet Hovhannes Stepani Isakov were present with their closest staff. On the other side of the table were the full GKO and to their immediate left and standing, the GRU Polkovnik-General, Roman Samuilovich Pekunin.

Zhukov, resplendent in his full uniform and every inch the soldier, made the full presentation himself, needing his staff solely to place maps on the table in front of the General Secretary and other GKO members, to make marks on a chalk board placed on an easel at one end of the table or occasionally to quote a figure or two from the addendums to the master copy of the now ready version of plan Kingdom39.

The planning was incredible and complex, covering everything that could be possibly imagined. The requirements for operational security prior to and after the attack were extreme. Maskirova was of prime importance up to the moment that the tanks started to roll in Phase#3, because any advance warning could turn the plan from a triumph into a disaster. Some was already in place but much more would be needed.

Without a doubt, the destruction of the Allied Air forces was key to the success of the plan, but even with the excellent planning laid out before them, the price of that destruction would be extremely high for some of their own young men. To the GKO members it was but a bill to pay, and a fair one at that. Unusually for Soviet Doctrine a broad front attack had been chosen but unlike with Rokossovsky in 1944, Stalin did not challenge the plan. The reasoning was, after all, clear and understandable and would probably revert to accepted doctrine within the week.

Once the doors had been closed and the guards posted, no one was permitted to enter the room on pain of death and so there were no orderlies to bring drinks to the occupants. They had to get their own and choose from a selection of snacks that had been placed there before the conference convened.

Vasilevsky placed a tea before Zhukov who acknowledged the gesture, paused in his presentation and consumed it swiftly. Many others took advantage of this lull and went to get their second or third such drink and it was Stalin who brought the room back to order again, and the presentation continued.

It was gone 2pm before Zhukov finished the main army plan and invited Air Force Marshall Novikov to put over the role his forces were to play.

Following him came Isakov, the Navy’s Chief of Staff, recently having left the hospital where wounds from a 1942 German air raid on Tuapse had confined him.

The clock above Stalin’s desk showed 3.22pm when Isakov’s final word of presentation was spoken and so Zhukov summed up.