John Schettler - Hammer of God

“He had undoubtedly heard the results of our recent battle,” said Tovey, “though he has not yet received my full report. I have received that directive as well, and Mister Churchill seems adamant that we are to mount the most aggressive naval campaign possible. The Admiralty wants us to bombard Tripoli, and that failing, to block the harbor by sinking a ship.”

“That was undoubtedly Admiral Pound’s suggestion,” said Cunningham. “Hasn’t he learned of the condition of my fleet?”

“He knows we lost Queen Elizabeth, and that Malaya is damaged,” said Tovey. “Yet he still strongly suggests that every effort must be made, and went so far as to say that any losses must be accepted to achieve this aim-the strangulation of enemy supply routes to North Africa-even if we lose another battleship. They suggest we should commit Warspite to the task.”

“That is out of the question,” said Cunningham, and Tovey was quick to agree.

“I will inform them of the true condition of Malaya,” he said. “The ship is holed beneath the water line, and badly beaten up. I doubt it will be serviceable for at least a year, and that leaves only Invincible and Warspite available until I can move new forces here from Somerville, though they’ll take some time getting round the cape.”

“Yes? Well my latest communication from Churchill is most alarming. He is now proposing to try and kill two birds with a single stone by sending both Rodney and Nelson through the Straits of Gibraltar as escorts for a convoy of reserve tanks for Wavell.”

“Through the straits?”

“Quite so. The Admiralty seems to think the recent engagement has the enemy in as bad a condition as we are. They believe the convoy has a good chance of winning through-tiger convoy, or so the Prime Minister is now calling it.”

“Well, the enemy battleships may be in the shipyards of Toulon for the moment, and taking repairs, but don’t they realize the German still have U-boats? Somerville says he tried to slip a fast destroyer through and it never came back. Now Rodney and Nelson are fine ships, but at a little over twenty knots top speed, they will make fine targets in those constricted waters.”

“I’m afraid this is probably my fault,” said Wavell. “I was bellyaching to the Prime Minister over our lack of serviceable tanks here, and their importance in any operation of any consequence. He was none too happy about our inability to send any meaningful reinforcement of Greece.”

“That will be on my plate,” said Tovey. “Given the ferocity of the engagements we have recently fought, it should not be difficult to explain the consequences we would have faced in losing a division at sea. We’ve beaten the enemy off for now, but at significant cost. While the Italians have withdrawn to La Spezia for the moment to lick their wounds, and the Germans and French to Toulon and Taranto, they are nonetheless capable of posing a serious challenge, and the enemy air superiority in the Central Mediterranean makes any move as the Prime Minister suggests a rash endeavor.”

“Yes? Well he will consider every enemy convoy that gets through to be a serious naval failure,” said Cunningham. “It says as much in his directive. He seems convinced the deck armor on the Nelson class is impervious to the bombs delivered by German Stukas.”

“Well I have made arrangements to get us more help here,” said Tovey. “If we are to have any chance of doing what the Prime Minister directs concerning Tripoli, then we’ll need aircraft carriers first. The rocket defense put up by our friends from tomorrow was formidable, but German planes come much cheaper than the missiles they’ll be forced to use if we rely on them too often. I’ve already ordered Glorious to join us with more fighters, and she is en-route. I’ll settle the matter of Rodney and Nelson as soon as I can communicate with Somerville. We still have Richelieu and Jean Bart to worry about at Casablanca, and if we take those battleships he’ll have only Valiant. The battlecruiser squadron is getting back on its feet after that beating we took up north, so we may be able to pull that off if I send Somerville a battlecruiser. The Prime Minister will have to be patient.”

“Patient?” said Wavell. “He’ll be like a bulldog with a rope in his mouth, and this directive will not be the last. His most recent communication informs me the Americans have taken up patrols in the Denmark Strait zone, and that this should relieve our concerns in the North Atlantic.”

“True, but he drafted that some weeks ago, before having the information we are now preparing to disclose,” said Tovey. “Once he sees the big picture, then we can settle things down to a real plan.”

“Yes,” said Wavell. “The disintegration of 2nd Armored on the retreat east was a mystery to him. He simply has no conception of the conditions here, and how unreliable our equipment is.”

“It would seem that my brigade can redress that,” said Kinlan.

“Well you are a most welcome knight at our round table here,” said Wavell. “Arthur has come back from Avalon at the eleventh hour. Yet knowing Churchill, the moment he learns we have the services of Brigadier Kinlan, he will stop at nothing to put them to good use.”

“We are more than willing to fight,” said Kinlan. “While I have no doubts about my brigade, and what it can accomplish, realize our power is limited. I’ve tallied the ammunition expended in this surprise attack we made at Bir el Khamsa. We used about ten percent of our available main gun rounds for heavy tanks and artillery. For the moment, then, we remain very potent, but I’m told the Germans are reinforcing their position even as we speak, which is probably why the higher-ups are adamant we choke off their sea lanes.”

“Intelligence we’ve received indicated they are moving another motorized infantry division and two other brigade groups,” said Wavell. “We also believe that at least two other units are scheduled for deployment here, a mountain infantry division and another Panzer division. Mister Churchill proposes we do everything in our power to stop this buildup. He directs us to use the Glen Ship infantry carriers set aside for the Rhodes operation to land commando units on the coastal road to interdict enemy land convoys. He even suggests that landing a few tanks and letting them ‘rip their way along the coast’ as he put it, to inflict damage far exceeding their own value. And once he learns of Brigadier Kinlan’s force his imagination will be further fired. I would not be surprised to find he wishes us to launch an immediate attack aimed at destroying the Afrika Korps altogether, and capturing Tripoli outright! Well, it will be at least a month before I can effectively occupy Cyrenaica and take Benghazi from the Italians. At the moment I have the ANZAC forces committed to that task, but it will take time.”

“And Libya is only one front in this theater,” said Fedorov. “You’ll soon have to consider Crete, Syria, Iraq and even Iran.”

“So we’ll simply have to set our priorities and use whatever force we have as best we can.” Wavell folded his arms, the burden of facing threats on every flank had been wearing on him for some time now. He knew that as soon as Churchill found out what they all knew, he would leap right in as a newly appointed general and take charge with one directive after another, and he did not believe the Prime Minister fully appreciated the military realities of his situation.

There was a moment of silence as they considered that, then O’Connor asked the same question that Wavell had opened with.

“And this puts the whole matter of disclosure firmly on the table again. So what do we do now, gentlemen?”