Things Never Known: The Parallel Nazi - 8 Read online

  Things Never Known

  The Parallel Nazi – Book 8

  Ward Wagher

  Copyright © 2022, Ward Wagher

  All rights reserved.

  Cover Picture by Wendel Hilario on Unsplash.com

  This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

  Books by Ward Wagher

  The Saga of Scott Baughman

  Hannah Sorpat’s Eye – A Novel of Alien Abduction

  Without Beginning of Days

  Witnesses in the Cloud

  The Chronicles of Montora

  The Mountains of Montora

  The Margrave of Montora

  The Snows of Montora

  Christmas in Montora

  The Diamonds of Montora

  Harcourt's World

  The Wealth of the Worlds

  The Parallel Nazi

  1 - Accidental Nazi

  2 - Improbable Nazi

  3 - Impossible Nazi

  4 - Inconsequential Nazi

  5 - Resolute Nazi

  6 - Threads of Despair

  7 - This Throw of the Dice

  8 – Things Never Known

  The Munich Faction – Courier

  The Nazi Magician

  Nazi Magician – Inventor

  The Parallel-Multiverse

  Rubracks, Nazis, the Death of the Universe and Everything

  Gravity Rising

  The Last Paladin

  McNeel’s World

  The Caledon Emergence

  Dynastic Ambition

  By Bob Anderson & Ward Wagher

  The Final Hero

  DEDICATION

  To my dad, who set the example for kindness, wisdom and consistency throughout his life. He passed away twenty years ago and I still miss him.

  CONTENTS

  DEDICATION

  CONTENTS

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  CHAPTER FORTY

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

  CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

  CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

  CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

  CHAPTER FIFTY

  CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

  CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

  CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  As usual, Bob was a great help in editing and reviewing the book. Ric also provided helpful feedback. Walter reviewed the German phrases and provided helpful commentary on German culture. Most of all, I thank the readers who keep me going on this adventure.

  CHAPTER ONE

  December 15, 1944; Noon

  Velikiye Luki, Russia

  General Erwin Rommel stepped off the train and moved out of the way so his chief of staff could climb down. With no platform here, it was a bit of a stretch. Rommel glanced around, squinting against the brightness of the day. He had misplaced his sunglasses, and the sunlight reflecting from the snow was almost painful. General Hermann Balck marched up to greet him.

  “Welcome to sunny Russia, Herr General.”

  Rommel snorted. “That’s one way of putting it, I suppose. How do things look at the front?”

  “I have a briefing prepared for you at headquarters. To summarize, our advance has been slowed by logistics problems, although we are still moving ahead. Fortunately, the Russians face the same issues.”

  “A single-track railroad out of Latvia has not helped any,” Rommel commented.

  “I have commandeered a building in the city as our headquarters. So at least we can get warm.”

  “Is that your car over there?”

  “Yes, Herr General.”

  “Then, by all means, let’s go get warmed up. I imagine it is a lot colder out on the lines.”

  “That it is, Herr General.”

  Their driver guided the Emka staff car around the potholes along the rutted road into the city. The trains stopped outside the city as the German engineers still worked at converting the Russian wide-gauge roadbed to standard gauge. They had recently completed a turn-around loop, which brought freight much closer to the front.

  “What building was this?” Rommel asked as they rolled up in front of a concrete and stone structure.

  “It was a bank, such as they are in this country,” General Hoffmann replied. “It makes for a satisfactory headquarters.”

  “This place has a good furnace,” Rommel exclaimed after he had walked through the door into the overheated bank building. He quickly shrugged out of his greatcoat. A corporal stood close by to take his and Balck’s coats.

  “It’s nice to come from the outside,” Balck said. “No question. If you would come this way, Herr General. We have an office set up for you. There is even coffee. When you desire, we can meet in the map room.”

  “Very well,” Rommel replied. “Let me take a look at my new office briefly. Then we can meet.”

  Rommel’s chief of staff preceded him into the office to inspect the premises. “Looks like this is the Managing Director’s office.”

  “Or whatever the comrades call it,” Rommel responded. “This is nice. Too bad I won’t be able to spend much time here.”

  Several messages lay on the desk, awaiting Rommel’s attention. He spent fifteen minutes reviewing the mail and then made his way to what Balck had called the Map Room. A Wehrmacht sergeant guarded the door but turned and opened it for Rommel without comment. Rommel assumed the room was used for private meetings. A long oak table sat in the middle with chairs along the sides. Balck had drawn the heavy curtains across the four windows on the wall opposite the door. The other three walls were lined with plywood easels. Each had a map tacked to the backing and covered with clear acetate.

  “I have asked my adjutant to present the briefing if that is okay with you, Herr General,” Balck began.

  “That is fine with me.”

  “This is Colonel Klink,” Balck stated, nodding to the tall, balding, hook-nosed officer standing beside the map of Northern Europe.

  Klink stood at attention, holding the map pointer like a swagger stick. Klink’s ramrod straight posture and monocle made Rommel wonder if the officer was Prussian. Klink suddenly relaxed and pointed to the map. Rommel leaned forward
. The map was hard to see in the dim incandescent lights.

  “Thank you, Herr General and Herr General. First of all, our front line is approximately ten kilometers to the east of Velikiye Luki. We currently are making two to three kilometers per day against the Russians. Resistance varies from light to stiff. We have deduced that the Russians are throwing forces against us as soon as they arrive at the front. As such, we have no trouble pushing them back.”

  “Is our lack of progress progress due to the Russian resistance or the weather, or perhaps logistics?” Rommel asked.

  “Yes,” Balck replied.

  Klink hesitated as both general officers chuckled. He picked up the thread again.

  “General Balck is accurate, Herr General. The winter grows worse, but we prepared for it. We learned a lot from the winter of 41 and 42. We have become much more effective at winterizing our equipment.”

  “Does that include the railroad equipment?” Rommel inquired.

  “Yes. We studied the Russian locomotives and followed some of their practices. I would conclude that we are now as effective in winter conditions as the Russians. Perhaps more so.”

  “Why would that be, Colonel?” Balck asked.

  “I think it is because the Russians have lost two entire armies along with their equipment in Poland and Germany. They are now fighting a two-front war – here and in Ukraine. We are not fighting first-line soldiers. They are also ill-equipped. In my opinion, meine Herren, the weather is our biggest challenge. Pushing the Russians back presents no great difficulty.”

  “Are you prepared to talk about logistics?” Rommel asked.

  “Yes, Herr General. As you know, we have a single track from the Latvian border almost to Moscow. The Russians did not attempt to destroy the track as they retreated for whatever reasons. So to this point, we have been adjusting the track to give us standard gauge. Because the Russian roadbed is poor, we cannot run the heavy loads we would prefer. However, the freight is keeping up with the combat needs to this point. The teams from Gedob and Deutsche Reichsbahn are working hard to get a second track laid. They are also building more coaling and watering stations. We expect to have two tracks here within the month.”

  Gedob was the railway authority in the eastern territories outside of Germany proper. The Reichsbahn managed the railroads within Germany, but the two organizations cooperated extensively.

  “They are making good progress,” Rommel stated. “I observed some of the tracking as we came through. It looks like they are following the Russian practice.”

  Klink rocked his hand back and forth. “Yes and no, Herr General. We have set up several sawmills and are cutting pine for railroad ties. We are laying track with minimal ground preparation, so in that regard, we are following Russian practice. However, we are using the screw and baseplate setup for anchoring the rails rather than spikes. We won’t be able to run heavy loads until we completely rebuild the railbeds. But it should get us through the winter reliably.”

  “And what happens in the spring, Colonel?” Rommel asked.

  Klink raised his eyebrows and grinned sheepishly. “That is the question, isn’t it? I asked the head DR engineer about that. In the areas that look like the ground will be unstable in the spring melt, they are doubling the number of ties and putting in longitudinal links. Beyond that, we will have to see.”

  Rommel looked over at Balck. “There are many reasons why we need to have this operation wrapped up by spring, Hermann.”

  “I understand.”

  “Khrushchev and Smirnoff promised me that they wouldn’t bother me anymore this winter,” Rommel commented. “Maybe I can remain here for a while.”

  “There would be no complaints from me,” Balck replied.

  Rommel turned back to look at Klink, who continued the briefing.

  “We have seen an increase in partisan activity. We have concluded that the Russians know they can’t stop us directly at the front and have diverted resources to attacking the trains or sabotaging the roadbed.”

  “How big a problem is this, Colonel?”

  “At the moment, it is a nuisance, but it is growing. We have begun putting armed wagons into the trains to respond to the attacks. We have also increased guard patrols along the tracks and the coaling stations.”

  “That actually makes me more nervous than the front,” Rommel said. “If they cause enough havoc in our rear, it will slow the advance. What other challenges do you see, Colonel?”

  “It always comes down to logistics, Herr General. Supplying the coaling stations is a major challenge. Keeping the army supplied will be difficult once we get past the spring rains if we blitz through to Moscow.”

  “And if the Russians try to swing around behind us?” Balck added.

  “Are they able to do that?” Rommel asked. “What is their logistics tail like? There is not much of a rail network in this part of the country.”

  “And we could probably move forces along the railway from Latvia and here faster than they could cut us off.”

  “There is that. Has the Luftwaffe been keeping up with the aerial reconnaissance?”

  “When the weather is clear, like today,” Balck answered. “I worry that if the weather closes in, which it will, the Russians will take the opportunity to move a raiding force into our rear area. Like they did when they slipped across the Oder.”

  “We’ll just have to pay attention,” Rommel commented.

  “That concludes the briefing, meine Herren,” Klink stated. He nodded his head and stepped back against the map.

  “Thank you, Colonel,” Rommel replied. “Now, if you don’t mind, the General and I need to have a conversation.”

  They watched as Klink and Rommel’s Chief of Staff quietly exited the room. Rommel then turned to Balck.

  “Things are going well, Hermann.”

  Balck nodded. “I think so. Of course, I try to stay wary when things go well.”

  “Things can go unwell in a mighty big hurry,” Rommel chuckled sourly. “My biggest concern between you and me, Hermann, is that I don’t get a sense of urgency. Two to three kilometers per day is not acceptable. I understand the challenges, but you remember how we operated in Libya.”

  “I do, and I accept your correction, Herr General.”

  “Thank you. I think our people have gotten too comfortable here. Do we have rail constructed to the front?”

  “All but the last two kilometers or so.”

  “Very well. I want you to move the headquarters to where it is no more than five kilometers from the front. Our front-line soldiers are sleeping in tents. I think the headquarters staff can do so as well. They must be prepared to move to follow the advance every few days.”

  Balck grinned. “You are correct, of course, Herr General. And please accept my apologies. This place is too comfortable.”

  “Apologies accepted. Let’s gift this building to the Gedob and DR. This looks like it will be a rail center during the campaign. They will appreciate our generosity and work harder.”

  “I will see that we do so,” Balck replied.

  Rommel stood up. “Now, you and I need to get out to the front and look at things directly.”

  “Of course, Herr General.”

  They left the building and drove through the cold to the railroad yards. The Germans used a switching engine and a couple of passenger cars and cargo wagons to travel between the town and the front lines. Since there was no turnaround loop at the front, the switch engine could move the small train forward or backward for short trips.

  This time, armed soldiers guarded the train and passengers as they moved across the countryside. The engine chuffed as the cars bumped over the uneven rails.

  “The engine looks like it was German-made,” Rommel commented.

  “Yes,” Balck replied. “The Russian engines are usually not worth trying to convert to standard gauge. The wagons, I understand, present no great problems. But all of the Russian rolling stock is junk.”

  Rommel
grinned as he looked around the decrepit passenger car. “I was going to say that this is not up to our usual standards.”

  “Not something I would requisition for the Reich Chancellor.”

  “He wouldn’t care,” Rommel said.

  “Is that so?”

  “I have discovered that Herr Schloss puts his pants on the same way you and I do. Guderian told me that Göring redecorated the interior of Schloss’s Condor as a wedding present. Herr Schloss was embarrassed.”

  “I had not heard that.”

  “A very different sort of Chancellor is our Heinrich Schloss. He is a kind man but also utterly ruthless.”

  “Of course, we have heard how he dealt with Himmler,” Balck said.

  “Exactly.”

  “Does he understand tactics?” Balck asked.

  “He has delegated the tactical management to the Reichsmarshall and Guderian, and they have delegated it to you and me. But he is probably unmatched in his understanding of strategy. He is consistently looking one-hundred years ahead.”

  “I’d be happy to know what we will be doing in one year.”

  Rommel chuckled. “You can leave that up to fate or the Lord, depending on your beliefs. But I generally feel the same way.”

  The little train stopped at the end of the line, and the passengers climbed down. Rommel moved several paces away from the train to look around. Ahead of the locomotive, he could see the railway workers feverishly adjusting the track to standard gauge. An armored half-track waited to carry him and Balck closer to the front.

  Balck climbed down from the railcar and walked ahead to study the railway construction. Rommel suddenly found himself spun around. He opened his eyes and wondered why he was face down in the snow. Around him, he could hear shouts and gunfire.

  “Herr General, are you alright?”

  Rommel heard Balck shouting at him but could not answer for some reason.

  “Medic!” Balck shouted. “General Rommel has been shot.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  December 15, 1944; 6 PM

  10 Downing Street

  London, England, UK