Opening Moves

“I have here reports from agents across Europe indicating poor morale amongst western allied troops; homesickness and the like. They are less capable of sustaining casualties than we, which is proved comrade.” That was a statement that meant very little, for it mattered not a jot to either of them how many casualties were sustained in the course of achieving their goals. Even if a million more mothers cried tears of loss it would be as nothing.

“Some of our military personnel have fraternised with them on my orders, attended exercises, exchanged pleasantries and watched their soldiers perform badly, indicating inexperience or lack of combat ability.”

“The Amerikanisti particularly have issues. Some of their soldiers are of good quality of course but if you see page fourteen onwards you will see an appreciation of the abilities and readiness of all units, theirs, and the other allies. We have gained quality intelligence on every single divisional sized unit in their order of battle Comrade General Secretary.”

Searching his memory, he continued.

“The American paratroopers are particularly good but are few in number Comrade, a mere three divisions only.” And that was actually the first bit of information that was not accurate, for there were actually five in existence at that time.”

“Again, some of their tank and infantry divisions fought well, but many are relatively untested and of average quality. Remember the new division that the Germans captured during their Rhine campaign?”

Stalin searched his memory and found the information needed. A brand-new division, ‘…was it the 106th…?,’ had been placed on front-line duty in the Ardennes and had surrendered wholesale to the Germans attacking during the Battle of the Bulge.

“Also remember when they first arrived in Africa, their number one infantry division turned tail and ran when the Afrika Korps attacked them at Kasserine,” the accompanying chuckle was soft but Stalin didn’t miss it.

“The Amerikanisti rely on numbers and firepower to achieve their victories but they are soft Comrade General Secretary. We have numbers. We have firepower. We are not soft as they are soft.”

A swift glance down at the document brought forth further information.

“Their Marine Divisions have quality but are all concentrated against the slant-eyes so are of no concern to us at this time.”

“The British and their crony states are bled dry. They can fight but are weak and cannot stand against us for long. That island of theirs will be a different matter of course but we will develop the means to cross the divide in time.”

Almost as an afterthought, Beria added, “With only a handful of divisions, the useless French can be discounted obviously.”

And with a shared nod of heads, a once proud nation was dismissed as an irrelevance and the file returned to Beria, minus one copy.

“In any case, our proposed arrangement with the slant-eyes will ensure that they must all dedicate resources to the Pacific, no matter what the demands of Europe.”

Stalin looked unconvinced on that point and pressed Beria.

“Will their presence be enough alone Lavrentiy? They have virtually no ability to project power or threat any more. Their navy is almost destroyed, their air force crippled and their army lacks decent weaponry. They have only manpower and spirit as I see it. I do not think those will fix sufficient American forces in place.”

Beria felt triumphant inside as he produced a proposal document from his deceptively capacious case.

“This is a matter on which you have expressed reservation before Comrade, so I have looked into it and believe that this proposal might meet your concerns.”

This file required time and another cigarette to examine properly, so Beria stealthily shifted back to the window in time to see the inspection parade dismiss. The wait was interminable.

Something obviously jumped out of the page.

“You wish to concede our claim on the Kurils permanently, Comrade?”

“Not permanently, just for now Comrade General Secretary, purely as a sugar for the Japanese.”

A dramatic frown and Stalin returned to reading further, frown deepening, mouth opening further as he progressed through Beria’s document.

“We sign a peace treaty ending all territorial disputes? All disputes Lavrentiy?”

“Yes Comrade General Secretary, in order to secure their compliance and support we must sweeten the pill. What we choose to do when Kingdom39 is complete is another matter.”

Stalin stopped in his tracks, his mind obviously working hard, eyes fixed on Beria.

Tension.

Stalin’s face softened and the tension evaporated as quickly as it had arrived.

“True, true”.

Stalin lapsed into silence and consumed the rest of the document.

“We simply do not have the capability for this grand design Comrade. It is an excellent proposal but surely it would make inroads into our stocks of all materials?”