Three Kings

It was soon determined that, to fight their way in, they could expect to sustain hundreds of casualties, if not thousands. That was a loss that was unacceptable, especially considering that these were elite forces. It would be foolish to expend them in a bitter battle for the caves and tunnels. Could they simply wait the British out, starve them into submission?

“That would be fruitless,” said Kubler in the final staff meeting to decide the issue. “They most likely have enough water and supplies for hold out for months, if not longer. We discussed this withHalder before the attack. A long siege is out of the question. Each week we allow to pass without a swift victory here will bolster the British morale at home. Their Mister Churchill will seize upon it as a rallying point. They have already stopped Goering and his Luftwaffe, or at least that is what I now hear. The squadrons are being re-deployed to the Mediterranean, and the Fuhrer now considers this to be a primary war zone. If we stumble here, or delay, we will not be easily forgiven.”

“You heard what I have proposed,” said ColonelLahousen. He was Chief of the Sabotage Branch of the Abwehr, a man tasked with handling special missions that required unusual tactics. It was he who had put forward the need for the Brandenburgers in this attack, an element that ended up proving very useful in the initial stages of the operation. Now he had another idea that might do the job, not more troops-gasoline. It could be hauled up in Jerry cans and simply poured into the upper galleries where the German mountain troops had already gained entry. Like any liquid, it would find its way through any crevice or crack, and migrate down into the lower galleries. Then all it would take is a match to finish the job.

It was a macabre and horrific plan, and would make for a terrible death to any man trapped inside those passageways. The British had food and water to hold out for months, but a gasoline fire would consume the oxygen itself. Those that weren’t asphyxiated would suffocate if they tried to resist further. Yet in spite of the sinister promise of success, many of the senior German officers were appalled by the plan.

The war would end in merciless nuclear fire. Millions would die before it was over and, on some nights, as many as 100,000 would be consumed in a single horrific holocaust of chaos and flame, entire cities burned away by deliberate fire bombing at places like Tokyo, Dresden and others. Yet now, in late 1940, there was still some semblance of civility and humanity alive in the way the war was being fought. The unconditional, unrestricted mindset of war had not yet set in, and so the German officers decided to give the British one last chance to make an honorable surrender.

They called for a brief cease fire and came forward under a white flag, offering generous terms again, only this time they would tell Liddell what they were going to be forced to do if their offer was not accepted. Kubler refused to attend the conference, so ColonelLahousen was sent to make the final threat.

“We will not lose any more of men to persuade you to accept what you already know is inevitable,” he told Liddell.

“Oh? Well I must tell you, Colonel, that if so ordered I am prepared to lose this entire garrison to forestall your occupation of this place.”

“Have you ever seen man burn to death?”Lahousen asked. “It is not a pretty sight. Then again, the fumes from thousands of gallons of gasoline will be another agony, a choking death for some, until I decide to end the matter and use this.” He reached into his pocket and took out a book of matches, setting it squarely on the table between the two men and smiling.

“Good day, General Liddell. We will give you the three days you request, and await your decision. Do not force me to become the monster I may now seem to be. After all, this is war.”

Liddell waited those three days, and put the matter to Whitehall, where it went round for a good long day before Churchill finally decided, delivering a speech that he had made at an earlier time in the history Fedorov knew. This time it was the loss of Gibraltar that inspired the eloquence of his rhetoric.