The Steel Wave - Jeff Shaara [22]
Patton seemed to calm himself, an effort to become the good subordinate. “Met them last night. Not too happy about that, Ike. My troops aren’t scheduled to arrive for weeks yet. No one’s giving me a straight answer. Beetle wouldn’t tell me how long it would take for the first divisions to ship in.”
“Not weeks, months. Beetle didn’t tell you any more than that because those were my orders. I need to talk to you about the plan myself.”
Patton seemed to sag. “What’s going on, Ike? You changing your mind? Some stinking goddam senator put a bug up Marshall’s ass? Am I still in command of the Third Army?”
Eisenhower let out a long breath. He could see Patton’s face turning red. “Relax, George. Yes, you are in command of the Third Army. But you won’t hit France until the beachheads are well in hand. That’s for Monty to do, and Bradley. You will go in after them, try like hell to punch a hole, drive the enemy back to Germany. Nobody I’d rather have in charge of that kind of job than you. You got that?”
Patton looked at the floor for a moment. “Not really. You don’t want me to lead the assault? I did a damned fine job of that in Sicily. Is this Monty’s crap? He still pissed about Messina? Hell, if he’d gotten off his ass and shoved his people where they needed to be—”
“Stop!”
Patton was leaning forward, clearly angry; Eisenhower pointed a finger at him.
“That’s why, George. Some jobs require thought and planning before the shooting starts. Monty’s a thinker, Brad is a thinker. You…you lead with your fists. Fine, that’s a good thing. I’m counting on you for that…when the time comes. But I have a much more important job for you right here.”
Patton’s mood changed abruptly. Eisenhower saw he was curious. “What kind of job?”
“The enemy knows very well what you mean to us, how you inspire the troops, what the newspapers say about you, all of that. Despite everything we’ve done to keep word of your whereabouts secret, the enemy’s intelligence knows you’re here.”
Patton seemed to puff up again, and Eisenhower thought, Of course, he’s proud they keep track of him.
“I’ll keep my head down, Ike. We find any Kraut spies, I’ll string ’em up myself.”
“Actually, George, we’ve already found a few spies. The Brits have done one hell of a job nailing Hitler’s intelligence people here. Better than that, we’ve been able to turn them around.”
“You’re asking Kraut spies to work for us?”
“Asking isn’t the word I’d use. They either work for us or they’re executed. It’s called a strong bargaining position. Point is, so far, it’s worked out well. We’ve been feeding the enemy false information; then we sit back to see if they respond. Stupid little tests, like information about some raid we’re going to launch on a weather station or some fortified gun battery. It’s worked. The Germans have responded just like we wanted them to. They still believe their agents are doing their job. What they don’t know is that their communications are being monitored by our people.”
“How long do you think this is going to work? Sooner or later, one of these turncoats is going to remember his beloved Führer and stick someone in the back.”
“Could happen. The Brits are all over this. Double and triple cover. A lot of stuff I don’t even want to know about, details I don’t need to know.”
“Don’t like this, Ike. A Kraut is a Kraut.”
“I don’t care if you like it or not, George. I need you to follow orders. And this is a beauty. We plan to let it leak that you’ve arrived in London, for one very specific command.”
“They’ll learn about that sooner or later, Ike. You can’t hide a whole damned army.”
“We don’t plan to hide one. We plan to create one. The plans are being put into place. The First United States Army Group, commanded by General George Patton.”
He had never seen Patton so confused. “A fake army? What the hell for?”
“To convince the enemy that we’re going to make our landing at Calais. That you are going to make our landing at Calais. We’re still figuring out