The Steel Wave - Jeff Shaara [6]
In Washington, General Marshall and President Roosevelt discuss the leadership options for such an enormous and dangerous undertaking. Though Marshall puts his own name up for consideration, Roosevelt realizes that his chief of staff is far too valuable in his current position. Though disappointed, Marshall turns again to the only man who has yet demonstrated the ability to manage such a large-scale organizational nightmare: Dwight Eisenhower. Despite more grumblings from the British, notably Alan Brooke, Winston Churchill begins to champion Eisenhower as the only logical choice to command Overlord. In January 1944, Ike leaves his command in the Mediterranean and returns to London.
Having made too many enemies in the German High Command, Erwin Rommel sits in bored obscurity in a meaningless post in northern Italy, hoping that Hitler will once again come to rely on him for some significant duty in the field. Instead, in late 1943, Rommel receives word that he is being assigned the position of inspector for Army Group West, under the thumb of one of Germany’s grand old soldiers, Gerd von Rundstedt, headquartered in Paris. A dismayed Rommel is appointed commander of Army Group B, with the responsibility to fortify and protect the French coastline. Rommel views the position with disgust, believing, with most other German officers, that he has been placed in a backwater of the war. But he attacks his job with the same fervor he has shown throughout his long career and begins to light fires under the complacent commanders who are staring idly out to sea. Despite no indication of an impending invasion, he recognizes that such an attack is inevitable and begins his inspections along the coast, examining what Berlin has labeled Hitler’s Atlantic Wall. Rommel is deeply disheartened at what he finds. Should the Allies come, he knows the German defenses are woefully inadequate. He observes firsthand that the defenses along much of the French coast are more fantasy than fact and that the fortresslike barriers exist only in Hitler’s mind. Since Rommel has been given a job to do, he decides to do it correctly. If Hitler insists on an impregnable defense along the coast of France, Rommel will do all he can to provide it.
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PART ONE
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We Germans have a far greater and more urgent duty towards civilization to perform…. We, like the Japanese, can only fulfill it by the sword. War is a biological necessity.
FRIEDRICH VON BERNHARDI (1849–1930)
We are determined that before the sun sets on this terrible struggle, our flag will be recognized throughout the world as a symbol of freedom on the one hand, of overwhelming power on the other.
GENERAL GEORGE C. MARSHALL, 1942
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1. THE COMMANDO
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AT SEA, BAY OF THE SEINE
JANUARY 25, 1944
The air underwater was foul and wet, five men pulling against the thinning oxygen. He sat erect, his back painfully pressed against a coil of wire, part of the electrical system of the craft. She was an X-5 class midget submarine, designed to deliver a magnetic mine or similar explosive device, something to be attached to the bottom of an enemy ship. They were stealthy, of course, no blip on anyone’s radar screen, so the British navy had used them on raids all along the coastline, from Norway to the Mediterranean, usually with enormous risk to both the subs and their small crews. But tonight the sub was not armed, and where explosives had once been stored she now carried three passengers and their equipment.
He tried to stretch his back—no room—and twisted his shoulders instead, working out the kinks. The air was growing worse, thin and acrid, bitter smells of oil and wet cloth. There were no dry places in the small sub, every surface had a slick coating of oily grease or water, mostly condensation. The engine made a low hum, deadened by the steel of the bulkhead, the sub lurching slowly from side to side, held now by long low waves that rolled silently toward the beaches.
“Suit up, lads.”
The voice was low, a croak from