Blitzkrieg #1 A Return to War Chapter 5

                                                      CHAPTER 5

DECEMBER 5^TH 1861 NEW BERLIN, NEW GERMANY

         All through the country once known as Cuba citizens and visitors alike marveled at the technology that the Germans had brought from the future.  Through a trade agreement with the government of the CSA, the New German Government had ample supplies of oil to power their machines and power plants. Hitler had the country firmly under the grip of Nazi style government, as undesirables, troublemakers, and rabble-rousers were quietly and quickly shipped off in the middle of the night to the new concentration camps erected out in the countryside by Goring, and his SS.

         On this day Hitler and his entourage sat on the raised platform before the giant field arrayed with seats. Out on the gigantic field maidens in traditional german garb danced and performed feats of physical prowess. Today was the first annual  Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, or NSDAP party rally. Many of the young men who had emigrated from the Germany of this time had done so with enthusiasm and Hitler had made Armed Forces service mandatory to become a citizen. The ranks were once again swelling with new recruits for Hitler. The Wehrmacht was now at almost 5 divisions worth of troops.  There were 3 different training camps in operation around New Germany training the new recruits for the Wehrmacht.  Hitler had also had reinstated the League of German Girls, and the Hitler Youth programs.                                                                      

(German Girls who immigrated into New Germany at a meeting of the new League of German Girls)

DECEMBER 6^TH 1861 NEW BERLIN, NEW GERMANY

Hitler sat at his large solid oak desk, a gift from the Confederate States of America for services to that country in their battle for independence. Hitler was deep in thought. He had been reading his intelligence reports from the USA. The American forces with Nimitz had decimated the dual British Armies a second time. The British Government had asked to sue for peace as the former Army of the Potomac, now renamed the Grand Army of the Republic began its invasion of Quebec, Canada. Hitler's only concern was for the weapons which Nimitz had begun to supply the Federal troops with. His intelligence arm of the Army or the SD, had discovered that Nimitz had brought the equivalent of 4 divisions with him from the future. Those were the divisions which concerned him. He knew that Nimitz would continue following the orders of President Truman from 1945 no matter what President Hamlin told him.  But if Hitler was anything he was a master statesman and he knew it. If he could get President Hamlin to put a leash on Nimitz and control him Nimitz and his forces would be powerless without the support of the USA of this time era.  The Confederate Government grew stronger with every month that passed by. Hitler had graciously provided engineers and army personnel on loan to the confederate government to help repair war damages, and had slowly began to introduce certain select technology to the Confederates.  He had scientists give a demonstration of telephone, and electrical generation to President Davis of the Confederacy.  Davis had been wide eyed and amazed during the entire display given by the scientists and engineers. Hitler and Davis had signed an agreement in short order after the display. Davis agreed to provide land and men to build factories to produce wiring and the various items to make basic telephones, while Hitler would supply the technical know how, and engineers to train their Confederate allies.

DECEMBER 6^TH 1861 MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA

         Otto Shultz, chief engineer of the Kauffman Electrical Plant stood silently still, praying. Being a good National Socialist he wasn't supposed to pray but the Nazi's couldn't read your thoughts yet, he mused to himself.  The generator before him was a small one, roughly 125 horsepower.  It was steam driven as both coal and wood were widely available. Two hours earlier Shultz had given the orders to fire the boiler, or begin feeding the firepot below it to start getting steam pressure built up in the boiler to spin the turbine for the generator. Shultz leaned over one of his engineers and a confederate trainee to glance at the steam pressure gauge and nodded to his assistant. The assistant began speaking and gesturing to his confederate trainee and they were soon spinning valves and turning levers. A loud hiss was heard and then a slowly growing rumble which deepened to a steady whine. Shultz glanced to his technician who was observing the electrical generation gauges and waited a minute until he also nodded. Shultz, gave the men his thumbs up and yelled loudly to be heard over the sounds of the turbine/generator. "Power is coming up....now" He reached to a giant U-shaped switch with a long wooden handle on it and flipped the switch into the down position to let power flow from the generator. A loud crack was barely heard along with a brief flash of sparks as the switch closed the circuit.  Instantly the inside of the building was lit up by the lights which the engineers had installed in the new building.  Everyone cheered and began shaking hands all around. Shultz shook his head, a small sneer on his face. These people are excited over a generator barely able to light up a little over 200 homes. He thought. Ridiculous

         At almost the same time Lieutenant Rutger Hurtag was also standing and waiting. His job had been to build and install a small telephone operator center.  His engineers had run a telephone line from Montgomery, Alabama to Columbus, Georgia.  His building, much smaller than Shultz's electrical plant, also relied on the power from Shultz and his trainees. Lieutenant Hurtag was out in front of the building enjoying a cigarette when the lights on the front of the small building flickered, then wavered between bright and dim then stayed steady.  Hurtag threw down his still smoking cigarette butt and ran into the building. One of his radio engineers and a confederate trainee operator were seated before the giant operator board, ready to make connections for incoming calls to the operators.  Hurtag knew that the boards only had limited connections as of yet, but when the telephone network had grown some the operators seated at this board would be very busy indeed.  Hurtag nodded to his radio man at the board. "Connect me to Columbus operator please corporal." He said. The man pulled out a plug and re inserted it into a different spot the gripped the microphone hanging from his neck. "Columbus operator, this is Montgomery, Alabama speaking. Can you hear us." After only a brief moment the response from Columbus came over the distantly ran lines.  Hurtag smiled and shook hands with his personnel. The confederacy had just taken its first few steps into the 20^th century.

DECEMBER 12^TH 1861 WASHINGTON D.C. THE WHITE HOUSE

         President Hamlin was seated behind his desk, before the desk sat Ambassador Karl Langersdorf of New Germany. President Hamlin had immediately recognized New Germany in hopes that that recognition would forestall any more attacks on US forces by the advanced weapons these Germans had access to.  "Mr. President, " Began the ambassador." It is my countries belief that you are unable to contain Admiral Nimitz and his partners in crime." He said casually, as if he was noticing a fly on the window sill. "I have been advised that if this Admiral Nimitz doesn't cease his attacks on our shipping on the open ocean, then we will be forced to respond in kind. My government further declares that since the government of the United States is harboring these criminals, then the US government must condone these attacks if not support them outright."  President Hamlin sputtered in anger and astonishment. He couldn't afford to get into a tangle with these Germans again, and everyone knew it, including the Germans. "Mr Ambassador, please let me be up front and honest with you sir. The Government of these United States does not condone attacks on foreign vessels at sea unless a state of war is in evidence between that nation and this one. We further add that this type of behavior is irreprehensible and will not be tolerated. Admiral Nimitz will be immediately chastised and shown the error of his ways." Hamlin said. Langersdorf nodded slightly but wasn't finished with his verbal attack on the President of the USA yet. "My government further has stated that if these attacks continue than our allies the Confederate States Government will also be forced to take action against the USA as these actions on the seas will be considered an act of war, and the CSA wil honor her alliance with New Germany." President Hamlin, whom had never been able to put any real steel in his spine, refused to give these Germans a reason to resume hostilities. "Mr Ambassador, the United States will deal with Admiral Nimitz immediately and you will no longer have to fear the actions of his forces. If Admiral Nimitz will not listen to any reason from this government then this government will be forced to cast him and his personnel out of this country and what ever action is taken against him and his men will be his own problem and no longer the problem of the United States." Langersdorf smiled slyly, and thanked the President for such understanding talks. He then rose and shook Hamlin's hand. "Mr President, the Fuhrer will be pleased with the outcome of these talks and the Government of New Germany looks forward to a long lasting peace, and a partnership of prosperity with the United States of America.

Admiral Nimitz paced the floor of his office in his Quonset hut. In his hand tightly gripped was an official letter from the White House.  President Hannibal Hamlin had formally requested that Nimitz order his forces to stand down and cease all offensive actions against the peace loving peoples of New Germany. "Peace loving peoples of New Germany!" Growled Nimitz. What a load of shit, he thought.  Nazi's were about as peace loving as a black widow spider.  Nimitz stopped and stared out over his airfield in the distance. Rows of F-80 jets and B-17 and B-29 bombers sat silently and still. Off in the distance beyond the airfield he could see the construction crew building the framework for the Factories and production plants for the items he would need here. Nimitz sighed, he had no choice. The crumpled letter in his hands went on to say the the United States Government would expel Nimitz and his forces if they refused to comply.  Nimitz knew that he had no choice but to comply with the Presidents orders. But he cherished that small amount of solace he felt, knowing that the Nazis would eventually fuck up again. If Hitler was anything, he was reliably unreliable. You could bet on Hitler breaking his agreements like a racehorse that was a sure thing. Nimitz threw the crumbled up letter from President Hamlin in the trashcan and stormed out of the office. Thinking to himself, he would go look over his projects. He wanted to make sure he was ready for when Hitler screwed up again.

         President Jefferson Davis was sincerely enjoying himself for the first time in years. The war was over and his new country had won its independence. The border states who had sat on the fence were now full fledged members of the Confederate States. He had signed a several million dollar trade agreement with the Germans in New Germany to supply them with cotton, and the south now had a large supplier for Tobacco.  Now this, Davis smiled, was even better than that. Davis was in Opelika, Alabama, the first town in the Confederacy to be entirely supplied with electricity. The small electricity production plant was located just North of Montgomery, Alabama. The German engineers had ran the wooden poles from the plants location all the way to this small town.  From what the chief engineer for the project had informed him the distance was perfect between Montgomery and Opelika for eventually expanding the wire to slowly include other towns in the grid, as the technicians had called it. Of course they had also said that the electrical systems were vastly more involved and technical than what he as told. But as long as it worked and his countrymen knew how to work on it and build it, that's what mattered to the Confederate Government.

         That night President Davis and his cabinet, and high ranking members of the Confederate Army and Navy threw a Ball in recognition of their New German Allies.  The large Plantation in Columbus, Georgia was owned by Pierre Beauregard, a former General in the Confederate Army.  The building was built in 1801 from native Alabama Marble in the northern part of the state.  The main home had a large wrap around porch with a floor made from native Alabama limestone, also quarried from the northern part of the state.  As one stood in the large half circle shaped carriage drive in front of the plantation, the large pure white colored building reared up like a cliff in front of the visitor. Six large columns supported the front entrance of the home. As night drew near the warm glow of oil lamps in the home flickered brightly through the windows in  front of the plantation. The talking, laughing, and dancing invitees to the ball could be seen through the ample windows. Outside the plantation, a long line of carriages and a few horseless carriages were parked along the edge of the drive.  The slaves of the various carriage owners milled about their carriages waiting for their white owners to come from inside the home.  Around the Plantation were small groups of Confederate army men.  The men silently patrolled the night around the plantation to protect the government officials inside at the party.  Or, that's what the men in gray were detailed to do. But with the end of the war much of the Confederate Army had been mustered out, or discharged, and a much smaller version of the army was left to guard the new born country.

         Sergeant Ames Lindt, formerly of the 12^th Alabama regiment, now the 2^nd Infantry Division, sat and stared blankly into the small fire that he and the two other men in his detail shared. His men were relatively newcomers to the army and had never fought an engagement against the Yankees. Lindt and the rest of the divisions noncoms didn't care a spit for none of the replacements that the division had received since the peace treaty had been signed. Lindt sighed and reached deep in his pocket for his picture. His fingers found its worn familiar feeling and he withdrew it to look at his wife and daughter again.  Lindt had missed them terribly since the battle of Bull run. His family had been on their small plantation just south of the Potomac, a spit away from the Yankee capital city.  When the war broke out he had been called up for duty, and he had pleaded with his wife to take their daughter and go to Georgia to stay with his folks on their plantation.  His wife had refused telling him that the farm had been in her family since before the revolutionary war, and she wouldn't lose it to a pack of filthy Yankees.  Lindt had been a captain then, an officer.  Knowing that his wife would never change her mind once it was made up he walked with her out onto their porch and kissed her and his daughter, telling them that he would return as soon as he could. He mounted up on his horse, giving his family one last loving look, then turned his horse to ride off south. As he had just left the edge of his farthest field he suddenly heard the Confederate artillery begin to fire from somewhere in front of him to the south. He heard a screaming from a low fired shell and instinctively ducked in his saddle foolishly thinking it would miss him if he ducked. He spun his horse around just in time to see that poorly aimed shot impact with his house. He screamed his wife and daughters names, digging his spurs into the flanks of his horse. He galloped up to the smoking remains of his house and jumped from his horse before it had even had the chance to fully stop. Rushing into the smoking pile of wreckage he glanced around quickly for his wife and daughter. Within a few moments he found small pieces of them both. After grieving and then burying what remains of them he could find he stood over his families graves briefly thinking. His face set, he climbed back into the saddle and headed off in the direction the artillery fire had come from. It had taken most of the day but he finally had found the gun crew that had fired the faulty shot.  Lindy climbed down from his horse then went into the gun pit with the crew and beat all 6 men within an inch of their lives.  He was standing over the gun captain with his officers sword raised high to slice through the mans neck when he heard the commands being shouted at him to drop the sword and back away. He wavered a moment, then slowly dropped the sword and stepped back from the devastation he had just caused.  One of the men had every bone in his face cracked or broken, another man had both of arms broken and one leg shattered. Lindt had run yet another man through with his bayonet, pinning him to the wooden wall erected directly in front of the gun.  The Colonel who had shouted at Lindt slowly walked up with 4 other men. He glanced around the gun pit and sadly shook his head....The colonel looked at Lindt and pointed across the grassless open area at another gun. "That gun over there, Captain, was the one who had destroyed your home. That is the one with the misfire." Lindt had glanced around at  the havoc he had caused,  to the men around him who stared at him in disgust,  to the gun that the colonel had pointed at his eyes temporarily vacant and uncomprehending. After that Lindt had been brought up on charges and then stripped of his rank and then forced into enlistment as a sergeant in the infantry. Since then Lindt's hate had grown for his own government for killing everything he had loved, and for the Yankees for causing it all. Lindt was usually a very smart and methodical man. He had planned his revenge for almost a year and had nurtured it into a slowly developing plan to strike back at both of his hated enemies.

         Lindt leaned over to his large knapsack and opened the flap on it, glancing inside to make sure his belongings were inside. He caught a glimpse of the blue union uniform he had stripped off a dead yank during the war. He smiled then glanced up to the two men with him. "You men keep a good eye out at the woods there. I'm going to take a piss." He said. The men stopped talking and nodded at their veteran sergeant. They shouldered their rifles and glared intently into the night, looking for any imaginary enemy that could be out there. Lindt stood up grabbing his pack and walked off into the night.

         Inside the plantation home the ball was going full bore. More distinguished southern guests had arrived at the last moment, and the United States ambassador to the Confederacy had come as well. Newly appointed to Richmond by President Hamlin, Ambassador Leslow Richardson was a wealthy Boston business owner who ahd been picked by the president for the newest ambassadorial position. Davis had not expected him to make a showing at the Confederate Ball, but Richardson had decided that in the interests of the United States it would be best to make a showing, if only briefly.  A Confederate general, who happened to be looking in the right direction at just the right time saw a man in blue outside of one of the windows in the ballroom. He had just a brief moment to see the man and the look on his face, and the fact that he was holding a rifle in one hand and a German hand bomb in the other. The glass of the window shattered as the blue clad soldier threw a hand bomb into the room followed by a second. The the man was off dashing to the next window. Has the first bomb blew, fragments from the explosive slashed through the room like knife through butter. Women and men alike were cut down instantly in the confined area of the room, the fact that the room was full to bursting with guests adding to the casualties. The second window was blown out already by the first explosions when the man tossed yet two more of the hand bombs into the room. These explosions cut more people down who had miraculously survived the first dual explosions. Then the rapid firing of machine pistols were heard outside from the guards at the front of the building. These two men, who were German soldiers, were there as part of the Ambassadors guard detail from New Germany.  Their bursts on full automatic cut the blue clad soldier down in his tracks and he was dead before even hitting the ground.

DECEMBER 13^TH 1861 RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

         Vice president of the Confederacy Alexander Hamilton Stephens read through the telegram a second time. "This has to be a mistake!" He said.

"No sir it isn't." The messenger replied. "I had them send the message twice, sir."

Stephens dropped his hands to his side, still holding the letter. Looking off into the distance he tried to think clearly.  Stephenson was 49 years old, and he suddenly felt twice that age. "How many members of the cabinet are left alive?" He asked the messenger.

"When the messenger was dispatched sir, he reported that Mr. Toombs, and Mr. Memminger were the only ones to escape unharmed.  Mr. Walker was severely injured and wouldn't likely live out the night. The rest were killed outright, including President Davis and General Lee. Also a matter of note, the new USA ambassador to our country was also killed in the attack."  The messenger said to Stephens.

         Stephens shook his head and sighed. He knew what he had to do but didn't relish the idea of doing so. His country needed to heal and grow more self sufficient and strong. But this blatant attack by the US couldn't possibly be ignored without retaliation of some sort.

DECEMBER 14^TH 1861 WASHINGTON D.C. THE WHITE HOUSE

         President Hamlin read and reread the memo from his intelligence people working with  Nimitz's own intelligence unit. The US ambassador to the Confederacy was dead along with the majority of the Confederate Presidential Cabinet, including General Robert E. Lee, and President Jefferson Davis. The intelligence report went on to say that the man who had committed the act had been dressed in Yankee blue, and carried Yankee weapons. President Hamlin had immediately denounced the attack and blamed it on rogue agents within the Yankee government. But the Confederate states were up in arms once again and were demanding justice from their government. Some of the men killed in this attack had been some of the most honored and revered men in the Confederate States of America, and nothing short of blood would quiet them down. Hamlin knew that at any moment he could expect the Ambassador from the Confederate states to show up demanding restitution and an accounting for the attack. Hamlin had been informed by his senior staff that none had any knowledge of the assassination attack against the CSA government. But he wasn't sure how well he could trust his senior officers. He knew that privately they resented having to make peace with the Confederate States. He just wasn't sure if they were capable of acting to this extent alone.

         President Alexander Hamilton Stephens of the Confederate States listened intently to the men around the table in his office. Stephens was staring intently at the beautiful highly polished wood grain of the table that had been given to him by the British Government as a token of friendship. The men around the table, his cabinet and senior military staff, continued droning along concerning the recent attack. Military readiness, state of the Confederate infrastructure,  the economy. Stephens was bored with the endless talk and was wanting action.

"Gentlemen, enough is enough." Stephens roared at the men around the room. The men went silent staring at Stephens. This side of him was unknown. He had normally been soft spoken and quiet in general. "Generals...I want a genuine report of what we can and cant do. I don't need to hear suggestions of what we should do! DO I make myself clear gentlemen?" He asked. The men nodded their answers, some speaking their answers quietly.  "Do we know if this heinous act was an act of one man, or was this an act sponsored by the Yankee President?" He asked the assembled men.

"No sir, we don't know that for sure. We have the body of the attacker, but no luck with identification so far." General Beauregard said. (General P.T Beauregard had assumed General Lee's position after he had been killed during the ball.) General Beauregard seemed to hesitate, then spoke again. "Mr. President we do have something we can do to retaliate against the Yankees in a somewhat limited fashion. Our army isn't quite up to a full confrontation yet, but we could use one of our secret weapons that our allies from New Germany had given us. This is what I propose sir." Beauregard said and then began to lay out his plan to the President and the other men in the room.