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INTRODUCTION

The Nazi retreat to a fortress in the Bavarian Alps in 1945 never really happened. It was seriously considered by those in the German high command who wanted to go on fighting, either in Germany or elsewhere, or those who didn’t want to die in Berlin. But Hitler forbade it. The Allied command was divided about the seriousness of the threat. Some were concerned that a large German army holed up in the mountains would be almost impossible to root out without incurring large numbers of American casualties, while others thought that the whole idea was a fantasy. This worry impacted on Allied strategy, including having some influence on the decision to not send the U.S. Army to take Berlin ahead of the Russians. Instead, the Allies concentrated on cutting off large numbers of Germans, thus keeping them from reaching their presumed mountain sanctuary. Berlin was left to the Russians. They took it after desperate and bloody fighting and then savaged the town and the city’s population in an orgy of rape and murder. Hitler died in the ruins and his remains were taken by the Russians where they kept them hidden for decades.

The United States was war-weary and there was still the planned invasion of Japan to contend with. Battles in the Pacific had convinced the U.S. leaders that invading Japan would be a bloodbath. Thus, the war with Germany had to be concluded as soon as possible so that the full power of the United States military could be concentrated against it. The idea of a Nazi-led German army holding out in the mountains for months, perhaps years, horrified Allied leaders.

The German high command’s idea for the redoubt was not to win the war; that was no longer possible. They wanted the cult of Nazism to survive, along with themselves, of course. Hitler wished to die in Berlin and he did, but it was his potential heirs who wanted to go to the mountains. There they wished to exact enough American blood so that the U.S. would negotiate a peace that left at least a small version of Nazi Germany intact.

Hitler did not change his mind about the redoubt until April 18, 1945, when it was far too late to implement.

But what if he had ordered the development of the redoubt just after the failure of his attack in the Ardennes, the Battle of the Bulge? A mad dash to the mountains would have occurred. Hard and bitter fighting would have resulted as the Nazis did their best to convert the Alps into an impregnable citadel. Would the U.S. have negotiated an end to the war in Europe in order to end the killing? FDR was dead and Churchill had been voted out of office by a war-weary British population. Who knows what might have happened? And what if the United States began to fear that the Germans actually did possess at least one atomic bomb along with the means to deliver it? Pressure for peace would have been intense. The horrors of the death camps were only just being discovered, and many still doubted the extent of the killings.

As I have done in previous novels regarding Nazi Germany, I have chosen to use the English equivalents instead of the overlapping and often confusing German and Nazi system of ranks. It’s just easier.

Many outstanding histories have been written about the closing months of World War II in Europe and some days I think I’ve read all of them. The most recent is Rick Atkinson’s magnificent The Guns At Last Light, and I’ve shamelessly borrowed a number of facts from that work.

To the best of my knowledge, there was no 105th Infantry Division active in World War II. Therefore, all characters from that unit are fictitious, including the commanding generals.

Robert Conroy

CHAPTER 1

I feel pain, therefore I am. At least I don’t think I’m dead. Maybe I’m in hell, Tanner thought. If this was hell, then why the hell was hell so cold? He thought that was funny and almost giggled. He realized he was lying down, which made a kind of sense if maybe he really was dead.

“Captain Tanner, you okay?”

The voice came from his left. Tanner tried to speak but his mouth was too dry and he could only gag. He tried to generate some saliva. “Is there any water?” he finally croaked.

“Yeah, but you’re gonna have to get it yourself. Or have you forgotten what happened?”

His mind was cloudy and his head was pounding. Exactly what had happened? He began to recall German artillery shells exploding near him, his being slammed to the ground, and clumps of earth falling on him. After that, nothing. Clearly he had been stunned. But was he hurt badly? It didn’t seem like it. His arms and hands moved, which was a good sign, and he used them to check the rest of his body. All was present and apparently in good order. There was a bandage on his arm and his right knee had been wrapped.

He was on the ground and lying on his back. There was a large hole in the roof of whatever building he was in and he could see the low-hanging clouds that had hampered American air operations and protected the Germans. Someone had laid a blanket over him. He rolled his lanky six-foot frame onto his side and sat up. The world swam for a minute and then stopped. “You better hurry, Captain, or you’re gonna miss the surrender.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“The regiment’s surrendering, sir. Maybe the whole division. I don’t think there’s been anything like it before in this man’s army.”

That’s ridiculous, Captain Scott Tanner thought. But was it? His mind was clearing some more and he recalled visions of German tanks and infantry coming through the snow, the mist and the rain, overrunning and overwhelming the inexperienced and thinly spread out 106th Infantry Division. Now he recalled men running in panic from the onslaught. He saw them being blown to bloody pieces by shells from German artillery and tanks. Many senior officers had been as bad as the enlisted men and the junior officers. Stunned by the ferocity of the totally unexpected German onslaught, too many had been indecisive. They had done nothing while the division was cut to pieces. Yes, some men and units had fought bravely, but so many men had frozen, unable to give orders or make decisions. Or worse, had abandoned their posts and their men to their grim fate.

Tanner dimly recalled firing his carbine at shapes in the mist and swirling snow. He thought he might have hit someone, but wasn’t certain. All had been chaos and confusion and terror. Finally, he’d run in panic with the others and the thought shook him. Army captains were supposed to lead, not run screaming for help that wasn’t there. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t a combat officer, he was supposed to lead and he hadn’t. He had failed and it made him ashamed and bitter.

The 106th was a new division and had been put in the line on December 11, 1944 to gain a little experience fighting the Germans. The division had been given far too much front line area for one division to cover. Don’t worry, the division’s commanders were told. The area they’d been assigned was presumed to be calm and as safe as a combat area could be. The men could train and patrol and maybe get a little fighting experience.

Too bad nobody told the Germans. On December 16th, the Germans had attacked in overwhelming strength.

Tanner managed to stand up. He lurched over to where a canteen lay on a table. He looked around and saw that he was in some badly damaged farm house. He took a swallow and began to feel better.

“You know you could share, Captain.”

Tanner recognized the man on the floor as a private named Peters. His legs were in splints and, almost sheepishly, Tanner brought him some water. A second man lay by Peters. His name was Tucker. He too was a private. Tucker was unconscious and breathing shallowly. Tanner dribbled some water on Tucker’s lips but got no response.

“He’s been like that for a while,” said Peters. “Corpsman said he didn’t think he’d make it. I didn’t look, but the medic said there’s a big dent in his skull. If you want to roll him over you can see his brains.”

“No thank you. Tell me about the surrender?”

“Well sir, you know we got our asses kicked by the Krauts. We were surrounded and outnumbered and outgunned and outfought and, oh yeah, outsmarted.”

Tanner interrupted. “I remember that much. Who decided that anyone was going to surrender?”

“Hell, I don’t know. The medic said that two of the division’s three regiments were surrendering and that the third one had gotten away. He said our position was hopeless and that he was going down the road to tell the Germans that there were wounded in this farmhouse. That was a couple of hours ago so they ought to be back here pretty soon.”

Tanner took a deep breath. Did he want to surrender, to become a prisoner of war? Hell no. But did he have any other realistic choices? The Germans were all around. Could he get through and go west to where the American lines had to be? The Germans couldn’t have pushed the Americans too far back, could they? He decided that he had to try it. The weather was cold and miserable. Snow had started falling again. A prison camp might be dry and warm, but it would still be a prison. He could be there for years, maybe decades or even the rest of his life. Everybody had said that the Nazis were on their last legs and would collapse soon. Sure. The ongoing German offensive had just shot that idea all to hell. Now it looked like the war could go on forever with him in a prison compound. No thank you. He would leave this hellhole and go west. If he didn’t make it, he could surrender all by himself.

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