Opening Moves (The Red Gambit Series) Read Online Free

timescale were sound and remain so. This new information introduces nothing to encourage delay in military or political terms, especially as our negotiations with the slant-eyes would appear to be bearing fruit.”
    The gentle nodding from the dictator was all Beria now needed.
    “Our country and people are on a war-footing. Our army is in the right place and at its peak. So is our ability to produce the goods of war. Our maskirova so far is working and effective already, and merely needs to be increased when it is decided to pursue this venture.”
    Now he knew which way the land lay, he reached deeper into his briefcase and passed over a detailed synopsis of some recent messages.
    “I have here reports from agents across Europe indicating poor morale amongst western allied troops; homesickness and the like. They are less capable of sustaining casualties than we, which is proved comrade.” That was a statement that meant very little, for it mattered not a jot to either of them how many casualties were sustained in the course of achieving their goals. Even if a million more mothers cried tears of loss it would be as nothing.
    “Some of our military personnel have fraternised with them on my orders, attended exercises, exchanged pleasantries and watched their soldiers perform badly, indicating inexperience or lack of combat ability.”
    “The Amerikanisti particularly have issues. Some of their soldiers are of good quality of course but if you see page fourteen onwards you will see an appreciation of the abilities and readiness of all units, theirs, and the other allies. We have gained quality intelligence on every single divisional sized unit in their order of battle Comrade General Secretary.”
    Searching his memory, he continued.
    “The American paratroopers are particularly good but are few in number Comrade, a mere three divisions only.” And that was actually the first bit of information that was not accurate, for there were actually five in existence at that time.”
    “Again, some of their tank and infantry divisions fought well, but many are relatively untested and of average quality. Remember the new division that the Germans captured during their Rhine campaign?”
    Stalin searched his memory and found the information needed. A brand-new division, ‘... was it the 106th ...?,’ had been placed on front-line duty in the Ardennes and had surrendered wholesale to the Germans attacking during the Battle of the Bulge.
    “Also remember when they first arrived in Africa, their number one infantry division turned tail and ran when the Afrika Korps attacked them at Kasserine,” the accompanying chuckle was soft but Stalin didn’t miss it.
    “The Amerikanisti rely on numbers and firepower to achieve their victories but they are soft Comrade General Secretary. We have numbers. We have firepower. We are not soft as they are soft.”
    A swift glance down at the document brought forth further information.
    “Their Marine Divisions have quality but are all concentrated against the slant-eyes so are of no concern to us at this time.”
    “The British and their crony states are bled dry. They can fight but are weak and cannot stand against us for long. That island of theirs will be a different matter of course but we will develop the means to cross the divide in time.”
    Almost as an afterthought, Beria added, “With only a handful of divisions, the useless French can be discounted obviously.”
    And with a shared nod of heads, a once proud nation was dismissed as an irrelevance and the file returned to Beria, minus one copy.
    “In any case, our proposed arrangement with the slant-eyes will ensure that they must all dedicate resources to the Pacific, no matter what the demands of Europe.”
    Stalin looked unconvinced on that point and pressed Beria.
    “Will their presence be enough alone Lavrentiy? They have virtually no ability to project power or threat any more. Their navy is almost destroyed, their air force