an armed police force, without armored vehicles or aircraft, and may have a coastguard but that is all.”
Erlander shook his head. “I will carry these terms to the Finnish Parliament and ask Risto Heikki Ryti to present them but he will not do so. He is convinced that Germany will be victorious. I am sorry Madam, but this bird will not fly.” The Americanism did not go unnoticed.
“I can sound out the Americans. Perhaps they may intervene on Finland’s behalf. Perhaps they can secure a moderation of these terms.” Loki did not sound hopeful and in truth he thought that any attempt to do so would be doomed to failure.
“There is no cause for leniency. Finland has brought this disaster on itself. You know the price they were offered for their participation in this attack? The whole of the Kola Peninsula, including Petrograd. I ask you, Herr Erlander, with such an addition to Finnish strength, how long will it be before Sweden falls victim to Finnish aggression? Months? A year or two at most? Yet we restrain our demands to the territory needed to secure our borders and guarantee the safety of our cities. And we are treating generously with Sweden, out of respect for your role as intermediaries, despite the fact that many Swedes serve with the SS against our troops.”
Erlander looked saddened. “I cannot deny that. I can say that the Swedish Government recognizes both the generous nature of the Russian approaches and its forbearance of the asinine stupidity of some of our citizens. Citizens who will be punished, that I can assure you.”
“And I can also assure you of that.” Kollontai’s expression was deadly serious.
“So we are agreed then. Mr. Erlander will take these proposals to Finland and ask for them to be submitted to the Finnish Parliament while I will approach my contacts with the American Government to see if some grounds for flexibility can be located.” Loki looked at his two guests and a series of nods were attained. Then he reached out for the intercom on his desk. “Branwen, some refreshments please?”
A second later, Branwen pushed the doors open with her hip and wheeled in a trolley loaded with bread, beer, vodka and cold meat. “I am sorry, but the meats are Italian. No smoked fish, I tried but, without access to the Baltic….”
“Never mind Branwen, this looks delicious.” Erlander cast his eyes over the tray. “Madame, I hope the vodka is to your taste?”
Branwen left. The three loaded their plates with the food she had brought. Once they had regained their seats, they looked at each other. The bristling near-hostility of the official exchanges had gone. Erlander leaned back and spoke slowly. “Honestly Loki, will the Americans use any influence here?”
Loki thought carefully and shook his head. “Not a chance. Not after this attack, no. The Finns had a good deal going for them. They stay put, keep quiet and don’t cause any trouble. In exchange, the allies don’t start hammering on them and, when the war is over, they get 1940 boundaries and no reparations. Now, they’ve reneged on that, the Americans will wash their hands of them. The generosity to Sweden is well-thought out as well. There are many more Swedish voters in America than Finns. No, the Americans will not intervene. Aleksa, how open are the Russian Government to negotiations on this?”
Kollontai knocked back a glass of vodka and stared at Loki. She was remarkably young-looking for a woman of 75 and had been fortunate — and skillful — enough to survive being a vocal critic of Stalin’s policies in the late 1930s. How she had managed that, Loki didn’t quite know. It was rumored that she had been summoned back to Moscow from a diplomatic posting but had somehow escaped the usual fate for those so recalled. When she spoke, her voice was saddened.
“They are not open at all. Even getting this much for Finland now is hard. They have cooked their own goose with a vengeance and the deal on offer now is the best they will ever be offered. If they keep fighting, then the terms will become progressively worse. One day, the Russian Army will be in a position to attack with all its force. Then there will be no terms. Finland and its people will vanish from the history books for all time. If they do not forestall that somehow, then their fate is inevitable.”
“If the Allies win.” Erlander’s voice was gloomy.
“Oh we will win. We have scored two great victories in the last few days. The German Navy has been destroyed and a German land offensive has been stopped in its tracks. It may take a long time but the fascists will be crushed and our armies will overrun their lair. They will take a just and proper revenge for the atrocities the fascists have inflicted on our people.” Kollontai’s voice softened further as the women’s rights activist took over from the politician. “And when they do, that will not be a good time to be a woman.”
There was a profound silence as the truth of her words sank in. Eventually Loki broke it. “And there we have it. That leaves it down to you, Tage. Somehow, you’ve got to convince the Finns that they’ll have to accept these terms. And Aleksa, somehow, you’ve got to convince the Russian Government to trust the Finns when they make another ‘live and left live’ offer. Because the alternative is too terrible to think about.”
“Final run in now Number One.” Captain Charles Povey looked around the bridge with an air of satisfaction. They had land-based air cover for the troop convoy. Catalinas flying out of Murmansk circled overhead, watching for any signs of enemy submarines. The convoy itself had angled south and was on the last leg of its long run. The ships had picked up speed. Nobody wanted to get sunk when the safety of Murmansk, dubious though it was, could be within sight any hour.
Lieutenant Commander Murray checked the charts. “Three hours. Possibly four, Sir. No signs of any enemy action. It looks like Halsey’s knocked the stuffing out of them.”
“Same word from PQ-17.” Admiral Vian’s voice beat the ‘Admiral on the Bridge’ warning by a split second. “It’s as if the Huns have been so thoroughly spanked, they’ve all gone home. No word of subs anywhere. I was expecting a major effort by the submarine fleet to try and salvage something from the disaster they’ve suffered but they’ve gone. PQ-17 reported some scattered attacks from aircraft based in Norway, mostly Ju-188 torpedo bombers, but even they seemed to lack determination. Mostly they just scattered when the fighters got to them.”
“Any word from Halsey Sir?” Povey wanted to know the details of the destruction of the German fleet. He fancied himself as a naval historian and had in mind making his great opus the Second World War history of the German Navy.
“Not a word. We know from German intercepts that his aircraft hit Londonderry this morning. Destroyed schools, convents and orphanages according to the Huns. I’d guess they took out the airfields and partisan hunter barracks myself. But, no word from them. Won’t be until they get back from Churchill. One thing we do know. Three German ships turned up in the Faroe Islands, a cruiser and two destroyers. Cruiser’s on the rocks, finished. The destroyers have surrendered to the British garrison there. As far as we can tell, they’re the only survivors.”
There was silence on
Vian thought for a second. “No, just make sure the Canadian troops are ready to go ashore as fast as possible. If the Huns really are stunned into immobility, we want to get back before they recover.
“Thank you. Get the rest of the Russian vehicles loaded on to the flat cars. Finish cleaning up the carriage.” There was no need to specify which carriage. It had been hit by short-range gunfire from machine guns and the heavier weapons on the armored cars leaving it a splintered ruin. The forty men in it were mostly dead, their bodies laid out by the side of the track.
“Lieutenant Knyaginichev, your men will stay with us until we reach our lines? We are just Navy men and railway engineers here. We desperately need your expertise as skilled infantry.”
“My orders are to regain our own lines and rejoin my division. So yes, we will ride with you. I think there are still problems to come though.”
“Grazhdanin Knyaz is right Commander. There is indeed a problem yet to come.” Boldin had his maps out. “The railway does a bend where it swings north. It forms a loop, a big one certainly but a loop nevertheless. If the
