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(Page 2 of 4) A Greater Britain? (part 2 and final) by David Scholes
British Prime Minister's
Official Residence
No. 10 Downing Street
London England
One day later
"It's going well with the bomb" said Tittington "no way of course that it can be ready before the defeat of Germany."
"How advanced are the Americans" asked Cunningham. "Hard to tell" replied Alan Brook "our best experts think they may be ready by July/August." "No chance of us actually beating them to it?" enquired Charles Portal hopefully.
"I don't think so" said Tittington but we probably aren't far behind "the possible operational use of our bomb has to be discussed."
The obvious potential target for the bomb was Japan. Tittington made it clear to the British Joint Chiefs of Staff that, if it came down to it, he would rather the Americans be the first nation to use atomic energy to destroy a city. "Let history damn them not us" were his last words on the subject. "Now, about Berlin___" he started.
The Kremlin
Late March 1945
Stalin was absolutely furious when he heard of the British assault on Berlin. By then the attack was well underway as all of his aides and Generals had been too scared to tell him. The dictator was insisting that his armies move as quickly as possible to "assist" the British and take whatever spoils they could. In fact to basically swamp Berlin with sheer numbers and make it very difficult indeed for the "tommies"
"We risk a major confrontation with the English" said Georgi Zhukov, Stalin's best commander "Do you really want that?" General Rokossovsky, also in the room, remained silent. "Their Second Tactical air force is out in full strength" persisted Zhukov "particularly the Hawker Typhoons." "British airpower is almost blocking out the sun over Berlin."
Stalin ignored him. "Arrange for an "accidental' artillery barrage" he said "let them get a taste of our god of war." "Then if they respond with air strikes, we move on Berlin." "And if they don't" enquired Zhukov. "We move anyway" responded Stalin. "The Russian motherland has played easily the biggest part in this war in ripping the guts out of the Wermacht, I won't let this upstart Tittington deny me this ultimate prize."
Almost as an afterthought Stalin added "if it does come to a fight for Berlin where do the Americans stand on this? Finally Rokossovsky spoke up "I don't know" he said "Roosevelt is understood to be gravely ill but we hear that Marshall and Eisenhower are absolutely livid about it."
Berlin
Late March into Early April 1945
The British took Berlin with surprisingly modest loss of life in all the circumstances. Paratroopers, Royal Marine Commandoes, Special Air Service (SAS) soldiers and others of their elite units including a Ghurkha brigade led the way in the initial assault. They were backed up by the heavy armour of the relatively new British Third Army – including the magnificent 105mm gunned Centurion tanks. Regular infantry units of Third army were close behind supported by two divisions from Crears Canadian army.
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