Author Topic: Operation Rod of Iron: AU fic  (Read 74673 times)

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Offline Nictionary

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Re: Operation Rod of Iron: AU fic
« Reply #45 on: August 04, 2017, 09:09:57 AM »
September 28, 1919

   In late August and early September, the Cheka had broken up the National Center.  Yuryev was not sure he had been exposed, but since he had been in contact with the Center, he felt it wise to cut off contact with the rest of the team and go to ground for the time being.  For good measure he disguised himself as an old peddler woman, and was actually able to make a few rubles here and there.
   After a few weeks had passed without anything happening, he felt safe enough to risk contacting the rest of the team and continue with the executions; however, he retained his disguised while traveling.  The quest to avenge the Romanovs’ murders was back in business; the team’s efforts now brought them to the city where the crime had taken place, as they set their sights on Viktor Netrebin.
   At nineteen years old, Netrebin was the youngest target on the list, but his age did not help him to avoid a death sentence.  As Bylinkin had reminded Committee Ze, Netrebin had shown no mercy to a helpless thirteen-year-old boy and four girls, and he had not taken any opportunity to avoid taking part the way others had.  After the Red Army had retaken Yekaterinburg in July, Netrebin, who was a native of the Urals, had returned to the city to resume work with the Cheka.  He had a Communist past, a Communist present, and in all likelihood a Communist future.  It was time for him to meet his maker.  Supreme Ruler Admiral Kolchak and the defense cabinet authorized the mission.
   Netrebin was a soft target: he had no security guard and kept to a semi-predictable routine.  Indeed, being a man of regular habits, he was not difficult to follow.  The O squad studied his every move.  After seven months of intensive action in the field, the“surveillance and hit teams were in good form—professional and quick. Their hands-on experience kept the tension low and their guard up at all times. The mission was set for September 28.  Adrian Bylinkin and Miroshnichenko arrived in Yekaterinburg that afternoon, heading straight to their command room in an Intelligence Department safe house.  All the preparations had been made; all remaining decisions were in the hands of Mikhail, Natalia and Yuryev as they closed in on Netrebin.
   Netrebin would split his time between the Amerikanskaya Hotel and the few open shops and canteens on either side of the Iset’ river, often meeting his morning contacts in the vicinity of Kokovinskaya Ploshchad, while favoring ulitsa Malakhovskaya or the main train station for his evening appointments. If his evening meetings found him near Shartash station, he would stroll along Sibirsky Prospekt, right by the Sennaya Ploshchad, on his way home to his cabin on Zagorodnaya Ulitsa.  (This walk, ironically, would lead him all but past the front door of the safe house used at that point by Yuryev, Feliks, Angelika, Mikhail and Natalia).  If his last appointment took him to  the main train station, Netrebin would walk back to his cabin by taking Vodochnaya Ulitsa and either turning right on Krestovozdvizhenskaya Ulitsa, or by turning right onto Aleksandrovsky Prospekt.  Both routes would eventually take him into Spasskaya Ulitsa - at a point either above or below the public baths, from where another ten minutes’ walk would see him safely home.
   On the evening of September 28, Viktor Netrebin chose the former route.
The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.

Albert Einstein

Offline Nictionary

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Re: Operation Rod of Iron: AU fic
« Reply #46 on: August 04, 2017, 09:22:06 AM »
At sunset, the O squad reported that the subject had finished eating a delicious meal at the main train station’s first-class restaurant.  He left the restaurant, bought a newspaper, and began walking toward his cabin.  Being a careful man—or, perhaps, sensing danger—Netrebin would turn around from time to time, as if to see whether he was being followed. However, he would have been unlikely to notice two different men on horseback passing and re-passing him in the stream of Yekaterinburg traffic as he walked along Vodochnaya Ulitsa.  At Zlatoustovskaya Ulitsa the O squad spotters left him alone.  There would have been no point in alerting a target whose route, by then, was known to them anyway.
   Yuryev, Feliks, Angelika, Mikhail and Natalia were waiting for a message in their safe house—not far from Sibirsky Prospekt, near the top of the Sennaya Ploshchad—to tell them that the target was approaching the bridge at Krestovozdvizhenskaya Ulitsa.  The plan was to pick him up at Spasskaya and Aleksandrovsky, then follow him on foot as he walked towards his cabin.
   The message came a little after 2200 hours.  At this precise point Netrebin, walking along the quiet Krestovozdvizhenskaya Ploshchad, was not under direct observation.
   As he circled the Old Believers’ church in  along Krestovozdvizhenskaya, Andrei, who was on horseback, observed Netrebin already crossing the bridge.  Andrei didn’t stop or slow down.  He turned right onto Spasskaya and again onto Aleksandrovsky, breaking into a canter to alert Yuryev and his partners who were walking at a fast pace in the opposite direction.
   Meanwhile, Lazar, who was driving a carriage, followed Netrebin at a slower speed, eventually passing him as he had nearly crossed the bridge.  Lazar did not turn right.  Instead he rounded Spasskaya Church, stopping at the far side on Uktusskaya Ulitsa.  He waited parallel to the curb.
   Mikhail and Natalia, with Yuryev, Feliks and Angelika following about fifty paces behind them, were crossing the bridge just as Netrebin was crossing Arkhiereiskaya Ulitsa perhaps 40 sazhens ahead of them. Since the Chekist was walking at a brisk pace, it was not easy to close that gap within the next block or two without betraying their intention to catch up with him. But any further on would have been too late.  Four more blocks and Netrebin would be back at his cabin. 
   At that point there were hardly any pedestrians in the broad street.  From the way Netrebin glanced over his shoulder on turning the corner, it looked as if he might be easy to spook. Should he decide to break into a run, Mikhail thought, they might not be able to catch up with him at all.  Two more short blocks would take him to Zagorodnaya Ulitsa; then he would cross the street and turn the corner.  From there he had only one more block and a bit to go.  Once Netrebin had crossed Uktusskaya Ulitsa, they would probably have lost him.
   Mikhail and Natalia tried to quicken their pace without giving the appearance that they were doing so, which was not easy.  If Netrebin did not start running until they had halved the distance between them, it would be too late for him. At this point the teenager was clearly no longer oblivious of being followed. He, too, had quickened his pace and started glancing back at Mikhail and Natalia.  Still, he wasn’t running.  Mikhail found himself hoping that his target might be a courageous man of steady nerves.
   To his misfortune, Netrebin was courageous. He didn’t break into a run as he turned into Zagorodnaya Ulitsa.  He didn’t run as he passed the fruit stand, the grocer’s or the bar on the corner of the anonymous side street.  He merely walked faster and faster, looking back over his shoulder one more time.  Mikhail and Natalia, giving up all pretense of strolling casually, were by now less than 13 sazhens behind him.  Yuryev, Feliks and Angelika were following them a little more slowly on the other side of the narrow street.  Mikhail and Natalia could thus concentrate solely on their target, knowing that the others would keep everything secure behind them.
   Though Netrebin didn’t run, Mikhail and Natalia might still not have caught up with him in time if he hadn’t decided to stop at the corner of Uktusskaya Ulitsa. This was strange behavior for a man who knew he was being pursued. There was absolutely no traffic in the street, yet Netrebin halted at the curb, hesitating in front of a school.
   Mikhail and Natalia passed him on either side, stepping off the curb into the street. The reason they gave themselves for this was that they wanted to face Netrebin to make absolutely sure they had the right man. In addition they both had an aversion to gunning someone down from behind.
   “Now,” Natalia whispered, and in the next second they had both turned, facing Netrebin, left hands rising in an arc, ready to pull back the slides of their silenced Browning 7.65mm pistols.  Netrebin was staring at them, his eyes unbelievably wide, as he unfastened the flap on the holster on his hip.  As Mikhail and Natalia had walked past him, Netrebin must also have stepped off the curb. Now, as he tried to back away as he raised his Nagant, his heels caught the edge of the pavement and he started falling backwards, his arms windmilling wildly. For some reason the thought that crossed Mikhail’s mind was that if they missed, their bullets would crash through the large plate-glass window of the school.  He didn’t want to damage the window. Adjusting the angle of his gun slightly, he started following Netrebin’s falling body, squeezing off the first two rounds before the man hit the pavement.  Twice more he pulled the trigger, then twice again. He was hardly conscious of Natalia’s gun pop-hissing in the same rhythm beside him, but from the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse of Yuryev, Feliks and Angelika waiting on the other side of the street.
   Netrebin’s body was lying on the sidewalk as he fell, his feet still dangling over the curb. He made no sound, only his shoulders were squirming. Then, like a person trying to rise, he pulled up his knees and turned to his side, as he attempted to reach for his Nagant, which had dropped to the pavement with a clatter when he had fallen.  Mikhail almost fired again, but at that moment Netrebin gave a series of short, sharp, rasping sounds as if he were clearing his throat, and in another second Mikhail could see his body relax.  The youngest of the tsar’s assassins was dead.
   When Mikhail looked up, the first thing he saw was a cigarette glowing in the dark. In a doorway, on the other side of the street. A man seemed to be standing there, or maybe two men, with a girl. Eyewitnesses.
   Without a word, Mikhail crossed the street, turned right and started walking along Uktusskaya towards Arkhiereisky Pereulok.  By now Yuryev, Feliks and Angelika had turned around, and Mikhail knew they would be walking to Khlebnaya Ploshchad the same way they had come, without passing the spot where Netrebin’s body lay.  Natalia was following Mikhail.  They could only hope that the eyewitnesses were not.
   Lazar picked up all five of them on Khlebnaya Ploshchad in front of the Old Believers’ church.  They drove back to the safe house, then directly to the train station.
   Ural'skiy Rabochiy published a death announcement for Netrebin, declaring him a martyr, his murder a reactionary crime committed by White intelligence.
The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.

Albert Einstein

Offline JamesAPrattIII

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Re: Operation Rod of Iron: AU fic
« Reply #47 on: August 09, 2017, 04:03:24 PM »
I have some more plausible ways of taking out the victims:

Medvedev: Natalia spots him while staking out a tram section near Cheka headquarters she gets on the same tram as him at notes where he gets off. She comes back the next day armed with one of the men to the spot where he got off. When he gets off the tram she walks up behind him and shoots him twice in the back with a silenced pistol in a bag and then flees down an ally. Medvedev falls and everyone around thinks he just slipped and fell because he was drunk. It takes the Cheka a couple of days to find out what happened to him because some thieves steal his pistol, indetification , money boots ect right afterwards. the Cheka at first think it was a robbery gone bad since they have no witnesses at first.

Berzins gets a big envelope containing a box which according to a note contains a new army manual in Latvian and he is asked to read it to check for errors. he opens the box and a bomb goes off killing him.

Soshuvsky of Pravda receives a box containing what he thinks contains the diaries of a Red army commander/ revolutionary who had been killed in action he opens the box and a bomb goes off killing him.

Gurbanov state planning commission the hit team finds a way into his office and plants a german stick grenade in one of the drawers of his desk he returns from vacation opens the drawer which pulls the cord that detonates the grenade fatally wounding him

Rodzinsky is also taken out by a grenade in a desk

Lititsyn in Tambov there is a large scale peasant uprising going on in this area. No doubt the team will get help from the locals via the National center.

One better way to make Maksimov and Sminovich want to retire is not to write them about affairs or prostitutes but send them notes telling them that they better retire or we will send the Cheka information that they were informants for the Okhrana or Gendarmes. The Reds reguarded informants like this as the worst of the worst and were still hunting them down in the 1930s.

Offline Nictionary

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Re: Operation Rod of Iron: AU fic
« Reply #48 on: August 10, 2017, 03:08:23 AM »
Quote
Lititsyn in Tambov there is a large scale peasant uprising going on in this area.

I thought that wasn't until 1920
The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.

Albert Einstein

Offline JamesAPrattIII

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Re: Operation Rod of Iron: AU fic
« Reply #49 on: August 10, 2017, 09:51:43 PM »
Your right the Tambov revolt broke out in August 1920 but there were peasant revolts breaking out all the time in the Russian countryside do to Lenin's stupid and brutal forced requisition of food policy.

As for taking out Netrebin the hit team is too big I would say 2 or 3 people at the most will do. One member locates him and finds out where he lives and works. Then the next day another member walks up and shoots him in the back. Then everyone gets out of town ASAP but not by train the next trains out of town will be searched. Also it looks like there were witnesses to the shooting. So it looks like these people need to hop on some fast horses and get as far away from town as they can. One should also point out Russia was in chaos there were armed bands everywhere. As well as patrols of the Red Army and Cheka.

Offline Nictionary

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Re: Operation Rod of Iron: AU fic
« Reply #50 on: August 13, 2017, 09:38:39 PM »
Ok.  I have some firearms and military history questions.

My understanding is that in the WW1 era, while there were no established special forces, ad hoc units were sometimes raised to conduct a special operation and disbanded once their aim was complete, such as the way the Sturmtruppen were created in response to the deadlock in the trenches.

I know the British had Coastal Motor Boats, subs and destroyers in the Baltic, but what about light and fast craft like gunboats?

The Bergmann MP18 was introduced in early 1918, so I guess it wouldn't have seen service on the Eastern Front, but did the Germans supply any to Finland or forces in the Baltic states?  What I'm getting at is, is there any plausible way the Northwest Army might have gotten their hands on a few of them?
The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.

Albert Einstein

Offline JamesAPrattIII

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Re: Operation Rod of Iron: AU fic
« Reply #51 on: August 16, 2017, 03:22:43 PM »
The first Sturm units in the German army were formed in 1915 I believe and they expanded the number of Sturm units as the war went on.

the RN used a number of motor launches in WW I small coastal craft to hunt U-boats in WW I. Look up Royal Navy Motor launches. I am not sure if any were used in the Baltic. They were larger and were better armed than the CMBs which did mount machine guns. The RN also used minesweepers in the Baltic where mines were a problem.

As for the MP 18 SMG being used in the Baltic. There were German troops in the Baltic in 1919 under General Count Rudiger Von Der Goltz. Look up Landwehr in the Russian Civil war online. The air units sent to support them in 1919 often had the latest in German aircraft the Junkers DI and CL I some it is possible a few MP 18s found there way there but they would have been rare. For one or two of them to get to the Northwest front chances are very remote. If you want a semi-auto rifle that was used in very small numbers in Russia in WW I and the civil war it's the Winchester model 1907. I think a few hundred were delivered and they were used in combat in small numbers.

 I hope this is of help.

Offline Nictionary

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Re: Operation Rod of Iron: AU fic
« Reply #52 on: August 16, 2017, 03:39:31 PM »
Yes, very helpful indeed.

I couldn't find anything about motor launches being used in the Baltic.

What about the Fedorov Avtomat?  Would that be more plausible?  And also, would it be possible to conceal those?
« Last Edit: August 16, 2017, 03:47:47 PM by Nictionary »
The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.

Albert Einstein

Offline JamesAPrattIII

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Re: Operation Rod of Iron: AU fic
« Reply #53 on: August 17, 2017, 05:36:24 PM »
The Federov Avtomat would be a real possibility but wiki has only 100 being made by the end of 1917 and most were made after 1920. Ammo would be no problem as it used the 6.5mm Japanese round and the Russian received 763,000 6.5mm Arisaka rifles during the war. while shorter than the M-1891 rifle I would call it easier to handle but its not a pocket pistol.

As for the MLs they did see service in home waters and the Med in WW I. I can't really say if any were sent to the Baltic in 1919-20. There is a book "Cowan's War" which is a history of the RN in the Baltic during this period. I read it a long time ago and don't know if the MLs were mentioned.

Offline Nictionary

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Re: Operation Rod of Iron: AU fic
« Reply #54 on: August 20, 2017, 03:02:05 PM »
Ok.  I have one last set of questions.  Basically what I'm working up to is that the next scene has a Royal Navy raid on Petrograd.  How plausible would it be for one or two destroyers and a minesweeper to slip past the Red defenses?  Obviously they would need the minesweeper to clear a narrow path through the numerous minefields.  Coming in on the south side of the Gulf of Finland, they would have to pass between Kronstadt and Krasnaya Gorka.  Coming in from the north, Kronstadt is somewhat farther away from the northern coast, but they would need to worry about the shore batteries at Sestroretsk and Lisy Nos.  Perhaps some of Cowan's ships could bottle up the Baltic Fleet in Kronstadt, while others could bombard either Krasnaya Gorka or the two batteries on the north side for a few hours, long enough for the raiding force to slip in and out again.  Or perhaps the batteries at Sestroretsk and Lisy Nos could be destroyed altogether?

And finally, I know that when Yudenich threatened Petrograd in mid-October 1919, the Bolsheviks threw up checkpoints on all the bridges, but were they there even before Yudenich's advance?

Thank you so much for all your help, James.  I truly appreciate it
The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.

Albert Einstein

Offline JamesAPrattIII

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Re: Operation Rod of Iron: AU fic
« Reply #55 on: August 25, 2017, 02:28:30 PM »
There is no way the RN would send a destroyer or two to raid Petrograd. There is not enough sea room and there are lots of mines that you can't sweep with one minesweeper. Add to this the coastal batteries and the Soviet Baltic fleet. Note the Royal Navy would not have tried to raid Petrograd during the Crimean war the defenses of Kronstadt were too strong.

As for MLs looking through naval-history.net one was damaged by a mine so they were in the Baltic.

Historical note the RN was drawing up plans during the Crimean war to attack kronstadt but the war ended before they could be carried out.

Offline Nictionary

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Re: Operation Rod of Iron: AU fic
« Reply #56 on: August 25, 2017, 03:40:49 PM »
Ok.  What if it was carried out with ML's, the way Augustus Agar slipped his CMB's into Petrograd to rescue Paul Dukes?
The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.

Albert Einstein

Offline JamesAPrattIII

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Re: Operation Rod of Iron: AU fic
« Reply #57 on: August 26, 2017, 02:43:06 PM »
I am rereading the book operation Kronstadt the one reason the CMBs were used to pick up Paul Dukes is because they only drew 3 feet of water and the waters around Petrograd  and Kronstadt out side the dredged channel are too shallow for anything larger. Looking at the map in the above book they were really lucky to been able to get in and out without getting spotted and sunk.

As for the Cheka having checkpoints on all the bridges before the White advance. I don't think so there are just too many bridges in Petrograd to stick checkpoints on a regular basis. Any way they had plenty of other things to do like hunting down spyies, traitors, ect.

Offline Nictionary

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Re: Operation Rod of Iron: AU fic
« Reply #58 on: August 27, 2017, 12:54:21 AM »
If a force of ML's were to slip past the forts the way Agar did, which do you think would be a more plausible way to do it: flying Soviet naval ensigns and hoping for the best, or having some of Cowan's ships bombard the forts long enough for the ML's to run the gauntlet, like Porter's gunboats did for Grant's transports at Grand Gulf?

Sorry for all the questions, I'm just trying to avoid future flak for historical inaccuracy
The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.

Albert Einstein

Offline JamesAPrattIII

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Re: Operation Rod of Iron: AU fic
« Reply #59 on: August 31, 2017, 02:50:23 PM »
There was no way on earth a force of MLs could have slipped past the Soviet forts on and around Kronstadt and Petrograd. Problem one they drew too much water and would be running into mines and obstacles the CMBs would pass over. Second the for one CMB to slip through in the night is possible because the ship is so small and low lying and there is only one of them. also note the last time a CMB tried to slip past the forts it failed. MLs sit higher in the water there are more of them so they will be spotted and sunk. Also if the MLs arrived off Petrograd they would not be able to do much damage since they all by this time were only armed with one small 3 -pounder gun.  this is not a doable idea period.