1 Chapter 1

Early May 1945, Berlin

The German officer stood in his communications bunker and listened to the various military broadcasts. From the speaker he could hear the explosions of Russian artillery shells falling in Berlin. Relentlessly the Russian forces and their artillery pounded into the heart of the once powerful third Reich. Through the speakers the voice of an old grizzled homeguardsmen began speaking. In the background the roar of artillery gradually lessened to be continued by the popping of small arms fire. " To any units within range of this broadcast, this is feldgable Ernst Mann. I'm speaking to you from the guard bunker protecting the Reich chancellory in Berlin. We can now hear voices in Russian outside the steel door of our bunker here. This will be the last broadcast from my post here, gott mit uns.." A loud blast was heard over the speakers followed by many shots and explosions, then static.

The man who had been listening to the broadcast sighed and turned to the others who had been standing by with him. "This is a great blow to the Reich, and our cause." He began. " We knew this day would come.Did we not?" There was grumbling and nodding off heads from the other men as he paused. " But this is why we are here still. This is why we will carry on with the mission that the Fuhrer had assigned us. I will of course at this time offer any man the opportunity to return home to any family they may still have without any Ill feelings from this command." He stood silently a few moments but none of his officers appeared to take his offer. " Very well. Deep in the mountains of southern Germany will be our destination. Roughly 175 kilometers over very rough and desolate terrain. All the while we will have to avoid any allied aircraft or patrols that could give away our position." He could tell from the looks on his men's faces that most if not all were very interested in the mission. " My orders came directly from the Fuhrer himself. In the event that communications are cut from Berlin this mountainous area is where I had been ordered to report with whatever forces I could accumulate. To answer your questions I am as unaware of what we will find there as you are, but that is where we go. Captain Schufel, I wan you to take command of the remains of the 14th Panzer Panzer division and take the lead with your grenadiers. You will be followed in line by Lt Hans Klein and the 216th panzers grenadiers. The 12th SS Panzer lehr division will bring up the rear. Along the way we will find prearranged supply caches that had been put in place over a year ago. We will fuel our vehicles from these dumps, and feed our men. Any straggler units we come across will be given the option to join us or be eliminated. We cannot afford to have a captured unit reveal our position and line of March. The allies must not discover that we had escaped encirclement in Berlin and that we are here. Now, you men have your orders, let's be off."

Many weeks later the quiet stillness of a high mountain meadow was broken by the sounds of panzers tracks and growling engines. As the vehicles and men came to a halt the men were happy to have finally reached their destination.

The German officer who had led them here jumped down from his command truck. He turned to slowly examine the valley, stopping briefly to glance down the winding trail at the long line of tanks, trucks, half-tracks, and troops. They were tired, hungry, and all that effectively remained of the once proud and powerful multi-million man Wermacht. Turning back to the valley he noted several old stone buildings and signs as another man walked up to him. " So herr Field Marshal, why exactly have we travelled to an old army post in the middle of nowhere?" He asked. The man turned to his old friend and once again sighed. The field Marshall was the infamous Erwin Rommel, or the desert fox as some called him. "Come with me." Was all Rommel said to his friend and they began to walk toward one of the old stone buildings.

Inside the building was a scene than the outside appearance one wouldn't believe it. A large well lit hallway led to a large steel desk flanked by two stern faced SS sergeants. Rommel nodded to one of the men as the man pushed a button set into the wall behind them. The desk lowered into the floor as the wall where the button was also slowly slide open revealing a large cargo elevator. One of the SS men gestured into the elevator and Rommel and his man entered followed by the gesturing soldier. The soldier then depressed a second button and the faint sound of machinery could be heard as the elevator door closed and it began to decend. The elevator continued to decend for several minutes then began to slow and with a soft bump came to a stop. The doors slid open revealing an enormous underground cavern. It stretched so far into the distance one could not see the end of it. It was so high up to the ceiling that moisture condensed to form light wispy cloud like formations. A small group of uniformed men stood waiting as the doors slid open for Rommel and his aide.

Rommel's eyes widened in shock and amazement as he recognized whom some of the men were. There stood Reichsmarshall Herman Goering, the little fat man wearing his Robin's egg blue uniform of the Luftwaffe, or air Force. All in black and silver with his face like a rat was the quiet and dangerous Heinrich Himmler, chief of the SS and the gestapo, or secret police. But the biggest suprise was the man standing next to himmler. Adolf Hitler, the Fuhrer, and leader of the nazi party and Germany. Rommel immediately shot out his right arm and have the nazi salute saying "heil Hitler". Hitler, with a little smirk on his face returned rommel's salute. " How? Mein Fuhrer." Rommel said. "We were told that all was lost when Berlin fell. The Russian radio reported finding the cremated bodies of Hitler and his wife behind the chancellory in the gardens." Rommel said, clearly dumbfounded. Hitler smiled at this. " The people found burned by those filthy bulsheviks were carefully prepared doubles. They had been surgically and dentally altered by Dr Morell." Said Hitler. Dr Morell has.been Hitler's personal physician. Hitler noticed Rommel scanning the small crowd for the doctor. " The good doctor had to be liquidated. we couldn't risk his capture by the allies, or the Russians." Hitler said. Hitler quickly shook Rommel's hand and gestured for him to follow him along. As they walked along they came to a wall of crates and as they turned the corner Rommel stopped briefly, staring in awe at the sight before him. Row upon row of Panther, tiger, and tiger II tanks sat parked. There were millions of crates of weapons and ammunition piled high. As Rommel continued to follow Hitler he looked up at the stacked crates, some were stacked 30 high. He began to notice an odd glow that wasn't quite the same light as was produced in other areas of the cavern. Hitler began to speak again." I'm sure you remember Herr Speer?" Hitler asked Rommel. Speer had been Hitler's chief architect and minister of armaments and war production. Rommel nodded yes, and Hitler continued. " In early 1943 Herr Speer informed me that our physicists at Peenmunde had made a remarkable breakthrough. He informed me that they had discovered that not only was the ability to travel through time feasible, but it was possible. I thought the idea interesting so I gave the project the highest possible classification for completing the project. Finally in the beginning months of 1944 the necessary technology and equipment had been produced and the initial personnel trained to operate the equipment. "

As he said this the group of men came to a stop before a large machine. The top of the machine appeared to be a large almost circular window. The 30 foot diameter window had a slowly pulsating whitish purple light in the center that appeared to defy gravity.

Hitler then began to speak again while staring at the machine. " The machine you see before you is the direct result off all of those endeavors and millions of reichsmarks in research. We simply call it the gate. It is indeed fully functional and we have been using it over the past few months to prepare for your mission. What I need from you, Herr Field Marshal, is to use this incredible machine to reshape the future of the third Reich." Hitler sighed, lowering his head. " All of my great generals are gone. Guderian, Henrici, Von Rundstedt, all captured or killed. You are the last hope for us.

If your memory is as good as I remember it was Rommel, you will remember the big plans that I had drawn up for a massive offensive. It was to have been launched through the Ardennes forest in December of 1944."

"Yes my Fuhrer I remember it well." Rommel said. Hitler nodded and continued on. " Now you see why that attack was cancelled so suddenly. All of the forces that had been scheduled to be used in that attack were instead, routed here and in a few other nearby facilities much like this one as well as other forces we managed to get here in time. As we speak your forces up above at ground level are being serviced and resupplied. They will begin joining us down here shortly. These new units will be the nucleus of the newly formed 1st Panzer Army. The troops and material in this cavern will be the 52nd SS Panzer Army under SS General Sepp Dietrich. He will report directly to you, his superior. " Rommel stared at Hitler in a renewed sense of awe. Hitler smirked at rommels reaction and continued speaking. " You see Rommel the gate can only be used once to any particular time and date. So to fix that problem we sent a small technical team and a group of soldiers for protection back in time to build what we call an anchor gate, in order to link that time with ours. That date is May 26, 1861. " Rommels eyes grew wide. "Isn't that the period of the American civil war?" He asked. "Exactly!" Replied hitler. " Our goal is to insure that the American Confederate government smashes the USA armies." Rommel nodded in understanding, and Hitler continued. " The gate has already been in Operation over two years in their time, so our initial base and personnel are firmly set up there. Your mission Herr Field Marshal is to train the men, produce the arms needed as well as the ammunition, and aid the Confederate government in all ways possible. You will leave immediately, I will have your belongings sent through do you. The 201st Panzer grenadiers and the 4th SS Panzer division will also be following you.Do you understand your mission and objectives?" Hitler asked.

Rommel nodded, " Yes Fuhrer I do." he added. " Good. Then you will be off." Hitler said and turned to walk off speaking to the other men around him. Rommel then turned to look at the light hanging in the opening and slowly walked up the ramp to the light.