Germanica (34 page)

“Tell me, Field Marshal: are people angry or jealous that my wife and children will be safe?”

“They are. While there aren’t many families here in the Redoubt, there are some. May I suggest that you arrange with our Swiss friends to let them cross the border?”

“Are you suggesting that women and children should leave the sinking ship first?”

“I am.”

Goebbels pondered for only a moment. If nothing else it would get rid of a number of “useless mouths” who ate food and took up places in shelters. “And what do you suggest we do about our captive workers?”

Schoerner grimaced and shrugged. “It almost doesn’t matter. There are only a few thousand of them remaining. Most have died while working and others have been executed by the SS. If we attempt to execute them all, it is unlikely that our soldiers will comply. They do not want to be labeled as war criminals any more than anyone else does. If we leave them to starve, there is the very real chance that they will escape and either fight for the Yanks or at least provide assistance to them. Again, when the Americans come, anyone who imprisoned them could be accused of war crimes.”

“Schoerner, give me a suggestion, not a speech.”

“Simple, Minister, just turn them loose and point them in the direction of Switzerland or the Americans, whichever is most convenient. Let them complain about the way they were treated to their heart’s content. It won’t matter. If the Americans win, we’ll be dead, and if a miracle occurs and we are victorious, they will be silent. No one could prosecute us as leaders of a sovereign nation if we win.”

“I suppose that pushing them into Lake Constance and letting them drown would offend the Swiss.”

Schoerner grinned. “It would indeed.”

“We have other prisoners as well. We might as well free them too, the lucky bastards.”

Schoerner left and closed the door behind him. A handful of secretaries was at work accomplishing little. It was not lost on him that of the three generals who would now command what remained of the German army, only Schoerner could be depended upon. Warlimont was still suspected of being sympathetic to the cause of those who’d tried to murder Hitler the previous summer, while Vietinghoff had been openly negotiating with the Americans. That the negotiation was with the Reich’s approval was irrelevant. He was tainted.

Goebbels had to wonder if Schoerner was as true to the cause as he said. Or would he disappear one night and find sanctuary in another country? It likely wouldn’t be Argentina, at least not at first. Too damn many Nazis now in Argentina. And Goebbels wondered just where he would go if the situation called for it. How do you hide an ugly man with a club foot?

Then he recalled Schoerner saying something about having “other prisoners.” Of course, Schoerner had other, higher-value, prisoners. This was something that he should have thought of. Perhaps they did have some bargaining chips after all.

* * *

Captain Ted Fulton of the provost marshal’s office was furious. “Captain Tanner, I had a clear understanding with General Broome that nothing, absolutely nothing, was to be done about reconnoitering that compound without my permission. Did he not make that clear to you?”

Tanner straightened up and stretched. He had been leaning over a large map of the area that was spread over an equally large table and his back was stiff. He’d met Fulton only once and he’d seemed like decent sort, which meant that the outburst was a little surprising. Maybe he was somewhat in love with himself because of the power wielded by the provost marshal’s office, but that was nothing anybody took seriously.

“Captain Fulton, I assure you that I had no such understanding with the general because the general said absolutely nothing to me about it other than to tell me that the compound in question would, if necessary, be raided by men from this division. He further said absolutely nothing about prohibiting patrols or sending men out to reconnoiter an unknown area. This, of course, would be the prudent thing to do before sending in troops.”

Fulton’s face sagged. “But I told him what to tell you about not doing that.”

Tanner laughed. “Maybe, just maybe, generals don’t like being told what to do by mere captains like us, even though you live with the gods at the provost marshal’s. More likely, however, he’s just busy like I am and up to his ass in alligators and just forgot. Or maybe he thought I was smart enough to use my discretion. You are aware that we’ve gotten word to move the whole division back the way we came and go elsewhere in this fairytale land.”

“I heard,” Fulton said glumly. “Okay, that’s over and what’s done is done and I’ve thrown my tantrum. Would you mind telling me what your man found out?”

Tanner sat down on a folding chair. He waved his arm imperiously and a grinning private brought two cups of coffee. “My man reconnoitering the compound is Staff Sergeant Billy Hill and he could snake his way anywhere without being detected. He’s a longtime tracker and hunter from the hills of Alabama. His hobby is killing Germans. When you meet him, whatever you do, don’t piss him off.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t.”

“Hill confirmed that the compound consists of a large but damaged church with a number of outbuildings and tents. Temporary roofs are over some other damaged buildings. He couldn’t see inside, of course. He satisfied himself with looking at the arrangement through some excellent binoculars he took off a German he killed in North Africa. He saw a number of men in what looked like American uniforms going in and out of the buildings. There are, or were, a dozen or so military trucks parked there and there are a number of American flags staked out to keep our planes away.”

Fulton nodded. “The flags mean nothing. You can buy them at Woolworth’s.”

“However, there isn’t a Woolworth’s or a Kresge’s, or even a Macy’s anywhere near here. He said the flags looked handmade, which also doesn’t prove a thing.”

“How many guards?”

“Hill saw only five or six, although there could be more out of sight. Now, what do you have for me?”

Fulton took a deep breath. “This is the ugly part. I have very discreetly queried all units in the area and nobody knows anything about this facility. Somehow it just popped up there one day and, since it looked official, nobody cared or asked. It’s in a highly secluded area and it was only blind luck that we discovered it. Some guys from your division went hunting or scrounging or stealing stuff and saw it. They got curious and they had unanswered questions so they finally got to us.”

Tanner waved for a coffee refill. What he really wanted was a nap. “So what’s your best guess?”

Fulton shrugged, “Deserters or black marketeers or both. There are thousands of deserters from the U.S., French, and British Armies wandering around and stealing everything they can. Some may be trying to blend in with the locals, but the majority are nothing more than crooks. And yes, they can become violent.”

“What about German deserters, or actual criminals who’ve been released from concentration camps?”

“Again, anything’s possible. We sometimes forget that there were real criminals in many of the Nazi prisons, people who’d been convicted of murder, theft, arson, rape, and a host of other crimes that had nothing to do with anyone being persecuted for their religion. When we overran the prisons, those guilty people were freed along with the innocent.

“And don’t forget that God only knows how many tons of food and equipment have been stolen by criminal bands. We’ve heard rumors that they are into kidnapping and extortion to keep the locals quiet about their presence.”

“Was your source a local?” Tanner asked.

“Don’t ask. Now, what do you have planned?”

“What I have is an under strength and chewed up company of a hundred and twenty men led by a first lieutenant who commands because his captain got badly wounded. The company has its quota of machine guns and I managed to get two M5 tanks attached to it.”

The M5 was a lighter tank with only a 37mm cannon. It was no match for most of the newer German tanks. Tanner thought they would do quite well against the damaged walls and canvas coverings at the compound.

Tanner continued. “There are three ways in and out of the compound; therefore, I suggest that we don’t split the force up. Each part would be too small to defend itself and would be vulnerable if the bad guys decide to fight their way out. I want to hit them up front and hard and if some of them escape down the other roads we’ve identified, then so be it. You can scoop them up some other time.”

“Sounds fair. How soon can your men be ready?”

“They are ready to go right now. Let them take a leak or whatever they want and we can roll in fifteen minutes. It’s about an hour to the compound and it’s just after 0800. The sooner the better, is my suggestion.”

* * *

It took closer to two hours to get the column on the road and moving. The tanks did not slow them down. They could do almost forty miles an hour on a decent road and this dirt road had not been bombed. Sergeant Hill had placed himself on heavily wooded high ground overlooking the target and every few minutes radioed in that nothing seemed out of the ordinary. There was a gated entrance several hundred yards down an access road from the main road, but it didn’t look like much of a barrier. One man was stationed there to deter anyone from coming in.

As they approached the cutoff, the column slowed and then stopped. They made one last call to Hill. “Nothing’s happening,” he said. “It’s as quiet as a church on a Tuesday afternoon.”

“Go,” Tanner ordered and the column made a left turn onto the narrow and tree lined access road.

In a couple of moments they could see the gate and an astonished man in an American uniform staring at them. He unslung his rifle and opened fire. Tanner had the sickening feeling that the sentry didn’t realize that the trucks and tanks approaching him were American. White stars and the letters “USA” were on the sides but not the front.

Two more men ran out of the church, paused and looked at the trucks and opened fire. Tanner breathed a sigh of relief. The men shooting at them might be Americans, but they certainly weren’t friendly. A few bursts from truck-mounted .30 caliber machine guns sent them running.

The column of trucks stopped and American soldiers poured out of them. They formed up and, along with the tanks, moved on the buildings. Several defenders came out, saw the overwhelming force that was coming at them, and threw up their hands. Others ran towards the road at the rear of the compound, pursued by machine-gun bullets and 37mm shells from the tanks.

The skirmish had taken seconds. There were no casualties among the attackers and only two among the defenders. One man was dead and another slightly wounded.

Tanner ordered a platoon and one tank to go down the rear road and try to capture those trying to escape. As he and Fulton had agreed, their pursuit would not be too vigorous. If someone got away, they could be rounded up later. The big thing was to break up whatever was going on in the compound.

The church came first. It was the largest building and they gasped as they saw the piles of military supplies stacked to the ceiling where pews might have been. Everything was there: rifles, pistols, ammunition, machine guns and even uniforms. They could equip their own army if they so wished.

In another building they found rations, enough to feed a good-sized town for a week or more. In one of the smaller buildings they found a cache of medical supplies including the rare and expensive super-drug, penicillin. This infuriated Fulton, who wondered how many GIs had gone without the precious medicine because it was sitting here waiting to be sold to the highest bidder.

Hill had joined Tanner while Fulton and his cadre of military police tried to make sense of their find.

“So who are these guys, sir?” Hill asked.

“My money is that most of them are American deserters. Some of the ones we caught were so dumb that they were still wearing their dog tags. They’ll be breaking rocks at Leavenworth until they’re ninety. I will also bet you that some supply officers at bases here in Europe are going to start crapping their pants when they find out about this raid. A lot of it can be traced back to specific units, which means that men got paid off to let this stuff disappear. Some stockades are going to be crowded.”

“I wonder if anybody got hurt or killed during the thefts,” said Tanner.

“Same here,” said Fulton. “If they’ve committed murder, I hope they hang. What I wonder now is who the buyers were. I can think of a lot of countries that would like to get their hands on all these supplies. French and Italian communists come to mind, and I wouldn’t rule out Jewish refugees who want to start their own country in Palestine. And hell, maybe the Arabs who want to stop the Jews. Anybody who wants to start their own war is a likely buyer.”

“Over here!” a soldier yelled. He was at a smaller outbuilding the size of a two-car garage.

The soldier looked shocked and stepped aside as Tanner entered. It took a moment for him to realize what he was seeing. Several dozen pairs of eyes stared back at him. They were all women and they were all naked. They were also tied up with their hands behind them. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he could see that their thin bodies were covered with sores and bruises. They moaned with fear when they saw him.

“Anybody here speak English?” he asked. Nothing for a second, then a woman about forty said she did. “Who are you and why are you tied up?” Tanner added. He was going to untie the women but not until he had a good idea what was going on.

“We are their slaves,” the woman said and spat on the dirt floor. “We are all good women from this area. We were kidnapped by the men you chased away, and used for their amusement. Some of us had husbands and fathers murdered by those scum.”

Fulton’s men arrived and, with Tanner’s agreement, began freeing them. The women began searching for articles of clothing they could use to cover themselves. “Fulton, would it matter a whole lot if they took some of the uniforms?”

“Sounds good to me. Why don’t you tell them?”

Tanner did and the women raced to the church and rifled through the boxes of uniforms. On their way, a dozen or so GIs were treated to a view until one of their officers told them to go away.