The Generals (24 page)

Lieutenant Bratianu
: That summary, yes. I will not be needing that. You need not continue with the presentation.

Lieutenant Brown
: I see.

Lieutenant Bratianu
: In any case, in my view, that document lacks value as evidence in the case. I submit to this court martial that the document in question be excluded from the preliminary investigation and that the presentation of it be struck from the record.

Major von Peters
: Damned intelligent and clever as Prosecuting Officer.

Colonel Orbal
: What are you whispering about, Carl?

Major von Peters
: That Bratianu’s a good officer. What perception.

Colonel Orbal
: Yes, of course. Yes, indeed. Where are those instructions? Oh, here they are.

Colonel Pigafetta
: If your private discussion with von Peters is now over, Orbal, perhaps the presidium can now proceed to considering the Prosecuting Officer’s request.

Colonel Orbal
: What? Yes, of course. Granted. All right, Pigafetta?

Colonel Pigafetta
: Certainly.

Colonel Orbal
: And you, Carl?

Major von Peters
: Granted.

Colonel Orbal
: Kampenmann?

Commander Kampenmann
: I reserve my decision.

Major von Peters
: What now?

Colonel Orbal
: Calm down, Carl. This extra-ordinary court martial has decided that Appendix number … let’s see …

Lieutenant Bratianu
: Number V VI/1, concerning the disturbances.

Colonel Orbal
: Appendix V VI/1, concerning the disturbances, be removed from the preliminary investigation and its presentation be struck off the official record. Against this, Commander Kampenmann has reserved his decision.

Lieutenant Bratianu
: I hereby call Corporal Erwin Velder as witness.

Major von Peters
: Push him forward, Brown.

Commander Kampenmann
: Do you know that the questioning of Velder must be carried out according to a new method, because of his physical and mental condition?

Lieutenant Bratianu
: Yes, sir, I know of the accused’s condition.

Commander Kampenmann
: Good. Then you also know that there is no question of any cross-examination.

Major von Peters
: You ought to have been a social worker, Kampenmann. Or joined the Women’s Naval Auxiliary Service.

Lieutenant Bratianu
: We have heard how Velder first deserted from the Army and then immediately entered into the most filthy and loathsome of all criminal activities, namely high treason. Before we go into this complex of offences, however, I request to be allowed to insert another charge into this section of the case for the prosecution.

Colonel Orbal
: Of course, Bratianu. But what?

Lieutenant Bratianu
: Velder’s desertion occurred in a situation which could easily have developed into war. Although a state of war had not been declared, I consider it justified to extend the charge to include one of cowardice.

Major von Peters
: Granted.

Lieutenant Bratianu
: Turn the accused so that he can look me straight in the eye. That’s right. Thank you. Corporal Velder, do you admit to cowardice in the face of the enemy?

Velder
: No.

Lieutenant Bratianu
: So you do not admit that you left your post
at a critical stage because you were afraid? You do not admit your cowardice?

Velder
: No.

Lieutenant Bratianu
: It should be ‘No, sir.’ Have you forgotten that already? Look me in the eye!

Velder
: Yes, sir.

Lieutenant Bratianu
: You know perfectly well that you’re not only a villain but also a cowardly villain, Velder. Do you admit it?

Commander Kampenmann
: Lieutenant Bratianu, we have already seen far too many examples of the consequences of this kind of questioning.

Lieutenant Bratianu
: I understand, sir. For that reason—I emphasise, only because of that reason—I will refrain from further questioning on this point and hand over this part of the case for this extra-ordinary court martial to consider, with the plea that against his own denial, the accused be found guilty of having shown cowardice in the face of the enemy.

Major von Peters
: Yes, that’ll probably be all right.

Lieutenant Bratianu
: I return now to the accomplishment of Velder’s high treason. In order not to give the accused the opportunity to sabotage the procedure of this court martial by malingering, I will allow him to take up his testimony in the same so-called narrative form as before. Captain Endicott, would you be so kind as to see to it that the accused speaks as clearly and concisely as possible.

Captain Endicott
: I shall try to.

Lieutenant Bratianu
: Thank you. And now, Velder, go on with your account of how you betrayed your friends, your superiors, your General and your country.

Colonel Orbal
: That Endicott, what’s he up to again now? Looks very peculiar.

Major von Peters
: Fiddling about, as usual. He’d have made a good social worker, too. Or member of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force.

Lieutenant Bratianu
: Begin, Velder.

Velder
: We drove along the road towards Ludolfsport; the northern or old road which was one hundred and twenty kilometres long. When we’d passed the inn and the place where the road should
have been barricaded, Janos Edner said that we should take the road past the ruined church, where I’d let the men bivouac, and fetch the trucks loaded with blockade materials. I did as he suggested. When we got there, the guards were indeed in their places. The rest of the men were asleep inside the ruin. When Edner saw their equipment, he changed his mind again. He then said that we should take both vehicles and men with us—none of the men seemed to suspect anything unusual and they hadn’t attempted to use the radio equipment that had been left behind. I got the vehicles going again and ordered the men to embark. We took both the radio transmitters into our armoured car, drove back to the old road and continued eastwards with the whole convoy.

The only place where we saw any soldiers was in Brock, a village which lies forty kilometres west of Oswaldsburg. There was a road barrier there too, but the second-lieutenant in command thought that we were on our way to Ludolfsport with reinforcements and let us through without question. It was only twenty kilometres to the next village and in between the two communities ran the border between the Central and the Eastern Provinces. And the border between the first and second military areas too, for that matter. We could now hear quite a bit of radio traffic from the area ahead of us, but we couldn’t really make out what was happening. Everyone seemed to be up and about and carts and cars had been overturned across the road. Quite a lot of people with white armbands were guarding the barriers and a number of them were armed, but not many. Janos Edner and I got down and talked to one who seemed to be a leader. He was a building worker in reality and he told us that the inhabitants of the village had been given the alarm just before two o’clock. There had been some fighting there with a small Army detachment, which had come to occupy the village, but the officer commanding it had been killed almost at once and then a number of the soldiers had changed sides and the others left. We also saw several soldiers with white armbands. I ordered my men out of the vehicles and lined them up without arms. They seemed quite bewildered. The man who was leader let them choose between going over to the People’s Front, as he called it, or being taken prisoner. Six of them went over. The others were taken away, where to I don’t know. Perhaps they were shot. There were already a
number of dead, seven or eight, I think, lying on the ground.

Lieutenant Bratianu
: See to it that the accused is not so long-winded, Captain Endicott. This court martial has other things to do besides listening to this swine.

Major von Peters
: Quite right, Bratianu.

Velder
: Aranca Peterson asked what had happened in Ludolfsport, and the leader replied that he didn’t know, but that Stoloff, who was really a building expert, had taken over leadership there. He also said that the telephones were working and it was possible to get through. After some difficulties, Janos Edner managed to get Stoloff on the line. What they said I don’t know, but the end of it was that we left all the arms behind, the trucks and material, the jeep and the other armoured car too, and drove on to Ludolfsport, a distance of about fifty or sixty kilometres still. That was myself, Janos Edner, Aranca Peterson, Danica Rodriguez, the nurse and the two kids. Danica Rodriguez drove, while Edner and I worked on the radio. Now and again on the way, we met carloads of armed civilians. They were wearing white armbands and were driving westwards. There weren’t all that many, of course, but I must have seen between twenty and thirty carloads of volunteers like that. The children had grown frightened and were fretting and crying.

Lieutenant Bratianu
: This is intolerable. There’s a short official account of the tragedy in the second military area, Appendix V VI/7x. Read it out, Lieutenant Brown.

Lieutenant Brown
: Appendix V VI/7x, compiled from a summary of events in the Eastern Province and other military areas on the night of the thirteenth of December, provided by the National Historical Department of the General Staff. Marked Secret according to paragraphs eight, eleven and twenty-two. The text is as follows:

The developments in Ludolfsport and the Eastern Province, which were to lead to a series of serious disturbances, were due to unfortunate circumstances. In Ludolfsport, considerable enlargement of the harbour facilities had been going on for several months and at the same time a whole new section of the town was being constructed. This work was being done by the same specially trained men who had earlier been responsible for all building activity in the country. Thus about two thousand five hundred of these building
workers, most of them housed in the harbour areas, were to be found in the town.

A certain Boris Stoloff, a close co-operator with Joakim Ludolf, the enemy of the people, and much earlier seconded as organiser of the building industry, was also in Ludolfsport. At 0143 hours on the night of thirteenth of December, the aforementioned Stoloff received a radio-telegram which clarified the Army’s and General Oswald’s intentions to him and described the course of events in the South-Western Province. Stoloff was then in his work-room in the harbour area and within a few minutes was able to raise the alarm in the barracks where the workers were billeted, as well as to those working on the nightshift at the time. The crews of several ships in the harbour also joined the Red revolution. This hastily gathered up mob had no modern weapons at their disposal except those on the patrol-boats and at the coastguard stations, but on the other hand they had unlimited access to explosives, detonators and tools. The tele-centre, situated on the outskirts of the harbour area, was taken over by members of the Coastguard Service and when a few minutes later, regular troops reached the building, they were met with heavy fire and were forced to retreat. When at 0200 hours Colonel Milton Fox advanced into the town at the head of units from the Second Motorised Infantry Reginment, the regular troops were attacked from all quarters by hordes of rebellious workers, armed with bundles of explosives and even mines they had taken from the coastguard depôt in the harbour. The staff-car carrying Colonel Fox was blown up and not only the driver but the Chief of Staff was also killed. The colonel himself was wounded at the hands of the rebels, together with two other senior officers. He was taken to Boris Stoloff’s office in the harbour, where he was later murdered. For two hours, there was confused street fighting. Robbed of their officers and inferior in numbers—many civilians and even women armed with axes and kitchen knives had now joined the murderous Red hordes—the loyal soldiers never succeeded in gaining control of the streets or of strategically important buildings. When the troops withdrew towards military headquarters and the barracks area south of the town, they found their retreat cut off and the roads partially blown up. During the early hours of the morning, the garrison was surrounded by hastily armed civilians.

Despite courageous resistance, the garrison area fell into rebel hands a few hours later. Similarly, events developed in other towns and villages within the second military area, where the soldiers who had been sent to protect the people were attacked and in many cases brutally murdered by guerillas and groups of gangsters. Between five and six in the morning on the thirteenth of December, the traitors Janos Edner and Aranca Peterson arrived at Ludolfsport, where they at once took the lead in the Red revolution. The following day, military stores were plundered.

Lieutenant Bratianu
: Did you hear that, Velder?

Velder
: Yes. Some of it is quite wrong. The soldiers left behind in the barracks didn’t offer any resistance. Most of the ones left behind were members of the old militia. They took their own officers prisoner themselves and went over to the People’s Front. Colonel Fox wasn’t murdered. He was badly wounded and died of wounds in the hospital in Ludolfsport.

Lieutenant Bratianu
: Hold your tongue, you monster! No more infamous lies! Stop trying to drag you superiors and dead comrades through the mud!

Colonel Orbal
: Goodness, what a noise. Both out of doors and indoors. I think that’ll do for today.

Lieutenant Bratianu
: Yes, sir. The charges against Velder in points seventy-eight to eighty-two can now be considered gone into and the accused proved guilty. After one more brief questioning, I am prepared to commit the case to the court.

Major von Peters
: Excellent, Bratianu.