The Generals (29 page)

Colonel Orbal
: What? Yes, by all means.

Velder
: We waited for the shelling to stop, but it never did. It went on hour after hour, right up until six o’clock the next morning. We thought that they’d attack then and the men in the forward lines got ready. It was deathly quiet for forty-five minutes. Then the guns began firing again. It seems incomprehensible, but it went on like that day after day.

Colonel Orbal
: It’s damned well not in the slightest incomprehensible. We fired off between ninety and a hundred and ten guns in slow salvoes for thirty-three hours fifteen minutes a day. The firing plan was to systematically shell quarter by quarter up to a depth of ten thousand yards behind the demarcation line. God knows how many barrels we wore out. But it was worth it. The finest concert I’ve ever heard. Wouldn’t you agree, Carl?

Major von Peters
: Yes, indeed. What’s the matter with Velder now? Same old coma?

Captain Endicott
: I request a brief pause to …

Colonel Orbal
: Yes, do as you like as long as you push the wretch out of the place first. We might as well go up and have a beer and sandwich and get an eyeful of Pigafetta’s tarts. The session is adjourned for forty-five minutes.

*   *   *

Colonel Orbal
: Fifty per cent burns. As I said, he might well make it.

Major von Peters
: Doubt it. But it’d be a good thing if he survived.

Colonel Orbal
: Of course. Let the parties in, Brown.

Captain Schmidt
: The accused’s condition is anything but satisfactory. It would be a good thing if we did not interrupt him, except when absolutely necessary. We’ll try to continue, now, Endicott.

Major von Peters
: All this experimental stuff is beginning to go too far. Schmidt, what about giving Velder a good beating just for a change? Then perhaps he’d tell us something we don’t already know.

Captain Endicott
: Start now, Velder.

Velder
: By the end of the first day we knew we’d never be able
to carry out the attack. Casualties were already great. The opportunity has gone for ever, Janos Edner said. But our disappointment was replaced by resolution to defend ourselves. In the headquarters bunker, we talked about giving up, but the people in the trenches talked about fighting to the last man. The strangest of all was Ludolf. Over the telephone, he said day after day: ‘No serious damage. No, hardly any casualties.’ And then he repeated: ‘We’re not so vulnerable at ground level as you are.’ Anyhow, we did the best we could, digging in more and more. Working all round the clock, now on the defence plan. Stoloff sent us bits of advice from the southern sector. Sent over machines and special workers on a few occasions. The artillery fire went on for so long that people got used to it. That shows that people can get used to anything. People learnt to protect themselves too. Casualties got fewer quite quickly. Strangely enough, it wasn’t long before they began to shell the area round headquarters. We soon realised that they had no imagination, but were just shelling according to geometrical tables. We learnt to evacuate like lightning. In that way, lots of people escaped death.

Captain Endicott
: Go on, Velder.

Velder
: The bunker was badly constructed. The Army had built it, of course, but we had reinforced it. Stoloff had also said that it should stand up to a direct hit. On the fourth of March, at nine in the evening, they began shelling the quarter where headquarters were situated. The first shell hit the section where Janos Edner and Aranca Peterson were living. The shell went straight through the casemate and exploded on the children’s room. The kids and their nurse had just gone to bed. It must have been a howitzer.

Commander Kampenmann
: What did you say, Velder?

Major von Peters
: He said that the projectile must have come from a howitzer. A fully correct conclusion for once.

Velder
: It was their own fault. The children should have been evacuated long before then. But no one wanted it, neither Janos nor Aranca nor the kids. Then we got three direct hits in the second section of the bunker. None of them came through. Janos Edner and Aranca Peterson always reacted strangely and often in exactly the same way, as if they were one and the same person. This time they said practically nothing. But I noticed that they looked at each
other more often than usual. At a run-through a week later, that was on the eleventh of March, Aranca lost control. That was the only time I’d ever seen her do that. Our own artillery was in action then, actually. There wasn’t much point to it, as we hadn’t even a fifth of the guns Oswald had. The run-through was very dismal; the only positive thing was that reports on determination to defend and keenness to fight in the trenches were stronger than ever. I suppose that was lies. Aranca Peterson said: ‘Keenness to fight, determination to defend …’ Janos Edner said: ‘Yes, that’s what we’ve got to fall back on. To be able to win.’ That was when she lost control and shouted ‘Win, win, win. And when we’ve won, yes, then we’ll win, yes, then we’ll win in a hundred years!’ She half-shouted, half-sang it. Then after a while she calmed down. Edner looked at her. ‘Don’t you see that we have to?’ And she said: ‘Yes, I see that.’ She was a remarkable person, Aranca Peterson. I remember looking at her and thinking that. Bartholic thought so too. He told me so a little later. Her children were dead and their idea was shot to hell and …

Colonel Orbal
: Fearfully boring and uninteresting, all this.

Captain Schmidt
: It seems to be difficult today, but I’ll do my best.

Velder
: Every morning at the time when the shelling stopped, we went up to the front line. On the fourteenth of March, we were there as usual. At six o’clock the artillery fire stopped and the general alarm was sounded in the trenches. That’s what had happened at exactly the same time for twenty-six consecutive days. The men went to their posts. They looked pretty apathetic.

Major von Peters
: Well, go on, for Christ’s sake.

Velder
: Go on. The artillery fire never started again. At exactly half-past six the offensive began. First the barricade busters came ploughing through the minefields, then the tanks. Then the infantry in asbestos suits and with flame-throwers. They walked as if through a sea of floating fire. It looked slow. And inexorable. The crew of a machine-gun just near where I was standing were killed and Bartholic and I manned it for a quarter of an hour until we could get replacements. I was quite a good shot and I saw at least ten men fall.

Captain Schmidt
: I must ask the presidium to take special note of what has just been said.

Velder
: It was the first time I’d killed or seriously wounded anyone in the whole of my life. Very strange.

Captain Endicott
: What do you mean, Velder? Very strange that …

Velder
: That I didn’t react at all. Probably poisoned by militarism, as Edner said. We returned to headquarters, Bartholic and I. The atmosphere there was pure doomsday. Plans mostly functioned, the front held all day, but the casualties were alarming. They were above the calculated percentage, Bartholic said. Never forget the look Aranca Peterson gave him. Ludolf reported strong offensives along the whole of his section border too, but said the front line was intact and casualties few. During the night, the offensive weakened, but at about five the next morning, the fifteenth of March, they began again at full strength. By about ten, Oswald’s units had driven a four kilometre long wedge into our positions just north of the motorway. After another hour, we got reports that the front had been broken through and we ordered what was left of the tactical reserve to seal the gap. Casualties were great now and all the first-aid posts overflowing. A little later Edner contacted Ludolf for the last time over the radio. Everything else had ceased to function by then. I’ll try to recall …

Captain Endicott
: He can’t go on much longer.

Captain Schmidt
: We can refer to the section of our preliminary investigation records, number V VII/10A. If you please, Brown.

Lieutenant Brown
: Number V VII/10A. Interrogation of Erwin Velder, number one hundred and sixty-seven. The text gives the radio conversation between Janos Edner and Joakim Ludolf, which took place at about eleven-twenty on the fifteenth of March.

Edner: Break-through on the front three kilometres north of the motorway.

Ludolf: How wide?

Edner: About eight hundred yards.

Ludolf: I see.

Edner: We’re beaten. Do you understand? We’re beaten.

Ludolf: You are perhaps, not us. They made a minor break-through
at about nine this morning, but they’ve paid dearly for it. It’s straightened out now.

Edner: We can’t go on much longer now.

Ludolf: I see.

Edner: And you?

Ludolf: I’m going on. What are you thinking of doing?

Edner: Capitulating. It’s pointless to allow people who’ve been lured here on false pretences to be slaughtered to no avail.

Ludolf: There’s not much point in capitulating either.

Edner: I’ve no choice.

Ludolf: I see. When?

Edner: I must speak to Bartholic for a moment.

There’s a pause mark here.

Edner: Within four hours. That’s already too much. Several people are dying every minute here.

Ludolf: O.K. At three o’clock, then. Do this. Can you hear me?

Edner: Yes.

Ludolf: Let the units engaged at the front disengage themselves and retreat.

Edner: But your flank; we’ll expose it.

Ludolf: Don’t worry. It’ll hold.

Edner: Hold?

Ludolf: Yes. Where are you thinking of going yourself?

Edner: Don’t know.

Ludolf: You’re welcome to come here. But …

Edner: Yes?

Ludolf: Under my command. You’d keep your rank, of course.

Edner: I have no rank. Anyhow, that’s pointless. I can’t cope any longer.

Ludolf: Listen to me. We’ll open a gap in the barrier into our lines at Point B3, kilometre marking 12 on the autostrad. That’s by the crossroads where the old road turns south. It’ll be opened fifteen minutes from … now.

Edner: Yes?

Ludolf: Valuable materials and units and effective fighting men can retreat into the southern sector that way. Do you hear me? Valuable material and effective fighting men. Nothing else.

Edner: I hear you.

Ludolf: I want Bartholic’s commandos especially. Every man-jack of them.

Edner: I see.

Ludolf: And others who can and will fight. Is the depot at Ludolfsport intact?

Edner: As far as I know.

Ludolf: Give orders for it to be evacuated at once. I’ll send as much transport as I can.

Edner: One moment—I’ll tell Bartholic.

There is another pause mark here.

Edner: Yes, that’s done.

Ludolf: One more thing. Get all the reserves available now to cover the gap.

Edner: Our reserves are largely already used up.

Ludolf: I neither can nor want to sacrifice people here. You’ll have to pull the best units out of the front line, as soon as they’ve disengaged themselves. The gap and evacuation line must at all costs be held until the moment you give the cease fire order. Preferably half an hour longer. Those particular units need not be reached by the capitulation order. Jam their radio. Get them to dig in. And give the order at exactly 1600 hours. Wait a minute, Stoloff wants to say something.

Stoloff: General Edner? This is Colonel Stoloff. I advise you to get the demolition units working at once. Destroy all permanent constructions and all stores you can’t evacuate in the southern sector. The harbour entrance must be mined and blocked and all ships that don’t leave the harbour must be sunk. I myself have made preparations for this earlier on. Three minutes ago I sent group of sixty men over who’ll see to the practical details. That’s all. Good luck.

Ludolf: Anything else? Regards to Aranca and the others.

Edner: Wait a minute. Are you sure you’re doing the right thing?

Ludolf: Yes. Good luck.

Edner: Same to you.

Ludolf: One more thing. Make sure he doesn’t take you alive.

The conversation ended there.

Captain Schmidt
: I am conscious of the fact that it is unorthodox
to refer to the testimony of the accused in this form. But under the present circumstances, I consider it valid. Mr Gerthoffer has added a note to the interrogation record, in which he calls Velder’s recall of the conversation ‘a masterpiece of memorising’. He points out that Velder repeated the conversation at five separate interviews, spread over a period of three months, without once changing a single word. Striking evidence of the memory-stimulating effect of the surgical method, he writes.

Colonel Orbal
: You know, Niblack, last night I was sitting thinking about something you said. When you asked von Peters whether he was religious. Well, that was amusing in itself. But then you said that most airmen were religious and it could be a matter of environment. Did you mean that you’re nearer to God when you’re flying?

Major Niblack
: Did I really say that?

Major von Peters
: Go on now, Schmidt. We haven’t got the rest of our lives.

Captain Schmidt
: What happened during the hours between eleven o’clock and five on the fifteenth of March is so well known that we can content ourselves with a brief recapitulation. There is such an account in the preliminary investigation, Appendix V VII/101x. If you please, Lieutenant Brown.

Lieutenant Brown
: Appendix V VII/101x concerning the disturbances. Summary compiled by the National Historical Department of the General Staff. The text is as follows:

At midday on the fifteenth of March, combined assault infantry and tank units from the Peace Corps and the National Freedom Army north of the motorway crossed the demarcation line along its whole length and in two places broke through the rebel positions. In order to avoid disintegration, the revolutionary forces began to retreat. The retreat was slow at first and involved defensive fighting, but soon became more and more disorderly and finally grew into flight in certain places. At sixteen-thirty, when the rebel strength’s tactical situation had become extremely precarious, their leader Janos Edner decided to give up.