While they tucked into this magnificent feast Gregory told Erika about his escape from Poland, his months of misery at Sachsenhausen and how, with Malacou's help, he had got away from the camp only to find himself expecting to be shot on the orders of Goering.
When they had done it was getting on for three in the morning. Gregory then helped Erika to undress. He did not sleep in the dressing room.
At seven o'clock they were awakened from a deep sleep by a footman. He brought them breakfast on a tray and as he set it down he said, `His Excellency the Reichsmarschall is already up. He requests that as soon as you have breakfasted and dressed you will join him.'
Sitting up side by side, they ate the newly baked bread spread with real butter and gratefully drank down two large cups of genuine Turkish coffee apiece. For ten minutes they allowed themselves to forget everything for the fun of splashing together in the bath. Then they hurriedly got into their clothes, rang for the footman and accompanied him up to Goering's huge workroom.
The Reichsmarschall was dressed in a pale blue uniform with all the gold trappings appropriate to the Chief of the Luftwaffe in addition to the galaxy of bejewelled orders that scintillated on his broad chest. Beside him on his desk lay his foot-long Marshal's baton of solid ivory encrusted with emblems in gold.
As they approached he stood up, kissed Erika's hand and said, `1 regret having had to disturb your connubial bliss at such an early hour, but shortly we shall be leaving here. The time has come when I must evacuate Karinhall.'
When he had ceased speaking they became fully conscious for the first time of a dull rumble in the distance.
`That booming…' Gregory began, `can it already be…?'
Goering nodded. `Yes. It is the Russian guns. They will be here tomorrow; perhaps even today.'
Erika made a sweeping gesture round the great chamber. `But all these lovely things. Are you not going to make any attempt to save them?'
The Reichsmarschall smiled ruefully. `No, my dear. It would take weeks to pack and send them all away. And what would be the sense of my taking a couple of vanloads with me? I am no petty thief to hold on to a few antiques in order to barter them for bread and butter. This phase of my life is over. While it has lasted it has been magnificent. In modern times no man has lived more like a Roman Emperor. Now the curtain is coming down. What happens to me as I pass from the world's stage is of no importance.- My only regret is that the German people should be called on to pay such a terrible price for their great endeavour.'
Gregory turned instantly to Erika. `Where is your ambulance? We must go to it at once. Since your mission here has failed you must not lose a moment in setting off back to Switzerland.'
`Will you come with me?' she asked.
`No, my dear, I can't. And you know why.'
`Of course. Your duty lies here. I had no right to ask you.'
Goering put in quickly, `Erika cannot return along the route by which she came. The Russians will be in Leipzig by now. In fact, God alone knows how far their spearheads may have penetrated. Even if she made a long detour she might still fall into the hands of a Russian patrol. To those barbarians a woman is simply a woman and a nurse's uniform would be no protection. It would be insane for her to take such a risk.'
Erika smiled. `Without Gregory I had no intention of trying to return to Switzerland. If you are both going to Berlin I'll go with you. If we have to die there, as a German woman I'll be proud to share the fate of thousands of Berliners.'
Goering took her hand and kissed it again. ` Griffin, you are a true von Epp. Let the rest of the world think what it likes of us, but we Hochwohlgeborene at least know how to set an example by facing death with courage.'
`But in Berlin,' Gregory said quickly, `where can Erika go? I can't take her to the bunker, or to the Air Ministry.'
`We shall not stay in Berlin,' replied the Reichsmarschall. `Ten days ago, when first it looked as though the Russians and Americans might meet in the neighbourhood of Leipzig and cut Germany in half, it was decided to establish two new headquarters. Doenitz is to become Supreme Commander of our forces in the north and Kesselring is to assume that role in the south until the Fьhrer arrives there. Koller telephoned me last night that the Fьhrer is working on new plans by which he hopes to save Berlin; so he may not leave immediately. But his orders are that all key personnel should set out tonight for the Bavarian redoubt. For Erika to remain and sacrifice her life to no good purpose is absurd; so I insist that she comes with me. From Munich she will have no difficulty in crossing into Switzerland. Now let us go and wish the Fьhrer a happy birthday.' -
`Of course,' Gregory murmured. `I had forgotten that it is the 10th of April.'
Down in the great open space in front of the mansion a fleet of vehicles had been assembled: motor-cycles, armoured cars, staff cars, small fast trucks, the Reichsmarschall's huge cream and gold Mercedes and Erika's Red Cross van. Gregory mounted on to its box beside her. Goering waved his gold and ivory baton aloft and the cavalcade set off.
For once, although there were aircraft fighting in the sky overhead, when they reached the outskirts of Berlin no air raid was in progress, but on entering the suburbs they met with the same difficulties and delays as had Gregory the previous evening; so it was one o'clock before they arrived at the Air Ministry. Goering, accompanied by his entourage, went into the building, but he sent Gregory's old patron, Kaindl, to tell him that Erika was to drive her van down into the underground garage and that she was to wait there for further orders.
After nearly an hour had passed they felt hungry and Erika suggested that they should make a meal off some of her stores. The interior of the van had been fitted up with a comfortable bunk, a washbasin, sink and oil cooking stove. On the stove she heated up some soup and a tin of sausages. While they ate they speculated on what would happen that evening in the bunker.
Koller's report that Hitler was planning a new offensive that would save Berlin they took as a good sign; for if he stayed there another week it seemed almost certain that by then the city would be encircled. But it was self-evident that many of the top Nazis must realize that with Hitler's death their own would soon follow; so to prolong their lives they would make every effort to persuade him to accompany them to Bavaria.
Gregory's joy at having Erika with him again was sadly marred by his concern for her safety on her long drive south. He also felt that by rights he should have gone straight to the bunker, in order to take any chance that offered of using such influence as he had with Hitler to dissuade him from leaving Berlin. But he knew that once Erika had gone he might never see her again, so could not bring himself to forgo these last hours with her.
Meanwhile tremendous activity and bustle was going on all round them. Trucks were being loaded up with files, maps and every sort of impedimenta, and every few minutes one of them, or a car packed with Luftwaffe officers, drove off, as the evacuation of the Air Ministry proceeded.
At about four o'clock Malacou appeared and punctiliously saluted Gregory. He said he had heard that he was down in the underground garage and, as everyone was leaving, wished to know Gregory's intentions.
Gregory told him that unless Hitler went they must both remain, then waved a hand towards Erika and said, `You will remember the Frau Grafin von Osterberg, although you knew her as Frau Bjornsen.'
Malacou made her a low bow, then his thick lips broke into a smile as he said in a low voice, `I had foreknowledge that the Frau Grafin would arrive in Berlin at about this time; but I said nothing of it to the Herr Major from fear that it should distract his mind from the great work on which he is engaged. I am, of course, aware that the Frau Griffin has no love for me; but all of us are at a crisis in our lives, and it is my earnest hope that she will not allow personal enmity to hamper the common cause we all serve.'
Erika did not return his smile, but she replied gently, 'Herr Malacou, I could never approve the ways in which you have obtained occult powers; yet had it not been for them the Her
r Major- might well have died of privation at Sachsenhausen, or at best still be a prisoner there. That owing to you he is still alive and free more than outweighs the ill-will I bore you, and short of your seeking to persuade him to become a disciple of the Devil, I promise that I will not seek to influence him against you.'
Kaindl arrived at that moment to say that the Reichsmarschall wished to see Erika. Leaving Malacou with the van Gregory accompanied her and the Colonel up to Goering's office. Members of his staff were still frantically sorting papers there either to be burnt or sent to the new headquarters in the south. He said abruptly:
`I am shortly going over to the Fьhrer’s bunker. You, Major Protze, had better come with me. You, Frau Grafin, will return to your van and be ready to move off with my personal convoy when it leaves. That will be soon after dark; probably about eight o'clock.'
Erika shook her head. 'Nein, Herr Reichsmarschall, I shall not be leaving with you. The situation between Major Protze and myself is known to you. I intend to remain in Berlin with him.'
Both Gregory and Goering broke into expostulations and begged her to save herself while she had the chance; but she remained adamant. The question then arose of where she could stay until the fate of the city was decided. After a moment's thought, Goering said:
`Not far from here I have une petite maison where in happier days I used to receive pretty ladies. An elderly couple have always kept it up for me and not long ago I passed a night there. If it is still standing Erika can have the use of it. If not we'll have to find some other place for her.'
For another half-hour they stood about while the Reichsmarschall signed more papers and gave his final orders. At length he told them to go down, collect the van and join him in the street. Ten minutes later, with Malacou in the back of the van, they were following Goering's Mercedes.
It pulled up at a modest two-storey house standing in its own small garden. The note of the musical horn of the Mercedes brought to the door the elderly couple who looked after the house. Goering presented them to Erika as Herr and Frau Hofbeck, then told them that they were to regard her as his honoured guest and that her van was to be housed in the garage. Having given Gregory only a minute to take leave other, he hurried him back down the short path to the enormous cream and gold car.
With the tuneful horn at full blast and motor-cycle outriders to clear the way, it took them less than five minutes to reach the Chancellery. Its colossal hall was a scene of greater activity than Gregory had ever witnessed there, Apparently every Nazi in Berlin who could claim any status had come to hand in a card of birthday greetings to the Fьhrer, and when they got down to the bunkers they found all the top Nazis had assembled in them.
The Fьhrer was just about to go up to the garden to inspect a delegation of picked boys from the Hitler Youth that Artur Axmann had paraded for him. With him to hear the loyal speeches of these young heroes he took Goering, Himmler and Goebbels. While he was up there Gregory got hold of Koller and asked him the form. The General shook his head.
`Whether he goes or stays is still anybody's guess. So far he has refused to make up his mind. But after the reception there is to be a conference at which it's hoped that he will announce his decision.'
On returning from the garden the Fuhrer received Doenitz, Keitel and Jodl each for a few minutes privately, then everyone else was lined up and in turn he received their congratulations and shook hands with them all. The ceremony over, accompanied by the Princes of the Nazi State, he retired to the conference passage. For once the conference did not last several hours, and soon after it broke up the waiting adjutants learned from their masters what had taken place. Goering, Himmler, Goebbels, Ribbentrop, Bormann, Doenitz and Keitel had been unanimous in their appeals to Hitler to leave for Bavaria, but he had declared that he meant to stay where he was, anyway for the time being.
Gregory overheard Bormann assure his secretary that within two days Hitler and the rest of them would go south; but Goebbels was of the opposite opinion. In a corner of the mess passage he had been having a furious argument with Speer, and Johannmeier told Gregory that it had been about the hundred bridges in Berlin. Convinced that the Fьhrer meant to make a spectacular end of himself, the fanatical little doctor had proposed that when the Russians reached the suburbs all the remaining troops should be withdrawn into central Berlin and a final redoubt be formed there by blowing all the bridges.
Speer had protested violently and again went in to see Hitler. The idea of this Gotterdammerung, by which under Russian bombardment a million Germans packed like sardines in a square mile would be dying at the same time as himself, had naturally appealed to the megalomaniac. But Speer's powers of persuasion were so extraordinary that he succeeded in preventing measures for this holocaust from being taken, and orders were given that the last fight for the city should take place on the far side of the bridges.
While Speer was with Hitler, Goebbels and Himmler were talking together and, as it was the first time that Gregory had seen the latter, he eased his way through the crush to get a closer look at him. Bespectacled, paunchy and pasty-faced, he appeared even more insignificant than in his photographs. With his head thrust forward he was speaking in a low, earnest voice and evidently endeavouring to persuade Goebbels to do something.
Looking in the other direction but straining his ears, Gregory caught the words, `… weeks ago and you agreed with me then.
Together we could save something. I am now in a situation to arrange everything. You are a fool to have changed your mind. But there is still time.'
Goebbels' reply was inaudible but he violently shook his narrow head and, as Erika had told Gregory of Himmler's negotiations with Count Bernadotte, he had heard enough to guess what they had been talking about. It confirmed what she had said about Goebbels having contemplated playing the traitor in concert with Himmler. But he had evidently decided against doing so. The 'reason, Gregory had little doubt, was because he had the sense to realize that even if he could hand over his Fьhrer bound and gagged to the Allies they would still show him no mercy.
Only the fanatics-Bormann, Burgdorf, Grauber, Christian, Stumpfegger and a few others-showed even a moderate cheerfulness at this extraordinary birthday party. Ribbentrop, his face gaunt with worry and with great bags under his eyes, loathed and despised. by all, stood alone, a picture of misery. Goering, now equally hated for the failure of his Luftwaffe, a human mountain of a man blazing with jewels and decorations, showed complete indifference, occasionally addressing a remark to the unhappy Koller or von Below, who were standing near him, and for the rest of the time pouring champagne down his throat as though he had hollow legs.
After a while he came over to Gregory and said, `I've had enough of this; so I'm off. You'll stay, of course, to do what you can. Koller will be coming in each day from the new OK W headquarters and you can get in touch with me through him if you wish. I don't need to urge you to take all the care you can of our mutual friend. I only hope that in a few days' time I'll see you both in Munich.'
Soon afterwards the party broke up. Himmler, Ribbentrop, Doenitz, all took their leave of the Fьhrer and joined the great exodus from the capital that was taking place that night. Every Ministry was being evacuated either to the north or the south and long lines of lorries were crawling out of the ruined city by every exit still available.
Gregory made his way to Goering's little house. The. electricity there had been cut off for some days and there was no hot water; but by candle light he and Erika had a scratch meal surrounded by priceless pieces of Louis XV furniture. As the house was an old one the risk of a bomb burying them in the cellar was as great as that of their being killed in one of the upstairs rooms; so they went to bed in Goering's exotic `love nest', which might have come out of the pages of Crebillon Fits.
Next day there was another hours'-long conference in the bunker. After it Hitler sent for Gregory to walk with him. He was positively bubbling with excitement and had suddenly become confident that
he could save Berlin. `My instinct is always right,' he declared. `I was against leaving East Prussia, but Keitel persuaded me to, and East Prussia was lost to us. But in Berlin I shall remain and as long as I am here the city will not fall.'
After a moment he went on, `I have worked out a new plan. At dawn tomorrow General Sterner will launch a great counteroffensive with his army, which covers the south of the city. I have sent him details about the part that every one of his battalions is to play. He is not one of those Army pigs but an Obergruppenfьhrer’s of the S.S., so he will not betray me. Besides, I have taken precautions. It is to be an all-out attack and I have given orders that any commanding officer who holds back his men will forfeit his life within five hours. I have spoken to Koller, too, about his miserable Luftwaffe. I told him, "You will guarantee with your own head that every aircraft that can leave the ground goes into action." '
For half an hour Gregory's role remained that of an audience to these absurd blusterings and callous threats, but at last they petered out in breathless gasps. It was not till Hitler turned to re-enter the building and go downstairs that he managed to get in a few words. He said:
`Mein Fьhrer. Under your personal direction one can hardly doubt that this new offensive will prove successful. Should it fail that will be through no fault of yours, but owing to a decision by those controllers of the Universe who decree the body into which each of us is to be born on reincarnation, and a limit to the length of each life that no power on earth can enable us to exceed. Failure, I am convinced, would be a clear indication that those powers are averse to a delay of even a few months before you begin to prepare yourself to become the leader and saviour of the great people who inhabit Mars.'
When Gregory spoke of a possible failure he was betting on a certainty. Keitel, Krebs, Jodl, Burgdorf, everyone in the bunker, knew that two-thirds of the formations that Hitler had ordered into battle had already ceased to exist; yet such was his mesmeric power and their. terror of him that none of them had dared say so.
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