Kat and Die Wolfsschanze

by Michael Beals

  “What’s that?”

  “Nobel 808? It’s a plastic explosive developed by the SOE. The British actually developed something quite useful that we haven’t. Who’d of thought…”

  Kat said, “why am I not surprised that you have access to SOE equipment.”

  Pernass just shrugged.

  “We think we can find a plane at Frankfurt Oder, which is a military airfield at–”

  “I know where it is.”

  “The thing is, we’ll have a lot to take with us, so we’ll need seven parachutes. We also won’t have time to rig everything. It’ll be hard enough stealing the plane. We need to be able to land again at a nearby airstrip. Could you find one for us?”

  Pernass sipped at his wine. “I’ve already done that. There’s a private airstrip at Torzym. I’ll give you the coordinates. I’m more concerned about you getting out alive.”

  “You can help us there, as well,” Kelly said, looking behind him to see if anyone was listening. “We’ll need transport. If the attack becomes a firestorm, there may not be anything left. Could you arrange for a truck to be left in Rastenburg?”

  Pernass smiled a crafty smile. “As it happens, there already is. I have a house there, with a car in the garage. It’s nothing much, an old Studebaker, but it should take you all.”

  When the food finally came, Kat was surprised to see that Sam chose the liverwurst and sauerkraut, he being very English.

  “You like liverwurst?” she exclaimed. “I thought you’d ordered the casserole.”

  “No, Uncle Rudolph ordered that. The liverwurst is perfect. I might not like the NAZIs very much, but I love German liver sausage.”

  She gazed at her dumpling soup. She’d have preferred the sausage.

  I have another request,” she said, spooning some soup into her mouth and glancing at Pernass. “We’d quite like to sleep in a hotel tonight, but the men want to stay at a brothel.” She rolled her eyes. “Apparently it’s normal in Berlin.”

  Pernass almost choked on his casserole. “They want to stay at a brothel?” he whispered, his eyes darting around the room.

  “Could you organize it?”

  “Absolutely not!” he said, indignantly, “I’ll give you the money for the hotel. What they do with the money, I’d prefer not to know.”

  Kat shuddered at the thought and laughed. “For the first time, you and I are in complete agreement!”

  Pernass smiled. “I have a final question. I’m going to the Wolf’s Lair. In fact, I’ll probably be there when you attack.” He took a nervous sip of wine. “How will I know when you’re going to attack?”

  “I don’t understand, I thought der Führer had a shoot on sight order on your head.”

  Pernass raised his eyebrows, “my concern.”

  With such a cryptic answer as that, Kat knew he wasn’t in a chatty mood to explain what he meant. However, it wouldn’t be very chivalrous to kill her stepfather when he was helping them to stop the war, but if he happened to be in the bunker when her team attacked, she couldn’t guarantee he’d survive.

  “You’re the one with all the spies. They’ll let you know when we’re about to arrive and I suggest you get the hell out of Dodge.”

  Thanking Pernass for the money, and arranging to pick up the Nobel 808 at the barracks on Britzer Strasser, they said their farewells. If the attack went as planned, they might not see each other again until the war was over. If the attack didn’t go as planned, well… they would see each other in the hereafter.

  CHAPTER 26

  Alexanderplatz was surprisingly busy. Chattering soldiers wandered across the square, couples walked arm in arm, two of the larger cafés were open, cars were driving about, and the porch lights of the Großartig Hotel was glowing bright orange as if they canceled the blackout. Parking the car outside one of the cafés, Sam gazed at Kat for a moment.

  “Come on. Let’s walk.”

  They walked towards the middle of the square, following the confusion of buckled tramlines as they instinctively headed for the place they’d first met. There were no Christmas lights this time, no horses pulling carriages through the snow, no happy families.

  She looked around. To her surprise, the hitching post where her stepfather had shot the horse still stood, despite all the devastation. Now they were on the same side, although whether it would stay that way remained to be seen. If they failed to kill Hitler, they would have no choice but to become vehement enemies again. She could imagine Hitler making Pernass a General.

  “Kat, I have a question. Is it really a good idea for the others to stay in a brothel? I know what I said, but I’m not sure if I was right. The truck is full of weapons, and we need them. It should be kept in a secure lock-up, and I don’t think brothels have those kinds of facilities.”

  “You think we should sleep in the truck?”

  He winced. “I think that would be best. We can’t lose the equipment and weapons.”

  “I guess while the guys are busy, I suppose we should.”

  He let out a long sigh. “Okay. Let’s go. It’s almost midnight.”

  It took longer than expected to drive back to the Tiergarten. The Brandenburg Gate, Berlin’s very own Arc de Triomphe was still in one piece but now surrounded by rubble, forcing them to enter the park from the south. Working their way around to Leipziger Straße, they made their way through the ruined streets. The British must have carpet-bombed Berlin because the city was a skeleton of its former self.

  They found the men lying on their sleeping bags on the grass. Capetti was telling them a story about Italian marriages and Dore and Stewart were listening with rapt attention.

  “The women really lose interest in sex?” Stewart asked. “That’s not even human.”

  “Once they have a child? Absolutely. Children are everything to Italian women.”

  “Sorry to interrupt your story,” Kat said, “but we’ve decided to look after the truck. If you all want to sleep in brothels, Sam and I will sleep here. You can take the Bentley.”

  Capetti shook his head. “Is okay. We change minds. Jock and Harry drink too much beer, and I prefer Italian women.”

  “Until they have children,” Dore commented, which caused everyone to laugh.

  ”Have you all eaten?” Kelly asked.

  “Si. We eat chicken, potato, and cabbage,” Capetti said. “Was very nice.”

  “And beer,” Dore added.

  “What, at a café?’

  “On our knees in the truck,” Stewart said. “The cook used to own a restaurant, but he got bombed out, so he set up in the back of a van.”

  “Wow. Lucky find. So we’re staying here? You don’t mind sleeping in the park?”

  “It’s probably the safest place in Berlin.”

  “Someone sleeps in the cab of the truck. The rest of you guys position your sleeping bags around the truck. I, being in charge of you bunch of losers, will sleep one last night in the Bentley.”

  Dore laughed. “We’ve got our Mum back.”

  “You mean, your Commanding Officer,” she retorted.

  “Our Commanding Mum.”

  CHAPTER 27

  Leaving the Bentley in the Tiergarten pained Kat. She found herself gazing at it as they drove away. It wasn’t just a car, it had become a member of the family, and it felt like leaving a child behind. It wouldn’t have felt so bad if they’d left it in Italy, but to leave it for the Germans was almost too much to bear.

  She drove the truck now. She would have preferred Dore to drive, except it would have meant revealing that Officers were sitting in the back when they reached th
e barracks. With her driving, she and Kelly could collect the parachutes, two 10 Cap Blasting Detonators, and 50 pounds of Nobel 808 without raising suspicion. As it turned out, it wouldn’t have made much difference. Pernass left instructions for the supplies to be loaded onto the truck the moment she signed in at the Orderly Room. It was a piece of cake. No one asked questions, and they simply drove away.

  The drive to Frankfurt Oder was slower than Kat expected. Columns of soldiers were heading back to Berlin, personnel carriers, tanks, and halftracks clogged the road, their armor plating dented and muddy. The soldiers looked exhausted and forlorn. They probably came from Frankfurt Oder. Any further and they would have been in trucks.

  She tried to concentrate on driving. Why did it matter if the Germans looked exhausted and fed up? However, It did matter. They weren’t NAZIs. They were ordinary soldiers who didn’t want the war any more than she did. And if she was going to get all analytical, it was worth remembering that she was half German. Her father had been a German living in England, where he’d been since the end of the First World War. Not that she considered herself German. She’d studied at Cambridge and was as English as Twining’s Tea.

  Her time at Cambridge floated through her mind, days on the river when she was supposed to be studying, getting drunk in the Pig & Whistle, roast beef lunches when her mother came to visit.

  “Kat,” Kelly said, jerking her back to the present. “That’s Frankfurt up ahead. We’re not far from the airfield.”

  “The airfield’s in Germany? I thought it was over the border in Poland, which is on the other side of the river.”

  “No, it’s on this side of the river. I had a girlfriend in Poland, but the airfield’s in Germany. Somewhere along here we have to take a right, but I can’t remember where.”

  Pulling over, she looked at the map that Pernass gave her. According to the map, the airfield was approximately three kilometers to the south, not far from the village of Müllrose.

  “Are you sure we haven’t passed it?”

  “Quite sure. I’ve been watching. Drive on. It might be signposted.”

  They continued, driving slowly. The road was empty now. There were no more tanks or soldiers. They passed an old windmill, its sails ragged and broken, then the entrance to a farm, which reminded her of the barn where they slept. Just up ahead, she saw a wooden sign that read, Flughafen.

  Taking the turn, she drove for a hundred yards and pulled over. “Sam, we need to talk about this. I know what we’re planning, we’ve been discussing it for days, but don’t we want to scout the airfield before we make any firm decisions?”

  “Such as?”

  “Well, firstly, this isn’t our first rodeo. Jock and Harry… and myself, of course… have been on quite a number of similar missions. I don’t mean killing Hitler, but boarding planes we’re not familiar with, sometimes in dire circumstances. It will help if the others know what they’re up against. For a start, only you and I are stealing the plane. The others are driving on to meet us at the airstrip. If they know what kind of plane we’re stealing, at least they’ll be prepared.”

  “Okay. Well, I’m hoping to steal a Junkers 52, and we’re all familiar with that. I thought of driving into the airfield. We’re German Officers. They’re not going to stop us. If we can make a brief appearance at the Adjutant’s office, we’ll probably be free to walk around. We can’t know any more than that until we’re there.”

  “What about Jock and Harry? They don’t speak German.”

  He shrugged. “It’s quite a big area. They can stay in the truck until we’re all on our own. When they leave again to drive to Torzym, Sandro can drive.”

  “What if the Adjutant gets all sociable and invites us into the Officers’ Mess? Sandro’s a Major and Harry’s a Captain. They can’t just sit in the back of the truck.”

  “It’s not cold. They can take off their jackets.”

  She ran a hand through her hair. It seemed the easiest solution. “Okay.”

  Climbing out, she walked to the back of the truck and explained what they were planning. Dore just shrugged, he was quite happy to do the easiest thing, but Capetti looked uncertain.

  “What if they want to check truck? We have parachutes. Is not normal.”

  “We’ve also got a panzerschreck, machine guns, explosives, and a radio. They’re not going to do an inventory. We’re SS.”

  “And you want us to hide rank.”

  “If you don’t mind.”

  “And when we drive out? Suddenly I’m a Major.”

  “Sandro, the guards at the gate won’t notice.”

  He shrugged. “Okay.”

  Climbing behind the wheel again, she drove on.

  They knew they were nearing the airfield when two Messerschmitt 309s took off, and a few minutes later, they arrived at the perimeter fence.

  “It’s bigger,” Kelly said, gazing at the airfield. “They’ve extended it.”

  Another plane took off, and moments later, they arrived at the main gate. Two Panther tanks sat beside the entrance, although she couldn’t imagine what use they’d be, they were still in Germany. She scrutinized the guards. There were four, three Privates and a Corporal. The tanks seemed to be unmanned. Taking her time, she drove into the entrance and handed her papers to the Corporal.

  “Good morning. Can you direct me to the Adjutant’s Office?”

  The guard studied her papers for a moment, glanced at Kelly, waved her through and saluted, “it’s next to the Officers’ Mess.”

  “Thank you,” she sang and drove on.

  She’d expected the airfield to be alive with Messerschmitts preparing for takeoff, now surprisingly quiet. A Dornier 215 trundled towards the takeoff point, and mechanics were working on the wings of a Junkers 52. Otherwise, there was little activity. There were three hangars, and all of them were open, with no Messerschmitts in sight. Either they were all in the air, or Fighter Command no longer ran Frankfurt Oder Air Base.

  Working her way around the apron, she headed for an untidy scattering of buildings. The airbase had once been a civilian airfield, so the Luftwaffe made do with what was available. She still couldn’t see the Officers’ Mess, so she headed for a group of white-painted cinder block structures. It turned out to be a fortuitous move, the second building had a sign that read Adjutant, and she remembered that in this particular case, the German word being the same in English.

  “Are you ready?” she said, pulling up outside. “You’re my Commanding Officer. You’re doing the talking.”

  Kelly grinned at her. “Yes Mum.”

  To their surprise, a Sergeant and a smartly dressed woman in a dark blue dress ran the Adjutant’s Office. The man they presumed to be the actual Adjutant sat in a small office, off to one side. The door was open, and they saw him with his head buried in paperwork.

  “Good morning,” Kelly said, putting on an icy expression befitting an SS Officer. “My name’s Major Schröder. Can I speak to the Adjutant?”

  The woman gave him a polite smile. “Certainly sir. Can I say what it’s about?”

  He gave her a thin smile and shook his head. “Fraid not. If you wouldn’t mind getting him.”

  Kat watched as the woman went into the small office and spoke to the Adjutant. She couldn’t hear what the woman said, but the Adjutant looked startled and instantly stood up. He was a small man with rimless glasses and a short mustache and looked even smaller when he got nearer to Kelly.

  “Heil Hitler,” he said uncertainly. “How can I help?”

  Kelly didn’t say anything right away. He just smiled at the man as if considering his reply. Eventually, he said, “May we speak in your office? It’
s a little public out here.”

  The Adjutant raised his eyebrows. “Yes, of course,” he said, gesturing Kelly into his office.

  Once they were inside and closed the door, Kelly said, “I’m sorry to be so secretive, but we’ve come to meet Oberführer Pernass, and he’s supposed to be in Cologne. It’s highly confidential. Would you mind if we wander around the air base while we’re waiting for him? I wanted to be a pilot before the war, and I love military planes.”

  “Absolutely,” the Adjutant replied, clapping his hands together and rubbing them, eager to please. “I’m afraid the Luftwaffe are winding down at this base, but there are a number of transport planes. And please, use the Officers’ Mess if you wish.”

  “That’s very good of you. When Oberführer Pernass arrives, I might be in one of the hangars, will you inform my Sergeant of his arrival so he can let me know.”

  “Yes, sir. We’ll let him know.”

  Thanking him, Kelly sauntered out of the office. Once they were outside, he said, “Well, that was fairly easy. Fancy a schnapps in the Officers’ Mess?”

  “Don’t tempt me. I might need a drink when we steal the plane. What shall I tell the others?”

  “Ask Sandro to drive the truck over to Hangar Number 3 and wait for us. They can probably stretch their legs if there’s no one around.”

  “So is the airfield any different?” she asked when she rejoined him, and they were walking towards the first hangar.

  “They’ve added two more hangars, built a few more buildings and made a proper runway… We used to takeoff on grass.”

  “Ya, you had a girlfriend. You think she’s still around?”

  He shook his head. “She’s dead. She joined the Polish Resistance and was killed.”

  Wishing she hadn’t asked, she touched his arm. “I’m sorry. Were you close?”

  “Close enough. D’you mind if we don’t talk about it?”