Kat and Die Wolfsschanze

by Michael Beals

  She’d never imagined Sam with a girlfriend, to hear that she’d died, put him in a different light. Suddenly he was no longer the light-hearted flyboy she’d pulled from a sinking Spitfire. He was a veteran at 24 years of age.

  The first hangar almost empty, a Gotha 325 parked in a corner, and mechanics were working on the one remaining Messerschmitt. There was little happening, so they moved on to the next hanger. Hangar Number 2 was more promising. There were two Junkers 52s, both looking ready to fly, and a massive Dornier 19 transport plane. It blocked the Junkers. The third hangar was much more promising. Not only were there three Junkers transport planes, the hangar was a comfortable distance from the main buildings. They also weren’t being blocked. If they were in working order, they could drive one out of the hangar. They were unlikely to be stopped.

  Kat studied the nearest plane when Kelly came up behind her in a state of excitement. “Hey, guess what I just found, and it’s not even in a hangar. It’s outside, for anyone to steal.”

  “Go on, big boy, shock me.”

  “A DC3. A civilian DC3, and it’s completely out of sight. Jock’s going nuts. He’s already been inside the thing.”

  “It’s perfect. I could fly it with my eyes closed. We don’t even have to load it. We can do that at the Torzym airstrip. This far from the Administration Building, no one’s even going to notice when we start it up. We could be mechanics.”

  “What if it needs fuel?”

  “On a German air base? Planes are always fully fueled.” He stared at her. “So what are we waiting for?”

  She racked her brains. What were they waiting for? Finally, she remembered. “The others need time to drive to Torzym. We should tell them.”

  Walking around to the truck, they told the others. Dore was beside himself. “I knew ya’d love it. Who the hell would steal a Junkers if ya have a Dakota?”

  “You need to go now, Jock. It could take you an hour to find the airstrip at Torzym.”

  Dore looked suddenly worried. “What if we can’t find it? What if Pernass was wrong? What if they’ve plowed it over?”

  “Don’t be so negative, Jock. If it had been plowed over, Pernass would have known. It’s also marked on the map.

  As she watched the truck drive away, she had a moment of panic. What if something happened? She’d never been without Dore. He was her security blanket. He’d always been around.

  “What’s wrong?” Kelly asked, seeing her expression.

  “I’ve never been without Jock. What if something goes wrong? We’re spies in German uniforms, and we won’t even have transport.”

  He smiled and put an arm around her. “You’ve got me, and I can steal anything. What you need is a double schnapps. Shall we go to the mess?”

  “No. I don’t want to go to the mess,” Kat said crossly. “Somebody might move the plane.”

  They boarded the DC3 and waited. Kelly studied all the controls to refresh his memory. The last time they’d traveled in a DC3, they took off from Benghazi, and Capetti flew it.

  She looked at the watch that Commander Fleming gave her. It had been forty minutes since the men departed. Should they risk it and start the engines. Maybe they should. If for any reason the engines refused to start, they’d have to steal a Junkers 52.

  “It’s forty minutes, Sam.”

  “I know. I’ve been waiting for you to say something. You think they’re still looking for the airstrip?”

  She shrugged. “Even if they are, when they see our plane land, it’ll be easier to find.”

  He laughed. “I like the way you think.”

  Strapping himself in, he peered through the window. A single-engine plane had just landed, and already on the perimeter road, a Junkers 52 had been moved out of Number 2 Hangar, and its engines were running, but it wasn’t going anywhere. They had a clear run. Flashing Kat one of his toothy grins, he started the port engine. When it immediately roared to life, he gave it a moment, then started the starboard engine. It too burst into song. Both engines were running perfectly.

  “Fucking ace!” he cried, releasing the brakes. “Shall we steal this little beauty?”

  She scanned the airfield. Nothing changed. Mechanics were still working on the Dornier 19, the engines of the Junkers 52 were still running, and the plane had reached the far end of the apron. That was it. They were clear.

  “Good to go! Get this bloody thing in the air!”

  The pitch of the engines climbed, and she felt a tingle of excitement as the plane began to move. They were stealing an American DC3, and no one tried to stop them. If there was one thing she loved about being a spy, it was moments like this. She felt her adrenalin pumping, her heart thudding in her chest.

  She wondered if someone in the Control Tower watched them. They were nearing the end of the runway. In less than a minute they’d be taking off. She could imagine voices in the earphones they hadn’t connected. Transport plane X-ray four five, please report.

  They were getting near, less than a hundred yards, and still, no one chased them. Was it possible? Could you steal a plane from a Luftwaffe Air Base? Maybe not. Two military Kübelwagens rushed towards them, one with a machine gun mounted on the back.

  As Kelly pushed the throttles all the way open and the plane surged forward, bullets began strafing the fuselage. They went airborne, her seat pushing up beneath her. She wanted to shriek with hysterical laughter. They made it.

  CHAPTER 28

  Landing at the Torzym airstrip was far from easy, and Kelly could have happily wrung Pernass’s scrawny neck. In recent years, the trees at the touchdown end of the runway had grown dangerously tall. The runway was too short for a DC3, made of grass, far from level, and with a six-degree downward slope.

  “Holy crap!” he yelled, banking around for a second run. “How the fuck am I supposed to land on that?”

  “Then come in from the other end.”

  “I already thought of that,” he snapped, “except if I land in the opposite direction and overshoot, we’ll crash into the trees.”

  “It’s uphill. Gravity will help slow you down.” Kat suggested.

  “Landing on an incline is a bitch. I see no other choice though. Hang on. Here we go.”

  As he banked hard around, she searched the surrounding land. Kat saw no sign of the truck. Maybe Dore parked it out of sight. She watched with bated breath as Kelly came in for another run. They were lower now, a lot lower, the DC3’s undercarriage almost clipping the treetops. The plane yawed in the crosswind, straightened for a moment, and then yawed again. They were coming in at an angle due to a 20-mph cross wind. If Kelly didn’t correct it, they would land on one wheel.

  The plane leveled, sank twenty feet, rose again, and then settled. The landing strip rushed towards them. They were almost down. Twenty feet, ten, 5… They landed with an almighty thump, followed by a series spine-jarring rumbles as they careened along the uneven strip of grass, the trees at the end getting ever closer.

  “Holy shit!” Kelly gasped, as he finally brought the plane to a stop, then slammed on the starboard brakes to turn the plane around. “God help us when we take off again.”

  Moments later, they saw the truck racing across the field. Capetti had his arm out of the window and whooped as he hauled the truck around to park it by the cargo door. Within seconds, everyone began loading the equipment into the plane.

  “Bandits at five o’clock!” Steward shouted as they loaded the last of the equipment and scrambled aboard.

  Kat jerked her gaze skywards. What looked like a Junkers 52, circled overhead. It could have been a coincidence, but she very much doubted it. The Germans were looking for them.

 
; “Sam!” she shouted. “We’ve got to go!” Racing forward, she clambered into the copilot’s seat.

  “Wait!” Dore screamed. “Give me a second. I’m taking the door off!”

  He frantically disconnected the hinges on the cargo door, cursing as he pulled the lynchpins free and tossed them onto the grass. It would be windy without the door in place, but who gave a damn? They would be jumping through it again in two hours, and how else could they defend themselves?

  The engines rose to a roar as Kelly lined the plane up and opened the throttles. He didn’t wait for Dore. The cargo door could fall from the sky for all he cared. The plane surged forward, Capetti muttering in Italian as he and Stewart unscrewed all the silencers from the guns. They began to pick up speed on the downhill slope, the undercarriage rumbling on the uneven surface. 40 miles an hour… 50… 60, the tail lifted, Dore screaming triumphantly as he tossed out the cargo door. 80 miles an hour… 90… liftoff. They were airborne.

  Kat peered up at the Junkers. It circled above them, taking its time. The Germans were chasing them, and she doubted it would end well. The Junkers 52 with three engines was 30 mph faster than the Dakota, but Kelly was an experienced fighter pilot, and he’d survived more dogfights than the Junkers pilot had flying hours.

  She glanced across at him.

  He wore headphones and grinned. “They want me to return to base.” Kelly spoke into the microphone, “Hola, no hables ingles. Pratar du Polska?”

  Kat looked at Kelly shaking her head, “What the hell are you doing?”

  “Just having a little fun. I told the German pilots in Spanish, I don’t speak English, and asked them in Swedish, if they speak Polish.”

  Kelly turned to Kat and said, “tell everyone to strap themselves in. I’m going to try to outfly it.”

  “What d’you mean, strap themselves in? They’re sitting in the doorway with their guns.”

  They were at eight thousand feet now, and the Junkers 52 flew alongside them. They too, had removed their cargo door, and she could see soldiers crouched in the doorway. They looked terrified.

  Kelly glanced at the plane. “Tell everyone to sit down Kat.”

  “Jock!” she yelled. “Tell everyone to sit down and strap yourselves in!”

  She watched as Stewart and Capetti dived into the nearest seats and strapped themselves in. Dore refused to move. He’d wrapped a length of webbing around his waist and tied it to a ring on the fuselage. He wasn’t going anywhere.

  Kelly shrugged, opened the throttles to maximum power and pulled back on the stick. The plane began to climb. The Junkers followed suit. Kelly just grinned, banked hard around and went into a steep dive, the engines screaming. Then without a word of warning, he pulled out of the dive, banked in the opposite direction and climbed again. The Junkers disappeared.

  “We’ve got more company!” Stewart shouted, peering through the window. “Looks like a Messerschmitt!”

  “What!” Kat yelled. “Where did that come from?”

  “They must have got it out of the hangar!”

  She glanced at Kelly. “We’ve got a Messerschmitt on our tail.”

  “I saw it. But it’s not on our tail. It’s coming alongside us, which is very weird. If it wanted to shoot us down, it would be behind us.”

  “So what the hell’s it doing?”

  Kelly squinted at the Messerschmitt. “I don’t know. Maybe it took off in a hurry. You know, like… before they managed to arm the guns.”

  “What, you mean it has no ammo?”

  “It can’t have. It’d blow us out of the sky if it were armed.”

  “Then what the hell’s it doing?”

  “Following us, which is a big problem. We can’t allow it to know where we’re going.”

  “Well, we’ll soon stop that. Pull ahead of it. Jock!” she shouted. “Shoot the pilot!”

  Jock was already on the case. He stood in the doorway with two MP40s held in each hand and shouldered at the ready. Moments later, a double burst of machine gun fire and blood sprayed the dome of the Messerschmitt’s cockpit. With the engine screaming, the Messerschmitt went into a steep dive.

  Kat sighed with relief, then froze. The Junkers reappeared, and the soldiers fired from the open doorway. Bullets cracked as they peppered the fuselage. Dore fired back, killing two of the soldiers, one falling out of the plane. Two more soldiers took their place.

  “This is ridiculous!” Kat barked. Scrambling to the back of the plane, she Grabbed the Panzerschreck. “Harry, get a rocket from one of the boxes and load me up.”

  Kat wedged herself in the doorway. The wind whipped at her clothes and tore at her hair.

  Stewart loaded the rocket and connected the plug on the wooden contact holder to the socket outlet. “It’s loaded Kat. Fire away.”

  Aiming the Panzerschreck at the Junkers’ central engine, she pulled the trigger. With a loud report and a rush of hot air, the front of the Junkers exploded. Smoke and debris trailed from the plane as it nose-dived towards the ground.

  “Is that it?” she called to Kelly. “Are we clear now?”

  “Totally! We’re on our own!”

  They spent the next hour rigging the explosives, the radio, and the weapons to the two spare parachutes, and it wasn’t easy. Going forward again, Kat settled in the copilot’s seat and talked to Kelly, and after a while, she saw farmland and an increasing number of forests drifted by, and once in a while, the occasional range of hills.

  She was dreaming about Africa. She’d been walking down a sandy pathway surrounded by snow-capped peaks. Sheep were grazing in the hills and, somewhere in the distance, Sam called to her.

  “We’re here, Kat. Wake up.”

  Opening her eyes, she squinted in the dazzling light. It was mid-afternoon, the sky an eggshell blue. “We’re here?”

  “Yup. Take a look. We’re flying over Rastenburg.”

  She peered through the window. They were flying at eight thousand feet, and the town beneath them looked like a large village surrounded by fields. Beyond them, a panorama of endless lakes and forests.

  “Did you see Hitler’s bunker?”

  “I think so. It’s right next to a railway line… and a lake. It’s not just a single bunker though. It’s in the middle of a forest and surrounded by outbuildings. There are tanks there, and I think I saw some halftracks.”

  “How much fuel do we have?”

  “We’re fine. We could fly back to Berlin if we wanted to.”

  “Good. Can we fly straight on so we don’t attract attention? Also, we’ve never been here before, and I’d quite like to scout the area.”

  They flew on, lakes and rivers glistening in the sunlight. The area looked almost uninhabited. Of course, it was war. In peacetime, the lakes would be full of sailboats and people camping.

  “Did you see any hills at all?” she asked Kelly.

  “A few. Don’t worry, we’ll be screened, but we’ll have to walk about twenty miles, probably more if we have to work our way around the lakes.”

  She looked at her watch. It was 1715. They wouldn’t be attacking the bunker today.

  “So, shall we pick an area?”

  “I’ve already found it. I spotted a small meadow about twenty miles to the east of Rastenburg. It will mean circling around and coming in from the west again.”

  Maintaining a distance of twenty miles from Rastenburg, Kelly made a wide circle, to come in from the west again. Better the empty plane flew east. When it finally crashed, it would be in Russia. There was another issue though. They had to eject their cargo over the meadow, leaving no time for everyone to
jump out after it… which meant another run, and that made Kat nervous.

  “How wide is the meadow?” She asked.

  Kelly scratched his neck and thought about it. “About six hundred yards. I could slow the plane, so we don’t cross it too quickly, but the plane might come down too soon, which really would raise the alarm. If Dore and Sandro jump with the cargo, the rest of us can jump on the second run.”

  “So I’m jumping with you.”

  He smiled. “You’re jumping with me… and Harry.”

  They passed over a lake, more forest and then another lake. Rastenburg came into view. “Tell Jock and Sandro to get ready. We’re one minute away.”

  She watched as Dore and Capetti geared up and prepared to push the cargo through the doorway, each gripping the ripcord on a length of cord. The parachutes would open almost immediately.

  “Thirty seconds, Guys! The meadow’s coming up.”

  The plane flew on, Dore’s mouth a thin line, Capetti pretending it didn’t bother him when in truth, he hated parachuting.

  “Ten seconds… stand by… five, four, three, two, one… now!”

  Thrusting the cargo chutes through the open doorway, Dore waited a beat and then jumped, followed almost immediately by Capetti. Kat watched as, one by one, the four parachutes snapped open. Then they were behind them, and Kelly banked around. By the time they were heading west again, Dore and Capetti were on the ground.

  “That’s it,” Kelly sang. “It’s just you, Harry and me, and I need your help.”

  “You need my help? What can I do?”

  “You can fly the plane while I put my parachute on.”

  “Cool!” she said, switching seats with him. “All I have to do is hold the wheel?”

  “Yup. If the altimeter dips, ease the wheel back, if it rises, ease it forward. Don’t worry. I’ll be seconds.”

  Kat put on the headphones and said over the radio, “to the passengers of Kat’s Airlines. We will be crashing in a few moments, so our regular announcement of placing your seats in an upright position and buckling your safety belts seems kinda stupid, cause anyone in this crate when it hits the ground, is gonna die anyway. It’s been a pleasure being your Captain for these last few moments, but I have to go now and put on my parachute. Thanks for choosing Kat’s Airlines and have a nice day.”