The sun shone brightly next morning as Joanna Grey stepped out of her cottage with her dog, Patch. Her face serious, she got on her bicycle and rode off. The radio message the previous evening had astonished, and delighted, her.For the first time she had a really important task. It was incredible. To steal Churchill from under the very noses of those who were supposed to be guarding him. She laughed out loud. Oh, the damned English wouldn't like that one little bit!
As she cycled down the hill, a small car passed her and stopped. The driver leant out. It was Sir Henry Willoughby.
"Morning, Joanna," he called cheerfully. "How are you today?"
"Fine, thank you." Joanna Grey said, "You must be very excited with the PM coming here."
"Indeed I am." Very great honour," Sir Henry smiled. "Where are you off to, by the way?"
She had been waiting for exactly that question. "Oh, a little bird-watching as usual."
"Be careful, then. Remember what I told you." As the local Home Guard Commander, Sir Henry had plans of all the mined beaches and, more importantly, beaches which were only supposedly mined. Once he had spent two careful hours showing her on the maps exactly where not to go for her bird-watching.
"I know the situation changes all the time," she said. "Perhaps you could come round to the cottage again and explain any alterations."
"You'd like that?" he said, eagerly.
"Of course. I'm at home this afternoon."
"Splendid," he said. "I'll be there after lunch." And he drove rapidly away.
Poor Henry, thought Joanna, as the cycled on towards the coast. She was really quite fond of him. Just like a child, and so easy to handle -- he'd do anything to please her.
Half an hour later she was cycling along the top of a bank through wide mudflats. It was a strange, lonely world, inhabited only by seabirds.
She got off her bicycle and brought out her camera. She took a great many pictures of the low, sandy hills and the wide, flat beaches stretching several hundred metres to the sea.
As the finished, Patch, the dog, brought her a stick. She threw it straight over the wire fence on to the beach. Patch ran past the notice that said "DANGER - MINES". Thanks to Henry Willoughby, she knew for certain that there wasn't a mine on the beach. The dog brought the stick back and she leant down to stroke his ears.
"Yes, Patch." she said softly. "I really think this will do very well indeed."
When Radl received Joanna Grey's report he was more excited than he had been for months.
"Excellent! What a woman!" he said to Sergeant Hofer. "What more could one ask for? A perfect dropping area for parachutists -- and we could get the men out again - with Churchill - by E-boat. It's a real possibility."
"Forgive me, Herr Colonel," Hofer put in, "but isn't there a time problem? It surely would not be possible to do everything in one night?"
"You're absolutely right, Karl," replied Radl. "Which is why the parachute drop would have to be made the night before."
"The night before?" Hofer said doubtfully. "The difficulty then would be for such a large group of men to stay hidden during the day."
"True: Studley Constable is an isolated place where any stranger is immediately noticed. But Mrs Grey mentions certain strangers who are constantly accepted there without question: soldiers in training, playing war-games, hunting each other through the fields. All our men need are British uniforms to be able to pass through the area with no difficulty."
"What about the language problem?" asked Hofer.
"According to Mrs Grey, there have been Polish units, with English officers, training at Meltham House, twelve kilometres away. That would do very well. All we need is a leader."
"But," Hofer said, "he would have to be a man of outstanding abilities - another Otto Skorzeny, but with one thing more: the ability to pass as an Englishman."
Radl smiled. "Find him for me, Karl, I'll give you forty-eight hours."
"I've found him," announced Hofer two days later, laying a file on Radl's desk. "His name is Steiner. Lieutenant-Colonel Kurt Steiner. I'll leave you in peace to read about him."
It was an interesting story. Steiner's father was a general in the German army. His mother was American, brought up in England. Steiner had been educated in London and spoke English like an Englishman.
He joined the German army and trained as a parachutist. He was a fine soldier, as full of independence and imagination as of courage. He won the Knight's Cross and many other high honours for bravery.
On May 1st 1942, he was passing through Warsaw with thirty men. It was the time when the SS had determined to leave not one Jew alive in Warsaw. While waiting for his train to Berlin, Steiner saw a line of prisoners being stripped naked and searched. They were Jews on their way to the death camps. When one girl broke free, Steiner helped her escape. He was arrested. His men, full of loyalty to him after all the dangers they had come through together, rushed to his defence. They were hopelessly outnumbered by the SS men. That evening Steiner and his men left Warsaw under close arrest.
Being popular heroes, they could not be sentenced to death. Instead, they were sent to serve as a special unit whose purpose was the destruction of enemy shipping. Their method was effective, but extremely dangerous: already, after only three months, the thirty men were reduced to fourteen.
Radl sat in silence looking at the file.
"You think he's a possibility?" Hofer asked.
"I don't se why not," Radl said. "Anything must seem an improvement on what he's doing now. Try to gen an appointment for me to see the Admiral this afternoon, will you?"
It was evening before Admiral Canaris could see Radl.
"Hello, Max," said Canaris cheerfully. "What did you want to see me about?"
"The Churchill business," said Radl, placing a typed paper on the Admiral's desk. "You asked me to get something down on paper."
"Ah, yes." The Admiral read quickly and smiled. "Very good, Max. Impossible, of course, but it does have a mad logic to it. Keep it in case Himmler reminds the Fuhrer about it."
Radl found himself defending what he already felt was his own project. "It would work, Herr Admiral. And surely, if the Fuhrer wishes it...."
Canaris exploded angrily. "God in heaven, man! Kill Churchill when we have already lost the war? In what way is that supposed to help?"
Disappointed, his head aching, Radl set out to walk home. He took his briefcase with Joanna Grey's file and the other Churchill papers. As he left the building, a car stopped beside him.
It was a black Mercedes, as black as the uniforms of the two Gestapo men who got out and invited him into the car. They were polite, but their guns made refusal impossible.
"Cigarette, Herr Colonel?" said one of the Gestapo men.
"Thank you," Radl said, trying to control his fear. "May I ask where we are going?"
"Prinz Albrechtstrasse. Gestapo Headquarers."
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น