MATT HELM: The War Years (26 page)

Chapter 30

Fortunately, the Mercedes-Benz L4500A cargo truck had been fitted with a canopy.  The “A” designation appended to the truck model indicated a four-wheel-drive and, in the sloppy and rutted piss-poor excuse for a road we were following, that drive was necessary.  Having a cloud cover with a steady drizzle was all well and good for a parachute drop in enemy territory, but driving for hours exposed to the cold and rain would not have put me in the proper frame of mind to start a dangerous mission.  I don’t like cold, which is a hell of an attitude for a Scandinavian kid born in the cold Northern part of the U.S., but we’d moved to New Mexico – Santa Fe, if it matters - when I was a kid, and I preferred relatively warm, dry climates.

The drop had gone off without a hitch.  The pilot had managed to get all 10 of us landed within a mile of the rendezvous point, no mean feat.  We had all been equipped with narrow-band, short-range radios and had quickly found our way to the truck.  The driver was Blue One, our missing 11
th
member.  According to the insignia on his uniform, he was an SS Captain.  During our briefing, Mac had explained that he actually
was
an SS Captain – and a deep cover American agent who had spent four years working himself up through the ranks.  He had been responsible for providing the Allies with a lot of valuable information, including some tidbits regarding a top-secret code used by the German Enigma Machine.  A few months earlier, he had been recruited as one of the leaders of the
Werwolfs
, and was not only the source of most of our intelligence regarding the group, but was the key to the entire operation – he was our ticket into
Schloss Hülchrath
.

In the back of the truck, Blue One had provided us with an assortment of weapons, including MP38s, grenades, knives and garrotes; various uniforms; and, best of all, several blankets.  I was beginning to like this guy.  Once we had changed into the dry uniforms – apparently, some of us had been picked for the mission based upon size – Blue Three, our designated expert with the Mercedes cargo truck, got into the driver’s seat while Blue One got in back with the rest of us, after opening the back window of the cab to provide us with a little heat as well as allowing Blue Three to listen in on the two-way briefing.  We introduced ourselves by our code names.

Mac had briefed us on the overall plan and most of the details, but Blue One hadn’t been there, so Blue Two had been appointed to bring him up-to-date…

Mac had opened his briefcase, pulled out 11 folders, passed out one to each of us, and returned to the lectern with his copy.  “Gentlemen,” he began, “The first page is a diagram of the layout of
Schloss Hülchrath
, courtesy of Blue One.  It’s a little crude, but he will update you when you see him in Germany.  You’ll be in a truck and enter at the South across the drawbridge.  Yes, there’s a drawbridge.  It no longer is able to be raised, but it’s still the only entrance into the castle.  There’ll be a checkpoint with a barrier and two soldiers in a shed, more to keep out sightseers and the curious than anything else.  Blue One will get you past them with no problem, so leave them alone.  You probably can’t neutralize them without gunfire and we can’t take any chances of alerting the rest of the castle’s occupants.

“We don’t expect any trainees to be present during the meeting – Blue One wasn’t clear on whether the compound is in between training classes, or any trainees were just given the weekend off – so we will ignore the complex on the West side of the grounds for the purposes of this operation.  That complex is a replica of part of the downtown area of a small Kansas town called Kingman.  The original is located a few miles West of Wichita.  There’s a movie theater, a drugstore, a hardware store, a grocery store and a couple of other businesses, all of which are normally manned with people who are completely conversant in American slang and culture.  The idea is total immersion in anything and everything American for the duration of the training.”

There were a few exclamations and hissings of breath around the room as the scope of the Skorzeny’s brainchild became evident.  In our business, passing for a German was a necessary part of many of our operations, but only for short periods with limited contact.  Skorzeny’s graduates could wreak havoc with any occupying forces, especially in the chaos following the fall of the German government.

“Exactly,” Mac responded to the unspoken, but evident sentiments.  “We don’t know how many of these fake Americans there are or where they are, and have no idea
who
they are.  Our only hope is to disrupt their command structure to the point that they become largely ineffectual, other than on an individual basis.

“As the trainees won’t be in residence, we will also ignore these barracks on the East and South sides.  This brings us to the castle proper, located toward the North.  If you will all turn to the second page, you will see a drawing of the castle itself.  Here’s an enlarged view.”  He turned to an easel beside the lectern and flipped a page over the top, revealing the larger drawing of the castle.  Picking up a pointer from the tray, he started pointing out rooms.  “This large area in the front was designed for entertainment purposes, sort of a massive ballroom.  As you’ll be arriving late at night, it should be empty except for a soldier or two, who will be expecting you.  That should make it easy to take them out … silently, of course.  Since we will have no idea exactly where they’ll be or which of you will be closest to them, whoever has the opportunity will accomplish that task.”

He looked around and was apparently satisfied with the reactions he saw.  Well, the squeamish didn’t really get very far in our business.  He continued, “Back here are the bedrooms, currently set up for four to a room.  There are eight bedrooms scattered along these two corridors.  There are supposed to be between 25 and 30 guests, not counting the Commandant; however, you 10 will be replacing 10 of the guests, with Blue One’s help, leaving you with 15 to 20 targets.  We have no idea of the sleeping assignments – perhaps Blue One will be able to provide more information – so anywhere from five to all eight bedrooms may be occupied.  Of course, we’re hoping that all the guests will be in bed at that hour.”  I thought I saw a small smile cross Mac’s face, but I could have been mistaken.

“Over here, to the West of the castle, is the Commandant’s quarters.  Colonel Weiss is not fond of sharing a bedroom, so he makes his home in the large guest house.  He will have two of his personal guards with him in the house, awake, plus another two or three, depending upon how many are waiting for you in the castle, in the smaller guest house, sleeping during their off shift.  Blue Five, Blue Eleven and Blue Eight, you are assigned to take out the Commandant, after disposing of the four or five guards.  The rest of you will clear out the bedrooms and anyplace else that might have insomniacs wandering around.  Once you have cleared the castle, assist Blue Five and Blue Eight, if necessary, then take care of the two guards you left at the drawbridge.

“Your folders have papers and IDs which should get you through any checkpoints on your way back to France, along with directions, routes, and alternatives in case the primary escape route is compromised or you get separated for any reason.  You will all meet at the airport at 1:00 AM the morning of Friday the 26
th
for your flight and parachute drop to the rendezvous with Blue One.  Until then, you’ve all got a two-week vacation.  Any questions?”

I had about a dozen or more and, most likely, so did everybody else, but no one spoke up.  Mac had that effect on people.

Once Blue Two had finished, Blue One nodded.  “It sounds good,” he said. “Now here’s the plan for handling the 10
Werwolfs
you’ll be replacing....

Chapter 31

We picked up the first two
Werwolfs
in a mid-size town called Liege.  It was almost too easy.  They climbed into the back of the truck and were each grabbed by two “Blues” while a third used a garrote.  The air got a little thick with an ugly smell from the men at our feet.  The sphincters had let go as they often do.  Carting dead bodies around isn't quite the nice clean fun they make it seem in certain jolly murder mysteries, literary and cinematic.  Thirty minutes outside of the town, we carried their bodies into a small grove of trees and left them there, after transferring the insignia and their papers from their uniforms to two of ours.  Two hours later, we did the same to three more in Aachen.  That left five in Erkelenz.

We pulled into Erkelenz a little before midnight.  The weather was beginning to clear by then, but with the dissipation of the cloud cover, the temperature was dropping.  What little heat that was coming through the back window of the cab wasn’t helping much.  Well, I’d spent colder and more miserable nights in my life, but five dead men behind us and many more soon-to-be-dead ahead of us seemed to just make it colder.  The looks on some of the others’ faces told me they weren’t too comfortable with up-close-and-personal cold-blooded murder either.  That’s the hard part for some in this business – you can’t always just pull a trigger from 300 yards away and watch someone fall down.  I guessed Mac had carefully chosen who would do the holding and who would do the garroting.  Martinson had handled two of them.

We parked at the side of a building with a sign proclaiming it to be the
Wegberg Gasthaus.
  
Gasthaus
translates as ‘Inn.’  Blue One had decided it was too risky trying to handle all five of them at once, so the plan was for him to go into the Inn and, on some pretext, send out two of them first.  That worked just fine for the first two; however, when Blue One came out with the other three, one of them, a
Wehrmacht
Colonel, decided to pull rank and insisted upon sitting in the heated cab.  That was definitely not in the plan.  Realizing this was an argument he couldn’t win, Blue One pulled out his pistol.  The other two officers, who had been heading for the back of the truck, turned to watch Blue One’s reaction and, seeing him with the pistol, reached for their own.  I grabbed for my pistol, yelling, “Blue One, shoot!”

As I got one of them, an MP38 opened up beside me and both men fell to the ground.  Without turning to see who had shot, I jumped out to see if Blue One needed any help.  He didn’t.  The Colonel lay on the ground as Blue One put a final shot through his head.  He said quietly, “Let’s get out of here,” and jumped into the cab.  I turned to see Martinson and Blue Ten making sure the other two were dead.  We all jumped into the truck and the driver gunned it.

We didn’t stop for the next 30 minutes, until we were clear of the town and on a back road in the middle of the woods to the West.  Blue One and Blue Three came around and got in back with us.  He didn’t appear overly worried.  “I don’t think anyone saw the truck,” he said.  “At that time of night, by the time the police arrive, all they’ll have is a story of one German officer sitting down with five others at a table in the restaurant.  Two left and, a few minutes later, the other four left.  There was some shooting, with three bodies and three missing officers.

“Sooner or later, some German soldiers – drivers and aides staying at the inn for the weekend, while their commanders had some business – will identify the three bodies and two of the missing officers.  Nobody will know who the sixth officer was.  There will be much confusion and conjecture, but I doubt anyone will connect the officers to a certain Castle a few miles West of the town for days.”

“Why not?” someone asked.

“Given the secrecy surrounding the entire project at
Schloss Hülchrath
, it is extremely unlikely that any of the
Werwolfs’
aides or drivers knew anything about it or, for that matter, the destination of their Commanders’ weekend business trip.  By the time the
Werwolfs’
various Commanders are informed of their deaths, assuming any of them can put the pieces together, we should be long gone.  It is my opinion that we should continue as planned; however, that is up to Blue Eight, according to my instructions.”

I started to look around when I realized
I
was Blue eight.  Mac was being clever again.  The team didn’t really need a leader unless something went wrong.  Depending upon
what
went wrong, Blue One would normally be viewed as the decision-maker, being the man on the spot.  Apparently, Mac trusted me more to make – or not make - an abort decision.

There comes a time in every operation when the wheels are turning, the die is cast, the cards are dealt, if you please, and you've got to carry on as planned and hope for the best.  I can name you names, too many of them, of men I've known - and women, too - who died because some last-minute piece of information made them try to pull a switcheroo after the ball had been snapped and the backfield was in motion.  When that point comes, to scramble the similes even further, you just take the phone off the hook and walk away from it.  You don't want to hear what the guy at the other end of the line has to say.  You've done your best, you've learned everything possible in the time at your disposal, and you don't want any more dope on any part of the situation, because it's too late and you can't do anything about it, anyway.