W E B Griffin - Honor 2 - Blood and Honor

by Blood

  It was a monumental disaster for submarine operations. The Reine de la Mer had managed to refuel and otherwise replenish only one submarine before it was destroyed. Afterward, Gr�ner had no idea how many other submarines- he guessed ten, or perhaps a dozen-were ranging the South Atlantic counting on replenishment in Samboromb¢n Bay.

  What those submarines did when they were advised that fuel and food- not to mention torpedoes or ammunition for their cannon-were not going to be available in the South Atlantic was unpleasant to think about.

  Even the obvious-heading for the submarine pens on the coast of France-was not possible for some of them. They did not have the necessary fuel for the twenty-day voyage.

  There were options, of course. There are always options. They could ren-dezvous at sea with other submarines. Those with reserve fuel could share it with those whose tanks were empty. As a last desperate measure, one subma-rine could theoretically tow another.

  Gr�ner had heard nothing of what actually happened. The German em-bassy in Buenos Aires was told only what it was necessary for it to know. Sig-nificantly, Gr�ner thought, there had been no word of a replacement for the Reine de la Mer. Which probably meant that none was en route. There was a possibility, of course, that the completely unexpected-and catastrophic-loss of the Reine de la Mer had so upset people that Buenos Aires would learn of a replacement vessel only when it entered Argentine waters.

  It was also possible, of course, that a midocean rendezvous had taken place, with the submarines receiving at least fuel from the tanks of German surface warships, or perhaps even from merchantmen, German or otherwise, which would at least get them back to the sub pens in France.

  But for all practical purposes, the destruction of the Reine de la Mer had brought submarine operations in the South Atlantic to a halt.

  El Coronel Jorge Guillermo Frade had been one of the most powerful men in Argentina. It was scarcely a secret that he had been the power behind the Grupo de Oficiales Unidos, who were reliably reported to be about to stage a coup against the government of President Ramon S. Castillo. At one time, Frade, a close friend of General Pedro P. Ramirez, the Argentine Minister of War, had been thought to be, like Ramirez, very sympathetic to the German cause.

  That had changed. In an unexpectedly masterful stroke on their part, the Americans sent in Frade's long-estranged son. Blood, Gr�ner knew, was indeed stronger than water, and he himself knew the strong emotion-mixed pride and love-a father felt for a son who was a heroic aviator.

  Gr�ner now acknowledged that he had allowed that knowledge to color his judgment. Young Frade had turned out to be more than a son sent to tug on the heartstrings of a father from whom he had been long separated. He was also a professional intelligence officer. The bodies of the two highly qualified assas-sins sent to eliminate him, and the blown-up Reine de la Mer, were absolute proof of that.

  After a good deal of thought, Gr�ner decided that Goltz had waited to come to Argentina until the operation to eliminate el Coronel Jorge Guillermo Frade was carried out. If Goltz had been in Argentina, some would suspect he was in-volved in that. Because of the implications of the Frade elimination, and of his own and Ambassador von Lutzenberger's objections to it, Gr�ner also decided that the order to eliminate Frade must have come from higher up-perhaps from Canaris or Ribbentrop. But he wasn't sure. In his experience, highly placed SS-SD officers were very good at arranging for fingers of suspicion to point at other people.

  There would be a long list of other items on Goltz's agenda, of course, mat-ters that interested the upper echelons of the Nazi hierarchy.

  This secondary list would start with questions concerning how long it had taken him to deal with the problem of el Coronel Jorge Guillermo Frade once the order to eliminate him was given. This would be followed by the ritual in-quiries into the level of devotion to the F�hrer personally and to National So-cialism generally by members of the Embassy staff from Ambassador Manfred Alois Graf von Lutzenberger downward.

  Goltz and his superiors would also be interested in what he had done, and was doing, to aid the escape and repatriation of the officers of the Graf Spee who had been interned in Argentina since the ship was scuttled.

  Getting the officers out of the internment camp and back to Germany was of personal interest to Abwehr Chief Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, who had himself escaped from Argentine internment during the First World War. Oberst Gr�ner was very sensitive to this; Canaris was not only his superior officer in the Abwehr, but an old friend as well.

  He was sure that Canaris had been satisfied with his report on the sinking of the Reine de la Mer, and that Canaris would not hold him personally respon-sible for it, or for the failed elimination attempt on the OSS team chief. Things go wrong, honest mistakes are made; in his report to Canaris he had admitted his culpability.

  He'd admitted further that he should not have presumed that Coronel Frade's son was the naive amateur he had believed him to be, and that he also should have presumed Frade would help his son, regardless of his sympathy for the German cause. Canaris would understand. But that did not mean that others high in the Intelligence and Espionage hierarchies of the Third Reich would be satisfied with his explanations, or with the time it took him to comply with or-ders to eliminate el Coronel Frade.

  "Herr Oberst," G�nther Loche announced loudly as he pushed open the door to the suite Gr�ner had taken for the visiting liaison officer, "Standartenf�hrer Goltz!"

  Gr�ner liked Loche, a civilian employee of the Embassy known as a "local hire," because he was just smart enough for his driving duties-in other words, not too smart to the point where he would take an interest in matters that were none of his business.

  His parents had immigrated to Argentina after the First World War and went into the sausage business, where they mildly prospered. More important, they were as devoted supporters of Adolf Hitler and National Socialism as any-one Gr�ner had ever met. And there was something else: G�nther's father, who had served on the Western Front in the First World War and had few illusions about combat service, was delighted that Gr�ner had convinced G�nther that he could make a greater contribution to National Socialism by serving as his dri-ver than by "returning to the Fatherland" and volunteering for military service.

  "Welcome to Argentina, Herr Standartenf�hrer," Gr�ner said, raising his arm in the approved Nazi salute. "Oberst Gr�ner at your service. I hope it was a pleasant flight?"

  "A very long flight, Herr Oberst," Goltz said, returning the salute. The two men shook hands and unabashedly examined each other.

  They were of equal rank. Tonight, of course, at dinner at the Ambassador's residence, Standartenf�hrer Goltz would have the place of honor, and be seated at the head table next to the Ambassador and across from the Ambassador's wife. Ordinarily, although he was senior in grade by almost two years to Gr�ner, he would be seated far below him at a formal dinner table. Protocol, which for some reason had always fascinated Gr�ner, held that branch of ser-vice was the first consideration, then the rank of the individual.

  In terms of protocol, the Army was the senior service, followed by the Navy, the Air Force, and then the SS. This was a source of annoyance to many members of the SS. Since their mission was the protection of National Social-ism and the F�hrer himself, they felt that the SS should be the senior service, and that SS officers should not be relegated to a distant corner of an official table. None of the other services agreed, of course.

  Gr�ner had come to understand and appreciate the necessity for protocol and to understand why it rankled the SS. Many senior SS officers had never worked their way up through the ranks, and that situation was getting worse. To curry favor with-or ensure the loyalty of-high-ranking bureaucrats and even prominent doctors, lawyers, and businessmen, these people were being given honorary officer's rank in the Allgemeine SS. This carried with it the privilege of wearing the black SS uniform and the cap adorned with death's-head.

  At a formal dinner, s
erving SS officers had precedence over honorary offi-cers. So everyone at a dinner could look down the table and see who was a serv-ing SS officer, and who was a bureaucrat or businessman dressed up like one.

  Gr�ner found a certain justice in the dictates of protocol, and had taken pleasure that every time the SS wanted the system changed, it had been frus-trated by those who wanted it left as it was.

  Goltz had at least once been a serving officer. Although they had never seen each other before, Gr�ner knew a good deal about him. In the same out-of-normal-channels envelope in which he had notified him of the identity of the SS liaison officer who would visit Argentina, Admiral Canaris had included a copy of Goltz's Abwehr dossier.

  Gr�ner had learned that Standartenf�hrer Josef Luther Goltz was a Hess-ian, born in 1897 in Giessen, forty miles north of Frankfurt an der Main. He was called up with his class of eighteen-year-olds in 1915, and served four months in the trenches on the Western Front with the 219th Infanterie Regiment. While recuperating in Weisbaden from wounds, he was awarded the Iron Cross Sec-ond Class, as well as selected for Officer Training School.

  On graduation he was posted to the Sixteenth "List" Bavarian Infanterie Reserve Regiment-in which Corporal Adolf Hitler won the Iron Cross First Class-and served in it until the Armistice in November 1918. During that time he was wounded twice again, promoted Captain, and also awarded the Iron Cross First Class.

  Obviously, Gr�ner thought as he read the dossier, if Lieutenant or Captain Goltz encountered Corporal Hitler in the trenches, he treated him well, or he would not be a Standartenf�hrer.

  Immediately demobilized after the Armistice of 1918, Goltz returned briefly to school, but after less than a year at Munich University, he dropped out. He then found employment driving a streetcar for the City of Munich. And in 1921, he joined the Sturmabteilungen (the SA, the private army of the Nazi party, commonly called the "Brown Shirts," commanded by Ernst Rohm) of the just-renamed (from "German Workers' Party") Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers' Party).

  Gr�ner remembered this now, seeing the "Long Service" Nazi party pin in Goltz's lapel.

  In 1924. Goltz left Civil Service to work full-time for the Nazi party. And in 1929, he left both the SA and the employ of the Nazi party to reenter gov-ernment service, this time as a policeman. In 1933, he was commissioned into the SS as a Hauptsturmf�hrer, the equivalent of a captain. His promotions there-after came rapidly.

  After reading Goltz's dossier, Gr�ner decided that Goltz was an obviously bright, well-connected, and thus dangerous man. Looking at his face now, he saw nothing to change that opinion.

  "I think you'll be comfortable here," Gr�ner said, gesturing around the suite.

  "I'm sure I will be," Goltz said. "At what time, if you know, would it be convenient for me to present my respects to the Ambassador?"

  "The Ambassador requests the pleasure of your company at dinner at the residence..."

  "How kind of him."

  "... at eight p.m. Following this, the Ambassador suggests that you join the official party which will go to the Edificio Libertador to pay our respects to the late Oberst Jorge Guillermo Frade."

  Goltz's face now showed interest.

  "Oh, really?"

  "G�nther, would you wait in the corridor, please?" Gr�ner ordered.

  "Jawohl, Herr Oberst," G�nther said, came to attention, clicked his heels the way he had seen Major von Wachtstein do, and left the room.

  "Oberst Frade," Gr�ner said, pausing to light a cigarette, "a prominent Ar-gentine, was tragically murdered during a robbery attempt three days ago."

  "So I've heard," Goltz said. "Murdered by robbers, you said?"

  "Yes. They were quickly detected by the Buenos Aires Provincial Police, and died in a gun battle during an attempt to arrest them."

  "That question was one of the matters I had wished to discuss with you, Herr Oberst," Goltz said. "There was some question-"

  "I must temper my desire to immediately comply with my orders," Gr�ner said, aware of the direction Goltz was taking him, "as I am sure you will un-derstand, Herr Standartenf�hrer, with other considerations."

  "There are those in Berlin who felt you questioned that decision, Herr Oberst."

  "Both the Ambassador and I felt that it was unnecessary, Herr Standartenf�hrer, and perhaps even unwise. I cannot, of course, speak for the Ambassador, but I still feel that way. A moot question, anyway. Oberst Frade is no longer with us."

  "The thinking in Berlin-of your superiors and mine-to which I was privy, was that the solution ordered would not only have the obvious benefit of making sure Oberst Frade was not in a position to cause Argentina to declare war on Germany, it would also make the point that the enemies of Germany, no matter how highly placed, are not immune to German retribution."

  Gr�ner did not reply.

  "You question the wisdom of that decision, Herr Oberst?"

  "I never question my orders, Herr Standartenf�hrer. But I consider it my duty to advise my superiors of my best judgment on any issue before them."

  "Of course. And your candor, as well as your professionalism, Herr Oberst, is both admired and respected in Berlin. But in this case, certainly you are will-ing to concede that you were... what shall I say... that you erred on the side of caution?"

  "Time will tell, of course, Herr Standartenf�hrer."

  "What if I told you that Oberst Juan Domingo Per¢n was on the Condor with me?"

  Gr�ner shrugged.

  "We can, I presume, credibly deny that we were in any way involved in Oberst Frade's tragic death at the hands of robbers?"

  "With the assassins dead, there is no way that any connection with us can be proved, Herr Standartenf�hrer. Credibly denied, yes. But that is not quite the same thing."

  "Oberst Per¢n is a member, a powerful member, of the G.O.U., is he not?"

  "He is."

  "Wouldn't you agree that for Per¢n to replace Frade as a power in the G.O.U. is to Germany's advantage? After the coup d'‚tat, in particular?"

  "Oberst Per¢n and Oberst Frade were intimate, lifelong friends, Herr Standartenf�hrer. That was one of the points I raised."

  "And it was duly noted," Goltz said, although he could not remember that being mentioned in Berlin. "I concede that may be no immediate problem. But since you tell me that we can credibly deny knowledge of the incident, and since time passes..."

  "Today's Pan American flight from Miami brought with it Oberst Frade's son, Herr Standartenf�hrer. I rather doubt that he will keep from Oberst Per¢n his suspicions regarding those responsible for his father's death, or that he will permit the subject to simply pass into memory."

  "Certainly the Argentine authorities are aware that he is an OSS agent?

  Who violated Argentine neutrality with regard to the Reine de la Mer?" Goltz asked.

  "I'm sure that Admiral Montoya is fully aware of those facts."

  "And that won't get him expelled from the country? I'm surprised they let him in."

  "Keeping him out would have been impossible."

  "How so?"

  "He entered the country on an Argentine passport."

  "How can he do that?" Goltz asked, surprised and annoyed.

  "He was born here. Under Argentine law, he is an Argentine. He is appar-ently claiming both his inheritance and his Argentine citizenship."

  "Are you telling me that a word in the proper ear cannot expose that cha-rade? And have him expelled?"

  "Finding the proper ear may be difficult, Herr Standartenf�hrer."

  "That's your job, Herr Oberst!" Goltz said, his temper flaring.

  "When Oberst Frade's son arrived at the Pan American terminal, Herr Stan-dartenf�hrer, he was greeted by a delegation of senior Argentine military offi-cers, headed by the Minister for War, General Pedro P. Ramirez, and Major General Arturo Rawson. Both men were close friends of Oberst Frade. I rather doubt that would be of much use to whisper in ei
ther of their ears that expelling Oberst Frade's son would be a good thing."

  "The Americans arranged for that?"

  "I don't think so. I think it was General Ramirez's own idea. Both to show respect for the late Oberst Frade and to send a signal to those responsible for his death that the officer corps of the Argentine Army is displeased."

  "That's an unexpected development."

  "I was disappointed, but not surprised. Oberst Frade was a highly respected officer. Perhaps even a beloved officer."

  "We will have to have a long talk about this," Goltz said. "But I would pre-fer that the Ambassador and Gradny-Sawz participate. This is not the time."