Beyond the Rhine

by Griff Hosker

  “How do we get in?”

  “C-47.”

  “And out?”

  He looked down at his shoes, “That is trickier. You are seventy odd miles from the Swiss border. Your men have the skills to climb mountains. This is the Tyrol. There are many hiking paths and trails. We want you to walk out.”

  “Walk seventy odd miles through hostile territory in the heart of the most fanatical Nazis?”

  He said nothing.

  I looked at the map again and the report on the Uranverein. He was right. If the Nazis used this weapon then London could be wiped out. Susan and Mum would be gone in a flash; quite literally. “I can see how we get in and I can see how we destroy the barracks but I am sorry, there is no way that I could get my whole section out alive. I would be lucky to get two or three out.”

  “I don’t like this anymore than you.” He took out an envelope. He handed it to me and I opened it and read it. It was from Winston Churchill. Without specifying my mission it ordered me to obey the orders.

  “It seems I have no choice. Our fate is sealed.”

  “If anyone can succeed Tom. It is you. Now I have a list here of the equipment available to you.”

  I held up my hand. “I understand the secrecy and why this is for my eyes only but the planning has to involve my men. Lance Sergeant Beaumont knows more about explosives than anyone else. They have a right to hear this part.”

  “You are right but Uranverein is not open for discussion nor the defection of the scientists. Just tell them that they are going to stop the V-2 menace for good.”

  I did not like it but I had no choice. I nodded and our fate was sealed. The men arrived back and I shouted, “Have a quick wash and then join us. We have our mission.”

  The men hurried to comply. The men were eager to hear what the major had to say. That was in their nature. These were not lazy men. They were Commandos and, like me, they relished the action. However, I had a bad feeling about this particular mission.

  While they were getting ready I examined the map again. “Where is the drop zone? This looks to be mountainous country. Trees and rocks make for bad landings.”

  He pointed to a village north of Oberammergau. “This is the widest and flattest area. Your pilot would approach from the north. There is a flat area which has no houses between Oberammergau and Unterammergau. The Austrians have an airfield there so we know you will be able to land safely.”

  I took a piece of paper and, using the edge and the scale, marked out the distance. “That is ten miles to the target, here near Linderhof. It would mean either going through the town or over the mountains.”

  He nodded as though that was a reasonable assumption. “There are trails. Before the war it was a popular area for skiing.”

  “And you may not have noticed, Major, it is still winter. At this time of year the snow is highly unstable. There could be avalanches.”

  He frowned. “I have to say the boys back in the office did not have long to plan this.”

  “Please tell me that this wasn’t planned at SHAEF.”

  He shook his head, “Washington.”

  “Then you weren’t there at the planning?”

  “I am a field officer. A courier brought this to London and I came directly here. This is hot off the press.”

  My men began to drift over. They said nothing but pulled the metal and canvas chairs we used closer. “So if we find kinks and flaws then we can iron them out?”

  “Within reason.”

  I laughed, “Have you forgotten how we operate, Major? Once we are over there we think on our feet. When we are all here we will see if we can improve on this plan from a bunch of chaps sat in an office thousands of miles away from the target. I have no doubt that they are clever but I am guessing that they have never been to the Tyrol. I have and believe me this will be no picnic. The odds on us getting to the target are slim and getting out slimmer still.”

  I stopped and waited for the last of my men. When there were all gathered I nodded to the Major, “We have orders for our next mission.” I held up the map, “We are flying to Austria. We will parachute and land between Oberammergau and Unterammergau and then hike eight to ten miles through the snow covered mountains. Here,” I had circled the entrance, “is an underground barracks. Inside are S.S. They are working on the V-2 rocket.”

  Fletcher said, “Sir, didn’t we just bomb one factory? Why this one?”

  I nodded, “You are right, Lance Sergeant, however, they could begin to manufacture the graphite fins here at Linderhof. This is deep in the heart of the Third Reich. It will be a long time until we manage to get there. Our job is to take the entrance to this underground barracks. Once inside we blow up the lifts and the entrance. The complex is underground.”

  Lieutenant Poulson said, quietly, “We are going to bury them in their mountain.”

  I nodded and let that sink in.

  Bill Hay said, “The best way to deal with the S.S. in my view.”

  “They have two machine gun posts outside the entrance. There is a barbed wire fence around the front of the complex. In the entrance they have a guard of between eight and twelve men depending upon the time of day. There is accommodation for a hundred men in the underground bunker. They have built this into the side of a mountain. That way they only have one entrance to guard. The mountainside above the entrance has no paths. That, however, is their weakness. One entrance and exit gives us a target.”

  I let them take that in.

  “The factory which produces engines for Messerschmitts and for the V-2 is another half mile along the road. Just the other side of Schloss Linderhof. That is where the S.S. will be during the day. We hit them at night.”

  The Major lit a cigarette and cocked an eye as I allowed the men to come up with any questions. They were experienced enough to spot flaws in plans. The newer ones would not say anything but I had enough faith in my veterans to know that they were looking at the task and assessing it.

  Lieutenant Poulson said, “If we have to hit it at night and go in at night then it means we will have to lie up during the day.”

  Gordy said, “That looks easy enough. It is winter. There will be no bugger on the mountain. It is only posh tourists who like to ski who would be there. We make a camp.”

  Davis said, “Actually sir, that might help. Instead of having to cut through the wire we could abseil and climb down. The guards wouldn’t be looking behind them, would they?”

  I nodded. I had already come up with that as the best way to attack but I wanted them to come up with the bones of the plan themselves.

  “Is the door going to be locked sir?”

  “I doubt it, Freddie. The sentries in the machine gun posts will need to get drinks, have a leak and the like.”

  “So, we need two teams, sir. One to take out the machine guns and one to take the entrance.”

  “Right, Lieutenant.”

  “And the rest of the men will be underground, sleeping?”

  “We assume so. They buried the quarters in the mountain so that they could not be bombed.”

  Beaumont coughed and we all looked at him. “You want them burying so that they can’t get out?”

  “Yes Beaumont. Be under no illusions. We are going in as killers this time. I have told the Major here that I am not happy about it but we have orders.”

  My Lance Sergeant smiled, “Oh I don’t mind burying S.S. They are bastards, sir. I was just thinking how best to do it.”

  “The chaps who planned this suggested bombs in the lifts and bombs in the entrance.”

  “Ah, now I can see why they picked us sir. That is going to involve perfect timing. We will have to send down the lifts with timed bombs at exactly the same time. Then we will have to blow the entrance as the lifts reach the bottom. Leaving us with the problem of how we get out without being blown up.”

  He was our expert. “Can we do that?”

  “Oh yes sir but we will have to shift. We will not have much time once
they start to go off.”

  “Another thing, we take our rubber soled shoes. We need boots to hike through the mountains but the descent down the cliff and the actual attack need silence.”

  “Yes sir.”

  “Sir?”

  “Yes Hewitt?”

  “When this goes up the sound will be heard. There must be a garrison at the factory where they make the engines. They will be after us straight away. How do we get out?”

  “That is the best question so far!” I held up the map and moved my finger from the factory to Switzerland. “We climb these mountains and walk the eighty miles to safety.”

  “Sir, I can see another problem.”

  “Yes Lieutenant?”

  “The photographs show a river and a bridge. That is going to be our escape route isn’t it?”

  “Yes, we have to get across the Linder.”

  “I can’t see very well from the photograph but there look to be guards and guns. What about them? They will hear the firing and the explosions. I am guessing they will try to stop us. I can see us climbing the mountains and disappearing. We are Commandos but we have to get to them first.” He jabbed a finger at the Ettaler Forest. It was just half a mile south of the Schloss Linderhof and marked the beginning of the mountains. “We have to get there and I reckon that they will have soldiers in Schloss Linderhof. They may not be S.S. but Jerry would not leave a nice house like that empty. We are going to have to fight our way to the mountains.”

  For the first time I saw doubt on some of their faces. Then Fletcher said, “Sir, how do the blokes get from the factory to their barracks? I can’t see Jerry walking it.”

  Major Politho said, “They have cars and trucks. There is a lorry park cut into the mountain.”

  Fletcher grinned, “Then we get Freddie to steal a couple and we drive. We have done that before.”

  “This might be harder, Fletcher.”

  “For us sir? It is just another challenge.”

  Gordy Barker nodded, “From what the lads said, Freddie knows how to drive on snow. All we have to do is to get across the bridge and drive as close to this forest as we can get. I would back these lads against any Germans in a footrace!”

  I nodded. I had already had another plan in my mind but I would not say it yet. So long as the spy at SHAEF was loose then I had to keep something secret, even from those who sent us.

  “Right we spend the afternoon planning. We can enjoy the Major’s steaks and then I will need to find Flight Lieutenant Ryan.” I turned to the Major. “I take it we go as soon as the explosives arrive?”

  “That should be tomorrow.”

  “Then we go tomorrow night.”

  I left the Major to answer as many questions and then spent an hour with Flight Lieutenant Ryan. I took the aerial photographs with me and briefed him in the cockpit. “Can we go tomorrow?”

  “Depends upon the weather. We have been cooling our heels since our last mission so the bus is maintained and good to go.”

  “Would it be possible for a low drop. Say a thousand feet?”

  He looked at the map, “If we have a north to south run in then yes but I will have to give it all she has to get over the mountains. Isn’t that a little low for your chaps to drop, sir?”

  “We have more men this time and I don’t want us spread all the way to the forest and back.”

  He asked, “This small airfield here, they don’t have fighters do they?”

  I smiled, “No.” I examined the aerial photograph. “It looks to be a Junkers.”

  I had more questions to ask him and it was an hour before I felt left. I was slightly more confident than I had been before I had spoken with the pilot. I was slowly eliminating problems.

  The major was impressed with our oil drum cookers. “They are like the barbeques we have at home.”

  Lieutenant Poulson had managed to pick up a few bottles of the local red wine and the men enjoyed themselves. I recognised that we were in for a few hard days. My men knew what they would face too. They filled up, after the steak with bread. They might be living off their reserves if we had to climb and hike through more than fifty miles of unforgiving mountains in the middle of winter. It would be a real test of our endurance. I was not convinced that the plan to steal vehicles would work. It was an option but the German guards on the Swiss border kept their eyes on the roads from Germany! Too many POWs had tried to escape that way. It would be more tightly guarded than the front line.

  The Major, even though he had been promoted, was still a Ranger and he did not mind the Spartan conditions of the hangar. The next morning we began to organize ourselves. I had Fletcher radio London and tell them when we were leaving. The men then emptied their Bergens in preparation for the arrival of our equipment. We would need a great deal of explosive. Beaumont could not carry it all and we would have to share the burden. They were the priority and so we kept our bags empty.

  Major Politho was interested in the way we prepared, “So you let your guys take what they want?”

  I nodded, “The specialists like Hewitt and Bond have to take what they need but as far as weapons the men pick what they are comfortable with. I normally take my Mauser sniper rifle. I won’t need it. We have Davis. I will take my Colt, my Luger and my MP 34.”

  “Not the Thompson?”

  “Ammo is in short supply. We have four men with Thompsons and they have plenty of ammunition. The other older hands all have German weapons. On this trip we have the luxury of a grenade launcher. That will be with Foster and White. McLean and Richardson have a Bren and the rest have Lee Enfields and Colts. We take plenty of Mills bombs and we still have six German grenades from our last mission. We waste nothing. When we get rid of their sentries then we will have more. All of us have saps and daggers. We have wire cutters and compasses. A couple of the lads have knuckle dusters and we take the spare parachute cord. Very handy. The only difference for this mission is that we will not be taking as much camouflage netting. We will take our chutes and improvise.”

  “You have a good bunch of guys here, Tom. I just wish there was a better way to get out.”

  “We have the same distance to travel as we did from Hechingen. My worry is that we have used up all of our luck.”

  The American truck with the explosives arrived not long before noon. The drivers were exhausted as they had driven non-stop from Antwerp. I had wondered why they had not flown them in and discovered why when Flight Lieutenant Ryan arrived to say that the mission had had to be scratched. “Low cloud sir. The weather is set like that for forty eight hours. It should clear the night after but…”

  “But you can’t guarantee it. I know. Thanks.”

  The Major said, “I have to head back to London.”

  “That’s all right, Sam. We know what we are doing. We will just make sure everything is packed and prepared eh?” I held out my hand. “Thanks, anyway. Hopefully we will get together when all of this is over.”

  After he left, Beaumont carefully checked all of the explosives, timers and fuses. He then divided the weight equally amongst the Bergens. He had a wonderful memory and he would know exactly what was in which bag. Some would have timers and some explosives. Once that was done then we all loaded our Bergens. We distributed the four ropes we would be taking so that we all had the same weight of bag. After that was completed I gathered them together and told them how we would get in and get out. I saw them nodding. They trusted me. It was a great responsibility.

  “I am not certain when we will be leaving, just be ready and keep this in the hangar. We are going too far behind the lines to have our mission compromised because someone opened their mouth.”

  I waved Lance Sergeant Fletcher over, “What did London say?”

  “The WAAF sounded worried. It’s weird, sir, normally the voice on the radio sounds interested and concerned but this one, well sir, she seems to have a personal interest.”

  “It may be that she is sitting next to Captain Ferguson. He has known us si
nce 1941. Perhaps it is his personal interest.”

  He seemed convinced, “Oh aye, sir that’ll be it. She asked if we would transmit every day until we leave. London is keen to follow our progress.”

  I bet they would. Hugo, Joe and Susan would have been apprised of the original plan. It amounted to little more than a suicide mission. They would be worried and there would be no one in whom they could confide. Even Major Foster would be a suspect.

  The bad weather began overnight and continued the next day. It was not snow. It was sleet mixed with rain but the low cloud was the danger. We were all ready to go on the mission and this hiatus did not help any of us. All around Strasbourg we saw the signs of the March offensive. The Dakotas were augmented by Mitchell bombers. We heard the constant rumble of tanks as they headed to the Rhine. It made it harder for us. We knew we had a job to do. For me it was even more acute. Unlike my men I knew that the Germans were closer to producing a weapon which would be both terrifying and devastating if it was ever employed. As much as I hated the thought of killing so many men I knew that it would make the world a safer place. I would keep it from my men. Nothing would be gained by revealing it to them.

  Two nights later we were able to go. I had made good use of my time. I had spent hours in the cockpit of the Dakota with Flight Lieutenant Ryan. I needed to get into our pilot’s head. Dropping at a thousand feet was risky. I had already decided that I would be the last man out. Lieutenant Poulson could lead.

  After our last session, the day before we left as it turned out, Flight Lieutenant Ryan, Jack, said, “You could have been a pilot sir. I mean your dad is a pilot and a great one. Talking to you in here I know that you know aeroplanes. Why the Commandos?”

  “I did not want to spend the war being compared to Dad. He is a great pilot but everyone would have expected me to be as good. It wasn’t fair on him either. That was why I joined the Loyal Lancashires as a private. I wanted to see what Tom Harsker could do. The world already knew what Bill Harsker had achieved. Besides, when the war is over then I can fly again. And I will fly in peacetime. I won’t be worried about a Jerry on my tail like I was the last time.”