by Ron Smoak
“Well, what do we do now?” asked Hientz. “We have no further orders. The Reich is in shambles.” Hientz reached over and plucked an apple from a box of food and took a bite.
“Without any orders, we should plot a course back to Germany,” answered the captain looking at his first officer. “If the war is lost, I guess we should return to port and surrender the boat. I’ll be damned if I’m going to die here at sea making a last strike for the Fatherland. I just want to get back to my wife and kids. It’s been four hard years since I was home... or what is left of it.”
“Very well, sir. I will have the navigator plot a course to our home port at once. With a bit of luck we can make it back in a few weeks or so if we do not run across the enemy. I think that would make the crew as well as the officers very happy. The faster we get home the better.”
Adler looked his first officer in the eyes and smiled weakly. “Do that, Hientz… Let’s go home… it has to be over by now.”
“Yes, sir,” answered Hientz with a smile as he turned and walked away toward the navigation room.
The music was still playing and the captain could still smell the eggs and bacon. He could hear the laughter of his men even over the music. Several congregated around the galley just down the passageway from the captain’s cabin, all waiting intently on the eggs and bacon. Smiles were everywhere. Damn, it felt good to be going home at last.
Adler grabbed his cap and stepped out into the passageway toward the galley. Funny, he thought. It seemed as though the weight of the world was just lifted from his shoulders.
Adler met his second officer as he entered the galley.
“Captain, we are seventy-five nautical miles to sea at a depth of ninety meters in 2,100 meters of water. Mr. Hientz has us on a course of 060 degrees at seven knots.”
“Very good. Tell Mr. Hientz to maintain that course until further notice.” The captain stepped over to the intercom, reached up and turned on the microphone.
“Attention, Crew. This is the captain. I have an announcement to make.” The music, singing and laughter stopped. The only noise was the hum of the engines. “Gentlemen, I have just given the order to return to port in Germany. We are going home!”
The silence was immediately broken by a great roar from the crew. It was a collective cheer that made Adler smile. Now it was official; they were going home. He turned the microphone off and stepped into the galley.
Adler had a huge smile on his face when he looked over to the cook. “How about some of those eggs and bacon, please. They smell great!”
“Yes, sir,” answered the cook, grinning ear to ear. “Sir, I can’t believe we are going home.”
“Yes, we are,” answered Adler with a smile.
Adler sat on a small stool and took a mug of coffee from the cook. The coffee was hot. It tasted great. Just like home. Oh, how he missed home. This would probably be the longest two weeks of their lives.
The radioman walked into the galley.
“Sir, our next scheduled radio contact is at 09:00 tomorrow morning. Do you still want to make contact for orders, sir? I mean after what you just announced?”
The captain sat there with his coffee for a few seconds. The radioman was right. What use was contacting headquarters? Those assholes are liable to order them to make some kind of stupid suicide run to uphold the integrity of the Reich. Yeah, Adler smiled to himself; fat chance we would follow that order. He wasn’t about to make that mistake. But he did not want to openly disobey a direct order just in case some semblance of the Nazis survived and they decided to go on some kind of blame vendetta. Not him. But what if he never got that order? No one could blame him for that. That was his way out!
Adler looked at the radioman and said, “No. We are headed home. We have our orders. Surfacing to make radio contact may tip the enemy off to our location and heading. Until I tell you different, there is to be no radio contact until we reach Germany. Is that clear?”
“Yes, sir!” answered the radioman with a huge grin. “I absolutely understand. Sir, that suits me just fine.”
With that he was gone, literally running down the corridor. Two other crewmen stepped into the galley for coffee.
“Thank you, sir,” said one man. “Thank you very much for the news, sir.”
Adler lifted his coffee cup in a sort of a toast. This was a great crew.
A second later, the force of the huge explosion ripped the U-1055 completely in half, peeling back both open ends of the U-boat like a blooming flower. Since the four bombs were packed in the food taken aboard, it was stored in the lockers beside the galley near the center of the boat. The captain, the cook and several men in the galley area were obliterated instantly. They never knew what happened. The rest of the boat was caught completely off guard. All water-tight hatches were open and the boat filled with water in less than five seconds. First Officer Willie Hientz felt the explosion and was hit in the face with a steel hatch that was blown off its hinges. The impact crushed his face and drove him into the bulkhead, splattering his brains across the cabin all over his men a millisecond before a wall of water crashed in on them. The entire crew was dead before anyone could react. The U-boat was now well below 500 meters and plummeting toward the bottom to an unknown watery grave, thousands of meters at the bottom of the Atlantic.
Yes, the war was over; both for the U-1055 crew and for Germany. But not the way Captain Ernst Adler, First Officer Willie Hientz and the crew had planned. But it was over.
Back in Brazil, Karl Grimme checked his watch and smiled. By now there was one less U-boat full of witnesses. Twenty-two other U-boats who delivered gold had suffered the same fate as the U-1055. More would follow. The secret was still intact.
Part Two
Present Day
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Miami Beach, Florida; 12:05 p.m.
“Good God, it’s hot!” complained the man in the passenger side of the red 1969 Jeep CJ5 as it cruised down Calle Ocho. Miami in July was hot, sea breezes notwithstanding. The sun was bright and torrid, the humidity oppressive. The sky was azure blue with wispy white clouds. This was typical seaside weather. The smells of several Cuban restaurants consumed the streets filled with locals and tourists looking for the mid-day meal with sweet odors of roast pork and fried plantains. The July 4th holiday drew in many tourists, many making it a long weekend.
“It’s going to be a hot one, brother. And I thought Texas was hot. This humidity is hard to take sometimes,” complained Hugo Winsor. “One day I’m headin’ back to the Lone Star State.”
“Hell, I know what it is,” smiled Dane Skoglund. “It’s those Texas women. And don’t you deny it.”
“Hmmm, I can’t argue with that. But let’s not say anything bad about my Texas girls. They are very hard to beat.” Hugo suddenly snapped his head around. “Oh, my God, look at those beauties over there!”
“Hugo, if you are not thinking about food, you are thinking about women,” Dane answered as he smiled at a trio of pretty young ladies crossing the street as they stopped at the red light. Hugo sat up straight looking at the tanned long legs, the flip-flops and the bikini tops.
“My God, the women of Miami are so very fine!” remarked Hugo as the size of his grin grew as the ladies all looked his way and smiled. A petite blonde waved at Hugo nearly setting him off into orbit.
Dane could only laugh as the light turned green and the jeep sped off toward Miami Beach. Miami was his adopted home, far, far from his original homeland of Sweden. His parents had come to America when he was only four. He could hardly remember the numbing cold in his hometown of Sundsvall. After his parents settled in Bremerton, Washington, he and his younger sister, Dana, grew up to be well-liked local athletes. They both excelled in any sport they tried. But all through middle and high school Dane was enthralled with anything Navy. His father worked at the Puget Sound Navy Shipyard as an electrical engineer. Dane took to the sea like a fish.
Dane grew up around the
Navy, many times touring the countless ships in the shipyard with his father. It was only natural that he joined Naval ROTC in high school even though it was generally unpopular at the time. But his infatuation with the Navy ensured his tenure.
Two weeks after he turned eighteen, Dane became a citizen of the United States. To him this was a goal he had held since he was a small boy. He had heard his father talk about how wonderful the United States was and how much opportunity was to be had. Exactly one month after his graduation from high school, Dane joined the United States Navy and upon graduation from basic training immediately volunteered for SEAL training. He excelled in both his training and testing, which paved the way for an assignment to the BUD/S course in Coronado, California. He amazed the instructors; not only did he do everything well but did it without a single challenge or harsh word. One instructor anointed him the “SEAL’S SEAL”. That was an honor that Dane held high above all other accolades he had earned throughout his life.
Dane was a hulk of a man. His Swedish genes produced a chiseled, bronze-bodied, blond perfect model for a Navy SEAL. One could swear that he would have made THE best SEAL poster model of all time. But to Dane, he was always trying to do even better. His mother and father had instilled within him not only a strong loyalty to the U.S. but a burning desire to do whatever it takes to ensure the United States succeeded in everything.
He relished the chance to fight for his newly chosen country. So much that he volunteered for duty in Iraq. At first he laughed at a SEAL in the desert but once he got there he was thrust into the thick of things immediately. His actions in Iraq earned him the Navy Cross.
The jeep turned off of Biscayne Boulevard and onto the MacArthur Causeway crossing Watson Island. They were barreling out to Miami Beach. Both Dane and Hugo gazed over to their right at the huge, white cruise ships docked over at the Port of Miami. Saturday was a big turnaround day for the cruise ships in Miami and other major cruise ports. Several Royal Caribbean, Carnival and Norwegian cruise ships came into port at daybreak just as they do many days of the week. Saturday and Sunday were particularly busy days in Miami. The ships disembarked thousands of cruisers from the previous week. Within hours they took on provisions and loaded those lucky folks heading out for the next week of fun on the seas. Even though both had seen their time at sea in the Navy, Dane and Hugo looked at the ships and then looked at each other.
“Hey, what about we try out one of those sometime,” prodded Hugo. “We could have a helluva good time!”
“Yeah, I could see you patrolling the decks hitting on any female over the age of eighteen, leaving none untouched,” laughed Dane. He paused a second, smiling. “Now that I think of it, maybe we should. It would be a hoot to watch you in action.”
“Oh, and what action I could show you, my man! Think of all of the lovely ladies aboard and the time we would have,” grinned Hugo.
Hugo was the epitome of the ladies man. A Texan, Hugo was born and raised in Austin in the hill country. His exploits at Lake Travis and the Oasis were legendary. If you didn’t believe it just ask him. He was always glad to tell you about it. Dane had heard the stories so many times he could recite them in his sleep. Hugo and Dane were natural sidekicks. They had met at BUD/S in Coronado. He was almost a carbon copy of Dane except for the blonde hair. Hugo’s was jet black and slightly curly. The ladies loved Hugo. Always ready with a suave line, he could literally charm the ladies into his arms. Dane could get his share as well but had learned very early in their friendship that Hugo could provide for the both of them.
Almost as driven as Dane, Hugo was a master at combat arms and demolition. Dane had often wondered if he had actually learned demolition as a child. Hugo took to blowing things up like a duck to water. He was very, very good at it. He could also field strip any type of handgun or rifle before most people could sneeze. He ate, drank and slept with weapons. One could probably say that if he was not with a woman at night he was with a weapon.
Although Hugo’s life now was an open book, his childhood was a bit of a mystery. He very seldom talked about his life before the age of eighteen. When he did he cut the conversation short and moved on to other things. Dane had learned not to prod him about it. He figured that if Hugo wanted to let him know he would tell him. Dane’s quiet Swedish background did not lend him to be a conversationalist. What he did know was that Hugo’s father was a mechanic, his mother a nurse. Both had had hard lives. Both lost their parents at an early age. Hugo had never met his grandparents; they died before he was born. His world in his early years was only his father and mother, no one else. He had no brothers or sisters. From the time he could sit up, he was with his father at the garage. He had learned auto mechanics long before he learned to play with other children. Hugo could rebuild any engine and was a mechanical magician. All of those hours spent with his father at the garage had stuck with him. Any car he owned was immediately modified to deliver maximum horsepower. When he wasn’t working as a lifeguard, he was working on one of several old cars he had stashed in his garage.
Since his mother worked as a nurse, usually on second or third shift, he had spent very little time with her and females in general. Maybe that was why he became a ladies man when he discovered girls in middle school. He loved his mother dearly and greatly respected her dedication to the family even though she was rarely there to enjoy the fruits of her labor. Both she and Hugo’s father were killed in a car wreck a week after he graduated from high school. That was the reason he joined the Navy. He had no where else to go. Hugo became a man’s man, the ultimate Texan. He lived cars, trucks, grease and guns.
Both he and Dane left the Navy the same day. Neither one of them had any particular strong ties back to their homes. Hugo had loved Texas but felt that if he returned to Austin he would end up like his father in that garage. Dane, on the other hand, did have parents back in Washington state but also had no particular reason to return there as well. So these two vagabonds decided to do something completely different… move to Miami. One of their Navy buddies had a friend who had a friend that was in charge of the lifeguards on the Miami area beaches. With a little help and a few kind words, Dane and Hugo were settling in as lifeguards in the Miami lifestyle. Within a few months Dane was tapped as a beach commander.
They continued their drive out 5th Street and turned north on Ocean Drive with hotels on the left and the gorgeous white beaches of Miami Beach on the right. They drove north on Ocean Drive until they turned right into the headquarters of the Miami Beach Patrol Headquarters. As they pulled into the parking lot, Dane stopped the jeep under a palm tree as he saw Wayne Johnson and Sherrie Knowlton walking up from the beach.
“Hi, guys,” waved Sherrie, turning to see where Wayne was. “Come on, Wayne. What’s slowing you down? Must be those doughnuts you ate!”
“Doughnuts… You got doughnuts?” yelled Hugo as he bolted from the Jeep and headed toward the office.
“Good morning, fine lady!”
“And a fine mid-day to you too. Dane, where have you two been?” asked Sherrie as she stopped beside the Jeep.
“We had to run out to Miami International to pick up some gear that Hugo had shipped in from California. It was such a beautiful day that we took our time.”
“Well, I guess if you are the boss you can do what you want,” smiled Sherrie, clearly flirting with Dane. “It’s been a quiet day so far.”
When they walked into the patrol room, Hugo had already found the doughnuts. True to form, he had already eaten one, had a sugar doughnut in one hand and a half a chocolate doughnut in the other hand. The other half was in his mouth.
“I should have known…” chuckled Dane as he walked into the patrol room. “Hugo, you could find food in the worst famine area.”
“I gotta keep my svelte figure for the ladies,” Hugo retorted, taking another bite.
Dane smiled and turned toward his desk. Even Miami Beach lifeguards had to do paperwork. He sat down and pulled a stack of papers from the pile in hi
s IN basket.
“Hey, you’re not going to have one?” asked Hugo, referring to the doughnuts.
“Not me. I don’t want to spoil my lunch,” said Dane, head down signing some form. “Hey, anyone for a Cuban sandwich?”
“I just ate,” answered Wayne. “I had a late breakfast.”
“I’ll bite,” said Sherrie, who from her looks one would think she didn’t eat at all. She could be a Baywatch babe in anyone’s book. “I’d love a Cuban sandwich, with extra mustard!”
“That goes double for me too,” said Hugo, taking his last bite of a chocolate doughnut. “I’m starving.”
Dane got up and walked over to Hugo and gave him a playful slap on the back. “You are always starving, big guy. Who wants to take my jeep?”
“I’ll go,” said Hugo. “And Sherrie, you can ride along to hold on to the food on the way back.”
Wayne smiled. “Typical Hugo; he’d do anything to ride with a pretty girl.”
“Oh,” fawned Sherrie in her best southern belle lilt. “Who? Lil’ ole me? Dane, why don’t you come along too.”
“And who did you think?” said Wayne, picking up a pair of binoculars and scanning the beach.
“You two go ahead. Here’s a few bucks,” said Dane, handing Sherrie a twenty dollar bill. “Get me one of those special salads. But hurry back. We need to do our mid-day patrol in a few minutes. There’s too much burning flesh on the beach today being the Fourth of July weekend.”
“And some of it you just don’t want to see,” quipped Wayne, still scanning the beach. “The old folks’ home must have dropped a group off here. And half the women are topless. Oh, my aching eyes.”
“Sherrie beamed as she took the cash from Dane and grabbed Hugo and pushed him toward the door. “I better get lover boy moving before he hits the sand looking for those old ladies. He’s a sucker for his sweethearts.”
“Hey,” Hugo whined. “There are beautiful ladies down there too!” Sherrie pushed him out of the door and away they went.