by Per Wahlöö
Captain Schmidt: Yes, sir. Well, Velder. At five to two, you still didn’t know what to do.
Velder: I was sitting at the little table in the office at the post and listening to the men moving about outside. At exactly two o’clock, when according to that order, we ought already to have been in place at the road barriers, I went out. I gave orders for embarkation, formation and departure. The convoy consisted of a jeep, the two large trucks and two light armoured cars for troop transport. We drove the only possible way, crossing the southern autostrad, as both sides of the crossroads were blocked with tank barriers and trucks placed across the traffic lanes. The barriers were well manned. An officer standing at the crossroads irritably indicated that we were nearly fifteen minutes late and that the northern road was thus still open. When he recognised me, he moderated his tone considerably. We touched on Oswaldsburg’s eastern outskirts and swung in on to the old road to Ludolfsport. When we passed the inn in square forty-seven we were stopped by a signaller, who once again pointed out that we were a quarter of an hour late. He was the only soldier I saw all the way. I let the convoy continue for three kilometres past the barrier positions and swung into a side road to the south. It led to an ex-church which earlier had been used as a pig-shed, but had now been abandoned. The roof had fallen in and it was useless. After getting the vehicles parked in the terrain round about, I set up guard-posts and let the rest of the men bivouac in the ruined church. Then I went from vehicle to vehicle, removing the distributor-heads from the jeep and one of the armoured cars. I left the trucks as they were. They had to be unloaded anyhow, before they could be used as troop transports. I put one of the walkie-talkies out of action. The other I took with me. Then I appointed someone in command and a second-in-command, gave orders that the area round the church was at all costs to be held in case of attack, and drove back towards Oswaldsburg in the remaining armoured car. After I had passed the signaller by the inn, I stopped at a safe distance and began working on the radio-receiver.
Radio silence was still being maintained and nothing could be heard when I plugged into several frequencies I knew within the first and third military areas, that is, the regions round Oswaldsburg and Marbella.
Major von Peters: Correct. Military divisions were the same as they are now.
Velder: Excuse me.
Major von Peters: Nothing, for Christ’s sake. Can’t one even say one word any longer.
Velder: Excuse me, but …
Commander Kampenmann: Nothing was heard from the first and third military areas. Go on, Velder …
Velder: But gradually I got radio signals from other military areas. As I sat there, I intercepted a message from some group that must have been about forty kilometres west of Ludolfsport on the road to Oswaldsburg. I just heard what they sent out, but from that it seemed that street fighting was raging in Ludolfsport and that the Army was not in control of the situation. I thought at first it was an Army transmitter I was listening to, but I soon realised that radio-communication was going on between several organised groups who were resisting the Army. I came to the conclusion that the Army was in control of Oswaldsburg and Marbella and the surrounding areas, but that the situation in Ludolfsport must be different. Then I went down into the traffic tunnel towards Oswaldsburg. There were only a few odd guard-posts there and my pass fastened on the windscreen got me through unchallenged. My first thought was to fetch my family, but as soon as I’d parked and come up into the town, I changed my mind and went to the government office. This was guarded by a force of about forty men, commanded by Lieutenant de Wilde, who at once recognised me. Despite my lower rank, I’d often had a kind of psychological advantage over officers, because of the position I held with the General and at headquarters after the reorganisation of the Army. I was allowed through without question and went into the meeting room. Janos Edner, Aranca Peterson and Danica Rodriquez were there, obviously under house-arrest. At first they were suspicious when I told them the little I knew. In the end, Janos Edner said: ‘If thing’s are as you say, then let’s drive to Ludolfsport, for God’s sake.’ I agreed with this, after thinking for a moment. Aranca Peterson woke the children’s nurse and the children were dressed and I took all of them through the chain of soldiers outside without anyone even questioning that I was doing anything else but taking the prisoners to headquarters. The officer in command, de Wilde, just asked me whether I needed extra escort and whether he should continue guarding the government office. I replied no to the first question and told him an escort was waiting at the car, and yes to the second. I said there were still people in the building. He seemed satisfied with that. Once again I considered fetching my family, but I decided not to. There seemed to be a lot of military patrols in the streets. Otherwise it seemed as if the whole of Oswaldsburg was asleep. It was dark and quiet. We went down into the traffic tunnel and stowed ourselves into the armoured car, Janos Edner, Aranca Peterson, Danica Rodriguez, Janos and Aranca’s children, who were two and four years old, a children’s nurse called Irene Miller, and myself. The northern road was still open and radio silence favoured us, of course. I wasn’t clear about the situation and neither could Janos Edner make sense of the confused messages between weak transmitters in and around Ludolfsport. However, we proceeded from the fact that Oswaldsburg and Marbella, and thus also the first and third military areas, the two largest towns and more than half the island’s total area in other words, were under the control of the Army.
Captain Schmidt: That’s sufficient, Velder. Push him away, Brown.
Major von Peters: Now let’s have lunch.
Captain Schmidt: It would be an advantage if we could complete this point before adjourning. It seems superfluous that Velder should sit and describe the military situation which is accounted for in an Appendix numbered V VI/1 from which I shall herewith quote. Lieutenant Brown …
Major von Peters: That seems superfluous on the whole.
Captain Schmidt: With all due respect to the presidium, sir, I should like to point out that not everyone present is as well acquainted with these events as you yourself are. A number of us had not yet returned to the country at the time. Mr President, sir …
Colonel Orbal: Yes, for God’s sake. Granted. But lunch after that, whatever happens.
Lieutenant Brown: Appendix V VI/1, concerning the disturbances, compiled from the summary drawn up by the National Historical Department of the General Staff. Marked Secret according to paragraphs eight, eleven and twenty-two. The document is included in the twelfth volume of …
Colonel Orbal: Get going, Brown, get going.
Lieutenant Brown: The traitor element, led by Janos Edner, Joakim Ludolf and Aranca Peterson, had placed the country in a state of defencelessness and moral decay. Their preparations to eject General Oswald and his supporters from what was called the Council by a coup and after that set up an anarchic or Bolshevik régime of terror had already been under way for a long time. Partly to meet the expected Red revolution, partly to stop the country from simply being colonised by some external enemy, during the summer and autumn, General Oswald had reorganised the militia under strict security measures into a regular Army and more than tripled its numbers. Relatively large supplies of arms and ammunition had been acquired from friendly nations, which, like General Oswald, wished to stop the island falling into the hands of the Red hordes. A number of secret emergency depôts were set up and the reorganised ex-militia was put through an intensive training programme during the autumn. The Air Force and the Navy were still so ill-provided for that they could scarcely be relied on as efficient instruments, even in an internal conflict situation.
The country was divided into three military areas, with headquarters in Oswaldsburg, the capital and centre for the western and north-western part of the island, Ludolfsport on the east coast and Marbella in the south-west. Each military area covered about a third of the country’s total area.
In command of the three military areas were the following:
&nb
sp; First military area (Oswaldsburg and Central Province): Colonel, later Major-General Henry Winckelman.
Second military area (Ludolfsport and Eastern Province and the archipelago off the east coast): Colonel Milton Fox.
Third military area (Marbella and South-Western Province): Lieutenant-Colonel, later Colonel Mateo Orbal.
Material and manpower resources of the armed forces were more or less equally divided between the three military areas. On the fourth of December, after a series of provocations from groups hostile to the people, General Oswald increased his preparations against a coup.
These provocations, which had continued virtually throughout the whole year, culminated in the sabotaging of the democratic elections on the twelfth of December, when over eighty per cent of the country’s inhabitants abstained from exercising their rights as citizens out of apathy, ignorance and fear of reprisals. This was the situation, with the future of the whole nation at stake, when General Oswald decided to allow the Army to intervene, despite the fact that the small numbers of regular troops and still inadequate equipment made the operation a risky undertaking. The detailed plans for taking over power had been worked out under the General’s supervision separately from the three military area commands. As a general principle, it was a matter of control over the state machinery being taken over with the minimum possible bloodshed.
With consideration of the small numbers of troops, the element of surprise was of great importance. It was a matter of striking swiftly and taking vital positions before opponents had time to organise the mob into armed resistance. A state of emergency was proclaimed at 0130 hours on the night of the thirteenth of December. Half an hour later, ‘Operation Night-Exercise’ began. The crusade against the enemies of the people had begun.
Within the first military area, everything went according to plan. When the roads into Oswaldsburg were blocked, Colonel Winckelman’s troops advanced into the capital, where they swiftly took control of power-stations, tele-centres, waterworks, fire-stations and all important administrative and strategic points. Calm in the town was maintained as far as possible and there were neither exchanges of fire nor serious disturbances. A curfew was imposed. When the occupation had been carried out, the special commando of the Military Police went into action, and between 0400 hours and 0500 hours, between three and four hundred people were woken and arrested as suspected of subversive activities and preparing for insurrection. The traitors Janos Edner and Aranca Peterson, however, were not among these, because as a result of treachery, they were allowed to escape from the surrounded government office. On the morning of the thirteenth of December, when General Oswald was proclaimed Chief of State and head of the interim government in the new democratic republic, the Army was in control of both the capital and the other military areas, apart from the most eastern part of the Central Province. Complete calm reigned. In a radio message broadcast at ten o’clock in the morning, Doctor Tadeusz Haller, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of War and Minister of Justice in the interim government, exhorted the people to remain calm and to return to their normal life in due order.
Developments in the third military area were also favourable. After motorised troops had by 0140 hours taken over administrative buildings and strategic centres of Marbella, along the coast—such as lighthouses, pilot-boat quays and so on—and in smaller towns of the South-West Province, Lieutenant-Colonel Orbal then rode at the head of the Third Motorised Infantry Regiment into Marbella. There was no fighting in its real sense except in the harbour area, where groups from the militia’s Coastguard Force rebelled and offered armed resistance. These refractory units were rapidly put down with mortars and flame-throwers. But this exchange of fire caused some unrest in the town and among the relatively few tourists who were still in the area. (To spare overseas citizens as much as possible, no visas had been granted since the first of December—with reference to the impending referendum—and by the afternoon of the thirteenth of December the remaining foreigners were given the opportunity to leave the country by air or hovercraft.) Three of the patrol-boats which were lying in the harbour immediately went out to sea, after the crews had mutinied, and headed for Ludolfsport. Only a few arrests were necessary and in the morning, the troops had gained complete control not only over the town of Marbella, but also over the whole of the South-Western Province. During the morning, Lieutenant-Colonel Orbal’s troops closed all the brothels, casinos and bars. But ‘Operation Night-Exercise’ was initiated in Marbella twenty minutes too early because of a misunderstanding at the military area General Staff Headquarters. This meant that the patrol-boats which fled out of the harbour could communicate by radio with treasonable cells in Ludolfsport, which was to have momentous consequences for developments there.
Colonel Orbal: Does it say that? Well I’m damned.
Major von Peters: Look here, Brown, are you insulting the presidium of this court martial to their very faces? Are you absolutely out of your mind?
Lieutenant Brown: I beg your pardon, sir, but …
Major von Peters: No bloody buts here. I demand an apology.
Colonel Pigafetta: Allow me to point out that Lieutenant Brown can hardly be held responsible for the wording of a secret document from the National Historical Department of the General Staff.
Colonel Orbal: Ach, don’t let’s talk about this any more.
Lieutenant Brown: With all due respect to the presidium, I must submit that I am the injured party and with justification can request a correction.
Colonel Pigafetta: What do you say about that, von Peters? Who is to apologise to whom?
Major von Peters: What the hell do you mean, may I ask?
Colonel Pigafetta: You were Chief of Staff in the third military area at the time, weren’t you? You were a major then and you’re a major now. And Lieutenant-Colonel Orbal had indeed been promoted to Colonel Orbal, but during the whole period of the disturbances was Chief of Staff with General Winckelman. Wasn’t he?
Major von Peters: Now, what the …
Colonel Orbal: Adjournment for lunch. The session will start again in two hours’ time.
* * *
Colonel Orbal: You shouldn’t have said that, Pigafetta. Anyhow, not in the middle of a session.
Colonel Pigafetta: I won’t accept unfounded insults and accusations against my officers.
Major von Peters: I only wanted to correct an error in the investigation material.
Colonel Pigafetta: Did you say an error?
Colonel Orbal: Don’t start on that again now. There’s a hell of a row going on, Pigafetta. Deafening.
Colonel Pigafetta: It’s because the windows are open.
Colonel Orbal: What? Oh. Oh, yes. Call in the parties, Brown.
Lieutenant Brown: Captain Schmidt reports his absence for the day. The case for the armed forces will be put by the Assistant Prosecuting Officer, Mihail Bratianu.
Major von Peters: Excellent.
Lieutenant Bratianu: Colonel Orbal, Major von Peters, Colonel Pigafetta, Commander Kampenmann, Justice Haller! I request to be allowed to develop further the case for the prosecution.
Major von Peters: Granted.
Lieutenant Brown: May I point out that the presentation of Appendix V VI/1 had not yet been completed when the session was adjourned.
Lieutenant Bratianu: That summary, yes. I will not be needing that. You need not continue with the presentation.
Lieutenant Brown: I see.
Lieutenant Bratianu: In any case, in my view, that document lacks value as evidence in the case. I submit to this court martial that the document in question be excluded from the preliminary investigation and that the presentation of it be struck from the record.
Major von Peters: Damned intelligent and clever as Prosecuting Officer.
Colonel Orbal: What are you whispering about, Carl?
Major von Peters: That Bratianu’s a good officer. What perception.
Colonel Orbal: Yes, of course. Yes, indeed. Where are th
ose instructions? Oh, here they are.
Colonel Pigafetta: If your private discussion with von Peters is now over, Orbal, perhaps the presidium can now proceed to considering the Prosecuting Officer’s request.
Colonel Orbal: What? Yes, of course. Granted. All right, Pigafetta?
Colonel Pigafetta: Certainly.
Colonel Orbal: And you, Carl?
Major von Peters: Granted.
Colonel Orbal: Kampenmann?
Commander Kampenmann: I reserve my decision.
Major von Peters: What now?
Colonel Orbal: Calm down, Carl. This extra-ordinary court martial has decided that Appendix number … let’s see …
Lieutenant Bratianu: Number V VI/1, concerning the disturbances.
Colonel Orbal: Appendix V VI/1, concerning the disturbances, be removed from the preliminary investigation and its presentation be struck off the official record. Against this, Commander Kampenmann has reserved his decision.
Lieutenant Bratianu: I hereby call Corporal Erwin Velder as witness.
Major von Peters: Push him forward, Brown.
Commander Kampenmann: Do you know that the questioning of Velder must be carried out according to a new method, because of his physical and mental condition?
Lieutenant Bratianu: Yes, sir, I know of the accused’s condition.
Commander Kampenmann: Good. Then you also know that there is no question of any cross-examination.
Major von Peters: You ought to have been a social worker, Kampenmann. Or joined the Women’s Naval Auxiliary Service.
Lieutenant Bratianu: We have heard how Velder first deserted from the Army and then immediately entered into the most filthy and loathsome of all criminal activities, namely high treason. Before we go into this complex of offences, however, I request to be allowed to insert another charge into this section of the case for the prosecution.
Colonel Orbal: Of course, Bratianu. But what?
Lieutenant Bratianu: Velder’s desertion occurred in a situation which could easily have developed into war. Although a state of war had not been declared, I consider it justified to extend the charge to include one of cowardice.