The Generals

by Per Wahlöö

  Colonel Orbal: Yes, go on, for Christ’s sake.

  Velder: Go on. Go on. Well, finally I couldn’t stand it any longer. It was on that evening of the third of February, late, because we’d been working for a long time on the plans for the offensive, but just as we were parting, she looked at me like that again. Bartholic had gone off somewhere, to Ludolfsport, I think. I got undressed and washed and was just going to get into bed and, well, then I heard her going into her room and then that she was having a shower—she’d been given that room because it had a bathroom. And that was when I couldn’t stand it any longer, but just went out into the corridor and then into her room.

  Colonel Orbal: Naked?

  Velder: Oh, yes. The doors weren’t locked. We never locked them. So when she’d dried herself and come out of the bathroom, there I was. She stared at me and said: ‘Out.’ She looked much nicer than I’d thought, even more exciting, if I can put it that way. I was absolutely beside myself. And she stared at me as if she, too, were crazy, as well as me. I took hold of her and laid her down on her back on the bed, but it didn’t work. She was strong and lithe and fought like a madman, wriggling free and getting to her feet. She didn’t scream, because she too knew that Bartholic was away and no one could hear us. I didn’t let her go and we fought, she trying to jab me with her knees and I hitting her, and then we both fell over, Dana underneath, and as we fell she hit her head so hard on the concrete floor that she lost consciousness. Almost, anyhow.

  Colonel Orbal: And then you poked her, I suppose …

  Major von Peters: Quiet, Mateo. Did you complete the rape?

  Velder: Yes. Oh, yes. But I couldn’t have done it if she hadn’t been almost unconscious … and partly, well, so well prepared. Sexually, I mean. Just as it came for me she opened her eyes and then it began to come for her too, tremendously, too, and … She raised her legs and I thought that she was at last giving in. But instead she caught me in a scissor-grip and took no notice of me being inside her and that she was in the middle of an orgasm …

  Major von Peters: But this is pure pornography.

  Colonel Orbal: Is all this in the book?

  Velder: It hurt and she tore herself free, got to her feet and kicked me three times as hard as she could. I was quite paralysed in the lower part of my body and lay curled up on all fours by the door. I almost thought she was going to kill me then, but she opened the door, placed a foot on my shoulder and hurled me out into the corridor. It took a long time before I could take myself back to my own room. I never got over those kicks, actually. When I met her the next day, she said: ‘If there’d been any point in it, I’d have reported you for that business yesterday.’ She meant it, too, and had it been before the war, I would have been deported, for sure.

  Major von Peters: What are you scrabbling about for, Mateo?

  Captain Schmidt: It starts on page four hundred and one, sir.

  Colonel Orbal: Ah. Thanks, Schmidt.

  Captain Schmidt: Well, with that …

  Velder: Dana meant everything, I think. Three days later she was away nearly all day. It was a Thursday, I remember. She seemed very systematic. When we were working in the map room that evening, Aranca asked her where she’d been and she said just like that, almost in passing: ‘I went to Ludolfsport to get a scrape. Erwin was idiotic enough to rape me the other night. Pumped a whole year’s need into me.’

  Captain Schmidt: Let us swiftly conclude this unpleasant and shameful story. It is herewith proved conclusively that Velder was guilty of gross rape combined with ill-treatment, and under mitigating circumstances. I now hand this part of the case to the court for consideration.

  Major von Peters: That was pretty hard to stomach. Let’s have a lunch break now. Mateo, adjourn the session.

  Colonel Orbal: What? What did you say? What’s all the fuss about?

  Major von Peters: We’re having a break now. Adjourn the session.

  Colonel Orbal: The session is adjourned for two hours.

  * * *

  Colonel Pigafetta: Very industrious of you, Orbal, to lug that volume of the preliminary investigation with you and study it in the mess during the lunch break.

  Colonel Orbal: What? What’s that?

  Major von Peters: Call in the parties, Mateo.

  Colonel Orbal: Oh, yes. Let them in. I must say that when you read the interrogations of Velder here in the book, you get a much clearer and more detailed picture of what happened than when he himself tries to tell it. Look at this, Carl. Read that bit.

  Major von Peters: I’ll read it later.

  Captain Schmidt: I will now go on to the last part of the case for the prosecution in the case of the Armed Forces versus Erwin Velder. This section covers charges numbers one hundred and five to and including one hundred and twenty-seven, concerning murder, accessory to murder, accessory to mass-murder, preparation for genocide, subversive activities, armed rebellion, hounding of opponents, criminal promiscuity and communism. All these crimes were committed during the time when Velder acted as collaborator to enemy of the people, Joakim Ludolf. Does the accused admit that he is guilty of these offences?

  Captain Endicott: Yes, the accused pleads guilty.

  Captain Schmidt: The circumstances and events touched on in the case for the prosecution are based here, as on several previous points, mainly on the accused’s own statements at interrogations. Therefore I request to be allowed to call as witness Erwin Velder.

  Major von Peters: Granted.

  Captain Schmidt: Before I allow the accused to begin his account of the events from the sixteenth of March onwards, I would like to refer to a summary which describes the political and military situation prevailing after the fifteenth of that month. Appendix V VIII/9. If you please, Lieutenant Brown.

  Lieutenant Brown: Appendix V VIII/9, concerning the disturbances. Summary compiled by the National Historical Department of the General Staff. The text is as follows:

  With the collapse of the left-radical rebel régime and the flight of enemies of the people, Janos Edner and Aranca Peterson from the country, the northern part of the Eastern Province was liberated from the terrorism that had reigned for three terrifying months. When the military mopping-up operations, which went on for three days, were over, the Chief of State and the government took all possible measures to return the liberated area to normal and honourable life. The glorious National Freedom Army had, as had the Peace Corps, been forced to sacrifice lives and valuable materials during this stage of the crusade, but calculations reveal that losses were limited to a third of those inflicted on the rebels. On the twentieth of March, General Oswald rode into Ludolfsport—later renamed Oswaldsport—where the victory was celebrated with a military parade of the combined branches of national defence. Destruction in the town as a result of rebel marauders’ activities was very-great. Large areas had been blown up or burnt down and lay in ruins, and in the harbour area the damage was so great that it was not possible for large ships to enter or be unloaded until four months later. Reconstruction was also extremely difficult, due to anarchic and communist saboteurs who had been infiltrated into the groups of workmen in the rehabilitation camps, who carried out most of the rebuilding. At the beginning of November, however, most of the harbour installations could once again be used, if only to a limited extent. Collaborators of the left-radical movement who fell into the hands of the troops were first placed into eight camps, dispersed in different parts of the country. Between three and four hundred people guilty of murder, looting and conspiracy against the nation’s legal government were executed or given life sentences of hard labour, after being tried before military courts. Otherwise General Oswald treated the rebels with great mildness. Many of them had undoubtedly been led astray by false and ruthless propaganda; to save these unfortunate people, within a few months the original camps were reorganised into regular retraining camps, where their readjustment to society was thoroughly attended to. In this way the increasing demand for labour in industry and const
ruction …

  Captain Schmidt: You can stop there, Brown, and turn over three pages to section four.

  Lieutenant Brown: Aha. The military situation then. The text is as follows:

  After the capture of Oswaldsport (Ludolfsport) and victory in the north, the southern area of the Eastern Province and some of the small islands off the coast—constituting less than a sixth of the country’s total area—still remained in the hands of the rebels. The leader of the rebel movement in this area was the enemy of the people, Joakim Ludolf, supported by his Bolshevik slavey Boris Stoloff. The topographical conditions in this section of the terrain, in the north bordered by the now destroyed and impassable autostrad between Oswaldsburg and Oswaldsport (Ludolfsport), in the west by a swift river about five kilometres west of the border between the Eastern and Central Province, and then in the south and west by the sea, proved to be advantageous to the rebels’ purposes. The land consisted of a hilly plateau with an under-developed network of roads and a sparse scattering of farms and barns. The coasts were steep and inaccessible and easy to protect against any invasion attempt from the sea. The land border along the autostrad and southern part of the river (the old demarcation line) was strongly fortified and was defended with both desperation and complete ruthlessness by the Reds, who had entrenched themselves in the area. On the twenty-fifth of March, General Oswald decided to regroup the first and second army commands in face of the final mopping-up operation of the southern sector.

  Captain Schmidt: That’s enough, Brown. I will now go on to hearing Velder’s own account of what happened after the fifteenth of March. Is the accused ready?

  Captain Endicott: Yes, he’s ready.

  Major von Peters: Push the swine out then.

  Colonel Orbal: No, for God’s sake, Endicott, don’t push him right under my nose. There, in front of Kampenmann, that’s right, that’s better.

  Captain Schmidt: Velder, we now wish to hear what happened to you after you’d left the quarantine station and had gone aboard in patrol-boat number three on the night of the sixteenth of March.

  Major von Peters: Can’t you express yourself a little more carefully and exactly, Schmidt? It isn’t ‘aboard in patrol-boat’, is it?

  Commander Kampenmann: Yes, the expression is quite correct.

  Major von Peters: Peculiar.

  Velder: The weather was very bad during the night. Big waves. I was seasick and spewed …

  Colonel Orbal: Nothing but disgusting …

  Velder: … but at about half-past four in the morning, we got into the lee of the bay south of Ludolfsport. A small pilot-boat or something similar met us and showed us the way through the channel in the minefield. When we got to the shore, there were high straight chalk cliffs there and the patrol-boat was hauled up into a hollow cliff, obviously a widened old cave, where there were already three similar boats. The men who met us didn’t say much, but they seemed confident and efficient. They obviously belonged to the militia, as they were wearing similar khaki overalls to Ludolf’s and Stoloff’s, though with no rank badges. Everyone had red, five-pointed stars on their caps. That surprised me a little. Then I was taken in a small car—or sort of jeep with tracks, not unlike the armoured car Ludolf and Stoloff had come to headquarters in a month or so earlier. A woman, also in militia uniform and with a red star on her cap, was driving. Most of the way we went through tunnels, with short stretches above ground; it was still dark and I didn’t see anything special. It took about half an hour to get to Ludolf’s headquarters. Nothing was visible above ground. I was put in a lift and went down, quite far, it seemed. Then I was taken along a corridor and into what later turned out to be the operations centre of headquarters. General Ludolf and Colonel Stoloff …

  Major von Peters: Now, listen. There is a limit …

  Colonel Pigafetta: Stop taking exception to unimportant details, von Peters. Otherwise this’ll never come to an end.

  Major von Peters: Unimportant details. Calling that swine General and …

  Velder: They were in there and seemed to be in fine form, although neither of them could have slept for at least twenty-four hours.

  Major von Peters: Good God, he’s interrupting me again.

  Colonel Orbal: Calm down, now, Carl. Don’t take any notice of what these idiots say.

  Colonel Pigafetta: I beg your pardon, what did you say?

  Colonel Orbal: Nothing. Go on, now, Velder. Why isn’t he saying anything?

  Captain Endicott: The accused has come to a full stop, lost the thread, as you might say. One moment.

  Colonel Orbal: God, how many times have I said it. Endicott, if you’re going to mess about revoltingly like that, will you please at least push him outside.

  Captain Endicott: Give me a hand, will you, Brown?

  Colonel Orbal: Ten minutes break. That we have to damned well put up with these revolting things day after day.

  Colonel Pigafetta: I’m no longer convinced of whom or what I find the most revolting in this place.

  Colonel Orbal: The air, Pigafetta, the air. It’s worse than everything else. In the winter we were so cold that our teeth chattered, and now we’re being boiled alive. And hitherto there’s been only three choices, to be blown away, deafened or suffocated. How do you endure it like this?

  Colonel Pigafetta: This peculiar little propeller which blows air over my legs all the time, is that one of your … improvements?

  Colonel Orbal: Yes, it is. Though not especially successful, I must admit. I suggest that we move to another place. To Army Staff Headquarters, for instance.

  Colonel Pigafetta: I won’t agree to that.

  Colonel Orbal: What? Why not? It’s nothing to quibble about anyhow, is it?

  Colonel Pigafetta: And I find it highly unnecessary and impractical to change locality now when the session is nearly over.

  Commander Kampenmann: Yes, it does seem superfluous.

  Major von Peters’. How long does this wretched business have to go on, Schmidt?

  Captain Schmidt: Not many more days. It depends on the accused’s condition.

  Colonel Orbal: Here’s that carriage and pair coming back again. Come on, get a move on, now.

  Captain Schmidt: We have heard how the accused visited the enemy of the people, Joakim Ludolf, and put himself at his disposal. What is of greatest importance is to clarify Velder’s participation in four different stages in Ludolf’s criminal attempts to acquire power. The first of these was what—still according to the accused’s own testimony, almost the only evidence there is on this point—was called the ‘general method’. Let him now continue, Endicott.

  Velder: Ludolf was very taciturn. Generally speaking, he just bade me welcome. Stoloff on the other hand, talked quite a bit. He said that I knew more than almost anyone else about Oswald and his way of thinking and also that I had witnessed the collapse in the northern sector and seen practical results of the Fascists’ tactics. Then he said that in future I would be a staff officer. Ludolf asked what had happened to Janos and Aranca and when I told him what I knew, he shrugged his shoulders and didn’t say any more. What happened then?

  Major von Peters: Are you asking me, you maniac?

  Velder: Yes, Stoloff did a quick run-through of the situation. On the operations map, he showed that Army units were attacking along the old demarcation line—the western front, as he called it—and were trying to cross the river, and that at three or four places they were also attacking in the north, along the autostrad. But they were weaker units there. He judged the situation as favourable and said that the outer defence belt could not be forced with the methods the Army had used hitherto. The whole of the land border was well fortified and the mines were in three layers. He also considered it impossible that Oswald’s units from the west would be able to cross the river and the ravine because the fortifications on our side were blasted into the mountain wall and could not be destroyed by artillery.

  Major von Peters: Oh, Christ, letting him sit there talking about al
l that. As if I didn’t remember that bloody river. Month after month … oh, well, it doesn’t matter.

  Commander Kampenmann: I’ve studied all that. You landed into the same situation as Cadorna once did at Isonzo. You couldn’t take the hills without crossing the river and you couldn’t cross the river without controlling the hills.

  Colonel Pigafetta: My dear Kampenmann, your officiousness is boundless. What do you know about Isonzo?

  Commander Kampenmann: That it led to Caporetto.

  Colonel Pigafetta: But do you by any chance remember who won the war?

  Major von Peters: Pigafetta’s right, but this is after all a court martial, not an academy for staff officers.

  Colonel Pigafetta: Most of all, it’s not a forum for amateur historians and café-strategists. Go on with the testimony.

  Velder: Things went just as Stoloff had said. The Army attacked for ten days without making more than a few yards headway. Then Oswald saw that he must change tactics and the attacks stopped. From then on it was mostly shelling by artillery, but that didn’t have much effect.

  Captain Schmidt: Here I should like to steer the accused over into another track. What is meant by the ‘general method’? To what extent did Velder participate in the carrying out of it and to what extent was he responsible for the consequences of it?

  Captain Endicott: Velder, the general method …

  Velder: … had two sides, an ideological one and a military one. The ideological side was based on application to Communist doctrines and thought. And giving every man and woman in the southern sector something which Ludolf called ‘definite will to defend’. He himself had this quality and he’d clearly had it for a long time. As had Stoloff. To loathe the enemy to the extent that it seemed much better to die than to flee or give up. It was a dogma that was hammered in highly systematically, for a start. Then they stopped talking about it. I gradually realised that the majority of those in the southern sector had thought like that earlier, consciously or unconsciously, and that otherwise they wouldn’t have been there. Everyone in the southern sector joined the militia, both men and women. Children and people who were so old that they were no use at anything had obviously been evacuated at a very early stage. Quite a lot was also done to see that no more children were born. Abortions were done at first-aid stations, of course, and contraceptive pills were also dealt out to the women.