The Odin Mission

by James Holland

  'I don't mind.' She laughed, then stood up to leave. 'Now remember, Sergeant,' she said, 'sleep. It's very important.'

  She was right, Tanner realized, and once she had gone, he lay back, his pack as a pillow, and closed his eyes.

  He was asleep in moments, despite the discomfort of his surroundings, and by dawn, he felt refreshed; despite hunger, his head was clear. He watched the sun rise over the mountains on the far side of the valley, casting a golden light over the snow and dazzling him.

  It was a little after three when he suddenly saw troop movements at the farm. There were eight men, and soon after he heard the rumble of an engine starting up.

  Immediately bringing the binoculars to his eyes, he peered at the farm and watched the troops disappear behind a shed. Soon after, a small truck he had not noticed the day before, emerged and turned right on to the road, heading south.

  Tanner reported this to Chevannes. 'It could still be a trap, though, sir.'

  'What about the soldiers in the church?'

  'That might have been them. But I couldn't say for certain.'

  Chevannes nodded. 'We'll wait here a while longer.'

  At nearly half past four, Tanner spotted Sulheim emerge from the farmhouse. Constantly glancing around him, he hurried out of the yard, across the river and pastures towards the trees.

  When he reached the seter, he was short of breath, but his eyes were wide with excitement. 'They have gone,' he told them, then grinned. 'You have been spotted back over on the other side of the mountain. They think you crossed into the Gudbrandsdal valley again.'

  'What about the men in the church?' asked Tanner. 'Was that them leaving earlier?'

  Sulheim nodded. 'Yes. I did not let them know that I speak German, but the officer was becoming increasingly agitated. He was convinced you would appear when it was dark. I think he was on the point of leaving anyway when he had the signal.'

  'How could we have been spotted?' Chevannes asked.

  'A Norwegian reported seeing you.' He grinned again. 'You see? We are mostly patriotic countrymen around here.'

  They loaded their packs hastily and headed back down the mountain to the valley. Unease dogged Tanner's every step, as though they were heading inexorably into a trap. Yet no shots were fired, neither did enemy troops appear. At the farm, anxious minutes ticked by as Sulheim replaced the alternator in the truck. His wife gave them bread and cold meat, but Tanner's appetite had left him.

  At last they were ready to go. It was some time after six o'clock on the morning of Saturday, 27 April.

  'What will you say if the Germans return and see the truck gone?' Tanner asked Sulheim.

  'That you came back and forced us to hand it over.'

  'Perhaps we should tie you up. Otherwise you'd be obliged to contact them the moment we left.'

  'All right.'

  Shortly after, with the family bound and left in the house, they loaded themselves into the truck. 'I'll drive,' Tanner told Chevannes. 'I know these vehicles. The British Army's got hundreds of them.' It was true, although the military versions were larger, heavier, and of a more basic construction. Nonetheless as Tanner stepped into the cab with Anna and Lieutenant Chevannes beside him, the driving mechanism felt familiar. Turn the ignition key, pull out the choke and press down the starter in the footwell. The engine turned over a couple of times then fired into life, the speedometer and oil pressure gauge flickering. Tanner put his foot down on the deep clutch, pushed the shaking lever into gear, released the handbrake, then easedthem out of the yard and on to the road.

  *********

  In Lillehammer, Reichsamtsleiter Scheidt had spent another wretched night sleeping little, drinking too much brandy, smoking too many cigarettes and railing against their continued inability to find and capture Odin. With the arrival of morning and his return to the SD offices, his mood had worsened when a signal arrived from Zellner informing him that the night's search had been fruitless and that misinformation from a Norwegian farmer had sent them on a wild-goose chase back to the western side of the Gudbrandsdalen.

  'Please stop fretting, Herr Reichsamtsleiter,' Kurz had told him. 'Go out and get some fresh air. Take a walk. But, for God's sake, stop glowering in here.'

  Scheidt was contemplating doing as Kurz suggested when a clerk knocked at the door. Kurz looked up.

  'A signal, sir. It's just come through.'

  Scheidt strode over and snatched the thin transcript paper. As he read it, a smile broke across his face. 'At last,' he said. 'Perhaps your brand of optimism is justified after all, Sturmbannfuhrer.'

  'Atmospheric conditions have changed, then?' grinned Kurz.

  Scheidt nodded. 'It would seem so, Sturmbannfuhrer.'

  A different message was tapped out to Zellner, now back at Tretten after another exhausting night in which he had felt the fear of failure clawing at him. As the clerk brought it to him, he snatched the piece of paper from his hand and read it with mounting excitement.

  'Odin located in J0ra valley. They have M/T and areheading north. Stop them. Do not fail. Kurz.'

  Tanner glanced in the mirror. Through the window at the back of the cab, he could see Erwood and Hepworth manning the Bren, its barrel resting on the tailgate. Next to them Larsen was scanning the valley with his binoculars to the south. It was meandering and close, narrowing to no more than a few hundred yards wide, the steep, wooded slopes rising above them. It gave Tanner a claustrophobic feeling, as though the world was closing in on them.

  They drove in silence at first, which suited him. He wanted to concentrate and keep a watchful guard on the road ahead without distraction, but at length Chevannes spoke. 'Tell me, Anna,' he said, 'have you always lived here in the Gudbrandsdalen?'

  'My family have, yes,' she said, 'but I have been studying in Oslo for the past three years.'

  'Studying what?'

  'Medicine - at the university.'

  'A doctor in the making. You must be very clever.'

  Anna looked down, embarrassed. 'Perhaps I will not be able to finish now. I still have another year. Everything has stopped with the war.'

  'I am sure it will not go on for ever. In any case, people will still need doctors.'

  'I will not become a doctor under the Nazis,' Anna replied, anger in her voice.

  'No, no, of course not. Anyway, I am sure we will send them packing. Most of the French forces are in the north. With the British and our joint naval forces we will turn the tide. Lack of proper planning has been theproblem here, but that won't be the case on the coast.'

  'I hope you're right.' Anna sounded doubtful.

  'I am, and let me tell you why. France has the largest army in the world. I know we have all seen pictures of Germans goose-stepping at Nazi rallies, but that is for show. They might have swept aside Poland, but the Polish cavalry was still on horseback. There is nothing so very remarkable about beating Poland. France, on the other hand, has an army of more than two million men, and more tanks and guns than Britain and Germany put together. In any case, we have sent some of our best troops to Norway - the Chasseurs Alpins, of course, but also the Legion Etrangere. So all will be well, you'll see.' He patted her knee.

  Tanner felt her flinch. Shut the hell up, you French bastard, he thought. This was no time to sweet-talk Anna Rostad.

  'Of course,' said Chevannes, after a short pause, 'I never went to university myself, but I did study at St Cyr. That's our national military academy.'

  Anna nodded.

  'Yes,' he continued, 'it is a fine place. It was established by the emperor himself, Napoleon Bonaparte. Near Versailles. Ah, it was a wonderful time in my life, training to be a soldier - training hard, I should add. It was something I had always wanted to do. And with Paris on our doorstep. I have never been to Oslo, but Paris is a beautiful city. A wonderful city. You must visit one day, Anna. Come to Paris and I will show you around myself.'

  'All clear at the back?' yelled Tanner, leaning out of the open window.

  'All
clear, Sarge,' came Sykes's muffled reply

  'And Versailles is magnificent, of course,' continued Chevannes. 'A stunning palace but also the gardens—'

  'Where are we now, sir?' said Tanner.

  Chevannes stopped speaking and opened the map on his lap.

  'We're leaving the river behind,' added Tanner.

  Anna peered over Chevannes' shoulder. 'Yes,' she said. 'We are here.' She pointed a finger. 'We are climbing to the Espedalen where there is a mountain lake.'

  Tanner dropped down a gear as they drove out of the valley. The road was now rough and potholed, and the truck laboured as the track steepened. 'Come on,' muttered Tanner, 'you can do it.' The Morris kept going, but more slowly with every yard. 'Are you scanning the skies, Dan, Hep?' he shouted.

  'Yes, Sarge,' came the reply.

  'Don't worry, Sergeant,' said Anna, 'the road soon levels off again.'

  'Good. I don't like going so slowly. Too bloody easy for any passing Jerry aircraft.' He leant forward and tried to look up. A few bulbous white clouds but otherwise the sky was a deep and bright blue. Not good for spotting enemy aircraft.

  They inched round a hairpin bend and hit a pothole, which jolted them sideways. Amid groans from the back, Anna was knocked against Chevannes. 'Sorry,' she said.

  'Why would I mind having you thrown against me?' Chevannes smiled, and Anna, flustered, brushed her hair off her face. 'I must say,' he continued, 'I do admire you. It was a very brave decision you made, to come with us.'

  'I wanted to help my country,' said Anna, quietly.

  'Yes, but for us - well, we are soldiers, and we expect—'

  'What's that noise?' snapped Tanner.

  'I didn't hear anything,' said Chevannes.

  Of course not, thought Tanner. You're bloody yapping too much. He strained his ears. Yes, there it was again, unmistakable - an aircraft, maybe two. His body tensed and he bounced up and down in his seat, willing the truck to go faster. 'I can hear an aircraft!' he yelled. 'Can anyone see it?' He turned to Chevannes. 'Sir, can you see anything?'

  Chevannes leant from the cab, but as he did so, Hepworth shouted, 'Got them, sir! Two aircraft at five o'clock. Coming up the valley.'

  'Get some bloody binoculars on them!' Tanner shouted.

  Chevannes turned in his seat and leant out of the window, glasses to his eyes. The truck was gaining momentum once more. Beneath them was a steep, almost sheer, wooded valley. On their right, the mountain continued to climb. An old farmhouse now, perched on a cliff-top; more grass-roofed shacks. Tanner searched ahead for a place to shelter at the side of the road, but there was nothing. Rather, as the road straightened he could see the deep ravine to their left rising towards the long, narrow lake Anna had spoken of. Christ. They were even more exposed up here.

  'Single engine, Sergeant!' Larsen called out. 'Two.'

  'Stukas!' said Chevannes. 'Mon Dieu.'

  Tanner tried to think. Drive straight on. Keep going. If they know about Sandvold, they're not going to hit us. He could hear them clearly now, the thrum of their engines. The road was rough, but clear and straight - almost dead straight. He put his foot on the accelerator and watched the needle flicker on the speedometer. Sixty, sixty-five, edging seventy kilometres per hour. What was that? Forty miles an hour? Come on, he thought. Keep going for me.

  'They're right on top of us, Sarge!' said Hepworth. 'Bloody look at them bastards!'

  'What are you doing?' said Chevannes, swinging back down into the cab. His face was tense, his eyes wide.

  'I'm going to bloody well keep driving. The faster we move the harder it'll be for them to hit us. If I need to swerve off the road, I will.' His hands tightened around the steering-wheel.

  The two Stukas flew on, until Tanner could see them, small but distinct. It was hard to know how high they were, but he guessed at least six thousand feet.

  'They're flying past us,' said Anna.

  'It's not possible,' muttered Chevannes. 'Surely not.'

  'They're getting a lead before they dive.'

  Sure enough, the aircraft turned 180 degrees on to their backs and dived at about a ninety-degree angle. Sirens wailing, they screamed towards them, the valley resounding to their deafening drone.

  'It's such a terrible sound!' Anna closed her eyes and placed her hands over her ears. Then, as the lead Stuka seemed about to plummet straight into them, it levelled out. From its undercarriage they watched as a dark cigar- shaped bomb detached itself from the belly and fell, shrieking its death whistle, seemingly hurtling straight for them. Tanner pushed his foot down harder on the accelerator and ducked. A split second later a deafening explosion behind them rocked the truck. Tanner gripped the steering-wheel and righted it as the second aircraft pulled out of its dive. Another bomb howled towards them, debris from the first raining and clattering across the tarpaulin and metal cab roof. Tanner ducked again, Anna screamed, and there was another explosion, this time ahead.

  Tanner felt the brakes lock, and momentarily lost control of the front of the truck, then regained it and straightened the Morris. With a screech of burning rubber, it slid across the stony road and they ground to a halt as a swirling mass of cloud and smoke enveloped them.

  'Are you mad?' yelled Chevannes. 'Now we are sitting ducks!'

  'Not in this smoke. Anyway, they're not trying to kill us, sir,' Tanner shouted back. 'They're trying to stop us!' He wound up the window, coughing as dust, grit and cordite choked him. Debris - stone, earth, bits of metal - clattered down once more. 'They want Sandvold alive,' Tanner spluttered, eyelids stinging. 'As soon as this clears I'll try to get us going again, but we don't want to fall into any crater.'

  As Tanner had suspected, the two Stuka dive-bombers had gone without strafing. It was the confirmation he needed that the capture of Sandvold alive was the enemy objective. Knowing this made no difference to their goal of reaching the Allies, but it meant the Germans had to be careful about how they attacked them. That, he knew, was a useful advantage.

  As the clouds of dust dispersed they could see the crater just ahead: a large hole spread across more than three-quarters of the road. The bank on the left, overlooking the lake, had collapsed, while boulders and other rocky debris were scattered twenty yards around it.

  'Bollocks,' said Tanner, stepping out of the cab and hurrying to the crater's edge. Chevannes had followed him, and now, from the back of the truck, came Sykes and Lieutenant Larsen.

  'Can't help but admire it, can you?' said Sykes, as they stood there regarding the damage.

  'Bloody fine marksmanship,' agreed Tanner.

  'We'll never get the truck past,' said Larsen.

  'Damn you, Tanner,' said Chevannes. 'I knew we should have waited until this evening when we would have been out of sight of the Luftwaffe. Now we're stuck, unless you have any more bright ideas.'

  'Well, sir,' he winked at Sykes, then turned back to Chevannes, 'if you'd take your men and keep a good watch out for any trouble, the corporal and I will get us moving again.'

  Sykes delved into his bag and produced two cartridges of Polar dynamite. 'See, sir?' Sykes beamed at Chevannes.

  'You wish to make another crater?' The Frenchman was clearly appalled.

  'No, sir. We're going to blast away a bit of the bank. Then we drive round the crater.'

  Tanner hurried back to the truck where Sandvold and the other men were waiting anxiously. Grabbing his pack, he said, 'Get ready with your shovels.

  We're going to have to do a bit of clearing in a minute.'

  'What the bloody hell's going on, Sarge?' asked Erwood.

  'Bomb crater in the road. And we need to get past it, pronto.' He hurried back and took out his tin of safety fuse, which Sykes tied round the dynamite and placed in a small hole in the bank that he had already dug.

  'How far back, Stan?' said Tanner. 'I've only got about forty foot left here.'

  'Forty foot! Blimey, Sarge, we don't need anything like that! A foot or so should be fine. This stuff burns at two fo
ot per minute, so just give me time to get out of the way. You might want to take the truck back a bit, though.'

  Tanner nodded, cut the fuse and ran back to the truck. After he had reversed thirty yards, he saw Sykes signal, then put a match to the fuse and run down the road towards him. He turned to Anna, still waiting patiently in the truck. 'Might want to duck your head,' he told her. He kept an eye on his watch, following the seconds ticking by. A breathless Sykes reached him. 'Any moment now, Sarge.'

  An ear-splitting crack rent the silence of the valley, the report echoing across the lake, while another cloud of dust briefly obscured the road. Once the rain of rock, stone and grit had settled, Tanner and Sykes hurried back to the crater to see the result of their efforts.

  Hallelujah. A six-foot wide chunk of the bank had been blown, most of which appeared to have slumped into the existing crater. The road was a mess of rock, stone and earth, but it would soon be passable once more.

  'Stan,' said Tanner, patting his corporal on the back. 'You're a genius.'

  'I bloody am an' all.' He grinned.

  Tanner returned to the truck, brought it forward, then ordered his men to get out and start clearing. Less than ten minutes later, the road was ready, and with the men standing and watching, Tanner began to inch forward. A scrape of metal as the offside wing ground against the bank. Tanner could feel the resistance of the rock. 'Sorry, Mr Sulheim,' he said to himself, then pressed his foot on the throttle. A painful screech of metal, and the truck lurched forward. A moment later, it was safely on the other side.

  'Quick! Vite!' shouted Chevannes. The men got back into the truck, Chevannes rejoined Tanner and Anna in the cab and they set off once more. Tanner looked at his watch again: a little over twenty minutes from the start of the attack. A glance at the map, open once more on Chevannes' lap. He wondered how long it would take the Stuka crews to return to their base and warn the ground troops of their position. With the road blocked behind them, he guessed the enemy would be coming from the Gudbrandsdal valley, joining the road at Vinstra. It was a good distance to Vinstra from Tretten, but who was to say whether the troops would come from Tretten or further north up the valley? It was impossible to know. He wiped a hand across his brow. Really, he thought, they might meet Germans at any moment. Perhaps Chevannes had been right, after all. Perhaps they should have waited. No, he told himself. We need to make ground while we can.