Twilight of Gutenberg

by Hitoshi Goto

  Soon after the American parachute drop, gliders from the British 6th Airborne Division swooped over a number of points to the interior of the Sword landing site further east along the coast.

  Reports of parachute landings around the area kept coming into the German military HQ, but there was no commanding officer to mount a counteroffensive. The commander of Army Group B, Field Marshal Rommel, was currently away in Germany on vacation, and General Dollmann was away for the Planspiel military manoeuvres in Rennes. And given the poor weather, they hadn’t expected the Allies to attack that night.

  After the parachute drops, the Allied Fleet was spotted at 04:30 in the light just before dawn, and the German army coastal artillery corps and Allied Fleet engaged in battle.

  At dawn the biggest landing ever in history started at the Omaha beach, which was fated to become the symbol of the fierce fighting during the invasion. The US 1st Infantry Division charged, but they were tossed around in the rough sea and many tanks and soldiers were lost before making it to shore.

  The Omaha beach was a dozen or so kilometres wide, with a gentle slope heading inland. The Allies had underestimated the strength of the German soldiers defending the site, who turned out to be the 352nd Infantry Division that had been hardened on the Eastern Front.

  The coastal band was protected by a combination of considerable firepower, pillboxes, trenches, and barbed wire: it was the Atlantic Wall. Machine guns, antitank artillery, 75 mm canons, and 88 mm anti aircraft artillery aimed horizontally, were all let loose on the American soldiers as they came ashore.

  The Americans were immobilised on the beach, and the coast was strewn with the bodies of soldiers and burning vehicles. All manner of things from metal to gunpowder and human beings exploded and went up in flames, and an unspeakable stench of burned flesh hung over the coast. Meanwhile, the surviving American soldiers attempted to advance, but their way was barred by heavy German artillery. They attempted to attach hooked ropes and rope ladders to the cliff with special catapults in a scene reminiscent of siege warfare during the Hundred Years’ War. But the Germans cut the ropes, dislodged the rope ladders, and bombarded them from above with rocks, machine-gun fire and grenades.

  Given the adverse conditions of the coastal front, General Bradley, commander of the US First Landing Army, took a drastic decision. Advance was impossible as long as the German artillery was there. There was only one answer: although there was a risk of mistakenly firing on allied forces, he added a powerful naval bombardment.

  Gradually the difference in numbers began to show. Although the Germans were putting up a good fight, they only had one regiment. Even if they hit a tank on the beach, more followed from the sea. Slowly but surely, the Germans succumbed to exhaustion. Even if the pillboxes were breached, it wasn’t effective to replace them. One by one the German positions fell silent.

  Hitler’s permission was necessary to mobilise Panzers, and given that the Führer was asleep and they couldn’t get said permission, most of the powerful German Panzers didn’t show up. The US soldiers fought bravely despite the sacrifice and finally broke through the Omaha beach. The other positions along the coast were the same. In the end, the overwhelming numbers of the Allied forces managed to secure the beachhead.

  The Longest Day was over.

  Subsequently they also demonstrated their superior air power, and little by little the Germans were driven further and further inland.

  At first Hitler had been fooled by the Allies’ deceptive strategy and still believed that the main Allied force would land at Calais, but finally he decided to unleash the Panzer divisions. In addition to the Panzer Lehr Division and the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend already deployed in the Normandy area, the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler and the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich, extolled as elite even within in the SS and reformed as full Panzer divisions in October 1943, hastened from Belgium and France respectively to the Normandy front.

  Memorandum

  At last the Allies landed in France. And not in Calais, as most expected them to, but in Normandy.

  The Parisians remained ostensibly calm, at least in front of the German military, but when I sat in a café and kept my ears open, I learned about every movement of the advancing Allied forces from people’s conversations. The Germans were apparently still stubbornly resisting on the Caen front, but the Allies were steadily widening the frontline towards Cherbourg.

  I wondered whether Catherine’s father would be okay in Saint-Malo.

  Then one night there was a knock on my door.

  It was already late. I opened the door a crack and peeped out.

  Outside was someone I had never seen before, a middle-aged man with a beard, a head shorter than myself.

  “Monsieur Hoshino?” he asked in a thick accent.

  “Oui,” I answered.

  Without changing his expression, he told me “I have a message from your friend in Londres.”

  “What?”

  The man held out his right hand. I shook it, still none the wiser.

  “Congratulations. It’s a girl.”

  “What?”

  “Mother and child are both doing well.”

  “Huh?”

  “You have a daughter, Monsieur Hoshino.”

  The man left me standing there openmouthed and disappeared into the night. For a while I was rooted to the spot, the door still open. So she had given birth, a girl.

  I was a father.

  July 1944

  Rastenburg, East Prussia

  Having successfully conducted the landings in Normandy, the Allied Forces occupied Cherbourg on 26 June. But in the area around Caen just inland from the landing points, German Panzer divisions in command of Tiger tanks arriving from all over Europe was holding out against the overwhelming superior Allied forces.

  The Normandy region had a uniquely undulating terrain, and the Tigers were hidden in bocage, apple orchards, beneath willow trees, and camouflaged with branches and twigs to avoid attack by Allied bombers as they waited with bated breath for the Allied tanks to arrive. When the enemy Sherman tanks arrived, their shells were out of range while the carefully aimed powerful tank guns on the Tigers ripped through their armour plating as if through paper. Again and again the Allied forces were forced back by the Tiger ambushes.

  But then the Soviet Union launched their major summer offensive on the Eastern Front, as if they had been waiting for Hitler to send the air force and army reservists to the Western Front. By a strange irony, it was three years since Germany had started attacking the Soviet Union. Germany had been expecting attacks in northern Ukraine, but the Soviets instead aimed for White Russia. Caught off guard, the Germans were surrounded for several days and cut off. The Luftwaffe, which should have protected the skies, was nowhere to be seen. Many of the highly mechanized SS Panzer divisions responsible for extinguishing fires every time the thin battlefront was penetrated had been sent to Normandy and only a few were left on the Eastern Front, including the 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf and 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking. Furthermore, Hitler’s inflexible strategy for defending strategic points robbed the Germans of manoeuvrability. The Army Group Centre, which had been the core of the attack on Russia for three years, melted away like a light spring snowfall.

  More Panzer divisions would be necessary to restore the front.

  Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, Chief of Staff of the Replacement Army, boarded a plane at Berlin’s Airfield Langsdorff headed for the Wolf’s Lair, Hitler’s headquarters in Rastenburg. At this point the tough military situation on both the Eastern and Western Fronts meant that fresh troops had to be sent as a matter of urgency, and one of his tasks was to form new divisions in the Replacement Army. Today’s mission was to report the formation of two new divisions in Eastern Prussia.

  The tall colonel, who had lost his left eye, right hand, and tw
o fingers on his left hand on the front line in Africa, was holding his trademark large bag in his remaining three fingers. He could not hide the tension on his face as he boarded the aircraft.

  He had to do it today. The Allies were already getting a strong foothold in France, while on the Russian front the German army was in a state of total collapse. Continuing to fight any longer would simply be forcing more suffering onto the population.

  It was now necessary to assassinate Hitler, have the Replacement Army take control of the Nazi leadership, Gestapo and SS, and then quickly form a new government to save Germany from annihilation. They had missed any number of opportunities up to now, and really had to take action this time. That’s why he had taken it upon himself to do it.

  The register of all the cabinet members had already been drawn up, and now he just had to assassinate Hitler and set Operation Valkyrie in motion. The Replacement Army had ostensibly been formed to suppress any insurrection among the huge numbers of prisoners of war being brought into the country, but its true objective lay elsewhere. Under the guise of suppressing riots, their objective had been to maintain the chain of command and military power to overwhelm the Nazis when it came to the crunch. The upper ranks of the Replacement Army was made up of the anti-Hitler camp.

  At the same time as assassinating Hitler, they planned to arrest everyone connected with the Nazis, and to immediately seek peace with the Allies under the new government.

  The Gestapo and SS had been investigating the anti-Hitler faction for over a year now. In the spring of 1943, Hans Oster, head of the Abwehr’s counter-espionage bureau had been removed from his position, and in February this year the head of the Abwehr, Admiral Canaris had been moved to a nominal job and was in reality under house arrest. Meanwhile the Abwehr had been assimilated into the Reich Security Main Office.

  Furthermore, an arrest warrant had recently been issued for Goerdeler, Mayor of Leipzig, who had been earmarked to be the Prime Minister of the new government following the overthrow of Hitler. Pessimism was spreading through the conspirators and there was no time to be lost. Colonel von Stauffenberg had made up his mind, and considered it an historic mission. He would show the world that even within Germany there had been resistance against Hitler, and leave a printed record of it for posterity thanks to the technology introduced by Gutenberg.

  Time is the old justice that examines all such offenders, and let Time try.

  Colonel von Stauffenberg landed at Rastenburg Airfield at around 10:15 on the fated day. The temperature was a rather muggy 25°C.

  He clutched his bag tightly to him as he alighted from the plane. Later he would repack the two British made bombs that were now in the bag of his adjunct Captain von Haeften.

  Together they got into the car waiting to take them to Hitler’s headquarters, the Wolf’s Lair.

  Due to a visit by Mussolini, the meeting originally planned for 1 o’clock had been brought forward by thirty minutes and would start at 12:30. Just after 12:15 Major General Heusinger, Chief of the General Staff of the German Army High Command, arrived by train. This meant that everyone except Hitler had arrived.

  Thanks to his war wounds, Colonel von Stauffenberg and his trademark large bag were barely searched, and they were waved through to the meeting room.

  Suddenly Stauffenberg said he wanted to change his shirt and freshen up. He was shown to a separate room from Von Haeften, and hurriedly began the work of repacking the bombs.

  It was time to start the meeting. A non-commissioned officer came to get him while he was still in the middle of transferring the bombs, and asked him to hurry.

  “I’ll be right there!” he shouted back and, as the officer waited outside the door, he took the pliers in his three fingers and set the timer. Just ten minutes until the bomb would explode. He didn’t have time to set the second bomb.

  Hitler arrived punctually at the meeting room, and Major General Heusinger began his briefing on the progress of the war. Stauffenberg entered the room at 12:37 and was introduced to Hitler by Field Marshal Keitel. They shook hands.

  General Major Voss was to Hitler’s right, but moved aside to make space for Stauffenberg, who stood between them with his bag at his feet.

  The meeting continued with everyone still standing. Nobody paid any attention when Stauffenberg quietly left the room saying he had to make a call to Berlin.

  Then at 12.42 the bomb exploded with a tremendous bang.

  However, Hitler did not die. It was bad luck, but in reality only one bomb had been primed, and since the meeting hadn’t taken place in the tightly sealed underground bunker the energy of the blast was diffused. The biggest factor, though, was that the bag containing the bomb had been left at Hitler’s feet but had been moved to the other side of a sturdy table leg by Colonel Brandt.

  Stauffenberg rushed back to Berlin. Initially believing that Hitler was dead, he set the plan in motion, but screeched to a halt again as it emerged that Hitler had survived. Major Otto Remer, who headed the small but well-equipped Grossdeutschland Division in Berlin, was ordered to arrest Göbbels, Minister of Propaganda, but as he arrived at the ministry there was a phone call from Hitler confirming he was safe, and furthermore that he was promoting Remer two ranks to colonel, so Remer switched sides to suppress the coup. By midnight it was clear that the plot had failed and the following day Stauffenberg was captured and immediately shot dead.

  A great many high-ranking officers, mostly from the army, as well as bureaucrats, and politicians were implicated in the plot. Since it extended to those under their command, the affair had serious ramifications.

  Having survived, Hitler took this as a divine revelation and his revenge was terrifying. Regardless of whether or not the Gestapo had been directly involved in the assassination plot, he arrested everyone who emerged as part of the anti-Nazi movement, starting with the former Chief of Staff of the Army High Command General Halder, the former president of the Reichsbank Hjalmar Schacht, and General Field Marshal von Witzleben. Admiral Canaris and General Major Oster were also among those.

  Some chose suicide, including Field Marshal von Kluge, General Rommel, and Lieutenant Schmidt, one of Canaris’ confidents who had been stationed in Guernsey. Including those arrested in August, it is thought the number of victims were in their thousands.

  †

  “Hans, what’re you reading?”

  A few days after the shocking news of the attempted assassination of the Führer, Canaris paid Oster a visit for the first time in ages. His voice was tinged with exhaustion.

  “Is it okay for you to be here? Aren’t you under house arrest too?

  “I don’t care. The Gestapo are keeping a close eye on my every action. Even now there are two in a car outside watching me. It’s only a matter of time before we are arrested.”

  Canaris glanced knowingly at the book in Oster’s hand. It was in English.

  “The Gunpowder Plot?”

  Oster gave an ironic smile. “However perfect the plan, there are always unanticipated pitfalls. Guy Fawkes’ plan was brilliant in theory, but ended up failing because of a betrayal.”

  “We were one step ahead—at least the bomb exploded,” Canaris responded weakly.

  They both laughed forlornly.

  “Right. I don’t know how powerful seventeenth-century gunpowder was, but even if it had exploded things might not have gone as planned. Still, this book is proposing an interesting theory.”

  “Which is?”

  “That the true mastermind was someone high up in the government at the time. In other words, it was a trap.”

  Canaris laughed again. “Oh, come now. What about that incident in some other country eleven years ago—the Dutchman who came to Berlin during the crackdown on that lot at the Karl Liebknecht House.”

  “The Flying Dutchman.”

  Canaris stood up in good humour, and gave an exagg
erated rendition of some lines from Wagner’s opera.

  “At the tender age of 24, the Communist Party member Van der Lubbe had a burning sense of mission and believed that as that the Nazi crackdown was intensifying, the masses must rise up. The signal would be setting fire to the Diet. He bought some gasoline and 45 kg of flammable material from a shop on Müllerstrasse, went to the Reichstag Building, and set a splendid blaze.”

  “That’s the script as seen from the audience seating, but seen from the stage wings it would be clear that it had been set up by the SS, who would use it as a pretext to crush the Communists. It’s the same with this. They left the fool at large, pushed him to carry out the plot, then arrested him just beforehand and used it as a pretext to persecute the Catholics. England’s schemers were no different. One in particular was very shrewd—Robert Cecil, who had served the Crown from the time of Queen Elizabeth. But there’s something I don’t understand. The bomb set by Stauffenberg did actually explode, but the Führer still didn’t die. He must be immortal!”

  Suddenly Canaris changed his tone. “Wait!” he said forcefully.

  “What?”

  “Elizabeth…” he said, pronouncing it in the English way, and suddenly burst out laughing.

  “Not Charles the Great, but Elizabeth. Not Louis 14th but Victoria.”

  “Huh?”

  “I’ve got it. Why Ribbentrop? I was stupid!”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Why was Ribbentrop brought into the circle party to the Romulus secret? Well, well… so Bormann had read that much. Now everything fits into place.”

  Canaris whispered into Oster’s ear. Oster’s face turned red, and then paled.

  “What the hell? So where is Romulus now?”

  “He must be hidden somewhere in Germany now. Now that the assassination attempt failed, Hitler will fight until the end. Bormann will surely move Romulus before the German Empire falls. But to where?”