by Nigel Seed
“No problem,” said Smith, as his head vanished.
Geordie had been quiet for a long time. Jim nudged him, “Go on then, what are you thinking?”
“Not sure yet, boss, but something doesn’t add up.”
“Go on.”
“Well, we know the people who built this were bloody good engineers. So why didn’t they just collapse the lot? Why go to all the trouble of just blocking the water tunnel, unless they were intending to come back one day? Then the other thing, we’ve all seen demolitions and I’ve seen mining cave-ins. Did you ever see one that was watertight like this before? There is always some trickle of air or water between the rocks and rubble especially if there is pressure behind it like, I guess, there is over there. Yet, that is bone dry after seventy years. It just doesn’t seem right somehow. See what I mean?”
They did, Geordie was right; a totally watertight, explosive demolition was unlikely and why go to all that trouble unless the plan was to come back to the base in the future?
The three engineers walked back to the rubble wall. Jim laid his hand on it and looked up. It was too neat. There should have been debris in the maneuvering dock, but it was clear. The walls of the base should have been damaged, but they were intact. Looking at it from here with a different viewpoint the collapsed walls look false, as though it had all had been staged to look more difficult than it actually was.
“Let’s get outside and look at this. We’re missing something,” said Jim. He led the way back across the empty dock and toward the exit.
The exterior water gates to the maneuvering dock were lined up with the bow of V4-2, the middle U-Boat. By looking down from the entryway on the top of the hill they should be able to line up where the other end of the underwater exit could be found.
As they climbed out of the hatch on the hilltop, Smith met them and told them the diving gear was on its way.
“There’s a narrow lane that runs through the trees between the hill and the waterside,” said Jim. “Get it delivered down there, will you.”
He turned back to the others. Ivan nodded; he had lined up the submarine bow and now knew which direction they needed to walk to find the underwater entrance, if it was still there. Using the Orienteering compass from his pack he led them in a straight line down the hillside, over a couple of wire sheep fences and on to the water’s edge. While they were waiting for the diving gear to arrive they took a look around, but there was nothing to suggest a tunnel beneath them. Jim sat down on a block of concrete at the waterside to wait and contemplated the oddly shaped boulder between himself and the water.
“Ivan,” he said as the big man approached, “have you ever realized you have been blind?”
“Not recently boss, what’s up?”
“In front of me down by the water is a large boulder with a deep notch carved in the top and under my backside is a concrete block with a hole in it. What do you bet that if I fitted a pole in the hole and then aligned it with that notch, through my periscope I would have my boat lined up exactly on the tunnel?”
“Worth making it the start point of the search at least, boss. The truck is arriving with our gear, by the way,” Ivan said, pointing along the track to where a white pickup truck was slowing down.
The pickup truck, driven by Smith, pulled up alongside them.
“Everything you asked for is here,” he said. “I even got you a small dinghy with a compressed air cylinder instead of a pump.”
The breathing cylinders were already charged as they unloaded them. They tested everything as they assembled it and then changed into the wetsuits.
“Do we need the dinghy yet?” asked Ivan, grabbing hold of the tightly rolled carrying case.
“No, not for the first dive I think. Let’s leave it nicely packed away in case we need it later. If I am right the entrance is right under our feet, or at least not far away.”
They continued struggling into the wetsuits by the side of the truck and then helped each other to put on the heavy tanks and weight belts. They then walked down to the water’s edge and shuffled slowly backwards into the water to avoid problems with the fins they had slipped on to their feet. As usual, at this time of year, the water of the Baltic was much warmer than the adjoining North Sea, so the swim would be reasonably pleasant.
They swam a few yards from the shore and dived under the surface to find that the bottom had dropped away beneath them rapidly. It was an almost vertical drop into the depths. They paused at a depth of about ten feet to check that each of them was alright and the equipment was functioning before they began to descend further. They swam down until they reached the bottom and then turned toward the hill. After no more than a few minutes of pushing weeds aside, they found the entrance to a large tunnel. It could only be the one they were looking for. Keeping close to the bottom to avoid the weeds hanging from above, they swam in.
The weeds that had grown around the tunnel entrance stopped much of the surface light so the powerful underwater flashlights, which Smith had included in the kit, were very valuable. The lights showed that the walls of this tunnel were lined with large and solidly mounted square stones, so it was certainly man made. As they moved deeper into the tunnel they saw heavy scrapes in the stonework. Bringing a large submarine in through here was not that easy, then.
They moved on slowly checking the condition of the tunnel walls and roof as they went. The lack of tides and current in this area meant that the water had been kind and the tunnel was still in good shape. After swimming for more than three hundred meters, they reached the answer to the riddle. There was no rubble from a collapsed tunnel. Instead there was a huge single piece of steel with heavy angle cross braces bolted and welded to it, holding it rigid. They swam to the sides and to the bottom of this monster door. It was mounted in large steel tracks that held it rigidly in place and presumably gave it the watertight seal it needed. They found no sign of any controls that might be used to open it. Curiosity satisfied, they swam back out of the tunnel and into the light.
Smith was waiting for them on the bank, almost hopping from foot to foot with excitement. “Well, did you find it and can you open it again?”
“Oh yes. We just need to find the key.”
They took their time changing out of the wetsuits and back into their usual clothes. They used the time to orientate themselves with their surroundings. Beyond the exit of the tunnel was a broad stretch of water with the sprawling outskirts of the city of Kiel beyond it. There was plenty of room for maneuvering the submarine, if they could find a way to get it out. The German engineers who built this base had chosen their location well.
They climbed into the bed of the pickup then Smith drove them back along the country lane, and up onto the hill top.
Chapter 12
Once inside the base they examined the rubble obstructing the tunnel again. With large crowbars and the application of some well-considered physical effort, they toppled one of the smaller boulders from the top of the wall down into the maneuvering dock. Beneath it they found the top of the outer steel wall that was holding back the water of the Baltic.
“Well,” said Ivan, “now we know all we have to do is lift that huge heavy door out of there and we have cracked it. It should only weigh a few tons. You want to take one end, Geordie and I’ll grab the other?”
Jim looked around, appraising the options, “Geordie, can you go back to the central area and angle a couple of those floodlights upwards.”
Ten minutes later the roof of the base was illuminated by the lamps. With the lights shining up, they could see that the overhead gantry crane extended far further forward than they had anticipated. At its furthest travel it would be directly above the steel guillotine door.
Jim shook his head, “You have to give it to them. Whoever designed and built this place sure as hell knew his job and by the look of things, they intended to come back here one day to finish what they started.”
Moving the curtain wall of rocks should be fairly s
imple with small, strategically placed explosive charges. Being inside the hill would muffle the noise, so nobody outside would hear anything untoward. The steel wall would hold the water back while they cleared the entry tunnel. The problem was going to come as they started to lift. The pressure of water through the tunnel would be intense. They would need a way to control that.
But first things first. The three engineers spread out and started to check that the valves controlling the flow of water into the three smaller dry docks, containing the submarines, were functional. They then worked together to ensure that the dry dock gates themselves actually functioned and were not going to jam halfway open. It was midnight as they climbed out of the third dry dock to make their way home for some well deserved rest.
Smith was waiting for them as they headed for the center submarine to make the climb back to the surface.
“Ah, gentlemen,” he looked uncomfortable, “I really hope you don’t mind but Mr. Romanov feels that we need to accelerate the work down here, to get his submarine out before the German authorities become aware of us.”
“And?” said Jim.
“And so he has decided that you gentlemen and I should sleep inside the base from now forward.”
“And if we do not agree?” said Ivan.
“He really was most insistent and he feels he is paying you more than enough to compensate for a little discomfort. Plus, he really is not a man you want to irritate.”
He was paying them generous salaries and they had all slept in far worse places over the years, so they accepted the request without too much complaint. Apart from anything else, they were too tired to argue. Smith directed them to the Officers’ Mess where camp beds had been set up for them. As they walked in they found Andrei waiting for them. His skill at fading into the background did not seem to be needed here as he wore a crisp white chef’s jacket and a broad smile. He had a large hot meal simmering on the stove for them and even some of Romanov’s special whisky. After dinner Jim found he was alone with Andrei while the others sorted themselves out for sleep.
“So Andrei, does Mr. Romanov know you replace his fine single malt whisky with a cheaper blended kind?” He had meant it as a gentle joke, but the terror in Andrei’s face made it abundantly clear he had not taken it that way.
“Derr Mo! Have you anything told him?”
“No of course not. I like the joke.”
“Mr. Romanov is not liking other people’s jokes. He can be violent if his dignity is laughed at.”
“So why do it then?”
“I did it once some years ago before I knew what Romanov was and is. Now I have to keep doing it or he will notice. I was just trying to build up my income a little. I thought it would be harmless.”
Jim was thoughtful. The fear in this man was palpable.
“Don’t worry, he won’t hear it from me, ever.”
For a moment he thought Andrei would cry. Instead he nodded and turned away, but his breathing was ragged. Now just what kind of man was Romanov to provoke such fear?
Chapter 13
The night in the base had passed quietly. No ghosts from the fourth dry dock had come to trouble them and the silence had been restful. Washing water had been lowered down in drums during the previous day, along with all the equipment to let them set up a more or less comfortable home within the base. Jim woke to find Ivan and Geordie already sitting at a table and quietly working. He struggled out of the sleeping bag, rose from his camp bed, then padded across to see what they were up to. Spread across the table were three stripped down MP40 sub-machine guns from the Second World War. They were cleaning them with the attention to detail demanded by Sergeant Majors the world over.
“Morning boss, how do you like our Schmeisers?” asked Geordie.
Jim looked the old weapons over, “So are you expecting World War 3 to break out anytime soon?”
“Not really boss, but those goons in the leather jackets are winding us up and we were a bit bored waiting for you to finish snoring.”
He left them to it and went in search of breakfast. Andrei seemed pleased to see him and made him a plate of superb scrambled eggs on toast with lean bacon.
Smith joined him as the coffee arrived, “What’s the plan today, Major?”
Jim looked at him over the rim of his coffee mug. “If you have got us the C4 explosives we asked for we are going to start demolishing the curtain wall in front of the exit tunnel. Once that is out of the way we are going to see if we can lift the gate out of the way and flood the maneuvering dock. Should be quite exciting, you might want to bring a camera to record the big event.”
“Oh, I don’t think Mr. Romanov would want cameras around.”
Jim was surprised, “Why ever not? Surely the story of how we recovered the submarine would be useful for his museum of Russian triumphs?”
“Perhaps. I’ll see what he says.”
Smith got up and left as Ivan and Geordie came in.
“Finished playing with your antique toys, gents?”
“For now, yes,” said Ivan.
“Where did you find them anyway?”
“There were some down in the pit with the bodies. It looked like the navy lads were holding them when they were gunned down, but they were rusty and pretty gummed up by the rotting bodies. But they gave us the idea so we had a look round in here and found a small armory with weapons, greased up for storage and in remarkably good condition.”
They finished the coffee and set off toward the work area, to start assembling the demolition charges.
“Did you find any ammunition for them?” Jim asked as they walked.
“Not in the weapons themselves, but there were boxes of ammunition and spare magazines in a separate store room near the armory at the back of this office area. Nice and dry in there so it should all work when we get the chance to try them out. There were some other nice toys too.” Ivan said.
The rest of the morning passed in carefully putting the explosive charges together and identifying the best places to lay them. Geordie used the compressed air hammer drill to create holes in the rock wall where Ivan and Jim had indicated.
“I always hated this job in the coal mines,” Geordie said, wiping the dust from his forehead. “I always thought the vibration was going to bring the bloody roof down.”
They decided to make the demolition progressive with the smallest charges possible to avoid a major shock to the steel water door behind the rocks. They placed a row of seven small charges to loosen and lift the top strata of rock. Once that was dealt with, they planned to move progressively downwards. Having connected the detonator box to the charges, they retired to a safe distance behind one of the larger winches.
Ivan stood and yelled in his booming Welsh baritone, “Fire in the Hole!”
He ducked down again and Geordie pushed the button. Even though the charges were small the echoing noise in the enclosed chamber made their ears ring. The dust cloud rolled over them as they heard rocks rolling and crashing on the concrete floor of the dock.
Jim looked at Ivan, “Why are you smiling?”
“Look over there, boss.”
Jim looked. The two leather jacketed bodyguards had their weapons drawn and were looking about them. The panic in their faces was clear, even at this distance. Amusing and interesting. Ignoring the Russians, they climbed back down into the dock to admire their handiwork. The top row of stone had mostly toppled into the dock leaving one large stone teetering and ready to fall. The wall below the top row had gained some cracks, but the steel gate behind looked untouched.
It was the work of only a few minutes, using a pair of large crowbars, to topple the teetering rock into the maneuvering dock, so that it was safe to begin to deal with the rest. Rather than try to lift the large rocks out of the dock, they had decided to use the handling winches to haul them across the dock floor and leave them in front of the dry dock with the bodies in it. They would not be needing to open the gates to that charnel house.
&
nbsp; The winches did their work well and the rocks were hauled out of the way. Romanov came to the top of the dock wall and stood watching for a while. The scraping of large stones on concrete made conversation impossible and he went away again, apparently satisfied that progress was being made. After another bout of drilling, the charges were laid for the second row of stones. Before blowing this row Ivan went to the back of the docks to tell the Russians they were about to hear another explosion. He came back and sat down with the others behind the winch.
“Romanov brought in some of the specialists he was talking about. There are some characters in white coats in the laboratory and I saw people with bloody big tool boxes heading into the center U-Boat.”
Jim nodded, “Doesn’t waste any time does he? Do your thing again, will you?”
Once again Ivan’s powerful cry of “Fire in the Hole” echoed round the base.
This time people on the submarine casing stopped to watch and others in white lab coats came out of the doors at the back of the base to do the same. Geordie pressed the detonator button and they were once again rewarded with a highly satisfactory controlled explosion. When the dust settled they could see that the second row of rocks had dropped into the dock and again the water gate was undamaged.
The rest of the day passed in a routine of explosion followed by the noisy hauling of large rocks.
By the end of the day the massive rock wall was gone and the heavy steel water gate was exposed. The vibration of the series of demolitions had shaken the gate, but not damaged it. But now water was slowly seeping around it. The shaking had loosened the seal around the gate, so lifting should be a little bit easier.
Covered in dust and with the gritty feeling between their teeth that always comes with demolitions, the three engineers stopped for the day and went to clean up. There was no sign of Romanov, but they found they had company for dinner. The chemists and the people on the U-Boat were already eating as they arrived, nobody greeted them until Andrei came into the room and gave them a beaming smile.