by Unknown
Taking careful aim, Wagner ducked his head slightly and pulled the trigger.
The 88mm high energy anti-tank Panzerschreck round exploded from the tube and quickly transited the hundred yards to the silo wall. Striking just at the waterline, the round pierced the concrete and was entering the silo itself when the main charge went off. The old man had been correct. The poor quality concrete along with the ersatz rebar was no match for such force. The explosion made a huge bang. When the smoke cleared it had made a hole in the concrete silo wall five feet across and nearly as deep under the water. The lake began pouring into the silo directly onto the missile inside.
In the control room, the sound of the explosion was muffled by the large doors and concrete. A quick check of the room indicated no problem, so it was ignored. Within a moment a red light appeared on one of the consoles.
“I have a red light in the guidance package of missile four,” said one of the technicians. “I will try to restart it.”
Dr. Ingles nodded. This was not unexpected. There had been other instances when the guidance package needed to restart. “Proceed,” he said.
There was a second dull bang.
“Launch doors fully open,” said a technician.
The men in front of the group thought that must have been it. No one noticed water seeping around the corners of the fourth set of steel doors and running across the concrete floor.
“I have a red light on the guidance package of missile number three,” said a technician. Kammler looked at Ingles questioningly.
There was a third muffled bang.
It had been easy. Betz and his men had been able to sneak up on two more young men standing with their rifles leaning against the wall. Looking around the corner, he could now see the entire main complex including the four large silo doors and the windows to the control room on the right. His men were deploying around the walls and positioning themselves behind anything with some cover. So far, he hadn’t heard anything else from the others.
Betz turned to Fredrich standing beside him. “Not bad young Stadt. Is there a way into that control room?” he asked.
“I’m not sure about things now. We only saw this part for the first time tonight. The only entrance I saw was from a corridor on the other side,” Fredrich said.
The shot sounded loud and Fredrich spun around in an instant. Several men turned toward the shot and saw Colonel Müller standing in a doorway with a smoking pistol in his hand. The men opened fire on him, but he ducked into the passageway. A warning klaxon began sounding in the complex.
Betz grabbed Fredrich as he started going down. Blood was pouring from a wound in his left shoulder. Betz and two men laid the boy down and grabbed the shirt off one of their prisoners to stem the flow. Fredrich was already turning pale.
“Take care of him and see if you can get him back to the tunnel entrance,” he told two men. Turning to the others he ordered a flanking movement through the chamber toward the door. More shots were fired from another location and one of the men began firing at a figure hiding behind a small support. The man suddenly spun around and fell to the ground.
“Spread out and watch for snipers,” he shouted. The men began rapidly making their way toward the opposite end of the complex.
“I have red lights on the igniter panel of number four. Now another on servo control,” said the technician nervously. The technician for missile number three was seeing the same thing. Then the technician for number two began reporting red lights. The sound of the warning klaxon broke them all out of their concerns. Looking out the windows, they saw Betz and his men making their way across the floor.
“We have intruders!” screamed Kammler. He reached for the general announcing system. “There are intruders coming from the garage tunnel. Gather and repel them,” he ordered. From several doors in the complex, men in lab coats began running toward another corridor near the control room.
Dresner had waited for this moment. A large group of men descended on the corridor and rushed to the armory to draw their weapons. When they arrived, they found the door locked. When everyone seemed to have gathered by the armory entrance Dresner’s men sprang from doorways on either side of the armory and trapped the men between them. Only one man resisted. Brandishing a pistol, Captain Strasser took aim at Dresner, only to drop it when there was a bang and a hole appeared in the back of Strasser’s head. The rest of the men suddenly realized that it was no game and threw their hands up. Dresner looked around to see Otto with a smoking pistol. The boy looked like he could not believe what he had done. He looked at Dresner and smiled. Dresner winked at the boy.
“Kuntz! You, Lentz and Frobisher take these men and hold them somewhere until we get back. The rest of you, follow me,” Dresner ordered. The men began quickly running toward the main chamber.
“The only missile still working is number one. It is three quarters full of fuel,” said Dr. Ingles.
Kammler was furious. They had waited and planned seventeen years for this moment. It could not end now. “One will be enough. Is there any way to speed up the fueling?”
“It is going as fast as the pumps will allow, Herr General,” said the seated technician.
Kammler turned to look out the windows. No one seemed to be coming to repel these men except for three men he recognized as his own. He looked at the men moving through the complex. They were the same age as his men, but were wearing old garrison caps. Who could they be, he wondered. In a hail of gunfire he saw one of his men break from his hiding place and move toward the control room in an effort to outflank the others and get a better shot. He was passing the main cable junction when six of the others with sub-machineguns opened up, flaying the man. Their bullets also peppered the main junction of cables.
Suddenly the consoles in the control room went dead and the lights began to flicker.
“They have cut the control cables!” shouted Ingles.
Kammler watched the last of his men being hunted down. He turned to Ingles. “Do the missiles still have power?”
“As far as I know. But we can’t launch them from here.”
Kammler grabbed him by the arm. “We can still launch from the cockpit! Come!” he said as he dragged Ingles out the side door and into a short corridor. He turned to the others in the room. “All of you go out through the other door and raise your hands to surrender,” he ordered before dashing with Ingles down the hall.
The men needed no coaxing. They rushed to the door and stepped into the light with their hands raised.
All of Dresner’s men had now joined up and saw the men coming out. Distracted, they didn’t see two men skirt out a far door and across the floor now with nearly an inch of water on it. Another, in a black uniform dashed across the floor and into the corridor to the house. It was the sound of a door being opened that got Betz’s attention and he saw the first two quickly move inside. He couldn’t get off a shot.
Rushing across the room, the men tried the door, but it would not budge. They even tried firing into the metal door, but it was too thick to be damaged. Turning to the technicians, Dresner asked, “What is he trying to do?”
The men looked at each other a moment before Dresner, in a rage, placed his pistol against one of the men’s head. “I am in no mood to wait!”
“He can launch the missile from the cockpit,” the technician said.
Dresner stared up at the last set of doors. There was no water running from them. “Is there another way up there?”
The technician shook his head. “The main doors were locked in the sequence. This is the emergency access,” he said nervously.
There was a loud groan which came from the set of doors nearest them. A gap appeared from the bottom of the doors and water began gushing out of them and into the chamber.
“Get everyone out of here. Betz, take your group back out the one tunnel and we will go out the other. Did you see any way to contain this water?” he asked Betz.
“Ja, Herr Major. There is what look
s like a large set of blast doors at the end of the tunnel.”
“Then close them. There is a similar door in the corridor to the house. We will let the entire place fill with water.” He looked back at the still dry missile doors. “Let’s hope Wagner can get a shot at the missile when it leaves the silo,” he said.
Wagner was having a hard time. The last silo was curved away from the gazebo and there was no way to get a shot at it. The three watched as the last door opened to its fullest. The light from inside shined against it. “Now what do we do?” he asked.
Eric stood and looked around the area. It only took a second. “Bring the gear,” he said as he grabbed a box of ammunition and darted back along the short causeway to the shore. The other two men shrugged their shoulders and followed. Within a minute they were standing beside a paddle boat.
“Dad got this thing to move around the lake. Can we all three get on?” he asked.
Wagner jumped in the right front seat with the Panzerschreck over his shoulder. Stephen jumped on the back and held on between the two molded seats. At first Wagner tried to pedal as fast as he could, but Eric slowed him down. “It actually goes quicker when you paddle slower,” he said.
By now the men were hearing the klaxon and gunfire from the silos. It was agonizingly slow moving from the muddy shore around next to the gazebo and out around the lake. They didn’t dare go closer to the silos they had already hit. Water was pouring through the holes and threatened to pull anyone else in as well. In five minutes, they were in a position to get at least a partial shot at the last silo. Stephen loaded a round into the rear of the tube.
Dresner reached the second level and saw one of the men he left behind. “Where are the others?” he asked.
“In here, Herr Major. We thought they should spend time with their mentor,” he said with a grin.
Dresner grinned. “Get them out and get them up to the house. Quickly!” he ordered.
The soldiers opened the door to Hitler’s mausoleum one last time. There was a shout behind them in the tunnel and they heard someone being tackled in the outer corridor. Dresner turned to see Corporal Goetz holding tightly to a man in a black SS uniform. The man broke one of his arms free from Goetz and was desperately trying to put something in his mouth. Dresner raced to he man and kicked the hand away. A small vial rolled across the floor.
“You won’t be taking that way out,” said Dresner.
They turned the man over. It was Colonel Müller. Dresner smiled. “Colonel, I have wanted to get you in this position for a long time.” He turned to the others. “Secure Gestapo Müller and make sure he has no opportunity to escape the punishments he so justly deserves,” he ordered. The men quickly tied the man’s arms behind his back and placed a gag in his mouth.
“Let’s go, quickly!” said Dresner.
The men were herded out of Hitler’s tomb with their hands on their heads and back up the corridor. As they passed the heavy blast door, Dresner pulled it shut and spun the locking handle till it would go no further. He had given it one last turn when he heard a deep rumble from the direction of the main chamber.
Kammler and Ingles were sweating heavily when they finally reached the top of the silo. There was a retractable bridge to the cockpit. Kammler was pushing it down into position when he saw Ingles approaching with a reinforced hose.
“You are going to need lots of oxygen where you are going,” Ingles said.
Kammler smiled at the man as he attached the hose and then opened the valve to fill the onboard oxygen tank. Kammler grasped the cockpit canopy latch and gave a tug. It opened immediately and he crawled inside. The parachute was still in the seat and he strapped himself in. He could hear the oxygen tank gurgling as it filled. Once strapped in, Kammler began turning on the various systems. Within a minute, the oxygen tank was filled and the Doctor removed the hose and sealed it. All the gages indicated the rocket was ready.
“It is time Herr Doctor,” Kammler said as he offered his hand.
The doctor took it. “For a new world order,” the doctor said firmly.
Kammler grabbed the canopy latch and pulled it shut. He then sealed it and began pressurizing the cockpit.
The doctor retracted the bridge and stood against the wall. This would be the last step for him. He would not be captured. In a final gesture, he raised his right arm in a Nazi salute.
Kammler glanced at the instruments one last time and pressed the ignition switch. Deep below him the peroxide pumps engaged and the nitric acid and RP1 were pumped under pressure to the main combustion chamber where the igniters were activated. At first the flames were haphazard, but as the temperature rose the reaction increased. Suddenly there was a huge gout of rocket exhaust and the escaping flames focused and intensified. The gasses shot downward and were directed into two exhaust ducts which channeled the flames and smoke up through openings on either side of the silo. Once the required thrust was achieved, the locking latches disengaged and the missile began to lift into the air.
Wagner had taken aim but was not so sure he would hit his target. The boat made precision almost impossible. He took another breath when there was a rush of smoke and noise from the other side of the huge silo cover. Wagner steadied himself and pulled the trigger one last time.
The round didn’t go anywhere near where he was aiming. The boat rocked suddenly and sent it in a different direction. It was still a lucky shot. The Panzerschreck round flew to one side of the giant door, striking the hydraulic piston keeping it in place blasting it to shreds. The remaining piston on the opposite side could not maintain the weight of the door and it immediately began closing.
The explosion near the door stunned Kammler and he watched in horror as the huge concrete door began closing on top of him. The missile rose out of the silo only four feet before the concrete door hit it and began pressing it against the far wall. The rough concrete began tearing at the thin metal on its side and ultimately began bending the rocket against the concrete. It only took a second for the acid and RP1 tanks of the A-9 second stage to rupture. Both emptied quickly into the rocket exhaust.
The explosion blew the cockpit and the front of the rocket out of the silo and straight into the rocks in the side of the mountain. Then the fuel and oxidizer in the A-10 first stage erupted. The concrete silo blasted apart inside the facility. The steel doors flew across the cavernous interior slamming against the control room. The concrete walls crumbled and opened up two more silos, already filled with water. The result was catastrophic. Almost immediately the flames were replaced by tons of cascading water both from the lake and the already filled silos. The water washed into the open corridors and tunnels and did not stop until they slammed against the already closed blast doors. The tunnels were immediately filled.
The water ran through the corridors leading toward the house like it was a garden hose. The ventilation systems in the underground facility allowed the air to escape and the corridors were completely filled up to the second set of blast doors on the second level. Within ten minutes the water in the facility had reached the level of the lake outside.
Dresner and his men were quickly making their way along the corridor when the lights flickered out. Looking ahead, there was still light coming from the wine cellar of the house. Urging his men forward, they entered the cellar and Dresner closed the door. He motioned for the men to proceed into the house.
The smells from the kitchen suddenly made the men ravenously hungry. Moving into the living area, they could smell sausages being prepared along with potatoes and other delicacies. Having his prisoners secured in the living room, Dresner made his way to the kitchen where it appeared Helga was preparing a feast. Even more surprising was what he saw on the floor. Laying there, trussed up like a rodeo steer, was Hans Kemper. He was obviously out cold and a heavy cast iron frying pan sat on a table nearby.
“What happened here?” Dresner asked as a smile spread over his face.
Helga grunted and waived a wooden spoon at Dresner. �
��No one tells me what to do in my kitchen,” she said with a grin. “I hope your men are hungry.”
Fredrich was laid on a bed in one of the wings of the house. A doctor was summoned and dressed his wounds. Luckily no bones were broken and the bullet had passed cleanly through his shoulder. A few sutures and Fredrich was good as new. Otto had stationed himself beside the bed and giving all the assistance anyone needed. Twenty minutes after he arrived, Fredrich woke up to see his friend.
“What happened?” Fredrich murmured.
Rolf Dresner moved into view. “You got in the way of a bullet,” he said smiling. “But we were able get you back here and in one piece,” he said.
“Did we stop them?”
Dresner nodded. “We were able to stop them.”
Fredrich seemed to relax into his sheets. “I was afraid,” he said.
“So was I. But between you and Otto, I think I can say you saved our world,” Dresner said.
The two boys smiled at each other, displaying the youthful exuberance Dresner remembered from many of the young men who had done a good job the first time out.
“Where are we?” Fredrich asked.
“In the big house. Herr Anderson said you could stay here until you are well enough to go home,” Dresner said.
“You missed the feast,” Otto said excitedly. “Frau Hufham made all of us the most wonderful dinner. Everyone ate, except our prisoners,” he stated proudly. “All they got was some soup.”
“What will happen to them?” asked Fredrich. You could tell by the look on his face he was concerned for his father.
Dresner sat on the side of the bed and Otto got silent. “Let’s not worry too much about them. But you do need to know something,” he said very seriously. He placed his hand on Fredrich’s arm. “Neither of your fathers made it out of the facility.”