by John Holt
“Good,” said Fritz. “Let’s get the rest of the gear.”
When the preparations were completed, Fritz called Mueller over to join them. “We’re all ready to go,” he said. “Karl and I will dive together. That way if I miss something, Karl should see it.” He directed his gaze directly at Mueller. “We will both be attached to safety ropes. You must keep an eye on those ropes the whole time that we are underwater. Any trouble and we will signal by tugging the rope. At that signal you must pull us in as quickly as you can. Understood?” Mueller confirmed that it was understood. “We’ll start over there, and swim toward the south. We should be under for no more than twenty-five minutes.”
“If we are any longer than that, Hans,” said Karl. “Pull us in, but fast.”
“Don’t worry, gentlemen,” said Mueller. “You can rely on me.”
Karl and Fritz put on their equipment, and started to walk toward the edge of the lake. Then they re-tested the oxygen valves. Both worked. They checked their torches. There were no problems. Fritz turned around, and waved back to Mueller. He then tapped Karl on the shoulder, and they entered the water.
They swam downwards, following the gently sloping earth. Visibility was good, and the waters were quite clear. As they moved deeper, the waters became darker. Fritz checked his depth gauge, nine metres. He switched on his two torches. With his hand held torch he signalled over to Karl, who was a few metres away. Karl waved, and switched on his torches. The combined beams swept in front of them lighting up a large area. They could clearly see the vegetation clinging to the sloping land. Darting in front of them were a number of fish, silver grey in colour, and approximately two hundred millimetres in length. For a while they seemed to follow the two swimmers, but then turned away swimming further toward the centre of the lake.
Karl and Fritz continued to swim deeper, hugging the sloping ground following it downwards. Gradually the slope became less and less steep. It seemed to be flattening slightly. Fritz once again checked his depth gauge, nineteen metres. He then checked his watch. They had been underwater for eight minutes. They would need eight more minutes to get back to the surface. That was sixteen minutes altogether, leaving about nine minutes to carry out a search, which was not very long. He signalled across to Karl, tapping his watch as he did so. Karl understood, and checked his own watch. He then waved an acknowledgement back to Fritz.
They continued to swim and were now approaching an underwater shelf. The closer they got the more sediment they disturbed, causing ripples of misty water to stir up. On the bed of the shelf they could make out dark shadows in the gloom. Gradually the shadows began to take shape, and they could see large numbers of rocks lying on the bed of the shelf. Fritz imagined that the rocks had originally come down from the surrounding mountains. Over time the rocks had been covered with thick sediment. As they swam over the rocks, they kept close to the edge of the lake. Over to their left side, to the east, they could just make out the edge of the shelf. They had been swimming for almost twenty minutes, and had seen nothing of interest. It was time to surface. Fritz shone his torch in Karl’s direction, and pointed upwards. Karl waved back, and started to swim toward the surface. Fritz followed behind.
They reached the surface without incident, and scrambled ashore safely. Mueller was there, attending the safety ropes, ready to pull them in if it had been necessary. “Are you all right,” he asked them.
“Fine,” said Fritz. “Regrettably we didn’t see anything of any great consequence.” He took off his oxygen cylinder, and angrily threw it onto the ground. “Thirty minutes isn’t long enough. It took almost ten minutes to get down there, at least five minutes back. Allowing for a safety margin of a few minutes that leaves a colossal twelve minutes, or so, for the actual search.”
Karl came over to him. “Either we take two tanks rigged to one valve, or we take one larger tank,” he suggested. “We have a few with a sixty minutes capacity.”
“Right, we’ll try the larger tank,” said Fritz. “It’ll be heavier to manoeuvre, but it will give us that much needed extra time.”
“Let’s get a coffee, and something to eat, and then we’ll go again,” said Karl.
* * *
Fritz stood up and walked to the shoreline. He looked over to the area where they had been. He then looked further to the right hand side. The sandy shore sloped gently into the lake. There were no reeds, only a variety of grasses growing along the water line.
“Karl,” he called over. “We’ll go in at this point, and slowly move further east.” He looked further round to the east side. Fifty metres away the ground became steeper, and rockier. “I think that area over there will be the limit of any search we can carry out.”
Karl looked at the area indicated, and agreed. “All right, let’s get going shall we?”
They put on their equipment, and prepared to enter the water once again. Mueller went back over to the safety ropes. “Ready,” he called out.
Fritz looked at him. “Good. Don’t forget, we will probably be under for about fifty minutes this time.” He then turned to face Karl. “Okay, lead on.”
Karl walked to the water’s edge, and dived in. Fritz followed a few seconds afterwards.
Once again, keeping close to the side of the lake, they swam down toward the shelf bed. Within a few minutes the bed came into view, and they could see the rocky surface. As they moved around large swirls of sediment were thrown up.
Suddenly, through the sediment Karl noticed a dark shape amongst the rocks on the shelf floor. What it was, was unclear. Maybe it was nothing. He signalled to Fritz, pointing down toward the shape. Fritz swam over to him, and together they descended toward the shape. As they drew nearer they could see that it was rectangular in shape. It was approximately eight hundred millimetres long, about three hundred millimetres wide and about two hundred millimetres deep. A few minutes later they reached the shape’s location. Gradually it became clearer and clearer. It was a timber crate lying at a depth of twenty-two metres, partially covered by a thick layer of sediment. The front part was badly damaged. They moved closer to the crate, and then they saw it. There, lying scattered around the broken crate, and in the adjacent sediment, were a number of gleaming, shining, gold bars.
* * *
The two men had been underwater for a little over twenty minutes. After all these weeks they had finally made a discovery, and what a discovery. Mueller was correct, all credit to him. The rumours were true after all. The only thing wrong was the name of the actual lake. Further examination indicated that they would not be able to salvage the actual crate. Not only was the front section badly damaged, but substantial damage had also occurred to the side of the box. As far as they could see the crate only contained a few bars. The majority were scattered close by. Fritz checked his watch. They still had plenty of time, but Fritz decided to return to the surface, and make plans for the salvage operation. He broke off a small section of the timber crate. Mueller would like to see that. He then picked up one of the gold bars, and started back to the surface. Karl did likewise, and followed him.
They reached the surface at the same time. They took off the oxygen cylinders, placing them on the ground. They then removed their masks, and looked at each other. Both had enormous grins on their faces. As they walked up the bank they began to laugh hysterically. As they came close to the campsite, they collapsed onto the ground, still laughing. Mueller walked over to them. “You seem very happy,” he said. “What’s happened?”
Neither of them was able to speak. Fritz merely handed the piece of broken timber to Mueller. Mueller looked at it closely, disbelievingly. Stamped into the wood was the official mark of the Reichsbank. Above it was the German eagle and Nazi swastika. As Mueller examined the section of wood, a gold bar was thrown on to the ground in front of him. Shortly afterwards, it was followed by a second bar. Mueller looked at the gold bars lying there. He could not believe his eyes. He then looked at his two companions.
“You were righ
t,” said Fritz. “You were absolutely one hundred per cent right.”
Chapter Four
Nazi Gold
Mueller picked up one of the bars. He shook his head. He could see it. He could feel it. But he still could hardly believe that it was real. He looked down at Fritz. “All right,” he said. “So tell me what happened, and I want every detail.”
“Every detail it shall be,” Fritz replied.
A few minutes later he had fully described the actual dive, and their descent to the shelf. “As we reached a depth of about twenty metres, we saw the crate. It was lying on the shelf bed, at a depth of about two metres below us, and about three metres from the edge of the shelf.”
“It looks as though the crate may have actually slid into the water, slowly sinking to where we found it,” added Karl.
Mueller suddenly recalled his dream. “Slid, did you say?” he said. “What makes you think that?”
“You can see a mark running along the slope of the lake, as though something had scrapped a pathway through the mud,” Fritz replied.
“The crate appeared to be quite damaged. The front end was smashed quite badly, and some timbers at the side were broken,” said Karl. “Probably as a result of the impact as it reached the bottom. We’ll never know.”
“According to my father’s letter, there were several crates to be disposed of,” said Mueller. “Was there any sign of any other crates?”
“No, not as far as we could see,” Karl answered. “If they were put into the lake they could have fallen into the deeper section. Or, of course, they could have been hidden somewhere else.”
“What about the actual gold?” asked Mueller.
“I don’t know how many bars each crate would have contained, but there appeared to be about a dozen, maybe fifteen, lying in the sediment,” answered Fritz. “There may have been more of course, now completely covered by the sediment. We have no way of knowing.”
“We will need a plan to bring them up,” said Karl. “Unfortunately it will have to be by hand.”
“I agree,” said Fritz. “We can’t drag them up the underwater slope because of the rocks and vegetation. It will have to be one, or two, at a time, I’m afraid.”
“I don’t think we have any alternative,” said Karl. “The sooner we get started the better.”
* * *
Karl and Fritz spent the next two hours retrieving the gold, each carrying two bars at a time. On the final trip Fritz brought up the last two bars. Karl brought up the remains of the timber crate.
“That makes fourteen bars in total, including the original two,” said Fritz, as he placed the last bar with the others.
“According to my calculations, based upon the size of the crate,” said Mueller, pointing toward the box, “There should have been about eighteen bars to each crate. I wonder what happened to the other four.”
“Who knows,” said Fritz. “They could have fallen into the deeper part of the lake, or they could be buried deep in the silt.”
“Or my calculations could be wrong,” said Mueller jokingly.
“Either way,” said Karl. “We now have something else to report to the authorities.”
“That’s right,” said Mueller. “The dog tags. And now the gold bars. This is turning into a very interesting day.”
“Yes it is,” said Fritz. “And we still have to find that Storeroom.”
“Yes, but where do we look?” asked Karl. “Assuming it actually existed that is.”
“It actually existed, I can assure you of that,” said Mueller. “It is well documented in my father’s letters. It was almost certainly somewhere within the test centre. However, I don’t think that we will be able to find it now.”
“Why do you say that, Hans?” asked Fritz.
“Unfortunately, as I am sure you know, the buildings were all destroyed by the Austrian authorities sometime in the early fifties,” replied Mueller.
“We knew about the demolition. But we think it was only that part of the building that was at ground level that was demolished,” said Karl.
Mueller looked puzzled, and wondered what he meant.
“Just think for a moment. The main purpose of the complex was to test underwater weapons. Torpedoes, rockets launched from under water, that sort of thing. It is assumed therefore that part of the building must have been located underground, below the water line,” Karl explained. “That’s probably where that storeroom would have been.”
“Yes your description of the complex is correct,” said Mueller. “There was an underground section, quite a large area, in fact, according to my father. The problem, however, still remains. We still don’t know where that underwater section was.”
“Well that’s not exactly correct,” said Fritz.
Once again a puzzled look spread over Mueller’s face. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I don’t understand.”
“Karl, can you make some coffee, and we’ll tell Hans all about our other little find, from yesterday,” said Fritz.
* * *
A few minutes later all three were seated on the ground, drinking their coffee. Fritz had told Mueller about their underwater search, the previous day at Toplitzsee. “We discovered the torpedo tubes at a depth of about seven metres. The concrete section that I told you about extends for a further ten metres, southwards along the edge of the lake, and about five metres to the north.”
“We are ninety nine percent certain that the concrete structure shows the extent of the building,” said Karl. “We are also convinced that it still exists.”
“But what about the demolition that was carried out?” asked Mueller.
“We wondered about that, as well,” said Fritz. “We came to the conclusion that to demolish the underground section would take a lot of time, and be quite expensive. What would be the point? It wouldn’t be worth the expense. It would be far easier, and quicker, merely to seal all of the entrance points into the building, at ground level.”
“Far cheaper, as well,” added Karl.
“You might be right I suppose,” said Mueller. “But we still need to find a way in, and if it was sealed then we are still no nearer finding that storeroom.”
“I suggest that tomorrow we return to Toplitzsee,” said Fritz. “Then Karl and I can continue our search of the area above those torpedo tubes.”
* * *
The following day they returned to Toplitzsee. Karl and Fritz showed Mueller the markings that they had previously made, indicating the length of the complex, based upon what they had discovered below the surface. “The building was here, all right,” said Fritz. “Of that I am completely certain.”
Mueller looked at the area that Fritz had indicated. “Well, we know from my father’s letters that it must have been fairly big,” Mueller said. “Apart from the laboratories, and test areas, there were offices, staff rooms, and a kitchen. I guess that it must have been about the size that you’ve marked out.”
Mueller began walking along the area, stopping occasionally and looking down at the ground. He was trying to visualise the building that his father had described. After a while he walked back to where the others were standing. “Have you searched any of this area yet?” he asked.
“We had barely started, when you appeared, remember,” Fritz replied. “We had found the cartridge cases, and that was it.”
“We had planned to scan this whole area,” Karl added. He stretched his arm out pointing to the north, and sweeping across the whole area. “Look there,” he said as he moved forward. “This is one of our marks, dividing the area into strips.”
“I suggest that we start from where we left off, and carry on with the search,” said Fritz. Karl nodded in agreement. “Check the equipment, and I’ll check on the strips.” He then turned to Mueller. “Can you do the recording, like before? Karl will give you a suitably marked plan.”
“Fine,” said Mueller. “First, though I’ll take some photographs shall I?”
Mueller picked up his cam
era, and walked over to the far north of the site. Slowly making his way southward, he started to photograph the area, making sure that it was completely covered.
For a short while, Fritz watched him. You know, we make a fairly good team, after all. He then continued to check that their markings were still intact.
“The detector seems to be okay,” Karl called out, walking toward Fritz. “The gauges seem to operate, and the alarm works. So I think that we are all set”. He handed the detector to Fritz, and the two men then walked over to the designated starting position.
* * *
For the next three hours they walked backwards and forwards along the defined strips, scanning from side to side. They had completed almost three quarters of the search area, and had found nothing. Every thirty minutes they would stop, and carry out a simple test to ensure that the detector was operating correctly. On each occasion there were no problems. They were now at the southern end of the area, almost eight metres from the lake.
“Nothing so far,” Fritz called over to Mueller. “Not even any ammunition.”
“Thankfully,” added Karl.
Fritz started to walk slowly along the strip, the detector hovering just above the ground. He had gone only a short distance when the alarm sounded, loudly. He stopped, and called out excitedly. “We’ve found something.”
Fritz laid the detector to one side. He then bent down, and commenced to carefully remove the earth. After a few seconds Karl came over to help him. As they were clearing the area Mueller joined them.
Whatever it was that they had found it was very large. Karl estimated that it could be as much as one metre across. It also appeared to be some way under the ground, perhaps two hundred millimeters, or more.
The soil was soft, and easy to dig. Nonetheless it had to be removed slowly, and carefully. They had no idea what it was that they had found. Gradually, more and more soil was taken away, to reveal a large metallic object. It was a metal cover, 700 mm in diameter. It was substantially rusted and badly corroded.