****
After reaching the woods, Newkirk
pulled the sedan off the road and Dubois met up with them after a few moments.
"So much for our rigged
game," Hogan said.
"What happened, Colonel? We
heard explosions. Major Miller---?"
"Is on his
way into
"Oui, mon Colonel."
"Then let's get the hell out of
here."
***
Major Miller and the boys tried to
look unhurried as they walked down the sidewalk looking for number sixteen.
There were a few pedestrians on both sides of the street and of course the
passing traffic. Miller kept one eye out for Gestapo and SS soldiers and half
expected one to just jump out of nowhere, making the Major feel like an eight
point buck on the first day of hunting season.
The buildings on the street were tenement
type buildings and there was hardly an alley or a driveway to jump into should
a car or foot soldier spot them. Finally though, they reached number sixteen
and hurried up the steps, Ahren and Erik in front of Miller, and Adler behind. Inside, Emery had seen them coming down the
street and he hurried to the door to open it before anyone was able to knock.
Startled, Miller grabbed hold of Ahren and Erik's shoulders to pull them back
but recognized the face looking back at him from the door way.
Emery stepped aside and waved them
in. He said nothing until they were all inside and the door shut. "Good
Lord, I thought you had all been captured!"
"We've come pretty damn
close," Miller replied.
"How did you know to come here?
What has happened? Where is Fritz?"
"He told us to come here. The
Gestapo spotted us after we came into town. He threw us out of the car down the
street, the Gestapo's after him now."
Emery's expression revealed the fear
for his comrade for a split second, then he was suddenly he was all business.
"Then we must hurry. We must get you and these boys to the pier."
Emery turned to call for the other two Underground operatives, when Miller
grabbed his arm and turned him back around. Miller, too, had the same sinking
feeling what might happen to Fritz but he realized as he looked into Emery's
now guarded gaze that there was little he, or Emery or anybody could do about
it. Slowly he let go of Emery's arm and looked away.
"We must get you out of that
uniform, Herr Miller..." Emery said softly. He then turned again and went
to get the other two.
***
LeBeau, Kinch and three Underground
men drove an unassuming delivery truck into town on a different road and turned
a corner just in time to see the careening Army staff car.
“Look!” LeBeau exclaimed. The
Underground driver stopped the truck and they watched the chase go barreling
past them.
“That looked like Hochstetter,”
Kinch said.
LeBeau muttered a string of
expletives in French. Another Gestapo car came off a different street and
joined the chase.
“Maybe we can still help,” one of
the Underground men said. He slapped the driver on the arm and pointed for him
to follow the chase.
Major Hochstetter, meanwhile, was to
the point of swearing at his driver, who was finding the task of keeping up
with the fleeing army sedan a daunting one. Having an especially animated and
often threatening superior in the car wasn't making things any easier.
"He's turning! He's turning!
Don't lose him!!"
The driver was becoming tempted to ask
the Major if he would like to drive instead. He stayed after the army
sedan, weaving through traffic and turning down another street.
Fritz was trying to lead them as far
away from the pier as possible. He saw
in his rearview mirror he had now not one, but two Gestapo cars after him. Up
ahead, another one pulled out into the street, blocking it. Fritz pulled to the
right, aiming for the sidewalk.
The three Gestapo men had guns drawn
and were aiming at Fritz. The windshield exploded in glass and Fritz ducked but
ended up taking a bullet in the shoulder. The force threw him back against the
seat and he gripped the steering wheel, although for about a second he didn't
know where he was going. The sharp pain in his shoulder radiated through his
chest and neck. More shots were fired, piercing the passenger side window and
door. Fritz’s sedan made it past the Gestapo car, scraped a lamp post, nicked a
telephone booth and then crashed through some wooden crates of vegetables that
had just been unloaded from a truck and were being delivered to a restaurant.
People in the vicinity scattered like birds from the mad car and it bounced off
the sidewalk and kept going down the road.
The three Gestapo men were
scrambling back into their car. Hochstetter in his car was screaming at them to
get out of the way. Fritz had a few extra moments to flee and he would need
every second of it.
LeBeau, Kinch and the Underground
men held on for dear life as the truck pulled around the Gestapo cars and then
stopped in the middle of the road, creating another temporary road block to buy
more time for Fritz to flee.
Trying to ignore his shoulder, Fritz
glanced at his rearview mirror and saw the delay in the chase. He turned the
sedan down another street, drove and then turned down yet one more street,
bringing the car to a stop in the middle of the road. He got out, nausea
hitting him briefly and he stumbled a moment. He could see the red of his
shoulder out of the corner of his eye but he refused to look. He mustered up
all the strength he had and went to the back of the car, opening the trunk.
The Underground men, meanwhile, were
pretending they didn’t understand the Gestapo men’s shouted orders to move
their truck. Horns blared and arms waved for them to get out of the way. Finally
Hochstetter persuaded them with the point of his pistol and the truck backed up
out of the way. The three sedans tore off down the road and the delivery truck
followed at a distance.
Fritz’s left hand was tingling and
damn near useless so he worked quickly with his right hand. The trunk had
carried rations, extra clothes, a pistol, a rifle, two hand grenades and
supplies that he couldn't allow the Gestapo to capture and confiscate. The car
itself he couldn't allow to be confiscated by the Gestapo. He could leave no
trace of the Underground, and if he survived he would have to find a way to
make this up to Sturtevant. Fritz threw the lid off the small box that had the
two grenades in it and he pulled one out. He pulled the pin with his teeth,
spit it out and left the grenade in the trunk, running as quickly as he could
away from the car.
The Gestapo had almost blown past
the street Fritz was on. The first car spotted the Army sedan sitting in the
middle of the road and came to a halt, signaling to the other two cars behind
them to go down the street. Hochstetter's sedan had no more than turned the
corner when the Army car suddenly ripped apart in a ball of orange.
Hochstetter's driver hit the brakes
and skidded to a stop. The Gestapo men could do no more than watch the fire and
wait for the debris to settle. Hochstetter was stone quiet as he watched the
other car burn, the fire reflecting in his own dark eyes. It wasn't long before
people started coming into the street to see what was going on, and there was
shouting to bring water to put the fire out. Hochstetter then stepped out of
his car.
Two other Gestapo officers came up
beside him. "Do you think he was in there?" one of them asked.
"I could hope for no
less..." Hochstetter growled. "Still they may be on foot. Spread out
and search this neighborhood."
"Jawohl, Herr Major."
The delivery truck paused for only a
moment at the end of the road letting two of the Underground men out. They
would mingle with the crowd, get information, some
answers and then meet up with the truck away from the scene.
Fritz, meanwhile, was only just up
the street in a narrow alley way where he had collapsed just before the
explosion occurred. He could afford no rest and he fought the urge to do so. He
got back to his feet and put his back against the building. He peered around
the corner of the building and saw the sedan was pretty well destroyed and that
the Gestapo was hindered for a little bit. But he knew they would ask questions
and search the area on foot and that he could not remain where he was. He had
to get somewhere safe.
He turned back into the alley and
paused a moment, taking a few deep breaths. He held onto his shattered shoulder
now and continued walking down the narrow path.
***
Major Miller had made a quick change
into civilian clothes and then he, Emery and the boys got into Emery's car and
drove the short distance to the pier. The waterfront was quiet and tranquil
compared the commotion Fritz was creating in town. Miller, Emery and the boys
had no more than stepped out of the car when they heard the boom of the
explosion.
All of them stopped and looked
toward the town. Miller turned to look at Emery but the Underground man knew he
had a mission to finish. "This way..." he said.
***
Colonel Hogan, Carter and Newkirk
had traded their ill-handling staff car and German Army uniforms for the
Gestapo attire again. With Dubois and a couple of Underground men following in
another car, they drove into town arriving several minutes after the explosion.
“Something’s happened…” Hogan said,
watching the scene around him. A regular Polizei was directing traffic
away from a street. A small group of citizens had gathered trying to see what
had happened but were held back by Polizei and Gestapo. Newkirk pointed the sedan
toward the street and was waved through by the Polizei.
Dubois followed.
“I don’t like it, guv’nor,” Newkirk said, driving slowly toward a cluster of
Gestapo cars at the end of another street. “Even though we’re disguised there’s
too much Gestapo crawlin’ around here for my
taste.” He pulled up behind another
sedan and stopped.
“I don’t know if I wanna know what’s behind that corner, Colonel,” Carter
said.
“I’m not sure I do either. But we
have to know. C’mon…” Hogan stepped out of the car, with Newkirk and Carter
following. The Colonel signaled to Dubois to stand pat for a moment and the
Frenchman nodded.
The three heroes walked to the end
of the sidewalk, turned the corner and stopped at the sight of Fritz’s
destroyed cloned staff car. They immediately assumed the worst.
“Oh my God…” Hogan said quietly. The
three of them stared at the wreckage. Cater then turned to the Colonel, as if
seeking confirmation that what he was seeing was true. They couldn’t all have been killed….could they?
Newkirk apparently thought so and
seethed. “Those bloody bastards!” he hissed. “They got ‘em
all! They must have been waiting for them!”
Hogan blinked out of his stare just in
time to see Major Hochstetter. He turned suddenly to Newkirk, turning the
corporal around from the wreckage. Carter turned too. “Take it easy,” Hogan
said. He glanced back once more at Hochstetter and noted the Major’s facial
expression seemed infuriated, almost as if….
No, that might be too much to hope for, Hogan thought. He turned back to Newkirk and
Carter. “Hochstetter’s here. C’mon….I don’t want him
to see us, but we’re going to find out what happened here.”
The two nodded and started to walk back
to their car. One of the two Underground men who had been mingling through the
neighborhood, spotted Hogan, Carter and Newkirk and approached casually. They
then stepped off to the side and he explained what he had learned.
“Everyone here only saw one man in
the car. He got out and detonated an explosive in the trunk and then took off
on foot.”
The heroes looked temporarily
relieved. “That must be Fritz,” Hogan said as he glanced around the scene. “And
they’re looking for him.” He looked at the Underground man again. “Which means he dropped Miller and the boys off somewhere.”
The Underground man nodded. “Yes, but there is something else. The man who fled from the
car is wounded.”
“Badly?”
“Unknown.”
“Colonel,” Carter spoke up, “with
all this Gestapo crawling around Fritz won’t make it a mile from here. Whether they know he’s wounded or not.”
Hogan nodded. “We have to find him
and get him out of here. And find out where Miller ended up.” He glanced up to
see Hochstetter talking to several Gestapo men. “And do it without being
spotted….”
***
Emery led Miller and the boys down a
boardwalk, to a dock and then to where the fishing boat was moored. The Captain
of the boat and two of his crew members were standing on deck. Recognizing
Emery, the Captain turned to one of his crew and instructed him to go start the
engines. He then went to greet his new passengers.
"Ah Guten
Tag!" he said with a smile. "You made it!"
"Ja," Emery replied with a
nod.
"With a lot of luck,"
Miller added.
“Erhard, this is Glenn Miller."
The Captain shook hands with Miller.
"Welcome aboard. We've been expecting you."
“Thank you.” Miller turned to Emery.
"Okay, you got us here. Now go get Fritz out of trouble and get yourselves
out of here."
"Fritz is in trouble?" the
Captain said.
"Last I saw him he had the
Gestapo chasing after him," Miller explained.
"Oh! Then go on, Emery, go on.
Herr Miller and the boys are safe here now."
Emery nodded. He looked at Miller
and put a hand out to him. "Herr Miller..."
Miller shook hands. "Thanks for
everything." He let go. "Go on..."
Emery nodded again and turned to
leave the boat. The boys said goodbye to him as he returned to the dock and
Emery waved. He then continued on to the boardwalk.
The Captain looked at Miller.
"Come. I will take you below deck where you will be more comfortable. I'm
sure you've had quite a trip..."
From the pier, Emery walked back to
the safe house, changed into the Gestapo uniform and then took the car to go
find Fritz. He saw the smoke coming up over the tops of buildings a short
distance away and drove toward it.
Gestapo and Polezei
presence thickened the closer Emery got. Soldiers were on foot, searching
doorways, footpaths, and alleys and stopping people to ask questions. Emery drove
slowly, taking in the scenes around him, trying to figure out what was going
on, what had happened.
He turned down the street Fritz had
left the car and now saw what had happened. The sight startled him and he
stopped the car, looking at the destroyed vehicle a few feet away. The doors
were blown out and hanging limp off the car, the trunk lid was completely
severed and sitting a few feet away. The entire back side of the car was a
blackened hulk of metal, wood and fabric. The front end was slightly damaged
but Emery saw the German Army fender flags. Major Miller had been wearing an
army uniform. Emery had a sudden sinking feeling.
"Soldaten?" A knock came on the glass.
Emery jumped and looked to see a Gestapo
man was at the window. He rolled the window down. "What happened here?"
he asked before the Gestapo man could ask him what he was doing there.
"The
Underground. The American, Miller, was spotted in that car. We gave chase, but when
we came around the corner the car exploded."
"The American was killed?"
"Nein. Witnesses say there was only one
person in the car and they saw him get out before the explosion. The American,
in appears, has gotten away."
"Then you are looking for an
Underground man?"
The man nodded. "He
apparently went that way," he pointed behind Emery. "We figure
he can not be far from here. We think he is wounded."
"I see. Well, I will be on
the look out here."
The Gestapo man nodded. "That
would be appreciated."
Emery nodded and gave the customary
salute. He then backed the car up, turned around and headed in the direction
the Gestapo man had pointed.
Hogan, Carter and Newkirk,
meanwhile, had returned to their vehicle. Dubois and his men were quickly
brought up to speed on the events that were unfolding and that their task now
was to locate Fritz before the Gestapo did. The Underground man Hogan had been
talking to returned to the delivery truck with his comrade and they too set out
to find Fritz, letting LeBeau and Kinch know that Hogan, Carter and Newkirk had
made it to town.
Before sending Dubois off, Hogan
asked about safe houses in town, and where Fritz might have possibly dropped
Miller and the boys. Dubois gave the address of the closest safe house and
Hogan, Carter and Newkirk drove in that direction.
Fritz, meanwhile, was waiting for
his luck to run out. Nausea was grabbing at him but he fought it back,
adrenaline keeping him standing and moving. He stayed ahead of the Gestapo but
knew they were pretty much right behind him.
Gestapo cars passed on the street slowly, soldiers were on foot. Fritz
ducked into doorways, hid behind empty crates, snuck down a footpath, hid
behind a pile of trash and down underneath stairwells to stay out of sight of
the vehicles. The foot soldiers were far enough behind him as not to spot him
yet. All the while however, he fought the urge to just collapse.
He wasn't even sure of where he was
going. He knew he had no chance of making it back to the safe house. But he
would not allow himself to be caught alive by the Gestapo. He would keep going
until death itself finally took him.
From behind his latest hiding spot,
a wooden ox cart parked in a narrow alley, Fritz ventured a peek to the street.
The Gestapo foot patrols were still a good distance down the street. And there
were no Gestapo vehicles prowling the street at that moment. Fritz took a chance and came out of the
alley. He did a sweep as he crossed the street, looking both ways, looking all
around. He reached the other side and continued up the street to the next
narrow alleyway.
Up the street, Emery stopped at an
intersection, debating which way to go. The sight of a soldier down the street
holding his shoulder as he walked caught Emery's attention. He knew it had to
be Fritz and that he indeed was wounded. Emery stopped short of pulling out
into the street. He was dressed as Gestapo and surely Fritz would see the
uniform before the face.
As he sat a moment, trying to figure
how to approach Fritz without causing too much alarm, an ordinary delivery
truck passed by. Emery noted the speed of the truck and found it odd. The truck
was not merely passing through this residential area,
it was as if the truck was looking for something. Emery watched and saw the
truck slow considerably as it came closer to Fritz. He concluded they had to be
Underground and he pulled out onto the street.
Out of the corner of his eye, Fritz
saw the truck and then he looked up, seeing the Gestapo car. Busted.
He stopped only a beat before picking up his pace to get to the next alley
before the car got to him.
The men in the truck had started to
get out when Fritz took off. They hesitated seeing the Gestapo car. Emery
recognized the Underground men and he stopped the car
behind their truck, flashing the headlights so they would know he was no
threat. He then got out of the car, was recognized and followed them to the
alley.
Fritz wasn't moving very fast. The
nausea was becoming much more than he could stand and finally his knees buckled
out from under him and he went down. Emery hurried to where his friend had
fallen in a heap. "Fritz..."
Fritz turned slightly, raising
his right arm in a vain attempt to fight against the Gestapo man
who had him. There were other faces surrounding him too, but it
was all a blur.
"No," Emery said.
"Fritz, it's me, Emery..."
Fritz looked up at the face and at
recognition he touched the side of his friend’s face and gave a weak smile.
"Emery, old friend..."
"Come on, we’ll get you
out of here." Emery
started to pull Fritz's right arm to sit him up with LeBeau spotting
Fritz’s wounded left side.
Fritz resisted a moment. "Herr
Miller...?" he said. "The boys...?"
Emery nodded. "They are on
their way to the
“They made it to the boat?” LeBeau
said. “Colonel Hogan will be happy to hear that!”
Fritz's smile was still weak but was
now filled with relief.
"Come," Emery said.
"If you can stand up I can carry you out of here to the car..."
Fritz nodded and shifted his feet to
stand once Emery pulled him up. Emery steadied his friend for a moment before
leaning forward and lifting Fritz over his shoulder. He carried the wounded man
back to the street.
A few pedestrians were mulling around
and saw the Gestapo man carrying the wounded Army soldier. But that was all
they did was look. When they came out of the alley, LeBeau spotted the foot
soldiers that were a distance down the street and he alerted the Underground
men. They all returned to the truck and started it, turning the vehicle in the
road to block the view of the foot soldiers. Emery hurried to the car, brought
Fritz back to his feet and pulled the door open, offering a steady hand while
Fritz got into the car. Once Fritz was in, Emery closed the door and got in
behind the wheel. The delivery truck then completed the turn and drove on up
the street. Emery pulled the sedan into the street with little fanfare and
followed the truck. The foot soldiers saw this but thought little of it,
thinking it to be one of theirs asking questions. The truck and car went up the
road and turned, disappearing from sight.
LeBeau picked up the hand held
radio. “Home Base calling Mirror Image. Bluebird has
flown!”
Newkirk had no more than parked the
car in front of the address Dubois had given when LeBeau’s voice came over the
radio. Hogan picked up his radio. “You sure about that Home
Base?”
“Oui! Got it straight from the man who
set the bird free.”
“That’s good news, Home Base. What
about our Apple Dumpling?”
“Found him. We’re taking him to be
patched up.”
“We’ll catch up to you.” Hogan
turned to a grinning Newkirk. “Let’s get out of here.”
The truck and Emery in his Gestapo
sedan managed to slip out of
About thirty minutes after Emery and
Fritz crossed the bridge, Major Hochstetter was coming to the grudging
conclusion that Major Miller, and the Underground, had slipped out of
It was over. Hochstetter stood in
the middle of the street looking at the destroyed cloned Army staff car
clenching his teeth. The damnable Underground had succeeded again. He turned to
one of the other Gestapo officers and ordered the rest of the search called
off. "There is nothing to find now," he said. "Only
a mess to clean up."
At the time Hochstetter called off
the search, Major Miller and the boys were transferring from the fishing boat
to the Royal Navy submarine. It would be another two hours before German
intelligence confirmed that Miller was back on English soil.
Stalag 13
"Yes, Herr General...He has?" Kommandant Klink was saying into the
phone. "So it has been confirmed? ... Yes, terrible, I know, what he did
was a complete insult to
As Klink was speaking, Sergeant
Schultz came into the office. He waited for the Kommandant to finish.
"Yes, Herr General, their
punishment will remain in effect despite Major Miller's return to
"Pardon me, Herr Kommandant,
but the Gestapo has returned with Colonel Hogan and his men."
"Of course. I was just speaking to General
Burkhalter. Major Miller has returned to
"He has? Oh that's wonderful---er, I mean that's too bad."
"Schultz! Watch what you
say." Klink came around the desk and stopped next to the portly staff
sergeant. "Although just between you and me, I'm not all
that upset that he made it back to
Schultz nodded. The two then left
the office to greet the returning POW's.
"Just play it cool,"
Colonel Hogan told his men as the car passed through the gate.
The car came to a stop at Klink's
office, the Kommandant already waiting on the stairs. As everyone exited the
car, Klink approached, looking at the "Gestapo" officers.
"Did they give you any
trouble?"
"None at all,
Herr Kommandant."
"Hmph. Naturally. Only me they give trouble to! Schultz, see these
prisoners back to their barracks." Klink looked at the group of POW's.
"And keep in mind gentlemen that despite Major Miller's miraculous return
to
Hogan had to do all he could to hold
back his grin. The rest of the boys were exchanging happy congratulatory
glances.
Klink obviously noticed this.
"Well, if you like being confined to barracks that much, I can add another
30 days to that."
"No, that won't be
necessary," Hogan said, sobering quickly. The others followed suit.
"My men and I will return to the barracks at once." He saluted.
"Dismissed." Klink saluted back.
Hogan and the boys turned and
started across the compound, trying not to look like they were hurrying.
Schultz paused a moment beside the
Kommandant. "I've never seen prisoners so happy to be confined to the
barracks."
Klink could only shoot an annoyed
look before heading back into his office. Schultz shrugged at the "Gestapo"
men and followed after the POW's.
The "Gestapo" men
exchanged amused glances before returning to their vehicle. Another Underground
mission had been completed and was a success…
...thanks to Papa Bear.
Major Miller had no more than
stepped on English soil when he was told that G2 wanted to have a talk with
him. He asked if they could wait, at least long enough for him to partake in a
shower and put on an American uniform again. They allowed this. But when Miller
wanted to meet with his band members to find out where they were at, G2 balked
and the Major was ordered to SHAEF headquarters immediately.
Down the hall from General Walter Bedell "Beetle" Smith's office, Major Miller sat
in a room waiting, albeit impatiently. He was exhausted and just wanted to put
this whole thing behind him. He lit a fresh cigarette and looked around at the
English furnishings of the room. The door behind him clicked open and Miller
stood up.
In came a refined, sharp eyed,
silver haired general. Miller paused in surprise and then saluted. The general
looked at Miller somewhat sternly and returned the salute. "General
Aloysius Barton**. At ease, Major," the man said. He walked to the
desk and put his attaché down. He remained standing a moment and looked across
the desk at Miller.
Miller too remained standing and was
getting the feeling he was in some serious trouble for blowing off G2's initial
request for this chat. Although he didn’t outwardly squirm at this general’s
unflinching gaze, inwardly he cringed.
"Sir I...apologize for my tardiness."
The general snorted. "You call
four hours tardy?" He sat down behind the desk and opened the attaché.
"However, I'm not surprised you would blow off Army protocol at this time.
You've been doing it since day one. Sit down, Major."
Miller did, without a word.
"Perhaps this is insignificant
to you, but you were kidnapped and held by the enemy for approximately nine
days. We're just a little curious as to what has transcribed over the past
nine days."
"And you need to know this the
minute I'm back?"
Barton's look was sharp. "No, not the minute
of your return. But certainly sooner than four hours after. Major, obviously you're not
aware of what Supreme Headquarters has been doing for the past nine days while you've
been gone. Since the Germans never publicly admitted to having captured you in
the first place, SHAEF has not revealed you were captured at all. Your
conspicuous absence has been explained that you have been under the weather.
Your band has continued its regular performance and recording schedule, but all
of the live broadcasts were suspended for the time as the Germans had
threatened life and limb if your band was heard on the radio. The explanation
for that was given as technical difficulties."
Miller had known of the suspension
of the live broadcasts but was stunned at the rest of it. "You mean...this
whole thing has been kept quiet? Nobody knows I’ve even been gone?"
"With the
exception of your band members, no. Eisenhower's orders. Preservation of troop morale."
"I see..."
"Therefore, the importance of
this debriefing is three fold. We want to know what happened while you were
there, what was it the Germans were planning to do
with you for propaganda and who helped you to escape. And had you reported here
four hours ago as you were supposed to, we'd be through a good portion of all
that by now."
"With all due respect, sir, I'd
like to just put this whole thing behind me and get back to the band. We've got
a lot of work to do before we transfer to
Barton nodded. "Then let's get
started...."
***
A little over two hours later, the
door of the office opened and Major Miller stepped out, holding his crush cap
in hand. He appeared uncharacteristically subdued, and if anybody had seen him
at that moment, they would have seen him reveal more in his expression than he
had ever let show before. Miller had seen a lot in this war, just as a
bandleader and just in the six months he had been in
He took a couple of steps away from
the door after closing it and then paused again. General Barton would be the
last person to know of what had really happened in
That itself wasn't what subdued him.
He had expected to be hushed about it anyway. What subdued him was the vast
clandestine aspect of the whole thing, combined with the knowledge that very
few people even knew where he had really been. The Germans never said they had him, SHAEF never said he was missing or had been captured.
It was like he was neither here nor there and he could tell no one what really
happened.
In essence he was getting what he
wanted -- to put the whole thing behind him. If asked, he was to say he had
been ill. Period at the end.
But something was nagging at him.
Colonel Hogan, his men and all those people of the Underground put a lot on the
line to get him back to
The door opened again and General
Barton stepped out. Miller turned and the General looked at him.
"Something wrong, Major?"
Miller thought about his idea for a
moment. "Well, no sir, but....I was wondering something. Would it be
possible to send a message to..." Miller caught
himself and looked around the empty hall, "...those boys?"
Barton considered this a moment and
then nodded. "Yes, I think that can be arranged. I'll have a cryptologist
contact you, they can work your message into
code."
Miller hesitated. "I was thinking
more of something that could be read on a broadcast?"
Barton didn't look so sure.
"Major..."
Miller held a hand up. "I know,
I know. But...if I'm going to express my appreciation to those boys I want to
do it the same way I've been doing for all the other boys fighting in this
war."
Barton thought it over for another
moment and then nodded. "It can be done. I'll let the cryptologist
know."
Miller nodded and gave a respectful
smile. "Thank you, sir." He saluted the General and turned to leave.
Barton let the bandleader go a few
feet before calling after him. "Miller."
Miller stopped and turned. "Yes
sir?"
For the first time that afternoon,
Barton smiled a little. "Welcome to the club."
Miller snorted. "Thank you,
sir. I...only wish I could put together a house band for it."
Barton laughed.
Stalag 13
At seven-thirty that night, Kinch
came up from the tunnel.
“Good news, Colonel,” Kinch said as
the entrance clattered shut behind him. “The Underground says that Fritz is
back in Düsseldorf and will recover from his wound.”
Carter, Newkirk and LeBeau, who were
all seated at the table and had been fiddling with the radio, cheered. Hogan
nodded with a smile. “That’s good to hear, Kinch.”
“Got a message
from
Hogan raised an eyebrow. “Coded
message?”
“That’s what they said. The usual signature, Unsung Heroes.”
“Hmm. Interesting…”
“I wonder what kind of message
“Probably our next mission,” Hogan
said. “It’s probably some corker and they want to sweeten it up with a little Moonlight Serenade.”
The men chuckled.
“If you ask me,” Newkirk said, “I
think we should have a little time off before our next mission.” He turned the
dial on the radio to tune it, clearing the sound of the BBC broadcaster doing
the news.
“Unfortunately, nobody asked you,”
LeBeau said and slapped Newkirk’s hand away. “I had that tuned just fine
before!”
“I was just fine tuning it---“
“Colonel! Schultz is coming.”
Hogan no more than looked at Newkirk
then the corporal had the radio snatched up and heading back to its hiding
place in a foot locker. Newkirk then dove for the bunk that was over the tunnel
and lounged back, appearing relaxed.
Everyone else in the common room
appeared oblivious when Schultz came in with another guard. Hogan looked up from the table. “Hi Schultz! Little early for the poker game aren’t you?”
“Jolly joker… Nein, the Kommandant
has ordered a surprise check of the barracks.”
Hogan looked at his watch. It was
ten minutes to eight. “Now? This is the first night of
our poker tourney and some of the guys are getting anxious. Can’t this wait
until morning?”
“No! We will inspect the barracks
right now!” Schultz turned to the first bunk near the door and then suddenly
stopped, turning back to the Colonel. “And there is not suppose to be any
gambling in the barracks! Colonel Hogan, you know that!”
“I know that, Schultz. And you know
that. But we can both pretend that we know nothing, can’t we?”
Schultz chuckled. “No, no….I know nothing. You…” Schultz stopped chuckling and sighed.
“…know everything.” He turned back to the bunk and went about his duty.
The men of the barracks stood,
rather impatiently, as Schultz and the other guard went through the spot check.
Colonel Hogan glanced at his watch and then bore his gaze into the two guards. Hurry up!
Finally, at five minutes after
eight, they finished. Schultz however, still seemed to be looking for an excuse
to hang around and the talk of a poker game had done it. Hogan looked at
Schultz with admonishment. “Schultz, I’m ashamed of you. You know there’s no
gambling allowed in the barracks!”
“There isn’t? Oh! That’s right!”
Schultz looked sternly at all the prisoners. “There is NO gambling allowed in
the barracks!”
“Exactly. And given how much you lose you should be sticking to that rule
for awhile.”
“Don’t remind me.” Schultz rolled
his eyes and headed for the door of the barracks. Once he was gone, Newkirk
pulled the radio out of the footlocker and turned it on.
“I hope we didn’t miss it…” he said.
With the BBC tuned in once again, he placed the radio down on the table and
everyone gathered around to listen.
Kinch readied his pad of paper and pencil.
“….for the medley this evening we
have something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue for
all of our unsung heroes out there. We know you are ever vigilant and remain
steadfast and all your duties, even against truly incredible odds. Our thanks
for what you do we express often and our prayers are with you in everything you
do. Together we will all see this through. You remain in our hearts from
As the music played, Kinch
transcribed the message. He then smiled and looked at Hogan. “‘You are all
truly incredible. Thanks for everything. See you in
Hogan looked from Kinch to the radio
and smiled. “I’ll be darned…”
***
At the AEF band’s makeshift studios
in
Back home in
Yes, for one brief moment, all was
right in the world…
-------------
Notes
** "The General
Swap" ep.49 -- Jeff's story Debriefing: A Navigator's
Story prompted the idea for this scene which has me thinking
of a potential Part Three (but if I never get around to writing
it, it’s no big deal, as Part One and Two are pretty darn sufficient.
LOL). Given Miller's sworn secrecy of
Hogan's operation and then his eventual disappearance just a few
short weeks after the events in this story…I’m thinking more alchemy
with history let’s say. Frankly, I probably could have had this
story take place within the same 9 day span from the day Miller
disappeared to the day he was announced missing. (I had no idea
how many days this story would cover. Kinda
weird that it turned out to be 9 days). Unfortunately that would’ve
involved a not so happy ending and I wasn’t comfortable doing
that.