Guns At Cassino by Leo Kessler Read Free Book Online Page B

bitter assessment of Lieutenant Kriecher's motivation.
    `Of course, you know the Creeper's trouble, don't yer? Too much five against one - the old right-handed widow!'
    And when one of the Tyrolean mountain boys did not understand, he would explain with an explicit if obscene gesture. `They all get like that in the end - too much looking through keyholes and bashing away at it. That's the Creeper's problem, believe you me.'
    Once Schulze attempted to tackle von Dodenburg on the true function of the mysterious officer, but the CO had shrugged and given him the same explanation as Metzger.
    `National Socialist Leadership Officer, Schulze. Sent here personally by the Reichsführer SS to attempt to convert you heathen Bolsheviks to the true cause.'
    `That'll be the day, sir!' Schulze had grunted. 'My old man in Barmbek would half slaughter me when I went home - if I ever do get home again off this sodding mountain.'
    `Don't worry, Schulze,' von Dodenburg had laughed. 'You know the old saying? Weeds never die.'
    `I wish that particular weed would!'
    `Tut, tut,' von Dodenburg had commented without rancour, `you should not say things like that about your superior officers.'
    But in the end the big ex-docker's hatred of the little Saxon officer gave way to a kind of fear. Whenever the Creeper was near him, he could feel a cold finger of apprehension trace its way slowly down his spine and the hairs on the back of his head would stand up. He took to avoiding the man as much as possible, and he wasn't the only one.
    The officers of the Wotan did not take to the newcomer, who always ate alone and did not join the rough horseplay of the little mess they had made for themselves in the big log-covered bunker behind the Twin Tits' command post. Whereas their conversation was devoted to women, drink and the technicalities of their calling, his was limited to harsh brittle comments which always began with, 'The Führer has stated that ...' as if he alone had the ear of the Leader. Even Schwarz, the most fanatical of these young men who were the elite of National Socialist youth, could not get along with this strange officer who had appeared so suddenly in their midst.
    But as the first week passed since their capture of Peak 555 and no Ami counter-attack from below had materialized, the young officers started to forget the Creeper and concentrate more on the unknown prospect that lay before them.
    On the morning of the ninth day, with the clouds hanging low over the peak, grey and leaden with snow, the Vulture sought out von Dodenburg in his own CP. Together they made a full inspection of their positions, their eyes straying continually to the smoke-filled valley below, trying to penetrate the secret of what lay behind the man-made screen.
    `Very satisfactory,' the bandy-legged little cavalryman said when they came to the end of the perimeter and slapped his cane against his riding boots. 'The men have done a very good job, though I think we could do with one or two of our heavy tags resisting.'
    `I'll see to it immediately, sir,' von Dodenburg snapped. `Good, better get it done before the violins start to play,' he indicated the rolling grey clouds with his cane.
    For a while they walked in silence, broken only by the nimble of the heavies far off.
    `What are we going to do about the Party, von Dodenburg?' the Vulture asked suddenly.
    The younger officer turned startled.
    `What did you say, sir?'
    `I asked what are we going to do with the Party? You know, of course, that we're losing the war?' He said, as though he were discussing the state of the weather. 'If we're going to approach the Allies, then we've got to go to them with clean hands - relatively clean hands, that is. You understand?' He paused and taking out his monocle deliberately, began to rub off the condensation caused by the icy cold.
    `No ... no, I don't, sir.'
    `It is simple. The Allies won't receive us with those men in Berlin still in power.'
    `But that's a shocking