(1962) March Battalion by Sven Hassel

Author:Sven Hassel
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fiction, War & Military
ISBN: 9780752882284
Publisher: Orion
Published: 1970-01-02T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

GENERAL VON GRABACH paced eagerly up and down the thick pile carpet of his office, staring out upon, but not seeing, the magnificent view over the Landwehr Kanal. Instead of the water, instead of the trees, he was gazing upon a vision of Frau von Zirlitz wearing her pink silk panties. General von Grabach had a passion for pink: he even went so far as to wear pink underclothes himself. He also had a passion for Ebba von Zirlitz: she was his mistress of the moment.

As he paced, he glanced impatiently at his watch and subtracted another five minutes from the long hours he must wait before the delights of the evening which lay ahead. The watch was gold, with a heavy gold strap. It was a present from the town council of Bucharest, where he had been stationed for four glorious months. Bucharest! There was a cushy number, if you like. Endless days of dances, parties, free drink, free tobacco. Endless nights of frolic and debauchery. It seemed to von Grabach, looking back upon those halcyon days, that every other woman you met in Bucharest was a beautiful nymphomaniac.

It was different here in Berlin. You had to fight for your women here, and a damned hard fight it was, too. But the worst thing of all was the way you simply couldn't move for the S.S. men that swarmed all over the city. Ghastly types. An uncouth rabble that in his opinion had no place in the German Army.

Von Grabach pulled a sour face at the thought of them. He turned to the window and gazed out, watching an asthmatic tug boat slowly pulling a string of barges through the sluggish waters of the canal. His thoughts returned pleasurably to Frau von Zirlitz. He really must remember to send a note to his friend, the General commanding the division to which Captain von Zirlitz belonged. There must be no chance of the gallant Captain arriving home unexpectedly. Scenes could lead only to unpleasantness, and it would be disastrous if the echoes reached as far as Prinz Albrecht Strasse. Certainly no sane man would consider it a crime to be found sleeping with the wife of an officer who was fighting at the front – indeed it was perfectly natural and only to be expected – but unfortunately some of the men who held the reins of the Third Reich could not, in the General's opinion, be considered as sane.

He turned back from the window and began pacing again, up and down on the thick pile carpet. The General's office, as befitted his rank and station, more resembled an elegant drawing-room than an office. It was here, at his delicately carved writing desk, that he signed the death warrants of the prisoners in Torgau. But for the moment his mind was not on death warrants it was on Ebba von Zirlitz in her pink silk panties.

His dream was terminated by the arrival of his staff officer, who pointedly placed two rose-coloured folders on the writing desk.

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