Love and Retribution by Catherine McCullagh

Author:Catherine McCullagh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Big Sky Publishing
Published: 2021-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

A mere matter of timing

The next day the men were up early, keen to shake the defeatist dust of Wilhelmshaven from their feet and smell the clean air of Bergen once again. They arrived at the dilapidated transport compound with its pitted, crumbling walls only to be told that there was no transport available. They would have to wait, possibly for several hours, the harried sergeant could promise them nothing, he told them, shaking his head ruefully against the continued rumble of the distant artillery. The team members nodded and turned away; they knew there would be trucks heading to Hamburg and then on the long haul to Plön. It was simply a matter of finding a driver willing to stow them in the back, just as the man who had brought them there three days earlier had done. It took them an hour to find a truck and a driver with a helpful disposition and room in the back, and even then it was a tight fit. The driver’s cab was fully occupied, two transport men squeezing in beside the driver for the long, bumpy trip along the cratered road to Hamburg. The team leapt into the back, careless of discomfort as long as they could eventually reach their destination. They were desperate to return to the fray and to regain what for them was the normality of a naval base that was stable, operational and focused on the fight.

The truck rumbled slowly onto the main road that wound its way around the edge of the picturesque Jade Bight on which the base was located, its scenic rim pocked and scarred in places, but miraculously intact in small stretches that reflected its pre-war beauty. Progress was slow due to the thick knots of traffic and the cratered condition of the road. They had been on their way for just over an hour and had reached the outskirts of the city of Oldenburg when the truck came to a grinding halt.

‘Checkpoint!’ called the driver amid the grumbles of his companions. A garbled conversation from the front reached Max and his team in the back. Apparently all trucks were being checked for deserters, signalling to Max that they must be quite close to the front line where the fighting was clearly bitter and desperate. Men did not desert if they had the upper hand. Heavy steps sounded on the road alongside them, moving around the side of the truck until the canvas at the back was flung aside to reveal a squad of dusty SS soldiers in their field-grey uniforms, the distinctive silver double-lightning flashes on the collar apparent through the grime. The squad commander, a stocky Major, pushed his way through.

‘What have we here?’ he asked with a quizzical smile, ‘Kriegsmarine? Leaving the front in a hurry are we?’ Max responded in kind.

‘SS?’ he replied, keen to pander to the man’s vanity, ‘good to know that the front is in such safe hands. We’re on our way back to our base after a meeting with the Commanding Admiral in Wilhelmshaven.

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