Operation Kill Ike: A secret mission during the Battle of the Bulge (Destroyers WWII Thriller Series Book 5) by Charles Whiting

Author:Charles Whiting [Whiting, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sapere Books
Published: 2022-09-12T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16

‘You know, over these last years the papers and the films have made us think that, apart from a handful of quislings — the people of Occupied Europe hated Hitler,’ Mallory said, gazing around the little circle of soldiers in Colonel Dawson’s office. ‘But that was not always the case. The Nazis were welcomed enthusiastically by some minorities in most of the countries they took over in the first years of the war. Today the German Army is full of men of non-German nationality; French, Belgians, Norwegians, Danes — the lot, all of whom volunteered to fight for the German cause. But no people in Occupied Europe co-operated as much as the Belgian Flemings. As perhaps you know, this country is dominated by the French-speaking Walloons. They run the government, the economy, the administration and the army. The Walloons run the country and the Flemings, who make up half the population, have always felt out of things — rather like a lot of country bumpkins, speaking an impossible dialect, Flemish, who are only good enough to carry out the rough work for the French-speaking bosses. Naturally the Germans were not slow to make use of this hatred of the Flemings for the Walloons. Back in the Great War they tried to convince the Flemings that they were members of the Greater German Community. And of course, as soon as the Nazis came along with their crackpot racial theories, the Flemings were classed as Aryans and racial brothers. So when the Germans took over Belgium in 1940, the Flemings flocked to their standards by the thousand. At this moment there is a whole Belgian SS Division fighting in the East against the Russians. In August and September, when our troops moved into Belgium, the whole Flemish dream came apart. The great majority of them resigned themselves to the fact that the Walloons would take over again, but there were a few who were not content to accept the new situation just like that — and they were naturally aided by the Germans who saw them as an ideal source of espionage behind our lines.’

‘The Broederbond?’ Colonel Dawson said.

‘Yes, Colonel, the “Band of Brothers”, a group of fanatical Flemings,’ he added for the Destroyers’ benefit, ‘who still believe in Germany’s victory and are prepared to do anything for the Germans.’

‘This is all very interesting,’ Crooke interposed, ‘but I can’t see what it’s got to do with Weed and the chap who tried to kill Stead.’

‘I’m coming to that. We know that Skorzeny’s organization left behind some “sleepers” — German-trained agents — with the Broederbond when the Germans pulled out of Belgium in September. Two months ago our wireless experts informed the authorities that they were contacting Skorzeny’s HQ at Friedensthal, just outside Berlin. We couldn’t break their code, but the fact that they were in radio contact with Skorzeny indicates that the Broederbond was planned into this new German offensive. The events of this afternoon at the station prove, I think, that that is the case.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.