Chapter 25

East Asia and the Pacific: 1943

Australian and U.S. forces undertook the prolonged campaign to retake the occupied parts of the Solomon Islands, New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, experiencing some of the toughest resistance of the war. The rest of the Solomon Islands were retaken in 1943.

Soviet Union

After the victory at Stalingrad, the Red Army launched eight offensives during the winter, many concentrated along the Don basin near Stalingrad, which resulted in initial gains until German forces were able to take advantage of the weakened condition of the Red Army and regain the territory it lost. In July, the Wehrmacht launched a much-delayed offensive against the Soviet Union at Kursk. Their intentions were known by the Soviets, and the Battle of Kursk ended in a Soviet counter offensive that threw the German Army back.

Italy

Newly captured North Africa was used as a springboard for the invasion of Sicily on 10 July 1943.

July 25th Benito Mussolini was fired from office by the King of Italy, allowing a new government to take power. Having captured Sicily, the Allies invaded mainland Italy on 3 September 1943. Italy surrendered on 8 September, but German forces continued to fight. Allied forces advanced north but were stalled for the winter at the Gustav Line, until they broke through in the Battle of Monte Cassino. Rome was captured on 5 June 1944. Mid-1943 brought the fifth and final German Sutjeska offensive against the Yugoslav Partisans before the invasion and subsequent capitulation of Italy, the other major occupying force in Yugoslavia.

8:30 pm Monday May 10th 1943

Richard, Pieter and Gerry were drifting on the Bodensee in Bert's fishing boat. Dressed in ragged clothes they were masquerading as humble fisherman. The boat's port and starboard running lights were switched on to avoid being run down by larger vessels. It was a bright moonlight night with the moon on the wane.

They were ten kilometres north of Uberlingen where they had been fishing since sunset. A trawling net rigged to the rear of the boat; their modest catch kept alive in a tank of water amidships. Fishing was a cover for their surveillance of the new dock and workshops for the German Bodensee patrol boats. The German's had cut into the forest to make room for their workshops and fuel storage which were located close to the wooden piers that had been hastily erected.

"From the patrol boat dock, look up the hill behind the buildings and you'll see the outlines of two large fuel tanks full of diesel oil. We watched last week as tankers pulled into the dock and fuel oil was pumped into those tanks," Pieter said.

"How far is it from the water to the tanks?" Richard asked.

"We took a look from the forest at the back and we estimated that it was about seventy to eighty metres. I wondered at first why they didn't build the fuel tanks on the dock. They didn't spend much time erecting the wooden piers on cross-braced pilings. I suspect that they wouldn't support the weight of the fuel," Pieter said.

"When a vessel docks though, refuelling will be quick with the gravity feed from the tanks up the hill," Richard said.

"That's how I see it," Pieter said, "Let's keep fishing, I don't want to attract any attention."

"Any idea how many vessels will tie up here," Gerry asked.

"The greatest number was four boats at about three in the morning one night last week, but I expect that number to increase," Pieter said.

Pieter looked up and saw a patrol boat bearing down on them.

"Patrol boat approaching! Keep working; pull the net in and we'll see what we've caught."

The patrol boat swerved away, the crew had satisfied themselves that Pieter's boat was legitimate with three fishermen hauling the net. As the patrol passed by, Pieter looked up from the net and casually waved to a soldier on the deck.

"How's the fishing," the soldier yelled as the patrol boat eased slowly by.

"Only fair," Pieter yelled back as the patrol boat picked up speed and headed in to the dock.

From the fishing boat, they watched the patrol boat docking. The crew disembarked and headed to a small building closest to the dock. Support personnel, wearing camouflage overalls, passed them on their way to service the patrol boat.

Fifteen minutes later, the land crew finished servicing the patrol boat but another hour passed before they saw the boat crew rejoin their boat. Pieter had moved Bert's boat five hundred metres to the west; they were well away from the path the patrol boat would take when it went back on duty.

The next day Pieter and his six men sat with Richard and Gerry discussing strategies for attacking the patrol boat station.

"I want to make a two pronged attack. Remote control mines on the diesel fuel tanks and underwater mines attached to any docked patrol boats," Pieter said.

"I'm volunteering to attack the fuel tanks," Gerry said.

"Pieter, if you don't mind I'll join Gerry. I don't like the water." Richard said.

"Who'll join me in one of the kayaks?" Tomas asked.

Arnold put his hand up and walked to stand alongside Tomas.

"I want to take the other kayak. What about it Oskar?" Kurt said.

"Okay, as long as I get the back seat. The last time we worked together you had me wringing wet," Oskar said.

Kurt laughed loudly. When he recovered, "I was playing games with you and dammit you didn't complain once."

Pieter turned to Roger and Werner, two of his men, "I want you to station yourselves down at the stream. If we're followed back here, I want you ready to fire on our pursuers. We'll need time to scramble off the boat and disappear into the forest. Surprise fire, from both of you, will give us that time.

Richard moved alongside Gerry. He asked quietly, "Are you familiar with the remote controlled mines?"

"I've never fired one but I understand how to arm them and use the remote control," Gerry said.

"You're training on the job, huh!" Richard said. He was apprehensive but kept his fears to himself.

Pieter picked up a twig, which he used to draw a map of the location of Uberlingen in the soft earth.

"Uberlingen is on the northern side of an arm of the Bodensee. I'll drop Richard and Gerry three kilometres away from the patrol boat station. They'll make their way through the forest to the fuel tanks and wait for us to get to the other side of the arm, near Walhausen, where we'll launch the kayaks. It will take about twenty minutes to paddle across to the patrol boat station. It will take about fifteen minutes to place mines on the three or four boats. And another twenty minutes to return to where I'll be waiting for them," Pieter said.

"So Gerry and I will have about an hour to get in position after making our way, heavily laden with equipment, through three kilometres of forest? That's next door to impossible!" Richard said.

"I'm not wanting to synchronise you with the attack from the water. In fact, I'm hoping that you blow up the fuel tanks after the patrol boats explode. This will give us more time to get away. I want to be on the way to your pickup point by the time the mines on the boats detonate," Pieter said.

"Okay," Richard said softly.

"When the fuel tanks blow, I'm hoping that much of the site will be destroyed by the fire. This will also draw attention away from us on the water," Pieter said.

Close to midnight, seven men left Pieter's camp. The moon had set and it was difficult to tell the men apart. Their faces blackened, they were loaded down with equipment. When they reached Bert's boat, they carefully avoided the folded kayaks as they loaded the armaments into the boat.

"I want four men to lay in the bottom of the boat, I don't want our profile to look any different to our many previous times when three men manned the boat," Pieter said.

Kurt, Gerry, Arnold and Oskar stretched out in the bottom of the boat, Tomas sat in the bow while Richard joined Pieter in the stern.

The temperature had fallen to five degrees Centigrade and a cold wind roared across Switzerland and down onto the waters of the Bodensee.

"It's a bit warmer in the bottom of the boat," Gerry said to Kurt.

"Wait until you have to carry all that gear through the forest. You'll warm up," Kurt said.

Pieter ran the boat slowly to the drop off point for Gerry and Richard.

'The last thing I want now is for a patrol boat to pull us up loaded like a battle destroyer, ' Pieter thought.

The wind had picked up and when the boat started to slap against the small waves Pieter slowed the boat. An hour after they had set off from the camp he guided the boat to the northern shore. Many hands helped unload the remote mines and equipment for Gerry and Richard.

With his arms full Richard turned to Pieter, "Make sure you wait for us." He turned and strode quickly away through the trees to catch up with Gerry.

Pieter shook his head as he turned the boat to the west towards the middle of the Bodensee. 'Never thought I would see it but Richard's nervous.' He thought.

Twenty minutes later, he disengaged the motor letting it idle while the men awkwardly assembled the two man kayaks. Tomas moved easily into the back position of his kayak and held it steady while Arnold eased into the bow seat. He held Kurt's kayak wedged against Bert's boat while Kurt and Oskar positioned themselves.

Pieter then fed each man with three mines each, which they eased into position between their legs. Lastly, he passed a rifle to each man, which was also placed into the bottom of the kayak.

"Good luck," Pieter said softly.

The two kayaks pushed away from the boat and started paddling towards the patrol boat station.

Five hundred metres from the dock the two kayaks eased close.

"There's five of them docked," Kurt said wiping the sweat from his face.

"You take the first three closest to us and I'll take the two nearest the shore," Tomas said as he paddled away.

Silently they eased the kayaks close to the docks, Tomas was now well ahead when he steered in through the pilings and halted the kayak. He pulled his hunting knife from a holster in his boot. Leaning forward, he grabbed a handful of Arnold's hair. Pulling his head back and before Arnold could utter a protest his hunting knife flashed across Arnold's throat, cutting deeply, severing both carotid arteries.

For seconds before he lost consciousness, Arnold threshed around threatening to capsize the kayak. With blood pluming from Arnolds throat Tomas held onto a cross beam steadying the kayak while his other hand gripped Arnolds hair.

When blood ceased pumping from Arnold's heart he wiped his knife on Arnold's coat and replaced it in his boot. Gripping the cross beam he tried to ease the dead weight of Arnold from the kayak but he lost his grip on the crossbeam. The kayak rolled and rapidly filling with water, it sank to the bottom three metres below, dragging Tomas with it. Fearing that he might drown he kicked out of the kayak and when he resurfaced his lungs sucked greedily. Exhausted from the effort to remain on the surface, he started swimming towards the shore, his heavy clothing laden with water pulling against his efforts to remain afloat.

He spotted a ladder that extended down the side of the pier to the water.

"You stay here while I see how many guards are on duty," Gerry said softly to Richard.

Richard raised his thumb and Gerry disappeared down the hillside. When he looked down onto the docks, he was surprised that there were no guards in sight.

From his position he surveyed the docks and was about to return to Richard when he noticed the silhouette of a figure emerging from the dark water, climbing a small ladder until he was on the pier. The figure cupped his hands to his mouth.

Gerry who was seventy metres away, clearly heard the yell, "The base is under attack."

Within seconds, high intensity stanchion lights flooded the docks and adjoining buildings. Three soldiers ran from the barracks at the rear and Gerry watched as they saw the bedraggled figure raise his arms. Gerry knew then that Tomas was a traitor.

Racing quickly up the hill he heard rifle fire, when he caught sight of Richard he grabbed him by the elbow.

"Tomas informed on us! We'll have to be quick. You place three mines on the tank nearest us and I'll do the same with the other one then we will have to leave quickly," Gerry said.

One of the three soldiers, sure that Tomas was a saboteur, fired his rifle and watched as he reeled backwards and fell on his back.

When Tomas did not move the soldier ran to him.

With blood leaking from his mouth, Tomas beckoned the soldier closer.

"They're mining the patrol boats and they're going to bomb the fuel tanks. They're up there now."

The soldier directed his two companions, "Up into the forest, skirt around behind the fuel tanks, they're going to blow them up! Keep alert."

He ran back to the small barracks and rounded up three men to join him searching the docks.

Kurt had heard Tomas yelling for attention, betraying them. Working feverishly, he placed armed mines on three patrol boats. Hearing soldiers racing along the wooden pier he and Oskar slipped quietly away. Kurt heard a rifle shot and wondered who was being fired on. When they were three hundred metres away, he thought that luck was on their side until a searchlight pierced the darkened waters. They were four hundred metres away before the beam found them.

The patrol boats, fitted with forward facing machine guns, were docked with their bows facing the shore. Because the machine guns were not able to fire back over the stern of the boats they were rendered useless.

Sweating from exertion Richard followed Gerry back into the forest.

"I don't want to wait; I'm going to blow the tanks now,"

"Do it!" Richard said.

Gerry slid his rifle from his shoulder, dropped his backpack, opened it and hurriedly retrieved the remote control transmitter. Releasing the guard from the firing switch, he pushed the firing button. He heard the sound of the mines exploding and the fuel igniting. The first tank blew apart sending burning fuel high into the air where it rained down onto the buildings and the surrounding trees. Flames leapt high into the air and a river of burning oil flooded down the slope, filling the gutters, setting fire to the buildings foundations.

They were only three hundred metres away from the explosion and Gerry knew that a shock wave would follow the explosion. Gerry reached up to pull Richard down and was surprised when he fell face down alongside him screaming.

"I've been shot!" Richard gasped as he clutched his right thigh in pain.

The second tank exploded as Gerry reached quickly for his rifle. Rolling onto his back, and looking back up the hill, he sighted two soldiers in the glow from the burning tanks. Two soldiers were bearing down on them from up the hill. Firing quickly but purposely, he knew that he had mortally wounded one of them when he dropped to the ground and ceased moving. The other soldier ducked quickly out of sight.

Gerry scrambled away from Richard and moved up the hill diagonally away from him. He knew now that unless the soldier had moved again he was now the same distance up the hill. He froze, listening for any sounds that might tell him the soldier's position.

Gerry dropped to the ground, the heat was unbearable and thick black smoke was blowing up the hill making breathing difficult.

He thought that he heard the soldier swearing, but he did not know if he was hearing things with his ears still ringing from the explosion. He lay still listening. A twig snapped and dead leaves rustled as the soldier now made his way rapidly downhill, storming the area where he had last sighted Gerry and Richard.

'I've got you now you bastard!' Gerry thought as he quietly stalked his quarry. He was ten metres away when he saw the soldier raise his rifle preparing to kill Richard.

Gerry aimed carefully; knowing that firing at the soldier's steel helmet would not stop him, instead he aimed at his chest and fired.

Richard screamed in pain as the soldier fell across his wounded leg.

In the heat, the flaming oil spattered underbrush started to catch fire.

Gerry rushed to Richard and lifted the dead soldier off him. He unbuttoned the soldier's holster, took his luger and thrust it into his coat pocket.

When he turned his attention to Richard, he was dismayed to find that he lying in a large pool of blood and mumbling incoherently.

"Can you stand on your good leg?" Gerry asked but Richard seemed not to understand.

'I've got to get us away from here, and quickly, ' Gerry thought. He pulled his knife and slit Richards heavy trouser leg up above the knee. It looked to him that the knee joint had been blown away. Slitting a strip of trouser leg, he snapped a twig, wound the strip of cloth around Richard's upper leg, and knotted it. With the twig, he wound the knotted cloth tight until the bleeding stopped. He tied the twig securely preventing the primitive tourniquet from unravelling.

Forgetting about his backpack and rifle he manoeuvred Richard until he had him across his shoulders. Hefting him into a more comfortable position, he set off slowly across the hill to the rendezvous point three kilometres away.

Gerry was within two kilometres of their meeting place when he heard three explosions from the direction of the patrol boat station. Idly, he thought, 'That must be the patrol boats going up. I've been carrying Richard for thirty minutes.' Gerry was sweating profusely yet his throat was dry and Richard felt like a tonne weight.

He stumbled on for a further two kilometres. Turning, he walked slowly downhill toward the water where he hoped that Pieter was waiting. He did not hear Kurt approaching until he was almost on him.

"Easy Gerry, it's Kurt. Richard's wounded?"

"Yah, that bastard Tomas... he betrayed us," Gerry panted breathlessly.

"I know. I heard him from the kayak. We don't know what happened to Arnold but we think that Tomas might have murdered him. Let me carry Richard, it'll give you a rest."

"No! He's my responsibility," Gerry said stubbornly and walked further downhill.

Pieter had the boat started as soon as Gerry released Richard into the waiting hands of Oskar and Kurt. Gently they lowered him into the bottom of the boat. Gerry scooped water from the lake and slaked his thirst then he moved down to the stern alongside Pieter.

"You've had a hard time Gerry," Pieter said.

"And I think Richard is going to die," Gerry said, his voice broken.

"How bad is he?"

"He's lost a lot of blood and his right knee looks to be shattered. If we don't get medical help for him..." Gerry covered his face not wanting Pieter to see his tears. "He's going to die..." Gerry sobbed.

"Not while I'm alive he isn't!" Pieter said, "Kurt! I want to talk to you."

Kurt hurried to the stern of the boat and crouched facing Pieter and Gerry.

"Have we got enough fuel onboard to make it to Kruezlingen?"

"Plenty."

"Your mother is a nurse isn't she?" Pieter asked.

"Before she got married she was."

"She'd know a doctor who could treat Richard."

"Possibly."

"Well that's where we're going right now, your place." Pieter said as he increased the boat's speed, changing course for Kruezlingen in neutral Switzerland.

"What do you think Manfred?" Chris asked.

"It's a good location, at least you can't be attacked from the rear," Manfred said.

After two days, they had finally found a campsite deep in the Hardt forest, in a rock overhang, hard against a one hundred-metre cliff face.

"Now we need to find a place to store the gasoline and the explosives," Chris said.

The doctor turned from Richard who was lying on the living room floor of Axel Nagle's house; covered with blankets. He was shivering in deep shock.

"He's in a critical condition. We have to get him to hospital he needs a blood transfusion urgently," the doctor said addressing Katherine and Alex Nagle, Kurt's parents.

Axel guided the doctor to his telephone, "Make whatever arrangements you think necessary."

Bernard dragged the last of the flexible gasoline tanks to the rear of the van as Otto and Alvin reached for the handles and pulled it onto the floor of the forest. Then they carried it fifty metres and pushed it under a vine growing luxuriantly through the undergrowth. Using a branch from a nearby tree Alvin swept the forest floor removing the footprints they had left behind. Otto picked up handfuls of dead leaves and scattered them around the gasoline cache. When he was finished, he stood back and satisfied that the fuel was securely hidden he beckoned to the men and they boarded the van.

Bernard drove further down and driving off the trail, he parked the van under a tree with low hanging branches. When they were finished hiding the van with underbrush Otto beckoned to Bernard and Alvin to follow him to the camp.

As they entered the camp, Chris came forward, "All hidden?"

"Yes, we're finished," Bernard said.

Chris called everyone to his tent. He dropped the maps of the Kahlsruhe power station onto the camp table.

"I want to have a look at the substation tonight and then depending on what we discover we'll plan our little surprises," Chris said.

"I want to contact Richard's farm and see if I have any important messages waiting for me," Bernard said.

"Here's the code book, the communications set is working, so why don't you monitor our channel as well, while we're away," Chris said.

Richard regained consciousness, his mind straining to identify his surroundings. The room was darkened, and a nurse sat quietly facing his bed. He tried to move his arms but his left arm was tied down with blood transfusing into a vein. When he tried to move his legs, the pain from his right leg made him stop.

The nurse aware that Richard had regained consciousness stood up and went to his bedside.

"You're awake Herr Dasch," said the nurse said, using Richard's newly acquired identity. "How are you feeling?"

"Where am I?"

"You're safe now, you're in the Kruezlingen district hospital. We're giving you a blood transfusion."

"My leg..."

"Your doctor will discuss that with you soon."

"But..."

"I can't help you Herr Dasch. Herr Landen has been waiting for hours for you to regain consciousness. I can let him in to see for a short time but only if you feel up to it."

"Please show him in," Richard said weakly.

When the nurse left his room Richard tried to raise his head from the pillow to look at his arm. His wound and loss of blood had weakened him and his vision swirled. Feeling nauseous, he dropped his head to the pillow and closed his eyes, waiting for the vertigo to subside.