Volk (16 page)

His actual assignment was in
Abteilung
II, the division of the Abwehr concerned with Sabotage, Subversions and Special Duties. Within this he was in Section II, under Lieutenant Colonel Erwin Lahousen, an Austrian who had joined the Abwehr after the Anschluss.

Lahousen was glad to see him. “We have a lot to do, and too few competent people.” He lifted a brow at Ernst. “You are competent?”

Ernst spread his hands. “I hope so. I have not before done precisely this type of work, but am a quick learner. I'm still not sure why—”

“We did put out a requisition. So your training is not sabotage? That does not necessarily reflect on your competence. It may be that someone saw such promise in you that he could not let you miss this opportunity. Do you have any special abilities?”

“Some. But I have to say that it may not be competence that brought me here. I had what I prefer to term a personality conflict with my commander.”

Lahousen shook his head. “We know about that sort of thing, here; if you follow orders you will be all right. What abilities?”

“I have studied both American English and Spanish, and believe I speak those languages well.”

“Trilingual. That must be it.” The colonel signaled a man in the hall. “Fetch Heinz.”

In a moment a somewhat stout man appeared, evidently long out of training. “Heinz, we have here a man who speaks American,” the colonel said.

Heinz turned to Ernst. “Good morning, comrade,” he said in accented English.

“Don't call me ‘comrade'!” Ernst snapped in the same language. “That's a Communist.”

Heinz smiled. “And you could pass for American,” he agreed. “You sound just like one, arrogance and all.” He turned to the colonel. “He is good, sir. Better than I am.”

“Fetch Eva.”

Soon a middle aged woman appeared. “Señora,” Ernst said, standing.

“You are from Spain!” she exclaimed in Spanish.

“No. I studied it, and I like to be competent in what I do,” Ernst explained.

She turned to Lahousen. “Like a native,” she said.

The colonel smiled. “We shall surely have good use for you. But right now we are in need of a planner for commando operations. You will be that.”

“In what theater? It makes a difference.”

“Polish.”

“But I don't speak—”

“There will be those who do. You can get started without them.”

So it was that Ernst found himself studying maps of Poland, and researching the German/Polish border. They were planning to take Poland! He had suspected it, but had not expected such abrupt confirmation.

Ernst did his work, and knew it was good. He had organized outings as a Youth leader, and understood how things fitted together. But one thing was missing. “I'll need to see some of the terrain personally,” he told the colonel. “There could be things the maps and reports don't tell us. One road blocked by temporary construction, and—”

“I anticipated that need,” Lahousen said. “It is time to consult with the colonel.”

He brought Ernst to Colonel Oster's office. There was a board bearing the proverb AN EAGLE EATS NO FLIES. Two men were there: Oster, whom Ernst had seen but to whom he had never spoken, and a civilian. Colonel Lahousen, realizing that there could be awkwardness, made a quick introduction. “Sir,” he said to Oster, “I have brought Lieutenant Osterecht to confer with you and Captain Dohnanyi about the next stage of our operation. He needs authorization to inspect the terrain in person.”

“Now that is an amusing coincidence,” Oster said. “My friend was just about to travel in that direction. The Lieutenant can accompany him, in case he needs his shoes polished. I will suggest this to the Admiral.”

The colonel smiled, acknowledging the humor, but Ernst could tell he didn't appreciate it. It was the type of humor directed at underlings whose opinion didn't matter. Since that was a fair description of Ernst at the moment, there was nothing to be done about it. Oster lacked the authority to make assignments, but did control access to Admiral Canaris; therein lay his power. Ernst had quickly discovered how important personality was; it seemed that almost every officer had to be polite to an obnoxious superior.

Ernst did travel with Dohnanyi, and found the man surprisingly compatible. He had a good car and a civilian attitude. “I'm not a captain,” he said as they drove. “I'm actually an anti-militarist crammed into the unaccustomed uniform of a wartime supernumerary and assigned the rank of captain purely as a matter of protocol. I feel quite out of place in an Abwehr headquarters geared towards military order and efficiency.”

“I am in the military,” Ernst said. “But I feel out of place in the Abwehr myself. It is quite different from what I have known.”

“To be sure! It must seem strange to you to hear officers cursing the military.”

“I have not heard any—”

“You are too kind. A number have been cashiered from the service, and restored only because of the Admiral. They hold grudges against the system. I understand you had trouble in your prior unit; perhaps that is why you were sent to this hotbed of dissension.”

“No one has said that to me,” Ernst said carefully. Was the man fishing for some disloyal statement from him? Testing him, the way they had tested him in his foreign languages?

“And you do not know that many of us staunchly oppose the Hitler regime?”

Ernst was shocked. “I can not believe that! The
Führer
—”

“May be a madman. He is bringing us to a war that can destroy us. Do you think this present mission is for peace?”

This had to be a test! If Ernst failed to protest, he would be turned in for disloyalty to the Fatherland. Yet the man sounded sincere. “I think this mission is for war, yes. Because a great nation must be prepared for anything. If Poland attacks us—”

Dohnanyi laughed. “Scant chance of that! I am sure you are not that naive.”

“I do not question the decisions of my superiors. If it is decided that Poland represents a threat to—”

“Nor that naive, either. You know we are preparing to put down Poland, which has been a nuisance for a long time. And that we are even now preparing a nonaggression pact with Russia, and will let them have the far side of Poland.”

Ernst was amazed. “Poland, yes, I had gathered that there would be action there. But the
Führer
would never make a pact with the Communists!”

“But it is true. Hitler is doing it, and I fear disaster for our nation. But it is the regime I serve, and so like you I obey directives. Now we shall inspect the border, and I shall get us across so that you can ascertain what you need of the other side.”

“Across?” Ernst asked blankly. “Just like that?”

“Why did you think Colonel Oster had the Admiral send me with you? I have connections in Poland. I am a lawyer, and a good one; I do business there. I have a pass.”

So it turned out to be. The border guards allowed the car to pass, and they checked the necessary sites. Ernst had assumed that they would have to sneak across by night between roads, but they drove openly. He was amazed at the sloppiness of the border security.

Meanwhile he pondered the man's words and attitude. Was it possible that there was such a hotbed of treason that its participants were open about it? If so, they were fools. But as he talked with Dohnanyi about other things, he became aware that the man was highly intelligent and possessed of a lawyer's powers of reasoning. This was no fool.

That brought up the question whether this was a trap. Did they suspect that Ernst was really Heydrich's agent? If so, they might expect him to report Dohnanyi, and thus reveal himself. That would cause the lawyer trouble, but would protect the others, because Ernst would never get any evidence on them after his report. But if he played along, pretending to harbor subversive notions, Dohnanyi might report
him
, and they would be rid of him. Either way, no important conspirator would be endangered.

The more he pondered, the more certain he became: Neither Admiral Canaris nor Colonel Oster was a fool, and both well understood the mechanisms of secrecy and spying. They had to be testing him, and his response would determine their acceptance of them. This applied regardless whether they were loyal to the regime or traitorous. So he had to find a way to reassure them without getting himself in trouble. And gradually he worked out a way to do that.

When they returned to the Abwehr, Ernst reported to his immediate superior, Colonel Lahousen. First on the terrain: he had learned what he needed to, and could now complete the planning of commando missions to the region.

“And what of your companion?”

“Captain Dohnanyi was a pleasant companion, but careless in his speech,” Ernst said. “I could not take anything he said seriously, for if I did, I would not have been able to travel with him.”

The colonel nodded. “Civilians tend to be half crazy, sometimes,” he remarked. “It is best to ignore them.”

That was all. Ernst did not get in trouble. That was in itself significant, because his proper duty should have been to report Dohnanyi for speaking treason. Colonel Oster had to know the nature of Dohnanyi's remarks—indeed, had probably instructed the man to make them—and Ernst had elected not to report them. Not quite. He had claimed not to take them seriously, but actually he was covering up for the man. That suggested that he had some sympathy. That would have been grounds to remove him from the Abwehr—had they wished to do so. He had become their tacit accomplice in silence.

•  •  •

Except for his secret existence. There was a telephone in Berlin which was safe, and a time when special calls were to be made, and he used that phone at the proper time for his first report directly to Heydrich.

“The civilian Johannes Dohnanyi is anti-military and says that he staunchly opposes the Hitler regime,” he said when Heydrich came on. “He speaks treason—but he may be testing me. I have not reported him, and so I may be compromised. As yet I lack evidence on Oster or Canaris.”

“I know about Dohnanyi,” Heydrich said. “Leave him alone. Oster will trust you if Dohnanyi does—but Dohnanyi may indeed be testing you. Stay with it.”

Which was exactly as Ernst had expected. In this respect he had done right.

He could not say that he really liked this kind of intelligence work, but at least he was successful in it. So far. If he became unsuccessful, he might wish he had remained in America.

•  •  •

Early in May the Admiral's order came down: prepare for “Contingency White.” This meant that Abwehr I was to increase espionage operations in Poland, to determine the strength and dispositions of Polish army units, while Abwehr II was to prevent the demolition of communications, industrial centers and avenues of transportation which would be of use to the advancing German troops. It was no secret now, within the unit: Poland was the target. Invasion seemed incipient.

Ernst had helped identify two strategically vital communications links: One was the bridge over the Vistual River at Dirschau which carried all rail traffic from Danzig and East Prussia to the Polish interior. The other was the Jablunkov Pass in the Beskid Mountains along its southern border, whose tunnels contained twin rail tracks and connected East Germany, Southern Poland and the Balkans. Abwehr II was supposed to attack these positions before the first shot was fired, and overwhelm their defenders by surprise during peace.

But it had been ascertained that the Dirschau bridge was set with explosives designed to destroy it. Since a defender could detonate the explosives at the first sign of trouble, this made the matter delicate. Ernst discussed it with others, and they finally worked out a suitable plan: they would infiltrate a combat team by barge at another place, whose members would travel separately to a rendezvous, abduct prominent figures among the defenders, and would force them to disclose the location of the explosives. Then they would sneak in and defuse the explosives before the overt attack on the bridge. This would require fine timing and coordination, but should be possible if they prepared well and had no unanticipated misfortunes.

The plan for the Beskids was simpler. This relied on S-groups in the area. S stood for
Spannungsagentun
—agents already established in the country. They would take the command areas, destroy the detonators, and then occupy the tunnels and remove the explosives. After that it would be a simple matter to defend the tunnels from Polish intrusions. The Poles would soon be distracted by the main attack on their country.

But there was more. There was a sizable Ukraine contingent in Poland that chafed under Polish domination. A third point of attention was to use this Ukrainian element to mount insurrections against the government as soon as formal hostilities commenced. That would divert some Polish troops, possibly saving many German lives.

Finally, there was a mysterious request by Heydrich, Ernst's true superior, with the backing of Hitler himself. This was for Abwehr assistance in carrying out a very special operation for the Reichführer SS. This was for a hundred and fifty Polish uniforms, with the proper weapons and paybooks to go with them, and three hundred and sixty four men to be temporarily attached to the SD. What was going on?

It was the civilian Dohnanyi who set Ernst straight on the matter. The man was temporarily adrift while Colonel Oster entertained a buxom young woman in his closed office. “Our vegetarian leader is a dirty player. Didn't you know? Those are the men and materials to be used in the pretense of a Polish attack on the German radio station.”

“But why do anything like that? It is senseless.”

“You retain a certain priceless innocence. That will be the pretext for the outrage we shall evince. We shall have to teach those vandalizing Poles a lesson. They will attack us first, giving us leave to conquer their country.”