Chapter 1:
For the month of December, it was a very decent day in Hammelburg, Germany. The sun was shining, and the breeze was not bitter cold. It was more of a light summer breeze, but still added to the chill of winter and snow. Patches of snow covered parts of the forests near Stalag 13, and some covered parts of the compound within the camp itself.
While the camp guards did their daily routines and patrols, the prisoners were either inside sitting by the fire and reading or were outside playing games and doing exercises to keep warm. As for Kommandant Klink, he was inside his office working on paperwork and making sure all documents were in order to keep his camp running efficiently.
Colonel Hogan, Newkirk, and LeBeau were playing with Klink's daughter, Kalina, in a game of wall ball using one side of the Kommandantur for the wall.
Kalina had previously been a member of the underground, but since moving to Stalag 13, she had become one of Hogan's team members and held a position as a spy and assistant to Kinch with radio messaging. She had now been living there for about nine months and loved her new life. Hogan and his men had become her best friends, Sergeant Schultz a good friend and grandfather type figure, and Corporal Langenscheidt she loved like a big brother. Most of all, she got to see her father everyday and help him with keeping Stalag 13 the model camp for other kommandants in Germany.
Newkirk currently had the tennis ball and got himself warmed up with a few tosses into the air and a few bounces on the ground. Once he felt confident with his skills, he made a beautiful throw, making the ball hit the wall with a loud 'thud'. It bounced once off the ground and headed in Kalina's direction.
"Get it, little mate!" Newkirk cried.
With lots of energy and excitement, Kalina rushed towards the ball and caught it in her hands before it made a second bounce on the ground.
"Nice catch, love," the Englishman said, with a grin.
Klink's daughter smiled back, bounced the ball a couple times, then made a fast pitch at the wall, sending the ball back to LeBeau. The little Frenchman bounced the ball a few times, prepared himself for the greatest throw ever, when his arm aimed a little too high. The ball went flying in the air, hit the top of the roof, then rolled down and landed itself in the gutter.
"Oops," LeBeau said, looking a bit embarrassed.
"Well, that's just bleedin' terrific. Now how are we supposed to finish the game?" Newkirk groaned, irritated with their situation.
Hogan looked up at the roof and tried to locate the ball. When he spotted it, he looked back down at his friends.
"We could get a broom from the recreation hall and try to knock it down," the colonel suggested.
Kalina looked up at the roof, when a light-bulb turned on in her head, and a smile grew on her face.
"I know!" She cried. "You guys wait here."
Without another word, Kalina hurried off to the other side of the building, where the Kommandantur connected with her and her father's quarters. The ground got closer to the roof the farther she went and once at a high enough spot crawled onto the roof and carefully made her way to the other side. She climbed down the side and reached down to grab the ball out of the gutter. The tennis ball was soon in her hands, she grinned, and threw the ball back down into Hogan's hands.
"Good work, Kalina!" The colonel called up. "I might have to have you fix our roof from leaking with that stealth you have."
The teenager giggled and made herself comfortable. She looked down at her friends and continued watching the game.
Hogan made his throw, and the ball was quickly returned to Newkirk's grasp. As the game resumed itself, Schultz wandered his way over to see what the men were doing and became puzzled.
"What are you doing?" He asked.
"Playing a game, Schultz. You wanna play?" Hogan replied.
"A game. It looks like you boys are up to something, I know it," the sergeant said, pointing a finger at the American.
"Aw, Schultzie, come off it, mate. Have a little fun," Newkirk said, waiting for LeBeau to make his next throw.
"Fun? In a POW camp?" Schultz remarked, still terribly confused.
"It makes the time go by faster," Hogan said, cocking his head slightly to the right.
"Hi, Schultz!" Kalina called down.
"Guten morgen, Kalina! How are you...Kalina! What are you doing on the roof?!" The sergeant exclaimed.
"Oh, you know...chilling." She answered.
"Oh, Colonel Hogan, please, Colonel Hogan!"
"Relax, Schultz. She's alright," the colonel said, his attention on the game.
"Alright! Are you crazy?! She's up on the roof! Colonel Hogan, please get her down from there. If Kommandant Klink finds out she was up there, it would be worth my life!"
"She's not doing anything dangerous. All she's doing is sitting."
"Get her down from there at once!"
"Come on, Schultz, look how happy she is. Sitting and watching and laughing…"
"Oh, I see nothing, noooothing!"
"Herr Major, it is no problem whatsoever," Klink said, resting in his office chair and talking on the phone. "Any chance I get to show just how tough and successful Stalag 13 is is my way of giving back to our glorious Fuhrer."
The man on the other line said something that made the kommandant chuckle.
"Well...I wouldn't go that far, Sir." He replied.
It was at that moment that Klink began to hear the ruckus coming from outside. He snapped his head towards his window to see what was going on all the while trying to listen to the man on the phone. He eventually turned his head back to the front of him, and his scowl reversed itself to a smile again.
"Yes, Herr Major, I will see you at Headquarters in a few days...Heil Hitler."
Once Klink had hung up, he growled and turned back to his window.
"What's going on out there now?" He mumbled to himself.
The colonel got to his feet, grabbed his swagger stick, tucked it under his arm, and stormed outside to see what was happening. He quickly made his way down the stairs and marched over to the guilty party.
"What's going on out here?!" He demanded.
"Kommandant, you're just in time! You wanna join in on our game?" Hogan asked, with a grin.
"Game, this looks like some type of…" Klink's mouth dropped, when he saw his baby plopped up on the roof.
Schultz closed his eyes and shook his head. He knew what they all had coming.
"Hogan! What is my daughter doing up on the roof?!" The kommandant bellowed, shaking his fist.
"Sightseeing. The camp skyline is gorgeous at this time of year," Newkirk said.
"Kalina Mary Klink, you get down from there at once!" Klink ordered.
"Yes, Papa," Kalina said, getting to her feet. She walked to the ledge and gracefully fell off.
"AH!" Klink screeched.
Luckily, Schultz caught the girl in his arms, who looked up at him with a smile.
"Hi there. How's it going?" She asked.
The guard grumbled and dropped Kalina on her feet.
"Hey, Kalina, next time you go up there bring some rope and bed sheets. We can all go parachuting down!" Newkirk cried, nudging LeBeau with his elbow. The two enlisted men started laughing when, on the other hand, Klink fell dead silent and glared at all of them with a haunting look on his face.
Kalina gulped and made her way closer to Hogan's side. Her eyes were a bit dilated and was shaking a little.
"What's wrong, Kalina? Don't worry about your father. He gets like this all the time, you've seen it," the colonel said, trying to ease the child's nerves.
"No, Colonel Hogan...if Papa grows quiet, he's really mad." The girl trembled.
Hogan looked down at Kalina, then back at Klink with a look full of regret.
"Oh boy," he said. He knew just then that he and his men had had it.
"A tennis ball?!" Klink exclaimed, turning the spherical object in his right hand.
"We were playing a game of wall ball, Kommandant," Hogan said. He, LeBeau, Newkirk, Schultz, and Kalina all stood before the German officer, knowing an unruly punishment was on its way.
"What is wall ball?" Klink questioned, both intrigued and suspicious.
"Oh, it's a fabulous game, Colonel. See, you throw a ball against the wall, and the next person beside you has to catch it. If they miss or the ball bounces on the ground more than once, they have to do ten push-ups and lose a turn. The last person who's standing and hasn't done any push-ups yet is the winner," LeBeau said.
Klink stared at all of them for a brief moment before speaking.
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard of."
"It's a lot of fun, Sir. You should try it some time. Very good stress relief." Newkirk responded, hoping to clear their names.
"And my little girl's life was worth risk to get this stupid ball back down?"
"She volunteered, Sir. We didn't force her to go up there."
The kommandant snapped on his heels and turned to his daughter.
"And you, young lady, have a lot of explaining to do!" He scolded.
Kalina shrunk her head into her shoulders, looked down at the ground, and had her arms behind her back. She hated making her father angry. It was the worst feeling in the world to disappoint him. He was the one that Kalina looked up to the most and strove so hard to be as successful and great of a person as he was.
"Don't go hard on her, Kommandant. She didn't do anything wrong," Hogan said, trying to make Kalina's consequences less severe.
"This is between me and my daughter, Hogan. When it comes to her, you have no say in the matter!" Klink made his way back to where he had been standing before and made his eyes to Schultz.
"Sergeant Schultz, as your punishment you will walk a post for 48 hours straight! Hogan, you, Corporal Newkirk, and the cockroach have all recreational privileges revoked for one month!"
"One month!" LeBeau exclaimed.
"No exceptions. And if another incident like this is to happen again, all of you will be sent to the cooler to serve 30 days worth of punishment, understood?" Klink asked, with authority.
"You're right, Kommandant. We were careless and it won't happen again," Hogan said, stepping forward.
The kommandant stared at the four for a moment longer, then made his way back to Kalina.
"And you!" He called out. "Go clean up the compound!"
"Yes, Sir," Kalina said, with depression. She never lifted her eyes once to look at the man back. She was too ashamed of herself.
"General Burkhalter is coming here in a few days, and I do not want anything like this to occur while I'm away in Berlin, understood?"
It was then Kalina had enough guts to look at him. Her facial expression had gone from ashamed to concerned.
"You're leaving?" She asked, her voice full of dread.
"For where?" Hogan added, growing suspicious.
"The Gestapo are holding one of your men as prisoner and refuses to talk. They want me to go to Headquarters and help intimidate the man by using my perfect no escape record as a threat," Klink said, with pride.
Schultz bursted out laughing hearing the news. Klink. Trying to intimidate someone. That was a new one. However, it did not go over so well.
"Sergeant, do you wanna make it 72 hours?" The kommandant asked, unamused.
Schultz stopped and fell silent.
"General Burkhalter is coming here to step in for me during my leave of absence, and I expect everyone to be on their best behavior." Klink continued. He then pointed to the door. "Now get to your posts! I have lots of work to do before I leave."
The five silently made their way out of the office and closed the door behind them. Once in the compound, Schultz split off to start his punishment, leaving Hogan, his men, and Kalina alone.
"Klink leaving for Berlin?" Newkirk asked.
"Who's this guy they're holding, Colonel?" LeBeau questioned.
"I don't know. We better go find Kinch and have him radio London. Maybe they know something," Hogan said.
"Papa can't leave. I need to make up for what I did...to make him proud," Kalina said, looking at the ground in sadness.
"Aw...don't be sad. Your father will be mad for awhile, but he'll get over it quickly...and he's always proud of you. What good parent wouldn't be of their child?"
Klink's daughter gave a small smile, then sighed.
"Well, better start that litter cleaning. S'not gonna do it itself," she said.
"And we need to get to Kinch about that flyer. We'll report to you when we have more," Hogan said.
They all nodded to one another and went off in their separate directions. They had places to go and things to do.