A/N: The only characters that are mine are Captain Tom Bowers and Captain Bobby Martin. Chapter revised to address a canon inconsistency.
Chapter 1 - Escape from the Oflag
Captain Bowers came to my bunk in the dead of night and shook me by the shoulder.
"Lieutenant? Lieutenant!"
I finally awoke enough to answer, "Sir?"
"Tomorrow night you'll leave for the first leg of your trip. See me in my office after morning roll call and I'll give you the details."
"Yes, sir." Boy, I sure wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep after that!
The next morning I knocked on the Captain's door, wondering where all of this would lead. The Captain opened the door and directed me to a seat before his desk. I pulled out the chair in front of the Captain's desk and sat down. Captain Bowers handed me a nondescript looking package.
"Here's your map and light. You must have this memorized by this evening."
I hesitated a bit before I stammered out, "I don't know, sir..."
"You having second thoughts, Lieutenant?"
"No, sir, it's just that under pressure like this I'm afraid of making mistakes," I confessed.
"It's a direct route so you should have no problems if you follow the map. Be ready to go after lights out, say around 2150 hours. Now take the map and flashlight and head back to your barracks. Begin to memorize the map."
"Yes, sir." I put the map and light securely within my jacket and nodded. I arose, saluted the Captain and headed back to my barracks. Once there, I dropped onto my bunk and began studying the map.
A few minutes before evening roll call, I had to somehow release the pent up tension and anxiety I felt, so I began pacing back and forth across the barracks' wooden floor.
"Settle down, Lieutenant," implored Sergeant Mallory, as he sat playing poker. I nodded and sat back down on my bunk, awaiting the call to Appel.
The moment finally arrived and after lights out, I quickly headed for the tunnel so as to be in position when the diversion began. As I crawled into the tunnel I chuckled a bit, as I knew the fellas would enjoy this diversion.
When I reached the end of the tunnel, the noise began so that meant I only had a split second to climb up out of the tunnel and make a dash for the woods at full speed. Captain Bowers' words kept ringing in my ears - you must head straight and stay on time - stay on time! The voice stayed within my head while I ran the eight miles to where I would meet my next contact. I made it and hid in the bushes until a man named Olsen literally stumbled upon me. He got up and spoke urgently.
"Lieutenant Carter?"
"Yes," I acknowledged.
"Good. You're exactly where you should be." Olsen looked around then turned back to me. "Give me your jacket." We quickly exchanged clothing. The Sergeant explained that I was to get back into another prison camp.
I was confused and began to protest, "But you know how hard it was to escape from the other camp..."
Olsen answered and continued to outline the plan as the dogs ran up, barking their heads off. I was amazed as Olsen quieted them down and they waited for his command. He turned back to me as he prepared to leave.
"Stay here, they won't hurt you."
That was the last I saw of Olsen as he took off and the dogs began barking again. Sirens wailed and the searchlights glared on me as I raised my hands in surrender. Guards came racing up to me and prodded me the quarter-mile to the new camp.
After I was marched through the gate into the camp a fat guard approached and dismissed the guards who had captured me. I thought for sure he was going to herd me straight to the Kommandant's office, but he waited for the other guards to get some distance away before he turned to look closely at me, while shaking his head sadly. He murmured, "Wo bist du Olsen? Ach du lieber!"
He then gestured to me and said, "Come with me, schnell!" I lowered my arms and did as he said. As I followed this big guard, who the other guard had called "Schultz", I thought about how he reminded me of a big, cuddly teddy bear I had when I was a kid. Schultz remained silent as he led me to a barracks building with a sign that read "Barracks Two". He opened the door, stuck his head in and called, "Colonel Hogan!" before we both entered the barracks.
What? I thought to myself. Why was an officer of such a high rank in a non-com POW camp? The door of the commander's quarters opened and a full Colonel came out. He was tall with dark hair and wore his crush cap at a jaunty angle on the back of his head.
"Yes, Schultz?" He zeroed in on me immediately.
"This man was captured outside the wire. Now, where is Olsen…," Schultz stopped suddenly as he had made a quick count of the men in the barracks and noticed that Olsen was nowhere to be seen. He turned to the Colonel, obviously panicked.
"Colonel Hogan...where is Olsen? Please, Colonel Hogan! You told me at roll call that he would come back!"
"He's not here yet, Schultz. He'll come back when the Lieutenant here is ready." The Colonel casually strolled over to the German guard and wrapped his arm around his shoulders as he said, "Listen, Schultz, just tell the Kommandant that you recaptured Olsen and you've put him in the cooler for 30 days. That should satisfy old blood and guts."
Schultz acted as if he hadn't heard the Colonel's last suggestion as his eyes went vacant. "R-Ready? Ready for what? No! Do not tell me! I see noth-ing! I know noth-ing!" Schultz hurried out the door without a backward glance, apparently forgetting all about me.
That was some nifty by-play which proved to me that this Colonel was a real pro at fooling the guards, although with Schultz it didn't appear to take much doing. I tucked that thought in the back of my head as I looked around; I was curious as to how I would be getting out. I suddenly remembered I was in the presence of a Colonel, so I came to attention, saluted and gave him my full name and serial number.
"Glad to have you here, Lieutenant Carter," said the Colonel. "Please step into my office."
"Yes, sir!" I followed him into his quarters and again came to full attention.
"At ease." The Colonel closed the door and gestured to a chair in front of his desk. "Have a seat."
I was intrigued as he explained the details of my processing and how I would be smuggled out of Germany back to England. Afterwards, he took me back into the common room and assigned me a temporary bunk so I could get some shuteye.
Later the next day I found myself standing on a stool feeling like a human pincushion as the Russian POW Sam finished measuring me for a set of civilian clothes.
As I stood there I could tell the Colonel had something important on his mind. It seems that a new guy had been brought in, but I noticed that he was being treated much differently than me. It looked to me like the Colonel had some suspicions about him, but when I had spoken to him earlier he seemed to be just one of the guys.
The suit-making sessions continued and once completed the Colonel pulled a map out and laid it out onto his desk. As Kinch worked on the coffee pot, the Colonel showed me the next leg of my route back home. I wondered why the Colonel was so interested in a simple coffee pot until Kinch explained that they used it to listen in to Klink's bugged office. He plugged it in and voices began to come from it.
What I heard really floored me! The new guy was a German spy! OH JEEZE...I had told him about the operation, how they were getting me out of the camp and back to England. OH JEEZE!
I swallowed hard and told the Colonel I was the one who spilled the beans. Corporal Newkirk stepped up and took the blame, as I had been sleeping when he was spreading the word not to talk to the new guy.
As the guys continued to get me ready to leave, the Colonel formulated a plan to get rid of the spy and use it as a diversion to get me out of the camp via truck. After they finished with me, they stashed me down in the tunnels until it was time for me to go. I stood close by the radio room and overheard the Colonel talking to Kinch, LeBeau and Newkirk.
I found out that London wanted them to begin sabotage missions against the Germans. When the Colonel mentioned that they needed a demolitions man to join the team, my ears perked up.
As their conversation ended, I started formulating a plan of my own. The next morning, Olsen returned, the spy was exposed as a fraud and I was in the back of a truck taking the next leg of my journey.