Chapter 10:
"Anything new from London, Kinch?" LeBeau asked, anxious.
Five days had gone by since Hogan first arrived to Stalag 13. So far, the colonel was proving himself to be another member of the Allies who wanted nothing more than to stop the Nazis and go home to his friends and family in Ohio. Kinch and Newkirk were starting to believe what their little Frenchman believed in so strongly. Perhaps Hogan could be trusted. They would wait another two to three days just to be sure of themselves.
The three of them were still waiting on a response from London regarding where Rick might have been last seen or where he was currently and his current condition. Sadly, nothing had been heard of yet. Kinch and Baker spent shifts around the radio for the past four nights, waiting and praying for a response. They were determined to track down Hogan's friend and give their new Senior POW Officer a sense of peace and to help him stop fretting over his constant 'what if' and 'where' questions he kept having regarding his best friend.
It was morning, and while Hogan was in a meeting with Klink, LeBeau was cooking breakfast, Newkirk was drinking a cup of hot coffee leaning against his bunk pole, and Kinch had just emerged from underneath the ground. The sergeant sighed.
"They don't have any other information at the moment on the Colonel's plane being shot down or its crewmen specifically, but they did find this information on the Major," Kinch said, handing the piece of paper to Newkirk.
The Englishman unfolded it, looked at it briefly, then began reading it out loud.
"Major Richard 'Rick' Atticus Schuerman. 6'1" and 175 pounds. Born in Trenton, New Jersey on February 9, 1912. Raised and graduated high school in Cleveland, Ohio with the Colonel. Attended the same military school and graduated with a 3.675 GPA and a full ranked major. Assigned to the 504th on December 16, 1941 serving as the Gov'nor's second in command. Both men were in charge of eight men under their command. No further information available at this time."
"Does London know which six of his men made it back safely?" LeBeau asked.
"All they know is six made it back, one's in custody in Northern Germany, and two are MIA. As for who is who, they didn't know. They're looking further into those investigations," Kinch said.
"Six out of the nine made it back. That's a good thing, right?" Newkirk replied.
"Good for them. It won't be good if Major Schuerman isn't one of them. The news would kill the Colonel."
"Do we tell him the news...about his men I mean?"
"I'd like to wait until London gets back to us again. Hopefully, they'll have the identities of the men and where each one is."
"I can understand what the Gov'nor's probably feeling right now. This whole 'not knowing' is beginning to make me stir crazy."
"Oui. Moi aussi...I wish there was something we could do," LeBeau sadly said.
"All we can do is wait and pray that Schuerman was one of those men who made it safely back to London." Kinch answered softly.
Newkirk nodded, then took another sip of coffee, when the door to the barracks opened. Hogan made his way silently inside and smiled at his three new friends.
"Morning, men. Hope you all slept well," he said.
"As well as anyone can sleep on a block of wood." Newkirk grumbled. He had never been a morning person.
"No kidding." Hogan put his hand on his lower back and tried stretching the knots out. "You think Joe knows a good chiropractor?"
Kinch smirked.
"I don't know, Sir. You'd have to ask him that." He answered.
"I might have to." The colonel sighed. "I think I'm gonna go lie down for a while. I didn't get much sleep last night with the back pain I kept having. I think these 'mattresses', as Klink calls them, are bad for my spine."
"Feel better soon, Colonel. We'll be fine for a few hours."
"Just relax, Colonel. We can take care of ourselves for a little bit." LeBeau added.
"Just as long Louis doesn't burn the place down." Newkirk teased. It got him a dirty look from the little Frenchman as a response.
Hogan chuckled lightly, put his hand on his middle, and nodded.
"Just behave yourselves is all I ask. Last thing I need is an angry old man with a monocle chasing me around with a cane swinging in the air."
All four men started laughing at that.
"That was a good one, Sir." Newkirk replied, grinning.
Hogan gave a small, tired smile back, then he entered his quarters and gently closed the door behind him.
LeBeau turned back to his friends and was beaming.
"I like him better and better each day," he said, with glee.
"So do I." Kinch agreed.
"If that ain't a unique man. Never met anyone else like him. Witty, clever, manipulates Klink and the guards like saying the alphabet, I can see why he graduated in the Top 15%. The man's brilliant!" Newkirk added.
"Oui. His personality is another!" LeBeau continued.
"Funny, intelligent, kind, giving...sounds like a pretty good guy to me," Kinch said.
"Can we tell him now? Please?"
The sergeant shook his head.
"Sorry, Louis...not yet. The saying says 'sometimes it takes a week to tell'."
The little Frenchman hung his head and went back to making breakfast.
"I trust him." He grumbled, under his breath.
Newkirk gave a heavy sigh, then turned to look at Kinch.
"What do we do now in the meanwhile?" He asked.
"We could go throw some hoops after breakfast."
"In this weather?!" LeBeau exclaimed.
"Alright...just making a suggestion."
"We could play one of those snow games." Newkirk proposed.
"What kind of snow game?" Kinch asked, suspicious.
"You know, one of those ones where you make a huge hill made of snow, take a sled up on the roof, and slide off into the snow below."
"And what happens if Klink catches us doing that? He'll make us repair the roof."
"I didn't say it was a good game."
The sergeant turned his eyes to the ceiling and shook his head.
"What about snow dodgeball?" LeBeau asked.
"Snow dodgeball?" Newkirk replied, confused.
"What do you mean by that?" Kinch questioned.
"Instead of using dodgeballs, why not use snowballs instead? Same rules, same concept, but with snowballs." The little man answered.
Newkirk took interest in that idea, and his facial expression showed.
"Not a bad idea there," he said.
"I like it. Neat twist to the good old game of dodgeball." Kinch added.
'Alright, we're in. We can get Olsen to join in and make it even." The English corporal suggested.
"We're gonna need more than four people to play dodgeball. We'll need at least six per team."
"Alright. You, me, Louis, Olsen, Scotty, and Garlotti will be one team, and we'll get six guys from barracks nine to join us for the other team."
"As long as one of them isn't Jefferson. The man's a walking tank."
"No kidding...me back's still recovering from that football game we had three weeks ago."
Kinch sniffed the air and smelled something good...whatever it was. It was rare that LeBeau made anything that did not smell appealing.
"LeBeau, you're making me hungry as usual," the sergeant said.
"What's on the menu today, mate?" Newkirk asked.
"Blueberry pancakes, bacon strips, and cheese omelets." The little Frenchman answered, tossing a pancake in the air and catching it in the pan.
"Being a show off there?" The Englishman prodded.
"I enjoy what I do, Pierre."
Newkirk smirked and shook his head.
"You wanna get Colonel Hogan, Kinch?" LeBeau asked, turning to the sergeant.
"Breakfast ready?" He asked.
"Oui."
Kinch headed for Hogan's quarters, and Newkirk headed for the stove with a plate.
Two days later, Kinch came out from the tunnels and closed the entrance. He found LeBeau doing the dishes, and Newkirk at the table playing a game of solitaire and smoking a cigarette. Kinch made his way towards Newkirk, who noticed someone was making an approach to him, and looked up at his friend.
"You hear anything yet?" The English corporal questioned, curious.
Kinch handed him the folded piece of paper with no expression on his face.
Sensing something was seriously wrong, Newkirk hesitated unfolding the sheet of paper and watched the sergeant's face for any sign of emotion while doing so. Once he had completed his task, he looked down to see what was written and gave a heavy sigh.
"Oh no," was all Newkirk said. "That's not good."
"What?" LeBeau asked, now curious. He made his way towards his friends, and the British man handed him the note. The Frenchman took it and read over it. His face became stricken with sorrow. "Oh no...is it true, mon ami?"
Kinch sighed sadly.
"I wish it weren't." He answered.
"Schuerman's one of the men MIA," Newkirk said, frowning.
"Do you have information on any of the others of Colonel Hogan's men?" LeBeau asked.
The sergeant shook his head.
"All they know is that he was not one of the men that made it back to London."
"That means he's still in Germany somewhere." Newkirk answered.
"He could be anywhere, Pierre. Who knows where he might be." LeBeau responded.
"Kinch...you don't think he's…" The Englishman could not finish. He did not want to think about how sad Hogan would be finding out the news about his best friend.
"I don't know...I couldn't tell you if I wanted to, Newkirk. I've got people we know from the underground contacting other members we still have yet to meet searching the entire northern parts of Germany and the areas surrounding Hammelburg looking for him. They'll let us know if they find anyone meeting his description." The sergeant softly answered.
"Do we know anything other than his height and weight?" LeBeau asked.
"I asked London for a description of him when they reported he wasn't one of the men to make it back there. A 6'1" man weighing 175 lbs, dark blue eyes, short brown hair, and a bit of facial hair. Should be wearing the same thing the Colonel's wearing for the exception of no officer's hat."
"No officer's hat?"
"Where did it go?" Newkirk asked, curious.
"Apparently he's never worn it. I didn't get much more on him other than that." Kinch responded.
"Do we tell mon Colonel?" LeBeau hesitated in asking.
"Not unless we wanna expose our little 'side job' to him." The Englishman answered.
Kinch was silent briefly, looking like he was making a decision in his head, then nodded.
"I think it's safe to do that now," he said.
"Really?!" The little Frenchman cheered.
"But we tell him about Schuerman carefully. Don't be immediate with it. Let's tell him about what we're planning on doing around here, and then we'll decide whether to wait a bit longer before breaking him the news."
"Poor Gov'nor," Newkirk said, depressed.
"He does not deserve to go through something like this." LeBeau agreed.
"Come on. Let's go tell him...where is he, anyways?" The sergeant asked.
"In his quarters. Said he wanted to do some reading and rest a bit. He was feeling a little tired."
"Maybe we should wait then."
"Let's just tell him about what we've been doing for now. If he seems up to it, we'll ease him into learning about the major." Newkirk suggested.
"Alright. If you think he's up to it."
The three of them made their way to Hogan's bedroom door, and Kinch gently knocked on it.
"Come in," a rather happy voice said.
Kinch, LeBeau, and Newkirk made their way into the room and found Hogan sitting at his desk with his journal and a pen. He must have been writing a journal entry.
The colonel looked up at them and smiled.
"Kinch, LeBeau, Newkirk, what can I do for you gentlemen?" He asked.
"Do you got a minute, Gov'nor?" The Englishman asked.
"Sure thing. What's up?"
"We've got something to tell you, Colonel." LeBeau began.
"More like show you." Kinch added.
Hogan raised his eyebrow, suspicious of what his new friends meant by that.
"What do you mean 'something to show me'?" He asked, careful.
"Follow us, sir," Kinch said.
Hogan slowly got to his feet, careful of not putting too much pressure on his wrist. He put his right hand on his middle gently once getting up and followed the three men out into the main area. Kinch, Newkirk, and LeBeau stopped at the fake bunk, then turned around to face the colonel. Hogan stood there confused and watched all three of them, unsure of what to think.
"What's going on here?" He asked.
"We wanna show you something we've been working on," Newkirk said.
"We're almost finished, but need to do a few things still." Kinch added.
"Which would be?" Hogan prodded.
"Show him, mate," the Englishman said, to the staff sergeant. Kinch turned and banged on the side of the bunk twice, making the entrance into their network of tunnels visible.
Hogan's eyes nearly fell out of his head, and his jaw dropped from its hinges. He turned to the three men and stared at them like a deer in headlights. None of them said a word.
"What is, what did, how did you…" Kinch cut the baffled colonel off.
"It's a long story we'll tell you after this. Come on, Colonel."
"Baker, watch the door." Newkirk ordered.
"Got it," said Baker.
Not knowing what else to do, Hogan followed the three men down the ladder and made his way into the tunnel. He looked around, completely stunned with what he was witnessing. When did they get time to do all of this, he questioned. And how in the world had none of the guards, let alone Klink, found out a single thing about it?
"Where do...where do they...how far…" Hogan babbled. It looked like a giant cave you would see out in nature or in a national park back home in the States.
"There's more," Kinch said.
"There's more?!"
Newkirk gestured for the officer to follow him. Doing as told, the colonel followed the Englishman, Kinch, and LeBeau down one tunnel and made their way into another room. There was a table, a bunch of equipment on the wall behind it, and a radio system on top of the table countertop laying next to several pens and pencils and a notepad with blue paper. Across from the table lay a cot with a pillow and a couple of blankets. It must have been used by someone waiting for a message to come in.
When he finally made his way into the room, Hogan stood agape at what he saw. Where did all this equipment come from? How did they get it in here undetected? Most importantly, what was it?
"My God." The colonel gasped. "What...what is it?"
"Colonel, this is our radio room. We come in here when we have to communicate with the underground and/or London." Kinch answered.
"The underground!" Hogan exclaimed.
"See all these wires and mechanical equipment back here? That's all the wires that lead to a hidden antenna inside the Nazi flag up on Klink's roof. That's how we get a signal to communicate with whoever it is we might need to get in contact with." Newkirk clarified.
"The rest of them are connected into the office itself for whenever we have to listen in on what's going on with other Krauts sent to visit." Kinch added.
"You're running an espionage operation right under Klink's nose?!" The colonel cried, stunned.
"We wanna run sabotage along with it, but that's part of the issues we have yet to deal with. For now, we're just listening in on what goes on above ground and small assignments within camp." Newkirk continued.
"And all these tunnels; where do they lead to?"
"Oh, just about every place in camp, sir! Klink's quarters, all barracks except for barracks four, it's never used. The infirmary, recreational center, the emergency exit…" Hogan cut the English corporal off.
"The emergency exit. What's that?"
"It's a tunnel that leads up to a fake tree stump. We've only used it twice since the sabotage and outdoor assignments are being worked out still. We use it momentarily for meeting with other underground agents outside camp. Several locations we have to meet them, as well."
"We're almost done with the tunnels, Colonel. We just have to finish one that leads to the cooler," LeBeau said.
Hogan walked around the room and gawked at everything around him. He was amazed at what these three men had accomplished in such a short amount of time. They must of had to had just about every prisoner in this camp help them dig a tunnel to finish it in such a short time frame.
"Amazing!" He marveled. "Absolutely incredible!"
"You think so, Colonel?" The little Frenchman asked, hopeful.
"Wow...I have to admit, I'm impressed."
"Thank you, Sir," Newkirk said, smiling.
"There any other rooms besides this one?"
"Oh, absolutely! Which one you wanna see? There's the sewing room, the telephone line room, a science lab, several guest rooms for any underground members, escaped prisoners, or downed flyers we might come across, a first aid room…"
"You've got your own little house down here!"
"We're still working on an ammunition and firearm room. Newkirk and LeBeau are almost done with sewing and hemming German uniforms," Kinch said.
"We've got SS, Gestapo, Luftwaffe, just about any uniform you could ask for. Heck, we even have a Hitler uniform if we ever need it!" Newkirk spoke.
"Have several outfits to disguise us as everyday Germans, too, when we get further down the line." LeBeau added.
"How did you find the time to do all of this?" Hogan asked. He was infatuated with everything he was hearing and seeing. What these three had accomplished and completed this far was breathtaking. A functioning radio room, a science laboratory, enough uniforms and outfits to clothe the entire city of Hammelburg, what these men were doing was remarkable. He was more than proud of these three.
"A little while back in August, Louis and I decided to go through this wild scheme we had of an espionage operation and took a go at it. We managed to convince Klink to plant flowers around camp to spiff it up as a cover story. What we were really doing instead was digging all these tunnel networks and making entrances to other buildings within camp. Needed an explanation for all the dirt we would be digging up." Newkirk began.
"A short time after the Americans entered into the war, Kinch arrived here near the end of December," LeBeau said.
"I suggested the idea of having a sabotage component to the operation, and we thought it was brilliant. We've been perfecting everything we can ever since then." The sergeant added.
Hogan shook his head.
"Amazing. Just absolutely amazing," he said, still trying to take it all in.
"Glad you like it, Sir," Kinch said, with a grin.
"So, you've got ammo supply, a tunnel, and firearms still to worry about. Anything else?"
"Well, we're looking into finding a commanding officer, but wanted to wait until we got further along and finished up all these tunnels." Newkirk answered.
Hogan nodded and smiled.
"Well, I'm honored to know you trust me enough to tell me about this. My lips are sealed."
"Thanks, Colonel," Kinch said.
"Don't mention it."
With a grin on his face, Hogan made his way back to the ladder that led to their barracks, leaving the three enlisted men to themselves. It was all of a sudden when LeBeau's face lit up, the greatest idea coming to mind. He turned to face Kinch and Newkirk, about to speak, when the Englishman cut him to it. He knew exactly what his little friend was thinking.
"Absolutely not!" He spat.
"Why not?!" LeBeau cried.
"The Gov'nor's got enough on 'is hands as it is. Keeping us all in line, manipulating Klink and the guards, worrying about his best friend and family back home, he'd never do it with everything he's worrying about."
"He would do it, I know he would!"
"No!"
"We've got a bigger issue here, guys," Kinch said, hoping to break up their argument.
"Like what?" LeBeau asked, confused.
"How do we tell the Colonel about Schuerman?"
Newkirk closed his eyes and gave a look of sorrow.
"He's gonna find out sooner or later, might as well make it now and save him from false hope." The Englishman answered.
"Was thinking the same thing." Kinch answered.
"Couldn't we give it more time?" The little Frenchman asked.
"When do we know when or if we'll get more information on him, Louis? Days, weeks, months, could be years before they find him."
"He may be...you know by then." Newkirk added.
"I hate to do that to Colonel Hogan, though. Be the ones to have to tell him such devastating news," LeBeau sadly said.
"I don't wanna do it either, mate, but you know we have to."
"We'll tell him gently...come on, guys," Kinch said softly, gesturing towards the barracks.
LeBeau and Newkirk, hanging their heads in sorrow, followed the sergeant up the ladder and made their way towards Hogan's quarters.