Chapter 12
Olsen's double substituted for him again at roll call that evening, and again the next morning. This time, Schultz only whined once, accepted more bribes and gave Hogan a warning.
"I know you're up to monkey business."
"Do you want to know what, Schultz?" Hogan asked the guard.
"No," he said emphatically. "I see nothing! I know nothing!" Schultz replied. "Wait, Olsen will be back?"
"Yes, Schultz, he'll be back." Hogan started walking the sergeant away from the barracks and in the opposite direction of two prisoners trying to hide dirt in the garden patch near the mess hall. "Just can't say when, right now."
"I don't want you to get into trouble, and I don't want to get into trouble."
"Schultz, have we ever failed you?"
Schultz thought for a moment, said nothing and walked away.
*********
"I think we should make an attempt to go back this morning," Olsen mumbled in between mouthfuls of pastries. Schnitzer and Olsen had been discussing plans over breakfast. Both men were now getting a bit nervous and Olsen did not want to put his new friends in danger.
Schnitzer agreed and began to come up with a plan. "It's getting hot. I'll bring over some lighter weight blankets for the dogs and I'll talk to the guards about making sure the dogs don't get overheated. It's an excuse." He shrugged and then popped up as the phone rang.
"Hello?"
Greta and Olsen waited for Oscar to finish the conversation.
"Well?" His wife asked.
"Good news. The patrols have pulled back. It's definitely settled then. I'll take you back. Aries will send a message to camp to watch out for my truck."
"That's a relief." As much as Olsen had relished a hot bath and a real bed, he was happy to be leaving.
********
"Colonel, message." Kinch handed Hogan a piece of paper.
The colonel read it and smiled. "Olsen's on his way back with Schnitzer. We'll need to watch for the truck and sneak him in."
A happy and relieved chorus of, "All right!", and "That's great!" resonated throughout the barracks.
"And…" Hogan continued. "The patrols pulled back. We can start to get the six men moved out."
"Corporal Martin will be relieved, sir." Newkirk said to Hogan before he left to head down below.
"So will Schultz," Hogan joked.
*********
Olsen and Schnitzer were ready to leave, but not before the sergeant tried to thank Greta for her hospitality.
"Stay safe, Brian." She gave him a peck on the cheek and a hug. "Wait. You never told us the name of your cousins. The ones that live close by." She passed Olsen a piece of paper and a pencil. He jotted down the information and handed the paper back to her.
"Perhaps we can find something out for you."
Oscar nodded. "We'll take a look."
"I appreciate that," Olsen replied. "Thanks."
Greta watched the truck drive away. She then went back into the house, studied the names and address that Olsen had written down, memorized the information, and then burned the paper.
Schnitzer and Olsen had an uneventful drive to Stalag 13. Just outside the perimeter, the sergeant left the passenger seat and climbed into the back. Schnitzer was stopped at the front gate, but easily talked his way into the compound. He then drove in and stopped right by the dog kennel. The veterinarian chatted with the guards, while Olsen climbed out the back, slipped into the kennel and headed into the tunnel, where he found Hogan and Kinch waiting for him.
"Welcome back, sergeant," Hogan said calmly.
"Glad to be back, sir." Olsen looked at Kinch, who gave him a wink.
"Took quite a chance, making a run for it," Hogan continued.
"Yes, sir." Olsen took out the pistol he had carried with him and handed it to Kinch. "It seemed the right thing to do at the time."
"Don't make a habit of it," Hogan replied. "Go get changed," he added before he disappeared into the interior of the tunnel system.
"He was beside himself when he heard you were missing," Kinch told Olsen as they walked towards the main tunnel. "But he came up with a plan in minutes."
"Plan?" Olsen asked.
"Yeah," Kinch answered. "Grabbed one of the escaped prisoners. Someone about your size. He took your place at three roll calls."
"You're kidding! Schultz didn't notice?"
"Oh, he noticed." Kinch laughed. "A couple of candy bars and fear of being blamed for misplacing a prisoner… Let's just say he was willing to overlook it."
"Hey, look who's back!" Olsen received a warm welcome from the rest of the boys in the barracks when he walked through the door. Lebeau came over with a cup of coffee.
"Thanks for saving our 'you know what'," Lebeau said. "But don't take off like that again."
"Not planning on it." Olsen sat down and took a sip.
Newkirk came over. "So, what is Schnitzer like outside of camp?"
"Actually pretty friendly," Olsen told him. "His wife is real nice and…" he stopped talking as Hogan walked through the door.
"Olsen, my office," the colonel ordered.
The sergeant nervously followed, leaving the rest of the men to wonder if Olsen was in trouble or a hero.
"Sit down," Hogan said as the sergeant entered the room. Olsen sat and watched as Hogan closed the door. "You have your papers?" Hogan asked.
"Yes sir." Olsen fished the fake IDs out of his pocket and handed them over.
Hogan spent a moment studying the documents. "These are good. Better than ours," he admitted. "Show them to Newkirk when we're done."
"Yes sir." Olsen waited.
Hogan turned and propped his leg up on a chair and faced the sergeant. "Olsen, I don't know whether to bust you down to private or give you a commendation." Hogan was expecting an answer and Olsen gave him one.
"I did what I had to, sir. I was the highest ranking man out there. My responsibility was to make sure Newkirk, Lebeau and the other prisoners were safe, sir."
"Go on."
"I made a split-second decision, and, well, it worked out."
"How did you know the patrol wouldn't have found the crevice?"
"It isn't easy to find, sir. I only knew about it because I had gone hiking around the area. There's a bunch of caves there, too. These patrols, Colonel; they're usually made up of draftees from different parts of the country."
"You didn't know that, either," Hogan interrupted.
"No, sir," Olsen admitted. The colonel was neither shouting nor yelling. In fact, he was quite calm and his demeanor made Olsen anxious. For a brief moment, he thought he would have preferred a show of temper. Thinking he had somehow disappointed his commander, he could feel the beginnings of a lump in his throat.
Hogan paused. He pulled out the chair and sat down opposite the sergeant. He thought back to when Olsen first arrived in camp during the winter. The sergeant had been a traumatized shell. And now…
"All right, Olsen. Fill me in on what happened after you left the crevice and how you found Schnitzer's place."
Olsen felt somewhat relieved. He gave Hogan an account of his little adventure, including every detail, no matter how small. His recollection of what he had seen in Hammelburg and his ability to pass as a native began to set the wheels in Hogan's head in motion.
*************
"Told you Olsen would be back, Schultz," Hogan whispered to the sergeant as he concluded his count that evening.
"Yes. I see that." The sergeant was happy. Everything was back to normal, except… "Colonel Hogan. What happened to the other man?"
"What other man, Schultz?" Hogan asked.
"The one who was here, when Olsen was… Never mind."
Hogan grinned that impish grin that drove Schultz crazy. He made his report and left before anything else could happen.
The next day, Olsen and the other engineers in camp continued to work on designing an emergency tunnel entrance in Barracks two. Olsen, in fact, had drawn plans of a mechanism hidden in one of the bunks. The tunnel directly underneath the barracks was in the process of being shored up. All that was left was breaking into the flooring and fixing the bunk. That work had to be completed in small stages, but within a few weeks, the project was completed and the new entrance was christened with a bottle of wine stolen from Klink's collection.
********
Oscar Schnitzer had received an urgent call from a farmer located outside a small town nestled in between Dusseldorf and Hammelburg. He had passed the name of Olsen's cousins to only his most trusted colleagues in the Underground. Unfortunately, none of them were familiar with the family and no one had a justifiable reason for heading out in that direction. This morning, however, Schnitzer would be within a few kilometers of the location, and as soon as he finished treating the farmer's sick horse, and seeing it was near lunch time, he decided to take a short detour into town. He purposefully passed by the home on his way in, but nothing looked out of the ordinary. On his way out, he parked his truck outside the home and opened the hood. He pretended to fiddle with a hose for a short while, then, wiping his brow, he walked up the path to the house and knocked on the door.
A woman peered through the curtain and cautiously opened the door a crack. Seeing that the stranger at the door was not a member of the Gestapo and not an official, she opened it a bit wider.
"Yes?" She asked hesitantly.
"Pardon me, but my truck overheated and I was hoping that you might be able to give me a bit of water. I'm a veterinarian from Hammelburg. I was visiting Herr Steinmetz nearby, to treat his horse."
"Wait there." The woman, who appeared to be in her late forties, went to the back of the house and returned with a saucepan of water. Not seeing smoke coming out of the truck, she became suspicious. "Your truck looks fine, Doctor..."
"Schnitzer. My name is Oscar Schnitzer."
"Schnitzer… I've heard of you," she said.
"Only good things, I hope," he joked.
Schnitzer took the water over to the truck and poured it in. He then returned the pan. "Danke," he said. "Your home is very well kept, Frau…" he complimented her.
"Eisenberg. Hannah. Thank you," she replied. "My husband takes care of the outside. He's at work," she quickly added.
"My wife wishes I had more time to work on the outside," Schnitzer said as he tried to continue the conversation. "But my usual practice keeps me busy, plus I have some work over at the POW camp near Hammelburg. I provide the dogs. Do you know of it? Stalag 13?" he asked, emphasizing the name of the camp.
"I know it's there." The woman, who was now wondering why the vet was so intent on continuing the conversation, replied. Now nervous, she took the pot and headed for the door.
"Good day," Schnitzer told her. "And thank you. Oh, if you have anyone in service, I wish them well and hope they are safe," he added. He waited for a reaction. Seeing none, he tipped his cap and left, leaving the woman standing at the door, watching as he drove off.
That evening, she told her husband, Kurt, of the strange encounter. "I don't think there was anything wrong with his truck. Do you think he works for the Nazis?" she whispered.
"Why would they send a middle aged veterinarian to spy on us?" he countered. "That would not make sense. Besides, I've heard of him. Look, we mind our business, and our sons are fighting in Africa." He glanced at the pictures on the mantel. "For what, I don't know," he mumbled.
"Shush," his wife admonished him. "Be quiet."
"Don't be worried," he consoled her. "We aren't the only family with relations in America."
The family had not heard from Hannah's cousin, Brian's mother, since Hitler had invaded Poland. She often wondered where Brian was. Hopefully nowhere near her sons.
The next time Schnitzer changed the dogs, he left a message in one of the shepherd's collars. Seeing a signal, LeBeau snuck the dog below, removed the paper, replaced the collar and took the dog back to the kennel. He passed the slip of paper over to Colonel Hogan.
"Schnitzer wants to meet with you outside of camp," he told Olsen. "Any idea why?"
"Me?" The sergeant was surprised. "No, sir." Olsen actually had an idea, but decided to keep it to himself. He was unsure how Hogan would react if he knew Schnitzer had possibly involved civilians.
Hogan assumed that if Schnitzer requested a meeting with one of his men, the vet had a good reason. He gave Olsen permission to go under the wire that evening to rendezvous with Schnitzer, who then met up with the sergeant in his truck. He drove a short distance away from the camp and then spoke.
"I had business near your cousins' town yesterday, Brian. I went by their house, which looks fine, by the way, and had a brief conversation with Hannah."
Olsen tried to keep his excitement bottled up inside. "Did she say anything? Anything about Ernst or Claus?" Olsen asked hopefully.
"No. Unfortunately she was suspicious of me and I had to be careful with the questioning," Oscar explained. "But, she mentioned her husband is working."
"Probably at the same place. He was in accounting," Olsen said.
"That's all I could find out for you. I'm sorry it wasn't more," Oscar turned on the ignition and headed back towards camp. "But, Brian, I have to go out that way again the day after tomorrow to check on the horse. You're welcome to come with if you wish."
Olsen thought long and hard about that offer. His heart told him to go, but his brain won over. "Thanks, sir. It's tempting, but… I can't do anything that could possibly put them in any danger. Plus I can't imagine Colonel Hogan giving me a one day pass to visit relatives," he argued.
"No, I suppose not." Oscar agreed. He handed Olsen some maps. "But if I find anything else, I'll let you know."
Olsen thanked the vet and returned to camp through the tree stump. He decided to tell Hogan some of the truth, but not all, as he made his report.
"When I was at their house, we spoke about our families. I have cousins near Hammelburg, sir, and Schnitzer offered to take me out that way to check on them, when he has a call to make near there."
"What did you tell him?" Hogan asked as he glanced at the maps Oscar had delivered.
"I told him no, sir. I can't involve my cousins, no matter how much I would like to. It would be too dangerous. Besides, I didn't think you would write the pass."
Hogan chuckled. "You're right on that point." He looked up at the sergeant. "Used your head. Shows common sense. I'm proud of you."
"Thank you, sir."
Hogan changed subjects. "Tell me, Olsen. How's language training going?"
"Pretty well," he answered. "Newkirk is getting close, but he's not quite ready."
"This offer Schnitzer made… I'm rethinking the proposition."
"Sir?"
"This is voluntary, of course, but I think you should go. Test your acting ability. Your papers. Get a better look at the area. But no contacting the relatives. Maybe go into Hammelburg and pick up some supplies for us. Give us a chance to actually spend some of that money we've printed. You know, I'd like to go," Hogan continued. "But I can't leave for the whole day."
"I think they'd notice if you were gone for that long, sir." Olsen agreed.
"Exactly. Well, you game?"
"Yes, sir." Olsen did not hesitate.
Hogan was not surprised. "Good. We'll get a message out to Schnitzer."