Hammelburg, Luftwaffe Regional Headquarters, Office of General Albert Burkhalter
October 21, 1943, 1330 hours
General Burkhalter was annoyed. He always felt annoyed after talking with Major Hochstetter. The Gestapo Major talked incessantly of his hatred for all things, such as the Allies, the Underground, Colonel Wilhelm Klink. The man probably hates women too. Burkhalter chuckled. Of course, if I were a woman, I would consider that a blessing. But the most incessant rant of all was his belief that Colonel Hogan was responsible for the many acts of sabotage in the area. Burkhalter chuckled again. I wonder what you would do if you knew just how correct you are, Major.
It was about a month ago when Burkhalter had reasoned out that Hogan was not simply a prisoner of war. Hogan was a man that was able to send information back to the Allies. If he could do that, then it was not a stretch to think that he may have some connection to sabotage activities. Burkhalter had decided that he would silently and ever so carefully support that activity. But in order for Hogan to continue to operate, Klink needed to be in charge of the camp. Burkhalter knew that Klink's incompetence was what enabled Hogan to operate.
That led to Burkhalter's dilemma. In the past four weeks, three trains had been blown up in the area. Berlin had been insistent that the next train must make it through, as it contained airplane parts vitally needed in the factories. They couldn't understand how the underground had known about the trains, especially the last one. The last train was an ammunition train that was disguised as a hospital train, but had been blown up anyway.
Burkhalter knew how they knew, since he had been the one to pass the information. Operating under the guise that the Kommandants of the Stalags in the area should be told, he passed the information to the three Kommandants, Klink being one of them. He knew that Hogan would somehow get the information from Klink, and he was not disappointed when the trains had been blown up.
But this time, Reichsmarschall Goering had insisted, with a little persuasion from Reichsführer Himmler, that he work with the local Gestapo to ensure that the train made it through safely. That meant that he had to work with Hochstetter, and Hochstetter would just love to get his hands on Colonel Hogan. And so, Burkhalter had to risk exposing Hogan, or risk becoming a casualty figure on the Eastern Front.
Burkhalter decided that the next train would be disguised as a luxury passenger liner, the Berlin Express, and had sent the schedule to the three Kommandants as before. Hochstetter had a man, Captain Herber, that Burkhalter was forced to assign to Stalag 13 as Klink's aide. Herber was supposed to spy on Klink to see if he was the one passing the information.
And now, Burkhalter had to wait and hope that Hogan was as clever as he seemed. Maybe Hogan would be able to obtain the information without being noticed, and without implicating his Kommandant.
Burkhalter sighed. There was nothing he could do now but wait and see what happened. The good thing about this is that I can stay away from Berlin while I am waiting. Any amount of time I spend away from Berta is worthwhile. And if I am lucky, Hogan will manage to destroy the train and since Hochstetter is supposed to be preventing that, maybe he will get the blame rather than me.