Note:

I wouldn't have been able to get this one done without the help of my two beta-readers FrauWilhelmKlink and Gravytrain101. Many thanks to you both for getting rid of all the errors, spelling and grammar wise.

Those two also wrote some of the notes for me, which will be seen in the third quarter of this story; notes from Hogan's men as well Schultz and Klink to Hogan himself. Many thanks for that too, dearies.

Now have fun reading this.


The End of the Operation

Summary: The end of the war was getting closer; the Allied troops made daily progress in marching into enemy territory. The prisoners at Luft-Stalag 13 on the outskirts of Hammelburg, which was near Dusseldorf, were all excited and antsy. Their senior POW officer Colonel Robert Hogan of the US Army Air Force also known as Papa Bear to the underground, was on a solo mission and it turned sour. He had been compromised, his identity was now known to the Gestapo and he decided to close up shop and to return to England. But his decision was frowned upon by his superiors and he was put under arrest and was to be court-martialed. Would he be able to get out of this sticky-wicket; would his men be able to help their CO or would he meet his untimely end, sentenced to death as a traitor and deserter?

In a secluded and abandoned barn about six miles away from Stalag 13 a clandestine meeting was taking place. Three members of the underground were sitting on hay bales around a small fire that burned inside an old oil barrel and talked in hushed tones in the hopes of not being overheard. They waited with baited breaths for the last man to arrive this night, their illustrious and famous leader "Papa Bear". The reason for this meeting was to hand over vital information for the Allies to Papa Bear. About 2230 hours, the barn door opened, and a tall man clad in all black entered, gun in his hand at the ready. One of the three men stood up and greeted the newcomer with a handshake and a smile. "It's good to see you again Papa Bear." The man addressed as such, replied softly in a strong baritone, "Same here, Otto. Now you got information for me. Where is it?"

Otto ushered Papa Bear closer to the other two men and introduced them to one another; a young lad by the name of Friedrich and a middle-aged guy by the name of Klaus. The moment Papa Bear looked Klaus in the eyes, his gut feeling told him that something is not right with this guy; and Papa Bear's gut instinct never steered him wrong! This time it was no exception. Just after Otto handed over the information to Papa Bear, who stacked the papers in his inner jacket pocket and zipped it up again, Klaus had a gun out and aimed directly at Papa Bear. With a sinister smile on his face he announced, "I finally caught the infamous Papa Bear, the most dangerous and wanted man in all of Germany! Major Hochstetter will be pleased. And it was so easy getting into the underground, making them believe I was one of them. Now you are all under arrest!"

Livid with London and the underground for not having checked this man's background more thoroughly, Hogan pointed with his finger behind them and shouted, "What's that!?" The easy trick worked, and Hogan and the other two men ran out of the barn, closing the door behind them. Outside, they parted ways to confuse the Gestapo agent even more. Hogan took off at a run into the nearby woods, his loaded gun in hand. The Gestapo agent was now hot on his heels and fired a few shots in his direction, as his orders were to not arrest Papa Bear, but to kill him outright. He had been deemed too dangerous to be allowed to live any longer. Klaus was determined to fulfil his order to the latter. When they reached a clearing, both men held up their guns and pulled the trigger a few times, while trying to stay covered behind trees or bushes at the same time. During this fire-fight, two bullets found their mark: Hogan. One hit him directly in the middle of his upper stomach; the other cut a deep furrow in his right side.

Although he was bleeding heavily, Hogan managed to get away from the scene. The agent called out after him that he would get him and next time he wouldn't be able to get away, as he now knew who he really he was and where to find him…at Stalag 13! As he heard those words shouted at him, this obvious threat; Hogan felt a shiver run up his spine. He sped up his movements, overexerting his tired and hurting body. With the last of his strength, he made it to the tree stump and got down into the tunnel. After he locked the entrance securely behind him; Hogan silently walked through the tunnel until he reached the guest area. He didn't realize that he left a bloody trail behind him, starting at the emergency exit. With a heavy sigh and now beyond exhaustion, Hogan collapsed onto one of the bunks. Before he finally lost consciousness, he managed to pull up a blanket to cover his shivering form…then there was only blessed blackness.

With their CO out on a solo mission, the four members of the core team were deeply worried as the hours ticked by. All of them were down in the tunnel's radio room and waited to hear anything coming through from either London or the underground. Meanwhile LeBeau, their resident Frenchmen, has made coffee and a little snack for them and brought it down from the barracks. Grateful for the snack and warm beverage, Newkirk, Carter and Baker thanked their friend with a warm smile. Suddenly the radio came to life and Baker immediately grabbed the headset, along with a pen and paper. Astonished, he let his mates know that it was the Allied High Command with an urgent message in Morse code. After he took the message down and asked for a repeat to be sure he got it right, Baker turned to his comrades. "We have the order to stand down. No one is allowed out on any sort of mission anymore as the fighting is getting too close for comfort and heading out to a meeting could turn fatal. We are to stop all activity and wait for further instructions."

Newkirk stubbed out his cigarette and spoke up, "That's your typical 'Don't call us, we'll call you' reply from those ruddy blighters in London. Couldn't they have thought of that sooner before the Gov'ner went out for his meeting with the underground; a meeting they sent him out to in the first place?"

Carter fidgeted a bit and after having looked around at everyone, asked "Shouldn't the Colonel be back by now? I mean, it was about three hours ago that he went out, and it only takes half an hour to get to the meeting place. Aren't you worried, guys?"

Baker put down his pen and shut down the radio for the night. With a look at his friends, he pointed out the known facts. As Hogan's second in command he was now responsible to give out the orders that the colonel had set out for such a case; pack everything up, wire the tunnels with charges and ready the camp for a full scale evacuation. Hogan's core team members hurried to do their respective chores and put any worries they had about their missing CO on the back burner for now. Carter headed for his chemistry lab and got the already finished charges out of their boxes and with the help of some other men laid them out throughout their main tunnel system. The few smaller tunnels that head off from the main tunnel system were of no significance. They would collapse together with the others when they were going to blow.

Newkirk walked off into their wardrobe and changing room and started packing up the many nice clothes he had sewed for the Gov'ner, like the suits and coats, the navy style leather jacket, the red turtleneck and his second set of all blacks with the windbreaker. Having stuffed them into a sea bag, Newkirk set the bag beside the radio and headed up into the barracks. In there, all the men were packing their few belongings into bags and put those on their bunk beds and waited for the order to head out. LeBeau had also packed the colonel's personal belongings together with his dress uniform and spare shirt as well as his toiletries. After he put the bag aside, he joined his mates in the main room.

Having accomplished all their given tasks, the inmates of barracks two just hopped onto their bunks and tried to get some more sleep until morning roll call would be in two hours' time. And the colonel still hadn't made it back from the meeting! If they would only knew that the colonel had made it back and was lying badly wounded just beneath them in the tunnel, they would have rushed to his aid in seconds. But they didn't know this; and therefore, just went to sleep; still deeply worried for their commanding officer.