The Aftermath of Failure Raid
By: AliasCWN
Chapter 1
(This is a sequel to A Plan Well Researched which was published on this site on 12/12/20. I suggest that readers go back and refresh their memories of the details before reading the sequel.)
The staff car pulled up in front of his office and Captain Dietrich stepped out to meet it. He schooled his features to hide his annoyance that he hadn't been informed of any planned arrival of any visitors. He snapped to attention when the driver opened the door and a colonel stepped out.
The visiting officer was tall and distinguished looking. He was older than the captain by at least two decades. Piercing blue eyes hid under bushy silver eyebrows that matched the officer's full head of hair. He looked fit for a man of his age; his skin not yet burned brown by the desert's blazing sun. There was a slight reddening on his nose that suggested the colonel had recently seen more sun than was his custom.
"Captain Dietrich, at your service Sir."
"At ease Captain," the colonel ordered as he returned the salute. The senior officer took his first look at Dietrich, staring or so long that Dietrich wanted to fidget. Wanted to, but didn't, since it would have been improper for a captain of the Afrika Korps to show nervousness in front of a senior officer.
For his part, the colonel was impressed with what he saw. He had heard much about the young officer in front of him. Before his arrival in North Africa, he had taken the time to talk to other officers who were familiar with Hans Dietrich, both as a man, and as an officer. Most, at least those who counted in the colonel's opinion, had spoken well of the officer. According to his sources, the young captain had a bright future in the military, if, he could survive this latest scandal. "Is there somewhere private where we can talk Captain?"
"Of course, Colonel," the captain agreed. "My office is just upstairs. It is both private and much cooler than standing out here."
"The lead on Captain, I am quite ready to get out of this heat." The colonel followed the base commander to his office. The stiff posture and clipped tone of the younger officer did not escape his notice.
"I'm sorry Sir," Dietrich began as they entered his office. "I wasn't notified of your expected arrival and I have nothing prepared for you." Dietrich offered the colonel his chair and rushed to close the curtains to keep the room as cool as possible. "I can have my clerk inform the cook that you will require your meals in your quarters. Perhaps you have something special in mind for your supper? We aren't well stocked but we may be able to accommodate your orders."
The colonel waved off the rush of information. "You weren't supposed to know I was coming Captain," the colonel smiled. "I was warned that this is a dangerous area. I was told that the fewer who knew of my presence, the better."
"That is true Colonel, but I could have provided you with security."
"No need Captain, I am here, safe and sound."
"Could I at least offer you a drink? I have some excellent brandy."
"Now that is something that I will accept," the officer answered. "It's a bit early in the day, but it has been a long, hot, dry ride."
"I understand Colonel." Dietrich called for his aide to bring him some ice for the drinks.
"How is security on this base?" the colonel asked as Dietrich fixed their drinks.
Dietrich paused, glancing at the colonel. "Our security has proven to be satisfactory for our needs. No system is completely fool proof but we have had no breaches for some time."
"Good," the colonel nodded as he sipped his drink. "I have heard tales of a certain Allied unit that seem to be very familiar with this part of the desert. I was warned that they seem to have very good intelligence. That was one of the reasons you were not told of my arrival in advance. We weren't sure if our codes have been broken."
"You are referring to the Rat Patrol," Dietrich nodded.
"Indeed."
"They haven't been reported in the area for over a week," Dietrich replied. "I suppose that means that they are due."
"Then I am glad I didn't announce my arrival ahead of time. I was warned that they have a bad habit of kidnapping officers who visit this area." The colonel held up a briefcase for Dietrich to see. "To pass the time on my ride here I took the liberty of reading your reports on that unit. They seem to lead charmed lives."
"Charmed?" Dietrich answered bitterly. "For them, perhaps, not so much for our forces."
"It certainly does seem that way," the colonel agreed. "I must admit, they interest me, only four men and two jeeps yet they seem to be able to strike at will and vanish without a trace. They are like ghosts who appear and disappear at will. I have read reports from other officers concerning them," here the colonel hesitated as he looked at his host, "but you seem to know more about them than most."
Dietrich looked up sharply at the colonel. "Are you here to try to capture them? Major Alderbeck tried recently, and failed. As a matter of fact, he died trying."
The colonel nodded. "I know. I knew Major Alderbeck personally."
"I'm sorry Sir, I didn't realize that the two of you were friends."
"Friends? Save your sympathy Captain, we weren't friends, just acquaintances." The colonel made a face. "I am going to speak freely Captain."
"Of course, sir," Dietrich answered.
"I didn't like Major Alderbeck. He was ambitious, and he didn't care who he had to climb over to get to the top. He was not the kind of officer I would like to see represent our homeland. You worked with him; I am sure you know what I mean."
Dietrich hesitated, wondering if this was a trap to get him to talk about another officer. The colonel was waiting and he didn't have much time to decide.
"You can talk freely Captain; I won't hold it against you. I was just wondering how it is that four men can cause so much damage against a much larger force. How do they manage to challenge the entire Afrika Korps and get away with it?"
"They are good soldiers," Dietrich grudgingly admitted.
"Obviously," the colonel agreed. "But how do they do it?"
"One battle at a time," Dietrich answered. "They strike without warning and disappear before our troops even have time to react. Since their unit is so small, they have no trouble finding holes to crawl into to hide from searchers. Their jeeps are faster than our vehicles and their drivers are very good. By the time we can get units out to look for them they are gone."
"But we do fight back? We do go out looking for them?"
"Of course," Dietrich nodded, "but it's like hunting shadows."
"Yet you have managed to catch them on several occasions," the senior officer answered thoughtfully.
"Yes sir, and they have always managed to escape. They are resourceful, to put it mildly."
Colonel Bittenbender watched the captain as he finished his drink. "You respect them?"
"Yes sir," Dietrich acknowledged. "They are good soldiers, and, as you pointed out, quite successful. I have learned a lot from them and it has helped me bring about some of my own successes."
"Ah yes, your own reputation is exemplary. There have been a few incidents that have been brought to my attention but they have all been explained to my satisfaction."
"I have done nothing that I am ashamed of, Colonel. Is that why you are here, to investigate me?"
The colonel laughed. "Relax Captain. That is not my intention. I was looking forward to meeting you though. There are others in Berlin who expect great things from you."
"I always give my best," the captain replied stiffly.
"I have no doubt that you do," the colonel agreed. "I spoke with Field Marshal Rommel about you. He gave you glowing reviews." The colonel sighed. "But that is not why I am here." The officer stood and walked to the window. He kept his back to the room as he continued. "Officially I am here to inspect the bases, and I have inspected several of them. But I am also here about Major Alderbeck. He convinced a lot of people that he could catch these desert raiders, this Rat Patrol. He promised to end their threat for good. I was sent to find out what went wrong. I understand that he was going to speak with you about your experiences with them." The colonel turned to look at Dietrich.
"I spoke with Major Alderbeck. I told him everything I knew about them."
"I know. He sent a report back saying he spoke with you, along with everyone else he could locate who had ever had any success against them. He wanted to learn everything he could about them. His intentions were to lean about their methods and try to discover their weaknesses. He thought he could use those weaknesses against them."
"That's what he told me," Dietrich nodded.
"Did you think his plan had any chance of success?"
Dietrich thought about his answer before he replied. "He didn't share his plan with me, but I understand that he did manage to capture one of them. From what his men told me, he planned to use that one to capture the rest."
"That was my understanding too," the colonel agreed.
"His plan had merits, but he made several fatal mistakes. Sacrificing his own men to act as bait may have worked, but it was hardly necessary. They should have had better back up. They died needlessly."
"How would you have done it?"
"I would have sent out a convoy, heavily armed. They seem to have some sort of sixth sense for when a convoy goes out. The convoy may have been attacked, but at least the men in it would have had a fighting chance. Major Alderbeck sent his men out into the open on their own. He only launched his counter attack after his men had trapped themselves in a wadi with the enemy."
"The wadi had only one way in, one way out, from what I understand."
"Yes, sir," Dietrich answered.
"Yet the Allies still managed to escape."
"While surrounded by a column commanded Major Alderbeck."
"The report says that the major was killed during the escape?"
"Yes," Dietrich answered.
"Where did he go wrong?"
"There are several possibilities," the captain answered. He paused to consider the ways. "His first mistake was underestimating Sergeant Troy, all of them for that matter."
"And his second mistake?"
Dietrich shrugged. "An officer who was there told me that he tried to force Sergeant Troy's driver to call for help. That would have been out of character for any of them. Troy knows his men and that strategy was doomed from the start. The sergeant would recognize his driver's voice and know right away that he was under duress. When his prisoner refused to cooperate, the major should have given up on that idea immediately. This failure put the next part of his plan into jeopardy. He failed to capture any of the others. The second part of his plan failed too. He wasn't able to kill any of the others with a surprise attack from the rear. He wasn't even able to confirm or deny that fact. Then, when he did manage to capture them, he allowed Sergeant Troy to turn the tables on him."
"By believing that the British sergeant was dead?"
"Yes," Dietrich agreed.
"What should he have done?"
"Held the privates outside of the wadi and forced Sergeant Troy to show him Sergeant Moffitt's body."
"But his own men told him that Sergeant Moffitt was dead," the colonel argued.
"They never saw his body."
The colonel thought for a moment before he nodded. "I see what you mean. And that was his fatal mistake? It was the British sergeant who eventually killed him." The colonel nodded again. "But I must say, I would most likely have made the same mistake."
"And you would be dead," Dietrich stated flatly.
"Do you think that this Sergeant Troy knew what the major was planning?"
The captain shrugged. "Perhaps. I suppose we will never know for certain. I could always ask Sergeant Troy the next time I see him if the circumstances allow, but I doubt that I will get a straight answer. He has a way of dancing around an answer that he doesn't want to give."
"He would lie to you, you mean?"
"No, not exactly," Dietrich answered. "Sergeant Troy is usually quite honest. It's more than likely that he would refuse to answer, or give a confusing answer that could be interpreted in several different ways."
"You say you spoke to Major Alderbeck?"
"Yes, we discussed Sergeant Troy and his team at great length."
"What did you think of the major?"
"Excuse me?"
"Come, come, Captain, you must have formed some sort of opinion of him. You said you spoke at length with him. What was your opinion of him?"
Dietrich straightened in his chair. "He was my superior."
"Yes," the colonel nodded, "but personally, I think that Major Alderbeck's plan was doomed from the start. I think that he was much too full of himself to admit that, even to himself. He came from an old German family and always acted as if he were better than those beneath him. I have known him for a long time. His death was not a surprise to me either. You can be honest with me Captain; you and I are alone in this room."
"I tried to warn him about Sergeant Troy and his team."
"What kind of warning?"
"They are extremely resourceful, and totally unpredictable. There have been times when I thought I knew what they would do. I thought I knew the only possible reaction. Then they did something entirely different; something I never could have imagined. Some might say crazy even."
"You think they're crazy?"
"No," Dietrich answered, "I think they are sly, like a fox. You can never let your guard down around them. Take the major's success for example."
"His success?"
Dietrich nodded. "He captured Troy's driver."
"And?"
"Private Hitchcock is the team's youngest member. All of the others seem to regard him in much the same way one might regard a younger brother."
"Could we use that against them?"
"The major tried, but he ignored everything I told him about Troy's team. When one of the team is either captured or injured, the others fight twice as hard. Capturing Private Hitchcock should have made him more cautious; instead, he got careless in his dealings with the sergeant. He let his success go to his head."
"You think capturing that private was a mistake?"
"Not necessarily, but it was handled wrong, in my opinion."
"But according to the reports, the sergeant surrendered to save his man."
"That's true," the captain agreed. "But Sergeant Troy's surrender was obviously part of his escape plan."
A knock on the door interrupted the conversation. Dietrich once again walked to the door and answered the knock. "What is it?"
"Your supper is ready Captain," the voice from the other side of the door answered. "Shall I have two meals delivered?"
Captain Dietrich turned to ask the colonel.
"I think I'd prefer to eat with the men," the colonel answered the unasked question. "I would like to see what moral is like on this base. I am told that you are a very popular leader Captain."
Dietrich blushed. "I do my best to treat my men fairly Colonel."
"Shall we go to supper then? We can continue this conversation later."
"After you Colonel." Dietrich gave a little bow and waved for the colonel to lead the way.
After their meal the colonel pleaded exhaustion and retired to his quarters.
Dietrich returned to his office to finish his reports for the day. He had a lot on his mind.