The Substitute
Chapter 6
Hogan announced himself to the clerk outside Kommandant Werner's office. Seeing the colonel's face, the clerk, who knew the senior POW officer was not happy, wisely said and did nothing, except knock on the door and inform Werner that Hogan was outside.
"You wanted to see me, Kommandant?" Hogan said with little enthusiasm, and in a deeper and firmer tone of voice.
"Yes. Two things. Please sit down." Werner pointed to the chair. Hogan stepped forward and sat, taking a straight position in the chair, forgoing the slouching he used for Klink.
"I need two work parties drawn up. Here are the details." He passed the paperwork over to Hogan. "I expect them to be ready to go in an hour."
Hogan took a quick look at the requirements and details, noting the locations. It was a good bet that some of the men would be able to smuggle in supplies, but since Schultz was gone, he would have to play it by ear. "I'll have the work parties ready for you by then."
"Excellent. Things are going very well. I appreciate your cooperation." Hogan held back an eye roll. "But we need to speed things up, don't we?" Werner leaned forward in his chair. "I want the construction teams back on the job this afternoon."
"It's too muddy," Hogan protested.
"You will do your best. And before they start tackling the huts again, I want your men to build walkways throughout the camp. I detest getting my shoes muddy. Do both sections. That way the guards won't get their shoes muddy either."
"Is there anything else?" Hogan asked as he tried to keep his cool.
"No. that is all. You are dismissed."
Hogan stood up and headed for the door. He turned. "You know, sir. That is a good idea. And the men are really itching to get back to work," he said, his tone of voice heading up an octave. "I don't want anyone hurt; they'll be slipping and sliding. Walkways would help. But one thing; we will need a lot more wood. We can use some of the extra wood needed for the huts, but then we won't have enough to make sure they are shored up properly."
"Oh? Yes, I am sure you are correct," Werner stated. "Take some of the wood you are using to shore up the huts, and I will send for more wood immediately."
"The guvnor's' up to something," Newkirk observed as he lit a cigarette. The main team was holed up in Hogan's office listening in on the conversation.
Kinch nodded as he wrapped up the coffee pot. "We can use that extra wood for the tunnels. I noticed he changed his tone of voice at the end. That's a good sign. Buttering up the Kommandant."
They sat and waited several minutes for Hogan to return. The residents of the hut were handling chores outside and in the tunnels, while other men were shoring up the tunnel entrances.
As soon as the colonel entered the barracks, he was peppered with questions. He held up his hand, and the men quieted down. "This may be our chance to make Werner look bad."
"How so, Colonel?" asked Carter.
"We'll try and cook the books." Hogan headed to the stove and poured himself a cup of coffee. "He needs to find some more money to spend in order to get more wood for this project." Taking a sip, he continued. "And then we need to get Burkhalter back here to see the mess, and get this guy out of here."
"What part of the books are we going to cook, Colonel? And how?"
"I know the how, Kinch. But I don't know the what. We will need to get into Klink's office and work some magic."
"Getting in shouldn't be a problem, Colonel. We'll figure it out. But once I get in there, I may be a bit out of me element," Newkirk admitted.
Hogan looked over at Kinch. His right hand man somehow knew all of the skills scattered among the other men in camp. "Kinch. I know we have that skill set somewhere."
"We have two bookkeepers and one accountant in camp."
"Good. After we're done, have them come over here."
"Question, Colonel."
"Go ahead, Olsen."
"If we get rid of this guy, who's Burkhalter going to get to replace him?"
Hogan took another sip of coffee. "I'm glad you asked that question Olsen. I'm not sure we'll need to get anyone. I think that part is going to be handled by Schultz and Langenscheidt."
"We have to rely on Schultz? Now we are really in trouble," Kinch said.
"Sometimes Schultz will surprise you," Hogan commented, hoping his faith in the sergeant would be rewarded. Schultz had an extra set of brains along with him. Langenscheidt was not stupid.
What Hogan did not know was that the sergeant of the guard also had an ace up their sleeves, Hilda.
HhHhH
The three were on their way to the Luftwaffe's rest hospital for officers. It was, they anticipated, about a three-hour drive without detours or blockades. Schultz's orders and Hilda's travel papers easily got them through, and after checking into a nearby hotel, the three arrived at the campus where the rest hospital stood.
The facility was located in a tranquil, wooded area located several kilometers from the nearby small village. The buildings all faced a common green area. There were pathways connecting the buildings, and various seating areas nestled among the large lawn and under covered patios, where patients, visitors and caregivers were chatting, drinking tea and cold drinks and taking in some fresh air.
There was a guarded area and checkpoint at the front entrance. Schultz, who was driving, stopped the car and rolled down the window. He handed all three sets of papers to the stern looking guard. Past the guardhouse, he saw a gate and several armed personnel.
"Everything is in order. I have your names. Drive through and head towards building three. There is a small parking area next to the building."
"Thank you," Schultz replied. He put the car in gear and headed towards building three. After parking, the three entered the building and faced the same inquisition. Finally, after these guards were satisfied, they were directed to a set of elevators and told to go to the 2nd floor.
There were few patients milling about; most were in their rooms.
"This appears to be a building housing only sick people," Langenscheidt whispered." Not wounded."
"Sick officers," Schultz whispered back. "I don't know what kind of facilities enlisted men receive. Probably not as nice as this."
"Why you are whispering?" asked Hilda with a smile. "We are in the elevator."
The two soldiers turned their heads and stared at the secretary, who shrugged.
"The walls always have ears." Langenscheidt turned and faced the doors.
The elevator stopped, the doors opened and the three approached the nurses' station directly across from the elevator.
"May I help you?" Asked the nurse seated behind the desk.
"We are here to see Kommandant Klink," said Schultz.
"Yes, of course. The guards alerted us to your arrival. I take it he is not expecting you?"
"That is correct. We have cards and letters from the men under his command at Stalag 13."
"Very well. Room 222. He needs his rest, so please stay only 15 minutes."
"Hans, I think you should go in first," Hilda said, as Langenscheidt nodded.
Klink was seated up in bed, propped up on several pillows. He was feeling pretty miserable and sorry for himself; wondering about his command and if Hogan was causing any trouble, and also feeling pretty awful physically. He was tired, sore, and sick of a liquid diet. His first chance at hanging his legs over the side of the bed made him dizzy. On his first walk, he made it to the door of the room and that was it. Yes, Klink was not a happy camper. And then he heard the slight knock at the door.
"Enter," he wheezed. His eyes grew wide. "Schultz? What are you doing here?"
"I was concerned about you Kommandant. And I brought cards and letters from the staff." Schultz walked over to the bed. He paled slightly at the sight of the colonel, but quickly recovered, placing the bag of good wishes on the table by the side of the bed.
"Cards and letters from the staff? I don't believe it. My staff?"
"It's true. Staff and guards."
"Prisoners?" Klink asked hopefully.
Schultz shook his head. "Sorry, they have been very busy with work details, although they are behaving," he added quickly. "They did not know I was coming."
"Oh." Klink sounded disappointed. He coughed, and then asked, "How are things otherwise at camp?"
"Camp? Well, we can talk about that later, but if you are up to it, I brought two other visitors."
"Send them in. I've been so bored." Klink turned his head and for the first time since his surgery, his mood brightened. "Langenscheidt, Hilda!"
"How are you, sir?"
"Feeling a bit better, Corporal. Thank you."
"I would have baked you something nice, Kommandant, but with this surgery..."
"Thank you Hilda, I understand. Just seeing you is enough. Please sit. Schultz, bring Fraulein Hilda that chair."
Everyone got settled. Langenscheidt found a chair for Schultz in the hall and the corporal leaned up against the windowsill. He then asked, "How are they treating you here, Kommandant?"
He sighed. "Well. But I'm tired of being in bed. Tired of a liquid diet. They finally removed the last tube."
"Tubes?" Langenscheidt croaked, grateful he didn't have to witness that.
Klink pointed to his nose, and his stomach.
Hilda patted his arm. "That's great news, sir. Are you coughing? Have you been walking? Moving around? Don't want to have you come down with pneumonia."
"I have started." Klink sighed. "So how is the substitute Kommandant. What is his name?"
"Oberst Werner. The prisoners are behaving," Schultz repeated. "No escapes."
"That's good; I am...wait...who is running things while you are all here? Hilda? Schultz?"
"Another clerk, sir. It's fine. Nothing to worry about. And they took some of their leave to come here. Would you like to see some of these cards?"
"Of course."
Langenscheidt and Schultz looked at each other. Hilda stood up and walked over to the bag; taking out a card or note one at a time, she began handing them to Klink. He read over the first several cards, commenting on the nice handwriting and sentiment. She handed him a letter from Bruno.
Klink began reading the letter. He frowned and continued to read, his mouth saying the words to himself. "We are doing the best we can in the office, but don't worry; we are taking good care of things. Corporal Langenscheidt is a good teacher."
The letter fell on the bed. And Klink looked up. After another cough, he said one word. "Explain."
"He let me go," Hilda said calmly. "Said having a woman civilian at a POW camp was against regulations. He recommended I join the auxiliary. But there is more."
And Schultz began to recount some of the sordid details, including the changes in fencing.
"And then, Schnitzer threatened to leave and take his dogs with him until Colonel Hogan agreed to let them track down two prisoners outside of the wire. LeBeau and Olsen." Schultz stopped to take a breath.
Klink wagged his finger. "If Colonel Hogan agreed to that, he must have had an ulterior motive."
"Well, he was offered a meal in town, for himself and the two prisoners, but then he declined."
"Did they catch them?"
"Oh yes, sir. Blümchen is a good dog. She doesn't miss a trick," Langenscheidt stated proudly.
Klink noticed tears rolling down Hilda's face. "What else?" he asked his secretary.
"He...separated...separated the prisoners by nationality."
"What? That leaves a few Norwegians in one hut? That's insane. And Hogan needs to keep an eye on that Englander and the cockroach. I don't trust them on their own."
"Very good point, Kommandant," Schultz noted.
Hilda was still crying. "That's not all. Hans, you tell him about the separations. I can't."
"He put the colored and Jewish prisoners into the furthest barracks."
Klink's mouth hung open in shock. "That is not good for morale, and causes resentment. It is also inhumane."
"He said it was regulations like everything else."
"Those huts are not suitable. They were never finished."
"They're working on them...except the Jewish hut had a termite infestation. So now they are in with the colored prisoners," Langenscheidt said.
"Outrageous. Hilda, I will make some phone calls. General Burkhalter will get your job back."
"I don't think so, Kommandant. General Burkhalter came to camp and was pleased that no extra funds were used for construction."
"More construction?"
As the three continued to explain what had been done to Klink's beloved camp and his command, the Kommandant began to get agitated. His breathing became a bit labored and just as the three became concerned, a nurse came in.
"Your 15 minutes are up; what have you done? He is upset. Leave now."
"And we didn't even tell him how the prisoners were locked in at night." Karl whispered to Schultz as they were ushered out into the hall.
"Well, that did not go as I expected," Schultz told his companions as they sat in the lobby of the small hotel where they would spend the night.
"He got very upset," Hilda stated. "And he doesn't look well enough to travel."
"Yes, he was upset," Schultz agreed. "And you? Were those real tears or do we have an actress in our midst?"
Hilda smiled. "I was genuinely choked up, thinking about all the chaos. But, I did manage to turn on the waterworks for an extra touch."
"Maybe we should have asked Colonel Hogan for help." Karl walked over to the window and glanced outside. He turned. "He always seems to have good ideas."
Schultz harrumphed, as Hilda nodded.
"No," Schultz finally said. "We will handle this on our own. Last thing we want is for Werner to find out Colonel Hogan is aiding and abetting a hostile takeover. That would not go well for my boys."
Karl sighed. "You make a good point. But even with the nursing care Hilda arranged, how we are going to spirit Colonel Klink out of here?"
HhHhH
Klink sat up in his bed, mulling over the visit with Schultz, Langenscheidt and Hilda. He was very angry about everything that had transpired since Werner's arrival. In particular, he was heartbroken over Hilda's firing. The thought of losing her made his heart ache. She needed the money. Besides that, she was an excellent secretary. Regulations be damned. He was fully aware this was Germany and that rules, regulations and recordkeeping were paramount in their culture. It was in their blood. But sometimes you had to go with the flow and bend rules when warranted.
When the camp was opened, the buildings were already there. So much time and money was saved, and retrofitting the rest of the camp to accommodate prisoners took very little time and effort. When Klink took over the camp from the original Kommandant, he revised the layout and guard schedules, making the camp more secure. What once had been a revolving door, and with Hogan's cooperation, Luft Stalag 13 was now an escape-proof camp. Now his entire life's work was on the line.
Why would someone waste time and money raising perfectly good barracks? They worked fine for now. Of course most camps had raised barracks. They also had escapes. Good grief, this man couldn't put two and two together.
But Burkhalter was pleased. And this thought frightened Klink like no other. The camp could be repaired, the prisoners moved back to where they were. But if the general liked this new Kommandant, who knows what would happen? Klink could be sent somewhere else after he recovered, and he would never have Hilda as his secretary again.
And then there was Hogan. Klink found it suspicious that the colonel was cooperating with this nonsense. Of course he had protested; Schultz explained that went nowhere. But the cagey colonel usually had something up his sleeve. Something diabolical or nefarious. A mass escape perhaps? Now that Klink was gone, he was sure the colonel would see the weakness in the new system and also in the new Kommandant. And then he would fly like a bird.
"That will show them," he said out loud.
"Show them what, Oberst?"
Klink looked up at his nurse who was standing at the door.
"Time to take your medicine, and then we will try getting you out of bed again. And what do you wish to show?" She asked.
"Oh nothing. It's about my old posting."
"You will be able to return to your old posting, sir." The nurse handed Klink some pills, which he swallowed with some water. Then she folded over the covers, and helped him hang his legs over the side of the bed. "Any dizziness?"
"No," Klink said, surprised. In fact, he had spent so much time wallowing over things at Stalag 13 that he forgot about his miserable existence.
"Okay, sir. Let's take this slow."
With cautious steps, Klink carefully walked to the door, and flopped into the chair.
"Marvelous! We will leave you sitting up in the chair for ten minutes."
Klink smiled. He knew this was one small step, but for the first time in a long time, he felt hopeful.
HhHhH
It was the middle of the night, and Newkirk, Garfield, a bookkeeper, and Jeffers, the accountant, were on their way to Klink's office. Their mission? Check the books for irregularities, or to see if there was a way they could get Werner in trouble. Hogan met with the team during the day and gave them leeway to cause trouble as they saw fit.
But now, things were complicated, as it was Newkirk's job to get these two other men safely into Klink's office. This was difficult, as one of the men's huts was already raised and lacked a tunnel entrance. Garfield left the hut by using the original opening to the now filled-in tunnel. Since the fencing was put up, there were actually fewer guards patrolling inside the prisoner compound, and he used this to an advantage, sneaking from hut to hut until he got to Hogan's barracks. Newkirk and Jeffers, their huts still at ground level, arrived at Barracks 2 through the tunnel system.
The next step was dangerous. In order to get to Klink's office, which did not have a tunnel entrance, they had to get into the area of the camp reserved for staff. Once this was completed, Newkirk's job was to get them safely through a window, something he had done numerous times before, and into the building. The solution was simple but risky. The men went through the dog pen. With LeBeau going up first to distract the animals, the three quickly slipped out of the doghouse and towards the gate.
Jeffers turned his head and spotted LeBeau. Only his upper torso and head was showing; his body was now back inside the doghouse. He was surrounded by dogs, but to Jeffers' amazement, the shepherds were not making much noise; they were too happy to see the man who provided treats. LeBeau was able to keep them quiet as he tossed food about. The two financial experts, not used to helping out with missions, could feel their hearts beating in their chests; but they plowed through their fright and followed Newkirk out of the pen and into the staff compound. Newkirk was in his element and he deftly steered his charges towards the building. He seemed to know where the lights shone, and where the guards patrolled. Soon, they were inside the Kommandantur.
Using as little light as possible, Jeffers and Garfield quickly glanced over the financial books. Seeing nothing out of sorts, Jeffers told Newkirk, "This will take too much time. Nothing we can do in the office. We'd have to take these out."
"Colonel Hogan said not to go that far." Newkirk, crouching on the floor, stood up slowly. He spied some forms on the desk. "What's this then?"
As the three looked over the forms, Newkirk grinned. "I think we may have found a solution."
Hogan was pacing back and forth in the common room, waiting for the three to return from Klink's office. He looked at his watch. "Taking too long," he mumbled.
"Don't worry, sir. We slipped a mickey into Werner's drink at his dinner. It'll knock him out until morning."
"Remind me to get that guard some extra marks," Hogan replied to Kinch. He shook his head. "They are so easy to bribe. Even if it is through the fencing."
"They aren't happy with the situation either," Olsen pointed out.
"I know." Hogan stopped pacing. "As a matter of fact, the clerk in the office told me there was a big meeting in Schultz's quarters the other night. They're all in on it."
"Well, that's a horse of a different color," Saunders chuckled.
"Yeah, Saunders. Sometimes I do feel like we are in Oz." Hogan paused as the bunk entrance opened, revealing Newkirk and the two financial experts.
"All done, Colonel," Newkirk said. The two amateurs collapsed in two chairs.
"Get them something to drink. So, what if anything were you able to do?"
Garfield took a sip of water. "We weren't able to do anything with the books, Colonel. Based on what we could see, and it was a quick once over, it would have been too complicated. But we did something else. We doctored some supply request forms."
Hogan turned towards Newkirk. "I take it they won't be discovered?"
"Of course not, Sir. They're all set to be sent out first thing tomorrow morning. We have everything covered. Before long, he should be in a right mess."
Hogan nodded. "Thanks. You three get back to your huts. With luck, somehow our intrepid extraction team will retrieve Klink. Once he's tucked in, I'll make sure he sees the supply order," Hogan said. "If that doesn't work, we'll figure out how to get Burkhalter back to camp."