Chapter 8: Caught!
Hans Lechner woke early, as was his way. He got up and dressed in his usual overalls and thick sheepskin winter coat as the nights and early mornings had been getting quite cold. His joints felt stiff and sore with the chronic rheumatism that had plagued him for the past few years. That morning was especially bad and his leg pained him greatly as he hobbled outside to go and start his morning chores. Yawning, he picked up the tin pail and began the long walk from his humble cottage to the barn to milk the cows. The morning dawn was just breaking over the horizon, lighting up the far away trees in the mountains with a sparkle.
As Hans got to the barn, something in the other direction caught his eye. There up on the nearby hill was the flicker of a small campfire. Frowning to himself, he wasn't sure who on earth could be up on the hill near his farm. The farm was quite far from the nearest village, and it was rare that any of the villagers came this far out of town into the mountains. He wondered whether squatters were camped on the hill or whether the fire belonged to someone less friendly. He did know from time to time soldiers would patrol the hills as his farm was just over the border from Austria. Either way, Hans was a curious man and wanted to investigate.
Swapping the tin pail for a pitchfork, he slowly made his way up the hill in the direction of the fire. It took him some time due to the immobility of his bad leg. But by the time he was halfway up the hill, his joints had loosened up a fair bit so he found he could move quicker and much more freely. As he reached the camp, he heard the sound of children's laughter. Keeping out of sight behind a bush, he observed the sight in front of him. Sitting on a blanket in front of the fire was a woman braiding a young girl's hair. She was talking happily to an older girl and after a quick scan around the vicinity, Hans counted six, no seven children, the eldest boy and girl clearly teenagers. Glad that the campfire didn't belong to patrolling soldiers, Hans was just about to come out from his hiding place and introduce himself to the family when he heard a rough voice coming from the other direction.
The woman looked up in alarm as a solider with a gun approached her and she quickly stood and gathered the children around her as the soldier ushered her over to one side of the camp. A second solider then appeared and spoke briefly to the first before walking to the opposite side of the camp where a man rested up against a tree asleep. Hans watched as the man awoke and the second soldier held a gun to the man's head.
Hans knew this family was in trouble. He stayed where he was hidden behind the bush and waited for an opportunity to help them.
XxXxXxXx
"Put your hands up and don't move..."
Those words continued to ring in Georg's ears as he felt the gun push harder against his temple. As he didn't move straight away, it only took an instant before the soldier shouted at him again. "Now or I'll shoot!"
"NO!" Georg heard Maria cry out. Immediately he put his hands in the air, turning his head just slightly in the direction of her cry. She stood with the children huddled frightened behind her, a look of panic and alarm on her face. The other soldier pointed a gun at them and Georg felt his blood turn cold. He locked eyes with Maria and threw her a warning look, hoping that she'd understand not to make any sudden movements.
"Alright man, on your feet," the soldier commanded Georg. While keeping his hands in the air, Georg slowly clambered to his feet. He kept his eyes firmly fixed on Maria and the children the whole time.
"Now, let's see who we have here," the soldier began. "We had orders from our commander in the Third Reich to be on the lookout for a man travelling on foot through these mountains accompanied by a woman and seven children. It seems," the soldier spat out on the ground in front of Georg's feet, "that we've hit the jackpot. Captain Georg von Trapp I assume?"
Georg said nothing but looked straight ahead. His senses were now high on alert, his heart thumping in his chest as his mind began to race. He knew he only had moments to come up with a plan of how to escape from these soldiers before they tied him up or worse, shot him. Georg remembered that he still had Rolf's gun down shoved down his sock. His military training meant he knew how to move fast and efficiently, but he also knew that he couldn't risk trying to retrieve the weapon straight away, not with the soldier still pointing a gun at Maria and the children. Georg knew any unexpected movements would result in someone getting shot. What he really needed was to stage some sort of diversion but whatever he planned, he would need to do it fast.
"Well? Answer me man," the soldier sneered into Georg's face.
When Georg didn't respond again, the soldier punched him hard in the stomach, causing Georg to double over in pain. Georg heard Maria cry out as he gasped for breath. Georg remained doubled over for longer than necessary trying to buy some time to come up with a plan. All of a sudden something caught his eye over in the nearby bushes. He tried to see what it was but the soldier prodded him then wrenched him back into an upright position.
The soldier grabbed Georg by the hair and jerked his head back roughly. "Your silence pretty much says that indeed you are Captain von Trapp. But even if you aren't, I'm sure our commander in the Third Reich would have use for you anyway. We'll take you into headquarters and I'm sure me and my Lieutenant here will receive a mighty reward for our services." The soldier let go of Georg's hair and pushed his head forward aggressively. "Now stay there and keep your hands where I can see them and nothing will happen to your family."
The soldier moved away from him and went to speak to his Lieutenant. Georg let out a deep breath and looked over at Maria again. Both Marta and Gretl had their heads buried into her legs crying with fear. Friedrich stood next to her wide-eyed, his hand on her shoulder and the other children remained behind them. They all looked terrified. Georg gave Maria a slight nod of reassurance before looking back over to the bushes where he'd seen movement when he was doubled over before.
Behind one of the large bushes Georg could see an old man hiding. Hans glanced in the direction of the soldiers who were now in deep conversation with each other. He made several gestures to Georg with his hands. Georg narrowed his eyes trying to interpret what the old man was trying to say to him. Hans repeated the gestures then held up a large pitchfork pointing towards the soldiers. Georg nodded in acknowledgement that the old man would use the pitchfork to stage an ambush on the soldiers and that he, and his family need to be ready to launch into an attack with him.
Georg looked back over to Maria and the children. Maria has seen Georg looking over towards the bushes as she gave him an inquisitive look. Georg inclined his head slightly in the direction where the old man was hiding and he saw her look over before nodding back at him in understanding of what was about to happen. Maria whispered to Friedrich who also looked from the old man to Georg and prepared himself for the attack.
Despite the pain in his leg, Hans crept slowly from his position behind the bush around the back of the camp so to be behind where the soldiers were still talking with each other. Finally in position Hans signalled to Georg and held up three fingers to count down…. Three, two, one…
Simultaneously, Hans launched out of the bushes just as Georg rushed at the soldiers. Taken by surprise, Georg was able to throw a punch at the first solider as the old man hit the second soldier with the pitchfork. A shot rang out as one of the guns went off, hitting a nearby tree and only barely missing Maria and the children who had crouched down on the ground.
Georg and the soldier were in close hand-to-hand combat. The soldier swung at Georg but he ducked quickly, avoiding the blow. Georg retorted by kneeing the solider in the stomach and as he doubled over, Georg inflicted a final blow to the back of his head and the soldier crumpled to the ground unconscious.
Hans, however, was having a harder time with the second solider. He had had the element of surprise over the solider but his stiff joints had hampered his speed. The soldier punched him in the chin causing him to drop the pitchfork. A second blow from the soldier resulted in Hans falling to his knees. The soldier picked up the pitchfork from where Hans had dropped it and stood over the old man. He was about to administer the final whack when he felt something being shoved into the back of his head.
"Drop it," Georg ordered as he pressed the gun he'd retrieved from his sock harder into the soldier's head.
The soldier began to lower the pitchfork and Georg moved the gun away from his head. But suddenly the soldier let out a roar and launched himself at the old man. As quick as lightening Georg was on top of the soldier and wrestled him to the ground. The two men brawled in the dirt; firstly Georg had the advantage and threw a hard punch, before the soldier managed to get on top of Georg and began to strangle him. Georg tried to pry the soldier's hands away from his throat but it was difficult as he was choking. Tighter and tighter the soldier squeezed. Georg struggled against him and just as he thought he couldn't last against him anymore, the soldier's grip suddenly relaxed and he collapsed on top of Georg.
Gasping for breath, Georg peered over the soldier's shoulder to see Friedrich with the pitchfork in hand having knocked out the soldier with one hit. Georg rolled the soldier's body off his and his son helped him to stand. Georg pulled Friedrich into a large embrace. "Thank you son," Georg managed to stammer as he released him and patted him on the back. A moment later, Maria launched herself into his arms sobbing.
"Oh Georg, are you alright? I was so frightened when those soldiers had a gun to your head, then when you were fighting with them…" her voice trailed off. Georg gave her a light kiss and held her close.
"Yes, I'm fine," he replied still somewhat breathless, rubbing his tender throat. "What about you and the children? Were you hurt at all?" She shook her head as she wiped the last tears away. The remaining six children all gathered around Georg and he embraced them all in turn, making sure each and every one of them was all right.
Then Georg picked up Rolf's gun and the two other guns belonging to the soldiers and tucked them all into the waistband at the back of his trousers. Finally he turned to the old man, whom Friedrich had gone and helped to his feet. He limped towards the group, rubbing a large bump on his head.
"Thank you," Georg said as he extended his hand to shake the man's. "I, sir, am eternally in your debt."
"No need to thank me, anyone would have done the same," Hans replied, smiling at Georg as he shook his hand. "My name's Hans, Hans Lechner. I live on the small farm right down the bottom of this hill. It's lucky I saw your fire this morning as I went out to milk my cows and came to investigate."
"Yes, we are all very lucky indeed. I really am very grateful," Georg told him sincerely. "My name's Georg and this is my wife Maria and our children here." Georg gestured towards his family.
"Pleased to be able to help you all," Hans said. "But I must ask, why are you all the way out here in the mountains?"
Georg gave a dry laugh. "Ah… it's complicated. Let's just say I didn't agree with the current political state of Austria so my family and I were travelling through the mountains to Switzerland on foot."
"Switzerland on foot? Well friend, you're in luck. The Swiss border was around 5 miles back that way." Hans pointed in the direction the family had just come from.
"We're already in Switzerland?" Maria asked. Hans nodded. She let out a sigh of relief before narrowing her brow in confusion. "But if we're already in across the border, why are there Nazi soldiers in these mountains?" she asked.
Hans shook his head. "We're so close to the border that I'm afraid soldiers quite regularly patrol these hills for hoping to catch people escaping the country."
Maria looked worried and bit down on her lip. "So what are going to do now?" she asked Georg gesturing to the two unconscious soldiers lying on the ground near them. He went over to the two soldiers and bent down to check their vitals.
"Well for the moment it looks like they're both out cold. But I'm sure it won't be long before they come to," Georg explained to the group. "That was a close call, too close really," he wiped some blood off his chin with his handkerchief. "We need to leave now and get as far away as possible before they wake and come after us."
Georg turned to Hans and asked. "How far to the nearest village or town?"
"There is a small village just over 10 miles away. It's down in the valley over there," Hans began to explain to Georg as he pointed. "If you take this path down the hill, you'll come to my farm. Then there is an old cart track that you can follow all the way to the village. You can't get lost."
Georg nodded. "Alright children, listen here. Leave everything where it is and hurry quickly as you can to the village that Herr Lechner described. Friedrich, lead the way. Liesl, help your younger sisters. Your mother and I'll be following you as soon as we can." As the younger children began to protest leaving their parents, Maria hugged and reassured them before they reluctantly began to follow Friedrich down the hill.
Once the children were gone Georg spoke to Hans again. "What about you Hans? You've already risked so much to help us. When the soldiers wake up, they'll come and find you and I'm afraid at what they'll do to you for helping us."
Hans gave Georg a pat on a back. "I appreciate the thought Georg, I do. But I'm not afraid of them!"
"Will you come with us?" Maria asked.
"No, I won't. My home and my life are in these hills, and always have been." Maria smiled at him in understanding, knowing exactly what he meant, as she'd always felt the same way about the Untersberg. "And no one is going to make me leave, not even Nazi soldiers," he punctuated the last statement with determination. "Besides, with the rheumatism in my leg being so bad, I'll only slow you down." He gave his bad leg a slap. "Now when you get to the village, my cousin Johanna runs the inn. Tell her I sent you and she'll take care of you all and keep you safe."
Maria nodded and gave Hans a hug. "We will. Thank you again for everything you did for our family today. You'll be in my prayers. God be with you Hans."
"And with your family too Maria," Hans replied before shaking Georg's hand in farewell.
Georg picked up his hat and hoisted the satchel over his shoulder before he and Maria turned to take their leave from the old man. Suddenly Georg saw one of the soldiers starting to stir out of the corner of his eye. He looked at Hans in alarm.
"Go, quickly, run. I'll hold them off," Hans told the couple as he once again picked the pitchfork, readying himself for the next attack.
"You'll be needing this I think." Georg handed Hans one of the guns from his waistband. "Thank you again," Georg whispered as he grabbed Maria's hand and the two of them ran down the hill following their children.