El Alamein by Jack Murray (most popular novels of all time txt) 📕

I will brief the tank commanders now on specific details as it applies to them. But this is the one we’ve been waiting for. Probably for the first time, we have the men, the equipment and, most importantly, a sound strategy. We can deal the Afrika Korps a body blow and I can tell you there isn’t a senior officer who has spent time with Monty who doesn’t believe that this is it. This is our time.’

It rang true. Danny could see the belief radiating from Crisp or perhaps he was just a good salesman. Unquestionably, though, Danny felt his spirits lift. For once the plan didn’t seem the blindly optimistic cavalry charge of old. Instead, it was a combined effort across all the services bar Navy and, critically, they were not playing cricket. It would happen at night. It seemed, at long last, the Allies had learned the lesson of past failure. Danny certainly hoped so. For the first time, he thought so, too.

36

Ladenburg, Germany: 22nd September 1942

‘I can’t believe I’m doing this,’ hissed Sammy for what seemed like the twentieth time. Sammy accompanied Brehme into the police station, looking around him like a schoolboy visiting the headmaster.

It was eleven at night and the station was empty except for a policeman at the reception. Brehme nodded to the man behind the counter, Kaltz. He was new; he was young and rich and utterly uninterested in the job. It served one purpose; to keep him away from the front line. Brehme understood this all too well. Had he not done the same? Indolent the young man may have been, but he was not entirely stupid.

‘I’m just interrogating a suspect,’ explained Brehme to the young policeman. He might as well have said he was marrying a horse. The boy acknowledged him briefly before returning to his newspaper.

They went through into the office Brehme shared with Keller. Brehme showed him the large metal filing cabinet that was used to store the Gestapo files. Sammy nodded then extracted from his pocket a leather wallet.

‘What’s that?’ asked Brehme stupidly. Sammy raised his eyebrows but didn’t answer. Tools of the trade realised Brehme. He went over to his desk and sat down. ‘I’ll leave you to it.’

And Sammy went to it. The leather pouch, from the quick glance by Brehme, seemed to contain a variety of metal implements. Brehme looked at Sammy’s hands as he picked out a couple of the metal lock picks. His fingers were long and slender, very much at odds with the rest of Sammy, which was neither.

He selected a couple of metal picks and went to work. Brehme turned away rather like a gentleman when confronted with a woman undressing. He felt it oddly inappropriate to watch the act of breaking in.

Seconds later he heard the sound of the filing cabinet drawers open. He spun around to Sammy, in shock.

‘Already?’

‘I was good, you know,’ smiled Sammy.

‘Still practicing?’ asked Brehme grimly but there was a twinkle in his eye.

‘Only when I lock myself out,’ explained Sammy.

Brehme was over to the cabinet in the blink of an eye. He fished through a couple of the drawers before he found what he was looking for.

‘Can you keep watch?’ asked Brehme.

Sammy went to the door and opened it just wide enough to allow him a view of the corridor.

Meanwhile, Brehme carefully flicked through the file he’d first seen a month previously. There was still no mention of him, but the rest of the file was full of biographical information about key town officials. Nothing in them seemed suspicious. Businessmen, too, were included. A number were suspected of having helped Jewish people escape abroad. This was based on past political allegiances rather than anything tangible. After a few minutes Brehme put the file away, slightly dissatisfied.

He searched through the other drawers and removed another file. This one was thinner. His eyes widened when he saw the abstract.

‘Information pertaining to the provision of sanctuary to Jews’

He flicked through the file. A number of the men and women mentioned in the previous file also appeared here. This was not unexpected, but it appeared that there was an operation being planned to conduct surprise searches on a mass scale. Brehme had noticed the build-up of SS personnel in recent days. He looked for a date.

There was nothing else in the file that could confirm when the operation would start. Nor was there any detail on who would conduct the searches. Given the number of SS he’d seen arrive in the previous few days, two things were clear to Brehme. The operation was imminent and, in all likelihood, would involve simultaneous searches to avoid news spreading.

He sat back in his old chair and shook his head. The country was at war, not just with half the world but also with itself. It made sense, of course. These people had created an enemy within to justify their own enrichment as well as their continued presence while others went off to fight. He thought of Erich Sammer again, a boy who represented everything he detested about the country. He’d avoided being sent to the frontline because of his connections. While Manfred risked his life in a desert, this piece of excrescence was pretending to play policeman.

‘Hurry up,’ said Sammy nervously.

‘Relax,’ replied Brehme. ‘The station is quiet these nights.’

Sammy smiled nervously, ‘Why? Have you sent all the criminals to fight?’

‘No, Sammy. They’re running the country now.’

If Sammy was surprised to hear this, he hid it well. In fact, it only confirmed his view that he’d been right to help his old nemesis. In an odd way, and certainly for the first time, they were on the same side.

Sammy performed his magic in shutting the filing cabinet. Then he turned to Brehme and said with a smile, ‘Can we go now?’

‘No,’ replied Brehme. ‘One more thing?’

Sammy glanced outside the window.

‘We don’t have time. I can see people coming into the station.’

Brehme shook his head and pointed at the table, ‘Quickly, this drawer.’

Sammy