Erika dropped the book she had been toying with, jumped to her feet and, with a radiant smile, cried, ‘Gregory! My darling! I thought you’d never get here.’ Next moment she was in his arms.
Goering remained grinning in the doorway. When they had exchanged breathless kisses and, still holding hands, come apart, he said mischievously, ‘I told Erika I had sent for you and she suggested that you might prefer to spend the night here instead of returning to Berlin. So I had this suite made ready for you. There is, of course, a separate bed in the dressing room. I hope you will find everything you want. Schlafen Sie wohl.’
As the door closed behind him, Gregory exclaimed with mingled delight and anxiety, ‘My sweet, to see you again after all these months is marvellous—wonderful. But I’m horrified at the thought of the danger you are running. You ought never to have come into Germany.’
‘I had to,’ she replied quietly. ‘There are some duties that one cannot neglect. I know you no longer think of me as a German. But I am one. And my poor country is now in extremis. Whatever horrors the Nazis have perpetrated, that does not alter the fact that there are many millions of decent German men and women who did not want the war and have been forced into doing what they have done by the Nazi tyranny.’
‘I know it. But that’s no fault or concern of yours.’
‘It does concern me, darling. They are my people. Thousands of them are now dying every day or suffering from ghastly wounds. And the children. Poor mites, just think what the bombs are doing to them. Nothing should be left unattempted that might bring an end to this horror. Nothing!’
‘You really thought you could?’
‘I thought there was just a chance I might, because in Germany before the war I was looked on as a very special person. I negotiated many of Hugo Falkenstein’s big armament deals, so I’m a competent negotiator. As you know, Hermann was one of my closest friends. I know that he used the most ruthless methods to make his way to power and that now half the time he is sodden with drink and drugs; but he’s not like the other Nazis. He is one of the finest and bravest air aces Germany ever had. And he’s never allowed himself to become muddle-headed by the Nazi propaganda. Despite everything, he still has enormous will power and is the one man who might save Germany from complete annihilation. Knowing that he would listen to me, it was my responsibility to come here and talk to him.’
Gregory gave an unhappy smile. ‘Darling, I honour you more than I can say for your decision to risk your life in such a cause. But how in the world did you succeed in getting here?’
She shrugged. ‘It wasn’t very difficult. After the Allies had crossed the Rhine I went to London and talked to dear Pellinore. At first he was most reluctant to help me; but he agreed that with Germany obviously on the brink of defeat no possibility of bringing hostilities to an end must be neglected. He secured for me a letter to Allen Dulles and arranged to have me flown out to Switzerland. Dulles was a little difficult to begin with, but when I had convinced him that I was something more than just an old girl friend of Hermann’s he agreed to play. For me to make the journey they fitted up the interior of an ambulance like a caravan so that I could sleep in it at night, and they filled it up with fuel and every sort of store. Then they wangled me across the frontier into Germany under the aegis of the Red Cross. Fortunately there was no question of having to go through Russian-held territory and both the Americans and the Germans respect a nurse’s uniform. There were plenty of wolf whistles, but they all waved me on my way and the journey took me only four days.’
‘For having made it you ought to be given the George Cross,’ Gregory told her.
Erika kissed him again and laughed. ‘Oh, don’t put it all down to my urge to save the German people from further horrors. I had quite an important axe of my own to grind.’
‘The hope of finding me?’
‘Of course. When that aircraft returned from Poland without you I nearly died from distress. For the first few weeks I could hardly eat or sleep from worrying about what might happen to you. But I was convinced that you were still alive and free. Then I felt sure that you had been caught and were in a prison camp. All through the autumn, whenever I thought of you I got the impression that you were utterly miserable, but towards Christmas my impressions changed. It seemed that you were no longer hungry or wretched. After that I didn’t know what to think.
‘Naturally, I realised that if I was right about your being in a camp you would not be there under your own name, so it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to trace you. But I meant to do my utmost and I prayed desperately hard that in some way I’d get a lead. Without Hermann’s help I wouldn’t even have had a chance, and on arriving here today the first thing I did was to ask it. Imagine my amazement when my prayer was answered on the instant. He just laughed and said that he would get you out here for me by tonight, and I knew he wouldn’t lie to me about a thing like that. I almost fainted from sheer joy.’
‘My poor darling.’ Gregory put an arm round her and drew her to him. ‘During those long months you must have been through a beastly time. You were right about my being a prisoner. I was until January, and I’m not surprised that your impressions about my state these past few months have been much more vague. To be honest, that is because I haven’t thought of you so frequently. But don’t imagine for one moment that’s because I love you less. It’s because I’ve been up to the eyes in the biggest job I’ve ever undertaken. Like yours it concerns trying to put an end to the war, but I’ll tell you about it later. I gather you haven’t had any luck with Goering?’
She shook her head. ‘No. Hermann dug in his toes and there is no moving him. It’s absolutely tragic, because the Allies would never negotiate with Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels or Ribbentrop; but I think they would with him. What makes his refusal all the more disappointing is that he is the only one of the big four who remains entirely loyal to Hitler. The rest of the gang are ratting now in an attempt to save their skins.’
‘Really?’ Gregory sat down in the armchair and pulled her on to his lap. ‘That’s most interesting. Tell me more.’
‘Dulles told me. He decided to because he felt that I might stand a better chance of persuading Hermann to act if I could give chapter and verse about how the other top Nazis are behaving.’
‘But you just said that the Allies wouldn’t negotiate with them.’
‘They won’t. But that doesn’t stop these murderers and crooks from putting out peace feelers of their own. And, of course, the Allies are quite willing to negotiate the separate surrender of any of the German Armies. As far back as February Karl Wolff, the Military Governor of northern Italy, got in touch with Allen Dulles, then in March he went to Zürich himself and saw Dulles in person. General Alexander was informed and sent two American Generals to meet the Germans in Berne. It was agreed that Kesselring should put up only a token resistance in the Valley of the Po in exchange for which the negotiators were to be immune from criminal prosecution after the war. Unfortunately Stalin was told of it and wanted to send Russian officers to participate in the arrangements. The Western Allies refused; so there was a blood row and the negotiations were called off. But they are on again now with General von Vietinghoff, who succeeded Kesselring, and it’s probable that the German Army in Italy will surrender within the week.’
‘That’s splendid news. How about the other German Armies?’
‘Just before I left Zürich news had come in that a large part of General Model’s Army that is encircled in the Ruhr had laid down its arms. Apparently a Corps Commander named Bayerlein had the courage to ignore Hitler’s order and save the lives of his men. He summoned to his headquarters two of his junior Generals who were die-hard Nazis, put them under arrest, then arranged to surrender to the American General opposite.’
‘Good for him. All this is news to me. But how about the crooks and murderers?’
‘Ribbentrop has been in secret negotiation with both the Swiss Government and the Vatican. Through them he put forward a plan for Germany to surrender to the Western Allies then turn her armies against Russia. But, like the ass he is, he made the empty threat that if the Allies refused his terms he would hand Germany over to the Russians. Of course, the Allies refused even to reply to him. It is Himmler, though, who has come nearest to selling out.’
‘You amaze me! I wouldn’t have thought the Allies would have touched him with a barge-pole.’
‘They wouldn’t; but according to report he seems quite oblivious of the fact that he is regarded as a criminal unequalled in history, and rather fancies himself as a successor to Hitler. Himmler is really a very simple-minded man. For a long time past he has been under the influence of two bright boys who are idiots enough to believe that the Allies would accept a German Government with him at its head and themselves as his key Ministers. One of them is an S.S. General named Walter Schellenberg. Under Grauber he was Deputy Chief of Gestapo Foreign Intelligence. The other is the Finance Minister, Schwerin von Krosigk. Both fancy themselves as diplomats. For months past they have been trying to persuade Himmler to rat on Hitler and work his passage with the Allies. In mid-February, while he was still supposed to be commanding an Army Group on the Russian front, he actually had an interview that was arranged for him by Schellenberg with Sweden’s Count Bernadotte. And he has had others since. At one of them he said that he had talked to Goebbels and that the prize liar was considering coming in with him to stage a Putsch. But his trouble is that he has always been a coward. He is terrified that Kaltenbrunner, who has really run the Gestapo for a long time past, will find him out and denounce him before the Swedes can get a reply to any concrete offer he may make to the Allies.’
‘They wouldn’t send one.’
‘No; that’s certain. Poor Count Bernadotte is going to all his trouble for nothing. But, as I said a little while ago, no possible chance to stop this awful slaughter should remain untried.’
‘With things going as they are it can’t last many months longer.’
‘Months!’ exclaimed Erika with a shocked expression.
‘It could be months if Hitler leaves Berlin and fights a guerilla war from the Bavarian redoubt; and that’s what it looks as if he means to do. One thing that inclines me to think he will is a prediction by Malacou, that most of the top Nazis won’t be hanged for their crimes until October ’46.’
‘Malacou!’
‘Yes. He turned up in the same prison camp as myself. We got out of it together and he is with me now in Berlin, acting as my servant.’ Gregory told Erika then of how he had used the Satanist’s occult powers to win Hitler’s confidence, and of the plan he had evolved in the hope of inducing him to put a swift, spectacular end to his villainous career.
‘Oh, my darling!’ Erika cried. ‘If only you can. Hermann says it’s certain that the Russians will be in Berlin within a fortnight. If Hitler does stay and is killed or kills himself that will be the end. By preventing him from going to the Nazi stronghold in Bavaria you will have shortened the war by months. You will have saved countless lives and prevented untold misery.’
Gregory nodded. ‘That’s what I’m striving for. But it’s going to be an uphill fight. So many of the people closest to him know that an end to him means death for them. So it’s certain they will urge him to go to the Obersalzberg and fight on, just on the chance that some unexpected event might alter the Allies’ attitude and enable them to escape being hanged.’
For a moment they were silent, then Erika said, ‘Apart from this great new plan on which you are working now, you’ve told me nothing about yourself.’
‘Neither have you,’ he laughed.
‘Oh, I’ve nothing to tell. Until last month I carried on with my job at Gwaine Meads. Dear old Pellinore is in greater heart than ever these days. Stefan and Madeleine are well and your godson is a poppet. But you? All those months in a concentration camp! And Malacou turning up! And your managing to get on the right side of Hermann. Tell me everything. First, how you succeeded in standing up to such terrible privations. And your leg; how is it? Does it still give you much pain?’
‘No. I hardly notice it now, except that it aches when I put too great a strain on it.’ Suddenly Gregory began to laugh.
‘What is there that’s funny about that?’ she asked.
He kissed her. ‘My sweet, it has just come back to me that I used it, or rather the fact that I’d been severely wounded, to excuse myself from having to go to bed with a very lovely girl.’
‘Who was she?’ Erika asked quickly.
‘Sabine Tuzolto.’
‘What! That woman again?’
‘Yes. When I succeeded in reaching Berlin from Poland I had neither papers nor money and in all the vast city she was the only person who, if she were there, might befriend me. So I sought her out and found her living in a villa on the Wannsee.’ Gregory then related how Sabine had hidden him for more than a week, so saved him from being arrested as a vagrant and ending up in the hands of the Gestapo.
When he had done Erika smiled and said, ‘She’s younger than I am and terribly good-looking; so you get full marks plus for having resisted her allurements. But in the circumstances, if you had succumbed I wouldn’t have blamed you; or, for that matter, her, for trying to seduce you, since she apparently finds you as attractive as I do. Anyway, I bear her no malice. In fact I owe her a great debt. She risked her own life to save you and it is I who am the gainer.’
‘I’m glad you feel like that,’ Gregory said slowly. ‘As you know, she saved me in Budapest too; so although I got her out of the Tower she is still one up on me, and at the moment I’m pretty worried about her.’ He then went on to tell Erika about Sabine’s misfortune and her reluctance to leave for the south.
‘Poor girl, how terrible for her,’ Erika commented. ‘But, of course, with everyone in Berlin expecting the next bomb to blow them to pieces all normal standards of conduct must have gone with the wind. And it was really very generous of her to let that beastly boy have his fun before he went off to the front, almost certainly to die or become a prisoner of the Russians. I only hope she has taken your advice and by now left Berlin.
‘I must try to find out. The trouble is, though, that now Hitler is actually nibbling at the bait I’ve offered him I dare not leave the bunker for long enough to go out to her villa. I wouldn’t have left this evening had I not been given an imperative order from Goering to come out to Karinhall.’
‘But you’re glad you did?’
‘How can you ask!’
They embraced again, then Erika said, ‘It’s many hours since you left the bunker so you must be hungry. Let’s eat while you tell me about the rest of your adventures.’
Gregory had already noticed that a side table against one wall of the sitting room had been converted into a cold buffet. On it were arranged the sort of things that in the final stage of the war very few kitchens in all Europe, except Goering’s, could provide. There were foie-gras and a cold lobster, part of a Westphalian ham, wings of chicken suprême decorated with truffles, a pineapple with a bottle of Kirsch standing beside it, and a magnum of champagne in an ice-bucket.
While they tucked into this magnificent feast Gregory told Erika about his escape from Poland, his months of misery at Sachsenhausen and how, with Malacou’s help, he had got away from the camp only to find himself expecting to be shot on the orders of Goering.
When they had done it was getting on for three in the morning. Gregory then helped Erika to undress. He did not sleep in the dressing room.
At seven o’clock they were awakened from a deep sleep by a footman. He brought them breakfast on a tray and as he set it down he said, ‘His Excellency the Reichsmarschall is already up. He requests that as soon as you have breakfasted and dressed you will join him.’
Sitting up side by side, they ate the newly baked bread spread with real butter and gratefully drank down two large cups of genuine Turkish coffee apiece. For ten minutes they allowed themselves to forget everything for the fun of splashing together in the bath. Then they hurriedly got into their clothes, rang for the footman and accompanied him up to Goering’s huge workroom.
The Reichsmarschall was dressed in a pale blue uniform with all the gold trappings appropriate to the Chief of the Luftwaffe in addition to the galaxy of bejewelled orders that scintillated on his broad chest. Beside him on his desk lay his foot-long Marshal’s baton of solid ivory encrusted with emblems in gold.
As they approached he stood up, kissed Erika’s hand and said, ‘I regret having had to disturb your connubial bliss at such an early hour, but shortly we shall be leaving here. The time has come when I must evacuate Karinhall.’
When he had ceased speaking they became fully conscious for the first time of a dull rumble in the distance.
‘That booming …’ Gregory began, ‘can it already be …?’
Goering nodded. ‘Yes. It is the Russian guns. They will be here tomorrow; perhaps even today.’
Erika made a sweeping gesture round the great chamber. ‘But all these lovely things. Are you not going to make any attempt to save them?’
The Reichsmarschall smiled ruefully. ‘No, my dear. It would take weeks to pack and send them all away. And what would be the sense of my taking a couple of vanloads with me? I am no petty thief to hold on to a few antiques in order to barter them for bread and butter. This phase of my life is over. While it has lasted it has been magnificent. In modern times no man has lived more like a Roman Emperor. Now the curtain is coming down. What happens to me as I pass from the world’s stage is of no importance. My only regret is that the German people should be called on to pay such a terrible price for their great endeavour.’
Gregory turned instantly to Erika. ‘Where is your ambulance? We must go to it at once. Since your mission here has failed you must not lose a moment in setting off back to Switzerland.’
‘Will you come with me?’ she asked.
‘No, my dear, I can’t. And you know why.’
‘Of course. Your duty lies here. I had no right to ask you.’
Goering put in quickly, ‘Erika cannot return along the route by which she came. The Russians will be in Leipzig by now. In fact, God alone knows how far their spearheads may have penetrated. Even if she made a long detour she might still fall into the hands of a Russian patrol. To those barbarians a woman is simply a woman and a nurse’s uniform would be no protection. It would be insane for her to take such a risk.’
Erika smiled. ‘Without Gregory I had no intention of trying to return to Switzerland. If you are both going to Berlin I’ll go with you. If we have to die there, as a German woman I’ll be proud to share the fate of thousands of Berliners.’
Goering took her hand and kissed it again. ‘Gräfin, you are a true von Epp. Let the rest of the world think what it likes of us, but we Hochwohlgeborene at least know how to set an example by facing death with courage.’
‘But in Berlin,’ Gregory said quickly, ‘where can Erika go? I can’t take her to the bunker, or to the Air Ministry.’
‘We shall not stay in Berlin,’ replied the Reichsmarschall. ‘Ten days ago, when first it looked as though the Russians and Americans might meet in the neighbourhood of Leipzig and cut Germany in half, it was decided to establish two new headquarters. Doenitz is to become Supreme Commander of our forces in the north and Kesselring is to assume that role in the south until the Führer arrives there. Koller telephoned me last night that the Führer is working on new plans by which he hopes to save Berlin; so he may not leave immediately. But his orders are that all key personnel should set out tonight for the Bavarian redoubt. For Erika to remain and sacrifice her life to no good purpose is absurd; so I insist that she comes with me. From Munich she will have no difficulty in crossing into Switzerland. Now let us go and wish the Führer a happy birthday.’
‘Of course,’ Gregory murmured. ‘I had forgotten that it is the 20th of April.’
Down in the great open space in front of the mansion a fleet of vehicles had been assembled: motor-cycles, armoured cars, staff cars, small fast trucks, the Reichsmarschall’s huge cream and gold Mercedes and Erika’s Red Cross van. Gregory mounted on to its box beside her. Goering waved his gold and ivory baton aloft and the cavalcade set off.
For once, although there were aircraft fighting in the sky overhead, when they reached the outskirts of Berlin no air-raid was in progress, but on entering the suburbs they met with the same difficulties and delays as had Gregory the previous evening; so it was one o’clock before they arrived at the Air Ministry. Goering, accompanied by his entourage, went into the building, but he sent Gregory’s old patron, Kaindl, to tell him that Erika was to drive her van down into the underground garage and that she was to wait there for further orders.
After nearly an hour had passed they felt hungry and Erika suggested that they should make a meal off some of her stores. The interior of the van had been fitted up with a comfortable bunk, a washbasin, sink and oil cooking stove. On the stove she heated up some soup and a tin of sausages. While they ate they speculated on what would happen that evening in the bunker.
Koller’s report that Hitler was planning a new offensive that would save Berlin they took as a good sign; for if he stayed there another week it seemed almost certain that by then the city would be encircled. But it was self-evident that many of the top Nazis must realise that with Hitler’s death their own would soon follow; so to prolong their lives they would make every effort to persuade him to accompany them to Bavaria.
Gregory’s joy at having Erika with him again was sadly marred by his concern for her safety on her long drive south. He also felt that by rights he should have gone straight to the bunker, in order to take any chance that offered of using such influence as he had with Hitler to dissuade him from leaving Berlin. But he knew that once Erika had gone he might never see her again, so could not bring himself to forgo these last hours with her.
Meanwhile tremendous activity and bustle was going on all round them. Trucks were being loaded up with files, maps and every sort of impedimenta, and every few minutes one of them, or a car packed with Luftwaffe officers, drove off, as the evacuation of the Air Ministry proceeded.
At about four o’clock Malacou appeared and punctiliously saluted Gregory. He said he had heard that he was down in the underground garage and, as everyone was leaving, wished to know Gregory’s intentions.
Gregory told him that unless Hitler went they must both remain, then waved a hand towards Erika and said, ‘You will remember the Frau Gräfin von Osterberg, although you knew her as Frau Bjornsen.’
Malacou made her a low bow, then his thick lips broke into a smile as he said in a low voice, ‘I had foreknowledge that the Frau Gräfin would arrive in Berlin at about this time; but I said nothing of it to the Herr Major from fear that it should distract his mind from the great work on which he is engaged. I am, of course, aware that the Frau Gräfin has no love for me; but all of us are at a crisis in our lives, and it is my earnest hope that she will not allow personal enmity to hamper the common cause we all serve.’
Erika did not return his smile, but she replied gently, ‘Herr Malacou, I could never approve the ways in which you have obtained occult powers; yet had it not been for them the Herr Major might well have died of privation at Sachsenhausen, or at best still be a prisoner there. That owing to you he is still alive and free more than outweighs the ill-will I bore you, and short of your seeking to persuade him to become a disciple of the Devil, I promise that I will not seek to influence him against you.’
Kaindl arrived at that moment to say that the Reichsmarschall wished to see Erika. Leaving Malacou with the van Gregory accompanied her and the Colonel up to Goering’s office. Members of his staff were still frantically sorting papers there either to be burnt or sent to the new headquarters in the south. He said abruptly:
‘I am shortly going over to the Führer’s bunker. You, Major Protze, had better come with me. You, Frau Gräfin, will return to your van and be ready to move off with my personal convoy when it leaves. That will be soon after dark; probably about eight o’clock.’
Erika shook her head. ‘Nein, Herr Reichsmarschall, I shall not be leaving with you. The situation between Major Protze and myself is known to you. I intend to remain in Berlin with him.’
Both Gregory and Goering broke into expostulations and begged her to save herself while she had the chance; but she remained adamant. The question then arose of where she could stay until the fate of the city was decided. After a moment’s thought, Goering said:
‘Not far from here I have une petite maison where in happier days I used to receive pretty ladies. An elderly couple have always kept it up for me and not long ago I passed a night there. If it is still standing Erika can have the use of it. If not we’ll have to find some other place for her.’
For another half-hour they stood about while the Reichsmarschall signed more papers and gave his final orders. At length he told them to go down, collect the van and join him in the street. Ten minutes later, with Malacou in the back of the van, they were following Goering’s Mercedes.
It pulled up at a modest two-storey house standing in its own small garden. The note of the musical horn of the Mercedes brought to the door the elderly couple who looked after the house. Goering presented them to Erika as Herr and Frau Hofbeck, then told them that they were to regard her as his honoured guest and that her van was to be housed in the garage. Having given Gregory only a minute to take leave of her, he hurried him back down the short path to the enormous cream and gold car.
With the tuneful horn at full blast and motor-cycle outriders to clear the way, it took them less than five minutes to reach the Chancellery. Its colossal hall was a scene of greater activity than Gregory had ever witnessed there. Apparently every Nazi in Berlin who could claim any status had come to hand in a card of birthday greetings to the Führer, and when they got down to the bunkers they found all the top Nazis had assembled in them.
The Führer was just about to go up to the garden to inspect a delegation of picked boys from the Hitler Youth that Artur Axmann had paraded for him. With him to hear the loyal speeches of these young heroes he took Goering, Himmler and Goebbels. While he was up there Gregory got hold of Koller and asked him the form. The General shook his head.
‘Whether he goes or stays is still anybody’s guess. So far he has refused to make up his mind. But after the reception there is to be a conference at which it’s hoped that he will announce his decision.’
On returning from the garden the Führer received Doenitz, Keitel and Jodl each for a few minutes privately, then everyone else was lined up and in turn he received their congratulations and shook hands with them all. The ceremony over, accompanied by the Princes of the Nazi State, he retired to the conference passage. For once the conference did not last several hours, and soon after it broke up the waiting adjutants learned from their masters what had taken place. Goering, Himmler, Goebbels, Ribbentrop, Bormann, Doenitz and Keitel had been unanimous in their appeals to Hitler to leave for Bavaria, but he had declared that he meant to stay where he was, anyway for the time being.
Gregory overheard Bormann assure his secretary that within two days Hitler and the rest of them would go south; but Goebbels was of the opposite opinion. In a corner of the mess passage he had been having a furious argument with Speer, and Johannmeier told Gregory that it had been about the hundred bridges in Berlin. Convinced that the Führer meant to make a spectacular end of himself, the fanatical little doctor had proposed that when the Russians reached the suburbs all the remaining troops should be withdrawn into central Berlin and a final redoubt be formed there by blowing all the bridges.
Speer had protested violently and again went in to see Hitler. The idea of this Götterdämmerung, by which under Russian bombardment a million Germans packed like sardines in a square mile would be dying at the same time as himself, had naturally appealed to the megalomaniac. But Speer’s powers of persuasion were so extraordinary that he succeeded in preventing measures for this holocaust from being taken, and orders were given that the last fight for the city should take place on the far side of the bridges.
While Speer was with Hitler, Goebbels and Himmler were talking together and, as it was the first time that Gregory had seen the latter, he eased his way through the crush to get a closer look at him. Bespectacled, paunchy and pasty-faced, he appeared even more insignificant than in his photographs. With his head thrust forward he was speaking in a low, earnest voice and evidently endeavouring to persuade Goebbels to do something.
Looking in the other direction but straining his ears, Gregory caught the words, ‘… weeks ago and you agreed with me then. Together we could save something. I am now in a situation to arrange everything. You are a fool to have changed your mind. But there is still time.’
Goebbels’ reply was inaudible but he violently shook his narrow head and, as Erika had told Gregory of Himmler’s negotiations with Count Bernadotte, he had heard enough to guess what they had been talking about. It confirmed what she had said about Goebbels having contemplated playing the traitor in concert with Himmler. But he had evidently decided against doing so. The reason, Gregory had little doubt, was because he had the sense to realise that even if he could hand over his Führer bound and gagged to the Allies they would still show him no mercy.
Only the fanatics—Bormann, Burgdorf, Grauber, Christian, Stumpfegger and a few others—showed even a moderate cheerfulness at this extraordinary birthday party. Ribbentrop, his face gaunt with worry and with great bags under his eyes, loathed and despised by all, stood alone, a picture of misery. Goering, now equally hated for the failure of his Luftwaffe, a human mountain of a man blazing with jewels and decorations, showed complete indifference, occasionally addressing a remark to the unhappy Koller or von Below, who were standing near him, and for the rest of the time pouring champagne down his throat as though he had hollow legs.
After a while he came over to Gregory and said, ‘I’ve had enough of this; so I’m off. You’ll stay, of course, to do what you can. Koller will be coming in each day from the new OKW headquarters and you can get in touch with me through him if you wish. I don’t need to urge you to take all the care you can of our mutual friend. I only hope that in a few days’ time I’ll see you both in Munich.’
Soon afterwards the party broke up. Himmler, Ribbentrop, Doenitz, all took their leave of the Führer and joined the great exodus from the capital that was taking place that night. Every Ministry was being evacuated either to the north or the south and long lines of lorries were crawling out of the ruined city by every exit still available.
Gregory made his way to Goering’s little house. The electricity there had been cut off for some days and there was no hot water; but by candle light he and Erika had a scratch meal surrounded by priceless pieces of Louis XV furniture. As the house was an old one the risk of a bomb burying them in the cellar was as great as that of their being killed in one of the upstairs rooms; so they went to bed in Goering’s exotic ‘love nest’, which might have come out of the pages of Crébillon Fils.
Next day there was another hours’-long conference in the bunker. After it Hitler sent for Gregory to walk with him. He was positively bubbling with excitement and had suddenly become confident that he could save Berlin. ‘My instinct is always right,’ he declared. ‘I was against leaving East Prussia, but Keitel persuaded me to, and East Prussia was lost to us. But in Berlin I shall remain and as long as I am here the city will not fall.’
After a moment he went on, ‘I have worked out a new plan. At dawn tomorrow General Steiner will launch a great counter-offensive with his army, which covers the south of the city. I have sent him details about the part that every one of his battalions is to play. He is not one of those Army pigs but an Obergruppenführer of the S.S., so he will not betray me. Besides, I have taken precautions. It is to be an all-out attack and I have given orders that any commanding officer who holds back his men will forfeit his life within five hours. I have spoken to Koller, too, about his miserable Luftwaffe. I told him, “You will guarantee with your own head that every aircraft that can leave the ground goes into action.” ’
For half an hour Gregory’s role remained that of an audience to these absurd blusterings and callous threats, but at last they petered out in breathless gasps. It was not till Hitler turned to re-enter the building and go downstairs that he managed to get in a few words. He said:
‘Mein Führer. Under your personal direction one can hardly doubt that this new offensive will prove successful. Should it fail that will be through no fault of yours, but owing to a decision by those controllers of the Universe who decree the body into which each of us is to be born on reincarnation, and a limit to the length of each life that no power on earth can enable us to exceed. Failure, I am convinced, would be a clear indication that those powers are averse to a delay of even a few months before you begin to prepare yourself to become the leader and saviour of the great people who inhabit Mars.’
When Gregory spoke of a possible failure he was betting on a certainty. Keitel, Krebs, Jodl, Burgdorf, everyone in the bunker, knew that two-thirds of the formations that Hitler had ordered into battle had already ceased to exist; yet such was his mesmeric power and their terror of him that none of them had dared say so.
Next morning, the 22nd, a stream of contradictory reports followed one another into the bunker’s telephone exchange. Some said the attack had started well, others that the Luftwaffe had not even left the ground. By three o’clock there was still no definite news; but gradually, while Hitler held his conference with Keitel, Bormann, Krebs, Jodl, Voss, Koller, and Burgdorf, the truth emerged. Steiner had not attempted to take the offensive. He was hard put to it even to hang on where he was. Still worse, owing to Hitler having ordered the transfer of troops on the northern front to support Steiner in the south, the front from which they had withdrawn had been so weakened that the Russians had broken through and their armoured spearheads had actually penetrated the northern suburbs of Berlin.
At that the storm broke. Gregory, von Below, Grauber, Hoegl and the others who were in attendance on the far side of the partition heard through it the spate of curses and denunciations that came pouring from the Führer’s mouth. He shrieked, screamed and bellowed to a degree that could not have been exceeded had he suddenly become a victim of the worst tortures the Gestapo could inflict. He yelled that he had been deserted by everyone; treachery was universal. The Army he had always known to be packed with cowards. Every man in the Luftwaffe should be shot. Now even the S.S. had failed him. On every side he was surrounded by treason, corruption and lies. This was the end. He could bear no more. The Third Reich had failed, so there was nothing left for him to do but die.
That he should at last make such an admission left everyone gasping. But apparently he meant it, for when he had calmed down a little he went on to declare that he had now definitely decided not to leave for the south. Anyone else who liked might go, but he would meet his end in Berlin.
All his adherents protested vigorously, but he could not be moved. The liaison officers telephoned the astonishing news to their chiefs. Himmler, Doenitz and Ribbentrop came on the line in quick succession and pleaded with him to alter his mind; but he would not listen to them. He sent for Goebbels and directed that a broadcast should be made announcing his intention of holding Berlin to the last and dying there. Goebbels protested volubly, but was ordered to obey.
Meanwhile in the dining passage and outer bunker consternation reigned. The Generals and Obergruppenführers had been shocked out of their wits. Their Führer had declared that he would hold no more conferences, give no more orders, take no further part in anything. For years he had dominated their minds, made every appointment, personally directed the movements of every Army formation. Without his rasping orders ringing in their ears they were utterly at a loss. They had not an idea what to do.
It was Jodl who, with his ingrained sense of discipline and responsibility, at length had the courage to say, ‘We cannot allow him to act like this. He is still Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces and has a duty to perform. He must either tell us what to do or delegate his authority to someone else.’
Jodl and Keitel then went in to see Hitler. They begged him for orders, but in vain. He declared that the whole Reich was falling to pieces so there was no need for further orders. When they protested, he said, ‘I have no orders to give. You had better apply to the Reichsmarschall. It is no longer a question of fighting because there is nothing left to fight with. If it is a question of negotiating Goering can do that better than I.’
So in the early hours of April 23rd ended the momentous session brought about by the news of the failure of Steiner’s attack.
When Gregory reached Goering’s little house Erika was asleep, but the situation that had now arisen was so exceptional that he woke her to tell her about it. With shining eyes she drew him to her, kissed him and said, ‘Oh darling! How wonderful that it should be you who have destroyed the power of that mighty, evil man.’
He shook his head. ‘The idea of becoming Lord of Mars and conquering the Earth certainly appealed to him. But he was in half a mind to make a spectacular end of himself here in Berlin anyway. We can’t say more than that perhaps I supplied the feather that weighed down the balance.’
‘Anyway, thank God it’s over. First thing in the morning we’ll leave for the south.’
Again Gregory shook his head. ‘I only wish we could. But I can’t. There is still a chance that he may change his mind. I’ve got to stay and remain on hand, so that I can do my utmost to counteract the pressure that is still bound to be brought to bear on him to go to Berchtesgaden. But you——’
‘No, darling! No! I’ll not leave without you. And now that Hitler has surrendered his powers to Hermann there’s no longer the same danger in remaining here. It’s certain that he will order a surrender on the Western front immediately. Given a free run, British tanks should be in Berlin within twenty-four hours.’
‘That’s true, and the Russians will find it tough going actually to penetrate the city. General Wenck’s army should be able to hold them off for some days at least.’
Several hours later, back in the bunker, Gregory had reason to be glad that he had decided to stay, as another battle raged round the Führer. Ribbentrop telephoned again to say that he was about to pull off a marvellous diplomatic coup that would save the whole situation, if only the Führer would go south and give him a week to complete his negotiations. Bormann also did his utmost to persuade his master to leave Berlin. But Speer, who was also there, refused to support him and argued forcefully that with the German capital in ruins it would be more dignified for the Führer to die there rather than seek to prolong his life for a few months at what had been his holiday home. Hitler then summoned Goebbels who, with fanatical zeal, endorsed his Führer’s decision to have a ‘Viking’s funeral’ and even sought to persuade him that if he stayed in Berlin the city might yet be saved.
Meanwhile the Propaganda Ministry was going up in flames; so it was agreed that Goebbels, his wife and their five children should become permanent inmates of the bunker. During Hitler’s brainstorm on the previous night he had declared that he needed no more drugs to see him through; upon which the revolting Dr. Morell had gladly joined the exodus; so the Goebbels family were given his two rooms.
Throughout all the rumpus Hitler, as was often the case on the day following one of his exceptional rages, remained calm, and in the afternoon held a tea party presided over by Eva Braun. Gregory was among those present and with relief listened as he reiterated his intention of dying in Berlin. He said that his state of health would not permit him to go out into the streets and die fighting, and he was determined that his body should not fall into the hands of the enemy; so he and Eva Braun had decided to shoot themselves and afterwards their bodies were to be burnt.
But evening brought a new crisis. A telegram arrived from Goering. It later transpired that Jodl had repeated to Koller that morning at the OKW headquarters what Hitler had said when asked for orders the previous night. Koller had decided that it was his duty to fly at once to Munich and inform his Chief that he was now the arbiter of Germany’s fate. Goering had at once summoned a Council which included Mueller, the Gestapo chief, Frank, the leader of the S.S. at Berchtesgaden and Lammers, the head of the Reich Chancery. Goering had declared himself ready to fly to General Eisenhower but insisted that he must have direct confirmation of his authority to arrange a surrender; and, as a result of their deliberations, a telegram was sent, copies of which were despatched to Keitel, Ribbentrop and von Below. It read:
My Führer,
In view of your decision to remain at your post in the fortress of Berlin, do you agree that I take over, at once, the total leadership of the Reich, with full freedom of action at home and abroad, as your deputy, in accordance with your decree of 29th June 1941? If no reply is received by ten o’clock tonight, I shall take it for granted that you have lost your freedom of action, and shall consider the conditions of your decree as fulfilled and shall act for the best interests of our country and our people. You know what I feel for you in this gravest hour of my life. Words fail me to express myself. May God protect you and speed you quickly here in spite of all. Your loyal
Hermann Goering
Von Below showed Gregory the copy he had received and they agreed that the message could not have been more proper to the occasion or shown greater devotion. But for years past the mole-like Bormann had lost no opportunity to discredit all the Nazi leaders powerful enough to put a check on the influence he was acquiring over the Führer; and now he saw his chance to dispose finally of Goering. He could not question the fact that the Reichsmarschall had been legally appointed by the Führer as his successor; but one sentence in the telegram enabled him to pour his poison into Hitler’s ear. It was, If no reply is received by ten o’clock tonight. That, he pointed out indignantly, was an ultimatum. Goering was holding a pistol to his Führer’s head. To give him a time limit was the greatest effrontery. If a reply was sent, owing to the chaotic state of communications, Goering could later say that it had arrived after the deadline. For all his fair-seeming words Goering had clearly decided to usurp the Führer’s power and arrange a surrender. He was a traitor.
Hitler’s mind was so obsessed by the thought of treachery that he immediately accepted Bormann’s vicious interpretation of the telegram. He began to rave that it was Goering’s mishandling of the Luftwaffe that had lost him the war; that Goering was corrupt, a drug-addict, a drunkard, a liar. Working himself up into a fury he came out into the passage and, striding up and down, shouted to everyone that Goering had betrayed him.
Bormann demanded the Reichmarschall’s death; Grauber loudly supported him. But Speer was again in the bunker, and when Hitler had exhausted his first outburst of rage he intervened. Von Below and Gregory followed his lead and the three of them urged Hitler to remember the immense services Goering had rendered to the Nazi movement in its early years.
Their efforts saved Goering from the worst. Hitler at length agreed that telegrams should be sent to the two senior S.S. officers at Berchtesgaden stating that Goering was deprived of his right of succession, his rank and all his decorations; that he was to be arrested for high treason and that all his staff were also to be placed under arrest. The telegram ended: You will answer for this with your lives.
So ended another late-night session in the bunker that for the past month had become a madhouse.
After a few hours’ sleep Gregory discussed the situation with Erika. Bormann having stabbed Goering in the back had shattered their hopes of a quick finish. There would now be no immediate surrender in the West, no British troops streaming into Berlin that evening, and the city was already partially surrounded by the Russians. But at least it seemed certain that Hitler really meant to commit suicide. The strain of the past six weeks had told terribly on Gregory and he was so desperately anxious to get Erika out of Berlin that at length he agreed that should Hitler show no signs of changing his mind that day they would leave in her van the following morning.
Despite his weariness and preoccupations Gregory had several times thought of Sabine and wondered if she had left for the south. Now he felt that before leaving himself he must find out. When he mentioned this to Erika she said at once:
‘If Sabine is still at her villa why shouldn’t we take her with us? There is plenty of room in my van, and after the way she and her servant hid you in July the least we can do is to save them from the Russians.’
In consequence Gregory wrote a brief letter to Sabine, telling her that he could not be certain but hoped to leave Berlin the following morning and if he did he would take her with him; then he gave it to Malacou with careful directions how to find the Villa Seeaussicht and sent him off with it.
Down in the bunker that day things were much quieter, but towards evening there arose a development which was most disquieting for Gregory. A telegram came in from Field Marshal Schöerner. His headquarters were in Prague; the Army Group which he commanded numbered many Divisions and was still in good shape. He reported that he was capable of holding out for months in the mountains of Bohemia, and begged Hitler to join him there.
Although Berlin was now being shelled as well as bombed Gatow airport was still operative, so Hitler could have set off in an aircraft for Prague with a fair chance of arriving there safely. In spite of Bormann’s pleading he refused to go; but the telegram had the unfortunate effect of re-arousing his interest in battles. Sending for maps, the latest situation reports and General Weidling, the Commandant of the Berlin area, he again assumed the role he had said, two nights earlier, that he meant to abandon for good, and began to issue orders right and left for the employment of both existent and nonexistent units. In addition he had a telegram sent off to Colonel-General Ritter von Greim of the Luftwaffe to join him in Berlin immediately.
That night Gregory went back with a heavy heart to Erika. He told her what had happened and said that now that Hitler had changed his mind about no longer taking any part in directing the war he might also change it about remaining in Berlin; so it was imperative that he should stay on and do everything possible to keep him to his decision to die among the ruins of his capital.
Malacou had safely accomplished his journey to and from the Villa Seeaussicht. He had found Sabine still there and brought from her for Gregory a hastily scrawled letter, that read:
My dear,
In these frightful times it was good of you to think of me. You know the reason why I’ve stayed on here for so long, but thank God I’m completely cured now and you have no need to worry about me. Kurt has been to see me several times and has persuaded me to go with him to his family place, Schloss Niederfels, not far from the Bodensee. As he has not had the money to keep the old castle up, life there will be pretty grim; but at least I’ll be safe from the Russians. His own departure has been delayed for a few days while he has been hiding his scientific paraphernalia, so that it should not fall into the hands of the enemy. He expects to be able to report to Speer by midday that he has finished the job, and as soon as he gets back from the Ministry he’ll join me here, so Trudi and I are packing like mad to be ready to leave with him. Blessings on you, darling. I pray that we may meet again in happier times. Sabine.
That was one worry off Gregory’s mind, although it did little to ease it because he was so terribly concerned for Erika. But she cut short his pleas that she should leave without him by saying, ‘It’s not very complimentary of you, darling, to suggest that I haven’t got as much guts as a woman like Eva Braun.’
Next day, the 25th, ‘Corporal’ Hitler was up to the ears in a wildly impractical new plan by which, not Berlin, but he, personally, was to be saved. Artur Axmann’s battalions of Hitler Youth were to hold the bridges to the west of the city, over the Havel, while the Twelfth Army under General Wenck, which was fighting on the Elbe, was to disengage itself, fight its way round towards Potsdam, cross the bridges, rescue the Führer, then turn south and fight its way out of the city again.
Keitel, true to form to the last, declared it to be a Napoleonic conception and set off to take Wenck his orders personally. Jodl returned to the new OKW headquarters which had been moved further out to Fürstenburg, while Krebs remained in the bunker as, theoretically, the Führer’s military adviser.
When Gregory arrived there on the morning of the 26th he found his friend von Below sitting gloomily at the table in the dining passage with a bottle of brandy and a half-empty glass in front of him. There was no lack of good liquor in the bunker and everyone who frequented it habitually drank heavily, in an attempt to keep up his spirits. Jokingly Gregory remarked, ‘The morning’s news must be worse than worse for you to start tippling so early in the day.’
Von Below looked at him with lacklustre eyes and said heavily, ‘No, I’ve just come from a hospital where I watched my nephew die. He was a boy of only fifteen and such a fine, happy lad; but, of course, he’d been called up and a Russian bullet got him.’
Gregory stammered such words of sympathy as he could find; then von Below went on, ‘There’s no damned justice in it. That’s what one resents. In the next bed there was a middle-aged man I used to know. He was mixed up in the July Putsch, but had the luck to escape being executed. When they came to arrest him he tried to commit suicide, but only wounded himself. Two days ago a lump of ack-ack came down on his head, but not on the part of it that was vulnerable from his previous wound. So he’s still alive, and unless the hospital is bombed he’ll be out of it inside a week. Yet my young nephew is dead.’
Even as Gregory asked the man’s name, his sixth sense told him what the reply would be. It was, ‘Graf Kurt von Osterberg.’
So unless Sabine had set off on her own she was still at the villa. And the advance elements of the Russian Armies had now surrounded Berlin. From all quarters reports were coming in of Russian tanks and armoured cars ravaging the outer suburbs. But for the time being Gregory could do nothing about her, for it was imperative that he should remain in the bunker.
All through the afternoon the Führer continued to issue new orders, to battalions and even companies. Then in the evening Ritter von Greim arrived. He was carried down to the bunker wounded and in considerable pain. While the giant Dr. Stumpfegger, who had remained there out of loyalty to Hitler, attended to the General’s wound, Hannah Reitsch, who had accompanied him, gave a graphic account of the hair-raising journey they had made at the Führer’s command.
Fräulein Reitsch was a famous test pilot and no-one could deny her courage; but in all other respects she was an odious woman with a neurotic mentality that led her to regard people either with vitriolic hatred or passionate devotion and dramatise herself to them accordingly. She was, of course, a fanatical Nazi and regarded Hitler as her god.
Early that morning they had landed at Rechlin. From there von Greim intended to go on by helicopter to Gatow. Only one had been available and that was damaged, but its sergeant pilot had made the trip before so von Greim ordered him to take it up. The aircraft was intended for only two, but Hannah, determined to be in at the death, had squeezed herself into its tail.
Forty Luftwaffe fighter ‘planes were ordered into the air to act as escort and most of them were shot down, but the helicopter reached Gatow with only a few bullet holes in it. There von Greim found a training aircraft. Boarding it, he took the controls himself. By a miracle he escaped being shot down by the Russian ‘planes overhead, but as he hedgehopped over the ruins of outer Berlin, where desperate street fighting was in progress, a shell-burst had wrecked the belly of the aircraft and a splinter from it had torn open his right foot. Hannah had then leant over his shoulders, zig-zagged the ’plane wildly and performed the extraordinary feat of landing it safely on the broad East-West Axis near the Brandenburg Gate.
And this desperate venture, involving the death of a score or more of German pilots, had been undertaken solely that Hitler, instead of sending von Greim a telegram, might tell him personally about Goering’s treachery and that he was to succeed him as a Field Marshal in supreme command of the Luftwaffe.
On the morning of the 27th Russian shells were falling in all parts of the city and their troops had completely encircled it, so it seemed that the end could not now be long postponed. But the suburbs and built-up area to be occupied consisted of more than a hundred square miles. To the south the Russians were still thin on the ground and many people were managing to escape by dodging their flying columns.
Worried that Sabine might not know that von Osterberg had been wounded and still be waiting for him to pick her up, Gregory decided to send Malacou out to the villa again. By him he sent a note, telling her about the Count and urging her not to lose another moment in getting away before the Russian ring became too thick for there to be any chance left of getting through it. Still armoured in his belief that his time had not yet come to die, Malacou accepted the mission placidly and set off to dodge his way through the ruined and burning city. Gregory then went over to the bunker.
That day, for some unaccountable reason, Hitler was in high spirits, and such was still his extraordinary dominance over those about him that everyone else was too. Old Koller, Gregory learned, had been released from arrest at Berchtesgaden and, horrified at what had resulted from his repeating to Goering the Führer’s remark to Jodl, had attempted to fly to Berlin in order to exonerate his Chief. But he could get no further than the OKW headquarters. From there he telephoned von Greim who, lying in bed on account of his wounded foot, simply said that Goering was a good riddance anyway; and that he was not to worry. ‘Don’t despair!’ he cried. ‘Everything will be well. The presence of the Führer and his confidence have completely inspired me and victory is assured.’ In the evening Bormann got drunk and danced a two-step with Burgdorf.
Utterly sickened by the sight of this mass insanity, Gregory left the bunker soon after midnight. Outside in the street the crashing of shells, the explosion of bombs and the roar from burning buildings was deafening. He had covered not much more than a hundred yards when he was hit a terrific blow on the back of his head. Stars and circles wheeled before his eyes then, his mind engulfed in blackness, he crashed forward on to the pavement.
He was brought to by cold water being sloshed into his face. His bleary eyes took in the fact that he was in a low-ceilinged room and that opposite him, with an empty glass in his hand, stood a big man dressed in a grey lounge suit. As he made to move it suddenly came home to him that he was trussed like a chicken to the chair in which he was sitting. His bemused brain sought an explanation and found one.
For weeks past, owing to terror of death and acute privation, Berlin had become completely lawless. The Police could not possibly control the thousands of deserters and desperate foreign workers who hid by day in the vast acreage of ruins. By night they came out in gangs, broke into the food shops and held people up in the streets for their ration cards and money. Unheard by him owing to the deafening din, one of these thugs had come up behind and coshed him.
But why had the man not just taken his wallet and left him lying on the pavement? Why had he been brought here and tied up?
His sight cleared a little and he had the answer. The man in the grey lounge suit was Herr Obergruppenführer Grauber.