Night of the Fox

‘Offended? I think he’s marvelous,’ Rommel said and jumped to his feet. ‘Bravo!’ he called and started to clap and behind him, the entire audience joined in with the chorus of the Afrika Korps song, cheering wildly.

In the makeshift dressing room next to the kitchen, Erich Berger slumped into a chair and stared at himself in the mirror. His heart was beating and he was sweating. A hell of a thing for any actor to perform in front of the man he was taking off, and such a man. A name to conjure with. The most popular soldier in Germany.

‘Not bad, Heini,’ he said softly. ‘Mazel tov.’ He took a bottle of schnapps from the drawer, drew the cork and swallowed some.

A Yiddish phrase on the lips of a corporal in a German Fallschirmjäger regiment might have seemed strange to anyone who had overheard. His secret was that he wasn’t Erich Berger at all, but Heini Baum, Jewish actor and cabaret performer from Berlin and proud of it.

His story was surprisingly simple. He had performed with success in cabaret all over Europe. He had never married. To be frank, his inclinations ran more toward men than women. He had persisted in living in Berlin, even as the Nazis came to power, because his aging parents had always lived there and would not believe that anything terrible could ever happen. Which it did, of course, though not for a long time. As an entertainer, Baum was of use to the Reich. He still had to wear his Star of David on his coat, but a series of special permits kept him afloat and his parents with him, while all around them their friends were taken away.

And then there was the fateful night in 1940 when he had arrived at the end of his street, coming home from cabaret, in time to see the Gestapo taking his mother and father from their house. He had turned and run, like the coward he was, pausing only in a side street to tear the Star of David from his coat. He was forty-four years of age and looked ten years younger on a good day. Nowhere to go, for his papers told the world he was a Jew.

So, he’d caught a train to Kiel with the wild idea that he might be able to get a ship from there to somewhere – anywhere. He’d arrived just after one of the first of the devastating RAF raids on that city, had stumbled through the chaos and flames of the city center, searching for shelter as the RAF came back for a second go. Lurching down into a cellar, he’d found a man and a woman and a twelve-year-old girl dead, all from the same family he learned when he examined their identity cards. Erich Berger, his wife and daughter. And one thing more. In Berger’s pocket were his call-up papers, ordering him to report the following week.

What better hiding place could a Jew who was afraid to be a Jew find? Sure, he was ten years older than Berger, but it wouldn’t show. To change the photos on the two identity cards was simple enough so that the body he dragged out to leave in the rubble of the street to be found later was that of Heini Baum, Jew of Berlin. It had been necessary to obliterate most of the dead man’s face with a brick, just to help things along, but after what he’d been through that part was easy.

How ironic that it was the paratroops he’d been inducted into. He’d been everywhere. Crete, Stalingrad, North Africa, a nice flashy hero in his Luftwaffe blouse and baggy paratroopers’ pants and jump boots, with the Iron Cross Second and First Class to prove it. He took another pull at the schnapps bottle, and behind him the door opened and Rommel, Colonel Halder and Hofer entered.

It was midnight and Hugh Kelso had never been happier, up at Cape Cod at the summer bungalow, sitting on the veranda in the swing seat, reading a book, a cool glass to his hand and Jane, his wife, was calling, on her way up from the beach, her face shaded by a sun hat, the good legs tanned under the old cotton dress, and the girls in swimming suits and carrying buckets and spades, voices faint on the warm afternoon air. Everyone so happy. So very happy. He didn’t feel cold anymore, didn’t really feel anything. He reached out to take Jane’s hand as she came up the steps to the veranda and the voices faded and he came awake, shaking all over.

It was pitch dark and the sea wasn’t as rough, and yet he seemed to be moving very fast. He pulled down the zip on the flap with stiff fingers and peered out. Only a slight phosphorescence as the water turned over and a vast darkness. His eyes were weary, sore from the salt water. For a wild moment he thought he saw a light out there. He shook his head, closed then opened his eyes again. A mistake, of course. Only the never-ending night. He zipped up the flap, lay back and closed his eyes, trying to think of Jane and his two daughters. Perhaps they would come back again?

Although he didn’t know it, he had already drifted something like seventy miles since leaving Lyme Bay on the Devon coast and his eyes had not deceived him. What he had just seen through the darkness was a momentary flash of light as a sentry at the German guard post on Pleinmont Point on the southwest corner of the island of Guernsey had opened a door to go out on duty. To the southeast, perhaps thirty miles away, was Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands. It was in this general direction that the freshening wind bore him as he slept on.

Rommel leaned on the mantelpiece and stirred the fire with his boot. ‘So, the others would like me to talk with von Stulpnagel and Falkenhausen?’

‘Yes, Herr Field Marshal,’ Hofer said. ‘But as you point out, one must take things very carefully at the moment. For such a meeting, secrecy would be essential.’

‘And opportunity,’ Rommel said. ‘Secrecy and opportunity.’ The clock on the mantelpiece chimed twice and he laughed. ‘Two o’clock in the morning. The best time for crazy ideas.’

‘What are you suggesting, Herr Field Marshal?’

‘Quite simple, really. What is it now, Saturday? What if we arranged a meeting next week at some agreed rendezvous with von Stulpnagel and Falkenhausen while I was actually supposed to be somewhere else? Jersey, for example?’

‘The Channel Islands?’ Hofer looked bewildered.

‘The Führer himself suggested not two months ago that I inspect the fortifications there. You know my feelings about the military importance of the islands. The Allies will never attempt a landing. It would cause too many civilian casualties. British civilian casualties, I might add.’

‘And yet they tie up the 319 Infantry Division,’ Hofer said. ‘Six thousand troops in Jersey alone. Ten thousand service personnel in all, if you include Luftwaffe and Navy people.’

‘And yet we’ve poured so much into them, Konrad, because the Führer wants to hang onto the only piece of British territory we’ve ever occupied. The strongest fortifications in the world. The same number of strongpoints and batteries as we have to defend the entire European coast from Dieppe to St Nazaire.’ He turned and smiled. ‘The Führer is right. As commander of the Atlantic Wall, I should certainly inspect such an important part of it.’

Hofer nodded. ‘I see that, Herr Field Marshal, but what I don’t see is how you can be in two places at once. Meeting with Falkenhausen and Stulpnagel in France and inspecting fortifications in Jersey.’

‘But you saw me in two places earlier this evening.’ Rommel said calmly, ‘both in the audience and on stage at the same time.’

The room was so quiet that Hofer could hear the clock ticking. ‘My God,’ he whispered. ‘Are you serious?’

‘Why not? Friend Berger even fooled me when he came on stage. The voice, the appearance.’

‘But would he be intelligent enough to carry it off? There are so many things he wouldn’t know how to handle. I mean, being a Field Marshal is rather different from being an orderly room clerk,’ Hofer said.

‘He seems intelligent enough to me,’ Rommel told him. ‘He’s obviously talented and a brave soldier to boot. Iron Cross First and Second Class. And you mustn’t forget one important thing.’

‘What’s that, Herr Field Marshal?’

‘He’d have you at his shoulder every step of the way to keep him straight.’ Suddenly Rommel sounded impatient. ‘Where’s your enthusiasm, Konrad? If you’re that worried, I’ll give you a few days to prepare him. Let’s see, it’s Saturday now. How about descending on Jersey next Friday. I’m only thinking of thirty-six hours or so. Back in France on Saturday night or Sunday at the latest. If Berger can’t carry it off for that length of time, I’ll eat my hat.’

‘Very well, Herr Field Marshal. I’ll notify the Channel Islands that you’ll be arriving next Friday.’

‘No, you won’t,’ Rommel said. ‘We box more cleverly than that. Who’s the commander-in-chief?’

‘Major General Count von Schmettow. His headquarters are in Guernsey.’

‘I’ve met him,’ Rommel said. ‘Good officer.’

‘With a reputation for being pro-English, which didn’t do him any good in some quarters,’ Hofer said.

‘On the other hand, the fact that he’s Field Marshal von Rundstedt’s nephew certainly helped there. Who’s military commander in Jersey?’

‘I’ll check.’ Hofer took a file from his briefcase and worked his way down a unit situation list. ‘Yes, here we are. Colonel Heine is military commander.’

‘And civil administration?’

‘The important people there are Colonel Baron von Aufsess and Captain Heider.’

‘And the inhabitants themselves? Who are their representatives?’

‘There’s an organization called the Superior Council of the States of Jersey. The president is the bailiff of the island. A man called Alexander Coutanche.’

‘Good,’ said Rommel. ‘This is what we do. Send General von Schmettow a signal ordering him to hold a coordinating meeting in Guernsey to consider the implications for the islands of the invasion of France threatened this summer.’

‘And you want them all there?’

‘Oh, yes. Military commander Jersey, the civil affairs people, the bailiff and his lot, and whoever’s in charge of the Navy and Luftwaffe contingents in the islands.’

‘Which will leave only junior officers in command.’

‘Exactly.’

‘There’s not too much flying in and out of the Channel Islands these days. The RAF are far too active in that area. It’s usual to travel between the islands by sea and at night.’

‘I know,’ Rommel said. ‘I’ve taken advice on that point from Naval Headquarters in Cherbourg. Tell von Schmettow to call his meeting for next Saturday. In the circumstances they must travel either Thursday night or in the early hours of Friday to make sure they get there. I’ll fly in on Friday morning in the Storch.’

‘A risky flight, Herr Field Marshal.’

‘For you, Konrad, and Berger, of course, not for me.’ Rommel smiled with a kind of ruthless charm. ‘The first thing they’ll know about my arrival is when you ask the tower for permission to land at the airfield.’

‘And what will von Schmettow think?’