W. IV - Honor Bound 05 - The Honor of Spies

There were four Heinkel 111s parked at the airfield. One was always kept there against the unlikely possibility that the Fuhrer might suddenly decide to go to Berlin or Berchtesgaden or Vienna. The other three aircraft suggested to Canaris that the three most powerful men in the Nazi hierarchy--Hermann Goring, Heinrich Himmler, and Martin Bormann--also had been summoned to Wolfsschanze. They were the only officers important enough to have their own aircraft kept waiting for them.

Goring had the grandest title. He was Reichsmarschall des Grossdeutschen Reiches. He was the most popular--after Hitler, of course--with the people. But he had failed to bomb England into submission, and later to protect Germany from American and British bombers. Moreover, he had become the next thing to a drug addict, and tales circulated of homosexual orgies at Carinhall, his hunting estate in the Schorfheide Forest north of Berlin, and his influence had suffered.

Canaris knew that many of the rumors about Goring's sexual proclivities and drug addiction had been, if not invented, then circulated by the man everyone agreed was the most dangerous senior Nazi, Heinrich Himmler. He had two titles: He was Reichsprotektor Himmler and Reichsfuhrer-SS Himmler. And, playing on Hitler's distrust of his generals, Himmler had managed to create his own army--thirty divisions strong--called the Waffen-SS.

The third man likely to have traveled to Wolfsschanze in his own Heinkel, Martin Bormann, also had two titles. Originally, he had been the Parteileiter of the Nazi party, running it as Hitler's deputy, and answering only to him. Recently, without objection from the Fuhrer, he had started referring to himself as Reichsleiter Bormann, suggesting he was leading the Reich, not only the political party, and again subordinate only to Hitler.

And if those three--or only two of them--were there, Canaris reasoned, then chances were good that so was the clubfooted minister of public enlightenment and propaganda, Paul Joseph Goebbels, Ph.D.

He probably caught a ride with Bormann . Or Gunsche commandeered a Heinkel for him as he did for me.

Four vehicles--a large Mercedes open sedan and three Kubelwagens, militarized, canvas-topped versions of the Volkswagen--came to meet the Heinkel as ground handlers showed the pilot where to park. An SS-hauptsturmfuhrer was standing in the front seat of the Mercedes. Nine storm troopers under an SS-oberscharfuhrer, all armed with Schmeisser machine pistols, got quickly out of the Kubelwagens and surrounded the airplane.

When the hauptsturmfuhrer saw that his men were in place, he gestured rather imperiously to the sergeant to go to the airplane. He then got out of the Mercedes and walked to the Heinkel.

The door in the fuselage opened and Canaris came out.

The hauptsturmfuhrer and the oberscharfuhrer gave the Nazi salute. Canaris returned it with an almost casual wave of his arm and walked to the Mercedes, followed by von und zu Waching and Gehlen. They all got in.

The oberscharfuhrer went into the Heinkel as the hauptsturmfuhrer walked quickly to the Mercedes, which started off as soon as he got in.

They drove off the airfield to the collection of buildings and yellow-and-black-striped barrier pole guarding access to the inner compound.

A half-dozen SS officers and enlisted men gave the Nazi salute, and one of the latter trotted to the Mercedes and opened the car's passenger doors. Canaris and the others got out. The barrier pole was raised, and they walked past it and got into another open Mercedes.

Changing cars saved the time it would take to thoroughly search a car entering the interior compound.

The car, a Mercedes reserved for senior officers, carried them a kilometer and a half past stark concrete bunkers and finally stopped before one of them, where another half-dozen SS officers and enlisted men, all armed with Schmeisser machine pistols, gave the Nazi salute.

They had reached the Fuhrerbunker itself.

Canaris, von und zu Waching, and Gehlen got out of the Mercedes and walked to a sturdy steel door, which an enlisted man pulled open just as they reached it and closed after they had passed through.

They were now in a barren room, presided over by an SS-obersturmbannfuhrer. There was a table, and a row of steel cabinets each large enough for a suitcase. A double shelf above a coatrack held perhaps twenty uniform caps.

The obersturmbannfuhrer gave a crisp Nazi salute and barked, "Heil Hitler!"

Canaris again made a causal wave of his arm.

"These officers are, Herr Admiral?"

"They are with me," Canaris replied.

"Regulations require I have their names and organizations, Herr Admiral, and see their identity documents."

"Fregattenkapitan Otto von und zu Waching, my deputy," Canaris replied, "and Oberstleutnant Reinhard Gehlen, of Abwehr Ost."

As the two handed over their identity documents, which the obersturmbannfuhrer scrutinized carefully before handing them to a clerk, who wrote the names and the date and time on a form, Canaris took his pistol, a 9mm Luger Parabellum, from its holster and laid it on the table.

"The Fuhrer's security, Herr Oberstleutnant," Canaris said evenly, "requires that you surrender your sidearm, and any knives you might have, to these officers."

"Jawohl, Herr Admiral," Gehlen said, and laid his pistol on the table. "No knives, Herr Admiral."

Canaris gave his uniform cap to one of the enlisted men, who put it on the rack. Canaris then raised his arms to the sides at shoulder height.

"With your permission, Herr Admiral," the obersturmbannfuhrer said, and patted him down.

Gehlen and von und zu Waching went through the same routine.

The obersturmbannfuhrer nodded at a hauptsturmfuhrer, who clicked his heels and said, "If you will be good enough to come with me, gentlemen?"

He led them through a steel door, down concrete corridors and stairwells, and finally stopped before another steel door.

Canaris had been here often enough to know this was not the door to where Hitler could usually be found poring over a stack of maps.

"What's this, Herr Hauptsturmfuhrer?"

"Reichsleiter Bormann wished to have a word with you, Herr Admiral, before you are received by the Fuhrer."

"Very well."

"A word alone with you, Herr Admiral," the hauptsturmfuhrer said.

Canaris nodded and went through the door. Bormann was not there; the room was empty and unfurnished.

Is this a trick to get me in here?

What happens next?

The Bavarian corporal and half a dozen of Himmler's thugs rush in to knock me to the floor?

Then Hitler looks down at me and says, "We know all about Valkyrie. I wanted to spit in your traitorous eyes before I turn you over to the SS"?

The door opened and Martin Bormann entered and closed the door.

"I'll have to make this quick, Canaris. He knows you're here."

"What's this all about, Bormann?"

"Early this morning, he sent for me. I found out later that he'd just heard Jeschonnek blew his brains out."

"What did he want?"

"He said he was worried about Operation Phoenix."

"Himmler told him how they blundered again over there?"

"No. He doesn't know about that, and I'm not going to tell him. What he said--he was quite emotional--was that 'if things go badly' he and his senior officers will of course fight to the death in Berlin. But that it was important that National Socialism survive, and that meant some of its 'relatively senior officers'--he mentioned von Wachtstein, which surprised me, until I learned that Keitel had sent von Wachtstein to tell him about yesterday's disaster.

"Anyway, he said that we have to make sure relatively senior officers, military and especially in the party, find refuge in South America, and that they have the funds to keep National Socialism alive and bring it back. That I should consider it a high priority."