Adler reached inside his grimy shirt pocket and took out a small piece of paper and unfolded it. “Yes, forty-two crates. Correct.”
Grimme interjected, “Forty-two crates is exactly what you should have, Captain Adler,” checking his tally. “You have done your job very well, Captain. Please give my compliments to your crew. Your job here is complete.” Grimme turned to one of his SS troopers and motioned to him.
“Captain Adler, after your long voyage I am sure you and your crew need some fresh provisions. I have taken the liberty to provide you with several cases of fresh milk, eggs and fruit. I trust you can use this?”
Adler’s face broke into a smile. “Why, yes, we certainly could use fresh food. We’ve not had fresh provisions in quite a while. Sea rations are not the tastiest of food.” For a moment, Adler thought that this Gestapo goon might not be as bad as he thought. Regardless, he and the crew would eat well tonight. This simple pleasure made life good!
As the trucks loaded with the crates began to leave another truck backed up to the end of the pier filled with supplies.
Adler turned to find his first officer. “Mr. Hientz, make ready to take on fresh provisions.”
“Yes, sir,” Hientz replied with a wide grin. “Yes sir!”
Hientz dropped down into the conning tower and within seconds a forward hatch on the U-boat’s deck opened. Several crewmen streamed out on deck and clamored down the gangplank to help form a man-to-man chain from the gangplank, across the deck and down the hatch. As soon as Grimme’s men began to unload the truck the human chain quickly manhandled the truckload of food into the U-boat. Adler smiled again as he watched his men. They looked happy for the first time in weeks. Within fifteen minutes the entire truck was unloaded and the food stocked aboard.
The captain turned back to Grimme. “I was told there would be orders for our next destination. Do you have any for me?”
Grimme reached into his pocket and unfolded some papers. He meticulously reviewed the papers. “I have no orders for you, Captain, at this time. You will receive your new orders at your first scheduled radio contact tomorrow morning.”
“Very well,” answered Adler. “Gentlemen, it is time for us to go,” Adler said smiling. “I want to get back out to sea as quickly as possible. Thank you for the provisions. Thank you very much!”
“It is our pleasure to aid such fine seamen and such a fine U-boat commander,” a smiling Grimme answered. “Well done!”
“Yes. Let me add our congratulations as well, Captain Adler. Leutnant Trox and I also hope your crew enjoys the food,” Major Bayer beamed.
With final handshakes, Adler bounded up the gangplank.
“Mr. Hientz, let’s get underway!”
“Cast off all lines!”
Trox directed the men on the dock to remove the gangway.
Bayer, Grimme and Trox watched as the U-boat slowly and silently moved away from the pier and disappeared into the darkness of the bay. At least the crew of the U-boat was leaving this hellhole, thought Trox. He, on the other hand, was doomed to stay here forever; at least until he could find some way to get back to Germany and home.
The loaded trucks left the pier area and headed back into the jungle to wherever they went. Only Grimme knew their final location. And he was not telling anyone.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Captain Adler felt relieved lying in his bunk eating a banana. Since leaving the pier the men of the U-1055 spent the last several hours or so eating. They attacked the fresh fruit as if they never tasted anything better. Funny how such a simple thing as fresh fruit could cure the doldrums of a long voyage. Now he could smell the lovely aroma of eggs cooking along with bacon. And milk. They had fresh milk aboard. At this point in the war, far from hostile sea traffic, his boat could relax a bit and savor the food haul they made. Hell, maybe he was wrong about the Gestapo. Grimme turned out to not be such a bad guy after all.
There was a soft rap at the door of Adler’s cabin.
“Captain, you awake?” It was his first officer, Willie Hientz.
“Yes, Hientz. Come in,” answered Adler between bites as he sat up.
“Sir, what are our orders? I have us on a bearing to the mid-Atlantic but after that nowhere specific. Our depth is ninety meters.”
“That’s because we have no operational orders as of now,” Adler said looking toward his desk. “We have not received any communications from Germany since we left. Even the supply ships we encountered had no contact. We know the Reich is in shambles. When we left Germany, the Americans and Soviets were knocking at Berlin’s door. By now Berlin has to have fallen.”
“Damn Nazis,” said Hientz. He felt close to his captain. Close enough to let most of his real feelings show. Aboard a U-boat they were isolated. Germany had long since stopped the old procedure of placing Nazi Party representatives aboard U-boats. Even the Nazis knew they were in trouble.
The radioman stuck his head in the captain’s door.
“Sir, are there any messages to go out?”
“No, not now,” said Adler. “But we do need to listen for new orders at the scheduled time tomorrow morning. Let me know immediately when we make radio contact.”
“Yes, sir, I will, of course. Well then, sir, may I pipe some music through the boat? The men have asked for music.”
Adler smiled softly. “Yes. That would be nice. Go ahead.”
“Thank you, sir.” The radioman ducked away.
The two men sat silently for a few seconds.
“You think the war is over, sir?” asked Hientz.
Adler looked grimly at his first officer. “Yes, Hientz, I think it is. I do not see how we can win. Right now I’m just worried about our families and those we have left behind. There is no telling what is happening back there. I heard that when the Americans found out about the work camps they went wild. They shot camp guards and punished the citizens of the nearby towns. God knows what they will do to the general population in Berlin. Those damned SS generals really screwed things up with Hitler and Himmler’s get rid of the Jews politics. They must have killed thousands. Now we are going to pay for that crap.”
Hientz didn’t say anything but he knew Adler was right. He looked at his boots on the deck of the U-boat. “Actually, looking back, I can’t believe that we fell for all of that master race bullshit. Rule the world, Hitler said. Yeah, it sounded great back then but we all should have known that the rest of the world was not going to just stand by and watch us take over Europe, especially after the first world war,” added Hientz. “Dammit, we should have known.”
Adler shook his head slowly. “Yeah, we should have known. I never should have stayed in Germany. I should have taken my family to Switzerland and on to America.”
“If we could only go back in time,” lamented Hientz.
A soothing German ballad began playing throughout the boat. The two men listened silently.
“Damned Nazis,” Hientz finally hissed. “Damn them all to hell. They are the cause of all of this.”
Adler stood and placed his hand on Hientz’s shoulder. “None of us dreamed it would come to this. There’s nothing we can do now, Hientz, nothing we can do. Our job now is to stay alive and get this crew back home to Germany any way we can.”
Hientz pursed his lips and looked down at the deck. Adler knew what he was thinking.
“Well, what do we do now?” asked Hientz. “We have no further orders. The Reich is in shambles.” Hientz reached over and plucked an apple from a box of food and took a bite.