“That might be part of it too.”
Hansen stood and turned his back to Sean, stared through the window from his third-floor office down into the vast courtyard of Queen Mother’s Gate. “The General requests,” he said, “that the Captain remain in this command.”
Hansen nearly choked on his humiliation. He could go no further now. He could not put into words the needing of Sean’s keen mind, the respect of foolhardy pride, or put into words admiration for the kind of loyalty Sean had given him. Nor could he get into that part of it about having three daughters and no sons. From the first bombastic clash almost two years ago there had been that strange sort of devotion that men find for each other in times of war.
“I’ll give you your piece of this war,” Hansen said. “It will mean staying here at Queen Mother’s Gate, losing more arguments to stupid bastards, eating crow. It will mean that seeing or not seeing that woman remains within your resolve.”
Sean did not answer.
“This mission will set up a Pilot G-5 Team to study a German city. This city will be learned so that every street, every citizen, every function is known. We will build a scale model in one of the conference rooms ... fly aerial recon flights over it, know more about it than we have ever known about any piece of territory in Germany. This pilot team will have to have an answer for any possible question ... sewage ... Nazis ... displaced persons ... whorehouses. This is the textbook town from which we will gain insight to learn how to govern Germany. When the invasion comes the pilot team will move into Germany and continue on from theory to actual practice. We will test new laws, ideas there first ...”
The pilot team for Germany! This was more than the piece of the war he had reckoned on. Sean knew that on an impulse General Hansen had taken another gamble with him. Such a command should go to someone with solid experience in government ... someone not so stubborn.
“I could let you down very badly, sir.”
“I don’t see it that way. Do you know anything about Rombaden?”
Sean’s face narrowed in thought. “In Schwaben Province. Landkreis of Romstein. Sits on a big bend on the Landau midway between the Black Forest and Munich. One of the most fanatical Nazi strongholds.”
“That’s a good start,” Hansen said. “There’s a report up at Document Center by a professor in Germanic studies. He was born and raised in Rombaden, was an inmate of Schwabenwald Concentration Camp in ’35 and ’36. Came to America after his release. Start reading it.”
Sean was too caught up in the sudden challenge to weigh the enormity of the task.
“You’ll want Dante Arosa for your counter-intelligence, no doubt. The two of you go to Shrivenham and pick your team. Rombaden has an A1 rating. Take anyone you want. Any questions?”
“Why Rombaden? Why not Regensburg or Essen or Hanover?”
Hansen adjusted his specs and began to read the papers on his desk. “I have a peculiar affinity for the place. My mother came from there.”
Sean got up to leave. “Funny damned war,” he said.
“O’Sullivan.”
“Yes, sir.”
“One more thing.” Hansen opened the top drawer, palmed a pair of gold oak leaves, and threw them on the desk. “I wore these very same ones, years ago. Maybe they’ll bring you better luck. Stick them on your shoulder ... we don’t want any of your Englishmen to outrank you, Major. ”
Chapter Nine
CONFIDENTIAL
PRELIMINARY STUDY FOR MILITARY GOVERNMENT
CITY OF ROMBADEN/LANDKREIS OF ROMSTEIN, GERMANY
LOCATION:
Southern Germany. State of Württemberg. Province of Schwaben. Landkreis (County or District) of Romstein. The City of Rombaden is built along the north bank of the Landau River 100 miles west of Munich; 60 miles east of the Black Forest; 30 miles due north of the Swiss/German border at Lake Constance. The Landkreis (County) of Romstein contains the City of Rombaden and continues on the south bank of the Landau into rolling foothills and farmlands. Both the city and district are surrounded by typical German forests covering 30% (about national average) of the land. Most famous is the Schwabenwald Forest.
GENERAL BACKGROUND:
First settled by Celtic Tribes two thousand years B.C. One must approach the history of this area in a context of /and as a segment of German history. For 3500 years there was no Germany, per se. There were Germanic Tribes, States, Princedoms, Kingdoms, Duchies, Landkreise all ruled by a local rank of royalty or nobility. At one time in German history there were 350 separate self-governing royal entities.
Germany, therefore, has been a collection of royal alliances heavily influenced and dominated by church alliances. Germanic tribes have sat between the Slavic world on the east and the Roman world on the west and south.
From time to time certain Germanic areas dominated the others. Prussia and Austria stand out, and personalities such as Charlemagne and Frederick the Great emerged. Nevertheless Germany did not become a united nation until Bismarck published his Elms Dispatch in 1870, a mere 70 years ago. Germany was the last land in Europe to become a nation, the last to colonize, one of the last to industrialize and the last to overcome the ravaging ruination of the Thirty Years War (1614–48).
German history has been a long bloody series of wars interlaced with power plays of royal and religious alliances inside her borders and of pressure outside her borders.
The Rombaden/Romstein District, for example, has been invaded by the Teutons, Romans, Goths, Huns, Vandals, Bavarians, Franks, Burgundians, Saxons, Bohemians, Prussians ... among others. The Rombaden/Romstein District has sent armies into the field against the Danes, Swedes, Mongols, Magyars, Wends, Turks, French, and Italians ... among others.
A common error is to lump all Germans together as similar persons. Germans are as different in background and behavior as is a Bostonian from a Texan—an Iowan from a New Yorker.
The Province of Schwaben, wherein Rombaden/Romstein lies, has a fiercely proud tribal-like closeness. From Schwaben emerged the branches of the Hohenzollern and Hohenstauffen families that have dominated the German royal line. The Schwaben League and Schwaben Princes have been mutinous, engineered many revolts, and have been in the balance of power plays throughout their history.
Rombaden/Romstein has always identified itself with the Catholic side of the religious struggle. The area had nearly always been in the Holy Roman Empire until it was dissolved after the Napoleonic Wars. It might be noted here that the Holy Roman Empire was neither Holy, Roman or an Empire, but a constantly shifting alliance of Germanic Kingdoms, Princedoms and Duchies with the Papal powers.
Rombaden/Romstein has been ruled or dominated by the Von Romstein Family. They are minor Schwaben nobility of the Hohenstauffen Line. The head of the family has usually held the rank of Markgraf or Graf (Count).
Rombaden City has been totally or partially destroyed at least a dozen times. War has ruined it ten of those times. Rombaden was destroyed twice during the Thirty Years War. It was so badly mutilated that the city never fully recovered from it for hundreds of years (nor did all of Germany for that matter). Rombaden was destroyed twice again during the Peasants’ Uprisings, which were particularly bloody in Schwaben.
Rombaden was destroyed during the Napoleonic Wars.
Rombaden was destroyed twice during the series of wars between Prussia and Austria.
Rombaden was destroyed twice by fire.
Rombaden has been partly or almost completely depopulated by plagues a half-dozen times during the Middle Ages.
We must bear in mind that the story of Rombaden is not alien to the story of most German cities and that very few American cities like Atlanta, have ever been ravaged by war.