"You're absolutely right, Herr Standartenf?hrer."
"Let me propose this course of action, Hans, and you tell me what you think is wrong with it. We will use the Oceano Pacifico's boat" He interrupted himself. "I presume your offer, Captain, includes a crew for your boat?"
"Of course. I will send my First Officer . . . No, I will take you ashore myself."
"That's very gallant of you, Captain."
"It is the very least I can do."
"Let me continue," Goltz said thoughtfully. "We will land the materiel in Captain de Banderano's boat. I will stay ashore. You will then return to the Oceano Pacifico, pick up your boat, and return it to El Tigre. I will have a word with Herr Loche and see if we can't sell the boat back. Or perhaps it might be a good idea to hold it in reserve. That can be decided later."
"I hesitate to ...," de Banderano said.
"If you have something to say, Captain, by all means do so."
"There is no reason for Major von Wachtstein to go with us. What I meant to suggest is that if anyone sees your river craft tied alongside, it might seem odd. There was an airplane flying over earlier. . . ."
"What kind of an airplane?" Goltz asked quickly.
"Oh, I am sure this airplane is no cause for alarm," de Banderano said. "It was an airliner, painted bright red, and it passed at least a mile away, probably at five thousand feet or more. But it made me think that the Argentines probably have patrol aircraft."
"I understand your concern," Goltz said after a minute. "That sort of problem was the reason why I asked if our boat could be taken aboard." He hesitated again. "But I still would like Major von Wachtstein to go with us."
"Of course," de Banderano said.
"But as soon as you return here, Hans," Goltz ordered. "You start for El Tigre."
"Jawohl, Herr Standartenf?hrer."
"How long will it take, Captain, for you to prepare your boat? And to load the crates aboard it?"
Capitan de Banderano smiled.
"In my professional judgment," he said. "It will take almost exactly as long as it will take for you to have a nice breakfast."
[THREE]
Samboromb?n Bay
River Plate Estuary, Argentina
0940 19 April 1943
Although he had been standing on the roof of the truck looking out into Samboromb?n Bay through very good 7 x 57-mm Ernst Leitz-Wetzlar binoculars for fifteen minutes, Oberst Karl-Heinz Gr?ner did not see the power launch of the Comerciante del Oceano Pacifico until after it was seenand photographedby First Lieutenant Madison R. Sawyer III, USAR.
This was primarily because Sawyer, Suboficial Mayor Enrico Rodriguez, Argentine Army, Retired, and Sarjento Rudolpho Gomez, Argentine Army, had stationed themselves just behind the military crest ( The military crest of terrain is that point closest to and immediately below the actual crest at which soldiers cannot be seen (and thus fired upon) by the enemy) of a rise in the land that placed them sixty feet above the beach.
They were thus able to see farther out into the bay. And they, too, were equipped with very fine optical viewing devices. Enrico was looking out into the bay with an 8 x 75 binocular el Coronel Jorge Guillermo Frade had personally purchased at the Leitz plant in Wetzlar while he was in Germany attending the Kriegsschule. Enrico spotted the power launch first.
Lieutenant Sawyer was equipped with Bausch and Lomb 8 x 57-mm binoculars Enrico had found in Se?or Clete's luggage when he returned from the United States. Se?or Clete told him that this instrument had been stolen from the U.S. Navy and that he had bought it in New Orleans.
After finding the boat with the stolen U.S. Navy binoculars, Lieutenant Sawyer then found the boat in the viewfinder of his telescopic lens-equipped, tripod-mounted, Leica Model I-C camera, also a product of the Leitzwerk.
When the boat came closer to the beach, Suboficial Mayor Rodriguez changed his means of surveillance to the adjustable 2-10-power Zeiss telescopic sight mounted on the Lowe-Berlin Model 95 7-mm sporting rifle, which was also a souvenir of el Coronel Frade's time in Germany.
There were only a few telescopically equipped rifles in el Coronel Frade's gun room. Rudolpho was furnished with the next best, a Remington Model 70 caliber .30-06 sporting rifle equipped with a nonadjustable Bausch and Lomb 4-power telescopic sight. It took him a little longer than Enrico to clearly see the power launch approaching the beach.
But shortly after Colonel Gr?ner spotted the launch in his binoculars, Rudolpho, too, was able to see it. And shortly after that, when Enrico asked him if he could identify the German pilot who came to Estancia San Pedro y San Pablo the night before, Rudolpho was able to reply in the affirmative. The launch moved closer to shore.
Lieutenant Sawyer exhausted the thirty-six-image roll of 35-mm film in the Leica and changed film. For reasons he could not imagine, this caused him a good deal of difficulty finding the launch again in the Leica's viewfinder. The mystery was explained when he saw that one telescoping leg of his tripodnot properly tightenedhad closed on itself while he was changing film cartridges. He tightened the leg firmly and had no further trouble.
He very carefully conserved his film, so that by the time the launch ran aground on the shore he had twenty-eight remaining images to photograph the actual off-loading of the crates from the boat, and the loading of the crates aboard the waiting truck.
He was very pleased with himself. He was going to get everything Colonel Graham had asked him to get. When the film was processed and printed, there would be absolute proof that a boat from the Comerciante del Oceano Pacifico the legend was clearly painted in black on her sideshad landed on the shore of Samboromb?n Bay, and had there off-loaded what appeared to be six wooden crates. And all of this activity was clearly under the supervision of an officer wearing an SS uniform and another in civilian clothing; but whom Enrico had identified as the German Military Attach?.
Since there was no amplification in the viewfinder of the Leica, Sawyer raised the binoculars to his eyes with his right hand and watched the SS colonel jump out of the boat and wade the last few feet ashore. There he triumphantly gave that absurd Nazi salute before enthusiastically pumping the hand of the German Military Attach?.
The Leica was equipped with an automatic film-advance device that permitted him to make shot after shot simply by pressing a thumb-operated shutter-triggering device.
Sailors from the Oceano Pacifico then jumped out of the boat and started to manhandle the first of the crates out of the boat.
There was a sudden, wholly unexpected, painfully loud explosion in Lieutenant Sawyer's ears, followed immediately by another.
Sawyer looked at the two Argentinians who had escorted him here. Both were quickly working the actions of their just-fired rifles.
"What in the name of God are you doing?" Sawyer asked in both surprise and indignation.
They both took fresh sight pictures.
"Stop that!!" Sawyer ordered as he put the binoculars to his eyes again.
He saw that both the SS officer and the Military Attach? were down on the beach. Both looked as if their heads had exploded.
A blond-headed man jumped out of the launch and ran to one of the downed men. Sawyer decided he was probably an officer from the Oceano Pacifico.
There came again the crack of the rifles, and Lieutenant Sawyer saw the body the officer was kneeling over jump as a second high-powered bullet struck it.