Berndt Krause cursed, “Have we got any more explosives?”
“No Sir.”
“Scheisse!” Krause shouted, “Ok you men are to guard this position, do not let anyone enter. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, Sir!” The five men shouted, “While we still have life in our bodies we will keep them out. Heil Hitler.”
“Heil Hitler.” Krause returned the war cry. “I must find Gruppenführer Sporrenberg.” Krause took off into the interior of the base.
Sporrenberg pulled the pallet turned boat up onto the shore. Once again the cry rang out, “Halt. Identify yourself or we will shoot.”
“SS Gruppenführer Jakob Sporrenberg, SS number 3809.”
The two men relaxed but continued to watch the man through their sights.
“Proceed, good to see you again Sir.”
Sporrenberg marched up to the two men with the air of a man who deserved total respect.
“Good to see you Oberschutze Brown, did you get the explosives I require.”
The Steely blue eyes of the twenty-three-year-old senior rifleman did not flicker away from his Vampir infrared night vision sight.
“Yes, Sir.”
“Excellent work soldier.” Sporrenberg said as he knocked on the large reinforced iron doors.
There was no response.
“SS Gruppenführer Jakob Sporrenberg, SS number 3809. I demand you let me in!” He shouted with a tone that could break solid rock.
The slot opened for a brief second.
“Fuck off.” Walther Gerlach shouted before he slid the slot closed.
Sporrenberg clenched his fist and his teeth. “If you don’t open this door I will blow the whole thing to pieces you ignorant spec of dirt, do you hear me Gerlach?”
There was no response. Sporrenberg turned to the two soldiers stood behind him.
“You know what to do.”
“Yes, Sir!” They said and immediately jumped to work.
Ball Lightning
Walther Gerlach waddled about busily as he checked and double checked all of the equipment on the control panel. He went through his personal checklist one last time. He sighed ‘If we only had more time.’
A man stood up and took off the welding mask; he smiled at his father then gave him the thumbs up.
“I think I have finished the repair father but let me just run a diagnostic check on the power supplies.”
Gerlach shook his head. “We don’t have time son. Good job but get back here we need to start the experiment now.”
Joseph could hear the strain in his father’s voice. He walked back to his workstation as quickly as he could.
“What’s wrong father?”
“Sporrenberg is on the other side of the door; he is here to finish us off. I told him to fuck off.”
Joseph stood bolt upright, “You did what?”
“He is here to kill us anyway son, just get the final experiment ready will you!”
Joseph shook his head as he went over to his workstation.
The two scientists pushed the power on and the Bell device began to siphon the power from the base once again. Joseph pushed it up to twenty-five percent power.
“Holding steady.” He said.
The lights in the base flickered again then went out just leaving the emergency generator to power the systems. Sporrenberg looked around and cursed loudly.
“For fuck sake Gerlach you are dead meat when I get hold of you! Brown how long until this door is blown?”
“Not too long Sir, I am doing it as fast as I can.”
Sporrenberg let out a growl. He paced up and down like a caged tiger.
The power held steady, the counter-rotating tubes began to pick up speed and once again started to fill with the deadly Xerum 525. Electricity started to run across the wires crisscrossing the device.
“Push it son we have run out of time!” Gerlach ordered.
The young scientist pushed the lever forward to fifty percent power. The device began to crackle with blue ball lightning and the familiar vortex started to form around the bell.
“No son we need one hundred percent.”
Joseph glanced over to his father with a terrified look etched across his young face. “We… we have never got to one hundred percent father. It… It won’t take the strain.”
“Just do it boy!” Gerlach ordered.
Joseph swallowed once and then pushed the lever to its highest limit.
The device rocked under the strain of the sudden power surge, lightning raced towards it from all over the room, it turned from a bright yellow color to a brilliant fiery red as it swept across the device. The Vortex pulled all the electric power across the devices broad rounded surfaces, the ceramic tiles started to crack and small pieces floated off into the electrified atmosphere.
“Father she is break apart, we need to power down.” Joseph went to pull the lever down.
“Don’t you dare son, step away now.” Walther shouted in the sternest tone his son had ever heard.
“Sorry son but we have no choice. We are in it until the end now. Whatever happens.” He paused, “Son I want you to get the plans from earlier and burn them, now before anyone else gets their hands on them. I hid them in that brown envelope hidden on the shelf over there.
Joseph nodded and followed his father’s instructions. He held the small notepad full of plans up to his lit match, the paper quickly caught fire and burned to ashes.
“Good work son, we need to burn the bell files now.”
Joseph started to burn all the paperwork they had collected over the last three years.
Walther stood next to his son and watched through the thickened glass as the device absorbed more and more power.
The dynamite was in place around the thick iron door. Sporrenberg and the two SS guards stood as far away as they were able to, on the edge of the artificial waterway that they had created. Oberschutze Brown was led with his hand on the detonator waiting for the order.
“Blow it to pieces Brown!” Sporrenberg growled.
The young blonde German depressed the plunger and with a loud explosion that rocked the thin tunnel, there was a loud cracking sound as shrapnel, concrete and dirt funneled towards the three SS men.
Sporrenberg and the others covered their faces from the blast as they let the shock wave pass over them. They waited a few seconds for the dust to settle then went to inspect their work. The large reinforced iron doors were bent inwards but still stood stubbornly. The SS team leader swore.
There was a small gap to one side of the door that had been filled by rubble from the tunnel; Sporrenberg looked at the two men stood beside.
“Get that cleared now!” He roared, struggling to contain his anger.
The SS guards started to remove the rubble by hand.
Joseph had jumped to the floor as the blast went off but had regained his composure.
“What shall we do father?”
“Carry on burning the documents son. I will keep the experiment going.”
Joseph nodded then carried on chucking stacks of documents onto his freshly lit fire. The smoke started to consume the room.
The bell-shaped device started to pulse from a brilliant lightning blue to a hazy purple color. ‘It’s beautiful’ Gerlach thought to himself.
Tipping the Balance
The fighting across the open spaces of the Polish fields had rocked back and forth all morning but the determined Germans were now completely on the back foot. All their remaining Panther medium tanks were either destroyed or disabled. They had succeeded in slowing down the American forces but their inferior numbers had finally tipped the balance in the Americans favor.
The Sherman’s advanced passed the wreckages of the destroyed Panthers and used their mobility to close in on the Elefant tank destroyers, who did not stand a chance once the Sherman’s closed the distance. The slow lumbering boxes were turretless and had to turn to face their targets. The Americans lost five tanks to every Elefant they destroyed but they overwhelmed the threat.