Sooner than expected, they received the order to get up and get ready. They checked their own gear and then checked each other’s. A crewman opened the C47’s door and they were hit by a rush of cold air.
“Just remember, sir, you don’t have to count to ten or yell Geronimo anything dumb like that,” said Farnum. “The chute will open automatically. If it doesn’t then you just yank on the reserve chute and pray that it opens.”
“And I’m screwed if it doesn’t, aren’t I?”
“Absolutely, sir, but you won’t have much time to worry about it since we’ll be jumping from a fairly low altitude.”
“Now!” the pilot yelled over the intercom and before Tom could react, Farnum pushed him out of the plane.
The wind was like a punch and he was hit a second time as the chute opened a few seconds later. He grabbed the risers and held on for dear life as he dropped towards the ground. It was coming up with terrifying speed. He quickly looked around but couldn’t see Farnum. Of course not; their chutes were dark and hopefully invisible to enemy eyes. Nor could he see the fires that were supposed to have been set as a target for the drop. They were not supposed to actually hit inside the fires, just be close enough so that their hosts could find them.
He braced himself when he felt the ground was near. He hit and rolled over like he was told. Seconds later he realized that he’d survived. He gathered chute and got out of the harness.
“I’ll take it, sir,” said Farnum who’d materialized out of nowhere.
The sergeant hid the two parachutes and they walked west. According to their maps a dirt road should be nearby. It was and they crossed it quickly, eyes out for a German patrol that might have seen them land. There were haystacks in the field and their instructions had been to find one on the northern edge of the field and stay there. Their new friends would find them, not the other way around. Tom understood. If they’d been spotted, let the Germans take them rather than blowing the whole operation and getting locals or whoever was going to help them caught as well.
They picked a haystack and sat down with their backs to it. Tom tried to let the tension drain from his body, but with scant success.
Farnum checked his watch — the dial glowed in the dark. He squinted and looked around. Tom did as well, but there was nothing to see. “I think it’ll be at least an hour before anyone contacts us, sir.”
Tom was about to reply when he felt something cold and hard against his neck. It felt suspiciously like a gun. “Apple,” a voice said in little more than a whisper.
“Core,” Tom responded.
Landry lowered his weapon and sat down beside them. “Just who the hell thinks of these stupid passwords?”
Chapter Twenty-two
They drove by truck to a rundown warehouse with a number of vehicles parked outside. The sign said “Uncle Sammy’s Used Cars and Trucks.” Tom shook his head in disbelief.
“Now who’s using bad codes?”
Landry grinned unapologetically. “It was suggested by our OSS contact.” He went on to explain that, after telling top brass that he was staying behind after being cut off by the German attack, he was directed to head towards Toronto and that they would be contacted by people from the OSS.
This had occurred and they had traveled by trucks and busses that had been acquired by the OSS. Landry said he had no idea whether these were abandoned, bought, or stolen, and that he didn’t care.
“My men refused to wear German uniforms, even though some did before when we took the Blue Water Bridge, so people are trying to get us civilian clothes or police uniforms. I favor the latter since my men all have military haircuts and would otherwise stand out.”
“I wouldn’t want to wear a German uniform either,” Tom said, “so try to find something else in my size. Do you have a radio?”
“Yes, sir, and we keep moving it so they can’t triangulate on us. We think the German army has other things on its mind, but that leaves their Gestapo and the shits from the Black Shirts.”
“Any fresh messages?”
“One that’s really unsettling, colonel. It may be that the Gestapo is planning to do something awful to our POWs and the Canadians currently held by them."
A few score miles away, Field Marshal Heinz Guderian glared intensely at Neumann. “I don’t believe things are that desperate. I would never consider killing prisoners; nor do I believe that circumstances could ever become so dire as to necessitate it.”
“Then you have not been reading your own casualty reports. You’ve lost a third of your armor and planes and about the same amount of you manpower. The Americans now outnumber you by at least three to one and are exerting pressure on all fronts. Patton’s army may be the farthest away, but General Raus’s command could collapse at any time. Then the race to Toronto would be on. You need a strategy that does not require a new army and I am confident that I can stop the American advance in its tracks. All I need is to show them a few bloody American and Canadian corpses stiffening on the ground and they will halt. The Jews who run America would be horrified that Gentiles are dying at our hands and on their behalf. They would do anything to prevent the blood of Christians from making the American people realize that it is the Jews who are responsible for their deaths.”
“How and when will you announce this?” Guderian said coldly.
Neumann smiled. “At first, quietly. We already have a conduit to the U.S. Not all their embassy and other diplomatic personnel were repatriated when the war started. A number of them remained for a variety of reasons and at least a couple of them are deeply sympathetic to the fascist cause.”
“And the rest are spies, I’ll wager.”
“Doubtless, but they are all are being carefully watched.”
Neumann left. Guderian waited a couple of moments, deep in thought. He pushed a buzzer on his desk and Koenig entered.
“Did you hear?”
“Yes, field marshal.”
“He is capable of doing it. I read his dossier. He once led a unit into a Polish village near where partisans were active. There was no evidence that anyone in that village was in any way involved, but that didn’t matter. He had roughly five hundred men, women and children gathered up. The women and children were raped repeatedly in front of each other and the men. When they were done, all of them were stuffed into a large barn and the barn was set on fire. When burning people tried to escape, his men gunned them down. In a way, that was a mercy. So, yes, he is capable of killing all those people. He would have had that ship full of Jews scuttled if he had thought ahead and realized there was a chance that the Americans would stop it.”
“Sir, what is my assignment?”
“Quite simple, captain. You are to follow him, find out what he specifically plans to do.”
“Am I to try to stop him?”
“I will let you know what, if anything, to do at the proper time.”
“But sir, isn’t he doing what the Fuhrer wants?”
“Is that what you wish, Koenig? And what do you think the Americans will do when they take you prisoner and find out that you aided and abetted that monster?”
Canfield’s battalion moved out cautiously. The beachhead perimeter had been expanded by about three miles in all directions and more troops had landed and were filling the beachhead. This time, however, they were organized and ready.
They were still confronted by large numbers of German soldiers and the Germans had been fighting desperately. Nor had the beachheads on the German side of the Niagara River been significantly expanded. German artillery still had the range of the pontoon bridges, which meant that comparatively few tanks had crossed.
There was a sharp explosion and everyone fell to the ground. A scream followed along with cries for a medic. One of his men had stepped on a mine. The German anti-personnel mines were terrible things. Once stepped on, a spring of some kind launched them into the air and the exploded at approximately waist height. GIs were fearful of being castrated by these things that they called ‘bouncing betties.’ The advance would halt until the mines could be cleared.