Hitler- staggered to his feet, leaned upon the table and, exhausted by his tirades, muttered to Gregory, `You must produce this servant of yours. Bormann will arrange it. We will hold a sйance. It may be that you and your man have been sent to give us guidance. To achieve victory we must leave nothing untried. There are powers which can aid us. We cannot afford to ignore them.'
Seeing that the interview was over, Gregory had risen at the same moment. Having again given the Nazi salute, he marched smartly from the room. A moment later Bormann joined him in the passage, and said with a pale smile:
`You are a rash man, Herr Major, to have offered the Fьhrer advice so freely. Another time it would be wise to confer with me about any opinions you may have before airing them. But in this instance you have done well. For a long time past von Rundstedt has been obstructive and he makes no secret of the fact that he is in favour of asking the enemy for terms. On Kessering's showing in Italy he will fight a better defensive battle.'
As Gregory walked back to the Air Ministry he could hardly believe that he had not dreamed his interview with Hitler. The thought that without any hocus-pocus or aid from Malacou he had succeeded in having Germany's most competent General sacked, and that Hitler should not even have consulted Keitel, Jodl or Burgdorf before taking such a momentous decision, left him utterly dumbfounded. No clearer
proof could be needed that the proper place now for the tyrant was a lunatic asylum.
During the next few days further calamities befell the Third Reich. Himmler had again left his headquarters at Prenzlau and was now directing his Army Group from his bed in Dr. Gebhardt's clinic at Hohenlychen. This direction consisted of Orders of the Day such as: `Forward through the mud! Forward through the snow! Forward by day! Forward by night! Forward for the liberation of German soil!'-orders that the relatives of soldiers who were taken prisoner unwounded were to be shot-and an order to his subordinate who had been left to defend besieged Danzig which led to scores of people, including boy ack-ack gunners, being strung up to the poplar trees that lined the principal streets with placards on their chests that read, `I am hanging here because I left my post.' But such frightfulness did not prevent the ill armed half-trained troops that now made up the bulk of his Army from being constantly driven back by the Russians, or their capture of Danzig.
Although the Russian advance on the northern front now directly threatened Berlin, disaster in the south-east was felt in the bunker to be an even more shattering blow. Rather than spare Budapest from the horrors of a siege and bombardment, Hitler had sent Sepp Dietrich there with the flower of the. Waffen S.S., and they had stubbornly defended the Budaberg until all its beautiful old palaces had been shelled into rubble. Then, on the 13th, the news came through that he had withdrawn the remnants of his Army and was retreating on Vienna.
Two days earlier Hitler had sent detailed orders for a new counter attack. It had taken place on a day of torrential rain and had resulted in a wholesale slaughter of Dietrich's best troops. When Hitler heard of this and that his most trusted General had ordered a general retreat, his rage knew no bounds. He raved for hours on end and that night issued a decree that as a punishment his own pet regiment, the Leibstandarte Addolf Hitler, should be deprived of the distinguishing armbands that were their special pride, thus inflicting the ultimate disgrace upon men utterly devoted to him.
A few days later it was learned that Dietrich had flatly refused to promulgate the order; then a parcel arrived at the bunker addressed to the Fьhrer. It contained a chamber-pot in which were all Dietrich's decorations.
It was owing to Hitler's addled mind being so taken up with these disasters that Gregory put down the fact that he and Malacou were not sent for during the week following his interview with the Fuhrer. By then, for over a fortnight, he had spent several hours each day in the outer bunker and although he was not subject to claustrophobia he found conditions there extremely trying. It was always crowded with people coming and going, some in fear of being the victims of the Fьhrer’s terrible angers, others bewailing his insane orders that it was their duty to transmit to the Army, Navy and Luftwaffe; all harassed by fears for their families during the air-raids or their own ever more uncertain futures. In consequence, by the 17th of the month he felt that he positively must escape for a while and get a little relaxation.
During the past nine months he had often wondered what was happening to Sabine and since his return to Berlin he had several times contemplated taking a few hours off to find out if she was still in the city. So on that Saturday he asked Koller's permission` to absent himself for the afternoon, then set off for the Villa Seeaussicht.
He had not passed through East Berlin since the previous. July. It had been depressing enough then, but now it was a revelation of the state too which a great city could be reduced by modern warfare. Although the upper storeys of many of the big buildings in central Berlin had been rendered untenable, their steel, concrete and stone facades, which still stood, saved them from appearing to have been greatly damaged; whereas the older blocks and brick houses, of which by far the greater part of the city consisted, told the full story.
The great highway through Charlottenburg was now a broad defile between two endless mounds of jagged rubble. Hardly a building had its roof intact; not an unbroken window was to be seen.- Many of the side streets were now impassable; on either hand lay acre upon acre of burnt and blackened ruins. People with gaunt faces and sunken eyes moved among them, wearily clambering over charred beams and emerging from
holes at the roadside, that led to deep, crowded shelters or cellars wherein they dwelt like half-starved rats in filth and squalor.
In the suburbs along the Havel the picture was, by comparison, much less terrible, although they had also suffered severely. Here and there houses had been burnt out or partially wrecked. In many gardens there lay uprooted trees, the glass in porches and conservatories had been shattered, gates swung askew on broken hinges and every few hundred yards gaps had been torn in walls and fences. And when, at last, Gregory came in sight of the villa he was greatly worried to see that its upper storey had been blown to pieces…
Since Sabine had hidden him when he was on the run he had no fear that on his turning up again in the uniform of a Luftwaffe Major she might betray him, or that Trudi would do so-if they were still alive and there. But Goering had said he believed von Osterberg to have survived. It was therefore possible that he too was living in the house, and for Gregory, to run into him would be disastrous; so he approached the villa with caution.
As he came nearer he saw with relief that although all the windows, bar one downstairs, were broken and had been boarded over, through that one. he could make out a pot of hyacinths, which implied that the house was still occupied. - Having made certain that no-one was about, he slipped through the side entrance, took the path behind the garage and rang the back door bell. A moment later it was opened by Trudi.
On recognizing him her mouth fell open with surprise, butt he smiled at her and said, `I'm not a ghost, Trudi, and I'm delighted to see you safe and well. I only hope your mistress is, too. Is she about?'
Trudi returned his smile. `Not at the moment, mein Herr. She is at the doctor's. But she should soon be back and, I am sure, will be most happy to see you. Please to come inside.'