Chapter 2: Prien Meets the Fat Lady
“Can this verdammte lastkahn not go any faster?” shouted Kapitänleutnant Günther Prien, Iron Cross First and Second Class, U-boat War Badge with Diamonds and Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves. “Actually mein Kapitän, this is technically a schmales boot, not a lastkahn” replied Obersteuermann Hans Sammann. Sammann was something of a pedant and did not choose his moments for displaying his pedantry too well. “Arschloch!” came the succinct reply from the hard-bitten U-Boot commnder. Currently the hand-picked raiding crew from the new type VIIB Unterseeboot, U-47 were travelling at four miles per hour on the Barnstaple to Tiverton Canal. U-47 was currently resting on the bottom of the Western Approaches, two miles out from Saunton Sands and just south of Lundy Island. Prien and his men had rowed ashore undercover of darkness and hidden the rubber dinghies in the sand dunes. The mysterious 5th Column they were to rendezvous with had arranged to leave a narrow boat ready for the submariners to head inland. They were looking for the branch off the main canal at Molton-Magma to join the Market Snodsbury to Much-Piddling Canal.
It felt like three weeks ago but it had only been three days since Prien had been in Paris at the offices of Kommandierender Admiral Frankreich. Prien had been summoned by the commander of Admiral Frankreich, Admiral Karlgeorg Schuster.
“I want you to go to England and capture Prince Phillip of Greece and Denmark,” stated Schuster brusquely. Schuster was not the kind of Admiral to be questioned by a mere Kapitänleutnant and Prien merely nodded his head in acquiescence whilst his mind was in a whirl. He was a U-Boot commander, not a spy. “As you know, Prien, the Kriegsmarine is not the Führer’s favourite branch of the armed forces. I want to install Prince Phillip as head of the puppet government when the British surrender. That way, the Kriegsmarine will rise to the top in the Führer’s mind and we will assume our rightful position in the Reich. My secretary Brünnhilde will give you the details and plans of the operation, codenamed Griechischer Prinz.”
With that, Prien was ushered out of Schuster’s palatial office and into Brünnhilde’s less spacious but more functional office. She seemed keen to sing the details but Günther assured her that was not really necessary. Brünnhilde produced a red folder marked Streng Geheim: Unternehmen Griechischer Prinz and handed it to Prien. Brünnhilde then went on to explain that Otto Skorzeny, a member of the Führer’s bodyguard, had already secretly landed in Devon to contact an Abwehr agent code named Starling. Starling has provided the tantalising intelligence that Prince Phillip of Greece and Denmark was to visit a Home Guard platoon in Much-Piddling, where Joanna Grey (Starling), a German sleeper agent, lived. Prince Phillip, accompanied by his Royal Naval escort and Royal Marine bodyguard was to meet the local MP for Mid-Devon, Sir Douglas D’Emfore and then visit the Much-Piddling Home Guard under the command of Captain Lord Bertram Wilberforce Snapcase before being served luncheon at Snapcase Hall, on the outskirts of Much-Piddling. As it transpired agent Starling was Sir Douglas’s personal assistant which was how she had come by the vital intelligence. Sir Douglas would be accompanied on the visit by a highly trained bodyguard, one Sergeant-Major V. A. G’Bond late of the Sherwood Foresters but now assigned to an elite VIP protection unit. Trained by Eric Sykes, G’Bond was a close-combat specialist. As Günther left the offices of Kommandierender Admiral Frankreich, the final words of Brünnhilde were echoing in his head; “Es ist nicht vorbei, bis die fette Dame singt!”.
To be continued.....
2 comments:
The plot thickens :)
Clear as mud, eh?
Post a Comment