On The Day, Went The Eagle’s Landing Well? (Chapter 3)

Chapter 3: Steiner Pulls It Off

           There was a massive grinding of tortured metal, sparks, a curious sense almost of weightlessness as the Tante Ju fuselage rolled over and over in the Devon field. Stahl felt like it would never end but suddenly there was relative quiet, broken only by the ticking of cooling metal and the drip of aviation fuel onto a red-hot engine. With both wings and their engines broken off in the crash, there was still the nose engine of Immelmann II attached to the fuselage. “Scheisse!” shouted Stahl as he suddenly understood the significance of the dripping fuel. He tried to stand but found he couldn’t move. Something was pulling at his foot and then he realised it was Steiner trying to pull him out of the wreckage of the cockpit.

Steiner. The man was a mystery. Leiste had told him at Carinhall that he could pick his own crew but he must include a highly decorated and experienced Fallschirmjäger officer, Oberst Kurt Steiner. There were all sorts of rumours about Steiner. Norway, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, France and then disgrace. Steiner had tried to prevent a roadside execution by an SS unit. For this, he was court-martialled. Rather than face the firing squad, Steiner was allowed to transfer to a penal unit on the Channel Island of Alderney, where they made high risk attacks with their captured motor torpedo boat using manned torpedoes against Allied convoys passing through the English Channel. Virtually a suicide unit. Leiste had offered a chance for Steiner to redeem himself in the eyes of Göring. The Luftwaffe wanted a fighting man on this mission and, in their view, not only was he a fighting man but he was expendable.

Stahl came to just as Immelmann II exploded in a ball of flame. A column of dense black smoke rose into the air. Stahl suddenly realised that the storm that had caused the crash was over, as if it had never been. Rolling over Stahl saw the rest of the crew, some injured but everyone was there. Hanna Reitsch had been thrown clear of the plane during the crash landing and suffered only minor scratches. Oberfeldwebel Dieter Müller had been trapped in the burning fuselage but somehow Steiner had managed to free him and drag him to safety. He had a bad leg injury and a nasty knock to his head. Stabsfeldwebel Raimund Weiser had a piece of metal embedded in his arm but Stahl was surprised to find that the whole crew was still alive.

“So, Sabartovski, where are we?” enquired Stahl. “I believe we have come down about a mile north-west of a village called Much-Piddling” replied Sabartovski, “we need to head south-west for Winkleigh to rendezvous with the Black Shorts and Spode”. “We will reconnoitre the village and try and liberate some transport. Zimmermann, see if you can retrieve a machine-gun from the wreckage. You all have your personal pistols and Steiner has retrieved enough hand-grenades so take one each” ordered Stahl. With that, the unlikely invading force set off on foot in the direction of Much-Piddling.

To be continued.....