LITMIR.BIZ

       Chapter Nineteen

      ‘That’s eight million three hundred thousand and eighty marks you owe me,’ said Löwenherz, setting up the chessboard again.

      ‘It’s in my other trousers,’ said Kokke. On the radio a close harmony group was singing.

      ‘Everything ends, everything passes,

      Upon every December follows a May.

      Everything ends, everything passes,

      But two who love always remain faithful.’

      The girls cooed to an end and were replaced by a men’s chorus singing Bomben auf England with appropriate wire brushes and drums. There was a loud raspberry of displeasure and the man nearest to the radio turned the volume down before any missiles were thrown in his direction.

      Löwenherz looked round the Alert Hut. The crews were sprawled around the place in the most remarkable poses: hair uncombed, ties loosened and feet resting on chairs. It was as if they were all dead, thought Löwenherz, as if fumes or gas had done for them all, and yet if the loudspeaker sounded the quiet double click that warned of an announcement they could all be on their feet, tugging their helmets on to their heads and draping their bodies with oxygen connectors and microphone and earphone leads that made them a part of their machines.

      Klimke – Kokke’s radar man – used to spend these hours in the Alert Hut writing interminable letters to his wife, but since she had been killed last Christmas he had taken up knitting. In spite of howls of derision and practical jokes he sat calmly producing endless scarves for everyone he knew. He couldn’t master the knack of decreasing, so he could only knit rectangles. Alongside him Leutnant Beer jerked convulsively in his sleep. A mosquito was buzzing round his ear.

      ‘What a Wagnerian body of men,’ said Kokke, looking around at the dozing flyers. Klimke grinned but did not stop knitting. Kokke moved his piece and they began a new game.

      ‘Not fool’s mate, Kokke. You underestimate me.’

      ‘Never, Herr Oberleutnant,’ said Kokke, and Löwenherz lost a knight.

      ‘Damn.’

      ‘Experience is better bought than taught,’ said Kokke, moving forward.

      ‘You lose because you are too reckless,’ said Löwenherz.

      ‘But I have more fun,’ said Kokke.

      ‘Probably,’ agreed Löwenherz.

      ‘Double or nothing on what time the first plane is put up?’

      ‘Very well,’ said Löwenherz. ‘Midnight.’

      ‘Midnight?’

      ‘Short summer night with full moon means a short trip, that means the Ruhr. To get back before first light and allow time for stragglers they will probably time the attack for two o’clock. A Lancaster does 225 miles per hour, so it will pass over the British coast at zero minus 50. A good Freya radar will pick it up then, but by the time they fiddle around talking to the FLUKO and the Nachtjagdführer it will be fifteen minutes past one.’

      ‘That leaves us fifty minutes.’ Kokke had to raise his voice a little, for the radio music was now much louder.

      ‘It might leave us all night. Who knows if we shall be put up?’

      ‘Such modesty, Oberleutnant.’

      Löwenherz smiled. ‘About fifty minutes, yes.’

      ‘And how was “die Wurst” bearing up this afternoon?’

      Among his close friends in the Officers’ Mess the gemütlich Hans Furth was happy to answer to ‘Hanswurst’ (clown). However, he took exception to Kokke calling him simply ‘die Wurst’, perhaps because of its feminine gender. Kokke seldom referred to him otherwise.

      ‘Bearing up remarkably well,’ admitted Löwenherz. ‘Everyone who gets into trouble is an exhibitionist and he’s going pig-shooting to forget it. The Mess will make Wurst of his successes.’

      ‘Wurst wider wurst,’ said Kokke.

      Löwenherz smiled; ‘sausage against sausage’ also meant ‘tit for tat’. ‘He knows you hate him.’

      ‘And I’m sure he’s very mature and forgiving about me.’

      Löwenherz nodded. ‘He is.’

      ‘What a bedside manner! After the war he’ll have an expensive Berlin clinic for old ladies who have too rich a diet.’

      ‘I only hope that after the war it’s Berlin where the old ladies are wealthy and diets are rich.’

      Kokke shrugged. ‘Then perhaps Moscow. Or even New York.’

      ‘I was hoping he could help. About Himmel, I mean.’

      ‘That Stoppelhopper is interested only in helping himself.’ It was a favourite German nickname for Austrians who were said to be mercurial, untrustworthy people who leaped around mentally as a man running barefoot through stubble fields. ‘He could have done something about the documents without calling in the SIPO, but he was pleased with an opportunity to show what a loyal, laughing little Nazi he can be.’

      ‘We’ll get no help from him,’ said Löwenherz.

      Kokke looked at him, heartened by the plural. ‘Suppose both of us opened our mouths for Himmel.’

      ‘I beg your pardon.’

      ‘Suppose both of us supported Himmel and his protest. You’re a baron and an ace, I could perhaps swing the old man.’

      ‘Redenbacher?’

      ‘I might be able to.’

      ‘A slim chance.’

      ‘Too slim for you?’

      ‘Look …’ said Löwenherz; he laughed in protest and embarrassment. ‘You can’t just put this to me, here and now.’

      ‘How much longer is there? By this time tomorrow the man who took you into battle when you were a duckling will be in a concentration camp.’

      ‘A civilian prison. They will hold him

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