Intermission
December 31, 1943, 2359 hours
The large group of people was standing around the big table of the barracks, each holding a glass of champagne. The room was smoky and crowded - it was New Years Eve, and time for celebration. A voice was counting, "Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one … Happy New Year!"
Everyone held their glass into the air and started singing.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And the days of old lang syne.
Bob Crane embraced his wife Patty and gave her a big kiss. "Happy New Year, dear," he whispered in her ear.
Nita Talbot, standing next to Robert Clary, said to him in her Marya accent, "Come here my little one, and give me a kiss."
Robert laughed and then gave her a kiss on the cheek. "You are doing a marvelous job in this story," he said.
"Thank you," she replied. "Frankly, I like the scene in the Berlin Hotel dining room the best. It gave me a chance to overact as I had never overacted before."
"Face it, Nita," Robert said laughing. "You are just a tease at heart."
She laughed along with him, giving his cheek a pinch. "But of course, darling," she said.
"Leon, I like how you are portraying the new side of General Burkhalter in this story," Werner Klemperer said to Leon Askin.
"Thank you, Werner," he replied. "It is fun getting to play this side of the General."
"I agree with Werner," Howard Caine interjected. "You are doing really well playing the good guy for a change."
"How about you, Howard," Leon said. "Wouldn't you like to play the good guy for once?"
"No," Howard replied. "I like playing the villain." He sneered and the other two men laughed.
Bob Crane walked up and said, "Leon, good job so far."
"Thank you Bob," he replied. "I notice you haven't been in too much of the action yet."
Bob shrugged. "It gives me more time to watch everyone else perform."
Howard smiled and said, "Oh Bob, about your mail…"
Everyone laughed and Bob gave Howard a friendly shove.
"So what do you think about the story so far?" Larry Hovis asked John Banner.
"I like it," John replied. "I liked the scene where I got to remember my daughter."
"Oh, you're just an old softy," Richard Dawson said smiling.
"Ja, that's me," John replied, poking his ample stomach. "Very soft!" Everyone laughed.
"I wonder what is going to happen in the second half of the story?" Kenny Washington asked Ivan Dixon.
"Me too," Ivan replied. "I wish they would pass out the scripts already so that we can see. There are so many things going on."
"Yeah, they have me stuck up in Rastenburg," Leonid Kinskey commented. "I wonder if I will be stuck there for the whole story."
"Maybe you'll get to come back to Stalag 13 for a scene and we could play chess again," Ivan replied smiling.
"Ivan, you know I can't play chess," Leonid responded. "The author has just put that in there because my character is Russian. I've been stereotyped!"
The three men laughed.
The party went on until the wee hours of the morning, with all the cast members sharing stories and jokes. Early in the morning, the party broke up when the script manager came in to hand out the scripts for the rest of the story and told them that they had to be ready to report for the next scene in a few hours. As everyone left the set, the sun was rising on a brand new year.
"Happy 1944!" Bob Crane said to everyone.
"Bah!" replied a sneering Howard Caine.
The crowd laughed as they filed from the barracks.
To Be Continued in Part 2 …
Author's Notes
Note: The version of this story on my WebStalag 13 site contains all of the hyperlinks that should be present in these author's notes. does not seem to want to allow hyperlinks in the stories on their site, and strips them out.
Wherever possible, I have tried to remain true to actual historical events that are referenced. However, at times I have changed some facts in order to better integrate into the story.
One instance of this is where I have Kinch as a member of Hogan's crew before ending up at Stalag 13. In reality, the U.S. Armed Forces were segregated, and Kinch would have never been paired up with Hogan. But having them together helped the plot line about Hogan's marriage, that only Kinch knew about. However, by pairing them together, I felt that I had to address the dissent from some that would have occurred, and by having Hogan be "color blind", I felt that it would deepen the friendship and respect that Kinch would have for Hogan.
There were several other instances where the episodes themselves, while based on or around actual historical events, bent the historical facts. The prime example of this is in the episode Operation Briefcase, where General Stauffen is the one responsible for the assassination attempt on Hitler. In reality, it was Count von Stauffenberg who made the attempt with a British made briefcase bomb. In these instances, I have followed the episode "history" and supplemented it with actual historical facts when necessary.
So even though I have tried to be as historical accurate as possible, one must recognize that it is a work of fiction, and also based on a fictional television series that also was not completely historically accurate.
Hitler's Wolfsschanze – The Wolf's Lair
The Wolfsschanze, or Wolf's Lair in English, was Hitler's main headquarters on the eastern front. Located in the woods near the town of Rastenburg in East Prussia. Construction was started in 1940, and once the war with Russian began, Hitler spent the majority of his time here coordinating his war efforts between the summer of 1942 and November of 1944, when the German's blew up many of the buildings and abandoned it as the front approached. During the spring and early summer of 1944, he left the Wolfsschanze and made his headquarters at the Obersalzberg, returning to Rastenburg on July 9th.
It was at the Wolfsschanze where the assassination attempt of Count Claus von Stauffenberg was made on July 20, 1944. Stauffenberg brought a briefcase with a bomb in it to a briefing. The bomb exploded, killing 4 people, but Hitler survived with minor injuries. Stauffenberg was arrested in Berlin that night, and shot shortly thereafter.
The November 19, 1943 midday briefing that General Burkhalter is summoned to in this story actually took place. One of the interesting facts about Hitler's briefings is that he had them transcribed in order to keep a permanent record of his decisions to show where he thought his commanders in the field were not following his orders. Of the more than 103,000 pages generated, less than 1000 survived destruction. There is a book, Hitler and His Generals, which contains a translation of the complete set of surviving transcripts. It is from this book that I obtained the factual information I used for this meeting. Of course, General Burkhalter was not at this meeting, but I wanted to use a real event in order for Burkhalter to get to meet Hitler.
From the transcript, the following people were active participants in the briefing (meaning that they spoke and were listed in the transcript):
Adolf Hitler, The Führer
General Kurt Zeitzler, Chief of the General Headquarters of the Army
Admiral Hans-Erich Voss, Permanent Representative of the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy
Major Heinz Waizenegger, General Staff Officer to the Chief of the Wehrmacht Operations Headquarters
SS-Captain Hans Pfeiffer, Personal Adjutant to the Führer
General Walter Buhle, Chief of the Army Headquarters
General Günther Korten, Chief of the General Headquarters of the Air Force
General Adolf Heusinger, Chief of Operations Department in General Headquarters of Army
Major Herbert Buchs, Adjutant Chief of the Wehrmacht Operations Headquarters
Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, Chief of the Armed Forces High Command
Captain Heinz Assmann, First Admiral Officer in the Wehrmacht Operations Headquarters
For purposes of this story, I have also placed the following three actual historical figures at this meeting:
Josef Goebbels, Reichsminister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda
Heinrich Himmler, Reichsführer SS
Nicolaus von Below, Luftwaffe Adjutant
And of course, the fictional character of General Burkhalter was present.
You might also assume that the fictional character of General Ludwig Stauffen was also present, as I have him as the Replacement Army Commanding General, mainly stationed in the Wolfsschanze, with very frequent trips to Berlin. General Stauffen is the fictional character from the television series episode Operation Briefcase, which was sorta-kinda based on the real assassination attempt made by Count von Stauffenberg. Since Count von Stauffenberg was a Colonel in the Replacement Army, I have made his fictional counterpart, who was a General, the commander of the same.
The Soviet Spy Network
The Soviet Union had a highly organized network in place by the time Hitler invaded Russia in 1941. After Hitler came to power, the Soviets began organizing and placing agents throughout Germany, and expanding this network into Nazi-occupied territory after the war broke out. The Germans referred to this network as Rote Kapelle or Red Orchestra. The network got this name because Moscow referred to the radios that agents used for communication as Music Boxes, and the agents themselves as Musicians.
By late 1942, the Abwehr had identified and executed most of the leaders of the Red Orchestra, and by early 1943, the Red Orchestra had ceased to operate.
Another successful Soviet spy ring was the Sandor Rado spy ring that operated mostly out of Switzerland. It was so successful that it had radioed the complete German battle plans for the invasion of Russia. By 1943, this spy network had also been shut down, when the Swiss government, under pressure from Germany, cracked down on Soviet spies operating in Switzerland.
By the time this story occurs, both rings would have ceased operations. I have invented a new, fictional spy ring for this tale, that Marya was instructed to create upon the breakup of the Red Orchestra. This order would have come from The Center, which was what the GRU headquarters was called. (The GRU was the military intelligence division of the NKVD.) The Center directed the majority of the Soviet spy operations before, during and after the war. By forming the new spy network in Germany, Marya could be considered the most important Soviet agent in the country, but would still take directions from Moscow.
The NKVD headquarters was at Lubyanka Square in downtown Moscow. The main building contains the infamous Lubyanka prison. It was from here that the Gulag system of concentration and forced labor camps were operated.
The City of Prague
I have placed Marya in Prague for part of this story for no reason other than I like the city. I visited Prague in 1995, as the city was just starting to realize that it was a tourist city. There is such a large mix of architectural styles in close proximity to each other, that it is hard to be bored in the city. The picturesque Charles Bridge over the Vltava River. Old Town Square with the astronomical clock, Prague Castle with the St. Vitus Cathedral, and the surrounding countryside are all well worth seeing.
Marya is staying in Old Town Square (Staromestske namesti), in the heart of Old Town (Stare Mesto). This section of town dates back to the 11th century or so.
Prague was occupied by the Germans with the invasion of Czechoslovakia in March of 1939. It was occupied for the entire course of the war, the last German defenders being defeated on May 9, 1945 – AFTER the armistice had been signed. Because the city was not subjected to Allied bombing, most of its old building survived the war intact, and you can still see them today.
Prague is also the place where I had dinner in hell … literally! Beneath the Strahov Monastery gardens, known as "the paradise", there are the old monastery wine cellars that have been converted into a restaurant. Since it is located beneath "paradise", they named the restaurant Peklo, which is the word for Hell. The vaults date back to the 12th century, and the ambiance is very nice.
The astronomical clock located in Old Town Square is on the Old Town Hall building. It dates back to about 1410, with many modifications made since then. Even though there have been modifications, and the town hall was nearly destroyed by the Germans at the end of WWII, the mechanism of the clock is still the original one.
Where are Hammelburg and Stalag 13?
In the television series, there were many references to the city of Düsseldorf, leading to the impression that the town of Hammelburg was in that area. However, there is actually a town in Germany named Hammelburg. It is located in Northern Bavaria, near Schweinfurt and Würzburg – and not very far from Frankfurt.
And by an interesting coincidence, there happen to have been two camps near the town – Oflag XIIIB, a camp for officers and Stalag XIIIC. It should be noted that the latter was not a Luft Stalag. It was simply a regular Stalag.
In March of 1945, General Patton ordered a small raiding party to advance to Hammelburg, approximately 50 miles past the American front line at the time. The mission was ultimately unsuccessful, and there is some question as to why Patton ordered the raid – though it is known that Patton's son-in-law was being held at Oflag XIIIB at the time.
In my story, I have purposefully stayed away from any mention as to where Hammelburg is in Germany, though my inclination would be to use the actual town. However, this raises several questions as to the escape route to the sub. It's a looooong way from Bavaria to the coast!
As a humorous side-note, I had Google translate one of the German language pages, and Hammelburg was translated as Mutton Castle.
The Washington Who?
Colonel Hogan makes reference to a baseball team named the Washington Nationals. Unless you are a baseball fanatic, or old enough to remember, there used to be a baseball team in Washington D.C. called the Senators. In fact, there were two teams with that name, at different times.
From 1901 to 1960, the first incarnation of the Washington Senators played. From 1905 to 1955, their official name was the Washington Nationals, though fans rarely referred to them as anything other than the Senators. This would be the team that Hogan knew and was referring to. The team won a single world series, playing in three. After the 1960 season, the team moved to Minneapolis and became the team now known as the Minnesota Twins.
The second incarnation of the Senators came the following season. This version of the Senators played in Washington from 1961 to 1971, and never made the playoffs or World Series. After the 1971 season, the team moved to Texas and became the team now known as the Texas Rangers.
The latest incarnation takes things in the other direction. For the 2005 baseball season, the Montreal Expos team will move to the Washington D.C. area and become the Washington Nationals.
What's in a Name?
Naming characters can sometimes be a pain, and can sometimes be an exercise in humor. Most of the original characters created in this story have someone normal, unobtrusive names. However, I do like to inject a note of humor at times when thinking up the names. In this story, there are several instances of this.
The town butcher, and member of Erich Jonach's Underground team, was named Oskar Meyer. If you grew up in the United States, you will recognize the irony of naming a butcher the same name as a famous brand of bologna and hot dogs. Though it is spelled differently than the brand name, you get the point!
The town doctor, and another member of Erich Jonach's team who doesn't really appear much, was named Detlef Hauser. Since "Doogie" is not a German name, I figured that Detlef was close enough to name the character after the television show Doogie Howser.
My favorite, and most subtle is Gestapo Major Josef Freitag. To be true to the source of this name, he should actually be a Sergeant, but I needed someone in Two Missions for the Price of One that was of equal rank to Hochstetter. Where does this name come from? Well, let me give you "just the facts, ma'am." If you translate the last name from German to English, you get Friday … Joe Friday from Dragnet. (Hey, he's a policeman too!) His code name in the Russian spy network, Jack, is also related. Jack Webb played Joe Friday … and Major Freitag is very important to several of the Webs of deception in this story. I think I have all the bases covered here!