This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any actual resemblance to persons or historical persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

The Hogan's Heroes characters, settings, ect. are owned by other entities who have not endorsed this fic nor have they given permission for their use. Author makes no claims to these characters and is not making any profit off their use.

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© Copyright: ­2004. Lisa Philbrick

Hogan's Heroes:
Sustaining the Wings, Part Two
by: Lisa Philbrick

Soligen, Germany
November 1944
Day 7

Another truck. Somewhere out in the middle of a darkened nowhere, the commandeered Gestapo truck stopped and everyone was moved from the truck to one of Fritz's empty panel trucks, the same truck that had been used to hold the unconscious guards from the radio station. At the time Fritz and his men had gone into the radio station, the unconscious guards were pulled from the truck and left in the alley behind the building. The truck then took off in order to be where it needed to be for the switch.

Another drive. It was a thirty minute ride over bumpy roads, the only noise coming from the truck itself, as metal creaked and rattled with each bump and the exhaust note changing as Emery stepped on the gas, or let off it.

Another barn. Only this time, there were no underground agents waiting when the truck pulled in. Fritz and Emery quickly got out of the truck and hurried to the doors of the barn, pulling them closed. With the moonlight blocked out, the barn was thick with black but only for a moment. Fritz found an oil lamp and lit it, hanging it upon the wall of the barn and warm orange glow crept into the room.

Emery went to the back of the truck and knocked to signal that everything was okay. The back door opened and Major Miller looked relieved.

"We will be safe here for the night," Fritz said, coming towards them. Emery pulled open the other door and extended a hand to help Miller step down from the truck. Miller then turned and, with Emery, helped the kids to step out of the truck.

"Where are we?" Miller asked.

"We are a few kilometers outside of Soligen, about 25 kilometers southeast of Düsseldorf."

"Southeast? I thought we were heading north?"

Fritz chuckled. "We will be from this point."

"Fritz!" a woman's voice caught everyone's attention. Standing in the door way of the barn a heavy set German woman, who looked to be well into her fifties, stood wearing a brown cotton floor length dress with a white apron over it and holding an oil lantern. Her graying brown hair was pulled up into a bun and she wore no make up. Her face was kind, but her features were creased with the concern and worry of war. She stepped towards the gathered men, keeping her eye on Fritz. "A cold barn is no place for these young men to be, bring them inside!"

"I was just about to," Fritz replied with a smile. He gestured back toward the door for her to lead the way. She gave a sigh and turned, heading back to the door way. Fritz gestured to the Major and the kids to follow her.

Miller led the way and followed the light of the lantern and the swishing sound of the woman's dress fabric as she moved quickly across the yard to the house. When they reached the house, she held the door open and looked at Major Miller and spoke with gentle persuasion. "Go in."

Miller removed the hat he wore. "Danke," he replied. He stepped inside the house and found himself in a large kitchen, the room softly illuminated by two oil lanterns that sat upon a table in an open dining area off to his left. Black-out coverings hung on the windows, blocking the light from escaping outside. There were a few pictures hanging on the colorless walls, and a large oak cabinet, full of delicate dishes and tea cups behind its glassed doors. There was the smell of food that was welcomed by the senses and the old pine wood floor creaked as he stepped aside of the door, letting the other kids in as well.

The Major watched the kids file into the kitchen area, their noses pointed into the air at the smell of something good cooking. The first sounds of carefree chuckling brought a feeling of peace and safety that hadn't been felt for quite a number of days. They were safe....for now. He wouldn't rest easy until he was back on English soil again, but for now some of the tension was released from his shoulders. He drew in a grateful deep breath and smelling the food again, was becoming curious as to what it was.

Fritz and Emery were the last to come into the house and the woman came in closing the door behind her. She stepped behind Major Miller and placed the lantern on a countertop in the kitchen. She then turned to Fritz.

"Wilhelmina, this is Major Glenn Miller..." Fritz said, pointing to Miller.

Wilhelmina looked at Miller and smiled warmly, the creases of her features becoming more apparent. "Fritz has told me much of you,"she said, her English heavily accented. She took a hold of Miller's forearm, giving a reassuring grip. "You will be safe here"

Miller nodded at Wilhelmina and raised his right forearm to place his left hand over hers in appreciation and friendship. "Danke," he said. "I know you take a great risk by having us all here."

She shook her head. "I take risk because it helps to defeat the Nazi's. It will not be long before the Allies reach into Germany itself, and I will continue to take risks to help your countrymen, to save my own countrymen."

Fritz swelled with pride at Wilhelmina's words. Miller too felt a chill and he gave a solemn nod, acknowledging her duty and promising that the arrival of Allied troops would see the defeat of the Nazi's and the rise of a new Germany.

She gave his arm a gentle grip again before letting go and smiled at him. "Sprechen Sie Deutsch?" she asked hopefully.

Miller chuckled softly. "Not a lot. A few words here and there."

Wilhelmina nodded, still smiling. "You are hungry, ja?"

"Starved."

"Gute! I have fixed good meal for you and these boys. Come..."

Gestapo Headquarters
Düsseldorf, Germany
November 1944
Day 7

Major Hochstetter wasn't kidding when he said the town of Düsseldorf would be surrounded by a ring of steel. With his soldiers already in place for the sweep of the Swing Youths, which never happened, it didn't take much time to shift the priorities to search and destroy. The fire at the radio station, however, provided just enough of a delay before Hochstetter could issue the new orders and that delay allowed the truck carrying Miller and the kids to get out of Düsseldorf.

Unfortunately, Colonel Hogan and the others didn't know that for sure. Hochstetter had taken them, along with Schultz and Klink to Gestapo Headquarters for questioning. They were locked in two cells, side by side, for the time being, Hogan and the heroes in one, Klink and Schultz in the other. The heroes could only hope the truck had slipped out of town, especially when they realized that Hochstetter's threat of Miller not making it out of Düsseldorf alive was turned to a promise. Shoot to kill orders were issued, explicitly.

"London's gotta be wonderin' what happened with that broadcast," Newkirk said quietly, tapping ashes off the end of his cigarette and letting them fall to the concrete floor of the cell. "They had to have been listenin'..."

Hogan nodded. "And by the time we get out of here to tell them, they'll have worked themselves up into a conniption fit."

"Maybe they'll figure Miller's broke out and that we're all being questioned," Kinch suggested. "On that chance they might order the sub to be there for tomorrow anyway."

"They might. Of course, they might figure we've all been killed in the escape attempt." Hogan paused, looking around at the other cells in the lock up. "The sooner Hochstetter lets us out of here, the better."

There was a pause as the heroes considered their plight. Carter looked especially troubled by something and he looked at the Colonel.

"They're really going to shoot him, aren't they?"

"If they find him," Hogan replied.

"And we're stuck here!" LeBeau hissed. "The dirty Boche will try to kill him and we can not do anything!"

"Shhh..." Hogan held his hands out, indicating for his troop to stay calm. "Even if we weren't here, there's little we'd be able to do at this point. All of us know that once somebody is on the escape route, it's out of our hands. Fritz and his men know what they're doing and Miller will be well protected. The best we can do is make sure things on this end don't end up compromised."

The door to the lock up opened with a loud click and everybody in the cells looked to see who was coming. Major Hochstetter marched from the door down the length of the cells with two guards in tow behind him, eyeing the one that held Hogan and his men. Klink immediately stood up and went to the bars of the cell he and Schultz were in.

"Major Hochstetter, I must protest our being held like this. Surely you can't think that I, or Sergeant Schultz here could have had anything to do with what happened at the radio station?"

"Quiet! Everyone who was there is being questioned."

"Even General Burkhalter?"

"Even General Burkhalter! Even the Propaganda ministers! Everyone!" Hochstetter turned from Klink and walked to the cell were Hogan and his men were. "Unlock it," he ordered the guard. The door was unlocked and Hochstetter stepped inside with the other guard, who held his rifle pointed at the heroes.

"Who were they, Colonel Hogan?"

"Who were who?"

"Do not play stupid with me. You knew about the escape didn't you?"

"Escape? Looked more like a kidnapping to me..."

"Who's idea was it to not play any actual music for the broadcast?"

"That was Major Miller's idea. He ordered us not to play real music."

"He ordered you?"

"Hogan, that's ridiculous!" Klink said from the other cell. "You're a Colonel, he's a Major. You outrank him."

"Shut up, Klink!" Hochstetter snarled.

"Well, that may be true," Hogan continued, answering Klink. "But when you play in a band for Glenn Miller, he outranks everybody."

"Then Major Miller knew there was going to be an escape," Hochstetter concluded.

"Was it really an escape? Truthfully it looked more like a kidnapping..." Hogan said.

"It was an escape, Colonel Hogan. There is no doubt. And if Major Miller ordered all of you to not play music, then he must have known there was to be an escape as the....noise that he did have you play served as a cue."

"And here I thought he was just saving his best expression of telling the Propaganda Ministry to go to hell for the broadcast. He's essentially embarrassed everyone now hasn't he? The Gestapo, the Propaganda Ministry..."

"What he has essentially done is sign his own death warrant," Hochstetter said cooly. "I ask you again, Colonel Hogan, who were the men that came into the radio station dressed in Gestapo uniforms?"

"You mean they weren't really Gestapo?"

"No. They were fakes. My guards were all found unconscious in the alley behind the radio station. Each one of them remembers being approached by someone and then knocked out. Who were they, Colonel Hogan?"

"How should I know?! They looked Gestapo to me..."

"Perhaps Major Miller told you there was going to be an escape, when you and your men here went to see him last night at the Düsseldorf Hotel?"

"No. We discussed the broadcast." Hogan chuckled. "See I, heh, commandeered some sheet music from the Major. I was going to do my own rehearsal back at Stalag 13 with Carter and Newkirk, but Schultz over there, he doesn't miss a thing. He spotted the sheet music I had and he turned us right back around and brought us right back here to Düsseldorf to have me return the sheet music."

Hochstetter turned and looked at Schultz.

"That is true, Major," Schultz said. "I brought them di-rectly back here to return the sheet music."

"Hmmm..." Hochstetter turned back to Hogan. "And it took you two hours to turn the sheet music over to Major Miller?"

"It took two hours to rehearse," Hogan corrected. "See, the Propaganda Ministry brought Carter and Newkirk in too late for Miller to get a good rehearsal with them, so I thought, seeing as we had come all the way back here why not just do a couple hours of rehearsal right then and there. Schultz stood right outside the door the whole two hours."

"That I did, Major!" Schultz said. "And I did hear them sing. They sounded very good..."

"Baahh..." Hochstetter waved Schultz off. He looked at Hogan again. "Why would you spend two hours rehearsing music that wasn't going to be played?"

"Because for all we knew, we were going to actually play music. Miller didn't say anything about playing it the other way until just before the broadcast."

"Then he knew! He had to have known! Colonel Hogan, you are lying to me..."

"Major, I volunteered to do this broadcast for one reason and one reason only. I couldn't believe that Glenn Miller had been captured, let alone was going to do this broadcast and in essence freely commit treason. Once I found it really was him I couldn't back out and neither could the others here. He made it very clear to us that he was not going to allow himself to commit treason. But he was going to push it just far enough so that he could throw a really nice monkey wrench into the Propaganda Ministry's works. I warned him though, I told him it was dangerous. I told him we could all end up being killed for it. But he was willing to accept that risk, and frankly so were we. Now putting that all in perspective, Major Glenn Miller wouldn't have risked the hair on any of us if he couldn't help it. Which makes sense that maybe he did know there was going to be an escape attempt. But, if that's true...why didn't he take us with him?"

Hochstetter paused. He hadn't considered that. He smirked at Hogan. "Maybe he didn't like you, Colonel."

Hogan chuckled. "Possible. But he's an allied officer and even though he's a bandleader he knows it's every officer's duty to escape. And had he had such an opportunity he would have taken us with him, whether he liked us or not." Hogan stood up now from the cot in the cell. "No, I think you're going about this the wrong way." He paced a moment toward the bars that looked to Klink and Schultz's cell. The Gestapo guard kept his rifle pointed at him. "You know there's no possible way that Kommandant Klink here or Sergeant Schultz could have had anything to do with the escape--if it was indeed an escape. You know General Burkhalter is even less likely to have had anything to do with it. Nope, I don't believe Miller escaped at all." Hogan turned to face Hochstetter. "I think he was kidnapped."

"By who?" Klink asked. "It was our side that kidnapped him in the first place..."

"Well, could be someone in the Gestapo," Hogan glanced back at Klink and resumed his slow pacing again. "Or it could be the Propaganda Ministry. Or it could be some combination of both." Hogan stopped and turned to Hochstetter. "Major, the only thing me and my men are guilty of is having an ounce of fighting spirit still left and following Major Miller in messing up that broadcast. Now we know we'll be punished for that, but to suggest that we had anything to do with the Major being led away by five Gestapo dressed individuals is ridiculous!"

"No one in the Gestapo would do anything like this!" Hochstetter insisted. "It would be high treason!"

"Would it, if they were ordered by a higher authority? Something to think about, Major. Maybe somebody in the Gestapo, or the Propaganda Ministry was jealous and wanted Miller as their own prize catch."

Major Hochstetter paused to consider this. "Remotely possible," he conceded. "However, until I find evidence to suggest such an endeavor, Major Miller will still be considered to have escaped and either way he will be shot when found. I will not allow him to humiliate the Gestapo, and the Third Reich, or be part of a division in ranks and get away with it." He turned to this guards. "Release them, along with the Kommandant and Sergeant Schultz and get them out of here."

"Jawohl, Herr Major!"