The Leader And The Damned (52 page)

The mutter of many slow-moving engines drifted up from the depths of the gorge. Peering over the edge, Lindsay saw the head-of the toy-like column snaking its way along the twisting defile. There was just enough light to see that this was an expedition in force.

Armoured cars and motorcyclists preceded the convoy. Behind came the tanks, nose to tail, their gun barrels swivelled to one side or the other at maximum elevation. Even to Lindsay's non-military eye this powerful cavalcade seemed useless, they would never be able to elevate the barrels to anything like the angle required to bombard the heights on which Heljec had placed his men.

And now he understood all the effort which had gone into shifting the boulders to the brink, the reason for the thick poles like pine trunks the Partisans had dug beneath the rocks and which they manned like giant levers, two or three Partisans to a pole.

Doubtless the German commander had taken a gamble - because it was established military lore that in this part of the world the Wehrmacht never moved at night. He was hoping to slip through under the cover of dusk - to break out into the open plain beyond which Lindsay had seen earlier to the south.

It
was
military madness. It
would be
a massacre.

Hartmann, compelled by Heljec to watch the destruction of his countrymen, stood close to Lindsay now with Paco between them. The Abwehr officer leaned forward to take a closer look into the abyss. He took a furtive step forward -and Paco ground her booted heel hard on the German's foot.

'You want to die early, you maniac?' she whispered.

'What happened?' murmured Lindsay.

'Your German is a brave man. He was trying to kick a stone over the edge. He could have caused a gravel slide - warning the column down there. It is, of course, doomed...'

There was no hint of excitement, of triumph in her voice - only an infinite weariness at the thought of the imminent catastrophe and bloodshed.

Soundless as a cat, Heljec ran along the line of men holding the levers. Gentle as a cat, he touched each team leader's elbow as he passed. He was signalling them to launch the attack.

Only one truckload of infantry, the two trucks containing the mortar teams, and the half-track bringing up the rear remained outside the gorge. Within a minute they would have joined their companions.

inside the defile.

Jaeger had taken back his field-glasses from Schmidt and stared up like a man obsessed, the eyepieces screwed hard against his flesh. The caterpillar tracks ground forward under them. For a split second Jaeger thought fatigue was affecting his vision.

A giant boulder was wobbling
. Rocking back and forth. Then the whole rampart began to tremble as though shaking under growing vibrations of an earthquake. A gap appeared on the skyline, still faintly visible. The giant had plunged down...

It struck an outcrop, ricocheted with all its massive weight across the gorge to hammer the opposite slope, bounced back in mid-air and then fell vertically. It landed smack on the top of the open turret of a tank. The commander was pounded to a jelly as the boulder collapsed the turret and concertinaed the chassis.

The squashed metal pile halted all the column behind it. More boulders hammered down, falling with tremendous velocity and landing on trucks full of men.

The screaming started. Agonizing, wailing screaming which went on and on and on. The night was filled with the cries of men mutilated, terrified, confused. The banshee-like wailing was the worst.

'Halt! Stop the bloody truck!'

Jaeger reacted instantly. Leaping from the half- track he ran to the lead truck carrying mortar teams, jumped on the running-board and yelled at the startled driver who jammed on his brakes and nearly threw Jaeger to the ground.

One other man had kept his head. Curiously it was the courier on the motorcycle who earlier had brought to Jaeger 'evidence' from Schrenk of the earlier passage of the Amazon Brigade. In his anxiety to reach Jaeger he threw overboard a stringent order subject to immediate court-martial. He drove with his headlight full on. Standing up in the stationary half-track, his machine-pistol cocked, Schmidt watched the approaching headlamp weaving with great skill in and out among the rocks scattered over the lower slopes. What the hell message was he bringing?

'Colonel Jaeger...' The courier had skidded his machine to a halt and was gasping to regain his breath. 'You are now the senior officer... Colonel Schrenk is dead...'

'Get your breath back, man...'

'I'm all right, sir...'

'Take this instruction as a direct order to be obeyed without question by every officer in the column. Abandon all vehicles. The tanks — everything. Only portable weapons to be taken. You understand?'

'Perfectly, sir...'

'The surviving troops are to take up positions on the eastern slope — the
eastern
. Understood?'

'Yes, sir...'

'I will have any man who does not obey my next order shot. Under no circumstances are they to open fire on the enemy. Please repeat my instructions..

In the distance they could hear the boulders falling, a clang of rock against metal. Desultory fire. Jaeger stood calmly and patiently as the courier repeated the orders almost word for word.

'Get going,' said Jaeger. 'And good luck...'

'I don't understand... began Schmidt who had jumped down beside the Colonel as the motorcyclist drove off, headlamp blazing.

'Neither will the enemy,' Jaeger replied grimly. 'Now, let's organize our own nasty little surprise for those swine on the heights.'

He ordered the mortar teams out of their trucks with all their equipment. They were to spread out. They were to take up position on the eastern slope opposite the heights where the Partisans were emplaced. Still limping slightly, he followed the mortar teams, moving with astonishing agility over the rough terrain.

'No firing until I give the order... aim for just behind the wall of boulders up there... take your time...'

This is the Jaeger I've always know, Schmidt thought as he followed his chief. Decisive, controlled, won't be rushed even when all hell is breaking loose.

All hell
had
broken loose. Because of Schrenk's stupidity the element of surprise was complete. The boulders continued tumbling down, rock clanged on metal as they hit the vehicles. And now grenades were tossed from the heights like exploding rain. There was the killing crackle of shrapnel.

But under Jaeger's command what had almost become a disorganized column fleeing in terrified chaos was taking, up the designated positions. Jaeger waited until every mortar was emplaced to his satisfaction, then gave the order.

'Fire a ranging shot.'

On the hilltop Paco had borrowed a pair of night- glasses from Milic. She had focused them on the vague outline of the German column. Men sweated as they heaved at the poles to lever more boulders over the edge. Hartmann, still with wrists bound, stood next to her. His guards had abandoned him as they lobbed grenades into the black gulf.

On the other side she was flanked by Lindsay who glanced round and saw Reader close behind, his face oddly expressionless. As Paco continued staring through her glasses the darkness was illuminated by blue moonlight. A flare fired by the Germans hovered. Paco stared hard through the twin lenses.

'My God, it looks like Jaeger at the end of the defile...'

'You're imagining things,' Lindsay replied. 'I think we should get well back...'

It was Hartmann who had spoken to Lindsay. He made a gesture with his head towards the hilltop which was well clear of the edge of the precipice.

'Hartmann wants us to get out of this,' Lindsay told Paco. 'I think he may have a bloody good reason for …'

'I heard him.'

'Then for Christ's sake do something about it.' 'I've seen more than enough for one night,' she said.

Paco took Hartmann firmly by one arm and helped him to move at a gentle jog-trot up the hill slope. Lindsay followed and Reader brought up the rear. No attempt was made to detain them. The Partisans were totally preoccupied with what was going on below them. Heljec seemed to be in a state of euphoria, urging his men on.

The brilliant blue flare was still lighting up the night when the first ranging mortar bomb landed. It hit one of the large rocks.

'Now wait for what's coming,' said Hartmann as he continued his jog-trot while Paco supported his balance. 'Especially if that is Jaeger down there …'

One moment it seemed to be a massacre of the Germans trapped in the gorge, a leisurely process of annihilation. Then that first bomb landed. It took Jaeger's team seconds to adjust the angles of trajectory to a fractionally higher elevation.

A veteran fighter, Heljec had been perplexed despite his jubilation. He expressed his puzzlement to Milk.

'No opposition at all. It is strange...'

'We caught them with their pants down …'

'But no rifle fire even - not a single shot. What was that?'

That was Jaeger's ranging shot. By a miracle the men closest to the detonation escaped unscathed. The force of the explosion burst out back across the gorge. The flare sputtered, fizzled out. All activity along the precipice temporarily ceased while the Partisans adjusted to the sudden darkness which enveloped. them. Then Jaeger's response began in earnest.

From below the SS Colonel heard, but could not see, the distant thump of the bombs exploding. He estimated they would be landing a hundred metres beyond the brink. His estimate was correct. The startled Partisans ran
into
the barrage they had hoped to flee from.

On the hilltop Paco looked back and saw Heljec's men falling, throwing up their arms as they plunged down onto the hard ground. It was ideal mortar territory: the hilltop was coated with half-buried rocks which increased the killing power of the bombs a hundredfold. Instant detonation created maximum _ blast. Shrapnel like knife-blades hurtling with tremendous velocity cut them to pieces.

It was Hartmann who called out the warning. 'We're not moving fast enough - he'll use a creeping barrage...'

"This is bloody stupid!' Paco snapped. 'Stop a second...'

Taking a knife from her belt she sliced through the rope binding the German's wrists. Something fell heavily close to Lindsay. It was Milic's rotund, Falstaffian figure, the back of his head shattered. He was still clutching the sten gun. Reader bent down, tore the weapon from the lifeless hands and the spare magazines protruding from his jacket pocket.

'Hurry, for God's sake!' called out Hartmann over his shoulder.

They began running. Hartmann seemed to have taken over from Paco as leader of the group. The irony of the situation flashed through Lindsay's mind - an Abwehr officer guiding them into a less dangerous zone - from an attack unleashed by another German in the gorge below.

At that moment Jaeger was giving an order to his mortar teams which he had divided into two sections. He was leap-frogging them up the lower slope - so that one waiting section was always a hundred metres higher up than the other, its weapons elevated to fire the bombs a greater distance.

'Second team! Open fire...!'

The firing team fed bombs into the squat, sinister barrels - spread out over half a kilometre. It was all guesswork on Jaeger's part. It had to be, since he couldn't see what the hell was happening on the hilltop. He took encouragement from the fact that no more of the remaining rocks were being levered over the ridge which seemed deserted.

He would have been even more encouraged had he been able to view the hilltop. Five, minutes earlier Heljec held the upper hand and the destruction of the entire column seemed inevitable. Now it was hell and chaos on the hilltop as the disorganized and bewildered Partisans ran on into the next barrage.

'If the shits had any sense they'd run back to the precipice,' Reader gasped out to Lindsay as he ran alongside him.

'We have to get to the edge of the hill and down the other side,' Hartmann shouted. 'Any bomb coming that far will fall into the other gorge...'

Paco ran alongside the German, careful not to trip. There might never be time to get to her feet again. She could hear the hateful hiss and rattle of the shrapnel close by... a big enough piece could decapitate a man - or a woman. The barrage was horribly close, seemed to be scraping their heels. They were too late....'