Wolf Angel, Mark Hobson [best free ebook reader for pc .txt] 📗

“But… but I…” Wenzel stammered, but did not get any further as Prutzmann laughed gently.

“Now, now, do not be surprised. The women of the Third Reich have a very important role to play, and Miss Hirsch has a very special set of skills that will prove vital to us in the weeks ahead. Actually that is the main purpose of her visit. To pass on her incredible knowledge, is it not, Miss Hirsch?”

The young lady, who had so far not spoken a word or barely moved an inch, looked across at Prutzmann and gave the merest nod of her head. Then she turned to once more look straight at Wenzel.

“And in return, under your personal guidance Wenzel, you are to train her as a special defence operative in Commando Unit No 1. I also want you to handpick a squad for immediate field deployment, no more than 4 or 5 people in total. They are to be held in constant readiness for our deep-penetration Swift Strike II Plan.”

Wenzel’s thoughts were all over the place, his head spinning with all kinds of concerns and questions, but he just couldn’t seem to get them in order or to articulate them. He was actually starting to feel a bit of a fool, and he tried desperately to regain his composure.

“Your role as senior training officer makes you ideal for the task,” Prutzmann continued. “Assuming you think you are capable and up to it?”

“Of course,” Wenzel replied briskly.

Prutzmann nodded slowly. “Just as I thought. Make sure you don’t let me down. Things are moving forward with urgent alacrity.” Turning to the woman standing beside them he said to her in a gentler voice, “I leave you in Officer Wenzel’s capable hands, Miss Hirsch.”

Ilse Hirsch, captain of the BDM, replied with the crispest Hitler salute that Wenzel thought he had ever seen. With her eyes fixed on him, her lips once more parted in the merest of smiles, revealing a row of sharp little teeth.

Making his skin crawl and his heart shiver.

◆◆◆

4 WEEKS LATER

The four of them moved through the woods in single-file, treading carefully on the brown leaves and small twigs that carpeted the floor. Although only an exercise, and even though they were still deep inside friendly territory, they desired to make as little noise as possible lest any prying eyes or ears noticed them.

Dressed in heavy dark green coveralls and fur-lined overcoats to keep the autumnal chill away, together with strong military boots and knapsacks, they walked steadily on, glancing around at the trees and undergrowth in continuous alert to their surroundings. The sky was steadily darkening, even more so beneath the canopy of branches overhead, and each of them looked forward to a warm camp fire and hot food in their stomachs.

At the front, leading the little band, Fraulein Hirsch came to a sudden stop.

“This will do,” she told the others.

Wenzel, who was just behind her, moved cautiously forward to peer over her shoulder to see where she was pointing. Out of the corner of his eye he also glanced at her profile, unable to stop himself.

Since that first meeting back in Prutzmann’s office, the two of them had spent every single day working together. From his initial feeling of unease, he had developed a certain amount of respect for her. Far from been a hindrance and an extra responsibility to add to all of the others, he’d actually soon learned that she was a very capable and well-trained operative, much more so than most other girls in the BDM, who he knew spent most of their time either playing sports or training as their roles as women in German society, as wife, mother and homemaker.

But Ilse Hirsch was already a highly skilled female soldier, an expert marksman and very adept at most other commando techniques, whether it was climbing an enemy watchtower and quickly dispatching an enemy lookout with a garrotte, or making a homemade bomb from a tin of Heinz soup so loved by the American GI’s. In actual fact, as Prutzmann had indicated, she also had other skills: her knowledge of bush craft for example was first-class, better than his own he had to admit, and over the last week or so whilst they had been conducting their training in the woods east of Schloss Hulchrath, she had taught many of these survival skills to himself and the others in their party.

He was also, in truth, in awe of her beauty. Ice-cold though her personality could be, he actually found this immensely attractive and alluring. She had an animal magnetism about her that grabbed him in its claws like some helpless prey. A little bit, he mused, like the animals that they were setting snares for right now.

“Just ahead there. You can see the trail and spoors just outside the opening in the ground.” She slung off her knapsack and started to rummage inside. “If we set the snare just outside, the rabbit will run straight into the wire loop. While we do that, the other two can set up another sapling trap over in that copse like I showed them earlier.”

The other two members of the team, instructor Leitgeb who everybody called ‘Sepp’ for some reason, and the young teenager Erich Morgenschweiss, both looked to where she indicated, nodded eagerly and strolled off. As they moved through the trees, young Erich couldn’t resist glancing back over his shoulder at her, something that Hirsch herself noticed.

Wenzel watched as she set the snare before the rabbit den. He passed her some bait which she placed just the far side of the wire loop. As she worked she looked over towards the others, who were bending a slim branch of one of the saplings down to the ground before attaching a snare from the branch to the small wooden stake they had placed in the ground. “They need to make the trigger-action more precise, so that the slightest movement sets it off.” She shook her head