Opening Moves

2213 hrs Sunday 12th August 1945, French Foreign Legion Camp, Sassy, France.

The journey to their destination took three hours to the minute and it was rapidly approaching 2200hrs when they were dropped off and placed in French hands.

The French had chosen an area in the Calvados region for the holding and training camp, centred on the commune of Sassy with no comprehension of the amusement their selection caused to the extremely few allies in the know.

Their own Army HQ was set up within the Benedictine Monastery in nearby Saint Pierre-sur-Dives and different secure holding areas established to the south-west.

French military and police units secured the area, even going so far as to evacuate the residents of Sassy, Olendon, and Emes, creating a large military-only area.

In actual fact, the area was chosen for its proximity to the stockpiles left over from the Normandy campaign and the ability to effectively isolate a large area rather than for any other reason.

Already the fields, which had yielded their crops prematurely, were sprouting tents and temporary structures in large numbers.

French engineers had swiftly constructed a modest runway, control tower and two hangars to the south-west of the commune, adding a large two storey wooden building on the edge of Sassy, which was to serve as the nerve centre of the effort.

The same engineers now lent their assistance to the inhabitants of St Pierre and the rebuilding of the fire ravaged Halle de Saint Pierre helped ease some of the tensions that arose with the arrival of the hated Boche.

Before the three arrived at the camp, they had been preceded by over seven thousand of their comrades from across the spectrum of the Waffen-SS, but mainly members of the 5th, 6th and 12th SS Divisions so far.

A leavening of German NCO’s from the Legion had been quickly brought in to ease the transition and to start passing on some of the Legion’s ethos and character. Traditions such as the motto ‘Legio Patria Nostra’, which translated from the Latin means ‘The Legion is our Fatherland’. A concept not unfamiliar to the ex-soldiers of the Waffen-SS, who based much of their élan on the unit and comrades.

Many field and senior officers had been culled from the group on the basis of fact or suspicion and there were few leaders above the rank of Captain in the camp.

An exception to that had been placed in charge of attracting ex-SS soldiers to the Legion cause and had been promised a command role in the use of units formed.

The large room contained two tables set with five chairs in a simple V shape opening towards the door with an empty chair set for any new arrival

The man sat on the opposite wing to Knocke was the former SS-Obergruppenfuhrer Willi Bittrich, commander of the divisions who resisted at Arnhem and recently released from French custody, where he was absolved of wrongdoing in the matter of the deaths of the seventeen Nîmes resistance workers. Still in his field grey German Officers uniform, he cut a dashing figure despite his fifty-one years. His medals also having been restored to him, he perfectly balanced the black-uniformed Knocke seated across the table from him.

Next to him was the imposing figure of Bruno Rettlinger, head still bandaged after his close encounter with the stonewall and left arm protruding from a simple uniform shirt, cut open to accommodate the frame that held the badly broken bone in place. The nasty deep sword wound was stitched tight, yet obviously red and angry.

Adjacent to Knocke, Lothar Von Arnesen sat, or more accurately leaned, favouring his painfully wounded right thigh.

Seated centrally, clad in the crisp new uniform of a Général de Brigade in La Légion Étrangère, Christophe Lavalle presided over the theoretical construction of a powerful force for his Legion.

Working late, the five had quickly set aside their work and restructured the room when informed of Uhlmann’s arrival. Instructions that arriving ex-SS officers of Captain or higher rank should be brought to the headquarters building ensured that Uhlmann was stood at attention before the five men in short order.

Gesturing the man to a seat, Lavalle took up the running as usual.

“Welcome Commandant Uhlmann. You come with an enhanced reputation,” and brandishing a pristine document bearing Eisenhower’s signature, “And with impeccable credentials.”

“Thank you Herr General.” Uhlmann had decided to say as little as possible when he arrived at this place but was greatly put at ease by the presence of both Bittrich and Knocke, obviously in a trusted supervisory role.

He did not know the other two officers.

“You had the chance to walk away and chose to come here on very little information apparently. Why is that?”

Uhlmann did not need to consider his words.

“For the same reasons as I went to the Amis with my information. It is the right thing to do Herr General.”

Conforming to their practised technique Bittrich spoke next, in a clipped tone intended to establish authority and provoke memories of former times.