Upfall

"And the wounds the round makes are quite devastating" added Reder, trying to get in on the fun. "If you captured their weapons, the job of the ordnance corps would be that much easier."

"Okay, Herr General said Kumm agreeably, warming to the challenge. "My regiment is up against a competent enemy, armed with new weapons. What could be better?"

"Nothing" agreed Globocnik. "Where do you want to establish your headquarters—here in Lubin, Siedice, or Belzec.

"Here" said Kumm to Globocnik's annoyance. "Lubin will be midway between my battalions. My headquarters is ordinarily fully mobile so I can move to the action when the enemy is uncovered. In addition to staff and support elements, I‘ll keep the regimental reconnaissance company and artillery with me too. So I'll require a sizable and well equipped Kaserne. "

"My aide, Lieutenant Wetzel will take care of all that" said Globocnik. "When do you expect the rest of your regiment to arrive?"

"Two to three weeks at the latest" said Kumm. "That's how long the enemy has to play."

Chapter 34

Spring turned to summer as the sayeret marked a full month in Nazi occupied Poland. Feldhandler and Perchensky toiled resolutely at the capsule, such that even Mofaz became convinced that their efforts were genuine. Yet this hardly calmed him, for their difficulties suggested that the sayeret might well remain stranded.

When Feldhander was not working at the capsule. He, Hannah and a clever schoolboy called Zim fiddled with the radio captured from Samsonov. By mating that machine with an Israeli field radio, the scientist and his students managed to create a crude but effective electronic surveillance and jamming device. In the event of an attack, Zim and Hannah, who between them spoke three languages, would attempt to jam or eavesdrop on German communications.

Perchansky in her off hours found herself in the company of the burly and confident Bolander, who though a few years her junior, had become her ardent lover. They met as often as possible, in a small basement room she "rented" from a family down the street from the town hall headquarters. Her rent was a portion of her food ration, which she happily exchanged for the pleasure of and comfort of her trysts with the virile commando. It even made her long days with Feldhandler bearable.

Several other commandos had also managed to find feminine companionship, particularly among some of the more cosmopolitan ladies from Vienna and Prague, who found the fit, suntanned and tough warriors especially tempting. Yatom, hesitant to allow the dalliances at first, relented after a few days of grumbling. He only ordered them not to visit the town’s single brothel, owned by a veteran Warsaw harlot, who handled all the business herself.

When the men and women of Biali were not training or otherwise preparing the town's defenses, they engaged in a remarkable variety of activities that within a month gave little community the appearance of actual prosperity. Schools and synagogues were reopened, as was the local theatre. Tradesmen practiced their crafts—mainly repairing what existed, but sometimes producing new goods for trade within the town, or to a much lesser extent, without. A half-dozen doctors and as many nurses opened a clinic, further staffed by volunteers, and supplied with captured medical equipment from Sobibor and Treblinka.

Yet Biali was not prosperous. The traditional scourges of war, disease and hunger, held the little town in their thrall, despite the efforts of the community leaders, the doctors and nurses. By the second week of June most of the sayeret, like much of the rest of the population, had come down with the shilshul, or as they often put it in English, the shits. Ido came equipped to deal with traumatic injuries, not diarrhea. Feldhandler had only brought a couple of packages of commercial imodium, which quickly ran out between the needs of the commandos, and the children of Biali—for whom the commandos sacrificed many doses. Similarly, there were no antibiotics, other than Ido's basic load, and a few packages of oral doses that Feldhandler had packed away. Ido kept control these, dispensing them with particular stinginess. Yatom warned the men that venereal diseases were not covered under the limited medical plan.

Hunger made matters worse. With their rations depleted, other than a few surviving Powerbars, the sayeret was no better off than anybody else. The main foodstuffs were stored potatoes and beets from the previous year’s harvest, and a few early pickings from the nearby fields. Livestock consisted almost entirely of swine, which many of the Jews refused to eat — and many who did fell ill. Yatom encouraged his men to eat the pork, cooked very well, to supplement their meager rations. All but Mofaz and Rafi eventually did.