Vengeance 10

He took what advantage he could of the brief outing to identify the major structures he could see through the trees and along the beach. That evening he sketched a detailed map of the installation and added to it each night during the following week until it showed the centre divided into two distinct entities: one controlled by the army, Peenemunde East Development Centre; and the other under the auspices of the Luftwaffe and known as Peenemunde West. Together the installations covered ten square kilometres, as had been estimated by CIU in London. The problem for Bomber Command lay in the fact that installations were scattered generally along the eastern coast of the island from the northern tip to the town of Zinnowitz, fifteen kilometres south. Memling had gained a brief glimpse of the actual rocket launch stands, massive structures located close to the Baltic on the northern strand. Farther south were smaller stands for static testing, including Test Stand VIII, and beyond them began the engineering and research areas comprising both military and civilian headquarters, the administration buildings, canteens, officers’ quarters, and maintenance shops.

Two days before, he had been sent on an errand and having taken a wrong turn, found himself face to face with a barrier manned by soldiers in black uniforms bearing the jagged collar flashes of the SS. That night Memling added the roadblock to the map and sat puzzling over what it hid. The map showed nothing but marshy grasslands beyond the pine forest covering the centre portion of the island.

Eight kilometres south of the major test stands was the village of Karlshagen, a pre-war seaside resort of some renown where most of the scientists and their families were now housed in a special compound known as the Siedlung, or settlement. Many of the foreign workers were also quartered there in barracks near the square, across from which were barracks for the enlisted military personnel. A camp at Trassenheide some two kilometres west contained the Russian and Polish POWs who were used both at HVP and at the Luftwaffe installations. As diligently as he had searched and asked dangerous leading questions, he had been unable to locate the liquid oxygen plant, which, in his and Simon-Benet’s mind, was a primary target.

Memling contemplated his map late one evening as Francine came to stand beside him.

‘It does look rather sparse, doesn’t it?’

As on previous occasions, Memling was struck by her perception. It was hard to remember that she did have some training as a technician when she generally behaved as childishly as a twelve-year-old.

‘It does. There have to be major machine shops, chemical laboratories, a wind tunnel, and especially the liquid oxygen plant, but ‘I’m damned if I know where. Access is so limited that it would be suicide to try and search, even at night.’

‘But haven’t you learned a great deal anyway?’

Memling rubbed his aching eyes and glanced at the map. ‘I suppose so. But so much is missing and there’s so little time left to find it all.’

Francine’s fingers tightened where she had been massaging his neck. ‘So little time?’

‘Of course. We can’t stay here much longer. I want to be well out of Germany before the Gestapo turns us up.’

The girl sat down on the bed and stared at him. ‘Leave? Where? How do we…’

Memling had the damnedest feeling that she had never even considered the possibility that she would have to leave Germany. What in the name of God was going on here? Was the German resistance that inept?

‘Francine, what were you told about this assignment?’

The girl avoided his glance, and he grabbed her shoulder and shook her hard. ‘Answer me, damn it.’

‘They… they told me I was to go with you, as your wife, until you were finished with me. Then we would return to Wiescek until the war was over. I have an uncle who will hide us on his farm. I thought…’