Armageddon_ A Novel of Berlin - Leon Uris [210]
Greek Communists using bases in Yugoslavia to hit and hide have kidnaped tens of thousands of Greek children, divorced them from their lives and parents, and are training them as future agents of this barbaric order.
As the Greek tragedy wore on, a tired Britain became unable to guarantee the freedom of the Mediterranean. As massive American aid pours in, the Communists are being driven deeper and deeper into the hills.
The Achilles heel of communism, Yugoslavia, first to stand up against Moscow, is closing its borders to the guerrilla bands and it appears that an end may be in sight.
The only ray of light in this bleak picture is the accommodation worked out to neutralize Austria.
In a few years the Soviet Union has swallowed up Eastern Europe and now stands on the brink of creating an empire from the Baltic to the Mediterranean to the English Channel. It is so vast that not even a Hitler dreamed of it. The Soviet Union has patented a method of results without the death of a single Red Army soldier. In Berlin we have been subjected to every harassment short of open warfare. We take our cue from the Greeks that when free men hang tough, they will prevail. If Berlin falls, then the take-over of Western Germany and Western Europe becomes academic.
All that stands between the Soviet Union and the English Channel is a thin line of American and British soldiers and the resolution of free men.
Chapter Thirty-six
THE TENSION IN BERLIN was like that brief lull between the time the air-raid siren stopped and the first bomb fell.
The rumor was planted and spread that the Americans were about to pull out, that food reserves were nearly gone in the Western Sectors, and that there was no room “for the adherents of partition.”
With the Supreme German Council no longer functioning, the only official contact was through the Berlin Kommandatura where the moves and countermoves increased the tempo toward the showdown.
On April 11,1948, the Berlin Assembly continued to defy the Soviet Union by once more voting down the anti-Fascist front.
Two days later General Trepovitch attempted to seize the police force by declaring it wholly under Soviet command. The Western commandants were able to block the take-over because Neal Hazzard had been farsighted enough to have Hans Kronbach appointed as deputy president months before. Kronbach had quietly built a strong pro-Western force which could splinter away from the main body.
On April 16 all Western papers in the Russian Sector were seized, all printing plants confiscated.
Along with this there began a harassment of German civilians traveling in and out of Berlin. The rail lines and highways were entirely within Russian-held territory. After getting away with the pressure on the Germans, Trepovitch ordered harassment on the daily American trains which ran personnel, mail, and supplies to and from the zone.
Each train leaving Berlin was now forced to submit to tedious inspections on the Russian contention that the Americans were supporting black-marketeering and smuggling.
On the autobahn, trucks were compelled to submit manifests and their cargo was inspected carefully. Soviet checkpoints made these inspections last for hours, lining up hundreds of vehicles waiting for clearance.
Then the canals were hit and barges waylaid.... The Soviet Union had succeeded in snarling traffic hopelessly.
At last Neal Hazzard warned that no Russian troops would be allowed to board any American train or convoy.
Trepovitch quickly adjusted to the tactic. Without prior warning the rail lines and highways would be shut for hours for “repairs” or due to “technical difficulties.”
Berliners watched it all happen with growing apprehension.
By mid-April the American garrison began to feel the pinch. General Hansen phoned the USAFE commander, Barney Root, at Air Force Headquarters in Wiesbaden.
“We’re going to need supplies flown in to take care of the garrison.”
“How much do you figure, Chip?”
“Eighty tons a day.”
“Eighty tons!