Armageddon_ A Novel of Berlin - Leon Uris [219]
With a final warning that no one was to make contact with persons on the outside, the briefing ended.
According to the plan they were to proceed in twos, threes, and fours to Tempelhof over a staggered time so their arrival would not create suspicion. A four-engined Skymaster was in ready named “Cherry Picker.” The flight plan called for Hamburg with the passengers listed as troops going on furlough or routine military business. After a roll call, Tempelhof tower cleared the Cherry Picker slightly after midnight and she swept over sleeping Berlin into the northern air corridor toward Hamburg.
Sean had worked secretly on certain details and aspects of the currency reform. Now that there was no doubt that cooperation with the Russians was impossible new currency would be needed for the planned merging of the Western Zones. It was an integral part of the raising of German production levels, halting inflation, opening up consumer goods, rebuilding and establishing a trade balance.
Yet, the currency reform was a daring tactic in that it issued the Russians a direct challenge. By legal agreement, Berlin was a four-power city not belonging to any Zone. Therefore, the currency to be used in Berlin would be marked with a “B.”
The Cherry Picker passed out of the Soviet Zone at the Dannenberg beacon beyond Soviet surveillance and instead of continuing for Hamburg she swung south.
At the Munich airport a convoy of closed armored trucks stood by at their parking space. As the Cherry Picker cut engines, a company of infantry surrounded her restricting the pilot and crew aboard. It was daybreak.
Members of the mission boarded the waiting vehicles according to preassignment; they drove south from the city into the rolling foothills of the mountains in the direction of the Austrian frontier. This was Bavaria in its unspoiled form.
Off the main road they passed through villages filled with decorative wooden houses with brightly colored murals on their outside walls, churches with tall towers and onion-shaped domes, and cobblestone streets and still lakes. It was one of the few corners of Germany untouched by the war.
Once past Tegernsee the hills grew more severe and the forests thickened. The convoy swung onto a dirt road blocked by a guard station.
HNTTENDORF 3 KMS. PASSAGE ON THIS ROAD IS FORBIDDEN!
They plunged into the forest and threw up a swirl of dust; the land was void of human life. The rising sun flickered through the trees as they passed another series of roadblocks and were checked through carefully.
So far as the Germans in the area knew, Hüttendorf, a tiny village of ten families, had been confiscated in total as a stockade for upper-echelon Nazi war criminals. Trained never to ask questions during the Hitler era, they said nothing and knew nothing about this “forbidden” place. The village was surrounded by a wall of barbed wire.
Colonel Hill, the C.O., met Sean and Major Whitehead at the main gate and led them to an inner compound completely walled off from the outer village and watched by an intricate guard system.
Inside the compound Germans and Americans had volunteered to live for four months with no contact with the outside for the purpose of establishing an engraving and printing plant for the manufacture of the new currency. The security was in the hands of select personnel who also volunteered to be isolated.
Inside the inner wall stood a half-dozen buildings; two barracks, the former community barn, and three other wooden constructions holding the plants and warehouse.
The convoy was lined up alongside the barn. Colonel Hill unlocked the door. The barn was filled with neatly crated boxes containing billions of marks in the new money. The special Berlin B marks were triple-checked and loaded. Signatures were traded, another roll call made. This was the sixteenth roll call.
The convoy rolled back to Munich, where the Cherry Picker was loaded. To further avoid suspicion, half the mission was left in Munich confined to tightly guarded quarters.