Part 49 (1/2)

Almost three thousand altogether, we are working three s.h.i.+fts now. Wartime production. The manager took them through to the furthest building.

This is where we turn out the small arms, he shouted.

Or rather the metal parts. Barrel and blocks. The woodwork is manufactured by outside contractors. Show us the finished articles and the packing, Blaine ordered. That's where the trouble is, if there is trouble. After a.s.sembly and checking, the completed rifles, British Long Service No 4 Mark 1 in .303 calibre, were greased and wrapped in yellow grease-proof paper, then packed in the long WD green wooden cases, ten rifles to a case. Finally the cases were loaded onto steel pallets and trundled through to the despatch stores.

When they entered the despatch area there were a dozen uniformed police constables working with at least fifty factory employees in blue overalls. Each case was being taken down from the tall stacks and opened by one of the constables, then the wrapped rifles were taken out and counted, repacked and the case lids relocked.

The checked cases were being stacked at the far end of the storehouse, and Shasa saw immediately that only about fifty cases remained to be opened and inspected.

The chief storekeeper hurried across from his desk and challenged Blaine indignantly. I don't know who you are but if you are the b.l.o.o.d.y fool who ordered this, you need your a.r.s.e kicked. We have lost a day's production. There is a goods train at the siding and a convoy waiting in Durban harbour to take these weapons to our boys up north. Shasa left the group and went across to watch the working constables. 'No luck? he asked one of them.

We're wasting our time, the man grunted without looking up, and Shasa silently reviled himself. A day's war production lost because of him, it was a dire responsibility and his sense of despondency increased as he stood and watched the remaining cases opened, checked and resealed.

The constables a.s.sembled at the door of the stores and the overalled factory employees went out through the tall sliding doors to resume their posts on the production line.

The police inspector came back to where they stood in a small disconsolate group.

Nothing, Minister. I'm sorry. We had to do it, Blaine said, glancing at Shasa. n.o.body is to blame. Too b.l.o.o.d.y true somebody is to blame, the chief storeman broke in truculently. Now that you've had your fun, can I get on with loading the rest of the s.h.i.+pment? Shasa stared at him. There was something about the man's behaviour that set off a little warning tingle down his spine, the bl.u.s.tering defensive manner, the s.h.i.+ftiness of his gaze.

Of course, he thought. If there was a switch, this is where it would take place, and this fellow would be in it to his neck. His mind was starting to slough off the inertia of disappointment and anti-climax.

All right, Blaine agreed. It was a wild-goose chase. You can get on with your work. Hold on, sir, Shasa intervened quietly, and he turned back to the storeman. How many railway trucks have you loaded already? There it was again, the s.h.i.+ft of the man's eyes, the slight hesitation. He was going to lie. Then he glanced involuntarily at the sheaf of papers in the clipboard that lay on his desk beside the doors that led out onto the loading bays.

Shasa crossed quickly to the desk and picked up the sheaf of loading manifests. Three trucks have already been loaded, he read from the manifest. Which are they? They have been shunted away, the storeman muttered sulkily.

Then let's have them shunted back here right away, Blaine intervened briskly.

Blaine and Shasa stood together under the arc lamps on the concrete loading quay while the first of the closed railway goods trucks was unlocked and the sliding door opened.

The interior of the truck was loaded to the roof with green rifle cases.

if they are here, they will be at the bottom of the load, Shasa suggested. Whoever is responsible would get rid of the evidence as soon as possible. He'd make d.a.m.ned sure they were the first cases loaded. Get down to the bottom cases, Blaine ordered sharply, and the top cases were carried out and stacked on the quay.

Right! Blaine pointed to the back of the truck. Get that case out and open it. The lid came up and the constable let it fall to the concrete floor with a clatter.

Sir! he exclaimed. Look at this. Blaine stepped up beside him and stared down into the open box, and then he looked up again quickly.

The chief storekeeper was hurrying across the floor of the shed towards the doors at the far end.

Arrest that man! Blaine shouted urgently, and two constables ran forward and seized him. He was struggling angrily as they dragged him out onto the loading quay.

Blaine turned to Shasa, his expression grim and his eyes flinty. 'Well, my boy, I hope you are satisfied. You've given us a mountain of work and a lot of sleepless nights ahead, he said.

Fifteen grave men sat around the long polished stinkwood table in the panelled cabinet office and listened silently as Blaine malcomess made his report.

There is no way of establis.h.i.+ng with any certainty exactly how many weapons are missing. other large s.h.i.+pments have been sent out since the first of the month and as yet neither of these has reached its destination in Cairo. They are still in transit but we must expect that weapons are missing from both s.h.i.+pments. I estimate some two thousand rifles together with a million and a half rounds of ammunition. The men around the table stirred uneasily, but n.o.body spoke.

This is alarming, of course. However, the truly disturbing aspect of the business is the theft of some thirty to fifty Vickers machine-guns from the same source. This is incredible, Deneys Reitz muttered. That is enough to launch a nationwide rebellion. it could be 1914 all over again. We must make sure no word of this gets out.

It will cause panic. We should also consider, Blaine went on, 'the tons of explosives hijacked in the karoo. Those would almost certainly be used to disrupt communications and prevent deployment of our limited military strength. If there was to be a rebellion Please tell us, Blaine, the prime minister held up a finger.

Firstly, do we have any indication of when we can expect them to come out into the open and attempt their coup d'dtat? No, Prime Minister. The best I can do is an estimate based on our probable discovery of the weapons theft. They must have realized that the theft would be discovered as soon as the first consignment reached Cairo, and almost certainly they plan to move before that time. When would the s.h.i.+pment have reached Cairo? Two weeks from now approximately. So we must expect that they will make the attempt within days, rather than weeks? I'm afraid so, Prime Minister. My next question, Blaine. How complete is your investigation? Do you have a full list of the ringleaders of the OB and the stormjagers? Not a full list, we have only about six hundred names so far. I think it includes almost all their key men, but, of course, we can't have any way of being sure of that. Thank you, Blaine. The prime minister tugged thoughtfully at his small silver goatee beard. His expression was almost serene, his blue eyes calm and unworried. They all waited for him to speak again.

How sensitive are the names on the list? he asked.

There is the administrator of the Orange Free State. Yes, we know about him. ,Welve members of Parliament, including one former cabinet minister. Parliamentary privilege, Field-Marshal s.m.u.ts murmured.

We can't touch them. Then there are church leaders, at least four high-ranking army officers, top civil servants, one a.s.sistant police commissioner. Blaine read the list through, and by the time he had finished, the prime minister had already made up his mind.

We can't afford to wait, he said. With the exception of the members of parliament, I want detention and internment orders prepared for all the others on the list of suspects. I'll sign them as soon as they are drafted. in the meantime I want you to plan the simultaneous arrests of all of them, and make provision for their incarceration. 'There are the concentration camps built for Italian prisoners of war at Baviaanspoort and Pietermaritzburg, Blaine pointed out.

Good, Field-Marshal s.m.u.ts agreed. I want these men all safely behind barbed-wire as soon as possible. And I want the missing weapons and explosives found, and found quickly. We cannot afford to wait! Manfred De La Rey said carefully.

Every hour is dangerous, every day brings us closer to the brink, a week could spell disaster. We are not ready. We need time, one of the other men in the first-cla.s.s railway compartment cut in. There were eight men, including Manfred, in the compartment. They had boarded the southbound express separately at different stops over the last two hundred miles. The conductor of the train was a sympathizer, and there were stormiagters in the corridors outside the compartment, acting as sentries. n.o.body could reach them or eavesdrop on their conversation.

You promised us another ten days in which to complete the final preparations. We haven't got ten days, man. Haven't you listened to what I am telling you? It can't be done, the man repeated stubbornly.

It can be done, Manfred raised his voice. It has to be done! The administrator intervened sternly. Enough of that, gentlemen. Let's keep the fighting for our enemies. With an obvious effort Manfred moderated his tone. I apologize for my outburst. However, I repeat that we have no time to spare. The removal of the weapons from the railway workshops has been discovered, ten of our men there have been arrested. One of our men at Marshall Square has told us that they have received detention orders for over two hundred of our senior members and that these are to be served on Sunday, that is four days from now., We are aware of all that, the administrator intervened again. What we must do now is decide whether we can afford to put the entire plan forward, or if it should be abandoned. I will listen to each of your opinions and then we will vote. We shall stand by the majority decision. Let us hear first from Brigadier Koopman. They all looked to the army general. He was in civilian clothing but his military bearing was unmistakable. He spread a large-scale map on the fold-down table, and used it to ill.u.s.trate his report in a professionally dispa.s.sionate voice. First he set out the order of battle of the army, and the dispositions of the troops, aircraft and armoured cars that remained in the country and then went on, So you see that the two main troop concentrations are at the infantry training barracks at Roberts Heights and at Durban awaiting s.h.i.+pment for overseas duty. With almost one hundred and sixty thousand outside the country, these do not amount to more than five thousand men. There are no modern aircraft, other than the fifty Harvard trainers. This makes it feasible to immobilize the troops at their present positions at least for the first few crucial days that it will take to seize control. This can be achieved by destroying all major road and railway bridges, particularly those over the Vaal river, the Orange river and the Umzindusi river. He went on talking for another ten minutes, and then summed up, We have our men placed in positions of command, right up to the general staff, and they will be able to cus.h.i.+on us from any forthright action by the army. After that they will arrest and hold the s.m.u.ts men on the general staff and bring the army in on our side to support the new republican government. One after another the other men present made their reports. Manfred was last to speak.

Gentlemen, he began. Within the last twelve hours I have been in direct radio contact with the German Abwehr through their representative in Portuguese Angola. He has relayed to us the a.s.surances of the German High Command and of the Fuhrer himself. The German submarine supply vessel Altmark is at present within three hundred nautical miles of Cape Town carrying over five hundred tons of armaments. She awaits only the signal to steam to our aid. He spoke quietly but persuasively, and he sensed the mood swing in his favour.

When he finished there was a short but profound silence and then the administrator said, We have all the facts before us now. We must make the decision. It is this. Before the government can arrest and imprison us and the other legitimate leaders of the Volk, we put into effect the plan. We rise and depose the present government and take the power into our own hands to put our nation back on the course to freedom and justice. I will ask each of you in turn, do you say ”Yes” or do you say ”No? Ja, said the first man.

Ek stern ja. I say yes. Ek stern ook ja, I also say yes. At the end the administrator summed up for them. We are all agreed, there is not one of us against the enterprise!

He paused and looked at Manfred De La Rey. You have told us of a signal to launch the rising. Something that will turn the country on its head. Can you tell us now what that signal will be? The signal will be the a.s.sa.s.sination of the traitor Jan Christian s.m.u.ts, Manfred said.

They stared at him in silence. It was clear that even though they had antic.i.p.ated something momentous, none of them had expected this.

The details of this political execution have been carefully planned, Manfred went on to a.s.sure them. Three different contingency plans were drawn up in Berlin, each for a different date, depending on the dictates of circ.u.mstances. The first plan, the earliest date, suits our present purpose exactly.

s.m.u.ts will be executed this coming Sat.u.r.day. Three days from now - the day before the detention orders are served on our leaders. The silence drew out a minute longer, then the administrator asked, Where?

How will it be done? You do not need to know that. I will do what is necessary, alone and unaided. It will be up to you to act quickly and forcibly as soon as the news of s.m.u.ts death is released. You must step into the void he leaves and seize the reins of power., Let it be so, said the administrator quietly. We will be ready for the moment when it comes, and may G.o.d bless our battle. Of the eight men in the compartment, only Manfred remained aboard when the express pulled out of Bloemfontein station and began its long run southwards towards Cape Town.

I have a permit to keep a firearm on the estate, Sakkie Van Vuuren, the winery manager, told Manfred. We use it to shoot the baboons that come down from the mountains to raid the vineyards and orchards. He led the way down the steps into the cool gloom of the cellars.

Anybody who hears a few shots coming from the mountains will take no notice of them, but if you are challenged, tell them you are employed by the estate and refer them to me. He opened the false front of the wine cask and stood aside as Manfred opened one of the waterproof canisters.

First he lifted out the radio transmitter and connected the new batteries which Van Vuuren had procured for him. The radio was fitted into a canvas rucksack and was readily portable.

He opened the second canister and brought out the rifle case. In it was a sniper's model 98 Mauser, with that superb action which permitted such high breech pressure levels that the velocity of the 173 grain bullet could be pushed UP over 2500 feet per second. There were fifty rounds of the 7-57 mm ammunition which had been specially hand-loaded by one of the expert technicians at Deutsche Waffen und munitionsfabrik, and the telescopic sight was by Zeiss. Manfred fitted the telescopic sight to the rifle and filled the magazine. The rest of the ammunition he repacked and then stowed the canisters away in the false-fronted cask.

Van Vuuren drove him up into one of the valleys of the Hottentots Holland mountains in his battered old Ford half tonner, and when the track at last petered out, he drove back down the rocky winding trail.

and left him there an Manfred watched him out of sight and then hefted his pack and rifle and began to climb upwards. He had plenty of time, there was no need to hurry, but the hard physical exertion gave him pleasure and he went up with long elastic strides, revelling in the flood of sweat on his face and body.

He crossed the first range of the foothills, went down into the wooded valley and then climbed again to one of the main peaks beyond. Near the crest he stopped and set up the radio, stringing his aerials from the tops of two cripplewood trees and orientating them carefully towards the north.

Then he settled down with his back to a boulder and ate the sandwiches that little Sarah had made for him. The contact time with the Abwehr agent in Luanda, the capitol of Portuguese Angola, 1500 hours Greenwich Mean Time, and he had almost an hour to wait.