RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:
THE UNDERSIGNED PARTCIPATED IN THE PREPARATION OF THE FOREGOING MESSAGE AND CONCUR IN EVERY DETAIL.
MANFRED RITTER VON DEITZBERG
GENERALMAJOR, GENERAL STAFF, OKW
MANFRED ALOIS GRAF VON LUTZENBERGER
AMBASSADOR OF THE GERMAN REICH TO THE REPUBLIC OF ARGENTINA
END MESSAGE
* * *
When Bormann raised his eyes from the message, he saw that Fregattenkapitän von und zu Waching and Korvettenkapitän Boltitz had come into the office. He sighed, shrugged, and handed the cable to von und zu Waching.
Von und zu Waching had just finished reading the first page when Reichsprotektor Heinrich Himmler and SS-Obersturmbannführer Karl Cranz marched into the room.
“Heil Hitler!” Himmler barked, and he and Cranz gave a stiff-armed Nazi salute. The others returned it. The look on Himmler’s face suggested that he didn’t think the salutes of von und zu Waching and Boltitz were up to standard.
“Well, Joachim, what’s so important?” Himmler asked.
“There has been a cable from Buenos Aires,” von Ribbentrop said. “Von und zu Waching’s reading it now.”
Himmler looked at von und zu Waching, who handed him the page he had read. The look on Himmler’s face suggested he thought he should have been handed the entire message, whether or not von und zu Waching was finished. Von und zu Waching passed the second two pages to Himmler one at a time. Himmler read them all before passing them to Cranz.
“You considered this important enough to have me come all the way over here, Joachim?”
“I based its importance, Joachim, on the importance your man von Deitzberg apparently places on it,” von Ribbentrop replied.
Cranz finished reading the cable, started to hand it back to von Ribbentrop, then looked at Boltitz. “Have you read this, Karl?”
Boltitz shook his head.
“Give it to him,” Himmler ordered.
“The question seems to be simple,” Bormann said. “Would sending the fertile Major von Wachtstein back to South America be a major contribution to Germany’s good relations with Argentina, or would we be sending the fox back into the chicken coop?”
“I would substitute the phrase ‘major contribution to the success of Operation Phoenix’ for ‘good relations,’” Von Ribbentrop said.
“The question as I see it is whether we can trust young von Wachtstein,” Himmler said, “Cranz?”
“Where is he now?” Bormann asked.
“In Augsburg,” von und zu Waching said. “And in that connection, I think I should mention that General Galland telephoned to the Führer asking that he be assigned to the ME-262 project. And the Führer approved.”
“Damn!” Bormann said.
“Well, Cranz?” Himmler asked impatiently.
“Herr Reichsprotektor,” Cranz said, “nothing that Korvettenkapitän Boltitz and I found in our investigation suggests that von Wachtstein is anything but what he appears on the surface. A simple, courageous officer, who, when he can be pried from the arms of some female, executes his orders to the best of his ability. Would you agree, Boltitz?”
“Yes, Sir,” Karl Boltitz said.
“What are you going to tell the Führer, Joachim,” Bormann asked, “since he approved of Galland getting von Wachtstein?”
“I think I would agree with the Foreign Minister that the Führer has too much on his mind as it is to trouble him with what we all, I’m sure, consider an administrative matter,” Himmler said.