Blood and Ice Read Free

shadow darkened the entrance to the little hut and Obersturmbannführer Habicht was standing there, his hawk-like thin face wrinkled in disdain at what he saw within.
    ‘Enough!’ Habicht cried. ‘Get rid of the whore. I want to speak to you.’
    Schulze shrugged eloquently at Chink. ‘You, take the Hungarian lady back where you found her. She’ll have to come back later to do my washing and sewing!’
    The Hungarian whore looked from him to Schulze, then shook her head as if in complete bewilderment. As she went out, Schulze savoured the wonderful mechanical action of the girl’s buttocks, as she wriggled down the little street. Then sadly he began to pull on his ‘dice-beakers,’ while Obersturmbannführer Habicht tapped his pistol holster with his fingers impatiently, as if time were running out very fast.
    Notes
    1.   The 5th SS Panzer Division , to which the Europa belonged.
    2.   Former Russian POWs in German hands who had volunteered for auxiliary service in the German Army. By 1945 there were 600,000 of them.
    3.   Slang word for contraceptives.

THREE
    Together the Regimental Commander and big Sergeant-Major walked down the lines of the Europa , speaking little but noting the busy activity on all sides with professional eyes. The men were mostly in their teens, poorly trained and probably unable speak anything but their native languages.
    For a while they paused at the outskirts of the little town and watched a group of smooth-faced, teenaged lieutenants uder the command of an older captain, whose left arm was in a sling, practising an infantry attack. But they obviously did not know the first thing about how to use the cover of the Royal Tiger which was leading the feigned attack. Their ‘grape’ 1 was too far behind the tank – probably they were too scared to get close enough to its roaring tracks.
    In the end Habicht barked: ‘Captain, punishment drill for your group. They are very idle and slack!’
    The captain did not hesitate. ‘ Hinlegen! ’ he bellowed.
    As one the young officers flopped face downwards into the thick grey mud churned up by the tank’s tracks.
    ‘ Aufstehen! ’
    They sprang to their feet again, their uniforms grey and soaked with mud.
    ‘ Hinlegen! ’ the captain barked again and they fell to the ground once more like a series of wooden puppets.
    ‘Straight from Bad Tolz cadet school,’ Habicht commented. ‘Seventeen year olds, the lot of ’em. Four months ago, they were still rubbing the seats of their trousers shiny in high school.’
    ‘Sir.’ Schulze said, but nothing more. He was wondering why he had been picked out for this guided tour of SS Regiment Europa ’s weaknesses and deficiencies.
    Habicht seemed to be able to read his mind. He suddenly said, ‘Probably you are wondering why I am showing you all this, Schulze?’
    ‘Sir.’
    ‘I shall tell you. The great days are long past when we of the Armed SS got the cream of the Fatherland’s new recruits. Not a man under one metre eighty, not even accepted if he had a single filling in his teeth. The barrel is about scraped clean. But there is no purpose in complaining about it. We must do what we have to do with what we have – those raw young officers and my Europeans. What they lack in experience and training, they make up for in fervour and their belief in the Folk, Fatherland, and Führer.’
    ‘But that won’t stop the Popovs’ bullets, sir,’ Schulze said.
    The light died in Habicht’s eye. ‘Agreed,’ he said as coldly as before. ‘That is why I requested Reichführer SS Himmler personally to let me have a cadre of experienced SS NCOs for my regiment. You and your comrades of the Wotan form that cadre.’
    In silence the two men walked to the shabby one-time synagogue which now served as the Europa ’s HQ At the door Habicht crooked his linger at one of the two sentries, armed with machine-pistols, and barked, ‘ Sturmmann , to my office, guard the door until I have finished my talk