Part 51, Chapter 692
Chapter Six Hundred Ninety-Two
11th November 1948
Berlin
It was the first time that Lang had been to this Berlin club in months. He was here to meet Emil Holz, who he’d also not seen in months. He was hiding in his favored booth when Emil found him, trying to avoid talking about the recent election in America. Naturally, that was all anyone around the club wanted to talk about, especially with him. That entire election had been anti-climactic. Thomas Dewey had gotten trounced as predicted. Which meant that there wasn’t a whole lot to talk about. Having never met him, Lang only knew what he’d read about this Harry Truman. That he was a Senator and a former Vice-Presidential candidate. He also knew that Truman was a veteran of the First World War as an Artillery Officer and had little love for Europe, particularly Germany. Lang’s personal assessment was that he was glad that the new American President would be someone else’s problem after Truman took the oath of office.
“Thinking about the problems of the world” Emil said.
“Just enjoying the fact that it’s not up to me to solve them” Lang replied.
“I can understand that” Emil replied, “I’m having to deal with scientists who are working on that thing that we don’t talk about.”
“I assume that is too important to let go now they got it to work” Lang said with a look of disgust on his face.
“From your perspective having one of our best people quitting to start a family slowing everything down for the last several months has been a good thing” Emil said.
“Frau von Schmidt-Faust made what many think would be the proper decision for herself” Lang replied, “More power to her.”
“By many, you mean yourself.”
Lang just smiled at that. Emil looked at this matter as a soldier and ignored the political aspect. Nuclear bombs were in many respects the very caricature of everything that the anti-war movement thought was wrong with the military. Big, loud, unable to tell the difference between civilian and military targets bringing death on a massive scale. To Emil, they would have been a potential trump card that he would have been delighted to use against the Soviets if they could have broken the back of the Russian Army months sooner.
“They are discussing a new round of testing in the South Pacific” Emil said, “The Chancellor and the Reichstag are balking at the price tag that would come from that. The tests themselves and the cost of keeping uninvited guests out afterwards.”
“Let me guess” Lang replied, “The scientists think that money grows of trees.”
“Exactly” Emil said, “I don’t recall these things being problems when you were in charge.”
“These problems existed back then, you just were never in a position to have heard about it. We were fighting for our lives and we were constantly having to rob Peter to pay Paul” Lang said, “It’s something that we, as a nation are still paying for. And your predecessor, Manfred von Richthofen would have challenged me to a dual on several occasions over funding the Luftwaffe if not for this bum leg.”
Lang slapped his paralyzed right leg for emphasis.
Emil snorted at that, “As if that ever stopped you from picking a fight” He said.
“I know that” Lang said, “But if I had accepted a dual with von Richthofen then the respective heads of the various service branches would have been lined up behind him for their turn at giving me a whack in those days.”
Emil just shook his head when Lang said that. In his talks Lang had said repeatedly that there was no way that you can make everyone happy. That went double or triple during wartime, frequently he’d had to make decisions that were the least bad option available among an array of bad options. It wasn’t just funding that had caused Manfred von Richthofen’s personal animosity towards Lang. The Heer had been forced to retreat in Silesia and that had resulted in von Richthofen torching his own house to prevent to the Russians from having it as a prize. It was something that he’d personally blamed Lang for. A house was just a thing, thousands of German and Polish civilians had been brutalized by the Red Army and the Soviet security forces, the ones that Lang had been unable to get out. He had never heard von Richthofen say a word about that even though those were his own people who had taken it square in the teeth.
“The silences tend to grow long don’t they” Emil said offhandedly.
“Excuse me?” Lang asked.
“It comes from having to be the one making the decisions” Emil replied, “Then finding a way to live with it afterwards.”
Cape Town, South Africa
The man known as Rolihlahla Mandela, also known by the name he’d had since he’d started school, Nelson, laughed aloud when he’d learned what happened. Mostly as a show of bravado because he felt like hitting something. The two boys he’d tasked with watching the German column had gotten themselves caught and had been bragging about how they’d given up nothing. A bit more pressure on them had revealed that they had given up plenty, mostly through that bragging that they tended to do. The German Officer they’d dealt with had gotten them to tell him Rolihlahla’s name.
It was said that the Germans treated war like a science, evidently that included learning from the past mistakes. He’d read everything available in the University Library about the Second World War, particularly German war against the Soviets. He’d even taken the time to track down some of the surviving Askari who lived in the north when he’d learned that the Germans were coming and had gotten quite an education himself from those old men. It had been a reminder that though a lion will eventually grow old, it always remained a lion. One of the things that he’d learned was that the Germans had extensive experience in dealing with partisan fighters. The fact that their intelligence people just interrogated his watchers and cut them loose to have their families deal with them let Rolihlahla know that he wasn’t dealing with the typical colonial mindset. That would make it a challenge, like hitting smoke.
11th November 1948
Berlin
It was the first time that Lang had been to this Berlin club in months. He was here to meet Emil Holz, who he’d also not seen in months. He was hiding in his favored booth when Emil found him, trying to avoid talking about the recent election in America. Naturally, that was all anyone around the club wanted to talk about, especially with him. That entire election had been anti-climactic. Thomas Dewey had gotten trounced as predicted. Which meant that there wasn’t a whole lot to talk about. Having never met him, Lang only knew what he’d read about this Harry Truman. That he was a Senator and a former Vice-Presidential candidate. He also knew that Truman was a veteran of the First World War as an Artillery Officer and had little love for Europe, particularly Germany. Lang’s personal assessment was that he was glad that the new American President would be someone else’s problem after Truman took the oath of office.
“Thinking about the problems of the world” Emil said.
“Just enjoying the fact that it’s not up to me to solve them” Lang replied.
“I can understand that” Emil replied, “I’m having to deal with scientists who are working on that thing that we don’t talk about.”
“I assume that is too important to let go now they got it to work” Lang said with a look of disgust on his face.
“From your perspective having one of our best people quitting to start a family slowing everything down for the last several months has been a good thing” Emil said.
“Frau von Schmidt-Faust made what many think would be the proper decision for herself” Lang replied, “More power to her.”
“By many, you mean yourself.”
Lang just smiled at that. Emil looked at this matter as a soldier and ignored the political aspect. Nuclear bombs were in many respects the very caricature of everything that the anti-war movement thought was wrong with the military. Big, loud, unable to tell the difference between civilian and military targets bringing death on a massive scale. To Emil, they would have been a potential trump card that he would have been delighted to use against the Soviets if they could have broken the back of the Russian Army months sooner.
“They are discussing a new round of testing in the South Pacific” Emil said, “The Chancellor and the Reichstag are balking at the price tag that would come from that. The tests themselves and the cost of keeping uninvited guests out afterwards.”
“Let me guess” Lang replied, “The scientists think that money grows of trees.”
“Exactly” Emil said, “I don’t recall these things being problems when you were in charge.”
“These problems existed back then, you just were never in a position to have heard about it. We were fighting for our lives and we were constantly having to rob Peter to pay Paul” Lang said, “It’s something that we, as a nation are still paying for. And your predecessor, Manfred von Richthofen would have challenged me to a dual on several occasions over funding the Luftwaffe if not for this bum leg.”
Lang slapped his paralyzed right leg for emphasis.
Emil snorted at that, “As if that ever stopped you from picking a fight” He said.
“I know that” Lang said, “But if I had accepted a dual with von Richthofen then the respective heads of the various service branches would have been lined up behind him for their turn at giving me a whack in those days.”
Emil just shook his head when Lang said that. In his talks Lang had said repeatedly that there was no way that you can make everyone happy. That went double or triple during wartime, frequently he’d had to make decisions that were the least bad option available among an array of bad options. It wasn’t just funding that had caused Manfred von Richthofen’s personal animosity towards Lang. The Heer had been forced to retreat in Silesia and that had resulted in von Richthofen torching his own house to prevent to the Russians from having it as a prize. It was something that he’d personally blamed Lang for. A house was just a thing, thousands of German and Polish civilians had been brutalized by the Red Army and the Soviet security forces, the ones that Lang had been unable to get out. He had never heard von Richthofen say a word about that even though those were his own people who had taken it square in the teeth.
“The silences tend to grow long don’t they” Emil said offhandedly.
“Excuse me?” Lang asked.
“It comes from having to be the one making the decisions” Emil replied, “Then finding a way to live with it afterwards.”
Cape Town, South Africa
The man known as Rolihlahla Mandela, also known by the name he’d had since he’d started school, Nelson, laughed aloud when he’d learned what happened. Mostly as a show of bravado because he felt like hitting something. The two boys he’d tasked with watching the German column had gotten themselves caught and had been bragging about how they’d given up nothing. A bit more pressure on them had revealed that they had given up plenty, mostly through that bragging that they tended to do. The German Officer they’d dealt with had gotten them to tell him Rolihlahla’s name.
It was said that the Germans treated war like a science, evidently that included learning from the past mistakes. He’d read everything available in the University Library about the Second World War, particularly German war against the Soviets. He’d even taken the time to track down some of the surviving Askari who lived in the north when he’d learned that the Germans were coming and had gotten quite an education himself from those old men. It had been a reminder that though a lion will eventually grow old, it always remained a lion. One of the things that he’d learned was that the Germans had extensive experience in dealing with partisan fighters. The fact that their intelligence people just interrogated his watchers and cut them loose to have their families deal with them let Rolihlahla know that he wasn’t dealing with the typical colonial mindset. That would make it a challenge, like hitting smoke.
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Truman as president of an imploding USA with a violent MLK, Nelson Mandela a firebrand--what's Gandhi doing?
