Maria, Pull the Trigger and Kill (a World War II adventure)

Hitler Jugend

On Friday, 27th of July 1945, right after lunch I drove over to the Army's Engineering Corps and talked to the Master Sergeant in charge of vehicle maintenance. I explained to him, that I needed a tow-truck to extract 3 abandoned Mercedes limousines in the Soviet Sector and that I needed to have them repaired by Monday morning. I had not even finished, not even told him about the whole extent of my order when he already looked at me with a grim face and said: "You have stolen a full month supply of cigarettes from us and now you have the guts to come here and ask us for help last minute. We are ready to go into our weekend now, so come back next week."

Well, legally, I did not steal the cigarettes, because I had General Clay's order, which allowed me to seize them, but technically, I have to admit, it was like stealing them from the Engineering Corps. The problem was, that next week was too late, so I had to throw in some motivation: "I know, you are rightfully angry with me, but the cigarettes do serve a higher cause. When those limousines are repaired by Monday morning, then I give you 100 dollars each. On top, I need 4 drivers for the limousines on Monday and they will get 50 dollars each for the day. I also need 8 trucks with benches for transporting people and I give you another 50 dollars for each truck."

The Master Sergeant looked at me and responded: "What about tanks and motorcycles for your presidential convoy?"

Not getting, that he was joking I said: "Sure, if you can make that happen!"

The Master Sergeant shook his head in disbelieve and finished: "100 dollars and I give you the tow truck. When you bring in the limousines tonight then I will look at them and tell you the price."

100 dollars for a tow truck was fucking steep, but I was not in a position to negotiate, so I drew my purse and put everything it contained on the table, which was a bit over 80 dollars and then I withdrew 2 bottles of the Jack Daniels from the Jeep and handed it over. Next, the Master Sergeant gave instructions to one of his men and we got a tow-truck ready.

A little later the tow-truck driver and I were on our way to the Soviet Sector. 1,5h later, we came back with the first Mercedes, a Wehrmacht grey Mercedes 320 long limousine. The front was damaged and the Master Sergeant wanted 100 dollars just to look at it and 500 dollars if they would be able to fix it until Monday. As said, what should I do, it was my only chance to have limousines until Monday and I just agreed. The next Mercedes 320 took about 1,5h again. 3 tires were flat and 200 dollars should to the job. The last one took 2h. Long ago, I should have been picking Amanda up for the TGiF party, but what should I do? Monday morning, I needed to have that presidential convoy together and if I would not do it now, it would not happen right in time.

That last limousine had damaged axles. The one with the tire punctures had already gotten fixed by the time we came in with the third one, but the Master Sergeant informed me, that he did not have spare parts for German cars and I had to bring in more Mercedes limousines, when I wanted them repaired. Out of two damaged, make one working. Together with the tow truck driver, I went out again and we found and extracted two badly damaged Red Army Willy's Jeeps and a Kübelwagen. The Kübelwagen was an interesting case to say the least. It seemed to be intact, even the key was still in the ignition, but there were two dead bodies sitting in it and they smelled terribly. A Wehrmacht officer behind the steering wheel and a Lieutenant Colonel from the US Army in the passenger's seat. Both had gotten shot in the head from close range. The brutal stench and the terrible looks of the two decaying bodies was likely the reason, why nobody had taken the car so far. I as well did not wanted to touch those bodies and simply to hook it up to the tow-bar of the tow truck, we had to overcome our aversions. Dealing with the dead bodies was something I intended to leave to the Military Police. It was well after midnight already when we dropped off the Kübelwagen in Lichtenfelde. The Master Sergeant and a couple of mechanics were busy with the Mercedes limousine with the damaged front. Seeing the two dead bodies in the Kübelwagen, the Master Sergeant yelled at me: "What the fuck do you bring us now?" He come over and I saw anger in his face. When the smell of decay assaulted his nose, he yelled even louder: "Get that hearse off the property."