A Nazi Nightmare

Chapter 1 – The Nightmare Begins – April 1960

“What on earth made us come down into this smelly hole?”  came the cry from Alan as his foot went sludge into something that definitely was not earth.  “I didn’t hear you complaining when we decided to come down here!” Steve said as the match he was holding burned his fingers, “Ouch!”  “For goodness sake keep the noise down or we’ll get the guards down here to investigate the noise!” Adam said in a hoarse whisper his head reeling from all the beer he had drunk in the morning when they had all gone round the Dortmunder Union brewery in the town centre of Dortmund.  It was madness coming down here for they were meant to be playing a rugby match against the other cadets in just over an hour.  Steve and Alan were a few paces ahead of him in the WW2 air raid shelter but with no light they might as well be a mile ahead.  He was now inching his way towards them feeling his way along the wall of the corridor when suddenly his hand found nothing and he lurched sideways into the open doorway of the unseen room.

His befuddled senses had only time to register the now familiar tingling sensation that coursed through his body as he fell headlong down the steps and the blinding light from the room’s overhead light.  “Shoot!” was the only involuntary sound that came from his mouth.  Even tipsy and in pain his brain registered the danger signals.  He was in the mire yet again but just how deep he did not know.  However, he was soon the find out!

He lay at the foot of the short flight of steps clutching the knee he had landed on.  “I am going to have a rather large bruise there.” He thought to himself as he slowly raised his head to see what time he had fallen into.  There were at least seven or eight soldiers in the room staring in disbelief at this apparition that had appeared from nowhere and landed at their feet.  The bad news for Adam was that they where not wearing the normal khaki uniform of the Artillery Regiment he and his fellow cadets were lodged with.  Oh! No! They were wearing the grey high-necked uniforms of the German WW2 Wermacht complete with coalscuttle helmets.  He was very deep in the mire!  The silence did not last long and the soldier nearest to him launched himself forward shouting in German, not a word of which Adam understood.   Adam was now tight in the soldier’s grasp and half crouched to avoid the blow he was expecting.  No blow came but the questioning continued while Adam simply raised his hands to his waist with the palms upwards in a dumb-show of not understanding what was being said although he knew that would not save him in the long run. 

His mind was racing and the effect of the beer had left him in an instant.  He was now totally focussed on saving himself.  He kept saying to himself, “Say nothing!” while his mind considered what he had in his pocket.  He was lucky that he had left his blazer with his coins and identity documents in the barrack room before they made this stupid expedition into the bunker.  He thought he only had a grubby hankie in his pocket so he might be able to get away it with even now.  But even as that thought went through his mind there was the sound of a siren outside and the other soldiers started to rise from the bench.  “It must be the all clear!” Adam thought as he was dragged by the scuff of the neck up the corridor and out into the daylight.