Yet, the currency reform was a daring tactic in that it issued the Russians a direct challenge. By legal agreement, Berlin was a four-power city not belonging to any Zone. Therefore, the currency to be used in Berlin would be marked with a “B.”
The Cherry Picker passed out of the Soviet Zone at the Dannenberg beacon beyond Soviet surveillance and instead of continuing for Hamburg she swung south.
At the Munich airport a convoy of closed armored trucks stood by at their parking space. As the Cherry Picker cut engines, a company of infantry surrounded her restricting the pilot and crew aboard. It was daybreak.
Members of the mission boarded the waiting vehicles according to preassignment; they drove south from the city into the rolling foothills of the mountains in the direction of the Austrian frontier. This was Bavaria in its unspoiled form.
Off the main road they passed through villages filled with decorative wooden houses with brightly colored murals on their outside walls, churches with tall towers and onion-shaped domes, and cobblestone streets and still lakes. It was one of the few corners of Germany untouched by the war.
Once past Tegernsee the hills grew more severe and the forests thickened. The convoy swung onto a dirt road blocked by a guard station.
HNTTENDORF 3 KMS. PASSAGE ON THIS ROAD IS FORBIDDEN!
They plunged into the forest and threw up a swirl of dust; the land was void of human life. The rising sun flickered through the trees as they passed another series of roadblocks and were checked through carefully.
So far as the Germans in the area knew, Hüttendorf, a tiny village of ten families, had been confiscated in total as a stockade for upper-echelon Nazi war criminals. Trained never to ask questions during the Hitler era, they said nothing and knew nothing about this “forbidden” place. The village was surrounded by a wall of barbed wire.
Colonel Hill, the C.O., met Sean and Major Whitehead at the main gate and led them to an inner compound completely walled off from the outer village and watched by an intricate guard system.
Inside the compound Germans and Americans had volunteered to live for four months with no contact with the outside for the purpose of establishing an engraving and printing plant for the manufacture of the new currency. The security was in the hands of select personnel who also volunteered to be isolated.
Inside the inner wall stood a half-dozen buildings; two barracks, the former community barn, and three other wooden constructions holding the plants and warehouse.
The convoy was lined up alongside the barn. Colonel Hill unlocked the door. The barn was filled with neatly crated boxes containing billions of marks in the new money. The special Berlin B marks were triple-checked and loaded. Signatures were traded, another roll call made. This was the sixteenth roll call.
The convoy rolled back to Munich, where the Cherry Picker was loaded. To further avoid suspicion, half the mission was left in Munich confined to tightly guarded quarters.
The Cherry Picker took off to retrace the earlier flight, reversing the procedure and pretending to be coming from Hamburg.
Late that evening six tons of wooden crates were unloaded at Tempelhof marked BOURBON, GIN, SCOTCH WHISKEY, AND VODKA.
Russian agents reported to Soviet Headquarters that a large shipment of liquor had arrived. This led to a great deal of mirth in the Russian Command. Obviously the West was feeling the pinch of the traffic harassment. If there was going to be a blockade, the West did not intend to run out of liquor. What made it doubly funny to Nikolai Trepovitch was that the British and Americans had forsaken the French by failing to bring in wine.
Sean O’Sullivan, Blessing, and the rest of the men in the mission were confined to McNair Barracks until public announcement of the currency reform was made.
Chapter Forty-one
JUNE 17, 1948, IS A DAY that will live in humanity’s memory. The Congress of the United States enacted into law the European Recovery Act. The weary, the hungry, the frightened were told that the Marshall Plan would bring them tractors and butter and hope. The Marshall Plan was the light to rekindle the flame of freedom.
On June 18 the British and American headquarters jointly announced the currency reform for Germany, except Berlin. And with this, the Soviet Union’s march to the English Channel came to a halt.
It was widely announced that Marshal Alexei Popov had an extraordinary proclamation. Every radio set in Berlin was tuned to People’s Radio as the Russian took to the air.
“The conditions under which the West was invited to Berlin no longer exist. Because of broken Western treaties their presence in Berlin has become illegal.
“Berlin is geographically, economically, and historically part of the Soviet Zone of occupation. Four-power occupation is hereby ruled null and void.
“As of tomorrow, the former currency is no longer of value in Berlin. The Soviet Union will issue new currency which will be the only legal money in the city.”
Sean went to the general’s office where Neal Hazzard had set up a billow of cigar smoke.
“Sean,” General Hansen said, “you know Ulrich Falkenstein better than any of us. Shoving our currency in against the Russians isn’t going to be enough. There is no doubt that the Berliners will give an expression of where they stand. The danger is not from the Berliners; it’s from the Communists. We need the B marks approved by the Assembly. Can Falkenstein do it?”
If not Falkenstein, then no one, Sean thought, but it would be difficult. The City Hall sat inside the Russian Sector. The free assemblymen would be in danger.
“It will be tough,” Sean said.
“I say Falkenstein is strong enough to pull them through,” Hazzard said.
“He’s the leader,” Sean agreed. “That’s the one thing a German understands ... follow the leader.”
“And that’s the one reason I’ll never buy these people. They won’t stand up for an idea because it’s a good idea,” Hansen said.
“It’s a hell of a lot better to follow Falkenstein than Hitler,” Hazzard answered.
“What a hell of a funny place,” Sean said. “Our ally is now our enemy and our enemy is now our ally. Well, sir, we all agree that Falkenstein is the best of the lot.”
“And I don’t trust him,” Hansen said.
“General, I don’t think you trust any politician.”
There was a relief of laughter.
“At least he’s as good as Senator Blanchard,” Hazzard added.
“All right, all right, send for him,” Hansen said.
“I don’t think we’d better do that, sir,” Sean said.
“Why not. You two are selling me this guy.”
“What we are now asking is that the people of Berlin become our partners.”
“What the hell are you driving at, Sean?”
“We need Ulrich Falkenstein and the Berliners as much as they need us. No more, no less. We can’t go into this partnership acting as conquerors. Falkenstein won his right to be our equal in a concentration camp. I think this occasion calls for us to get in a car and visit him at his home.”
“I second the motion,” Neal Hazzard said.
Andrew Jackson Hansen was appalled at the notion, but the point had been made. Things were changing. He grumbled to Sean to order a staff car.
Falkenstein’s maid nearly passed out when she opened the door.
“You want to kick it off, Sean?” the general asked.
“Herr Falkenstein. We have flown in five hundred million marks of the new currency. It is exactly the same as that in the zone except it is stamped with a B. We are prepared to disburse it to the banks in our sectors within an hour.”