“You are very hospitable, Herr Oberst,” von Deitzberg said.
Schmidt waved them toward the door.
[THREE]
Quarters of the Commanding Officer
10th Mountain Regiment
San Martín de los Andes
Neuquén Province, Argentina
2100 5 October 1943
There were five Argentine officers waiting for them in el Coronel Schmidt’s dining room. The dining room was much larger than von Deitzberg expected it to be, as the house itself was much smaller than he expected it to be.
It was hardly more than a cottage, sitting in a group of cottages across a road from the barracks, stables, and other buildings of the regiment. Von Deitzberg couldn’t see much; nothing was brightly illuminated.
Against one wall of the dining room were three flags: the Argentina colors, a red Nazi flag, and an elaborately embroidered flag, the 10th Mountain Regiment’s colors.
As the officers were introduced to Señor and Señora Schenck, young enlisted men in starched white jackets immediately began passing champagne glasses. When everyone held one, Colonel Schmidt said, “Gentlemen, I give you el Presidente Rawson.”
Champagne was sipped.
Schmidt toasted again: “Gentlemen, I give you the Führer of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler, and his Final Victory over the godless Communists.”
This time the glasses were drained.
“Well, gentlemen, since my wife and I were never here, I don’t suppose it much matters what I say,” von Deitzberg said.
He got the expected chuckles and took another sip of the ritual postdinner brandy before going on. It was Argentine, and surprisingly good.
“But let me say it’s good to again be with my fellow sailor, Sepp Schäfer—who, come to think of it, is also not here.”
That caused applause and laughter.
And reminded everybody that I am important enough, what I’m doing here is important enough, to justify sending us by submarine.
“Let me say something about the current situation,” von Deitzberg said. “I’m sure you have all heard that it was necessary for the Wehrmacht to withdraw from Africa, and also that our forces suffered a terrible defeat at Stalingrad. And, of course, that our Italian allies betrayed us, and as a result of that, the Americans are now in Italy.
“Those are facts. Not pleasant facts, but facts. A professional soldier must deal with the facts, not with things as he wishes they were.
“But there is another fact here that applies: The great military philosopher Carl von Clausewitz wrote, ‘There is only one decisive victory: the last.’ ”
More applause.
“What went wrong? Von Clausewitz also wrote, ‘The most insidious enemy of all is time.’ ”
Von Clausewitz didn’t actually say that, but it sounds like something he would have said if he had thought of it. And I don’t think there are any really serious students of von Clausewitz in this room to challenge me.
“Time has been against us,” von Deitzberg went on. “The rocket scientists at Peenemunde, while their work has been brilliant, just haven’t had the time to develop rockets that not only are more accurate than the ones currently landing in England, but will have the range to strike the United States.
“But it’s just a matter of time until they do.
“Luftwaffe engineers have developed a new fighter, the Messerschmitt Me- 262, which uses a revolutionary new type of propulsion, the jet engine. It is faster than any other fighter aircraft in the world, and it is armed with 40mm cannon. It can fire at American and British bombers from a distance greater than their .50-caliber machine guns can return fire. Once it goes into action, it will cause unacceptable losses to British and American bombers.
“There is already a squadron of these aircraft flying in Augsburg. But there has been time enough to manufacture only twenty or thirty of them.