Part 8 Chapter 66
Chapter Sixty-Six
30th July, 1922
Wilhelmshaven, Jade Bight, Germany
SMS Torpedo Boat V105 had finally rotated back to Wilhelmshaven. The crew had been overjoyed when they had learned of this. No one had been looking forward to the prospect of spending the winter on Saaremaa Island. Now they had Wilhelmshaven to look forward to, the city built for the needs of the High Seas Fleet.
The crew had been in good spirits as they took the Canal from Kiel to the North Sea. Kiel had been the usual hive of activity, hundreds of merchantmen of every type from all corners of the world. They could see the huge new battleship was being laid down, she didn’t have a name yet just a number, L20b, she was supposed to be an enlarged version of the Bayern Class. Arend had debated the rest of the crew about whether or not it would be worth it to serve on one of those battle wagons. In the end, they had decided that it was the torpedo boats where the real action was but it would be nice not to have to live with the practice of hot bunking.
There was also that odd looking ship, the SMS Immelmann, flat with the superstructure and stacks pushed off to starboard. No one was sure what she was for.
As they passed through the harbor in Jade Bight they had seen all four of the Bayerns, three of the Mackensens and the brand-new SMS Yorck. 1 Scouting Group was back in force in the North Sea.
The SMS Derfflinger and SMS Hindenburg were off to the side, word was they’d been sold to Greece and the Government was just waiting to the sale to finalize. Part of the new building program, everything built prior to the start of the Great War was to be sold off or scrapped.
As they pulled into port and tied V105 up, Arend knew what he was going to go for first. After months in the Gulf of Finland a vegetable that wasn’t a potato or came from a can was something he’d kill for.
In transit, Rural Germany
Peter Holz was going home. With that ugly piece of steel that he was less than thrilled about and he’d done his year. He’d been forced to conclude that Emil was right about it giving him a leg up in getting into a decent University and Medical School. Emil had told him before he boarded the Train in Warsaw that he only three things to worry about now. Home, University and Life. How he went about doing those things was entirely up to him because he had nothing to prove to anyone, not anymore.
Horst had busted up when he heard Emil say that. Apparently, it was from the exact same discussion that the two of them had in the December of 1917 when the Great War had ended. Peter suspected that there had been a great deal of alcohol involved with the original conversation.
Peter smiled as he watched the countryside race by. He would be home soon enough and he now understood it. This is what Emil had wanted for him all along. To go home with nothing weighing on his conscience and now his real adventure was just beginning.
Pruszków Airfield, Poland
Emil was involved training the Polish Army. The Poles were interested in modernizing their Army, even going so far as going through the roles of the 2nd Army, which included several Divisions of Regiments largely raised in West Prussia. What that had meant in practice was that ethnic Poles made up a substantial minority within the ranks. Offers of rank, land and money had come to anyone who might have a Polish background. There had been a few takers. It was even rumored that Manfred von Wolvogle himself had turned down the offer of Field Marshal. No such offer had come to Emil, not that he would have taken it. His family had lived in Jena and its vicinity since time out of mind as farmers or tradesmen.
He had set a Polish Infantry Company to bayonet drill, he could see that there was plenty of room for improvement. That was when a Lieutenant who barely looked old enough to shave came running up.
“New orders for you, Sir” The lieutenant said handing Emil some papers. What now?
“Thank you, Sir” The Lieutenant awkwardly saluted him he was obviously still learning. Probably some General’s kid.
Emil returned the salute “You don’t need to salute in the field Lieutenant” It was one of the major reasons that Emil preferred to be out in the field.
“Thank you, Sir” The Lieutenant said before scurrying off somewhere.
Emil flipped through the papers. Travel orders, back to Berlin, meaning Wunsdorf-Zossen. He was to attend Regimental Command School. That meant, there it was, Emil had been promoted to Major in the Luftwaffe and upon completion of RCS he was to be appointed Executive Officer of the 1st Fallschirmjäger Regiment. Onward and upward it looked like.
Sylt Island, Germany
The vacation was winding down, they had another week to go and were making the most of it. The girls enjoyed playing on the kilometers of beach and Esther was enjoying having Jacob and the girls all to herself. Jacob still thought about numbers. They had been his life for as long as he could remember. Lately he’d been thinking about redundancy within the codes that were the language used by his encoding machines. He was drawing with a stick on the beach deliberately putting an error in the long equation and looking at how that changed the subsequent numbers while keeping an eye on the girls who were busy playing. Esther had decided that she needed a few hours of sleep and couldn’t remember the last time she been able to just take a nap. That had resulted in the three of them being kicked out of the cottage for the afternoon.
The girls came over and were looking at the numbers that Jacob had been drawing in the sand. It was okay, those would just be random numbers to them. Nessa looked at the numbers till she got to the exact spot where Jacob had inserted the error. She stood there for a moment with a quizzical look on her face.
“You got this part wrong, Papa” Nessa said with a smile and then ran after Sarah who was running up the beach arms outstretched. Jacob used his feet to erase the numbers. He had a feeling that he needed to keep a closer eye on Nessa in the future.
30th July, 1922
Wilhelmshaven, Jade Bight, Germany
SMS Torpedo Boat V105 had finally rotated back to Wilhelmshaven. The crew had been overjoyed when they had learned of this. No one had been looking forward to the prospect of spending the winter on Saaremaa Island. Now they had Wilhelmshaven to look forward to, the city built for the needs of the High Seas Fleet.
The crew had been in good spirits as they took the Canal from Kiel to the North Sea. Kiel had been the usual hive of activity, hundreds of merchantmen of every type from all corners of the world. They could see the huge new battleship was being laid down, she didn’t have a name yet just a number, L20b, she was supposed to be an enlarged version of the Bayern Class. Arend had debated the rest of the crew about whether or not it would be worth it to serve on one of those battle wagons. In the end, they had decided that it was the torpedo boats where the real action was but it would be nice not to have to live with the practice of hot bunking.
There was also that odd looking ship, the SMS Immelmann, flat with the superstructure and stacks pushed off to starboard. No one was sure what she was for.
As they passed through the harbor in Jade Bight they had seen all four of the Bayerns, three of the Mackensens and the brand-new SMS Yorck. 1 Scouting Group was back in force in the North Sea.
The SMS Derfflinger and SMS Hindenburg were off to the side, word was they’d been sold to Greece and the Government was just waiting to the sale to finalize. Part of the new building program, everything built prior to the start of the Great War was to be sold off or scrapped.
As they pulled into port and tied V105 up, Arend knew what he was going to go for first. After months in the Gulf of Finland a vegetable that wasn’t a potato or came from a can was something he’d kill for.
In transit, Rural Germany
Peter Holz was going home. With that ugly piece of steel that he was less than thrilled about and he’d done his year. He’d been forced to conclude that Emil was right about it giving him a leg up in getting into a decent University and Medical School. Emil had told him before he boarded the Train in Warsaw that he only three things to worry about now. Home, University and Life. How he went about doing those things was entirely up to him because he had nothing to prove to anyone, not anymore.
Horst had busted up when he heard Emil say that. Apparently, it was from the exact same discussion that the two of them had in the December of 1917 when the Great War had ended. Peter suspected that there had been a great deal of alcohol involved with the original conversation.
Peter smiled as he watched the countryside race by. He would be home soon enough and he now understood it. This is what Emil had wanted for him all along. To go home with nothing weighing on his conscience and now his real adventure was just beginning.
Pruszków Airfield, Poland
Emil was involved training the Polish Army. The Poles were interested in modernizing their Army, even going so far as going through the roles of the 2nd Army, which included several Divisions of Regiments largely raised in West Prussia. What that had meant in practice was that ethnic Poles made up a substantial minority within the ranks. Offers of rank, land and money had come to anyone who might have a Polish background. There had been a few takers. It was even rumored that Manfred von Wolvogle himself had turned down the offer of Field Marshal. No such offer had come to Emil, not that he would have taken it. His family had lived in Jena and its vicinity since time out of mind as farmers or tradesmen.
He had set a Polish Infantry Company to bayonet drill, he could see that there was plenty of room for improvement. That was when a Lieutenant who barely looked old enough to shave came running up.
“New orders for you, Sir” The lieutenant said handing Emil some papers. What now?
“Thank you, Sir” The Lieutenant awkwardly saluted him he was obviously still learning. Probably some General’s kid.
Emil returned the salute “You don’t need to salute in the field Lieutenant” It was one of the major reasons that Emil preferred to be out in the field.
“Thank you, Sir” The Lieutenant said before scurrying off somewhere.
Emil flipped through the papers. Travel orders, back to Berlin, meaning Wunsdorf-Zossen. He was to attend Regimental Command School. That meant, there it was, Emil had been promoted to Major in the Luftwaffe and upon completion of RCS he was to be appointed Executive Officer of the 1st Fallschirmjäger Regiment. Onward and upward it looked like.
Sylt Island, Germany
The vacation was winding down, they had another week to go and were making the most of it. The girls enjoyed playing on the kilometers of beach and Esther was enjoying having Jacob and the girls all to herself. Jacob still thought about numbers. They had been his life for as long as he could remember. Lately he’d been thinking about redundancy within the codes that were the language used by his encoding machines. He was drawing with a stick on the beach deliberately putting an error in the long equation and looking at how that changed the subsequent numbers while keeping an eye on the girls who were busy playing. Esther had decided that she needed a few hours of sleep and couldn’t remember the last time she been able to just take a nap. That had resulted in the three of them being kicked out of the cottage for the afternoon.
The girls came over and were looking at the numbers that Jacob had been drawing in the sand. It was okay, those would just be random numbers to them. Nessa looked at the numbers till she got to the exact spot where Jacob had inserted the error. She stood there for a moment with a quizzical look on her face.
“You got this part wrong, Papa” Nessa said with a smile and then ran after Sarah who was running up the beach arms outstretched. Jacob used his feet to erase the numbers. He had a feeling that he needed to keep a closer eye on Nessa in the future.
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