MI6s team of enhanced individuals have successfully killed Hitler, as far as they are aware, using Wolfenkorps Alpha’s weapon of mass destruction. They then moved on and caused havoc in Wolfenkorps Beta’s industrial complex and even infiltrated Schloss Neuschwanstein and began the process of destroying Wolfenkorps Beta’s files. The team consists of Mademoiselle Mimi Dubois, La Résistance fighter and mistress of skills; Miss Madeline Forsyth, SOE operative and a living shadow; Franklin Fort, hard bitten soldier and teleporter; and Sven Hyse, Norwegian Resistance soldier and shapeshifter.
Schloss Neuschwanstein, Hohenschwangau, Germany, January 1943
Tossing my silenced pistol to Frank I kneel down in front of the door into the corridor and nudge it open just a couple of inches. Two yards behind me, Frank sights down the length of his arm through the narrow gap aiming at the screech owl in the cage hanging next to the archway into the staircase. The owls head rotates towards the doorway that we are hiding behind just as Frank squeezes the trigger. The owl dies before it has a chance to utter a sound.
Madeline takes point and leads us up the corkscrew stairs, four turns and we are about to exit onto the fourth floor when Madeline signals us to wait. She slides forwards until her eyes are peeking around the door frame and she is looking straight at the screech owl. A blast of utter cold issues from her eyes and freezes the owl to it’s perch within the cage. It is a dead owl. It’s metabolic processes are now history. Madeline waves us on and we head straight for the double doors at the end of the corridor, there is a small white plack with black writing stating;
Antragsmöglichkeit
Madeline slides in under the door and finds herself in a short corridor with a door on either side of her and another at the end of the corridor. She checks out the door to her right just as the rest of us are entering through the double doors. She discovers a small medical stores, the shelves are fully stocked and very neatly labelled. The door to the left leads into a small office with two desks and a number of filing cabinets. I immediately begin to search through the filing to see if there is any information that we do not already process copies of.
Madeline slides under the final doorway at the end of the corridor and discovers a medical room dominated by a single medical bed and all of its constituent paraphernalia, she is struck by how similar the bed is to those that we had been recently strapped to when our enhanced abilities had been strengthened. She quickly closes the shutters on the windows, whips out her camera and begins to catalogue everything within the room. Meanwhile, Frank takes guard at the double doors and Sven begins to gather as much flammable liquid as he can find from the medical stores.
I conclude that the filing cabinets do not contain any information that we do not already possess, and so I make sure that it is all pulled out and ready to burn. Once completed I head towards Madeline. I get there just as Madeline and Sven are leaving and heading to the main ward with arm fulls of surgical spirit, I head into the medical room and begin rigging a charge to blow up the bed and all of the equipment. Sven and Madeline soak all of the mattresses in spirit and pile them up in the middle of the hospital ward underneath some of the larger wooden beams. When they are ready the signal to Frank, who is still on guard, and Frank signals to me.
I had set the timer for two minutes, to give us enough time to be in a different part of the schloss by the time the explosion was triggered, and as soon as Frank gave me the signal I pulled the pin and headed for the stairs. Madeline lit a cigarette and dropped the match onto the pile of mattresses and they ignited like a bonfire. They both ran for the stairs where Frank and I waited. As they passed the open doorway to the medical room the explosive charge detonated and debris showered the corridor narrowly missing the pair of them. That was a bit close, I must have got my wiring wrong and set it for twenty seconds instead of one hundred and twenty seconds.
Given that there was no way that the guards would miss the explosion we decide to take the Frank express to the broom cupboard. As we re-materialise we can hear the sound of booted feet running past our hiding spot, I quickly push out with my senses and confirm that one of them is definitely enhanced. I signal to the others, and that is all the invitation that Frank needs. He opens the door and steps out into the corridor behind the German troops, he spots three Wolfenkorps troopers and a Wolfenkorps Unterfeldwebel and an Oberleutnant.
Sven begins to transform into a hawk whilst I turn solid and Madeline slides out onto the ceiling of the corridor. Frank draws both of his sawn-off shotguns and levels them at the back of the Oberleutnant and pulls all four triggers. A terrific boom echoes through the corridor and the Wolfenkorps Oberleutnant is thrown several yards forwards to land in an unmoving heap in front of his squad. The Wolfenkorps troops stop in their tracks and about turn looking back down the corridor and straight at Frank. Frank steps back into the cupboard.
By this time, Madeline is almost above the Wolfenkorps Unterfeldwebel and she shoots him with her frosty gaze. He staggers a little but remains on his feet. Sven flashes into the corridor in his hawk form and launches an attack at the nearest trooper. This is enough to make the final trooper and the Unterfeldwebel to turn and run for it, but the Unterfeldwebel is moving very slowly.
The trooper that Sven is attacking tries to shoot at him with his rifle but his shot goes wild and buries itself in the wall. And his day goes from bad to worse as Frank steps out of the cupboard once more and shoots him in the back with both barrels of one of his shotguns. The unfortunate Wolfenkorps trooper is smeared across the wall.
Sven flashes up the corridor towards the retreating trooper, and as the trooper turns to look over his shoulder, Sven dives and rips his throat out. At the same moment the Unterfeldwebel staggers once more and then falls flat on his face in the middle of the corridor. Madeline makes double sure that all of the Germans are dead and then the rest of the group head for the kitchens. I am left to tend to my wounds in the broom cupboard. My life was not always glamorous.
While Madeline turns on all the gas taps in the kitchen, Sven pours expensive alcohol all over the dining room. Once he has finished, he strikes a match and sets fire to the furniture. They then retreat back to me in the broom cupboard. We agree that we need to investigate the new build, and a few minutes later conclude that it is a barracks. While Sven takes to the skies, the rest of us take the Frank express out of the schloss and back into the treeline at the bottom of the bluff.
As we are hiding within the treeline we hear the sound of a screech owl high up in one of the towers. It continues to screech and is joined by to of its brothers in calling out. Then, one by one the cries of the screech owls are cut short and silence reins again. I guess that the hawk is mightier than the owl. Not long after there is a loud explosion as the gas from the kitchen meets the fire from the dining room and the side of the schloss collapses. We make our way back to OP1.
As Sven is circling the schloss he spots a car and truck travelling up the road towards the schloss at high speed. When it arrives a number of shocked looking troopers and medical staff begin to mill around, but it soon becomes obvious to them that there is very little that they can do about the raging fire. By eighteen thirty hours we have regrouped back at OP1 and Schloss Neuschwanstein is well and truly ablaze. Agreeing that we have met the objectives of the mission we leave.
Hanslope Park, Buckinghamshire, England, January 1943
We exited through Switzerland and made our way back to Hanslope Park. In a matter of days we are sat in the briefing room being debriefed by Captain Ledman and Major Hoffman. We rigidly stick to a chronological retelling of the mission, and are rewarded with the looks on the senior officers faces when Frank says;
And then we killed Hitler!
They question us as to how certain we are that we truly killed Hitler, and we confirm that we cannot be completely sure but we are quite convinced. Major Hoffman immediately reaches for the telephone and asks to speak to General Menzies. When Menzies comes onto the line Hoffman says;
Sir! The mission may well have achieved the additional objective.
There is a moment's pause while Major Hoffman is listening and then he says;
Confirmed!
Hoffman hangs up and informs us that the General will be with us tomorrow and the debrief is postponed. As is tradition, we head for the officers mess and celebrate like we have never celebrated before.
The following morning, with very tender heads, we continue the debrief. This time we are joined by General Menzies and Major Lind of the Norwegian Army. There are many moments during the debrief where both of the new officers are left speechless as to our exploits and abilities. And by the end we are roundly congratulated. General Menzies informs us that the intelligence services are already in the process of confirming the outcomes of our actions.
By the end of January 1943 Heinrich Himmler becomes the new Fuhrer and declares that he is committed to following Hitler’s blueprint for the war. However, soon after German forces in Stalingrad surrender and the German forces in Russia begin to retreat. By May 1943 the Axis forces in North Africa surrender and it is rumoured that Rommel is returning to Germany in an effort to depose Himmler. At the end of May 1943, Himmler is assassinated inside a guarded, secure room with no witnesses. It is strongly believed by MI6 that German enhanced operatives were involved. Karl Donitz becomes President and appoints Rommel as his Reichsmarschall.
July 1943 and Rommel leads a counterattack at Kursk, but is defeated and the German forces are forced to retreat further. Allied forces land in Sicily and soon after Mussolini is deposed, Italy sues for peace. December 1943 and German forces, under the direct orders of Rommel, retreat in the face of the Red Army back to the German border. Finally in April 1944 Germany surrenders. Donitz seems to commit suicide, but there are suspicious circumstances, and Rommel disappears completely.
During this period, MI6s team of enhanced individuals carried out several more behind the lines raids at key points, but the team slowly drifted apart. As soon as Norway was free from German occupation Sven rejoined the Norwegian army and continued to support their efforts in the war. Madeline was picked for more and more solo missions and eventually we didn’t see her again, that is until much later in life. Frank and I had a whirlwind love affair that eventually ended when I joined the Forces Françaises Libres and he was ordered to support British Forces as part of Operation Overlord.
And so MI6s Enhanced Team disappeared, and their influence on World War II was locked away in official secrets. I didn’t hear from any of the team again. That was until February 1948, six years after that fateful train journey. My commanding officer at the SDECE called me into his office, and with a look of disgust handed me my new orders. I stared at the piece of paper, shocked at what it said;
Report to Major Sawdon.
Hanslope Park.
With immediate effect.