V for Vengeance (40 page)

He had been in a ghastly state when the faithful Rudd and a rescue party had pulled him out of the ruins of his home thirty hours after it had been bombed, but that was five months ago, and he was now completely recovered, except that he still limped a little, although the doctors said that, too, would be all right in time. For the first two months or so he had suffered severely from the dressing of his wounds; but his ill luck in being blitzed had had its compensations. As soon as he was well enough to be moved Sir Pellinore had sent him up to Gwaine Meads, so that Erika could nurse him, and all through the late winter and early spring, while he was convalescing, he had the joy of being with her.

During these months Lacroix had managed to establish safe contacts with a number of de Gaulle's officers at the Free French Headquarters in London; so once Gregory had set the ball rolling his inability to continue as a link between Lacroix and the British Government had not materially hampered the Colonel's operations. But when Gregory had felt himself really fit again he had insisted upon getting back into harness, and Sir Pellinore had suggested that he should make a trip to Paris so that on his return he could put in a full appreciation of the state of things there from his own unbiased observations.

Kuporovitch then told him how well things were going and gave him an outline of some of his own more recent activities.

Madeleine had sat silent for some time when suddenly she broke in: ‘I know you're doing good work, Stefan, and that lots of our other friends are too. You're all doing everything you can and risking your lives almost nightly, but what do the results amount to? Please don't think I'm trying to belittle your work, but it's seemed to me for a long time now that we're not really getting anywhere. Naturally, it annoys the Germans when you derail a troop-train or succeed in blowing up one of the plants that are making munitions for them; but these things are only pinpricks.'

‘I don't see how Stefan and his friends can do very much more at the moment,' Gregory said mildly.

‘But don't you realise,' she insisted, ‘that these isolated acts are not really bringing us nearer to winning the war? Any damage that is done can easily be repaired within a week or two, and it can't be one-hundredth part of what the Germans are doing by their bombing of Plymouth, Coventry, Southampton, Bristol and Liverpool. Now that the Nazis are in control of practically the whole of Europe they have simply thousands of factories working for them, so even with American help it's going to be years before Britain can possibly catch up in the armaments race. Then there's the question of man-power. The British are gallant enough, but even with their Empire and the bits and pieces of Free Forces that are fighting with them they simply haven't the population ever to be able to put into the field an army which will be able to defeat the combined forces of the Germans, Italians and their puppet states on the mainland of Europe.'

‘That's true enough,' Gregory agreed; ‘but if we can hold the Germans in their cage by our blockade that ought to have its effect in time; and sooner or later we'll achieve the air superiority which will enable us to blast hell out of the German cities. Between them these two weapons will bring the Germans to their knees.'

‘But when?' demanded Madeleine impatiently. ‘Don't you see that it may take years, and that while you're slowly building up your Air Force and trying to starve out the Germans you'll be starving the people in all the countries that they've
conquered, too? It was grim enough here last winter. What it's going to be like next I can't think, and as long as there is anything left to eat at all you can be certain that the Germans will take it for themselves. Surely you see that in time the spirit of the people in the occupied territories will be broken by sheer starvation, unless you can devise some means to bring them aid or stir them into revolt while there is still some fight left in them.'

Kuporovitch nodded. ‘I'm afraid you're right about that; but any premature attempt at a revolt would be absolute madness. The Germans are employing a part of their forces now to throw the British out of Greece, but the numbers of the British there obviously cannot be large, and the Greeks and Yugoslavs are so ill-equipped to fight a modern war that it will be quite impossible for them to put up any prolonged resistance. Even while the campaign is in progress Occupied France is still lousy with German troops, and once it's over they would be able to use the whole of their Army, if need be, to quell any rising here. We shouldn't stand a dog's chance.'

‘I don't think you'd stand much chance anyhow,' Gregory remarked, ‘until the British are in a position to land regular troops on the French coast to support a revolt, and I don't think there's the least hope of that this year, or probably even next. For any such landing to be successful, quite apart from the fact that we haven't yet got sufficient supplies of tanks, our expeditionary force would need complete aerial protection, and although we've managed to beat the Luftwaffe on our own ground we're nowhere near strong enough yet to start a major air offensive.'

‘Then someone will have to think up some other idea for dealing a really heavy blow at the Nazis,' Madeleine persisted; ‘something which will shake them so much that there will be a chance for us to make a successful rising. I'm absolutely convinced that it is the only hope for the people in the conquered territories. If something's not done within a year at most they'll be down and out for good.'

Gregory nodded gravely. ‘You mean that somehow or other we must give an entirely new orientation to the war. There's a lot in what you say, Madeleine, but how it could be done is just one hell of a problem.'

‘If we could only kill Hitler that might do the trick,' she suggested. ‘The Germans regard him now as a kind of symbol of victory—almost as a god. Time and again he's gone against his own General Staff; yet he's managed to pull the chestnuts out of the fire every time. His loss would prove an incalculable blow to them. It would shake their confidence in themselves and that's what we want.'

Kuporovitch shook his head. ‘I'm afraid that's out of the question. The reprisals for his murder would be ghastly beyond belief.'

Madeleine's blue eyes were blazing in her white face. ‘What does that matter? If only we could shake the whole Nazi machine to its foundations! If France had fought on thousands of her men would have died on the battlefields. Even if thousands of them should be sacrificed now they would be dying for their country just the same.'

‘In view of the fact that we're waging Total War you're perfectly right,' Gregory agreed, ‘but I'm afraid any attempt to assassinate Hitler is a hopeless proposition. He must be the most carefully guarded man in Europe. When I spoke of a new orientation of the war, though, I meant by its spreading to our advantage. For example, if either Russia or the United States came in on our side. How about Russia, Stefan? This pact between Moscow and Berlin is one of the most phoney tie-ups that have ever been entered into. Everyone knows that Russian and German interests are diametrically opposed.'

‘Then why didn't the Russians come in with us at the begining?' Madeleine asked.

He shrugged. ‘The Russains didn't see the fun of pulling our chestnuts out of the fire for us, and we certainly hadn't deserved that they should. If they'd come in at the kick-off they would have had to take the whole weight of the first great German assault after the Nazis had overrun Poland. Stalin's attitude in wishing to see the Germans weaken themselves first against Britain and France was perfectly logical. But I don't think he'd like to see Britain totally defeated, because he knows perfectly well that within a year the Nazis would find an excuse to quarrel with him, and he'd either have to surrender his grain and oil-lands, which are his life-blood, peaceably, or take on the mightiest army the world has ever seen,
alone. Now that the Luftwaffe has been knocked about a bit, and the Germans have had to spread themselves so much, to hold down all their conquered territories, what do you think the chances are, Stefan, of Stalin ratting on his pact with Hitler and coming in against him?'

‘I'm fully convinced that there's no chance of that at all,' Kuporovitch replied with a cynical grin. ‘If he'd been going to come in for the reasons which you state he would have come in during the Battle for France, when all the German Armies were fully engaged in the West. All Stalin wants is peace to continue the Five-Year Plans which in another twenty years will make Russia one of the most wealthy and prosperous nations in the world. He knows now that Britain means to fight it out, so he's sitting fairly pretty. Such a war to the death must continue for another five years at least, and both Germany and Britain will emerge from it utterly exhausted; so even if the Nazis are still in power when it's over they will no longer have the strength to attack Russia.'

‘There, you see!' Madeleine exclaimed. ‘You admit yourself that with things as they are the war cannot be over for at least another five years. By that time France will have starved to death. We must do something to create an entirely new situation. We simply must—it's our only hope.'

‘I don't see that
we
can do anything,' said Kuporovitch glumly, ‘but there's the United States.'

Gregory shook his head. ‘America may come in before it's finished, but not for a long time yet, and in my opinion she's not likely to do so unless she feels that Britain is really going under. Of course, President Roosevelt and the Administration are a hundred per cent, for us. I think the majority of Americans are too, but, apart from a few adventurous fellows, they won't fight unless they feel that they've absolutely got to. It's not sufficiently realised over here either that there are still enormous numbers of people in the States who are definitely Axis sympathisers. Chicago is almost a German city. New York has its great Italian colony. Then there are the Irish, many of whom are by no means pro-British. Back in England we all feel that the President is doing every possible thing he can to help us; but he has to watch every step he takes, and it's one hell of a big job to educate the isolationists of the
Middle West up to the fact that their freedom, lives and property are just as much threatened by Hitler's bid for world power as our own. Nothing short of a full declaration of war with the employment of the United States Armed Forces could bring about the sort of change in the situation of which we're thinking, and I'm quite certain that's not going to happen for a long time.'

‘Getting back to Hitler,' said Madeleine. ‘If we can't assassinate him, isn't it possible for us to discredit him in some way in the eyes of his own people? For instance, couldn't you manage to get some documents faked in London which would prove that Herr Schickelgrubber is really a Jew?'

‘That's a good idea,' Gregory laughed, ‘but, unfortunately, we can't carry it into practical application. You see, the entire Press of Germany and all the countries which she has overrun is controlled by the Nazis. They would never allow the publication of the evidence, and to put it over by the B.B.C. wouldn't do much good, because even if it were true Goebbels would simply laugh it off as British lies and propaganda.'

‘You remember Father Xavier, Gregory?' Kuporovitch remarked. ‘What he said made me think a lot. You remember how he views the struggle as a war in which Christianity must be wiped out unless Hitler Antichrist can be destroyed? Surely enough has not been made out of that, and a new orientation could be given to this Civil War if the heads of the Churches preached a new Crusade—particularly the Pope. A declaration by His Holiness might even cause widespread dissension in the German and Italian Armies. I mean, of course, if the Pope was prepared to go all out, denounce Hitler from his private radio as a menace to all established religion, and call upon every Catholic in the world to give his life, if need be, in exterminating the pagan Nazis.'

Madeleine nodded. ‘That would be the greatest blow of all which could conceivably be struck to bring about the sort of situation that I mean.'

‘Yes,' Gregory murmured. ‘That would be the real big stuff. Of course, if the Pope came out on our side like that he'd be seized and imprisoned by the Italians, but plenty of Popes have suffered for their faith in bygone days, so I see no reason at all why His Holiness should not be prepared to now.
In fact the stronger the measures taken against him personally the greater would be the effect of his call to battle. He's certainly no friend of the Nazis, as it is, but I expect he fears that if he raised the whole of the Catholics against them his priesthood would be massacred.'

Madeleine shrugged. ‘His passivity did not prevent the Catholic priests in Poland being massacred, and the more priests who suffer martyrdom for their faith in the rest of Europe the more intense the indignation of all religious people would be. There would be risings everywhere, and the German garrisons would be butchered overnight by a furiously indignant people. It might mean a blood-bath for a week, but what is that if only it resulted in a quick ending to the war?'

‘You're right again,' Gregory smiled, ‘but unfortunately in this case I'm afraid we're up against Vatican politics. One must remember that Dictators are here to-day and gone tomorrow, whereas the Papacy goes on for ever, and its policy does not consider this year or next, but deals in centuries. The Pope's advisers have probably come to the conclusion that even if Hitler wins this war he will find the whole world too big to swallow, and the Nazis will bust, as a result of their conquests. In that case, after having had to go underground in Europe for a few years, the Roman Church would come into its own again, and emerge stronger than ever on account of the persecution that it had suffered. In any case, there's no way that I know of in which we can bring practical pressure to bear on the Pope, so it seems to me that we're getting outside practical politics.'