Mission Summary and Team
2 May 1941
To The Farm
- Simon was collected at dawn to get the rifle at the farm. The Leutnant took him in a truck with four soldiers.
- Once they collected the rifle and shell casings, he instructed his troops to leave the farm and search the neighboring area for a large man and a sledge hammer.
- The Leutnant took Millard’s body to bring back to the clinic.
- He told Simon that he would release Marie Claire to return to the farm.
At the Garage
- Victor was awakened by Dupont in the morning. The day guards had returned. Dupont instructed Victor to go home, get cleaned up, and have something to eat.
- Yann Abgrall met him on the street on the way to the safe house. He apologized for not being around. He did not want to get too close after the business with the Germans in the cafe.
- When they arrived at the house, they found that no one was home and the house had been searched. The book code book was still hidden under the floorboards. Victor could not tell if it had been discovered. Yann noted that the equipment in the priest hole was undistrurbed. There were no signs that the priest hole had been discovered. The bar had been removed from the basement door. Victor reset it.
- Once they house was searched and secured, Victor asked about what had spooked the Germans the previous night. Yann told him that there had been some shooting at the farm. Talon had been foolish for firing a rifle.
- Yann confided that the innkeeper where the German’s were being garrisoned was one of his informers. She informed Yann that Millard and Talon were attacked with a significant force. The Germans were saying it was a madman with a big sledgehammer. Millard’s chest had beed caved in, and Talon’s leg had been crushed.
- Victor imagined thing stories he had heard as a child back in Poland.
- Victor suggested getting German speaking resistance members jobs in the town hall. Yann agreed that that would be a good idea, but added that in Rennes, the Germans took over command of the Gendarmerie, but since Betton was such a small town, (they did not even have Gendarme of their own), the Germans probably would not want the help.
- Victor then dismissed Yann to get cleaned up and have something to eat. Yann suggested meeting at the café in an hour.
At the Clinic
- Antoinette was awakened by the Germans collecting Simon. She checked on her German patient, and he was healing nicely.
- Marie Claire came to her and told her that Marlon had awakened and was agitated. They went to check on him. Marlon drew a sketch.
- On an empty road, a wrecked German truck lay on its side, surrounded by corpses of German soldiers.
- Marie Claire identified the road as the spot where the wagon was stopped by the Germans on the way to the farm and swooned. Antoinette was disturbed as she recognized some of the soldiers.
- Antoinette took that moment to announce that Talon had died in his sleep. The German sentry believed her and said he would inform the Leutnant.
At the Farm
- Simon repaired the basement door as best he could, but it was not ideal. The scraps he had found had gaps in them, so the portal was not completely closed off.
- A few minutes after the truck departed, the thing appeared at the far end of the clearing across from the basement door, and Simon got a good look at it.
- It was clearly about seven and a half feet tall.
- It was covered in burlap, but there was something solid inside.
- The covering is weathered and dirty, giving it camouflage.
- There were words embroidered into the burlap on its forehead, but he could not see them clearly.
- The thing had a place for a face, but there were no eyes, ears, nose or mouth.
- Simon was frozen in place. The thing did not attack or approach him. It just looked in his direction. He felt a brief wave of vertigo.
- Then it lumbered off toward Betton. Simon followed it as it moved steadily by stealthily through the foliage to side of the road. The thing was unnaturally stealthy, but Simon maintained his surveillance.
At the Clinic
- The Leutnant and his soldiers returned with the body of Millard. Marie Claire started crying. Antoinette had Marlon take her out of the room.
The Leutnant ordered Antoinette to examine the body and determine the cause of death. - Antoinette said that he had been killed by a blunt object with immense force behind it. She and the Leutnant debated possible causes for the trauma. In the end, she wrote reports providing plausible sources for the injuries (e.g., run down by the tractor), at the Leutnant’s suggestion.
- As she was writing the reports, an elderly man in a German uniform arrived with Maelys Hamon of the resistance. The old officer introduced himself as Stabsarzt Lumpf, the medical administrator for the Rennes district. He had received a report that German soldiers were being treated at the clinic and was required to certify the clinic for use by German personnel.
- Maelys promoted Antoinette’s initiative in setting up the clinic which was in its first day of operation. Lumpf seemed impressed at her treatment of the German soldier’s wounds. Antoinette suggested serving at the hospital in Rennes. Lumpf said he would consider the idea.
- Maelys suggested to Lumpf that Dr. Berger should check on the prisoners at the town hall who had been arrested overnight. Lumpf agreed.
On the Road to Betton
- Simon followed the thing down the road until he lost it in the foliage. But he regained the trail again.
- He came into a clearing and found the thing flipping a truck on its side. The soldiers crashed out of it, all but one dead. The survivor crawled away into cover. The thing then demolished the truck searching for something.
- While that was happening, Simon snuck around the cleaning and intercepted the surviving soldier, who had head lacerations and a serious wound to the abdomen. He smashed the soldiers head with a rock and killed him. Simon then searched the body of the soldier and removed his uniform and equipment.
- He observed the thing as it worked over the truck and noted four Hebrew characters in fancy type sewn into the forehead. He made a note of them in a notebook he had found on the soldier.
- The thing lumbered off toward Betton. Simon returned to the farm and buried the soldier’s kit under the barn.
In the Village
- As Antoinette and the Leutnant walked toward the town hall, they were met by Victor. He asked what the trouble had been in the night. The Leutnant told him it was nothing he needed to worry about. Victor then left them to join Yann at the café.
- People had lined up to surrender weapons at the hotel. As they were walking through the square, Antoinette and the Leutnant saw an old man in the line hold up an old blunderbuss. A startled soldier shot him and the old man fell to the ground.
- An altercation ensued between the agitated youth who had been in front of the old and German soldier. The soldier beat the man to the ground and he was arrested. The rest of the soldiers readied their weapons in response and pointed them at the villagers.
- Antoinette protested the treatment of the villagers to the Leutnant. He barked orders a nearby sergeant, who then ran off to control the soldiers.
- There was also a line of people outside the town hall waiting to register, but that line was orderly in spite of the soldiers all around with their weapons ready.
At the Town Hall
- SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Oskar Kalb and Kriminalobersekretar Wolfgang Todt from the Gestapo arrived just after Antoinette and the Leutnant were met by the Oberleutnant at the top of the steps to the basement.
- Todt told them they came to investigate a complaint about Oberleutnant Fischer from Leutnant Jaeger.
- The Leutnant introduced Dr. Berger and told him she had come to treat injuries the prisoners below had sustained when they were arrested.
- The Gestapo men accompanied Antoinette and the officers to the basement cell where the prisoners were chained to the walls. Antoinette was staggered when she saw the cell. It was the room from Marlon’s sketch where the Oberleutnant and other soldiers had been mutilated.
- Several villagers had been arrested. Some had minor injuries.
- The old woman who attacked the soldier.
- The men who came to her aid and violated the curfew.
- Several people who protested having their homes searched.
- Several people who resisted surrendering their weapons
- While the doctor treated them, the Wehrmacht officers stated the case against each prisoner to Kalb.
- After assessing the situation, Kalb ordered all except the old woman who stabbed the soldier to be released. She was to be taken to a prison in Rennes. Antoinette protested, but Kalb was indifferent.
- After the soldiers had left the cell, while she was treating the old woman, Antoinette gave the woman her cyanide pill and told her to save it for Rennes. The old woman was shocked by the suggestion of suicide.
- After she left the cell, Antoinette caught up to the officers and the Gestapo men in an antechamber. She heard Kalb say that he agreed with Leutnant’s perspective that the villagers must be controlled, but instructed the Leutnant to treat the villagers better.
- “We learn more through cooperation than oppression.”
- The Oberleutnant mentioned that he had arranged for a seed delivery to get crops started. The seed should arrive that afternoon. Kalb commended him.
- The Hauptsturmfuhrer then asked for more details on Jaeger’s report of the sledge-wielding madman. Kalb stated that capturing the criminal was just what they needed to earn the respect of the villagers.
- Kalb said that he would order additional troops. Hauptmann Freitag’s entire command would be assigned to Betton.
- He instructed the Wehrmacht officers to investigate anyone with access to sledge hammers (e.g., garage, blacksmith, farmers, etc.) and arrest anyone who acted suspiciously or met the description of the assailant.
- Antoinette mentioned that she had written the medical report on the two victims. She said that they had died from a severe trauma, such as being run down by the farm tractor.
- Kalb was skeptical and ordered the bodies to be packed up to be examined elsewhere.
- After the Gestapo men left, the Oberleutnant and the Leutnant subtlety competed to console Antoinette following her encounter with the Gestapo.