Return of the Eagles [antikvár]

1There was no charge, no trial, no conviction, but there was an execution. A brutal and bloody execution.From his hiding place in the bombed and abandoned farm cottage, Dr Eric Hoffmann peered fearfully through a shell hole and watched the two Waffen-SS officers order the young soldier to kneel. The sound of shouting carried across the bomb-cratered field. The kneeling soldier was waving his arms in terror, pleading and, to Eric's horror, pointing in his direction at the shattered farmhouse. The taller of the two SS men shouted something about deserter scum. He pulled his Mauser from its holster and, without a moment's hesitation, shot the officer in the head.Despite having had little to eat for two days, Eric was physically sick. It was as if the departing soul of the murdered man had wrenched everything from him, turning him inside-out. His mind reeled with the enormity of what had happened. A living person, who had been brought into the world, fed, clothed, cherished and cared for, packed off to school, and doubtless the centre of the world for many people and maybe now with a wife and children awaiting the return of a beloved husband and father from this terrible war, brutally snuffed out by the casual pulling of a trigger.The SS officers' driver ran halfway across the field from the entrance from where he had parked a quarter-track reconnaissance car. He was yelling frantically and pointing to the west. The two officers abandoned their search of the murdered man's pockets and raced to their vehicle. All three piled in and the vehicle took off, heading east, accelerating hard, its1