Day I, Night
Batrix2070
RON/PLC was a wonderful country.
People's Republic of Poland
April 1, 1974
The German-Polish border on the island of Usedom/Uznam
Świdny Las
2:58
They say that three o'clock in the night is the hour of Satan or some other devil, or at least this is what the mother of senior private Stanisław Dąb used to say, but he as a self-respecting communist did not believe in fairy tales. After all, both Lenin and Marx used to say that religion is opium for the people and he, as a good soldier of the Border Guards of the People's Republic of Poland fighting for social welfare and workers' liberation, would stick to this.
Therefore, without fear, he walked along the border with the friendly people of Democratic Germany, who supported the World Revolution, as opposed to those damned fascist dwarfs from West Germany, those damned Nazi scum who killed his grandfather on both sides of the family for being Polish.
That's why he listened with concern to his buddy Andrzej Birski who told him how his cousin was fighting against a reactionary element from some small outpost called Wojsławice with the extremely unpeople name of Wędrowycz.
"So this cousin tells me that crazy guy Jakub, you know what he did?" Andrzej said, and Dąb asked, "Well, what did he do?" And Andrzej involuntarily started laughing and said, "That nutcase Wędrowycz told the boss of the fucker they put him in there that they can't lock him up a second time for making moonshine, so he's doing it in prison." Dąb involuntarily joined in with his buddy.
Then suddenly they both stiffened when they heard a sudden loud crackling sound like burning branches for one long minute then suddenly it disappeared "Jesus Maria, what the hell was that?" Said Birski in a horrified tone "E you Birski, what kind of fictional characters are you calling on. Set a good folk example and not a reaction you spread." Repulsed Dąb was more concerned about the inappropriate revolutionary approach than the fact of the unfamiliar sound.
"Shut up you moron, someone's coming!" He was silenced quickly by Birski, and Dąb realized after a moment that he could actually hear the breaking of branches and the not-so-quiet sounds of conversation, though it surprised him. He knew well the patrol schedules of his neighboring guards, after all, the border on the island was small so he more or less knew what it looked like in practice.
Only after a while the thought occurred to him. What if it was some German who decided to escape from GDR through Poland, because it was easier? Or what even better, a western saboteur! Already he saw in his mind's eye a medal for catching an imperialist spy, but quickly returned to reality when he felt a solid blow on his head.
"... to get him." He only understood the end of the sentence so he automatically said "What?" Birski rolled his eyes before contemptuously replying "Egg. We're going after him cymbal." Dąb quickly grasped the point then set off after him.
The general direction was easy to track, as the noises were getting louder and even understandable as human. Of course, it did not make the march through the densely overgrown Polish part of the island of Usedom easy.
Even with flashlights it was difficult, but well, you can't be a servant, someone has to patrol the border in case of counter-revolutionary actions by the rotten capitalist countries of the West. Unfortunately, Dąb had to conclude, with all sad necessity, that his buddy Birski did not, unlike his militia cousin, share the revolutionary fervor.
Well, not many in the unit have recently shared this enthusiasm, and what the lovingly reigning First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR) Edward Gierek, also known as Edward I Generous, did, according to Dąb, cried for vengeance to heaven, with the reservation, of course, that Dąb does not believe in heaven because, after all, he is a communist, right?
Dąb, if he could, would have shot Gierek dead for violating the party line and bringing in capitalist garbage from the West. He should have continued the actions of Władyslaw Gomułka.
Fortunately, his internal complaining was interrupted when they approached the source of the noise. On Birski's cue, they turned off their flashlights and the only thing illuminating the area was the light of the moon which was only half visible tonight.
They both reached the edge of the forest, where the Polish-German border begins to go along the Torf Kanal, or as the Germans call it, Torfkanal. Only when they were so close did they realize that those strange noises combined with the breaking of branches were simply a drunken peasant singing in German. Well, let's say singing, in the opinion of both Border Guards he was rather moaning like an old German woman singing about how nice it is to turn Polish children into food.
"Kurwa, where are those guys over there? That creep is singing like a fuck over that canal, and the water is carrying that noise pretty fucking well!" Said Birski with a growing headache. Dąb just shook his head, "I'd stay away from that reptile, too, if I were them. My head hurts like hell from his singing."
They waited a few moments before Birski decided to give a fuck about the Germans and what they called music. "All right, Stasiek, let's catch this guy and take him to the border crossing. Let the Krauts skin him, there's bound to be a dozen or so laws against this moron, anyway, does he fucking know there's a border here?"
Dąb later decided that Birski strangely enough had some gift of foresight, or damn luck as to why this German was here, but let's not anticipate the facts. The two men quickly and without ceremony crept up on the drunkard who changed his tune and began to sing something that, in Dąb's opinion, was perfect for a funeral.
Then, still singing, he started to throw himself into the sewer, so the Poles preferred to wait a while and when he finished, they rushed towards him. To make things funnier the German turned around at the last moment and with a sudden scream out of fear he got hit in the face with Birski's AK butt.
He picked his nose for a moment and angrily shouted after a moment, "Was?" At which Birski quoted the famous Four Tankman quote "Kapusta i Kwas(Cabbage and Acid)." The German looked at Birski with strange eyes. "Was haben Sie gesagt?" Then he looked at the two and seeing the uniforms suddenly jumped up and saluted "Entschuldigen Sie, meine Herren Offiziere!"
Birski looked at Dąb questioningly "Do you understand what he is saying?" Dąb shook his head "No, I don't know German. What's the point anyway? The international language is Russian anyway."
Birski had some doubts about the knowledge of the Russian language of the man in front of him. That's why he relied on deduction: "I don't know, I think he said something about an officer, and if I remember correctly herr is mister..".
This is where Dąb interjected, "Wait a minute, what? What mister? If I remember correctly the comrade in German is Kamerad." Birski looked at him carefully then they both looked at the German with wolfish eyes. "Stimmt etwas nicht, meine Herren? Und welche Sprache sprechen Sie?" The German spoke up in a questioning tone.
After which they both pointed AKs at him and Birski said "Hands up you fucking saboteur." The German instinctively put his hands up "Meine Herren, ganz ruhig..."
He could not finish because Dąb quickly appeared behind him and put a gun to his back and said a short catch phrase from the German Guards, "Los!" then they moved towards the border crossing Birski in turn joined the commander reporting the capture of the saboteur.
The next few minutes passed in silence as they marched north through the forest to the only land border crossing from East Germany to the People's Republic of Poland on Uznam Island. The German was strangely quiet, though every now and then he would fall over a tree root, but would quickly get up when Dąb stood over him with his gun in hand.
During this march, Dąb, thanks to the light of the flashlights that were switched on, was able to have a little look at the German's outfit, and to his amazement he noticed that it looked poor and old, like his grandfather's, although his grandfather was from eastern Poland, not western Poland. But Dąb saw the full extent of the poverty and old age when they finally reached the road and the German's outfit began to be better visible in the light from the approaching passage.
But more strangely the German stood and stared like his mother at the holy picture in the church depicting the mother of God at the light from the street lamp above the crossing of the border crossing road. "Was ist das für eine Hexerei?" He said as if spellbound as if he had never seen anything like it.
Dąb had to stab him to get him to move forward. After a short while they reached the crossing buildings and from the booth controlling the barriers to the GDR the head of another Border Security soldier leaned out, "Oho, who have our brave warriors caught here? Who's the saboteur?" Then when he saw a German he muttered maliciously, "What a wonder, where did you catch him?"
Birski rolled his eyes, "Great and dangerous citizen Karol, he sat by the canal and drank for four. He got too carried away in his drinking and magically flew here over the border. We should put him in jail to sober him up and hand him over to the Germans, or vice versa, let the Germans take care of him."
At the mention of the Germans Karol became serious "And just about the Germans, there will be a little problem with that." Birski quipped "What?" To which Karol nodded towards the border "Look for yourself."
Birski and Dąb looked over there and to their amazement noticed, or rather did not notice, the existence of buildings on the German side of the border crossing. To make matters worse, the asphalt road suddenly broke off where the Polish border according to the maps was and a dirt road going straight into the forest began.
"What the fuck?" Dąb muttered then went back to guarding the German so he wouldn't run away. "Well, you see, but the Old Man will tell you more." Karol continued. "Sure..." Said Birski, confused, and then ordered Dąb to follow him to the main building.
Lech Dwojak, called Old Man by his subordinates, was a captain of the Border Protection Army and commander of GPK Świnoujście. It was on his shoulders that responsibility fell for the safe transport between People's Poland and Democratic Germany on the Uznam Island and to the town of Świnoujście.
And everything seemed to be as usual another boring night, when his subordinates would manage by themselves and he would not need to be woken up. And with a good thought he fell asleep only to be woken up a few hours later by a sudden phone call from the border crossing.
His deputy, Lieutenant Michał Pipka, was visibly panicked, so he quickly got dressed trying not to wake up his children, his wife unfortunately woke up with him, and then got into his official so-called Big Fiat, a Fiat FSO 125p produced on Italian licence, and set off with a bang to the police station located nearby.
Here Lieutenant Pipka explained that for some unexplained reason, they heard loud crackling like burning branches and then the German part of the border crossing evaporated. For a moment he thought that he was joking with him, but in fact more than half of the GPK was gone. The whole thing looked as if someone had cut out evenly from a ruler along the border and then taken the German part somewhere.
He didn't know what to say about it, he just stared at what he saw like a holy picture, then after a few minutes he nodded and went to his office in the main building.
There he quickly pulled out a peculiar thought enhancer called vodka, poured a glass and drank for its bitter taste without sipping. He cringed but it helped him dismiss the remnants of drowsiness and he began to wonder what he should do next.
His fruitless pondering was interrupted by the entrance of Second Lieutenant Stanisław Cegła. He quickly saluted and in a loud and perfectly regulation tone reported, "Citizen Captain, Private Andrzej Birski and Senior Private Stanisław Dąb report that they have caught a saboteur and are about to bring him here."
The captain threw a dispassionate "Aha, tell me when they come." Brick saluted without a word then gallantly marched off. The captain took out a map of Usedom Island from under his desk and unfolded it, the memory of the diversion had instilled a thought in him.
If this diversionary is local, he can confirm what the surroundings look like, and Dwojak had some suspicions that they are still in the same place, after all the road differed only by the fact that it was not paved, and so they walked as before.
After a few minutes Cegła came in again and reported the arrival of the two Privateers. Dwojak quickly took the map under his arm and left the office. He quickly looked at his two catchers, nothing special, just typical Polish faces, where Birski looked more blunt and square, but Dwojak knew well that the more stupid of the two was Dąb.
He accepted their report with calmness and then looked at the clearly frightened German, dressed obviously in clothes unsuitable for the 70s, whose alcohol intoxication was passing quickly and the solid light from the bulbs allowed him to finally see who he was really dealing with.
"Who the hell are you!" Said the terrified German. Dwojak, fortunately for him, knew German, after all he had to understand what the other commander wanted and even what he didn't want to tell him. "Border Protection Forces." He replied smoothly though with a noticeable Polish accent. Unfortunately he could not speak like Germans, as if they had a hot potato in their mouth.
The German was greatly surprised "What borderland?" To which the Captain smiled a little mockingly seeing that his suspicions were confirmed "What do you mean? The Polish border with the German Democratic Republic." Said Dwojak calmly and slowly the full name of the GDR wanting to check the German's reaction.
To say that he was astonished is like saying that the flag of the Soviet Union is red with the blood of killed capitalists and other enemies of the people... Well, let's go back to history, the German was astonished and then started to ask "What German Democratic Republic? Here is the Kingdom of Prussia! Belonging to the German Empire! This is the middle of Prussia to the border far away! Where are you from?"
Dwojak raised his hand to stop him then told him to follow him to the table on which he had placed the map then asked, "First, let's start with something simple. What is your name?" The German tried to look at the map but the Polish captain would not let him and looked at him with a firm questioning eye. The German, unable to stand the duel, bowed his head down and then replied, "Hans Klebs, mister officer."
The twitcher let go of the wrong turn to him after which he nodded and asked, "Well, well Citizen Klebs please look at the map, do you recognize it?"
Klebs raised his head quickly, a little surprised at the term Citizen, then looked at the map. Although he was an ordinary peasant, an imperial subject, he had seen a map of the surrounding area many times, because he had been many times in the nearby Heringsdorf, which had become a resort for the rich at the end of the 19th century, and there were various permanent maps, as well as ones to be bought for holidaymakers, so that they knew how the island of Usedom looked like.
Thus he quickly recognized the military map that showed Usedom, although he was strongly surprised by the thick line separating the eastern part of the Island with the town of Świnoujscie, or as Hans prefers Swinemünde, from the German western part.
"Yes, I recognize it's a map of the island of Usedom I saw in Herungsdorf like that." Klebs confirmed Dwojak's suspicions, when he did the Captain quickly took the map from the table and gave it to Second Lieutenant Cegła. After which he turned to Klebs "I see, now a few formal questions how old are you?"
"It will be twenty-four years from the day after tomorrow. "He quickly took the map back to the office and returned with a notepad and pen and wrote down everything he needed. Only then did he continue with the questions
Dwojak began with a simple "What year and day are we?" Klebs scratched his head before he mouthed "Well this year of yours is 1914 and yesterday was March 31." Dwojak furrowed his brow and asked sharply "Where are you from?" Klebs was a little surprised by the sharp tone but replied "From the village of Korswandt, it's not far from the city." The captain nodded and then asked in a tone of such disbelief, "What were you doing at three in the morning in the woods?" The German raised slightly amused and ashamed replied, "A little drunk at my brother's wedding and I got lost somewhere.
The Captain was surprised while Cegła involuntarily burst into laughter, Dwojak looked at him wolfishly bringing him back to order then he put his hand reassuringly on Klebs shoulder unfortunately the German took this gesture for something else and instinctively ducked as if to avoid a blow only after a while he realized it was not that.
After which the Captain rolled his eyes slightly seeing the smiles of the soldiers turned to the German "Citizen Hans Klebs, I would like to welcome you to the Polish People's Republic at the Border Control Post Świnoujscie, you are probably the first citizen of the Imperial Germany staying on the territory of our wonderful people's country although you have no documents therefore you are temporarily detained until the case is clarified in custody."
The German, after initially nodding his head at the news that he was being arrested, mumbled a simple "Was?" then Dwojak theatrically made a disgruntled face, "I don't want to do this to you, but these are the rules." Then he ordered both privates to take the German into custody. Surprisingly, the German did not put up any resistance that the soldiers expected and allowed himself to be taken politely to the cell.
When the German was out of sight with his soldiers, Dwojak became serious and threw to Cegła, "Call Major Szczepaniak, our battalion must already be in combat readiness. I want him ordered to secure the entire island by morning."
Cegła asked his commander in surprise, "All of it?" The Captain made a disgruntled reply in a loud tone "YES FUCKING WHOLE!" then added in a quieter tone "I don't feel like giving the Fritzes time to figure out we're here when we're in a bad position to defend the city!"
Cegła quickly saluted "Yes sir Citizen Captain!" then flew off to the radio room. The Captain, on the other hand, moved to put the entire guard garrison on full combat readiness. The future looked dark.
April 1, 1974
The German-Polish border on the island of Usedom/Uznam
Świdny Las
2:58
They say that three o'clock in the night is the hour of Satan or some other devil, or at least this is what the mother of senior private Stanisław Dąb used to say, but he as a self-respecting communist did not believe in fairy tales. After all, both Lenin and Marx used to say that religion is opium for the people and he, as a good soldier of the Border Guards of the People's Republic of Poland fighting for social welfare and workers' liberation, would stick to this.
Therefore, without fear, he walked along the border with the friendly people of Democratic Germany, who supported the World Revolution, as opposed to those damned fascist dwarfs from West Germany, those damned Nazi scum who killed his grandfather on both sides of the family for being Polish.
That's why he listened with concern to his buddy Andrzej Birski who told him how his cousin was fighting against a reactionary element from some small outpost called Wojsławice with the extremely unpeople name of Wędrowycz.
"So this cousin tells me that crazy guy Jakub, you know what he did?" Andrzej said, and Dąb asked, "Well, what did he do?" And Andrzej involuntarily started laughing and said, "That nutcase Wędrowycz told the boss of the fucker they put him in there that they can't lock him up a second time for making moonshine, so he's doing it in prison." Dąb involuntarily joined in with his buddy.
Then suddenly they both stiffened when they heard a sudden loud crackling sound like burning branches for one long minute then suddenly it disappeared "Jesus Maria, what the hell was that?" Said Birski in a horrified tone "E you Birski, what kind of fictional characters are you calling on. Set a good folk example and not a reaction you spread." Repulsed Dąb was more concerned about the inappropriate revolutionary approach than the fact of the unfamiliar sound.
"Shut up you moron, someone's coming!" He was silenced quickly by Birski, and Dąb realized after a moment that he could actually hear the breaking of branches and the not-so-quiet sounds of conversation, though it surprised him. He knew well the patrol schedules of his neighboring guards, after all, the border on the island was small so he more or less knew what it looked like in practice.
Only after a while the thought occurred to him. What if it was some German who decided to escape from GDR through Poland, because it was easier? Or what even better, a western saboteur! Already he saw in his mind's eye a medal for catching an imperialist spy, but quickly returned to reality when he felt a solid blow on his head.
"... to get him." He only understood the end of the sentence so he automatically said "What?" Birski rolled his eyes before contemptuously replying "Egg. We're going after him cymbal." Dąb quickly grasped the point then set off after him.
The general direction was easy to track, as the noises were getting louder and even understandable as human. Of course, it did not make the march through the densely overgrown Polish part of the island of Usedom easy.
Even with flashlights it was difficult, but well, you can't be a servant, someone has to patrol the border in case of counter-revolutionary actions by the rotten capitalist countries of the West. Unfortunately, Dąb had to conclude, with all sad necessity, that his buddy Birski did not, unlike his militia cousin, share the revolutionary fervor.
Well, not many in the unit have recently shared this enthusiasm, and what the lovingly reigning First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR) Edward Gierek, also known as Edward I Generous, did, according to Dąb, cried for vengeance to heaven, with the reservation, of course, that Dąb does not believe in heaven because, after all, he is a communist, right?
Dąb, if he could, would have shot Gierek dead for violating the party line and bringing in capitalist garbage from the West. He should have continued the actions of Władyslaw Gomułka.
Fortunately, his internal complaining was interrupted when they approached the source of the noise. On Birski's cue, they turned off their flashlights and the only thing illuminating the area was the light of the moon which was only half visible tonight.
They both reached the edge of the forest, where the Polish-German border begins to go along the Torf Kanal, or as the Germans call it, Torfkanal. Only when they were so close did they realize that those strange noises combined with the breaking of branches were simply a drunken peasant singing in German. Well, let's say singing, in the opinion of both Border Guards he was rather moaning like an old German woman singing about how nice it is to turn Polish children into food.
"Kurwa, where are those guys over there? That creep is singing like a fuck over that canal, and the water is carrying that noise pretty fucking well!" Said Birski with a growing headache. Dąb just shook his head, "I'd stay away from that reptile, too, if I were them. My head hurts like hell from his singing."
They waited a few moments before Birski decided to give a fuck about the Germans and what they called music. "All right, Stasiek, let's catch this guy and take him to the border crossing. Let the Krauts skin him, there's bound to be a dozen or so laws against this moron, anyway, does he fucking know there's a border here?"
Dąb later decided that Birski strangely enough had some gift of foresight, or damn luck as to why this German was here, but let's not anticipate the facts. The two men quickly and without ceremony crept up on the drunkard who changed his tune and began to sing something that, in Dąb's opinion, was perfect for a funeral.
Then, still singing, he started to throw himself into the sewer, so the Poles preferred to wait a while and when he finished, they rushed towards him. To make things funnier the German turned around at the last moment and with a sudden scream out of fear he got hit in the face with Birski's AK butt.
He picked his nose for a moment and angrily shouted after a moment, "Was?" At which Birski quoted the famous Four Tankman quote "Kapusta i Kwas(Cabbage and Acid)." The German looked at Birski with strange eyes. "Was haben Sie gesagt?" Then he looked at the two and seeing the uniforms suddenly jumped up and saluted "Entschuldigen Sie, meine Herren Offiziere!"
Birski looked at Dąb questioningly "Do you understand what he is saying?" Dąb shook his head "No, I don't know German. What's the point anyway? The international language is Russian anyway."
Birski had some doubts about the knowledge of the Russian language of the man in front of him. That's why he relied on deduction: "I don't know, I think he said something about an officer, and if I remember correctly herr is mister..".
This is where Dąb interjected, "Wait a minute, what? What mister? If I remember correctly the comrade in German is Kamerad." Birski looked at him carefully then they both looked at the German with wolfish eyes. "Stimmt etwas nicht, meine Herren? Und welche Sprache sprechen Sie?" The German spoke up in a questioning tone.
After which they both pointed AKs at him and Birski said "Hands up you fucking saboteur." The German instinctively put his hands up "Meine Herren, ganz ruhig..."
He could not finish because Dąb quickly appeared behind him and put a gun to his back and said a short catch phrase from the German Guards, "Los!" then they moved towards the border crossing Birski in turn joined the commander reporting the capture of the saboteur.
The next few minutes passed in silence as they marched north through the forest to the only land border crossing from East Germany to the People's Republic of Poland on Uznam Island. The German was strangely quiet, though every now and then he would fall over a tree root, but would quickly get up when Dąb stood over him with his gun in hand.
During this march, Dąb, thanks to the light of the flashlights that were switched on, was able to have a little look at the German's outfit, and to his amazement he noticed that it looked poor and old, like his grandfather's, although his grandfather was from eastern Poland, not western Poland. But Dąb saw the full extent of the poverty and old age when they finally reached the road and the German's outfit began to be better visible in the light from the approaching passage.
But more strangely the German stood and stared like his mother at the holy picture in the church depicting the mother of God at the light from the street lamp above the crossing of the border crossing road. "Was ist das für eine Hexerei?" He said as if spellbound as if he had never seen anything like it.
Dąb had to stab him to get him to move forward. After a short while they reached the crossing buildings and from the booth controlling the barriers to the GDR the head of another Border Security soldier leaned out, "Oho, who have our brave warriors caught here? Who's the saboteur?" Then when he saw a German he muttered maliciously, "What a wonder, where did you catch him?"
Birski rolled his eyes, "Great and dangerous citizen Karol, he sat by the canal and drank for four. He got too carried away in his drinking and magically flew here over the border. We should put him in jail to sober him up and hand him over to the Germans, or vice versa, let the Germans take care of him."
At the mention of the Germans Karol became serious "And just about the Germans, there will be a little problem with that." Birski quipped "What?" To which Karol nodded towards the border "Look for yourself."
Birski and Dąb looked over there and to their amazement noticed, or rather did not notice, the existence of buildings on the German side of the border crossing. To make matters worse, the asphalt road suddenly broke off where the Polish border according to the maps was and a dirt road going straight into the forest began.
"What the fuck?" Dąb muttered then went back to guarding the German so he wouldn't run away. "Well, you see, but the Old Man will tell you more." Karol continued. "Sure..." Said Birski, confused, and then ordered Dąb to follow him to the main building.
Lech Dwojak, called Old Man by his subordinates, was a captain of the Border Protection Army and commander of GPK Świnoujście. It was on his shoulders that responsibility fell for the safe transport between People's Poland and Democratic Germany on the Uznam Island and to the town of Świnoujście.
And everything seemed to be as usual another boring night, when his subordinates would manage by themselves and he would not need to be woken up. And with a good thought he fell asleep only to be woken up a few hours later by a sudden phone call from the border crossing.
His deputy, Lieutenant Michał Pipka, was visibly panicked, so he quickly got dressed trying not to wake up his children, his wife unfortunately woke up with him, and then got into his official so-called Big Fiat, a Fiat FSO 125p produced on Italian licence, and set off with a bang to the police station located nearby.
Here Lieutenant Pipka explained that for some unexplained reason, they heard loud crackling like burning branches and then the German part of the border crossing evaporated. For a moment he thought that he was joking with him, but in fact more than half of the GPK was gone. The whole thing looked as if someone had cut out evenly from a ruler along the border and then taken the German part somewhere.
He didn't know what to say about it, he just stared at what he saw like a holy picture, then after a few minutes he nodded and went to his office in the main building.
There he quickly pulled out a peculiar thought enhancer called vodka, poured a glass and drank for its bitter taste without sipping. He cringed but it helped him dismiss the remnants of drowsiness and he began to wonder what he should do next.
His fruitless pondering was interrupted by the entrance of Second Lieutenant Stanisław Cegła. He quickly saluted and in a loud and perfectly regulation tone reported, "Citizen Captain, Private Andrzej Birski and Senior Private Stanisław Dąb report that they have caught a saboteur and are about to bring him here."
The captain threw a dispassionate "Aha, tell me when they come." Brick saluted without a word then gallantly marched off. The captain took out a map of Usedom Island from under his desk and unfolded it, the memory of the diversion had instilled a thought in him.
If this diversionary is local, he can confirm what the surroundings look like, and Dwojak had some suspicions that they are still in the same place, after all the road differed only by the fact that it was not paved, and so they walked as before.
After a few minutes Cegła came in again and reported the arrival of the two Privateers. Dwojak quickly took the map under his arm and left the office. He quickly looked at his two catchers, nothing special, just typical Polish faces, where Birski looked more blunt and square, but Dwojak knew well that the more stupid of the two was Dąb.
He accepted their report with calmness and then looked at the clearly frightened German, dressed obviously in clothes unsuitable for the 70s, whose alcohol intoxication was passing quickly and the solid light from the bulbs allowed him to finally see who he was really dealing with.
"Who the hell are you!" Said the terrified German. Dwojak, fortunately for him, knew German, after all he had to understand what the other commander wanted and even what he didn't want to tell him. "Border Protection Forces." He replied smoothly though with a noticeable Polish accent. Unfortunately he could not speak like Germans, as if they had a hot potato in their mouth.
The German was greatly surprised "What borderland?" To which the Captain smiled a little mockingly seeing that his suspicions were confirmed "What do you mean? The Polish border with the German Democratic Republic." Said Dwojak calmly and slowly the full name of the GDR wanting to check the German's reaction.
To say that he was astonished is like saying that the flag of the Soviet Union is red with the blood of killed capitalists and other enemies of the people... Well, let's go back to history, the German was astonished and then started to ask "What German Democratic Republic? Here is the Kingdom of Prussia! Belonging to the German Empire! This is the middle of Prussia to the border far away! Where are you from?"
Dwojak raised his hand to stop him then told him to follow him to the table on which he had placed the map then asked, "First, let's start with something simple. What is your name?" The German tried to look at the map but the Polish captain would not let him and looked at him with a firm questioning eye. The German, unable to stand the duel, bowed his head down and then replied, "Hans Klebs, mister officer."
The twitcher let go of the wrong turn to him after which he nodded and asked, "Well, well Citizen Klebs please look at the map, do you recognize it?"
Klebs raised his head quickly, a little surprised at the term Citizen, then looked at the map. Although he was an ordinary peasant, an imperial subject, he had seen a map of the surrounding area many times, because he had been many times in the nearby Heringsdorf, which had become a resort for the rich at the end of the 19th century, and there were various permanent maps, as well as ones to be bought for holidaymakers, so that they knew how the island of Usedom looked like.
Thus he quickly recognized the military map that showed Usedom, although he was strongly surprised by the thick line separating the eastern part of the Island with the town of Świnoujscie, or as Hans prefers Swinemünde, from the German western part.
"Yes, I recognize it's a map of the island of Usedom I saw in Herungsdorf like that." Klebs confirmed Dwojak's suspicions, when he did the Captain quickly took the map from the table and gave it to Second Lieutenant Cegła. After which he turned to Klebs "I see, now a few formal questions how old are you?"
"It will be twenty-four years from the day after tomorrow. "He quickly took the map back to the office and returned with a notepad and pen and wrote down everything he needed. Only then did he continue with the questions
Dwojak began with a simple "What year and day are we?" Klebs scratched his head before he mouthed "Well this year of yours is 1914 and yesterday was March 31." Dwojak furrowed his brow and asked sharply "Where are you from?" Klebs was a little surprised by the sharp tone but replied "From the village of Korswandt, it's not far from the city." The captain nodded and then asked in a tone of such disbelief, "What were you doing at three in the morning in the woods?" The German raised slightly amused and ashamed replied, "A little drunk at my brother's wedding and I got lost somewhere.
The Captain was surprised while Cegła involuntarily burst into laughter, Dwojak looked at him wolfishly bringing him back to order then he put his hand reassuringly on Klebs shoulder unfortunately the German took this gesture for something else and instinctively ducked as if to avoid a blow only after a while he realized it was not that.
After which the Captain rolled his eyes slightly seeing the smiles of the soldiers turned to the German "Citizen Hans Klebs, I would like to welcome you to the Polish People's Republic at the Border Control Post Świnoujscie, you are probably the first citizen of the Imperial Germany staying on the territory of our wonderful people's country although you have no documents therefore you are temporarily detained until the case is clarified in custody."
The German, after initially nodding his head at the news that he was being arrested, mumbled a simple "Was?" then Dwojak theatrically made a disgruntled face, "I don't want to do this to you, but these are the rules." Then he ordered both privates to take the German into custody. Surprisingly, the German did not put up any resistance that the soldiers expected and allowed himself to be taken politely to the cell.
When the German was out of sight with his soldiers, Dwojak became serious and threw to Cegła, "Call Major Szczepaniak, our battalion must already be in combat readiness. I want him ordered to secure the entire island by morning."
Cegła asked his commander in surprise, "All of it?" The Captain made a disgruntled reply in a loud tone "YES FUCKING WHOLE!" then added in a quieter tone "I don't feel like giving the Fritzes time to figure out we're here when we're in a bad position to defend the city!"
Cegła quickly saluted "Yes sir Citizen Captain!" then flew off to the radio room. The Captain, on the other hand, moved to put the entire guard garrison on full combat readiness. The future looked dark.
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