Fogbound Encounter 9


By Katzmarek


The Magirus-Deutz bus growled its way along the new cement road. The awe-struck 
passengers pressed their noses to the windows, staring at the giant grey cigar.


The cigar, though sported giant fins on which the peculiar symbol designed by Dr 
Albert Speer was painted, black in a white circle in a red square.


This was the new Germany with a new flag and symbols. Just as the old empire had been 
swept away by the first world war, the economic disasters of the late 20s had dealt a 
body blow  to the fledging Weimar republic.


The bus drove right up to the giant airship. Under the nose Kimi read Graf Zeppelin in 
black gothic writing.


Everything about it was bigger than anything that had gone before. Length, height, gas 
capacity and along the hull six engines. Diesels, Kimi noted, with a wry grin, 


If only the Chief was alive to see this. he thought.


A small dais had been set up next to the control car and as the guests assembled 
themselves in some sort of order a small welcoming party of uniformed men arrayed 
themselves on either side.


A rather solid looking man in a brown uniform ascended the dais. Around his arm he 
sported a red armband with Dr Speers symbol, the swastika, on a white disc.


Welcome to the new Germany, the man said, as deputy Fuhrer of the German Reich it 
is an honour to stand before you, veterans of the German Airship Service of the Great 
War. You are, like myself, fliers and heroes who gave your souls for the honour of the 
Fatherland only to be betrayed by those who chose to stay safely in their homes and make 
profits out of your sacrifice...


Holding her husbands hand with the other wrapped around their 10-year-old son, Eliza 
whispered to Kimi,


Who is he?


Herman Goering, he whispered back, he was the last commander of the Richthofen 
Jasta at the end of the war. He was a lot slimmer then.


I dont like his eyes,  she whispered,  he bores right through you.


Probably short-sighted, Kimi told his wife.


A short sighted pilot? Eliza giggled, I dont fancy flying with him.


Kimi was never one for speeches and this was a long one. He dearly wanted to break 
away from the crowd and have a look at those motors with his son. He hoped to have a 
chance later.


 At last Germany, the new Germany, is going to take its rightful place in the sun. 
Already The German government under the guidance of Chancellor and Fuhrer Adolf 
Hitler has thrown off the shackles of Versailles, thrown off the shackles of the 
Washington naval agreement, we will see off the last contingent of foreign soldiers from 
our soil and look towards the future with pride


Kimi lost track of the speech again. He looked at his watch in annoyance.


I really wish hed get on with it.


 We will build fleets of aeroplanes, flotillas of airships, our navy is rebuilding, our 
army will be the most feared in the worldso I invite you, heroes of the Great War to 
join with us in giving pride to the Reich. Join with us and become heroes of the future 
with our great Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler sieg heil


What was that all about? asked Eliza, I thought he was going to give himself a 
hernia.


I gather he wants me to join up.


Are you going to?


Not if I have to listen to that all the time, he grinned.


The Kasemanns had lived in Galston for 15 years. Theyd made a comfortable life for 
themselves and 10 year old Jimmy. If there was any ill feeling towards him from the 
locals it had quietly disappeared.


Now a British citizen, hed even enlisted in the Royal Navy Reserve and spent one 
weekend a month tending the big Thornycroft engines of an inshore patrol boat.


While Eliza worked as a nurse at the local village hospital, Kimi ran the only garage in 
the area. He repaired and maintained everything from private cars to farm tractors, 
bicycles to ploughs and seed drills.


Britain was using German technology to build its own giant airships. One, the R100 was 
being built by Vickers, the other, R101 by the Government. Kimi and Eliza were 
planning on taking a voyage on one of them when they were completed.


So when hed received a letter from Germany inviting him and his family on an 
honourary cruise on the giant Graf Zeppelin theyd jumped at the chance.


The voyage had been organised by the Reich war-veterans association in conjunction 
with DLB, the Deutsche Luftschiffbau. (German Airship Company) 


They had no idea what a propaganda exercise it was to become. The red carpet was laid 
out, tours organised and events arranged for the children. All to demonstrate what giant 
strides had been made in Germany and to encourage the airship men to enlist in the 
services.


Curiously absent on the tours were the scenes of streets with Juden (Jews) daubed on 
shops and homes? Nor, indeed the camps quickly filling up with opponents of the Nazi 
Party.


While Eliza and Jimmy were conducted on a tour of the airships luxury interior, 
representatives of Daimler-Benz and DLB showed Kimi and other veterans, an engine 
car.


The engine was a conventional upright six, but innovative in its use of lightweight 
materials. It wasnt, however, reversible. The time required to stop the engine, then set it 
in reverse was too long. Additionally, two-cycle diesels hadnt reached the required level 
of reliability by 1934, except for large marine engines.


MAN of Nuremberg had developed a set for the new armoured ship, Deutschland, then 
just launched, however these large engines were a constant headache to the Navy.


Descending the ladder from the car, Kimi came face to face with Goering. He was a large 
man in every way, resplendent in his brown party uniform and always accompanied by a 
pair of boot-clicking aides.


An aide read out Kimis name from a list and the Deputy Fuhrer extended his hand.


Joachim, Im pleased to meet you. I hope you have been impressed by what you have 
seen?


Kimi nodded.


Good, we have need of good men like you. Let me tell you of what Ive been planning. 
Soon we will unveil the new German Luftwaffe. For years the French has crippled 
Germany by the treaty that those traitors at Versailles signed. But no more! We will once 
again take our place among great nations.


Kimi didnt really want another speech but the commanding presence of this big man 
held him spellbound.


Joachim, I will personally offer you an Officers commission if youd join the new 
Luftwaffe. Who knows, soon you might be a General in charge of aircraft engineering, 
no? Goering said laughing. The big belly laugh commanded those around him to laugh 
too.


I hear you are to be taken around the Reich in the Graf. Take a look! See what we have 
been able to do in two years with our Fuhrer at the helm and imagine what can be 
accomplished in the future, good day. 


He strode off saying,


Reichenau, that man was a Captain wasnt he?


Kimi was feeling unsettled by all the snapping and saluting going on around him. The old 
airship service had been relatively informal and the clicking of heels was beginning to 
annoy him.


It was night before they returned to Munich. The airship veterans and their families were 
taken on a sedate tour of southern Germany 


 As they approached the town of Nuremberg, Kimi saw pillars of light from searchlights 
aimed straight up into the sky.  On the ground below, a giant swastika was illuminated. 


The Zeppelin drifted slowly around what appeared to be a floodlit stadium. Below were 
ranks and ranks of soldiers packed together in 4 blocks of humanity.


Many of the passengers on the airship were mesmerised by the sight. On cue, the massed 
ranks below extended their arms in the Nazi salute, making the blocks appear to jump 
before their eyes.


Someone down the promenade deck started shouting sieg heil in response. Someone 
else shouted,


Im with you!


Kimi and Eliza looked at each other in disbelief and moved young Jimmy away from the 
windows.


Kimi, lets go home, Eliza told her husband.


Aye! I dont doubt theyll be bringing in all the farm equipment soon. Harvesting is 
coming up.


Kimi, you dont want to go back into the air again, do you?


Generals dont fly, love. They just keep desk chairs warm, he teased.


Well? Do you want to be part of this?


This is all crazy, he said, with all the talk, I dont doubt theyll want a war, soon, 
against France, maybe Russia. Once was enough for me.


As the Kasemanns headed back to Scotland on the London to Glasgow Express, Kimi 
felt the letter burn a hole in his pocket. It was the formal offer made by the German Air 
Ministry, the Reich Luftfahrtministerium, of a position as an instructor at an aero engine 
maintenance school. He told them hed consider it and put it in his breast pocket.


It was a world away from Galston and its broken tractors and blown gaskets, an exciting 
and challenging world with a more luxurious lifestyle.


But Germany now disturbed him. There was overconfidence about the people hed met 
that bordered on the arrogant. It was if overnight, headmasters sons and bakers daughters 
had been elevated to the aristocracy by putting on an armband and uniform, and it gave 
them the right to be boorish and overbearing and downright rude.
 

He thought of his old Captain, Karl Heinz Freiherr von Dalwig zu Leichtenfels. He had 
expected deference to his rank and title and received it. This Goering and his people 
DEMANDED it by menace. 

But most of all, the system demanded scapegoats and that fell on the Jews, and 
Communists and anyone else deemed undesirable.

Hed rather live in a village where the only thing you had to fear was Alec Gormans bad 
temper, when his Fordson got stuck in a drain.


Donald, Kimis young apprentice, picked the tired family up from the railway station in 
the little Dodge tow truck. The young mechanic chattered to Kimi about all the jobs hed 
done, and those needed doing while Eliza snuggled into Kimis shoulder. Jimmy sat on 
the deck of the truck, still dreaming of airships and massed saluting.


His parents barely tolerated the next few days of young Jimmy stiff-arm saluting and 
clicking heels and the sieg heils when he came and went.


But when he asked his mother to make him one of those armbands, Eliza snapped.


Joachim Kasemann! Tell your son to take his pure Aryanism out of my house. If he 
clicks his heels one more time I will put him in fluffy slippers.


Kimi took his son on a little walk.


What have you got against Jewish people? he asked him.


Jimmy shrugged his shoulders.


Then why would you want to drive them out of their homes, smash up their furniture 
and close their shops and businesses?


I wouldnt.


Well thats what the Nazis are doing in Germany. In the old Imperial Navy there were 
many Jews, good loyal Germans and Jewish. Now your Nazi friends are saying they are 
all traitors and war profiteers and must be driven away. You know the Draper, Mr. 
Klein?


Jimmy nodded.


Mr. Klein who gives you toffee when you pass his shop?


Jimmy nodded again.


Who brought you home in his Morris car when you fell off your bicycle?


You want to smash his windows, Jimmy? Ban his children from school? Paint insults 
over his house and dump manure over his door? Is that a good thing to do? You want to 
go around to his shop with a gang of thugs and beat him up in the street? 


Kimis voice rose in volume. He turned to face his son.


How do you think Mr. Klein feels when you give the Nazi salute. How do you think he 
would feel if you strutted around with a swastika armband? Think about his friends and 
family who are being bashed up in Germany, Jimmy. For Mr. Kleins sake lets have no 
more Nazi stuff, ok?


Ok.


Jimmy Kasemanns unofficial membership of the Nazi Party ceased.


Later that night, Kimi and Eliza cuddled in bed together. Jimmy was asleep in the next 
room, Kimi had lit a candle by the bedside.


 I understand what you mean about floating in an airship, his wife said, its like being 
held up by angels.


Kimi put his hand over her pussy and planted a kiss over her breast.


Helium! The US navys on the right track. But it needs to be cheaper to produce. 
Hydrogen is too tricky to use your headlamps are on, Kimi said licking a nipple.


Very funny! And what do you call this? Eliza said, grabbing his stiff cock.


Ready! he said, undoing the buttons of her nightshirt.


POSTSCRIPT


In 1939 Joachim Kimi Kasemann became James Cheeseman by deed poll. Initially as a 
Sub-Lieutenant (Reserve) and later as a full Lieutenant he served on the Aircraft Carriers 
HMS Formidable and HMS Illustrious in the Mediterranean and the Far East.


He survived the war and resumed his business in Galston.


In 1962 he retired and lived in the same village until his death in 1982, aged 85.


Eliza died the year before at age 83. She was matron at the village hospital in Galston for 
30 years.


A sister, Isabel, joined Jimmy in 1936. They are both still alive.


Jimmy Cheeseman joined the Royal Navys Fleet Air Arm and was training as a pilot 
when the war ended. He worked with his father post-war, eventually taking over the 
Garage when his father retired.


Isabel is married and lives in Glasgow.


Jock Smyth became Game Warden to the Duke of Tavistock and Lough after the 1st 
World War. He retired in 1929.


Bruno Lody emigrated to the US in 1920 to be an artist in New York. Not successful in 
that competitive world he founded a chain of delicatessens that still bear his name. 


Herman Schoemann remained in Germany and joined the Nazi Party in 1924. An 
alcoholic he was killed in an argument outside a tavern by a fellow SA member. Dr 
Goebels added his name to the list of martyrs to the cause, and claimed the Communists 
killed him. Then had the real killer assassinated.


The 3rd Waffen SS Division Herman Schoemann was annihilated in Russia during the 
battle of Kursk.


THE END



