Sheba

Hitler gestured towards the huge map of the world that hung on the far wall. ‘Come over here, Herr Admiral, and let me show you.’

When Canaris returned to the reception hall at the Chancellery an hour later, Hoffer was seated behind his desk with the two orderlies. There was no sign of Ritter. The SS Captain stood up and came to greet him.

‘Herr Admiral.’

‘My aide?’ Canaris asked.

‘Hauptman Ritter was badly in need of a smoke. He went back to your car.’

‘My thanks,’ Canaris said. ‘I’ll find my own way.’

He went out of the huge doors and stood at the top of the steps, buttoning his greatcoat, looking out at the rain. He went down the steps and had the rear door of the limousine open before his driver realized what was happening, and climbed in beside Ritter.

‘My office,’ he called to the driver, then closed the glass partition.

Ritter started to stub out his cigarette as they drove away, and Canaris sat back. ‘Never mind. Just give me one of those things. I need it.’

Ritter got his cigarette case out and offered a light. ‘Is everything all right, Herr Admiral? I saw them all leave. I was worried.’

‘The Führer, Hans, gave us his personal order to invade Poland on September the 1st.’

‘My God,’ Ritter said. ‘Case White.’

‘Exactly. He has been negotiating with the Russians, who will do a deal. They’ll let us get on with it in return for a slice of eastern Poland.’

‘And the British?’

‘Oh, they’ll declare war and I’m sure the French will go along. The Führer, however, is convinced they will do nothing on the Western Front and for once I agree. They’ll sit there while we wrap up Poland, and his feeling is that once it’s an accomplished fact, we can all get round the negotiating table and get back to the status quo. Britain, as he informed us, is not our natural enemy.’

‘Do you agree, Herr Admiral?’

‘He’s right enough there, but the British are a stubborn lot, Hans, and Chamberlain is not popular. Since Munich his own people despise him.’ Canaris stubbed out his cigarette. ‘If there was a change at the top, Churchill for example …’ He shrugged. ‘Who knows?’

‘And what would we do?’

‘Implement Case Yellow. Invade the Low Countries and France and drive whatever army the British had brought across the channel into the sea.’

There was a pause before Ritter said, ‘Could this be done?’

‘I think so, Hans, as long as the Americans don’t interfere. Under the Führer’s inspired leadership we have reoccupied the Rhineland, absorbed Austria and Czechoslovakia plus one or two bits and pieces. I have no doubt we’ll win in Poland.’

‘But afterwards, Herr Admiral? The French, the British?’

‘Ah, well now we come down to why the Führer kept me back when everyone else left.’

‘A special project, Herr Admiral?’

‘You could say that. He wants us to blow up the Suez Canal on the 1st of September, the day we invade Poland.’

Ritter, in the act of snapping his cigarette case open, said, ‘Good God!’

Canaris took the case from him and helped himself. ‘He got the idea from this Colonel Rommel who commanded the Führer’s escort battalion for the occupation of the Sudetenland. He thinks highly of Colonel Rommel and with reason and there is a certain mad logic to the idea. I mean, the Suez Canal is the direct link to the British Empire. Cut it and all shipping to India, the Far East and Australia would have to go by way of Africa and the Cape of Good Hope. The military implications speak for themselves.’

‘But Herr Admiral, how on earth would we get men and equipment into the area?’

Canaris shook his head. ‘No, Hans, you’ve got it wrong. We’re not talking direct military action here, we’re talking sabotage. The Führer wants us, the Abwehr, to blow up the Suez Canal on the day we invade Poland. Put the damn thing out of action. Close it down so fully that it would take a year or so to open it again.’

‘What a coup. It would shock the world,’ Ritter said.

‘More to the point, it would shock the British to the core and make them realize we mean business. At least that’s the way our beloved Führer sees it.’ Canaris sighed. ‘Of course, how the hell we are to accomplish this is another matter, but we’ll have to come up with something, at least on paper, and that’s where you come in, Hans.’

‘I see, Herr Admiral.’

The limousine pulled in to the kerb outside the Abwehr offices at 74–6 Tirpitz Ufer. The Petty Officer hurried round to open the door for Canaris and Ritter scrambled out after him. The young Luftwaffe officer was frowning slightly.

Canaris said, ‘Are you all right?’

‘Fine, Herr Admiral. It’s just that there’s something stirring at the back of my mind, something that could suit our purposes.’

‘Really?’ Canaris smiled and led the way up the steps, pausing at the door. ‘Well, that is good news, but sooner rather than later, Hans, remember that,’ and he led the way inside.

It was perhaps an hour later and Canaris was seated at his desk working his way through a mass of papers, his two favourite dachshunds asleep in their basket in the corner, when there was a knock at the door and Ritter entered with a file in one hand and a rolled-up map under his arm. He limped forward, leaning on his stick.

‘Could I have a word, Herr Admiral, on this Suez Canal venture?’

Canaris sat back. ‘So soon, Hans?’

‘As I said, there was something at the back of my mind, and when I got to my office I remembered. A report I received last month from a professor of archaeology here at the University, Professor Otto Muller. He’s recently returned from Southern Arabia. Intends to go back there soon. He needs additional funding.’

‘And what has this to do with us?’ Canaris asked.

‘As the Herr Admiral knows, all German citizens working abroad have to make a report to us here at Abwehr Headquarters of anything of an unusual nature that they may have come across.’

‘So?’

‘Allow me, Herr Admiral.’ Ritter went across to the map board on the far wall, unrolled the map under his arm and pinned it in place. It showed Egypt and the Suez Canal, the whole of Southern Arabia, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. ‘As you can see, Herr Admiral, the British in Aden, the Yemen and then various Arab states along the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, Dhofar and the Oman.’

‘Well?’ Canaris asked, examining the map.

‘You will notice Dahrein, a port on the Gulf coast. This is where Muller was working from. It belongs to Spain. Rather like Goa on the Indian coast. The Spaniards have been there for four hundred years.’

‘I can imagine what the place is like,’ Canaris said.

‘North across the border with Saudi Arabia is the Rubh al Khali, the Empty Quarter, one of the most awesome deserts on earth.’

‘And this is where Muller was operating?’

‘Yes, Herr Admiral.’