Iron Cross

At dusk on the third day, Bowman and Skorzeny, who had returned to retaliate, walked into the head of state's office. Hoffmann asked with concern: "Did you succeed?"

"We succeeded. We pretended to be British military police and sneaked into the scene, completely destroyed the manor and killed everyone we could see. The bombing effect was very good, the fire on the scene was huge, and there were probably very few survivors." Skorzeny My mood was not very high, but I still answered the general process.

Seeing that the other party was obviously depressed, Hoffman asked strangely: "What's going on? I see you are unhappy? The team has suffered a great loss?"

"yes!"

"This is inevitable. Such a major operation cannot be without sacrifices, but success means even more. This means that the British can no longer steal secrets from us, and you will save countless people. There have never been so few people. Save the fate of so many people." Hoffman seemed very excited, and finally gave a hard push to change the direction of history.

"The main reason is that the head of state is far-sighted and decisive in decision-making." Bowman complimented, but Skorzeny lowered his head and did not respond, not knowing what he was thinking.

"Comrade Bowman, please express my greetings to the families of the victims and injured team members on my behalf. The relevant honors and pensions will be issued as soon as possible. I will personally award medals to the meritorious people." Hoffman thought for a while and felt that someone was missing. He asked strangely, "Where's Rank? Why doesn't he come to see me?"

"The Führer..." Skorzeny lowered his head, and it took him a long time to squeeze out the words through his teeth. "Commander Rank sacrificed his life to cover us. He was the only victim of the commando's operation."

"What?" Hoffman was stunned and asked repeatedly, "How did he die? When did he die? You know that he has no special operations capabilities. Didn't I tell you to protect him? "

In a low voice, Skorzeny recounted the general course of the action, and also described Rank's situation when the two finally broke up.

"...just because his cover bought us enough time, we were not bitten by the British reinforcements, and successfully retreated from another road, and then boarded the submarine at dawn to evacuate. We waited Even at the last moment when we agreed to evacuate, Commander Ranke came to join us. Several people originally wanted to take the risk and stay there for support, but I think that with Commander Ranke’s familiarity with Britain, if he can’t get rid of the enemy , we couldn't respond at all, so I stubbornly refused them - I could only ask him to forgive me, I couldn't go back to rescue him, because there were 50 commandos, and I wanted to bring them all back." Skorzeny said with red eyes and choked with sobs.

Bowman already knew about Rank's experience in the UK and interjected: "Although no one witnessed it with my own eyes, if my estimate is correct, Major Rank should have died. Even if he was caught by the British, with his character and Temper will definitely choose to die heroically. Although he died, his spirit will last forever. For him, those bastards who bullied and insulted him in the past were finally sent to hell by his own hands."

"We can't look at this matter superficially." Hoffman waved his hand. He was a scholar and understood this humanistic spirit. "Rank was aware of the target and object from the beginning to the end when he carried out this mission. Could he? Is it for personal revenge? If we just look at him in this way, we will underestimate his spirit and belittle the value of his self-sacrifice. Although Rank was bullied and insulted in all aspects while living and studying in the UK, this is not the case. It is just a kind of tempering for people by the environment. His noble motivation to perform and complete the mission cannot be reduced to the vulgar level of just personal revenge - he completed this task for the fundamental interests of the country and the people. If it were him personally, I don’t think he would choose to do this, let alone retaliate against them. At most, he would just smile.”

Hoffmann gave an example: "When I was young and living on the streets of Vienna, many people insulted me, ridiculed me, and bullied me, but I persisted. Not to mention the professor at the Academy of Fine Arts who refused my admission, I could have endless success. Endless anger... But now that I am the head of state and the most powerful man in Germany, am I going to take revenge? If I do that, I will not only have a despicable personality, but also a twisted psychology. As a noble knight, isn't it? I wouldn’t even bother to do that.”

"I understand what you mean." Bowman complimented, "The Führer's tolerance has always been admirable, and Ranke is also a hero with this valuable quality."

Skorzeny told McDonald's story again and also shared Rank's message, hoping that Hoffman would agree to the request.

"How should I put it? This is really a tragedy." Hoffman sighed. He did not expect that there would be such a story in the operation. He nodded and agreed to Skorzeny's request and explained, "The death of Martyr Rank We should comply with your last words, and I will entrust you to handle this matter."

He turned to Bauman and said: "We need Dr. Goebbels to use the martyr Rank as a representative to carry out in-depth patriotism and nationalism propaganda, and let the younger generation know, understand and understand Ranke's ideological realm and spirit of sacrifice. We will hold a grand memorial ceremony to deeply remember and commemorate him.”

"Führer, this is the written will left by Chief Rank. Each of us left a will before departure. I opened it and looked at it and found that the recipient of the letter was you, so I brought it to you." After taking it, Hoffman I slowly opened it and read:

"To the most respected head of state:

I think that by the time you see this letter, I will probably be dead, which may be a relief for me.

I didn't realize the specialness of this mission at first. I thought it was a bit risky at most, but after a deeper understanding, I knew what I was going to do. The best ciphers and translators in Great Britain worked there - to an ordinary German, they were just a string of unfamiliar British names; but to me, they were memories that were hard to forget in my life. The translators were just ordinary British citizens and I could ignore them, but the ciphers and mathematics experts there - whether they were the chief experts or other researchers, they had a deep relationship with me. Let me put it more directly. This group of experts is basically composed of the most outstanding mathematics professors and the best students in the mathematics and statistics departments of the two universities of Cambridge and Oxford in Great Britain. There are my teachers, my friends, my classmates, and my alumni - I know many of them, and they should remember me too.

In general, although I encountered various unpleasant things during my study at Cambridge University, the school was fair to me. I was treated equally in terms of both thesis and academic performance, and the professors also helped me as much as possible within the scope allowed - without any prejudice or tinted glasses. Although some classmates made things difficult for me when I was studying, I did not hate them. In fact, their difficulties and ridicule did not cause me much substantial harm in the end. At most, they were just some boring topics of conversation after dinner, and I would not take it too seriously. Even if I was treated unfairly, I did not need to take such fierce revenge, which was not in line with my ideal.

My real focus was on the target and object of the action. Because I had a relatively thorough understanding of the code, I understood the consequences of the loss of confidentiality, and I also witnessed the harm of the loss of confidentiality on the North African front - although General Guderian took advantage of the loss of confidentiality to eliminate many British people, overall we suffered losses. Therefore, this action is not only justified but also very urgent for the empire.

After I received the task and accepted the mission you assigned, I struggled for a long time. I was in great pain and even tossed and turned and couldn't sleep:

If I took action against them, it would mean that I would have to take action against my former teachers, classmates and alumni, and physically destroy them all. I couldn't imagine such cruelty and couldn't bear such a price; if I didn't take action against them, it would mean that the Empire's telegrams would be leaked continuously, and we might lose the victory of the war or make greater sacrifices. The German people couldn't bear such a price.

Finally, I figured it out... I'm not living for myself. I currently have no family or lover in Germany. I live for my motherland, my people and my leader. When I needed care the most, it was my motherland and my people who selflessly accepted me, and it was my leader who enlightened me. Now my motherland and my leader need me and need me to stand up. I can't abandon this responsibility, so I decided to carry out this mission, first to ensure his success, and if possible, to ensure the commando's safe return.

I hope:

Whether this operation succeeds or fails, the honor belongs to other commandos. Especially if it fails, please don't be too harsh on them. They have done their best. They are the best fighters I have ever seen in the world. If there is killing and sin in this operation, all of them belong to me. I am willing to bear any crime and go to hell to accept the cruelest punishment in purgatory to wash away the sin.

Finally, please allow me to make a small request to you: after I die, I don't need any honor or pension (if any), just need to engrave the words "German Citizen: Tomb of Albert Ranke" on the tombstone. My property (I don't have any real estate) is about 1025 marks in savings. Please donate all of it to the team members who died or were disabled in this operation to do my best.

It's a pity that I can't continue to serve the empire. I believe that the empire will surely rise up under your leadership to realize the common dream of all German people!

Long live our leader-the great, glorious, and correct leader Adolf Hitler!

Long live the invincible German people!

Albert Ranke, at the base on the night of September 29, 1942.