“The Führer has honored me with the responsibility for carrying it out,” Student said.
“Let’s hear what the SS has to say, General Student,” von Wachtstein said.
“Certainly,” Student said.
“Skorzeny,” von Deitzberg said.
Skorzeny popped to attention, then opened his briefcase and took a large map and a number of large photographs from it. He unfolded the map and then laid it on the table.
In front of von Wachtstein, which means he acknowledges that von Wachtstein is really in charge.
“I have personally reconnoitered the Campo Imperatore Hotel by air,” Skorzeny said. “In a Fieseler Storch. If you will notice, gentlemen, the map has keys to the photographs.”
Canaris examined the map and the photos with interest. All he had previously seen was a prewar advertising brochure for the hotel. It wasn’t that he was disinterested but rather because, before Hitler had involved him in the rescue of Il Duce, he couldn’t imagine being involved himself.
As both Gehlen and von und zu Waching had heard him often say, “Effective intelligence is far less the gathering of information than being able to find the two or three tiny useful bits in the mountains of useless data.”
Canaris simply hadn’t the time to try to learn anything but the two or three useful bits: where Mussolini was being held, and when and where he was going to be moved.
Looking at the map and the photographs now, Canaris understood why the Carabinieri had chosen the Campo Imperatore Hotel as the place to confine Il Duce. It sat atop the Gran Sasso, the highest mountain in the Italian Apennines, accessible only by cable car from the valley. Mussolini would not only have to escape his captors but also somehow use the cable car to get down the mountain. And cable cars were not like automobiles; one could not operate them by oneself.
More important, no one trying to free him could do so without using the cable car. All the Carabinieri would have to do to thwart a rescue attempt was disable the cable car and call for help, which could get there—even from Rome—long before the rescuers could scale the Gran Sasso.
“Simply,” Skorzeny said, “my plan is that 108 members of the SS Special Unit Friedenthal, under my command, will land in a dozen of General Student’s DFS 230 assault gliders. Once the Carabinieri have been dealt with, and Il Duce freed, a Fieseler Storch will land, and Il Duce and I will get in it and fly to Rome.”
“I find a few little things in your plan that concern me,” Student said sarcastically. “For example, the Storch is a two-seat aircraft. Or are you planning on flying it yourself, Herr Hauptmann?”
The door opened and Frau Dichter, Canaris’s anemic-looking secretary said, “Forgive the intrusion, Herr Admiral, but . . .”
Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler pushed past her into the room.
“. . . Reichsführer Himmler.”
Everyone rose quickly to their feet.
Himmler’s right arm shot out in the Nazi salute.
“Heil Hitler,” he announced softly. “Take your seats, gentlemen. I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”
“Would you like to sit here, Herr Reichsführer?” von Deitzberg asked.
“This will be fine,” Himmler said as he took one of the chairs lining the conference table.
When he had seated himself, the others sat back down.
“Actually,” Himmler announced, “I came to have a word with Admiral
Canaris. But since I am here, and we all know how important Operation Oak is to our Führer, perhaps this is one of those fortuitous circumstances one hears so much about. Please go on.”
Von Deitzberg shot to his feet.
“Herr Reichsführer, General Student was about to tell us what he finds wrong with Skorzeny’s plan.”
“Which is? Skorzeny’s plan, I mean.”
“Admiral Canaris has learned that Mussolini will shortly be taken to the ski resort—the Campo Imperatore Hotel—on the crest of the Gran Sasso,” von Wachtstein said. “It was just agreed that that is where the rescue will take place. Skorzeny proposes that 108 men of the SS Special Unit Friedenthal under his command land by glider and free Il Duce, who will be then flown to Rome in a Storch.”
“And General Student finds weaknesses in that plan?” Himmler said. “I’ll be interested to hear what they are.”