Blech Mann - Prologue

Project/background Hiroshi Ichimura
Design/build and Illustration Kow Yokoyama
Special effects Hirotomo Onodera
Translated by Dr. TaK. in 2006 from Model Graphix, November 1984
MG magazine from the collection of Trooper PX
________

My second birth began with a pain deep inside my body, exuding from the abyss of unconsciousness to the brightness of consciousness. Oddly, despite this agony, I could feel the body as well as the spirit being filled with vitality. I was having a second birth. For some reason, it was the one thing I was able to realize clearly.

On November 27th, 1942, extracted from the regiment, our platoon boarded the U-534. Slipped from the ladder and hit the shins too many times. Tears came out. Damn it! Why does a paratrooper have to board a U-Boot?

On December 6th , rumors that the ship entered the White Sea. In the early evening, Captain Blechmann, the platoon's leader, opened the orders and read them to us. "Achtung (attention)," the U-Boot rolled widely and we fell down. It is hard for a paratrooper officer to maintain dignity in a U-Boot. Glancing from the corner of their eyes at Captain Blechmann landed on his rear, grinning U-Boot crewmen ran through. Crash dive!

The following morning, maintaining a periscopic depth, the ship was approaching the Solovki Island, in the Solovetski Islands. No sign of the enemy. At 4:00 pm, we touched down aboard a rubber dinghy and then proceeded from the shore to the Savvatievsky Monastery, guided by a former guard, a Latvian. The seawater we were doused with at sea froze and made crunchy noises at each move. The monastery came in sight. On Captain Blechmann's mark, the second squad took an extended cover position. Our squad proceeded straight to the monastery. Headed by Captain Blechmann, the Latvian, and Sergeant Khnopff, and then nine of us followed.

A cry shouted "stoy," the captain and the sergeant simultaneously fired their Mkb42's (Maschinen Karabiner Type 42). Purplish flares spurted. The watchtower's searchlight, which until then was illuminating the premises of the monastery prison, was turned toward the snowfield. At the same time, a machine-gun spat fire. Two MG42's (Maschinen Gewehr Type 42) responded to this, and the watchtower became enveloped with dust and scattering wood chips. As a shooter swung the barrel of his Raketenpanzerbüchse M54 toward the watchtower, his loader quickly opened an elongated box marked with a black stencil circle and took out an R.Gr. 4322 rocket round, which he pushed into the breech. He inserted a spark plug and then gave a tap on the shooter's helmet. A long orange flame; the watchtower was hit; where it tilted, another MG42 automatic fire. Loaded a rocket round; a tap on the helmet. This time, the sturdy monastery gate was hit; one more round! One of the doors fell inwards.

Charge! Headed by the captain, everybody to the inside court; Mkb42's bouncing around in the arms and scattering hot shells around. The overwhelming firing sounds from nine Mkb42's were echoed by the old monastery's stone walls. The bursting sounds from the rocket rounds and grenades added to that, and the firing sound from the MG42's tore the cold air apart. A white flag appeared at a window. And thus we took a Soviet Islam hierarch and a number of his followers out of this gloomy monastery.

On December 3rd , the U-534 disappeared Northeast of Svalbard Islands. Göring learned of the collapse of the plan that he devised himself and was carried out by troops extracted from his own elite unit. He could no longer make the rescued Soviet Islam hierarch declare a Jihad (holy war). Combining his declaration and the means, such as dropping agents and airlifting weapons to the enemy rear, an uprising against the Soviet regime should have been possible, of the Muslims constituting the majority of the population in the South Soviet region. In addition, 21 of his excellent subordinates and Dönitz's U-534, which was strong-handedly borrowed using the operational problems of the Fw-200 patrol aircraft, were also lost. If only Dönitz could keep silent, the matter can be kept solely in my mind; what might be good for an exchange condition…? Göring picked-up the phone and called his adjutant.

On February 14th, 2156, Lieutenant Johannes Amsel's 10 th Armored Reconnaissance Company was called-out. A reconnaissance satellite spotted something strange in a giant iceberg that drifted into the Norwegian Sea. Lieutenant Amsel, who boarded an MK41 (Maschinen Krieger Type 41) went out for reconnaissance, discovered a rusted sail rising up inside a collapsed chunk of ice. It was the U-534. Where I awoke was inside a dim tank filled with lukewarm liquid.

"What is your name?" a deep gentle voice asked.

"Pfc. Oskar Schlemmer"

When I tried to move my body, pain ran through, and I lost consciousness again.

"Feel assured and stay still"

I heard in my fading consciousness.