By Stealth

52

`Landslide…'

Otto Kuhlmann had acted swiftly, ruthlessly, on receiving the codeword. In the middle of the night his teams of armed men surrounded the new colony of houses to the west of Blankenese.

They had arrested twenty men aged between twenty- five and forty and two women. A huge cache of arms and explosives had been found – together with aerial photos of Hamburg and Frankfurt airports. Their papers had been checked and found to be excellent forgeries.

`You are charged with being accessories to the attempted murder of Hugo Westendorf and others,' Kuhlmann had informed them.

`That should hold them behind bars for a very long time,' he had told an aide with relish.

`Landslide…'

Benoit in Brussels had acted with equal speed once he had been given the codeword. At the same hour chosen by Kuhlmann armed detectives in convoys of cars had sealed off the new village of Vieux-Fontaine outside Ghent.

Twenty-five people, including three women, had been hauled out of bed. After they were taken away in police vans the houses had been turned over. More weapons, more explosives had been found – again with detailed aerial photographs of Zaventem and Liege airports, so detailed they gave the lengths of individual runways.

`Sabotage and terrorism are the charges,' Benoit had told his prisoners. 'You will be our guests for an eternity.' `Landslide..

A large force of Special Branch officers had raided Moor's Landing at 3 am. Ironically, the assault team had come up the Beaulieu River and ashore at the landing stage – the route Tweed was convinced had been used by Stealth ships to bring in the infiltrators. Before dawn twenty-eight adults, including two women, aged between thirty and thirty-five, were taken aboard a fleet of vehicles driven in by road and disguised as tradesmen's vans. Detailed plans of London Airport, Gatwick, and Standstead were found, plus bombs with timer mechanisms and weapons.

The Special Branch officer in command made no comment.