The Katyn Order Read Online Free PDF Page A

Center. “General Bor has ordered all remaining AK units in Wola to pull back behind this line. The barricades are being reinforced tonight. The last of the weapons have been removed from the warehouse on Stawki Street and relocated to Old Town.” He took another marker and made five
X’s
along the red line. “We’ll set up machine guns and mortars at these points. Riflemen will be positioned in the windows of the buildings behind them. We expect they’ll hit us hard tomorrow. At all costs, we hold this line.”
    â€œWhat about communications with our units in the Jolibord District?” someone asked from the center of the room.
    â€œWe’re running telephone lines through the sewer mains,” Stag replied. “The work has already started. We’ve pulled Rabbit and some of the other boys off ‘cocktail duty’ to help out, especially to crawl through some of the smaller tunnels.”
    A few good-natured cheers and bursts of laughter broke out as someone shouted, “Rabbit better not carry those cocktails with him. The fumes will set them off!”
    Natalia turned to see who made the joke. It was a heavyset, barrel-chested man with a full beard, clenching a cigar between his teeth. Then she noticed someone else, another man, who stood nearby, yet slightly apart from the crowd. He looked like—
    Her attention was diverted back to the front of the room as the colonel rapped the table again. “We’ve received reports from the British that we can expect an RAF airdrop tomorrow night. This time the target area is Place Krasinskich.”
    Another murmur rippled through the crowd. A man behind Natalia muttered, “Good Christ, flying right through the city with smoke as black as hell and anti-aircraft guns firin’ those fuckin’ 88s.”
    â€œWhat about the Russians?” another commando asked. “When are they coming in?”
    Colonel Stag’s face tightened. “We’ve had no direct contact with them, but our intelligence reports say they will be arriving soon.”
    Natalia shook her head. She knew it was all lies. Colonel Stag probably did too. She had been raised in a small village in eastern Poland. Her brother had been a cavalry officer, captured by the Russians after their sneak attack in September of ’39. Then, two weeks later, when the Red Army entered their village and burned it to the ground, her parents and her uncle and aunt had disappeared along with hundreds of others. None of them had ever been heard from again.
    As Colonel Stag was about to adjourn the briefing, an AK officer wearing the uniform of a Polish Army captain stood up and cleared his throat. Natalia recognized him. His code name was Pierre, the commander of AK forces in Wola. He was a friend of Falcon’s and about the same age, but tonight he looked much older. His face was drawn, and there were dark pouches under his eyes. His voice cracked as he spoke. “More than thirty thousand civilians in the Wola District were murdered
just last week,
Colonel. Women, children, even priests and nuns, their bodies tossed into heaps and burned like garbage.”
    The room fell silent.
    Pierre took a long breath before continuing. “It’s that monster Heisenberg and his SS Twenty-Ninth Brigade. More than half of those vicious bastards are criminals the Germans released from concentration camps. The rest are conscripted Russians and Ukrainians. They’re just wanton killers, slaughtering innocent people! We’ve been ordered to pull out of Wola, but we’ve got to
do
something about that son of a bitch!”
    Colonel Stag was silent for a moment, his expression darkening. “SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Heisenberg is under surveillance,” he said finally.
    Pierre persisted. “Do we have a plan—?”
    â€œWolf will take care of it.”
    Heads in the group turned to the left. Natalia followed their gaze to the man she had noticed