Wednesday (4): Tragedy



Kommando Spezialkräfte (KSK)
Bundeswehr Special Forces Coat of Arms



"That son of a bitch" repeated Colonel Wolfgang-Albert with a cold smile. He seemed lost in his own toughts for a moment. Nobody talked.
"Anyway" he said, after some seconds "the General briefed me on the mission details: I was to take command of 16 navy divers, in charge of the technical part of the recovery. The security detail would be formed by 12 special forces men, of the KSK (Kommando Spezialkräfte). They would join us in site, and they were responsible for all the aspects of the operation not directly connected with the diving and recovery of the drums; This meant perimeter security and interdiction, and, when the drums had been recovered, to escort them to their final destination."
"And that final destination, was?..." Ed asked.
The Colonel shrugged: "I made the same question. I was supposed to be instructed about it when all 32 drums had been recovered. I tought it was a bit strange, but the Army is specialist in doing strange things. Something else I asked the General was why we were using Army and not Navy special forces in the security detail, as we were going to use Navy divers, anyway. His awnser was: "Well Wolfgang, in a matter as delicate as this one, better to get both branches involved, dont you think? Let's call it a joint operation with shared responsabilities." I understood perfectly: in case something would go wrong, nobody was going to come out of it clean, so there would not be any finger-pointing. Typical".
All three of us shared smiles: as cynical as it would seem, that's the way things work in every army in the world.The Colonel went on: "Regarding the special forces team, the General told me: "Those men are suposed to be currently in Afghanistan. That's what their families think and that's what the records are going to show. They have been confined to the base and they will be shipped back to Afghanistan as soon as this mission is over; That will keep them away from unnecessary questions." The Colonel lifted an eyebrow: "Really, when I heard that, I tought it was a bit overkill in what concerned the need for secrecy. Afterwards, I met the divers and I exchanged some words with them: they were young, but they impressed me by their extreme professionalism. They had some questions for me, details they needed to know about depth, access, possible obstructions and so on. We left Eckernförde early next morning, a column of four trucks and a command vehicle. We met the special forces convoy in the way, and arrived at Schwepnitz discreetly as advised, late afternoon. The divers unpacked their gear while the special forces set up camp and then I allowed the men some rest. Diving would begin next morning."

Bundeswehr NBC-proof Shelter

"What was the excuse for being there, in case someone showed up, Colonel?" Johnny asked.
"You mean the cover story?" The Colonel smiled: "We were supposed to be there to finish the cleanup of debris and eco-sanitize the place. In Germany we are very environmental-friendly these days".
Johnny smiled: "And was it necessary ? I mean, did someone show up to stick their nose in it?"
The Colonel waved his head: "No. Nobody was curious enough. I think nobody in town even noticed we were there."I had seen the aerial photo, and I'd noticed the forest and the trees cover between the camp site an the town, so I was not surprised.
"The work started next morning" he continued. "The men were going down in 4-men team, two helmet divers as the work team and two more for support. One of the trucks we had brought from Eckernförde had two huge air compressors and they could stay down there for as long as they wanted, but they were changing shifts every two hours."
"You had to blast your way in? I mean, all entrances were sealed, right?"
"Yes and no" the Colonel awnsered "the main entrance had been levelled and blocked with cement, but they left the work incomplete, as one service stair and a couple of breathing shafts were still open to the surface; the shafts were dead-ends, so the divers decided to use the service stairs instead, despite being too far away from the cabinet, behind wich was the secret entrance to the remaining underground levels. But it was the only viable solution, to allow the divers to enter and the drums to come out."

Portable decompression chamber

"Was it easy to get to the cabinet in the second level?" Ed asked.
"No!" the Colonel made a hand gesture to emphatize his awnser "it was a fuckin' nightmare just to get to it. Everything was crummed with garbage, desks, chairs, whatever. There was still everything down there, and the  divers had to be very careful about it. First thing they did was clear a path, moving away all that furniture and removing all the office doors, to allow the drums to pass when they would reach them. Plus, as you imagine, it was pitch black, in the beginning."
"In the beginning?" I frowned.
"We set up underwater lights" the Colonel explained "connected to the generator outside. It's the big advantage of working relatively close to the surface: we placed dozens, and I mean DOZENS of underwater spotlights, all along the the divers path".

"So, at least darkness was not a problem anymore?"
"The darkness no, but the water was extremely dirty, just the same. There was also the problem of the blast doors. There were two and they were sealed shut. One of them we managed to open; the other one, the divers had to partially cut. They used grinders powered by compressed air and thermal lances - a very powerful kind of torch that works underwater. Even so, it took two full days, working around the clock, just to go through the doors and reach the hidden entrance. The cabinet giving access to it was rusted in place, so they cut it too. I used to stay in the command car, following the work on closed-circuit tv."

"They placed cameras, underwater?" Asked Johnny.
"Oh, yes. We could see everything they were doing down there and we had voice coms, too. When they reached the hidden levels, we noticed the stairs were completely free and the elevator was on the last level. So, the divers chose to use the stairs to strech the cables through, because we were going to use the elevator shaft to take the drums out. So, they placed the cables and air hoses all along the stairs, the whole six levels to the bottom. They cut through the elevator to create a passage to the corridors of the last level and installed a winch on top of the elevator shaft.  That made things a lot easier, because the divers could go down and back up using the winch, through the elevator shaft."



Military decontamination tent and suits



"It seems dangerous" said Ed "the air hoses were not getting stuck along the shaft, when the divers were going up and down?"
"They were going up and down using small air tanks" the Colonel explained "once in the bottom they connected the hoses they had placed along the stairs." The Colonel smiled: "I have to admit it, in the beginning I tought it was going to be a lot easier. But the setup we had in place was really impressive."
"Were there problems? I mean, accidents?" Ed asked.
"No, no diving accidents, at all. The men were very careful, very professional. Once and awhile they would stay a bit longer down to finish some task, but when something like that happened, they were using the decompression chambers we had, just to be sure."
"You had a decompression chamber? But isn't that a huge thing?"
"If you're talking about the fixed installations for several divers, yes. But we had four small portable ones, cylinders with just the size of a man."
"I understand" I said. "Please, go on".
"On the third day we started to cut through the blast door lock of the sixth level" the Colonel continued. "It took around six hours to get it open. The inside compartement was flooded, of course, like all the rest. But all of the 32 drums were there."
"Intact? Not rusted?" Johnny asked.
"We could see some signs of rust, yes. But it didn't seemed as if there were any leaks. Nevertheless, we took some precautions: the divers suits were totally cleaned in a decontamination tent every time they came out, and it was decided that all drums would be brought to the first level but kept underwater until the last moment. When all the drums would had been brought to the first level, all personel - and I mean ALL, including the special forces men in charge of security - would use NBC suits while the drums would be placed inside a security container in one of the trucks."

Bundeswehr NBC-proof shelter on truck

"You still had no idea where you were supposed to take them?"
"Not yet. I had orders to radio in when all the drums were ready to leave, I mean, loaded in the trucks".
"And those trucks, were they in any way, special?"
"They had boxes able to be hermetically sealed, a  very common type of Bundeswehr NBC portable shelters; the idea was: if nothing can go inside one of those shelters, then nothing can come out."
"I see the point" I said. "And this was when...?"
"In the evening of the seventh day, we had every drum in the first level close to the exit, and we were ready to load, but the men were exausted. Specially the divers, had been working non-stop 2 hours out of every 8, in the last seven days. They were clearly on edge, awnsering funny on the radio, even wobbling a little, once and awhile; so, I decided to let everybody, but the sentries, have a whole night sleep. Next day we would load the drums and leave."
The Colonel made a pause and I was schocked when I noticed he was sweating profusely and seemed deeply shaken.
"It was during the night that all hell broke loose. It was a fucking slaughter, a massacre."
We were frozen in place waiting for his next words.
The Colonel lifted his eyes to us and they were still haunted:
"It was the divers, you understand ?"