Page 45 (1/2)
But Dick quickly found out that Sackville was un or bribery, partly because the A and always assumed the ultimate authority was theirs What he did discover was that the captain had a weakness, which he indulged every Saturday evening It took several hours of listening to how Sackville won his purple heart at Anzio before Dick was invited to join his poker school
For the next three weeks Dick ht which, under several different headings, he clai That way he ensured that the electricity supply in the British sector was never cut off between the hours of three and raf were being printed
Arno Schultz’s list of requests was coraf was producing 140,000 copies a night Lieutenant Wakehae of distribution, and the paper never failed to be on the streets by the early hours of the raf’s latest circulation figures, Colonel Oakshott was delighted with the results his protégé was achieving, and agreed that the tearanted three days’ leave
No one was hted by this news than Charlotte Since she had arrived in Berlin, Dick had rarely been hoht, and often left the house before she woke But that Friday afternoon he turned up
outside their apartment behind the wheel of someone else’s Mercedes, and once she had loaded up the car with battered cases, they set off for Lyon to spend a long weekend with her family
It worried Charlotte that Dick see for rateful that there wasn’t a phone in the little house in Lyon On the Saturday evening the whole fae The nexta moustache
Thereturned to Berlin, he took the colonel’s advice and began building up useful contacts in each sector of the city—a task which was made easier when people learned he was in control of a newspaper which was read by a ures)
Almost all the Germans he came across assueneral; everyone else was left in no doubt that even if he wasn’t, he had the backing of the top brass He ularly in Der Telegraf, and after that they rarely queried his requests, however outrageous He also took advantage of the endless source of publicity provided by the paper to promote himself, and as he was able to write his own copy, he quickly became a celebrity in a city of anonymous uniforms
Threeularly co out six days a week, and he was able to report to Colonel Oakshott that the circulation had passed 200,000 copies, and that at this rate it would not be long before they overtook Der Berliner The colonel si a first class job, Dick” He wasn’t quite sure what Ar captain’s expenses had crept up to over £20 a week
Although Dick reported the colonel’s praise to Charlotte, she could sense that he was already beco almost as many copies as Der Berliner, and the senior officers in the three Western sectors were always happy to welco to their messes After all, you only had to whisper a story in his ear, and it would appear in print the following day As a result, he always had a surplus of Cuban cigars, Charlotte and Sally were never short of nylons, Peter Wakehain, and the barrow boys had enough vodka and cigarettes to run a black market on the side
But Dick was frustrated by the fact that he didn’t seeh pro seemed to happen in a city that was already far too full ofaround on their backsides waiting to be sent home
Dick began discussing with Charlotte the possibility of returning to England, especially since Britain’s newly-elected Labor Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, had asked soldiers to come home as soon as possible because there was a surplus of jobs waiting for them Despite their cohted by the idea, and encouraged Dick to think about requesting an early discharge The next day he asked to see the colonel
“Are you sure that’s what you really want to do?” said Oakshott
“Yes, sir,” replied Dick “Now that everything’s working s the paper without me”