“May the accused enter,” a man in a highly decorated military uniform bellowed, his voice penetrating the hushed silence of the court room.
All eyes instantaneously turned towards the ebony double doors that so many other notorious criminals of the military hierarchy had entered. Suddenly, the twin doors expanded outwards and two figures came through the door.
His deep sky blue eyes scanned what was held in front of him, absorbing everything and processing the observations through his complex mind. Nazi flags with the soaring eagle were held triumphantly on all four sides of the court room, beaming the ever almighty power of the expanding German empire. A large audience of around thirty-five people who were seated towards that back of the court room, had come to witness the judgement of his cursed fate, he knew that death was raging through their minds. A line of jury members of only male gender lined the corner of the room, their eyes tired and annoyed due to the many court cases that involved pointless babbling of constant court babbling. All they wanted was to say guilty and leave to a war torn Germany.
The pair solemnly made their way towards the tables that served as their point of defence and sat on the great oak chairs. The first person appeared to be a rather handsome man of thirty-four. His smooth facial features, deep brown eyes and masculine appearance would make women tense before his appearance.
The other person seemed to have come from hell and back. His craggy appearance of a hunched back, messed brown hair, blood shot blue eyes, unshaven face, the occasional cut and bruise on the face, slumped shoulders and weary legs. The rugged appearance masked his young age of twenty-two, but instead, portrayed him like a crippled age of forty.
The pair slowly made their way to the defendant's bench of the court and sat down.
“Alle Anstieg der Obersten Richter, All rise to the Supreme Judge,” the decorated military officer demanded.
As everyone groaned from leaving the comfortable confines of their chairs, the supreme judge entered through a set of doors from behind the court and took a seat in his elaborate chair.
“All sit please”
Clad in a dark red robe with the swastika on his right arm and a throatache (Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross) wrapped delicately on his neck from the first great war, the old judge of seventy-two looked at the thick files laid upon him describing the case.
“The defendant here today is Mr. Dierk Diedenburger and his Herr Yearling Konrad. The case today involves the alleged incident of Dierk Julrich Diedenburger…
**********
Luftwaffe Station 204, Hamburg, 16th June 1942, 10:40 a.m.
“Auch ist sie nicht eine Schönheit? Well ain't she a beauty?
“Sie sicher ist. She sure is.”
“I told ya that with just a lil paint, she'd be as good as new.”
“Well, looks like you were right then”
“Damn straight I was”
Dierk Diedenburger gazed amasingly at the huge metal beast, its shiny aluminium skin reflecting the bright, midday sun. He could only gaze in wonder on how his best friend, Prinz was able to turn a twisting piece of wreckage that had just come from Britain and back, encountering a deadening sheet of flak and cannon fire on the way, into a figure of beauty.
Christened "Hades Kometen," which literally meant Hades Comet, the machine that he so loved to fly in was a Heinkel 111 H-6, the bomber that had so far become an iconic figure of the war that so many nations had been dragged into. Comprised of two Junker's Jumo 211 F-1 liquid-cooled inverted V-12, each capable of producing a massive thirteen hundred horse power each, enabled the Hades Kometen to cruise over the skies at a smooth four hundred kilometres an hour. An overall impressive length of sixteen point four metres and a wingspan of twenty - two point five metres, if she could cook, Diedenburger thought, he'd marry her.
“Don't get too excited, this is your first mission and if you mess up, you'll end up like her,” Prinz remarked as he pointed at a Heinkel that had just come back from a harrowing mission over the many airfields in Britain. The pristine "Hades kometen" was a total contrast from the wounded bird that had just landed, the "Stahl Klaue". Soon, medics and engineers would sprint to the bomber and assess the damage of both the bomber and the souls within the beast.
Prinz had a point; Diedenburger was fresh out of flying school and had no combat experience. He was green, very green (new) and had absolutely no idea of all the potential dangers that he would encounter over the skies of Britain. Sometimes as he would gazed upon each shot up bomber flying back from a mission with virtually all its crew killed, he wondered whether he'd be next on the list with a flag sent home to weeping mothers.
