My first two stories posted to this site were my first two attempts at storytelling. But those stories were true, exaggerated and embellished, but basically true. I've found, after this third attempt, that truth is easier than fiction.
The following tale is darker than the first two. It involves one subject about which I know a considerable amount, World War II, and another about which I know almost nothing, forced sex. Seduction is one thing, but rape and forced sex are altogether different. I realize that this is just fantasy, but I find that I am uncomfortable with this genre. I hope that I have not been too presumptuous in projecting the thoughts and feelings of the protagonist, Madeleine. In this context, I may have missed the boat altogether. If so, you have my abject apologies. However, the deed is done, so to speak, and in the immortal words of Sherlock Holmes, "The game's afoot." Read on, and let the bouquets or brickbats fall where they may.
This is a work of fiction. The history is not fictional; however, any similarity between the characters of this story and any actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Any person under eighteen or anyone who does not wish to view the explicit sexual situations or language contained in this story should exit now. All rights reserved.
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Madeleine Dubois and the other four members of her Resistance cell had already spent a long evening hunched over the small radio in Jean Carteret's study in Caen, about ten miles from the Normandy coast. They were listening to a long string of "personal' messages broadcast over the BBC such as, "The Eiffel Tower will not fall," John has a long mustache," or "The fox is in the henhouse." Some of these cryptic messages meant nothing at all and were just jabberwocky. Others were coded orders, nonsense to anyone listening, including German intelligence, except for the particular Resistance cells for whom each message was intended. This night, however, Madeleine and thousands of other Resistance fighters all over France were interested in poetry. Specifically, they were anxiously listening for the second line of "Chanson d'Automne [Song of Autumn]", a nineteenth century poem by Paul Verlaine. It was going to be a long night, this night of the fifth of June, 1944.
Just four days earlier, on June 1, in that same study, they had excitedly heard the first line of that poem as it crackled across the channel, "Les sanglots long des violons de l'automne [The long sobs of the violins of autumn]." They knew that those words represented the first half of a message announcing the long awaited Anglo-American invasion of Hitler's Festung Europa [Fortress Europe]. The second line of the poem would announce that the invasion would begin within twenty-four hours. After that would come more messages sending the individual Resistance cells into action against the German occupation.
Not far from Caen, in a large chateau which had been converted to German intelligence use, the German Seventh Army's intelligence chief, Colonel Hermann von Steuben was also anxiously awaiting that same bit of poetry. In January, Admiral Wilhem Canaris, then chief of all German intelligence, had warned his intelligence chiefs of the anticipated message's significance. Von Steuben was alerted on June 1 by his radio operators that the first part of the message had been intercepted, and it had been re-broadcast again during the nights of the second, third and fourth. Now he was waiting for the remaining shoe to drop.
Adolf Hitler and most of the German high command firmly believed that the invasion would come in the Pas-de-Calais area directly across the channel from England at its narrowest point. The Allies had reinforced that belief through the execution of a brilliant deception plan, "Operation Fortitude", designed to draw German defense efforts away from the true target, Normandy. The strong German 15th Army with its powerful Panzer divisions was stationed near the Pas-de-Calais, and the undermanned 7th Army held the Normandy beaches and fields. Moreover, almost no-one expected the invasion to be launched in early June for a variety of reasons. The most important of these was the weather, which had already been miserable for several days and was forecast to be just as miserable for several more. This, coupled with the tidal schedules, mitigated against a landing until late June or early July.
Field Marshall Ervin Rommel, chief of Army Group B and the man most responsible for the building and reinforcement of the Atlantic Wall during the past year, had gone home to Germany to visit his wife for a few days. Most of the generals responsible for the defense of the French coast were in Rennes for a Kriegsspeil exercise [war games]. None of them believed the Verlaine message to be of any real importance. After all, they had intercepted so many misleading messages from England, and surely the allies would not be foolish enough to announce their coming over the radio. As a precaution, the 15th Army was placed on alert, but the 7th was not.
Colonel von Steuben, however, remained edgy. Because of information gleaned from French informants and his belief in the validity of the Verlaine message, he felt strongly that the invasion was imminent and that it would come in Normandy.
While von Steuben was thinking only of the invasion, Madeleine Dubois' thoughts turned to him and the humiliations that she had suffered at his hands.
In 1939, Madeline and her husband Paul Dubois had been supremely happy. And why not? Paul Dubois was a handsome twenty-six year old lawyer and gentleman farmer with a beautiful and talented twenty-one year old wife who was also a nurse at the local hospital. They owned a lovely home in Caen and two large estates complete with chateaus which had been in their respective families for generations. They had been married in June, and made love every evening in their bed at home in Caen. Neither cared that the other was inexperienced at the art of sex. Neither had ever known another carnally, and they were in love. Life was good.
All that changed when Hitler's armies invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Paul was a reserve major in the French army and was called up when France mobilized after declaring war against Germany. Then in May, 1940, when the German blitzkrieg sliced through France, Paul was captured and, along with many of his countrymen, was sent to Germany as a slave laborer. Madeleine was overwhelmed with grief at first and then with her job as a nurse and the responsibility of managing two farms. Ultimately she was forced to resign her position as a nurse to give her full attention to the estates. She spent her days overseeing the estates and laboring in the fields with her tenants.Her nights were spent alone at home crying for her husband. Then came Colonel Hermann von Steuben.
When he was assigned to the area as intelligence chief, von Steuben's first task was to find a suitable headquarters site for himself and his unit. He settled on one of the Dubois chateaus largely because of its size and location, but also because of its mistress. She was there on the day of von Steuben's inspection of the chateau, and, if the truth be known, he spent as much time inspecting Madeleine as he did evaluating the premises.
Even though she was just wearing a light summer working dress with her hair tied up in a scarf, Madeleine was a obviously a classic French beauty. Her full breasts were accentuated by her trim, curvaceous figure and her long shapely legs. Von Steuben was smitten with lust. On her part, Madeleine couldn't help but notice that von Steuben was a handsome man, particularly so in the uniform of a Wermacht colonel. He was tall, trim and muscular, and his Aryan good looks and unwavering gaze made Madeleine extremely nervous. She trembled as his azure eyes lustfully devoured her body, and as she nervously pulled her scarf from her head, her beautiful cinnamon hair tumbled in natural curls about her shoulders. She was as lovely as a Renoir painting, and von Steuben knew at that moment that he had to have her.
Although he could have simply confiscated her chateau, von Steuben agreed to pay Madeleine a very generous rental for its use. He even agreed to allow her tenants to remain on the estate and continue to work it for her, as long as they stayed away from the main chateau. Madeleine wasn't happy with trading with the enemy, but it was better than being evicted. Moreover, she could certainly use the additional income.
During the following week von Steuben's unit moved into the chateau, and he proceeded to gather intelligence about Madeleine and her absent husband. He learned everything about her. He also made inquiries and found out that Paul was taken from France to a prison work camp in Germany. He learned other interesting information about Paul as well. Armed with the results of his inquiries and wearing his best dress uniform and accoutrements, von Steuben presented himself at Madeleine's home late one evening. He knocked heavily at the door.
