THE TREASURE MINE
The Hook
We got back to Krakow ok, and I went into our hooch to hit the facilities while the rest of the guys secured the LAV and M-113 and stowed the gear. The Kraut, as we good naturedly called him, was in the main room, with a batch of aerial reconnaissance photos we had recently scored spread out over the floor and a large bottle of the Captain’s Scotch with a glass on the coffee table looking over some of our maps. He had made friends with us soon after our arrival, and he was a good source of gossip and really knew the best places to eat and drink in the city. He also had a way of making nice with the local girls. He had bugged us to let him hang out at our place and had a current habit of making himself at home, sometimes discussing our movements in Poland and frequently looking over our quadrangle maps, and even going out with us a time or two.
“What you doing Kraut?” I asked.
“Finally unraveling a mystery from my Wehrmacht service in the last war.” He replied. Chuckling softly, he leaned back against the couch and turned to thoughtfully gaze at me, “I think I finally know where the depot is buried. Know anyone who would like a few thousand liters of petrol, arms, and a few Panther tanks not to mention 50 trucks with “special cargo?”
The Kraut
Jan Husster (The Kraut) Age: 74 5’8” 155lbs
Good physical shape. Looks 20 years younger than he is. Veteran Wehrmacht sniper who joined the German militia with a K98 sniper rifle and MP-38 he hid at the end of WWII. Accompanied German 22nd Panzer-Grenadier Division as a militia augumentee, but became separated from the unit in 1999. Ended up in Krakow and currently serves in the ORMO as a sniper instructor. Speaks fluent Polish and was born in East Prussia.
Was part of the 3rd PD rearguard during its retreat in early 1945 through Poland. Saw the convoy arrive and several SS officers and Gestapo agents moving about that night. Has no idea what the convoy was carrying, but suspects it was looted art work and will honestly and frankly say that. However, he saw first-hand the military supplies in the depot. Has 29 sniper kills in the current war.
Though Husster has told stories of his World War II service, no one else currently alive in Poland knows about the convoy.
K98K w/6x optic, MP-38 9mm SMG, Radom P-64
BACKSTORY
The Depot
Zory has a number of coal mining operations in the surrounding area. The mine operated between 1910 and 1943 located near Suszec. Designed with an entrance on a descending slope into a large hill. The entrance itself was 20 meters wide and 4 meters high and dressed with a concrete collar along the sloping entranceway till solid rock was encountered extending downward at a shallow slope to 15 meters below ground where it opened into a main working gallery. The working gallery was oblong; about 100 meters by 80 meters, with supporting pillars every 10 to 20 meters. Five mine galleries extended out into the coal deposit; a 1.6 meter thick seam of average quality coal, with the entrance to each gallery measuring about 6 meters by 2.5 meters. By 1943, it was felt the skilled miners could be better used to mine higher quality coal from other mines in the area. The Nazi state ordered the mine to cease operations in mid-1943.
The German 3rd Panzer Division moved into the area of the mine in early December 1944, taking up quarters east of Zory. The abandoned mine seemed ideal to set up a supply and maintenance depot, and by 27 December 1944, the mine was harboring machine shops, fuel and ammo stores, and weapons.
The Soviet Winter offensive did not catch the Germans entirely by surprise, and plans were made to evacuate the depot contents. A Soviet breakthrough 26 January 1945 spoiled the evacuation plan. Although most of the machine shops’ tools and equipment had been evacuated, fuel, weapons, munitions, and several armored vehicles undergoing repairs remained. As the Red Army advanced, the decision was made to seal the mine rather than try to evacuate.
The Convoy
On 16 January 1945, SS Colonel Karl Salz, in Königsberg, received orders to organize the evacuation of looted art objects and other valuables from a bunker near the city to the Austrian Alps and the planned Nazi Alpine Redoubt. A 55-truck convoy departed Königsberg on the night of 25 January 1945 with a SS escort together with five high ranking Gestapo and SS officials. The convoy made somewhat slow progress as it advanced south and had to detour fairly far west of the most direct route due to the threat of a Soviet offensive.
The convoy reached Zory about 18:30 the evening of 28 January and learned about a Russian break-through. Red Army units were rapidly advancing and were expected to reach Zory in hours, and the route south was already in danger of being severed. As Colonel Salz pondered his next move, one of the local Gestapo agents told him about the mine a few kilometers east of Zory, and Salz hit on the idea to hide the convoy in the mine.
The convoy reached the mine shortly before 22:00 that night navigating through a maze of refugees. The logistics troops that normally manned the depot had already retreated. Upon the convoy’s arrival, German engineers were already busy planting explosives to collapse the entrance ramp and seal the mine entrance. Salz marshalled the trucks of the convoy, driving them down into the mine galleries and simply parking them along with their precious cargo.
The SS guards took up positions around the perimeter, but paid scant attention to the Wehrmacht security detail accompanying the engineers. Finally, at about 01:30, the trucks were deemed secured in two of the mining galleries. The Germans then detonated the explosives. The SS contingent along with the engineer contingent joined the retreating throng of troops, leaving the mine sealed and abandoned. When the Russians arrived, there was no sign of the depot other than the collapsed entrance and abandoned mine buildings on the surface.
Most of the SS platoon was killed in subsequent fighting. Salz was captured and later executed as a war criminal. A couple of the Gestapo agents escaped to Bolivia later that year, but most of the others were killed in later fighting or executed after the war.
The Treasure
Fuel:
380,175 liters diesel
185,800 liters gasoline
895 liters motor oil
788 cans of grease
Ammo:
810 92mm mortar shells
2,500 80mm mortar shells
2,000 75mm tank gun shells (700 AP, 800 HEAT, 500 HE)
54 100mm (20 AP, 23 HEAT, 11 HE)
200,000 8mm (40,000 belted for MG34/42)
50,000 9mm
150,000 8mmKurtz
2,780 Model 43 Grenades (treat as generic stick grenades)
2,000 Model 39 Grenades (treat as German DM-51 frag grenade)
Weapons:
11 GrW34 80mm mortar
8 MG-34s
12 MG-42s
400 K98s
100 G43s/500 mags
40 MP-40s/280 mags
12 MP-3008/120 mags
50 MP-44s/400 mags
Vehicles:
5 Pz.Kpfw V Ausf. G – Panther
4 Pz.Kpfw IV Ausf. J
3 Jagdpanzer 38(t) Hetzer
1 Sd.Kfz. 173 - Jagdpanther
4 StuG III Ausf G
50 3-ton trucks (various makes of trucks)
Treasure:
1,175 12.4kg Gold bars
848 14.8kg Platinum bars
636 31kg Silver bars
2,680 US Gold $20 Double Eagles
983 US Gold $10 Eagles
1,086 US Gold $5 Half Eagles
25,893 Various Silver coins (9,809 US Liberty Silver dollars).
1,762 Polish Gold Ducats
1,498 British Gold Sovereigns
78,582 Carats – diamonds, emeralds, and rubies
1,238 Pieces gold and platinum jewelry
248,300 US Dollars
198,800 UK Pounds
32,800 Soviet Rubles
828 Paintings
156 Sculptures (including ancient Roman bronze statues)
The Amber Room
1178 Papyrus scrolls/books – Roman and Greek – including a lost Greek history of the Scythians and Amazons and another on the Minoans.
688 Rare books
REAL Treasure: A multi-volume set of signed Shakespeare plays, including all published plays, twenty-five original handwritten published and thirty-six handwritten “lost” unpublished plays – a “master” set of plays maintained by Shakespeare. Also four bound books/volumes of notes and various original drafts of plays or alternate parts of plays, several play outlines and fully drafted acts of unfinished plays, and 188 handwritten sonnets.
The players should run into a few difficulties. Getting the mine excavated will require considerable aid from allies.
Complications
1. Rumors of the “Treasure Convoy” have been circulating around Zory for years. Excavations will trigger rumors that the convoy has been discovered.
2. The Soviets KNOW the Amber Room was evacuated by Salz, and the convoy disappeared in Zory. A KGB team will be dispatched to investigate (treat as Spetsnaz).
3. The GRU does not want the KGB to recover the convoy, and a competing Spetsnaz team will be dispatched to monitor the KGB team.
4. The British have an agent in Zory. Expect the SAS and/or Delta.
|