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Friday, September 16, 1932 Saturday, September 17, 1932 Sunday, September 18, 1932 Monday, September 19, 1932 Tuesday, September 20, 1932 Wednesday, September 21, 1932 Thursday, September 22, 1932 Friday, September 23, 1932 Saturday, September 24, 1932 Sunday, September 25, 1932 Monday, September 26, 1932 Tuesday, September 27, 1932 Wednesday, September 28, 1932 Thursday, September 29, 1932 Friday, September 30, 1932 Saturday, October 1, 1932

Friday, September 16, 1932

 

     Our heroes had investigated a strange mine/rail tunnel in the Carpathian Alps, in northern Romania. The looting, murder, and double-crossing which had apparently taken place in the tunnel during the end of the Great War would make a fine novel -- but not one we were interested in writing.

 

 

     Several of the twenty boxcars contained mine carts filled with ore -- nothing we could recognize. We took a small amount of icons, books, artifacts, and a lump of ore, to prove our discovery.

 

Saturday, September 17, 1932

 

     We rode down the mountain to the nearby road, and then left our horses at a farm and boarded a forestry train for 15 miles to the standard gauge railhead at Vijnitza.

 

"Not quite the Orient Express, eh, White?"

 

     There we transferred to a better, faster train; by the end of the day, after several more transfers, we were back in Bucharest.

 

Sunday, September 18, 1932

 

     Considerably cleaned up and smarter-looking, Our Heroes began reporting our findings to various authorities (Willoughby sent a letter via the diplomatic pouch to Mr. Montagu at the Foreign Office). Willoughby and Miss May paid a call upon the British envoy and presented him with the books, icons, artifacts, and the chunk of ore from the train; he thanked us and looked forward to increasing Britannic-Romanian friendship by letting the Romanian government know about the discovery.

     White attended services in the Anglican church.

 

Monday, September 19, 1932

 

     The envoy informed White, Willoughby and May that the Romanian government was indeed pleased to have their lost treasure found; in fact, there would be an investiture and royal ball on Friday evening, with medals for everyone!

 

Tuesday, September 20, 1932

 

Mohandas K. Gandhi begins a hunger strike in Poona prison, India.

 

     Mr. Albert Stayback, a Canadian representative of the Renault company, arrived in Bucharest. Our Heroes met him that evening at the Lido Hotel.

 

Wednesday, September 21, 1932

 

     White, Willoughby, Colonel Macnab (the military attaché), and a member of the Italian legation played a round of nine-hole golf at the Athletic Club.

 

Thursday, September 22, 1932

 

     Famine and executions have begun in the Ukraine; millions of persons will have died in the next twelve months.

In the coming winter, the supplies of seed corn for the next harvest will be either eaten or confiscated.

 

     Mid-day, a British military airplane landed at the Bucharest airport, and a party of MI6 agents rushed from there to the legation. Several fit young men, led by a middle-aged blonde woman Russian named Varvara Sadovsky, announced that a bomb was in the legation, and evacuated most of the staff ... giving them a thorough search as they leave. The only staff kept inside were Mr. Harecourt the second secretary, Major Chidson the passport officer (and local MI6 station agent), Mr. Willoughby, Miss May, and Mr. Stayback (revealed to actually be Captain Algernon DeLacy, also an MI6 agent).

     The "fit young men" put on gas masks and gloves, and removed some "contaminated material" from the envoy's offices. After Madame Sadovsky had a chat with DeLacy, she and most of the MI6 agents departed for the airport, leaving behind a demolitions expert Fredericks to assist DeLacy.

     The actions of the SIS were entirely mysterious to the various diplomats; another round of coded telegrams were sent out.

 

Friday, September 23, 1932

 

The Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd is proclaimed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, concluding the country's unification under the rule of Ibn Saud.

 

     Willoughby received a telegram from the Foreign Office, confirming that Madame Sadovsky was indeed a senior staff member at MI6, and that she should receive "any requested assistance." However, Willoughby's instructions also stated, "Do not destroy any Romanian tunnels." Puzzled by this, and by the fact that DeLacy/Stayback could not or would not provide any information about the supposed threat posed by the ore, Willoughby sent another telegram.

     That evening, there was a royal ball at the Cotroceni Palace. A large number of persons received awards, medals and other recognition; among them were (in alphabetical order):

 

“For heroic actions and contributions to safeguarding the integrity and security of the Romanian State, its economy, and cultural history”

Order of Merit, Knight 2nd Class 

 

Mrs. Nora Cullin

Mr. William Davis

Miss Victoria May

Miss Qua Lin Worthington

 

“For contributions to the development of a cultural exchange between Romania and the United Kingdom & the Imperial Cricket Conference”

Officer of the Order of Merit, Culture

 

Mr. C. T. White, Esq.

 

“For exceptional services to the Romanian State”

Order of the Star of Romania, Knight 2nd Class, Civil

 

The Hon. Frederick T. Willoughby

 

     While at the investiture and subsequent ball, a messenger from the British legation brought Willoughby another telegram from the Foreign Office. He was instructed to secure the Romanian art items from the hidden train, but to prevent the "toxic ore from entering the water table". A quick chat with DeLacy confirmed that another trip to the tunnel would take place the next day.

 

Saturday, September 24, 1932

 

     Our Heroes rode a variety of trains to the vicinity of the secret tunnel, and then traveled the last few miles on horseback.

 

     " ... the small and exceedingly hardy mountain horse of the Carpathians." -- The Romanian Handbook, pub. 1932

 

     The demolitionist, Fredericks, fell off his horse and (we thought) injured his ankle; but Miss Worthington determined the damage was less than feared.

     By sunset, we had reached the tunnel, and set up camp under the long camouflage drape along the railway line outside.

 

Sunday, September 25, 1932

 

     About 5 a.m. (45 minutes before dawn), a group of Soviet soldiers attacked our camp! Nora Cullin was heavily wounded, but "got better"; while Qua Lin and DeLacy were strangely affected by the terrible gas grenades thrown by the communists. Fredericks was killed by the explosion of a "regular" hand grenade. Davis and DeLacy hunted down most (but not all) of the attackers by dawn; they had Soviet uniforms (we presume, we weren't uniform experts) but no insignia, and no camp gear. The rest of the day was spent treating the wounded, preparing for any subsequent attacks, and cooking up much of our food for some enormous meals.

     At sunset, Fredericks was buried on the hillside ...

 

Monday, September 26, 1932

 

     Our Heroes moved thirteen of the eighteen boxcars containing "art treasures" out of the tunnel, rolling them one at a time down along the tracks, pulled by horses and human muscles. After the thirteenth car, the old tracks gave way -- hauling any more cars out would take more effort, time, and engineering support than we could expect to receive. As it had already taken most of the daylight hours to move that many cars, at great expense of effort, Our Heroes decided that enough art had been saved.

 

Tuesday, September 27, 1932

 

     Mr. Davis, a skilled demolitionist himself, planted the charge in the tunnel after breakfast, led the detonating wire outside and up the hillside, and set off the explosion. It was everything that Madame Sadovsky could want, and more -- for some reason (we don't know why) the explosion of 24 sticks of dynamite and a few old artillery shells caused the entire five-mile length of the tunnel to explode. A distant boom and rising cloud of smoke and dust marked the other end of the tunnel -- the longest tunnel in the Carpathian Alps, and the longest tunnel to ever be dug in Romania.

     Davis and Nora Cullin washed the possibly toxic dust and soot off of themselves, their clothes and horses. DeLacy rode five miles over the mountain ridgeline to inspect the far end of the tunnel, and confirm it had collapsed.

     Once DeLacy rejoined us, we took the forestry train to Vijnitza, and spent the night there.

 

Wednesday, September 28, 1932

 

     Our Heroes rode various trains to Bucharest, arriving a bit before sunset. More reports, letters and telegrams were sent. DeLacy told us that destroying the train was just a sideline to his main mission:  observing an industrial plant in the Ukraine, where the strange, dangerous ore was possibly being used to make strange, dangerous weapons. He proposed spending a couple of days observing the Dniester for crossing opportunities, and then boating across, skulking to the plant, and watching it for a day.

     Given the apparently urgent attention the Soviets had paid to the hidden railway tunnel, the rest of Our Heroes agreed to accompany him.

 

Thursday, September 29, 1932

 

     By a variety of increasingly slower and less comfortable trains, we traveled this day to the Romanian city of Cetatea Alba.

 

Cetatea Alba / Akkerman

Population 35,000, of which about 8,000 are Romanians, 8,000 are Jews, 5,000 are Germans, and smaller numbers of Ukrainians, Bulgarians, Turks, Greeks, Hungarians, etc.. It's located in Bessarabia on the western bank of the Dniester (Nistru, in Romanian) estuary; on the far side of the estuary is the Ukraine.      The estuary zone, with many lagoons and tidal sandbanks, is about six miles wide and thirty miles long. The water averages five feet deep; the deepest channel is only eight feet deep. Further inland past the estuary, the Dniester is about half a mile wide, with rising banks on the west, and flat banks on the east.      The city itself is centered on a very large fortress, constructed by various times over the last twenty-five centuries; it is mostly disused now, but contains an armory and military barracks among the picturesque ruins. The small harbor sees little use -- there's almost no river or sea traffic calling here, and only a few fishing boats. There are no foreign consulates, and very little tourism. The railway is the most convenient way to reach this city; there is a small landing strip outside of the city, mostly used by the air force.      Around the city, and along the western banks of the Dniester, are orchards, fields of wheat, rye and tobacco, and vineyards.      "The train continues to ... Cetatea Alba, but a journey to these places at present cannot be recommended. At Cetatea Alba, from which a great deal of dried fruit is exported, the original old Roman walls and gateway are still standing; there are many other traces of this wall further to the south-west, but the roads are impossible for motor cars." -- Romania Calling, by Gertrude Mendl, pub. 1932      The Finance Guard, which patrols the nation's borders, has a post here. They ride horses along the shore, and have a couple of patrol boats for use on the river and just past the mouth of the river.      Odessa is 24 miles to the northeast.

 

"liman" is a Russian term for river estuaries; railways marked in black, highways in red;

the rail bridges at Bender and the estuary mouth were destroyed at the end of the Great War

 

     We settled into a hotel there, and arranged for horses and camp gear to be available the next day, for our party of "innocent bird watchers."

 

Friday, September 30, 1932

 

     We rode inland following the Dniester for several miles, watching for birds -- and Soviet patrols -- with binoculars. Border patrols seemed to be lax and infrequent, but we wanted to see how conditions were at night. In the meantime, we obtained a couple of rowboats.

 

The new moon occurred on this night.

 

Saturday, October 1, 1932

 

     We had watched the Dniester a lot during the night, so we laid up in a fisherman's cabin during the day, with a couple of us on guard. After sunset, we boarded our boats and rowed quickly across the river ...

 

on to Research Station 51