Together we mapped out a tentative division of the work ahead. Steve, who had come into the room in time to hear George’s news, joined our discussion. It was after midnight when the first meeting of the “three powers” broke up.
While George was in Munich he had been informed of the imminent withdrawal of Third Army from the part of Austria in which we were working. No one could, or would, tell him the exact date, but it appeared likely that it would take place within two weeks. It was difficult for me to understand why the arrival of another American army—General Mark Clark’s Fifth from Italy—should cause the cessation of our operations. But of course the Army had its own way of doing things. We were attached to Third Army and if they were getting out, we would have to get out with them. All along we had known that this might happen before we could empty the mine. It was quite probable that Fifth Army would want to resume the work, but it would take time. Such a delay would impede the processes of restitution, and we had therefore been giving first attention to the finest things.
Having taken stock of the paintings, sculpture and furniture on which we were going to concentrate in the time we had left, we spent George’s last day working as usual. The loading went well and we finished four more trucks. Another convoy would be ready to take off in the morning.
George had his own jeep and driver and could make better time than the convoy, so after early breakfast we went down to Colonel Davitt’s office. George explained the change in his own plans and said that I would be taking over at the mine. Then he thanked the colonel for his co-operation. It was a long speech for George.
When he had finished, Colonel Davitt said, “In all the time you’ve been here, you haven’t made a single unreasonable demand. If Lieutenant Howe can come anywhere near that record, we’ll get along all right.”
Compliments embarrassed George, so he said good-by as quickly as possible and climbed into his jeep. He wished me luck and drove off. I waited for Lamont to come down with the convoy and give me a lift back up the mountain.
(7)
THE ROTHSCHILD JEWELS; THE GÖRING COLLECTION
We had our share of troubles during those last ten days at Alt Aussee. They began that first day of my investiture as head of the team. Lamont and I were sorting pictures in the room at the mine entrance. It was early in the afternoon and we were about to start loading our third truck. I had just said to Lamont that I thought the morning’s convoy had probably passed Salzburg, when a jeep pulled up to the door. The driver called out to us that one of our trucks had broken down at Goisern. That was an hour’s drive from the mine. Why hadn’t we been notified earlier? I asked. He didn’t know. Perhaps there hadn’t been anybody around to bring back word. Maybe the driver had thought he could repair the truck.
We got hold of Steve and the three of us started for Goisern in the messenger’s jeep. We’d have to transfer the load, so an empty truck followed us. We were thankful that the breakdown hadn’t happened while the convoy was going over the Pötschen Pass. It would have been a tough job to shift the pictures from one truck to another on that steep and dangerous part of the road. It was bad enough as it was, because it looked as though we’d have rain. One of the trucks had a lot of very large pictures. We hoped that it wasn’t the one that had broken down.