Brigadier-Generaal Jakob Snellensoon rose from his heavily work cluttered desk as Van Der Kade was ushered into the study that Snellensoon had chosen to serve as his personal office. Snellensoon nodded to his orderly, and the man braced to attention then quietly withdrew from the room, closing the door securely behind him.
Snellensoon examined his chief-of-staff critically for a moment before offering him a seat in front of the desk. Van Der Kade took it wearily, he moved stiffly and favoured his left arm and right leg as he moved to sit. Snellensoon waited until Van Der Kade had settled himself comfortablely before speaking.
"You've had a rough time in Vilnius I see, Karel. I hope nothing permanent."
"No. Nothing that won't mend in time. Some of our lads had it a lot worse and came out alive, although a few didn't." Van Der Kade allowed. He forced stiff fingers to withdraw a cigarette from a engraved silver cigar case. The intricate work upon it had a distinctly nautical theme, it was a treasured birthday gift from his grandfather, a Dutch admiral. Snellensoon noticed the dent made by a bullet strike in the lid.
"A close call, Karel?" Snellensoon observed as he poured both himself and Van Der Kade a generous measure of liquour, from a crystal decanter.
Van Der Kade nodded as he struck a match and lite the cigarette. He took a few puffs before speaking again by which time smoke encircled his head like a grey-white wreath.
"What I get for not reacting when someone shouts duck in the middle of a street fight." He paused, taking another puff. "When that happens you duck and don't think about it. Because if you don't, you don't often have the luxury of thinking about it later."
Snellensoon nodded, that observation tallied with his own experiences. He handed Van Der Kade, one of the two glasses he held, then settled himself in the chair behind the desk.
Van Der Kade looked around the sumptuously furbished room and gave Snellensoon a wry look.
"Speaking of luxury, you and the rest of the Legion Oranje rear echelon seem to have done rather well."
Snellensoon laughed then shrugged his shoulders.
"It wasn't my idea, although I must admit I didn't object very strongly when the Lithuanians offered us the use of this splendid castle in Palanga as a headquarters ." Snellensoon paused briefly.
"The castle has been damned useful, it's got plenty of space for our command staff and our stores of equipment, as well as the various maintenance and instructor personnel. The proximity to the warehouses in Palanga, and the seaport have proven quite suitable. The Lithuanians have even improvised us an air field with some of their engineering troops."
"And we need it, there are almost 3,000 of us here or in the field at the moment. I'm expecting our last drafts of volunteers to arrive in the next few days. So we will be looking at nearly 4,000 all told in the Legion Oranje."
"Are we really not expecting any more, sir?" Van Der Kade asked, his mind working out the details that would be necessary to see to if yet more volunteers had to be absorbed into the Legion Oranje's structure. He also considered what he'd need to do administratively if there weren't going to be replacement drafts. Snellensoon, shook his head.
"No. The word has come down, that what we have is all we are going to get for the present. I've made some...private... arrangements of my own, pulled a few strings and called in a few favours owed me to arrange some additional supplies, but we can't expect much." Van Der Kade nodded in return. He knew Snellensoon was a man of some influence in Dutch governmental and military affairs, but like all things their were limits to what even his connections could achieve.
"Defenses?" Van Der Kade asked deeply interested in this news.
"Some, what the Lithuanians can spare from their many committments to the three fronts. They've erected some light coastal artillery to cover the port, and some field artillery here at the castle, as well as some flak guns to cover everything. They've even detached a fighter squadron from Kaunas to keep an eye over us. It's all more then I think they can really spare, but I'm happy to have the assistance all the same. I've also had our people dig field fortifications and place bales of camo netting over everything in sight."
"Good. I didn't realize that things were that well organized." Van Der Kade mumured with approval.
"How are things in Vilnius? I received all your reports..." Snellensoon lifted a shelf of files and papers for emphasis. "These tell me a great deal but..."
"You'd get a great deal more from me first hand, eh?"
"Yes."
Van Der Kade, looked at his chief for a moment, then settled himself deeper in the chair. It gave him a little time to compose his thoughts.
"To put it shortly. It's hell on earth in Vilnius." Van Der Kade finally remarked. "And it's going to be worse if I'm one to judge."
"The detachment did well in it's assignments, hell we even captured a Wilno general and his staff, the commander of the their Guards division as a matter of fact."
"Hm. a Major-General Adam Popek, according to the Lithuanian Intelligence Service report I received on the event."
"Yes, that's the one. A decent enough fellow and a very determined and skilled fighter, sir. He was utterly exhausted and not a little dejected when we met, like the majority of his troops we captured. Hardly surprising in the circumstances. I made a point of commending his conduct to the Lithuanians, they agreed - they went as far as to return his sword to him after he'd surrendered to us."
"I have heard reports that at least two other Wilno general officers were captured." Snellensoon remarked over his drink. Van Der Kade nodded, checking through his notes, he found the relevent entry.
"Yes, Major-General Plontek, CO - 6th Infantry Division, and --" Van Der Kade tapped the page for emphasis. "Lieutenant-General Halwic, CO - Army of the North."
"How many Wilno troops were captured in Vilnius? The newspapers don't say very much about."
"Well, we captured about 900 prisoners all told, most of them after we took part in the final assault on the Wilno Guards Division headquarters. I don't know what the grand total was, the Central and Northeastern Front staffs were still tabulating it when I left."
"I imagine that made an impression on the Lithuanians."
"Yes it did, a rather surprising one." Van Der Kade said almost to himself, his eyes thoughtful.
"How so?" Snellensoon asked his interest piqued by his chief-of-staff's expression.
"Well, it's hard to explain.... you'd expect a certain amount of distance, of even distrust or dislike - we are after all foreigners working in a foreign land, in a civil war in which we have very little stake - yet, the Lithuanians have been more often then not cordial, attentive to our suggestions, accomodating to our needs whatever their own concerns." Van Der Kade paused, taking a sip of his drink.
"We're outsiders, yet rather then being jealous of our achievements in their service, their actually rather proud of us. I think it's because although we are outsiders, we're outsiders who are on their team. And that matters a great deal to them."
"What were our losses?" Snellensoon asked returning the conversation to the business at hand. Although he was still considering Van Der Kade's comments, they tallied with many of his own experiences her in the rear areas. Snellensoon sat, sipping his drink thoughtfully as he waited for Van Der Kade's response.
"Not as bad as I'd have expected considering the heavy fighting we got into. At least while I was there, I've no idea how Van Der Slagt is fairing - although he has something like a full battalion while I had at most a reinforced company so I think he'll find things a trifle easier then I did - but I'm sure he'll let us know the minute he has time to put pen to paper." Van Der Kade puffed on his cigarette again for a few minutes, then continued.
"At any rate, we lost at least five tanks disabled, but repairable in the field workshop. Two more were so badly damaged that we'll have to practically rebuild them before we can use them again. Amoung our infantry we had twenty-five dead, and fifty-three wounded, and two reported missing. Our tank and armoured car crews came off rather more lightly all things considered with three dead and five wounded."
"The artillery?" Snellensoon asked compared notes that he was jotting down, with the filed reports.
"Six dead, five wounded and one missing." Van Der Kade finished, looking up from the figures marked down in his own notebook.
"We also lost one of the guns the Lithuanians lent us to counter-battery fire."
This post has been edited 5 times, last edit by "Agent148" (Feb 16th 2008, 7:17am)