The Master Sniper

extraordinary career shift, a daring, uncharacteristically bold one — and one he hated. He returned to the Technological Institute and became a ballistics engineer, rather than an exalted Doktor of Science. It hadn’t the challenge of physics, the sense of unlocking the universe, but everybody knew there’d be a war sooner or later, and wars meant guns and guns meant jobs. He threw himself into it with a terror, succeeding on sheer determination where once there’d been talent. It began to look as though he’d made the right decision when he was invited to join Berthold Giepel’s ERMA design team. ERMA, the acronym for Erfurter Maschinenfabrik B. Giepel GmbH, Erfurt, was at that moment in history the most fertile spot in the world in arms design, and from all over the world acolytes swarmed, young engineers out of the technical institutes, or off apprenticeships at the Waffenfabrik Mauser at Oberndorf, or for Walther AG in Munich, even a Swiss lad from SIG and an American from Winchester. All were turned down. For the brilliant team that Giepel had assembled was up to nothing less than revolutionizing automatic weapons theory by building a Maschinenpistole off the radical open-bolt straight-blowback principle, which made for greater manufacturing simplicity, lightness and reliability, yet at the same time permitted air circulation through breech and barrel between rounds with subsequent temperature reduction, jacking the rate of fire up to about 540 per minute cyclical. They were inventing, in short, the best submachine gun in the world, the MP-40, until it became better known under a different name.

These should have been extraordinary days for Vollmerhausen, and in a way they were. But his physics background, like a whiff of the Yid, clung to him. He could never shake it; the others gossiped behind his back, played small pranks, teased him unmercifully. They hated him because he’d once aspired to be a scientist; what scientists he now came in contact with hated him because he was an engineer. He grew into a somewhat twisted personality, with a tendency toward surliness, bitterness, self-pity. He was grumpy, gloomy, a great self-justifier and blamer of others. His head was full of imaginary compliments that he felt he deserved but that he never received, because of course the others were jealous of his brilliance. Out of all this was born the name Hans the Kike.

So when in 1943 he was offered a position at the WaPruf 2 testing facility at Kummersdorf, he jumped at it. A new project was under way. The army had learned in Russia of the terrors of the night and had let a contract for Vampir 1229 Zeilgerat, the Vampire sighting device, Model 1229, based on the data that Herr Doktor Kutzcher, now dead, had developed back in ’33. Vollmerhausen had an extraordinary background for the undertaking: he knew both the physics of the project and the ballistics. It was a job made for him.

In its wisdom, Waffenamt had decided that the weapon best suited to mount Vampir was none other than the prototype Strumgwehr on which Hugo Schmeisser was so furiously laboring, then designated the MP-43. Thus Ingenieur-Doktor Vollmerhausen and Herr Schmeisser (for old Hugo had no degrees) found themselves uneasily collaborating on the project at the dictates of the Army bureaucracy.

From the start, Hugo was undercutting him.

“Too bulky,” the old fool claimed. “Too sensitive. Too complicated.”

“Herr Schmeisser,” Hans began, suffering the immense strain of having to deal politely with a fool, “a few design modifications and we can join your assault rifle and my optics system and achieve the most modern device of the war. No, it’ll never be an assault weapon, or for the parachutists, but in the years ahead will come battles of a primarily defensive nature. The great days of rapid expansion are over. It’s time to concentrate on protecting what we’ve got. In any kind of stable night tactical situation, Vampir will make our enemies totally vulnerable.” And as he spoke, he could watch the old man’s eyes frost over with indifference. It was a most difficult situation, especially since in the background was another undercurrent: Hans the Kike was from the ERMA team that had built the wonderful MP-40; but, strangely, that weapon had picked up the nickname “Schmeisser,” though the old goat had had nothing to do with it. But he’d never disavowed the connection either, mad as he was for fame and glory.

With Schmeisser against him, he was doomed. The STG modifications were never approved, funds began to vanish, technicians were siphoned off to other projects, the Opticotechna people had difficulty with the lenses — Schmeisser’s influence? — and much gossip and vicious humor raged behind Hans the Kike’s back. He had no connections, nothing to match the might of the adroit Schmeisser, who didn’t want his assault rifle associated with some strange “wish-machine” invented by an obscure scientist and supervised by a disreputable ERMA veteran.

Vollmerhausen, under pressure, felt himself becoming more repellent. Whatever chances he had as an advocate for Vampir disappeared when he ceased shaving and bathing regularly, when he began denouncing the secret cabal that conspired behind his back. Vampir never went beyond prototype, despite some promising initial test results. It failed to meet certain specifications in its field trial, though Vollmerhausen asserted that “the cabal” had stacked the test against him. In May of ’44 the Waffenamt contract was canceled, and Vollmerhausen was ordered sharply back to Kummersdorf to a meaningless job. He was let go shortly afterward.

They let him dangle for a bit, nudging him closer and closer to despair. Worries on top of worries. His career in total collapse. Questions were asked. People began to avoid him. Nobody would look him in the eye. He thought he was being watched. The Army called him up for a physical exam and pronounced him fit for combat duty, despite fallen arches, a bronchial infection, bad ears and severe nearsightedness. He was advised to get his affairs in order, for the notice would arrive any day. It appeared his final fate might be to carry a “Schmeisser” on the Ostfront.

One day he happened to run into a friend in a disreputable cafe where he’d taken to spending his days.

“Have you heard, is Haenel still taking on people? I’d do anything. Draftsmanship, apprentice work, modeling.”

“Hans, I don’t think so. Old Hugo, you know. He’d stand in your way.”

“That old fool.”

“But, Hans, I did hear of something.” The friend was extremely nervous. It was the first time Vollmerhausen had seen him since he’d been fired. Hans had in fact been startled to see him in this place.

“Eh, what?” Vollmerhausen squinted, rubbed his hands through his hair and across his face, noticing for the first time that he hadn’t shaved in quite some time.

“Well, they say some fellows in the SS are going to let a big contract soon. For Vampir. They may revive Vampir.”

“The SS. What do they care about—”

“Hans, I didn’t ask. I–I just didn’t ask. But I hear it has to do with …” He trailed off.

“What? Come on now, Dieter. What on earth? I’ve never seen you quite so—”

“Hans. It’s just another job. Perhaps the Waffen SS wants to put Vampir into production. I don’t—”

“What did you hear?”

“It’s a special thing. A special mission. A special most secret, most important effort. That’s all. It’s said to originate from — from high quarters.”

Vollmerhausen pursed his lips disgustingly, puzzled.

“I think they’re interested in you. I think they’re quite interested in you. Would you be willing? Hans, think about it. Please.”

The SS filled him with dread. You heard so much. But a job was a job, especially when the alternative was the Ostfront.

“Yes. Yes, I suppose I—”

A day or so later he found himself in conversation with a pale officer at Unter den Eichen, the underground headquarters of the SS administrative and economic section, in Berlin.

“The Reichsfuhrer is anxious to let a contract on an engineering project, sited down in the Schwarzwald. Actually, I may as well be frank with you, he believes this Vampir thing you worked on might have applications with regard to the duties of the SS and he’s anxious to pursue them.”

“Interesting,” said Vollmerhausen.

The man then proceeded to discuss with surprising precision the history and technology of Vampir, especially as linked to the STG-44. Vollmerhausen was stunned to realize how carefully the project had been examined by — what was it? — WVHA, of which up until a day or so ago he’d not even heard.