The Closet

Chapter 12

            Lacy was a little ‘tense’ on Saturday morning.  She knew that restricting the exploration was a battle she would lose, so now she had to decide whether she would actually accompany the rest of the family on their descent into the dark or whether she would sit in her house worrying about what might be happening to her family. In the end, she finally decided that she would steel herself and join the expedition, while keeping what others might mistake for a smile on her face.  Frank and the boys headed for the Px at 9 when it opened and, she thought, should be back at any time. She had a quiet conversation with Allie about the danger she must have faced as the boys dragged her along with them, but she had a hard time getting such an admission from her daughter. All Allie would say was, “It’s cool Mom!  Just wait and see.”

            Lacy wasn’t so easily persuaded and when the conversation didn’t follow the pattern she’d hoped for, she veered into safer avenues of conversation like, “So how was the week in school,” and “Were you eating OK while I was gone?”

            This wasn’t really any more encouraging because Allie forthrightly admitted, “Oh, Mom.  I was so sleepy in school all week,” and “I was really tired of Macaroni and Cheese. I’m glad you’re home.” 

            Not really trying to detract from the ‘mission’, she prepared sandwiches that they could eat before embarking on the journey. When the men returned, they were glad to see the food and at the same time were impatient with one more delay. They thanked their mother sensing that getting on her good side was important, and consumed the food in record time. Even though they were anxious to leave, she had been invited along by their father and they would wait for her till she was prepared. It really didn’t matter when they started; as they had found out, once you are under ground and moving, time becomes a nebulous concept.

            Finally, all was ready. Frank had found a fire escape ladder that he packed in his backpack. The ladder had hooks at the top that would work well as an extension of the existing ladder. It was made out of chain so was very sturdy and would make Lacy much more comfortable with the trip. The boys had described to Frank in more detail what they might expect as far as physical exertion went, and he was congratulating himself on a wise choice in keeping his wife content, or at least passively accepting.  They donned their headlamps and switched them on and slipped their arms through the backpack straps. Ready to descend, they looked more like a team of miners than an Army family spending a nice afternoon together.

            Jarom pulled out the trusty screwdriver and pried up the front of the trap door, opening the shaft from above. Cool, damp air flooded out through the opening. Jarom was accustomed to leading the group, but Frank had the escape ladder. Exercising his paternal authority commandeered the first place in line. He sat in the opening and put his feet on the rungs of the ladder and began the descent. Jarom followed him and Jason and Allie were next. Lacy had watched the opening in the closet floor swallow most of her family and her reservations were still present, but by sheer force of will she sat with her legs dangling in the hole while John gave her encouragement. She put her weight on the rungs below the surface and began with a tentative step down to the next rung. With all the lights below her and the shaft blocked by the others, it didn’t seem so scary after all, and she continued with step after step until her arms and legs were almost moving of their own accord. John followed her and in short order they came to the bottom of the fixed ladder. The transition to the chain escape ladder was a little trickier, but with Jarom and Frank stabilizing the bottom so it didn’t swing, Lacy climbed easily down. 

            Gathered together in the round room, the parents gazed at the openings in wonder.  John explained how they had oriented themselves from the ladder’s position in the shaft which he had checked with a compass.  After he started to explain what lay in each of the branches of the tunnel complex, his father stopped him and asked, “How many times have you been down here?”

            John had to stop and count. After a moment, he replied, “Well, if you don’t count the first time we just came to the bottom of the ladder and then went back up, I guess it has been only 4 times. It kinda seems like more, but we have explored more than one tunnel some nights.”

            Frank was looking at things from the perspective of an engineer and could appreciate the work involved in boring the tunnels.  He said, “Someone had to have had a good reason for building this complex. The work to drive in these drifts and dispose of the muck would have been tremendous.” He explained that in mining, a drift is a horizontal tunnel and muck is the dirt that is removed.

            Jarom said, “Dad, we think that ammunition storage is why it was built. There is a big concrete building down the northwest tunnel that is labeled ‘Ammunition Storage Arsenal’ on Google Maps. The Germans might have been manufacturing their ammunition in the BASF plant that is in Mannheim, and then moving it underground to the Ammunition Storage Arsenal down that tunnel,” He said pointing to the northwest opening.

            Frank was aware that BASF was a chemical manufacturer located only a few miles away in Mannheim, but had been surprised when the children had told him it was so close and that one of the tunnels apparently ran underground to the plant.

            “I guess we have some mysteries to solve then,” said Frank. “Why were these tunnels built, who built them, and when?” 

The boys did not point out that those were the same things that they had been  trying to discover during the whole past week. 

“If what you kids told me is accurate, then maybe we should walk to the Ammunition Storage Facility and see if more clues present themselves.”

They all looked at each other, and then Jarom led the group down the northwest tunnel.  They spoke only a little during the next 40 minutes. Frank examined the walls of the tunnel as they walked and concluded that the bedrock in this area was very stable. It appeared that most of the tunnel had been blasted out of rock. The boys hadn’t understood that explosives were the time-honored way of breaking rock in a tunnel.

Frank explained, “Holes are bored into the rock face in a radial pattern and an explosive is placed into the holes. When the explosion occurs, the rock is broken into pieces which are then removed and hauled off. Another charge is laid to fracture the rock again and the process is repeated.  Sledge hammers are employed to make little rocks out of big rocks so they can be more easily hauled.”

“If the tunnel is cut through solid rock and the ceiling is well supported, timbers may not be necessary to keep it from collapsing.  If the ceiling is made of fractured rock, then concrete or wood beams may be used to support it, tying the fragments together so that it doesn’t collapse or so loose pieces won’t fall into the tunnel.”

“Sometimes the normal geologic processes create a natural tunnel we call a cave through the work of water or earthquakes. Some stone is soft and flowing water may eat away at the rock. The rock in this tunnel is hard and probably required dynamite to build.”

“Frank,” asked Lacy in a tremulous voice, “Are we safe under here?  Is there danger of the tunnels collapsing?”

He replied, “These tunnels were driven a long time ago and the roof seems to be either solid rock, or well shored up. There is little caving anywhere. I would say we are very safe.”

Shortly they arrived at the Ammunition Storage Arsenal and Frank and Lacy marveled at the big room they stood in with the staircase up one side. They climbed up the staircase and reached the top. Frank pointed out the mounts where a huge crane must have been mounted at one time.

Frank continued to explain, “A crane would have been built over this hole where the supplies and equipment was lowered down and the muck extracted. Before cranes were available, muck was moved the old fashioned way-on the backs of workers. It is curious that they removed the crane and poured a concrete slab over the whole of it.  Maybe they were trying to prevent either entry or discovery.”

He seemed satisfied that, with this entrance, the tunnels could have been dug. The presence of the chemical factory so near explained the availability of the explosives. They climbed back down the stairs and began walking back along the corridor. The children felt better that their parents not only believed them now, but were exploring the tunnels with them. They reached the round room and Frank questioned with some respect in his voice, “And you’ve been down all these tunnels to the end?”

Jarom replied for the group, “Sure, Dad. We wanted to see if we could find the answers the questions you asked before.”

 “Then I don’t think we need to go down each one of these passages if you have already been through them,” said Frank. “ Why don’t you give us the highlights and if there is something you think we should see, we’ll take a look.”

John brought out his hand-drawn map with the eight different paths they had taken. “Straight north is an underground river that runs from east to west about 2000 feet away. We compared our measurements with the map on the computer and think that the river is under the Wald. The Google Earth map says that there is a road called Wasserwerkstrasse that ends at some buildings and fields right above there. That means ‘the street that goes to the water works’.”

“Straight east the tunnel is only about ½ mile long and ends at Sullivan Barracks. There is another ladder-shaft there but we didn’t open the trap door because we didn’t have our rope and couldn’t get up the ladder. We boosted Allie up and she said it looks just like the one in our house.”

“Southeast the tunnel runs about 1 ½ miles to Taylor Barracks, but we couldn’t get up that ladder either because we still didn’t have our rope. About half way along the tunnel is a room with another opening high above and if you’re quiet there, you can hear the traffic sounds from the surface.”

“South the tunnel runs about 1 ½ miles to Spinelli Barracks. Jarom and I figured out how to walk up the walls and then grab hold of the ladder to climb up.” Frank and Lacy listened without interrupting and John continued, “The trap door opened into a room like the soldiers use when they are off-duty. We went into the room and looked out the windows and there was a parade field, but we heard people coming so we went back down the ladder and closed the door.”

“Southwest, there is a cave-in and we couldn’t go very far, but we figured it went to Turley Barracks. Only about ¼ mile down that tunnel is a wooden staircase that goes clear to the top. When someone took our ladder, we were had to find another way out. We climbed up the old staircase and it ended at a slab of rock.  Jarom and I were able to lift the rock up while Jason pried it with a board, and when we had it moved, we climbed up into a tomb in the middle of the cemetery.”

“A tomb in the cemetery?” cried Lacy.

“Yeah, Mom,” said Jarom.  “It is really cool!  Wait ‘til you see it.”

John continued, “About 6 miles away to the east is the BASF plant.”

Frank interrupted, “6 miles?”

“Yeah, that’s what we figured looking at the map. There is a gate made of iron bars across the tunnel, and you can see what looks like the bottom of a big building. A sign says IG Farben on the gate, but it’s locked and doesn’t look like it’s been used in a long time. Down the same tunnel are also three big steel doors, all locked with padlocks.”

“The last tunnel is to the northwest and it’s the one that opened next to the airfield at Coleman Barracks.”

“Where they arrested us,” piped in Allie. 

John finished the orientation saying, “And only about ¾ of a mile down the same tunnel is a gate with a stairway, but looking on the map, I can’t figure out where it goes.”

Frank said, “Well I have to say I am impressed with the area you’ve covered while we’ve been gone. I won’t repeat the fact of our disappointment with you for doing all this behind our backs, but now that you’ve uncovered something apparently long ago forgotten, what do you think we should do?”

There was a long pause while everyone thought about what their father had said.  Frank said, “Here are some considerations. First, there are security concerns. This is an unsupervised pathway into all of the American installations in Mannheim. Second, we don’t know who ‘owns’ this system, or at least who is responsible for it. If the tunneling was done by the German Army in World War II, I suppose the Americans could claim responsibility now, but that isn’t clear. Not only do the tunnels run between the kasernes, but they’re under German territory that has nothing to do with the American kasernes. Third, as you’ve discovered, someone else has been in here. We don’t know what his purpose is in being here. He could be a homeless person who found a way in as you did, or he could be a guard from an organization we know nothing about. Fourth, you’ve detailed the tunnel system as it appeared to you, but it may be more complex than you realize. The tunnels are like spokes of a wheel and the end-points are at the rim.  There may be concealed passages that go between the endpoints, following along the rim that you just haven’t discovered. Fifth, we don’t really know when or how the system was constructed, or even why. You’ve made some guesses that may or may not be correct. Sixth, the end of one tunnel extends to a private enterprise that may have an interest in the system.”

“I don’t see how we can keep this a secret. Whoever this belongs to, it is not us. You have stumbled upon it, but that gives you no ownership over it. It seems to me that I should present the evidence to the post commander along with Colonel Taylor and let them take it from there.”

“But Dad,” cried Jarom who was supported by his brothers, “There is more to see! If you tell them, they will lock the whole place up and we’ll never get the chance. Can’t we wait a little while before we tell them? After all, it’s already been waiting for years and years.”

“You’re right about them locking this up, I’m afraid. There will be some initial exploration, but I think it will become political between the US government and the German government. We can’t be seen as interfering with something that isn’t ours. You can be seen as heroes for bringing this to light or criminals for trying to keep it hidden.”

Frank thought about it for a moment and then said, “I’ll wait a week from Monday, but here are the rules: I will accompany you on any trips down into these tunnels. No exceptions. And when the week is up, there will be no begging or pleading or complaining. We will just live with the consequences. Agreed?”

The children looked at their father and then all solemnly nodded their heads.

Lacy interrupted, “OK, Frank. One week and you stay with the children. I think I’ve had enough. I would like to go up now.”

Frank said, “OK, Sweetheart. Let me get you up to the house, and then we can spend the afternoon down here.”

Frank held the chain ladder still and Lacy began climbing up. She hadn’t admitted it to any of them, but she was discovering that she didn’t like enclosed places. She was concerned about her children as any mother would be, but much of her nervousness came from the claustrophobia she had been battling since she had even thought of climbing down inside the depths of the earth. She hated the blackness all around her and she hated the walls that felt like they were closing in. At times it was hard to breathe until she calmed herself down. She was satisfied that she didn’t have to be along to protect her brood, so she was ready to go home. Frank followed her up the ladder and when they had climbed through the trap door and she turned her headlamp off, she sucked in a cleansing breath and felt her muscles go limp with relief. He held her close for a moment and said, “Don’t worry Honey, we’ll be fine.  You just relax and we’ll be back in a few hours.” 

“Where are you going to go?” she asked.

“I think we’ll walk down the west tunnel toward the BASF plant. I’d like to see the steel doors that the John says are locked as well as the IG Farben entrance. I think the key to this whole system is there, and if we’re going to turn it over to the authorities, I’d like to give them an explanation for its existence at the same time.”

“So when are you going to be back?” she demanded.

They hadn’t even begun climbing into the shaft until 11:30 and the exploring they had already done had consumed the next two hours, so it was nearly 2 PM. 

“We’ll be back by 8, but don’t call out the Army until 9 just in case,” he said jokingly.

She was not joking. “Ok, that should give you plenty of time to fool around down there, but if you’re not back by 9, I will call out the Army.” 

He tried to hug her again but it would have been more pleasant hugging a stone statue.  The stone couldn’t exude its displeasure like she could when she was unhappy. Turning to go back down the shaft, he said, “I love you, Lace,” and then he was gone.

It took only a few minutes for him to rejoin the rest of the family who had been impatiently waiting for him. “What do you want to see?“ asked Jarom.

“Let’s go down the west tunnel. I’d like to see the steel doors you mentioned and the IG Farben building.”

Jarom led the group down the west tunnel. John pointed out that the other tunnels were narrower, but that this passage and the one to the Ammunition Storage Arsenal were much wider and taller in comparison. They reached the first of the side tunnels and Jarom turned into it. In a moment they came to the massive steel door that blocked their access to whatever was beyond. In an instant, Jarom had his lock picks out and began attempting to open the padlock. Frank watched without commenting. He knew his son had acquired the picks and had given him several old locks to practice with. Jarom had developed some skill in the arcane art of opening a lock without a key, but was not yet a pro. 

A lock has a metal cylinder with a keyhole in it made of brass with spring-loaded pins of varying lengths that extend out of it.  The cylinder fits into a perfectly matching hole in the body of the lock.  The hole the cylinder fits in to has a series of perpendicular holes called chambers drilled in it corresponding to the pins arrayed along the cylinder. The pins that extend out of the cylinder fit into the holes in the body of the lock and keep the cylinder from being turned.  When the proper key is fitted into the keyhole in the cylinder, the bumps on the key elevate the pins precisely so that they no longer protrude from the cylinder and it is free to turn, unlocking the shackle on the lock.  To open a lock with lock picks, first a tension tool is inserted into the keyway and a small amount of tension is applied to turn the cylinder. Then, the pick reaches into the keyway and depresses each pin in turn until the pin catches on the edge of the drilled hole instead of extending into it. When all the pins have been depressed exactly the right amount, the pins no longer are extending from the cylinder and the tension tool turns it, just as a key would have. High quality padlocks are made with precision and are more difficult to pick.

The padlock on the steel door was a high quality lock, but it also had hung on this door unopened, presumably for decades. The moisture and the dust in the tunnel air had taken its toll on the lock, and the pins were very dry and stiff. It cried out for oil or graphite to lubricate the works, but Jarom hadn’t brought any. The explorers looked on for what seemed like forever without any progress. Jarom correctly noted that oil would help, but having none, he continued to try and open the lock.  He was patient, but the others were less so, and Frank felt the deadline that had been given him was creating an urgency that he couldn’t ignore. 

“Jarom, I think we had better go on. We have the rest of the week and we can bring some oil back and give you another chance,” his Dad said. 

Jarom wasn’t a quitter, but he could see wisdom in coming back again, especially when these doors were so close to their home ladder-shaft. They move away from the door and down the corridor, passing back into the main tunnel. The kids showed their father the matching passageway and door on the other side of the main tunnel and Jarom took a quick turn at its padlock, but found it as recalcitrant as the first. When they came to the third opening from the side of the main tunnel, their trip in to the door was quicker. Frank studied the warning on the door.  He noticed it was much different from the first two, which as far as he could tell, was a warning against danger.  He wrote down the phrase he found on this door, Geben Sie die Hoffnung, die ihr hier eingeben. He would look it up when he got back to the house.

They continued down the main corridor and were more carefully examining the sides of the tunnel as they went. They were surprised that they had walked right past several openings on both sides that the pattern in the rock walls naturally camouflaged. They turned off into one and found another massive steel door bolted shut, but without the lock. Frank worked the bolt and slid it free and then pulled the door open. They entered a spacious room, maybe 200 feet on a side, with rock pillars supporting the 10 foot  roof at regular intervals. It was clear something had been stored in here, but there was no clue as to what it might have been.  Exiting the room and finding another surreptitiously located opening, they found another door.  It was not locked either. Frank opened the bolt and pulled the door open.  They found themselves looking into a room identical to the first. Their headlamps seemed bright in the tunnels and their night vision was acute after so long underground, but it was difficult to see the extent of the rooms. They moved about the room trying to find a clue as to its original purpose without success. They did note that the door had a numerical marker on it, reading # 16. 

Proceeding down the main tunnel again and knowing what to look for, they saw the openings they had missed on their first trip. Each opening led to a door that matched the others, with the numerical designator decreasing as they approached the IG Farben plant, first on their left and then on their right. They entered each one briefly to check for any differences, but the rooms were nearly identical except for the location of some of the rock column supports. Increasingly mystified as he continued toward the IG Farben plant, Jarom became more and more committed to open the doors with the locks.  At last they came to the entrance to the building foundation. The bars in the door made it actually resemble a jail cell. Frank examined the door carefully, and he too could see how the BASF sign had been painted over with new lettering to read IG Farben.

John suggested, “Let’s all aim our headlamps together through the bars to see the building more clearly.”

            A good idea, they grouped together and with the beams consolidated, could see tall, double doors opening into the foundation of the building. The tunnel was hollowed out into a room surrounding the building foundation so that the poured concrete footings were visible, as were the courses of stacked stone blocks rising from them. The path leading from the doors was well-worn, and the apron surrounding the building on both sides of the path was flat and extended to a few hundred feet on either side.

            Frank said, “This might have been a staging area where materials were stacked before being taken into the tunnel. The tunnel is big enough that something motorized might have been used to haul the goods down the passageway to the storage rooms we passed.”

            John asked, “The BASF plant is on the west side of the Rhine River which is the opposite side BFV is on.  Do you think we actually passed under the river or do you think this building is on the east side of the river?”

Frank replied, “We are definitely deep enough to have passed under the river. Although tunneling has become much more efficient than it used to be, drilling and blasting have been around for a long time. Dynamite started being used in the 1860’s, and since then it has been used worldwide. The “Chunnel” that was built just recently extends even under the English Channel between France and England.”

Checking the time, Frank told his children, “We told Mom we would be back by 6 and it will be close, so let’s get started back.”

Reluctantly, they began the long walk home. 

“I just can’t believe we missed all those rooms when we came through here last time,” remarked Jason.  “Now that we know they are there, I can see them easily.”

“Our light is not very good and they blend into the rock, but they changed the entrances for the three tunnels that we did find,” commented John.  “Dad, how do you think workers could see in the tunnel when they were working on it?”

“In the smaller tunnels, they may have had to use lanterns or headlamps like miners used to use that ran on carbide. Carbide is a mineral that is mined and, when water touches it, reacts to form acetylene, a flammable and explosive gas. Headlamps were designed with a small tank the miner filled with carbide and a water reservoir above. It could be adjusted to slowly drip water into the lower tank which produced the gas that came out of a nozzle in the middle of a reflector. The gas was ignited and produced a very hot white flame and light. This tunnel is larger and more traffic went through here all the way to the Ammunition Storage Arsenal. Look at the ceiling. They probably had electric lights in here. You can still see some of the small hooks that held the wire if you look closely from here.”

Everyone shone their lamps at the ceiling and while many were missing, they could see the trail of hooks extending down the tunnel. 

“I wonder why they took out all the wire?” asked Jason. 

“By the end of the war, materials were precious. They may have needed it. Or they may have been removing all evidence of the tunnels use. It’s hard to say,” pondered Frank as they walked. 

Their feet and legs were tired. A 6 mile hike each way and exploring the storage rooms had eaten away at their reserves, and so hungry and worn out, they arrived at the chain ladder and began climbing out through their upstairs closet at a few minutes to 8.  Walking single file down the stairs and snapping their headlamps off, they grouped into the living room before their mother. Frank and the boys could feel her continued displeasure and were unusually quiet and looked sheepish, but Allie, who had been pretty quiet on the whole trip, poured out the story to her mother excitedly.

“Hi, Mom!  We went back down the tunnel and then started going west,” she said pointing somewhat randomly in the direction she thought west might be. “We came to these big doors with padlocks and Jarom tried to pick the locks, but he couldn’t so we walked and walked and walked.  There were lots of other big rooms that we found that we didn’t see before and we looked in them, but there was nothing there, so we went under the river and came to a gate. We could see through the gate to an old building, but the doors were closed. Then we walked all the way back.  I’m hungry! Is it dinner time yet?”

Lacy had to smile and Allie had broken the ice, so they all started talking at once. She got up and started for the kitchen, laying out bread and cheese and sliced chicken and the other sandwich creation materials she found in the refrigerator. Once they could sense that their mother still loved them, they started babbling happily while they made their own sandwiches.  They sat down to eat together and expanded on Allie’s explanation somewhat.

Jarom said, “I tried and tried to open the locks on the storage room doors, but the locks were really old. I need some oil to try again.”

Lacy looked thoughtful, “Do you suppose there is a reason those doors are locked?  They don’t belong to you.  Maybe you shouldn’t be trying to get into them.”

All of the explorers stopped and looked at her. They knew she was right, and yet no one had opened those locks for possibly decades. It seemed to them that what was in those rooms was the key to the mystery of the whole tunnel system.

Speaking for all of them, their father said, “You’re right, dear. They don’t belong to us, but as far as we can tell, they don’t belong to anyone. I think this whole complex is forgotten in time. If there is something valuable in there, we will certainly make sure that it gets to the proper owner, but what we are looking for is answers, and I think the answers are most likely in those rooms.”

Somewhat mollified, she changed the subject. “It is getting on toward bedtime. We’re all tired and we have church in the morning, so when you’re done eating, let’s get this cleaned up and get showered and to bed.”

They finished their meal and everyone helped tidy up the kitchen before they stumbled upstairs to their rooms.  Both showers were going in a few minutes and within 45 minutes, the children were all in bed. Frank and Lacy sat in the living room together for a few minutes before going upstairs themselves.

“Frank,” she said quietly. “I understand that this is exciting for the kids and for you too, but I don’t want my children exposed to danger. I know we can’t control everything in their lives, and I don’t want to, but I don’t want to put them in a situation where they will face dangers unnecessarily.”

“I understand, Sweetheart. I don’t want them in danger either, but I haven’t seen anything yet that is dangerous apart from climbing a ladder. As I told you before, I will be with them and in a week, we’ll turn whatever we’ve found over to the military authorities. For now, they are getting to live an adventure that every child dreams of and that they will remember for the rest of their lives.”

“Well it is not an adventure I ever dreamed of, but I suppose you’re right. I trust you to be careful,” and she stood and took his hand and they walked up the stairs together.