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women killed, children rounded up and herded into concentration camps, towns and villages burned to the ground for daring to hide insurgents... no wonder the blacks were fighting desperately.  They were caught between freedom and total extermination. 
     
    And thousands of our own men are dead , he thought, coldly.  The general public doesn't have the slightest idea just how many soldiers have been killed - or wounded - in South Africa .
     
    It wasn't a pleasant thought, he reflected.  The Reich had no elections, no way for the civilians to express their feelings about the war.  No one had quite realised just how badly public opinion, such as it was, would be shocked about the Balkan War.  The public hadn’t given a damn about slaughtered Jews or Muslims, of course, but telling them just how many Germans had been killed in the fighting had been a mistake.  It wasn't one the SS intended to repeat.
     
    “However, we have a major problem,” Holliston continued.  “Pretoria is not as enthusiastic about the war as we would prefer.”
     
    “Unsurprising,” Hans commented, dryly.  “We are, after all, fighting a savage war of peace on their territory.”
     
    Holliston gave him a sharp look.  “We have gathered evidence that suggests the South Africans are on the verge of betraying us,” he snapped.  “Pretoria has been in private communications with Oliver Tambo and, apparently, attempting to come to some sort of agreement.  Furthermore, Tambo and his bunch of terrorists would not have escaped if Pretoria had acted swiftly to reinforce the parachutists who attacked the bastard’s territory.  I believe they hesitated in the hopes that Tambo would escape.”
     
    “And succeeded, if that were the case,” Field Marshal Gunter Voss commented.
     
    “They would presumably not have wished to restart negotiations with a new leader,” Hans mused.  “Tambo is hardly the worst they could have had to deal with.”
     
    He scowled, inwardly.  Pretoria’s apartheid system had a great deal in common with the Third Reich, but the white population of South Africa made up only a tenth of the population, even though Pretoria had been working hard to lure immigrants from Spain, Italy, France and even Greece.  The whites were, quite simply, badly outnumbered and every year they failed to crush the rebels, every little rebel success that helped to bleed Pretoria white, worsened their position.  It was hard to blame Pretoria for looking for a way out of the war that allowed them to salvage something .
     
    But Holliston, of course, didn't see it that way.
     
    “I have two proposals,” he said.  “First, we double the number of German troops fighting in South Africa.  We can easily spare 200,000 troops for as long as it takes to crush the blacks and bring peace to the country.  Second, that we strike first and eliminate the government in Pretoria.”
     
    Hans blinked in surprise.  He’d expected the proposal to double the number of troops in South Africa; it had, after all, been made before.  But eliminating the South African Government?  It was insane!  Which planner in Wewelsburg Castle had come up with the whole idea?
     
    Holliston pressed the idea as hard as he could.  “There are factions in Pretoria who will be happy to support us, if we eliminate the current leadership,” he said.  “These are the factions who have been pressing for a more pro-active solution to the problem...”
     
    Hans gritted his teeth.  Holliston alone couldn't commit the Reich to a desperate gamble, but if he dragged the military along with him... it would be hard, perhaps impossible, to head the madcap scheme off at the pass.  And it was madness, of that Hans was sure.  The meaning of the facts and figures might be disputed, but the facts themselves could never be.
     
    “The last time I checked,” he said, allowing his voice to drip with sarcasm, “we sent our soldiers into South Africa to support the local