She nodded vigorously, grinning with uneven teeth. ‘It was night-time. Field Marshal Ritter von Greim was in a bad way and had to be helped up from the bunker; he was on crutches and it was very difficult for him. At last we got out of the bunker and into the open air. It wasn’t dark. The whole city was lit by flames. All we could do was wait for a lull in the shelling. When there were a few moments of relative quiet, we hurriedly climbed aboard a Panzer waiting for us in the Voss-strasse, and the nerve-shattering journey began. Among fire, thick smoke, acrid dust and a deafening hail of shrapnel and bullets, the tank negotiated its way towards the zoo, which was nowhere near the place we had left our damaged Fieseler Storch. I confess I was terrifed that we must be heading straight into the Soviet lines and would all be killed. But the tank crew knew what they were doing, and from the zoo we crossed the wasteland of Tiergarten to the Victory Column where the flight control was based. Miraculously this was still in German hands, and a two-seater Arado 96 trainer plane was waiting for us there. It had been flown in specially for us from Rechlin and was concealed in a concrete bombproof shelter.’

‘A two-seater?’ Heck asked. ‘So just enough room for you and Adolf Hitler?’

‘No, no, please don’t put words in my mouth. The Führer was not with us. I am small so Ritter von Greim and I managed to squeeze together in the single rear seat, and the pilot who had brought the AR96 to Berlin sat in front of us at the controls.’

‘So it was a three-seater?’

‘In effect, but only because of my size. It was designed for two.’

‘Why didn’t you fly it yourself? That way you could have taken your lover, von Greim, and your beloved Führer.’

‘I wish he had been with us, but he wouldn’t come. That is an end to the matter.’

‘OK, what then?’

‘We took off. It was a cold, eerie night, but our young pilot was full of courage. He ascended as steeply as he could, but we instantly came under attack. Below us, Berlin was in flames, smoke and fire billowing from half the city. Within minutes, we had shot through the flak into the thick cloud cover. Once we were above the clouds, the sky was starlit and clear of enemy aircraft, and we were free.’

Wilde and Heck looked at each other with the same obvious doubts in mind. Heck signalled Wilde to take over the questioning.

‘Why didn’t you carry someone more important than the young pilot?’

‘That would not have been fair on him. He risked his life to come for us.’

‘Since when did Nazis give a damn about fairness or a young man’s life?’

‘I don’t understand.’