For 24 years Switchman Fritz Walther had handled Berlin's eastbound trains. Ebert's presidential train, Hindenburg's three-car special, Hitler's headquarters coach has passed his post. A loyal Nazi, Walther was twice decorated by the Third Reich for devotion to duty.
Last week the switchman, still handling1 eastbound traffic, saw a chance to prove his devotion. As a passenger train passed his tower, he threw a wrong switch, sent it plunging into a parked freight loaded with Red Army supplies and re-enforcements. Casualties: 18 killed, 32 seriously injured.
A Russian military tribunal sentenced wrong-switch Walther to be shot at dawn.
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