CHAPTER FIVE
BREAK-THROUGH!
Lieutenant Scotti smiled. A well-placed light mortar shell had justlanded in a cluster of three German trucks on the road below. And thathad happened shortly after word had come of the Ranger attack on theremainder of the German force in the Wadizam Pass itself. Everythingwas going not only according to plan, but even more swiftly andefficiently. The enemy had fallen into the trap completely, splittinghis forces so that the Ranger attack could sweep him off his feet.
“I wonder how Dick Donnelly’s making out,” he thought to himself. “He’sin the tough spot and may never get back. Oh, well—”
But at that moment Dick Donnelly was helping four of his best men tofix their sub-machine guns securely between the rocks aiming down thelittle hill toward the Germans. Two more were fixed so that they aimedup the slope over the bare patch of ground. And these six guns were theThompson guns with round drums holding fifty cartridges, instead of thelighter Reisings which the rest of the men carried.
The rest of the men continued the fire as the guns were fixed securelyin place. A party of Germans had been sent up around to the right, butthey were held to the trees far up beyond the bare stretch. A halfdozen who had started a rush across the rocky patch had been cut downbefore they went ten steps, and the others did not want to share thatfate.
“Lefty, Bert, and Max,” Dick said, “stay with me at these guns. Theothers of you shove off into the water. Swim for that other point. Ifthere are any Germans on the dam wall itself, they may be able to seeyou for about the last ten feet, so make it under water if you can.Drop all equipment, guns, radio and everything except for a few cans ofrations. Move—now, fast!”
The men needed no more explanation of Dick’s plan. They headed downtoward the water as Dick and the three others crouched behind the rocksat the crest of the little hill, keeping up the steady fire. But theGermans were holding their fire more and more, and the lulls betweenbursts became longer and longer.
Dick glanced around and saw four men already striking out into thestill waters of the reservoir.
“The Jerries are probably bringing up some mortars from the trucksbelow,” Dick muttered to Max and the others. “We’d just better hopethat they don’t get the range too fast, before we get out, too.Here—get these cords attached.”
He pulled from his pocket two balls of stout cord and handed one toMax, the other to Bert.
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_Dick Handed Max a Ball of Cord_]
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“Tie one end to the triggers of the fixed Tommy guns,” he said. “Thenreel off a good length, about seventy-five feet, and cut it. Getlengths of cord on each Tommy gun. Keep up our own fire with theReisings. Give ’em a burst once in a while so they’ll know we’re stillhere.”
The men carried out the order quickly, as Dick kept glancing back atthe men in the water. All were on their way across now, and the firstman was reaching the stretch where he might be seen by any Germans onthe dam wall.
“I don’t think they’ve got any men there, though,” Dick told himself.“Don’t see why they should. They know the dam isn’t blown up yet, whichwas their main worry, and they know they’ve got us trapped back here.Of course, they may be ordered back to the pass to help the main forceattacked by our Rangers. But the frontal attack should be started onthe Pass by this time, and it might be all over before they could getthere.”
He was pleased to see the first man duck under the water and swim thelast ten feet without being seen. And he smiled to see him come up inthe shelter of a rock on the opposite point of land.
“Good going,” he said to himself. “He couldn’t have been seen even ifthe Jerries were looking that way.”
But his smile vanished as a roaring blast shook the earth beneath him.Instinctively he hugged the earth, and felt gravel, rocks, and dirtrain down on him from above.
“First mortar shell,” he spoke to the others. “Landed just on the otherside of the crest. Come on, give ’em a good burst. Get those cords inyour hands and let’s go.”
Before the burst of fire from the Americans ended there was anotherroar—this time behind them. Dick whirled to see the radio, which hadbeen left on the shore, rise into the air and spread into a hundredpieces along with rocks and earth. Crouching low, he ran down the slopeto the shore, with Max and Lefty and Bert immediately behind him. Atthe shore line he turned, grabbed two of the cords which were hooked tothe Tommy guns wedged in the rocks. He gave them a gentle pull, and theothers did the same with their cords. The gun chattered from the ledgeabove them, and they knew the Germans would not try to rush the crest.They’d wait for the mortars to do the trick. As the four Americans slidinto the water, still holding their cords, they saw a shell dig amighty hole in the rocky earth just behind the crest, where they hadbeen not one minute before.
“There go two of the Tommy guns!” Dick said. By this time they were upto their chests in the water.
“One last burst before we swim,” he commanded tersely. He pulled on histwo cords. One was limp—attached to one of the guns that had been blownup by the last mortar shell. But the other tugged the trigger, and heheard the stuttering fire it gave forth, along with the other guns thatwere still functioning.
“Swim for it—and fast!” Dick shouted to his companions.
They heard another roar behind them, then another in quick order, thena third. By this time they were swimming swiftly toward the otherpoint, and it was not far away.
“Don’t bother to go under,” Dick muttered between strokes. “We don’tcare if they do see us now.”
His clothes felt heavy, like lead weights holding him back. In trunkshe could have made the distance in a minute; now each forward push wasshort. But suddenly he felt his feet strike the bottom, and he pushedforward rapidly up the point of land.
There were no more bursts of shells behind them as they ran for thewoods. But just as they plunged into the thick tangle of trees, thechatter of machine guns blazed behind them and the zing of shellsfilled the air. Bert fell to the ground and Max went down beside him.With a quick motion he rolled Bert and himself behind a boulder. ThereDick crept up to them.
“Go ahead!” Bert said. “They got me in the leg. They’ll be swarmingover that stretch of water in a minute.”
“Oh, no, they won’t!” Dick said. “Remember—we’re all picked swimmers.And we dropped our guns. They’ll come after us only if they can keeptheir guns, and I don’t think they can manage it with ’em.”
Machine-gun bullets still spattered around them intermittently, andthey could hear the angry, bellowed orders of a German officer acrossthe water behind them.
“He’s telling ’em to cross over,” Max said. “He’s telling ’em we’ve gotno guns and to go ahead after us!”
“Well, I’ve got the answer for that,” Dick grinned. He reached insidehis shirt and pulled out a waterproof pouch. Ripping it open heextracted a service automatic, dry as a bone. Heading around the rockas he hugged the ground, he wriggled forward about ten feet in theunderbrush. There, peering through the branches of a bush, he saw theGermans on the opposite point. Standing on the crest was the officer,still bellowing orders to his men, who moved slowly forward toward thewater. They didn’t like the idea of making that crossing.
Dick steadied his right arm on the ground, aimed the automaticcarefully, and squeezed the trigger. The German officer’s angry wordswere cut short. He looked startled and dismayed, as if someone hadplayed an unfair trick on him. His hand went to his chest, he lookedaround him for a second, and then toppled forward from the ridge,rolling to the shore below. The German soldiers looked at his body amoment, then turned and scrambled back up the little hill as if deathitself were chasing them. In two seconds they were all on the otherside of the hill. Dick grinned and ran back behind the rock where Bertan
d Max waited for him. A tentative machine-gun burst followed him, buthe was safe behind the rock.
“I don’t think they’ll come across now,” he said. “I got the officer,the one who was telling them we had no guns. At least they won’t becoming for a little while, until another officer makes them do it. Comeon! Up you go, Bert!”
Max and Dick lifted Bert and carried him rapidly forward through thetrees. Fifty feet further along they found the rest of their men, andDick counted them quickly. Yes—they were all there.
“Jimmy,” he said to one of the men, “you take over with Max to carryBert here. The others will spell you once in a while. I’ve got to goahead to find that old aqueduct. Follow me!”
He led the way briskly through the trees, and the men, still drippingfrom their swim, followed him without a word. They climbed the slopinghill for a quarter of a mile, then cut down sharply toward the shore ofthe reservoir again. They could see the placid water through the treesahead when Dick stopped them.
“Wait here while I have one quick look,” he said. “Put Bert down, andgive him first aid—but fast. Then two others take him when we’re readyto go again.”
The sergeant moved forward to the water’s edge swiftly. In a moment hestood on a huge pile of old rocks which stretched like a wall along oneedge of the man-made lake for a distance of about sixty feet. Here wasthe old dam from the days of the Romans, and stretching away from thewall was the arching aqueduct, spanning a narrow but deep chasm.
“Still standing, all right,” he said to himself. “But not too strong.Those pillars look pretty crumbly, but we’ll have to chance it. Spreadout—then there won’t be much weight at one time.”
He hurried back to his men in the shelter of the trees.
“How you feeling, Bert?” he asked.
“Okay, Sarge,” the big soldier replied, but Dick could see the painbehind his smile. “Sorry to cause so much trouble this way. Don’t letme hold you up.”
“Rot! You’re not holding anybody up,” Dick said. “Let’s get going.Spread out about ten feet apart going over the old aqueduct up ahead.It may not be too strong, but we’ve got to chance it. If it’s stood allthese centuries it can stand another half hour for us.”
Dick motioned Max to lead the way, and he stayed behind. Max steppedfrom the trees, on to the old stone wall and then to the aqueduct. Hemarched across it at a steady swift pace, and another man started offbehind him after he had gone about ten paces. Dick watched carefully.There were three men on the ancient structure—now four. Max was onlyabout ten feet from the other end.
“He’s across!” Dick exclaimed, as Max turned at the other end and wavedboth arms with a smile. “Okay, let Bert and his two carriers go next.”
The wounded man and his companions stepped on the aqueduct. Their pacewas slower than that of the others, and everyone watched without a wordas they made their way slowly forward. It seemed to Dick that he mustbe holding his breath.
There was almost a cheer from the men as the wounded soldier and histwo carriers made the other side of the gully. Then the remaining men,with Dick at the end, followed quickly, without any concern about theold aqueduct.
On the other side, Dick explained briefly the course they would have tofollow to get back to their own men. It was a roundabout circle overtwo ridges of hills, and across one stream that had to be forded. Butthey felt sure they would meet no enemy forces on the way, as theirpath covered wild country off the main routes.
The going was slow because the men all felt a letdown after theirforced marches of the day. Now they felt safe, sure that they hadeluded any pursuing force that might come after them.
“As a matter of fact,” Max said to Lefty, “I don’t think anybody’sfollowing us. Those boys at the dam must’ve got word of the battle downin the Pass. They’re probably heading back down there now. I hopethey’re too late.”
“This was a pretty good shindig, wasn’t it?” Lefty commented. “Firsttime we’ve really had something of what we wanted. We really did aparatrooper’s job today.”
“Yes—pretty good, pretty good,” Max replied, with a sigh. “But I didn’tget my forty Nazis. I figure I only got about eleven myself.”
“No—you got to look at it this way, Max,” Lefty said. “What we did uphere made it possible for our boys down in the Pass to wipe out a fewthousand. So really you got a lot more than forty.”
Max smiled. “I like the way you put it,” he said. “But I want to do itpersonally.”
They had a quick meal before climbing another hill, digging food out oftheir ration cans. When they went on again, Max was walking beside DickDonnelly.
“Pretty smart operation, Dick,” Max said. “You really handled it swellall the way through.”
“Thanks, Max,” the sergeant replied. “But I was lucky that we were ableto get away so soon and didn’t have to pin those German forces down foranother hour or so. We couldn’t have got out if we had had to do that.”
“No, but you were prepared for every break we did get, and you tookfull advantage of it,” Max said. “That’s what counts. Why they don’tmake you a general is more than I can see.”
Dick laughed. “Wait till I get us back to our forces safely before youcongratulate me,” he said. “I hope I’m taking you in the rightdirection.”
But Max had no doubts. Dick obviously knew where he was going. And eventhough the group of men went more and more slowly as the afternoon woreon, it was from nothing but weariness. They knew they would get back totheir headquarters under Dick’s guidance.
But it was late—almost sunset, when they saw ahead of them the crest ofthe hill on the other side of which was the ledge where they had landedthat morning.
The last pull up that hill was a tough one, and the men grunted astheir feet slipped on the rocks. When they were halfway up, they werespotted by an American at the crest, who gave a whoop of pleasure atwhat he saw. In a moment, others were scurrying over the crest of thehill and running down the slope toward the weary soldiers of DickDonnelly’s gang. Among the first to reach them was Lieutenant Scotti.
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_Dick and Max Walked Happily up the Hill_]
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“Dick, my boy!” he shouted. “What a sight for sore eyes! You made itback! And from the looks of you, by swimming, too!”
Dick smiled back weakly. “Yes, sir, we took to the water,” he saidwearily. Suddenly he felt as if he could not move another step. As longas the responsibility for the detachment had been on his shoulders, hekept his spirits up, encouraged the men to keep going. But now he couldrelax, and he did. He just wanted to sit down where he was and go tosleep.
Without a word, Lieutenant Jerry Scotti slipped one of Dick’s arms overhis shoulder and helped him the rest of the way up the hill. Other menhad taken Bert in their arms and still others helped the weary Donnellygang over these last steps.
Over the crest of the hill, they went down to the ledge, where theywere surrounded at once by their friends. Dick went with Scotti toreport to Captain Marker, who beamed at him.
“To be perfectly honest, Sergeant Donnelly, I didn’t expect to see youand your men again,” he said. “Yours was almost a suicide mission. Didyou bring all your men back with you?”
“Yes, sir,” Dick said. “Private O’Leary got a slug in his right leg andLatham one through the left hand. No other casualties, unless you countsore feet. We had to abandon all of our equipment, though.”
“Of course, of course,” the Captain said. “You’ve done a fine job,Donnelly, a particularly fine job. And I know you’ll be glad to learnthat the battle of Wadizam Pass is over. A complete victory! Aboutfourteen hundred Germans dead, two thousand captured. Some few got awayinto the hills.”
“That’s wonderful, sir,” Dick replied. “How did it go here?”
“Lieutenant Scotti will give you the details, I know,” the
Captainsaid. “Now there are trucks waiting on the road below to take us backto the Pass. You men need some rest.”
On the way down to the trucks, Jerry Scotti told Dick about the actionat the ledge. The Germans had tried over and over again to advancestraight up the hill, and many had been cut down. When they unlimberedthe mortars, they did a lot of damage, with the Americans losing twentymen in the entire action.
“It would have been worse,” Scotti said, “if the Rangers and regulartroops hadn’t cleaned up the Pass itself so quickly. They sent a bunchup here, and they took the Germans from behind. It was all over in halfan hour then.”
That night Dick Donnelly slept the sleep of the good and the just—foreleven hours, along with the rest of his men. And the next day theymoved back to the parachute troops base.
“Well, that’s that,” Tony Avella said, as they sat under the shade of atree. “Best action so far. I guess everybody’s happy but VinceSalamone, who sat this one out in the guardhouse.”
“Yeah, the home-run king is fit to be tied,” Max said. “But I bet he’llbe a good boy from now on. He doesn’t want to miss another littletussle like this. Wonder what we’ll get next?”
Although the men themselves quickly dropped the subject of the WadizamPass battle, concentrating their thoughts on the future, it was not solightly passed over in headquarters in a city behind the lines where athree-star general went over reports of that action with others of hisstaff.
“That Wadizam Pass action was brilliant,” he said. “General Ackerlyplanned and executed it without a flaw. And I thought it would take usanother two weeks to get past that bottleneck.”
“Yes, and he had some good men under him,” said one of his aides. “Thatparatroop company really pulled the Germans away with their feint.That’s why the Rangers cleaned up everything so quickly. When thefrontal attack came, there was almost nothing left to do.”
“Captain Marker should get a promotion for that,” the three-stargeneral commented. “But what I like best is that suicide squad theysent out to the dam never really expecting to see them again. And theyall came back! I’m glad Captain Marker gave us such a complete reporton that action. I have an idea we’re going to be able to use a crowdlike that for some special tasks when we get to Italy.”