Dick Donnelly of the Paratroops

by Marshall McClintock

  CHAPTER THREE

  WADIZAM PASS

  “We’re really just a diversionary action, a feint,” Scotti said, hisvoice raised slightly so that all the men in the plane could hear himabove the muffled hum of the plane’s engines.

  “So we’re not gettin’ into the real thing even yet?” Tony Avellademanded.

  “It’s the real thing, all right,” the lieutenant replied, “if it’stough fighting you want. We’ll have plenty on our hands if plans workout right, because we’ll draw off a sizable force for our main group topinch off.”

  The men all leaned forward eagerly.

  “You see, the Germans have holed up in the Wadizam Pass, and that’s onthe main road to Tunis and Bizerte,” the lieutenant continued. “We’vegot to break their hold there and that’s no easy job. The planes havebeen giving them a pasting from that French field we took last week,but they’ve got plenty of cover and have stood up under it well. Afrontal attack is almost suicide because our men would have to marchbetween hills covered with German guns.”

  “This begins to sound like something,” Dick Donnelly commented, andseveral others nodded, waiting for Scotti to continue. It was one ofthe things they liked most about their lieutenant—his willingness totell them as much as he could about any action they were going into.Lots of men had to fight almost in the dark, but Scotti felt his mencould fight better if they knew why they were fighting and what theywere up against.

  “Two Ranger companies have been walking all night over mountains withalmost no trail,” Scotti said. “They’ve probably been running, insteadof walking, as a matter of fact, because they had fourteen miles tocover, over rough terrain, in complete darkness. Think that over whileyou’re sitting here nice and comfortable in your private airplane!”

  “Where are the Rangers going?” Max Burckhardt asked.

  “They’re cutting over the hills, to come down on those entrenchedGermans from above,” Scotti continued. “The Germans won’t expect it fora minute. In the first place, the hill is considered almost impassable.Also, their observation planes have not noted any move of a body oftroops in that direction. That’s because the troops waited fordarkness, were rushed to the bottom of the hill by truck after dark,and will climb all night. It’s an almost impossible feat, and theGermans don’t think we’re very good soldiers yet. They think you’ve gotto have plenty of battle experience to do a job like that. So they’resure we won’t pull such a trick.”

  “Well—I know those Ranger-Commando boys are good,” Dick Donnelly said.“But _can_ they really do it, if it’s so near to impossible?”

  “They’ll do it,” the lieutenant replied with a smile. “They had thewhole job put up to them on a volunteer basis, and the toughness of itwasn’t played down, either. And they were told that we fellows would besticking our necks out, because our very lives depended on their makingthat march on time. They said they’d make it, and they said it as ifthey meant it. They know the score—and they won’t miss.”

  Jerry Scotti looked around at the faces and saw smiles, a few nods, andsome relief. These men knew, too, that the Rangers would get to the topof their hill on time, even though many of them would be carrying gunsand mortars.

  “Okay—now here’s where we come in,” Scotti said. “Just after dawn wefly past the Wadizam Pass, to the north of it, circling around as if wewere trying to sneak in just when we had enough light to see but beforethe Germans would see us. Of course, they _will_ see us and we know it.But they haven’t got much of an opinion of us as soldiers or tacticiansyet; so they’ll think we’re fools enough to believe we can get awaywith it.”

  “I get it,” Tony Avella said. “They’ve been saying the Americans werestupid. Well, we’re going to take advantage of their thinking that.”

  “Sure, that’s it,” Scotti said. “And we’ll be quite a parachute forcedropping behind their lines on the opposite hill from the ones theRangers will be coming over. Twenty planes dropping paratroopers backthere can cause a lot of damage, and they know it. There’re a couple ofimportant bridges, a dam, and some telegraph lines we can cut.”

  “Is that what we’re going to do?” Dick asked.

  “No, it’s not,” the lieutenant answered.

  “I didn’t think so,” the sergeant said. “We’ll want to be using thatdam and those bridges and lines pretty soon ourselves.”

  “Right,” Scotti agreed, and went on. “But the Germans will have to sendback quite a good-sized force to round us up. First, they’ll want to dothe job fast, before we could do much damage, so they’ll send a bigforce. Next, they know we’ll have good cover in the hills, and they’llbe coming up the slope to get us. To do that the attacking force has tobe about four times as strong as the defenders. And in this case, we’rethe defenders, holding the hilltop.”

  “We can mow ’em down,” Max Burckhardt grinned.

  “Sure, we can,” Scotti said, “for a while. And then they’d overcome uswith greatly superior numbers and a few fairly heavy guns they’dtrundle up there in a hurry. But they won’t get that chance. If we candraw off 1500 to 2000 men from the main force at the entrance of thepass, they’ll be weakened by more than a third. Then the Rangers swoopdown on them from their side—flanking them so their biggest guns arenot in position to return fire. It will be a complete surprise to them,and at the crucial moment the main force will attack at the front.”

  “Sounds fine—if it works,” Tony muttered.

  They all agreed, but no one said what would happen if it did _not_work. They all knew that if the attack failed, the paratroop forcewould be cut off completely, surrounded and mopped up.

  “So, even if we’re a diversion,” Jerry Scotti smiled, “I think we’llget in some pretty good fighting. Tony, I’ll want that radio set up ina big hurry.”

  “Right you are, sir,” the young man replied. “I’ll have it going in tenminutes after it lands, if you’ll detail a couple of men to help me getit out of the ’chute containers and put together in a good spot.”

  “Sure,” the lieutenant replied. “MacWinn and Rivera—you help Tony withthe radio first. There won’t be any shooting for a while, anyway; soyou won’t miss any of it.”

  Suddenly, after all the talk, there was complete silence in the plane.The men were all looking into space, or at the floor, thinking,picturing what might come in the dangerous action ahead of them. Theplane purred on steadily. This was always the most difficult time,Lieutenant Scotti knew. That was why he so often passed the timetelling his men about the coming action. The ride in the plane justbefore they jumped and began to fight—that was when hearts beat alittle faster, when men’s throats felt a little dry.

  “It’s just about getting light over to the east,” he said quietly, andthe men looked up. The co-pilot stepped through the door from thecockpit at that moment, and spoke to the lieutenant.

  “About three minutes,” he said. “All set?”

  “All set,” Scotti replied with a smile, and got to his feet. Before hecould utter his command, the men were on their feet attaching theirlong ripcords to the cable that ran the length of the fuselage overtheir heads.

  “Got ’em trained, haven’t you?” the co-pilot commented. “Don’t have togive them any orders.”

  “Not this gang,” Scotti replied. “They know what to do better than Ido.”

  The men all smiled at that, pleased with themselves. They weren’t tenseany more. The time for real action was here at last, and they wereready for it.

  The side door was opened, and the men braced themselves against theblast of air that swept against them.

  “Remember—low jump, men,” Scotti said. “Okay—go ahead, Dick.”

  Clutching the Reising sub-machine gun across his chest, Donnelly leapedinto space with a shout. But to the customary “Geronimo!” he added theword, “Scotti!” But the lieutenant did not hear, for the blast thatcaught Dick swept him thirty feet from the plane by the time the secondwo
rd was out of his mouth. And Scotti was already giving his curt orderto the second man to jump.

  In rapid-fire order they went, piling out of the plane only two secondsapart. When the last man had jumped, Scotti and the co-pilot grabbed uptwo large containers with parachutes attached and tossed them, with thelieutenant following them immediately.

  Dick Donnelly was swinging slowly and gently at the ends of his shroudlines. He looked below at the rocky and uneven ground covered withlittle clumps of short, scrubby trees. He reached up over his rightshoulder and tugged at the lines a bit so that his body shifted to theleft slightly. He was picking his spot for a landing.

  Then he stole a glance upward and behind him, smiling with pleasure ashe saw the sky filled with scores of white parachutes.

  “Looks like a snowstorm,” he muttered to himself. “They sure did pileplenty of us out in a hurry over a small area.”

  The planes had already swung westward as they climbed away from thefirst ineffective bursts of antiaircraft shells from German batteriesto the south. There was no German airfield in the Wadizam Pass—it wastoo narrow and rocky—but they would be radioing for fighters to thefield at the rear, over the hill.

  “The transports will get away, though,” Dick mused. “They’re just aboutout of ack-ack range now, and the fighters will be too late.”

  He looked down at the ground again, which suddenly seemed to be comingup at him more rapidly. When the parachute first stopped his descent,it seemed almost as if he were floating in the air, settling downward,ever so slowly. But as he neared the earth, he had a better estimate ofthe speed at which he was traveling. With a last glance upward at themany white ’chutes interspersed with a few colored ones bearing machineguns, mortars, radio, and ammunition, he slipped his ’chute lines oncemore and got ready for the rolling fall.

  “Going to miss that big boulder all right,” he told himself. Then hisfeet touched the earth and jolted him as he tumbled sideways andslightly forward, yanking vigorously against the shroud lines on oneside.

  But he did not have to worry about the escape from his parachute, forit caught against the boulder he had missed, and collapsed. Quickly hejumped to his feet, slipped out of the harness, ditched his emergency’chute, and looked up toward the crest.

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  _Dick Just Missed the Big Boulder_]

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  “Yes, there’s the ledge,” he said to himself, and ran forward, theloose gravel and rocks rolling down the steep hill behind him as theywere kicked loose.

  The ledge toward which he was running was a broad and sweeping shelf inthe side of the hill, only about a hundred feet from the crest. Itextended all along the ridge and was perhaps fifty feet deep at mostpoints. On the northern end it narrowed to nothing where the hilldropped sharply down in a precipice to a small valley below. At thesouthern end the ledge just merged gradually into the hill itself. Itwas here that it would have to be defended. No enemy troops could hopeto attack from the north, up the cliff.

  In less than two minutes, Dick Donnelly had reached the ledge and wasgiving it a quick glance which took in all details, when more menstreamed up the hill to join him. They all looked it over just as Dickhad done, noting at once the big boulders that could give good cover,the depressions out of which good foxholes might be dug, the occasionaloverhanging rocks which made half-caves. Then their glance swept downthe hill, seeing which way the Germans must come when they did come.

  Tony Avella, with MacWinn and Rivera, struggled up the incline withtheir big boxes. With only a short glance, Tony motioned his men tofollow him up beyond the broad ledge, nearer the crest of the hill.There, Dick saw him motion toward a big boulder which lay near a clumpof the low, rugged trees. They dumped their boxes, and Tony started toopen them at once.

  Dick turned to direct men who arrived with heavy machine guns. Thefirst carried the gun itself, the second its tripod mount, the thirdthe water-cooling apparatus for it. Not far behind them climbed fourmen with boxes of ammunition for the gun.

  “There—between those two big rocks at the edge,” Dick said, pointing.“You can get a straight sweep down there.”

  With a grunt the men moved to the spot designated by the sergeant andbegan to set up the weapon with swift movements that wasted not asecond or a bit of energy. Then Lieutenant Scotti stood at Dick’s side.

  “Okay, Dick,” he said. “Nice spot, isn’t it?”

  “Perfect,” Dick said. “We could hold off an army here for days,provided they didn’t come at us from over the crest behind our backs.”

  “Not much chance,” the lieutenant replied. “No roads or trails on thatside of the ridge at all. It would take them a day and a half to getaround there, and it ought to be all over by this afternoon. They’llnot even get a chance to think of it. But you forget about planes.”

  “Yes, you’re right,” the sergeant agreed. “Not a good spot for planes.They can get at us pretty easily. But our own—”

  “They’re going to be pretty busy,” the lieutenant said. “They’ll bedisrupting roads and supply lines behind the Pass and helping out theRanger attack and then the frontal attack. They’ll help us if they can,if the Jerry planes come after us.”

  Within ten minutes after the parachute landing, the entire force wasdisposed, with machine guns emplaced, and mortars in position behindthem. Men were digging foxholes out of the rocky soil, selecting spotsbeside boulders for the maximum protection. Lieutenant Scotti hadreported everything to Captain Marker, in command of the operation, whohad set up headquarters almost at the crest of the hill. It was anexposed position, but it offered a perfect observation point.

  “I’ll be able to see the Ranger attack when it comes,” the Captainpointed out, gesturing toward the hill on the opposite side of thevalley. “They’ll be streaming over there as soon as we give the word.Is the radio set up?”

  “Yes, sir,” Scotti replied. “Corporal Avella is ready to go at anytime. We’re to use the call letters indicating that we’re communicatingwith our main base, but the Rangers will be picking it up on theirwalkie-talkies on the opposite hill.”

  “That’s right, Scotti,” the Captain answered. “And now you’d better getthose details headed out for the dam and other spots they’ll beexpecting us to go after. The enemy will probably have observationplanes over here in a few minutes and we’ve got to carry out what willlook to them like an immediate threat to their dam and communicationlines. Then they’ll hustle a sizable force here.”

  “Yes, sir,” the lieutenant replied, saluting as he turned and went downthe hill.

  He found Sergeant Dick Donnelly directing the placing of boxes ofammunition for the machine guns.

  “Sergeant Donnelly,” he called.

  “Yes, sir,” Donnelly replied, stepping to his side.

  “I’ve got a job for you, Dick,” Scotti said quietly. “And not an easyone.”

  “That sounds good, Jerry,” Dick replied. “What is it?”