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diff --git a/old/66577-0.txt b/old/66577-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 85e2b79..0000000 --- a/old/66577-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5262 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of We Were There at the Normandy Invasion, by -Clayton Knight - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: We Were There at the Normandy Invasion - -Author: Clayton Knight - -Contributor: Ralph Royce - -Release Date: October 20, 2021 [eBook #66577] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Tim Lindell, David E. Brown, and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was - produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital - Library.) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WE WERE THERE AT THE NORMANDY -INVASION *** - - - - - _WE WERE THERE_ - AT THE - NORMANDY INVASION - -[Illustration: _“The 82nd always wins its battles!” Slim said_] - - - - - _WE WERE THERE_ - AT THE - NORMANDY - INVASION - - Written and Illustrated by - CLAYTON KNIGHT - - _Historical Consultant_: - MAJOR GENERAL RALPH ROYCE - U.S.A.F., RETIRED - - [Illustration] - - GROSSET & DUNLAP - PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK - - - - - © CLAYTON KNIGHT 1956 - - - PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NO. 56-5389 - - _We Were There at the Normandy Invasion_ - - - - -Contents - - - CHAPTER - - I Dangerous Business 3 - - II House-to-House Search 15 - - III Father Duprey’s Plan 26 - - IV Midnight Landing 34 - - V André’s Warning 41 - - VI Victor’s Mission 56 - - VII Tricolor over Ste. Mère 66 - - VIII Prisoners 73 - - IX Victor Disappears 82 - - X “Here Come the Tanks!” 86 - - XI André and the Nazi Pilot 98 - - XII Slim and the Trumpet 104 - - XIII The War from the Air 110 - - XIV Father Duprey’s Story 123 - - XV Battle for St. Sauveur 129 - - XVI André into the Fighting 139 - - XVII Patchou on the Battlefield 146 - - XVIII The Secret Tunnel 153 - - XIX The 82nd Finishes Its Fight 160 - - XX Bastille Day--1944 169 - - - - -Illustrations - - - “The 82nd always wins its battles!” Slim said FRONTISPIECE - - At a signal from the driver he went to the pump 5 - - He opened the door to find a Nazi officer frowning at him 32 - - The squad gathered up grenades, bazookas, and other equipment 70 - - André had learned half of Slim’s pet song 108 - - “My dear boy!” Father Duprey held out his arms 124 - - Marie came up through the old tunnel 156 - - - - - _WE WERE THERE_ - AT THE - NORMANDY INVASION - - - - -CHAPTER ONE - -_Dangerous Business_ - - -Toward sunset on the first day of June, a small black car rattled past -a crossroads sign in a tiny village in northwestern France. The sign -pointed to the near-by town of Sainte Mère Église, about two miles -farther inland. The coast of the English Channel was nearly three miles -back in the other direction. - -Behind the wheel of the car sat a thin, anxious Frenchman. Hunched -beside him was a young, blond Englishman. The younger man was shabbily -dressed, and most of the lower part of his face was covered by a -bandage. - -The car pulled up and stopped in front of a house with a weather-beaten -sign on it which read: - - PIERRE GAGNON _Gas Tobacco Chocolate_ - -A lone gas pump stood between the house and the highway. Beyond the -house lay Pierre Gagnon’s farm. - -The driver waited a moment and then honked three times sharply. Almost -immediately the door opened. A dark-haired boy of about twelve came out. - -The man behind the wheel asked, “Is your father here?” - -The boy nodded and politely explained, “If you want gas I can work the -pump.” - -The driver frowned nervously and repeated, “Get your father.” - -From the direction of Ste. Mère Église three German soldiers came -in sight, their heavy tread echoing in the stillness of the drowsy -village. Both men in the car and the boy glanced at them. When the boy -did not move, the driver spoke more sharply, “Your father, bring him -here.” - -The boy turned and disappeared through the door. - -The driver and his passenger waited. The younger man slid low in his -seat, his back toward the approaching soldiers. - -Chatting among themselves, the Germans paid no attention to the car -nor to a girl of fifteen who had come to the house door. Behind her -stood her father, Pierre Gagnon, a burly man with a thick mustache, and -rumpled country clothes. - -He brushed past the girl, and at a signal from the driver, went to the -pump. The driver left his seat and bent close to speak to him. - -[Illustration: _At a signal from the driver he went to the pump_] - -Pierre Gagnon listened carefully, then swung around and went back to -the girl in the doorway. - -“Marie,” he whispered, “they want us to hide this fellow, another -downed flyer, for two or three days.” - -The girl studied the youth slumped low in the front seat. She thought, -“He looks like all the airmen who are shot down over France--the -worried eyes, the peasant clothes that don’t fit, the bandages.” - -“Who is the driver?” she asked. “Has he the right password?” - -“Yes,” her father replied. “And he asks us to hide this English pilot -till the Maquis can find a way to get him over the border into Spain. -Do you think we can do it?” - - * * * * * - -In Normandy, that part of France which thrusts northward into the -English Channel, apple trees were in bloom. Warm, soft breezes played -across the green fields, over the thick hedgerows, and through the -orchards. - -But in this beautiful spring of 1944 the people of Normandy could not -enjoy what they saw. They could only hear the tramp of German boots -over their land. Nazi armies had occupied France, and for the last -two years German camps had been set up over the countryside. French -property had been seized, and Nazi officers told the people exactly -what they could and could not do. - -The town of Ste. Mère Église sits almost in the middle of what is -called the Cherbourg Peninsula. Most of the Norman people are farmers -or dairymen. Some are fishermen, but the Nazis would not let them fish. -Instead, the Germans set up barriers along the shore to prevent boats -from landing. And they lined the coast with huge guns. Also, the fields -were spiked with posts and barbed wire to keep American and British -gliders from landing. - -For many months, the French people had been expecting British and -American armies to come in a great invasion that would drive the Nazis -out. But their hopes had always failed. No troops had come to liberate -them, and the Normans felt glum and often angry. More than anything -else they wanted to be free. - -The only thing they could do was to cause all possible trouble for -the Nazis secretly. Those who banded together in “Underground” or -Resistance groups were called Maquis. If a Maquis was caught by the -Germans he was very likely to be shot. - -Nevertheless, many French ran the risk of being detected helping the -British and Americans. Even very young men and girls operated in the -secret Underground. - -The Nazis tried to watch everyone, but sometimes the most -innocent-looking car on the road was being used to trick them, even in -the quietest village. - -It was happening now. Marie Gagnon nodded to her father. “Bring him -in,” she whispered. “I’ll get the room in the attic ready.” - -“One moment,” her father said. “I’ll send André out of the way first. -What he doesn’t know he won’t chatter about.” - -He shouted through the door, “André. Come here.” - -There was a clatter of heavy shoes and the boy reappeared. - -“Son,” his father said sternly, “have you taken the eggs to old Schmidt -yet?” - -André hesitated and shook his head. “No--my bicycle--I could not get -the chain fixed.” - -His sister snorted at him. “You are getting soft. It won’t hurt you to -walk. The eggs are on the kitchen table.” - -André thought, “Sisters!” But a look at his father’s face sent him back -for the eggs. - -As he turned down the road toward Ste. Mère Église his father went back -to the gas pump. André had not gone far when Patchou, his dog, caught -up with him. The puppy gave him a playful nudge as if to say, “I’m -sorry to be late, but I had to give that car a good, long sniff.” - -After walking less than a mile, André turned off and came to a group -of camouflaged barracks. Inside the high wire fence, narrow buildings -stood in long rows. A German sentry, his rifle held loosely, guarded -the gate. He grinned at the boy and waved him inside. - -As André entered, a Frenchman pedaling by on an ancient bicycle shouted -to him, but a burst of Patchou’s barking drowned out the greeting. - -André went around a large group of military vehicles and mobile guns -parked under a protecting netted screen. Then he followed a winding -path up to one of the barracks. - -Patchou, prancing ahead of him, leaped playfully at a middle-aged -German soldier seated on a bench outside, puffing on his pipe. - -Gently pushing off the excited dog, the German saw André and called, -“Aha! It’s young Herr Gagnon.” He tapped the ashes from his pipe and -then added, “You have brought Papa Schmidt some more eggs, no?” - -André held out the package. The German placed it on the bench and -carefully unknotted the big handkerchief the boy had brought. - -Schmidt exclaimed when he saw the contents. “_Ach!_ and cheese, too.” -He held the cheese to his nose and inhaled deeply. “That’s goot. You -are a fine boy, André Gagnon.” With a twinkling smile, he added, -“Almost as goot as my own Otto. - -“Look, I show you.” He reached into the pocket of his tunic. “Just -today a letter came from my home in Osnabrück--and pictures.” Pointing -to one, he said, “That’s my Otto. He’s like you, no?” - -André studied the snapshot of a boy about his own age but with light, -almost white hair, frowning into the sun. - -A little embarrassed, André could only say, “He wears funny clothes.” - -The German chuckled. “If he could see you, he’d think yours were -comical too.” - -Glancing at the letter in his hand, he sighed. “_Ach!_ but they are -having it bad in Osnabrück. The Englisher and the Americaner planes -they bomb, bomb, bomb our town. Part of my home is gone. My wife and -boy say they get no sleep.” - -Almost to himself he muttered, “When will the war end?” Then, turning -to the boy, he said sadly, “_Ach_, how do you know, any more than me? -We smile, eh, while we can ... and enjoy the sunshine.” - -Patchou had wandered off to one of the other barracks and started a -fight with one of the camp dogs. André called over his shoulder, “I’ll -be back again in a day or two,” and ran to separate the two animals. - -By the time he and Patchou reached home, the last twilight had faded. -The house was dark, for blackout curtains were drawn across the -windows. - -Inside, his sister sat hunched alone in the wide, stone-floored -kitchen, listening to music from a forbidden radio. - -“Where’s Papa?” André asked. - -Marie looked annoyed. “He’s gone off with Victor Lescot. That Raoul -Cotein is making trouble again. Now he says our cows broke into his -pasture. What an old weasel he is! Even the Germans behave better.” - -Later, with supper over, she paused suddenly, and raised her hand for -André to be silent. - -Breaking the stillness, the weird wail of air-raid sirens rose far away. - -Marie looked tired. And there was fear in her eyes when she heard the -sirens, which meant that another air raid was beginning. - -“_Again_ tonight,” she sighed, “and so early. It is not yet ten -o’clock.” - -She went to the kitchen window and made sure the black curtains let no -light through. - -“You run upstairs, André, and see that the curtains there are tight. -And stay with Mother,” she ordered. - -Mme. Gagnon had been ill for several weeks. Now she lay in her big bed -upstairs, nearly asleep. - -She opened her eyes as the sirens died away and then began again. - -“Well, son,” she said, “did you eat a good supper?” - -André nodded. - -A little wind from the sea had sprung up, and somewhere a loose board -rattled. Also, there was a noise in the attic. “Must be a rat,” André -said to himself, and decided to take Patchou up there tomorrow. “He’ll -have some fun catching that little thief,” he thought. - -His mother was roused again by the drone of plane engines coming in -high overhead. Their lofty beating made the air tremble. Antiaircraft -guns in near-by Ste. Mère Église began to boom. Their hollow _wumpf, -wumpf_, added to the din of the sirens. - -In a slight lull, Mme. Gagnon asked, “Is your father home? I do not -like him to be away when there is an air raid.” - -André shook his head and raised his voice above the racket. “He’s out -with Victor. Marie says Raoul Cotein is trying to stir up trouble -again.” - -He wanted his mother to think of something other than the air raid, so -he laughed and added, “Marie says Raoul is a weasel.” - -Raoul Cotein’s mischief-making was a village joke. - -Mme. Gagnon sighed. “I wish your father would come home,” she said. -“The bombing might be bad.” - -“Don’t worry,” André said wisely. “These are English planes. The -Americans only come in the daytime. You know, Maman, there aren’t any -big guns and bridges and war factories close to us here.” - -But bombs were dropping, though at a distance. Several minutes later, -the coastal guns were still firing, but the sound of the engines had -begun to die away. - -“Listen,” said Mme. Gagnon in a relieved voice. “You were right, André, -they dropped no bombs on us.” - -André heard his sister’s footsteps on the stairs. Then he thought he -heard the creak of the attic door. Presently she came bustling into the -room, carrying a small tray with a pot of chocolate and a cup. - -Cheerfully, she said, “There, Maman, they’ve gone. Let’s hope we get no -more planes tonight. Here,” pouring the chocolate, “drink this and try -to get back to sleep.” - -Her dark skirts swished around her knees as she fluffed up her mother’s -pillows and tucked in the coverlet. - -Downstairs the front door opened and they heard Pierre Gagnon calling, -“Marie!” - -Then someone spoke in another voice. - -“Shh-h,” whispered Marie. “There is someone with Papa.” - -Her father was saying loudly, “Yes, Herr Kapitan, I’m all right. No, -no, it is not necessary for you to come in.” - -Before Marie and André reached the head of the stairs, the outside door -was slammed, bolted, and the stranger had gone. - -The light from the hall lamp fell on their father as he turned to face -the stairs. - -Across one of his cheeks stretched a deep red gash. - - - - -CHAPTER TWO - -_House-to-House Search_ - - -As the light fell across the wound on her father’s face Marie cried out -sharply. - -From the bedroom Mme. Gagnon called, “Marie, what’s wrong?” - -André ran back to her side. “Papa’s hurt,” he said, and then added -hastily, “but not badly.” - -“But there were no bombs,” Mme. Gagnon exclaimed. - -Pierre himself had lunged up the stairs and now burst into the bedroom -sputtering, “Don’t excite yourself, Maman. All is well. No harm is -done. That _cochon_!” - -“Ah,” his wife cried. “So, it _was_ Raoul Cotein!” - -“Who else but that son of Satan?” Gagnon’s eyes snapped fiercely. He -was red and breathing furiously, and flung himself into a chair beside -the bed. - -“I contain myself,” he said firmly, clamping both great hands on his -knees like thunderclaps. - -“No, Papa,” André grasped his arm, “do not contain yourself yet. Tell -us what has happened.” - -“Marie,” said Mme. Gagnon, “run get some hot water and clean Papa’s -cut.” - -Marie clattered quickly down the stairs and Mme. Gagnon went on, “Now, -Pierre, you get yourself slashed and perhaps poisoned over a cow. I -thought you had more sense.” - -The farmer stiffened. “It was _not_ about a cow! Raoul sent for me -only as an excuse. Ask Victor. He also was there. At once Raoul began -to scream so loud, if it were not for the guns booming they could have -heard him in Ste. Mère.” - -“Then what--?” began Mme. Gagnon impatiently. - -“Then,” cried Pierre, “he began to shout charges against me.” He swept -out both arms. “Against all of us.” - -Pierre swallowed angrily. “He accused me,” he said, “of being a -collaborator of the Nazis! He accuses us all--you, Marie, André--of -working hand in glove with them. It seems that only this evening he saw -André, here, entering the German camp.” - -There it was--the black word, _collaborator_, he who helps the enemy! -It meant someone hated by all Frenchmen, more, perhaps, than the enemy. - -“But Papa,” André cried angrily, “poor old Schmidt! He is not an enemy.” - -Pierre shook his head. “He is. We have only been giving him a few eggs -and a little cheese because he is a tired old man. But Raoul can make -it sound wrong if he wants to.” - -[Illustration] - -Mme. Gagnon nodded encouragement. She thought of the many Allied flyers -this brave, shaggy man had secretly helped to escape from the Nazis at -the risk of his life. And of the boy in the attic. She glanced at her -son, who, so far, knew nothing about his father’s and sister’s work in -the Underground. - -“I grew very angry when he called me a collaborator,” Pierre went on. -“How could I let anyone say such a thing to me? I punched Raoul and -he came back at me like a bull. We fell down, and my face struck the -stone wall. The result is not pretty, perhaps?” - -“Why did that German captain come home with you?” André burst out. “Did -he get in the fight with Raoul?” - -Gagnon snorted. “Not in the fight. Unfortunately he came along just as -Raoul picked up a stick and started for me. Victor was yelling at both -of us, and suddenly we saw the German coming. Naturally we all shut our -mouths like clams. Frenchmen do not fight Frenchmen in front of the -Nazis--not even Raoul.” - -“Perhaps there will be no more to it,” said Mme. Gagnon soothingly. - -“If they do not send soldiers to snoop around the house,” Pierre -grunted, “we need not worry.” - -Marie returned, breathless, with a basin of water and clean cloths. Her -father sat on the edge of the bed, repeating the story, while the cut -was cleaned and gently covered with ointment. - -“Your face feels better, Pierre?” Mme. Gagnon asked. “Good. Now we must -all sleep.” - -A few minutes later the house was dark. Everywhere, from the kitchen -where André snuggled into his goosedown-soft, curtained bed, to the -attic, there was the sound of quiet breathing. And in the attic the -English boy turned restlessly on his narrow cot. - -Before dawn the household roused to the day’s duties. It was not long -before they heard news. The weary, older German soldiers were being -removed. War-toughened young Nazis were going to take over the district. - -Before the new troops had been in camp two days, proclamations that put -stricter limits on freedom were posted everywhere. - -A curfew was ordered. People must not leave their houses between ten in -the evening and five in the morning. This did not bother André since he -usually went to bed well before ten. - -A sad little good-by note from Papa Schmidt reached him. It thanked the -family warmly for their kindness and ended: “Be a goot boy. Someday I -bring my Otto to see you. _Auf Wiederzehen._” - -André noticed that the German camp was a changed place. The new -regiment had chained vicious police dogs inside the wire fence. And -André was horrified when he heard that stray dogs belonging to the -village people had been shot. - -He tied Patchou safely in the farmyard at the rear of the house, and -kept an eye on him. - -Then came another dreaded order: - - ALL ARTICLES OF BRASS OR COPPER MUST BE SURRENDERED BY THE CIVILIAN - POPULATION. A HOUSE-TO-HOUSE SEARCH WILL BE MADE. - -André’s most prized possession was a gleaming brass trumpet which he -had learned to play with some skill. It was not only dear to him, but -the only really precious thing he owned. “I must hide it in some very, -very safe place,” he thought. - -Also, the coming search would be very dangerous to the rest of the -family. If the Germans came they would surely find the flyer in their -attic. And if an enemy pilot were found in their house they would all -be shot. - -Marie and her father had been watching for the Maquis operator to come -for the flyer, according to plan. But for some reason he had not yet -appeared. - -“Those Maquis! They are wasting their time in some café, enjoying -themselves, probably,” Mme. Gagnon said irritably. - -But Pierre replied, “No. Not the Maquis. There is some good reason why -the operator has not yet been able to get here.” - -It was not until June 4th, just before curfew time, that a Maquis -messenger slipped into the Gagnon house. - -He said he could not come before because the new Nazi garrison had sent -patrols everywhere. - -The plans of the Underground had all been changed. Pierre and Marie, he -said, must keep the flyer where he was until new arrangements to spirit -him away could be made. - -That evening Marie and her father huddled in the dark little parlor to -talk over their situation. - -Marie whispered wildly, “What _shall_ we do if the Nazis come here? -They will go to the attic too.” - -Pierre shrugged, scowling. “We must find some way. We always have -before.” - -But, more than an hour later, they still had no idea what to do. - -“There’s no other way,” whispered M. Gagnon at last, “but to go ask -Father Duprey to offer some idea. He must be taken into the secret.” - -Marie nodded. - -The night was dark and rain began to fall. - -Her father yawned. “I’ll go see Father Duprey tomorrow, first thing,” -he said. “Now off to bed with you.” - -They rose, and stood tensely, startled by a creak on the stairs and -soft, padding footsteps outside the door. - -The door opened and André stood there, clutching his boots and his -trumpet. - -“Heavens, André, you frightened us,” Marie snapped. “We thought you -were in bed long ago.” - -His father asked gruffly, “Where are you going at this hour?” - -The boy moved nervously. “Papa,” he blurted, “why didn’t you tell me -that man was hiding in the attic?” - -Pierre and his daughter exchanged quick glances. Pierre put a hand -protectingly on his son’s shoulder. “We thought it might save trouble -if you didn’t know,” he said. “But now it’s done.” - -“But why shouldn’t I know?” André demanded stubbornly. “He’s the man -with the bandage who came in the car a few days ago, isn’t he? I talked -to him. And I like him.” - -“You must be sure not to give us away,” André’s father ordered sternly. -“Say nothing about this man to anyone. Do you understand?” - -André promised, and he laid his trumpet beside the lamp. “I found him -up there when I went to the attic to get this. I must bury it outside -somewhere before the Nazis come snooping around.” Then he gasped. “But -won’t they find Ronald?” - -His father said, “Your sister and I are looking out for him. Now, about -this trumpet...?” - -The horn _had_ to be hidden before another morning. - -“I’ll bury it near the fence beside the lane,” André whispered as he -edged out into the stormy darkness. - -An eerie stillness hung heavy on Marie and her father when André had -gone. - -After a few moments Marie whispered nervously, “I don’t think I can -sleep until this is settled, Papa. Don’t you think you could slip out -and see Father Duprey tonight?” - -Pierre frowned. “What about this cursed curfew? I do not want to be -caught. However, it will not be my first night job for the Underground.” - -He slipped on his coat, pulled his cap low, and eased himself -noiselessly out of the house. - -Marie sat alone, her eyes on the clock. - -Her heart jumped a beat when an approaching patrol car whizzed down the -road. It passed the house. Again the dark silence. - -The back door opened and André returned, his boots caked high with mud. -When he asked, “Where’s Papa?” she said, “He has gone out. Ask no more -questions and go to bed.” - -“I will wait for Papa,” he replied firmly, and perched on the edge of a -chair, studying his sister’s face. - -He had felt excitement growing among the others in the house. Now it -belonged to him, too. - -They listened for outside noises through the sounds of the storm. André -said, “Ronald Pitt’s a fighter pilot, Marie. Did you know that? - -“I never talked to one before,” he continued. “He told me his Spitfire -plane got hit, late one evening, and he parachuted down into a wood. -The Germans didn’t find him. He’s been hiding in the fields and towns -for two weeks.” - -Marie nodded. “He’s one of the lucky ones--so far.” - -André chattered softly on. “Those bandages were a fake, weren’t they? -He wasn’t really hurt. Somebody painted his jaw with iodine and put on -those bandages so he wouldn’t have to talk to any Germans.” - -Her eyes on the clock, Marie said, “Shush now.” - -André broke the next few minutes of silence with, “Ronald comes from -Nottingham, like Robin Hood--” - -But Marie hissed, “Shh-h!” still more sharply, and rose to listen at -the door. - -At a rap outside, she unfastened the lock. - -Pierre slipped inside. His tired face had lighted up, and Marie smiled. -“Father Duprey will help us!” she cried eagerly. - -Pierre motioned to the stairs and said, “We go talk to Maman quickly. -Come, Marie. You, André, clothes off and into bed. Lamps out, Marie.” - -At Mme. Gagnon’s bedside a candle flickered. Pierre and Marie drew -close beside the pillow. - -“The Nazis have already begun to search houses on the other road,” -Pierre whispered rapidly. “They are still a long way from us, but we -can’t lose any time. Father Duprey has a plan. It is this. He will -arrange with the hospital at St. Sauveur le Vicomte tomorrow for you -to go there in an ambulance to have treatments. And we will hide the -English flyer inside the ambulance.” - -At a frightened look from Mme. Gagnon, he went on hurriedly, “Marie -will ride with you, and Father Duprey will sit up with the driver. -He thinks if we make a big parade of it the Germans will not be so -suspicious.” - -“But St. Sauveur is beyond Ste. Mère Église ... so far away,” whispered -Mme. Gagnon. - -“But that is good, Maman,” Marie protested. - -“It is the nut of the whole idea!” Pierre’s voice rose excitedly. “St. -Sauveur is out of this district, and you will be safely away from these -new Nazi troops. Some Maquis will meet us near the hospital. They will -spirit our flyer out of the ambulance and hide him until he can be -moved on. It is a good plan, Maman?” - -“I do not like it,” she protested. - - - - -CHAPTER THREE - -_Father Duprey’s Plan_ - - -Even next morning when Father Duprey arrived to go over the plan again, -Mme. Gagnon was still protesting uneasily. - -Father Duprey clasped his hands, beaming. “Think of the good that will -come to all.” - -Marie’s mother nodded her head doubtfully. - -The next step after preparing Mme. Gagnon for her role was to instruct -the flyer in his part. - -Leaving Marie on watch downstairs, Pierre and the priest, trailed by -André, clumped up the dark staircase to the attic. - -Ronald Pitt listened to them quietly and shrugged when Father Duprey -asked, “You agree, my son? It is a good scheme, you think?” - -“Well, I’m in your hands,” the young Englishman replied. “But I’d -certainly feel foul if I got you into trouble. Of course, I’m willing -to take any kind of chance. The sooner I get back to my squadron the -better. I think you can guess what’s up in England. It’s my bet the -invasion is coming any day now.” - -“It can’t come too soon,” Pierre said eagerly. - -Soon after that, work on the farm began as on an ordinary day. In spite -of the Gagnons’ desire to appear untroubled, however, they paused often -to listen and look around them. - -Rumors of the Nazi search party reached them from all sides. The -village women trundled from house to house bemoaning the loss of their -copper cooking pots. - -At two o’clock that afternoon the priest’s housekeeper brought a -package. A message said that all arrangements had been completed. At -exactly four o’clock the ambulance would arrive before Pierre’s house. -Mme. Gagnon was to be ready to leave instantly. The party must arrive -at a point near the hospital at _exactly_ five o’clock. - -Marie packed clothes for her mother and laid out her own best dress. -Even though she would be returning that same evening, she also prepared -a small lunch basket. The hospital was only about eighteen miles away, -but food might be difficult to find and expensive to buy. - -André was given the job of coaching Ronald Pitt. He climbed the attic -stairs filled with excitement but also full of laughter. For the -disguise that Father Duprey had chosen for the flyer was a nun’s -outfit of clothing. - -When the young Englishman had put on the long, full, black robe, André -stood back and studied him, his eyes dancing. And from under the -starched headdress that framed his narrow face the flyer’s blue eyes -danced just as gaily. - -André said, “You make a pretty nun.” And grinning, he finished, “I did -not think Spitfire pilots were so _chic_.” - -Then recalling the serious instructions his father had given him for -Ronald, he repeated them. “Be ready to come downstairs just before four -o’clock. Get into the ambulance quickly, right after they put Maman’s -stretcher in. The family will try to surround you. The driver is a -Maquis and he’s used to this kind of business. - -“Now,” André finished, “my father says to be sure you don’t leave -anything behind you for the Germans to find. And Marie will come in a -few minutes to put the cot and all this stuff away.” - -“Splendid.” Ronald looked down at the boy. “I’d hate to see _my_ young -brother exposed to all this danger you’re so cheerful about. Well, -now I must practice a bit.” He took a sedate turn between the cot and -the window, grinning at the French boy. And he practiced sitting down -demurely. - -It had been raining gustily all day but stopped about three, and the -wind dropped. - -For some time the village had been quiet--the Nazi squad busy among -outlying farms. - -As four o’clock neared, Mme. Gagnon was upstairs, dressed and wrapped -in a shawl, ready to be hurried onto the stretcher. - -In the shuttered little parlor, a dark-robed figure stood in the shadow -beside the hallway door. - -André stood watch at a window on the road, and his father and Marie -paced the stone-floored kitchen. - -Then, electrically, the silence was broken by the rumble of an -approaching car. André drew the curtain aside a little. - -At his stifled cry Marie and her father rushed to the window. - -A German army truck crammed with armed soldiers was slowing up on the -road. And at that same moment, from the opposite direction, the closed -black ambulance rolled up to the Gagnon door. - -Almost before the ambulance had braked to a stop Father Duprey’s tall, -erect figure swung down from the front seat, and Pierre rushed to admit -him. The driver immediately began to back the long vehicle close to the -door. - -Marie cried softly, “Heavens, Father, what a calamity! The Nazis! What -can we do?” - -“We can act sensible,” said Father Duprey, “and waste no time moaning -about what we can’t help. Those men are evidently going to search the -Julliard farm next door before they come here. Let the driver in with -the stretcher, daughter, so we lose no time getting Mme. Gagnon away.” - -The driver sidled in and M. Gagnon seized the stretcher. The two men -hurried up the stairs. - -A few seconds later the creaking steps warned André that his mother was -being carried down. He signaled Ronald to be ready for his dash. - -“Now,” said Father Duprey to Marie, “sob a little, but not enough to -draw much attention.” - -André held the door while the little procession puffed and brushed -through. Mme. Gagnon was lifted easily in through the ambulance door. -And a moment later, Ronald, clutching his awkward bundle of skirts as -naturally as he could, climbed in and crouched beside the stretcher. -His face was hidden by the width of his headdress, and he bent gently -over the sick woman. - -“It is all going like clockwork, madame,” he whispered. “Don’t be -frightened.” - -“I--I’m afraid,” murmured Mme. Gagnon, “more for Pierre, for Marie and -André....” - -Standing by the road, Pierre looked with mounting anxiety at the -soldiers prowling through the farm next door. They were not spending -much time there. - -In all his later life André never forgot the next few minutes. - -Mme. Gagnon called, “Pierre! Pierre, please come with me.” - -And just then Raoul Cotein bicycled briskly up, shouting, “_Mon Dieu_, -Gagnon, what are you up to now?” - -He set his bicycle against the wall and stared into the open end of the -ambulance. - -“What’s the trouble here?” he demanded loudly as his eyes rolled toward -the strange nun. - -“Get on with your business, Raoul,” M. Gagnon ordered. “My wife is ill, -as you well know, and you are not needed here.” - -Father Duprey’s black eyes were traveling swiftly from the hunched -figures in the dimness of the ambulance to the Germans only two or -three hundred yards away. - -André boosted Marie in beside her mother, and M. Gagnon closed the door -upon them. Father Duprey said calmly, “You may as well come along, -Pierre. It will comfort your wife. I’ll see that you and Marie get home -tonight.” - -“But André--” Pierre whispered. - -André tugged at his arm. “Go. Go, Papa,” he urged. “I can take care of -everything--only go.” - -Down the road, the Nazis were piling back into their truck and the -starter whined. - -[Illustration: _He opened the door to find a Nazi officer frowning at -him_] - -Father Duprey seized Pierre’s arm and whipped him swiftly forward and -up to the seat in front. - -He had no more than slid into the seat himself when the Maquis driver -rocked the old ambulance into action with a crash of gears. The machine -swayed into a turn and roared away toward Ste. Mère Église. - -André watched it go for a long minute. - -The German army truck started, but halted a little distance off, and -the sharp voice of the officer giving commands drifted toward them. - -Raoul Cotein shifted his feet. “Uh--I have things to do,” he cried -suddenly. He flung a leg over his bicycle, and peddling furiously, was -soon gone. - -André moved idly toward the house. Once through his own door, the boy -trotted quickly into the kitchen. - -He untied his dog and put him in the dimly lit cow barn. As he snapped -the door fastening, he spoke warningly, “Not a sound out of you, -Patchou. Remember!” - -He got back into the house just in time to answer a loud thumping -at the front door. He opened it to find a Nazi officer and several -hard-faced soldiers frowning down at him. - - - - -CHAPTER FOUR - -_Midnight Landing_ - - -André stepped quickly aside as, without a word, the Germans tramped in. - -Three of them were ordered upstairs while the others set to work poking -into every cupboard and drawer on the first floor. When they had -emptied the kitchen of its copper they trooped off to the outbuildings. - -André waited uncertainly in the hallway at first. Later, he edged his -way to the farmyard door and anxiously watched the search through the -barns. Not until he saw that none of the men went toward the lane where -his trumpet was buried did he begin to breathe easily. - -At last, the officer came from the loft over the cow barn, shouting to -his men to return to the truck. - -He strode into the kitchen and asked André, “Your father and -mother--where are they?” - -“They are all gone to the hospital with my mother, who is sick,” André -explained. - -“Well, then, when your father returns,” the officer snapped, “tell him -I am putting men with machine guns in that loft overlooking the road. -And advise him that it will do no good to protest.” - -André’s heart sank. What would the family do with a lot of Nazis -underfoot? Did they suspect that the Gagnons had been working with the -Underground? - -Now, for the first time, he felt desperately alone. He nodded silently. - -When the Germans had gone--with his mother’s copper kettles--André ran -back to the barn. Patchou lay in his dark corner under a manger, as -quiet as a mouse. - -“Come into the house, Patchou,” he said. “We’ll have to keep you there -now.” - -For an hour or so André went about doing his father’s chores and his -own. The heavy, low-lying clouds began breaking a little. - -He had just finished milking the cows when the German truck returned -with a dozen rough-looking gunners and the sharp-faced officer. Machine -guns were unloaded and hauled up the stone loft steps. - -Some time later the officer and some of the men piled into the truck -and drove away. - -“They must have left at least six up there,” André said to himself. -He must go up the road later, and warn his father and Marie about the -hidden gunners. - -[Illustration] - -He opened the front window so that he might be warned of an approaching -car. - -André ate the cold supper Marie had left under a cloth for him. The -minutes dragged by. By nine o’clock there had been no sign of his -father and sister, and no word. For a while he sat on the floor beside -his dog. Tomorrow was June 6th--Patchou’s first birthday. André -hoped Marie would keep her promise to bring back some sort of toy to -celebrate the occasion. - -When the clock struck ten he went out into the deepening twilight to -stare into the gloom toward Ste. Mère. What if the Nazis had opened -the ambulance and found Ronald? Perhaps the Maquis had failed to meet -them.... He tried not to think of such things. - -Now it was eleven o’clock and long past time to go to bed. From several -directions there was strong antiaircraft firing, and the echo of bombs. - -In spite of the curfew order, André began to walk stealthily down the -road. Those Nazi gunners might open fire on any vehicle bringing his -family home. - -Halting, listening, he picked his way to a bend of the highway. After a -little while he began to realize how tired he was. - -Drowsily he looked for a sheltered spot in the hedge, and sank down -among the ferns and the tall grass. The rich smell of earth and spring -growth rose around him. A few fields away a horse whinnied, and -from far in the distance came the long, high-fluted note of a train -whistle.... - -Some time later he awoke with a start, and wondered where he was and -how long he had slept. All around him hung thick, velvety blackness. - -Something had wakened him. It was the sirens and fire alarms in Ste. -Mère. - -And then he heard the planes. - -Drumming overhead, throbbing so that the earth shook under his feet, he -heard them coming. - -Then he saw them. A brilliant moon outlined their wings. - -He ran across the road and struggling through a hedge, scrambled -quickly up the tallest of a clump of trees. - -And now he saw that the planes were coming in from the west, lower than -he had ever seen them fly. They were twin-motored, scooping below the -clouds to right and left, filling the sky. - -They were bombing Normandy! Ste. Mère! Perhaps a bomb would drop on -him--NOW! - -The din of the German guns was incessant, and the roar of the plane -engines was deafening. He must descend and find a ditch. His arms -ached, but he could not let go. He had climbed as high as there were -limbs to support him, and now he clung to the solid trunk. - -He noticed one particular plane coming directly toward him. It was -etched sharply against a luminous patch of cloud, and he could clearly -see the three white stripes that banded each wing. - -As he watched, he saw the open door at the rear of the fuselage, and -instantly something dark dropped from it. Then another dark blob and -another. - -Expecting the whistle of bombs, he shut his eyes, pressed his face into -the rough bark, and prayed.... - -After a few seconds he opened his eyes. - -Other than the guns and the throttled beat of the engines, there had -been no sound. No bombs were exploding. - -André threw his head back and glanced quickly skyward. In the -moonlight, speckled in every direction across the sky, hung hundreds -of mushroom shapes that were floating gently earthward as silently as -apple petals. - -Suddenly he saw that they were parachutes! - -And below nearly every one, a soldier swung. From the lowest he could -make out the jut of rifles. - - - - -CHAPTER FIVE - -_André’s Warning_ - - -Clinging to his uncertain perch, for the first few seconds André felt -stunned. Could this be his own Normandy sky? He watched the flicker of -moonlight here and there on the parachutes drifting down through the -scudding clouds. - -“The Invasion!” he thought. - -He had turned to stare across at his father’s barn in the distance, -wondering about the Nazi machine gunners, when the tree beside him was -torn by a crashing of branches. His heart leaped into his throat. The -topmost branches were entwined by a great, pale, crumpled parachute. -And, dangling from the shroud lines, hung a figure that swung like a -pendulum. - -In the meadow beyond, other dark shapes were pelting into the hayfield, -their chutes collapsing around them like punctured balloons. - -The noise was spreading. Isolated shots and short bursts of machine-gun -fire drummed, stopped, and drummed again. From the far-off German -camp near Ste. Mère came the wail of a Klaxon horn. And there was -the distant growl and whine of speeding motors. The echo of distant -explosions increased. - -High overhead, planes whose cargo had been dropped, droned away toward -England. And everywhere antiaircraft fire was spitting even more -frantically. - -Who were these men dangling from parachutes? If they had started the -Invasion, all Maquis ought to help them. “Then that means me, too,” -André thought. - -He braced his foot in the crotch of the tree, lowered the other to feel -his way down. - -He dropped to another branch--and it snapped! - -Just then the moon sailed from under a cloud and touched him as -brightly as a searchlight. - -A hoarse cry came from a few feet away. “Look out! Sniper in that tree!” - -André saw the glint of the gun barrel swinging up toward him. - -But a louder voice from the man dangling in the tree shouted, “_Hold -it._ Hold it, Slim. It’s just a kid. I can see him. Don’t shoot. Say, -somebody come over here and cut me down.” - -[Illustration] - -André’s stiffened body relaxed, and he began to feel his way among -the dim branches. Several men had gathered at the foot of the tree, -whispering, and one of them lifted his voice angrily. “What’s a kid -doin’ in a tree this time of night? Something funny here.” - -“Okay. _Okay._ We’ll find out. But get me down before this harness cuts -me in two.” - -André called, “Don’t shoot me. I’m coming down. I want to help.” - -He slithered more quickly now from limb to limb, and jumped. Instantly -a flashlight blinded him, and a drawling voice said, “Well, what d’ya -know! A little shrimp!” - -The flashlight had been turned to the ground. As soon as his eyes had -grown accustomed to it, André gaped at the men. Never had he seen such -frightening figures: torn uniforms, faces blackened with soot, each -one bristling with every kind of small arm and grenade, topped off by -helmets festooned with leafy twigs. - -He gasped in amazement. “Are you Americans?” - -The most tattered of the men grinned. “Sure. Who you expecting? Say, -how come you’re talking English?” - -“My sister and I learned a lot of English from Father Duprey,” André -replied, “just in case.” - -“Case of what?” demanded the suspicious one. - -“To help you when you came,” said André. “But sir, shouldn’t we get -that man up there out of the tree?” - -“It’s about time!” came from the branches near by. - -André shinnied quickly up above the dangling trooper and disentangled -the chute. A moment later the chutist was on the ground, unstrapping -his Tommy gun. - -A stocky, bristling soldier had been looking out over the highway -uneasily. Now he said, “Say, Slim, we gotta get movin’. We’re supposed -to get to the causeways across the flooded part. Give ’em the signal, -Risso.” - -Softly then, André heard a little rasping cricket-sound that was -repeated almost at once from the meadow. - -More helmeted men crept up to the group. They said, “Hi, Sarge, what -now?” - -The stocky sergeant had been studying the darkened scene around him. -Now he said, “We’re too far inland.” He looked down at André. “Listen, -kid. You really mean you want to help us Americans--you aren’t up to no -tricks?” - -André frowned. “I’ve been waiting to help for a long time. It is my -country here.” - -The sergeant’s face softened a little. “Okay, I believe you. But -listen. Where’s your folks?” - -“My family has gone away,” André explained. “But they’ll be home soon. -What do you want me to do?” - -“You just tell us how far it is to the nearest road across that -lagoon--” - -André interrupted excitedly, “First, I must tell you, there are at -least six Nazis in our barn. They have machine guns trained on the -road. I’ll show you the way around the back wall. You could catch them -from behind.” - -The sergeant stiffened. “You, Slim, stay here with the kid, out of -range--and both of you _keep down_,” he ordered. - -Several shapes moved quietly off into the black field. - -André looked up at the gray shape of the lean, rangy fellow slouched -against a tree. The soldier held his Tommy gun easily. A thumb was -hooked in the belt festooned with grenades, and a wicked-looking sheath -knife was strapped to his leg. - -André cleared his throat and asked, “Slim--is this the--Invasion?” - -The paratrooper smiled. “Well, son,” he drawled, “it’s a start, anyhow. -Quite a parcel of us has been dropped from Heaven, and I reckon -there’ll be an awful lot more tomorrow when the gliders get in. All I -know is, son, I’m a long, long way from Pecos, Texas.” - -After that, for a moment, André thought the man was going to sleep. -Presently he noticed that the trooper’s face was half turned away and -that he was listening intently. - -A dog barked, and André cried softly, “That’s my Patchou. The men must -be coming into our farmyard.” - -Suddenly, an explosion of shots, grenades, and hoarse shouts came from -the direction of the house. - -“Got ’em,” sighed Slim. “They’re good, our boys are. Especially at that -sneaky stuff. Better keep down there. Might be bullets flyin’ ’round. I -_do not_ like flyin’ bullets.” - -As the racket continued, the two stretched out among the ferns. “May’s -well rest,” Slim murmured drowsily. “Doubt if there’s gonna be much -time from now on.” - -A few moments later there was a crackling in the hedge, from a -direction away from the farm. - -Slim shot into action like a snake, Tommy gun aimed, body tense. The -faint sounds continued. After a moment Slim called, “Halt! You out -there. Stay where you are.” - -A gusty sigh came through the undergrowth, and then a voice. “You from -the 505th?” - -Slim kept his gun steady and answered, “Check. Who’re you?” - -There was a soft groan. “Captain Dobie.” - -Slim stared at the man pushing toward them, then sprang forward. - -“You hurt, sir?” He helped the officer to get to his feet and took his -arm. With André on the other side, they helped him stagger into the -shadow of a tree. - -“We thought we’d lost you sure, Cap’n,” Slim said sympathetically. - -“Broke my leg when I landed on a stone wall, I guess,” the officer said -fretfully. He stared around him and asked, “What’s happening? We should -start toward the coast--we’re much too far in.” - -Slim nodded. “I know. But Sergeant Weller’s cleanin’ out a machine-gun -nest in the barn yonder. He’ll be back with six or seven men shortly. -They must have finished over there by now. Some Nazis was in this kid’s -barn.” Slim directed a long thumb at André, and added, “He’s puny, but -he’s real sharp.” - -In spite of the fact that he was evidently in great pain, the captain -managed to smile at the boy. - -Slim had helped him to sit down, braced against the tree. André saw -that he was watching--Slim, André himself, the road, the meadow. And he -was listening to the distant noises--for the return of his men. - -“Should be nearly a hundred men in these meadows right here,” the -captain said. “We’ve got to get our parachuted equipment together. As -soon as you can, send someone for gear I saw drop near where I came -down. One lot’s caught in a tree--right across that open space. We need -those bazookas quick. German tanks are likely to be coming along any -minute.” - -“This kid might be able to tell us somethin’ about the Nazis around -these parts,” Slim said. - -“There’s a Nazi camp half a mile down the road,” André replied eagerly. -“And another big one near Ste. Mère Église, if you know where that is.” - -[Illustration] - -Captain Dobie nodded and turned his head to catch the sound of a motor. -“That car’s coming this way fast!” - -André was startled by the smooth swiftness with which Slim and his -captain acted then. Thrusting his Tommy gun into the captain’s -outstretched hand without a word, Slim detached a grenade from the -cluster at his belt. He slipped into a tense, waiting position closer -to the road. - -The captain ordered, “Down flat!” and André obeyed. - -The roar of the approaching car grew loud. Slim called softly, over his -shoulder, “Nazi staff car,” and raised his arm. - -The explosion and the repeated crack of the Tommy gun beside him shook -the ground under André. As another grenade followed the first and took -effect, Captain Dobie said, “That’s one car won’t stop the freeing of -France.” - -Slim crossed the road and returned to report solemnly, “Okay, sir.” - -The captain nodded, then glanced quickly to one side as a voice said, -“Good work, Slim.” - -“Oh, it’s you, Sergeant!” the captain exclaimed in relief. - -“Captain,” Weller said. “We were worried about you. What you got there?” - -“A broken leg, I think, worse luck,” Captain Dobie explained angrily. -“If you see a medic, send him back here. But you men get going now. If -we don’t pick up that dropped ammunition and equipment soon, we may -be in for trouble. Meanwhile, have you seen any place I can use for a -command post around here?” - -“You can use my father’s house,” André offered eagerly. “My father, -he’s a part of the Resistance, so it’s all right.” - -The captain turned to Weller. - -“Yes, sir. Solid stone, handy to the road, plenty of room, barns. No -bomb damage,” the sergeant reported, and added, “Nobody but this kid -home, since we cleaned out the loft.” - -“Yes?” The captain looked sharply around at the boy. “How’s that?” - -André explained quickly. “And my father and Marie should have come back -by now,” he finished. - -The captain shook his head. “Not from St. Sauveur, they won’t. Not -tonight. Our men must have all the roads beyond Ste. Mère blocked off.” - -While a couple of men watched the road, others were sent to retrieve -the dropped weapons. Sergeant Weller examined the captain’s injury. He -found that a bone was cracked above the ankle. A shot of morphine from -a first-aid kit was given Captain Dobie to ease the pain. Then splints -were found, and the leg bound with strips of torn parachute silk. - -Halfway through this, Weller paused suddenly and said to André, “By the -way, son, you better tie up that hound of yours. He doesn’t seem to -know Americans are his friends, by the way he lit into my only pair of -britches.” - -The little party moved slowly toward the Gagnon house, helping the -half-crippled captain. - -Pale moonlight glowed on the windows and against dark walls. When André -saw the front door ajar, he cried happily, “They must have come home -while I was asleep.” - -“’Fraid not,” the sergeant corrected. “We went through the whole -house--André. Want to know how I got your name?” Weller grinned. “Read -Marie’s note about your supper on the kitchen table.” - -Immediately inside the house, the sergeant said crisply, “This room -okay, Captain? I guess it’s a sort of store during peacetime. I’ll get -you a table and somethin’ to sit on, pronto.” - -André had run to light candles and draw the blackout curtains. Then -he dragged his mother’s best velvet chair from the parlor for Captain -Dobie, and brought cushions to prop up his leg. - -Captain Dobie spread maps on the table before him, but paused to study -the boy. - -André looked into his kind, thoughtful face and asked, “Do you think my -father and sister will be all right, sir? It would be awful....” - -The captain nodded. “Nobody’d let them start out from St. Sauveur -tonight, son. They’ll be all right.” - -But André’s worry was not so easily talked away. The thud of bombs and -firing inland was too continuous. - -He heard a whine and rushed into the kitchen to a wet, pawing welcome -from Patchou. He tugged at the familiar warm fur and when Patchou had -calmed down, brought him a bowl of milk. Then, with a warning to be -quiet, he chained the dog to the fireplace grate. - -At the front of the house he found that a strange, businesslike -disorder was mounting. - -Just inside the door, bazookas, mortars, and ammunition of all sorts -were being pulled from “drop” bundles. Bulky, helmeted soldiers were -coming in from everywhere, receiving quick orders from the captain, -and clanking off in groups. Captain Dobie sent out a messenger for a -walkie-talkie, to make contact with his commanding colonel. - -At one moment, everyone around the captain paused warily as the roar of -a low-flying plane shook the walls. Sergeant Weller and André darted -out to the doorway and stared up at the U. S. markings. As the plane -sped by, a shower of paper cascaded over the town. - -“That’s one of our Flying Fortresses dropping leaflets, telling the -Frenchies to scatter ’n stay off the roads.” Weller shrugged. “That -means you, too, boy, y’know.” - -For the next thirty minutes André sat and watched while dirty, hot men -clumped in and out on errands that made no sense to him. Some had been -wounded. Many, hurt in the jump, were being treated both by medics and -some of the village people. Slim pushed his way into the room, looking -leaner and sootier than ever--all his drowsiness gone. - -André listened to his report. More troops were needed at once toward -the causeways. Glider troops had landed, but the Germans were putting -up a fierce fight. The Americans wanted all the reinforcements they -could get rushed up fast. - -Captain Dobie turned to Weller. “Okay, Sergeant, take _all_ these men. -It’s our job to wipe out those bridgeheads!” When Weller hesitated, he -snapped, “What’re you waiting for?” - -The sergeant blinked. “And leave you here alone, sir?” - -“We’ve _got_ to get those bridgeheads. Move!” Captain Dobie pounded the -table. “Orders!” - -Sergeant Weller turned on his heel, shouted commands to round up all -the men, and left. - -But just outside the door he jerked Slim aside. “You stay,” he ordered. -“I’m not gonna leave the cap’n here alone with a broken leg. What would -he do if some Nazis came along?” - -“You’ll get me courtmartialed yet, Sarge,” Slim objected. - -“If you don’t beat me to it. Stay out of sight.” - -The sergeant barked a command, and guns and men moved away through the -mud. - -It was nearly full daylight now. When André turned back into the house -he saw by the clock that it was quarter to six. - -What would his family say if they knew he had not been to bed at all? -He wondered sleepily whether to lie down quietly in a corner. - -The captain was looking at his watch. - -André had taken a step toward him when the house was shaken under a -dreadful blast of sound. - -The sound rose, and he realized it came from the sea. Under the thud of -heavy shelling and bombing, objects on the walls and tables danced. - -The captain looked up from his watch and smiled. - -“They’re right on time,” he said. - -Puzzled, André asked, “Who is, monsieur?” - -“This is the _real_ Invasion, son, coming in now. This is what General -Eisenhower has been planning for two years. Hundreds of thousands of -men, tens of thousands of tanks, bulldozers, and trucks are moving -in--_now_, in over four thousand ships. The Navy’s shelling the coast. -We just came in ahead by parachute to get ready for them.” - -André found himself too excited to say anything. - -The captain spoke again, above the din. - -“You see why we have to clear the enemy out of those bridgeheads? To -let the men landing on the beaches come through. As soon as the Navy -finishes this shelling, British, Canadian, and American troops will be -landing on sixty miles of beach from here to the River Orne!” - - - - -CHAPTER SIX - -_Victor’s Mission_ - - -Remembering the rolling crashes of the worst thunderstorm he had ever -heard, André thought it had been nothing compared to this noise. - -He braced himself by the door frame and looked toward the sea. A pall -of dense, black smoke was drifting inland, blotting out the newly risen -sun. Fires flared over the tree tops. - -He saw Slim grinning back at him from behind a thick lilac bush. - -On the other side of the road, the Lescots’ front door opened. Victor, -in nightcap and corduroy pants drawn over a blue nightshirt, darted -out, picked up one of the dropped leaflets, and shot back into the -house. - -From other houses people ran out and raced away into the fields. - -Bombers darted in and out of the curtain of smoke. A barn less than a -mile away broke into flames. - -Through a lull in the battle sounds André heard the outraged moo of a -cow. - -“Poor old beasts,” André thought, “they must be scared to death. I’ll -go talk to them, and milk.” - -He looked again for Slim and saw that he had turned his back to the -fury of the coast and was staring toward Ste. Mère. As André stepped -out Slim whirled and shouted, “Tell the cap’n--two Nazi tanks comin’ -this way!” - -But André had already heard the ominous clank of the tanks. Even -through the battle sounds their threat rang out--a new danger. - -As Slim raced toward him, André broke into a run for the house, -shouting, “TANKS, mon Capitaine. Nazi tanks coming!” - -Captain Dobie had risen and stumbled a step toward the window. - -“Blast it!” he shouted. “Help me, Cimino.” - -André then saw a new man in the room--a soldier with a walkie-talkie, -who must have arrived by way of the farmyard. - -Slim plunged through the door and snatched up a bazooka from the pile -of arms in the hall. Cimino, the walkie-talkie operator, slipped out -of the straps holding the instrument. He flung himself toward Slim to -serve as second man on the bazooka. - -“Help me to the window, André,” Captain Dobie ordered, picking up a -Tommy gun. “Then stay out of range. - -“Slim,” he barked, “fire at the front drive sprocket and the gas tanks, -center, low. You can’t penetrate that forward armor, remember.” - -[Illustration] - -The bazooka muzzle thrust out the window, Slim knelt in tense firing -position. Cimino stood ready to reload. - -The captain braced himself at the second window, Tommy gun leveled. -André heard the rumble of the tanks draw nearer. - -The explosion of fire from the windows and the fierce back-flash of the -bazooka joined with the grinding screech of shattered metal, outside. -Then came the hollow scraping of steel on steel. - -Over Slim’s head André had seen the first tank’s turret. Then the -second tank tottered over the first. And like a huge apple peel, a -tremendous snakelike steel tread whipped through the air. - -“Good,” snapped Captain Dobie. “Second one’s piled up on the first. -Shoot overhead, once.” - -When the firing from the house stopped, there came a shout of -“_Kamerad!_” - -The captain poked his weapon farther out the window and shouted, “Get -out and put your hands up fast. You’re all covered. Okay, Slim, get -your prisoners.” - -[Illustration] - -Cimino stacked the bazooka against the sill, and whipped out his .45 -automatic. Slim swept up a carbine and strode outside. - -The crews were already out of the tanks. - -“All right. Hands on your heads!” Slim shouted. - -As his captives moved toward him, Cimino lifted their side arms from -holsters, pushing the prisoners swiftly toward the house. - -“Get in there, quick,” Slim commanded. - -He had only just herded them into the hall when his voice was drowned -out by the explosion of the gas tanks in one of the wrecked vehicles. - -The captain and André ducked as ammunition, set off by the flames, -sprayed the outside of the house. - -When it was over, the captain leaned out the window, and André asked, -“Did it wreck my father’s pump?” - -“Just knocked down the sign that said ‘_Chocolate_,’” the captain said. - -“That’s all right,” André laughed shakily. “We did not have any left to -sell, anyway.” - -Captain Dobie wiped the sweat from his face, and with André’s help, -hobbled back to his easy chair and cushions. - -The Germans, lined up against the wall, stared at him silently, -open-mouthed. - -“Are there any more tanks coming this way?” demanded the captain. - -One of the Nazis, with sergeant’s stripes, said, “_Nein_--no more,” -with surly shortness. - -“Be respectful,” snapped the captain coldly. He turned to Slim. “Take -them out to the yard and stand guard, Slim,” he said. “Cimino, try to -raise someone on the talkie. If you can’t, get a runner to locate the -colonel and tell him where _we_ are.” - -After several minutes, Cimino reported, “Some sergeant thinks our -colonel’s over near the first bridgehead. He’ll pass the word along.” - -André, at the captain’s suggestion, went out to survey the road and -report any sight of the enemy. “Here, take my helmet,” offered the -captain. “There’s too much stuff falling out of the sky.” - -The thud of heavy explosions beyond the village continued to rock the -earth. - -André had been on watch but a few minutes when he sighted a car. He -called back through the window, “Jeep coming, sir--from the coast.” - -Slim, who had been relieved of his guard duty by Cimino, rushed out to -join André. - -The little car swung in toward the two, and braked with a screech. Slim -shouted, “Weller! Where’ja get that!” - -Sergeant Weller was eyeing the wrecked German tanks. - -“Well, Texas,” he smiled approvingly, “good thing I left you here.” - -He slid out of the seat. “Lucky those two tanks didn’t get through -to hit us from behind,” he said. “We’ve sure had our hands full down -there. The Heinies came at us from all sides. But, for some reason, one -of the causeways across the swamps was unguarded.” - -“We got some prisoners for you, out back,” Slim announced. “And you -better report to the cap’n,” he added. “He’s restless as a hungry -puppy. Ain’t had a word from anybody higher up. Didn’t come across our -colonel, did you?” - -“That’s what I came back for,” said Weller. “Saw him and told him about -this command post. He’s feelin’ good. We’ve taken two bridgeheads.” - -“But _where_ did you get the jeep?” André asked. - -Weller patted the mud-splattered windshield. “I ‘liberated’ her from -a smashed glider, son.” He turned a thumb to the heaps of K-rations -packed in the rear of the jeep. “Near time we ate,” he said. “But, -right now, I’m in need of gas, kid. I bet you got some in that pump.” - -“A little,” André said. - -Slim and Weller clanked off to the house while André connected the hose -to the jeep tank and began to pump. His eyelids were drooping. - -It takes a long time for this Invasion to get going, he thought. He -had already grown used to the _thrump_ of big artillery, the bark of -machine and rifle fire scattered across all of Normandy. He had heard -Cimino say that the 82nd Airborne were getting on well around Ste. -Mère, though the Germans were fighting bitterly. The Liberation was too -big. André could think of it no more. - -And through his weariness he heard the cows again. Milking time -was long past. In the barn the cows turned their sad eyes on him -accusingly. He rested his forehead on their soft, warm bodies while he -milked, and both he and the frightened beasts were soothed. He saw to -it that they had fresh hay and water. The open pasture was no place for -them today. - -Finally the job was done; the last of his strength was gone. He put the -pails of milk to one side and sank into a pile of fresh straw. - -“I’ll take them to the springhouse in a minute,” he promised himself. -And he wriggled flat in the fragrant hay and spread out his arms -peacefully. - -All battle sounds were muffled by the thick old stone walls. The -familiar rustle and stamping of cattle were like a familiar song.... - -He woke with a hand shaking his shoulder. - -Someone was saying, in French, “Wake up, André. Wake up! The _Invasion_ -has started.” - -André opened his eyes and saw Victor Lescot bent over him. - -“Shame on you, André,” he scolded. “Milk getting sour. War going on all -around, and you sleeping.” - -André sat up. “You’re supposed to be shut up in your house, Victor. -What are you doing here?” he said crossly. - -“I can’t stay home now,” Victor bristled. “I’ve got to go get my new -cart--before it is destroyed.” - -Now wide awake, André said with disgust, “You can’t go out into the -fighting.” - -“But I _must_,” Victor interrupted shrilly. “My new cart will be blown -to bits if I leave it at Jacquard’s. Then what?” - -André could not believe his ears. “Would you rather be blown to bits -yourself?” he demanded. - -“But we do not need to thrust ourselves into danger,” Victor protested. -“We’ll make our way to Jacquard’s village by the cowpaths, you and I. -We know them well, eh?” - -“_WE?_” André echoed. “_Who’s_ going with you?” - -“But you, naturally, my little friend, I may need you to speak English.” - -“Where is the cart?” André asked. - -“At Jacquard’s workshop, on his farm. I have told you about it on -numerous occasions.” - -André smiled. “Victor Lescot, Jacquard’s shop is right near the coast, -where the fighting is. Who knows, there may be a battle going on in -Jacquard’s own courtyard right now.” - -Victor’s eyes flickered. “Ah, but I have a plan.” - -“There is no sense to it.” André shrugged and got to his feet. - -“No sense!” Victor cried, as though he were about to hurl a bolt of -lightning. “You forget. The cart is _mine_. _I paid for it_ yesterday.” - -Again André could only shake his head. - -“I’ll put this milk where it is cool,” he said, and started off with a -pail in each hand. - -Victor dived for the other pail and followed. “La Fumée, my mare that -you have always been so fond of, you know,” he chattered, “she’s all -harnessed and impatient to start off. You know how she loves adventure.” - -Just then there was a definite lull in the shelling. André set the -pails into the cool, stone-lined spring, taking Victor’s from him. - -Victor caught his eye. “The noise is not so loud,” he said. “There is a -trifling din, true, but it is less.” - -“Perhaps the worst is over,” André said. “We could just start out, and -if they tell us we can’t proceed, we can turn back....” - -Victor’s pink face crinkled brightly. “But of course. Anything else -would be gross stupidity.” - -André fretted: Now he thinks I’ve promised to get his cart no matter -what happens. - -But the Americans would turn them back at once--so no harm would be -done. - -“Okay, Victor. I will start out,” he said. - - - - -CHAPTER SEVEN - -_Tricolor over Ste. Mère_ - - -André hesitated. “You wait for me at your house,” he said. “First, I -have one thing to do.” - -Victor stole a searching glance at the boy, then, almost reassured, he -nodded and left the springhouse at once. - -André filled a pitcher with milk and started for the kitchen door. - -Ranged along the barnyard wall lounged half a hundred German prisoners -surrounded by a semicircle of muddy guards bristling with carbines and -Tommy guns. - -André found a mug in the kitchen, and carried the milk in to Captain -Dobie. - -He noticed that the officer’s leg was badly swollen, but the captain -seemed unaware of it. - -The room was crammed with soldiers. Several neighbors, men and women, -pressed through the crowd, begging to give help. Many wounded -villagers lay sheltered under the trees, they said. But they and the -small neighborhood children were being cared for and fed. The captain -welcomed them and advised the elders to get deep cellars ready. They -must keep the children close to them in case the fighting broke out in -the village. - -“The Germans are fighting hard everywhere, and we must silence each -Nazi gun no matter where we find it,” he explained. “Until we get a -solid foothold here, we cannot help liberate your country.” - -André listened, and when he caught the captain’s eye, offered his jug -of milk. With a grateful smile, Dobie drained the jug thirstily. - -“Are things going all right, sir?” André asked. - -The captain seemed reluctant to reply. But after a moment he said, “The -landings are the hardest, son. The Nazis made the coast tough with -their underwater obstructions, and the sea has been a lot rougher than -we’d planned on. But it’s going along well. You ought to be seeing -heavy equipment coming along the roads soon.” - -Sergeant Weller clumped in with two soldiers and a battle-weary young -Frenchman. “Look, kid,” Weller shouted to André. “D’you know who -this character is? I can’t make head or tail what he’s sayin’. _He_ -says he’s speakin’ English, but, boy, it’s nothin’ I ever heard in -Brooklyn.” - -The young Frenchman called to André in French, “You are Pierre’s son, -no? Tell them quickly who I am. Make them see my urgency, I beg you.” - -André looked at the man’s flashing eyes, the beaked nose, the shock of -dark hair. - -“Yes, I know him,” he said quickly. “This is François, the famous -Maquis leader. You can trust him.” - -“You sure?” Weller demanded. - -“I’m sure,” André said. “I have seen him and heard my father describe -him often. One moment--” - -In French, François told André his story: “I was coming to your father -to get more Resistance help. My band is too small. We discovered Nazis -coming up behind your father’s orchard with a mobile gun. They are -going to blow up this house because it is an American headquarters.” - -“Translate so far,” Weller said, and André obeyed. - -Weller scowled. “Yeh? Well, in that case....” - -He made his way to the captain, and a moment later André heard him -shouting orders. - -When Weller returned he put out both hands and the Frenchman shook them -warmly. - -The squad Weller was forming was hastily gathering up grenades, -bazookas, and other equipment. - -André asked the Maquis anxiously, “Can you tell me anything about St. -Sauveur? How is the battle going beyond Ste. Mère?” - -François looked solemn, but answered quickly. “St. Sauveur, we think, -is still mostly outside the fighting. Not all of Ste. Mère has been -cleared of Germans yet. But the center of the town is under control. -At least, the Americans have the French flag flying from Ste. Mère -Église’s town hall. None of the Allied tanks have come through yet and -they are badly needed. Also, in some places the Americans are running -short of ammunition. And the Nazis are building up their forces near -the bridges over the Merderet River, west of Ste. Mère.” - -He broke off at Weller’s signal, and with the sergeant’s squad slipped -out through the barnyard. - -“_The French flag flying from Ste. Mère Église’s town hall!_” André -repeated it aloud. And a familiar voice at the doorway echoed the great -words. - -Raoul Cotein stood just outside the door. His arm and forehead were -bandaged, and in his hand was a package wrapped in a napkin. - -He took a step forward. “My wife--well, she is troubled because your -mother and sister are not here. If you will just accept these few -sandwiches?” - -[Illustration: _The squad gathered up grenades, bazookas, and other -equipment_] - -André took the packet with a puzzled “Thank you,” and stared at his -suddenly subdued neighbor. - -“W-what happened to you?” he asked. - -Raoul looked down at his arm bandage. “You mean this?” he replied. -“_Tiens_, André. Do you know, I found I was almost the only man in this -village who was not of the Resistance? I have merely been remedying the -situation.” - -“Do you know now my father is a Maquis and not a collaborationist?” -André demanded, and Raoul nodded. “I have discovered so. I--” - -If he had meant to apologize further for his past bad behavior, his -words were lost. A shell overshot the house and everyone ran for cover. - -When André slid out from his hiding place, Raoul was gone. - -For a moment the boy stood alone. “Well, now, what is my duty?” he -considered. “Victor? No.... Patchou.” - -He went to the kitchen, gave the dog food and water, and hastily ate -Raoul’s sandwiches. Meanwhile Patchou gamboled for a few minutes around -the room. - -André thought that he had better go to Lescots’ and tell the old man, -once and for all, how foolish his plan was. Even Victor would see that -now. - - * * * * * - -Victor stood near his barnyard gates crossly watching the distant -scene. - -A broad, fawn-colored Percheron stood harnessed beside Victor. A -shotgun was strapped to the horse’s back-pad alongside the looped-up -traces. - -André slipped over the wall and whistled. - -At the sound, Victor jumped, steadied his glasses, and chattered, “Oh, -it’s you at last. La Fumée is beside herself with impatience.” - -André interrupted firmly. “I came only to tell you the thought of going -toward the coast is an insanity. The fighting has grown intense.” - -Victor fanned out his hands. “Then my cart ... you think it is a trifle -to be ignored....” His eyes snapped. “Which _I have paid for_, please -recall!” - -“But Victor--” André sighed. - -“From infancy I have indulged you, because of my love....” Victor -chided gently. - -He patted the mare’s smooth flank and climbed up on her back. “There -will be many Americans down there, I presume. No doubt they will help -an old man.” - -“Victor, you know I can’t let you go alone,” André exploded. “Pull me -up behind you.” - -A few moments later, André, clinging to Victor’s ribs, was mounted and -jogging around a corner of the farm wall. - - - - -CHAPTER EIGHT - -_Prisoners_ - - -As a very small boy, riding on the broad platform of La Fumée’s back -had been André’s delight. But La Fumée had not then quivered at the -whine and roar of shells, or the nerve-shaking rattle of machine guns. -And the fields had not been spiked with wicked barbed-wire glider traps. - -“Now, we zigzag,” explained Victor as he turned the mare into a -hedge-lined path at the next field. It was necessary to round barns and -ponds and areas marked in German: “_Achtung--Minen!_” “Beware--Mines!” -to avoid even the smaller country roads. - -They covered nearly a mile at the Percheron’s steady plod. Then a shell -crashed a hundred yards away, and the horse cowered under a shower -of falling debris. Victor and André had flattened themselves on the -Percheron’s vast back. With his head still buried in Victor’s rough -coat, André begged, “Surely it is wiser to turn back, Victor.” - -The old man sighed. “But it is now such a little way. It is a pity.” - -Both sat up cautiously. - -The marshes glowed beyond a broken orchard, just across the -Paris-Cherbourg road. Far to the northeast, from a German pillbox sunk -beside the flooded land, swiveled guns thumped, and were immediately -answered by other, unseen guns. - -Before they could move again, André cried, “Listen!” - -[Illustration] - -A tremendous explosion, close to the sea, was followed by a shattering -series of rolling reverberations. And immediately, from almost on the -horizon, a fleet of planes swept upward sharply over their heads. - -“Dive bombers,” André cried. “They must be finishing off those big -German guns on the sea bluff.” - -Then, added to the shock and noise of the bombing, rose all around them -a fury of gobbling protest. Turkeys which had been roosting in the -trees screamed and fluttered insanely. In the grass, a family of small -white pigs ran helter-skelter toward the hedges. - -La Fumée stood stiff, with rolling eyes. - -At length the last wave of bombers passed. The air over the orchard -reeked, and smoke seeped inland from the marshes. - -The turkeys continued to scold, their voices dropping to an angry -gurgle. - -“There, that is over,” Victor said firmly. “Jacquard’s is so close, we -may as well go on.” - -La Fumée moved woodenly, and André smoothed her thick, firm flank with -a gentle hand. - -If they were to go on, they must cross the wide, pitted Paris-Cherbourg -road. And into this angled a smaller one. This led to Jacquard’s, and -continued seaward to the hamlet of l’Audouville. - -The road stretching north and south was completely deserted just then -except for a litter of wrecked Nazi trucks pushed to the sides. - -La Fumée put on a jiggling burst of speed to cross the main road. The -smaller road also seemed empty. - -“You see,” Victor said. “Here we are. Jacquard’s place is just ahead.” - -André’s sharper eyes studied the high stone walls and the slate roofs -above. “It has been bombed or shelled already,” he said. - -Victor hunched forward, shocked into silence. - -The farm’s roadside gates sagged open on broken hinges, and fowl -wandered in and out. - -The sound of a car racing up the main road to Cherbourg caught André’s -ear. As he turned, he saw the car hesitate at the fork of their road, -and then swing into it at gathering speed. - -He thrust his hand under Victor’s arm, grabbed the reins, and yanked -the Percheron into the shallow ditch at the side. - -The car swept past so fast, André caught only a glimpse of the Nazi -Swastika on the side. - -Nearing the broken gate, the Nazi driver slowed uncertainly. But -instantly he swung into a teetering turn, and shot into the barnyard in -the midst of an uproar of cackling hens and geese. - -There was a muffled crash. - -André and Victor slid quickly from La Fumée’s back with thumping hearts. - -“They are trapped,” André whispered, “and do not know how to get out. -We must bring some soldiers before they come out.” - -Victor was loosening his shotgun with trembling hands. But his -experience with farmyards now served him well. - -“Without a doubt, those Nazi officers have run spank into the -manure pile,” he stated with satisfaction. “They will find some -troublesomeness getting loose.” He took a step forward. “You must run -quickly for help.” - -André thought, “The first of the soldiers from the landing barges must -surely be coming across the causeways by now. Captain Dobie said they -would.” - -Skittering along past the gate into the grassy edge of the road, he -began to run toward l’Audouville as fast as his legs would carry him. - -Racing against time, André could not look back. Before he reached the -turn his heart leaped. - -A soldier, bulky with equipment, was coming toward him. He was moving -cautiously along the roadside, rifle poised. And fanning out behind him -was a spaced line of Americans. - -André dashed toward them. - -Unsmiling and with leveled gun, the first soldier yelled, “Halt!” He -then said rapidly in French, “Who are you? And _where’re_ you going?” - -André pointed back to the Jacquard farm. “Nazi officers back there. -Come get them quick--please.” - -Beckoning, he turned to run. - -“Just a minute there,” the soldier shouted. “Come back here, _petit -garçon_. What’s this you’re talking about?” - -André was terrified by the wasted minutes. - -He shouted, “_Come!_ A car full of Nazi officers just drove into a -farmyard back there. _Hurry!_ You can take them, but _hurry_.” - -The scattered scouting party began to move ahead warily. - -“It’s a chance the kid is okay,” the sergeant called back. “We’ll have -to take a look. Keep your eyes open--and keep separated.” - -The sergeant quickened his pace, but cautioned, “Take it easy, kid. Let -us get ’em.” - -Before they reached the Jacquard gate, sheltered by bushes, André fell -to his knees and crept toward it. - -He had not quite reached it when two quick shotgun blasts rang out. - -“That’s Victor’s gun,” he said. “The Nazis must have started to leave.” - -Shot rattled on metal, and the tail of the Nazi car smashed through the -gates. But, halfway through, the car teetered sharply into the stone -post. Rocking, it toppled over and skidded to a stop. - -A voice shouted toward the car, “Hold it. Get out and keep your hands -up!” A Tommy gun chattered across the car’s spinning wheels. - -Scrambling boots pounded into action. The German officers were jerked -up and out through the door. André was startled to see a colonel’s -insignia on one officer’s shoulders. - -When the Nazis were all on their feet, the sergeant’s men surrounded -them. Two soldiers relieved the officers of their side arms. - -As the shock of their capture wore off, the Nazis began to protest -curtly, and the sergeant retorted in their own language. - -“Okay. You’re staff officers! We’ll get you to the proper authorities -just as soon as we can.” - -André had seen plenty of Germans, but few of such high rank. - -Suddenly it dawned on him that it was Victor’s shots which had made the -capture possible by wrecking the car. But where was Victor? - -André ran around the farm buildings, but neither Victor nor La Fumée -was in sight--anywhere. - -Shells had blasted the carpentry shop, and rubbish lay over the -scattered, twisted, and blackened tools. - -After a thorough search, André stumbled sadly out to the courtyard and -around the scattered manure pile, toward the group at the gate. - -He was greeted by a shout from a jeep which had driven up. “Hi, there. -You--boy!” - -An American lieutenant sat at the wheel, with the two Nazi officers -crammed rigidly in the rear seat. An American with a Tommy gun perched -backward on each of the front mudguards, and the German driver, his arm -in a sling, shared the front seat with the lieutenant. - -Impatiently, the lieutenant asked André whether he knew where the -nearest U. S. headquarters had been set up. - -[Illustration] - -André pointed up the road and replied, with some pride, that there was -an 82nd Command Post in his own house. “It’s a little more than a mile -up that way,” he said. - -The lieutenant grinned. “Well, hop in and show us the way.” - -André stood stubbornly firm. “But Lieutenant,” he protested, “I came -with Victor. He’s an old man. I can’t leave him here.” - -“_Get in_,” snapped the lieutenant. “You can find him later. There’s a -war on.” - -“As if I didn’t know,” André thought crossly. - -But he climbed over the great booted legs of the guard, and hunched in -under the elbow of the German prisoner. - -The jeep lurched into gear and roared down the road. - - - - -CHAPTER NINE - -_Victor Disappears_ - - -As the jeep bumped rapidly along, André explained to the lieutenant, -“I didn’t want to leave there, sir, till I found my friend Victor. He -was the one who really stopped that Nazi car, shooting at the tires, I -think.” - -“He did?” the lieutenant exclaimed. “Well, why did he disappear after -we got there?” - -One of the guards interrupted. “Old Frenchman? Walrus mustache? With a -shotgun?” - -André nodded excitedly. “Did you see him?” - -“Saw a man like that run back into the orchard of that farm just as we -came up.” - -André said no more; at least Victor could run. - -The jeep had been proceeding cautiously around road blocks and -paratroopers. Now it speeded up. - -A little while later, André saw the roofs of his own village, and he -cried, “Oh! it’s been hit!” - -It was a different village than the one André had left. Many shells -must have struck it. Trees were shattered and old walls tumbled. Two -houses, not far from the Gagnons’, were badly damaged--one lay in -smoking ruins. - -People of the neighborhood shuffled to and fro with arms filled with -possessions. - -André called to one of them, “The Cotys and Mme. Lescot--are they all -right?” - -“Yes. Everyone did what your captain told us to. We ran into the fields -and hid in ditches when those German shells started coming. It was not -for long. We are told the Maquis found the Nazi gun and blew it up.” - -At a sign from André, the jeep slowed and, a moment later, he saw that -his father’s house still stood. - -In the doorway, Sergeant Weller shouted at sight of the jeep. - -“Kid, you had us scared. Where the--where you been?” he demanded tartly -of André. But he did not wait for an answer. - -He gave the jeep and its load a hasty glance, and cried, “_You_ -bringin’ in prisoners, too!” Then, noticing their rank, he added to the -lieutenant, in his sharp, official bark, “Bring that German ‘brass’ -right in here, sir. Our company colonel’s inside. He’ll sure want to -question ’em.” - -Inside the house André found a new, older American officer busy with -maps beside Captain Dobie. - -They received the prisoners coolly. - -After questioning the Nazi officers a few moments, Captain Dobie -hobbled out to the hallway and closed the door after him. His broken -leg wore fresh splints and a new dressing. - -[Illustration] - -The captain looked at André with displeasure. “I should keep a closer -eye on you, boy,” he said sharply. “What do you mean by running loose -around the country with a war going on?” - -Before the captain could continue, Slim sidled through the doorway. - -“Excuse me, sir,” he said, “but that lieutenant an’ the guards are -sittin’ out there in the jeep. D’ya want ’em to wait, or can they go, -the lieutenant says?” - -A call from the colonel in the other room, summoning Captain Dobie, -interrupted him. - -When Dobie returned with the colonel, the Nazis, well covered by guns, -were ceremoniously marched back to the jeep. - -The American officer’s orders were curt. “Lieutenant, I want these men -delivered to the general, by you, personally. He’s somewhere on Utah -Beach by now.” - -The jeep, loaded like a school bus, turned and disappeared in the -direction from which it had just come. - - - - -CHAPTER TEN - -“_Here Come the Tanks!_” - - -Long before dark, André, too tired to care any more what happened, had -stumbled into his old bed in the kitchen. During the night he roused -at times to hear the hum of trucks and clumping feet. He did not hear -the squadrons of planes coming in to drop relief troops and much-needed -ammunition to the hard-pressed ’chutists. - -At dawn he awoke completely fresh, and went to look at his now -unfamiliar Normandy landscape. - -Women tramped to damaged houses, distributing hot food and blankets. -Two small boys were investigating a badly smashed glider which had -settled on a hedge. - -André had just decided to run to the Lescot farm, to inquire whether -Victor had come home, when Weller called to him to come to breakfast. - -Afterwards, he went about his usual farm chores. - -Troops from the beach landings filtered through the village that day. -Their officers paused briefly at the Gagnon house to exchange reports -with Captain Dobie. - -“Well, at any rate, our tanks are beginning to come across the -causeways now,” a newly arrived major told the captain. “That’ll help -the airborne boys.” - -“It will be a great relief,” Captain Dobie said. “Our parachute fellows -have been fighting hard without any rest.” - -The major nodded. “The only trouble is,” he said, “somebody overlooked -the way these thick French hedgerows stop our tanks cold. We’ve got to -find a way to cut through them.” - -André listened with amazement. He had never thought of those ancient -borders to the tiny Normandy meadows as tank traps. He knew, of course, -that cattle turned out to pasture seldom broke through the high, earth -banks topped by the century-old tangles. It did seem disappointing -to think that those great, wonderful American war machines could be -stopped by shrubbery. - -“But why don’t the tanks keep to the roads, sir?” he asked. - -The major grinned. “If Normandy had ten times as many roads, son,” he -replied, “we wouldn’t have enough for all the stuff the Allies have -to move into France. Besides, our tanks have to go where we know the -Germans are massing.” - -The major was right about over-busy highways. - -Trucks, loaded with armed men and supplies, had begun to grind by in a -long, noisy procession. Some village people had come back from hiding. -Children big and little ran along the roadside, catching windfalls of -candy, gum, and cellophane-wrapped cookies tossed out by the soldiers. - -To André this was a very, very strange war--he could remember nothing -like it in any history book. - -But when he went into the kitchen, he no longer felt that his father’s -house was threatened from all sides. - -The crowd of German prisoners had been moved to a new compound, and the -geese had once more taken possession of the pond. André counted the -chickens. The flock looked a little sparse. - -A shout from Sergeant Weller sent André back to the road. - -Inside the front window Captain Dobie and Slim stood, waving cheerily. -Weller, both arms upraised, was saluting the approach of a great -elephant of a machine. It came lumbering up the sea road, its wide, -corrugated treads clanking on the gravel. After the first, in stately -dignity, thundered more of the metallic herd. - -“The TANKS! The tanks!” - -André’s heart thumped with excitement. - -“Some sight, eh, boy?” Weller shouted. - -With Weller, André ran out to reach up and shake hands with the tank -men. - -The tank commanders and the gunners, André thought, were even -wilder-looking creatures than the ’chutists. - -The men seemed colossal, standing in their turrets before the radio -antennae that wavered nervously, like an insect’s feelers, with the -sway of the tanks. Pushed-up goggles over helmets, and earphones, made -drivers and gunners seem part of the weird contraptions. - -“They are wonderful,” André said. “I wish I could have seen them come -ashore from the ships that brought them across the Channel.” - -Sergeant Weller frowned. “I don’t think you’d have liked it, son. Only -a few hours ago these men came off landin’ craft that were bein’ shot -at by Nazis from every direction. These guys are just the lucky ones -that didn’t get hit.” - -The gathered villagers cheered, and the sound of their welcome rang out -far up the road. - -André was still looking for Victor. But Victor had not been seen that -day. - -André sauntered over to where the colonel had joined Dobie and the -others in the window. - -“Captain,” André began. “Sir, about Victor--” - -“I know,” smiled the captain. “You wonder why he doesn’t come back. -I feel sure he’ll be all right. If that car full of Nazi officers -got through the roads from Paris to here, then I’m sure your friend -Victor can find his way around. The Nazi officers said they drove -straight through Caen, Carentan, and right through our lines, if -you please--British _and_ American. They actually got as far as the -Jacquard farm without being detected.” - -The colonel spoke up. “As a matter of fact, I don’t think the German -staff in Paris knew how much country our airborne troops were covering. -How could they? We had jammed their coastal radio and radar stations -all the way to Cherbourg. And the French Resistance and our men cut -telephone land lines. So it was impossible for the commanding German -general here on the peninsula to communicate with Paris.” - -“Those Nazi prisoners,” said Dobie, “told us they came up from Paris -to find out what was really happening here. Hitler believed that our -invasion was coming at Calais.” - -“He sure missed the boat,” Weller said cheerfully. - -The last of the squadron of tanks had gone by, and the village people -were returning to their homes. André went back to the farmyard. It was -time for chores. He heard laughter coming from the barns, but by now he -was used to soldier sounds. - -First, he must see how badly the orchard and fields in the rear had -been hit by the shelling. He went through the gate in the courtyard -wall. - -His jaw dropped. Many apple trees were down. Great smudged shell holes -gaped between them. And the greatest hole yawned only a few feet away -from the edge of the lane where his trumpet was buried. - -He snatched up a shovel, and sighed in relief when the trumpet came -up, green and smeared with damp earth, but unharmed. He nestled it -comfortably under his arm and went to the barn door. - -The cows had not lowed, and now he saw why. Balanced on stools beside -the animals sat two lusty Americans. They were happily squirting -streams into milk pails held correctly between their knees. - -One of the soldiers looked up curiously. - -At the sight of the horn under André’s arm he cried, “Well, if it isn’t -Little Boy Blue, horn and all.” - -The second milker called, “These cows yours? We thought nobody was -home. Sure seems good to milk an ole bossy again.” He grinned. “I come -from Iowa an’ I sure miss milkin’ time. Hope you don’t mind. We’re -almost through here.” - -The men paused to admire André’s trumpet, and tootle a few wild notes, -before they helped him carry the pails to the springhouse. He filled a -pitcher for Captain Dobie, and took it to the “staff room,” as the old -store was now called. The room was again filled with strange soldiers, -some of them in bloody bandages. - -The colonel was anxious to get away to his division command post. - -“You stay right here, Dobie,” he said, “and the sergeant and Slim as -well. And hustle medics and replacement infantry forward, fast.” - -Slim appeared and announced that he had Weller’s jeep ready to drive -the colonel to his headquarters. - -When Captain Dobie and André were alone, the captain smiled and sighed. -“A fine mother I turned out to be,” he said. “_When_ did you eat -something last?” - -André grinned shyly. “When did _you_ eat last, sir?” - -Sergeant Weller’s voice roared from the hallway, “Lunch coming up!” - -A large loaded tray appeared through the door, followed by Weller’s -bulky body. - -André looked at a heaped platter in the middle, and laughed. “So that -is where our chickens went.” - -“Your father will be paid for these fowl,” Dobie said. “So make up for -the eating you haven’t done today.” - -Weller was not as good a cook as his mother or Marie, André thought. -But he was surprised that a tough sergeant could cook at all, and the -meal was good. - -When the sun sank red behind the trees, an evening hush settled, -although soldiers from nearby bivouacs moved through the village -restlessly. - -Weller yawned. “I hope it stays quiet around here awhile,” he said. -“After last night we could do with a little snooze, eh, Captain?” - -He had scarcely made this wish than André cried, “Listen!” - -A distant sound of motors from the sky was drowned by the opening bark -of an American antiaircraft battery close by. - -Weller leaped to put out the lights. - -“Might have known the Luftwaffe would wake up about now,” he grumbled. - -Captain Dobie’s voice came out of the darkness. “I’ve been wondering -why we haven’t heard from them these last two days. Our air boys must -have pretty thoroughly crippled them.” - -Ears were strained to follow the sounds. - -“Must be several planes,” Dobie said. “They seem to be dropping small -bombs.” - -Weller, at the window, called, “Looks like a Fourth of July -celebration.” - -Suddenly he shouted, “_We got one!_” - -In the darkness, André listened to the wild whine of the falling -Luftwaffe plane. - -André reached Weller’s side in time to see flames spring high above the -dark treetops beyond the village. - -“I didn’t see any ’chute,” Weller exclaimed. - -“The pilot may have jumped before the fire lit up the sky,” the captain -replied. - -The sudden flare of excitement was followed by an equally sudden lull -except for the sound of soldiers’ voices across the fields. The flack -guns lapsed into silence. - -Captain Dobie said, “Whew! Next time, André, you go down to the cellar. -I forgot all about you for a minute.” - -Slim and a detail of men were sent off to look for the fallen Nazi -plane, and also for the pilot. - -“Better send out word to the French people around here to be on the -lookout,” Dobie added, “till we’re sure about him.” - -When Slim and the men had been gone only a few minutes, Weller began to -fidget restlessly. - -“How about I just take a look-see down the road, Captain?” he suggested. - -Captain Dobie said okay, and Weller swept up a Tommy gun and went off -into the night. - -He had gone only a few yards when André caught up with him. - -In a field, the last flames were flickering from the fallen -Messerschmitt. A faint drizzle blurred the scene, but the figures of -many soldiers were dimly silhouetted against the light. - -“No good goin’ over there,” Weller said, after studying the scene a -moment. - -They had just begun to retrace their steps when Weller said, “Listen.” - -André had heard sounds too--a creaking and the clop, clop of hoofbeats. - -Coming down the wet road a new, unpainted cart rattled into sight. -Between the shafts clumped La Fumée. And, waving the reins behind the -dashboard, stood Victor. - -“André!” he shouted. “Where did you go?” He brushed at his enormous -mustache nervously. “Well, never mind now. Get in. Get in. I’ll drive -you home.” - -André gulped with relief. Weller demanded, “Ask him how he got home.” - -André repeated the question in French, and Victor threw out his hands -indignantly. - -“How _should_ I come?” he shouted. “By any open road those soldiers and -tanks left for my use. Americans, Americans everywhere! Tanks! Guns! I -have been halfway around the world to get here, it seems.” - -“But where did you find your cart? I thought it was blown up!” André -cried. - -[Illustration] - -Victor’s eyebrows expressed more astonishment. - -“Where _would_ I find it? Just where Jacquard said he would leave it, -of course. Beyond his shop, among the holly trees.” - -When this was translated, Weller shook his head. “Well, climb in an’ -let’s go home.” - -La Fumée, sensing the nearness of her own stable, started briskly. - -When they had said good night to Victor, Weller yawned loudly. - -André watched Weller, and laughed. “I’m pretty sleepy, myself,” he -admitted. - -Ten minutes later he was in his mother’s big bed, sprawled sound -asleep. - - - - -CHAPTER ELEVEN - -_André and the Nazi Pilot_ - - -Falling into bed, André’s thoughts had turned to his family, but his -worries were quickly drowned in sleep. - -When he awoke, he ran downstairs to see what the sunrise had brought. - -It had brought Victor. - -André saw the old man--scrubbed pink and bristling--beside the guard at -the door. With Victor was another of the village fathers--a farmer who -had once been a schoolteacher. M. Blanc was a tall, square man, in a -rough tweed suit. - -“I am here,” said Victor, speaking to both André and the guard--who did -not understand a word--“about a matter which demands attention. It is -the exasperating fact that an unexploded shell reposes in my--” - -André cried, “Wait!” and hastily translated for the guard’s benefit. - -Victor remained standing, with open mouth. The guard shouted, and Slim -came running. The captain was swiftly consulted, and a demolition -squad was rounded up. This took only a few seconds, since disposing of -unexploded shells was an ever-present problem. - -On being questioned about where the “dud” was, Victor finished his -sentence. “In my parlor, near the bay window.” - -At the last word, the demolition crew started running. - -André asked, “But isn’t Mme. Lescot frightened?” - -“She does not even know it is there,” Victor replied. “She has been off -helping with some of the children since yesterday. I was obliged to -prepare my own supper,” he finished crossly. - -Captain Dobie came to the door and gravely shook hands with the two -Frenchmen. He eyed Victor curiously. After a moment’s study of the old -man, however, he decided that to order Victor to stay out of danger -would be a waste of time. - -It was M. Blanc who spoke. - -“We came, sir,” he said, “as spokesmen for the whole neighborhood. We -wish to offer our services in any way you Americans consider helpful. -We should also be grateful if you can tell us what to expect in the -way of future danger to our community.” - -“I think,” replied Captain Dobie, “you people have accepted all this -destruction with fine, very brave spirit. The Maquis, as well as all -you other French people, have helped the landing forces more than you -will ever know. We Americans want you to realize that we are grateful. -It could have been much worse for us.” - -M. Blanc put up a hand. “Please, m’sieur, it is our battle also. And -the Maquis have told us that the Americans up beyond Ste. Mère are -heroic.” - -The captain said his men had been wonderful. “But until we dispose of -these Germans, we can’t move forward into France beyond this peninsula.” - -“And the Canadians and British?” asked M. Blanc. - -“They’ve successfully landed a lot of troops and tanks. They’ve -penetrated to a considerable depth toward Caen, I hear.” - -“_Bon!_” Victor’s head bobbed. “When you have disposed of these -bothersome Nazis you speak of--you do what?” - -Captain Dobie frowned. “We must throw a line of troops from these -beaches straight across the neck of the peninsula to cut off German -reinforcements from coming to the rescue of the enemy in Cherbourg.” - -“No doubt,” frowned Victor, “the Nazis will respond by doing all the -damage possible to our fine Cherbourg port.” - -“I’m afraid they will,” agreed the captain. “When we take the port, our -U.S. Army engineers will have to repair the docks quickly. We intend -to bring in our main supplies for the liberation of the rest of France -through Cherbourg when it is free.” - -“Capitaine Dobay,” M. Blanc said, “I suppose no one knows how long the -Germans will hold out.” - -“I’m afraid not,” replied Captain Dobie. - -There was a second shaking of hands, and Victor and M. Blanc left. - -André’s mind turned anxiously to the tale of heavy fighting which was -moving toward St. Sauveur le Vicomte and his family there. He felt more -cut off from them than ever, now that he knew they were surrounded by -such desperate enemies. - -“Has anybody found that German pilot yet?” he asked Captain Dobie. - -“No sign of him,” the captain replied. “Now, after breakfast, I have a -job for Slim. And I think you and your dog could go along.” - -Half an hour later, André was telling a delighted Patchou, “They think -it’s safe now, for you to come out with me. But there’s still a war on, -so behave yourself.” - -The cows, he found, had again been milked by the American -farmer-soldiers, and again most of the milk had vanished. The other -barn chores had also been neatly done. - -He heard soft sounds in the loft over the cow barn, and crept up the -stairs to investigate. - -A dozen or more soldiers from the night patrol were sleeping heavily in -the sweet hay. Full of good Gagnon milk, André thought with pleasure. - -He tiptoed down the stairs and, freeing Patchou from his fastening, -answered Slim’s impatient halloo. - -“Gotta find a commissary dump somewhere down the road,” Slim explained. -“Weller says it cain’t be far. Them 90th Division cooks told him about -it.” - -After his long imprisonment, Patchou was blissfully happy. He ran rings -around Slim and André. He found excitement in every newly blasted hole -in the mossy walls, and inviting scents everywhere. - -Slim marched rapidly along for nearly half a mile, with André keeping -up at a trot. Then Slim said, “Best we begin to ask questions now. Who, -’round here, knows everything?” - -André pointed to a house ahead. “That’s M. Valjean’s home there. He’s -the cobbler. He will know.” - -M. Valjean listened eagerly to André’s query. Did he know where there -was an American food dump headquarters nearby? - -“Ah-h, _oui, oui, certainement_,” the cobbler responded -enthusiastically, and gave detailed directions in a flood of rapid -French. - -André said, “I know where it is.” He added, “_Merci_,” to M. Valjean. - -“You sure?” Slim frowned. “Sounded as if it must be on the Russian -border, what-all I could make of it.” - -“I am sure, Slim,” André replied. “It is my own schoolhouse.” - -Slim’s rapidly swinging long legs kept André at an almost breathless -canter. Because their minds were silently busy, they did not hear the -word, “_Kamerad_,” when it was first spoken. - -But Slim’s reaction to something out of key stopped him short, .45 in -hand. - -André was pushed back before the second, louder, “_Kamerad_” gave him -warning. - - - - -CHAPTER TWELVE - -_Slim and the Trumpet_ - - -Slim leaned forward intently, staring at a thicket to one side. “Who’re -you? Come out--hands up!” he shouted. “Get back, kid.” - -A voice said, “It is not necessary. I vish to giff myself -up--villingly.” - -A young German airman stepped from behind the litter of broken cherry -branches. - -“Where’d you come from?” Slim demanded. “Keep those hands on your head.” - -“I know who he is,” André cried. Then, to the stranger, “You’re the -pilot who jumped from the Messerschmitt, aren’t you?” - -The German nodded. “I vish to make no trouble. Please take my gun--a -Luger only, in the holster.” - -Slim snapped out the pistol. “Listen,” he demanded, “what gives here?” - -The German said, “I haf vanted to giff up a long time now. I am glad -you haff come.” - -“Well,” Slim shrugged, “maybe you can explain that to the captain. Come -on. March ahead of me to that schoolhouse yonder.” - -When they reached the food dump, the prisoner was put under guard. -Meanwhile Slim carried out the captain’s orders for food supplies. -Slim pointed to the stacked cartons he had piled in the corner of the -schoolhouse. “See nobody lays a hand on that. A jeep’ll be over to pick -it up within an hour,” he told the commissary sergeant. He also asked -for an extra guard to accompany them back to the captain. “He says he -wants to give hisself up,” Slim said, “but how do we know he’s on the -level?” - -Drawing his own gun, Slim added to André, as he led the way, “Wouldn’t -our flack gunners like to get a look at this Luftwaffe fellow?” - -The prisoner smiled wryly. “Your flack gunners already haff seen me,” -he said. “That is vhy I am here.” - -On their return, Captain Dobie greeted the German with surprising -enthusiasm. “I am delighted to see you,” he said. “You had us worried.” - -“I vas vorried myself, sir,” the pilot replied. - -A few minutes later the prisoner was dispatched to an interrogation -center by jeep, with Weller and a guard. - -Captain Dobie suggested that André find M. Blanc and tell him that the -village could forget about that particular German pilot. “Glad to have -_him_ off my mind,” the captain added. - -André found M. Blanc consulting with Victor near the end of the village -and gave them the captain’s good news. - -En route home through the fields, André found an almost undamaged -yellow parachute. “How beautiful Marie will be in a dress of yellow -silk!” he thought. And he folded it carefully, tucking the bulky load -under his arm. - -That evening, after supper, André took his trumpet into the kitchen. -He gathered cleaning rags and polish, and rubbed and cleaned the brass -of the horn. When the tubes had been cleared and the metal gleamed, he -piped a little trill of lonely notes. - -They made him feel no better, and he tried a Normandy dance tune. - -He heard the clump of feet behind him and Slim’s voice. “Holy cow! -_Where_ did you get that horn?” - -André put the trumpet down shyly. Slim picked it up carefully and -rubbed the mouthpiece with his sleeve. - -“Can you play a trumpet?” André asked curiously. - -“Waal ... I used to play some in the school band in Pecos, Texas. -Matter of fact, I was pretty good. Shall I give ’er a try?” - -André jumped when a ringing peal of notes rose from the brass to the -rafters. The notes slid down the scale, and Slim broke loudly into -“Turkey in the Straw.” - -Weller’s bellow rose even above the music’s vibrations. “Stop that -racket!” Slim guiltily took the horn from his lips. The sergeant -shouted, “Captain’s on the phone to headquarters.” - -“Tell you what, André,” Slim whispered. “Suppose we go try this out -somewhere?” - -For the next hour, in the dimly lit springhouse, André enjoyed himself -more than he had for weeks. And when Slim said, “Time for bed now,” -André had learned half of Slim’s pet song, which was something about -Texas. - -Next morning, André found that a thick fog, almost a drizzle, hung -over the treetops. The soft gray mist hid the harsh destruction of the -landscape. - -André went out to find Raoul at work patching the Coty roof. “Just help -me with this thatch, will you?” Raoul called. - -André gladly climbed up the old ladder with an armful of straw while -Raoul chattered. - -But a moment later he stopped listening to Raoul’s talk. Somewhere in -the fog, he had detected the uncertain throbbing of a plane’s engine. - -[Illustration: _André had learned half of Slim’s pet song_] - -He sat still to follow the sound. The plane was flying in wide circles, -steadily coming in lower. - -In a drift of the mist, André caught a glimpse of the markings--a white -star. - -“He’s in trouble, Raoul. That’s an American plane,” André cried. - -“How could he be in trouble?” Raoul objected. “He’s still in the sky, -is he not?” - -But listening closely, he too, heard the engine sputter. “That engine -needs repairs!” he declared disapprovingly. - -Hastily, André shouted, “DUCK!” - -Their heads went down as the plane’s wings, trailing wisps of fog, -swept close overhead. André had just time to make out a high-wing -monoplane with patches and holes in its fabric covering. - -The plane banked, sailed over a field behind the Coty house, and was -set down expertly. - -André was already scrambling down the ladder. - -He pelted across the meadow with no thought of danger. Racing toward -the plane, he thought only that the pilot might be hurt. Through the -plexiglass enclosure of the little ship, André saw a blond young -fellow, in an odd, peaked cap. - -At the sound of pounding footsteps, the pilot whirled, an automatic -suddenly in his hand and pointed at André. - - - - -CHAPTER THIRTEEN - -_The War from the Air_ - - -André was so surprised that he stammered, in English, “D--don’t fire!” - -The flyer’s hand dropped. “_Parlez-vous_ English?” he faltered, -frowning. - -André’s suspicions leaped up. Dirty brown coveralls, the strange cap, -the German-looking, tow-colored hair. And the plane. André had never -seen one like it, and the star insigne could be a Nazi fake. - -André stood his ground, some distance away. When the pilot flung open -the side door and jumped out, André stepped back. - -In a swift glance over his shoulder, André saw Raoul reach the bottom -of the ladder. He shouted, “Run get Slim, Raoul. And tell the captain.” - -“For the love of Mike, kid, what gives with you? You think I’m a -German?” the pilot demanded. - -“You could be,” André retorted. - -“Holy mackerel!” the pilot laughed. “That’s what I thought you were, at -first. I didn’t even see you were a kid when I pulled the gun. Forget -it.” - -“Well,” André admitted after a moment, “you do talk like an American.” - -“How come?” - -André laughed uncertainly. “Germans don’t say ‘How come,’ for one -thing,” he stated. “But what _are_ you doing here? It looks as though -you were lost.” - -“Lost is right--and out of fuel, too,” the pilot replied with angry -disgust. “Now I’ve got to find more gas and get over to Utah Beach in a -hurry. Where am I, anyway?” - -“You are about four miles from the nearest invasion beach,” André said. -“But I’m not sure of the different names you Americans have given them. -Someone will be here soon. Captain Dobie can’t come himself, he has a -broken leg.” - -“Is this Dobie’s command?” the flyer exclaimed. “Well, I’m in a hurry. -Cripes! I can’t keep the general waiting. He’ll give me hoop-la for -navigating myself into this mess--fog or no fog. Here’s somebody now.” - -It was Slim, at a gallop, followed by two armed guards. They fell in on -each side of the pilot. - -Slim took a quick look at the flyer and the plane, and asked, “What -outfit _you_ with?” - -“Army Liaison Squadron, Lieutenant Bill Carson,” replied the pilot. -“You with the 82nd Airborne?” - -Slim nodded and asked sharply, “Now, what’s up here? Don’t you guys use -landin’ strips any more?” - -“Don’t pile it on, buddy,” Carson said. “I’m in bad enough already. I -got myself lost good, in this weather. And this kid here thought I was -a German--” - -Slim turned sternly to André. “You can overdo this takin’ prisoners -without consultin’ us, you know, son,” he muttered coldly. - -He explained to the pilot, more mildly, “This André and an old -Frenchman helped catch a car full of Nazi officers once. But once is -enough.” - -The lieutenant stared at André. “Say,” he exclaimed, “are you the -French kid I heard about? Trapped those German staff officers? I bet -my general’d like to shake hands with you. He’s the one who questioned -them.” - -Slim put on his best corporal’s manner. “Best we get back to your -business here, Lieutenant. How are you going to wangle your jalopy out -of this corner, now you got her wedged in so good?” - -The pilot shrugged. “Get me some gas, and I’ll fly out okay. Might have -to wait till the fog lifts a little.” - -Slim pondered a moment. “Listen, André. You think we could squeeze a -little more gas out of that pump of your dad’s? Take us an hour or -more to waylay a U. S. truck carryin’ gas.” - -André smiled. “We’ve been telling everyone the pump was empty, but we -have a little left in case of--you know--” - -Carson gave a yelp. “I know--emergency, you mean. Well, boys, I’m the -worst emergency you’ll ever meet.” - -Slim ordered one of his men to guard the plane. At a frown from the -guard, Raoul, who had been standing close by, stalked off. - -At the house Slim went in to report to the captain and came back with -word that Dobie had telephoned the general waiting at Utah Beach. - -The general had sent a message to Carson: “What did that idiot mean -by getting stuck in a blasted cow pasture? And tell him to get out of -there in a blasted hurry, or I’ll have his blasted ...” and so forth. - -Carson smiled wanly. “That’s my general,” he said. - -Slim went back to duty, and André and the pilot refilled the plane’s -tank from the cans they had brought from the Gagnon pump. - -Carson took a dismal look at the gray-blanketed landscape. With André’s -help, he rolled the machine around so that it headed away from the -hedge. “Want to get in while I taxi her into position?” Carson asked. - -“You are permitted--?” André cried. - -Carson laughed. “Of course I’m not permitted--but what’s the -difference? Climb in.” - -André clambered into the seat beside the pilot’s. Carson turned a -switch, adjusted the throttle, swung the propeller, and the engine -started promptly. “Now, fasten that seat belt and hold on, this field’s -bumpy.” - -With a surge of power, the plane began to move. Skillfully the pilot -ruddered a jolting course around the potholes and stumps, to the far -corner of the meadow. “Need all the run I can get for the take-off,” he -explained. - -Faced around for a diagonal course, he throttled the engine. “Gosh, I -think the fog is beginning to break,” he cried. - -He leaned out to observe the wind direction which already was beginning -to ruffle the tops of the trees. - -“I’d feel better if I knew this country,” he said. “You know it like -your own hand, I suppose?” - -André said he did, and the pilot stared down at him thoughtfully. - -“Say,” Carson broke out again. “How about you coming along for the -ride, and point out landmarks for me?” - -André’s eyes lit up. “But--” he began. - -“You seen the Invasion beaches yet? I’ll show them to you,” he offered. - -Before André could gather his wits, Carson exclaimed, “There’s a patch -of blue sky! We better grab this chance. Hang on. Here we go!” And he -pushed open the throttle. - -André felt the engine quicken and then the forward jolt as the brakes -were released. - -Smoothly, the little ship lifted after the short run. Banking sharply, -it swept toward the far rim of trees and, with inches to spare, skimmed -over them. - -The mist was breaking up, revealing open vistas. As the plane rose, the -houses and fields below shrank away swiftly. - -The pilot said, “Keep a close watch for low-flying bombers. They’re all -over the place today, cleaning out isolated German pockets.” - -Almost at once they were over the marshes. - -“That’s our road to the sea.” André pointed. - -The mists broke away sharply over the Channel. - -André gasped. - -A staggering panorama had been unveiled. Pigmy files of marching -troops, pigmy tanks and trucks crawled up the sea road in an endless -procession. Oceanward, beyond the shore bluff and wreck-strewn beach, -lay a sight which André could scarcely take in. Hundreds of ships -extended as far as he could see across the gray waves. Over the ships, -huge balloons lolled and bobbed and tugged at their anchors. Destroyers -and landing craft darted between the shore and a line of hundreds of -transports. - -André could make out a fleet of planes heading toward Cherbourg to the -north. And from that direction, the dull thud of bombs rolled back on -the wet air. - -“It is grand,” he managed to say breathlessly. “But--” he hesitated, -and added slowly, “it is terrible for the French people. So many guns -and bombs pointed at us.” - -Carson glanced down at him. “They are pointed at the Germans,” he -corrected André. “Don’t forget that we’re trying not to hurt France -more than necessary.” - -“_Oui_, I know,” André said. “But sir, I did not know there were so -many ships and guns in the whole world.” - -“Well,” said Carson, “take a good look while you’ve got the chance. -I’ve got my bearings now.” - -André studied the beach below. In the shallow water, wrecked landing -craft swung uselessly, half-awash. On the sea’s edge lay tanks which -had reached shore only to be shelled into wreckage. Savage battles had -turned the sands into a disorder of blasted, blackened gun pits and -machine-gun nests. - -[Illustration] - -Twice, while Carson circled, André saw him fiddling with the radio. -Then he spoke into the hand microphone, and listened for a few moments. - -“Got ’em at last,” he said. “They say we’ve got to hold off awhile -longer. Some Luftwaffe guy got through last night and bombed the strip. -They’re just finishing repairs. See them down there?” - -André looked directly down. Tiny men laying strips of steel mesh moved -in groups, like ants. Bulldozers swept along one side. And between the -airstrip and the sea, supplies were piling up steadily into mountains. - -Carson grinned. “I’ll bet that’s my general pacing up and down in front -of that big tent.” A second later, he said, “As long as we can’t get -down right away, how about we take a look at the English and Canadian -beachheads?” - -He swung alongshore and headed eastward. - -Carson pointed out the little city of Carentan. There was a rattle of -machine guns below, and the pilot threw the plane into a series of -violent turns. Noises like angry wasps streaked past their ears. - -André swayed dizzily. - -“Oh-oh! What am I doing in here?” Carson yelled. “That’s the way I get -holes in my ship.” He pointed out new tears in the fabric. As they -zoomed away, he explained, “That was a Nazi machine-gun. There are -still German troops and guns between Utah and Omaha Beaches and the -British beachheads.” - -The plane climbed steadily away, and André relaxed. - -The fury of Omaha and the British beaches was very like that which he -had seen at Utah. - -Unconsciously, André shuddered. Far to the right, under a pall of smoke -and the flickering of explosions, lay a city being pounded to rubble. - -“That must be Caen,” André murmured. “My mother was born in Caen.” -Then, after a moment, “The houses, the farms, the cows and the horses -... the people ...” he counted sadly. - -Carson sat thoughtfully quiet. He swung the ship in a wide circle for -the return. - -“Don’t think about it, kid,” he said presently. “Just remember the big -German guns that aren’t there any more.” - -André replied slowly, “I don’t think we really knew the Liberation -would be as bad as this. We will be glad when it is over.” - -Suddenly the pilot jammed his control stick forward. The plane nosed -into a violent dive. “Hang on! Fighters overhead. Up there!” he shouted. - -André’s head had jerked back. In his range of vision, a formation of -six Thunderbolts with white stars roared past. - -“Wow!” Carson gasped, and pulled the ship level. - -“They’re after a bridge,” he yelled. - -André watched plane after plane go into a dive and the bombs leave the -racks to arc downward. - -In the successive rain of bombs a black, flame-flecked cloud shot -skyward. - -“They have hit it!” André cried jubilantly. - -The Thunderbolts zoomed upward out of the haze, reformed, and -disappeared toward England. - -Some time later, Carson talked once more into the radio. “It’s okay. -They say to come in now. The runway’s ready,” he announced. - -He throttled back. “Well, now you know what the beaches are like,” he -sighed. There was a smooth descent, Carson slid in over the steel mesh -and brought the machine to a stop beside a group of officers. - -He snapped open his own seat belt and André’s. - -“Oh-oh!” Carson gasped. “I’d better try to explain _you_.” - -André looked across at a glistening, brilliant red face that belonged -to a bulky man in a sweat-stained uniform. - -“It’s the general,” Carson whispered. He pushed the door open and -saluted. - -He spoke more rapidly than usual. “This is the French boy, sir, who -helped catch the Nazi brass from Paris.” - -The general seemed to be caught between fury and curiosity. - -“Is it!” he sputtered at last. “And _what’s_ he doing in an army plane?” - -“Well, sir--” Carson blinked. “I needed--” - -“Oh, never mind,” boomed the general explosively. “He’s here now, and I -want to shake hands with him. Come on, boy.” - -André leaped down from the plane, and his hand disappeared in the -general’s bear clutch. - -“Glad to thank you personally--” roared the huge man gruffly. - -He mopped his neck. “Want to tell you--what’s your name again? André -Gunion? Can’t get these foreign names. Rotten at languages, but I can -judge people. Where’s that old fellow--friend of yours--Vilmer, was -it?--who shot the tires off the Nazis?” - -André had tried to speak several times. Now, he said loudly, -“Victor--Lescot.” - -“Lescot? Lescot? That means green vegetable, doesn’t it?” barked the -general. “No? Well, never mind. Congratulate him for me. Found out -a lot from those Nazi colonels, we did. Tell you what. We expect -the biggest generals we got, here on this bridgehead in a couple of -days--Eisenhower, Marshall, Arnold. They’ll be glad to know how you -French kids have helped.” - -He paused for breath. “Well, got to get going. Lieutenant!” - -Carson emerged from inspecting the bullet holes in the plane, again -chattering rapidly. “How are we going to get this boy home, sir? He -can’t walk. It’s too far.” - -The general snorted. “Send him in a jeep, of course--with some new -orders for Captain Dobie.” - -An iron-faced sergeant appeared and saluted. - -“Oh, there you are, Streukoff,” shouted the general. “Take this boy -to Captain Dobie. Boy knows where his command post is, over there -somewhere.” He jerked a large thumb toward inland Normandy. - -At the plane, he called back, “And mind you get a receipt for him.” - -Carson called to André, “We had fun, eh? Be seeing you,” and opened the -throttle. - -Half an hour later, a jeep bearing André in the front seat, rocketed -around a line of trucks and soldiers into André’s own village. - -He had been busy for some minutes thinking how he was to explain his -trip to Captain Dobie. - -As the jeep rolled down the village street André saw that something -unusual had happened. The neighbors were running toward a little -gathering of people. - -His eyes raced over them and stopped. - -In front of the parish house, worn, gray with fatigue, his clothes -dusty and torn, loomed a tall old man. - -André’s heart stood still. - -“Father Duprey!” he shouted. - - - - -CHAPTER FOURTEEN - -_Father Duprey’s Story_ - - -“My dear boy!” Father Duprey held out his arms. - -André cleared the space to the parsonage steps as though shot from the -jeep. - -“Did my mother come--my father--Marie?” he cried. - -He looked up at the priest’s long, bony face, lined with weariness, and -halted. The old man’s embrace was kind, but André knew at once that the -news he brought was not good. His expression held too much sadness. - -“The father needs rest,” someone in the crowd of neighbors called out. -And Anna, the parsonage housekeeper, bustled from the door. - -“Come in, come in, André,” she called anxiously. “And bring in the -father. I will give you tea. And _then_ you may talk.” - -[Illustration: _“My dear boy!” Father Duprey held out his arms_] - -“I must tell you, André,” Father Duprey said, “my news of your family -is not too bad. So do not be anxious. However, I do not know where all -of them are now. But come into the house.” - -After tea was served, the old man sighed deeply. “Now, André,” he said, -“to relieve your anxiety as well as I can. - -“To begin. The hospital where we left your mother is small. And it -is well outside the town of St. Sauveur le Vicomte--in the country, -really. The doctors there are good. Your father, Marie, and I waited -for some time to get a report from them about your mother. - -“At about ten-thirty o’clock, Monday night--that was June 5th--one of -the doctors came to tell us that Mme. Gagnon needed only the right -medicine and a week or two to get well. That is good news, eh?” - -André sighed. “Yes, very good.” - -“Ah! another thing.” The priest held up a thin finger. “The Maquis met -us exactly on time, at the rendezvous not far from the hospital. And -your brave English flyer--Ronald Pitt--ran for it. What a sight! Two of -the roughest looking of our Maquis and a nun, racing toward a near-by -building. But--well, they got away safely. That _was_ good, no?” - -“Wonderful,” André murmured. - -“Well, then. At about eleven-thirty that night, your father and I -stood at the hospital door. We were to start back home, and Marie was -to stay with your mother. We heard bombing all around us. Your father -said, ‘The bombing is getting bad.’ - -“Just as he said that, we heard loud shouting in German, and Nazis -began pouring out of their camp onto the roads. - -“A minute later there was the sound of motorcycles and cars shrieking -in the streets, and heavy antiaircraft fire. - -“Someone cried out, ‘The Invasion has begun! _Parachutists are landing -all around Ste. Mère!_’ - -“Your father felt that his duty was to remain with Mme. Gagnon. I, that -my duty was to hasten home. And I promised to look after you, André.” - -The old man smiled wryly. “I did not have much chance to do that, did I? - -“In the midst of it, Marie appeared. She was with Leon Duplis, a Maquis -I know well. - -“She said, ‘Father, the Maquis here need women to help with the -villagers. Please do not forbid me to go. In the hospital, Mother is in -good hands.’ - -“Your father agreed, but not willingly. In another minute Marie and -Leon were on a motorcycle and out of sight.” - -“But how did you get home, father? It has been five days,” asked André. - -The priest replied, “It was necessary to follow the loneliest roads -through the confusion. One did not know where the shells or the -snipers’ bullets would strike. - -“I slept well enough under hedges,” the priest continued. “I was very -kindly given food by many villagers. Sometimes I took refuge in a -church or house. At times I was able to help with the wounded and ill. -And sometimes I stopped to comfort the children.” - -Father Duprey rose and put a kindly hand on André’s shoulder. “I am -glad that you were spared, son. Go home now, and do not worry. Even -about Marie. The Gagnons are a family that for two hundred years has -not been easily crushed.” - -André went slowly down the parsonage steps.... On the first night of -the invasion his parents had been safe. But that was four days ago, he -thought. - -A loud shout stopped him. Streukoff beckoned from the jeep. “Hey, kid! -Say, I gotta deliver you and get a receipt from Captain Dobie. Git in.” - -André looked shocked. “The general was joking, wasn’t he? I can walk -the short distance home. I’m sorry I kept you waiting so long.” - -“Oh, that’s all right. I needed the rest,” grinned Streukoff. “But I’m -getting that receipt, boy. A general never forgets.” - -Captain Dobie looked up from his desk irritably when Streukoff entered -the room and saluted. André followed well in the rear. - -“Yes?” Dobie snapped. - -After hearing the general’s request, he barked, “You want _what_? You -brought André home? From _where_!” - -At one side, Weller muttered, “I should ’a’ known better. I should ’a’ -known better.” - -The captain scribbled out a receipt for Streukoff and signed it. He -then registered his feelings by banging weights down on all the papers -on his desk. - -“I never even _missed_ him,” he said through closed lips. - -The telephone jangled, and André saw Weller turn to Captain Dobie -excitedly. - -“It’s the colonel,” Weller shouted. “We’re movin’ this command post up -to the other side of Ste. Mère! The 9th division is almost set to help -us on a big push.” - -Weller turned his eyes slowly on André. - - - - -CHAPTER FIFTEEN - -_Battle for St. Sauveur_ - - -The idea of Captain Dobie’s staff going away came as a shock to André. - -“B-but--” he stammered. - -Captain Dobie and Weller consulted maps and papers. At last, the -captain sat back and lit a cigarette. - -“You’ve seen Father Duprey? What did he have to tell you?” he inquired -mildly. - -“Not very good news, sir,” André replied. “But nothing especially bad -... I wish my family could get home,” he said irritably. - -Captain Dobie cocked an eyebrow. - -“I wish they could, too,” he said. “And, as long as I am responsible -here, maybe you’d like to tell me why you went off with that pilot in -his plane.” - -At this unexpected shift, André flushed. - -“You did not tell me not to, sir,” he said shyly. - -“I did not tell you not to ride an elephant to Afghanistan, either,” -the captain retorted. “How could I know you had any intention of flying -over the enemy?” - -[Illustration] - -“I did not know it myself.” André could not help smiling. “It just -happened.” - -“Well, you’re lucky to be back. I don’t suppose it really matters if I -turn gray worrying about you,” said the captain. - -A bark from Patchou in the kitchen gave André an excuse to bolt away. - -Although Captain Dobie’s colonel had ordered the post moved closer -to the fighting, the change would not come until other units were in -position. - -During the next couple of days André’s mind turned more and more toward -St. Sauveur. If he could only go forward with Dobie and Weller and -Slim, to be near when that town was liberated. Other French children -were in the battle zone. And, after all, he had been under fire himself. - -St. Sauveur, Weller explained, was directly in the path of the -Americans who were hammering through to the coast to keep the Germans -from sending help to the fortress at Cherbourg. The 9th Division and -their own 82nd Airborne were working together in this drive for the -showdown. - -Weller came home from an errand to the beach on Tuesday, the 13th, -whistling gaily, off key. - -“Good news?” André asked. - -Weller replied, “Tops. We wiped the Nazis out of that gap between -Utah and Omaha beachheads. Now we can roll! And boy! You ought to -see our new Utah airstrip. Planes goin’ to London out of there--like -ferries--with the wounded.” - -Captain Dobie, talking to his colonel on the phone, hung up, looking -cheerful. - -“The towns along the Merderet River seem to be pretty well mopped up,” -he reported. “We hold the bridges. So the way to the Douve River’s -clear now.” - -Later that day Weller made a fast trip to the new command post. He came -back to report that a small stone farm building near a crossroads north -of Pont l’Abbé had been found for Captain Dobie. - -“We got a pair of new lieutenants takin’ the places of a couple -that got wounded,” Weller said. “Good fighters, these replacements, -Schoenfargle an’ Ouvarski.” - -André grew more silent as the captain’s leaving day drew near. - -St. Sauveur was to André a pretty little town where his family were. As -each day went by he felt more anxious about his mother. And finally he -decided he must follow Dobie and look for her. - -On the last evening, Captain Dobie said, “I’m leaving Slim here for a -few days, on orders, André. He’ll be in touch with me, so send us word -if anything is wrong.” - -Weller echoed, “Yeah. You do that, kid, and you just tend to the cows, -and mind what Father Duprey says.” - -André was up and the house astir before sunrise next morning. - -Maps, papers, and duffle were stacked waiting in the hallway when Slim -appeared at the door and announced, “Jeep’s ready, Captain.” - -This was the bad moment for André. - -Dobie hobbled out to the jeep and Weller followed. Several of the -neighbors, including Father Duprey and Victor, had come to say good-by. - -Patchou kept up a nervous barking, shocked by the departure of friends, -until André put an arm around him. - -Over the noisy complaint of the jeep’s motor, Captain Dobie thanked all -those gathered there for their help. And he asked that thanks be given -to the Gagnons. - -“I’ll see you all again,” he smiled, clutching at his seat as the jeep -leaped forward. - -And up to the overhanging chestnut trees rang cries of “_Vive -l’Amérique!_” and “_Vive le Capitaine Dobay!_” - -The last André heard was Weller’s voice, bellowing, “Vive la Frenchmen!” - -The silence of the house, as the sun slid up over the trees, was -numbing. - -Mme. Lescot arrived to break this up, equipped with an armload of -cleaning things. - -“This place resembles a pigsty,” she announced. “Mme. Gagnon must not -see such a mess. Please cause yourself to be absent.” - -Slim hurriedly remembered a job to be done. André pushed Patchou -hastily out of doors and went to milk the cows. - -He had just put the milk to cool when Mme. Lescot hailed him from the -kitchen door. “Breakfast!” she called. - -When Slim and André drew up to the table, Mme. Lescot produced a -breakfast of army supplies she had found on a shelf. - -“It is not my business,” she said shortly, “to complain about God’s -behavior. But I cannot help believing He has encouraged the American -Army to habits of extravagance. Do you leave good food behind, -everywhere you go?” - -When this was translated into English, Slim laughed. - -“No, ma’am!” he said emphatically. “This army eats everything it lays -its hands on. Weller’s just repayin’ the Gagnons for the use of their -house, I guess.” - -After breakfast, Slim called for André and the trumpet. Fitted in -between his duties, Slim gave André more lessons in American tunes. The -old house trembled under the blasts. - -In the midst of one of Slim’s Texas songs, an ambulance full of wounded -from the fighting at St. Sauveur drew up and stopped. - -The driver had a message about Captain Dobie. - -“Cap’n’s got himself shot in the shoulder,” he reported. - -André and Slim froze. - -The driver added, as he started on, “Couldn’t get him to come away and -be evacuated home with these other guys.” - -“What’s Weller doin’ lettin’ the skipper get shot!” Slim exclaimed. -“Best I get up there quick, now.” - -André had decided to “get up there,” too. - -He could surely get far enough to trace Marie, and perhaps find some -clue to where his father and mother were. - -Late that evening of D-day plus nine, Weller returned to pick up Slim. - -“Come on, Corporal,” he shouted. “The cap’n needs you. - -“Looks like we’ll take St. Sauveur in a couple of days,” he told André. -“Then, as soon’s we cut through to the coast, the big push up to -Cherbourg starts off. Won’t be long now.... Take care y’self, kid.” - -The two waved from the jeep. “Be seein’ you,” they called. - -André answered, “_Oui_--yes. I think so. Soon.” - -Because of his own plans, Slim’s departure did not leave André quite so -lonely as he might have been. - -The question of _how_ to get near St. Sauveur was the problem. André -thought he might ask some pleasant-looking officer for a lift. He -might-- - -In the end it was Victor who solved things very simply. - -The Lescots’ married daughter’s home had been burned out. She had just -sent word that she was at a farm near Picauville, a hamlet just outside -Pont l’Abbé. The message begged her father to come, please, and get her. - -On the morning after Slim’s departure, Victor arrived at the Gagnons’ -door with La Fumée and the cart. He explained his journey to André. - -“But,” André cried, “I must go with you, Victor. You cannot speak -English any better than you did when we went to Jacquard’s.” - -“That is true enough,” Victor admitted. - -“Good. I go. I translate when soldiers try to stop you,” André -announced. - -“It is an idea,” Victor agreed. - -“Well, then?” André cried. - -“The cows,” Victor chided. - -André paused. “Raoul?” he suggested. “Do you think he would milk them?” - -“Most certainly. And steal the milk, equally certainly,” Victor said. - -“I’ll ask him,” André decided. “Wait, _please_.” - -“I will wait.” - -Victor sat impatiently in the cart and polished his glasses while André -raced across the field. - -Ten minutes later André was back. Raoul had agreed. And La Fumée was -plodding steadily toward Ste. Mère and the clatter and shriek of -gunfire. Crouching under a blanket at André’s feet lay Patchou. - -The Gagnon house stood silently empty for the first time in weeks. - -About noon a black motorcycle rolled to a stop beside the Gagnon -pump. Marie, in dark slacks and a man’s cap similar to the driver’s, -dismounted. - -[Illustration] - -“The house looks empty, Leon,” she said, alarm in her voice. - -She pushed open the door and called, “André.” There was no answer as -she entered the empty hallway. - -Hurriedly, she ran through the house in a panic, and returned to the -door. - -“He isn’t here, Leon,” she cried. “The house is empty. Even Patchou is -gone.” - -Leon looked at her calmly. “Perhaps you are not the only adventurous -one in the family,” he laughed. - -Aghast at the thought of André wandering who knows where, Marie paused. - -“I did hope he had a letter from Maman telling us where the hospital -has moved to. And now I don’t even know what has happened to André,” -she cried. - -She looked wildly around the village. - -Darting between passing trucks she came to the Lescot kitchen. A few -minutes later she returned to Leon, breathless. - -“André has gone off toward St. Sauveur with Victor,” she explained. -“Perhaps we can catch up with them on the road to Pont l’Abbé. We must -hurry.” - -The black motorcycle shot off in the direction of Ste. Mère. - - - - -CHAPTER SIXTEEN - -_André into the Fighting_ - - -André’s trip with Victor was unexpectedly easy at the beginning. - -When they passed through Ste. Mère, the town seemed almost quiet, -although the litter and destruction on all sides were heartbreaking. - -Beyond the town, the roads were clogged. - -Victor was not challenged as they wove through marching troops and -rolling equipment. - -“That looks very unpleasant ahead of us,” Victor stated disapprovingly, -when they had crossed the Merderet River bridge. - -Shell bursts, dust and smoke hung over the once orderly fields and -patches of woods. Noises burst out loudly behind clumps of trees and -died away. - -Presently, Victor announced: “We proceed but a short distance farther -along this road. At an oak tree ahead we turn left to the village -where my daughter is.” - -It was then that André put forward his own plans. He watched Victor’s -look of shocked surprise anxiously. Suppose Victor would not let him go? - -“But,” Victor said, “you know I cannot accompany you into St. Sauveur -now. Surely you comprehend that!” - -André said firmly, “I did not expect it, Victor. I go on with Patchou -only. Captain Dobie is near here, so I won’t be alone.” - -Even as André said this, he began to doubt whether Captain Dobie -would welcome him. He also began to wonder whether he could find the -captain’s new post. - -As he and Victor drew nearer St. Sauveur, André began to notice that -the sound of firing came from many directions. He turned his eyes from -north to south and counted several rising pillars of smoke. Sometimes -the ground shuddered and rocked the cart. - -“It will not be easy to enter the city,” he thought. - -But after he and Victor had talked a minute, Victor agreed to let him -go. - -“However, you must use good sense,” Victor said, as André climbed down -from the cart. “Do not approach a single German, even if he looks -kindly. You must recall that not all Nazis are like our Papa Schmidt.” - -After this good advice, he added, “You are quite right to seek your -mother. I shall no doubt get along without you well enough.” - -With this, he clacked the reins and drove off. - -André and Patchou skirted the jumbled rubble that had once been the -village of Pont l’Abbé. They continued on through bypaths and across -fields. - -“If you stay close to me, you may walk,” André told Patchou. Patchou -trotted along obediently, his trembling shoulder pressed tightly -against André’s leg. - -André looked at the skyline ahead. As he stared, new blazes broke out. -Billowing smoke hung over St. Sauveur beyond the hills. After a moment -he realized that the city was being bombarded by big guns. - -“We may as well get as close to Maman as we can,” he murmured. “Come -along, Patchou.” He could see a file of soldiers, hugging the roadside -and straggling toward the city. - -He led Patchou into a cowpath and they trudged on. - -Twice André pulled Patchou down into a ditch as rifle and machine gun -fire broke out in near-by villages. - -After the second dive into a ditch, André sat thoughtfully silent. It -would be better to go back, he knew. But then he thought of his empty -house-- - -“Come on, Patchou,” he whispered. “When we get across the main road to -St. Sauveur, just over there, we will try to find somebody to tell us -how to find Maman in the hospital.” - -They scurried across the tree-lined highway. - -Where they crossed, the road seemed deserted. André could not see far -in any direction. Back in the fields a stone barn stood among shredded -trees below a hill. A château stood on the hilltop, almost hidden by -trees. - -Just as André looked up, a shell arched down from the sky a hundred -yards away. - -Before André could grab Patchou’s collar the explosion showered them -both with stones and mud. - -[Illustration] - -André reached wildly for Patchou and ran headlong with him into the -field toward the nearest building he could see--the stone barn. - -The blast of another shell threw André onto his face in a hail of -debris. And Patchou twisted with a wild jerk and broke away. - -André leaped to his feet, shrieking, “Patchou! Patchou!” - -But Patchou had disappeared! And while André called wildly, another -voice shouted, “Here, kid! Come here! The barn! Run, kid--_run_!” - -The scream of another “88” from the sky brought André to his senses. - -He saw a figure in the half-open door of the barn waving to him -frantically. - -André raced up to the entrance and threw himself into the arms of the -tall soldier who had called. The door banged shut and the bolt was -shot. Immediately a patter of machine-gun bullets rattled against the -broad iron hinges. The hail of bullets whined and thudded steadily. - -Another voice in the barn shouted angrily, “_Where_ are the -reinforcements, Lieutenant Ouvarski? Our ammo isn’t going to hold out -much longer.” - -The strong arms that had pulled André in set him on his feet, and he -caught a glimpse of a lieutenant’s shoulder bars. - -The lieutenant said gently, “It’s all right, boy. But what were you -doing in the battle area?” - -André could only gasp for breath. After a moment he stammered, “I--I -didn’t know I was so close to the line. Patchou? Can I get him soon?” - -The light, from broken places in the roof high overhead, was dim. André -caught glimpses of shadowy faces stationed at windows and small breaks -in the walls. Rifles cracked, and a bazooka at a far window flamed. - -“We’re in a German trap,” the lieutenant explained to André hastily. “I -sent out for help. I hope it comes. You get over in that manger, kid, -and keep down.” - -Then the lieutenant turned to shout orders and warnings to his men. -“Don’t show yourself above that window again, Donovan! You _want_ to -get hit?” - -“Two Heinies edgin’ around that wall,” screamed an unseen rifleman. -“Watch it, Lieutenant!” - -After a shattering fusilade of machine-gun fire against the old stone -walls, a sudden silence fell. And outside, a German voice called, “Do -you giff up, or do we take you, vun by vun?” - -Silence fell again. And then the bark of the lieutenant’s automatic. -Six rapid shots. - -“There’s your answer, Fritzie boy!” Lieutenant Ouvarski growled. - -The voice outside did not speak again. The lieutenant wiped his face on -the sleeve of his shirt. - -André thought, “I hope my mother and father and Marie are in a deep -stone cellar.” Then suddenly he was too tired to remember why he was -there. - -He did not even hear the corporal say, “What does old Dobie think he’s -doin’ about those reinforcements he promised? Sendin’ ’em by way of -Alaska?” - - - - -CHAPTER SEVENTEEN - -_Patchou on the Battlefield_ - - -A few minutes after André left Victor, Captain Dobie, Weller, their -colonel, and his aide were poring over a map. They were hidden under -trees, a mile and a half from the stone barn. - -They looked up every moment or two toward St. Sauveur. - -“Things are going along fine,” the colonel said. “The engineers have -got a rubber pontoon bridge over the Douve River, and troops are -crossing there already. They’ll have a steel one over the river for the -tanks to cross, in an hour or two.” - -Dobie nodded. “How soon do you think we’ll be sending our first patrols -into St. Sauveur?” he asked. - -“By sunset,” the colonel said. “As soon as the 9th gets the rest of -these towns around here cleaned up, we’ll send our fellows through. -How are those new lieutenants I sent you, Dobie?” - -Captain Dobie grinned. “Schoenfargle took forty-seven prisoners -yesterday. And Ouvarski’s squad took over a hundred. That answer your -question, Colonel?” - -The colonel laughed. But his aide suddenly held up a hand. “Wait -a second. SOS of some kind on the field telephone. Yes, yes ... I -get you. Yes. Ouvarski ... a dozen men. What? Trapped in a barn.... -Okay.... But where, man, _where_?” - -He saw the colonel reach out, and handed the phone to him. - -The colonel consulted the map and noted the position of the barn. After -a minute’s delay, he got a battery commander by radio. Calmly, he gave -the map location. - -“Have that stone barn boxed in by your guns,” he ordered. “Fire for -five minutes exactly--and then quit. We’ll have relief troops ready to -move in then.” - -He handed the phone to Weller. - -“I’m going down to the bridges now, Dobie,” he said. - -Captain Dobie looked white. “Ouvarski trapped,” he repeated. “Can we -spare enough men right now to get them out, sir?” - -The aide said, “Why not?” - -The colonel put a thin, dirty hand on Dobie’s arm. “You _know_ we’ll -get Ouvarski out. And my orders to you, sir, are to stay right here. -You have my authority to make your man, Slim, a sergeant. Send him in -command of the Ouvarski rescue bunch. Keep Weller with you. And _you_, -Dobie, in future, try not to be so all-fired brave.” - -The captain turned to catch Weller’s eye as the colonel marched across -the road to his own hidden jeep. - -“He sounds,” Dobie said, “a good deal like me talking to André, doesn’t -he?” - -But his smile was short. - -“So Slim’s a sergeant at last,” he said. “Get him on the radio. Tell -him to pick up fifteen or twenty men and we’ll meet him down the road.” - -“But Captain,” Weller exploded, “the colonel said--” - -“Ouvarski’s my lieutenant, and a brave one. It’s _my_ job to see that -he and his men get out alive,” Dobie snapped. - -“Okay, sir,” Weller said. “It’s me’ll get courtmartialed. But pay no -heed.” - -The jeep bounded and took to the road. - -A few moments later they met Slim with a truckload of men, and -instructed him to follow. They whirled past a château set on a hill, -with a scattering of cottages on its lower slopes. - -Weller tilted rapidly around high stone walls, and pulled up in the -shelter of a cottage near the château gates. - -“Can’t get any closer,” Weller said firmly. “Ouvarski must be in that -barn over there.” - -“We’ll stay here till the shelling that the colonel ordered is over,” -Dobie ordered. - -Slim had his men out of the truck and ready to move in. - -Without warning, from unseen guns, a barrage of shells circled the -barn. The men crouched near the jeep winced under the explosive -pressure on their ears. - -Captain Dobie had been watching his stopwatch. Five minutes later he -said, “All right, Slim, shelling’s over. Fan your men out, and take -those Nazis in.” - -The new sergeant and his men moved rapidly ahead, skirting the cottage -wall. - -They had just disappeared around the corner when Dobie cried sharply, -“What in the name of--” - -Weller had sprung headlong from the jeep and lunged at a sunken doorway. - -A moment later he returned, breathing hard, with a dog in his arms. - -“_Patchou!_” Dobie shouted. - -Weller, his face tilted away from Patchou’s loving tongue and -scrambling paws, pitched the dog into Captain Dobie’s lap. - -“If this means what I think it means,” he puffed rapidly, “André’s -somewheres about. Maybe you can figure it out, sir....” - -Without waiting, he was gone, clanking with grenades, his head lowered -between determined shoulders. - -Straining forward in the jeep, Captain Dobie sat raging at his -helplessness. He knew he would be useless in the field. He could barely -walk. But every rifle crack, every grenade explosion sent his blood -boiling. To think of André exposed to all this was a maddening extra -anxiety. - -He kept a hand on Patchou, who was torn between the joy of reunion with -an old friend, and terror. - -Dobie smoothed his fur absently while he directed his binoculars -toward the heavy firing about the barn. He could not see much that was -happening, because of the cottage wall, and stared around the fields. -“If André’ll only keep under cover till this shooting stops,” Dobie -thought. - -He stiffened at the smell of timbers burning, and looked back to the -barn quickly. - -Slim appeared around the corner of the cottage and ran up toward Dobie. - -“Cap’n,” he panted. “More--” He stopped and stared wildly. “What’s that -dawg! That ain’t--_It is_ Patchou! Well, for cryin’ out--” - -“_More what?_” the captain snapped. - -“More trouble, Cap’n. The barn’s afire in one corner. An’ we ain’t got -half the Germans yet. They’re hid everywhere. If Ouvarski and the men -have to make a break for it, there’s still enough Nazis to pick ’em all -off.” - -Dobie reached for the radio switch. Turning to Slim, he barked -instructions. - -“I’ll order smoke shells to cover their escape. Go out there and warn -the men to pull back a little. Where’s Weller?” - -Slim poised on one foot to answer. - -“He’s fightin’ mad--an’ he’s fightin’ good.” - -He disappeared into a thicket to carry out the captain’s order. Dobie -spoke rapidly into the radio and then signed off. - -For a while he sat listening, and watching the smoke billow high above -a gable of the barn. - -He heard loud, sputtered German orders. Then came renewed rifle bursts, -and a grenade exploded near by. - -Just before the outburst, Patchou gave a high, excited yelp and leaped -from the jeep. - -“Patchou!” Captain Dobie shouted furiously. “Come here, boy. _Patchou!_” - -The dog streaked, with flying tail, back toward the château gates, -stretched to his utmost to cover ground. - -With piercing yelps of delight he jumped into the arms of a girl. She -had turned at his barking and then suddenly run to meet him. - -Captain Dobie regarded the slim figure with amazement. Slacks, army -jacket, man’s cap from which soft black hair like André’s escaped. And -the same gray-blue eyes. - -A flash of enlightenment burst over Dobie. - -Irritated to fury, he muttered, “Jumping Jehosophat! Now we have -_Marie_ Gagnon!” - -[Illustration] - - - - -CHAPTER EIGHTEEN - -_The Secret Tunnel_ - - -Captain Dobie’s heart and thoughts were with the men under his command. -Beyond that, he was desperately aware of great armies fighting a hard -battle near by. - -Seeing Marie here, knowing André was also in the battle area, he -thought angrily, “This is too much.” - -“Ma’moiselle,” he shouted, “this is no place for you. Find cover -immediately!” - -Marie looked up. “You do not understand,” she said. “This dog belongs -to my brother. André must be here somewhere. Patchou couldn’t get this -far alone.” - -“I _do_ know,” replied the captain. “Get under that gateway -quickly--and _hold_ that dog.” - -When Marie crouched under the arch, he explained quickly how he had -come to know André. - -Marie said nervously, “You haven’t seen him?” - -“No! Since I left your home, I have not.” The captain’s voice was sharp -with anxiety. “And I haven’t time to look for him now. My men are in -that burning barn with Germans all around it. I’ve ordered covering -smoke shells dropped to help them escape. And I can’t understand what’s -held the shells up.” - -He hesitated. Looking with deep concern at Marie, he spoke more -gruffly. “I’m just afraid there’s a good chance André may be in that -barn.” - -Marie ran out a step or two and pointed. - -“In _that_ barn?” she cried. “Oh! I can get him out then. Come, -Patchou!” - -Captain Dobie stood up and shouted, but Marie and Patchou had -disappeared through the cottage door--not across the field. - -Captain Dobie sank back, fuming. The flames were spreading across the -barn roof. He switched on the radio and waited irritably. When there -was no response, he reached back into the jeep for grenades which he -hooked into his belt. - -He had just grasped his gun firmly, and gingerly lowered a leg to the -ground, when Patchou barked and wriggled out of the cottage door. - -At the same instant Slim came around the garden wall and stopped in his -tracks, staring at the doorway. - -“Ouvarski!” he shouted and then, “_André!_” - -Captain Dobie’s head snapped toward the cottage. - -A tall officer stood behind Patchou, and with him was André. - -Behind Lieutenant Ouvarski and André straggled several dusty, -smoke-blackened men. They moved a few steps forward. - -Ouvarski steadied himself against a stone pillar. Marie and two of the -men eased a wounded soldier they were carrying, to the ground. - -“Captain,” Ouvarski said hoarsely, “can you get medics? Three -wounded--one badly.” - -Captain Dobie swallowed hard. “Is that all?” - -“All others accounted for, sir,” Ouvarski reported. “No worse.” - -“Not any of you are accounted for,” the captain growled. “How did you -get _here_? I thought you were in that blasted barn.” - -Slim gasped as Marie, finished with making her patient more easy, -walked forward. - -Ouvarski simply threw out a hand toward Marie, and said, “She led us -out.” - -Marie walked up to Captain Dobie. - -“There’s a tunnel to the barn from this gardener’s cottage, sir,” -she explained. “I didn’t have time to tell you before. The tunnel is -old, but it is open. The Maquis have been using it for months, partly -for wounded men. The barn was our headquarters. We just moved out -yesterday.” - -[Illustration: _Marie came up through the old tunnel_] - -Captain Dobie nodded, speechless with relief. He pushed back his -helmet, mopped his forehead, and switched on the radio. “I’ll cancel -those smoke shells,” he muttered. - -At that moment the air overhead whined ominously. A curtain of shells -fell around the barn and exploded. A dense pall of white smoke drifted -across the field. - -“Where’s Weller?” the captain asked Slim. “And what about the Nazis -still around that barn?” - -He was interrupted by grenade and rifle fire and the thrashing of men -breaking through shrubbery. - -“Watch it!” Weller’s voice rang above the din. - -The shooting stopped suddenly, and German and American voices mingled. - -Captain Dobie listened a moment, smiled, and switched on the radio. - -“Thanks for the smoke shells,” he said into the receiver. He switched -through to his command post. “Say, send along a couple of trucks for -prisoners. And a medic and ambulance. At least three wounded here--one -pretty bad.” - -He turned back to the others. - -“Well, Ouvarski,” he said pleasantly, “I certainly sent you into -something. Headquarters said positively no Germans left in this area.” - -“They came out of this château and we had to take cover in the barn, -sir,” Ouvarski said. - -“Take it easy,” Dobie said, “all of you, till the trucks get here. -Sergeant! What ails _you_?” - -Weller limped into sight along the wall. - -“We’ve about cleaned ’em all out--finally,” he grinned. - -Dobie frowned. “But what happened to you?” - -“Got myself a bullet.” Weller’s smile broadened and turned into a -grimace of pain. - -“I thought I told you to stay away from those Germans,” Dobie barked. - -Weller limped painfully to the jeep and Slim spun him gently around and -into the back seat. - -“You sure did, sir,” Weller said. “But you forgot to tell them Germans -to keep away from me.” - -[Illustration] - -Not far behind Weller, a line of Nazi prisoners were coming across the -field, hands on head. With them, on each side, strode Americans with -Tommy guns ready. - -Marie was examining the injury to Weller’s leg. - -“That bullet will have to be taken out,” she said. “It’s not in very -deep. It won’t hurt much.” - -“It’s gonna stay right there,” Weller said. “It’s probably the only -proof I’ll have to show my kids I was ever in this war.” - -André had been saying, “Sir,” at intervals. But he had trouble saying -it loud enough to make the captain hear. - -When the prisoners had been herded together under guard a little -distance away, Captain Dobie sank back in his seat and smiled down. - -“André,” he said, “I’m too glad to see you alive to tell you what I -ought to.” - -André felt his face grow red. “I wanted to try to get my father and -mother home.” - -“It would have been simpler for all of us if you had waited,” replied -the captain. - -“I couldn’t, sir,” André said staunchly. - -“If Patchou hadn’t been here, Captain,” Marie said, “I might have -missed André. It was Patchou who found _me_.” - -The dog, at the sound of his name, tossed up his head. Then he sniffed -deeply, and whirled in the direction of the château gates, paused a -brief second, and shot away at an excited gallop. - -Captain Dobie could only say, “_Now_ what?” - - - - -CHAPTER NINETEEN - -_The 82nd Finishes Its Fight_ - - -The building which had housed the patients from the St. Sauveur -hospital for a week was being emptied hastily. - -A plump older nurse was helping the sick who could walk. Hurrying them -into their wraps, she bustled them out to a line of waiting, ancient -cars. - -Doctors were aiding the more helpless patients. - -All of them froze like statues when a shell crashed near by. - -“Since dawn,” scolded the nurse, “this racket has been going on. Now, -one foot up into the car, dear. Now the other. That’s my good girl. -_Bon voyage._” - -The last to leave were the Gagnons. Pierre walked slowly toward the -door with his arm around Mme. Gagnon. She moved stiffly, but without -pain. - -At the door a doctor smiled at them. - -“Do not worry about madame, M. Gagnon,” he said. “She is greatly -improved. I expect no more difficulties for her.” - -“_Merci_, doctor,” Pierre replied gruffly. - -The doctor peered around the door. “I see that M. Angell is waiting for -you in his car. I’m sure you will find his house a fortress of safety.” - -His words were drowned in the shriek and explosion of a second shell, -and the rending crash of roof timbers. The blast hurtled the three of -them into a corner. A shower of falling lath and plaster filled the -room. - -The doctor and Pierre pulled Mme. Gagnon to her feet. - -From outside, the desperate voice of the car driver shrieked, “Hurry, -doctor! Come at once! I do not intend to wait till another explosion -hits my car.” - -Mme. Gagnon shook herself and with great dignity stated firmly, “I can -walk. Observe your own step, Pierre. You, also, doctor.” - -She crossed the shattered porch and went down the steps. Pierre and the -doctor raced to help her into the conveyance. - -At the slam of the door, M. Angell was prepared, and the car leaped -forward through the gates and into the lane. - -Pierre gasped for breath. “I hope your home is safe,” he said hoarsely. - -“No place is safe today,” the driver retorted over his shoulder, -swinging the battered old car expertly around curves. - -Braced as well as she could manage, Mme. Gagnon looked out with horror -on the countryside. - -“My son and my daughter!” she cried. “Could they exist through such -warfare as this? I must know, Pierre. It is worse than I imagined.” - -The doctor spoke soothingly, but broke off to shout, “Angell. Watch -yourself!” - -A soldier had stepped out from the shelter of a ditch with upraised -hand. “You must detour,” he said in French. “This lane and the road -beyond are mined.” He pointed to one side. “Those fields are safe.” - -M. Angell muttered and nosed the car cautiously into the pasture. -Circling shell holes, rocking over hummocks, he steered toward a -shallow depression some distance ahead. After that he forced the car up -a rise. - -As they neared the top, the sound of machine guns and rifle fire, which -had been muffled, seemed to explode all around them. - -M. Angell brought the steaming car to a stop. He surveyed the landscape -on all sides. - -After a moment he said, “If you will be kind enough to alight, I shall -lead you to safety--but on your own feet. We must abandon this vehicle -to the mercies of Heaven.” - -Mme. Gagnon said to the doctor, “It is cause for rejoicing, doctor, -that your cure was successful and I _can_ walk. Stop frowning, Pierre. -Each step I take leads toward home.” - -“At the moment,” snapped M. Angell, “our steps lead down that slope -on the left, toward those cottages. That path,” and he pointed to the -château, “leads to my house, but firing of considerable intensity is -going on there.” - -[Illustration] - -A tremendous salvo of shells interrupted. Dense white smoke rolled -over the hill and drifted through the trees lining the driveway to the -château. - -“It sounds as though we were moving directly into the middle of a -battle,” Mme. Gagnon said. - -M. Angell raised his head. “There is a skirmish there on the other side -of the hill, which I do not understand,” he said. - -Pierre Gagnon stared around. - -At a fresh outbreak of gunfire Mme. Gagnon begged him to lower himself. - -But Pierre’s eyes were fixed wildly on a point near the cottages. His -mouth dropped open and closed again excitedly. - -“Maman!” he gasped. “Patchou! I see Patchou!” - -The doctor and M. Angell turned to him in alarm. - -Mme. Gagnon stood up. “I do not see Patchou,” she cried. “But if he is -here, certainly André must be near.” - -Suddenly the vague noises broke into a noisy scuffle on the rocky, -brush-covered knoll above them. German and American voices rang out -angrily. - -“It is unbearable!” Mme. Gagnon cried. “I must find André!” - -She broke and ran. - -Pierre gave a lunge. He caught his wife’s sleeve and was about to pull -her to the ground when a racing dog, like a tornado, streaked up the -slope. - -Patchou danced to Pierre and then to Mme. Gagnon, lathering their hands -in rapturous welcome, yelping shrilly. - -An American soldier, his shoulders sagging with fatigue, came out of -the underbrush. He frowned at the group. “What’re you folks doing out -here?” he demanded. “You better come along with me.” - -The doctor--the only one of the Normans who understood English--said, -“Yes. Most certainly we do not wish to stay here.” - -The American started down the slope. Mme. Gagnon and Pierre, attended -by the two other men, followed. - -“But Pierre,” Mme. Gagnon protested, “why do we follow them? Did -Patchou come this way?” - -Patchou answered this by tearing ahead with great purpose. - -“You see,” said Pierre. - -At the foot of the slope the American pushed his way through a break in -the hawthornes. At his heels, M. Angell and the doctor gallantly pulled -the bushes apart for Mme. Gagnon. - -She took a step forward and stood still, a hand clasped to her heart. - -Not twenty feet away, standing near a jeep and a cluster of soldiers, -were André and Marie. - -At the same instant André and Marie saw her. And André hurled himself -toward his mother. - -“I knew I would find you!” he cried. “I _knew_!” - -Marie and Pierre drew into the family embrace. - -Slim and Weller turned to catch each other’s eye. “The kid done it,” -Weller said. - -Slim sighed. “I shore wish I had that trumpet now,” he said. “I feel -awful sentimental.” - -Captain Dobie sat back and smoked, watching the happy reunion of the -Gagnon family. - -When the doctor and M. Angell left to start up the hill Marie broke -away from the family to run after them. - -“Oh, Monsieur Angell,” she called, “I must tell you how sorry I am your -barn was burned. It was so useful to the Maquis. We are grateful to you -for letting us use it.” - -“It is nothing,” M. Angell replied courteously. “It was for France. -However, if you will accept advice from a stranger, I suggest that you -now return home with your mother.” - -Marie smiled. “I quite agree with you, M’sieur.” - -Within a few minutes, trucks and ambulances drew up. The wounded, both -American and German, were cared for and taken away. - -[Illustration] - -Weller and Captain Dobie resisted the suggestions of the medics to go -back in the ambulance. - -“We don’t want no pamperin’,” Weller said shortly. “I’m only nicked, -anyway.” - -The fighting squads clambered aboard trucks to return to the St. -Sauveur front. - -The captain leaned from the jeep to talk more easily with Mme. Gagnon -and Pierre. - -The radio in the car squawked insistently. - -“Answer that signal, will you, Weller?” Captain Dobie said. - -Weller snapped a switch, said, “Okay, Colonel,” and gave his report on -Ouvarski’s rescue. - -Then he listened a few minutes and exclaimed, “Yes, Colonel ... I’ll -tell the cap’n. Sure will.” - -Captain Dobie had stopped talking to listen to Weller. - -André asked curiously, “Good news?” - -Weller almost shouted, “Our armies are cleanin’ up St. Sauveur, and the -47th’re movin’ on past--headin’ for the coast an’ then Cherbourg.” - -“Good,” said Dobie. “Is that all?” - -“Nope.” Weller grinned. “The colonel says the 82nd won’t be goin’ on -to Cherbourg with the 9th Division. We’re ordered to take the marshy -country south of St. Sauveur. _An’ after that we’ll get relieved._” - -“The 82nd will be out of the war?” Dobie asked. - -“Every bloomin’ man of us,” Weller replied. “An’ that means you, too, -Cap’n.” - -Slim winked at André. “I guess that means you, too, kid,” he said. - -Captain Dobie rubbed his hand across his eyes, and said, “After over -two weeks of steady fighting I guess the 82nd deserves a rest. Well, -give me that phone, Weller.” - -When he had finished his call he said to Pierre, “I have sent for a -jeep to take you home, M. Gagnon. Do you think you can hang onto André -till the jeep gets here?” - -Pierre threw back his head in his great, bellowing laugh. “I think so, -_mon Capitaine_,” he roared. - -“Never mind, kid,” Weller said. “I promise you we’ll be back. We’ll see -you in a week’r two. You just save us some of that good fresh milk.” - -Pierre clapped his hand to his head and glared at André. - -“_Mon Dieu!_” he shouted. “The cows!” - - - - -CHAPTER TWENTY - -_Bastille Day--1944_ - - -That night, lights glowed in the Gagnon house. In spite of the blustery -cold wind and drifts of rain, the door stood open most of the evening. - -Friends came, laughing, crying, chattering greetings and news. Children -came to ask André questions and stand with open mouths at what he had -to say. - -Marie brought cups of hot chocolate and black bread. Mme. Lescot -supplied some small cakes. - -Leon Duplis rode over to tell Marie that General de Gaulle, who -commanded the Maquis from London, was now touring the liberated towns -of Normandy. - -“The French Army will soon join the fight to free our country,” Leon -whispered to Marie. “They will enter France from the Mediterranean. -But do not tell anyone yet I said so.” And with that he was on his -motor bike and gone. - -On the road outside, traffic was coming up from the beach, but in -smaller convoys. “The sea is getting very rough,” someone reported. - -By midnight all the guests had gone and the whole family were in -bed--really home at last. - -André went out to the road many times the next few days to look for -friends on the army trucks and jeeps rolling by. On the third day, -a messenger from St. Sauveur, on his way to the supply dumps on the -beach, stopped to talk. - -“We got the peninsula cut off now,” he reported. “The 9th Division an’ -the 79th an’ the 4th Division are on their way to Cherbourg. Goin’ -fast, too.” - -Captain Dobie’s men were still fighting for the marshes and some hills -west and south of St. Sauveur, he said. - -The storm over the Channel had built up to an alarming degree. Rain and -wind whipped the trees along the coast and drove the villagers indoors. -Traffic past the house slowed almost to a stop. - -When André asked a truck driver what was happening on the beaches, -the driver said, “A blasted hurricane. The sea is standin’ on end. No -landin’ barges can get ashore. Pretty bad, ’cause General Bradley’s -howlin’ for ammunition.” - -Frenchmen coming to the village from the shore said tons of supplies -had been swept away and sunk. - -The storm raged for four days, and André went sadly about his duties -watching the road now nearly empty of trucks. - -Two days after the storm subsided, André heard that General Eisenhower -had ferried across the Channel to look over the destruction. - -“He’ll talk to them army engineers an’ get deliveries speeded up--or -else,” a soldier said. - -But the Americans were driving hard to capture Cherbourg. They needed -the port more than ever since the storm had stopped supplies coming -across the beaches. - -On June 28th, Leon came, and shouted through the door, “André! Marie! -_Cherbourg has fallen._ Normandy belongs to us again!” - -Then, on D-day plus 29--four weeks after the 82nd paratroopers had -first drifted down into the Gagnon orchard--Slim clattered up in a jeep. - -André saw him from the hallway and raced out to grab his hand and pump -it up and down--as the soldiers did. He asked, “Where are Captain Dobie -and Sergeant Weller? Has the 82nd been relieved? Did you win your -battle?” - -“What you mean, mister?” Slim growled. “Did we win our battle? The 82nd -always wins its battles--Africa, Sicily, Normandy. You know that.” - -André took Slim into the house to see the rest of the family. He -translated Slim’s “American” as well as he could for his father and -mother. - -“This is my last errand this way,” Slim told them. “I’m on my way to -the Utah airstrip to fix the cap’n’s passage home.” - -Before he left, he promised to bring Weller and the captain to see them -on the way to the plane. - -The storm had at last blown itself out, and traffic on the road was -again heavy. Now the Allies were getting ready to break through to -Paris--to free the rest of France. The British and Canadians were -fighting hard around Caen. The Germans were bringing up more and more -tanks--better in some ways than the British and American ones--and -the battle was rough. But the Invasion armies were moving toward the -breakout into the farther parts of France. The spirit of Liberty swept -slowly but excitedly across all Normandy. - -July 14th, Bastille Day, which was the symbol of French Liberty, would -soon be here. - -“This year we will celebrate Bastille Day with good heart,” said M. -Blanc to Father Duprey. - -And Father Duprey, who was very practical, asked, “How?” - -“Ah, that I have thought about,” M. Blanc answered. “And I have a -plan for our little village. Alone, we cannot do justice to such a -great event as this Liberation. We will join with Ste. Mère Église -to celebrate. We are not without talent in this village.” He looked -mysterious and whispered his plans to the priest, so that no one could -overhear. - -When they had finished their discussion, Father Duprey said, “Your plan -will also keep the children out of the fields till the German land -mines have been cleared up.” - -The following few days there was a great hubbub in the loft of the -Gagnon barn. Children’s voices rang out. And music billowed over the -rooftops. - -Early one morning, Father Duprey summoned André. Victor appeared -with his cart, and with the priest and André jogged off, behaving -mysteriously, to talk to the mayor of Ste. Mère Église. - -Bastille Day, Friday, July 14th, was the next day. By sunrise that -morning all the little villages near Ste. Mère were alive with activity. - -Mothers bustled breakfast into their families and packed up lunch -baskets. Older sisters swept the family’s best clothes, all nicely -aired, over the heads of the younger children. Then mothers and big -sisters pulled and twisted themselves into their own gayest Normandy -dresses. Fathers put on the dark suits they had been married in. - -And all over the peninsula the French tricolor flags, which had been -hidden away, flew in great flapping bursts of triumph from every house. - -All churchbells that had survived the bombing began to ring soon after -the sun was up. - -In the Gagnon house, Maman was scurrying about, her own silk dress -rustling as excitedly as she was. Marie, too, rustled in her new -pale-yellow parachute gown. - -Old cars had been rolled out of sheds where they had been hidden, and -somehow brought to life. They began to ease into the busy military -traffic and headed for Ste. Mère. Carts, bright with flags and flowers, -and loaded with chattering villagers, thronged the roads. - -Father Duprey and M. Blanc had gone to Ste. Mère still earlier in a -borrowed car. - -In good time, Victor, Mme. Lescot, and their daughter showed up at the -Gagnon door with La Fumée. The fat Percheron whinnied when André led -the family out to jam themselves into the cart. - -When La Fumée entered the outskirts of Ste. Mère the town was already -aflame with a noisy celebration. - -Victor found a spot where La Fumée could be hitched to a post with a -pail of water beside her. - -In the heart of Ste. Mère Église the square was a churning mass of -people. But in a cleared space in the center of the green, officials -and police were arranging things in an orderly way. There was a -flag-draped table on a raised platform, and rows of chairs for special -personages stood in a square. - -At one side of the table, dignitaries were gathering. At the other -side, M. Blanc and the Ste. Mère music master were herding the children -who were to sing, into neat rows. - -Running to join the children, André saw uniformed French officers in -a group among the dignitaries. All eyes were upon them. Farther back -stood a company of about a hundred American soldiers. - -Marie went to join Leon, Jacquard, and the other Maquis who had been -able to come. - -When the hour for opening the ceremonies arrived, Father Duprey and two -other priests moved to the table for prayers of thanksgiving. - -Then the mayor of Ste. Mère, and the mayors of other villages made -speeches. These over, the music master blew his pitch pipe and M. Blanc -raised his arm to give the beat for the singing. High and clear, the -children’s voices sang out the beloved old songs of triumphant France. - -When the last song died away the children settled down on the grass, -and M. Blanc rose. - -“We are now about to have a special pleasure,” he announced. “André -Gagnon will express the feeling of comradeship we all have for our -friends, the Americans.” - -André had been carefully carrying his trumpet under his arm. His knees -shaking, he stepped forward and put the trumpet to his lips. - -He played first a gay little Normandy tune. This was loudly applauded -and he waited for the noise to die down. - -When he again trilled out a trumpet call, every Frenchman present grew -silent and listened with puzzled eyes. The tune was one they didn’t -know. - -Suddenly, from the back of the crowd, men’s voices began to sing the -words. - -André’s heart gave a great leap. But he kept on playing. The voices -were growing louder. The men were moving toward the green. - -André swept into the chorus, and powerfully the American words, -punctuated by clapping hands at the proper time, swelled out over the -crowd. - -A French voice took up the words. Another and another, until the entire -gathering was singing. - -Many of the Americans stood beside André now, and Slim, his hard hands -beating the clap-clap of the chorus, sang the loudest. - -“_Deep in ze ’eart ohff Tayxsas_,” sang the French. - -“_Stars at night are big and bright,_ (clap-clap, clap-clap,) _Deep in -the heart of Texas,_ - -_Remind me of the one I love,_ (clap-clap, clap-clap) _Deep in the -heart of Texas,_” - -sang Slim and Weller and Captain Dobie, dragging out the last long -notes at the thought of home. - -[Illustration] - -André dropped his trumpet to his side. - -As the babble of happy voices rose and became bedlam, Captain Dobie -shook hands with the French officers. - -André started at the sight of a Royal Air Force uniform and ran across -the square. - -Standing beside Marie, Ronald Pitt was laughing with the Maquis over -the escapade of the strange “nun.” - -Ronald grabbed André’s arms and swung him merrily around. - -“How did _you_ get here, Ronald?” André asked. - -“Well,” Ronald replied, “I’m on my way to the British lines to -chauffeur a general around--” - -“Oh-ohh,” André giggled. - -“I saw this celebration going on down here,” Ronald Pitt went on, “and -I wanted to see what was happening in Ste. Mère. So I landed in a field -and trotted over--and look what I found!” - -Slim and Weller joined them then. - -“Didn’t we tell you we’d come?” demanded Weller. - -Softly, a song began to tremble from different points among the crowd. - -André lifted his trumpet and began to play. - -And swelling mightily over the battered roofs of Ste. Mère rolled out -the song of freedom that is the voice of France--the “Marseillaise.” - -Everyone sang and many wept. - -After that, the gathering broke up and lunch baskets were opened. Mme. -Gagnon beckoned her enlarged family party together under the shade of -a wide chestnut tree. Lunch was spread out. Between them, she and Mme. -Lescot had brought food enough for all. - -Captain Dobie and André sat side by side. - -“You will return to visit us after the war?” André asked shyly. - -“I certainly will,” promised the captain. “I shall come back whenever I -can. I won’t be comfortable unless I know what you’re up to.” - -André laughed. “And,” he said, “I shall go to America some day to see -that you have got that leg mended.” - -“_Vive les Americains!_” shouted Raoul, who had mysteriously become one -of the group. - -“_Vive la French!_” shouted Weller. - -La Fumée heard them, and put her muzzle down comfortably into the water -pail. - - - - -_About the Author_ - -Clayton Knight was born in Rochester, New York, and grew up just in -time to become an airplane pilot with the famed Lafayette Escadrille -in World War I. He also had a box seat for World War II in which he -served in every important theater of war as an Associated Press special -correspondent. His lifelong, active interest in aviation has earned him -many honors and taken him to almost every corner of the earth, most -recently on a round-the-world trip collecting material for an official -history of the Military Air Transport Service. It has also provided -him with fascinating material for a distinguished list of books and -magazine stories that have made him well known both to young people and -adults, not only as an author but an artist of uncommon distinction. - - -_About the Historical Consultant_ - -Few experts are as well qualified as MAJOR GENERAL RALPH ROYCE to -pass on the merits of a book about the Normandy invasion. As Deputy -Commander of the Ninth Air Force, he was the senior air officer afloat -during the invasion of France and served aboard the cruiser _Augusta_ -with Admiral Kirk and General Bradley. He accompanied General Bradley -to shore at Utah Beach and, in the days that followed, reconnoitered -the surrounding country very thoroughly, visiting many of the towns -mentioned in this book. In General Royce’s words, “Mr. Knight’s book -brings back very vividly the life that we lived during those hectic and -exciting days in June, 1944, and portrays extremely well the life of -the countryside during those early hours of the invasion that led to -the freeing of France from the yoke of the invader.” - - - - -_WE WERE THERE BOOKS_ - - -1. WE WERE THERE ON THE OREGON TRAIL - - By WILLIAM O. STEELE - Historical Consultant: PROFESSOR RAY W. IRWIN - _Illustrated by_ JO POLSENO - -2. WE WERE THERE AT THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG - - By ALIDA SIMS MALKUS - Historical Consultant: EARL S. MIERS - _Illustrated by_ LEONARD VOSBURGH - -3. WE WERE THERE AT THE BOSTON TEA PARTY - - By ROBERT N. WEBB - Historical Consultant: PROFESSOR LOUIS L. SNYDER - _Illustrated by_ E. F. WARD - -4. WE WERE THERE WITH BYRD AT THE SOUTH POLE - - By CHARLES S. STRONG - Historical Consultant: COLONEL BERNT BALCHEN, U.S.A.F. - _Illustrated by_ GRAHAM KAYE - -5. WE WERE THERE AT THE NORMANDY INVASION - - By CLAYTON KNIGHT - Historical Consultant: MAJOR GENERAL RALPH ROYCE, U.S.A.F., RETIRED - _Illustrated by the Author_ - -6. WE WERE THERE IN THE KLONDIKE GOLD RUSH - - By BENJAMIN APPEL - Historical Consultant: COLONEL HENRY W. CLARK, U.S.A., RETIRED - _Illustrated by_ IRV DOCKTOR - - -_In Preparation_ - -7. WE WERE THERE WITH THE PONY EXPRESS - - By WILLIAM O. STEELE - _Illustrated by_ FRANK VAUGHN - -8. WE WERE THERE WITH THE MAYFLOWER PILGRIMS - - By ROBERT N. WEBB - _Illustrated by_ CHARLES ANDRES - - - - -TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES: - - - Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_. - - Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. - - Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WE WERE THERE AT THE NORMANDY -INVASION *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. 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