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17 - We Were There at the Normandy Invasion by Clayton Knight · We Were There at the Normandy Invasion

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: A few minutes after Andre left, Victor Captain Dobe Weller,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: their colonel and his aide were pouring over a map.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: They were hidden under trees a mile and a half
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: from the Stone Barn. They looked up every moment or
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: two towards Saint Severe. Things are going to long find,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: the colonel said. The engineers have got a rubber pontoon
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: bridge over the door of river, and troops are crossing
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: there already. They'll have a steel one up over the
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: river for tanks to cross in an hour or two.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Dobe nodded. How soon do you think we'll be sending
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: our first patrol into San Severe? He asked my sunset?
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: The colonel said, as soon as the ninth gets the
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: rest of these towns round here cleaned up. Was send
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: our fellows through? How are those new lieutenants I sent you, Toby?
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Captain Doby grinned Sean Fardo took forty seven prisoners yesterday
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: and Ovarski squad took over one hundred. That answer question, Colonel.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: The colonel laughed, but his aid suddenly held up a hand.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Wait a seconds, I'm kind on the field telephone. Yes, yes,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: I get you, Yes, Ovarski a dozen men. What trapped
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: in a barn? Okay? But where man? Where? He saw
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: the colonel reach out and handed the phone to him.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: The colonel consulted the map and noted the position of
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: the barn. After minutes delay, he got a battery commander
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: by radio. Calmly, he gave them application, have that stone
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: barn boxed in by your guns. He ordered fire for
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: five minutes exactly and then quit. We'll have relief troops
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: ready to move in. Then he handed the phone to Weller.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: I'm going down to the bridges now, Adobe, he said.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Captain Doby looked white. Ovaisky trapped, He repeated, Can we
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: spare enough man right now to get them out? Sir?
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: He said? Why not? The colonel put a thin, dirty
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: hand on Toby's arm. You know we'll get Ovarski out,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: and my orders to you, sir, are to stay right here.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: You have my authority to make your man slim a sergeant,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: send him in command of the Uvarski rescue lunch. Keep
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: weather with you, and you dobe in future, try not
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: to be so all fired, brave. The captain turned to
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: catch Weller's eye as the colonel marched across the road
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: to his own hidden cheep. That sounds, Dobe said, a
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: good deal like me talking Andre, doesn't it. But his
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: smile was short. So Slim's a sergeant at last. Get
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: him on the radio, tell him to pick up fifteen
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: or twenty men, and we'll meet him down at the road.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: But Captain Weller exploded. The colonel said, Alvarsky's mi lieutenant
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: and a brave when it's my job to see that
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: he and these men get out alive. Dobe snapped, okay, Sir,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Weller said, it's meal. Get court martialed, but painal heed.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: The jeep bounded and took to the road. A few
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: moments later, they met Slim with a truckload of men
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: and instructed him to follow. The whirl passed the chateau,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: set on a hill with a scattering of cottages on
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: his lower slopes. Weller tilted rapidly around high stone walls
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: and pulled up in the shelter of the cottage near
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: the chateau gates. We can't get any closer, Weller said firmly.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Havarski must be in that barn over there. We'll stay
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: here till the shelling that the Colonel ordered is over.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Dobe ordered, Slim had his men out of the truck
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: and ready to move in without warning from unseen guns.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: A mirage of shells circled the barn. The men crouched
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: near the jeep winced under the explosive pressure in their ears.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: Captain Doby had been watching his stopwatch. Five minutes later
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: he said, all right, Slim, shelling's over. Fan your men
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: out and take those Nazis in the new sergeant and
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: his men moved rapidly, head skirting the cottage wall. They
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: had just disappeared around the corner when Doby cried sharply,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: what in the name of Weller had sprung headlong from
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: the cheap and lunged at his southern doorway. A moment
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: later he returned, breathing hard with the dog Andy's arms.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Bat you, Doby shouted, Weller, his face tilted away from
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Plachou's loving tongue and scrambling paws pitched the dog into
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Captain Dobe's lap. If this means what I think it means,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: he puffed rapidly. Andrea somewhere is about Maybe you could
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: figure it out, sir. Without waiting, he was gone, clanking
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: with grenades. His head lowered between determined shoulders, straining forward
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: in the jeep, Captain Dobe sat raging at his helplessness.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: He knew he'd be useless in the field. He could
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: barely walk, but every rifle crack, every grenade explosion sent
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: his blood boiling. To think of Andrea exposed to all
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: this was a maddening extra anxiety. He kept a hand
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: on Pachu, who was torn between the joyed reunion with
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: an old friend and terror. Dobe smoothed his fur absently
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: while he directed his binoculars toward the heavy firing about
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: the barn. He could not see much that was happening
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: because of the cottage wall, and stared around the fields.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: If Andrea'll only keep under cover till the shooting stops,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: Dobe thought. He stiffened at the smell of timbers burning
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: and looked back to the barn. Quickly, Slim appeared around
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: the corner of the cottage. He ran up toward Dobe.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: Cap'n he's panted more. He stopped and stirred wildly, what's
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: that now? It ain't it is patchu Well for crying
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: out loud more wet, the captain snapped more travel cap'n
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: the Barn's a fire in one corner, and we ain't
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: got half the Germans yet. They hid everywhere. If Ovaski
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: and his men have to make a break for it,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: there's still enough Nazis to pick them all off. Dobe
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: reached for the radio switch. Turning to Slim, he barked instructions,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: I'll order smoke shells to cover their escape. Get out
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: there and warn the men to pull back a little.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: Where's weller? Slim poised one foot to another. He's fighting
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: mad and he's fighting good. He disappeared into a thicket.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: To carry out the captain's order, Doby spoke rapidly into
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: the radio and then signed off. For a while, he
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: sat listening and watching the smoke billow high above the
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: gable of the barn, he heard loud sputtered German orders.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: Then came new rifle bursts, and a grenade exploded nearby.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: Just before the outburst, Pachu gave a high, excited yelp
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: and leaped from the jeep. Pachu, Captain Dobe shouted furiously,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: come here, boy, Pachu. The dog streaked with flying tail
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: back toward the chateau gates, stretched to his utmost to
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: cover ground with pursing yelps of delight. He jumped into
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: the arms of a girl. She had turned at his barking,
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: and then suddenly ran to meet him. Captain Dobe regarded
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: the slim figure with amazement, slacks, army jacket, man's cap
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: from which soft black hair like andres escaped, and the
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: same gray blue eyes. A flash of enlightenment burst over Doby.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: Irritated to fury, he muttered, jump and jehosaphat now we
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: have Marie Gangon and of Chapter seventeen,