The ten men who remained with their sergeant watched the other groups trot silently off through the trees in different directions.
“We’ll give them about three minutes,” Dick said, “to circle around to position. Then we’ll go in straight for the dam. But keep behind the trees and rocks. No use losing any men on a little action like this.”
Dick looked at his watch as the others stood around him without a word. They held their sub-machine guns lightly in their arms, ready for immediate action. Dick noticed with satisfaction that they all seemed completely relaxed and at ease, even though a light of excitement and anticipation gleamed in their eyes.
“Okay—here we go,” he said casually, and started forward smartly. The men fanned out around him, moving upward through the trees. Dick led them up a slight shoulder of land which brought them to a level with the dam. And then they saw it.
It lay only about seventy-five yards ahead, a long wall of concrete, with water trickling slowly over a spillway at the far end. At the near end there was a rough wooden shack on top of the wall, and near it stood four German soldiers, anxiously scanning the surrounding trees.
“They must be mighty uncomfortable,” Dick said, “knowing we’re coming for them. Well, let’s not keep them in suspense. Open fire.”
The silence of the hills was shattered by the chattering roar of ten machine guns. Two of the Germans toppled from the wall to the rocky valley below. One darted into the shack, and one fell on top of the wall, wounded. He tried to drag himself to the shack but collapsed before he could make it. Then from the shack itself came an answering burst of machine-gun fire.
Dick heard bullets whistling through the air and the little snip-click sounds as they nicked branches and leaves. There was a short silence and then another burst from the shack, which was not answered by the Americans. They were busy making their way forward from tree to tree, getting within fifty yards of the shack.
“What about a couple of grenades, Dick?” Max Burckhardt asked. “I’ve got half a dozen in a bag here. Thought they might come in handy.”
“Maybe—” Dick said. “But not yet. Let ’em have it!”