The general was impressed too, but not so much as the six men who suddenly found themselves in his presence. Inside of ten minutes, however, they were at their ease. They sat in a plain room with a desk, a big table, about ten chairs, and some large maps on the wall. The general sat at ease, with his collar open, smoking a cigarette. First, he made the men feel at ease when he talked with them about the Wadizam Pass affair and other actions in which they had taken part. He seemed familiar with all details, much to their surprise.
When he saw that they were comfortable and no longer awed, the general plunged into his plan at once.
“The town of Maletta,” he said, pointing to the map, “is really our bottleneck. We’ve still got twenty miles to go to reach it. We can make that twenty miles all right, but taking the town then is a tougher job. It’s at the head of a valley up which we’ll be fighting to reach it. There are German gun emplacements all along the hills on both sides of the valley. If we follow conventional tactics we can make it—but in about two months. We’ll have to clean out all the hills on both sides as we move forward. Oh—we can do it, but at a great cost of time and of men. We’ll take that time and use those men if we have to. But I don’t think we’ll have to.”
He paused and looked around at the faces of the men who hung on every word he said. Then he turned to the map again.
“As you can see, we can’t by-pass the valley and Maletta itself,” he explained. “The country on either side of the valley is rugged and slow going, with bad roads and paths. We can get infantry around there—with machine guns and mortars, but that’s about all. And even doing it from both sides, that wouldn’t be enough to take Maletta, with the heavy guns the Germans have there.”
Lieutenant Scotti nodded his head without realizing it, seeing exactly what the general’s problem was.
“Likewise a regular parachute action would be sure to fail,” the high officer went on. “Even in great force you’d lack the necessary heavy guns. But six specially equipped paratroopers—they can do a real job for us!”
He smiled at the men and they smiled back. They did not need to say they were eager to take on this job. It showed plainly in their eyes and in their smiles.
“The main job you are to do will come exactly one week from the time you arrive outside Maletta,” the general pointed out. “But you must get there in advance and meanwhile do many valuable small jobs for us. You can get detailed information for us on the movement of German troops in and around Maletta—and trucks, tanks, guns, supplies. You see, we’ll start our push up the valley at once and we expect the Germans to pour their men into Maletta as a result. Right now they’re not sure we plan on taking the road right straight ahead. As soon as they’re sure, they’ll put just about all they’ve got into the head of the valley.”
The general turned with a pointer and showed them the lines of railroads and roads.