“You can see that Maletta is an important hub, even though it is ordinarily a town of only about ten thousand people. By the way—do any of you men know Maletta?”
Tony Avella raised his hand. “Yes, sir,” he said. “I know Maletta pretty well. I’ve got an uncle who lives there—at least he did live there. I haven’t heard about him for some time, and he was no great lover of Mussolini.”
“Good for him!” said the general. “I hope he’s still there. If he is, he may be able to help us greatly. And he certainly can be the go-between in your relations with the Italian townspeople. There aren’t ten thousand people there now, by any means, by the way. Most of the civilians have been evacuated. The Germans have made the town into a fortress. And there were no real factories there to keep any sizable part of the population in the town to run them. According to our information there are no more than fifteen hundred Italians left in and around Maletta.”
The general came back to the immediate plan for the six men on the special mission.
“We’ll want reports, by radio, on troops and supplies into Maletta,” he said. “Where you can set up your short-wave radio will be your problem. And how to keep it from being found out by the German detectors is also your problem, I’m afraid, and a tough one. But you’ll do it, I’m sure.”
Tony shook his head wonderingly. He was glad the general had such confidence in them, but he knew how hard it was to keep a radio station from being located almost immediately when there were detectors listening at all times for underground or enemy stations. Still, they could try! If the general needed it—well, they’d just have to give him what he wanted!
“Finally, you are to be in sufficiently close touch with the townspeople to warn them when you blow up the dam,” the general said. “And that’s a dangerous job, for there are still some ardent fascists among them, without a doubt, men who are working with the Germans. Not many, I’m sure, but a few. If Corporal Avella’s uncle is still there, he’ll be able to let you know whom to avoid. But everybody else must be warned—not too soon, but in time, to get to the hills when the dam goes, for the waters will rush down and wipe out Maletta!”
“Oh boy!” Dick Donnelly cried, without thinking. The general grinned at him.
“You seem to like dams, Sergeant Donnelly,” he said.
“I like the idea of really blowing one up,” Dick replied, “and washing away a few thousand Germans, with their tanks, trucks, guns, and ammunition!”