Fixed Bayonets! Page #2

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Congratulations, Denno.

Now you've joined the big fraternity.

That was a perfect bull's-eye.

All you got to remember is you're not

aiming at a man. You're aiming at the enemy.

Once you're over that hump, you're

a rifleman. And you've been baptized.

It'll be a lot easier

from now on. Like spittin'.

How are you laying

the antitank mines, Wolowicz?

Crazy quilt pattern,

Lieutenant.

Planting them

way out to that bush.

And the antipersonnel mines?

Lazy-daisy, sir,

covering this whole area...

and both flanks.

All you got to do is

breathe on them and boom!

The guys better be careful

moving around, Lieutenant.

- Make a map of this minefield

and be sure and give it to me.

- Yes, sir.

Lonergan.

- Sir?

- How many people up there?

Nothing, Lieutenant.

- Vogl, do you see them?

- Nothing, sir.

Lonergan, come on down and get these guys

on the ball. I'm checking on the minefield.

We got troubles up here,

Lieutenant.

- Commies?

- Sergeant Rock.

- What's the beef?

- Planting the 75.

Coming up.

This is one of the times it ain't funny,

knowing what to do.

Toughest rap for an officer,

makin'a decision.

You can say that again.

Hey, you went to

officer school, didn't you?

What happened?

Goofed off there, huh? How?

I just figured out I was never cut out

to be a leader of anything.

You're a corporal.

Only three guys in this outfit above you.

Gibbs, Lonergan and me.

Before this mess is over,

you're liable to lead the whole platoon.

Takes three months in O.C.S.

Out here it only takes three seconds...

to be the number one Joe,

the ichiban boy.

Gibbs, Lonergan and me. We could

stop three bullets just like that.

Come off it, Rock.

For an old dog face like you that's

bellied from Tunisia to Czechoslovakia...

there's no bullet now

that's gonna stop you.

Whew! This-

This is some mountain.

This ain't no mountain. It's just a hill.

Ain't that right, Whitey?

It's sheer rock

with ice hummocks...

and a complex

of palisaded ridges...

that only an Alpinist would

undertake to ascend frontally.

- What'd he say?

- He said it's a hill.

Duck!

Two hundred. Zero.

Try one for effect.

Range- 200. Zero.

Smoke.

Shift right, six mils.

Fire for effect.

Shift right, six mils.

Fire for effect.

All right,

take a break.

Medic!

- Medic!

- Wheeler!

Lieutenant!

I found a cave up here!

All right, come on, you guys.

Let's move. Rock found a hole for us.

Come on, Jonesy,

move your butt.

- Haven't you ever been in a cave before,

Sergeant? - All right! All right!

That's a stalactite

you tried to knock down.

Very interesting species.

It's been many years since I've seen

such an elongated pendulous.

It's probably 2,000 years old.

Now they look like icicles,

but most of them are minerals.

This is calcite crystals.

That is a stalagmite.

The counterpart of a stalactite.

Shut up!

All right,

you guys... Hey!

Hey, now, watch your step in here.

This place is full of...

Rocks!

And there's an ice pond

here too.

Come on. Let's see

how far back this goes.

But, Sergeant, there's usually a chasm

at the end of an ice pool.

Unless you want Denno to suddenly

become the new squad leader.

How about it, Denno?

There's a drop down there.

Don't anybody fall in, 'cause ain't nobody

gonna pull nobody out.

All right, you guys,

get that ammo out ofhere.

Take all that stuff.

Get it around the back.

- Take that mortar too.

- Sarge, I don't like my hole.

Oh, Bigmouth

doesn't like his hole.

But there's a great one

way up there.

- Oh, there's a great one way up there?

- Yeah.

I'll tell you what, Bigmouth.

There's a great one way up there.

Now you get out there and get in it. Wait a

minute. Take some of this ammo with you.

Sarge, what's eating him?

- What's your name?

- Bulchek.

Bulchek, huh? Okay, Bulchek,

help him with the ammunition.

Bulchek? Is that a name?

All right, come on. Let's go.

- It's nice layout here, Lieutenant?

- Yeah, not bad.

Except for ricochets, sir.

The scientific principles of ricochet

can be tactically utilized by the enemy...

because the bullet

will be torn and jagged...

by its contact with the walls

and the rocks and the roof.

That scratch you got must be

making you run off at the mouth.

- Why don't you have the medic patch it up?

- I took care of it.

I was quite a medical student

in my day.

Now, if they fire anything in here

that will strike off that limestone...

or that calcium carbonate,

the ricochet-

There goes Mr. Belvedere again.

Knows everything.

You ought to be

a general.

- Well, as a matter of fact-

- Save it! Rock.

Yeah, nice layout here.

Yeah. We got a field offire over

the roadblock and the pass.

Yeah. This will give us

an edge on them.

- See that hummock over there?

- Yeah.

- They'll probably try and work a mortar

in behind it. - Yeah, or a buffalo gun.

Yeah, could be.

To get one smack in the cave...

they'd have to plant an A.T.

gun right in that...

Keep it there!

Denno, cover me!

Hey, Vogl!

You guys asleep up there?

You want my squad

to coverboth hills?

We didn't see nobody.

Lonergan, you know

that second squad of yours?

That's your squad.

Well, they're for the birds.

- How many people up there?

- Only one. Only one.

You want to know something else?

That Vogl? Nothing!

Knock it off,

will you, Rock?

Now listen, Vogl!

Keep those monkeys on the ball!

Take a look around!

Anybody stop one up there?

Yeah. One man.

- Bad?

- Dead.

Hey, Lieutenant! I think we ought

to plant a B.A.R. over by that hill!

We got no lieutenant!

Strip him of everything

we can use!

Roll him up in a blanket,

bury him!

And mark him!

There are only three guys

above you- Gibbs, Lonergan and me.

And now there are only two.

Hiya, Harv. Happy in your work, Harv?

What's the matter? This is better than

that "C" Company in the 17th Infantry.

What are you beefing about?

You're getting experience,

aren't you?

Hey, you, you call that cover?

Belly down. More.

Get some more ammo.

How you doin', Irish?

Any more of those Commies

hit this minefield...

they'll make enough noise

to wake up half of Moscow.

- Plant a couple more

of those trip flares over there.

- Yes, sir...

What are you, a wise guy?

Don't "sir" me.

I didn't mean anything by it, Sergeant.

They told me you was acting platoon leader.

I am platoon leader.

That don't mean I have to sweat out a looey

getting killed just to crack an order.

I've seen these looeys come,

and I've seen them go.

Lieutenant Gibbs

was different.

Yeah, he was a young guy, sure,

but I don't hold that against him.

He was more like a sergeant.

He was on the ball.

- Now you move your butt out of here.

- Yes, sir.

- What's eating him?

- You know those sergeants.

All alike.

Frustrated

second lieutenants.

Making noises like officers.

He's ichiban now.

Big deal!

Number one boy.

Very funny.

Bigmouth, climb out.

Climb!

So I'm frustrated, huh?

Look, Bigmouth, that is

the general direction.

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