The Defender by Bill Mesce Jr

Author:Bill Mesce Jr.
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780553898040
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2003-09-30T00:00:00+00:00

PFC Paul Makris's testimony under Courie's questioning was a repeat of the story he'd delivered up during my interview of him in Wiltz.

But, this time, Dominick Sisto was in the room with him. The poor lad didn't seem to know whether to look at his lieutenant or away. In the end, he spent much of his time on the stand studying his knees and speaking into his chest.

Then it was Harry's turn. He neared the witness chair, beaming comfortingly over the tops of his glasses. He leaned close in to Makris, winked, and nodded at the jury panel: “You ever see so much brass in one place in your life?”

The nineteen-year-old allowed his first tentative smile. “Sure are a lot of them, Colonel.”

“I'm surprised the floor doesn't buckle under all that rank.”

Makris chuckled.

“Do you mind if I go back to a couple of things you said to Captain Courie? Just to get a better picture of what went on?” The tone was almost informal; cozying up to a fellow GI at a pub bar. Harry positioned himself between Makris and Sisto, solving the lad's problem of where to set his gaze. “You said that from where you were dug in on top of the hill, you couldn't see Major Porter.”

“That's right, Sir, yeah.”

“Couldn't hear anything Major Porter might've said to Lieutenant Sisto.”

“Colonel, as much noise as there was up there, if Major Porter'd been screaming his head off, I wouldn't have heard him.”

“Bet you couldn't even hear yourself think.”

“You'd win that bet, Sir.”

“Could you see down the hill? I mean, you were up there at the top. What kind of view did you have back down the slope?”

“Well, yeah, Sir, you could see down pretty good. Where we'd come up, the rock was like a ramp, but we'd all fanned out from where it came out on top. Where we were—where I was—the hill dropped off pretty sharp right behind me.”

“So you had a nice bird's-eye view of your battalion's position?”

“Oh, yeah! Well, down to where King and Love companies were, yes, Sir. You could see right down into those trenches. You could see why the krauts never had a problem kicking our arses—, oh, sorry, Sirs. I mean, from up there, you were looking right down our throats. I mean their throats. You know, the guys in the trenches.”

“You could see all the way down to the bottom of the hill?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“And across the firebreak, all the way to the trees where Lieutenant Tully's men were?”

“You could even see them moving around down there, Lieutenant Tully's guys.”

“So, if Lieutenant Tully's men had moved out, you could see that they'd be under fire the second they stepped into the firebreak.”

“You'd have spotted them the second they came out of their holes. When I saw how far they were going to have to come, and how much fire the krauts were putting on that hill, I figured us for dead, Sir. I really did.”

Makris was dismissed.

“Sir,” Courie addressed Ryan, “I have two more witnesses who were in close proximity to Private Makris.

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