“Damn it, Major, you have no cause to put it that way. We haven’t had any information for two days. No information at all!”
“All right, all right, Captain. Don’t ask if you’d feel better. I’ll ask for you. Can we hold this road if they come at us again?” The major took another mouthful of coffee and spoke across the room to the radio man. “You getting any reaction at all, Corporal?”
“Still just that Kraut that keeps cutting in.”
“We got a good signal going out,” the major explained, “but nothing’s coming back.” He hesitated. “To put it briefly, Captain, the answer is no. We can’t. I’m down to two officers and forty-seven enlisted men, a third of what I had three days ago. We can’t. That’s it and that’s all of it. We can’t.” He lifted his tin mug again, holding it up deliberately and rem
