CHECK ON THE RIGHT FLANK
Turner catches his breath. He forces himself to think rationally as he summons his will. Then he stands and dashes for the hedgerow on the right.
"Hey Lieutenant," Sergeant Pickett hails Turnbull. "It's good to see you. Did you forget about us? Or did you just have to babysitting 1st Squad?"
Turnbull loves the Sergeant's humor. "How are things? Have you had any casualties?"
"Two men shot, one dead, Private Jones" Pickett answers solemnnly. "He was hit early on. We've had a bunch of German probes on the far right flank."
"How many? How close did they get?"
"Close enough, sir. There were three probing attacks on my line when that big target of a tank was holding everyone's attention."
"Your squad is doing a great job", Turnbull says, loud enough for the men to hear. "Let's check on your boys."
Turnbull and Pickett crawl around to check on the men, keeping low to avoid the accurate German sniper fire.
Some paratroopers are almost out of ammunition, while others have barely fired a shot. Turnbull redistributes ammunition and grenades so that everyone has a bare minimum.
The line is also too spread out and vulnerable to a serious German attack. "We need to pull the far end around," Private Easton suggests, " and refuse our flank."
The two men spend the next fifteen minutes in the delicate task of reorienting the line while under an increasing volume of fire.
"Something tells me that the Germans will be hitting us again soon," the Sergeant tells his men. "Be ready."
Thanks to their work, the men are prepared when a sustained German assault hits the right squad. Instead of a thinly spread line that their scouts had spotted earlier, though, the Germans meet a tight and ready defense.
The fight is sharp but brief and the Germans withdraw after losing a few more men, who lay clumped in the hedgerows. There were casualties on the American side, though, with three more dead and two wounded.
Turner stares towards the east and fights to order the two hours' events in his mind. His adrenaline has been surging since the Germans first appeared and now he is suddenly tired and worn down - as if he has been fighting for weeks instead of an afternoon.
Gradually, he collects himself and turns to the Germans' next move. The tank attack was just a diversion to distract the Americans so that the Germans could probe for weaknesses in the line.
"The question is where they'll attack next," Turner thinks. "I've learned my lesson though. I will go back and check on the other squads now."
