“Yes, sir.”
“On whose orders?”
“Lieutenant Longworth’s, sir, second-in-command of our platoon.”
“Were his orders in writing?”
“No, sir.”
“Did any of the men in your section hear Lieutenant Longworth give you those orders?”
“No, sir, they didn’t.”
“So it follows they can’t confirm their existence.”
“That’s right, sir. Lieutenant Longworth and I were alone when he countermanded my original orders.”
Major Karsh turned to Whitter. “Lieutenant, did Lieutenant Longworth advise you that he’d given Section Eight a change of orders?”
“No, sir, he did not.”
“Did Lieutenant Longworth discuss the situation at Werpen with you in any way at all?”
“No, sir. But you got to understand, major, we were damned busy at Battery with them V-4 sightings to check out for Battalion and the Ninth Air Defense Command. But I can say this, major, I don’t know nothin’ about why Docker here went high-tailin’ it out of Werpen, contrary to my orders.”
Karsh turned to Docker. “Lieutenant, let’s look at the facts. One, you didn’t follow the orders Lieutenant Whitter gave you. Two, we have only your word that Lieutenant Longworth countermanded those orders. Three, Lieutenant Longworth is dead and can’t confirm your story. Therefore — unless we accept your unsupported version of the incident — it would be difficult to blame anyone for concluding that you had retreated from a combat area without authorization. Would you disagree with that conclusion?”
“Am I restricted to a yes or no answer?”
“It seems to me a yes or no would be sufficient, but I’ll allow you any leeway you feel necessary.”
“Thank you, sir. Unless I’m mistaken, this line of questions is aimed at establishing a parallel between what I did at Werpen and what Jackson Baird told me he did on December sixteenth, the first day of the German offensive.”
“For the record, I must state that you’re making a not necessarily accurate evaluation of Lieutenant Whitter’s testimony.”
“Perhaps that’s true, sir, but to be as objective as I can, I’d like to review what happened before we got to Werpen. And to do that, I need to ask Lieutenant Whitter a few questions.”
Whitter jerked around as if he’d been jabbed with a cattle prod. “That’s just like you, trying to drag me into it. I’m not on trial here, you are, Docker.”
“Lieutenant Whitter, you will be in order,” Karsh said.
“I’ll answer any damn question he’s got the guts to ask—”
“Lieutenant Whitter.”
“You ain’t dumpin’ on me like you did Korbick, Docker, ’cause I got nothin’ to hide.”
Karsh banged his fist on the table. “Goddamn it, I will not tolerate—” He drew a deep breath and said, “Sergeant, strike the profanity. Lieutenant Whitter, no one is on trial here, and you will conduct yourself in a manner consistent with those silver bars on your shoulders. Is that clear?”
“It’s crystal clear,” Whitter said. “My daddy was a county sheriff in Alabama and I don’t take a back seat to anybody far as respecting the law is concerned.” Squaring his shoulders, he looked stonily at a point about two feet above Major Karsh’s head.
“Lieutenant Docker, you may question Lieutenant Whitter, but I’ll be the judge of the relevance of your line of inquiry. Understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
Docker stood and walked to where Whitter sat stiffly in a straight-back wooden chair, fists braced on his knees.
“Lieutenant, the day you gave me those orders, do you remember telling my gun section anything else?”
“I might or might not. Docker. But if it’s important, you can bet I’ve got it written down.”
“Let me help you out,” Docker said. “Do you remember telling my section they’d be starting home by Christmas? And that we had the Krauts in a meatgrinder?”
“So what if I did? That was just my way of boosting morale, putting a little starch in their backbones.”
“You remember I objected to it?”
“What if I do?... Okay, sure, you thought it would make them overconfident or some such damn fool thing. If that’s what you want me to say, I’ll say it. But it’s a fact, if you had your men on the ball, a pat on the back from me wouldn’t hurt ’em.”
“You also gave us a fall-back position. Do you remember the name of the town?”
“You can bet I got it written down. Docker. The name of that place was Lepont.”
“So you had quite a lot to say that morning, Whitter. You told us we’d be home for Christmas and like a Horace Greeley in rear gear, you kept saying, head east, head east, and at the same time you gave us a fall-back position to defend if we ran into enemy strength we couldn’t handle—”
“That’s right, make it sound like some Joe College joke. But the fact is, Docker, you didn’t follow orders. You turned tail at Werpen before running into any Germans.” Whitter’s eyes narrowed, a small smile on his lips. “I see what you’re after. Three of your men got killed in an empty town looking for souvenirs in a booby-trapped house like a bunch of recruits. Now you’re trying to twist it around to look like it was my fault, because I got ’em relaxed and off guard, talking about getting home for Christmas.”
Docker felt an involuntary stir of pity for Whitter, a man so paranoid he couldn’t wait to put the nails in his own coffin. But this was no time for pity... he might be paranoid, but he was also a lying son of a bitch who was trying to destroy him.
“How did you know the town was empty?”
“What’re you talking about?”
“I’m talking about how you knew the town of Werpen was empty when my section got there. You testified to that effect. Would you like the sergeant to refresh your memory?”
He glanced at Sergeant Corey, but to his surprise she was already flipping back through her notebook and before Karsh could direct her to repeat Whitter’s testimony, she had begun reading: “Three of your men got killed in an empty town looking for souvenirs...”
She looked intently at Docker. “Is that enough, sir?”
He nodded, realizing that she had slightly accented the word “empty.”
The major cleared his throat. “Young lady, you will wait for permission from an officer of this board to recap testimony. Is that clear?”
“I’m sorry, sir.”
Docker turned to Whitter. “My question was, how did you know Werpen was empty?”
“How in hell you expect me to keep track of things like that?”
“You couldn’t have known firsthand because you weren’t there. I didn’t tell you and no one else in my section had an opportunity to. And you’ve testified you didn’t discuss the matter with Longworth. So who told you?”
“Well, maybe I heard somebody talking about it at the battery—”
“Then that had to be First Sergeant Miles Korbick. He was at Werpen driving Longworth’s jeep.”
Whitter looked suddenly relieved. He crossed his legs and smiled quickly at the officers of the board. “I’m sorry about wasting everybody’s time with something that frankly don’t make a doodly-do bit of difference. But it was Sergeant Korbick, all right.”
“Did Korbick tell you about the meals left on the tables? And the pots that were still warm on the stoves?”
“Yeah, he mentioned that.”
“So what action did you take?”
“What’s that supposed to mean? I didn’t take any action at all. Docker. I didn’t have to.”
“Why not?”
“What the hell you mean — why not? Docker, you got something on your mind, I wish you’d say it—”