by Bill Mesce
“Because the view of the men actually fighting on the hill was so parochial – ”
“Because,” Schup said with just the slightest bit of impolite edge to his voice, “most soldiers can’t tell what’s going on more than ten, twenty yards away from them.”
“Were you able to do that? Make this picture of the assault?”
Schup’s face clouded. “It was always chaotic. Between the iffy communications and…Well, any hard fight is chaotic. It was always pretty confusing to us in the CP about what was happening where.”
“Which was why at one point, Major Joyce – to get a more clear picture of what was going on – ”
“Objection,” Harry stated. “Leading.”
“Sustained.”
Courie nodded apologetically, and took another route. “Did Captain Joyce remain at the CP throughout the assault?”
Schup smiled in grim amusement at the maneuver. “No, Sir. We had a field phone hookup to an OP at the woodsline across from the hill. We figured if we couldn’t tell what was going on from what we could hear, at least we’d have observers who could see something of what was happening. But we lost the line. Major Joyce ordered a detail up to re–establish contact with the OP but he didn’t want to wait for the new line, so he moved up to the forward observation post and left me to coordinate things at the command post. Sometime after that – I don’t recall how long it was – we picked up a transmission from the hill, somebody’d seen the flare that signaled the bunker covering the approach to the top of the hill had been taken out. The same transmission said the assault detail had started up the hill. About fifteen minutes later, we picked up a message from Blue Six – that was Lieutenant Sisto’s radio designation – that they were coming down from the top. From the references in the transmission, it looked like we were picking up the lieutenant’s side of a back–and–forth between him and Rainbow – Major Joyce.”
“You couldn’t hear Major Joyce’s side of the conversation?”
“Blue Six was far up the hill. Major Joyce was at the woodsline. The trees blocked our reception of his end of it.”
“From what you could hear, did the lieutenant seem to be arguing – ”
“Objection,” Harry called. “Characterization.”
“Sustained.”
Courie proceeded unflustered. “The lieutenant seemed to be in disagreement with Rainbow?”
“He kept repeating that he was bringing the unit down and then communication was broken off.”
“You said broken off? Not lost?”
“We could still hear Blue Six transmitting to the other companies on the hill.”
“What was the next information you had on the situation?”
“We picked up enough of the radio traffic among the three rifle companies to tell us that the battalion was displacing from the hill.”
“Was there any indication as to who ordered the withdrawal?”
“There was nothing specific. I always had the impression that the decision originated – ”
“Objection,” Harry said. “An ‘impression?’”
“Sustained. Lieutenant Schup, you can only testify as to what you know for a fact.”
Courie continued: “The battalion withdrew.”
“As they displaced down the hill, we lost contact because of the interference from the trees, and we still hadn’t re–established our line to the forward OP. All we had was a runner from Major Joyce with an order to our Weapons Company to cover the withdrawal with their mortars as best they could. Outside of that, we were really in the dark for a while there.”
“And then?”
“I guess it must’ve been about an hour or so after we heard them organizing the pull–back that Major Joyce showed up, he had Lieutenant Sisto with him. He told me that Colonel Porter looked to be dead up on the hill, and that he was now in command. Then he said he wanted me to witness that he was placing Lieutenant Sisto under arrest for disobeying orders and gave me the nutshell version of what he said happened.”
“Which was that he’d ordered Lieutenant Sisto to hold his position, the lieutenant refused and then brought the battalion off the hill.”
“Yes, Sir.”
Courie nodded with satisfaction. “Thank you, Lieutenant. No further questions.”
Harry entered the well in his usual unhurried manner. I noted that the stack of note cards in his stubby fingers seemed a particularly thick one. He smiled disarmingly at Schup. “You might as well get comfortable, Lieutenant. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover. The captain here seems to have, as they say, ‘skipped to the good parts.’ We’re going to back up a bit to when the regiment first arrived at Rott. The battalion was deployed almost immediately?”
“The regiment and battalion COs were briefed, then they briefed their staffs and then, yes, Sir, we moved out.”
“For an assault – what would be the first of three – scheduled for the following morning.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“We heard testimony that Colonel Porter requested a delay for that first attack in order to carry out a reconnaissance of the hill but it was denied. Were you ever given any reason for the urgency to attack the next day?”
“In his briefing to us, Colonel Porter indicated that the situation of General Cota’s division was pretty poor.”
“Is that how Colonel Porter described the situation? ‘Pretty poor?’”
“The major came out of his briefing at division HQ, had an officer’s call, and began by turning to me and saying, ‘Ernie, they’re hanging on by their fingernails.’”
“Lieutenant, the assault you described to Captain Courie…that was actually the battalion’s third attempt to take the hill, right? The third in three days?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“It’s been testified that you arrived at your assigned position the night of your arrival at Rott. You filled in the positions you indicated. Were the Germans aware of the battalion’s arrival?”
“You bet. Sir.”
“How do you know?”
“They began shelling us almost immediately. Nothing heavy or concentrated. Just enough to keep us awake.”
“What was the plan for the first attack?”
Courie, again: “Objection. Immaterial.”
“Colonel,” said Harry, turning to Ryan, “what happened on the date in question was not a spontaneous event. It was the end product of the stresses and strains of three brutal days fought out on the slopes of Hill 399. If anybody wants to understand why the events occurred that this trial is concerned with, they have to know how we got to that point.”
“Actually, Colonel,” Courie said, stepping forward, “nobody needs to understand why. It only has to be proven that Lieutenant Sisto was given an order by Major Joyce and that he refused to obey that order. Despite all this other material the defense has been able to drag into this case, that instance of obedience is the case.”
Harry was already shaking his head. “That’s like saying, ‘We have a dead man and the man who shot the gun. It’s murder. The end.’” Harry turned to Courie with a professor’s patient smile. “No question of self–defense? Provocation? Mitigating circumstance? The law books in Cleveland must be a lot thinner than they are anywhere else.”
Because it would have been a failure of courtroom etiquette to poke Harry in the eye, Courie only smiled.
“That was cute but unnecessary, Colonel,” Ryan reprimanded.
“My apologies,” Harry said to Courie.
“Despite having a smart mouth,” Ryan went on, “the defense also has a point. Even if for no other reason than other elements of the act need to be considered in sentencing, the Court and the jury should understand the context of the act. Overruled. Go ahead, Colonel Voss.”
“We were supposed to debouch from the woods at dawn,” began Schup. “The attack was supported by our own mortars, division had dedicated some artillery support, and there was supposed to be an air strike by some P–47s just before we moved out. B
ut there was fog that morning both at the hill and at the airfield, so the P–47s never showed.”
“The attack went off anyway?”
“Colonel Porter tried to call for another postponement, like he had the night before, but it was another no–go.”
“No reconnaissance, no air support. You were the planning officer, Lieutenant Schup. How in God’s name could you come up with a plan like this?”
“It wasn’t our plan, Sir.” The air of containment beginning to give way to a grim bitterness.
“Then did this come from some wizard on General Cota’s staff?”
“Division relayed it to us from Corps. We weren’t sure it didn’t go higher – ”
“Objection,” Courie called. “Hearsay.”
“Sustained.”
“At any point during the days the 3rd Battalion was engaged at Hill 399, did you see any observers from Corps?”
“No, Sir.”
“From First Army?”
“No, Sir.”
“Twelfth Army Group?”
“No, Sir.”
“To your knowledge, had any agents from any of those headquarters reconnoitered the area before or during the time your battalion was engaged at Hill 399?”
“Not to my knowledge.”
“Or had any direct intelligence information on the objective or immediate vicinity?”
“If they did, they weren’t sharing.”
“In terms of tactical planning, what kind of latitude was the battalion allowed?”
“Well, the tactical end, most of it was up to us. Colonel Porter made most of the major immediate tactical decisions.”
“Such as?”
“For that first attack, he put two companies forward: Love on the left, King on the right, Item in reserve.”
“How far did that attack get?”
Schup returned to the diagram of the hill. “The krauts had cleared the top half of the slopes for observation purposes. This also gave them a clear killing ground on the upper slopes. There was about a hundred yards from where the trees stopped to this line of trenches. The upper half of that open ground was covered with double apron wire and mines. Since we didn’t know about it beforehand, we didn’t have any hardware to deal with them. We were stonewalled at that obstacle.”
“So the decision was made to give it another try the next day?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“That attack order coming from Corps?”
“Yes, Sir. This time, our mortars blasted pathways through the wire and mines. We put all three rifle companies forward. We managed to get as far as the trenches. Again, we were supposed to get air support but it rained that day, so the planes were grounded.”
“Did Colonel Porter try to request a postponement again?”
“No, Sir.”
“Do you know why?”
“I asked but he never gave me an answer.”
“The losses on those first two days were heavy? Light?”
“Extremely heavy. We were never able to get an accurate count while we were in the area because of the conditions – ”
“Well, let’s see if we can illustrate this somehow. You said the troops for the assault on the hilltop were from Lieutenant Sisto’s company; that’s why he went along with them. But Lieutenant Sisto wasn’t the company commander. He was a platoon leader, right?”
“He was the acting company CO by then.”
“By then?”
“He’d assumed command during the previous day’s attack.”
“The second day. Because of losses.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Was Lieutenant Sisto the company’s executive officer?”
“No, Sir.”
“Was he the senior platoon leader?”
“No, Sir.”
“Then how was it he came to take over the company over the other officers in the company?”
Ernest Schup grew very still. He drew his brows close together the way people do when concentrating on trying not to show a strong feeling aching to break through. “Because by that time there were no other commissioned officers left in his company.”
“You said someone from King Company was supposed to take out a bunker guarding the approach to the top of the hill. He was, in fact, King’s acting company commander, was he not?”
“Yes, Sir. Sergeant Sekelsky.”
“The company’s top sergeant?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“And he took command because he was the highest–ranking member of King by that time?”
That same furrowed brow. “Yes, Sir.”
“King and Love Company, Lieutenant: how many men were left at the end of that third assault?”
“You have to keep in mind that the mortar squads from each company’s Heavy Weapons platoon had been detached and conjoined with the battalion’s Weapons Company to provide fire support. And the night before that last attack, we’d received about one hundred replacements, most of which were divided between King and Love. And then we were still taking artillery fire until we pulled out that night.”
Harry, with infinite patience: “Lieutenant: what was the score when you got back to Rott?”
“Not counting the mortar squads, the head count was 72 men in Item, 52 in King, and 37 in Love.”
Harry took a moment and shook his head. I got a look at his face. That inner pain was not performance for the benefit of the jury. He took a deep, fortifying breath. “Lieutenant Schup, let’s move to the incident between Lieutenant Sisto and Major Joyce that started all this. Obviously, when Major Joyce accused Lieutenant Sisto of disobeying his order to hold the hill, Lieutenant Sisto did something more than answer with mute silence.”
“The lieutenant told me that Colonel Porter had given the order to pull out from the top of the hill. He said from that vantage point, the major could see we weren’t going to pull it off.”
“Meaning succeed in taking the hill?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“If the lieutenant had held his position on top of the hill, do you think the attack could have succeeded?”
“Objection,” Courie said. “Calls for a conclusion.”
“Calls for an expert opinion,” replied Harry.
“With all respect to Lieutenant Schup, he is not some senior planning officer at a general headquarters staff.”
A hand went up from the jury panel. Harry, Courie, and Ryan all froze for a moment, then turned to Captain Pierce, the artillery battery commander.
“Yes, Captain?” Ryan asked.
“Panel members are allowed to ask questions, aren’t they, Sir?”
“Yes, Captain. Usually on points of clarification.”
“Well, this’d clear something up for me.” Ryan nodded at him to proceed and the captain turned toward Courie. “About what you’re saying, so I understand, you’re saying that a battalion S–3 isn’t competent? Or that this particular officer isn’t competent?”
“I’m not saying either –” Courie was cut short by another up–raised hand.
“Lieutenant Pomeroy?” Ryan said, calling on the rifle platoon exec from Sisto’s own 103rd Regiment.
“Seems to me that those senior guys Captain Courie’s talking about were the ones who planned this whole mess. I don’t see where they have the corner on military smarts. Can I ask Lieutenant Schup how long he’s been with the battalion as S–3?”
“I came on as an assistant S–3 in January to replace a fellow who drove over a mine. In March, my senior invalided out with pneumonia and I was moved up.”
“And you’ve been with them ever since?” Pomeroy asked.
“Yes.”
Pomeroy looked over at Ryan with a wry do–you–really–need–anything else look.
“Captain Courie, if you don’t have anything else, I’m going to have to overrule. At least in terms of the battalion’s operation on this objective, the Court sees Lieutenant Schup as qualified to offer an opinion. You may answer, Lieutenant.”
Schup
returned to the diagram. “I always thought we were going to have a problem with the third phase of the attack. The first phase was to re–gain the trenches. The second was the major’s try for the top of the hill. The third phase was going to be reinforcing the men on top of the hill with the pick–up company we had waiting to jump–off back at the woodsline.”
“‘Pick–up’ company?”
“It was Lieutenant Tully’s I & R Platoon, and some other odds and ends that we scrounged from the battalion area. About 60 men. You can see the problem: once the reinforcement detail gets the go, the men on top of the hill have to hold while Tully’s group has to cover all this ground, from the original jump–off line, across the firebreak, and up the whole length of the hill.”
“You made your concern known to the colonel?”
“Yes, Sir, but, well, he made up his mind.”
“Why did the colonel keep them so far back?”
“He was afraid of them getting whittled down if they moved up with the main body. He had a point: the assault detail lost three men waiting in those trenches for the go signal.
“The first group – Lieutenant Sisto’s – had the element of surprise going for them. Some of the men in the assault detail were half–way to the top before the krauts could react and get fire directed at that part of the hill. Lieutenant Tully wasn’t going to have that. They’d be waiting for somebody to try to reinforce the men at the top. I thought if Lieutenant Tully could keep his casualties to 50%, he was going to be a lucky man.
“But even if Lieutenant Tully could get up there with his whole group, the way the krauts had that part of the hilltop hemmed in, I can’t see how Lieutenant Sisto could’ve held out long enough for Tully to reach him.”
“In your opinion, Lieutenant Schup, as someone who’d served on Colonel Porter’s S–3 staff for nearly eleven months, was Colonel Porter an astute enough officer to have understood his predicament once he was on top of that hill?”