Читать книгу Rage. The Legend of "Baseball Bill" Denehy онлайн

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Tony was pissed. Now it was my turn to go at him with a rifle, and I figured he was going to try to knock my block off. The sergeant had said to me, “When you thrust with a rifle, drop your head down so the steel helmet will be facing him.”

Sure enough, I went after Tony C with my bayonet, and he parried me perfectly, and then he stepped to the side and gave me his best shot with his elbow—right into my steel helmet!

I was made platoon leader, and two of my squad leaders were Tony and Billy Rohr. Billy was a young kid who pitched for the Red Sox. They were great guys.

We had to go on bivouac. It was winter in New Jersey, and it was absolutely freezing. Tony came up with the bright idea that I needed to sneak into the officers’ tent and steal some coal. Not that he had to sneak in—I had to sneak in. Tony said, “We could burn the coal in one of our steel helmets inside our little pup tent and stay warm.”

I snuck inside the officer’s tent, swiped ten pieces from a huge pile next to the stove, hid them in my jacket, stole some matches, and snuck back to our little tent.