William F. Buckley - Brothers No More

BOOKS BY WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY, JR.

God and Man at Yale

McCarthy and His Enemies (with L. Brent Bozell)

Up from Liberalism

Rumbles Left and Right

The Unmaking of a Mayor

The Jewelers Eye

The Governor Listeth

Cruising Speed

Inveighing We Will Go

Four Reforms

United Nations Journal: A Delegates Odyssey

Execution Eve

Saving the Queen

Airborne

Stained Glass

A Hymnal: The Controversial Arts

Whos On First

Marco Polo, If You Can

Atlantic High: A Celebration

Overdrive: A Personal Documentary

The Story of Henry Tod

See You Later Alligator

Right Reason

The Temptation of Wilfred Malachey

High Jinx

Mongoose, R. I. P.

Racing Through Paradise

On the Firing Line: The Public Life of Our Public Figures

Gratitude: Reflections on What We Owe to Our Country

Tuckers Last Stand

In Search of Anti-Semitism

WindFall

Happy Days Were Here Again

A Very Private Plot

EDITOR

The Committee and Its Critics

Odyssey of a Friend: Whittaker Chambers Letters to William F. Buckley, Jr.

W. F. B.: An Appreciation

Did You Ever See a Dream Walking?

American Conservative Thought in the Twentieth Century

PUBLISHED BY DOUBLEDAY
a division of
Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.
1540 Broadway, New York, New York 10036

D OUBLEDAY and the portrayal of an anchor
with a dolphin are trademarks of Doubleday
a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.

AUTHORS NOTE This is the eleventh novel in which I refer to historical figures, dead and alive. In this novel there are characters who are related to historical figures. Needless to say, in this novel as in its predecessors, the whole is a work of fiction.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Buckley, William F. (William Frank), 1925
Brothers no more / William F. Buckley, Jr.1st ed.
p. cm.
1. World War, 19391945VeteransUnited StatesFiction. 2. Friendship
United StatesFiction. 3. MenUnited StatesFiction. I. Title.
PS3552.U344B76 1995
813.54dc20 9424162

eISBN: 978-0-307-80320-7
Copyright 1995 by William F. Buckley, Jr.
All Rights Reserved

v3.1

For (the Reverend) Michael Bozell
el primer sobrino

P FC. DANNY OHARA had the walkie-talkie in his hand. It was countdown time.

Thirty minutes, he said in a low voice to Private Henry Chafee, who opened the breech of his rifle for the tenth time. Yes, he nodded to himself, he had confirmed that the cartridge was secure in the chamber. Both men were in sweaty blackface. The sergeant had told them to apply the sooty grease also to their hands and facesTheyll stand out like flashlights if you dont. Danny looked over at Henry and yes, for a long moment after every explosion, his face was visible even through all the muddy camouflage. If they hadnt blackened their faces theyd have vividly reflected the light of the exploding shells.

These were exploding more rapidly with every passing quarter hour, beginning two hours ago when they occupied their foxhole, cakey-dry, hot, small, smelly, here at the eastern end of the regimental front. The mandate was straightforward: Their regiment was responsible for overrunning the impacted German unit standing in the way of Allied progress. They could not know its sizea company, perhaps; perhaps a battalionwhatever it was that Field Marshal Kesselring had left behind as he retreated from the Arno line north of Rome.

Whatever the unit was, its defensive firepower was seemingly inexhaustible, and Colonel Johnson had postponed zero hour from daytime to dark, resigning himself to the futility of his own offensive, up against the stubborn German unit standing in the way. Nothing had worked against it. The drenching artillery, the close air support, the bombsthey hadnt succeeded in silencing the enemy machine guns and rifles. There wasnt any doubt about it, the American infantry offensive would need the cover of darkness. But it meant also this, that the charge would need to take place before 2200, which was when the moon would begin to shine on the scrubby, bloody hill. A funny thing, Danny said, the moon somehow illuminates more vividly than the sun. Did you know that, Henry? A matter of contrast, I suppose.

I guess so. Henry was fanning himself with the aluminum top ripped off the cartridge case. God its hot.

Yeah, well, were going to be a lot hotter after weve run the distance. Danny could not be sure exactly how far it was to the firing point he and Henry had been assigned to destroy. He did have the compass bearing on their objective and they agreed that the stars would prove useful in maintaining their course to it. Danny now rechecked the compass and looked up at the stars. There! Thats just a little left of the course well be running, see it? He lifted his hand, fingers extended, moving it up and down, pointing to the star. Henry moved his head behind Dannys to identify the star that would guide them.

Yes, I see it, he said. It wont move very much in, what, twenty-five minutes?

Danny looked at his watch. I cant make out the time. Well have to get it from the radio. God, what I would give for a smoke. Henry! You dont need to check your rifle breech again. Sorry, getting edgy. Wont be long now. Weve got a full battalionfour companies, sixteen platoons, sixty-four squads. And exactly two soldiers, you and me, Henry, are the little point on the left end of the arc. In a way, that means the whole operation swings on us. He laughed.

Henry didnt laugh.

If were lucky, when we charge up on the target well discover that our Kraut gunner has already been zapped Danny slammed down the palm of his right hand on the surface of his left hand. Another mosquito. His flow of talk was not interrupted. hit by one of our artillery shells, maybe. Hell, these guys cant be immortal! What the fuck, Henry, weve been dumping on them since He stopped. He would not even try to raise his voice to compete with the two major detonations since maybe two oclock? Oh. Danny stopped talking. He had spotted the spitting light from the gunner ahead and heard the thup-thup-thup of the bullets. They tore into the earth not many yards from the foxhole in which he and Henry were crouched.

I guess therell be somebody out there to welcome us after all. Sheeyit its hot. Henry?

Yes.

This isnt much fun, is it. And first battle action for us, too. I forget, Henry. Howd we get into this fucking war? Youre so smart, tell me. Come to think of it, Im smart as hell too. Maybe General Clark will find out who was responsible and maybehey, what you think of this, Henry?maybe the guy responsible will be sentenced to be shot, and maybe you and I, baby, will be the executioners! He laughed. Thats a good one. When they execute somebody, his hands are tied behind him, hes standing in front of a wall blindfoldedand they use six soldiers to fire! But when its a machine gunner in the dark firing at us, two of us are supposed to be enough to take him on! Army logic. I wonder, Henry. Do they teach logic at West Point? At the army war colleges?Give me some of that water, Henry. We may as well use it up. Were not going to be carrying extra provisions on