Lieutenant Scheisskopf has been shipped over to Pianosa and promoted to colonel under General Peckem. While General Peckem tries to impress his new colonel with his wit and vocabulary, Scheisskopf is solely interested in the prospect of holding parades. Though Peckem refuses to permit the parades, he does allow Colonel Scheisskopf to post memos postponing them. Colonel Cargill feels slighted by Scheisskopf's new duty and Peckem appeases him by allowing Cargill to call off the U.S.O. shows.
Cargill and Scheisskopf attend Major Danby's preliminary briefing of Cathcart's men. The latest mission requires the squadron to bomb a tiny, undefended village to create a roadblock for the Germans. Colonel Cathcart knows the mission is entirely unnecessary but, as he says, "that's the way things go when you elevate mediocre people to positions of authority." Chapter 29, pg. 335 Dunbar and the gang reject the mission as cruel, but are silenced when Colonel Korn threatens them with another dangerous mission to Bologna. Colonel Cathcart instructs the men to hold a tight bomb pattern. He wants the exploding little village to look sharp in the aerial photographs.
