End of the War

pg. 248-307


The Allies entered Germany!!!! There wasn't much fighting going on really here. The American soldiers really liked the German people. They felt like they were clean, hardworking, middle class type people. Just like the Americans were. Germany had some pretty nice views too. It was nice there. 


The next stop was Berchtesgaden. This had an amazing view. Nobody wanted to leave here. Plus, Easy Company found one of Hitler's good friend's house. It was full of wine. Every company would take home a few truck loads of it. This is also where Hitler's Eagles Nest was. Easy took that too. Nobody would complain if they stayed there for a while. But they didn't. They had to move on to Austria. Once they saw Austria, they though Berchtesgarden was nothing. This was insanely beautiful. They were sad they had to leave there at the end.


PICTURES: Top: Hitler's Eagles Nest
Bottom: Austria



The war was finally over! In May, the Germans surrendered. Most men could finally go home. To go home, you needed a certain amount of points. The points you earn by what you do while in battle. Most of Easy company had all of their points. But a few did not, so they had to stay in the Army a little longer. But for the rest, they were heading home to their families. 

Noville, Haguenau, and Mourmelon

pg. 213-247

Bastogne is over, Foy was a win for the Allies. Now Easy is waiting for their next mission. There was a lot of waiting during this time. There were a lot more rules and regulations. If you violated one of the rules, you were fined a good amount of money. They only got $50 a week, so more than one violation was costly.

NOVILLE
General Taylor is in charge of Easy Company. He thinks they should go out and fight the Germans some more. Winters was mad at this decision. Winters thinks that Easy had been through a lot. He knows it is the end of the war. It would be pointless for him and the men of Easy Company got killed now after all they have been through. Easy had to do many night marches and patrols because Taylor thought they should do it. Winters was unhappy, but he did it.

HAGUENAU
This is a very dangerous area next to the Rhine River. This was very dangerous. There were German Guns pointed right at them at all times of the day. This made movement during the day impossible without being shot at. They went out on night patrols to see what the Germans were up to. One night, they took a few German prisoners from a building. Very successful patrol.

Winters noticed that around the company, people were walking with more care, trying not to be killed now at the end of the war. They finally realized it would be real bad to have made it through hell, and then die at the end.

MOURMELON
Eisenhower decided to make the final jump in the war. It would be on the German side of the Rhine River. Easy was really anticipating this jump. It was Operation Varsity. When Easy heard that they would not be going, they felt left out and left behind.

They have been training a lot and not in real war. War amused them kind of. Sure they saw some bad things, but the destruction of another person's country was amusing. Kind of like Call of Duty for us today. It is entertaining.

Bastogne

165-195

Hitler launched a major offensive near Christmas time of 1944. It was very unexpected of anybody. It didn't make much sense at all of why he was doing it. Eisenhower decided the city of Bastogne would be a city that the Allies had to keep in their possession. There were many reinforcements brought in to keep it. Easy company went in to Bastogne in a bad way. They were lacking almost everything you need to fight a war. They didn't have warm winter clothes, the K-rations were short, some of the men didn't even have weapons. The Allies were not shelling the area first either. There was no air support what so ever because of the low clouds. It was a death sentence pretty much. Easy was brought into Bastogne by trucks, and hundreds of them. They were all packed in like sardines. Very uncomfortable ride.

When they got to Bastogne, they marched in by rows of two, being handed weapons on their way in. Many of the men from both sides were getting lost easily. The American line was held so thin that a German soldier could walk between two American soldiers and never be seen by them. Then the German soldier would find themselves at the HQ of the Americans and either get shot or be taken prisoner.

The first night there, it started to snow. It didn't stop for a while. The temperatures really dipped down. With Easy Company not having warm clothes, they were freezing cold and their response time was slower. Some of the men were thinking about shooting themselves in the foot to get out. But then they realized that there would be nobody to hold the line. Some men when they died, had a look of peace in their face. It was a living cold hell in the woods of Bastogne.

The American guys were sitting in fox holes waiting and observing. After about a week of staring at the same thing, you start to get to know the terrain pretty good. One morning, while the men were climbing into their foxholes, Shifty Powers saw a tree that he thought was not there the day before. In the woods of Bastogne, all of the trees are planted in rows. They are all pine trees, so there is not much brush close to the ground. Shifty Powers looked and saw the new tree and told some people about it. It turned out to be a German 88mm Artillery gun that was brought in over night and camouflaged with fake trees.

There is a new CO for Easy Company now. Lieutenant Peacock. He is the replacement for Heyliger. Peacock does his job and gets promoted. There is another CO now. Liutenant Dike. This man is not a very good decision maker under pressure. To be a CO, you need to be able to do that. At the Attack at Foy right after Bastogne, Dike freezes up and does not do anything. Winters, the XO, has to take action now. He has no other choice. He replaces Dike with Lieutenant Speirs. He is the last CO for Easy Company. He is just like Winters.

This battle sounds like hell. They are sitting around looking, and the cold is chilling to the bone. They are pretty much frozen. They do not have proper clothes. I would not want to be in this situation. I give these guys props for doing this. I respect all of the veterans much more by reading this book.

Holland and more time off the war

pg. 123-178

After the failure of MARKET GARDEN, Easy Company moved to Holland. During this movement, Lieutenant Winters was promoted to XO (Executive Officer) of E Company. His replacement was Lieutenant Heyliger. He was a pretty good officer. But he got shot by one of his own men when he did not know the password to say he is an American. He survived, but was taken out of battle.

At Holland, Easy had to rescue another British company. This was a good success. They went in with 154 officers and men, and came out with 98 officers and men.

After, they went back to England to rest and recover. Here, there were many new recruits ready for battle. The recruits looked at the men returning as heroes. They looked like they have gone through hell, but they knew they were heroes. To the veterans, the new recruits looked tender and soft. Like anything could break of of them. During their off time at Mourmelon-Le-Grand, there was a lot of time to do nothing. There were not many passes given to go to London. So they were stuck in the barracks until they moved out again. To pass the time, a lot of different things went on. People wrote letters home, played card games, and gambled heavily. There was also a big football game between two Companies on Christmas Day planned. Most of the time the men were gambling. One of the best in the Army was Sergeant Don Malarkey. He won so much money there! Almost the entire months pay for the whole company.

The next battle they had to fight was Hitler's offensive at the Ardennes. Hitler was successful on this offensive.  He was for a few reasons. He made it a complete surprise of what he was doing. Nobody every suspected it either. It made no sense really. There was not a point to it. Eisenhower had to react quickly to this offensive. He made a decision, and a really good one too. He declared the city of Bastogne as a city that could not be taken by the Germans. They had to hold it under any circumstance. And so came the battle at Bastogne.

Waiting to fight again. And some more fighting

After the battle at Carentan, Easy company was flown back to London. This meant party time!!! They were let off duty for a few days. During these days, they pretty much destroyed the city of London. They have been trapped so long in the Army, and this was their time to have fun. And they did. They burnt down houses, broke windows, and got into a lot of fights with other men and civilians. It was one of the wildest weeks in London's history. Not pretty at all.


Easy Company was set to drop again in Europe. But their missions kept getting scrubbed. The Germans kept taking over the drop zone so they could not land there. Their mission got scrubbed many times. When they finally dropped, it was almost a perfect mass drop. This time while Easy was in Europe, their mission was MARKET-GARDEN. This was a very risky plan by Eisenhower to rescue the British 2nd Army. This mission failed though. It failed for a few reasons. There was a lack of communication between the different companies fighting there. There was a lack of supplies needed. Eisenhower's route was way too narrow to be successful. They had no cover. This trip to Arhnem was traveled on later called "Hell's highway".

Normandy and other battles

When Easy Company landed on Normandy, they were all spread out. This was okay though, because they were still fighting. They finally got back in one group again. Their first battle was Brecourt Manor. Lieutenant Winters was in charge of Easy Company. The situation was the Germans had a lot of men and guns pointed at them. Winters made a plan that worked flawlessly. He had two heavy machine guns on one side of the field shooting at the German guns. This was the base of fire. He divided his men into three groups. Two flanking units and him leading the charge under the base of fire right up the middle. Everybody LOVED Winters for this. He would always lead the charge. He said he would never have his men do anything that he wouldn't do himself. Him and his men ran through the field underneath their own machine gun fire. This was a very risky thing to do. But he did it.

Easy company and the rest of the 101st took Brecourt Manor as a victory. Easy made themselves look a lot bigger than what they were. They were shooting from every direction with precision accuracy. They were one of the best companies and showed it that day.

Easy company was fighting in Normandy for almost a month. June 6 - June 29. They were only told they had to do three hard days of fighting. So they were very pleased when they were done.

When they pulled off the line, the had to march to Carentan for their next battle. This was a scary march. They had to do it at night so they wouldn't be seen. Easy was so used to marching at night, that they could almost see better in the dark than at night. During the march, Easy had no reconnasance, or any idea what was ahead of them. There was no artillery preparation or air strikes from the allies either. Bad news. But they made it there none the less.

D-Day

Easy Company. Their mission on D-Day was to seize the causeway exits (roads) on Utah beach. Flying over the English Channel to the drop zone, it was very tense. Nobody was talking. The people in charge of this drop gave all the men an anti-airsickness pill. The men had never had one of these pills before anytime they were in the air. Most of them were sleeping. They were all packed down with hundreds of pounds of stuff they needed. They were using this new thing called a leg bag they never tried before. They were not used to jumping with them on. It would be an interesting jump.

When they were getting close to the coast of France, it started to get very cloudy out. The planes were flying in a pack. But then, they spread out a little more so they would not collide. But then, they could not see each other and the green light going off to tell when to jump. When they got over the coast, German anti-aircraft guns were shooting at the planes. The pilots got nervous of being shot down, so they lowered their altitude and increased their speed to make themselves a harder target to hit. The pilots had no communication with one another and they dropped the men nowhere near the drop zone and very spread apart. The landing was very hard. Many broke limbs. When they jumped, their leg bags broke off. These leg bags were holding all their ammo and weapons. Most men were lost when they landed. They were pretty much SOL if they didn't find anybody.