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.