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in february, training became more big unit oriented as the 101st, and indeed the entire invasion force of more than seven divisions, began rehearsals for the attack on normandy. on march 23, the 2nd and 3rd battalions of the 506th made a combined jump, by far the largest of the war to date for the regiment. the occasion was an inspection visit by prime minister; winston churchill, supreme allied commander dwight d. eisenhower, u.s. first army commander omar bradley, gen. maxwell taylor, commander of the 101st (general lee had a heart attack in february and was forced to return to the states), and numerous other big shots.
the jump was a huge success. the c-47s came roaring through the sky in a perfect v of vs. churchill and the generals were watching from a specially constructed grandstand. the troopers began leaping out of their planes, stick after stick, more than 1,000 men and parachutes filling the sky in a seemingly unending deluge. the instant they hit the ground the troopers were twisting out of their chutes and heading for the assembly area on a dead run, putting their weapons together without slackening speed. the visitors were amazed at the rapidity of the movement; as the regimental scrapbook put it, "the boys from currahee" had made a grand impression.
later, the regiment assembled in front of the reviewing stand. taylor invited churchill and eisenhower to inspect the ranks. they did, stopping occasionally to ask a question or two of one of the men.
eisenhower stopped in front of malarkey. "soldier, where are you from?" (eisenhower talked to thousands of enlisted men on such inspections before d-day; invariably his first question was "where are you from?")
"astoria, oregon” malarkey answered. "what did you do before the war?" malarkey said he was a student at the university of oregon. ike wanted to know who won last fall's oregon-oregon state football game, and whether malarkey intended to return to college after the war. then he turned to churchill and suggested that the prime minister might have a question.
"well, son, how do you like england?" malarkey assured him that he liked it very much, as he had always enjoyed english literature and history. churchill promised to get him back to the states as soon as possible. "it was," said malarkey, "a very memorable occasion."
even larger maneuvers were held immediately after the churchill jump, with the purpose of dovetailing the paratroopers, glider-borne units, and ground forces with the air forces and naval elements. exercises were held throughout southwest england, with mass air drops and amphibious operations.
on one maneuver, guarnere told pvts. warren muck and malarkey to drop a mortar shell on a 6-foot-square white target situated on a dune about 600 yards to their front. malarkey fired once, too long. a second time, too short.
at that moment, some staff officers came up, accompanied by general taylor. one of the staff officers told guarnere to have his mortar squad fire at the target as a demonstration for the general.
guarnere told malarkey and muck to fire three rounds. in rapid succession, they dropped three rounds down the barrel. boom, the first hit the target dead center. boom, boom, the other two came down on top of the destroyed target.
"sergeant, is your squad always that accurate?" taylor asked. "yes, sir," guarnere replied, "my boys never miss." the 101st took trains back to barracks in wiltshire and berkshire. general taylor and his staff were well aware that there were many kinks to work out. the boys from currahee had learned their lessons about small unit tactics well; now it was up to the generals to fit them properly into the larger whole.

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4 "look out hitler! here we come!"
*
slapton sands, uppottery
april 1-june 5,1944

the 101st airborne, the 82nd airborne, and the 4th infantry division made up the vii corps. the vii corps and v corps (1st infantry and 29th infantry divisions) made up the u.s. first army, gen. omar bradley commanding. eisenhower had given bradley the task of establishing a beachhead on each side of the mouth of the douve river, where the french coast makes a right angle; running to the east is the calvados coast, running to the north is the base of the cotentin peninsula. the v corps was to take the calvados coast (code name for the target area, "omaha beach"), while the vii corps was to take the base of the cotentin (code name, "utah beach"). the vii corps at utah would be on the extreme right flank of the invasion area, which stretched from the mouth of the orne river on the left (east) some 65 to 70 kilometers to the cotentin.
eisenhower needed to provide sufficient width to the invasion to bring in enough infantry divisions in the first wave to overpower the enemy, dug in behind hitler's "atlantic wall."(1) in one way, utah was the easiest of the five assault beaches. at the british and canadian beaches ("sword," "juno," and "gold," east of omaha) the numerous vacation homes, small shops, and hotels and casinos that lined the coast provided the germans
1. "hitler made only one big mistake when he built his atlantic wall," the paratroopers liked to say. "he forgot to put a roof on it."
with excellent protection for machine-gun nests, while at omaha a bluff rising from the beach to a height of 200-300 feet gave the german defenders, dug into a trench system on a world war i scale, the ability to shoot down on troops coming out of the landing craft. but utah had neither bluff nor houses. there were some fixed defenses, made of reinforced concrete, containing artillery and machine-guns. the biggest was at la madeleine, in the middle of utah (the fortification took its name from a nearby religious shrine that dated back to viking days). but the gradual slope and low sand dunes at utah meant that getting across and beyond the beach was not going to be as difficult as at omaha.
the problem at utah was what lay inland. behind the sand dunes was low ground, used by the norman farmers for grazing cattle. four narrow, unimproved roads ran inland from the beach; these roads were raised a meter or so above the ground. field marshal erwin rommel, the german commander, had flooded the fields, with the idea of forcing any troops and armor coming inland to use the roads ("causeways," eisenhower's planners called them). rommel had most of his artillery in camouflaged positions or reinforced casements and bunkers back from the flooded area, where it could bombard the roads; rommel had his infantry prepared to take up defensive positions along the western end of the roads, where it could repel any troops moving up them.
the task eisenhower gave the 101st was to seize these causeway exits. the method to be used was a night drop. the aim was to disrupt the germans, create surprise and havoc, and get control of those exits and destroy the big guns before the germans could react.
it would be an intricate, tricky, and risky operation. to have any chance of success, it would be necessary to practice. for the practice to be realistic, it would be necessary to find a piece of the english coastline similar to utah beach.
slapton sands, in devonshire, in southwestern england, was similar to utah. a long narrow stretch of beach was separated from dry ground by a shallow lake and adjoining swamp. two bridges crossed from the shoreline to high ground. and so it was that the vii corps carried out its rehearsals for the part it was to play on d-day at slapton sands.
at the end of april, the entire vii corps participated in exercise tiger. e company rode in trucks to a resort hotel on the seashore at torquay, where it spent a comfortable night. the next day, april 26, it was back into the trucks for a ride to an area back from slapton sands from which all civilians had been evacuated. the company slept in the field until midnight, when trucks brought the men forward to a simulated drop zone. after assembly, the company marched overland through a mist to an elevated point a mile back from the beach and set up a defensive position, guarding the bridge.

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at dawn, webster wrote, "we could see a vast fleet of amphibious craft moving slowly in to land. i've never seen so many ships together at one time; an invasion fleet is the most impressive sight in the world." what he had not seen was the disaster of the previous evening. german torpedo boats had slipped in among the lsts and other big assault craft carrying the 4th infantry. the germans sank two lsts and damaged others; more than 900 men drowned. the incident was covered up by the allies for fear that it would hurt morale among the troops scheduled to go to france in lsts (it remained covered up for more than forty years, evidently out of embarrassment).
webster, watching the men of the 4th infantry come up from the beach and pass through e company's positions, noted that they were "sweating, cursing, panting." he also recorded that the officers informed the men that "we cannot write about our torquay excursion." in the afternoon, the company made a 25-mile march, then bivouacked in a woods for the night. in the morning of april 28, it rode in trucks back to aldbourne.
that weekend malarkey, chuck grant, skip muck, and joe toye got passes to london, with muck's best friend from tonawanda, new york, fritz niland of the 501st pir. there they met niland's brother bob, who was a squad leader in the 82nd airborne and who had seen action in north africa and sicily. they spent the evening in a pub listening to bob niland talk about combat. he made a remark that malarkey never forgot: "if you want to be a hero, the germans will make one out of you real quick—dead!" on the train going back to aldbourne, malarkey told muck that it sounded to him like bob niland had lost his effectiveness.
back in aldbourne in the first week of may, e company went through more problems, attacking gun positions, bridges, causeways, and other objectives, once attacking after a real jump, other times simulating the air flight and "jumping" out of trucks.
from may 9 to 12, the 101st held its dress rehearsal for d-day, code name "operation eagle." the entire division participated. easy used the same airfield it would use on d-day, uppottery. personnel and equipment were loaded onto the same aircraft the company would use on the real thing; the takeoff, drop, and assembly followed the plan as close to the letter as possible, including spending the same amount of time in flight.2
climbing aboard the c-47s was difficult, because of all the gear each man carried. individuals were overloaded, following the age-old tendency of soldiers going into combat to attempt to be ready for every conceivable emergency. the vest and long drawers issued each man were impregnated, to ward off a possible chemical attack; it made them cumbersome, they stank, they itched, they kept in heat and caused torrents of sweat. the combat jacket and trousers were also treated. the men carried a pocket knife in the lapel of their blouses, to be used to cut themselves out of their harness if they landed in a tree. in their baggy trousers pockets they had a spoon, razor, socks, cleaning patches, flashlight, maps, three-day supply of k-rations, an emergency ration package (four chocolate bars, a pack of charms, powdered coffee, sugar, and matches), ammunition, a compass, two fragmentation grenades, an antitank mine, a smoke grenade, a gammon bomb (a 2-pound plastic explosive for use against tanks), and cigarettes, two cartons per man. the soldier topped his uniform with a webbing belt and braces, a .45 pistol (standard for noncoms and officers; privates had to get their own, and most did), water canteen, shovel, first aid kit and bayonet. over this went his parachute harness, his main parachute in its backpack, and reserve parachute hooked on in front. a gas mask was strapped to his left leg and a jump-knife/bayonet to his right. across his chest the soldier slung his musette bag with his spare underwear and ammunition, and in some cases tnt sticks, along with his broken-down rifle or machine-gun or mortar diagonally up-and-down across his front under his reserve chute pack, leaving both hands free to handle the risers. over everything he wore his mae west life jacket. finally, he put on his helmet.
2. leonard rapport and arthur northwood, jr., rendezvous with destiny: a history of the 101st airborne division (fort campbell, ky.: 101st airborne division association, 1948), 68-69.

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some men added a third knife. others found a place for extra ammunition. gordon, carrying his machine-gun, figured he weighed twice his normal weight. nearly every man had to be helped into the c-47. once aboard, the men were so wedged in they could not move.
general taylor had moved heaven and earth to get enough c-47s for operation eagle. the planes were in constant demand for logistical support throughout eto, and troop carrier command came last on the list. it was cheated on equipment. the fuel tanks did not have armor protection from flak.
easy got its briefing for eagle on may 10-11. the objective was a gun battery covering the beach. at dusk on may 11, easy took off. the planes made "legs" over england, flying for about two-and-a-half hours. shortly after midnight, the company jumped. for easy, the exercise went smoothly; for other companies, there were troubles. second battalion headquarters company was with a group that ran into a german air raid over london. flak was coming up; the formation broke up; the pilots could not locate the dz. eight of the nine planes carrying company h of the 502nd dropped their men on the village of ramsbury, line miles from the dz. twenty-eight planes returned to their airfields with the paratroopers still aboard. others jumped willy-nilly, leading to many accidents. nearly 500 men suffered broken bones, sprains, or other injuries.
the only consolation the airborne commanders could find in this mess was that by tradition a bad dress rehearsal leads to a great opening night.
on the last day of may, the company marched down to trucks lined up on the hungerford road. half the people of aldbourne, and nearly all the unmarried girls, were there to wave good-bye. there were many tears. the baggage left behind gave some hope that the boys would be back.
training had come to an end. there had been twenty-two months of it, more or less continuous. the men were as hardened physically as it was possible for human beings to be. not even "professional boxers” or football players were in better shape. they were disciplined, prepared to carry out orders instantly and un-questioningly. they were experts in the use of their own weapon, knowledgeable in the use of other weapons, familiar with and capable of operating german weapons. they could operate radios, knew a variety of hand signals, could recognize various smoke signals. they were skilled in tactics, whether the problem was attacking a battery or a blockhouse or a trench system or a hill defended by machine-guns. each man knew the duties and responsibilities of a squad or platoon leader and was prepared to assume those duties if necessary. they knew how to blow bridges, how to render artillery pieces inoperative. they could set up a defensive position in an instant. they could live in the field, sleep in a foxhole, march all day and through the night. they knew and trusted each other. within easy company they had made the best friends they had ever had, or would ever have. they were prepared to die for each other; more important, they were prepared to kill for each other.
they were ready. but, of course, going into combat for the first time is an ultimate experience for which one can never be fully ready. it is anticipated for years in advance,- it is a test that produces anxiety, eagerness, tension, fear of failure, anticipation. there is a mystery about the thing, heightened by the fact that those who have done it cannot put into words what it is like, how it feels, except that getting shot at and shooting to kill produce extraordinary emotional reactions. no matter how hard you train, nor however realistic the training, no one can ever be fully prepared for the intensity of the real thing.
and so the men of easy company left aldbourne full of self-confidence and full of trepidation.
easy's marshaling area in southwestern england, about 10 miles from the coast, was an open field beside the airstrip at uppottery. the company lived in pyramidal tents. "our standard of living went up considerably," webster wrote. "we stuffed ourselves at the hospitable mess hall [a wall tent] ('want some more, boys? just help yourselves—take all you want.') on such luxuries as fried chicken, fruit cocktail, white bread with lots of butter. the realization that we were being fattened for the slaughter didn't stop us from going back for seconds."
troops wearing german uniforms and carrying german weapons roamed constantly through the marshaling area, to familiarize the men with what the enemy looked like and what weapons they carried.
on june 2, the company officers got their briefings from former e company officers, 1st lieutenant nixon (now 2nd battalion s-2) and captain hester (s-3). on sand tables that showed terrain features, houses, roads, dunes, and the rest, and on maps, nixon and hester explained that easy would be dropping near ste. marie-du-mont, about 10 kilometers south of ste. mere-eglise, with the objective of killing the german garrison in the village and seizing the exit at causeway no. 2, the road coming up from the coast just north of the village of pouppeville. the 3rd platoon was given the task of blowing up a communications line leading inland from la madeleine.

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the detailed information given out by nixon and hester, and by other intelligence officers briefing other companies, was truly amazing. they passed around aerial photographs of the dz that showed not only roads, buildings, and the like, but even foxholes. one member of the 506th recalled that his company was told that the german commandant at its objective, st. c6me-du-mont, owned a white horse and was going with a french schoolteacher who lived on a side street just two buildings away from a german gun emplacement that was zeroed in on causeway no. 1. he took his dog for a walk every evening at 2000.3
3. donald r. burgett, curahee! (boston: houghton mifflin, 1967), 67. 62

each officer had to learn the company mission by heart, know his own and every other platoon's mission to the most minute detail, and be able to draw a map of the whole area by memory. one point was made very clear, that the germans relied less on their fixed coastal defenses than on their ability to counterattack. mobile reserve units would start hitting the 4th infantry wherever its units threatened to make it across the causeways. the briefers therefore impressed strongly on the officers that, regardless of where their platoons were or how many of their men they had managed to collect, if they spotted german units moving toward the causeways, they should fire upon them with everything they had. even a five-minute delay thus imposed on the germans could mean the difference between success and failure at utah beach. the importance of each mission was likewise emphasized, most effectively. winters said, "i had the feeling that we were going in there and win the whole damn thing ourselves. it was our baby."
on june 3, winters and the other platoon leaders walked their men through the briefing tent, showing them the sand tables and maps, telling them what they had learned.

sergeant guarnere needed to use the latrine. he grabbed a jacket and strolled over to the facility. sitting down, he put his hand in a pocket and pulled out a letter. it was addressed to sergeant martin—guarnere had taken martin's jacket by mistake—but guarnere read it anyway. martin's wife was the author; they had been married in georgia in 1942, and mrs. martin knew most of the members of the company. she wrote, "don't tell bill [guarnere], but his brother was killed in casino, italy."
"you can't imagine the anger i felt," guarnere said later. "i swore that when i got to normandy, there ain't no german going to be alive. i was like a maniac. when they sent me into france, they turned a killer loose, a wild man."
on june 4, easy was issued its ammunition, $10 worth of new french francs just printed in washington, an escape kit containing a silk map of france, a tiny brass compass, and a hacksaw. the men were given an american flag to sew on the right sleeves of their jump jackets. officers removed their insignia from their uniforms and painted vertical stripes on the back of their helmets; n.c.o.s had horizontal stripes. everyone was given the verbal challenge, "flash," the password, "thunder," and the response, "welcome." they were also given small metal dime-store crickets, for alternative identification: one squeeze (click-clack) to be answered by two (click-clack . . . click-clack).
the men spent the day cleaning weapons, sharpening knives, adjusting the parachutes, checking equipment over and over, chain-smoking cigarettes. many of the men shaved their heads, or got mohawk haircuts (bald on each side, with a one- or two-inch strip of short hair running from the forehead to the back of the neck). pvts. forrest guth and joseph liebgott did the cutting, at 15c per man.
colonel sink came round, saw the haircutting going on, smiled, and said, "i forgot to tell you, some weeks ago we were officially notified that the germans are telling french civilians that the allied invasion forces would be led by american paratroopers, all of them convicted felons and psychopaths, easily recognized by the fact that -they shave their heads or nearly so."

first lt. raymond schmitz decided to ease the tension with some physical activity. he challenged winters to a boxing match. "come on, winters, let's go out there behind the tents and box." "no, go away."
schmitz kept after him. finally he said, "o.k., let's wrestle." "dammit, enough, you've been egging me long enough, let's go."
winters had been a wrestler in college. he took schmitz down immediately, but he threw him too hard. schmitz suffered two cracked vertebrae, went to the hospital, and did not get to go to normandy. his assistant leader of the 3rd platoon, 2nd lt. robert mathews, took his place, with sergeant lipton as his second in command. the rest of that day and night on up to the time the men strapped on their parachutes, winters had a constant line of troopers asking him, with smiles on their faces, to break their arms or crack their vertebrae.
general taylor circulated among the men. he told them, "give me three days and nights of hard fighting, then you will be relieved." that sounded good. three days and three nights, winters thought to himself. i can take that. taylor also said that when the c-47s crossed the coastline of france, he wanted every man to stand up; if a trooper got hit by flak, he wanted him to be standing and take it like a man. there was a point to the order that went beyond bravado; if a plane got hit the men hooked up and ready to jump would stand some chance of getting out. taylor told malarkey's platoon to fight with knives until daylight, "and don't take any prisoners."
that night, june 4, the company got an outstanding meal. steak, green peas, mashed potatoes, white bread, ice cream, coffee, in unlimited quantities. it was their first ice cream since arriving in england nine months earlier. sergeant martin remembered being told, "when you get ice cream for supper, you know that's the night." but a terrific wind was blowing, and just as the men were preparing to march to their c-47s, they were told to stand down. eisenhower had postponed the invasion because of the adverse weather.
easy went to a wall tent to see a movie. gordon remembered that it was mr. lucky, starring gary grant and laraine day. sergeants lipton and elmer murray (the company operations sergeant) skipped the movie. they spent the evening discussing different combat situations that might occur and how they would handle them.
by the afternoon of june 5, the wind had died down, the sky cleared a bit. someone found cans of black and green paint. men began to daub their faces in imitation of the sioux at the little bighorn, drawing streaks of paint down their noses and foreheads. others took charcoal and blackened their faces.
at 2030 hours the men lined up by the planeload, eighteen to a group, and marched off to the hangars. "no sang, no cheered," webster wrote. "it was like a death march." winters remembered going past some british antiaircraft units stationed at the field, "and that was the first time i'd ever seen any real emotion from a limey, they actually had tears in their eyes."

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at the hangars, each jumpmaster was given two packs of papers, containing an order of the day from eisenhower and a message from colonel sink, to pass around to the men. "tonight is the night of nights," said sink's. "may god be with each of you fine soldiers." eisenhower's began, "soldiers, sailors and airmen of the allied expeditionary force! you are about to embark upon the great crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. the eyes of the world are upon you. . . . good luck! and let us all beseech the blessing of almighty god upon this great and noble undertaking."
in addition to the exhortations, the jumpmasters passed around airsickness pills. who thought of the pills is a mystery; why they were passed around an even greater mystery, as airsickness had seldom been a problem.
something else was new. the british airborne had come up with the idea of "leg bags." these bags contained extra ammunition, radios, machine-gun tripods, medical gear, high explosives, and other equipment. they were to be attached to individual paratroopers by a quick release mechanism and fastened to his parachute harness by a coiled 20-foot rope. when the chute opened, the trooper was supposed to hold the weight of the leg pack, pull its release to separate it from his leg, and let it down to the end of the rope. it would hit the ground before he did. in theory, the trooper would land on top of the bundle and not have to waste any time looking for his equipment. it seemed sensible, but no one in the american airborne had ever jumped with a leg bag. the yanks liked the idea of the thing, and stuffed everything they could into those leg bags—mines, ammunition, broken-down tommy guns, and more.
the men threw their kits, parachutes, and leg bags into the waiting trucks, climbed in themselves, and were driven out to the waiting planes.
"with that done," winters wrote in his diary, "we went to work harnessing up. it's here that a good jump master can do the most for his men. getting all that equipment on, tied down, make it comfortable and safe, then a parachute over the top, calls for a lot of ingenuity and sales talk to satisfy the men that all's well."
dressed for battle, they sat under the wings of the planes, waiting. the nervousness increased. "this is the jump where your problems begin after you land," they told one another. it was the "$10,000 jump" (the men had $10,000 g.i. life insurance). men struggled to their feet to go to the edge of the runway to relieve themselves, got back, sat down, and two minutes later repeated the process. joe toye recalled lieutenant meehan coming over to his plane to tell the men, "no prisoners. we are not taking any prisoners."
at 2200, mount up. the jumpmasters pushed their men up the steps, each of them carrying at least 100 pounds, many 150 pounds. one 101st trooper spoke for all 13,400 men in the two airborne divisions when he got to the door of his c-47, turned to the east, and called, "look out, hitler! here we come!"
at 2310 the c-47s began roaring down the runway. when they reached 1,000 feet, they began to circle, getting into a v of vs formation, three planes to each v. as they straightened out for france, most of the men found it difficult to stay awake. this was the effect of those pills. through that night, and into the next day, paratroopers had trouble staying awake. joe toye did fall asleep on his flight: "i was never so calm in all my life," he recalled. "jesus, i was more excited on practice jumps."
on winters's plane, pvt. joe hogan tried to get a song going, but it was soon lost in the roar of the motors. on gordon's plane, as on most, men were lost in their own thoughts or prayers. pvt. wayne sisk of west virginia broke the mood by calling out, "does any here want to buy a good watch?" that brought a roar of laughter and a lessening of the tension.
winters prayed the whole way over, prayed to live through it, prayed that he wouldn't fail. "every man, i think, had in his mind, 'how will i react under fire?' "
with lieutenant schmidt in hospital, sergeant lipton was jump-master on his plane. the pilot gave the paratroopers a choice; they could ride with the door off, giving them fresh air and a chance to get out if the plane was hit, or ride with the door in place, which would allow them to smoke. they chose to take it off, which allowed lipton to lie on the floor with his head partly out the door. most of the men were asleep, or nearly so, a consequence of the airsickness pills.
as the c-47 crossed the channel, lipton saw a sight no one had ever seen before, nor would anyone ever see again, a sight that every man who was in the air that night never forgot: the invasion fleet, 6,000 vessels strong, heading toward normandy.
gordon carson was with lieutenant welsh. as the plane crossed the channel, welsh told the men near the front, "look down." they did, "and all you could see was wakes. no one ever saw so many ships and boats before." carson commented, "you had to be a little bit awed that you were part of a thing that was so much greater than you."

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at 0100, june 6, the planes passed between the islands of guernsey and jersey. in his plane, the pilot called back to winters, "twenty minutes out." the crew chief removed the door of the plane, giving winters, standing no. 1, a rush of fresh air and a view of the coast. "stand up and hook up," he called out. the red light went on.
at 0110, the planes passed over the coast and into a cloud bank. this caused the formation to break up. the lead v plowed straight ahead, but the vs to each side veered off, the one to the right breaking away in that direction, the one on the left over the opposite way. this was the natural, inevitable reaction of the pilots, who feared midair collisions. when they broke out of the cloud bank, which was only a mile or two across, every pilot was on his own. only the lead pilots had the device that would lead them to the pathfinders' eureka signals;(4)
4. pathfinders were specially trained volunteers who dropped in an hour ahead of the main of troops to set up a radio beacon on the dz to guide the lead plane. easy's pathfinders were cpl. richard wright and pvt. carl fenstermaker.
with the formation gone, none of the others knew when or where to turn on the green light. they could only guess.
lost, bewildered, frightened, the pilots immediately had another worry. antiaircraft fire began coming up at them, blue, green, and red tracers indicating its path. it was light stuff, 20 and 40 mm. when it hit the planes, it made a sound like rocks being shaken in a tin can. on harry welsh's plane, some ack-ack came through exactly where he had been sitting a minute before.
the pilots were supposed to slow down before turning on the green light, but as gordon put it, "here they were thrust into the very jaws of this violence and they had never had one minute of combat experience, so they were absolutely terrified. and rather than throttle down, they were kind of like a fellow thinking with his feet, they thought with that throttle. and they said, 'my god, common sense will tell me the quicker i get out of here, the better chance i have of surviving, and that's unfortunate for the boys back there, but be that as it may, i'm getting out of here.' "
so they increased speed, up to 150 miles per hour in many cases, and although they did not have the slightest idea where they were, except that it was somewhere over normandy, they hit the green light.
men began shouting, "let's go, let's go." they wanted out of those planes; never had they thought they would be so eager to jump. lipton's plane was "bouncing and weaving, and the men were yelling, 'let's get out of here!' " they were only 600 feet up, the 40 mm antiaircraft tracers coming closer and closer. "about the time the tracers were popping right past the tail of the plane," lipton remembered, "the green light went on." he leaped out. pvt. james alley was no. 2, pvt. paul rogers no. 3. alley had been told to throw his leg bag out the door and follow it into the night. he did as told and ended up flat on the floor with his head and half his out of the plane, his bag dangling in the air, about to pull him in half. rogers, who was "strong as a bull," threw him out the door and jumped right behind.
leo boyle was the last man in the stick on his plane. there was this "tremendous turbulence" as the green light went on and the men began leaping out into the night. the plane lurched. boyle was thrown violently down to the floor. the plane was flying at a tilt. boyle had to reach up for the bottom of the door, pull himself to it, and roll out of the c-47 into the night.
tracers were everywhere. the lead plane in stick 66, flown by lt. harold cappelluto, was hit with bullets going through it and out the top, throwing sparks. the plane maintained course and speed for a moment or two, then did a slow wingover to the right. pilot frank deflita, just behind, remembered that "cappelluto's landing lights came on, and it appeared they were going to make it, when the plane hit a hedgerow and exploded." it was the plane carrying lieutenant meehan, 1st sergeant evans, and the rest of the company headquarters section, including sergeant murray, who had held that long talk with lipton about how to handle different combat situations. he never got to experience any of the possibilities he and lipton had tried to visualize.
easy company had not put one man into combat yet, and it had already lost platoon leader schmitz, company commander meehan, and its first sergeant.
pvt. rod strohl was one of those so overloaded that he could not put on his reserve chute. "i remember thinking, well, hell, if you need it, and it doesn't open, it's going to be over in a hurry, and if you don't need it, you don't need it." his plane got hit and started going down. as his stick went out, "the pilot and co-pilot came out with us."
george luz was on welsh's plane. he had barely made it, as in addition to all the regular gear he was carrying a radio and batteries, and had been unable to get into the plane until a bunch of air corps guys pushed him in. once inside, he had turned to welsh to say, "lieutenant, you got me fifth man in the stick, and i'll never make it to the door." so welsh had told him to change places with pvt. roy cobb. when the flak started ("you could walk on it," luz remembered; carson said "we wanted to get out of there so damn bad it was unbelievable") cobb called out, "i'm hit!"
"can you stand up?" welsh shouted.
"i can't."
"unhook him," welsh ordered. mike ranney unhooked cobb from the static line. (private rader recalled, "cobb was some pissed. to have trained so hard for two years and not get to make the big jump was hell.") just then the red light went on, flashed a second, and was hit by flak. "i had no way of telling anything " welsh recalled, "so i said 'go' and jumped." luz kicked his leg bag containing the radio and other equipment out the door and leaped into the night.
thus did 13,400 of america's finest youth, who had been training for this moment for two years, hurl themselves against hitler's fortress europe.

yuemuping

5 "follow me"
*
normandy
june 6,1944
they jumped much too low from planes that were flying much too fast. they were carrying far too much equipment and using an untested technique that turned out to be a major mistake. as they left the plane, the leg bags tore loose and hurtled to the ground, in nearly every case never to be seen again. simultaneously, the prop blast tossed them this way and that. with all the extra weight and all the extra speed, when the chutes opened, the shock was more than they had ever experienced. jumping at 500 feet, and even less, they hit the ground within seconds of the opening of the chute, so they hit hard. the men were black and blue for a week or more afterward as a result.
in a diary entry written a few days later, lieutenant winters tried to re-create his thoughts in those few seconds he was in the air: "we're doing 150 mph. o.k., let's go. g-d, there goes my leg pack and every bit of equipment i have. watch it, boy! watch it! j-c, they're trying to pick me up with those machine-guns. slip, slip, try and keep close to that leg pack. there it lands beside that hedge. g-d that machine-gun. there's a road, trees-hope i don't hit them. thump, well that wasn't too bad, now let's get out of this chute."
burt christenson jumped right behind winters. "i don't think i did anything i had been trained to do, but suddenly i got a tremendous shock when my parachute opened." his leg bag broke loose and "it was history." he could hear a bell ringing in ste. mere-eglise, and see a fire burning in town. machine-gun bullets "are gaining on me. i climb high into my risers. christ, i'm headed for that line of trees. i'm descending too rapidly." as he passed over the trees, he pulled his legs up to avoid hitting them. "a moment of terror seized me. 70 ft. below and 20 ft. to my left, a german quad mounted 20 mm antiaircraft gun is firing on the c-47's passing overhead." lucky enough for christenson, the germans' line of fire was such that their backs were to him, and the noise was such that they never heard him hit, although he was only 40 yards or so away.
christenson cut himself out of his chute, pulled his six-shot revolver, and crouched at the base of an apple tree. he stayed still, moving only his eyes.
"suddenly i caught movement ten yards away, a silhouette of a helmeted man approaching on all fours. i reached for my cricket and clicked it once, click-clack. there was no response. the figure began to move toward me again."
christenson pointed his revolver at the man's chest and click-clacked again. the man raised his hands. "for christ sake, don't shoot." it was pvt. woodrow robbins, christenson's assistant gunner on the machine-gun.
"you dumb shit, what the hell's wrong with you? why didn't you use your cricket?" christenson demanded in a fierce whisper.
"i lost the clicker part of the cricket."
slowly the adrenalin drained from christenson's brain, and the two men began backing away from the german position. they ran into bull randleman, who had a dead german at his feet. randleman related that the moment he had gotten free of his chute he had fixed his bayonet. suddenly a german came charging, his bayonet fixed. randleman knocked the weapon aside, then impaled the german on his bayonet. "that kraut picked the wrong guy to play bayonets with," christenson remarked.
lieutenant welsh's plane was at 250 feet, "at the most," when he jumped. as he emerged from the c-47, another plane crashed immediately beneath him. he claimed that the blast from the explosion threw him up and to the side "and that saved my life." his chute opened just in time to check his descent just enough to make the "thump" when he landed painful but not fatal.
most of the men of easy had a similar experience. few of them were in the air long enough to orient themselves with any precision, although they could tell from the direction the planes were flying which was the way to the coast.
they landed to hell and gone. the tight pattern within the dz near ste. marie-du-mont that they had hoped for, indeed had counted on for quick assembly of the company, was so badly screwed up by the evasive action the pilots had taken when they hit the cloud bank that e company men were scattered from carentan to ravenoville, a distance of 20 kilometers. the pathfinders, richard wright and carl fenstermaker, came down in the channel after their plane was hit (they were picked up by h.m.s. tartar, transferred to air sea rescue, and taken to england).
pvt. tom burgess came down near ste. mere-eglise. like most of the paratroopers that night, he did not know where he was. low-flying planes roared overhead, tracers chasing after them, the sky full of descending americans, indistinct and unidentifiable figures dashing or creeping through the fields, machine-guns pop-pop-popping all around. after cutting himself out of his chute with his pocket knife, he used his cricket to identify himself to a lieutenant he did not know. together they started working their way toward the beach, hugging the ubiquitous hedgerows. other troopers joined them, some from the 82nd (also badly scattered in the jump), some from different regiments of the 101st. they had occasional, brief firefights with german patrols.

yuemuping

the lieutenant made burgess the lead scout. at first light, he came to a corner of the hedgerow he was following. a german soldier hiding in the junction of hedgerows rose up. burgess didn't see him. the german fired, downward. the bullet hit burgess's cheekbone, went through the right cheek, fractured it, tore away the hinge of the jaw, and came out the back of his neck. blood squirted out his cheek, from the back of his neck, and from his ear. he nearly choked to death.
"i wanted to live," burgess recalled forty-five years later. "they had hammered into us that the main thing if you get hit is don't get excited, the worst thing you can do is go nuts." so he did his best to stay calm. the guys with him patched him up as best they could, got bandages over the wounds, and helped him into a nearby barn, where he collapsed into the hay. he passed out.
at midnight, a french farmer "came out to the barn and sat there and held my hand. he even kissed my hand." he brought a bottle of wine. on the morning of june 7, the farmer fetched two medics and lent them a horse-drawn cart, which they used to take burgess down to the beach. he was evacuated to england, then back to the states. he arrived in boston on new year's eve, 1944. he was on a strictly liquid diet until march 1945, when he took his first bite of solid food since his last meal at uppottery, june 5, 1944.
private gordon hit hard. he had no idea where he was, but he had a definite idea of what he was determined to do first—assemble his machine-gun. he tucked himself into a hedgerow and did the job. as he finished, "i noticed this figure coming, and i realized it was john eubanks from the way he walked." shortly thereafter forrest guth joined them. another figure loomed in the dark. "challenge him," gordon to eubanks. before eubanks could do so, the man called out, "flash." eubanks forgot the countersign ("thunder") and forgot that the clicker was an alternative identification option, and instead said, "lightning." the man lobbed a grenade in on the three e company men. they scattered, it went off, fortunately no one was hurt, the soldier disappeared, which was probably good for the group, as he was clearly much too nervous to trust.
gordon, eubanks, and guth started moving down a hedgerow toward the beach. they saw an american paratrooper running through the field, crouch, and jump into a drainage ditch (there was a three-quarters moon that night, and few clouds over the land, so visibility was fair). gordon told the others to stay still, he would check it out. he crept to the ditch, where "i encountered these two eyeballs looking up at me and the muzzle of a pistol right in my face."
"gordon, is that you?" it was sgt. floyd talbert. now there were four. together they continued creeping, crawling, moving toward the beach. a half-hour or so before first light, guth heard what he was certain was the howling and whining of a convoy of 2'/2 ton g.i. trucks going past. how could that be? the seaborne invasion hadn't even started, much less put truck convoys ashore. some tremendous bursts coming from inland answered the question: the noise guth heard came from the shells passing overhead, shells from the 16-inch naval guns on the battleships offshore.
the e company foursome joined up with a group from the 502nd that had just captured a german strong point in a large farm complex that dominated the crossroads north of the beach at ravenoville. they spent the day defending the fortress from counterattacks. in the morning of d-day plus one, they set out southward in search of their company.
jim alley crashed into a wall behind a house, one of those french walls with broken glass imbedded in the top. he was cut and bleeding in several places. he backed into the corner of a garden and was in the process of cutting himself out of the harness when someone grabbed his arm. it was a young woman, standing in the bushes.
"me american," alley whispered. "go vay, go vay." she went back into her house.
alley found his leg pack, got his gear together (thirteen rounds of 60 mm mortar ammunition, four land mines, ammunition for his m-l, hand grenades, food, the base plate for the mortar and other stuff), climbed to the top of the wall, and drew machine-gun fire. it was about a foot low. he got covered with plaster before he could fall back into the garden.
he lay down to think about what to do. he ate one of his hershey bars and decided to go out the front way. before he could move, the young woman came out of the house, looked at him, and proceeded out the front gate. alley figured, "this is it. i'll make my stand here." soon she returned. a soldier stepped through the gate after her. "i had my gun on him and he had his on me." they recognized each other,- he was from the 505th.
"where the hell am i?" alley demanded. he was told "ste. mere-eglise." he joined up with the 505th. at about daybreak he ran into paul rogers and earl mcclung from easy. they spent the day, and the better part of the week that followed, fighting with the 505th.
all across the peninsula, throughout the night and into the day of d-day, paratroopers were doing the same—fighting skirmishes, joining together in ad hoc units, defending positions, harassing the germans, trying to link up with their units. this was exactly what they had been told to do. their training and confidence thus overcame what could have been a disaster, and thereby turned the scattered drop from a negative into a plus. the germans, hearing reports of action here, there, everywhere, grossly overestimated the number of troopers they were dealing with, and therefore reacted in a confused and hesitant manner.
winters had come down on the edge of ste. mere-eglise. he could see the big fire near the church, hear the church bell calling out the citizens to fight the fire. he could not find his leg bag. the only weapon he had was his bayonet, stuck into his boot. his first thought was to get away from the machine-gun and small arms fire in the church square. just as he started off, a trooper landed close by. winters helped him out of his chute, got a grenade from him, and said "let's go back and find my leg bag." the trooper hesitated. "follow me," winters ordered and started off. a machine-gun opened up on them. "to hell with the bag," winters said. he set out to the north to bypass ste. mere-eglise before turning east to the coast. in a few minutes, he saw some figures and used his cricket. he got a reassuring double click-clack from sergeant lipton.

yuemuping

lipton had landed in a walled-in area behind the hotel de ville (city hall) in ste. mere-eglise, a block from the church. like winters, he had lost his weapon when he lost his leg bag. in his musette bag he had two grenades and a demolitions kit, plus his trench knife. he climbed over a gate and worked his way down the street, away from the church and the fire. at the edge of town there was a low, heavy concrete signpost with the name of the village on it. lipton put his face up close to the letters and moved along them, reading them one by one, until he knew that the sign read "ste. mere-eglise."
paratroopers were coming down around him. not wanting to get shot by a nervous american, when he saw two coming down close together, he ran right under them. when they hit the ground, before they could even think about shooting, lipton was already talking to them. they were from the 82nd airborne, 10 kilometers away from where they were supposed to be. sergeant guarnere joined up, along with don malarkey, joe toye, and popeye wynn. a few minutes later, lipton ran into winters.
"i saw a road sign down there," lipton reported. "ste. mere-eglise."
"good," winters answered. "i know where that is. i can take it from here." he set out at the head of the group, objective ste. marie-du-mont. they joined a bunch from the 502nd. about 0300 hours they spotted a german patrol, four wagons coming down the road. they set up an ambush, and there guarnere got his first revenge for his brother, as he blasted the lead wagons. the other two got away, but e company took a few prisoners.
a german machine-gun opened fire on the group. when it did, the prisoners tried to jump the americans. guarnere shot them with his pistol. "no remorse," he said when describing the incident forty-seven years later. "no pity. it was as easy as stepping on a bug." after a pause, he added, "we are different people now than we were then."
at about 0600 hours they ran into capt. jerre gross of d company and forty of his men. they joined forces to head toward ste. marie-du-mont, some 8 kilometers southeast. in a few minutes they ran into the 2nd battalion staff with about forty more men. winters found an m-l, then a revolver, belt, canteen, and lots of ammunition, "so i was feeling ready to fight—especially after i bummed some food from one of the boys." lipton found a carbine. the others armed themselves.
as the americans moved toward ste. marie-du-mont, so did the commander of the german unit defending the area, col. frederick von der heydte of the 6th parachute regiment. he was an experienced soldier, having been in the german army since the mid-1920s and having led men in combat in poland, france, russia, crete, and north africa. colonel von der heydte was the senior german officer present, as the division commanders were in rennes, on the seine river, for a war game. he had one battalion in and around ste. mere-eglise, another near ste. marie-du-mont, the third in carentan. all his platoons were standing too, some were trying to engage the americans, but confusion caused by reports of landings here, there, seemingly everywhere had made concerted counterattacks impossible.
colonel von der heydte wanted to see for himself. he drove his motorcycle from carentan to ste. marie-du-mont, where he climbed to the top of the church steeple, 50 or 60 meters above the ground. there he had a magnificent view of utah beach.
what he saw quite took his breath away. "all along the beach," he recalled in a 1991 interview, "were these small boats, hundreds of them, each disgorging thirty or forty armed men. behind them were the warships, blasting away with their huge guns, more warships in one fleet than anyone had ever seen before."
around the church, in the little village and beyond in the green fields crisscrossed by hedgerows, all was quiet. the individual firefights of the night had tapered off with the coming of light. von der heydte could see neither american nor german units.
climbing down from the steeple, the colonel drove his motorcycle a couple of kilometers north to brecourt manor, where the german artillery had a battery of four 105 mm cannon dug in and camouflaged. there were no artillery men around; evidently they had scattered in the night after the airborne landings began. von der heydte roared back to carentan, where he ordered his 1st battalion to occupy and hold ste. marie-du-mont and brecourt, and to find some artillerymen to get that battery working. it was perfectly placed to lob shells on the landing craft on utah beach, and to engage the warships out in the channel.
by this time, about 0700, e company consisted of two light machine-guns, one bazooka (no ammunition), one 60 mm mortar, nine riflemen, and two officers. as the 2nd battalion moved into a group of houses in a tiny village called le grand-chemin, just three kilometers or so short of ste. marie-du-mont, it drew heavy fire from up-front. the column stopped; winters and his men sat down to rest. ten or fifteen minutes later, battalion s-l lt. george lavenson, formerly of e company, came walking down the road. "winters," he said, "they want you up-front."
captain hester, s-3, and lieutenant nixon, s-2, both close friends of winters, told him there was a four-gun battery of german 105 mm cannon a few hundred meters across some hedgerows and open fields, opposite a large french farmhouse called brecourt manor. intelligence had not spotted the cannon, as they were dug into the hedgerow, connected by an extensive trench system, covered by brush and trees. there was a fifty-man platoon of infantry defending the position (part of colonel von der heydte's 1st battalion); the cannon had just gone into action, firing on utah beach, some 4 or 5 kilometers to the northeast. the 2nd battalion was less than 100 men strong at that point. lieutenant colonel strayer had responsibilities in all four directions from le grand-chemin. he was trying to build his battalion up to somewhere near its full strength of 600 men, and to defend from counterattacks. he could only afford to send one company to attack the german battery. hester told winters to take care of that battery.
it was 0830. captain sobel was about to get a little revenge on hitler, the u.s. army was about to get a big payoff from its training and equipment investment, the american people were about to get their reward for having raised such fine young men. the company that sobel and the army and the country had brought into being and trained for this moment was going into action.
winters went to work instinctively and immediately. he told the men of e company to drop all the equipment they were carrying except weapons, ammunition, and grenades. he explained that the attack would be a quick frontal assault supported by a base of fire from different positions as close to the guns as possible. he set up the two machine-guns to give covering fire as he moved the men forward to their jump-off positions.