crazyforkasey-blog · 5 days ago
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When we met
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Final Chapter
Chapter 21
Zell Am See
At dawn on May 9, the ragtag convoy arrived at Zell Am See. Around the lake stood numerous mansions. The civilians and the German soldiers stood in amazement and stared at the ragtag soldiers. How did these bustards defeat them?
Winters and Katie were walking along the lakeshore. It was a beautiful day and Winters couldn't wait to jump into the lake and go for his morning swim.
"So did you give him an answer yet?" Katie asked Winters
"No I told him I would think about it," He told her and handed her his towel and jumped in the lake
The previous day Sink had approached Dick and offered him a promotion if he stayed in the army. Winters told Sink he would think about it. He wasn't too keen on the idea, all he really wanted was to go home to Pennsylvania and find a quiet place to live the rest of his life.
Katie heard footsteps behind her and turned around to find a hangover Nixon standing behind her
"Hey Nix, what can I do for you" Katie asked him and motioned for him to sit down
Nix sat down and handed Katie the package he was holding
"Oh great, we ran into the regimental photographer he told us he had a bunch of photos of easy company and we traded them for a couple of lugers" Katie opened the package and the first photo she pulled out was one of Winters and Nixon together
"I can't believe how handsome you were" A voice behind Nixon said
Nixon turned and grabbed Lane and pulled her into his lap "Hey that's not fair" He said and kissed her
The group returned to the hotel they stayed in, and sat down on the terrace. Dani, Speirs and Welsh joined them. Welsh told everybody that he was going home to Kitty. Speirs and Dani told everybody that they would stay in the army and all of them knew that Lane and Nix would return to New Jersey. The only ones who were undecided were Katie and Dick.
The sun was shining and the group was sunbathing. There wasn't a lot to do. After accepting the surrender of the Germans in the area and ordering all weapons to be collected at the local school and church and inspecting the camp for the POWs, Winters and Katie had little to do and that went for the men as well. Either displaced persons or locals willing to work for food or cigarettes did the activities of daily living.
The men spend a great deal of their time either swimming, playing sports, or doing close order drills.
The last task Winters had done was sorting out the German and American equipment that was no longer needed for combat and it was shipped to storage facilities in France.
It should have been the perfect summer for the men and women attached to second battalion and the first couple of weeks they loved it. Then the frustration with the army bureaucracy set in, they were bored, they were drinking too much and they wanted to go home.
Shifty had won the points drawing and he handed in his paperwork and gathered his loot. He showed up on the sun deck of the hotel where the officers were gathered and said his goodbyes. Lane hugged him and walked back into the hotel and Katie and Mia looked at him "Don't take it personal, she sucks at goodbyes" one by one the officers shook Shifty hand and he saluted them and got on board the waiting truck. The truck was hit by a passing G.I truck and an injured Shifty didn't get home until months after the comrades he left behind.
Adding to the problems of frustration and anger caused by the points system, was the combination of too much booze, too many pistols and too many captured vehicles.
There were many road accidents and there were seventy wrecks in the first three weeks in Austria, twenty men were killed and nearly one hundred injured.
Dani and Grant were driving a couple of privates to a roadblock one night. Dani went with him, Dani and Speirs, thought the world of Grant. They were talking about an incident, which had occurred during D. Day, the young private in the jeep didn't get it, he was a replacement who had joined them in Germany. He never met the infamous Bill Guarnere.
They were about a hundred yards from the roadblock, when they encountered a drunken G.I.
The G.I was standing with a pistol in his hand and two dead Germans at his feet. He had stopped the Germans and demanded Gas, because he was out, the two Germans didn't understand him and when they resisted he shot them dead.
A British S2 happened to drive by. He and his sergeant got out of the jeep they were driving, to check out what was going on, the drunk had pointed at them with his gun and told them to back off.
At that moment Grant and Dani came driving past. The drunk took a shot at Dani, but he missed her by three inches.
The British S2 made a move to disarm the drunk. The G.I turned on him and shot him and his sergeant, both of them died on the spot.
Before Dani could stop him, Grant was out of the jeep and he ran towards the G.I who turned and shot him in the Brain.
Dani screamed and shot the G.I in the knee and the shoulder with her side arm, she made sure he would live to be tortured by E. Company.
A jeep with Luz and Perconte drove by, they didn't stop, they just continued into town and when they told Speirs what happened, he and Foley got in a jeep and drove to the hospital and Katie got in the jeep with them and they drove towards the scene.
A jeep came racing past them and Speirs recognized Dani and turned around he sped all the way back and the two jeeps arrived at the same time.
Katie ran into the hospital and started to bark orders, she then escorted the stretcher with Grant on it to the O.R
Speirs started to follow, but Dani stopped him "Don't, he is in good hands, Katie know what she is doing she did part of her residency in neuro and she is the best in the field and they have an excellent brain surgeon on staff here"
The Drunk had been brought to Company HQ and was still alive, but he was about to wish he wasn't. The E. Company men was milling around him swearing revenge, it turned out the culprit had tried to rape a girl in Zell am See, just an hour before he shot Grant.
Luz walked thru the door to the hospital and found Speirs "We can't find the weapon," he whispered to him
Speirs got on his feet, Speirs rushed into HQ and shouted at the prisoner "Where is the weapon?"
"What weapon?" the prisoner spit out.
Speirs pulled his gun, reversed his grip to hold it by the barrel and hit the man right in the temple with the butt "When you talk to an officer you say sir " The man was escorted to the brick, where he was beaten until his blood ran.
Nixon, Lane and Dani were waiting for Speirs outside the room. Nixon looked at the two officers "Grant is gonna make it" he told them
Lane let out a breath she had been holding and shook her head; she grabbed Dani by the arm and dragged her out of the hotel and towards the lake.
"Ok let it out" Lane told Dani and waited for Dani to yell and curse
Dani just put her hands on her hips and started to pace "Goddamn son of a…how the hell…why the hell…oh god I can't believe it"
Dani never got any further "Hunt you should have shot him" Sink saluted the two girls and left
Lane looked after the regimental commander and laughed "What the hell"
Dani hugged Lane "You want to get drunk" She asked him
"Ah ha" Lane said
Lane and Mia stepped into the local Bier Keller and found half the company there. Mia was sitting on Lipton's lap. They were happy and they had their future planned out. Lane looked around the group of men. Yeah most of the men would have a bright future and if they took advantage of the G.I bill, they would do well.
Nixon and Winters stepped into the place and found the men. Nixon grabbed Lane and kissed her. "Dick and Katie are going to New Jersey with us"
Lane kissed him back and smiled. Yeah things were going to be ok. They would be ok. They would be family forever a Band of Brothers.
….
At the end of July the Company was transferred to France, the only veteran left was the long-suffering Webster.
Winters, Speirs, Nixon and the girls were still with the division and were waiting to get rotated home.
In August Katie and Mia were rotated home.
Nixon Winters, Speirs and Dani was sent to Berlin with 82nd airborne and Dani and Speirs fell in love with the town.
In November 101st was inactivated and Nixon and Winters were dismissed from the army and went home and Dani and Speirs were rotated back to fort Bragg.
The war was over and now civilian life awaited.
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crazyforkasey-blog · 5 days ago
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When we met
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Chapter 20
Germany May 1944
One could say many mean things about the Nazi's, but they sure knew how to build highways or the autobahn. Second battalion was driving through Germany, somewhere around ChiemSee they ran into the tail of the French armored division. The French had been on the regiment's left flank appearing and disappearing, Winters suspected the French were looting their way through Germany.
Their commanding officer General Leclerc had been the first to enter Paris and now he wanted to be the first to enter Berchtesgaden.
Around midday, second battalion ran into a roadblock over a ravine and they were now waiting for help.
Winters and Nixon were leaning against a jeep enjoying the sun "When are we expecting the engineers to arrive?" Winters asked Nixon
"Half an hour ago" Nixon said
Winters and Nixon continued to gripe about how the battalion was stuck and how the SS wasn't going to let them waltz into Berchtesgaden.
Speirs, who's limited patience had been tested, by the wait and Dani, who had gone into complete ADD mode and was bugging the living crap out of the whole company, walked up to the two officers "If you are looking for another way up the mountain, Easy willing and ready"
Winters opened his eyes and looked at Speirs "Duly noted, I already recommended you to Colonel Sink"
"Terrific let's go find out where Hitler lived" Speirs was already on his way back to his company
"Ron, we are not sure what is up there and the colonel don't want us to take any unnecessary risks," Winters told the already edgy commander of Easy
Ron let out an annoyed sigh "So the French are going to beat us to the Eagles Nest?"
At that very moment Colonel Sink pulled up in a jeep, he saluted the officers "Gents, I just had a conversation with general Leclerc, he told me he was first into Paris and by god he wanted to be first into Berchtesgaden, I told him I understood his point"
Sink took a deep drag of his cigarette and looked at Winters "Now you fire up second battalion and out flank that French son of bitch and if you succeed reserve Berchtesgaden Hof for regimental HQ"
Winters saluted Sink "Yes Sir"
Sink left and Winters looked at Speirs "I want Easy in the lead assemble your men at the Autobahn"
Speirs nodded "Yes Sir"
Easy led the battalion on a backtrack to the Autobahn, then East to Bad Reichenhall, another blown bridge stopped them and the battalion had to spend the night on the Trucks.
Lane was wandering around; her walk led her to the edge of the lake. She sat down and sighed, she was recapping her war from England to Normandy. The trip down hell's highway, to the cold, cold hell of Bastogne, last patrol in Alsace and now she was enjoying the spring in Germany. It had been some eventful years and she wouldn't change a thing even if she could, well maybe somethings…
The sound of approaching footsteps alarmed Lane and she pulled her sidearm, she smiled when she saw who it was, it was Nixon.
"Jesus woman…put down your gun" Nixon sat down next to Lane
Lane smiled and put her gun back in its holster "What are you doing here" Lane asked Nixon
"I was looking for you…I have something to ask you…what do you think you will be doing after the war" Nixon asked Lane
Lane bit her lip, what would she be doing after the war? She wanted to keep working with intelligence; she would want to keep doing what she was good at. Lane knew she couldn't go back to being a proper young lady, heck she didn't know if she even wanted to go back home again.
Nixon looked at Lane, he knew she changed. Lane wasn't the timid girl she once was, she was a strong and independent woman, the war had saved Lane from the future her mother had planned for her.
Lane looked at Lew "I don't know I think I might want to stay in the army or work with intelligence or something like that…maybe travel the world"
The sound of laughter reached them. Nixon smiled and took Lane's hand "Lane I love you, I love you more than anything in the world, I can't imagine living without you"
Lane looked into Nixon's eyes "Lew please..."
Nixon interrupted Lane "Lane Amelia Easterday will you do me the honor of being my wife?"
Lane choked and she could feel tears in her eyes, could she marry Lew? She wasn't sure, she looked into his eyes, and she knew that this was exactly what she wanted to do. Lew was home, Lew was everything she needed.
"Yes, yes of course I'll marry you" Lane kissed Nixon. She felt something cold on her finger. It was a beautiful engagement Round Brilliant Ribbon Ring.
"Where did you get this, oh Lewis it's perfect" Lane kissed Nixon again
"I been carrying it since England, I bought it in London" Nixon pulled Lane to him and they sat in silence and watched the last of the sun set behind the mountains
Berchtesgaden, May 5th 1945.
2nd battalion rolled into Berchtesgaden. The streets were empty and white flags and papers were flying everywhere.
A jeep carrying Winters, Nixon, Welsh, Lane and Dani was the first vehicle in the convoy, they drove past the Haupt Bahn hof Hitler build and down thru Haniel strasse, and stopped in front of the Berchtesgaden Hof.
Welsh, Nixon, Lane, Dani and Winters walked in, as they entered through the front door of the hotel, the service personnel disappeared around the corner.
They walked through the lobby and into the main dining room, a waiter was putting together a large silverware set, in a four foot long velvet lined leather suitcase.
The waiter ran out of the back door when he saw them coming. Welsh looked at the silverware "kitty would love this, how many brides get a wedding present from Hitler, You want to take half? I can't carry it all, and you know however comes in here, after is going to take everything that isn't nailed down" Welsh was scooping the silverware into his helmet.
Winters picked up a knife and looked at it, he then turned to Katie "What do you say, want a present from Hitler?"
"Sure, I'll take half" Katie said, she really wasn't interested in the silverware, it was the art she knew Goring had stashed somewhere that interested her.
Speirs walked in with two privates and Dani right on his heels. He walked over and tried to pick up a piece of the silverware, Welsh slapped him over his fingers and Dani just looked at him and smirked "hey you looting bastard, I am going to live in an European antique store as it is, leave the silverware for Dick and Welsh"
Speirs looked at Dani, he knew Dani hated looting, but the way he looked at it, if she didn't like the stuff he sent home, they could always sell it.
Winters Ordered F Company to set up roadblocks and guard at the hotel, and Easy would go via the Obersalzberg and capture the Eagles Nest.
"Speirs, at Obersalzberg, find accommodation for the men before you take Eagles Nest," Winters told the captain.
Malarkey, Popeye and More ran up the mountain, while the rest of the men drove below them screaming Currahee.
Once the company reached the Obersalzberg, they took in the scenery. The Berghaus, where Hitler lived was bombed and so were the Hotel close by, the SS barracks was unharmed and Easy had no problem occupying them. Speirs and Dani chose a sumptuous house perched on the side of the mountain overlooking Berchtesgaden and so did the other officers and sergeants, Dani and Mia ended up being neighbors.
Winters chose a home of some Nazi officials and sent his S4 to the place to tell the people who lived there, they had fifteen minutes to get out. The S4 returned and told Katie that the people refused to leave.
Katie patted the young man on the shoulder "Let me show you how to evict people"
Katie got in jeep and drove up to the house with the S4 by her side. She knocked on the door and a fat German man opened it.
Katie looked at the man "we are moving in now, get the fuck out" She said and pushed the door open and walked in, the people left and Katie didn't see them again.
After getting, the accommodations settled. Easy climbed up the mountain to the Eagles Nest. It was a two-hour climb up the road the Nazis had built. It was the most beautiful mountain road in the world, and the men had a view of the Koenigs See.
Speirs and Dani drove up the mountain; there were times when Dani figured the jeep wouldn't make it with the 25 % rises on the way up.
When they reached the parking lot in front the tunnel which led to the gold plated elevator, Speirs turned and looked at her "Stay here, we don't know what's in there"
Malarkey, Moore, Popeye, Grant and Speirs looked up at the Eagles Nest and walked through the tunnel leading to the gold plated elevator. The tunnel had a rounded vault ceiling. The stone used to build the tunnel was carved out of the mountain by the German workers, when they reached the end of the tunnel they turned right, a gate blocked the entrance to the circular room from which you could enter the elevator.
Speirs discovered that the elevator wasn't working, more than likely it had been sabotaged by the SS as they were fleeing. Speirs ordered the men to hike up the mountain.
Malarkey, Moore and the rest ran up the trail to Eagles Nest and entered the small stone cottage via the entrance from the end of the trail. They walked through the hall and opened the doors to the panorama room. Malarkey had his M1 loaded and ready to shoot the Nazi's. The room had large panorama windows, big enough for a soldier to stand in, the room was furnished with dark wooden furniture and in the center was a large round table.
A German General had shot himself and lay dead behind the Sofa. Speirs who was a little vary of the whole Situation, which seemed to be too easy, he reached for his gun when a loud pop sounded, and it turned out to be Malarkey popping the cork of a champagne bottle. Speirs sighed annoyed and ordered Grant to get the Girls.
Dani, Lane, and Mia hiked up the mountain and walked into the Eagles nest. The small stone cottage was beautiful, but Dani's favorite room was Eva Braun's wood panel tea room which led out to the deck, with a view of the Koenig's see and the Watzman.
Welsh was already tipsy and Speirs and Dani were drunk. Speirs had the telltale sign of him being intoxicated; his eyes were glassy.
Dani, Lane, Mia, Welsh, Speirs and Nixon were sitting on the deck chairs and Speirs was trying to name all the Nazi top dogs "No god damn listen Hitler, Hitler, No Hitler, Himmler, Goering," He didn't succeed, he was too drunk.
Nixon and Lane were both drunk, which didn't surprise Winters when he walked out on the Deck with Lipton and Katie following him.
Winters smiled, his officers deserved this celebration after everything they had been through the last couple of years.
Winters, Lipton and Katie sat down and joined the celebration.
That night Dani was walking around Berchtesgaden, she was walking up Salzburger strasse, walking past the Salzberg Werk she stopped and stared down at the river, the old Brauhaus was down on the left and she smiled. The weather was mild and she could smell the mountain and all the flowers in the air.
Halfway up the hill to Alte Nontal, which led past the old koenigs schloss and to the old town center, a car drove past her at high speed and then stopped. Dani pulled her side arm, it was twilight and she had no way of telling who was in the car.
Pointing the gun at the soldier, who stepped out of the car, she ordered him to put his hands over his head, "You know darling, I like it when a woman take charge, but lower your weapon, it's not like I am going to harm you"
Dani let out her breath "God damn it Ron, you scared the shit out of me" Dani walked over and got in the car.
Ron got in the driver seat, he turned and looked at Dani" Where do you want to go?" he asked her
"Koenig See," She said and they drove off. In front of the old police station he turned the car around and headed back down Salzburger Strasse and turned right on Bergwerk strasse and a couple of miles down the road turned left onto Konigseer strasse.
Ron parked the car in front of the old koenig see Hotel and hand in hand, they walked down to the lake. The lake was calm and Dani sat down, pulled her boots and socks off, and stuck her feet into the cold clear lake. She sighed and laid down on her back. Speirs sat down next to her and stared out over the lake.
"You know I've been thinking about what we are going to do after the war and I think I am going to stay in the army," Speirs said and looked at Dani.
Dani closed her eyes "I know, and I am ok with that"
Ron looked at Dani, she was the most amazing, crazy woman he had ever met and he knew he would love her forever.
Speirs pulled her to him "Marry me he mumbled into her hair
Dani smiled and kissed "Yeah I'll marry you"
May 7th Berchtesgaden.
"The German army has surrendered" Winters walked into the house he shared with Katie.
Katie looked at Winters "I know" and smiled, she walked over and kissed him
Nixon and Lane walked into the house and saw Katie kissing Winters "We, stop, get a room" Lane snickered
"We did, you're in it," Katie told her
"The German army surrendered, and congratulations" Winters told the two officers, Nixon smiled and pulled Lane close and kissed her "Finally" he mumbled into her neck.
The word spread across Berchtesgaden. Dani and Ron decided to have a little celebration of their own, they were popping champagne bottles and throwing the bottles out of the French doors, and occasionally an Easy Company member would drop by and celebrate with them.
Soon there was a large pile of empty bottles outside of the window and Ron got the bright idea to shoot the top of the bottles. The two officers were having a blast, when a very pissed off Talbert barged through the door, ready to shoot the men who had disobeyed the orders the two guilty officers had sent out yesterday. No more shooting of weapons and especially not German weapons, the gun in Dani's hand was a Luger.
Lipton and Mia celebrated V.E day walking around Berchtesgaden old town center, they found an open bier garden, almost in the town center and ordered a victory meal.
On May 8th the battalion moved out to Zell Am See.
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crazyforkasey-blog · 5 days ago
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When we met
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Chapter 19
Germany April 1945
"Janovec, Janovec" Speirs walked up the stairs calling out for the private who was in possession of his recent loot.
On his way up the stairs he ran into Dani, "You might not want to…" Dani didn't get to finish her sentence, Speirs just stormed past her
"Well it's your own ding dang fault then" Dani mumbled and walked outside
Dani stepped outside and turned her face up towards the sun. The 101st airborne was more or less an occupation force only sending out harassing patrols. The weather was nice and the war was almost over, at least it felt that way.
Further down the street Katie and Mia were talking to Winters and Lipton. Mia noticed Dani watching them and she gave her a small wave and Dani waved back, she took a step towards the group, but was almost knocked over by Speirs who was storming out of the door.
"I did not need to see that" Speirs said
"I told you not to go up there" Dani smiled
Speirs followed Dani and when they reached the group Speirs turned to Winters "I thought Eisenhower issued and order of fraternization" Speirs grumbled
"I know, but if you haven't noticed there are too many DP's and too many GI's with too much money" Winters said and saluted his men and walked off.
Katie sighed and motioned for Mia to follow her, the hospital was busy to many drunk GI*s and too many motor vehicles. Every day they send some poor bastard to the Evac hospital. Katie knew she had to talk to Sink about the problem.
A jeep came speeding down the small road and stopped beside Dani, Katie and Mia. A soldier jumped out of the jeep and removed her sunglasses
"Lane" Mia jumped up and down
"I sure am glad to see you" Katie hugged Lane and Dani smiled and hugged lane
Lane looked at the girls, they looked happier and healthier than the last time she saw them. The sun and the good German food had done wonders for them.
"It's not that I am not glad to see you, but where is Nixon" Lane asked the girls
"Giving a current event lecture" Dani told her and motioned towards the town square.
Lane waved at the girls and headed towards the square. When she reached the square she stopped and hid behind a fountain, it gave her the opportunity to study Nixon. He looked like hell. He had been drinking, Lane could tell by his tussled, sloppy look, he looked like had worn the same clothes for weeks, not bothering to change or wash.
Luz noticed Lane and started to say something, but Lane shook her head, she wasn't ready to face Nixon yet.
"Has begun to assemble food packages stateside, to those European families in dire need, which must be all of them…So write to your family and remind them to donate it will be much appreciated" Nixon looked at the men, some were listening to him and others were looking at something behind the fountain.
Nixon looked back down at his clipboard "I am sure you all will be happy to hear that Oklahoma is still playing on Broadway"
The men were all gleeful and Luz started to sing the chorus from Oklahoma motioned for the men to stop halfway through the chorus. Poor O'Keefe who sat in front of him performed a solo in his light voice.
Christenson asked the poor replacement if he was sitting on his bayonet and made a joke about how he should leave the singing to Luz. Unless he wanted to sing a duet with Luz.
Nixon smiled and continued "Rita Hayworth is getting married...Abbott and Costello" Nixon turned a few pages over.
"War time news that the Resistance in the Ruhr pocket is grumbling looks like there might be a breakout in Remagen. Apparently, the Krauts forgot to blow up one of their bridges when they headed back over the Rhine. I guess the boys in the 17th Airborne did alright after all" Lane could hear the relief in Nixon's voice.
"We would be in the Berlin if it was us instead of them, "Luz said
"If it was us the war would be over and we would all be state side" Lane stepped out from behind the fountain.
Nixon dropped the cliff board and in step, he swiped Lane off her feet, hugged her close to him, and gave her a deep kiss. "Oh god sweet heart…oh I missed you so much," He whispered to her
Lane hugged him back "I missed you too"
Lane took Nixon's hand and dragged him towards the house Lane shared with Dani. Lane dragged him into her bedroom and started to take off Nixon's dirty uniform. Nixon pulled at Lane's shirt, his hands were shaking and Lane had to help him.
"Come on, you need a bath and afterwards we are going to talk about your drinking" Lane told Nixon, who just nodded, he was willing to agree to anything as long as Lane would stay with him.
On April 18th 325,000 Germans surrendered and that sent the 101st Airborne en route to Bavaria as allied headquarters attached the division to the seventh army in southern Germany in its advance to secure Hitler's mountain retreat in Berchtesgaden. No one knew if Hitler actually intended to fortify the Bavarian Alps, but Eisenhower wasn't taking any chances.
The sight of the Germans who had surrendered was magnificent; they still marched in the middle of the Autobahn.
The four girls shared a jeep. They were all talking about what they were going to do once the war was over.
Katie and Mia agreed that they would both continue to work with wounded
Vets' once stateside. Lane knew she wanted to continue to work with intelligence, maybe for the OSS.
Dani sighed she didn't knew what she wanted to do "I don't know I think I will stay in the army"
The convoy stopped in Buchloe for the night. The first thing Winters did was to gather his officers; the standard operating procedure was to dispatch reconnaissance patrols whenever the battalion stopped.
"I want to send out some patrols, I want Dog here in town and Easy and fox in the woods” Winters said and Speirs and Lipton saluted him
"Easy takes the north-west 1st and 2nd platoon in the woods 3rd swing around" Speirs told his officer and Lipton called out for Talbert in order to get it done.
The patrol was walking through the woods. It was Erie quiet. Bull noticed O'Keeffe was jumpy and gave him a hard time about it, telling him they could hear his heart pound all the way in Arkansas.
Perconte was looking around "Hey George, kind of reminds you Bastogne"
Luz looked at Perco and rolled his eyes "Yeah, now that you mention it, except of course there is no snow, we got warm grub in our bellies, and the trees aren't fucking exploding from Kraut artillery, but yeah Frank, other than that it's a lot like Bastogne"
Frank was glad his best buddy agreed "Yeah"
Luz took a drag of his cigarette "Bull smack him for me please" and Bull did just that
Bull ordered the men to settle down, the woods were all quiet and it seemed like, even all the animals had left this part of the woods.
O Keefe made a remark about how quiet it was and Perconte agreed with him. It was scary and it felt like a scene from a horror movie. 
The patrol walked into a clearing and there it was, the Camp, the men all became quiet and Christenson lost his lunch.
Bull turned to Perconte, who was the best runner "Go get Speirs, Nixon, Winters, Katie and do not let Nixon get here without Captain Easterday.
Perco ran off towards town. 
Perconte ran into town and asked for Winters and Speirs, no one knew where they were and Frank was getting desperate, he knew if he came back without the officers Bull had ordered him to bring out to the camp, he was a dead man.
Finally, he found Winters "Major Winters, we found something on the patrol and ahh, we came across this…"
"What, what Frank, Frank what is it?" Winters asked him
Frank was frantic, he didn't have words to describe, what it was they had found "I don't know Sir, I don't know"
The officer and the remainder of the second battalion were ordered onto trucks, and when the battalion pulled up to the Camp, Winters knew nothing would ever have prepared him for the sight that met them.
Skeleton-like men gathered around the fence and the gate to the camp. They were all wearing striped clothing, most of which was torn and worn. Their heads shaved and most of them were missing most of their teeth, the whole camp wrapped in a stench of death, rotten corpses and general decay.
Winters stepped off the jeep, he was about to order Christenson to cut the chain that held the gate together, preventing the prisoners from escaping.
"Stop, Major Winters, sir" Mia stepped forward
"We have to make sure these people stay in the camp, they can't wander off and scatter. They probably have typhus, cholera and other contagious diseases, we need to keep them here and Sir no one feeds them, if we starting giving them food they will eat themselves to death, we have to put them on a special diet, only food with live bacteria, like sour kraut, yogurt, quark and such"
Winters nodded and ordered Christenson to open the gate. Winters walked in with the men following him and he realized he needed a translator, so he could talk to the prisoners and send for Liebgott.
Nixon walked next to Winters with Lane hot on his heels, she knew what the place would do to Lew and wanted to be near him when he finally realized why they were fighting the Germans.
Nixon stared at the men emerging through the smoke from the burning buildings, some carrying what looked like death bodies. Nixon was paralyzed, the amount of emotion that ran through him at that very moment was indescribable, and he felt helpless, shocked, rage against the Germans, sadness and sorrow.
What these people had been through, couldn't even be described and it made his problems seem insignificant.
Nixon turned around and there she was, his reason for existing, the woman who made it worth living and he had done the most unforgivable thing a man could ever do and here she was, just looking at her, made Nixon feel like it was all going to be ok.
The men were helping the starved men and handed them blankets and spare rations. Mia tried to stop the men and finally Katie ordered the men to stop. Finally she had enough.
Winters, Lane and Nixon were talking to one of the prisoners,
Liebgott asked the questions and translated "he said the guards left this morning, they burned some of the barracks with prisoners still inside them… alive"
"Jesus Christ" Nixon mumbled
Liebgott listened to the prisoner and translated "Some of the prisoners tried to stop them, and the guards shot them, they didn't have enough ammunition to kill all the prisoners, so they shot as many as they could, then locked the gate and headed south.
"Someone in town must have told them we were coming" Nixon said
"I don't think so," someone said
Winters told Liebgott to ask what the place was and why the prisoners were there. The prisoner told them that it was a camp for unwanted people, Jews, gypsies, poles and so on. At that very moment every officer gathered around the young man knew why they were fighting, why they had given up their life to travel halfway around the world to fight.
Katie came running "Winters, can you get the men to rally around me? So I can tell them what to do"
Winters looked at Speirs "Get it done, I need to call Sink"
Speirs got a hold of Welsh, Lipton and McMillan, they found the commander of Fox and the battalion gathered around the Easy Doc.
"Look, we need to triage these men, those who can walk, those who can wait to get treatment, and those who need urgent treatment and lastly those who are dead. The live inmates need to be placed by the gate, leave the dead in the huts, they will buried tomorrow, ok boys move out"
Katie, Dani and Mia started with men already gathered at the gate.
Mia had her trusted stethoscope, and she was examining a man, when she felt a hand on her shoulder, Mia looked up. Lipton looked down at her, she squeezed his hand "I am ok, I can handle this"
This camp was nothing like Lipton had ever even imagined, he couldn't comprehend how such evil existed, what kind of sick minds had planned the extermination of a whole religion, this was genocide, like never seen before.
Dani started to help with triage and she noticed Sink, Winters Nixon, Katie, Lane and Doctor Kent walk towards Mia.
Mia was talking to one of the polish prisoners, when she heard Sink address her "Lieutenant MacKall"
Mia turned around "Sir" she said and saluted Sink
"This here is Doctor Kent, he is the regimental surgeon" Sink introduced the two doctors to each other.
"So tell me what do we got here," Kent asked Katie
"Well, all of them are starving, 99 percent of the men have cholera and typhus and they all have some sort of respiratory tract infection, pneumonia mostly. I need blankets, cots, antibiotics, food with life bacteria in it, clothes, every medicine you can think of, plasma, saltwater, disinfection, you name I need, and a bunch of nurses would be awesome" Katie told Kent
"Well, you can have whatever I got on these truck and I can some of your men scrounge for supplies at the local hospital" Kent said
Pretty soon, the 326th took over from second battalion and in no time tents were pitched and the nurses, medics and the two doctors were working hard.
Lane poked her head into the tent Mia, Dani and Katie were working in. They just looked at her and motioned for her to leave. One thing was for them to risk infection, but they wouldn't let their friends catch anything.
…..
Nixon and Lane were sitting in the living room in Lane's billet, she shared a small house with Mia and Katie, who was working out at the camp and Lane wasn't expecting her home anytime soon.
Lane was looking at a jittery Nixon who needed a drink and Lane wouldn't let him, she had sat him down and told him he wasn't leaving the house until he was sober.
Lane knew he could do it, he did once when she first met him and by god, she was going to sober him up again.
Katie, who had returned to town to find some papers, was sitting on the couch in the living room of her and Dick's billet. She was going through the paperwork when her husband walked in, she couldn't help but smile and winters walked over, sat down next to her, pulled her close to him, and kissed her on top of her head. He needed to be close to her after what they experienced today and after what he just heard from Division HQ
"I just heard from Division HQ, that the Russians liberated a larger camp, ten times bigger with ovens…"
"The towns' people claim they didn't know about the camp, that we are exaggerating" Katie said
"Well they are going to find out tomorrow. Taylor just declared Martial Law and every able body between the age of 14 and 80 are going to help bury the bodies"
Katie looked at Winters "Serves them right" was all she said
…..
The next morning a very tired Lane drove Nixon out to the camp, the people from town were already working on burying the dead.
Lane could tell Nixon still had a hard time dealing with what he had seen "You need to accept the fact this has happened and live with it, knowing you fought for those who lived through this. This is why we fight"
Nixon knew he found the reason for his war and his reason for being sober through the rest of it.
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crazyforkasey-blog · 5 days ago
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When we met
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Chapter 18
February 1945 somewhere in France
Easy Company Where orders on board the 40-and 8s the French rail boxcars that held forty men or eight horses. The weather was sunny and warm. The 40 and 8s were knee-deep in straw, there was plenty to eat and nobody was shooting at them.
Winters, Nixon who were drunk as a skunk, Katie and Dani were gathered around the rail depot.
Nixon pulled out a small box "Before I forget, Colonel Sink has been unhappy with the appearance of your uniform, says it's not befitting your rank" Nixon threw Winters a small box.
Winters looked at Katie who shrugged, she had no idea what the S3 officer was talking about.
Winters opened his box and revealed what was in it "Oak leaves" Winters said
Nixon jumped to attention and gave Winters a small salute.
The train ride lasted 18 hours and Dani was getting jumpy. She had a surprise for Speirs in her footlocker; it was his Christmas present. She just never got the chance to give it to him, with them being in Bastogne and all.
In Mourmelon, the company was billeted in green twelve-man tents. Once again, Dani was sharing a tent with Katie and Mia. The nurse and the doctor were busy at the hospital, so Dani spent most of her time with the men and Speirs.
The first task was to get clean. There were showers, although the water was lukewarm at best. However, for the men and women who had not had a shower since leaving Mourmelon ten weeks ago it was heaven.
Dani and Mia were standing outside waiting for the men to finish on occasion when they yelled for them to hurry the heck up.
Once the last man, who was a poor private from D Company was done Mia and Dani hurried in. Dani just stepped into the shower with her uniform on and started to strip. The dirt mixed with blood of her killed and wounded friend mixed with the water. A flood of dirty water ran down Dani.
Mia looked over at Dani and noticed the dirty water, she nodded towards Dani's legs and Dani looked down at the water that ran down her legs and down the drain, in a way it was very therapeutic and Dani felt refreshed and cleansed by the time she stepped out of the shower.
With the peace and comfort of Mourmelon came the task of integrating the new replacements into the company. The replacements arrived, duffel bags slung over their shoulders. Full of piss and vinegar ready to jump into Berlin and take on Jerry.
Winters was sitting at his desk at HQ, he was grumbling and Katie who was half-asleep on the couch swore she heard him let out a few choice words.
"Dick what's wrong" Katie asked him
"I need to bolster up my staff, but I can't figure out what way to go," Winters answered. He let out a sigh and put his hands behind his head.
With Welsh serving as battalion S3, his choice of officers for the XO position were limited. He could promote Cox and let him take the position as XO, but that would mean he had to reel in Speirs and that was not something he wanted to do.
Now McMillan from D. Company, now there was an officer, you knew you were talking to a man when you talked to him. McMillan was a great leader and he was there for the men the whole time.
Nixon's drinking problems didn't go unnoticed at Regiment. Sink sought out Winters.
"I have a problem Dick" Sink said and sat on the chair in front of Winters desk.
Winters knew what would come next so it was no surprise when Sink told him that Nixon was drunk all the time "I mean, I certainly knock down a few myself at night and when off duty, I can't get any damn work out of him. How did you find him to work with?"
"Well Nixon and I get along very well" Winters told Sink and thought it was funny as hell, that Sink was complaining about Nixon's drinking when Sinks nickname was bourbon Bob.
"Well you can have him back, hell every time I need him he is here anyways, so you might as well keep him" Sink left and Winters now had to tell Nixon about his demotion.
Operation varsity...The 101st thought it would be theirs, but at the last minute it was given to the 17th airborne. Sink decided to send Nixon along as an observer.
Nixon was jumpmaster and in the first seat by the door on his plane. As they took off, they could see the boys from Easy yelling and giving them the V sign.
Nixon opted to remove the door after take-off; he was looking out the door, so he could see when they reached the drop zone.
Nixon motioned for the men to "stand up, hook on, and sound of for equipment check"
Nixon waited for the green light to come on; seconds after they got the green light, the plane took a direct hit over the drop zone.
Nixon grabbed the man next to him and threw himself and the man out of the plane, all he could think about was getting to safety.
Both their chutes opened and they watched how the plane crashed, only one other soldier had made it out.
When they arrived at the assembly, point Nixon informed the CO of the battalion what happened and returned to the CP to drink himself to sleep.
Nixon was sent back over the Rhine and flown back to Mourmelon.
On the way back, just a little outside the camp, he drove past Mia and Lipton, "Was that Captain Nixon?" Mia asked Lipton
"I think so," Lipton said
"What the hell is he doing in his harness?" Mia asked
"I don't know, but let's find out" Lipton said and started to walk back towards camp
Nixon didn't speak a word on the way back to camp; he was thinking about Lane and all the men who died in vain. When he drove into camp, he almost hit Speirs and his most recent loot.
Nixon just got out and walked inside his billet, he went straight for the booze.
"Do you really think that is the answer?" Mia, who had followed asked him
"Yep" was all Nixon said
"I don't and if you don't talk to me, you are going to be a very lonely soldier soon" Mia took off her helmet and started to shrug off her jacket.
"I just don't know what I am doing here anymore, why do we fight, can you tell me that?" Nixon asked her
Mia shrugged. I don't know, but I have a feeling we will find out soon enough.
Dick walked into the room, Mia picked up her jacket, she gave Winters a look that said I tried, but failed. Winters looked at the drink Nixon had just poured and then looked at Mia, who just threw her hand up, to motion she wanted to stay out of whatever was coming and then she left.
"So you are making combat jumps with the 17th, while I am in supply briefings all morning"
Nixon started to take off his boots "Yeah lucky me"
"Well congratulations, you are probably the only officer in the 101st with three stars over your jump wings"
Nixon just looked at winters "Yeah I never fired my weapon in combat ha"
"Really? Never not even with all the action we seen?" Winters asked him
"Not a round" Nixon said and walked over and poured himself another drink
"So, how did it go this morning? The Jump?" Winters asked
"Great, fantastic, we took a direct hit over the drop zone, I got out, and two others got out" Nixon said
"And the rest of the boys?" Winters asked
"They blew up over Germany somewhere, boom" Nixon said
"Yeah, I am sorry" Winters answered him
"About what?" Nixon asked
"About the boys' tough situation" Winters answered
"Oh yeah the boys, yeah terrible, oh well it wasn't me" Nixon said
At this point Nixon took his drink and gulped it down.
"The real tragedy is, they also lost their CO, so guess who gets to write all the letters home?" Nixon threw his empty bottle in a bucket beside the door to the living room and walked through it.
Dick followed him; Nixon scrounged for some more Vat 69 and found some in a near empty bottle.
He then sat down on a chair; Winters turned and looked at him "I got a visit from Colonel Sink this morning"
"Yeah, how is the good colonel" Nixon asked
"Concerned, still drinking nothing but the Vat 69," Winters answered him
"Nothing but the finest for Mrs. Nixon's baby boy" Nixon said and saluted Winters with his drink
"Is that a problem at regiment?" Winters asked him
"What? this? Is that what he said? I just don't like up there" Nixon asked him
"Good, you be glad to hear Sink is transferring you back down to battalion S3" Winters told Nixon
"What do you think I should write to the parents?" Nixon asked his friend
"Did you hear what I said Nix, you been demoted" Winters asked him
"Demoted, yeah got it, because I don't know how to tell them their kids never even made it out of the god damn plane," Nixon retorted
"You tell them what you always tell them, their sons died as heroes," Winters told him
"You really still believe that?" asked Winters
"Yeah, yeah I do, don't you?" Winters asked Nixon
As March ended, so did the pleasant stay at the old garrison. The men of the 101st climbed back onto the trucks, this time bound for the west bank of the Rhine, the last obstacle to the heartland of Germany.
A couple of days later and for Nixon a couple of bottles later, Speirs, Dani, Welsh, Lipton, Mia and Nixon were gathered in the living room of Nixon's billet.
The boys were playing poker, well the boys and Mia, and she was cleaning them out. Welsh and Speirs were talking about how they couldn't believe it, how Ike was going to let the Russians get Berlin.
Nixon was running out of Vat 69 and suddenly got up "Deal me out" he said and walked out
Welsh looked around at the others "Are we waiting on him again?"
"Yeah, we're waiting" Lipton said
Nixon walked out of the house, it was pouring rain, he was officially out of Vat69. It was pouring rain. Nixon didn't notice, he was numb and he wallowed in the feeling he was drinking to keep himself from feeling his loss.
His loss of purpose, of the love of his life and the loss of control over his own life. He picked up a garbage can and threw it through the window causing the owner to open the window and scream Wie ist da.
A MP patrol pulled up. Nixon felt a hand on his shoulder, he turned his head and looked into the eyes of Dani, and she motioned for him to follow her. Dani led Nixon into his room and got him out of his wet clothes.
"Do you think she will be back?" Nixon asked
"I know she will," Dani answered, not sure if she was lying or not.
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crazyforkasey-blog · 5 days ago
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When we met
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Chapter 17
"Dick…Dick…Hey wait…DICK" Katie called after the captain, but he didn't turn around or even acknowledge her.
The reason Winters was walking away from regimental HQ in a hurry. Well he wanted to get out of there before he said or did something he would later regret.
Captain Winters was pissed off. After thirty-six days in the cold, snow covered Belgian forest, with constant contact with the enemy, the 101st were told they were going into reserve and that they would get a much-needed break. However, orders changed and now Winters had to send his battalion to Alsace to what if Lane and Nixon was right, would be another German attack.
Katie caught up with Winters, Speirs, Dani, McMillan, Nixon and Lane. She could tell Dani was pissed and Speirs just looked distant. McMillan listened to what Winters had to say, but was distant as well.
Lane mumbled under her breath "Doesn't the Army have someone else to plug the gaps?"
Dani looked at Lane and smiled "I don't know, you are the S3, you tell me"
Lane smiled; it was nice to have the old cheeky Dani back. Lane had worried about her since the trip to Aldbourne and at one point she was afraid they would have to send Dani off the lines while in Bastogne. Dani pushed through and came out stronger in the end.
The men lugged their belongings on to the deuce and half's that would take them 160 Miles to Drulingen. Heavy layers of snow covered the ground, the roads were slippery and the convoy crawled its way. The trip took thirty-six butt-numbing hours in truck build for functionality, not comfort.
As soon as they arrived in Drulingen, Sink sent the division to Hochenfeld and onwards to a small town called Wilkensheim, the consolation was that it was supposed to be a quiet sector.
The Moder River, normally thirty to forty feet wide was now swollen with snowmelt and in many places, it was as wide as a football field in width and swiftly flowing with brown muddy water.
The men had roofs over their heads and the foxhole hell in Bastogne was now just an unpleasant memory. Showers were set up and Red Cross clubs set up. The men enjoyed the relative peace. Contact patrols were still sent out and the air rippled with incoming and outgoing artillery shells.
A week later Mia and Katie were sitting in Katie's office at the aid station, they were talking about the war and what all they had been through.
Katie sighed "Well we so far we have jumped into Holland with the British 2nd army and stayed there for 73 Days, then been surrounded in Bastogne for 30 days, and now we are in Alsace to stop the Germans, this old war was mighty rough at times"
Mia sipped the last of her glass with her drink in it "I think we are getting there, I think we might make it through and I can't wait to go back home, I miss my brothers"
Katie smiled "I…" Before she could continue, Winters and a platoon from Fox Company barged through the door.
"Captain Hendrick" Winters shouted
Katie got on her feet "Yeah what we got, what happened?"
The lieutenant who had led the patrol answered, "We ran into a German strongpoint, machine guns and mortars…one killed six wounded"
Mia, Dani and Katie got to work, it took most of the night and by the time they were done they were exhausted. Katie walked towards second battalion HQ, she was tired and she needed to see and feel Winters. If she had her way, she would never leave his side again. Katie knew she had to talk about what had happened to her in Bastogne and Dani had tried to get her to open up, but she wasn't ready to talk yet.
Katie found Dani, Speirs, Lane, Nixon and the man she was dying to see at the HQ. She could hear someone talking and then someone laughing. Katie opened the door and walked in; she discovered why her friends were laughing. The army had finally send them winter shoe packs, arctic socks, felt insoles and six thousand yards of white cloth, enough to make two thousand snowsuits.
"We could have used them six weeks ago in Bastogne," Winters mumbled
Dani who had been feeling up Speirs "Just be glad we got them at all, they could have shipped it to the pacific" Dani got on her feet and Speirs followed. She walked over and hugged Katie "We are still going to talk"
Katie nodded "Yeah, I know"
Lane looked at Winters and Katie, they both looked tired and Lane knew they needed some peace and quiet "Nix Babe let's go"
Nixon started to protest, but then he realized what Lane was doing "Yeah let's go"
Winters looked up from the pile of paper on his desk "Nix are we heading out tomorrow?"
Nixon confirmed and Winters sighed, he was in dire need of some competent officers His S1 was ok, But his S2 who was Welsh was not yet back, he had no S3 because sink had snatched Nixon up to regiment after Hester had been promoted and appointed division G2. His S4 had wandered off the line at Noville and been AWOL since.
Winters put in a battlefield commission for Lipton and Sink approved.
Katie leaned against Winters desk and watched him work for a while, Winters finally looked up "Why don't you go to bed, sweetheart you look like you could need a good night's sleep"
Katie hugged Winters "You know what? You look like you need some sleep to" Katie took the papers Winters held in his right hand and put them on the desk. She turned down the lights and dragged Winters back to his bedroom. Katie closed the door and locked it.
"I need you to make love to me" Katie walked over and started to unbutton Winters shirt.
Winters was happy to oblige and he undressed Katie slowly and laid her down on the bed "Are you absolutely sure" He asked her.
Katie nodded, she wanted him and she needed intimacy.
A little while later after Katie had her head on Winters chest, winters was gently stroking Katie's upper arm. Katie scooted closer to him and sighed, "I love you, you do know that right?" Katie looked up at Winters
Winters kissed the top of Katie's head "I know, I love you too Honey, but Katie you have to talk about Bastogne and if you won't talk to me, then talk to Dani or Lane or whoever, just don't keep it in, I can tell it's eating at you"
Katie gently kissed Winters hand "I will, I promise"
…..
The next day 506th moved to Haguenau. Sink deployed the regiment forward with first battalion on the left and second on the right. third battalion went into reserve and they got some much-needed rest.
Rolling into Haguenau, Easy was greeted by a familiar face. Webster returned from the hospital, he was walking from truck to truck asking about men who had been killed or wounded, he stopped by first platoon's truck and attempted to climb on board.
Dani looked at him "Where the fuck have you been?"
"The hospital" Webster replied
"You must have liked that hospital, we left Holland four months ago," Liebgott told Webster.
"I wasn't there the whole time, there was rehabilitation and the replacement depot" Webster started
Dani coughed, turned and looked at Webster with red eyes "I am sure you tried to bust out and help us in Bastogne"
"I don't know, how I would have done that, Ma'am," Webster said
"Funny, because a lot of other men found a way" Dani looked at Webster with murder in her eyes.
Dani turned and shuddered; she had pneumonia and was freezing and shaking. Dani looked over at Foley "Foley…"
The young lieutenant knew Dani wanted to get rid of Webster "Second platoon Webster"
The truck stopped and the platoon and Webster jumped off "Spread out until I know where we are going" Malarkey ordered.
A shell went flying over the platoon. Malarkey just stopped and looked at it. Webster threw himself to the ground, Malarkey turned and looked at him "what's wrong Webster, nervous in the service"
Malarkey smirked and turned around; Webster got on his feet, "no sorry" 
"Come on Webster let's go talk to captain Speirs" Malarkey walked towards the CP and Webster followed him.
"Captain Speirs, what happened to Captain Winters?" Webster asked him
"He is running the whole Battalion now" Malarkey shrugged and opened the door to the CP
The CP. was bustling; Luz was fussing over Lipton. Luz looked at Dani and motioned for her to sit down on the couch Lipton was sitting on. Dani sat down and sighed.
Speirs came walking in to the room "Will the two of you go and sack out there are some beds with fresh sheets in the back"
Lipton coughed and started to get up from the couch "Just trying to make myself useful"
Dani got on her feet she was a little unsteady and when she tried to take a step her legs gave away under her, she let out a small shriek, Speirs turned around and picked her up and threw her over his shoulder he carried her into a bedroom and gently laid her down on a bed
"Stay here…I am going to find Mia or Katie" Speirs gave her a stern look and Dani just nodded.
Speirs walked back down stairs and found Winters and Nixon bent over a table with maps over the area on it. Lane walked into the CP followed by two replacement lieutenants "Dick, Nix…lieutenant Fitzpatrick, Lieutenant Jones"
Winters usually took time to meet and asses the new officers, but he didn't even look up from the map when the two men walked into the room "Fitzpatrick Fox Company, jones you are with Easy dismissed"
The two young men just looked at each other and looked at Lane for directions, Lane shrugged and called for Luz "George show these two rookies to Fox and Easy"
The three men disappeared and Lane walked over to Nixon and Winters "What got the two of you so worked up?"
"Sink wants a patrol. I am going to give this one to Fox Company…Ron mind relaying the order?" Winters asked Speirs
Speirs nodded and walked out of the CP. He headed towards Fox HQ. Speirs found the lieutenant "Cox" he greeted the man
"Speirs…What can I do for you? Where is that pretty gal of yours?" Cox asked
"Sick, she's down with a nasty case of pneumonia" Speirs sat down on a chair; Cox handed him a glass of whiskey and sat down on the opposite side of the large desk.
"Pity, I like Lieutenant Hunt…you lucked out, she is something else" Cox raised his glass.
Ron raised his glass as well "She is something alright"
The two men drank in silence and Ron put down his empty glass on the desk in front of him "Sink wants a patrol and Winters want Fox to handle it"
Cox swore under his breath "Why?"
Speirs shrugged he didn't know what good the patrol would do. He walked towards the aid station; before he got there, a shell hit and killed Bill Kiehn. Speirs followed Roe to the hospital and found Mia. She was busy treating chest colds and trench foot, side effects from the month in the cold forest.
"Mia…I need you or Katie to come to battalion HQ and check out Dani and Lip, they both got pneumonia"
Mia stopped and turned around "What…Why wasn't I told"
"We've been a little busy, but now you know half an hour McKall" Speirs told Mia and hurried out of the aid station.
Mia found Katie and told her about Speirs visit. Katie handed Roe the case of plasma she was holding and packed a bag and followed Mia to HQ. When they arrived Speirs looked up from the maps, he and a handful of officers were studying and pointed towards the back.
Walking up the stairs Katie thought about the last few months, they sure been through a lot Toccoa and dry Georgia heat seemed like another life. Katie felt like war was all she knew. Dick wouldn't stay in the army or at least she didn't think he would. Katie had a nagging feeling that Dani would stay in, she had a whole new spring in her step and Dani looked like the Dani she knew from basic training.
When she opened the door to the room Dani and Lipton were in, she almost fainted, the smell of fever, dirt and sweat met her. Katie stepped in and closed the door; she looked at the two sleeping soldiers, and knew this was going to take a while.
Speirs searched the HQ, he had seen Katie and Mia walk in, but he hadn't seen either of them since. He walked upstairs and almost bumped into Mia who came walking out of a bedroom with her arms full of dirty sheets and clothes.
"How are they doing?" He asked her
Mia stopped and looked at Speirs, He looked like he aged five years in the last two months "They are ok, they are clean and Katie just poured them both a big snaps and they just need to sleep"
Speirs shook his head "Snaps, is that the best you can do, they need penicillin and real medicine, not alcohol…I can't even…"
Mia dropped the dirty clothes on the floor and pointed at Speirs "Hey that is the love of my life in there and I trust Katie, so get your shit together Speirs and go scare some replacements" Mia picked up the laundry and stomped of mumbling something about how Speirs was a son of a bitch.
Well that went well Speirs thought and knocked on the door; he pushed the door open and looked at Dani and Lip. They were sleeping and Dani did look a lot better so maybe Mia was right.
….
The next morning news of what had happened with the replacement officer from Fox Company spread through the CP. Cox had let Fitzpatrick go on the patrol and he had stepped on a schue mine and died from shock and blood loss.
Winters ripped Cox a new one, but he was also upset with himself, he shouldn't have let Fitzpatrick join Fox without speaking to him first.
Katie found Winters at the battalion HQ. Winters was frustrated on a number of levels, He had been acting battalion commander for a while, but he was still only a Captain which placed him at a disadvantage when decisions needed to be made involving other battalions in the division. He was pissed at Cox and at himself.
"Dick…you can't blame yourself, it will eat at you" Katie put her arms around Winters and hugged him
Winters hugged her back "I know…"
Winters didn't get to say anymore, outside they heard the tell-tale sounds of someone fighting and then Dani's voice "You are a sorry excuse for a company commander you son of a bitch, that boy's death is on you"
Someone responded and then they heard Dani yelling" Let go of me, sergeant Talbert, let me go"
Katie and Winters ran outside, they noticed Speirs coming running as well and Talbert holding Dani back.
Speirs took Dani from Talbert and dismissed Cox. Katie just looked at Dani with a look on her face that said what the hell.
Dani pulled away from Speirs. Winters Looked at Dani "Care to explain?"
"Son of bitch…Cox…Cox was there on , He could have saved me from the Germans" Dani turned and walked away
Before anyone could react, Cox was on the ground, blood running down his face from his broken nose. Everybody turned to Speirs, who just took a step back and held up his hands, signaling he didn't do anything.
"Goddamn son of a bitch…" Katie mumbled under her breath and clutched her hand to her chest; she was the one who knocked the Lieutenant to the ground. No way was he going to get away with leaving her friend to the krauts. When Katie heard what Dani said, she had gone numb and before she even knew, she was doing she felt her hand connect with Cox's face.
Winters shook his head, this was a mess, he knew he had to transfer Cox and it would be a pain to find a replacement. Winters took a look at the officers gathered in front of CP. Dani was pissed and still looked sick, Speirs looked like he was going to kill Cox, and who could blame him. Nix was grinning like an idiot
Winters sighed, "Alright…Lane take Cox to the aid station, and I will speak with him later"
He then turned around and put his arm around Katie's shoulders "Come on slugger, let's get Mia to take a look at your hand and Dani get back to bed"
Dani coughed and nodded, Speirs looked at Nixon "I'll be back in five minutes"
Nix followed Winters into the CP "I hate to break the mood, but regiment want a patrol to cross the river and grab a few prisoners"
Winters ran his hands through his hair a few times and then turned and looked at Katie. Mia was bandaging her hand and she nodded that she would be ok. Her hand was just bruised and not broken, she flexed her fingers, she would be sore for a few days, but she would still be able to operate.
Nixon and Winters stepped out of the CP, Speirs and Lane joined them
"He wants us to cross the river?" Winters asked the two S3, Lane and Nixon had been promoted right after Bastogne.
"Yeah, I bet that water is cold" Nixon said
"Should be able to get you some boats," Lane said
They all heard some shell being fired and Lane and Winters looked up at the sky.
"It had to be a full moon, so much for the cover of darkness, it's going to leave the patrol exposed" Winters was not happy.
Lane, Winters and Nixon walked back to the CP
Winter removed his helmet "Listen up, regiment want a patrol for prisoners,"
Dani who was on her way up stairs stopped, turned, and looked at Lane with her fever-glazed eyes, she wanted to know what was going on, she knew she could not lead the patrol, but she still wanted to know what was going on
Speirs looked at her "Bed… now, that's an order"
The men in the room looked at the S3 officers with a look on their faces that said why, why should we risk our lives at this point in the war.
"Hey, this one comes straight from Colonel Sink, so it's not our idea" Lane said and motioned between Nixon and herself.
Winters laid out a map across the grand piano in the room "Since the river is the main line of resistance, we are going to have to cross it to get to them," Winters told Speirs.
Speirs looked at Winters and asked, "What do we need to do?"
"There is a threes storage building on the enemy side, up the embankment, we know it's occupied, you can have fifteen men, think very hard about who you want to lead the patrol, you need a lead scout and a translator, I will have the entire battalion on recovering fire" Winters gave Speirs a stern look.
"When?" Speirs asked
"Tonight at zero one hundred"
"Yes, sir," Speirs replied.
Lane looked around the room, the men and officers all looked like they were on the verge of breaking down and she got on her feet "I'll go, I can do it, just give me the remainder of third platoon and Malarkey's second"
Speirs and Winters looked at her and the both shook their heads "No"
"I can do it, I am just not another pretty face, I got this and since it's a S3 op, I am going"
Nixon sighed; he was going to need a bottle of the VAT 69 tonight if he was going to survive Lane risking her life for the bullshit mission.
Winters looked at Speirs "I want this as safe and fooled proof as possible"
Nixon looked at him "don't take any chances on this one, we are too far along for that"
Lane turned to a replacement. Lane and Nixon hadn't had the privilege of meeting Jones yet "Who are you?" She asked him
"Lieutenant Jones, Ma'am" he answered
Lane looked at Nixon "Right our West Pointer" Nixon said
Lane looked at the lieutenant "When did you graduate" she asked him
"June 6th, Ma'am" he said
"June 6th of last year?" Lane said with a surprised look on her face
"D. Day, yes ma'am" Jones said and knew Lane had taken an instant dislike to him
Nixon and Lane let out a small laugh "ok, don't get hurt" Nixon said and pushed Lane out of the room.
Nixon led Lane outside and walked down to the river "Lane…" He started
Lane looked at Nixon, he looked as battle worn as the rest of the men and he still hadn't shaved "Don't Lew, I am doing this, I am the one here…who is most ready to do this, the rest of you need rest. I won't let them send a noncom who will fuck this up, I can do this, don't worry I will be back in no time"
Nixon hugged Lane "I know, I still don't like it though"
Lane hugged him back "I know, I will be fine"
The Men and Lane were ordered to gather at CP at 1700. Lane knew she was late, the were filling the room and they looked around to see who would be leading the patrol
The men were passing out cigarettes; the new lieutenant was standing by the door.
"No way…can't he be leading" Grant said
Babe shrugged "I don't know what they decided"
"Not on his what first day here" Grant said
"Do you see any other officers here?" Liebgott asked
Cobb, Alley and two others walked into the room. McClung looked at Cobb who was pissed
"What?" he asked
"They call you up to?" McClung asked Alley
Alley asked who was in charge of the bullshit and turned and looked at Jones, as he was going to be leading the mission.
"No he ain't" Grant replied
"Well if he ain't, it's you Chuck, shifty or Moe," Babe said
"That would be better" Liebgott said anyone would be better than the replacement officer, who would get many good men killed.
Winters walked into the room followed by Lane and Martin
"Gentlemen as you can see, we have assembled 15 of you for the prisoner snatch tonight at 01.00, just a couple of points…we have secured four rubber boats to get you across the . Captain Easterday will lead the patrol" Winters told the men
The men let out a collective sigh, they would have someone who knew what they were doing leading them.
Winters went on " The whole battalion will cover your withdraw, identifying target and plan fire for them, when we hear these whistles we open up fire so don't blow them until you're back in the boat with your prisoners"
Winters went on to explain the technicalities of the mission and finally dismissed the men
Lane walked back to the house that housed the men who were going on the patrol. The men were preparing. Lane took of her helmet and looked around the room "Ok remember nothing shines and nothing rattles"
Lane looked around at the men in the basement not a single word was spoken, every man was preparing for what was a head and each of them wondered if they would make it back. The Patrol was unnecessary in Lane's opinion and the only thing they would accomplish was to get one or more of the veterans killed.
Each of them were sitting in silence, deep in thought. Some were praying, some were repeating the objective for the mission over and over again
Half an hour before they were set to off from the riverbank, Lane got on her feet "Come on boys let's get this snafu patrol over and done with"
The men got on their feet, picked up their weapons and shuffled out of the basement and towards the riverbank. Along the way, their fellow company members greeted them
Lane got in the first boat, the rest of the men followed, and they set off towards the enemy side of the river.
A couple of men fell in the river and the patrol was now short three men.
When they landed on the opposite bank Lane spread out her men, the sound of beating hearts, ragged breaths were deafening, and the tension was palpable.
Lane stopped for 30 seconds and got her shit together and then moved the patrol forward
Jackson, sweet young innocent Jackson, threw a grenade into the building and stepped in the door before it exploded.
He was screaming in agony. Webster yelled at the Germans, it was complete chaos and Lane had a hard time getting her men back to the boats.
Lane wanted to be the last one in the boat and she urged her men on, just before she stepped back in the boat a shot rang out.
Lane felt like something tore through her chest and she fell face first down into the boat, the men started to scream and a prisoner who the men thought wouldn't make it, got left on the shore.
"Shit" Martin mumbled when he felt Lane fall across his lap. Then he felt Lane's warm blood on his fingers, this wasn't good, this wasn't good at all.
Once back on their own side of the river, the men carried Lane and Jackson back to the basement. On their way there, Mia joined them and she ran alongside Lane's stretcher, she tried to get the men to carry Lane and Jackson to the hospital, but the men were panicking, there was no reasoning with them.
"Roe" Mia called out once they were inside the basement.
Doc started to treat Jackson, but he knew he was a goner. Roe turned to Mia "How is she doing?" he asked Mia
Mia removed the blanket and when she saw what they were dealing with, she knew it was only a matter of time before Lane would bleed out, she motioned for Spina to help her and they got Lane to the aid station.
"Katie…Doc, we need you" Mia called out.
Katie came running down the hall; she looked at Lane's wound and knew she had to operate on Lane at the aid station and if it was serious enough, she had to be transferred to a MASH unit.
….
Nixon and Winters heard the shot and ran toward the building where the men were gathered. A group carrying someone on a stretcher ran past the two officers. When the two officers entered the basement, the men became quiet and they all turned and looked at Winters.
Winters removed his helmet "Who got hurt?" Winters asked
Martin looked up at Winters and then his eyes shifted to Nixon, his eyes were misty "Jackson was KIA…and the Captain, Lane she…was wounded, she took one to the lung" Martin said
The sound of a helmet hitting the floor broke the dead silence in the basement "No, No, Nooooo" Nixon repeated the word repeatedly and before anyone could say anything Nixon ran out of the basement.
Winters followed his friend out of the basement, he saw Nixon running towards the aid station and Winters followed. Winters ran past Speirs and asked him to follow him.
Nixon burst through the doors and looked around, he headed for the room where could hear Katie barking orders.
A pair of strong hands stopped him "Sir…please don't make me force you out of here" Lipton looked at Nixon.
Nixon tried to push past the first sergeant, but Winters and Speirs stopped him "Nix don't" Winters told his friend and forced Nixon down onto a chair.
An hour later, most Easy Company was at the aid station or had dropped by at one time to check if there was any news. Nixon had not said anything he was drinking himself numb. Speirs and winters flanked him, so he wouldn't cause any problems. Dani had gone back to bed, she was still sick, the snaps and strudel hadn't cured her as it had Lipton.
Katie and a young medic, who had only been a month away from finishing his surgical internship, were working on Lane. The Captain was a tough one and Katie knew if it had been anyone else, the person would have been dead by now.
After what seemed like days, but had been hours they closed up and Katie knew it was up to God and Lane now, she had done what she could.
Katie thanked the medic, who just gave her a small tired smile. Katie walked out of the impromptu OP, and saw the people gathered there. Her eyes sought out Winters, he looked at her, she nodded, and Winters let out a breath.
Nixon looked and tried to get on his feet, but was unable to stand on his own, Speirs had to support him "How is she?" Nixon asked
Katie gave Nixon a small smile "She…it's up to god and Lane now…just be gentle when you go back there"
Nixon stumbled towards the back. Winters stopped "Nix…Lew go sleep I'll watch her for you"
Nixon knew Winters was right, he knew Lane would kill him if she saw him now "Yeah…just let me know if something happens"
Winters nodded "I will, don't worry"
….
Dani had enough of staying in bed and she decided to find Speirs, she found him by the river
She arrived at the same time as Sink and Colonel Harper of the 327th glider infantry regiment.
Sink had a little too much to drink and he ordered Winters to dispatch another patrol to capture additional prisoners.
Nixon and Winters exchanged a confused look, the order made absolutely no sense, Winters decided to ignore the order.
A second patrol would only result in additional casualties. The freshly fallen snow along the riverbanks turned into ice in no time during the day, which meant the Germans would hear the patrol a mile away.
Winters just said yes sir.
Winters looked at Nixon "Why the hell did he want another patrol?"
"Well the two prisoners you snatched talked about everything, OB, supply trouble, Hitler's favorite color, nothing that gets us across the river, I don't what to tell you Dick" Nixon shrugged.
Nixon told Winters "Well, Sinks been on the horn all day bragging and now he wants to show off, you gave him a successful patrol and now he wants another"
Winter let out a spiteful laugh "Successful"
They were so close to the ending and men were still dying.
Speirs came up to the small group "Dick the men are mustered, I am ready to brief them, same rooster as last night, well almost, well mostly"
"No, No I'll do it" Dick turned and walked toward the building
….
Winters gathered the men "Listen up, Colonel Sink wants another patrol tonight" Winters said
The men let out a collective groan, Winters went on to brief the men about the patrol
"Won't we be changing the plan at all?" Martin asked him
"We will be crossing at 02.00 instead of 01.00," Winters said.
There was a loud thud and Winters looked at his watch "The outpost we hit last night just went up in Smoke, tomorrow I will hand Sink a report stating we were unable to secure any prisoners, look alive we are moving of line"
Winters looked at the men "Get good night's sleep"
Winters turned and looked at Lipton "A word first sergeant" Winters motioned for Lipton to follow him.
Speirs turned and looked at Lieutenant Jones "Jones, join us at the company CP"
"Congratulations, you are here by discharged from the US Army and awarded a battlefield commission" Winters handed Lipton a set of second lieutenants bars.
Mia, who had been called to CP, came running thru the room and threw herself at Lipton "Congrats C, you so deserve it"
She then turned and looked Welsh, who had returned to the company "Harry, didn't expect to see you back so soon, I was expecting you, to nurse that scratch of yours for another month or two" she said and hugged Welsh, who picked her off the floor.
"No, I couldn't live without you anymore" Welsh said and winked at Mia.
Winters turned to Lieutenant Jones, "Regiment has seen fit to promote you to first lieutenant, congratulations they want you on their staff"
Jones shook Winters hand; Jones knew the battalion commander wanted him gone, because he couldn't use an inexperienced combat leader
Easy Company was moving on. Lane would not be going with them and Nixon was drinking himself stupid every night.
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crazyforkasey-blog · 5 days ago
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When we met
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Chapter 16
Dani knew she had to find Malarkey. Joe Toye, Bill Guarnere and Buck Compton had been some of Don's closest friends. She found him in a foxhole with Rod Bain. Bain nodded and climbed out when Dani motioned for him to take a walk; she needed to talk to Don alone.
"Hey Malark," Dani greeted Malarkey and sat down beside him. Don's beard had grown quite a bit and she thought he looked like one of the merry men from Robin Hood.
Malarkey didn't answer the Lieutenant, he was thinking about his options. One shot... that's all it would take. One shot and he could be out of there. Accidents happen all the time, so why not now, why not here, it could just as well be him than someone else.
"What are you thinking Don?" Dani asked the quiet Sergeant. Winters had promoted him to staff sergeant after Guarnere was wounded.
"Just…how…hell everybody finds a way out of here, intentionally or not. Hoobler shoots himself in the leg. Toye and Bill, gets blown to bits and Buck…well I guess he got blown to bits as well just in a different way" Malarkey looked at his hands as they were shaking.
Dani pulled out her P38 and handed it to Malarkey "You are right... one shot Malark, it's all it takes"
Malarkey just handed the gun back, he thought he had been tough growing up in Astoria, got tougher on Currahee, on the road to Atlanta lugging the sixty-five pound mortar all the way.
"I just. I just thought I was tougher than this…LT…I thought we were tougher than this. Jumping into Normandy in the dark, you surviving getting captured and then surviving Holland for seventy day, I Dunno"
"Look Don, we just have to stuff all that pain in the musette bag and keep walking…maybe the Lucky SOB's are the ones that are gone. We lost a lot of Toccoa men since those days in Georgia, but we push one Don…we push on, just hang tough" Dani patted Malarkey on the bag and walked towards the CP.
Dani was almost at the CP when a barrage started. She dived into the nearest foxhole; she landed on top of Lipton and Mia. They watched as Luz snaked his way towards the foxhole Muck and Penkala shared, a shell hit a dead ringer in the foxhole and Muck and Penkala were gone.
Luz got his feet and Jumped in with Mia, Lip and Dani "Muck and Penkala…Muck and Penkala, they are dead"
They all sat still and waited for the Germans to cease-fire. Dani ran back to the foxhole and jumped in with Don, she knew Roe would be there in no time to tell Don about what happened to his two best friends.
Roe dug his hands deeper into his pockets, stopped on the edge of the foxhole, and crouched down "Malark, I'm sorry, but it's Skip" he said, "He is dead Penkala too"
Dani could tell Malarkey went completely numb and she put her arms around Malarkey
"How did…it..Happen" Malarkey's voice was nothing but a whisper
"Bout a 100 yard down the line. A major shelling. Muck and Penkala were caught out in the open, and then finally found a hole. Luz had been running around during the blitz too. Muck and Penkala yelled for him to get in their foxhole" Roe paused and looked at Dani, she nodded and Roe continued, "Luz is down in the snow, snaking his way toward them and-boom-direct hit on the foxhole. Shell found them as if it had eyes"
Roe handed Malarkey the cross of some broken rosary "He would want you to have it" Roe said and then disappeared
Dani sat for a while with Don who just stared at the cross. She climbed out of the foxhole and came back a while later "Malarkey, Uh winters wants to know if you want to come and spend a couple of days with him at HQ. Help out there, be a runner"
She hoped Malarkey would take the offer, just a few hours away from the front line could alter a man's depressed mind.
Malarkey just shook his head "No…I…I'm gonna stay the guys need me"
Dani gave him a little smile and walked back to CP, she respected Don's choice, it was the right one.
...
Easy was through playing games with the Germans in Foy. The other companies in the regiment had tried to attack Foy and had been forced to retreat. The Germans were bringing up trucks and Tanks. Winters figured it was now or never and the company swept the woods left and right. It was time to head straight into Foy.
Two things about the attack worried Dani. She was sitting in a foxhole with Lipton, talking about the attack "First we have to charge across an open field of snow, against an enemy that's entrenched with buildings and trees, secondly fucking foxhole Norman is going to lead the attack, that fucker got no combat experience, he is going to get us all killed"
Lipton knew she was right and he knew he had to talk to Winters. Lipton waited a few hours before he headed towards CP. He meet Mia on the way, she hollered for him to stop
"Hey C where are you headed?" Mia asked him
"CP, I need to talk to Winters…Dike…he is not really all there" Lipton looked at Mia for confirmation, he knew he was doing the right thing, he just needed Mia to know it too.
"Yeah…you should, but C don't get your hopes up" Mia kissed him on the cheek.
Lipton carried on. When he arrived at the CP he noticed Lane and Nixon were pouring over some maps and Katie was sitting quietly in a corner mumbling something that sounded like freaking moron.
Winters walked by and looked at Lipton who was smoking, a habit he had picked up after the shelling that killed Muck and Penkala. Mia had told him it was a nasty habit, but it helped him calm down.
"Lip…I didn't figure you for a smoking man" Winters said and walked back into the CP
"Neither did I" Lip mumbled while he tried to put the cigarette out.
Winters handed a piece of paper to a runner "D. Company, Lieutenant Speirs, Patrol order"
Winters crouched down and looked at a cup with coffee in it on a small fire "So"
Lip stood behind him "We have been watching Foy, not much activity"
Winters picked up the cup and stood up "Want a coffee"
Lipton shook his head "No thank you sir"
Winters sat down besides Katie and gave her small smile; Katie just scowled at him and turned her head.
"How is Easy status?" Winters asked
"The men are good, they are prepared…I am going to be leading second platoon tomorrow, they are probably the weakest after losing, Toye and Guarnere, Muck and Penkala, But all in all I have every confidence in the men sir" Lipton said
"Good..Good" Winters took a sip of his hot coffee
Lipton hesitated and drew in a deep breath " But on the other hand I have no confidence in our CO, Sir"
Katie looked at Winters "Told you so" she mumbled
"Lieutenant Dike is an Empty uniform Captain, he is just…he is not there, Sir" Lipton waited for Winters to respond
"Well he is gonna be there tomorrow" Winters said with a stern voice, he knew Lip was right, he just couldn't let a sergeant question his decisions
"Yes sir, I understand he is going to be there physically, But tomorrow is going to be the real deal and he is going to have to lead those men. He is going to have to make decisions Sir and I..I got to tell you sir I think he is going to get a lot of Easy company men killed" Lipton hoped he got the message across, but he knew Winters couldn't replace Dike, he was a favor to someone up at division.
"Thank you, that will be all first sergeant" Winters looked at Katie "Guess someone shares your concern"
"Guess so, you know Dick, you should make Speirs head of Easy, bet he could take the town with less casualties than most men here" Katie knew that Speirs was a great combat leader.
Winters was feeding Dike Instructions like a coach to a rookie quarterback. He told he was relying on him to get it done.
3rd and 2nd platoon moved out. Covering fire opened. A smoke barrage was laid down in front of the buildings the Germans used for defensive positions. They headed across the field. 3rd went in on a frontal attack and were in an orchard about a hundred yards from the buildings when the smoke lifted, they were taking heavy fire and had lots of casualties. 2nd flanked in from west.
Dike yelled for Shames to keep it tight and Keep moving were heard from Lipton.
Dike got confused when he couldn't find Foley and his platoon. He yelled for Easy company to hold up and soon the attack was falling apart; Dani was stuck with Dike behind a haystack. Dike had frozen and flat out refused to lead the charge.
"Does he know Hay isn't bullet proof?" Luz mumbled
Lipton stopped 2nd platoon and Dike ordered Luz to get Foley on the horn.
From the rear Winters was going nuts yelling and screaming for them to move on. Dike ordered the men to fall back and then Froze, sitting still, not making any decisions. The men were running left and right and Dani, shames, Foley and Lipton tried to keep them together.
They were screaming at Dike, Who kept saying "I don't know…I don't know…I don't Know"
Winters was trying to get Dike on the phone, it was chaos. Winters watched what was going on in front of him and finally he had enough
Winters was running towards the battle before him eager to get Easy to safety "You gotta keep moving, keep moving forward" he yelled
"Dick get back here" Katie shouted
"Dick, Dick, Captain Winters, you do not go out there, you are the battalion commander, get back here, now Dick I understand your attachment to Easy Company…" Sink shouted at Winters
Dick just blazed past him "Speirs, get yourself on over here, get down there and relief Dike and take that attack down on in"
…..
Dani turned her head and saw her future husband run through the field, he jumped over an exploding mortar and ran down to Dike and told him he was relieved.
"First sergeant Lipton, What do we got?" Speirs screamed
"Sir most of the company are spread out here" Lipton pointed towards the town "First platoon tried an in and around, they pinned down by a sniper, I believe he is in the bombed out building here" Lipton pointed to a building with a caved in roof.
"Ok I want mortars and Garnate launchers on that building until it's gone, when it's gone I want 1st to go straight in. Forget going around, everybody follow me" Speirs got up and sprinted towards town
Luz looked at her and Dani just smiled "That's my man" she smiled and followed the new CO to Foy.
Lipton and Speirs had taken cover behind a bombed out building "What do you see Lipton"
"Infantry, a lot of infantry" Lip told him
"I Company is supposed to be on the other side of town, can you see them?" Speirs asked Lip
No, Sir, I am afraid they are gonna slip away, if we don't connect with them" Lip said
"Right, wait here" Speirs ran towards a small wall and jumped over it, he connected with I and came right back.
Dani looked at him; she knew Speirs had guts, but man that was hot.
….
The attack was over, and the whole regiment was celebrating, when a shot rang out and a man fell down.
The men all took cover and suddenly the whole town was quiet.
Lane, Lipton, Dani and Shifty took cover behind a building. Lipton quickly spotted the sniper. Dani and Lane looked at each other and nodded, "Building on the right, second floor don't miss Shifty" Dani said and took off running to the right and Lane went to the left, Shifty got the sniper
Dani smiled until she felt a slap on the back of her head, Katie looked at her " What the hell is wrong with you, Speirs is about to bust a vein?" Katie told Dani and pointed towards a pissed off Speirs.
Easy took Noville and the Rachamps. In Rachamps, the company spent the night in the convent.
Speirs walked over and Pulled Dani behind a building "I can't even…"
Dani kissed Speirs "You don't have to, I've been through hell and back in that forest. At one point I thought I was going to die in a foxhole in a frozen hell, but you know what Ron? Seeing Malarkey push through after Mucks death and seeing you run through town, gave me back the confidence I lost somewhere in Normandy, when those Germans punched the living daylight out of me. I won't…I can't go back to being half living and half dead I am going to push through and hang tough, get used to it"
Dani turned and walked away, finding Luz. Speirs looked at the happy reunion between the two friends. Dani smiled and laughed at something Luz said. Speirs knew right there and then Dani was going to be all right and she could survive anything.
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crazyforkasey-blog · 5 days ago
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When we met
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Chapter 15
"Katie, oh god sweetheart I thought I lost you" Winters hugged Katie like he was never going to let her go.
"I love you" was all Katie said and hugged Winters back, she clung on to him, never wanting to let him go.
Winters started to ask Katie about what had happened while they been captured "Not now Dick I can't talk about it, not here, not right now"
Winters nodded, he knew that something had to be buried if you wanted to survive the present
The men stopped and looked at the scene unfolding before them. It was nice to see two people so in love in the middle of the miserable frozen hell. The cameras turned to the couple, but Katie let go of Dick when she noticed it, she didn't want the attention or the questions that would follow.
Katie looked at the men and smiled "I guess you didn't follow Taylors order to shave"
The men laughed and one by one, they hurried over and hugged the doctor. They were all glad to have her back. Winters would be happy again and at this point most of the men realized Winters was a big part of the fact they were alive.
"I have some news for you boys….you guys are making headlines at home…they are calling you heroes…the battered bastards of Bastogne" Katie waited for the men's response. She knew most of them didn't feel like heroes.
Malarkey looked at her "Well I don't think most of us feel like heroes…just cold"
"I know Don and I have a feeling most of you are tired and running out of patience…and look, more snow" Katie walked over and put her arm around Malarkey and he put his arms around her "Good to see you Doc" Malarkey mumbled.
Winters turned to Joe "What are you doing here?"
Joe looked at Winters "I want to head back to the line, sir"
Winters shook his head "You don't have to do that, get back to the aid station, get yourself healed up"
Joe Shook his head "I really want to head back to the fellows sir"
"Alright, go on then" Winters motioned toward the grub line
…..
Dani had been over by Dogs line trying to avoid the cameras, came running through the forest and grabbed Katie. She grabbed her friend and hugged the living daylight out of her "I never thought I would see you again"
Katie looked at Dani, she noticed her friend looked pale, she had dark circles around her eyes and Dani had lost a lot of weight during their time in the forest.
"Is tall, dark and scary not looking after you" Katie asked Dani
"He is trying" Dani said and walked towards the grub line
Dani linked her arm thru Joes and walked with him to get some bean soup. Guarnere approached them
Bill greeted Joe and then he noticed Dani "Well aren't you a sight for sore eyes" Bill looked at Dani, she looked like hell.
Dani punched Bill playfully in the arm.
Bill turned to Joe "What are you doing here?"
Joe shrugged "I had to make sure you were on top of things"
Bill smirked "I am on top of things, I tied me own boots once last week, all by me self" Bill and Joe laughed.
A replacement who hadn't met Dani yet, because she was hiding from Dike and the cameras over by Dog Company's line looked at Dani, "What's with all the broads in this Company?"
Joe looked at the replacement "What's that" he asked
"That's Webb, a replacement," Skip told him
"Really, I thought it some guy I have known for two years and I forgot his face" Toye retorted
"Joe got hit in the arm, a New Year's Eve gift from the Luftwaffe," A Penkala told the replacement
"Have a lot of you been injured" The replacement asked
Lane who was skipping the line, smacked the poor guy upside his head "It's called wounded peanut, injured is when you fall out of a tree or something"
Katie who had gotten her grub and sat down on a log with Mia and Katie on each side of her, smiled when Skip turned and told the Kid "Don't worry there is enough grab flying around here, you are about to get dinged sometime"
Skip decided to guide the replacement through the Company's wounded list "almost every single of these guys and girls has been hit a least once"
Skip looked around "except for Alley he is a two timer, he landed on broken glass in Normandy and got peppered by a potato masher in Holland, Bull he got an piece of exploding tank in Holland, now Luz and Lane here, they never been hit, lucky bastards"
Luz looked at skip, who had never been wounded himself "Takes one to know one, Skip" he retorted
Skip just continued "consider us blessed, now Liebgott, the scrawny little guy, he got pinged in the neck in Holland"
Liebgott pulled down on his scarf so Webb could see his scar "And next to him, that other skinny little guy, that's Popeye, he got shot in his scrawny little butt in Normandy"
Skip then turned to Buck "And Buck got shot in his rather large butt in Holland" Buck pointed to where he was hit.
"It's kind of an Easy company tradition getting shot in the ass," Penkala mumbled.
Skip then looked at the Katie, Mia, Lane and Dani "And then there are the pretty edition to the company, now Captain Hendrick, she got hit by a flying piece of bridge in Holland"
Skip continued "Lieutenant Hunt…well let's just say she met the Germans upfront and in Person"
Dani gave Skip a grateful smile; she didn't really want all the new men to know about her run in with the Germans on D-day
Skip then turned to Lip "even first sergeant Lipton here he got a couple tank shell burst in Carentan, he took one to the face, the other almost took out his nuts"
Guarnere smirked, winked at Mia, and then turned to Lipton "How are those nuts?"
Before Lipton could respond, Mia smirked back at Guarnere "Very well Sergeant, thanks for asking.
That earned, a blushing Lipton a slap on the back and a few laughs.
…..
On January 3rd Winters decided to pull 2nd and 3rd Platoon out of the advanced position. He wanted them back in their old positions, perched in their woods overlooking Foy. Winters had no reserves to fill the flanks if the Germans got past them they would be fighting on three sides
Winters left 1st platoon attached to Dog Company, which like most of the company in the 101st was down to 50 percent or less strength. Dog Company needed help maintaining the MLR, Dani offered to stay with first platoon and Buck took charge of third platoon.
This way Dani could stay with Speirs and Buck would get a small break.
Christenson. Perconte and a replacement were sharing a foxhole. First and second platoon walked by, the men teased the guys, "don't drink too much" and Malarkey walked by and pointed his rifle at them, "don't accept, if he offers you a cigarette"
The replacement looked at Christenson "What are they talking about"
"Speirs, lieutenant Speirs," Christenson told the replacement
"The stories about Speirs, is probably just bullshit anyways" Christenson was toying with his machine gun.
"What stories? What stories" the replacement asked
Perconte looked at him "Speirs shot one of his men for being drunk"
"That's unbelievable," the replacement said
"And another one about him giving cigarettes to twenty POV before shooting them" Christenson continued
"Well I heard it was more like thirty," Perconte said between brushing his teeth
None of the men had heard Dani and Speirs sneaking up on them "Christenson, I got the name right, it is Christenson right?" Speirs asked the scared soldier.
"Yes sir" Christenson answered
"What are you men doing out here" Speirs asked the men
Dani was hanging back and none of the men in the foxhole had yet noticed her, she was trying not to laugh at the frightened look on the men's faces.
"Watching the line, Sir" Christenson answered
"Well, keep up the good work and while you are at it, you might want to reinforce your cover" Speirs motioned to the foxhole, which was in a poor state
"Actually, lieutenant Dike said, not to bother we are only going to be here one day" Perconte said
"Lieutenant Dike said not to bother, well then forget what I said, carry on" Ron got on his feet and started to walk away, he turned "Anyone care for a smoke"
Dani stepped out from the shadows "Don't mess with my men" She gave Speirs a stern look and Speirs just shook his head and walked off.
Dani shook her head "Everybody ok here?" The three men nodded and Dani walked off in the direction Speirs had disappeared to.
She found him in his foxhole, he was smoking and when he saw Dani a big smile appeared on his face, Dani jumped down in the foxhole "Don't mess with my boys, you scare the shit out of them" Dani scolded him.
"I didn't do anything just talking" Speirs smirked
"Yeah, whatever you say" Dani cuddled up to Speirs and she fell asleep.
The lead unit decided to take a short cut across the open field to get to the foxholes before dark, the other units followed and the Germans spotted them.
When the men ducked into the woods, they noticed that the German had zeroed artillery in on the position. There were shell holes and branches from tree bursts all around the foxholes. The shells were big, indicating heavy artillery.
Joe jumped into his foxhole to work on strengthening it "Argh, you gotta be fucking kidding me, someone's gonna die, someone's gonna fucking die, look at this shit, one of those first battalion fuckers took a shit in my foxhole"
Guarnere was looking around at the mass destruction "They took a shit in everybody's foxhole; I don't think they wanted to spend much time above ground"
Mia, Shames, Buck and Lipton was standing in a circle talking, Lipton was explaining to them what he had observed in Foy, "They are just waiting for us to reoccupy our position" Buck said
"It's our job to hold the line here, we got pretty good foxholes, we just need to strengthened our covers" Lipton told the other officers
Shames chimed in "If they got us zeroed in maybe we should…"
Buck interrupted him "We hold the line here, sergeant Lipton is right, we are gonna strengthen our covers and we are gonna hang in, we are not gonna fall back" Buck let out a small laugh and yelled "Right lieutenant" to Dike who was standing ten feet away from the group
"Fine, you all take care of it; I gotta go talk to regiment" Dike walked off and disappeared once again.
Mia and Lipton were working on strengthening their foxhole, when a barrage began. Lipton and Mia ran through the woods yelling to the men to take cover, before them finally jumping into a small open hole, someone had started to dig and then abandoned.
Mia heard Buck yelling, "In coming G'down take cover"
Lipton was on top of Mia, who was shaking, this was worse than anything they had experienced before.
The shells were set to explode on impact, creating tree bursts that flung shrapnel and knifelike shards of wood in all directions. Pines snapped in half and slammed to the snow with thumps, limbs flying crazily. The ground exploded, dirt shooting up like geysers, the men were running around looking for cover.
Buck kept running around yelling "Get down, find some cover"
Toye was in the open, shouting orders to his men to take cover, a shell exploded just above him. Shrapnel all but tore off his right leg and hit him in the stomach, chest and both arms.
Suddenly the shelling stopped. All through the woods men were calling out for a medic, Mia started to get on her feet, Lipton got of her "You head for the foxhole, it's gonna start again"
Mia ran toward their foxhole trying to block out the calls for a medic, she knew Lipton was right
Toye voices was heard "Gotta get up…Gotta get up"
Hearing his old friend Guarnere jumped to his rescue and just as he started to drag Joe towards his foxhole. Guarnere were playing right into the Germans hands. The shelling started again, a shell burst over Guarnere's head. Shrapnel tore into his right leg, mangling it. After a few minutes, the shelling ceased.
Mia and Lipton ran out of their foxhole, halfway to Joe and Bill they encountered Dike.
Dike shouted to Lipton "First Sergeant Lipton, you get things organized here and I'll go for help" And with that he left.
Lipton was shocked, Mia turned and looked at Dike's retreating form "Lieutenant Dike, get back here, Dike…" Mia shook her head "Fucker" she mumbled.
Mia and Lipton ran toward the Panicked voice of Buck calling "medic…medic"
Buck came roaring past them, he was heading towards the CP, he was completely exposed to incoming fire. Liebgott, Luz, and Alley, tackled him and dragged him into a foxhole. Buck had had enough and he couldn't take it anymore.
Mia came to a skidding hold and threw herself down next to Toye" its ok Joe, It's gonna be ok"
Malarkey was shocked to see what happened to his two friends "What can I do to help?" He asked Dani, Mia and Roe, who had shown up two minutes before.
Mia was trying to tie a tourniquet around what was left of Joe's leg.
"Take it Easy Joe, you're going to be ok" Malarkey tried to comfort his friend.
A jeep had come up from the rear and wound its way through the trees, Mia and Malarkey put Joe on a stretcher and lifted it on to the hood of the jeep
Joe asked Malarkey for a cigarette, trying to comfort his friend, who kept saying it was going to be ok, as if he was saying it would make it all ok. Malarkey put a cigarette in Joes mouth and lit it, Joe took a deep drag and blew out the smoke
Joe looked at Malarkey "what's a guy gotta do to die" Joe asked
Malarkey sniffled and said, "I Dunno Joe, I Dunno"
Guarnere was sitting next to him shaking, he looked up at Lipton "eh Lip, they got old Guarnere this time"
Bill was put on a stretcher and just before they walked away with him, he said, "Hey Joe, I told I would beat you back to the states"
Joe Toye was in a lot of pain, and Camilla tried to ease his pain, best she could with her limited supply of morphine.
Katie came running to the scene and threw herself down on the ground next to Joe "Hey Joe, you don't look too hot" She nudged him; Joe just smiled, and looked away.
Katie looked over her shoulder, Luz came walking up to her, and Katie knew she would never forget his shocked expression, when he saw Joe on the ground.
Katie put a hand on his shoulder and turned him away from the scene "Luz, how is Buck?"
"Fine, but you should probably go talk to him," Luz said and walked away, it was too much for him to see his friend on the ground.
Katie walked over and sat down next to Buck "Buck, how is that trench foot of yours?" she asked him
Buck wouldn't look Katie in the eye, he knew what she was doing and he was grateful for it, she wasn't going to talk to him about what he just witnessed, but she was giving him away out.
Buck just looked at Katie with big empty eyes, Katie motioned for him to stand up and she walked Buck to a jeep "Let me handle this, you just go and don't come back until you are ready"
Katie hugged Buck and the jeep drove off, Katie found battalion CP and informed Winters, she had sent Buck off the line with a bad case of trench foot
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crazyforkasey-blog · 10 days ago
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When we met
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Chapter 14
German Field Hospital Somewhere in Belgium
"Captain Hendrick…Doc Hendrick…Can you come here for a second" A young nurse called out for Katie.
It was Christmas Eve and the German Hospital was overcrowded. Katie did the best she could for the German soldier, but she never talked or got close with them, not as she had done with her American Patients, her friends.
Katie missed Winters, she would dream of him at night. She longed for him and she needed him more than her next breath.
Katie walked towards the young nurse; suddenly the German commander blocked her path.
"Ah Doctor Hendrick…Kommen Sie mit…Bitte" The Commander motioned for Katie to follow him
Katie followed him into his office, the commander closed the door, Katie swallowed, she was afraid he heard how she helped Mia escape.
"Doctor, one of your nurses has gone missing…Do you…how do you say, have a finger in the escape act" The commander sat down in his desk chair.
Katie swallowed hard "I don't know what you are talking about I didn't even know a nurse was missing" Katie bit her cheek. Mia must have made it since the commander decided to interrogate Katie.
"Are you absolutely sure you don't know anything about this flucht…escape?" The commander got on his feet.
The commander walked over to Katie. Being young and away from home, he couldn't help but being attracted to the young doctor, she was a beauty.
Katie looked at the commander. He was a poster boy for the Nazi's he was tall, slender and blond with blue eyes. Katie hated the commander, he never hurt her, but she knew he was playing her. He wanted something from her and she had a feeling it was her in his bed and that was why he had been so nice these past few weeks.
"I don't know anything" Katie looked the commander right in the eyes
"You know what I think you are lying" the commander walked over, lifted Katie's hair away from her neck, and kissed the spot right behind her ear.
Katie shuddered and the commander took it for lust not the fright it actually was, he grabbed her hand and kissed her. Katie tried to fight him off. When he pulled back, Katie spit him in the face.
That turned out to be a big mistake, the commander slapped her hard across the face, the door opened and a soldier stepped in, the commander stepped away from Katie. The commander looked at the young soldier
"WAS" his eyes never leaving Katie?
"Haupt sturmbahn fuhrer Schmidt" The young soldier stepped away and a German SS soldier stepped in the room.
The commander stepped up to the young soldier and whispered something in his ear and the young man grabbed Katie and pulled him alongside of him. He stopped in front of a cell. Katie started to protest she knew no one made out of the cell a live.
Christmas Eve, somewhere in a cold forest in Belgium
Dani sat in a crowded foxhole with Malarkey, Muck, Penkala and Bain. Malarkey passed out Lucky stripes.
Dani was shaking like oak leaves and she missed Ron. It was Christmas Eve and she was supposed to be with the people she loved, not sitting in a foxhole freezing her ass off.
It was quiet and the only sound was some guys coughing, which had become as common as breathing.
Suddenly the Germans started to sing Silent night, the sound traveled over the snow. Dani closed her eyes and started to sing as well and the men in the foxhole became quiet. Dani opened her eyes and saw the men all staring at her.
"What" she asked
Malarkey shook his head "You should sing more often that was amazing, merry Christmas lieutenant"
Dani blushed "Merry Christmas boys"
….
December 26th somewhere in a holding cell in Belgium
Katie was going insane; she knew all the signs from her psych classes. She was hallucinating and she was itching all over and she was sure she heard voices. Katie crept into the corner of the cell.
The door to the cell opened and a soothing voice sounded, "Ok, its ok, it's over"
Katie looked at the soldier standing in the door and sighed with relief, it was over, and by the look of his uniform, he was a part of Patton's third army.
The Soldier picked up Katie, carried her up to the hospital ward, and put her on the bed. Katie passed out, the next time she woke up, she saw the German soldiers were gone and replaced by Brits and Americans.
One of the young nurses stopped when she noticed Katie was awake "Oh Doctor…oh I can't believe it, you are awake" The nurse motioned for one of the doctors to come over and examine Katie
"Doctor Kent" Katie mumbled and let the other doctor look her over. Katie knew she was ok physically, she was just dehydrated and starved, but emotionally she was beat, she felt like she lost a part of herself somewhere between the beating and the cell.
….
A frozen forest in Belgium, December 31st
"Glen Miller's plane has gone down somewhere over the channel" Roe brought back news from town.
"Wow…Can't believe we won't hear any new music from that guy again" Malarkey mumbled and returned to watch the line.
"Well I got some more news…Patton has liberated the 326th" The 3rd army had penetrated the German lines and had rolled into town, the circle was broken and Easy would finally be resupplied and the wounded would finally be evacuated.
Roe ran off, he needed to tell Winters. Roe knocked on the tent pole at the CP, Winters looked up at him "Doc…what can I do for you" Winters asked
"Well, sir, I just wanted to…the 326th was liberated by Patton
Winters starred at Roe "Is there any…is there any news about the…"
Roe knew Winters wanted to know if he had heard anything about Katie "No sir, Nothing"
Winters sighed "Ok, thank you for the news and Doc if you hear anything…"
"You will be the first to know" Roe turned and walked back to the foxhole he shared with Spina, he hoped the nice doctor was ok.
The tarp over the foxhole lifted and Mia slid into the foxhole "Is it me or is Dike the biggest moron on the face of the earth"
Roe and Spina looked at Mia. Mia never complained so Foxhole Norman must have screwed up "What…never mind…the 326th has been liberated" Roe told Mia
Mia just smiled and snuggled up in her blanket. She was happy but she wondered what shape Katie would be in when she showed up.
Mia heard Dani run by the foxhole just as a barrage started. Dani was shouting at the men trying to get them to take cover, she pushed the men into the foxhole. A German plane swooped low and fired an anti personnel bomb. Toye pushed Dani out of the way and in return, he took some shrapnel to the wrist.
"Oh god Toye, I am so sorry are you ok" Dani was crouched by Toye's side and she was almost crying.
"Damn it…don't worry about me Lt, just remember to tell Speirs how I saved your life" Toye joked
Spina came running and he patched Joe up. Malarkey and Luz was standing by the Jeep joking with Joe "You lucky SOB"
"Hey Malark I will be back" Joe said and the jeep took off.
Dani stood and looked after the jeep as it disappeared. She felt guilty she looked at the small crowd gathered around her.
Luz walked over and hugged Dani "Don't worry Lt, he will be back"
Dani nodded and sniffled "I know"
Dani looked up and noticed Speirs standing a few feet away, if looks could kill Luz would have been dead.
Speirs held his hand out and Dani walked over and put her hand in his. Speirs walked Dani back to her foxhole and jumped in and then grabbed Dani by the waist and lifted her into the frozen hole.
Speirs pulled Dani close "I thought I told you to stay away from Luz" he mumbled into her hair
Dani sniffled into Speirs' chest and nodded. Speirs just held Dani tight and waited for her to calm down. He knew she felt guilty for getting Toye hurt even though she had nothing to do with it, But Dani was sensitive and he knew she just needed to feel like it was ok and that she was forgiven.
A few minutes later Dani felt a different presence in the foxhole, she looked up, Luz, Malarkey and Muck were all there. Speirs looked at Dani and then at Luz "Behave" and then he disappeared into the snow-covered forest.
Luz looked at the other soldiers in the foxhole "How does he always just show up and disappear without anyone noticing, he always know when you need him Lt"
Dani sighed, "I know, he is just…"
"Scary, we know," Muck joked.
"You know what," Malarkey asked
"No" Muck said and waited for his friend to continue
"It's new year's eve," Malarkey said
Dani looked at the men, in all the madness they forgot a year ago, they all celebrated the New Year in England Warm, wild and all the food you could eat; now they sat in their foxholes talking quietly. Buck jumped in the foxhole and wished them all a happy New Year.
"Buck can we fire off some mortars rounds," Malarkey asked
"You got ammo?" Buck asked
"Yeah" Malarkey waited for the response from his friend
Buck looked at Dani "I don't know, what do you say Dani?"
Dani looked at the men; they looked like boys waiting for permission to fire off firecrackers on 4 July.
"Oh go ahead" Dani smiled
The boys scurried out of the foxhole and fired off six rounds, just to let the Germans know it was not over yet.
On January 2nd Easy was called upon to push the Germans back through the Bulge. Easy were sent to clear the Bois Jacques,  third platoon were moving out, they met little resistance, at one point, Buck stopped and ordered Malarkey to squad down, and he placed a map over on his back.
Buck and Lipton were discussing where they were, and which way to proceed.
"That means, we must be right here," Buck said and tapped Malarkey on the back of the head.
Malarkey protested "Hey take it easy"
"Quit whining, or I will nail it to your head," Buck said
Guarnere snickered "You should, it's made of wood"
Dani and Lipton was walking next to each other "Man I glad to be out of my foxhole, at least I keep warm walking" Lipton said
Dani looked at him "I don't know Lip, I don't like it, it's only a thousand yard attack, and we already had casualties, I don't like it"
Easy reached the MLR and dug in. Darkness was setting in; defensive positions were set for the night. A German soldier came roaring through the woods on horseback, like something out of legend of sleepy hollow, he scared the hell out of everybody there. He encountered a patrol and did a one eighty turn and headed back. Hoobler pumped three rounds in the soldiers back, the soldier fell off the horse and Hoobler finally got his luger.
The company dug in as best they could, Dani was swearing and cursing. Lipton finally decided to help her and shifty dig in.
"Hey Lip thanks for the help" Shifty was grateful for the help, Dani had always been petite, but after weeks in the forest, she was now weak and she looked pale and sick. Speirs checked in on her occasionally, but there was nothing anybody could do, without rations and water Dani would not get better.
Buck moved from foxhole to foxhole to check on the men asking if they were ok and telling them to keep moving. When he reached Lipton and Dani, he motioned for them to follow him
Where is Dike?" Buck asked
Dani shrugged "He is around"
"Can you be a little more specific there?" Buck asked her
"Not really Buck" Dani told him
"God damn it, I didn't see him coming through the woods, and I haven't seen him all day. I have figure how we ended up" Buck said
"Two wounded" Lipton told him
"Who?" Buck asked Lipton
"Browns and Stevens" Lipton said
"Damit, Where is Dike? Where the hell does he ever go?" Buck was pissed off, and damn near his breaking point, a missing CO was a big problem
Malarkey and Shifty was digging a foxhole next to Dani and Lipton's, the two of them retorted, "I don't know, but I wish he stay the hell there, and it would be nice if he took lieutenant Shames with him"
Lipton knew talk like that could lower morale, and he told the two men to shut up.
A gun went off nearby and a soldier screamed. Hoobler had been fiddling with his luger in his pocket and accidently shot himself. He was squirming in the snow, the blood gushing from the main artery in the right thigh.
"Help me, help me, oh god help me," He cried
Mia came running thru the forest and skidded to a halt when she saw what she had to deal with "Ok, we need to get him to the aid station" Mia was working frantically, but she knew Hoobler was a going to die and he did at the aid station alone in the night.
Lipton, Mia and Dani walked back to CP to report the incident, Lipton were telling Winter, Nixon and Lane how they couldn't find the artery underneath the layers of clothes Hoobler had been wearing
Nixon looked at Lipton, "Oh hell Lip, you cut that main artery in the leg and that's… that's it"
Lip looked at Dani and the rest of the officers" I am going to head back, to make sure the boys are alright." Lip turned and disappeared into the falling snow.
Winters looked at Dani "Where is Dike?"
Dani shrugged, yeah where the company commander was, that was the big question "I don't know, why you want to talk to him"?
"No, I just expected to hear this kind of news from him" Winters gave Dani a stern look
"Well, if I see him, I will send him your way" Dani said
Peacock, Shames, Buck, Lipton, Welsh were gathered around Dike, he was trying to hand out orders, but everything that came out of his mouth made absolutely no sense.
Buck asked him what formation to use while dug in, and he got some crazy answer about how Dike would clarify that with him at a later time.
Dani shook her head; Dike wasn't a bad leader because he made bad decisions. He was a bad leader, because he made no decisions at all.
Dani and Lipton took a walk, to make sure the men were secure for the night. They found Liebgott, Bill, Malarkey, Skip and Talbert in a foxhole.
Lipton walked up to them "Hey boys, what's you doing"
Skip looked at Lipton and Dani "Nothing, just sitting here singing Dike's praises"
Lipton and Dani sat down on the side of the foxhole, Lipton looked at the men "Yeah well, I would hate to be a replacement officer coming in here, getting thrown in with a group of guys, who have known each other for what two years? Who has been in combat together since Normandy, is he just supposed to show up and lead them? How does a guy do that, how could anyone really earn the respect of the toughest, most dedicated, professional sons of bitches in the ETO? So if you ask me a guy would have to march of to Berlin and come back with Hitler's mustache or something"
Lipton got serious again "Anyway, you all do your jobs and we will be fine" Lipton got up and so did Dana
Dani put her arm around Lipton's shoulder "How do you do it?" she asked him
"How do I do what?" Lipton asked
"All ways know what to say" Dani answered him
"I don't know, I just say what I think they need to hear, I don't always believe it, but we need to protect the integrity of the company" Lipton stared into the horizon
Mia walked up to Lipton and grabbed him "I am going to steal this one away for the night"
Dani nodded "Ok, goodnight" She looked after the couple she sighed and decided to seek out Speirs
Winters, Lane and Nixon were gathered at the CP, they were also discussing Dike.
"You know what Dike's problem is don't you? He is just one of those arrogant rich jerks from Yale" Winters teased Nixon and Lane.
Lane looked at Winters "oh god, another one of those"
Lane was sitting on Nixon's lap, she was freezing, and she wasn't looking forward to walking the line in three hours.
Winters continued, "Division isn't going to let me replace him, just because I got a bad feeling about him, even if they would, who would I put in his place? Shames, he have seen to many war movies, he thinks he has to yell all the time"
Winters continued "Peacock? God bless him, no one tries harder, but he is not fit to take the men into combat, I sure as hell isn't going to make him company CO, when I don't want him as a platoon leader"
"How about Compton" Nixon asked him
"Buck is the only real choice, but I want Easy to have at least one experienced platoon leader, not that it matter anyway, because I can't get rid of Dike"
Nixon looked at Winters "well we all know who you like to have around Easy, problem it isn't your job anymore"
Lane nodded in agreement, Nixon and Winters looked at each other, and they knew Lane was right, but Dike was a favor to someone at division and he was sent to Easy to get some combat experience under his belt before moving on.
The truth was, Buck had changed since he got back from the hospital, and he was more serious. Lane was walking the line, the men were reinforcing their foxholes and Buck was talking to his men, telling them not to do anything stupid.
Dani was sitting, talking to Luz and Skip, when Buck showed up, and gave them don't do anything-stupid speech.
Skip looked at them after they left "Don't do anything stupid; who the hell is he talking to? A bunch of morons who volunteer to jump out of a perfectly good airplane, don't do anything stupid, can you get any more stupid than that?"
Skip continued to tell a story about how he once swam across the Niagara River, and how Faye, his girl gave him hell, when he mentioned Faye, Luz, Dani sang out "The sweet Faye Tanner"
Lane walked on, she found Lipton sitting in a foxhole and Dike was standing on the edge, it seemed like they were talking, when Dike suddenly turned and walked away.
"What was that about?" Lane asked Lipton.
"He wanted to know where I was from" Lipton said
The group went silent; they all tried not to think about home, it was too hard…
The next morning Nixon and Lane were sleeping in a foxhole, when a jeep stopped and a runner yelled for Captain Easterday and Captain Nixon.
Nixon woke up and shushed the runner, so he wouldn't wake Lane, she was sick, but refused to go to the aid station.
Nixon grabbed the piece of paper the runner was handing him and dismissed him. Nixon read the paper and knew he had a solution to one of Dick's leadership problems.
Nixon walked around the CP and found Dick drinking coffee, he poured himself a cup and said "good morning" and held up the piece of paper
Winters looked at Lew "Eviction notice?" he asked him
Lew laughed a little "Not quite, but I think, I got something that will help you, with your leadership problem"
Winters smiled "Dike is being transferred?"
"No, I can't help you with that, but division has decided to pluck one officer from each regiment, who have served in the heroic defense of Bastogne and send them back to the states on a thirty day furlough. Get them out banging the drum for the war bond drive, that sort of thing, turn out I been plucked" Nixon handed Dick the order
"That's great, good for you, but how in the world does you leaving help me?" Dick asked him
"Well I am not going, I have already seen the states, I grew up there that's why I came to Europe. I just wish they told me there was a war going on. The point is this thing is wasted on me, but I am sure we can find an officer somewhere in this battalion who can use a long trip home" Nixon and Winters just nodded at each other.
"If you even consider sending one of my girls home, I will kill you both in your sleep" Lane breezed past the two officers, in the end Peacock was the one they sent home, and the men were glad to see him go.
….
Sink, Nixon, Winters, and Lane was in CP "If the Camera comes by here remember to smile for the folks back home"
"Why" Nixon asked Sink
"Hell if I know" Sink said
Lane was coughing bad, "Maybe you should stay away from the camera," Sink told her.
"Ok, Captain Nixon what do we have waiting for us in Foy" Sink asked him
Nixon started to explain what he and Lane had spotted in Foy, when Winters excused himself, he had seen two soldiers get out of a jeep and one of them was the love of his life.
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crazyforkasey-blog · 10 days ago
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When we met
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Chapter 13
A soldier ran through the forest. For the people standing outside it looked like the soldier was being chased by the devil himself. The soldier kept looking over his shoulder, as if he was expecting someone to follow him
The forest was covered in fog and it was quiet, Erie quiet. The only sound was the sound of feet running away from something dangerous.
A patrol crouched behind a fallen tree watched as the soldier ran towards the MLR.
"What the hell is he doing?" Hoobler whispered to Heffron
"I don't know…why don't you ask him?" Heffron nudged Hoobler.
As the soldier closed in, Hoobler stood up and pointed his rifle at the running soldier and that was when he realized the soldier was unarmed.
"Kommen Sie her schnell" Hoobler spoke the words he heard Winters use when he captured a German POW.
The soldier raised his arms "Please don't shoot, I am unarmed and I am American"
Christenson got on his feet "Jesus…Lieutenant McKall is that you"
"Yes, oh god yes Easy company…thank you" Mia said and dropped to her knees
"Let's get her back to Easy CP and let Lipton take care of her" Peacock turned to the nearest soldier "Sergeant Randleman take the lieutenant back" Peacock ordered
Bull nodded and picked up Mia who had passed out. Bull carried Mia the 200 yards back to CP, and knocked on the tent pole.
Winters, Nixon, Lane and Dani all looked up. First Lane noticed how tired Bull looked and then she noticed the bundle of clothes the sergeant was holding.
"Oh god…oh Sergeant just drop her off here" Lane motioned towards the makeshift cot she was sitting on.
Bull gently laid Mia down and nodded "I am going to get the first sergeant he is going to want to be here when she wakes up.
The officers gave Bull a vague dismissal and they all turned to Mia. "
"We might want to get Roe here," Nixon said and Lane looked at her boyfriend and smiled, he was right they needed Roe and then Mia needed Lipton.
The officers heard the sound of shuffling feet and turned around; Roe was standing just outside the CP with his hands buried deep in his pockets.
"You needed a medic," Roe said
"Yeah, Doc…ah…Mia…" Lane didn't get any further before she was pushed aside and Roe was crouched next to the cot.
Roe looked at the brave nurse; Mia had a special place in the Cajuns heart, despite his attempts to keep everyone at arm's length.
The medic gave Mia a full examination; well he did his best to do so, and concluded that she was ok, just exhausted and in need of food and fluids.
The next sound the officers heard was the sound of sprinting feet and then a knock and then the sound of a desperate man asking where the love of his life was. When Lipton saw the condition Mia was in, he dropped to his knees, bowed his head, and prayed.
Lipton picked up Mia and cuddled her into his arms; he sat down on the makeshift cot and just held her. Lipton felt someone staring at him; he lifted his gaze and looked right into the sad blue eyes of Winters. Lipton realized that Mia's condition gave Winters an idea of how the rest of the 326th was treated.
Winters looked at the scene before him and sighed. He was happy for Lipton he really was, but it made him Miss Katie even more and it made him worry even more.
The sound of shots fired sounded through the fog and suddenly Peacock came running through the fog.
Lane looked at the young Lieutenant, "Where the hell is the rest of the patrol?" Lane asked him.
"We came across…" Peacock didn't get any further, Lane did a 180 looking for Lew "Nix…where the hell did he go?" she asked no one in particular
"I believe he left as soon as I arrived" Lipton told Lane
Lane sighed, the sight of Mia, Winters despair and Lipton's worry had chased him off.
Nixon wandered through the forest, he made sure he could hear the voices of the other officers at all times he just needed a moment to gather his thoughts and to calm down and not reach for his flask. All of a sudden, he heard gunshots and then Peacock came running past him.
Nixon ran towards where he heard the shots came from, he encountered the patrol before they knew it a soldier fell down wounded and Luz called Easy CP for a jeep. Roe was trying to patch the wounded up, the best he could.
"Martin…MARTIN, What's going on?" Nixon called out
"They got Julian," Martin answered
"He is still alive," Heffron cried out
"We don't know that" Martin replied
"We gotta go get him," Heffron continued
"Did you hit an OP or their line" Nixon asked Martin
"Their line" Martin answered
"We gotta go get Julian back" Babe was desperate by now
"No fall back" Nixon said and motioned towards the CP
"We lost Peacock," Christenson told Nixon
"No he is back at the CP, getting his ass chewed by Captain Easterday," Nixon told the boys
Suddenly the Germans started to fire again and Nixon ordered the boys to fall back again
Nixon thought to himself that it was a strange time. There were two kinds of officers back the CP right now, one was the bravest he had ever met the other the biggest screw up of all times.
Nixon walk towards the CP and all of a sudden he heard a woman chewing someone's ass
"I trusted you with three of my best men and you ran at the first sight of trouble?" Dani was two minutes away from killing Peacock.
"Now. Now lieutenant" Winters tried to interfere
"Don't even…just don't" Dani pointed her finger in Winters direction.
Nixon leaned over and nudged Lane "Would you go and get Ron and tell him to haul ass here"
Lane nodded and headed towards Dog Company. Dani continued her rant and didn't stop until Speirs showed up and dragged her away
The men who went on the patrol gathered right outside the CP, they were silent and the mood was at an all-time low.
Lipton felt Mia stir in his arms. She opened her eyes and kissed him; she leaned her head against Lipton's shoulder and whispered, "Is she gone?"
"Yes" Lipton whispered back
"Good…Good…I love you, you know that right?" Mia said
"I know" Lipton replied
Winters sat down next to the couple on the cot "Mia what about…what about Katie" Winters asked
Mia looked at Winters "Oh she is alright, pissed as ever but she is doing fine"
"You sure I mean did they treat you ok" Winters asked
Mia looked at Winters if he only knew the strength of Katie, he would be surprised "Katie put her foot down when we were captured and she of course got her way, as always"
Katie had been a vital force in keeping the peace between the Germans and Americans, she had put her neck on the line several times, but everything had turned out alright in the end.
Mia told all of this to Winters who just nodded and got up and walked out and sat down amongst the men.
Winters looked around at the battle hardened veterans and realized how lucky they all were to be alive and amongst friends.
Martins gave him a rundown of what had happened on the patrol "thank you sergeant"
Mia pushed away from Lipton and walked out of the CP, she still felt weak but she sensed Babe needed her; Mia sat down next to Babe and held him tight. She looked at the two medics "Get him secure for the night will yeah"
Roe nodded and walked Babe towards his foxhole
That night the officers and Lipton all stayed at the CP, they told Mia about what had been going on, everything from Toye's trench foot to Roe's trouble with morphine.
The next morning the fog finally lifted and they were resupplied. Mia insisted on going into town with Roe to pick up supplies.
Mia was horrified by what she witnessed in town and at the makeshift hospital in the church, she wanted to stay and help but Roe made sure she got on the jeep.
Mia found Dani and jumped down in her foxhole "Hey stranger…"
Dani looked at Mia "hello yourself"
The two girls sat in silence; the two of them had something they shared. The Germans had captured them both. Dani shuddered by the thought of what had happened to her while she was captured.
"Did they…did they hurt you" Dani asked Mia
Mia knew what had happened to Dani while she was held captive and she wasn't sure what to say, no, they never hurt the nurses or the doctors but that was only because the Germans needed them.
"No never" Mia answered
"Good…Good" Dani shrugged
The two girls sat in silence and a couple of hours after the sunset Lane ran by the foxhole; she just waved and headed for the OP.
Lane had seen Buck heading towards the outpost containing Guarnere and Babe with a crazy look in his eyes, when she approached, she heard Buck say, "Now we know how they felt"
"What…who" babe asked
"The legionnaires when the watched the Huns and the gods…the Visy gods"
Buck was pale as ever and he was shaking, Lane stopped and listened, waiting for Buck to continue
Guarnere looked at Buck "the Visy Gods…Jesus Christ"
Buck continued "the barbarians, the came sweeping thru here, right thru these trees" Buck pointed at the trees across the clearing "To burn down Rome"
"That's a hell of a long ride," Guarnere said
"What's college like" Babe asked Buck
Lane decided to step in "The best fucking time of your life Heffron"
"Buck come on let's find your foxhole buddy" Lane escorted Buck back to his foxhole, she helped him in and sat down next to him
"You know I can't remember what it's like," Buck said
"What Buck?" Lane asked him
"College" Buck answered
Lane thought about what he said and realized she forgot what college was like as well.
The next morning the barbarians did attack but Easy held the line per usual.
Christmas day was a miserable one for everyone, the company lined up to get a cup of Joe's bean soup. Sink showed up just as they were all getting ready to Eat.
"They were about ready to sit down for Christmas dinner with turkey and hooch down a division CP, damn if I don't like Joes rancid ass beans better, hello Easy Company"
The men mumbled hello back
Sink continued to read General McAuliffe's Christmas message ending with the word nuts.
Later Lane found Buck in his foxhole, he told her his girl dumped him and Lane could tell Buck was about to fly off the handle. Lane flagged down Malarkey and made sure he stayed with Buck for the night.
Lane set out to find Nixon and stumbled across four officers crouched around a fire. Lane was about to give them a piece of her mind when a barrage started. Welsh got hurt and he was taken off the Line.
Lane shook her head it seemed like everybody was going crazy, but Lane realized she thrived amongst the madness.
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crazyforkasey-blog · 10 days ago
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When we met
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chapter 12 
It was the coldest winter Belgium had seen in the last thirty years and everybody was freezing their ass off. The forest was covered in fog. The German and American soldiers wandered through each other's MLR. There were no chances of getting resupplied until the fog lifted.
Immediately upon their arrival in Bastogne, the 2nd Battalion deployed into the line south of Foy where they had set up their forward positions just inside the woods overlooking the plain southeast of Foy. The men immediately prepared their foxholes and attempted to get a few hours of sleep. Winters established battalion HQ seventy five yards from the forward outpost, so he could be close to the men at all times.
Lane darted between the foxholes and answered the "evening captain" that came from the freezing forest. Blanket covered men hulled up next to their friends in the foxholes.
Lew had to make an appearance at battalion headquarters, so he could catch Strayer who spent the majority of his time there to avoid the cold forest. This left Lane with the task of walking the line most of the evening and at night.
"Psst Captain" Lane heard some call out and she turned to her left and noticed Luz, Muck and Penkala hulled up in the foxhole next to her left foot.
Lane jumped into the foxhole "evening boys" she said and sat down next to Luz and pulled his blanket over her.
"Evening Captain" it came from the men in the foxhole
Lane looked at the men in the foxhole, they had always been her boys, but most of them were men now, hardened by war and the innocent look, they showed up with at Toccoa was gone.
Easy had been out on the MLR for the past two days and Lane could see the men's spirits deteriorate at a rapid speed.
"So you guys heard about Toy's boots being blown to pieces" Lane asked the men in the foxhole
None of the men had heard about the incident "Well, Roe asked him where they were and the answer he got was the boots was up General Taylor's ass"
Penkala looked at Lane "That is where mine would be if I got the chance"
Lane smiled and climbed out of the foxhole and ran out to the outpost, Christenson and Gordon
Christenson turned his head slightly when he heard the captain approach the OP
"Captain, way to be discreet" He mumbled
Lane smiled "Just be glad it was me and not Jerry"
"Captain" Smokey said without looking at Lane. Smokey was staring at the horizon, as if he was expecting the Germans to come pouring at them in the middle of the night.
"Hey Smokey, what are you looking at?" Lane asked
Smokey never answered and after sitting with the two men for a while, Lane left and went back to CP.
As Lane approached CP, she noticed Winters was holding his rifle pointing it at a German soldier, and Doc was crouching waiting for the German to surrender.
Eventually the German soldier raised his hands and approached Winters. The Captain searched the soldier and Lane was ready to walk the prisoner back to regiment HQ.
A jeep drove up and Sink and General McAuliffe jumped out, Lane rolled her eyes, she knew what they wanted to hear. She also knew Winters could not give them the answers they wanted.
By this time, most of first platoon had gathered around the CP and Lane signaled for two of the men to walk the prisoner back to CP.
Dani, who had been tasked with staying on line as a medic, since the battalion had lost too many medic in Holland and they hadn’t been able to fill the positions with replacements before they moved out. appeared and stood next to Lane "What's going on?" she asked
Lane looked at Dani and shrugged "I think Sink and the general wants to hear that everything is fine and dandy and that we all are just one big happy family out here"
"Give it to me straight," the General said
Everybody turned and looked at Lane, since Strayer and Nixon wasn't anywhere in sight she was the one with the answers
Lane sighed "Well, we been taking ground in position losing it in another, now it's looking like a stand of, we are digging in on the edge of the forest" Lane turned and looked at Winters for help
"We are under sporadic artillery fire, General. We are taking a lot of hits and we do not have an aid station. We are running out of food, we have no winter clothing and we have little or no ammo, the line is spread so thin the enemy wanders into our CP to use our slid trenches, we just can't cover the line"
Winters was about to say something more when Nixon's head popped out of the ground. Lane starred at him son of a bitch, the fucker had been sleeping, while she was out walking the freaking line, and wondering when he would be back from HQ
"Good morning Captain Nixon, you got anything to add for General McAuliffe?" Sink asked the dazed Captain
"General…Yes Sir, ahh…General I took a walk along our line at 03.00 last night" Nixon stopped and looked at Lane; she just nodded, encouraging him to continue.
Nixon stumbled out the foxhole he had been in "I couldn't find the 501st on our right flank, I tied it in with a squad from our second platoon, but sir we got some serious gaps in our parameter"
Lane looked at Sink "We don't have enough men, we are spread to damn thin"
The General turned and walked back to the jeep "Hold the line, this fog won't lift anytime soon, so you can forget about air support" the General went to tell them that 1st battalion just pulled out of Foy and that a lot of shit was hitting their way.
Lane and Dani walked towards the line Nixon looked after Lane, he would never had thought Lane would be the one not affected by the hell they were currently enduring, but he had to hand it to her, she never complained, she just carried it on, walking the line in the middle of the night never complaining about the cold .
Dani and Lane walked towards the foxhole. Dani was sharing with Welsh. Lane looked at Welsh, who was shivering even though he was covered with a blanket "You are a brave man Harry, sharing a foxhole with Dani"
Harry looked at Lane "Hey I am not afraid of Speirs"
Lane laughed, "I guess you tougher than I thought"
Dani and Lane jumped into the foxhole and snuggled under the blanket with Harry. Luz and Perconte walked by "Hey Lieutenant you are lucky man" Luz laughed
Dani opened her mouth to answer, but before she could say anything, the shell started to fall. Dani, Lane and Welsh all jumped out of the foxhole to make sure the men were all right and in their foxholes.
Dani darted by Penkala and Skip's foxhole "They peppered my helmet"
Dani smiled, but kept on running, she darted in a zigzag pattern. Dani hated the cold and the snow and by now, she hated the Germans more than anything.
The shelling continued. Dani felt herself lifted from the ground before she landed on her back in a foxhole. She opened her eyes, Speirs was staring back at her "Stay, don't move" he said and then he was gone.
Dani stayed in the foxhole until the barrage stopped, and then she stood up and went to check on the men. Penkala had been nicked on the wrist, but the rest of them seemed all right, they were sitting around shooting the bull. Dani sighed and walked back to CP to check on Lane and Winters.
Lane, Nixon and Winters were all right. Dani sighed and sat down next to Lane and before any of them could count to three, she was sleeping.
Lane looked at Winters "You want me to wake her up?"
Winters looked at the young lieutenant, she had been through a lot and she like Lane never complained "No let her sleep, she needs it"
Lane and Nixon looked at some maps of the area for a while. Lane looked at the horizon it was getting dark "I am going to walk the line, meet me in an hour over by dog CP" Lane looked at Nixon, who looked up at her and smiled
"I'll be there; I'll be the one wearing army green" Nixon kissed Lane and Lane turned and left the CP.
It was cold. Lane wished she had a warm winter coat and a pair of warm socks, she tried not to complain, she knew she had to set a good example for the men.
Lane ran into Doc and Guarnere on her way to CP, Guarnere was complaining about having the itch and how much it hurt when he pissed "That what happens when you visit places like Lulu's" Lane told Guarnere
Buck came stumbling towards Lane. Buck had changed after he came back from the hospital and he had a wild look in his eyes. Buck looked around searching for the foxhole containing Liebgott and Alley; the two soldiers were singing a little too loudly for Buck's liking.
"Shut up, shut up, who the hell is singing?" Buck whistled through his teeth.
"I’ll get them to shut up" Guarnere said and walked toward the foxhole the two culprits were in.
Lane put a hand on Buck's arm "Come on Buck let's go find your foxhole" Lane guided Buck away from the singing.
Buck looked around the forest and then walked with Lane. Lane knew not to confront Buck about his behavior, they weren't that close.
Lane got Buck tucked into his foxhole and left. Lane shook her head it was only a matter of time before Buck had to be taken off the line.
Lane arrived at Dog CP, Nixon was chatting up McMillan. Nixon turned when he heard someone approach and smiled. "Hey beautiful"
Nixon said goodbye to McMillan and the two officers set out for the line, there were still considerable gaps in the line. They tried to tie them in, but Lane knew it would be impossible to pluck the holes. "Nix let's get back to CP; there is nothing we can do here"
Nixon took one last look around "Ok, just…we need to check on the op"
Lane nodded, and they walked towards Easy OP, Lane slipped into the OP and Nixon crouched down behind Toye and McClung. The two soldiers greeted the officers, they exchanged news and Lane, and Nixon walked away.
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The next day Sisk was wounded, the Jeep driver told Doc that the Germans captured the entire 326th. Roe paled a little, that meant Mia and Katie were captured, this was bad news for Lipton and Winters.
Doc stayed in town to scrounge up some supplies before he headed back out on the line. When the jeep arrived Roe jumped of and walked towards CP. Lipton was there along with Winters and Lane
"Doc, what can we do for you?" Winters asked
Doc shuffled his feet "Ahh... the 326th was captured by the Germans, doctors and all"
Winters sat down and Lipton dropped to his knees.
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crazyforkasey-blog · 10 days ago
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When we met
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Chapter 11
"So are you excited to see Ron," Nixon asked Dani, they were almost in Aldbourne and Nixon had a feeling Dani was a little too cheerful.
"I can't wait to see him; it's going to be great. I just hope he is better now than the last time I saw him" Dani was bouncing around in the back of the jeep.
The jeep carrying the two officers stopped in front of the HQ. Nixon and Dani grabbed their holding bags and stepped inside; they made their way up to the second floor and knocked on the door, which said second battalion, 506th. Strayer was in Aldbourne and Nixon and Dani had been ordered to report to Strayer upon arrival in Aldbourne.
"Enter "a voice yelled from inside the office and Nixon opened the door and let Dani walk in first. She was about to jump to attention, but Strayer waved her of "No need for that, we been thru too much to be so formal"
Dani relaxed and sat down in a chair. Nixon looked at her and sent her his signature crooked smile "Relax Dani, you'll see him soon enough"
Dani gave Nixon a cold glare and turned her attention towards Strayer "Captain Nixon, lieutenant. The reason I summoned you here is, that you two are some of the best damn officers in my battalion, but I have heard rumors and rumblings about the two of you and I need a straight answer. Is there something going on with the two of you, I need to know about?"
Dani straightened up in her chair "Sir?"
Nixon jaw dropped, he had no idea what their CO was talking about and then it hit him Dike…that son of bitch was still mad at Dani for turning him down and he hated Nixon for some reason. Dike had probably figured that by telling Strayer something was going on between the two of them, he had found a way to get them both in trouble.
"Sir, when you say something is going on with Lieutenant Hunt and me…" Nixon did not get a chance to finish the sentence
Strayer picked up a piece of paper from his desk "This is a letter from Dike, claiming that the two of you have been well… you get the picture"
"Son of a bitch" Dani mumbled and started to get up, she heard enough and she wasn't going to let Dike ruin her army career.
"Sir, Captain Nixon and I are friends and nothing more. The only man I am interested in is in a sick bed right here in Aldbourne. I can assure you that the only man guilty of misconduct here is Dike. He is the one who tried to force himself on me and I turned him down. I think I kicked his butt in Reims one night…" At this point Dani turned to Nixon who nodded. Dani had gotten a punch in at Dike the night in Reims.
Strayer held back a smile; he had always liked Dani and if Speirs hadn't …well. She was a spitfire and if she claimed Dike was the guilty party here, Strayer was inclined to believe her, but she had punched a superior officer, but then again Dike had not put that in his latest report. Strayer was going to let it slide this time "I am going to pretend I didn't hear that, just behave and no more hitting a CO, ok lieutenant"
"Yes sir, thank you sir" Dani smiled
"Alright, dismiss and Dani if anything happens, you come to me" Strayer told the young lieutenant.
Dani and Nixon hurried out of Strayer's office and closed the door behind them. Nixon let out a breath "Well he was in a good mood" Nixon smiled
"Guess so, Nix it's not that I don't enjoy your company, but I am leaving and you go do whatever it is you came here to do"
"Well what I came here to do is…" Nixon smirked
"Ew no, I don't want to know" Dani laughed and left the HQ and walked over to the hospital
The first thing Dani heard when she walked through the doors to the hospital was Speirs yelling at a young nurse "What the hell are you doing? you incompetent…" before Speirs got any further Dani stepped in the room
"Ron relax, what happened?" Dani asked him
"This sorry excuse for a nurse…" Speirs started
"Ron!" Dani said with a stern voice
"Dani I have been trying to tell her, that I am perfectly capable of dressing myself, but she won't let me" Ron gave the poor nurse the Speirs death glare
Dani looked at the nurse "Why don't you let me take care of grumpy, I am sure you got patients who need you more than the lieutenant does"
The nurse just nodded and disappeared out of the door before Dani could change her mind. The young nurse had been unfortunate enough to be Speirs' nurse the past weeks and for the first two days, it had been a breeze. The lieutenant was easy on the eye, he had been very nice to all of the staff, and then he had turned into the patient from hell.
He had refused to take anything for the pain, he had ordered the staff around and refused to obey the doctors' orders, and now he had demanded to be discharged from the hospital, so he could return to his unit.
The nurse had heard rumors about her patient and the incident on D-day. She had also heard about his involvement with a fellow nurse. When she saw Dani standing in the door it all made sense, the woman was perfect for the grumpy lieutenant and the way she put him in his place, well lucky girl.
Dani closed the door behind her, walked over, and sat down on the bed. Speirs was trying to dress himself, he finally got his pants on and turned and looked at Dani "Like what you see?"
"Oh I love it" Dani walked over and put her arms around Ron's waist, she kissed his shoulder and whispered, "I missed you"
Speirs turned around and looked at her "I missed you too"
Speirs put his jacket on and looked at Dani "Let's get out of here before the doctor comes back"
"Ron, are you going AWOL?" Dani asked
"No not really, I told the doctor I was leaving today, so I could return to my unit, so let's go"
Dani shook her head "Guess I can't stop you"
Ron only had his uniform. He was missing a weapon, a helmet and everything else, so the first stop was the supply office. The first person Dani bumped into was Lane.
"Easterday, how the heck are you?" Dani hugged her friend
"Better now that I am getting the hell out of here" Lane laughed and hugged Dani back
"Where is Lew?" Dani asked
"Sleeping, he walked into my office, got the key to my room at the HQ and I haven't seen him since" Lane shrugged
"He hasn't really slept since you left, his misses you, so I am glad you are coming back with us" Dani smiled
"So both of you have been total messes?" Lane asked Dani
"SHH, don't, not here, I don't want Ron to now" Dani begged Lane
The clerk handed Lane a holding bag. Lane bit her bottom lip "Ok, Hey Sparky mind if I borrow, lieutenant pretty, here for half an hour" Lane asked Speirs
"No, this is probably going to take a while, I see you at the mess in 30 minutes" Speirs said and handed the clerk a requisition for supplies.
Lane put an arm around Dani's shoulders, let her toward the HQ, and walked her straight into her office.
"Dani, Katie told Lew to figure out what was up with you, we both know that he is incapable of talking about feelings, so spill what's up?" Lane looked at Dani
Dani started to cry, "In Holland I found out I was pregnant, and I was so happy. I finally found this great guy and I was going to have a baby, a family. I had even started to figure out how to get sent home and fill out paperwork, but then Ron got shot and I lost the baby, I was probably only five weeks along. Mia helped me, and she had doc Kent examine me and he confirmed I had lost the baby, we managed to keep it a secret, but it wasn't easy" Dani started to cry harder
"Dani, oh god, I am so sorry, you have to tell Sparky, you need him to help you through this" Lane hugged Dani
"I know, but how do I tell him I killed his baby?" Dani cried
"Relax he will understand, I know he will" Lane tried to comfort Dani, but she knew the only one who could help Dani was Speirs.
Lane handed Dani a Kleenex and Dani blew her nose. Lane let Dani freshen up before she walked her down to the battalion mess to meet Speirs. On their way there they woke up Nixon who didn't have time to freshen up, so he walked into the mess looking like he just rolled out of bed, which he had.
Ron sat at the table furthest from the door and he looked up when he heard the door open, he smiled when he noticed the three officers walk through the door. He looked at Dani, he had missed her like crazy and the thought of her alone out on the line drove him insane. He wanted to, no he needed to be out there with her so he could protect her. When he thought he lost her on D-day he had gone to a dark place, a place he never wanted to go again.
Dani walked over and sat down across from put her hands on the table, Ron reached out to take her hand in his, but Dani pulled her hands away and put them in her lap and looked at her hands
Ron got worried "Dani, what's wrong?"
Dani drew in a deep breath "When you got shot…when you got shot in Holland, I was pregnant"
Ron stared at her "What do you mean you were pregnant"
"Remember the day before we left for Upottery? The day before Market-Garden?" Dani looked at Speirs
Ron thought about it for two seconds "Yeah, we forgot…"
"Yep" Dani smirked
"What happened Dani?" Ron asked in a concerned voice
"The shock when you got shot…it was too much and I lost our baby, I am so sorry" Dani started to cry
Ron walked around the table, he wanted to Comfort Dani, but he could not, he just walked out of the mess and just before he reached the door, he heard Dani break down; he hesitated for two seconds and then just walked out.
Lane and Nixon had been watching Dani and Ron. When Speirs just got up and left, Lane mumbled something less nice and walked down and sat down next to Dani. Lane put her arms around Dani and let her cry.
Nixon followed Speirs out "What the hell Ron, what was that? You are just going to walk away from her like that?" Nixon asked the visibly upset Lieutenant.
"Nixon, not now" Speirs tried to walk away from Nixon
"No Now, what was that? what kind of man does that?" Nixon wanted to take a swing at Speirs, but he was afraid Speirs would kick his ass if he did.
"Exactly Nixon, what kind of man am I? I got her pregnant, because I couldn't control myself, she was fighting a war pregnant and it is my fault she lost the baby, God what the hell have I done" Speirs ran his hands thru his hair
"Look Ron, let's take this elsewhere" Nixon noticed people were staring at them.
The two men walked across the camp, into Lane's room and Ron sat down on the floor, and put his head in his hands "I fucked up, didn't I?"
"You sure did, but you can fix this just be prepared to beg" Nixon pulled out a bottle of VAT69 and offered Ron a drink.
Lane let go of Dani and looked at her "Look that man is crazy in love with you and he is probably just mad at himself, so give him some space and let him cool down and everything will be ok" Lane gave Dani a reassuring smile.
At that moment a runner from battalion HQ walked thru the door "Ma'am Strayer request you and Lieutenant Hunt's presence at battalion HQ in five minutes" and then he was gone
When Dani and Lane walked into Strayer's office, Nixon and Speirs was already there "As you can see I send for all of you, there has been a development in troop movements and you need to get back to Mourmelon, so grab your bags, find Lieutenant Compton and get going"
The four officers saluted their CO and left, when they got outside Speirs stopped Dani "Can we talk?"
"No not now" Dani turned and started to walk away from Speirs
"Dani stop" Ron called after Dani
Dani walked back to Speirs "You walked away first, right now I walk away, we will talk, but not now"
Dani collected her gear and got in a jeep with Lane at the wheel. The two women drove to the coast, got on a ship, and sailed back to France and the war.
The four officers arrived in Mourmelon just after two in the morning, Speirs made one more attempt to talk to Dani, but she refused to talk to him.
A week passed and nothing happened. Dani still refused to talk to Speirs. Lane and Nixon were busy and Katie and Winters did see each other at all.
The two Days in Paris had passed entirely too fast and now they were back in Mourmelon and Winters was once again buried in paperwork.
Dani was sitting in the mess; she was sitting next to Luz watching the movie. Luz was trying to cheer her up by doing an impersonation of John Wayne "Look at me I am John Wayne, the costume department set me up with these great Navy whites, what do you think?"
Mia and Lipton were sitting in front of Luz and Dani. Lipton told Luz to shut the fuck up and Mia flipped Luz of, Dani just laughed.
Luz told Mia he had seen the movie thirteen times and Mia told him she had not, so he should shut up before she pulled rank on him.
Malarkey came running through the crowd and once again, Mia turned and gave him a death glare.
Dani noticed Buck sitting alone a few rows back and she got up and joined him. She didn't say anything, she just sat there and waited for him to say something. Buck had changed Dani knew that for sure. Dani made a mental note to keep an eye on him.
Suddenly the door slammed open. A couple of Sergeants walked in,
"Lights!" one of them yelled, and the men started to complain.
"Quiet!" one of the men said, "I said quiet!" He repeated, "Elements of the 1st and 6th Panzer division have broken through in the Ardennes forest. Now they have run over the 28th infantry and elements of the 4th. All officers' reports to their respected HQ's, all passes are canceled "the tech sergeant said. There was a collected NO moaned out by the assembled men.
"Enlisted men report to barracks and your platoon leaders." the man said and walked out.
The Mess cleared out and Dani followed Winters out.
On their way to the HQ, they met Katie and Winters gave her a kiss and told her he would see her later.
Katie was busy packing everything up, she would follow the battalion to Bastogne and then she would stay behind with the rest of the medical officers.
Winters and Dani walked into HQ; Dani was not supposed to be there, but she wasn't leaving until someone kicked her out, this was big.
Lane and Nixon were at the HQ, Sink was nowhere to be found, so Nixon briefed the battalion commanders, and then the officers scattered.
Lieutenant Peacock was running after Winters and Dani,
"Sir," he said.
"Lieutenant Peacock." Winters said.
"Have you seen Colonel Strayer?" Peacock said.
"Where is your company commander?" Winters asked.
"Well I've been looking for him all day, how is it that the 4th army's problem gets dumped on the airborne?" Peacock asked Winters. By this time they had reached an old oil barrel with a fire in it. Dike finally appeared and greeted his fellow officers. "Ah Lieutenant Dike, I have been looking for you." Winters told him
"Sir we have a problem, Colonel Strayer has not yet returned from some wedding he is attending in Aldbourne, can you believe that? We are going to the front and our CO isn't even in the same damn country." Dike said
"You have a bigger problem than that lieutenant Dike; you have men returning to action without proper winter clothing and not enough ammunition." Winters said
"Sir?" Dike said
"I suggest you take a look around the base and get what supplies you can or have you done that already?" Winters asked him
"No sir." Dike said.
"K-rations, as many as you can scrounge. We don't know if we will be resupplied or not." Winters said.
"Yes Sir." Dike said in a small voice.
"What about ammunition?" Peacock asked.
"There is no more ammunition. Distribute it amongst the men so at least everybody has some," Winters said.
"Lieutenant Peacock, Lieutenant Compton, inform Lieutenant Shames of the situation, get your platoons as best equipped as you can and report back to me immediately. Understood?"
"Yes sir." the three officers' mumbled Winters looked at Dike, he had to be kidding. Did he just delegate the task without doing anything himself?
When the regiment arrived at Bastogne a column of "ghosts" started to appear from the forest; it was the remainder of the fourth army. The men all looked at them with shock in their eyes. The "ghosts" told them to get out of there and someone made a crack about them just arriving.
The order came to move out and the men walked into the forest, which would be their home for the next month.
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crazyforkasey-blog · 10 days ago
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Luck of the Irish
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Warning Smut
Chapter 6
“We need to know what’s inside that farm house” Nix said
I was standing with Nixon and Harry, Harry’s platoon was in the lead and he needed to send some men to check it out.
“I don't know who to send” Harry said clearly distraught
“Ask volunteers” Nixon said, getting annoyed with Harry
“I hate asking for volunteers” Harry said, he looked around and locked eyes with me, hoping I would intervene, but Nixon was my superior at that moment and there wasn't a thing I could do.
“Then Pick them” Nixon said and looked through his binoculars
Harry turned and looked over his platoon, the men were clearly aware that this whole scouting mission could go sideways real fast.
“we need to take a look at that farm house, who wants to go?” Harry called out to the men in his platoon. They all seemed to duck down trying to become one with underbrush
In the end Blithe volunteered and Harry volunteered Dukeman and Martin, they were the lucky ones to accompany Blithe.
I had just turned around to tell Nix that I had a bad feeling about the farmhouse when a shot rang out and Blithe was struck in the neck by a sniper.
Shortly after we were pulled back to field camp north of Utah beach.
_________________________________________________________
I walked towards the Evac hospital on Utah beach. My mission was to find Karen and tell her about Meehan if she hadn’t already heard and at the same time visit Blithe.
The olive drabe colored tents stood in neat rows and the sides of the staff's tents were rolled up to allow the subtle breeze to pass through. The evac hospital which housed more than 400 beds was a grand sight. In the small spaces between tents nurses were taking breaks, smoking or reading whatever magazines they could get their hands on. I had been walking around for a while when a familiar figure appeared from one of the ward tents. Karen stretched her back and yawned and she looked around and when she saw me she smiled and waved. I gave her a hesitant wave back and she walked towards me.
“I am glad to see you” Karen said and squeezed my hand 
“Yeah, I'm happy to see you too,” I said. I hesitated before spoke next 
“Karen…Meehan was in stick 66, it took a direct hit and I am afraid that there were no survivors” I said and looked at my friend.
I could see the tears that formed in the corner of Karen’s eyes
“Yes I know, one of the first wounded I treated here was an Easy company man and he told me” Karen said and turned her head so i wouldn’t see the tears that streamed down her face. She wiped her cheek with the back of her hand. I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t imagine how she felt.
A shout came from the tent Karen had just stepped out of “I have to get back to work, but promise you will stop by” She said and gave me a quick hug. I nodded in response and I just watched her walk away.
I visited with Blithe for a little while, he refused to speak so I just sat there, taking a much needed break, because Harry and I were not exactly on friendly terms with each other.
Harry had found a half full barrel of calvados and had attempted to drink it all by himself. I had been busy with debriefings and sitting in on interrogation of POWs and that had left little time to spend with Harry and Easy. Harry had on one occasion been so drunk that he had passed out in the middle of the road.
I was sitting on a stool enjoying the sun when Winters found me. “There you lieutenant Christenson, we need to talk about Harry” Winters said and sat down on the grass next to me.
“Why?” I asked him.
“He is drinking quite a lot” Winters said
I sighed. I had looked forward to my afternoon off and now I had to go and yell at a grown man. 
Winters and I found Harry sitting in an archway, with a cigarette dangling from his lip, he was clearly tired and/or drunk. Winters kicked his foot to wake him up and sat down next to him, I opted to stand leaning against the archway facing Harry and Winters.
“I just talked to colonel Sink, he said he appreciated Easy holding the line, said general Taylor was pleased” Winters said 
Without opening his eyes Harry said “That's why I came to france, to please general Taylor”
Winters just shook his head, he stood up and limped away, guess that leg was still stiff and sore.
I sat down next to Harry and tapped his leg and he opened his eyes, for a moment I forgot why I wanted to talk to him, god he was adorable.
“Harry, are you drunk or tired?” I asked him
“Drunk mostly” He answered 
“And that’s why Dick summoned me here” I told him
Harry sat up, removed his helmet and ran his hands through his hair a couple of times “I just survived the invasion, I send a men on a snafu scouting mission, while you just stood idly by and you wonder why I drink, did you not see the dead paratroopers hanging from the trees or hear the screams from the dying and wounded at Carentan, well excuse me for needing to decompress a little”
“Do you really think I'm so emotionless that this doesn’t affect me? I send a young man over a goddamn bridge on june 6th and he was shot right in front of me, yeah Harry I also need to decompress, but maybe we could have done it together, you know sex, the best stress release, but if alcohol is your solution, go join Nix he has the same coping mechanism as you” I said in a low, but stern voice, so that the whole company wouldn't get involved in yet another fight.
“Well I can’t go to Nixon, because that's where you're headed, am I right?” Harry said and turned away from me
“You bet, maybe he is willing to have sex so I can get some release” I said vehemently
I left Harry and this time I didn’t turn around to look at him. 
I intentionally avoided Nixon and instead I went in search of Winters, but he was in some meeting with Strayer. So I walked down to the edge of the dunes and looked out over the ocean. I stood with my hands in my pockets and the wind blew in my hair. It wasn’t that I blamed Harry for drinking, it wasn’t like I hadn't tied one on since we were pulled back to the camp, but it was the quantity of alcohol and the passing out in the street that had me worried and ticked me off a little.
I felt a presence next to and turned my head to find Compton standing next to me. The tall man had a smile on his lips, but the haunted look in his eyes had me worried.
“You ok there Buck” I asked him
“Yeah, I was just thinking about why you have the need to sabotage your relationship with Harry” he said
“Old habits die hard I guess” I said 
“Yeah and I remember that you are no stranger to excessive alcohol consumption” Buck said and nudge my shoulder
“Oh you mean that time when Sobel decided to ban alcohol for Easy company” I asked
Fort Bragg 1943
Sobel being Sobel had decided that the men’s alcohol consumption had too great an influence on the performance of the company, so he banned alcohol for the enlisted men and officers of the company.
What he didn’t know was that Nixon still had his stash of VAT 69 and that I had gotten my hands on some moonshine from a local farmer. Since I wasn't an officer I wasn’t exactly welcome at the officers quarters and that night's poker game was held at Karen’s quarters (Karen had been promoted and had her own quarters). Nixon, Meehan, Hester and Matheson, Karen and I, were playing poker and drinking and I got drunk, so much in fact that I ended up passing out and Nixon had to carry me back to my quarters and on his way there he had run into Welsh.
“What happened is she…is she ok” Welsh had been on the brink of panic when he had seen me passed out in Nix’s arm
“Relax she just drunk” Nixon told Welsh
Welsh had insisted on carrying me back to my quarters and put me to bed and evidently that had only fueled his animosity against  me and his anger at Nix.
_________________________________________________________________
“Yeah I remember how ticked off he was while we were at Bragg” I said 
“Well what I really came to tell you was that we are moving back to England, so pack up and be ready in two hours” Buck said and left.
Aldbourne 1944
When we got back to England the men and the officers got leave and their back pay. I knew that they were heading to London and this included my brother. I decided to stay in Aldbourne with Winters and enjoy the peace and quiet. 
Harry left for Ireland which gave me about a week to come up with a plan for how I would get him to forgive me again. Bucks words from Normandy had set thought in motion and I knew I had to work on myself and my relationship with Harry.
Winters had been tasked with rearranging the company and filling in the ranks. Harry and Buck both got promoted and Harry became Winters XO. and I got a promotion from 2nd to 1st lieutenant.
Harry and I didn’t really get a chance to talk the first few weeks after his return from Ireland. I was in and out of briefings on missions which got scrubbed because Patton and his tanks overran the dropzones.
Finally one evening I cornered him at the pub. I stood in front of the table where he said nursing a beer. “Harry I am sorry for what I said in Normandy, I was out of line and I know I said some hurtful things” 
Harry kicked out a chair and motioned for me to sit down. “ I know you are sorry, you always are, I need you to figure shit out, because either you love me for who I am , just like I love you” Harry said
My heart stopped. “You love me?” I said
"Yes, you fool, I have loved you since the first time I saw you” Harry said and stood up and held out his hand, I got on my feet and took his hand. Harry moved through the crowd and when we got outside he pinned me up against the wall. He looked me straight in the eyes. He leaned in and kissed me, first moving his lips slowly against mine, but when he felt my response he groaned and pressed up against me. I could feel his thick erection pressing against my thigh and when my hand went down to rub it, he stopped me and I felt his mouth leave mine.
“No, not here, I’ll be damned if our first time is gonna be up against the wall of a pub” He said.
We almost ran back to my room at battalion HQ, since I was the only woman on the battalion staff ,except for Strayer's secretary, I had my own room. We tumbled through the door and Harry tore himself away from me for a second to lock the door. Harry had me pinned against the door kissing my neck while trying to find the zipper of the dress I wore and I was trying to unbutton his shirt, but I got impatient and tore at it so the last few buttons sprang all over the floor. 
Once we were both naked he guided me onto the bed and laid down on top of me, he kissed his way down my sternum, down my fluttering stomach and kissed the inside of my thighs, before his mouth finally found the spot where I was aching to have him. His tongue circled my clit and when he slipped a finger inside me I moaned and when my hips bucked off the bed he laid his arm over my pelvis to hold me down. His fingers worked magic inside of me and felt the world explode around me. Harry got on his knees, rolled on a condom and he plunged inside me and it didn’t take long before we both came, we both laid spend for a minute. Harry got up to dispose of the used condom, he climbed back into bed and pulled me close. As we laid there I felt a sense of peace that I hadn’t felt since before Normandy, since I joined the army.
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crazyforkasey-blog · 13 days ago
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nuts weekend 2024
For all you europeans in this fandom.
is anyone going to be at nuts weekend in Bastogne?
just bought my ticket Yesterday
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crazyforkasey-blog · 15 days ago
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I will always find you
Ok first of all thank you so much to everyone who has reblogged or liked my post. I am pretty overwhelmed with all the attention, most of all on my old story when we met, because its an old story and I think I made every mistake a fiction writer can do.
Just to let you know, my request in box is open, I only write for BOB, because I only watched MOTA once and I never watched the Pacific
I would love to hear from you, good or bad, I mostly just write for myself, because I love it and if you guys enjoy my stories to that is just a big gigantic bonus
Hugs from Denmark
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Chapter 11
Jo
The soft light from the convent in Rachamps was streaming softly through the windows. I was standing outside looking up at the stars in the clear winter night. I had seen Easy company arrive about 15 minutes after my squad and I had arrived in town. I was pondering if I should go inside and seek out Nix or if I should stay outside and wait for someone to step out so I could sneak in.
Just as I made up my mind the door opened and Speirs stepped out, he turned his head and caught sight of me.
“Anna is inside, she is sleeping, but I bet she would love to see you” he said and disappeared into the shadows.
So I opened the door to the convent church and stepped in. The sight that met me was one of battled hardened men sitting in the pews. All of them had the distant starre in their eyes, the look that only men who had seen comrades in arm get wounded or killed possessed.
The only consolation they had at that moment was that they were going to spend the night inside for the first time in a month.
My eyes searched for Anna and she was sitting in a pew towards the back of the church. Her eyes were closed and her head rested gently on Luz’s shoulder. I walked down the rows of pews and the men greeted me with soft “Evening” “or good to see you”
I sat down next to Anna and she opened her eyes “God it’s good to see you” she said 
“Yeah you too” I said
We sat in silence for a moment and then she asked if I had seen Nixon yet, I told her that I hadn’t but that I had just met Speirs on my way out of the church, the soft smile on her lips confirmed that the two of them finally had talked and that things were good between them. Well it only took a year, but my friend was finally happy.
Letting myself relax for the first time in days I fell asleep
Nixon
After finishing debriefing I left HQ and decided to check on Speirs and Lipton. I met Speirs who was on his way to HQ, I just greeted him with a salute. I wandered over to the church and when I entered the church I saw Jo sitting in a pew next to Anna. I could tell she was sleeping, her relaxed posture and her slightly slack jaw gave her away. I stopped and had a brief conversation with Lipton and congratulated him on his upcoming promotion, before I made my way over to Jo. When I reached her I sat down next to her and pulled her into my lap, she stirred slightly, but didn’t wake and I hugged her gently into my chest, enjoying having her close to me. I sat there holding her for an hour and I felt relaxed and warm for the first time in what felt like forever. The time in the Bois Jaques felt like a distant memory, even though I knew the experience of it all would haunt me forever. Jo stirred in my lap and she opened her eyes and looked straight into mine. The eyes that had haunted my dreams since I first met her had changed over the past year, the innocent look was gone, replaced by a dark that almost shattered my soul.
I just pulled her closer and kissed her temple and wished we could stay just like that forever.
“I love you” I whispered to her
“I love you” She whispered back
Jo
Waking up in Nix’s arms felt like heaven. I could feel a rare peace deep in my soul and I just snuggled closer to him.
Next to us were Speirs and Anna who were whispering words of comfort to each other. I was jealous Anna would get to stay with her man, while I knew I had to leave. Rumors said that the 506th would be pulled back to France for some much needed relaxation, while I was on my way to Alsace. The allies needed to find a way over the Rhine and me and my merry men and I had been tasked with finding just that.
I opened my mouth to tell Nix that I would have to leave soon and in that same second the door to the church opened and a whistle sounded. Nix just kissed my temple and let go of me and I picked up my Thompson and left.
Nix
The bubble we were in bursted when a whistle sounded and I knew I had to let her go. I didn’t know when I would see her again or even if, but knowing Jo she would find a way.
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crazyforkasey-blog · 19 days ago
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When we met
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Chapter 10
Easy had been on post for two days and Lane and Dani were already fed up with the new commander, Norman Dike.
Dani had been called to Company HQ, and she just knew Dike was going to be a jackass, so she knocked on the door to his office "Enter "he called out. Dani walked into the room and stood at attention.
"At ease lieutenant" Dike eyed Dani
Dike found the young female lieutenant very interesting, fascinating even. Dike was very attracted to her, and from what he observed, she wasn't involved with any of the men.
"Please sit down" Dike said and motioned toward the chair in front of his desk, Dani sat down, something was off, Dike was being too nice to her, and so far all he had done was yell at her and Lane. He had tried to order Katie and Mia around, Katie immediately set him straight, something about being able to send him back to regiment and latrine duty.
"You wanted to see me sir" Dani was nervous.
"Yes, how are you holding up, are the men treating you all right" Dike asked her and walked around to the front of the desk and leaned up against it, facing a blushing Dani.
Dani pushed the chair back a little "Good, sir, it's all been good since Toccoa" Dani looked up at Dike.
"Good, and how are you? How you holding up" Ok this was weird Dani thought herself, Dike was being too friendly.
"Sir, everything is ok, now what can I do for you?" Dani eyed the CO, this felt wrong on so many levels.
Dike pushed off the desk, he helped Dani on to her feet "Well I was hoping you would have dinner with me" Dike looked Dani right in the eye, she looked like a deer caught in headlights.
"I don't think that would be a good idea, sir" Dani stressed the sir
"I think it would" Dike grabbed Dani's arm
"Thank you, but no thank you" Dani pulled her arm out of Dike's grip and headed toward the door.
"I didn't give you permission to leave lieutenant" Dike said to Dani's back
"Permission to leave, sir" Dani asked the CO
"Permission denied" Dike said.
Dani swallowed hard, Dike scared her and she really wished Ron was there, she was afraid of what he would do to her, everybody else were out doing drills with Shames and Peacock.
"Lieutenant at one point or another you will go out with me" Dike turned his back to Dani
"Dismissed, he hissed and Dani practically ran out the door.
Upon exiting the building Dani ran smack right into Lane and Nixon, Dani let out a breath and shook her whole body in disgust.
"What's wrong with you" Lane asked her
"Dike, that's what, he was hitting on me, he called me into his office to ask me out, can you believe that" Dani was pissed off.
"He did what" Nixon asked her, visibly upset.
"Can you freaking believe him, he wanted me to go out to dinner with him"
"Son of a…" Nixon mumbled and headed for the door Dani had just come out of.
"Nix don't do it, he is so not worth it, Ron will be back soon and I am pretty sure he will take care of it"
Nixon stopped and looked at Dani, "Ok if you are absolutely sure" Nixon tried to read Dani's facial expression
"Yes, positive" Dani hugged Lane and headed towards the exercise field.
When she arrived Peacock nodded to her and Dani took over drills, she was glad to have such a mind numbing job to do, so she wouldn't think about what just happened in the CO's office.
Lane and Nixon were in the S2 office, they were discussing, the Dani and Dike situation, "I am telling you the guy is bad news, the men is already referring to him as foxhole Norman, and now he is harassing Dani" Nixon was pacing up and down the length of the room, he was pissed, Dike needed to leave Dani alone.
"Yeah well Easy will take care of Dani and when Sparky is back, Dike will back off" Lane put her arms around Nixon's waist and hugged him, she pulled back a little without letting go.
"I guess, now how about you and I get out of here and join the boys in town" Nixon kissed Lane on the top of the head.
…..
The men all got passes to Rheims, the only problem was the fact that the 82nd was in town as well. And that was bound to cause some problems.
Dani, Mia, Lip, Talbert, Luz and Perconte, were sitting at a table in a bar, they had just bought their third round and they were in a good mood, the rest of the Easy men were scattered around the bar talking to the locals or playing cards.
Dani was getting there, she had a buzz going and she was flirting with Talbert and at one point, Lip had to tell Talbert to back off a little. Mia told Dani not to drink any more, Dani just laughed and told her not to worry, she wasn't about to get Talbert in trouble.
Lane and Nixon walked into the bar and Nixon immediately spotted Shames and Welsh by the bar, he put his hand on the small of Lane's back and steered her towards the bar, Lane nodded to Welsh and shook hands with Shames, she didn't really know him, he had a tendency to scream at the men, so she asked him why he screamed at the men so much.
"Well I am just getting tired of replacements getting killed, so I figured if I intimidate them, they will listen" Lane could see where he was coming from, Lane put a hand on his shoulder.
"I hate to tell you this, not a lot scares these guys and if you want to intimidate them, look to Speirs he knows how to scare the shit out of them" Lane laughed and turned to the bar. Out of the corner of her eye Lane saw a bunch of men from the 82nd pour into the bar. Lane padded Nix on the back and nodded towards the door
Welsh and Nixon turned around, Nixon grabbed Shames shirt and turned him around, "this means trouble" Welsh said with a smirk on his face.
"Yup" Lane said and eyed the table with Dani and Mia around it.
Liebgott had joined the guys at the table. A group of 82nd boys walked up to the table "What does the eagle scream?" One of the boys from the 82nd said "Help, Help" the rest of the group yelled.
That was enough to set the Easy guys off, Mia grabbed Lipton and headed for the door, Dani in her buzzed state joined in the fight and she got some good punches in before someone knocked her out.
Lane saw Dani go down and she pushed through the crowd and was almost at the door, when the MP's arrived, they just saluted the two officers and Lane pushed Dani into the jeep she had waiting outside, Nixon and Welsh jumped in the back and Lane sped off.
Nixon and Welsh laughed, Dani was waking up and she moaned, she was going to have a black eye and a big bruise on the cheek.
"Well hello there, punchy" Welsh laughs, Dani just groans "Remind me to never fight again" She says, before she slumps back in her seat.
Dani tries to sneak in to her barrack, she just wanted to sleep, Katie who had heard about the fight in town, was waiting for them "I heard about a fight in town and with Sparky gone I figured you would be involved" Katie got of the cot she had been sitting on, she put her hand on Dani's shoulder and pushed Dani all the way to the hospital.
……………………………………………….
The next day Lane was ordered to Regiment HQ, Lane was a bit nervous, she wondered if anything had happened to her family she couldn't think of a reason for her uncle to call her to HQ.
Lane had to wait for her uncle to arrive, he was alone so Lane guessed it was a personal visit, Lane followed her Uncle into the office, "Sit down sweetheart" Sink said and motioned toward the chair in front of his desk.
Lane sat down, she was biting her lip, and she was wondering if it was bad news.
"Lane, I am sending you back to Aldbourne for a little while. A month or so they need help training the new S2 coming in from the states and you are the best I have, I am sorry I can't send Lewis with you, his… bad habit is frowned upon at Division" Sink said.
Lane nodded she didn't want to leave the company and Lew in particular, but an order is an order and she had to follow a direct order.
"Ok, when do I leave" she asked her uncle
"I 15 so get cracking, dismissed" Sink waved her out of his office
Lane hauled butt, to her room and threw her stuff in her holding bag, she rushed out to find Nixon, she ran into him in the middle of the street, she didn't have time to explain and she told him she had to go and she would be back in a month, Lane kissed him hard and told him she loved him and then she was gone.
Nixon walked into Winters room, headed straight for his footlocker and found his stash. He didn't even take time to pour it in his flask; he just took a big gulp out of the bottle.
"So Lane left" Winters stated
"Yes and I don't know where she went" Nixon said and took another big gulp
"Well she went to Aldbourne to help train the new S2 and she will be back in a month and if you behave, I will get you a pass to Aldbourne" Winters stood up and took the bottle out of Nixon's hands.
A week later Nixon, Welsh, Dani, who was hiding from Dike, and Katie were gathered in Winters office. Zielinski knocked on the door and announced a sergeant Guarnere was there to see the Captain.
Guarnere stepped in the office and saluted the officers, he looked around and noticed how tired they all looked.
"So I guess congratulations are in order, I never thought I would see you parked behind a desk" Guarnere said and looked at Winters.
"Well one these days he is going to sit behind it" Nixon smarted off.
"I just went AWOL from the hospital to get here, I hope it's not going to cause you any problems" Guarnere said
"Would you care if it did" Katie asked
"Not a bit" Guarnere said and hugged Katie
Guarnere pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket "I got a letter here from Moose, Lieutenant Heyliger, sir he is recovering but it's going to be a long haul" Guarnere said and handed Winters the letter.
Dick looked over at Harry and Harry bit his lower lip looking a bit ashamed.
Bill turned and looked at Dani "And he told me to give you this" Bill said and went over and hugged Dani and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
Dani hugged Bill Back.
"Did you see Ron?" She asked
"Yeah and he said he would be back here soon and for you to behave, but from the look at that muck of yours, it's too late" Guarnere said
Guarnere asked about the Christmas day football game and made a crack about sky trained boys and looked at the officers, they all looked busy, tired and somehow preoccupied.
"Great… well I just go find some trouble" Bill said
"You do that," Nixon said.
"And Bill no more joy riding" Katie said
"Right, ahh anybody ever heard of a little joint called Lulu's" Bill asked
"Got me" Welsh said and Dani just lifted her eyebrows at Welsh, she knew he was lying.
"I'll just ask around" Bill said
Bill walked out and Zielinski closed the door, "Well I guess now is as good a time as any" Nixon said and pulled out a piece of paper from one of his pockets.
"What is that another piece of paper, I don't want to see another piece of paper" Winters said.
"General Taylor has flown back to Washington, he has left McAuliffe in charge of the division, and Colonel Sink is in Reims to see Dietrich" Nixon said
"Marlene is in Reims, I am out of here I am going to Reims" Welsh said
"Strayer is in London to Visit Dobie, and I am personally going to Aldbourne to look up a certain young lady," Nixon said
Winters looked at Nixon, "What are you telling me" He asked
"You two are heading to Paris, that's a forty eight hour pass, it's been decided that the two of you deserve some time of" Nixon said
Katie looked at Dani, she smiled and hugged Dick "I can't believe it Paris" she said
Dani was kind of bummed she would be staying alone, Nixon turned and handed her a pass to Aldbourne "You are coming with me" He said, Dani smiled and Hugged Nixon.
"I can't believe it, I get to see Ron, you are a lifesaver" Dani kissed Nix on the cheek.
"Don't thank me yet, we have a long way ahead of us" Nixon said
"I don't care, I get to see Ron" Dani was ecstatic, she ran out the door.
Welsh, Winters, Nixon and Katie looked after her "Nix, I need to find out how she is really holding up and how she is doing, while you guys are gone, there is something of about her" Katie said to Nixon
"I will, don't worry," Nixon said.
"So are you excited to see Ron" Nixon asked Dani, they were almost in Aldbourne and Nixon had a feeling Dani was a little too cheerful.
"I can't wait to see him, it's going to be great, and I just hope he is better now than the last time I saw him" Dani was bouncing around
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crazyforkasey-blog · 19 days ago
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When we met
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Chapter 9
"Nix wake up, we are late for the meeting with Sink and Strayer, get up, get out of the freaking bed" Lane was running around the loft Nix had been billeted to.
She was supposed to share a house with Katie, Mia and/or Dani depending on which of the nurses had their shift at the clearing station or field hospital, but she was never there, she spent most nights with Nix.
"Come on Nix, they want back at the regiment, let's go, something's up, Strayer's order" Lane was now fully dressed and slightly pissed off.
"Ok go ahead, I'll be right there" Nix mumbled down in his pillow.
"Now Nix, we only got ten minutes" Lane was pulling Nix out of the bed.
"Don't make me get Winters up here, he is waiting downstairs" Lane pulled Nix out of bed and got him dressed in record time.
Nix was ranting about how he thought the campaign in Holland should continue.
"I mean, we are the only unit in the group who have the Germans on the German side of the Rhine, If we had taken Antwerp, and I am not saying that would have been easy, we would be over the River, well supplied and have the Krauts on their heels, now if I can Ike on the Phone, are you two listening to me?" Nix asked
Lane had spaced out while he was talking, and Winters was used to Nix's ranting, so he just let him rant.
"Oh honey, we are hanging on every word" Lane cooed to Nix.
They walked into the HQ, Heyliger was already there.
"They called you too" Winters asked him
"Yeah, whatever is going on Sink is not happy" Heyliger told him.
"Nixon, Heyliger, Easterday" Sink called out and motioned them over
"Meet colonel Dobie of the British first Airborne, Captain Nixon and Captain Easterday is our second battalion S2's, first lieutenant Moose Heyliger"
Dobie did a double take of Lane, now there was a pretty woman, wondering how she made it into the Airborne, and there was definitely something going on between the two captains.
"The Brits lost 8000 men, when Market-Garden fell on its ass, which is why Colonel Dobie has been tasked with coordinating some kind of rescue operation for the red devils who is trapped at Arnhem side" Sink told Nixon, Lane and Heyliger
"The Dutch resistances are harboring 140 of my chaps here, just outside a Jerry held town just 15 miles north of the river, they make their way to the river bank and assemble by the woods here tonight" Dobie said and pointed to a place on the map placed before them.
"Pick a team from Easy company and get them back across the Rhine as fast as possible" Strayer said
"A hundred and forty men" Nixon said
"The Canadian engineers have supplied six boats, the rendezvous point is on isolated land, and I swam it myself last night. At approximately 00.30 hours I will signal the V for victory with a hand-held red torch, that would be a hand-held red flashlight," Dobie pointed to the RP. On a map on the wall and turned to Nixon and Lane.
"All right we call this operation Pegasus, ok Bob your second battalion is on the spot, get it done" Sink said to Strayer.
Strayer turned to Nixon "Captain Nixon assist Colonel Dobie in any way possible, you need anything at all you come to me" Strayer said to Nixon
"I can hardly ask for more" Dobie said
Lane, Dobie, Heyliger and Nixon were discussing the details of the operation; Lane had heard rumors about the mad colonel from Arnhem. He didn't seem like a man who made rash decisions, but then again he did swim the Rhine and the water was freezing this time of year.
Lane nudges Nix, "Maybe we should take a look at the maps" she whispered to him, she had chosen to stay quiet, she hadn't figured out what the colonels' take on women in the army was yet.
"Enemy dispositions map are in the S2, we should take a look at that" Nix led the group to the S2 section of the HQ.
Lane dumped her tired body down into her desk chair and sighed, the group gathered around the table, "Do you have an opinion on this operation, or are you just another pretty face" Dobie asked her
"No… I mean yes…I mean" Lane looked at Nix; she wasn't sure how to get out of the verbal mess she just made.
"What the captain is trying to say is, that she does have an opinion on all this, just like she has an opinion on everything else that goes on around here" Nix laughed.
"Hey, be nice" Lane smiled to Nix
Oh yah, there was definitely something going on between the two of them, the colonel thought to himself, it was nice to see something good come out of this messy war.
"So what's your take on this" Dobie asked Lane
"Well we need to execute fast, speed is the key and are you absolutely sure about the Intel?" Lane was skeptical.
"Positive and I know my men, they will be ready by the time we get there" Dobie smiled, yah she was a hard ass, and he was sure she earned her rank the hard way.
Winters had been tasked with writing combat reports and Strayer wanted a complete list of whatever the 34th left behind; he was disappointed, having to write reports instead of help planning and executing the operation, was not what he would have liked to.
He walked into the aid station, he was searching for Katie, when he ran into Mia, he stopped her; the poor nurse was stressed out, and seemed to be running in circles.
"Mia, Mia" Winters tried to get her attention.
Mia did even acknowledge him "lieutenant MacKall" Winters then called
"Captain Winters, Sir" Mia said
"you wouldn't happen to know where Doctor Hendrick is."
"She is in her office, Sir" Mia started to walk away.
"Lieutenant MacKall, get some rest, or I am telling the first sergeant, that you aren't taking care of yourself"
"Sir" Mia walked off mumbling something about overprotective men.
Winters found Katie, she got up from her chair when he opened the door "Dick, I am glad to see you, I got something for you" Katie held out a complete list of medical supplies, left behind by the 34th.
Winters looked at it "You are a lifesaver, thank you" he kissed Katie on the cheek.
"No problem, I figured the regiment would want a complete list of supplies" Katie looked at Winters, he looked like a man who didn't get enough sleep.
"Dick you and me, tonight, a hot meal and a warm bed, no excuses" Katie said
"I want to, but Easy is going on a mission" Winters said
"Dick it's not your job to take care of Easy anymore, its Moose's, so relax Easy is in good hands" Katie said
"I know, stop by my office at eight" Winters kissed Katie and shut the door
It had gotten dark out; Katie was on her way to meet Winters in his office.
She had only just gotten there when Moose, Lane and Nixon came knocking on the door.
Zelinsky, Winters orderly was there and Nixon came running up the stairs "Hey Dick you finish your novel yet" Nixon said referring to the report of the incident, the attack at the crossroad.
He looked at the stack of papers on Winters desk again "That's a lot of Homework" He commented, and bent down and kissed Katie on the cheek.
Moose came walking in after him "I thought executive officer was supposed to be a fun job" Moose said.
Nixon turned to Zelinsky and asked "Who are you?"
"Zelinsky sir" The orderly answered
"Who is he" Nixon asked Winters
"Zelinsky is my orderly," Winters said
Nixon let out a whistle and looked at Katie "Do you have an orderly"
"Well rang does has I privileges" Moose said
Katie smiled "Yes I do, I have Mia" Katie joked
Nixon looked at Zelinsky "Orderly, I bet you get things like coffee" Nixon said
"Black no sugar and a bacon sandwich" Nixon said
"Leave the poor kid alone" Katie said and sat down on Winters desk, he tried to get her off it, but all he got was a smile and dirty answer.
"Here give this to Colonel Sink with my compliments," Winters said and handed Nixon two pages of paper.
"All that for two pages, guess that's going to take awhile" Nixon said referring to the supply list he had to type out.
"Yeah so matter of fact it will, want a job" Winters was a tad upset
"There it is, I think that somebody wish they were back with Easy company, Moose" Nixon said smirking
"Are you two just here to gloat" Winters said
"No just to rub it in a little bit, Moose is going to lead his first mission as company commander" Nixon said
"Operation Pegasus is set to go off, I thought I might give you the heads up" Moose said
"Pegasus yeah, great, everybody know their job" Winters said
"We drilled with the boats all day and Captain Hunt is coming along, and so is the Canadian engineers, Colonel Dobie knows his stuff" Moose said
"Guess she loves you" Katie said
"Yeah she did a little miffed, but we cleared things up" Heyliger said.
"Do you know how many times you have to cross the river" Winters asked
"If there really is hundred and forty men hiding over there, three trip" Moose said
"Speed is the key, what time is jump off" Winters said
"We will be at the far side of Rhine at 01.00" Moose said
"Speed is the key, keep moving and lead the way" Winters said
"Dick, Easy is in good hands" Nixon said
"Yeah, yeah right, well hang tough" Winters said
"I could say the same too you" Heyliger held his hand out for Winters to shake
"Good luck Moose" Winters said and shook Heyliger's hand
"Nix are we sure on the intelligence on this" Winters asked him
"I think it's pretty damn good"
"Is easy walking into another company of Germans no one can see" Winters asked Nix
"Why don't we ask Moose when he gets back" Nixon said and started to leave
"Yeah and if they do run in to any troubles will you let us know" Winters said
Lane got up and squeezed Winters arm, "They'll be ok"
Dani was in the middle of the celebration when Moose got up on a chair and started to yell something nobody understood but everybody answered him.
An officer stood up and said "Moose Heyliger and the American 101st has done the Red Devils a great service, making it possible for us to return and fight the enemy on another day, to Easy Company, Victory and Currahee"
CURRAHEE the men shouted, the party got pretty rowdy and Dani had a bit too much to drink, which didn't say a lot, she had never been drunk before, at least not this drunk.
Lane was talking to Bull and one of the British sergeants, when she noticed Dani getting a little too close to one the Brits.
"Bull, go get Talbert and tell him to get Dani to bed, now" Lane said
"Ma'am" Bull turned and immediately found Talbert
Bull motioned him over "What can I do for you sergeant, Captain" Talbert was a little confused, he wasn't close to Captain Easterday in any way
"Talbert, you need to get Hunt to bed, now, she had enough" Lane ordered the sergeant
"Yeah, she is having a rough time with the lieutenant being gone and all" Talbert walked over and picked up Dani and carried her to his room, he put her down on his bed, she opened her eyes for a short moment, "Why can't anybody love me, why do they always leave" she asked him and then passed out.
Talbert gently stroked her hair "I will always love you and I will never leave you" he whispered, he got undressed and climbed into bed and held Dani close all night.
Colonel Dobie came over to where Lane was sitting nursing her drink, Bull had left and Nix had some bet going on a arm wrestling contest going on "So how did a pretty girl like you end up in the airborne" He asked her
"I wanted to serve and the airborne seemed like the best," Lane said and tried to shrug Dobie's question off.
"How long have you been with Easy" Dobie asked
"Since the beginning, I was already a S2 lieutenant when the company got formed at Toccoa
"So exactly how many women are there attached to Easy" Dobie asked
"Well now there is me, then there is Katie, she a doctor, a surgeon she is like a freaking genius and she will marry Winters at some point, then there is Dani a nurse, she just left, she is with a Lieutenant who is recovering from a gunshot wound, Mia our sweet and sacrificing nurse, she been with us since MacKall.
"And you, what's going on between you and Nixon" Dobie asked
"We actually grew up together, and I have loved him most of my life, it only took this little war to get us together" Lane smiled, and at that moment Nix looked at her and a big smile spread across his face
"Well good for you, it's nice to see some happiness in the midst of this miserable war." Dobie toasted Lane
The 506th moved to Driel, Holland
It was an extremely active sector.
Winters called Heyliger and suggested the two of them make an inspection of the outposts.
Winters then called Welsh and told him they would be en route that night.
They were walking side by side down the narrow path, when suddenly they heard someone yell Halt.
Moose for the life of him couldn't remember the password, and without further notice the private, who was at the outpost, fired his M1, Moose was hit in the right shoulder and the left leg, his calf looked like it had just been blown away.
Winters screamed at the private, that he needed to get Lieutenant Welsh and fast, and to call an ambulance.
Welsh and Winters bandaged Moose up as well as they could and carried him to the waiting ambulance, when they got there, Mia and Doc. Roe was waiting for them
"How much morphine did you give" Roe asked
"Two maybe three syringes, I don't know" Welsh said
"Well I don't see a single syringe on this man jacket" Mia said
"You lucky he is a big man, he might just make it" Roe said
"We are sorry ok" Winters said
"We didn't know what to do he was in so much pain" Welsh said
"Well you are officers and grownups you ought to know" Mia said and slammed the ambulance door
"Dick we are heading out, we heading for Mourmelon" Nix was standing halfway up the stairs to the loft Katie and Winters shared in the house they had been billeted to, he had his holding bag packed and was ready to go.
Winters looked at Nixon "Yeah the office is packed and we are good to go".
The two officers walked out into the busy street, a jeep was waiting for them, it had Lane on its hood. She was waiting for Nixon to show up, when she noticed Nixon heading for the driver seat, she jumped off the hood and pushed him out of the way.
"You are not driving, I know you've been drinking and we are going to have a little talk about that" Lane jumped into the driver's seat and fired up the engine, Nixon and Welsh got in the back and Winters got in the passenger's seat.
Nixon and Welsh had both been drinking and were cracking jokes, Lane zoned out, she was looking forward to getting some rest. The men needed some time off and if, and that was a big if the Intel was correct, the 1001st wouldn't see combat until spring.
Mourmelon was an old garrison fort, old being the key word, but none of the officers complained, it had hot water, warm beds and good chow.
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crazyforkasey-blog · 19 days ago
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Chapter 7
Hey Dani wait up" Talbert called after Dani, she was on her way to the tent,
After Lipton's announcement last night, the 506th had packed up and at 0700, the trucks departed from Membury, where they were now awaiting their new orders.
"So what do you think this is all about" Talbert asked
"Well I already know, I was briefed this morning upon arrival, while you guys were bitching about having to pack all your gear again" Dani said
The tent was jammed pack and Talbert slid down on a seat next to Luz and Grant,
"Did you get her to talk" Luz asked
"No nothing" Talbert said
The three men had hoped to get a head start on the whole operation.
Mia in the back holding hands with Lipton, Katie was standing out to the side with a cup of coffee in her hand, she had that look on her face, the one she got, when she knew something wasn't right. Dani joined them and the rest of the medical staff
Dani caught Katie's eyes and lifted her eyebrow, as to ask if everything was alright, they had been doing that since school; Katie just shook her head and motioned towards Winters.
Dani looked at Winters, he looked calm, but had a stern look on his face, like he wasn't sure about the operation, like he knew something was off; he had kept asking Nixon this morning if they were absolutely sure about the Intel, like he had a feeling it sounded too easy.
Nixon had insisted it was good Intel and that they shouldn't worry.
Lane backed him up; they had gotten the Intel fresh from the Dutch resistance, who had proven absolutely dependable before.
Winters started to brief the company about their new mission
"As you can see, this is called Operation Market-Garden, Market being the airborne operation and Market the ground operation, in terms of airborne divisions involved, this is even bigger than Normandy. We are dropping deep into occupied Holland, the allied objective is to take this road here between Arnhem and Eindhoven, and so the two British armored units can move up toward Arnhem. Our job is going to be to liberate Eindhoven, stay there and wait for the tanks" Winters said and when he finished Lane took over.
"The entire European advance has been put on hold to relocate resources for this operation, it's Montgomery's personal plan, we will be under British Command" Lane said.
There was a lot of moaning and complaining,
At this point Nixon took over "The good news is, if this works, these tanks will be over the Rhine into Germany that could end the war and get us home by Christmas. It will be a day time jump, Intelligence doesn't expect much opposition, they think the krauts in Holland are mostly old men and kids, and we should take them by surprise. In any case say goodbye to England, I don't think they are going to call this one of" he said
The men started to pile out of the tent after the briefing ended; the officers lingered around and went over the operation one more time, just to be absolutely sure they were prepared for whatever could happen.
Katie,Mia and Dani headed back to the Hospital to gather supplies.
"I don't know about this operation, so pack up all the supplies you can scrounge" Katie said
She had to go and finish some paperwork, and to make sure everything was in order back at the hospital, before she could leave England with a clear conscience.
Mia and Dani packed up whatever they could get her hands on, and whatever they knew they could jump with, they packed up stuff for Roe and Spina as well, they were out among the men making sure everybody was in shape to jump.
After finishing up at the aid station Mia went and searched for Lipton, she needed him to tell her everything would be alright, after working with Katie all day, who kept mumbling that she just knew this would fall on its ass, she needed someone who wasn't so negative.
She found him in his tent with Welsh and Buck; they were going over the objective for the platoons.
Lipton motioned for her to come and sit down next to him, he pulled her close "you ok" he asked
"Yeah, just a little… I don't know, I still don't want to move out again, but I will follow you boys anywhere" Mia whispered to Lipton
"I know, it will be fine" Lipton said and that was all Mia needed to hear
She smiled at Lip, the guys talked for hours and Mia eventually fell asleep, she was woken by Lipton, "Mia you need to find your own bed" Lipton said
Mia looked at him she didn't really want to, but she got up and kissed him and went back to the aid station to crash, on the way there she ran into Dani and Speirs, who was heading in the opposite direction, they looked happy, she thought to herself, but knowing the tempers of the two lieutenants it wouldn't last.
The next morning the Easy company veterans were bustling around and teaching the replacement how to be ready to fight after the jump. Suddenly Bull stopped and looked around, a jeep with Popeye in the back and Sobel in the driver's seat was pulling up on the air strip
As he drove by, the Toccoa men and women stopped smiling and just looked at him, the jeep stopped and Sobel got out. He pulled down his uniform jacket and walked around the supply truck that was tailing him, it had Malarkey's motorcycle in the back.
Dani looked at Bull "what is he doing here?" she said
"I don't know" he said
Popeye jumped down from the jeep and Lipton walked up to him, trailed by a smiling Mia, who had treated Popeye in Normandy, "Did they let you out of the hospital like that boy" Lipton asked and laughed
"They didn't let me out, I busted out, I didn't wanted get reassigned to some other unit" Popeye said
"Can you make the jump?" Mia asked
"Yeah I can make the jump, I just can't sit" Popeye said
"Welcome back Popeye" Randleman said
"Popeye went AWOL just in time to jump" Lipton said
"Better not let lieutenant Hunt know" Mia said and hugged Popeye
Bull pointed to Sobel and asked "What is he doing here?"
"Sobel, he is the newly appointed regimental S4" Mia said
"Supply officer" Bull said
"Yeah you got it" Lipton said
"He picked me up in Aldbourne, trying to find you guys" Popeye said
"He know you went AWOL" Bull asked
"He knows, he just said I was lucky, I could sit out this jump if I wanted, I said I didn't wanted to, so he said hop in" Popeye said
"Hop in" Bull repeated
"I know, I couldn't believe it either, maybe he is going to court martial me later" Popeye said.
Lip slapped him on the back of the head and they headed off to find Popeye some gear.
Mia was looking after the two of them with a big smile on her face; she knew Dani would be happy to see a familiar face in her stick.
Moore walked over to Malarkey "Hey mal look there" he said and gestured towards the supply truck, which had their bike in it.
Malarkey turned around and mouthed the son of a bitch.
Sobel noticed him right away and called out "Malarkey, sergeant Malarkey"
Malarkey saluted Sobel, who turned around and looked at the bike "You thought you got away with it?" Sobel asked him
"What do you mean sir?" Malarkey looked at Sobel like he had no idea what he was talking about.
Sobel stared at Malarkey "Sergeant, that Motorcycle is United States army property that may not mean anything to you, but that means something to me, where did you find it?" Sobel asked
"That's him alright" Bull said, he was looking at Sobel chewing out Malarkey for stealing the motorcycle.
Sergeant Martin was having troubles with a lieutenant who was jumpmaster on his plane, he kept telling him to tap his leg once the green lights came on, and Martin kept telling him, he would be right next to the light.
Mia called Martin over " Hey Martin, the lieutenant is color blind, cut him some slack and just do as he asks" Mia said
Martin looked at the lieutenant "Ok if you say so" he said and walked over to the lieutenant and told him he would do as he asked.
Occupied Holland September 17
It was a beautiful end of summer day and the daytime jump went smoothly for everyone. The biggest problem was getting off the DZ, so they wouldn't get hit by falling equipment and gliders.
The March order had Dog Company in the lead with Easy, HQ and Fox following them.
Welsh and Peacock had points with first platoon, followed by Buck and second and then Shames and third.
Mia, Dani and Katie were tracking behind with the rest of the medical personnel between Easy and HQ. Katie was happy it gave her some time with Dick, even if they couldn't talk much, just being near him was a welcome change.
They were heading down the road towards Son; the residents in the town were happy to be liberated and were flying the royal orange flag.
They handed out fruits and beers to the soldiers. Lane got many strange looks. The Dutch were not expecting to see women with the Yanks.
Lane was walking next to Winters "Do you think all the Dutch will be this happy to see us" She asked him
"I hope so, let's see if the whole operation goes smoothly," Winters said.
About a kilometer from the bridge they were supposed to secure, the column was fired upon by a German 88 and a machine gun. When the fire started Lane felt herself pushed to the ground, by Winters "Stay down", he said
As soon as she felt it was secure, Lane got up and ran towards battalion HQ, to find out what was going on.
"Nix what's going on?" Lane yelled over the firing rifles and exploding mortar shells.
"The Germans are trying to delay us, so the engineers have time to prep for demolition of the bridge" Nix said
As predicted when they were 25 meters from the bridge it blew in their faces.
Lane, who was in front with the first platoon, was slung to the ground, there was a hail of debris raining down over her and she felt a sharp pain in her back, and everything went black.
Katie ran up to her and poured sulfa on the wound, she noticed a piece of debris in Lane's back, she bandaged it up and sent Lane back to the impromptu aid station, a lot of men had been hit by pieces of debris from the bridge.
Nixon was running around like a crazy person, the Intel provided for them was obviously wrong, and he was trying to straighten the rumors from fact.
Lane woke up in the aid station "What the hell happened?" She moaned when she came through
"Hey welcome back, you took a piece of bridge in your shoulder and got knocked out when some debris hit you in the head," Mia said
"You needed some stitches, and you are going to be sore for a while, other than that you will be fine, which we have been trying to tell your man, and here he comes again," Mia said and stepped away from Lane.
Nixon barged through the door "Oh thank god you are ok, you scared me good out there" Nixon said
He walked over, took her hand in his, he searched her face, he had been scared out of his mind when he saw her go down, hit by the debris from the bridge, he looked at her "I can't stay, are you sure you are ok?" He asked
"I will be fine just fine; it's you I am worried about. You look like shit" Lane said
She turned to Mia "Is this going to take me out or what?" She asked her
"You will be fine, Katie removed the debris and I stitched you up" Mia said
"besides, the guards armored Division has been held up south of Eindhoven, and we need every man and women out there, just take it easy ok" Mia said
"Ok, let me get out of here then" Lane said
"Here, I scrounged you up a clean shirt," Mia said
Lane walked out of the barn and the first person she ran into was flustered Dani "I just heard, are you ok?" She asked her
"I am fine, now let's get this show on the road" Lane said
That night the girls got together and bunked down in the aid station, it didn't take long for Nixon, Speirs, Lipton and Winters to show up there.
There wasn't a lot of talking going on. Lane and Nixon kept going over the Intel trying to find out where the misinformation had come from, and what source had been wrong and what they could expect going forward.
Speirs had lost a man, and had overheard Luz telling Talbert about Dani's strange behavior before the jump. Winters and Katie were talking about how things had gone and how many wounded and killed had come through the aid station.
Mia and Lipton were just making conversation and Dani was staring into space, wondering if she would ever be able to let go of what had happened to her on D Day, it had come barreling back to her after the bridge blew in their face.
The next morning the march continued, Lane was in a Jeep with Strayer and Nixon, the column stopped and Sink spread his regiment, with second battalion on the left.
Lane stood up in the back and looked at the reason why the column had stopped, when she saw Lieutenant Brewer standing in the middle of the road, with his binoculars and Map case at his side.
Randleman looked up and started to yell at the lieutenant, Winters was screaming in the radio "get back, get back, drop back" Brewer never responded
A shot rang out and Brewer fell to the ground, he was hit just below the jaw line. The entire battalion took cover in the ditches
Mia ran to Brewer, and she was immediately hit in the knee, and then in the thigh. Roe came running up to them. Mia was bandaging herself and after she finished she dragged herself back in the ditch, where somebody hooked her up with a shot of morphine.
The next thing she knew, she was at the aid station, Katie and Dani were working on Brewer and when they had him stabilized, they came over to look at Mia.
"You do know they have medics in Easy company right?" Katie said with a stern look at Mia.
"Yes Ma'am, but I was the closest one to the lieutenant" Mia said
"Well, next time you leave it to Roe or another medic, got it?" Katie said
She felt like she had to be stern with Mia, she couldn't risk losing a good combat nurse.
"captain, please don't send me back to England" Mia said
"Well you really should, but if you behave and nothing gets infected you can stay with the aid station" Katie said.
The 506th entered Eindhoven and the whole town was filled with happy Dutchmen and women, the hardest part was driving the men through town.
The officers were screaming "keep moving, keep moving", but it was impossible. The men were offered food and shots of brandy and the women were kissing them, a big busted lady had gotten a hold of Perconte and was squeezing him hard, with her bosom.
Luz ran up to Dani "See all these happy people, the girls are real eager to kiss the guys how about a kiss for a lonely soldier," Luz said with a smirk
Dani looked at him "Ok one little kiss, Luz and it's the last one," Dani said
Just as Luz leaned in to get his kiss, he felt a hand on his forehead and looked into a pair of ice-cold eyes "Keep moving soldier," Speirs said.
Dani was about to pee herself, the look on Luz face was priceless.
Shrugging, Luz moved on "The only one, who gets a kiss from you, is me" Speirs said and pulled Dani in for a long and tender kiss.
He had missed her, he had missed kissing her like that, and Speirs put his helmet back on and moved on.
A young woman grabbed a hold of Speirs and kissed him; Dani just looked at him and felt like she just got a punch in her stomach, when she saw the happy smile on his face.
Dani gave him a cold look and stalked off.
Meeting up with Welsh, Nixon, Winters, and Lane.
Buck met up with them "What's up Welshie" He said
"Snipers" Welsh said
The officers all covered up their insignias; you never knew where the snipers were.
The officers came across a crowd, who were clapping and shouting. They realized it was the resistance, shaving the hair off some women.
"What the heck is going on?" Welsh asked
"It's the women who slept with the Germans, they are lucky, the men got shot," Lane said.
"We need to move on, get the men and move on," Winters said.
Late that afternoon the Brits finally showed up, they set up housekeeping and proceeded to make tea.
Lane was shaking her head at them. Her and Nixon was a little outraged that they didn't have any urge to keep moving on to Nijmegen,
Around dinnertime, the rest of the British arrived and the 506th initial task was over.
The battalion spent the night In hastily dug Foxholes, Lane was sharing with Nixon, she wasn't there a whole lot, she spent most of the night walking the line, her shoulder hurt and she wasn't about to complain, she could take it.
The next day they continued towards Nuenen, Webster made a crack about, that is where Van Gogh was from.
Just out of Nuenen, they once again encountered enemy fire.
Lane was standing in the back of a jeep, watching the men fight, once again cursing the faulty Intel
The replacements jumped into the ditch, and the platoon leaders had a hard time getting them moving. Randleman had to scream at the men that they needed to move, because they were firing at stationary targets.
They got the platoons moving and they ran towards town.
The entire company ran into town, there were Germans and burning equipment everywhere, Dani had her Mortar squad set up ready to fire.
Martin and Bull noticed a hidden tiger. Martin flagged down the British tank commander and told him about the tank, he just told him, he was ordered not to do any unnecessary property damage, and refused to put a couple of shells through the house the tiger was hidden behind.
The tiger shot up the British tank, and in the end Easy and the rest of the Companies had to retreat, while retreating Bull got cut off from the rest of the company.
Compton was hit in the butt and the men dragged him back towards the trucks on a barn door, he kept telling them to leave him for the Germans, but the men refused.
The battalion fell back, just when they were about to move out Gordon and Strohl came running towards the column, they jumped a fence and climbed on board a truck.
Winters, Lane, McMillan and Nixon were heading towards Battalion HQ, they could hear Colonel Strayer and his staff laughing in there.
"What the hell do they have to laugh about?" Lane said
"I don't know, but whatever it is, it's about to end" Winters said
The officers entered the HQ; Strayer turned to Winters and McMillan and asked how they did today.
"Well we took a hell of a licking, and Easy lost fifteen men, and Dog about the same" Winters said.
Lane grabbed a cup of coffee and walked outside, she was looking up at the sky, and she was watching the Germans bombing Eindhoven and the British Supply convoy.
She felt some beside her, Welsh and Peacock was standing besides looking at the same inferno; "Guess they won't be greeting us with orange flags tomorrow" Welsh said and walked off.
September 22 1944
The Battalion got orders to move towards Uden; Lane was busy setting up CP and road blocks. Winters had delegated the task of setting up first platoons roadblock to Welsh.
Katie had a chance to spend the evening with Winters, they had decided to check on the road blocks. The British tank was right where it should be and so was the roadblock, but there were no soldiers to be found anywhere. There was a manor on one side of the road and a tavern on the other side.
"Where the heck is everybody?" Katie asked Winters
"I don't know, but we are about to find out," Winters said and ran over to the manor and knocked on the door.
Katie reached manor just as the maid opened the door.
They somehow made it clear to the maid, they wanted to see a soldier.
The maid led them down a hall to a large lavish furnished living room. Sitting on the floor in front of a blazing fire, was a beautiful Dutch girl sharing dinner with a British lieutenant, he turned his head and looked at the two officers "is my tank still outside?" he asked them
Katie got angrier than she had been in all her life, she walked over and grabbed the lieutenant by the ear, and she pulled him to his feet and dragged him outside.
"When you address an officer you say ma'am or sir" Katie said, pushing the lieutenant down the street towards his tank.
"Now you set that roadblock up, or I will make sure you don't have kids and I am a surgeon, I can make it happen" Katie yelled at the lieutenant.
The British lieutenant looked at Winters, who just shrugged.
Both men were a little surprised by the choice of words.
"Let's go find Welsh" Katie said and walked towards the tavern, she was pretty sure that was where they would find first platoon.
And just as they thought, they found Welsh and first platoon sacked out on the bar, Katie got even more pissed off, she looked over at Winters who just signaled go ahead.
"WELSH, GET THE FUCK UP, YOU SLEEPING FUCKER" Katie yelled
Welsh shot up from his spot on the bar and fell down on the floor and Katie grabbed him by the ear and dragged him outside, "now, set up the freaking road block," Katie said
Welsh nodded and Katie stalked off to yell at the sleeping men.
Winters and Welsh could hear Katie yelling at the men threatening them with everything under the moon, something about lining them up against the wall and shooting them.
They could hear the men mumbling something and then laughter. Katie came out smiling and headed towards Winters and Welsh "All taken care of," she said
Welsh looked at Winters "I think Sparky is right, she is the scary one" he said
Winters looked at him "Just be glad she didn't shoot you between the eyes, are we clear on the road block Harry" Winters said
"Yes, crystal," Harry said.
Second battalion caught up with each other in Uden. Dani was searching for Speirs in the crowd of soldiers, praying he wasn't hurt. She couldn't find him anywhere, she was starting to panic, when she felt a pair of hands grab her by her waist, she turned around and looked at Speirs she let out a breath and hugged him, he just smiled Whispered and walked away.
Dani looked after him and went out to find Winters, she wanted to know how the rest of the company was doing, and she found him at the CP.
"Good you are here" Colonel Sink said.
Lane had been called to the CP, she went over and stood close to Nixon.
"What's going on" Lane asked Nixon
"We are taking Veghel and moving south" Colonel Sink informed them and continued to explain the mission.
—--------------------------------------------------------------
Lane was observing the attack from behind to parked Jeeps.
Nixon was standing beside her, they were hoping everything would go smooth, and then suddenly Lane heard a loud ping and noticed Nixon had hit the deck.
Lane and Winters were on him immediately "Oh god Lew are you ok" Lane said
"Yeah I am fine, I am ok, am I ok? Stop looking at me like that" Lew said.
Nixon had been hit by a bullet that went through his helmet, but only left a burn mark on his forehead.
The men got loaded into the back of trucks and the battalion retreated, while watching the men get back on the trucks Winters looked at Nix "I hate retreating," Winters said
"There a first time for everything" Nixon said
"How are the other divisions faring up north?" Winters asked
Lane was walking by. She just looked straight ahead, "I think we have to find a new way into Germany" she said and walked by.
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