![]() He was not only angry and wanting to kill every German, but he did not trust Winters. Bill Guarnere had learned before the jump that his brother had been killed in Italy. Winters now had 17 men, including himself. “Hicks,” Winters said, “see if anyone else from F Company wants to go along.” Hicks brought back Sergeant Julius “Rusty” Houck. Then Private Walter Hicks from Fox Company showed up and offered to help. ![]() Marie-du-Mont, was the site of a four-gun German battery and the scene of fierce fighting between the gunners and a handful of 101st Airborne Division troops on D-Day, June 6, 1944.įortunately, Winters was also able to gather a few more volunteers from other 506th units who had been misdropped during the chaotic aerial assault Privates John Hall of Alpha Company, Gerald Lorraine, and Virgil “Red” Kimberling of Headquarters Company agreed to join the attack. Today just a quiet, open pasture, this field at Brécourt Manor, between Le Grand Chemin and Ste. With him were Lieutenant Lynn “Buck” Compton, Staff Sergeant Carwood Lipton, Staff Sergeant Bill Guarnere, Sergeants Don Malarkey and Myron Ranney, Corporals Joseph Liebgott, John Plesha, and Joe Toye, and Privates Walter Hendrix, Robert “Popeye” Wynn, and Cleveland Petty. Winters could count only 11 Easy Company men from a unit that normally numbered nearly 200. Fortunately, he had picked up a discarded M-1 rifle and a few grenades during his trek to the small town of Le Grand Chemin, where the battalion had set up temporary headquarters. Winters, like every paratrooper around him, had jumped into Normandy some seven hours earlier and had had most of his equipment ripped off his body during the violent exit from his C-47. (It was later learned that Meehan, along with an entire stick of 18 paratroopers, died when their C-47 “Skytrain” transport plane, chalk #66, was hit by antiaircraft fire and crashed near Beuzeville-au-Plain, France.) Winters, Easy’s 1st Platoon commander, became the acting commander by default. The mission should have gone to Easy Company’s commander, First Lieutenant Thomas Meehan III, but he was nowhere to be found. It was the 8:30 in the morning of D-Day––June 6, 1944. German artillery was raining fire down on Utah Beach, the westernmost invasion beach along the Normandy coast, where at that very moment American soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division were struggling ashore. The sound of the enemy fire was close and unmistakable. The order came from the battalion’s operations officer, Captain Clarence Hester, who, with a sweep of his hand, showed Winters the area he was to attack. The order went to First Lieutenant Richard “Dick” Winters, the acting commander of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. The mission was simple: “There’s fire along that hedgerow there. ![]()
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