Easy Company, 506th PIR

The real Band of Brothers: Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, US 101st Airborne Division

Medic

Easy Company Medic, Eugene Roe

Major Richard Dick Winters

Winters parachuted into Normandy in the early hours of D-Day, and fought across France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and eventually into Germany. Later in the war, Winters rose to command the 2nd Battalion.

Dick Winters and Lewis Nixon

Band of brother's actors Damian Lewis (Richard Dick Winters) and Ron Livington ( Lewis Nixon ).

Band Of brother

Mini-Serie produced by Steven spielberg and Tom Hanks

Friday, August 19, 2011

Occupation duties

  Eagle's nest
Soldiers on the road to Eagle's Nest

Toward the end of the war, Easy Company was assigned to occupation duty in Germany, specifically to Berchtesgaden, which was home to Adolf Hitler’s famous Eagle's Nest. Following Berchtesgaden, Easy Company moved in to Austria for further occupation duty. The company mostly attended to various patrols, awaiting the end of the war.

The Battle of the Bulge

The Battle of the Bulge
 World may never forget them.


During December 1944 and January 1945, Easy Company and the rest of the 101st Airborne Division fought in Belgium in the Battle of the Bulge. The 101st was in France in December when the Germans launched their offensive in the Ardennes. They were told to hold the vital cross-roads at Bastogne and were soon encircled by the Germans. Easy Company fought in cold weather under German artillery fire without winter clothing and with limited rations and ammunition. The Allies successfully defeated the German offensive. Afterward, Easy Company and the rest of the 506th PIR moved into Germany.

Operation Market Garden

Operation Market Garden.
Easy Companyy Soldiers in Eindhoven

Eindhoven, Holland.

 Easy Company was assigned to support the British forces around Eindhoven, by defending the roads so that the British armoured divisions could advance into Arnhem and force a crossing over the major bridge across the Rhine River in September 1944. The story of the ill-fated Operation Market Garden is told in the book A Bridge Too Far by Cornelius Ryan.

101st Airborne zone

Map of US landings near Eindhoven


Faced with the loss of the bridge at Son, the 101st unsuccessfully attempted to capture a similar bridge a few kilometres away at Best but found the approach blocked. Other units continued moving to the south and eventually reached the northern end of Eindhoven.
At 06:00 hours the Irish Guards Group resumed the advance while facing determined resistance from German infantry and tanks.[107] Around noon the 101st Airborne were met by the lead reconnaissance units from XXX Corps. At 16:00 radio contact alerted the main force that the Son bridge had been destroyed and requested that a bailey bridge be brought forward.[citation needed] By nightfall the Guards Armoured Division had established itself in the Eindhoven area[110] however transport columns were jammed in the packed streets of the town and were subjected to German aerial bombardment during the night. XXX Corps engineers, supported by German prisoners of war, constructed a class 40 bailey bridge within 10 hours across the Wilhelmina Canal.[111]
During the day the British VIII and XII Corps, supporting the main attack, had forged bridgeheads across Meuse-Escaut Canal while facing stiff German resistance; 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division was transferred from XXX Corps to VIII Corps so to relieve XXX Corps from having to secure the ground gained thus far. Throughout the day German attacks were launched against XXX Corps and against the newly gained bridgeheads over the Meuse-Escaut Canal, all without success.

 


The D-Day



 The D-Day

For Operation Overlord, Easy Company's mission was to capture the entrances to and clear any obstacles around "Causeway 2", a pre-selected route off Utah Beach for the troops landing from the sea a few hours later. The company departed from Upottery airbase in Devon, England, and dropped over the Cotentin Peninsula of Normandy, France in the early hours of the morning of 6 June 1944. After assembling on the ground, the men of Easy Company disabled a battery of four German heavy guns on D-Day that threatened forces coming along Causeway 2.

The Easy Company

                            
Easy Company History
 
The 506th PIR was an experimental airborne regiment created in 1942 at Camp Toccoa, Georgia. Easy Company missions were to involve being parachuted from C-47 transport airplanes over hostile territory.
Major Richard Winters described the original organization of Easy company as follows:
"[Easy] company included three rifle platoons and a headquarters section. Each platoon contained three twelve-man rifle squads and a six-man mortar team squad. Easy also had one machine gun attached to each of its rifle squads, and a 60mm mortar in each mortar team."[1]
The training was not easy. Besides attending the standard airborne school, the unit had to perform battle drills and excruciating amounts of physical training. One of the more famous exercises was the regular running of Currahee, a large, steep hill. The phrase "3 miles up, 3 miles down" was derived from this run. Easy Company, while training at Toccoa, was under the command of Herbert Sobel, who was known for his extreme strictness.
Also as part of their physical training, the members of Easy Company performed formation runs in three-four column running groups. The purpose of this training was to push the soldiers to their limits, and to teach them how to work together as a team.