![]() The Easy Company was about in the middle of this sad ranking with 45 lost soldiers. Looking at the other losses of the 506th Regiment, it was company I that had the most killed with 99 soldiers lost. 37 more soldiers lost their lives because of the cold, the pneumonia, the fatigue of the fight and others. The Easy had a total of losses (killed, injured, missing) which amounted to a total of 45 for the whole month spent in Bastogne. The company records heavy losses in the Battle of the Ardennes: killed in action (KIA) are: He was immediatly removed from the command of E-company and he became Regimental Assistant S-3 (conduct of operations). The Easy captured the town of Foy after a violent fight, but at what price! Dike’s weaknesses in command have cost many lives. The Americans made about 70 German prisoners. Once the contact established, Speirs backtracked, crossed the German positions still under enemy fire, and joined the Easy Company which was beginning to clean the first dwellings. Speirs crossed the city occupied by hundreds of German soldiers defeated to find the men of Company I. The Easy attacked the city by the west and Company I of the third battalion attacked north of the main road. He then made a legendary race, alone, from the forest to the city center without being touched, which earned him the admiration of his men of the Second Battalion of the 506th Regiment for his skill and extraordinary courage. Winters, attending the scene from the forest, ordered Lieutenant Ronald Speirs to take command of Dike and carry out the assault. They became easy targets for German defenders. But Dike asks his men, in the middle of an uncovered field, to stop. The key word of this attack was speed: the assailants were not to stop and the Germans would be taken by surprise. It had snowed for a long time and the men sank deep into the snow. On January 13, 1945, the Easy launched an assault on the town of Foy. For many paratroopers, being injured in combat was in their minds and some, like Joe Toye, had already accepted it before being hurt. One must note the incredible sense of duty on the part of S/Sergeant Joe Toye who refused to be evacuated because of his frozen foot and wanted to stay with his comrades on the front. ![]() Malarkey reading a letter in a military hospital to Compton: this scene, as Donald told me, did not happen, but it is true that these two characters were very close to one another, and they were still after the war.ĭuring the episode, one also discovers the battle for the conquest of the city of Foy. In the film we can see Sergeant Donald G. Lieutenant Lynn “Buck” Compton, very attached to his men keep morale and stay healthy, discovered the two wounded and was evacuated some time from the front line, being hard hit by this scene. ![]() Among all the wounded and dead on the American side, two characters see one of their legs being torn by shells: Joe Toye and William B. Their positions are terribly bombarded by German mortars and 88 mm guns. Lipton often replaced Lieutenant Dike, who was not doing his duty in the Easy Company.Ĭlustered in the Bois Jacques after the difficult fighting near Bastogne, the Easy Company men blamed the Belgian town of Foy and digged their mouse holes in a nearby forest. This episode places the character of 1st Sergeant Carwood Lipton in the foreground during the first half of January 1945 and shows his great mastery as section chief during the battle of Bois Jacques north of the town of Bastogne before Foy in Belgium. But Dike had relations with the American Staff and he had asked to command a company in combat. The Easy Company passed under the command of Lieutenant Dike, a man who rarely visited his men, who disappeared during the bombings and who was virtually absent from any briefing. ![]() Richard Dick Winters is promoted to the rank of Major and is placed at the head of one of the battalions of the 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division. Band of Brothers Episode 7 The true story of the men of Easy Company, 506th PIR, 101st AirborneĮpisode 1 – Episode 2 – Episode 3 – Episode 4 – Episode 5 – Episode 6 – Episode 7 – Episode 8 – Episode 9 – Episode 10 ![]()
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