Winters was briefing the company on 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 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 Charlie took over.
"The entire European advance has been put on hold to relocate resources for this operation, its Montgomery's personal, we will be under British Command" Charlie said.
There was a lot of moaning and complaining, Charlie couldn't help but thinking, that this whole fiasco could have been avoided, if Patton and Montgomery just could have gotten along.
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 next day Emma, Dana and Camilla were getting ready to jump with the men, Charlie was being briefed on the last Intel there had come out of Holland, old men and kids they said. Charlie knew that the intel was faulty, but could she do?
Dana and Emma was talked the next couple of months thru, agreeing on keeping their knowledge to them self, but to use their knowledge, when needed.
Speirs walked by and took Danas hand,He squeezed it and told her to be safe and that he would see her in Holland.
Dana looked after him knowing she would have to kiss him goodbye at some point, Ron would get wounded, but would be back in time for the Ardennes.
Winters called Emma over the to friends hugged and got on board the planes that would take them to one of the biggest Air Borne disasters in war.
Occupied Holland September 17
Dana was sitting between Talbert and Perconte. She was going to jump as the first paratrooper; she was the jumpmaster on her plane. Dana knew that the initial jump would be fine, but the trouble would start as soon as they had passed Eindhoven.
Lipton had been made jumpmaster on his plane after one of the lieutenants had been injured.
Dana was trying to peak out of the door, it was a beautiful end-of-summer day, with clear blue sky, she enjoyed the last rays of sunshine, nothing would be easy for the next couple of months.
Once over Holland they encountered some anti aircraft fire, but once over the DZ everything went smooth.
The landing field was freshly ploughed, and the only problem the battalion had was to get off the field fast enough, to avoid getting hit by gliders and falling equipment
The March order had Dog Company in the lead, with Easy, HQ and Fox following them.
Emma had point with first platoon. She was walking between Dog and Easy, which meant she had to listen to Welsh stupid remarks and Luz doing impressions of all the officers up at HQ, it was fun, but she knew they needed more noise discipline.
"Will the two of you be quiet?" She said to the two men behind her
Luz looked at her "sure thing Captain" he could tell Emma was enjoying all the fun, but they also needed to quiet, since no one exactly where the enemy was hiding.
Camilla was tracking behind with the rest of the medical personal, she missed being upfront with the men, and she was getting annoyed, she was used to up front where things was happening.
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, Dana and Emma got many a strange looks, and the Dutch was not expecting to see women with the Yanks.
Charlie 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 this smooth," Winters said.
"Don't count on it" Charlie mumbled under her breath.
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 Emma felt herself pushed to the ground, by Winters "Stay down", he said
As soon as she felt it was secure, Charlie got up and ran towards battalion HQ, to find out what was going on.
"Nix what going on" Charlie 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 face.
Emma, who was in front with 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 shoulder, and everything went black.
Camilla up to her and poured sulpha on the wound, she noticed a piece of debris in Emma's shoulder, she removed it and bandaged the wound and sent Emma back to the impromptu aid station. quite a few of the men had been hit by pieces of debris from the bridge.
Dana was busy getting her men across the river on the bridge there had been set up, it could only hold on man at the time, so it took forever to get the entire second battalion over.
Charlie was running around, like a crazy person. The Intel provided for them was obviously wrong like she knew from the history books, and she was trying to straighten the rumors from fact.
Emma woke up in the aid station "What the hell happened?" She moaned when she came through
"Hey welcome back, you took a piece of debris to your shoulder and got knock out when some debris hit you in the head," Camilla 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 boyfriend and here he comes again," Camilla said.
Winters barged through the door "Oh thank god, you are ok, you scared me good out there" Winters 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 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 make sure Welsh takes good care of my boys, ok" Emma said
She turned to Camilla "Is this going to take me out or what" She asked her
"You will be fine, I stitched you up and you will be fine" Camilla said
"besides, the guards armored Division, has been help up south of Eindhoven, and we need every man and woman out there, just take it easy ok" Camilla said
"Ok let me get out of here then" Emma said
"Here I scrounged you up a clean shirt," Camilla said
Emma walked out of the barn and the first person she ran into was flustered Dana "I just heard, are you ok?" She asked her
"I am fine, now let's get this show on the road" Emma said
"First platoon on me" she yelled and her boys were there in a split second.
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.
The group talked most of the night and just enjoyed being close.
The next morning the march continued. Charlie was in a Jeep with Strayer and Nixon, the column stopped and Sink spread his regiment with second battalion on the left.
Charlie stood up in the back of the jeep, and looked at the reason why the column had stopped. She saw Lieutenant Brewer standing in the middle of the road, with his binoculars and Map case at his side.
Emma saw him as well, she was walking along the road side with Randleman and she fought an urge to roll her eyes, and she swore under her breath, "what a fucking idiot, he could practically be screaming to the Germans shoot me, shoot me I am an officer"
"Get a load of General Patton" Emma said
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 regiment took cover in the ditches
A medic ran to Brewer, he was hit in the knee, Camilla ran up on the road. Lipton was next to her at that point tried to stop her.
"Stay here, you don't need to be hit as well" He pleaded with her
"I can't, I am needed up there, sorry" Camilla kissed him real quick and ran up on the road. The sniper was shooting at her, but kept missing her and in an instant Roe was next to her, he dragged the medic down in the ditch while Camilla worked on Brewer.
The sniper was found and shot and the column continued.
They entered Eindhoven and the whole town was filled with happy Dutchmen and women. The hardest part was driving the men through town.
The officers was screaming "keep moving, keep moving", but it was impossible, the men was offered food and shots of brandy and the women was kissing them. A big busted lady had gotten a hold of Perconte and was squeezing him hard, with her bosom.
Luz ran up to Dana "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
Dana looked at him "Ok, one little kiss, Luz and it's the last one," Dana said
Just as Luz leaned into get his kiss, he felt a hand on his forehead and looked into a pair of ice-cold eyes "Keep moving soldier," Speirs said.
Dana was about to pee herself, at the look on Luz face, it was too funny.
Shrugging Luz moved on "Captain Grey" Speirs said
"Lieutenant Speirs" Dana said and moved on as well.
Dana and Speirs walked side by side, both of them wanting to talk to the other, but unable to find the words that needed to be said.
Dana felt a sense of peace having Ron walking beside her, she was afraid he had put distance between them because of her drunken offer.
Speirs was trying to keep calm, seeing her leaning into kiss Luz, was more than he could handle, he wanted to rip her away from him and whisk her away, away from the men and away from the war, to somewhere she would be safe.
They walked so close, that their fingers brushed against each other's and Dana wanted to grab his hand, but was afraid of being rejected.
Speirs had a strong urge to take her hand, but he knew he couldn't, not in public. The feelings he had for her still confused him. He felt overly protective of her, but they were in the middle of a war, and were it really the best time to start a relationship?
A young woman grabbed a hold of Speirs and kissed him; Dana just looked at him and felt like she just got a punch in her stomach, when she saw the happy smile on his face.
Dana gave him a cold look and stalked off.
Meeting up with Welsh, Nixon and Winters, Emma and Charlie.
Buck met up with them "What's up Welshie" He said
"Snipers" Welsh said
The all covered up their insignias; you never knew where the snipers were.
The officer came across a crowd who was clapping and shouting. It was the resistance cutting 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" Emma said.
"We need to move on, get the men and move on," Winters said.
The Bridge over the Dommel River was secured. Emma and Dana were sitting around with some of the men from E. Company's second platoon, when a runner from the company's CP came and told them they were needed at the CP.
Walking into the CP, they saluted Strayer who had been promoted to lieutenant colonel.
"Captains, we need the two of you to keep a strict eye on your replacements, we are worried about how they are going to react once in combat" Strayer said
Nixon and Charlie was studying a map on an old table in the corner, Charlie turned and winked at the girls.
Charlie had talked Strayer into giving the girls a pep talk; she knew they would need it, to keep the platoons together.
"You are doing a great job so far, keep it up" Strayer said
Late that afternoon the Brits finally showed up, they set up housekeeping and proceed to make tea.
Emma was shaking her head at them. Winters was a little outraged that they didn't have any urge to keep moving on Nijmegen. When Charlie and Emma confronted the Brits with this they were told not to interfere in British business
Around dinnertime, the rest of the Brits arrived and the 506th initial task was over.
The battalion spend the night In hastily dug Foxholes. Emma was sharing foxhole with with Randleman, she wasn't there a whole lot she spend most of the night walking the line, her shoulder hurt and she wasn't about to complain, she could take it.
Charlie had made plans with Nixon to walk the line around midnight, so she walked towards the HQ, she stumbled into a hard body, and she looked up and looked straight into the eyes of Speirs
"Where are you going?" He asked her
"I have a little recon to do" Charlie said
"Alright Carry on" Speirs said smirking, he knew Nixon, there would probably be some hanky panky as well.
When Nixon saw Charlie walk towards him, he smiled. He would miss her if she suddenly disappeared out of his life, she was his rock, and she had a sudden calm aura around her.
"Ready" He said and held his hand out to her
"Guess" She said and they started to walk in silence, they crouched down when they heard someone walking towards them, but it was just some men from the third battalion walking past them.
Nixon looked at Charlie with a big grin on his face, and before Charlie knew what happened, Nixon's lips were on hers. He pinned her down in the grass and the recon there happened that night was… well not of the kind there profited the war effort.
Dana was sitting in her foxhole alone, her buddy had just gone on guard duty, and she was pondering the whole war and her relationship with Speirs. She wasn't exactly clear on what their encounter in Aldbourne had meant to him.
She heard someone coming towards her foxhole "Times" She said and a voice replied "Square" and Speirs jumped in her foxhole.
"how you holding up?" he asked her
"I am fine, I just pondering this whole war and what I am going to do when it's done" Dana said
"Well I don't know what you will do when it's over, but right now I suggest you come over here" Speirs said and opened his arms
Dana slipped into his arms and he kissed her, it got pretty hot, real fast and Speirs knew he had to stop her right then and there.
Dana was kissing his jaw line "Stop, I need to go" he said
Dana knew he was right, and she admired him for his strength. But she felt cold and alone when he left.
Winters was checking in on Emma in the aid station, her stitches had ripped and she had been send to the aid station.
He found Lipton there with Camilla talking and holding hands, he was sorry to interrupt their cozy moment.
Camilla noticed him standing in door; she just put her fingers on her lips and signed toward a cot where Emma was sleeping.
He sat down and took her hand she sighed and kept sleeping.
Camilla and Lip had found a cot in the back and was sleeping; Winters decided to get some rest as well and lay down next to Emma.
The next day they continued towards Neunen, Webster made a crack about that is where Van Gogh was from.
Just out of Neunen, they once again encountered enemy fire.
Charlie was standing back with battalion watching the men fight, she wanted to be in there fighting with the men, and she saw a British tank go up in smoke, even though sergeant Martin tried to warn him.
Compton was hit in the butt and the men dragged him back towards the trucks, depise his protest.
The battalion fell back, just when they were about to move out, Gordon and Stroh came running towards the column, they jumped a fence and climbed on board a truck.
Emma had done an exceptional job and had kept her platoon a live and first and third platoon was the ones with the least wounded and killed.
The two Captains had led by example and Winters couldn't help, but being proud of them.
Winters were upset, they had to retreat and Emma wasn't in a better mood, if it hadn't been for Dicks calming presence, she would have lashed out against the intelligence officers.
Winters, Charlie, McMillan and Nixon was heading towards Battalion HQ, they could hear Colonel Strayer and his staff laughing in there.
"What the hell do they have to laugh about?" Emma said
"I don't know, but whatever it is, it's about to end" Winters said
The officers entered the HQ and Strayer turned to Winters and Emma 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.
Dana 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 Speirs was standing besides looking at the same inferno; "Guess they won't be greeting us with orange flags tomorrow" Welsh said and walked off.
Dana sighed and looked at Speirs "This is bad, and just so you know, it's going to get much worse" She said
Speirs looked at her "How can it get any worse?" he said
Dana turned and hugged Speirs "It just can" She said and walked off.
Dana met a group of Easy men, on the move "Where are you going?" She asked them
"Sergeant Randleman is missing ma'am, so we are going a patrol to find him" one of the replacements Garcia said.
Emma was walking towards them, she noticed Dana talking to some of her men."Hey boys where are we going?"
"To find Sergeant Randleman ma'am" Garcia said
"Please don't call me ma'am, I am going with you" Emma said
Emma moved out the squad to go search for Bull.
Winters was pacing up and down the line, Emma was missing.
He asked her first squad, she was usually with them when she was nowhere to be found, Emma had told them where she was going, but had instructed the men not to tell Winters.
"We don't know where she is Captain, we haven't seen her in a while" Smith said.
Winters just gave them a glare and walked of, they were holding something back, and he was going to find out what.
Winters found Luz and Talbert.
"Luz, Talbert, would any of you happen to know where Emma is" He asked
Luz gave Talbert a frightened look "She went on a rescue mission with Randleman's squad" Talbert said
"And you let her go, she is wounded for Christ sake" Winters turned and marched of, he was going to give her a piece of his mind when she returned.
Early in the morning the squad and Emma returned in a jeep with Randleman, they had found him walking along the road, and when a jeep passed by, they had all hopped on board.
Winters noticed she was back and he grabbed her by the arm and dragged her of.
He found a peaceful place and hugged her, all his anger had disappeared when he saw she was alright.
"I should have known you would be alright, you are the best, don't ever sneak off again" Winter said
"I won't, promise" Emma said
September 22 1944
Second battalion caught up with each other in Uden. Dana 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 and walked away.
Dana 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.
Charlie had been called to the CP and she arrived at the same time as Dana, Charlie went over and stood close to Nixon and Dana tried to make her invisible.
"What's going on" Charlie asked Nixon
"We are taking Veghel and moving south" Colonel Sink informed them and continued to explain the mission.
Charlie shook her head; it would end badly no matter what they did here on after.
Dana shook her head and slipped out, she found Emma and Camilla at the aid station, "get ready, we are taking Veghel, start hoarding for Bastogne"
Emma shook her head, she had just gotten her men through Neunen and now they were walking into another fight, where the Germans would be superior.
Emma once again saved most of her men, but Dana was struggling.
Charlie was observing the attack from behind to parked Jeeps.
Nixon was standing beside her, they were hoping everything would go smooth, and then suddenly Charlie heard a loud ping and noticed Nixon had hit the deck.
Deanna and Winters was on him immediately "Oh god Lew are you ok" Charlie 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; it had 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.
Once Easy got off the Line, Camilla hurried to the aid station to help out with the wounded, she worked for what seemed for days after fourteen hours she was dead on her feet.
Lipton found her sitting against the wall of the aid station sleeping, he picked her up and carried her to his billet and laid down with her, she was very committed to the men, so much she would work herself to death, he had to take care of her and make sure she was alright.
Lipton kissed on top of her head before he fell asleep.