Easy was sent to defend the Island, a long narrow area north of Nijmegen, between the lower Rhine and the Waal River.
Charlie and Nixon latest intelligence reported that, the German 363d Volksgrenadier Division was in vicinity and received order to clear the Island
Emma and Winters was riding in a jeep together in the front of the column, they were on their way to relief the 43d Division, who had suffered heavy casualties trying to rescue the British 1st Airborne Division. As they drove forward the British Tommie's were withdrawn in trucks.
"Look Dick, have you ever seen more dispirited soldiers?" Emma said
Winters took a good long hard look at the soldiers in the truck, "No I don't think I have" He said.
The column stopped and Easy company got out of the trucks. Winters gathered the officers "Ok Listen up, We are holding the right of the battalion line. Dog will be on our right and Fox in reserve, we are covering one and one half mile, so I want strategic OP's. CP will keep in contact with the OP's via radio and contact patrols" Winters said
He looked around his officers; he could tell they were tired, first platoon had been hit hard at Veghel and needed a break.
"Emma, you and first platoon will stay in reserve, I want second and third out there on the line"
Dana went out to her platoon "Third platoon on me" the men gathered around her, not long after that Lieutenant Peacock called ordered his platoon too follow him, and together they marched the platoons out on the line and dug in.
Dana had her men dig in low and told the OP's to watch out for any Germans infiltration "We are spread so thin, that I need you guys to watch the line carefully" Dana looked around at her men who all nodded.
Dana dug in, she shared a foxhole with Guarnere. Wild Bill had commandeered a motorcycle and he used it to ride back and forth between his squad members. Suddenly a shot rang out and Guarnere was hit in the leg, he flipped over. Dana could hear the distinct sound of a bone breaking; he also took some shrapnel to the butt.
Dana saw the whole thing, she hurried down to the foxhole where Roe was sitting "Gene you're needed up front, Bill just took a beating by that bike of his" Dana said
Dana and Roe ran up into the field. Roe gave Bill a quick examination and they bandaged him up and Roe concluded that Bill had a broken Tibia.
Bill was taken back to the Aid station, "Wild Bill, any excuse to come and see me" Camilla said
"Well you know me Doc, anything to see a pretty face" Bill said
Camilla Stitched up Bills leg wound and removed the shrapnel from his Butt "Sorry Bill, I can't set your leg here, you my friend earned yourself a ticket back to England" Camilla said
"Damn, well at least I will see Buck there" Bill said
"Just be nice to nurses sweetie, and you will be back to shooting krauts in no time" Camilla said
Camilla walked over to the barn where first platoon had set up shop, she needed to tell Winters about Bill and she could use some coffee and good company. Camilla was getting tired of the regimental Doctors and the air head nurses; they knew nothing and the Doctors liked to pretend they knew everything.
Camilla walked into the barn, she was immediately greeted by bunch of "hellos" and "where have you been."
Camilla walked up and sat down between Emma and Winters "Guarnere got shot by a sniper, and he broke his leg flipping with his bike and he took some shrapnel to the butt, I shipped back to the rear and from there to England" Camilla said
"Is he going to ok?" Emma asked Camilla.
"Yeah, he is going to be back in no time" Camilla said and got up.
Lipton was sitting in a wad of hay, tending to his gear; Camilla sat down next to him
"How are you holding up?" Camilla asked
"I am just fine, how about you?" Lipton asked her
"I am dead on my feet and I need to sleep, other than that I am just peachy" Camilla said and let out a big yawn.
She leaned back and fell asleep; Lipton hoped she would get a chance to sleep, at least for a little while.
For the past day and a half Dana and third platoon had been sitting out on the line with no action, the men was getting nervous and Dana walked up and down the line to make sure everybody was sharp and ready to fight.
She had bumped into Ron one night, they hadn't seen each other for about a week and Dana was very happy to see him, they only talked for a couple of minutes, but the kiss he had given her, was something she would remember for a long time.
Dana jumped into the foxhole of Joe Toye and Joseph Liebgott, "How are we holding up boys?" She asked them
"Well you know we are just sitting here eating stale British rations and smoking hay cigarettes" Toye said
Dana could sense he was getting demoralized "I got something for you, if you keep it a secret" She said
"What Captain?" Toye asked her
"Luckie's" Dana said and pulled out a pack of lucky stripes
"Where did you manage to get these" Toye asked
"Well there is a lieutenant in Dog company, who will do pretty much whatever I ask" Dana said and winked at them.
She threw them a couple of smokes and wandered down to the next OP.
She walked the line most of the night and talked to the boys and smoked a lot of cigarettes.
Dana send out a patrol of four men led by Youman, the patrol got caught by a surprise, and all of the men were wounded by small arms fire, Alley got the worst of it and Dana send them back to Winters.
First platoon was in the barn. The new guys were showing the replacements around, they were told they got the pent house, which meant the hay loft.
Emma was sitting next to Winters both of them was securing their grenades, they talked back and forth about where the Germans was most like to attack and what platoon should be in the lead.
Talbert came over and down besides Winters and Emma.
"The new guys is giving the replacement the what for and why is, I swear one them has never shaved" Talbert said
Emma looked at Talbert and smiled
Winters just continued to wrap tape around his grenades "Yeah, kids" he said
Luz was eating some crackers and Emma was trying to snatch some from him, he kept being too fast and Emma ended up ordering him to fork over some crackers.
Luz looked at Talbert "this is a hell of a dog" Luz said about Talbert's adopted German shepherd
"What did you call it Tab?" Winters asked
"Trigger, here you go" Talbert said and threw a stick for the dog to fetch.
"That's good I like that, Trigger" Luz said.
"You heard anything on this" Talbert said and motioned to the Radio
"No, it's all quiet" Luz said
Just as he finished, Liebgott And the patrol barged through the door
"We have penetration, its Alley he is hurt" Liebgott said. Alley had gotten the worst of it, he had thirty two holes in the left side, face, neck and arm.
"Where did it happen?" Emma asked
"Crossroad, we encountered a large body of Germans, three quarters miles of the CP, they have made a major breakthrough of the lines, and we were fired upon by heavy machine gun" Strohl said
"We need to check this out, Dick you with me" Emma said
"Yeah, Lipton assemble me a squad" Winters said
"First squad on your feet, weapons and ammunition only, let's go, let go, let's go" Lipton yelled
He pulled on his gear and Camilla who was tending to Alley looked after him, she knew this was potentially dangerous operation, and she really wanted go with them, but Alley came first.
"Ok get his legs up, hey Alley look at me you are going to be ok, stay with me" Camilla made an initial examination and stabilized him before she got him to the aid station, he would be getting a ticket to England, she hoped he would get a bed next to Guarnere.
Emma and Winters led the patrol to where the encounter had been, as they neared the crossroad, they could see and hear intermittent machine gun fire with tracers flying towards south.
"This is our fallback position" Winters said
"Mortars deploy here" Emma told Malarkey, Muck and Penkala
The rest of the squad got within firing position of the German machine gun. Emma told Christenson and Dukeman where to set up the Machine gun. Winters told the men which man to aim for and on his first shot, the rest of them started to fire, they got seven of the Germans and fell back.
"Luz, get up here" Emma said
"Sure thing, captain" Luz said
"Get on the horn and get Welsh to send of the balance of first platoon, and Reis with his section of light machine guns" Emma told him.
While Emma had her hands full with Germans at crossroad. Dana and Speirs was talking on the line, Speirs had seen the Company of SS assembly near the ferry crossing, he wanted to get a closer look at it. Dana and him was discussing how to do it.
"How are you going to get a patrol a cross the River unnoticed?" Dana asked him
"We cross at the least noticeable point" Speirs said
"Ok, but be careful and don't do anything stupid" Dana said
"it will be fine" Speirs said
The two of them just starred at each other for a moment and Speirs turned and walked away.
Dana could hear him assemble a patrol and their dive into the river, she thought he was absolutely mad, but knew there was no changing his mind.
Dana was waiting anxiously for the patrol to return, she was sitting with Toye and she was edgy. Toye was considering kicking her out of his foxhole.
"Will you sit still, some of us wants to get some sleep" Toye said and turned his back to Dana
"Joe, come on don't be…." Before Dana could finish, Gun shots were heard and Dana jumped out of the foxhole and ran towards Dog Company's line. She heard some shouting for a medic and panicked, she saw the patrol wading to shore and a body being carried. Dana skid to a hold. Her heart almost stopped when she saw Speirs on the ground, he had been shot in the butt, while trying to cross back from the German side.
"What the hell happened?" Dana said
"Sorry Captain, the krauts saw us and started to fire, the lieutenant got shot in the behind" The private said
Dana sat down next to Speirs, the medic was busy trying bandaging him up, "Guess this is what happens, when you put your butt on the line" Dana said to him
Speirs was on a happy morphine high "Hey, just the Captain I wanted to see, I love you, you know that right, you are so pretty, I want to take you home with me" Speirs said in a happy voice very unlike him
Dana tried not to laugh, oh yeah he was high as a kite "Sure you do, let's get you out of here" Dana said
She turned to the medic "How much morphine did give him" Dana said
The medic tried to hide a smile "Enough it seems, this wound will get him a ticket to England, Captain so say goodbye to him" The medic said
Dana leaned over Speirs and looked him in the eyes "Goodbye Sparky, be nice to the nurses" Dana said.
"Always, take care princess and stay away from Luz" Speirs said
Speirs got picked up by a jeep and Dana was starring after the jeep.
Dana walked back to the foxhole she had jumped out of earlier; Toye opened his eyes and looked at her, "What was that all about?"
"Speirs got shot in the butt" Dana said and sat down and fell asleep.
Full daylight at had reached the squad at the crossroad before the balance of first platoon had arrived.
Winters called, Emma and Talbert together, "Talbert take third squad to the right, Emma take the left with first squad and I will take second squad up the middle. Reis I want your machine guns placed between the columns and I want good covering fire until we reach the roadway. Then lift your fire and move up and join us. Fix bayonets and get in line as quickly as possible. Emma when everybody is in position, I'll give you a hand signal and you drop a smoke grenade to signal our jump-off" Winters told them.
Emma and Talbert went and assembled their squads, and on the smoke signal the base of fire commenced.
Emma noticed Winters was all alone on the road leading to the dike, she ran up to him, they realized they were in the rear of a company of German paratroopers.
Emma and Winters started to shoot at the Germans, and then duck to cover, the rest of first platoon, reached the position and fired at the Germans.
The Germans started to retreat to the dike and Winters called in artillery, it was like a turkey shooting.
Winters called in a platoon from Fox company and they pursued the Germans toward the river in a leap frog maneuver. Easy and fox eventually got into a bottleneck position and Winters called of the attack, they had faced about 300 Germans and survived.
Emma set a couple of strong points along the cross road and by that time the mortar and artillery had stopped, Nixon and Charlie showed up, to see how thing were.
"Twenty two wounded, fifty killed Germans and eleven captured" Winters said
Nixon, Winters and Emma was walking along the road a group of German prisoners was walking past, suddenly a gunshot was heard and Charlie fell to her knees and the fell over. Nixon was on his knees next to in a split second, "No Charlie, stay with me, please baby stay with me, don't close your eyes, look at me, MEDIC" Nixon screamed
Winters looked at his devastated friend "Nix, you have to let go of her, Camilla will look at her, Nix let get her down on her back" Winters tried to reason with his friend,
Camilla came running and took a look at Charlie and stuffed her fingers into the wound to find the bullet, it had hit the lung and Camilla kept her finger in the wound.
"Get a jeep, we need to get her to the hospital, NOW" Camilla screamed
A Jeep pulled and Camilla was sitting on top of Charlie, so they had to carry her on the stretcher as well.
"Don't worry Lew, I'll take good care of her" Camilla said and told the Jeep driver to go if he wanted to live.
Nixon was sitting with his head in his hands sobbing. Winters sat down next to him and put his arm around his shoulders "Don't worry she will be fine and back in no time" He said
"She better, that girl on that stretcher is my reason to live" Nixon said and starred out into the blue.
Winters walked up to Emma, "What happened" he whistled between his teeth.
"One the replacements got jumped by a German prisoner, and while they were wrestling for his M1, it went off and hit Charlie" Emma said
She didn't mention the fact that the replacement had been beat by first squad and that the German was shot immediately.
Winters was walking down towards the dike when he was stopped by colonel Sink, "Dick can I talk to you for a minute and find Captain Hunter as well" Sink said
Winters called for Emma and together they turned to Colonel Sink "Now the two of you have done an excellent job in Combat, you have led Easy together" Sink said
Emma started to protest "Don't Captain I know that the two of you are in this together, Holly Horton was killed this morning, so the two of you are getting a promotion, congrats Captain Hunter you are now the XO of third battalion and Winters you are now the XO of second battalion" Sink said
Emma was ecstatic about the promotion, but this meant she had to leave Easy.
Winters turned and looked at her, she could tell he wasn't happy, but neither of them ever said a word about it, they just followed orders.
Moose Hey liger took over Easy Company
Emma and Winters knew that leaving Easy was the hardest thing they would ever have to do.