"Hey Amy wait up" Talbert called after Amy, she was on her way to the tent, where she would brief the men about their new mission, along with the rest of the officers.
After Lipton's announcement last night, the 506th had packed up and at 0700, the trucks departed from Membury, where they were now awaiting their new orders.
"So what do you think this is all about" Talbert asked
"Well I already know, I was briefed this morning upon arrival, while you guys were bitching about having to pack all your gear again" Amy said
The tent was jammed pack and Talbert slid down on a seat next to Luz and Grant,
"Did you get her to talk" Luz asked
"No nothing" Talbert said
The three men had hoped to get a head start on the whole operation.
Amy got up on the podium with Lane, Nix, Winters and Welsh.
She looked out over the crowd and noticed Mia in the back holding hands with Lipton, Katie was standing out to the side with a cup of coffee in her hand, she had that look on her face, the one she got, when she knew something wasn't right.
Amy caught her eye and lifted her eye brow, as to ask if everything was alright, they had been doing that since school; Katie just shook her head and motioned towards Winters.
Amy looked at Winters, he looked calm, but had a stern look on his face, like he wasn't sure about the operation, like he knew something was of; he had kept asking Nixon this morning if they were absolutely sure about the Intel, like he had a feeling it sounded too easy.
Nixon had insisted it was good Intel and that they shouldn't worry.
Lane backed him up; they had gotten the Intel fresh from the Dutch resistance, who had proven absolutely dependable before.
Winters started to brief the company about 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 Lane took over.
"The entire European advance has been put on hold to relocate resources for this operation, its Montgomery's personal plan, we will be under British Command" Lane said.
There was a lot of moaning and complaining,
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 men started to pile out of the tent after the briefing ended; the officers lingered around and went over the operation one more time, just to be absolutely sure they were prepared for whatever there could happen.
Katie and Mia headed back to the aid station to gather supplies.
"I don't know about this operation, so pack up all the supplies you can scrounge" Katie said
She had to go and finish some paper work, and to make sure everything was in order back at the hospital, before she could leave England with a clear conscience.
Mia packed up whatever she could get her hands on, and whatever she knew she could jump with, she packed up stuff for Roe and Spina as well, they were out among the men making sure everybody was in shape to jump.
After finishing up at the aid station Mia went and searched for Lipton, she needed him to tell her everything would be alright, after working with Katie all day, who kept mumbling that she just knew this would fall on its ass, she needed someone who wasn't so negative.
She found him in his tent with Welsh and Buck; they were going over the objective for the platoons.
"Hey aren't you missing a lieutenant" She asked them
"if you mean you, then yes, if you mean Hunt, then hell no" Buck said
"Why, I can't imagine Amy giving you boy's trouble" Mia said
"Well she was jumpy and wouldn't stop pacing, so we send her out to play with her boyfriend, so he could have the pleasure of her company" Welsh said
"oh" Mia said
Lipton motioned for her to come and sit down next to him, he pulled her close "you ok" he asked
"Yeah just a little… I don't know, I still don't want to move out again, but I will follow you boys anywhere" Mia whispered to Lipton
"I know, it will be fine" Lipton said and that was all Mia needed to hear
She smiled at Lip, the guys talked for hours and Mia eventually fell asleep, she was woken by Lipton, "Mia you need to find your own bed" Lipton said
Mia looked at him she didn't really want to, but she got up and kissed him and went back to the aid station to crash, on the way there she ran into Amy and Speirs, who was heading in the opposite direction, they looked happy, she thought to herself, but knowing the tempers of the two lieutenants it wouldn't last.
The next morning the Easy company veterans were bustling around and teaching the replacement how to be ready to fight after the jump. Suddenly Bull stopped and looked around, a jeep with Popeye in the back and Sobel in the driver's seat was pulling up on the air strip
As he drove by, the Toccoa men and women stopped smiling and just looked at him, the jeep stopped and Sobel got out, he pulled down on his uniform jacket and walked around the supply truck there was tailing him, it had Malarkeys motorcycle in the back.
Amy looked at Bull "what is he doing here?" she said
"I don't know" he said
Popeye jumped down from the jeep and Lipton walked up to him, trailed by a smiling Mia, who had treated Popeye in Normandy, "Did they let you out of the hospital like that boy" Lipton asked and laughed
"They didn't let me out, I busted out, I didn't wanted get reassigned to some other unit" Popeye said
"Can you make the jump?" Mia asked
"Yeah I can make the jump, I just can't sit" Popeye said
"Welcome back Popeye" Randleman said
"Popeye went AWOL just in time to jump" Lipton said
"Better not let lieutenant Hunt know" Mia said and hugged Popeye
Bull pointed to Sobel and asked "What is he doing here?"
"Sobel, he is the newly appointed regimental S4" Mia said
"Supply officer" Bull said
"Yeah you got it" Lipton said
"He picked me up in Aldbourne, trying to find you guys" Popeye said
"He know you went AWOL" Bull asked
"He knows, he just said I was lucky, I could sit out this jump if I wanted, I said I didn't wanted to, so he said hop in" Popeye said
"Hop in" Bull repeated
"I know, I couldn't believe either, maybe he is going to court martial me later" Popeye said.
Lip slapped him on the back of the head and they headed off to find Popeye some gear.
Mia was looking after the two of them with a big smile on her face; she knew Amy would be happy to see a familiar face in her stick.
Moore walked over to Malarkey "Hey mal look there" he said and gestured towards the supply truck, which had their bike in it.
Malarkey turned around and mouthed son of a bitch.
Sobel noticed him right away and called out "Malarkey, sergeant Malarkey"
Malarkey saluted Sobel, who turned around and looked at the bike "You thought you get away with it?" Sobel asked him
"What do you mean sir" Malarkey looked at Sobel like he had no idea, what he was talking about.
Sobel stared at Malarkey "Sergeant that Motorcycle is united states army property that may not mean anything to you, but that means something to me, where did you find it?" Sobel asked
"That's him alright" Bull said, he was looking at Sobel chewing out Malarkey for stealing the motor cycle.
Amy had made herself disappear when she saw Sobel, she couldn't handle him right know, for some reason seeing Sobel made the memories of her capture return, her hands were shaking and she couldn't get her Thompson hitched on her harness.
Luz noticed her "Hey Lieutenant, you ok" he asked Amy
"Not really George, guess seeing that Son of a bitch, just set me of" Amy said still fumbling with her Thompson.
"You need me to get Speirs" Luz asked her
"no, god no, then he won't let me jump, and I don't need that shit right now, just help me George" Amy said
"Alright" Luz helped Amy, but he didn't like it, he had a feeling he should tell Speirs or someone, Hunt wasn't alright, he could tell she wasn't.
Sergeant Martin was having troubles with a lieutenant who was jump master on his plane, he kept telling him to tap his leg once the green lights came on, and Martin kept telling him, he would be right next to the light.
Mia called Martin over " Hey Martin, the lieutenant is color blind, cut him some slack and just do as he asks" Mia said
Martin looked at the lieutenant "Ok if you say so" he said and walked over to the lieutenant and told him he would do as he asked.
Occupied Holland September 17
It was a beautiful end of summer day and the daytime jump went smooth for everyone, the biggest problem was getting of the DZ, so they wouldn't get hit by falling equipment and gliders.
The March order had Dog Company in the lead with Easy, HQ and Fox following them.
Welsh and Peacock had point with first platoon, followed by Buck and second and then Amy and third.
Mia and Katie were tracking behind with the rest of the medical personal between Easy and HQ. Katie was happy it gave her sometime with Dick, even if they couldn't talk much, just being near him was a welcome change.
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. Amy and Lane got many strange look. The Dutch was not expecting to see women with the Yanks.
Lane 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.
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 Lane felt herself pushed to the ground, by Winters "Stay down", he said
As soon as she felt it was secure, Lane got up and ran towards battalion HQ, to find out what was going on.
"Nix what going on?" Lane 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 faces.
Lane, 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 back, and everything went black.
Katie ran up to her and poured sulfa on the wound, she noticed a piece of debris in Lane's back, she bandaged it up and sent Lane back to the impromptu aid station, a lot of men had been hit by pieces of debris from the bridge.
Amy 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.
Nixon was running around like a crazy person, the Intel provided for them was obviously wrong, and he was trying to straighten the rumors from fact.
Lane woke up in the aid station "What the hell happened?" She moaned when she came through
"Hey welcome back, you took a piece of bridge in your shoulder and got knock out when some debris hit you in the head," Mia 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 man, and here he comes again," Mia said and stepped away from Lane.
Nixon barged through the door "Oh thank god you are ok, you scared me good out there" Nixon 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 the 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 fine; it's you I am worried about. You look like shit" Lane said
She turned to Mia "Is this going to take me out or what?" She asked her
"You will be fine, Katie removed the debris and I stitched you up" Mia said
"besides, the guards armored Division has been held up south of Eindhoven, and we need every man and women out there, just take it easy ok" Mia said
"Ok, let me get out of here then" Lane said
"Here, I scrounged you up a clean shirt," Mia said
Lane walked out of the barn and the first person she ran into was flustered Amy "I just heard, are you ok?" She asked her
"I am fine, now let's get this show on the road" Lane said
"third platoon on me" Amy 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.
There weren't a lot of talking going on. Lane and Nixon kept going over the Intel trying to find out where the miss information had come from, and what source had been wrong and what they could expect going forward.
Speirs had lost a man, and had overheard Luz telling Talbert about Amy's strange behavior before the jump. Winters and Katie was talking about how thing had went and how many wounded and killed had come through the aid station.
Mia and Lipton was just making conversation and Amy was staring into space, wondering if she would ever be able to let go of her past.
The next morning the march continued, Lane was in a Jeep with Strayer and Nixon, the column stopped and Sink spread his regiment, with second battalion on the left.
Lane stood up in the back and looked at the reason why the column had stopped, when she saw Lieutenant Brewer standing in the middle of the road, with his binoculars and Map case at his side.
Amy saw him as well, she was walking along the road side with Randleman and she fought an urge to roll her eyes. 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" Amy 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 battalion took cover in the ditches
Mia ran to Brewer, and she was immediately hit in the knee, and then in the thigh. Roe came running up to them. Mia was bandaging herself and after she finished she dragged herself back in the ditch, where somebody hooked her up with a shot of morphine.
The next thing she knew, she was at the aid station, Katie was working on Brewer and when she had him stabilized, she came over to look at Mia.
"You do know they have medics in Easy company right?" Katie said with a stern look at Mia.
"Yes Ma'am, but I was the closes one to the lieutenant" Mia said
"Well, next time you leave it to Roe or another medic, got it?" Katie said
She felt like she had to be stern with Mia, she couldn't risk losing a good combat nurse.
"captain, please don't send me back to England" Mia said
"Well you really should, but if you behave and nothing get infected you can stay with the aid station" Katie said.
The 506th entered Eindhoven and the whole town was filled with happy Dutchmen and women, the hardest part was driving the men through town.
The officers were 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 Amy "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
Amy looked at him "Ok one little kiss, Luz and it's the last one," Amy 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.
Amy was about to pee herself, the look on Luz face was priceless.
Shrugging Luz moved on "The only one, who gets a kiss from you, is me" Speirs said and pulled Amy in for a long and tender kiss.
He had missed her, he had missed kissing her like that, and Speirs put his helmet back on and moved on.
A young woman grabbed a hold of Speirs and kissed him; Amy just looked at him and felt like she just got a punch in her stomach, when she saw the happy smile on his face.
Amy gave him a cold look and stalked off.
Meeting up with Welsh, Nixon, Winters, and Lane.
Buck met up with them "What's up Welshie" He said
"Snipers" Welsh said
The officers all covered up their insignias; you never knew where the snipers were.
The officers came across a crowd, who was clapping and shouting. They realized it was the resistance, shaving 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" Lane said.
"We need to move on, get the men and move on," Winters said.
Late that afternoon the Brits finally showed up, they set up housekeeping and proceed to make tea.
Lane was shaking her head at them. Her and Nixon was a little outraged that they didn't have any urge to keep moving on to Nijmegen,
Around dinnertime, the rest of the Brits arrived and the 506th initial task was over.
The battalion spend the night In hastily dug Foxholes, Lane was sharing with Nixon, 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.
Amy 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 knew, she loved him, but what would happened after the war?
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" Amy 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
Amy slipped into his arms and he kissed her, "let's make plans once the war is over" Speirs said, he wanted to marry her someday, but this wasn't the time to plan a future, they needed to live from day to day.
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.
Lane was standing in the back of a jeep, watching the men fight, once again cursing the faulty Intel
The replacements jumped into the ditch, and Amy had a hard time getting them moving. Amy and Randleman had to scream at the men, that they needed to move, because they were firing at stationary targets.
They got the platoons moving and they ran towards town.
Bull and Amy send first squad to the left, and the rest of the men ran towards the nearest farm house, they send Martin right and Hoobler and Webster left with their squads.
The entire company ran into town, there were Germans and burning equipment everywhere, Amy had her Mortar squad set up ready to fire.
Martin, Amy and Bull noticed a hidden tiger. Martin flagged down the British tank commander and told him about the tank, he just told him, he was ordered not do any unnecessary property damage, and refused to put a couple of shells through the house the tiger was hidden behind.
Martin reported back to Amy, who in very sudden terms told him, what she thought about the Brits.
The tiger shot up the British tank, and in the end Easy and the rest of the Companies had to retreat, while retreating Bull got cut off from the rest of the company.
Compton was hit in the butt and the men dragged him back towards the trucks on a barn door, he kept telling them to leave him for the Germans, but the men refused.
The battalion fell back, just when they were about to move out Gordon and Strohl came running towards the column, they jumped a fence and climbed on board a truck.
Amy had done an exceptional job and had kept her platoon a live, and first and second platoon was the ones with the most wounded and killed.
The lieutenant had led by example and Winters couldn't help but being proud of her
Winters was upset they had to retreat and Amy 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, Lane, 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?" Lane said
"I don't know, but whatever it is, it's about to end" Winters said
The officers entered the HQ; Strayer turned to Winters and McMillan 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.
Lane 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 Peacock was standing besides looking at the same inferno; "Guess they won't be greeting us with orange flags tomorrow" Welsh said and walked off.
Amy 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.
Lane was walking towards them, she noticed Amy 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," Lane said
Amy moved out the squad to go search for Bull.
Winters was pacing up and down the line, Amy was missing.
He asked his first squad, she was usually with them, when she was nowhere to be found, Amy had told them where she was going, but had instructed the men not to tell Winters or even worse Speirs
"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 Amy is" He asked
Luz gave Talbert a frightened look "She went on a rescue mission with Randleman's squad" Talbert said
Winters mumbled something about Amy being irresponsible and it got even worse when he noticed Speirs walking over from dog's line
"Luz, Talbert, Captain, you seen Amy anywhere," Speirs asked
Luz and Talbert made themselves disappear and Winters answered Speirs, "she is on a rescue mission, she will be back" Winters said,
Speirs looked at him, something was off, and he just nodded and walked back to Dog company.
Early in the morning the squad and Amy 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.
They were greeted by the company and Amy saw Speirs glance at her and she just looked away and continued to smile, she knew it wasn't over, before he had a chance to yell at her.
September 22 1944
The Battalion got orders to move towards Uden; Amy and Lane were busy setting up CP and road blocks. Winters had delegated the task of setting up first platoons road block to Welsh.
Katie had a chance to spend the evening with Winters, they had decided to check on the road blocks. The British tank was right where it should be and so was the road block, but there were no soldiers to be found anywhere. There was a manor on one side of the road and a tavern on the other side.
"Where the heck is everybody?" Katie asked Winters
"I don't know, but we are about to find out" Winters said and ran over to the manor and knocked on the door.
Katie reached manor just as the maid opened the door.
They somehow made it clear to the maid, they wanted to see a soldier.
The maid led them down a hall to a large lavish furnished living room. Sitting on the floor in front of a blazing fire, was a beautiful Dutch girl sharing dinner with a British lieutenant, he turned his head and looked at the two officers "is my tank still outside?" he asked them
Katie got angrier than she had been in all her life, she walked over and grabbed the lieutenant by the ear, and she pulled him to his feet and dragged him outside.
"When you address an officer you say ma'am or sir" Katie said pushed the lieutenant down the street towards his tank.
"now you set that road block up, or I will make sure you don't have kids and I am a surgeon, I can make it happen" Katie yelled at lieutenant.
The British lieutenant looked at Winters, who just shrugged.
Both men were a little surprised by the choice of words.
"Let's go find Welsh" Katie said and walked towards the tavern, she was pretty sure that where they would find first platoon.
And just as they thought, they found Welsh and first platoon sacked out on the bar, Katie got even more pissed off, she looked over at Winters who just signaled go ahead.
"WELSH, GET THE FUCK UP, YOU SLEEPING FUCKER" Katie yelled
Welsh shot up from his spot on the bar and fell down on the floor and Katie grabbed him by the ear and dragged him outside, "now, set up the freaking road block," Katie said
Welsh nodded and Katie stalked off to yell of the sleeping men.
Winters and Welsh could hear Katie yelling at the men threatening them with everything under the moon, something about lining them up against the wall and shooting them.
They could hear the men mumbling something and then laughter. Katie came out smiling and headed towards Winters and Welsh "All taken care of," she said
Welsh looked at Winters "I think Sparky is right, she is the scary one" he said
Winters looked at him "Just be glad she didn't shoot you between the eyes, are we clear on the road block Harry" Winters said
"Yes, crystal" Harry said.
Second battalion caught up with each other in Uden. Amy 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 Whispered "You are not of the hook" and walked away.
Amy 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, she arrived at the same time as Lane, went over and stood close to Nixon and Amy 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.
Amy 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.
Amy once again saved most of her men.
Lane 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.
Lane and Winters were on him immediately "Oh god Lew are you ok" Lane 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, while watching the men get back on the trucks Winters looked at Nix "I hate retreating," Winters said
"There a first time for everything" Nixon said
"How are the other divisions faring up north?" Winters asked
Lane was walking by she just looked straight "I think we have to find a new way into Germany" she said and walked by.