So here another chapter thank so much to ilovemedia18 you rock, thanks for taking your time to help me.
To all of you who have been leaving kind words, thank you for all your support you are awesome
Enjoy this chapter
Packing, unpacking, Mia was getting tired of packing the aid station just to get the order to move out again hours later. It was October and Easy had moved out to the Island, a dike that lay between the lower Rhine on the north and the Waal River to the right. Easy was relieving the 43rd division who had suffered heavy casualties when trying to rescue the British 1st Airborne Division. When they pulled in Mia was sitting in the back of a truck along with the rest of first platoon, they were studying the British Tommie's and they had never seen such dispirited soldiers.
Mia, Katie and the battalion medics had set up the aid station in Randwijk; this was also where Winters had set up CP. The aid station was in a barn next to the one Easy Company's first platoon had commandeered. There were a lot of patrols going out and a lot of wounded coming in, the Germans hit the boys with everything they had, 88, 105, and massive machinegun fire. The aid station was almost full and they were waiting for the wounded to get evacuated. Winters had ordered the company to hold the right of the battalion line; Dog was on the right side of Easy and Fox in reserve.
The company was covering a mile and a half so they had set up strategic OP's, and the CP kept in contact with the OP's via radio and contact patrols. They were spread so thin that from time to time the Germans would accidently infiltrate the line. Mia was taking inventory and silently singing an old love song, when she felt someone put a hand on her shoulder, Mia jumped and was relieved to it was Roe.
"Hey Gene, what are you doing here? I thought you were out on the line with Spina" Mia said.
"I just came by to steal some supplies, and they told me you were the one to talk to" Gene said.
"Well take what you need, just don't steal my stash of chocolate" Mia said and gave Roe a kiss on the cheek.
Katie was operating on a wounded soldier and wished she had the equipment of a field hospital; she was exhausted and wished she would be able to go and see Dick soon and get some sleep. She was resetting a fractured tibia and she was almost done. The kid had tripped over a sleeping buddy, and that resulted in the fractured tibia, he was going to be in rehab for a while which meant a ticket back to England. Katie reset the bone, closed up the soldier, pulled off her surgical gown, and washed her hands. She found the nearest cot, closed her eyes, and slept.
Mia was done taking inventory and was on her way to see Lipton and first platoon when she saw Katie sleeping on a cot in the corner of the aid station. Mia hoped she would be able to get some rest before the next batch of wounded arrived. Mia found first platoon in the barn. The new guys were showing the replacements around, they were told they got the pent house, which meant the hay loft. Mia found Lipton sitting on the floor squaring away his belongings, trying to secure everything from the day before going to sleep.
Mia and Lipton were talking about the patrols and all the wounded, Lipton wasn't exactly sure how the whole campaign would end; he just wished it would end soon. The weather in Holland was like most of northern European weather cold, rainy, and miserable. The men in the foxholes were soaked and not able to get dry. Lipton had walked the line with Nixon last night and he had found Amy shivering and snuggled up to Toye and Guarnere. When Nixon suggested she go back to CP she had made him a counter proposal and Nixon had backed off.
Lipton put his arms around Mia; he didn't see her enough, every time they thought they had some time to spend together, more wounded arrived.
"Are you ok?" Lip asked Mia.
"I am fine, just tired, but being here with you helps."
"Lie down and get some rest, someone will wake you up if something happens." Lipton said to Mia.
"Ok, but only if you get some rest as well." Mia said.
"I will, just lie down." Lipton said. Mia fell back in the hay stack and closed her eyes and within minutes she was asleep. Lipton looked at her; Mia was special to him, a rare and welcomed gift after his divorce. He was glad she was their nurse, but he also worried something would happen to her.
Winters was securing his grenades with tape when Talbert came over and bent down beside him.
"The new guy's giving the replacements the what for and why is. I swear one them has never shaved." Talbert said. Winters just continued to wrap tape around his grenades,
"Yeah kids" he said. 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?" Winters asked.
"Crossroad, we encountered a large body of Germans. Three quarters miles off 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. Lipton assemble me a squad, and go wake up lieutenant Welsh." Winters said.
"First squad on your feet, weapons and ammunition only, let's go, let's go, let's go!" Lipton yelled. Mia woke up at the sound of all the commotion and was by Alleys side in an instant.
"Hey Alley look at me, stay with me. Take off his boots and get his legs up." Mia said. Mia got Alley stabilized and took him over to the aid station. She woke up Katie and told her Alley was hit and needed surgery. Katie got on her feet in an instant, and scrubbed up for surgery. When she got a look at Alley, she wasn't sure he would make it; he had been hit thirty two places by shrapnel. The surgery lasted two hours and Katie was dead on her feet. She had just removed her surgical gown and started for first platoon's barn when Mia stopped her, "They're not there; they're on patrol."
Katie stopped in her tracks, turned, and looked at Mia, "They're at Crossroads right? Where Alley was hit?" Katie said.
"Yeah, and they wont be back for a while" Mia said.
"Let's go back to the barn anyways; maybe we can get some uninterrupted sleep." Katie said. She didn't even get to finish what she was about to say when they heard a jeep pull up in front of the aid station. Mia and Katie ran back and arrived in time to see Speirs on his stomach with a bandaged butt that wrapped around one of his calves. Speirs had tried to swim the Rhine, he had collected some vital intelligence and the Germans had discovered him and shot him in the water. "Ok let's get him inside and check out his wounds." Katie said. The medics from Dog Company carried Speirs inside and placed him on an examination stretcher. Katie removed the bandages and grimaced, removing the bullets would hurt like a son of a bitch. "Medic how much morphine have this man had?" Katie asked one of the medics.
"One syringe and he was out." the medic answered.
Katie and Mia operated on him, they removed the bullets and stitched him up, but Speirs would still need to go to the rear and from there to England. "We need to get Amy here, you think Strayer will let her of the line, so she can say goodbye to Speirs?" Katie said.
"I'll go talk to Nixon and Lane, they can probably get Amy here in about half an hour." Mia turned around and headed out to find Lane and Nixon. She found them at CP where they were playing cards and laughing. It was nice to see the two officers in such a good mood; she hadn't heard any of them laugh since the intelligence coming out of Holland proved to be faulty. "Nixon, Lane I need a favour. Speirs has been hurt and he is going to the rear and from there to England, we need Amy to get to the aid station so she can say goodbye to him." Mia looked at the two officers.
"I'll go talk to Strayer, you two go get Amy off the line." Nixon hurried out of the CP and headed to Battalion HQ. Mia and Lane commandeered a jeep from Sinks driver and headed out to the line. Half way there, a jeep passed by them and was heading full speed towards the aid station. Mia noticed the driver and passenger looked familiar and there was a stretcher strapped to the hood of the jeep.
"Lane turn around, that was the aid station jeep driver and Amy in that jeep!" Mia shouted to Lane. Lane turned the jeep around and headed back to camp. They pulled up to the aid station almost at the same time as Amy, "Oh my gosh that's Guarnere on the stretcher." Mia said and headed into the aid station.
Katie was examining him, "What the happened here?" she asked Amy.
"He found a motorcycle and used it to ride back and forth between his squad members, when suddenly a shot rang out and he was hit in the leg. He flipped over and also took some shrapnel to the butt. I am pretty sure I heard a bone break." Amy said
"Well he is going to the rear as well and probably earned himself a ticket to England." Katie was pealing off the bandage Spina had wrapped around his leg. "I have a man in the corner you might want to talk to." Mia escorted Amy toward the cot that Speirs was sleeping on. Amy sat down next to him and took his hand in hers. She gently stroked his hair and talked to him in a gentle voice, begging him to wake up so she could say goodbye to stirred slightly and opened his eyes,
"Hey welcome back". Amy said and kissed Speirs. Speirs moaned out in pain and Amy looked around for Mia or Katie, she locked eyes with Katie who hurried over,
"Nice of you to join us, seems like you are in pain." Katie gave Speirs a shot of Morphine and Speirs relaxed and fell a sleep instantly. Amy just sat there and held his hand and when the jeep arrived which would take him to the rear she kissed him and said a soft goodbye. She picked up her Thompson and headed back out on line. When the jeep stopped at the foxhole she was sharing with Guarnere she found Toye and Percoente in it. She just slid down into it and sat down on her heels and wrapped her arms around her knees and started to cry. Toye sat down next to her and let cry into his shoulder, he knew she was exhausted and having Speirs hurt and taken away from her took a lot out of her.
Lane and Nixon were heading out to the crossroads to see how first platoon had done with their counter attack on the Germans. They found Winters who was sitting by himself, letting the events of the night and morning sink in. When he heard them approach he turned around.
"How did you do here?" Nixon asked.
"Twenty two wounded, fifty killed Germans and eleven captured. We lost Dukeman." Winters said. He was walking down towards the dike when he was stopped by colonel Sink,
"Dick can I talk to you for a minute?" Sink said, "Now you have done an excellent job in combat, you have lead easy through a lot of shit, and that's why I am appointing you as XO of second battalion. Congratulations Dick." Sink said. Moose Hey liger took over Easy Company and Winters knew that leaving Easy was the hardest thing he would ever have to do.