I was so upset to hear about the passing of Donald Malarkey. He was my hero, I looked up to him and admired him so much. The story of A Woman At War is dedicated to him, a true hero and inspiration to so many. Love you, Don, rest easy.
1921-2017
Despite all the sadness, I hope you all enjoy the chapter. Thank you Byron W.4 for being an awesome Beta.
Chapter 9: Brécourt Manor
Normandy, France
June 6 – 7th 1944
Winters gathered everyone around the bushes and trees, so they could be hidden well from the Germans just over the trenches. To better Brécourt and aid in Easy Company's tactical strategy, Winters requested as much TNT and ammo as could be spared, but no word had been received from battalion. Frustrated, the small group of Easy Company and other soldiers had no choice but to proceed. Winters was visibly irritable and angry, something very unusual to see on a man with such a calm demeanor as Winters.
Marie's adrenaline started making her restless; although she was terrified, she was itching to get going with Brécourt Manor. The anticipation was killing her. The beautiful rolling hills had been replaced with an overflow of upturned dirt from dug-out trenches, cleared out trees, and the overpowering smell of cordite. She thought France would be beautiful, but instead saw this.
"Okay, just weapons and ammo, drop anything else," Winters ordered. He looked over at Buck: "Compton, second squad."
"Yes, sir."
"Okay, you heard the word, let's move, let's move," Lipton said in a hushed voice.
They ran across the trees and garden, with someone's farmhouse on the far side of the field, that was supposedly housing Germans. They took cover before the field, and watched as the Germans marched around, guarding their guns and trucks. Malarkey and Marie both took cover next to a large tree with Buck and Winters huddled beside them. Compton peeked out of cover, then drew his head back in.
"MG-42s," Buck reported, his voice hushed.
"I'll draw their fire from the right to the truck. Take two men and head for the left," Winters instructed.
Lipton and two men from other companies started shooting out into the field for covering fire. The Germans, now alerted, started to shoot into the trees where they were taking cover. Marie covered her head as bullets whizzed by, splintering the bark of the few surrounding trees. Buck chose Malarkey and Guarnere to go take out of the first gun. By instinct, Marie sat up and started to follow them.
"Stay back, Docherty!" Winters yelled over all the commotion.
She halted, doing as she was told. She desperately wanted to follow Malarkey, but Winters told her to stay put until it was safe. Marie followed Winters, Hall, Plesha and Ranney down the middle of the field, and into the nearby trench. Running out in the open was terrifying, Marie thought for sure that she was going to get hit, either by a stray bullet, or on purpose. As she ran, her heart felt like it was thumping in her head like a terrible, ominous drumming pulse the entire time. Part of her associated the thumping beat trapped in her head to the thunderous sound of the MGs being fired; she thought she was going deaf.
Buck's squad had started shooting from the right flank, drawing the attention of the Germans. When the fire had finally ceased (for a brief moment), it was time to make another mad-dash across the field and head closer to the MG-42s. Marie took a deep, shuddering breath, and followed the men across the field, sprinting as fast as she could. One German was no more than ten feet away from them as they quickly approached, but Buck took him out with his machine gun without a second thought. Marie had witnessed death plenty of times before because of her career as a nurse, but death in war was graphic and ugly, and something that still shocked her.
Malarkey and Guarnere were behind them, as the covering fire shot off when they made their sprint over to the trench. Malarkey pulled out a grenade and threw it inside the upcoming trench, two Germans were firing guns up at them from inside the trench. So much was happening at once that Marie couldn't wrap her head around every detail. She just followed everyone dumbly around the fray, praying for the best. Marie took a flying leap into the trench and landed roughly on her side, temporarily knocking the wind out of herself. She gathered herself, and noticed that someone was crying out in pain. Marie frantically glanced around, trying to locate the source of the cries.
"Who's hit?" Marie yelled out.
"Over here!" She heard Buck's voice call from a little further down the trench.
She ran over to see Robert "Popeye" Wynn, a short man with receding blond, wispy hair, and a rounded race, lying on his stomach, whimpering in pain.
Buck was standing protectively over him, reloading his rifle. "Where you hit, Pop?"
"I can't believe they fucked up my ass, sir," Popeye cried in his thick, southern drawl.
"Your ass?" Buck echoed, looking down at the soldier, slightly amused.
"Let me see, Popeye," Marie said, kneeling down beside him.
She took out a pair of scissors from her pack and quickly started to cut around the little hole the bullet left in the back of his pants,no time to spare his modesty.
She inspected the wound: "It's a clean shot, you'll be fine," she said, pulling out some sulfa powder from her pack.
She patched him up as fast as she could, bandaging the wound after applying the sulfa to the bleeding area. She quickly took out a syrette from her pack and gave him a small shot of morphine. Relief came almost instantly, Marie could tell as his tense facial expression relaxed.
"He's going to need to crawl back to battalion," Winters said to Marie and Buck. "Can you do that?" He addressed Popeye this time.
Popeye nodded. Buck and Winters helped him out of the trench while an escort helped him make it back. The two men were already making their way down the trench when Joe Toye caught up to Marie. They were on the move to the one of the big guns. Winters turned his head to order both Toye and Marie to keep going, when he saw a German grenade being tossed right at their feet.
"Joe! Marie! Look out!" Winters shouted.
In an instant, Toye wrapped his arms around Marie as he dove down for cover, practically flipping them both over to avoid the explosion. The grenade went off, causing dirt and dust to be kicked up all over the trench. Toye's body shielded her from the debris. They both sat up after it was safe, stunned, dirty, helmets knocked off, and ears ringing uncomfortably.
"Are you okay? Jesus, I owe you my life!" Marie said breathlessly.
He only nodded, looking dazed. His rifle took the brunt of the grenade, causing him to now be weaponless. Marie saw Malarkey further down the trench, looking at her with concerned eyes. Marie and Toye made their way down the trench, meeting up with Buck, Winters, and Malarkey. Marie was ordered to stay behind again as the men scrambled to the big gun and took it out. Marie waited, frustrated because waiting was all she seemed to be doing since the whole thing started. After it was safe, Marie followed them, keeping her ears out for anyone calling out 'medic.' There was so much chaos going on around her that it was hard to concentrate on multiple things at the same time. The group took cover under one of the big guns that now had a destroyed barrel, firing their weapons at the Germans, and getting ready to make their way to the next set of guns.
Malarkey started to reload his rifle hastily, and had his eyes fixed on a dead German lying across the field.
"I think one of those dead krauts has a luger!" He announced.
Before anyone could say anything, he bolted out in the open toward the body.
"Christ!"
"Jesus!"
Marie heard some soldiers exclaim as he ran out of cover. Marie couldn't believe that he was doing this just to get a luger.
"Don!" She screamed.
"Malarkey, you idiot! Get back here!" She heard Winters yell.
She never heard Winters insult anyone before, and by the raw lividity on his face, she knew he meant what he said. This was not a good day for Winters' mood. Marie watched Malarkey make his way to the dead German, she held her breath in fear the entire time, praying that he wouldn't get hit. He came sliding to a stop next to the body, and started to search.
"Now you stop firing?" A soldier exclaimed next to her.
She hadn't realized that the Germans had ceased fire when Malarkey ran out in the open.
"Christ, they must think he's a medic or something," Plesha exclaimed.
"He's gonna need a goddamned medic!" Guarnere snapped.
Marie's eyes landed on the farmhouse where most of Germans were stationed. They had huge machine guns ready to fire upon Malarkey as they came to realize that he wasn't a medic. Malarkey got up and dashed back toward cover.
"Run, Don!" Marie screamed again.
Marie watched in horror as the machine guns fired at him, missing him by mere centimeters as he ran, and dodged his way across the field. The men were all calling him back as he approached the cover of the 105 gun. Malarkey had made it by some miracle, and leapt back into cover, nearly crashing into everyone. Marie caught him by his uniform lapel, and pulled him up against the sandbags. She wanted to beat the hell out of him for what he did, but she felt too relieved that he was safe. She held him there with shaky hands, as he tried to catch his breath. She never wanted to let him go again. Guarnere was still firing at the Germans by the hedgerow. The others did the same, but the Germans machine guns still pounded against their cover.
"You get your freakin' luger, you stupid mick?" Guarnere shouted over the gunfire.
Malarkey didn't look like he took any offense, he still was trying to catch his breath from the near-death experience that he'd had.
"Never do that again," Marie said fiercely to Malarkey, pulling at his lapels and leaning close to his face so he'd understand the severity of what he'd done.
Malarkey's big, dark eyes only looked at her in shock, but she took it as a wordless response.
Winters ran over to them. They were all taking cover from the guns now, not firing at the Germans. They were ready to take out the next gun, but they needed the TNT, and were stuck in this position as the Germans continued to rain heavy fire on them. They ended up being stuck in the same place for about an hour. Marie watched as the boys fired their weapons, running lower and lower on ammo. Marie knew that they couldn't sit and wait too much longer, it was getting more dangerous the longer they stayed put. Marie started to worry about Lipton, she hadn't seen him since Brécourt started.
"Where's Lipton with that TNT?" Winters asked.
"Don't know, sir," Guarnere answered.
Winters climbed out of the trench and crawled away, disappearing from sight. 2nd platoon had no choice but to wait and stay in cover from being fired upon. They were stuck hiding from the Germans as their superior officer was gone, unknowing to them if he had been shot or not.
Finally Winters and Hall returned, carrying some TNT himself. Right when the small group had become relieved, Marie saw that Cleveland Petty had suddenly collapsed a few feet from them, taking a bullet to the neck, squirting blood out like a geyser. She dashed over to him, and pulled his limp body to cover. She pressed her palm up against his neck to slow down the bleeding, but she saw in his eyes that he'd already passed away. He didn't even have a pulse. She looked back at Winters, and shook her head sadly.
Hall and Winters went and took out the next gun, he had sent everyone off so they could get moving again. Marie was going to follow them when she saw two more soldiers collapsing in the field. Soldiers were getting injured all over the place, and she'd only managed to patch up Popeye so far. Despite what Winters told her earlier about being 'Johnny-on-the-spot' when it came to running and treating wounded soldiers, he had ordered her to stay behind for most of the operation. Another soldier collapsed right before he made it to the trench. Marie peeked over the trench and saw him lying face down a few feet from her. She pulled herself up, and swung a leg over to climb out of the trench, when she suddenly felt herself being pulled down.
"Stay down, Docherty!" She heard Winters say from behind her.
She turned and looked into his cyan eyes. She felt a bit of annoyance and defiance raising up inside her.
"But sir you told me to-" Marie started to protest.
"Just come with me!" Winters started to pull her along to the next gun.
Winters and Hall disabled it without a problem by shoving TNT down the barrel, but they all found themselves being pinned down by more German fire. Malarkey set up his mortar tube and fired round after round on them, with Buck doing the same.
Marie found herself waiting again, wanting to beg Winters to let her go back and at least give those men some morphine if they were still alive. But she knew Winters wouldn't let her. She knew he was just trying to protect her because it was too dangerous right now, but she felt like she was failing the men out there.
"Running a little low on ammo, sir," Buck shouted at Winters above the gunfire.
"How 'bout you, Malarkey?" Winters asked.
"Okay!" Malarkey replied, not taking his eyes off where he was firing.
"Think you got enough to take out the third gun?" Winters asked them.
"We'll soon find out, Dick. Malarkey, let's go. Toye, cover!" Buck ordered, taking Malarkey away to run to the big gun.
Toye shot at the Germans, drawing their attention away from Buck and Malarkey. Marie watched as they got pinned down again. There was only one more MG-42, but they kept getting stuck every time they got close to it. Marie felt someone tap on her helmet, she looked over to see Toye pointing in the direction where Buck and Malarkey had run.
"We're almost there, Docherty!" He yelled over the gunfire.
He grabbed onto her BDU collar and lifted her up to her feet. He led her all the way to the third gun to join everyone else. Marie let herself be dragged along, still feeling dazed by all the gunfire and constant activity. As Toye and Marie came to meet up, she saw by the expression on their faces that they were frustrated with being pinned down again.
"We've reached a stalemate. Hours of fighting, and we can't get to the last gun after knocking out all the others!" Malarkey told Marie, his voice ringing with irritation.
This was dragging on longer than they all suspected. As if on cue, Lieutenant Speirs appeared, along with some of his men and Barbara. He had ammo draped around his neck, and looked fiercely determined to reach the fourth gun. Barbara squatted beside Marie, a wild look of adrenaline in her pale blue eyes. Marie could barely recognize the girl that she'd come to know at Toccoa.
"I told you we'd be your backup," Barbara said to Marie.
Before Marie could even comprehend what was happening, Marie watched as Speirs led his soldiers right out into the open and toward the fourth gun.
In the middle of it all, Lipton had finally arrived, bringing the TNT at last. Marie was relieved to see that he was okay at least. Before she knew it, they started to withdraw, unable to get enough reinforcements to take out the rest of the Germans, and for running low on ammunition.
Brécourt Manor was a success, although Winters would have Easy return after a day's rest to finish the job. They stayed in the farmhouse for a day, picking off what they could and finalizing Brécourt. They had left with twelve German POWs. Easy Company had only two wounded and four killed, although Marie felt bothered by the four deaths because she felt that she could've done something for them. Even poor Hall had been killed Winters would later tell her, only adding to her frustration of not being able to do anything to help. She thought of Hall and his large, sympathetic eyes.
Despite feeling bitter that Winters had held her back, Marie was just happy to still be alive.
Unfortunately, with war came terrible injuries. The garden and farmhouse that Marie had seen before their battle in Brécourt began did have French citizens huddled inside. During the gunfire, a twenty-four year old man had been shot in the chest. His parents and little brother fussed over him, panicked as they watched him bleed-out, unconscious.
Marie crouched beside his body, pulling apart his buttoned shirt to get a better look at the gushing wound. Winters stood behind her, watching the process with heavy-lidded eyes. The parents babbled in French, scared and crying, making it increasingly difficult for the medic to concentrate. Some soldiers had to usher them back as Marie cleaned and patched up the wound to the best of her ability with her limited supplies.
After wrapping his chest with gauze, she looked up at Winters: "That's all I can do, sir, he's going to need a hospital."
"Okay," Winters sighed.
Winters ordered his body to be evacuated to a hospital in England. She hoped he had made it in enough time to save his life.
0000
They were back with battalion in some abandoned, 'bombed-out village' as Malarkey described it. It was dark out, about 20:00 hours. They only had an hour of rest, and a limited time to get food before they were moving out again. Marie was inside one of the trucks under a tarp, joining some of the guys as Malarkey attempted to make them all something to eat. Marie hadn't noticed how hungry she was until Malarkey had started to cook the rationed food. It didn't smell very appetizing, but Marie was too starving to care. Her stomach growled with anticipation the whole time she was in the truck. Malarkey thumbed at his helmet that was sitting on his lap as he cooked their meal. She saw that he had a picture of Bernice tucked inside. Marie studied the photograph, feeling the familiar mixed feelings return. She shook the thoughts out of her head.
You're being ridiculous, Marie, she scolded herself.
"Jesus Christ, get me out of here," Liebgott grumbled, climbing out of the truck, his voice interrupting Marie's thoughts.
Guarnere quickly closed the tarp behind him. Marie guessed that he couldn't take the smell anymore.
"How we doin' Malark?" Guarnere asked, growing impatient.
Malarkey tested the food, bringing it to his lips and tasting it: "We're doing good," Malarkey showed the food to Buck.
"Doing good? How the hell do you know about cooking, you're Irish," Buck said with a smirk.
Marie couldn't help but giggle. She looked over at Lip whom was sitting next to her, but he looked strangely distant. It wasn't like him to be so quiet. Her smile faded as she studied him. She hoped he was all right.
"Sir, if you have a reservation someplace else, I'd be happy to go," Malarkey replied to Buck, pouring some of the stew in his mess kit.
He passed the food around, Marie held out her mess kit and watched as the food was poured inside. Marie couldn't tell if it was beans, or something mixed with beans, as she looked down at the brown, runny concoction.
All of them started to laugh, mostly at how bad the food smelled. Marie started to eat it quickly, not giving herself anytime to savor how it tasted. She was far too hungry to pay attention to the taste, she only needed something to fill up her pained stomach.
"See? She likes it," Malarkey laughed, pointing at Marie, shoveling the food to mouth.
"Jesus Christ, give me some air," Guarnere said, sticking his head out of the truck.
Everyone laughed again, all except Lipton. Marie watched as Lip held his mess kit in his hands, but he didn't eat.
Before Marie could ask him what was wrong, Winters stuck his head inside the tarp.
"Evening," He greeted.
"Hello, sir," Guarnere replied.
"Something die in here?" Winters asked, making a face. Everyone chuckled again.
"Yeah, Malarkey's ass," Toye joked.
The laughter erupted again, Marie almost choked on her food as she laughed along with them.
"Any word on Lieutenant Meehan, sir?" Buck asked, growing serious.
"No, not yet," Winters sighed.
"Don't that make you our commanding officer, sir?" Guarnere asked.
"Yeah, it does."
Toye extended his hand, holding a bottle of wine out to Winters: "Sir." He said, gesturing to him.
"The Lieutenant don't drink," Guarnere reminded Joe.
"It's been a day of firsts," Winters said, taking a sip of the wine right from the bottle, "don't you think, Guarnere?"
"Yes sir."
"Carry on," Winters told them. Everyone told him goodnight, "And sergeant-" Winters added, without fully pulling his head out.
"Sir?" Guarnere questioned.
"I'm not a Quaker," Winters said, leaving them.
Everyone erupted with laughter. In the middle of all the laughter, Marie turned her attention back to Lipton.
"You okay?" She asked him.
"Yeah, I'm fine, Docherty. Just exhausted," He replied in a tired voice.
"I don't blame you there," Marie chuckled, "you should get some sleep, Lipton. You worked hard out there, she patted him on the shoulder, putting her mess kit down.
"Damn, you really scarfed that down," Toye said to her, looking at her empty mess kit.
"Told you I was an all right cook," Malarkey chimed.
"Oh please. Docherty will eat anything you give her, Don," Buck said, winking at Marie.
Marie stuck out her tongue at him, but cracking a smile afterward, despite the innuendo that was coded behind his words. She rubbed her drowsy eyes, the heavy exhaustion returning.
"Time for some shut eye, huh?" Buck said with a smile.
Marie nodded, noticing that Lipton was falling asleep too. Marie leaned her head against Malarkey's shoulder, shifting in her spot to get comfortable enough so she could fall asleep. Everyone said their goodnights while Marie closed her eyes, feeling herself start to drift off to sleep. Marie couldn't help but think of Emilia and Muck. Them, and so many others were still missing from Easy Company. She wanted to talk about it, but she didn't want to bring up the subject and down the men's spirits. This had been the first time they'd had a laugh in days.
Some of the men fell asleep and started to snore. Marie was too worried to fall asleep right away, her thoughts still on Emilia and Muck, and on what Barbara had told her about Diana.
"Still not asleep?" She heard Malarkey whisper to her.
"I'm worried about Skip and Em," Marie responded in a tired whisper.
Malarkey was silent, Marie knew that he was dreadfully worried about them too.
"Barb told me that Diana's plane went down, there's a good chance she's dead. I'm afraid that-" She couldn't bring herself to finish her sentence. She let her voice trail off.
"I'm sure they're all right, Marie. There's a lot of guys still missing. They'll show up," Malarkey assured her.
"I hope you're right, Don," Marie whispered.
With that being said, Marie forced her eyes shut and struggled to fall asleep. She finally managed to fall asleep, she dreamed of plane crashes, grenades, and of Malarkey running out in an open field in the middle of crossfire.