Gunslinger

In Mid March, there was a division parade before the brass. General Eisenhower was there, along with General Ripley, General Morgan, General Brereton, President Roosevelt’s secretary Stephen Early, Major General Matthew Ridgeway and others.

In preparation, everybody scrubbed and washed, polished and shined, and disassembled, cleaned and re-assembled all weapons. Ribbons were dug up and hung precisely on their paratrooper jackets. The men painted their helmets, stencilled the insignia of the 506th on the side, and when they were dray, oiled them until they glistened in the sun.

When Eisenhower arrived, he drove past the whole division then climbed up on a reviewing stand to give a speech. He announced that the division had received a Presidential Unit Citation, the first time in the history of the Army that an entire division had been so cited, for its performance in Bastogne.
“You were given a marvellous opportunity in Bastogne, and you met every test. I am awfully proud of you. With this honour also goes a certain responsibility. Just as you are the beginning of a new tradition, you must realize, each of you, that from now on, the spotlight will bat on you with particular brilliance. When you saw you are a soldier of the 101st Division, everybody, whether it’s on the street, in the city, or in the front line will expect unusual conduct of you. I know that you will meed every test of the future like you it at Bastogne.”

Dana narrowed her eyes when she noticed just who General Taylor’s senior aide was – none other than Lieutenant Carlisle. He was standing behind Taylor, almost as if he was afraid of being seen.

******************

There were furloughs and leaves granted; to England, the Riviera, Paris, Brussels, and evening passes to Reims. Captain Dunn got to go to England, where he married a British woman who believed her husband had been killed in North Africa. Higgins got to Paris and upon his return he confessed that he couldn’t remember a damn thing. There were also some USO shows, with big name performers, including Marlene Dietrich.

Dana and Brian went to Paris and as they lay in their hotel bed, entwined in each other’s arms, Dana glanced at Brian.
“Babe, can I ask you something?”, she asked softly. Brian glanced down at her.
“Ask me anything you want, babe”, he responded, kissing her cheek softly.
“When we first met, why were such an asshole straight off the bat?” Brian sighed for a moment, before pulling Dana closer.
“When I first saw you when you walked into Matt’s backyard, I thought “damn that girl’s hot” but the longer I looked it was almost like I could hear a voice in my head saying that you were gonna rip my heart out.” Dana glanced at him, surprised.
“Do you think it had something to do with our past lives?”, she asked.
“I think so”, Brian replied. “Plus I’d broken up with my ex a few days beforehand so I wasn’t in the best of moods anyway, but I think it was more to do with our past life, and my subconscious freaking out that you were back.”
“We wasted a lot of time, huh?”, Dana asked. Brian grinned at her.
“Hell yeah, we did. Now we just gotta figure out how to get back home.”
“Madeline said something to me about us both dying because we weren’t there for each other, and we needed to fix it. You saved me back in Bastogne, but nothing’s come up where I have to save you and it scares me because I don’t want you to be in danger.”
“We’re in a war so there’s danger all around, babe”, Brian said softly. “I think just having you in my life has saved me to some extent.” Dana lifted her head off his shoulder and looked deep into his chocolate brown eyes.
“What do you mean, babe?”, she asked.
“I was dabbling in drugs back when I met you, and my habit got progressively worse over the years and I was drinking enough to stun an elephant.”
“But that was back then and not now”, Dana said. Brian kissed her cheek softly.
“But that was before you went and blew my mind with your hotness”, he grinned cheekily at her. “Trust me babe, you’ve done a bit of saving already.”

*************

When Brian and Dana returned to camp, they learned that a combat jump into Germany was planned, however the 101st was surprised not to be included. They found out that Eisenhower decided to give the 17th Airborne a chance at a combat jump and assigned it to Operation Varsity. The jump was the largest yet planned in the war, and included the 17th plus the British 1st and 6th Airborne Divisions. Many of the replacements were disappointed that they didn’t get to jump, as they had joined the most famous airborne division in the world in Belgium or Germany, and never taken part in a combat jump. Troop Carrier Command made it possible for men who wished to do so to make a few jumps, to quality for their paratrooper bonus pay or just for the fun of it. Lieutenant Higgins made two jumps just for the hell of it.

On 24th March, the members of E Company watched with mixed feelings as one C47 after another roared down the runway at a nearby airfield, circled, formed up into a V of V’s, nine abreast, and headed northeast.
“Damn that’s a beautiful sight”, Higgins commented to Dana.
“Go get ‘em boys!”, O’Shea shouted.

One 506th man was not left behind. Captain McKenzie had been selected by General Taylor to jump with the 17th as an observer for his plane. Dana was surprised to see McKenzie back the next day, looking a little shell-shocked.
“What’s up Cap?”, she asked him, concerned at his appearance.
“The plane got hit”, McKenzie replied, taking a large shot out of his canteen, which obviously wasn’t holding water. “Me and only three others made it out of the plane before it crashed.” Somerville was concerned about McKenzie’s drinking. The man was known to like a drink, but he didn’t like seeing his best friend in such a shell-shocked state.

German resistance to Operation Varsity was fierce. Meanwhile, infantry and armoured divisions of the US First Army were pouring across the Rhine into Germany via the recently captured Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen, then swinging north to encircle the German army defending Germany’s industrial heartland in the Ruhr.

Eisenhower needed to bolster the ring around the Ruhr, and the 82nd and 101st were available. The orders came at the end of March that the company was moving out, back to the front, this time on the Rhine River.

*********************

E Company was bout to enter its fifth country. The men had liked Britain and the English people, however they hadn’t like the French. They had a special relationship with the citizens of Belgium, because of their association with the civilians of Bastogne, who had done whatever they could to support the Americans.

They loved the Dutch, and found them to be brave, resourceful, overwhelmingly grateful, with the best organized underground resistance in Europe. Now they were going to meet the Germans. For the first time they would on the front lines inside enemy territory, living with enemy civilians. It was rumoured that rather than living in foxholes they would be billeted in German houses, so in a sense they would be getting to know the Germans in an intimate fashion. This would be especially true once the Ruhr pocket was eliminated and the advance across central Germany began. They would be staying in a different house every night, under conditions on which the occupants would have only a few minutes notice of their arrival.

Except for a few Jewish members of the company, the men had no underlying hatred of the German civilians. Many of them admired the German soldiers they had fought. Some of the men thought that most of the atrocities they had heard about were propaganda, however they would soon see for themselves whether all the Germans were Nazis, and if the Nazis were as bad as the Allied press and radio said they were.

*****************

The company moved by truck from Mourmelon to the Ruhr pocket. The 101st took up positions on the west bank of the Rhine, facing Düsseldorf. The 2nd Battalion’s sector was from Sturzelberg on the north to Worringen on the south, with the 82nd Airborne on the battalion’s right flank, and they faced Cologne.

It was more an occupational position that front line. The platoons kept outposts down on the river bank, while the men stayed in homes in various small villages. There was some artillery shelling, back and forth, but not much and there was no small arms fire. The men were on outpost each night. One of the new recruits in Dana’s squad was a 17 year old fresh faced boy named Patrick O’Shannessy. He was a quiet shy boy, and was so worried about what the veterans thought of him that he often turned into a bumbling mess around them.

He had just been relieved of duty on the outpost, and was sitting with Dana in 1st platoon CP when Dunn came storming into the room with murder in his eyes.
“Why didn’t you stop those trucks?!”, he yelled. O’Shannessy’s eyes went wide and he opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out. His face paled so much Dana thought he was going to pass out.
“Whoa Captain, calm down”, Dana said. “What trucks?” Dunn went on to explain that a convoy of nine supply trucks had gone down the road, but only eight had come back as the bridge was out and one of the trucks was now dangling off the edge.
“Why the hell didn’t you stop them?!”, Dunn yelled. Dana stood up. By this stage, the poor kid was almost white with fear.
“Captain, if I didn’t know the bridge was out how do you expect two privates to know if nobody told them?”, she asked reasonably. “And besides, even if they did know, if the trucks went past them going flat out like they normally do they’re not likely to hear the men yelling ‘Halt” anyway.”
“They should have jumped out to wave at them to stop”, Dunn yelled. Dana rolled her eyes.
“Have you seen how fast those trucks move?”, Dana asked him. “How are we supposed to write to their mothers to say sorry, he was flattened to a pancake by a truck? But he died a hero?” Dunn’s lip and eye twitched.
“Dammit woman, why must you always speak sense?’, he eventually muttered with a smirk.
“Because I’m a woman”, she grinned. “In future, maybe you can guys can put up signs that the drivers can see because they sure as hell ain’t gonna stop for any check points.”
“OK, now you’re being smart and terrifying me”, Dunn laughed.

The next night, O’Shannessy was again on the outpost checkpoint, however he had a newfound confidence since his sergeant had stood up for him against Captain Dunn. He was sitting at the outpost when a jeep came along with no lights on. O’Shannessy called out “Halt”, and the jeep came to a halt. There were two captains in the front of the keep, and a major in the back. It was foggy and he couldn’t clearly make out the faces. He gave the password, however the Captain in the front seat responded in a normal conversation tone and he couldn’t hear him properly. He repeated the password, and the captain responded in the same tone. He lifted his M1 and focused on the major in the back as he moved a little closer. He froze a little when he realized it was Somerville. “Oh shit”, he thought to himself. He collected himself and said the password a third time. The captain who was driving, who he now realized was McKenzie, realized that O’Shannessy had not heard and yelled out the counter-sign. The other captain, who O’Shannessy now realized was Dunn, jumped out of the jeep and rounded on him.
“How dare you!”, he shouted. Feeling a touch of bravado, and knowing he hadn’t done anything wrong, O’Shannessy stood his ground.
“When I say “halt”, I mean “Halt!”. When I give the password, I expect to hear the countersign.” Dunn started to splutter with rage and began telling O’Shannessy what he was going to do him when Somerville interrupted.
“Let’s go Captain”, he said in a low voice. As they drove off, Somerville called out to O’Shannessy, “Good job son!”

When O’Shannessy got back to CP, he told Dana about what had happened and she laughed uncontrollably.
“Oh hell, Dunn’s really gonna have a twist in his panties about you, my boy”, she laughed. “Did he go purple in the face?” O’Shannessy giggled.
“Yes, he did”, he eventually responded. “He’s so scary. I thought the vein in his forehead was going to explode.”
“Yet, you stood up to him”, Dana responded. “I’m proud of you kid. We’ll make a fine soldier out of you.” O’Shannessy beamed with pride.

*****************

On 18th April, all German resistance in the Ruhr pocket came to an end and more than 325,000 German soldiers surrendered. E Company was transferred to guarding a Displaced Persons’ camp at Dormagen. There were Poles, Czechs, Belgians, Dutch, French, Russians and others from different parts of Nazi-occupied Europe in the camp, tens of thousands. They lived in common barracks, segregated by sex, crowded, all but starving in many cases, representing all ranges of age. Once liberated, their impulse was to catch up on their rest and have fun. They had been worked hard by the Germans, and eaten little. Now they would rest.

Their happiness, singing and willingness to do favours for the soldiers endeared them to the men of E Company. KP was now a thing of the past, and no member of E Company ever palled a potato after this point of had to sweep a room, washed a mess kit or policed the area. There were always volunteers as the Americans were so generous in paying for any assistance received.

The men, however, were bored with being in a rear echelon area. Dunn, sensing their boredom, arranged for a sight-seeing trip to Cologne which had been one of the most heavily bombed in cities in Germany. For all his bluster and reputation, he cared for the men and wanted them to see the effects of air bombardment. Two things most impressed the men. First, the extent of the destruction. Every window was shattered, every church had been hit, every side street was blocked with rubble. The magnificent cathedral in the centre of town had been damaged but had survived. The giant statute of Bismarck was still standing, but Bismarck’s sword, pointing toward France, had been cut off by flying shrapnel. The second impression was not of destruction but of people. The residents, of their own volition, were determined to clean up and sweep out the ruins of war. Along most of the streets there were neat stacks of salvageable cobblestones and houses were worked on to remove debris.

*******************

On 22nd April, the Company moved out and this time they were heading to Bavaria and the Alps. General Ripley had assigned the 101st to US Seventh Army and its objectives were Munich, Innsbruck and the Brenner Pass. The purpose was to get American troops into the Alps before the Germans could create any counter-offensives there to continue the war. Hitler’s Eagles Nest in Berchtesgaden was the presumed HQ for this combination last stand and the beginning of a guerrilla war against the occupiers. Eisenhower’s biggest fear was that Hitler would get to the Eagles Nest, where he would be well protected and have radio facilities he could use to broadcast to the German people to continue the resistance or begin guerrilla warfare.