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- Okay.
MAN: Welcome.
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Hi-
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MAN: Thanks for sitting down with us.
We appreciate it.
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Would you recount for me
the incident where you were wounded?
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SUERTH:
Well, I was standing...
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...on the top of this hill
at the aid station...
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...and a random shell came in.
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It couldn't have gone off
more than 5 or 10 feet away...
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...because all I remember
is a tremendous blast and a flash.
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And the next thing I knew,
I was on the ground in the snow...
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...and I tried to get up.
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00:00:49,821 --> 00:00:53,158
And when I tried to get up, I...
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Only thing I could see
were the broken ends of my legs.
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00:00:58,997 --> 00:01:01,583
And I thought my legs
were gone. I was--
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Because that's all--
Both femurs were shattered.
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They were laying down here as I was
on my back, trying to raise my legs up.
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And I thought:
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"I'm dead," you know,
"I'm about to die."
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And I said-
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I said my Act of Contrition,
because I am a Catholic.
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And then the next thing
I thought of was my mother.
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And I thought,
"What's she gonna say?"
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Because I was an only child.
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My name is C. Carwood Lipton.
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I was born in Huntington, West Virginia.
Grew up in Huntington.
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HEYLIGER: Frederick T. Heyliger. Concord,
Massachusetts was my hometown.
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I was born in a town named
Inchelium, Washington.
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It's on an Indian reservation.
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STOKES: My name's J.B. Stokes.
I was born close to Bonham, Texas...
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...in an area called Leonard.
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MARTIN:
Born and raised in Columbus, Ohio.
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My father worked for the railroad.
My mother was a housewife.
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HEFFRON: My nickname was Babe.
And my mother...
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...she was a little Irish broad.
Red hair. Fiery.
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Great woman.
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GUARNERE: Born and raised in South
Philadelphia, where times were tough.
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00:04:00,345 --> 00:04:04,349
Mom had 10 children,
so you had to work to survive.
38
00:04:05,225 --> 00:04:08,979
It was just survival
in the streets of Philadelphia.
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00:04:09,187 --> 00:04:15,193
We came up in the Depression.
Sometimes we'd live on a farm and have...
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00:04:15,360 --> 00:04:17,362
...pigs and raise a garden.
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00:04:17,612 --> 00:04:21,783
TIPPER: I saw people that really
were hungry and had hard times.
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My father was able to find employment.
We never went hungry.
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00:04:26,371 --> 00:04:32,002
We lived on a farm. Everybody
was poor. That was the Depression.
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00:04:32,210 --> 00:04:35,797
MAYNARD: When I got to about 10,
I got a paper route.
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I made $5 a month. Something like that.
But it was something.
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00:04:40,385 --> 00:04:41,887
WINTERS:
There's a work ethic...
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00:04:42,053 --> 00:04:46,224
...the Pennsylvania Dutch
in this area are very proud of.
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00:04:46,474 --> 00:04:51,605
I was the oldest one, so I sort of
branched out on my own at an early age.
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MAN: I was married when I was
19 years old in 1941.
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LESNIEWSKI:
On December 7 of '41
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00:04:59,905 --> 00:05:02,824
...we were in a store,
and a guy, he says:
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00:05:03,033 --> 00:05:06,119
"The U.S.A. is in a war with Japan."
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00:05:06,411 --> 00:05:09,623
And everything just went silent.
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00:05:10,916 --> 00:05:14,836
WYNN: I said, "Let's go in the Army."
He said, "I don't want to."
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00:05:15,045 --> 00:05:18,548
I said, "You're gonna have
to go sooner or later.“
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00:05:18,715 --> 00:05:22,552
HASHEY: Something was wrong with you
if you weren't in the service.
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00:05:22,719 --> 00:05:24,554
It was what you had to do.
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I wasn't gonna be in the infantry.
I was gonna be in some...
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00:05:29,643 --> 00:05:33,021
...top kind of a unit,
or I wasn't gonna be in the Army.
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00:05:36,733 --> 00:05:41,112
LIPTON: LIFE magazine had run
an article on paratroopers...
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00:05:41,738 --> 00:05:45,116
...sometime in early 1942.
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00:05:45,283 --> 00:05:48,662
And it told about the
training that they got...
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...and the difficult physical
requirements, and I got interested...
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00:05:55,293 --> 00:05:58,171
...in seeing if I could
become a paratrooper.
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Nobody forced you to do this,
you volunteered.
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00:06:02,968 --> 00:06:06,304
And it was the notion...
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00:06:06,596 --> 00:06:11,810
...that you wanted to do something.
You wanted to be with the best.
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00:06:12,018 --> 00:06:16,147
But once you got in there,
you was proud to be.
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00:06:16,690 --> 00:06:20,026
We was proud of our boots,
and our shoulder patch.
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00:06:20,193 --> 00:06:23,238
And we was proud to be paratroopers.
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00:06:23,488 --> 00:06:28,618
And we was proud to be working with
the guys we were working with.
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You know these people
that you're in service with...
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You know those people better than
anybody in your life.
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00:06:37,836 --> 00:06:40,964
You know them right down
to the final thing.
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00:06:41,172 --> 00:06:46,177
And that comes when you start
your training, while that progresses.
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00:06:55,228 --> 00:06:58,356
MAN 1:
Each man was like a championship boxer.
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MAN 2:
Out of 100%, only 10% made it.
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00:07:00,233 --> 00:07:03,028
MAN 3: I thought I'd die.
MAN 4: No holding back.
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00:07:03,236 --> 00:07:05,030
MAN 5:
You had to hang in there and be tough.
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00:07:05,196 --> 00:07:08,324
MAN 6:
We marched 118 miles in three days.
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00:07:08,533 --> 00:07:12,370
WINGETT: The training I got
and the men I trained with...
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...gave me the confidence
to go into battle.
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00:07:20,712 --> 00:07:24,799
STROHL: We were just a bunch
of ordinary kids when we went in.
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00:07:24,966 --> 00:07:28,928
The training was to build you up
physically and mentally.
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00:07:29,137 --> 00:07:32,682
WYNN:
Some of them lost as much as 40 pounds.
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But I didn't have nothing to lose.
I weighed about 130.
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00:07:37,145 --> 00:07:40,774
If I'd lost 40 pounds, I wouldn't
have been big enough to stay.
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00:07:40,982 --> 00:07:45,487
You know, they weeded out so many.
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They'd be there one day,
and they'd be gone the next.
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00:07:49,407 --> 00:07:50,950
GUARNERE:
They couldn't keep up with it.
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00:07:51,117 --> 00:07:55,371
They were good men,
but they couldn't take that hard training.
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00:07:55,538 --> 00:07:58,750
You had the cream
of the cream of the cream.
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We had to climb this mountain called
Currahee every morning. Run up and back.
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00:08:04,547 --> 00:08:07,717
If you couldn't,
you'd end up in another unit.
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00:08:07,926 --> 00:08:11,554
STRAYER: The name Currahee means
"we stand alone together."
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00:08:11,763 --> 00:08:17,227
That's an Indian name.
It became a symbol of the camp...
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00:08:17,477 --> 00:08:20,939
...because it was rough and tough,
going up and down.
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00:08:21,147 --> 00:08:26,945
A lot of times, when some of the guys
would go and get them a drink or so...
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00:08:27,195 --> 00:08:31,116
...you'd see them laying on the road,
where they were sick.
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00:08:31,324 --> 00:08:35,453
STROHL: It didn't matter how hard
you trained and how tired you got...
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00:08:35,620 --> 00:08:40,125
...you would still go out on your own
and run the mountain at night...
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...which was ridiculous because
when you had to run it during the day...
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00:08:43,628 --> 00:08:45,964
...all you did was bitch and moan.
104
00:08:46,214 --> 00:08:50,802
At night, they'd get a couple guys
and go up and do it on your own.
105
00:08:50,969 --> 00:08:54,556
We learned how to be
soldiers at Toccoa...
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00:08:54,764 --> 00:08:58,393
...as a group, all of us coming in...
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00:08:58,560 --> 00:09:01,271
...from no experience
in the Army at all...
108
00:09:01,437 --> 00:09:04,190
...coming in directly
from civilian life.
109
00:09:04,440 --> 00:09:07,068
STOKES: I'm gonna say this,
I believe...
110
00:09:07,318 --> 00:09:11,865
...that the paratroopers
of the 101 st Airborne Division...
111
00:09:12,157 --> 00:09:17,662
...was as well-trained as you
could get a soldier to be at that time.
112
00:09:19,956 --> 00:09:23,293
MAN 1: We packed our own chutes.
MAN 2: Nervous as hell.
113
00:09:23,501 --> 00:09:25,712
MAN 3: You're asking yourself,
"What am I doing here?"
114
00:09:25,879 --> 00:09:28,006
MAN 4: Came time to stand up
and hook up, and we did.
115
00:09:28,173 --> 00:09:31,801
MAN 5: Coming down is great.
MAN 6: It affects everybody different.
116
00:09:31,968 --> 00:09:35,346
MAN 7: I broke my foot.
MAN 8: You're dropping 16 feet a second.
117
00:09:35,555 --> 00:09:38,600
WYNN: I can remember
just like it was yesterday.
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00:09:38,766 --> 00:09:40,810
That morning after breakfast...
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00:09:41,019 --> 00:09:45,023
...they marched us all
out there to the airfield.
120
00:09:46,858 --> 00:09:50,069
There were guys
that already made their jump.
121
00:09:50,320 --> 00:09:55,533
And they were all hollering,
"You're gonna be sorry!“ You know?
122
00:09:55,700 --> 00:09:58,453
You didn't want
to be afraid, you know...
123
00:09:58,661 --> 00:10:03,541
...because these other guys are there
with you. Your bravado and all that...
124
00:10:03,833 --> 00:10:07,879
You didn't wanna be afraid,
so you kept that out of your mind.
125
00:10:08,087 --> 00:10:13,051
Jumping out of a plane wasn't like
today. My first flight up, I jumped.
126
00:10:13,259 --> 00:10:16,137
That was years before
I ever landed in an aircraft.
127
00:10:16,346 --> 00:10:19,265
Most of the troopers
was the same story.
128
00:10:19,474 --> 00:10:23,061
POWERS: Foolishly, I didn't think
it'd be so tough, but...
129
00:10:23,269 --> 00:10:27,357
The first time-- The first jump
you make is not all that bad.
130
00:10:27,565 --> 00:10:31,110
You don't know what you're doing.
When you step out...
131
00:10:31,361 --> 00:10:33,738
...the chute just opened right then.
132
00:10:34,155 --> 00:10:36,616
GARCIA:
As I went out the door, I was blank.
133
00:10:36,783 --> 00:10:39,369
I cannot remember leaving the plane...
134
00:10:39,535 --> 00:10:42,747
...until after the chute
opened up. My God.
135
00:10:42,956 --> 00:10:45,500
But after that, it wasn't as bad.
136
00:10:45,708 --> 00:10:49,420
It was a thrill.
It was like going on a roller coaster.
137
00:10:49,587 --> 00:10:51,923
You get off
and want to get back on.
138
00:10:52,382 --> 00:10:54,342
It was a thrill.
139
00:10:54,592 --> 00:10:57,428
It was a high, as they say these days.
140
00:10:57,971 --> 00:11:02,100
Everybody enjoyed themselves.
Landing was the hardest part.
141
00:11:02,350 --> 00:11:05,728
WYNN: Once that chute opened,
I was happy as a lark.
142
00:11:05,937 --> 00:11:08,439
You know, coming down is great.
143
00:11:08,898 --> 00:11:13,528
I was small too, and I didn't
hurt myself when I hit the ground.
144
00:11:13,903 --> 00:11:18,074
Some of the big ones hit
like a ton of-- What's his name?
145
00:11:18,283 --> 00:11:22,120
You worried most about your chute.
Did you pack it right?
146
00:11:22,328 --> 00:11:26,582
You'd pack it one day and jump the next
day. You thought about it all night.
147
00:11:26,749 --> 00:11:28,126
[STROHL CHUCKLES]
148
00:11:28,293 --> 00:11:30,044
You had...
149
00:11:30,253 --> 00:11:33,464
...ideas of what you might
have done wrong, or...
150
00:11:33,631 --> 00:11:35,633
But it worked out fine.
151
00:11:35,800 --> 00:11:39,262
We made five jumps
in the third week there.
152
00:11:39,470 --> 00:11:44,851
Then you were a qualified paratrooper.
Got your wings pinned on...
153
00:11:46,311 --> 00:11:51,482
...and became one of the elite members
of the parachute regiment.
154
00:11:51,691 --> 00:11:54,652
We were thoroughly prepared.
155
00:11:55,236 --> 00:11:56,779
WINTERS:
The men were...
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00:11:57,030 --> 00:12:00,283
...trained, hardened...
157
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...physically and mentally.
158
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And they were ready to jump.
159
00:12:10,084 --> 00:12:14,130
That's how we started
off for Normandy.
160
00:12:27,101 --> 00:12:31,522
When you walk up that gangplank,
you know you're gone.
161
00:12:32,357 --> 00:12:38,196
As you pull out of harbor,
and you pass the Statue of Liberty...
162
00:12:39,155 --> 00:12:42,408
"Will I ever be coming back?
I don't know."
163
00:12:49,332 --> 00:12:51,834
You know you're in a parachute troop.
164
00:12:52,043 --> 00:12:56,381
You're gonna be jumping behind
enemy lines. What do you expect?
165
00:12:57,382 --> 00:12:59,717
You have no idea.
166
00:13:01,594 --> 00:13:04,722
That'll make anybody stand...
167
00:13:04,931 --> 00:13:08,351
...and search his soul
for a few minutes.
168
00:13:14,190 --> 00:13:16,067
We were ready.
169
00:13:16,234 --> 00:13:20,863
We were stationed in England
for about a year before D-Day.
170
00:13:21,364 --> 00:13:25,243
We had a lot of maneuvers
and parachute jumping.
171
00:13:25,410 --> 00:13:28,246
They put us in a camp...
172
00:13:28,538 --> 00:13:30,248
...preparing us for D-Day.
173
00:13:30,456 --> 00:13:32,875
At just about a week before D-Day...
174
00:13:33,084 --> 00:13:38,089
...they put us in. No liberties, no
nothing. You couldn't get out of camp.
175
00:13:38,256 --> 00:13:41,759
WINTERS: They had guards around
the marshaling area...
176
00:13:41,926 --> 00:13:44,679
...so nobody could leave.
177
00:13:45,096 --> 00:13:47,932
That's when you felt
that, "This is it."
178
00:13:48,141 --> 00:13:50,685
We did not know which day.
179
00:13:50,893 --> 00:13:55,398
We did not know where we were
gonna jump until we were locked in.
180
00:13:55,648 --> 00:13:57,942
And then they had the briefing...
181
00:13:58,151 --> 00:14:02,196
...to tell you exactly
what your mission was.
182
00:14:02,405 --> 00:14:04,991
And they took this map...
183
00:14:05,158 --> 00:14:08,619
...and they made a model
of the features of the land.
184
00:14:08,786 --> 00:14:12,498
They put in all the buildings,
the bridges, the knolls...
185
00:14:12,665 --> 00:14:16,752
...all the sand dunes.
Everything was in on that layout.
186
00:14:16,961 --> 00:14:20,298
We knew it by heart.
We knew where we were going.
187
00:14:20,465 --> 00:14:22,341
We knew exactly what to do.
188
00:14:22,550 --> 00:14:26,220
I mean, if you could've been there
at the time to see...
189
00:14:26,471 --> 00:14:31,434
...where the planes were lined up and
all the gliders hooked up to the planes.
190
00:14:31,642 --> 00:14:35,438
STROHL: Tanks and trucks
and fields and fields of them.
191
00:14:35,688 --> 00:14:39,942
I had no idea that there was
that much hardware.
192
00:14:40,151 --> 00:14:42,987
No question, we knew
it was gonna be big.
193
00:14:43,154 --> 00:14:44,989
And that day...
194
00:14:45,198 --> 00:14:50,328
...that we got the orders
to get on the planes... This is it.
195
00:15:04,926 --> 00:15:08,012
We had confidence in our leaders...
196
00:15:08,221 --> 00:15:13,559
...and all the plans and preparations
that took place before the invasion.
197
00:15:14,769 --> 00:15:19,232
We were confident and calm.
198
00:15:39,752 --> 00:15:44,423
STOKES: We were all loaded down.
We carried everything we thought we could...
199
00:15:44,674 --> 00:15:47,385
...in the line of personal items...
200
00:15:47,593 --> 00:15:51,847
...plus the necessary things
we were assigned to carry.
201
00:15:52,056 --> 00:15:53,891
And we were loaded.
202
00:16:10,700 --> 00:16:13,119
LESNIEWSKI:
Everybody got in there...
203
00:16:14,078 --> 00:16:18,749
...and a lot of them were
very scared. I was scared too...
204
00:16:19,000 --> 00:16:22,920
...but probably in a different way
that other people were.
205
00:16:24,130 --> 00:16:26,757
As long as I was in that plane...
206
00:16:27,008 --> 00:16:30,136
...and they were gonna
get me there safely...
207
00:16:30,386 --> 00:16:33,556
...that's all that I worried about.
208
00:16:46,819 --> 00:16:49,822
At the time,
I had no feeling whatsoever.
209
00:16:50,072 --> 00:16:53,159
My feeling was for my brother,
who was killed.
210
00:16:56,037 --> 00:16:57,955
That infuriated me to no end.
211
00:16:58,164 --> 00:17:02,960
And that's why, when I jumped
on D-Day, I swore...
212
00:17:03,169 --> 00:17:06,797
I swore I would kill every damn
German I came across.
213
00:17:07,006 --> 00:17:11,469
That's why they nicknamed me
Wild Bill. I killed a lot on D-Day.
214
00:17:14,805 --> 00:17:17,808
The sky was clear,
coming across the channel.
215
00:17:18,017 --> 00:17:23,439
Since I was jump master, I could lie
at the plane door with my head out...
216
00:17:23,648 --> 00:17:26,025
...in the slipstream, looking down.
217
00:17:26,233 --> 00:17:29,487
And I saw the thousands
of craft, ships...
218
00:17:29,654 --> 00:17:32,490
...everything from LCIs
to battleships...
219
00:17:32,698 --> 00:17:37,536
...down there in the channel.
I think that's when I first realized...
220
00:17:37,828 --> 00:17:43,042
...how large the invasion was.
Tremendously large, the invasion was.
221
00:17:43,250 --> 00:17:46,087
We were out for
an hour and a half before we-
222
00:17:46,253 --> 00:17:48,756
We went down off the south end
of England...
223
00:17:49,006 --> 00:17:52,259
...and then across
the Jersey islands...
224
00:17:52,468 --> 00:17:55,888
...and then across
the Cherbourg peninsula.
225
00:17:56,138 --> 00:17:58,766
And that's when
the fireworks started.
226
00:18:01,894 --> 00:18:03,688
GUARNERE:
Flak was terrible.
227
00:18:03,896 --> 00:18:06,691
Anti-aircraft was absolutely horrendous.
228
00:18:06,857 --> 00:18:08,109
It was like...
229
00:18:08,317 --> 00:18:11,445
...a July the 4th celebration,
10 times over.
230
00:18:11,654 --> 00:18:15,199
Then it would hit
under the wings and body...
231
00:18:15,449 --> 00:18:20,371
...and you could hear it go, brrr,
like gravel hitting a car fender.
232
00:18:20,538 --> 00:18:22,707
You could see
tracers all over.
233
00:18:22,915 --> 00:18:25,960
Everybody wanted
to get out of the plane fast.
234
00:18:26,127 --> 00:18:29,922
Whether it was high, low,
no matter where we were. Out.
235
00:18:30,131 --> 00:18:32,383
They wanted out of the plane.
They were getting shot up.
236
00:18:32,550 --> 00:18:35,928
Finally, the pilots--
I happened to read their minds:
237
00:18:36,095 --> 00:18:38,514
"Okay, we got so much gas...
238
00:18:38,723 --> 00:18:43,477
...and we're gonna have
to get back to England.
239
00:18:43,686 --> 00:18:46,397
What do we do with all
the guys back here?
240
00:18:46,605 --> 00:18:48,941
Give them the green light. Get out."
241
00:18:49,191 --> 00:18:50,609
We're ready to jump.
242
00:18:50,818 --> 00:18:56,115
There was a relief when the green
light came on, and we said, "Let's go."
243
00:18:56,323 --> 00:18:58,576
Well, I jumped up on a run...
244
00:18:58,784 --> 00:19:03,539
...and hit the static line
with the hook and out the door...
245
00:19:04,290 --> 00:19:07,585
...and got such an opening shock...
246
00:19:07,752 --> 00:19:11,630
...from the prop blast,
that it broke this chin strap...
247
00:19:11,797 --> 00:19:14,341
...that we had on this helmet liner.
248
00:19:14,592 --> 00:19:19,930
And that's when I lost this famous
leg bag that everybody talks about...
249
00:19:20,139 --> 00:19:25,936
...just from the shock of the opening.
It just flew right off my foot.
250
00:19:26,145 --> 00:19:28,856
The British call them leg bags.
251
00:19:29,106 --> 00:19:33,652
They gotta be this big, and you
stuff everything you can into them.
252
00:19:33,861 --> 00:19:39,074
They're supposed to weigh 15 pounds.
By the time you're done, they're 60.
253
00:19:39,283 --> 00:19:42,870
Everyone that jumped
with a leg bag, they lost it.
254
00:19:43,120 --> 00:19:47,124
Most of the paratroopers
that landed didn't have nothing.
255
00:19:47,291 --> 00:19:48,876
I was one of them.
256
00:19:49,126 --> 00:19:50,711
It tore right off...
257
00:19:51,378 --> 00:19:55,633
...because we jumped at speeds
of 150 miles an hour...
258
00:19:55,800 --> 00:19:57,968
...maybe even higher. I don't know.
259
00:19:58,177 --> 00:20:00,679
And lower than we should've been.
260
00:20:00,888 --> 00:20:05,142
That wasn't bad either,
because you got to the ground quicker.
261
00:20:05,309 --> 00:20:09,647
When we went out the door, I looked
to see if my chute was open...
262
00:20:09,814 --> 00:20:12,942
...and I saw tracer bullets
burning holes in the chute.
263
00:20:13,108 --> 00:20:18,531
And they told us all you'll have to do
is shuffle up to the door...
264
00:20:18,781 --> 00:20:23,369
...throw that leg out, prop blast
will hit it, and you're gone.
265
00:20:24,370 --> 00:20:26,539
Well, they were right.
266
00:20:26,789 --> 00:20:30,417
Only I was going out,
and my leg was in...
267
00:20:30,626 --> 00:20:33,671
...and I was hanging upside down...
268
00:20:33,879 --> 00:20:37,675
...looking at everything down
with my leg in the plane.
269
00:20:37,842 --> 00:20:41,679
All this happened in a split second.
Paul rolled me out.
270
00:20:41,846 --> 00:20:43,681
Paul Rogers rolled me out.
271
00:20:43,848 --> 00:20:49,478
I just helped him out. I just picked
him up and threw him out, I guess.
272
00:20:49,687 --> 00:20:52,773
I had to get out.
We wanted to get out so bad.
273
00:20:52,982 --> 00:20:56,277
And I come down
right behind city hall...
274
00:20:56,485 --> 00:21:00,865
...watched them shoot at me all the way,
which wasn't very long.
275
00:21:01,115 --> 00:21:06,871
LIPTON: I could see the tracers. They were
kind of spraying around in the air.
276
00:21:07,246 --> 00:21:12,710
Whoever the machine gunner was down
there that was concentrating on me...
277
00:21:12,877 --> 00:21:15,379
...apparently was
not a very good shot.
278
00:21:15,546 --> 00:21:18,299
HEYLIGER:
They were firing in every direction.
279
00:21:18,507 --> 00:21:21,886
In front of you, back of you.
You don't know which way to go.
280
00:21:22,052 --> 00:21:26,557
The next thing is that you are
getting close to landing...
281
00:21:26,765 --> 00:21:31,020
...and you're saying,
"There's some trees. There's a road.
282
00:21:31,270 --> 00:21:37,234
Try and slip to avoid the trees. Try
and slip to avoid landing on the road."
283
00:21:37,401 --> 00:21:41,822
I slipped and my chute fell across
power lines, and I hit a fence...
284
00:21:42,031 --> 00:21:45,326
...and fell into a farmer's garden.
285
00:21:45,576 --> 00:21:49,330
I'll never forget that fence.
It had glass on top of it...
286
00:21:49,538 --> 00:21:53,125
...and cut me up,
but that didn't bother me.
287
00:21:53,375 --> 00:21:57,171
I just-- I was down,
and I got down with my gun.
288
00:21:58,213 --> 00:22:02,843
I hit the ground in a field, and we
were way-- I got looking at my map...
289
00:22:03,093 --> 00:22:05,638
...and we weren't close to where
we were supposed to be.
290
00:22:05,804 --> 00:22:07,640
We didn't know where we were.
291
00:22:07,806 --> 00:22:11,268
We was plumb off our maps
that they'd given us.
292
00:22:11,518 --> 00:22:15,397
So we had to make our way back.
We knew that the beach...
293
00:22:15,606 --> 00:22:21,153
...was to the east. We headed that way
to find out where the outfit was.
294
00:22:21,737 --> 00:22:26,575
My friend from Erie
was in another plane.
295
00:22:26,784 --> 00:22:31,872
When I hit the ground, I hit about
2 feet away from him.
296
00:22:32,122 --> 00:22:36,961
And him and I start walking around
looking for more of our troops.
297
00:22:37,211 --> 00:22:42,174
And we were running into Germans
everywhere, but we had to hide.
298
00:22:42,424 --> 00:22:47,596
You know, because if we didn't,
we were dead meat.
299
00:22:48,138 --> 00:22:52,393
And I laid in a tree.
I had my trench knife.
300
00:22:52,601 --> 00:22:55,813
And I reached up...
301
00:22:56,021 --> 00:23:00,818
...and grabbed hold-- It was a big
trunk, the tree, and I swung into it.
302
00:23:01,026 --> 00:23:05,906
I cut those risers with,
I think, one swipe.
303
00:23:06,073 --> 00:23:08,826
And I come down that
tree like a monkey.
304
00:23:08,993 --> 00:23:12,830
And then there I was
with a trench knife and a canteen...
305
00:23:12,997 --> 00:23:16,709
...and about six candy bars
in my pocket...
306
00:23:16,917 --> 00:23:21,088
...ready to fight
the German army, you know.
307
00:23:21,922 --> 00:23:26,135
So there's four guys
that were with me on D-Day...
308
00:23:26,343 --> 00:23:30,514
...who didn't have nothing
but a jump knife when they landed.
309
00:23:30,723 --> 00:23:34,935
So we had to hope, scrounge.
310
00:23:36,020 --> 00:23:38,063
As it worked out for all of us...
311
00:23:38,272 --> 00:23:42,109
...later on, we'd run across somebody
who had been killed...
312
00:23:42,317 --> 00:23:44,278
...and you'd take his weapon.
313
00:23:44,528 --> 00:23:48,490
And that's how you get
a weapon for D-Day.
314
00:23:48,699 --> 00:23:50,075
Rather haphazard.
315
00:23:50,325 --> 00:23:53,454
LIPTON: We were scattered
all over the peninsula...
316
00:23:53,704 --> 00:23:57,249
...so it was quite
a confused situation...
317
00:23:57,458 --> 00:24:01,045
...but we were better prepared
than the Germans were.
318
00:24:01,211 --> 00:24:03,756
The Germans didn't know
where we were.
319
00:24:03,964 --> 00:24:07,718
Whereas on the beach,
those people coming in on boats...
320
00:24:07,926 --> 00:24:11,722
...those Germans had guns
aimed at them, waiting on them.
321
00:24:11,930 --> 00:24:15,934
They had it tough.
I admire every one of them.
322
00:24:23,901 --> 00:24:27,738
MAN 1: These guns were pointed
and firing right down on the beach.
323
00:24:29,948 --> 00:24:36,080
People on the landing craft were coming
onto the beach and were being fired at.
324
00:24:48,008 --> 00:24:52,805
MAN 2: This battery of 1053 was placed
precisely where it should be...
325
00:24:53,013 --> 00:24:57,101
...to protect any troops
coming up that causeway.
326
00:24:57,851 --> 00:25:01,522
As you sit back years later,
you think:
327
00:25:01,772 --> 00:25:05,609
"This was laid out
exactly right, tactically."
328
00:25:15,744 --> 00:25:19,998
WINTERS: We thought we knew
every foxhole in Normandy.
329
00:25:20,207 --> 00:25:23,460
We knew where everything was.
We knew it cold.
330
00:25:23,710 --> 00:25:27,756
But on this one, the Germans
had moved in there...
331
00:25:28,006 --> 00:25:32,845
...and camouflaged it so well,
we didn't know it was there.
332
00:25:45,274 --> 00:25:48,652
E Company was the assault company
of the battalion.
333
00:25:48,902 --> 00:25:53,991
We were trained from special assaults
and whatnot, special assignments.
334
00:25:54,241 --> 00:25:59,663
They weren't aware of what we had. They
didn't realize we only had 12 people.
335
00:25:59,913 --> 00:26:03,167
We worked our way down
through the farm area...
336
00:26:03,375 --> 00:26:08,172
...to a hedgerow. Lt. Winters
had us set up a firing position.
337
00:26:08,547 --> 00:26:12,342
And I went up
to scout it for myself...
338
00:26:12,551 --> 00:26:15,387
...crawled out along this hedgerow...
339
00:26:15,679 --> 00:26:21,351
...to get a little closer, to look it
over, and I felt I could see a trench.
340
00:26:21,768 --> 00:26:25,022
And I thought I knew
where our machine gun was.
341
00:26:25,272 --> 00:26:26,607
LIPTON:
Winters...
342
00:26:26,815 --> 00:26:29,693
...was an exceptional leader.
343
00:26:29,943 --> 00:26:34,323
And he was able to size up,
all through the war...
344
00:26:34,531 --> 00:26:39,161
...size up combat situations
and decide quickly...
345
00:26:39,369 --> 00:26:44,499
...and correctly the best way to take
care of whatever the problem was.
346
00:26:44,708 --> 00:26:49,338
I divided the group into two units.
Lt. Compton was with me.
347
00:26:49,546 --> 00:26:52,299
I gave him half the men,
and I took half.
348
00:26:53,342 --> 00:26:58,555
I gave instructions, "I want
Compton, Malarkey...
349
00:26:58,764 --> 00:27:03,727
...and Wynn to crawl up there
and hand-grenade that machine gun.
350
00:27:03,977 --> 00:27:09,399
Crawl through the grass,
and as you throw your grenades...
351
00:27:09,566 --> 00:27:12,402
...I'll charge up
with the rest of the guys."
352
00:27:12,569 --> 00:27:14,613
I had the two machine guns set up...
353
00:27:15,155 --> 00:27:18,951
...to give him covering fire
while he crawled up there.
354
00:27:19,159 --> 00:27:21,370
I get out to this hedgerow...
355
00:27:21,578 --> 00:27:25,749
...and I peek- I look out,
and I peek through the bushes...
356
00:27:25,958 --> 00:27:31,463
...and I see a couple of Germans
over there, about 30, 50 yards away...
357
00:27:31,755 --> 00:27:34,591
...stoking this gun and firing it.
358
00:27:36,176 --> 00:27:38,762
I pull out a grenade
and pull the pin...
359
00:27:38,929 --> 00:27:43,517
...and I threw it as high
and as far as I could throw it...
360
00:27:43,684 --> 00:27:47,688
...in their general direction.
It had enough hang time on it...
361
00:27:47,854 --> 00:27:51,942
...that by the time it got to them,
it went off in the air, and I got one of them.
362
00:27:52,150 --> 00:27:55,279
WINTERS: I jumped up with other guys,
and we charged...
363
00:27:55,445 --> 00:28:00,158
...so that we all jumped into
the first position together.
364
00:28:00,492 --> 00:28:04,913
They had trenches cut in where
they worked, the Germans did.
365
00:28:05,122 --> 00:28:07,416
They jumped down
in them trenches...
366
00:28:07,666 --> 00:28:11,169
...and they worked them Germans
like a ghost assault.
367
00:28:11,378 --> 00:28:16,133
Three Germans broke off
from this position...
368
00:28:16,800 --> 00:28:21,305
...to run across the field,
which was the wrong thing to do...
369
00:28:21,471 --> 00:28:22,973
...from their viewpoint.
370
00:28:24,308 --> 00:28:25,892
We cut them down.
371
00:28:26,351 --> 00:28:30,814
I was in a trench, and I looked,
and I saw an arm.
372
00:28:31,106 --> 00:28:34,651
I didn't even see-- The man
was in a camouflage tent...
373
00:28:34,901 --> 00:28:39,197
...and I didn't see him. Then I saw
an arm stuck out of that tent...
374
00:28:39,406 --> 00:28:42,159
...and one of those
potato-masher grenades...
375
00:28:42,367 --> 00:28:45,746
...you know, with a stick
come out of there.
376
00:28:45,996 --> 00:28:47,789
I said,
"He's gonna miss me."
377
00:28:47,998 --> 00:28:51,043
It fell right down
in that trench with me.
378
00:28:51,209 --> 00:28:55,297
I was trying to scuttle my way
out of the way, and it went off...
379
00:28:55,505 --> 00:29:00,344
...and I felt like it blew my butt
over my head, and it pretty near did.
380
00:29:00,677 --> 00:29:04,681
He's behind the enemy lines on D-Day.
381
00:29:04,890 --> 00:29:07,267
Does he holler, "Help"?
382
00:29:07,476 --> 00:29:08,685
No.
383
00:29:08,852 --> 00:29:14,524
He hollers, "I'm sorry, lieutenant.
I'm sorry. I goofed."
384
00:29:15,025 --> 00:29:20,697
I felt like I kind of let him down,
but that's neither here nor there.
385
00:29:20,864 --> 00:29:23,283
My God.
386
00:29:26,286 --> 00:29:32,292
It's beautiful when you
think of a guy who's...
387
00:29:32,876 --> 00:29:37,881
...so dedicated to his company,
to his buddies...
388
00:29:38,131 --> 00:29:43,387
...that he apologizes for getting hit,
but that's the kind of guy he was.
389
00:29:43,678 --> 00:29:47,808
That's the kind each one of them was.
They were all the same.
390
00:29:53,313 --> 00:29:58,610
I look upon them,
each man, with great respect.
391
00:29:58,902 --> 00:30:00,987
Respect I can't describe.
392
00:30:01,738 --> 00:30:04,908
Each one of them proved himself...
393
00:30:05,992 --> 00:30:07,953
...that he...
394
00:30:08,203 --> 00:30:10,372
...could do the job.
395
00:30:16,586 --> 00:30:21,591
We've been through Normandy, through
battle. Maybe if I had been harder...
396
00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:26,930
...if I had done a little bit better job,
more men would've gone home.
397
00:30:40,819 --> 00:30:44,072
I never thought
I'd get through D-Day...
398
00:30:44,322 --> 00:30:49,453
...let alone the next phase. I thought
I was gonna get killed instantly.
399
00:30:50,412 --> 00:30:53,748
The chances of survival is very slim.
400
00:30:53,915 --> 00:30:56,126
Extremely slim.
401
00:30:58,628 --> 00:31:00,839
There's the parachute.
402
00:31:01,089 --> 00:31:05,635
I got that done
in Edinburgh, Scotland, 1944.
403
00:31:05,886 --> 00:31:08,221
Me and Johnny Martin.
404
00:31:08,430 --> 00:31:09,973
Drunk as a skunk.
405
00:31:10,307 --> 00:31:16,521
Guamere and I decided
we'd go to Scotland and get a tattoo.
406
00:31:16,813 --> 00:31:20,650
We didn't figure
we had a chance to come home.
407
00:31:23,653 --> 00:31:25,238
But...
408
00:31:26,490 --> 00:31:28,241
Yep.
409
00:31:28,408 --> 00:31:30,035
We thought, "Well, hell...
410
00:31:30,243 --> 00:31:35,665
...the war is just starting, and Christ,
we're 50 percent gone now.
411
00:31:35,832 --> 00:31:38,043
So it's a long haul."
412
00:31:44,466 --> 00:31:47,677
The 101 st came back from Normandy
after about 33 days...
413
00:31:47,844 --> 00:31:51,389
...and we were replacements
for those who were killed...
414
00:31:51,556 --> 00:31:53,767
...or wounded in Normandy.
415
00:31:54,726 --> 00:31:57,896
McCLUNG:
There were young kids that came in...
416
00:31:58,146 --> 00:32:01,274
...and for some reason,
I don't know why...
417
00:32:02,150 --> 00:32:04,361
...they were the first ones killed.
418
00:32:04,653 --> 00:32:07,572
And I think maybe
they were trying...
419
00:32:07,864 --> 00:32:13,495
...to impress the older guys,
maybe people like me or Shifty.
420
00:32:13,703 --> 00:32:18,250
We were in awe of them. They had
infantry badges on their uniform.
421
00:32:18,458 --> 00:32:22,712
They had a star on their
jump wings. They...
422
00:32:23,713 --> 00:32:27,217
They were our heroes.
That's how we looked at them.
423
00:32:27,884 --> 00:32:31,096
I don't know why, but I got
right there to where...
424
00:32:31,304 --> 00:32:35,767
...I didn't want to be friendly
with replacements coming in...
425
00:32:35,976 --> 00:32:39,896
...because, God, I didn't like
seeing them get killed.
426
00:32:40,146 --> 00:32:43,233
It just tore me up, and...
427
00:32:44,359 --> 00:32:47,904
I don't know why, but they
were the first ones killed.
428
00:32:48,154 --> 00:32:51,783
My 10-man squad that I was in,
eight were replacements.
429
00:32:51,950 --> 00:32:55,245
The squad leader and
the assistant squad leader...
430
00:32:55,412 --> 00:32:59,749
...Sgt. Muck and Cpl. Penkala
had been to Normandy. We hadn't.
431
00:32:59,958 --> 00:33:03,587
The eight of us hadn't
been anywhere but Aldboume.
432
00:33:03,795 --> 00:33:07,966
The training got really tough
between there and the Holland jump.
433
00:33:08,133 --> 00:33:10,135
Training, training, training.
434
00:33:10,302 --> 00:33:13,221
We had missions scratched.
We were to jump on...
435
00:33:13,388 --> 00:33:15,265
...a French city of Touraine.
436
00:33:15,432 --> 00:33:17,642
And it got to the sand-table part...
437
00:33:17,809 --> 00:33:21,354
...where we gathered round
to see who was gonna do what...
438
00:33:21,563 --> 00:33:26,359
...and Patton's troops overran
the drop zone, so that was called off.
439
00:33:26,526 --> 00:33:31,948
We were wondering if we'd ever get to
go, and then it got to be September.
440
00:33:39,080 --> 00:33:44,836
MAN 1: It was a Sunday afternoon,
noontime, 70 degrees.
441
00:33:45,086 --> 00:33:47,005
MAN 2:
The drop was perfect.
442
00:33:47,255 --> 00:33:50,467
Everybody was dropping
on the same field.
443
00:33:50,675 --> 00:33:55,430
MAN 3: Daytime drops are a lot easier.
You can prepare for the landing.
444
00:33:55,597 --> 00:33:59,434
MAN 4: I saw a plowed field,
and I slipped right over it.
445
00:33:59,643 --> 00:34:04,898
I believe I almost landed standing up,
you know, soft. A great jump.
446
00:34:05,106 --> 00:34:08,902
MAN 5: The most dangerous part about it
was that people were...
447
00:34:09,110 --> 00:34:14,240
...losing helmets and equipment, and
all this equipment's raining down...
448
00:34:14,407 --> 00:34:17,702
...and if you got hit with this,
you're gonna be killed...
449
00:34:17,869 --> 00:34:20,497
...or wounded before you
got off the drop zone.
450
00:34:20,664 --> 00:34:24,876
MAN 6: Everybody got together.
We all assembled very fast.
451
00:34:25,126 --> 00:34:28,672
We moved out towards
the Wilhelmina Canal.
452
00:34:28,838 --> 00:34:34,260
Our mission was, first, to take
a bridge over the Wilhelmina Canal.
453
00:34:34,469 --> 00:34:37,263
It took us hours to get there.
454
00:34:37,430 --> 00:34:41,059
And taking hours to get there,
the few German troops...
455
00:34:41,309 --> 00:34:45,689
...that were securing this bridge
had plenty of time...
456
00:34:45,855 --> 00:34:48,692
...to set their charges
to blow the thing up.
457
00:34:48,900 --> 00:34:53,154
And just as we got to it,
I was maybe 150 yards away...
458
00:34:53,321 --> 00:34:55,532
...it blew up in our faces.
459
00:34:59,786 --> 00:35:04,165
Rocks and timbers were flying
and falling all around you...
460
00:35:04,332 --> 00:35:10,130
...and you can't help but think,
"My God, what a way to die in combat...
461
00:35:10,296 --> 00:35:14,551
...to be killed with a flying timber."
462
00:35:15,552 --> 00:35:17,095
We were that close.
463
00:35:17,303 --> 00:35:21,766
LIPTON: It delayed us until morning.
We wanted to get across that night...
464
00:35:21,975 --> 00:35:26,229
...but it took us fill
the next morning to get across.
465
00:35:26,479 --> 00:35:30,567
But once we got in, the Dutch--
466
00:35:31,568 --> 00:35:34,320
It was just marvelous, their reaction.
467
00:35:34,571 --> 00:35:37,824
They loved Americans, and still do...
468
00:35:38,074 --> 00:35:43,329
...for coming in there
and pushing the Germans out.
469
00:35:49,127 --> 00:35:53,256
They called us "angels
from the sky," which we were.
470
00:35:53,423 --> 00:35:58,136
I mean, you're under German
occupation for four years, right?
471
00:35:58,344 --> 00:36:01,431
It's horrible, and you see
paratroopers come out of the sky...
472
00:36:01,598 --> 00:36:02,932
...on a Sunday morning.
473
00:36:03,099 --> 00:36:06,770
Who were they? They were the angels.
They loved you.
474
00:36:07,020 --> 00:36:09,439
WINTERS:
Their welcome was unbelievable.
475
00:36:09,606 --> 00:36:15,278
They couldn't restrain
how happy they were to see you.
476
00:36:15,445 --> 00:36:18,114
It was hard to get
down the streets...
477
00:36:18,281 --> 00:36:20,867
...because the people
were swarming over us...
478
00:36:21,075 --> 00:36:23,661
...trying to congratulate us
for being there.
479
00:36:23,870 --> 00:36:27,457
ROGERS: They hugged you and kissed you,
and we didn't mind.
480
00:36:27,624 --> 00:36:30,502
Naturally, we was young,
We didn't mind at all.
481
00:36:30,960 --> 00:36:34,297
STOKES: And they were really proud
to see us in there...
482
00:36:34,506 --> 00:36:38,176
...to the point where it
was dangerous for us...
483
00:36:38,468 --> 00:36:42,180
...trying to clean out the town
because snipers did damage...
484
00:36:42,347 --> 00:36:44,474
...in a situation like that.
485
00:36:56,903 --> 00:37:01,324
We had a lot of fighting
because we're on the Rhine River...
486
00:37:01,491 --> 00:37:03,660
...and Germany is across the river.
487
00:37:03,868 --> 00:37:07,497
They're fighting like heck
to keep us out of Germany.
488
00:37:07,789 --> 00:37:13,503
It's called "The Island." We called it
The Island, and we set up...
489
00:37:14,003 --> 00:37:16,172
...positions there.
490
00:37:16,339 --> 00:37:19,926
We had some substantial battles there.
491
00:37:20,260 --> 00:37:24,180
WINTERS: They could observe any
movement we made during the daytime...
492
00:37:24,389 --> 00:37:27,559
...and at their will...
493
00:37:27,725 --> 00:37:32,480
...they could just shell us. Mortar--
Put mortar fire on us...
494
00:37:32,689 --> 00:37:36,359
...when they had
a target of opportunity.
495
00:37:36,526 --> 00:37:38,778
I heard something coming down.
496
00:37:38,987 --> 00:37:41,030
I knew what it was...
497
00:37:41,239 --> 00:37:46,035
...a mortar shell, and I threw
my arm up, like that...and went down.
498
00:37:46,202 --> 00:37:48,705
It lit within 3 feet of me, 4.
499
00:37:48,955 --> 00:37:53,877
But when it blows,
it goes up like that:
500
00:37:54,168 --> 00:37:59,257
It went through my arm and hit me in
the head. I was bleeding pretty good.
501
00:37:59,465 --> 00:38:02,427
Well, I was picked to go up on a dike.
502
00:38:02,677 --> 00:38:08,224
So, of course, when you get
to the top, you don't expose yourself.
503
00:38:08,433 --> 00:38:11,436
I took my rifle
and put my helmet on it...
504
00:38:11,686 --> 00:38:17,692
...and put it over, even with
the road, on a dike.
505
00:38:17,859 --> 00:38:21,529
No action, so I brought it back down,
put the helmet on...
506
00:38:21,696 --> 00:38:23,531
...and I sort of peeked over.
507
00:38:23,740 --> 00:38:29,287
When I peeked over, I saw a hand with
a potato masher, and he threw it at me.
508
00:38:29,454 --> 00:38:32,248
I ducked. It hit my helmet
and bounced off.
509
00:38:32,415 --> 00:38:37,253
When that thing bounced off my helmet,
I hollered to the guys below:
510
00:38:37,420 --> 00:38:38,630
"Live grenade."
511
00:38:38,838 --> 00:38:41,424
If Lesniewski hadn't
hollered, "Live grenade"...
512
00:38:41,591 --> 00:38:45,136
...and I had enough sense to know
that that's that grenade...
513
00:38:45,303 --> 00:38:50,934
...that hit my rifle and is right
in front of my face, practically...
514
00:38:51,100 --> 00:38:53,603
...I'd have either
had my head blown off...
515
00:38:53,811 --> 00:38:58,441
...or I'd have definitely been blinded.
There's no question about that.
516
00:38:58,691 --> 00:39:01,736
Because I just got turned,
just part way...
517
00:39:01,903 --> 00:39:06,491
...and it exploded, and it
caught me in the face, neck...
518
00:39:06,741 --> 00:39:09,702
...left arm, under the arm,
in the shoulder.
519
00:39:09,911 --> 00:39:13,957
I hollered for them to take off.
I said, "Get the hell back."
520
00:39:14,123 --> 00:39:18,127
I had eight grenades,
so I had taken them off...
521
00:39:18,294 --> 00:39:20,713
...pulled the pins
and threw them over.
522
00:39:20,964 --> 00:39:27,303
And while the grenades were rolling
down or landing wherever they were...
523
00:39:27,470 --> 00:39:30,139
...they were hitting
some of the Krauts...
524
00:39:30,348 --> 00:39:33,184
...because I could hear
screaming, crying.
525
00:39:33,476 --> 00:39:37,355
I think I threw eight grenades
in about four seconds.
526
00:39:37,563 --> 00:39:39,816
And then I took off running.
527
00:39:39,983 --> 00:39:43,736
So the doctor that counted
the holes in me down at Nijmegen...
528
00:39:43,903 --> 00:39:45,405
Yeah, Nijmegen.
529
00:39:45,571 --> 00:39:49,409
The first doctor that
really counted the holes...
530
00:39:49,575 --> 00:39:51,786
...said there was 32.
531
00:39:51,953 --> 00:39:57,542
That was our first experience
with artillery in large numbers.
532
00:39:57,709 --> 00:40:03,631
I can remember sitting there a couple
of nights listening to artillery land.
533
00:40:03,798 --> 00:40:05,800
Pshhh, Wham.
534
00:40:05,967 --> 00:40:11,347
And the 88 was the fiercest
cannon that the Germans had.
535
00:40:11,514 --> 00:40:14,559
It was the way they used it,
an all-purpose gun.
536
00:40:14,726 --> 00:40:18,730
It could shoot anti-aircraft tanks,
anti-personnel, airburst.
537
00:40:18,896 --> 00:40:21,649
That was the bad ones,
when shells went up.
538
00:40:23,359 --> 00:40:28,781
I saw a huge mushroom cloud...
539
00:40:31,200 --> 00:40:32,785
...from the shell...
540
00:40:33,369 --> 00:40:36,664
...and Joe Toye stepped out of it.
541
00:40:36,831 --> 00:40:40,209
I run up. I remember that
like it was yesterday.
542
00:40:40,376 --> 00:40:45,048
I run up, and I grabbed him.
He said, "Don't touch me."
543
00:40:45,214 --> 00:40:50,845
I said, "What's the matter?" He said,
"I'm hit all over." He said, "I'm bad."
544
00:40:51,012 --> 00:40:54,057
I said, "Okay."
I said, "I'm gonna go see Jim."
545
00:40:54,223 --> 00:41:00,688
He said, as bad as he was hurting,
Joe Toye, he said:
546
00:41:01,272 --> 00:41:06,861
"Heffron, I already
checked him. He's gone."
547
00:41:12,366 --> 00:41:18,414
Jim Campbell might be alive today
if he hadn't said to me:
548
00:41:18,581 --> 00:41:23,169
"Heffron, you stay here with your gun.
549
00:41:23,586 --> 00:41:25,630
I'm going up."
550
00:41:28,591 --> 00:41:34,639
And I never, never, never-
I sleep on it, I eat on it...
551
00:41:36,265 --> 00:41:39,644
I never, never forgot that.
552
00:41:41,187 --> 00:41:43,940
And anybody that went through it...
553
00:41:44,107 --> 00:41:49,403
...will tell you the same thing.
They can't- Nah.
554
00:41:50,822 --> 00:41:52,698
It's just...
555
00:41:53,825 --> 00:41:59,330
...so bad all your life, you gotta
remember what one guy did...
556
00:41:59,497 --> 00:42:05,419
...because he thought it was his job
to do, and he took a shot for you.
557
00:42:14,804 --> 00:42:19,934
MAN 1: The exhaustion on these men,
the physical exhaustion...
558
00:42:20,101 --> 00:42:25,148
...affects their endurance
to be able to cope.
559
00:42:25,523 --> 00:42:29,193
MAN 2: You don't realize it at the time
you come off the line...
560
00:42:29,360 --> 00:42:34,657
...from living in the mud
and being absolutely miserable...
561
00:42:34,824 --> 00:42:37,869
...for 70 days straight.
562
00:42:38,077 --> 00:42:41,497
You didn't realize
that you'd only be off the line...
563
00:42:41,664 --> 00:42:45,918
...for a few days, and you're
gonna be facing Bastogne.
564
00:42:51,674 --> 00:42:57,471
This is the last desperate
action of the Germans...
565
00:42:57,638 --> 00:43:01,100
...to turn the tide of this whole war.
566
00:43:45,519 --> 00:43:48,731
HEFFRON:
What it is, it is Bastogne. It is--
567
00:43:48,898 --> 00:43:53,819
GUARNERE: This is Bo Jack's woods, right?
HEFFRON: It is the woods.
568
00:43:53,986 --> 00:43:56,948
Sure looks different now.
There ain't no snow.
569
00:43:58,532 --> 00:44:00,910
GUARNERE:
These trees might've been replanted.
570
00:44:01,077 --> 00:44:06,374
HEFFRON: I think if the trees look
like they did in '44 or '45...
571
00:44:06,540 --> 00:44:09,126
...we could get a better idea.
572
00:44:09,919 --> 00:44:12,797
- That's it.
GUARNERE: Yeah.
573
00:44:14,006 --> 00:44:15,549
That's the town of Fey.
574
00:44:16,300 --> 00:44:20,513
Oh, this is definitely the area.
This is definitely.
575
00:44:21,264 --> 00:44:27,186
There's the town of Foy, after the empty
field, where those cattle are grazing.
576
00:44:27,353 --> 00:44:28,854
GUARNERE:
About half a mile away.
577
00:44:29,021 --> 00:44:33,526
HEFFRON: Yeah, we had an outpost set up
looking right into the town of Foy.
578
00:44:33,693 --> 00:44:38,364
They had to watch everything
because we'd come in here and sleep.
579
00:44:38,531 --> 00:44:43,327
We had our foxholes right over here,
and the other area and the other.
580
00:44:43,494 --> 00:44:47,290
Wherever we had to move out
and dig in again...
581
00:44:47,456 --> 00:44:50,084
...because the Krauts had artillery.
582
00:44:50,251 --> 00:44:53,379
GUARNERE: Most intense I ever
went through here, shelling.
583
00:44:53,546 --> 00:44:57,967
Most intense in the world. Couldn't
believe it. You had to be here.
584
00:44:58,134 --> 00:45:01,554
You just dove in the hole
and prayed, and that's it.
585
00:45:01,721 --> 00:45:04,307
If it comes in,
you ain't gonna know it.
586
00:45:04,473 --> 00:45:09,145
We lost Muck and Penkala over
on this side. They were killed instantly.
587
00:45:09,312 --> 00:45:13,107
The shell went down,
direct hit right in the hole.
588
00:45:13,274 --> 00:45:16,736
- Made mush out of them.
- Luz come over and hollered:
589
00:45:16,902 --> 00:45:20,031
"I can't see nothing of them,
nothing there."
590
00:45:20,197 --> 00:45:22,992
They were all gone,
just disintegrated.
591
00:45:23,159 --> 00:45:25,494
Unmerciful shelling, really.
592
00:45:25,786 --> 00:45:32,126
Everything out here was shredded.
Yeah, shredded by it.
593
00:45:36,797 --> 00:45:39,508
I tell you, it's an odd feeling.
594
00:45:40,301 --> 00:45:46,223
To me, it brings a lot of memories,
memories of the men, the times...
595
00:45:46,390 --> 00:45:49,352
...good and bad, a lot of memories.
596
00:45:58,652 --> 00:46:03,949
It was the most miserable place
I've ever been in my life, even today.
597
00:46:04,116 --> 00:46:06,869
On a real cold night,
we go to bed...
598
00:46:07,036 --> 00:46:12,124
...and my wife will tell you,
I'll say, "I'm glad I'm not in Bastogne."
599
00:46:12,333 --> 00:46:16,212
The Germans wanted Bastogne
because of the road network.
600
00:46:16,379 --> 00:46:19,048
That's why it was such an objective.
601
00:46:19,215 --> 00:46:23,010
So that's where we had
to hold, which we did.
602
00:46:27,390 --> 00:46:30,142
WINTERS: Three hundred and eighteen
trucks come in...
603
00:46:30,309 --> 00:46:33,854
...around noontime,
and by that evening...
604
00:46:34,021 --> 00:46:37,525
...everybody was loaded
and moving out.
605
00:46:37,691 --> 00:46:39,860
LIPTON:
We were short of equipment.
606
00:46:40,027 --> 00:46:44,240
We didn't have enough ammunition
or enough warm clothes.
607
00:46:44,407 --> 00:46:48,577
But we had confidence that...
608
00:46:48,744 --> 00:46:53,541
...our higher military authorities
would get to us whatever we needed.
609
00:46:53,707 --> 00:46:57,670
When we got up there, we didn't know
what we were getting into.
610
00:46:57,837 --> 00:47:00,047
There was very little information...
611
00:47:00,214 --> 00:47:02,591
...only that the Germans had
broken through.
612
00:47:02,758 --> 00:47:07,638
MAN: We went down, loaded on the trucks.
Another truck came by with weapons...
613
00:47:07,805 --> 00:47:12,893
...and pitched weapons. You catch one,
that's what you got until Bastogne.
614
00:47:13,060 --> 00:47:16,522
As it worked out,
there was some men who actually...
615
00:47:16,689 --> 00:47:21,318
...got on the trucks and left
for Bastogne that didn't have a rifle.
616
00:47:26,073 --> 00:47:30,286
When we got there, we saw men
singly and in twos and threes...
617
00:47:30,453 --> 00:47:34,248
...working their way back,
some of them without weapons...
618
00:47:34,415 --> 00:47:36,083
...without equipment.
619
00:47:36,250 --> 00:47:38,085
Some of them were terrified.
620
00:47:38,627 --> 00:47:42,131
They were beat to a nub.
Every one of them were saying:
621
00:47:42,298 --> 00:47:45,301
"They're gonna kill everybody.
Running over everybody."
622
00:47:45,468 --> 00:47:50,681
They couldn't believe, when they
saw us up there, that we intended...
623
00:47:50,848 --> 00:47:53,809
...to set up lines
and stop the Germans.
624
00:47:53,976 --> 00:47:55,853
They said they couldn't be stopped.
625
00:47:56,020 --> 00:48:00,107
We went in and started taking up
their weapons and ammunition.
626
00:48:00,274 --> 00:48:05,446
Asking the retreating guys, "You got
any extra ammunition or grenades?"
627
00:48:05,613 --> 00:48:09,700
You could hear the firing going
on up ahead, and we're marching...
628
00:48:09,909 --> 00:48:11,911
...to it with little ammunition.
629
00:48:12,077 --> 00:48:17,333
We marched through the night, went
to the front of Bastogne and dug in.
630
00:48:17,500 --> 00:48:19,168
And then it snowed.
631
00:48:19,335 --> 00:48:24,173
Snow, cold up to your rump.
632
00:48:24,340 --> 00:48:27,510
We didn't have
no winter clothing or nothing.
633
00:48:27,676 --> 00:48:31,013
A third of the doggone casualties
was either...
634
00:48:31,180 --> 00:48:35,100
...frostbite or trench foot,
whatever you want to call it.
635
00:48:35,267 --> 00:48:39,688
Bad move. A lot of snow...
636
00:48:39,855 --> 00:48:43,108
...a lot of everything
you didn't like.
637
00:48:43,984 --> 00:48:46,195
It was a cold place.
638
00:48:46,362 --> 00:48:50,366
At this particular time,
we was on top of kind of a hill...
639
00:48:50,533 --> 00:48:53,869
...and the top of the hill
had pine trees.
640
00:48:54,036 --> 00:48:57,623
We set up our positions around
the fringe of the woods.
641
00:48:57,790 --> 00:49:01,544
In Belgium, trees are planted.
They don't grow like in Maine.
642
00:49:01,710 --> 00:49:03,504
There are rows of trees.
643
00:49:03,671 --> 00:49:06,340
You look down a row
and can see half a mile.
644
00:49:06,507 --> 00:49:10,052
On top of this hi",
there was a ridge with a tree line.
645
00:49:10,219 --> 00:49:11,845
We were dug in there.
646
00:49:12,012 --> 00:49:17,560
The Germans knew right where we were,
and they really gave us a shellacking.
647
00:49:21,897 --> 00:49:24,817
To an infantryman...
648
00:49:25,776 --> 00:49:30,030
...in wartime, the mother earth
is your best friend.
649
00:49:33,284 --> 00:49:36,912
You could always dig a hole and get
out of sight, you know.
650
00:49:37,079 --> 00:49:40,291
We dug plenty of those.
651
00:49:44,253 --> 00:49:46,755
You'd be surprised how quick you can
get through hard ground...
652
00:49:46,922 --> 00:49:50,050
...when someone's shooting at you,
and shells are falling.
653
00:49:50,217 --> 00:49:54,138
You can make fast work of it.
We just have to dig that hole.
654
00:49:54,305 --> 00:49:57,683
We say we became experts
on foreign European soil.
655
00:49:57,850 --> 00:50:01,604
We dug in, and two people
could dig better than one.
656
00:50:01,770 --> 00:50:06,442
In ground that's frozen, it takes
a while. You just chip it out.
657
00:50:06,609 --> 00:50:10,613
By the time you finish, they
whistle to you, "We're moving out."
658
00:50:10,779 --> 00:50:13,616
And you go someplace else
and dig another one.
659
00:50:13,782 --> 00:50:16,285
You must understand,
the Germans were--
660
00:50:16,452 --> 00:50:21,165
We were surrounded. The Germans
were maybe 100 yards away from us.
661
00:50:21,332 --> 00:50:26,712
No matter where you looked in a circle,
you could see artillery flashes.
662
00:50:26,879 --> 00:50:30,799
So we knew from that
that we were surrounded.
663
00:50:30,966 --> 00:50:34,845
WINTERS: But we went through a couple
of shellings at Bastogne...
664
00:50:35,012 --> 00:50:39,183
...that were earthshaking.
665
00:50:39,350 --> 00:50:43,937
If you lived through them, you remember
them for the rest of your life.
666
00:50:44,104 --> 00:50:47,691
I'm not sure you're the same
for the rest of your life...
667
00:50:47,858 --> 00:50:51,445
...after you've lived through them.
You never forget them.
668
00:50:51,612 --> 00:50:55,407
ZIMMERMAN: There was one moment
I remember. I'll never forget it.
669
00:50:55,574 --> 00:50:58,327
One guy got hit in the arm
with shrapnel...
670
00:50:58,494 --> 00:51:01,163
...took his arm off above the elbow.
671
00:51:01,330 --> 00:51:05,334
They were taking him out, he said,
"Get my watch off my arm."
672
00:51:05,501 --> 00:51:07,252
Before they took him out.
673
00:51:07,419 --> 00:51:10,464
That always stayed with me.
674
00:51:10,631 --> 00:51:15,386
I mean, calm voice and everything,
"Get my watch off my arm."
675
00:51:16,887 --> 00:51:22,559
On the 3rd of January, we withdrew
back to our former positions...
676
00:51:22,726 --> 00:51:28,524
...there, up the hill from Foy.
And when we got there...
677
00:51:28,691 --> 00:51:34,071
...we could see that the Germans
had zeroed in artillery there.
678
00:51:34,238 --> 00:51:38,617
Trees were knocked down.
There were holes in the ground.
679
00:51:38,784 --> 00:51:41,787
It was right at dusk, and
the Germans had this...
680
00:51:41,954 --> 00:51:45,916
This woods of ours
zeroed in completely.
681
00:51:46,083 --> 00:51:50,212
And as we hit the woods,
this tremendous artillery attack came.
682
00:51:56,927 --> 00:51:59,138
They knew where we were...
683
00:51:59,304 --> 00:52:03,392
...and started shooting,
point-blank, 883 into our area.
684
00:52:03,559 --> 00:52:07,146
They let us have it.
Everything, the kitchen sink...
685
00:52:07,312 --> 00:52:11,233
...mortars, a rocket thing
with a screaming sound.
686
00:52:14,194 --> 00:52:18,532
It scared the hell-- I was scared,
but I think I was petrified then.
687
00:52:18,699 --> 00:52:22,119
I thought the whole world
was shooting at us at once.
688
00:52:22,327 --> 00:52:27,583
I jumped into a foxhole somebody
had started and hadn't finished.
689
00:52:27,750 --> 00:52:33,213
So I was crouched down in that foxhole,
but it wouldn't hold all of me.
690
00:52:33,380 --> 00:52:36,133
From about my nose up
was above the ground.
691
00:52:36,300 --> 00:52:39,261
I could see all these shells hitting.
692
00:52:44,433 --> 00:52:47,770
Sgt. Guarnere
and Joe Toye each lost a leg...
693
00:52:47,936 --> 00:52:51,732
...in the same place, right there
on one hi“. I remember.
694
00:52:51,899 --> 00:52:53,734
Just this certain instance.
695
00:52:53,942 --> 00:52:59,698
Joe got caught not near his hole,
and Bill and I were ahead of him...
696
00:52:59,865 --> 00:53:02,451
...and Bill had not been hit.
697
00:53:02,618 --> 00:53:06,830
He came up out of his hole quickly.
We were still under heavy fire.
698
00:53:07,080 --> 00:53:10,334
Joe said, "Jesus Christ...
699
00:53:10,501 --> 00:53:13,962
...what do I have to do to die?"
700
00:53:14,129 --> 00:53:16,757
He got hit real bad
in the back of his leg.
701
00:53:16,924 --> 00:53:20,594
He's out hollering, "Medic,"
and he can't find a medic.
702
00:53:20,761 --> 00:53:24,890
I went out to see what
I could do for him, bongo, I got it too.
703
00:53:27,976 --> 00:53:31,730
I went over to Guamere.
He was sitting on the ground.
704
00:53:31,897 --> 00:53:35,317
His leg was badly mangled.
705
00:53:35,484 --> 00:53:39,696
He was holding his leg,
and it was jerking like that:
706
00:53:44,618 --> 00:53:49,832
He said, "Lip, they got
old Guarnere this time."
707
00:53:49,998 --> 00:53:54,545
He had been hit before,
but they really got him there.
708
00:53:57,005 --> 00:54:01,593
We got him out of there,
Babe Heffron and I and some others.
709
00:54:01,760 --> 00:54:07,808
And they brought a jeep down,
and we put him on stretchers.
710
00:54:11,937 --> 00:54:14,356
I better not talk about him.
711
00:54:14,523 --> 00:54:16,859
I better not talk about him.
712
00:54:17,025 --> 00:54:19,194
It was terrible.
713
00:54:25,325 --> 00:54:28,996
We had lost some
very good men there.
714
00:54:29,162 --> 00:54:32,583
Toye and Guamere
had lost their legs there.
715
00:54:32,749 --> 00:54:38,630
A number of other people were killed.
It was a difficult situation there.
716
00:54:38,797 --> 00:54:43,010
When a man was wounded,
we felt glad for them...
717
00:54:43,176 --> 00:54:44,970
...we felt happy for them.
718
00:54:45,137 --> 00:54:51,518
He had a ticket to get out of there,
and maybe a ticket to go home.
719
00:54:51,685 --> 00:54:54,980
And when we had a man
who was killed...
720
00:54:55,147 --> 00:54:59,651
...we found that he was at peace.
721
00:54:59,818 --> 00:55:02,738
And he looked so peaceful.
722
00:55:03,614 --> 00:55:07,910
And we were glad that he found peace.
723
00:55:13,081 --> 00:55:15,334
We had this...
724
00:55:15,500 --> 00:55:18,921
...assistant squad leader,
name of Mellet.
725
00:55:19,087 --> 00:55:22,007
He was from New York City.
726
00:55:22,174 --> 00:55:24,885
And I overheard him
talking one time...
727
00:55:25,052 --> 00:55:29,056
...this was in Bastogne,
he says:
728
00:55:29,222 --> 00:55:32,351
"I been through...
729
00:55:32,517 --> 00:55:35,646
...Normandy and went
through Holland...
730
00:55:35,812 --> 00:55:38,774
...and to this day, I haven't
got one scratch."
731
00:55:38,941 --> 00:55:44,488
He says, "I'm afraid when I do get it,
I'm really gonna get it."
732
00:55:44,655 --> 00:55:46,448
And he was right.
733
00:55:46,615 --> 00:55:51,286
In this little town of Foy,
he got killed.
734
00:55:55,666 --> 00:56:00,963
I don't think he had any premonition
of it. He just wondered about it.
735
00:56:01,129 --> 00:56:03,173
But I never did wonder.
736
00:56:03,340 --> 00:56:09,096
Never give it much thought.
You just live from day to day.
737
00:56:11,306 --> 00:56:16,061
Keep your fingers crossed,
and that was it.
738
00:56:34,788 --> 00:56:36,832
MAN [OVER SPEAKERS]: I have the honor to present...
739
00:56:36,999 --> 00:56:40,002
...the supreme commander,
General Eisenhower.
740
00:56:43,505 --> 00:56:48,802
EISENHOWER [OVER SPEAKERS]: It is a great
personal honor for me to be here today.
741
00:56:48,969 --> 00:56:54,850
To take part in a ceremony
that is unique in American history.
742
00:56:55,017 --> 00:56:58,895
Never before has a full division...
743
00:56:59,062 --> 00:57:01,606
...been cited by the War Department...
744
00:57:01,773 --> 00:57:05,569
...in the name of the president
for gallantry in action.
745
00:57:05,736 --> 00:57:09,865
This day marks the beginning
of a new tradition...
746
00:57:10,032 --> 00:57:12,617
...in the American Army.
747
00:57:12,784 --> 00:57:16,830
With that tradition will always
be associated the name...
748
00:57:16,997 --> 00:57:22,044
...of the 101 st Airborne Division
and of Bastogne.
749
00:57:22,210 --> 00:57:25,630
Good luck and God be with each of you.
750
00:57:34,389 --> 00:57:39,478
The Germans had started to surrender.
They still had their arms...
751
00:57:39,644 --> 00:57:44,983
...but as you're going
down the autobahn...
752
00:57:45,150 --> 00:57:51,531
...there was almost a solid line
of German troops coming north.
753
00:57:51,907 --> 00:57:57,079
And our job is to get to the end
and get to the heart of it.
754
00:58:01,041 --> 00:58:04,711
Berchtesgaden,
that's the end of the line.
755
00:58:04,878 --> 00:58:09,132
It's the retreat that Hitler
had for himself.
756
00:58:09,299 --> 00:58:12,552
And he built his Eagle's Nest...
757
00:58:12,719 --> 00:58:16,932
...his penthouse on top of the Alp...
758
00:58:17,099 --> 00:58:22,229
...to, I'm sure, relax
and confer with his staff...
759
00:58:22,395 --> 00:58:25,690
...because they all followed
him to Berchtesgaden.
760
00:58:25,857 --> 00:58:29,069
This was their final retreat.
761
00:58:29,319 --> 00:58:32,697
Of course, this is where
they had their loot as well.
762
00:58:32,948 --> 00:58:37,327
This was the goal of the French,
who were on our right flank.
763
00:58:37,494 --> 00:58:41,998
This was the goal of the British.
764
00:58:42,165 --> 00:58:47,045
And this is the place to capture.
This is the one everybody wanted.
765
00:58:47,212 --> 00:58:49,464
MAN:
Hitler's Berchtesgaden retreat...
766
00:58:49,631 --> 00:58:52,717
...burned by SS troops
in the war's last days.
767
00:58:52,884 --> 00:58:57,222
The chalet from which he hoped
to rule the world now lies in ruins.
768
00:58:57,389 --> 00:59:00,642
American Air Force's pictures
show the gutted rooms...
769
00:59:00,809 --> 00:59:05,605
...and the great window through which
the führer gazed out on the Alps.
770
00:59:05,814 --> 00:59:11,319
We took Berchtesgaden May the 5th,
no fighting, no shooting.
771
00:59:11,486 --> 00:59:14,656
The only thing I seen
of Berchtesgaden was a couple...
772
00:59:14,865 --> 00:59:19,077
...dead SS troopers laying
on the road as we were going up.
773
00:59:19,327 --> 00:59:24,666
It was beautiful country. He knew how
to pick out a good spot for a house.
774
00:59:24,833 --> 00:59:29,963
We took over his house...
775
00:59:30,130 --> 00:59:32,382
...and liberated it, you might say.
776
00:59:32,591 --> 00:59:37,512
There was, obviously,
loot of all kinds...
777
00:59:37,679 --> 00:59:42,767
...that the men were looking for,
such as guns...
778
00:59:42,934 --> 00:59:46,062
There was money
that they were looting.
779
00:59:46,229 --> 00:59:49,566
I was a pack rat anyway.
I picked up a lot of German items...
780
00:59:49,733 --> 00:59:54,154
...including some post cards
and envelopes addressed to Hitler.
781
00:59:54,321 --> 00:59:57,741
Come to find out, that place
was full of big art...
782
00:59:57,908 --> 01:00:02,454
...Rembrandt and all those people
hanging on the wall.
783
01:00:02,621 --> 01:00:06,583
Old soldiers like us, we don't recognize
a painting when we see it.
784
01:00:06,750 --> 01:00:11,546
MAN: The 101 st Airborne Division uncovers
Hermann Goen'ng's art collection. . .
785
01:00:11,713 --> 01:00:14,382
...hidden in a subterranean chamber.
786
01:00:14,549 --> 01:00:18,178
Twelve hundred artworks
worth untold millions are included.
787
01:00:18,345 --> 01:00:23,308
The treasures will go back to rightful
owners in pillaged nations.
788
01:00:25,685 --> 01:00:31,650
We found a warehouse full of gin
and vodka and stuff like that.
789
01:00:31,816 --> 01:00:34,903
Wasn't much whiskey.
Those people don't like it.
790
01:00:35,070 --> 01:00:37,781
And we took it all and set up a bar.
791
01:00:37,948 --> 01:00:41,117
Had seven truckloads
of champagne and cognac...
792
01:00:41,284 --> 01:00:44,079
...out of the wine cellars
out of the Eagle's Nest.
793
01:00:44,246 --> 01:00:45,997
[CHUCKLES]
794
01:00:46,164 --> 01:00:49,000
So we stayed
pretty well oiled for a while.
795
01:00:49,167 --> 01:00:52,337
Oh, that champagne was good.
Oh, that was good.
796
01:00:52,504 --> 01:00:57,842
I started drinking it one day, and I
drank until about midnight that night.
797
01:00:58,009 --> 01:01:02,889
I went to the back and went to sleep.
I didn't wake up the next day.
798
01:01:03,056 --> 01:01:06,351
I made a two-day thing out of it.
799
01:01:06,518 --> 01:01:11,773
It didn't taste like it would hurt you.
It tasted like ginger ale.
800
01:01:11,940 --> 01:01:16,236
That was the only time I remember,
when I was in service...
801
01:01:16,403 --> 01:01:18,822
...that the company fell out
in their underwear.
802
01:01:18,989 --> 01:01:21,700
We didn't even have
to dress, you know.
803
01:01:21,866 --> 01:01:27,664
Everybody was looped, and so we fell
out in line formation in our underwear.
804
01:01:27,831 --> 01:01:31,084
They're enjoying themselves.
They're at peace with the world.
805
01:01:31,251 --> 01:01:35,463
They have a big, happy,
satisfied grin on their face.
806
01:01:35,630 --> 01:01:39,759
It was a paradise for
a soldier to move into.
807
01:01:40,635 --> 01:01:45,849
I had no problem with the looting,
because I came down through Germany.
808
01:01:46,016 --> 01:01:50,812
And I had seen the Holocaust.
809
01:01:51,688 --> 01:01:56,568
And I had seen what the Germans
had done to the Jewish race.
810
01:01:56,735 --> 01:02:02,324
And I had seen what they
had done to the displaced persons...
811
01:02:02,490 --> 01:02:06,286
...and what they had done
in their occupation of France.
812
01:02:06,453 --> 01:02:12,709
And what they had done to their
occupation in Holland, Belgium.
813
01:02:14,294 --> 01:02:19,424
So that by taking over
their homes for a few nights...
814
01:02:19,591 --> 01:02:22,635
...to bed down my men...
815
01:02:22,802 --> 01:02:27,849
And if they picked up
a few trinkets, I had no problem.
816
01:02:39,027 --> 01:02:45,075
Nobody has ever taken their time
to tell you how to handle a surrender.
817
01:02:45,658 --> 01:02:46,868
Jeez.
818
01:02:47,035 --> 01:02:53,458
We'll talk about it when we get there.
Well, here we are. How do you handle this?
819
01:02:58,963 --> 01:03:01,800
POWERS: The German army
was a well-disciplined army.
820
01:03:01,966 --> 01:03:04,636
Those prisoners that
come down out of the Alps...
821
01:03:04,803 --> 01:03:07,680
...they came down in formation.
They marched down.
822
01:03:07,847 --> 01:03:11,393
They didn't drag down
or nothing like that.
823
01:03:11,559 --> 01:03:16,564
They came down
as defeated soldiers.
824
01:03:16,731 --> 01:03:21,194
We thought the Germans were
the evilest people in the world...
825
01:03:21,361 --> 01:03:26,825
...but as the war went along, we found
out also, it wasn't the Germans...
826
01:03:26,991 --> 01:03:31,579
...per se, it was the SS
and the special troops.
827
01:03:31,746 --> 01:03:36,042
They were the ones
that could kill their own people...
828
01:03:36,209 --> 01:03:41,005
...and the regular German soldier
was not that way.
829
01:03:41,172 --> 01:03:44,717
O'KEEFE: One of those prisoners
handed me this little book...
830
01:03:44,884 --> 01:03:48,430
...and it was a Catholic
prayer book for the Mass.
831
01:03:48,596 --> 01:03:53,560
And I realized, "Hey, I haven't got
Nazis here. I've got some Catholics."
832
01:03:53,726 --> 01:03:57,647
And I've got a Catholic good enough
to stick one of these in his pocket.
833
01:03:57,814 --> 01:04:02,068
A lot of those soldiers, I've thought about
this often, we might've been friends.
834
01:04:02,235 --> 01:04:03,486
We might've had a lot in common.
835
01:04:03,653 --> 01:04:08,783
We might've liked to fish. He might've
liked to hunt. You never know.
836
01:04:08,950 --> 01:04:13,788
They did what they were supposed to,
and I did what I was supposed to.
837
01:04:13,955 --> 01:04:19,461
But under different circumstances,
we might've been good friends.
838
01:04:20,336 --> 01:04:23,965
I have a great deal of respect
for them as soldiers.
839
01:04:24,132 --> 01:04:27,093
They were very good soldiers.
840
01:04:27,260 --> 01:04:29,721
But they're still enemy...
841
01:04:30,054 --> 01:04:35,768
...so they must
be controlled as prisoners.
842
01:04:36,144 --> 01:04:41,483
When it reached the level
of surrender for company...
843
01:04:41,649 --> 01:04:43,818
...and smaller units...
844
01:04:43,985 --> 01:04:47,155
...I was assigned this major...
845
01:04:47,322 --> 01:04:50,909
...and when he walked in...
846
01:04:51,075 --> 01:04:54,204
...he presented me this pistol...
847
01:04:54,370 --> 01:05:00,335
...and offered
his personal surrender...
848
01:05:03,296 --> 01:05:09,260
...which, naturally,
I accepted gratefully.
849
01:05:09,594 --> 01:05:14,015
So that would be the end
of the war for his men...
850
01:05:14,182 --> 01:05:17,769
...and this is basically
the end of the war for my men.
851
01:05:17,936 --> 01:05:20,230
And the significance is...
852
01:05:20,396 --> 01:05:25,109
...it wasn't until later, after he gave
me his pistol and I had a chance...
853
01:05:25,318 --> 01:05:29,531
...to look at it carefully,
that I realized this pistol...
854
01:05:29,697 --> 01:05:32,075
...had never been fired.
855
01:05:32,617 --> 01:05:35,328
There was no blood on it.
856
01:05:36,996 --> 01:05:40,166
That's the way all wars should end...
857
01:05:40,333 --> 01:05:43,711
...with an agreement
with no blood on it.
858
01:05:43,878 --> 01:05:47,757
And I assure you, this pistol
has never, never been fired...
859
01:05:47,924 --> 01:05:52,387
...since I've had it,
and it will not be fired.
860
01:06:06,109 --> 01:06:08,570
ROGERS: We didn't come home
and flout ourselves.
861
01:06:08,736 --> 01:06:11,447
I didn't come home and say
I was a war hero.
862
01:06:11,614 --> 01:06:16,077
I came home and went back to it like
we did before we went. Just go to work...
863
01:06:16,244 --> 01:06:18,413
...and live our life.
864
01:06:19,372 --> 01:06:23,418
I think it was difficult
for most fellows coming back.
865
01:06:23,585 --> 01:06:28,423
They didn't know what they were going
to do when they got out. I didn't.
866
01:06:28,590 --> 01:06:30,592
MAN 1:
Went to work for a coal company.
867
01:06:30,758 --> 01:06:34,262
MAN 2: Did some bartendering
and ran a pool hall.
868
01:06:34,429 --> 01:06:37,390
HEYLIGER: Took up a course in
ornamental horticulture.
869
01:06:37,557 --> 01:06:41,769
It didn't pay very much,
but I met a lot of nice people.
870
01:06:44,647 --> 01:06:47,942
MAN 3: I went to work where
I was working before the war.
871
01:06:48,109 --> 01:06:49,986
It was Caterpillar Tractor Company.
872
01:06:50,153 --> 01:06:53,448
MAN 4: I became an industrial arts
and social studies teacher.
873
01:06:53,615 --> 01:06:57,118
MAN 5: The spring of '46, I took
a boat to Ketchikan, Alaska.
874
01:06:57,285 --> 01:07:01,706
MAN 6: I went to work for the government,
a letter carrier for 37 years.
875
01:07:01,873 --> 01:07:04,292
GUARNERE:
I built homes. I was in construction.
876
01:07:04,459 --> 01:07:06,794
I went into hard work, tedious work.
877
01:07:06,961 --> 01:07:10,465
I'd done everything.
You name it, I done it.
878
01:07:11,883 --> 01:07:14,302
MAN 7: I ended up working
on the waterfront.
879
01:07:14,469 --> 01:07:16,721
MAN 8: I went with the CIA
in Washington.
880
01:07:16,888 --> 01:07:18,640
MAN 9:
Got my degree in 1948.
881
01:07:18,806 --> 01:07:21,768
MAN 10: After the war, I taught
for almost 30 years.
882
01:07:21,934 --> 01:07:24,896
WINTERS: Got a job working for
Nixon Nitration Works.
883
01:07:25,063 --> 01:07:28,066
I was making $75 a week.
884
01:07:28,232 --> 01:07:30,860
MALARKEY: We've never become
wealthy in life...
885
01:07:31,027 --> 01:07:35,156
...but we have a lot of other wealth
that means more than that.
886
01:07:35,323 --> 01:07:40,119
Everyone done well,
I done well too, thank God.
887
01:07:47,168 --> 01:07:52,799
I want to welcome you
to our banquet tonight to celebrate...
888
01:07:52,965 --> 01:07:55,385
...the ending of a fine reunion.
889
01:07:55,551 --> 01:07:57,345
Thank you all for coming.
890
01:07:57,512 --> 01:08:01,057
I want to extend the best wishes
to all the men from company E506.
891
01:08:01,224 --> 01:08:04,852
I love you, God bless you all.
Thank you.
892
01:08:05,978 --> 01:08:08,314
The purpose the reunions serve...
893
01:08:08,481 --> 01:08:12,360
...is to give us a chance to get
together and talk to each other.
894
01:08:12,527 --> 01:08:17,365
We relive some
of the Army experiences.
895
01:08:17,532 --> 01:08:20,910
But we have great respect...
896
01:08:21,077 --> 01:08:24,539
...and, you might say,
affection for each other.
897
01:08:24,706 --> 01:08:28,167
The type of affection you get
when you've lived through...
898
01:08:28,334 --> 01:08:31,129
...many dangerous
situations together...
899
01:08:31,295 --> 01:08:34,424
...and have learned that
you can rely on each other.
900
01:08:34,590 --> 01:08:40,054
If you see them today, that bond's
there. The bond you can't explain.
901
01:08:40,221 --> 01:08:45,476
Soon as you see them, you're thinking
of battles, thinking of it to yourself.
902
01:08:45,643 --> 01:08:48,187
The men stand out amongst each other.
903
01:08:48,354 --> 01:08:53,484
There's an intimacy develops and like
nothing that I've ever experienced...
904
01:08:53,651 --> 01:08:57,947
...not in college, not with
any other group of people.
905
01:08:58,114 --> 01:09:02,744
We're a strange bunch of dudes,
as far as I'm concerned.
906
01:09:02,910 --> 01:09:09,167
To be this close after all these years,
that's the thing that gets me...
907
01:09:09,333 --> 01:09:11,961
...is we're like brothers.
908
01:09:12,128 --> 01:09:13,796
ROGERS:
I'm back in my youth now.
909
01:09:13,963 --> 01:09:18,134
When I get to these guys,
I'm back when I went in the service.
910
01:09:18,885 --> 01:09:24,015
It's fantastic.
I'd like to make 20 more reunions.
911
01:09:24,182 --> 01:09:28,102
POWERS: We had a lot of real
good times in there.
912
01:09:28,269 --> 01:09:31,647
Those are the times
you really remember, you know?
913
01:09:31,814 --> 01:09:36,903
A lot of those is what we kid each
other about at these reunions a lot.
914
01:09:37,069 --> 01:09:40,698
And then you had a lot of bad times.
915
01:09:40,990 --> 01:09:44,410
My family didn't know
anything about it...
916
01:09:44,577 --> 01:09:47,121
...and I just didn't tell them.
917
01:09:47,288 --> 01:09:50,208
I just, you know,
figured it was something...
918
01:09:50,374 --> 01:09:54,128
...that didn't need talking about.
It was done, over with.
919
01:09:54,295 --> 01:09:58,633
We didn't know Shifty the way
the men knew Shifty, you know.
920
01:09:58,800 --> 01:10:03,638
He started talking about it
just in the last five or six years.
921
01:10:03,805 --> 01:10:05,723
Last five, I'd say.
922
01:10:05,890 --> 01:10:09,811
It was like he--
That was another life, you know.
923
01:10:09,977 --> 01:10:15,900
He was another person, and we weren't
aware of the stuff he went through...
924
01:10:16,067 --> 01:10:17,860
...things he had seen.
925
01:10:18,027 --> 01:10:22,156
It didn't even dawn on me
that he had killed people.
926
01:10:22,323 --> 01:10:26,035
I really admire my dad, my daddy.
927
01:10:26,202 --> 01:10:30,164
He's a good guy.
He's a real strong guy.
928
01:10:30,331 --> 01:10:34,710
We travel a lot, and we've been
to France and to that cemetery.
929
01:10:34,877 --> 01:10:39,674
It's incredible. There's crosses
upon crosses lined up perfectly...
930
01:10:39,841 --> 01:10:45,555
...as far as the eye can see, and then
there's a cliff and the ocean.
931
01:10:46,138 --> 01:10:48,933
These weren't
just anonymous statistics.
932
01:10:49,100 --> 01:10:52,979
These were people I knew,
and I told my daughter, I said:
933
01:10:53,145 --> 01:10:57,483
"This guy here died at age 19 or 20."
934
01:10:57,650 --> 01:11:01,112
A whole life never lived.
935
01:11:01,279 --> 01:11:04,156
No family...
936
01:11:04,323 --> 01:11:05,533
...nothing.
937
01:11:05,700 --> 01:11:07,910
No children...
938
01:11:08,077 --> 01:11:13,666
...no opportunity to have satisfaction
in building a life, nothing.
939
01:11:14,125 --> 01:11:18,129
When I went there, I said,
"Dad, my gosh, you were so lucky."
940
01:11:18,296 --> 01:11:21,424
He looked at me and said,
"Yeah, I'm very lucky."
941
01:11:21,591 --> 01:11:24,010
And he started Owing.
942
01:11:25,761 --> 01:11:29,307
These guys have been together
in the absolute base experiences...
943
01:11:29,473 --> 01:11:32,768
...of human existence.
They were there with each other...
944
01:11:32,935 --> 01:11:37,899
...thinking you're gonna die or seeing
people dying all around you.
945
01:11:38,065 --> 01:11:41,235
And there they went day after day...
946
01:11:42,570 --> 01:11:46,824
...and I admire that and held my father,
even on his tombstone...
947
01:11:46,991 --> 01:11:50,828
...as Sergeant Joe Toye.
948
01:11:52,788 --> 01:11:55,750
506 PIR 101 st Airborne Division.
949
01:11:55,917 --> 01:12:01,005
That's what he wanted on his tombstone.
It meant that much to him.
950
01:12:11,182 --> 01:12:15,186
LIPTON: How it happened that
those various individuals...
951
01:12:15,353 --> 01:12:17,897
...ended up in E Company,
I don't know.
952
01:12:18,064 --> 01:12:23,069
But as you know, every Army unit
thinks it's the best...
953
01:12:23,235 --> 01:12:26,364
...but we knew we were the best.
954
01:12:30,534 --> 01:12:33,245
I think about the guys
more than anything.
955
01:12:33,412 --> 01:12:35,623
I think about most
of them every day.
956
01:12:35,790 --> 01:12:40,836
It's something that's etched
in your memory, I guess.
957
01:12:41,587 --> 01:12:44,256
It'll never leave either.
958
01:12:45,174 --> 01:12:48,803
Am I proud of having served
in that outfit? You bet your life.
959
01:12:48,970 --> 01:12:51,973
I were that eagle
on my right shoulder for 18 years.
960
01:12:52,139 --> 01:12:54,308
Probably the proudest thing
in my whole life...
961
01:12:54,475 --> 01:12:58,354
...was having been
in Easy Company 506.
962
01:13:01,482 --> 01:13:04,443
GUARNERE: The heroes had crosses
over their heads...
963
01:13:04,610 --> 01:13:07,321
...the ones that are buried
in the cemeteries.
964
01:13:07,488 --> 01:13:09,949
Those are the true heroes, not us.
965
01:13:10,116 --> 01:13:12,410
We're just part of the works.
966
01:13:12,576 --> 01:13:16,664
And we thank God we got
back alive. That's all.
967
01:13:18,666 --> 01:13:23,462
HEFFRON: How would you like to be a mother
or a father to a son never come back?
968
01:13:25,339 --> 01:13:29,677
The son and the mother and the father
are the heroes of World War II...
969
01:13:29,844 --> 01:13:32,304
...not the guys that come home.
970
01:13:34,849 --> 01:13:37,018
POWERS:
Let me say this...
971
01:13:38,728 --> 01:13:41,897
...I believe there's very,
very few heroes...
972
01:13:42,064 --> 01:13:46,819
...that came back from the war.
They're still over there.
973
01:13:56,162 --> 01:14:00,916
WINTERS: Do you remember the letter
that Mike Ranney wrote me?
974
01:14:01,083 --> 01:14:03,627
Do you remember how he ended it?
975
01:14:04,545 --> 01:14:09,383
"I cherish the memories
of a question my grandson...
976
01:14:09,550 --> 01:14:14,013
...asked me the other day
when he said:
977
01:14:14,180 --> 01:14:18,184
Grandpa, were you
a hero in the war?'
978
01:14:20,519 --> 01:14:23,355
Grandpa said, 'No...
979
01:14:27,151 --> 01:14:30,738
...but I served
in a company of heroes.”
980
01:15:49,483 --> 01:15:54,029
HEFFRON: Joe Toye.
Oh, there was a big mick.
981
01:15:54,280 --> 01:15:59,034
And we used to have a few beers
at night, and I'd sing.
982
01:15:59,869 --> 01:16:02,329
Guamere would
come over and sing.
983
01:16:02,496 --> 01:16:04,290
He'd say to Guarnere:
984
01:16:04,456 --> 01:16:08,002
"Guarnere, you're Italian,
you don't know this song."
985
01:16:08,169 --> 01:16:10,838
Guarnere could sing
it better than he did.
986
01:16:11,005 --> 01:16:12,590
"Bridget O'Flynn."
987
01:16:12,756 --> 01:16:14,466
MAN:
How's it go?
988
01:16:15,634 --> 01:16:18,470
[SINGING "BRIDGET O'FLYNN"]
989
01:17:08,229 --> 01:17:12,900
Now, that's the song Toye liked,
and that's what we sang.
990
01:17:13,067 --> 01:17:16,779
You only needed a sisal of beer.
Two beers you were drunk...
991
01:17:16,946 --> 01:17:19,657
...because you were
in great physical condition.
992
01:17:19,823 --> 01:17:22,910
You were too piqued, you know...
993
01:17:23,077 --> 01:17:27,539
...and two beers you were as high
as Georgia pine, you know.
88230
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