E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne
Band-Of-Brothers
The WWII nonfiction book Band Of Brothers by Stephen E. Ambrose follows an elite fighting group through their battles in Europe. The boys of E Company, or Easy Company, were an airborne assault force that would drop from C-47s into the heat of battle. They were the first to drop into the Battle of Normandy on D-Day with the task to take out naval artillery guns pointed at Utah Beach. Without their courage on this historical day there would have been little to no chance for the men on the beach to have made it up; furthermore, they could easily have been the most important players in the battle.
The men from Easy were the best trained men of the war in Europe, they were able to push themselves harder and longer than any other group of men in in the war. Thanks to their training and dedication to their work in the States they came into battle for the first time with better knowledge than the battle hardened Veterans. After the Battle of Normandy the airborne and men from the 506th Regiment were tasked to secure the town of Carentan, France to set up a field HQ (Head Quarters). The battle was a house by house street by street battle, though they had little resistance at times it took 8 days for the men of Easy to secure the town of Carentan. When the 101st were nearing the end of the battle they received a message confirming a large German armored counteroffensive on the town within the next couple of hours. The three different companies in the town took up different defensive positions on the outskirts of the town; one to the left, one on the right, with Easy Company right in the middle. They took positions behind hedgerows, large hills ranging from 4 to 8 feet used to separate different plots of farmland, providing good cover and an advantage from the attacking German tanks. As the German armor started to climb the rows of hedgerows it would expose the tank's unarmored underbellies and give the airborne just enough time to take out tanks with a rocket to their underside. The battle raged on for a wile longer until the US's 1st tank battalion ant the 1st mechanized infantry battalion came in and pushed back the Germans. The town of Carentan was finally captured by the US on the 12th of June, 1944, and the battles outside the town ended on the 14th. ![http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/utah/maps/MAP19.JPG](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_thaK3UtA2pv5FJ-hyaQOL9WppV9_Yzi2AH5oqsjdrYyjxvo785fYfxUZdhB0sQCd687kiZOXvHgQirM6Km4Fq2Bc8zERpXLPWYRJ6KBkEmVKFIMyrfK4Ubn_VE31I=s0-d)
The 101st Airborne of Easy Company were the major backbone of all the attacks and defensive actions they were apart of in the battles of Europe, their intense training and combat abilities made them nearly unstoppable. From the Invasion of Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest and every battle in between the 101st served their country well and fought with a force never seen before in modern combat.
The 101st Airborne of Easy Company were the major backbone of all the attacks and defensive actions they were apart of in the battles of Europe, their intense training and combat abilities made them nearly unstoppable. From the Invasion of Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest and every battle in between the 101st served their country well and fought with a force never seen before in modern combat.
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