Band Of Brothers Actors and WWII Veterans visit the Bois Jacques Bastogne - Dec 2016

no way I am going out any more than I have to when lieutenant orders us to go out I'll go out but I'm not gonna volunteer to do that so should we tell the story about the yeah well I'm gonna try to do to pump in just a little bit afraid just pointed out also being a machine gun position here hard to move things around over the years we've done a lot of research through kind of pinpoint and maybe put some names of some of the foxholes and that's descriptions if you put it all together from the veterans from the families coming here we can't afford ninety percent sure and this is a smoky Gordon that senators machine and we were here yesterday the day before yesterday and actually his son Scotty Gordy was missing by the accounts of your father so we like let's say 99.99% shore here that this is Walter Gordon's position no the first snow came in in in Bastogne it's okay I'm gonna just lower my voice a little bit so you have to be extra quiet that's the first heavy snow started to come in under 24 in December that same day the Germans launched their first large infantry attack supported by a half drags and small tanks coming from the direction of flow coming up here and it's during that is the first moments of that attack that Walter Gordon who I think he was like like drinking a cup of coffee when he gets shot by a sniper from from the road and a bullet kind of entered one shoulder and can cut off out of the oldest shoulder and he kind of was semi-paralyzed drop down in the hole now smokey was evacuated mathematics back to the logging roads which is a bit like like 100 yards that way where they give him first aid for his treatment in the miniseries there's a the scene when Matic I don't know it was Rover that's working on on on Gordon and Lipton is checking out if he could give any help the Gordon's flying their ice claws no studies he kind of gains consciousness again and it says that the Lipton get off my hand but look like I'm sorry standing all his fingers that's the scene and for a long time I thought that that was just made up by Holly but apparently that's the true story under smokey Gordon was evacuated yet multiple surgeries after the war but luckily he was one of the guys who was able to return home and tell the story now what happened when Gordon was shot is in the next photo with McClung George galell mo mo Ali gets to him he's one of the first guys to get to him and the first thing out of smoke keys mouth is mo my 45 because he didn't want what he didn't want to happen was he didn't want to be evacuated then some rear echelon guy Steele is 45 so the first thing he said was mo my 45 hands it off to him and mo had it for the rest of the war by the way uses it through the rest of the war and he immediately jumped on the machine gun because of the attack that was happening so you don't want to have your machine gun go down in it in an attack or a counter attack it's just it's the platoons lifeblood in terms of firepower so he knew mo Ali being a smart paratrooper and had been trained well on a 30 caliber hopped right in behind that machine gun which was odd because normally the assistant gunner takes over the gun Mellet had to been helping pull smokey out of the position and then Moe jump in took over the gun for Market Garden there was a small town or two towns that were called slang a leg majority Market Garden they cold slinky the Americas called slinky week so no the town of the time of flaw has been in and out of American and German hands at least four times changed hands costly most of the times before Christmas and after the 26th of December actually the Germans ought to fight it until mid-january generate thirteen when the last souls on for a flock sorry occurring occurred and that's the one of Easy Company was holding now is accomplished they they're dug in until the second of January and that's when they were moved out for the coal of thousands yard advance which means they had to cross the main road and cleared that section of the woods more hard number two now that would quite well not too much resistance but it's well during its one night that they were over there that Donald who blew shooters shot himself you know in Assyria Kasim shoot a German from the wards back grabbing the Luger well that part you may erase from your memory because I believe he picked it up the Luger portion yes but he actually did shoot journey on horseback okay that car would had written about so that that incident did occur but what happened was during the crossroads fight in Holland who blur after they were done the initial engagement would managed to acquire a Belgian 32 pistol and Belgian 32 s don't have safeties so he had he had a propensity of playing with it in his pocket he would keep in his pocket it was something he'd always wanted to capture a pistol and he had kept it in his pocket and as he was moving from hole to hole talking to the fellows he but event he came up to a tree where was a little bit low-hanging branch they had snow on the branch and he had bumped into it the snow had fell down the back of his jacket says he shrugged his shoulders to shrug the snow out of his jacket pistol fired it severed his artery in his leg and they did try to save him but unfortunately passed he was part of what was called the Ohio contingent Johnny Martin Shep Howell Rob Rader and Don who blur with a Ohio contingent and just a little insight and the kind of guys these were so on Christmas Eve Rob Rader who was the first squad leader in 1st platoon and Don Hoover who was his assistant squad leader decided that they didn't want their guys pulling what's called LP Opie it's listening post observation post typically we'll put a few small post out in front of your lines act like a tripwire if the enemy attacks you pull them back and then you know they're coming what he company moved to this line they wanted the dramas not frozen yet but it was not easy to dig these holes because it's saturated with roots how long did it take you to dig a foxhole or a trench like this and it's a arel that depends on it goes much faster when they're shooting at you but you should imagine this like a hole to see here now this is like a machine in position t-shaped hole the other ones it's like a two or three man foxhole when it got cold or getting in December and especially the cold experience the second and the third week of January you know these guys had to sleep on top of each other like two tree guys so that the one at the bottom would get warm and then try to rotate first thing to bear in to think of what's covered the floor with branches because he had this upcoming groundwater and you don't want to get soaking wet in the very first moment he got into your hotel room here what a pro bonus for me we have with a snow team in who was that time to plan it to the wall of the foxhole and used as a step to move up Paul's word Auggie decides it's wrong when it sometimes it puts some some personal belonging in it a very nice story happened about six years ago when a veteran from the father first regiment came back - best on for the very first time since the war and his name was bird Collier and that is old and a company mate with him Bobby hunter and it was just a little bit down that road a friend of ours from the Netherlands brought him back and Bobby we they were driving up this road I'm Bobby suddenly said stop the car so they pulled over it Bobby gave him directions I said walk in there and you would see like Three Forks looks like a triangle he said the one in the middle that was mine so they got out of the car walked into the woods here and there it was just as he described it but still there weren't quite believing that he was thought he was right and Bobby showed a form of having taken here in the wood because he was a radio mammal he was a radio guy living radio the long antennae did not work in these woods so he said every night I had to go to my party tonight to get instructions and he said that was about 280 yards that way does it freak the other side Samaritan as well all round ones The Swan read Baker square but a small hole next to it which they used as a garbage thunder so my buddy from the Netherlands took the guys doubted if I'm the creep in Boston and there was a square function the following beta came back highway we then started searching the hole and it pulled out a small pan and a Nepal wood some liquor still in it and all of a sudden they were like hey what's this define frames and glasses and birds saying like hey these are my glasses so he hit the big holes in his trench and put some stuff in there and off something removes out and he was unable to collect it yeah back know the conditions here were terrible mostly covered with branches almond trees except for Colonel Strayer and Colonel Strayer had that are saying different if I got a different system by using frozen bodies to get some more protection from incoming rounds and he said I got so callus in the way the war knowing this clan see a benefit oh man as well and he hewed said I was sitting on top of it German corpse and just eat like pea and not think twice about it they've just been worn down so much like that not running to the right horse good put me madam in 2005 here in the woods we asked and because we watched miniseries of course and you can see the artillery barrage is coming in and that lasts for about a minute or so so we asked him how long did it take for real as far as good said well when the Germans started shooting at us we didn't take a look at our watch we just dove in our Fox on and started break but he estimated an average of two to three hours of our 30 barrage is coming in as a machinist type guy and actually took a piece of an airplane in fact something to turn an m1 carbine into a fully automatic weapon which men of easy really desired that and he would convert these in wanted and actually brought it back they said how did you do that because the government figure out how to do that's for being the sole what's one probably keeping warm was not a problem another thing that some jurors in our food completely surround look fairly no food I gene was something else to brush their teeth they used sometimes wakes from a tree do it after the first supply drops on the 23rd of the salmon with a fog and liquor they got some extra toothbrushes like one or two for each platoon Joe yeah - it was about 40 guys so even better be the first it's like sharing underwear I think give everybody an idea the scale or the size of the piece I think 56 total in the company by the time they got the best stone and some of those were recruits I mean replaced with placement troopers like Fort Stewart they by the time they were done with the Battle of the Bulge zero down about 56 guys in the company he literally put him in in like three deuce and a half sand and that was it I mean here you're down almost 1/3 of your 1/3 left of the company by the time they had finished Bastogne you [Music] [Applause] you [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Ross Owen Show

Views: 402,713

Rating: 4.8711467 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: tLTqHmak6bM

Length: 17min 27sec (1047 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 14 2016