The Real Locations of Ron Speirs' Run & Shifty's Sniper | American Artifact Episode 113

[Music] right now I am walking the woods along the bass ststone perimeter where the 101st Airborne was positioned outside of the town of fua in January of 1945 if you've watched the uh series Band of Brothers well you're probably familiar with the attack uh that that happened here uh where Winters you know goes and sends Spears in to to relieve Dyke who has frozen up during the attack uh well we're back here today to maybe try and clear up a few stories uh that were depicted in the series and uh We've also brought a few artifacts back to the battlefield here that uh I'm sure you'll find [Music] interesting [Music] so again I'm standing just outside of the town of fua and a lot of people have the misconception that the attack on fua happened from the the buak uh it it actually didn't uh the assembly area for easy company was right here in this spot where I am right now as a matter of fact looking around I can see you know remnants of fox holes from from The Men Who occupied these woods and uh things have changed a little bit since 1945 so so we're going to try and uh show the ground and maybe make a little bit more sense of of what happened here uh in January of 45 the operations room did a map animation a while back that helps to visualize the Easy Company attack on fua which was at a vital Crossroads surrounded by High Ground on three sides the village of huah had already changed hands a few times throughout the Battle of the Bulge and on January 13th was being defended by a company of Panza grenadiers who were supported by German armor and some 88 mm guns in command of Easy Company during the attack was Norman Dyke who was going to be advancing up the Middle with second platoon on his left would be first platoon under Jack Foley and advancing on the right was third platoon under Ed shames the diversionary attack by Third platoon kicked off at 8:30 a.m. and shortly after at 9:00 a.m. first and second platoon set off from the woods with heavy machine guns providing cover fire even though Norman Dyke had been awarded to on stars and a purple heart on January 13th he was going to have a bad day I've moved out now to the edge of the woods f is currently off to my right which is to the north and uh again this was the assembly area for all three platoon of easy company uh so first and second platoon we're going to be attacking from this spot right here and F is off in this direction uh Ed shames had taken third platoon and they went out this way across the road and were going to be attacking on the right flank now the reason that people think that the attack happened from right here is because well we're obviously looking at a field uh dick wyers when he visited here in his later years said that it didn't make sense to him because he could remember looking down on the town well after 1945 well there was some Woods right here that all got cleared away so the actual launch point for the assault on foa was right up ahead where you see that patch of trees uh so all of this would have been wooded at the time uh that the men from Easy Company launched their assault so I have the dog tags of major dick winners then Captain dick winners and um he he was the acting second Battalion Commander at that time and at at the time of the battle of fua um easy company was being commanded by Norman Dyke and he was leading the attack in town and there was a point of that attack when he froze and um the the attack was in danger of failing so dick winers in his notes says that he looked around he happened to see Captain Ronald Spears at the time Spears was auten tenant and uh he told Spears knowing that he was a good combat leader he told him to lead the attack in and go relief Dyke who was Frozen um on the way up to Foy but I I brought these dog tags back to BR cour Manor before back to Normandy but I really wanted to bring him back here to Bastone today and um bring him to this [Music] spot [Music] now right in the middle of the attack easy company's assault came to an abrupt halt up on the hill Winters was trying to figure out what was going on it was trying to get Dyke on the radio to no avail uh on the left Foley and first Splatoon had also come to a halt while they were waiting for the company Commander to make a move overwhelmed by the task at hand Dyke ordered first platoon to cond conduct a flanking attack to move in on Fu from the rear this move proved to be disastrous as Foley's men got cut down by German fire so as Winters was watching this attack falling apart uh he initially made a move to go out and try and take control of Easy Company himself until he realized that he was the Battalion commander and that wasn't his place at that moment he looked over and saw Spears who had been transferred from headquarters company over to dog company on December the 6th uh Winters later wrote why Spears was standing next to me I had no idea I just turned around and there he was it was just a roll of the dice and he was there when I needed someone I was just glad that it was Spears and with that Spears was sent in to take over the assault all right we've moved into the town of fua and in Band of Brothers probably one of the most iconic scenes or most memorable scenes is when Ron Spears makes this crazy run uh you know to to link up with I company well that happened just right here in this area and we've got res Jans with us today who has been here with a lot of the veterans and and really knows this place like the back of his hand and uh has a what I would say is a pretty good approximation of what happened during Ron Spear's Run January 13 1945 we were in the little town of FAA just north of Bastone on that day the Americans attacked the town to literally Liberate the n30 highway that leads them to the next town of noville and then onto Hues which was very important because that was the rally point of paton's third Army um uh the first Army to link up closing the Bulge in the Battle of the Bulge now this town is of course made famous because of the series ban the brothers and more specific about Colonel Ronald Spears's famous run now as The Story Goes Spears takes off crosses the road and talks to the guys from IE company so basically what happened is that Spears made this run because there was no radio contact between the between the platoon so the Germans they had for in for some reason found a way to tap into the American communication system to so sink or there a 48 hour radio silence now Spears is taking first and second for tune in coming in from the hill behind us you know had just taken over from Lieutenant Norman Dyke and they're moving around and they're trying to shoot their way in to the town this way at the same time across the road over there used to be the old schoolhouse between the two buildings that you see over there it had a little playground along the road with a two three foot wall then there was a classroom and the house of the school teacher there's a little alley right next to it and that's where Roch stins Ley and about a dozen men of eye company were trying to shoot their way in coming in this way now Roch stins Ley was the only senior officer left in that company so with Tinsley shooting his way in this way Spears and the guy shooting the away in that way with no radio communication at all something needed to be done because they were now running into each other's line of fire so Spears makes a dash across the street into the alley talks to Tinsley basically saying stop shooting at us and he turns around and he rolls all the way back to this side of the road now where exactly did the Run start from I don't know we don't know but this is kind of what I think what I would do I would definitely if I need to go to talk to the offic across the street the town is full of Germans I would want use the most cover as I could get and I would take the shortest distance to cover so basically I would never start to run from over there but I would maybe circle around the Wide building come in using the cover of the Big Trees who that were much smaller back at the time but they were there and then take the shortest distance crossing the road into the alley and all the way back but again I wasn't there this is just what I think so I brought a few artifacts of Ronald Spears back to this spot now now this spot is really has been made Infamous by the series Band of Brothers here's a picture of Ronald Spears taken um in the summer of 1945 and uh you know Ronald Spears didn't have much recollection of what happened here uh my my co-author Jared Frederick and I wrote this book about Ronald Spears and we took a lot of the accounts um from major dick Winter's files and um the account that described this action best probably was carlwood lipton's account and he described it in in Fairly good detail um when when they were developing the book band of Brothers um the the the authors Steven Ambrose and also dick wyers really press Spears on what happened here with this famous run from um over to ey company to hookup and you know the running into German fire the one thing that Spears remembered most was that an 88 fired directly at him and he said that got my attention now that's a direct quote from Ronald Spears and um the family of Ronald Spears uh was interviewed by myself and Jared later and they actually watched the series with Ronald Spears and um when that when that famous scene of Ron Spears run happened in the series he was kind of uh silent for a while and he said wow did I really do that now in combat when when you're in a stressful situation like that you know sometimes you don't remember details what you remember is just quick moments and I mean that that that moment of an 88 opening up and shooting directly at you I mean that's something that he remembered but I brought with me today some of Ronald Spear's Insignia from World War II and his dog tag and I wanted to bring it back to this spot this is the first time I brought it back to the spot where Ronald Spears made his probably most famous um act although if you read the book he made many famous acts throughout his career but this is probably the one that people remember the most Ronald Spears [Music] run okay now uh this is kind of crazy uh but the owner of this home right here who is the grandson of the original owner uh just stepped out and invited us in uh so we're going to Dodge in here real quick I guess they have a few things that that kind of show like what this house used to look like uh but we're going to take a a quick look in here we're we got some rain coming here pretty soon so we got to be fast but we're going to Dodge in here real quick and yeah just see what they got in here all right so we just came into the house here and uh you can actually rent this home now which is pretty cool it's kind of like an Airbnb uh but the owner very nice gentleman and his wife have laid out these pictures here that show just what the area here round F looked like in 1945 so so this right here is the home um and then here you can see a few other photos uh the again the uh the owners here uh he's the grandson of the original owner and then here we see German tank right in front of the house you can see it's got pretty heavy layer of snow on it okay here's that tank from another angle uh looking at the church with the destroyed steeple here's another photo of the church uh here's Matthew settle who played Ron Spears in the series Band of Brothers and another view of the tank in front of the home and then uh rej was talking about the schoolhouse well here's the schoolhouse that no longer stands yeah so glad that uh that we were able to come in here and take a look at this all right well uh that was kind of an unexpected surprise and uh the owner's wife gave me a box of cookies while I was in there so that was definitely worth the trip inside all right I have one more thing that I want to show here in F before we move on [Music] we've moved just up the street from the church here in fua and I I did a video here a while back that kind of retold the story about Shifty Powers taking out the sniper here in fua and how uh like Lipton you know runs and you know takes the attention away from the sniper while Shifty takes him out and I had a lot of people that just butchered me in the comments because they said that I showed the wrong spot where the sniper was at that he wasn't in a barn he was actually in a church stle well uh that probably comes from a YouTube video that was filmed right here in this spot the person who was filming it inadvertently I maybe got confused and showed the the church Tower uh I've made mistakes anytime I make a mistake I try and put something in the description to not denote it uh but anyway turns out that what really happened is even more different uh res Jans was actually here with Shifty Powers and uh yeah has a little bit different take on this story than what you might be familiar with [Music] now during the 133 January attack e compy spearheaded the attack being attached to Third Battalion for this operation at shames third platoon was sent coming down from the road behind the houses you see here attacking into the into the town this way first and second platoon were on the other side of the n30 road attacking to the fields behind the houses over there now every time a guys from third platoon wanted to make their way across cross um by this intersection a German shot him picked him out from a window that you see right behind the chimney of the barn over there now Shifty said he kept shooting our guys and we had to take him out but we could not see him and at some point Shifty made it between the buildings to the house to the corner here right behind me and he said I looked but I could not see him I Only Could See the puffs of breath and then he fired so I waited for the next puff came around the corner I fired just randomly at the window I knew if I hit the window I probably would have gotten him cuz he had moved himself about 2 feet inside of the window he said I fired and I got him I hit him all right now I want to take a moment to try and kind of untangle a few knots with this Shifty and the German sniper story uh so again on on the day of the attack on fua you've got the third platoon of Easy Company advancing along a road uh just on the other side of these buildings uh that would be under the command of Ed shames and that is the platoon that Shifty Powers is in so as these guys from third platoon are coming around the corner just where that car came from uh well they're coming under Fire from a German sniper who is in this building right over here not the one just in front of me but the one just beyond it I'll show it better here in just a second so so Shifty Powers uh Gets behind this building right here and the German sniper was actually in a window he's not in the church so he's not in the the bell tower as many would uh be led to believe uh I know that in every single war movie the sniper always sets up in the church bell tower but in this instance he's right up here in this window and if you look carefully well you can see uh a bunch of pock marks and bullet damage all around that window now this fight didn't go on for you know just like a few hours like it it went on for a good long while so maybe we're looking at bullet damage from earlier in the battle who knows uh but anyway the the German sniper is up in this window right here and uh Shifty Powers later said that uh he he could actually see his breath and that's what what queued him off uh and then he shoots in the window and kills the sniper now the the part of the story where uh where Lipton you know kind of acts as a decoy and runs across the street so that the sniper will expose himself well that didn't happen and honestly couldn't have happened because Lipton was the company sergeant and he was actually uh over here on this side uh with first and second platoon uh so he's with second platoon with Norman Dyke uh he was the one who was one of the witnesses for Ron Spear's run so there's no way that he would have been with Shifty Powers when this incident happened so hopefully that clears a few things up all right well that was a little bit on the attack on fua Ron Spears run uh Shifty taking out the sniper here in the village and the fighting that took place here on the bass Stone perimeter in January of [Music] [Music] 1945

Channel: The History Underground

Views: 348,563

Keywords: history traveler, history underground, erik dorr, eric door, erik door, band of brothers, easy company, babe hefron, babe heffron, bill guarnere, bois jacques, bastogne, bastone, belgium, wwii, ww2, wwii documentary, reg jans, shifty powers, ron speers, ron spiers, ron speirs

Id: hgUMGFXdfxU

Length: 21min 23sec (1283 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 25 2024