We Stand Alone Together - Band of Brothers Documentary

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[Applause] Thanks okay welcome hi thanks for sitting down with us again we appreciate it did you recount again for me the incident no what you were wounded well I was standing on the top of this hill at the aid station and a random shell came in it couldn't have gone off more than five or ten feet away from me because all I remember is a tremendous blast in a flash and the next thing I knew I was laying on the ground in the snow and I tried to get up and when I tried to get up I only thing I could see were the broken ends of my legs and I thought my legs were gone I was because that's all that my the broken part both femurs were shattered and they were laying down here as I was in my back trying to raise my legs up and I thought I'm dead you know I'm about to die and I said I said my act of contrition because I'm a Catholic and then the next thing I thought of was my mother and I thought well what's she what's she going to say because I was an only child [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] my name is C Carwood Lipton I was born in Huntington West Virginia grew up in Huntington Frederick T heilige Concord Massachusetts was my hometown I was born in town named in Chile in Washington it's on an Indian Reservation of northeastern Washington my name's JB Stokes I was born close to Bonham Texas in a rural area called blender born and raised in Columbus Ohio my father was a work for this railroad the mother was a housewife my nickname was babe and with mother she little Irish brother right a fiery great woman great born and raised in South Philadelphia where the times were tough mom had 10 children so you had to work to survive that's what it was it's just survival in the streets of filling up this world it was a real struggle because we came up in the depression sometimes we live on a farm but have pigs and chickens and raised a garden I saw people that really really were hungry and had hard times my father was able to find some kind of employment oh no we never went hungry we lived on a farm at the time which was poor everybody was poor that was a depression when I got to about 10 I got a paper route you know that five books a month I made something like that you know but it was silly something there's a work ethic that the Pennsylvania Dutch in this particular area are very proud of I was the oldest one so I sort of branched out on my own at an early age I was married when I was 19 years old and 1941 on December 7th of 41 we were in a store and a guy he says the USA is in a war with Japan and everything just went silent I said let's go in the army he said well I don't want to go no army I'm still gonna have to go sooner or later something was wrong with you if he weren't in the service in those days it was just what you had to do I wasn't gonna be in the infantry I knew that we're gonna be in some top kind of a unit or I wasn't gonna be in the army [Music] Life magazine had run an article on paratroopers sometime early 1942 and it told about the training that they got and the difficult physical requirements and I just got interested and and seeing if I couldn't look on the paratrooper nobody forced you to do this you volunteered and it was the notion that you wanted to do something he wants to be with the best but once you got in there you was proud to be it was proud of our boots we're proud of our shoulder patch and we was proud to be paratroopers and was proud to be working with the guys we were working with you know these people that you're in service with you know those people better than you will ever know anybody in your life I mean you know I'm right down to the final thing you know and that that comes when you start your training while that that progresses [Music] each man we like a heavyweight champion of world boxing out of 100 percent only 10% they thought I was gonna die there what no holding back had to hang in there he had to be tough we marched under 18 miles three days the training I got and the men I trained with gave me the confidence to to go into battle we were just a bunch of ordinary kids when we went in most of us and a lot of this training was to build you up physically and mentally someone lost as much as 40 pounds but I didn't have done to lose I weighed about a hundred and thirty I lost 40 pounds I wouldn't been big enough to state you know they weeded out so many we they CLE there one day and they'd be gone the next they couldn't keep up with you understand that were good men but they couldn't take that hard training but you had the cream of the cream the cream had to climb this mountain called ker he every every morning run it up and back if you couldn't do it why you'd end up in another unit of course the name curry as I understand it means we stand alone together that's a an Indian name it became a symbol of the camp because it was really rough and tough going up and down a lot of times on especially on a Monday when some of the guys would get out somewhere and get him a little drink or so uh you see him laying beside the road you know going up and coming back you know or they're sick and it didn't matter how hard they train you and how tired you got you would still go out on your own and run the mountain at night which was ridiculous because we had to run it during the day all you did was bitch and moan and at night they'd get a couple of guys and go up and do it on your own we learned how to be soldiers at Toccoa as a group all of us coming in from no experience in the army at all coming in directly from civilian life I'm gonna say this I believe that the paratroopers of the hundred and first Airborne Division was as well-trained as you could get a soldier to be it's that time we packed our own shoots for the first gen services held getting on the plane you're asking yourself what the hell am I doing here I came time to stand up and hook up we did coming down a great it affects everybody different I like a bird fly in the air foot on the first water drop in 16 Jesus second I can remember just like it was yesterday that morning after breakfast they marched us all out there to the airfield there was a bunch of guys out that already made that jump and they those all hard and you're gonna be sorry you know you didn't want to be afraid you know because all these other guys are right there with you and some you know your bravado and all that but you didn't want to be afraid so you kept that out of your mind you know in those days jumping out of an airplane it's not like today my first flight up I jumped I was years before I ever landed an aircraft and most of the day and the trapillo troopers was the same story well foolishly I didn't think it'd be too tough but the first time the first jump you make is not not all that bad you don't know what you're doing just seem like when you step out the door what you shoot just opened right there as I went out the door I was blank I cannot remember leaving the plane until after the chute opened up my god but after that it wasn't as bad but it was good quite a thrill it was just like going on a roller coaster you get off and you wanna go right back on again yeah it was a thrill it was a high as they say these days everybody just seemed to enjoy them so they went up the landing was the hardest part once I got out and if you told me I was happening a lot you know coming down is great I was small - and I didn't hurt myself when I hit the ground some of the big ones hit the ground like a ton wasn't they the thing you're worried about most was your chute did you pack it right then you'd go through that you pack it one day and jump the next day you had all night to think about it yeah all kinds of ideas of what you might have done wrong or that worked out fine if we made five jumps and the third week there and then you were qualified paratrooper got your wings pinned on and became one of the elite members of the parachute regiment we were thoroughly prepared the men were trained hardened physically and mentally and they were ready to jump the Swede started off Rinaldi when you walk up that gangplank you know you're gone as you pull out a harbor and you pass the Statue of Liberty will I ever be coming back I don't know you know you're in the paratroops you're gonna be jumping behind the enemy lines what do you expect you have no idea that'll make anybody standing searches soul for a few minutes [Music] we will ready we were ready we ever were stationed in England for about a year before d-day we had a lot of maneuvers and parachute jumping they put us in a camp preparing us for d-day in other words our just about a week before d-day they put us and no liberties no nothing you couldn't get out he came they had guards around the marshaling area so nobody could leave that's when you felt that this is it we did not know which day we did not know we were gonna jump until we were locked in then they had the briefing to tell you exactly where but your mission was and they took a this map and they made a scale model of the features of the land that put in all the little buildings all the bridges all the little Knowles all the sand dunes everything was in oh let me call that dub layout we knew it by heart we knew exactly where we go no knew exactly what to do I mean if you could could have been there at the time to see where the planes were lined up and all the gliders hooked up to the planes tanks and trucks and fields and fields and fields of them I had no idea that there was that much hardware so there's no question about it we know we're gonna be bait and I'd day that you know we got the orders to get in the planes this is it we had confidence in our leaders and all the plans and preparations that had taken place before the invasion saw we were we were competent and calm [Music] we were all loaded down to the gills we carried everything that we thought we could carry in the line of personal items plus they're necessary things we were assigned to carry and and we were loaded [Music] everybody got in there and a lot of them were very scared I was scared too but probably in a different way that other people were as long as I was in that plane and they were going to get me there safely out of that plane that's all that I worried about at the time I had no feeling whatsoever like I said my feelings was for my brother who was killed at that time that they didn't even know him and that's one day when I jumped on d-day and I swore I swear I want to kill every damned German I came across and that's why I think they nicknamed me Wild Bill because I did a lot of killing d-day the sky was pretty clear coming across the channel so since I was jump master I could lie in the door at the door of the plane with my head out in the slipstream looking down and I saw the thousands of craft ships everything from LC eyes to battleships down there and the channel and I think that's when I first realized how large the invasion was tremendously large the invasion was we rode for about an hour and a half I guess before we got they went down off the south end to England and then across the Jersey islands and then across the Cherbourg Peninsula and that's when the fire work started black was terrible being a Crip is absolutely horrendous it was like July the 4th celebration 10 times over then it would hit under the wings and body and you could hear gumbo like gravel it undefendable car you could see tracers all over the place that's why everybody wanted to get out of the plane as fast as they could it was high low no matter where we were out they went it out of the plains they were getting shot up but finally the the pilots I'm just happened to read their mind this okay we got so much gas and we're going to have to get back to England so what are we gonna do with all these guys back here give him the green light sometime get out we're standing there ready John there was a certain relief I think when the green light came on and everybody said let's go then I jumped up on the run and hit the static line with the hook and out the door you know and got such an opening blast from their opening shock from a prop lesson it broke his chin strap that we had on this helmet liner and that's when I lost this famous leg bag that everybody talks about just from the shock of the opening just flew right off my foot the British come up with us they called my leg bags they gotta be this big and you keep stuffing everything you can get hands on in them it's by the way 1015 pounds by the time you get done it's 40 or 50 or 60 pounds everyone that jump with a leg bag or supplies they lost it most of the part troops are landing didn't have nothing I was it tore right off because we jumped at speeds are a hundred and fifty miles an hour maybe even higher I don't know and lower than we should have been but that wasn't bad either because you got the ground quicker we went out the door opened a look to see if my parachute was opening you could see tracer bullet burning holes through the parachute they told us that all you'll have to do shove up to the door throw that leg out probably still hit it you're gone well there they were right only I was gone out and my leg was in and I was hanging upside down looking at everything down with my leg in the plane and everything all this happened in just a split second and Paul rolled me out Paul Rodgers roll roll me Alan I just helped him out I just picked the heavy throw him out I guess had to get out we we just wanted to get out so bad and I come down right behind City Hall watch them shoot at me all the way I had which wasn't very long and I could see the tracers and they were kind of spraying around in there the whoever the machine gunner was down there that was concentrating on me apparently was not a very good shot but they were firing in every direction even front of you back of you you don't know which way to go the next thing is that you are getting close to landing and you're saying there's some trees there's a road try and slip to avoid the trees trying to slip to avoid landing on the road and I'll slip a little bit and my chute fell across the powerlines and I hit that fence and fell into a farmer's garden and that fence had I'll never will forget it had glass on the top of it and cut me up and everything right I didn't bother me I just I was down and I got down with my gun I hit the ground in a kind of a feel and we were way way got looking a map and we wasn't anywhere close to where we supposed to be we didn't know where we were we splob off her maps at didn't give us so we had to make our way back we knew that the beach was to the east of where we were so we headed that way to get down to the beach to find out where the outfit was my friend from Erie was in another plane when I hit the ground I hit about two feet away from him and him and I starts walking around looking for more of our troops and we were running into Germans everywhere but we had to hide you know because if we didn't we were dead meat and I let in a tree I had my trench knife I reached up and grabbed a hole that's big it's a big trunk the tree I swung into it I sweat I cut those risers well I think one swipe and I come down that tree like a monkey and then there I was with a trench knife and a canteen and about six candy bars and ready to fight the German army you know so there's four guys that were with me on d-day who did have nothing but a jump knife when they landed so we had a hope scratch as it worked out for all of us later on we run across somebody who had been killed and you take his weapon and that's how you you get a weapon for d-day brother haphazard we were scattered all over the peninsula practically so it was quite a confused situation but we were better prepared for it than the Germans where the Germans didn't know where we were for hours on the beach those people coming in on that on those boats those Germans had those big guns aimed right at them you know I'm just waiting on them oh they hit tough they had it tough I'm Arianna these guns were pointed and flying right down on the beach and that people enter the landing craft were trying to come on to the beach and they will find right down off this battery of 105's was placed precisely where it should be to protect that causeway any troops coming up the causeway as you sit back years later on a look at it you think oh this was laid out exactly right tactically we thought we knew where every foxhole was in Normandy we knew where everything was we knew it cold but on this one the Germans had moved in there and camouflaged us so well we didn't know it was there [Music] he company was the assault company the battalion and we were been trained from special assaults and whatnot special assignments but they weren't aware of what we had and realize we only had 12 people so we we worked our way down through a through the farm area to a hedgerow and lieutenant winters had a set up a firing position and went up to Scott it for myself crawled up along this hedgerow get a little closer look it over and I felt I could see a trench and I thought I knew where our machine gun was Winters was a an exceptional leader and he was able to size up all through the war signs up combat situations and decide quickly and correctly the best way to take care of them whatever the problem was I divided the group into two you know it's lieutenant Compton was with me I gave him half the men and I took after the man gave instructions I want Compton malarkey and winter crawl up there and hand grenade that machine gun crawl through the grass and as you throw your grenades I'll charge up with the rest of the guys so I had the two machine guns set up to give him covering fire while he crawled up there I get out to this hedgerow and I peeked I look out my piece through the bushes and I see a couple of gentlemen's over here about 30 50 yards away dokin has gun and firing it so I pull out a hand grenade and I pull the pin on the light as high and as far as I can fraud so in their general direction of dancing and enough hang time was about the time I got to them with one off in the air and I got one of them then I jumped up with a couple of other guys and we charged so that we all jumped into the first position together they had trenches cutting there where they worked the Germans did and they jumped down in EM trenches and they worked them Germans for lack of notice all three Germans broke off from this position to run across the field which was the wrong thing to do from their viewpoint we cut him down I was in a transient and I looked and I saw an arm I didn't even see that man was in a camouflage tent and I didn't even seen it and then I saw an arm stuck over that tent and one little potato masher grenades you know with a stick come over and in it now so what he's gonna miss me and that thing fell right down in that trench with me and I'll trying to scuttle to my way out of the way of it and went off and I felt like it blowed my butt over my head and Bernier did he's behind the enemy lines on d-day does he help or help no he's ours I'm sorry lieutenant I'm sorry I goofed I felt like I gotta let him down but you know that's neither here nor there thank God it's beautiful when you think of her guy who is that dedicated to his company to his buddies that he apologizes for getting a hit but that's the kind of guy who wasn't that's the kind each one of them was they were all the same [Music] I look upon them each man with great - respect respect I can't describe each one I'm proved himself that he could do the job we had been through Normandy we had been through battle and maybe if I had been harder if I had done a little bit better job there would have been a couple more men going home [Music] I never thought I'd get through d-day let alone the next phase or the next phase I thought I was gonna get killed instantly the chances of survival is very very slim extremely slim as the parachute they got that done and where Edinburgh Scotland 1944 me and Johnny Martin drunk as a skunk well garner and I decided we'd go to Scotland get a tattoo didn't we didn't figure out a chance come at ya but we said we thought well hell the war's just start and Christ for 50% not gone now though it's long haul the one hundred and first came back from Normandy after about thirty three days and we were the replacements for the people who were killed in action are wounded in the Normandy mission there were young kids that came in and for some reason I don't know why they were the first ones killed and I think maybe they were trying to impress the older guys maybe people like me or shifty we were in all of them they were wearing infantry badges you know that uniform they had a star on their jump wings they they were like heroes to us you know that's how we look at them I don't know why but I got right there to her I didn't want to be friendly with replace was coming in because god I didn't like see him get killed I just it just tore me up and that I don't know what but they were the first ones killed my ten-man squad that I was in eighth war replacements the squad leader and the assistant squad leader sergeant muck and corporal pink ella well they've been to Normandy we had not the or eight of us hadn't been anywhere about Auburn you say so and then we the training got really tough between there and in the Holland jump that was training training training and we had a couple of missions scratched we were supposed to jump on a French city of tournay and then it got to the sand table part where we all gathered around to see which bridges we were going to who's gonna do what and General Patton's troops over ran the drop zone so that one was called off and we were wondering if we were ever going to get to go and then of course it got to be September it was a Sunday afternoon noontime 70 degrees the drop was perfect there was a mass drop everybody was dropping on the same field daytime drops a lot easier you can see where you're going you can sort of prepare for the landing I saw a plowed field nos slipped right over and I believe almost landed standing up you know soft a great job the most dangerous part about it was the fact that people are losing continues and helmets and equipment and all this equipments raining down and if you got hit like this are gonna be killed or wounded before I get off the drop zone everybody got together you will assemble it very fast we moved out towards the Wilhemina canal our mission was first to pick a bridge over the well amino canal it took us hours to get there and taking hours to get there the few German troops that were to secure this bridge had plenty of time to set their charges to blow the thing up and just as we got to it I was maybe a hundred and fifty yards away that blew up in our faces these rocks and timbers were flying then they're falling all around you and yes can't help but think yourself my god what a way to die and come back to be killed with a flying timber that we were that close it delayed us until the next morning we wanted to get across that night but it took us until the next morning to get across but once we got in the dutch third day it was just marvelous there their reaction they they loved Americans and still do coming in there and pushing the Germans out [Music] they caused angels from the sky which we were I mean you you're under German occupation for four years right it's horrible when you see pouty up has come out of sky on Sunday morning who are they they're angels they love you they're welcome was unbelievable they couldn't restrained her how happy they were to see you and it was hard to even get down the streets because the people who are out there swarming all over his trying to congratulate us for being there and all that and they hugged you kissed you we didn't mind you know nicely was yeah we didn't mind at all and they were really proud to see us and to the point where it was dangerous for us trying to clean out the town because snipers did some damage in the situation like that we had a lot of fighting that in that area because we're sitting right on the Rhine River and Germany's right across the river they're fighting like heck to keep us out of Germany it's called the island we call it the island and we set up positions there that's a substantial battle so they could observe any movement we made during the daytime and at their will they could to shell us mortar mortar fire on us when they had an opportunity of opportunity I heard something coming down I knew what it was a mortar shell and I threw my arm up like that and went down it but within three feet of me or four but it lets when it blows it goes up like that honey what's through my arm and hit me in a head and eyes that's bleeding pretty pretty good I was picked to go up on a dike so I of course when you get to the top you don't expose yourself I took my rifle and my helmet on it and put it over even with the road on a dike no action spike rotted back down put the helmet on and I sort of peeked over when I peeked over I see a hand there with potato masher and he threw it at me I ducked down it hit my helmet and bounced off so when I think bounced off my helmet I hollered out to the guys below live grenade if last neski hadn't holla'd live grenade and i had enough sense to know that that's that grenade that hit my rifle in his laying right in front of me in my face practically i know how to either had my head blown off or i would have definitely been blind there's no question about that not anyway because i just got turned just partway and it exploded and then it caught me in the face neck left arm under the arm in the shoulder blade I hollered for them to know take off I said get the hell going back and I had eight grenades so I started taking them off pulling the pins and throwing them over and while the grenades are rolling down or landing wherever they were they were hitting some of the Krauts because I could hear screaming hollering cry and no and I think I threw the eight grenades in about four seconds and then I took off running so the doctor that counted the holes and made down at Nijmegen yeah I'm Megan the first doctor that really counted the hole I said they was 32 that was our first experience with artillery in large numbers and I can remember sitting there at night a couple of nights listening to the artillery land Wham and the 88 was the fiercest cannon con that the Germans had then it was the way they used it was an all-purpose gun that could shoot any aircraft tanks and a personnel airburst and that was the bad ones when the shell went up over your head I saw a huge mushroom cloud from the shell and Joe Toye stepped out and I run up I remember it like it was just I ran up and I grabbed me and he said oh don't touch me I said yo what's my said I'm hit all over he said ah I'm bad I said okay I said I'm gonna go see Jim he said as bad as he was hurting Joe Toye he said Heffron I already checked him he's gone Jim Campbell might be alive today if the adness said to me Efrain you stay here would you go I'm going up and I never never never I sleep on it I eat on it I never know never forgot that anybody know went through it no I tell you the same thing they can't not it's just so bad all your life you got to remember what one guy did because he thought it was his job to do and he took a shot for you the exhaustion on these men the physical exhaustion effects their endurance to be able to cope you don't realize it at the time you come off the line from living in the mud and being absolutely miserable for 70 days straight you didn't realize at that point it you're only going to be off the line for a few days and you're gonna be facing Bastogne [Music] this is the last desperate action of the Germans to turn the tide of this whole war what is it is best phone oh it is this is so Jax voyages right it is the woods sure looks different a lie right no snow these trees might have been replanted because I think if the trees look like they did in 44 and 45 we could get a better idea I'd say yeah that's a ton of food oh this is definitely the area this one is definitely well there's the town of Foy right over there a pretty empty field with those cattle grazing half a mile away yeah we had an outpost set up looking right into the channel for you and they had to watch everything going on because we'd come in and go to sleep we had all foxholes right over here and the other area and the other area wherever we ought to move out and dig in again of course the clouds had plenty of artillery most intense I went river is shallow most intentional world you couldn't believe it you had to be here he just overall just praying that's it isn't it comes in you ain't gonna know it you ain't gonna know we lost muck and Penkala over on this side they were killed instantly showing that right there they know it made mincemeat out of them George he was come over here I can't see nothin love them there's nothing that they were all gone just disintegrated unmerciful showing really everything I think was shredded shredded so it's an odd feeling to me it brings a lot of memories memories of man the times wooden bed I remember [Music] it was the most miserable place I've ever been in my life even today a real cold night we go to bed and my wife will tell you the first thing I'll say is I'm glad I'm not invested on the Germans wanted to get Bastogne because of the road network that's why it was such an objective so that's where we had to hold which we did 318 trucks come in around noon time and by that evening everybody was loaded and moving out we were short of equipment we didn't have enough ammunition we didn't have enough warm clothes but we had confidence that our higher military authorities would get to us whatever we needed that when we got up there we didn't know what we were getting into there was very little information only the Germans had broken through we've downloaded on the trucks and another truck came by with weapons and a pitchout bitch weapons refer to the truck you catch a weapon that's what you got until you got the best of them as it worked out there's some men actually got on the trucks and left for Bastogne didn't have a rifle [Music] when we got there we saw men and singly and in twos and threes working their way back some of them even without weapons without equipment they were some of them were terrifying they were beaten a neighbor when I'm with telling us you know they're gonna kill everybody they're running over everybody they couldn't believe when they saw us up there that we intended to set up defensive lines and to stop the Germans they said they couldn't be stopped we went out and we started taking up their weapons and their ammunition asking the guys let's retreat you've got the extra ammunition or a hand grenade you know what oh yeah you could hear this fire going we're marching towards it with hardly any ammunition we marched through the night and went up to the forward side of Bastogne and dug in and then it snowed snow cold up to your rump I didn't have no winter clothing or nothing that's or a third of they're all gone casually roses either frostbite her transferred whatever you want to call it bad move a lot of snow not everything you didn't like good cold place at this particular time we it's on top of a kind of a hill on top of the hill had pine trees and we set up our positions around a fringe of the woods in Belgium the trees are planted they don't grow like they do in Maine there are rows of trees you look down a row and you can see a half a mile and there was on top of this hill there was a ridge with the tree line we were dug in on that Ridge chairman's knew right where we were and they really gave us a shellacking two infantrymen and in wartime the mother earth is your best friend and you always dig your hole and get out of sight you know we dug plenty of those you'd be surprised how quick you can get through that hard ground when somebody's shooting at you Dempsey also phone and you can make face work we just have to dig that hole I always say we came experts on foreign European soil we dug in and two people could dig up in a hold of one in the ground was frozen it takes quite a while you just chip it out and by the time you get it done they whistle for you too we're moving out and you go someplace else and dig another one yeah must understand the Germans were we were surrounded the Germans were about maybe a hundred hundred yards away from us no matter where you looked around a circle you could see artillery flashes so you knew from we knew from that we were surrounded but we went through a couple of fillings at Bastogne that were earth-shaking if you'd lived through them you remember them for the rest of your life and I'm not sure you're the same for the rest of your life after your literal you never forget them it was one moment there that I remember vividly I'll never forget it when a guy got hit in the arm with a piece of shrapnel took his arm off above the elbow they were gonna take him out he said give my wristwatch up to my arm before he took him out I'd always stayed with me I mean I call them voiced everything get my wristwatch off of my arm [Music] on the 3rd of January we withdrew back to our former positions there up the hill from Foy and when we got there we could see that the Germans had zeroed in artillery their trees will knock down branches were knocked out of trees there were holes in the ground it was right at dusk and the Germans had this you know this woods of ours rural didn't completely and and as we hit the woods why this tremendous artillery attack came they knew where we were and they started shooting point-blank eighty eight's into our area they were letting us have it everything everything in the kitchen sink mortars barrel whoppers that's a rocket thing that's a screaming sound I mean I was scared but I think I was petrified then I'll do it the whole I thought the whole world was shooting at us at once I jumped into a foxhole that somebody had started and then hadn't finished so I was crouched down in that foxhole but I wouldn't hold all of myself for about my nose up was was above the ground I could see all these shells hitting [Music] Oh sergeant Guarnere lobster Lake and Joe Toye lost a leg in the same place right there I went one Hill I remember there's this certain instance you know Joe got caught not near his hole and Bill and I were ahead of him and and Bill had not been hit and he came up out of the out of his hole quickly and we were still under heavy fire Joe said Jesus Christ what what do I have to do to die he got hit real bad the back of my leg and he's out there and I'm a medic and he claims 10-point a medic I went out to see what I could do for Bongo I got it too I went over to Guarnere he was sitting on the ground his leg was badly mangled he was holding his leg and it was jerking like that and he said lip they got old Guarnere this time he had been hit before but they really got him there we got him out of there like babe Heffron a nine some others and and they brought a jeep down and we put him on stretchers and and I'm going to talk about it they're not talking about it it's terrible [Music] we had lost some very good men there toy and Guarnere had lost her legs there a number of other people were killed it was a difficult situation when a man was wounded we felt glad for them we felt happy for them he had a ticket to get out of there and maybe a ticket to go home and we had a man who was killed we found that he was at peace and he looked so peaceful and / glad that he found peace we had this assistant squad leader named a mallet he was from New York City and I overheard him talking one time this was in Bastogne he says I've been through Normandy and I went through Harlem and to this day he says I haven't got one scratch he says I'm afraid when I do get it I'm really going to get it and he was right and there's a little town of Foy he got killed so uh I don't think he had any premonition of it he just he just wondered about it you know but I never did wonder never give it much thought yeah you just lived in the day to day keep your fingers crossed and that was it [Music] it is a great personal journey to be here today to take part in the ceremony that is unique in American history never before has a full division been cited by the War Department in the name of the president for gallantry in action this day marks the beginning of a new tradition in American army with that tradition therefore will always be associated the name of a hundred and first Airborne Division and a Bastogne good luck and God be with each of you those Germans had started to surrender they still had their arms but as you're going down the the Autobahn there was almost a solid line of German troops coming north and our job is to get to the end and get to the heart of it birches garden that's the end of the line it's the retreat that Hitler had for himself and he built his Eagle's Nest his penthouse on top of the ALP Terra I'm sure relaxing confer with his staff because they all followed him to birches garden this was their final retreat and of course this is where they had their there lived as well this was the goal of a French who were on our right flank this is a goal of the British and this is a place to capture this is the one everybody wanted Hitler's Berchtesgaden retreat burned by SS troops and the war's last days the chalet from which he hoped to rule the world now lies in ruin American Air Forces pictures show the huge gutted rooms and the great window through which the Fuehrer gazed out on the Alps we took British guys made 1/5 and no fightin no shootin the only thing I seen approaches God was a couple dead black uniform SS troopers laying on a road as we were born up it was beautiful country he knew how to pick out a good spot for a house we took over his house and liberated it you might say there was obviously a loot of all kinds that the men were looking for such as good there was money that they were looting I was a pack rat anyway I picked up a lot of German items including some postcards and envelopes that were dressed a Hitler don't find that that place was full of this big art you know Rembrandt and all those people you know and hanging on the wall you know course Oh soldiers like yes we don't recognize a painting let me see it the 101st Airborne Division uncovers Hermann Goering --zz personal art collection hidden in a subterranean chamber 1,200 artworks worth untold billions are included the treasures will go back to rightful owners in pillaged nations we found a a warehouse full of gin and vodka stuff like that what much whiskey don't people don't like whiskey and we took it all in Sun up a ball at seven truckloads of champagne and cognac out of the wine cellars out of eagles nest so we stayed pretty well oiled for all I started drinking it one day and I drag it till about midnight that night I went to the back went to sleep I didn't wake up the next day I made a two day or sang out of it and it tasted didn't taste like it would hurt you please like ginger ale that was the only time that I can ever remember that when I was in service that the whole company fell out in her underwear we didn't even have to dress everybody was pretty well looped and so we just fell out in line formation in our underwear they're enjoying themselves they're at peace with the world they have a big happy satisfied grin on her face it was a paradise for a soldier to move into I had no problem shooting because the fact that I had come down through Germany and I had seen the Holocaust and I had seen my dick Germans had done to the Jewish race and I'd seen what he had done to the displaced persons and what they had done in their occupation of France and and what they had done to their occupation in Holland Belgium so that by taking over their homes for a few nights to bed down my men and if they picked up a few trinkets I had no problem [Music] nobody has ever taking that time to tell you how to handle a surrender Shh we'll talk about that when we get there well here we are we got it now how do you handle this the German army was a well-disciplined arm you know those prisoners they come down out of the Alps they came down in formation they march down they didn't they didn't drag down you know nothing like that they came down as as as defeated soldiers I think we thought that the Germans were probably the evilest people in the world but as the war went along we found out also that it wasn't the Germans for say it was the SS and special Troops they were the ones that could kill their own people and their regular German soldier was not that way one of those prisoners handed me this little book I could have looked at it no it's a little Catholic prayer book for the mass and all of a sudden I face was the thing hey I haven't got Nazis here got some Catholics and I've got a Catholic good enough to stick one of these in his pocket love those soldiers I've thought about this often that man I might have been good friends we might and we might had a lot in common we might like to fish you know he might like to hunt you never know you know of course they were doing what they were supposed to do and I was trying to do what I supposed to do but under different circumstances we might have been good friends I have a great deal of respect for them as soldiers there are very good soldiers but there's still enemy so they must be controlled as presence when it reached the level of surrender for company and smaller units I was a son this major and when he walked in he presented me this pistol and offered his personal surrender which naturally I accepted gratefully so that would be the end of the war for his men and this is basically the end of the war for my men and the significance is that it wasn't until later when he had given me this pistol and I had a chance to look at it carefully that I realized this pistol had never been fired there was no blood that's the way all war should end with an agreement with no blood on and I assure this pistol has never never been fired since I've had and it will not be fair [Music] we didn't come home and flower ourselves I didn't come home you know the more here or I just come home went back to look like what he did before one just go to work and live her life I think it was difficult for most fellows coming back they didn't know what they were going to do when they got out I didn't had no idea what to work for a coal company did some bartending and round a pool hall took up course in ornamental horticulture it didn't pay very much but a lot of nice people I went to work where I was working before the war was caterpillar Tractor Company I became a industrial arts teacher and a social studies teacher spring of 46 I took a boat to Ketchikan Alaska I went to work for the government a letter carrier for 37 years I dug home I wanted construction I went into hard work tedious work I'd done everything you never had done it I ended up working on a waterfront and I went with the CIA in Washington got my degree in 1948 after the war I became a teacher and taught for almost 30 years got a job working for Nixon nitration works that's making $75 a week we've never become wealthy in life but we have a lot of other wealth that means more than that really everyone done well I done well - thank God I want to welcome each and every one here to our banquet tonight to celebrate the ending of a fine reunion thank you all for coming and I will extend the best wishes to all the men from company 506 I love you God bless you all thank you the purpose the reunions serve is just to give us a chance to get together and talk to each other we relive some of the army experiences but we have great respect and you might say affection for each other the type of affection that you get when you've lived through many dangerous situations together and have learned that you can rely on each other if you see the people today at bonds to it the bond you can't explain soon you see me you know you're thinking of battles and thinking of it to yourself two men stand out amongst each other there's an intimacy develops and like nothing that I've ever experienced anymore not in college not not in any with any other group of people or a strange bunch of dudes as far as I'm concerned to be this close after all these years that's that's the thing it gets me is I like brothers I'm back my youth now well I get to these guys I'm back when I went to service it's fantastic I'd like to make 20 more reunions we had a lot of real good times in there and those are the times that you really remember you know that's a lot of those days is what we're Keaney tell about you know what these reunions do a lot of times and then you had a lot of bad times my family didn't know anything about it and I would just didn't tell them I just you know figured it something that didn't need talking about it was done over with we didn't know shifty the way the min shifty yeah so but we he started talking about it just in the last five or six years last five I'd say it was like he that was another life you know as he was another person and we weren't aware that the stuff he went through things he'd say I mean you know it didn't even dawn on me that he killed people I really I really admire my dad my daddy he's like he's a good guy he's a real strong guy we travel a lot and we've been to to France into that cemetery it's just incredible there's crosses upon crosses upon crosses and just lined up perfectly as far as the eye can see and then there's a cliff you know and then the ocean these weren't just for anonymous statistics these were people that I knew and these were and I told my daughter I said this guy here died at age 19 or 20 a whole life never lived no family nothing no children no opportunity to have some satisfaction of building a life nothing when I went I said dad my gosh dad you were so lucky and he looks at me he said yeah I'm very lucky and he started crying these guys have been with each other and absolute base experiences of human existence they were there with each other knowing you're gonna die or thinking he gonna die or seeing people dying all around you and there they went day after day and I admire that and held my father even on his tombstone as sergeant Joe Toye 5:06 PIR her first Airborne Division that's what he wanted on his tombstone meant that much to him [Music] how it happened at those various individuals happened to end up in e company I don't know but as you know every army unit thinks it's the best but we knew we were the best think about to God morning anything else think about most of them every day some amazing it's didn't your memory I guess you'll never leave either am i a little proud of having once served in that outfit you bet your life I wore that Eagle on my right shoulder for 18 years probably the proudest thing of my whole life having been an easy company 506 the heroes had crosses over their heads the ones that are buried in cemeteries those are the true heroes not us we're just part of the work that's all and we thank God we got back a lot how would you like to be a mother or father son never come back the son and the mother and father of the errors of the Second World War I the Gaza come home [Music] let me say this I don't believe this very very very few heroes they came back from there to over [Music] do you remember the litter to that micron he wrote me do you remember how I ended it I cherish the memories of a question my grandson asked me the other day when he said grandpa were you I heard no more grandpa said no but I served in a company of here [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you Joe Toye oh there was a big Mick and we used to have a few beers at night and I'd sing and go on every try to come over and sing he'd say to go on here gone here you're a time you don't know this song Connie I could sing it better than II did the bridge in Oakland Bridget Bridget Oakland where have you been sure it's a fine time for you to come in you went to see the big parade the big parade me I show the big parade and never took so long and passing by look at your huge st. Addison Bridgette oh please she are your story and your shoes all my teeth in if you know anyone that also can do I am Telling You Bridget just what to do stay away from the water Bridget I'll and let this one play like now that's what we sang you already needed a SISO a beer two beers you were drunk cause you were in great physical condition you were too peaked you know and to be as your highest Georgia pine you know

Info

Channel: Ben Mak

Views: 2,444,085

Rating: 4.9053984 out of 5

Keywords: HBO, Band, Of, Brothers, Band of Brothers, BOB, We, Stand, Alone, Together, We Stand Alone Together, 1080p, Documentary, Mark Cowen, History, TV, World War II, WWII, 101st, Airborne Division, 506th, 502nd, PIR, Parachute Infantry Regiment, Easy Company, Airborne Forces (Film Subject)

Id: z6j_nop4wh0

Channel Id: undefined

Length: 77min 34sec (4654 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 19 2013

Reddit Comments

Absolutely fantastic doc, even if you haven't seen Band of Brothers (which you should). I'm not American, but I had a looong moment of silence the day Dick Winters died.

👍︎︎ 12 👤︎︎ u/StupiderLikeAFox 📅︎︎ Dec 22 2013 🗫︎ replies

This is one of the best documentaries in my collection. Highly recommend.

👍︎︎ 3 👤︎︎ u/170lbsApe 📅︎︎ Dec 22 2013 🗫︎ replies

A friend recently lent me the box set of BoB, I hadn't heard of it before. I watched two episodes every day until I finished it, thought it was superb. I've seen a lot of army films over the years, the vast majority have zero realism. BoB was a close to real as I've seen, for that alone the makers deserve many large and shiny awards. I'll now watch this documentary knowingfukk well that it will be great. Thanks for posting it.

👍︎︎ 6 👤︎︎ u/broken-filter 📅︎︎ Dec 22 2013 🗫︎ replies

Band of Brothers is a series I will never forget.

👍︎︎ 3 👤︎︎ u/Opienus 📅︎︎ Dec 22 2013 🗫︎ replies

This is simply the best mini-series ever.

👍︎︎ 3 👤︎︎ u/Didalectic 📅︎︎ Dec 22 2013 🗫︎ replies

I've watched the series many many times (and read a few of the memoirs) it really is a fantastic story and the mini-series stays close to how things really happened.

👍︎︎ 2 👤︎︎ u/[deleted] 📅︎︎ Dec 22 2013 🗫︎ replies

I have watched band of brothers every year in November and this is the first time I have seen this. Thank you.

👍︎︎ 1 👤︎︎ u/newbi1kenobi 📅︎︎ Dec 22 2013 🗫︎ replies