We Happy Few | Band of Brothers

Chapter 18: Carentan

As 1st approached the town, gunfire rang out and the two men behind Luz collapsed to the ground. Turning to the sides, the rest of the troops jumped into the ditches for cover. With Welsh and Luz alone in the German-occupied town all by themselves, the rest of Easy stayed crouched in the ditches, hoping the flying bullets wouldn't reach them. 

Annie, who was stuffed between two men, held her arms close to her chest as a bullet landed inches away from her face. Strayer was yelling at the men to keep moving, as was Winters, but the gunfire had the company pinned down with nowhere to go. 

"Kessler, Gordon!" Winters called to the two machine-gunners. Once he had their attention, he used hand signals to explain that he wanted them to move up as far as possible and take out the snipers in the windows. 

Knowing that the men would have no chance of entering the town without at least a small break in the raining bullets, Margot and Smokey quickly pushed past their fellow company members, remembering to keep their heads low as they did. After finding a good spot to set up, Margot grabbed the tripod from her back and slammed it down into the ground. Dropping to his knees, Smokey secured the gun to the tripod and loaded it as soon as Margot handed him the ammo. 

Once the gun was set up, both troopers laid down on their stomachs and waited for the gunfire to give away the positions of the Germans. Margot's eyes darted around the town as she waited. She could hear her heartbeat in her ears. 

Another round of bullets and Margot had pinpointed a German in the upstairs window of the cafe. "Cafe, second story, first window on the right," she instructed. Adjusting the gun, Smokey took aim and fired a few dozen bullets into the building while his partner fed the bullets into the gun to make sure they didn't jam. 

When the action from the cafe ceased, Margot waited again. More gunfire, another German. "Red building, first floor, small window." Margot pointed with her finger. 

Smokey listened, aimed, and fired. After a few more rounds, and with the help of a few more machine-gunner teams, the gunfire had died down enough for Winters and Buck to herd Easy Company into the town. 

Following closely behind Lipton, Annie kept her head on a swivel as she entered the town with the rest of 2nd Platoon. Holding his hand up, Lipton pressed his back against the wall of the closest building and peaked around the corner to get an idea of where the remaining Germans were.

"There's one in the right upper win-" one of the men started to tell Lipton but was shot before he could even finish his sentence. 

"Medic!" someone called out of habit even though Annie was right there. 

Reaching out, Annie quickly pulled the man's body back into cover and began to inspect his wound. Thankfully, he had only been shot in the shoulder. "Stay with me," Annie told the man who had gone into complete shock in a matter of seconds. "This isn't too bad. Nothing a little bandaging won't help."

Annie's gentle, soothing words flowed out of her mouth as she picked out a few pieces of debris from the wound, poured in a package of sulfa, and bandaged it up. "Alright, now you stay here until it's safe and we have an aid station set up," she told the man. "Do you understand me?"

With a slow nod, the man confirmed that he understood. "Do you need some morphine for the pain?" she asked. 

"Save it," he croaked as he shook his head. 

When Annie looked back up and re-joined the war around her, she spotted Welsh making a B-line directly down the middle of the street. Pulling the pin on the grenade in his hand, he tossed the explosive into the open window where the German machine-gunner was hiding out and ducked below.