House of Gold | Band of Brothers

Chapter 13: In the Face of Fear

Ben had managed to tune out the sound of the plane quite a while ago, leaving behind an eerie quiet that engulfed the men, their stoic facades barely visible in the shadows. For two years they had been preparing for this very moment and yet, they suddenly felt as if they knew nothing.

With the door of the plane already wide open, Ben watched the other aircrafts that were flying alongside theirs. For a fleeting moment, he wondered which one Beth was in. Recollection came back fast and hit Ben like a bag of bricks. Beth wasn't in any of those other planes. If everything had gone to plan, she was already on the ground, waiting for everyone else to join the party. That was, if everything had gone to plan.

Ben was unsure if the thought of Beth already being on the ground brought him more or less anxiety. There really was no way to tell for sure if being in one of the planes was safer. Ben tried to push the thought from his head, telling himself it was pointless to worry about answerless issues; but then the planes broke through the wall of thick, dark clouds and it was like they were in another world.

The night sky was bright, lit up by explosions and gunfire. It was a terrifying and intimidating sight. At that moment, while the Germans directed all of their firepower into the sky, Ben knew that Beth was much safer on the ground. That fact gave him what little hope he needed to persevere, even in the face of such horrors.

When the red light beside the door lit up, Ben tightened the strap on his helmet and stood up, turning to look at the stick of men under his command. "Get ready!" he called for their attention. "Stand up! Hook up! Equipment check! Sound off for equipment check!"

Ben went through the motions, his mind almost on complete autopilot as the men sounded off one by one. When the man in front of Ben called, "Two okay!" the Lieutenant took one last look out at the chaos below and filled his lungs to the brim. "One okay!" he finished as a plane just to the left of them exploded in mid-air before spiralling to the ground and erupting into a ball of flames upon impact.

In order to avoid the other aircrafts that were losing control, the pilot had to quickly swerve out of the way, sending Ben and all the other men flying through the back of the plane, subsequently slamming into the side wall once or twice.

"We gotta get out of here!" one of the men screamed, but the light wasn't green yet.

In those few moments before the jump, it seemed as though the light would never turn green. Ben wondered if the pilot was just going to fly clean over Normandy and take them to safety, but he didn't, and that saddened Ben slightly.

When the red light turned green every emotion the Lieutenant had about jumping or not left him. There was no more room for personal feelings.

Ben didn't even have to say anything. As soon as the green light was staring back at the men, almost daring them to jump into what looked like literal hell, the first man stepped up to the door and, when prompted, leapt out.

With Ben waving them on, the men jumped one by one, and finally, when the plane was otherwise empty, Ben made the last departure.

Despite the fact that it was a warm, summer evening in June, Ben felt shivers up and down his spine as he began his descent. Maybe it was from the nerves, or maybe it was from the harsh wind caused by all of the commotion so high up, but it didn't matter. As soon as Ben's chute deployed and he slowly neared the ground, his mind was only concerned about what he was going to do the second his boots touched down in Normandy.

The first thing Ben did as he tumbled into the tall grass was detach himself from his parachute, leaving it behind, discarded with all the others. The next thing he did was reach for his leg bag, but of course, it wasn't there. No leg bag, no weapon, which meant all Ben had for self-defence in the middle of enemy territory was his knife and his wits; and while Ben was decent enough with a knife and believed himself to be of above-average intelligence, he would have much rather had a gun to defend his life.