FM 506-E · Field manual · RestrictedFirst edition · 2026
Easy Company in Normandy
Company E · 506th Parachute Infantry · 101st Airborne Division
6 June – 12 July 1944
Follow one rifle company from the night drop behind Utah Beach, through Brécourt Manor and Carentan, to the ship home — with every position rated for how sure we are, every stop linked to your maps, and the whole invasion around it.
Orders — where to go from here
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Standing orders
Accuracy. A pin marked LOW is the centre of a search area, not a foxhole. Respect. Brécourt, Marmion Farm and many fields are private — view from the road. Cemeteries and memorials are places of remembrance first.
Remember · Explore · Respect
Briefing
Orders of the day · read before moving out
This guide follows Company E, 506th Parachute Infantry, from the night drop of 6 June 1944 to the ship home on 12 July. Two sets of positions are kept apart on purpose:
TIMELINE — 21 historical positions in date order: what happened, where and when. TOUR — 32 stops in driving order across five days: where to go, for how long, and where to sleep. Every stop opens directly in Google Maps.
The accuracy rule
A GPS coordinate can locate a museum, memorial or town precisely; it cannot turn uncertain wartime evidence into an exact landing point. Winters himself could not identify his landing spot, so this guide never invents one. Each position carries a coloured label:
HIGHexact spot known — a landmark, museum, memorial or townMEDIUMwell supported, but the exact spot is uncertainLOWgeneral area only — the pin is the centre of a search area
Words to know
E Company"Easy" Company — about 140 men of the 506th Parachute Infantry RegimentPIRParachute Infantry Regiment — about 2,000 paratroopers101stthe 101st Airborne Division, "Screaming Eagles"CPcommand post — where the officers ran the fightDZdrop zone — the field the paratroopers were meant to land inStickthe 15–18 men who jumped from one planeC-47the twin-engine transport plane that carried themXOexecutive officer — the second-in-commandNCOsergeants and corporalsFlakanti-aircraft fire
Respect the ground. Brécourt Manor, Marmion Farm and several fields are private property — view from public roads and marked memorial areas. At cemeteries and memorials, remembrance first, tour second.
The story in brief
The night drop. Easy Company entered Normandy in fragments. Cloud, flak and evasive flying broke up the C-47 formations and most sticks landed far from Drop Zone C near Sainte-Marie-du-Mont. Stick 66 never delivered its men: the aircraft carrying company commander 1st Lt. Thomas Meehan, 1st Sgt. William Evans and fifteen others was hit by flak and crashed near Beuzeville-au-Plain — all aboard were killed. Easy went into battle without its commander.
Assembly. 1st Lt. Richard Winters, the executive officer, came down alone somewhere west of Sainte-Mère-Église — he could never say exactly where — without his weapon. He gathered scattered men, moved round the north of the town, fell in behind Lt. Col. Cole's 502nd group, searched La Herguerie farm and reached the 2nd Battalion assembly area at Le Grand Chemin by morning — now the senior Easy officer present.
Brécourt Manor. Sent to silence a four-gun 105 mm battery believed to be firing on Utah Beach, Winters led about a dozen men in an assault often cited as a model of small-unit tactics: a base of fire, a covered approach along the hedgerow, into the trench system, and the guns reduced one by one. Reinforced by Lt. Speirs's D Company men, they destroyed the guns and withdrew.
South to Carentan. First night at Culoville near the regimental CP. 7 June: Easy on point into Vierville against German paratroopers. 7–10 June: reserve at Angoville-au-Plain. 11 June: past Dead Man's Corner, across the flooded Douve causeway and into the marsh fields. 12 June: into Carentan on the Route d'Auvers, fighting to the railway — Winters wounded in the shin. 13 June: the German counterattack at Bloody Gulch, held on the right flank until 2nd Armored tanks arrived.
The long June. Reserve in Carentan under Lt. Welsh while Winters recovered; patrols (Blithe badly wounded — his Purple Heart is dated 25 June, his 21st birthday, though accounts of the exact day and place vary); in the line until relieved 28 June; "near Cherbourg" 29 June; then the division field camp north of Utah Beach. 10–11 July back to Utah Beach to embark; Southampton on the night of 12 July, and by train to Aldbourne. Ambrose counts 65 casualties from a company of about 140.
Why the wider tour
Days 3–5 step outside the company to see the machine it was part of: Omaha and Pointe du Hoc, the Atlantic Wall at Longues, the Mulberry harbour, Caen, and the British airborne flank — where the Merville Battery assault is the direct twin of Brécourt.
Using your location
Tap the 📍 button at the top right and allow location when your phone asks. You then get a blue YOU dot on the maps, the distance and direction to every stop, a Near me list of the ten closest waypoints, and a pop-up when you reach one — within about 120 m of a green HIGH pin, 300 m of a yellow MEDIUM and 800 m of a red LOW area. The app has to be open on screen, and it works when opened from its web address (https://…). Your location never leaves your phone — nothing is sent or stored anywhere. Tap Turn off to stop.
📻 Stories on the radio
Most stops carry a narrated story, about a minute long. Tap the radio button on a stop, or on the arrival pop-up when you reach a waypoint, to hear what happened there. A player appears at the bottom of the screen; it keeps playing if you lock your phone. Use headphones at cemeteries and memorials.
Using the map buttons
The Google Maps button on every stop opens a pin on the exact waypoint — not directions from where you are — so you can see the spot first and ask for directions when you want them. On the Tour tab each day also has a big Google Maps route button that loads the whole day's stops, in order, as one route. Tap ✓ on a stop to mark it visited — the tick is remembered on this device only.
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Everything in this guide as a printable PDF: read it offline, print it, or keep it for the trip.
Tip: download before you travel — once saved it needs no signal.
Chronological movement
21 positions from Winters' probable landing area (reconstruction) to Southampton. Lines on the situation map join points in date order — they are not the exact wartime track.
Plan your tour
Which tour?
How many days?
The planner ranks every site by its importance to the Easy Company story, fills your days in west-to-east driving order (about 7 hours of visits a day), and picks an overnight base for each night. Five days gives the classic tour; six or more adds the "Easy Company's June" extras.
＋ Add stops to my route
Tip: in Google Maps, press and hold a spot and the coordinates appear at the top — copy them here. To take a stop out, tap ✕ Remove from my route on its card. On the other tabs — and in 🔍 search — any site that can be visited has a ＋ Add to my route button.
Operation Overlord — the whole invasion
Easy Company was one rifle company among roughly 156,000 Allied troops landed on 6 June 1944. This tab gives the big picture, then runs the invasion clock side by side with what Easy was doing at the same hour.
The decisive factors
Two clocks — the invasion and Easy Company
Times are approximate and in British Double Summer Time as used by the Allies. Where Easy's position is uncertain the stamp says so.
Key invasion sites
The whole front from Utah to Sword. Sites already on your tour are marked; the others are the ones to add if you want the full invasion story. Tap the map to enlarge.
Museums & sites
The anchors of the route, plus the extras your research flagged as most relevant to a 506th / Easy Company visit.
If you have a sixth day
Suggested insert between Days 2 and 3 — "Easy Company's June"
Angoville-au-Plain church → Vierville (Cotentin) → Normandy Victory Museum, Catz → Bloody Gulch Museum, Méautis → the Carentan reserve and patrol sectors (Timeline 9–17). This is the part of the story the series compresses most.
Sources
U.S. Army University Press staff-ride material (Normandy Airborne Assault / Utah Beach to Cherbourg); 506th PIR S-2 Journal, June 1944; R. D. Winters, war memoir (2006); S. E. Ambrose, 1992 history of Easy Company; Military Vehicle Trust, "Following in the Footsteps of Richard Winters"; Easy506th.org; 506th Infantry Regiment Association map archive; D-Day Overlord; GSGS 4347 sheet 31/18 SE Carentan (Jan 1944). Opening hours from a 2026 compilation — verify before travel.
Origins — how the Airborne, and Easy Company, came to be
Background briefing · read before the timeline
Before the first C-47 lifted off for Normandy, the men of Easy Company had spent two years becoming something the U.S. Army had never fielded before: a rifle company built from raw volunteers into paratroopers. This page explains where the idea of airborne troops came from, how the 101st and the 506th were raised, what a company, battalion and regiment actually are, and what Easy did from its first day at Camp Toccoa to the night it jumped into France.
1 · The idea of soldiers from the sky
Borrowed from Europe. The Soviet Union staged the first mass parachute drops in the mid-1930s, and Germany's Fallschirmjäger proved the idea in war: in May 1940 German paratroopers and glider troops seized the Belgian fortress of Eben-Emael and bridges in the Netherlands in hours, and in May 1941 they captured Crete — at terrible cost, but they captured it. The U.S. Army, still small and under-equipped, took notice.
The Test Platoon. In June 1940 the Army formed a 48-man Parachute Test Platoon at Fort Benning, Georgia, drawn from volunteers of the 29th Infantry. They made their first jumps in August 1940 from a Douglas B-18 bomber. Within weeks the Army activated the 501st Parachute Infantry Battalion — the first American parachute unit — and Benning became the home of jump school. Everything the 506th later learned about static lines, the five-jump qualification course and the "Geronimo!" shout began with that platoon.
From battalions to divisions. Through 1941–42 the parachute battalions grew into regiments, and on 15–16 August 1942 the Army did something bold: at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana, it redesignated the veteran 82nd Infantry Division as an airborne division and activated a second one beside it, built from 82nd cadres and personnel — the 82nd and the 101st. The 101st's first commander, Major General William C. Lee, told his men that the new division "has no history, but it has a rendezvous with destiny". An airborne division mixed two kinds of infantry: parachute regiments that jumped, and glider regiments towed in behind them in wooden-and-canvas Waco gliders, plus airborne artillery, engineers and medics.
2 · The 506th — a regiment built from scratch
Camp Toccoa, 20 July 1942. The 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment was activated at Camp Toccoa (briefly Camp Toombs; 20 July is the official date, some histories give 1 July) in the Georgia hills under Colonel Robert F. Sink, who would command it for the entire war. It was an experiment. Every earlier parachute unit had recruited men who were already trained soldiers; the 506th took volunteers largely straight from induction — many with little or no prior Army training — and turned them into infantrymen and paratroopers in one place. The Army was not sure it would work.
Currahee. The camp sat under Currahee Mountain, and the run to its summit — "three miles up, three miles down" — became the regiment's daily test and its motto (Cherokee for "stands alone"). The selection was brutal by design: by Stephen Ambrose's count, of roughly 5,300 enlisted volunteers about 1,800 survived to become the regiment, and of some 500 officers around 150 were kept — other histories give different applicant and completion totals. The rest were sent to ordinary infantry units. The men who stayed had already done the hardest thing the Army could think of before they had ever seen a parachute.
Easy Company. The regiment's 2nd Battalion held companies D, E and F plus a headquarters company. Company E — "Easy" in the phonetic alphabet of the day — was formed with 132 enlisted men and 8 officers (Ambrose's figures) under 1st Lt. Herbert Sobel (promoted captain soon afterwards), with Lieutenants Clarence Hester and Richard Winters among his platoon leaders. Sobel was a demanding, often petty commander who was disliked by nearly everyone, but he drove Easy to become the fittest company in the regiment: extra runs, extra field problems, revoked weekend passes. Much of the company's later cohesion came from the shared experience of enduring him.
3 · How the Army was organised
Every rung is built from about three of the rung below it, plus a small headquarters. Figures are the 1944 parachute-infantry establishment and are approximate — real companies were often under strength. Easy's own chain of command on D-Day is shown on the right.
Field Army2–4 corps · 100,000+ men · General
First U.S. Army — Lt. Gen. Omar Bradley
is made of ▼
Corps2–4 divisions · 30,000–60,000 · Major General
VII Corps — Maj. Gen. J. Lawton Collins
is made of ▼
Division3–4 regiments + artillery, engineers, medics · ~12,000–14,000 · Major General
101st Airborne "Screaming Eagles" — Maj. Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor
Company3 rifle platoons + company HQ · ~130–140 · Captain
Company E "Easy" — 1st Lt. Thomas Meehan (XO: 1st Lt. Richard Winters)
is made of ▼
PlatoonHQ, 2 rifle squads + a 60 mm mortar squad (Ambrose describes 3 rifle squads) · ~36–40 · Lieutenant
1st, 2nd and 3rd Platoons of Easy
is made of ▼
SquadRiflemen, a .30-cal light machine gun team, a scout pair (BARs were not standard issue for paratroopers, though some were picked up in the field) · ~12 · Sergeant
The "stick" of 15–18 men in one C-47 was usually a squad plus attachments
Unit
Made up of
Rough size
Led by
Squad
about 12 riflemen and gunners
12
Staff sergeant / sergeant
Platoon
HQ, 2 rifle squads + a 60 mm mortar squad (Ambrose describes 3 rifle squads)
The 101st Airborne on D-Day — what the division contained
Parachute infantry: 501st, 502nd and 506th PIR (three battalions each). Glider infantry: 327th GIR, with a battalion of the 401st attached. Artillery: 377th Parachute Field Artillery, 321st and 907th Glider Field Artillery, 81st Airborne Anti-Aircraft. Support: 326th Airborne Engineers, 326th Airborne Medical Company, signals, quartermaster, ordnance and military police. About 6,600 men of the division jumped in the early hours of 6 June; the gliders and the sea-borne echelon brought the rest.
Company names. In 1944 the Army spelt out letters as Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog, Easy, Fox, George, How, Item. A regiment's nine rifle companies ran A–I: A, B, C in 1st Battalion; D, E, F in 2nd; G, H, I in 3rd. So "Easy Company" always means E Company, and in the 506th that put it in Strayer's 2nd Battalion alongside Dog and Fox.
4 · Easy Company from Toccoa to the drop zone
The company's whole life before combat, in order. Dates from Stephen Ambrose's history of Easy Company and the 506th's own records; where sources disagree the more cautious figure is used.
20 Jul 1942
Activated at Camp Toccoa, Georgia. The 506th is raised under Col. Sink. Easy Company forms in 2nd Battalion under 1st Lt. Herbert Sobel, soon promoted captain. Volunteers arrive as civilians and are put straight onto Currahee.
Jul – Nov 1942
Toccoa. Thirteen weeks of basic and parachute-infantry training in one: daily Currahee runs, obstacle course, weapons, night problems, a mock tower and rudimentary ground-training rigs (the 250-foot free towers were at Fort Benning, where the men would qualify). Roughly two of every three volunteers wash out. Sobel's "Easy" earns a reputation as the fittest company in the regiment.
1 – 4 Dec 1942
The march to Atlanta. Answering a newspaper claim of a Japanese army marching record, Sink has 2nd Battalion walk from Toccoa to Atlanta — about 118 miles by Ambrose's count (the regiment recorded 137) — in three days of rain, mud and frozen roads, with almost every man finishing. From Atlanta they go by train to Fort Benning.
Dec 1942
Jump school, Fort Benning. Because Toccoa had already done the physical stages, Easy goes almost straight to the towers and then to the aircraft. Five qualifying jumps from C-47s earn every man his silver wings and the right to blouse his trousers into jump boots.
Jan – Mar 1943
Furlough, then Camp Mackall, North Carolina. Jump training finished around Christmas; after leave and further weeks at Benning the regiment moved in March 1943 to the new airborne training centre at Mackall for company- and battalion-level tactics, live fire and more jumps.
10 Jun 1943
Joined to the 101st Airborne. The 506th is formally assigned to the 101st, which is training at Fort Bragg. Easy takes part in the large Tennessee manoeuvres that summer — its first exercises as part of a division.
Aug – Sep 1943
Camp Shanks, New York → SS Samaria. After a final stop at Fort Bragg the regiment stages at Camp Shanks and sails from New York on 5 September aboard the crowded troopship Samaria, docking at Liverpool on 15 September 1943.
Sep 1943 – May 1944
Aldbourne, Wiltshire. Easy is billeted in the village of Aldbourne for nine months — Nissen huts and private homes, the Blue Boar pub, English rain. Training turns to what Normandy will demand: night jumps, hedgerow assaults, street fighting in bombed-out towns, long field exercises on Salisbury Plain and at Slapton Sands in Devon.
Oct 1943 – Feb 1944
The Sobel crisis. Sobel's tactical blunders in the field, and his attempt to court-martial Winters over a trivial order, bring the company's sergeants to the edge of mutiny — several hand in their stripes rather than go into combat under him. Sink breaks up the protest, busts two NCOs, and in February 1944 moves Sobel to command the parachute school at Chilton Foliat. 1st Lt. Thomas Meehan takes over Easy; Winters becomes executive officer.
Mar 1944
New division commander. Gen. Lee suffers a heart attack; Maj. Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor takes command of the 101st on 14 March. Some of his men are reported to have shouted "Bill Lee" rather than "Geronimo" as they jumped into Normandy; others shouted "Currahee", and many nothing at all.
11 – 12 May 1944
Exercise Eagle. The 101st's full dress rehearsal: a night mass drop over Berkshire mimicking the Normandy plan. Scattered sticks and a few injuries preview what June will bring.
Late May 1944
Marshalling at Upottery, Devon. Easy moves to a sealed airfield near Honiton. Only now are the men briefed on sand tables and maps: Drop Zone C near Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, and 2nd Battalion's job — secure the inland ends of the causeways (Exits 1 and 2) off Utah Beach so the 4th Infantry Division can get off the sand.
4 – 5 Jun 1944
Postponed, then go. Bad weather scrubs the 4 June take-off. On the evening of 5 June, faces blackened, each man carrying 70–100 lb of gear, Easy boards C-47s of the 439th Troop Carrier Group. Eisenhower's message is read out; the serials begin taking off from about 22:30, with Easy's aircraft airborne by around 23:10.
6 Jun 1944 · ≈ 01:10
Into France. Flak and cloud over the Cotentin scatter the formation. Easy's men jump across miles of Normandy; Lt. Meehan's aircraft is shot down with all aboard. Winters lands near Sainte-Mère-Église without his weapon. What happens next is the Timeline tab.
Why it matters. By 6 June 1944 Easy had been together for nearly two years — longer than almost any American rifle company would be by the end of the war. That shared history, more than any single leader, is why a scattered company could reassemble in the dark and take Brécourt Manor by mid-morning.
Easy Company was one of the first American rifle companies built entirely from paratrooper volunteers. It fought from the night drop into Normandy to the end of the war in the Alps, and it lost 48 men killed along the way (the Winters/Ambrose count; other rosters give 49).
Read the whole story ▾
Toccoa, 1942–43. Company E of the 506th Parachute Infantry was formed at Camp Toccoa, Georgia, in summer 1942 under 1st Lt. Herbert Sobel, who was soon promoted captain. Most of its men came straight from civilian life. They ran Currahee Mountain — "three miles up, three miles down" — until only the toughest were left, then trained at Benning, Mackall and Bragg before sailing for England in September 1943.
England, 1943–44. The company trained at Aldbourne, Wiltshire. Sobel's clash with his platoon leader Richard Winters led almost every sergeant to hand in his stripes. Sobel was moved out and 1st Lt. Thomas Meehan took command.
Normandy, June–July 1944. Easy jumped behind Utah Beach on the night of 5–6 June. Meehan's plane was shot down and everyone aboard was killed, so Winters took command. That morning he led about a dozen men against the guns at Brécourt Manor. Easy then fought at Carentan and Bloody Gulch and sailed back to England in July.
Holland, September–November 1944. Easy jumped into Holland on 17 September for Market Garden. It entered Eindhoven, was thrown back at Nuenen, and spent weeks on "the Island" between the rivers. On 5 October Winters led the crossroads attack and was then promoted to battalion executive officer. The company helped rescue about 138 Allied soldiers, mostly British airborne troops, in Operation Pegasus.
Bastogne, December 1944–January 1945. Rushed to the Ardennes with too little winter clothing and ammunition, Easy held the edge of the Bois Jacques above Foy. Shelling cost the company Toye's and Guarnere's legs and the lives of Muck and Penkala. On 13 January Lt. Ronald Speirs took over in the middle of the attack on Foy, and the company went on to Noville and Rachamps.
Haguenau and Germany, 1945. Easy held the Moder river in Alsace in February 1945. It then watched the Ruhr pocket from the Rhine and moved into Bavaria, where on 28–29 April it entered a Kaufering sub-camp near Landsberg (probably Kaufering IV). On 5 May it reached Berchtesgaden and the Obersalzberg.
Austria and home, 1945. After Germany surrendered, Easy occupied Zell am See and Kaprun in Austria. It moved to France in the summer to train for Japan, but the war ended first. The 101st Airborne was inactivated on 30 November 1945.
Twenty-five of the men who made Easy Company. Tap a name to read his story, the medals he earned and what became of him. The coloured ribbons show his decorations.
The officers
Born 21 Jan 1918, New Holland, Pennsylvania · died 2 Jan 2011, Campbelltown, Pennsylvania
An economics graduate of Franklin & Marshall College, Winters joined Easy at Toccoa in 1942 as a platoon leader. When Lt. Meehan was killed on D-Day he took command, and that morning led about a dozen men against the four guns at Brécourt Manor. He was recommended for the Medal of Honor and received the Distinguished Service Cross. He was wounded at Carentan and led the crossroads attack in Holland on 5 October 1944, then became battalion executive officer and later its commander, ending the war as a major. Calm, sober and devout, he was the man Easy trusted most.
Decorations
Distinguished Service Cross — leading the attack on the guns at Brécourt Manor, 6 June 1944 (he had been recommended for the Medal of Honor)
Bronze Star — reason not recorded (some records show a second)
Purple Heart — wounded in the leg at Carentan, June 1944
After the war: Worked for the Nixon family firm, then ran his own animal-feed business in Hershey. Wrote a memoir with Col. Cole Kingseed (2006).
Born 30 Sep 1918, New York City · died 11 Jan 1995, Los Angeles
The wealthy, Yale-educated son of an industrial family, Nixon was never in Easy itself but served on 2nd Battalion staff beside it from Toccoa onward. He jumped into Normandy and Holland, where a bullet grazed his forehead. In March 1945 he jumped with the 17th Airborne in Operation Varsity; his plane was hit and only four men got out. He drank heavily during the war, and Winters stood by him throughout.
Decorations
Bronze Star — reason not recorded (some sources say two)
Parachute wings with three combat-jump stars — Normandy, Holland and Operation Varsity, a rare set
After the war: Brought Winters into the family business; later remarried and gave up drinking.
Born 26 Jan 1912, Chicago · died 30 Sep 1987, Waukegan, Illinois
Sobel built Easy at Toccoa and drove it relentlessly: extra runs, harsh punishments, cancelled passes. His men found him petty and doubted his judgement in the field. When he court-martialled Winters in England, nearly every sergeant offered to give up his stripes, and he was moved out in early 1944. He went on to run a parachute school and later served as the regiment's supply officer, and he jumped on D-Day. Several veterans later credited him with making Easy as tough as it was.
Decorations
Bronze Star — no citation survives; one account links it to D-Day, when he and four men knocked out a German machine-gun nest with grenades
After the war: Worked in Chicago as a credit manager; spent his last years in a veterans' home.
Born 8 Jul 1921, Philadelphia · killed in action 6 Jun 1944, near Beuzeville-au-Plain, Normandy
A Philadelphia art student who transferred to Easy from B Company, Meehan took command after Sobel left. On D-Day he led the company headquarters in C-47 "Chalk 66". The plane was hit by flak and crashed near Beuzeville-au-Plain; everyone aboard was killed, including 1st Sgt. William Evans. Easy did not learn his fate until long after. The wreck was found in the early 1950s and reportedly excavated in 1989; a memorial now marks the site.
Decorations
None found beyond his parachute wings and Combat Infantryman Badge. A posthumous Purple Heart is standard for men killed in action, but no record of it was found.
Born 20 Apr 1920, Edinburgh, Scotland · died 11 Apr 2007, Montana
Brought up in Boston, Speirs fought in Normandy with D Company, including at Brécourt, and was wounded. He won the Silver Star in Holland for a solo patrol across the Lower Rhine. On 13 January 1945, in the attack on Foy, Winters sent him to take over Easy mid-battle; he famously ran through the German-held village to reach I Company and back. He led Easy through Haguenau, Germany and Austria. Stories that he shot prisoners were never confirmed.
Decorations
Silver Star — swam the Lower Rhine (Neder Rijn) alone near Randwijk to scout German positions and came back with a captured boat, 10 October 1944, wounded on the way back
Bronze Star — reason not recorded (number not confirmed)
Purple Heart with oak leaf cluster (two awards) — wounded in Normandy, June 1944, and in Holland, 10 October 1944
Legion of Merit — after the war, for service from October 1961 to March 1964, a period that included Laos
After the war: Stayed in the Army — Korea, US governor of Spandau Prison in Berlin, Laos; retired a lieutenant colonel.
Born 31 Dec 1921, Los Angeles · died 25 Feb 2012, Burlington, Washington
A UCLA catcher and Rose Bowl footballer, Compton won the Silver Star at Brécourt Manor. He was shot through the buttocks in Holland and came back to lead his platoon at Bastogne. After watching his friends Toye and Guarnere lose their legs in January 1945, he was evacuated with severe trench foot.
Decorations
Silver Star — Brécourt Manor, 6 June 1944
Bronze Star — reason not recorded
Purple Heart — shot through the buttocks in Holland, September 1944
After the war: Police detective, then prosecutor who led the case against Robert Kennedy's assassin, Sirhan Sirhan (1969); California appeals court judge 1970–90.
Born 27 Sep 1918, Pennsylvania · died 21 Jan 1995, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
A former enlisted paratrooper who reportedly won and lost his sergeant's stripes several times for fighting, Welsh went to officer school and joined Easy. He led 1st Platoon into Carentan and was wounded at Bastogne at Christmas 1944, returning in 1945. He was Winters' closest friend in the company.
Decorations
Bronze Star with oak leaf cluster (two awards) — reasons not recorded
Purple Heart with oak leaf cluster (two awards) — one for the mortar wound at Bastogne, Christmas 1944; the other wound is not recorded
After the war: Married Kitty Grogan, a friend of Winters, in a wedding dress made from parachute silk; taught at GAR and Coughlin high schools in Wilkes-Barre, then was Director of Pupil Services for the Wilkes-Barre Area School District until 1983.
Born 23 Jun 1916, Acton, Massachusetts · died 3 Nov 2001, Concord, Massachusetts
A big, well-liked former mortar platoon leader, Heyliger took command of Easy when Winters moved up in October 1944. He led the company in Operation Pegasus, the night rescue across the Rhine of about 138 Allied soldiers, mostly British, and received the British Military Cross. On 31 October he was badly wounded by one of his own sentries while checking the line with Winters, and he did not return.
Decorations
British Military Cross — leading Operation Pegasus, the rescue of about 138 Allied evaders, mostly British, night of 22–23 October 1944
Bronze Star — citation not found
Purple Heart — shot by his own sentry on the Island, 31 October 1944
After the war: Studied horticulture at the University of Massachusetts.
Born 19 May 1918, Brooklyn, New York · died 23 Jun 1989, Rolle, Switzerland
A Brown graduate and Yale law student, Dike came from regimental staff to command Easy after Heyliger. The men felt he was rarely seen on the line, hence the nickname, yet he earned two Bronze Stars, one for carrying wounded men to safety at Bastogne. During the attack on Foy on 13 January 1945 the advance stalled and Winters replaced him with Speirs. Why it stalled is disputed (see the notes at the end).
Decorations
Bronze Star — rallying scattered paratroopers to hold the road junction at Uden, Holland, while surrounded, 23–25 September 1944
Bronze Star (second award) — carrying three wounded men out of an exposed position under fire at Bastogne, 3 January 1945
Purple Heart with oak leaf cluster (two awards) — one reportedly for a shoulder wound at Foy, 13 January 1945
One source adds a Silver Star; not confirmed.
After the war: Yale law degree, work in Japan and for the CIA, then a legal and business career; lived in Switzerland from 1960.
The sergeants
Born 30 Jan 1920, Huntington, West Virginia · died 16 Dec 2001, North Carolina
His father was killed and his mother paralysed in a car crash when he was ten. Lipton enlisted in 1942 and was one of Easy's first privates. He fought at Brécourt Manor, was wounded at Carentan, and became first sergeant — the man who held the company together at Bastogne while its officers failed or fell. After Foy he was commissioned a lieutenant in the field, and he served through Germany and Austria.
Decorations
Bronze Star — Brécourt Manor, 6 June 1944, where he climbed a tree to fire into the German position (some records show a second Bronze Star)
Purple Heart — shell fragments to the face and groin at Carentan, June 1944; his headstone records two more, for three in all
After the war: Engineering degree from Marshall; a long career with the glassmaker Owens-Illinois.
Born 28 Apr 1923, South Philadelphia · died 8 Mar 2014, Philadelphia
The youngest of ten in an Italian-American family, Guarnere built Sherman tanks before enlisting. He jumped into Normandy knowing his brother had just been killed in Italy, and fought with fury at Brécourt Manor, earning the Silver Star. Shot in the leg in Holland, he slipped out of hospital to rejoin the company. On 3 January 1945 near Foy he lost a leg to shellfire while helping the wounded Joe Toye.
Decorations
Silver Star — Brécourt Manor, 6 June 1944
Bronze Star with oak leaf cluster (two awards) — reasons not recorded
Purple Heart (two) — a sniper's bullet in the leg on the Island, October 1944, and the loss of his leg near Foy, 3 January 1945
After the war: Veterans' advocate; co-wrote Brothers in Battle, Best of Friends (2007) with Babe Heffron. Statues of him stand in Pennsylvania.
Born 31 Jul 1921, Astoria, Oregon · died 30 Sep 2017, Salem, Oregon
A University of Oregon student from the Columbia River coast, Malarkey fought at Brécourt and then in every Easy campaign. He is said to have spent more continuous time on the line than anyone in the company without being seriously wounded. The death of his close friends Skip Muck and Alex Penkala at Bastogne stayed with him all his life.
Decorations
Bronze Star — Brécourt Manor, 6 June 1944; a second Bronze Star, reason not recorded
Purple Heart — the wound is not recorded
French Legion of Honour — awarded in 2009 as a surviving veteran of the liberation of France
After the war: County commissioner in Oregon; wrote Easy Company Soldier (2008).
Born 14 Mar 1919, Hughestown, Pennsylvania · died 3 Sep 1995, Reading, Pennsylvania
A coal miner's son who left school to work in the mines, Toye was known as one of the toughest men in the company. He fought at Brécourt, was wounded in Holland and again at Bastogne, and on 3 January 1945 lost his right leg to shellfire in the Bois Jacques. He had more wounds than almost anyone in Easy.
Decorations
Bronze Star — Brécourt Manor, 6 June 1944
Purple Hearts — three or four (sources differ; a local marker calls it the most in Easy): shellfire in Holland, autumn 1944; wounds at Bastogne; and the loss of his leg near Foy, 3 January 1945
One site adds a Silver Star; not confirmed.
After the war: Worked at the Grace iron mine for Bethlehem Steel. Winters gave his eulogy.
Born 26 Aug 1923, Howard County, Indiana · died Oct 1982, Shasta Lake, California
Talbert was wounded in Normandy, reportedly by an Easy man who mistook him in the dark for a German. He came back to serve in Holland and at Bastogne and was made first sergeant, a job he later gave up to return to his men. Winters rated him among the finest soldiers in the company.
Decorations
Bronze Star — reason not recorded
Purple Heart — most likely for the bayonet wound in Normandy, June 1944
After the war: Worked in industry and farming; lost touch with Easy until a reunion in 1981.
Born 20 Nov 1920, Rector, Arkansas · died 26 Jun 2003
A big, quiet Arkansan and former foundry worker, Randleman fought in Normandy and at Carentan. At Nuenen in Holland in September 1944 he was wounded and cut off; he hid in a barn, killed a German soldier who found him, and rejoined the company the next day. He went on through Bastogne, Foy and Haguenau.
Decorations
Bronze Star — reason not recorded
Purple Heart — shoulder wound from a tank shell in Holland, September 1944, the fight in which he hid in the barn
After the war: Service manager for a Caterpillar dealer, then construction superintendent in Louisiana.
Born 31 Jan 1922, Tonawanda, New York · killed in action 10 Jan 1945, Bois Jacques, near Foy, Belgium
A cheerful young man from upstate New York and Malarkey's closest friend, Muck jumped into Normandy and Holland. On 10 January 1945 a shell struck the foxhole he shared with Pvt. Alex Penkala in the Bois Jacques, killing both. Both are buried in the Luxembourg American Cemetery at Hamm.
Decorations
Bronze Star with oak leaf cluster (two awards) — reasons not recorded
Purple Heart (posthumous) — killed in the Bois Jacques, 10 January 1945
Born 13 Mar 1923, Clinchco, Virginia · died 17 Jun 2009, Bristol, Tennessee
Raised hunting in the Appalachian hills, Powers was one of Easy's best shots. At Bastogne he noticed a "tree that wasn't there yesterday" — a hidden German position — and at Foy he killed a sniper. He was never wounded in combat, but after winning the lottery for a trip home in 1945 he was badly hurt when his truck crashed on the way.
Decorations
Bronze Star with oak leaf cluster (two awards) — reasons not recorded
No Purple Heart: he was never wounded in combat.
After the war: Machinist, then more than 20 years with Clinchfield Coal; married to Dorothy for about 60 years.
The men
Born 16 May 1923, South Philadelphia · died 1 Dec 2013, Stratford, New Jersey
A shipyard worker from an Irish Catholic family, Heffron joined Easy as a replacement in England after Normandy. He jumped into Holland and fought at Bastogne, where in late December 1944 he was pinned down trying to reach his dying friend John Julian. He was at a Kaufering sub-camp and in Berchtesgaden in 1945. He and Bill Guarnere, from the same neighbourhood, stayed best friends for life.
Decorations
Bronze Star — Bastogne, winter 1944–45 (the action is not recorded)
Purple Heart — the wound is not recorded
After the war: Worked at a whiskey distillery and then on the Philadelphia docks; co-wrote Brothers in Battle, Best of Friends (2007).
Born 17 Jun 1921, Fall River, Massachusetts · died 15 Oct 1998, West Warwick, Rhode Island
The company's joker, famous for his impressions of officers, Luz carried Easy's radio from Normandy through Holland, Bastogne and into Germany and Austria. His humour kept men going in the worst moments of the siege.
Decorations
Bronze Star — reason not recorded
Purple Heart — the wound is not recorded
After the war: Maintenance work in Rhode Island; killed in an industrial accident. About 1,600 people came to his funeral.
Born 2 Jun 1922, New York City · lost at sea 9 Sep 1961, off Santa Monica, California
A Harvard English student who volunteered for the paratroopers, Webster jumped on D-Day with battalion headquarters and joined Easy afterwards. He was shot in the leg on the Island in Holland on 5 October 1944 and rejoined at Haguenau. His clear, often critical writing about the war made him the company's chronicler, and Ambrose drew heavily on it.
Decorations
Bronze Star — reason not recorded
Purple Heart with oak leaf cluster (two awards) — a shell-fragment wound in Normandy, June 1944, and a machine-gun bullet through the leg on the Island, October 1944
After the war: Journalist. He vanished while sailing alone off Santa Monica in 1961; his memoir Parachute Infantry was published in 1994.
Born 17 Oct 1921 or 1922, Bayou Chêne, Louisiana · died 30 Dec 1998, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
A Cajun from St. Martin Parish, Roe was the battalion medic attached to Easy from Normandy to the end of the war. At Bastogne he worked in the snow and cold with almost no supplies, going from foxhole to foxhole under shellfire. His officer recommended him for the Silver Star, which he never received.
Decorations
Bronze Star with oak leaf cluster (two awards) — reasons not recorded
Combat Medical Badge
Lt. Jack Foley recommended him for the Silver Star, but it was never approved. (One site lists a Purple Heart for a wound in Holland on 17 September 1944; not confirmed.)
After the war: Construction contractor in Louisiana.
Born 17 May 1915, Michigan · died 28 Jun 1992, San Bernardino, California
The son of German-speaking immigrants, Liebgott grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and worked as a barber. He fought at Brécourt and Carentan, was wounded twice on the Island in Holland, and fought at Bastogne. In 1945 his German made him Easy's interpreter, including at a Kaufering sub-camp. Many of his comrades assumed he was Jewish; his family says he was not.
Decorations
Bronze Star — Brécourt Manor, 6 June 1944
He was wounded twice, but no Purple Heart record was found.
After the war: Barber in the Bay Area; father of eight.
Born 25 Jun 1923, Philadelphia · died 17 Dec 1967, Wiesbaden, West Germany
Blithe jumped into Normandy and, around Carentan, suffered a brief stress-induced blindness. He was then shot by a sniper in the collarbone and shoulder — his Purple Heart is dated 25 June 1944, his 21st birthday — and did not return to Easy. Early accounts said he died of his wounds in 1948; that is wrong.
Decorations
Purple Heart — sniper's bullet in the shoulder near Carentan, 25 June 1944
His career record lists a Silver Star, three Bronze Stars and three Purple Hearts in all; most accounts place the Silver Star and a Bronze Star in Korea, for a jump behind enemy lines with the 187th Airborne, but the dates are not confirmed.
After the war: Stayed in the Army; served in Korea with the 187th Airborne, earning a Silver Star, and died on active duty as a master sergeant. Buried at Arlington.
Born 13 Jun 1922, Norfolk, Virginia · died 3 Dec 2021, Virginia
The son of Jewish immigrants, Shames joined as an I Company paratrooper, became a 3rd Battalion operations sergeant, and received a battlefield commission in Normandy on his 22nd birthday. He joined Easy as a platoon leader, volunteered for the Pegasus rescue, and fought at Bastogne and Foy, where he helped knock out a German tank with a bazooka. At Berchtesgaden in May 1945 he took cognac labelled for Hitler's own use.
Decorations
Bronze Star — reason not recorded
Purple Heart — a leg wound (sources give one to three awards)
Also: Dutch War Commemoration Cross.
After the war: Middle East specialist at the National Security Agency; he used the cognac for his son's Bar Mitzvah. He was the last surviving Easy officer.
Born 15 Apr 1920 or 1921, Jackson, Mississippi · died 19 Apr 1997, Mississippi
A college student turned down by the Marines and Navy, Gordon was with Easy from Toccoa. He jumped into Normandy and Holland. On Christmas Eve 1944 at Bastogne a sniper's bullet passed through both shoulders and grazed his spine, paralysing him for a time; he never returned to combat.
Decorations
Bronze Star — reason not recorded
Purple Heart — for his wounds at Carentan (13 June 1944) and Bastogne (24 December 1944); records show one award
After the war: Law degree, then a career as an oil and gas lease broker in Louisiana; organised Easy Company reunions from 1946.
About the decorations
The most decorated single action was Brécourt Manor on D-Day: Winters received the Distinguished Service Cross; Compton, Guarnere and Lt. Lorraine the Silver Star; and Lipton, Malarkey, Toye, Liebgott and several others the Bronze Star.
"Reason not recorded" means no citation survives online. After the war, in 1947, the Army gave a Bronze Star to every soldier who had earned the Combat Infantryman Badge (or the Combat Medical Badge, for medics). That is the likely reason for many of these Bronze Stars, but it is not confirmed for any one man.
Every man here also shared the unit awards, so they are not repeated on each card: the Presidential Unit Citation for Normandy and again for Bastogne, the Dutch Orange Lanyard for Holland, the Belgian Fourragère, and the French Croix de Guerre with palm for Normandy.
Oak leaf cluster = a second (or further) award of the same medal.
Where the sources disagree
These bios follow the best-supported version.
Dike
Winters, Lipton and most witnesses say he froze at Foy; Clancy Lyall later said he had been hit in the shoulder. This guide says only that the advance stalled.
Speirs
Stories that he shot German prisoners in Normandy; no eyewitness confirms them.
Sobel
Remembered as a petty tyrant, but several veterans credit him with making Easy tough; the TV drama leaves out his D-Day jump.
Blithe
Early books and the TV drama said he died of his wounds in 1948 — he died in 1967; the wound was the collarbone/shoulder, not the neck.
Liebgott
Often shown as Jewish; his family says he was not.
Compton
The TV drama showed him as shell-shocked; he blamed trench foot and exhaustion.
Powers
The first edition of Ambrose said he refused a patrol at Bastogne; both he and Shames denied it and it was removed.
Shames
Whether he was among the first into the Eagle's Nest, and whether the cognac came from there or from Hitler's quarters below.
Talbert
Ambrose describes a troubled post-war life; his family disputes it.
Gordon
His first wound: Carentan (June 1944) or near Eindhoven (Holland).
Guarnere
Born 1922 or 1923; right or left leg lost.
Welsh
Wounded Christmas Eve or Christmas Day 1944; born in Audenried or Wilkes-Barre.
Winters
Recommended for the Medal of Honor for Brécourt; received the Distinguished Service Cross instead.
Sources: Stephen Ambrose’s history of the company; Winters’ and Webster’s memoirs; TracesOfWar, Hall of Valor, Wikipedia, Find a Grave and obituaries.
Map
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Every weapon the men of Easy Company trained with at Toccoa and carried from Normandy to Austria — when each one was in use, how it worked, what it did well and where it let them down.
What they carried, and when
Tap a row to jump to that weapon. Newer models arrived during the war, so some weapons appear twice. Shaded bands show where Easy Company was; “Germany” covers Haguenau (France), Germany and Austria in 1945. Dates for late-war arrivals are approximate.
Only a handful of cartridges were needed, which made resupply simpler: the rifle, BAR and machine gun all fired the same .30-06 round, and the pistol, Thompson and grease gun all fired .45.
Round
Fired by
Types used
How it was carried
Notes
.30-06 Springfield 7.62 × 63 mm
M1 Garand, BAR, M1919 machine gun
M2 Ball plain tip M2 Armour-piercing black tip M1 Tracer red tip M3 grenade blank crimped, no bullet
Garand: 8-round clips in a 10-pocket cartridge belt (80 rds) plus cloth bandoleers of 6 clips (48 rds). BAR: 20-round magazines in a 6-pocket belt. MG: 250-round cloth belts in steel M1 ammo cans.
A powerful, long-range round. Machine-gun belts usually mixed ball and tracer (often 4 : 1) so the gunner could see his aim.
.30 Carbine 7.62 × 33 mm
M1 / M1A1 carbine
M1 Ball
15-round magazines; a canvas pouch holding two slipped over the stock, more in belt pouches.
Light and easy to carry in quantity, but much weaker than .30-06 — roughly pistol-class power at long range.
.45 ACP 11.43 × 23 mm
M1911A1 pistol, Thompson, M3 grease gun
M1911 Ball (230-grain bullet)
Pistol: 7-round magazines, 2 per pouch. Thompson: 20- or 30-round box magazines in canvas pouches. M3: 30-round magazines.
Heavy, slow bullet with strong stopping power at close range; drops quickly past about 100 m.
60 mm mortar bomb
M2 mortar
M49A2 High Explosive M302 White Phosphorus (smoke) M83 Illuminating (1944–45)
Each round in a black cardboard tube; carried in canvas ammo bags and vests by every man in the mortar squad.
An HE round weighed about 1.4 kg (3 lb). Riflemen often carried a couple of extra rounds for the mortar squad.
2.36-inch rocket
Bazooka M1A1 / M9 / M9A1
M6A1 → M6A3 anti-tank (HEAT) M10 White Phosphorus
One rocket per cardboard tube, carried in bags by the loader and other men in the squad.
The M6A3 (1944) had a rounded nose so it didn't glance off sloped armour. Fired electrically: batteries in the M1A1, a hand magneto in the M9.
Hand grenades
Thrown, or fired from the M7 launcher
Mk II fragmentation M15 White Phosphorus M18 coloured smoke (signals) British No. 82 "Gammon"
Hooked by the lever to webbing and jacket pockets; paratroopers stuffed their big jump-jacket pockets with them.
Rifle grenades (M9A1 anti-tank, and Mk II with an adapter) were launched with the special M3 blank cartridge.
Drawings are simplified diagrams showing the main parts; they are not to exact scale. Figures are standard US Army values for each model.
Coordinates are navigation references, not proof a soldier stood on that GPS point.