American Valor Quarterly Issue 1 - Winter 2007 | Page 7

from somewhere far, because shells would go past our ears and just drop to the ground. Projectiles that had no spin on them and just ran out of steam. A crashed glider and C-47 were burning on the field, and chaplains and troopers were trying to drag the dead and wounded off the drop zone. When you landed, you were supposed to move fast—cut your chute off, gather your gear and get off the drop zone to your platoon, and get into formation. One reason you had to move fast was so you didn’t get hit with anything. Gear was raining down on us, guns and ammo, and equipment. Landing troopers were running and grabbing whatever they could stash on them. As I was running to get to my platoon, a trooper lying on the ground cried, “Help me, Heffron, please! My leg is broken. Don’t leave me for the krauts!” I recognized him from jump school, so I stopped to help him. He was in Dog Company. I tried using a rifle to splinter his leg, but we figured out he could use it better as a crutch, and then I carried him off the field. Lieutenant Peacock, who I never liked—he’s the one who turned Bill in for having a girl in the barracks—wasn’t far away and he barked, “Heffron, join your platoon!” I carried the trooper to the road where he could get transportation and took off. I told him to be happy for his broken leg. You set the gun up, wait for the krauts to come over, and you nail them. My job was to repulse any attack or patrols. If everyone was digging in for the night, you became a defensive machine gunner. Once you opened fire, you gave your position away, so you had to move from that spot quickly. We moved around a lot with those heavy guns. The Dutch were out to greet us. They were so happy. They called us angels from the sky. They hated the Germans. The Germans came around to their farms every three to six months with wagons and trucks and took all the newborn animals and first fruits, took whatever livestock and produce they wanted, and brought it back for the German farmers. When we entered the village of Son on the way to the Wilhelmina Canal, the Germans hit us with an 88; they hit a big vacant department store window, and the glass blew out, and the pressure blew me into the center of the street and knocked me unconscious. When I came to, I was dizzy and I hoisted my gun over my shoulder, and a kid from Dog Company said, “You all right?” I felt something warm running down my arm, and I looked and I was bleeding. It wasn’t nothing. I was okay. A couple days later, my hand got swollen, it had dirt in it, and I went back to the aid station to get it lanced and bandaged, and I was fine after He had a million-dollar wound there. He was hurt just bad that. But when it first happened, I caught up to my squad, enough to be forced out of combat, but not critically and my squad leader, Joe Toye, said, “Where the hell you wounded. Being hurt and in pain meant nothing. A good been, Heffron?” I told him I got tied up for a while. soldier still fought like that, most Easy Company men did. No one wanted to let their buddies down. You wanted to do Bill: It was a beautiful day when we jumped into Holland. your part. And you wanted to do it well. On the other hand, Absolutely gorgeous. Nothing like Normandy. This jump you were happy for fate to intervene and take you off the was so beautiful you might have thought the war was over. battlefield. That broken leg was a ticket home. The people from the town of Son saw us before we saw them. They waved orange flags from the windows and doors As machine gunner for 2nd Platoon, I had to be ready to set and came running out of their houses to greet us. They up my machine gun at any moment, wherever they told me knew they were liberated; it was a celebration in the streets. to. The gun was heavy, about twenty-six pounds, you threw it over your shoulder; it had a shoulder sack that it fit into. They hugged and kissed us, gave us food and drinks—beer, It was an air-cooled 30-caliber automatic machine gun. The milk, apples, honey. They didn’t have much, but they shared regular outfits had water-cooled. We had no way of using what they had. They were so grateful. Some of the men got them. We had to carry a light 30 shoulder type. Mike caught up in the fun. Broads were grabbing them, kissing McMann was my assistant then. I always had different them, it was a den of iniquity! I was ready for the krauts to assistants but everyone knew what they had to do. You set surprise us any minute. The drop was quiet, but you knew the krauts we ɔ