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E Company
2nd
Battalion, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne
Active: 1942-1945
Branch: US Army
Type: Infantry
Role: Airborne
Size: 162
Soldiers
Nickname: Easy Company
Motto: "Currahee!"
Easy Company, 506th,
was unarguably the best company of the 2nd battalion of the
506th. Their original CO (Commanding Officer), Captain Herbert
Sobel, was replaced by Lieutenant Meehan. During the D-Day
invasion, Lieutenant Meehan's plane was shot down, and
Lieutenant Winters took command.
Easy's training
begain at Camp Toccoa in Georgia at the foot of Currahee
Mountain in 1942 under the command of Captain Herbert Sobel.
It was here that the men would learn the discipline, gain the
conditioning and skills that made Easy one of the best comanies
in the 506th.
After their training at Toccoa was complete, the company was
moved by train to New York City and then to England by way of a
British steamer, the S.S. Samaria in 1943. There they
would receive more combat training in Aldeborne for the next
nine months.
Captain Sobel would be transferred back to the States and 1st
Lieutenant Thomas Meehan would take over as leader of Easy.
On
June 5, 1944, the C-47s carrying paratroopers of the 82nd and
101st Airborne, including Easy Company took off from the
airfield at Upottery where they would drop behind enemy lines in
the early morning hours of June 6, 1944 as D-Day or Operation
Overlord began.
During the drop into Normandy, Lt. Meehan's plane was shot down.
It was at this time that then Lt. Richard Winters would take
over as CO of Easy Company.
Throughout the European campaign, Easy Company has participated
in some of the major battles known to mankind. It performed a
key task during D-Day (eliminating 4 German 105mm cannons aimed
at Utah Beach), it spearheaded the Allied offensive,
participated in Operation Market Garden, it held the line at the
Battle of the Bulge in Bastogne, when the 101st Airborne was
surrounded and cut off by Germans, no matter how thin it was. It
saw the horrific sight of the Jews and ethnic minorities
imprisoned in labor camps. It was the first company to enter
Berchesgaden and Hitler's famous "Eagle's Nest
By the end of the
war, Easy had been assigned occupational duties in Zell am See,
Austria where they began training to be redeployed to the
Pacific war, but the war ended in 1945. With the war over,
the men were allowed to return home and in 1945, the 506th was
decommissioned, including E-Company.
 "Band
of Brothers" was originally a non-fiction account of the
adventures of Easy Company, 506th PIR, during the Second World
War. The author, Stephen E. Ambrose, has close ties with these
veterans. In 2002, "Band of Brothers" became a TV 10 episode
miniseries that was broadcasted on HBO for a couple of weeks.
The series was directed by Stephen Spielberg and Tom Hanks, with
Stephen Ambrose as an executive co-producer.
The series was
nominated for nineteen Emmy Awards and won 6, including
"Outstanding Miniseries," Outstanding Casting for a Miniseries,
Movie, or Special," and "Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries,
Movie, or Dramatic Special."
It also won a Golden
Globe for "Best Miniseries, or Motion Picture made for
Television" and a 2003 Writers Guild Award. |
