Tip of the Speirs

There was no rest for the men of Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. Exhausted by their defense of Bastogne, they were never the less tapped to counterattack the retreating Germans during the month of January 1945. Their …

1945-01-10

AP07

There was no rest for the men of Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. Exhausted by their defense of Bastogne, they were never the less tapped to counterattack the retreating Germans during the month of January 1945. Their officer corps decimated, command of the company was given to Lieutenant Dike. A favorite son of someone at the divisional staff, Dike was incapable of leading men in combat. When he froze during the attack on Foy, Captain Winters, the Battalion commander, replaced him with a notoriously brash officer from Delta Company, Lieutenant Ronald C. Speirs. - Mark H. Walker

Foy, Belgium

The Siege of Bastogne was an engagement in December 1944 between American and German forces at the Belgian town of Bastogne, as part of the larger Battle of the Bulge. The goal of the German offensive was the harbor at Antwerp. In order to reach it before the Allies could regroup and bring their superior air power to bear, German mechanized forces had to seize the roadways through eastern Belgium. Because all seven main roads in the densely wooded Ardennes highlands converged on Bastogne, just a few miles away from the border with neighboring Luxembourg, control of its crossroads was vital to the German attack. The siege was from 20 to 27 December, until the besieged American forces were relieved by elements of General George Patton's Third Army.

Wikipedia: Siege of Bastogne

American

Germany