Company

But that next drill that after September 11th, I got there two hours early.

I watched everybody who got there two hours early and surprise, they're all the E7s, E8s, Company commanders, battalion commanders.

And that's when I realized, huh, they're doing something different that I'm not doing.

So I got there two hours early.

The ammunition is distributed on Fitch's order.

Waddy and his company Sergeant Major Reginald Allen are killed by mortar fire while helping to unload.

Major Allen Bush witnesses it.

He describes a blinding flash and Waddy prostrate without a mark on him, killed outright by blast.

The vehicles and their anti-tank guns are manhandled silently past German patrols.

Knowing the Germans are less inclined to fight in the dark, the battalion makes significant progress before dawn.

Major Ronald Stark's Company S leads.

The battalion passes through Oosterbeek without incident.

At 23.15 hours, he issues a warning order for a dawn assault.

at o four hundred hours here as group of b tells him he will be reinforced with all or part of schiffstammabteilung ten fliegerhorst battalion two and fliegerhorst battalion three ausbildungs und ersatzregiment hermann Sicherheitsregiment 26, an SS-Bataillon unter SS-Sturmbannführer Eugen Eberwein and Panzerkompanie 224 with 17 captured French tanks.

Not all of them can arrive in time.

Panzerkompanie 224 is based some 130 kilometers away at Naldwijk near Den Haag.

Eberwein's battalion is not due until 10.30 hours on September 18th.

All but the armoured unit can be worked into a two-pronged advance.