CURRAHEE !!! The 506th PIR.Band Of BROTHERS
Picture : Mount Currahee.
Currahee , was shouted by the troopers of the 506th PIR when they made their jump .Currahee has a signification that could stand for all the paratroopers in the world " We Stand Alone",that's what paratroopers always do they all Stand Alone Together.Mount Currahee is the symbol of the 506th PIR , it's still reproduced on their Unit Crest shown under.
We Stand Alone
We stand alone, but stand together,
Strong as the mountain Currahee.
First in the fighting,
Victory uniting,
The vanguard of the Infantry!
Lord help the victims of the Sky Train.
Our group will never know defeat.
We are the roughest,
Meanest, the toughest.
The 506th is hard to beat!
Normandy victors,
We jumped in Zon.
Held firm at Bastogne,
We carried o-o-on!
We stand alone, but stand together,
Go! Go! The Sky Train's on its way.
Hook up, we're ready,
Our aim is steady,
The 506th is here today!
The 506th will win the fray!
The 506th is here to stay!!
Currahee is the mountain the troopers of the 506th PIR used to run up during their training period at Camp Toccoa, the first training camp for paratroopers in preparation of WWII,wich the mountain overlooked.The Currahee mountain is located in the state Georgia, were he's still overlooking the formal paratroopers training camp Toccoa grounds, the story of the camp is told by the hand of an exhibition at the Toccoa Stephens County Historical museum,situated 313 Pond Street , Georgia 30577 .
The history of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment "The Band of Brothers"
The 506th PIR was constituted on the 1st of July 1942 and activated on the 20th of July 1942 at Camp toccoa and finaly attached to the 101st Airborne Division on the 1st of June 1943 and assigned on the 1st of March 1943.Camp Toccoa was commanded by Colonel Robert F.Sink .Colonel Sink pushed his troopers to their limits , letting them train 12 hours a day, submitting them the hardest exercices ever known in the US ARMY.Most of the troopers were volunteers,and they had two options finish A and B stage of their training or quit.
foto above:CAMP TOCCOA foto under:Colonel Robert Sink (1905-1965)
Those who didn't quit became potential paratroopers,in this first part of training and preparation the men trained their first essential jump skills, jumping from jumptowers attached to a open parachute canopy, they were let down with a steele cable,learning to land correctly after dropping,jumping out airplane doors the correct way was also one of those skills.
foto:example of jump exercices.
In november 1942 the regiment went to Fort Benning in Georgia ,for the C&D stage of their parachute training.The 2nd Bn would march from Toccoa to Atlanta a 120 miles march , 3rd Bn did the distance to Atlanta on train and then joined the 2nd Bn and marched from Atlanta to Fort Benning , the troopers did 136 miles in 72 hrs a record was set .When they arrived at Fort Benning the 506th PIR started her parachute training.The troopers learned to pack their parachutes the right way and to prepare their equipement for combat jumps.They also jumped from 250ft free-fall towers and after completing their basic jump training making their 5 qualifying jumps from an airplane getting rewarded with their parachutist badge after completing this final fase of training,98%of the troopers qualified jump training.
Afterwards the regiment moved to Camp McCall for tactical training and night jump training .After completing this and after several operational maneuvers,the moved to Fort Bragg as a trained fighting unit .In august they went to Camp Shanks ,where later on they boarded the S.S.Samaria bringing them to England and Europe.On the 17th of September 1943 they arrived in England,where they were stationed in the villages of Aldbourne and Ramsbury,Foxfield and Chilton-Foliat.In England the regiment trained and prepared for Operation Overlord.On 6 June 1944 they landed at about 01.00 in Normandy France , behind UTAH beach.Scattered all over Normandy on their jump the 506th troopers,assembled first in small groups and afterwards in bigger groups and took all their objectives ,alolowing the seaborn troops to land on the beaches and move inland and secure the beaches for the reenforcements.The 506th fought from D-Day until 10 July , when the unit returned to England,many of the men who jumped didn't return.The 506th had proved to be better than all the best the enemy could throw at them.
Three months after their return to England the 506th PIR was called to make her second combat jump :OPERATION MARKET-GARDEN was going to take place , this plan as so many other plans was made to end the war as fast as possible ...history now would prove that the allied commanders and specially Montgomery were wrong . The 506th had to jump on Drop zone C in Holland,their mission: seize the Wilhelmina canal bridges at Zon and then move south to liberate Eindhoven and its 4 bridges over the Dommel River .
From the 17th of september until end november the 506th would repell every German counter attack in the area of what they called Hell's Highway , the area of Ste Odenrude,Uden,Veghel,Keovinning,Nijmegen.
Foto: The 506 PIR 2nd bn Easy Company at Veghel
At the end of November the 506th moved out Holland to rest at Mourmelon France , The Rest would not last for long on the 18th of December the 506th moved back to combat , straight to Bastogne were it would hold the lines in bitter winter weather , being surrounded for 28 days .They holded the line short on supplies,ammonition and food and an absolute lack of winter clothing.All they could do and all the 101st Airborne Division could do was to pray for better weather so they could be supplied and the weather emproved and the supplies came a short time later the 4th Armored Division arrived and liberated the troops from they surrounded positions , altough 506 troopers will always say that they didn't need to be liberated and that they did as they'd been asked ,THEY HOLDED THE THE LINES ROUND BASTOGNE AND DEFEATED THE GERMANS IN THEIR LAST OFFENSIVE .
A crashed dakota at the Bulge.
On the 20th of January 1945 the 506th moved out to the French Alsace an opportunity to get showered and to get their clothings and sleeping bags laundered.On their return to Mourmelon France General Eisenhower spoke to them and the 101st Airborne Division was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation For its stand in Bastogne and this was the first time in US military history that an entire Division had been so honored .
Foto : Winston Chuchill and Ike Eisenhower and an unknown CO of the 101st Abn Div.
In April the 506th moved to the Ruhr Pocket , where they mostly patrolled along the Rhine River.On the 1'th of April they moved to the Southern part of Germany .
On the 4th anD 5th May 1945 they received their last wartime mission , the 506th was ordered to take Berchtesgaden and suceeded .The last war victims for the 506th were accounted then.On 8th May 1945 Colonel Sink accepted the surrender of the German LXXXIIand the 506th establishedv its command post in Zell Am See,where it would receive the following World War II Campaign Streamers :
NORMANDY (W/ARROWHEAD)
RHINELANDER (W/ARROWHEAD)
ARDENNES-ALSACE
CENTRAL EUROPE
DECORATIONS:
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Presidential Unit Citation
Distinguished Unit Citation,embroidered Bastogne
Distinguished Unit Citation,embroidered Normandy
Cited in the Order of the Day ,Belgian Army ,twice
Streamer French Croix de Guerre w/Palm , WWII Normandy
Netherlands Orange Lanyard
Thanks to Stevens County Historical Society
Your Webmaster Sgt Eagle January 2004
Band of Brothers :
Band of Brothers the HBO Mini-Serie , is a serie that had all my attention from the first part ,the serie is based on Stephen E.Ambrose's bestseller with the itle from Normandy till the eagle's Nest Band Of Brothers .The serie handles about the story of the 2nd Bn Easy Company of the 506th PIR . The story goes all over their time in Camp Toccoa when the men from Easy company , all volunteers for the Paratroopers, begin their journey to get their jump-wings .The story begins in fact in England where the two lead characters Lt Winters and Lt Nixon look back the day before their Normandy jump on what happened at Toccoa . This is the first part: CURRAHEE: where you'll see how Capt.Sobel handles the hard training of those men who are going to become paratroopers, forcing them to run on Mount Currahee and many more hard drills.
In the second part DAY OF DAYS: You'll see the scattered jump on normandy and how Lt Winters and 12 of his men took the Brecourt Manor back area battery who took UTAH BEACH under fire
Part three CARENTAN : In this part Easy company fights in the streets and outskirts of Carentan trying to hold a German counter offensive off .You'll see how the troopers fought the Hedgerow war in the Normandy Bocage.
Part four REPLACEMENTS: Easy company gets new troopers , none of them has the Normandy Experience and before they even knew they became part of the war , Easy Jumps on Holland , Operation Market-Garden is a fact.
Part five CROSSROADS: Richard Winters just promoted to Captain looks back on an action he took on the dams near Hells Highway ,Easy company evacuates British paratroopers taking them over the Rhine then they are put on rest at Mourmelon but not for long the Germans attack in the Belgian Ardennes .
Part Six , BASTOGNE :The men of Easy company are holding the line near Bastogne , this part of the serie focuses on DOC ROE ,Easy's medic and the drama of the surrounding for the wounded troopers ,the lack of supplies and much more, that made of Bastogne a Hell for the troopers .
Part Seven,THE BREAKING POINT : Easy company is preparing for the attack on the town of Foy , the casualities and shellings are pulling the men to their limits , FOY will be taken at the cost of many Easy-men lives .The experience is told during this part by 1Sgt Carwood Lipton (Donny Wahlberg)
Part Eight , THE LAST PATROL : David Webster (Eion Bailey), returns to the EASY Company after being wounded in Holland.Webster shares his feelings and experiences witn the viewer .Capt Winters organises a last Patrol behind the ennemy lines ordered by Colonel Sink after loosing a trooper and capturing some German soldier HQ orders a new Patrol that will never take place.
Part Nine, WHY WE FIGHT ? :Easy Company has entered the last part of the War by entering Germany , Captain Nixon has the center part in this item , the producer centers on Nixons Psyche and alcohol habit , Easy Company will find a NAZI LABOR CAMP ......
Part Ten, POINTS :The War in Europe is over , still Easy men get killed ,but now in accidents ,the 101 is waiting to enter the war against Japan but will never go , The points system keeps the Easy men present in Europe ,command has to find solutions to keep the men focused and to avoid more dead troopers ....
THE CAST
Damian Lewis Major Richard "Dick"Winters
PRODUCERS :
MUSIC PRODUCED BY :
Michael Kamen
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The Sarge's comment:
I found Band of Brothers a rather good mini-serie ,with pretty realistic performances , great special effects and a magnificent cast, Hanks and Spielberg did a good job on putting Stephen Ambrose's book on film , Band of Brothers now available on DVD is to me a must for AIRBORNE fans .
CURRAHEE !!
Your Webmaster SGT EAGLE January 2004
Find more on Band of Brothers on http://members.home.nl/bandofbrothers/index.htm
Easy Company 506th PIR:
The History of the Band of Brothers:
A special thanks to
Dr John Duvall
Director of Education and Programming
Airborne and Special Operations Museum
Fayetteville, NC.
The 132 enlisted men and eight officers who comprised Easy Company, 506th Parachute lnfantry Regiment, first came together in the summer of 1942 at an Army training base in Georgia called Camp Toccoa. Each of these men had volunteered to be airborne infantry soldiers. They knew the job was dangerous, the training extraordinarily hard and the challenges ahead completely unknown, especially those to be encountered on the battlefield.
Colonel Robert Sink, their regimental commander, would soon prove to them that training to be a paratrooper was harder than anything they had yet encountered in life… Fifty-eight hundred men tried to meet the physical and mental tests that Colonel Sink set for his regiment, only 1,948 made the grade. Sink's task was to put his men through basic training, harden them, teach them about infantry tactics, prepare them for jump school and lead them in for combat. At Toccoa there was a prominent terrain feature, actually a big hill, called Mount Currahee. Sink ran his troops up and down the thousand foot hill until they were as hard as nails. If you couldn't run the mountain, you couldn't be a trooper with Bob Sink. Mount Currahee dominated the life of the 506th in those early weeks of training. Indeed, Currahee, an American Indian word meaning, "we stand alone", became the regiment's battle cry. It symbolized the intense desire of every soldier in the 506th to become a paratrooper, to wear the coveted silver jump badge and special jump boots, and to put a parachute insignia on their hats. And it didn't hurt to receive $50.00 extra each month as "jump pay". The 506th was now an elite unit, one that would fulfill the role outlined by Army Chief of Staff George Marshall for airborne units-they would be the "point of the sword". Next came Fort Benning, Georgia and the grueling weeks of jump school. Then the paratroopers of the 5O6th traveled to Fort Bragg to join the 1O1st Airborne Division in July 1943. Bob Sink's old boss, Major General William C. Lee, commanded the 1O1st, known as the "Screaming Eagles" for the eagle's head on their shoulder patch. Lee was preparing his Division for the greatest challenge of World War II, the invasion of Europe. Deployment to England came at the end of 1943; and the training became even more intense. On June 6, 1944, D-Day, the men of Easy Company had their "rendezvous with destiny" as they jumped into the night sky over Normandy, France. The liberation of Europe was underway. From France through Holland, the Battle of the Bulge and then deep into Germany, the men of Easy Company fought long, bitter battles with Hitler's Army, proving conclusively that the Germans were not the "master race".
The story of E Company 506th is one of courage, sacrifice and victory; it is a story that must never be forgotten.
Visit the Museum Website : http://users.tijd.com/fiwi/E506/unitstory.html
