Fighting Fox Company: The Battling Flank of the Band of Brothers

Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division has become one of the most famous small units in U.S. history, thanks to Stephen Ambrose’s superb book Band of Brothers, followed by portrayals in film. However, to date little has been heard of Fox Company of that same regiment—the men who fought alongside Easy Company through every step of the war in Europe, and who had their own stories to tell.

Notably this book, over a decade in the making, came about for different reasons than the fame of the “Band of Brothers.” Bill Brown, a WWII vet himself, had decided to research the fate of a childhood friend who had served in Fox Company. Along the way he met Terry Poyser, who was on a similar mission to research the combat death of a Fox Company man from his hometown. Together, the two authors proceeded to locate and interview every surviving Fox Company vet they could find. The result was a wealth of fascinating firsthand accounts of WWII combat as well as new perspectives on Dick Winters and others of the “Band,” who had since become famous.

Told primarily through the words of participants, Fighting Fox Company takes the reader through some of the most horrific close-in fighting of the war, beginning with the chaotic nocturnal paratrooper drop on D-Day. After fighting through Normandy the drop into Holland saw prolonged ferocious combat, and even more casualties; and then during the Battle of the Bulge, Fox Company took its place in line at Bastogne during one of the most heroic against-all-odds stands in U.S. history.

As always in combat, each man’s experience is different, and the nature of the German enemy is seen here in its equally various aspects. From ruthless SS fighters to meek Volkssturm to simply expert modern fighters, the Screaming Eagles encountered the full gamut of the Wehrmacht. The work is also accompanied by rare photos and useful appendices, including rosters and lists of casualties, to give the full look at Fox Company which has long been overdue.

Table of Contents

PREFACE & ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

1 Toccoa
2 Parachute School
3 Furloughs, Camp Mackall, and the Tennessee Maneuvers
4 Fort Bragg, Camp Shanks, and the HMS Samaria
5 England
6 D-Day Flight
7 D-Day Night Jump
8 Chaos, Confusion, and First Blood
9 First Day in Normandy
10 Normandy
11 Carentan
12 Winding Down
13 Back in Aldbourne
14 Holland
15 On the Move and Black Friday
16 Gus and Pop
17 The Island
18 Patrols
19 Quail Hunting
20 Bastogne
21 Foy
22 On the River
23 Tent City
24 The Rhine
25 The Alps
26 Moving Back

AFTERWORD Two Men Who Fought

APPENDIX A Company Rosters
APPENDIX B D-Day Sticks
APPENDIX C Orel Lev’s Distinguished Service Cross Citation
APPENDIX D Manning Haney’s Distinguished Service Cross Citation

Selected Bibliography
INDEX