Battle for Foy

Alton More fireing Gordons Machine gun,

The Battle for Foy was a battle that took place during the Battle of the Bulge. It was led by Easy Company but it involved all of the 506th at one point. The aim was to take the town of Foy through a direct charge. It also saw 1st Lieutenant Norman S. Dike Jr. being relieved from command of Easy Company and replaced by 1st Lieutenant Ronald Speirs of Dog Company.

Preparation

On the day of attack, the 506th prepare themselves by going to the edge of the forest ready to run out and attack the town. Dike is leading the attack with Easy Company.

Captain Winters, the battalion XO, runs through the plan with Dike and tells him he's relying on him. Dike says "Clear" and signals he understands. As Winters gets up, Dike yawns quite calmly just sitting in a small foxhole.

I company is on the other side of the town as they are attacking from the rear.

The Battle

The attack begins with the men running down the open field. Lipton tells his men to move fast and to keep doing so until they reach the town. Dike runs much slower and tells Lt. Shames to keep it tight. Foley breaks off with first platoon to clear out a small shack. Because he isn't going fast enough, Dike assumes Foley has disbanded from him and is going against orders. Dike stops in the middle of open territory telling radioman George Luz to get Foley on the radio. Dike orders all of Easy Company to stop advancing, much to Winters' dislike. Lipton orders second squad to do so and tells them to find cover. Dike doesn't realize he isn't in cover until a shell explodes not far from him, nearly blowing him up. He runs to cover with Luz.

The men charge up the snow covered field

He demands Foley over the radio to get back to where he can see him. Foley does so bringing a runner, leaving first platoon behind to hold the position; Lipton also goes to where Dike has taken cover asking what they hell they're doing. Winters radios in to Luz to tell him to get Dike on the radio. Foley arrives just as we see from Dikes perspective that he is panicking under all the stress of the battle. Obviously not thinking, Dike tells Foley to take just first platoon on a flanking mission despite the fact they will have little adequate cover and will be cut off from the company. Dike shouts against the men's pleas to continue advancing forward saying to Foley everyone else will provide suppressing fire when they can't since they won't be able to see him or the platoon.

While running back, Foley's runner is gunned down by a machine gunner. Winters is in utter disbelief, breathing "Jesus Christ". Foley tells the men what Dikes wants them to do. They begin to advance only for them to be pinned down by a sniper. T-4. Frank Perconte is shot in the buttocks by the sniper and is dragged away from the position by Sgt. Denver Randleman.

Realizing Dike has lost it, Winters runs out of the treeline to take his place but is stopped by Colonel Sink because he is battalion XO, which means he is in charge of the whole operation and for him to fight would be out of order. Realizing he isn't allowed, Winters brushes off Sink and shouts for Speirs telling him to relieve Dike and take over.

As Speirs runs down, the men realise they are losing as they can't move because of Dike and first platoon is slowly being killed by the sniper. StSgt. John W. Martin tries to get to tell Private Webb to fall back but he doesn't respond. He reaches the man only to find he is dead. The Germans continue shelling the field.

After barely escaping a shell blast, Speirs arrives, relieves the shell shocked Dike and takes over. He asks Lipton how the battle is going. Lipton replies that first platoon is trying a flanking mission but are stretched out because of a sniper; he thinks the sniper is in the building with the caved in roof.

Speirs tells Lipton he wants that building to be blasted by grenades and mortars until it's gone, when it is gone first squad head straight in forget going around and for everyone else to follow him. Lipton replies "Yes sir" and smiles at Luz thankful a good commander is leading them now.

The sniper is taken down and the men quickly enter Foy and push through fast. They get halfway through but are faced with a dilemma. I company is on the other side and is being attacked by armour, meaning they'll slip away from Easy. Spiers runs out alone to get to the company despite it being suicidal to do so since the whole road is full of Germans.

Lipton narrates that the Germans didn't shoot because they were shocked at what they were seeing, but the most remarkable thing about what Spiers did wasn't that he went to I company but because he came back.

The men celebrate their victory by singing in front of a tank while being filmed. Their celebration is cut short, however, by another sniper who appears from a building and shoots the soldiers. The majority make it to cover in time. Lipton locates the sniper and runs out as bait so that Shifty can take him out. They succeed and continue to celebrate.