Against.the.Odds.S02E01.Fighting.Fox.Road.to.Hell
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00:00When your chute popped open, you could hear the flack.
00:12Tracer bullets were coming right over our heads.
00:20The gutsiest unit in the whole 101st.
00:24We were first in Normandy.
00:28First in Holland.
00:30First in Bastogne.
00:33I don't think they realized at the time the huge responsibility that they had.
00:38The fate of our country and the fate of the world really depended on them.
00:44They proclaimed the situation to be desperate.
00:49We're the champions.
00:51You know, they're depending on us.
00:58If I had to die, I want to die fighting for what I believe.
01:03We were all brothers, and he heard when we lost one, like if he was your twin.
01:22The War in Europe
01:41In the sunny spring of 1941, with the war in Europe raging mostly out of sight,
01:47America is still seven months away from the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor that will pull us into the war.
01:55For the carefree American kids who will become Fox Company,
01:59they may have unknowingly caught a first glimpse of their fate in the newsreels of the day.
02:08Following the victories of their bold new airborne parachute troops in Norway,
02:12the German airborne Blitzkrieg continues.
02:14It's now conquering the seemingly impregnable island fortress of Crete.
02:19Hitler's new conquest weapon drops from the sky something more dangerous than bombs.
02:24Lethal surprise.
02:29At the beginning of the war for America, they had been playing catch-up with the other armies that were already at war.
02:36The airborne forces were dynamic. It was essential.
02:39It was a way to get behind the enemy lines and get troops into a position where they could stop the enemy from reinforcing their own troops.
02:47So because of that, the U.S. Army decided that they needed to develop their own airborne forces.
02:51Somebody came along and said that if we joined the parachute troops, we'd receive $50 a month more.
03:10Didn't take me long. My mother had six children at the time still at home, so she could certainly use the money.
03:18But I still had no idea what a parachute was.
03:24I saw a big sign in the wall that said we need volunteers for the paratroopers.
03:29We pay $50 extra. So I told the honoree, where do I sign?
03:36So for the guys that were joining up with the airborne, the majority of them had that incentive from the recruiter
03:43that they were going to get that extra $50 a month in their pay.
03:46Not realizing that $50 they were going to get was because it's inherently dangerous
03:51and there's a risk of losing some of your soldiers, because it is such a new concept, before they even get to the ground.
04:02High officers are interested spectators as the platform hoppers do their stuff.
04:06After 13 weeks of basic training at Takoka, Georgia, those who have signed up for paratroop training
04:12are sent on to jump school at Fort Benning, Georgia.
04:16Everyone in the freshly hatched Fox Company is a volunteer for the new 101st Airborne Division.
04:23It will be here that they discover that the extra $50 a month is not bonus pay, but hazard pay.
04:33I saw a fellow jump from the high star that they have there.
04:40And he's shooting open when he jumped out. Nothing when he landed.
04:47I saw two or three guys, their parachute failed.
04:53And many of them were injured.
04:55I saw two or three guys, their parachute failed.
05:01And man, you get the jitters.
05:05Can that happen to me?
05:11So as these units were being formed and this company was being formed,
05:15they very quickly became cocky from the fact that they had been able to survive this training.
05:23And they were also told by their instructors and the officers in the unit
05:28that they were better than the other units in the U.S. military.
05:32A couple of my buddies, they were so ticked off because they weren't getting any recognition.
05:38It was only the paratroopers.
05:41They asked for volunteers, and I said, put my name on that list.
05:53After three-plus months of training on the ground,
05:56and five complete jumps from above 1,000 feet,
06:00the proud boys of Fox Company get their jump wings
06:03and are entitled to wear the shiny jump boots
06:06that will soon become symbols of a spit-and-polish group of hellmakers known as paratroopers.
06:15But all the while, even as they prove themselves in this never-before-attempted tool of war,
06:21American command remains anxious to when these young men might be called into action.
06:28They are reminded daily of what they are up against.
06:37In Europe, the war is expanding as lethal, experienced German forces
06:44and a ruthless dictator continue to massacre hundreds of thousands
06:47and destroy complete armies that have stood for hundreds of years.
07:17After months of grueling night-and-day training in chutes, weapons, infantry tactics, and hand-to-hand combat,
07:44a sharply-honed Fox Company is in England, ready to stake its courage and brotherhood
07:50in the war's most high-risk and critical feat of arms, D-Day, the war-deciding invasion of France.
08:15Behind miles of daunting defenses, manned by battle-hardened Nazis,
08:22Adolf Hitler cannot imagine being undone by a thrown-together gang of untested American kids.
08:35But that unruly young mob, honed into a brilliantly efficient killing machine,
08:40is about to drop with a flying army behind his vaunted wall.
08:45The 150 wild boys of Fox Company will be up front in the thundering flotilla of C-47s,
08:52carrying the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions into D-Day.
08:57Ahead lay an 11-month bloodbath against Hitler's Nazi hordes.
09:03Their untold story of incredible courage against the odds,
09:08and Herculean sacrifice to overcome impossible obstacles to steal victory from a tyrant,
09:15is one of the greatest stories of American history.
09:26The story of World War II.
09:57On the morning of June 6th, some 17,400 Allied paratroopers and glider-borne troops,
10:04including the 150 men of Fox Company,
10:07board the immense fleet of over 1,300 troop carrier transports.
10:13With no experience jumping into real combat,
10:16many overstuffed their packs with as much as 250 pounds of extra gear.
10:21For some, it will prove disastrous.
10:27For all the precise planning of the last two years,
10:30their first combat jump into hostile territory,
10:33will reveal inevitable and deadly miscalculations.
10:41The initial mission of the 101st and 82nd Airborne Units,
10:45is to land behind Omaha and Houston,
10:47The mission of the 101st and 82nd Airborne Units,
10:50is to land behind Omaha and Utah beaches,
10:53to block and eliminate any German forces that might rush to reinforce the beachheads during the landings.
11:00The 150 men of Fox Company will seize Poobleville,
11:04in an effort to provide a safe landing of the U.S. 4th and 90th Divisions on Utah Beach.
11:10Little will go as planned.
11:18The night that I met Eisenhower, I never forgot.
11:24Everybody wondering, you know, what the heck is going to happen.
11:30A lot of good people would not come back.
11:33A lot of good people would not come back.
11:46I don't think they realized at the time,
11:49the huge responsibility that they had.
11:53They all needed to be able to do what had been planned,
11:57otherwise the invasion would fail.
11:59The fate of our country and the fate of the world really depended on them.
12:30Almost everybody was praying, or silent, without saying a word.
12:39They said, I hope I get out of this alive.
12:50As we approached the shore, all of a sudden it got real foggy.
12:55And you couldn't see the ground.
12:59So while en route to the drop zones, the aircraft flew into heavy clouds.
13:05Because of that, the aircraft had to separate, so they wouldn't collide with each other.
13:09Most of them didn't have the navigation equipment to put them on the right drop zones.
13:25I can't see them.
13:40We started hitting flak from the German army.
13:44Then all of a sudden, all those guys up, I know it wasn't me,
13:49because now I'm in the war.
13:56Major Legere, the jump master, said, France below.
14:03We had ten minutes to get ready.
14:08And I saw there were two airplanes that were right near us.
14:14All of a sudden they burst into flames.
14:21Then the green light came on.
14:23Go, go, go!
14:42When your chute popped open, then you could hear the flak.
14:47Tracer bullets were coming right over our heads.
15:05The thick fog and dense clouds over Normandy has caused a lot of confusion.
15:11The thick fog and dense clouds over Normandy has caused many of the planes to veer off target,
15:17landing most of the paratroopers on the wrong destinations.
15:21With most of Fox Company and their fellow paratroopers lost, wounded or dead,
15:27the mission falls to the individual ingenuity and boldness of the paratroopers.
15:33For the next five hours, the young warriors locate comrades,
15:37jury-rigged squads and platoons, and scour for landmarks and roads in an effort to find their targets.
15:46The lightly armed Americans immediately begin to engage an enemy,
15:51momentarily stunned to find themselves surrounded by bloodthirsty and trigger-happy kid paratroopers.
15:58But the battle-hardened Germans quickly rally and unleash their legendary savagery.
16:08I'd swear that they were going to cut that head down,
16:13because the bullets were flying right over our backs.
16:18At 6.30 a.m., with no confirmation as to the success of the paratroopers' efforts
16:25to eliminate German reinforcements inland, the main Allied landings begin.
16:38That morning, Hitler would not wake until noon.
16:43He is immediately confronted with panicked pleas from his commanders to move panzer units to reinforce the beaches.
16:50But Hitler fails to act.
16:53It's not until later in the afternoon that the magnitude of the Allied landing at Normandy sinks in.
16:59Finally, at 4.00 p.m., Hitler approves requests for additional German troops
17:04to attempt to choke off the Allied onslaught.
17:27Inland, the men of Fox Company, with only the weapons they could carry,
17:32find themselves in the path of Hitler's armored juggernaut.
17:38It was at point-blank range, with a tremendous amount of casualties to the unit.
17:45The men initially tried to fight them off using rifle grenades,
17:49which just ended up getting people killed.
17:52I heard, bazooka man, and the first shell hit his track,
17:59and erupted that track, because he couldn't seem to maneuver it after that.
18:05Boy, oh boy, that was heavy, really heavy fighting.
18:11Took an awful beating.
18:13You had to know you might be killed.
18:15It just seems like, with ten men, we were worth a hundred.
18:31Newtie's courage, along with others at Fox Company,
18:35has bought the critical time needed to bring in U.S. Sherman units
18:39and prepare them for the attack.
18:42Newtie's courage, along with others at Fox Company,
18:46has bought the critical time needed to bring in U.S. Sherman tanks
18:50from the 2nd Armored Division.
18:52Later in the afternoon, the German forces withdraw back into the forest around Carentan.
19:12Fox Company and the 506th, along with the 2nd Armored Division, has taken another piece
19:18from Hitler, and Carentan is in American hands.
19:26But Fox Company has taken a heavy beating, with 3 dead and 22 wounded.
19:39The invasion was a success, because the paratroopers were able to take those crossroads, those
19:45bridges, those little villages, all the chaos and confusion that they caused behind the
19:50lines, stop the Germans from reinforcing Utah Beach, and allowed those troops to get ashore
19:59and head in to take the peninsula.
20:05They were not another guy, they were brothers.
20:10Every single one.
20:11And when we lost one of them, if it would have been your family, I think we felt it
20:25more.
20:29Despite the devastating losses, even as the exhausted, depleted paratrooper units returned
20:34to England, planning for a bold new mission is underway.
20:40Once again, Fox Company will be at the tip of the deadly spear.
20:46Their second epic showdown with Hitler will test their courage and determination in one
20:51of the most horrific battles of World War II, that will throw the American front into
20:56chaos and leave the outcome of the European war hanging in doubt.
21:26In September of 1944, the Allies believe they have found a weakness in the German defense.
21:37They set into motion the largest airborne operation to date.
21:42Following quickly on the heels of the D-Day invasion, Operation Market Garden will be
21:47a lightning quick offensive, 70 miles to the north of the main Allied front, that will
21:52attempt to outflank Hitler's forces and destroy them.
21:57The operation holds the potential to end the war in Europe by Christmas, but failure destroys
22:03valuable lives and resources, prolonging the war indefinitely.
22:09The brash plan calls for American and British paratroops to make a daylight jump into Holland
22:16to secure key bridges along a 64-mile stretch of highway from Eindhoven to Arnhem.
22:22A huge British armored column will then race north along the highway in an effort to cross
22:28the Lech River and turn the entire German right flank.
22:34The role of Fox Company and the 506th will be to assist in the seizing of the Wilhelmina
22:40Canal Bridge.
22:43The hugely intricate plan has no room for failure for even one of its units.
22:55The skies over Holland are darkened by over 1,500 transports and 478 gliders bringing
23:02some 21,000 British and American soldiers in an all-out, daring invasion of Nazi-occupied
23:10Holland.
23:13Troopers in Fox Company and probably most of the men in the division that had been in
23:16combat in Normandy, they realized that the darkness did give them some advantage.
23:20At least they weren't getting shot at while they were in the air.
23:23Now with the daylight jump coming at 1 o'clock in the afternoon over the Netherlands, a lot
23:28of guys on the plane ride over, they were concerned that going over in the daylight
23:32that they were going to get butchered in the air.
23:37They have no idea what is waiting for them.
24:07On the
24:35way to Market Garden, I got hit inside the plane, it was shrapnel.
24:39Everybody jump out.
24:41I was told to stay in the plane and return to England.
24:46Five minutes later the co-pilot said, we've been hit.
24:52So I had to jump and the pilot and the co-pilot, they all got out.
25:02I was wounded and the first person I see was Russell Schwinn, my sergeant, and he looked
25:08at me and I saw him, he said, what the hell are you doing here, didn't I tell you to stay
25:13in the plane?
25:14I said, yeah, if I were to stay in the plane, I'd be right over there and I pointed where
25:18the plane crashed.
25:40Hitler quickly sees the mortal threat of Market Garden.
25:44He orders two panzer divisions to destroy the Allied advance, now racing towards Arnhem.
25:53The fighting was constant.
25:55The fighting never seemed to stop.
25:59Making matters worse, many have been dropped into a hornet's nest of two formidable SS
26:05panzer divisions.
26:07Their incredible determination slows the German offensive, but unable to rest or resupply,
26:14the non-stop fighting is taking a toll on the unit.
26:26They're always low on rations, always seem to be hungry, they never got any rest.
26:31It was non-stop, it was relentless.
26:35The worst thing for the men was the attrition rate.
26:44Every day you would lose somebody.
26:52For the replacements, they saw guys who had fought in Normandy, who had come back, trained
26:57them and then got killed in Holland.
27:01And then they realized, if that guy can get killed, then nobody is safe.
27:19Well, as we moved north, up on the Hell's Highway, there was fighting every day.
27:44I could see Germans standing on top of the dike.
27:47They had captured or killed some of the guys right in their foxholes.
27:51And I knew I had to do something.
27:54But every time I reached out of that foxhole, they started throwing grenades at me.
27:59And every time one of them would come, I just went blank.
28:04All I see is stars.
28:07There was only three of us, all of the squad was left alive.
28:18All the rest of the squad was gone.
28:28At the critical bridge at Arnhem, barely 700 incredibly gallant British troopers, surrounded
28:34and under fanatic attack, are in a desperate fight to hold open the Allies' last gateway
28:39into Germany.
28:40But they are desperately outnumbered and running out of ammo.
28:47Fox and the 101st continue their battle to keep Hell's Highway open for the massive British
28:5230th Corps, now sprinting to rescue the surrounded unit.
29:04As Market Garden unravels in mayhem, Hitler's ruthless Nazi juggernaut surge forward to
29:10finish off the Allied assault.
29:13But an unflinching Fox Company and the 101st meet the Nazi thrust head-on, hand-to-hand,
29:21throwing everything they have against the tide.
29:26With German reinforcements pouring into the battle, time is the enemy of the dwindling
29:31airborne units.
29:33Fox Company and the 101st must hold against staggering odds.
30:10Some of these pictures bring me a lot of memories.
30:17When we were in Europe, D-Day, Normandy, and Holland, at first I was very close, but when
30:28I lost the first buddy up there, I made a point of never getting close to anybody because
30:38it hurt so much.
30:43Even if you did try not to be close, we slept together, we ate together, it was hard to
30:51do.
30:52I said, how come I'm still here?
30:58And they're all gone.
31:02And I will never forget them.
31:32With the Market Garden campaign collapsing, Fox Company and the 101st are rushed in to
31:38defend areas of recaptured Holland against escalating German forces.
31:49By the 26th of September, Operation Market Garden comes to an end.
32:00The expected four-day campaign has dragged on for more than 70 bloody days of non-stop
32:06fighting.
32:12Fox Company has lost over 50 percent of their company, but they have helped liberate over
32:18half of Holland.
32:22With 23,000 casualties, Market Garden has incredibly held off German advances, but has
32:30ended in a bloody stalemate.
32:38Although half of Holland has been secured, the crushing battle condemns the Allied strategy
32:43of quick victory tactics.
32:47The war will continue unabated.
32:50After coming off the line in Holland, Fox Company had really taken a beating there.
32:58They were down to 50 percent of the company was still walking and not wounded.
33:08For the men of Fox Company and the 101st, who had fought with valor and courage, Market
33:14Garden will remain a costly chapter in paratroop history.
33:19But for those rescued from Hitler's tyranny, they remain heroes.
33:26The people in Holland, and how joyful they were, because we had, I can't say rescued
33:33them, but freed them from the tyranny that they had been experiencing.
33:41They were so grateful for everything we did, and we were so darn proud that we had done
33:47it on their behalf.
34:00After Market Garden was over, the survivors of that combat, some of whom were survivors
34:04of the Normandy combat, were given passes and went to places like Brussels, Paris, or
34:14London.
34:17The war has not ended yet, so what do we do now?
34:22You can't help but think about that, even though everybody seems happy, but it's got
34:28to be in the back of their minds.
34:31You try to think of where could we possibly have to go from here.
34:39Adolf Hitler has already decided that.
34:46Remembering his 1940 Ardennes Blitzkrieg that defeated France, he gambles all he has left
34:53in one final audacious offensive to forever be known as the Battle of the Bulge.
35:09Hitler has hurled the best of his hoarded SS and Panzer divisions against a weakly held
35:15sector of the American lines in Belgium.
35:18Unknown to the Allies, his audacious goal is to knife quickly through and within a week
35:24capture the Allies' indispensable supply port of Antwerp.
35:29Hitler is gambling that he can starve the vast opposing forces of fuel, supplies, cohesiveness,
35:35and willingness to fight on.
35:38He can then negotiate a separate peace in the West while turning to defeat Russia in
35:42the East.
35:51The desperate offensive has set the stage for one final showdown against Hitler's mighty
35:56Panzer divisions.
35:59This time, Fox Company and the men of the 101st will finish what they started.
36:07It wasn't, but a few hours later they were told, get your rifles back out that are in
36:12repair.
36:13Take whatever you can get.
36:14Put on all the clothes that you can, because we're going back into combat.
36:21You had to load the truck as fast as you could and you took whatever you had.
36:25A lot of people had no ammunition, some didn't even have rifles, overcoats were at a premium.
36:34It just caught us off guard, really.
36:40No place to sit.
36:41You had to stand there.
36:44If somebody had to piss, you couldn't stop.
36:49You took your helmet off and pissed in your liner.
36:56The reality is, those men at Fox Company went into combat, as did most of the guys in 101st,
37:00with very little ammunition, without any winter clothing, and without any food.
37:06They're very limited in their medical supplies as well, so they weren't going to be able
37:09to treat anybody that got hurt.
37:12It rained and it was cold.
37:18We didn't really know what we was getting into.
37:24Fox Company and the men of the 101st are headed for a small town, whose very name will come
37:30to represent courage against impossible odds, Bastogne.
37:35It will place them directly in the path of Hitler's rampaging panzers, in a do-or-die
37:42Ardennes Alamo, that will decide the fate of the war in Europe.
37:47In this one final epic showdown, the incredible valor, courage, and sacrifice of a small group
37:54of paratroop brothers will once and for all seal the fate of Adolf Hitler.
38:24The whole world was watching what the 101st Airborne was doing.
38:33The news had been reporting in the States about the breakthrough, about the bulge, about
38:38the fact that the 101st was holding this little town of Bastogne.
38:43Well, the world knew that if they could not hold that position, the Germans would break
38:49through.
38:50The war may go on for years.
38:53That little town was the key to ending the conflict in Europe.
38:58It was either going to make or break Germany.
39:00They claimed the situation to be desperate, and that, I think, made us feel kind of good.
39:11You know, again, we're the champions, you know, they're depending on us.
39:23The buck stops here.
39:24You don't pass through us in this combat situation.
39:30I was so proud of them, darn it, I just feel so excited inside of me that I was with all
39:39these gutsy soldiers.
39:56We didn't have no rations, no food, no ammunition, no medics.
40:03That was worse than D-Day, worse than Holland, as far as I'm concerned.
40:10Every day was hell.
40:13You slept, but you didn't sleep.
40:16At the moment when they said, get up and go, you were ready.
40:22You were ready.
40:29After three days of non-stop fighting, frustrated by the furious paratroopers' defense and certain
40:36that they must be worn down and ready to quit, the Germans send a surrender team.
40:44The 101st Brotherhood at Bastogne wait tensely for the reply of their short-fused commander,
40:51Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe.
40:56When we heard from the general that he got that note from the Germans, they wanted us
41:01to surrender, and he just answered with that one word, nuts, go to hell.
41:09I would rather die right there than get my arm and sick, go ahead and kill me.
41:16If I had to die, I want to die fighting for what I believe.
41:22With that one-word response, the American paratroopers make it clear, we're not giving
41:29up Bastogne.
41:31As Hitler's clock for success continues to run out, the fight for Bastogne becomes desperate.
42:23By December 26th, the battle is over.
42:29The staunch defenders of Bastogne have succeeded in holding out against an overwhelming German
42:34armored force.
42:36Hitler's last hope for victory is lost.
42:43I was in what I thought the gutsiest unit in the whole 101st.
42:49Damn it, that was such a wonderful, wonderful unit.
42:53We were first in Normandy, first in Holland, first in Bastogne.
43:07To have been a part of the first company was really something to be proud of.
43:15I'm sorry I cried so easy.
43:18It's the thought of what it was like and what happened, and we lost a lot of good people.
43:30We were all brothers, and he heard when we lost one, like if he was your twin, that's
43:38how much it hurt.
43:41And it's still the memory, it hurts.
43:46The young men of Fighting Fox Company, always undermanned and outgunned, had helped defeat
43:53Hitler in his own backyard.
43:58The original 150 members, 32 are killed in action, only five within the war unscathed.
44:06But the gallant, unstoppable band of brothers had secured forever their place among the
44:12heroes and legends of American military history.
44:17Their grit, courage, and audacity against the odds will never be forgotten.
44:42♪♪♪