The Bois Jacques, 20 December 1944 to 3 January 1945
When German armour broke through in the Ardennes, the 101st Airborne was rushed to Bastogne in open trucks, without winter coats, overshoes or enough ammunition. Easy Company dug in at the edge of a pine wood, the Bois Jacques, looking north toward Foy. The Germans encircled Bastogne from 21 December until the 26th, when Patton's Third Army broke through from the south.
Easy's sector saw patrols and probing attacks by the 26th Volksgrenadier Division, but its worst enemy was shelling in the trees, where shells burst in the treetops and threw splinters down into open holes, and the cold and the shortages. The airdrop of 23 December brought ammunition and supplies. On 3 January a barrage caught men in the open, and many more left the line with trench foot, frostbite or exhaustion. The line held.
In the game you hold the line in the woods for five days of the siege. Keep men in their holes, keep them rotating, and keep the line. Bastogne itself is one of the free battles.
Foy, 13 January 1945
With the siege over, the 101st attacked to push the Germans back north. Foy sat astride the Bastogne-Noville road, about 300 metres of open snow from the edge of the woods, with German machine guns in its houses and mortars ranged on the field. Easy's men had been in the line for more than three weeks, and many were sick, tired and new.
The attack stalled in the open field under machine-gun and mortar fire, and the company commander could not get it moving. Richard Winters, now the battalion's executive officer, sent Lt. Ronald Speirs from D Company to take over in the field. Speirs got the platoons moving, and the village was cleared by mid-afternoon. German counter-attacks that night were beaten off with help from American tanks. Easy lost about six men killed, with more wounded. Speirs commanded Easy for the rest of the war.
In the game you start at the edge of the woods. Use smoke and the guns to get across fast; a platoon of I Company comes in along the main road a few minutes in. If the attack stops in the open, it will be shot to pieces.
Bonus: Noville, 15 January 1945
Two days after Foy, the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 506th attacked north up the road into Noville with tank destroyers and air support, and took it. Easy then moved on to clear Rachamps. The bonus mission puts you in that attack: the tank destroyers can deal with armour in the village, but they cannot clear houses.
The ground today
The Bois Jacques still stands and Easy Company's foxholes can still be seen; the area is a memorial site, so please respect it. Foy was badly damaged and rebuilt, and it is still a small village on the N30 with a similar layout. The edge of the wood has moved about 140 metres south since 1945, so the open field is a little wider than it was.
