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The Spoils of War by Simon Smith.
Thrown into a baptism of fire on D-Day the men of the 101st Airborne Division had quickly shown their mettle in the killing fields of Normandy. By the time they were called upon to jump into Holland during Operation Market Garden they had become one of the toughest and most formidable units of the entire US Army. After fighting alongside the British in Holland it was on 5th October 1944, along the muddy banks of a dyke, that the men of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, under the leadership of Lt Dick Winters once again ran into a large group of Germans. It wasn't the first time they'd been outnumbered and, with scant regard for the odds against them, Easy Company attacked. After a brief fire-fight that drove the enemy back, Dick Winters gathered half of his reserve platoon and proceeded to wipe out an enemy machine-gun position and bringing up the rest of his men, charged with fixed bayonets. The Germans - two companies of battle-hardened Waffen-SS troops, several hundred men - were too stunned to respond and were quickly overpowered by Winters' small band. A few days later Colonel Robert Sink, the battalion commander, issued a citation praising them for their daring and aggressive spirit, and sound tactical ability. Shortly after their success, Dick Winters was promoted to become the battalion Executive Officer. This painting portrays the men of Easy Company moments after the action was over, standing easy but, as ever, alert for trouble.
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Eve of Destiny by Richard Taylor.
Richard Taylor's stunning painting depicts the men of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division as they take inventory of their equipment during the early evening of 5 June 1944. Adorned with hastily applied invasion stripes, the C-47s of the 438th Troop Carrier Group stand primed, ready to carry the elite unit to Normandy in the early hours of D-Day 1944. To add to the poignancy of this release, the edition is personally signed by veterans that jumped on D-Day with the 101st Airborne.
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Road to the Rhine by Robert Taylor.
As the Allied armies dashed across France after victory in Normandy, they remained reliant on one thing - supplies. With Cherbourg the only port in use, everything depended on trucks to deliver enough fuel, food and ammunition to keep the momentum going. But there was a problem. Too few trucks, and too few drivers. The invasion was in danger of stalling, and if it did, the Germans might just regain the initiative. Action was needed, and quickly. Montgomery argued that all resources be channeled into a single, powerful thrust into Germany, but Eisenhower disagreed. the Allies would advance on a broad front. But he did give Montgomery the First Allied Airborne Army to try and capture the major bridges in Holland on the road to the Rhine, ahead of the Allies advance. For the men of the 101st Airborne, the Screaming Eagles, their task was to seize the bridges at Eindhoven. The 82nd would do the same at Nijmegan, and the British 1st Airborne would capture the farthest bridge, at Arnhem. On the ground the British 30th Corps would advance northwards and link up with them, and, if successful, turn the German flank on the Rhine. On 17th September 1944 the plan was put into action, the 101st quickly securing all of its objectives, and the 82nd capturing one bridge. The British 1st Airborne fought its way into Arnhem and seized the bridge over the Rhine. Now all they had to do was hold out until the 30th Corps arrived. But 30th Corps was making slow progress, and although the men of the 101st and the 82nd held out until relieved, in Arnhem it was too late to save the British 1st Airborne. Battle-weary, without ammunition or supplies, only a few survivors escaped back across the Rhine. Of the 10,000 men who had landed, just 2,000 made it out. If the operation had succeeded the war in Europe might have been over by Christmas 1944. Instead, hostilities would continue through the bitter winter.
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Easy Company - The Taking of Carentan by Chris Collingwood.
You have a rendezvous with destiny! - promised Major Gen William Lee to his men as the 101st Airborne Division was activated at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana, 15 August 1942. And the first place they kept that rendezvous was Normandy. At precisely 23.00 hours on the night of 5th June 1944, aircraft containing the men of Easy Company, 506th Parachute Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, thundered down the runway at Upottery Airfield. Lifting off into the night, the hazardous mission given to the paratroopers of the 101st was to speaerhead the Allied invasion of Hitler occupied Europe - a rendezvous with destiny if ever there was one. Crossing the French coast two hours later, the vast air armada was met by heavy German AA fire and hampered by heavy banks of cloud, scattering the Division over a wide area. Few units landed in their designated drop zones and by dawn on the morning of 6th June, Easy Company comprised just nine rifle men, two officers, a couple of machine guns, and a mortar. The task of these eleven men - to annihilate a German battery targetting the landings on Utah Beach! Undaunted, this tiny group of young paratroopers ferociously assaulted and captured the battery, their action saving the lives of hundreds of their comrades coming ashore on the beach head below. In the gruelling days that followed, the men of Easy Company fought their way through dense hedgerows, across fields and orchards, through farms and villages towards their next objective - the strategic town of Carentan. Heavily defended by German forces, its seizure was vital to the Allied advance. Portrays the men of Easy Company as they fight their way through the bullet-swept streets of Carentan. Facing the enemy in close combat house-to-house street fighting, the paratroopers relentlessly pounded the enemy until the last vestiges of German resistance were overwhelmed and the objective taken. But for the men of Easy Company and the 101st Airborne, this action is just the beginning of their distinguished but savage war. Others will follow: the liberation of the first Dutch city, Eindhoven; the siege of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge; and ultimately, the capture of Hitlers Eagles Nest at Berchtesgaden.
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Sainte-Mère-Église by Simon Smith.
Captured by the US 82nd Airborne in the early hours of D-Day, Sainte-MèreÉglise would become the first town in France to be liberated by the Allies. The small town of Sainte-MèreÉglise, at the foot of the Cotentin peninsula, is just five miles inland from Utah Beach, the most westerly of the five assault beaches for D-Day and critical to the Allies' right flank. The town lay beside the main highway from Paris that ran north from Carentan to the port of Cherbourg, and which provided a vital link to any German forces engaged in the defence of the area. Vital to ensuring a successful landing on Utah, the task of securing the town and road together with the nearby railway line and bridges over the River Merderet, was given to one of the best units in the US Army - the battle-hardened paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division. In the early hours of 6 June 1944, after a widely scattered drop, some in the Division's 505th PIR found themselves landing right in the heart of the town, caught in the glowing light cast by a burning building. With the white silk of their parachutes clearly visible, many of the men hanging defencelessly beneath them were easy targets. The casualty rate was high but, after regrouping with other units, the men of the 82nd attacked in a ferocious assault and a fierce firefight with the German defenders soon erupted. By dawn it was over and with the capture of the town the Stars and Stripes now flew over Sainte-Mère-Église.
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Easy Company - Moving On by Chris Collingwood.
Major Dick Winters and the men of Easy Company, 101st Airborne Division, as they take up a holding position in the Normandy town of Carentan on 14 June 1944, eight days after their dramatic parachute drop into Normandy on D-Day.
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Military Art and Artists 
Wingett, Bill
