Herd Of Brothers

by brony2you

Rating: teen
Tags: Dark, Adventure, Alternate Universe
Length: 3922

The story of Major Richard Winters, commander of easy company in the 101st airborrn.

This story takes place as a interview, where a interviewer interviews the old retired war pony Major Richard Winters. As the interview goes on there will be flashbacks describing his journey through ww2. The story follows Major Richard as he fights his way through Normandy, The reign, The great Battle of the Bulge, and fight there way onward to Germany. On the way he will fight along brave men, who fought, killed, and were killed throughout the Western Campaign during WW2.

This Fan Fic is based off the movie Band of Brothers.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2011-12-01 07:35:54 UTC

Welcome to Normardy soldier!

"Ok umm get ready, we're gonna start filming in 2" said a worker on the set.

I looked around at all the camera equipment and lights, I looked at the young pony sitting in the chair in front of me.

The interviewer looked at me and asked, "before we start with your story, I have a personal question for you."

I responded with my grungy voice and wrinkled mane and face, "Yes sonny.."

"Was it worth it? At the end of the war? All you went through? Did you ever think was all you did worth it?"

I sat there, looking at this young man, my face turning from expressionless to somewhat of emotion.

"Well sonny, I'll tell you this...We did our duty, all my men, in life, in death, here today or not, all thought that. That final day, I stood there, I looked at all of us soldiers who had fought, killed, and been killed, over the course of this war. I sat there and thought, was it all worth it? We're those ponies deaths worth it? I would say hell yes.

Every Pony on that field, on that final day, probably, even if just for a moment, thought that same thing, and I can guarantee ya, we did it for the country we love. We did it for those who live today, and we did it because it was our duty. Now, do wanna get this here interview started or what..."

As the cameras started recording and I started to express the horrors of my time in hell...

"What made you want to join the 101st airborne?"

"I was a simple second lieutenant, nothing much, went to officer training school, thought the 101st airborne infantry division would be a hardened group of pony's to fight with, I thought if you had the balls to jump out a plane, landing at the enemy's doorstep, jumping feet first into hell, you have the balls to be a hardened division. Oh boy was I wrong...at first..."

"How was your training in the army" asked the interviewer.

I looked at him and replied, "Depends on what your definition of training was haha. Training for me and my fellow colts was galloping, galloping, and more galloping. I knew the reason was to toughen us up, make us a hardened division, and a closer one. I'm glad a few colts saw this as well. Most of those pony's, 16, 17 years old, didn't see this. This came to kick them in the flank later on."

"Could you tell us your experiences in normardy that first night..."

I looked blankly at the young kid and almost every thought from that night started rushing back to me, "Well..."

As I sat there in that plane, sitting on the steel frame siting, a chill breeze was in the air. Wind kept flying through the outcropping of the door frame in this metal crate that could any moment be my casket. As I looked across from me, looking at these young colts, some were old ww1 veterans, some hardened troops that look like they've taken a beating, but most of them, just young, young colts, hardly colts.

What were they doing here....These pony's are barely even 16, what are they doing a thousand feet above normardy, thousand miles away from home. Why didn't they just sign a death warrant on the way onto the plane and said to there wife's good bye forever.

As soon as we flew over from the English Channel. We took a shots from German MG 42's every now and then, leaving bullet holes in the bottom of our plane. Every now and then a German would get a lucky shot and chip a piece of clothing off one of us.

I looked at the pony across from me, he looked at me, he had a dead, expressionless look on his face, sitting there, playing with a lighter. He looked around, and looked back to me. I was the last thing he ever saw.

Right as he looked at me, a bullet pierced the bottom paneling of the plane, shooting up his back and impacting his skull. The back side of His head exploded from the impact of the bullet, leaving a blood stained paneling behind him, pieces of his brain, skull and blood, lost of blood, just splattered all over the inside of the plane.

A mangled piece of flesh from his face landed in my lap, some of the men lost there lunches, I just looked at the this mangled piece of flesh and just kept wondering, looking at this piece of what was once a kid, just a kid, he had a family, a mother, a father, and now, he lays dead.

I looked at it and said,

"What the hell we're you doing out here in this god for saken war son...."

As we kept on, flying over flat plains, and sleeping enemy positions who awoke and fired blindly into the night sky hoping to get a shot at us. I turned over to the private next to me and said,

"Hey kid, you got the time."

He turned and looked at me, and looked at my watch, which by god was broken beyond telling what time half past shit was.

I looked back at him and asked

"Well? do you?"

He looked at his watch and said

"1238 sir"

"1238....2 minutes till drop"I mumbled to myself

I looked back at the blood sprayed wall, with what was left of the pony lying on it, I looked at the light above me, I looked in the cockpit and saw him flick a switch.

The light above me turned red. I stood up, and looked at all my men.

I yelled

"READY? STAND UP!"

All the soldiers stood up standing in single file line, at about this point we started to take heavy German anti aircraft fire. The plane shook as if a train was hitting it, repeatedly. I yelled to my men

"HOOK UP!!"

My mares took there hooks and hooked it to the line above, I looked outside the window and saw a plane, narrowly 70 feet from our wing, with a burning engine, at that moment it took a direct flak cannon shot directly to the cockpit.

The cabin burst into flames, pony's fell out of the planes, not pulling there parachutes as they plummeted to there grave as there body's burned as they fell.. They probably died of burns before they touched the ground, and I only saw 3 men get out of that plane.

I looked at the man in front of me who was looking out the window, his face made him look scared shitless.

I looked down at my men and yelled

"EQUIPMENT CHECK!"

My men checked there gear, tied there rifles to there legs, and looked back at me.

I yelled to my men,

"SOUND OFF!"

"NINE OK!"

"EIGHT OK!"

"SEVEN OK!"

"SIX OK!"

"FIVE OK!"

"FOUR OK!"

"THREE OK!"

"TWO OK!"

I yelled out

"ONE OK!"

I looked at the light in the plane and as it turned green I pushed my men and yelled

"GO GO GO!"

The first mare jumped,and the second, and down the line until the last pony got to the door. He stopped, hesitated, looked at me.

I screamed at him

"WELCOME TO NORMARDY!"

I pushed him out the door and followed out the door behind him.

I looked down and around me, but hardly saw anything, nothing but parachutes and flak, and ponies plummeting to there deaths from there parachutes being shot to all hell.

The colt who I had just pushed out the door not moments earlier was plummeting to his fate. His parachute was riddled with so many bullets I couldn't even count. As he plummeted he looked back at me, and simply had the look of a dead man. A man who had accepted his fate.

I made it to the ground and stumbled and rolled over, I got up, got my Thompson sub machine gun and stood up,

I looked up and saw the sight of a thousand pony's in parachutes falling down to earth, and nearly just as much flak and machine gun fire lighting up the night sky.

I looked down at my feet to find the crushed remains of the pony who was in front of me. I simply crouched, looked down at his mangled remains and said

"Welcome to Hell..."

Unwelcoming Reunion

I stood up, and was standing in the middle of an open field, the one place you never wanna be. I took a dash towards the tree line and ducked down under the foliage under the trunk of the closest tree. I heard some bushes rustling behind me, I whispered

"flash!"

I heard the response,

"thunder!"

Two of the men from my plane and another solider came out of the shadows of the darkness. The mares, David Webster, Ronald Spiers, and some other fellers name, all had lost there primary weapons in the drop.

"David." I said, trying to get his attention "You got a replacement weapon?"

        David replied, "M1911, thats it, and 2 satchel charges."

"Ronald, got anything?"

"Two grenades sir."

"Ok, did you see any flak guns on the way here."

"Just one sir, had around 6 Germans occupying though, about half a click south from here" replied David.

"Alright, find some weapons, meet me at the tree line. Kid, your coming with me". Not one second later that poor mare

was struck in the side of head by a German mp44 round, I didn't even know the kids name.

At the same moment, the German popped out of the bushes and started spraying the MP44 out at us.

I took my Thompson and sprayed about half a clip at him. One shot found its mark, direct shot, straight to the head.

The German fell down to the ground and dropped his weapon with 2 clips of ammunition.

"Ronald. Take his weapon, see if it still works."

Ronald checked the barrel and fired a test shot.

"Good to go."

"Excellent, David, guide us to the flak cannon. I'll think of a plan once we get there"

We found our way to the flak cannon, only 5 Germans were operating the flak cannon.

I looked at my men, I gave them the signal to go to the right and around and proved suppressing fire once I gave the first shot. I got into position and took my aim at the one solder on guard.

I took a breath, looked at this German, took aim down the barrel of my gun, aimed it directly at the middle of the Germans head. Released my breath and fired, the bullet pierced the Germans skull, shattering most of the back of his cranial.

At that moment every German turned my direction and started firing. At the same moment Robert and David fired on at the German infantry. They were all down within a few seconds.

We all came out of the bushes and check the area for any more Germans. At the same moment, David was setting a satchel charge inside the barrel of the flak cannon. He set the timer and yelled

"We got 30 seconds!"

We made a quick dash for the tree line, at that moment, David took a shot to the leg. The tissue inside his leg and his bone was torn open, his leg hanging onto his leg almost by a limb. I went back and pulled the injured solider up onto my shoulders and ran into the tree line while Robert provided suppressing fire.

"Oh, those damn mauts!(kraut). Son of Celestia's mother that hurts like a bitch. Do you have any morphine?" screamed David in pain.

"I think I have one in my med kit."

I reached into my med kit which had some bandages, Sulfanilamide, and 2 shots of morphine. I grabbed a shot of morphine and some Sulfanilamide. I took the morphine shot and pressed it into Davids leg. I then took the Sulfanilamide and poured the substance on the wound to prevent infection. I then took some bandages and patched up the wound.

"We need to get you to a first aid station now." I exclaimed.

He replied

        "We have been in Normandy for 50 minutes and you think some medics have set up a first aid station? You always did have to much hope."

"Oh, shut up lets get you out of here" I replied.

We picked him up by slinging his arms around our shoulders and limped him along the forest to reach more friendly troops.

Some soldiers had seen us limping along the tree line and got our attention. We hobbled over to the group of soldiers. There were about 15 of them, and thankfully one was a medic.

"Hey! Medic, get your ass over here, I got a critically injured lucky bastard here" I yelled.

The medic rushed over and looked at the wound. He replied

"Your going to have to leave him here with me, I'm surprised you got him here without tearing his leg off."

I looked at David, aching in pain. As we we're about to walk away he grabbed my arm.

"Hey, Richards."

"Hmm?"

"Here, your gonna need it more then me."

He handed me the M1911 he had been carrying.

"Don't waist those shots, make them count."

"I will David, hang in there you bastard."

We gathered some troops willing to go back out to take out some flak cannons that were gonna cause some Mayhem on the beach, for the Normandy Invasion.

After we had gathered about 5 more mares, we we're about to leave before a pony sitting in next to a tree yelled

"Your all gonna die, your surrounded and there's no way out of this hell hole!"

I walked over to him and looked him dead in the face and said,

"Solider, we're paratroopers, we're supposed to be surrounded."

I walked away from the pony and yelled,

"All right pony's, We're moving out!"

A nice cup of ammo, and a handfull of grenades

As we started on our departure from the base camp that I had just rallied several colts from, we marched off into the grassy plains and random ravaged tree lines that covered the vast landscape of Normardy.

We galloped off, feeling the leaves from burned trees crush under our feet, the chill breeze flowing in the wind, the smell of burning flesh from dead soldiers who had the unfortunate event of meeting the end of a bullet. This was just another day that would soon become a daily thing, here, in Normardy.

We walked on and looked up every now and then at the few lone planes that flew across the bright orange morning skyline and passed over us that we're sent in to resupply troops deeper behind enemy lines. We looked up to see a plane that had just moments earlier had its wing shoot to pieces, its engine burst into flames as it took a hard right and started to plummet towards the earth.

My men took cover and dropped as the plane swopped over our tree line and crashed into the field just yonder from us. Our men grabbed our guns and our and equipment and ran to the crashed site to look for survivors, that is if there we're any.

As we ran out into the open field we had noticed that German machine gun squads had already set up there MG42s and had already opened fire on the burning crashed plane. From our view on the treeline we could see two colts climb there way out of the burning wreckage.

One seemed in critical condition, the other colt looked back to his injured soldier, looked out at the treeline where we were standing and he took at mad dash for us. I yelled out to him,

"No stop you blind idiot! GO BACK!"

But as my words reached him, so did the German bullets. They pierced his legs, and then one pierced his skull, blowing the right side of his head clean off. The other pony, still badly injured, still taking fire, I knew we needed to get that pony out of there. I turned to my men and said,

"Alright men, you all ready to kill some crauts?"

My men looked at me with the will to fight to there last breath, this is exactly what I was hoping for.

"Alright, Ronald, you take 5 colts with you and go around and prepare a flanking position, and you with the machine gun, go with them"

"Yes sir!"

"The rest of you, fall in on me and provide covering fire once I give the signal."

I ran around the tree line and got into the position to run behind the plane from a distanc. My men, staying behind at the treeline were in place and ready to provide covering fire. I looked over at Ronald and he gave me the "OK" that they we're in position.

I gave the signal and I took a mad dash towards the plane. I could feel the disrupted wind of the bullets fly by my face, the feeling knowing I could die, I could have my brains blown out at any moment trying to save some damn kid I don't even know, thats stuck in the middle of a field in normardy.

I ran and jumped and landed behind the plane next to the injured colt. I looked down at his leg and it had been crushed by the impact of the plane crash. I looked over at Ronald to see them taking heavy fire but they were managing.

I pulled the injured pony onto my back and signaled my men to provide all the covering fire they could. I got set in place and looked out. I looked at the treeline, I closed my eyes, and I ran.

Those few moments of me running felt like a millennial. I finally reach the treeline as my galloping on wet swamp ridden fields turned into crunchy burned leaves on a forest floor. I looked to the pony on my back who was still conscious and breathing, I took a exhale in relief and took a drink of water from my canteen.

I signaled for my men to throw there grenades at the enemy position then fall back. They took the pins off there grenades and hurled them like they were baseballs. They flew at the enemy position and as my men fell back they looked back expecting Germans to follow in pursuit. We saw nothing but a enemy position with a half dead German crawling out of it.

As my men got back to the base camp, we handed the injured pilot over to the medic. I looked back at the pony I had just saved from imminent death. He looked back at me and held his hand up in salute and said to me,

"Thank you sir."

I looked back at him and responded,

"There are no favors being exchanged on this day soldier, we're here to do what we're supposed to do. Nobody should be thanked for that. Good luck solider."

I walked away and rallied my men together. We stocked up on satchel charges and grenades and ammunition.

One pony turned around to the rest of the men and said,

"Nothing like a nice cup of ammo and a hand full of grenades before work ay soldiers!"

I looked at him with a smirk and walked up to him, patted him on the back and said,

"Couldn't have said it better myself solider..."

We packed up, regrouped, and marched on.

Our next destination was the next flak cannon we could find. We had spotted a few in the distance from our return from the plane crash, but most of them consisted of twenty or so Germans. We found one that had about eight Germans occupying the gun, one was manning a machine gun. I brought my men in close and explained the plan,

"Ronald, take those 4 men and go around the ridge of the tree line and get your grenades ready. Me and the rest of the men will go on the opposite side and add covering fire."

I looked around at my men to see a colt holding a Springfield bolt action rifle.

"You, you handy with that thing?"

He looked at me with the look of a confident colt, he responded with,

"If I wasn't handy with why would I be carrying it around in the first place?"

I asked him, "Can you get in that tree and fire on the machine gunner in that bunker once we start firing."

"You can count on me sir!"

"Perfect, everyone, Move out!"

I took my men and went around the tree line and got my men lined up and ready to go. I saw the sniper climb up into the tree and get into position. I looked across the field and saw Ronald and his men get there grenades at the ready. I signaled to the sniper to take the first shot.

The moment I heard that sniper fire, all hell broke lose. The sniper bullet passed right through the German machine gunners head. At the same moment Ronald and his men threw there grenades and they all landed under the flak cannon and around the men. The moment before the grenades exploded a German managed to get a couple of shots off in his Mp44 in our direction, hitting one of our men in the head, killing him instantly.

When it got quiet, we all rushed the flak cannon and Ronald set up some satchel charges on the cannon. As we we're doing so we heard German yelling right around the corner nearly 20 feet from where we we're. My men lined up there weapons and all guns were aimed at that corner. Not a moment later nearly 20 Germans came running around that corner. It was like a firing squad.

One after another, the bullets pierced the skin of the Germans, some Germans managed to grab there weapon and fire off a shot or two, but they weren't fast enough to do anything, the wall of bullets just kept firing, piercing the skulls of many Germans, wounding a few of them.

I yelled for my men to cease fire, I looked down at the pile of dead ponies, some of which body's were moving, aching in pain. One German grabbed his pistol and put it to his skull and fired, another was climbing for a weapon, still trying to fight, I saw this colt, and I shot him. I walked down to the pile of body's and checked for any survivors, I found none. At this time my men yelled to clear the area. A few moment later the satchel charge on the flak cannon detonated.

A few hours passed, and my men we're sitting gathered around the flak cannon having a smoke, when we saw something on the horizon. We heard the sounds of engines, engines growling as they tore the land up from under them. I walked out towards the sound, I looked out in the distance to see 5 tanks and hundreds of infantry, American Infantry.

I breathed a sigh of relief and walked up to the men and said to them,

"Welcome to Normardy kid!"