In England they had a lot of field problems and exercises. The men got even closer to each other, but the hate to Sobel kept on increasing. The men did therefore occasionally have some fun with Sobel. Captain Sobel was terrible reading maps. After running into a fence they weren't suppose to be running into, Sobel told the men to take cover behind some trees, while he and Private Tipper tried to figure out where they were. Suddenly a voice could be heard from behind the trees. And to Sobel's great surprise, it was the voice of Major Horton. Or that was what he

Church of St. Michael, Aldbourne (Picture taken in 1930)

"What's the hold-up Mr. Sobel?!" The voice called out. "It's a fence, Sir", Sobel replied. "Cut that fence and get this platoon on the move!" the voice yelled back, and so Sobel did.

Later, Sobel was confronted by Col. Strayer, who asked why he had cut that fence. Sobel answered that he was ordered to by Major Horton, to witch Strayer told him that Horton was on leave in London.

But this wasn't the only time the soldiers had fun with Sobel. Under a exercise for the medics, Sobel was picked to be a casualty. And the medics really took "good care" of him. They gave him a full anaesthetics, and even though he tried, he never found out who did it.

As the days went by, Sobel proved him self as a terrible leader in the field. He did not know how to read a

Lt. Col. Robert Strayer

In late October, Col. Strayer told Sobel that he was to inspect the latrine the next morning. Sobel told Winters to inspect the latrine at 1000 hours. Later, Winters was told by Col. Strayer to censor the mail of the men. Since this job couldn't be done at HQ, Winters went home to his quarters, censored the mail, before returning to the latrine at 1000 hours. When he got back, Sobel was already there, having his own inspection. Sobel finished his inspection and went out, without showing any sign to have seen Winters arriving. Winters made his own inspection, and went on with his duties.

1045, Winters was met by a smirking 1st Sergeant Evans. Evans handed him a document. The document was from Sobel, who gave Winters a choose. Being trailed by Courts Martial, or being punished under the 104th Article of War. When Winters talked to Sobel about this, he was told that Sobel had changed the time to 0945. A order Winters never received. But Winters had had enough of Sobel, and required trail by Courts Martial. This resulted in Winters being transferred to the Battalion Mess, and Sobel was still in charge of Easy. A decision that wasn't popular between the NCOs. They all had a

Shortly after this, Sobel was called in to a meeting with Sink and Strayer. They talked about the Courts Martial case, and about the NCOs. But as the meeting came to an end, Sobel was told that he was reassigned to Chilton Foliat, a jump school for medics, priests and other non-fighting personnel. Lt. Meehan was assigned as the new CO of Easy, and Winters was reassigned as XO.

After some months in Aldbourne, the men was moved to Uppottery. Here they got to know what their mission for D-DAY was, and they had two major training jumps that was called Exercise Tiger and Operation Eagle. These were to be as close as possible as the mission on D-DAY, where they were to jump into Normandy. And they were told NOT to write about this back home!

Col. Sink

July 4th 1944, after two years of training, Easy Company was preparing themselves to leave England. Everybody were told to sign their life insurance, so the family back home would be given $10 000, in case they were killed during the campaign. Them men  packed everything they could and got ready to jump. But just before they were to board the planes, the whole Operation was postponed because of bad weather conditions.

The night after, the 5th of July, they once again made themselves ready to jump, they boarded the planes and took of... headed for Normandie.

Soldiers with all their gear, ready to jump

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