Easy Company’s Coldest Night of the War
Easy Company’s Coldest Night of the War
On January 13, 1945, Easy Company captured the village of Foy during the Battle of the Bulge. The attack appears in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, when Ronald Speirs takes command of the company and leads the assault through the town.
But the day was not over.
That afternoon, after the fighting in Foy ended, Easy Company received new orders: prepare to attack the nearby village of Noville the following morning.
The company moved into position near the small hamlet of Corbu, just outside Noville. There, the men dug shallow foxholes and settled in for the night while waiting for the attack scheduled for January 14.
Dick Winters later described it as “the coldest night of my life.”
The soldiers had worked hard moving into position and were sweating through their uniforms. After sunset, the temperature dropped rapidly. The men soon found themselves shivering in frozen clothing in the bitter cold. Many tried to sleep, but they quickly woke up shaking and eventually gave up trying to rest.
During the night, Carwood Lipton and a radioman quietly crept forward to scout the edge of Noville. In the darkness, they discovered knocked-out American Sherman tanks and frozen bodies left behind from an earlier battle fought there weeks before. The Germans still held the village.
When you visit Bastogne today, one thing becomes clear quickly: the open countryside can feel surprisingly cold even outside the winter months. When I visited in late summer, I was struck by the chill while standing out in the open fields. Even with a sweater and rain jacket, the wind made it feel colder than expected.
Standing there, it becomes easier to imagine what that January night must have been like—exhausted soldiers lying in foxholes, surrounded by deep snow, waiting for dawn.
At first light on January 14, Easy Company began its attack on Noville.
Today the villages around Bastogne—including Corbu and Noville—still sit quietly among the same open farmland where these events unfolded during the winter of 1945.
Visitors can still see many of the places where Easy Company fought during the Battle of the Bulge. As you travel through the villages, roads, and open fields around Bastogne, you move through landscapes that look much the same as they did in 1945.
If you want to explore more of the real locations connected to Easy Company, you can continue the journey below.
Explore more Easy Company locations:
www.BergsAndBurgs.com
