VE-Day Away from Berchtesgaden

On VE-Day, most of Easy Company celebrated together in Berchtesgaden, high in the Bavarian Alps.

But not everyone was there.

Buck Compton was in Paris, walking the Champs-Élysées after a chance encounter changed his path and kept him from returning to the front. Don Malarkey was in Belgium, recovering near Liège, trying to find his way back to his unit after being pulled out of the line.

Their war ended in very different places.

For Compton, Paris became an unexpected turning point. A simple decision during a stop in the city ultimately brought his combat experience to a close. For Malarkey, the war ended not with his company, but in a Belgian town where civilians filled the streets as church bells rang out the news of Germany’s surrender.

One thing that becomes clear when you visit places like Paris and Liège is how scattered the final days of the war really were. Easy Company feels like a single, unified story, but by May 1945, it had spread across hospitals, cities, and transit points throughout Europe.

Paris is overwhelming — crowded, energetic, and full of movement — while Liège feels much smaller, pressed between the Meuse River and the surrounding hills. Standing in both places, you begin to understand how differently that same moment in history could be experienced.

VE-Day wasn’t one shared celebration. It was hundreds of separate endings, depending on where you happened to be.

Many of the places connected to Easy Company’s final days still exist today, from major cities like Paris to smaller towns across Belgium and Austria.

If you’re interested in exploring more of the real locations connected to Easy Company, you can continue discovering them here:

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