Women of War - A Band of Brothers Story

Grief and Sorrow

A/N: Hey everybody, guess who's still alive? Real life is still kicking my butt and while I've had the whole last week off from work (my first holiday of the year, yay), I still only had one (1) day where I wasn't busy with essays and ten thousand other commitments. But I used that day to write a large chunk of the chapter below, which is good, I suppose :)

I've written most of this from memory and from my notes for my first BoB story because I couldn't bring myself to rewatch this part of the episode. I also gave myself two anxiety/panic attacks while researching the historical background, so yeah, writing this episode is incredibly hard...

I couldn't research who the people imprisoned at Kaufering IV at the time of its liberation were, or which variation of the prison badge system was used there, so the details might not be completely historically accurate for this specific camp, but otherwise, they were 100 % real.
One note-worthy fact I learned, though: The liberation of the camp is modelled after the real-life liberation of Kaufering IV by elements of the 12th Armoured Division on 27 April 1945. The set was built as an exact replica of the real camp. It was also the first time a TV show or movie showed the liberation of a camp other than Dachau or Auschwitz.

Last but not least, I want to thank all of you for your support and kind words. I'm still not in a good place, but your messages helped a lot and I couldn't be more grateful. So again, thank you all so much for reading, commenting and generally being amazing!

***

Orders to move out again came the next day. Theresa, who was still rather out of sorts after a night of little sleep, went through the motions of getting her squad organised and making sure her new kids put their gear and themselves onto the correct trucks.

"Get your ass on that truck, Barker, or are you waiting for a set of stairs to appear?"

Cobb turned and gave her a funny look, unsuccessfully trying to hold in a laugh.

"Don't say it", she warned him with a disgruntled sigh, motioning for him to go ahead and mount up when Heffron made his way over to them, grinning widely.

"Hey Sarge, I just heard that 300'000 Germans surrendered", he burst out as soon as he reached her side. "Three hundred thousand!"

"Oh yeah? Wow."

They pulled themselves up onto the truck, scooting along on the benches to make room for the soldiers that clambered on after them. Somebody – Theresa suspected Luz – had started singing Blood on the Risers and one by one, the company joined in, belting the morbid lyrics with smiles on their faces.

Theresa shook her head with a half-hearted chuckle, but couldn't bring herself to sing along. The lines hit a little too close to home for once. She pulled out the letter from her mother, unfolding the paper carefully and reading the gut-punching words again.

***

After nearly breaking down in the middle of the CP, she'd made a beeline for the aid station and practically thrust the letter at a bewildered and worried Catherine, choking out "Sam's missing" before she'd dissolved into a fit of tears.

It had only been after "Mom" had calmed her down that she'd been able to read the rest of the letter, which detailed all the information her family had on the events that had led to her brother being reported MIA.

On 22 February 1945, her brother and his squadron – stationed in Southern Italy – had flown an attack on roads and train lines close behind the southern border of Germany. One of the trains had been outfitted with an AA battery. Sam's plane had been hit and he had turned to return to base. His squadron mates had lost sight of him then. According to them, the damage to his aircraft had been serious enough that there would've been little to no chance of him making it back over the Alps.