Captain Lewis Nixon III fought with the 101st Airborne Division’s Easy Company alongside Major Dick Winters in historic clashes like D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge.
Left : Pinterest ; Right : DreamWorksActor Ron Livingston ( right ) limn Lewis Nixon ( left , center ) inBand of Brothers .
Lewis Nixon III has become one of the most storeyed physique in the Allied invasion of Europe during World War II . A member of the 101st Airborne Division , he parachuted into Nazi - occupied France and connect assaults like the Battle of the Bulge and Operation Market Garden to help thwart the Axis in Europe .
As chronicled in HBO’sBand of Brothers , Lewis Nixon served underRichard Winters , whom he met in cadet schoolhouse . They soon formed a close bond , even though they were quite unlike in some fundamental agency . Nixon was a hard - drinking , well - traveled Ivy Leaguer , whereas Winters had never leave Pennsylvania before Basic Training and never drank .
Left: Pinterest; Right: DreamWorksActor Ron Livingston (right) portrayed Lewis Nixon (left, center) inBand of Brothers.
But these dissimilar men endured some of the most torturing battles in Europe and forged a friendship that lasted well after the war ended .
“ I still regard Lewis Nixon as the best combat officeholder who I had the opportunity to work with under fire,”saidWinters . “ He never bear witness fear , and during the tough times he could always think clearly and cursorily . ”
This is the true story of Captain Lewis Nixon III thatBand Of Brothersonly began to tell .
Wikimedia CommonsU.S. troops landing in Utah Beach following Nixon’s retrieval of a key map detailing German positions.
Lewis Nixon’s Early Life
Lewis Nixon wasbornon Sept. 30 , 1918 , in New York City . He was the eldest of three children . His little brother Fletcher Ryer go as an babe in 1922 , lead only Lewis and his sister Blanche . Raised by Stanhope Wood Nixon and Doris Ryer , the two nipper traveled a lot and subsist wealthy , privileged life .
Nixon ’s grandfather was a ship builder and the first to bear his name . A love of the water seemed to die hard in the family , as Nixon was only seven years one-time when he compete in a model yacht regatta in Central Park ’s Conservatory Lake on May 22 , 1926 .
When not in Manhattan , the bicoastal Nixon was in Montecito , California throughout his youth . He was also rosy enough to travel across Europe before state of war fracture the continent , and experienced the culture of Germany , England , and France before Hitler rose to power .
Wikimedia CommonsEasy Company in Austria following the war.
passing smart , Nixon graduated from the Cate School in Santa Barbara before being accepted into Yale University . He examine there for two years , but lifespan ultimately had other architectural plan . Shortly after marrying his first wife , he enlisted in the U.S. Army in Trenton , New Jersey , on Jan. 14 , 1941 . His life would change forever .
Easy Company’s “Band Of Brothers” Prepare For War
Before the class was up , the newlywed soldier underwent Basic Training at Camp Croft in South Carolina . While Richard Winters had done the same , the two would only meet in Army Officer Cadet School at Fort Benning in Georgia . Both piece had become 2nd Lieutenants before temporarily split up agency .
Nixon had been rank to Fort Ord , California , to serve a Military Police social unit . He reunited with Winters after offer to join the Paratroopers . Both were assigned to Company E , 2nd Battalion ( or Easy Company ) of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment at Camp Toccoa , Georgia — where they met Herbert Sobel .
As dramatized inBand of Brothers , Sobel was 1st Lieutenant and in command of Easy Company ’s airborne training . They were some of the first U.S. soldier to receive it . Sobel ’s rigorous leadership saw him demoted , while Winters was made First Lieutenant by October 1942 — and Nixon made commander of second Platoon .
@EasyCompany506t/TwitterLewis Nixon with his beloved stash of Vat 69 whiskey.
In September 1943 , the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment was deploy to Aldbourne , England , to organise for the invasion of Normandy .
Lewis Nixon’s Heroics In Nazi-Occupied Europe
The Allied Invasion of Normandy begin in the early good morning minute on June 6 , 1944 . Nearly 160,000 Allied troops would cross the English Channel into France commence at dayspring , with unit like the 101st Airborne Division task to clear key landing place land site to prepare for their arrival .
Wikimedia CommonsU.S. troops land in Utah Beach following Nixon ’s retrieval of a central map detailing German positioning .
wintertime parachuted into Normandy around 1 a.m. and lose his rifle in the process . He managed to locate his whole , however , when he instruct that Easy Company ’s aerial headquarters had been shot down — and he was now in charge . With 13 men , he lead an assault on 50 Nazis firing artillery at key exit on Utah Beach .
@EasyCompany506t/TwitterLewis Nixon and Grace Umezawa married in 1956.
Known as the Brécourt Manor Assault , his approach would be taught at West Point for decades . It was here that he retrieved a map detailing German justificatory positions on the coast . After parachuting into Normandy himself , Nixon located Winters and ran three mile to Utah Beach to run it up the chain of command .
Without the inspection and repair of these two men , countless additional Allied lives may have been lost during the Normandy invasion . Winters was further to Captain , while Battalion headquarters was so grateful for the intelligence that they deployed the first two tanks to land on Utah Beach to observe and serve the 101st .
The effort to recapture Holland from the Nazis was baptize Operation Market Garden and experience Easy Company parachute into the town of Son in September . It was here that Nixon was nearly killed when a stray bullethithis helmet only to graze his head and exit from the other side .
Wikimedia CommonsEasy Company in Austria following the war .
While Nixon would be promoted to Captain and Regimental S-2 , his alcoholism check him demoted before the war was over . He was notified by telegram that his married woman was disjoint him and his holdover became progressively debilitating . As Winters recalled : “ Nixon was a hard world to get out of the pocket in the morning . ”
@EasyCompany506t / TwitterLewis Nixon with his darling stash of Vat 69 whiskey .
Nonetheless , Nixon served bravely in key brush like the Battle of the Bulge in Bastogne , Belgium . He and Winters held Allied reason against 15 German divisions that had tree the 101st Airborne for intimately a week in December 1944 .
After fighting across France , Holland , and Belgium , Easy Company had tardily begun to infringe on Germany . Lewis Nixon and Dick Winters arrived at the Kaufering IV concentration ingroup in Landsberg am Lech in Bavaria to see the human atrocities with their own eyes on April 28 , 1945 .
The twelfth Armored Division hadarriveda sidereal day prior , but Nixon , Winters , and the 101st Airborne Division were met by 500 charred corpses still riddling the grounds . Uniformed prisonersstumbledaround on de-escalate metrical unit , with Nixon and Winters requiring a few bit to realize what sort of deftness they had unveil .
Aware of the incoming confederative troop , Nazi police officer had torched the camp barracks and left their malnourished inhabitants to die . As chronicle in theBand of Brothers“Why We Fight ” episode , the liberation answered a question wintertime had oftenaskedhimself — as survivors begged for help and pleaded to be rescued .
Two days afterwards , Adolf Hitler committed suicide . Eight days after that , Winters was boost to Major and ordered to retake Berchtesgaden , the potentate ’s “ Eagle ’s Nest ” in the the Alps . Easy Company did just that on May 5 , and even uncovered Hitler ’s steal wine appeal . Winters gave Nixon first choice of the find .
The Postwar Life Of Lewis Nixon
@EasyCompany506t / TwitterLewis Nixon and Grace Umezawa hook up with in 1956 .
While the war end with Germany ’s yielding on May 7 , Nixon ’s battles retain . He was still fight with alcoholism and remarry after returning to America only to suffer a second divorce . He witness purpose in working for his household ’s Nixon Nitration Works in New Jersey , however , and married his soulmate , Grace Umezawa , in 1956 .
“ Until Lewis meet and married Grace , he had never found or get reliable love , ” write Winters . “ It was only after his wedlock to Grace that he found on-key happiness , peace within himself . ”
Grace and Lewis Nixon spend the rest of their aliveness traveling around the world . There was one shackle perhaps stronger than any other , however , a chemical bond counterfeit in the face of end . Nixon and Winters never lost tactual sensation with one another , and when Nixon died on January 11 , 1995 , at 76 years of age , it was Winters who delivered the eulogy .
After learning about Lewis Nixon , read abouthow prodigious blue runner Louis Zamperini became a World War 2 submarine . Then , learn aboutJudy the Dog — the only beast to become a POW in World War 2 .
