The attack ended in success, with only 4 dead and 6 wounded. Bob Brewer (of HQ Company), who ducked into a hole along with Compton. As the soldier ran away, Compton killed him with a grenade to the head. Guarnere, who shot one German service member, prompting the other to flee. After throwing grenades into a trench, he tried to shoot a German service member, only to discover that the pin had broken. He lost his Carbine during the jump, but was able to acquire one from the injured Lieutenant McMillan of D Company.Īfter meeting up at his DZ, Compton was assigned to participate in the Brecourt Manor Assault, led by Lieutenant Winters. Richard Winters, who advised him not to get too familiar with the enlisted men, as a leader should never allow himself to be in a position where he could take anything from those under him.Ĭompton participated in Operation Overlord on 6 June 1944 in Normandy, France. He got along well with the enlisted men and hung out with them more than he did with the officers. He was given the duty of assistant platoon leader of 2nd Platoon. He went through jump school at Benning, qualified, and completed training at Camp Mackall with the 515th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 17th Airborne Division.Ĭompton was then transferred to Easy Company, part of the 506th PIR in the 101st Airborne, at Aldbourne, England. However, he wanted to get to the war soon, and signed up for the Paratroopers, which was one of the two ways a member of the regimental baseball team could be transferred (the other was to attend flight training). He originally instructed flight classes, but was then assigned to the Regiment's baseball team. After graduating from OCS in 1943, he was assigned to the 176th Infantry Regiment, which was operating at Benning. When World War II broke out, Compton had been in ROTC, and after the Rose Bowl, was sent to Columbus, Georgia where he went through OCS at Fort Benning. He still played in football, and participated in the Rose Bowl in his Senior year. He late moved to baseball in his junior year, and became a catcher for the baseball team, playing alongside Jackie Robinson. Shifty’s War is a tale of heroism and adventure, of a soldier’s blood-filled days fighting his way fromthe shores of France to the heartland of Germany, and the epic story of how one man’s skills as a sharpshooter and engagingly unassuming personality propelled him to a life greater than he could have ever imagined.At UCLA, he played football most of his college years. He parachuted into France on D-day and fought for a month in Normandy eighty days in Holland thirty-nine in the harshly cold winter of Bastogne and for nearly thirty more near Haguenau, France, and the Ruhr pocket in Germany. Little did Shifty know his finely-tuned skills would one day save his life-and the lives of his fellow paratroopers.Īs one of the original men who trained at Camp Toccoa, Georgia, Shifty was one out of only two soldiers in Easy Company to initially earn the coveted expert marksman designation. His father trained him to listen to the woods, to “see” without his eyes. From D-Day to the Battle of the Bulge and more, here is the authorized biography of one of the most celebrated paratroopers of Easy Company, Sergeant Shifty Powers, the legendary sharpshooter from the Band of Brothers.Īs a boy, Darrell “Shifty” Powers’s goal was to become the best rifle shot he could be.
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