Their Fizz- Band of brothers

I speak Dutch

On September 17th 1944 the men and woman of easy company left England for the last time before the war would be over, ready for operation Market Garden.

It was different this time when they jumped. She wasn't holding tight to Gene's hand, she wasn't panicking and there were no shells exploding in the sky. 

She landed next to Mellet and Moe, as she was quite small, this time as she landed, she couldn't get her parachute off in time and it dragged her halfway across the field before Webster and Chris caught her and helped her with it.

She walked towards Buck who was gathering 2nd platoon ready to start moving towards Eindhoven.

She saw Bull taking charge of some of the replacements and smiled. They could be cheeky but her boys looked after the newbies. 

She was telling Shifty a story about when she was younger and she had fallen into a rock pool,

"The funny thing about it was my dad had warned me that they could be deceivingly deep, but still in I went" she laughed

Shifty was laughing "Seems you've been a Fizz since you were little", he then put his arm around her as they continued to walk. 

Luz then joined in the conversation saying "I don't think much of Holland, seems a bit dreary to me"

Flo stared at him "Georgy are you kidding, they've been occupied by the jerry's for 5 years!"

"Yeah but the scenery isn't special, and the language is so odd. No one speaks it and so it sounds like their gossiping about all of us"

"I speak Dutch, I assure you they are not mocking you sweets" she laughed and gave Luz a small punch on the arm.

After a while, she ran towards the front where Gene was, "Hey G, did you and Vera have a nice reunion in England? I didn't get a proper chance to ask you" 

"Yeah, that reminds me I have something exciting to tell you," he said his face lighting up, she nodded and smiled.

"I proposed, she said yes and after the war, we're getting married"

With that Flo started jumping and saying "Can I be the best man/woman? Pleaseee, you know I'm the best"

Gene smiled cheekily at her "Maybe Wren, let's see what happens"

***

As they moved towards Eindhoven she noticed a big hold up.

"Seems the Dutch have put on a welcome party for us" Jackson whispered to her.

It was chaos when they entered the town. Men and mainly women were kissing the soldiers and shaking hands, Flo's helmet got knocked off and when she bent down to grab it she felt hands all over her. She moved away quickly but couldn't see any on her boys.

She was being pushed and pulled around, she managed to stand on a stone and saw she was quite far behind the boys.

"Damn it" she said to herself as she started to move forward pushing past people.

Meanwhile the boys were looking for their medic,

"Anyone got eyes on Fizzy?" Nix was shouting,

"No! Everyone look for Fizz" Lieb shouted back

The men stood on things and were shouting her name, when suddenly Bull burst through with Flo over his shoulder,

"I've got her" he said smiling

Winters gave a slight smile and made sure he and Nix sandwiched the girl between them.

They moved forwards a bit but then saw a women being dragged towards where a group of them already were.

Their hair was being cut off, right to the skin. Flo looked on in horror and was about to jump in and stop them, but Winters put a hand on her arm and shook his head.

"What did they do?" asked Nix

This man popped up from behind them and said "They slept with the Germans. They are lucky. The men who collaborated are being shot."

Flo felt sick in her stomach, 'they had no choice' she was thinking. "Nix this is disgusting, are you sure we can't do anything"

"I'm sorry Fizzy, we need the locals to help us" he said sadly and put his arm around her shoulders.

They then turned back to the man.

"Mr. Van Kooijk here is with the Dutch resistance." Said the man, "He says he can help you secure the bridges"

"Any idea where they might be?" Winters asked

"Well, we're still working on that right now. Pius and his friends here are getting information as we speak. His contacts, a couple of towns down saw the British 2nd and Guards Armored pass half an hour ago."

"They're kids"

"These are reliable reports. Anything we can do to help you, we will do." Said Van Kooijk

With that they started marching towards the bridges they needed to win and defend. Flo was walking with Hoobler, Webster and Van Klinken. They were looking at a house when suddenly a farmer and his family popped out of the air raid shelter, Web pushed Flo behind him before the farmer started shouting

"Heraus, Hande hoch. Mach schnell. Niederlander. Niederlander."

"Sprechen Sie English?" Web shouted back

"Ja. A little bit."

"What were you doing down there?"

"It's an air-raid shelter. My family has been in there ever since the first plane flew over."

"We're Americans. Paratroopers."

"The Germans are gone?" The farmer asked hopefully

"We think so. You see any, you let us know." Flo spoke up smiling at them

"Are you here to stay?"

"As long as we have to." Flo replied

"Yeah, they don't tell us very much." Hoobler added

"Or feed us much." Klink complained

"Please wait here" The man said as his little boy walked forward towards to soldiers

"Hallo, heb je honger?" Flo asked in Dutch as the 3 men looked confused

"Ja" he said quiety, Flo then brought out her chocolate bar and gave it to the little boy

"Heb je ooit chocolade geprobeerd?" she asked

"Nein, Het smaakt goed" the boy smiled as he took a bite

"Wat is je naam?" Flo asked

"Bruno" he responded munching on chocolate

"Leuk je te ontmoeten Bruno, mijn naam is Florence" she smiled and shook his hand that he had held out.

Then she looked over to the men and saw the farmer had given them food.

"Vaarwel Bruno, het was leuk je te ontmoeten" she smiled as she said goodbye.

Bruno looked at her and gave her a hug which surprised her but she returned it.