There was tension. Members of the 82nd Airborne, stationed nearby, would tell the troopers from the 101st what combat in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy had been like. The officers especially felt the pressure of combat coming on, none more so than Sobel. “It showed up in his disposition,” Winters said. “He was becoming more sour and sadistic. It was reaching the point that it was unbearable.”
Sgt. Earl Hale recalled that “There was a lottery going on about whoever gets Sobel.” Sobel had picked up an Air Force sheepskin jacket, of which he was proud and which he wore in the field, making him highly conspicuous. Tipper remembered that when the company was going through a combat range with live ammunition fired at pop-up targets,
“Sobel experienced some near misses. More than one shot was aimed from the rear and side to crack by close to Sobel’s head. He’d flop down, kind of bounce around and shout something, and jump up again. There was much laughing and gesturing from the men. I can’t believe that Sobel thought what was happening was accidental, but maybe he did. Anyway, he kept jumping up and down and running around as if everything were normal.”
The men continued to play tricks on Sobel. Pvt. George Luz could imitate voices. One night E Company was leading the battalion on a cross-country march. The barbed-wire fences kept slowing the progress. Sobel was in front.
“Captain Sobel,” a voice called out, “what’s the holdup?”
“The barbed wire,” Sobel replied, thinking he was addressing Maj. Oliver Horton, the battalion executive officer.
“Cut those fences,” Luz called out, continuing to imitate Horton’s voice. “Yes, sir!” Sobel replied, and he ordered wire cutters to the front.
The next morning a contingent of Wiltshire farmers confronted Colonel Strayer. They complained mightily about the cut fences. Their cows were wandering all over the landscape. Strayer called in Sobel. “Why did you cut those fences?”
“I was ordered to cut them, sir!”
“By whom?”
“Major Horton.”
“Can’t be. Horton’s on leave in London.” Sobel caught hell, but he was never able to learn who had fooled him and was therefore unable to retaliate.
It was his jumping around, his “Hi-ho, Silver!” nonsense, his bull-in-the-china-shop approach to tactical problems, that bothered the officers, N.C.O.s, and enlisted men of the company more than his chickenshit. Dissatisfaction grew daily, especially with the N.C.O.s. Sgts. Myron “Mike” Ranney, a twenty-one-year-old from North Dakota, of 1st platoon, and “Salty” Harris of 3rd platoon, led the mumble-mumble of the potential disaster of Sobel leading the company into
combat. The N.C.O.s were fully aware that they were confronted by a delicate and extremely dangerous situation. To act would open them to charges of insubordination or mutiny in time of war,- to fail to act could get the whole company killed.
Ranney, Harris, and the other N.C.O.s hoped that the platoon leaders would bring the problem to Colonel Sink, or that Sink would become aware of the situation on his own and that Sink would then quietly remove Sobel. But that seemed naive. How could young officers whose responsibility was to back up their C.O. go to the colonel to complain about the C.O.? And what would they complain about? Company E continued to lead the way in the regiment, in the field, in barracks, in athletic contests. How could the N.C.O.s expect Colonel Sink to do other than support his company commander in the face of dissension and pressure from a group of sergeants and corporals? These guys were getting ready to go into combat against the most-feared army in the world, not to play a game or have a debate.
So the mumble-mumble continued, and Sobel and 1st Sergeant Evans remained isolated, but still very much in command.
Weekend passes and the excellent British rail service gave the men a break from the tension. England in the late fall and early winter of 1943 was a wonderland for the boys from the States. Most of the British boys their age were off in Italy or in training camps far from their homes, so there were lonely, bored, unattached young women everywhere. The American soldiers were well-paid, much better than the British, and the paratroopers had that extra $50 per month. Beer was cheap and plentiful, once out of Aldbourne all restraints were removed, they were getting ready to kill or be killed, they were for the most part twenty or twenty-one years old.