Company E, along with D, F and Headquarters Company, formed the 2nd Battalion of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, United States Army. This was an experimental unit designed to transform civilian volunteers into an elite pedigree of soldier, under the battalion command of Major Robert Strayer, and the regimental command of Colonel Robert Sink.

They volunteered on the basis that they were prepared to jump from an airplane into a combat situation; to take a greater risk of becoming a casualty and to fight with the most proficient outfit in the Allied army.

I wanted to be the best. And when the word came out that they were going to form this super unit, I wanted to be a part of it. Because of the problems that the US had had - Pearl Harbour, Guadalcanal, Wake Island, the loss of nearly our entire navy, 200 of our planes torn up out of 300 that we had - the civilians decided we had to do something. Ed Shames

You find the arsehole of the world, and that was Camp Toccoa. It was a miserable place. It was not made for training. We were really the first ones there, the first ones at Toccoa as a regiment. It was kind of tough in the beginning. Bill Guarnere

Above: Robert 'Burr' Smith on an unusual 'ascent' exercise.

Right: When Colonel Sink heard about a record march carried out by the Japanese and published in Reader's Digest -100 miles in 72 hours - he chose Strayer's 2nd Battalion, the best in the regiment, to succeed the record. The result was 118 miles in 75 hours and 15 minutes on mud-clogged roads, in rain and in freezing temperatures.

Above: Currahee Hill.