“Excellent work, Corporal. We laid some wood over the bridge pilings, by the way, so you didn’t need to get naked and all that. Nice dive, though.”

>Colonel Sink ordered 2d Battalion to lay down a covering fire while 1st Battalion looked for a way to get over the canal. Cpl. Gordon Carson of Easy spotted a couple of waterlogged rowboats on the far side and decided on immediate action. He stripped stark naked, made a perfect racing dive into the water, swam across, and fetched a boat that carried some men from the first squad about halfway over the canal before it sank. >Other men from 1st Battalion, more practical, took the doors off a nearby barn and with the help of Sergeant Lipton and several E Company men laid them across the bridge pilings. __________________________________ **Source:** Ambrose, Stephen Edward. “Hell’s Highway.” *Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest*. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2004. 125. Print. __________________________________ **Further Reading:** [Lieutenant General Robert Frederick Sink](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Sink) [E Company, 2nd Battalion of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division / “Screaming Eagles”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_Company,_506th_Infantry_Regiment_(United_States\))