While on the road, Sergeant Lipton became ill, with chills and a high fever. At Drulingen he went to see the medical officer, who examined him and declared that he had pneumonia and had to be evacuated to a hospital. Lipton said he was 1st Sergeant of E Company and could not possibly leave. As the doctor could not evacuate him that night anyway, he told Lipton to come back in the morning.
Lieutenant Speirs and Sergeant Lipton had a room in a German house for the night.
[…]
The room had only a single bed. Speirs said Lipton should sleep on it. Lipton replied that wasn’t right; as the enlisted man, he would sleep in his sleeping bag on the floor. Speirs simply replied, “You’re sick,” which settled it.
Lipton got into the bed. The elderly German couple who lived in the home brought him some schnapps and Apfelstrudel. Lipton had never drunk anything alcoholic, but he sipped at the schnapps until he had finished a large glass, and ate the strudel. He fell into a deep sleep. In the morning, his fever had broken, his energy had returned. He went to the medical officer, who could not believe the improvement. The doctor called it a miracle.
Source:
Ambrose, Stephen Edward. “The Patrol.” Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2004. 224. Print.
Further Reading:
First Lieutenant Clifford Carwood Lipton
[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\))
Lieutenant Colonel Ronald C. Speirs
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