A minute later Miller had opened a map on the grass, and his

men gathered around him. He pointed as he said, “We re here

Ramelle is there. On the Merderet River, about twenty-five
—
kilometers away.”
Sarge thought for a second. “Why Ramelle? ” he asked.
Miller unfolded the map more and pointed as he spoke. He
didn’t notice that his hand was shaking, but his men did they—
were staring at his trembling fingers, not at the map.
“The target has always been Cherbourg,” Miller said. “We
can’t go on to Paris unless we take an important port. The
Germans know that , of course, and they’ll cross the Merderet and
hit us when we turn to go to Cherbourg. That makes any village
on the river with a bridge very important.”
—
And the captain pointed at the map right at Ramelle, where
the bridge was clearly indicated.
“That’s where we’ll find Private Ryan,” he said .
He looked at his men and realized that they were staring at his
trembling hand. Without speaking, he folded up the map. Then
he said, “ Let’s go! ”

Chapter 11 Germans

Morning had ended and afternoon begun as the soldiers walked

through the French countryside.
“ I think fighting in the Pacific is easier,” Reiben said to the
others.”
“ I don’t know,” Mellish said.
“ The Germans look like us, but the Japanese don’t. Shooting
Japanese is easier.”
Miller, at the front of the line, smiled to himself as he realized
that the German prisoners had affected his boys.
“ I don’t have any trouble shooting Germans,” Mellish said .

57
 “ Killing a man is killing a man,” Wade said . “ It doesn ’t matter
what he looks like.”
“ There’s never been a German worth anything ,” Reiben
observed. “ They’re all stupid and always have been . It’s in their
blood.”
Miller glanced back at him. “ What about Beethoven, the great
musician? Do you remember him? ”
“ He’s stupid,” Reiben said.
“ What about Immanuel Kant , the great philosopher ? ” Uphain
asked.
“ He’s stupid , too,” Reiben responded.
They walked on. They could hear the sound of gunfire in the
distance.
“ They can’t all be stupid ,” Upham said.
“ Yes , they can,” Reiben said .
Wade said, “Do I understand you correctly, Reiben? You think
there isn’t a decent man, woman, and child in their entire
country.”
“ That’s right.”
“Reiben, you’re the most uneducated person I’ve ever met,”
Wade said.
“Maybe,” Reiben said, “but I’m not stupid.”
“ Let’s vote on that,” Mellish said.
“ OK. OK. Name one decent German . Just one . . . ”
Nobody said anything .
Reiben grinned. “ It’s not easy, is it? ”
“ Albert Schweitzer,” Wade said . i
/
1 “ Who?”
i:
“ Albert Schweitzer. He’s a German.”
. “ It’s not important , but who is he? He already sounds stupid.”
I! '

i ! Wade shook his head, frustrated . “ Albert Schweitzer’s the most

famous doctor in history! He spent the last thirty years in Africa,
helping natives.”
if
f 58
f i!!
’
iti
 “ Why did he do that ? ” Reiben asked.
Wade responded angrily: “Because he was trying to help other
people! Because he isn’t selfish like you , Reiben! Albert
Schweitzer is the reason I became a doctor. The next time you’re
wounded , you’d better hope I feel like helping you!”
Reiben grinned and shook his head. “ I thought you said that
both your parents are doctors.”
“ That’s right, Reiben. What about it? ”
Miller interrupted the discussion . “Reiben, lose an
—
argument -just once, OK? Albert Schweitzer was not stupid.
You , however, are.”
“ OK, OK,” Reiben said. Then he was quiet.
Miller changed places with Sarge and walked beside Wade.
Looking back to see that Reiben couldn’t hear, he whispered ,
“ Albert Schweitzer was born in Alsace.” Wade looked at Miller
with surprise. “His family was German,” Miller whispered, “ but
he’s officially French. It’ll be our secret .”
Then Wade smiled at Miller. It was a small smile, but it felt
very good to the captain . He was glad to be friends with his
medic again.
The field had trees instead of hedges at the end of it . The seven
soldiers walked carefully through the trees. When they came to
waist-high grass at the edge of the next field, Miller stopped his
men and carefully surveyed the landscape. He saw pieces of
a German radio tower and bunkers that had been destroyed —
probably by the artillery shells that had flashed in the sky last night.
The surrounding field was full of bomb holes and dead cows.
Miller motioned his men to stay where they were and to stay
low. He moved , keeping low, to the edge of the trees and into the
grass. Then he waved at Horvath and Jackson to join him, and
Sarge saw something interesting nearby.
“Look at this, Captain,” he whispered.
Miller turned and saw nearby trees, smaller ones at the edge of

59
r

the field, that had a lot of bullet holes in them . “When did that
happen ? ” he asked.
Sarge looked closely. “Recently.”
“Do you think it happened after that tower and the bunkers
got hit ? ”
“ Yes.”
Wade quietly but urgently called to them, and Miller, the
sergeant, and the sharpshooter hurried to him, keeping low. Wade
— —
was pale as he pointed to a trail of blood fresh blood which led
to an area in the grass where they could see the bodies of
paratroopers. Miller and Sarge rose just enough to see more
—
bodies. It was a small squad like theirs . The bodies were in pieces.
Miller looked over the top of the grass, studying the slope to
the bunkers. “Sarge, do you see that hole below the bunker? ”
“ Yes,” Sarge nodded and sat low next to the captain.
—
“ Look hard you can see the sand bags.”
The rest of the squad gathered around Miller and Sarge.
Upham, eyes wide, looked at the bodies and asked, “What do you
think did this ? A machine gun? ”
Jackson nodded. “ Yes.”
“ One gun did that ? ”
Mellish , also looking at the bodies said, “ They ’re paratroopers
. . . Maybe one of them’s Private Ryan .”
“ Look at their badges,” Miller said. “ They’re from the 82nd.”
i:
“Sir,” Reiben said, and he pointed off to the left. “Why don’t
—
we go that way and stay in the trees quickly and quietly. They’ll
never know we were here.”
Miller was putting bullets into his rifle.
“ I mean, sir,” Reiben continued, “ why should we ask for
trouble when we can go around it ?”
“We’re not going around it,” Miller said. “ We’re going to take it.”
i “Maybe Reiben’s right, sir,” Jackson said. “ I mean , we left
Germans behind before . . . ”

60

h.
 “ We left them for the air force to hit,” Miller said. “But the air
force isn’t going to come after one machine gun , is it ? That’s
what they pay foot soldiers like us to do.”
“ Sir,” Mellish said. “ We can complete our mission without
doing this . . . I mean, this isn’t our mission . . . ”
“ You think we should just leave this machine gun for the next
company that comes here. Right?” Miller said, looking at
Mellish . “ The next company might not see these bodies hidden
in the grass.”
“ That’s not what I meant, sir. But it seems like an unnecessary
risk , considering our goal.”
“ Our goal is to win the war, Private.”
“ I thought we were here to save Ryan.”
“ That’s right,” Reiben said. “ I mean , it’d be great to kill these
Germans, but think of Private Ryan. Think of his mother.”
“Reiben . . . ’’ Miller began angrily.
“ I just have a bad feeling about this one, sir.”
“Really?” Miller asked, taking two grenades from his pack.
“ And when did you ever have a good feeling about anything ? ”
Reiben didn’t have an answer to that.
—
“ OK ,” Miller said . “ Three runners will go out one at a time.
Mellish, you go to the right. I ’ll go up the middle. Who wants to
go to the left ?” He hung the grenades on his pack, unaware that
his hand was shaking badly.
When no one volunteered, Miller frowned and shouted,
“Who’s going to go to the left ?”
“ I will, sir,” Jackson said .
“ Good . Jackson goes to the left .” He looked at Mellish and
Jackson and said, “Shoot and run fast until we’re close enough to
use grenades .”
“Maybe I should go up the middle, sir,” Sarge said. “We really
—
shouldn’t risk our ”
“ You can’t run fast enough,” Miller interrupted.

61
 “ I’ll go left, then,” Sarge said.
“ You ’ll stop talking,” Miller shouted. “Sending both of us
would be a stupid risk . Reiben, you’ll be the main shooter.”
Reiben nodded seriously. “Keep your bullets where you can
reach them,” Miller continued. “ You’ll shoot first. When you fire,
we’ll go.” Reiben nodded again; Mellish and Jackson nodded,
too. Miller added, “ Give the runners extra grenades.”
Reiben and Upham handed their grenades to the runners, and
the three men got in position and waited. Miller nodded to
Reiben, who began firing.
Keeping low, under Reiben s covering fire, Mellish ran toward
the hill to the right. Then Miller ran down the center, and
Jackson to the left. Each of them jumped into a shell hole for
cover before the machine gun knew that they were there.
Then the machine gun started firing heavily. Just before he
jumped into his hole, Miller saw the flat-helmeted Germans.
There were three of them: one firing, one putting bullets in the
machine gun, and one watching the Americans. From the grass ,
i Reiben, Sarge, and Upham fired back.
Mellish called to Miller, “Who are those guys?”
“They’re special paratroopers,” Miller shouted. “They don’t
give up.”
“ I was hoping for young soldiers,” Mellish said, holding his
I rifle tightly.
“If we can make them shoot long enough,” Miller said, “they’ll
use all their bullets. They’ll have to stop and put more bullets in.
Then we can throw the grenades.” He paused and then shouted,
“ Move out!”
t Mellish ran toward the next hole, shooting at the machine gun
as he ran. The Germans saw him.
While the Germans were turning their machine gun
toward Mellish, Jackson ran to a steel section from the destroyed
radio tower. He took cover there as the machine gun turned

62

l
again and started firing in his direction , hitting the metal .
Miller saw what was happening and ran toward a trench near
the bottom of the hill . The machine gun tried to hit him , but its
angle was wrong. Instead it swung toward Mellish , who was
shooting and running to another hole. Miller jumped into his
trench and ran along it. He looked up and saw Jackson running
along the steel section, bullets hitting the metal.
Miller smiled a little. The machine gun had been firing
continuously, and none of them had been hit. He glanced at
Mellish and signaled him to follow. Then he ran out of his trench
toward another shell hole, with the private following and the
machine gun firing over them.
Both men jumped into the shell hole and were surprised to
see that they weren’t alone. Two American paratroopers were
already there. They were dead.
“Where did they come from?” Mellish asked, moving away
from the dead men.
“Something’s wrong,” Miller said, turning pale. “That machine
gun couldn ’t have hit these boys. It’s at the wrong angle.”
The machine gun fired bullets toward them, but they didn’t
reach their target .
Then silence.
Miller waited. He wondered what was happening.
Jackson raced from behind the steel section, shooting toward
the machine gun as he ran to a trench. The machine gun fired
back, and Jackson fell to the ground.
“Jackson!” Mellish screamed.
Silence again.
“ Grenades ,” Miller ordered.
He and Mellish prepared grenades. Both rose, threw their
grenades, and quickly sat down again.
“We threw them too high ,” Miller said , knowing the grenades
had landed on the slope above the machine gun.

63
 More silence.
“ Again!” Miller shouted.
He threw another grenade and heard it hit a sand bag. The first
two grenades exploded, but did no damage. Mellish threw his
next grenade—a perfect throw, but one of the Germans picked
up the two grenades and threw them back out. They exploded
over the field , but Miller and Mellish weren’t wounded .
Someone was screaming: “ Oh , God! ”
It was Wade’s voice, coming from the grass, where he had been
moving toward the wounded Jackson .
“ Another gun!” The medic stood up and shouted, waving his
arms and signaling. His Red Cross armband was visible. “Sir,
there’s another gun!”
Miller turned and saw, to the left, another flat- helmeted
German. He stood up torn where he had been hidden by the
grass, his hands holding a machine gun .
Suddenly three things happened at almost the same time.
1 ’
The machine gun in the hole below the bunker began firing
— —
at the new target Wade and Miller watched the medic fall
into the grass.
ii
Jackson , his arm bloody, leaned on his rifle and fired at the
second machine gunner in the grass. He hit his helmet , and the
i sniper fell and died .
And finally, Mellish threw another grenade at the machine
gun in the hole. The three Germans tried to pick it up before it
exploded.
And then it exploded .
Upham had noticedWade sitting in the grass . He was breathing
slowly, looking up at the hill and the smoke coming out of the
!
i1
: hole below the destroyed bunker.
“ All right,” Wade said softly. “ All right . . . ”
I “Wade,” Upham said, frightened . “ Wade!” I
" “ Wade? ” Sarge asked, walking toward him. “Did you get hit? ”

64

n M
 Miller and Mellish ran to join them . Reiben followed , leaving
his rifle behind . Jackson ran over, holding his wounded arm.
Everyone halted when they saw the terrible sight : their medic
was sitting in the grass , looking down , astonished, at five bullet
holes in his chest.

Chapter 12 The Prisoner

Wade had trouble breathing. Upham, shocked, said, “ They’re not

supposed to shoot medics; they’re not supposed to shoot medics.”
Some of the men grabbed Wade’s medical pack; others pulled
open his shirt, revealing his terrible wounds . Then they laid him
down. Everybody talked and shouted at the same time.
“Drugs,” Miller said to Jackson, who was looking through
Wade’s medical pack. “ Give me the drugs .”
“ He was helping me,” Jackson said. “ He was coming to help me.”
“Press on it!” Sarge said, bending over the bleeding medic.
“ Put some pressure on it!”
“ Help me, Upham!” Mellish shouted. “ Help me. Use your
hands.”
Upham moved to Wade and helped. Jackson had lost his usual
calm. “ Oh, God! Oh, God! ” he said.
“Drugs. Where are the drugs ? ” Miller said .
“ Here!” Sarge called.
They poured some onWade’s wounds.
“Wade? Wade? Can you hear me? ” Miller asked, bending over
the medic.
Wade looked at them with a weak smile. “ How does it look? ”
he asked. His voice was calm, but his body was shaking .
“ You’re fine,” Miller said . “You’ll be OK . . . ”
Wade reached out and gripped Miller’s left hand with
surprising strength . “Don’t lie to a doctor . . . ”

65