Joe Toye After Band of Brothers: Surviving 2 Amputations & Caring for His Severe [10:06-15:08]

Edward Babe Heffron was nearby and later recalled that they were walking up beside a house to go occupy it when a German 88 exploded right on top of them. The side of the house came crashing down on us and we were buried in white chalk and debris set Heffron. You could smell the spent shell. I ran over to check on Toy and Campbell. There was a large cloud of shell powder like a mushroom cloud and Toy stepped out of it. He said don't touch me, I'm hit all over. He was hit bad in the back and legs. His neck was all chewed up with shrapnel, it looked like rats got to it. I looked at Campbell. Before I could check his pulse, Toy said he's dead Heffron, I checked. The shell had hit Campbell in the back, killing him instantly. Jo Toi was evacuated from the Netherlands through the British Medical Corps and was eventually taken to an American hospital in England. He rejoined Easy Company several weeks later in more Milan, France, about two weeks before the breakthrough at Bastone. Jo Toi's last two wounds happened during the Battle of the Bulge. These wounds were an addition to him developing a severe case of trench foot in the cold, wet conditions around Bastone, which, as depicted in band of brothers, he refused to be evacuated for. His first wound during the Battle of the Bulge occurred on January 2, 1945, when he was hit on the wrist by a piece of tail fin from a bomb during a German air raid. Toy recalled that the piece of tail fin was stuck in his wrist. When I removed my overcoat for the medic, the sleeve got caught on the tail fin and pulled it out, he said. He went to the aid station at Bastone, and they put his arm in the sling. Twelve hours later, he snuck out to return to the line in the Bojac. Upon returning, Captain Richard Winters reminded him that he'd been hit three times since Normandy, and told him to take a couple days off. Go back to Bastone, sleep, eat some hot food, said Winters. If it's all the same to you, sir, I'd just as soon be up here with the fellows replied toy. Winters saw no point in continuing the discussion. Joe Toys' most severe injury occurred on January 3, 1945, less than 24 hours after he returned to the line. In the series, Joe is shown as just walking around outside his foxhole during the intense shelling that blew off most of the lower portion of his right leg. Band of brothers fails to convey that there was a good reason he wasn't in his foxhole when he was hit. Joe was a squad leader in the second platoon, and he was ensuring that all of his men were accounted for in their foxholes before he took cover in his own. Joe Toys was running around trying to get everyone to take cover, recalled Bill Garnier. Joe said that the last thing he remembers after being hit was asking if someone could drag him into a hole. Bill Garnier ran out to try and help his friend, but he too was hit in the right leg and severely wounded while trying to reach him. Bill never made it to me, but he tried, and it cost him. Joe Toys said in a recording played by his son for the YouTube channel, Finally. In the series, Bill Garnier is hit as he's dragging Joe Toys, but this is fiction. As Toys stated, Garnier never got to him in real life, Shifty Powers confirmed this in his memoir by stating that when the shelling stopped, Bill Garnier was lying some distance away from Joe Toys. Both men remained conscious and calm, with Joe commenting in real life as he does in the series. Jeez, what's a guy have to do to get killed around here? Both severely wounded men were carried away on litters. This is the last we see of them in the series. So what became of Joe Toys after suffering the severe injury that took him out of the war? Band of brothers doesn't tell us much, but his injuries were more extensive than they appear to be in the series. I lost my leg wounded in the stomach, chest, and both arms. He recalled in the recording that was shared by his stepson, George, with the YouTube channel Finally. He was taken to the aid station in Bastone, where they cut off what was left of his right leg below the knee. They sent him to England, but by the time he arrived, Garnier had set in. He underwent a second amputation, this time above the knee. The shrapnel from the blast had also hit him in the stomach, chest, his good leg, both arms, and his hands. Nerve damage left him with limited use of his right hand. Some of the shrapnel would remain in his body until the day he died. Joe Toys had entered the army, a 175-180-pound boxer and athlete. He returned to the state's weighing just 110 pounds, and had barely survived. Joe reconnected with his buddy, Bill Garnier, at the England General Hospital, an army hospital in Atlantic City that was a major World War II rehab center for amputees. Garnier had also had his right leg amputated above the knee. Joe spent about 9 months recovering there, and learning how to adjust to life with one leg. Part of his recovery, of course, included raising hell with Garnier on the boardwalk in their wheelchairs, and frequenting the local bars.