Bill Boyle's 1st Battalion detrucked in the woods above Soy about the time Charlie Bryson was shooting up the Verdin house. They had been sitting in the trucks for 21 hours, lamenting their lack of winter clothing while pondering what lay ahead. Seven truckloads of paratroopers, representing a quarter of Boyle's battalion, had gotten lost en route in the impenetrable fog and freezing drizzle. There was no time to wait for them to arrive, nor to go looking for them. Boyle had his men stack bedrolls, collect ammo and prepare to move out immediately. Howze radioed him for a status report at 1630.

"Can you jump off at 1700?"
"No," said Boyle.
"1730?"
"I could."
"It will be dark then," said Howze. "Can you make it 1700?"
"Well, yes."
"Okay, I'll give you back five minutes then. Jump off at 1705."

Howze's rush to get them moving was due in part to the latest message from Sam Hogan. Now in Marcouray, Hogan's vehicles were running out of gas, which meant they would be stuck there unless resupplied. This was a long shot given the nearest fuel dump was in Barvaux, 15 miles away. More to the point, any resupply would have to go through Hotton or Soy, beyond which the area was teeming with enemy. Howze told Hogan they were working the problem. Hogan, correctly, understood this to mean the chances of reaching him were slim at best. He coolly radioed back that he had plenty of ammo and food, adding that the artillery was "going both ways." In other words, Howze knew that Hogan would not only be of no help clearing up the Hotton situation, but he had just become a situation himself. He needed Boyle's paratroopers now more than ever.

The terrain below Soy was a vast, gently sloping field framed by Soy Road on the left and the railroad line from Hotton to the right, several hundred yards wide and stretching nearly a mile to the Sur les Hys woods and the Quatre Bras road junction. Johannes Bayer's forces were dug-in just back from the tree line between Quatre Bras and the railroad line. Five StuG III self-propelled guns anchored both sides of Soy Road at Quatre Bras, three more were set back deeper in the woods, and several hundred infantry were hunkered down in 40-plus slit trenches facing out over the field. The StuG III was one of the older weapons in the German arsenal. Originally intended to be a tank killer but now employed for close-range infantry support, it consisted of a tank hull with a non-traversable 75-mm cannon and two machine guns. It was a formidable weapons system, but its inability to swing its gun and relatively thin armor rendered it vulnerable to infantry weapons such as bazookas. As always, the challenge confronting an attacking force was just getting close enough to hit them. Here, Boyle's paratroopers had to cross almost a mile of open field.

The 517th - about 450 men strong - lumbered past Howze's CP a little before 1800. Just below the village, they dispersed into the field under a thin veil of moonlight, keeping close to Soy Road. Several of the American tanks knocked out earlier in the day were still burning, the others appearing as dark angular shadows on the barren ground. Boyle's paratroopers advanced about 350 yards toward the tree line when they came under intense fire. Howze heard the clatter and boom from his CP as he was leaving to confer again with Rose. A moment before, he had received a message from Anderson advising him that Hotton was under attack by tanks and infantry. "Need help," Anderson pleaded.

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