Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's NestStephen E. Ambrose’s classic New York Times bestseller and inspiration for the acclaimed HBO series about Easy Company, the ordinary men who became the World War II’s most extraordinary soldiers at the frontlines of the war's most critical moments. Featuring a foreword from Tom Hanks. They came together, citizen soldiers, in the summer of 1942, drawn to Airborne by the $50 monthly bonus and a desire to be better than the other guy. And at its peak—in Holland and the Ardennes—Easy Company was as good a rifle company as any in the world. From the rigorous training in Georgia in 1942 to the disbanding in 1945, Stephen E. Ambrose tells the story of this remarkable company. In combat, the reward for a job well done is the next tough assignment, and as they advanced through Europe, the men of Easy kept getting the tough assignments. They parachuted into France early D-Day morning and knocked out a battery of four 105 mm cannon looking down Utah Beach; they parachuted into Holland during the Arnhem campaign; they were the Battered Bastards of the Bastion of Bastogne, brought in to hold the line, although surrounded, in the Battle of the Bulge; and then they spearheaded the counteroffensive. Finally, they captured Hitler's Bavarian outpost, his Eagle's Nest at Berchtesgaden. They were rough-and-ready guys, battered by the Depression, mistrustful and suspicious. They drank too much French wine, looted too many German cameras and watches, and fought too often with other GIs. But in training and combat they learned selflessness and found the closest brotherhood they ever knew. They discovered that in war, men who loved life would give their lives for them. This is the story of the men who fought, of the martinet they hated who trained them well, and of the captain they loved who led them. E Company was a company of men who went hungry, froze, and died for each other, a company that took 150 percent casualties, a company where the Purple Heart was not a medal—it was a badge of office. |
Contents
| 14 | |
| 30 | |
CHAPTER THREE Duties of the Latrine Orderly Aldbourne | 43 |
CHAPTER FOUR Look Out Hitler Here We Come | 57 |
CHAPTER FIVE Follow Me Normandy June 6 1944 | 71 |
CHAPTER SIX Move Out Carentan | 89 |
CHAPTER SEVEN Healing Wounds and Scrubbed Missions | 108 |
CHAPTER EIGHT Hells Highway Holland | 123 |
CHAPTER TEN Resting Recovering and Refitting | 165 |
CHAPTER ELEVEN They Got Us Surroundedthe Poor | 179 |
CHAPTER TWELVE The Breaking Point | 195 |
CHAPTER THIRTEEN Attack Noville January 1417 1945 | 213 |
CHAPTER FIFTEEN The Best Feeling in the World | 238 |
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Drinking Hitlers Champagne | 264 |
CHAPTER NINETEEN Postwar Careers 19451991 | 292 |
CHAPTER NINE The Island Holland | 141 |
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Common terms and phrases
101st Airborne Division 1st platoon 2d Battalion 3d platoon aid station Airborne Aldbourne American ammunition Armored Army artillery attack Bastogne began Berchtesgaden British Carentan Carson Carwood Lipton Christenson Colonel Sink combat commander Compton D-Day dike Division Easy Company Easy’s Eisenhower enemy field fight fire foxhole front line G.I. Bill German going Gordon grenades Guarnere Haguenau Harry Welsh hedgerow hell Heyliger Holland Hoobler infantry jump killed kilometers Liebgott Lieutenant Foley looked machine-gun Malarkey meters mortar Mourmelon moved never night Nixon Normandy Noville Nuenen officers orders parachute paratroopers patrol plane position pulled Rader radio recalled regimental Rhine rifle river road Sergeant Sergeant Lipton shell shooting shot shouted side squad Strayer Strohl Talbert tanks Taylor thought Toccoa told took Toye troops trucks Utah Beach Veghel walked wanted weapons Webster wrote Welsh Winters Winters’s woods wounded