“˜Band of Brothers’ tells compelling tale of war

By Edward Chiao
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

The men of Easy Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airbone Division,
U.S. Army, were not ordinary men.

They were the best and the bravest men that the United States
could assemble during World War II. They were arguably the most
well-trained company of men in the U.S. Army, and unquestionably
one of the finest light infantry companies in combat during the
Second World War.

Author Stephen Ambrose’s “Band of Brothers” is
the true history of Easy Company ““ as seen through the eyes
of the soldiers themselves. The story of this legendary company is
told from the point of view of the privates, lieutenants, captains
and non-commissioned officers who fought day-to-day on the front
lines.

Easy Company began forming its reputation as a highly skilled
and disciplined infantry company under the watchful eye of Capt.
Sobel.

Despite his unpopularity with the men of Easy Company, the men
credit Capt. Sobel’s exacting discipline and merciless
training regimen for their extraordinary success in combat during
the war.

After completing jump school, the 506th Parachute Infantry
Regiment was sent to Europe, where they spent the next nine months
preparing for the D-Day assault on Normandy.

In the events leading up to the invasion, Ambrose describes the
situation in Europe from the eyes of the privates and platoon
leaders. He blends together their feelings of anxiety and fear
along with their high spirits and confidence in themselves and each
other. He follows them into the uncertainty of their first combat
jump into the night sky above Normandy on D-Day.

At first light, after a disastrous air drop left men scattered
all across Normandy, Easy Company had a new leader, Lt. Richard
Winters. Along with a group of nine riflemen and two officers from
Easy Company, Winters led an assault to take out a battery of four
German 105 mm cannons defended by a platoon of 50 German soldiers.
Within three hours, the group of 11 men had defeated a platoon four
times its strength and eliminated the four cannons that would have
devastated the invasion on Utah Beach.

From their very first battle, the men of Easy Company were
becoming legendary among the ranks of the U.S. Army and back home
in the United States. Easy Company led a successful assault on
Carentan and won major battles in Holland. Leaders of the 101st
Division were so impressed with Easy Company’s success that
they chose the 506th Regiment to defend a crucial supply line in
Bastogne to lead a counteroffensive in the Battle of the Bulge, to
fight in the Rhineland and to lead the final assault on
Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest at Berchtesgaden.

With each battle providing a different test for these men,
Ambrose shows how Easy Company endured 150 percent casualties and
survived the bitter cold of the winter of 1945. In the Battle of
the Bulge, with little or no supplies and ammo, surrounded by
German divisions, the core group of men from Easy Company stayed on
the front lines and fought off attacks from a total of 11 German
armored divisions. The men credited their bravery to their desire
to not let down their comrades who they have grown to know in the
past three years.

“Band of Brothers” follows this group of men all the
way through November of 1945, when the company was deactivated and
finally allowed to go home. Even with the preparations and
strategies surrounding each battle described down to the smallest
detail, the most casual reader will still enjoy “Band of
Brothers” because the book is as much about the men of Easy
Company as it is about the war they fought in.

Ambrose has a gift for telling the story through the eyes and
ears of the men who fought the war, letting the reader know and
feel the same experiences and emotions that the soldiers felt. For
the casual fan, this book is a compelling read. For a war buff,
it’s heaven.