Arthur Johnson Memorial Library

Ambrose, Stephen E.

Band of brothers : E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest / Stephen Ambrose. - New York : Simon & Schuster, c2001. - 333 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm.

Includes Index

"We wanted those wings"; Camp Toccoa, July-December 1942 -- "Stand up and hook up"; Benning, Mackall, Bragg, Shanks, December 1942-September 1943 -- "Duties of the latrine orderly"; Aldbourne, September 1943-March 1944 -- "Look out, Hitler! Here we come!"; Slapton Sands, Uppottery, April 1-June 5, 1944 -- "Follow me"; Normandy, June 6, 1944 -- "Move out!"; Carentan, June 7-July 12, 1944 -- Healing wounds and scrubbed missions; Aldbourne, July 13-Septmeber 16, 1944 -- "Hell's highway"; Holland, September 17-October 1, 1944 -- Island; Holland, October 2-November 25, 1944 -- Resting, recovering, and refitting: Mourmelon-le-Grand, November 26-December 18, 1944 -- "They got us surrounded-the poor bastards"; Bastogne, December 19-31, 1944 -- Breaking point; Bastogne, January 1-13, 1945 -- Attack; Noville, January 14-17, 1945 -- Patrol: Haguenau, January 18-February 23, 1945 -- "Best feeling in the world": Mourmelon, February 25-April 2, 1945 -- Getting to know the enemy: Germany, April 2-30, 1945 -- Drinking Hitler's champagne; Berchtesgaden, May 1-8, 1945 -- Soldier's dream life; Austria, May 8-July 31, 1945 -- Postwar careers; 1945-1991.

"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 group. 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." -- Book jacket.

0743216385 9780743216388 074322454X 9780743224543

2001020134


United States. Army. Parachute Infantry Regiment, 506th. Company E --History.


World War--Regimental histories--United States.--1939-1945
World War--Campaigns--Western Front.--1939-1945
Tweede Wereldoorlog.
Invasies.

940.5421 Amb 15