Product Description

Now in paperback! The New York Times bestseller and war memoir from the commander of the legendary Band of Brothers--now with a new preface from Dick Winters.

They were called Easy Company-but their mission was never easy. Immortalized as the Band of Brothers, they suffered 150% casualties while liberating Europe-an unparalleled record of bravery under fire. Winner of the Distinguished Service Cross, Dick Winters was their legendary commander. This is his story-told in his own words for the first time.

On D-Day, Winters assumed leadership of the Band of Brothers when its commander was killed and led them through the Battle of the Bulge and into Germany-by which time each member had been wounded. Based on Winters's wartime diary, Beyond Band of Brothers also includes his comrades' untold stories. This is a moving memoir by the man who earned the love and respect of Easy Company-and who is a hero to new generations worldwide.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1354354 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11
• Format: Large Print
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 509 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In his well-intentioned but impersonal memoirs, Winters tells the tales left untold by Stephen Ambrose, whose Band of Brothers was the inspiration for the HBO miniseries, but Winters's memoir is disappointingly sparse on details unrelated to troop position. It is in the battles and tactical maneuvers of Easy Company that Winters is most at home: on D-Day, when Easy Company's commanding officer is killed, Winters takes charge minutes after landing deep in German territory and leads an assault against a German battery. He carefully explicates the reasoning behind his strategy, leading the reader along as the Company attacks German machine gun and mortar outposts. The narrative is laced with Winters's soldierly exaltations of pride in his comrades' bravery: "My God, it's beautiful when you think of a guy who was so dedicated to his company that he apologizes for getting hit." Although the intrepidness of the group induces more than a tinge of pride, the memoir is devoid of powerful reflections. In the last, sluggish chapters, Winters devotes an excessive amount of time to letters he has received and to expositions on leadership. Winters is too humble for a genre that requires a little bit of conceit.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Stephen Ambrose's Band of Brothers (1992) and the HBO miniseries based on it made Easy Company--the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, which fought from D-Day to the end of World War II, with 150 percent casualties--well known to more than -military-history buffs. After both publication and broadcast, Winters, Easy Company's commanding officer, received many requests for more information. Feeling that much of the material Ambrose didn't use deserved an audience, he chose to air it and satisfy all those requests in his memoirs. For those to whom the story is familiar, the major and his collaborator developed an excellent narrative voice to recount Winters' experiences, actions, and thoughts during everything from training to deployment to battle to subsequent occupation. Winters has been praised as an exemplar of leadership, and here he shows what he did to earn that praise and how he did it. Very well done, book as well as war service. Frieda Murray
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
Major Dick Winters was born near Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1918. A graduate of Franklin & Marshall College in 1941, he was one of the initial officers assigned to Easy Company of the 101st Airborne. Winters jumped into France on D-Day and commanded the unit now known as the Band of Brothers. Promoted to Captain and then battalion commander, he led his men through the Battle of the Bulge and captured Berchtesgaden, Hitler's Bavarian retreat. Released from military service in November 1945, he returned briefly to active duty during the Korean War, then spent his life on a small Pennsylvania farm and was a highly successful businessman. Now eighty-six years old, Winters is popular on the lecture circuit and has found the peace and quiet he promised himself as he lay down to catch some sleep on June 6, 1944-D-Day.

Customer Reviews

A bit more insight into a fine man and his "brothers"...
After reading Ambrose's Band of Brothers (and seeing the miniseries), I could not help picking up this book in hopes of learning some more about Dick Winters, the man. To watch the portrayal of this man on screen left me with the impression that he was a "larger than life" character (almost thinking he had to be fictional to some degree). Upon finishing his book for the first time, I was left with a better idea of just why he seemed to be such an exemplary figure. He is. From his humility, his respect for his fellow soldiers (both officers and enlisted men), and his obvious love for his comrades both alive and passed, his "memoir" truly exposes just those qualities, things that make him a "hero" in many peoples' eyes, both young and old.
Without exception, for any who are looking for some honest insight into what makes Dick Winters the man that he is, this is a "must read". Truly a fine book.