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Band of Brothers: E. Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne From Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle Nest, Book Analysis

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Band of Brothers: E. Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne From Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle Nest, Book Analysis
Book Report
“Band of Brothers: E. Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne From Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle Nest” by Stephen E. Ambrose

Band Of Brothers is the history of Easy Company, 506th Parachute
Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, from basic training to
D-Day. It follows the jump into Holland, the Battle of
the Bulge, and finally the occupation of Berchtesgaden and Austria. This is a rarity among military histories, told from the viewpoint
of the front line soldier, the privates, non-commissioned officers and officers who
carry out the grand strategy of generals. Many books
discuss the inner working of commands at Division and Army levels, but few detail the day to day life of the
soldier. Stephen Ambrose's book does that and
more. It explores the how draftee citizen soldiers of
elite outfits like the 101st Airborne did, in World War II, defeat
an enemy like the well trained German Wehrmacht and S.S. In 1942 the Second Battalion of the 506th was formed and started
basic training. The recruits volunteered for the thrill, the honor, the extra money, but above all the desire to be better
than the ordinary draftee. A description of the physical effort
required in basic training explains why a majority of the
volunteers never made it as far as the door of the airplane. When
the Company finally made it to Fort Benning for jump school, they
were in such great physical shape that they outdid the school's
physical fitness cadre. After five jumps in December of
1942, the company qualified as Parachutists, and nine-months later
they were on a ship to England to train for the invasion of
Hitler's Fortress Europa.
Ambrose also details the nine months of training that the company
endured in England in preparation for the invasion. He
tells it from the viewpoint of both officers and men and explains
the final shift in Easy Company hierarchy just prior to D-Day. His
description of the night jump of the 101st in the early morning
hours of June 6, 1944, with

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