Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest

· Simon and Schuster
4.7
455 reviews
Ebook
336
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About this ebook

Stephen 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.

Ratings and reviews

4.7
455 reviews
Jennifer Graziano
May 24, 2025
Origin of the alphabet; number line, computer is the same place. There isn't a calendar without a programmer; different ones in society are for companies to supply basic utilities; motor vehicles, food clothes & shelter. Computer programs give the answers to outstanding questions; humans do not. They also drive all artificial moving objects; humans do not. One program designs all the building and a different one does cars; the program includes after they are built schedules for them and us. Cameras are a derivative of computer separate from video recorder for unreal pictures and photograph obstructing justice to disappear or vanish includes video tapes & DVD's.
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ray barker
August 23, 2023
An interesting and inspirational book that everyone should read. It will definitely change your view if you are short on appreciation for the military.
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A Google user
July 22, 2009
Ambrose illustrates the tales, hardships and trials of the brave men of E Company through visual expressive passages, described in either his own words or through the interviews or letters from the actual men. American citizens from different backgrounds came together to become one of the most legendary "Civilian Solider" groups that the American military had ever witnessed. The stories told throughout this novel reveals that some lessons of life are only truly learned when people are faced with the most adverse living conditions and slimmest chances of survival.
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About the author

Stephen E. Ambrose was a renowned historian and acclaimed author of more than thirty books. Among his New York Times bestsellers are Nothing Like It in the World, Citizen Soldiers, Band of Brothers, D-Day - June 6, 1944, and Undaunted Courage. Dr. Ambrose was a retired Boyd Professor of History at the University of New Orleans and a contributing editor for the Quarterly Journal of Military History.

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