Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(369)
4 star:		(90)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

Notwithstanding the wonderful HBO miniseries based on this book, "Band of Brothers" is an entertaining and worthwhile read in its own right. Ambrose skilly fully weaves personal accounts from the paratroopers of E Company into a compelling story of the war in the European theater. Ambrose has earned his stripes as one of the premier historians of World War II, and with good reason. His writing style is easy to read, he does a great job of individualizing the large cast of characters and he masterfully sets his story within the context of the greater conflict without distracting the reader.

All this makes the book essential reading for those watching the HBO miniseries. The miniseries is great cinema, but the medium is necessarily limited in how much background it can bring to each episode. After the first few episodes I started reading the book along with the show, and it helped me in distinguish the characters and orient what was happening. Also, the book gives you a greater understanding of why certain objectives were so critical to the war effort. When I've read the part of the book that corresponds to a new episode, I get to focus on the performances and visual aspects of the show. Reading the book only enhances the experience of watching the miniseries.

Band of Brothers, by Stephen Ambrose, is the story of E (Easy) Company of the 101st Airborne Division in World War II. It's a very personal account, as Ambrose conducted numerous interviews with the surviving members of the company and uses those interviews to imbue a sense of closeness to the action and the men who went into that action. It's a very effective book, though it does seem to be "history lite." I'm not really sure why, because Ambrose has obviously done a lot of research in producing this story. Perhaps it is because it's not a typical history book with documentation from all over the place. Instead, he seems to have used only a couple of sources besides the men of Easy themselves. Then again, is that a bad thing? Personally, I don't think so, at least not in this case. Ambrose is not attempting to write a history of World War II. He's writing the story of a group of men who formed relationships and bonds that would carry them through the rest of their lives.

I found this book fascinating. Most of the history books I have read have been very abstract, telling about the moving of units and what they did and how successful they were in battle. They always have some personal angles involved, either talking about letters written home, or some personal stories of valor. Ultimately, though, they are about the battles themselves. These books can be very interesting.

Band of Brothers tells us everything about a group of men and how they fought. We get to laugh with them, we get to see the horrors that they have seen. We also get to see the incompetence that sometimes becomes prevalent in wartime. Ambrose doesn't pull any punches, and neither do the men of Easy to whom he spoke. They are very outspoken about the people they didn't like. Not just people, but also nationalities. One thing to keep in mind when reading this book is that the only impression of nationalities that these men had were when they were going through territory, wondering whether or not they would be running into enemy fire at any time. Some people of these nationalities may take offense at some of the statements in this book. One fault with it is that Ambrose doesn't really make clear whether or not these feelings are just the feelings of the men at the time, or if these feelings have stayed with the men ever since.

The descriptions of the action are just incredible. Never before have I seen war from this perspective. While I have seen graphic descriptions of combat before, this story takes the reader to a much deeper level. We get to see the fear and the determination of these soldiers, the comradeship that forms among them. We get to see individual episodes of action in each battle, we see friends die, we see true heroism, and how situations can get messed up in an instant. We also get to see the foibles of the men, how some of them got drunk at every opportunity, how they dealt with war and what it did to them. It truly is remarkable.

One other thing that is missing in this book, to an extent, is a sense of context to these events. Ambrose does provide this occasionally, especially when talking about Market Garden and the plight of the British paratroopers in the city of Arnhem, but he's not always successful in doing this. I wasn't expecting long passages about what was going on elsewhere, but there are times in this book where the action seems very isolated from the war around the men. It's a very narrow view, and while it is understandable since this isn't a history of the war, it does make the actions of Easy seem a little removed.

There are few maps in the book, but they do the job. They are at the front of the book, and they consist of a map of northern France and England, a close-up map of Utah Beach (the beach behind which Easy dropped on D-Day), a close up view of Market Garden, and close-up view of Bastogne. They do the job, letting you follow a bit of the action. I don't know if it would have been possible, but it would have been nice to see some maps of the cities involved in the battles, so we could get a sense of what the men of Easy were doing in each battle. But again, that may not have been possible, so I won't hold it against Ambrose.

I really liked the chapter talking about the men after the war. I felt it really solidified the relationship that the reader has with these men. You have spent the rest of the book getting to know these men and seeing the horrors of war with them, and now you get to find out "the rest of the story." It adds the perfect climax to the book, and reinforces the feeling that this is a personal history of a group of men and not a history of warfare. Some of the fates are tragic, but most of them just got on with their lives. It was nice to see.

Ultimately, this is a very valuable book for anybody who likes reading about warfare. It adds a very personal touch to the whole thing. There aren't long descriptions of blood and guts, but you do see just enough to feel the tension along with these men. I feel like I know these men, and I'm proud to know them. They put their lives on the line for freedom, and they did it willingly and without question. They didn't like it, but they did it anyway. Seeing their story told in such a manner was a wonderful experience. So what if it's history lite? It's a valuable story and it's wonderfully told. That's all that matters.

I rated the book Band of Brothers 5 stars. Band of Brothers is a very interesting book about E Company, part of the 101st Airborne Division of the Army back in World War II. The book begins with E Company's basic training at Camp Toccoa and all of the men's hatred of their C.O. Lt. Herbert Sobel. Band of Brothers gives detailed descriptions and first hand accounts of men from E Company telling about their experiences throughout basic training and the war. The book ends with what the men of E Company did after the war was over and where their careers took them. Band of Brothers is a great account of what many companies in World War II went through. I enjoyed this book thoroughly because the men actually told real stories of what happened to them and their friends in the war. This was one of the main reasons I chose this book and the fact that I think Stephen Ambrose is a fantastic writer. Many of Ambrose's books are enjoyable to me because he actually does some of the things that men in war did just to get a feel of what they went through. I have also read Americans at War by Ambrose and am now currently reading What If? by Ambrose. Both of these books are excellent as well for many of the same reasons. Ambrose gets the most out of all the interviews he does with veterans, which makes his books very intriguing.

As you would expect from the title, this book is focused on the stories of the individuals who made up this "band of brothers". Stephen Ambrose based his account on personal interviews and diaries and letters written at the time, occasionally moving back to a larger view when he quotes from an official history or other text.

This is the story of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506 Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101 Airborne Division. A famous group in a famous unit, fighting from Normandy in the early hours of D-Day, through Holland in the spectacular failure of Operation Market-Garden and Belgium in a gallant stand at Bastogne in the Battle of the Bulge, all the way to Hitler's "Eagle's Nest" in the Austrian mountains, where the victors had a well-deserved feast of wine, women and song.

This is an incredible story, told mainly in the words of those who were there, and you can feel the fear, exhilaration, killing fury, bitter cold and biting hunger along the way. But ost of all you can feel the camaraderie of soldiers thrown together in a remote training camp in 1942, who trained and fought as a band of brothers and now, sixty years on, still maintain their closest friendships with each other.

In another sense it is a story of an amazing soldier - Second Lieutenant Winters, one of the founding officers of Easy Company, who ended up a Major commanding the battalion. He led his troops with coolness and courage, intelligence and humanity. He gained more than respect, he gained the love of these warriors, and he earnt it through common sense decisions in training and in combat. His decisions saved the lives of his men and cost the enemy dearly, and his small unit actions are still cited as textbook examples.

This book is chockablock full of infantry minor actions. Advance, assault, defence, withdrawal, patrolling and raiding - all told from multiple viewpoints in stark detail - the war in microcosm as seen by airborne infantrymen.

There are maps and pictures, an index and an epilogue describing the postwar careers of the men of Easy. This book stands alone as totally engrossing war story, but is also an essential companion to the magnificent HBO miniseries.

As a brutally, touchingly honest story of men at war, I cannot recommend this book too highly. It is an instant classic.

No one has been more prolific or entertaining in his efforts to bring the gritty, unit-level personal experiences of the Allied drive from Normandy into Germany to the public's attention than Stephen Ambrose. In his series of books including "D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War Two", "The Victors", "Citizen Soldiers", and the present book, "Band Of Brothers", he has masterfully employed a little-known treasure trove of personal interviews with thousands of Allied soldiers to marshal an absolutely absorbing, captivating, and insightful treatise on the nature of combat as experienced by the men and women in the forefront of action as it transpired all along the front.

In this volume he concentrates on the exploits of a company of soldiers from their indoctrination into combat with the assault on the beaches in Normandy, following them as they fight their way, along with two million other Allied soldiers, into the heartland of Germany itself. In a book memorable for its unusual focus (for Ambrose) on a small group of men we come to know and admire for their all too human traits and character foibles, the spellbinding story of men in combat is made more vivid, vital, and personal than is possible in any other way. By concentrating on the ordinary men of E-Company as they move through a panorama of death and destruction, their personal stories, private adventures, and shared horrors in the midst of carnage, chaos, and confusion become a fascinating and compelling tale. By filling the pages with men we comes to know better than in his other books, we watch with amazement as they moved into free fire zones where anything that moves dies, and in the process Ambrose paints an indelible portrait of the unbelievable madness of war.

This is a story that should be told again and again, so we never forget what it took to take back Europe from the beasts who first stole it so savagely, of the men who died on the beaches, who fell for freedom in the surrounding countryside, all to prepare for those like this company of ordinary men who relentlessly pushed deeper and deeper into the interior of France, finally pushing the battered and beaten Germans all the way back to Berlin. This was the single greatest adventure of the 20th century, an epic struggle in which millions of Brits, Canadians, Australians, Frenchmen, and Americans took back by force of arms the liberty and freedom that had been wrested away from the mainland so cruelly four years before. This, then, is the story of how that crusade to liberate Europe unfolded through the personal experiences of a small group of American soldiers.

Mr. Ambrose has become a virtual cottage industry in the World War Two section of your local bookstore, while he has also published works such as his recent best seller on explorers Lewis and Clark. Meanwhile, he has become phenomenally successful because many of his books have captured the public's imagination by being so readable, entertaining, and informative. While popular success doesn't always equate to critical worthiness, in his case it consistently seems to. This is a wonderfully worthwhile, eminently researched, exhaustively documented, and superbly narrated book on the most historic struggle in the long and painful struggle to finally liberate Europe. Enjoy!

This is the best book I have read on small unit actions in World War II. Ambrose has set the standard for others to follow. The soldiers in this book are real, I had the pleasure of meeting the 1SG while stationed at Fort Bragg, NC. With 18 years of service in the Army with experience in Armor, Infantry, Artillery and a History Degree this book is flawless. I had the honor of commanding a company in the 82nd Airborne Division and made this book a manditory read for my Lieutenants professional development. The brilliance of Ambrose as an author is his blending of accurate history and technical authenticity without sacrificing the bond between soldiers; the human side often missing in history books. If you love this book you must read Pegasus Bridge and Citizen Soldiers by the same author. Can't wait until his next book!

Despite what the Amazon armchair critics would have you believe, this book is really a fantastic effort to document the experiences of what was an elite Army unit in World War II Europe. I read this book only a few weeks before meeting a veteran from Easy Company, Sgt. Amos "Buck" Taylor, and I came away from that meeting confident that Ambrose was, in fact right on the money, and those who argue otherwise need to talk to someone who was there for their comeuppance. Few of us can conceive of, let alone would pass, the training that went into these soldiers before they left the States for England. Described in detail, it gives you that much more appreciation for what the men really did. Taylor's memories echo strongly all I read about Tocoa and Capt. Sobel. When the unit finally deployed in support of D-Day operations, their training gave them an enormous edge. Taylor's own experiences were not unique, but it wasn't long before the whole unit accomplished their goal and waited for the next time they would be needed. A strong theme throughout the book was the bond formed among the men of Easy, which I saw much in evidence that night. Mrs. Taylor also is a part of the reunions, and still marvels at what her husband did. The unfortunate fact is that Buck has never told her a lot of things, and has blocked many out- the book and conversation Buck had with us was the first introduction she had to many of the things her husband saw in war-torn Europe. Ambrose's diligent research is accurate, well-written and truthful. Ignore what those who don't know have to say- I've heard it from one who was there- Band of Brothers is a true story, and hard to put down, much like the men of Easy so long ago.

Band of Brothers is a detailed and personal account of the experiences of the 101st Screaming Eagles' Easy Company as they fight across fortress Europe. This book is not an history lesson, nor is it guide to WWII tactics and strategy. It is a true story collected from the yarns of Easy Company survivors that tells the tale of citizen soldiers and their experiences as they battle the Nazi menace. Ambrose is in top form as he organizes and puts to pen the tragedies and victories of Easy Company. Watch the HBO series if you want, but READ THIS BOOK.

My father was with the 101st Airborne from the Normandy jump to Bastogne. Many times I tried to elicit information from him but he was always aloof about the war. Mr.Ambrose seems to capture and highlight the realities of this special division. Now, with Saving Private Ryan and this book, I understand what went on and what these brave souls had to endure. People tend to forget and try to put the past aside but God Bless writers like Mr.Ambrose and other like Spielberg to remind us and take a moment to say thank you, Old Timers.

Airborne troopers have a special bond. Not to say that legs (non-jumpers) do not share the same camaraderie of soldiers everywhere. This book gives a good account on how the American airborne, a concept executed by the Germans, developed into an effective military strategy by war's end. A group of average American boys become Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment and go from green troops in Toccoa Georgia to seasoned veterans capturing the eagle nest of Hitler. Read it then buy the companion HBO miniseries. Former 101st Airborne troopers can stand proud because of this book. I had the pleasure of sharing a beer with Colonel Sink at the 82nd Airborne Assoication convention in New York in 1958 (he served in the 82nd after the war). He was as crusty and highly admired as the character in the HBO role. If you like D-Day history, especially first hand accounts on the night of 5 June 1944 as troopers stood up and hooked up to float or crash into Forteress Europia, you'll love this book.