Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest
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.
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Community Reviews
"1 - 'WE WANTED THOSE WINGS'"
7,5/10
First chapter is really good! It's pretty much the training sequence from the TV show with a Jew training them as a cold maniac. All hate him and this common hate makes them a unit. They all joined voluntarily for the paratrooper regiment and can leave when they want. It's all about pride and they are eager to become part of this unit no matter the war. Cool chapter! The narration in the audiobook is near perfect too with a strong masculine narration style very fitting for this book. And the way he says the chapter names is something I really miss in most audiobooks. Often the chapter name will be whispered right after a chapter is done making it really hard to know what chapter you are in and obviously making chapter reviews hard. Here the capitalized letters are shouted making it quite clear what chapter you are at. Perfect!
"2 'STAND UP AND HOOK UP' 8"
7/10
More training.
"3 “DUTIES OF THE LATRINE ORDERLY”"
9/10
Relistened to the chapters 3 and 4 without playing chess vs. a bot as I felt like I missed too much of the chapters. I'll focus more now as it's a really good book. This chapter is good if you focus on the details because it's a lot of small stories.
It's about their training in England and here the Jew Sobel becomes even more mean. The volunteers all write a letter of resignation as they want Sobel gone. Finally it works, the military is not ignoring his cruelty anymore. There are also a few minor points about how the 20-21 year old soldiers party and spend their high American wages in the little town. Unfortunately we learn about little to nothing about their partying as it's not really stuff you write down, but it's still a shame. I'd frankly read a book just about this alone. I'm a sucker for such civilian life during wartime stories with culture clashes. War stuff is fun, but you need the personal stuff to make it really engaging.
When Sobel disappears the chapter loses the singular focus and becomes a bit weaker as it’s then about the soldiers preparing for D-Day. A lot of interesting things happen as it’s a lot of men having a lot of time to waste. But without the singular focus it’s not a clear story with good and bad guys in the army itself. Still some amazing points and great writing.
"4 “LOOK OUT HITLER! HERE WE COME!”"
7,5/10
Is this chapter super short or what? Chapter 3 lasted forever. This one is 2 pages long?
"5 “FOLLOW ME” 25"
9/10
Great action-packed chapter about D-Day and how the paratroopers take over German machine gun positions. Great stuff and we hear a lot about the soldiers and their mental states.
I relistened to it. It’s not as detailed as prior chapters as it’s mainly about a single attack. So while the story is clear and direct it’s not as rich on details as chapter 3. So if you want to reread a chapter pick chapter 3 for sure.
"6 “MOVE OUT!” * 34"
7/10
Battle chapter with a lot of deaths and injuries.
"7 HEALING WOUNDS AND SCRUBBED MISSIONS 42"
7/10
More missions and injuries and deaths.
"8 “HELL'S HIGHWAY” * 48"
7/10
Operation Market Garden. A bit confusing chapter as the operation itself is not fully explained.
"9 THE ISLAND *"
6,5/10
More battle stories. This is mostly about some injuries and some commanders. The book has become less structured I feel. Now I have a much harder time following the groups, the commanders and the battles.
"10 RESTING, RECOVERING, AND REFITTING"
7/10
"11 'THEY GOT US SURROUNDED-THE POOR BASTARDS"""
7/10
"12 THE BREAKING POINT *"
7/10
"13 ATTACK 86"
7,5/10
The regiment is now famous, but overall these chapters are very similar to each other. There are a lot of battles and not enough clear story compared to the beginning.
"14 THE PATROL * 91"
7,5/10
Patrolling a river and getting close to going home.
"15 “THE BEST FEELING IN THE WORLD”"
7,5/10
Bit confusing. It seems like the regiment is largely getting replaced. Before they just died and were replaced this way. Now the men are getting higher ranks or are close to going home. At the start of the book he said that soldiers can last 140 to 180 days max in the field before being used up, but I'm not sure when they are actually replaced. Because I’m bad at names I’m never really sure who went where or what town they are in. They say they like the helpful Hollanders, but dislike the arrogant and ungrateful French. Now they are going to Germany and will be staying among German civilians.
"16 GETTING TO KNOW THE ENEMY"
8,5/10
Finally back it the clear storytelling. They are in Germany and here the new culture and country makes it easy to understand where they are and what their mission is. It’s not just small missions and deaths, but an actual plan to win the war. It’s interesting to see how civilian the German civilians were and how well-liked they were by the US army men compared to the evil Arabs, lazy French or devious Italians. The houses were clean and the people polite. The military men are looting everything here as the houses are clean and full. Everyone loots, mostly captured military units but also civilians. When the camps are freed the prisoners there just want to relax and help out. They have been working constantly and starving so they are very pleased to help out for money and thankfulness and relax.
"17 DRINKING HITLER'S CHAMPAGNE 108"
8/10
Very cool chapter about the looting of Hitler's mansion by the regiment/company. I remember this from the show too. But frankly the reality is waaaay more wild and immoral. For example, before they reached Germany German prisoners were at times shot as some soldiers hated the Germans. This is not always concretely proven, but it's quite clear that it happened as it was complicated and often dangerous to transport prisoners. The same is the case with looting, it's more extreme in real life than in the show. In the TV show the soldiers are mature, older, calm, clever and moral. In reality they were scared, often lazy, violent brawlers, liars, looters and drinkers - yet still heroes. Totally different.
"18 THE SOLDIER'S DREAM LIFE"
8/10
End of war. The soldiers in the company are still trained hard and have to follow orders. They all have many scars. There is also time to relax and have fun in other instances where they are left mostly alone and live with local women and need to hunt to get enough food. They also loot a lot of the expensive historical cars and destroy them for fun before handing them over. I’m not quite sure what their job is here? Maybe peace keepers of sorts? They seem to do nothing much.
Many soldiers still die in car crashes or by other stupid means. A rapist/murderer gets drunk and starts killing soldiers after a car crash for example. These kind of people are there too. The tension is high, there are a lot of weird people around and many still feel unsafe. Food seems to calm people down.
"19 POSTWAR CAREERS 119"
7/10
Post-war stuff. Pretty interesting to see what actually happened to WW2 soldiers that survived. Most did very well indeed and were happily married. A few even got rich. A big part of them went into construction or teaching. So practical jobs that don’t require great intellect as such, but that have very stable job security. Many handicapped were fully supported by the state and doctors after the war.
This is surely the weakest chapter as it’s not WW2. But it’s still interesting and the author did a hell of a lot of interviews to write just this chapter alone.
My final opinion on the book
I should have used maps and character lists to fully follow the chapters. At times, when they went through Holland and Belgium, it became hard to follow. There are a lot of town names, characters and small stories and you can't help but get confused at times. It will happen. But I should have been more keen on making it easier for me to follow by using external sources instead of just at times relistening to chapters. I think that following a detailed map would make this a much stronger book. And one should watch a documentary or the TV show first.
Overall I, at times, only enjoyed it at an okay level. The good chapters were some of the best WW2 stuff I have ever read. Yet other chapters were just a collection of short stories so they were harder to fully engage in. This is maybe not the best book to start with as books like "Ghost Soldiers: The Forgotten Epic Story of World War II's Most Dramatic Mission" by Hampton Sides are better WW2 books story wise. One goal, one camp, two groups - one is captured the other is the rescue group. This book with 50 smaller missions is obviously not on the same level of plot. But it's just what happened in real life so the author did his best with a slightly weaker story. I'll for sure rewatch the TV show, but I think the book is way better than the show. It's faster paced, has more action, more stories, and is great writing. If you have watched the show you need to read the book. And if you haven't you need to read the book anyhow.
4,5/5 stars even though it was confusing at times.
7,5/10
First chapter is really good! It's pretty much the training sequence from the TV show with a Jew training them as a cold maniac. All hate him and this common hate makes them a unit. They all joined voluntarily for the paratrooper regiment and can leave when they want. It's all about pride and they are eager to become part of this unit no matter the war. Cool chapter! The narration in the audiobook is near perfect too with a strong masculine narration style very fitting for this book. And the way he says the chapter names is something I really miss in most audiobooks. Often the chapter name will be whispered right after a chapter is done making it really hard to know what chapter you are in and obviously making chapter reviews hard. Here the capitalized letters are shouted making it quite clear what chapter you are at. Perfect!
"2 'STAND UP AND HOOK UP' 8"
7/10
More training.
"3 “DUTIES OF THE LATRINE ORDERLY”"
9/10
Relistened to the chapters 3 and 4 without playing chess vs. a bot as I felt like I missed too much of the chapters. I'll focus more now as it's a really good book. This chapter is good if you focus on the details because it's a lot of small stories.
It's about their training in England and here the Jew Sobel becomes even more mean. The volunteers all write a letter of resignation as they want Sobel gone. Finally it works, the military is not ignoring his cruelty anymore. There are also a few minor points about how the 20-21 year old soldiers party and spend their high American wages in the little town. Unfortunately we learn about little to nothing about their partying as it's not really stuff you write down, but it's still a shame. I'd frankly read a book just about this alone. I'm a sucker for such civilian life during wartime stories with culture clashes. War stuff is fun, but you need the personal stuff to make it really engaging.
When Sobel disappears the chapter loses the singular focus and becomes a bit weaker as it’s then about the soldiers preparing for D-Day. A lot of interesting things happen as it’s a lot of men having a lot of time to waste. But without the singular focus it’s not a clear story with good and bad guys in the army itself. Still some amazing points and great writing.
"4 “LOOK OUT HITLER! HERE WE COME!”"
7,5/10
Is this chapter super short or what? Chapter 3 lasted forever. This one is 2 pages long?
"5 “FOLLOW ME” 25"
9/10
Great action-packed chapter about D-Day and how the paratroopers take over German machine gun positions. Great stuff and we hear a lot about the soldiers and their mental states.
I relistened to it. It’s not as detailed as prior chapters as it’s mainly about a single attack. So while the story is clear and direct it’s not as rich on details as chapter 3. So if you want to reread a chapter pick chapter 3 for sure.
"6 “MOVE OUT!” * 34"
7/10
Battle chapter with a lot of deaths and injuries.
"7 HEALING WOUNDS AND SCRUBBED MISSIONS 42"
7/10
More missions and injuries and deaths.
"8 “HELL'S HIGHWAY” * 48"
7/10
Operation Market Garden. A bit confusing chapter as the operation itself is not fully explained.
"9 THE ISLAND *"
6,5/10
More battle stories. This is mostly about some injuries and some commanders. The book has become less structured I feel. Now I have a much harder time following the groups, the commanders and the battles.
"10 RESTING, RECOVERING, AND REFITTING"
7/10
"11 'THEY GOT US SURROUNDED-THE POOR BASTARDS"""
7/10
"12 THE BREAKING POINT *"
7/10
"13 ATTACK 86"
7,5/10
The regiment is now famous, but overall these chapters are very similar to each other. There are a lot of battles and not enough clear story compared to the beginning.
"14 THE PATROL * 91"
7,5/10
Patrolling a river and getting close to going home.
"15 “THE BEST FEELING IN THE WORLD”"
7,5/10
Bit confusing. It seems like the regiment is largely getting replaced. Before they just died and were replaced this way. Now the men are getting higher ranks or are close to going home. At the start of the book he said that soldiers can last 140 to 180 days max in the field before being used up, but I'm not sure when they are actually replaced. Because I’m bad at names I’m never really sure who went where or what town they are in. They say they like the helpful Hollanders, but dislike the arrogant and ungrateful French. Now they are going to Germany and will be staying among German civilians.
"16 GETTING TO KNOW THE ENEMY"
8,5/10
Finally back it the clear storytelling. They are in Germany and here the new culture and country makes it easy to understand where they are and what their mission is. It’s not just small missions and deaths, but an actual plan to win the war. It’s interesting to see how civilian the German civilians were and how well-liked they were by the US army men compared to the evil Arabs, lazy French or devious Italians. The houses were clean and the people polite. The military men are looting everything here as the houses are clean and full. Everyone loots, mostly captured military units but also civilians. When the camps are freed the prisoners there just want to relax and help out. They have been working constantly and starving so they are very pleased to help out for money and thankfulness and relax.
"17 DRINKING HITLER'S CHAMPAGNE 108"
8/10
Very cool chapter about the looting of Hitler's mansion by the regiment/company. I remember this from the show too. But frankly the reality is waaaay more wild and immoral. For example, before they reached Germany German prisoners were at times shot as some soldiers hated the Germans. This is not always concretely proven, but it's quite clear that it happened as it was complicated and often dangerous to transport prisoners. The same is the case with looting, it's more extreme in real life than in the show. In the TV show the soldiers are mature, older, calm, clever and moral. In reality they were scared, often lazy, violent brawlers, liars, looters and drinkers - yet still heroes. Totally different.
"18 THE SOLDIER'S DREAM LIFE"
8/10
End of war. The soldiers in the company are still trained hard and have to follow orders. They all have many scars. There is also time to relax and have fun in other instances where they are left mostly alone and live with local women and need to hunt to get enough food. They also loot a lot of the expensive historical cars and destroy them for fun before handing them over. I’m not quite sure what their job is here? Maybe peace keepers of sorts? They seem to do nothing much.
Many soldiers still die in car crashes or by other stupid means. A rapist/murderer gets drunk and starts killing soldiers after a car crash for example. These kind of people are there too. The tension is high, there are a lot of weird people around and many still feel unsafe. Food seems to calm people down.
"19 POSTWAR CAREERS 119"
7/10
Post-war stuff. Pretty interesting to see what actually happened to WW2 soldiers that survived. Most did very well indeed and were happily married. A few even got rich. A big part of them went into construction or teaching. So practical jobs that don’t require great intellect as such, but that have very stable job security. Many handicapped were fully supported by the state and doctors after the war.
This is surely the weakest chapter as it’s not WW2. But it’s still interesting and the author did a hell of a lot of interviews to write just this chapter alone.
My final opinion on the book
I should have used maps and character lists to fully follow the chapters. At times, when they went through Holland and Belgium, it became hard to follow. There are a lot of town names, characters and small stories and you can't help but get confused at times. It will happen. But I should have been more keen on making it easier for me to follow by using external sources instead of just at times relistening to chapters. I think that following a detailed map would make this a much stronger book. And one should watch a documentary or the TV show first.
Overall I, at times, only enjoyed it at an okay level. The good chapters were some of the best WW2 stuff I have ever read. Yet other chapters were just a collection of short stories so they were harder to fully engage in. This is maybe not the best book to start with as books like "Ghost Soldiers: The Forgotten Epic Story of World War II's Most Dramatic Mission" by Hampton Sides are better WW2 books story wise. One goal, one camp, two groups - one is captured the other is the rescue group. This book with 50 smaller missions is obviously not on the same level of plot. But it's just what happened in real life so the author did his best with a slightly weaker story. I'll for sure rewatch the TV show, but I think the book is way better than the show. It's faster paced, has more action, more stories, and is great writing. If you have watched the show you need to read the book. And if you haven't you need to read the book anyhow.
4,5/5 stars even though it was confusing at times.
Simply a classic, the story of Easy Company is a classic tale of ordinary people rising to an extraordinary task. Unfortunately, the book is slightly held back by Ambrose's lack luster talent as a historian, this doesn't take much away from the legendary journey of the Toccoa Men. Be warned, once you read this, you'll likely dive down a rabbit hole of your own research on the heroes contained within. Highest of recommendations.
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