Ambrose’s failure is in using an exception to prove a rule. On the whole, the American armies in North Africa, Italy, and Europe didn’t perform especially well. This isn’t some kind of indictment on our fighting men, only a reality that comes from a mass draft, a hurried mobilization, and an army of citizens, not soldiers.

Ambrose’s blinders leads him to continually make silly and unsupportable statements about how “citizen soldiers” and “democratic soldiers” were eminently superior to the Nazis forces of totalitarianism and darkness. This is a sweeping, simplistic, reductive, and jingoistic statement that is better placed on a 1940s war bonds poster. Bando, Mark. "Band of Brothers - Company E/506th P.I.R. in WW2". Trigger Time. Archived from the original on July 16, 2017 . Retrieved December 24, 2012. The surprise was achieved, like most surprise in war, because the defenders were guilty of gross over confident"

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But the accusations of plagiarism kept cropping up, along with the Eisenhower Presidential Library accusing him of fabricating interviews with Ike. It’s also patently untrue. Far from being an inferior fighting force, the German armies were far better, man-for-man, than any other army in the world. By 1944, when Easy Company finally got in the war, the Wehrmacht had been fighting for five years. They’d destroyed Poland and France, nearly crushed England, and pushed Russia to the brink. After all those years and all those casualties, they still managed to scrape together one hell of a defense after Normandy. By the way, I hate the Nazis and everything they stood for. I’m just saying they could rumble. The 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR) has been developed to pioneer America’s first extensive use of paratroopers, infantrymen who enter the battlefield by jumping out of an airplane. The inciting incident in Easy Company’s story is when each young man volunteers for the new, risky PIR because he wants to distinguish himself. A selling point is the promised intensity of training. These men believe they’d have the best chance of surviving the war if they fought next to the military’s best soldiers. Subtitled The Men of Easy Company, an official companion documentary included on home video for the miniseries and available on streaming services. Consists of interviews with the surviving real-life members of Easy Company including Winters, Lipton, Guarnere, Heffron and Powers and also photos and video from and related to their service and their annual reunions. Also includes Guarnere and Heffron revisiting Foy and interviews with Easy Company members' families. Billen, Andrew (October 8, 2001). "The true drama of war". New Statesman. Archived from the original on May 31, 2009.

And that is in essence the problem, the dilemma if you will. The only thing that does somewhat "save" this book IS the subject: the story of the elite military outfit -exclusively composed of volunteers - of Easy Company, which played such a crucial part in the Western European theatre of war. It performed the function of Johnny-on-the-spot in the most significant operations during WW II : D-Day, Operation Market Garden, The Battle of the Bulge and, as icing on the cake, the capture of Hitler's own Eagle's Nest in Berchtesgarden. They went through abject hell, suffered enormous casualties, and many who came out at the other end alive would remain scarred both physically as mentally. Without such a grand tale to work with, I can't imagine Ambrose ever having gained the prominence that he had.

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Shortly after his drop on D-Day, Winters led thirteen men against a Nazi artillery battery that numbered around fifty. He destroyed all four guns and won the Bronze Star. Later, at a crossroads in Holland, Winters led the 1st Platoon against a 300 strong encampment of Wehrmacht and won the engagement. He then took part in the Battle of the Bulge, in which the 101st Airbourne was instrumental to the allied effort. The epigraph is a quotation from Shakespeare's Henry V, from which the title of the book is derived: [1] :iv

My grandfather was in both wars. But he never really talked much about them. What could he have said to a little kid. As an adolescent, I couldn't have possibly understood what he saw or what he went through or the historical significance of it all. But in retrospect, from my adult perspective, I'm so amazed by what my grandparents did and the peaceful, opulent life they gave us. de Trez, Michel (2004). Corporal Forrest L. Guth. The Way We Were No.1. Wezembeek-Oppem: D-Day Publishing. ISBN 978-2-96001-765-6. A collection of Guth's war time pictures and memoirs. The 100 best TV shows of the 21st century". The Guardian. September 16, 2019. Archived from the original on November 1, 2019.Producers Guild of America Awards winners". United Press International. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020 . Retrieved June 7, 2014.

Alexander, Larry (2010). In the Footsteps of the Band of Brothers: A Return to Easy Company's Battlefields with Sgt. Forrest Guth. New York: New American Library. ISBN 978-0-45122-991-5. Part travelogue, part historical perspective. Einhorn, Dalton (2009). From Toccoa to the Eagle's Nest: Discoveries in the Bootsteps of the Band of Brothers. BookSurge Publishing. ISBN 978-1-43926-479-9. a b c Elliott, Stuart (September 10, 2001). "Advertising: Jeep's manufacturer seeks to capitalize on the vehicle's featured role in 'Band of Brothers' ". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020 . Retrieved July 15, 2019. Shales, Tom (August 7, 2001). " 'Band of Brothers': Ragged WWII Saga Off to a Slow March". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020 . Retrieved July 15, 2019. Band of Brothers is a grunt’s eye view of history. War as it was seen by the men who fought it. It stands on a continuum of anecdotal works by such luminaries as Walter Lord ( Day of Infamy; Incredible Victory) and Cornelius Ryan ( The Longest Day; A Bridge Too Far) who used a pastiche of eyewitness accounts to present the intimate side of a massive, impersonal war.

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. Bennett, Roger (November 11, 2021). "Band of Brothers Podcast". Apple Podcasts. Home Box Office . Retrieved August 21, 2023.