A Company Of Heroes (Band of Brothers - Stephen Ambrose)

Member Name: I Like Blue

Product:	Band of Brothers - Stephen Ambrose
Date:	06/09/04 (3428 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Compelling

Disadvantages: A few spelling/grammar mistakes

History has never been one of my strong points and military history even less and even though I would often watch documentaries about World War 2 I still didn't properly comprehend any 'human' element in them.

I'm not sure if I did this arse about face but I watched the series, Band Of Brothers, before reading the book and in fact I only decided to read the book as a result of watching the series. Of course there is always that age old problem of the film not matching up to the book, but in Band Of Brothers I feel that hasn't happened, they are pretty much equal. There are, naturally, some differences between book and film but nowhere near enough to leave me disillusioned, in fact I was pleasantly surprised at how similar they both were.

I'm happy that I watched the series before reading the book because in some way it gave me a better insight whilst reading and part of that I feel is down to the great acting coupled with the stories told by surviving members of Easy Company throughout the series.

Right, that's the comparison out the way so let's move on to the book.

Stephen Ambrose's forte is military history and Band Of Brothers came about partly by accident and partly by fate. He had already written and published Pegasus Bridge which tells the story of the British glider-borne paratroopers' involvement in the D-Day invasion and the importance of their role to protect the left flank of the Allied invasion force.

Whilst at a reunion in 1988, Ambrose, who was already researching material for a book about D-Day, met Major Dick Winters, undoubtedly the finest CO of Easy Company, who suggested that Ambrose might like to write about Easy Company and the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. Ambrose was already in the middle of another project but this was too tempting to resist as he saw it as a great chance to compliment Pegasus Bridge by writing about how the right flank of the D-Day invasion force was protected.

After 2 years of research, including personal interviews with the veteran survivors of Easy Company, Ambrose had all the material he needed to write this book which was finally published in 1992.

Divided into 19 chapters and over 300 pages long with a handful of pages of photographs, Band of Brothers isn?t the heaviest of reads and, despite not being overly interested in military history, I found the book extremely engrossing and near compulsive reading.

Band of Brothers tells the true story of the men of Easy Company from its origins as part of the newly formed 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment through to its disbanding in July 1945. It tells how a group of strangers were thrown together, spent 2 years intense training, were instrumental in the D-Day invasion and were, effectively, only involved in the war for 8 or 9 months, and in those 3 years forged such a bond with each other that it's lasted ever since.

In July 1942 these young men embarked on an adventure that would change their lives forever. After the great depression the future still looked quite bleak and for these young men, who came from all over the United States, volunteering for the Army was the start of a very big adventure. Whilst going through the recruitment phase a request went out for volunteers to join the paratroopers.

The biggest temptation to join was the fact that they would receive an extra $50 a month, in effect doubling their pay. However part of the attraction was the fact they would be an elite fighting force getting the best training and equipment the US Army could give them. For these young men it was a chance to make their mark in life.

The book starts, naturally, in 1942, with the gruelling and intense training at Camp Toccoa in Georgia where the motto and battle cry "Currahee!" was born, and follows Easy Company through to the end in Austria in 1945. What happens in between is nothing short of remarkable, from Easy Company's first action on D-Day to Carentan, to Holland, to Bastogne, the Battle of the Bulge, to the Rhineland and finally Hitler's Eagle's Nest in Berchtesgarden.

Wherever trouble was at its worst Easy Company was always there and the problem was with each success they had it put them at the top of the list for the next assignment, the next battle.

What makes this true story so interesting for me is that whilst there are naturally statistics, military jargon and details of tactics and battles during the D-Day Invasion the main story is about these remarkable young men.

Ambrose, very effectively, concentrates more on the human side of this story, explaining in great detail the emotions those men had to deal with, what they were feeling before, during and after each battle. Ambrose also describes very well what drove these men on, the determination and initiative they showed as individuals and as a unit. This is what made the book so utterly compelling for me.

In fact I should explain that it isn't really Ambrose who tells the story it is the men of Easy Company. This is what makes the book even more interesting. Ambrose's skill is piecing together all the stories, memories, diaries and journals of these men and relating the story on Easy Company's behalf with his own occasional commentary and references to other similar historical books about D-Day and World War 2 as a form of corroboration.

Having my own military background, I had a great deal of empathy with these men, as I'm sure many of you have who have also read this book. In particular with the training regime they were under which brought back so many memories of my own basic military training. The major difference being that whilst I trained in peacetime, the young men of Easy Company were training to actually go to war.

For me, Ambrose has brilliantly captured their spirit and brought it to life in this book. The men of Easy Company were tested to every extreme, both physically and mentally and with Ambrose?s style, we the reader, get a real sense of what these men were feeling and had to endure.

Easy Company stood out because they had great belief in themselves and each other. Their experiences bonded them tighter, they suffered alone and together as one. The way Ambrose describes, or relives, the massive traumas these men suffered from losing best friends and being stuck in the most seemingly impossible of positions is fantastic and there are times where you feel, well I did anyway, that part of you is there with them.

However, and it is well documented and described here by Ambrose, all this for a large part goes right back to Easy Company's days at Camp Toccoa, and their very first CO, Herbert Sobel. This man alone, more than any other, was hated by the men of Easy Company, for many reasons. If you've seen Band Of Brothers you will have a partial understanding why, but in the book I learnt more about this man's controlling and tyrannical ways, much of which was unnecessary which earned him the nickname (amongst many others)of 'Chickenshit'.

There were at least 2 other men who made Easy Company the force it was and these men were the complete opposite to Sobel and were the balance to his 'chickenshit' ways. For most of Easy Company's time, during the D-Day invasion and beyond they had Dick Winters as their CO; an excellent soldier and man manager, who was firm but fair. Winters got promoted though and Easy Company were somewhat leaderless for a while (even when there was an Officer put in charge) and it was during a planned assault on a German-held French town called Foy, in early 1945, that Easy Company were blessed with another natural and respected leader; Ronald Spiers.

The backdrop for this remarkable true story is the D-Day Invasion and World War 2 but the main thrust of this book is the human factor. There are some quite surprising, yet quite natural, outcomes in this book in how the experience of conflict affected these men that I obviously don't want to reveal here as it may spoil your enjoyment of the book if you haven?t read it yet. But, for me anyway, it made me think more about what these men and many more people like them contributed and sacrificed that has undoubtedly resulted in the freedom we enjoy today.

To summarise this story is educational, insightful, it has some quite funny moments, some very poignant moments and some even more very sad and emotional moments and it is a book I very much recommend. I like Ambrose's style and his way of telling this story although he really needs to sort out his publisher/printer as there are a number of quite basic spelling and grammar mistakes that can be slightly frustrating especially as in a few places where Ambrose has drawn you into a certain passage you find such mistakes which breaks the flow of the story somewhat.

In fact I was impressed and interested enough to seek out other books by Ambrose and am currently reading 'Pegasus Bridge' which is equally compelling and ties in quite well with Band of Brothers.

This book, as are many other Ambrose books, is widely available from all main bookshops either online or off. Personally I'd recommend getting it from Waterstones as they regularly have 3 for 2 offers and Ambrose's books are often included or you could also try Tesco.com or Amazon as both those online shops also have these books on offer.

Read, learn and put life into proper perspective if even just for a moment and think about the freedom we enjoy today, no matter how limited it might seem it?s still freedom and it has come at a very heavy price indeed.

Easy Company are testament to that fact.

Summary: A true account of the life-long bonding through extreme adversity