Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters – May 6, 2008 Author: Dick Winters | Language: English | ISBN:
0425213757 | Format: EPUB
Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters – May 6, 2008 Description
From Publishers Weekly
In his well-intentioned but impersonal memoirs, Winters tells the tales left untold by Stephen Ambrose, whose Band of Brothers was the inspiration for the HBO miniseries, but Winters's memoir is disappointingly sparse on details unrelated to troop position. It is in the battles and tactical maneuvers of Easy Company that Winters is most at home: on D-Day, when Easy Company's commanding officer is killed, Winters takes charge minutes after landing deep in German territory and leads an assault against a German battery. He carefully explicates the reasoning behind his strategy, leading the reader along as the Company attacks German machine gun and mortar outposts. The narrative is laced with Winters's soldierly exaltations of pride in his comrades' bravery: "My God, it's beautiful when you think of a guy who was so dedicated to his company that he apologizes for getting hit." Although the intrepidness of the group induces more than a tinge of pride, the memoir is devoid of powerful reflections. In the last, sluggish chapters, Winters devotes an excessive amount of time to letters he has received and to expositions on leadership. Winters is too humble for a genre that requires a little bit of conceit.
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--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Booklist
Stephen Ambrose's
Band of Brothers (1992) and the HBO miniseries based on it made Easy Company--the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, which fought from D-Day to the end of World War II, with 150 percent casualties--well known to more than -military-history buffs. After both publication and broadcast, Winters, Easy Company's commanding officer, received many requests for more information. Feeling that much of the material Ambrose didn't use deserved an audience, he chose to air it and satisfy all those requests in his memoirs. For those to whom the story is familiar, the major and his collaborator developed an excellent narrative voice to recount Winters' experiences, actions, and thoughts during everything from training to deployment to battle to subsequent occupation. Winters has been praised as an exemplar of leadership, and here he shows what he did to earn that praise and how he did it. Very well done, book as well as war service.
Frieda MurrayCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
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- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Berkley Trade; Reprint edition (May 6, 2008)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0425213757
- ISBN-13: 978-0425213759
- Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
- Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Are natural leaders born or made? It seems that Richard D. "Dick" Winters' life has been a quest to answer that question. And in the final chapters of _Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters_, he does provide the answer. Winters, the level-headed commander of Easy Company, portrayed in Stephen E. Ambrose's book, turned HBO mini-series "Band of Brothers," needs no introduction. Written in the autumn of his years, Winters culls a lifetime of inner reflection and a quest to live in peace, after leading soldiers in some of the most deadly combat of World War II. The result is a frank, sometimes brutally honest testament to the moral fiber of the American citizen soldier, who shouldered an undying responsibility to God, country, family, and above all, the men he led into battle. Sixty years from now, when the events of the Second World War sink ever so deeper into the pages of history, Winters' message will still be sought. Like the men he led of Easy Company, he will gain the respect of new generations of soldiers, and, if events mirror those of his life, continue to save lives.
As in a resent biography by Larry Alexander ( _Biggest Brother: ... _ [2005]) Winters pens only a dozen pages of his early life before delving right into his military career. Winters was the product of many good influences in his upbringing: his family, Mennonite background, a strong work ethic, and no vices. Unlike Alexander's gallant attempt to penetrate his subject without much success, Winters' prose is down to Earth. The sense the reader gets of the words coming from the horse's mouth is reassuring, and holds one's attention. Also unlike Alexander's biography, Winters refers to the correspondence with his wartime pen-pal, DeEtta Almon sparingly.
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