Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22053 in Books
• Published on: 2009-08-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

Customer Reviews

An entertaining collection of soldiers' recollections
Band of Brothers has spawned a mini-industry of art prints, books and magazines and this book is the latest Easy Company work to hit the market. So if you have all these other books, is this new one worth buying? Well my answer to that is a big resounding YES.

As great as the TV series was and the original Ambrose book too, you always felt that for every featured character, there were others who's ommission meant we missed hearing their tales. Well here Marcus Brotherton offers us the stories, memories and anecdotes of 20 more Easy company veterans. Some were included in the TV series - Shifty Powers, Earl McClung and Herb Suerth Jnr, but many weren't and most readers will find the memories of Al Mampre, Dewit Lowrey, Hank Zimmerman and Norman Neitzke (for example) new and fascinating.

Marcus allows the vets to the talk about their lives from childhood to old age in their own words and style. But ordered into chapters covering from before the war into enlisting, training and combat in Normandy through to Austria and also their post-war years. This is not a battlefield study, it won't tell you which battalion was located at what point in any given campaign. It's all about the men and how they viewed the events that shaped the 20th Century. It tells of their fears and hopes, their pride and determination and the horrors and joys of serving in the European campaign in WWII - all in their own words and in easy to read short anecdotes some of which are also very funny.

But the best part of the book is the appendix, where the children of 3 Easy company veterans write passionately about their fathers. Michael Sobel writes about his father's negative portrayal in the TV show, George Jnr and Lana tell us about the Company's resident comic their father - George Luz. And Susan shares intimate memories of life with her father Burr Smith who after WWII continued to serve his country in further conflicts. These recollections alone are reason enough to buy this book, and I for one will treasure the book for years to come.

We who are alive and remain
Great addition for husbands addicted to the autobiographies by the "Band of brothers" survivors , I am thinking of entering mine into "Mastermind" with this as his chosen subject!

Yet another great read about Easy Company
Having read several Band of Brothers autobiographies, this is right up there with the best. Although it might not be full of names you'd recognise from the miniseries, it gives an insight into WWII from other members of the company, taking turn about with their personal accounts of their experiences in chronological order. The background on each man was interesting too, seeing where they came from and what they did after the war.
A worthy addition to any BoB fan's library.