Name: Beyond Band of Brothers
ISBN: 9780425213759

Richard D. Winters

Dick Winters

Cole C. Kingseed

The commander of Easy Company provides a firsthand memoir of combat during World War II, describing the role of a group immortalized as the "Band of Brothers" during the D-Day invasion, the Battle of the Bulge, the march into Germany, the liberation of an S.S. death camp, and beyond. Reprint.

The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters

Beyond Band of Brothers

The commander of Easy Company provides a firsthand memoir of combat during World War II, describing the role of the "Band of Brothers" during the D-Day invasion, the march into Germany, and the liberation of an S.S. death camp.

An incredible legacy and spiritual will left behind for us to ponder. 

1) Winters wouldn’t have become the soldier he was without his Mother’s influence in the home. She was the first one up in the morning and the last one to bed. She worked hard in the home and cared for the needs of her family.

2) When the soldiers were able to take a 2 week leave to Paris while in Europe, Winters didn’t ‘raise hell’ because he ‘had a conscience, didn’t want to dishonor his parents, and was proud of the position that he held in the military and loved his country’. He spent a great amount of time reflecting and studying to prevent as many casualties as possible. He could have put himself first for simple fleeting pleasures because he was in a high position, but didn’t. He remained humble and led by example.

3) While training in Europe before D-Day he only missed church twice. Spending time in solitude for reflection was essential to his success as a leader.

4) When leading others he said two simple yet impactful words, ‘Follow Me.’ Winters was incredibly consistent in his character and actions which enabled these men to trust him with their very lives because they knew the kind of man he was. They literally walked into ‘the valley of the shadow of death,’ and faced evil head on. Winters led the way. This type of leadership is essential for success when facing adversity. 

5) He did the best he could and never gave up. His physical fitness enabled him to remain strong mentally under incredible pressure. The safety and wellbeing of his men were always on the forefront of his mind.

A truly inspiring book. A must read especially if studying what it means to lead others. 

Ashton Rogers

An incredible legacy and spiritual will left behind for us to ponder. 

Takeaways:

1) Winters wouldn’t have become the soldier he was without his Mother’s influence in the home. She was the first one up in the morning and the last one to bed. She worked hard in the home and cared for the needs of her family.

2) When the soldiers were able to take a 2 week leave to Paris while in Europe, Winters didn’t ‘raise hell’ because he ‘had a conscience, didn’t want to dishonor his parents, and was proud of the position that he held in the military and loved his country’. He spent a great amount of time reflecting and studying to prevent as many casualties as possible. He could have put himself first for simple fleeting pleasures because he was in a high position, but didn’t. He remained humble and led by example.

3) While training in Europe before D-Day he only missed church twice. Spending time in solitude for reflection was essential to his success as a leader.

4) When leading others he said two simple yet impactful words, ‘Follow Me.’ Winters was incredibly consistent in his character and actions which enabled these men to trust him with their very lives because they knew the kind of man he was. They literally walked into ‘the valley of the shadow of death,’ and faced evil head on. Winters led the way. This type of leadership is essential for success when facing adversity. 

5) He did the best he could and never gave up. His physical fitness enabled him to remain strong mentally under incredible pressure. The safety and wellbeing of his men were always on the forefront of his mind.

A truly inspiring book. A must read especially if studying what it means to lead others. 

Darren S. Layne

I have nothing but admiration for the soldiers around the world who put their lives on the line in the name of their government's orders. It's their job, what they get paid for, and theirs is perhaps the most dangerous of all occupations. To this, I'd add that WWII veterans receive my special respect because of the nature of the time in which they fought. America was a different country then, with different ways of doing things, and a different sense of what the word "patriotism" meant. They say that it was the last "good war", if any could be attributed that way. And we're losing these men fast. Dick Winters, one of the most famous and most capable commanders of possibly the most famous combat unit in WWII, is perhaps the most exemplary of these men. As the leader of Easy Company, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne, he led an amazing group of men through an amazing time, and the unit's accolades have been dutifully expressed in a variety of sources: Stephen Ambrose's book, Band of Brothers, HBO's mini-series of the same name, and a number of memoirs from men who actually fought in the unit. These sources go some way in telling the story of these soldiers, the war, and their sacrifice. The telling needed to be done, because we should all know what happened during those unimaginably important years.

Perhaps because I've been such a proponent of this idea, or maybe just because I'm such a passionate student of military history, or maybe even due to the fact that I've heard the story of Easy Company so many times, I found myself noticeably bored with the telling of the tale from the man who was in charge of that band of brothers. Yes, this is the fourth time I've been recounted the story from that angle of the war. Yes, Winters was an amazing leader, one of the last surviving members of the unit, and, for all purposes, the most astute archivist of Easy Company's social history. He deserves to be able to tell his story again, as he was there for all of it and is still sharp and thoughtful. But Winters and his contributing writer, Col. Cole Kingseed, are extremely poor at recounting it in a way that would remove the need for HBO's series or Ambrose's sober tone. What we get is a rambling, non-inspiring tour de force through Easy Company's time in the States, in the ETO, and beyond, all the while being continuously pushed and pulled between Winters' vacillations of humility and utter self-capability.

It's not that I have any problems with this absolutely prodigal combat leader telling his story in print. I just have a hard time getting past his pedestrian journalism. Even considering that this is a war memoir, I could not stop telling myself that it might have been better served with a series of extensive audio or video interviews. Of particular note and annoyance throughout the book is Winters' phantom modesty. For a man coming out of the woodwork in 1992 (via Ambrose's unit history) to be so humble and focused on the heroism of the men under his command was an inspiration and a lesson to us all about leadership. In desiring to convey a sense of that leadership in his book, however, Winters may have been instructed poorly by his publishers. We are indeed celebrating his life and his accomplishments, but to spend entire paragraphs describing how Winters, himself, was just doing his job, alternating between paragraphs of Winters telling us in detail about all the accolades showered upon him by the men under his command, his superior officers, and his legions of fans, feels a little disingenuous - or, at the least, conflicted. And if it happened once, it would be forgivable. But this formula is repeated over and over throughout the book, back and forth, from "just getting the job done" to telling us again and again how humble he really is. In effect, it felt very much like Winters did not really want to write the things he did about himself. Which leads me to ask why he did.

Beyond Band of Brothers is simply a case of one man telling his own story in his own words, when other renditions of his own words would have and have already sufficed. This account should not have been an auto-biography, but then again, there are already so many biographies out there about Dick Winters and the inconceivable trials over which he and his men triumphed. Don't let this review stop you from lauding this amazing commander, because his should be celebrated. Just be sure that he has contributed to the historical timeline and to our modern awareness of WWII in much better ways than this book conveys.

Shannon Cullum

Cole Christian Kingseed

On D-Day, Dick Winters took off with 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment and prepared to parachute into German-held north France. Ground troops landing on Utah beach were relying on Easy Company to secure one of the causeways that were vital if the troops were to get off the beaches and reach the solid ground of Normandy. The plane carrying many of the commanding officers was shot down, leaving Dick Winters suddenly in command of his company. But during the drop he, and many of his men, had been separated from his equipment and was unarmed except for a trench knife. In this remarkable World War 2 memoir, Dick Winters tells the tales left untold by Stephen Ambrose in his 1992 epic Band of Brothers. Starting with an account of the gruelling training designed to make the 506th the most elite unit in the US Army, Beyond Band of Brothers is fascinating account of one man's experience of commanding Easy Company from D-Day, to the Battle of the Bulge and into Germany. Dick Winters gives real insight into leadership under the most difficult conditions - every man in the company had been injured by the time they reached Germany - and tells the real story of the Allies' final defeat of Hitler, from the point of view of someone who was really there.

Beyond Band of Brothers The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters

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