Band Of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne From Normandy To Hitler's Eagle's Nest (2002) - Plot & Excerpts
As a history lover, and as someone who loves not getting flamed on Goodreads, I am loathe to say what I am about to say. However, as someone who finds it impossible not to say what I feel like saying, I’ll just go ahead and say it: I don’t like Stephen Ambrose. No, no, no! Not like that. I didn’t know him personally, but he seemed like a nice man, a good husband and father. Moreover, he did History an incredible service by collecting the stories of ordinary men. The living memory of World War II is fading fast, and it is due to the efforts of historians, biographers, and researchers like Stephen Ambrose that we will have so many incredible stories, even after that generation has passed into memory. But here’s the thing: I think he’s a crap writer.I’ve tried very hard in the past to enjoy Ambrose books. When I read the flaccid Pegasus Bridge, I told myself that I was at fault, not the famed Ambrose. Then, I read Crazy Horse and Custer, and noticed that entire pages were copied almost verbatim from Royal Hassrick’s The Sioux. Still, I gave him a pass, knowing that sometimes writers make mistakes when it comes to citing sources. Even so, I had to take a break. The relationship had become strained. Later on, I watched HBO’s miniseries Band of Brothers, which was executive produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. Once it came out on DVD, I bought the DVD and watched it again. When it came out on the History Channel I watched it again, and again when it came out on Spike TV. I spent an enjoyable Thanksgiving watching it on the couch. When Band of Brothers was released as a Blu-Ray set, I bought that too, and watched it yet again. I love Band of Brothers; whenever it’s on, at whatever point, I will watch it. It is the greatest time-suck in my life. Finally, after the 20th viewing, I decided to read the source material: Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose. 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 histories by such luminaries as Walter Lord, who gave us oral histories of Pearl Harbor (Day of Infamy) and Midway (Incredible Victory) and Cornelius Ryan, who brought us intimate portraits of D-Day (The Longest Day) and Arnhem (A Bridge Too Far). Ambrose attempts to replicate, on a smaller scale, the feats of Lord and Ryan. In Easy Company of the 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne, he has an incredible subject: an elite group of soldiers who – like the mythical platoon of Samuel Fuller’s The Big Red One – find themselves in just about every important operation in the European Theater, from D-Day to VE-Day. The problem, though, is that Ambrose is no Walter Lord, and he’s no Cornelius Ryan. He’s barely serviceable. His prose is blunt, ugly, and disjointed. There is tortured grammar and a noticeable lack of editing. There is not a smidgeon of grace or elegance to be found. Ambrose’s shortcomings as a writer are put in stark relief whenever he quotes from the writings of David Webster, a Harvard-educated English major who was part of Easy Company. Webster, unlike Ambrose, writes in vivid prose that is alive with acute perception. Most of the enjoyment I received from reading Band of Brothers came from the fact that I’d seen the miniseries (more times than is healthy, probably) and was interested to compare and contrast the various characters. When I tried to imagine being a reader who hadn’t seen the miniseries, I found it hard to understand the universal acclaim. First, there is absolutely no tension or drama in the story. Instead of taking oral histories and spinning them into a narrative, Ambrose elects to directly quote the men he has interviewed. Now, I’m sure this saved him a great deal of time when it came to actually writing, but it tells you right away who lives, and to a lesser extent, who dies. Furthermore, there was no vividness, no you-are-there-ness to the story. Ambrose’s style also feeds into a participant’s bias, in that the men who talked to Ambrose are lifted to the heights of Achilles or Hector, while those who did not participate, or who died, recede – for the most part – into the background. This is not history as it happened, but history as told by some limited viewpoints. (And this limited viewpoint is why Ambrose is criticized so often – by other veterans – for utterly screwing up the facts. He only listens to one side and seldom takes the time to corroborate).Another problem I had was Ambrose’s lack of objectivity when it comes to his subjects. And by lack of objectivity, I mean abject hero-worship. Here, once again, lest I be digitally mobbed, I wish to interject that yes, the men of Easy Company were heroic. They were young men who sacrificed their youths to do a dangerous job that their country asked them to do. There is a place for a flag-waving, chest-thumping, drum-beating homage to “the greatest generation.” Indeed, God created Tom Brokaw for just this purpose. However, it’s not a historian’s place to wave the flag or thump his chest or beat his drum. And Ambrose has always claimed to be a historian. In Band of Brothers, he is not. Instead, he’s more like a cheerleader, or a proud father, or a guy who secretly feels guilty that he never joined the army and fought a war. He is hyperbolic in his descriptions of Easy Company’s exploits, he is quick to take sides and defend his interview subjects at the expense of men who weren’t interviewed, and he gives a wink-wink nudge-nudge to myriad war crimes committed by those soldiers, including numerous executions of P.O.W.s, the murder of an alleged SS officer after the war was over, and enough looting and pillaging to make Genghis Khan envious. (These are war crimes, aren’t they? Or am I being obtuse? I mean, if the Germans had done this to us – killed our prisoners, as they did at Malmedy, or looted homes and businesses, as they did all over Europe, wouldn’t we consider them crimes? Didn’t we? Did we not try and execute or imprison Germans for these very things?).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. 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. 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. Easy Company was an exception. They were an elite group. They were volunteers. They were well trained (again, so well trained that they didn’t actually get into the war till 1944; meanwhile, their fellow Americans invaded North Africa and Guadalcanal in 1942). The men of Easy Company were fit, mobile, ambitious, motivated, well-armed, strongly conditioned killers. They deserve their accolades. They are not, however, representative. The consequence of Ambrose’s tight focus on Easy Company, and his ill-conceived extrapolation of their experience, makes Band of Brothers into something rare: a pro-war book. This is the anti-All Quiet on the Western Front. Rather than ruining lives and shattering psyches, Ambrose presents a portrait of war as a great adventure, and men who only became fully actualized by combat. It’s almost an advertisement: Go to War; Make Great Friends; See the World and Steal Some Nazi Silverware! To bolster this fact, Ambrose’s afterward stresses how many of Easy Company’s men became rich! That is what I took from Ambrose’s writing.Of course, that’s not the reality. Thanks to the miniseries and the accompanying documentary, you can actually listen to these men talk about their experiences. They don’t sound like the soldiers Ambrose presents in his book. They are somber and reflective. Their eyes glisten and their voices crack and waver. They hint at reservoirs of jumbled memories that combine the fear of battle and the horror of death and the pain of lost friends with the love of their brothers. To see and hear them is an experience far more touching and real than the pastiche of direct quotations and patriotic slogans that Ambrose stitched together for his book.
'From this day to the ending of the world, we in it shall be remembered. We lucky few, we band of brothers. For he who today sheds his blood with me shall be my brother.'-Shakespeare; "Henry V"Membaca buku dan menonton sebuah film memang dua kegiatan berbeda. Namun untuk buku dan film tentang Easy Company 2/506th Regiment, 101st Airborne ini bisa dibilang saling melengkapi.Ambilah cerita tentang pertempuran merebut meriam Jerman di Brécourt Manor setelah Letnan Winters berhasil menggabungkan diri dengan markas batalyon dan memimpin sekelompok kecil pasukan. Keberhasilan yang turut menjadi catatan emas bagi kompi ini dan mengantar juga bagi Winters untuk menerima Distinguished Service Cross. Adegan di film sendiri memberikan gambaran bagi saya bagaimana kekompakan yang dapat dibangun oleh sebuah kompi senapan dan peran komandan dalam mengatur penyerbuan. Keberhasilan itu menjadi pijakan untuk pelatihan selanjutnya dalam kesatuan senapan di tentara AS hingga kini.Cerita lainnya adalah mengenai persaudaraan yang dibangun dari pengalaman hidup dan mati dapat menjadi sebuah ikatan yang kuat. Meski di dalamnya terjadi ganjalan karena ada pribadi yang kurang dapat membaur dengan baik, entah karena ego menonjolkan diri atau ketidakpedulian kepada sesama rekan, semuanya tertutupi dengan adanya pemimpin yang mengayomi, baik formal maupun informal. Meski awalnya pergesekan pucuk pimpinan dengan pribadi Kapten Sobel yang menimbulkan pemberontakan dari NCO (Non-Commisioned Officers)-nya, kepemimpinan di Easy Company datang tidak hanya dari Winters seorang. Ketika kepemimpinan di Easy Company lowong karena figur yang sepantasnya menempatkan diri tidak ada, sebelum mereka kembali menemukan sosok pemimpin saat Letnan Speirs menjadi komandan selapas kemelut, ada figur lain yang mengisi kekosongan itu. Speirs menyebutnya, "I've been told there's always been one man they could count on... held them together when they had the crap shelled out of them in the woods. Every day, he kept their spirits up, kept the men focused, gave 'em direction... all the things a good combat leader does." Figur yang disebut oleh Speirs itu adalah Carwood Lipton yang bertugas sebagai first sergeant di Easy Company. Kehadiran yang tepat ketika kekosongan figur pemimpin tanpa merusak garis komando. Jika saya membaca buku setelah berulang kali menonton filmnya, hal itu tidak mengurangi nilai informasi yang saya dapatkan dari halaman buku ini. Film yang menjadi pengantar tidur buat saya menjadi lebih jelas setelah saya membaca bukunya. Cerita Letnan Buck Compton yang sekilas di film berdialog dengan Letnan Winter di jip menjelang penerjunan D-Day menjadi lebih lengkap setelah membaca buku ini. Kisah bagaimana seorang perwira dengan tidak mengabaikan kebutuhan untuk membangun keakraban juga harus tahu menempatkan diri di hadapan anak buahnya.Ambrose dengan buku ini bukan sebuah tokoh yang tidak lepas dari kritik. Kisah mengenai PD II yang banyak tersedia di internet menyebutkan beberapa kritik atas penulisan Ambrose atas Kompi E yang terkesan melebihkan dan mengurangi peran kompi lain. Seperti yang terjadi pada pertempuran di bukit selepas mereka merebut Carentan. Atau, kritikus yang sama, menyatakan keberatan dengan kisah yang diangkat ke layar pada detik-detik pertama mendaratnya Easy Company adalah kisah Winters yang bertemu dengan prajurit dari Kompi A. Keduanya mendarat dengan peralatan yang tidak utuh, bahkan Prajurit John Hall dari Kompi A, salah membalas sandi yang diucapkan oleh Winters dengan kata "Shit!" yang seharusnya mengucapkan "thunder!" begitu mendengar ucapan "Flash!" Menurut kritik itu ada kisah yang lebih heroik ketika Sersan Bull Randleman mendarat dan langsung adu sangkur dengan prajurit Jerman. Jauh lebih mencengangkan dibanding pendaratan Winters katanya, bahkan masih lebih mencengangkan dibandingkan adegan adu sangkur Randleman ketika terpisah saat Operasi Market Garden.Lepas dari kritik itu, Ambrose yang sempat digugat kelayakan sebagai sejarawan populer di Amerika, kiranya tidak terbantahkan sebagai sejarawan yang menyampaikan kisah heroik dengan sudut pandang individu prajurit untuk banyak masyarakat awam. Memotret kebersahajaan yang ada di prajurit Kompi E yang beragam latar belakangnya. Kerendahhatian mereka yang gilang gemilang berkat kepemipinan yang solid saat mereka mengalahkan satu batalyon SS di Belanda. Untuk kebersahajaan dan kerendahhatian itu, mereka tidak saling menonjolkan diri. Seperti ucapan Mike Raney kepada cucunya yang dikutip oleh Major Dick Winters, I treasure my remark to my grandson who asked, "Grandpa, were you a hero in the war?" Grandpa said, "No... but I served in a company of heroes".Akhirnya sosok prajurit adalah manusia biasa, walau tugas mengharuskan mereka berdekatan dengan mesiu dan darah. Selepas pertempuran yang menyita tenaga dan emosi, Winters berjanji pada dirinya sendiri, "if some way I could get home again, I would find a nice peaceful town and spend the rest of my life in peace."Kiranya, prajurit dengan bedil dan sangkurnya toh tetap manusia yang rindu damai.
What do You think about Band Of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne From Normandy To Hitler's Eagle's Nest (2002)?
I'd been meaning to read this for the longest time. It reads very quick, especially if you have seen the miniseries and already know the story of Easy.A few things that jump out at you about real life vs. the miniseries:Winters was not the golden boy HBO makes him out to be. He did not drink, but not out of any moral objection. He also did swear casually, which I found surprising. HBO goes out of its way to make Winters' language squeaky-clean. What the series gets right: Winters' incredible modesty about his service and the intense loyalty his men felt and still do toward him.The real Cobb was a drunk, but not a jerk. In Ambrose's account, you don't get the sense that Cobb was the kind of guy who picked on replacements or was cynical about his service. Makes me wonder if there was any truth in his depiction in the miniseries. Easy liberated a work camp, not a concentration camp. I was disappointed in the HBO producers for taking this liberty. The conditions at the work camp were horrendous enough. Painting over the work camp as a concentration one struck me as lazy. I'd have preferred a more in-depth account of Easy's shift in attitude toward the Germans (and the undercurrents of anti-Semitism in the Army).There's also a bit of character compression (what happened to Sgt. Gordon??), omissions of battles, etc etc, but, with a few exceptions, the miniseries is remarkably faithful.This book will make you want to do two things: revisit the miniseries to compare notes, and read more about Winters. He is remarkable.
—Greg G
The last few chapters were truly unbearable in their intensity. As the soldiers discover for the first time what the real cost and cruelties of the war they fought was, we too are forced to try and understand this unimaginable thing called war that can never be understood even by the ones that fought in it, let alone by posterity looking back.There are some things in life that can only ever be expressed in one way - silence - a deep and anguished silence that cries primievally in disbeilieving defiance. War - a devastating but eerily beautiful thing that is an embodiment of the worst of mankind but still brings out the best in men.So much better than the TV series. No timeline tricks, no visual trickery to distract you, but the pure unbridled horror of war and thrill of danger and strategy. The book manages to take you into the thick of the action, into the ditches and the gun fire better than the show.
—Riku Sayuj
If you want a good summary of E Company's experience in WW2 that also follows the HBO series fairly closely, this is an interesting, not overly tactical read. Though, you should be warned that Ambrose editorializes quite a bit throughout the book, e.g., "because we were a democracy, we had better trained soliders and won the war..." and so forth. Statements like that smack a bit of triumphalism to me.It's also very coarse prose--no elegantly written passages in Band of Brothers. In fact, there are quite a few typos--glaring typos in some instances. You'd think after all the books Ambrose authored, and the fact that he's a high-profile historian/author, that he'd have a halfway decent editor and proofreader. Not the case!
—jennifer
