BAND OF BROTHERS is about the close relationship of the soldiers who volunteered for Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. It follows them through Normandy, the Arnhem campaign in Holland, The Battle of The Bulge, and the capture of Berchtesgaden, Hitler's Eagle's Nest.

I had previously read Ambrose's CITIZEN SOLDIERS, which had enough characters to make a Russian novelist proud. Like a journalist, Ambrose would fully identify a soldier the first time he's mentioned, then assume the reader knows whom he's talking about thereafter. With BAND OF BROTHERS there's more of a focus. Captain Herbert Sobel, the first C.O. of Easy Company gets a lot of attention. Sobel was a training officer, pretty much hated by the men. Lieutenant Richard Winters, who was cool under fire, is the exact opposite. Forty-seven years later he still receives letters from some of the regular troopers. Of the enlisted men, I found Pvt. David Webster the most intriguing. Before the war, he was a Harvard English Lit major. Ambrose uses the book he wrote about his war experience extensively.

An especially interesting part of the book was the part about the troopers' relationships with French, Dutch, Belgium, and German civilians. Their attitude toward the Germans was rather surprising.

Ambrose provides an epilogue where he details what became of the men after the war: An inordinate number of them became teachers or were involved in the construction trade. Several became millionaires. The most tragic case is that of First Sergeant Talbert, who never was able to shake the trauma of war.

If you have as much respect for the soldiers who fought in WWII as I do, you will find BAND OF BROTHERS a compelling read.

Dave Schwinghammer's unconventional mystery, SOLDIER'S GAP, is available at Amazon.com, new and used.