It’s the 82nd anniversary of D-Day this weekend. If you’re a Midlife Male reader over forty five, there’s a good chance you had a grandfather who served in World War II. Both of my grandfathers did, although only one went overseas. My dad’s dad was a battle medic in Germany. One day he was a chemistry student at Northeastern University as a nineteen-year-old, playing baseball with a nasty left-handed slider, and the next he’s a twenty-year-old kid in Germany racing through live fire in battle, dragging wounded men off the front lines and carrying bloody soldiers on stretchers to aid stations.
Many of you reading this have kids in middle school, high school, college or just out of college. They’re mostly, let’s say, plus or minus ten years my grandfather’s age when he went off to war. Most of the articles we write are about having kids this age deal with the emotions of move-in day or drop off day or helping them get their first job or us becoming empty nesters.
All real things that are important. But imagine it’s 1944 and your nineteen-year-old has just been shipped overseas to fight the Germans. I can’t. You probably can’t. If you have a son or daughter who serves in an active war zone, you alone know what it’s like.
For the rest of us, thanks to those brave soldiers who served throughout World War II and who arrived in Normandy on D-Day, we don’t have to experience that. Our main frame of reference comes from TV shows and movies and books; all of this playing right into the pop culture meme that men over forty think of World War II at least once a day.
I know I do. I’ve gone on three and four book runs about the Allied Invasion and Eisenhower and General Patton and all the big battles. It’s an incredible period of American history and when you immerse yourself in it, you only appreciate it more and more. It helps you think outside yourself and your day-to-day life.
Eventually, all roads lead to the ultimate World War II reading and watching experience: Band of Brothers, which plays on a loop on several television stations every D-Day anniversary weekend. If you haven’t watched it, I urge you to. It’s important. We need to appreciate and understand where our current leisure comes from and we can’t take it for granted. So, let’s start with the source material.
If you haven’t read Band of Brothers by Stephen E. Ambrose make it the next book on your list (even if you’ve watched the HBO series). I could write 2,000 words on why it belongs in the pantheon of books on men, war, US history, history in general, leadership, friendship, and on and on… But I won’t. Honestly, the back cover description of the book itself still gives me goosebumps.
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Here it is:
…They came together, citizen soldiers, in the summer of 1942, drawn to Airborne by the $50 monthly bonus and a desire to be better than the other guy. And at its peak — in Holland and the Ardennes – Easy Company was as good a rifle company as any in the world.
From the rigorous training in Georgia in 1942 to the disbanding in 1945, Stephen E. Ambrose tells the story of this remarkable company. In combat, the reward for a job well done is the next tough assignment, and as they advanced through Europe, the men of Easy kept getting the tough assignments.
They parachuted into France early D-Day morning and knocked out a battery of four 105 mm cannon looking down Utah Beach; they parachuted into Holland during the Arnhem campaign; they were the Battered Bastards of the Bastion of Bastogne, brought in to hold the line, although surrounded, in the Battle of the Bulge; and then they spearheaded the counteroffensive. Finally, they captured Hitler’s Bavarian outpost, his Eagle’s Nest at Berchtesgaden. (read that paragraph again… the same group of guys did all of this… it’s unreal)…
They were rough-and-ready guys, battered by the Depression, mistrustful and suspicious. They drank too much French wine, looted too many German cameras and watches, and fought too often with other GIs. But in training and combat they learned selflessness and found the closest brotherhood they ever knew. They discovered that in war, men who loved life would give their lives for them.
This is the story of the men who fought, of the martinet they hated who trained them well, and of the captain they loved who led them. E Company was a company of men who went hungry, froze, and died for each other, a company that took 150 percent casualties, a company where the Purple Heart was not a medal — it was a badge of office…
I mean, come on… If that doesn’t make you want to read the book, I don’t know what will. After you read the book, you’re going to go through a mild obsession with the men of Easy Company and Major Dick Winters.
You’ll definitely devour the Band of Brothers special on HBO again, where Damian Lewis gives the most understated, unbelievable performance as Winters.
But then, you’ll want more… So here are a few pieces I’ve come across over the years to help you get your fix:
This ArtofManliness.com piece on Major Dick Winters is a must: Life Advice From Major Dick Winters
His obituary in the New York Times is damn good too: Winter’s NYT Obituary
There is a full interview/doc with the men of Easy Company available on YouTube here.
You might also like this book by Sergeant Don Malarky, who you’ll know well after reading Band of Brothers. His book is called Easy Company Soldier. His book focuses a little more on the battles, but adds some more details to several scenes and situations readers become familiar with in BoB.
And of course, you kind of have to read Beyond Band of Brothers, which are the war memoirs of the aforementioned Dick Winters. Though not as compelling a read as Band of Brothers, Winters is a really thoughtful, really smart guy, and this book tells BoB in his own words. It provides new details and some revealing looks into his mindset at several stages of the war.
And this article, explaining the vital and genius strategy at the Crossroads Battle is worth taking a look at, even if you’re not a military strategy buff: Crossroads Battle Map
And that should get you started on your journey to understanding the men of Easy Company on this 82nd anniversary of D-Day.
If you have a favorite book or resource that I missed, let me know here.
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Jon Finkel
Editor-in-Chief, Midlife Male
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