AIRBORNE: THE COMBAT STORY OF ED SHAMES OF EASY COMPANY

AIRBORNE: ED SHAMES OF EASY COMPANY          IAN GARDNER

Posted:  April 23, 2015

Colonel Ed Shames is that rare man who can call himself a true warrior. A member of Easy Company of Band of Brothers fame, Shames saw combat in some of the most ferocious battles of World War II. From jumping behind the lines of Normandy on D-Day with the 101st Airborne Division, to the near victory of Operation Market Garden, to the legendary stand at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, Shames fought his way across Europe and into Germany itself.

In Airborne Shames and writer Ian Gardner (Tonight We Die As Men) tell the gripping true story of what it was like to be at the spear point of World War II in Europe. Neither the book nor TV series of Band of Brothers ever showed the real Ed Shames. Although he started as a private, combat soon forged Shames into a tough and inspired leader who would win a battlefield commission in Normandy. Seeming always to be where the fighting was, his two goals were to prevail in each fight against the Germans, and to keep his men alive. “Shames, you are the meanest, roughest son of a bitch I've ever had to deal with. But you brought us home,” was what he considered to be the highest compliment he received from one of his men.

Even though he was wounded in the Ardennes, Ed Shames never stopped fighting until Germany surrendered and the war was won. He has never stopped being a warrior.   

HUBBY'S REVIEW:
     This is another story of the 101st 506, during WWII. This story follows along Ed Shames, from his early life to when he enlists and up to his training at Toccoa, Georgia, then to D-Day, Market Garden, their stand at Bastogne, to Hitler’s Eagles nest, to their duties before coming home after Germany surrendered and the bombs were dropped on Japan. The end of the book goes into what mister Shames did when he returned home and what happened to some of his fellow Troopers. A good story that goes into detail of each area and some of the men he was with. In each battle he gives you a different view that was not talked about in some of the other books that I have read. He talks about some of the men he was with that were killed or captured and what it was like the first jumping out of the plane on D-Day. He also goes into more detail of their defense of Bastogne and then the Battle of Hitler’s Eagle nest and the finding of Dachau, and after the battles were over becoming more of a police. After the surrender of Germany and the bombing of Japan he goes into coming home and starting life and family. A good book about the heroes of WWII. I got this book from net galley.  I give this 4 stars.