Band of Brothers [Version coupée, Livre audio, CD] [Anglais] [CD]

As grippingly as any novelist, preeminent World War II historian Stephen Ambrose tells the horrifying, hallucinatory saga of Easy Company, whose 147 members he calls the nonpareil combat paratroopers on earth circa 1941-45. Ambrose takes us along on Easy Company's trip from grueling basic training to Utah Beach on D-day, where a dozen of them turned German cannons into dynamited ruins resembling "half-peeled bananas," on to the Battle of the Bulge, the liberation of part of the Dachau concentration camp, and a large party at Hitler's "Eagle's Nest," where they drank the madman's (surprisingly inferior) champagne. Of Ambrose's main sources, three soldiers became rich civilians; at least eight became teachers; one became Albert Speer's jailer; one prosecuted Bobby Kennedy's assassin; another became a mountain recluse; the despised, sadistic C.O. who first trained Easy Company (and to whose strictness many soldiers attributed their survival of the war) wound up a suicidal loner whose own sons skipped his funeral.

The Easy Company survivors describe the hell and confusion of any war: the senseless death of the nicest kid in the company when a souvenir Luger goes off in his pocket; the execution of a G.I. by his C.O. for disobeying an order not to get drunk. Despite the gratuitous horrors it relates, Band of Brothers illustrates what one of Ambrose's sources calls "the secret attractions of war ... the delight in comradeship, the delight in destruction ... war as spectacle." --Tim Appelo --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

The men of E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne, volunteered for this elite fighting force because they wanted to be the best in the army--and avoid fighting alongside unmotivated, out-of-shape draftees. The price they paid for that desire was long, arduous, and sometimes sadistic training, followed by some of the most horrific battles of World War II. Actor Cotter Smith--a veteran of numerous TV movies and Broadway plays--spins Stephen Ambrose's tale with almost laconic ease. Anecdote by anecdote, he lets the power of the story build. By the time the company has gotten through D-day and seized Hitler's Eagle's Nest in Bavaria, we feel we know as much about the men and their missions as we do about our own brothers. (Running time: 5 hours, 4 cassettes) --Lou Schuler --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Cassette .

Ambrose ( Pegasus Bridge ) narrates in vivid detail the adventures, misadventures, triumphs and tragedies of a single U.S. Army infantry company over its span of organizational life. Formed in July 1944 and deactivated in November 1945, E Company was one of the most successful light infantry units in the European theater. Its troops saw their first action on D-Day behind the Normandy beachhead, took part in Operation Market Garden in Holland, held the perimeter around Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, and were the first to reach Hitler's Bavarian outpost at Berchtesgaden. The book is enlivened with pertinent comments by veterans of "Easy Company," who recall not only the combat action but their relations with their officers (one company commander was a petty tyrant of the worst type, but his oppressive ways had much to do with the unit's impressive esprit de corps ) and their impressions of the countries through which they campaigned (hated the French, loved the Germans). This is a terrific read for WW II actions buffs. Photos. Military Book Club main selection; Literary Guild alternate.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

Ambrose is a distinguished historian primarily known for his Eisenhower and Nixon biographies, as well as for studies of World War II. Both of these presentations feature his attempt to get at the hearts and minds of foot soldiers, as well as their leaders. There is some ghastly detail from combat scenes but also a great deal of information on strategy, tactics, and failures; Eisenhower, for example, built well upon early miscalculations that cost many lives. Hitler, Bradley, Patton, Montgomery, and many others stride across Ambrose's detailed canvas. Reader Cotter Smith has a youngish voice and reads with careful deliberation, neither dramatizing the text nor dulling it. For popular history collections.ADon Wismer, Cary Memorial Lib., Wayne, ME
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Cassette .

This bestselling title chronicles Company E of the 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, from its birth in 1942 until its disbandment in 1945. It is a wonderful tale of bravery, horror, sacrifice, and the things that make the American soldier the best in the world. Although we are told the context of the war in which these men fought, this is primarily a story of men in battle. Tim Jerome ably reads this work. His strong voice is clear, moving at a steady, but unhurried, pace. Sometimes he will effect specific voices for quotations, which he does well. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

With his multivolume biographies of Eisenhower and Nixon now complete, Ambrose (History/Univ. of New Orleans) returns to military affairs (Pegasus Bridge, 1985, etc.) with this spirited account of one of the Army's crack WW II units. The 101st Airborne was ``the most famous and admired of all the eighty-nine divisions the United States Army put in the Second World War,'' Ambrose notes. One unit in the ``Screaming Eagles,'' Easy Company, was an elite group of paratroopers, self-confident survivors of a grueling physical regimen, adept in the use of weapons, and ready to fight for each other to the death. Ambrose traces how the group's esprit de corps was molded in boot camp under a martinet commander, then at Normandy's Utah Beach, in the disappointing Arnhem campaign in the Netherlands, in the Battle of the Bulge, and in the triumphant liberation of Hitler's Bavarian lair. Ambrose's writing style has all the elegance of a Sherman tank, but it really doesn't matter: the story of this company is riveting. The author captures many of the representative moments in a WW II soldier's career: the fear that, under some of the most intense shelling of the war, one may be approaching a breaking point; the suffering of freezing overnight in a foxhole while going hungry and without a bath in days; the elation of survival and success; disgust with commanders either inept or arbitrary; and a sense of brotherhood like that felt with nobody else in life. Hard-nosed, yet ultimately a celebration of grace under pressure in ``the Good War.'' (Sixteen pages of b&w illustrations- -not seen.) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

Publishers Weekly This is a terrific read for WWII action buffs. --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Broché .

Easy Company, 506th Airborne Division, U.S. Army, was as good a rifle company as any in the world. From their rigorous training in Georgia in 1942 to D-Day and victory, Ambrose tells the story of this remarkable company, which kept getting the tough assignments. Easy Company was responsible for everything from parachuting into France early D-Day morning to the capture of Hitler's Eagle's Nest at Berchtesgaden.

Band of Brothers is the account of the men of this remarkable unit who fought, went hungry, froze, and died, a company that took 150 percent casualities and considered the Purple Heart a badge of office. Drawing on hours of interviews with survivors as well as the soldiers' journals and letters, Stephen Ambrose tell the stories -- often in the men's own words -- of these American hereoes.

A look at the men of E Company describes how they parachuted into France early D-Day morning, parachuted into Holland in the Arnhem campaign, and captured Hitler's Bavarian outpost. 35,000 first printing. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.