Publisher, Blackstone Audiobooks (April 2006)

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"Winters tells the tales left untold by Stephen Ambrose, whose Band of Brothers was the inspiration for the HBO miniseries...." —Publishers Weekly

"A poignant, riveting story with timeless application to the study of leadership in war." —Colonel Lance Betros, Chairman, Department of History, U. S. Military Academy, author of West Point

In war, great commanders lead soldiers into hell to do the impossible.

They were called Easy Company—but their mission was never easy. Immortalized as the Band of Brothers, they suffered 150 percent casualties while liberating Europe, an unparalleled record of bravery under fire. Dick Winters was their commander, “the best combat leader in World War II” to his men. This is his story, told in his own words for the first time.

On D-Day, Dick Winters parachuted into France and assumed leadership of the Band of Brothers when their commander was killed. He led them through the Battle of the Bulge, the attack on Foy—where Easy Company reached its breaking point—and into Germany, by which time each member had been wounded. Outside Munich, they liberated an S.S. death camp from the horrors of the Holocaust and captured Berchtesgaden, Hitler’s alpine retreat. Briefly on active duty during the Korean War, Winters then lived on a small Pennsylvania farm and was a highly successful businessman. Made famous by Stephen Ambrose’s Band of Brothers, he is a hero in a world hungry for heroes. Beyond Band of Brothers is Winters’s memoir, based on his wartime diary, but it also includes his comrades’ untold stories. Virtually all this material is being released for the first time. Only Winters was present from the activation of Easy Company until the war’s end. He explains the cohesion behind the Band of Brothers and the comradeship that is war’s only redeeming quality, the debilitating effect of combat, the horror of seeing friends killed and wounded, and the key qualities that have made him a role model of cool-headed leadership under fire and a recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross.

Neither a protest against war nor a glamorization of combat, this is a moving tribute to the human spirit by a man who earned the love and respect of the men of Easy Company and the adulation of new generations worldwide.

About the Authors: Major Dick Winters was born in Pennsylvania in 1918 and graduated from Franklin & Marshall College in 1941. Released from military service in November 1945, he returned briefly to active duty during the Korean War, then spent his life on a small Pennsylvania farm and was a successful businessman.

Colonel Cole C. Kingseed is a thirty-year Army veteran and the author of several articles and books on corporate and military leadership.