Thursday, January 13, 2011

"We band of brothers"

Major Richard "Dick" Winters - the original American Paratrooper who with his Easy Company comrades was featured in the superb book and film "Band of Brothers" died recently.

He lived to a ripe old age of 92 despite the awful combat experiences he had gone through in his youth.  He had however been ill for several years with Parkinston Disease.

Not only did they survive being parachuted into France on D Day and the Battle of the Bulge but he and his comrades also took part in the liberation of a German concentration Camp.  After which he said to himself "Now I know why I am here".

Richard had originally enlisted in the Army as a private and after the War turned down the offer to be a regular soldier to return to civilian life.

I posted this in 2009.  Hat-tip Harry's Place

"And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by, From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be remembered- We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother" Henry V

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