Band of Brothers

“Whatever their legitimate complaints about how life had treated them, they had not soured on it or on their country...[t]hey came out of the Depression with many other positive features. They were self-reliant, accustomed to hard work and to taking orders. Through sports or hunting or both, they had gained a sense of self-worth and self-confidence.” 

While the Germans were primarily professional soldiers, many of the men in Easy Company were civilians before the war. In this quote, Ambrose connects their lives as civilians before the war to their lives as soldiers during the war, underscoring his argument that certain aspects of American culture allowed a citizen civilian army to defeat Germany.

“The men were told that Currahee was an Indian word that meant ‘We stand alone,’ which was the way these paratroopers expected to fight. It became the battle cry of the 506th.”

The motto of the paratroopers connects them to the original site of their training, Camp Toccoa, located near CurraheeMountain. In addition, it highlights the elite status of the paratroopers in the U.S. Army. At the end of training, Colonel Sink modifiedthe motto by adding the word “together” to the end of it, thus emphasizing the importance of teamwork to that status and their survival (33).

“The results of the shared experiences was a closeness unknown to all outsiders. Comrades are closer than friends, closer than brothers. Theirrelationship is different from that of lovers. Their trust in, and knowledge of, each other is total.” 

While individual strength is typically seen as one the most important traits of heroism in American culture, this quote emphasizes the importance of Easy Company working together to achieve their accomplishments. 

“Anyone who has ever been in the Army knows the type. Sobel was the classic chickenshit. He generated maximum anxiety over matters of minimum.”

One of the important divides between upper leadership and the men they are tasked with leading is that the upper leadership at times seems more concerned about bureaucratic regulations than practical strategies for supporting enlisted men. Sobel, hated by many of the men he trained and later supplies, is an important symbol of this downside of military life.

“‘Officers go first.’”

An important theme in the novel is the nature of leadership. This motto reflects the leadership ethos of both Winters and Welsh, two men who lead their troops by example.

“The problems were designed…to teach the most basic thing an infantryman has to know: how to love the ground, how to use it to advantage, how the terrain dictates tactics, above all how to live on it for days at a time without impairment of physical efficiency. Their officers stressed the importance of such things, that it would make the difference between life and death, that the men must do it instinctively right the first time, as there would not be a second.”

Although “chickenshit” is denigrated by the men, training is not, especially prior to their first combat experience. Ambrose remarks time and again on how the excellent training of American troops like Easy Company allowed them to perform well in combat.

“No matter how hard you train, nor however realistic the training, no one can ever be fully prepared for the intensity of the real thing.”

Although training is designed to acclimate the men to acting in ways that will allow them to survive during, and win at, combat, only actual combat allows the true nature of war to become real to the men. In this quote and throughout the book, Ambrose contrasts the difference between ideas about war and the reality of war. 

“There were other factors, including the excellent training the company had received, and that this was their baptism of fire. The men had taken chances they would not take in the future.” 

Another important element of bravery as described here is inexperience. In this quote, Ambrose hints at what he later states explicitly, namely that being a good soldier is about getting the job done and accomplishing objectives, not engaging in risky or dramatic behavior.

“Lieutenant Welsh remembered walking around among the sleeping men, and thinking to himself that‘they had looked at and smelled of all around them all day but never even dreamed of applying the term to themselves. They hadn’t come here to fear. They hadn’t come to die. They had come to win.’”

One of the central challenges the men face is how to deal with the threat of death. In this early chapter, they deal with death by simply ignoring it and focusing on their objectives.

“Underlying the releaseof tension in London, orGordon’s feeble attempts at some humor, was the reality these men had faced and their apprehension about what they would be facing.”

The men’s attitudes toward death and their own mortality shift after they experience actual combat for the first time. Rather than ignoring death, they begin to worry about it.

“Once out of the line, back in arest camp, Lipton goes on, ‘they begin to think. They remember how their friends were wounded or killed. They remember times when they were inches or seconds from their own death. Far from combat, death and destruction are no longer inevitable–the war might end, the missions might be cancelled. With these thoughts men become nervous about going back in. As soon as they are back in, however, those doubts and that nervousness are gone. The callousness, the cold-bloodedness, the calmness return. Once more there’s a job to be done, the old confidence comes back, the thrill of combat returns, and the drive to excel and win takes over again.’…[i]f that sounds idealized, it can’t be helped; that is the way Lipton and many others in Easy Company…fought the war.”

In this quote,Lipton explains how the men begin to deal with the possibility of death. They compartmentalize their experiences by focusing on their jobs while in combat and allowing themselves to face their fears only once they are out of danger.

“AlmightyGod, we kneel to Thee and ask to be the instrument of Thy fury in smiting the evil forces that have visited death, misery, and debasement on the people of the earth…[b]e with us, God, when we leave from our planes into the dark abyss and descendin parachutes into the midst of the enemy fire.’” 

This regimental prayer is recited by the chaplain at the memorial service for the dead, after the action at Normandy. The emphasis on morality and the duty to fight against evil illustrates the moral imperative that motivated soldiers to fight during World War II.

“Webster recorded that it was always a pleasure to listen to Sink, because he had a sensible, realistic, humorous approach to combat. General Taylor was his opposite; in Webster’s opinion Taylor had a ‘repellently optimistic,’ cheerleading attitude. Colonel Sink knew the men hated to fight. Up to the end of the war, General Taylor persisted in thinking that his boys were anxious to kill Germans. ‘We preferred ColonelSink.’” 

This quote highlights the contrast between the gung-ho attitude toward warfare (more frequently found among upper leadership) and a more realistic attitude toward war as a necessary evil. Colonel Sink’s understanding of the difference is one of the reasons why his men have more respect for his leadership.

“Some men never get to the perception [that they will die and that the only way to avoid it is not to be on the front lines]; for others, it becomes almost at once. When it does come to a member of a rifle company in the front line, it is almost impossible to make him stay there and do his duty. His motivation has to be internal. Comradeship is by far the strongest motivator–not wanting to let his buddies down, in the positive sense, not wanting to appear a coward in front of the men he loves and respects above all others in the negative sense. Discipline won’t do it, because discipline relies on punishment,and there is no punishment the Army can inflict on a front-line soldier worse than putting him into the front-line.” 

Warfare forces soldiers to run toward situations that they would run away from in civilian life, especially if there is the threat of death. In this quote, Ambrose paraphrases Paul Fussell’s description of how soldiers rationalize going into combat. The desire to maintain the love and respect of his peers, in this account, is a primary motivation of soldiers.

“The men of Easy did not feel like conquering heroes.” 

One of the major fears of soldiers is that their sacrifices are futile ones. Easy Company’s deployment in Holland brought them close to a loss of morale because little was apparently accomplished on this front, despite their loss of several men. While the Dutch civilians cheered them as they departed Holland, Lipton notes here that the lack of progress in moving the line made their actions seem in vain.

“‘We weren’t particularly elated at being here. Rumors are that Krautsare everywhere and hitting hard. Farthest from your mind is the thought of falling back. In fact it isn’t there at all. And so you dig your hole carefully and deep, and wait, not for that mythical superman, but for the enemy you had beaten twice before and will again. You look first to the left, then right, at your buddies also preparing. You feel confident with Bill over there. You know you can depend on him.’”

Taken from the regimental scrapbook, this quote emphasizes the theme of comradeship and the important role it played as the men became increasingly worn down by the length of their deployments and the conditions in which they were fighting. 

“‘The elements of drama where they are–courage in the midst of surrounding panic and defeat; courage and grim humor in the midst of physical suffering, cold, and near-fatal shortages; the surrender demand in a four-letter-word rebuttal; and a real comradeship…[c]ourage in comradeship combined to develop a team that the Germans couldn’t whip.’” 

This quote from a book on Easy Company and the 101st highlights an important theme—the difference between civilian perceptions of war and the reality of war. While the men of the 101st did demonstrate heroism under trying conditions, the civilian narrative about their heroism is in partly rooted in the desire for a good story about the war. The reality is that their actions in Bastogne were a defensive measure, one that was, fortunately, successful in the midst of many battles that were not.

“Combat is a topsy-turvy world.”

A source of tension for soldiers as represented by Ambrose is the inversion of civilian values once they enter combat. While civilian ethics emphasize the value of life, care for the body, and respect for property, military life values and honors the exact opposites of those traits. Soldiers’ awareness of these contrasts, according to Ambrose and the source he quotes here, Combat Exhaustion, is a major cause of burnout the longer soldiers remain in combat. 

“The Americans established a moral superiority over the Germans.”

An important contrast in the book is between the civilian and military cultures of Germany and the United States. Ambrose (and many of the soldiers whose voices are represented in his book) argue that a civilian army like that of the U.S. was able to defeat a professional army like that of Germany because of the morality of their cause and aspects of American culture like openness.

“They knew each other at a level only those who have fought together in a variety of tactical situations can achieve, as only those who endured together the extreme suffering of combined cold, not enough food, and little sleep while living in constant tension could attain…[t]hey got through the Bulge because they had become a band of brothers.”

The hallmark of an effective army, as represented in this quote, an allusion to a famous quote about the nature of war from Shakespeare’s Henry V,is the ability to rely on your peers. The soldiers of Easy Company are united by their common experiences of combat. 

“[T]he averageG.I. found that the people he liked best, identified most closely with, enjoyed being with, were the Germans.”

One of the ironies of the later part of Easy Company’s deployment is their fascination with and taking advantage of the refinements of German culture and housekeeping. While most people would assume that the culture responsible for the Holocaust would be repugnant to the soldiers tasked with fighting against it, Ambrose makes the point that the material conditions of the soldiers in Germany—relatively comfortable ones in comparison to what American soldiers experienced elsewhere—shaped their judgment. This is one of the instances in which perspectives on war are shaped by pragmatic rather than explicitly moral ones.

“But although it was relatively small and designed to produce war goods, it was so horrible that it was impossible to fathom the enormity of the evil. Prisoners in their striped pajamas, three-quarters starved, by the thousands; corpses, little more than skeletons, by the hundreds.” 

A substantial shift in the attitudes toward German civilians occurs once the soldiers encounter hard evidence of the Holocaust. Winters forces citizens of the nearby town to clean up the site, indicating an indictment of the Germans as a people for the Holocaust. 

“‘It was a unique feeling,’ Winters recalled.‘You can’t imagine such power as we had. Whatever we wanted, we just took.’” 

Another unexpected aspect of the lives of soldiers is the looting that dominated their time in Germany and Austria. The looting is a prime example of the inversion of civilian morality by the imperatives of war. It also highlights the impact that power and might have on moral judgment.