Airborne - 9781472804853

Col. 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 WW2. 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 Gardiner (Tonight We Die as Men) tell the gripping true story of what it was like to be at the spear point of WW2 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 battle field commission in Normandy. Seemingly to always be where the fighting was, his two goals were to prevail in each fight with 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 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.