Band of Brothers Brief Summary of Beyond Essay

Band of Brothers

Brief Summary of Beyond Band of Brothers

The book "Beyond Band of Brothers" has been written by the commander of the army, Dick Winters. Winters and his team was referred to as the Easy Company. However, the mission that they were trying to accomplish was far from being easy. Commemorated as the Band of Brothers, Winters and his soldiers suffered 150% casualties while they tried to liberate the European region. The way that Winters led his army and the way they fought the war is an unparalleled example of bravery. Many historians claim that commanders like Winters are very rare and they believe that he was the best leader of the forces during the World War II. He told his story and explained his experiences of the combat in this book.

On the day of the commencement of the combat, Dick Winters landed into France and took control of the Band of Brothers as their commander after their former leader was killed. He guided them throughout the Battle of the Bulge and then also led the army when it entered Germany. By this time, most of the soldiers of his army had been wounded. Even though the content of this book is not any different from what other historians have stated about the World War II, this book contains the untold stories of the comrade. The way the writer has penned down the incidents of the war, they truly pay tribute to the kind of human spirit that was possessed by the soldiers of his army and him during the times of war.

Apart from just getting inspired from the bravery of men and the human spirit, this book has more to offer. There is no doubt in the fact that Winters was an outstanding commander and leader. He used his experience and expertise to list some of the principles of becoming a successful and effective leader. The discussion of all these principles is beyond the scope of this paper, however we shall bring into limelight one of the principles stated by Winters.

Principles for the Selfless Leader

The ten principles that have been listed by Dick Winters in his war memoir can be used as a leadership model.In this part of the paper, we shall be discussing one of these principles in depth. We will discuss how this one principle was used by Dick Winters throughout the war and how it helped him and his army to overcome the problems that emerged during the battle. One of the ten principles that we shall be focusing on is "strive to be leader of competence, courage and character" (Winters, 2008).

The aforementioned principle might sound quite simple to follow, but in fact it is one of the most difficult principle to stick to and especially when one is being tested under fire.

Winters joined the U.S. military in the year 1941. From the very beginning, he was considered to be a man of character. Even his fellow paratroopers were also men who had received training of manhood from their fathers who belonged to the culture of 19th of century, which gave them a lesson of preserving their morality and values irrespective of the circumstances. When Winters was training in Georgia, he sought for men who possessed a tough mind. However, he was not aware that he will have to lead these men for such a long period of time. The combat training prepared the boys who were immortalized as the Easy Company for a mission in Normandy that was rather deadly. This meant that they had to be a part of a fierce battle and fighting for three days with an anticipated casualty rate of 80%. When the duration of the mission was expanded to months from days, the lesson of courage and manhood given by Winters to his soldiers made it possible for the Easy Company to get through hardship that cannot be even imagined. Even though Winters witnessed his men and soldiers bleed to death throughout the war, he did not lose focus of the main objective and kept on moving ahead with increased courage and consistency. He inspired the soldiers to think like men, act like men, fight like men, be patient like men and if the times comes to be ready to give their lives like men. Winters kept on fighting courageously and leading his army though Europe. Throughout the war, he made sure that his real.....