Monday, January 10, 2011

Major Dick Winters 1918-2011

The man who was later to be immortalized as the main character in the acclaimed HBO miniseries 'Band of Brothers', Major Dick Winters, has died at the age of 92.

Major Winters led Easy Company (later 2nd Battalion), 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division in World War II. Easy Company was part of the Airborne spearhead on  D-Day. It campaigned in France, in the Low Countries as part of  Operation Market Garden, helped stop the last Nazi counteroffensive in  the Ardennes, liberated a concentration camp inside Germany and was finally assigned to capture Hitler's retreat in the Alps at Berchtesgaden, otherwise known as Eagle's Nest.

Major Winters was buried last weekend in a private ceremony. He had apparently been in failing health for some time.

The man who, like so many others of his generation, fought so valiantly for peace has finally found his own peace eternal. Rest in peace, sir.



H/T Wretchard @ Belmont Club

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