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Richard Winters Dies at 92; Led ‘Band of Brothers’

Richard Winters, the commanding officer of Easy Company, the Army unit whose gritty combat from the beaches of Normandy to the capture of Hitler’s mountain retreat was recounted in the book and television series “Band of Brothers,” died Jan. 2 in Campbelltown, Pa. He was 92 and lived in Hershey, Pa.

His death was confirmed by Nikki Soliday, executive director of the Hershey-Derry Township Historical Society, which maintains an exhibit of Mr. Winters’s war memorabilia, including the tiny silk map of Normandy sewn into his uniform pants on D-Day and silverware taken from Hitler’s retreat.

Rising from lieutenant to major, Mr. Winters was commander of Company E, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, from D-Day to V-E Day. Dropped behind enemy lines hours before Allied forces landed on Utah Beach at dawn on June 6, 1944, the unit went on to fight in the Battle of the Bulge, through German towns and villages and ended the war by joining in the capture of Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest at Berchtesgaden, Germany, near the Austrian border....
Read entire article at NYT