5 Little Known Facts about Easy Company "Band of Brothers"

On April 11, 2007, Ronald Speirs, American Army officer and last CO of Easy Company 506th PIR, died at the age of 86. From the article:

"...Speirs

Captain Ronald Speirs retired from the military after a career spanning parts of three decades. Before serving in the 506th PIR, he led B Company before the invasion of Normandy and then D Company during the attack.

Because of the book and the series, most people know that Speirs played a part in the famous attack on Brecourt Manor, which knocked out a unit of German cannon that had been firing on nearby Utah Beach.

He became the E Company commander during an attack on Foy, Belgium which occurred during the Battle of the Bulge. He replaced an inept commander. For those who have watched the series but not read the book: he did indeed run through enemy fire and a mess of German soldiers to coordinate the attack.

He also came back the same way, under fire. However, it is unlikely that he killed the American sergeant and platoon of German POWs as hinted at in the series.

Speirs remained in the army after the war and was one of a handful of men to have made combat jumps in both WWII and Korea. In 1951, he dropped behind retreating North Korean troops as a rifle company commander in Operation Tomahawk. Speirs and his men killed 50 enemies during the operation.

He served in various capacities during the conflict, including as company commander and staff officer.

One “claim to fame” that is almost unknown came after he served as liaison officer to the Red Army in the mid-1950s. The German prison of Spandau near Berlin housed a very important prisoner: former Deputy Fuehrer, Rudolf Hess, who had flown to England on a strange mission in 1940.

Ostensibly, he had intended to foster peace between England and Germany, but he was disavowed by Hitler and not trusted by England. As a result, Hess was kept in prison on charges of war crimes from the end of the war until he died in 1987. Others, including Albert Speer (former Minister of Munitions, and Hitler’s favorite architect) were also kept there for at least part of their sentences.

The commandant of the prison was a rotating position. Each of the major WWII powers would take a turn. In 1958, it was Speirs’s turn. He had learned Russian after Korea, and his language skills were seen as a great advantage to the post.

He also had a long reputation of being a “no-nonsense” kind of guy. Albert Speer mentioned Speirs in his infamous memoirs as the “irritating American commandant.”

After that assignment, Speirs served as US military liaison to the Royal Lao Army just before American involvement in Southeast Asia grew into the Vietnam War. He retired from the army in 1964 as a lieutenant colonel...."