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Brothers in Battle, Best of Friends
by William Guarnere, Edward Heffron with Robyn Post
Veterans of Easy Company, the subject of the acclaimed
Brothers in Battle, Best of Friends recounts the story in the own words of two World War II veterans, William “Wild Bill Guarnere” and Edward “Babe” Heffron. Guarnere and Heffron were made famous by the book and HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, which told the story of the paratroopers in Easy Company, a unit in the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army.
After journalist Robyn Post interviewed the two veterans for a magazine article in 2001, Post realized that her interview transcripts provided her with enough material for a book, the result of which was Brothers in Battle, Best of Friends.
In the audiobook version, Dick Hill reads the unabridged text, doing a superb job as he alternates between the two men’s voices, capturing their South Philly accents while allowing the listener to differentiate between who is speaking. Listening to the audiobook is often like listening to the two elderly men telling the stories of their lives and wartime experiences in casual conversation. At times, one of the men will even chime in on something the other has said. We learn about Guarnere and Heffron’s childhoods and hear stories, some humorous, some emotional, about their training for the paratroops, their combat experiences, and their post-war lives.
The veterans hope that by sharing their World War II experiences, people will learn about their history and see that war is not glorified or heroic. Actor and history buff Tom Hanks, an executive producer of the Band of Brothers miniseries, contributed a foreword for the book while actors Robin Laing and Frank John Hughes, who respectively played Heffron and Guarnere in the miniseries, spoke about their friendships with the veterans they portrayed in the book’s epilogue.
Title: Brothers in Battle, Best of Friends
Author: William Guarnere, Edward Heffron with Robyn Post
Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc.
ISBN: 978-0425217283
Review written by: Jessica Chung
Reviewer's Rating:9
Reader's Rating: 0
Reader's Votes: 0
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