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Guarnere William - Brothers in Battle, Best of Friends

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Guarnere William Brothers in Battle, Best of Friends

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Tom Hanks introduces the remarkable(Publishers Weekly) story of two inseparable friends and soldiers portrayed in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers. William Wild Bill Guarnere and Edward Babe Heffron were among the first paratroopers of the U.S. Armymembers of an elite unit of the 101st Airborne Division called Easy Company. The crack unit was called upon for every high-risk operation of the war, including D-Day, Operation Market Garden in Holland, the Battle of the Bulge, and the capture of Hitlers Eagles Nest in Berchtesgaden. Both men fought side by sideuntil Guarnere lost his leg in the Battle of the Bulge and was sent home. Heffron went on to liberate concentration camps and take Hitlers Eagles Nest hideout. United by their experience, they reconnected at the wars end and have been best friends ever since. Their story is a tribute to the lasting bond forged between comrades in armsand to all those who fought for freedom.

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* In uniform, Hughes attracted many looks of admiration, especially from women.

B ROTHERS IN B ATTLE , B EST OF F RIENDS
B ROTHERS IN B ATTLE , B EST OF F RIENDS

Two WWII Paratroopers from the
Original Band of Brothers Tell Their Story

WILLIAM WILD BILL GUARNERE AND EDWARD BABE HEFFRON
with Robyn Post

Foreword by Tom Hanks

Picture 1

BERKLEY CALIBER, NEW YORK

THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Group Ireland, 25 St. Stephens Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.) Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore, 0745 Auckland, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

This book is an original publication of the Berkley Publishing Group.

Copyright 2007 by William Guarnere and Edward Heffron

All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the authors rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
BERKLEY CALIBER and its logo are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Guarnere, William.
Brothers in battle, best of friends : two WWII paratroopers from the original Band of brothers tell their story / by William Wild Bill Guarnere and Edward Babe Heffron with Robyn Post.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 978-1-1012-0757-4
1. Guarnere, William. 2. Heffron, Edward. 3. United States. Army. Airborne Division, 101st. Easy CompanyHistory. 4. United States. Army. Airborne Division, 101stBiography. 5. United States. ArmyParachute troopsBiography. 6. World War, 19391945Personal narratives, American. 7. World War, 19391945Regimental historiesUnited States. 8. World War, 19391945CampaignsWestern Front. 9. SoldiersUnited StatesBiography. I. Heffron, Edward. II. Post, Robyn. III. Band of brothers (Television program : 2001) IV. Title.

D769.346101st.G83 2007
940.54'12730922dc22
[B]

2007021056

For
Henry Guarnere
and the kids who never came home

CONTENTS

F OREWORD

Too often, war on film becomes a glamorous action movie. The horrors of battle look thrilling as heroes defy odds and cheat death. The bullets are blanks, the explosions are special effects, and the costumed actors wear made-up wounds in an art-directed fiction that is improbably cool.

Before the characters see combat, war can look like a long camping trip. Young men get into the best physical shape of their lives, make friends and laugh at every opportunity, then perform daring acts like jumping out of airplanes. Their camaraderie is the stuff of being young, being proud, and being a part of a great adventure. In the movies, the battle is when things get exciting. In real war, its when young men kill other young men.

The European Theater of World War II is particularly attractive, as London, Paris, and the Austrian Alps are some of the locales. The D-day invasion of Normandy had an understandable geography. The Battle of the Bulge was a pure drama with a surrounding, desperate enemy. Victory in Europe was definitive, marked by the time and the place and the party that followed. And everyone knows the alliance of Good Guys won the Good War.

In the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers , we producers held an ace up our filmmaking sleeve that helped span the divide between what actually happened and how it appeared on the screenthat was the book, a marvelous piece of history told by Stephen Ambrose, a great scholar and a dazzling storyteller. The details came straight from the mouths of the charactersand what characters they are.

Easy Company of the 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne was a collection of fascinating men. Some of them were taciturn, others hilarious. Some were country boys, others came from the biggest of cities. Most of Americas faiths were represented, including atheism. Some were accomplished ladies men, others so shy they passed the war with their virginity intact. Each of them faced the coming struggles with a priceless advantageeach other.

To single out one or two of these Screaming Eagles as the Most Super-Duper Paratrooper or the Best Source for a free beer on VE day would be a fools errand. But to fail to single out Bill Guarnere and Babe Heffron would overlook a grand entertainment and a stirring inspiration.

Wild Bill and Babe. Even their names beg the telling of their tale, like great ball players from the 1920s, or legendary lawmenor outlawsof the Old West. They are the guys who grew up just blocks from each other in Philadelphia, yet never met until they were in England. Babe, you see, walked a certain way, with a combination of a confident stride and a cocky bounce so Bill knew, just knew , this replacement trooper had to be from Philly. Guarnere was a veteran of the jump into Normandy and had already survived the killing, the misery, and the miles of bloody territory that would have to be taken before the war would end and he could go home. Heffron, newly assigned to Easy Company, was soon to fight in Operation Market Garden and barely survive the Battle of the Bulge. They were young, strong, oversexed, and over therejust the kind of heroes that history makes out of two guys from Philadelphia.

The true measure of what Bill and Babe experienced in the warwhat they lost and suffered, what challenges they faced and conqueredcould never be fully re-created in a miniseries for television, even in a thousand hours. The best we filmmakers could aim for was capturing a true portrait of who they were.

While shooting the fifth episode of Band of Brothers , the production was on the massive back lot, once an abandoned aerospace plant north of London, which we turned into Normandy, Holland, Belgium, Germany, and even Camp Toccoa, Georgia. Two units were filming simultaneously, with actors moving between episodesfrom one false battlefield to anotheroften on the same day.

Frank John Hughes, who played Wild Bill Guarnere, had a special duty that required his wearing his uniform/costume off the set. Looking exactly like an American paratrooper of 1944, complete with his set of jump wings, his pant legs bloused into his Corcoran boots, and a Screaming Eagle patch on his shoulder, Hughes reported to Heathrow Airport. VIP guests were due in from the United States, and he was to escort them to the movie set.

With a crisp salute at ramrod attention, the actor greeted Wild Bill Guarnere and Babe Heffron upon their return to England.

When the two veterans arrived at our version of Holland, word of their presence spread like wildfire, as if Elvis Presley and the Beatles were on the lot. Shooting stopped, the production offices emptied, and the cast and crew began flocking to the back lot on foot, in vintage army jeeps, on scooters and bikes. Everyone wanted to see the men themselves, the troopers whose stories we were telling, two of the band of brothers who jumped into hell on earth in order to save the world.

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