Major Dick Winters Died last week.

Corporal Punishment · Jan 12, 2011

For those who don't know, he was one of the main charachters in the HBO series Band of Brothers. He was the real deal who fought and led men in some of the major land battles in Europe post D-day, such as D-day itself, Market garden and Bastogne. He was also one of the first Allied soldiers to enter Hitlers residence in the Bavarian alps.

One of his fellow officers, Lt Buck Compton, went on to become the District Attorney for Los Angeles and prosecuted the Charles Manson trial.

Ordinary men who did amazing things.

David Lee · Jan 12, 2011

Shame, quite some guy. Certainly played his part when it was needed

vireo · Jan 12, 2011

End of an era in many ways, but WW2 (and consequently D-Day) vets are passing on quickly. Wikipedia suggests that ...According the Department of Veterans Affairs, an estimated 2,583,000 veterans from WWII were still alive in September 2008 but dying at the rate of about 900 per day. This put the total living population at just over 2 million in November 2009.

Anyone with an interest in the Normandy landings will be aware of Winters and the exploits of the 101st Airborne in those months.

I think that the popularirty of the HBO series had driven him into a somewhat reclusive state in recent years, if only to escape from the 'fans' who wanted to meet/correspond with him

RIP Dick Winters