Story Line
Airborne: The Combat Story of Ed Shames of Easy Company is written by Ian Gardner, a British military historian and former paratrooper, in close collaboration with Col. Edward “Ed” Shames. Shames was a member of the famous Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division—“Band of Brothers”—and fought in some of the fiercest battles in Northwest Europe, from D‑Day through Operation Market Garden, the Ardennes, and into Germany
This non‑fiction World War II history is a combat biography of Ed Shames and, through his story, a portrait of the 101st Airborne in action. Starting with his enlistment and airborne training, it follows Shames as he serves in the 3rd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, jumps into Normandy on D‑Day, fights in Operation Market Garden, endures the winter siege of Bastogne, and advances into Germany, where he becomes the first member of the 101st to enter Dachau concentration camp after its liberation.
Gardner blends Shames’s personal recollections with archival research and accounts from other veterans, setting individual episodes—small‑unit fights, patrols, village battles—against the wider operational context. The book emphasizes Shames’s reputation as a tough, demanding leader, his close relationships within Easy Company, and the psychological as well as physical toll of sustained combat, offering an engrossing, ground‑level look at one of World War II’s legendary airborne soldiers.
