Richard Winters
(Warning extremely long post because its Winters. There’s a lot about Winters)
Richard Davis Winters was born on January 21, 1918 in New Holland, Pennsylvania. He was born to Richard and Edith Winters. His mother was from a Mennonite family but they never converted to their faith. He was an only child. At eight years old they moved into Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Richard recalls most of his childhood being in Lancaster.
Winters was terrified of going to school until junior high school. In these years, he started to show more leadership skills. For example, he was given a leadership opportunity (school’s crossing guard). He got this honor mostly because the Principal liked Winters more than most of his school. This was his first “leadership position”. Winters liked reading, geography, and athletics (such as football, basketball, and wrestling). He was in a baseball team and traveled around the state with his team.
At an early age, Winters admired Babe Ruth and Milton Hershey (yes. the chocolate bar man). He especially admired Hershey and his hard work. He would eventually work with the company and move to Hershey, PA.
He graduated Lancaster Boys High School in 1937. Afterwards, Winters went to Franklin and Marshall College. He worked several jobs to pay for his tuition (including painting high-extension towers). He graduated as one of the top in his class in business school. He earned a bachelor’s degree in science and economics by June 1941. He immediately volunteered for service on August 25, 1941 in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania. Like all leaders, he too started out a beginner. Winters describes himself as a private who had dedicated himself to one year and leaving.
Pearl Harbor shocked the world. The USA declared war. After this, Winters accepted he was in the Army for the long run. He applied to become a commissioned officer.
At Fort Benning, Winters observed and fell in love with the paratroopers. They were the best service men, the most train and fit in all of the units. Winters stated his need to be among the best the Army had to offer.
During his courses for OFC (Officer’s Candidate School), he met Lewis Nixon. “Nix” had been educated in Yale and MIT and entered service from New Jersey. Winters described Nix as a hard drinker, a free spirit who enjoyed the wild life and partied with the best of them. While Nix and Winters were complete opposites (Winters never drank or swore), they became close friends. Winters describes Nix as the “finest combat officer who he served with under fire” and“utterly dependable and totally fearless”. They graduated OCS on July 2, 1942. Nix shipped off to California and Winters had not received an assignment yet.
Winters was often frowned upon for his friendship and attachment to the enlisted men. His originally trained men of another platoon gave him a pen and pencil set to show their esteem and respect for Winters. Winters continued to befriend and strengthen his men,
Winters arrived at Camp Toccoa to train with the 506th Parachute Infantry. The 506th was under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Robert Sink on July 20, 1942. He arrived with Nix in mid-August. Winters was assigned to easy Company, 2nd Battalion. Easy was placed under the command of First Lieutenant Herbel Sobel. Sobel did not impress Winters as a field soldier but he still followed his part to make Easy the best. Winters experienced extremely tough training and Sobel was determined to make it hard for them. Winters stated that Sobel “made” Easy Company and his training helped them survive. Winters did not have a high opinion of Sobel, but gave credit to his training.
Winters received a promotion in October and he was now a First Lieutenant. This meant Winters was in charge of the company whenever Sobel was busy.
On October 30, Winters was ordered to check latrines at 1000 hours. Sobel changed this time to earlier without telling Winters. Winters demanded trial by court-martial. Those who were trying to start the mutiny invited Winters to a meeting. Winters went to try to talk them out of it but Sobel walked in on the meeting. Those that took part of the mutiny were given a lecture and either transferred or demoted. Sobel was eventually transferred and Meehan was given control over Easy. Later on, after Winters had been promoted to Major when he ran into Captain Sobel one last time. Sobel ignored him but Winters called out to him, “Captain, we recognize and honor the rank!” (Better known as, “Captain Sobel, we salute the rank, not the man.” Winters claimed he said it one way, Ambrose said it was another) Sobel reluctantly saluted him.
In the early September 1944, Easy sailed across the Atlantic. Winters and other men recalled how bad of a journey it was. There were accounts of it being filthy and having poor food. They arrived on September 15 and were transported to Aldbourne, England. Winters was living with the Barnes family in their house above their grocery store. They adopted Winters as a son and Winters enjoyed living with them.
Winters joined the men on their jump into Normandy. Meehan and his plane were shot down a few hours into their jump. The rest of Easy was spread out everywhere. Winters landed hard and lost all his weapons except a knife in his boot during the jump. He and a small group of other men made it safely to a nearby town where the rest of Easy Company regrouped. He was now in charge of Easy Company. He led a charge on a German battery, around 50 men strong, and won with only 13 men. For his actions he won the Distinguished Service Cross.
Guarnere remembered Winters and that charge. “ He was the first one out there, yelling, ‘Follow me!’ We knocked out a battery of four guns, 150 millimeters, that was firing on the kids coming on the shore. He got shot in the leg and still kept going. He saved the company a lot of times.”
In July, Winters was promoted to Captain.
In October, Winters took the position of the battalion’s executive officer. (This focuses more on day-to-day situations). Winters took part in Foy and the Battle of the Bulge. Winters played a large part of Battle of the Bulge. After Foy, and in March of 1945, Winters was promoted to major and put in charge of the battalion.
Another well-known event happened in October, although before he was the XO. On October 5, 1944, Winters reached the top of a hill (or dike) and saw a German soldiers on the other side. His group was greatly outnumbered but Winters ordered them to open fire. “ With 35 men, a platoon of Easy Company routed two German companies of about 300 men,” Ambrose wrote. Winters only lost one man and another 22 were injured. 50 Germans died, 11 were captured and led away by Liebgott, and more were wounded.
Lieb was known for treating prisoners roughly. Lieb had eagerly responded to the orders to take the men back. Winters demanded Lieb make sure all of the prisoners reached the HQ. Lieb didn’t like this at first but Winters made his point clear by pointing his rifle at him. He demanded Lieb empty his rifle and drop all of his rounds. Winters gave him one bullet and told him “you drop a prisoner, the rest will jump you.” Lieb brought them all back and Winters made sure of it by checking with Nix later that day.
In March, he was promoted to Major. Two weeks after his promotion, Germany surrendered. Easy set out from Thalham, Germany and arrived at Hitler’s retreat on May 5, 1945. They were the first to reach Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest and got dibs on lots of impressive loot. They were still there when the war ended three days later.
Winters received recommendation for the Medal of Honor. He received the second highest decoration instead. This was the Distinguished Service Cross. After Band of Brothers came out, he was recommended again but the idea died in 200.
After the war, Winters worked at Nix’s family business, Nixon Nitration Works. He had traveled with Nix to meet his parents and was offered a job in the company in 1946. He went back to school at Rutgers University. He attended refresher courses on business and personnel management. He became a manager there and earned $75 a week when he first started. He married Ethel on May 16, 1948. They had two kids. To his friends, he preferred to be called “Dick” and not Richard. Winters kept a lot of memoirs and research on all of Easy. He had separate profiles and stories for each man in the company. He even kept a list of the original group that had survived Sobel with him.
In 1951, he was recalled to active duty during the Korean War. He managed to get out of serving in combat. At first he took advantage of the reverse officers to have a six month delay in combat service He’d seen enough war. He was also allowed to resign right before he was sent overseas, which he took. He resigned from the military in Seattle.
He didn’t return back to Nixon’s family business and became a supervisor for a plaster mill in New Jersey. But in 1951, he bought a 106 acre farm in Pennsylvania. He rented out the farm house to an older lady. In 1955, he rented a home near Gettysburg, PA (author side note: now I see why we have a Band of Brothers shrine and most of his stuff. Yay Gettysburg!).
Winters and his family moved into their farm in 1960. In 1972, he opened his own company where he distributed animal health products and feed. He retired in 1997 after working with Hershey for many, many years.
In 1980, he had a reunion with Easy Company, after being too busy to attend one. He had written letters, called, and had visits with close friends from Easy Company men. The visits were normally of someone was passing through his local area. In 1988, he met with Stephen Ambrose. He had dedicated his second house in Hersey to recalling his wartime experience.
Winters was loved by all. He was the man they would’ve followed into hell if they had to. Easy Company adored winters, even gave him a gold plate at his first reunion. They wrote poems about him. He was a humble man, who always led his men from the front and made himself an example for them to follow.
Winters died January 2, 2011. He had lost the battle to Parkinson’s Disease after several years but he still remains adored by many. After his death, a statue of him, standing 12 feet tall, was placed on Utah Beach.
