Reviews for In the Footsteps of the Band of Brothers: A Return to Easy Company's Battlefields with Sergeant Forrest Guth

The average rating for In the Footsteps of the Band of Brothers: A Return to Easy Company's Battlefields with Sergeant Forrest Guth based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-05-11 00:00:00 David Kinser Any fan of the 'Band of Brothers' will be rewarded by reading this book. I read this at the same time I read A Company of Heroes by Marcus Brotherton and they work very well together, as I mentioned in my review of that book. This is a travelogue and history of the 'Band of Brothers' experiences in World War II Europe enriched by the memories of Forrest Guth, who accompanied the author to most of the places covered. I really enjoyed the then-and-now approach to each location and the clarifying of information that either the original Ambrose book or HBO miniseries got wrong. The biggest (intentional for the miniseries) "mistake" was the fact that Webster didn't go along as the interpreter in the POW raid at Hagenau: it was Guth himself. A great book for fans to revisit and learn new facts or a great place to start for newcomers to this time in history. A couple of things to note: the book somewhat follows Guth's adventures and Easy Company battlefields, so the travelogue ends at Hagenau. The author tries to get away with not going further by saying he stuck only to battlefields, but he does have chapters on non-battle locales such as Camp Toccoa and Aldbourne, and even battles at which Guth wasn't present. It was disappointing that the book didn't cover all of Easy's trek through Europe but that's a small quibble. I did have more of a problem with the penultimate chapter, which had nothing to do with the rest of the book. It followed a different Easy Company, one in which his father-in-law belonged, and a different battle, and it feels shoehorned in. I understand it was personal to the author, and it was in the area of the trip overall, but to have it in front of the last chapter, it interrupted the flow and kind of forces the reader to read it. I wish it had been placed outside the narrative of the main story. Still, a great read.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-04-06 00:00:00 John Graham I listened to the audiobook of this and enjoyed it quite a lot. I was not aware of Forrest Guth as he was not depicted in the miniseries but I loved hearing his side of things. This particular story rehashes a lot of information from various other memoirs from men like Donald Malarkey, and Bill Guarnere and Babe Heffron. I still enjoyed the travelogue as Alexander and Guth visited the battlegrounds 60+ years later. I don't think this is the best Band of Brothers book but if you are like me and have read a bunch of the other books on this particular group of men from WWII I think you will still enjoy it.