Jared Frederick

II finished Fierce Valor: The True Story of Ronald Speirs and His Band of Brothers by Jared Frederick and Erik Dorr. Previously, I read Hang Tough: The World War II Letters and Artifacts of Major Dick Winters, which they also co-wrote.

For some Ronald Speirs is unknown, one of the many unknown soldiers who fought World War II, for other he is a lesser known figure of Stephen Ambrose’s Band of Brothers book and the longest serving company commander of Easy Company of the 506, who is known show more mostly for his portrayal in HBO’s Band of Brothers as the lieutenant who shot German POW’s.

Whatever your knowledge of Lieutenant later, Captain Ronald Speirs of Easy Company, Jared Frederick, and Erik Dorr pealed back layers of the onion to provide a fuller and more fleshed biography of him. A Toccoa man who transitioned from leadership of Dog Company to Easy Company in a quick decision by Captain Dick Winters when it was failing under the leadership of Lieutenant Norman Dike to thrive and advance at a critical time in battle. Speirs took over and never released leadership of the company until the end of World War II in Europe. He later went on to serve in Korea, Laos and Europe where he was placed in charge of Spandau Prison and later finished his service during the Cold War of the 1960’s and left the army as a colonel.

He was an strong leader, an enigma of a man who might or might not have shit German POW’s and definitely admitted to having to shoot one of his sergeants when he was drunk and insubordinate in battle in Europe. He shied away from the limelight but as seen with others such as George Patton was one of those men who could have lived under glass with the instructions break glass in case of war.

He engaged in 4 combat jumps, Normandy for D-Day, Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands, Operation Tomahawk in the Korean War as a member of the 187th Regimental Combat Team and as part of of an airborne assault on North Korea in October, 1950..

A solid 4 star book, under 300 pages of reading, which sheds light on a often misunderstood and largely unknown soldier. show less

4/5
Very good if some of the stuff is a bit unbelievable. That’s the hard part of making a book about someone who won’t talk about it.