The very last soldier of ‘Band of Brothers’ has died in America. Bradford C. Freeman lived to be 97 years old. In 1944 he helped to liberate Brabant from the German occupier.
The American was in the 101st Airborne Division, a paratrooper unit that was at various important moments and places during the liberation of Western Europe. In Normandy on D-day, in East Brabant during Operation Market Garden, the Ardennes Offensive and in the Eagle’s Nest where Hitler lived.
Bradford C. Freeman simply ‘Brad’ was born on September 4, 1924 in Mississippi. At the age of 18 he enlisted in the army and was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division, a paratroopers unit that was assigned to attack and carry out sabotage operations behind enemy lines.
guns
At the age of 19 he made the jump over Normandy: it was June 6, 1944 (D-day). By taking out German guns behind Utah Beach, they cleared the way for the ground army that came ashore via the beaches. After weeks of fighting, his unit was allowed to return to England to prepare for the next deployment.
That became the largest airborne operation of all time: Market Garden. Freeman was one of the first allied soldiers to land on Brabant soil on Sunday 17 September. Even more concrete: on the heath near Son. He had to get hold of the bridge over the Wilhelmina Canal intact near the village. But a few hours after the landings, the Germans blew up the bridge. In the interviews he gave later, he talked about that enormous disappointment.
Revenge
He also remembered how revenge was taken in Eindhoven on Dutch girls who had something to do with German soldiers. “They were shaved. We had to laugh about that.”
After the failure of Market Garden, Freeman was deployed to free a group of British soldiers who were trapped near Arnhem. He then ended up in the icy days of December in the Ardennes where he witnessed the last major counter-attack by Hitler’s Germany. Freeman was injured. He got a bullet in his leg.
After his life as a soldier, he started a family and was a postman for thirty years.
Steven Spielberg
Freeman was a mortar gunner and assigned to the 506th ‘parachute infantry regiment’† That regiment was again subdivided into companies, each of which had a letter. He came under E-company, better known as ‘easy company’.
The American historian Stephen Ambrose (1936-2002) became fascinated by the story of ‘Easy’ and turned it all into a book in 1992. That was rediscovered by Steven Spielberg in 2001 and made into a movie as ‘Band of Brothers’.
In response to the series, former commander Richard Winters (1918-2011) also came up with a book a few years later. Brad is mentioned once in it, when they are preparing for the German counterattack in the Ardennes.
Members of the 101st Airborne Division are probably still alive. But these are men who, for example, were only added to the unit at the end of 1944, so-called ‘replacements†
Last airborne liberator (99) and Band of Brothers officer passed away