THE LAST OF THE BAND OF BROTHERS
Born in Artesia, Mississippi, Bradford was one of eight children and lived on a 410-acre farm. He remembered that his childhood taught him the importance of hard work.
He went to the Mississippi State University and was pursuing his studies when the USA entered the Second World War. He promptly dropped out of university and signed up to the military.
Bradford signed up, training as a paratrooper alongside his brother.
He was posted to ‘Jump School’ (Camp Selby, Mississippi) for extremely rigorous training. When he qualified, aged nineteen, Bradford was sent to England. His brother was posted to the Pacific.
Bradford (known as ‘Brad’) joined the 101st Airborne Division, who had the nickname the ‘Screaming Eagles’. As part of this, Bradford was placed in the 506th Paratrooper Infantry Division and was assigned to E (Easy) Company, based at Albourne in Sussex. It was led by Flight Lieutenant Richard (‘Dick’) Winters.
Despite the difference in their ranks, Bradford and Winters became very close friends.
As Bradford was a college boy, Winters recommended him to Officers School. However, Bradford turned this opportunity down as he wanted to stay with the close-knit unit that E Company had become – the ‘Band of Brothers’.
E Company were dropped into Normandy for D-Day in June 1944.”They told us to go – so we went.”
As well as all the standard military equipment, Bradford had an eighteen-pound mortar strapped to his chest.
They were dropped behind Utah Beach and landed in a pasture full of cows. The man next to Bradford, his friend Lewis Lampos, broke his leg upon landing. Bradford hid Lewis’ parachute in nearby woods, dragged his friend into some bushes, gave him a loaded revolver and then informed army medics as to Lewis’ whereabouts – before he caught up with the rest of his unit.
They were directed to Brecourt Manor, three miles southwest of Utah Beach, where a German artillery battery was firing at American troops who were coming ashore. Other Allied units had attacked the enemy to no avail.
Led by Dickie Winters, E Company stormed the battery successfully. It has become one of the Second World War’s most renowned examples of when a small group of men manage to overrun a much bigger force.
Bradford said, “We had to take the place and get the big guns so that the enemy couldn’t interfere with the soldiers who were coming ashore…We happened to be fortunate enough to do it right, I reckon. We secured the area and let the Army come through. They had come ashore and now they got on with their business.”
E Company then put up a protective perimeter around Brecourt Manor. Bradford spent the rest of D-Day guarding the intersection.
Shortly afterwards, Bradford, alongside Sergeant Donald Malarky and Private Alton More, successfully stole a German motorcycle.
The other men in E Company nicknamed Bradford as ‘Hickory Nut’ – because ‘He was just that tough’.
Once D-Day was over, E Company were transferred to be involved in Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands.
Eighteen of them were selected to be part of Operation Pegasus, a plan to rescue 125 British paratroopers who had become stranded due to the failed airborne invasion by Allied forces.
Bradford tried to get out of this mission by claiming he could not swim. His commanding officer, Colonel Clarence Hester, told him, “No boy from Mississippi couldn’t swim.”
Their mission was successful. Shortly afterwards, Bradford was given a five-day pass to go on leave to Paris. He hated it so much he left the French city after just one night and returned to camp.
His company supported British forces around the city of Eindhoven, guarding the Dutch towns of Veghel and Uden.
Next, they were transferred to fight in freezing conditions at the Battle of the Bulge in January 1945. After being involved in the Siege of Bastogne, they were fighting near Noville, when Bradford was wounded. He was hit in the knee by a German rocket – a Nebelwefer (nicknamed by the Americans as a ‘Screaming Mimi’). “You can hear it coming, but you just can’t get out of the way.” The same projectile wounded another member of E Company, Ed Joint (from Pennsylvania), who was hit in the arm.
After Bradford was transferred to a military hospital, insult was added to injury when his colleagues told him that the German soldier who had fired at him was a teenage boy.
It was the last combat that Bradford was involved in.
He was in re-hab for three months before rejoining E Company in April 1945.
This was just in time for them to capture Berchtesgarden (in Bavaria) and Adolf Hitler’s retreat called the ‘Eagle’s Nest’. Then they participated in the occupation of Austria.
When E Company was disbanded in November 1945, Bradford chose to return home rather than continue with a military career. His journey was delayed for a fortnight due to a Merchant Marine strike.
Upon arriving back in the USA, Bradford was awarded the Purple Heart.
He resumed his college studies under the ‘GI Bill’ ( a plan to give ex-servicemen education or a job).
In 1947, Bradford married his childhood sweetheart, Willie Louise Gurley, whom he had met at the age of five. They went on to have two daughters.
Bradford got a job as a mailman for the US Postal Service, a position he held for the next thirty – two years. He also continued working on the family farm.
He maintained a close friendship with Dick Winters, and the two men visited each other frequently.
However, for many years Bradford did not talk about his wartime experiences. “My folks didn’t seem much interested in what we did in the war, so we didn’t talk about it too much.”
The Band of Brothers came to national (and international) attention when Stephen Ambrose wrote a book about them in 1992. Bradford contributed to the book but, “I had little to say.”
He added, “There was a lot in the book that I knew nothing about.”
In 2001, there was an Emmy-winning TV series about them, directed by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg. Bradford was a consultant for the battle scenes.
He is played by James Farmer – although it is a non-speaking role.
He said, “It shows ordinary people doing extraordinary things.”
Bradford’s wife, Willie, died in 2008.
The following year, he attended a reunion of the surviving Band of Brothers held in England. It started at Stansted Airport; the airfield they had left Britain from on D-Day.
Then they were invited to Buckingham Palace for a presentation with Prince Charles.
E Company made the prince an honorary member. Bradford said, “He said he had been up in a hot air balloon once. I guess that makes him a paratrooper.”
Bradford received many awards, including the Legion d’Honneur. He was also invited back to Normandy in 2019, for the 75th anniversary of D-Day.
Bradford started giving talks about the war to schools in Mississippi.
In 2021, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, gave him a presentation of a commemorative coin on Bradford’s front lawn. In response, Bradford said, “I don’t know how to tell you how I appreciate it, but I didn’t do anything that I wasn’t expected to. I just listened to my officer and I did what he said.”
Bradford added, “Me and my buddies did a job for America…Now it’s time for new faces to take up the case.”
Also in 2021, Edward D. Shames died – the last officer from E Company. This meant Bradford was the sole survivor from the Band of Brothers.
Really Interesting People – EDWARD D. SHAMES, aged 99
Bradford died in Columbus, Mississippi, aged 97. His daughters said, “Our Dad was always astounded that a country boy from Mississippi was able to see so many places and meet so many interesting people.”
A family friend described Bradford as, “A kind, generous and humorous gentleman.”
He is survived by one of his sisters.
RIP – Rocket Injured Paratrooper
