Edward D. Shames, an American war hero who landed on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, has died at the age of 99 at his own home.
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Shames was the last living member of the so-called ‘Band of Brothers’, the group of elite soldiers and paratroopers about whom a book was published in 1992 and a miniseries on HBO in 2001.
Shames landed as a paratrooper in Normandy on June 6, 1944 and then took part in several Allied offensives. “Ed gained a reputation for being very stubborn and outspoken, demanding the highest standards of himself and of his fellow soldiers,” reads his obituary.
After Germany surrendered, Shames entered the Nazis’ Kehlsteinhaus in the state of Bavaria with his fellow soldiers. There, Shames found a number of bottles of brandy, the obituary reports, which were intended “only for the Führer.” Shames is said to have drunk the brandy at his oldest son’s Bar Mitzvah.
