Aldbourne mourns 'Screaming Eagle'

Major Richard 'Dick' Winters, of the Screaming Eagles 'Easy' Company, has died aged 92

ONE of Aldbourne's adopted sons, Major Richard ‘Dick' Winters of the Screaming Eagles ‘Easy' Company, has died aged 92.

The US officer's legendary leadership was a central theme in the hit television series, Band of Brothers and his wartime career is documented in a book of the same name.

He died on January 2 at home in Pennsylvania following a long battle with Parkinson's disease.

Major Winters arrived in Aldbourne in September 1943 and always credited his time among the villagers with preparing him for the grim tasks ahead.

In his memoirs he related how he was befriended by, and later billeted with, Mr and Mrs Charles Barnes who ran the grocers stores.

A memorial plaque on a bench in the churchyard commemorates their first meeting and, following the war, Major Winters returned to the village and used his leave to help tend the Barnes' garden.

In subsequent interviews, Major Winters recalled how each evening, just before 9pm, Mrs Barnes would ask: "Lieutenant Winters, would you like to come down and listen to the news and have a spot of tea?"

He told US journalists: “Afterward Mr Barnes, who was a lay minister, would lead us in a short prayer. Then we would have a small treat and chat for a while. Then, at 10pm Mr Barnes would announce that it was time for bed. That ritual became so important. I'd found a home away from home.

“The day I first saw the Barnes couple they had been decorating the grave of their son, who was in the Royal Air Force and had been killed. They adopted me and made me part of the family. This helped me prepare mentally for what I was about to face. As I look back on the months before the invasion, my stay with the Barnes family was so important. They were giving me the best treatment they could; they gave me a home, which was so important for my maturing.”

In the early hours of June 6, 1944, Major Winters jumped out into flak-filled skies above Normandy.

He collected a handful of men from Easy Company and led the attack on a battery of four German guns which had been decimating American troops struggling off Utah Beach.

He and his men later helped hold the Bastogne area of Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge and he was promoted to major shortly thereafter.

Major Winter's company also successfully liberated a death camp at Dachau and fought through to Hitler's Eagle's Nest at Berchtesgaden.

Following his heroics during the D-Day invasion of Normandy, Major Winters won the Distinguished Service Cross.

He was buried in a private ceremony and arrangements are being made for a public memorial service.