Hang Tough: The WWII Letters and Artifacts of Major Dick Winters

Historian Jared Frederick returns with a personal look at WWII hero, Dick Winters, made famous in the Band of Brothers book and mini-series. Through Winters’ war-time letters, diary, private photos, and personal artifacts, we begin to see the private man behind the reserved, heroic leader.

Frederick points out some striking parallels between Dick Winters (WWII) and Joshua L. Chamberlain (Civil War), in their backgrounds, their war-time experiences, and their subsequent celebrity.

In the 2020 book, Hang Tough, co-authors Jared Frederick and Erik Dorr, have probed military reports, postwar reminiscences, and war-time correspondence to share a rich story of one man’s journey from stateside training to the hedgerows of Normandy.

Jared Frederick is an assistant teaching professor at Penn State University in Altoona. He is the author of numerous books on the Civil War and WWII, creator of the YouTube channel, “Reel History,” an artist, and a frequent commentator on television documentaries. Co-author Erik Dorr is curator of the Gettysburg Museum of History, which houses numerous artifacts from Dick Winters and Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the of the 101st Airborne Division.

Hang Tough: The WWII Letters and Artifacts of Major Dick Winters is available online and at the Gettysburg Museum of History.