Dick Winters Leadership Analysis
Richard “Dick” Winters was a well-known and decorated United States Army Officer, serving in a command capacity during World War II. During this war, he rather quickly gained command of Company E, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, and not too very long after gained command of the entire 2nd Battalion. (Ambrose,154). With the 506th PIR being an experimental Regiment at the time, Winters was an excellent example of the type of leadership that the US Army, and especially the airborne division, could create. Omar Bradley wrote an excellent essay on the qualities of effective leadership, many of which can be seen in Steven Ambrose’s portrayal (in his book, Band of Brothers) of Dick Winters’ throughout his European campaign between June of 1944 and July of 1945. This is especially true of Winters’ character. While I am certainly not qualified to rate him as a military leader from a military point of view, I do believe that Winters was an excellent leader of men.
According to Bradley, good leaders must identify and train other leaders, and realize that he cannot always lead alone (Bradley, 8). Easy Company’s success throughout the war cannot only be attributed to Winters. Critical in their operations was the efficiency and integrity of their non-commissioned officers, the men who led the soldiers much of the time. The best and most beloved of these “non-coms” were all men who had been taught under Winters all throughout their training. Winters played an obvious role in their development. "We couldn't believe that people like Winters, Matheson, Nixon, and the others existed…These were first-class people, and to think these men would care and share their time and efforts with us seemed a miracle. They taught us to trust." Winters turned our lives around” (Ambrose, 22). While Winters could not have been solely responsible for the excellence of those other leaders within Easy Company, his leadership style and performance clearly was a great motivator for their own ways of leadership. “He was an officer who got the men to perform because he expected nothing but the best, and you liked him so much you just hated to let him down” (Ambrose, 23). Bradley states that good leaders must understand the human limits of those they lead, and that people should be treated as people, not like machines (Bradley, 10). Winters always looked after the well being of his men. This was already evident around the end of 1942, before they had even left the states, when at one point on a 100 mile march, Pvt. Malarkey could not even stand up from a laying position. Winters saw his condition and told him to ride in an ambulance the rest of they way. Malarkey, not wanting to let his platoon leader (Winters) or his comrades down, decided he could finish the walk. This was the kind of resolve inspired by Winters. A more questionable instance of his commitment to his men was illustrated nearer the end of the war, in February of 1945. Everyone could feel the end nearing, and resolved to take as few risks as possible (Ambrose, 245). Winters was ordered to send out a patrol on a perfectly clear night across frozen, and therefore loud, terrain. He felt this was unnecessary and overly dangerous, and disobeyed direct orders. He told his men not to go on patrol, and just report that it was unsuccessful (Ambrose, 234-35). This action was extremely out of character for Winters, and only his devotion to his men could have led him to do that. Possibly two of Bradley’s most important qualities for a good leader is for that leader to have self-confidence and not be shaky in their resolve (Bradley, 11), as well as to lead by example and instill confidence in his followers. Winters would have agreed with these even before deployment into the war. He had always felt that "Officers go first," (Ambrose, 38). He clearly showed his commitment to this principle as well as his self-confidence in Easy’s first few operations during 1944. Having been in charge of a platoon since training (Ambrose, 29), Winter’s (unknowingly) took over command of Easy Company during the invasion of Normandy, as the previous commander was considered missing in action (Ambrose, 92). With E Company’s first couple of operations going extremely well, in part thanks to Winters’ leadership, they had been given orders to move into Carentan (Ambrose, 94). While moving up a straight-shot road to the town, a machine gun opened fire on his platoon, pinning them down in ditches on either side of the road. With his men frozen by fear and exposed, Winters knew he had to get them moving, so he ran out into the road, ignoring the machine gun firing at him. He kicked his men and yelled at them to get moving. As none of those men had ever heard him shout before, and they all saw him standing exposed in the road, they finally got moving (Ambrose, 95-96). One of his men later wrote to Winters of that moment, saying, "I'll never forget seeing you in the middle of that road. You were my total inspiration. All my boys felt the same way" (Ambrose, 96). While Bradley lists several more qualities of good leadership, there is not room to discuss them here, and the above listed ones are some of those that, I at least, found to be vital. The effect that Dick Winters’s character had on the men of Easy Company, as well as others, is evident throughout Ambrose’s book. While every man involved contributed to their overall success, it can safely be said the Winters made up a good part of the backbone of Easy Company. He took the skills that he had learned while watching Easy grow and commanding them in combat, and applied them to his battalion leadership. To reference Bradley one last time, “The greatness of a leader is measured by the achievements of the led” (Bradley, 7). The achievements of the men under the command of Richard Winters, therefor, must speak volumes to his effectiveness as a successful leader.