Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose is one of the finest unit histories ever written. But even the best books contain errors. At the end of Band of Brothers, Ambrose claimed that Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment was the first Allied unit to reach the town of Berchtesgaden, the site of Adolf Hitler’s expansive mountain home and the complex of surrounding buildings that comprised a veritable Nazi shrine. This complex is often referred to as the Obersalzburg, the Berghof, or the Eagle’s Nest. By way of clarification, the Berghof was Hitler’s home. The Obersalzburg was the general area around the home. The Eagle’s Nest refers to a special tea house, built for Hitler’s viewing pleasure, atop the highest spot on the mountain. He seldom went there, though.

The Band of Brothers book and miniseries portrayed Easy Company as the first outfit into Berchtesgaden, propagating a myth that still remains today. In point of fact, the Battle Patrol and 1st Battalion of the 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division reached Berchtesgaden first at 1558 hours on May 4, 1945. They were joined half an hour later by the regiment’s L Company. The 7th Infantry soldiers spread around the town, captured some 2,000 prisoners, and engaged in some minor looting of Hitler’s home and the surrounding buildings. Several of the soldiers held a champagne party atop the Eagle’s Nest, against a breathtaking Alpine backdrop. It was a triumphant moment for a regiment that had been fighting, almost continuously, for nearly two and a half years, since the invasion of North Africa. Their combat itinerary reads like a road map to Allied victory – Morocco, Sicily, Naples, the Gustav Line, Anzio, South France, the Rhone valley, the Vosges, Colmar, the Rhineland, and finally, southern Germany. The 7th Infantry remained in Berchtesgaden for about a day before moving on to occupation duty elsewhere. By this time, the 506th had arrived and was preparing to take over responsibility for occupying Berchtesgaden. Indeed, Colonel Robert Sink, commander of the 506th, even sat down with his old friend Colonel John Heintges, the 7th’s C.O., to work out details of the changeover.

I do not claim to be the first historian to debunk the Berchtesgaden myth. In the last several years, Charles Whiting, Arthur Mitchell and Florian Beierl have all attempted to set the record straight. Charles MacDonald, in the Army’s official history of the final campaign in Europe, correctly identified the 3rd Division soldiers as the first into Berchtesgaden. Collectively, the work of all these historians is excellent. But, the Berchtesgaden myth is tenacious, mainly because of the overwhelming popularity of Band of Brothers. So debunking that myth requires many voices. As the historian of the 7th Infantry Regiment, and the author of a new two volume series on the regiment’s combat history, I have researched the Berchtesgaden topic in substantial depth. In 2005, I published an article on my findings in World War II magazine. Since then, I have added fresh material to my original research and this is what appears in my new book American Courage, American Carnage: The 7th Infantry Chronicles, The 7th Infantry Regiment’s Combat Experience, 1812 through World War II. For instance, in culling the records of both the 506th and the 7th, I found extensive corroboration that the 7th infantrymen reached Berchtesgaden first. Colonel Sink himself even confirmed that in his May 1945 after action report as did General Maxwell Taylor, the 101st Airborne Division commander, in his memoirs. I do not mean to denigrate the fine record of Easy Company but, in the interest of fairness, those soldiers who achieved the prestigious conquest of Berchtesgaden should receive their proper laurels. Quite simply, those honors belong to the men of the 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division.

John C. McManus, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, US Military History
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Official Historian, 7th US Infantry Regiment

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