1. William Guarnere was portrayed in the 2001 HBO miniseries Band of Brothers by Frank John Hughes.
29 Facts About William Guarnere
1. 2.
William Guarnere was born in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on April 28,1923.
3.
William Guarnere joined the Citizens Military Training Camp program during the Great Depression, gaining entrance at age 15 because his mother told the government her son was two years older.
4.
William Guarnere spent three summers in the CMTC, which took four years to complete.
5.
William Guarnere's plan was to complete training and become an officer in the United States Army.
6.
William Guarnere switched to the night shift and returned to school, earning his diploma in 1942.
7.
However, on 31 August 1942, William Guarnere enlisted in the military and started training at Camp Toccoa, Georgia.
8.
William Guarnere was assigned to Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division.
9.
William Guarnere made his first combat jump on D-Day as part of the Allied invasion of France.
10.
William Guarnere earned the nickname "Wild Bill" because of his reckless attitude towards the enemy.
11.
William Guarnere displayed strong hatred for the Germans as his older brother Henry Guarnere had been killed fighting in the Italian campaign at Monte Cassino serving as a medic with the 1st Armored Division.
12.
Winters told the men to wait for his order to fire, but William Guarnere, claiming he thought Winters might be hesitant to kill, opened fire immediately with his Thompson submachine gun, killing most of the unit.
13.
Later that morning, William Guarnere joined Winters in assaulting a group of four 105 mm guns at Brecourt Manor.
14.
William Guarnere was wounded in mid-October 1944, while Easy Company was securing the line on "The Island" on the south side of the Rhine River.
15.
William Guarnere had to go up and down the line to check on and encourage his men, who were spread out over a distance of about a mile.
16.
William Guarnere stole a motorcycle from a Dutch farmer and rode it across an open field, where he was shot in the right leg by a sniper.
17.
William Guarnere was sent back to England on October 17,1944.
18.
William Guarnere was caught by an officer, court-martialed, demoted to private, and returned to the hospital.
19.
William Guarnere told them he would just go AWOL again to rejoin Easy Company.
20.
William Guarnere lost his right leg in the incoming barrage, while trying to drag his friend Joe Toye to safety.
21.
William Guarnere received the Silver Star for combat during the Brecourt Manor Assault on D-Day, and was later decorated with three Bronze Star Medals and two Purple Hearts, making him one of only two Easy Company members to be awarded the Silver Star during the war while a member of Easy Company.
22.
William Guarnere returned to the United States in March 1945 and took on many odd jobs.
23.
William Guarnere wore an artificial right leg until he was able to secure full disability from the Army, then threw away the limb, using only crutches thereafter, and retired.
24.
William Guarnere became an active member of many veterans organizations, and presided over many Easy Company reunions.
25.
William Guarnere wrote Brothers in Battle, Best of Friends: Two WWII Paratroopers from the Original Band of Brothers Tell Their Story with his best friend Edward "Babe" Heffron and Robyn Post, outlining Easy Company's experiences.
26.
William Guarnere wrote a short piece for Silver Eagle: the official biography of Band of Brothers veteran Clancy Lyall, which was used as the afterword.
27.
William Guarnere was Heffron's best man at the latter's wedding in 1954.
28.
William Guarnere died of a ruptured aneurysm at Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, on 8 March 2014.
29.
William Guarnere is survived by his two sons, nine grandchildren and fourteen great-grandchildren.