The last surviving officer of the historic World War II parachute infantry regiment now known as "Band of Brothers" has died at 99.
Colonel Edward Shames, who was one of the first soldiers to storm Hitler's Eagle's Nest building, "passed away peacefully at home" in Norfolk, Virginia, on Friday.
He brought home bottles of cognac marked 'for the Fuhrer's use only', which he used for his son's Bar Mitzvah.
The veteran, who leaves behind two sons, four grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren, was a member of the US Army's 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, during the conflict.
He was promoted to Operations Sergeant and. prior to the paratroopers making their jump on D-Day, Col Shames built the sand tables the airborne unit used in planning the airdrop into Normandy, France.
The story of Easy Company was later immortalised in the HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers, " based on The New York Times bestseller by Stephen E. Ambrose.
Shames "gained a reputation as a stubborn and very outspoken soldier who demanded the highest of standards from himself and his fellow soldiers," his obituary says.
It adds: "In Germany, he was the first member of the 101st to enter Dachau concentration camp, just days after its liberation.
"Shames and his men of Easy Company entered Hitler's Eagle's Nest where Shames managed to acquire a few bottles of cognac, a label indicating they were 'for the Fuhrer's use only.
"Later, he would use the cognac to toast his oldest son's Bar Mitzvah."
Shames was born on June 13, 1922, in Norfolk, Virginia, to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, who themselves were born in Latvia. They had emigrated to the US in around 1904, it is believed.
And Shames, the youngest of five brothers and sisters, was married by 18 in Virginia. He divorced and remarried a woman called Ida Aframe in 1946.
After the war, Shames worked as an expert on Middle East affairs with the National Security Agency. He later served in the US Army Reserve Division and retired as a colonel.
Ida died in 2019 after a 73-year marriage.
