Ronald Speirs at Arnhem: Courage and Combat in Operation Market Garden

Ronald Speirs at Arnhem: Courage and Combat in Operation Market Garden

I have been learning about the lives of some of the men who fought through multiple wars. I have also been rewatching Band of Brothers which made me want to find out more about these amazing men. So today I am going to find out more about Ronald Charles Speirs, a Scottish-born American soldi⁹er whose reputation was a combination of courage and controversy.

He was born on the 20th of April 1920 in Edinburgh, Scotland, before his family moved to the United States when he was just a child. He grew up in Boston and developed an early interest in the military. In 1942, he entered active service in the United States Army and volunteered for the paratroopers, joining the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division.

During the Second World War, Speirs parachuted into Normandy on the 6th of June 1944, D-Day. It didn’t take him long to prove himself, he took part in key actions like the fighting around Brecourt Manor and Operation Market Garden, he was also at the Battle of the Bulge. His leadership became clear during the assault on Foy in January 1945, when he took command of Easy Company in the middle of battle. He was then awarded the Silver Star for gallantry, for a daring reconnaissance mission in the Netherlands, where he crossed enemy lines alone. By the end of the war, he had reached the rank of captain.

He continued his career in the Army, serving in the Korean War and taking part in Operation Tomahawk as a company commander. He later worked as a liaison officer with the Red Army during the Cold War and became the American governor of Spandau Prison in Berlin, where high-ranking German prisoners were held. He also served in Laos during the Laotian Civil War as part of a military training mission.

Speirs retired in 1964 as a lieutenant colonel and was awarded the Legion of Merit for his later service. He died on the 11th of April 2007 at the age of 86.