Ronald Speirs

Speirs 1945 in Austria

Ronald Speirs (born April 20, 1920 in Edinburgh , † April 11, 2007 ) was a US Army officer who took part in World War II and later was the commandant of the Spandau War Crimes Prison .

Life

Born in Scotland in 1920, Speirs emigrated to the United States with his family in 1924. After military training in high school, he became a lieutenant in the infantry during the Second World War , but switched to the parachute force , where he was platoon leader in the D-Company ("Dog Company") of the 2nd Battalion of the 506th US Paratrooper Regiment, 101 US Airborne Division was.

On D-Day (June 6, 1944) he jumped over Normandy with his company and was involved in the destruction of some German artillery. During the Battle of the Bulge , he switched to the E-Company ("Easy Company") as a company commander and led the attack on Foy .

Speirs took part in the Korean War as the commander of an infantry company . In 1958 he became the American commander of the war crimes prison in Berlin-Spandau , where Rudolf Hess , Baldur von Schirach and Albert Speer , among others , were imprisoned at the time. In 1962 he took part in an American military mission in Laos . He ended his Army career as a lieutenant colonel .

Ronald Speirs was portrayed in the television series Band of Brothers by Matthew Settle .

Awards

Combat Infantry Badge 2nd Award

Parachutist Badge with 3 combat jump stars

	Silver Star
	Bronze Star with two oak leaf clusters
	Purple Heart with three oak leaf clusters
	Presidential Unit Citation with one oak leaf cluster
	American Campaign Medal
	European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with three service stars and arrowhead device
	World War II Victory Medal
	Army of Occupation Medal
	National Defense Service Medal with service star
	Croix de guerre with palm
	French Liberation Medal
	Korean Service Medal with three service stars
	Korea Defense Service Medal
	United Nations Korea Medal
	Vietnam Service Medal with three service stars
	Vietnam Campaign Medal