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Back in the 80s, when I was studying to become a bright young Army officer, we studied this attack. The show does a pretty good job of conveying how hectic it all was but doesn't fully convey just how amazing the accomplishment was. Winters took just 17 men and assaulted a fixed, defended position manned by over 60 Germans, and succeeded at destroying all four guns with only two casualties: Robert "Popeye Wynn (wounded) and John "Cowboy" Halls (killed). Modern US Army doctrine calls for the assaulting force to have 3:1 odds for such an operation, just as it did back in 1944. Winters did the opposite, bringing a force of less than 1/3 the defenders. It was a miracle, and a demonstration of Winters tactical brilliance and his skills as a leader.
That's cool hearing a little more about how special that feat was. One of my favorite aspects of the show is how well they convey what an amazing leader Winters was. That the guy was seemingly born to lead men in combat. A soldier. And yet they also show what a decent, peaceful man he was, by nature. War is perhaps the single ugliest thing we do as humans. But strength can be found in any struggle. The worse the struggle, the greater the strength. In a strange, paradoxical way, war can be as beautiful as it is ugly. Winters perfectly embodied that paradox, the warrior with a peaceful spirit. Amazing that a person like that can really exist beyond the confines of fiction.
The show compresses the timeline so it looks like that battle was a "run-and-gun" but it was actually multiple hours of Winters carefully repositioning his men so they could flank and disorganize the Germans. If the Germans had time to organize themselves and stage a counterattack, Winters and his men would have been toast. Winter's tactical brilliance prevented that and let his small force suppress the much larger garrison.
The guns Easy destroyed had been pre sighted to fire right down onto the only causeway leading inland from Utah Beach. They saved a lot of lives that day.
@@tamberlame27 I'm ashamed to say that I use to think that all trees looked alike. Then I grew & became a better person, leaving bigotry & ignorance behind. The external bark doesn't make a tree what it is, it's what's on the inside that really matters, ya know?
I got to go to Normandy on the 75th anniversary of D-Day. There is a statue of Winters at a crossroads, near Brecourt Manor, to honor the assault made there. It was pretty special to see it in person.
@@jackflash8218 It was him slightly hunched over, on the run, holding his rifle across his chest. There is also just a marble tablet, separately, near Brecourt with the names of the men that made the assault.
My grandfather was a plane gunner, and in December 1944 he was hit in the arm by antiaircraft fire. He kept the bullet fragments that were taken out in the same box as his Purple Heart, and called them "Hitler's Christmas present."
My grandfather was also a gunner! He didn't take any flak, but his plane did encounter a glowing, green orb that turned the rest of his crew into zombie-monster things, so he jumped & parachuted to safety. War is hell.
The Airborne actually had orders not to take prisoners from General Taylor. They had limited resources, no logistical support, were behind enemy lines, no facilities to hold prisoners and had no idea if the beach landings would even be successful. I actually respect Speirs for doing it himself. As an officer he absolutely could have ordered up a firing squad to take care of it but instead he took that upon himself instead of burdening his men. That's exactly what you want from an officer.
Damn right. Terrible thing to have to execute someone. Heat of battle, that's one thing, but gunning down unarmed prisoners? Unless you're some sicko monster, that's gonna bother anyone, so why have many bothered people when just 1 will do? I agree, that took nerve.
A couple things. It didn't happen as depicted. He and two of his men found themselves holding 3 surrendered germans the night of the drop. He killed one and ordered his men to kill the others. Then the next morning same thing exept there were now 6 germans. He killed them himself. Second, there were no such orders. It's a popular myth. In fact the just printed latest Army field manuel forbid killing prisoners.
Who was the guy that got shot in the head... Another casualty was Warrant Officer Andrew Hill, who was killed when he came upon the battle while searching for the headquarters of the 506th PIR.
The potato-masher sticks might have had a better design in theory, but early 20th century Americans were baseball-crazy way beyond the present day and knew how to pitch from an early age. I'd bet money the stats on grenade performance highly favored US troops over any others.
It is so good to watch reactors who understand the necessities of that day, like killing the German prisoners because they had no place to keep them. Everything you guys share gives explanations and insight into what’s happening onscreen and historically. Looking forward to watching this masterpiece with you.
As much as reactors would question “Buck” Compton’s ability with grenades simply because he accidentally fumbled that one that nearly killed Toye. The reality is that “Buck” was really good at throwing grenades. He played baseball a lot at UCLA. I seriously kid you not he even played with the Jackie Robinson (Yes! Really!), who also attended UCLA. Buck was often the guy you would rely on with a long precise grenade throw. At 10:01 you can see Buck line-drove a grenade right at the fleeing German right as it detonated, that did actually happen and it was confirmed by other members of Easy Company. Even Rick pointed that out.
Liebgott said I'm always fumbling with grenades. He's the Jewish translator. Liebgott was ethnically Jewish but he was a practicing Catholic in real life. Winters was a Mennonite until he joined the army.
If I remember correctly, the riders edited the scene between Malarkey and the German POW because the real story just wouldn’t be believed. They worked ACROSS THE STREET from each other as machinists. There’s a few times in the show where they change details because the real stories are just insanely unbelievable.
@@vegvisir9276 That's a very goo point. It's totally useless if an American grown German pretended to be American. Though tbf, I'm sure a lot of them were way more useful as spies
The same reason why they used "Illinois" and "Lincoln" during Korea and Vietnam. SEA languages have a really hard time with L's. Either pronouncing them too hard or more like R's.
It's cool that Rick has some historical knowledge; most reactors are just blown away by this show and have no idea what's what, why things are done a certain way, and so on. Pointing out the difference in the value of the artillery for defensive vs offensive operations is a GREAT example.
@@vegvisir9276 Yeah, but he's clearly done some reading as well. A dash of context for what's on the screen goes a long way in a show like this. The production is so good that there's just a ton of stuff that would go unnoticed, like the compass scene. I've never seen any reactor comment on it besides "that's weird."
9:24 In case anyone wanted to know, these were Buck's hand signals. He signals a "1, 4, 2" and then "2, 5" and a closed fist and then points. What he said was, "One MG42, 25 meters away, throw grenades that way." An MG42 was a machine gun used by the German army and he the distance was so that Malarkey and Guarnere could properly gauge how far to throw their grenades. Fun fact: If you go back to watch A New Hope, one of the blaster rifles that Han gives to Chewie in the detention cell when they're fighting/escaping from the Death Star was an MG42 prop for one of the heavy blasters. A Valken 38 blaster is actually modeled with a barrel of a German MG42 and the stock and receiver of the German paratrooper FG-42
The German American soldier Malarkey met had actually worked across the street from the same place Malarkey had worked for years before the war. They changed it to 100 miles away for the series because they thought the truth would sound too unbelievable.
@@vipwanrinkle6439 speaking from experience it’s actually pretty easy to know what street or place someone is talking about if you both live in the same city or town. When I talk about the city I grew up in I can describe perfectly where things or places are just based off memory and when I have conversations with friends who grew up there as well they instantly know what I’m talking about due to a common knowledge about the city.
@@spiro3142 right me too but in the show malarkey says “what do you know you and me 100 miles from each other working practically the same job” i would definitely understand if they just kept it how it was in real life but 100 miles from each other and knowing the same street just doesn’t make sense
i believe malarkey went on to say that going after that "luger" was the stupidest thing he'd ever done, and if he had even two days more experience, he never would've done something so reckless. it's amazing what people do on adrenaline.
One of the best scenes wasn't shown. When Lipton was trending to Popeye's wound and Popeye asks if it was bad enough to go home and Lipton says maybe. "Shit, I just got here" 😂
Regarding the leg bags: it was something the British airborne used effectively. It was meant to dangle below the parachuting soldier and it would hit the ground before him, thus being close and quick to recover, and also saving his knees and back from the force of some of that equipment being on the back. Some US officers saw the leg bags and thought “hey, that’s a good idea” and issued them to the US airborne. The problem is that they issued them just before the jump and none of the US paratroopers had practiced with them. So they started stuffing everything they could fit into the bags, not realizing that their efficacy was based on weight and not volume. Even jumping at normal speeds, too much weight and the tether is likely to snap or otherwise fail. But add the fact that most of them jumped at higher than normal speeds…well, that extra bit of force coupled with the leg bags being overweight explains why most of the US paratroopers lost them.
The airborne had been practicing and using those bags way before that jump. The problem wasn't the bag, the problem was the drop planes flying to low and fast. At their speed, it caused the bags to be ripped away. The aircrews were the ones that wasn't expecting that much resistance and weather. Military intelligence was way off on their estimates of anti-aircraft fire.
@@rdramos13 but in this case they hadn't. Lutz says in episode one "does anyone know how the hell this works?" as he's holding the strap to the leg bag.
@@rdramos13 I don’t think that’s correct. Ambrose specifically mentions in his book that there was no training or universal instruction for the US airborne since they received them at the last minute before the jump. I’m unaware of any historian who has contradicted that narrative, but I’d gladly accept any book recommendations you have that talk about US airborne use of the leg bags before Normandy. I mean, at the very least I think we can agree that the 101st hadn’t trained on or used them. The accounts of 82nd and their drops in Sicily and Italy in 1943 don’t mention leg bags at all, but I honestly don’t know if that’s because they didn’t have them or if they had them and they worked so they were unremarkable in later recountings of the drops.
So to answer a few things (brit here and have studied the British paras for a while) there were multiple reasons the Brits had an easier drop than the yanks: 1. Talking on the leg bags, you guys are partially correct and wrong. The bags were issued close to last minute and the guys didn’t get to much of experience with them jumping with them. This did lead to lads overloading them and the fact that when they jumped at those speeds it ripped. But why did it also rip when the British airborn lads who also jumped at similar speeds didn’t? It’s actually due to material. The British version of the bag had a semi elastic release rope. So when it fell to below your feet the small elastic spring actually helped counter the downforce of the release. This actually proved to be useful as even at wrong speeds that they thought would rip them apart. Instead it actually survived. So what was the major difference then? Well the US imitation version didn’t use an elastic release rope but just a basic rope one. At the altitude and speed of the release they tore extremely easily and even at normal speeds they were known to break. 2. This wasn’t the only thing the US paratrooper suffered from compared to the British paratrooper. Throughout Overlord many US paratrooper were killed when they got stuck in trees/buildings or caught in one of Rommels flooded fields. The reason? The US Paratrooper as shown throughout the series had to undergo a quite long procedure to remove their parachute from them as well as their combat webbing and attachment straps. All this stuff having to be removed from under the legs and arms and through multiple release buckles essentially meant that in standard conditions a US paratrooper would take close to over a minute to release themselves and that’s doing it with no hassle and using quick release methods. The British Paratrooper had on the other hand a very interesting bit of para equipment. The quick release buckle. What was this? Well on British parachutes - even to this day - all the primary straps link into a single quick release buckle that sits on your chest. The straps go under your legs and over/under your arms and then each end has something equivalent to a seat belt head at the end that links into the buckle. Once linked they are in there permanently even with a tough tug they don’t come out easy. So how to release? Well you put to fingers on either release button, press them in and then give a twist to the right at which point all the belts will release. Toss them off and your good. This style of parachute saved many British paratroopers from similar fates to their US counterparts. 3. Yup the US pilots transporting were not ready for the situation. It was a partial lack of intel and over confidence thinking that the paratroopers would avoid the worst of the German AA batteries due to surprise. However, it also fell on a large lack of experience these men were going in with. The aircrew pulling the flights were majorly inexperienced crewmen with no combat drop experience and very little training towards it. As such when they ran straight into said combat, many panicked and began to take evasive measures which meant other planes had to react in toe which caused problems all around.
Well, this is when the shit gets real. "We're not lost Private, we're in Normandy." Shows subtly an unarmed Winter's ability to instill confidence in his men amongst the chaos, and he wasn't even from his company. They don't tell you who they are because it's the greatest reveal in History. Currahee ♠
Buck Compton was a pitcher in college, so when he threw his grenades he would throw it like a baseball. The grenade exploding on impact on the back of a German was legit as a result of Compton pitching his grenades.
I had read that he was a catcher, not a pitcher. He could throw a grenade in a straight line rather than an arc, mimicking a throw to second. One other thing to note is a teammate of his at UCLA was Jackie Robinson.
"I thanked God for getting me through that Day of Days...and I promised God and myself if I lived I'd find a quiet place to settle down and live the rest of my life in peace". - Lt Dick Winters.
If i remember correctly the plane that bursts into flames was the plane Lt. Meehan(their CO) and his staff were in. And in terms of whats real or not, most of the show(book) is based directly on the first hand accounts from the survivors. They definitely take some creative liberties throughout the series but i dont want to point any out because of spoilers
@@jaives no, that was the co-pilot in Lt. Winters's plane. As commanding officer of E Company, Lt. Meehan would be jumping. He would also be in the HQ plane, which simonsays90 correctly points out was the one whose engine caught fire and went down.
As an aside, the crash site of Meehan's plane is known. There is a monument nearby, though the site itself is on private land in France. The wreck was cleared long ago, but the ground still bears signs of the crash.
Compton really did throw a grenade with perfect timing to explode right as it hit a German, but he actually hit the guy in the head. This is where playing baseball in college paid off.
Like they said, i like how you don’t know who the real people are. You get to know them a bit through the interviews and when they are revealed it’s even more impactful since you just saw what they went through. This is definitely one of these shows you need to go back are rewatch almost right away and you will pickup and appreciate so much more. Also wish they did a reaction to the making of special features. Again shocking at what they were able to cgi back then and how well they blended it in, especially for an HBO miniseries. Also amazing to see what the cast went through in basic training.
The men were ordered to take no prisoners on D-day since there weren't any established resources to house POWs deep behind enemy lines. With 90% of the men still unaccounted for and the uncertainty that the D-day beach landings could fail. I could imagine the hard choices Ronald Speirs and the other fighting men had to make. Terrible situation to be in. Lets always remember the men who died in terrible conflicts to ensure our freedom today. Happy Memorial day.
I can not watch this series and not cry. And no how many times I watch it, I end up crying. Maybe THE greatest series ever from the greatest generation.
When the real guys in the interviews start to get choked up... that gets me. Decades... decades later, and it still gets to them. We see the dramatic re-enactment, but you hear them talk about it & it hits... it was real.
When Malarkey is running out to get the Luger, and then runs back toward the trenches, he wasn't meant to slip and fall down, so the look of fear on his face is real, because there's a bunch of tiny explosives embedded in the ground to simulate bullet impacts.
I like that Joe Toye is Eric's favorite character, probably mine too partly because Kirk Acevedo is always good in everything. I had forgotten about him almost getting blown up by TWO grenades on D-Day. Incredible
At the end of the series, they DO tell you who all those veteran soldiers from the intro interviews actually are. Plus, there's a sort of post-script documentary for this series called "We Stand Along Together" that's full of interviews. You gotta watch it after you finish this amazing mini-series.
Greatest mini series I ever saw. And as much as each episode takes out of you, one in particular is perhaps as tough a watch as I've ever seen. "Why We Fight".
Love that these guys are watching this show. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy trash tv as much as the next guy, but surely even they must be starting to get a bit tired of constantly tuning in to the next episode of DC/ Marvel/ Star Wars/ Anime over and over again. I would love to hear their thoughts on shows like the Wire, Mad Men, Sopranos, or West Wing.
Just because something isn't as great as The Soprano or The Wire, doesn't make it trash tv. There are some great Marvel and SW series. Clone Wars, Rebels, most if The Mandalorian, And or were all great. Loki, Wandavision and Hawkeye also were terrific. Anime is out of my wheelhouse so I really don't know what's good, bad, great and trash.
@@snerdterguson You’re right, I misspoke. I meant ‘trash’ like ‘comfort food’. Good for what it’s for, entertaining for now, but not exactly providing anything more than that. My main point was that these guys tend to stay in their comfort zone, watching stuff designed for them, that they know they’ll love even before it starts. I would love to see them stretch themselves a little bit, and try a show designed to challenge their expectations. The shows I mentioned before are sometimes tough to watch, but worth the effort.
unsolicited reading recommendation: "D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Battle for the Normandy Beaches" by Stephen E. Ambrose (Band of Brothers author) excellent account of the first 24 hours
9:10 Fun fact: Lipton actually says in his post-action report that he had made a mistake climbing the tree. Oh sure, he had the vantage point and was able to see into the area below. But when he fired his first shots, it naturally gave his position away and when the Germans realized it, they opened fire on him. He admitted that it was a tactical error. He genuinely thought he was dead when the tree branches concealing and protecting him were being shredded when they returned fire on his position.
When Winters first lands you see him checking a fabric strap that is frayed at the end. The "leg bag" was supposed to be at the other end. So many jumped from planes that were flying too fast which made the strap break. Their rifles were attached to the leg bag.
The BBC & HBO have more shows at the top of the IMDB TV ratings list than anyone else, so it's hardly surprising that a show involving both turn out to be historically great!
Well, when that guy's family answered the call, Germany and the USA weren't at war against each other. America wasn't yet in the war, so that may have made it easier initially for him to go and do that. Once Pearl Harbor happened, it was a new ball game.
"All true Aryans" I would argue that with Germany's "master race" ideology & America's "melting pot" ideology, the guy should have known he was "turning on America", but I always thought it seemed like a case of a young guy being sort of radicalized & thinking it was a good idea, but obviously he seemed pretty regretful about how it all ended up.
@@jackflash8218 ... I never met the guy, so it's pretty damn hard for me to decide what he was thinking based on some directors hollywood take on it. He could have been a total asshole racist, or a naive dude that got duped and roped into the whole thing by obeying his father.
@@jackflash8218 Yeah, not really. America invested heavily in 1930s Germany (See IBM) because they were isolationist but capital invests ANYWHERE it can profit. The USA were discussing whether to declare war on Japan for Pearl Harbour, a war against them alone, because of their isolationist stance, and Germany declared war on the USA before even that could happen, so the choice was taken from the USA and because they had been declared war on, the USA then had to join the Word War. Not that Europe were early, the declaration was in 1939, but the war was started in 1936, but the Versailes Treaty was even admitted to be onerous, punishment rather than rehabilitative or restorative, but that also fed into isolationism and not wanting ANY war (because WW1 was so costly) and that led to timidity from the rest of the leaders, and emboldened Adolf.
@@jackflash8218 1. Before the Second World War Americans were much more loyal ethnically than nationally. Especially prior to the First World War. 2. The melting pot ideology was a post-war creation. You have to remember the country and the armed forces were still segregated.
Man, as somebody that recently retired after 20 years in the Marines, tomorrow is a tough day, had to make 4 casualty notifications. Toughest thing I had to do.
The "Little Clicker toy" they got from Crackerjacks. It was a toy put out by the snack Co, for kids that the military caught on to. Saved some lives, cost some as well because they did not know it but the double click sounds the same as a German rifle chambering a round from a distance. My Dad had one from when he was a kid in the 40s.
7:50 Aaron, it's "mother Russia" in Russian, because "Russia" is feminine, so it's grammar. In German, "Vaterland" is "the land of your fathers", so it's a bit different meaning. Coincidentally in Polish we have "ojczyzna", which means "fatherland", same as in German, but we also have "macierz", which is "motherland".
Such an amazing series. It gets more difficult to not break down as the series goes on. My personal tear-jerker is Episode 6. These men went through Hell, and went just about everywhere in the European Theatre. Highly recommend giving the book a read.
This is a fixed position in the backline of any expected invasion, they were under direct attack for a few minutes before the company got into their trench. WHY THE F should they have boob-trapped their own position while they were still using it xD
We got satellite TV SPECIFICALLY to watch this show. There were ads on all the broadcast channels leading up to the premier and we were hooked. And, of course, two days after the first episode came out was 9-11.😢
"didn't have the resources." thank god someone realized that they weren't just killing to be cruel, soldiers were specifically instructed not to take prisoners because they couldn't provide for them.
Think of the series as a highly accurate in spirit, and mostly in actuality historical reenactment drama. The show has a large cast of characters, drawing from a larger pool of real life people. Some moments are spot on, others are modified for the realities of making a TV show. This episode is an example. Winters did not draw a map on a piece of paper at their rally point of the gun's layout. They new roughly were the guns were. Winters lead his squad to the location, and stopped out of sight. He then scouted ahead on his ow to observe how the trenches, guns, and defenses, were set. Then went back to his men and gave his orders for the plan. The whole assault took a few hours. Not the 10 minutes of on the go fighting in the show. Of all the combats this one is most accurate, because you can tell they used Winter' own report, the sight itself, and interviews to recreate it. Next episode shows a battle that took teh whole battalion, but we just see Easy's part in it.
You mentioned about wishing you knew who the Survivor Interviewees were. I felt that the way the Series didn't identify them was well done, in the book it identified everyone who lent to the telling of the stories as they were told ("...when interviewed in 1986, Sgt .... said they...") As stated, those are major spoilers!
You can laugh in BoB. Most of it's just military dark humor & Band of Brothers doesn't take that much serious compare to other war movies. It's like a journey really. I really wish I could watch it for first time again because of emotional rollarcoaster ride
So Aaron had HBO but didn't watch The Sopranos, Deadwood, The Wire, Boardwalk Empire, True Detective, True Blood, Rome and probably a dozen others. And you call your self a Reactor, for shame.
7:42 In old Slavic mythology, Majka Zemlja, (Matka Ziemia or Matushka Zeml'ja) is the Earth Mother, Earth and Country are defined by the same word (Zemlya, Zemlja = Country, Earth) therefore country is refereed to as Mother Land. It gives birth to its people. Cheers from Serbia.
It's a valuable lesson for an officer - Don't take from your men, you have to keep distance from them in order to separate you from being a 'mate' that they will question your order. Respect them but also lead them.
9:37 Buck and the Tommy Gun. Buck landed without his weapon or his leg bag. He came across an American soldier who was either wounded or dead (don’t remember which) and took the soldier’s Tommy gun. Unfortunately the gun had a broken firing pin that Buck spent part of the episode trying to fix. This is why the gun malfunctioned at Brecourt during the time code I indicated. Unbelievable attention to detail.
Glad you guys are watching this. Literally the best mini series I’ve ever watched. Although I don’t watch it very often because it’s such an emotional experience.
The one thing I want to point out is that the German pow from Oregon said they returned in 41'. Which might mean he was in the war for up to about 3 years before that moment.
I love your reaction guys, I've seen A LOT of reactions on Band of Brothers and you guys really tackle the subject in a great manner, keep them coming and good job!
Yeah, this was the period where HBO starts producing very high quality, high value production. They will produce Rome a few years after this, and Rome basically encourage the investment in Games of Thrones.
@@gravitypronepart2201 you miss my point I think, sorry I was asking why have they not reacted to that part of the dramatisation? It plays an important role in setting the characters (Spiers) role in the series?
Yup. I haven’t been the same since watching it for the first time. Absolutely humbling. I am eternally grateful for the men who served and those who gave their lives.
I just notice how easy and smooth the edits are, shots from angles that edited together and move so natural it is like you are there, you blinked your eyes while you are running through the trench. The did win all kinds of awards for editing and filming.. I am still amazed at the production value of this show.
"the famous leg bag!" basically, it was a musette bag that had been foisted on them with no warning on d-day, so it wasn't a normal part of their gear, just something the higher-ups gave them and most people lost it immediately.
Trying to think of my first combat tour. I think I slept pretty well. We were ferried in by chopper so not the first ones in. That must change things quite a bit. Landing site was already secure and that's what let me sleep well even on the chopper. I'm surrounded by a platoon of friends, and by the first time I get a real shower I'll be surrounded by thousands. I guess you just keep thinking that it's gonna be fine, and if it's not, you don't have to work tomorrow.
As far as accuracy goes, Every action and mission was written in reports and debriefings. So a whole lot of this series was based on those reports. And Easy company Have reunited several times before and during the filming. Their stories may have well be Gospel.
Though it is true that much of the time, TV shows generally stick with characters for a bit. However, watch out for characters that are "two weeks from retirement." That's a red flag that they won't last the episode or movie. This was a great series that was generally accurate. However, it was based on a book, and was subject to the author's attention to accuracy. There will be a couple times going forward where certain characters won't quite match reality.
@5:00 A lot of people miss the fact that Guarnere opens up early on the Germans before Winters gave the order because he learned just before the jump that his brother was killed in Italy (presumedly by the Germans or possibly the Italians). He wants revenge.
I think it is very heavily implied that Guarnere was trigger happy in that incident because he was salty about his brother having been killed by the Germans at Monte Cassino
The pilots used for these weren’t the army’s best. Those were used for aerial bombings. Hence why they were dropping people off course , away from the drop zones.
6:26 Picking supplies of dead American soldiers.-- You can grab whatever equipment or supplies that Uncle Sam issued. Gun, ammunition, knife, uniform parts, whatever. You DO NOT TOUCH anything personal. Wristwatch, wedding ring, wallet, whatever.
Outstanding series and very well done. They were truly our greatest generation. My father was a Marine in the Pacific at that time. He's the reason I joined the Marine Corps (Infantry) myself. Tom Boyte, GySgt. USMC, retired Vietnam 1965-66/1970-71 Bronze Star, Purple Heart.
7:47 difference is in the grammar. In Russian and German languages each noun is assigned a gender. Word for Homeland (Родина) and land (земля) has feminine ending 'а' therefor it's Motherland. Think how English-speaking world considers ships to be female or Death is often personified in male form. It's probably feels strange to assign gender to inanimate objects, but you guys do it to ;)
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Back in the 80s, when I was studying to become a bright young Army officer, we studied this attack. The show does a pretty good job of conveying how hectic it all was but doesn't fully convey just how amazing the accomplishment was. Winters took just 17 men and assaulted a fixed, defended position manned by over 60 Germans, and succeeded at destroying all four guns with only two casualties: Robert "Popeye Wynn (wounded) and John "Cowboy" Halls (killed). Modern US Army doctrine calls for the assaulting force to have 3:1 odds for such an operation, just as it did back in 1944. Winters did the opposite, bringing a force of less than 1/3 the defenders. It was a miracle, and a demonstration of Winters tactical brilliance and his skills as a leader.
That's cool hearing a little more about how special that feat was. One of my favorite aspects of the show is how well they convey what an amazing leader Winters was. That the guy was seemingly born to lead men in combat. A soldier. And yet they also show what a decent, peaceful man he was, by nature. War is perhaps the single ugliest thing we do as humans. But strength can be found in any struggle. The worse the struggle, the greater the strength. In a strange, paradoxical way, war can be as beautiful as it is ugly. Winters perfectly embodied that paradox, the warrior with a peaceful spirit. Amazing that a person like that can really exist beyond the confines of fiction.
@@jackflash8218 You put that very beautifully. Winters was an amazing leader that was hard to believe exist in the real world.
@@tharukaepaarachchi6110 Thanks. Tharuka... cool name. 😁
@@jackflash8218 amazing indeed.
OP, thanks for the explanation on reverse odds!
The show compresses the timeline so it looks like that battle was a "run-and-gun" but it was actually multiple hours of Winters carefully repositioning his men so they could flank and disorganize the Germans. If the Germans had time to organize themselves and stage a counterattack, Winters and his men would have been toast. Winter's tactical brilliance prevented that and let his small force suppress the much larger garrison.
The guns Easy destroyed had been pre sighted to fire right down onto the only causeway leading inland from Utah Beach. They saved a lot of lives that day.
Had to drop in behind enemy lines. Big risk. Intestinal fortitude, right there. Hero shit.
@@jackflash8218 They're paratroopers, Jack. They're supposed to be surrounded.
@@barreloffun10 They weren't lost, Joe. They were in Normandy. 😁
@@jackflash8218 yeah but they had a lot of identifiable trees out there
@@tamberlame27 I'm ashamed to say that I use to think that all trees looked alike. Then I grew & became a better person, leaving bigotry & ignorance behind. The external bark doesn't make a tree what it is, it's what's on the inside that really matters, ya know?
I got to go to Normandy on the 75th anniversary of D-Day. There is a statue of Winters at a crossroads, near Brecourt Manor, to honor the assault made there. It was pretty special to see it in person.
Whoa, cool. What's the statue pose?
@@jackflash8218 It was him slightly hunched over, on the run, holding his rifle across his chest. There is also just a marble tablet, separately, near Brecourt with the names of the men that made the assault.
My grandfather was a plane gunner, and in December 1944 he was hit in the arm by antiaircraft fire. He kept the bullet fragments that were taken out in the same box as his Purple Heart, and called them "Hitler's Christmas present."
My grandfather was also a gunner! He didn't take any flak, but his plane did encounter a glowing, green orb that turned the rest of his crew into zombie-monster things, so he jumped & parachuted to safety. War is hell.
@@jackflash8218 I understood that reference.
The Airborne actually had orders not to take prisoners from General Taylor. They had limited resources, no logistical support, were behind enemy lines, no facilities to hold prisoners and had no idea if the beach landings would even be successful.
I actually respect Speirs for doing it himself. As an officer he absolutely could have ordered up a firing squad to take care of it but instead he took that upon himself instead of burdening his men. That's exactly what you want from an officer.
Damn right. Terrible thing to have to execute someone. Heat of battle, that's one thing, but gunning down unarmed prisoners? Unless you're some sicko monster, that's gonna bother anyone, so why have many bothered people when just 1 will do? I agree, that took nerve.
A couple things. It didn't happen as depicted. He and two of his men found themselves holding 3 surrendered germans the night of the drop. He killed one and ordered his men to kill the others. Then the next morning same thing exept there were now 6 germans. He killed them himself.
Second, there were no such orders. It's a popular myth. In fact the just printed latest Army field manuel forbid killing prisoners.
Who was the guy that got shot in the head...
Another casualty was Warrant Officer Andrew Hill, who was killed when he came upon the battle while searching for the headquarters of the 506th PIR.
You'll find their names in the last episode.
Nothing will ever come close to beating this
The potato-masher sticks might have had a better design in theory, but early 20th century Americans were baseball-crazy way beyond the present day and knew how to pitch from an early age. I'd bet money the stats on grenade performance highly favored US troops over any others.
For people who saw this for the first time, did you guess who was Dick Winters during the opening interviews?
It is so good to watch reactors who understand the necessities of that day, like killing the German prisoners because they had no place to keep them. Everything you guys share gives explanations and insight into what’s happening onscreen and historically. Looking forward to watching this masterpiece with you.
Winters took prisoners.
You said it takes it out of you……this is just the beginning!
Nobody mentioning Lt. Spears during the German prisoner scene all but proves nobody's read any spoilers.
As much as reactors would question “Buck” Compton’s ability with grenades simply because he accidentally fumbled that one that nearly killed Toye. The reality is that “Buck” was really good at throwing grenades. He played baseball a lot at UCLA. I seriously kid you not he even played with the Jackie Robinson (Yes! Really!), who also attended UCLA. Buck was often the guy you would rely on with a long precise grenade throw.
At 10:01 you can see Buck line-drove a grenade right at the fleeing German right as it detonated, that did actually happen and it was confirmed by other members of Easy Company. Even Rick pointed that out.
The fumbling of the grenade was caused by Buck getting jostled by another paratrooper, if you watch that scene closely.
Liebgott said I'm always fumbling with grenades. He's the Jewish translator. Liebgott was ethnically Jewish but he was a practicing Catholic in real life.
Winters was a Mennonite until he joined the army.
Winters was Lutheran. His father was Lutheran and his mother was Mennonite. He is buried in a Lutheran cemetery.
If I remember correctly, the riders edited the scene between Malarkey and the German POW because the real story just wouldn’t be believed. They worked ACROSS THE STREET from each other as machinists.
There’s a few times in the show where they change details because the real stories are just insanely unbelievable.
I know for sure Malarkey started attending the university of oregon before the war which is in eugene
@@Kaseyberg in Malarkey's book he states that he worked right across the street when we was making Plane Propellers in a Factory
@@quinnthespin5407 cool i was just adding the fact i knew
It's not just that he worked across the street, they worked in the same factory, went to the same school, and lived a couple blocks from each other.
There's a lot of that in the story. It's a small world.
The reason they call "Flash" and respond with "Thunder" is if a German were to respond knowing the code, it'd be very clear with their accent
"Flasch," "Tsunder"
unless they unfortunately run into more Aryans from Oregon
@@vegvisir9276 That's a very goo point. It's totally useless if an American grown German pretended to be American. Though tbf, I'm sure a lot of them were way more useful as spies
Should've used "Tree" and "Squirrel" because you can't say that as a German and be correct. It's impossible
The same reason why they used "Illinois" and "Lincoln" during Korea and Vietnam. SEA languages have a really hard time with L's. Either pronouncing them too hard or more like R's.
It's cool that Rick has some historical knowledge; most reactors are just blown away by this show and have no idea what's what, why things are done a certain way, and so on. Pointing out the difference in the value of the artillery for defensive vs offensive operations is a GREAT example.
Rick has watched this series before as well
@@vegvisir9276 Yeah, but he's clearly done some reading as well. A dash of context for what's on the screen goes a long way in a show like this. The production is so good that there's just a ton of stuff that would go unnoticed, like the compass scene. I've never seen any reactor comment on it besides "that's weird."
@Jonathan Jones ok and?
@@jonathanjones8839He still knows it lol, doesn’t matter how you learn it as long as it’s true
Malarkey actually did meet a soldier from the German army and they did grow up close to each other.
9:24 In case anyone wanted to know, these were Buck's hand signals.
He signals a "1, 4, 2" and then "2, 5" and a closed fist and then points.
What he said was, "One MG42, 25 meters away, throw grenades that way."
An MG42 was a machine gun used by the German army and he the distance was so that Malarkey and Guarnere could properly gauge how far to throw their grenades.
Fun fact: If you go back to watch A New Hope, one of the blaster rifles that Han gives to Chewie in the detention cell when they're fighting/escaping from the Death Star was an MG42 prop for one of the heavy blasters. A Valken 38 blaster is actually modeled with a barrel of a German MG42 and the stock and receiver of the German paratrooper FG-42
The Valken-38 was Dengar's Gun I think right?
The German American soldier Malarkey met had actually worked across the street from the same place Malarkey had worked for years before the war. They changed it to 100 miles away for the series because they thought the truth would sound too unbelievable.
which makes it seem ridiculous because how would he know what street he was talking about if they worked/lived 100 miles from each other haha
@Jonathan Jones cry less? what are you 8 years old lmao
@@vipwanrinkle6439 speaking from experience it’s actually pretty easy to know what street or place someone is talking about if you both live in the same city or town. When I talk about the city I grew up in I can describe perfectly where things or places are just based off memory and when I have conversations with friends who grew up there as well they instantly know what I’m talking about due to a common knowledge about the city.
@@spiro3142 right me too but in the show malarkey says “what do you know you and me 100 miles from each other working practically the same job” i would definitely understand if they just kept it how it was in real life but 100 miles from each other and knowing the same street just doesn’t make sense
i believe malarkey went on to say that going after that "luger" was the stupidest thing he'd ever done, and if he had even two days more experience, he never would've done something so reckless. it's amazing what people do on adrenaline.
Lipton said the same about climbing the tree.
One of the best scenes wasn't shown. When Lipton was trending to Popeye's wound and Popeye asks if it was bad enough to go home and Lipton says maybe.
"Shit, I just got here" 😂
They cut out a lot of good scenes and lines.
Regarding the leg bags: it was something the British airborne used effectively. It was meant to dangle below the parachuting soldier and it would hit the ground before him, thus being close and quick to recover, and also saving his knees and back from the force of some of that equipment being on the back. Some US officers saw the leg bags and thought “hey, that’s a good idea” and issued them to the US airborne. The problem is that they issued them just before the jump and none of the US paratroopers had practiced with them. So they started stuffing everything they could fit into the bags, not realizing that their efficacy was based on weight and not volume. Even jumping at normal speeds, too much weight and the tether is likely to snap or otherwise fail. But add the fact that most of them jumped at higher than normal speeds…well, that extra bit of force coupled with the leg bags being overweight explains why most of the US paratroopers lost them.
Damn that actually makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the explanation.
The airborne had been practicing and using those bags way before that jump. The problem wasn't the bag, the problem was the drop planes flying to low and fast. At their speed, it caused the bags to be ripped away. The aircrews were the ones that wasn't expecting that much resistance and weather. Military intelligence was way off on their estimates of anti-aircraft fire.
@@rdramos13 but in this case they hadn't. Lutz says in episode one "does anyone know how the hell this works?" as he's holding the strap to the leg bag.
@@rdramos13 I don’t think that’s correct. Ambrose specifically mentions in his book that there was no training or universal instruction for the US airborne since they received them at the last minute before the jump. I’m unaware of any historian who has contradicted that narrative, but I’d gladly accept any book recommendations you have that talk about US airborne use of the leg bags before Normandy.
I mean, at the very least I think we can agree that the 101st hadn’t trained on or used them. The accounts of 82nd and their drops in Sicily and Italy in 1943 don’t mention leg bags at all, but I honestly don’t know if that’s because they didn’t have them or if they had them and they worked so they were unremarkable in later recountings of the drops.
So to answer a few things (brit here and have studied the British paras for a while) there were multiple reasons the Brits had an easier drop than the yanks:
1. Talking on the leg bags, you guys are partially correct and wrong.
The bags were issued close to last minute and the guys didn’t get to much of experience with them jumping with them.
This did lead to lads overloading them and the fact that when they jumped at those speeds it ripped.
But why did it also rip when the British airborn lads who also jumped at similar speeds didn’t?
It’s actually due to material. The British version of the bag had a semi elastic release rope. So when it fell to below your feet the small elastic spring actually helped counter the downforce of the release. This actually proved to be useful as even at wrong speeds that they thought would rip them apart. Instead it actually survived.
So what was the major difference then? Well the US imitation version didn’t use an elastic release rope but just a basic rope one. At the altitude and speed of the release they tore extremely easily and even at normal speeds they were known to break.
2. This wasn’t the only thing the US paratrooper suffered from compared to the British paratrooper.
Throughout Overlord many US paratrooper were killed when they got stuck in trees/buildings or caught in one of Rommels flooded fields.
The reason? The US Paratrooper as shown throughout the series had to undergo a quite long procedure to remove their parachute from them as well as their combat webbing and attachment straps.
All this stuff having to be removed from under the legs and arms and through multiple release buckles essentially meant that in standard conditions a US paratrooper would take close to over a minute to release themselves and that’s doing it with no hassle and using quick release methods.
The British Paratrooper had on the other hand a very interesting bit of para equipment. The quick release buckle.
What was this? Well on British parachutes - even to this day - all the primary straps link into a single quick release buckle that sits on your chest. The straps go under your legs and over/under your arms and then each end has something equivalent to a seat belt head at the end that links into the buckle.
Once linked they are in there permanently even with a tough tug they don’t come out easy.
So how to release? Well you put to fingers on either release button, press them in and then give a twist to the right at which point all the belts will release. Toss them off and your good.
This style of parachute saved many British paratroopers from similar fates to their US counterparts.
3. Yup the US pilots transporting were not ready for the situation. It was a partial lack of intel and over confidence thinking that the paratroopers would avoid the worst of the German AA batteries due to surprise.
However, it also fell on a large lack of experience these men were going in with. The aircrew pulling the flights were majorly inexperienced crewmen with no combat drop experience and very little training towards it.
As such when they ran straight into said combat, many panicked and began to take evasive measures which meant other planes had to react in toe which caused problems all around.
So in 2021 HBO did a Band of Brothers podcast for the 20th anniversary of the show covering each episode. I highly recommend it.
Wow I can’t believe it’s been 20 years already….
Well, this is when the shit gets real. "We're not lost Private, we're in Normandy." Shows subtly an unarmed Winter's ability to instill confidence in his men amongst the chaos, and he wasn't even from his company. They don't tell you who they are because it's the greatest reveal in History. Currahee ♠
Did you not hear what they said about spoilers ya jackasses? Don't do this to people.
Buck Compton was a pitcher in college, so when he threw his grenades he would throw it like a baseball. The grenade exploding on impact on the back of a German was legit as a result of Compton pitching his grenades.
I had read that he was a catcher, not a pitcher. He could throw a grenade in a straight line rather than an arc, mimicking a throw to second. One other thing to note is a teammate of his at UCLA was Jackie Robinson.
@@DirtnapJackBuck was a catcher. He also played football.
9.4 rating on IMDb, and is ranked number 4 on the Top 250 TV shows of all time.
It absolutely deserved every rating and award it received
"I thanked God for getting me through that Day of Days...and I promised God and myself if I lived I'd find a quiet place to settle down and live the rest of my life in peace". - Lt Dick Winters.
I was so annoyed that they edited that out. Poorly done.
"I think we just found my new favourite part of the week."
Same here, guys, same here... ❤
The beginning of the legend of Lieutenant Ronald Speirs and his balls of steel !!
He sees how simple it is.
Want a cigarette?
If i remember correctly the plane that bursts into flames was the plane Lt. Meehan(their CO) and his staff were in.
And in terms of whats real or not, most of the show(book) is based directly on the first hand accounts from the survivors. They definitely take some creative liberties throughout the series but i dont want to point any out because of spoilers
wasn't it meehan the one one sitting up front with the pilot who got shot in the head?
@@jaives no, that was the co-pilot in Lt. Winters's plane.
As commanding officer of E Company, Lt. Meehan would be jumping. He would also be in the HQ plane, which simonsays90 correctly points out was the one whose engine caught fire and went down.
Sgt. Evans was also in that plane (Simon Pegg’s character)
@@Bugeye0704 oh damn i never put 2 and 2 together, i just assumed he was one of the nco's that got reassigned after they wrote the letters
As an aside, the crash site of Meehan's plane is known. There is a monument nearby, though the site itself is on private land in France. The wreck was cleared long ago, but the ground still bears signs of the crash.
Compton really did throw a grenade with perfect timing to explode right as it hit a German, but he actually hit the guy in the head. This is where playing baseball in college paid off.
Compton was an All American athlete, he played both Football and Baseball at the college level if I recall correctly.
@@ktvindicare Great Lt. as well.
Like they said, i like how you don’t know who the real people are. You get to know them a bit through the interviews and when they are revealed it’s even more impactful since you just saw what they went through. This is definitely one of these shows you need to go back are rewatch almost right away and you will pickup and appreciate so much more.
Also wish they did a reaction to the making of special features. Again shocking at what they were able to cgi back then and how well they blended it in, especially for an HBO miniseries. Also amazing to see what the cast went through in basic training.
History Buff Rick
The men were ordered to take no prisoners on D-day since there weren't any established resources to house POWs deep behind enemy lines. With 90% of the men still unaccounted for and the uncertainty that the D-day beach landings could fail. I could imagine the hard choices Ronald Speirs and the other fighting men had to make. Terrible situation to be in. Lets always remember the men who died in terrible conflicts to ensure our freedom today. Happy Memorial day.
Liking what you said, exept that there was no order. This is a myth. Note that Winters took prisoners on D-Day
I can not watch this series and not cry. And no how many times I watch it, I end up crying. Maybe THE greatest series ever from the greatest generation.
When the real guys in the interviews start to get choked up... that gets me. Decades... decades later, and it still gets to them. We see the dramatic re-enactment, but you hear them talk about it & it hits... it was real.
When Malarkey is running out to get the Luger, and then runs back toward the trenches, he wasn't meant to slip and fall down, so the look of fear on his face is real, because there's a bunch of tiny explosives embedded in the ground to simulate bullet impacts.
I like that Joe Toye is Eric's favorite character, probably mine too partly because Kirk Acevedo is always good in everything. I had forgotten about him almost getting blown up by TWO grenades on D-Day. Incredible
At the end of the series, they DO tell you who all those veteran soldiers from the intro interviews actually are. Plus, there's a sort of post-script documentary for this series called "We Stand Along Together" that's full of interviews. You gotta watch it after you finish this amazing mini-series.
Greatest mini series I ever saw. And as much as each episode takes out of you, one in particular is perhaps as tough a watch as I've ever seen. "Why We Fight".
"Apparently the Germans... are bad."
Love that these guys are watching this show. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy trash tv as much as the next guy, but surely even they must be starting to get a bit tired of constantly tuning in to the next episode of DC/ Marvel/ Star Wars/ Anime over and over again. I would love to hear their thoughts on shows like the Wire, Mad Men, Sopranos, or West Wing.
Just because something isn't as great as The Soprano or The Wire, doesn't make it trash tv. There are some great Marvel and SW series. Clone Wars, Rebels, most if The Mandalorian, And or were all great. Loki, Wandavision and Hawkeye also were terrific. Anime is out of my wheelhouse so I really don't know what's good, bad, great and trash.
@@snerdterguson You’re right, I misspoke. I meant ‘trash’ like ‘comfort food’. Good for what it’s for, entertaining for now, but not exactly providing anything more than that. My main point was that these guys tend to stay in their comfort zone, watching stuff designed for them, that they know they’ll love even before it starts. I would love to see them stretch themselves a little bit, and try a show designed to challenge their expectations. The shows I mentioned before are sometimes tough to watch, but worth the effort.
West Wing would be good.
unsolicited reading recommendation:
"D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Battle for the Normandy Beaches"
by Stephen E. Ambrose (Band of Brothers author)
excellent account of the first 24 hours
9:10 Fun fact: Lipton actually says in his post-action report that he had made a mistake climbing the tree.
Oh sure, he had the vantage point and was able to see into the area below. But when he fired his first shots, it naturally gave his position away and when the Germans realized it, they opened fire on him. He admitted that it was a tactical error. He genuinely thought he was dead when the tree branches concealing and protecting him were being shredded when they returned fire on his position.
The book this series is based on by Steven Ambrose is also a great read and provides even more stories of the company.
since you guys uploaded ep 1 reaction last week, i've binged this show and man, i don't know how i had never heard of it before. it's so so good.
They really capture that feeling of being shot at but not knowing where it's coming from.
When Winters first lands you see him checking a fabric strap that is frayed at the end. The "leg bag" was supposed to be at the other end. So many jumped from planes that were flying too fast which made the strap break. Their rifles were attached to the leg bag.
The BBC & HBO have more shows at the top of the IMDB TV ratings list than anyone else, so it's hardly surprising that a show involving both turn out to be historically great!
Well, when that guy's family answered the call, Germany and the USA weren't at war against each other. America wasn't yet in the war, so that may have made it easier initially for him to go and do that. Once Pearl Harbor happened, it was a new ball game.
"All true Aryans"
I would argue that with Germany's "master race" ideology & America's "melting pot" ideology, the guy should have known he was "turning on America", but I always thought it seemed like a case of a young guy being sort of radicalized & thinking it was a good idea, but obviously he seemed pretty regretful about how it all ended up.
@@jackflash8218 ... I never met the guy, so it's pretty damn hard for me to decide what he was thinking based on some directors hollywood take on it. He could have been a total asshole racist, or a naive dude that got duped and roped into the whole thing by obeying his father.
@@jackflash8218 Yeah, not really. America invested heavily in 1930s Germany (See IBM) because they were isolationist but capital invests ANYWHERE it can profit. The USA were discussing whether to declare war on Japan for Pearl Harbour, a war against them alone, because of their isolationist stance, and Germany declared war on the USA before even that could happen, so the choice was taken from the USA and because they had been declared war on, the USA then had to join the Word War. Not that Europe were early, the declaration was in 1939, but the war was started in 1936, but the Versailes Treaty was even admitted to be onerous, punishment rather than rehabilitative or restorative, but that also fed into isolationism and not wanting ANY war (because WW1 was so costly) and that led to timidity from the rest of the leaders, and emboldened Adolf.
@@jackflash8218 1. Before the Second World War Americans were much more loyal ethnically than nationally. Especially prior to the First World War.
2. The melting pot ideology was a post-war creation. You have to remember the country and the armed forces were still segregated.
Man, as somebody that recently retired after 20 years in the Marines, tomorrow is a tough day, had to make 4 casualty notifications. Toughest thing I had to do.
also, like the slideshow of photos throughout the discussion, shoutout to editor
I was going to say this is great editing.
Agreed. Nice addition to the reviews.
The "Little Clicker toy" they got from Crackerjacks. It was a toy put out by the snack Co, for kids that the military caught on to. Saved some lives, cost some as well because they did not know it but the double click sounds the same as a German rifle chambering a round from a distance. My Dad had one from when he was a kid in the 40s.
7:50 Aaron, it's "mother Russia" in Russian, because "Russia" is feminine, so it's grammar.
In German, "Vaterland" is "the land of your fathers", so it's a bit different meaning.
Coincidentally in Polish we have "ojczyzna", which means "fatherland", same as in German, but we also have "macierz", which is "motherland".
Oh yes a new BOB video! I was waiting for a cool video to appear on RUclips to eat my dinner to lmao
Ha! I watched while having breakfast. Coffee, cherry turnover, yogurt w/blueberries, orange slices. What'd you have?
@@jackflash8218 Great minds think alike ;)
Just an eggrol, it's always extra tasty with a good video to watch tho
Such an amazing series. It gets more difficult to not break down as the series goes on. My personal tear-jerker is Episode 6. These men went through Hell, and went just about everywhere in the European Theatre. Highly recommend giving the book a read.
This is a fixed position in the backline of any expected invasion, they were under direct attack for a few minutes before the company got into their trench. WHY THE F should they have boob-trapped their own position while they were still using it xD
We got satellite TV SPECIFICALLY to watch this show. There were ads on all the broadcast channels leading up to the premier and we were hooked.
And, of course, two days after the first episode came out was 9-11.😢
Its really great to have rick there to help fill in some of the interesting details. These are great!
"didn't have the resources." thank god someone realized that they weren't just killing to be cruel, soldiers were specifically instructed not to take prisoners because they couldn't provide for them.
Not true. No such order existed. Winters took prisoners. And some were killed just out of hatefulness. On both sides.
Bro this isn’t Desmond Doss pretty much every other medic other then him carried a rifle including Doc Riw
Think of the series as a highly accurate in spirit, and mostly in actuality historical reenactment drama.
The show has a large cast of characters, drawing from a larger pool of real life people. Some moments are spot on, others are modified for the realities of making a TV show. This episode is an example. Winters did not draw a map on a piece of paper at their rally point of the gun's layout. They new roughly were the guns were. Winters lead his squad to the location, and stopped out of sight. He then scouted ahead on his ow to observe how the trenches, guns, and defenses, were set. Then went back to his men and gave his orders for the plan. The whole assault took a few hours. Not the 10 minutes of on the go fighting in the show. Of all the combats this one is most accurate, because you can tell they used Winter' own report, the sight itself, and interviews to recreate it.
Next episode shows a battle that took teh whole battalion, but we just see Easy's part in it.
Generation Kill is a good one to watch after this series. Some things don't change in warfare.
Generation Kill is good, but The Pacific has to be next.
Episodes were running approximately $12 million each, which today would be approximately $21 million.
You mentioned about wishing you knew who the Survivor Interviewees were. I felt that the way the Series didn't identify them was well done, in the book it identified everyone who lent to the telling of the stories as they were told ("...when interviewed in 1986, Sgt .... said they...") As stated, those are major spoilers!
You can laugh in BoB. Most of it's just military dark humor & Band of Brothers doesn't take that much serious compare to other war movies. It's like a journey really. I really wish I could watch it for first time again because of emotional rollarcoaster ride
Another issue with booby traps is those trenches are designed for german troops, so youd be risking your own men setting them off.
So Aaron had HBO but didn't watch The Sopranos, Deadwood, The Wire, Boardwalk Empire, True Detective, True Blood, Rome and probably a dozen others. And you call your self a Reactor, for shame.
7:42 In old Slavic mythology, Majka Zemlja, (Matka Ziemia or Matushka Zeml'ja) is the Earth Mother, Earth and Country are defined by the same word (Zemlya, Zemlja = Country, Earth) therefore country is refereed to as Mother Land. It gives birth to its people. Cheers from Serbia.
It's a valuable lesson for an officer - Don't take from your men, you have to keep distance from them in order to separate you from being a 'mate' that they will question your order. Respect them but also lead them.
9:37 Buck and the Tommy Gun.
Buck landed without his weapon or his leg bag. He came across an American soldier who was either wounded or dead (don’t remember which) and took the soldier’s Tommy gun. Unfortunately the gun had a broken firing pin that Buck spent part of the episode trying to fix. This is why the gun malfunctioned at Brecourt during the time code I indicated.
Unbelievable attention to detail.
Glad you guys are watching this. Literally the best mini series I’ve ever watched. Although I don’t watch it very often because it’s such an emotional experience.
Bad editing choice to omit Winters’ words at the end.
Hope you guys do The Pacific. Europe was Hell and the Battle for Japan was the stuff of nightmares.
It's funny to look back and realize how slow those C-47's planes are. Going across the English channel at a whopping 160mph.
The one thing I want to point out is that the German pow from Oregon said they returned in 41'. Which might mean he was in the war for up to about 3 years before that moment.
I love your reaction guys, I've seen A LOT of reactions on Band of Brothers and you guys really tackle the subject in a great manner, keep them coming and good job!
Yeah, this was the period where HBO starts producing very high quality, high value production. They will produce Rome a few years after this, and Rome basically encourage the investment in Games of Thrones.
THIRTEEN!
Why not show Spiers handing out cigarettes and opening up, really crucial part of the episode as well as the horrific reality of war?
It didn't happen that way at all. That's Spielberg taking liberties.
@@gravitypronepart2201 you miss my point I think, sorry I was asking why have they not reacted to that part of the dramatisation? It plays an important role in setting the characters (Spiers) role in the series?
So when are you guys coming to Georgia so you can film yourselves running Currahee?
This series will give you guys a seriously new look on our lives and how lucky we all are.
Yup. I haven’t been the same since watching it for the first time. Absolutely humbling. I am eternally grateful for the men who served and those who gave their lives.
Fun fact. Dick Winters attack on the guns at Brecourt Manor is still taught at West Point on how to attack a larger force with a small unit. Textbook.
I just notice how easy and smooth the edits are, shots from angles that edited together and move so natural it is like you are there, you blinked your eyes while you are running through the trench. The did win all kinds of awards for editing and filming.. I am still amazed at the production value of this show.
Buck actually played football for UCLA before the war.
you cut winter's best line we're not lost we're in Normandy
Guys did you notice that Hall(the young officer who died) was played by Andrew Scott( Moriarty from Sherlock) He so young so its hard to recognized
"the famous leg bag!" basically, it was a musette bag that had been foisted on them with no warning on d-day, so it wasn't a normal part of their gear, just something the higher-ups gave them and most people lost it immediately.
Trying to think of my first combat tour. I think I slept pretty well. We were ferried in by chopper so not the first ones in. That must change things quite a bit. Landing site was already secure and that's what let me sleep well even on the chopper. I'm surrounded by a platoon of friends, and by the first time I get a real shower I'll be surrounded by thousands. I guess you just keep thinking that it's gonna be fine, and if it's not, you don't have to work tomorrow.
That soldier dark humor no one else understands.
As far as accuracy goes, Every action and mission was written in reports and debriefings. So a whole lot of this series was based on those reports. And Easy company Have reunited several times before and during the filming. Their stories may have well be Gospel.
The battle scenes are shot so well in this show
Can’t wait to watch y’all cry later on it gets real
Though it is true that much of the time, TV shows generally stick with characters for a bit. However, watch out for characters that are "two weeks from retirement." That's a red flag that they won't last the episode or movie.
This was a great series that was generally accurate. However, it was based on a book, and was subject to the author's attention to accuracy. There will be a couple times going forward where certain characters won't quite match reality.
@5:00 A lot of people miss the fact that Guarnere opens up early on the Germans before Winters gave the order because he learned just before the jump that his brother was killed in Italy (presumedly by the Germans or possibly the Italians). He wants revenge.
I think it is very heavily implied that Guarnere was trigger happy in that incident because he was salty about his brother having been killed by the Germans at Monte Cassino
After watching so many reactions to BoB, FINALLY someone mentions the lead and gun powder in that ammo box!
The pilots used for these weren’t the army’s best. Those were used for aerial bombings. Hence why they were dropping people off course , away from the drop zones.
6:26 Picking supplies of dead American soldiers.--
You can grab whatever equipment or supplies that Uncle Sam issued. Gun, ammunition, knife, uniform parts, whatever. You DO NOT TOUCH anything personal. Wristwatch, wedding ring, wallet, whatever.
band of brothers, the pacific and generation kill are all great shows
I always get sad because the world war 2 generation is disappearing
Outstanding series and very well done. They were truly our greatest generation. My father was a Marine in the Pacific at that time. He's the reason I joined the Marine Corps (Infantry) myself.
Tom Boyte,
GySgt. USMC, retired
Vietnam 1965-66/1970-71
Bronze Star, Purple Heart.
7:47 difference is in the grammar. In Russian and German languages each noun is assigned a gender. Word for Homeland (Родина) and land (земля) has feminine ending 'а' therefor it's Motherland.
Think how English-speaking world considers ships to be female or Death is often personified in male form. It's probably feels strange to assign gender to inanimate objects, but you guys do it to ;)