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The real life captain sobel was actually a pretty good leader who fought in operation market garden battle of the bulge and the korean war this show to a degree did him dirty
I love how you assume that sobel was a bad leader when you know nothing of what he actually did like this man actually fought in operation market garden battle of the bulge and the korean war but Hay fuck all that right who cares about what actually happened
The two nurses were based on real people; Renée Lemaire and Augusta Chiwy. Renée was killed trying to rescue the injured from a burning building. Augusta survived and died in 2015. There is no evidence that Renée and Eugene actually met but the scriptwriters put her and Augusta in as tribute to their heroism.
It's very plausible they would have met, and very plausible they would have chatted in French if they did. As historical inaccuracies and speculative historical fiction go in this series, it's pretty benign. There's much worse errors put into the story.
Roe and Renee never met according to history. But they both deserve recognition Renee died saving people in the hospital, learning her history she is a hero. I believe they added her to acknowledge her kinda like episode 9, since easy company never came across a Concentration camp
Also the red smoke scene I have to say this. Winters was an incredible athlete in high school and I think was getting recruited to play sports. He physically out ran everyone in the platoon and that’s why he was so far ahead of everyone. They added the Red smoke scene to explain how he got so far ahead to make it more "believable“ but the true story is even more incredible. These men were truly great
He was one of the coaches for the 506th Regiment’s Basketball team. It even was acknowledged in the series in episode 2 when Hall recognized him with “Coach?” During college, Winters did Football, Basketball, and his favorite, wrestling.
@@dastemplar9681 thats right and that explains why he knew Hall who got killed at Brecourt. He told Nixon you knew him he was on the basketball team so that scene makes more sense to me now
24:34 the coolest line delivered in the series "We're paratroopers Lieutenant ... we're supposed to be surrounded". Similar to General Chesty Puller's comment "All right, they’re on our left, they’re on our right, they’re in front of us, they’re behind us…they can’t get away this time."
I was a US Navy Hospital Corpsman. Desert Storm . Served 10 years. In 2005, my son's best friend (a Marine) came home from Fallujah just in time for Christmas. He had been in the 2nd battle the year before. We went to a local VA Home. One old man in the dining area was utterly inconsolable. Everyone else was singing and happy. I heard a little girl ask her dad why he was so upset. I knelt beside him and simply asked where? His answer- Bastogne. Through tears he told me he was the sole survivor of his platoon. They died Christmas day. He was not an Easy Company member, but for him Christmas was forever a nightmare. I held his hand and hugged him. My friend said Doc it's time to go. The old man looked me in the eyes and said God Bless you, you guys paid a higher cost than most of us. I will not argue against his expert knowledge.
An interview with Winters, he stated that boy was the last person he killed in the war. That Jimmy Fallon character was a life saver to them, they all remembered him with great fondness for what he did by bringing them ammo.
I was a Navy Hospital Corpsman (Medic) in Vietnam (3 Tours). I had 4months of basic medical training and two months of combat medical training when I was assigned to the Marines. The army medical training is similar. They don't just say you're a medic. There are not enough men that volunteer to be a medic. Tests are taken while you are in training. If your test shows an aptitude for medicine, then they ask you to volunteer or just send you to school to be a medic. If you are not good at it they send you back to infantry. Most medics that have been in combat can do the job as well as or better than some doctors or nurses. According to the Geneva Conventions medics are not to carry offensive weapons. I never carried a weapon. During times not in combat the medic is supposed give first aid lessons to his whole platoon frequently. So anyone can take over basic first aid if the medic is killed. They can carry a pistol for their own protection and the protection of the one they are working on. Those two medics in the same fox hole should never be close to each other during combat (That’s one of the first things you learn). One of my tours in Vietnam I was on a ship on the Co Chien River in the Mekong Delta. Me and another corpsman were the only medical personnel on board. Being the only medical person onboard I did everything medical. If you were on a ship or with the Marines, you were called Doc. We were taught that during combat conditions we were to be on opposite ends of the ship. The 2 corpsmen we replaced were together during a fire fight and they both got killed. You never remember all the ones that you have treated but you never forget the ones you can’t save.
When I was training to be a (civilian) EMT we had a guy from the Army training with us. He wanted to do an interservice transfer to the Navy so he could be a corpsman serving with the Marines instead of being in the Army. He had that much respect for the Marines. My godfather and a very dear uncle of mine was a Marine in Vietnam. I don't know much about what he did over there, he never talked about it, but I'm glad there were guys like you over there taking care of him. Thank you for your service.
Interesting story about Moose, the reason that he was shot was because when the guard called out for the password, Moose forgot it. He did survive his wounds and apparently till his dying days still didn’t remember what the password was.
@@derelmo8576 who knows😂 its the same as that people confuse dutch with german, sure our language share some traits but it can be distinguished very easy. Still everytime a tourist talks to me they ask, you speak germanisch?🤣 no dutch, he deutsch?😅
I'm from Belgium, not far from Bastogne. Seen the fox holes, some of it are still there. It's so surreal to go where It all happened, quite a few of the Easy Co veterans came to commemorate over the years, and Belgium is grateful and don't forget US lives that liberated us. Great videos, keep 'em coming, thanks for the work you're doing to entertain us :)
Being from The US I’ve had the privilege to visit Bastogne and it really is a beautiful place and you can feel the history around you it really is surreal.
Renee Lemaire was a nurse from Bastogne. She was visiting her parents for Christmas 1944. Her fiancé was a Jewish man who was taken by the gestapo earlier in 1944. When Bastogne became surrounded by the German advance, Renée volunteered at the American aid station. On Christmas Eve 1944, the Germans bombed Bastogne. The building where the aid station was located was hit by a bomb. Renee was not in the building, and managed to rescue 6 people from the building. She went back in to get more people, but the building collapsed, and she was killed. Her body was recovered by the Airborne, and returned to her family wrapped in a parachute. Augusta Chiwy (Anna) was also a nurse, who was also visiting her parents in Bastogne for Christmas 1944. Her father was a Belgian soldier who fought in WW1, and her mother was from Congo. Augusta volunteered at the American aid station when the town became surrounded. During the Christmas Eve bombing, Augusta was in the building adjacent to the aid station when it was hit. She was blown through a wall, but only suffered minor injuries. She survived the rest of the war, continued to practice nursing, married a Belgian soldier, who she had two children with. In 2012, Augusta was finally formally recognized by both the American and Belgian governments, being awarded civilian awards for heroism and bravery. Augusta passed away in 2015. Together, Renée and Augusta are known as the Angels of Bastogne.
Which they should have been rewarded, sad that Renee died rescuing someone from the building. Joan of Arc used to be my historical female hero until I learned about both of them
The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II. The battle lasted for five weeks from 16 December 1944 to 28 January 1945, towards the end of the war in Europe.
One of the reasons Winters was good at tactics, he would read a lot of the after-action reports, like the one he was typing. It helped him to see things that worked and things that didn't.
9:56 Extra detail about this scene. One of the German prisoners understood English. They were all relieved when Winters took away Liebgott's ammo. They were terrified that they would be shot.
@@Nokdu. i think they would likely know that they were now within american territory, if they jumped him think of what his friends would to to them if they were recaptured, i doubt it'd just be a bullet to the head
Since you admitted you were unfamiliar with unit hierarchy, here's tutorial from the lowest to the highest. • Squad. Full strength of 10-12 men. Commanded by an NCO (Non-Commissioned Officer). • Platoon. Contains three squads. Commanded by a 2nd (an insignia of a single gold bar) or 1st lieutenant (a single silver bar). • Company. Contains three platoons. Sometimes an additional weapons platoon (machine guns & mortars). Commanded by a captain (two silver bars). • Battalion. Contains three companies in the airborne and four in the regular infantry. Infantry companies have four platoons. The fourth being a heavy weapons company. A battalion is normally commanded by a major (a cluster of gold oak leaves) or lieutenant colonel (a cluster of silver oak leaves). In the airborne the 1st battalion's companies have the lettered designation of the first three letters of the alphabet, i.e. A, B, C. The 2nd battalion's companies are D, E, F. The third battalion's companies are G, H, I. In regular infantry the companies of A, B, C & D are in the 1st battalion and so on. In WWII the companies were also referred to by words. This avoids any misunderstanding, especially in radio communications. A Company was also known as Able Company. Continuing on, the terms are Baker, Charlie, Dog, Easy, Fox, George, How, and Item. Since Easy or E Company is in the second group of the three series of letters, it means it is in the 2nd Battalion. • Regiment. Contains three battalions. Usually commanded by a colonel (a silver eagle) or lieutenant colonel. For example in this series, it's Colonel Sink commanding the 506th Parachute Regiment.. Division. Contains three regiments. Usually commanded by a major general (2-stars) • Corps. The number of divisions varies. It could be as low as two divisions and as many as four, Normally commanded by a lieutenant general (3-stars). • Army. Contains multiple corps. There is no set number. Commanded by a general (4-stars). Army Group. Contains multiple Armies. Commanded by a general. You may find the following of some interest. The playing card spade symbol on the side of the helmets indicates that the wearer is in the 506th Parachute Regiment. On the back of some helmets you will see either white horizontal or vertical bars. The horizontal bars is a designation of an NCO (enlisted) and the vertical is for officers. This was done so that soldiers in combat would be able to identify their leaders. It was placed on the back to prevent the enemy from identifying and in turn targeting them. For the next few episodes, the 101st Division will be involved in the Battle of Bastogne. The link is to a map of area. Note the 506th Regiment is in the Northeast corner or 1-o'clock from the town of Bastogne near the village of Foy. Foy will be featured in a future episode. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Bastogne#/media/File:Bastogne_Map_December_19-23_1944.jpg
My uncle Milo fought in this battle, outside St. Vith. He and his men got encircled and had to evade in the woods from 12/18 to 12/24. Milo got separated from his men when the enemy stumbled on them, and he was on his own for a while. He reached friendly lines on Christmas Eve. He had trenchfoot and his feet were frostbitten. He wrote his story when he got home and I have the original typewritten copy, a true treasure for me. There are so many amazing stories out there, and too few left to tell them,
I am currently a Navy Corpsman (medic) and I have to say Bastogne is my favorite episode. It really did capture the essence of life as a medical provider attached to a deployed unit. It’s a unique perspective that you don’t get to see very often
Episode 6 is probably my favorite too. I was never a combat medic but I was a civilian EMT and I really appreciate the emphasis here on emergency medicine and the sort of stress and mental fortitude it takes to keep working through that stress to save lives. It requires compartmentalization. It requires professional distance, emotionally, from the people you have to treat. The way Eugene doesn't call people by their nicknames is part of that. He has to maintain that distance so when those people get hurt he can do his job and focus on the medicine. The people who are good at that sort of job are the ones who can deal with that stress and then sort of repress and forget about the awful things they see. I don't remember much of anything about my time as an EMT. I remember my colleagues, funny things that happened, but everything else just faded away quickly after a shift was over. You only really remember things if something went wrong, if there was a mistake made, a symptom missed, or something like that, but then the memories are really just about that medicine and the lessons learned, not the patients. For me, the hardest calls involved children. I don't remember really any of the other patients in any detail, but I still have all the names of the kids I treated in my head. I remember basically every detail of those calls, even though nothing bad really happened. It was really hard for me to see kids in pain or distress so my brain put all that in long-term memory (thanks, brain!). At the end, when Eugene is struggling with the stress after effectively being on call 24 hours a day for the entire siege, with frequent combat, that's when he finally calls somebody by their unit nickname. The walls he's built up to protect his sanity are starting to crumble a bit. It's a great touch, which I don't see many reactors comment on, but to me that's one of the most significant and realistic aspects of this episode. Part of the job is seeing everybody when they're having their worst day. A lot of worst days in a row are going to eventually get to anybody.
The battle from which Winters suffered PTSD was the last moment of war where Winters shot a weapon. He was later stationed at the rear as an high-ranking officer and didnt got into a combat.
Winters took no credit for Easy Company's victory at the Crossroads. He wrote in his post action report and pretty much gave credit to his men. Another great example and highlight to him as a great leader.
Episode 5 to me is the perfect episode. The way they tell that story through an after action report. Brilliant. And that shot of him looking the young SS soldier in the eyes before shooting him. The one scene that really sticks in my mind
IIRC Winters said that was the one kill that really bothered him because the young fellow smiled at him right before he shot and it always really stuck with him.
The shaving scene. Was there for a reason. Major winners in an interview said that he made sure that he shaved every day no matter what. Saying that no matter the conditions or the hardships he shaved so that his men saw that he was maintaining routine and military discipline
My step grandfather was in the 101st at the Battle Of The Bulge. And although I knew the man to love the outdoors, not in the winter he stayed in the house.
The behind the scenes of how they filmed the bastogne episode is absolutely worth a watch. Its incredible what they did. Theyre actually inside a giant hangar filled with fake trees and fake snow.
In the chain of command, orders are orders, you don't have much of a choice, especially during war. Winters doesn't really have the choice to stay in E company and he knows that because he's a good soldier. Someone has to move up the rank and someone has to fill the gap. The best you can do is to have the best men fill them.
haha well said m8. I was in the army and I was laughing at the screen when they wondered and said Winters will not take up the offer. It was such a good laugh for me , how civilians think its like a job where you can pick and choose to decline the job offer :))
This episode is especially heartbreaking for me because my grandfather was a medic during our country's revolutionary war in 1945-1950, and continued to serve as a Medic until 1963 helping quell several uprising in the region. The war never left him. He returned home and work as a nurse at a general hospital in my city. He is well known to be calm, collected and dependable but you can see at home he was out of his elements. He would have trouble sleeping, chain smoke packs of cigarettes a day, and philander. When I was a kid I told him that I want to join the military and he was the only one in the family to sternly object.
Bastogne...Imagine being the only one on the battlefield trying to save lives, while literally everyone around you is trying to end them. I dated a nurse and saw the pain she went through, I can't imagine what it would be like in a War zone. The anomaly of War to me, is how much humanity comes out of its insanity. Currahee ♠
Most of episode 6 was filmed on a sound stage in the summer. The snow is torn paper. The cold breath was added later in special effects. Renée Lamaire and Agust Chiwy were real people. There is no evidence that Eugene and Renée ever met but it does help the emotional impact of the story.
Starting at the bottom: There would be squads. There would be about a dozen men led by a sergeant. These would be your best friends. Put some squads together and you have a platoon. Easy had three led by lieutenants. This was the position that Winters had in episode one. The platoons made up the company led by a captain. So far the leaders of Easy have been Sobel, Meehan, Winters, Heyliger, and Dike. Put three companies together to make up a battalion. So Able, Baker, and Charlie would be first battalion, Dog, Easy and Fox second. Three battalions make the regiment, and some regiments make up the 101st Division. The card symbols on the helmets show the regiments. Yeah, this is way too simplified. You can see charts online for the more complex structure.
Smaller than a squad is the fireteam, typically four guys, led by a junior NCO like a corporal or junior sergeant. The leader would generally be carrying a rifle and providing tactical orders to the other three and maintaining communication with the other fireteams in the squad. Then you'd have a standard rifleman for direct fire, a grenadier for indirect fire, and somebody with a light machine gun for suppressing fire. Put three of those fireteams together and you get a very effective squad that can engage in basic maneuvers on a small scale against anything except heavy armor. Although it is possible even as a four man team to do all of the necessary maneuvers for modern warfare, as the fireteam itself has all the necessary elements and the bare minimum manpower needed. All the other units types are really just scaled up versions with opportunity for additional specialized attachments like medical, logistics, administration, and other weapon systems. In larger units, you'd have small units within them dedicated to heavy weapons, mortars, etc., to increase the overall effectiveness and capability of the larger unit.
My grandfather was a combat medic in the devil’s brigade. He would periodically wake up screaming in the middle of the night for the rest of his life. Also went to church every single day. Episode 6 is my favorite in the series and for my money the greatest hour of cable television ever.
22:40 the fact that the trucks have their headlights on underscores the urgency the commanders had getting the troops into the defensive position. Light discipline is paramount for security when moving at night.
I like how you are surprised about shaving. Military is about discipline and simple tasks (making your bed, shaving daily) is just that. To turn you into soldier.
Also one of the only defenses against a chemical attack. Facial hair can prevent your MOPP gear from sealing, essentially making your gas mask useless. When I went through BCT our DS told us they will know if anyone skipped shaving because they will be gasping for air while everyone else is fine. Basic is about instilling discipline but there is a method to the madness.
if you watched animated battle maps you can get a better grand look of the Battle of the Bulge and see how surrounded they really were. i've seen many reactors who didnt quiet grab a sense on why they were there and why they were low on supplies. Remember its war not a HR work dispute. Theres a reason these were some of the toughest S O B in the regiment(foreshadowing line).
I was one of the very few people that my grandfather talked to about his experiences in WWII as a medic. He came to see me a week before I left for basic training, to tell me how horrible war is but that I would make the best friends I’d ever have. My dad, a USMC Vietnam veteran confirmed that too.
About the American fighters strafing American soldiers. At 300ish mph, 500ish feet off the ground, in the bad visibility of such weather conditions, a pilot is not going to be able to tell one side's soldiers for another. He was given a job. Protect the dropped supplies. He had no way of knowing which side's soldiers were going for the drop so he made a temporary fence of bullets to keep them back.
Jimmy Fallon is playing Lieutenant George C. Rice, Supply officer in the 10th Armored Division. Recognising that US forces moving in to face the German offensive would be short on supplies, he made EIGHT supply runs carrying everything he could - ammunition, food, warm clothing, blankets. He only stopped at eight because his commanding officer ordered him to stop, concerned that Rice would be captured or killed by the Germans who by that point had encircled the 101st Airborne. Rice received the Bronze Star for these runs.
We learned from earlier conversation that the Regiment has 9 companies. The Regiment has 2 Battallions. Winter is in charge of the 2nd Battallion of the Regiment, either 4 or 5 companies make up the Battallion. One of his companies is easy Company.
@@paulhewes7333 any idea what books or reference material they intend to use? I thought both Helmet for my Pillow and With the old Breed, were both fantastic first hand accounts and reads
Always great to see people discovering this show. Truly one of the best of all-time. Ep. 06 is a special, and the upcoming Ep. 07 is my personal fav, another legendary episode. Can't wait to see the upcoming Eps. A heavy watch at times, but just so powerful
Renee was based upon a real nurse in Bastogne (Renee Lemaire), who died during the Battle of the Bulge. A courageous and compassionate woman, very interesting story if you look it up.
46:35 the guy who dropped his coffe cup survived. He came back to visit the place decades later, his foxhole was still there and he found his coffe cup at the bottom.
14:45 The guard who shot Moose was a fresh replacement. Had only been with the unit a few weeks and hadn’t seen combat. After the shooting he was promptly transferred out of the Easy.
If you really enjoy, Band of the Brothers I highly RECOMMEND, (The Pacific) ! Band of the Brothers shows what it's like on the European Theater, but The Pacific shows what it's like on the Pacific Theater! Absolutely amazing shows!!
the main character from his show is Easy Company ( which is actually the Company E , the letter is the name of the company , its not actually Easy company , but it was used for easier relatable name for a unit . For example the first company in a battalion would be Company A followed by B and so on . A company would be usually nicknamed Alfa, B - Bravo , C - Charlie
The battle at the Crossroads was actually much bigger than portrayed. When Winters saw the size of the enemy force, he called for reinforcements. He got command of Easy and Fox company and drove the Germans back to the river where the Germans dug in and there was a whole German battalion. So, Winters disengaged and returned to the American lines. He had just conducted a battalion level assault, with artillery support, organized in literally minutes. The battalion Easy company belonged to had 3 rifle companies : Dog, Easy, and Fox, plus an headquarters company and other weapons and support units. Nix was part of the Headquarters company not Easy company. There is a history of the Headquarters company that talks more about Nix's war exploits.
At 17:06 when you bring up how does someone go from war to taking a break in a civilian life and back....I remember hearing of men coming back from Afghanistan for a two-week break from action back to the States to see family. You'd have a guy who had just spent months getting shot at, going on missions, and here he is at home mowing the yard and picking up stuff at Home Depot to make repairs at the house. Then he goes back again to face the enemy. It's a weird dichotomy. And the guy wasn't dead...getting his cigarette taken away...he was sleeping. Soldiers sleep as often as they can. Anywhere they can since it's a rare commodity in a war zone.
I winter camped in high school on a trip and unfortunately it was -20C that night and we suffered mightily with full winter gear. We bailed on the whole thing the next morning.
In a newsreel from the Battle of the Bulge, there was a shot that showed a signed someone in the 101st had put up that said "They've got us surrounded. The poor bastards!" There was also a shot of a Gi driving past the camra in a jeep that was on fire. There's a similar scene in Band of Brothers when Doc returns to the town under attack. I've always wondered if that was a deliberate homage to the newsreel.
what that also doesn't mention was that was the battle of the Hurtgen forest. A place where tired soldiers were sent to rest as there was at the time no action seen there. This was the main place where the Germans came through in the Battle of the Bulge on the way to Bastogne. The worst casualties were caused by the Germans setting their artillary shells to explode at tree top level causing the allied soldiers to be showered by high speed deadly splinters from the trees themselves. This caused massive and mostly lethal injuries and was one of the most effective and inhumane attack strategies used by the Germans in this battle.
midway at the series the real crossroads is the one that changed Winters' life! everything changes for him after he killed the SS boy whose life couldn't be spared, he lost the Company to lead the Batallion. that episode starts and ends at different crossroads with different versions of Winters, his typewriter is the counterpart of his gun, processing the turning point of his experience, just like Nix with the drinking or Compton being shellshocked... the loneliness of leadership is true but earned and with bonds so deep, you "stand together alone"... and Winters is coming! 13:40 - hello Mr. Tom Hanks' cameo as a Red Devil! 24:45 - and Mr. Jimmy Fallon at the end setting out the greatest line in the series!
❤ Thanks to all servicemen and veterans. May the government support you for all you do and have done for our country. May god bless each and every one of you.
46:33 that shot passed through his shoulder, through his torso, and out the other side. smokey was paralyzed by that shot for a bit, but was able to regain function. dude had helluva back pain. whenever people would greet him, clap their hand on his back, dude would still feel the pain like hell, but he'd always bear with it lol. apparently when he went back after the war, he found his mug still in that foxhole
PTSD was called shell shock or battle fatigue back then, it definitely wasn’t taken serious by anyone who wasn’t already in battle themselves. Love your reactions!
i can’t even imagine what it was like to be given severe PTSD by the worst war in history, to come home and not only have that mental hell mean nothing to those around you, to experience survivors guilt first and foremost, but to also not have the proper words/understanding of what you’re going through. no one can convince me that we’re not still experiencing significant remnants of that generational trauma as a society to this day, humans didn’t evolve to cope with that shit. just unbelievably tragic in countless ways
'' Thankyou for your service'' I imagine is fine for our veterans of every era to here. However, what would reassure them I'm quite certain is ''We'll pickup the torch of freedom where you have brought it, carry it as honorably as you have and make sure we can also pass it on.''
I’ve been lucky enough to visit normandy a few times. The last time we went I went to a museum that had a lot of Winters stuff, like his footlocker. It’s an unforgettable experience if you ever get the chance to go.
We're actually having a little meetup with some guys who all play WW2 games together online at Normandy next year, right at the D-Day anniversary. Your recommendation will be noted for our sightseeing program.
A company is the smallest "Official" unit in the Army. The Battalion would be in charge of several companies. A company is made up of platoons of 40 or so guys divided into 4 squads of 10 men each and with a company having something like 4-5 platoons. From bottom up organizationally its Squad, Platoon, Company, Battalion, Brigade/Regiment, Division, Core, Field Army. So Easy companies "full name" is Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division.
"The Operations Room" RUclips Channel covers a lot of the battles that Easy Company took part in from the big picture perspective. I highly recommend it.
49:32 fun fact original silent night is in german. Its was first performed in 1818 in austria. The lyrics were german. Got popular all over the globe and translated. And its by far the most popular christmas song in germany till this day
The soldier that Jimmy Fallon plays is 2nd Lt George C. Rice, who made multiple trips to try and scrounge ammo for the 101st, the last one actually passing through holes in the German lines after the 101st was surrounded. He only stopped because his CO ordered him to, and got the Bronze Star for his efforts. Allegedly, Fallon grew up down the street from the real George Rice.
@@catherinelw9365 That's why I said allegedly. I know I've read it somewhere (it was in the context of correcting a misconception that he was related to Rice), but was unable to find the source to confirm it.
In the Marine Corps, we had Corpsmen. Most of them I wouldn't piss on if they were on fire. But when you get a good one attached...they EARN that FMF badge. Best doc we had ran off to BUDS because he wanted "more." Crazy bastard.
13:40 - a blink and you'll miss it moment, but this is one of the moments where Tom Hanks cameos in the series. The oval mask clips him out, but if you view the oval mask as a clock, at 11 o'clock you see a guy with his forehead slightly clipped by the oval mask, and a guy shifting behind him. That shifting guy is Tom Hanks. You can better see him if you search for "Easy Company Rescue British Red Devils - Band Of Brothers (HBO) - Red Devils Get Rescued" and go to the 1 min 39 mark and change the playback speed to .25 to help slow down the video to clearly see him.
The Battle of the Bulge was a really brutal battle near the end of the war, but ultimately it was a strategic blunder by the German military that was doomed from the start and further compounded by losses of huge numbers of German planes in an effort to salvage what was already a collapsing offensive on the ground. Top Allied commanders were basically waiting for something like the Battle of the Bulge to happen, and quickly moved to punish the mistake as soon as the word of the attack reached them. It was a surprise attack to the Allied units on the ground, but an expected one from the strategic planners (they just didn't know exactly when and where). Easy Company and the other units at Bastogne were very cold, and were lacking supplies, but they actually outnumbered the surrounding, sieging German forces, especially as the German tanks bypassed Bastogne in a failed effort to cross rivers to the northwest. So the 101st never needed to be rescued, they just needed resupply, and they got that, and could have held out indefinitely as long as the weather allowed for periodic supply drops. Patton's "rescue" was really just the Allied counteroffensive attacking the overextended, poorly-supplied German troops.
I learned MOST of my WWII Info from my Dad and two of his brothers. One uncle fought for Patton and saved the 101st. I never had a personal enlightenment from someone in the 101st.
Every trooper in the pocket would have disagreed with that statement. Fun Fact: It wasn't just the 101st. Parts of the 10th Armored were there as well.
I know a lot of people are going to recommend and already have recommended The Pacific after this, and while it's also for sure worth watching, I would also love for you guys to watch Generation Kill. It's another HBO miniseries following real soldiers, but instead of WW2 it's about the beginning of the Iraq War. Tonally very different from BoB, but I feel it's an underrated series that's an incredibly raw look at the reality of modern American wars. The show's created by the same guy who also did The Wire, another masterpiece of an HBO show.
In the actual report Winters wrote after the battle on the Crossroads.. That first kid he shot was actually laying 5ft from him when he came over the top. He also noted that kid was supposed to be the lookout in the rear of the German company while they rested. Winters says the kid had his head down not watching over the open field he and his men came from and if that kid had been watching they probably would have all been killed or wounded since it was a wide open field. Lucky for them he wasn't watching. Unlucky for the Germans and that kid.
My father was one of the soldiers who marched 100 miles in 2 days to relieve Bastogne. He said they lost more men to frostbite and trench foot than to German fire. If you want to see a good movie, based on true events, that focuses on a medic, watch Hacksaw Ridge.
If I remember correctly, Winter's wrote the book this show is based on. If no one said before, the battle they are about to fight is the battle of the bulge. Very important and famous battle in ww2.
Another plug for The Operations Room youtube channel which has two videos giving more context to episode 5, and the events around the surrounding of Bastogne covered in episodes 6 and 7. It was through that channel and their Battle of the Bulge episodes that I learned that my grandfather's brother was almost certainly involved in some way in the battle with the 53rd Welsh Division, although I haven't had official confirmation of that yet.
Great reaction! Thanks for reacting to this very important show. It's a personal favorite...and this was a great episode. Also: Go Cowboys (from a Cowboys fan living in the San Francisco Bay Area)!
Fun Fact: the Bastogne episode and the next episode (the brutal winter foxhole scenes) were mostly filmed inside a large air hanger. So while they are pretending to be cold (the cold air/breathing was added in post), they were actually very hot because the halogen lights (no LED's back then) considerably heated up the hanger.
29:21 when a German soldier is capture, you asked, "How close are we to the enemy right now." From Ambrose's "Band of Brothers." At dawn on December 20, a heavy mist hung over the woods and fields. Winters rose [shaving in the series] and looked around. To his left he saw a German soldier in his long winter overcoat emerge from woods. He had no rifle, no pack. He walked to the middle of a clearing. Two men with Winters instinctively brought their rifles to their shoulders, but he gave them a hand signal to hold their fire. The Americans watched as the German took off his overcoat, pulled down his pants, squatted and relieved himself. When he was finished, Winters hollered in his best German, "Kommen sie hier!" The soldier put up his hands and walked over to surrender. Winters went through his pockets; all he had were a rew pictures and the end of a loaf of hard black bread. "Think of this," Winters commented. "Here is a German soldier, in the light of early dawn, who went to take a crap, got turned around in the woods, walked through our lines, past the company CP [Command Post] and ended up behind the Battalion CP! That sure was some line of defense we had that first night!"
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The real life captain sobel was actually a pretty good leader who fought in operation market garden battle of the bulge and the korean war this show to a degree did him dirty
I love how you assume that sobel was a bad leader when you know nothing of what he actually did like this man actually fought in operation market garden battle of the bulge and the korean war but Hay fuck all that right who cares about what actually happened
What happen to MHA season 6??
The two nurses were based on real people; Renée Lemaire and Augusta Chiwy. Renée was killed trying to rescue the injured from a burning building. Augusta survived and died in 2015.
There is no evidence that Renée and Eugene actually met but the scriptwriters put her and Augusta in as tribute to their heroism.
It's very plausible they would have met, and very plausible they would have chatted in French if they did. As historical inaccuracies and speculative historical fiction go in this series, it's pretty benign. There's much worse errors put into the story.
Renée and Augusta. The Angels of Bastogne
Roe and Renee never met according to history. But they both deserve recognition Renee died saving people in the hospital, learning her history she is a hero. I believe they added her to acknowledge her kinda like episode 9, since easy company never came across a Concentration camp
The German boy smiling at Winters actually happened. He stated that he remembered that smile the rest of his life.
French boy, ya dumbass.
Where did you read that? Does Mjr winters have memoirs?
@@jordanlara9992he does. Look for a book titled "Beyond Band of Brothers."
Written by him
Beyond band of brothers, Winters wrote that book after the series released if i'm correct@@jordanlara9992
I’m glad that I’ve never had to kill anyone .
Also the red smoke scene I have to say this. Winters was an incredible athlete in high school and I think was getting recruited to play sports. He physically out ran everyone in the platoon and that’s why he was so far ahead of everyone. They added the Red smoke scene to explain how he got so far ahead to make it more "believable“ but the true story is even more incredible. These men were truly great
He was one of the coaches for the 506th Regiment’s Basketball team. It even was acknowledged in the series in episode 2 when Hall recognized him with “Coach?”
During college, Winters did Football, Basketball, and his favorite, wrestling.
@@dastemplar9681 thats right and that explains why he knew Hall who got killed at Brecourt. He told Nixon you knew him he was on the basketball team so that scene makes more sense to me now
24:34 the coolest line delivered in the series "We're paratroopers Lieutenant ... we're supposed to be surrounded". Similar to General Chesty Puller's comment "All right, they’re on our left, they’re on our right, they’re in front of us, they’re behind us…they can’t get away this time."
14:55 Nothing hits me more than when Doc berates them when they didn't know how many serrates they gave Moose. He cares so much.
It's like getting scolded by mom. Winters & Welsh might be his c.o.'s but they messed up and mom chewed them out.
When it comes to the health and wellbeing of the men of his unit, Doc outranks everyone.
I was a US Navy Hospital Corpsman. Desert Storm . Served 10 years. In 2005, my son's best friend (a Marine) came home from Fallujah just in time for Christmas. He had been in the 2nd battle the year before. We went to a local VA Home. One old man in the dining area was utterly inconsolable. Everyone else was singing and happy. I heard a little girl ask her dad why he was so upset. I knelt beside him and simply asked where? His answer- Bastogne. Through tears he told me he was the sole survivor of his platoon. They died Christmas day. He was not an Easy Company member, but for him Christmas was forever a nightmare. I held his hand and hugged him. My friend said Doc it's time to go. The old man looked me in the eyes and said God Bless you, you guys paid a higher cost than most of us. I will not argue against his expert knowledge.
An interview with Winters, he stated that boy was the last person he killed in the war. That Jimmy Fallon character was a life saver to them, they all remembered him with great fondness for what he did by bringing them ammo.
I was a Navy Hospital Corpsman (Medic) in Vietnam (3 Tours). I had 4months of basic medical training and two months of combat medical training when I was assigned to the Marines. The army medical training is similar. They don't just say you're a medic. There are not enough men that volunteer to be a medic. Tests are taken while you are in training. If your test shows an aptitude for medicine, then they ask you to volunteer or just send you to school to be a medic. If you are not good at it they send you back to infantry. Most medics that have been in combat can do the job as well as or better than some doctors or nurses. According to the Geneva Conventions medics are not to carry offensive weapons. I never carried a weapon. During times not in combat the medic is supposed give first aid lessons to his whole platoon frequently. So anyone can take over basic first aid if the medic is killed. They can carry a pistol for their own protection and the protection of the one they are working on. Those two medics in the same fox hole should never be close to each other during combat (That’s one of the first things you learn). One of my tours in Vietnam I was on a ship on the Co Chien River in the Mekong Delta. Me and another corpsman were the only medical personnel on board. Being the only medical person onboard I did everything medical. If you were on a ship or with the Marines, you were called Doc. We were taught that during combat conditions we were to be on opposite ends of the ship. The 2 corpsmen we replaced were together during a fire fight and they both got killed. You never remember all the ones that you have treated but you never forget the ones you can’t save.
thanks for your service shipmate! and welcome home!
God bless you. Thank you for your service.
3 tours. That's badass. Like... "I didn't get enough, so doing it again. And again"
Thanks for being there for our guys and patching them up Doc. I appreciate you and all the guys who served during the Vietnam war. God Bless.
When I was training to be a (civilian) EMT we had a guy from the Army training with us. He wanted to do an interservice transfer to the Navy so he could be a corpsman serving with the Marines instead of being in the Army. He had that much respect for the Marines.
My godfather and a very dear uncle of mine was a Marine in Vietnam. I don't know much about what he did over there, he never talked about it, but I'm glad there were guys like you over there taking care of him. Thank you for your service.
Episodes 6-10 are all straight masterpieces!!! No redundancy in storytelling, action, theme/message. That's the mark of a brilliant episodic narrative
Episode 9 💔
Interesting story about Moose, the reason that he was shot was because when the guard called out for the password, Moose forgot it. He did survive his wounds and apparently till his dying days still didn’t remember what the password was.
And for a nervous rookie, no doubt that "it's moose" would easily sound like some german words.
@@FrenchieQc does it? Im german and I wonder why that sounds german 😂
@@derelmo8576 who knows😂 its the same as that people confuse dutch with german, sure our language share some traits but it can be distinguished very easy. Still everytime a tourist talks to me they ask, you speak germanisch?🤣 no dutch, he deutsch?😅
@@MRIRONLAK Well dutch is a germanic language. I get why they think that. But you are right.
@@derelmo8576 ich muss?
I'm from Belgium, not far from Bastogne. Seen the fox holes, some of it are still there. It's so surreal to go where It all happened, quite a few of the Easy Co veterans came to commemorate over the years, and Belgium is grateful and don't forget US lives that liberated us.
Great videos, keep 'em coming, thanks for the work you're doing to entertain us :)
Being from The US I’ve had the privilege to visit Bastogne and it really is a beautiful place and you can feel the history around you it really is surreal.
Been to where they were too. Y’all have a beautiful country.
it's a shame they put jack woods behind a litteral paywall
Renee Lemaire was a nurse from Bastogne. She was visiting her parents for Christmas 1944. Her fiancé was a Jewish man who was taken by the gestapo earlier in 1944. When Bastogne became surrounded by the German advance, Renée volunteered at the American aid station. On Christmas Eve 1944, the Germans bombed Bastogne. The building where the aid station was located was hit by a bomb. Renee was not in the building, and managed to rescue 6 people from the building. She went back in to get more people, but the building collapsed, and she was killed. Her body was recovered by the Airborne, and returned to her family wrapped in a parachute.
Augusta Chiwy (Anna) was also a nurse, who was also visiting her parents in Bastogne for Christmas 1944. Her father was a Belgian soldier who fought in WW1, and her mother was from Congo. Augusta volunteered at the American aid station when the town became surrounded. During the Christmas Eve bombing, Augusta was in the building adjacent to the aid station when it was hit. She was blown through a wall, but only suffered minor injuries. She survived the rest of the war, continued to practice nursing, married a Belgian soldier, who she had two children with. In 2012, Augusta was finally formally recognized by both the American and Belgian governments, being awarded civilian awards for heroism and bravery. Augusta passed away in 2015.
Together, Renée and Augusta are known as the Angels of Bastogne.
Both amazing women, I didn't know that about Augusta
Joan of Arc was my favorite woman in history but learning about Renée and Augusta definitely my heroes
Which they should have been rewarded, sad that Renee died rescuing someone from the building. Joan of Arc used to be my historical female hero until I learned about both of them
The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II. The battle lasted for five weeks from 16 December 1944 to 28 January 1945, towards the end of the war in Europe.
One of the reasons Winters was good at tactics, he would read a lot of the after-action reports, like the one he was typing. It helped him to see things that worked and things that didn't.
9:56 Extra detail about this scene. One of the German prisoners understood English.
They were all relieved when Winters took away Liebgott's ammo. They were terrified that they would be shot.
Really? But they would've understood Winter when he said, the rest will jump you?
@@Nokdu. i think they would likely know that they were now within american territory, if they jumped him think of what his friends would to to them if they were recaptured, i doubt it'd just be a bullet to the head
@@vegvisir9276 you got a point
Also, fun fact, Tom Hanks has a cameo in that scene with the Red Devils in the barn.
Since you admitted you were unfamiliar with unit hierarchy, here's tutorial from the lowest to the highest.
• Squad. Full strength of 10-12 men. Commanded by an NCO (Non-Commissioned Officer).
• Platoon. Contains three squads. Commanded by a 2nd (an insignia of a single gold bar) or 1st lieutenant (a single silver bar).
• Company. Contains three platoons. Sometimes an additional weapons platoon (machine guns & mortars). Commanded by a captain (two silver bars).
• Battalion. Contains three companies in the airborne and four in the regular infantry. Infantry companies have four platoons. The fourth being a heavy weapons company. A battalion is normally commanded by a major (a cluster of gold oak leaves) or lieutenant colonel (a cluster of silver oak leaves). In the airborne the 1st battalion's companies have the lettered designation of the first three letters of the alphabet, i.e. A, B, C. The 2nd battalion's companies are D, E, F. The third battalion's companies are G, H, I. In regular infantry the companies of A, B, C & D are in the 1st battalion and so on. In WWII the companies were also referred to by words. This avoids any misunderstanding, especially in radio communications. A Company was also known as Able Company. Continuing on, the terms are Baker, Charlie, Dog, Easy, Fox, George, How, and Item. Since Easy or E Company is in the second group of the three series of letters, it means it is in the 2nd Battalion.
• Regiment. Contains three battalions. Usually commanded by a colonel (a silver eagle) or lieutenant colonel. For example in this series, it's Colonel Sink commanding the 506th Parachute Regiment..
Division. Contains three regiments. Usually commanded by a major general (2-stars)
• Corps. The number of divisions varies. It could be as low as two divisions and as many as four, Normally commanded by a lieutenant general (3-stars).
• Army. Contains multiple corps. There is no set number. Commanded by a general (4-stars).
Army Group. Contains multiple Armies. Commanded by a general.
You may find the following of some interest. The playing card spade symbol on the side of the helmets indicates that the wearer is in the 506th Parachute Regiment. On the back of some helmets you will see either white horizontal or vertical bars. The horizontal bars is a designation of an NCO (enlisted) and the vertical is for officers. This was done so that soldiers in combat would be able to identify their leaders. It was placed on the back to prevent the enemy from identifying and in turn targeting them.
For the next few episodes, the 101st Division will be involved in the Battle of Bastogne. The link is to a map of area. Note the 506th Regiment is in the Northeast corner or 1-o'clock from the town of Bastogne near the village of Foy. Foy will be featured in a future episode.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Bastogne#/media/File:Bastogne_Map_December_19-23_1944.jpg
Hey thanks for the info. I enjoy learning about this type of stuff.
Great comment, this is exactly what I was looking for, thank you!
My uncle Milo fought in this battle, outside St. Vith. He and his men got encircled and had to evade in the woods from 12/18 to 12/24. Milo got separated from his men when the enemy stumbled on them, and he was on his own for a while. He reached friendly lines on Christmas Eve. He had trenchfoot and his feet were frostbitten. He wrote his story when he got home and I have the original typewritten copy, a true treasure for me. There are so many amazing stories out there, and too few left to tell them,
I am currently a Navy Corpsman (medic) and I have to say Bastogne is my favorite episode. It really did capture the essence of life as a medical provider attached to a deployed unit. It’s a unique perspective that you don’t get to see very often
They were NOT alone at Bastogne. They were reinforced with two full Tank Destroyer battalions, and, Combat Command B from the 10th Armored Division.
Episode 6 is probably my favorite too. I was never a combat medic but I was a civilian EMT and I really appreciate the emphasis here on emergency medicine and the sort of stress and mental fortitude it takes to keep working through that stress to save lives. It requires compartmentalization. It requires professional distance, emotionally, from the people you have to treat. The way Eugene doesn't call people by their nicknames is part of that. He has to maintain that distance so when those people get hurt he can do his job and focus on the medicine. The people who are good at that sort of job are the ones who can deal with that stress and then sort of repress and forget about the awful things they see. I don't remember much of anything about my time as an EMT. I remember my colleagues, funny things that happened, but everything else just faded away quickly after a shift was over. You only really remember things if something went wrong, if there was a mistake made, a symptom missed, or something like that, but then the memories are really just about that medicine and the lessons learned, not the patients. For me, the hardest calls involved children. I don't remember really any of the other patients in any detail, but I still have all the names of the kids I treated in my head. I remember basically every detail of those calls, even though nothing bad really happened. It was really hard for me to see kids in pain or distress so my brain put all that in long-term memory (thanks, brain!).
At the end, when Eugene is struggling with the stress after effectively being on call 24 hours a day for the entire siege, with frequent combat, that's when he finally calls somebody by their unit nickname. The walls he's built up to protect his sanity are starting to crumble a bit. It's a great touch, which I don't see many reactors comment on, but to me that's one of the most significant and realistic aspects of this episode. Part of the job is seeing everybody when they're having their worst day. A lot of worst days in a row are going to eventually get to anybody.
The battle from which Winters suffered PTSD was the last moment of war where Winters shot a weapon. He was later stationed at the rear as an high-ranking officer and didnt got into a combat.
Winters took no credit for Easy Company's victory at the Crossroads. He wrote in his post action report and pretty much gave credit to his men.
Another great example and highlight to him as a great leader.
Episode 5 to me is the perfect episode. The way they tell that story through an after action report. Brilliant. And that shot of him looking the young SS soldier in the eyes before shooting him. The one scene that really sticks in my mind
IIRC Winters said that was the one kill that really bothered him because the young fellow smiled at him right before he shot and it always really stuck with him.
The shaving scene. Was there for a reason. Major winners in an interview said that he made sure that he shaved every day no matter what. Saying that no matter the conditions or the hardships he shaved so that his men saw that he was maintaining routine and military discipline
My step grandfather was in the 101st at the Battle Of The Bulge. And although I knew the man to love the outdoors, not in the winter he stayed in the house.
The behind the scenes of how they filmed the bastogne episode is absolutely worth a watch. Its incredible what they did.
Theyre actually inside a giant hangar filled with fake trees and fake snow.
In the chain of command, orders are orders, you don't have much of a choice, especially during war. Winters doesn't really have the choice to stay in E company and he knows that because he's a good soldier. Someone has to move up the rank and someone has to fill the gap. The best you can do is to have the best men fill them.
haha well said m8. I was in the army and I was laughing at the screen when they wondered and said Winters will not take up the offer. It was such a good laugh for me , how civilians think its like a job where you can pick and choose to decline the job offer :))
Not like a civilian job offer. If you don’t take it your gone.
This episode is especially heartbreaking for me because my grandfather was a medic during our country's revolutionary war in 1945-1950, and continued to serve as a Medic until 1963 helping quell several uprising in the region. The war never left him. He returned home and work as a nurse at a general hospital in my city. He is well known to be calm, collected and dependable but you can see at home he was out of his elements. He would have trouble sleeping, chain smoke packs of cigarettes a day, and philander. When I was a kid I told him that I want to join the military and he was the only one in the family to sternly object.
The snow episodes were actually shot in an airplane hangar, with real trees
Bastogne...Imagine being the only one on the battlefield trying to save lives, while literally everyone around you is trying to end them. I dated a nurse and saw the pain she went through, I can't imagine what it would be like in a War zone. The anomaly of War to me, is how much humanity comes out of its insanity. Currahee ♠
Hacksaw Ridge is a good story about that same thing.
Most of episode 6 was filmed on a sound stage in the summer. The snow is torn paper. The cold breath was added later in special effects.
Renée Lamaire and Agust Chiwy were real people. There is no evidence that Eugene and Renée ever met but it does help the emotional impact of the story.
Starting at the bottom:
There would be squads. There would be about a dozen men led by a sergeant. These would be your best friends.
Put some squads together and you have a platoon. Easy had three led by lieutenants. This was the position that Winters had in episode one.
The platoons made up the company led by a captain. So far the leaders of Easy have been Sobel, Meehan, Winters, Heyliger, and Dike.
Put three companies together to make up a battalion. So Able, Baker, and Charlie would be first battalion, Dog, Easy and Fox second.
Three battalions make the regiment, and some regiments make up the 101st Division. The card symbols on the helmets show the regiments.
Yeah, this is way too simplified. You can see charts online for the more complex structure.
Smaller than a squad is the fireteam, typically four guys, led by a junior NCO like a corporal or junior sergeant. The leader would generally be carrying a rifle and providing tactical orders to the other three and maintaining communication with the other fireteams in the squad. Then you'd have a standard rifleman for direct fire, a grenadier for indirect fire, and somebody with a light machine gun for suppressing fire. Put three of those fireteams together and you get a very effective squad that can engage in basic maneuvers on a small scale against anything except heavy armor. Although it is possible even as a four man team to do all of the necessary maneuvers for modern warfare, as the fireteam itself has all the necessary elements and the bare minimum manpower needed. All the other units types are really just scaled up versions with opportunity for additional specialized attachments like medical, logistics, administration, and other weapon systems. In larger units, you'd have small units within them dedicated to heavy weapons, mortars, etc., to increase the overall effectiveness and capability of the larger unit.
@@fakecubed Smaller than a rifleman is his nose, which can get shot off while you're going off of this nerdy shit. WHO CARES?
When you read what Winters said about that Crossroads assault, it was like everyone else was moving in slow motion.
My grandfather was a combat medic in the devil’s brigade. He would periodically wake up screaming in the middle of the night for the rest of his life. Also went to church every single day. Episode 6 is my favorite in the series and for my money the greatest hour of cable television ever.
"You're not gonna help anybody without feet though" yeah, about that
22:40 the fact that the trucks have their headlights on underscores the urgency the commanders had getting the troops into the defensive position. Light discipline is paramount for security when moving at night.
I like how you are surprised about shaving. Military is about discipline and simple tasks (making your bed, shaving daily) is just that. To turn you into soldier.
Yeah, and speaking of Winters, he wanted to maintain that discipline. He was the soldier.
Also one of the only defenses against a chemical attack. Facial hair can prevent your MOPP gear from sealing, essentially making your gas mask useless. When I went through BCT our DS told us they will know if anyone skipped shaving because they will be gasping for air while everyone else is fine. Basic is about instilling discipline but there is a method to the madness.
if you watched animated battle maps you can get a better grand look of the Battle of the Bulge and see how surrounded they really were. i've seen many reactors who didnt quiet grab a sense on why they were there and why they were low on supplies. Remember its war not a HR work dispute. Theres a reason these were some of the toughest S O B in the regiment(foreshadowing line).
I was one of the very few people that my grandfather talked to about his experiences in WWII as a medic. He came to see me a week before I left for basic training, to tell me how horrible war is but that I would make the best friends I’d ever have.
My dad, a USMC Vietnam veteran confirmed that too.
"We're paratroopers, we're supposed to be surrounded"
Best line ever!!!
About the American fighters strafing American soldiers.
At 300ish mph, 500ish feet off the ground, in the bad visibility of such weather conditions, a pilot is not going to be able to tell one side's soldiers for another. He was given a job. Protect the dropped supplies. He had no way of knowing which side's soldiers were going for the drop so he made a temporary fence of bullets to keep them back.
I've also figured that they were supposed to clear the DZ for the supplies so guys aren't struck by any of the falling equipment.
I was an Army Medic myself, I love that they did a whole episode about the line medics.
Jimmy Fallon is playing Lieutenant George C. Rice, Supply officer in the 10th Armored Division. Recognising that US forces moving in to face the German offensive would be short on supplies, he made EIGHT supply runs carrying everything he could - ammunition, food, warm clothing, blankets. He only stopped at eight because his commanding officer ordered him to stop, concerned that Rice would be captured or killed by the Germans who by that point had encircled the 101st Airborne. Rice received the Bronze Star for these runs.
We learned from earlier conversation that the Regiment has 9 companies. The Regiment has 2 Battallions. Winter is in charge of the 2nd Battallion of the Regiment, either 4 or 5 companies make up the Battallion. One of his companies is easy Company.
excited for the remaining episodes :) PS i can also recommend "The Pacific" also from Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg
there is an Army Air Corps show being made right now, done by the same team as BOB and the Pacific.
@@paulhewes7333 any idea what books or reference material they intend to use? I thought both Helmet for my Pillow and With the old Breed, were both fantastic first hand accounts and reads
@@scubasteve2903 they might be using the Ambrose book he wrote about pilots "The Wild Blue"
Always great to see people discovering this show. Truly one of the best of all-time. Ep. 06 is a special, and the upcoming Ep. 07 is my personal fav, another legendary episode. Can't wait to see the upcoming Eps. A heavy watch at times, but just so powerful
Renee was based upon a real nurse in Bastogne (Renee Lemaire), who died during the Battle of the Bulge. A courageous and compassionate woman, very interesting story if you look it up.
Winters is promoted to Executive Officer (2nd in Command) of 2nd Battalion. 506th Regiment, 2nd Battalion consists of 3 companies-Dog, EASY and Fox.
"You're about to be surrounded."
"We're paratroopers. We're supposed to be surrounded."
Sums it up quite nicely.
I actually had the pleasure of meeting Babe Heffron. He's from my area of South Philly near Queens Village
Many years ago, after seeing this series, I found a website devoted to Eugene "Doc" Roe created by his son and daughter. It was really touching.
46:35 the guy who dropped his coffe cup survived. He came back to visit the place decades later, his foxhole was still there and he found his coffe cup at the bottom.
14:45 The guard who shot Moose was a fresh replacement. Had only been with the unit a few weeks and hadn’t seen combat. After the shooting he was promptly transferred out of the Easy.
"I feel like he's going to turn it down."
Oh, you poor sweet child. Lol
Dick was also haunted by the fact that the German he shot so close was just a kid. At this point Germany was conscripting children.
Not shaving is the first sign that dicipline is going down, so Winters lead by example.
With PTSD, the trick is compartmentalization, which basically puts all your thoughts in a box, and you just lock that box!
If you really enjoy, Band of the Brothers I highly RECOMMEND, (The Pacific) ! Band of the Brothers shows what it's like on the European Theater, but The Pacific shows what it's like on the Pacific Theater! Absolutely amazing shows!!
the main character from his show is Easy Company ( which is actually the Company E , the letter is the name of the company , its not actually Easy company , but it was used for easier relatable name for a unit . For example the first company in a battalion would be Company A followed by B and so on . A company would be usually nicknamed Alfa, B - Bravo , C - Charlie
Or Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog, Easy, Fox,
"I don't know if he will though, we'll see" lol Anthony, that's not how Orders work in the Army. heh
The battle at the Crossroads was actually much bigger than portrayed. When Winters saw the size of the enemy force, he called for reinforcements. He got command of Easy and Fox company and drove the Germans back to the river where the Germans dug in and there was a whole German battalion. So, Winters disengaged and returned to the American lines. He had just conducted a battalion level assault, with artillery support, organized in literally minutes. The battalion Easy company belonged to had 3 rifle companies : Dog, Easy, and Fox, plus an headquarters company and other weapons and support units. Nix was part of the Headquarters company not Easy company. There is a history of the Headquarters company that talks more about Nix's war exploits.
At 17:06 when you bring up how does someone go from war to taking a break in a civilian life and back....I remember hearing of men coming back from Afghanistan for a two-week break from action back to the States to see family. You'd have a guy who had just spent months getting shot at, going on missions, and here he is at home mowing the yard and picking up stuff at Home Depot to make repairs at the house. Then he goes back again to face the enemy. It's a weird dichotomy.
And the guy wasn't dead...getting his cigarette taken away...he was sleeping. Soldiers sleep as often as they can. Anywhere they can since it's a rare commodity in a war zone.
The flare malfunctioned…
33:07 Ive camped out in Oct. and it is freeeeeezing at night. Cant imagine what these guys went thru
I winter camped in high school on a trip and unfortunately it was -20C that night and we suffered mightily with full winter gear. We bailed on the whole thing the next morning.
In a newsreel from the Battle of the Bulge, there was a shot that showed a signed someone in the 101st had put up that said "They've got us surrounded. The poor bastards!" There was also a shot of a Gi driving past the camra in a jeep that was on fire. There's a similar scene in Band of Brothers when Doc returns to the town under attack. I've always wondered if that was a deliberate homage to the newsreel.
what that also doesn't mention was that was the battle of the Hurtgen forest. A place where tired soldiers were sent to rest as there was at the time no action seen there. This was the main place where the Germans came through in the Battle of the Bulge on the way to Bastogne. The worst casualties were caused by the Germans setting their artillary shells to explode at tree top level causing the allied soldiers to be showered by high speed deadly splinters from the trees themselves. This caused massive and mostly lethal injuries and was one of the most effective and inhumane attack strategies used by the Germans in this battle.
midway at the series the real crossroads is the one that changed Winters' life! everything changes for him after he killed the SS boy whose life couldn't be spared, he lost the Company to lead the Batallion. that episode starts and ends at different crossroads with different versions of Winters, his typewriter is the counterpart of his gun, processing the turning point of his experience, just like Nix with the drinking or Compton being shellshocked...
the loneliness of leadership is true but earned and with bonds so deep, you "stand together alone"...
and Winters is coming!
13:40 - hello Mr. Tom Hanks' cameo as a Red Devil!
24:45 - and Mr. Jimmy Fallon at the end setting out the greatest line in the series!
Yall should read about Renée not only was she a volunteer nurse but she died a hero.
That single statement tell you the metal of these men. "We're paratoopers we are supposed to be surrounded "
❤ Thanks to all servicemen and veterans. May the government support you for all you do and have done for our country. May god bless each and every one of you.
46:33 that shot passed through his shoulder, through his torso, and out the other side. smokey was paralyzed by that shot for a bit, but was able to regain function. dude had helluva back pain. whenever people would greet him, clap their hand on his back, dude would still feel the pain like hell, but he'd always bear with it lol. apparently when he went back after the war, he found his mug still in that foxhole
PTSD was called shell shock or battle fatigue back then, it definitely wasn’t taken serious by anyone who wasn’t already in battle themselves. Love your reactions!
i can’t even imagine what it was like to be given severe PTSD by the worst war in history, to come home and not only have that mental hell mean nothing to those around you, to experience survivors guilt first and foremost, but to also not have the proper words/understanding of what you’re going through. no one can convince me that we’re not still experiencing significant remnants of that generational trauma as a society to this day, humans didn’t evolve to cope with that shit. just unbelievably tragic in countless ways
'' Thankyou for your service'' I imagine is fine for our veterans of every era to here. However, what would reassure them I'm quite certain is ''We'll pickup the torch of freedom where you have brought it, carry it as honorably as you have and make sure we can also pass it on.''
I’ve been lucky enough to visit normandy a few times. The last time we went I went to a museum that had a lot of Winters stuff, like his footlocker. It’s an unforgettable experience if you ever get the chance to go.
We're actually having a little meetup with some guys who all play WW2 games together online at Normandy next year, right at the D-Day anniversary.
Your recommendation will be noted for our sightseeing program.
A company is the smallest "Official" unit in the Army. The Battalion would be in charge of several companies. A company is made up of platoons of 40 or so guys divided into 4 squads of 10 men each and with a company having something like 4-5 platoons. From bottom up organizationally its Squad, Platoon, Company, Battalion, Brigade/Regiment, Division, Core, Field Army. So Easy companies "full name" is Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division.
"The Operations Room" RUclips Channel covers a lot of the battles that Easy Company took part in from the big picture perspective. I highly recommend it.
49:32 fun fact original silent night is in german. Its was first performed in 1818 in austria. The lyrics were german. Got popular all over the globe and translated. And its by far the most popular christmas song in germany till this day
The soldier that Jimmy Fallon plays is 2nd Lt George C. Rice, who made multiple trips to try and scrounge ammo for the 101st, the last one actually passing through holes in the German lines after the 101st was surrounded. He only stopped because his CO ordered him to, and got the Bronze Star for his efforts. Allegedly, Fallon grew up down the street from the real George Rice.
I wonder why Fallon never said that in an interview he had about being in the series.
@@catherinelw9365 That's why I said allegedly. I know I've read it somewhere (it was in the context of correcting a misconception that he was related to Rice), but was unable to find the source to confirm it.
In the Marine Corps, we had Corpsmen. Most of them I wouldn't piss on if they were on fire.
But when you get a good one attached...they EARN that FMF badge.
Best doc we had ran off to BUDS because he wanted "more." Crazy bastard.
13:40 - a blink and you'll miss it moment, but this is one of the moments where Tom Hanks cameos in the series. The oval mask clips him out, but if you view the oval mask as a clock, at 11 o'clock you see a guy with his forehead slightly clipped by the oval mask, and a guy shifting behind him. That shifting guy is Tom Hanks. You can better see him if you search for "Easy Company Rescue British Red Devils - Band Of Brothers (HBO) - Red Devils Get Rescued" and go to the 1 min 39 mark and change the playback speed to .25 to help slow down the video to clearly see him.
The Battle of the Bulge was a really brutal battle near the end of the war, but ultimately it was a strategic blunder by the German military that was doomed from the start and further compounded by losses of huge numbers of German planes in an effort to salvage what was already a collapsing offensive on the ground. Top Allied commanders were basically waiting for something like the Battle of the Bulge to happen, and quickly moved to punish the mistake as soon as the word of the attack reached them. It was a surprise attack to the Allied units on the ground, but an expected one from the strategic planners (they just didn't know exactly when and where). Easy Company and the other units at Bastogne were very cold, and were lacking supplies, but they actually outnumbered the surrounding, sieging German forces, especially as the German tanks bypassed Bastogne in a failed effort to cross rivers to the northwest. So the 101st never needed to be rescued, they just needed resupply, and they got that, and could have held out indefinitely as long as the weather allowed for periodic supply drops. Patton's "rescue" was really just the Allied counteroffensive attacking the overextended, poorly-supplied German troops.
I learned MOST of my WWII Info from my Dad and two of his brothers. One uncle fought for Patton and saved the 101st. I never had a personal enlightenment from someone in the 101st.
They didn't need to be saved by Patton...
Every trooper in the pocket would have disagreed with that statement.
Fun Fact: It wasn't just the 101st. Parts of the 10th Armored were there as well.
I know a lot of people are going to recommend and already have recommended The Pacific after this, and while it's also for sure worth watching, I would also love for you guys to watch Generation Kill. It's another HBO miniseries following real soldiers, but instead of WW2 it's about the beginning of the Iraq War. Tonally very different from BoB, but I feel it's an underrated series that's an incredibly raw look at the reality of modern American wars. The show's created by the same guy who also did The Wire, another masterpiece of an HBO show.
Facts! ô¿ô
In the actual report Winters wrote after the battle on the Crossroads.. That first kid he shot was actually laying 5ft from him when he came over the top. He also noted that kid was supposed to be the lookout in the rear of the German company while they rested. Winters says the kid had his head down not watching over the open field he and his men came from and if that kid had been watching they probably would have all been killed or wounded since it was a wide open field. Lucky for them he wasn't watching. Unlucky for the Germans and that kid.
"It's crazy, they sing Silent Night in German !" Silent Night, Holy Night is a German Christmas song
My father was one of the soldiers who marched 100 miles in 2 days to relieve Bastogne. He said they lost more men to frostbite and trench foot than to German fire. If you want to see a good movie, based on true events, that focuses on a medic, watch Hacksaw Ridge.
Next episode, I'm going to count how many times you guys say the word, "like". There are more "likes" flying around than there are bullets.
The Medic Episode and the next with LT Speirs are my favorite BOB episodes
If I remember correctly, Winter's wrote the book this show is based on. If no one said before, the battle they are about to fight is the battle of the bulge. Very important and famous battle in ww2.
Winters was realizing the the soilder he shot, was a kid...
Another plug for The Operations Room youtube channel which has two videos giving more context to episode 5, and the events around the surrounding of Bastogne covered in episodes 6 and 7.
It was through that channel and their Battle of the Bulge episodes that I learned that my grandfather's brother was almost certainly involved in some way in the battle with the 53rd Welsh Division, although I haven't had official confirmation of that yet.
These are both such good episodes that tell very personal tales. The whole series is great but this last half of the series is truly fantastic.
Great reaction! Thanks for reacting to this very important show. It's a personal favorite...and this was a great episode. Also: Go Cowboys (from a Cowboys fan living in the San Francisco Bay Area)!
6 is in the midle of The Battle Of the Bulge, when Hitler threw everything he had to reach Antwerp and cut the alies’s offensive. It was a slaughter.
An old fashioned does a LOT to the whiskey.......simple syrup, bitters, orange peel, ice,.......
Fun Fact: the Bastogne episode and the next episode (the brutal winter foxhole scenes) were mostly filmed inside a large air hanger. So while they are pretending to be cold (the cold air/breathing was added in post), they were actually very hot because the halogen lights (no LED's back then) considerably heated up the hanger.
29:21 when a German soldier is capture, you asked, "How close are we to the enemy right now." From Ambrose's "Band of Brothers." At dawn on December 20, a heavy mist hung over the woods and fields. Winters rose [shaving in the series] and looked around. To his left he saw a German soldier in his long winter overcoat emerge from woods. He had no rifle, no pack. He walked to the middle of a clearing. Two men with Winters instinctively brought their rifles to their shoulders, but he gave them a hand signal to hold their fire. The Americans watched as the German took off his overcoat, pulled down his pants, squatted and relieved himself. When he was finished, Winters hollered in his best German, "Kommen sie hier!" The soldier put up his hands and walked over to surrender. Winters went through his pockets; all he had were a rew pictures and the end of a loaf of hard black bread.
"Think of this," Winters commented. "Here is a German soldier, in the light of early dawn, who went to take a crap, got turned around in the woods, walked through our lines, past the company CP [Command Post] and ended up behind the Battalion CP! That sure was some line of defense we had that first night!"
19:42 60 bucks in 1944!
Thats a 1000 bucks today.
That's a lot to lend to somebody who might not be able to pay it back.