AMAZING and PAINFUL... *BAND OF BROTHERS* Ep 4 Reaction | Film Student's First Time Watching 

Read the book A bridge to Far by Cornelius Ryan.

@@dirus3142The book is about 15 times better than the movie, imho.

Still one my favorite WWII movies

Schell played Wilhelm Bittrich correct?

And you could say it is the spiritual sequel to "The Longest Day", which is about D-Day, and told in a very similar way to this one. I'm wondering if there's another one that could work as an "end to the trilogy".

It's also why Winters makes the sarcastic comment about kids and old men again because the intelligence failed them on that mission (just expanding on what you said for her info, not taking shot at you)

9th SS and 10th SS Panzer Spring of 1944 the 9th was involved in heavy fighting in the East, then sent straight into Normandy and was recovering from the Falaise Pocket. 10th went from fighting in the East, to Caen, and was sent to join the 9th in the same area. 9th and 10th SS Panzer were resting, recovering, and being refitted with new tanks, including the Tiger 2.

Yep, it was sarcasm, the last line, that went right over her head, tge children and old men were not who they ended up facing.

Contrary to populat belief, Bernard Montgomery was not exactly the best tactician ever. George S. Patton had good reason to despise him.

@@Shutterbug5269 Monty liked overwhelming with numbers. Patton knew everything came with costs, and he was willing to pay it. Patton knew that if he kept the pressure up then it would keep the krauts off balance.

When you go to the war cemetery, take my & many others’ prayers with you, Wizard. Kia Kaha.

If you are going to the cemetery near Margraten, please look up the grave of Richard Earl Mason. I was named for him, different last name. He was my father's cousin. They signed up for the army together in 1944 when they finished high school. They went to different training camps and never saw each other again.

Thank you for sharing your family's story. I'm an infantry paratrooper with the 1-501st PIR. My unit traces its lineage to those men depicted in Band of Brothers. We send a handful of lucky paratroopers to Normandy every year on June 6th to participate in the commemorative Normandy jumps. There's also a large plaque/statue of my unit's Geronimo crest in Eerde. I hope to visit it one day.

It wasn't. The German opposition was known about and the operation was compromised at Nijmegen on the first day, imposing a fatal delay on the advance to Arnhem.

​@@davemac1197 it was and wasnt. Monty was warned with good intel before it cooked off and he disregarded the information.

@@Sturm01- Montgomery cancelled COMET at the last minute (troops were boarding their aircraft) on 10 September as soon as he received reports II.SS-Panzerkorps had moved into the Arnhem area and drew up an outline for the upgraded airborne operation MARKET with three divisions instead of one. Disregarding intelligence is a myth generated by A Bridge Too Far (1974). The failure to secure the undefended Nijmegen highway bridge by the 508th PIR in the first hours after landing, as Gavin had instructed, allowed 10.SS-Panzer-Division to move in and reinforce the bridges. Cornelius Ryan failed to investigate this and more recent research has exposed the real story. Sources: Lost At Nijmegen, RG Poulussen (2011) September Hope - The American Side of a Bridge Too Far, John C McManus (2012) Put Us Down In Hell - The Combat History of the 508th PIR in WW2, Phil Nordyke (2012) Little Sense Of Urgency - an operation Market Garden fact book, RG Poulussen (2014) Arnhem 1944: An Epic Battle Revisited vols 1 and 2, Christer Bergström (2019, 2020)

@Sturm01 Myth. Montgomery expanded the operation and more than doubled the paratroop numbers after reports of more German forces. The original plan was just the British and Polish paras. Operation Comet. This was expanded into Operation Market Garden with the addition of the two American airborne divisions. British 1st Airborne had the intel that "a battle scarred panzer division or two" was in the area refitting. That's why they took along over 50 anti tank guns, far more than the Germans had tanks there. No intelligence was ignored by Montgomery. Listen to DaveMAC. He knows what he is talking about.

@@Sturm01- source?

The actor said this in an interview

And on the way from Africa he survived having his ship sank by a U-Boat. He did not jump into Normandy because he took a piece of shrapnel through his leg that put him in the hospital for a month.

He was also a lot older than most of the men of easy company as well, some as old as 10 years as he was born in 1912.

I've been wondering about Cobb. I know this show has taken a few liberties with some of the characters, but I was wondering if Cobb was really anywhere near as big of a pr*ck that this show makes him out to be.

@@bujin1977 my understanding from people who were far closer to the veterans than I was is yes.

@@bujin1977 He was court martialed for assaulting Foley. Col. Sink even told Foley he should have shot Cobb. Though in Webster's memoirs he recalls Cobb being good natured.

There is also some information that Dike may have been wounded in the advance on Foy. So it's possible he may have been going into shock.

Dike is an interesting case, he was very clearly good in Holland, and yet, the men of Easy still called him 'Foxhole Norman', so he was not well like by them, there must be more to the story.

It was a combination of things. Personality clash, social class, and being the new commander out side the company. Winters was their man. Been with them sense the beginning and lead them through 3 major campaigns. Heyliger was also part of Easy from the start, then transfers to HQ company. Heyliger was from Concord Massachusetts. I think the men liked him just fin because of their history together, and he fit in social class wise with men like Winters, Lipton, Popeye, Bull, and Bill. A little bit of speculation on my part of course. With Moose being shot, Easy lost another known CO in a very short time span. I think this contributed to Dyke's difficulty in Easy company.

@@marinesinspace6253 Oh for sure. It's actually easy even in the show to draw parallels to Buck's behaviour and given the events of Market Garden and the subsequent deterioration of Buck it's likely we were seeing the same thing happening with Dike - the difference was they didn't know it was odd behaviour for Dike - they just thought that was what he was like. What is also omitted is he won a Bronze Star at Bastogne for personally dragging 3 men to safety. He wasn't a coward or particularly incompetent throughout his life but during his time with Easy Company he was acting very for want of a better word "spacey" and it gels with the sort of mental issues Buck was also experiencing.

Does not explain his deficiencies before the Bulge.

I echo all those sentiments - these have been the most intelligent reactions I have found to date. I'm enjoying these immensely AND learning things I never knew. Thank you Jacqui !!

Also the younger boys helping with scouting

This comment is spot on. 👍

Your granddad did the right thing and showed much restraint.

@beesnestna9544 I'm assuming with a wound like that he died any idea what happened to LT. Brewer? Thanks for the cool insight.

​@cossi499 go ahead and watch the full episode. As they're resting in the night Talbert says he survived and was sent to England.

@@k1ng_BL0C Like I needed more of an excuse to watch it through again. Thanks 😁

While the confusion kept many of the units from getting to their objectives on a timely manner, it also cause problems with the germans. They were getting reports of paratroop concentrations all over the place and they couldn't make any sense of it.

If you didn't know: James McAvoy & Michael Fassbender reunited again in X-Men. They were in that series four times.

Jimmy Fallon, too.

@@TheRedStateBlue Both Colin & Tom Hanks

Yes, for several of these actors being in this production was a big break early in their careers. Some became pretty big stars, others have become established character actors or have taken their careers in quite different directions.

@@fast_richardHardy was still in film school when cast for BoB. It got him noticed and likely led to his role in Blackhawk Down. James McAvoy & Michael Fassbender got noticed but needed a few more years to break out.

Ayup that's the real Babe Heffron with a cameo.

​@@goldenhidespoiler. Delete this until she's done.

They captured 100km of dikes... A typical example of land captured that did not do anything for the army. The Arnheim campaign cost thousands of soldiers their life - and nothing was won with it. Who cares about how fast it was?

Conversely carrots where bred to be orange in their honour, being purple before that.

Roger That!@@Thetasigmaalpha

And carrots are more orange than oranges… 🤔

The Dutch Royals were that good, we invited them over to Britain to have a go!

@@alundavies1016🤦‍♂️😂

I'm never ready when I watch it, and I've watched it at least a dozen times.

@@jmnemonic99 Same!

I never noticed that before! Thank you!

@@RDRussell2 YW

I'm turning 30 and I didn't know it was him. THANK YOU!

And just like that, any mystery & worry if he dies during the war has been spoiled!

@@Ernwaldo she's already through the series on patreon there Einstein! 😮😮😲🤔

NCO: Not a "sir" Can't be a "sir" Oughttabe a "sir"

I was trying to think of a good way to put this.

I remember a rebuttal to the "destruction of property" bit saying that if you told a British tanker that there was something worth shooting on the other side of a house, they'd keep shooting until they found it

@@ergopropterhoc- it's certainly a scene that has been conflated from two actions on different days in different places, the German vehicles are wrong, and the ambush vehicle was hidden behind a hedgerow and not correctly identified - the tankers reported a Mark IV tank but in reality probably a half-track with 7.5cm close support kanon (SdKfz 251/9). The tankers were probably familiar with the type of ammunition being shot at them and got that bit right, and Marks IVs were quite commonplace, but there were none in the area. The panzerbrigade had a company of Jagdpanzer IV/L70 tank destroyers, but the current research (Kampfgruppe Walther and Panzerbrigade 107 by Jack Didden and Maarten Swarts, 2018) indicates they were unloaded last off the trains at Roermond and arrived too late to take part in actions on 19-20 September. Sergeant Martin did warn a tank commander at Nuenen (if I recall his name was Lieutenant Benton of 44th Royal Tank Regiment) of the ambush, and I think the second part of what he said "well I believe you, but if I can't see him I can't shoot him" is correct. The part played by the house is certainly made up.

And in reality the tank didn't roll after Bull. It was stopped dead. A second shot then blew off the turret. There is a picture of Benton's lead Sherman on its side with turret blown off in Market Garden Then And Now Volume II by Karel Margry.

Did they work with the 11th or the Guards? Because the Guards was the spearhead of the land part.

@@ThumperE23 The Guards Armoured Division quickly sped through the Eindhoven sector when the Bailey Bridge was built. It moved on to Nijmegen on the 19th. The 44th Royal Tank Regiment (4th Armoured Brigade) was also in XXX Corps and remained in the Eindhoven area and worked with the 101st Airborne The 11th Armoured Division was there too, as part of VIII Corps, protecting the right flank.

One thing that scene made me think of - the helmets had chin straps, They were pretty much never used. Instead of the helmet flying off, a shot like that would have possibly broken his neck if the chin strap was fastened.

The old man line represents the German Volkssturm units that were coming on line due German casualties especially on the Russian front.

"Children and old men" were direct references to units known to be at Arnhem, specifically some Hitler Youth recruits completing their training with SS-Panzergrenadier-Ausbildungs-und-Erstaz-Bataillon 16 as replacements for 12.SS-Panzer-Division 'Hitlerjugend', and the local security battalion Sicherungs-Infanterie-Bataillon 908 composed of WW1 logistics troops deemed unfit for combat duties even in 1914-18. This intelligence had nothing to with the unit encountered by Easy Company at Nuenen - Panzerbrigade 107 - a type of unit designed to fight on the Russian front, but was sent instead to fight the US 1st Army at Aachen, when the airborne landings resulted in them being diverted again to offload the trains at Venlo and Roermond in the Netherlands as the more pressing emergency. They concentrated at Nuenen as their headquarters for attacks on the MARKET GARDEN corridor at Son. The 506th had dropped behind the Wilhelmina canal defence line at Son, manned by men from the Luftwaffe Flieger-Regiment 52, a basic training unit that was told they were now in the Fallschirmtruppe (parachute troops) under 1.Fallschirm-Armee and renamed Fallschirmjäger-Regiment Hübner after their commander, later to be given the official number 24. The Volkssturm were established on Hitler's orders of 25 September as a militia of 16-60 year olds not already serving in the military, just as MARKET GARDEN (17-26 September) was almost already over and therefore not involved.

The German general in charge made a genius defense of the area. People like to say it was a bridge to far, but it was more a good defense.

@dansmart3182 The Germans still lost 100km of ground and retreated over the Waal River. They lost major Dutch towns Eindhoven and Nijmegen. Right after Market Garden the Germans put on a counter attack to try and push back to Nijmegen. This totally failed and British 2nd Army stopped them immediately.

​@@lyndoncmp5751 Yes, the Allies made early gains because the Germans were taken by surprise and the Allied units that were assigned to capture the lower bridges accomplished their part of the mission but the Germans counter attacked and all but annihilated the British 1st Airborne at the northern most bridge at Arnhem which broke up the whole offensive.

@@vincentsaia6545 Well, the Germans were actually ready, prepared and defending on the Belgian/Dutch border. When the British Guards Armoured Division set off they were ambushed and lost nearly a dozen tanks right away. The 101st Airborne failed to capture the Son Bridge. The 82nd Airborne failed to capture the Nijmegen bridge. Still, despite all this Market Garden took nearly 100km of ground. As I said, this was the fastest allied advance against German opposition in the entire September 1944 to February 1945 period. In the Lorraine, Patton took over two months to move 10km to Metz. Dont get me wrong, the Germans reacted very well and broke off the tip of the spear. However, when all is said and done they did retreat 100km and lost a lot of ground. The British got closer to Germany. The British advance into Germany took place from the Nijmegen area captured in Market Garden, through the Reichswald.

@@lyndoncmp5751 Like I said, Believe what you want.

IIRC he and Tom Hardy were the youngest in the cast and still in acting school

I used to repeat that to a chief independance duty corpsman whenever he bitched about how chaotic Marines are. I would add, we're practicing.

Intelligence was definitely not ignored. The II.SS-Panzerkorps were known to be refitting in the Netherlands - the reason operation COMET was cancelled and replaced with the upgraded MARKET GARDEN. The Spitfire reconnaissance photo picked up obsolete tanks from a training unit that was correctly dismissed as obsolete and not even near Arnhem when the operation started. Ironically, they were laagered opposite the 506th PIR's drop zone near Son and were shot up by escorting USAAF fighter aircraft. If you want to know what really happened, you need to read some books written by historians and not rely on a Hollywood film that's only 50% historically accurate. Source: Arnhem: The Air Reconnaissance Story, Air Historical Branch (Royal Air Force 2016, 2nd Ed 2019) Recommended: Lost At Nijmegen, RG Poulussen (2011) September Hope - The American Side of a Bridge Too Far, John C McManus (2012) Put Us Down In Hell - The Combat History of the 508th PIR in WW2, Phil Nordyke (2012) Arnhem 1944: An Epic Battle Revisited vols 1 and 2, Christer Bergström (2019, 2020)

I sent an email to Mr. Guarnere via a website that his grandson created. I never expected a response, I just wanted to say thanks to a member of Easy Co. and that website was a conduit for that thanks. A couple of months later, I got a handwritten letter from the man himself. He thanked me for my letter and assured me that he, nor any of the survivors of WWII were heroes. I can only imagine how many people got handwritten letters from Bill. What a humble, truly outstanding group of men they were.

34,000 airborne troops and the intelligence at Arnhem was very accurate. The kids and old men referred to an SS training battalion training some Hitler Youth recruits and the local security battalion consisting of WW1 logistics troops deemed unfit for combat duty in 1914-18. The two SS panzer divisions refitting in the eastern Netherlands were known to be there and were known to be in a reduced condition from the fighting in Normandy, mostly at the hands of British infantry divisions. The British and Polish Airborne took 83 anti-tank guns to Arnhem, more than the Germans could send in tanks. Of the 8,000 casualties at Arnhem, 6,525 were wounded that had to be left behind to become prisoners of war because they couldn't be evacuated across the river Rijn. 1,485 British and Polish Airborne were killed, and over 2,000 were successfully brought back. I find your choice of the word "deleted" a bit odd when talking about people. The airborne objectives were about 24 bridges, including many alternative crossings, not just the three you see in the Hollywood film, but you don't see the 508th Regiment of the 82nd Airborne fail to secure the undefended Nijmegen highway bridge in the first few hours of the operation. This blunder allowed 10.SS-Panzer-Division to move into the city and reinforce the bridges, imposing a delay on the advance of the British XXX Corps that compromised the operation and sealed the fate of the British airborne division at Arnhem. You will never see that story being told in a Hollywood film, but it is in the literature. Sources: Lost At Nijmegen, RG Poulussen (2011) September Hope - The American Side of a Bridge Too Far, John C McManus (2012) Put Us Down In Hell - The Combat History of the 508th PIR in WW2, Phil Nordyke (2012) Arnhem 1944: An Epic Battle Revisited vols 1 and 2, Christer Bergström (2019, 2020)

"A Bridge Too Far" works pretty well as a spiritual sequel. I'm wondering if there is a "third part of the trilogy", let's say. I know "Tora! Tora! Tora!" is much in the same spirit, but it's not in the European campaign.

The Cornelius Ryan "trilogy" (based in books he wrote) - _The Longest Day_ 1963 - _A Bridge Too Far_ 1976 - _Enemy At the Gates_ 2002

@@benschultz1784 Oh, i didn't know that. But i watched Enemy At The Gates, and even if it's a pretty good movie, it's a shame that it isn't focused on historical accuracy, like the other two are.

Very skewed and inaccurate in places though and some of it is historical nonsense.

Battle of the Bulge and the Bridge at Remagan. Both are a little hokey but do give you some idea of the action to get into Germany.

The German units at Arnhem were well known, but what wasn't allowed for was the 82nd Airborne failing to secure the undefended bridge at Nijmegen. This was an unforced blunder that compromised the operation and sealed the fate of th Airborne at Arnhem. Not in the Hollywood film, obviously.

That was only the initial expectation when it was being thought up in early September. By the time it actually started two weeks later the operation had expanded in size to counter the stronger German forces and they knew it wouldn't be old men and boys.

There's a LOT of "show, don't tell" all the way through the series. The way they show all the different characters of the men in combat is sublime.

Also some Jacqui merch with "Jeeesss-uuussss" is definitely required

That sounds like a Hollywood film. The real story involved about 24 bridges with a minimum of 10 needed to get to Arnhem and the ground forces reached Nijmegen still on schedule, only to find the 82nd Airborne had not secured the highway bridge over the river Waal. It imposed a fatal delay of 36 hours while the Guards Armoured Division assisted the 82nd in taking the two Waal bridges and the delay compromised the operation and sealed the fate of the British 1st Airborne at Arnhem. The reasons for the failure at Nijmegen are complex but the 508th Regimental commander was a character like Sobel in that he was an excellent administrator and a poor field commander. He also did not perform well in Normandy, the regiment's first combat operation. General Gavin (Ryan O'Neal in the Hollywood film A Bridge Too Far) first dismissed a British request to drop a battalion at the north end of the Nijmegen bridge and then selected the 508th for the Nijmegen mission instead of the more aggressive and experienced 504th or 505th. He did instruct the commander, Colonel Lindquist, to send his 1st Battalion directly to the bridge after landing, but he failed to do so, believing he had to clear the drop zone and secure his other objectives first. He was even told by the local Dutch resistance leader Geert van Hees that the Germans had deserted Nijmegen and left only a non-commissioned officer and seventeen men to guard the highway bridge. The blunder allowed 10.SS-Panzer-Division to move in and reinforce the city and its bridges. The planning was not done by Montgomery - he ordered the operation and it was planned by USAAF General Brereton and his 1st Allied Airborne Army staff. The senior British airborne commander, Browning, was unable to object to Brereton's planning compromises because he had been politically neutralised during the operation LINNET II affair, in which Browning had threatened to resign over a too short notice period to print and distribute maps to the troops. The operation was thankfully cancelled and both men agreed to forget the incident, but Brereton had planned to accept Browning's resignation and replace him with Matthew Ridgway and his US XVIII Airborne Corps. You made some factual errors: 1. British 2nd Army was to advance over three main supply routes, only the XXX Corps were on the central 'Club Route' secured by the Airborne, while VIII and XII Corps were on the flanks on 'Spade' and 'Diamond' routes. The 'Club Route' had a number of detours on 'Heart Route' in case bridges were blown and some of these were used. So your principles of strategic planning were violated by the mythology of A Bridge Too Far, not the real operation. 2. The British Airborne ran out of ammunition because they were not supposed to hold for more than four days - the delay was caused by the blunder at Nijmegen, only a consequence of planning by 1st AAA and James Gavin compromising his own divisional plan. 3. There was no assumption there would be no German armour in the area. This is another A Bridge Too Far myth. Operation COMET, involving only the British division dropping at Arnhem, Nijmegen, and Grave - was cancelled by Montgomery when he recieved reports that II.SS-Panzerkorps had moved into the Arnhem area. He proposed an upgrade to Eisenhower by adding the two US Airborne divisions, so British Airborne and the Polish Brigade could concentrate at Arnhem with their considerable anti-tank gun resources. This became MARKET GARDEN, but Brereton compromised many of the key features of the COMET concept in the planning for MARKET, such as deleting the double airlift on D-Day and the dawn glider coup de main assaults on the three main bridges. 4. The British 1st Airborne Division numbered 10,500 men and casualties totalled about 8,000, of which 1,485 were British and Polish dead, and 6,525 became prisoners - mostly wounded. Over 2,000 were successfully evacuated. Very few surrendered and only did so when out of ammunition. Ask yourself why there is not a single 508th PIR trooper or a single airborne anti-tank gun in the Hollywood film and the possibility it might be propaganda designed for an American audience. The ad hominem attacks on Montgomery are not only insulting to a country that is one of the few friends America has in the world, is it also scholastically incompetent. Sources: The MARKET GARDEN Campaign: Allied operational command in northwest Europe, 1944 (Roger Cirillo PhD Thesis, 2001 Cranfield University, College of Defence Technology, Department of Defence Management and Security Analysis) Lost At Nijmegen, RG Poulussen (2011) September Hope - The American Side of a Bridge Too Far, John C McManus (2012) Put Us Down In Hell - The Combat History of the 508th PIR in WW2, Phil Nordyke (2012) Arnhem 1944: An Epic Battle Revisited vols 1 and 2, Christer Bergström (2019, 2020) The 1st Airlanding Anti-Tank Battery At Arnhem: A-Z Troop volumes, Nigel Simpson, Secander Raisani, Philip Reinders, Geert Massen, Peter Vrolijk, Marcel Zwarts (2020-2022)

@@davemac1197 You may think you're defending the plan, but you actually just unwittingly pointed out the problem in your own logic. A plan that completely unraveled because one regiment-level commander didn't achieve his objective exactly on schedule is inherently a bad plan. A sound battle plan would have ASSUMED that multiple battalion- and regiment-level commanders would be late or fail completely, and would have built in multiple contingencies. "No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy," which is why the best battle plans don't rely on every mid-level commander being a tactical genius and everything working like clockwork, but instead provide multiple options for when things inevitably go wrong so that there's a greater chance that at least one option might work. Trying to put it all on the failure of Gavin is just proof of why the plan was so poorly constructed. Contrast it with the way D-Day itself was planned. The Allies hit 5 beaches simultaneously knowing that they didn't need to hold all 5 in order to succeed. The possibility of division-level failure on 1 or 2 beaches was built into the plan. The problem with Market-Garden was that they needed to hold EVERY bridge, meaning there was no room for failure even at the regimental level. The plan would only work if every paratroop regiment was perfect. That's a bad plan no matter how you slice it. No battle in the history of war ever went according to plan. The difference between winning and losing a battle, from the Greeks through Napoleon and until today, almost always comes down to which side built more room for failure into their plan and provided more contingencies against the unexpected. That was the problem with Market-Garden: there was almost no margin for error.

@@charlize1253- first of all, I'm clearly not defending the plan because the original COMET concept was compromised by Brereton for MARKET by deleting the double airlift on D-Day and the glider coup de main assaults on the main bridges. Browning could not object after already threatening to resign over Brereton's LINNET II plan. Gavin's 82nd Airborne divisional plan was also compromised when he dismissed the British request to drop a battalion on the north end of the Nijmegen highway bridge. So I'm certainly not defending 'the plan' - I am simply rejecting the ignorant notion the "plan was stupidly concocted by British General Montgomery" because that is totally wrong. So the plan depended on everyone at least attempting to do their job, not an unreasonable expectation, and if Colonel Lindquist of the 508th had followed his pre-flight instructions from Gavin then it can be demonstrated (because three scouts from the 1st Battalion S-2 Section actually reached the bridge without firing a shot and waited an hour for reinforcements) that the 1st Battalion 508th could have secured it by road march before SS panzer troops arrived. The fact that didn't happen was not because of anything the Germans did, because the 508th had zero opposition until late on the first night, and not because it was planned to fail as often suggested by Gavin prioritising the Groesbeek ridge, because that is false as well. It failed because of a series of bad decisions made by Brereton - Gavin - Lindquist, and flew in the face of British advice - not an unfamiliar situation in our history. Montgomery, along with 1st Airborne Division at Arnrhem, was badly let down.

@charlize1253 Just a couple of things. 1. The advance during Market Garden was actually the fastest allied advance against German opposition in the entire September 1944 to February 1945 period. Nearly 100km of German held ground taken in just 3 days. The road wasn't the issue. British armour got up that road quicker than Patton's armour got across the Lorraine. 2. British armour wasn't behind schedule. Despite having to build its own Bailey Bridge at Son after the 101st failed to capture the bridge there, the British Guards Armoured Division began linking up with the 82nd Airborne at Grave in just 42 hours. If the 82nd Airborne hadn't retreated out of Nijmegen and instead had the Nijmegen road bridge captured then British armour would have reached Arnhem on schedule. It was the US paras not having bridges captured which put the British armour behind schedule. I don't know why you accuse Montgomery of breaking the rules of strategy when it was the air forces who did that. It wasn't Montgomery who refused to fly double missions on day one, refused to fly closer to the targets, refused coup de mains on the bridges etc.

The saddest thing is when the soldiers shared the chocolate bars with the survivors, during the liberation of the camps, and those poor people ate themselves to death.

American chocolate has always tasted like sh*t, especially Hershey's which tastes absolutely disgusting. They nothing on British chocolate like Cadbury's and Galaxy.

@@cpj93070 - British chocolate is pretty terrible too. Give me Swiss or Belgian any day.

@@cpj93070As a Canadian, I get to enjoy Cadbury's and I know very well how deficient Hershey's is.

Both old men and boys were specific units known to be at Arnhem, and the frontline troops that were bumped by Easy 506th PIR at Nueuen in this episode was Panzerbrigade 107 - a unit that was on its way to fight the US 1st Army at Aachen and then diverted to the Netherlands after the airborne landings. Niether the local security units or II.SS-Panzerkorps northeast of Arnhem were expecting an airborne attack so far behind their own lines - it was a complete surprise.

I actually don't take it in that American vs British trope. I took it in different ways. One the allies were trying not to cause to much collateral damage. Though i can not find any order in general that was given. Rules of engagements may of also been given in particular situation. One has to understand this series was taken from what the men of Easy Company thought. So whether this scene is true or not should be researched from what they told and viewed. This is not a historical documentary this is a retelling of what the men of E Company went through. Some scenes are altered or condensed and even different people are put into certain scenes. Even the Bastogne episode will have events that may never happened. The other view of this scene it goes to show that many of these units were pulled together for an operation and had little time to work with other units. It just happens the tank units here are British. Even if this was an American unit they would not have had time to work together and know how to operate together. Many historians I have talked to say this was most likely the true issue. Unlike Master's of the Air where they do over use this American vs British trope I do think this was more the fact you have two different units using to different methods of combat and had no time to work together and train for combine arms. It the Battle of the Bulge there are several instances were American mobile and Airborne have issues working with one another. It just happened in Bastogne I believe one of the Tank Destroyer commanders had had time working with airborne that enabled them to work together. In the end this is about the men of Easy Company and what they thought, did, experienced and remembered. If this account is part of one of their memoirs it should be told that is how at persons remembered it. If it is the creators of the show just making something up then yes it should be researched as to why they did it.

The historian was right. This episode was a conflation of two incidents (hence both types of British tanks present but should be separate) on two different days at two different locations - Opwetten on 19 September and Nuenen on 20 September. The German unit was Panzerbrigade 107 equipped with Panther tanks and armoured half-tracks for the infantry. The vehicle that ambushed the British tanks was not correctly identified by the British tankers (they reported a Mark IV tank) but probably a half-track with 7.5cm close support kanon (SdKfz 251/9), so the tankers got the shell calibre right. The vehicle was hidden behind a hedgerow and not seen. The whole thing about not shooting through the house I totally agree is Hollywood drama and they can't resist continuing the war of independence by other means - it gets incredibly 'old' here in the UK. Just stick to the facts guys, and you can't go wrong.

​@@arakuss1 In writing the book Stephen Ambrose reported that he frequently had to deal with the fact that the surviving Company E members had conflicting memories of certain events.

@@davemac1197 I had no issue with what type of tanks were involved. There are several scenes that are mix of different events put into one scene. Masters of the Air has several of those scenes where they take to different incidents and meld them together or broke them apart to put in different time lines. I could totally be that the creators (Hollywood) put this line in there to do just that, however out of several of the lines they could have put in its very weak. I have scene this very discussion on other articles and video comments about this very thing. I am more leaning this was more of a comment the fact this whole operation was badly thought out. Along the idea these units had not worked or trained together. I can understand it gets old but I do know enough people in UK who do the exact opposite to Americans. I will say it once more this is not a documentary it is about the experience of the men in Easy Company of the 101st. There are plenty of times where veterans get the facts wrong but it is how they remember it. I am not sure if it was in this comment or the other I stated of whether or not this was the view of Martin or any others in Easy Company. If so then it should be put in. I wrote a paper on the conditions of the US Military during Vietnam and its deterioration of moral, discipline, and ability through out the war. I had many Vietnam Vets friends disagree with my paper at first. From their point of view they did not see this, mainly because most of them were not draftees but part of regular combat forces. My papers was on over all which included the growing number of draftees. What they saw and experienced is just as important as the facts were in my paper. They just represented a different point of view from a different group during the war. So true this tank scene might be Hollywood trying make fiction, but here one member of Easy view on the British. "That worried me was the entire mission was under British command. It was strictly a limey deal, under Montgomery. The Brits were different fighters than us. We figured that out real fast in Normandy. They were fighting the war for years and were tired of war. The soldiers were lions--they fought like the Americans--but they were led by a bunch of damned donkeys. Ever hear that said? The ranks were handed down, like with British royalty. They weren't earned. So who knows what was leading their army. See, now I'm educating ya! Their leaders were very leisurely in their way of fighting. They liked to stop for tea and crumpets and set up housekeeping in the middle of a battle. True. Tea and crumpets. I saw it for myself. Later in the book, Bill Guarnere returns to this thought: Now, we never fought with the British in the war. They were supposed to come up and meet us in Eindhoven. The British were good soldiers. They had a lot of time in combat. But their leaders had them stopping for friggin' tea in every town. Maybe if they met their own troops in Eindhoven, not us, they would have fought better, instead of throwing two different armies together. That was a risk." So the question is then if the creators had statements like these to read and others in Easy Company maybe that is why it was put in. It doesn't have to be accurate as in true but this is what Bill Guarnere thought. (To add Tom Hanks actually read this and wrote a forward to Guarnere's book. I don't know if he read it before or after the filming of Band of Brothers.)

@@vincentsaia6545 It was known as well that Ambrose was a bit of an Anglophobe, in most of his books he mentions that the British were in the most part inferior to there American allies.

Montgomery didn't plan it, so please blame the planning on the people who actually planned it - Brereton at 1st Allied Airborne Army, and Gavin of 82nd Airborne Division compromised his own divisional plan at Nijmegen by dismissing a British request to drop a battalion north of the bridge, which was only guarded by a non-commissioned officer and seventeen men according to the local Dutch resistance leader. The 'young boys and old men' referred to specific units at Arnhem that I bet you can't even name (SS-Panzergrenadier-Ausbildungs-und-Ersatz Bataillon 16 and Sicherungs-Infanterie-Bataillon 908 respectively). The intel was proven correct and was not the reason the operation failed.

Sorry, not correct. 1. *Wilhelmina canal. 2. Sink was not in the lead (that was Elliot Gould in A Bridge Too Far not accurately portraying history) - Sink was in his Jeep at the northern end of the village of Son while 2nd Battalion were working down the main street clearing houses, and 1st Battalion approached the bridge through the Sonsche forest and the canal bank. The bridge was blown in the faces of the two leading companies, B and D at this stage, about 50 yards from the bridge. 3. Reshuffling of British *armour was not required. The bridging equipment was brought up to Valkenswaard overnight of 17/18 September to be ready, as the blown bridge had been reported back to the Royal Engineers. When the leading elements of XXX Corps reached the bridge site at 1900 hrs on 18 September, the bridge unit and Royal Engineer Field Company drove immediately up the road alongside the armoured column in 30 minutes and arrived at 1930 hrs. Work started on the bridge at 2000 hrs as darkness fell and the estimated 10 hour construction was done in 10 hours 15 minutes, with the first elements of XXX Corps - the armoured cars of 2nd Household Cavalry, started across at 0615 hrs and reached the 82nd Airborne at Grave in less than two hours. 4. The 36-hour delay incorrectly attributed in A Bridge Too Far to the Son bridge being blown actually happened at Nijmegen, where the 82nd Airborne had failed to secure the bridges over the river Waal and the Guards Armoured Division had to help them fight for the bridges over two days. The 508th PIR had failed to carry out Gavin's instruction to send a battalion directly to the bridge, which was undefended, allowing 10.SS-Panzer-Division to move into Nijmegen and reinforce the bridges during the first night. This fatally delayed the progress of XXX Corps to Arnhem and sealed the fate of 1st Airborne Division. 5. John Sliz's book Bridging The Club Route - Guards Armoured Division’s Engineers During Operation Market Garden (2015, 2016) makes the argument that since doctrine was not to operate tanks at night during WW2 (no night vision), the delay at Son was actually zero hours, since the Bailey bridge was built entirely during the hours of darkness. 6. Operation GARDEN involved all three Army Corps of British 2nd Army. XXX Corps on the airborne centreline called 'Club Route', which also had 'Heart Route' detours for alternative bridge crossings. The flanking VIII Corps was on 'Spade Route' to the right (including the 11th Armoured Division advance to Nuenen and Helmond), and XII Corps was on 'Diamond Route' to the left led by 7th Armoured Division. Never trust Hollywood - their films are made to sell to an American audience. Always read books, as many as possible, to get the true story.

Haha! Max is a British newspaperman selling books in America and no better than Irish newspaperman Cornelius Ryan, who wrote A Bridge Too Far (1974) on incomplete research (he had terminal cancer). The operation was compromised by the 508th PIR commander, Colonel Lindquist, who failed to follow his division commander's instruction to send his 1st Battalion directly to the Nijmegen highway bridge after landing. The Dutch resistance leader Geert van Hees told him the Germans had deserted Nijmegen and left a non-commissioned officer and seventeen men guarding the bridge, but Lindquist was not a good field commander and thought he had to clear the drop zone and secure his other objectives before sending any large force to the bridge. The blunder allowed the 10.SS-Panzer-Division to move into the city and reinforce the bridges, compromising the entire operation and sealing the fate of the British Airborne at Arnhem. Suggest you read a proper historian like Arnhem 1944: An Epic Battle Revisited vols 1 and 2, by Christer Bergström (2019, 2020). He's Swedish, to avoid any claims of British or American bias, and also debunks the myths in the Hollywood film A Bridge Too Far. Dutch researcher RG Poulussen has also identified the real cause of the operation's failure in Lost At Nijmegen (2011). This has been supported by American historians in September Hope - The American Side of a Bridge Too Far by John C McManus (2012), and Put Us Down In Hell - The Combat History of the 508th PIR in WW2 by Phil Nordyke (2012). A lot of people in the comments here just regurgitating the conventional narrative. I wonder if they also still believe OBL is hiding in a cave in Afghanistan?

Hastings is like Beevor. Cowardly hacks thinking of their most lucrative market and won't upset American readers otherwise their books would be boycotted. In some ways they are playing a clever game (financially) but it makes for dishonest 'history'.

It's only 50% historically accurate, but well made and has an entertaining script. It is a constant annoyance that Americans think the film is history though. It's Hollywood propaganda and entertainment.

No film is history, for that read the book. However a Bridge too Far is better than most and calling it propaganda is a bit much, that is what comes out of Hollywood today. Big name stars and glossing over some things is about as bad as it gets in the film.

What's sadder is that his first bite of chocolate had to come from a Hershey's bar. But then again, it might help him appreciate *properly-made* chocolate later in life.

@@alcor46701940s Hershey bars tasted different

@@alcor4670 :grins: I confess I thought that too when I first saw this series :chuckles:

@@dallassukerkin6878my reaction to "He's never tasted chocolate" was "He still hasn't" ;)

This has become an often repeated myth. They had the intelligence. The British 1st Airborne intelligence report on September 13th cited that a "grouping of around 10,000 German troops SW of Zwolle may represent a battle scarred panzer division or two reforming in the area" and so consequently took along over 50 anti tank guns. The original plan Operation Comet only involved the British and Polish airborne. After reports of the Germans strengthening, the paratroop numbers were more than doubled, with the addition of the two American airborne divisions. This expanded operation was called Market Garden. It was much larger in air forces.

Very inaccurate in many places though and it completely omits two American generals greatly responsible for the failure with their cautious decisions. Brereton and Williams of the USAAF.

that's a very shorthand account of what happened, I would recommend watching a bridge too far, the movie is spectacular and sums up the whole operation perfectly

The only problem was the lack of the correct vehicles, so the 'runners' in working condition that were available in England around 2000, when the series was made, are used in several episodes making multiple appearances. No Tiger tanks or Jagdpanthers at Nuenen! The ambush vehicle was not identified correctly in British reports, but probably a half-track with a close support kanon (SdKfz 251/9).

The film doesn't even mention two principle characters in causing the failure. The two American air generals Brereton and Williams. They are completely omitted. They made the overly cautious decision to not fly double missions on day one and to spread the drops over 3 days. This compromised the entire operation.

The Hollywood produced film deflects from the real reason for the operation's compromise by not showing it (the failure to secure the undefended Nijmegen bridge on D-Day by 82nd Airborne). I suggest a couple of American authors (to avoid any accusation of bias): September Hope - The American Side of a Bridge Too Far, John C McManus (2012) Put Us Down In Hell - The Combat History of the 508th PIR in WW2, Phil Nordyke (2012) Or Dutch: Lost At Nijmegen, RG Poulussen (2011) Little Sense Of Urgency - an operation Market Garden fact book, RG Poulussen (2014) Or Swedish: Arnhem 1944: An Epic Battle Revisited vols 1 and 2, Christer Bergström (2019, 2020) The latter makes a point of debunking the many myths created by the film.