BAND OF BROTHERS Reaction Episode 7 "The Breaking Point" First Time Watching 

In real life, Spiers' run was actually much longer and he was under enemy fire the entire time, but the producers made it shorter because they thought the audience wouldn't believe it.

Neal McDonough absolutely killed it in this and the earlier episodes. That thousand yard stare he had in episode 5 when they're all watching a movie was just heartwrenching. I saw some interview with Neal where he talked about how he was actually considering giving up acting, despite being in a few things his career wasn't really taking off and he felt like maybe it wouldn't happen for him. Then he landed the part of Buck Compton ...

The scene in the church is perhaps the best in the whole series - not only for Spiers and Lipton's interaction which makes you think very differently about Spiers but also for the wonderfully poignant way men disappear as Lipton lists off the casualties.

The whole campaign, including our guys, was The Battle of the Bulge. Bastogne was the southern part of that battle. It lasted almost six weeks

It's worthwhile mentioning that Dike was noted multiple times for bravery under fire, having "organized and led scattered groups of parachutists in the successful defense of an important road junction against superior and repeated attacks, while completely surrounded." He was also noted for "personally removing from an exposed position, in full enemy view, three wounded members of his company, while under intense small arms fire." He got a bronze star for each of these, no small award. Another soldier, Clancy Lyall, stated that he saw that Dike had been injured in the assault on Foy, thus leading to his confusion and 'falling apart' The show does take liberties with his portrayal, which I believe his family have lodged objections about.

Speirs demonstrated the value of accepting that you're already dead. He does the job, without remorse or concern for his safety.

It was said that Muck and Penkala were basically vaporized. Nothing was left of them.

This show is something really really special. It looks like it is shot yesterday. It was made 23 years ago i read. 6 years before i was born. just wow

"The Breaking Point." Well, it's not just a clever name unfortunately. When Winters tries to go in against orders..."Spiers get over here!" One of my favorite moments of the series. That scene is stunning every, single, time. Then when Buck's helmet hits the ground with such despair, it's as Earth shattering as the German artillery. Currahee ♠

Every time I see this episode I'm thinking about WWI and the fact that this kind of shelling went on for 4 years. As horrible as WWII was, the concentrated hell of WWI is too extreme to comprehend.

Last year, I connected with a second cousin Leigh who I discovered while working on my family history. He told me about his Uncle Elroy, who enlisted in the army in 1942. He was a very smart man, getting the highest IQ score recorded during the war at the induction center in Brooklyn. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge and lived with lifelong PTSD after. Leigh told me how he got into a minor intellectual disagreement with his uncle when he was a teen in the early ‘60s, and Elroy nearly hit him he got so angry. His dad had to step in to get Elroy to back off, then his dad explained that Elroy had been affected by the war and to avoid antagonizing him.

I own a copy of the book “fierce valor, the true story of Ronald Speirs” and not only was the scene where he ran across the German lines incredibly tone down and shortened for theatrics. But he was also laughing at the Germans and heckling them apparently, the entire time he was running. believe it or not they’ve toned down spears quite a bit for the show. He’s an absolute legend.

Bastone wasn't just a crossroad, it was crossroads and it was a hub for travel in the area. Most the German forces went around Bastone to keep up the pace of the German offensive.

I've known a couple of veterans who couldn't be around for July 4th fireworks, they'd shut themselves in their home with music playing loudly or something because hearing fireworks would trigger their memories of being shelled. (I'm 60 btw, so WW2/Korean vets mostly, it wasn't until I hit young adulthood in the 80s that I started meeting more Vietnam vets).

You make some really interesting points about the symbolic significance of the choir. I don't think I've seen anyone else discuss it in those terms before, and it certainly hadn't occurred to me. Thanks for that!

Thats part of the thing with the US Army that is true to this day. NCOs (sergeants) have a lot of time in service and are the leaders where LTs tend not to be. The life expectancy of an LT was jokingly said to be 6 days. Watching Replacements where the LT is in the middle of the road you see why. The NCOs had and are still the backbone of the platoons.

nice work on the thematic observation of the choir there, never thought about that before

I am in corporate leadership for a Fortune 500 Company. I recommend this series for anyone who leads people or hopes to do some day. This is a Masters level course in leadership. The perfect leader in Winters, the high leadership with Col. Sink, the micromanager who serves a function but also has detriments in Soble, the leader by example in Lipton and Bull, the excellent functional leader in Compton who also shows the potential negative if you are too close to your reports, and so many more.

The Battle of the Bulge was the costliest engagement for the US in the Second World War. It represents 10% of all casualties for all services in every theater.

Thanks again for your insight. Good work. The reaction shot of Lipton smiling when Spiers is returning from his run to connect with I-Company is subtle and says everything. Spielberg used the idea of a French girls choir two years later in "Catch Me If You Can." Currahee!

It should be pointed out that Spiers didn't go back and shoot those German prisoners on his own. It had to be done. They were behind enemy lines with no means to deal with prisoners. It was probably his idea to give them cigarettes first though.

You keep saying that the battle of the bulge got them out of this situation. You need to realize that they’re in this situation as part of the battle of the bulge. The Germans launch a huge counter offensive in late December 1944. The line was well over 100 miles long. As it moved forward, they came to Bastone, but they couldn’t capture it because the 101st, then some other units a perimeter around the city. What we have been watching in episodes six and seven is the maintenance of that perimeter so that the Germans cannot take this city and its access to the seven roads. You should really read up on the battle and not go by intuition or what you’ve heard from people who know nothing about the war.

Speirs saved that attack; he was a great battlefield commander.

Hopefully after you finish this series you give “The Pacific” a watch. It has a lower rating than this show but I believe it’s worth a watch.

Norman Dike was nobody's idea of a perfect officer but he wasn't the incompetent coward he was portrayed as. His breakdown during the Battle of Foy was less about cowardice and more about his being shot in the chest early on. His heavy winter clothing hid the extent of the wound and he lost coherence due to shock and blood loss. The story is told based on the memories of the men, and when it came to Dike, everybody hated him, so he was portrayed worse than he was in reality.

Poor Hoobler, after finally getting his coveted gun.. He had it in his pants, and accidentally became tangled in barbed wire, which snagged the fabric, somehow caught the trigger and caused the gun to discharge. Production decided to make it a Luger for more dramatic purposes, but all accounts point out to the pistol either being a Colt 1911 or a Belgian-made FN. ----- Back in training camp at Toccoa, Al Mampre (that medic i briefly mentioned in Ep4) was at the shooting range, and bet a private next to him he couldn't hit some target pretty far out. The wager was a candy bar. The private shot and hit the target, so Mampre doubled down. And the target was hit again. And Mampre doubled again, and the target was hit again. After the next shot, and the debt now being 8 candy bars, Mampre wisely called it quits. The little fella next to him was Shifty Powers.. Shifty was always known for his marksmanship and keen eyes (hence why in the scene where Hoobler shoots himself, when they initially hear the gunshot, Lipton immediately asks Shifty if he sees anything). Shifty once noticed (from nearly a mile away, mind you) some trees that hadn't been there the day before, and appeared suspicious to him. He reported that to Lipton, who passed it on, and eventually there was an artillery strike called on that position. Turns out the Germans had relocated some 88s there and chopped/relocated some trees to use as camouflage. In Foy, when the men went to check on the German sniper that got shot, they saw Shifty had nailed him right between the eyes. There are some accounts stating that, unlike what's depicted in the show where the German sniper was on the second floor of a house, he was actually outside, hiding behind some stuff just like the men of Easy, and Shifty was able to locate his hiding spot because he saw his breath in the cold air. Shifty got along very well with almost everyone, according to his friends. With one exception. Some recounted a tale he told them, that there was ONE guy in the entire company that Shifty could absolutely not get along with, reasons unclear. That man was Frank Mellet - one of those killed by the sniper. Somehow Shifty could absolutely not stand the guy. One night in Belgium, Shifty told his friends he had had an extremely vivid nightmare during which he had been killing Mellet. The nightmare felt so real that when he woke up, Shifty was worried he might actually had done it while half asleep. So he took off looking for Mellet everywhere, and, according to those whom he told that story to, once Shifty Powers found Mellet well and alive, it was the only time he was glad to see the man. --- In reality, Winters realized himself he had no more business going out there and came back to the line without needing to be called back. And it just happened that Speirs was the very first officer he spotted, it could have been anyone else.. Though i wouldn't be surprised if Speirs had positioned himself close to Winters on purpose just in case, as he saw things not going well out in the first, just like an eager athlete.. "Put me in, coach, I'm ready!" While Speirs was racing down streets, waving between houses (a longer run than was depicted in the show, though he wasn't always fully in the open), he kept taunting the Germans about their poor aim. Speirs was possibly seconds away from being killed, as the leader of Item Company was mowed down by machinegun fire almost as soon as Speirs left his side to return to Easy. Thankfully, someone else from Item had been close enough to hear the orders passed, and was able to relay them to the rest of the company. ----- Lt Dike is done dirty a bit in this episode, he might not have been a terrific officer nor liked by the men (their bias showing a bit in the depiction of his character) but he was no coward either, having previously earned medals for rescuing soldiers from under enemy fire. Some accounts suggest he got shot during the attack and was becoming disoriented from blood loss, unable to think clearly and issue coherent orders. When characters in the show are painted this way or that way, we have to remember that Stephen Ambrose's book (and this show) are based on the recollections and writings of a small handful of soldiers, so if it happened that these men didn't like someone in particular - Sobel or Dike for instance, whether for good or bad reasons) it stands to reason that these men would not be painted favorably in the show.

(Winters): "SPIERS, get in there and take that attack in !" (Spiers): "Hold My Beer."

So there were other leaders that took over Easy that were between Winters and Moose and then Moose and Dyke. Many were awful so this characterization of Dike was kind of a mixture of those other leaders. Not really fair to the real Dike because he actually was competent. He didn't freeze during Foy, he was shot. He went on to fight in Korea as well.

Dike is treated pretty poorly. In reality he had led a defence whilst totally surrounded in Holland and at Bastogne dragged 3 injured men to safety. He was no coward. In truth he was showing the same sort of signs as Compton (distracted and unfocused) and when heading into Foy was reportedly hit in the shoulder before he shut down. Foley and Shames are also not given their due - Foley is reduced to badgering Dike at Foy but was a fine officer and Shames had been an enlisted man who was promoted to an officer and at Foy he and Paul "Buck" Rogers took out a tank with a bazooka.

Spiers was a bad ass. He did shoot the German prisoners. When the book was being published, Simon & Schuster was worried about a law suit. Dick Winters contacted Spiers who confirmed the story and wrote a letter authorizing the printing. He said at 81 what were they going to do to me now. He also did kill his own Sargent. The Sargent was drunk and pointed his weapon at Spiers. Spiers killed him and it was ruled justified. Here is a link to an interview with Winters where he talks about Spiers. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-W-V6OAtgr6c.htmlsi=Eic7aGu4KVl9z_Zr I also read that Winters was more like Spiers than not. One of the complaints was that Winters character in the show was not forceful enough. I watched a video with Luz's son. He said his father did not talk about the battles but that the wire cutting story was true and that during the battle at Brecourt Comptons gun did jam and he fiddled with it throught the battle which the show documents. One last item, the soldier who gets shot in the head when asking about the location of headquarters did happen, just not in a field. He was in the trench and briefly lifted his head and was killed.

Spiers, the man, they myth, the legend.

They should have had a mortar or two along the treeline at Foy..

Great way to end my 4th

Been waiting for this, strap yourselves in

I'm a BIG fan of this series and have read books and watched a lot of media on it. It's surprising how little of it is embellished by Hollywood. The Spiers run through the German line seems SO Hollywood. but nope, that happened. 😳 But one thing that was a bit doctored by writers is how bad Dike was as an officer. I'm not a Dike fan or apologist. However, I've seen historians say that while he was a problem, they make him into a fool in this series. I've also seen discussion as to whether or not he got wounded as they approached Foy. Here they show him as paralyzed with indecision. I'm not defending him, I'm just pointing out that the infamous fog of war makes things like memories of foxhole conversations, unreliable. For instance. The conversation between Lipton and Dike, where Dike just walked away. I feel like that was likely writer's liberty. I doubt VERY much that after going thru hell, that they can remember every interaction.....IMO

Just wonder how much dialogue you are missing by your talking....its important to hear what they are saying

You should pause the video when you want to comment. You miss so much because you are talking over the dialogue. Makes me watch something else.

Please, please, not so much talking over the dialogue!

it would be better, more enjoyable, if you stopped talking over the dialogue.