Major Dick Winters on Ronald "Sparky" Speirs (Band of Brothers) 

LMFAO!

@Computer Junkie00 - that’s just brilliant!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

ciggaretten?

🤣🤣🤣

outstanding!!!

It really was, wasn't it?!?

I'm partial to when he runs through the village twice.

@@Devantejah same incident 🤪🤪🤷‍♂️

I've read that Dyke wasn't as bad as portrayed in the series. I also read that Dyke was awarded two bronze stars, one for saving a soldier and he was actually wounded in the arm or shoulder when relieved by Spears. There are a lot of things misinterpreted in this series for dramatic affect.

@@BonnKialStevens Well you know, gotta have some unnecessary drama. Not like a warzone is dramatic enough!

What did his response letter say to you? That was awfully nice of him to respond and sign you magazine!

@@thedeans9506 I wrote to thank him for his and Easy company's service and he replied thanking me for what I and others where doing back then. I found it wonderful that he took the time to sit down and reply to me as I was not expecting that. There was a bit more to the letter but I'll keep that private. Very nice and kind of him.

@@mikeriv60 thats awesome man

I always wanted to write to Mr Winters while he was still with us. I didn't cause I didn't feel I should bother him. I'm glad you did. I've always regretted not writing him.

@@mikeriv60 People are like ohh I wish I could meet at famous celeb or sports person etc. I would be blessed to have received at response from a war veteran. Hell even a 10min interaction would be am amazing life experience

Such an incredible scene. Imagine Disney or Amazon today filming band of brothers.

@@rbu2136 haha yea.. Speirs played by a str0nk independent woman

@@Necyn strong independent "woman of colour" you mean

Strong independent trans woman of color

@@bullgravy6906 i stand corrected, although i must point out that both of us were wrong, truly it should be a strong independent disabled nonbinary transwoman of colour......

I have researched this today and that was my response also. He didn’t smoke though…..

It's not like he was in any danger of being prosecuted.

With Winters and Ambrose both gone now, I wonder where that "file" went?

They were behind the German lines right? What was he supposed to do.

the Germans did it on a regular basis, I think people try to put a false morality on this war sometimes

Damn right.

@@hateferlife “We didn’t need fuckin Patton to rescue us” absolute hard fucks. So much respect and may they Rest In Peace.

​@Vince Nav It was actually Joe Toye who said that.

He's a criminal

​@@user-uy8wx4pk4h Paratroopers and other units operation behind enemy lines had orders to not take prisoners that would prevent them from completing their objectives, this was the same for british commandos and SAS, if they were operating behind enemy lines on covert operations, you do NOT take prisoners. Hitler specificly gave an order for all british commandos to be executed on capture because they executed captured germans, and they operated in ways that broke the geneva convention which calls for soldiers to wear proper uniforms and equipment that marks them as such, and not hit civilian targets. hell even fighting as a insurgent or freedom fighter in civilian clothes is breaking the geneva convention, so all those people who fought back against the germans in occupied nations were actually not protected, nor abiding by the geneva convention. There is a reason people call it the geneva suggestion. Multiple warcrimes were done on both sides of that war, it wasnt as black and white as people like to think. It doesnt matter who did the crime first, only who lost the war. Yes the germans did horrible things, so did the soviets and they were our allies, and were a large reason the germany army even had oil and precious metals early in the war before operation barbarossa. The entire war was started because germany invaded poland, and the allied nations just gave poland and half of europe to the soviets after the war to prevent another war to break out. Nobody actually cares about the convention unless it benefits them, or to have a reason to execute your enemy leadership after a war, every war america has been in since ww2 they have broken the convention, hell they dont even abide by it fully and its well known.

35?!? God bless that man

@@andrewbeghin3859 what’s was your father in laws name?

@@fyodordostoevsky9993 Joe Kiernan - 741st Sqdn 455th Bomb Group, 15th AF. Most missions were in a B 24J named Big Gas Bird. Just about every mission they came back with flak holes. They lost 2 engines on several missions, one they got the order to bail out but my father in law had the wrong chute, so the flight engineer fixed the fuel lines so they could land on 2 engines at a fighter base. Inadvertently saved them all from becoming POWs.

@@andrewbeghin3859 Yeah, the “rule” was that you did 25 missions in these heavy bombers and you were done. My father was up to 29 and then Germany surrendered. I’ve heard of several beyond that number; even more than 35. Bless them all! RIP -almost all have passed.

True Indeed

Absolute bloody true living legend

Well unfortunately he never got the Congressional Medal of Honor. He was recommended for one but the recommendation was downgraded to the Distinguished Service Cross, the U.S. Army's second highest award for valor. Should he have gotten the Congressional Medal of Honor? For sure!

@@leewhatley7077 By the way, he died back in 2011, so technically he is not a living legend anymore. An absolute legend nonetheless though.

Our country will need more men like Winters, Nixon, Spears and Lipton to emerge if we are to survive.

Who Spears? he should have been court martialed. There is no excuse for shooting prisoners of war.

Yea I thought he was too but it is one thing to go against the grain and another to commit war crimes and murder 10 people who had surrendered to the enemy, it's also another to kill a man for being drunk during work. You must glorify soldiers if you think that is ok, like the one thing the series missed completely which I truly hate because it would add so much depth and truth to these stories. It's rape, in war rape is a more common thing than murdering the enemy it is constantly done in war especially when soldiers enter enemy territory. You can glorify this man all you want but doing those things deserves punishment

@@caolindennehy2553 If he was drunk in combat and risking other soldiers lives and not obeying orders its "not another thing." You don't get to risk your comrades on the battlefield. There are a lot of "types" of killings that get overlooked. Soldiers kill their leaders for being bad leaders. Leaders kill their soldiers for being bad soldiers. Soldiers perform mercy killings on both friends and enemies. Soldiers kill wounded enemies to tidy up. They shoot down enemy waving white flags and walking in with hands up. After all, it could be a trick. They kill prisoners to prevent them being recaptured or to prevent them attacking from the rear when their friends launch an attack. Go back to Agincourt. Henry V ordered his men to slaughter the French prisoners they had taken when it looked like the French army was about to overwhelm him. If you work at Subway then being killed for drunkenness would be a thing. I disapprove of Subway managers doing that.

@@donaldg.freeman2804 No no no no no. NO. What you are talking about are behaviors indicative of a complete breakdown in good order and discipline, the very thing that seperates military from an armed rabble. You have read one too many accounts beyond the pale and they have become normalized in your mind as acceptable things whereas all of these things you have mentioned - perfidy, false surrender, fraggings, summary execution are all recognized by the most humble private graduating from the basic military training of a first world nation as being war crimes. The entire purpose of military disciple is to maintain order against the types of things your describe. To allow them is entirely self defeating.. If you had ever served under military discpline, you would understand that at a fundamental level.

@@caolindennehy2553 you're a fool, and have no understanding of reality other than your soft life.

The gilded box that so many people live in today….. They complain about being dead named or some other made up nonsensical bull shit, without ever having a real struggle. A real struggle is choosing which fast food restaurant to eat at given the diet/political fad of the week, it’s not having a phone charger on demand, it’s….the list goes on..suffice it to say, they know not struggle.

🤣🤣🤣

@A-a-ron Even smoking a VE Day victory cigar with him sounds risky 🤣🤣🤣

Correct answer: " Nein, ich will keine Zigarette, danke!"

Affirmative on that!

LOL! At the very least!

When the camps were discovered, it changed the attitudes of almost all of the Allied soldiers during the war. They no longer looked at the Nazis as just an enemy to be defeated but monsters to be hunted and destroyed and rightly so.

We owe them so much.

Thank the marines. They’re the ones that went on the front lines to get there ! Salute !

@@julianodirenzi5719 There were exactly 0 marines in Europe during the entire war. Why the fuck would they thank someone that wasn't there?

@@julianodirenzi5719the marines fought in the pacific. Read a book some time.

@richardcastle3204 It’s a shame all western governments seem determined to restrict people freedoms as much as possible these days

Think they would argue its the guys who didnt make it back who deserve the credit

Hahahah what a bs u just told

@@yondayyon4131 You don't know much about history, do you.

Missed the cough shutdowns, did you? people like them is why our world is turning into a tyranny worse than the 3rd reich.

Why you ask ? You got some ?? 😂

That doesn’t make it right.

Judging by how spears refuse to shot the guy who shot sarge grant, he prob was already tired of killing at that point

@@oldplace5 it's a war, lot of things happen that are "not right"

@@justinmoody6721 As long as it's not done by Germans, right? That's what drives me crazy with official (false) "history", the propaganda and the obvious manipulation that follows. We understand war crimes done by OUR troops, BUT NOT from the enemy side. In fact, we try to grip on everything to present them the way we want and serve us. Great example, ALL those ridiculous Hollywood movies about WW2. Not talking Band of Brothers series. Even after 76 years since the end of WW2, they try to stain and cover any truth that do not suit some ppl!

👏👏👏👏

And don't forget Lipton...He was showing outstanding leadership in the trenches the ENTIRE TIME...never got to stay and relax in HQ...got right back out onto the front lines with his men EVERY TIME...The unsung NCOs...

This scene is not fully accurate actually… in real life Spiers run through no man’s land to link up with the other company. In movie he runs behind enemy lines. Nonetheless, an amazing war hero & feat

absolutely, banks and the Bible people deserve the best

Richard Sawyer, " humble and understated with no need to brag or swagger." I know what you mean. I was a member of the 40&8 and would go to the "post" and play a few hands of cards with the other vets. Small membership so everyone knew everyone and most never talked about their military experiences. This went on for a few years. I later bought the book " Medal of Honor" with the plan to have each MoH holder sign his page. I went to the VA for a medical appointment and was talking to someone who worked in an office and the subject came up about the MoH. I told him what I wanted to do and asked if he knew anyone that could help me. Turns out the guy across the table at those card games was Melvin Biddle who was awarded the MoH in Italy. Never a peep from Melvin about having the MoH.

He was humble before the military from reading about his life and military history. He had one of the hardest jobs in the military thrust upon him during the biggest amphibious assault in us history then to protect the assault on the beach he and his teams took out cannons firing on the beach saving countless lives and people think business meetings are stressful. The man was a true tactician.

@@kennethrand1032 yes, cannon fodder still can think

That’s how they were. Maybe it’s our fault for giving attention to the braggers of today.

I had a lieutenant that way during my military service here in Spain, the kind of humble and decent guy who everybody admires and would follow to hell if necessary. Now he's an old major near to his retirement and he's this guy ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Pd5c7g8_S5U.html&ab_channel=Frijolito

@@newhuskytwenty Que significa "cachorro?"

@@hughmac13 Cachorro is cub, puppy. In this case a young soldier (usually 18-20 y.o.) under his orders but with respect and kind of fatherly affection.

Served 9 years only deeply respected 2 officers.

Spiers especially was a man with no cares. Nothing seems to flap that guy

…and then ran back!😂

All those dumb Chuck Norris jokes should actually be Speirs jokes.

@@MrMatthiasSchneider To be fair, one on another video did make me laugh out loud: 'Chuck Norris? Never heard of her.' Lt Col Ronald Speirs. Agreed though, copy pasting someone else's crappy joke and passing it of as your own is a cancer on these comments.

🤣🤣🤣

Chuck Norris checks under the bed every night for Ronald Speirs.😬

Killing nazis is something to be proud of. 👏

What is not told was that General Taylor said NO POW's during D-Day... they could not be held down

@@benk9973 Remember not every German was a Nazi. Most by D-Day were conscripts. Ordinary citizens forced to take up arms by a draft or face imprisonment (or worse given the nazi rule). They had their own stories that were quite similar to that of any other nation's conscripts. But given your statement, this may fall on deaf ears. You seem very proud of hatred. So much so to paint your negative views on those you do not know. It is unfortunate humans like you exist.

@@KonglomeratYT bruh. Relax. Im not about hate. My family suffered in nazi occupied Holland and I saw what it did to my grandparents. My grandfathers PTSD was so bad he worked himself to death. 16+ hours a day to exhaustion. Couldn't let himself be still in his thoughts. The echo of the nazis victims was long lasting. Fuck nazis

@@KonglomeratYT there's a difference between a German soldier and a Nazi. So calm down. You weren't there. You weren't in their shoes. You didn't experience what they did.

They’ll never make them like that anymore, truly the last of their kind.

We still got Joe and Camilla

I was watching the movie tomorrow war or whatever it's call and I kept thinking... they went to the wrong time

Bad times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, weak men create bad times… we are in bad times

@@ethancohen12 100% the truth. I fear we are only in the beginning of the bad times.

Agreed 110 % Facts 🇺🇲🏴‍☠️🦁

Correct! How many lives did he save with his leadership?

Well, provided we believe Winters (and I do), it's just a fact that Speirs was a war criminal. The heroic things he did don't change that, and in fact make it even harder to rationalize as a hasty act of fear or trauma. If he was as calm and collected as the series depicts, he acted deliberately. We should recall that a number of German and Japanese officers were executed or imprisoned after the war for doing similar things to Allied POWs. They too may have done heroic things for their own men, but it didn't change the bottom line.

I would follow that man into combat.

@@dudermcdudeface3674 General Taylor said NO POW's during D-Day cos they were behind enemy lines the prisoners would become a reliability to the whole group safety

Thank you for your service

Thank you for your service and being on George Luz’s six on the day he was laid to rest.

God Bless all who fought for freedom!!

Old age is a privilege denied to many.

I'm old enough that back in the day it was common to meet veterans from the Spanish America War, WW1, WW2, Korea, Vietnam where mom worked. They would sit in a booth at the restaurant mom worked at and just get the 1,000 yard stare. Would also see an uncle who was in Korea and a cousin who was in Nam get that look. Did not think or know too much about it back then. But after I time in I understand it. Some times while sitting my wife will give me a nudge to bring me back.

Yup, well said. Old beat up guys are what tough young men turn into. I'm one of them. Tree work, concrete work, carpenter.....6 compressed disks and constant back pain now.

At a military reunion I saw the Major who led the first soldiers to touch soil in Normandy in the gliders that went in before the fleet in silence to help take out the artillery before the main forces arrived, again an old man with a walking stick, he was so humble and kind, it was amazing to see a serving General, colonels and NCO's brace up before him in respect, and I knew 100% with absolute certainty that this old man was the true boss of that room and he had the battle honour won under his command to prove it. It does sometimes sadden me that they no longer walk amongst us but these great men will never be forgotten. Whenever I walk past a military memorial I always bow my head for a few seconds in respect of these great men who gave everything.

@@fozzy1004 …then they all came home and created an economy that took them from the Great Depression to a house, car and tv for everyone… and sent their kids to college. (…and those kids became a-holes and resented their parents’ hard work)

Not shooting one prisoner didn’t work out well in “Saving PrivateRyan”. However the Germans used the same excuse after shooting dead dozens of US prisoners at Malmedy. I don’t think anyone should criticise Spiers unless they could do all the other things he did.

Well said it was war spears stepped up to the plate so his pals didnt have too

@@jdavison8551 that’s a moronic rationalization.

@@bossHogOG you’re welcome.

@@bossHogOG It's moronic to think that in the chaos and uncertainty of the D-Day invasion, you can pretend that you are able to take POWs when you can't find 90% of your division in the dark. You need to grow up.

I’m 56 years old. I can remember in the mid 70’s at family gatherings I would be the only child at the table listening to the adults talking amongst themselves as they too were half in the bag. These were depression and WWII generation people and I was CAPTIVATED by their stories at the tender age of 8! These people and many more like them moved about their lives with purpose, constantly on mission! They dressed to the nines. When they spoke people listened. They didn’t take no shit, they rolled over for no one. Everything they did had meaning and was worthy of their time. They were clean, courteous and respectful. Their word was their bond. When I gaze upon modern humanity today out in public, as they move about like post-apocalyptic mutants, disheveled and dirty..utterly sloven. Many wearing pajama bottoms that look like they haven’t been washed in a month and reek of stale ass crack and urine dribble I often wonder if the sacrifices of that generation were all for naught.

@@GenXMafia Not to worry; I have 30 years on you and remember my grandparents working their farm, no electricity, all the water was pumped from the well, 20 miles to take a dying child to the doctor and I don't know if they had a car at that time, family quarantined with scarlet fever one winter. Life goes in cycles and I have every belief that the kids of today are in for the shock of their lives at some future time. They are so clueless and unprepared.

What an amazing story ❤

My dad and his friends were the same way, all had served, some saw some really ugly things - but not one of them ever brought up what they went through to us kids. They would answer some questions, but usually only the general kind. At least I was smart enough to never ask any of them whether they had killed someone during the war. I can't say the same for others.

How lucky you are! He is a LEGEND! Ahhhh Yes, Ft. Indian-town Gap. I remember those barracks well when we had training there for our Fleet Hospital, who not too many months later, deployed to Saudi Arabia for ODS. What stuck in my mind to this day were the carvings of names & dates in wood posts painted over…especially from the mid/late 60s and early 70s and trying to imagine what was in their heads as they were there waiting for deployment to Viet Nam, etc. We deployed out of Ft. Dix/MacGuire, so I had an idea of EXACTLY what may have been going through theirs heads. Mind blowing. Thank you for signing on the dotted line, brother. 👍🍺🍺🍺🍺🇺🇸

I flew with a few pilots in Vietnam that had the same kind of traits as Maj. Winters. I'd have flown into downtown Hanoi with them.

No, you nailed it. I can only hope that in my life I've come close to what you have just described. It can't be faked, people just know it.

What ever "it" is, he has "it".

Leadership

Gravitas.

"Manifest competence" comes to mind

Keep on Posting your Memoirs and thank you

Its incredibly cool that you got to know him, stay blessed

@@charwest5892 thanks, man. Each day is a gift

Band of Brothers and the many documentaries around it will keep their stories alive for many years, it's insane to think theirs is a story of just one company from a war that involved many tens of millions of soldiers... Most of those stories died with the people who lived it. But really the most important story to take from that time is not to get into or allow other countries to start world wars, humans are way too efficient at death now. Wars of that scale are a hurricane of human tragedy

@@talldude1412 my friend, I like what you say here. But I fear the 5th generation of warfare is more insidious and less violent than the past which has given it a chance to sneak up on us all. We can be thankful that our bodies are not yet maimed, but our minds are in battle daily. I implore you to keep this in mind and employ your own type of defense for yourself. Because make no mistake, we are in a new War. And I hope to Heaven on High that it wont turn hot this year.

🤣

and the guy stares up and him with a look of shock and quickly nods.

If he was a Marine he would've got the MoH. As would Winters. One of the reasons Marines are awarded disproportionate numbers of MoHs is because, as a PR conscious service (their very existence depends on it), the USMC push hard for recognition. The US Army, on the other hand, literally capped the numbers of soldiers it would nominate MoHs to in WW2, reserving them for the truly. exceptional.

The legendary tales about “Sparky” are probably what kept him from receiving the congressional Medal of Honor. A great soldier who deserved to be recognized for his bravery, but too much of a PR nightmare for the military.

how can you be friends with someone like that....?

@@Cjef41 just clipping a couple Nazis, no biggie. It's the only reason some of our grandpas went.

@@Cjef41 Everyone did things like that in WW2. A dear old gentleman I used to visit who kept budgies and liked to make paper flowers for his wife, who never looked like he was anything but a kind and good human being was part of a group who in the deserts of nth Africa tied an Italian POW to the back of their truck and drove 1300 miles back to Siwa. I asked him if he was there and he said "Oh yeah, we did that. On occasion, yeah. That one when we captured him he killed one of our buddies with a knife. Bastard deserved everything he got = wasn't much left of him in the end, just a pair of feet bouncing along the back of the truck." The hatred in his face was incredible. But war does that to you.

@@holstorrsceadus1990 Well that is what the Russian pilots said when they strafed East Prussian civilian refugees who were on the ice in the Baltic. When you kill innocent people for crimes they did not commit, just because other people, their conationals, commited war crimes, you become the monster you claim to punish. “Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster... for when you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss gazes back at you.” A quote from Nietsche.

@@titisuteu if you're not fighting against the Nazis doing Nazi things in your countries name then I don't care what happens to you. If it helps destabilize and topple the enemy then it's good. Wiping out civilian populations is fine with me. Grind the enemy into the earth so mercilessly that none of survivors (if there are any) ever think of sitting back and allowing their neighbors to take up arms again. DGAF about enemy civvies as if they aren't part of the solution then they are part of the problem. If they had taken care of the brown shirts themselves then grandpa wouldn't have had to fly halfway across the planet to go on a killing spree. If you are part of the tax base for an enemy then you existing is material support for the enemy. There is no such thing as collateral damage.

My dad would argue his airborne company was just as good

@@jeffbosworth8116 The American airborne in WWII as a whole are legendary warriors - easily some of the best light infantry, ever. My grandfather (2nd NZ division, Greece - Africa - Italy) used to glow in his praise for them. And he was tough as fucking nails, you don't earn his admiration lightly.

And any other servicemen who risk their life in the service of this country.

@Ms Bliss lol love it!!!

Oh man, great books! Cant recommend them enough. He also did a lecture, a quick search found some here, but I dont know if/where the originals are. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WWeDf5IlxR8.html

@@IanMarkie Didn’t know about the lecture, thank you, will check it out!

Hell yeah! Band of Brothers the show and Burgett's books forever changed my life. There's not a day that goes buy that I don't think of that generation and what they did.

Burgett was in A company

@Ms Bliss I have that movie, it’s very good. Thx !

Not sure where it was..but it's way past a million now! I was we had interviews with speirs. Though having to imagine in itself is building the legend's story.

Indeed!

2024...

It's one of those series that will hold up until the end of time.

I would like to imagine that they DID know and that it was on their mind night and day.

It is only a crime if you lose the war.

@@23GreyFox So you support what the Nazis did in WW II?

@@jimgood1949 please read my commend again and tell me where you think i'm wrong.

Prisoner Albert Speer mentions in his book, Spandau: The Secret Diaries, a "hard-nosed, irritating American Commandant"; that man was later identified as Speirs.

My uncle came back from WWII and never spoke a word about it, no matter how many times we kids asked. My mom said that Jim came back from the war and cried a lot, got drunk a lot and went to church a lot. He was always quiet and kind-a man to look up to and be like. Now all kids get are Jim Jordan and Ron Johnson, both cowards in their way. That’s national decline!

Amen.

Hooah!

What an excellent comment. Amen

these men were dragged out of the depression by a war we didn't want, they were hard though, my dad was a beast. as nice a guy that lived, but, he could go beast mode, ww2 educated.

@@tekay44 you have to imagine how many of those men came back with what we now call PTSD, but they did not have a name for it at that time

Who is Spears?

@@tgrimshaw Britney.

@@tgrimshaw Speirs them, sorry my spelling mistake was so indecipherable

@Schlomo Baconberg it was done on both sides, its just war, should he of done it, prob not, but were we there, can we really understand, no

@Schlomo Baconberg I guess but they'll never be able to understand

Well said, but is also interesting they called him sparky as smth that turns on pretty fast

we gave one of my colleagues the nickname "Sparky" after his vehicle burned down on the highway on day...

Or Clark W Griswold

Former Detroit Tigers manager was named Sparky Anderson and he was a badass.

My Grandfather was a First Sargent in what was effectively a special ops company that had been fighting WWII since before the USA was officially involved in the war in places from South America to Burma and China. He latter served as a DI after Operation Torch. He got a Bronze Star and Purple Heart at Kassarine Pass after a 105mm knocked him unconscious and he fought his way back through enemy lines to rejoin his unit. He is probably the scariest and most competent soldier I've ever met. During the war, my father was very close friends with one of the sergeants in his company. His nickname was "Foxy", after the fact that he never dug his own foxhole, he just waited for one of the green recruits to get killed and used his. "Foxy" was absolutely as scary of an SOB as Speirs, maybe scarier, because where Speirs was presented as cold blooded, Foxy enjoyed it. So yeah, it's a very soldierly thing to use a cute nickname for the most badass scariest man in a unit of badasses.

U know that is a quote from George Orwell in a BBC broadcast in the late 30's, right? Orwell the British commie. But he understood the division of labor in society and the need for certain specialties.

Ironically, it is those very same rough men who mean to do us harm, they are just marching under a different flag....

We've had too much peace. Sure, we've had wars but those were more or less training exercises none of them posed an existential threat to us.

no goal either, no direction.

@@senoJSR that’s what made this generation tragically so great they were literally forged in the most hellish time ever and if you survived you had drive and determination

@@senoJSR Glorifying war is moronic. Cease your idiocy.

@@sheevinopalpatino4782 Where is he glorifying war. Cease your misreading.

He was ordered not to take pows

@@misterbaker9728 We had no problem jailing germans for exactly the same thing after the war.

Trust me even now those todays standards apply

@@misterbaker9728 Taking POWS are a waste of resources to be honest

Yeah, it was a good joke, I speak Speers was in on it to by finding them digging a fox hole and going up to ask them.

We need more real men like Winters, Speirs, Joe Rogen and Adam Carolla.

My pronouns are he/her

@@hinkhall5291 Joe rogan ahhahaha

What a ridiculous statement. There have been many better men than either of them.

@@Damian-qu2fg Joe Rogan is great....a big F u to the establishment and the libtard media

Having hot lead shot at you on a daily basis is second to wearing a thin piece of cloth on your face in the supermarket according to today's generation!

​@@stevegordon5689 r/woooosh, masks are not the issue, look to Austria at the moment and reflect on what it reminds you of.

Amen brother

Well yeah, but let's be honest he was also lucky given how exposed he was. If he was gunned down it might of vern called rash

I read all of Donald Burgett’s books about his days in the 101st airborne, D company. He called Spiers the toughest soldier he ever met. Highly recommended books. Curahee, the Road the Arnhem, Seven Roads to hell. Beyond the Rhine.

Best scene in the series. Punctuated by Lipton’s smile at that point.

I still get goose bumps just reading the lines. He cared about his men, and killed the enemy. I'd lace up the boots to serve with him.

Extraordinary! All because he believed he is already dead. Therefore he could function appropriately in a war zone. Thus the perfect soldier.

Australians should never have been involved in that war. Committed in 1939 by the Empire bootlicker Menzies to the British war, we had no gripe with the Japanese. They were not Australia's enemy, but that of imperialistic America and Imperial Britain's. Australia was NEVER under any threat of invasion from the Japanese, and Darwin was only attacked as a consequence of involving itself as a US logistics base. WTF was the 2nd AIF doing in Singapore, Malaya and Rabaul FFS? Fighting for who and what? All subsequently betrayed and abandoned by the Australian government. Rabaul was the only location which was an Australian territory, and the Japanese invasion and occupation of that Island like their attacks on the fleet anchored in Pearl Harbor and the American occupied territory of the Philippines a strategic necessity to counter American expansionist aggression in the south Pacific. Neither America, Britain nor Britain hold any moral high ground here regardless their narrative dominates the -history- comic books read by the ignorant. My uncles fought in PNG, one died the other crippled with disease for life, as did a loved mentor. All gone now. I am from the generation who grew up with PTSD neighbour survivors of that conflict surrounding me. All were affected, just some more visibly than others. Fu¢k the jUSA & the UK and their bankster serving wars.

Actually, you should judge what happened because to not do so insures such things WILL be repeated in the future. Sometime in some future battlefield a solider, maybe one of your descendant, when faced with a decision will say to himself, "Its okay because they did it back then, so I can do it here and now." Or perhaps, an enemy soldier will think that when he has one of your descendant at gunpoint.

FFS. At the start of WW2 the Japanese invaded Papua which was Australian territory at the time, much like the Northern Territory is now. Talk about ignorant.

The tank in Sahara was an M3 Lee. The Lee was considered obsolete and none were used on D-Day so he could not have made it ashore in one.

@@fyrftr422 x2 on that, M3 Lee/Grant tanks were superseded by the M4 Sherman by 1944 in Europe. However the M3 series was still used in the Pacific War, since they were more than a match for the small lightly armored Japanese tanks.

My gradpa was gunner/sighter in T-34 85 during WWII on eastern front in 2nd Polish Army under soviets, and his war stories were exciting when I was a boy, but now in time perspective I dont have any doubt why he didnt like much talk about this stuff... but what he told I will always remember like story about his tank being hit and he being only survivor - only his commander and he made it out of burning tank - commander jumped out first on wrong side of tank and was shot instantly by german infantry, granpa jumped on other side of tank into cover of bomb crater and hided there hearing his driver being burned alive inside tank and german troops inspecting wreck talking about "polnishe sweine"...

@@fyrftr422 he swore it was one of his tanks that he was in during the war. He had more than 5 tanks during the war. He drove it for the movie.

@@franklinhayes5398 he could very well have served in North Africa in a Lee.

Tertius was, afterall, the meanest, toughest son of a b*tch in the whole Roman legion.

Lieutenant Spiers

The only problem is that when other countries did it, it’s considered a war crime and demonized decades later to this day.

I bought the book and didnt read it for a few years. I thought it was going to be statistics and military movements and what not. My uncle had read it and told me I was crazy, he said it's nothing like that at all. I opened it and couldn't put it down.

there was reason for confusion - Germans had dressed up as Americans to infiltrate behind the lines and cause chaos before the Battle of the Bulge started.

The Nazis were a political party. The Wehrmacht is what you're referring to. Its basic military history, chief.

@@ravenr1420 and more specifically, Heer. Wehrmacht means "armed forces"

@@ravenr1420 No, it is an ugly truth about human nature and we can't deny it, lest we repeat the mistake: every soldier fighting in the Wermacht at that time was morally culpable for the actions of the Nazi party, and it is just to call them Nazis too. Whether it was through moral cowardice or wholehearted support, they were willing to kill and die for the Nazi cause. Where it reflects on us too is to see that if we were in their position we would have done the same thing, the German people aren't especially dark-hearted or morally cowardly.

@@ravenr1420 It's

Not sure what standard you mean (perhaps the "being brave own-up to being fat" standard of heroism?) but I think if you asked any serving soldier or any 'grown-up' today they would register these people at the top of the list of heroes. Vast majority of people couldn't endure the discomfort of living on the line, let alone fighting for it.

Todays standards would be abandoned real quick if something half as challenging as WW2 shows up

What does this even mean ? Um yes yes he should be afraid of some pencil pushers if by that you mean lawyers. Doesn’t matter what you’ve done or who you are or how brave you are if you admit to things like oh idk… war crimes which these absolutely were than no amount of anything he did or how ballsy he was could save him from legal ramifications for what he did. I don’t really think that was the point here though. It was more like the publishers was afraid of being sued for libel in which case they should have been if they weren’t able to get an admission or prove that Spiers did this. You’re comment has so much false bravado and cliched nonsense in it it’s ridiculous. Spiers killing prisoners of war is not badass or honorable or courageous. It’s unprofessional, wrong , illegal, makes him a terrible insubordinate officer who doesn’t follow orders and makes him a psychopathic piece of garbage who honestly should have been dishonorably discharged and put in prison. He’s actually a disgrace to his generation not an asset to it , period.

@@scottbravo3 The guy was willing to tell the truth regardless of the consequences. I can see why you don't understand that, genius....

@@scottbravo3 Germanys invasion of Poland was unprofessional, wrong , illegal. So they should have been taken to court and jailed. That would have sorted the whole ww2 think out. And there were orders not to take prisoners.

The penicil pushers were right to make sure . Could you imagine the outrage had they got it wrong or he didn't want it to be known? Some people would not .

@@hannahdyson7129 Those aren't the pencil pushers in question. We're talking about the lawyers, not the historians. I agree with you that historical accuracy is the way to go here.

any proper unit will have each otehers back, especially in a combat zone

As devil's advocate... 'having someone's back' by covering up a war crime could definitely be interpreted and criminally complicit conspiracy.

@@murewa31 have you been to combat and seen the horrors of war experiencing it and what it does to you? Causing you to make prompt decisions under the stress of death and chaos? Seeing your men you were just shooting the shit with an hour ago get vaporized into pink mist and having to move forward with the next critical decision? Yea man, when you’re with a unit and eat sleep breathe together through the depths of hell, you’re gonna have their back the rest of your life. I don’t mean to get on ya but to be fair, the devil himself is taking his hat off to these gents

@@noahlangford6758 perhaps... but the essential argument of "you can't judge if you haven't been in combat yourself" is rather cliche and clearly false logic; this could easily be then used to excuse the worst of war crimes. The massacre of civilians at Oradour by the SS for example. One could easily similarly say "Have you been in combat with partisans and had the frustration of your best buddies turning into pink mist from people dressed as civilians only to be told you can do nothing in retaliation? You can't understand if you haven't been through anti-partisan combat" to excuse and understand the crime. It might seem like 'ad reduction absurdum' but really it is a valid comparison, soldiers killing non-combatants. Similar allegories of not being able to judge if you weren't there could be used to explain away other executions of prisoners: Malmedy, Le Paradis, Biscari etc. We can't simply say of crimes..."Well if you don't have personal experience of that exact situation you can't judge". Yes, yes we can judge. Our entire legal and justice system is set upon this premise and those convicted of war crimes all around the world cannot be defended by this argument. Murder of unarmed prisoners of war is a crime. It's murder. Was then, is now. The men of Easy company were immensely heroic, giants amongst men. Spears was immensly heroic... it would seem, unfortunately, he may also have become a war criminal and crossed a line that most of his comrades did not. The refusal to recognise those crimes from those around him is disappointing. It could be considered criminal conspiracy or perversion of justice. It would likely not result in conviction, look at the low numbers convicted in post war courts. But what I was saying is it that could certainly be argued that covering up a war crime despite knowledge of it could be considered criminal. This is an established legal principle. I have not been in combat ... but I know that murdering prisoners is wrong. Equally, I hope and pray that if those close toe committed crimes as serious as murder, I would have the strength of character to tell the truth. Many of the documented crimes of war, even from the same conflict, are only known of because one or more brave witnesses broke a wall of complicit silence to speak the truth. Biscari is one such example.

@@noahlangford6758 I also think, on reflection, that my point doesn't really criticise most of the men, especially of Easy. As Winters points out here, these were always considered rumours by most. Nobody that we are familiar with in the book was a witness who refused to come forward. But someone must have been? The lower ranks guarding said prisoners? Why didn't they speak up? Most likely not comraderie but fear. Fear of Spears, an officer in a position of power who had demonstrated blood-thirst, fear of being believed... fear of being the 'whistle-blower'. I can certainly understand that, and this is why so many were not convicted for not coming forward. My previous point doesn't really effect Winters or most of the men of Easy, they never knew the truth of these accusations.

and even less in the women who raise them