REVEALED: A Deleted Dick Winters Scene in Band of Brothers 

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I think they should give us a director's cut of the series, adding deleted scenes !

Having served in the US Army and having been assigned to the 101st Airborne twice. I can tell you that we still used tape on our grenades. At least we did up until 2011 when I retired. For that same exact safety reason. They did start using a wire safety on the spoon of the grenades. But it was such a POS and fell off ALL the time. That we used one loop of electrical tape with a folded over easy to grab tab on the end. That detail is awesome to know that it's been a technique used all the way back to WW2. Thank you!

I had dinner with Dick winters in Annville, PA many years ago. I mentioned that episode to him, as it is my favorite in the series. He said the same thing, that he just ran faster than everyone else. Side note, said i had a strong jaw line as he signed my copy of band of brothers. “Hang tough”

I’ve got an original script for episode 1 - the most interesting deleted scene in my opinion was to take place in E1. It showed Easy doing a pre-Normandy night jump, during which a paratrooper dies due to a parachute failure. I believe his name was Rudolph Dittrich, and he was the first man to die in Easy Company during WWII.

I must say I agree with the description of Dick Winters feeling like everyone else was slow motion. I am a retired Deputy Sheriff with 30 years of service. On more than one occasion during a stressful shooting incident, I experienced the same feeling. It's the human condition of Fight or Flight. A heightened sense of awareness and immediate danger.

I would like to add something that I believe got missed in the explanation of this story. According to the book written by Dick Winters when the two machine guns opened fired covering the run across the field it kept the heads of the Germans down because they feared getting hit. Also they put an inexperienced young sentry in place who was supposed to be keeping an eye on the field. Winters thought that was a big mistake made by the Germans. Another part of the story they don’t tell is easy company gave chase of the soldiers who got away but was turned back by mortars launched from the town across the river. Winters then ordered a retreat after some of his men got wounded. He figured leave while he was ahead. His book is a very interesting read, I highly recommend it.

Winters' comment about everyone seeming to be moving in slow motion is consistent with an extreme level of adrenaline. One documentary about phisiological changes related to survival said the brain normally processes information at the equivalent of a movie running 10 frames a second - but with adrenaline flooding the system that effectively doubles. No surprise it feels like everyone else is in slow motion. I've felt it a few times while avoiding a traffic accident. 🙂

Occams razor: The simplest reason to cut the scene was to get to the run time down to what HBO wanted. Cutting it this way put the emphasis on Winter's ambivalence about killing a kid. Leaving it in would ruin the subway ride with the kid in Paris, and makes that scene a little creepy. JMO

It's called temporal distortion and it has happened to me twice in very stressful situations. Time doesn't stand still, but it slows down to an incredible degree.

Poetic license. I think they played it right. The theme of the episode was the guilt Winters felt for shooting down the very young German soldier and the terrible things men are forced to do in combat. It begins with Winters watching a young French boy who is the same age as the German sentry and is taken back in his mind to the crossroads. In the scene the German looks up, no more than a boy, with a confused expression and almost smiles at Winters. Winters stares back at the boy, then almost against his will pulls the trigger. Superb acting and directing. Historical accuracy is important, but if it doesn't tell a larger truth then it's just action for action's sake.

This series is my personal favorite. Thanks for making it better..

Excellent historical information and attention to detail! I always wondered why the BoB miniseries didn't include this after reading Beyond Band of Brothers, but as you point out it definitely seems like they were going to include it. I think the final cut of BoB did fit the pace of the scene and episode well, and now seeing all of these details throughout the episode makes it kind of like "Easter eggs" for the historical events. Excellent video, thank you for putting this together!

That's one of my favorite series! Thank you very much for an interesting story. I wish one day they would release all the deleted scenes with proper narratives.

I'm visiting that field tomorrow as the last stop on my Easy Company tour (Normandy, Bastogne and here). Would love to see a directors cut version of Band of Brothers some day...

Would love a directors cut version of the series.

Good video. I have the DVD series and have probably seen every episode at least 15 times, and yet, I never noticed what Winters had in his hand when he is talking to Nixon in the Crossroads episode in that scene on the little hill after the battle. Great catch.

The Wife set us up for the actual Stephen Ambrose Historical Tours: Band of Brothers tour in 2019. We originally selected the June tour but figured it would be too busy/crazy being the 75th anniversary and opted for July. Would have been cool but we were right. Our historian for the tour was Chris Anderson, who spent much time with most of the remaining members of Easy Co. This is almost exactly how he described the events. One difference is that Mr. Winters was very clear that the first German was not a young soldier but an adult. Also in later years this event seems to have stuck with him. Chris said that when he'd call Dick (they were friends so I guess first names were ok...), if he wasn't up to talking, he'd say "Sorry Chris, I got a visit from The German last night." Great video!

I've always been confused about why Dick Winters would get so far out in front of his platoon and then jump up on the roadway and engage the entire German position with a single rifle. Your explanation about the presence of the two machine guns and the grenade exchange clear that up nicely. Thanks for your explanation.

G’day Stand, I’ve been involved in the film industry for many years and this situation presents a constant dilemma for filmmakers. Personally, I think ‘BoB’ was one of the best pieces of historically-based, serial television ever produced. Telling such a wide-ranging story, including flashbacks, in a relatively small number of episodes; makes the final cut a difficult task to pull off successfully. I believe they achieved this goal but, inevitably, some elements of the story - even though they were true - had to end up on the cutting room flaw, as they say. I would have liked to have seen the two MG emplacements on the ridge in this sequence because, I thought upon first viewing, that this bayonet charge was a little too ‘crazy brave’ even for Easy Company. I can tell you even from my own limited military service; the command, “Fix bayonets”, unless it’s on the parade ground, is precisely the last command any soldier ever wants to hear. On the other hand; two different kinds of hand grenades, lobbed at each enemy and neither of them detonating, is a pretty rare event and because of this, I would have included as much detail as possible. Easy to say in hindsight; but the construct of the flashback could have been altered to logically include the unscreened footage and more. Thank you for this video; I’ve just discovered your channel and on the strength of this video I’ve subscribed. I am an Australian Military Historian who must be highly selective about what I watch, which is usually content that will help or compliment my, life-long, fascination with WW2 history. Cheers, Bill H.

One thing that impressed me about Rodrigues’ “El Mariachi” was the way he put together an action sequence. I see the same thing here. Hanks was not shooting like Hitchcock did, only shooting what was necessary for the edit he intended. Hanks was also directing in the edit (Hitchcock shot in such a way that there was no other way to edit his films). What you wind up seeing in the episode is an economy in the cut similar to Rodrigues. Nothing slows it down, nothing interrupts the sense of the action and nothing lets the audience rest, with a sigh of relief. This economy in pacing the edit keeps the audience on the edge of their seat. And this edit can be used instructively. My bona fides? A 30-year career editing.

Crossroads is my favorite episode (just masterful for feel, how much occurs and how it is put together) so hard for me to criticize it, but yes, they should have found a low to include the grenade tossing part. So incredible those events, never understood why they left it out.

Keith you’re an absolute rockstar. Keep up the great work and content.

They're saving them for the Commemorative Blue Ray Addition Release!

So that's why it looked like everyone was giving a battlecry but the only sound we could hear was their footsteps. The grenade was a wasted Chekhov's gun.

One continuity error you will notice in episode one is when Dick Winters gets in the plane and hands his leg bag to someone in the aircraft you will notice that the rope is already cut so when he lands in Normandy you see him pick up the other ends of the rope no leg bag

A friend of mine's brother told us that during the Vietnam war when he got into his first fire fight the same thing happened to him. He was assigned a section of the wall for his command site and as the enemy came charging at them it seemed they slowed down to the point that he could pick and choose his shots, taking out everything in front of him as well as some enemies farther down the wall that had gotten too close. When the fight was over the sargent came over, picked up his rifle that was leaning against the wall and looked at it. The sargent noticed the rifle was still in semi-auto instead of fully automatic, looked at him and nodded. He then leaned the rifle back against the wall and walked off.

It was a raid, which has assault element, security element and a support element. The support element is usually consists of machine gun teams whose job is to suppress the objective then lift and shift fire off the object to kill any fleeing enemy and avoid fratricide. This is basic infantry tactics. The impressive thing is how quickly Winters assessed the situation and organized his platoon to assault the German position.

The German sentry had probably forgotten to fuse the grenade.The writing on the top was a reminder and this was left off later production.

While having a diarrhoea and desperately looking for a shit pit, I felt like I was perceiving my surroundings in slow motion.

Most viewers would not grasp what was going on with the grenade, or link it to the earlier scene with the tape. It would be awkward explaining it on camera without breaking up the flow of the scene severely.

I think option A they should have edited scenes for the purpose of smooth storytelling. Basically because the full story of easy company can't be told in a form like this. This series that HBO made is so stellar and so epic with the information they did communicate, that hopefully it propelled people to seek out the books and the biographies that give a fuller story. I was shocked HBO could pull it off. It was so moving and so amazing. It never ceases to take you by surprise no matter how many times you've watched it

I’ve had that slow motion feeling once before. I had also heard about it before. I was a goalie in hockey. The guy with the hard slap shot in the league was lining one up. I told myself I have to take this stand out my glove here. Then it snapped out of it and the puck was in my glove. Felt like I had about five seconds to prepare for the shot when it would of been about one. I didn’t even see the puck after he did his slap shot.

Dad said one of the guys in his unit was killed in training when the pin came out of his grenade in WW2. By the time VN came around we had ours hanging from our ammo pouches. Funny, I never saw a 30 round M-16 magazine during Vietnam.

hi! this was super informative and interesting. didn’t know about this at all before this, even as a history and weapons nerd. thanks!!

I always learn something new from your videos. Great job.

Was lucky enough to hear the story from the Maj. himself along with others who had been there made for a entertaining story lol. Also i belive at this time the Maj had received 1 of the custom M1's from Easy's co "unofficial armorer " who had converted some M1 & Carbines into full auto's

I did notice him wrapping the grenade and wondered what that was about.

The grenade scene would have added to the realism of the episode.

Spielberg and Hanks weren't always true to their desire to "get the story straight", but in the end, this was Hollywood/HBO. Their decisions about flow and storyline and all that movie-making stuff have to be taken into account. Ain't no such thing as "getting the story straight" when you're dealing with budgets, production schedules, and the inevitable issues that arise. I think that's called "reality."

So his unexploded grenade sat in that field until one day the fabric tape deteriorated enough to release the spoon and then "BOOM!"

I would argue that the wrapping of the grenade wasn't explained and was just a small incidental bit of realism, then when it came time for the scene to throw the grenade it wouldn't really be clear as to why it didn't detonate and Winters retrieving the grenade and anything after that would spoil the scene explaining what has just happened.

That part where Winters is moving at normal speed but everyone else is moving slow as molasses in January is something I experienced a few times overseas. It's wild to explain it to someone else and even more wild to relive those memories.

During WW2 machine and mortar sections or weapons platoons belonged to the company HQs. They were not organic to platoons in the companies. After WW2 MGs became organic to Infantry platoons. But mortars would stay at company and BN level control depending on the size of the mortars. If Winters requested their support. And that unit came from Easy. Then they were Easy elements.

I think the details of forgetting the tape may have been hard to get across in visuals without taking up a fair bit of time, like showing his reaction, the grenade landing with the tape on etc. it may have just been lost and no noticed without taking up the time needed. So pacing or run time may have taken precedence over an important but hard to portray event.

Love historical detail and especially the small details that veterans pick up on.

So, the real question is, what did Winters ultimately do with that un-detonated grenade, if he was rolling up the tape from it?? Did he actually find the pin & re-insert it?? 🤔

I remember reading this part of the book and wondered why they left it out of the show.

I wonder how many taped up grenades got thrown and are still waiting for some unlucky person to find them.

Point blank does not mean up close. Point blank is the range that the bullet path remains within a predetermined vertical space without changing your point of aim. Example: An M1 zeroed at 200 meters will stay within a 6 inch vertical space out to 320 meters, meaning if your target is 300 meters away just aim center mass.

I think if you would have wanted them to keep in "as much actual events as possible" it would have become a twenty-show series (Wouldn't that have been GREAT!). The producers have to make the decision as to what is relevant to the actual events and do it in as short a time as possible so I don't have a problem with how they portrayed the events of this action. The studio is going to force the producers to keep each episode to a very strict time constraint. Ever second given to a subject is going to take away from another subject. Thank you for a good video. That was a fun ride and I enjoyed learning something new from one of my favorite series. TY again.

Would have liked to see the real events in the show! They are fascinating, thanks!

Whenever a movie is a True Story, I Always prefer as many details as possible! It just makes it that much more interesting; knowing exactly what transpired in real life!

That adrenaline time warp is a real thing. During a ball game the batter hit one directly back at my face after I pitched. The ball rotated in slow motion. I could see the stitches. I had all the time in the world. I tilted my head out of the way, got my glove up and caught it like it was nothing. I don't know how.

I'm not a military guy at all but remember that scene of him racing across the field and what followed, as incredible. I'm really here to read what comments from people with experience have to say. Thanks for the detail.

there were a number of things in the series which were "inspired" by actual events and not actual events. The bit about Easy Co liberating the concentration camp was added in to emphasize that storyline of the war but never happened with the 101st. Leaving out the hand grenade part of the story is understandable to make the story flow. The tone of that episode to me was that Dick Winters had remorse over killing the young sentry. They played that up. Had they actually showed the seen the way it happened with the 2 of them trying to kill each other with grenades they could not have played up the remorse aspect of it.

Speaking for myself and many others, Tom Hanks could have made 52 weekly-episodes, and we would still not be satiated. But still thankfully the series was made at all is a blessing.

Glad you showed up on my feed.

Amazingly, I watched this just last night.

It's a drama, not a documentary.

Early in the episode the young German sentry is seen getting up very slowly. I now believe this sluggishness is from Winters perspective.

I spoke with Orlof not too long ago about the possibility of releasing the deleted scenes, he said it’s very unlikely.

The thing with everything around Winters apearing as going in slowmotion can be because of the huge amount of adrenalin in his body. It has been described many times by people who find themselves in extream near death situation.

One of my favorite episodes of the series. I feel that the narrative pacing was not as important as the actual story of that engagement which was very fast and mostly preserved. Winter's time at the typewriter was interesting but not essential to the actual story of the assault. The two grenades flying by one another and not exploding as planned is pure craziness, making the assault even more bizarre than depicted. Crazy that it was deleted. Kudos for the deep dive!!

...excellent observation.... I hear you on this detail, that's one we all might think about when we consider the 'day to day' things in a warfare situation like that, weather we personally faced it or not..... Major Winters probably would have liked seeing it done in detail but, at the end of the day, the skirmish was, in fact, won....

I think the sequence was editing out for two reasons: 1): As you said, to move the story along faster and 2): It would have undermined Winters, who is the 'hero' and therefore infallible.

I absolutely love this series. I’ve seen it at least 15 times in its entirety. But Winters firing from the hip and blinking with every shot always stood out to me. No trained combat veteran would fire a weapon like that.

With regard to the closing question I refer viewers to the movie "Tora, Tora, Tora", an "accurate film that foregoes pacing and storytelling. "Band of Brothers" was so compelling because the story was both true and phenomenally well told.

Somewhere I have promotional media from HBO, it shows this photo. They sent me enough to teach a history class in middle school lol.

Good catch. I believe it was an oversight, resulting in a continuity error. I also think that the dud grenade exchange would have been great to include. How would it have interfered with the narrative pacing?

Stand in the door, green light on, GO. Been there, done that.

There should be a law that the can not destroy deleted scenes.

I think HBO should get Tom Hanks back in the building with all of the original negatives and give him a team to edit an extended directors cut for a anniversary Max release and limited edition Extended Directors Cut 4K Blu Ray Release. I would Pay whatever they asked for it.

Several of your example photos of the tape for the spoons was to create a loop that wouldn't allow the grenade to come off while they were running or jumping

100% telling the story has historical accurate has possible

Personally, I would rather have seen the full exchange as it happened. To me it would have made it better to show Winters making a mistake.

While Band Of Brothers was a masterpiece in movie story telling, I would love to have a documentary version with all the deleted scenes. With literally all of E Co, and almost all of the WW2 veterans passed away, we owe them this much. The complete truth. I personally don't like the fact that they had "hollywood-ed" some of the story.

You probably haven't noticed this yet but the name of your channel actually rhymes. DOOR, nineteen-forty-FOUR

Hard to compress 42 months of events into 15 hours of video.

I’ve always noticed in the cross roads charge scene that it seems like they are screaming in the charge. I wonder why they decided to do a scream charge but cut out the screams?

I have never shot an M1 in combat, I have shot one quite a bit in competition and I can tell you that 8 rounds goes pretty fast even if you are aiming carefully.

My grandfather gave me one of the pineapple grenades complete with the pin. However, it had been defused with the powder drained and the metal fust saw off. Instead it had a screw plate at the bottom and a slot in the middle. It was used to collect dimes during WWII. Great selling point would be some little kid showing with their finger in the ring of the grenade, asking you to donate dimes.

Excellent discussion, just subscribed. Thanks.

Non-military person here, with a stupid question: If Winters pulled the pin on that grenade, wouldn't it explode when he found it later and took the tape off? I assume the answer would be that he placed a/the pin back in it, but would he really have the original or even a spare pin? Seems unlikely. Or maybe that's just not how these things work.

People really do not have a clue what "point black" distance means. 30 yards is an approximate point blank range for the 30-06 M2 ball. Point blank range is different for every cartridge. Point blank is the distance at which the path of the projectile first crosses the line of sight in an upward direction.

As a fan and viewer of B.O.B. we only know these deleted scenes only when you bring it to our attention also if we were shown all the deleted and adjusted scenes, the entire series would be longer than anticipated and the costs of production would have blown the movie Bosses budget. 😅

Would nice to see the directors cut🇺🇸

I really liked the whole story / film . It was great the way it was . I really feel I missed nothing by missing that scene . It didn't need to be there .

Very interesting! But Im wondering after Dick Winters undid the tape from the grenade, what did he do with the thing??

Awesome video packed with valuable detail and information! Thanks so much and keep going!

Good explanation. Totally forgivable editing.

I think trying to fit all the elements of the charge and that first encounter would have been a cinematic mess. You’d need shots to establish that the .30mcal MG weren’t mowing their own side. This would probably require establishing the true width of the assault, these things tend to a lot more bunched up to keep people in shot. Then the barbed wire. Then both sides of the grenade exchange. Just too much. “Bull” Randleman‘s 2nd bayonet duel didn’t make it in because 1) redundant to have 2. 2) lots of people wouldn’t believe a single person had been in 2 such duels.

Wait if they had MGs going off then those bullets would be flying over the road embankment. Yet the Germans behind the embankment were just lounging around. They surely would have heard those MGs and tried to see where they were coming from.

It was perfect as it is was in the Final Cut. BUT I wish they would release all of the deleted scenes.

Thank you! That assault scene never made the slightest bit of sense to me - why did they need to wait ‘ferrrr the signal’ of the red smoke? They could see Winters running…why did they need a signal at all? And of course this episode features the worst Hollywood combat casualty in…the last 50 years of war films? How did Hanks not reshoot that *ridiculous* shot of Popeye Boyle going up to spot the fall of the shots, then feintint? er, I mean ‘getting hit’ 😂

I always thought they had gotten the jump on the SS and thats why the kid had his arms out and everyone in the background was scrambling after Winters Shoots. The other way makes it seem as though that wouldnt have been so. Probably was changed because it is way cooler that way.

Personally, I wish they would have included the two thrown grenades (one for each) so that it was accurate. It almost seems like they cut that small bit out since Winters was the hero and they didn’t want to show his mistake with the tape. Still, a fantastic miniseries that I’ve watched at least a dozen times.

I am far from an military expert, but what I noticed from reading about military operations it seems to me like almost all decisions are some sort of compromise. Sort of like, if you are damned if you do, it and you are damned if you don't something. And often the best outcome is if you can create a dilemma for the enemy where they have only the option to chose between two (or more) bad outcomes where you really don't know what the best solution is.

I guess not many Segeants told their men to stop taping the grenade spoons. What a tactical error.

Did Winters forget to pull the pin on the grenade as well as remove the tape? If the grenade was minus the pin, him removing the tape would've caused the spoon to top off and the grenade to explode. BoB is one of my all time favorite series