A bit of irony: The Brécourt Manor assault is taught as a textbook attack on a fixed positon in military schools and when I went to film school, the show's re-enactment of it was taught as a textbook way to shoot handheld scenes without disorienting the audience.
The scene with Winters addressing his men inside the truck at the end of the episode is another example of excellent leadership. By chatting with his men and taking a drink he is making himself "one of the guys", and establishes a mutual respect between himself and Guarnere, but addressing he knows what is said behind his back and that it he doesn't mind. Also, by leaving them to "carry on" afterwards shows that he knows his men need that time among themselves to decompress without having their leader looking over their shoulder the whole time. It's these little gestures that are depicted amazingly over the series and really shows why Winters' men admire and love him so much.
Many years later (probably after the _Band of Brothers_ book was published) Winters was contacted by Elliot Richardson who held 4 cabinet positions in the Nixon and Ford administrations as well as other elected offices. On the day of the Brecourt battery action, Richardson was a medic on the beach being shelled by that artillery. He thanked Winters and wrote that he always wondered why the guns suddenly stopped firing so early in the day.
I would be amiss if I did not think if you or dad, or your grand dad was on that beach? If not I apologize, just the way you asked the question made me wonder. My Grand Dad was, and it sounded familiar.
The scene were Malarkey is talking to the American German soldier is true, BUT: they actually worked right across the street from eachother. The writers just thought nobody would believe that so they changed it to '100 miles from eachother'
It's true Germans return to Germany from all over the world to fight for the fatherland. Germany got a lot of soldiers from all of the German colonies in South America who had Hitler youth programs essentially lived like they were in Germany.
Spiers also shot the German POWs. Winters mentions in an interview (I believe there’s a RU-vid video of it) in which he mentions he asked him about the event during research and he admitted it was true.
Former 82nd Airborne Division infantryman here. The guys in both US airborne divisions were issued small, button-size compasses that they could use if escaping from capture. They placed the compasses in seams of their trousers or shirts, in locations that their German captors might not search. Winters had his compass in the crotch of his trousers.
The officers in Normandy were also issued silk escape maps which Winters had sewn into the belt lining of his pants. Near the end of occupation duty in 1945, the officers were told to return the maps to their regimental (S-4) supply officers or face a $75 fine. The 506th S-4 was still Captain Sobel so Major Winters wrote him a note of "Nuts!" to the request and never paid the fine. The framed map is visible in some of the interviews with Winters recorded in his home office.
2:00 "What?" regarding losing the leg bag. There is a huge technical problem facing paratroopers: hitting the ground is hard on legs, especially ankles and knees. Sometimes a person just wearing clothing hurts their leg when they land on the ground. But these guys have so much weight: guns, ammo, grenades, food, and a whole bunch of other gear they carry into battle. That's a whole lot of additional weight on those poor legs when they hit the ground. To solve that, they put almost all their gear into a big bag dangling by a rope from their leg. The bag hits the ground first, then the man hits the ground without having all that weight on his back. Except this was a last minute innovation and the people who tested it didn't tell these men that they had to HUG the bag to their chest when they jump - after the parachute is fully open they can then let the bag hang down. So when these guys jumped, they just threw the bag out and jumped right after it, but the wind tore that bag right off their leg. So they landed in Normandy without any equipment - their leg bag is lying in some field literally a mile away in the dark.
Interesting insight. A Viet Nam era airborne friend told me that, during night jumps (training I assume), they would release a similar bag when the horizen indicated they were nearing the ground. Inexperienced jumpers might release early, their load swinging into a chute below them, causing that jumper to hit the ground much harder. He also told me once that he had about 3 seconds to run off a chute that might have drifted under him. Any longer, and both chutes would collapse. But, for a few seconds, the chute below could handle his weight, and neither chute would lose too much 'lift.'
And even worse for techs like Hall, who was supposed to be hauling radio gear. Try to imagine how much overengineering would have to be there to protect electronics with glass vacuum tubes. The weight of steel to do that boggles my aged kneecaps at the thought of jumping with that much in a leg bag or on my back.
This is what they mean by history repeating itself. It's always just before going into battle - We have this new piece of equipment for you to use. Here's a new weapon for you to use. Here are some pills that will prevent you from getting sick. We're reorganizing the unit to make it more efficient. And don't even get me started on the "It'll be over by Christmas" thing.
@@busterdee8228 These days, and back in my day (late '80s) rucksacks are carried on the jumper's front, attached to the parachute harness. There's also a lowering line. When the jumper gets down to 200 feet above ground level (your best guess), the ruck is released and dangles from the lowering line. It hits a little less than a second before the jumper does.
1:44 I played the cello in my high school orchestra, and one year we performed the music suite from this show. It was the only time my small high school orchestra ever got a standing ovation, and still sticks in my head as one of my coolest concert experiences.
I marched baritone in high school and we used the theme as our onfield warm-up my senior year. I would get chills every time. It's such a beautiful score.
16:56 that man’s name was Andrew Hill. His name isn’t mentioned in the show, but his name should be known. A RU-vid channel by the name of “the history underground” did a video about him, and the location he died. The family who owned the land during world war 2 still owns the land to this day, and they let RU-vidr go to the area where Andrew Hill was KIA. They’ve got a small memorial for him on their land.
22:59 - You're absolutely right about all the hard camera work that had to be done to achieve that particular shot (17:02). Here's what the camera operator, Martin Kenzie, had to say about it: “Our problem was the width of the trench and the length of movement it required. All of the usual tools you might use for that type of shot - dolly, quad bike, wheelchair - were too wide and not maneuverable enough for some of the tight corners. Running might have worked if it hadn’t been necessary to run backwards. Joel Ransom came up with the idea of using a rickshaw, and special-effects supervisor Joss Williams and his men built it and made it work. They took two bicycle front-fork assemblies, built a frame with a seat and attached [about 15"] cycle wheels. The handles were extended at the front so that dolly grip John Arnold could run forward, pulling the rickshaw. He was doing all the hard work while I sat in the seat, facing backward, with a Moviecam SL [fitted with a 32mm Zeiss Ultra Prime lens] in my lap. At one point, John parked the rickshaw in a siding, skillfully tipping me off [as I stayed on Winters], who I then began following from behind.”
Just found the channel because of this series. As a vet, thank you for watching as these things need to be remembered. Just as a heads up, always have your tissues ready for this series. You'll never know when you need it.
Mostly off the subject, but “Gigantic,” the documentary about the band They Might Be Giants has footage from an in-store performance they did in a Manhattan Tower Records the evening of 9/10, and they’re playing their cover of the song New York City. It’s beautiful, joyful, warm and devastatingly poignant.
Although the German Army was believed to be highly mechanized, they were largely horse drawn. Many Allied troops were very disturbed by the number of horses killed.
Yes, only one third of the Wehrmacht were mechanized. They still use horses at that time still. Ik cars should’ve been a thing but it wasn’t exactly massed produced enough for all yet. Or at least wasn’t the priority but only things needed for the war effort.
Can tell you as a grandson of a veteran of the Red Army who was a transportation officer (served from June 1941 to the end of the war, also fought against Japan in Manchuria, thrice WIA)- the Soviets suffered from serious problems with mechanization and transportation on the front, but the Germans on the East front weren't very much ahead. A very large part of the war was still conducted using horses, carriages and pretty basic transport, up to using WWI era vehicles. My grandfather rarely spoke about the war but since he was a transportation engineer also in his civilian life, he sometimes mentioned "professional" elements from his service. He had a very good opinion about the Studebaker US6 that was the most common Lend-Lease truck supplied to the USSR. Definitely played a great role in creating a technological advantage over the Germans, since the Wehrmacht never succeeded to mechanize all of its significant units. To quote David Webster in "Why We Fight", "Say hello to Ford, and General fuckin' Motors". Americans should know that Red Army soldiers were also very grateful for those.
The everyday German Soldier realized on D-Day it was over, they all noticed the Americans DIDN'T USE horses but vehicles. They had never seen an Army like that before.
@TheRagratus The British Commonwealth forces in North Africa were more or less completely mechanised so yes the Germans did see an army without horses before. North Africa was a vehicle war.
This series is, quite probably, the best piece of media ever produced for television. And it gets harder from here out. Steady on, lady. This train has no brakes.
Everyone skips over Guarnier saying "He's from Lancaster County, hes probably a Mennonite!" Being from Philly, Wild Bill assumes anyone on the straight and Narrow is a Pacifists Quaker, which were prevalent in the Philly amd Delaware area. Winters is from my home town of Lancaster and went to Franklin and Marshall college before the war. While not Mennonite, he did grow up in an area full of them.
Something I really enjoy about your reactions is how much you pay attention to the details of how it was shot. The appreciation for the art form and not just the story makes these much more engaging because a lot of the things that you take note of are the things I tend to look at on viewing media like this.
Well, this is when the sh*t gets real. "We're not lost Private...we're in Normandy." This one line displays Winter's ability to instill confidence in his men, even unarmed in the face of all adversity. And this soldier wasn't even a member of Easy Company. Currahee ♠
@@krisfrederick5001 It's true that he said it and you can believe it if you want to. Me I prefer a world that has heroes and if the world has heroes Winters was it.
Ron Livingston did an amazing behind the scenes diary of the military “boot camp” that all the actors went through. It was the famous Dale Dye Boot Camp. He plays Colonel Sink in the series. They were all referred to each other by their character names, & spoke in American accents during the duration of the boot camp. The entire footage is on RU-vid.
I grew up and lived 45 minutes from where Dick Winters moved to outside Hershey Pennsylvania after he retired. He was well loved and respected by everyone who knew him.
9:20 "Drinking is not a requirement to be a commanding officer." True. Guarnere doesn't want an alcoholic officer. He is afraid that his officer might be a Quaker (religious pacifist) who won't fight.
Also, in his heart Guarnere knows he shouldn't have done what he did. He's just too angry to admit Winters is right, so he's inventing reasons to dislike him. Fortunately he comes around later.
@@darinfoat8410 Which is why I love what Toye says "He didn't have a weapon. What's he supposed to do shout at em?" Even though he's Bill's best friend, he still calls him out how ridiculous Bill was acting.
There was just a common feeling at the time that real men drank. This was true in the national pastime, baseball, too -- the New York Yankees were lauded as heavy drinkers until the 1960s, and the best team in baseball.
The Luger was a famous service pistol often carried by German officers, making them highly sought-after spoils of wars/souvenirs for allied soldiers. If you remember back to the first episode we were shown a member of Easy, named Hoobler, asking to look at the Luger of a British serviceman dressed up in a German uniform, saying he wanted one for himself. In this episode we're shown that Malarkey also wants a Luger, to bring back to his little brother. Being as popular war souvenirs as they were, many other members of Easy probably wanted to their hands on a Luger as well. Band of Brothers was pretty much the first series on HBO with such high production quality/value. It laid the foundation for later high-end shows like Rome, Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire and The Last of Us. While the first episode was already incredible, the cinematography and use of the camera in this episode really cemented this as one of my favorite shows back when I first got it on DVD twenty years or so ago. The way they use the camera as a tool to depict the frantic, chaotic tension of battle, placing the viewer right in the middle of the fighting, and showing the confusion created by the 'fog of war' is still masterfully done even to this day.
Loving your reactions to this show so far! Lots to go through for this episode… 1) Winters was absolutely the perfect leader for the situation. You saw it immediately when he lands next to Hall and they begin walking. Hall is anxiety ridden about being lost, so Winters asks him a question about himself to get his mind off the situation. He is calm and reassuring to him, then he cracks a joke and it changes Hall’s whole mindset. 2) There was an unwritten order to not keep prisoners on D-Day because they had no idea if the operation would even be successful. They had nowhere to put them, anyway, so some of the men were told if they came across prisoners that to kill them. 3) The word the American fighting for the Germans used was “volks Deutsche” (sorry if I misspelled that to any German speakers). Deutsche means German and Volk means family or community, so Hitler was calling any “ethnic Germans” who had emigrated to other countries to come back to fight for their greater German family/community. 4) The man Neal McDonough portrays, Lynn “Buck” Compton, was an All-American catcher for the UCLA baseball team, something Neal worked into his portrayal. When he throws the grenade into the back of the German soldier running away it shows his pinpoint accuracy. He was so good that the only way he would commit an error was if someone else caused it…like when he got bumped with the other grenade. His next throw was again, pinpoint accurate. Grenades were made to be the size & shape of baseballs in America for a reason back then! 5) Winters was put in for the Medal of Honor, but at the time of D-Day the army only awarded one MoH per division and another soldier had paperwork filed for it before Winters did for that day. That’s why he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross instead. 6) The plane that caught on fire and crashed in the opening scene was the plane carrying the company commander, Sobel’s replacement, Lt. Meehan…as well as Simon Pegg’s character of Sgt. Evans.
As you say, the order to not keep prisoners would have been unwritten. Winters was the sort who would have followed it only under the most dire circumstances, even if it had been written. Spier on the other hand had a much more cold blooded and bleakly fatalistic approach to war. He would later admit to at least one instance of shooting prisoners. Both men were incredibly brave in combat, but had very different personalities and leadership styles.
@@gravitypronepart2201 There was. It's easy to look up. First hand accounts from the paratroopers who were there. Speirs is one of many who went through with it. Not sure where you got your information.
If Winters had actually received the MoH, he likely would have been pulled off the line as it is bad public relations when MoH awardees are subsequently KIA. And without Winters the story of Easy Co would have been different. Also, there is a photo out there of Winters getting his DSC from Gen Omar Bradley.
There are so many poignant moments, character focus, breathtaking visuals, heartaches, shocks, occasional humour during this series that make it a masterpiece. You are about to experience a rollercoaster of emotions Jacqui. You will never forget Band of Brothers.
When I was 17, I got the opportunity to stay with a French family in the Normandy area. On one day, the father and I visited all landing sites (Gold, Sword, Juno, Omaha, and Utah beaches), as well as the Saint Mere-Eglise church. It was amazing how vast the battlefield was and I tried to picture myself as an infantryman in each scenario. Again, the Stephen Ambrose book “Band of Brothers” goes into much more detail than the miniseries, making it a worthwhile read. Very emotional review on your part, but also a unique perspective on the film and engagement as a whole. Can’t wait to watch more!
A moment that wasn't covered in this cut of the beginning of the jump was Lt. Meehan tapping the guy across beside him to tell the soldier that when the light turns green to tap him on the leg. I absolutely love how they included personal details of even extremely minor characters throughout the entire series like that, and they did it incredibly subtly. As someone who's also colorblind, I've had my share of conversations similar to that. Another cool detail is when Lt. Compton landed, he took a Thompson off of another fallen trooper. He didn't know it, as he hadn't fired the gun until the assault, but the firing pin had snapped off the bolt. So the scene where he goes to fire at the wounded officer, actually happened. And you see him in multiple following scenes try to mess with the gun to get it to fire before giving up and using his baseball skills to yeet grenades at fleeing Germans.
4:32 That was Plane/Stick #66 which carried Lt. Meehan and Easy Company HQ . Previously stated in the previous episode that the NCOs may have saved Captain Sobel.
@@canadian__ninja Not sure is Sobel would have been still Company Commander without the Court Martial/Mutiny fiasco (think it’s 4 months before the combat jump when it happened) Would Col. Sink (506th PIR Commander) and Lt Col Strayer (2nd Battalion, 506th PIR Commander) felt comfortable with Sobel after the results of the exercises? Maybe they both come to a conclusion that Sobel can help the cause as a trainer than a front line officer as it actually happened.
My favorite part of this episode is the end, with Winters and the promise he makes to God about finding a small piece of land and living the rest of his life in peace. My first time watching this well over twenty years ago, my respect for Richard Winters grew with every episode. Definitely the type of leader I would have loved to have when I was in the Navy. I also love the friendship between Winters and Lewis Nixon.
Amazing reaction, you pick out the details in the human interaction, the details in the lighting & camera in terms of telling a story, feeling a story ~ yet watching your genuine reaction to it all, that's the authenticity that makes us feel like we're right there with ya, beautifully sincere reaction
In the film Saving Private Ryan, Ryan was said to be a part of the 101 airborne, which is why it was so hard to find him, because the 101 was scattered everywhere. Also as Spielberg and his team did researched for Saving Private Ryan they came across the story of E “Easy” company of the 101st which impressed them so much that they decided to tell their story in this miniseries along with Tom Hanks. Oh and many pronounce Sobel’s name closer to So-Bowl rather than So-BELL
@4325air mentioned the compass that was carried for escape and evasion, if needed. The British army learned early on that the Germans were quite good at finding hidden items, but did manage to succeed at one hiding place that was not discovered once, throughout the war. At the start of the war, British fighter pilots had uniform buttons that could hold tiny silk maps. To get the map, a person would simply twist the button exactly the same way that one would open a bottle. It didn't take long for the Germans to begin giving each button a quick twist to confirm that it was only a button, and not a hiding spot. After realizing that the buttons were no longer working as an effective location, the British reversed the twist of the buttons. After that, any "removal" twist that was given to the button, just tightened it a bit instead of opening the button lid.
Not all the Airborne troops came in by parachute. My Uncle John was a glider pilot who "flew" in members of a Glider Infantry regiment on June 6. He landed safely, then made his way on foot to the beach to find a boat ride back to England. He said there was not a moment that he was scared. He went on to make three more drops, one each in Holland, France and Germany.
The difference between the American and D.U.K.E Glider pilots is the Duke ones were trained to fight with the paratroopers while as you said the Americans were ordered to go strait back.
My dad was Glider Infantry in the 17th Airborne. Your Uncle John might have flown my dad into combat across the Rhine near Wesel, Germany in Operation Varsity on March 24, 1945.
@@mariuszpudzianowski8400 The Germans had planted what were termed "Rommelspargel," Rommel's asparagus, in areas where they thought allied paratroopers and gliders would land. They were poles planted upright in the ground. Some were sharpened. General Erwin Rommel is credited with the idea. He had commanded armies in France, North Africa. and Italy before Hitler assigned him to the defense of Normandy. He was implicated in the July 1944 failed plot to assassinate Hitler. Because Rommel was popular with the German public, he was allowed to commit suicide rather than face execution.
Fun fact - during the battle of Brecourt you see, on several occasions, Buck Compton dealing with an issue with his weapon. When he jumped, like many others, he lost his weapon and had to find a replacement. He found a Thompson to replace the one he lost however, unbeknownst to him, the firing pin had broken during the fall causing it to be inoperable.
And the grenade throw to the head really happened. Compton was a very good baseball player and was able to hurl grenades with a really high degree of accuracy and speed.
Almost every episode has a perfect scene. In the first episode I think it was Winters giving a hand to help the men up. In this episode it was Winters reflecting on the day and desiring to live a life of peace. We often talk about a character arc. For Ronald Speirs, he doesn’t change but we do.
Lt. Speirs DID shoot those prisoners, but, it was done out of military neccessity, not malice. Prisoners require food, water, medical supplies, and, personnel to guard them. All things the 101st was desperately short of at the time. At that time, the landings were still very much in doubt, they had no reasonable expectation of resupply, relief, or, reinforcement. Also, the paratroopers had been given orders NOT to accept surrender. So, they could either release them, in which case they'd just return to their units & keep fighting, or, they could be disposed of. It was one of the cruel realities of war.
The cruel reality is that they had a choice and they choose to kill men who had surrendered because it was more convenient for them to do so. There is also a long term effect to killing prisoners - once it is known that you do so you remove any incentive to surrender, virtually guaranteeing that your enemy will fight to the death which also means you will lose more men.
Yes, Spiers killed the prisoners. Paratroopers couldn't take prisoners because they jump behind enemy lines with nothing but what they can carry, so they sometimes shot them. It's against the Geneva Convention, but from the paratroops' point of view, if the beach landings fail, there's no hope for rescue and they're all abandoned to die anyway.
@@Diomedene The nazis Waffen SS mostly fought like that regardless, on top of being notorious as POW killing murderers, not for practical tactical reasons either.
The Pistole Parabellum Model 1908, colloquially known as the P08 Luger, was the standard issue sidearm of the German armed forces from 1908 to 1942. It was a toggle-action autoloading pistol that fired 9×19mm Parabellum from an 8 round magazine. They were sought after ny soldiers in both World Wars (hence why its cartridge is known commercially as 9mm Luger). The most common variant was the P08 with a 4" barrel issued to Army officers, NCOs, and various support troops. There were 2 other variants, the P04 Naval Luger with a detachable stock and 6" barrel and the LP08 Artillery Luger with a detachable stock, 8" barrel, adjustable rear sight, and optional 32 round drum magazine. These 2 were less common in WW2 due to their issue usually to the Kriegsmarine or police, and the number given up at the end of WW1 as "banned weapons." Fun fact: earlier Luger pistols in the 7.65×19mm cartridge were popular civilian and military officer private purchases before WW1 in the US, and the design influenced the Colt M1911 used by the US military through today. The guns Easy Company took out were 105mm Leichtefeldhaubitze Model 1942 howitzers. The "88" was the 88mm Flugzeugabwehrkanone (shortened to FlaK, where the term comes from for antiaircraft fire), used against aircraft and armored vehicles. You've seen the FlaK 88 in Masters of the Air. Later on the Germans had 105mm and 128mm (5") FlaK guns to counter Allied bombers.
Minor correction: the P08 Luger was officially replaced as the standard service sidearm by the Walther P38 in 1939, but the Luger remained in production until 1942.
@@mulrich My dad would tell me about stuff from his childhood and his father had a Luger from the war. Unfortunately it was lost at some point. Dad doesn't know what happened to it. I inherited a nazi sword which I am very happy to have even if I never met the grandfather that brought it back. Bonus heartbreak! My dad brought back stuff from Vietnam. Well before he met my mom he gave his brand new Russian made AK-47 still wrapped in the cosmoline to the officers club for display.😭 His first son didn't care about his military days and dad did not plan on meeting his soulmate or having a second son that cherished anything from his time in the military.
True, but I also think that as far as the US soldiers were concerned, every German pistol was a Lugar, just like every tank was a Tiger, & every plane a Stuka.
@alanholck7995 Not really. You only got to see the Tiger or Stuka when it was shooting at you or wrecked on the battlefield. Pistols were something you could hold and examine closely, and most American male kids had had the experience of playing war or cowboys and Indians, so from cap guns and World War I illustrations, they had a pretty good idea of what a Luger looked like. I'm sure the various European semi-autos occasionally got mistaken for Lugers, but not nearly as often as, say a Panzer Mk4 got mistaken for a Tiger Mk6. It's not like you've got a lot of time to measure the barrel to determine whether it's 75 mm or 88 mm when the shell is COMING AT YOU.
When Spiers kills the German prisoners, it wasn't done out of hate. It was done because they were behind the lines and didn't have the resources to guard and feed prisoners. I doubt that they had orders to do it, but it was probably the most practical way to address the situation.
There was a standing order by General Maxwell Taylor to the 101st Airborne on the eve of the invasion specifically to not take prisoners. I believe Winters even mentions it in his memoir. The causeways to Carentan were supposed to be secured before the troops from Omaha and Utah started coming inland, and the 101st and 82nd simply did not have the means to house and feed prisoners will trying to seize their objectives
It was here that winters retrieved a map detailing German defensive positions on the coast. After parachuting into Normandy himself, Nixon located Winters and then ran three miles to Utah Beach to run it up the chain of command. Without the service of Winters and Nixon, countless additional Allied lives may have been lost during the Normandy invasion. Winters was promoted to Captain, while Battalion headquarters was so grateful for the intelligence that they deployed the first two tanks to land on Utah Beach to find and assist the 101st.
Jacqui, your reactions are seriously good. You've got a fantastic channel here. I know that reaction vids like these take tonnnnns of work, but your hard work is paying off. Really looking forward to the rest of this series.
Besides the fact I'm a French national, infantry paratrooper war veteran, just re re re re watched this series, I love to see it again through your eyes. You didn't just earned a subscriber, but i'll go to your Patreon to watch the rest.
Many Americans lost their leg bags while the Brits did not lose theirs. The Brits packed according to weight while Americans packed from the standpoint of, "If it fits, it ships."
The problem of being released at to high a speed didn’t help. The pilots of the transport aircraft were undertrained for the reality of their task which lead to chaos during the drop.
The Brits were trained on the leg bag's use (it was developed for and by the Paras), but the US troops were handed it at the last moment, without a minutes instruction on how it was supposed to work. In addition, during training drops, the C-47s never had a full load of troops, nor were the troops loaded the way they were during D-Day. In addition, the C-47s also had pallets of equipment attached under the aircraft to be dropped during the air assault. The speed to stay in the air with the load that they carried was way faster than the ideal drop speed so that was why there were so many problems.
@@lawrencejones1517 yeah, I'm gonna ask for sources on that C47 stuff. How and where exactly would you mount equipment on pallets UNDERNEATH the plane? There's simply no room. Going into the physics of it, aerodynamic drag increases with the square of velocity, so a plane with a big rectangular pallet on it would have its optimal speed lowered: lift increases linearly w/respect to airspeed, bit drag is squared...so going faster would increase drag faster than lift and you'd get to a point where you simply can't carry the weight or you need to slow down, carry less fuel, use flaps for more low speed lift,etc. I'm pretending that a big crate strapped to the belly of a C47 would actually fly, and make it to where the plane can't slow down enough to offload a chalk of paras, but my head is hurting too much. Seriously, how would it even take off? 😂
If I remember correctly, a Union soldier during the civil war said in a letter home "War is weeks or months of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror".
15:42 the Luger is a German handgun that was adopted before World War I in 1908. By WWII, it had been replaced by the Walther P38, but Lugers were still very common handguns. Back then, if you captured an enemy weapon like a handgun or rifle, you could have it shipped back home for you to keep. It’s actually why there’s a lot of Lugers on the US firearms collectors market. My coworker actually owns one that his father took off a German in WWII.
@@martensjd Yep! Even if you don't know the name, if you're barely familiar with weaponry of the period, simply saying "German handgun from WWII" is enough to trigger the mental picture of the right weapon.
With firearms it is all about the 8peration of the gun. For example the M1 battlerifle has a rotating bolt and the pinging clip... The Luger has that bent knee toggle which is unique to it. Both extraordinary and in this series.
People, back me up if I'm wrong: The leg bag was a British invention, where they stored as much crap as they could, including their weapons. Obviously the bags got very heavy. Only problem, the American paratroopers hadn't trained with the bags and had them sprung on them days before the invasion. Not knowing how to properly control them, the majority lost them as soon as the heavy blast of the propellers hit the bag.
I originally watched this series back in highschool, my sophomore year. I then continued to watch this each year following in high school, all with the same teacher, my top favorite teacher at that school, Ms. Nelson! :D I'm currently watching ALL of these reactions today. I may comment on another video - but if I don't, know that I do enjoy watching these. :) Thank you for the thoughtful reactions!
Most excellent reactions. I do like how you talk about and relate your knowledge of filmmaking and how well it’s done here. As someone who doesn’t know those details it’s really cool to hear just what it takes to get such great scenes done.
Came for the second episode of this great show, stayed on account of your hilarious nervous laugh where you go *right* back to your anxious face in a split second😂 Great content!
Thank you for not blurring out scenes of wounded or dead. So many these days do and it so takes away from what you're reacting to. Love your reactions so far.
We have a HUGE history in the U.S. of ignoring how many Americans truly believed in and agreed with Nazi ideology even while the war was happening. In 1939 (post-invasion of Poland, pre-America entering the war) there was a Nazi rally at Madison Sq Garden in New York which more than 20,000 people attended. The scene with the American fighting for Germany is brilliantly added because it's a part of history often glossed over in how we learn about this part of the 20th century. The choice to put that in and make it just that one moment makes it even more jarring to see, which makes it something that leaves a mark in the mind of the viewer.
Glad someone else caught this!! Lots of weird fashy shit was happening in the US then and people don't like to talk about it. It's honestly so cool they had this little moment here. Delightfully jarring for sure.
Good on you for catching Andrew Scott immediately. Most people get the big ones like Hardy or Fassbender but this show is packed with great actors. Like 22 years ago most of them were just starting out, at least in American media, but from here on in my brain immediately identifies them as their BoB characters. I can't think of a single time where they have done bad work, just under utilized. For all the talk about Sopranos ushering in "The New Golden Age of TV" for me it was more these other HBO shows like Six Feet Under, Deadwood, Band of Brothers, and Rome. They really were putting out some exceptional series, with awesome casts and showrunners who had a defined vision. If you go back and watch any of these shows not only do they remain good, you can see that many of these actors and even production side people continue to crank out some good work, for the last 20 years. The collective casts of all these foundation HBO shows, even the mini-series like Angels in America, there are one or multiple folks track back to these shows. It's wild.
Just stopped by to see what your site was all about. Nice. Good observations. As an old retired soldier, I'll comment on when you discussed ups and downs in movies. Combat can have hours or days of boredom and drudgery interspersed with moments of sheer terror. I might just come back to see how you do on the next episode.
My Late Maternal Great-Uncle served in the British Eighth Army (under General Montgomery). A battle-hardened Veteran who served with distinction during El Alamein. Enlisted as a Private and finished the war as a Sergeant-major. Great-Uncle Walter died in 2014 aged 92.
I have been eagerly awaiting this reaction and I am not disappointed. It is great to see you processing this both to the story with its emotions and the craft of the filmmaking.
Neat fact about the grenade throw at 13:56: Lt. Buck Compton, the paratrooper who throws the grenade that exploded upon hitting the retreating German in the back of his head, actually played baseball in college (alongside a teammate who would become famous himself, Jackie Robinson). When Compton threw that grenade during the firefight, he timed the throw and lack of arc so it would explode at the exact time it reached the man's head. If that weren't enough of a claim to fame, Buck apparently served as an extra in films in his youth. It's reported that he was kicked off one set after angering the lead actor of the film, a Mr. Charlie Chaplin.
The chicken at 10:09 was Naval bombardment from either American battleships with 14 inch guns were British ships with 15-in guns. Those are easily 2,000 lb shells zooming by at Mach 2.
WWII was such a big and complex thing that you can't teach everything in just one unit in High School World History. And there's a reason this miniseries over 23 years later is still one of the Top 5 highest rated pieces of media on IMDB
I can confirm the final card; while going to school with the intention of becoming a young Army Officer back in 1987, we studied Winters attack on Brecourt. The show doesn't convey how abolutely unlikely and amazing the victory was. Winters took 17 men and went up against an entrenched position manned by over 60 German soldiers and managed to accomplish his mission (the destruction of the four artillery pieces firing on the beaches of Normandy) and did with the loss of only two casualties (one wounded -- Private Robert "Popeye" Wynn -- and one killed -- Private John "Cowboy" Halls). Standard doctrine says that to successfully assault such a position you need 3:1 odds. Winters had less than 1/3 the German force and won anyway. In my opinion he deserved the Medal of Honor for this mission. He did get the Distinguished Service Cross, the second-highest award you can earn in the Army. The soldiers were under orders to *not* take prisoners during the initial invasion of Normandy because until things were established, there would be no way to guard them securely, or feed for them, or care for their wounds as required by the Geneva Convetion. As General Eisenhower said in his 1962 memoire "Crusade in Europe", "It was unfortunately necessary that any prisoners rounded up during the initial attack, would have to be eliminated as quickly as possible." He alao added, "we took care of their remains once the beachhead was established, and buried them with as much reverence as we could; it was the least we could do. I regret the necessities of war to this day."
Love your reaction. I watched some of your other reactions to movies and wondered how you would react. You were stressed. I remember the first time I watched this episode my fist were clenched by the end of the assault on the artillery. I’m sure your patreons have told you that this is a very accurate portrayal. Joe nearly getting blown up twice by grenades. Popie getting shot in the butt and apologizing, and even the guy that was lost looking for headquarters and getting shot in the head all actually happened. I’ve had the pleasure of shooting a Luger. They are beautiful pistols and a marvel of craftsmanship. Oh, and the music will be stuck in your head for years. I have watched this series so many times Ive lost count and so enjoy watching other people see it for the first time. So important!
A Luger is a German pistol mainly carried by officers or commanders. At the time, it was one of if not the most accurate handgun on the planet. It was highly coveted as a war trophy.
Absolutely- me too. I think it’s a combination of the emotional impact of the series combined with the simple yet beautiful theme. Not only does that theme live in my head rent free but the visuals of the opening credits do, too. I’ve watched a lot of movies and TV in my life, and seen some absolutely incredible work. Band of Brothers is the one that I measure everything else against.
13:57 I’ve always loved that shot, because in real life, Buck was an all-American catcher at UCLA (had to look that up because I’m not American). So instead of pulling the pin on the grenade and the fuse making it take a few seconds to go off, Buck threw it at the German so hard it exploded on contact.
Buck was played by Neal McDonough who played baseball in High School and was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates but chose to study acting at Syracuse University.
"Buck threw it at the German so hard it exploded on contact." Do you have a source for that? I've had the dubious pleasure of throwing a few hand grenades myself, and they don't explode on contact no matter how hard you throw. They only have timed fuses, not impact fuses. Wikipedia agrees: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mk_2_grenade
@@okreylos it was written in the Band of Brothers book, written by Stephen E. Ambrose, who got first hand accounts from the men of Easy Company in order to write the book.
@@marcuscaesar3538 Quote from the book: "Compton had been an All-American catcher on the UCLA baseball team. The distance to the fleeing enemy was about the same as from home plate to second base. Compton threw the grenade on a straight line-no arch-and it hit a German in the head as it exploded. He, Malarkey, and Guarnere then began lobbing grenades down the trench." Meaning, the grenade didn't explode on impact *because he threw it hard,* but it exploded on impact *because he timed the throw perfectly.* That makes a lot more sense.
I looked it up, Hall was played by Andrew Scott, he also played a random soldier in the opening for Saving Private Ryan Anyone who grew up with Tom & Jerry or the Looney Tunes would've known the cigarettes were a precursor to execution lol
The huge pool of blood on the ground - that was where the pile of dead horses was at... the area is being organized and cleared for other allied vehicles and troops to move through or make use of the position.
It's called an Escape Compass. Hall, the actor, played Moriarty in the series Sherlock. Lugers were and are a pistol that were HIGHLY sought after as soverners. My dad and his four brothers WERE in WWII. My dad and his older brother were in the Pacific while the other two in the Atlantic. All were in the Navy. Dad had a Luger which he traded his older brother in the ATO a samurai sword for. I have the Luger after dad passed away
Another stellar reaction! Thank you. IMHO, BOB is the best 10 episode series ever made. It hits home with me, as my "Namesake" uncle was one of the mortally wounded in WW2. Just to note, the Distinguished Service Cross awarded to Lt. Winters for his assault on the guns is the second highest honor (to the Medal of Honor) awarded for US Army combat action. Please keep watching this series. You will not be disappointed. Looking forward to more. TC.
WOW! I LOVE your enthusiasm! I never tire of B.O.B., and seeing you watch it for the first time is so refreshing, like watching kids on Christmas morning. When you're done with series I want to hear if this changed any opinions you have regarding patriotism, nationalism, today's culture in comparison to the greatest generation, etc. RU-vid has great follow-up documentaries about this series, and the actors AND the actual veterans! I hope you indulge yourself a little bit with this background. Keep up the good work!
12:00 It's a long standing tradition to give a cigarette before execution, hundreds of years older than WWII. It's meant to be a kindness and it has a soothing effect on the victim.
Yes, Spiers killed the prisoners. Paratroopers couldn't take prisoners because they jump behind enemy lines with nothing but what they can carry, so they sometimes shot them. It's against the Geneva Convention, but from the paratroops' point of view, if the beach landings fail, there's no hope for rescue and they're all abandoned to die anyway.
You said, "He looks so young." You have to remember that all of them are in their late teens/early 20's. My father enlisted in WWII when he was 17 as did many men who were able to find a way to do so, either by their parents signing for them, like my father., or straight out lying about their age.
You mentioned the size of the production, BoB had a budget of 125 mil. $, highest ever at that point in time. Besides the cinematographic aspects that you mention, there is another important aspect that contributed to the succes of the series, namely the actors training. First, they had the chance to meet the real vets that they portrayed and/or friends and family. Second, the actors did 2 weeks of bootcamp, under Cpt. Dale Dye, ex-Vietnam vet and military consultant for Hollywood. He played Col. Stryer in ep. 1, the guy who fired Sobel. During the bootcamp, the actors lived, trained like soldiers, called each other by their characters name and grade. Full immersion.
You nailed it. The best leaders are the ones who don't want it. You mentioned the differences between Sobel and Winters, and this episode starts to show one major thing, Sobel led by fear and punishment, Winters led by caring and respecting his people, and gained their respect. Fear doesn't get you far, respect gets you loyalty and in this case, brotherhood.
A new favorite reactor! A gal whom isnt afriaf to drop a f-bomb when necessary. Some people would count that against you, but i find it refreshing! You have a very honest reaction, thusly, a profane word may slip through the cracks! I always check out people reactions to this series and Saving Private Ryan. Your intelligence is very evident based on tour observations on tactics and how people react to certain situations. Sobel would have killed a lot of these men due to not being an able leader. I look forward to the rest of your reactions! But remeber the tissues from episode #6 on to the end of the series.
Paratroopers are behind enemy lines so they couldn't take prisoners.My dad told me he never took a SS soldier alive and felt bad after the war when he found out some were conscripted into service.
The scene at 13:43 where Buck’s Thompson fails to fire is the beginning of a hidden detail that goes on for the entire sequence of taking the guns at Brecourt. Buck didn’t realize it but when he landed in Normandy, I believe it was the firing pin that snapped. The rest of the sequence you see him messing with it and he doesn’t fire a round, as he orders others to give covering fire and throwing grenades. The attention to detail is second to none
This intro music will also bring to you the sadness you'll experience from every episode. When you watch this again (I watch it every Memorial Day) just hearing the music will bring a tear to your eye.
The compass and a silk map were part of escape equipment sewn into the jump suit in case of capture. If they escaped, it was to help them get back. At the end of the campaign the troopers were ordered to turn the maps in but most kept them as souvenirs. Originals are highly sought after by collectors.
Great reaction! A couple of things explained: 1. The soldier who executed the German POWs (and that is what happened) was Lieutenant Ronald Speirs, a platoon commander from a different company, A Co., in the same battalion. He wasn't being vindictive or sadistic, just ruthlessly pragmatic. The unit had no way to turn POWs over to a higher command, and shooting them was the only way to prevent their returning to combat and killing more Americans. That's something that has happened with soldiers in similar situations throughout history. 2. The list of medals awarded for the assault on the guns at Brecourt Manor included the fact that Lt. Winters received the Distinguished Service Cross - that is the second highest medal a soldier can be awarded, second only to the Medal of Honor (the equivalent for the Navy and Marine Corps is the Navy Cross, and for the Air Force it's the Distinguished Flying Cross.) His commander did nominate him for the Medal of Honor, but someone higher up decided they should save the Medals of Honor for the soldiers who landed on the beaches. Some of the men he led won the Silver Star, and that's the third highest award. The tragedy and poignance of the fact that so many died while they were still teenagers means even more to me now than when I was young. I enlisted in the Marine Corps when I was seventeen. At the time I asked my stepfather, who had served at sea in World War II, what one thing his experience meant to him above everything else, and he said, "Dead friends." Most of his friends had been killed. When I asked him that, he was 53. He said he thought often about how his life had been since the war, his family life, his career, and he always wondered what their lives would have been like, and what the world had lost out on because they had died. I'm 65 now, retired after twenty years in uniform and a good second career, a father, grandfather, and great grandfather. I remember Marines I saw killed when I was 18 and wonder the same kinds of things.
1. A war crime that went unpunished, nonetheless. One of the many allied troops did during the war. It´s not always black and white. Many greys on each side of the war.
A really good thing they did is not tell you who is speaking at the beginning of the episodes, you don't know until the end who survived. They produced "The Pacific" 10 years later and while it's still really good a lot of the survivors had passed away due to old age.
The leg bag had their ammunition and weapons in it. Don't forget they were dropped behind enemy lines, they can deal with taking prisoners. A Luger is a type of German pistol.
Thank so much for your eartfelt reactions to the series you reviewed. It means a lot. I get so emotional every time I watch these shows. I served from 1988-2013 with 7 deployments down range. We lost good men and women. Keep up the great work thank you.
That "I just got here" comment may be a reference to a WW1 Marine, a fellow by the name of William L. Lloyd, who when the Marines at Belleau Wood were ordered to retreat by the French, instead dug in. Lloyd is reputed to have said "Retreat, hell! We just got here!"
I stumbled upon your channel yesterday... I'm in awe about your knowledge and explanation on how this series is shot, acted and produced.... I've watched this series a thousand times and love hearing different perspectives about cinematography... thank you !! Your emotions about this part of history and seeing your reactions for the 1st time, brings tears to my eyes.... thank you, thank you !!
I really hope seeing what these men went through will bring a greater respect for our troops to people who have spent so much time hating us and calling us baby killers and idiots.
The sounds they're hearing while they're scavenging for supplies are the shells from the naval guns passing overheard. The navy ships began firing inland at fixed positions to destroy them with their large caliber guns, capable of engaging targets up to 20 miles away. Lugers were pistols often carried by German officers. The P08 was sought after by Allied soldiers as a trophy because of it's rarity. The Germans sometimes used them as bait though, placing discarded Lugers on the ground and planting mines or explosives near them to catch Allied soldiers who were hoping to bring one home. They had a different manual of arms to Allied handguns too so there were issues with self-inflicted accidental injuries amongst Allied troops who weren't familiar with their safety systems.
Easy Company has more leaders than just Lt. Winters. When they come upon the dead paratroops and are scrounging up weapons and ammo, one of the privates looks mesmerized by the carnage. At 9:48 Lipton says "McDowell, you OK?" "Yes, Sergeant" is the reply. "Well, let's go." Snaps him out of it.
