It really was the Day of Days! We are starting to see just how great of a person and leader Winters is 😊 Patreon (full length & polls): www.patreon.com/verowak Subscribe to the channel: ua-cam.com/users/verowakreacts Follow me on Twitter and Instagram for stuff and selfies: twitter.com/verowak instagram.com/verowak/
You're the first person reacting to BoB I've seen (and I've watched a LOT) who actually caught the fact that Lt. Meehan''s plane went down in flames. Good job. Looking forward for the next episodes.
@@VerowakReacts Not sure if you caught Evans (from your clip, "Did Evans make it?" "Yeah he's in Lt. Meehan's stick") was the weasel-y Simon Pegg, Sobel's 1st Sgt in the first episode.
For anyone wondering....Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members of these movements ("the Friends") are generally united by a belief in each human's ability to experience the light within or "answering that of God in every one".
Don't worry about Guarnere, he's one of the good guys. He just had a particular character to him and could drink anyone under the table. They called him "Wild Bill" for a reason.
There are stories about him still drinking everyone under the table when he came to consult for this series and the actors would try to keep up with him at night 😂
14:14 You hit the nail on the head there. The real life Guarnere said that he was so infuriated with the news about his brother, he swore he'd kill every Kraut he saw on D-Day. He said he thinks that's why they gave him the nickname "Wild Bill." Because he did, in his words, "a lot of killin' on D-Day."
"They're continuing the story(from Saving Private Ryan)" No, they're continuing showing us what happened in history from D-Day and onwards. Saving Private Ryan is an amazing movie, but it's fictional. Band Of Brothers is about real people.
The fictional SPR started on Omaha beach. The parachute drops were behind Utah beach. Easy taking out the artillery helped to prevent casualties on Utah.
@@krisfrederick5001 I didn't say it wasn't respectful or not a good representation of the war. I said that the movie is not about real people. Because to me it seemed like she treated the stories as the same and it's not really because in Band Of Brothers we follow real people doing missions that actually happened. Apart from that amazing and very brutal storming of the beach scene, the rest of Saving Private Ryan is made up.
Lipton was late with the TNT because he had to crawl all the way across a field that was being enfiladed with grazing fire from a machine gun, that's where the guy asks Lipton about brigade HQ and gets shot immediately in the head.
Leg bag: the infamous leg bag was of British design and was known to them as the "Lander bag" because it was designed by Major Lander of the XXI Independent Parachute Company (Pathfinders). The bag was designed to be attached to your leg. You jumped with it attached to your leg. After your chute opened and was fully deployed, you were to reach down and pull a cord on your leg. This was a quick release that released the bag from your leg. The bag had a 20ft rope attached to it that was also attached to you. The bag would drop down and land before you did (and up to 20ft from you). After landing and getting out of your chute, you would follow the rope to the bag and collect your gear. The British had used this for almost 2 years with great success. However, the 101st hadnt trained with the Lander bag and were only given them right before the jump. Many didnt know how to use them so they weren't properly secured - or were kicked out just before jumping. Many also overpacked the bags (they were rated for about 50 pounds) which also contributed to the ropes breaking.
With the addition if the leg bag, the weight of the troopers gear increased. This affected the performance of the aircraft, so they had to fly at a higher speed. The increased speed resulted in the bags being torn loose during the jump.
Hey! Thanks for coming out with the next episode. To explain a few things, prisoners on d-day was a different type of scenario. Although you were not supposed to kill POW’s, there was not a way to collect and keep POW’ s due to being behind enemy lines, as the allied forces advanced inland, this became a standard thing. They were just too short handed and unable to properly process and watch them. On Old Wild Bill, he may have come off harsh, but meeting him was an incredible privilege as you will come to see. A lot of things that happen in war are difficult to understand or comprehend, and while to a casual observation of this is easy to make determinations and draw conclusions, while you face some of the most horrific things, it is not so easy to fully comprehend. Keep up the outstanding reactions! Love it when I see these!
Throughout the Normandy campaign, the Germans ( 12th SS Panzer Div " Hitlerjugend " ) executed over 156 Canadian soldiers. Mostly during the first 10 days. After that, any SS soldier who surrendered or was captured had a very low probability of making it to a POW camp.
@@alanmacification Ya we are were notoriously bloodthirsty when wronged. This started in WWI when the legend of the crucified soldier was circulated. Whether true or not the story goes that a Canadian soldier was found crucified, nailed to a barn door with bayonets. The story made the press and everyone heard about it and we exacted a lot of revenge for it. In Italy during WWII the Germans played some sort of a dirty trick on us so the Canadians laid a trap. They wired a building to explode and withdrew. When the German leadership moved in to set up in that building we brought it down on them.
Before the jump, Muck was playing with a 'cricket'. It was a simple metal kid's toy issued to the paratroopers to signal each other. I had a much fancier version that looked like a ladybug when I was a kid. Lipton was sprinkling sulfa powder on Popeye's wound which made him late showing up with the TNT. It was an anti bacterial and was in every first aid kit. I'm not sure what I would have done since I'm allergic to and wound up in the hospital from it when I was six years old.
One problem with the cricket since they were really children's toys, They didn't last very long in usage. I believe that the trooper who was clicking his on the plane actually broke it. Then again, they only had to last long enough to get through D-Day.
4:40 If a paratrooper is dropped at too high a speed, the rope that connects a paratrooper's leg bag to them will break. That's what happened to Winters, Radioman Hall, and a heck of a lot more paratroopers during that drop. 15:00 What Lipton was applying was sulfa powder, the first antibiotic widely used in wartime. Back then, only penicillin was in wide use as an antibiotic; other antibiotics were either being researched or had not yet been developed. Great reaction! Keep it up!
I have read from a few different sources that Malarky and the Kraut from Eugene, OR. weren't 100 miles from each other, they were actually neighbors. Also, it is almost certainly true that Speirs shot those German POWs. Given the circumstances most people understand. Holding prisoners while you are behind enemy lines and the invasion on the beaches isn't a guaranteed victory means that those prisoners could very quickly become your killer if you get attacked.
It's somewhat disputed whether or not there were any verbal orders given by the brass to execute prisoners taken on D-Day, and it wasn't something that would be put in writing, but certainly a lot of officers seem to have been under the impression that they were supposed to do it. Spiers did it himself, personally, so as not to dishonor any of the men under his command.
Winters did confirm with Speirs before publishing his book, that the prisoner story was true. Lawyers from the publishing company asked him to either confirm or write out the story, to prevent potential lawsuits later, so Maj. Winters called up Speirs and explained the situation. Speirs simply said "Yeah it's true" (I may be mistaken, but I thought he joked "Will I be court martialed now if I say they're true?) and offered to write a letter swearing their validity.
Correct on both counts to an extent. Absolutely correct on paras holding prisoners, you're at 10% company strength, execution is just pragmatic. With regards to Malarkey, I don't think they were neighbours, but if I remember correctly they worked in different factories on the same street. Show runners thought that would be too implausible and changed it
Re: the two soldiers talking about Oregon. They actually worked across the street from each other, but the producers thought that the audience would think that it was contrived.
@@Pedrogog And just to clarify, the German soldier from Oregon was not in the group of prisoners shot by Speirs. They just merged those parts of the story together.
Paratrooper casualties were about 2500 for both the 101st and 82nd Airborne combined. The 101 suffered 182 KIA and over 500 Wounded with another 500 MIA. The 82 figures were about the same except they had 750 MIAs. Missing in action usually means the body wasn't found. It was either blown out of existence by artillery or they drowned in a flooded area.
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 ♠
I won't give away any spoilers, nor should anyone else. However the series only gets better. I am so happy to witness people experience this. You obviously appreciate it. I will offer up insight into things you will see later. Slight giveaway. And it will be the only. Speirs does recognize Easy Company can't take any prisoners. Only shoots Germans in the legs so they can no longer fight. But not die. Yet let the rumor persist @@VerowakReacts
"Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops," Eisenhower wrote. "My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone." Dwight D. Eisenhower Supreme Allied Commander. This was his other speech. D-Day was never a guarantee..
Ah, I didn't realize it was tied with a rope like that. I also assumed that almost everyone lost their leg bag, especially those who don't have weapons
@@VerowakReactsit was a British innovation that worked great but the problem was that the American leadership adopted it last min giving the men no time to train with it. Also they weren’t told you weren’t supposed to overload the leg bags
There were also gliders used to land in concentration in areas depending on the terrain. It is pretty amazing how well the drops worked given how scattered they were. But everyone did their job, got their bearings and headed to their assignments, or joined in with others on their assignments. The powder was sulfa powder used to disinfect wounds.
I really appreciate your Reaction to this so far, you're very perceptive and pay attention to everything. I've seen so many other channels not even have a clue who Meehan is, but you instantly realized/remembered he was on the plane that went down in flames. Looking forward to the rest of the show with you!
The little toy that made the clicking noise was used to identify friendly troops. One guy would make one click and the other would answer with two clicks, the idea being that allied troops could identify each other nonverbally.
Regarding Lipton climbing and firing from the branches of a tree, here's an excerpt from Stephen Ambrose's "Band of Brothers." "When Ranney and Lipton moved out along the hedge, they discovered they could not see the German positions because of low brush and ground cover. Lipton decided to climb a tree, but there were none of sufficient size to allow him to fire from behind a trunk. The he picked had many small branches; he had to sit precariously on the front side, facing the Germans, exposed if they looked his way, balancing on several branches. About 75 meters away , he could see about fifteen of the enemy, some in the trenches, others prone in the open, firing toward E Compan7, too intent on the activity to their front to notice Lipton. "Lipton was armed with a carbine he had picked up during the night. He fired at a German in the field. The enemy soldier seemed to duck. Lipton fired again His target did not move. No certain that the carbine had been zeroed in, Lipton now aimed into the dirt just under the man's head and squeezed off another round. The dirt flew up right where he aimed; Lipton now knew that the carbine's sights were right and his first shot had killed the man. He began aiming and firing as fast as he could from his shaky position." In an interview, Lipton said a combat veteran would never have climbed up that tree. He was completely exposed and it was a rookie error. The powder that was sprinkled on Popeye's posterior wound was Sulphanilimide. It was used as an antibiotic during WW2, especially in combat situations. It's use greatly reduced the risk of infection from wounds. As it's systematic name is too complicated for daily use, it was commonly shortened to Sulfa. Here's a link regarding an excellent explanation of the assault at Brecourt Manor. ua-cam.com/video/814qEsxSzmA/v-deo.html
This is the episode that always brings it all back to me. Even though it's been more than 25 years since I served, I still remember all the jump commands even though some are different or maybe didn't exist back then. "Check Static Lines" is one in particular. It comes between "Hook Up" and "Equipment Check." As for not being able to jump at that speed, the pilot is always going to give the green light to jump if the aircraft is in imminent danger of being shot down, thereby giving the best chance of survival to paratroopers because every paratrooper, myself included, is trained to land in ideal and less-than-ideal-conditions like moderately high winds on the drop zone, in water, in trees and among power lines. The pilot in this case made the call to give the green light after his co-pilot was killed by flak. Regarding Speirs and his executing the prisoners, in a perfectly sterile analysis of the situation you’re right. He shouldn’t have done that. He could’ve been tried as a war criminal and gone to prison for it. However, one needs to keep the complete situation at that time in mind. As Winters said at the end of the episode, the success of the Normandy invasion was anything but certain at that point. And it remained that way for another seven weeks until late July when we finally began to break out of the Nomandy region. So because of that, we just didn’t have the means to process and evacuate prisoners at that point in the war. Furthermore, from what I understand, a lot of the higher Allied commanders didn’t want prisoners taken for the reasons I just outlined. That being said, a lot of the field commanders ignored that way of thinking and took prisoners anyway. But in my opinion, even though what he did was wrong legally and most certainly morally, what Speirs did is at least grudgingly understandable given the overall picture of what was going on at the time.
There were a couple Koreans captured at Normandy. A movie was made about one of them. This was his third war/army .... forced to fight for Japan, then Soviet Union, then Germany. He ended up in the US after the war.
This is the episode that always brings it all back to me. Even though it's been more than 25 years since I served, I still remember all the jump commands even though some are different or maybe didn't exist back then. "Check Static Lines" is one in particular. It comes between "Hook Up" and "Equipment Check." As for not being able to jump at that speed, the pilot is always going to give the green light to jump if the aircraft is in imminent danger of being shot down, thereby giving the best chance of survival to paratroopers because every paratrooper, myself included, is trained to land in ideal and less-than-ideal-conditions like moderately high winds on the drop zone, in water, in trees and among power lines. The pilot in this case made the call to give the green light after his co-pilot was killed by flak. Regarding Speirs and his execution of the German prisoners, in a perfectly sterile analysis of the situation, you're right. He shouldn't have done that. He could've been tried as a war criminal and sent to prison for it. However, one needs to keep in mind the complete situation at that time in mind. As Winters said at the end of the episode, the success of the Normandy invasion was still anything but certain at that point in time. And it remained that way for another seven weeks until late July when we finally started to break out of the Normandy region. So because of that, we just didn't have the means to process and evacuate prisoners at that point in the war. Furthermore, from what I understand, a lot of the higher Allied commanders didn't want prisoners taken for that reason and they were also afraid the invasion would get bogged down if we had too many prisoners to process. That being said, to their credit, a lot of the field officers ignored that way of thinking and took prisoners anyway. Some however, did not. So while what Speirs did was wrong both legally and certainly morally, it is also in my opinion grudgingly understandable when looking at the total picture of what what going on at the time.
17:40 Maybe, but as it turns out, Nix is rolling inwith the first two tanks off of Utah beach, so they'll use those to clear out the rest of the germans. When Winter came back from Brecourt with the map he gave it to Nixon (he was the battalion intelligence officer at the time). Nixon realizing the importance of that intel ran all the way to Utah (3 or 5 miles) to pass it up the chain of command. And they were so happy about that they sent the first two tanks to roll of Utah back to 2nd battalion with Nixon.
The broken rope was formerly a British paratrooper item, a leg bag. Unlike the paras, I believe the US troopers were not given enough time on the usage of the bags and over loaded them. This extreme weight caused the cord to snap with the intense wind from jumping out of a perfectly good plane.
You must also remember that the plane was taking evasive action, and as the co-pilot stated, was going too fast. The extra speed cause a lot of problems.
Correct we adopted them last min so no training and the men overloaded them not realizing it would cause them to snap off. Add in the crazy turns and speeds the aircraft were doing made the situation worse. Funny thing legs bags were used to great effect by the British just not us
Malarkey talking to that American-German soldier talking about how they worked so close to each other in the US: they actually worked across the street from eachother in Portland, Oregon. But the scriptwriters didn't think anybody would believe the coincedence so they changed it to 100 miles apart in different towns. Anyway good job on the reactions! Remembering Guarnere's brother in Italy, Joe's brass knuckles from ep1, Meehan's plane going down. Not a lot of reaction channels pick up on it!
That interaction just goes to show how people who lived near each other can end up on opposite sides. And Malarkey saying "I'll see you around" cheerfully makes it hit much harder. Sometimes I notice small details like that!! Other times I miss obvious ones, but it's a good balance 🤣
A bit more creative license was taken in that scene than that. Malarkey encountered the Volksdeutsche soldier a few days after 6/6, so he was not on the business end of Speirs’ weapon that day.
@@VerowakReactsIt's also a moment to realize that, despite the horrors to come and the atrocities of the nazi party. The soldiers were still people. Human beings just like the allied forces. It's too easy to forget that in war.
@@michaeldmcgee4499 first, SPOILER. Second, creative license is taken for many reasons, usually for clarity, pacing or believability. Calling it lying is reactionary and disingenuous.
In the late 2000s when I was a student pilot I met Laurie Woods DFC who wrote Flying into the Mouth of Hell. He flew a RAAF Lancaster that night of D-Day and said the flak was so thick you could get out and walk on it. His book is pretty intense from his point of view, he goes into a bit too much detail about being a 20 year old thinking tomorrow wouldn't come so chasing the local ladies for a last "good night" was high on the priority list. His thoughts on D-Day and the scale of it balanced against his, already low, chances of survival are fantastic reading.
My last of us friend. Yes ma’am I had an Lt. like sobell for months and it was a nightmare in the field, but then received a great Lt. and leader and it is a world of difference. I’ll say it again, most realistic view of the army I’ve ever seen on film!
By the way, about Speirs shooting the German soldiers: him shooting those prisoners happend at about the same time soldiers were trying to make it onto the beaches in Saving Private Ryan. They simply had nowhere to fall back to when/if things went south. They had no place to bring prisoners to, so they didn't take them.
The "clicker" they had was a children's toy they used to identify each other. One click answered by two clicks. It was unknown outside of the US. "Flash" answered by "Thunder" was also used. This series gets much more intense. I'm enjoying your reactions very much, so far.
21:00 "That is a hectic, hectic, hectic day." I mean, you're not wrong. The largest invasion ever carried out anywhere or any time in all of Earth's history. Hectic is the definitely fitting.
Very genuine reaction, that's refreshing! and you said "Brecourt" like a native french speaker. I can't wait to see you react to the rest of this amazing show. Greetings from New Caledonia(fr), South Pacific.
Winters actually trusted Guarnere completely. He knew that Bill had very little issue with killing someone when they needed to be killed. On top of that he was a more than capable sergeant who didn't freeze up and kept his troopers in each fight that he took part in. I think you'll come to like Bill as the series goes on as he typically becomes one of the favorites for many folks who watch this series. Don't hold this episode against him. If the series was about 30 episodes longer you would see more stories about Wild Bill's behavior on the battlefield.
16:02 That event really happened, its real story a soldier just gathered with easy company lookin for HQ while they are assaulting enemy position but sadly he got hit
That is indeed Andrew Scott, and you‘ll recognize even more actors that were young then and are pretty well known now. Scott Grimes, who plays Malarkey, was a child actor (Critters 1986) but is now probably best known for The Orville. Also, it‘s quite surprising how many British actors were cast as US soldiers, but much care was taken to have the actors look very similar to the young soldiers. The torn rope that Winters was annoyed about was supposed to hold his equipment, which is why he only had his knife after the drop. I can‘t remember if Guarnere reloads when he should have waited for Winters command. The Thompson SMG chews through ammo like crazy and the stick magazines only hold 20 rounds. Realistically, he would have to reload at least once or twice.
That's what sets the devil dogs apart. Training for 2 years and planning properly is what you're supposed to do according to most doctrine. The USMC just keeps em underfed, under equipped and mean as hell and just turns them loose asap and it's worked every time you guys have had to release that hell hound. 😂 Semper fi
5:13 Fun fact. When Winters tell Hall to wait until they reload it's because the muzzle flash from the anti aircraft guns could light up their location as they move. It'd be safer to move in darkness. Small detail but another example of how Winters is an absolute chad of an officer
So part of the reason they mostly all lost their leg bags was the speed of the planes. The shock of the pressure, mixed with the over-weight of the bags meant virtually everyone lost weapons.
Given the expected chaos of the invasion, they didn’t know if the landings would work or how many would get ashore. (Eisenhower had a prepared statement if it failed.) it was very clear understanding that they were going to be in no position to take and keep prisoners. It wasn’t a secret that Spiers killed the POWs. The US needed men like him. I don‘t feel bad since it was also well known that the Germans tortured landing paratroopers including using those stuck in trees for target practice.
Thanks for your honest reaction. I understand your impatience with Guarnere. Like the rest of the men, it was his first time in combat. He was fueled with rage. Curahee!
They weren't putting gunpowder in the wound, it was sulfa or white sulfanilamide powder. It was standard in first-aid kits for the treatment of open wounds.
The airplanes shown that carried the paratroopers over to Normandy are C-47s. At the time of the invasion, there were thousands of them and over 800 were used at Normandy. After the war, most were cut up for scrap and lost forever. A few years ago, one of those old C-47s was being prepared for the scrap yard when it was discovered to be the actual plane that led all of the other C-47s in the invasion. The name on the plane was That's All Brother. The plane was purchased by the Commemorative Air Force and rebuilt to be as close as possible to the way that it was back on June 6, 1944. The CAF now flies it to be displayed at airshows around the U.S. If you do a Google search for That's All Brother, there are several pictures of it in its newly rebuilt/refurbished condition.
This series isn’t a continuation of Saving Private Ryan. This is the true story of Easy Company the men you see in the beginning are the real men the actors are playing.
Andrew Scott appeared in this series at the very begining of his career. He has since become a very well known television and stage actor with a few notable film credits (the James Bond movie Spectre as well as 1917). There are many many well known actors (now) who were just starting out in 2001. James McAvoy, Mcheal Fassbender, Simon Pegg and Tom Hardy, to name only a few.
As I would never call these men idiots, I do understand people do dumb things lol. Just remember this isn't made up. It's all real and super close to 100% accurate. Thanks for reacting to it.
In the lead-up to the invasion, General Eisenhower was faced with the decision of whether the airborne forces should drop relatively close to the beaches (where the casualty rate was expected to be 90%) or further inland where there would be less resistance, but they would not be in a good position to support the amphibious landings. For anyone that's interested, consider watching the movie "Ike - Countdown to D-day". In one scene we're reminded of the invasion fails they'll have thousands of paratroopers wandering around France looking for something to eat.
Can not wait for next part. Remember this is the story of a company of 100ish to 200ish people. How many other hundreds of companies have their stories. There was 3 Airborne Divisions that jumped into Normandy. 82nd and 101st plus 1 British. As for saving Private Ryan. There was 5 beaches. 2 American, 1 Candain, and 2 British. A Division to each beach. So, Day one 200k people about 8 Divisions and then it just gets worse and worse when you think about aircrew, the 5000 Navy ships needed ect.
I cannot leave you all negative. James Doohan (Scotty) hit the beaches on D-day June 6th 1944. He lost a finger. It is only visible in a few scenes. Most notably the tribble episode. Take care @@VerowakReacts
Meehan, his stick, and the C-47 crew currently rest in a mass grave at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetary, South of St Louis MO. Before DNA analysis, it was about impossible to segregate co mingled remains of aircraft crashes. Even with DNA, they usually have some fragments that are too small, or too deteriorated, to match to a specific person. These are still buried in mass Graves. Jefferson Barracks Cemetary became the final burial spot for many of the mass Graves from WWII thru Vietnam Along with Lt. Meehan, there lies: -The 150 or so POWs murdered by the Japanese on Palawan in August 1944 (Forced into an air raid trench, burned alive, those that managed to escape were shot) A bunch of graves with 10 people (heavy bomber crews)
Lt. Compton lost his leg bag on the jump, so he landed with a trench knife, a few grenades, a canteen and a bunch of chocolate bars. He scrounged a Thompson from a wounded comrade and didn’t know the firing pin in the Thompson had been damaged until he tried to fire at the German in the trench. That’s why he was only using grenades in the assault at Brecourt.
It wasn't that he simply dropped it due to butterfingers. If you watch the scene, a soldier comes running in behind him and bumps him as he was prepping the grenade, and that's what caused him to drop it.
The Flash/Thunder/Welcome callsign was only used during D-Day. The allies changed callsigns every few days anyway to prevent the exact thing you were worried about: the enemy overhearing the code and using it to trick us.
On the question on PoWs According to Donald Malarkey the 101 was told not to take prisoners by general Taylor. "if you were to take prisoners, they'd handicap our ability to perform our mission."
Sergeant Guarnere was a good soldier and bit of a crazy guy, after all his nickname was Wild Bill. Also that was sulfa powder that was being poured on Popeye’s ass, it cauterizes wounds and it saved a lot of lives. Edit: sulfa powder is not used for cauterizing but for disinfecting.
The powder they were sprinkling on Popeye's butt was sulfur powder to keep infection away on the open wound. All paratroopers had a packet in their own first aid kits.
Sulfa powder. My dad was in the Pacific, and they had to take sulfa tablets to avoid malaria. he said they tasted terrible and the flavor stayed in your mouth for a very long time. When they had down time, a favorite pastime was to slip a sulfa tablet in the mouth of someone sleeping.
I do always enjoy how you can neither forgive nor forget when a character steps out of line. I'm sure you'll come around on Guarnere soon enough. Great reaction again though, your attention to detail is usually pretty spot on and that remained the case here
Great reaction! They couldn't take POWs (because they'd literally just landed and only controlled a small beachhead) so that's why Speirs shot them (otherwise, that's totally a war crime).
Many did take prisoners. It was sometimes difficult, as was the case with Spiers, but they were taken, guarded, and sent to ships bound for England on D-Day. Of course, plenty were also just shot out of spite. On both sides.
Assembly upon landing: forming ip upon landing was critical to successful airborne operations and these men practiced this MANY times. It started with your own "stick" or the men in your plane. The first man out the door would after landing move in the direction that the plane was flying. This meant you would quickly find the guy that jumped right after you. The last guy would move in the opposite direction that their plane was flying. This was known as "rolling up the stick". Because 3 planes flew in close formation (a Vee), 3 sticks from the same unit should land close to each other. Winters should have been able to assemble his platoon (3 planes) within 10-15 minutes of landing. What went wrong? A lot. It was very important that the planes fly a specific course at a specific altitude and a specific speed. This ensured both arriving at the drop zone but also a close landing of the sticks for assembly. Fly too fast or too high and the stick is spread out to far to "roll up". Fly too low and guys land too hard and get hurt. Clouds were the first problem. Because you are flying in close formation, flying through clouds is a good way to crash into somebody you cant see. Go over the clouds, go under or go around? Go around and you off course, go under and you pick up speed and probably miss the landmarks for the drop zone. Go over and you are too high but still able to find the drop zone. Unfortunately when you find the drop zone, you have to drop down to lower altitude which means and increase in speed. By the time they reached the drop zone - if they found the drop zone - airspeed, altitude and formation was less than ideal.
Lt. Richard Winters’ assault on the guns at Brecourt Manor forever immortalizes him and the men of Easy Company in military history. Unlike Saving Private Ryan, the stories in Band of Brothers aren’t fictional, this was the real deal. If you ever visit Normandy, there are battlefield tours of many of the battlegrounds. For further reading, see Band of Brothers by Stephen E. Ambrose, and The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan (also a major motion picture).
At the time this first aired it was one if my favorite TV episodes of all time. And then a couple of weeks later another episode of this same show outdid it.
Apparently one of the soldiers from band of brothers claimed to have met or known the brothers that saving private Ryan was based on and since Tom hanks and Steven Spielberg worked on both it has been speculated that had something to do with the movie being made. There are some great videos out there about all of the real people
The war ends May 1945 just under a year later. If you are interested in overlapping movies: 6 June 1944 - The Longest Day (Invasion) September 1944 - A Bridge Too Far (Operation Market Garden) April 1945 - Fury 30 April 1945 - The Bunker (Hitler eats a bullet)
The broken line attached to Winters after the jump signified that he lost his leg bag and gear. "Good To See You Dick". "Yeah, You Too Buck". Been there, done that. Heavy words. At the start, they could not keep prisoners, soooo..... Lt. Ronald Speirs all day long. You'll see. Yeah, you trust Garnier. You take in all the pros and cons, and, you want him to know that you are on his side. He's there to fight. You want him. Whoop whoop whoop whoop, poor Toy. Lipton was bad to the bone. Thank you Vero.
The guy that killed the German POWs was Spiers. You are correct that you don't kill prisoners. But that doesn't apply when you have parachuted into the middle of enemy forces. You can't have prisoners in that situation. They will give away your location at the first opportunity. There is a biography about Spiers. It's called Fierce Valor. After WW2 he served in the Korean war. He also served in some capacity in southeast Asia. This series is extraordinary. I'm loving watching your reactions. Be safe.
My father and uncle fought in Italy, Sicily, and Holland. When I ask him about shooting prisoners. His reply was: " We didn't take prisoners. " There was a standing order that during an assault you don't take prisoners unless ordered by an officer. In " Saving Private Ryan ", Upham's shooting Steamboat Willie was legal because SW had commit an act of perfidy or false surrender when he shot Captain Miller.
Sgt Lipton was a bit late with the TNT because he was the guy up in the tree firing on Germans. Lt. Spears shot those captured Germans because they had no where to put them. Paratroops jump behind enemy lines. If not, they could simply march or ride up to the fighting. s such, when they jump, they’re surrounded by the enemy. So what can one possibly do with prisoners?
The exact spot where Meehan's plane went down is still marked. The plant life doesn't grow properly at that spot. There are some vlogs where people have filmed the spot where the plane fell
It goes without saying, the interviews before the episodes are from a documentary called we Stand Alone Together. It is an absolute must watch. Easy Company was an assault force, they did not have personnel or time to take prisoners. Sadly it was more expedient to eliminate them than figure out what to do with them. Not saying it was right, it was the choice made at that moment. You saw why Lipton was late with the explosives, that powder he was sprinkling was sulfa, an early antibiotic on Popeye's buttocks wounds. It will be interesting to see how you feel about the characters as the show progresses. I will only say this, buckle up. As a Navy Corpsman (counterpart to Doc Roe the medic) episode 6 is my "favorite" though that isn't the right term. Flash & Thunder were the actual passwords used on D-Day. The "clothespin" you commented on was a clicker. 1 click to be answered by 2 clicks was also used that day.
Good reaction! You are more informed on the subject matter, unlike some other people. The next episode is one of my favorites. Lt Welsh is a badass in the next one.
I'm impressed with how you've started your reactions to this great series and look forward to the rest of your reactions for the next 8 episodes. Lipton got held up while treating "popeye's" arse injury. :-)
1:02 mark I was there when we gave XXX the E/ 506 guidon (Flag) on the wall behind him, got to meet him many times and his wife he was always so much fun to listen too. i have flown in Whisky 7 (W7) the C47 that was the lead plane for the 2nd wave for the 82nd we had the door on so it was warm and not too noisy inside. 3:38 mark thats LT Meehan's plane crash there is now a monument in that spot honoring all those on that plane. 6:41 mark Officers were issued escape kits which they then hid the items in their uniforms (map, compass, saw, ect) 7:23 mark - SO the ambush scene is wrong - there were 3 ambushes that night. during the 1st Guarnere didn't have a weapon either during this ambush he took 2 P-38 Pistols off some dead Germans then he used those in a 2nd ambush later that morning , Were Guarnere earned the nickname "Wild Bill" then he picked up the Thompson SMG later. the Ambushes took place at a T intersection and they weren't even German troops but Georgian's Troops fighting in the service of Germany . having talked with XXX & XXXX that were there at those ambushes they were ok and understood why they had to portray it as shown for the show. Guarnere while in Normandy earned the nickname "Wild Bill" as he killed every German soldier for revenge of his brother (i had a drunk grunt too grunt talk with XXX on how Bill really earned it but i won't say here) oh you will come to like him lol 10:47 mark Yes Spier's did kill the POW's BUT not as shown here, it did happen alot on both sides esp during the opening hours as there was an order "No Prisoners" I had the honor of being walked through this attack by a few who were there and it's dam close to how it was .13:33 mark he didn't fumble the grenade another trooper was moving behind him and knocked his arm making him drop it. the gun emplacements were closer to the buildings but they don't show them here and a few details were changed but still very well done. Yes it was a stew made with rations and some items they found per XXX who was there
David Schwimmer =/= Ross Geller =/= Herbert Sobel 🤣 Great reaction. One thing i know has already been said is that, for the most part, Saving Private Ryan is fiction hanging up on a backdrop of real events. Band of Brothers is a true story. I know from your reaction to the last title cards that you did know this was a true story, but thought it worth pointing out the difference. This isn't continuing the Saving Private Ryan story, in so many words. I have seen reactions where the person didn't realise these events and people really happened until the end notes in this episode. Incase anyone thinks I'm stating the obvious...
I know these are all pre-recorded, so it's too late to change anything in the reactions, but again, for the sake of clarity, this is not a continuation of SPR and is not related beyond both being set around the same very real, historic event... similarities are because they're based on historic events etc. Apologies if this is a bit nitpicky, but given that SPR is entirely fiction and this is mostly based on real people/events it's an important distinction to make for the sake of not blurring the line between fact and fiction.
I'm completely aware that this is based on real life, when I refer to SVP I'm just making a comparison since it's a story that happens at the same time. I would do the same if I had watched an episode of Spongebob that happens on D-Day.
23:54 "Where's Lipton? Where's the TNT? Lipton seemed to be slacking. I don't know what took Lipton so long." Don't be too hard on Lipton. Winters ordered him to flank right and provide covering fire. He was one of the two guys in the trees shooting at the Germans. He kept those Germans from rushing at Winters and the other other guys. Not only was he following orders, but his suppressing fire with just two riflemen was a big part of why this attack worked. So yeah, he was doing that. After he finished keeping everybody else alive, THEN he brought the TNT.
It really was the Day of Days! We are starting to see just how great of a person and leader Winters is 😊
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You're the first person reacting to BoB I've seen (and I've watched a LOT) who actually caught the fact that Lt. Meehan''s plane went down in flames. Good job. Looking forward for the next episodes.
Yup, I commented on ep. 1 that her attention to detail is spot on!
Thank you!! I try my best to pay attention to everything going on 😊
@@VerowakReacts Not sure if you caught Evans (from your clip, "Did Evans make it?" "Yeah he's in Lt. Meehan's stick") was the weasel-y Simon Pegg, Sobel's 1st Sgt in the first episode.
@@thomasbrown9402 I didn't catch that! Thank you
The powder that Lipton was sprinkling on Popeye's wound is called Sulfa powder. It's a antibiotic designed to stop infections in wounds.
For anyone wondering....Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members of these movements ("the Friends") are generally united by a belief in each human's ability to experience the light within or "answering that of God in every one".
Don't worry about Guarnere, he's one of the good guys. He just had a particular character to him and could drink anyone under the table. They called him "Wild Bill" for a reason.
He was called Wild Bill in what happened with the ambush when he didn't wait for the command to fire.....
There are stories about him still drinking everyone under the table when he came to consult for this series and the actors would try to keep up with him at night 😂
Yeah so get over it!
we love Wild Bill
14:14 You hit the nail on the head there. The real life Guarnere said that he was so infuriated with the news about his brother, he swore he'd kill every Kraut he saw on D-Day. He said he thinks that's why they gave him the nickname "Wild Bill." Because he did, in his words, "a lot of killin' on D-Day."
"They're continuing the story(from Saving Private Ryan)" No, they're continuing showing us what happened in history from D-Day and onwards. Saving Private Ryan is an amazing movie, but it's fictional. Band Of Brothers is about real people.
real people in situations that realy happened
The fictional SPR started on Omaha beach. The parachute drops were behind Utah beach. Easy taking out the artillery helped to prevent casualties on Utah.
@@michaelstach5744 southwest of Omaha.
SPR is more than respectful context with the soldiers of the 101st none the less. Spielberg and Hanks knew their history.
@@krisfrederick5001 I didn't say it wasn't respectful or not a good representation of the war. I said that the movie is not about real people. Because to me it seemed like she treated the stories as the same and it's not really because in Band Of Brothers we follow real people doing missions that actually happened. Apart from that amazing and very brutal storming of the beach scene, the rest of Saving Private Ryan is made up.
Lipton was late with the TNT because he had to crawl all the way across a field that was being enfiladed with grazing fire from a machine gun, that's where the guy asks Lipton about brigade HQ and gets shot immediately in the head.
Leg bag: the infamous leg bag was of British design and was known to them as the "Lander bag" because it was designed by Major Lander of the XXI Independent Parachute Company (Pathfinders). The bag was designed to be attached to your leg. You jumped with it attached to your leg. After your chute opened and was fully deployed, you were to reach down and pull a cord on your leg. This was a quick release that released the bag from your leg. The bag had a 20ft rope attached to it that was also attached to you. The bag would drop down and land before you did (and up to 20ft from you). After landing and getting out of your chute, you would follow the rope to the bag and collect your gear. The British had used this for almost 2 years with great success.
However, the 101st hadnt trained with the Lander bag and were only given them right before the jump. Many didnt know how to use them so they weren't properly secured - or were kicked out just before jumping. Many also overpacked the bags (they were rated for about 50 pounds) which also contributed to the ropes breaking.
With the addition if the leg bag, the weight of the troopers gear increased. This affected the performance of the aircraft, so they had to fly at a higher speed. The increased speed resulted in the bags being torn loose during the jump.
I have learned to enjoy your reaction style. Honest, intelligent, and respectful. No false hysterics and crocodile tears. Good job.😊
I watched a reactor that did nothing but sobbing during Episode 9. I mean throat chocking crying and I had to turn it off.
Hey! Thanks for coming out with the next episode. To explain a few things, prisoners on d-day was a different type of scenario. Although you were not supposed to kill POW’s, there was not a way to collect and keep POW’ s due to being behind enemy lines, as the allied forces advanced inland, this became a standard thing. They were just too short handed and unable to properly process and watch them. On Old Wild Bill, he may have come off harsh, but meeting him was an incredible privilege as you will come to see. A lot of things that happen in war are difficult to understand or comprehend, and while to a casual observation of this is easy to make determinations and draw conclusions, while you face some of the most horrific things, it is not so easy to fully comprehend. Keep up the outstanding reactions! Love it when I see these!
Throughout the Normandy campaign, the Germans ( 12th SS Panzer Div " Hitlerjugend " ) executed over 156 Canadian soldiers. Mostly during the first 10 days. After that, any SS soldier who surrendered or was captured had a very low probability of making it to a POW camp.
@@alanmacification Ya we are were notoriously bloodthirsty when wronged. This started in WWI when the legend of the crucified soldier was circulated. Whether true or not the story goes that a Canadian soldier was found crucified, nailed to a barn door with bayonets. The story made the press and everyone heard about it and we exacted a lot of revenge for it. In Italy during WWII the Germans played some sort of a dirty trick on us so the Canadians laid a trap. They wired a building to explode and withdrew. When the German leadership moved in to set up in that building we brought it down on them.
Before the jump, Muck was playing with a 'cricket'. It was a simple metal kid's toy issued to the paratroopers to signal each other. I had a much fancier version that looked like a ladybug when I was a kid. Lipton was sprinkling sulfa powder on Popeye's wound which made him late showing up with the TNT. It was an anti bacterial and was in every first aid kit. I'm not sure what I would have done since I'm allergic to and wound up in the hospital from it when I was six years old.
I had the ladybug!!😊
One problem with the cricket since they were really children's toys, They didn't last very long in usage. I believe that the trooper who was clicking his on the plane actually broke it. Then again, they only had to last long enough to get through D-Day.
4:40 If a paratrooper is dropped at too high a speed, the rope that connects a paratrooper's leg bag to them will break. That's what happened to Winters, Radioman Hall, and a heck of a lot more paratroopers during that drop.
15:00 What Lipton was applying was sulfa powder, the first antibiotic widely used in wartime. Back then, only penicillin was in wide use as an antibiotic; other antibiotics were either being researched or had not yet been developed.
Great reaction! Keep it up!
I have read from a few different sources that Malarky and the Kraut from Eugene, OR. weren't 100 miles from each other, they were actually neighbors.
Also, it is almost certainly true that Speirs shot those German POWs. Given the circumstances most people understand. Holding prisoners while you are behind enemy lines and the invasion on the beaches isn't a guaranteed victory means that those prisoners could very quickly become your killer if you get attacked.
It's somewhat disputed whether or not there were any verbal orders given by the brass to execute prisoners taken on D-Day, and it wasn't something that would be put in writing, but certainly a lot of officers seem to have been under the impression that they were supposed to do it. Spiers did it himself, personally, so as not to dishonor any of the men under his command.
Winters did confirm with Speirs before publishing his book, that the prisoner story was true. Lawyers from the publishing company asked him to either confirm or write out the story, to prevent potential lawsuits later, so Maj. Winters called up Speirs and explained the situation. Speirs simply said "Yeah it's true" (I may be mistaken, but I thought he joked "Will I be court martialed now if I say they're true?) and offered to write a letter swearing their validity.
Correct on both counts to an extent. Absolutely correct on paras holding prisoners, you're at 10% company strength, execution is just pragmatic. With regards to Malarkey, I don't think they were neighbours, but if I remember correctly they worked in different factories on the same street. Show runners thought that would be too implausible and changed it
Re: the two soldiers talking about Oregon. They actually worked across the street from each other, but the producers thought that the audience would think that it was contrived.
And Speirs really killed the prisoners. Winters confessed some years a go.
@@Pedrogog And just to clarify, the German soldier from Oregon was not in the group of prisoners shot by Speirs. They just merged those parts of the story together.
The movie "The Longest Day" (1962) looks at D Day from lots of different perspectives and areas of operation.
Paratrooper casualties were about 2500 for both the 101st and 82nd Airborne combined. The 101 suffered 182 KIA and over 500 Wounded with another 500 MIA. The 82 figures were about the same except they had 750 MIAs. Missing in action usually means the body wasn't found. It was either blown out of existence by artillery or they drowned in a flooded area.
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 ♠
Winters is really just such a great person to be around during this whole shitshow. It's really remarkable how he is there for his men and helps them
I won't give away any spoilers, nor should anyone else. However the series only gets better. I am so happy to witness people experience this. You obviously appreciate it. I will offer up insight into things you will see later. Slight giveaway. And it will be the only. Speirs does recognize Easy Company can't take any prisoners. Only shoots Germans in the legs so they can no longer fight. But not die. Yet let the rumor persist @@VerowakReacts
Lipton was delayed bringing the TNT because he was doing some medical treatment on Popeye.
"Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops," Eisenhower wrote. "My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone."
Dwight D. Eisenhower Supreme Allied Commander. This was his other speech. D-Day was never a guarantee..
Hindsight it 20/20. Acting with the information available makes sense, it's only while it's happening do we realize the possible lack of information
A true man! Taking ownership!
The rope that winters threw was his leg bag that had been ripped off. It contained most of his equipment including his rifle
Ah, I didn't realize it was tied with a rope like that. I also assumed that almost everyone lost their leg bag, especially those who don't have weapons
@@VerowakReacts Yep it was tied to their ankle. It was very easy to have it ripped away from you by the airplane’s prop blast
@@VerowakReactsit was a British innovation that worked great but the problem was that the American leadership adopted it last min giving the men no time to train with it. Also they weren’t told you weren’t supposed to overload the leg bags
There were also gliders used to land in concentration in areas depending on the terrain. It is pretty amazing how well the drops worked given how scattered they were. But everyone did their job, got their bearings and headed to their assignments, or joined in with others on their assignments.
The powder was sulfa powder used to disinfect wounds.
GUN POWDER!!! It’s sulfa powder to help with infection
I really appreciate your Reaction to this so far, you're very perceptive and pay attention to everything. I've seen so many other channels not even have a clue who Meehan is, but you instantly realized/remembered he was on the plane that went down in flames.
Looking forward to the rest of the show with you!
The little toy that made the clicking noise was used to identify friendly troops. One guy would make one click and the other would answer with two clicks, the idea being that allied troops could identify each other nonverbally.
Regarding Lipton climbing and firing from the branches of a tree, here's an excerpt from Stephen Ambrose's "Band of Brothers."
"When Ranney and Lipton moved out along the hedge, they discovered they could not see the German positions because of low brush and ground cover. Lipton decided to climb a tree, but there were none of sufficient size to allow him to fire from behind a trunk. The he picked had many small branches; he had to sit precariously on the front side, facing the Germans, exposed if they looked his way, balancing on several branches. About 75 meters away , he could see about fifteen of the enemy, some in the trenches, others prone in the open, firing toward E Compan7, too intent on the activity to their front to notice Lipton.
"Lipton was armed with a carbine he had picked up during the night. He fired at a German in the field. The enemy soldier seemed to duck. Lipton fired again His target did not move. No certain that the carbine had been zeroed in, Lipton now aimed into the dirt just under the man's head and squeezed off another round. The dirt flew up right where he aimed; Lipton now knew that the carbine's sights were right and his first shot had killed the man. He began aiming and firing as fast as he could from his shaky position."
In an interview, Lipton said a combat veteran would never have climbed up that tree. He was completely exposed and it was a rookie error.
The powder that was sprinkled on Popeye's posterior wound was Sulphanilimide. It was used as an antibiotic during WW2, especially in combat situations. It's use greatly reduced the risk of infection from wounds. As it's systematic name is too complicated for daily use, it was commonly shortened to Sulfa.
Here's a link regarding an excellent explanation of the assault at Brecourt Manor.
ua-cam.com/video/814qEsxSzmA/v-deo.html
The show is really good at contrasting the soldiers as they are in the early episodes and once they become veterans.
This is the episode that always brings it all back to me. Even though it's been more than 25 years since I served, I still remember all the jump commands even though some are different or maybe didn't exist back then. "Check Static Lines" is one in particular. It comes between "Hook Up" and "Equipment Check." As for not being able to jump at that speed, the pilot is always going to give the green light to jump if the aircraft is in imminent danger of being shot down, thereby giving the best chance of survival to paratroopers because every paratrooper, myself included, is trained to land in ideal and less-than-ideal-conditions like moderately high winds on the drop zone, in water, in trees and among power lines. The pilot in this case made the call to give the green light after his co-pilot was killed by flak.
Regarding Speirs and his executing the prisoners, in a perfectly sterile analysis of the situation you’re right. He shouldn’t have done that. He could’ve been tried as a war criminal and gone to prison for it. However, one needs to keep the complete situation at that time in mind. As Winters said at the end of the episode, the success of the Normandy invasion was anything but certain at that point. And it remained that way for another seven weeks until late July when we finally began to break out of the Nomandy region. So because of that, we just didn’t have the means to process and evacuate prisoners at that point in the war. Furthermore, from what I understand, a lot of the higher Allied commanders didn’t want prisoners taken for the reasons I just outlined. That being said, a lot of the field commanders ignored that way of thinking and took prisoners anyway. But in my opinion, even though what he did was wrong legally and most certainly morally, what Speirs did is at least grudgingly understandable given the overall picture of what was going on at the time.
There were a couple Koreans captured at Normandy. A movie was made about one of them. This was his third war/army .... forced to fight for Japan, then Soviet Union, then Germany. He ended up in the US after the war.
That's a great way of putting everything.
This is the episode that always brings it all back to me. Even though it's been more than 25 years since I served, I still remember all the jump commands even though some are different or maybe didn't exist back then. "Check Static Lines" is one in particular. It comes between "Hook Up" and "Equipment Check." As for not being able to jump at that speed, the pilot is always going to give the green light to jump if the aircraft is in imminent danger of being shot down, thereby giving the best chance of survival to paratroopers because every paratrooper, myself included, is trained to land in ideal and less-than-ideal-conditions like moderately high winds on the drop zone, in water, in trees and among power lines. The pilot in this case made the call to give the green light after his co-pilot was killed by flak.
Regarding Speirs and his execution of the German prisoners, in a perfectly sterile analysis of the situation, you're right. He shouldn't have done that. He could've been tried as a war criminal and sent to prison for it. However, one needs to keep in mind the complete situation at that time in mind. As Winters said at the end of the episode, the success of the Normandy invasion was still anything but certain at that point in time. And it remained that way for another seven weeks until late July when we finally started to break out of the Normandy region. So because of that, we just didn't have the means to process and evacuate prisoners at that point in the war. Furthermore, from what I understand, a lot of the higher Allied commanders didn't want prisoners taken for that reason and they were also afraid the invasion would get bogged down if we had too many prisoners to process. That being said, to their credit, a lot of the field officers ignored that way of thinking and took prisoners anyway. Some however, did not. So while what Speirs did was wrong both legally and certainly morally, it is also in my opinion grudgingly understandable when looking at the total picture of what what going on at the time.
17:40 Maybe, but as it turns out, Nix is rolling inwith the first two tanks off of Utah beach, so they'll use those to clear out the rest of the germans.
When Winter came back from Brecourt with the map he gave it to Nixon (he was the battalion intelligence officer at the time). Nixon realizing the importance of that intel ran all the way to Utah (3 or 5 miles) to pass it up the chain of command. And they were so happy about that they sent the first two tanks to roll of Utah back to 2nd battalion with Nixon.
The broken rope was formerly a British paratrooper item, a leg bag. Unlike the paras, I believe the US troopers were not given enough time on the usage of the bags and over loaded them. This extreme weight caused the cord to snap with the intense wind from jumping out of a perfectly good plane.
You must also remember that the plane was taking evasive action, and as the co-pilot stated, was going too fast. The extra speed cause a lot of problems.
Correct we adopted them last min so no training and the men overloaded them not realizing it would cause them to snap off. Add in the crazy turns and speeds the aircraft were doing made the situation worse. Funny thing legs bags were used to great effect by the British just not us
Malarkey talking to that American-German soldier talking about how they worked so close to each other in the US: they actually worked across the street from eachother in Portland, Oregon. But the scriptwriters didn't think anybody would believe the coincedence so they changed it to 100 miles apart in different towns.
Anyway good job on the reactions! Remembering Guarnere's brother in Italy, Joe's brass knuckles from ep1, Meehan's plane going down. Not a lot of reaction channels pick up on it!
That interaction just goes to show how people who lived near each other can end up on opposite sides. And Malarkey saying "I'll see you around" cheerfully makes it hit much harder. Sometimes I notice small details like that!! Other times I miss obvious ones, but it's a good balance 🤣
A bit more creative license was taken in that scene than that. Malarkey encountered the Volksdeutsche soldier a few days after 6/6, so he was not on the business end of Speirs’ weapon that day.
@@VerowakReactsIt's also a moment to realize that, despite the horrors to come and the atrocities of the nazi party. The soldiers were still people. Human beings just like the allied forces. It's too easy to forget that in war.
Why falsify events? Later, when Winters lets the German officer keep his pistol in the series, we find out that Winters actually accepted it. Why lie?
@@michaeldmcgee4499 first, SPOILER.
Second, creative license is taken for many reasons, usually for clarity, pacing or believability. Calling it lying is reactionary and disingenuous.
In the late 2000s when I was a student pilot I met Laurie Woods DFC who wrote Flying into the Mouth of Hell. He flew a RAAF Lancaster that night of D-Day and said the flak was so thick you could get out and walk on it. His book is pretty intense from his point of view, he goes into a bit too much detail about being a 20 year old thinking tomorrow wouldn't come so chasing the local ladies for a last "good night" was high on the priority list. His thoughts on D-Day and the scale of it balanced against his, already low, chances of survival are fantastic reading.
My last of us friend. Yes ma’am I had an Lt. like sobell for months and it was a nightmare in the field, but then received a great Lt. and leader and it is a world of difference. I’ll say it again, most realistic view of the army I’ve ever seen on film!
By the way, about Speirs shooting the German soldiers: him shooting those prisoners happend at about the same time soldiers were trying to make it onto the beaches in Saving Private Ryan. They simply had nowhere to fall back to when/if things went south. They had no place to bring prisoners to, so they didn't take them.
The "clicker" they had was a children's toy they used to identify each other. One click answered by two clicks. It was unknown outside of the US. "Flash" answered by "Thunder" was also used. This series gets much more intense. I'm enjoying your reactions very much, so far.
It was called a cricket.
21:00 "That is a hectic, hectic, hectic day."
I mean, you're not wrong.
The largest invasion ever carried out anywhere or any time in all of Earth's history.
Hectic is the definitely fitting.
Your warm expressions and voice bring some peace to my stressful day. Great stuff!
I'm really glad that I can help! I wish stress didn't exist
"Is that lightning?" Oh, you sweet summer child.
Very genuine reaction, that's refreshing! and you said "Brecourt" like a native french speaker.
I can't wait to see you react to the rest of this amazing show. Greetings from New Caledonia(fr), South Pacific.
Being a native french speaker helps with the accent :D lol
@@VerowakReacts Oh!
Winters actually trusted Guarnere completely. He knew that Bill had very little issue with killing someone when they needed to be killed. On top of that he was a more than capable sergeant who didn't freeze up and kept his troopers in each fight that he took part in. I think you'll come to like Bill as the series goes on as he typically becomes one of the favorites for many folks who watch this series. Don't hold this episode against him. If the series was about 30 episodes longer you would see more stories about Wild Bill's behavior on the battlefield.
The way the attack on the guns was filmed is amazing, it really gives you the feeling of the action under fire.
Gen Eisenhower visited the airborne hrs before the jump, told his secretary, whilst crying in his car afterwards, 85% were expected to die
16:02 That event really happened, its real story a soldier just gathered with easy company lookin for HQ while they are assaulting enemy position but sadly he got hit
That is indeed Andrew Scott, and you‘ll recognize even more actors that were young then and are pretty well known now.
Scott Grimes, who plays Malarkey, was a child actor (Critters 1986) but is now probably best known for The Orville.
Also, it‘s quite surprising how many British actors were cast as US soldiers, but much care was taken to have the actors look very similar to the young soldiers.
The torn rope that Winters was annoyed about was supposed to hold his equipment, which is why he only had his knife after the drop.
I can‘t remember if Guarnere reloads when he should have waited for Winters command. The Thompson SMG chews through ammo like crazy and the stick magazines only hold 20 rounds. Realistically, he would have to reload at least once or twice.
Before The Orville, Scott Grimes was best known for his stint in the final season of ER.
"Don't land in the fire" is really underrated parachuting advice.
13,000 men dropping out of the sky at midnight on top of the German Army. After training for two years. Marines hit the beach after 6 months training.
That's what sets the devil dogs apart. Training for 2 years and planning properly is what you're supposed to do according to most doctrine. The USMC just keeps em underfed, under equipped and mean as hell and just turns them loose asap and it's worked every time you guys have had to release that hell hound. 😂 Semper fi
5:13 Fun fact. When Winters tell Hall to wait until they reload it's because the muzzle flash from the anti aircraft guns could light up their location as they move. It'd be safer to move in darkness. Small detail but another example of how Winters is an absolute chad of an officer
Anyone taking bets for how many episodes it takes her to come around on Gonerhea?
2
So part of the reason they mostly all lost their leg bags was the speed of the planes. The shock of the pressure, mixed with the over-weight of the bags meant virtually everyone lost weapons.
You have excellent perspective and very good knowledge. I really enjoy your reaction.
Thank you! I'm learning a lot about war
Given the expected chaos of the invasion, they didn’t know if the landings would work or how many would get ashore. (Eisenhower had a prepared statement if it failed.) it was very clear understanding that they were going to be in no position to take and keep prisoners. It wasn’t a secret that Spiers killed the POWs. The US needed men like him. I don‘t feel bad since it was also well known that the Germans tortured landing paratroopers including using those stuck in trees for target practice.
Winters dry sense of humor is one of my favorite things about him
The tactics that Winters used that day rewrote infantry doctrine as we knew it, and are still taught today at Ft Benning.
The intensity and pacing of this episode really sets the weight and tone (oh you said this too lol) of the rest of the series.
Thanks for your honest reaction. I understand your impatience with Guarnere. Like the rest of the men, it was his first time in combat. He was fueled with rage. Curahee!
They weren't putting gunpowder in the wound, it was sulfa or white sulfanilamide powder. It was standard in first-aid kits for the treatment of open wounds.
Had Sobel not been promoted to lead jump school he would have died when the lead plane went down. Either way Winters ends up leading easy.
Assuming the company commander was designated to the exactly same plane and was exactly in that same place to get hit.
I remember this as being the First time I saw Damien Lewis in any drama I had no idea then he was British.. and I’m British..
Isn't it amazing when you can't tell an actor is British because they nail the American accent so well
I think there were more British than Americans in Easy Company rolls! Lol!
@@gravitypronepart2201 That's so true! I love how many British actors there are in this
I love how we in our own way remind ourselves how our ancestors contributed to ww2. My grandfather was a major contributor in his own way.
The airplanes shown that carried the paratroopers over to Normandy are C-47s. At the time of the invasion, there were thousands of them and over 800 were used at Normandy. After the war, most were cut up for scrap and lost forever.
A few years ago, one of those old C-47s was being prepared for the scrap yard when it was discovered to be the actual plane that led all of the other C-47s in the invasion. The name on the plane was That's All Brother.
The plane was purchased by the Commemorative Air Force and rebuilt to be as close as possible to the way that it was back on June 6, 1944. The CAF now flies it to be displayed at airshows around the U.S. If you do a Google search for That's All Brother, there are several pictures of it in its newly rebuilt/refurbished condition.
This series isn’t a continuation of Saving Private Ryan. This is the true story of Easy Company the men you see in the beginning are the real men the actors are playing.
Andrew Scott appeared in this series at the very begining of his career. He has since become a very well known television and stage actor with a few notable film credits (the James Bond movie Spectre as well as 1917). There are many many well known actors (now) who were just starting out in 2001. James McAvoy, Mcheal Fassbender, Simon Pegg and Tom Hardy, to name only a few.
As I would never call these men idiots, I do understand people do dumb things lol. Just remember this isn't made up. It's all real and super close to 100% accurate. Thanks for reacting to it.
In the lead-up to the invasion, General Eisenhower was faced with the decision of whether the airborne forces should drop relatively close to the beaches (where the casualty rate was expected to be 90%) or further inland where there would be less resistance, but they would not be in a good position to support the amphibious landings. For anyone that's interested, consider watching the movie "Ike - Countdown to D-day". In one scene we're reminded of the invasion fails they'll have thousands of paratroopers wandering around France looking for something to eat.
Can not wait for next part. Remember this is the story of a company of 100ish to 200ish people. How many other hundreds of companies have their stories. There was 3 Airborne Divisions that jumped into Normandy. 82nd and 101st plus 1 British. As for saving Private Ryan. There was 5 beaches. 2 American, 1 Candain, and 2 British. A Division to each beach. So, Day one 200k people about 8 Divisions and then it just gets worse and worse when you think about aircrew, the 5000 Navy ships needed ect.
The scale of the war is just mind blowing. It's so hard to imagine just how many people were involved!
I cannot leave you all negative. James Doohan (Scotty) hit the beaches on D-day June 6th 1944. He lost a finger. It is only visible in a few scenes. Most notably the tribble episode. Take care
@@VerowakReacts
Meehan, his stick, and the C-47 crew currently rest in a mass grave at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetary, South of St Louis MO.
Before DNA analysis, it was about impossible to segregate co mingled remains of aircraft crashes.
Even with DNA, they usually have some fragments that are too small, or too deteriorated, to match to a specific person. These are still buried in mass Graves.
Jefferson Barracks Cemetary became the final burial spot for many of the mass Graves from WWII thru Vietnam
Along with Lt. Meehan, there lies:
-The 150 or so POWs murdered by the Japanese on Palawan in August 1944 (Forced into an air raid trench, burned alive, those that managed to escape were shot)
A bunch of graves with 10 people (heavy bomber crews)
Love your commentary, especially scolding Buck not to drop another grenade. Guarnere will grow on you as the series goes on.
Silly Buck! I'm glad it only happened once! Guarnere is... not the greatest at the moment that's for sure
Lt. Compton lost his leg bag on the jump, so he landed with a trench knife, a few grenades, a canteen and a bunch of chocolate bars. He scrounged a Thompson from a wounded comrade and didn’t know the firing pin in the Thompson had been damaged until he tried to fire at the German in the trench. That’s why he was only using grenades in the assault at Brecourt.
It wasn't that he simply dropped it due to butterfingers. If you watch the scene, a soldier comes running in behind him and bumps him as he was prepping the grenade, and that's what caused him to drop it.
No ‘clothes pin’ that’s the cricket clicker that was used to covertly contact friendly forces in the dark if night.
A Paleontologist might have been more useful at Brecourt Manor than one might have expected.
The Flash/Thunder/Welcome callsign was only used during D-Day.
The allies changed callsigns every few days anyway to prevent the exact thing you were worried about: the enemy overhearing the code and using it to trick us.
" Thunder " was chosen as the response code because non-English speakers have trouble the " th " sound.
On the question on PoWs According to Donald Malarkey the 101 was told not to take prisoners by general Taylor. "if you were to take prisoners, they'd handicap our ability to perform our mission."
Sergeant Guarnere was a good soldier and bit of a crazy guy, after all his nickname was Wild Bill. Also that was sulfa powder that was being poured on Popeye’s ass, it cauterizes wounds and it saved a lot of lives. Edit: sulfa powder is not used for cauterizing but for disinfecting.
I didn't know about the powder, but now I can update my expectations of cauterizing a wound by lighting gunpowder on fire lol
It was a disinfectant only. They didn't have quite clot back then
@@gravitypronepart2201 Welp I made a mistake, I’ll make sure to add an edit.
The powder they were sprinkling on Popeye's butt was sulfur powder to keep infection away on the open wound. All paratroopers had a packet in their own first aid kits.
Sulfa powder. My dad was in the Pacific, and they had to take sulfa tablets to avoid malaria. he said they tasted terrible and the flavor stayed in your mouth for a very long time. When they had down time, a favorite pastime was to slip a sulfa tablet in the mouth of someone sleeping.
I do always enjoy how you can neither forgive nor forget when a character steps out of line. I'm sure you'll come around on Guarnere soon enough. Great reaction again though, your attention to detail is usually pretty spot on and that remained the case here
I love your facial expressions and how involved you get with the characters.😊 You become part of the movie.
Guarnere will grow on you. He’s rough around the edges but he’s a helluva soldier
Great reaction! They couldn't take POWs (because they'd literally just landed and only controlled a small beachhead) so that's why Speirs shot them (otherwise, that's totally a war crime).
Many did take prisoners. It was sometimes difficult, as was the case with Spiers, but they were taken, guarded, and sent to ships bound for England on D-Day. Of course, plenty were also just shot out of spite. On both sides.
Assembly upon landing: forming ip upon landing was critical to successful airborne operations and these men practiced this MANY times. It started with your own "stick" or the men in your plane. The first man out the door would after landing move in the direction that the plane was flying. This meant you would quickly find the guy that jumped right after you. The last guy would move in the opposite direction that their plane was flying. This was known as "rolling up the stick". Because 3 planes flew in close formation (a Vee), 3 sticks from the same unit should land close to each other. Winters should have been able to assemble his platoon (3 planes) within 10-15 minutes of landing.
What went wrong? A lot. It was very important that the planes fly a specific course at a specific altitude and a specific speed. This ensured both arriving at the drop zone but also a close landing of the sticks for assembly. Fly too fast or too high and the stick is spread out to far to "roll up". Fly too low and guys land too hard and get hurt.
Clouds were the first problem. Because you are flying in close formation, flying through clouds is a good way to crash into somebody you cant see. Go over the clouds, go under or go around? Go around and you off course, go under and you pick up speed and probably miss the landmarks for the drop zone. Go over and you are too high but still able to find the drop zone. Unfortunately when you find the drop zone, you have to drop down to lower altitude which means and increase in speed. By the time they reached the drop zone - if they found the drop zone - airspeed, altitude and formation was less than ideal.
Lt. Richard Winters’ assault on the guns at Brecourt Manor forever immortalizes him and the men of Easy Company in military history. Unlike Saving Private Ryan, the stories in Band of Brothers aren’t fictional, this was the real deal. If you ever visit Normandy, there are battlefield tours of many of the battlegrounds.
For further reading, see Band of Brothers by Stephen E. Ambrose, and The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan (also a major motion picture).
One of the best reaction so far on youTube, maybe you watched it before or you know army tactics. I am impressed.
No to both lol. First time watching and I know nothing about army tactics, just my best guess and what I've seen in movies.
Your relationship with Guarnere will change. Your relationship with Spiers will be a rollercoaster ride.
Toye mentioned his brass knuckles in the previous episode, when he was complaining about his gear weight
Yeah, which was great to see them used! lol
At the time this first aired it was one if my favorite TV episodes of all time. And then a couple of weeks later another episode of this same show outdid it.
Apparently one of the soldiers from band of brothers claimed to have met or known the brothers that saving private Ryan was based on and since Tom hanks and Steven Spielberg worked on both it has been speculated that had something to do with the movie being made. There are some great videos out there about all of the real people
Yep muck and malarkey were friends with james niland who was in the 509th and SPR was loosely based off the Niland brothers
The war ends May 1945 just under a year later.
If you are interested in overlapping movies:
6 June 1944 - The Longest Day (Invasion)
September 1944 - A Bridge Too Far (Operation Market Garden)
April 1945 - Fury
30 April 1945 - The Bunker (Hitler eats a bullet)
The broken line attached to Winters after the jump signified that he lost his leg bag and gear. "Good To See You Dick". "Yeah, You Too Buck". Been there, done that. Heavy words. At the start, they could not keep prisoners, soooo..... Lt. Ronald Speirs all day long. You'll see. Yeah, you trust Garnier. You take in all the pros and cons, and, you want him to know that you are on his side. He's there to fight. You want him. Whoop whoop whoop whoop, poor Toy. Lipton was bad to the bone. Thank you Vero.
The guy that killed the German POWs was Spiers. You are correct that you don't kill prisoners. But that doesn't apply when you have parachuted into the middle of enemy forces. You can't have prisoners in that situation. They will give away your location at the first opportunity.
There is a biography about Spiers. It's called Fierce Valor. After WW2 he served in the Korean war. He also served in some capacity in southeast Asia.
This series is extraordinary.
I'm loving watching your reactions.
Be safe.
My father and uncle fought in Italy, Sicily, and Holland. When I ask him about shooting prisoners. His reply was: " We didn't take prisoners. " There was a standing order that during an assault you don't take prisoners unless ordered by an officer.
In " Saving Private Ryan ", Upham's shooting Steamboat Willie was legal because SW had commit an act of perfidy or false surrender when he shot Captain Miller.
@@alanmacification Right.
Sgt Lipton was a bit late with the TNT because he was the guy up in the tree firing on Germans.
Lt. Spears shot those captured Germans because they had no where to put them. Paratroops jump behind enemy lines. If not, they could simply march or ride up to the fighting. s such, when they jump, they’re surrounded by the enemy. So what can one possibly do with prisoners?
I didn't recognize Lipton up in the tree, thank you! It makes a lot more sense why he was late now
@@VerowakReacts Note that Lipton was awarded a Bronze Star 20:45. So Winters wasn't _too_ unhappy with him.
The exact spot where Meehan's plane went down is still marked. The plant life doesn't grow properly at that spot. There are some vlogs where people have filmed the spot where the plane fell
It goes without saying, the interviews before the episodes are from a documentary called we Stand Alone Together. It is an absolute must watch. Easy Company was an assault force, they did not have personnel or time to take prisoners. Sadly it was more expedient to eliminate them than figure out what to do with them. Not saying it was right, it was the choice made at that moment. You saw why Lipton was late with the explosives, that powder he was sprinkling was sulfa, an early antibiotic on Popeye's buttocks wounds. It will be interesting to see how you feel about the characters as the show progresses. I will only say this, buckle up. As a Navy Corpsman (counterpart to Doc Roe the medic) episode 6 is my "favorite" though that isn't the right term. Flash & Thunder were the actual passwords used on D-Day. The "clothespin" you commented on was a clicker. 1 click to be answered by 2 clicks was also used that day.
Putting a bayonet on your rifle is literally "Bringing a knife to a gunfight".
Good reaction! You are more informed on the subject matter, unlike some other people.
The next episode is one of my favorites. Lt Welsh is a badass in the next one.
I'm impressed with how you've started your reactions to this great series and look forward to the rest of your reactions for the next 8 episodes. Lipton got held up while treating "popeye's" arse injury. :-)
1:02 mark I was there when we gave XXX the E/ 506 guidon (Flag) on the wall behind him, got to meet him many times and his wife he was always so much fun to listen too. i have flown in Whisky 7 (W7) the C47 that was the lead plane for the 2nd wave for the 82nd we had the door on so it was warm and not too noisy inside. 3:38 mark thats LT Meehan's plane crash there is now a monument in that spot honoring all those on that plane. 6:41 mark Officers were issued escape kits which they then hid the items in their uniforms (map, compass, saw, ect)
7:23 mark - SO the ambush scene is wrong - there were 3 ambushes that night. during the 1st Guarnere didn't have a weapon either during this ambush he took 2 P-38 Pistols off some dead Germans then he used those in a 2nd ambush later that morning , Were Guarnere earned the nickname "Wild Bill" then he picked up the Thompson SMG later. the Ambushes took place at a T intersection and they weren't even German troops but Georgian's Troops fighting in the service of Germany . having talked with XXX & XXXX that were there at those ambushes they were ok and understood why they had to portray it as shown for the show. Guarnere while in Normandy earned the nickname "Wild Bill" as he killed every German soldier for revenge of his brother (i had a drunk grunt too grunt talk with XXX on how Bill really earned it but i won't say here) oh you will come to like him lol 10:47 mark Yes Spier's did kill the POW's BUT not as shown here, it did happen alot on both sides esp during the opening hours as there was an order "No Prisoners" I had the honor of being walked through this attack by a few who were there and it's dam close to how it was .13:33 mark he didn't fumble the grenade another trooper was moving behind him and knocked his arm making him drop it. the gun emplacements were closer to the buildings but they don't show them here and a few details were changed but still very well done.
Yes it was a stew made with rations and some items they found per XXX who was there
David Schwimmer =/= Ross Geller =/= Herbert Sobel 🤣
Great reaction. One thing i know has already been said is that, for the most part, Saving Private Ryan is fiction hanging up on a backdrop of real events. Band of Brothers is a true story. I know from your reaction to the last title cards that you did know this was a true story, but thought it worth pointing out the difference. This isn't continuing the Saving Private Ryan story, in so many words.
I have seen reactions where the person didn't realise these events and people really happened until the end notes in this episode. Incase anyone thinks I'm stating the obvious...
I know these are all pre-recorded, so it's too late to change anything in the reactions, but again, for the sake of clarity, this is not a continuation of SPR and is not related beyond both being set around the same very real, historic event... similarities are because they're based on historic events etc. Apologies if this is a bit nitpicky, but given that SPR is entirely fiction and this is mostly based on real people/events it's an important distinction to make for the sake of not blurring the line between fact and fiction.
I'm completely aware that this is based on real life, when I refer to SVP I'm just making a comparison since it's a story that happens at the same time. I would do the same if I had watched an episode of Spongebob that happens on D-Day.
23:54 "Where's Lipton? Where's the TNT? Lipton seemed to be slacking. I don't know what took Lipton so long."
Don't be too hard on Lipton.
Winters ordered him to flank right and provide covering fire.
He was one of the two guys in the trees shooting at the Germans. He kept those Germans from rushing at Winters and the other other guys.
Not only was he following orders, but his suppressing fire with just two riflemen was a big part of why this attack worked.
So yeah, he was doing that.
After he finished keeping everybody else alive, THEN he brought the TNT.
Thanks for another excellent review.
Great reaction. I considered writing more, but that sums it up.
11:00 "that's dude right?" That dude is Rufus from Gossip Girl.
I've never seen Gossip Girl lol