They dropped 18k paratroopers on D-Day. They jumped at night as the landings were scheduled for that morning and there were objectives that had to be secured. It's also a little harder to shoot them down at night. The combination of the parachute drops and the landings gave the Germans multiple things to be concerned with. In some ways, the fact that the airborne troops were so scattered may have actually been beneficial as it placed small groups of well trained, highly motivated troops all of whom knew the overall mission, all over Normandy. The random, attacks from so many places helped sow confusion among the Germans as to the main objectives of the airborne troops. You never knew where they would appear to blow something up. In regards to shooting of the prisoners, at that point of the invasion, with troops scattered all over the place, they didn't have the resources to leave people to babysit prisoners. They needed everyone they could could get to seize the various objectives. It's not like they had manpower to detail troops to guard prisoners. It's unpleasant and distasteful, especially to modern culture, but that was the world at the time.
I always found it a little weird that they left out how they actually had orders against taking prisoners... It's still not something most people could do to a surrendering enemy. Speirs was the type of officer to do such a thing himself rather than force any of the men to do it.
"Unpleasant and distasteful" is an interesting way of putting it. Another way to put it would be that if the axis had won and the allies were put on trial in Nuremberg, those responsible for those killings would have been executed for war crimes. That's not to say there was overall moral equivalence between "us" and "them" but it is objectively true to say that killing prisoners is unequivocally a war crime. It doesn't matter what your resource situation is or what your objectives are, you are obligated to care for them and keep them safe.
@@notthestatusquo7683 Yes, it was a war crime. Both sides committed plenty throughout the war. Try reading about the Eastern Front; It's no exaggeration to say it was Hell on Earth for 3 years. Now that's out of the way, remember that the Geneva Conventions set the rules of conduct for War. And like many, rules are bent and broken during the expediencies of combat.
@@notthestatusquo7683 If the axis had won we'd all be speaking german right now, it's a false equivalence. You can look back with 20/20 vision now in your recliner of course but the situation was vastly different. Playing "both sides" is moot, these two are not the same. Nothing the allies did compares to the final solution, unit 731, the mass starvation of china, nanking. Don't even try to play those games.
@@dawnfallon6812 Starvation, Hypothermia, Cannibalism. It made the western front look like a nice Sunday afternoon. The pacific was pretty bad too, people on the western front had it good in comparison.
Spades on the helmets designated members of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, of which Easy was one company. Other regiments in the 101st Airborne had hearts, diamonds or clubs. It's actually a long tradition - in the American Civil War, each northern infantry corps had its own unique symbol after 1862 - crescent moon, star, cross, disc, clover leaf, etc.
4:40 Remember, this is WW2, no nightvision, radar is still in its infancy, it's much easier to conceal your planes at night than it is at day. 6:17 Around 13.000 paratroopers took park in the attack on June 5th, the day before D-Day 6:48 Yeah, that goes without saying. The drops were so chaotic, that basically nobody landed where they were supposed to. That's why in the briefings leading to the drop, everyone was told to memorize town and village names, landmarks, etc, as to be able to gauge where they were dropped and where their objectives were. 7:03 Yes, Winters lost his musette paratrooper bag along with his kit bag (the long cylindrical one), which basically meant he had no ammo or weapons on him. 7:58 Winters ripped off one of his buttons which were specifically designed to be used as a very rudimentary compass. The RAF came up with the idea and its full name is "radioluminescent escape and evasion button compass" 10:04 The German Master Sgt. POW Malarkey is talking to actually was from Portland, not Eugene, which was most likely changed since the two had actually worked across the street from each other for years, making it hard to believe for the audience. I will leave this point with a excerpt from Malarkey's memoir on the incident: _"I’d only been at war a few hours, and already I was learning stuff I hadn’t been taught in training. Namely, that the guy trying to kill you-and that you’re trying to kill-could be somebody who once worked in an American defense plant, across the street from where you later worked. Strange thing, war."_ 11:14 A lot of people criticize Speirs for shooting the PoWs, and for good reason, it is a warcrime any way you see it, however, they had orders NOT to take POWs. They didn't have the men to guard them and taking them with, as they advanced, was not feasible. Releasing them was also out of the question as they would give crucial intel back to their commanders. So, the only solution was, sadly, execution. 11:28 The Brécourt Manor Assault was so masterfully executed by Winters that it is still to this day one of the most famous and classic examples of small-unit tactics and proper Leadership overcoming a larger enemy force. 11:59 The Spade is actually the real symbol of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment and it works as a way of distinguishing who's who in the chaos of battle. The 101st A.D. consists of 4 smaller infantry regiments; 327th Glider Regiment used Clubs (♣) 501st used Diamonds (♦) 502nd used Hearts (♥) and finally 506th used Spades (♠) 13:25 In reality, Toye was able to survive the grenade blast by rolling away from it after being warned by Winters. 14:48 Malarkey wanted a Luger P08 pistol for his kid brother. Lugers were extremely sought after as war trophies, which is what made Malarkey rush the field, believing he had spotted one. 15:39 When you're not in a position to capture your enemy's equipment and repurpose it, you make sure you damage it to the point where not only it becomes inoperable, it becomes irrepairable, in case the enemy manages to recover said equipment. Blowing up the barrel in those field guns renders them useless for the enemy. 16:06 John D. Hall, whom the series depicts as having been KIA in the Brecourt action, may have been a member of the basketball team, but he was not a member of Company 'A', as the dialogue indicates. He actually belonged to Service Company. *John D. Halls* , same middle initial as John D. Hall, but note the 's' on his last name, was a member of the 81mm mortar platoon, of Headquarters Co., 2nd battalion, 506th PIR, and according to John Barickman of the same platoon, it was HALLS who was killed in the Brecourt fight, not HALL. This is likely to be correct, because John D. Hall died in the plane crash of Stick #32 near Picauville, France, and all aboard were killed in that crash. It is unclear as to how Halls died in real life. 22:59 We have seen Meehan, he was the officer who in Ep. 1 was saying "There'll be no jump tonight". Meehan's fate won't be mentioned much for the rest of the series so I'm going to spoil it here (don't read if you don't want to be spoiled). His plane was hit by German flak and went down, killing all onboard, which included all of Easy's headquarters personnel. Before takeoff, Meehan wrote a letter and handed it out the door of the C-47 to be sent to his wife: "Dearest Anne: In a few hours, I'm going to take the best company of men in the world into France. We'll give the bastards hell. Strangely, I'm not particularly scared. But in my heart is a terrific longing to hold you in my arms. I love you Sweetheart - forever. Your Tom" RIP.
11:14 And they were the behind the lines spearhead of an invasion that they weren't sure at the time wouldn't be pushed back into the sea. At that point it is dangerous to take prisoners.
Meehan dying isn't a spoiler. The plane that burns up you can hear the pilot saying "Tell Meehan to get his men out of here" before being consumed by fire.
Great reaction! You picked up on a lot of things many reactors seem to miss. The men, you’ll know their names and personalities in no time. They’ll be your buddies by the end of the series. A masterpiece of television history.
One of the things they do on purpose with the intro interviews with the veterans is to not identify them. I think they want the viewer to see if they can match them up with their screen counterparts. They let the cat out of the bag at the end of episode 10, and in the documentary.
Thanks for another great reaction. I'm an old guy. Much earlier in my life, I taught history and civics at the secondary level in California. I tried to instill in my students the idea that these men who saved the world from fascist dictators truly were the Greatest Generation. May we always remember who they were and what they did.
Another interesting thing about Airborne is you have a stick and you have a squad. Your stick is the guys you jump with and your squad is the guys you fight with. Three to four squads then make a platoon, three to four platoons make a company, then three to four companies make a battalion. The reason you jump in a stick is because you don't try to put people from the same squads or platoon together, and there will even be guys from other companies and battalions in your stick, so that if your plane goes down, your entire unit is not lost.
Once while working as an usher at the US Open tennis tournament the actor who played Winters came walking through my gate. I reflexively saluted him without saying a word and he smiled and saluted me back.
New subscriber. Nice reaction. You really need to watch the documentary We Stand Alone Together, after you're done this series. It's where the vet interviews come from and it's the unofficial 11th episode of Band of Brothers. "I didnt cry as much as I thought I was going to" uh, yeah lets revisit that comment later lol.
My Dad and his friends enlisted as soon as they graduated high school in June. My Dad and a few others would not turn 18 until the autumn, but since they would have still been in training when they finally turned 18, and not yet engaged in combat, the age “requirement” was overlooked, and I was told this was not an unusual occurrence.
All of the soldiers of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment had spades painted on their helmets. Soldiers of other regiments of the 101st had other symbols painted on their helmets (Hearts, Clubs, or Diamonds). Lt. Meehan was the guy that stood on the Jeep that said "No jump tonight". He was on the plane that burst into flames. If Meehan wouldn't have taken over Easy Company, it probably would have been Sobel on that plane.
The officer who allegedly shot the German prisoners, and who rushed the German position from outside the trench, is Lieutenant Ronald “Sparky” Spiers. Remember him for future episodes. It’s easy to miss in the chaos of the air drop in the opening scenes, but Meihan’s plane was the one that was engulfed in flames and crashed. The pilot yells, “Tell Meihan to get the men outta there,” and then the engine explodes, followed by the fireball. Great reactions, looking forward to more. The episodes only get better from here.
Also. Yes, shooting prisoners is a big no, no! But, most people fail to realize. They were seriously short man power. Sometimes, killing enemy prisoners is ordered when they can't be guarded or released.
@@a-6610 the entire airborne was under orders to not take prisoners. There wasn't going to be a collection point until they linked up with the seaborne infantry, which was D+3 days.
@@RickLacy-b3x There was never a written or verbal order to the effect of no prisoners. But officers were quietly told that no one would really be looking into reports on prisoner deaths. This is follows on the heels of Operation Husky where the 82nd Airborne reported SS troops killing troopers caught up in trees and the like.
All I can say about this episode is Thank God for Richard Winters. Speaking from my own experience as an enlisted man in the Navy, Winters was the kind of officer you want leading you. My favorite part of this episode is the end, when Winters thanks God for surviving D-Day and when he makes his promise about finding a small piece of land and living the rest of his life in peace. Ther are a couple of great books about the life of Richard Winters; he even co-wrote one of them before he passed away. Some of the other men from Easy who survived the war wrote books as well.
My mother's had two brothers serving in 1944. One in the infantry and the older in the Army Air Force. The older one was 19 years old, the younger was 18. The younger one was in the 6th wave that went in on D day, the older one it was his first bombing mission in B17 on D day. They both by the grace of God survived the war. The younger never spoke of the war, I was just a young child, born in 1944. The younger brother had PTSD though everyone called it "Shell Shocked". Even into the late "40"s there was one night I stayed overnight with my grandparents. He started sleep walking screaming and wondering through the house reliving something from the war. It was frightening to see. It took a while before my grandfather could calm him down.
While the killing of pow’s is absolutely awful and in MOST cases unforgivable, it was unfortunately necessary on d-day. There were only about 20,000 paratroopers dropped behind enemy lines who had to secure very important objectives in a very short time to insure the success of the largest invasion in history. They had no way to guard, secure, feed or care for them and to try to do so could absolutely result in 100,000’s of allied deaths and failure of the invasion. Letting them go would just allow them to rejoin the German defences with info about where the paratroopers were.
Hitler had issued orders paratroopers were aware as follows. “I order, therefore:- From now on all men operating against German troops in so-called Commando raids in Europe or in Africa, are to be annihilated to the last man.” This did much to influence the way our guys dealt with prisoners.
I guarantee you will never be the same after watching this series. You will have a lasting respect for our greatest generation. It will make your spirit soar, and break your heart at times. Be prepared for one hell of a ride. Great reaction, young lady.
The first soldiers landing in France were the Pathfinders. Their job was to guide the planes into their correct drop zones. Following the Pathfinders came the Paratroopers. We must keep in mind that this was a new discipline. It was pioneered in the late 20s and 30s by the Germans and Russians. In 1939 the US had one of the smallest militaries in the world. Portugal's military was larger. We had few planes, few tanks, and few of everything.
10:17 This is something they don’t tell you in school. The large amount of soldiers that were conscripted into the German army. Even like here, a German-American citizen who was born and raised in America went to volunteer and fight for the German army. Also, in reality they actually worked right across the street from each other, they changed it cuz the real story was too unbelievable
Again, from a retired Sailor who spent over 41 years in the Navy, Thank you for taking the time to watch this series. I will suggest you watch the other Hanks/Spielberg series, The Pacific and Masters of the Air. Band of Brothers and The Pacific series there is additional videos with more backstories of the Soldiers and Marines along with interviews of the actual Soldiers and Marines along with their Families of the Soldiers and Marines who are no longer with us.
New subscriber here. I watched this series when it first came out. For reference I'm a veteran of the 82nd Airborne with 26 years of service starting campaigns in Panama, Desert Storm, Bosnia, and returning to Iraq. The series brought back memories and reactions I'd forgotten about with my own experiences. I'm enjoying following the series again through your eyes. I'm extremely impressed with your insights and comments for someone with little military history and combat knowledge. I'm grateful to know there are those as yourself still interested to learn and take to heart those sacrifices made by them for us to carry on.
The "flash" challege and "thunder" counter were specifically chosen as well. No word in the German language produces the TH sound, so if someone tried saying thunder and it had a german accent or it sounded like "sunder", chances are they weren't friendly.
'challenge' and 'counter' phrases were a very common thing. Even if a German could pronounce 'flash' like an English speaker, the speed you have to reply would likely throw you off even if you knew the counter. Notice how quickly they say the counter word 'thunder' when challenged. They know if they hesitate even a bit there's a chance they'll be shot. 'flash' is also a word that most German speakers would have difficulty saying in an American accent, so both words make it very difficult for a German to immitate an American even if they somehow knew both words. I'm not sure the exact phrases the US used against the Japanese, but they likely included a lot of 'L' and 'Th' sounds because i don't think either are in Japanese.
Dick Winters said in an interview that he called Ronald Spiers to ask about shooting the POWs. Spiers didn’t hesitate and said they were under orders to not take prisoners. Winters noted that Spiers and Bill Guarnere were trained killers, and that comment shouldn’t been taken as negative against either man. They did their jobs well.
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 ♠
Dick has traditionally been a common nickname for the full name of Richard, just as Jack was common for John, Bill for William, Jim for James, etc. Dick was not commonly used as a negative term for a person until the 1960’s/1970’s, so would not have been commonly used by the men in WW2, especially since they were expected to speak more respectfully to their leaders.
In real life Sobel did jump into Normandy as commander of the 506th's service company. After landing, he assembled four men and they destroyed a German machine gun nest with grenades. Then he joined the rest of the division near Carentan. Sobel was awarded the Bronze Star and spent the rest of the war as a staff officer and logistics officer.
NOPE, WRONG he never made the jump per all the Reg. paperwork & Combat journal has him listed coming ashore with the seaborne element to bring in needed supplies , he didn't get a star on his jump wings (Combat Jump) he got the invasion arrow head. he NEVER took out a MG nest either, the bronze star was for insuring the supplies made it too the reg.
@@2104dogface On June 15th, 1944 an article in the Pittsburgh Press newspaper mentions Capt. Herbert M. Sobel landing near St. Omer-Dumont and the events I described on D-Day. Sobel was also awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge(CIB), which is only given to soldiers who directly participate in active ground combat with the enemy.
@@richardstephens5570 yeah still wrong , i was in E/506th Reenacted back in the 90's. i spent time with the Real men of Easy co. NO ONE saw him take out the MG nest and he's not listed on any stick that jumped., NO ONE saw him at the airfield. (Ed Mauser was the only one who later in life says he saw him, but at that time his memory wasn't good) also the 2nd unit CO (E/506 reenacted) is close to Sobel's son and has all the Co. & 506th Reg. paper work & is working on a 4 book series on the history of Easy co.. BTW basicly everyone in normandy got a CIB
Band of brothers, The Pacific and Masters of The Air are on my top 5 shows of all time, all shows did a perfect job portraying the two different theaters of war and how combat varies between branches. I’m hoping as well the do a Vietnam war show like this as well there’re veterans still alive that can share their story. Welcome home to all Veterans
I live about an hour north of the National Warplanes Museum in Genesseo NY. Their pride & joy is the C-47 (the transports the Airborne jumped out of) W-7. Affectionately known as Whiskey 7. She was the lead ship in the second wave of the invasion. She is still flying today. In fact on the 75th anniversary of the invasion she flew back to England, then to Normandy this time with an old friend, the last surviving member of the stick she carried that day. This time he did a tandem jump with a current member of the 101st. He stated it was a lovely jump, nobody was shooting at him. He was 97 at that time. W7 is lovingly restored & maintained by a crew of volunteers. She flies airshows all year.
Another great reaction from you. The whole of Easy Co probably occupied about 8 - 10 planes with about 18 men in each plane. Meehan was the guy in the tent with Winters when they worked out that they were jumping into Normandy in the first episode and also said in front of the gathered men that there was a German garrison in the area they were landing in and that Easy Co would destroy that garrison. He was also in the plane where the propeller caught fire and the fireball entered the fuselage. You may also note that when the propeller caught fire, one of the pilots said to the other that, "you better tell Meehan to get them out of there", just before the propeller blew up. I hope that helps you to identify Meehan. Ps, Dick is another name for Richard, just like Bob is for Robert and Bill is for William, so his name is really Richard Winters.👍
They don't reveal who is who until episode 10, but they did a good job of some of the casting and the actors actually look like the interviewed veterans they play. And Dick used to be short for Richard back in the day (eg. The Dick Cavett show). And while it's actually a war crime, Speirs shot those POWs under order (as it was D-day, and they had nowhere they could safely keep the POWs, and there was no other option).
New to your channel, I I just want to say, thank you for checking out Band of Brothers. This show means a lot to me and many other people, and I think it’s one that will shift your perspective of WWII forever. Everyone should watch this.
Mehan was the officer who made the announcement "No Jump Tonight" when the jump was delayed by a day. The beach landings were also delayed by 24 hours so the relative timing was mostly as planned. Mehan was then killed in the plane that is engulfed in flame and crashes into the ground, killing all on board.
I think you are the first commentator who spotted the spade on the side of he helmets. It gets harder to watch as you go on, but our schools are woefully lacking with teaching history and what it really means to be American. Thank you for watching this with us.
The stick grenade was mainly a concussion grenade but had a collar that was added for fragmentation thay also had thier own version of a pineapple grenade.
Lt. Mehaan was the one saying no jump tonight at the start of the series. His aircraft was the one where all the men burned. A little fact about Damien Lewis the guy who plays Lt.Winters. He's English but his American accent was so good that when he spoke in his original tounge they thought that he was faking. This might surprise you but alot of easy company are being played by commonwealth actors.
My favorite is Liebgott being played by a Scotsman. The actor did a fantastic job of staying in character and maintaining the accent throughout the casting interview process.
The show is based on a book from the perspective of Easy Company. In real life things happen that you might observe but don’t know the back story. Sprinkled throughout the episodes are little true things that happen,but like in real life, you see it but don’t necessarily know why. The soldier looking for battalion headquarters and shot in the head really happened. Compton didn’t drop the grenade out of clumsiness. He was bumped into from behind. He was an All-American catcher at UCLA and his throwing prowess was evident with several other grenades. His gun wasn’t on safety of jammed out of negligence. Like Winters he lost his gun on the jump and got one from an injured British soldier. Unable to test fire it b4 the assault, he didn’t realize the firing pin was broken. Notice on the assault on the gun battery he never uses a rifle. Spiers jumped out of the trench because it was unfinished and didn’t make it all the way to the artill 8:21 ery. He shot the prisoners because the paratroopers had objectives, were low in manpower, and behind enemy lines. They had nowhere to take the prisoners and couldn’t afford to use men to guard them.
The white spade on their helmets is a symbol to identify their regiment 506 PIR. Some scenes will show symbols for soldiers in other regiments - clubs, hearts, circles, and squares. Colonel Sink, the officer with the southern accent who transferred Sobel, was the 506th regimental commander.
The German grenade did not kill Joe Toye in that trench, because of the German High Command's theory on the use of grenades. The Allies and the Germans had two different theories from each other. The German theory was that a grenade was to be used as a percussion device to temporarily stun an enemy, so that a German soldier had enough time to close the distance and shoot the enemy with their guns. The German grenades were colloquially called "Potato Mashers" because it had a thin metal cannister on the end of a long stick. When the device exploded, it did not have enough metal in it's composition to create much shrapnel ..... But, it sure made a loud percussive BANG! The Allies theory (Especially in America) was that a grenade should have a thick, heavy metal body, so that when it exploded, it sent razor sharp pieces of metal in all directions. When you look at a standard American WWII grenade, you will see that it looks as if the metal body of the grenade is "sectioned" into small squares. When it exploded, these sections were extremely deadly. Because of it's look, the American grenade was fondly referred to as the "Pineapple."
12:04 The markings on the helmet is an identification method to tell who is from what regiment and what company. The Spade with the little square under it, means 506th Easy Company
Prisoners were more of a liability if held at the time. They are invading so until proper headquarters could be established, prisoners were mostly shot at the beginning. Once landings were complete then prisoners were taken and held.
I've watched probably 15 BoB reaction series and you're by far the most observant and attentive person I've seen to the details of what's happening and the historical significance. Keep it up!
D-Day will always be one of a kind. The US tried the first-ever large-scale nighttime paratroop drop for surprise, but as the episode shows, it took so long for the troops to get organized that most didn't achieve their objectives until the next morning, so no major night paratroop drop has been attempted by any country ever since.
Lt. Meehan was in the plane shown with the engine fire. The final resting place of that plane still won't grow anything today due to the fire/fuel intensity. There are other UA-cam channels that have visited that site if you'd like more details.
In World War II, the soldiers of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the American 101st Airborne Division were marked with the spades symbol painted on the sides of their helmets. In this capacity, it was used to represent good luck, due to its fortunate connotations in card playing.
Our grandfather's and Great Grandfather's were the biggest badasses of all time. Good reaction. And a heads-up. This series is about to get very real. But so worth it in the end. Good job.
It’s estimated only about 10% of the airborne paratroopers landed in their correct drop zones, and less than 50% ever made it to their intended landing area. This was Operation Overlord, about 3x mire paratroopers were dropped in the Operation Market Garden failure.
14:54 Malarkey went out there to try to grab a Luger, which is a German handgun that was in common use at the time. Many soldiers did this, it’s one of the reasons why there’s a bunch of Lugers on the US firearms collector’s market today.
Roughly 23,400 paratroopers were dropped from between 00.13 and 6.35 am on the morning of 6th June .... around 13,000 American and 10,400 British, Commonwealth, Free French and others ..
Winters was set to receive the Medal of Honor for what he did at Brecourt Manor. I don't fully remember to circumstances of why he didn't but i THINK it was because someone else in the army was awarded the MoH. With what he did and how it made the landings at Utah beach "easier" for the men to secure the beach, he should have absolutely deserved the MoH but earning a distinguished service cross is deserved as well.
3 allied paratroop divisions made the jump the night before D-Day, 2 american and 1 british, roughly 20,000 troops total. Also the jump was made at night because objectives had to be taken to help smooth out the seaborn landings arriving early in the morning while the darkness also provided cover for the paratroops and sow chaos and confusion on the German defenders.
13:29 yes, sometimes grenades won’t explode because the fuse doesn’t ignite properly or due to user error. However, that’s not what happened there. The grenade exploded, but Toye was left unharmed.
As other commentators have said, killing prisoners during the chaos of an assault was a result of various factors-every available soldier was needed for their assigned duties, but also there was no place established which could have served as a “safe” holding area. The location was still not definitely or totally in the control of the Allies- they were still under attack even though they were having successes pushing inland. Roads were still under threat of attack, so there would have been problems transporting prisoners. Germans controlled the land as the Allies advanced inland, so the only place to keep prisoners would have been alongside the troops or to try to get them back to shore and shipped back to England. As the Allies made a permanent presence and could control their environments, and more troops arrived to replace those lost on the initial assault, the traditional rules of war and POW’s were more likely to be followed.
@10:28 All throughout WWI and WWII thousands of Americans joined Foreign Armies before the United States officially joined in. In WWI you had the famed fighter squadron "Lafayette Escadrille" made of American volunteers in the early French Air Force. There was also the French Foreign Legion who took in men from any background who were willing to fight for France in exchange for a new life/ identity and if they survived their enlistment they could choose to become French Citizens (still exists today). In WW2 you had loads of Americans who went to fight beginning as early as the Spanish Civil War in 1936. In WW2 Americans would cross into Canada to join Canadian commonwealth forces to fight the Nazis including the famed "Eagle Squadron" of the Royal air force. Some later joined the fight against Russia with Finland in the Winter and continuation wars. The most notable group was the American Volunteer Group fighting the Japanese in China, they were later more famously known as "The Flying Tigers". Once the United States entered the war, these men would usually be swept into the regular American forces. The Nazis exploited the prejudice and fascist ideologies of individuals from a far including the USA where there was a growing movement for an American Nazi party mimicking Germany's. The Waffen SS created volunteer fighting or support units made of foreign nationals of occupied territory including Eastern Europeans, French, Africans, and Far eastern legions. Some included British and Americans who joined the Nazis and whom later met life imprisonment or execution by the Allies for treason after the war was won. Anyone caught by the Russians were summarily executed if they were lucky, the unfortunate ones were sentenced to life in hard labor camps in Siberia where they would essentially be worked to death.
@4:30 - First planes took off around 10:30 pm, and the drop started around 0:45am. Considering the time needed for preparations before the jump, they had less than two hours of idle time to dwell on what was about to happen. It wasn't a long distance between airfields and dropzones, all things considered.
Just to clear something up, Spears got his men out of the trenches because he was worried of mines and traps. There was also another right angle turn in the trench that the Germans might well have set up an MG42 like the one Winters took out. In reality the casualties suffered by Dog Company weren't as extreme as the show makes it out to be. Most of his troops stayed back to provide a base of fire.
D-Day was originally 5th June but was postponed for 24hrs and everything was put back till the 6th June, including all the ships and and all the soldiers had to wait aboard the ships for that 24hrs.
Really loving your reactions so far! I like the amount of thought you put into it. I thought I would point out two small things just for your own edification. The first is that most things you are referring to as strategic, like Winter's ability and how they attacked the guns, etc. should be referred to as tactical. In a military context, strategic refers to very large scale operations and planning, stuff that an entire army would be doing and the logistics to support them. Tactical refers to the very small scale / small unit actions such as portrayed here. Winters was a great tactician. Second thing I wanted to point out is that Speirs, the leader that went out of the trench to attack the last gun was actually a quite capable and tactically sound leader. He left the trench because it allowed them to close on the last gun much quicker and also avoid the choke point of the trench because the Germans knew they were coming. The element of surprise was gone because the battle had been going for quite some time, so moving down the trench into the waiting Germans would have carried its own risks. Only one soldier that went with Speirs to attack the last gun was wounded. The rest came out A - Okay. Love your reactions, can't wait for the next part. Keep up the good content.
the spade on the helmet was the symbol 506th pir used for identification. the rest of the 101st division used different card symbols along with other blobs and shapes. 501st had diamonds, 502nd had hearts, the glider boys had the Club. some of the other airborne regiments in other divisions also had some different helmet markings but not as much as the 101st.
4:40 They were dropped by parachute the night before D-Day so that they could destroy the cannons and enemy positions, and when the others landed on the beach the next day they would have a clear path. The problem was that they were dropped scattered everywhere and very few of them They were able to fulfill their mission, which is why when the soldiers landed on the beaches of Normandy they encountered so much resistance from the Germans.
You will definitely begin to learn their names. It will definitely get harder the further you go, but worth it. Many of the details are true. Popeye apologizing for getting shot. The guy looking for headquarters in the middle of a firefight and getting shot. Joe nearly getting blown up twice by grenades. Those were details taken from when they interviewed the veterans. It’s an extremely accurate series! Can’t wait to see the rest
In regards to Volksdeutsche, my great grandfather was born in Germany and moved his family to the United States and the first of his children born in the US was my grandfather. When Germany declared war on the US and my grandfather and his brother joined the US Army, my great grandfather was absolutely livid, and all but disowned them both. He felt their enlistment was a betrayal to Germany. So that was the kind of mentality that Hitler tried to capitalize on when he called for everyone of German heritage to join the German military, and I probably wouldn't exist if my great grandfather had shipped his sons back to Germany.
My maternal grandfather came to the US in like 1897, my mom was born in '33, she remembers him listening to Hitler on the shortwave radio at like 5yo saying how Hitler would do "great things for Germany", and how upset he was when Hitler declared war on the US after Pearl Harbor.
If you look at Spiers when he jumps out the trench, he’s telling his men to stay in, possibly to draw fire on himself, but they unfortunately follow him.
Had Sobel still been with Easy Company, he'd have been in the plane where Meehan was. It would have meant Sobel was currently missing and not Lieutenant Meehan.
I am not sure but I think Lt. Meehan was the one in episode 1 who announces that the drop has been delayed, and in a map scene, discusses with Dick Winters where their jump will be. It is assumed that his entire plane was shot down during the crossing in episode 2.
the guy who played John Hall and Damian Lewis will be in another WWII movie called "Pressure" about the weather prior to D-Day. excited to see it when it comes out
7:39 This is why they drilled into their heads the sand tables and briefing information, so if they did miss their drop like they did they’d be able to find their way to the rally point with just a map and compass, or purely by memory
You totally understood when you said the plane was going too fast and they missed the jump zone. 60 MPH is 88' per second, and they were going well over twice that speed. So just a few seconds early and you're half a mile short of the drop zone. And they definitely jumped early when the co-pilot was killed and the pilot quickly switched their light to green.
At that time during D Day they were under orders to not take prisoners. The invasion was still happening. The beach heads were still a killing field. They simply did not have the man power or a secure place to hold prisoners.
Yes, Winters as you will see in up comming episodes has concern for his men. If you get a chance watch the movie The Longest Day, it shows the story of D-Day from the American, British, French and German perspective an older movie from 1962. The Lt who alledgely shot the Germans is Lt Spiers, he is a bad ass. love the reaction.
The mission of the Airborne troops was to parachute-in, the night before the D-Day beach landings, and seize and hold key bridges, roads, and towns. They dropped-in just before dawn on D-Day, so that they would have enough time to achieve their objectives. That way, when the landing troops hit the beaches (As in Saving Private Ryan), their actual fighting would be minimal, as everything would have already been captured. However, as this movie shows, the old adage comes true ..... "No plan survives first contact with the enemy." Meaning that, you can make a plan, even down to the most miniscule detail, yet once you meet the enemy, your whole plan will likely have to be scrapped. This is because the enemy will not likely fight the battle according to what you have planned.
The Germans fight gor the Fatherland, the Russians fight for the Motherland, the British fight for King and Country, and the Americans fight for souvenirs.😊
18:08 If I remember Guarnere thought Winters was a Quaker because he never drank alcohol. However, I wanna say Winter didn’t drink only cuz he knew it would hinder his decision making, he wanted to have a clear, level head to make the best decision to keep his men alive. Guarnere was one of those guy like most men of the time that if you can’t/don’t drink you can’t trust him. He came around tho
Malarkey was saying that he wants to get a Luger, which is a German gun he did not say loot like you are saying I think you got confused. He is looking for a Luger which is a German pistol to bring home is a souvenir for his brother he said. Not loot
"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." General Dwight D. Eisenhower Supreme Allied Commander's other prepared speech. D-DAY was never a guarantee...
I don't know if you remember me and that's ok I'm a combat vet and and as a reminder I said that shortly you are going to feel very much so that the are a member of Easy . This is going to be hard but you can do it and it's very much worth it. God bless you.
02:02 "New gear and anti-sickness pills" For a first time viewer Kali sure catches a lot of the small details that made this show a masterpiece. Way to go lil sis, keep it up !... Currahee !!!
Just so you know, the men being interviewed are actual members of Easy company. The fun part is trying to fiqure out who's who. The series is from the book which in turn was from interviews from the veterens.
Spiers did kill the POW's (I don't blame him, it's war and you will the consequences of leaving POWs later). The production heads were worried about being sued so they outright asked him and he said yep, and signed an affidavit clearing them of liability.
They dropped 18k paratroopers on D-Day. They jumped at night as the landings were scheduled for that morning and there were objectives that had to be secured. It's also a little harder to shoot them down at night. The combination of the parachute drops and the landings gave the Germans multiple things to be concerned with. In some ways, the fact that the airborne troops were so scattered may have actually been beneficial as it placed small groups of well trained, highly motivated troops all of whom knew the overall mission, all over Normandy. The random, attacks from so many places helped sow confusion among the Germans as to the main objectives of the airborne troops. You never knew where they would appear to blow something up. In regards to shooting of the prisoners, at that point of the invasion, with troops scattered all over the place, they didn't have the resources to leave people to babysit prisoners. They needed everyone they could could get to seize the various objectives. It's not like they had manpower to detail troops to guard prisoners. It's unpleasant and distasteful, especially to modern culture, but that was the world at the time.
I always found it a little weird that they left out how they actually had orders against taking prisoners... It's still not something most people could do to a surrendering enemy. Speirs was the type of officer to do such a thing himself rather than force any of the men to do it.
"Unpleasant and distasteful" is an interesting way of putting it. Another way to put it would be that if the axis had won and the allies were put on trial in Nuremberg, those responsible for those killings would have been executed for war crimes. That's not to say there was overall moral equivalence between "us" and "them" but it is objectively true to say that killing prisoners is unequivocally a war crime. It doesn't matter what your resource situation is or what your objectives are, you are obligated to care for them and keep them safe.
@@notthestatusquo7683 Yes, it was a war crime. Both sides committed plenty throughout the war. Try reading about the Eastern Front; It's no exaggeration to say it was Hell on Earth for 3 years. Now that's out of the way, remember that the Geneva Conventions set the rules of conduct for War. And like many, rules are bent and broken during the expediencies of combat.
@@notthestatusquo7683 If the axis had won we'd all be speaking german right now, it's a false equivalence. You can look back with 20/20 vision now in your recliner of course but the situation was vastly different.
Playing "both sides" is moot, these two are not the same. Nothing the allies did compares to the final solution, unit 731, the mass starvation of china, nanking. Don't even try to play those games.
@@dawnfallon6812 Starvation, Hypothermia, Cannibalism. It made the western front look like a nice Sunday afternoon. The pacific was pretty bad too, people on the western front had it good in comparison.
Considered to be the greatest miniseries of all time.
*Band of Brothers* is a masterpiece!
100% 🍅 A+ 10/10 👍👍
Spades on the helmets designated members of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, of which Easy was one company. Other regiments in the 101st Airborne had hearts, diamonds or clubs. It's actually a long tradition - in the American Civil War, each northern infantry corps had its own unique symbol after 1862 - crescent moon, star, cross, disc, clover leaf, etc.
4:40 Remember, this is WW2, no nightvision, radar is still in its infancy, it's much easier to conceal your planes at night than it is at day.
6:17 Around 13.000 paratroopers took park in the attack on June 5th, the day before D-Day
6:48 Yeah, that goes without saying. The drops were so chaotic, that basically nobody landed where they were supposed to. That's why in the briefings leading to the drop, everyone was told to memorize town and village names, landmarks, etc, as to be able to gauge where they were dropped and where their objectives were.
7:03 Yes, Winters lost his musette paratrooper bag along with his kit bag (the long cylindrical one), which basically meant he had no ammo or weapons on him.
7:58 Winters ripped off one of his buttons which were specifically designed to be used as a very rudimentary compass. The RAF came up with the idea and its full name is "radioluminescent escape and evasion button compass"
10:04 The German Master Sgt. POW Malarkey is talking to actually was from Portland, not Eugene, which was most likely changed since the two had actually worked across the street from each other for years, making it hard to believe for the audience. I will leave this point with a excerpt from Malarkey's memoir on the incident:
_"I’d only been at war a few hours, and already I was learning stuff I hadn’t been taught in training. Namely, that the guy trying to kill you-and that you’re trying to kill-could be somebody who once worked in an American defense plant, across the street from where you later worked. Strange thing, war."_
11:14 A lot of people criticize Speirs for shooting the PoWs, and for good reason, it is a warcrime any way you see it, however, they had orders NOT to take POWs. They didn't have the men to guard them and taking them with, as they advanced, was not feasible. Releasing them was also out of the question as they would give crucial intel back to their commanders. So, the only solution was, sadly, execution.
11:28 The Brécourt Manor Assault was so masterfully executed by Winters that it is still to this day one of the most famous and classic examples of small-unit tactics and proper Leadership overcoming a larger enemy force.
11:59 The Spade is actually the real symbol of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment and it works as a way of distinguishing who's who in the chaos of battle.
The 101st A.D. consists of 4 smaller infantry regiments;
327th Glider Regiment used Clubs (♣)
501st used Diamonds (♦)
502nd used Hearts (♥)
and finally 506th used Spades (♠)
13:25 In reality, Toye was able to survive the grenade blast by rolling away from it after being warned by Winters.
14:48 Malarkey wanted a Luger P08 pistol for his kid brother. Lugers were extremely sought after as war trophies, which is what made Malarkey rush the field, believing he had spotted one.
15:39 When you're not in a position to capture your enemy's equipment and repurpose it, you make sure you damage it to the point where not only it becomes inoperable, it becomes irrepairable, in case the enemy manages to recover said equipment. Blowing up the barrel in those field guns renders them useless for the enemy.
16:06 John D. Hall, whom the series depicts as having been KIA in the Brecourt action, may have been a member of the basketball team, but he was not a member of Company 'A', as the dialogue indicates. He actually belonged to Service Company.
*John D. Halls* , same middle initial as John D. Hall, but note the 's' on his last name, was a member of the 81mm mortar platoon, of Headquarters Co., 2nd battalion, 506th PIR, and according to John Barickman of the same platoon, it was HALLS who was killed in the Brecourt fight, not HALL. This is likely to be correct, because John D. Hall died in the plane crash of Stick #32 near Picauville, France, and all aboard were killed in that crash. It is unclear as to how Halls died in real life.
22:59 We have seen Meehan, he was the officer who in Ep. 1 was saying "There'll be no jump tonight". Meehan's fate won't be mentioned much for the rest of the series so I'm going to spoil it here (don't read if you don't want to be spoiled). His plane was hit by German flak and went down, killing all onboard, which included all of Easy's headquarters personnel. Before takeoff, Meehan wrote a letter and handed it out the door of the C-47 to be sent to his wife:
"Dearest Anne:
In a few hours, I'm going to take the best company of men in the world into France. We'll give the bastards hell. Strangely, I'm not particularly scared. But in my heart is a terrific longing to hold you in my arms. I love you Sweetheart - forever. Your Tom"
RIP.
Someone is invested
11:14 And they were the behind the lines spearhead of an invasion that they weren't sure at the time wouldn't be pushed back into the sea. At that point it is dangerous to take prisoners.
Meehan dying isn't a spoiler. The plane that burns up you can hear the pilot saying "Tell Meehan to get his men out of here" before being consumed by fire.
Great reaction! You picked up on a lot of things many reactors seem to miss. The men, you’ll know their names and personalities in no time. They’ll be your buddies by the end of the series. A masterpiece of television history.
When you finish the series of BoB's, watch the real men of E 506 PIR. WE STAND ALONE TOGETHER | Band of Brothers Documentary
Yes, that is where the interviews were taken from right? They are really gripping.
In many ways, it's actually a more important watch, hard to believe but true .
One of the things they do on purpose with the intro interviews with the veterans is to not identify them. I think they want the viewer to see if they can match them up with their screen counterparts. They let the cat out of the bag at the end of episode 10, and in the documentary.
It's a must!
Thanks for another great reaction. I'm an old guy. Much earlier in my life, I taught history and civics at the secondary level in California. I tried to instill in my students the idea that these men who saved the world from fascist dictators truly were the Greatest Generation. May we always remember who they were and what they did.
Another interesting thing about Airborne is you have a stick and you have a squad. Your stick is the guys you jump with and your squad is the guys you fight with. Three to four squads then make a platoon, three to four platoons make a company, then three to four companies make a battalion. The reason you jump in a stick is because you don't try to put people from the same squads or platoon together, and there will even be guys from other companies and battalions in your stick, so that if your plane goes down, your entire unit is not lost.
All the decades I have studied military history and it was never as clear to me what the actual purpose of 'Sticks' was! Thank you, John.
Lt Meehan is the guy that said NO JUMP TONIGHT and worked on the map with Winters to figure out they were going to Normandy.
ahhh okay! thank you
Once while working as an usher at the US Open tennis tournament the actor who played Winters came walking through my gate. I reflexively saluted him without saying a word and he smiled and saluted me back.
New subscriber. Nice reaction. You really need to watch the documentary We Stand Alone Together, after you're done this series. It's where the vet interviews come from and it's the unofficial 11th episode of Band of Brothers.
"I didnt cry as much as I thought I was going to" uh, yeah lets revisit that comment later lol.
thank you for the new sub!
Something I find crazy is that Winters was only 26 doing all this.
My father and uncle were 20 and 19 when they landed on Sicily in July '43. Winters was an " old man "
My Dad and his friends enlisted as soon as they graduated high school in June. My Dad and a few others would not turn 18 until the autumn, but since they would have still been in training when they finally turned 18, and not yet engaged in combat, the age “requirement” was overlooked, and I was told this was not an unusual occurrence.
All of the soldiers of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment had spades painted on their helmets. Soldiers of other regiments of the 101st had other symbols painted on their helmets (Hearts, Clubs, or Diamonds). Lt. Meehan was the guy that stood on the Jeep that said "No jump tonight". He was on the plane that burst into flames. If Meehan wouldn't have taken over Easy Company, it probably would have been Sobel on that plane.
The officer who allegedly shot the German prisoners, and who rushed the German position from outside the trench, is Lieutenant Ronald “Sparky” Spiers. Remember him for future episodes.
It’s easy to miss in the chaos of the air drop in the opening scenes, but Meihan’s plane was the one that was engulfed in flames and crashed. The pilot yells, “Tell Meihan to get the men outta there,” and then the engine explodes, followed by the fireball.
Great reactions, looking forward to more. The episodes only get better from here.
Also. Yes, shooting prisoners is a big no, no! But, most people fail to realize. They were seriously short man power. Sometimes, killing enemy prisoners is ordered when they can't be guarded or released.
@@albinorhino6 true story, he never smoked one cigarette his entire life. Not once, ever. Everyone just thinks he did.
@@a-6610 the entire airborne was under orders to not take prisoners. There wasn't going to be a collection point until they linked up with the seaborne infantry, which was D+3 days.
They were in fact ordered to not take prisoners initially.
@@RickLacy-b3x There was never a written or verbal order to the effect of no prisoners. But officers were quietly told that no one would really be looking into reports on prisoner deaths. This is follows on the heels of Operation Husky where the 82nd Airborne reported SS troops killing troopers caught up in trees and the like.
All I can say about this episode is Thank God for Richard Winters. Speaking from my own experience as an enlisted man in the Navy, Winters was the kind of officer you want leading you. My favorite part of this episode is the end, when Winters thanks God for surviving D-Day and when he makes his promise about finding a small piece of land and living the rest of his life in peace. Ther are a couple of great books about the life of Richard Winters; he even co-wrote one of them before he passed away. Some of the other men from Easy who survived the war wrote books as well.
My mother's had two brothers serving in 1944. One in the infantry and the older in the Army Air Force. The older one was 19 years old, the younger was 18. The younger one was in the 6th wave that went in on D day, the older one it was his first bombing mission in B17 on D day. They both by the grace of God survived the war. The younger never spoke of the war, I was just a young child, born in 1944. The younger brother had PTSD though everyone called it "Shell Shocked". Even into the late "40"s there was one night I stayed overnight with my grandparents. He started sleep walking screaming and wondering through the house reliving something from the war. It was frightening to see. It took a while before my grandfather could calm him down.
While the killing of pow’s is absolutely awful and in MOST cases unforgivable, it was unfortunately necessary on d-day. There were only about 20,000 paratroopers dropped behind enemy lines who had to secure very important objectives in a very short time to insure the success of the largest invasion in history. They had no way to guard, secure, feed or care for them and to try to do so could absolutely result in 100,000’s of allied deaths and failure of the invasion. Letting them go would just allow them to rejoin the German defences with info about where the paratroopers were.
Still a warcrime no matter what!
Hitler had issued orders paratroopers were aware as follows. “I order, therefore:- From now on all men operating against German troops in so-called Commando raids in Europe or in Africa, are to be annihilated to the last man.” This did much to influence the way our guys dealt with prisoners.
Fun fact, @kaliwaali, the attack on Brecourt Manor is still taught at West Point today. Dick Winters is a legend.
Yeah, says at the end of the episode. I think everyone knows lol
I guarantee you will never be the same after watching this series. You will have a lasting respect for our greatest generation. It will make your spirit soar, and break your heart at times. Be prepared for one hell of a ride. Great reaction, young lady.
The first soldiers landing in France were the Pathfinders. Their job was to guide the planes into their correct drop zones. Following the Pathfinders came the Paratroopers. We must keep in mind that this was a new discipline. It was pioneered in the late 20s and 30s by the Germans and Russians. In 1939 the US had one of the smallest militaries in the world. Portugal's military was larger. We had few planes, few tanks, and few of everything.
Worth noting the Pathfinders had horrific survival odds
10:17 This is something they don’t tell you in school. The large amount of soldiers that were conscripted into the German army. Even like here, a German-American citizen who was born and raised in America went to volunteer and fight for the German army. Also, in reality they actually worked right across the street from each other, they changed it cuz the real story was too unbelievable
Again, from a retired Sailor who spent over 41 years in the Navy, Thank you for taking the time to watch this series. I will suggest you watch the other Hanks/Spielberg series, The Pacific and Masters of the Air. Band of Brothers and The Pacific series there is additional videos with more backstories of the Soldiers and Marines along with interviews of the actual Soldiers and Marines along with their Families of the Soldiers and Marines who are no longer with us.
New subscriber here. I watched this series when it first came out. For reference I'm a veteran of the 82nd Airborne with 26 years of service starting campaigns in Panama, Desert Storm, Bosnia, and returning to Iraq. The series brought back memories and reactions I'd forgotten about with my own experiences. I'm enjoying following the series again through your eyes. I'm extremely impressed with your insights and comments for someone with little military history and combat knowledge. I'm grateful to know there are those as yourself still interested to learn and take to heart those sacrifices made by them for us to carry on.
thank you for your service 💚 you've had an incredible journey. means a lot that you've been enjoying my videos! thank you
The "flash" challege and "thunder" counter were specifically chosen as well. No word in the German language produces the TH sound, so if someone tried saying thunder and it had a german accent or it sounded like "sunder", chances are they weren't friendly.
oh wow, I didn't know this! thank you for sharing
'challenge' and 'counter' phrases were a very common thing. Even if a German could pronounce 'flash' like an English speaker, the speed you have to reply would likely throw you off even if you knew the counter. Notice how quickly they say the counter word 'thunder' when challenged. They know if they hesitate even a bit there's a chance they'll be shot. 'flash' is also a word that most German speakers would have difficulty saying in an American accent, so both words make it very difficult for a German to immitate an American even if they somehow knew both words. I'm not sure the exact phrases the US used against the Japanese, but they likely included a lot of 'L' and 'Th' sounds because i don't think either are in Japanese.
Dick Winters said in an interview that he called Ronald Spiers to ask about shooting the POWs. Spiers didn’t hesitate and said they were under orders to not take prisoners. Winters noted that Spiers and Bill Guarnere were trained killers, and that comment shouldn’t been taken as negative against either man. They did their jobs well.
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 ♠
Dick has traditionally been a common nickname for the full name of Richard, just as Jack was common for John, Bill for William, Jim for James, etc. Dick was not commonly used as a negative term for a person until the 1960’s/1970’s, so would not have been commonly used by the men in WW2, especially since they were expected to speak more respectfully to their leaders.
In real life Sobel did jump into Normandy as commander of the 506th's service company. After landing, he assembled four men and they destroyed a German machine gun nest with grenades. Then he joined the rest of the division near Carentan. Sobel was awarded the Bronze Star and spent the rest of the war as a staff officer and logistics officer.
NOPE, WRONG he never made the jump per all the Reg. paperwork & Combat journal has him listed coming ashore with the seaborne element to bring in needed supplies , he didn't get a star on his jump wings (Combat Jump) he got the invasion arrow head. he NEVER took out a MG nest either, the bronze star was for insuring the supplies made it too the reg.
@@2104dogface On June 15th, 1944 an article in the Pittsburgh Press newspaper mentions Capt. Herbert M. Sobel landing near St. Omer-Dumont and the events I described on D-Day. Sobel was also awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge(CIB), which is only given to soldiers who directly participate in active ground combat with the enemy.
@@richardstephens5570 yeah still wrong , i was in E/506th Reenacted back in the 90's. i spent time with the Real men of Easy co. NO ONE saw him take out the MG nest and he's not listed on any stick that jumped., NO ONE saw him at the airfield. (Ed Mauser was the only one who later in life says he saw him, but at that time his memory wasn't good) also the 2nd unit CO (E/506 reenacted) is close to Sobel's son and has all the Co. & 506th Reg. paper work & is working on a 4 book series on the history of Easy co.. BTW basicly everyone in normandy got a CIB
Band of brothers, The Pacific and Masters of The Air are on my top 5 shows of all time, all shows did a perfect job portraying the two different theaters of war and how combat varies between branches. I’m hoping as well the do a Vietnam war show like this as well there’re veterans still alive that can share their story. Welcome home to all Veterans
I live about an hour north of the National Warplanes Museum in Genesseo NY. Their pride & joy is the C-47 (the transports the Airborne jumped out of) W-7. Affectionately known as Whiskey 7. She was the lead ship in the second wave of the invasion. She is still flying today. In fact on the 75th anniversary of the invasion she flew back to England, then to Normandy this time with an old friend, the last surviving member of the stick she carried that day. This time he did a tandem jump with a current member of the 101st. He stated it was a lovely jump, nobody was shooting at him. He was 97 at that time. W7 is lovingly restored & maintained by a crew of volunteers. She flies airshows all year.
Another great reaction from you. The whole of Easy Co probably occupied about 8 - 10 planes with about 18 men in each plane. Meehan was the guy in the tent with Winters when they worked out that they were jumping into Normandy in the first episode and also said in front of the gathered men that there was a German garrison in the area they were landing in and that Easy Co would destroy that garrison. He was also in the plane where the propeller caught fire and the fireball entered the fuselage. You may also note that when the propeller caught fire, one of the pilots said to the other that, "you better tell Meehan to get them out of there", just before the propeller blew up. I hope that helps you to identify Meehan. Ps, Dick is another name for Richard, just like Bob is for Robert and Bill is for William, so his name is really Richard Winters.👍
They don't reveal who is who until episode 10, but they did a good job of some of the casting and the actors actually look like the interviewed veterans they play. And Dick used to be short for Richard back in the day (eg. The Dick Cavett show). And while it's actually a war crime, Speirs shot those POWs under order (as it was D-day, and they had nowhere they could safely keep the POWs, and there was no other option).
New to your channel, I I just want to say, thank you for checking out Band of Brothers. This show means a lot to me and many other people, and I think it’s one that will shift your perspective of WWII forever. Everyone should watch this.
Mehan was the officer who made the announcement "No Jump Tonight" when the jump was delayed by a day. The beach landings were also delayed by 24 hours so the relative timing was mostly as planned. Mehan was then killed in the plane that is engulfed in flame and crashes into the ground, killing all on board.
There was no place, not enough resources to keep prisoners at this point. Also the german grenades were not fragmentation grenades. Just explosive.
That may be true, but they were not supposed to be executing prisoners. That wasn't spears doing his job.
@MS-wz9jm yea because we all know Germany treated their prisoners with the utmost respect right?
@@Yawnzee_ That`s not an excuse.
At least he gave them a last cigarette.
@@Morten_Storvik I disagree
I think you are the first commentator who spotted the spade on the side of he helmets. It gets harder to watch as you go on, but our schools are woefully lacking with teaching history and what it really means to be American. Thank you for watching this with us.
That German POW actually worked across the street from Malarkey. They changed it to 100 miles because they thought no one would believe it.
The stick grenade was mainly a concussion grenade but had a collar that was added for fragmentation thay also had thier own version of a pineapple grenade.
Also referred to as the "potato masher" because of its appearance with the stick handle.
Lt. Mehaan was the one saying no jump tonight at the start of the series. His aircraft was the one where all the men burned.
A little fact about Damien Lewis the guy who plays Lt.Winters. He's English but his American accent was so good that when he spoke in his original tounge they thought that he was faking.
This might surprise you but alot of easy company are being played by commonwealth actors.
My favorite is Liebgott being played by a Scotsman. The actor did a fantastic job of staying in character and maintaining the accent throughout the casting interview process.
The show is based on a book from the perspective of Easy Company. In real life things happen that you might observe but don’t know the back story. Sprinkled throughout the episodes are little true things that happen,but like in real life, you see it but don’t necessarily know why. The soldier looking for battalion headquarters and shot in the head really happened. Compton didn’t drop the grenade out of clumsiness. He was bumped into from behind. He was an All-American catcher at UCLA and his throwing prowess was evident with several other grenades. His gun wasn’t on safety of jammed out of negligence. Like Winters he lost his gun on the jump and got one from an injured British soldier. Unable to test fire it b4 the assault, he didn’t realize the firing pin was broken. Notice on the assault on the gun battery he never uses a rifle. Spiers jumped out of the trench because it was unfinished and didn’t make it all the way to the artill 8:21 ery. He shot the prisoners because the paratroopers had objectives, were low in manpower, and behind enemy lines. They had nowhere to take the prisoners and couldn’t afford to use men to guard them.
The white spade on their helmets is a symbol to identify their regiment 506 PIR. Some scenes will show symbols for soldiers in other regiments - clubs, hearts, circles, and squares. Colonel Sink, the officer with the southern accent who transferred Sobel, was the 506th regimental commander.
The German grenade did not kill Joe Toye in that trench, because of the German High Command's theory on the use of grenades. The Allies and the Germans had two different theories from each other. The German theory was that a grenade was to be used as a percussion device to temporarily stun an enemy, so that a German soldier had enough time to close the distance and shoot the enemy with their guns. The German grenades were colloquially called "Potato Mashers" because it had a thin metal cannister on the end of a long stick. When the device exploded, it did not have enough metal in it's composition to create much shrapnel ..... But, it sure made a loud percussive BANG!
The Allies theory (Especially in America) was that a grenade should have a thick, heavy metal body, so that when it exploded, it sent razor sharp pieces of metal in all directions. When you look at a standard American WWII grenade, you will see that it looks as if the metal body of the grenade is "sectioned" into small squares. When it exploded, these sections were extremely deadly. Because of it's look, the American grenade was fondly referred to as the "Pineapple."
I agree that Sobel was necessary for the training but not as a leader. Sometimes you just need to know your strengths and weaknesses.
12:04 The markings on the helmet is an identification method to tell who is from what regiment and what company. The Spade with the little square under it, means 506th Easy Company
Malarkey and the German actually worked across the street from each other, but the producers didn't think that the audience would believe that.
Prisoners were more of a liability if held at the time. They are invading so until proper headquarters could be established, prisoners were mostly shot at the beginning. Once landings were complete then prisoners were taken and held.
@14:12 Joe Toye was wounded multiple times during the war. At some point during the series he says "Whats a guy gotta do to get killed around here?" 😅
I've watched probably 15 BoB reaction series and you're by far the most observant and attentive person I've seen to the details of what's happening and the historical significance. Keep it up!
D-Day will always be one of a kind. The US tried the first-ever large-scale nighttime paratroop drop for surprise, but as the episode shows, it took so long for the troops to get organized that most didn't achieve their objectives until the next morning, so no major night paratroop drop has been attempted by any country ever since.
Meehan was the very first speaker in the series, "NO JUMP TONIGHT!"
Loving your reactions to BOB. Just wish they were around 40 minutes long.
Lt. Meehan was in the plane shown with the engine fire. The final resting place of that plane still won't grow anything today due to the fire/fuel intensity. There are other UA-cam channels that have visited that site if you'd like more details.
In World War II, the soldiers of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the American 101st Airborne Division were marked with the spades symbol painted on the sides of their helmets. In this capacity, it was used to represent good luck, due to its fortunate connotations in card playing.
Our grandfather's and Great Grandfather's were the biggest badasses of all time.
Good reaction.
And a heads-up. This series is about to get very real. But so worth it in the end. Good job.
It’s estimated only about 10% of the airborne paratroopers landed in their correct drop zones, and less than 50% ever made it to their intended landing area. This was Operation Overlord, about 3x mire paratroopers were dropped in the Operation Market Garden failure.
14:54 Malarkey went out there to try to grab a Luger, which is a German handgun that was in common use at the time. Many soldiers did this, it’s one of the reasons why there’s a bunch of Lugers on the US firearms collector’s market today.
Roughly 23,400 paratroopers were dropped from between 00.13 and 6.35 am on the morning of 6th June .... around 13,000 American and 10,400 British, Commonwealth, Free French and others ..
Winters was set to receive the Medal of Honor for what he did at Brecourt Manor. I don't fully remember to circumstances of why he didn't but i THINK it was because someone else in the army was awarded the MoH. With what he did and how it made the landings at Utah beach "easier" for the men to secure the beach, he should have absolutely deserved the MoH but earning a distinguished service cross is deserved as well.
The flight for Easy Company, from Upottery, England tp Normandy, was about 200 miles.
3 allied paratroop divisions made the jump the night before D-Day, 2 american and 1 british, roughly 20,000 troops total. Also the jump was made at night because objectives had to be taken to help smooth out the seaborn landings arriving early in the morning while the darkness also provided cover for the paratroops and sow chaos and confusion on the German defenders.
13:29 yes, sometimes grenades won’t explode because the fuse doesn’t ignite properly or due to user error. However, that’s not what happened there. The grenade exploded, but Toye was left unharmed.
As other commentators have said, killing prisoners during the chaos of an assault was a result of various factors-every available soldier was needed for their assigned duties, but also there was no place established which could have served as a “safe” holding area. The location was still not definitely or totally in the control of the Allies- they were still under attack even though they were having successes pushing inland. Roads were still under threat of attack, so there would have been problems transporting prisoners. Germans controlled the land as the Allies advanced inland, so the only place to keep prisoners would have been alongside the troops or to try to get them back to shore and shipped back to England. As the Allies made a permanent presence and could control their environments, and more troops arrived to replace those lost on the initial assault, the traditional rules of war and POW’s were more likely to be followed.
Ive seen Band of Brothers to meny times to count, but I still get choked up when 4:03 say, "We lost a lot of people that night..."
@10:28 All throughout WWI and WWII thousands of Americans joined Foreign Armies before the United States officially joined in. In WWI you had the famed fighter squadron "Lafayette Escadrille" made of American volunteers in the early French Air Force. There was also the French Foreign Legion who took in men from any background who were willing to fight for France in exchange for a new life/ identity and if they survived their enlistment they could choose to become French Citizens (still exists today). In WW2 you had loads of Americans who went to fight beginning as early as the Spanish Civil War in 1936. In WW2 Americans would cross into Canada to join Canadian commonwealth forces to fight the Nazis including the famed "Eagle Squadron" of the Royal air force. Some later joined the fight against Russia with Finland in the Winter and continuation wars. The most notable group was the American Volunteer Group fighting the Japanese in China, they were later more famously known as "The Flying Tigers". Once the United States entered the war, these men would usually be swept into the regular American forces.
The Nazis exploited the prejudice and fascist ideologies of individuals from a far including the USA where there was a growing movement for an American Nazi party mimicking Germany's. The Waffen SS created volunteer fighting or support units made of foreign nationals of occupied territory including Eastern Europeans, French, Africans, and Far eastern legions. Some included British and Americans who joined the Nazis and whom later met life imprisonment or execution by the Allies for treason after the war was won. Anyone caught by the Russians were summarily executed if they were lucky, the unfortunate ones were sentenced to life in hard labor camps in Siberia where they would essentially be worked to death.
@4:30 - First planes took off around 10:30 pm, and the drop started around 0:45am. Considering the time needed for preparations before the jump, they had less than two hours of idle time to dwell on what was about to happen. It wasn't a long distance between airfields and dropzones, all things considered.
Just to clear something up, Spears got his men out of the trenches because he was worried of mines and traps. There was also another right angle turn in the trench that the Germans might well have set up an MG42 like the one Winters took out. In reality the casualties suffered by Dog Company weren't as extreme as the show makes it out to be. Most of his troops stayed back to provide a base of fire.
D-Day was originally 5th June but was postponed for 24hrs and everything was put back till the 6th June, including all the ships and and all the soldiers had to wait aboard the ships for that 24hrs.
Really loving your reactions so far! I like the amount of thought you put into it. I thought I would point out two small things just for your own edification. The first is that most things you are referring to as strategic, like Winter's ability and how they attacked the guns, etc. should be referred to as tactical. In a military context, strategic refers to very large scale operations and planning, stuff that an entire army would be doing and the logistics to support them. Tactical refers to the very small scale / small unit actions such as portrayed here. Winters was a great tactician. Second thing I wanted to point out is that Speirs, the leader that went out of the trench to attack the last gun was actually a quite capable and tactically sound leader. He left the trench because it allowed them to close on the last gun much quicker and also avoid the choke point of the trench because the Germans knew they were coming. The element of surprise was gone because the battle had been going for quite some time, so moving down the trench into the waiting Germans would have carried its own risks. Only one soldier that went with Speirs to attack the last gun was wounded. The rest came out A - Okay.
Love your reactions, can't wait for the next part. Keep up the good content.
the spade on the helmet was the symbol 506th pir used for identification. the rest of the 101st division used different card symbols along with other blobs and shapes. 501st had diamonds, 502nd had hearts, the glider boys had the Club. some of the other airborne regiments in other divisions also had some different helmet markings but not as much as the 101st.
The spade on the helmet was an indicator of which Regiment they were in.
4:40 They were dropped by parachute the night before D-Day so that they could destroy the cannons and enemy positions, and when the others landed on the beach the next day they would have a clear path. The problem was that they were dropped scattered everywhere and very few of them They were able to fulfill their mission, which is why when the soldiers landed on the beaches of Normandy they encountered so much resistance from the Germans.
You will definitely begin to learn their names. It will definitely get harder the further you go, but worth it. Many of the details are true. Popeye apologizing for getting shot. The guy looking for headquarters in the middle of a firefight and getting shot. Joe nearly getting blown up twice by grenades. Those were details taken from when they interviewed the veterans. It’s an extremely accurate series! Can’t wait to see the rest
In regards to Volksdeutsche, my great grandfather was born in Germany and moved his family to the United States and the first of his children born in the US was my grandfather. When Germany declared war on the US and my grandfather and his brother joined the US Army, my great grandfather was absolutely livid, and all but disowned them both. He felt their enlistment was a betrayal to Germany. So that was the kind of mentality that Hitler tried to capitalize on when he called for everyone of German heritage to join the German military, and I probably wouldn't exist if my great grandfather had shipped his sons back to Germany.
My maternal grandfather came to the US in like 1897, my mom was born in '33, she remembers him listening to Hitler on the shortwave radio at like 5yo saying how Hitler would do "great things for Germany", and how upset he was when Hitler declared war on the US after Pearl Harbor.
If you look at Spiers when he jumps out the trench, he’s telling his men to stay in, possibly to draw fire on himself, but they unfortunately follow him.
Had Sobel still been with Easy Company, he'd have been in the plane where Meehan was. It would have meant Sobel was currently missing and not Lieutenant Meehan.
I am not sure but I think Lt. Meehan was the one in episode 1 who announces that the drop has been delayed, and in a map scene, discusses with Dick Winters where their jump will be. It is assumed that his entire plane was shot down during the crossing in episode 2.
The title song is called "Requiem For A Soldier".... you should look up the lyrics (yes, it has lyrics) before you hear it again. Have tissues handy.
Very thoughtful and genuine reaction. It warms my heart to see young people interested in these important things. Thumbs up. Subscribed!
the guy who played John Hall and Damian Lewis will be in another WWII movie called "Pressure" about the weather prior to D-Day. excited to see it when it comes out
7:39 This is why they drilled into their heads the sand tables and briefing information, so if they did miss their drop like they did they’d be able to find their way to the rally point with just a map and compass, or purely by memory
I watched it as it was new - in the early 2000ths - in a 5.1 Surround sound environment. It was mindblowing...
You totally understood when you said the plane was going too fast and they missed the jump zone. 60 MPH is 88' per second, and they were going well over twice that speed. So just a few seconds early and you're half a mile short of the drop zone. And they definitely jumped early when the co-pilot was killed and the pilot quickly switched their light to green.
I read from a memoir of a German soldier who said that the American troops in general were better conditioned than the Germans.
At that time during D Day they were under orders to not take prisoners. The invasion was still happening. The beach heads were still a killing field. They simply did not have the man power or a secure place to hold prisoners.
The Germans said that the helmet netting worn by the Americans made them easy targets. They were very easy to spot.
The spad on the helment represent the battle. Othrr 101 unit had clubs,heart and dimonds
Yes, Winters as you will see in up comming episodes has concern for his men. If you get a chance watch the movie The Longest Day, it shows the story of D-Day from the American, British, French and German perspective an older movie from 1962. The Lt who alledgely shot the Germans is Lt Spiers, he is a bad ass. love the reaction.
The mission of the Airborne troops was to parachute-in, the night before the D-Day beach landings, and seize and hold key bridges, roads, and towns. They dropped-in just before dawn on D-Day, so that they would have enough time to achieve their objectives. That way, when the landing troops hit the beaches (As in Saving Private Ryan), their actual fighting would be minimal, as everything would have already been captured. However, as this movie shows, the old adage comes true ..... "No plan survives first contact with the enemy." Meaning that, you can make a plan, even down to the most miniscule detail, yet once you meet the enemy, your whole plan will likely have to be scrapped. This is because the enemy will not likely fight the battle according to what you have planned.
The Germans fight gor the Fatherland, the Russians fight for the Motherland, the British fight for King and Country, and the Americans fight for souvenirs.😊
😂🙄
18:08 If I remember Guarnere thought Winters was a Quaker because he never drank alcohol. However, I wanna say Winter didn’t drink only cuz he knew it would hinder his decision making, he wanted to have a clear, level head to make the best decision to keep his men alive. Guarnere was one of those guy like most men of the time that if you can’t/don’t drink you can’t trust him. He came around tho
Malarkey was saying that he wants to get a Luger, which is a German gun he did not say loot like you are saying I think you got confused. He is looking for a Luger which is a German pistol to bring home is a souvenir for his brother he said. Not loot
Can you imagine David Schwimmer leading the guys at Brecourt? 😅
20:18 lol he was a legend from the beginning.
"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."
General Dwight D. Eisenhower Supreme Allied Commander's other prepared speech. D-DAY was never a guarantee...
Because you have shown such respect towards these men & your thoughtful commentary... I'm along for the ride; subbing.
I don't know if you remember me and that's ok I'm a combat vet and and as a reminder I said that shortly you are going to feel very much so that the are a member of Easy . This is going to be hard but you can do it and it's very much worth it. God bless you.
The Spade Symbol is for good luck.
02:02 "New gear and anti-sickness pills"
For a first time viewer Kali sure catches a lot of the small details that made this show a masterpiece.
Way to go lil sis, keep it up !... Currahee !!!
Lt. Meehan's plane was the one that crashed and burned.
Just so you know, the men being interviewed are actual members of Easy company. The fun part is trying to fiqure out who's who. The series is from the book which in turn was from interviews from the veterens.
Spiers did kill the POW's (I don't blame him, it's war and you will the consequences of leaving POWs later). The production heads were worried about being sued so they outright asked him and he said yep, and signed an affidavit clearing them of liability.