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My Great Uncle (Elijah Whytsell) was 20 feet away from Miller when he was blown up in this episode. He was also a replacement, was injured in what would be the "Crossroads" episode, and shipped back to England to heal from his head wounds. He passed in 2016 but told me some amazing stories after I was older.
@Luke Timewalker That would actually be pretty neat... I don't know if I'd be able to do him justice, tho 😂. Between him and my Grandpa (was in the Navy in the South Pacific during ww2) and their oldest brother (flew planes in England), there'd definitely be some good stories! David Webster actually mentioned my uncle a few times in his book, Parachute Company, which was another book they used for the series.
Fun fact- Roy Cobb the soldier who gets told shit Cobb you didn’t fight in Normandy either. Was actually the only East Company soldier who had actual combat experience before DDay. He had been in the army for 10 years already, and fought in North Africa during Operation Torch, he had even survived the troop ship he was on being sunk by a German torpedo.
By all accounts though he was a pain in the ass as the war went on. Even Col. Sink at one point wished he had been "taken care of" by friendly fire due to an incident that happens later on.
@@przemekkozlowski7835 if he fought in North Africa, then he probably did. His service is awesome and it makes me blame him less, but he was still a dick
"They kept track of who slept with the Germans?" - Have to remember, the war had been going on for some time before the US entered/was drawn into/allowed themselves to be drawn into the fray (Keep in mind the amount of time it takes to train soldiers, so the US wasn't ready for it early on, anyway. It required mobilization). Holland was invaded in May of 1940, and the Battle of Eindhoven didn't occur until September 1944. So, 4 years of Nazi occupation. That's a great deal of time to see who suddenly prospers while everyone else suffers.
I think, if ones combines reading of The Unwomanly Face of War and watching Come and See one might get pretty full picture of the War from entirely different perspective. And finally stops thinking about it in the terms of heroes. "to see who suddenly prospers". Oh, those lovely soldiers that always asked for concent and only go out with the girls that supported their idealogy. I would call it what it was - rape. And being punished 3 times. During occupation, after liberation (not by brave partisans who for some reason also thought that they have the right to judge) and often having a child as a constant reminder and responsibility (film "One War" comes to my mind). More rapists walked away from it unpunished cause you simply can't prosecute such enormous army anyway or god forbid it was done by liberators of Germany... People should remember that, too.
They informed. The men get summarily excited, the woman just shamed then exiled. No one cares about defending the men. Yes play mental twister over the woman. There is a line you don't cross when your entire society is under that kind of boot. Those woman prospered at their neighbors expense. They played the social status game, they turned peaple in, or used the threat of it. Even if it was just an unspokenly implied. The young girls and woman who worked for the underground knew who was who. They also lured the Germans to there deaths with the promise of a kiss. Those woman where lucky, they got to live, keep there children, and start over some whare else.
11:12 "He never tasted chocolate before." That little boy was probably born just before or after the war began and the German occupation took over their town. The smile that he gives Webb after tasting the chocolate is super heartwarming. Also slightly tragic considering what we see happen when Market Garden pushes them out of there.
A minor note on the chocolate as well, that was just hershey's chocolate which was a standard part of rations for morale. Emergency ration chocolate had a bunch of other ingredients in it and barely resembled chocolate, it was formulated to taste bad intentionally so soldiers wouldn't eat it unless they needed it and was also incredibly hard.
We Dutchies have a reputation of being open and friendly, however we are also very vindictive, I remember my grandma telling me about the years after the war there were 2 butchershops in our town, one in the same street and one on the other side of the town, she would ride on her bike without tires to the other side of town because the butcher in their street was a traiter. Both my grandparents were in the resistance, she would bring forbidden newspapers and he was in the armed resistance, they also had a jewish man hidden in their attic. In the last 2 weeks of German occupation in the netherlands they also had to accomadate a german officer (regular officer, not SS) The day he left he told my granddad that he knew of the jewish man upstairs and told him he was a brave man en wished him and his wife a happy life together. Granddad always said I dont hate Germans, just the nazi's and the traiters. I t fills me with a lot of pride and every year on may the 5th we have a special day to remember the fallen, and although they survived I always think of them and I will one day tell my kids about them, even though they never met them.
@@aazo5 If that was the Tiger firing then it's 88mm was perfectly capable of penetrating the front plate of both the Sherman and Cromwell tanks (the two types of allied tanks shown in this episode). However the Sherman being hit at this specific timestamp does seem to be unaffected by whatever it was hit by, unlike the Sherman earlier in the battle that was penetrated through the front and almost rolled over Sgt. Randleman.
@@Oxley016 That’s what I’m saying. Perhaps IRL, that Sherman would indeed be destroyed. But from the damage they portrayed in the show, that Sherman seemed functioning still
Just a clarification: the helmets don't stop bullets. They're meant to protect from shrapnel and debris. You'll notice that the bullet actually went through Nixon's helmet, just at the right angle to miss him. You can see where it just grazed his forehead.
@@przemekkozlowski7835 A ricochet that had lost most of its energy would not have gone cleanly in and out of his helmet. It was just luck it missed killing him.
Helmets back then were more akin to hard hats now, to protect from falling debris and “slower” moving shrapnel. Fun fact on helmets, in WW1 helmets were a new thing. The British army on equipping soldier with helmets saw a spike in head injuries and were going to revoke equipping soldiers with them because they saw it increasing injuries. A statistical expert came in and looked at the problem. What they found was a case of survivorship bias. The helmets were doing their job at protecting the troops. The increase of head injuries showed that because without those helmets those soldiers would have been killed outright and would not have been included in the study.
33:27 the Purple Heart is a medal given to soldiers every time they're injured in a military conflict. It's not determined by military campaign. In a previous job, I worked with military records and it wasn't uncommon to see veterans receive multiple Purple Hearts. The most I've seen someone earn is seven.
Just to specify, not just injured in a conflict but wounded as a direct result of an enemy combatant. My friend has a Purple Heart from an IED in Afghanistan, I got injured as a 240 gunner in a guntruck in Iraq. My injury was not the result of enemy fire so I don't qualify for a PH. Likewise if someone is wounded by friendly fire they don't get a PH.
Sadly, John Kerry got three of them and none of the “injuries” He received, was life-threatening endangering, or anything of the matter whatsoever. He truly is someone who got injured to try to get recognized for his service.
The issue surrounding "collaborator" women and their children was often contentious. Anni-Frid Lyngstad, of ABBA, was born of a Norwegian mother and a German father. Her mother emigrated with her to Sweden in 1947 to spare her from local hostility.
you have to remember, James McAvoy was not yet famous then, BoB was his 5th or so role, for Fassbender it was his second and another famous now actor that you'll see later on, it was his first.
If you want to learn more about Operation Market Garden, I highly recommend watching "A Bridge Too Far." There are moments in the film that just make you go "What the hell were the people in charge of the Allies thinking by doing that?!"
Yeah but it almost worked too. If only the 82nd Airborne Division had done what they were told and focussed on taking the bridge at Nijmegen above all other objectives. Oh and there were elements of two SS Panzer Divisions in the area that were unknown to the Allies, which certainly didn't help matters.
I swear I think it was Monty going for the glory at the expense of his men's lives. The plan was mostly his idea, and the British were the tip of the spear as it were. Of course the Americans also failed their objectives, not just the British. The plan was overly ambitious and I'm really surprised that allied command didn't shoot it down as being far to risky.
Bear in mind the film is only 50% historically accurate. If what you're seeing doesn't make sense, it should ring an alarm that it isn't the true story.
@@Oxley016 - the divisions were known about and it was known they were reduced to regimental battlegroups in strength with few if any tanks because the British had reduced them in Normandy. The Arnhem bridge was held for four days, as Browning had promised Montgomery, against everything thrown at it. The operation was fatally compromised at Nijmegen, not Arnhem.
@@davemac1197 The part with the Brits stopping to have tea time at the side of the road actually did happen unfortunately. Same with the really stupid idea of crossing the river in rafts during daylight. Both were serious WTF moments.
At 9:23 you see a real Easy Company replacement at the lower left corner in a beret. That's Babe Heffron, who landed a cameo role in this episode. He and Bill Guarnere were visiting the set at the time. The director asked him if he wanted to be in a scene and Babe said sure. Both Babe and Bill were revered by the actors and treated like superstars (which they were). Both of them could drink the actors under the table, too!
The thing about Unit Commendations is that the citation is made to the unit and not the soldiers in the unit, which means anyone who is a part of the unit can wear it, as long as they are a part of the unit in question. If a soldier gets transferred to a new unit, they stop wearing the citation.
The scene, where the woman was hanging out a piece of cloth, note that it has the color orange, which is the color for the House of Orange, or the Dutch Royal family. The scene where they were shaving the women, was basically retribution for sleeping and/or collaborating with the germans. They were called "moffenhoeren" or "krautwhores", and were generally shunned by society, even long after the war was over. And as a Dutchman, this episode kind off has some historical significance for me, and, to some extent, still has an impact on my life to this day. My Maternal Grandfather was a draftee in the Dutch army when the Nazi's invaded. Once the germans had bombed Rotterdam after five days of war, and the remnants of the Dutch government, that had not fled to Great Britain (or North America) surrendered, he went into a local Dutch resistance movement, until they got found out, and he had to flee to Great Britain as well, where he spent the rest of the war, as far as i know. Unfortunately, after the war, he was sent to Indonesia to take part in the so-called "police actions", which is generally not exactly the best action The Netherlands ever made. This ultimately led to the man having to deal with the trauma's of both these times in his life for the rest of his life, until he died at the age of 82 (making him the only grandparent to make it to the current life expectancy of about 80 years).To me, and my two younger brothers, he was pretty much the only (official) grandparent we knew. All my other grandparents had died before i was even born (in 1972), the oldest of which lived to reach the (not so) ripe old age of 43. My Dad was actually born during the war, in june of 1943, and only barely made it out of the war, as he had endured the (harsh) winter of 1944/45, which in Dutch history is known as the hunger winter. Stories abound about parents feeding their often starving children flower seeds, and people eating tulip bulbs, just to survive. Many people (including many children), who initially survived the war, still died in the aftermath from complications and lowered immune systems. That's what killed my paternal Grandmother. She died in 1947 from a Tuberculosis infection. She wasn't even 40 years old. My paternal Grandfather died three years later, at the age of 41, making my dad (who was just 7 years at the time) and his two older brothers, pretty much orphans. The trauma my dad got from that (plus the abuse he underwent in the orphanage), combined with the fact that he basically was malnourished for the first few years of his life, led to him reaching the age of just 61. This goes to show, how long the impact of being in a war, can last over a human lifespan, and influence the development of generations thereafter.
You guys should check out the book The Dutch Girl. It’s the account of a pre fame Audrey Hepburn working in the Dutch Resistance in Nazi occupied Holland. She was a bad ass. Raising money for operations with secret dance performances, helping hide the Jews, even a British paratrooper in her own house during Market Garden. She would deliver food and messages to Allied pilots and during the Dutch famine of 45 (thanks to the Nazis cutting off supplies) she made flour from tulips for her family and friends. She nearly died of malnutrition. Amazing stuff.
The more and more you get into the series, more episodes, that you watch from this, the more respect that you have for all of the men who went through the things that they went through for this country. Without any shortage of any words, I have the utmost respect from all of those who fight for this country, and still do to this day, and will in the future as well. Thank you cannot be said enough for their service.
Nice sentiment, but in another comment you replied, out of nowhere, about how John Kerry had 3 purple hearts from non life threatening wounds and was an example of a guy who got hurt just to make himself look good. So it appears your respect stops at party lines.
@@Kritacul so you think what exactly? He hopped strategically in front of enemy fire to make sure he got wounded but not in a life threatening way? That is obnoxiously absurd. BTW, Purple Hearts are received for being wounded, not for having a life threatening wound. So your respect ends at the point where you make believe a guy somehow intentionally got three Purple Hearts without any being from life threatening wounds. Of COURSE this is about your politics. Because only republicans ever just discount a persons service like that. There is zero evidence in any way shape or form that suggests anything you assume about John Kerry is correct.
The 5 who went looking for "Bull" Randleman were - Hoobler Hashey, Garcia, Webster and Cobb. Hashey and Garcia were Miller's friends sitting in the bar, Cobb was the one who asked Miller, "where did you get that" ? and Hoobler said "take it easy Cobb". Webster was the one sitting to the side of Guarnere.
Winters and Nixon were 27-28 at this point in the war and the one of the oldest in the company (Winters joined around the same time as the real Soble the original XO in 1940 before the war with Japan even started, They had already gone through Basic and officer training but transferred over to the paratroopers when they became a thing for paratrooper training, Most soldiers had already completed basic also before joining the paratroopers for the extra pay). The Average age of easy company was 22-23, Often with Hollywood production on war movies actors tend to be alot older than the characters they are portraying. For example Colonel Sink in this looks around 50-55 but in reality was only in his early to mid 30s which was the standard age of that rank really in ww2. The actor who played him though is a real former veteran turn actor which is why they casted him. Joe and Bill were for example were 23-24 in reality but their actors look like they are in their 30s.
A WW2 Parachute Rifle Company consisted of about 165 to 175 men. The components of a Company were a Company HQ of about 20-25 men, and 3 Rifle Platoons of about 35-40 men each broken down into 3 Rifle squads of about 12 men for each squad, and a Mortar squad of about 6 men. There were also other men attached to the company such as Medics, cooks, supply clerks, etc...
All medals in the U.S. military are recommended by a fellow soldier, endorsed by an officer and then approved by their command. Each medal has different approval criteria. But if you are never recommended for a medal, you won't receive one. Example: for purple hearts have to be recommended by a medical officer, then approved by their command. With so many wounded, and so much paperwork going in front of a clerk's office, people could have been easily overlooked or given multiple medals for the same action.
You saw in the ending that it said 8,000 British troops in Arnhem were lost. I have a newspaper that my father kept with the headline reading, "Over 7,500 Sky Troops lost". Pretty surreal to see this episode (and episode 5) and then to read a story which my father kept about the same incident 79 years earlier.
Aaron might be thinking of the Combat Infantryman Badge when he thinks the Purple Heart can only be awarded once per conflict. Not true of the PH, but you can only get a CIB or other combat badges once per "war". That's why guys with stars (denotes multiple) over their CIBs are rare - they saw combat in multiple wars (think Veterans who served in WWII, Korea and Vietnam).
Dutch people working together with the Germans, a story that always stuck with me was one that my 8th grade teacher told once. There was a certain traditional potato dish that Jewish families would eat often, so a schoolteacher working with the Germans, would ask the kids what they had for dinner. And then pass that information on to the Germans so the family could get arrested and transported to prison camps
3:57 - the awards on the right ab over the pocket are unit awards. People in the same unit will wear those awards forever - no matter if they were there or not - because its a unit award.And when they transfer to a new unit, they will take those awards off and put on the awards for their new unit. and so on and so forth. The ones on the left side are earned by the individual. 12:55 usually you have one combat medic per platoon and then each company has a senior medic. Easy Company had three platoons so as a company they had 3 or 4 medics.
You guys should react to A Bridge Too Far. A really great, star studded war movie depicting this very operation. To name a few actors: Robert Redford, Anthony Hopkins, Gene Hackman, James Caan and many many more.
0:37 So I’m totally late to this and I’m obsessed with this series. It’s a big reason I went Airborne in my military career. There’s no set number to how many soldiers can be in a platoon. You usually have your squads that make up a platoon. TLDR; Squad (1-10) > Platoon (10-50) > Battery/Company (50-100+) > Battalion (100-600+) > Brigade (2,000 - 6,000+) and it just goes up and up. This is all speaking from my experience with the 82nd Airborne Division. It’s always changing!
6:42 You got that scene correct. The officers are always the first out of the plane. This particular officer is Lt. Edward Shames. He was in fact colorblind and if anyone found out, it would have been a medical discharge out of the military. Like so many young boys who lied about their ages so they could volunteer to fight, Shames definitely didn't want the military finding out about his colorblindness and be denied the chance to fight alongside so many others who had stepped up to volunteer.
FYI: it goes squad (8 to 12 soldiers), platoon (4 to 8 squads), company (3 to 8 platoons), battalion (3 to 6 companies), regiment (various battalions/roughly 3 to 5 thousands soldiers), and division (various regiments/about 10 to 15,000 soldiers). Those amounts fluctuate quite a bit but expand a huge amount during war times.
Team - 4-6 troops Squad - 12-15 troops Platoon - 40-50 troops Company - 150-200 troops Battalion - 500-1000 troops Brigade/Regiment - 2000-3500 troops Division - 10,000-15,000 troops goes on from there but this is about the extent of need to know.
A WWII historian (James Holand) said that the « no unnecessary » destruction scene is not realistic. That the British tanks would have shot without hesitation so he gave that scene a 7/10 accuracy…. He was a little bit miffed at the American view on British soldiers.
If you read the first person accounts from Ambrose books, that's what was told to him. So either the british historian is mistaken or the easy company vets were lying. I'll trust the vets who were there.
The same James Holand that said in that same video that handguns aren't accurate past a few feet (they absolutely are from personal experience), said Hiroshima was an island, and called the M3 Grease Gun the wrong name several times? That is of course only a short list of that "historian's" fuck ups in just that video alone. And he can bitch about the British tank crew all he wants, even in Winters's own book he mentions warning a British tank about an ambush and they ignored him and drove right into it anyways, with predictable results. So no, not exactly inaccurate despite what a biased Brit "historian" might say. Next you'll tell me you think Lindybeige is a reliable source on British (specifically English) military history, lol.
Buck Compton, in a 2007 interview, said he couldn't have had four bullet holes, but three, because they took him to the hospital to take the bullet out.
Specifically to the US Parachute Company in September 1944, a Squad was 12 men, and in the official August 1944 organisation there were two Squads to a Platoon, with a Platoon HQ of 6 men and a 60mm Mortar Team of 6 men, making a Platoon of 36. Three Platoons plus Company HQ of 22 men gave a Company strength of 130 men. Only the 504th PIR landing at Grave had this official organisation, having only just recovered from the Anzio operation in Italy. The rest of the US Airborne were using an experimental organisation for MARKET GARDEN with an additional Squad in each Platoon, with an additional man in the Company HQ creating a 167 man Company. Some units jumped 'over establishment' on even the experimental organisation, such as the 505th with around 170 men in some companies. The experimental organisation became official on 16 December 1944, coincidentally the start date of the Ardennes counter-offensive, but at this time the Airborne units were under strength awaiting replacements for many of their MARKET GARDEN casualties.
the thing with the women is some of them did it because they supported them, yes, but some of them did it to protect and save their families and children, and some of them did not do it willingly. so when you don't know who did what, whether or not they had a choice, its disturbing.
After the war The British and Americans had to take alot of measures to stop revenge killings on such people. As you said many were forced into it or did so out of survival. One of the things not taught in Britain or America is for about 5-6 years after the war Europe was in such a sad state that many many women put themselves out for prostitution to foreign troops who were acting sort of like police to provide for their family's. This was also in large part to due with the fact many many men of fighting age were killed as resistence fighters or harbourers etc etc. This is also one of the direct reasons the European union was started part of that was for European peace but a large but of it originally was to recover western Europeans after the war who were so devastated. There was not many french Towns or villages not destroyed by Germans on their retreat.
I don't think it's unrealistic that on occasions in which there was a high likelihood of residents in the buildings that they would hesitate to level them. What's the most ridiculous is that he was given clear directions of the tanks location and they just drove into it anyway. Bit of a ridiculous part of the show that makes the British look incompetent for no reason.
10:56 So I’m watching this while at work on my headphones, I legit thought Eric said “soap” at first. But when I then heard supply officer I put it together and had to contain a laugh cause I’m in a room full of people.
Actually, about the scene with the British tank commander saying that they cannont damage private proprety unnecessarily, in a recent video with an expert of World War Two, commenting on that particular scene, he stated that said British tank commander would have shot at the building covering the German tank without hesitation if that meant taking down the tank without exposing too much it's own.
Yeah, it's just creative license from the director so as to make the Allied situation seem worse. Arguably also to downplay British contribution to the war and make the Americans seem like the superior force.
I watched that video too. It was nice to hear him say that, because I always wondered why they would just be like "oh well I can't see the tank... carry on"
There's a huge difference between the facts on the ground and the orders you get from higher command. Big picture, it makes sense to discourage damage to civilian buildings, keep the friendlies friendly. At the tactical level, yeah shoot the house. Of course, Market Garden makes the Brit armor look really bad so it may have been a reference to that.
The British armor was under orders to keep moving as fast as possible since they had to relieve the paratroopers at Arnhein ASAP. There is a good chance that it was not the first time some panicky infantry soldier warned him of a German "Tiger", they wasted time scouting it but it turned out that it was just a shed or hay stack. Also, the guy probably did not want to just blow up a house and possibly kill a family hiding inside.
0:31-In regards to unit sizes in the US Army, the smallest is a section (4-12 men) under a sergeant, then a squad (2 or more sections or 8-24 men) still under a sergeant, then a platoon or troop (2 or more squads or 16-50 men) under a 1st lieutenant, then a company (2 or more platoons or 100-250 men) under a captain or major, then a battalion (4 or more companies or 400-1,000 men) under a lt. colonel, then a regiment (2 or more battalions or 1,000-2,000 men) under a colonel, then a brigade (3 or more battalions or 1,500-3,500 men) under a colonel, brigadier general, or even major general, then a division (3 or more brigades/regiments or 10,000-15,000 men) under a major general or lt. general, then a corps (2 or more divisions or 25,000-50,000 men) under a lt. general or general, and finally an army group (2 or more corps or 100,000-150,000) under a general or higher (other countries call that field marshal, but the US 5 star is called "General of the Army." There's also the rarer 6 star "General of the Armies")
During the Eindhoven celebration/parade, when Lt. Peakcock yells at Sgt. Talbert kissing the girl there is an old man sitting at the table with them. That is a cameo by good Ole "Babe" Heffron.
There is a film based off the Market Garden Operation called "A Bridge too Far" starring Sean Connery, Gene Hackman, Robert Redford, Michael Caine, James Caan and Anthony Hopkins.
The movie "A Bridge to Far" is a good longer form telling of the story of Operation Market Garden. It was made in 1977 and featured all of the big names actors of the time. Most all of the period military hardware was still available in the mid 70s and in decent condition, making realism and practical effects a relatively easy task.
It's also worth adding that the film is only 50% historically accurate in the narrative. It's based on the book by Cornelius Ryan, rushed to publication unfinished in 1974 because he had terminal cancer. The film was further compromised by Richard Attenborough being an anti-British British director who intended to make an "anti-war film", and the American producer Joseph Levine responded to complaints about historical inaccuracy by stating "I pay to make entertainment, not history." The script was written by Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid (1969) screenwriter William Goldman and is hugely entertaining, but drew a lot of complaints from people who knew the real characters who had already passed. Robert Redford's performance also caught flak from the real Julian Cook as his role after the famous river assault crossing was a complete fiction.
Squad-13 men (usually) platoon- 3-5 squads, a lieutenant in command, a platoon Sgt, and a couple of RTOs Company- 3-5 platoons, captain in command, 1st Sgt, 1st Lt as XO. Artillery companies are called “batteries” cavalry companies are called “troops”. Battalion- 3-5 line companies, usually a heavy weapons company, and an HQ Company, commanded by a Lt.Col with a support Staff. Regiment-3 or more Battalions. Commanded by a Col. A regiment with numerous extra assigned units, especially if independent of a division is a Brigade.. Division- Multiple Regiments and/or Brigade, commanded by a Major General. Corp-Multiple divisions and attachments, commanded by a Lt. General Army- Multiple Corps, commanded by a General (4-Star). Usually responsible for an entire theater of War/major Geographical area of the planet.
After this episode I wanted to know more about Eindhoven in WWII and it's really sad what happened to that city. Literally the same army that is celebrating with the people is the same one that bombed the city in the night to stop the nazis counterattack. This show is so good...
40s Holland is really neglected in teaching. All we really ever learn about is Operation Market Garden, which is wild in itself, but then you have places like Rotterdam (largest port in europe) amd much of the country that weren't liberated till the very end of the war. If you want a decent movie about Eindhoven, A Bridge Too Far is great imo about Operation Market Garden.
@@isthisdom It gets more mention in Canadian schools as the Canadian Army was tasked with liberating the rest of Holland and had to do some nasty fighting to dislodge the remaining Germans. Lots of Dutch people then moved to Canada after the war and the Dutch government is still regularly honoring the contribution of the Canadian Army in liberating Holland.
@Przemek Kozlowski that's right 👍 I would say also that most people don't know just how awesome Commonwealth forces were during the War, which is a shame 😞 great soldiers
16:00 “crawl faster, or just stop.” He can’t stop. If he stops the tank goes into the ditch and blocks his escape. He would have to pop out of the ditch and go around loosing all of his cover. And he’s wounded. Only option is to our pace that tank so you can continue retreating in the ditch with cover
btw. taking the town Carentan is a mission playable in the first game "Call of Duty" and you would be like _"hey! those streets and buildings look ALOT like what we saw in Band of Brothers!"_
I guess there are things here that can be added to the compilation video of Aaron making predictions about things that come true a few seconds later and Calvin shouting, "Aaron, STFU!!!!"
26:15 I mean, on the Western Front it was fairly calm for German soldiers, which is why they got rotated there for R&R...the Eastern Front was a very different beast for them though. A large part of why Market Garden fell on its ass was that the intel the Allies had didn't include the fact that several units of hardened experienced soldiers had been rotated back from the Eastern Front to recover and resupply in the same area as the garrisons of "old men and little kids" they were expecting to run into.
The SS-Panzer units northeast of Arnhem had withdrawn from Normandy. They had previously been in Ukraine when the D-Day invasion started. Market Garden was fatally compromised by the failure of 82nd Airborne to secure the Nijmegen highway bridge in the first few hours while guarded by just an NCO and seventeen men. The British secured and held their bridge at Arnhem for four days, twice as long as should have been necessary if the Nijmegen bridge had been in Allied hands.
Boys, there was food scarcity, particularly in the last year of the War. There is a reason the last winter (44-45) was known as The Hunger Winter. Big cities barely had any food left, food was available with stamps/tickets and just imagine having something like 2 potatoes to feed a family from (families were generally larger back in the day). Of course there were soupkitchens offering something, but that too was hardly sufficient. People died on the streets, all the trees and wood were gone from the cities as most of it was already cut down as a cheap source of fuel. You weren't allowed to show your support for the Crown in exile (many had a portrait of Queen Wilhelmina and would hang it up in defiance, but hide it during the house searches). The Orange colour therefore was a clear indicator that that family would be welcoming the Americans. I have heard stories of Dutch families that saved up their last bit of 'real' coffee or other treat for when their liberators would arrive. It is also why we have never forgotten, why we honour the fallen on May the 4th with the ceremonial 2 minutes of silence (de Dodenherdenking), celebrate our Freedom on May the 5th to this day. As for the American soldiers that fell on Dutch soil, a good deal of them is buried at Margraten Cemetery, the American WW2 Cemetery in the Netherlands. There the grave adoption process was started and has been carried on ever since.
To a degree, I agree with Cobb. He did not fight in Normandy because he was wounded in the plane. He paid his dues on D Day. But, Miller was in the unit on D Day, but not deployed. He should have kept his pin on and Cobb shouldn't have been a jerk, but Cobb earned the same respect as everyone else by having to stay on a plane that was fortunate enough to survive the death flying to them from below.
The actress who plays the woman/mom with the baby and shaved head looks a lot like Samantha Morton - Alpha from TWD and Agatha from Minority Report (and a ton of other stuff).
"if someone tells me there is a tank there, I'll be looking right there", and that's how you get shot from the side by another tank that you weren't told about. Tanks rarely operate alone, if you know of one, there's more than one there.
So to help with military structure: Easy Company is your standard Paratrooper company 1944 configuration. It had 1 Company Command group - Winters, his 2IC Lipton who was the company sergeant and usually a Radio operator. - company sergeants we’re the most senior sergeant/NCO in any company. They would pretty much be the go between between all NCOs and the company command and would usually be the one to move about and coordinate the COs actions - officer command NCOs lead. It’s why the saying from NCOs is “we work for a living” exists. - medic(‘s) any medics that were within the company usually fell under the command section of the company where they’d be distributed out to platoons or kept in a area of central convenience for easy movement to casualties from multiple platoons. Each Company had 3 Rifle Platoons and 1 Weapons Platoon. A Rifle Platoon was made up of: The Platoon IC (usually a Lieutenant of lower rank than those in command of the company; however if the officer becomes a casualty and their is no replacement it gets passed down to the platoon sergeant) Platoon Sergeant - this is the most senior sergeant in any platoon. He is their to be the go between, between the squad NCOs and platoon IC and be the one to move about coordinating and putting into action of the commander.) You also had the platoon Bazooka team here. It was usually 1 corporal and 1 Lance Corporal as both were expected to act independently. - the second was made a Lance Corporal to donate his specialist role. Down from them you had 3 squads of riflemen with: 1 sergeant and 11 men. - this large number of men would usually operate in small teams tho. Usually a support team with the squads MG A assault team with usually the squads SMG armed members and guys with extra grenades and rifle grenade if given. A scout team a corporal and private who would be detached to scout locations ahead of the unit. In many ways they were essentially an early trip-wire for ambushes that if killed the squad still had 10 men to lay down full fire with. Fire Team usually the group armed with any additional support weapons such as BARs or just full of rifles. There job would be to usually suppress a unit to allow the assault team to flank and kill it. So overall a platoon would be 40 men strong. 1 platoon IC 1 platoon sergeant Radio Operator Machine Gun Squad Usually a sergeant and corporal. They’d be in command of 4 machine gun groups. These would usually be a small pair/trio of guys armed with the similar Browning 1919A4 MG that their squad buddies had. They would usually be assigned out to reinforce other units with additional firepower or commanded into pre-set positions by the company CO to help deliver suppressive or coordinated fire on a target so that other squads can move. Mortar Squad This would have a sergeant and corporal in command with a third man armed with a radio. This squad would contain the platoons 3 60mm mortar teams. This squad would 90% of the time not work together but would usually be split down and sent to attach to a rifle platoon to provide close in direct 60mm support. The ideas was that if a unit came upon a entrenched enemy with a set up position/machine gun in good cover, the 60mm could get easy eyes on it and range it in themselves for a kill or be close enough that simple shouts or a quick runner could get them firing and on target fast. This platoon would usually be around 35 strong tho this could semi-fluctuate as the MGs could have additional men assigned to carry ammo for them. Which would bring it closer to 43 strong. So overall Easy Company at full combat strength would order around: 170-172 strong. Tho this could fluctuate as there could be more men in winters command group or other command groups and additional specialists assigned to the company such as artillery observers, air controllers and occasionally just spare man power if on hand.
It didn't help that Montgomery's dumbass plan relied on everything going perfectly. Incompetent decision after Incompetent decision by Montgomery, who was desperate to prove Britain was an equal to the US in the war, resulted in one of the biggest Allied failures in the entire war.
Not correct. The SS-Panzer-Divisions were on both banks of the River Ijssel (the inter-divisional boundary) between Arnhem-Apeldoorn-Deventer-Ruurlo to the north and east, while British 1st Airborne Division landed to the west of Arnhem around Wolfheze. The Arnhem highway bridge was captured by elements of 1st Parachute Brigade and held for four days. The Oosterbeek rail bridge was demolished and the pontoon bridge dismantled by the Germans.
@@Nyx_2142 - the plan was fatally compromised by the failure of the 508th PIR to secure an undefended bridge at Nijmegen in the first few hours. Read 82nd Airborne historian Phil Nordyke's Put Us Down In Hell (2012). Montgomery, Market Garden, and 1st Airborne Division, were all let down.
@@philipturner9087 - yes, all the British zones and the landing zone for the Polish gliders (carrying their Jeeps and anti-tank guns) were north of the Dutch Rijn, west of Arnhem. The main parachute element of the Polish Brigade were due to land directly to the south of the Arnhem Rijn bridge on D+2, but were delayed by weather, and due to the situation 1st Airborne were in, their drop zone was moved further west near the village of Driel, directly opposite the main division perimeter forming north of the Rijn at Oosterbeek. People often ask why didn't 1st Airborne Division use this drop zone south of the Arnhem bridge on the first day, if it was good enough for the Poles on D+2? That's a fair question and the answer is complex: the Polish DZ ('K') was located on the Malburgsche Polder (now all urban development in 'Arnhem Zuid') between two of the four heavy Flak batteries that were located around the town of Arnhem. Each battery had 6 x 7.5cm captured French Schneider M.36 guns, very similar to the German 8.8cm, and 3 x 2cm light Flak guns. The western position on the Meinerswijk Polder, which was firing directly across the Rijn into British troops advancing into western Arnhem, and the southern heavy Flak position that was directly northeast of DZ 'K' on the Waarden Veer Polder (now also urban development - the schools in the 'Immerloo II' neighbourhood) and was also firing on the British occupied houses near the bridge during the battle. The zone also inconveniently had high tension lines (!) crossing the open DZ area, coming from the Arnhem power station that was located across the river near the bridge. For the cancelled operation Comet, this zone was deemed suitable only for a few gliders in a coup de main attack on the bridge, like the one used in Operation Deadstick for the 'Pegasus Bridge' in Normandy. In fact, the glider pilot (Sergeant Jim Wallwick) who led that attack was also asked to lead this one as well, because of his experience, but he was hugely relieved when Comet was cancelled - he thought the conditions were a lot more hairy at Arnhem than at Pegasus Bridge. For the replacement Operation Market that had the two American divisions added to the Comet plan, the pressure on the Allied airlift capacity was therefore fully maxed out and the US IX Troop Carrier commander General Paul Williams insisted on the coup de main attacks being deleted from the plan, because he thought it may result in unacceptable aircraft losses to Flak impacting the capacity for the 2nd Lift. The 1st Airborne plan was then made for the Jeeps of the Reconnaissance Squadron to provide the coup de main attack instead, and DZ 'K' was expected to be cleared of Flak and the power cut to the HT lines by 1st Parachute Brigade before the Poles were due to arrive. The Poles were not expected to help take the bridge, they only needed it to cross over and RV with their Jeeps and guns to take up positions in their planned sector of the division perimeter in the east side of the town. The planned timetable was such that XXX Corps were also due to arrive at the bridge on D+2 as well. In the event, 1st Parachute Brigade had more limited control over the immediate bridge area and could not clear the zone for the Poles, so their drop zone had to be re-arranged to help the division perimeter at Oosterbeek instead. Sorry it's a complex story, but understanding the details explains why it was thought things had to be done the way they were. Airborne warfare was still being developed on the fly during WW2 and experience gained from Market suggests that the original Comet plan probably would have worked better at Arnhem, despite fewer troops from 1st Airborne being involved. The expansion of the plan for Market brought with it a number of compromises made by senior officers that actually worked against the plan in its execution. These issues are best explored in Sebastian Ritchie's book - Arnhem: Myth And Reality: Airborne Warfare, Air Power and the Failure of Operation Market Garden (2011, revised 2019).
14:49 - "...the Shermans couldn't hold up to a Tiger." Individually, perhaps not. That said, no tank is invincible, and a 75mm Sherman could still definitely punch through the Tiger's side or rear armor. Especially at ranges of 500 yards or less. There's an anecdote out there that "it would take 5 Shermans to take out a Tiger". Of course, tanks were grouped into platoons of 5 anyway, so it was rare that a solo Sherman was tasked to take out any enemy armor.
The average company is about 120 men at full fighting strength, but it varies from as few as 100 to as many as 250. Easy company had about 140 men when they left Toccoa to fight in the war, so by the time Easy was pulled off the line at the end of the last episode they were at nearly half their fighting strength. A platoon is about five squads and a squad is usually somewhere between 10-12 men. Basically, and to oversimplify a bit, at the bare minimum a company is divided into at least two platoons, each consisting of five squads of ten men.
The US Parachute Company establishment from February 1942 to August 1944 was 130 men, with each platoon having just two squads of 12 men, 6 men in the platoon HQ and a 60mm mortar team of 6 men. An experimental establishment involving an extra squad added to each platoon was tried for Market Garden, raising the Company to about 167, although some units with available replacements jumped 'over establishment' even on that basis with 170+. However, the 504th Regiment in the 82nd Airborne was barely back up to the official 130 as they had been at Anzio instead of Normandy. The new experimental establishment was formalised with new TO&E issued on 16 December 1944, coincidentally the date of the start of the German Ardennes counter-offensive.
12:08 Lt Brewer was lucky. The bullet went through skin & tissue not hitting anything vital to living or speaking. He survived and in fact he spoke to Randleman & the medic although this is not shown.
Okay so the sound at 17:00 when miller dies is so close to the old toy soldiers game sound effect when artillery/mortar rounds land does anyone remember those games and/or agree with me? Damn loved those games as a kid
8:11 The national flag of the Netherlands may be red, white & blue but orange is the national color. The royal family is the House of Orange & Nassau. When the Dutch teams compete in the Olympics they west orange. The Dutch Royal Family has had possession of the title “Prince of Orange” for centuries. It was created in the 1100s when the county of Orange in southern France was elevated to a principality headed by a Prince. The Dutch took possession in the 1400s and have held it ever since. In the 1600s during the various Catholic vs Protestant Wars the Dutch, led by the Prince of Orange were the primary Protestant army. To this day “Orangemen” means “Protestant Warriors”. Orange Clubs were created in Protestant Northern Ireland and in New Netherlands, the Dutch colony in North America (New York and New Jersey). Syracuse University, located in the former New Netherlands, took the name as the name for their athletic teams. A few years ago they switched to just “Orange” to make it gender-neutral for their women’s teams. This is why there are orange flags all over the Netherlands.
US Airborne in this period (August 1944 organisation): Rifle Squad = 12 men Platoon = 2 Squads, plus Platoon HQ = 6, and Mortar Team = 6, total = 36 Company = 3 Platoons, plus Company HQ of 22, total = 130 Source: Table of Organization and Equipment No. 7-37, War Department, Washington 25, D.C., 1 August 1944 Experimental organisation implemented for MARKET GARDEN (except 504th PIR*) added a Squad to each Platoon. Experimental organisation became official 16 December 1944: Rifle Squad = 12 Platoon HQ = 7 Mortar Team = 6 Platoon Total = 49 Company HQ = 29 Company Total = 176 Source: Table of Organisation and Equipment No. 7-37T, War Department, Washington 25, D.C. 16 December 1944 *504th just returned from Italy after Anzio and only up to August 1944 organisation with replacements.
You know, if the last few episodes were around when Rick and Calvin had covid, I would rather they wait until they get better before watching those. We will lose alot by not having their reactions and insights.
3:00 All 3 soldiers were replacements. They came together. Miller wasn’t with the unit in Normandy so he didn’t earn the ribbon & wasn’t authorized to wear it-maybe. Cobb was a unit member during Normandy so he was authorized to wear it even though he wasn’t there. Cobb was merely being an a$$ just for the sake of being an a$$. So why did Randleman, Guarnere & Martin not say anything? The Army has flexible rules on unit citations. If you were with the unit when it was awarded then it was yours to wear permanently regardless of unit you transferred to later. If you weren’t a member when it was award but transferred in later then the rule differs in the command. You were either required to wear it, for uniformity’s sake, but then you removed it when you transferred out or you were allowed to voluntarily wear it while with the unit but removed it when you transferred out.
Also I highly recommend watching "A Bridge too Far". It explains the whole operation they took part in the form of a very very good and accurate war movie. The american's paratroopers were pretty fortunate to get a safe landing when the British Landed Near Oosterbeek they were only able to take around half their troops for the first day which meant the following drops were under fire and at time in drop zones overrun which got them slaughtered. As the Polish Brigade commander said "We lost the main thing that makes partroopers effective, Surprise". The whole operation relied on the Armor getting to the British along a single road in 3 days which required every single part of the operation to go perfectly, As you can see in this it did not go smoothly at all and the British were left on the wrong side of the Rhine to be slaughtered since paratroopers only drop with 1-2 days of supplies. The Last Message of the British Battalion at Arnhem "Position over-run, CO captured, all officers killed or captured, ammunition gone. Will continue with bayonet --God save the King."
A Bridge Too Far is not accurate at all except for the production details like uniforms, insignia, weapons and equipment, probably thanks to the British production and technical crew. The American-centric script and narrative is only about 50% historically accurate, and that's based on a scene-by-scene study and adding up the timings. Compared to Band of Brothers episodes 4 and 5 covering the same operation, I haven't studied them in the same way, but would estimate them to be about 80% and 90% accurate respectively.
Albert Blithe survived his wound and even volunteered to fight in Korea after the war. He made it to First Sergeant. Dick Winters corrected the record after the show aired because he was upset that the show got it wrong and wanted Blithe to get the respect he deserved.
Market Garden was such a disaster and a prime example of why politics and war DO NOT mix. Montgomery pressured Allied command to greenlight the operation but it was a slaughter. The allies lost between 15,000-17,000 KIA, MIA, or WIA, 88 tanks, and 377 aircraft/gliders destroyed or lost. The Germans lost between 6,000-13,000 KIA or WIA. Not only that but they didn't even complete their overall objective. A great film about Market Gsrden to watch would be A Bridge Too Far.
Montgomery did not pressure anyone to green light MARKET GARDEN, it was a replacement upgrade for operation COMET Montgomery had cancelled on the morning of his 10 September meeting with Eisenhower, and Eisenhower enthusiastically endorsed the idea. Eisenhower went on record “I not only approved Market-Garden, I insisted upon it. We needed a bridgehead over the Rhine. If that could be accomplished I was quite willing to wait on all other operations.” (Eisenhower: A Soldier's Life, Carlo D'Este, 2015). The all other operations included opening Antwerp. Do not conflate Montgomery's heated disagreement with Eisenhower over strategy and logistics, which were both discussed earlier in the same meeting at Brussels airport. Montgomery had argued for a single powerful thrust with 40 divisions (incluing Hodges' US 1st Army) to Berlin, and that was firmly shut down by Eisenhower in favour of his own broad front policy of all armies advancing to the Rhine, making multiple crossings, and then using Antwerp's port capacity to supply a broad advance together into Germany, starting with a Ruhr encirclement with both British 2nd and US 1st Armies. Montgomery did not get his way on the overall strategy, but on current operations Eisenhower was enthusiastic about the expanded Arnhem operation because it would use the whole 1st Allied Airborne Army, for which he was under pressure from Washington to employ. The objective of MARKET GARDEN was limited to a Rhine crossing, so it fitted in with his broad front policy. Many people conflate MARKET GARDEN with Montgomery's thrust to Berlin or with the Ruhr encirclement, but neither of these was the objective at all. It only paved the way for future operations into Germany, for which Antwerp would be required to be open. A Bridge Too Far is only 50% historically accurate (much poorer than these two episodes of Band of Brothers covering the same operation), based on a biased incomplete book (Cornelius Ryan was an Irish newspaper war correspondent embedded with Patton's US 3rd Army). The most grievous omission being the story of the Nijmegen bridge on the first day, a story in which Cornelius Ryan only got a sanitised account from General Gavin in order to avoid his throwing a junior officer under the bus, but the US Army's Histoical Officer, Captain Westover, got an accurate account. This has recently been backed by witnesses to a divisional briefing in which Colonel Lindqust of the 508th PIR was instructed to move with speed on the Nijmegen highway bridge as soon as practical after landing and securing his initial objectives on the Groesbeek heights. The command failure within the 508th to carry out this instruction compromised the entire operation, allowing 10.SS-Panzer-Division to reinforce the bridges and imposed a fatal 36-hour delay on the ground forces reaching the 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem. You're absolutely right about politics, and it's unfortunate that politics intervened to compromise the planning and execution of an operation that would undoubtedly have shortened the war if it had succeeded. Montgomery unfairly gets the blame simply because he was not American, and his only involvement was to order the operation. It was planned by 1st Allied Airborne Army, which failed to secure a key objective soon after it landed.
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My Great Uncle (Elijah Whytsell) was 20 feet away from Miller when he was blown up in this episode. He was also a replacement, was injured in what would be the "Crossroads" episode, and shipped back to England to heal from his head wounds. He passed in 2016 but told me some amazing stories after I was older.
Elijah Whytsell, this Frenchman salutes you.
Eternal thanks
@@luketimewalker thank you so very much. 🤙🏼🤙🏼🤙🏼
@@unruinable138 how bout sharing his amazing stories? You could set up a wix page or something.
@Luke Timewalker That would actually be pretty neat... I don't know if I'd be able to do him justice, tho 😂. Between him and my Grandpa (was in the Navy in the South Pacific during ww2) and their oldest brother (flew planes in England), there'd definitely be some good stories! David Webster actually mentioned my uncle a few times in his book, Parachute Company, which was another book they used for the series.
Damn. Your uncle served honorably. I'm a Veteran of the 101st. AIRBORNE!!!
Fun fact- Roy Cobb the soldier who gets told shit Cobb you didn’t fight in Normandy either. Was actually the only East Company soldier who had actual combat experience before DDay. He had been in the army for 10 years already, and fought in North Africa during Operation Torch, he had even survived the troop ship he was on being sunk by a German torpedo.
By all accounts though he was a pain in the ass as the war went on. Even Col. Sink at one point wished he had been "taken care of" by friendly fire due to an incident that happens later on.
@@alucard624 Well, he sure is a dickhead in the show. That is for sure.
@@alucard624 To be fair, the guy was probably suffering from PTSD already and taking it out on people around him.
@@przemekkozlowski7835 if he fought in North Africa, then he probably did. His service is awesome and it makes me blame him less, but he was still a dick
Thanks for sharing!
"They kept track of who slept with the Germans?" - Have to remember, the war had been going on for some time before the US entered/was drawn into/allowed themselves to be drawn into the fray (Keep in mind the amount of time it takes to train soldiers, so the US wasn't ready for it early on, anyway. It required mobilization). Holland was invaded in May of 1940, and the Battle of Eindhoven didn't occur until September 1944. So, 4 years of Nazi occupation. That's a great deal of time to see who suddenly prospers while everyone else suffers.
Queue every "Where do you get that?" conservation.
I think, if ones combines reading of The Unwomanly Face of War and watching Come and See one might get pretty full picture of the War from entirely different perspective. And finally stops thinking about it in the terms of heroes.
"to see who suddenly prospers". Oh, those lovely soldiers that always asked for concent and only go out with the girls that supported their idealogy. I would call it what it was - rape.
And being punished 3 times. During occupation, after liberation (not by brave partisans who for some reason also thought that they have the right to judge) and often having a child as a constant reminder and responsibility (film "One War" comes to my mind). More rapists walked away from it unpunished cause you simply can't prosecute such enormous army anyway or god forbid it was done by liberators of Germany...
People should remember that, too.
They informed. The men get summarily excited, the woman just shamed then exiled. No one cares about defending the men. Yes play mental twister over the woman. There is a line you don't cross when your entire society is under that kind of boot. Those woman prospered at their neighbors expense. They played the social status game, they turned peaple in, or used the threat of it. Even if it was just an unspokenly implied. The young girls and woman who worked for the underground knew who was who. They also lured the Germans to there deaths with the promise of a kiss. Those woman where lucky, they got to live, keep there children, and start over some whare else.
@@dirus3142i guess you can talk for everyone? And what about the kids then? Just wondering on your oppinion there
@@dirus3142 What I understand is that most were just ordinary women who fell in love with the enemy soldier and paid a heavy price.
11:12 "He never tasted chocolate before."
That little boy was probably born just before or after the war began and the German occupation took over their town. The smile that he gives Webb after tasting the chocolate is super heartwarming.
Also slightly tragic considering what we see happen when Market Garden pushes them out of there.
A minor note on the chocolate as well, that was just hershey's chocolate which was a standard part of rations for morale. Emergency ration chocolate had a bunch of other ingredients in it and barely resembled chocolate, it was formulated to taste bad intentionally so soldiers wouldn't eat it unless they needed it and was also incredibly hard.
We Dutchies have a reputation of being open and friendly, however we are also very vindictive, I remember my grandma telling me about the years after the war there were 2 butchershops in our town, one in the same street and one on the other side of the town, she would ride on her bike without tires to the other side of town because the butcher in their street was a traiter.
Both my grandparents were in the resistance, she would bring forbidden newspapers and he was in the armed resistance, they also had a jewish man hidden in their attic.
In the last 2 weeks of German occupation in the netherlands they also had to accomadate a german officer (regular officer, not SS)
The day he left he told my granddad that he knew of the jewish man upstairs and told him he was a brave man en wished him and his wife a happy life together.
Granddad always said I dont hate Germans, just the nazi's and the traiters.
I t fills me with a lot of pride and every year on may the 5th we have a special day to remember the fallen, and although they survived I always think of them and I will one day tell my kids about them, even though they never met them.
Amazing story. Bless you friend.
From France
Echte verzetshelden💪
17:25
Aaron: “We have one more tank.”
Tank immediately dies
Calvin: “SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!”
It hit the front (strongest) armor so I bet that isn't what destroyed the tank. Still funny though lol
@@aazo5 If that was the Tiger firing then it's 88mm was perfectly capable of penetrating the front plate of both the Sherman and Cromwell tanks (the two types of allied tanks shown in this episode). However the Sherman being hit at this specific timestamp does seem to be unaffected by whatever it was hit by, unlike the Sherman earlier in the battle that was penetrated through the front and almost rolled over Sgt. Randleman.
@@aazo5 a Sherman tank getting hit by the Jadgpanzers 75mm or the Tigers 88mm would instantly kill it at that range
@@Oxley016 That’s what I’m saying. Perhaps IRL, that Sherman would indeed be destroyed. But from the damage they portrayed in the show, that Sherman seemed functioning still
@@ForchinBrewer “could”, not would. Yes, those tanks were capable of destroying a Sherman in one hit, but not always, even in the front side armor
Erin "at least we have one more tank". Tank gets instantly destroyed.
I swear Erin is the living version of 'jinx'.
Well it did get instantly hit but it didn't seem to be damaged. Still another hilarious coincidence lol
@@freebird6591he keeps jinxing shit 😅
Right before that was "as long as that tank doesn't roll into the ditch " he definitely jinxed easy company in this episode 😂
Just a clarification: the helmets don't stop bullets. They're meant to protect from shrapnel and debris. You'll notice that the bullet actually went through Nixon's helmet, just at the right angle to miss him. You can see where it just grazed his forehead.
100% this. Nixon barely missed dying by less than a inch. He was very lucky. Weird angle saved him.
There is a high chance that it was a ricochet and thus the bullet already lost most of its energy and was coming at a weird angle.
@@przemekkozlowski7835 A ricochet that had lost most of its energy would not have gone cleanly in and out of his helmet. It was just luck it missed killing him.
Helmets back then were more akin to hard hats now, to protect from falling debris and “slower” moving shrapnel. Fun fact on helmets, in WW1 helmets were a new thing. The British army on equipping soldier with helmets saw a spike in head injuries and were going to revoke equipping soldiers with them because they saw it increasing injuries. A statistical expert came in and looked at the problem. What they found was a case of survivorship bias. The helmets were doing their job at protecting the troops. The increase of head injuries showed that because without those helmets those soldiers would have been killed outright and would not have been included in the study.
They still deflected some bullets. Shrapnel is just slightly slower bullets
33:27 the Purple Heart is a medal given to soldiers every time they're injured in a military conflict. It's not determined by military campaign. In a previous job, I worked with military records and it wasn't uncommon to see veterans receive multiple Purple Hearts. The most I've seen someone earn is seven.
Just to specify, not just injured in a conflict but wounded as a direct result of an enemy combatant. My friend has a Purple Heart from an IED in Afghanistan, I got injured as a 240 gunner in a guntruck in Iraq. My injury was not the result of enemy fire so I don't qualify for a PH. Likewise if someone is wounded by friendly fire they don't get a PH.
Not injury but wounds. Getting a shaving nick isn't gonna get you a medal.
Sadly, John Kerry got three of them and none of the “injuries” He received, was life-threatening endangering, or anything of the matter whatsoever. He truly is someone who got injured to try to get recognized for his service.
@@tommcdonald5958 You invaded Iraq with no cause
Every purple heart that's been awarded since WW2 have all come from the same stock prepared for Operation Downfall, the land invasion of Japan.
The issue surrounding "collaborator" women and their children was often contentious. Anni-Frid Lyngstad, of ABBA, was born of a Norwegian mother and a German father. Her mother emigrated with her to Sweden in 1947 to spare her from local hostility.
you have to remember, James McAvoy was not yet famous then, BoB was his 5th or so role, for Fassbender it was his second and another famous now actor that you'll see later on, it was his first.
Yeah, lotta Marvels in this! :)
@@JnEricsonx and DCs as well
Watching 'A Bridge Too Far' after watching this episode adds to the film experience!
If you want to learn more about Operation Market Garden, I highly recommend watching "A Bridge Too Far." There are moments in the film that just make you go "What the hell were the people in charge of the Allies thinking by doing that?!"
Yeah but it almost worked too. If only the 82nd Airborne Division had done what they were told and focussed on taking the bridge at Nijmegen above all other objectives. Oh and there were elements of two SS Panzer Divisions in the area that were unknown to the Allies, which certainly didn't help matters.
I swear I think it was Monty going for the glory at the expense of his men's lives.
The plan was mostly his idea, and the British were the tip of the spear as it were. Of course the Americans also failed their objectives, not just the British. The plan was overly ambitious and I'm really surprised that allied command didn't shoot it down as being far to risky.
Bear in mind the film is only 50% historically accurate. If what you're seeing doesn't make sense, it should ring an alarm that it isn't the true story.
@@Oxley016 - the divisions were known about and it was known they were reduced to regimental battlegroups in strength with few if any tanks because the British had reduced them in Normandy. The Arnhem bridge was held for four days, as Browning had promised Montgomery, against everything thrown at it. The operation was fatally compromised at Nijmegen, not Arnhem.
@@davemac1197 The part with the Brits stopping to have tea time at the side of the road actually did happen unfortunately. Same with the really stupid idea of crossing the river in rafts during daylight. Both were serious WTF moments.
At 9:23 you see a real Easy Company replacement at the lower left corner in a beret. That's Babe Heffron, who landed a cameo role in this episode. He and Bill Guarnere were visiting the set at the time. The director asked him if he wanted to be in a scene and Babe said sure. Both Babe and Bill were revered by the actors and treated like superstars (which they were). Both of them could drink the actors under the table, too!
I didn't know about the drinking!!!!!!!
Love Babe to bits. Rest in peace, hero.
Had no idea about this cameo. Awesome little detail! Thanks
Why are you in here handing out spoilers? What's the matter with you? Did you not hear what they said about spoilers? What an absolute dickweed!
The lieutenant who got shot in the neck did in fact survive. His survival is usually credited to the fact that he turned around when he did.
The thing about Unit Commendations is that the citation is made to the unit and not the soldiers in the unit, which means anyone who is a part of the unit can wear it, as long as they are a part of the unit in question. If a soldier gets transferred to a new unit, they stop wearing the citation.
The scene, where the woman was hanging out a piece of cloth, note that it has the color orange, which is the color for the House of Orange, or the Dutch Royal family. The scene where they were shaving the women, was basically retribution for sleeping and/or collaborating with the germans. They were called "moffenhoeren" or "krautwhores", and were generally shunned by society, even long after the war was over. And as a Dutchman, this episode kind off has some historical significance for me, and, to some extent, still has an impact on my life to this day. My Maternal Grandfather was a draftee in the Dutch army when the Nazi's invaded. Once the germans had bombed Rotterdam after five days of war, and the remnants of the Dutch government, that had not fled to Great Britain (or North America) surrendered, he went into a local Dutch resistance movement, until they got found out, and he had to flee to Great Britain as well, where he spent the rest of the war, as far as i know. Unfortunately, after the war, he was sent to Indonesia to take part in the so-called "police actions", which is generally not exactly the best action The Netherlands ever made. This ultimately led to the man having to deal with the trauma's of both these times in his life for the rest of his life, until he died at the age of 82 (making him the only grandparent to make it to the current life expectancy of about 80 years).To me, and my two younger brothers, he was pretty much the only (official) grandparent we knew. All my other grandparents had died before i was even born (in 1972), the oldest of which lived to reach the (not so) ripe old age of 43. My Dad was actually born during the war, in june of 1943, and only barely made it out of the war, as he had endured the (harsh) winter of 1944/45, which in Dutch history is known as the hunger winter. Stories abound about parents feeding their often starving children flower seeds, and people eating tulip bulbs, just to survive. Many people (including many children), who initially survived the war, still died in the aftermath from complications and lowered immune systems. That's what killed my paternal Grandmother. She died in 1947 from a Tuberculosis infection. She wasn't even 40 years old. My paternal Grandfather died three years later, at the age of 41, making my dad (who was just 7 years at the time) and his two older brothers, pretty much orphans. The trauma my dad got from that (plus the abuse he underwent in the orphanage), combined with the fact that he basically was malnourished for the first few years of his life, led to him reaching the age of just 61. This goes to show, how long the impact of being in a war, can last over a human lifespan, and influence the development of generations thereafter.
fun fact: the dutch farmer man that helps bull with his wounds was a reasonably well-known dutch actor in the 90's/ early 2000.
You guys should check out the book The Dutch Girl. It’s the account of a pre fame Audrey Hepburn working in the Dutch Resistance in Nazi occupied Holland. She was a bad ass. Raising money for operations with secret dance performances, helping hide the Jews, even a British paratrooper in her own house during Market Garden. She would deliver food and messages to Allied pilots and during the Dutch famine of 45 (thanks to the Nazis cutting off supplies) she made flour from tulips for her family and friends. She nearly died of malnutrition. Amazing stuff.
Amazing, Josh!!! Thanks for sharing.
@Ambander ok wehraboo. Why don’t you go back to losing a war to a bunch of “untermench”?
@Dio-xo9rvJesus Christ, normally you guys at least attempt to hide your stupid ideology. Plus, I can almost guarantee you aren’t Aryan anyways
Kudos for the J. Walter Weatherman reference... "And THATS why you always leave a note."
The more and more you get into the series, more episodes, that you watch from this, the more respect that you have for all of the men who went through the things that they went through for this country. Without any shortage of any words, I have the utmost respect from all of those who fight for this country, and still do to this day, and will in the future as well. Thank you cannot be said enough for their service.
Nice sentiment, but in another comment you replied, out of nowhere, about how John Kerry had 3 purple hearts from non life threatening wounds and was an example of a guy who got hurt just to make himself look good.
So it appears your respect stops at party lines.
@@snerdterguson For people who try to take it advantage of certain situations like him. Yes, it stopped there young man.
@@Kritacul so you think what exactly? He hopped strategically in front of enemy fire to make sure he got wounded but not in a life threatening way? That is obnoxiously absurd. BTW, Purple Hearts are received for being wounded, not for having a life threatening wound.
So your respect ends at the point where you make believe a guy somehow intentionally got three Purple Hearts without any being from life threatening wounds.
Of COURSE this is about your politics. Because only republicans ever just discount a persons service like that. There is zero evidence in any way shape or form that suggests anything you assume about John Kerry is correct.
The 5 who went looking for "Bull" Randleman were - Hoobler Hashey, Garcia, Webster and Cobb. Hashey and Garcia were Miller's friends sitting in the bar, Cobb was the one who asked Miller, "where did you get that" ? and Hoobler said "take it easy Cobb". Webster was the one sitting to the side of Guarnere.
Winters and Nixon were 27-28 at this point in the war and the one of the oldest in the company (Winters joined around the same time as the real Soble the original XO in 1940 before the war with Japan even started, They had already gone through Basic and officer training but transferred over to the paratroopers when they became a thing for paratrooper training, Most soldiers had already completed basic also before joining the paratroopers for the extra pay). The Average age of easy company was 22-23, Often with Hollywood production on war movies actors tend to be alot older than the characters they are portraying.
For example Colonel Sink in this looks around 50-55 but in reality was only in his early to mid 30s which was the standard age of that rank really in ww2. The actor who played him though is a real former veteran turn actor which is why they casted him. Joe and Bill were for example were 23-24 in reality but their actors look like they are in their 30s.
A WW2 Parachute Rifle Company consisted of about 165 to 175 men. The components of a Company were a Company HQ of about 20-25 men, and 3 Rifle Platoons of about 35-40 men each broken down into 3 Rifle squads of about 12 men for each squad, and a Mortar squad of about 6 men. There were also other men attached to the company such as Medics, cooks, supply clerks, etc...
All medals in the U.S. military are recommended by a fellow soldier, endorsed by an officer and then approved by their command. Each medal has different approval criteria. But if you are never recommended for a medal, you won't receive one. Example: for purple hearts have to be recommended by a medical officer, then approved by their command. With so many wounded, and so much paperwork going in front of a clerk's office, people could have been easily overlooked or given multiple medals for the same action.
You saw in the ending that it said 8,000 British troops in Arnhem were lost. I have a newspaper that my father kept with the headline reading, "Over 7,500 Sky Troops lost". Pretty surreal to see this episode (and episode 5) and then to read a story which my father kept about the same incident 79 years earlier.
Jeremy Clarksons VC story about Operation Market Garden will blow your mind.
I love watching people watch BoB for the first time. It's a pretty constant stream of the "Leo pointing at the TV" meme.
26:46 Thank you Aaron for saying this.
09:21The old guy waving the flag at the bottom of the screen is "Babe" Heffron who served in Easy Company 506th. He's the redheaded guy at 02:38
Aaron might be thinking of the Combat Infantryman Badge when he thinks the Purple Heart can only be awarded once per conflict. Not true of the PH, but you can only get a CIB or other combat badges once per "war". That's why guys with stars (denotes multiple) over their CIBs are rare - they saw combat in multiple wars (think Veterans who served in WWII, Korea and Vietnam).
Dutch people working together with the Germans, a story that always stuck with me was one that my 8th grade teacher told once. There was a certain traditional potato dish that Jewish families would eat often, so a schoolteacher working with the Germans, would ask the kids what they had for dinner. And then pass that information on to the Germans so the family could get arrested and transported to prison camps
oh the horror
Easy Company was made up of roughly 140 enlisted men and 7 Officers at full strength. It did fluctuate.
3:57 - the awards on the right ab over the pocket are unit awards. People in the same unit will wear those awards forever - no matter if they were there or not - because its a unit award.And when they transfer to a new unit, they will take those awards off and put on the awards for their new unit. and so on and so forth. The ones on the left side are earned by the individual.
12:55 usually you have one combat medic per platoon and then each company has a senior medic. Easy Company had three platoons so as a company they had 3 or 4 medics.
You guys should react to A Bridge Too Far. A really great, star studded war movie depicting this very operation. To name a few actors: Robert Redford, Anthony Hopkins, Gene Hackman, James Caan and many many more.
Sir Michael Caine and Sir Sean Connery!!!
Not to mention they still had so much of the original kit. Epic
The motorcycle and side car was brought back from Utah beach by Malarkey and Alton More when Easy Co. were brought back to England.
Band of Brothers is still the vest WW2 show/movie ever made!
Calvin’s non verbal “Excuse me??” was so funny at the start
0:37 So I’m totally late to this and I’m obsessed with this series. It’s a big reason I went Airborne in my military career. There’s no set number to how many soldiers can be in a platoon. You usually have your squads that make up a platoon. TLDR; Squad (1-10) > Platoon (10-50) > Battery/Company (50-100+) > Battalion (100-600+) > Brigade (2,000 - 6,000+) and it just goes up and up.
This is all speaking from my experience with the 82nd Airborne Division. It’s always changing!
6:42 You got that scene correct. The officers are always the first out of the plane. This particular officer is Lt. Edward Shames. He was in fact colorblind and if anyone found out, it would have been a medical discharge out of the military.
Like so many young boys who lied about their ages so they could volunteer to fight, Shames definitely didn't want the military finding out about his colorblindness and be denied the chance to fight alongside so many others who had stepped up to volunteer.
ooooh never knew that!!! Thanks
I always thought it was something related to being nervous for the jump.
At least in the show, that's not Lt. Shames, that's Lt. Peacock talking to Sgt. Martin about tapping his shoulder
FYI: it goes squad (8 to 12 soldiers), platoon (4 to 8 squads), company (3 to 8 platoons), battalion (3 to 6 companies), regiment (various battalions/roughly 3 to 5 thousands soldiers), and division (various regiments/about 10 to 15,000 soldiers). Those amounts fluctuate quite a bit but expand a huge amount during war times.
Team - 4-6 troops
Squad - 12-15 troops
Platoon - 40-50 troops
Company - 150-200 troops
Battalion - 500-1000 troops
Brigade/Regiment - 2000-3500 troops
Division - 10,000-15,000 troops
goes on from there but this is about the extent of need to know.
A WWII historian (James Holand) said that the « no unnecessary » destruction scene is not realistic. That the British tanks would have shot without hesitation so he gave that scene a 7/10 accuracy…. He was a little bit miffed at the American view on British soldiers.
lol i'd be pissed too, he was portrayed as a proper idiot.
If you read the first person accounts from Ambrose books, that's what was told to him. So either the british historian is mistaken or the easy company vets were lying. I'll trust the vets who were there.
The same James Holand that said in that same video that handguns aren't accurate past a few feet (they absolutely are from personal experience), said Hiroshima was an island, and called the M3 Grease Gun the wrong name several times? That is of course only a short list of that "historian's" fuck ups in just that video alone.
And he can bitch about the British tank crew all he wants, even in Winters's own book he mentions warning a British tank about an ambush and they ignored him and drove right into it anyways, with predictable results. So no, not exactly inaccurate despite what a biased Brit "historian" might say. Next you'll tell me you think Lindybeige is a reliable source on British (specifically English) military history, lol.
Buck Compton, in a 2007 interview, said he couldn't have had four bullet holes, but three, because they took him to the hospital to take the bullet out.
Specifically to the US Parachute Company in September 1944, a Squad was 12 men, and in the official August 1944 organisation there were two Squads to a Platoon, with a Platoon HQ of 6 men and a 60mm Mortar Team of 6 men, making a Platoon of 36. Three Platoons plus Company HQ of 22 men gave a Company strength of 130 men.
Only the 504th PIR landing at Grave had this official organisation, having only just recovered from the Anzio operation in Italy. The rest of the US Airborne were using an experimental organisation for MARKET GARDEN with an additional Squad in each Platoon, with an additional man in the Company HQ creating a 167 man Company. Some units jumped 'over establishment' on even the experimental organisation, such as the 505th with around 170 men in some companies.
The experimental organisation became official on 16 December 1944, coincidentally the start date of the Ardennes counter-offensive, but at this time the Airborne units were under strength awaiting replacements for many of their MARKET GARDEN casualties.
Aaron's Crazy Talk is growing stronger.
the thing with the women is some of them did it because they supported them, yes, but some of them did it to protect and save their families and children, and some of them did not do it willingly. so when you don't know who did what, whether or not they had a choice, its disturbing.
Agreed. Still much nicer than being lynched or lined up and shot like all the men though.
They got off easy, the men collaborators were straight up killed.
@Ambander Yes, just ask the Jews!
@Ambander I really hope your not serious? What the hell do we teach people nowadays!?
After the war The British and Americans had to take alot of measures to stop revenge killings on such people. As you said many were forced into it or did so out of survival. One of the things not taught in Britain or America is for about 5-6 years after the war Europe was in such a sad state that many many women put themselves out for prostitution to foreign troops who were acting sort of like police to provide for their family's. This was also in large part to due with the fact many many men of fighting age were killed as resistence fighters or harbourers etc etc.
This is also one of the direct reasons the European union was started part of that was for European peace but a large but of it originally was to recover western Europeans after the war who were so devastated. There was not many french Towns or villages not destroyed by Germans on their retreat.
The whole tank scene where "i can't blow up that house, I have to drive into the ambush" is total horse sh*t. They would have leveled that house.
Thank you. I was hoping someone would point that out. British had no problem damaging property. 😀
I don't think it's unrealistic that on occasions in which there was a high likelihood of residents in the buildings that they would hesitate to level them. What's the most ridiculous is that he was given clear directions of the tanks location and they just drove into it anyway. Bit of a ridiculous part of the show that makes the British look incompetent for no reason.
10:56 So I’m watching this while at work on my headphones, I legit thought Eric said “soap” at first. But when I then heard supply officer I put it together and had to contain a laugh cause I’m in a room full of people.
At 8:25 the orange flag is the colour of the Dutch crown: its exposure meant liberation from the Nazis
Actually, about the scene with the British tank commander saying that they cannont damage private proprety unnecessarily, in a recent video with an expert of World War Two, commenting on that particular scene, he stated that said British tank commander would have shot at the building covering the German tank without hesitation if that meant taking down the tank without exposing too much it's own.
Yeah that bit is dumb.
Yeah, it's just creative license from the director so as to make the Allied situation seem worse. Arguably also to downplay British contribution to the war and make the Americans seem like the superior force.
I watched that video too. It was nice to hear him say that, because I always wondered why they would just be like "oh well I can't see the tank... carry on"
There's a huge difference between the facts on the ground and the orders you get from higher command. Big picture, it makes sense to discourage damage to civilian buildings, keep the friendlies friendly. At the tactical level, yeah shoot the house. Of course, Market Garden makes the Brit armor look really bad so it may have been a reference to that.
The British armor was under orders to keep moving as fast as possible since they had to relieve the paratroopers at Arnhein ASAP. There is a good chance that it was not the first time some panicky infantry soldier warned him of a German "Tiger", they wasted time scouting it but it turned out that it was just a shed or hay stack. Also, the guy probably did not want to just blow up a house and possibly kill a family hiding inside.
Patiently waiting for Bastogne and The Breaking Point
Same
0:31-In regards to unit sizes in the US Army, the smallest is a section (4-12 men) under a sergeant, then a squad (2 or more sections or 8-24 men) still under a sergeant, then a platoon or troop (2 or more squads or 16-50 men) under a 1st lieutenant, then a company (2 or more platoons or 100-250 men) under a captain or major, then a battalion (4 or more companies or 400-1,000 men) under a lt. colonel, then a regiment (2 or more battalions or 1,000-2,000 men) under a colonel, then a brigade (3 or more battalions or 1,500-3,500 men) under a colonel, brigadier general, or even major general, then a division (3 or more brigades/regiments or 10,000-15,000 men) under a major general or lt. general, then a corps (2 or more divisions or 25,000-50,000 men) under a lt. general or general, and finally an army group (2 or more corps or 100,000-150,000) under a general or higher (other countries call that field marshal, but the US 5 star is called "General of the Army." There's also the rarer 6 star "General of the Armies")
This was the famous operation market garden which was also portrayed in the movie a bridge too far
More like infamous. It was such a disaster.
Not MRE's. They gave the Dutch woman a carton of cigarettes, which at the time were pretty much currency.
nice phrasing
At 16:07 in the video you can see the body of British tank commander who wouldn't fire through the buildings in the middle of the road.
Another incredible episode! Great reaction as usual Wave Crew! Looking forward to the next one!
When I watched this for the first time I jumped out of my chair when Nixon took a round to the helmet.
"standing too alive" that's my new phrase for when I'm expecting someboy to die
During the Eindhoven celebration/parade, when Lt. Peakcock yells at Sgt. Talbert kissing the girl there is an old man sitting at the table with them. That is a cameo by good Ole "Babe" Heffron.
4 per team, 2 team per squad (8), 4 squad her platoon (32), 4 platoons her company (128 + admin)
In the Marines, platoons are generally 30ish men. 4 platoons per company. 4 companies per battalion. I assume the army's structure is similar.
There is a film based off the Market Garden Operation called "A Bridge too Far" starring Sean Connery, Gene Hackman, Robert Redford, Michael Caine, James Caan and Anthony Hopkins.
Fun Fact - Magneto and Xavier were both in this series. Michael Fassbender is Christenson
The movie "A Bridge to Far" is a good longer form telling of the story of Operation Market Garden. It was made in 1977 and featured all of the big names actors of the time. Most all of the period military hardware was still available in the mid 70s and in decent condition, making realism and practical effects a relatively easy task.
It's also worth adding that the film is only 50% historically accurate in the narrative. It's based on the book by Cornelius Ryan, rushed to publication unfinished in 1974 because he had terminal cancer. The film was further compromised by Richard Attenborough being an anti-British British director who intended to make an "anti-war film", and the American producer Joseph Levine responded to complaints about historical inaccuracy by stating "I pay to make entertainment, not history." The script was written by Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid (1969) screenwriter William Goldman and is hugely entertaining, but drew a lot of complaints from people who knew the real characters who had already passed. Robert Redford's performance also caught flak from the real Julian Cook as his role after the famous river assault crossing was a complete fiction.
Squad-13 men (usually)
platoon- 3-5 squads, a lieutenant in command, a platoon Sgt, and a couple of RTOs
Company- 3-5 platoons, captain in command, 1st Sgt, 1st Lt as XO. Artillery companies are called “batteries” cavalry companies are called “troops”.
Battalion- 3-5 line companies, usually a heavy weapons company, and an HQ Company, commanded by a Lt.Col with a support Staff.
Regiment-3 or more Battalions. Commanded by a Col. A regiment with numerous extra assigned units, especially if independent of a division is a Brigade..
Division- Multiple Regiments and/or Brigade, commanded by a Major General.
Corp-Multiple divisions and attachments, commanded by a Lt. General
Army- Multiple Corps, commanded by a General (4-Star). Usually responsible for an entire theater of War/major Geographical area of the planet.
After this episode I wanted to know more about Eindhoven in WWII and it's really sad what happened to that city. Literally the same army that is celebrating with the people is the same one that bombed the city in the night to stop the nazis counterattack. This show is so good...
40s Holland is really neglected in teaching. All we really ever learn about is Operation Market Garden, which is wild in itself, but then you have places like Rotterdam (largest port in europe) amd much of the country that weren't liberated till the very end of the war. If you want a decent movie about Eindhoven, A Bridge Too Far is great imo about Operation Market Garden.
@@isthisdom It gets more mention in Canadian schools as the Canadian Army was tasked with liberating the rest of Holland and had to do some nasty fighting to dislodge the remaining Germans. Lots of Dutch people then moved to Canada after the war and the Dutch government is still regularly honoring the contribution of the Canadian Army in liberating Holland.
@Przemek Kozlowski that's right 👍 I would say also that most people don't know just how awesome Commonwealth forces were during the War, which is a shame 😞 great soldiers
16:00 “crawl faster, or just stop.” He can’t stop. If he stops the tank goes into the ditch and blocks his escape. He would have to pop out of the ditch and go around loosing all of his cover. And he’s wounded. Only option is to our pace that tank so you can continue retreating in the ditch with cover
I'm so happy you watch this series guys! its one of my favorite HBO show so far
I always thought since this aired that the LT. was just afraid. It never ever occurred to me he was color blind. Thanks for that insight!
btw. taking the town Carentan is a mission playable in the first game "Call of Duty" and you would be like _"hey! those streets and buildings look ALOT like what we saw in Band of Brothers!"_
I guess there are things here that can be added to the compilation video of Aaron making predictions about things that come true a few seconds later and Calvin shouting, "Aaron, STFU!!!!"
26:15 I mean, on the Western Front it was fairly calm for German soldiers, which is why they got rotated there for R&R...the Eastern Front was a very different beast for them though. A large part of why Market Garden fell on its ass was that the intel the Allies had didn't include the fact that several units of hardened experienced soldiers had been rotated back from the Eastern Front to recover and resupply in the same area as the garrisons of "old men and little kids" they were expecting to run into.
The SS-Panzer units northeast of Arnhem had withdrawn from Normandy. They had previously been in Ukraine when the D-Day invasion started.
Market Garden was fatally compromised by the failure of 82nd Airborne to secure the Nijmegen highway bridge in the first few hours while guarded by just an NCO and seventeen men. The British secured and held their bridge at Arnhem for four days, twice as long as should have been necessary if the Nijmegen bridge had been in Allied hands.
Boys, there was food scarcity, particularly in the last year of the War. There is a reason the last winter (44-45) was known as The Hunger Winter. Big cities barely had any food left, food was available with stamps/tickets and just imagine having something like 2 potatoes to feed a family from (families were generally larger back in the day). Of course there were soupkitchens offering something, but that too was hardly sufficient. People died on the streets, all the trees and wood were gone from the cities as most of it was already cut down as a cheap source of fuel.
You weren't allowed to show your support for the Crown in exile (many had a portrait of Queen Wilhelmina and would hang it up in defiance, but hide it during the house searches). The Orange colour therefore was a clear indicator that that family would be welcoming the Americans.
I have heard stories of Dutch families that saved up their last bit of 'real' coffee or other treat for when their liberators would arrive.
It is also why we have never forgotten, why we honour the fallen on May the 4th with the ceremonial 2 minutes of silence (de Dodenherdenking), celebrate our Freedom on May the 5th to this day.
As for the American soldiers that fell on Dutch soil, a good deal of them is buried at Margraten Cemetery, the American WW2 Cemetery in the Netherlands. There the grave adoption process was started and has been carried on ever since.
To a degree, I agree with Cobb. He did not fight in Normandy because he was wounded in the plane. He paid his dues on D Day. But, Miller was in the unit on D Day, but not deployed. He should have kept his pin on and Cobb shouldn't have been a jerk, but Cobb earned the same respect as everyone else by having to stay on a plane that was fortunate enough to survive the death flying to them from below.
I love how we all recognized prof X before magneto lol
The actress who plays the woman/mom with the baby and shaved head looks a lot like Samantha Morton - Alpha from TWD and Agatha from Minority Report (and a ton of other stuff).
James McAvoy was all of 20 when he did this.
"if someone tells me there is a tank there, I'll be looking right there", and that's how you get shot from the side by another tank that you weren't told about. Tanks rarely operate alone, if you know of one, there's more than one there.
So to help with military structure:
Easy Company is your standard Paratrooper company 1944 configuration.
It had 1 Company Command group
- Winters, his 2IC Lipton who was the company sergeant and usually a Radio operator.
- company sergeants we’re the most senior sergeant/NCO in any company. They would pretty much be the go between between all NCOs and the company command and would usually be the one to move about and coordinate the COs actions - officer command NCOs lead. It’s why the saying from NCOs is “we work for a living” exists.
- medic(‘s) any medics that were within the company usually fell under the command section of the company where they’d be distributed out to platoons or kept in a area of central convenience for easy movement to casualties from multiple platoons.
Each Company had 3 Rifle Platoons and 1 Weapons Platoon.
A Rifle Platoon was made up of:
The Platoon IC (usually a Lieutenant of lower rank than those in command of the company; however if the officer becomes a casualty and their is no replacement it gets passed down to the platoon sergeant)
Platoon Sergeant - this is the most senior sergeant in any platoon. He is their to be the go between, between the squad NCOs and platoon IC and be the one to move about coordinating and putting into action of the commander.)
You also had the platoon Bazooka team here. It was usually 1 corporal and 1 Lance Corporal as both were expected to act independently.
- the second was made a Lance Corporal to donate his specialist role.
Down from them you had 3 squads of riflemen with:
1 sergeant and 11 men.
- this large number of men would usually operate in small teams tho.
Usually a support team with the squads MG
A assault team with usually the squads SMG armed members and guys with extra grenades and rifle grenade if given.
A scout team a corporal and private who would be detached to scout locations ahead of the unit. In many ways they were essentially an early trip-wire for ambushes that if killed the squad still had 10 men to lay down full fire with.
Fire Team usually the group armed with any additional support weapons such as BARs or just full of rifles. There job would be to usually suppress a unit to allow the assault team to flank and kill it.
So overall a platoon would be 40 men strong.
1 platoon IC
1 platoon sergeant
Radio Operator
Machine Gun Squad
Usually a sergeant and corporal.
They’d be in command of 4 machine gun groups.
These would usually be a small pair/trio of guys armed with the similar Browning 1919A4 MG that their squad buddies had.
They would usually be assigned out to reinforce other units with additional firepower or commanded into pre-set positions by the company CO to help deliver suppressive or coordinated fire on a target so that other squads can move.
Mortar Squad
This would have a sergeant and corporal in command with a third man armed with a radio.
This squad would contain the platoons 3 60mm mortar teams.
This squad would 90% of the time not work together but would usually be split down and sent to attach to a rifle platoon to provide close in direct 60mm support.
The ideas was that if a unit came upon a entrenched enemy with a set up position/machine gun in good cover, the 60mm could get easy eyes on it and range it in themselves for a kill or be close enough that simple shouts or a quick runner could get them firing and on target fast.
This platoon would usually be around 35 strong tho this could semi-fluctuate as the MGs could have additional men assigned to carry ammo for them.
Which would bring it closer to 43 strong.
So overall Easy Company at full combat strength would order around: 170-172 strong.
Tho this could fluctuate as there could be more men in winters command group or other command groups and additional specialists assigned to the company such as artillery observers, air controllers and occasionally just spare man power if on hand.
When the British landed there was two SS Armoured Divisions hidden in woods between the landing zones and the 2 bridges they were suppose to capture
It didn't help that Montgomery's dumbass plan relied on everything going perfectly. Incompetent decision after Incompetent decision by Montgomery, who was desperate to prove Britain was an equal to the US in the war, resulted in one of the biggest Allied failures in the entire war.
Not correct. The SS-Panzer-Divisions were on both banks of the River Ijssel (the inter-divisional boundary) between Arnhem-Apeldoorn-Deventer-Ruurlo to the north and east, while British 1st Airborne Division landed to the west of Arnhem around Wolfheze. The Arnhem highway bridge was captured by elements of 1st Parachute Brigade and held for four days. The Oosterbeek rail bridge was demolished and the pontoon bridge dismantled by the Germans.
@@Nyx_2142 - the plan was fatally compromised by the failure of the 508th PIR to secure an undefended bridge at Nijmegen in the first few hours. Read 82nd Airborne historian Phil Nordyke's Put Us Down In Hell (2012). Montgomery, Market Garden, and 1st Airborne Division, were all let down.
@@davemac1197 And so where the LZ’s with the British landing one side of the river and the Polish the other
@@philipturner9087 - yes, all the British zones and the landing zone for the Polish gliders (carrying their Jeeps and anti-tank guns) were north of the Dutch Rijn, west of Arnhem. The main parachute element of the Polish Brigade were due to land directly to the south of the Arnhem Rijn bridge on D+2, but were delayed by weather, and due to the situation 1st Airborne were in, their drop zone was moved further west near the village of Driel, directly opposite the main division perimeter forming north of the Rijn at Oosterbeek.
People often ask why didn't 1st Airborne Division use this drop zone south of the Arnhem bridge on the first day, if it was good enough for the Poles on D+2? That's a fair question and the answer is complex: the Polish DZ ('K') was located on the Malburgsche Polder (now all urban development in 'Arnhem Zuid') between two of the four heavy Flak batteries that were located around the town of Arnhem. Each battery had 6 x 7.5cm captured French Schneider M.36 guns, very similar to the German 8.8cm, and 3 x 2cm light Flak guns. The western position on the Meinerswijk Polder, which was firing directly across the Rijn into British troops advancing into western Arnhem, and the southern heavy Flak position that was directly northeast of DZ 'K' on the Waarden Veer Polder (now also urban development - the schools in the 'Immerloo II' neighbourhood) and was also firing on the British occupied houses near the bridge during the battle. The zone also inconveniently had high tension lines (!) crossing the open DZ area, coming from the Arnhem power station that was located across the river near the bridge.
For the cancelled operation Comet, this zone was deemed suitable only for a few gliders in a coup de main attack on the bridge, like the one used in Operation Deadstick for the 'Pegasus Bridge' in Normandy. In fact, the glider pilot (Sergeant Jim Wallwick) who led that attack was also asked to lead this one as well, because of his experience, but he was hugely relieved when Comet was cancelled - he thought the conditions were a lot more hairy at Arnhem than at Pegasus Bridge.
For the replacement Operation Market that had the two American divisions added to the Comet plan, the pressure on the Allied airlift capacity was therefore fully maxed out and the US IX Troop Carrier commander General Paul Williams insisted on the coup de main attacks being deleted from the plan, because he thought it may result in unacceptable aircraft losses to Flak impacting the capacity for the 2nd Lift. The 1st Airborne plan was then made for the Jeeps of the Reconnaissance Squadron to provide the coup de main attack instead, and DZ 'K' was expected to be cleared of Flak and the power cut to the HT lines by 1st Parachute Brigade before the Poles were due to arrive. The Poles were not expected to help take the bridge, they only needed it to cross over and RV with their Jeeps and guns to take up positions in their planned sector of the division perimeter in the east side of the town. The planned timetable was such that XXX Corps were also due to arrive at the bridge on D+2 as well.
In the event, 1st Parachute Brigade had more limited control over the immediate bridge area and could not clear the zone for the Poles, so their drop zone had to be re-arranged to help the division perimeter at Oosterbeek instead.
Sorry it's a complex story, but understanding the details explains why it was thought things had to be done the way they were. Airborne warfare was still being developed on the fly during WW2 and experience gained from Market suggests that the original Comet plan probably would have worked better at Arnhem, despite fewer troops from 1st Airborne being involved. The expansion of the plan for Market brought with it a number of compromises made by senior officers that actually worked against the plan in its execution. These issues are best explored in Sebastian Ritchie's book - Arnhem: Myth And Reality: Airborne Warfare, Air Power and the Failure of Operation Market Garden (2011, revised 2019).
Cobb was the one who barely survived that mortar strike on the brick wall, that's why he didn't want to go back at that point
14:49 - "...the Shermans couldn't hold up to a Tiger." Individually, perhaps not. That said, no tank is invincible, and a 75mm Sherman could still definitely punch through the Tiger's side or rear armor. Especially at ranges of 500 yards or less.
There's an anecdote out there that "it would take 5 Shermans to take out a Tiger". Of course, tanks were grouped into platoons of 5 anyway, so it was rare that a solo Sherman was tasked to take out any enemy armor.
The average company is about 120 men at full fighting strength, but it varies from as few as 100 to as many as 250. Easy company had about 140 men when they left Toccoa to fight in the war, so by the time Easy was pulled off the line at the end of the last episode they were at nearly half their fighting strength. A platoon is about five squads and a squad is usually somewhere between 10-12 men.
Basically, and to oversimplify a bit, at the bare minimum a company is divided into at least two platoons, each consisting of five squads of ten men.
The US Parachute Company establishment from February 1942 to August 1944 was 130 men, with each platoon having just two squads of 12 men, 6 men in the platoon HQ and a 60mm mortar team of 6 men. An experimental establishment involving an extra squad added to each platoon was tried for Market Garden, raising the Company to about 167, although some units with available replacements jumped 'over establishment' even on that basis with 170+. However, the 504th Regiment in the 82nd Airborne was barely back up to the official 130 as they had been at Anzio instead of Normandy. The new experimental establishment was formalised with new TO&E issued on 16 December 1944, coincidentally the date of the start of the German Ardennes counter-offensive.
12:08 Lt Brewer was lucky. The bullet went through skin & tissue not hitting anything vital to living or speaking. He survived and in fact he spoke to Randleman & the medic although this is not shown.
The POW from Eugene wasn’t one of those shot by Spiers. The scriptwriters merged a number of stories together.
Okay so the sound at 17:00 when miller dies is so close to the old toy soldiers game sound effect when artillery/mortar rounds land does anyone remember those games and/or agree with me? Damn loved those games as a kid
8:11 The national flag of the Netherlands may be red, white & blue but orange is the national color.
The royal family is the House of Orange & Nassau. When the Dutch teams compete in the Olympics they west orange.
The Dutch Royal Family has had possession of the title “Prince of Orange” for centuries. It was created in the 1100s when the county of Orange in southern France was elevated to a principality headed by a Prince. The Dutch took possession in the 1400s and have held it ever since.
In the 1600s during the various Catholic vs Protestant Wars the Dutch, led by the Prince of Orange were the primary Protestant army. To this day “Orangemen” means “Protestant Warriors”. Orange Clubs were created in Protestant Northern Ireland and in New Netherlands, the Dutch colony in North America (New York and New Jersey). Syracuse University, located in the former New Netherlands, took the name as the name for their athletic teams. A few years ago they switched to just “Orange” to make it gender-neutral for their women’s teams.
This is why there are orange flags all over the Netherlands.
also the the unit citation was given to all members of the 501st veterans and replacements.
Someone asked how big is a platoon.
A team is 4-5 soldiers. 2 teams in a Squad. There are 4 squads in a platoon. There's 4 platoons in a Company.
US Airborne in this period (August 1944 organisation):
Rifle Squad = 12 men
Platoon = 2 Squads, plus Platoon HQ = 6, and Mortar Team = 6, total = 36
Company = 3 Platoons, plus Company HQ of 22, total = 130
Source: Table of Organization and Equipment No. 7-37, War Department, Washington 25, D.C., 1 August 1944
Experimental organisation implemented for MARKET GARDEN (except 504th PIR*) added a Squad to each Platoon.
Experimental organisation became official 16 December 1944:
Rifle Squad = 12
Platoon HQ = 7
Mortar Team = 6
Platoon Total = 49
Company HQ = 29
Company Total = 176
Source: Table of Organisation and Equipment No. 7-37T, War Department, Washington 25, D.C. 16 December 1944
*504th just returned from Italy after Anzio and only up to August 1944 organisation with replacements.
150 - 200 men in a Company
Orange is the color of Netherlands, that's why it's everywhere.
Have any of you guys watched "A Bridge Too Far"?
You know, if the last few episodes were around when Rick and Calvin had covid, I would rather they wait until they get better before watching those.
We will lose alot by not having their reactions and insights.
3:00 All 3 soldiers were replacements. They came together. Miller wasn’t with the unit in Normandy so he didn’t earn the ribbon & wasn’t authorized to wear it-maybe. Cobb was a unit member during Normandy so he was authorized to wear it even though he wasn’t there. Cobb was merely being an a$$ just for the sake of being an a$$.
So why did Randleman, Guarnere & Martin not say anything? The Army has flexible rules on unit citations.
If you were with the unit when it was awarded then it was yours to wear permanently regardless of unit you transferred to later. If you weren’t a member when it was award but transferred in later then the rule differs in the command. You were either required to wear it, for uniformity’s sake, but then you removed it when you transferred out or you were allowed to voluntarily wear it while with the unit but removed it when you transferred out.
Also I highly recommend watching "A Bridge too Far". It explains the whole operation they took part in
the form of a very very good and accurate war movie. The american's paratroopers were pretty fortunate to get a safe landing when the British Landed Near Oosterbeek they were only able to take around half their troops for the first day which meant the following drops were under fire and at time in drop zones overrun which got them slaughtered. As the Polish Brigade commander said "We lost the main thing that makes partroopers effective, Surprise". The whole operation relied on the Armor getting to the British along a single road in 3 days which required every single part of the operation to go perfectly, As you can see in this it did not go smoothly at all and the British were left on the wrong side of the Rhine to be slaughtered since paratroopers only drop with 1-2 days of supplies.
The Last Message of the British Battalion at Arnhem
"Position over-run, CO captured, all officers killed or captured, ammunition gone.
Will continue with bayonet --God save the King."
A Bridge Too Far is not accurate at all except for the production details like uniforms, insignia, weapons and equipment, probably thanks to the British production and technical crew. The American-centric script and narrative is only about 50% historically accurate, and that's based on a scene-by-scene study and adding up the timings. Compared to Band of Brothers episodes 4 and 5 covering the same operation, I haven't studied them in the same way, but would estimate them to be about 80% and 90% accurate respectively.
Albert Blithe survived his wound and even volunteered to fight in Korea after the war. He made it to First Sergeant. Dick Winters corrected the record after the show aired because he was upset that the show got it wrong and wanted Blithe to get the respect he deserved.
Market Garden was such a disaster and a prime example of why politics and war DO NOT mix. Montgomery pressured Allied command to greenlight the operation but it was a slaughter. The allies lost between 15,000-17,000 KIA, MIA, or WIA, 88 tanks, and 377 aircraft/gliders destroyed or lost. The Germans lost between 6,000-13,000 KIA or WIA. Not only that but they didn't even complete their overall objective. A great film about Market Gsrden to watch would be A Bridge Too Far.
Montgomery did not pressure anyone to green light MARKET GARDEN, it was a replacement upgrade for operation COMET Montgomery had cancelled on the morning of his 10 September meeting with Eisenhower, and Eisenhower enthusiastically endorsed the idea. Eisenhower went on record “I not only approved Market-Garden, I insisted upon it. We needed a bridgehead over the Rhine. If that could be accomplished I was quite willing to wait on all other operations.” (Eisenhower: A Soldier's Life, Carlo D'Este, 2015). The all other operations included opening Antwerp.
Do not conflate Montgomery's heated disagreement with Eisenhower over strategy and logistics, which were both discussed earlier in the same meeting at Brussels airport. Montgomery had argued for a single powerful thrust with 40 divisions (incluing Hodges' US 1st Army) to Berlin, and that was firmly shut down by Eisenhower in favour of his own broad front policy of all armies advancing to the Rhine, making multiple crossings, and then using Antwerp's port capacity to supply a broad advance together into Germany, starting with a Ruhr encirclement with both British 2nd and US 1st Armies.
Montgomery did not get his way on the overall strategy, but on current operations Eisenhower was enthusiastic about the expanded Arnhem operation because it would use the whole 1st Allied Airborne Army, for which he was under pressure from Washington to employ. The objective of MARKET GARDEN was limited to a Rhine crossing, so it fitted in with his broad front policy. Many people conflate MARKET GARDEN with Montgomery's thrust to Berlin or with the Ruhr encirclement, but neither of these was the objective at all. It only paved the way for future operations into Germany, for which Antwerp would be required to be open.
A Bridge Too Far is only 50% historically accurate (much poorer than these two episodes of Band of Brothers covering the same operation), based on a biased incomplete book (Cornelius Ryan was an Irish newspaper war correspondent embedded with Patton's US 3rd Army). The most grievous omission being the story of the Nijmegen bridge on the first day, a story in which Cornelius Ryan only got a sanitised account from General Gavin in order to avoid his throwing a junior officer under the bus, but the US Army's Histoical Officer, Captain Westover, got an accurate account. This has recently been backed by witnesses to a divisional briefing in which Colonel Lindqust of the 508th PIR was instructed to move with speed on the Nijmegen highway bridge as soon as practical after landing and securing his initial objectives on the Groesbeek heights. The command failure within the 508th to carry out this instruction compromised the entire operation, allowing 10.SS-Panzer-Division to reinforce the bridges and imposed a fatal 36-hour delay on the ground forces reaching the 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem.
You're absolutely right about politics, and it's unfortunate that politics intervened to compromise the planning and execution of an operation that would undoubtedly have shortened the war if it had succeeded. Montgomery unfairly gets the blame simply because he was not American, and his only involvement was to order the operation. It was planned by 1st Allied Airborne Army, which failed to secure a key objective soon after it landed.
“SHUT THE FUCK UP” got me each time lol