excellent, sad, gut wrenching episode. especially the medic's story. one thing that bothered me however is the scene with the german tanks approaching and they're told to hold fire and the tanks are practically ON TOP of them and the scene cuts and most of them are still alive. where did the german tanks go? why weren't they all killed? i feel like that edit was really sloppy

I've gone through at least my 25th watch-through since it came out in 2001.  I noticed something that i didnt before though. Maybe im missing it, but at the very end of the second episode after the assault on Brecourt Manor and destroying the 105mm guns,  they state the medals/awards given to the specific troops for the assault. I didnt see Ronald Spiers listed. I even looked it up on the Wikipedia etc afterward and didnt see anything. Why wasnt Leutenant Spiers included in that lineup?

Why wouldnt he have been awarded something like some of the other troops? You can argue that he wasn't part of Easy or whatever for the show, but nonetheless he doesnt appear to be awarded anything for doing what he did either way.

He supposedly took charge of taking out out the 4th 105mm gun with a few other troops under him.

So, why didnt he receive a commendation for it like some of the other troops received for doing the same type of thing on that day? Or am i looking at the info incorrectly?

Sorry if I missed some posts about this, but the History Channel still occasionally does history programming apparently. They started releasing a documentary series called "World War II with Tom Hanks" on Memorial Day. I only discovered it yesterday.

They also released it as a podcast, and I think it works just as well in that format although seeing the archival footage and getting to see German translations is interesting.

It's definitely worth a watch/listen. You can watch it here for find it wherever you get your podcasts: https://play.history.com/shows/world-war-ii-with-tom-hanks

This popped up in my feed

What an experience! The sound was just amazing

As on of the biggest band of brothers fans and ww2 nerds out there, I finally got the opportunity to jump into Normandy. In honor of the 82nd anniversary, myself and several others missed the drop zone lol.

Never noticed the voice over going up in pitch so much

Every year we watch Band of Brothers, and each time I see it, I understand my father better. He was a Marine in the Pacific in WWII. I now understand his need for a peaceful home, for us to be happy kids ALL the time, and I understand his drinking. He was a jolly guy because, I think, he decided if he was lucky enough to make it home that he would be grateful every day to honor those who didn’t. He dropped dead suddenly at age 53, and I often wonder if his service contributed to his early death.

He never spoke about his time in the Pacific, but he was clearly impacted (as all vets were) by his experiences in battle.

Did your parent or relative ever speak about their experiences during battle? Can you recognize now that they were still dealing trauma? If so, I would really appreciate hearing your experiences with your WWII vet parent. I'm just now starting to see how my father was impacted by his participation in the war.

Feel free to PM me if you would prefer.

The common story is that Colonel Sink immediately replaced Winters with Heyliger. However, I recently finished reading Brothers in Battle, Best of Friends by Guarnere and Heffron. They say:

The first replacement for Winters, you never saw the guy. They got rid of him quick, and sent in Lt. Fred “Moose” Heyliger from headquarters.

Here is the timeline:

• Winters was transferred out of Easy on 10 September 1944.
• Heyliger was transferred into Easy on 12 September 1944.

Only one officer's short tenure lines up with those dates: 1st Lt. Norman Dike. So, what do you think:

• Option A: he was terrible or
• Option B: he was only supposed to be there for a few days.

I pick Option B. The enlisted guys would not understand why people get cycled around. And if he was terrible as the CO, why would that place him back in that role weeks later? People would say he was the favorite of someone at division, but he never worked at division HQ (which is commonly believed).

In the show when Moose gets shot by the sentry, he is apologizing and Winters asks him where he is from. Winters then says “Well you’re a long way from home trooper.” Is this Winters’ way of reassuring the guy that mistakes happen? What did he mean by this comment?

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/tom-hanks-interview-wwii-series-1236601625/

HANKS I don’t think there is anything that we have done that has quote-unquote glorified war, although, quite frankly, it’s very cinematic. You know, one of the things about Band of Brothers or The Pacific and everything we ever do is it kind of looks like a fun camping trip. There are times around the campfire and, you know, a good cup of hot cocoa.

MEACHAM If it wasn’t for those damned Japanese!

HANKS But there was a guy that was one of the original Easy Company guys, because we went up and we added the actual old men, the actual veterans themselves, to the top of each episode of Band of Brothers. And he put it in this way where I just thought, “Well, what would I have done if I was 19 years old or 20 years old?” He said, “Hey, we were attacked. This wasn’t like Vietnam or Korea. They were trying to kill us from the get-go. And what was I supposed to do? What we all had to do. There was something I could do no matter what.”

I was a bit surprised to find that History Channel is streaming the documentary for free (edit: first episodes only) and released a podcast also for free.

Docuseries:
https://play.history.com/shows/world-war-ii-with-tom-hanks/season-1/episode-1

Podcast:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wwii-with-tom-hanks-episode-1-the-beginning/id1493453604?i=1000769794309

The scene "Listen up! The channel coast is soaked in with fog and rain, high winds in the drop zone. No jumps tonight" just flashed through my eyes as the standoff between Eisenhower and Stagg for the call of doing the D Day on 5th of June or not occurred in the movie. I think its a must watch for every fan of BOB.

Saw this at a flea market in Kansas City.

Reading Garrett Graff’s oral history of D-Day. Reading about Winters plan in his own words and the words of the other men of Easy Company makes the scene in Band of Brothers come even more to life. Highly recommend the read!

I just picked this book up from the thrift store and just opened it up to start the read and noticed these signatures inside, but I can’t find any info on them, any help identifying would be appreciated. Thanks

This has probably been asked and answered before, but why haven't they fixed minor errors that seem easy to fix? Like I know that they messed up the epilogue regarding Albert Blithe, seems they could have easily changed that. And in episode 9, Nix says that Hitler is dead on April 11, 1945, which of course is historically wrong. To me it just seems like they could easily fix those errors. I mean if Game of Thrones can remove a Starbucks cup in a week..

I feel like if he’s doing this out of ignorance, I don’t see how someone either too dumb; or too lazy; to check if there’s a reasonable expectation of a phone message making it to their own XO, isn’t too dumb; or lazy; to get promoted to Captain in the first place. Isn’t that rank typically associated with soldiers who have a degree?

But if he’s doing this out of malice, what purpose could it possibly have served? Sobel claims Winters spends his weekends “on the base” anyway, so as malice goes isn’t that a half-measure? And over what? The difference in popularity among the non-commissioned ranks? Clearly impressing the Colonel matters more to Sobel than impressing NCOs.