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Band of Brothers


Sbbruin

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Same.  We as a species seem to be evolving away from people like that.

Sad, and so true. There were so many stories that came from that generation that were touched upon in the interviews with the ageing men of Easy Company. Like when the two guys from the small town who were 4F couldn’t enlist. They chose suicide over the shame they felt from not being able to serve. Shame is not a thing anymore.
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  • 5 months later...

Attention to orders.

The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to First Lieutenant (Infantry) Richard D. Winters (ASN: 0-1286582), United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy while serving with Company E, 2d Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, in action against enemy forces on 6 June 1944, in France. First Lieutenant Winters with seven enlisted men, advanced through intense enemy automatic weapons fire, putting out of action two guns of the battery of four 88-mm. that were shelling the beachhead. Unswerving in his determination to complete his self-appointed and extremely hazardous task, First Lieutenant Winters and his group withdrew for reinforcements. He returned with tank support and the remaining two guns were put out of action, resulting in decreased opposition to our forces landing on the beachhead. First Lieutenant Winters' heroic and determined leadership exemplify the highest traditions of the military forces of the United States and reflect great credit upon himself, the 101st Airborne Division, and the United States Army.

 

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4 hours ago, TOR said:

Attention to orders.

The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to First Lieutenant (Infantry) Richard D. Winters (ASN: 0-1286582), United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy while serving with Company E, 2d Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, in action against enemy forces on 6 June 1944, in France. First Lieutenant Winters with seven enlisted men, advanced through intense enemy automatic weapons fire, putting out of action two guns of the battery of four 88-mm. that were shelling the beachhead. Unswerving in his determination to complete his self-appointed and extremely hazardous task, First Lieutenant Winters and his group withdrew for reinforcements. He returned with tank support and the remaining two guns were put out of action, resulting in decreased opposition to our forces landing on the beachhead. First Lieutenant Winters' heroic and determined leadership exemplify the highest traditions of the military forces of the United States and reflect great credit upon himself, the 101st Airborne Division, and the United States Army.

 

Just read Stephen Ambrose’s “D-Day” and Dick Winters exploits are referenced.  

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I have stood in that ditch at Brecourt Manor. Been to the house where Winters learns he is leading Easy before the attack.
And much much more.
The tour is life changing and I would do it all again tomorrow.

Post some pics and give some travel deets. This was a trip I was planning on making pre COVID. I’d love to hear your detailed itinerary and thoughts on where you stayed, any guides, etc.
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our guide was amazing: 

Mike van den Dobbelsteen at https://alliedvictorytours.com/ (100% 5 star reviews on Trip Advisor)

We went from pretty much dawn to dusk for two days, and he'll take you to whatever you want to see and won't quit until you tap out. Encyclopedic knowledge, amazing story teller. Can't recommend the guy enough.

we did all the stops listed here and a whole lot more: https://alliedvictorytours.com/private-d-day-tours-menu/full-day-american-d-day-tour/ 

like Brecourt Manor, bridge over the river Merderet in La Fiere (Saving Private Ryan story, embellished), Purple Heart Highway, drop points for 82nd and 101st, Longues Sur Mer battery, Saint Marie du Mont over Utah, Carentan, Arromonches and more       

Stayed in Bayeaux, accomodations were great at Hotel Reine Mathilde, best restaurant for the 3 weeks we were in Europe was probably La Rapiere in Bayeaux

 

Edited by 4th and 5
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On 11/12/2021 at 10:42 AM, Chad Fuck said:

This was a trip I was planning on making pre COVID. I’d love to hear your detailed itinerary and thoughts on where you stayed, any guides, etc.

Y'all and your fancy European trips.

Meanwhile, I'm working on a Gettsyburg tour for sometime next year.  

Ties into this thread, because the Dick Winters collection was donated to the Gettysburg Museum of History.

https://www.gettysburgmuseumofhistory.com/gallery/band-of-brothers-major-dick-winters-collection/

Been working through a shit-ton of the national park YouTube videos.

https://www.youtube.com/user/GettysburgNPS

Particularly their recorded tours, which are usually awesome

 

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On 11/12/2021 at 11:50 AM, 4th and 5 said:

our guide was amazing: 

Mike van den Dobbelsteen at https://alliedvictorytours.com/ (100% 5 star reviews on Trip Advisor)

We went from pretty much dawn to dusk for two days, and he'll take you to whatever you want to see and won't quit until you tap out. Encyclopedic knowledge, amazing story teller. Can't recommend the guy enough.

we did all the stops listed here and a whole lot more: https://alliedvictorytours.com/private-d-day-tours-menu/full-day-american-d-day-tour/ 

like Brecourt Manor, bridge over the river Merderet in La Fiere (Saving Private Ryan story, embellished), Purple Heart Highway, drop points for 82nd and 101st, Longues Sur Mer battery, Saint Marie du Mont over Utah, Carentan, Arromonches and more       

Stayed in Bayeaux, accomodations were great at Hotel Reine Mathilde, best restaurant for the 3 weeks we were in Europe was probably La Rapiere in Bayeaux

 

I've heard the tour of Iwo Jima, Tarawa and Peleliu has poorer accomodations and the menu has no Michelin stars.

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On 6/2/2021 at 6:01 PM, HouTex said:

Watched BOB again this past weekend. Still gets me at the end when Winters says that he wasn’t a hero but that he served among heroes.

It's funny, but also captures the humanity of service among other volunteers when Winters tells Guarnere he's not a Quaker after taking a swig of booze at the back of the troop truck.  There are so many layers to that one exchange, especially with regard to the subtle way Winters tells his men he hears everything, and by subtle, I mean like a bomb going off.

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  • 3 weeks later...

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10276189/Edward-Shames-surviving-officer-WWII-Band-Brothers-dies-aged-99.html

Edward Shames, last surviving officer of the WWII Band of Brothers, dies aged 99: Jewish soldier raided Hitler's 'Eagle's Nest' and was one of the first Americans to help liberate Dachau concentration camp

 

  • Col. Eddie Shames, 99, died peacefully in his home on Friday
  • The World War II paratrooper in the Easy Company was played by Jonathan May in a 2001  in an HBO miniseries directed by Tom Hank and Steven Spielberg
  • Shames parachuted into Normandy on D-Day, fought in Operation Market Garden and the Battle of the Bulge
  • He was one of the first Jewish American soldiers to be held in the Dachau concentration camp
  •  Famously, he and the members of the Easy Company raided Hitler's Eagle's Nest after Germany surrendered in 1945
  • There, he stole bottles of cognac that he would later use to toast his oldest son's bar mitzvah, according to his obituary 
  • With his death, there is only one surviving member of the Easy Company: 97-year-old Bradford Freeman
  •  
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  • 1 month later...

Randomly started another watch.  Carentan is so god damn good.  Blithe, though I know it wasn't historically accurate, was such a good representation of you know what happened a lot.  Guys who couldn't handle their situation at first and then grew into it, if they survived.  And then he got mortally wounded 30 seconds away from heading back to England.  A game of seconds.  Then to end it with Malarkey riding through the country in the sidecar drinking beer to show those moments where they were able to be boys again.  Such a well done episode.

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20 minutes ago, Parliament said:

Not sure it was the Carentan episode, but the scene where Malarkey paid for the laundry for all those guys who died really got me.

Yeah, that was the very end of Carentan.  I posted before I had gotten to that part.  Very heavy.  I love how he corrects her at first for calling him Private instead of his promoted rank (Sergeant?), but then lets it go when she does it again after he realizes what is happening.

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PIC 1: do you know why the trees in the American cemetery are trimmed like this?

PIC 3-5: The church in Angoville au Plain was used by 2 US Army Medics as an aide station during the Battle of Normandy in World War II. Robert Wright and Ken Moore of the 101st Airborne treated a mix of 80 injured American and German wounded soldiers and a child. Blood stains are still visible on the pews. Two stained glass windows commemorate the 101st Airborne Division, the first one is dedicated to the two medics of the 2nd Battalion of the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment (101st Airborne Division). The second one honoured the American parachutists.

The damage to the floor was from a mortar round that came thru the roof and landed in the church but did not explode

PIC 6: Inside the church at Saint Marie du Mont (just inland of Utah) you can see .45ACP holes from a Tommy gun from an American who killed a German hiding inside the confession booth

PIC 7: just inland from Sainte Mere Egliese is Purple Heart Highway (off to the right, thru the flooded fields), and the Merderet river and the bridge at La Fiere, which is the basis for the fictional plot from Saving Private Ryan  

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8 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

Yeah, that was the very end of Carentan.  I posted before I had gotten to that part.  Very heavy.  I love how he corrects her at first for calling him Private instead of his promoted rank (Sergeant?), but then lets it go when she does it again after he realizes what is happening.

That's always been a powerful scene to me, as she knows what she's doing, and he knows what she's doing.  But you can't really come down too hard on her as she's trying to earn a living in wartime.  But damn, man, knowing or at least suspecting all those men were now dead, and off-loading their laundry on their comrade...

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My son said they watched about 10 minutes of the “Why We Fight” episode in his 8th grade World History class today. He’s interested in seeing it all now. Proud Papa, here. Can’t wait to watch with him. (I had to laugh when he said he wanted to watch that episode in full and I told him, “No, you’re starting from the beginning, in boot camp … with Captain Sobel … just like Easy Company.”)

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I'd pay about anything to be along on this trip ......

In 1989, Malarkey traveled with Ambrose and other members of Easy Company, including Richard Winters and Carwood Lipton, to various sites where they had fought in Europe.  The oral history and first-person recollections that Malarkey and the others provided became the basis for Ambrose's book Band of Brothers, which was published in 1992. During Ambrose's collection of anecdotal information for the book, Malarkey told of the saga of the Niland brothers of Tonawanda, New York, how two had died on D-Day and another was presumed killed.  Fritz, one of the four Niland brothers, was close friends with Malarkey's best friend and fellow Easy Company member Sergeant Warren H. "Skip" Muck who was from the same town as the Nilands. This episode was the impetus for the screenplay of Saving Private Ryan.

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1 hour ago, C-Man said:

My son said they watched about 10 minutes of the “Why We Fight” episode in his 8th grade World History class today. He’s interested in seeing it all now. Proud Papa, here. Can’t wait to watch with him. (I had to laugh when he said he wanted to watch that episode in full and I told him, “No, you’re starting from the beginning, in boot camp … with Captain Sobel … just like Easy Company.”)

Fuck yeah.  There is no other way to watch of course.

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one of the pivotal Easy Company members, whose memory, pictures, diaries and recolections was invaulable to Ambrose when making the story and helping to cross reference stories was a man named Forrest Guth.

He jumped with Easy in Normany, Holland, and was at Bastogne.    and almost no one knows his name because Tom Hanks and the rest of the producers felt that the viewers would never be able to distinguish his name from that of Forrest Gump. 

and so a man who, along with 3 other Easy members, the day after D Day,  actually discovered the wreckage of the plane carrying Meehan and the rest of the Easy command staff (except obviously Winters), and was later wounded in Holland, but able to return in time for Bastogne and stayed until after the battle of Haguenau never got the screen time recognition because his name was too similar to a fictional character......

 

I give you Forrest Guth

Edited by AUS-97HORN
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1 hour ago, C-Man said:

My son said they watched about 10 minutes of the “Why We Fight” episode in his 8th grade World History class today. He’s interested in seeing it all now. Proud Papa, here. Can’t wait to watch with him. (I had to laugh when he said he wanted to watch that episode in full and I told him, “No, you’re starting from the beginning, in boot camp … with Captain Sobel … just like Easy Company.”)

Take him out for spaghetti first...

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