I saw on another TH-cam channel that walked that area of Normandy... The spot where the plane burned still doesn't grow anything.. its at the edge of a farmers' field..
Guarnere accused Winters of being a "Quaker". A cultural and religious group in the Pennsylvania area who are known for being pacifists- and non-drinkers. Guarnere said on the ship to Europe that he respected Winters, but was afraid he wouldn't be able to fight once the bullets started flying.
all varying Christian denominations mentioned there. Quakers/mennonites come from an "anabaptist" view of Christianity which emphasizes pacifism as the OP says. Various other Christian groups such as Reformed/Presbyterian, Orthodox, Southern Baptists, or Catholics would not have issues with either drinking or participating in a war.
@@michaellewis4422 Here in Oregon, I remember seeing Mennonites traveling about in their horse drawn buggies but I think they've given that up. My uncle's friend, a neighboring farmer, is Mennonite and my uncle was shocked once when the guy said he wouldn't even harm people if they broke into his house and were attacking his wife and kids! As a Christian I can admire someone not willing to harm others even in self-defense, but I figure not protecting your wife and children isn't so admirable!
There are different sects of Amish and Mennonite. Some are more strict in their interpretations of things. Usually, each sect has its own Bishop that sets the rules/interpretations for everyone else. My parents retired to Middlefield Ohio, which is home to the 4th largest settlement of Amish in the US.. And yes, there are Mennonite there as well.
The trooper at 12:50 with the "AA" shoulder patch was from the 82nd Airborne (All American), another, entirely different airborne division. They were all mixed up. There were also British airborne divisions dropped at the same time.
He did actually let his accent slip once. I can't remember the episode, it might have been The Last Patrol, but he pronounced the word "lieutenant" the British way, and said "Lef-tenant"
In real life the American-born German prisoner that Malarkey met actually worked in the factory across the road from where Malarkey worked, but the producers thought that was too much of a coincidence so they changed it to a nearby town for the show. Ronald ‘Sparky’ Spears, who shot the prisoners, really had no choice. The paratroopers were behind enemy lines, the beach landings were only just beginning and no one knew if they’d be successful or if the Allied forces would have to turn back to England, and they had no personnel or facilities for holding prisoners.
16:45 Buck Compton's gun wasn't jammed per se. He had lost his issued weapon, like many others, when he jumped. He found the Thompson MG along the way and picked it up not knowing that the firing pin had broken during the fall. You can see him in multiple scenes trying to get the gun to work.
The survivors of Easy Company would later say that they had trained so extensively at night that they'd learned to recognize one another simply by their silhouette or by the way they walked.
I have watched this series about 17 times with different reactors. I'm always on the fence at first with some. I think I will stick with the both of you through this because I was impressed with how the both of you picked up on all the details, the nuance, and some of the things many people miss watching this. Your both very intelligent and it's a joy to watch you break it down and understand it all.
And to answer the sister's question the reason that paratroopers dropped the morning before the assault on the beaches was to take out key positions that were needed to be taken out so that the landings on the beaches would be a little bit safer!! If you remember from last episode when Lieutenant Meehan was telling the group that E company will get a Garrison and destroy it! That's the kind of things that the Airborne paratroopers were doing the morning before The landings on the beaches!
Yup. Road hubs and bridges were the most important thing, to prevent the enemy from rushing reinforcements to the site of the landings and pushing them back into the sea before a real beachhead could be established, while preserving key bridges intact to push out of and expand the beachhead. Ominously to succeed at their mission, the Airborne didn't need to survive, just buy enough time... a fact they were grimly aware of.
The place where American troops landed at Utah beach had one narrow causeway leading inland, with the rest of the area flooded. The guns Easy destroyed had been pre-sighted to fire right down onto that causeway. Easy saved a lot of lives that day. Winters later said he was convinced if Sobel had been in charge he would have ordered just a full frontal assault and gotten everyone killed.
Probably so. Of course, it's worth noting that Sobel would never have gotten the chance. Had he retained command of Easy Company he would have been on the Headquarters plane instead of Meehan, and thus would have died before making it to the ground to command anybody.
During the D-day drop General Maxwell Taylor instructed the 101st airborne to take no prisoners since they wouldn't have the facilities or capability to hold prisoners to achieve their objectives during the crucial start of the invasion.
Then they shouldn't have taken them prisoner in the first place. Not taking prisoners is one thing - killing the ones you've already taken is so clearly a crime it can't even be argued. In any event, it's just bad practice. It makes the enemy fight harder.
@@andrewcharles459 It wasn't a general practice on the Western front, but you definitely can't let them go and they couldn't watch them. Maybe they could have shot up their legs but even then they could report on the paratroopers position and numbers. it's war. sometimes shit happens.
@@andrewcharles459 this was like 80 years ago m8. They executed the prisoners they captured. Doesn’t make it right, but shoulda, coulda, woulda doesn’t mean much for something so long ago.
@@andrewcharles459 nope, it's listed as "Allied war crimes during World War II" on a wikipedia article. But war is war, there is often no justice in it. Crimes were committed on all sides.
He was the S2 (commanding) officer in battalion staff. Which is the military term for what you stated. It also includes counter intelligence and operational security. :) S1 is personnel and pay. S3 is the XO (executive officer/operations). S4 is logistics (materiel, ammunition, rations and transportation). S5 is civil affairs and S6 is communications.
Guarnere (pronounced 'gar-NEER') is the sergeant whose brother was killed in Italy. His nickname is "gonorrhea", a, ahem, "social disease", which is just a play on words because it sounds like his name. Quakers are a Christian religious sect known for not drinking alcohol. Some had a negative view of them during the war because they were pacifists who refused to join the military to fight. Calling Winters a "Quaker" was a put-down because he doubted Winters' fighting capabilities. "Dick" is short for "Richard". I know, it doesn't make sense.
The guy (his name is Speirs-you'll hear more from him later) that shot the Germans did so under orders. The Americans were told not to take prisoners because they did not have enough men, supplies etc. to spare to watch and care for POWs in this invasion. Cruel? Yes, but a necessity of war. The German/American who was talking to Malarkey in reality, ACTUALLY, worked in a factory across the street from where Malarkey worked, but they never met! The writers were afraid people would think they made that up so they changed it. When you finish the 10 episodes of Band of Brothers you need to watch the "unofficial" 11th episode,a documentary called We Stand Alone Together where you get to "meet" the real Band of Brothers and hear what their lives became after the War. Sadly, they have all left us but, through this series, Easy Company will livein our hearts forever!
Add yourselves with the other reactors who, at 18:00, believe Lt. Buck Compton dropped his grenade. If you look again closely you will see another soldier slam into Compton's back at the crucial moment, causing the accident.
Not true, by the time 101st had prisoners rounded up they had a secure area. They would have been held under guard there. Same place wounded would have been gathered, equipment being collected, and soldiers reporting in.
Capt Sobel said to Winters, “you spend most of your time on base”, so Sobel knew Winters spent most of his free time studying army tactics from manuals. That helped make Winters a great leader and caused some of the friction between the two men.
Ehh maybe, but in that particular interaction it was essentially Sobel telling Winters that he had no life and that his time didn't have too much value, it was him being a dick to Dick.
10:50 One of the benefits of the training that the 506th (their regiment, under Col. Sink) went through was a LOT of nighttime drills, problem solving exercises, marches, and the like. Easy company, especially, if you recall Sobel had them doing nighttime marches every weekend, were excellent at functioning effectively at night, and it laid off for them several times during the war.
8:55 actually a prop blast, what they're talking about is the blast of fast-moving air that the propellers are putting off so when they jumped out the door that blast of fast moving air is what they're talking about as the "prop blast"! And when this blast grabbed hold of that leg bag it just tore it right off their legs!! For all the planning it was pretty chaotic the jump into Normandy but eventually got organized and started moving!!!🎉
Just found the channel, and want to thank you for watching this series. As a Vet, I just want to say that I always appreciate reactors doing this series, as it is important to remember those thst come before us.
The craziest part about this show is that so much of what's depicated actually happened. Joe Toye really did almost get blown up by two grenades, the second of which was accidentally dropped by Buck Compton. The real Lipton really did see a guy lift his head while they were crawling and get shot through the helmet. The real Popeye Wynn really did start apologyzing after getting shot in the butt. Winters really did find those maps with the markings of all the German gun batteries firing on the beaches. He really did shot one guy just as he was leaving. Obviously, the show condenses some things and makes some changes, but so much of it is just portraying things that actually happened, sometimes even downplaying them because the real events are so unbeliveable they didn't want people to think they were making it up.
@21:29 The paratrooper who is shot in the head is played by Matt Damon. (Many of the UK locations and sets which Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks used on the making of Saving Private Ryan were re-used for the Band of Brothers series. Matt Damon was still in the UK and played this tiny cameo role.
On June 5th 1944, Easy Company was flown to Normandy France from Devon England on 8 sticks (C-47 planes), 7 of them successfully dropped their paratroopers - albeit all off target. The 8th plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire and exploded, the flying crew and all 17 members of the company on board the plane were killed (including the company commander Lt. Meehan and the highest ranking non-commissioned officer 1st SGT Bill Evans). Lt. Winters became the acting company commander at that point.
The Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers were legally exempt from military service. Also the Mennonites, and the Amish, are exempt from military service due to their religious beliefs.
Quakers have been known for abstaining from drinking alcohol, tobacco, and other habit-forming substances. Quakers reject elaborate religious ceremonies, don’t have official clergy, and believe in spiritual equality for men and women. They practice pacifism and played a key role in both the anti-slavery and women’s rights movements.
They didn't use the TMT on machine guns, those are 105mm Howitzers ranged to fire on the beaches. No one knows how many lives they saved by doing this, but you'd have to imagine it was a lot. The way Winters instantly planned and executed this attack was so well done that it's still taught in military acadamies in American today - it's literally "text book" perfect.
Sobel actually did make the jump on D-Day, he just wasn't the commander of Easy. From his wikipedia page: "On D-Day, Sobel parachuted into Normandy with the rest of the 101st Airborne Division as commander of the 506th's service company.[22] Immediately after landing, Sobel assembled four men and destroyed a German machine gun nest with grenades before joining the rest of the division near Carentan.[23]"
The idea of dropping paratroopers in a drop zone is so they can regroup together quickly to accomplish their missions. On D-Day no one hit their drop zones, in fact they were spread out all over the place, mixing units. causing small groups of mixed units. Though it was a mess, the positive affect was that it confused the heck out of the Germans making them wonder if this was the prelude to invasion or just a diversion.
Great reactions! I'm so excited that you're watcing this series! As for Bill Guarnere: He was an Italian-American paratrooper from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His nickname was "Wild Bill" (like the name of the famous old American cowboy) but some guys would occasionally tease Guarnere by calling him "Gonorrhea" (which is some type of STD) because the name "Guarnere" and word "Gonorrhea" kind of sound similar. Also: Pennsylvania is known as the "Quaker State" (as its founding father was a Quaker named William Penn). "Quakers" are people who belong to the "Society of Friends" -- a deeply devout religious sect. It's a protestant European Christian organization that teaches tolerance and non-violence. Quite a few moved Quakers moved to North America (before the United States even existed) and settled in places like Pennsylvania. Quakers not only preferred to avoid violence, but they were also very moral (e.g., no drinking, smoking, swearing, etc.). Many of the towns and cities in Pennsylvania are named after Israeli towns, cities and areas in the Bible. If you look on a map of Pennsylvania, you'll find the towns of Bethlehem, Nazareth, Bethel, Hebron, Jericho, Goshen Heights, Mt. Carmel, Zion, Sharon, Ephrata, Asher, Emmaus, New Salem, etc. Because of its tolerance, Pennsylvania became home to other religious sects, cultures and communities that immigrated there -- including the Amish, Mennonites, Calvinists, Pennsylvania Dutch, eastern Europeans, etc. However, it was also home to a large population of Jewish immigrants too (especially during the early 20th Century). In fact, more than 3% of the state's population is Jewish. Of course, the state is known as the "Quaker State" since Pennsylvania's founder William Penn was a very devout Quaker. He's the guy seen on the boxes and containers of Quaker Oats and the logo for the corporation. Since Richard Winters was from a rural area of Pennsylvania, Guarnere thought that Richard Winters was very moral (particularly with not drinking) and assumed he might be a Quaker. By sharing a drink with Guarnere at the end of that day's battle, Guarnere realized that he wasn't a Quaker.
Another great reaction. The back and forth banter between you two definitely shows you are siblings.🙂 It makes it fun even though it's a heavy topic. Keep up the great work!
13:00 good eye catching the different patch!! Actually that is the patch for the 82nd Airborne who also jumped into Normandy at the same time that the 101st Airborne did!! If I'm not mistaken there were a total of about 16,000 paratroopers that dropped that morning!!! Nice catch though not too many people notice the different patch!!!❤
if you want to get a solid feeling of who these people really were, there is a documentary that has in depth interviews with all these people who served so bravely. sadly almost all are now passed. i promise its time you will not want back. "We Stand Alone Together - Band of Brothers Documentary". that's the title on you tube.
The scene where Buck throws the grenade and hits the German in the back and the grenade explodes: the real Buck was an All American baseball player in college. When he threw the grenade he actually hit the German in the head. Then the actor playing Buck, Neil McDonough, also played college baseball and so when he threw the grenade in the show he threw it like a baseball player.
My father and uncle were both in the Army Air Corps. Dad was a Senior Navigational Instructor who taught thousands of crews and fliers how to get to their target and get back alive, uncle Tom was a B24 pilot who was shot down "somewhere over the Pacific". They both flew the C47, the plane used to transport the paratroops. The C47 (known as the DC3 in civilian use) was the most important and useful aircraft in history.
The man who was shot in the head while laying in the field talking to Lipton was Warrant Officer Andrew Hill, he came upon the battle while searching for the headquarters of the 506th PIR (Parachute Infantry Regiment).
I'm enjoying your sharp, incisive reactions. This was their first time in combat. They took chances they never would again (Lipton climbing the tree for a firing position; Malarkey going after a Luger in the open). After several days in combat, the men realize what will keep them alive longer - being more careful.
Amazing reaction from you guys! Keen to details, you can really tell that they listen and understand each episode. They know that was Lt. Meehans plane that was shot down. Most of the reactors doesn’t noticed it. Guarnere making the first move by not obeying Winters due to his brothers lost.
I am glad to "Rewatch" this great series with you guys!! 67 yr old American son of WW2 veteran. I'm sure 1 day you'll watch Saving Private Ryan, one of the greatest ww2 movies.
I thought this blew the doors off of Saving Private Ryan. It is based on actual events where Saving Private Ryan, even though a truly great movie, is 99% made up fiction with a some real flaws.
This series they had to dumb down the stories because the truth was to unbelievable. Malarkey and the German soldier actually worked across the street from each other and never met. They felt the audience wouldn't believe it so they made it different towns. This happens throughout the series.
Like the story of Guarnere and Lorraine the Jeep Jockey - in real life it was Lorraine who shot the German and Guarnere who kept missing. I'm not sure why they changed that.
@@thosesiblingss The guy who plays Bull Randleman is Michael Cudlitz and he played a Los Angeles cop in a show called Southland which is worth a watch.
It was 4 guns that were taken out. The battle of Brecourt Manor takes place over about 15 minutes, however in reality it lasted about three hours. The only two soldiers shown to be killed are 'John Hall' and an unnamed Warrant Officer (Andrew Hill), while in reality - as Dick Winters states in his memoir - there were four dead and six wounded.
Another great reaction. I like your discussions. The shooting of the prisoners will become clear later in the series. Winters was not against drinking he just wanted to stay sharp. He took a drink to celebrate their survival and to show he did not consider himself better than his men, but was their leader.
There are two types of Anti Aircraft weapons during this time. Anti Aircraft Artillery aka Flak which are the explosive shells seen bursting in air during the jump typically reserved for high altitude targets and Anti Aircraft guns which are fast firing guns reserved for lower altitude and fast moving targets. Today, Surface to Air missiles are typically what's used to combat enemy air power.
You need to listen to your sibling. 😁 She was correct: that was Spiers who asked for the cigarettes, shot the prisoners, then returned to stand in the background of that scene. Also correct is that Easy Company is an Assault company, meaning that they are trained for those sorts of missions. That's why they got sent out to take out the guns - they were the best for the job. The upper command weren't aware that only a dozen or so of Easy Company had arrived so far.
Just for a little clarification the explosions that the planes were going through at the beginning of the episode is called flak!! Is simply an exploding shell that when it explodes shoots chunks of metal in every direction!! Fortunately these planes were able to take a lot of damage and still fly!!
The young lady is correct. Easy was the assault company of the battalion. Meaning they had extra and specific training in attacking fixed enemy positions. All the airborne guys had that training but easy company had more of it and was specified as the assault company.
They were literally behind enemy lines, they absolutely cannot take prisoners at this point. They dont have the manpower to watch them or the facilities to store them.
The Airborne was Dropped into France the Night Before the Beach Invasion ! The Airborne's Job was to Secure Bridges and Towns so the Troops on the Beach had a Way to get off the Beach and Move Inland
Well, this is when the sh*t gets real. "We're not lost Private...we're in Normandy." This one line displays Winter's ability to instill confidence in his men, even unarmed in the face of all adversity. And this soldier wasn't even a member of Easy Company. Currahee
"A prop blast" refers to the initial force that hits you literally from the propeller of the aircrafts, and how a lot of them lost their leg bags that were way too heavy. I get that they wanted the troops to be prepared but...
It's not made clear in this episode but Winters had 15-20 men with him. They attached a German position held by around 50-60 men. Because defenders have a large advantage standard doctrine dictates that the attacker should outnumber the defender by 3 to 1. So what Winters and his team accomplished was quite extraordinary.
After the series you two might watch the documentary about these guys "We Stand Alone Together ". BTW , Sobel received the Bronze Star when he went into combat during the Korean War.
Yes, the same man who gave cigarettes to the German prisoners and shot them and passed by Malarkey on the road was Speirs. This incident echoes through several episodes.
Prisoners that were captured on D-Day were often killed because 1. There were no troops available to watch them, handle them, etc. Every person was needed to do their assigned mission. 2. There was no place at that moment in which to keep them. The Allies still had not secured all territory and become familiar with it, in order to make a separate area for prisoners and to have a route from the frontline battles to wherever prisoners could be taken. Much later, barracks were constructed but there was nothing yet built to house prisoners. At that moment, the Allies still were all located in France, which was still under control of the Nazis and any collaborationist French troops. 3. The D-Day invasion was not known yet if it was a success and so it was treated more as if it was an on-going battle. True, technically, people who are captured or who surrender, are usually not expected to be killed, but are taken as prisoners. However, on D-Day, the circumstances were not strictly clear until later when it was determined that the Allies had successfully taken the territory and could create separate spaces for prisoners and could spare the manpower to take care of them.
Mennonite is a religious group that moved to the US, around the time that the first Chasidic Jews moved to the US, they come from the same area as many early Chasidic Jews and speak a similar language based on the German of the area. The reason they don't have a mustache with their beard is because, many military groups of the area would grow a mustache, so it was a way to show they didn't agree.
There has been a lot of jokes about how the two groups can confuse each other (Chasidim, and groups like the Amish, since they have a similar language, and dress in a similar way. My favorite joke is from the movie "The Frisco Kid where Gene Wilder plays a Rabbi on his way to San Fransisco from Poland.
Regarding Speirs shooting the POWs. General MacArthur had ordered US troops not to take prisoners in the opening days of the invasion, as if they did, they wouldn't have the manpower to push the assault. Speirs took it upon himself to kill those POWs so he wouldn't have to tell his men to do it (which he had to do earlier). He also shot a US trooper (as is mentioned in episode 3) who got drunk during a fight and wouldn't stop firing and thus revealed his company's position. Speirs shouted at him to stop multiple times, and the trooper finally turned and aimed his gun at Speirs, at which point Speirs shot him (in self defense). But Speirs wasn't just some trigger happy maniac. He went and reported the incident to is superior officer, however the officer was killed in a battle shortly after, so the event wasn't dealt with and thus the legend of Speirs began to grow. He was never proud of the rumors and was reluctant to talk about them until the producers of Band of Brothers told the real Captain Winters they didn't want to include the stuff about Speirs shooting the prisoners in the show because they were afraid of getting sued if he said they were lying. So the real Winters called Speirs and asked him point blank if the rumors about him were true which Speirs confirmed. And so, it made it to the show as you saw. Needless to say, Speirs more than earned his legend, as you already saw in episode 7
19:40 TLDR you can't make TNT, C4, etc explode without inserting a blasting cap or a balled up piece of det cord or something similar inside the "primary" explosive/TNT in this case since explosives like TNT and many others are designed to be very insensitive to literally everything including fire and impact because in combat you don't want to get shot in your explosives pack and yeetus deletus your whole squad with sensitive explosives, they could also remove the 'fuse' assembly from modern grenades and use that but I don't know much about WWII grenades so that may not have been easily possible and since the grenades did the job it would've been pointless. Further info: A blasting cap is basically a metal tube around 5x40mm (it varies and I'm american) filled with a small amount of a different/specialty type of explosive (very very spicy firecracker basically) that is typically more 'powerful' but also more sensitive and it has a cap on one end and either electrical wires, a shock tube, or det cord coming out the other end all of which are used to make the explosive/s inside the blasting cap explode and thus exploding the "primary" explosive which is TNT in this case. Det cord is literally just hollow rope that is generally around I think like 4-8mm thick and filled with explosive (it comes on a roll like rope) and is used for exploding stuff on its own like thin doors and stuff but primarily its used to be connected to a blasting cap with det cord coming out of it aka 'det cord blasting cap' at one end and then ignited at the other via shock tube or blasting cap or similar means a few meters to hundreds of meters away from target and proceeds to explode its entire length at thousands of meters per second to then ignite the blasting caps/explosives at the other end on whatever you're trying to destroy In the case of the electrical blasting cap it will have wires at one end which will obviously use some type of electricity to ignite and because of that it may have another type of fuse or explosive inside to ignite and explode the other normal blasting cap explosive inside the basting cap then explode the primary explosive the blasting cap is inside of all of which happen in a fraction of a second. In the case of the shock tube its very hard to explain and also very cool so I'd look up a video on it in action but its basically the same as the electrical, I mean its not but it is, again hard to explain. Hope that helps lmao
Quaker is a religious sect of Christianity, like Amish. Look at the guy on a box of Quaker oats. William Penn was a Quaker he founded the state of Pennsylvania.
Technically speaking, except for some rare cases, every Israeli man and some women who served in the IDF are in reserve until they turn 40 or 45 (not sure what's the limit now). Also, many stay in reserve even past this age as volunteers.
Prisonners of war is something the Americans did really well for most of the war, but on the first day of the invasion, the Airborne was very much alone behind enemy lines, with no acces to any of the ressources needed to handle prisoners. They were already strained for ressources to accomplish their mission, diverting what precious manpower they had to handle prisoners would have compromised the success of the invasion.
13,000 men jumping on top of the German Army at midnight. 15,000 French civilians died in the bombing prior to the landings and in the course of the first week fighting in Normandy.
His name was Guarnere, they gave him the nickname Gonorrhea. Which is a sexually transmitted disease also called the clap. The Greman anti aircraft guns were 88mm artery guns shot into the air in front of approaching aircraft. Each was fused with altimeter fuses that would detonate the round at a specific altitude. They also use proximity fuses so the round would explode when close to a object. These proximity fuses did not work well for aircraft but were used to air burst artery rounds over the battle field. Speirs shot the POWs because at that time they did not have the place or man power to watch them. They were under orders to not take prisoners. Because the beach landing was still going on. There was no guarantee that the invasion was going to be successful at that point. Popeye apologizing for being wounded. Show the commitment these men had to each other.
"Quakers" isn't a Jewish thing. I think they are a Christian thing. He was likely calling him a Quaker and a Mennonite because Winters is from Pennsylvania which is where these people are known for living at in the United States. I think the Mennonites are Dutch in origin.
Yes I think when they said Quakers it was like the Amish who still only ride horse and buggy because Mennonite is exactly like Amish but they only drive older black vehicles lmao crazy😂
Quakers are a pacifistic Christian sect that originated in England some centuries back. They don't reject modernity like the Amish. Mennonites are sort of Amish-light.
Notably Quakers are pacifists, so they're trying to show that Guarnere didn't trust fighting with him until he saw him in battle (at least in the series.)
Thanks for the reaction. A less bloody than Saving Private Ryan, but still good earlier movie of the Normandy invasion is The Longest Day (1962). A good world war two airborne move is A Bridge Too Far (1977)
By air was the airborne behind lines -this show. The main was beach landing (Normandy) See "Saving Private Ryan" for a really good representation of that
HALL is MORIARTY from SHERLOCK... bonus points for you! Also, while not an ideal situation... Lt. Speirs did shoot the prisoners. The allies had just landed in Europe and had no real front lines or HQ / Base camp to hold prisoners. What do you do?
Prop wash = the force the the propeller hitting the jumper while exiting the aircraft. Or more properly the jumper starting to loose foward mommeum as the parachute open. Flak = anti-aircraft guns, called that because the german name is something like "plane working cannon" which is Flugabwehrkanone. Flug abwehr kanone thus FL A K
These series portray war as it was. The Pacific is done cinematically different but real. Masters of the Air is most recent, again, done completely different. Ongong characters/real men are portrayed in all three, in the actual horrible events.
Guarnere (gar-near) is his name not gonorrhea thats just a nickname, and the objective for the airborne that night was to secure strategic crossroads and towns to allow the men from the beach to move inland quickly before the germans could pin the allies and push them back into the sea, now the problem was the pathfinders landed without proper radios due to losing them and were unable to direct the paratroopers to proper landing zones meaning men from different companies and and even divisions ended up in the wrong areas. Despite this officers and NCO were quick to form ad hoc units to take objectives and set up rally points for lost troopers. Now Quaker’s are a Christian denomination that slipt from the big churches and believe in pacifism and dont take into drink, they settled in Pennsylvania during the early colonial period and so when guarnere heard that winters was from Pennsylvania he just assumed he was a Quaker. I recommend “the operation room” they are a TH-cam channel that has done over head view of the real easy companies battles and more
@10:40 The countersigns "thunder" and "flash" chosen for the Normandy landing apparently contain a consonant sound that did not exist in the German language and consequently would be difficult for a German speaker to imitate. Similarly, troops fighting the Japanese apparently used countersigns that contained the consonant "L" (like Lilly or Lilac) which does not exist in the Japanese language and would be difficult for most Japanese troops to mimic. Brilliant.... who thinks up this stuff before combat has even started?! @14:45 Lt. Speirs is the one who shot the German POWs. Remember that event, (not a spoiler) as it is brought up again in later episodes. @23:58 Quakers are a Christian sect. The only thing I know about them is that they are extremely opposed to violence and are generally conscientious objectors who will not fight in military conflicts due to their religious views on the subject of killing. They also don't drink alcohol which is why Guarnere thought Winters might be one. Great reaction guys!
At least American Airborne troops were given a take no prisoners order. It did not indicate what to do with surrendering German soldiers. The idea was based on whether there would be enough Airborne Troops to survive the jump to take their objectives. Airborne casualties were expected to be as high as 75% on the jump alone. Actual Allied casualties (Killed, wounded, missing, captured) came in around 10% on D-Day. This neither condones or condemns whomever shot those prisoners. The American that had joined the German Army that Malarky talked to was not in that group of prisoners. Getting that Meehan's plane was hit and crashed is impressive. A lot of people let that slip by. Good soldiers always pray for peace. Stay safe.
You guys seem to be VERY hyped up today!!😮😂 Too much coffee!??😅 I LOVE the way you guys react and I am hopeful that you guys will ALSO react to the series The Pacific and Masters of the Air!! Also done by Hanks and Spielberg, The Pacific focuses on the United States fight against the Japanese through the Pacific Islands!! Masters of the Air focuses on the United States Army Air Force, 8th Air Force but more specifically, the 100th bomb group within the 8th Air Force!! They were tasked with the bombing of occupied Europe and Germany throughout 1943 1944 and 1945!! The hero or "Winters type character" in Masters would be a Jewish guy from Brooklyn by the name of Robert Rosenthal, better known to his crew as Rosie!! Talk about a hero!!❤ Anyway I hope you guys will react to all three series they are excellent and give a great education on these three different theaters of operation in World War II.
The guns at Brecourt were firing down onto Utah Beach - my great uncle was part of the infantry coming ashore on Utah. So, thank you Easy Company!
I want to congratulate you. You are the only reactor that I’ve seen that has properly identified Lt. Meehans plane as the one that went down.
right!
Yes! I caught that too. Most reactors seem to miss it.
I saw on another TH-cam channel that walked that area of Normandy... The spot where the plane burned still doesn't grow anything.. its at the edge of a farmers' field..
No I’ve seen few others that realized it. But then again, I’ve probably watched around 30 of these over the years. But yeah, most don’t notice it.
Guarnere accused Winters of being a "Quaker". A cultural and religious group in the Pennsylvania area who are known for being pacifists- and non-drinkers. Guarnere said on the ship to Europe that he respected Winters, but was afraid he wouldn't be able to fight once the bullets started flying.
And then saying he must be a Mennonite, which are similar to Amish, so again, a very pacifist group, like the Quakers.
all varying Christian denominations mentioned there. Quakers/mennonites come from an "anabaptist" view of Christianity which emphasizes pacifism as the OP says. Various other Christian groups such as Reformed/Presbyterian, Orthodox, Southern Baptists, or Catholics would not have issues with either drinking or participating in a war.
@@michaellewis4422 Here in Oregon, I remember seeing Mennonites traveling about in their horse drawn buggies but I think they've given that up.
My uncle's friend, a neighboring farmer, is Mennonite and my uncle was shocked once when the guy said he wouldn't even harm people if they broke into his house and were attacking his wife and kids!
As a Christian I can admire someone not willing to harm others even in self-defense, but I figure not protecting your wife and children isn't so admirable!
There are different sects of Amish and Mennonite. Some are more strict in their interpretations of things. Usually, each sect has its own Bishop that sets the rules/interpretations for everyone else. My parents retired to Middlefield Ohio, which is home to the 4th largest settlement of Amish in the US.. And yes, there are Mennonite there as well.
The Jewish connection they might be half remembering is that Quakers are named basically the same as Haredim because they tremble in their faith.
The trooper at 12:50 with the "AA" shoulder patch was from the 82nd Airborne (All American), another, entirely different airborne division. They were all mixed up. There were also British airborne divisions dropped at the same time.
Damian Lewis (Winters) is British and yet his American accent is perfect.
Almost perfect...
Yeah it's so good. It's so weird to hear him with a British accent
He also resembles a young Winters very much. A bit skinnier but tall and athletic just like the real Winters.
Not quite. His pronunciation of "weekend" and "court-martial" sounds English as he stresses the second syllable instead of first, which is American.
He did actually let his accent slip once. I can't remember the episode, it might have been The Last Patrol, but he pronounced the word "lieutenant" the British way, and said "Lef-tenant"
In real life the American-born German prisoner that Malarkey met actually worked in the factory across the road from where Malarkey worked, but the producers thought that was too much of a coincidence so they changed it to a nearby town for the show. Ronald ‘Sparky’ Spears, who shot the prisoners, really had no choice. The paratroopers were behind enemy lines, the beach landings were only just beginning and no one knew if they’d be successful or if the Allied forces would have to turn back to England, and they had no personnel or facilities for holding prisoners.
16:45 Buck Compton's gun wasn't jammed per se. He had lost his issued weapon, like many others, when he jumped. He found the Thompson MG along the way and picked it up not knowing that the firing pin had broken during the fall. You can see him in multiple scenes trying to get the gun to work.
The survivors of Easy Company would later say that they had trained so extensively at night that they'd learned to recognize one another simply by their silhouette or by the way they walked.
He didn’t drink to prove a point. He drank because it was "a day of firsts" Bonding with his men was just the bonus.
I have watched this series about 17 times with different reactors. I'm always on the fence at first with some. I think I will stick with the both of you through this because I was impressed with how the both of you picked up on all the details, the nuance, and some of the things many people miss watching this. Your both very intelligent and it's a joy to watch you break it down and understand it all.
And to answer the sister's question the reason that paratroopers dropped the morning before the assault on the beaches was to take out key positions that were needed to be taken out so that the landings on the beaches would be a little bit safer!! If you remember from last episode when Lieutenant Meehan was telling the group that E company will get a Garrison and destroy it! That's the kind of things that the Airborne paratroopers were doing the morning before The landings on the beaches!
Yup. Road hubs and bridges were the most important thing, to prevent the enemy from rushing reinforcements to the site of the landings and pushing them back into the sea before a real beachhead could be established, while preserving key bridges intact to push out of and expand the beachhead. Ominously to succeed at their mission, the Airborne didn't need to survive, just buy enough time... a fact they were grimly aware of.
The place where American troops landed at Utah beach had one narrow causeway leading inland, with the rest of the area flooded. The guns Easy destroyed had been pre-sighted to fire right down onto that causeway. Easy saved a lot of lives that day.
Winters later said he was convinced if Sobel had been in charge he would have ordered just a full frontal assault and gotten everyone killed.
Probably so. Of course, it's worth noting that Sobel would never have gotten the chance. Had he retained command of Easy Company he would have been on the Headquarters plane instead of Meehan, and thus would have died before making it to the ground to command anybody.
During the D-day drop General Maxwell Taylor instructed the 101st airborne to take no prisoners since they wouldn't have the facilities or capability to hold prisoners to achieve their objectives during the crucial start of the invasion.
Then they shouldn't have taken them prisoner in the first place. Not taking prisoners is one thing - killing the ones you've already taken is so clearly a crime it can't even be argued. In any event, it's just bad practice. It makes the enemy fight harder.
@@andrewcharles459 It wasn't a general practice on the Western front, but you definitely can't let them go and they couldn't watch them. Maybe they could have shot up their legs but even then they could report on the paratroopers position and numbers. it's war. sometimes shit happens.
@@andrewcharles459 this was like 80 years ago m8. They executed the prisoners they captured. Doesn’t make it right, but shoulda, coulda, woulda doesn’t mean much for something so long ago.
@@its_Jere Oh, there's a statute of limitations on murder now? I hadn't heard. Thanks for the info.
@@andrewcharles459 nope, it's listed as "Allied war crimes during World War II" on a wikipedia article.
But war is war, there is often no justice in it. Crimes were committed on all sides.
Nixon is apart of the Battalions Intelligence section, thats why he said he sent the maps up to a higher command near the end of the episode.
It's also why Nixon later revealed that he never had fired his weapon in combat, the intelligence officer was less likely to have to do so.
He was the S2 (commanding) officer in battalion staff. Which is the military term for what you stated. It also includes counter intelligence and operational security. :) S1 is personnel and pay. S3 is the XO (executive officer/operations). S4 is logistics (materiel, ammunition, rations and transportation). S5 is civil affairs and S6 is communications.
34:35 “Dick” is a diminutive of the name “Richard.” So is “Rich” or “Richie.”
Guarnere (pronounced 'gar-NEER') is the sergeant whose brother was killed in Italy. His nickname is "gonorrhea", a, ahem, "social disease", which is just a play on words because it sounds like his name. Quakers are a Christian religious sect known for not drinking alcohol. Some had a negative view of them during the war because they were pacifists who refused to join the military to fight. Calling Winters a "Quaker" was a put-down because he doubted Winters' fighting capabilities. "Dick" is short for "Richard". I know, it doesn't make sense.
The guy (his name is Speirs-you'll hear more from him later) that shot the Germans did so under orders. The Americans were told not to take prisoners because they did not have enough men, supplies etc. to spare to watch and care for POWs in this invasion. Cruel? Yes, but a necessity of war.
The German/American who was talking to Malarkey in reality, ACTUALLY, worked in a factory across the street from where Malarkey worked, but they never met! The writers were afraid people would think they made that up so they changed it.
When you finish the 10 episodes of Band of Brothers you need to watch the "unofficial" 11th episode,a documentary called We Stand Alone Together where you get to "meet" the real Band of Brothers and hear what their lives became after the War. Sadly, they have all left us but, through this series, Easy Company will livein our hearts forever!
Add yourselves with the other reactors who, at 18:00, believe Lt. Buck Compton dropped his grenade. If you look again closely you will see another soldier slam into Compton's back at the crucial moment, causing the accident.
Not true, by the time 101st had prisoners rounded up they had a secure area. They would have been held under guard there. Same place wounded would have been gathered, equipment being collected, and soldiers reporting in.
Capt Sobel said to Winters, “you spend most of your time on base”, so Sobel knew Winters spent most of his free time studying army tactics from manuals. That helped make Winters a great leader and caused some of the friction between the two men.
Ehh maybe, but in that particular interaction it was essentially Sobel telling Winters that he had no life and that his time didn't have too much value, it was him being a dick to Dick.
10:50
One of the benefits of the training that the 506th (their regiment, under Col. Sink) went through was a LOT of nighttime drills, problem solving exercises, marches, and the like. Easy company, especially, if you recall Sobel had them doing nighttime marches every weekend, were excellent at functioning effectively at night, and it laid off for them several times during the war.
8:55 actually a prop blast, what they're talking about is the blast of fast-moving air that the propellers are putting off so when they jumped out the door that blast of fast moving air is what they're talking about as the "prop blast"! And when this blast grabbed hold of that leg bag it just tore it right off their legs!!
For all the planning it was pretty chaotic the jump into Normandy but eventually got organized and started moving!!!🎉
it's him
no it isn't
it's him
no it isn't
it's him
no it isn't
🤣this is gold, never change.
And she was correct, it was indeed him.
Just found the channel, and want to thank you for watching this series. As a Vet, I just want to say that I always appreciate reactors doing this series, as it is important to remember those thst come before us.
The craziest part about this show is that so much of what's depicated actually happened. Joe Toye really did almost get blown up by two grenades, the second of which was accidentally dropped by Buck Compton. The real Lipton really did see a guy lift his head while they were crawling and get shot through the helmet. The real Popeye Wynn really did start apologyzing after getting shot in the butt. Winters really did find those maps with the markings of all the German gun batteries firing on the beaches. He really did shot one guy just as he was leaving. Obviously, the show condenses some things and makes some changes, but so much of it is just portraying things that actually happened, sometimes even downplaying them because the real events are so unbeliveable they didn't want people to think they were making it up.
@21:29 The paratrooper who is shot in the head is played by Matt Damon. (Many of the UK locations and sets which Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks used on the making of Saving Private Ryan were re-used for the Band of Brothers series. Matt Damon was still in the UK and played this tiny cameo role.
8:50 The actor playing Hall that Winters runs into here I think is in fact the actor who plays Moriarty
I'm impressed how soon you learned their names. it took me a couple of viewings to know everyone.
Hope you 2 are staying safe with all the psychotic aggression against Israel lately. Love from US.
On June 5th 1944, Easy Company was flown to Normandy France from Devon England on 8 sticks (C-47 planes), 7 of them successfully dropped their paratroopers - albeit all off target. The 8th plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire and exploded, the flying crew and all 17 members of the company on board the plane were killed (including the company commander Lt. Meehan and the highest ranking non-commissioned officer 1st SGT Bill Evans). Lt. Winters became the acting company commander at that point.
The Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers were legally exempt from military service.
Also the Mennonites, and the Amish, are exempt from military service due to their religious beliefs.
Quakers have been known for abstaining from drinking alcohol, tobacco, and other habit-forming substances.
Quakers reject elaborate religious ceremonies, don’t have official clergy, and believe in spiritual equality for men and women.
They practice pacifism and played a key role in both the anti-slavery and women’s rights movements.
Also William Penn founder of the colony and future state of Pennsylvania was Quaker.
To actually solve your (the reactors) confusion… Quakers and Mennonites are offshoots of Christianity not Judaism.
After watching this reaction, one thing became completely clear: Ayala is definitely better at recognizing faces.
They didn't use the TMT on machine guns, those are 105mm Howitzers ranged to fire on the beaches. No one knows how many lives they saved by doing this, but you'd have to imagine it was a lot. The way Winters instantly planned and executed this attack was so well done that it's still taught in military acadamies in American today - it's literally "text book" perfect.
Sobel actually did make the jump on D-Day, he just wasn't the commander of Easy. From his wikipedia page: "On D-Day, Sobel parachuted into Normandy with the rest of the 101st Airborne Division as commander of the 506th's service company.[22] Immediately after landing, Sobel assembled four men and destroyed a German machine gun nest with grenades before joining the rest of the division near Carentan.[23]"
The idea of dropping paratroopers in a drop zone is so they can regroup together quickly to accomplish their missions. On D-Day no one hit their drop zones, in fact they were spread out all over the place, mixing units. causing small groups of mixed units. Though it was a mess, the positive affect was that it confused the heck out of the Germans making them wonder if this was the prelude to invasion or just a diversion.
Great reactions! I'm so excited that you're watcing this series!
As for Bill Guarnere: He was an Italian-American paratrooper from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His nickname was "Wild Bill" (like the name of the famous old American cowboy) but some guys would occasionally tease Guarnere by calling him "Gonorrhea" (which is some type of STD) because the name "Guarnere" and word "Gonorrhea" kind of sound similar.
Also: Pennsylvania is known as the "Quaker State" (as its founding father was a Quaker named William Penn). "Quakers" are people who belong to the "Society of Friends" -- a deeply devout religious sect. It's a protestant European Christian organization that teaches tolerance and non-violence. Quite a few moved Quakers moved to North America (before the United States even existed) and settled in places like Pennsylvania. Quakers not only preferred to avoid violence, but they were also very moral (e.g., no drinking, smoking, swearing, etc.).
Many of the towns and cities in Pennsylvania are named after Israeli towns, cities and areas in the Bible. If you look on a map of Pennsylvania, you'll find the towns of Bethlehem, Nazareth, Bethel, Hebron, Jericho, Goshen Heights, Mt. Carmel, Zion, Sharon, Ephrata, Asher, Emmaus, New Salem, etc.
Because of its tolerance, Pennsylvania became home to other religious sects, cultures and communities that immigrated there -- including the Amish, Mennonites, Calvinists, Pennsylvania Dutch, eastern Europeans, etc. However, it was also home to a large population of Jewish immigrants too (especially during the early 20th Century). In fact, more than 3% of the state's population is Jewish. Of course, the state is known as the "Quaker State" since Pennsylvania's founder William Penn was a very devout Quaker. He's the guy seen on the boxes and containers of Quaker Oats and the logo for the corporation.
Since Richard Winters was from a rural area of Pennsylvania, Guarnere thought that Richard Winters was very moral (particularly with not drinking) and assumed he might be a Quaker. By sharing a drink with Guarnere at the end of that day's battle, Guarnere realized that he wasn't a Quaker.
Another great reaction. The back and forth banter between you two definitely shows you are siblings.🙂 It makes it fun even though it's a heavy topic. Keep up the great work!
13:00 good eye catching the different patch!! Actually that is the patch for the 82nd Airborne who also jumped into Normandy at the same time that the 101st Airborne did!! If I'm not mistaken there were a total of about 16,000 paratroopers that dropped that morning!!!
Nice catch though not too many people notice the different patch!!!❤
if you want to get a solid feeling of who these people really were, there is a documentary that has in depth interviews with all these people who served so bravely. sadly almost all are now passed. i promise its time you will not want back. "We Stand Alone Together - Band of Brothers Documentary". that's the title on you tube.
They should also read the book by Stephen Ambrose by the same title on which this mini-series is based.
למרות אני גר בישראל עכשיו, הייתי חייל בצבא האמריקאי לפני שהיגאתי לישראל. אני אוהב שאתם רואים את הסדרה הזאת! זאת כל כך חוויה תרבותית 🤙🏻 תיהנו
I'm american and I thank you for your service 🙏
Thank you for your service, Achi🤙🏻 עם ישראל חי
The scene where Buck throws the grenade and hits the German in the back and the grenade explodes: the real Buck was an All American baseball player in college. When he threw the grenade he actually hit the German in the head. Then the actor playing Buck, Neil McDonough, also played college baseball and so when he threw the grenade in the show he threw it like a baseball player.
My father and uncle were both in the Army Air Corps. Dad was a Senior Navigational Instructor who taught thousands of crews and fliers how to get to their target and get back alive, uncle Tom was a B24 pilot who was shot down "somewhere over the Pacific". They both flew the C47, the plane used to transport the paratroops. The C47 (known as the DC3 in civilian use) was the most important and useful aircraft in history.
The man who was shot in the head while laying in the field talking to Lipton was Warrant Officer Andrew Hill, he came upon the battle while searching for the headquarters of the 506th PIR (Parachute Infantry Regiment).
I'm enjoying your sharp, incisive reactions. This was their first time in combat. They took chances they never would again (Lipton climbing the tree for a firing position; Malarkey going after a Luger in the open). After several days in combat, the men realize what will keep them alive longer - being more careful.
Amazing reaction from you guys! Keen to details, you can really tell that they listen and understand each episode.
They know that was Lt. Meehans plane that was shot down. Most of the reactors doesn’t noticed it.
Guarnere making the first move by not obeying Winters due to his brothers lost.
I am glad to "Rewatch" this great series with you guys!! 67 yr old American son of WW2 veteran. I'm sure 1 day you'll watch Saving Private Ryan, one of the greatest ww2 movies.
I thought this blew the doors off of Saving Private Ryan. It is based on actual events where Saving Private Ryan, even though a truly great movie, is 99% made up fiction with a some real flaws.
This series they had to dumb down the stories because the truth was to unbelievable. Malarkey and the German soldier actually worked across the street from each other and never met. They felt the audience wouldn't believe it so they made it different towns. This happens throughout the series.
Offf that's hard.. thank you for telling us this 🙏
Like the story of Guarnere and Lorraine the Jeep Jockey - in real life it was Lorraine who shot the German and Guarnere who kept missing. I'm not sure why they changed that.
I'm not sure dumbed down is really the correct way to put it, but IMO they should've left it as it happened.
@@andrewcharles459facts
@@thosesiblingss The guy who plays Bull Randleman is Michael Cudlitz and he played a Los Angeles cop in a show called Southland which is worth a watch.
Love the reaction! Keep it up. Happy to subscribe!
It was 4 guns that were taken out.
The battle of Brecourt Manor takes place over about 15 minutes, however in reality it lasted about three hours. The only two soldiers shown to be killed are 'John Hall' and an unnamed Warrant Officer (Andrew Hill), while in reality - as Dick Winters states in his memoir - there were four dead and six wounded.
Nice to see an informed reaction. Many people are quite clueless regarding the subject matter, but you have a clue.
@24:00 Quakers was a form of Christian denomination in early America. They believed in total holiness meaning no killing no drinking no sin at all.
There are still Quakers in America and England tho
Another great reaction. I like your discussions. The shooting of the prisoners will become clear later in the series. Winters was not against drinking he just wanted to stay sharp. He took a drink to celebrate their survival and to show he did not consider himself better than his men, but was their leader.
There are two types of Anti Aircraft weapons during this time. Anti Aircraft Artillery aka Flak which are the explosive shells seen bursting in air during the jump typically reserved for high altitude targets and Anti Aircraft guns which are fast firing guns reserved for lower altitude and fast moving targets. Today, Surface to Air missiles are typically what's used to combat enemy air power.
FlugAbwehrKanone. “FLAK” anti aircraft cannon
You need to listen to your sibling. 😁 She was correct: that was Spiers who asked for the cigarettes, shot the prisoners, then returned to stand in the background of that scene. Also correct is that Easy Company is an Assault company, meaning that they are trained for those sorts of missions. That's why they got sent out to take out the guns - they were the best for the job. The upper command weren't aware that only a dozen or so of Easy Company had arrived so far.
your going to want to remember... the guy who shot the German POWs.. Lt. Spiers.
Entertaining commentary. Keep it up, guys!
Just for a little clarification the explosions that the planes were going through at the beginning of the episode is called flak!! Is simply an exploding shell that when it explodes shoots chunks of metal in every direction!! Fortunately these planes were able to take a lot of damage and still fly!!
The young lady is correct. Easy was the assault company of the battalion. Meaning they had extra and specific training in attacking fixed enemy positions. All the airborne guys had that training but easy company had more of it and was specified as the assault company.
2:20 gawd that's some sibling stuff right there
That mission to take out the guns took about 4 hours. Imagine having their first action to be that long and intense.
They were literally behind enemy lines, they absolutely cannot take prisoners at this point. They dont have the manpower to watch them or the facilities to store them.
The Airborne was Dropped into France the Night Before the Beach Invasion ! The Airborne's Job was to Secure Bridges and Towns so the Troops on the Beach had a Way to get off the Beach and Move Inland
Well, this is when the sh*t gets real. "We're not lost Private...we're in Normandy." This one line displays Winter's ability to instill confidence in his men, even unarmed in the face of all adversity. And this soldier wasn't even a member of Easy Company. Currahee
"A prop blast" refers to the initial force that hits you literally from the propeller of the aircrafts, and how a lot of them lost their leg bags that were way too heavy. I get that they wanted the troops to be prepared but...
It's not made clear in this episode but Winters had 15-20 men with him. They attached a German position held by around 50-60 men. Because defenders have a large advantage standard doctrine dictates that the attacker should outnumber the defender by 3 to 1. So what Winters and his team accomplished was quite extraordinary.
After the series you two might watch the documentary about these guys "We Stand Alone Together ". BTW , Sobel received the Bronze Star when he went into combat during the Korean War.
Yes, the same man who gave cigarettes to the German prisoners and shot them and passed by Malarkey on the road was Speirs. This incident echoes through several episodes.
Prisoners that were captured on D-Day were often killed because
1. There were no troops available to watch them, handle them, etc. Every person was needed to do their assigned mission.
2. There was no place at that moment in which to keep them. The Allies still had not secured all territory and become familiar with it, in order to make a separate area for prisoners and to have a route from the frontline battles to wherever prisoners could be taken. Much later, barracks were constructed but there was nothing yet built to house prisoners. At that moment, the Allies still were all located in France, which was still under control of the Nazis and any collaborationist French troops.
3. The D-Day invasion was not known yet if it was a success and so it was treated more as if it was an on-going battle. True, technically, people who are captured or who surrender, are usually not expected to be killed, but are taken as prisoners. However, on D-Day, the circumstances were not strictly clear until later when it was determined that the Allies had successfully taken the territory and could create separate spaces for prisoners and could spare the manpower to take care of them.
Mennonite is a religious group that moved to the US, around the time that the first Chasidic Jews moved to the US, they come from the same area as many early Chasidic Jews and speak a similar language based on the German of the area. The reason they don't have a mustache with their beard is because, many military groups of the area would grow a mustache, so it was a way to show they didn't agree.
There has been a lot of jokes about how the two groups can confuse each other (Chasidim, and groups like the Amish, since they have a similar language, and dress in a similar way. My favorite joke is from the movie "The Frisco Kid where Gene Wilder plays a Rabbi on his way to San Fransisco from Poland.
You 2 try so hard to make sure you get the characters straight. Nice!
Paratroopers are meant to fly behind enemy lines and do specific operations. In this case, they disrupt german artillery guns.
Regarding Speirs shooting the POWs. General MacArthur had ordered US troops not to take prisoners in the opening days of the invasion, as if they did, they wouldn't have the manpower to push the assault. Speirs took it upon himself to kill those POWs so he wouldn't have to tell his men to do it (which he had to do earlier). He also shot a US trooper (as is mentioned in episode 3) who got drunk during a fight and wouldn't stop firing and thus revealed his company's position. Speirs shouted at him to stop multiple times, and the trooper finally turned and aimed his gun at Speirs, at which point Speirs shot him (in self defense). But Speirs wasn't just some trigger happy maniac. He went and reported the incident to is superior officer, however the officer was killed in a battle shortly after, so the event wasn't dealt with and thus the legend of Speirs began to grow. He was never proud of the rumors and was reluctant to talk about them until the producers of Band of Brothers told the real Captain Winters they didn't want to include the stuff about Speirs shooting the prisoners in the show because they were afraid of getting sued if he said they were lying. So the real Winters called Speirs and asked him point blank if the rumors about him were true which Speirs confirmed. And so, it made it to the show as you saw. Needless to say, Speirs more than earned his legend, as you already saw in episode 7
19:40 TLDR you can't make TNT, C4, etc explode without inserting a blasting cap or a balled up piece of det cord or something similar inside the "primary" explosive/TNT in this case since explosives like TNT and many others are designed to be very insensitive to literally everything including fire and impact because in combat you don't want to get shot in your explosives pack and yeetus deletus your whole squad with sensitive explosives, they could also remove the 'fuse' assembly from modern grenades and use that but I don't know much about WWII grenades so that may not have been easily possible and since the grenades did the job it would've been pointless.
Further info: A blasting cap is basically a metal tube around 5x40mm (it varies and I'm american) filled with a small amount of a different/specialty type of explosive (very very spicy firecracker basically) that is typically more 'powerful' but also more sensitive and it has a cap on one end and either electrical wires, a shock tube, or det cord coming out the other end all of which are used to make the explosive/s inside the blasting cap explode and thus exploding the "primary" explosive which is TNT in this case.
Det cord is literally just hollow rope that is generally around I think like 4-8mm thick and filled with explosive (it comes on a roll like rope) and is used for exploding stuff on its own like thin doors and stuff but primarily its used to be connected to a blasting cap with det cord coming out of it aka 'det cord blasting cap' at one end and then ignited at the other via shock tube or blasting cap or similar means a few meters to hundreds of meters away from target and proceeds to explode its entire length at thousands of meters per second to then ignite the blasting caps/explosives at the other end on whatever you're trying to destroy
In the case of the electrical blasting cap it will have wires at one end which will obviously use some type of electricity to ignite and because of that it may have another type of fuse or explosive inside to ignite and explode the other normal blasting cap explosive inside the basting cap then explode the primary explosive the blasting cap is inside of all of which happen in a fraction of a second. In the case of the shock tube its very hard to explain and also very cool so I'd look up a video on it in action but its basically the same as the electrical, I mean its not but it is, again hard to explain.
Hope that helps lmao
I agree with y'all. Winters is the best!
Quaker is a religious sect of Christianity, like Amish. Look at the guy on a box of Quaker oats. William Penn was a Quaker he founded the state of Pennsylvania.
great review. thanks
27:17 Drinking dulls the pain. Combat is very odd thing as it always lingers.
Quakers were huge into oatmeal.
Im surprised ron isn't in idf reserve right now
Technically speaking, except for some rare cases, every Israeli man and some women who served in the IDF are in reserve until they turn 40 or 45 (not sure what's the limit now). Also, many stay in reserve even past this age as volunteers.
Damnit! Somebody beat me to the Quaker/Meninite thing.
Love from Utah❤
Prisonners of war is something the Americans did really well for most of the war, but on the first day of the invasion, the Airborne was very much alone behind enemy lines, with no acces to any of the ressources needed to handle prisoners. They were already strained for ressources to accomplish their mission, diverting what precious manpower they had to handle prisoners would have compromised the success of the invasion.
13,000 men jumping on top of the German Army at midnight. 15,000 French civilians died in the bombing prior to the landings and in the course of the first week fighting in Normandy.
His name was Guarnere, they gave him the nickname Gonorrhea. Which is a sexually transmitted disease also called the clap.
The Greman anti aircraft guns were 88mm artery guns shot into the air in front of approaching aircraft. Each was fused with altimeter fuses that would detonate the round at a specific altitude. They also use proximity fuses so the round would explode when close to a object. These proximity fuses did not work well for aircraft but were used to air burst artery rounds over the battle field.
Speirs shot the POWs because at that time they did not have the place or man power to watch them. They were under orders to not take prisoners. Because the beach landing was still going on. There was no guarantee that the invasion was going to be successful at that point.
Popeye apologizing for being wounded. Show the commitment these men had to each other.
"Quakers" isn't a Jewish thing. I think they are a Christian thing. He was likely calling him a Quaker and a Mennonite because Winters is from Pennsylvania which is where these people are known for living at in the United States. I think the Mennonites are Dutch in origin.
Yes I think when they said Quakers it was like the Amish who still only ride horse and buggy because Mennonite is exactly like Amish but they only drive older black vehicles lmao crazy😂
Quakers are a pacifistic Christian sect that originated in England some centuries back. They don't reject modernity like the Amish. Mennonites are sort of Amish-light.
Mennonites are of German origin but of course a couple of hundred years ago Americans had a habit of calling Germans Dutch. This can create confusion.
I think it's funny when Jewish kids don't know about Christian non conformist denominations but why should they? Am YIsrael Chai.
Notably Quakers are pacifists, so they're trying to show that Guarnere didn't trust fighting with him until he saw him in battle (at least in the series.)
His last name is pronounced "gar-near" but the guys called him Gonorrhea as a nickname.
Thanks for the reaction. A less bloody than Saving Private Ryan, but still good earlier movie of the Normandy invasion is The Longest Day (1962). A good world war two airborne move is A Bridge Too Far (1977)
By air was the airborne behind lines -this show. The main was beach landing (Normandy) See "Saving Private Ryan" for a really good representation of that
Glad you are well my friends. thanks for the upload.
20:03 That looks like a machine-gun to you???
English is not their first language
HALL is MORIARTY from SHERLOCK... bonus points for you!
Also, while not an ideal situation... Lt. Speirs did shoot the prisoners. The allies had just landed in Europe and had no real front lines or HQ / Base camp to hold prisoners. What do you do?
Great Job Guys !!! Keep it Up
TNT is TRI-nitro toluene ( as others said, a high explosive)😊
Prop wash = the force the the propeller hitting the jumper while exiting the aircraft.
Or more properly the jumper starting to loose foward mommeum as the parachute open.
Flak = anti-aircraft guns, called that because the german name is something like "plane working cannon" which is Flugabwehrkanone.
Flug abwehr kanone thus FL A K
These series portray war as it was. The Pacific is done cinematically different but real. Masters of the Air is most recent, again, done completely different. Ongong characters/real men are portrayed in all three, in the actual horrible events.
First again! Great Upload 👍
Let's go 🤩
Guarnere (gar-near) is his name not gonorrhea thats just a nickname, and the objective for the airborne that night was to secure strategic crossroads and towns to allow the men from the beach to move inland quickly before the germans could pin the allies and push them back into the sea, now the problem was the pathfinders landed without proper radios due to losing them and were unable to direct the paratroopers to proper landing zones meaning men from different companies and and even divisions ended up in the wrong areas. Despite this officers and NCO were quick to form ad hoc units to take objectives and set up rally points for lost troopers.
Now Quaker’s are a Christian denomination that slipt from the big churches and believe in pacifism and dont take into drink, they settled in Pennsylvania during the early colonial period and so when guarnere heard that winters was from Pennsylvania he just assumed he was a Quaker.
I recommend “the operation room” they are a TH-cam channel that has done over head view of the real easy companies battles and more
nice pillow behind you 👍
That is Moriarty!
@10:40 The countersigns "thunder" and "flash" chosen for the Normandy landing apparently contain a consonant sound that did not exist in the German language and consequently would be difficult for a German speaker to imitate. Similarly, troops fighting the Japanese apparently used countersigns that contained the consonant "L" (like Lilly or Lilac) which does not exist in the Japanese language and would be difficult for most Japanese troops to mimic. Brilliant.... who thinks up this stuff before combat has even started?!
@14:45 Lt. Speirs is the one who shot the German POWs. Remember that event, (not a spoiler) as it is brought up again in later episodes.
@23:58 Quakers are a Christian sect. The only thing I know about them is that they are extremely opposed to violence and are generally conscientious objectors who will not fight in military conflicts due to their religious views on the subject of killing. They also don't drink alcohol which is why Guarnere thought Winters might be one. Great reaction guys!
At least American Airborne troops were given a take no prisoners order. It did not indicate what to do with surrendering German soldiers. The idea was based on whether there would be enough Airborne Troops to survive the jump to take their objectives. Airborne casualties were expected to be as high as 75% on the jump alone. Actual Allied casualties (Killed, wounded, missing, captured) came in around 10% on D-Day. This neither condones or condemns whomever shot those prisoners. The American that had joined the German Army that Malarky talked to was not in that group of prisoners.
Getting that Meehan's plane was hit and crashed is impressive. A lot of people let that slip by.
Good soldiers always pray for peace. Stay safe.
You guys seem to be VERY hyped up today!!😮😂 Too much coffee!??😅
I LOVE the way you guys react and I am hopeful that you guys will ALSO react to the series The Pacific and Masters of the Air!!
Also done by Hanks and Spielberg, The Pacific focuses on the United States fight against the Japanese through the Pacific Islands!!
Masters of the Air focuses on the United States Army Air Force, 8th Air Force but more specifically, the 100th bomb group within the 8th Air Force!! They were tasked with the bombing of occupied Europe and Germany throughout 1943 1944 and 1945!!
The hero or "Winters type character" in Masters would be a Jewish guy from Brooklyn by the name of Robert Rosenthal, better known to his crew as Rosie!! Talk about a hero!!❤
Anyway I hope you guys will react to all three series they are excellent and give a great education on these three different theaters of operation in World War II.
Just so you know, they were ordered not to take prisoners.