The series dramatizes the history of "Easy" Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division. It begins during Easy Company's paratrooper training and follows its participation in the Western Front of World War II. The events are based on Ambrose's research and recorded interviews with Easy Company veterans. The series took some literary license, adapting history for dramatic effect and series structure.[5][6] The characters portrayed are based on members of Easy Company. Each episode begins with excerpts from interviews with some of the survivors, who are identified by name only at the end of the finale.
Richard Winters is the central character, shown working to accomplish the company's missions and keep his men together and safe. While the series features a large ensemble cast, each episode generally focuses on a single character, following his action.[4]
As the series is based on historical events, the fates of the characters reflect those of the persons on which they are based. Many either die or sustain serious wounds which lead to their being sent home. Other soldiers recover after treatment in field hospitals and rejoin their units on the front line. Their experiences, and the moral, mental, and physical hurdles they must overcome, are central to the story's narrative.
It follows the story from their initial training starting in 1942 to the end of World War II. They parachuted behind enemy lines in the early hours of D-Day in support of the landings at Utah beach, participated in the liberation of Carentan and again parachuted into action during Operation Market Garden. They also liberated a concentration camp and were the first to enter Hitler's mountain retreat in Berchtesgaden.
In 1942, Easy Company jump trains at Camp Toccoa under First Lieutenant Herbert Sobel, a strict disciplinarian who goes out of his way to find fault with his men. The company is shipped to England in September 1943, and as training progresses, Sobel's inadequacy as a leader in the field becomes evident. Now-Captain Sobel fabricates a dispute with Lieutenant Richard "Dick" Winters, and gives him the option of accepting unwarranted punishment, or trial by court martial. Winters surprises Sobel by rejecting the punishment and chooses the court martial. These factors lead Easy's non-commissioned officers to resign en masse. Colonel Robert Sink, the regiment's commander, reassigns Sobel to command a parachuting school for non-infantry personnel. With new leadership, Easy Company prepares for Operation Overlord.
On June 6, 1944, Easy Company parachutes into Normandy, but is scattered and many land miles away from their designated drop zones. Most of Easy reconnects, but its company commander, Lieutenant Thomas Meehan, is missing. Winters assumes command and successfully leads a group in destroying Germanartillery emplacements firing on Utah Beach from Brécourt Manor. Winters also discovers a map of all German artillery emplacements in Normandy. A number of Easy's men earn combat decorations for their part in the attack, including Winters, who is awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
Easy fights in the Battle of Carentan and loses several men. Rumors begin to circulate that Lieutenant Ronald Speirs killed a group of German prisoners. Private Albert Blithe, who has been struggling with shell shock, is finally spurred into action by Winters during the Battle of Bloody Gulch. Several days later, Blithe is shot through the neck by a sniper while on patrol.
Note: The episode ends with the inaccurate statement that Blithe never recovered from his wounds and died in 1948. In reality, he recovered and continued to serve in the Army until his death in Germany as an active-duty serviceman in 1967.[8]
Replacements join Easy Company and struggle to be accepted by the veterans who fought at Normandy. Winters is promoted to captain. Sobel is the regiment's new supply officer. The company parachutes into the Netherlands as part of Operation Market Garden and liberates Eindhoven. During combat in Nuenen, the replacements integrate themselves with the company, but Easy is forced to retreat. Denver "Bull" Randleman is left behind. Wounded, he hides in a barn and engages in close quarters combat with a German soldier. He is reunited with the rest of the company the following day.
Winters writes an after-action report on Easy's actions during a German counter offensive on the Nijmegen salient; he is troubled by the fact that he shot an unarmed, teenage Waffen-SS soldier during the battle. Winters is promoted to battalion executive officer, and command of Easy is given to "Moose" Heyliger.
Easy Company assists Lieutenant Colonel David Dobie of the British 1st Airborne Division in Operation Pegasus to rescue 140 of his comrades. The operation succeeds, and the rescued British troops celebrate with Easy. Heyliger is injured in a friendly fire incident, and command of the company passes to Lieutenant Norman Dike before Easy is rushed to Bastogne to fight in the Battle of the Bulge.
Easy faces harsh winter conditions in the Ardennes, running dangerously low on supplies. Combat medic Eugene "Doc" Roe helps his fellow soldiers where he can, while also scrounging for supplies. He befriends a Belgian nurse named Renée; she is later killed in a German bombing raid. Easy and other American units are surrounded, but General McAuliffe, their commander, rejects a German demand to surrender.
Easy holds the line near Foy, Belgium, losing numerous soldiers including Hoobler, who dies after accidentally shooting himself with a Luger pistol. Winters and the men worry about Norman Dike, who is frequently absent without explanation. First Sergeant Carwood Lipton attempts to keep Easy's morale up. Lieutenant Lynn "Buck" Compton watches in horror as his close friends William Guarnere and Joe Toye each lose a leg to shelling, and he too is pulled from the line. During the assault on Foy, Dike freezes up during an attack, so Winters orders Speirs to relieve him. Victorious but having taken heavy casualties, Easy takes shelter in a church, where Lipton is told he has been given a field commission as a second lieutenant and Captain Speirs is officially assigned command of Easy.
In Haguenau, Easy adjusts to leaving the combat zone and gives a cold welcome to Private David Webster, who did not break out of the hospital to rejoin the company like others; and new replacement Second Lieutenant Henry Jones, fresh from West Point. Jones and Webster participate in a night raid across the river to get prisoners for interrogation, which gains them some respect. Winters is promoted to major, Lipton's commission becomes official, and Jones is promoted to first lieutenant and transferred to the regimental staff.
As Captain Lewis Nixon scrounges for his favored whisky, Vat 69, Easy Company enters Nazi Germany. Nixon is distraught after learning that his wife is divorcing him; he is demoted to operations officer for the battalion. A small patrol of Easy Company men stumble upon a concentration camp near Landsberg and free the surviving prisoners.
Easy secures food for the survivors, but the regiment's surgeon warns of refeeding syndrome; the survivors have to remain in the camp so they can be monitored. The German locals deny knowing about the camp. The 101st Airborne's commander, General Taylor, imposes martial law and orders all able-bodied civilians from ages 14 to 80 to clean up the camp, including removing the bodies. Nixon informs Easy that Adolf Hitler has committed suicide.
Easy captures the Eagle's Nest in Berchtesgaden without resistance, and the end of the war in Europe is announced. Finding a collection of alcoholic beverages in a cellar at Hermann Göring's house, Winters allows the company to celebrate before they travel to Austria to become an occupying force. It is then announced that the division will be redeployed to the Pacific Theater, but those with enough points will get to go home. General Taylor authorizes a drawing for each company to rotate one soldier home, and Staff Sergeant Shifty Powers wins Easy's drawing but is severely injured in an automobile accident on his way to the airfield. Private Liebgott leads a trio that tracks down and summarily executes a concentration camp commandant at a farm.
Desiring to redeploy sooner, Winters applies for a transfer to the 13th Airborne, but is denied. Despite the war's end, Easy Company men continue to be injured or die. Easy oversees the surrender of 25,000 German troops in Zell am See. Over a company baseball game, Winters narrates the fates of some of the men. He interrupts the game to announce the surrender of the Empire of Japan, which ends the war, and then narrates Nixon's fate and finally his own. The episode concludes with interviews with actual surviving Easy Company members.
Special
Title
Directed by
Written by
Main character(s)
Original air date
US viewers (millions)
"We Stand Alone Together"
Mark Cowen
William Richter
Easy Company real-life members
November 10, 2001 (2001-11-10)
Unknown
Subtitled The Men of Easy Company, an official companion documentary included on home video for the miniseries and available on streaming services. Consists of interviews with the surviving real-life members of Easy Company including Winters, Lipton, Guarnere, Heffron and Powers and also photos and video from and related to their service and their annual reunions. Also includes Guarnere and Heffron revisiting Foy and interviews with Easy Company members' families.
The series was developed chiefly by Tom Hanks and Erik Jendresen, who spent months detailing the plot outline and individual episodes.[17]Steven Spielberg served as "the final eye" and used Saving Private Ryan, the film on which he and Hanks had collaborated, to inform the series, although Jendresen served as showrunner.[18][19] Accounts of Easy Company veterans, such as Donald Malarkey, were incorporated into production to add historic detail.[18]
Budget and promotion
A promotional poster for Band of Brothers
Band of Brothers was at the time the most expensive TV miniseries to have been made by any network.[20][21] Its budget was about $125 million, or an average of $12.5 million per episode.[18]
An additional $15 million was allocated for a promotional campaign, which included screenings for World War II veterans.[20] One was held at Utah Beach, Normandy, where U.S. troops had landed on June 6, 1944. On June 7, 2001, 47 Easy Company veterans were flown to Paris and then traveled by chartered train to the site, where the series premiered.[22][23]Chrysler was a sponsor, as its Jeeps were used in the series.[24] Chrysler spent $5 million to $15 million on its advertising campaign, using footage from Band of Brothers.[24] Each of the spots was reviewed and approved by the co-executive producers Hanks and Spielberg.[24]
The BBC paid £7 million ($10.1 million) as co-production partner, the most it had ever paid for a bought-in program, and screened it on BBC Two. Originally, it was to have aired on BBC One but was moved to allow an "uninterrupted ten-week run", with the BBC denying that this was because the series was not sufficiently mainstream.[25][26] Negotiations were monitored by British Prime MinisterTony Blair, who spoke personally to Spielberg.[27]
The village of Hambleden, in Buckinghamshire, England, was used extensively in the early episodes to depict the company's training in England, as well as in later scenes. The scenes set in Germany and Austria were shot in Switzerland, in and near the village of Brienz in the Bernese Oberland, and at the nearby Hotel Giessbach.
Historical accuracy
To preserve historical accuracy, the writers conducted additional research. One source was the memoir of Easy Company soldier David Kenyon Webster, Parachute Infantry: An American Paratrooper's Memoir of D-Day and the Fall of the Third Reich (1994).[citation needed] This was published by LSU Press, following renewed interest in World War II and more than 30 years after his death in a boating accident. In Band of Brothers Ambrose quoted liberally from Webster's unpublished diary entries, with permission from his estate.[3][note 2]
The production team consulted Dale Dye, a retired United States Marine Corps captain and consultant on Saving Private Ryan, as well as with most of the surviving Easy Company veterans, including Richard Winters, Bill Guarnere, Frank Perconte, Ed Heffron, and Amos Taylor.[18][29] Dye (who portrays Colonel Robert Sink) instructed the actors in a 10-day boot camp at the Longmoor Military Camp in Hampshire, culminating with parachute training at RAF Brize Norton.[29][30][31]
The production aimed for accuracy in the detail of weapons and costumes. Simon Atherton, the weapons master, corresponded with veterans to match weapons to scenes, and assistant costume designer Joe Hobbs used photos and veteran accounts.[18]
Most actors had contact with the individuals they were to portray before filming, often by telephone. Several veterans came to the production site.[18] Hanks acknowledged that alterations were needed to create the series: "We've made history fit onto our screens. We had to condense down a vast number of characters, fold other people's experiences into 10 or 15 people, have people saying and doing things others said or did. We had people take off their helmets to identify them, when they would never have done so in combat. But I still think it is three or four times more accurate than most films like this."[23] As a final accuracy check, the veterans saw previews of the series and approved the episodes before they were aired.[32]
Shortly after the premiere of the series, Tom Hanks asked Major Winters what he thought of Band of Brothers. The major responded, "I wish that it would have been more authentic. I was hoping for an 80 percent solution." Hanks responded, "Look, Major, this is Hollywood. At the end of the day we will be hailed as geniuses if we get this 12 percent right. We are going to shoot for 17 percent."[33]
The 506th PIR Unit emblem
The liberation of one of the Kaufering subcamps of Dachau was depicted in episode 9 ("Why We Fight"); however, the 101st Airborne Division arrived at Kaufering Lager IV subcamp on the day after[34] it was discovered by the 134th Ordnance Maintenance Battalion of the 12th Armored Division, on April 27, 1945.[35][36] German historian and Holocaust researcher Anton Posset worked with Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks as a consultant, providing photographs of the liberators and documentation of the survivor's reports he had collected over the years. The camp was reconstructed in England for the miniseries.[37]
It is uncertain which Allied unit was first to reach the Kehlsteinhaus. Several claim the honor, compounded by confusion with the town of Berchtesgaden, which was taken on May 4 by forward elements of the 7th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Infantry Division.[38][39][note 3] Reputedly members of the 7th went as far as the elevator to the Kehlsteinhaus,[38] with at least one individual claiming he and a partner continued on to the top.[42] However, the 101st Airborne maintains it was first both to Berchtesgaden and the Kehlsteinhaus.[43][failed verification] Elements of the French 2nd Armored Division, Laurent Touyeras, Georges Buis and Paul Répiton-Préneuf, were present on the night of May 4 to 5, and took several photographs before leaving on May 10 at the request of US command,[44][45] and this is supported by testimonies of the Spanish soldiers who went along with them.
Major Dick Winters, who commanded the 2nd Battalion of the U.S. 506th PIR in May 1945, stated that they entered Berchtesgaden shortly after noon on May 5. He challenged competing claims stating, "If the 7th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Division was first in Berchtesgaden, just where did they go? Berchtesgaden is a relatively small community. I walked into the Berchtesgaden Hof with Lieutenant Welsh and saw nobody other than some servants. Goering's Officers' Club and wine cellar certainly would have caught the attention of a French soldier from LeClerc's 2nd Armored Division, or a rifleman from the U.S. 3rd Division. I find it hard to imagine, if the 3rd Division was there first, why they left those beautiful Mercedes staff cars untouched for our men."[46]
Reception
Critical reception
Band of Brothers has a 94% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 8.1/10 and based on 34 reviews. The website's critics consensus reads: "Band of Brothers offers a visceral, intense look at the horrors of war – and the sacrifices of the millions of ordinary people who served."[47]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, gives the miniseries a score of 87 out of 100 based on 28 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[48]
CNN's Paul Clinton said that the miniseries "is a remarkable testament to that generation of citizen soldiers, who responded when called upon to save the world for democracy and then quietly returned to build the nation that we now all enjoy, and all too often take for granted".[49] Caryn James of The New York Times called it "an extraordinary 10-part series that masters its greatest challenge: it balances the ideal of heroism with the violence and terror of battle, reflecting what is both civilized and savage about war." James also remarked on the generation gap between most viewers and characters, suggesting this was a significant hurdle.[50] Robert Bianco of USA Today wrote that the series was "significantly flawed and yet absolutely extraordinary—just like the men it portrays," rating the series four out of four stars. He noted however that it was hard to identify with individual characters during crowded battle scenes.[51]
Philip French of The Guardian commented that he had "seen nothing in the cinema this past year that impressed me as much as BBC2's 10-part Band of Brothers, produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, and Ken Loach's The Navigators on Channel 4", and that it was "one of the best films ever made about men in war and superior in most ways to Saving Private Ryan."[52] Matt Seaton, also in The Guardian, wrote that the film's production was "on such a scale that in an ad hoc, inadvertent way it gives one a powerful sense of what really was accomplished during the D-Day invasion - the extraordinary logistical effort of moving men and matériel in vast quantities."[53]
Tom Shales of The Washington Post wrote that though the series is "at times visually astonishing," it suffers from "disorganization, muddled thinking and a sense of redundancy." Shales observed that the characters are hard to identify: "Few of the characters stand out strikingly against the backdrop of the war. In fact, this show is all backdrop and no frontdrop. When you watch two hours and still aren't quite sure who the main characters are, something is wrong."[54]
Band of Brothers has become a benchmark for World War II series. The German series Generation War, for example, was characterized by critics as Band of Brüder (the German word for "Brothers").[55]
Ratings
Band of Brothers' September 9, 2001 premiere drew almost 10 million viewers.[56] Two days later, the September 11 attacks occurred, and HBO immediately ceased its marketing campaign.[56] The third episode drew 7.2 million viewers[56] and the last episode received almost 5.1 million viewers, the smallest audience.[57]
The show was selected for a Peabody Award for "relying on both history and memory to create a new tribute to those who fought to preserve liberty."[63] In September 2019, The Guardian ranked the show 68th on its list of the 100 best TV shows of the 21st century, stating that it "expanded the horizons – and budgets – of prestige TV".[64]
Campbell Askew, Paul Conway, James Boyle, Ross Adams, Andy Kennedy, Howard Halsall, Robert Gavin, Grahame Peters, Michael Higham, Dashiell Rae, Andie Derrick, Peter Burgis
"Day of Days"
Won
Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Miniseries or Movie
The miniseries was released on VHS and DVD box sets on November 5, 2002. The DVD set has five discs containing all ten episodes, and a bonus disc including We Stand Alone Together: The Men of Easy Company and an official video diary by Ron Livingston (Lewis Nixon) showing the actors' boot camp at Longmoor.[65] A collector's edition of the box set was also released, containing the same discs in a tin case instead of cardboard. As of 2010[update], Band of Brothers was one of the best-selling TV DVD sets,[66] having sold about $250 million worth.[67]
The series was released as an exclusive HD DVD TV series in Japan in 2007. With the demise of the format, they went out of production. A Blu-ray Disc version of Band of Brothers was released on November 11, 2008, and has become a Blu-ray Disc top seller.[68]
In 2012, the Richard D. Winters Leadership Monument near Sainte-Marie-du-Mont in Normandy recognizing all American junior officers, together with their divisions and corps, who led the way on D-Day, was unveiled on the 68th anniversary of the invasion. For the occasion, the World War II Foundation, which raised the funds for the monument, produced a biographical documentary entitled Dick Winters: Hang Tough. Damian Lewis, who played Winters, narrates the film in the American accent he used while playing him. Documentary filmmaker and World War II Foundation founder and president Tim Gray is the creator of the overall film, which includes actual photos, photos from the miniseries and interviews with the real-life Winters and other Easy Company members including a number who were portrayed in the show such as Guarnere, Malarkey, Edward "Babe" Heffron, Frank Perconte and Edward Tipper.
Special attention was paid to the Brécourt Manor Assault including the owners of Brécourt Manor to this day — the Vallavieille family, including Utah Beach Museum founder Michel de Vallavieille, who was wounded after being mistaken for a German soldier — and the creation of the 13-foot (4.0 m) bronze statue of Winters by sculptor Steven Spears.[72]
Band of Brothers Podcast
In 2021, on the occasion of the miniseries' 20th anniversary, HBO produced an official podcast hosted by British-American author, broadcaster and filmmaker Roger Bennett of the Men in Blazers soccer show and podcast. After a prologue episode featuring Tom Hanks as executive producer, it progresses through each episode giving a brief summary before interviewing actors and crew members about their roles, their careers leading up to the miniseries, their experiences with the show and the specific episode.[73]
^"Die Amerikanische Armee entdeckt den Holocaust" [The American Army discovers the Holocaust]. Bürgervereinigung zur Erforschung der Landsberger Zeitgeschichte (in German). Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved July 28, 2018.
^Williams, Mary H., ed. (1960). Special Studies, Chronology 1941-1945. United States Army in World War II. Center of Military History, United States Army. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved January 11, 2017. In U.S. Seventh Army's XV Corps area, 7th Inf of 3d Div, crossing into Austria, advances through Salzburg to Berchtesgaden without opposition.
^Eisenhower, Dwight D. (1948). Crusade in Europe. New York: Doubleday. p. 418. "On May 4 the 3d division of the same corps captured Berchtesgaden." (The corps mentioned was the US XV Corps. The term "Eagle's Nest" is not in the quote nor the paragraph that mentions the capture of Berchtesgaden.)
^"Veterans History Project: Interview with Herman Finnell". Library of Congress. 2001. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved July 15, 2019. Herman Louis Finnell of the 3rd Division, 7th Regiment, Company I, states that he and his ammo carrier, Pfc. Fungerburg, were the first to enter the Eagle's Nest, as well as the secret passages below the structure. Finnell stated that the hallway below the structure had rooms on either side filled with destroyed paintings, evening gowns, destroyed medical equipment and a wine cellar.
^Buis, Georges; Lacouture, Jean (1975). Les Fanfares perdues: Entretiens avec Jean Lacouture (in French). Paris: Éditions du Seuil.
^Mesquida, Evelyn (April 2010). La Nueve. Los españoles que liberaron París [The Nine. The Spaniards who liberated Paris] (in Spanish). Barcelona: Ediciones B. ISBN978-8-49872-365-6.
^Bennett, Roger (November 11, 2021). "Band of Brothers Podcast". Apple Podcasts. Home Box Office. Retrieved August 21, 2023.
Bibliography
Kingseed, Cole C. (2014). Conversations With Major Dick Winters: Life Lessons from the Commander of the Band of Brothers. New York: Berkley Books. ISBN978-0-69813-960-2.
Further reading
A number of books give further insight into Easy Company:
Brotherton, Marcus (2010). A Company of Heroes: Personal Memories about the Real Band of Brothers and the Legacy They Left Us. New York: Berkley Caliber. ISBN978-0-42523-420-4. Profiles of deceased Easy Company men by their family members.
Brotherton, Marcus (2011). Shifty's War: The Authorized Biography of Sergeant Darrell Powers, the Legendary Sharpshooter from the Band of Brothers. New York: Berkley Caliber. ISBN978-1-10150-525-0.
Compton, Lynn & Brotherton, Marcus (2008). Call of Duty. New York: Berkley Publishing Group. ISBN978-0-42521-970-6. Recounts Compton's career as an attorney and prosecutor of Sirhan Sirhan.
Webster, David Kenyon (1994). Parachute Infantry. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. ISBN978-0-80711-901-3. Published posthumously.
de Trez, Michel (2004). Corporal Forrest L. Guth. The Way We Were No.1. Wezembeek-Oppem: D-Day Publishing. ISBN978-2-96001-765-6. A collection of Guth's war time pictures and memoirs.
