Band of Brothers...

[rdaniell]

...I watched the entire series again yesterday. I'm not sure how many times this viewing makes for me. I did a search this morning and best I can tell only about five (5) of the guys are still living. "Buck" Compton died earlier this year.

RD

[Ferry_vO]

26 Of the original Easy company are still alive: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._PIR)_veterans , the youngest being 86, the oldest now 95!

I watch that show at least once a year, one of the best WW2 series ever made.

[rdaniell]

26 Of the original Easy company are still alive: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._PIR)_veterans , the youngest being 86, the oldest now 95! I watch that show at least once a year, one of the best WW2 series ever made.

Thanks Ferry_vO. Your reference is a different one from what I looked at this morning. The one I looked at made reference only to the members of Easy Company who were profiled in the movie; therefore, the difference in numbers.

Regardless, I'm glad you like the movie.

RD

[TARPSBird]

An outstanding series. I was hoping for a similar level of quality with "The Pacific" but it fell short of my expectations. The characters weren't developed anywhere near as well as in "Band", aside from John Basilone I couldn't remember who was who.

[Ferry_vO]

The series is great, but it's also of personal interest. I live not far from the Market Garden battlefields, with Arnhem, Oosterbeek (The 'British' side), former Luftwaffe Fliegerhorst Deelen and Nijmegen not too far off, so I got interested at a young age. My grandparents told stories of how they saw the aircraft pass over and drop the paratroopers. My other grandparents lived on the north bank of the Rhine, so when the 506th occupied the south banks in October and November '44 they could have waved at each other.. But of course the Germans fired at anything that would pop of over the dykes!

Band of Brothers is very well done with regard to the historic sites, even though the entire thing was shot in one field in Ireland! A few years ago I found the battlefield from episode 5, 'Crossroads', and I drove there with the Dick Winters' book and my camera. I shot this photo from the place the German machine gun was (It was firing in the opposite direction.). The Germans were on the right of this photo, and Winters and his men attacked from the left. The road leading away from the camera leads to a ferry the Germans used to cross the Rhine.
BTW There are a few very distinct diferences between Winters' book and the series regarding this attack....
The two red and white fences are on either side of a small bridge under the road. From here a German fired the shot that killed Dukeman.



The small monument (The star and plaque) was recently destroyed by an idiot driver that managed to loose control, drive his car off the dyke and into the monument...!

[Ferry_vO]

An outstanding series. I was hoping for a similar level of quality with "The Pacific" but it fell short of my expectations. The characters weren't developed anywhere near as well as in "Band", aside from John Basilone I couldn't remember who was who.

The Pacific wasn't bad, but BoB was better indeed! BoB focussed on a smaller, tighter group of men, while the Pacific had a much broader view of the conflict. If you read Eugene Sledge's book you do understand how hard it would have been to focus on a particular group as losses were terrible, with only a handful men surviving the last two campaigns...

BTW Best BoB book in my opinion is the one by 'Babe' Heffron and 'Wild Bill' Guarnere.

[rdaniell]

Ferry_vO, thanks for sharing about your grandparents.

RD

[Gdavis101]

The Pacific wasn't bad, but BoB was better indeed! BoB focussed on a smaller, tighter group of men, while the Pacific had a much broader view of the conflict. If you read Eugene Sledge's book you do understand how hard it would have been to focus on a particular group as losses were terrible, with only a handful men surviving the last two campaigns...

BTW Best BoB book in my opinion is the one by 'Babe' Heffron and 'Wild Bill' Guarnere.

I enjoyed BoB much more than The Pacific, still need to pick up The Pacific on BD!

[SOLOBO]

I watched "Band of brothers" at the time, on french TV... Fascinating, terrible, and moving..

A very great series...

Always moving for an european citizen...