Band of Brothers E02 'Day of Days' - FULL REACTION!

The video is unavailable 😥

According to some D-Day veterans that I knew back in the 1990's, the paratroopers were discouraged from taking any prisoners on day 1 because they would have no way to watch over them. Ultimately though, it was up to the commanding officer or NCO in charge of that group of soldiers at the time. A good number of prisoners were killed because of this, but many were kept alive as well. Sad times all the way around though. Just like in the Battle of the Bulge. The Germans were not the only ones to kill POW's there either. A large number of German soldiers were killed that surrendered after that event in Belgium for retribution. Mostly from the Waffen SS, but not always. The Americans and British troops were both in a hate filled mood after that group of American POWs were killed by the SS troops.

The leg bag that they reference is a canvas bag that straps to the right leg typically that holds your weapon. You cant hold your weapon in your heads during a jump you have too many things to do with your hands in the first place. The leg bag was a vast improvement on how the Germans did it; they jumped without weapons, the weapons were dropped in pods with the falschimjager. The jumps over the Normandy DZ were also far lower than 700 ft that was planned.

Dyvrik

Kudos to Kat for haning in there. Not easy to watch for most people let alone someone with anxiety issues. One thing to point out Malarkey's chance meeting with German solider didn't happen in the book so I feel the show is embellishing just a little. We can debate or research if Spears killed German prisoners or not. There is plenty of evidence from other soldiers in the 101st that they were ordered not to take prisoners on D-Day. Something my (American) history books like to gloss over. War is truly hell here on earth. Pay attention to the soldiers appearance, expressions and attitudes as the war goes.

Mark Valverde

Thank you! I’m gonna keep doing ‘em like this then 👍

Sonny Mike Olsen

We also saw this whole prisoners of war dilemma come up in Saving Private Ryan, and it really ended up biting them in the ass, so to speak.. But yeah, the morally right thing to do would be to of course not execute prisoners, but I totally get why there’s way more to it than that. War is hell..

Sonny Mike Olsen

In fact it was never proofen if Spears killed the prisoners or what really happend. Although even if its no excuse one must take in mind the Paras got scattered all across Normandy and lost almost their complete Gear and Supplies. Plus they where surrounded by enemy forces. They simply neither got the manpower nor time or facilities to accomodate or process large numbers of prisoners and if they would have dearmed and released them chances would be high they would be rearmed and back in the fight in no time. So what you gone do?!

SirPurrsalot

little known cause somehow not in history books but we murdered a lot of prisoners too.

Gilbert Serrano

The Pills they where issued to counter air sickness actually sedated alot of the men so they fell asleep in the planes or during jump or on the ground against their will it was an unknown side effect.

SirPurrsalot

The whole acting cast actually had to do a 12 weeks bootcamp based actually military drill from ww2 they where forced to wear clothing and uniforms of that time they get fed like in the time and had to live and sleep like real draftees in that time. They got the same tactical and combat drills like real Paras and where under constant phyical and psycologial pressure by the supervisors like Dale Dye to give them a feeling what it was like fighting back then and in order for them to form a real bond between them so they dont have to act it on screen and it look more natural and it seemed to be worth that ordeal. And above all that the production crew forced them to film all that with gopros for the bonus material.^^

SirPurrsalot

Steven Spielberg directed "Saving Private Ryan" and Tom Hanks starred in it. Robert Rodat wrote most of the screenplay. Spielberg and Hanks both collaborated on and co-produced this series and Hanks even wrote and directed one of the episodes. Both were published through Spielberg's Dreamworks company. That's why it looks so much like the movie.

Walter Alcaraz

I didn't realize that there were US citizens sent back to Germany to fight for the Nazi's. I was stressed through Saving Private Ryan, and this seems like 10 hours of the same. Very different than the days as a kid watching Combat with Vic Morrow on TV.

bwr

The little guy is the actor who plays Moriarty in BBC Sherlock iirc.

Matt Bradley

I think it's crazy to imagine that all this actually happened. The opening sequence with the hundreds of planes, people dying inside the planes, the thousands of parachutes, the bullets and bombs going off everywhere... It all actually happened for real. If you had been standing there as a spectator, you would have seen it happen. I can't even imagine what the sky at night would look like if such a scene happened, it's too big for my brain to figure out. Just horrible and crazy

Sweel

Being a bit of a history buff on WWII and studying the politics of post WWII Europe and Asia I really loved this series. The show barely captures it but yeah on D Day most of those companies were in complete disarray and it is amazing that they were able to get by and still accomplish the first day missions. US history talks of 90 to 95% of towns losing their male population. I often tell people not only that but imagine what was going on where they were dying. European cities and maps completely whipped clean. Band of Brothers does a good job of putting you there without going so far into the horror of what really happened. It was a honor to know my Grandfather and other people of that generation and learn from them one important thing. Never again.

Robert Kelly

You posted this 2 days before of the 76th year anniversary of this battle. Also if Captain Sobel (David Schwimmer's character) hadn't been replaced he probably would have been on the plane Meehan was on and killed.

Frankie H

Guarnere was worried about Winters being a Quaker as the Quakers are an extremely pacifist religious group, i.e. not the best leader in war. I think the subtitles are a good idea, I did notice they were oddly way incorrect at times. Oh and Hall was played by Andrew Scott, aka Moriarty from Sherlock!

Doug Weldin

I'd say please keep the subtitles going, it helps me in following along more effectively. That's just my opinion though, make sure everyone else is on board first!

Ryan Andrew Sanderson

I'm the kind of person who always turns on the subtitles for my own viewing... but y'all, the way you did the subtitles in this reaction is INGENIOUS.

IJA