Heroic Nazi Killer remember that MAGA next time you walk around with a Confederate flag

Watching Band Of Brothers right now (for the 2nd time) and paused episode 3 for a brief moment to see if I could find out a bit more about Albert Blithe ❤ Thank you Albert for what you did 🙏🏻

Absolute badass. I loved the bit where he ran through the town and the conversation he had with Lipton in the church after but my favourite part was the bit right after he's told to take over the attack. As he's running towards Dyke a mortar or a shell hits the ground right in front of Speirs and he jumps through the smoke without a single flinch. He is the meanest, toughest son of a bitch in the whole Roman legion.

People like to call Albert a "coward" and what not but his is one of the most realistic portrayals of a young soldier I have seen. Everyone likes to think they would be a super soldier when in reality they would be like this. The show did Blithe dirty but I do like how they showed him volunteer for patrol which lead to his wound. A coward would never volunteer. Simple as that. Imagine literally being dropped behind enemy lines on your own. Yeah he might have had some hiccups along the way but he found himself. In all honesty, whoever jumps out of a plane into bombardment has already shown their character. Heroes every single one.

Band of Brothers is a show made up of veterans memories but is more of a story than actual facts. The characters were real men, the overall battles were actual, but the details are made up

It's little things like this that set professional armies apart from others.

When you know fear but are still prepared to put yourself in arms way, that makes Blithe a real hero in my book. The captions at the end of that episode need to show that.

Speirs was under orders not to take prisoners. All paratroopers and pathfinders were authorized to execute prisoners if necessary on D-Day because of what was at stake. If D-Day had failed the Nazi's might have been able to turn the tide of the war on the Eastern front and we are looking at a very different world today. In Band of Brothers. What we see at Brecourt Manor is just one of many Paratrooper operations that happened all over Normandy during that critical operation. Paratroopers were causing havoc all over the place. Disrupting German operations. They did not have time to take prisoners during the early stages of Operation Overlord. The knew any released prisoner was likely to return to their command not only to fight but with information about about the 506th. Spears killed those men not because of blood lust as depicted in the show. But because of duty. You can't release them, you can't care for them. You know they would kill you under different circumstances. And there are great many tasks that need to be taken care of in short order. Spears was not the only officer to execute prisoners on D-Day.

Ronald Spiers was fearless and ruthless, two traits you need in a company commander in charge of an elite infantry unit behind enemy lines. His men respected and perhaps even loved him, but they were also afraid of him.

He’s reliving it 24/7

Someone slipped him some crack, lol.

Spiers was a legend and a hero. Just like the rest of these men.

Dad was an Arny Air Corp. Lutenant in WWll retired as Air Force Major in 1962.

My dad was the same way as Col. Sink. Don't be late and no excuses.

😂 I love it! 😂

In response to the question about why there were no Band of Brothers books, movies etc. and that men didn't talk about their experiences, IMHO it's because that generation was taught not to let their emotions go and don't share or you're look weak, which was unfortunate. It was chalked up to shell shock. Same with the Korean War veterans. Only after the Vietnam War did we start learning about and understanding PTSD and slowly, the support groups were created for veterans. It wasn't until 1980 that the American Psychiatric Association creates a new diagnosis-Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

I rewatched the show last night and looked up blithe. He actually continued a very successful military career returning in October of 1945. He died young of organ failure for unrelated reasons.

I think Winters is just carrying water for Ambrose. Ronald Speirs was alive at the time of this interview, why didn't they ask him directly? If you ask me it is a dirty trick to not ask the man directly if you are going to paint him in such a bad light. Winters cozeyed up to Ambrose from the start and Ambrose has a reputation of being a bit fast and loose with the facts.

My stepfather ordered Japanese prisoners shot. He was a Marine platoon leader in Guadalcanal and Okinawa. At the beginning of the war he had 44 men in his combat engineer platoon. At the end there was just himself and one other original Marine. I look back on it and realize he had PTSD. He was a nice man.

What better historian is there than Major Dick Winters. Way to set the record straight.

While the USA has some of the world's best trained officers, I do believe all officers when in military school, should be required to read about Dick Winter's combat experience. The man was a walking textbook of how to be a leader of men. Extremely disciplined, extraordinarily tactile, and most of all - he won the hearts and minds of the men in his company. RIP to an American hero, even though he was too modest to call himself one.

They made out that Blythe was from the southern states... I think he was from the north

Crazy, I always thought that story was a myth like Spears implied in the Bastogne episode taking to Lipton IIRC.

The actor who portrayed Spiers was excellent. The moment Winters had him take charge of the assault and his running through enemy lines is so inspiring.

Im confused he says" how it was presented in saving private Ryan" did he just confuse the 2 or is he in that too?

If you met Dick Winters, wouldnt you smile too? 😊

There are things that happen in war that the general public, like myself, cant comprehend or dont want to hear. They have an idyllic vision of the American soldier or sailor, that they do no wrong and are the ultimate good. My grandfather had a story he told me, backed up later mlby the other man on duty that he kept in touch with. He served on the USS McCalla DD-488, a destroyer in the Pacific Campaign. One night, the rescued Japanese survivors whose planes were shot down. They were lined up and guarded. During the night, my grandfather and his shipmate were on guard duty of the prisoners. There were 5 of them. As he passed, one prisoner hailed him. "Hey, hey sailor!". He replied, "What? Whaddaya want?". "Give me that gun." "Whaddaya want my gun for?". "I kill you with it.". So he walked over on the stern side to talk to his shipmate. They agreed that the prisoners were hostile and planning a revolt. So they went back, bound them more, and threw them over the side. They were called on later to answer for why the prisoners had gone missing and what happened. The only explination was from my grandfather's shipmate. "Sir, they were eating all of our food, and we wont be resupplied for some time." They were disciplined, never said how, for a day and sent back to duty. War isnt pretty, it isnt perfect. Grey areas everywhere.My grandfather had plenty of uplifting and happy stories from his time on the ship. That was one of a few bad ones. As he always told me, though, "It was war, we had to beat the goddamn Japs."

"punctuality is the politeness of prices"

When men were men, youth of today could learn a lot from these iconic role members of the greatest generation.

The mind is like a blank piece of vinyl or silicon upon which visual and auditory tracks are laid down and similar sounds and visuals can trigger comparisons to past similar sounds or visuals . There's no exact erasure for them . The tracks may be deeply traumatizing when replayed. At most we can say like the phrase " time heals all wounds " that these tracks can be " recorded over " so that the indelible marks left can at least be distorted beyond the original experience. And that takes " time " to record over them the better experiences in nature. Ptsd is not a joke . There are some techniques used to ameliorate its effects but there's no absolute cure just lessening of some nervous system effects.

Why can't people like this be the kind of people we have running for office?

You can tell Major Winters still cares about his men decades later. Some officers don't really give a shite about their troops except as stepping stones to promotion "now". Respect.

He never failed a mission, that’s what you need as a leader to win wars .

This is one of the most insane things I've ever heard. Makes me doubt literally everything about the book and the movie.

There was a brutal cold period. Not only is it hard to comprehend the war itself, it’s hard to imagine a time where the Rhine river is constantly freezing over.

This journalist tries to dirty the name of US soldiers. War is hell

Time, tide, and formation wait for no man...

these men were built differently

God was with him...

Given their mission on D-Day, logistically you cannot take prisoners and you can't just let them go so they can give away your position, and jeopardize the rest of the men. That leaves one option.

R.I.P Band of Brothers 🇺🇸

You can only push a soldier so far. What the hell did the SS think was going to happen once our soldiers figured out what they were up to? Even the SS knew it. I'd say that they still had better odds coming across a Speirs or two ... rather than surrendering to the Russians.

A legend, a hero, a real man, a beautiful and humble man. One day someone asked me who I would like to have dinner within the entire history of humanity (Elvis, Beethoven, anyone !!!) ... took me one second to answer : Dick Winters.

American Hero. Greatest Generation.

Major Winters is the absolute example of an exemplary American Officer. This man is legendary and it is well deserved.

Hollywood screws up yet again…

Heroic leader and amazing soldier. Tip of the spear!

It was so incredibly unfortunate that Ambrose destroyed Blythe’s legacy with one of his many errors in recounted history. A simple fact check would have confirmed that Blythe not only survived his wounds, but he stayed in the army and served with distinction in Korea. Ambrose is without a doubt the worst historical authors. Totally overrated.

It was war time, and on a very Grand scale! Any war is always a very ugly business! All young men can and do ugly things when placed in certain circumstances. However, after many year, and when you have grown older, and have struggled with and reflect upon the decisions and actions you may have taken at that time. It does not define who you are today, or were then.

The paratroopers were unquestionably some of the toughest soldiers in all of the Allied Armies. The Germans were very wary of having to fight them, they called them "devils in baggy pants."