Replacements | BAND OF BROTHERS | Reaction Episode 4

[@htim8997]

Haylo: "He's literally my celebrity crush!" Me: "Uh-Oh"

[@hmanfrankie]

It’s cool that when David Schwimmer shows up again this episode you only see Captain Sobel, and not Ross from Friends. That speaks volumes to David Schwimmers performance in this series.

[@krisfrederick5001]

That's why he was type casted for the roll, he wasn't supposed to betaken seriously initially

[@eddiecollison]

Perhaps, but I think a big factor was Schwimmer's resemblance to the actual Sobel.

[@dimitrijensk2845]

Exactly. By the time the series ended, I really didn’t like his character.

[@9999bigb]

He's a very good actor. We can see him flex that talent in this series, where people to this day hate his character.

[@antoniojrbaga1101]

good thing Rachel didn't show up and revealed he is not a captain but a paleontologist...LMAO!

[@jasonmkc7797]

"Randleman is Papa" may be the best reaction I've heard.

[@TA-wg9oi]

Like many others, I've watched a lot of reactions to BOB and watched the series a dozen times. I agree that these girls are probably the best I've seen in grasping the storyline. It's a pleasure to watch.

[@MrTech226]

When they say about their Papa got me!

[@gregwochner4894]

I think it’s Taylor Tomlinson who has a standup routine about her Pepaw how cute he is and how many confirmed kills he has he really should check that out it’s hilarious

[@neutchain7838]

@@MrTech226 yep, that was really sweet. :)

[@H880]

My grandpa was in the 13th Airborne and almost jumped for Market Garden but his unit was called off. He said if he had gone I wouldn't be here today.

[@walterblackledge1137]

Chocolate, sugar, etc was rationed during the war and the little boy was too young to have had it before the war. The "Scary" guy is Lt. Spiers. The solider who gave the little boy chocolate is Webster.

[@rosshein356]

And the little boy will get to taste chocolate for the first time all over again after the war…… I’m pretty sure that’s d ration chocolate that Web gives him, having tasted a recreation…. It’s pretty terrible tasting.

[@impgard]

Considering that's a Hershey bar, that kid still hasn't tasted chocolate. ;-)

[@rosshein356]

@@impgard was it? But also d rats were made by Hershey ( pretty sure they invented them) but even if it was a plain old Hershey bar I fully agree lol

[@Patrick-xv6qv]

It had nothing to do with rationing. This was German occupied Netherlands. They had been occupied for 4 years before Operation Market Garden and they people of the Netherlands were literally starving to death becuase the occupying Germans were taking all their food. The boy never tasted chocolate before because he looked young enough to have been born during the occupation or right before. It would have been doubtful if he even ever tasted a fresh vegetable or any edible meat not to mention chocolate.

[@geraldrhodes4114]

@@Patrick-xv6qvAgreed

[@krisfrederick5001]

Winters: "Never put yourself in a position to take from these men" Buck: "Alright...I'll throw left handed then..." 🎯 😉

[@nox_tech_]

​@@va3svdthanks for all that. i've rewatched the series many a time, and i really appreciate expanding on details such as this.

[@nox_tech_]

​@@va3svd ooh you are right, the differing perspectives are interesting. i'll look into reading this one when i can. thanks again!

[@dlxmarks]

In _Beyond Band of Brothers_ Winters describes that the machine gun bullet entered the front of Nixon's helmet, grazed his forehead leaving an abrasion, and exited out the side. Nixon missed death or a severe head wound by just a few millimeters.

[@luketimewalker]

oh god

[@asmrhead1560]

Yeah those steel helmets wouldn't stop direct bullet hits, mostly they'd help against shell fragments from artillery air bursts and just making soldiers feel more secure than NOT having a helmet.

[@Knight-Bishop]

​@@asmrhead1560 Yeah a lot of people still think they were like armor, but were really closer to why hardhats are used in construction and firefighting. As armor the only thing they could really guarantee was that a glancing blow was more likely to skip off than dig in and bounce off of an inner surface.

[@fakecubed]

@@asmrhead1560 The biggest danger really is in bumping your head against something while running around and getting past obstacles in combat. It's pretty easy to get a concussion in and around war, or just a serious bleeding head injury. Nowadays military helmets will stop low powered bullets, and higher power bullets that have been fired from far enough away that they've been slowed down by air resistance a lot. But still getting hit by a bullet in the helmet is going to cause pretty bad neck injuries a lot of the time, probably knock you down. That energy is still going somewhere, it's just distributed across your entire skull instead of just a small point, but it's a lot of energy. They're quite effective at keeping soldiers safe from shrapnel and from ordinary head-bumps though. They're also finding now that the heavier, more effective helmets put so much weight on the head and neck that it causes soldiers to have a lot of neck problems later, just from constant compression on the spine over a career. This problem is getting magnified by all the things attached to helmets today like cameras, comms, lights, and of course night vision and thermal imagers which also require counterweights in back to keep the helmet balanced. Some of that stuff is becoming essential in the modern battlefield, but it does do permanent damage to the people wearing them. Lots of R&D is being put into trying to figure out how to make helmets lighter and smaller, while finding a good balance for protective ability. I can't help but wonder if helmets will eventually end up being attached to some kind of flexible rotating spinal support column in back so the head has all its mobility, but the weight gets distributed into some kind of powered exoskeleton that can also help bear the weight of all the other equipment they wear and carry. But who knows how reliable such a system would be, and whether it will only do more harm than good by adding bulk or break down at inopportune times.

[@Captainbabytaco]

The soldier who had a “not so graceful” approach to hopping the fence, was actually doing that on purpose, in order to level the fence, so his fellow soldiers could run over, instead of hopping over. It’s far safer and faster. By the way, good observation, on the tank blowing up that building! I own the series, and have watched it many times, but never made the link, that that was the same window that old couple were seen.

[@crispy_338]

A neat detail is at 10:30 when Winters folds his collar inside out to hide his rank. Snipers often targeted officers. Also, Market Garden was a massive operation with tens of thousands of men. This battle was a tiny slice of a much, much larger situation.

[@mattj2081]

And it was all based off of faulty information and couldn't be corrected or properly planned due to political pressure. It was all a big waste.

[@crispy_338]

@@mattj2081 Politics and ruining shit, name a more iconic duo

[@luciusjulius8320]

@@mattj2081 Nonsense. There was no political pressure applied. There was poor planning and faulty execution but that was the fault of Field Marshall Montgomery and Gen Browning, senior British Commanders. General Browning deliberately ignored intelligence that German forces in the area were much stronger than believed. It was a gamble.

[@cyberdan42]

@@mattj2081 It was less 'political pressure' (the politicians) than it was internal Allied military leadership wrangling for dominance and the title of winning the war. Montgomery (the British highest command) railed against the decreasing influence of the British ("there since the start") and especially the decreasing spotlight on himself. As the American effort (in terms of men and material) vastly outstripped the British the Americans naturally assumed the dominant role, notably with Eisenhower being given overall command of the Allied effort (Montgomery hated this and thought Eisenhower a feckless administrator). To make matters worse Montgomery and Patton (a US Army commander) loathed each other, both being arrogant blowhards at heart and each insisting they would "win the war" to their respective tame press corps. In the middle of this was another US Army commander Bradley, who was trying to fight a war with both Patton and Montgomery going on ever-increasing personal aggrandizement quests. Eisenhower was forced to navigate these extreme personalities and the building political (politician/civilian) pressure in Britain (with an exhausted population and economy devastated by complete involvement in two World Wars that included the bombing of the nation) and the United States (isolated from the direct conflict, some still viewing it as a European war, with their young men and the nations wealth propping up the war effort). The end result was Eisenhower spending a huge proportion of his time trying to control internal rivalries (for example his (SHAEF) British Airforce deputy commander Air Chief Marshal Tedder also loathed Montgomery and argued he should be removed from command) and prevent the alliance from fracturing. Montgomery had a decisive advantage in planning Market Garden. His Army Group (in Holland and Belgium) was the only one close enough to take advantage of the newly formed Airbourne Army (a composite of US and British Paratroop Divisions) that would deploy from British airfields. The casualties to frontline units during the Normandy and the following campaign had many asking why multiple elite divisions of (airborne) troops were sitting idle in Britain. The paratroopers themselves were chomping at the bit to deploy after multiple operation cancellations (the ground forces having moved so fast as to overrun drop zones). In the end, Market Garden was a Montgomery vanity exercise, driven by the desperation of the Allies to end the war fast, by geographic (deployment range of the paratroops) considerations, and by the desperation of the Airbourne army to get into action.

[@robgraham5697]

@@cyberdan42 Excellent synopsis of the circumstances surrounding the Market-Garden clusterfuck.

[@johngingras]

You are correct: that lieutenant was color blind. It's mentioned in some of the memoirs that he tried to join the service several times but failed the eye test each time because he was color blind. However, he eventually took the test enough to be able to fake it.

[@daxriley8195]

Great to see the girls quickly pick up on this one, a lot of reactors miss it initially.

[@TheLanceUppercut]

Genuinely curious, what's your source on that? I always assumed it was because of color blindness as well, but I haven't been able to find any historical reference to Lt. Peacock actually being color blind. And I've heard other suggestions put forth that he was nervous at the door (Peacock, in the show, is generally portrayed as being a bit hapless) and would have had his eyes closed or something like that. So if you found reference somewhere about Peacock actually being color blind I'd love to read it.

[@johngingras]

@@TheLanceUppercut I can't remember if it was in the Band of Brothers book or one of the many memoirs I've read. I'll have to see about digging them out of storage to find the reference. I'm not 100% sure that it was Peacock when I read about it. They might have just taken the story of a different color blind lieutenant and ascribed it to Peacock.

[@johngingras]

@@TheLanceUppercut Ok, found a Wikipedia article about it. It wasn't a lieutenant after all, but Walter "Smokey" Gordon.

[@MonumentToSin]

@@TheLanceUppercut A lot of guys lied to join the army at this time. Historically, the military would reject men who were colorblind, bad eyesight, deafness, flat feet, and many conditions that affect performance. But the "call to serve" was strong at this time, and many men would lie about their age, their health, etc. in order to join. If you were old enough to serve but you didn't, people in America would call you a coward, even if you had an excuse.

[@J4ME5_]

Anyone who says the younger generation is lost... just need to watch them appreciate this show. You guys are doing great... and we all cried, you arent alone.

[@ParlonsAstronomie]

I am pretty sure that the people that say that are talking about the teenagers, not the people in their twenties. But anyway, the new generations are not lost, they are just different.

[@BerserkRain]

​@ParlonsAstronomie I think some people would be surprised how many teenagers actually do show respect and appreciation and want to learn. I feel like, unfortunately, the certain minority that make their voices loud ofc at times don't appreciate sacrifices in the past that people made sadly.

[@ChuckS117]

I appreciate that you release these reactions every 3-4 days and not the weekly releases most reactors do! Thank you for sharing them with us.

[@marcoburg8500]

At 10:35, the older gentleman sitting at the table waving a flag is one of the Easy Veterans who was visiting the set that day. I won't say which to avoid spoilers.

[@impgard]

Good catch...Bill G. would be proud to see his Philly friend there. ;-)

[@BjrnOttoVasbottenbjovas]

LOL that is great, i never noticed him! That must have been very special to portray the people that you liberatef

[@MichaelPower212]

Orange is the national color of the Netherlands (Holland). The person hanging the orange drape from the window is celebrating their liberation. There is a film by the title of "A Bridge Too Far" that is all about Operation Market Garden.

[@timcliffsmith]

Definitely should watch A Bridge Too Far to learn more about Operation Market Garden. Excellent stuff.

[@JackyJames1]

The Canadians certainly helped to liberate Holland look it up

[@JackyJames1]

​@@timcliffsmithmarket garden was a failed attempt by the British general

[@ChrisCrossClash]

@@JackyJames1Don’t just blame the British for this, Gavin and his 82nd failed to take the main bridge in time as well, so it was a collective failure.

[@nilloc93]

There is a highly inaccurate* film by the title of "A Bridge Too Far"

[@knojustenuftobedangerous2442]

Your Papa was probably the last of the greatest generation. He must have had a wonderful impact on you guys, since you both seem to be kind, insightful and empathetic. I'm enjoying your channel, thanks.

[@alexlim864]

11:20 A lot of the women who slept with the Germans did more than just sleep with the enemy, as quite a few Dutch resistance members, and maybe even some innocents, were snitched on by them. (One woman, I seem to remember, lost three brothers and her father, due to such snitching.) 19:30 Just some info on Winters (the guy who didn’t get his helmet shot off) and Nixon (the guy who did). Winters came from a poor family and needed to work his way through college. Nixon came from a rich family and attended Yale for two years before leaving to enlist in the Army. Winters was a monkish introvert who read all the infantry manuals he could get his hands on. Nixon was a party animal who loved to drink and stay up all night. Winters was a field commander, while Nixon was in Intelligence, which meant that he helped translate the data received from the field into information that people could use. The pair met up during Officer Candidate School, and their friendship started from there.

[@jakesanchez7235]

The people of the Netherlands really take care of our buried guys over there in the American Cemeteries we have for our fallen guys of world war 2. They do this “adopt a grave” type of program where it has a waiting list to this day. They take it serious, and it’s really nice of them. There’s videos about it. 13:54 he later went on to work for the CIA. The lieutenant who was shot that I’m talking about, there was someone from the Easy company that saw him got shot and didn’t know he survived. He ran into him years later like 10-15 years down the road, and it really freaked the guy out. He thought the Lieutenant died.

[@goaway152]

That is so heart warming. and thank you from the US. ^-^

[@ChrisCrossClash]

You do know they do exactly the same to the British and Commonwealth graves as well? Not just American?

[@jakesanchez7235]

@@ChrisCrossClash correct, but this show focuses on an American airborne unit.

[@catherinelw9365]

Same with the folks in Normandy. They care for the fallen Americans' graves. I watched a video of a young French girl who went to the American Cemetery in Normandy. She was filming it to show her American viewers who would never have a chance to go. She said she should have brought flowers, and started weeping. Very touching.

[@catherinelw9365]

@@ChrisCrossClash So? Big chip on little shoulder there, pal.

[@ThePeck911]

My mom was born in Arnhem, Holland. Her parents were both teenagers/early 20's in Holland during WWII. My grandmother and her ballet group performed for Hitler once. My grandfather would sometimes have to dress as a woman at night for safer travel. That generation of humans and what they did for us all will never be replicated.

[@Sp33gan]

My grandfather was a medic who served with the Canadians in Holland. He returned home but passed in 1948, a decade before I was born, so I never got the chance to meet him. My aunt kept a penpal friendship with the daughter of the family my granddad was billeted with there. They were friends for 40 years before each passed from old age. Several of my closest school friends are Dutch-born. Bless the Netherlands. A beautiful country with wonderful people. ♥

[@skiena]

Lets hope its never replicated but history tends to be cyclical.

[@DirtnapJack]

On a separate note, when Bull is hustling the new guys off the field after jumping into Market Garden, he did this because the jump went so well the men were concentrated to landing in a small field (not spread out all over like on d day). There were rifles, helmets and other gear literally raining out of the sky. No hustle meant you were going to be bonked in the head by those same falling items.

[@MeatballCereal]

And a bonk on the head from those fallings could easily kill you

[@chuckhilleshiem6596]

I am a combat vet. In your first reaction I said you would start to talk and think like the men of Easy. I was right I can see it happening and it's very cool. You two are the best I have ever seen so far. Thank you for this and God bless you both.

[@michaelnordbergjeppesen9095]

The shaming of the women who slept with the germans occupiers happened in many countries including Denmark were I live. It was quite a taboo to be a child of a german soldier and many kids and their mothers got shamed for it in large parts of their lives.

[@benschultz1784]

If they weren't just dropped off on the German side of the border and told "good riddance "

[@Hugebull]

Towards the end of the war was when all of the emasculated Socialists came out of the shadows. Having done nothing productive for the entire duration of the war. And seeing many of their women fall in love with the handsome occupying soldiers. Then, in their "proto-incel" rage, they lashed out against their neighbors. Women who married and formed relationships with the Germans were not just shamed, a great deal of them had their citizenship revoked and were then deported to Germany. Here in the Southwest of Norway, stealing from farms was rampant. If the farmer reported it to the Germans, there would be a crackdown, and he himself would be shunned if not murdered by his own neighbors as a collaborator. A man who is almost a neighbor joined "Hirden" has a teenager during the war to preserve the peace and keep the country together. For that, he was shunned and hated by everyone but a tiny few. The Labor Government of Norway when the war started actively wanted Norway to join the Soviet Union. Not to ally or make friends with the USSR. No. Actually join and become a Soviet Republic under Moscow. Naturally, as private property is the cornerstone to freedom and liberty, a great deal of landowners of various sizes were relatively pro-German. Or rather, as their own government was as extreme in its Bolshevisms, not that negative toward the Germans. The dad of another neighbor actively fought the Germans every chance he could. Including committing war crimes. Such as fighting without a uniform. And faking surrender repeatedly. Time and time again, he and his crew would have to move under the cover of darkness, because of the pockets of pro-German Norwegians around the country. Then, after the war, anyone who had been slightly pro-German lost the right to vote. And, considering the danger to their own lives and of their families, everyone pretended to hate the Germans. So now, we are left with this 'afterthought' that everyone hated the Germans. When in fact, this was a post-war invention. An intention that was both imposed and self-imposed. The post-war bloodshed was less than the average here in Norway. But in places like Denmark, Netherlands, and especially France, there were major mass-murdering purges. And this was in the West. In the East it was on a scale beyond sanity.

[@ronweber1402]

As is the case in Korea and Vietnam as well. The half American babies and their mothers were ostracized all their lives with many of those babies being dropped in orphanages. It has been the same since forever.

[@paulcarfantan6688]

Very true, same in liberated France.

[@TheeYellowDart]

It doesn't matter how many times I re-watch this series, I always listen to the introduction theme in full. It's just so wonderful to listen to.

[@Seosaengnim]

I understand the sentiments of someone claiming you are emotional, weak, or naive... but to me, this is the beauty of a reaction like this. As a society, we owe so much to those who weren't, or aren't. Thank you to the men of history and the present who do very hard things to make our society truly strong.

[@DirtnapJack]

As it was written in the book, Malarkey (the man who Sobel was scolding about the motorcycle and who also ran out into the field to get a luger on d day) aided another soldier to steal the motorcycle from utah beach, got it onto a landing craft on the beach and somehow onto a ship so they could ride in back in England while the others had to take the train. Sobel to their surprise really didn’t punish them since the army got it back. I can only imagine them just being like “you know what? I’m just gonna take a motorcycle off the beach”

[@ViPro2023]

We have a saying in the US Army "There's only one thief in the Army, everyone else is just trying to get their shit back." Technically since Malarkey was still in the Army he couldn't have stolen the motorcycle, he just moved it to a secure location. On one deployment with 3rd Infantry Division a platoon in our company kept parking their vehicles too close to ours, so we un-bolted the door handles and moved it to a different part of the Battalion. They were running around looking for it for awhile before we told them. They didn't think it was as funny as us.

[@aweebunny]

10:34 Cameo/spoiler alert: The old man in the lower left corner of the frame is the real Babe Heffron.

[@marinesinspace6253]

I've seen BoB at least a dozen times, and I never picked that up before, thank you!

[@adamwells9352]

The guy who gives the Dutch kid chocolate is Webster, not the scary guy (Spiers). That kindness always makes me misty, myself. It's a beautiful moment in a horrible, ugly battle.

[@johnyarns8207]

the one you laughed at and called graceful when he fell over the fence, his job was to knock the fence down so it wouldn't slow down the rest of the squad following him

[@kraigthorne3549]

17:25 That is a Jagdpanther. It was armed with the long-barreled 8.8 cm Pak 43/3 L/71 gun, similar to the main gun of the Tiger II. The Americans and British did not have a tank that could penetrate its armor and it can take out any American or British tank in one shot over a mile away.

[@ronmaximilian6953]

That's not quite correct. Depending on the range and angle of impact, a HPDS shell with the tungsten core from a British 17-pounder gun like those on the Sherman Firefly could penetrate frontal armor and certainly side armor. A Jagdtiger would have been another story. Likewise, the M26 Pershing with its 90 mm high velocity gun stood a good chance. Of course those wouldn't get to the battlefield until 1945 and even then in small numbers. But the tanks that we saw were regular Sherman's with 75 ml guns and a Cromwell with the British version of a 75 mm gun.

[@davemac1197]

All the German vehicles in the episode were inappropriate for the action at Nuenen except for the half-track personnel carrier. The production only had access to these running condition German vehicles and the same vehicles appear in multiple episodes as a result. Panzerbrigade 107 had Panther tanks in its panzer battalion, as well as a company of Jagdpanzer IV tank destroyers that arrived late and were not involved, while the panzergrenadier battalion was equipped with a number of types of armoured half-tracks. The enemy vehicle involved in the ambush incident with the Shermans of 44th RTR (Royal Tank Regiment) at Nuenen was incorrectly identified by the tankers as a Mark IV tank, but was probably a half-track with a close support 7.5cm kanon (SdKfz 251/9 'Stummel') that was hidden behind a hedgerow. The British Cromwell tanks were used in the armoured reonnaissance regiments and the markings on all the British tanks were the divisional reconnaissance tactical number [45] and the 11th Armoured Division flash (black bull on a yellow field), which is correct for the Cromwells of 15th/19th Hussars, but wrong for 44th RTR - part of the independent 4th Armoured Brigade and attached to 101st Airborne Division for MARKET GARDEN. The Cromwells were involved in an action at Opwetten, on the road from Eindhoven to Nuenen the day before, where Buck Compton was wounded, so this episode is a conflation of two actions at two places on two days with two British armoured regiments in support of Easy Company. As a footnote, some of the American troopers thought the Opwetten action was Nueuen, because the small hamlet was over a small bridge on the river Dommel, and at the far end of the bridge there was a sign that read 'NUENEN' - this actually indicated the river was the boundary between the districts of Eindhoven and Nuenen, and not the town of Nuenen itself. The town was the headquarters of Panzerbrigade 107 and Easy Company had initially bumped the brigade's pickets at Opwetten on 19 September and penetrated to within 200 metres of the centre of Nuenen on 20 September.

[@Tipi83]

10:32 Quick cameo by "Babe" Heffron. ☺️ Bottom left waving that flag. 15:15 That fence "jump" was on purpose, Ramirez knocked it down, so the rest could proceed with ease, and not waste time going over it and possibly get shot.

[@marinesinspace6253]

8:17 The parachutes were made of pure silk, and these ones are camouflaged, a lot of paratroopers made neck scarves out of damaged parachutes. One of the officers Lieutenant Welsh, kept a parachute through most of the war to bring home to his fiancé so she could make her wedding dress out of the material.

[@meanfan6963]

Also, silk was heavily rationed during the war and reserved for military use. Silk stockings for women were extremely hard to come by and cost a fortune. In the 1940s, all women wore stockings with dresses (pants for women were not yet a thing) so this was a huge issue. Because of this, troopers would often collect discarded pieces parachute silk and send them home to their wives or girlfriends, who would then use their sowing and threading skills to sew their own new stockings. And some troopers also used silk for bartering with local women in Europe, usually in exchange for you-know-what.

[@catherinelw9365]

That's when nylon stockings were invented. Not as good as silk, though.

[@marinesinspace6253]

@@catherinelw9365 I'll have to take your word for it.

[@DB-dq1gf]

"You turrrrrd!" (at Cobb during the bar scene) made me laugh pretty hard

[@leewaffe3]

@8:20 Parachutes at the time were made from silk which was rationed and in very high demand especially to women. Any GI who could get parachute silk could barter or sell it to the locals for a very good profit. Women especially, since silk made good underwear fabric and many european women would try to take advantage of abandoned parachutes to make such items. Its all the more funnier when some women could only find the green camoflauge type instead of the white silk. @21:20 It is remarakable how much the human body can endure and recover from. One story out of Iraq in 2003, a US Army infantry squad took up positions on a roof top and one of the sergeants was shot through the neck and fell three stories before hitting the ground. He survived but was paralyzed from the neck down. According to one of his men who kept in touch after he was sent home later said in an interview "We'll I later found out his D*ck still worked, because he had 3 kids".

[@rodlepine233]

The orange color that's present throughout much of Dutch culture is a nod to the royal family, which is made up of members of the House of Orange. The dynasty dates back to 1544 when William of Orange inherited the estate and title at the age of 11.

[@sreggird60]

Cobb was already in the Army when the war started. I think he had been in about 8 years. He actually served in North Africa with the armored force before transferring to the paratroops.

[@blakewalker84120]

16:15 "it's because the British are in charge and they're not trusting or something." No. They trust each other perfectly. In war, it doesn't matter if the guy next to you is from your country or an allied country, your only and best chance of survival is working together to kill the enemy. The problem here is, the Netherlands is a friendly country. Dutch people live here. Probably a Dutch family in that house right now. Both armies (British and American) are under orders to save the Dutch people, liberate them, and to NOT destroy their property unless they have to. That British tank commander believed the US soldier but he is following his orders to not blow up the house.

[@JackyJames1]

Canadians were a big part of this fight! Our awesome American cousins ( brothers and sisters) are making sure Canada is safe thank you America

[@lyndoncmp5751]

The Canadians did well under Montgomery as their overall commander.

[@JackyJames1]

@@lyndoncmp5751 all the Allies are HEROES that's a fact

[@catherinelw9365]

Thanks, neighbor!

[@trevorbryant4360]

With Captain Sobel, members of Easy Company may have hated him when he was in charge. But credit him for making Easy Company as good as it was. It solidified the members of Easy into the cohesive unit they were.

[@lawrencewestby9229]

Of the 8000 lost by the British 1st Airborne over 6000 were captured, many of those wounded. The movie "A Bridge Too Far" tells the story of Operation Market Garden.

[@lyndoncmp5751]

Very inaccurately in places though.

[@CitiZENCAT-ie5dt]

​@@lyndoncmp5751it's an epic flick though... tremendous cast/top notch cinematography. (And free on KZbin.)

[@rickteklits6872]

great reaction. I had a judge who was in the 101st Airborne. He jumped at Normandy as well as in Holland. He fought around Eindhoven, the town that was bombed here. He fought in all of the battles you are watching. He has now passed away but he was special. There is a reason why they call these men the Greatest Generation. My judge ended up being captured at the Battle of the Bulge. He survived the war, returned to the States, graduated law school, got married and raised a family, set up a prosperous law firm and eventually was appointed to the Bench. In the 90's he returned to Holland at invitation to celebrate the 50th year of liberation and I will always remember his reaction when he came home. He was upset that he was treated as a hero. He looked me in the eye and told me that he wasn't the hero, the heroes wee them men, his friends, that never came back. I tried to explain to him that he was a true hero but he wouldn't hear any of it.

[@Tiredolddad1969]

The Bridge over the Rhine in Arnhem was renamed Frost bridge in honor of Col. Frost commander of the British paratroop regiment who lost the most men and were surrounded and eventually had to surrender after they ran out of food, ammo and medical supplies. Because the armored column failed to reach them.

[@lyndoncmp5751]

The armoured column ( the vastly experienced British XXX Corps) only failed to reach British 1st Airborne because the US 82nd Airborne didn't capture the Nijmegen bridge for the armoured column to reach them in time. The 82nd had pulled completely out of Nijmegen when XXX Corps linked up with them and there was a two day battle just to get to the Nijmegen bridge. US 82nd Airborne was supposed to have the Nijmegen bridge captured and ready to XXX Corps to cross over when they linked up. Previous to this the US 101st Airborne also failed to have the Son bridge captured for XXX Corps. XXX Corps had to then build their own Bailey Bridge at Son, which took 12 hours. An armoured column cannot move across rivers without bridges.

[@davemac1197]

They were not expected to hold the bridge for more than four days - which Browning promised to Montgomery before adding "but we may be going a bridge too far." He was absolutely correct, because the 508th PIR failed to move quickly on the Nijmegen bridge and allowed the 10.SS-Panzer-Division to reinforce the non-commissioned officer and seventeen men who were guarding it. The delay it imposed on XXX Corps having to fight for the bridges at Nijmegen sealed the fate of the British Airborne at Arnhem. Point of fact, the British force did not "surrender" at the Arnhem bridge at all - when they ran out of ammunition they were ordered to attempt to break out in small groups and most of them were captured.

[@conundrum9244]

2:56 "If something happens..." Something definitely did happen.

[@nostrebornod]

Everyone who knows this series did a collective "oof" sound when she said that.

[@martinklaus2203]

It was Webster who gave the kid the chocolate bar, not Spiers.

[@McShaganpronouncedShaegen]

The little boy with the chocolate might be my most favorite scene in the whole show.

[@michaelstach5744]

I think every episode has a perfect scene. I accept this is the one for episode four.

[@HateMachine103190]

It helps that the kid they cast was probably one of the cutest kids on the planet.

[@moviewryter1985]

0:23: Your audience adores you for adoring this show. Says a lot about ones character -- those who get the meaning behind this amazing production -- understanding it's about the real heroes, their lives, contributions and sacrifices, who all made a different in our freedoms we have in the world today. So meaningful beyond words.

[@MrSmithla]

And, you nailed it, the officer that ordered the sergeant to tap his leg when the light changed from red to green was, in fact, color blind

[@MarkLac]

After the failure of Market Garden, every time Bernard Montgomery tried to approach General Eisenhower with a new plan, Eisenhower just played along with Montgomery, but he never listened to him ever again on “big plans.” But it was not just failure of the Top Brass. Behind the scenes, Ultra Intercepts had not been listened to, the biggest warning ignored were codes that were broken showing Powerful Units of the 9th and 10th SS Panzer Divisions located literally right by the single road corridor the Tanks were to push on through to Arnhem. These units were refitted and full of battle hardened Veterans from the Normandy Campaign that managed to escape the Allied Pocket at Falaise in France.

[@lyndoncmp5751]

How come Eisenhower went running to Montgomery 3 months later then in the Battle of the Bulge when the Americans were retreating? He called on Montgomery on just the 4th day of the battle and asked him to come down and take immediate command of US 1st Army, after his American generals dropped the ball. In his hour of need, Eisenhower turned to his most experienced and most successful general, Montgomery. Eisenhower then agreed to Montgomerys other plans. Operations Blockbuster, Veritable and Grenade. After Market Garden, Eisenhower allowed the Hurtgen Forest, Lorraine and Alsace debacles to occur. Each of these were more costly failures than Market Garden.

[@SergioArellano-yd7ik]

" replacements , who needs replacements? " Any army unit that was devastated with so many dead and wounded. They might not want to make friends with them or even know their names, but they definitely needed them

[@brianreising3293]

came to comment similar. "Who needs replaced?" as if they didn't cry about all the death in the prior episodes.

[@OZAHS1959]

As units lost members, they had replacement soldiers come in to fill the ranks back up. But they more often than not treated badly because they did not have the extensive training and had not gone through any battles yet.

[@DirtnapJack]

Green as grass yes, but they had their jump wings.

[@Vendrix86]

Karissa is right Haley, you are smarticles lol

[@texasdustfart]

The old man sitting at the table at the 10:54 mark is the actual Babe Hefron.

[@GrumpyOldGuyPlaysGames]

Lieutenant Robert Brewer, the officer who was shot in the middle of the road, was amazingly lucky. The bullet passed under his jaw. but in front of his trachea, through that loose flap of skin all humans have on their throat right where their neck meets their head. It bled profusely, but ultimately wasn't all that serious. He could even breathe and talk normally while lying wounded on the street. He finally died (of lung cancer) in 1996 at age 72.

[@jmanil]

This episode is great because it shows all the salty survivors (up to that point) to show how they have risen through the ranks from their training days. Now they are Sgt's and above and are team leaders and squad leaders. They treat the replacements like their own kids and you see the small scenes where the veterans of combat are trying to teach the new guy's what to do. Leadership has 2 priorities and that is Mission Accomplishment & Troop Welfare. That's great that you picked out the color-blind officer. I think the directors wanted to show a little testament to the type of men who joined. Many stories of men who faked paperwork, hid health/medical conditions, or cheated on eye exams in order not to get disqualified from military service. There were also a few stories of underage boys who faked their birth records or birthday on enlistment papers. In the other series, called the Pacific, they show the battle for Iwo Jima where 27 Medal of Honor's were awarded for a battle that only lasted 2 months. One of them was a Marine by the name of Jack Lucus who joined the Marine Corps at the age of 14 and he was awarded one of the Medal's of Honor at the age of 17 on Iwo Jima.

[@Farbar1955]

Semi-spoiler alert: At 10:34 the older gentleman in the beret in the lower left corner is the real Babe Heffron, an actual Easy Company replacement who'll you hear more about as the series goes on. Babe was on set during the filming and he was asked if he wanted to be in the crowd scene and he jumped at it. The actors treated Babe and other Easy Company vets as if they were rock stars (and the vets deserved it). Babe was introduced to one of the actors as the character he played and Babe said "I was there when you were killed." That statement made me so sad.

[@BjrnOttoVasbottenbjovas]

The little boy with the chocolate is such a profound and moving scene which really hit myself different after having kids myself.

[@arnaudpoisson8778]

French here, the shaved women and shot/hanged men collaborators (Real or suspected) happened in liberated France too.

[@htown1475]

The soldier that gave the chocolate bar to the boy is David Kenyon Webster. He became an author and wrote "Parachute Infantry: An American Paratrooper's Memoir of D-Day and the Fall of the Third Reich". He was fascinated with sharks and became lost at sea in 1961.

[@RolandDeschain1]

The music was written by the late, great Michael Kamen. He co-wrote one of the biggest songs of all time, Bryan Adams' 'Everything I do I Do it For You'.

[@Saved1008]

Your level of respect for the vets in the series is so moving. I am a veteran of the Gulf War, sometimes it seems fewer people in the younger generation have any idea the sacrifices that have been made for them. Your reactions give me hope for the future. Thank you.

[@Ernwaldo]

Well said and kind to recognize them. Also, thank you for your service.

[@bhowardist]

The fact that some actors in this series were just starting out and now they're popular among younger people and younger women crush on them..... given that their characters are introduced and later killed... just goes to further serve the impact of the message this series conveyed so well. The sacrifice these men made for our collective future should be always remembered. Thank you for your reaction. Plus, "smarticles" was probably the cutest thing I've ever heard. Cheers

[@Shurororu]

I watch this show every year a least once to remind myself of how greatful I am and to never forget it

[@uncoolmartin460]

Another beautiful reaction Ladies... Kiss gets me right in heart with her comments. :). Much respect to your "Papa". I'm sure others will mention the film "A Bridge Too Far" for an overview of Market Garden, well worth a watch imo, you'll get a sense of how big an operation it was. Also it might interest you to know that from D-Day onwards penicillin was used for the first time on an industrial scale to treat wounds sustained in battle, the technology to produce the quantities needed had only recently been available and it was stockpiled specifically for D-Day. EDIT: It saved countless lives, maybe that's partly one of the reasons your surprised at the Lt's survival. There are stories of testing on patients before 6th June 1944 that showed its effectiveness, but the demand for the Allies was so great that some patients had the treatment stopped and they died from their "injuries" (not necessarily battle related).

[@NicoGami]

I just wanted to let you know that you are very enjoyable to watch! Keep up that grind, You are doing great so far!

[@martinklaus2203]

It just gets harder from here on out. Hope they have a huge supply of tissues.

[@ericjohnson8847]

Thank you for reacting to this show and willing to examine the horrors of war. You are appreciated!

[@kevinwheesysouthward9295]

I’m really impressed with how quickly you two are catching on to what’s really happening and the gravity of some of these moments. A lot of younger reactors completely miss how heavy some of these scenes are. Kudos.

[@Paxford0502]

It's always wild to come back to this series and see so many "before they were stars" actors. James McAvoy of course, but also Michael Fassbender, Tom Hardy, Simon Pegg, and more.

[@nilloc93]

16:20 It's not so much that he's not trusting he's under orders not to blow up dutch homes without a good reason. A caveat is that this scene is very dramatized and not how things happened in reality* Now there are a couple things to consider here. 1: Yes that tank commander probably isn't trusting what the airborne guys are saying 2: As he says "if I can't see the bugger I can't hit him" that German tank (which is representing a Tiger H1 but the prop vehicle is actually a Tiger P turret welded onto a Russian T34) would probably shrug off a round that wasn't well aimed and its even less likely to have an effect sending the round through a couple of walls first (assuming the walls didn't make the shell detonate early). 3: Intel had not informed them about the presence of German armored units in the area, while by this time (2nd day) higher command was likely well aware that the 9th and 10th SS panzer divisions were in the area that likely hadn't filtered down to the line yet. Now yes a competent tank troop commander would probably do something other than going hey diddle diddle right up the middle but its not a totally brain dead call on the tank commanders part.

[@TheFergo911]

That scene in Eindhoven when the resistance member looked at the tank and said to winter's " ill be happy to show you the quickest route". The underlining point that was being made there was that during the war. The British wanted to be the one's who defeated Hitler and not the Americans. So if Market Garden were to succeed they wanted the news articles to say that the British army got into Germany first and then the Americans followed. Now the tanks in that scene were British tanks and everyone knew that both allied forces wanted to be the first to defeat the Germans which is why he said he would show him the quickest route. This dynamic between the British and American is put on full display in a movie that depicted the war through the experience of a great American general Patton. I recommend watching it, he is a fascinating person and that movie really showed how the war was like for a leader. It showed the politics that were at play as well. Overall Americans usually say that the Europeans cannot save themselves without us doing the job for them. This is all meant to be a jab at Europe since America used to be a colony and now that has all turned around with America being the one's who the Europeans need. So it makes sense why the British didn't want this to happen again in WWll. The Russians were the one's who strolled their way into Berlin St the end.

[@davemac1197]

Total nonsense. The resistance man was talking about guiding the paratroopers to their objectives, which were four bridges in Eindhoven and the specific objectives of 2nd Battalion (including Easy Company). This rivalry nonsense was in the minds of Americans and exaggerated by films like Patton (1970) and A Bridge Too Far (1977) which were written and produced by Hollywood people. The film version of A Bridge Too Far is only 50% historically accurate in the narrative account and was based on journalist Cornelius Ryan's incomplete 1974 book (he had terminal cancer) specifically about this operation, Market Garden, and there's a distinct American bias in the anti-British narrative in the book. Ryan originally hailed from Dublin (and emigrated to the USA after the war) and during the European campaign was embedded with Patton's US 3rd Army - Dublin and Patton are both premier colleges of the anti-British school of philosophy. If you want to learn the true story behind Market Garden, then you have to read some history books. For the internal politics in 1st Allied Airborne Army that compromised Market Garden's planning I would recommend American military historian Roger Cirillo's PhD thesis - The MARKET GARDEN Campaign: Allied operational command in northwest Europe, 1944 (2001 Cranfield University), and also for free online you can read Cornelius Ryan's interview notes with General James Gavin of the 82nd Airborne about the decisions he made in his divisional plan that compromised the entire operation, but not followed up in the book and completely omitted from the film (Box 101 Folder 10, Cornelius Ryan Collection, Ohio State University - Notes on meeting with J.M. Gavin, Boston, January 20, 1967). The best research on what went wrong at Nijmegen are by Dutch researcher RG Poulussen in Lost At Nijmegen (2011), American historian John C McManus in September Hope - The American Side of a Bridge Too Far (2012), and 82nd Airborne historian Phil Nordyke's Put Us Down In Hell - The Combat History of the 508th PIR in WW2 (2012). You'll notice that I've avoided citing any British authors to avoid the inevitable charge that I may be biased against Americans - I'm not - about three quarters of my family are American and that should never stand in the way of getting to the truth. I'm no expert on the Eastern Front or an apologist for Stalin's wasteful abuse of his own people, but I'm confident you'll find the Russian advances to Berlin were no walk in the park - they faced the vast bulk of the German army and suffered 8.7 million military and 19 million civilian deaths during the war. I find your arrogance and ignorance both sickening and unfortunately typical in KZbin comments.

[@timroebuck3458]

Next to Dick Winters, Bull Randleman is my favorite character in the series. You can't go wrong with an easy going cigar chomping country boy from Arkansas.

[@jeffsherk7056]

Haylo & Kiss, Before the D-Day invasion, American troops all received a new weapon, be it an M1 rifle, M1 carbine, M3 sub-machine gun, or Thompson sub-machine gun. The ones they had used in training were left behind for others to train with. Similarly, if a soldier lost his weapon in combat, he would get another one. So the one you saw the fellow unwrap next to the airplane was probably nice and new.

[@lukasismael430]

The soldier that gave the chocolate to the little boy was Private David Webster. The scary guy was Lieutenant Ronald Speirs. In the first few episodes it's hard to remember who everyone is because we are not that familiar with everyone yet, so no big deal, you will eventually figure it out.

[@MrRaposaum]

19:20 Captain Nixon was lucky (or unlucky) that the shot that hit his helmet was a ricochet. Some German soldier was shooting his weapon (probably a rifle) while retreating and the bullet hit the concrete road before it got redirected to Nixon's helmet, hitting it with much less force. A WW2 rifle shot, even for afar, pierces a soldier's helmet with enough force leftover to kill the soldier inside, unless the helmet were to be hit from an angle that barely grazes it (which would not hit the soldier's skull if he weren't wearing the helmet anyway). The helmet was mainly used to protect the soldier's skull from being hit by shrapnel and debris from all the explosions that would happen around him and to protect their eyes from falling dirt and rain. But yeah, ironically if he wasn't wearing the helmet, that ricocheted bullet could have killed Nixon.

[@ViPro2023]

The issued GI shirt was made of a very coarse wool. Paratroopers would cut a swath from their silk parachutes to put under their collar to keep from itching.

[@jaykaufman9782]

Another KZbinr, a veteran of the Gulf War, refers to the camaraderie between soldiers as "trauma-bonding." That phrase speaks volumes. Even mentally strong men, selected and trained for war, can't resist being terrified. The men they share these experiences with and on whom they depend to survive will become closer than any other human relationship, except perhaps for the best marriages.

[@mudnarchist]

It gets even darker when you know that at least SOME of those Dutch women were assaulted by German soldiers, and that they didn't voluntarily sleep with them. They go through that and are shamed by their own countrymen. War is complicated and horrible.

[@BarkBarkImShark]

You're one of the few reactors I've seen who actually catches the detail that the Lieutenant is colorblind, nice catch!

[@MrSmithla]

It might be informative to consider the case of Holland in 1944. Every nation under Nazi occupation suffered to one degree or another. There were some factors unique to Holland that made their occupation particularly difficult for the Dutch. Holland is very small, it’s very flat and almost completely lacks forests. This made Holland very easy for the Nazis to observe the entire country and monitor everyone’s comings and goings. The expected resistance movement tended to be predominantly women and children as they were the only ones who could move about without too much attention. By the time of Market-Garden, the Dutch had lived under a completely artificial famine. The wonderful Dutch dairy farmers had to give almost all their harvests and livestock to the Germans. The level of anger directed against the collaborators immediately upon liberation was pretty common. The Nazis believed in divide and rule. You got extra rations for ratting someone out. People rat each other out over personal grievances. When the other side liberates you, retaliations were common. Consider, too, in a fast-moving modern war, the village that was liberated that morning saw collaborators rounded up and hung by lunch. Then a German counterattack and you might have more hangings by sundown but going the other way.

[@conraddickinson24]

As you mentioned private Blithe survived World war II furthermore he served in the Korean war and was twice decorated for gallantry. He rose to the rank of Master Sergeant before leaving the Army. He actually passed away in 1967. 😢

[@patgray5402]

Lol why did the series lie so blatantly? That seems like an obvious fact to get right.

[@markh3271]

@@patgray5402 The men of Easy company lost track of Blythe, with most of them thinking he had died. Efforts to contact him failed when they met at reunions after the war.

[@patgray5402]

Ah I see.@@markh3271

[@conraddickinson24]

@@patgray5402 it wasn't that the intentionally were trying to lie it was because they were looking for dramatic effect. I think they were using private Blithe as kind of a stand-in, to put the audience in the soldier shoes.

[@joeurata9579]

I loved both of your reactions , when Webster gave the boy the chocolate bar. I thought it was one of the best moments in the series. It was very human and very endearing. Just a few seconds of the scene with its music is very impactful. Makes you teary eyed and grateful.

[@steveg5933]

Young ladies, you are a joy to watch. My Granddad was a Seabee in the Pacific theater. He spent the entire war island hopping with the Marines from early 1942 until end of the war. He did not get home until early 1946. The Pacific miniseries deals with the Marines is well worth watching however, I highly recommend you take a break after BoB prior to watching that. The war in the Pacific was very, very different from the European campaign. At the end of BoB though you really need to see the documentary We Stand Alone Together. It is where the interview segments come from and is well worth the time. Speaking as a Navy veteran, your understanding of these episodes is very enjoyable to see.

[@matthewdooley7855]

It's a bit of a Catch-22 for replacements. They don't know many of the hacks that help hardened soldiers survive, but because those hardened soldiers don't want to bond with someone who may be dead soon (and who is likely replacing someone they HAD developed friendship with), they have a harder time learning how to survive. Also, how the new guys react and how the vets react really emphasizes what you lose when killing other humans is your job. The British made a political decision to try and minimize destruction. Maybe the Dutch appreciated that, but I'm sure the Allied soldiers who died as a result did not.

[@samanderson7745]

In this episode you get to see, as far as I know, the only cameo of one of the actual men from Easy. He's the old man sitting at a table at 10:33. I won't tell you who he is right now, but you see him in some of the interviews at the start of the episodes. Also, the Dutch had been occupied by the Nazis for around 4 years at this point in the war. The Dutch resistance remained steadfast throughout though. Even after the failure of Market Garden. It was the British and Canadians that were ultimately successful in their liberation. Some of the most beautiful and well kept American cemeteries in Europe are in Holland. I have to do an edit, the soldier who gave the kid the chocolate is not Speirs (you're scary guy that I think you'll come to appreciate) but was David Webster, you'll see more of him later 🙂

[@j.j.h.atemycereal]

Bull (aka "Papa") was shown as a good Sergeant. His #1 job was taking care of his men. So when he went missing, his men immediately sprang up (except Cobb) to go after him. Take care of your team, they'll take care of you. And there are LOADS of stories about the Dutch Resistance. Incredible bravery by men, women, and yes, even children. Great video, thanks!

[@HelloThere.GeneralKenobi]

I'm not surprised at all that you two like James McAvoy. There's a load of actors who you'll meet that were here early-ish in their careers. As for your older subscribers, like myself, the 1983 movie The Outsiders was the first break for a lot of older actors you may know. Take care of yourselves, H & K !!

[@jancipolak13]

little background info on the operation Market - Garden: its aim was to capture bridges in Netherlands to create a corridor to enter Germany. Plan was that the paratroopers (US 101st with "our" Easy comp. + 82nd divisons, British 1st division and Polish 1st para brigade) were to drop in advance and capture and hold bridges until British tanks of the XXX Corps arrived. Basically after relatively smooth and comfortable drops comparing to Normandy, with soldiers and equipment intact, not many things went well for the Allies. Although the paratroopers were able to secure most of the objectives after hard and valiant fighting, they failed to take one of the crucial bridges in Nijmegen. And military intelligence commited one of the big blunders of the war, because Netherlands was not defended by "kids and old men" but by 719th Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht and also by 9th and 10th SS Panzer divisions and with several German Fallschirmjäger (paratrooper) regiments which were considered elite in German armed forces. And while they had not had many tanks in the beginning of the operation, they directed most of the avaliable armor to the area including some of the best German tanks like Panther and Tiger. The result was mass casualty rate on Allied side and blowing up several of the targeted bridges. That and the fact, that the British tanks were unable to link up with the paratroopers failed the whole operation. The idiom "A bridge too far" referring to an act of overreaching is based on this operation. There is also a movie with the same name depicting the operation. Lt. Brewer who was hit in the neck by a sniper, survived his wounds and rejoined Easy company at the end of the war after recovery.

[@davemac1197]

A fair comment on the operation, except that the 9 and 10.SS-Panzer-Divisions were known to be in the region - the reason Montgomery actually cancelled Operation COMET that was to drop the British 1st Airborne Division and attached Polish Brigade only, on the Grave-Nijmegen-Arnhem bridges. He realised the airborne comonent of the operation was not strong enough to deal with heavy armoured counter-attacks and cancelled COMET at the last minute on 10 September. He later had a scheduled meeting that day with Eisenhower and proposed an upgraded airborne operation (provisionally called SIXTEEN) by adding the two American divisions. This enabled the British and British-equipped Polish Brigade to concentrate at Arnhem, as they had superior anti-tank gun resources. The American divisions had more field artillery than anti-tank guns in their establishments and they would be deployed to the south at Eindhoven-Grave-Nijmegen to hold open the corridor to Arnhem. Planning was turned over to 1st Allied Airborne Army, as now all of its units would be committed to the expanded operation scheduled for 17 September, and this was where most of the planning compromises were made, against British advice. The German 1.Fallschirm-armee (1st Parachute Army) was a paper unit that utilised 20,000 Luftwaffe ground troops promised by Hermann Göring to plug the gap in the Netherlands front line that had opened up between the 15.Armee at Antwerp and the 7.Armee at Aachen. Apparently, Hitler raged at his generals about what to do about the disatser in the West and Göring, normally not able to contribute much to these meetings, timed his intervention perfectly and suddenly announced he had 20,000 troops they could use. These troops were redundant airfield ground crews, training regiments, etc., that were nominally converted into Fallschirm (parachute) regiments at the stroke of a pen. They were not the elite parachute troops that the Allies encountered in Normandy (such as the 6.Fallschirmjäger-Regiment at Carentan), but only had a cadre of Normandy survivors around which to build the new units, while at the same time having to fight MARKET GARDEN. The airborne Operation MARKET failed at Nijmegen due to a command failure in the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment to carry out General Gavin's instruction to send their 1st Battalion directly to the Nijmegen highway bridge immediately after landing, while it was reported by Dutch resistance leader Geert van Hees to be guarded only by a non-commissioned officer and seventeen men. The delay allowed 10.SS-Panzer-Division at Ruurlo to deploy the SS-Panzer-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 9, attached from the 9.SS-Panzer-Division at Beekbergen, and II./SS-Panzer-Regiment 10 (Kampfgruppe Reinhold) at Vorden to Nijmegen, to reinforce the bridges and organise the defences at Nijmegen. It took 36 hours of hard fighting to take the bridges by combined attacks after the tanks of XXX Corps had arrived. Cornelius Ryan's classic book, A Bridge Too Far (1974), ignored the failure at Nijmegen - despite being given an honest steer by Gavin in their 1967 interview - and instead attributed the failure to a range of excuses, including faulty intelligence, communications failures, and the weather. The film version omits even more details, although the script is highly entertaining and penned by William Goldman, whose previous work on classic comedy western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) is probably just as historically accurate.

[@jamesr9919]

Gotta say, I'm really enjoying these videos. I've wondered the younger generations' thoughts/reactions to conflicts. WWII was far removed even for me, but I also had a different perspective, since I was a military brat and we were stationed in Germany from '84 to '92. Their reactions aren't different or surprising. But still very interesting. And, comforting, in a "we all felt feelings together" kind of way). Happy to have recently subscribed!

[@MisterFastbucks]

You two are adorable. I'm proud of you for sticking it out. You're learning about the price of freedom, and the extraordinary people who gave it to us. There is more rough stuff ahead. But you need to see it and pass it on to others.

[@richardnoreiga2230]

U young ladies it is so refreshing to see the empathy and emotion i see from ur reaction to band of brothers u are truly young queens god bless and much respect

[@markgregorygacosta531]

Prof X and Magneto are in Easy company first before they formed the X-Men😅

[@vincentdesjardins1354]

... and so is Bane/Venom in a later ep That so much futur A-lister actors are in this show as support cast speaks volume about the casting team talent and production quality.

[@rollastoney]

I just got my flu shot and every time I get one I always think of that scene with Randleman. We complain about a sore arm after a vaccine..ouchy. Let me take a Tylenol 😂 Guy had shrapnel in his shoulder and still had to fight hand to hand. what a tough man.

[@debur86]

At 17:30 a short explanation: The german tanks Tiger and Panter had a stronger shooting power. So they could easy break the armor of the sherman tanks. On the other way, the Sherman tanks had no chance on this point...i hope, i could explain a bit :)

[@EricPalmerBlog]

Trivia. The Presidential unit citation. If you arrive at a unit that has won that award, you have to wear that ribbon even if you were not there when they won it. Otherwise you are out of uniform. When you leave the unit, you no longer wear it. If you were assigned to the unit when they won it. You wear it even if you get assigned to another unit. In other words, the rest of your time in the military. Cobb was being stupid.

[@recifebra3]

Love your ladies' reaction -- they were putting out the Orange sheet to welcome them I think as well say they wouldn't put up a fight. Orange is the color of the Netherlands ~ it's even their color in the World Cup. It would be crazy but I'm sure that kid was born as the war started and there's a good chance he never tasted chocolate.

[@ronlackey2689]

Orange is the national color of Holland/The Netherlands. They were hanging the orange sheets out to welcome them (and say don't shoot!)

[@MrSmithla]

The Soviet Army tended to want very robotic soldiers that mindlessly followed orders. They’d take our 100 man group and just fight it until everyone was dead. Units went to training together, like Easy, but no soldiers were sent to replace losses. You just send a whole brand new unit…… which has to relearn all those same lessons. Oddly enough, though, there was a moment when Allied planners intentionally used green troops and saw their inexperience as a bonus. For the D-Day invasion, y’all saw the airborne aspect mostly. Remember how happy you were when Nixon came riding up on a tank? That tank had to come across the beach. So did lots of other men and equipment. Mountains of it. This could have been a problem if the first wave of troops simply stopped when they got out of the boats. Doesn’t even matter why, if the first wave bogs down it screws everyone trying to come behind, get it? There isn’t physical space on the beach for everything we’re bringing and we can’t fight until we get ashore. Front guys GOT to go. So, Allied planners gave that assignment to a green infantry unit figuring with as much lead as will be flying across that beach only someone who’d never been in combat would be dumb enough to advance across that beach. Hideous losses but it worked

[@rayharley597]

I met someone once, in Edinburgh while we were both waiting to get coffees, who was a child in the parts of the Netherlands that were never liberated because Market Garden failed. She ended up marrying the British Army Captain who helped their family when they were eventually liberated. They lived in France for many years after the War; which explained her very unusual accent, because she learnt her English from a man with an upper class Scottish accent, and her French from the area they lived; very rural and with an unusual accent of it's own. The meeting would have happened something like sixty years after the events of Market Garden, so she would have been in her late seventies I think, but we had a chance for a conversation because a coffee shop was extra busy, and I had casually mentioned how much I regretted never tasting the chocolate that soldiers used to carry in those days. kerk

[@tiger4361]

@Haylo $ Kiss . A few points:- (1) If you want to see a more complete account of Operation Market Garden see the movie:- "A Bridge too Far" - but prepare yourselves, it's a little rough. (2) Those German "old men and boys" turn out to be 2 SS Waffen Armoured divisions (9th and 10th SS Panzer division) with the total number of German soldiers facing down the allies being 100 000 men. The two SS Panzer division were also veterans and not green recruits. (3) The first German vehicle that they saw (the one the Allies blew-up) was a Sd.Kfz. 251 Half-track, the first tank was a German heavy tank known as a Tiger tank, the second was a JagPanther and the third (the one that bounded over the rise surprissing the US troops was a Stug-III assault gun. (4) When Nixon was hit in the helmet, the round accountly entered on the one side at an angle, graze his fore-head and exit out the helmet further back. WW2 helmets count not stop a direct hit by a military round (sharp-point), but they did a good job of protecting the soldiers head from artillery splinters.

[@lyndoncmp5751]

A Bridge Too Far is very inaccurate in places though sadly. It perpetuates many myths as well.

[@davemac1197]

I conducted a scene-by-scene analysis of A Bridge Too Far a few years ago and arrived at a figure of just a shade over 50% historically accurate, which almost looks deliberate as if to say it's mostly true. About 40% has been altered to suit the political aim of the director to make an "anti-war film" and 10% is just made up for entertainment. Many of the myths about the operation were indeed created by the film, although the source book is also incomplete due to the author's terminal cancer forcing the book to be published unfinished. All of the German vehicles in this episode except the half-track personnel carrier are incorrect for the action at Nuenen and the two types of British tanks (Cromwell and American supplied Sherman) reflect a conflation of two distinct actions at Opwetten and Nuenen on different days. Despite this, the episode is about 80% accurate, and the next episode in the Netherlands is even better - I would estimate about 90%.

[@lyndoncmp5751]

@@davemac1197 Yes A Bridge Too Far starts off bizarrely by stating "1944 and the war was still going Hitler's way". The war hadn't been going Hitler's way since 1942. Or even earlier. Then all that stuff about Montgomery and Patton (zero mention of Bradley, Hodges etc) and Montgomery wanting to get to Berlin first. The only goals for Market Garden were a bridgehead over the Rhine and if that was successful then a move north to the coast to cut off the western Netherlands and Belgium. No move even towards the Ruhr would have been attempted without the US 1st Army moving forward to the Rhine as well, so Montgomery NEVER envisioned breaking into Germany alone and winning the war single handedly without the Americans. There is no mention about the operation being expanded and strengthened from Comet to Market Garden after reports of German forces, no mention of the decisions by Brereton and Williams. It seems like Browning was the top man up the Airborne chain. And this is just the first ten minutes 😂.

[@davemac1197]

@@lyndoncmp5751 - the move north to the Zuider Zee (Ijsselmeer) was part of the MARKET GARDEN plan, also to establish bridgeheads on the River Ijssel at Deventer, Zutphen, and Doesburg. I think a lot of it gets simplified for the popcorn masses. I would not expect military staff colleges to start by playing the Hollywood film to their students, although I would still recommend Cornelius Ryan's book and Rob Kershaw's It Never Snows In September as a foundation course. Both books are flawed and incomplete, but you have to start somewhere.

[@firstelderd]

13:29 Yes it's food. It is a K Ration given to American soldiers during the war when they were in the field The British tank commander is an inaccuracy they would have had no issues with 'collateral damage' to destroy a tank

[@johngage856]

3:02 “*gasp* I love him!” Ah crap…”if something happens”…double crap. Sorry ladies.

[@lionhead123]

14:54 He says "Away" or "leave" and trust me, he wants them to leave. Not that the Germans are gone.

[@SovermanandVioboy]

4:00 Im pretty sure hes not even allowed to take off the badge, bcs of uniform regulation. Doesnt matter what the more experienced soldiers think of it. 15:20 He jumped into the fence so the others wont have to. 17:30 Those M4A1 Shermans are made for infantry support and not tank combat. They cant do much against mid and late war german tanks. They had no chance against a Jagdpanter, a Stug4 and a Tiger either way.

[@nilloc93]

The M4A1 was most certainly made with armored combat in mind that's why it had AP shells, and in Africa and Italy the 75mm gun had been busy destroying German tanks since before the M4 when it was mounted on the M3. Just because there was debate weather or not the 76mm was worth it because of it was less able to provide infantry support doesn't mean the 75mm wasn't capable of anti armor roles. If you want a "tank" that was made for infantry support and not tank combat look at the PZIV base model or the Churchill AVRE. Or something like the M8 scott

[@Ernwaldo]

You ladies are so precious & smarticle! 😁 Seriously, you’re quite intelligent & intuitive. Mixing that with an appropriate amount of humor. Glad you had each other for support. Hope you enjoyed the series. Thanks for sharing your reactions. 🫶🏻