FIRST TIME WATCHING: Band of Brothers S1E2!!

So the scene with the German soldier from Oregon… First he didn’t just leave America and join the German side to fight when the war started. His parents were German and had moved to America and before the war started moved back cause Hitler called all Germans to come home and fight for their cause. So he probably was forced to join after having to move back to Germany with his parents even though he was born in America. Second I think the scene is to show that the soldiers on both sides were probably closer alike to each other than they thought. They weren’t exactly told I’m sure when they were forced to join and fight for Germany they were gonna be slaughtering millions. They were just following orders and fighting for their country just like the Americans or any other country (not to say there weren’t horrible people that wanted to do those things). It’s just what they were fighting for was horrible and I’m sure they found that out eventually

Zachary Reid

The whole “all true aryans return to the motherland” idea is something I didn’t know about and eerily parallels an idea behind a nation presently involved in conflict. Violence and the way people utilise it really is cyclical :/

Daniel McGuinness

I recommend Letters from Iwo Jima its about the Japanese perspective during ww2 really good movie with a lot of insight on how the war was viewed on their side. It's also a companion movie to Flags of Our Fathers the American perspective of the same battle.

Alex

Glad your reacting to this series, it really is great. Please, please, please make sure you have some emotional support available when you watch some of the later episodes. Make sure Tyler and pups are home. The only reason I never voted for this show is because I know some of these episodes will hit you hard. Love the channel keep up the great work....

Naturekitty5309

Hi, Natalie. Glad you're watching this series, and I love your reactions to this and Episode 1. You picked up on some points that were not intuitive but were important, related to Winters' great qualities as a leader and the impact of the chaos on the paratroopers. When Speirs shot the POWs, it was not out of bloodlust or hatred; it was a completely rational and pragmatic action, although it was also cold-blooded and a war crime. He just knew that in their circumstances they had no way to safely guard a crowd of POWs and no way to turn them over to a higher command, since they weren't in physical contact with any, and they were still going into more active combat and couldn't spare any soldiers to guard the prisoners. So he eliminated the prisoners. This was something that has always happened a lot more than it's been acknowledged in warfare. Dick Winters was an absolutely brilliant leader, both in terms of his tactical thinking and his looking out for his soldiers - things like, as you pointed out, helping each one up onto his feet to board the plane, shaking hands and making solid eye contact with each one, then working to help them manage their fear and keep their morale up with things like telling Hall to keep his eyes peeled for trees, then telling him they weren't lost, they were in Normandy. Colonel Sink actually nominated Winters for the Medal of Honor, the highest award and honor a military person can receive, for carrying out a literal textbook assault on the German artillery position, right after unexpectedly taking over the company. The usual military math calls for the attackers to outnumber the defenders at least three to one - here, instead, Winters' force were themselves outnumbered by the Germans by four or five to one. He deserved the MOH, I think. Now add the fact that this was Easy Company's first day in actual combat, and the troops they were attacking were veterans. It's no wonder his soldiers would have followed him anywhere. I would have, and so would almost all of the Marines I served with, if Winters had gone where he was supposed to go and joined the Marine Corps instead (I served one joint tour with several folks from the Army and some more from the Air Force, and we liked to razz them and tell them they belonged in the Corps - they were too good for those services and had made a mistake when they joined up - and besides, our dress uniforms were snappier.) The Awards Gods decided to downgrade Col. Sink's recommendation from the Medal of Honor to that Distinguished Service Cross - still the second highest medal our military had then and has now to award to people.

Jim Finley

I just noticed that Morarti from Sherlock is in this playing an American soldier.

Ashley

Nat did spot him. When we get the first good look at him, Nat say's he looks a lot like Andrew Scott, and she was right 😄

Darryl Low

lol, if she did, she didn't comment on him. :P

Logan Kerlee

Happy New Year Natalie! Hope that you enjoyed yours. :) Maaaaaaaaaan I've watched this so many times. The opening of each of the episodes is always heartbreaking. It's very cool that they did it - but it's heartbreaking as fuck. Yeah.. your mouth open like that. Absolute chaos and insanity! They're all jumping way off target. Yeah, no. It was rare but "all true Aryans answered the call." Means that if your family considered itself truly Aryan that's where you went. It was especially difficult here. Recon was done by men and that's it. No machines or satellites. For sure, yeah! I love it, personally. I'm very happy with the way they chose to film this. lmao, yup! He was alright after that grenade! Then the second one! hahahaha, dude is crazy lucky! That's how this entire show is shot. It was made so incredibly well! That's the reason why I consider this a favorite of mine. Each of the show's episodes are made so damn well, it's impressive. I'm very happy that you're taking the time to watch this. This'll show you the human element from our soldier's perspectives. Plus it has actual authenticity - considering these episodes are the stories from the men of Easy Company.

Logan Kerlee

I had the advantage of watching it with my sister who had already seen it. She was careful not to spoil anything but she kept me straight on who was who.

Rosanne Stewart

I remember being so confused the first time I watched this (…20 years ago 😳) because I didn’t know it was 2 guys looking for the Luger, I wish we a stronger online presence back then; would have made watching content like this so much more fun!

Mike Hell

How are you doing at starting to separate the different characters? I remember this episode was when I started to recognize a few by name other than Winters, who was the focus from the start. The D-Day paratroop drop was both a fiasco and a stunning success. A few bad decisions were made right before the jump, like giving the guys air sickness pills which made a lot of them loopy, and giving them extra equipment in the leg bag. Those had not really been tested and most of them were lost. Then there was the issue with pilots having trouble with all the anti-aircraft fire, flying too low, too fast, hitting the green lights at the wrong time. EVERYONE seemed to land in the wrong drop zone, no one was with their own units, too many were too far from their objective. BUT... the guys were so well-trained and had studied the maps and sand tables so thoroughly, that it ended up being an advantage. They grouped together as they found each other, sliding into each other's missions, they knew where they were even though they were in the wrong place. From the Germans' perspective, Americans were everywhere they turned and they actually believed that the invading force was much larger than it was. One minor thing that I know confuses first-time viewers is that there are actually two different guys who were focused on getting a Luger as a souvenir. One is Malarkey, whom we see in this episode saying he wants to bring one back for his kid brother and risking his life to look for one. The other is Hoobler. We saw him in that hilarious conversation last episode, talking to the guy with the incomprehensible Cockney accent who was dressed up as a German. Pay attention to Spiers, going forward. He's one of the few non-Easy guys who gets any focus and we can see the reputation he's developing as something of a killing machine.

Rosanne Stewart

It wasnt really a secret what they were doing to jews. Thats a false statement. They were openly antisemitic and jewish business were closed and jewish people were successfully villainized to the german public. Jewish people tried fleeing to north america. It was no secret what was happening. Ive spoken to holocaust survivors, the german soldiers were not good people. And the German government successfully made the population hate jewish people.

jamie jones

Skizane

Happy new year nat something adorable and fun 🤔 very much looking forward to finding out what it might be . My guess wall-E or wreck it Ralph

Ian

Hey Natalie! Loved your reaction. I'm sure that you have been warned that the episodes get harder and more intense as time goes on. A few things to help with your understanding: You asked about the term 'enfilade'. It means to direct fire on a position from one end to the other. Defilade is another term that you will encounter. It means to be in a position shielded FROM enemy fire. The truth about Malarkey and the German POW is that they had worked ACROSS THE STREET from each other and had known each other for years. Also, he was NOT in the group of prisoners that Spiers shot. Part of the reason that that paratroopers were so successful in spite of how FUBARed the jump was, is that they were TRAINED specifically to be able to deal with messed up situations, to come together in small units and raise hell against the enemy in constructive ways. This mindset was alien to the German Army's way of doing things. Pvt Hall actually stepped on a landmine.

David Bennett

Gonna pop this one on here in a minute, and can't wait to see if Nat recognized a very young Andrew "Moriarty" Scott in this episode.

Jeff K

Happy New Year Nat 🥳 Hope you had a great evening, although those birds let you down again. Always slipping up in that 4th quarter. Dammit. Looking forward to watching the next episode of this series with you later on 😊

Darryl Low

Oh man this will be good. Thank you Natalie! Happy New Year! 🎉🎊

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