Tales & Trails of a Traveling Wiseguy

This week I've continued watching The Pacific, a 10 episode miniseries about WWII. In many ways it's a companion piece to Band of Brothers, the critically acclaimed miniseries about US Army paratroopers (the storied 101st. Airborne) fighting in Europe. Among the ways they're similar is that both have Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks as executive producers. They're different, though, in that while Band of Brothers was critically acclaimed and I found it engrossing, The Pacific has routinely fallen flat, marred by frequent lack of a compelling storyline and/or sympathetic characters to follow. Why do I keep watching it, then? I guess I keep hoping it will get better. And in episodes 5, 6, and 7, it kind of does.

These three episodes, the broad middle of the series, tell the story of the Battle of Peleliu. If you paid attention during WWII history class and don't remember that name or location, that's one of the most important points about the Battle of Peleliu. But it's not one this series makes, except only in brief, passing reference later.

Colossal Intelligence Failures

At Peleliu Island, the 1st, 5th, and 7th Marines are sent to capture a Japanese airstrip. The military's plan is that it's a critical toehold to support an invasion of the Philippines, which will then be the crucial launching point for an assault on Japan to win WWII.

The military's plan is also that securing this island will take just a few days. Military intelligence is that there are only a few thousand Japanese soldiers defending the island, greatly outnumbered by the tens of thousands of US soldiers committed to the operation. On that mark the military intelligence was wrong, though "only" by 2-3x. There were 10,000 Japanese defenders.

The far bigger intelligence failure was in assessing how well prepared the Japanese defenders were. They had built heavy fortifications, including an extensive network of tunnels in natural caves in the coral ridge that overlooked the airfield. They were so well defended in these positions that it ultimately took more than 2 months to defeat them, and the US experienced brutal attacks and heavy casualties in doing so.

One Side Learned, One Side Didn't

Part of what happened here, though the series doesn't say it— I figured this out from reading up on the history myself— is that one side was learning, one side wasn't. The Japanese were the side that was learning.

In defending previous island assaults, the Japanese would fight Americans on the beach, trying to repel the landing. Japanese generals saw that this was ineffective. Among other things, it left their soldiers exposed to powerful attacks by naval artillery and heavy machine guns. Japanese leaders also saw that the notorious "banzai assault" was too costly. While it had strong shock value at first, once Americans started anticipating it they were able to inflict heavy casualties against charging infantry with their rifles and machine guns.

At Peleliu the Japanese pulled all their defenses back. They hid in bunkers and fortified caves. They built these hideouts to resist common patterns of attacks by rifle fire, artillery, and grenades. The Japanese also practiced excellent fire discipline. They held their fire during artillery and bombing attacks, as rifle fire does pretty much nothing against air and naval assault except confirm the defenders' location. As a result the US Navy thought that after 3 days of bombardment before the amphibious assault they had largely destroyed the Japanese defenders... when in fact they had barely touched them.

Brutal, Brutal Fighting

Fighting in the Battle of Peleliu was brutal from start to finish. ...And again, that finish took more than 2 months. One respect in which the writing of these episodes was good is that it doesn't reveal up front how long the fighting would last. That immerses us viewers in the characters' developing sense of dread. "Alright, men, let's do this!" turns to "Shit, this is hard," to "OMG, is this ever going to be over?!" to "I hope when they kill me I get to die quickly."

Just capturing the airfield took 3 days of brutal fighting. The Japanese soldiers remained in their well fortified positions and held their fire (part of fire discipline, mentioned above) until the Americans were close enough for maximum damage.

While a lot of US Marines were able to land on the island they were not able to establish any kind of beachhead or organized position. That meant they couldn't get supplies in. The weather on Peleliu was brutally hot, with daytime temperatures surpassing 105° F (40° C). The Marines couldn't even get water. Overheating and dehydration contributed to the Marines suffering enormous losses.

Even once the airfield was captured it wasn't actually secured. There were still significant Japanese defenders in the hills overlooking the airfield. They'd fire on US soldiers from well fortified positions by day and stage spoiling raids by night. The US had to find each defensive area and basically pry them out. That took a long time— that's where the battle stretched from several days to 10 weeks— and came at enormous cost of casualties.

Never Have So Many Paid So Much for So Little

I remarked near the start of this blog that it's unsurprising if you've never heard of the Battle of Peleliu even if you're familiar, by name if nothing else, with other major WWII Pacific battles such as Guadalcanal, Bataan, and Iwo Jima. That's because while Peleliu was a major battle, in terms of effort expended and lives lost, it was ultimately a pointless battle. The US military did not use Peleliu for staging and attack or defending the flank while invading the Philippines. In fact they never even used the airfield after securing it.

The US suffered 10,000 casualties in the Battle of Peleliu. That was just over 20% of the total forces committed. Among the Marines, though, the casualty rate was much higher. The 1st Marines suffered an astonishing 71% casualties. Those men were put through a meat grinder... and ultimately for nothing.

This is a reality of history that this TV miniseries makes only passing mention of. It's, like, one sentence of voiceover narration, and it's not even until the intro of the next episode.

But Is It Good TV?

Ultimately while this trio of episodes are better than the few before them, they still fall well short of being great TV. Partly that's because the screenwriters and directors continue to struggle with the fundamentals of visual storytelling. The visuals themselves are beautiful, but the story is too hard to follow. There are too many characters, and frankly they all look the same in identical shirts and helmets with blood and sweat and grit smeared on their faces.

What's good about these 3 episodes, then? They're engrossing for their frenetic action. It seems like there's never more than a few seconds of screentime between someone shooting or being shot at. The characters all become sympathetic because they're living through hell. When a soldier breaks here, you feel for them. And the men who've been assholes to each other for several episodes start looking after each other instead of looking for opportunities to pick on each other. ...Well, mostly. One guy gets ragged on by his whole squad for shitting himself in an ambush.

So, is it good TV? Ultimately no. And the reason isn't just the fundamentals of good plotting and characterization. That's part of the problem. The other part of the problem is the whitespace in these episodes, the things they don't address. Yes, Peleliu was brutal; we see that in High Definition. But it was also pointless. Some war leaders knew that. Some leaders knew that and they were overruled. The media was distracted by other things, so this story of wasted lives was barely reported. Could this have been avoided? Were any lessons learned? The show doesn't address that beyond a single sentence. A single sentence after 3 episodes. Almost everything I've written here, these 1,000+ words, is from research the episodes prompted me to go and do on my own. It's a sad statement that a TV show's most important contribution is that it prompted me to go somewhere else to understand what really happened.

Recently I started watching The Pacific, a WWII miniseries streaming on HBO+. Released in 2010, it's a companion to 2001's Band of Brothers. The writers are different but the executive producers are the same: Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. And, of course, the setting is different. Where BoB told a story of an army unit fighting in Europe, The Pacific follows various marines fighting in the Pacific theater.

Unlike Band of Brothers, which I heard about more than 20 years ago and had on my mental to-watch list since then, I wasn't even aware of The Pacific until recently. It was literally when I watched BoB and popped up as "People also watched...."

My reasons for watching are twofold. First, I enjoyed Band of Brothers so I'm curious to see how this miniseries goes. I've set my expectations cautiously, though, since I'd heard nothing about The Pacific. The fact I haven't seen/heard any recommendations or discussions about it suggests that it wasn't as popular with critics or audiences.

My second reason for tuning in to The Pacific is a family connection. My great uncle John fought in the Pacific in WWII. John never wanted to share his war stories, though. They were too painful. I hope this series will let me look through a window onto what his service must have been like.

The first episode begins with backstories for a few of the Marines starting in the days and weeks following the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. This identifies who the main characters will be better than Band of Brothers did in its first episode. We meet:

1. Sgt. John Basilone, an NCO from New Jersey who'll ship off to the Pacific


2. Robert Leckie, an aspiring writer/journalist who enlists in the Marines


3. Eugene Sledge, a young man in Alabama who wants to enlist but is stopped by his father, a doctor, who diagnoses him with a heart condition that disqualifies him from service


4. Sidney Phillips, Eugene's best friend, who enlists in the Marines

My uncle John could've been a young man like Leckie or Phillips in December 1941.

Episode 10 of Band of Brothers, "Points", is about the winding down of the war in Europe. At the end of the previous episode, the soldiers learned that Hitler killed himself. Within the events of this episode, set in May-August 1945, the German army surrenders. That doesn't mean all the Americans turned around and went home. The military had a points-based system (hence the title of the episode) for determining which soldiers would be sent home and placed on terminal leave, and who would remain stationed in Europe— or sent to the Pacific.

Two threads I thought were interesting in this episode are 1) men continued to die even after the war was basically over, and 2) the mixed feelings some soldiers had about wanting to go home vs. wanting to continue the fight.

In terms of #1, casualties were way down once the shooting phase of the war stopped. The problem was some men started to get careless without a clear and dangerous mission to keep them focused. Soldiers got injured in accidents. The case of Sgt. "Shifty" Powers, one of the men of Easy Company, was sad. He didn't have enough points to go home but was selected by the company commander. The regiment allowed each company to select one soldier to get a special pass home. While Shifty was departing, the truck he was riding in was hit head-on by a drunk driving soldier from another regiment. Shifty survived but with multiple injuries, spending months in hospitals before getting home-home.

In terms of #2, most of the characters are portrayed as being happy to go home. Maybe a few who had the points were like, "Nah, I'll stay and fight more," but that wasn't the predominant attitude. Most with the ability to leave seemed ready to take it, and those without wished they could. Major Winters was one of those who wasn't sure. Col. Sink, his long-time regimental commander, talked to him about staying in the military as a career. Winters wasn't sure. He definitely wasn't happy watching his men fool around and get hurt in Austria, so he put in to a transfer to a division being sent to the Pacific. The general in charge of that division interviewed him but turned him down, saying, "Your men have earned the right to have you as their leader."

Such do-I-stay-or-do-I-go decisions were rendered moot days later. Japan surrendered on 15 August, after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Edited to add: Nixon encourages Winters to come work at his father's company after the war. Winters considers the offer seriously. He's already at best ambivalent about staying in the military, plus he feels a very tight bond with Nix. The conversation occurs in a very bromantic scene between the two men where Winters is mostly naked (because he's about to dive into a lake for a swim). 'Shippers online cry tears of job about all the possibilities here. The real-life Winters has said in published interviews that there was nothing romantic about their relationship; it was just a close friendship between two men. As I man I appreciate that. I've been pushed away from close friendship with other men many times because they think only romantic partners can be close and thus fear that close friendship would make them gay.

Band of Brothers episode 8, "The Last Patrol", makes another pivot in the tone of the 10-part story. After the grimness and heavy wounds of the Bastogne campaign in episodes 6 and 7, the German army has been pushed back on its heels. There's still fighting, but a sense pervades the Allied forces fighting in France that it won't be much longer now. Soldiers are sleeping in beds (in commandeered abandoned house) and taking hot showers. They're also helping themselves to valuable things left behind, like silver flatware and pieces of art, and sending them home to their families¹. Instead of being titled "The Last Patrol" this episode could also be titled, "The Last Fuck Left to Give.'

Both of those titles also describe the main sub-plot of the episode.

Battalion has ordered Easy Company to take point on a risky mission under cover of darkness. The infantry are to cross the river in a divided city after midnight, infiltrate German-held territory on the opposite bank, attack what they believe is an intelligence command post, capture enemy soldiers as prisoners, and bring them back across the river to an Allied command post for interrogation.

Things go fairly well as the hand-picked members of Easy sneak across the river in inflatable rafts and infiltrate the city. Trouble erupts at the supposed intelligence post when an Easy man is wounded during the attack. It's really his own fault, but nevermind; it makes the mission suddenly way more dangerous. Now not only are the German soldiers awake, alerted, and starting to fight back, but Easy has to carry their wounded brother as well as one or two enemy soldiers they grab.

Back at the Allied command post it's discovered that the captured enemy soldiers are not high-value targets. They don't know anything useful. Many of Easy's officers register frustration on their faces. They were skeptical about this mission ahead of time, doubting the claim that the target was an enemy intelligence operation, but they kept their doubts fairly quiet— the mission was orders, not discussion. Now they know there's no value in saying "Told you so"... but their faces all say, "Told you so."

The next night Winters comes back to Easy Company's leaders with another set of orders from Battalion. Battalion wants another raid just like the night before, except this time on a different target building. Surely this one is the intelligence command post! Again, the commanders know better than to object out loud, but before they can even roll their eyes much, Winters adds additional instructions. He tells them choose their men... and instruct them to sleep all night. Winters will report to Battalion in the morning that the raid was unsuccessful, that the target building was unoccupied, and soldiers returned with no casualties.

For a total straight-shooter like Winters, that's... wow. Disobeying a direct order and lying about it to superiors is out of character for him. What that reveals (IMO) is that he's adopted a "short-timer" mindset. Although he's been an exemplary officer and is being groomed for more promotions, he knows the war is close to over and doesn't really care about a military career beyond that. His priority now is protecting the men he considers his brothers.

---

[1] I've got to say, I'm really disappointed to see this representation of widespread looting being tolerated.

Band of Brothers episode 7, "The Breaking Point", continues the dark tone of episode 6, "Bastogne". The episode opens with Easy Company still in foxholes in the Ardennes Forest. It's still winter and it's still cold. One thing is less grim, though, and it's subtle. The men have overcoats. That's a result of Gen. Patton's breaking through German lines ending The Battle of the Bulge in late December 1944. Supplies are now able to get through, so the soldiers now have adequate food, clothes, and ammunition. They're still living in foxholes, though, and the Germans are still shelling them with artillery.

Sgt. Carwood Lipton

As in the previous installment, this episode is structured around one person as the viewpoint character, a person whose actions helped hold the company together. Last time it was combat medic Eugene "Doc" Roe. This time it's First Sergeant Carwood Lipton, played by Donnie Wahlberg. Walhberg would've been a lesser known actor back in 2001 when this series was filmed, so that's probably why he's cast as an otherwise minor character in the whole series. But here he gets to shine for an episode, both as a character and as an actor.

As a character, as a real person, it was Lipton's job as First Sergeant to advise the company leader on tactical matters but also to coordinate across the several platoons. Lipton goes above and beyond by not just relaying orders and dispensing combat guidance but by showing genuine concern for the men of the company as individuals. In one scene, for example, he advises two soldiers that their foxhole isn't deep enough. They object, noting the new company commander told them it's okay. (The new CO is a boob. More on that below.) Lipton fixes them with a Donnie Wahlberg stare— it's both friendly and menacing at the same time— then grabs a shovel and helps them dig.

An Empty Uniform in Charge

Just as the action narrative in this series isn't all rah-rah-we-won, the characterization isn't all heroics. It's a truism of military service that some people aren't up to demands of war. One of them is the new company commander, Lt. Dike. Remember, Capt. Winters was promoted to battalion XO in Ep. 5. Winters's choice for Easy Company's next leader, Lt. Heyliger, led one mission before being wounded in a friendly fire accident. Winters and his CO had reservations about promoting other lieutenants up from within Easy, so a new company commander was transferred in. And he turned out to be a boob.

"In business I'd call him an empty suit," I thought. "But here they're not wearing suits." Then Sgt. Lipton answered my unasked question when elevating his concern to Capt. Winters— "He's an empty uniform, sir."

The problem with Lt. Dike, as portrayed in Eps. 5-6, was twofold. First, he was mysteriously not even present much of the time. The episodes show the company not knowing his whereabouts much of the time, including when asked by battalion command, and Dike giving vague answers, like "I was patrolling", upon his periodic return. The soldiers are skeptical because they're hunkered down in foxholes against enemy artillery. There's no other reasonable place he could have been.

Second, even when he was physically present he wasn't mentally present. This becomes key in the middle of the episode when 2nd Battalion is given orders to attack the German position in the town of Foy. Winters briefs the companies on how they coordinate on the assault, and Dike yawns. He fucking yawns. Then when Dike relays the orders to his company, one of the platoon leaders asks him about tactical formations, and Dike gives a buzzword-bingo answer that shows he neither understands nor cares about combat tactics. He's a bullshit artist, not a real field commander. The men are stressed because while a bozo of a leader in peacetime is frustrating, a bozo leader in combat gets men killed.

Sgt. Lipton's effective style of leadership is contrasted with Lt. Dike's uselessness. It's not just that he helps fill in some of the gaps on things Dike can't/won't do but that he also gently tells the enlisted men to stop making fun of Dike behind his back. "First, great impression of Dike. Second, don’t do it anymore. [...] It doesn't do anybody any good." So even as he raises his concerns about Lt. Dike to Capt. Winters he knows he still needs to promote unit cohesion.

Buck's Breaking Point

The saying "War is hell" comes up a lot. I've described this episode and the one before as dark because they really illustrate that. Soldiers living in foxholes with only branches to cover them against artillery assault is pretty grim. Soldiers in situations like this die. These episodes show several members of Easy Company dying and/or suffering grievous wounds.

The titled of this episode, "The Breaking Point", applies on several levels. A simple one is what any one person's break point is. By mid episode, Lt. Lynn "Buck" Compton reaches his. He sees two of his friends killed or injured during one of the rounds of shelling— I'll spare the gory details shown in the visual narrative except to note they are gory— and basically taps out. He's shell shocked. In the middle of trying to help his friends he drops his own helmet and can barely gasp, "Medic!"

Buck is given a medical evacuation. Officially it's because he had a bad case of trench foot. But people in the company knew it was because he basically broke. They do respect him— he was a strong leader before he broke. But in a scene at the field hospital he turns away from a subordinate trying to cheer him up because he knows his brokenness has failed the team.

Buck is played by now well known actor Neal McDonough. It's weird to see McDonough, who routinely is cast now as tough guys, play this person who fell apart.

More to come... stay tuned!

Episode 6 of Band of Brothers is entitled "Bastogne". Really it could be titled "Battle of the Bulge", because that well known WWII campaign is what it's about. But at the same time it's not about the Battle of the Bulge. It tells the story of Easy Company's piece of it, not the story of the whole thing. As with Ep. 5's simplification of the Nijmeger Salient this is ultimately a good choice. Band of Brothers is not about telling the comprehensive military history of WWII, it's about tracing the experiences of one group of soldiers who saw a lot of tough combat.

Speaking of tough combat, this episode is dark. I mentioned a few blogs ago that the miniseries was shifting in tone. This is where it really goes from "War is hell but we're making progress" to "War is hell, period." The 101st Airborne is sent to hold a position in the Ardennes forest outside the town of Bastogne. Foreshadowing that it's going to be bad appears at the end of the previous episode. They don't have winter clothes, enough food, enough medical supplies, or enough ammunition. And they're heading out to relieve soldiers who are coming back, dazed and wounded. They get to their assigned area, in the forest, and dig in. Nothing's around them... except the German army at a distance, which shells them mercilessly. There's nothing for them to attack, nothing to defend other than trying not to be blown up, as they take cover in their foxholes against the frequent rounds of explosions. Oh, and they're freezing and starving. It's brutal.

The writers took a different approach in structuring this episode. It centers around the persona of combat medic Eugene Roe. Amid the horrors of frequent explosions and men living like wild animals in holes, Roe dashes from foxhole to foxhole to help wounded soldiers. Along the way he's constantly scrounging for supplies. There's sort of a running joke that he needs a pair of scissors. He needs bandages, too, and other items. He even goes so far as picking first aid kit off a dead enemy soldier half buried in the snow.

While the atmosphere of the setting is "We're alone out here in the wilderness, except for the enemy army shelling us from a mile away," the soldiers aren't really out in the wilderness. They're just outside a town, Bastogne.

Roe makes a few trips into town, escorting wounded soldiers to a make-shift hospital there. It's actually a church, and it's basically wall-to-wall inured bodies on cots. Roe befriends a Belgian nurse working there. She spares a few supplies from their own meager collection. She also seems to have an endless supply of chocolate bars in her pocket, though like in a video game or D&D game, she's limited to one or two per scene.

On his third or fourth trip back to town, Roe finds that the hospital/church has been bombed. There are only a few survivors staggering about. The nurse is dead, the other medics are dead, most of the injured are dead.

War is hell.

In the book Band of Brothers this miniseries is based on, Roe 's fellow soldiers thought he should have gotten a commendation for his fearlessness and seemingly inexhaustible energy that helped lift the men's spirits. He never did. Maybe the paperwork got lost, they speculated, or maybe the company commander— whom the episode portrays as a clueless officer who wasn't even with his men most of the time— was a jerk and blocked it. While he never received a silver star, the writers made him the star of this episode.

Update: More about the Battle of Bastogne/Battle of the Bulge in my next blog in this series

Episode 4 of Band of Brothers, "Replacements", opens with Easy Company back in England after almost 3 months on campaign in France. Actually they returned to England at the end of Ep. 3, but I didn't mention it in my Ep. 3 blog for thematic reasons. It fits better thematically with Ep. 4, which is about regrouping, resetting, and then returning to battle.

A Different Kind of Memorial Scene

There's a poignant scene right at the end of Ep. 3 worth mentioning in the vein of regrouping. Sgt. Malarkey (yes, that's his real name) goes to a laundry to pick up his cleaned uniforms. Just as he's leaving the shopkeeper stops him to ask if he could take packages to other members of his company. "Lt. Meehan, he's one of yours, isn't he?" she asks.




Meehan died on D-Day. His plane was shot down, all soldiers aboard killed. His laundry's been there for 3 months. Malarkey says nothing about Meehan's fate, though. He takes Meehan's package and pays for it.

The shopkeeper has other packages waiting, too. She reads their names, asking if Malarkey can help. Many are for men who've died. Again, though, Malarkey says nothing to the shopkeeper, suffering the reminder in silence about the men who've died. The bundles of clothes unclaimed on the shelf, men's names written on them, are like grave stones in a cemetery.

(Un)Welcoming the Replacements

While the 101st Airborne is back in England their ranks are refilled by new soldiers. Many of the D-Day veterans are somewhat hostile to the newcomers. It's shown through dialogue that the veterans are concerned for everyone's safety. They trust their fellow combat vets to have certain sense in battle of how to stay safe and protect each other. They know that recruits fresh out of training do not have those skills yet.

While this us-versus-them mentality is somewhat understandable— and certainly happens in a lot of organizations, not just militaries— it's also corrosive. It's the start of divisiveness that tears apart team unity. And unity is especially important in the military, where soldiers have to trust the people to their left and their right with their life. At least one of the sergeants is shown putting a stop to it when it goes past good-natured ribbing and becomes divisive.

Back to Battle: Eindhoven, Neunen

The 101st redeploys to Holland as part of Operation Market Garden. The design of this real-life joint operation between the US and UK was to open a route through Holland to bring soldiers, tanks, trucks, etc. to Germany. "Defeat Hitler by Christmas [1944]" was the thinking.

Parachuting behind the lines again, Easy Company's first mission is to liberate the Dutch city of Eindhoven. Easy soldiers approach carefully, not just to protect themselves but so as not to fire on civilians. It's wise they do, as the first building where they think they see a German sniper preparing to shoot from a 2nd storey window is actually a Dutch woman opening the window to hang an orange banner— a flag of liberation. Soon the streets are full of Dutch citizens celebrating their liberation.



A column of British tanks arrive, the road having been secured for them by Easy Company. Revelers fill the streets; Brits and Americans enjoy a hero's welcome. Captain Winters— he was promoted to captain during the regroup back in England— is already thinking ahead to the next phase of the operation, though. Neunen is the next town his company must secure.

As you might have guessed from my cheeky note above, "Defeat Hitler by Christmas [1944]," if you know anything about WWII history, you already guessed that Operation Market Garden ultimately did not succeed. The Germans basically pulled back from Eindhoven ahead of the Allied push and concentrated their strength in Neunen. Easy Company, the 101st, and the British tanks were dealt a defeat in Neunen and had to retreat. In fact they had to retreat even past Eindhoven. The episode ends with Winters watching from a distance as Eindhoven is bombed by Germany.

This grim scene a turning point in the tone of the story. While D-Day combat was tough, and combat in the weeks following it was certainly no walk in the garden, up 'til now Easy Company was always on the winning side. Here they had to make their first painful retreat. "And now stuff gets really hard" becomes the tone of the next few episodes.

In my previous blog about the 2001 HBO miniseries Band of Brothers I wrote about the perspective it provides on D-Day. The flights and the parachute drops over Normandy were not the totality of the episode. They were just the beginning of the lengthy action part of the story. Here I write about the rest of Ep. 2, "Day of Days".

The drop of airborne soldiers into France was dicey not only because of the artillery fire the aircraft took as they approached but also because of the scattered way the soldiers landed. Many landed miles off course. Many landed with equipment lost or damage. These are hazards of the type of mission, BTW.

The series uses this "We need to put the pieces back together" situation to do great character development with Lt. Dick Winters. Miles off course and with his rifle lost during the jump, he nonetheless sets about reorganizing for the mission. The first ally he meets is a radioman who landed without his radio. The private feels that he's failed his entire purpose for being. Winters steadies him, even though he's from another company, and leads him in helping to group up with other allied soldiers, identify landmarks, and move towards their assigned objective.



Through his continued calm under fire, Winters links up with the survivors of his company and leads them toward their objective, a set of German artillery guns pounding US ships and soldiers trying to land on the beach. Winters deftly organizes the force he has to sack the gun emplacement.

The military brass recognizes Winters for his leadership. Not only did he do well organizing his company after the battlefield chaos of the drop, but his sack of the gun emplacement with minimal casualties was a textbook perfect example of how to capture a fixed enemy position. Winters is given command of Easy Company. The episode mentions in an epilogue that Winters's attack on the guns is/was still taught at West Point as a case study success.

I said several days ago I wasn't going to write a lot of blogs about Band of Brothers. "Maybe two," I thought to myself. That contrasts with the Chernobyl miniseries, about which I've written sixteen blogs— plus possibly one more to come! I'm glad I didn't say "Maybe two" out loud or commit it to writing because now that I've started writing about the series— see my initial blog entry about the series from yesterday— I realize that I've got a lot more to say about it than I initially thought. BoB is twice as many episodes as Chernobyl... I'm absolutely not expecting this to run to 32 entries!

This blog is about Ep. 1 in series, "Currahee". It tells the tale of the soliders of Easy Company from their training as paratroopers through their staging in England up to the point where they board aircraft for Operation Overlord— i.e., D-Day. As I began to draft blogs about the series I mused that the training montage stretched over 2 or 3 episodes and thus got a bit boring. Nope, it's all in one episode. That's part of how I realized I'd have more to write about than I initially thought.



The main character in this episode is Captain Sobel, played by David Schwimmer (pictured). He's the main character in the sense that he's the focal point of the episode, as the company commander and drill instructor training the men to be elite soldiers. In the narrative sense, though, he's not the main character... he's the villain.

Sobel is an unnecessarily harsh task master, constantly punishing the soldiers for the smallest infractions, real or imagined. Even worse, the soldiers realize as their deployment becomes imminent, Sobel will be a terrible battlefield commander. In war-game exercises it's clear that Sobel can't read maps or navigate in the field, can't think on his feet, and dismisses helpful advice from his subordinates. The non-commissioned officers in his company meet secretly and agree that if he leads them into war, they'll all die. The noncoms stage a mutiny of sorts. The regiment commander, Col. Sink, punishes two of the noncoms but realizes that ultimately he can't punish them all. He sidelines Sobel to a training role and assigns the company a new commander.

As I began watching BoB I groaned through a lot of this episode. "Oh, look, it's the sadistic-drill-instructor trope again, Bo-o-oring!" But in retrospect I recognized it's more than just a trope. There's a deeper story element there... and a teachable lesson, too.

The deeper story element is that Capt. Sobel's overly harsh command not only molded the men into capable soldiers but gave them additional reason to bond. They bonded with each other over the shared adversity. ...And not just the adversity of training being hard because it needed to be, but the adversity of dealing with a hated superior who was way harder than he needed to be— and later, life-threateningly incompetent.

The teachable lesson here is about the difference between leadership and command. In an authoritarian system like the military, any halfway intelligent person with a rank on their uniform can command. Subordinates do what you tell them because they pretty much have to. The system invests the commander with enormous power to deal with those who don't. But leadership is different from command. Leadership is when you not only tell subordinates what to do but inspire them to do it well.

Yes, you can make subordinates do things by commanding them. You can use fear of consequences as a motivator, as Capt. Sobel does. But you don't get the best results out of people that way. They'll do things only well enough to avoid the your wrath. People who are inspired will find ways to do things better. They'll offer helpful suggestions... where those rules by fear are afraid to speak up. Those who are led, as opposed to commanded, see the leader's success as their own. Meanwhile, those who are ruled by fear rather than respect ultimately look to dig a pit under their commander.

Keep reading: Band of Brothers Ep. 2: Day of Days