Band of Brothers: They Helped Defeat Hitler (Episode 5: Crossroads)

NOTE: "Band of Brothers" is a highly realistic World War Two miniseries from HBO in 2001. Part of the "realism" is the profanity used; so, if you are sensitive to such language, the miniseries is definitely not for you. Also, there are numerous highly bloody scenes of killed or wounded soldiers, and scenes of people in a concentration camp, who have been the subject of horrendous treatment. So here too, if you are sensitive to these kinds of scenes, it is probably a good thing if you skip viewing the miniseries. As for this article and those I'll be doing about the miniseries, I have tried to keep things from being too blatant.

 ____________________________________

 

This very realistic HBO series is based on the book "Band of Brothers" by historian Stephen Ambrose. Remember, this is NOT a documentary nor an actual reenactment, but rather a series with characters representing the actual men, with their real names, of East Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division. The series does present events and actions that the men of Easy Company related to Stephen Ambrose, the historian who wrote the book. In the book's "Acknowledgements and Sources," Ambrose writes that he "circulated the manuscript of this book to the men of Easy Company." He goes on to say there were criticisms, corrections and suggestions offered by the men, and that Richard Winters and Carwood Lipton were heavily involved in reviewing the book, the original publication of which was in 1992, while the first airing of the miniseries was in 2001 (Ambrose died in 2002). 

 

As I write about this series, I'll likely use a man's army rank on occasion, but for the most part, I'll use last names, just as the men do. The cast of this series is so large, I decided not to list it, as it would have been overwhelming, although I did decide to list just a few names of the cast who portrayed the men most seen, most heard and most heard about in the stories presented in this series. Believe me, the whole cast is likely 8 or 10 times as large as those I list here, and everyone did a great job.

 

Partial Cast

 

Damian Lewis as Lieutenant, then Captain, then Major Richard Winters

Ron Livingston as Lieutenant, then Captain Lewis Nixon

Scott Grimes as Private, then Sergeant Donald Malarkey 

Shane Taylor as Medic Eugene "Doc" Roe

Donnie Wahlberg as Sergeant Carwood Lipton 

Michael Cudlitz as Sergeant Denver "Bull" Randleman

Frank John Hughes as Sergeant Bill "Wild Bill" Guarnere

Rick Gomez as Technician 4th Grade George Luz

Kirk Acevedo as Staff Sergeant Joe Toye

James Madio as Technician 4th Grade Frank Perconte

Eion Bailey as Private David Kenyon Webster

Dexter Fletcher as Sergeant John Martin

Ross McCall as Technician Fifth Grade Joseph Liebgott

Neal McDonough as Lieutenant Lynn "Buck" Compton

Nicholas Aaron as Private Robert "Popeye" Wynn 

David Schwimmer as Lieutenant, then Captain Herbert Sobel 

Here is the link to the previous article as Episode 4: Replacements:

 

https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2023/08/band-of-brothers-they-helped-defeat_28.html

This episode, directed by Tom Hanks, continues following Easy Company in Holland, in the aftermath of the fighting in and around Eindhoven. (Note: Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks were the executive producers of the miniseries.) Captain Winters has to write a report about one of the company's actions, and we see what happened in a flashback, as Winters goes over things in his mind to write the report. 

 

One thing to remember about Holland, it has lots of dikes and ditches, and one such area plays a part in this episode. Ditches were dug and the dirt then thrown up around the ditch to create the dike; that is, the embankment. Some of these dikes had roads along them. The episode starts as we see and hear a soldier running through a field with his rifle. It's Captain Winters and he finally runs up a rise (this is the dike) and sees a very young German soldier getting up from the ground (this is in the ditch). They look at each other momentarily, and Winters shoots and kills the soldier. The scene now shifts to Winters trying to awaken Captain Nixon for a meeting at the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment's HQ (Easy Company is part of this regiment), but Nixon  continues to remain in bed. Winters takes a glass from a shelf and throws its liquid content onto Nixon, who screams, "That's my own p--s." Winters gets a good laugh out of it. 

The two captains go to the meeting and Winters is told to submit a battle report about Easy Company's successful action against two companies of German Waffen SS troops. So Winters goes back to his command post and starts typing his report. As he starts thinking of what to put into the report, we get to see just what this is all about. We now see the company is in its quarters at night and a patrol returns with a wounded man, Sergeant James Alley (played by George Calil). As Alley's wounds are tended, Winters calls a squad of the men to action. Winters and the squad move along and there is a burst of machine gun fire ahead, but not at them, and Winters and the Easy Company men can't imagine what the Germans are firing at, and thus giving away their position to the Americans. Winters goes to check things out and he sees a number of German soldiers in and around a machine gun position. Winters goes back to the men and has a mortar and its team readied to provide support, and he moves the other men, including a machine gun team, forward. He assigns each rifleman a specific German soldier as a target. They are to fire when he fires. The whole thing goes off well, as each man hits his German target, and then the paratroopers withdraw, with mortar fire and machine gun fire covering their withdrawal, but Corporal William Dukeman (played by Mark Lawrence) is killed. Winters sends for the rest of the 1st Platoon, and another machine gun team.

(Note: The dikes and ditches in Holland made for an advantage and a disadvantage for the troops of both sides. As we'll see here shortly, men in separate ditches (which were fields) from both sides, were out of sight of one another, because the dikes (embankments) blocked their respective views. But, for men in a ditch, if the enemy got on top of the dike, they had a decisive advantage to fire down on those in the ditch.)

 

When daylight comes, Winters has the platoon lined up in a ditch and ready to charge forward, and he plans to throw a smoke grenade, which will discharge red smoke, to signal the attack. Winters and the men had no idea of how many Germans could be over the dike in the next ditch. Winters instructs the men only to charge forward when they see red smoke. He pulls the pin, throws the smoke grenade and runs forward. After several seconds the grenade discharges the red smoke and the men run forward, although at some distance behind Winters (it "seems" the grenade was slow to release the smoke). Now we go back to where this episode opened; that is, Winters runs across the field, up a small rise (a dike) and stops to see a young German soldier getting up from the ground below. There's a short pause as Winters looks at the boyish soldier, who gives a bit of a smile, and Winters fires and kills him. Winters then starts firing at a company size group of German soldiers a little further away in the ditch. Most of them are also on the ground, but the Germans are so totally taken by surprise and startled, they naturally try to find cover, but now the platoon of paratroopers has joined Winters on top of the dike and their fire brings down many a German soldier. After a short time, more Germans enter into the field (there is a ferry crossing near to where the Germans are, and they are trying to withdraw to there, then over the Lower Rhine River). Winters radios for artillery fire, which then decimates much of the remaining German force. Martin and Webster have a few Germans surrender to them saying, "Please don't shoot, we're Polish." Now the Germans get artillery support, and shells begin falling close to the American line and Webster is wounded in the lower leg. The paratroopers get their wounded and the German artillery fire ceases. (Note: Regarding the "Polish" SS men, the Germans and the Poles have had a long, and often, contentious history, which led to many changes in territories. For a couple of centuries, the territorial changes were the Germans taking Polish lands, with the Germans represented by the Prussians and the Austrians, with both taking lands with large numbers of people of Polish background. Once that happened, some of those areas acquired German settlers; thus, a number of areas had mixed German and Polish inhabitants. The results of World War One saw several of these areas with mixed populations go to the newly reformed Poland. When World War Two started, the Germans conquered these territories and put men from the areas into the German military. Some came from areas that had strong identification with "Germans," while others were far less "German" in their view of things, with some even being less than fluent in German, although some people were fluent in both German and Polish. These men in the miniseries are in the SS, so they must have been considered "German" by the Nazis, although with German manpower shortages, the definition of who was German was frequently "stretched.") (Note: The SS was a Nazi organization dating back to before the time when Hitler came to power. Once Hitler was in power, the SS expanded into a huge Nazi organization with sort of "shadow" agencies of the German government and military. The militarized part of the SS was called the Waffen SS, and once the war started, it raised many military units that were administered by the SS, but which in the field, were under the command of the German Army.) 

 

I've neglected to mention, going back to Easy Company's training in the U.S., that Lewis Nixon is a heavy whiskey drinker (he drinks Scotch) and he stores larger bottles of Scotch in Winters' footlocker. He uses these bottles to fill a smaller flask, which is easier to carry around. So, every time he needs to "fill up," he has to get into Winter's footlocker. Winters tolerates the situation, because Nixon is his friend. Winters doesn't smoke or drink, and he rarely swears, but he doesn't lecture others about these things, and he recognizes the reality of military life with the diverse personalities of his men. Harry Welsh is also a heavy drinker, and he keeps liquor in his canteen. In a funny moment during the first episode, the company is being transported by train in the U.S. Nixon comes to where Winters and Welsh are seated and Nixon takes out his whiskey and offers Winters a drink. Winters says, "You know I don't drink," and Nixon replies, "If I thought you'd have taken a drink, I wouldn't have offered it to you." lol! But Welsh gladly accepts Nixon's offer, then saying something like, "This trip might turn out to be okay, after all." Now back to the current episode ...  

 

Winters goes to Liebgott, who had been lightly wounded on the side of the neck during the fighting. He orders Liebgott to take the eleven prisoners they have back to 2nd Battalion headquarters, but he makes Liebgott turn over his ammunition, except for one bullet, and he tells him, "If you drop one of the prisoners, the others will jump you. I want all of the prisoners to arrive back at battalion CP alive" (CP=command post). (Note: Joe Liebgott is depicted in the miniseries as being Jewish, but historically, that is in question, although either one or both sides of his family could have converted to Catholicism, as Joe was supposedly raised as a Catholic. His parents were from Austria, a heavily Catholic area (and he acts as a translator in the series, as he was fluent in German). After the war, Liebgott's own children were raised as Catholics. Now, in contradiction to all of this, the men of Easy Company who offered comments on Liebgott after the war, thought he was Jewish, and I'm sure the scriptwriters for the series loved that, as it gave them the story line of an American Jew versus the Nazis, which is definitely present in the series, but I don't really know what to make of the contradictory information about Liebgott.      

 

Winters sits down near where the young German he killed is lying and he stares over at him. One of the paratroopers tells Winters that the German force there was all SS. Nixon arrives and talks with one of the men, who tells him how they destroyed the German unit, all at the cost of only 22 wounded (with such always being easily said by someone who wasn't wounded). We get to have a little chuckle when Nixon goes to Winters and Winters asks him for a drink, which he then quickly clarifies "of water." Nixon opens his canteen and smells it, "Yeah, it's water." 

 

A little later, Colonel Sink tells Winters that Major Horton was killed during a German attack on the 3rd Battalion (Horton was the 3rd Battalion commander; he is buried at the American Cemetery in the Netherlands). He tells Winters he's moving him up to become the executive officer of the 2nd Battalion, and Winters is pleased, but he is torn by having to give up direct command of the Easy Company men he cares so much about. Sink tells him Lieutenant Frederick "Moose" Heyliger (played by Stephen McCole) will take over to lead Easy Company and Winters is happy with that choice. Now reality hits home, as Winters still hasn't finished the paperwork required by both Major Strayer (commander of 2nd Battalion) and Colonel Sink (commander of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment). We see that Winters is more of a combat leader, not a paperwork guy. We then see Winters behind a desk as Nixon and Heyliger come in. He introduces his orderly, Private John Zielinski (played by Adam Sims), and Nixon and Heyliger tease Winters a bit over his new position. Nixon tells Winters of an operation planned for Easy Company to rescue some British paratroopers stranded on the opposite side of the Rhine River. Winters reacts as the company commander he's been, and Nixon reminds his friend that "Easy Company is in good hands," as Heyliger looks on. As Nixon is leaving, Winters asks that he tell him if Easy Company gets into any problems with the operation. Heyliger leads Easy Company that night and the British paratroopers are brought across the river, where they give the Americans a cheer, and Winters looks over at the building where the British and Americans are, hears the cheer and he smiles. (Note: This was part of "Operation Pegasus." The large airborne-ground operation of mid September was named Market-Garden, and while some objectives were met by the Allies, many British and American paratroopers were killed, wounded or captured; however, a fairly large part of the remaining British paratroopers were able to evade capture, usually with the strong help of the Dutch resistance. The Allies finally put together "Pegasus" to rescue as many of the British paratroopers as possible. So, what you see in Band of Brothers is only part of a larger operation, but Easy Company's rescue was successful and "seemingly" 138 British Paratroopers were rescued, but some sources simply indicate the number to be more than 100.) 

    

A few nights later, Winters and Heyliger are walking along discussing Easy Company when a shout comes to halt, but then bullets fly, and Heyliger is hit and collapses. Winters shouts to cease fire and the sentry who fired runs up to Winters and Heyliger, apologizing and unable to think. Winters has to yell at him to get him moving for help. (Note: Here is one of those historical versus Hollywood scenes, as the miniseries indicates that the sentry was very young (from Wyoming, in the miniseries), although Ambrose does not name the sentry in his book, he wrote that the man was a veteran of the unit and not a recent replacement. Winters and Welsh ride with Heyliger to the aid station, and though both are officers, medic Doc Roe gives them hell for not knowing how much morphine they had given Heyliger, and they had failed to pin the used Syrette(s) on Heyliger's jacket, so that medical personnel would know how much medication he had been given. (Syrettes were small tubes of morphine that were in each man's medical kit.) 

We again see Winters in an office, when in hobbles Bill Guarnere. (Whether there was a scene filmed, but then cut from the final product, I don't know, but Guarnere talks about having been hospitalized and going AWOL (away without leave), in order to stay with Easy Company. Winters, who is glad to see Guarnere, tells him "no more joy riding," and Guarnere agrees. The Eisenhower Foundation's website says Guarnere had taken a motorcycle from a Dutch farmer and was then hit in the leg by a sniper, and when he fell, he also broke his leg. Anyway, Guarnere is back.

 

After the failure of Operation Market-Garden, the Allied situation seemed to be one of replenishing their losses and training for a push into Germany, "assumed" by some to be destined for the spring of 1945. Fresh American divisions and replacements for depleted units arrived in Europe, and they were stationed in areas "assumed" to be relatively calm, where their green troops could gain a little experience in the build-up to a major operation to end the war. Nixon talks with Winters and he tells him that General Maxwell Taylor, the divisional commander of the 101st Airborne Division, is on leave in the United States, and Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe is in charge of the division until Taylor returns. Regimental commander Colonel Sink has gone to Reims (a northern French city) to see a show for the troops by Marlene Dietrich, but Sink has given Nixon a 48 hour pass to give to Winters, so that Winters can take a little time off in Paris. (Note: While Marlene Dietrich was born in what was then just outside Berlin (it later became part of the city), she detested Hitler and the Nazis, and she refused a German offer to return to Germany to make movies; in fact, she became an American citizen. She and her close friend, producer/director Billy Wilder, started a special fund to help get Jews and others targeted by the Nazis out of Germany, and to then give them help to establish a new life. She made hundreds of appearances at shows for Allied soldiers all over Europe during the war.)  

 

Winters takes the train into Paris and he sees a young French "boy" who reminds him of the young German soldier he killed. With no ongoing military operations on his mind, his thoughts slip back in time to the combat he has been through. Winters is a "loner" type guy and he goes places in Paris by himself. The 101st Airborne was withdrawn from the Netherlands and stationed in northern France for some rest. The men are watching the movie "Seven Sinners," starring Marlene Dietrich and John Wayne, with George Luz doing his John Wayne impression, much to the annoyance of the other men who are trying to watch the picture. Luz follows that with an impression of one of Marlene Dietrich's lines in the film (Rick Gomez, who portrays Luz, is hilarious). Winters returns from Paris and walks into where the movie is being shown. He goes and sits right behind Buck Compton, who has returned from the hospital after being wounded in Holland. Winters asks Buck about the movie, but Compton just stares blankly ahead. Winters finally gets Compton to respond, but it's obvious he's not quite the same man. An officer walks in and tells the men the Germans have launched a major offensive in the Ardennes region of Belgium and Luxembourg and that all leaves are canceled. 

 

The men of the 101st Airborne Division are transported in trucks to Belgium, where they relieve American units battered in the fighting. When the men arrive, they get out of the trucks to see the demoralized American units marching out of the area. The 101st Airborne is low on ammunition, food and winter clothing. The men of Easy Company take the ammunition from the withdrawing American troops, and George Rice (played by Jimmy Fallon) of the 10th Armored Division pulls up in a jeep loaded with ammunition, but Easy Company is still short of mortar rounds. Rice tells Winters that the Germans are about to cut the last road out of the town, and that the 101st will be surrounded. Winters tells him, "We're paratroopers, we're supposed to be surrounded." Winters and Nixon meet with Colonel Sink, who tells them the 101st has to hold the town of Bastogne, because it's an important road center that has to be denied to German tanks and other vehicles. We see Easy Company and other elements of the 101st Airborne Division marching into Bastogne.   

     

Photo is of the HBO 2015 Blu-Ray Miniseries release ... 

WORD HISTORY:

Dike/Ditch-"Dike" and "ditch" are closely related words; in fact, they are variations to one another and both are related to "dig." "Dike" and "ditch" go back to Indo European "dheig," which had the notion of "to stick, to pierce;" thus also, "to dig," from the idea of a spade or other implement "piercing" the soil, in order to develop or to put something in place. This gave its Old Germanic offspring "dikaz," meaning "the result of digging drainage ditches;" thus, "a pond." This gave Old English "dic," meaning "a trench or channel dug for draining water, a digging, an excavation," and this then became "dic, dik, dich(e)," with the same meaning, before the modern form "ditch," which generally means "a trench dug, usually to drain or transport water." Note: Originally, Old English "dic" could also mean "dam, embankment used to confine water," but this then came to be differentiated from that meaning, as the pronunciation "dike" (long i) took over that meaning completely. Old English had the verb "dician" meaning "to make a ditch," but also the mixed meaning of the word back then, as it also meant "to make a mound or an embankment." The verb form "ditch" developed in the late 1300s from the noun and meant "to dig a ditch in the ground," but later the verb also took on the idea of "to throw away," and "to leave a partner" (usually a romantic relationship, but it can also be for business or friendship), with these meanings coming from the idea of "throwing something or someone into a ditch." "Dike" has the same origin in Indo European and then Old Germanic and Old English, but by circa 1500, the idea of, "throwing, piling up excavated soil to form a dam or embankment to prevent water from flowing into low lying areas," had come to be associated with "dike," especially in northern England, where many Old Norse speakers had settled (Old Norse is another Germanic language akin to English). Relatives of both words in the other Germanic languages: German has "Teich" meaning "pond," and "Deich" "dike, embankment" (but the form "Deich" was borrowed from Low German), Low German has "Diek" meaning "dike, dam" (this likely is borrowed or heavily influenced by West Frisian, as Middle Low German had "dik," which was borrowed by German as "Deich"), West Frisian has "dyk" meaning "dike, embankment to confine water," Dutch has "dijk" meaning "dike," Old Norse had "diki" meaning "morass, puddle, moat, ditch," from which Icelandic has "diki," meaning "dike," Swedish has "dika" meaning "dike, ditch;" thus also, "gully," Danish has "dige" meaning "dike."   

Band of Brothers: They Helped Defeat Hitler (Episode 4: Replacements)

 NOTE: "Band of Brothers" is a highly realistic World War Two miniseries from HBO in 2001. Part of the "realism" is the profanity used; so, if you are sensitive to such language, the miniseries is definitely not for you. Also, there are numerous highly bloody scenes of killed or wounded soldiers, and scenes of people in a concentration camp, who have been the subject of horrendous treatment. So here too, if you are sensitive to these kinds of scenes, it is probably a good thing if you skip viewing the miniseries. As for this article and those I'll be doing about the miniseries, I have tried to keep things from being too blatant.

____________________________________

 

This very realistic HBO series is based on the book "Band of Brothers" by historian Stephen Ambrose. Remember, this is NOT a documentary nor an actual reenactment, but rather a series with characters representing the actual men, with their real names, of East Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division. The series does present events and actions that the men of Easy Company related to Stephen Ambrose, the historian who wrote the book. In the book's "Acknowledgements and Sources," Ambrose writes that he "circulated the manuscript of this book to the men of Easy Company." He goes on to say there were criticisms, corrections and suggestions offered by the men, and that Richard Winters and Carwood Lipton were heavily involved in reviewing the book, the original publication of which was in 1992, while the first airing of the miniseries was in 2001. 

 

As I write about this series, I'll likely use a man's army rank on occasion, but for the most part, I'll use last names, just as the men do. The cast of this series is so large, I decided not to list it, as it would have been overwhelming, although I did decide to list just a few names of the cast who portrayed the men most seen, most heard and most heard about in the stories presented in this series. Believe me, the whole cast is likely 8 or 10 times as large as those I list here, and everyone did a great job.

 

Partial Cast

 

Damian Lewis as Lieutenant, then Captain, then Major Richard Winters

Ron Livingston as Lieutenant, then Captain Lewis Nixon

Scott Grimes as Private, then Sergeant Donald Malarkey 

Shane Taylor as Medic Eugene "Doc" Roe

Donnie Wahlberg as Sergeant Carwood Lipton 

Michael Cudlitz as Sergeant Denver "Bull" Randleman

Frank John Hughes as Sergeant Bill "Wild Bill" Guarnere

Rick Gomez as Technician 4th Grade George Luz

Kirk Acevedo as Staff Sergeant Joe Toye

James Madio as Technician 4th Grade Frank Perconte

Eion Bailey as Private David Kenyon Webster

Dexter Fletcher as Sergeant John Martin

Ross McCall as Technician Fifth Grade Joseph Liebgott

Neal McDonough as Lieutenant Lynn "Buck" Compton

Nicholas Aaron as Private Robert "Popeye" Wynn 

David Schwimmer as Lieutenant> Captain Herbert Sobel 

Here is the link to the previous article on Episode 3 Carentan:

 

https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2023/08/band-of-brothers-they-helped-defeat_22.html 

 

Part (Episode) 4: Replacements 

 

This part opens with Easy Company back in England as the men drink beer, play darts and sit around talking. The stress of war has subsided at this time. Due to the company's previous casualties, replacements have been added. Private James Miller (played by James McAvoy), Private Antonio Garcia (played by Douglas Spain) and Private Lester Hashey (played by Mark Huberman) are all replacements in Bull Randleman's squad and the three are sitting together at a table when Sergeant Bill Guarnere comes over to talk with them a bit, as Randleman looks on from a few feet away. Guarnere tells the guys to always pay attention to Randleman, because he's the smartest man in the company. Private Roy Cobb (played by Craig Heaney) comes over to the replacements and asks Miller what he has pinned to his uniform. When Miller replies that it's a regimental citation badge for what the 506th Regiment did in Normandy, Cobb sarcastically tells Miller that he (Miller) didn't fight in Normandy. Miller doesn't know what to do, but he removes the badge and puts it on the table, then rises and walks away. Randleman now comes over to the table and reminds Cobb that he didn't fight in Normandy either (Cobb was wounded on the plane before he could jump into Normandy). Sergeant Lipton announces that the company is moving out and the men now know the "fun" is over. The men hear (now Captain) Winters explain the operation they will be participating in has them jumping into Holland and then taking and holding the city of Eindhoven, until British armored units can arrive. The hope is that the overall operation will get Allied forces into Germany and help to end the war by Christmas. The parachute drop will be in daylight, but the men are told that military intelligence believes most of the German forces in Holland are old men and kids, so they aren't expecting much opposition.            

As the men are getting ready to get into the transports to fly to Holland, the company's former commanding office, Captain Sobel, pulls up in a jeep followed by a truck. We learn he is now the regimental supply officer. Popeye Wynn gets out of the jeep, and he tells Randleman that he busted out of the hospital, because he didn't want to be transferred to another unit. To refresh your memory, Popeye got shot in the butt on D-Day; so, when asked if he can make the jump assigned to Easy Company, Popeye says, "Yes, I just can't sit." He's also asked if Sobel knew he left the hospital without permission to return to his unit, and he says that Sobel knew, but "maybe he'll court martial me later." Further, the motorcycle taken and ridden by Malarkey and More is in the truck, and Sobel calls Malarkey over and asks him where he found the motorcycle, but Malarkey plays dumb, and Sobel tells him the motorcycle is United States Army property. 

The men jump into Holland and everything seems fine, as there is no flak fire nor German infantry waiting for them, and they are able to get formed up into the proper platoons. Not long thereafter, they move into Eindhoven unopposed, where they are greeted as liberators by the Dutch. A member of the Dutch resistance, John van Kooijk (played by Hugo Metsers), offers to help Winters in any way he can, but when Winters sees that the man has kids giving him information on the British tanks being near, Winters is skeptical. Within a short time; however, here come the British tanks, and Winters now is much friendlier to van Kooijk. Meanwhile, the Dutch are busy rounding up collaborators, and we see the women collaborators having their heads shaved and sometimes swastikas are painted on their foreheads. 

 

Nightfall comes and three Easy Company men, Corporal Donald Hoobler, Private David Webster (played by Eion Bailey) and Private Robert van Klinken (played by Ezra Godden) approach a Dutch farm house. The basement doors open and a man comes out, and the man tells them it is an air raid shelter and that he and his family have been there because of all of the aircraft flying over. The Dutchman gives the men some food, and out of the shelter comes his little son. In a scene that will warm your heart, Webster goes to the boy and gives him a chocolate bar, which his father opens for him. The boy takes a bite and his face lights up. The boy's father says, "He's never tasted chocolate before." In the morning, the company sets out for the city of Nuenen, supported by some British tanks. As the company moves along the road, one of the women collaborators is standing with her baby along the side of the road. One of the paratroopers hands her some food (regardless of what she has done, you don't hurt the child). 

 

The company stops just outside the town and Lieutenant Robert Brewer (played by Brandon Firla) walks out a short distance from the main body of troops. Randleman calls out to him, but a sniper's bullet hits him in the neck and he falls to the ground. A German armored personnel carrier (also called armored half tracks, and the Germans called them Schützenpanzerwagen or SPW) speeds by on the column's left, but one of the British tanks fires and hits it, and it bursts into flames. Randleman runs to help Brewer and a medic also runs to his assistance, but he is shot in the thigh. The men get into town, and at first, the Germans are not to be seen, but they have a Tiger tank to the far side of a building, which puts it out of easy sight of the paratroopers and British tankers, and additionally, they have covered the tank in hay for camouflage. Randleman goes out in front and signals to Sergeant Martin about the Tiger tank. Martin goes to the lead British tank and tells the tank commander about the Tiger tank being just out of his view. Martin suggests that the British fire a couple of rounds into the building behind which the German tank is hidden, but the tank commander says he has orders not to cause undue property destruction. Martin is angry, but he gets down from the tank. Within a few seconds, the British tanks move up, and we see the German Tiger tank swing its turret around in readiness to fire. BOOM! The shell hits one of the British tanks and destroys it. The German tank comes out from hiding and this brings Randleman to yell for his men to fall back. (Note: The German Tiger I was a nasty opponent, and it could destroy any armored vehicle the Allies had. The good news is, they were expensive and complicated to make, and then to maintain; thus, the Germans didn't make them in huge numbers. The Tiger tank had a truly frightening reputation among Allied soldiers, and I recall reading that some Allied commanders were perplexed at times, as they said after the war, the tank's reputation was so fearsome, some Allied soldiers called just about every German tank a Tiger, and this created a problem, as it caused panic among the soldiers.) A German assault gun also appears and hits another of the British tanks, which bursts into flames, but keeps moving. Everywhere the paratroopers begin to fall back, and the Germans have a machine gun positioned atop a building which starts firing down on the men. Van Klinken is hit by gun fire and killed. Private Miller is killed by a shell as he fires on the enemy from a ditch. The Americans use a rifle grenade to take out the machine gun, but the Germans now have lots of infantry following up, and the American position becomes totally untenable for the paratroopers. In the heavy fighting, Bull Randleman is cut off from the rest of the company and he is wounded in the shoulder by shrapnel. He is able to crawl to safety for the time being. 

 

Buck Compton is wounded and the men take a door off of one of the houses to carry him to safety. The Americans fall back to some trucks waiting for them. Throughout the series, tense and serious situations are still used to produce a little chuckle, and such happens as Lewis Nixon begins talking with Winters, when a bullet hits his helmet, knocking him to the ground. Winters rushes over, and Nixon says, "I'm all right, I'm all right ... Am I all right?" Winters says, "Yeah, do you feel all right?" And Nixon says, "Yeah, quit looking at me like that." The paratroopers move out. 

 

Randleman hides in a barn and he hears various German forces passing. The farm owner comes into the barn and Randleman grabs him, but the Dutch farmer tries to get the shrapnel out of Randleman's left shoulder, with Randleman finally giving the man his knife to help dig it out. The man stuffs a cloth inside Randleman's uniform to cover the wound. The man's wife also comes into the barn and they hide with Randleman as German soldiers are checking barns and houses for any Americans. Four Germans enter the barn, but they look around briefly and three leave, with one stopping to take a leak. When he is leaving, he sees the bloody cloth that had been covering Bull's wound, but which had fallen out. Aircraft can be heard and the soldier starts to leave, but then he hears a small noise and he checks further. With the aircraft now almost directly overhead, Randleman tries to sneak up on the German, but the German turns and tries to fire, but his rifle jams. It becomes a battle of bayonets, and Randleman's size and strength prevail (hey, he's not called 'Bull' for nuthin'). When daylight comes, Randleman sees no Germans, so he leaves the barn. He finds Private Miller's body and seconds later a scout jeep pulls up and Randleman gets in.

 

Meanwhile, back with the rest of the men when it's still dark, Randleman's absence is on their minds and Hoobler decides he wants to go find Bull. At first, Guarnere says he'll go, but Hashey, Garcia and Webster tell Guarnere they'll go. Cobb says, "I'm not going back up there," but we then see him with the others in their search for Randleman. When it's daylight, the men hear a vehicle approaching and they hit the ground, but it's the jeep with Randleman in it. They return to the company where Guarnere sees Bull and says, "I don't know whether to slap you, kiss you or salute you ..." (He then points over to the men who went to find Bull) "These guys wanted to go on a suicide run to drag your ass back." Bull says, "Is that right? ... Never did like this company none." 

 

The company moves out again, and Nixon tells Winters they're likely going to face more German tanks, and Winters answers, "Well, as long as they're only manned by old men and kids" (a sarcastic remark regarding the military intelligence assessment prior to their jump into Holland). Then Winters says, "I don't like retreating," but Nixon answers, "First time for everything." When Winters asks Nixon how the other divisions further north are doing, Nixon answers, "We're going to have to find another way into Germany."         

 

Photo is of the HBO 2015 Blu-Ray Miniseries release ...

WORD HISTORY:

Tenable-This word is related to quite a number of words, including: "distend" and "tense" (stretched tightly, including figuratively), Latin-derived words borrowed by English from Latin, to "extend" and "tenacity" both Latin-derived words borrowed by English from French ("extend" is more precisely from the French spoken by the descendants of the Normans in England), to "tendon," a word borrowed from Latin, which had it from Greek, and it is distantly related to "thin," a word from the Germanic roots of English. "Tenable" goes back to the Indo European root "ten," which had the idea of "to stretch." This gave Latin the verb "tenere," which meant "to keep, to hold, to possess, to grasp, to maintain," and this gave Vulgar Latin "tenire," meaning "to hold, to possess," which passed into Old French as "tenir," with the same meaning. This produced the French adjective "tenable," meaning "capable of keeping or maintaining," and militarily, "capable of being defended or held against an enemy." English borrowed the word in the 1570s. My own experience in American usage is, we don't often read or hear "tenable,"  but we do hear or read the opposite form, "untenable" ('incapable of being defended'), somewhat more often, but the usage is by far in reference to "ideas and proposals" nowadays.         

Saint Martin Sweet Potato & Pumpkin Pudding

Saint Martin is an island in the eastern part of the Caribbean Sea. The island of Saint Martin, however, is home to two separate countries: "Sint Maarten," which is a part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and it is located on the southern part of the island, and "Saint Martin," yes, the same name as the overall island, which is a part of France, and it is located on the northern part of the island. The entire island has a population of between 76,000 and 80,000, with the Dutch part having a slightly larger share of the population. The island was named for Saint Martin of Tours, who was bishop of Tours in Roman Gaul (later to become France) in the second half of the 300s. He was born in eastern Europe, in what would later become Hungary (the Magyars, essentially the people who became the Hungarians, were not even in Europe at the time of his birth). He died in Novemeber 397 and he was buried on November 11. People began honoring him on that day (November 12 in Eastern Orthodox) and many Christians saw him as a saint, although he was not officially declared a saint in the Roman Catholic faith until 1962 (Pope John XXIII). English is the common language of many of the residents of the entire island, although French is the official language of the French part and Dutch is official in the Dutch part.

  

Use "pumpkin puree," which is pure pumpkin, whereas pumpkin pie filling has ingredients added to the pumpkin. While you're going to add spices anyway, you may wonder why it matters, and perhaps it doesn't matter to you, but by using pure pumpkin, you can then control the ingredients going into your dish. If you use pumpkin pie filling, you won't need to add the spices, except where you have a preference for a particular spice. This is a slightly altered version of a recipe from a recipe as part of this link: http://www.stmartinisland.org/st-martin-restaurants/culinary-traditions-of-st-martin.html

Ingredients: 

1 sweet potato, cut into chunks (or grated if you're not using a food processor/blender)

2 cups pumpkin puree 

1 1/4 cup sugar

3 egg yolks, beaten

1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup butter

1 can evaporated milk (12 ounce can, NOT sweetened condensed milk) 

1/4 cup flour

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 teaspoon allspice

1 teaspoon nutmeg or mace

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

3/4 cup raisins

2 tablespoons rum

3 egg whites, stiffly beaten

Heat the oven 350 F. Mix everything together, except the raisins and the egg whites. Once the basic mixture is well combined, stir in the raisins. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Fold in the egg whites. Bake in a well buttered baking dish for 90 minutes. Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

I had the pudding with some vanilla ice cream ...

WORD HISTORY:  

Tin-The ultimate origin of "tin" is unknown, but it goes back to Old Germanic "tinan," which meant "tin," and there are no known relatives of the Germanic form in other language families, only forms borrowed from Germanic languages. The Germanic form gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "tin," the form that has endured for so many centuries in English, right up to the present (this is also true in Low German, Frisian and Dutch, which is quite remarkable^). Relatives in the Germanic languages: German has "Zinn" (pronounced as if, "tsin," and once spelled with just one "n"), Low German Saxon has "Tinn," Dutch and West Frisian "tin," Danish "tin," Norwegian "tinn," Swedish "tenn," Icelandic "tin."  (NOTE: For a long time people thought tin was a lesser form of silver, because of the mixing in of other metals. This brought about the use of "tin" in disparaging expressions like "tin ear" ("person with little or no ability to understand musical subtleties;" broadened to also mean, "a person unable to discern public sentiment on an issue") and "tinhorn" ("a person less than satisfactory in performance of a job, even though they act competent").    

^ Low German and Dutch briefly had a secondary spelling of "ten," but "tin" remained during that time and persisted until all speakers of those languages again used just "tin."

Blue Lagoon Cocktail

As to the history of this cocktail, I found only a reference to it being invented in the 1970s.

Curaçao, pronounced as if, "cure-ah-sow" (the last rhyming with "how"), is an orange flavored liqueur made from the peel of a type of bitter orange grown on the island of that same name. The island lies in the very southern part of the Caribbean, not far off the coast of Venezuela. Curaçao, the island, has a long history with the Netherlands; and indeed, it is a component country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The name "Curaçao" apparently goes back to a form of the word from the native inhabitants of the island. "Curaçao" (the island) was then taken over by the Spanish, but often used by Portuguese ships as a stopping place from the first half of the 1500s, and "apparently" it was the Portuguese who adapted the word to the Portuguese spelling. The Dutch came to the island during the 1600s and they have been there ever since.   

Now, you won't be condemned to death, if you don't have blue curaçao, but it is this specific drink that gives the cocktail its color and name; however, you can use triple sec. Blue curaçao "should" be available at your local liquor store, or supermarket, and it's not terribly expensive, although I'm sure there are more expensive brand names. I get mine from a neighborhood beverage store and it's only $7 a bottle. 

Ingredients:

1 1/2 ounces vodka
1 1/2 ounces blue curaçao
2 to 4 ounces lemonade (store bought or homemade*)
1 slice orange, halved 
ice 

A tall glass is best for this cocktail. Fill the glass two-thirds of the way with ice. Add the vodka, then the blue curaçao, then top off with lemonade. Put a half slice of orange into the cocktail and fix the other half slice of orange to the rim of the glass.

* For lemonade: bring 3/4 cup water to a boil. Add 2/3 cup sugar and the peel of 1 lemon; stir to make sure the sugar dissolves completely. Remove the mixture from the heat and let it sit for about 20 minutes to cool a little, then add 1 cup crushed ice. In a pitcher, add 3/4 cup lemon juice

WORD HISTORY:
Today-This compound is simply the combination of "to"^ and "day,"^^ but its true written form as one word is only from a little over a century ago, as it was long written as two words or, later, in hyphenated form. English once also had "heodæg" as a synonymous form, which meant, "this day, (of/on) this day." The close relative of "heodæg" is German "heute" (meaning, "today"), both of which are from the same Old Germanic form of two words, "hiu dagu," meaning, "this day," and which became "hiu tagu" in the high dialects. The Old High German form was "hiutu," which later became "hiute." The Old Germanic form "hiu" became the basis for modern English "he." 

^ For the history of the word "to" : https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2016/04/wiener-schnitzel-fried-veal-cutlet.html


^^ For the history of the word "day" : https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2016/04/german-meatballs-in-caper-sauce.html 

"A Bridge Too Far" and History

Some information added 12-1-21 to clarify performers roles in the film or to give background to their acting profession.  

The movie "A Bridge Too Far" is based on a non-fiction book of the same name about "Operation Market Garden," a combined Allied airborne and ground attack against German forces in Holland. The subject was long a sore spot for many British, American and Polish political and military leaders, as the operation failed at great loss of life. The book was written by Cornelius Ryan,* published in 1974 by Simon and Schuster in New York. The movie, directed by Richard Attenborough, was released in 1977 by United Artists, and it features a long list of international stars, including, in no particular order: Laurence Olivier (as Dutchman Dr. Spaander), Michael Caine (as British Lt. Colonel Vandeleur), Sean Connery (as British Major General Urquhart), Gene Hackman (as Polish Major General Stanislaw Sosabowski), Robert Redford (as Major Julian Cook, U.S. 82nd Airborne Division), Edward Fox (British Lt. General Horrocks), commander, British XXX. Corps), Anthony Hopkins (as British Lt. Colonel John Frost, a battalion commander in the British 1st Airborne Division), Ryan O'Neal (U.S. Brigadier General Gavin, U.S. 82nd Airborne Division), Hardy Krüger (see further below), Maximilian Schell (see further below), Liv Ullmann (as Dutch housewife Kate ter Horst), James Caan (as U.S. Staff Sergeant Dohun, U.S. 101st Airborne Division), Wolfgang Preiss (see further below), Dirk Bogarde (as British Lt. General Browning, commander of the British Airborne Corps), Elliott Gould (as Colonel Stout, regimental commander with the U.S. 101st Airborne Division) and many others.

Historically, the Allies had invaded France on June 6, 1944, D-Day, by landing a large force in Normandy. While the landing operation was successful, the advance inland was slow to proceed due to difficult terrain and tough German resistance until late July and early August, when a breakout was accomplished. The Allies rolled across France and into Belgium, as disorganized German forces fled into Holland. The Allied advance had been so swift, they began to experience supply shortages, which forced a slowdown in the advance by September.** This respite allowed the Germans to regain their footing somewhat, although the staggering losses suffered by the Germans during the summer made an end to the war still seem possible before the end of the year.*** In an effort to launch a major drive into the heart of Germany, British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery had plans drawn up for a large scale airborne operation to drop and glider land thousands of troops behind German lines in Holland to capture key bridges, near Eindhoven, at Grave, at Nijmegen, and at Arnhem, to be held until a simultaneous ground offensive advancing through Holland could reach each bridge and advance. If the operation were successful, the Allies would be able to go around the German defensive line known to the Allies as the "Siegfried Line" (German: "der Westwall," "the West Wall") and they would have a direct route into the Ruhr industrial area of Germany, which lay not far away. With the industries of the Ruhr out of operation, the Germans would not be able to continue the war for long.

The German situation and perspective in the movie is presented through various scenes with Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, Field Marshal Walther Model, and SS General Willi Bittrich, as well as an SS General Ludwig (a made up character based on real SS General Heinz Harmel).**** The scenes are in German with English subtitles, so if you are learning German, or if you need to brush up a little, these will give you a great way to do so. Von Rundstedt was known for his snide remarks, and the movie accurately displays this a couple of times, as when a staff officer, who had just related the terrible state of the German forces to the field marshal, asks him what they should do, and von Rundstedt answers, "Quite simply, end the war" ("Ganz einfach, den Krieg beenden"). When the officer later explains to von Rundstedt that the Allies must have supply problems and that he can't otherwise imagine why they haven't advanced into Holland, the field marshal smiles and replies, "I believe the reason is, we're retreating a lot faster than they can advance" ("Ich glaube der Grund ist, dass wir uns viel schneller zurückziehen, als sie vorrücken können").

The movie, available on DVD, briefly, but essentially, addresses this overall military situation and the possibilities for a stunning Allied victory. It also addresses the desire by some military leaders for the operation to go forward, in spite of some intelligence reports indicating German armored forces being in the area. The reports are dismissed, but the lightly armed Allied paratroopers later are vulnerable to these German forces. The Allied ground offensive encounters problems, slowing the advance, and they are "the cavalry, riding to the rescue of the paratroop forces," to use a frequent American "Western" movie plot. The paratroops desperately hold on against mounting German forces, but with mounting casualties.

Historically, the Germans had withdrawn the remnants of two badly mauled Waffen SS Panzer divisions to the Arnhem area prior to their being reequipped. While a number of the divisional units had already shipped out, enough remained to form a striking force against the Allied paratroopers, which, by their very nature, had no heavy combat gear, as once landed, paratroopers are light infantry. Also historically, another thing was, the German commanders threw together any and all small units they could get their hands on to oppose the Allied paratroops and sent them into combat. With Germany not far away, various replacement and training units were quickly dispatched to Holland to help contain and smash the Allied landings. In the end, the operation failed, even though the early objectives were reached, although more slowly than hoped, but the Arnhem bridge remained in German hands,*****  and thousands of Allied paratroops died or were captured, as the "rescuing cavalry" couldn't make it to them quickly enough, if at all. The movie depicts all of this, but with lots of individual stories about British, American and Polish soldiers, as well as some Dutch civilians, including a Dutch father and son who relay information to Allied intelligence about German forces.****** The movie is very much based on fact, but it is not a documentary, and there are liberties taken for the flow of the film and to maintain interest.
        
The film also points out the mistakes made by the Allies, as the rushed operation had errors in the details. In the end, Field Marshal Montgomery sends word that he's pleased with the results, but this was a positive spin put onto a virtual disaster, similar to the oft quoted line by a doctor, "The operation was a success, but the patient died," as the Allies suffered about 17,000 casualties in just one week, and German morale was boosted by their near decimation of the Allied airborne force. It would take the Allies another six months to really move decisively into Germany. World War Two saw the first large scale use of airborne forces, with their advantages and their limitations much in evidence. Earlier in the war, the Germans used a major airborne operation to capture the Greek island of Crete. While successful, their casualties were high, and thereafter Hitler never again used his paratroops (German: "Fallschirmjäger") for such a large operation, most often committing these well trained men to ground fighting, and only to limited jump operations. In fact, as the war went on, fewer and fewer German "paratroops" were actually even trained to make jumps.  

I've read the book, which is very good, and the movie is well worth seeing, especially if you like war movies. There is the human side to the movie too, including the Dutch civilian population, and one American soldier who goes through hell to get his wounded buddy to a field hospital, where he can't get the doctor to examine his friend (I won't disclose the outcome). Of course, courage is on display in various instances, and there is a brave, but light touch to one scene, where the surrounded, badly outnumbered and outgunned British paratroopers are told by an English speaking German officer that "my general is willing to discuss surrender." The British officer replies that, "We don't have the facilities to take all of you Germans prisoner, so we have to reject the offer." The confused German officer walks away.

* Cornelius Ryan was an Irish journalist and author who later moved to the United States and worked as a journalist for some magazines, the most prominent of which was "TIME."

** The Allies had to transport supplies hundreds of miles from Normandy across France to reach their forces in eastern France and in Belgium.

*** The Allied belief that the war could soon be over was not without justification, as the Germans had suffered some 550,000 to 650,000 casualties (killed, wounded, missing/captured) in western Europe from the time of D-Day until September (including southern France, where another Allied invasion took place along the Mediterranean coast in August). Estimates are difficult, but perhaps 20,000 casualties had been taken in Italy in the early summer, where Rome fell on June 4, 1944, and German forces withdrew to northern Italy. In Russia, the southern sector of the front had been pummeled, and Rumania, a German ally, had surrendered and changed sides in August, with German losses of about 250,000 killed, wounded and missing/captured. In the north, Finland, a German ally, battered by Soviet attacks, agreed to a ceasefire in early September, in preparation for the signing of a formal armistice about two weeks later. In central Russia, a huge Soviet offensive in late June brought the virtual destruction of an entire German army group (Army Group Center), and casualties of at least 350,000 killed, wounded and missing/captured (figures vary) in just six weeks time.

**** Von Rundstedt is played by long time German actor Wolfgang Preiss, who played many a German general or other German officer in World War Two movies during his extensive career. SS General Willi Bittrich is played by well known actor Maximilian Schell, who was born in Vienna, but then moved to Zurich, Switzerland with his family because of the Nazis. He was the brother of actress Maria Schell and he won an Academy Award for his performance in "Judgment at Nuremberg," and he was nominated for Academy Awards in other films. Field Marshal Model is played by Austrian actor Walter Kohut, who was married to Immy Schell, another sister of Maximilian Schell. Kohut died just about three years after "A Bridge Too Far" from a circulatory disorder at the age of 52. SS General Ludwig is played by German actor Hardy Krüger (usually as 'Kruger' in English), who is known for a number of non-German films like "Hatari," with John Wayne and "The Secret of San Vittorio," with Anthony Quinn. 

***** As the Arnhem bridge didn't fall to the Allies, thus, "a bridge too far," a comment one British general made about the operation.

****** As with the German scenes, the Dutch scenes are in Dutch, with English subtitles, so if you are learning Dutch, this would be good practice.

Photo from MGM Home Entertainment DVD release, 1998

WORD HISTORY:
Grim-This word goes back to Indo European "ghrem," which had the meaning "to thunder," but also the figurative "to be angry." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "grimmaz," which meant "furious, fierce," and by extension, "gloomy." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "grimm," which meant "fierce, dire, severe, with pain."  This then became "grim," where it has remained for many centuries. The modern meanings of "gloomy (for outlook), downcast (for demeanor), evil looking (for appearance), fierce (for determination), all generally trace back to the old meanings. Old English also had a noun form, "grima," which meant "warrior mask," which "seemingly" led to an association with death, and the further meaning "ghostly figure," and that association with death and ghostly figure most certainly had influence on the development of the term "the Grim Reaper" in the 1800s. Forms in the other Germanic languages: German has the noun "Grimm" (intense feeling of anger, fury) and the adjective "grimmig" (fierce, severe, grim, ferocious); Dutch has "grimmig" (harsh, unpleasant, sullen, gloomy of outlook); Danish has "grim" (ugly); Icelandic "grimmur" (fierce, cruel);   Swedish has "grym" (cruel, wild, fierce); Frisian and Low German Saxon once had "grim," but no longer use the word, and I could not find a form in Norwegian.

Flemish Beef And Beer Stew

Flanders is the northern part of multicultural (Latin, Celtic and Germanic) and trilingual Belgium (Flemish/Dutch, French and German are all official). The language of Flanders is "Flemish," a dialect of Dutch, and it is therefore closely related to English, Low German, German, and Frisian. In more recent decades the term "Flemish" has been replaced more and more with "Dutch." The people of Flanders are called "Flemings," so if your family name is "Fleming," there is a chance that at least that part of your family tree traces back to Flanders, although that is not a certainty, as not all family names "Fleming" relate to Flanders. Belgium is known for its beer, and the stew I'm covering in this recipe uses beer as one of its main ingredients.

For a brief sketch of the history of the overall region, this is a link to my article on the subject. The history is very complicated, but my article should give you a little understanding:  http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2010/07/german-question-part-twenty.html  

As with all popular recipes, there are variations to this recipe, often determined by the use of regional beers in Belgium, or the addition of carrots, or mushrooms, or of another herb, like tarragon, but the basic recipe seems to be pretty firm. I only tried this recipe once, but it was at least fifteen years ago, and where I got the recipe, I'm not sure, but since I had it jotted down on paper, it may have been from some television show.

The amounts I'm using will give you a basis for how to make a larger amount.

1 1/2 lbs. beef chuck, bite size chunks
2 slices bacon, chopped
2 large onions, sliced or chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped (this was not in all recipes, but it was in the original recipe I used)
tablespoon or so of flour, enough to coat the beef
3/4 tablespoon dark brown sugar (if you only have light, use light, the "brown sugar police" won't get you)
1  12 to 16 oz bottle of brown or red ale *
1 to 1 1/2 cups of beef stock
1 teaspoon of thyme
2 medium leaves
1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard ("Ah, pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?" Actually I make my own.)
1 tablespoon of cider vinegar
salt and pepper (use in two phases, first some mixed with the flour to season the beef, then later when all other ingredients are added, add a little more to the pan)
1 tablespoon of parsley

Coat the beef in the flour mixed with some salt and pepper. In a Dutch oven (I guess this is because Flemish is a dialect of Dutch .. okay, settle down, I'm just kidding) saute the bacon until the fat is rendered, remove the bacon and set it aside. Brown the beef in the bacon fat (you can pour off some of the fat, but it is only from 2 slices of bacon to brown 1 1/2 lbs of beef), when the beef is pretty will browned, add the onions and let cook until they begin to soften, then add the garlic and let cook until it also softens. Add the rest of the ingredients, except the parsley, the brown sugar and the vinegar, but include the bacon. Bake at 350 for about an hour, then add the brown sugar and vinegar, stir and let bake another 20 to 30 minutes, or until the meat is tender. Add the parsley and stir right after removing the dish from the oven. This is often, but not always, served with fries. Of course a glass of beer is mandatory, or the "beer police" WILL GET YOU! Then again, if you have more than one beer, the REAL police may get you.

* I checked several recipes and all but one used brown or red ale, but the one used light (in color, not calories) regular American beer. Of course, if you want to try to be authentic, you can pretty easily find Belgian beers nowadays, or American made Belgian-style beers. I love brown ale, so this kind of dish must have been invented with me in mind, albeit that I read somewhere that it was invented in like 1380, or some such date, but hey, they anticipated me. The United States now has lots of small craft brewers which make all sorts of beers once only generally available through imports, and that was if you could find them, or afford them. I prefer to support American made products, especially if they are from companies that pay and treat their workers decently. I'm not against a special treat of an import once in a while, so if you buy a Belgian import for this recipe, I'm fairly certain you won't trigger the "Great Recession, Part Two," or cause a gigantic leap in the trade deficit. English brown ales are excellent, and German Altbier is even more so, in my opinion. The German term "alt," is simply the English word "old," but it doesn't mean the beer has been sitting around since the turn of the century, but rather that it was brewed in "the old style;" that is, with yeasts fermented at room temperature, not at a chilled temperature. Ale is simply a type of beer, just like lager, stout, or pilsner.   

WORD HISTORY:
Leek-The ultimate origin of this word is unclear, but it "seems" the only forms outside of the Germanic languages were borrowed from Germanic (some Slavic languages have forms, as does Finnish ^). Some "suggest" its origins are from an Indo European word, the meaning of which was then developed into the name for the plants in Old Germanic. Besides the word itself, it is also the second part of English "garlic." Old Germanic had "lauka," which was a general word for "leek, onion, garlic, chive" (all from the same plant family). This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "leac," with the "e" and "a" originally pronounced separately, and with the same general Germanic meaning. Later the "e" sound alone prevailed and the spelling became "leek," and the meaning narrowed to the more specific plant, as English had its own word "garlic," but English relinquished its own compound form "enneleac/ynneleac" in favor of "onion," a word borrowed from French ("chive" was also borrowed from French). The other Germanic languages have: German "Lauch" (leek), ^^ Low German Saxon "Look" (leek), West Frisian "knyflok," as the second part of a compound (garlic, leek), Dutch "look" (leek, garlic), Danish "løg" (onion), Norwegian "løk" (onion), Icelandic "laukur" (onion), and Swedish "lök" (onion).

^ The Slavic tribes often had lots of contact with the Germanic tribes long ago, so this is certainly possible. Finnish, a non Indo European language, borrowed words from both Germanic and Slavic sources.

^^ Some of the other Germanic languages still use compounds with their respective forms of "leek" for the more specialized plant meanings. For instance, German uses its word in compounds for two of the other plants: "Schnittlauch," meaning "chive" and "Knoblauch," for "garlic," but the word for "onion" ("Zwiebel") was borrowed from Latin, and besides the former English compound for onion, English too used a form, "cipe," borrowed from the same Latin word, but these forms were replaced by "onion."

The Winter Olympics

NOTE: No "Word History" for this article

So the 2014 Winter Olympics, held in Sochi, Russia, have ended without any terrorist incident, as the biggest problem was the warmer than expected temperatures wreaking havoc with ice and snow conditions for some events. From comments made on television, Russia did a really good job. The great thing is, athletes from all over the world come together to compete in front of large television audiences, as well as the live audiences at the various event venues. They have given much time in training to perfect their skills and in using those skills in various competitions leading up to their being selected for their Olympic teams. Some have their dreams shattered early on, others enjoy the ultimate triumph of winning a gold medal. All can be proud for just having been chosen to participate.

For about two weeks the world comes together briefly to compete and to show national pride, but hopefully not so much national pride as to get in the way of showing respect for the achievement other nations' athletes. Yes, we want our own athletes to win, but there is no shame in giving credit to athletes from other countries, in spite of the broken hearts felt when others triumph over us. No nation will go into decline because their athletes didn't win a ski, skating, snowboarding, hockey, sledding or curling match. All participants have tremendous athletic abilities, which I appreciate, seeing that I've never even tried ice skating, not that I'm about to try at my this point in my life, as I have enough physical ailments and I don't need to shorten any time I have left on this earth, if I can help it. I'll miss the games, but their absence makes me appreciate them more when they return.

ABC Wide World of Sports debuted in the early 1960s when I was a kid, mainly televising track and field, swimming and winter sporting events. I watched it often and their introductory segment became famous for the saying, "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat," which brought the comedic paraphrase, "The thrill of victory and the agony of da feet," a saying which will become pertinent again in just two years, as the Summer Olympics will occupy center stage.

The Olympics gives small nations the chance to compete and to excel. A special mention here for the Jamaican bobsled team. I'm not a weather historian, but when was the last time it snowed in Jamaica? Maybe like the Ice Age? The triumphs of countries like Norway and the Netherlands should not make any American fear that Norwegian ski troops will soon be invading the slopes of the Rocky Mountains, or that Dutch skaters may come skating across the Atlantic to reclaim Manhattan, although they may drink a "Manhattan." * Perhaps the likes of Lush Limbaugh and other spewers of hate have had nightmares about Canadian hockey players occupying parts of our northern states, but no, I think the nation is safe and we can be proud of all of our Olympic athletes, and they don't have to have a medal for us to be proud of them, but to those who won medals, a special ovation and pat on the back for a job well done. Now... about that Manhattan ... where are those Dutch skaters?

* For those unaware, a "Manhattan" is a cocktail typically of whiskey, sweet vermouth, angostura bitters, and a cherry, but there are variations.

Tea Time

Expanded a bit on 12-27-2015 and photo added, as well as a little editing on 8-19-21

Tea drinking apparently goes back at least 4500 to 5000 years in China. It wasn't until the mid 1500s that western Europeans came into contact with tea, as the Portuguese settled in Macao (also "Macau") in southeastern China, which remained as a Portuguese colony until 1999! Then Dutch traders established themselves in southeastern Asia in Indonesia in the early 1600s, which later became the Dutch colony "the Dutch East Indies." The mid 1600s brought the marriage of England's King Charles II to a Portuguese princess, who made tea drinking a prominent feature among the nobility. The price of tea in those times was prohibitive for the spread of the drink to those not in the upper classes, but increased trade and involvement in India brought more tea, and lower prices, and sugar, into England. It wasn't long before the British began to sweeten their tea with sugar from the New World and tea drinking became popular with the general population, making tea the national drink. The ancestral homeland of the English (the Anglo-Saxons) is northern Germany, and their close relatives, the Saxons and the Frisians, still inhabit the area. The similar climate to Britain along the North Sea coast of Germany, and the availability of tea from Dutch importers, made tea a popular drink with the Frisian and Saxon population of the area, where tea is still the regional beverage. In the East Frisian part of northern Germany, rock candy is used to sweeten their tea, with some cream carefully layered a bit below the surface. The idea is to provide three distinct tastes: the bitter black tea at the top, the tea/cream mixture in the middle, and then the addition of the sweetness of the melting rock candy near the bottom. The East Frisians are known for their pickiness for black tea and their brands are considered topnotch.

Russians have had a strong attachment to tea going back to the 1600s, although its high price initially limited its availability to the upper classes. Russians traded directly with the Chinese by overland route, organized in caravans. It was quite a trip and "supposedly" the tea acquired a smoky flavor from being near the campfires during its long journey,* a characteristic still common in the most popular form of black tea in Russia, although the flavoring is now added. It is the national beverage of Russia, although vodka drinkers may question that... hic! Hey, I'm a tea drinker, honest!

Chai is a spiced black tea (sometimes green tea) and is my favorite. Chai typically has a lot of milk and sugar, and you can most certainly get it in any Indian or Pakistani restaurant in the U.S. or elsewhere. I make my own, pretty much every day, although I'm sure some Indians might not approve of my recipe or technique, although from what I'm told, there are considerable variations, even in India. Generally chai is black tea in about a 50-50 milk/water mixture, but I use far less milk (I use evaporated milk). When I've bought chai at Indian restaurants, it has always been very sweet, and I make it somewhat less so. I use fresh grated ginger, some ground cardamom, a bit of ground cloves (and often some ground allspice, too), a small bit of mace (or nutmeg), and some ground cinnamon. Some Indians or Pakistanis use black pepper in chai, too, and others use fennel seed. After letting the spices steep for awhile, you can strain the tea into your cup. You can buy tea bags already with a spice mixture in them, but I've never been very impressed with the result. You can also put the ingredients into a pan and gently boil the mixture. In this case, I tend to use a cinnamon stick, rather than ground cinnamon, as well as whole cloves and crushed cardamom seeds. I prefer to add the milk after the cooking is done, but you can cook it right along with the tea. Note: A while back, I also started using black pepper in chai, sometimes ground or sometimes whole crushed peppercorns. It gives the chai that added "zip."  

* It seems a bit of a stretch to me that tea packed for such a trip would acquire the smoky flavor this way. I wonder if at some point some open tea was exposed to the campfire smoke, the users liked it, and they then chose to repeat the process?

 

WORD HISTORY:
Tea-This word comes from a Sino-Tibetan word, "sla/tsla," which likely meant "leaf." Sino-Tibetan is a large language family in Asia and Southeast Asia which is the ancient ancestor of the Chinese dialects, like Mandarin and Cantonese, as well as southeastern Asian languages like Burmese and others. Sino-Tibetan is to these modern Asian languages what Indo European is to English, German, Italian, Russian, etc. Min Nan, a dialect of Sino-Tibetan had "te." Malay, an unrelated language from the Austronesian language family^  in southeastern Asia, borrowed the word from Min Nan as "teh." The Dutch East India Company was a private company granted Asian trade rights by the Dutch government in the early 1600s. The Dutch picked up the word from Malay "teh," rendered in Dutch as "thee," which they then brought back to western Europe, along with a lot of the product itself. English borrowed the word in the mid 1600s as both "tee" and "tea," before finally settling on the latter. Many other European languages borrowed the word from Dutch, for example, German has "Tee" (pronounced "tay"), West Frisian has "tee," French has "thé." Interestingly, the Portuguese had established themselves in southeastern China, at Macao, in the mid 1500s. The Chinese dialect in Macao pronounced their form of Sino-Tibetan "sla/tsla" as "cha." The Portuguese took the term as "chá," which they have retained to this day as their word for "tea." This same Chinese term spread elsewhere, providing forms to Russian and Persian, and from Persian to Hindi and other languages/dialects in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. English borrowed the word, likely from Hindi, as "chai," a term now used more specifically for "sweetened spiced tea." It is pronounced "ch," as in Charles, and "eye."    

^ Hawaiian is from the Austronesian language family, too.

The German Question, Part Ninety-One

"A Divisive Treaty" Part Three

"War Crimes"

The Treaty of Versailles sought to address "war crimes," with one section specifically aimed at none other than former Kaiser Wilhelm II, mainly for violation of "sanctity of treaties." The treaty bluntly says it does "publicly arraign" the former Kaiser, and that a special tribunal consisting of five judges would be formed to hear the case, and the tribunal would have the power to then provide for any punishment deemed necessary. The United States, France, Great Britain, Italy, and Japan would each provide one judge. The treaty also specifically stated that the Allies would ask the Netherlands to surrender Wilhelm to them for the trial.* The treaty clearly stated that Wilhelm was guaranteed his right to defense.

Further, the treaty said that Germany would have to turn over for trial any person of the former German government or German military accused of any "violation of the laws and customs of war." If such a person were accused by only one country, that person would be tried in and by that country. If accusations came from more than one country, then the person would be tried by military tribunals of the countries involved. Again, any accused would be guaranteed the right to defense. The (then) current German government was required to provide any documents or other information about such alleged acts to the Allies.

* Wilhelm had crossed into the Netherlands and had remained there since the end of the war.

WORD HISTORY: 

Swine-This word, related to "sow" (female swine, rhymes with 'how'), traces back to the Indo European base/root "su," which meant "swine." This gave the Old Germanic offshoot "swinan/swinon," which in turn gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "swin," which a few hundred years later tacked on the ending 'e' to show that the 'i' was long. Common throughout the other Germanic languages: German has "Schwein" (like its Old English cousin, it was originally spelled "swin" in Old High German); one form in Low German is "Swien;" Dutch has "zwijn;" Frisian has "swyn;" Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Icelandic all have "svin."

The German Question, Part Eighty-Two

Kaiser Wilhelm & World War I" Part Two/L "The Germans At War"

"The End Of The Second Reich"

Although not routed by the Allies, the German armies were in retreat. The outbreak of revolution stunned Kaiser Wilhelm, and the demand from even the Americans that he abdicate the German throne left him clutching at straws. His mind tried to rationalize that he could give up the German Imperial throne, but still remain "King of Prussia." Remember, although Germany had united into a modern nation in 1871, the individual German states, like Prussia, kept their positions within the new "Reich" ("empire") and the nobility retained their various titles within their respective states; thus the Kaiser ("Emperor") also held the title "King of Prussia." The various princes, grand dukes, dukes, etc all kept their titles throughout each German state. The problem for Wilhelm was, he failed to grasp how serious the situation at home had really become, as the German government was virtually paralyzed by the revolution, which included the more extreme communist elements. Prince Max von Baden, as the new head of the government ("Chancellor"), forced the Kaiser's hand by announcing Wilhelm's abdication as both Kaiser and King of Prussia on November 9. Von Baden then resigned as Chancellor in favor of Friedrich Ebert, the head of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, who had already been given a position by von Baden in his government in an effort to satisfy the revolutionary fervor. Ebert and the Social Democrats were far more moderate than the German Communists, and they even supported the continuation of the monarchy in some form. However, another Social Democrat, Philipp Scheidemann, a prominent leader of the Reichstag (the German Parliament), announced the establishment of "the German Republic," for fear of a takeover of the German government by more radical elements. The Kaiser, who was in Belgium at the time, did not presently agree to the abdication, but crossed the border into the Netherlands, which was a neutral country.*

Wilhelm became convinced that the abdication announcement would prevail when even army leaders told him they could not guarantee the troops' willingness to fight German civilians to preserve his throne. His sons agreed (he had six) not to put forth any claim to the German Imperial throne or to the Prussian throne. Wilhelm finally conceded, thus ending the Second German Reich and the Hohenzollern dynasty.

* For those who have followed this series, it is interesting to note that a German Kaiser fled to Dutch territory, an area that had once belonged to the "old" German Empire, but had gained independence in the 1600s; thus giving us part of the answer to "The German Question." Sort of ironic.

WORD HISTORY:
Up-This word goes back to the Indo European root "upo," with the notion of "from under" or "from below," "to go over/above." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "upa," then "upp/up," with the same basic meaning, which then gave Anglo-Saxon (Old English) "up/uppe," with English eventually settling on "up" for the spelling. The Old Germanic form also gave Old High German "uf," with a long "u" sound. After the elements of the Germanic tribes that left what is now northern Germany and founded England, what linguists call a "sound shift" took place among "some" of the Germanic dialects located south of that area, which is more elevated; thus Old "HIGH" German is the terminology that developed for these dialects. It is important to remember, not all Germanic dialects in the region were affected (the "low" dialects were not affected, and these became Frisian, Dutch and Low German), but for those that were affected, what had been the "p" sound (no toilet jokes, please), often became an "f" or "pf" sound in those dialects. Just as English speakers don't pronounce many words as they were pronounced centuries ago, German pronunciation too has changed, and the "u" sound, in this case, became "au" in German, which is English "ow," as in "how;" thus giving modern German "auf," as their word for "up." With the "low" dialects unaffected by the sound shift, you can see in just this one word, why modern English is closer to Frisian, Low German and Dutch than to modern standard German, which is based much more upon the "high" dialects. The various forms of "up" are widespread in the Germanic languages, and besides English "up" and German "auf:" Frisian, Dutch and Danish have "op," Icelandic and Swedish have "upp," Norwegian has "opp." The Low German dialects have "op," and the mixed Berlin dialect, which was originally "Low German," but then with standard German superimposed on it, but with retention of some "Low" features, has "uff," and Bavarian (a high dialect) has "aaf."

The German Question, Part Thirty-Eight

"Aftermath of Napoleon" Part Two

Here are more of the changes brought to the map of Europe by the Congress of Vienna ("Wiener Kongress," in German):

First, in "Part One," I inadvertently left out another gain by Prussia; the part of Pomerania that had been occupied by Sweden (most of Pomerania was already part of Prussia). Pomerania was a territory in the north along the Baltic Sea.

While the Netherlands was no longer connected with Germany, since it had been a part of the German Empire for centuries, I thought I'd mention here that the Netherlands, and much of what is now Belgium (then called "the Austrian Netherlands," as it had been a Habsburg possession), were formed into a single entity called "The United Kingdom of the Netherlands," under the Dutch king. It wasn't until 1830 that the southern part, then called "Belgium" (actually Kingdom of Belgium), was granted independence.

Luxembourg had dynastic connections with Prussia, but it was divided from Prussia by other German lands. A German land, "Nassau," was a possession of the Dutch king, but the territory was located essentially east of the Rhine River, smack dab in German territory. It was decided that the Prussian and Dutch monarchs would swap these territories, giving each easier access to his own land. While Luxembourg became a personal possession of the Dutch king, it remained a part of Germany (more precisely of the German Confederation, see below).

Austria gained Tirol (a German territory, much of which lies in the Alps, with the far southern part having some local Italian majorities),* Salzburg (of "Sound of Music" fame), some lands in the Balkans, some lands in Italy,** some lands from Russia (but contiguous with other Habsburg lands in eastern Europe).

There were various other border adjustments to some of the German states (and other countries, too), but one of the more important changes was the establishment of the "German Confederation" ("Deutscher Bund") to replace the old empire, and thus keep some semblance of German unity. Instead of the hundreds, and at times even thousands, of German states that constituted the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, the German Confederation had only thirty-eight.*** In place of the former parliament, the Reichstag, there was the "Bundesversammlung" ("Federal Assembly"), which met in Frankfurt am Main, with Austria holding the presidency. The "delegates" were not elected by a vote of the people, but rather were typically appointed by the ruling prince (or whatever title used in each individual state) of each state. The French Revolution (and America's founding as an independent nation) had spread ideas of democracy throughout much of Europe, and in truth, the German ruling princes (as they were collectively known, regardless of each actual title) tried to keep a lid on such sentiments; thus the Federal Assembly was not democratically elected.

To be continued..... (A Word History is below the notes)

* Tirol had been a Habsburg possession, but when Napoleon defeated the Austrians in 1805, the territory was handed over to Napoleon's ally, Bavaria (a member of the French sponsored "Confederation of the Rhine;" see previous article). The local population eventually rebelled, led by Andreas Hofer, a famous Austrian/German hero. The rebels won many victories, taking back much of the territory, but the odds against them were too great, as besides Bavarian troops, Napoleon had French troops and troops from the Kingdom of Italy (a Napoleon created state, mainly based in what is now northern Italy, with guess who as king? NAPOLEON). Hofer was eventually captured, tried and executed by firing squad, with Napoleon supposedly telling his subordinates, "Give him a fair trial, then shoot him." (What would he have gotten with an unfair trial?)

** At that time, Italy was not a united nation, but rather a number of kingdoms and principalities, much like the German lands.

*** Like with the old empire, the number of states varied from time to time, but unlike with the empire, the number didn't vary much.

WORD HISTORY:
(After)math-This is a compound of after + math, and here we are only going to be concerned with the second part, "math." I'll deal with "after" in a separate history later. This is not "math," as in 3+3=ah, don't tell me....now to the fingers of the other hand....let's see...6! This goes back to the Indo European root "me(h)" (not connected to our word "me"), with the notion of "cutting down grass or grain." It is closely related to "mow," as in "mow the lawn." The Indo European root developed into "maetha/metha" in its Old Germanic offspring, which then gave Anglo-Saxon (Old English) "maeth," later changed to "math." German, a close relative of English, has "Mahd," which means "mowing," and also "a swathe cut through grass/or agricultural plants, and that which has been mowed," and Frisian once had "meth." So "aftermath" indicates "the result of mowing, that which is left after mowing." The modern (figurative) meaning of "aftermath" came about in the late 1400s; that is, "the results or consequences of an event."