Band of Brothers: Episode 8, The Last Patrol

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, then Captain Herbert Sobel 

 

Here is the link to the previous article as Episode 7: The Breaking Point

 

https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2023/09/band-of-brothers-they-helped-defeat_19.html

 

 

Before the actual episode begins, a clip from an interview of the real Dick Winters is shown, and he tells how, at this stage of the war in February 1945, that he and many other men felt there was potential to survive the war, as the Battle of the Bulge had broken large-scale German offensive capabilities. He says he and the others wanted to be careful and to not take any unnecessary risks. So, keep this in mind about this episode and thereafter.

 

This episode begins in February 1945 in the city of Haguenau in Alsace with Private David Webster returning to the company after having been wounded in Holland. Webster provides the narration of the episode. The casualties suffered at Bastogne and Foy have left Easy Company's ranks thinned and the survivors are a mix of cynical, bitter and worn down. Webster isn't warmly greeted as he seems to have thought he would be, and the sour attitude leaves him feeling like a replacement. Some of the men resent Webster having been gone for about four months, while they took heavy casualties and suffered the loss of friends, now missing from the ranks. He goes to the company command post, where Sergeant Lipton is on a couch suffering with pneumonia, but he is still trying to help as much as he can. Lipton has Webster take a seat as he prepares to assign him to one of the platoons. Then in walks a young lieutenant named Henry Jones (played by Colin Hanks, the son of Tom Hanks), who had graduated from West Point on what had been D-Day, June 6, 1944. Company commander Speirs is expected shortly, and when he appears, Captain Winters enters and tells Speirs that the regimental commander, Colonel Sink, wants a special patrol to make a raid on a house across the river used as an outpost and observation post by the Germans. Sink wants prisoners for interrogation, and he then wants the house destroyed. 

Winters tells Speirs to pick 15 men for the patrol, including one who speaks German. He then specifically names Babe Heffron (played by Robin Laing), Earl McClung (played by Rocky Marshall) and Joseph Ramirez (played by Rene L. Moreno) to go on the patrol. Jones has been present for all of this, and he wants to volunteer, but Speirs wants men with experience, so he turns him down. Jones and Webster are assigned to the 2nd Platoon and they have to duck and dodge some German mortar fire on their way to the platoon. Malarkey briefs Jones on the situation, and Jones tells Malarkey about the patrol scheduled for later that night. While Jones and Malarkey talk, the men overhear about the patrol, and this prompts a couple of the guys to try to get information from Webster (he had been present in the company command post and heard everything). They now treat Webster better, and he eventually tells them about the 3 men specifically wanted for the patrol. None of the three is happy about it; so, here we have the contrast of three veteran men not wanting to go on the patrol, but one inexperienced newcomer wanting to volunteer, but who is rejected. Malarkey asks for the platoon's attention to tell the men about the patrol and about the three men already designated to participate, but they tell him they already know, because Webster told them (when they were trying to get the information from Webster, they promised not to tell that he gave them the information). While some of the men breathe a sigh of relief, it means little, as there are still 12 more men to be selected from the overall company. A call comes into Malarkey and he tells the men there are showers now available. On the way to the showers, an explosive round sounds down the street and word goes up that there is a casualty. It turns out to be Sergeant Bill Kiehn (actor un-credited for the role), who was killed.

The men go to the showers, and get fresh uniforms, but afterward, Malarkey is told he is to lead the patrol and the rest of his platoon (2nd) is also included (2nd now includes Webster), along with Shifty Powers of 3rd Platoon. Webster talks with Lieutenant Jones, since Jones has been left out of the patrol, and he tells him Malarkey is tired, and that he (Jones) should take his place. The young lieutenant goes over to Malarkey and talks with him, and Malarkey agrees, but it's not their place to decide such things, as that power lies with Speirs, the company commander, and Winters, the battalion commander. So, a little later Jones and Private Vest (played by Kiernan O'Brien), who also wants to go on the patrol (he has taken care of mail, some supplies and reports, so he wants a combat mission before the war ends) go to Winters and Speirs, and Winters initially turns down Jones, but accepts Vest. Then Jones tells the two officers that Malarkey is tired and agreed to step aside, to which Winters sarcastically replies, "That was nice of him." Winters then reconsiders and tells Jones he can go (Jones' participation will be as an observer, not as the leader of the patrol). Winters and Speirs discuss replacing Malarkey to lead the patrol, as they realize he has been in every major engagement since dropping into Normandy on D-Day, and he has seen his closest friends killed or severely wounded in that time. We also see that Frank Perconte has returned, after being wounded in the butt during the fighting at Foy.

The participants meet with Winters, who tells them Sergeant Martin will lead the patrol. The plan for the mission is discussed and certain men are chosen by Martin to actually go with him to try to grab Germans as prisoners. The patrol must cross the Moder River in some rubber boats to the German held side, take some prisoners, place some time-delay demolition charges in the house used by the Germans as an outpost, and then get back in the boats and return to the American held side. Others from the company will provide fire power to cover the returning men and prisoners. Webster gets Liebgott out of having to be a direct part of the patrol, as Liebgott and Webster both speak German, and Webster says he can be the translator, which leaves Liebgott in the safer position of helping to provide covering fire.

The men get into the boats, but as they begin to cross the river, the last boat capsizes; so, the other boats go on to the other side of the river (the men in the capsized boat make it back safely to the American side). The men fire a rifle grenade into the target house, and Private Eugene Jackson (played by Andrew Lee Potts) throws a grenade in, but he charges inside too quickly, and the shrapnel from his own grenade hits him in the head and neck. The rest of the men charge in and take three prisoners, one of whom is wounded. The men get the prisoners and Jackson out, and Webster plants the demolition charge. There's a lot of firing, the men get to the boats, signal by blowing a whistle for covering fire, and they get back to the American side, but they have to leave the wounded German over on the river bank. 

The men concentrate on helping Jackson, and Martin gets Doc Roe, but Jackson dies. In the morning, Sergeant Martin reports to Winters about Jackson's death, and Winters tells him that it wasn't Martin's fault. Regimental commander Colonel Sink tells Winters that he wants another patrol that night and Winters tells Speirs. Sink shows up and tells Winters, Nixon and Speirs what a great job the men did on the patrol. Sink leaves and Speirs tells Winters that he'll brief the men about the second patrol, but Winters says that he'll do it. They go to the men and Winters lays out the plan, which is the same as the first mission, but further into that part of the town, which makes it more dangerous. He then tells the men to get a good nights sleep, and to report to him in the morning that they had again crossed the river, but that they had been unsuccessful at getting more prisoners. He then tells them they will be moving off of the front line. The men are naturally happy, and we hear that a false report was filed about the mission, but that Sink and other regimental officers never learned what really had happened. 

Winters, Nixon, Speirs and Lieutenant Jones go inside, and Lieutenant Welsh returns from the hospital, and where we see and hear Carwood Lipton's official battlefield commission to lieutenant. Then Winters tells Jones that he is being promoted to first lieutenant and he gives him written orders from the regimental headquarters that he is to join the regiment's staff. When Winters is outside, his friend Nixon gives Winters the news that Winters has been promoted to major. They and the men get into trucks and jeeps to withdraw from the front line.

 

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

WORD HISTORY:

Grenade-This word is related to "grain" and to "gravy," Latin-derived words borrowed by English from French, and to "corn" (the form meaning maize), a word from the Germanic roots of English. "Grenade" goes back to Indo European "ger," which had the notion, "to wear down;" thus also, "to grow older, to mature." This produced Indo European "gerhanom," which meant, "grain;" that is, "the matured part of a plant." This gave Latin "granum," also meaning, "grain, seed," and this spawned the Latin adjective "granatus," meaning "of, about or relating to having grains;" that is, "seeds," and this produced the noun "granatum," which was used with "pomum," a form from Latin "pome," meaning "apple or fruit," which gave Latin "pomum granatum," which meant "pomegranate," literally, "apple of many seeds or grains." This was taken by Latin-based Old French as "pomegrenate," with the word often shortened to its second part in both Latin and French. While types of hurled weapons dates well back in history, as the use of gunpowder became common, its use in bombs also developed to cause the explosion of thrown weapons that caused fragments to violently disperse to kill or wound personnel. The resemblance to pomegranates, which are filled with seeds, fit perfectly for the weapon; thus, "grenade." English took the word from French in the late 1500s, and the word also came to be applied to similar weapons that could be launched from rifles or from grenade launchers. English cousin German also borrowed the word, that borrowing was from Italian "granata," and the German form, "Granate," is used as the general word for "(artillery) shell," besides for the thrown weapon.