The REAL Band of Brothers

I like the HBO series "Band of Brothers", no doubt about it. I remembered when I watched the series how impressed I was with how the men of 101st Airborne Division held out against the continuous artillery bombardment and encirclement by the Germans in the Battle of the Bulge.

However, it was only recently when I finished a book on the Second World War told from the perspective of the Wehrmacht (the German Army) that I realised that compared to what the German soldiers went through in the war, the Battle of the Bulge was really no big deal. To put things into its proper perspective, we must note the following points; that the Americans were encircled for only about a week, they had abundant food and warm clothing for the winter while they hid in their trenches, they were aware that reinforcements could come anytime (though out of pride, the Americans were later said to remark that they never did ask for reinforcements) and finally, they knew they were on the winning side of the war. Compare this to the battle front in the USSR, where some German units were encircled by the Soviets for months, held out against thousands of assaults and without sufficient warm clothing and other basic equipment. What the 101st Airborne Division endured was hardly superhuman. Most of the contemporary renditions of the Second World War had the Western front as its setting but the most brutal battles and highest casualties were suffered in the east, in the Titanic struggle between the Soviet Union and Germany.

I once read a comment on the web that if one only saw "Band of Brothers" and "Saving Private Ryan", one would probably come away with the impression that the United States single-handedly deliver the world from Facism and that the Americans were the best and bravest soldiers. I suppose most people with more than a rudimentary knowledge of the Second World War would cite the landing at Normandy on 6 June 1944 as the most important battle that decisively turned the tide against the Third Reich. Nothing could be further from the truth. The D-Day landing, the largest sea and airborne invasion in human history was in fact an act of desperation. The Americans and British were desperate because already in the East, after untold losses, the Red Army was driving the Wehrmacht all the way back to Germany and they were afraid that if they did not push in soon, the whole of Europe would fall under the Red Flag. Comparatively, the Americans and British had a much easier time fighting the Germans because the Soviets had done all the dirty work for them in weakening the Germans with even higher losses on themselves.

A close examination of the war should also reveal that the Americans were not exceptional soldiers. The war was won not so much because the Americans had better commanders and more well trained soldiers. In fact, man to man and commander to commander, the Germans were much better. The war was won because the Allies basically out produced the Germans in everything, from human bodies in the number of soldiers, to rifles, aircraft, tanks and other commodities necessary for the conduct of modern warfare. The war was simply won on brute economic strength. Picture Uncle Sam as a heavy weight boxer and Germany as a middle weight boxer and during the match, the heavy weight boxer could at any time climb off the ring to rest, drink energy booster and receive medical aid. The middle weight boxer had however continuously fought two matches and had none of the luxuries of the heavy weight. Even an idiot could guess the outcome of the match before it started.

In fact the amazing thing here was how the Germans could held out so long. For most of the war, the Germans found themselves undersupplied, given insane orders by Hitler (the most common of which was to hold ground and die) and fighting on more than one front. Yet they were able to achieve their objectives through the brilliance of many of their commanders and the superior quality of their solders. However, you would never get a German version of the "Band of Brothers". There would probably not be a Russian version of the "Band of Brothers" though they went through real hell compared to the Americans. Instead, you would only get the American version for 2 reasons. First, they won the war and second Hollywood belongs to America. The real band of brothers would thus remained forgotten, their bodies strewn in unmarked graves across the vast plains of Russia.