Band of Brothers Viewing Guide #3

 

EPISODE 3

Did Luz do imitations?  Yes.

 

In Carentan, the book does not mention Luz finding a family huddling in a shop.

 

That’s the chaplain Father John Maloney giving last rites in Carentan.  He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.  He appears several times in the book.

 

The book does not mention Winters getting a message from a soldier riding a horse.

 

NOT HISTORICAL LICENSE:  Blithe did lose his vision (hysterical blindness) and did regain it after Winters talked to him at the aid station.

 

combat fatigue -  what was called shell shock in WWI and is called PTSD today

 

In the book, when Smith stabs Talbert, Talbert was wearing a German poncho.

 

The book does not have Speirs saying you should just accept the fact that you are already dead.

 

The name of the battle in the hedgerows is “The Battle of Bloody Gulch”.

 

NOT HISTORICAL LICENSE:  Welsh and McGrath did go into no man’s land to use a bazooka against a tank.

 

The book does not have Blythe shooting a German who is wearing some edelweiss.

 

When Blithe is shot, he was part of a five-man patrol led by Guarnere.

 

The poem about Smith stabbing Talbert was unavailable to Ambrose for the book.  Most likely, the series replicated it as best it could.

 

What happened to Blithe?  The series gets the Blithe post-script wrong, partly because some of the veterans thought he had died in 1948, not having fully recovered.   This was an inexcusable mistake.  In fact, he was actually hit in the shoulder and fully recovered. He stayed in the Army and rose to Master Sergeant.  He served in Korea.  He died in 1967, the father of two.