Band of Brothers Viewing Guide #8

 

EPISODE 8 -  The Last Patrol

The 101^st had been moved to Hagenau to help blunt the German diversionary offensive in Alsace. Operation Nordwind was designed to pull forces away from the Bulge to help them evacuate their forces.

In the series, David Webster is at Toccoa from the start with Easy Company (you can see him in the early episodes), but actually he started in F Company.  He dropped into Normandy as part of Headquarters Company for 2^nd Battalion.  He transferred to Easy before Operation Market Garden.

The book does not mention the animosity towards Webster when he returned, probably because there was none.  He does not mention any problems in his own book.  It lays it on a bit thick, but Webster was the type who never volunteered for anything and would not have been in a hurry to return.

You could not go outside in Hagenau during the daylight because of German fire.  The men would not have been walking around in the town (it was actually a large city) like they are in the episode. 

Sgt. Mercier, not Martin, was in charge of the patrol.  Webster was not on the patrol. 

They brought back two prisoners and left a wounded German on the river bank.  He proceeded to moan for hours before grenades were thrown to end his suffering.

Cobb did not have a fight with Martin, it was with Lt. Foley.  He was drunk and was court martialed, but not discharged until the end of the war.

NOT HISTORICAL LICENSE:  Winters did tell the men to lie about going on a second patrol.

David Webster -  Webster is one of the more fascinating members of the unit.  He was attending Harvard when he enlisted in 1943.  He wanted to be a writer and looked at the war as an experience that would enhance his writing.  He chose to be an infantryman when his wealthy family could have arranged for him to be an officer.  Over time he became more cynical, anti-Army, and very anti-German.  This was partly caused by the death of his best friend in Holland.  He was also close to Hoobler.  He really did say “They got me” when he was wounded at the crossroads.  He never rose above private, partly because he did not want to.  He had earned the Bronze Star and should have been an NCO.   He was 4 points shy at the end of the war and missed being sent to Japan because the war ended.  He was the last of the original Toccoa crew to be sent home.  He returned to Harvard and graduated.  He became a newspaper reporter.  He became obsessed with sharks and wrote a book entitled “Myth and Maneater.”  He also wrote possibly the best memoir of any member -  “Parachute Infantry:  An American Paratrooper’s Memoir of D-Day and the Fall of the Third Reich.”  The book had a big influence on the miniseries.  He was lost at sea in 1961 on a shark research mission in his sail boat.