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kafka-ohdear · 6 months

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you know, the easy company members' ages are mostly equivalent to others but some are basically a child in a grown man body. a whole squad i'd say. there are:

• skip, don, penkala, they literally have children-like behavior. who will be the child if not these three.

• and we also have luz, hoobler, tab and babe in the problematic children group.

• webgott also belongs in this squad, they argue every single minute and skinny will have to stop them.

• skinny, shifty, eugene, chuck and blithe are also children-like, but they behave perfectly well. they are basically what people mean when they talk about the polite kid.

• and don't forget john hall, the shy little child who deserves the world.

on the other hand, we have the babysitters, or mom and dad group. this group includes:

• obviously, winnix aka the parents of the company;

• and speirton the another parents of easy co. but they are a bit closer to the men of the company somehow;

• randlemartin is a requirement. bull is most certainly the cool dad who will teach you to make models and martin is the mom who will give you a 2 hour long lecture but still let you make the models with you dad (aka bull) afterwards.

we also have the cool uncles and the perosnal babysitters. the uncle squad includes:

• harry and bill, the straights amongst gays.

• dukeman is the only one who will teach you good and valuable knowledge (they are appropriate, of course). he will also bring you candies, but only the right amount. let's say he is the only uncle that can be trusted in the whole squad.

• alton is the cool uncle who will take you for a ride on his motorcycle until you get bored and will answer/teach everything if you asked him no matter if it's appropriate or not;

• and pat christenson, who will draw a literal masterpiece and give it to you if you asked him to.

• buck is the kind of uncle who will sneak you a bunch of candies that are probably enough to keep you full for a goddamn month and will get a lecture with you if you both get caught.

an example for the personal babysitter is george, his personal babysitter and boyfriend is joe toye of course. or the kid will babysits the uncle sometimes. who knows.

band of brother kindergarten/family au, give it to me.

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softspeirs · 1 month

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#they did it!!!!#why was i so nervous for them the entire time lmao #mark lawrence #william dukeman #band of brothers #currahee to normandy

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fayestardust · 2 years

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All of my Band of Brothers paintings so far. Do you have a fave?

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rebeccapearson · 2 years

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for you were made to meet your maker {insp}

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shoshiwrites · 6 months

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Band of Brothers Ages: IRL vs. Actors

Did you know that according to a 1947 study, almost half the men who served in WWII were still under age 26 by the end of the war?

What this is : A (very long) post comparing the ages of the actors in Band of Brothers vs. the IRL figures they are portraying.

Background: Did I need to do this? No. Did anyone ask for this? Also no. Did I do it anyway? Yes.

Disclaimers: This is SUPER approximate for the most part. I based IRL ages off of D-Day unless otherwise noted, and actor ages off of January 1, 2000, the year filming took place (the latter is where the most variation will be because I didn't try to figure out what month filming started). I also didn't fact-check birthdays beyond googling. Most are sourced from the Band of Brothers and Military Wikis on fandom.com, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

I broke them up into rough categories, which are, again, approximate. I know I often forget how young the real life people were here, and this was a good reminder of that. I also found it interesting to see which actors were actually younger than their roles!

Check it all out under the cut ⬇️

~10+ years older

Dale Dye (55) as Col. Robert F. Sink (39) (~16 years)

Michael Cudlitz (35) as Denver "Bull" Randleman (23) (~12)

Marc Warren (32) as Albert Blithe (20) (~12)

Rocky Marshall (33) as Earl J. McClung (21) (~12)

Frank John Hughes (32) as William J. Guarnere (21) (~11)

Neal McDonough (33) as Lynn D. (Buck) Compton (22) (~11)

Dexter Fletcher (33) as John W. Martin (22) (~11)

~5+ years older

Simon Schatzberger (32) as Joseph A. Lesniewski (23) (~9)

Richard Speight Jr. (30) Warren H. (Skip) Muck (22) (~8)

Jason O'Mara (30) as Thomas Meehan (22) (~8)

Ron Livingston (32) as Lewis Nixon (25) (~7)

Donnie Wahlberg (30) as C. Carwood Lipton (24) (~6)

Matthew Settle (30) as Ronald C. Speirs (24) (~6)

Nolan Hemmings (28) as Charles E. "Chuck" Grant (22) (~6)

Douglas Spain (25) as Antonio C. Garcia (19) (~6)

George Calil (26) as James H. "Mo" Alley Jr. (21) (~5)

Rick Gomez (27) as George Luz (22) (~5 year)

Scott Grimes (28) as Donald G. Malarkey (23) (~5)

Stephen Graham (26) as Myron "Mike" Ranney (21) (~5)

~less than 5 years older

Shane Taylor (25) as Eugene G. Roe (21) (~4)

Tim Matthews (23) as Alex M. Penkala Jr. (19) (~4)

Matthew Leitch (24) as Floyd M. "Tab" Talbert (20) (~4)

Peter O'Meara (30) as Norman S. Dike Jr. (26) (~4)

Tom Hardy (22) as John A. Janovec (18) (~4)

Rick Warden (28) as Harry F. Welsh (25) (~3)

Kirk Acevedo (28) as Joseph D. Toye (25) (~3)

Eion Bailey (25) as David Kenyon Webster (22) (~3)

Craig Heaney (26) as Roy W. Cobb (29) (~3)

Damian Lewis (28) as Richard D. Winters (26) (~2)

Robin Laing as Edward J. "Babe" Heffron (~2, 21/23)

Ben Caplan (26) as Walter S. "Smokey" Gordon Jr. (24) (~2)

David Schwimmer (32) as Herbert M. Sobel (33) (~1 year)

Michael Fassbender (22) as Burton P. "Pat" Christenson (21) (~1)

Colin Hanks (22) as Lt. Henry Jones (21) (~1) (age around Bastogne)

Bart Ruspoli (23) as Edward J. Tipper (22) (~1)

~Same age

Peter Youngblood Hills as Darrell C. "Shifty" Powers (21)

Mark Huberman as Lester "Les" Hashey (19)

Younger

Lucie Jeanne (23) as Renée Lemaire (30) (age around Bastogne) (~7)

Ross McCall (23) as Joseph D. Liebgott (29) (~6)

Simon Pegg (29) as William S. Evans (~33) (~4)

Philip Barantini (19) as Wayne A. "Skinny" Sisk (22) (~3)

James Madio (24) as Frank J. Perconte (27) (~3)

Stephen McCole (25) as Frederick "Moose" Heyliger (27) (~2)

Matt Hickey (~16) as Patrick S. O'Keefe (18) (~2)

Incomplete/not found

Phil McKee as Maj. Robert L. Strayer (34)

Rene L. Moreno as Joseph Ramirez (30)

Doug Allen as Alton M. More (24)

David Nicolle as Lt. Thomas A. Peacock (24)

Rebecca Okot as Anna (Augusta Chiwy) (24) (age around Bastogne)

Alex Sabga-Brady as Francis J. Mellet (23)

Mark Lawrence as William H. Dukeman Jr. (22)

Nicholas Aaron as Robert E. (Popeye) Wynn (22)

Peter McCabe as Donald B. Hoobler (21)

Marcos D'Cruze as Joseph P. Domingus (not found)

#ty mercurygray for that sweet sweet jstor access #band of brothers #uhh one more disclaimer it's entirely possible that i mistyped stuff here and that i switched ages/etc.#i did try to proofread though!#anyway. i apologize if anyone has already done this.#shoshi.txt #sort of #it's also very possible that i spent too much time online today

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red-hot-moon · 2 years

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So! The BoB Eindhoven Q&A

Was a blast. The last time I went to one of these was in Bastogne, in 2016, which was a massive event. Hundreds of people, about 20 actors, and just a kind of frantic energy that made me super nervous when we got to pose for photos with the guys. Not so this time. I got there really early and I saw them come in. Doug Allen, Mark Lawrence and Matthew Leitch shook hands with me and introduced themselves. Tim Matthews was there with his twelve-year-old (I think?) son. Everybody just hung out and chatted to everybody before the event began. There were about forty people in the audience. There was a Dutch guy dressed in a paratrooper uniform. Also, for some reason, a US Marine sergeant and his daughter; I guess they were friends with somebody there, but it seemed really random. Everybody applauded when he got introduced. It didn’t impress me that much tbh. *cue Shania Twain*

Sadly Ross McCall couldn’t make it and Mark Lawrence (Les Hashey) had to pull out as well. But the four of them made for a great evening. Matthew Leitch started out asking questions to his castmates and then halfway through the evening the audience could ask questions. I can’t really remember which order everything was said in, so I’ll just list what I recall.

The first question Matthew asked was I think about taking things from the set. Apparently Nolan Hemmings carted away a truckload of stuff (grenades, uniforms, …) but these guys only took their dog tags from their respective characters. Doug Allen had a sweet story about lending his Alton Moore tags to a cousin who did two tours in Afghanistan as a good luck charm; he wanted him to give them back. Lo and behold, the cousin came back, and Doug gave the tags to somebody he knew who had cancer, with the same motivation. He told us she’d just been given the all clear, the cancer was gone, and everyone cheered.

Matthew asked Tim what it was like having to deal with Scott Grimes and Richard Speight all day. Tim grinned and said it was fun, but he couldn’t keep up with them. There was lots of singing apparently, they tried to get a barbershop song into the show but they couldn’t get it in, probably because of the inappropriate (but period-typical!) lyrics.

They talked about casting for a bit, who read for who; Matthew and Mark had read for Lt. Jones, Tim had read for Roe (I think). Doug talked about sitting on a bench in front of the hotel where Tom Hanks was staying in Piccadilly, London, thinking about how his parents had tried to stop him from acting, and thought, if this guy cannot spot any talent in me, I’m giving it up. And of course he could spot talent!

They also talked about what it was like having to play guys who had long been dead when filming started, which was the case for all of them. Mark talked about playing Dukeman, visiting his family in the States, and how he got his army number tattooed on his arm (see the pic below). He then talked about how Dukeman had been a part of his life for such a long time and how lots of things had happened because of him; for example, his wife watched Band of Brothers, fell in love with him and then he married her, had children etc. Awww. On the battlefield tour, which was yesterday, he was going to see where Dukeman had died for the first time in his life.

Tim said he knew very little about Alex Penkala, and more things came to light during filming. Alton Moore had practically no family left and he’d been dead for years, so Doug didn’t have much to go on either. Matthew talked about only learning more about Floyd Talbert as filming got underway. For example, he got a call from Floyd’s brother moments before he filmed the opening scene in Carentan, where he talks to Blythe. (“That’s why I looked so dazed in that scene.”) He also learnt from this brother later on that when The Night of the Bayonet happened, Talbert had a New Testament in his pocket that the bayonet went right through, but stopped just enough so he only got a light wound. Obviously Talbert kept his bayoneted, blood-soaked bible. Matthew said that when he heard that he went ballistic. (“That would’ve been bloody brilliant TV!”)

Matthew had a great Dale Dye story: at some point during boot camp everybody was standing at attention, and Dale Dye had his daughter on the phone and they were all singing happy birthday to her. (Matthew pointed out there were lots of great singers among them, Tim Matthews being one.) And Dye was standing right in front of Matthew when they’d finished and he was basically saying sweet nothings to his daughter, “Daddy loves you very much” etc. So Matthew stands there, slightly slouching, grinning at hearing DD talk like this, and then he hangs up and immediately turns to Matthew and screams in his face, “WHADDAFUCKAREYOULOOKINGATSERGEANTTALBERT?” and Matthew said he jumped about four feet in the air and snapped to attention. I can just picture it LOL.

They talked some more about bonding with each other on the set, and how often they all went out drinking together; so often in fact that at one point they were ordered to start doing runs again because they were gaining too much weight! And Matthew talked about being super hungover at one point, but it was alright, they had put his scene the next day on hold and he thought, they’ll never end up filming that scene anyway. Much to his surprise he got a call that his scene had been ‘moved forward’; it was the scene where Moore talks to Speirs in his office in 10, then Moore leaves and Talbert comes in. The scene where he talks to Speirs was filmed in a different moment, but the part where he comes in, apparently, he said “My face was green, I was sweating, all the make-up was sliding off of my face…” And Doug agreed that he looked green. I went back to watch it and

That man is hungover.

They talked about how sad it was when men got killed on the show and the actors just left overnight. Tim mentioned that they asked him and Richard Speight to go and watch the team blow up the effigies they’d made of them for their death scene. They went down, all jolly, but then they got quiet as they realised damn, this is how they died.

One question from the audience was about who they thought at the time would go on to make it big as an actor. Tim said Eion Bailey, because he was so beautiful. (LOL!) Tom Hardy they agreed had something special, but James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender were a surprise to all of them. They thought the episode leads would make it big for sure, especially Shane Taylor; Matthew said Shane would be the biggest Hollywood star now if he wasn’t also the nicest guy in the universe. They weren’t surprised Michael Cudlitz had made it big either, but Matthew said, if I email any of them to do anything BoB-related, they’ll do it—no question, no matter how famous they are now, they make the time. Doug explained that who gets famous and who doesn’t is a question of luck, for example Fassbender was friends with somebody who happened to put him in two projects that really launched his career, and it just doesn’t happen for every actor.

Doug said that they all thought it would launch their career to have been part of something so prestigious, but obviously guys were rotating in and out all the time, and some of them got to Hollywood before the others. By the time it had finished and he went to Hollywood, and said he had just been on Band of Brothers, people went: Not another one!

There was a question about whether they were aware of the impact the project would have, at the time. Tim said he really didn’t, he’d been an actor for twelve years by then and for him it was something that looked nice on his resume, but his role was relatively small and there was a lot of sitting around in a trench outside so he didn’t feel as involved with the project as some of the others. He later added that events like these though made it clear to him how big it really is and he now feels more proud of having been a part of it.

Then there was a question about which scene made them feel they were doing something big at the time. Mark said the scene with the woman being shaved in the streets of Eindhoven really stuck with him. England was never occupied and so he could never imagine what it was like having to live here during the war; it made him think. He also mentioned when they’re riding on the tank and they give candy to the woman with the shaved head and her baby. I was personally glad he said that because I’m really glad that made it into the show, the scandalous treatment of female collaborators is barely talked about when we in the NL talk about the war.

One question was about how they spent the money they made. Doug Allen went first: new sunglasses, I bought a car then crashed it, lots of booze… Tim agreed; he lived across from a pub at the time. It paid the rent, he said.

Someone asked if there were scenes they’d shot that didn’t make it into the series. Mark said they’d had them digging latrines for ages – in vests too, showing off their arms! – and it didn’t make it, which he was gutted about. (“A waste of pushups!”) Doug talked about a scene too but I can’t really remember it. Matthew said that during Crossroads, when they’re firing on the Germans, he had a magnificent sequence with his M1 – loading, reloading, shooting – until they looked at the footage and it clearly showed that the weapon was firing blanks, not real bullets, so it couldn’t be used. Tim said there was a scene where he was supposed to vomit on the plane, and they’d rigged it so a tube came out of his sleeve and into his hand with like. Chicken soup coming out so it would look real if he had his hand in front of his mouth, but they couldn’t get the velocity of the vomit right and after numerous attempts they just gave up?! Lmao

They talked lots about what they took away from the show; the friendship and the bond between them, and Tim said he was glad it allowed him to meet so many different people from all walks of life.

After the Q&A was over I got my paratroopers shirt signed, and I got pics with the four of them. They were ever so kind and gracious, really lovely guys. I’m kind of gutted I didn’t go on the battlefield tour yesterday, but my energy was so low I didn’t think it was a good idea. This night was amazing though!

I’ve probably forgotten a whole bunch of stuff so I’ll add to this post if I think of more :)

#band of brothers #hbo war #matthew leitch #floyd talbert #tim matthews #alex penkala #mark huberman #william dukeman #doug allen #alton moore #eindhoven #wehappyfew506

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lyselkatzfandomluvs · 3 years

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Band of Brothers screencaps/edits (418/?)

William Dukeman

October 5 1944: Last jump

#band of brothers #william dukeman #mark laurence #Currahee! ♠️#my gifs #my edits #my bob edits

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dontirrigateme · 4 months

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A custom desk mat to go with my custom displate.

The mouse pads and desk mats can be ordered here if anyone is interested. Not my site, just a link to where to buy them customized.

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searchingforacircuitbreaker · 5 years

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Band of Brothers || Currahee

#band of brothers #joe liebgott #eugene roe #alex penkala #bill guarnere #david webster #william dukeman #bobedit #mygifs

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kafka-ohdear · 6 months

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so when will we be talking about frank perconte and william dukeman leaning on each other's shoulders while sleeping and smiling so softly in that one picture.

#LIKE #THEY ARE IN LOVE #?!?!?!?!?#YALL GOTTA SEE IT #IN THE DVD #band of brothers #hbo war #william dukeman #frank perconte #they are so underrated #💀 i might get cancelled for this but i think alton and skinny makes a great pair too #no but like hAVE YOU SEEN THE SMILE ON FRANK'S AND DUKEMAN'S FACES #and tell me they arent in love? no goddamn way

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dustyjjumpwings · 5 years

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Reblog this if you are in the Band of Brothers fandom.

TRYING TO MAKE SOME FRIENDS 🧡

Message me to talk!

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fayestardust · 5 months

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for bob tours: was there a moment (or more than one) at a place where you felt ~connected to a scene from bob/the real events?

All the tours I’ve been on have special moments, though some more than others. Thank you for asking me about this, as I love recounting these memories. Some of this is actually what you asked for; the rest is just me being sappy.

Okay, ready? Behind the read more because it's SUPER long.

Eindhoven tour, April 2022

This was the first WW2 tour I’ve ever been on and the first of We Happy Few 506’s Band of Brothers tours. Special for that reason alone. It was a one-day tour with a Q&A the day before, and only four out of six actors who were supposed to join actually made it over to Eindhoven. First up: Matthew Leitch (Floyd ‘Tab’ Talbert), our fierce leader on all of the tours so I won’t mention him every time. He co-founded WHF506. He’s kind of a very annoying older brother to me now. Also there were Tim Matthews (Alex Penkala), Doug Allen (Alton More) and Mark Lawrence (William H. Dukeman).

I enjoyed the Q&A, though at that point was far too insecure to ask anything about Band because the room was filled with much bigger WW2 nerds (at the time, I’ve now caught up) who all seemed to ask very profound questions. I also shied away from taking any photos with the actors because people pretty much swarmed them, and I’m slightly claustrophobic.

I was making art already at that point, and for this trip had managed to draw Matt and Mark. See here a moment of joy for me.

The next day was the day of the tour, and I was pretty nervous about it because I’d never done a bus tour before, but in my experience, buses aren’t particularly wheelchair-friendly. Such was the case here, too, but the moment I approached the daunting steps of the Megabus, guests (special and not) flocked over to help me up them. All doubt evaporated. I got appointed the spacious back-of-the-bus seat, with my cousin on one side and Mark Lawrence on the other.

I’ll single Mark out for this tour because our conversations on the bus were very real and important to me. But also because one of the most moving moments on the tour happened when we visited the Crossroads. This is where Mark’s character and the real Dukeman died. If you ever get to visit... the Crossroads in the show looks exactly like the real location. Easily one of the most true-to-life set locations. And Mark had never been to the Netherlands. It tore him up. We all sniffled, watching him cry. The thing you have to realise is that he feels like he owes his entire life to the show. He met his lovely wife because she saw him on tv, and they fell in love. He has Dukeman’s service number tattooed on his body. And he’s the kindest, sweetest soul.

Later, months after the tour, he called me up to sing me happy birthday at six in the morning.

Both Doug and Tim remain my friends to this day. I’m perhaps most grateful for the connections made on these tours. Some of the other guests are now also like family.

Bastogne tour - part 1, November 2022

Bastogne is a magical place for me. I took one of my geekiest friends on this second tour. Special guests were Freddie Joe Farnsworth (military advisor on both BoB and the Pacific) and Phil McKee (Strayer). Not the most well-known people in this fandom I think. But interesting. And funny.

This tour was led by Reg Jans, and he’s THE guide who knows everything you could ever want to know about the Battle of the Bulge. So, during this tour, I feel like I learned a lot more about that, beyond what we see in Band.

Of course, we also visited Easy Company’s foxholes in the Bois Jacques. There was no snow (stay tuned for that on a later tour), so it’s not like it is in the show. But the woods are eerily quiet. I don’t know if I believe in anything supernatural beyond things like intuition, but if I were to start anywhere, it’d be there. Freddie Joe explained the consequences of sleep deprivation for your brain to us, to help us understand the soldiers better. Sometimes, they were their own worst enemies. They were freezing, underfed, underdressed and barraged by artillery, and most of the time, could not even see the Germans.

We also visited where John Julian was pinned down by Germans for hours. It’s still unclear what exactly happened to him, or when or how he died. We only see seconds of it in the show. It's like that with many things in the show actually. All the battles took a long, long time.

This tour isn’t my favourite - there’s a better one right after this, but this did solidify the idea that I would go on these tours just to see the people I’ve met while there.

Bastogne tour - part 2, January 2023

Here it is, my favourite tour. Barely two months after the last one. Bastogne in the very dead of winter. Let me tell you: it was COLD. But it would have been, for the soldiers of Easy.

The special guests on the second day of the tour were Shane Taylor (Eugene ‘Doc’ Roe), and Lucie Jeanne (Renee Lemaire). Doug (Alton More) was also there, and it was lovely to see him again. But as you can guess, having Doc Roe and Renee on the tour in Bastogne is pretty amazing. Eugene and Renee never actually met each other, one of the few dramatisations of the show. It serves a purpose, though, so it’s mostly seen as acceptable. Renee’s story is quite tragic, and she died very close to where she had lived with her parents and her body was wrapped in the fine silk of parachutes and brought back to them.

There were also some good hugs at the 'Nuts' bar! But the absolutely most amazing part of the tour happened without them. Our second day started really, really early. We got up at 5 am, got on the bus, and drove to the Bois Jacques. It was still pitch black when we got out, freezing cold and fresh snow crunched underneath our sleepy feet.

Reg Jans was on this tour again, and he had something truly haunting in store for us. We all stood in a circle around him with our (mostly just purchased for this trip) head torches on as he recited a prayer by Lt. Col. Robert L. Wolverton, commanding officer of 3rd battalion, 506th PIR.

Here it is.

Men, I am not a religious man and I don't know your feelings in this matter, but I am going to ask you to pray with me for the success of the mission before us. And while we pray, let us get on our knees and not look down but up with faces raised to the sky so that we can see God and ask His blessing in what we are about to do: God almighty, in a few short hours we will be in battle with the enemy. We do not join battle afraid. We do not ask favors or indulgence but ask that, if You will, use us as Your instrument for the right and an aid in returning peace to the world. We do not know or seek what our fate will be. We ask only this, that if die we must, that we die as men would die, without complaining, without pleading and safe in the feeling that we have done our best for what we believed was right. O Lord, protect our loved ones and be near us in the fire ahead and with us now as we pray to you.

And into the woods, we went. You have to remember, there are no cars at this hour. It’s dark. It’s quiet. We were told to be quiet. We were told to sit in the foxholes in the snow. We switched off our lights. No one was shooting at us, but we felt, in part, what the men of Easy Company would have felt. And then we watched the sun come up. It’s the closest thing to a religious experience I’ve ever felt.

I met one of my favourite people in the world on this tour, too. He took these wonderful photos of me and inspired me to take up photography again, myself.

Normandy tour, June 2023

This tour was a bit of an odd one out. It felt chaotic because it was scheduled around D-Day, which made Normandy really poorly accessible. It’s so busy, so our tour was mostly improvised around areas with the least amount of traffic jams.

It did have its moments, though. Normandy is a cool place. And we had the amazing Pete McCabe (Donald Hoobler) with us.

The day before the tour, I actually got to meet three Normandy veterans. Humbling, to say the least. I also met several more Band actors (Peter Youngblood Hills, Alex Sagba-Brady, Christian Black, Nolan Hemmings) and Scott Gibson, who played Captain Haldane in the Pacific. We still keep in touch. Christian Black is now a Still Photographer, and mostly shoots Tom Cruise’s movie stills. He also took this photo of Nolan Hemmings, this painting of him and little old me.

I was really glad to see many friends again. And I brought my own camera and took amazing pictures (teehee). We saw most of Easy’s known landing spots in Sainte Mère Eglise, like Winters’ and Lipton’s, to name a few.

Our guide here was Paul ‘Woody’ Woodadge, an English guy married to a French woman. He’s nice, but critical of Easy’s fame, not so much on account of Easy, but mostly because Easy was just one of the many companies that did incredible things. We visited the area around Brécourt Manor, where we learned that other company Paratroopers cleared the way for Easy’s famous mission. It doesn’t make it less impressive, but it adds loads of context.

Another thing that I found incredibly moving was the reading of Lt. Meehan’s last letter home. It’s easy to forget how young these men were. And how wise. Meehan’s plane crashed in a field, and nearly 80 years later, you can still see where it landed because while the field is fully planted, there’s a part near a hedgerow that remains barren to this day. Haunting.

We also visited Marmion Farm, where many famous Easy Company photos were taken (it’s where they more or less come back together after the jump).

One of my favourite stories, though, is that of medics Robert Wright and Ken Moore of the 101st Airborne. They treated 80 injured American and German soldiers and a child in a church in Angoville-au-Plain. There are still bloodstains on the pews.

So, as you can tell, not everything had to do with Easy, because we also went to Omaha Beach, where I got out of my chair and walked. Just to walk where these brave men had walked and really feel the history.

Eindhoven/Arnhem Market Garden Tour, October 2023

My second favourite tour after Bastogne in winter. Our guest here was Mark Huberman (Lester Hashey) who was meant to come on the original Eindhoven tour but couldn’t. He’s delightfully Irish, and had the best anecdotes from the set. Also absolutely hilarious.

Many of my friends weren’t on this tour, so going on to it, I couldn’t have guessed it would rank among my favourites.

It was split between two things. Some Easy Company sites and stories (some repeats from the first tour, but often with a slightly different angle or experience), and the British side of Operation Market Garden!

By the way, did you know that Hoobler picks up the Luger that ends up killing him in Bastogne, at the Crossroads? I think they changed it in the show to let the story flow better.

Anyway. I loved this tour. We visited Schoonderlogt and the Crossroads again. This time I sat in the grassy field while everyone else did the famous run across. It’s such a long way!

But the stories of the British troops were perhaps even cooler to me. Because that all happened right on my doorstep. I knew the bigger picture, but we had Reg Jans on this tour again, which is synonymous with really personal stories. So for our British troops day, we followed in the footsteps of leaders and soldiers alike, until we met them again in their final resting place in the military cemetery. A really rewarding journey. Mark also read a letter by Ivar Rowberry, which I posted about here. There’s an audio recording of it too, which is well worth a listen.

If you want to read more about any of these tours (I’m a bit tired of writing so much, check out my actual - non tumblr - blog over here. There is an entry for each one, there.

#band of brothers #ww2 tours #ask me things in my askbox please thanks

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