We Stand Alone Together

The story of Easy Company told by a number of veterans.

As good a job as the dramatised series 'Band of Brothers' did at telling the story and recreating numerous events for the screen, there is nothing more powerful than hearing the actual soldiers talk about their memories and what it means to them.

For anybody interested in this period of history and the trauma that people have lived with following such difficult experiences, this documentary is a must watch.

Thankfully these interviews were captured at the time to help preserve memories about such a harrowing life experience and an important part of twentieth century history.

One of the things that set Band of Brothers apart from other war- based mini-series was the inclusion of interviews with the actual surviving members of Easy company. This 80 minute (when shown on BBC) programme allows us to get to know the real men behind the story and what they did with their lives after the War. So in a very real sense, this is the 11th episode in the series. The interviews were very moving. Almost 60 years on, the men involved are still very deeply affected by their experiences. Well worth watching. My one small complaint was that I found it difficult to associate the men being interviewed with the characters in the series. It might have been nice if some brief clips had been included, or a photo of the actor had been displayed. But that would probably have detracted from it.

I'm very glad they made this documentary about the training and battles of Easy Company, 101st Airborne Division, between 1942, when the division was formed and 1945, when the end of the war found the men at Berchtesgaden, Hitler's peace-time retreat.

There is some newsreel footage but no reenactments; no narration, just the odd printed title to keep us in the right place and time. Most of the footage is taken up with comments by the surviving members of Easy Company, now old but still carrying memories that seem as fresh to them as they do to the viewer. Some of the men choke up but no one breaks down on camera.

I'm glad the film was made because it was necessary to get some of these recollections into the archives right now. All the speakers are aged and won't be with us much longer. I'm glad too because despite their occasional bravado, the justifiable pride and the resultant solidarity, the men aren't foolish enough to talk about glory or defending the world from Naziism. Their commentary shows that for each of them their part in the war was a highly personal business. They were scared and saw their comrades die beside them. The film had to be made to remind us that war, even when it's won, is an evil creation.

Because the point of view is that of the paratroopers themselves, some of the more general details of their engagements are lost. They speak of jumping into the night over Normandy on D Day and having their equipment, including weapons, torn off by the shock of the chute's opening. They don't seem to realize that, though they themselves had been thoroughly trained, the pilots of the C-47s were not.

When the anti-aircraft fire became hot, the airplanes picked up speed and jinked all over the place trying to avoid it, a pointless maneuver. Most of the jumpers landed miles from their drop zones and some landed in Rommel's flooded fields and were drowned before they could disengage their harnesses. The British parachute harness was released with a single click, like a safety belt, while the American version took roughly thirty seconds to escape from. Of course, the only comments we hear come from those whose landings were successful. Almost half of the men were lost during the month spent in Normandy.

Three months of recuperation, training, and replacements, and the next jump was over Holland in Operation Market Garden. The daytime jump was perfect. The operation was a failure due to hasty planning, German resilience, and bad luck.

Next engagement, Bastogne, the village in the center of the Battle of the Bulge. The 101st had been sent to a nearby part of the line for rest after spending seventy days fighting in Holland. The relief didn't last. When the Germans launched their last offensive, the 101st were called in to hold Bastogne, and they did until relieved.

They came home to ordinary lives after undergoing unimaginable stress.

In 2012, I took a filmmaking class with Mark Cowen, who directed the Emmy nominated, "We Stand Alone Together: The Men of Easy Company".

During the class, he described to us what it was like interviewing the veterans of Easy Company. In order to get access to these men, he had to go through the "Biggest Brother", Major Richard "Dick" Winters. Mark said that, even after so many years, Major Winters still commanded the respect of his troops and that they would do what he asked. Major Winters got on the phone and made some calls that went something like this, "This is Winters. I'm sending a man over to interview you. I want you to tell him everything he wants to know" or words to that effect. Mark said that this is the only way he could have gotten access to them and for them to tell their stories for these interviews.

Mark faced a difficult problem before any of the interviews started. How could he make them "open up" to his questions and speak freely about these often painful experiences and memories? He couldn't just go in and say, "Can you tell me what you did during the war". Knowing that these men wouldn't want to talk about themselves he came up with an idea which worked very well. He started each interview by asking, "Who was your best friend during the war? What was he like?" That is how he got these brave men to speak freely and express themselves as openly as they did on camera.

Many of the men Mark interviewed had never told anyone about their combat experiences during the war, not even their families. While relating some of their stories, the brave veterans would sometimes break down and cry. Mark told us he often found himself crying along with them. During one of the interviews, an old veteran slowly came out and sat down. He started speaking about the war and his time with Easy Company. As the camera rolled and the interview progressed, Mark could hear this veteran's family come up from behind to watch and listen to their loved one relate stories of bravery, of death, of friendship and of pain, which they had never heard. When he finished the interview, Mark turned to find not only the veteran's family but also a lot of their neighbors standing there. Some were weeping quietly while others struggled to restrain from sobbing. Scenes like this became common during the interviews he did with these brave, old warriors.

I often think of what Mark Cowen told us that day about his interview for, "We Stand Alone Together: The Men of Easy Company". I wanted to get together with him again to hear more about these interviews but sadly, he passed away shortly thereafter, on September 10, 2012.

This content added some welcome insight and information from people who actually lived the war. What I like less is that the content from the interview is picked and I think it would have been even more insightful to leave nothing out.