Major Dick Winters on Ronald Speirs Shooting Prisoners in WWII | Band of Brothers
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- čas přidán 12. 09. 2024
- Major Dick Winters, portrayed by Damien Lewis in "Band of Brothers", talks about Ronald “Sparky” Speirs shooting unarmed prisoners during WWII. During Easy Company’s attack on the German-held village of Foy, Belgium, Winters made Ronald Speirs the commander of Easy Company, a position he held until the war's end. We also explain the true story around Sparky Speirs shooting a sergeant in his own platoon. The included clip is an excerpt from the Dick Winters interview that Rep. John Payne conducted in the early 2000s.
Original Interview Source: A Tribute to Maj. Dick Winters: Part IV • A Tribute to Maj. Dick...
“Before I dozed off, I did not forget to get on my knees and thank God for helping me to live through this day and to ask His help on D+1. I would live this war one day at a time, and I promised myself that if I survived, I would find a small farm somewhere in the Pennsylvania countryside and spend the remainder of my life in quiet and peace.” Major Dick Winters
R.I.P. sir.
Men like Maj. Dick Winters are much needed today.
Raise them up, people. Your kids are capable of being this kind of person. Teach them to follow Jesus and stand firm on principle. They'll do what's right. Proverbs 22:6
@@helives2630 Jesus 😢
@@helives2630 Take that energy and go raise your own sacrificial bullet sponge.
@@jeffreystewart8715Jesus ❤
Thanks for quoting the whole fucking scene for us
My late Dad was an officer in the 78th Division, 310th infantry, and fought in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany. He was trapped in the Bulge, crossed the Remagen Bridge hours after its capture, and was in the Hurtgen forest. He very seldom talked about anything that happened in combat except what he thought was funny, like getting shot at by 2 Germans hiding in a knocked out tank while he was taking a dump. But, once in a while, he'd open up a bit. I'd seen something on TV about the Malmedy massacre where the Germans shot American prisoners and commented how terrible that was. Dad got sort of a faraway look in his eyes and said, "Yes, it was terrible, but that's war. You know, we did stuff like that, too." I know he knew more than that but he said nothing else. I always felt that he had looked over the edge of the world into h3ll and just couldn't talk about it. Rest easy, Dad, and may all the passed veterans of that and other wars rest easy, also.
Rest easy Brothers
Mate!! You sat me on my arse….🌹 I have read of them…, we can’t imagine 🌹🌹🌹
Our old man served from 1945 in Pacific/ Japan occupation.., with RNZAF…, he said the kids he saw in the RN ships.. were so young.. but looked incredibly hardened… to the point it worried him what they had been through..🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹 RIP🌹
"Dad got sort of a faraway look in his eyes and said, "Yes, it was terrible, but that's war. You know, we did stuff like that, too." My father inlaw (passed away decades ago) fought in Africa and one morning sitting outside we were talking about WWII and he said the same thing in almost the same way. Thank you for sharing you story with us.
My Grandfather was part of Iwo and the Pacific campaign. He received orders to Nagasaki 2 weeks after the bomb was dropped. He never spoke to my Mother or Uncle’s about what the war was like.
I interviewed him for a paper when I was a senior in high school and ask what Nagasaki was like his words were “ 2 miles from harbor you could smell the burnt flesh, once we made shore and walked around the rubble there was a terrible feeling of suffering that is almost indescribable, none of the men wanted to be there and returned to the ships. When I imagine hell I think of Nagasaki.”
My father and my grandfather had been soldiers in Hitlers armies, father only for a few months at the age of 17, never saw combat but often strafed by fighter planes while they were on the run from the Russians trying to reach American troops to surrender to them. Other relatives had been soldiers too, and when we had family visits it never took long before they started about the war. I still remember some of the stories they told, although in hindsight im not sure if they all were completely true. They never showed any signs of PTSD. Many of my teachers had been soldiers too and they were a different story, most of them seemed utterly traumatized, destroyed men. Maybe the difference is that my family was working class, farmers, no higher education. They simply were exctatic to have survived this horrible time when so many othes had not. Father always said it felt like he had seen all this in a movie once and he himself sometimes thought "could all this really have happened?". He died a few years ago in his 90s.
History should always be told accurately regardless how tragic it was
Be careful with that one buddy, you might just realise who the real good guys were
@@natty4316 Nothing wrong with that.- I'm not one of those "we're the greatest nation in the world types" In fact Americans have caused devolution
@@marct9942 America is run by the real winners of ww2
The winner write the history.
history is written by the victors
On a happier note from WWII my father's patrol came upon a patrol of German soldiers who they had dead to rights and yet nobody fired a shot. A couple of the Germans waved hello knowing that they had no chance and my father's platoon waved back. I asked my father why didn't you shoot them and he told me they were leaving the field of battle and were probably just wanting to go home to their families. RIP to my father lucky Eddie bray. Miss you. Peace out.
Bless your father and his memory.
Dick Winters was one of the finest, fairest officers a unit could hope for.Met him about 1970 or so.His demeanor made a tremendous impact on a 10 year old kid.Good,decent man.
That's what the series showed.
@thomaskirkpatrick4031 It did but in real life he was a good man.He had a conscience even though he was thrust into war.
*Dick Winters is an admitted 'war criminal', and NO BETTER than the Germans so derrided by the victors of that horrible war.* Never did Winters show any remorse for his part in the murder of Germans.
@@thomasg4324 Cry more about it. The USA did everything possible to stay out of that war. Germany chose to become a plague on the world. German soldiers were just following orders, right? Then don't cry when it's the other way around.
@@thomasg4324 !) You obviously don't know much about WWII. 2) No reason for remorse when killing a combatant in WWII. Unless he was killing babies or non-combatants I don't see any issues.
I knew a guy who was in the 9th infantry division. He told me about a guy who was told to take a few prisoners back to be interrogated. He left with the prisoners. A short time later, he heard a Thompson. This guy came back and said that the prisoners tried to run. The officer who told him to do it was pissed. My friend told me the men all knew this guy and knew he was just messed up. But they couldn't prove anything. The other thing was that these prisoners weren't even Germans, and they were happy to surrender. He told me that the guy probably didn't want to walk all the way back to the c.p. so he just killed them. In war, there are people like this on both sides.
the difference being that the airborne had specific orders to not take prisoners, as they simply couldn't. even though the order started to fade after the initial D-Day invasion, it was still important to keep up the momentum and ofcourse they didn't have the men, resources or time to guard prisoners. War is Hell.
@@EPICFAILKING1 A war crime is a war crime... regardless of "orders"
@@EPICFAILKING1Doesn't matter. War criminal.
@@winstonsmith8482 ok bro.
@@winstonsmith8482 There are circumnstances under which you are not required to take prisoners, but they are very limited in scope, and may certainly not be issued as a standing order..
My father was a sergeant in the 82nd during the 1960's. After reading the book and watching the series he regarded the paratroopers in WW2 as true "warriors" and served with some of them early in his career. He especially liked Major Dick Winters. I have to say these men were some of the best in this country's warrior class as were many that followed the men of the 506th. We owe them the greatest of gratitude and respect may God bless them all.
Yes, of course, but don’t forget this was not a warrior class. These were citizen soldiers who allowed themselves to be turned into true warriors and then turned around and went back home to their lives as citizens.
@@sdfmills9909
We weren’t there dealing with violence they did what they have to do. I respect the military.
@@vasao150 some go beyond what we have to do.
My uncle was a lieutenant on D-day. He was in the 501 parachute infantry regiment of the 101st. I asked him about whether enemy soldiers/prisoners were shot on D-day. He got a little upset with the question and confirmed that prisoners were shot. And as explained in the video they had no way to deal with the prisoners and needed to breakout of Normandy. They did what they had to do. It was war and war is ugly. For some reason we hold those who protect in war to very high standards some of which are unrealistic. Those most vocal about it probably never served or dealt with the harsh realities of war. I am proud of my uncle and his service. 4 Purple Hearts two bronze stars fought in North Africa, Normandy on D-day and the days that followed and at Operation Market Garden where he was severely wounded. He is buried at Arlington National cemetery. If not for his brave service and that of the American service members including my father we would live in a much different world. I thank them.
Yes, maybe clown world wouldn’t exist.
I find that those vocal about these sorts of things usually conveniently narrow the scope of their analysis to match their desired conclusion. e.g. the atomic bombing of Japan. They point to the number of civilian casualties, and declare it a war crime. I broaden the scope and point out that Japan was killing about 1 million civilians per year in territories it occupied. So every month you delayed their surrender meant they would kill another ~80,000 civilians (fudging the numbers to make a point). And a proper analysis isn't ~200,000 civilians killed if you dropped the bombs, zero killed if you don't. It's ~200,000 civilians killed if you dropped them, vs ~80,000 killed per month the war continued because you didn't. To make good decisions, you need to consider _all_ the consequences. Not draw a small bubble around a single act and focus only on its immediate effects.
The way to minimize casualties in a war (military and civilian) isn't by playing nice and being humanitarian. It's by getting it over with (win or lose) as quickly as possible. Sometimes that means the best course of action (to minimize overall casualties) is achieved by violating humanitarian standards. A scenario a friend presented to me when I defended a "no torturing prisoners" stance was: What if a terrorist has placed a bomb which will kill hundreds of people if it goes off. And you've captured him but he refuses to tell you where the bomb is. Are you going to let all those people die, then proudly proclaim "well, at least we didn't torture him"? I guess the grey area between right and wrong extends pretty wide depending on the scenario.
@@TheZin777
What?
So how anyone cry over German soldiers who shot americans cause they had no time to take them to prison? War is war?
Can't thumb up on this enough.
My wife's uncle was in the 2nd Ranger Battalion, joining the unit a couple of days after D-Day as a replacement. He shared with me several stories of his time in combat, I guess because I was an officer in the Army Reserve at the time. In one of his stories, he told me about being ordered to shoot two German soldiers. He was still anguished about it all these decades later and it took a physical toll on him with chronic bowel problems. He was a kind and sensitive person who was put through the meat grinder of war. Rest in peace, Gilbert...
I had an uncle Gilbert in the war also. I never knew him well enough to know what his experiences were.
My great-uncle Bob was also a replacement Ranger with the 2nd Btn. Joined on June 20th. Never found out who his buddy was, but Uncle Bob was a BAR man. Wounded during the battle to take Hill 400 in the Hurtgen Forest.
Love from Glasgow Scotland ❤
My great uncle James Rudder commanded 2nd ranger bat.
@@Jackalski57 Hill 400. Uncle Gilbert talked about that, too. After they took the hill, the Germans relentlessly shelled their position. As Gilbert talked about it, he was literally cringing as he explained what had happened in a distressed voice. I later read that their battalion commander, then LTC Rudder, said it was worse than D-Day, which is unreal. Some time after our talks, I bought Gilbert a book called "The Battalion: The Dramatic Story of the 2nd Ranger Battalion in WWII" by Robert W. Black. The book has a complete roster of the unit so your great-uncle Bob should be listed in it. Gilbert is in there as Gilbert Gamboa. Gilbert enjoyed the book as it brought back many memories of his friends and fellow soldiers. I was a bit worried it might bring back bad memories, too, but he seemed happy with it. There's a more recent book called "The Last Hill" by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin that covers the battle for Hill 400. I haven't read it yet but it got good reviews. I leafed through it but there is no roster information in there.
Dick Winters saying Band of Brothers as a little book. Humble to the end. Great American.
Legends never die
I served 7 years, 3 in the infantry, 4 in Special Forces, in direct action. I see on line many arguments about this subject, BS stories where people say how their father or grandfather would tell them of their shooting of prisoners, to bolster an argument. I will call them BS on them every time, not because it did not, and does not happen. I call BS for this very reason. Speirs didn't go around bragging about it, in the context he did what he believed was necessary. Nor did he talk about it until asked directly by Winters. Unless a person is a complete psychopath they are not going to sit their child, or grandchild on their knee and happily relate how they murdered prisoners or war.
He did what his superiors told them to do. They told them to take no prisoners during the first few days of the war because they would slow the paratroopers down.
Thank you
😊
@@Daculaboy try reading the comment again. I didn't say if it was wrong or right, or if it should or shouldn't happen, or did or didn't happen. I said he didn't go around bragging about it, or even talking about it.
@@michaelcassidy1864 🙏
Best WW2 show to this day, which is a mix of disappointment and awesomeness.
Disappointing in the sense that NO ONE was able to make a better show in 23 years.
My father fought in the Korean War in 1951. He only spoke about it sparingly, and only when it was he and I alone, usually out in his workshop. Never around Mom. Around 1972/73, he and I just happened to be watching an episode of the TV series MASH. I was in H.S. Neither of us was big fans of the MASH series. I think we were just waiting for the start of the 9pm Monday Night Football game, or perhaps MASH overlapped the first 1/2 hour. It was 50+ years ago, so don't remember exactly. What I do remember was one MASH actor speaking to another actor playing a journalist. The MASH actor became exasperated when the journalist referred to the Korean War as a "police action". My dad simply nodded - yes. Then the MASH actor said, "..police action! you talk like we are here handing out parking tickets! It's killing!". I looked at Dad. He gave me this look like: Yep, I did some of that (killing). When you are 14-15, it's surreal to think of your father, your biggest fan and supporter, taking lives...perhaps many. Then you grow up and realize that's what war is.
Wow. Thanks for sharing. God bless.
Thanks for the story 😁👍🇦🇺
@@johnbaptiste87 Thanks for your comment.
@@adods9824 thanks. Best wishes to AU.
My dad, recently deceased at 92, was also a Korean War veteran at about the same time. He commanded a series of f.o. positions, some of which were over run at one time or another.
He once commented that human wave attacks were a real thing, and scared the crap out of him when it happened.
He too was not very vocal about his experiences, and what he did say, clearly showed the impact of that time on his psyche.
I took my grandfather to see Saving Private Ryan, he had fought in a WWII, never talked about it. He said the movie was good, but there was things that were untrue, the talking while walking, that would never happen. The other was letting the prisoners go. I asked what did you do with them? He said if they had no choice, they shot them. Just matter of fact as saying the sun's gonna rise tomorrow. He wasn't proud of it, but it was a "You let them go they'll kill you tomorrow" is about how he put it. They'd rather have captured them, but sometimes...
My dad served with the Army Engineer Corps in the Pacific. Before I left for the service in 1966 (I was just 19) he and mom took me out for dinner. My uncle was also there. He served in Korea. I was told to keep my eyes and ears open and my mouth shut. And I was also told to never leave even a wound enemy behind. They can recover and kill again. I took their words to heart. I'm going to be 77 in 3 weeks. I hope we don't have any more. wars. And I hope no one ties the hands of our troops while engaging the enemy. Or prosecutes them either.
My grandfather, the late William Weiss, was a Navy Corpsman on board LST 388. They made 3 landings at Omaha Beach the first one bringing an artillery battalion to shore. On return to trips to England they brought back wounded and POWs. One was a wounded German. A tough British commando said to my grandfather, "Hey doc, turn out the lights and I'll kill the bastard". Grandpa, who was a U.S. Marine in WWI, was tough enough to tell the Brit that wasn't going to happen. And it didn't. Another sailor on board confirmed the story in a book about LST 388. LST 388 also landed in North Africa and Sicily coming under heavy fire on one landing and having to make 3 runs before making it to the beach. My grandfather had a heart of gold and was a wonderful man. He'd be pleased to know that his story was passed on. Grandpa died in 1989 just after his 89th birthday. He was a truly good and decent man.
finally, an interview with Dick Winters with clear, loud-enough audio. this whole video was very interesting. thanks for posting.
My father served in WW2 in the Phillipines. Born at the tail of the baby boom in 1964, by the the 80's when I began asking him about his war time he experience, he was more willing to speak....but not much. He was a Sargent in the 24th infantry, Charlie company.
Favorite answers to my questions:
Did you... you know ever...?
ANSWER: "Kill anyone, what the hell do you think we went there for, of course we did, we had a job to do...and we did it."
You're a hero...
ANSWER: "No, I did my job and came home, the hero's didn't."
After a friend he had from boot camp came through in 2005 and spent a weekend with dad and mom, after he left, my brother asked if he enjoyed the visit?
ANSWER: After a solemn pause...."It was great to see him again........but, I'm can't understand why he wants to relive all that SHIT." I've spent 40 years trying to forget it."
His comment: "Those who set around running their mouths about all they did, are either crazy.....or liars."
After seeing both Band of Brothers and especially "The Pacific", I cried through both. I realized how much he'd seen or participated in that....war brings. I called him and apologized for all the years id badgered him about the war with starry eyes and promised I'd never ask again, and I didn't. He died in 2018.
They were real men, doing their jobs, they came home and just wanted to be left alone to enjoy their remaining lives, as best they could with all they had lived.
He spoke fondly of jis soldiers, chaplain and with great respect for the enrmy soldiers. "The put up a hell of a fight, with what they had."
My dad was and is to this day... My greatest Hero!! Besides my sons in the Army and Navy.
HELL YEAH BROTHER THANK A VET
Thank you for your comment. Your father is a real hero. RIP Sir.
I can't even imagine what that war must have been like for those that fought it. I have only known one WW2 vet personally. He was a waist gunner on a B-17. He was Polish, and after getting shot down, ended up in Dachau for the duration. You should be proud of your father. He did his job, and made it home....
I think it was actually good though to be able to speak to your Dad about it and get it first hand. Movies and TV shows are fiction. It's good to get a firsthand account of it. When my Dad was a boy his Dad told him that, when he gets older, he'd. tell him some war stories. Unfortunately my grandfather died when my Dad was only 20 ... as such, my Dad didn't have any war stories from WW1 to share with us. You see, my grandfather, fought in World War One for the British in the trenches in Europe. He was a machine gunner and would have witnessed all the Germans he shot being decimated and mowed down by his own gun fire, and yet he carried on.
The only thing that came to light was the fact that he was gassed many times, and once almost died because of it (he was one of only two in his unit that got their masks on in time). This is the only story relied to my Dad through his Mum because my grandfather had problems later in life with respiratory issues related to all the gas attacks he was subjected to. OPn top of this, everyone smoked back then, especially in the trenches. When you're that close to death, really, who cares? He was apparently a very heavy smoker and this, along with being gassed, is what lead to his early death at the age of 62 of a massive heart attack (when my Dad was only 20).
As a side note, in 2024 I turned 54. When I was growing up in the 70s, it was unusual for a boy my age to have a grandfather who fought in WW1 as most of my friends had grandfathers who fought in WW2. When I told my Grade 3 teacher she corrected me and said he must have fought in WW2. But as an inquisitive little boy and not really knowing the difference between WW1 and WW2, I asked my Dad. He was furious with the teacher and corrected the teacher. as to the facts on this -- that his father did in fact fight in WW One.
The reason this was the case was because, when I was born in 970 my father was 40 and when he was born in 1930, his Dad was 42 (born in 1888). In fact, all my male ancestors had children born quite late in life. (My grandfather who fought in WW1, his Dad was 45 when he was born, and his Dad was 48 when he was born.) And I'm no different. All my kids (8 in total, with 2 more on their way) were born when I was 45 or older, This is very normal in my family tree. They, like me (with the exception of my Dad), all had younger wives -- I'm 54, but my wife turned 30 this year. (I'm a Canadian who married a Brazilian and this age gap is very common down here. Lucky for me!)
your father was a mass murd3r.
Plain and simple.our father was a mass murd3r.
My Great Uncle Carl Fenstermaker was in Easy Company! He was a Pathfinder with his British counterpart and they dropped in behind enemy lines to light the drop zone for the rest of the troops to aim for as the chuted down. Well we all know how badly the Airborne operation went as most troops were scattered all over Normandy and it's not like they had GPS to easily find one another so the job they had was extremely difficult. Carl and his counterpart were on their way back from the drop zone to the rendezvous point when they were both hit across the middle by German MG42 fire. From there they carried each other to the landings at the beaches and were transported to a hospital ship and sent home to heal up. I went to his funeral, and he is one of the sources of inspiration I had when deciding to join the Air Force. The other source of inspiration came from my grandfather on my mother's side; he fought in Pearl Harbor and shot down 7 enemy planes with his 30 cal machine gun. My family history is quite rich, I've had ancestors who settled here in the States in 1737 when Phillip Fenstermacher II came over from southwest Germany to Pennsylvania and settled down all the while fathering 8 children. He and his sons would then go on to fight in the revolutionary war as part of the Continental Army. From there I've had cousins fight on opposite sides of the Civil War, had members of the German Fenstermachers fighting American Fenstermakers in both WWI and WWII. There isn't a war memorial in DC that doesn't have a Fenstermaker on it somewhere, and I am proud to have continued the tradition of serving in our Great Military.
@@Stalicus So what? -asking for a friend
Salutes You and Yours '
And what have you done to protect and serve our freedom and honor those before you and, gave you this priveledge?!
@@GaryVanPoperin since you don't know shit about me, I'll let you know: I'm a 100% disabled veteran so watch what you fucking say to me. I may have fought for your right to say whatever the hell you want but that doesn't mean you should open your mouth every time a thought pops in your head.
@@GaryVanPoperin Who and what actually are you talking about?
My Uncle was with Australian troops, fighting against the Japanese in WWII. When they liberated a POW camp containing Aussie troops who had been used as slave labour building a railway for the Japanese, there were many dead and dying men there. The Aussie commanding officer said. "No Japanese soldiers taken as prisoners should be shot". When the officer left, the Aussies beat and kicked every Japanese soldier to death, not, a shot was fired.
I had friends in both the Marines and Army during the Vietnam War, and they told me that the only time they took prisoners was when they needed someone to interrogate or there was an officer around. I had an uncle in the Marines during WW2, and because he was underage when he volunteered, they put him in a Marine medical unit, which generally landed with the troops in the Pacific theater. He wouldn't talk to me about what went on there, but my cousin did know some of the stories, and generally the wounded Japanese soldiers were shot rather than treated.
having read dr. Mark Felton's books, some of them anyway it is clear tha the vast majority of the japanese camp guards that abuse allied POW's were never held to account and went back to japan to live out their lives. no justrice!
@@raymondtonns2521 yeah they were the lucky ones but the ones in the Los Banos prison camp that did not get away were hacked to death by vengeful Filipino guerillas.
@@raymondtonns2521 Australia held war crime trials, focussing on camp guards.
Never heard this tale before.
My grandfather was a P-47 fighter pilot in WW2 - all he ever said about the war was "war is hell." He did however talk about the flying characteristics of the aircraft he flew, but wouldn't discuss combat. He was the beginning of 4 generations of pilots in our family.
My mother's 3rd husband was a "Marine Corps Vietnam vet". All he would say was "war is hell" and never wanted to talk about it. Told us he didn't want a military funeral when he died. Upon his death we got his DD-214 and I googled his name. He was a Navy sailor on a submarine in the Caribbean. We didn't do a military funeral but my sister was an Air Force Iraq War Vet and I was a Marine Corps Desert Storm Vet, both veterans, and we did a private military ritual on the ocean with a folded up flag, gave it to my mom, saluted her and spread his ashes in the ocean. He was still a veteran to us and felt he deserved something.
The "Jug" was a flying tank, it could take incredible damage and still make it back to base....I've read accounts of the radial engine having several cylinders and pistons shot away, completely gone and it still flew home.
@@Mike-01234 Bofors quad guns....
Outstanding.
The Japanese culture of war and fighting was vastly different to that of the West. In their culture it was so shameful to be captured rather than fight to the death that it was expected that you would kill yourself to save your honour. They couldn’t comprehend why the Western soldiers allowed themselves to be taken prisoners and not kill themselves. To make matters worse they had to feed them and give them shelter which was just shameful that you would let your enemy look after you or worse still beg for your life. So they worked them to death.
Never surrender to the first wave. Everything dies. Go to ground for 72 hours and surrender to the third wave (mopping up wave) This was told to me by a long dead old friend . Who served in both the WWII German army and the FF legion in Vietnam (1949).
Ok f4t k1d.
@@WarezCommentary LoL, I'm turning 59 on the 20th, I weigh 94 kg and I'm not fat. You really need to get out of your mother's basement.
@@WarezCommentary ok regard
good advice the job your job is to live.
@@andydudley1775That's the only job.
i met the late actor charles durning ( tootsie, the sting, best little whorehouse in texas ), who had a horrific year in europe, beginning with the D Day invasion. he was in the first wave on omaha beach and he was his unit's only survivor from an ambush, while killing 7 german gunners. he spent 6 months in the hospital after getting blown up by a mine. in belgium he was stabbed 8 times in hand to hand combat and he beat his attacker to death with a rock. he was captured in the battle of the bulge, and he was one of the few survivors at malmedy, when he ran off into the forest. i am not certain, but i believe he was also present when a concentration camp was liberated. his list of medals is too long to mention. i met durning when he was around 65 and i was a bellman, checking him into his hotel room. at this time, i knew him as an actor, but knew nothing of his military record. he didn't want me to leave and he told me the dirtiest jokes i ever heard for a half an hour. i am no choir boy, but these jokes were dir--ty. we laughed and laughed, but i had to get back to worl. i sensed a sadness and loneliness with mr. durning. later, i learned about his life and i wished that i had stayed with him. here is a quote from him, from about 5 years after i met him " There are many secrets in us, in the depths of our souls, that we don’t want anyone to know about…There’s terror and repulsion in us, the terrible spot that we don’t talk about. That place that no one knows about - horrifying things we keep secret. A lot of that is released through acting. - Charles Durning, Parade Magazine, 1993
A remarkable man indeed.
General Chuck Yeager (the guy who first flew through the sound barrier) wrote in his biography, including his war service, that “atrocities were committed by both sides”. He stated that he went on a mission with orders from the Eighth Air Force to “strafe anything that moved.” - that means fly around the area and shoot any civilians you see. Yeager said, “I’m certainly not proud of that particular strafing mission against civilians. But it is there, on the record and in my memory.”
Chuck said after that briefing, he turned to his wing man and "If we're gonna do things like this, we sure as hell better make sure we're on the winning side." They all knew from that moment on, they were "War Criminals". But the real "criminals" aren't the soldiers, but those that give the orders.
War is evil. That includes all sides of World War 2.
Here's General Yeager's actual quote:
"Atrocities were committed by both sides. That fall our fighter group received orders from the Eighth Air Force to stage a maximum effort. Our seventy-five Mustangs were assigned an area of fifty miles by fifty miles inside Germany and ordered to strafe anything that moved. The object was to demoralize the German population. Nobody asked our opinion about whether we were actually demoralizing the survivors or maybe enraging them to stage their own maximum effort in behalf of the Nazi war effort. We weren't asked how we felt zapping people. It was a miserable, dirty mission, but we all took off on time and did it. If it occurred to anyone to refuse to participate (nobody refused, as I recall) that person would have probably been court-martialed. I remember sitting next to Bochkay at the briefing and whispering to him "If we're gonna do things like this, we sure as hell better make sure we're on the winning side. That's still my view.
By definition, war is immoral; there is no such thing as a clean war. Once arimies are engaged, war is total. We were ordered to commit an atrocity, pure and simple but the brass who approved this action probably felt justified because wartime Germany wasn't easily divided between "innocent civilians" and its military machine. The farmer tilling his potato field might have been feeding German Troops. And because German industry was wrecked by constant bombing, muntions-making was now a cottage industry, dispersed across the country in hundreds of homes and neighborhood factories, which was the British excuse for staging carpet bombing and fire bombing attacks on civilian targets. In war, the military will seldom hesitate to hit civilians if they are in the way, or to target them purposely for various strategic reasons. That's been true in every war that has ever been fought and will be fought. That is the savage nature of war itself. I'm certainly not proud of that particular strafing mission against civilians. But it is there, on the record and in my memory."
Yeager also admitted he killed German pilots who bailed out of the their jet planes
Yeager was an a hole of epic proportions
@@jackjohnson6339 Jack, do you have a reference for that, please?
@@DrippyTheRaindrop He said it in an interview. He said they knew the jet pilots were in short supply and had a lot of training invested in them so they were to told to shoot them in their parachutes.
My Uncle Archie Wing was in the 99th infantry. Joining the Northern shoulder of the "Bulge" as it was falling apart due to the efforts of the 291st Engineers who advanced with the 99th. The 99th infantry relieved the 9th armored infantry on the East bank of the Rhine across the Ludendorf Bridge at Remagen. They held that bridgehead for a week under German strikes to knock the bridge out. Some V-2 strikes included. Came across a German soldier sleeping against a tree. Did him in & kept the automatic pistol the German was carrying. Got lost in the Black Forest for 3 days alone. Came across a dead German holding a piece of black bread. 3 days starving he said that was the most delicious bread he had ever had in his life. Awarded a Silver Star for valor in Honnigen. R&Red in a castle at the end of the war. Fishing the moat with grenades. He hailed from Freeport, Maine. Spears was from Portland, Maine.
My dads 98 and lives with us. In war killing becomes a solution to a problem whither it a POW or someone on you own side you can’t stand. He told me that in the battle of Manila they had lost so many soldiers that if someone in prison in the US had 2-3 years left if they went to the front lines their record would be expunged. Guess what? Many of them acted more like criminals than soldiers. Raping anything that wore a dress. According to my dad a few of them had more than their record’s expunged by other soldiers. Not many POW’s in the pacific theater. But lots of Japanese soldiers wasn’t given much of a chance to surrender especially if there transport boat was sunk. Wars Hell.
My cousin was given the choice of the service duringViet Nam or prison. He came home in a flag drapped casket.
I wouldn't doubt spears would've let those guys become prisoners. But the invasion wasn't staffed enough to properly handle them yet. Easy and Dog needed to move and get other work done and the prisoners at that time were a massive inconvenience. Not saying it was right, just saying I think that had a huge part in it.
Mathew settal's acting was superb. He gave the feeling of a combat hardened leader and dark and mysterious too.
Totally agree. Perfect casting.
My Grandfather was a young man in Germany before 1939. His parents died early and he was alone as an orphan. Then he had to serve his mandatory military duty in the Wehrmacht. Just as his time there would have ended he came home to visit my Grandma (they weren't married yet) and told her, that he won't be coming home, as there would be a war starting.
So it came. They did not let him go home. He was sent to war at the eastern front and advanced together with the Wehrmacht until they could look right into Moscow from a small hill. On the way there, they often had to eat frozen and raw potatos while lying in the trenches for weeks without end.
Then the tides turned and the Wehrmacht was forced to retreat. During the retreat he got shot in the ankle and had to limp on until he arrived at a camp where he got on the last train towards home that left from that station because he knew a young lieutenant he met there who was in charge, from the very beginning of the war. So he was incredibly lucky - he got home.
Many others did not and became russian POW - some of them to return many years later, sick and broken from forced labor in Siberia.
He never was asked, if he would like to go to war. He never wanted to go to war with anyone. He was no member of the party. He was a kind and gentle man without any evil or anger in him. He had to go towards the eastern front or otherwise would have been shot. He got sick later and died from ALS in the seventies - still not even sixty years old.
Wars are always started by those who will have no part in it and instead will sit safely in their cozy mansions while others must suffer and die for their ideas and ideologies.
Your grandfather was incredibly lucky to have had the honor to fight for Germany and AH
@@Christoph-sd3zi there was no honor for fighting for AH.
@christoph-sd3zi
You didn’t listen to a word he said. He said his grandfather would’ve been shot for refusing. AH was a trash human and I’m sure he’s suffering miserably in the abyss of hell right beside Martin Luther.
A family friend who fought in the Battle of the Bulge said they would never take SS troops alive because they were fanatics & would always try to kill you regardless of their predicament. So they were shot. Now he said they liked the Wehrmacht because they were friendly. He was of German descent & spoke fluent german. Other WWII veterans in this area said you did not mess around with the SS.
I agree, the ss were not worth saving
That's called dehumanizing brainwashing. This is how the greatest war crime organization (US armed forces) manages to get normal people to support the atrocities. You guys also think the atomic bombs on civilian targets were "necessary", but can't articulate why.
You could say the same about any military's special forces you're up against. We left the Iraqi Republican guard intact after the war and they played hell on the population and using guerrilla warfare. Don't think any military's special forces are any less dangerous than the next in the right situation, including American, we've done atrocious things too.
Myth. Not all, or even most, Waffen SS were like that by that time in the war, and not all German Army troops were goody two shoes. It was never that black and white. The Wehrmacht had its own war crimes.
@@DavidLavery-vk5iz they were the greatest fighting force the world had ever seen.
My uncle, WE (Web) Raduenz was in the 101st airborne and was one of the battered bastards of Bastogne as well.
The stories he shared was mind numbing.
He said that when he landed in a farm area he walked around the corner of the house he ran into a German soldier.
He said that it was kill or be killed. He mentioned the look in the soldier’s eyes he would never forget as it was fear.
After he killed the soldier he threw up and that it took a while to compose himself before going on. He said that it was one of the hardest things he had to do. He kept the information he found on the soldier to document his death so his family could be notified.
My uncle was captured during the battle of the Bulge, and spent the rest of the war in a POW camp. He told me that before his capture, he personally witnessed an officer order two GIs to take several German prisoners back to a location that was at least a half-hour's hike behind the lines, one-way. He then ordered them to return in 20 minutes, an impossible task. No one said so, but everyone recognized that this was a way of saying "take them out back and shoot them" without actually verbalizing it.
My grandfather was Royal Artillery and served full 39-45 he didn’t want his medals and wouldn’t talk about the war. Then, in the 1970’s my mum secretly applied for his medals as a surprise. When he saw them he was mad as hell and threw them in the kitchen bin and shouted “They’re nothing to be proud of, we did some terrible things, evil things!”. He died of alcoholism when I was 8. When my grandma didn’t have long left I asked her about my grandads war experiences as they were married before it started. She just said “neither side was innocent”.
Speirs admitted he did those things in a conversation with Dick Winters. Dick had been asked by the production company legal team to verify or deny the Speirs "stories". Dick called the then still alive Speirs who freely admitted to the killings, as he was following unwritten orders by division regarding prisoners.
Well, now you just brought up another questionable accusation. Were there unwritten orders about prisoners? I never heard that. I didn't read the book though. Where did you get that?
@@spiraling69 According to ronaldspeirs website, "General Maxwell Taylor, commander of the 101st Airborne instructed his paratroopers to ‘take no prisoners’ during the Normandy Invasion." The site also details fellow Band of Brothers-featured serviceman Don Malarkey recounting General Taylor's orders during the D-Day battles: "If you were to take prisoners, they’d handicap our ability to perform our mission. We were going to have to dispose of prisoners as best we saw fit."
@@spiraling69 It comes from one of the interviews Dick Winters gave about the release of Band of Brothers, it is on youtube, buried somewhere, but I did see and hear it. The strong suggestions, silent orders regarding taking prisoners came right down from Gen Maxwell D. Taylor. These types of quiet orders were issued to many of the allied units whom needed to move light and fast. Impossible to do with prisoners.
So spears do eliminated unarmed German prisoners
@@spiraling69 There were suck things. This not the only event when us soldiers killing pows where referred to "unwritten orders".
I heard a lot stories from older Marines from WW2, Korea and Vietnam that had to do the same thing. I knew an old Gunny back in the early 80's who was our admin chief. Compared to our maniac Plt Sgt, Company Gunny and Sgt Major he seemed very easy going. We never knew it till we saw him at the Marine Corps ball in his blues, that he was a former infantry Marine who had a couple of tours in Vietnam before he made a lateral move into admin. He had a huge stack medals and ribbons. To include a Bronze Star and 3 Purple Hearts. As young Marines we always gathered around the old guys at those times to hear some stories, which after a few drinks they would tell. This Marine fought at Hue City and other engagements. When asked he told us he was wounded once by artillery fire and twice by gun shots. When asked if he saw the guys who shot him. he said, "I sure did, I killed both of them". I never forgot that and I never forgot that not all warfighters are in the infantry. My God father won the Bronze Star in Korea fighting on the front lines and he was a cook.
He wasn't cooking that day.
And......He didn't win a Bronze Star! It's Not an Olympic Medal! Next time, refer to him as earned or received a Bronze Star. 🇺🇸
My uncle was a supply sergeant in Korea (a corporal at the time) and was asked to head north to a different command. A jeep driver took him north to a battle known as The Punch Bowl where they ( Army troops) were being overrun. Only shortly before his death did he discuss what happened. A blizzard had come up during the evacuation and he was told to drive a truck out of area as one of several in the convoy. As a young driver (this was in 1951 or something) he told the officer in charge that he was not comfortable driving a truck especially in snow but was told just to follow the tail lights of the lead truck. This he did, right off a cliff, killing those in the truck with him, and sustaining severe wounds himself. He was flown on a stretcher out of the area when the snow stopped (on one of those little MASH choppers) to a field hospital. He bore that guilt for many years and never really got over it.
Hue was another battle that lasted far longer than it should have, due to political interference. Only a limited number of Marines was committed to fighting in Hue city because the Johnson administration didn't want the battle to look too major. They deliberately downplayed it and so due to the small number of troops involved, it lasted a month.
Sir, yes sir! Bossy much?.@@ericb2501
I strongly believe in catching flik. Better if colorized. From the start Sgt York believed the good book taught not to kill, so he referred himself as a conscientious objector in communicating to his leaders. But later his Captain/Colonel convinced him their are times the good book requires us to kill in the defense role. York understood. You'll enjoy the rest of it & the rest is the heart & soul of the flik
War is hell. My grandfather who setved aboard the USS Bassett apd73 once told me "never ever wish for war".
You are sh7t out of luck if you are an American because literally everyone in a position of power in that country who isnt an Orange man with bad hair wants war.
Every American seems to want war.
Would be nice if the war hawks pumping Ukraine and Russia every day would realize this
Spiers: "Lawsuit? *Chuckles to himself* That may be the way you lawyer types settle disputes, but I on the other hand.. cigarette?"
A significant curiosity.
Spiers became Spandau's Warden.
That is strange
Imagine being a prisoner there, knowing the rumors... 😓
@@johnheigis83 That's interesting 🤔
Hmm . Later on hess was murdered there
@Azazel2024 Rudolph? Thought it was self inflicted.
My stepdad had a tour in Vietnam and did some forward reconnaissance type missions. He told me he once that he was often in battles with Vietnamese boys so young they would be called kids under any other circumstances. He prefaced it with, "this may be hard to understand, but…" he and a buddy were overlooking a trail where a young (fighting age) Vietnamese boy/man was walking, and they discussed whether they should take him out or not. The logic being it's one less person they would have to get into a gun battle with in the future and possibly prevent him from killing an American soldier. I told him it was completely understandable, given the circumstances. Anyway, the kid never knew they were there and they didn't take any action, but it's strange to think how close the kid came to meeting his end right then. And who knows whether or not he took any American lives after that, but I can see how these experiences can haunt someone for the rest of their lives.
The issue of a unit being in the position of either shooting or releasing a prisoner was addressed in the movie, "Saving Private Ryan", and in this case they released the prisoner. I was born in the early 1950s, so got to hear some of the battle stories from relatives who were in the war. It was a good time for this, because by the time I was interested enough to pump these relatives for stories, they had had enough time to "heal" up from the war, but it was still not too distant in the past.
One uncle (all my older relatives were either "uncle" or "aunt", even if they were cousins) had been in the Army in Italy. His unit leader was a quiet, highly educated professor who was liked by all his men. Their unit was getting hammered by German mortar fire from somewhere nearby, and they had just taken some German's prisoners. He brought over a map and asked the German prisoners to point out where the mortar fire was coming from, and one German quickly answered that prisoners were protected by the Geneva Convention and that they would not help the enemy. He pulled out his pistol and shot him, which shocked everyone, but the other German prisoners quickly pointed out the location on the map and US artillery resolved the issue.
Yeah I honestly would have handled that a bit differently, I would have just said.
"Well I can't risk my troopers lives moving you outta harms way until these mortar rounds stop falling, nor can I make room for you in our trenches, so you're just gonna have to stay RIGHT here until we can figure a way to make that mortar fire stop, if you have any suggestions by way of this here map I'm all ears".
I reckon that woulda done the job just as smartly.
@@ToreDL87 I heard this story from my dad, who heard it directly from my "uncle" (his cousin), so may not have all the facts in place, but I got the impression that they were taking a lot of casualties, and that time was of the essence. The method you suggested might have worked, but the Germans might have been willing to die along with the Americans as well without the "shock" from what actually happened.
@@stephanledford9792 who cares about the Germans. Stop Romanitzing.
@@ToreDL87H😊e gave him fair chance . War isn't a game it's life or death. He didn't have time to babysit for answers. But nice suggestion none the less.
@@ToreDL87 Yeah, leaving a pow alone in an area getting hammered by mortars and he will surely stay put after you left. That surely seems like a threat that wouldn't sway many.
my great uncle never made it off the beach in Normandy my grandfather served in the Korean war as did my wifes grandfather my father served in the army and i would have too if not for medical reasons and i think them every day for their service and sacrifice and i thank all of the men and women who actively serve and those who have served before them i thank you for your sacrifice and commitment to protect our great nation and lets not forget all who have paid with their life to protect us and our great nation
If we are going to excuse the killing of prisoners by our soldiers, where it is necessary for the mission, honesty requires we excuse the same actions when done by our enemies...can we do that?
My grandfather died in Belarus just ours after returning from military hospital to the eastern front and left behind my grandmother, my mother and my aunt. My step-grandfather (a gentle, quite and humble man) never talked about the war where he lost 3 brothers and fought 6 years. But once he was asked by my siblings about his war experience because it was the task from school in the 80ies to ask relatives about war. That was the only time I saw my step-grandfather crying. He said that he killed a lot of russian soldiers, knowing that he had no other choice. He said that once the Russians were running barefooted over frozen ground, just armed with sticks, forced by an russian kommissar with a pistol, to attack the German lines. My step-grandfather knew they were farmerboys like him and didn't wanted to kill them. But if they would reach him, they would kill him. So he shot them all. While telling that my strong 70 year (at that time 1982) old beloved grandfather was crying so badly.... 😢 war is hell...
My Dad was a BAR man from the Battle of the Bulge thru VE-Day. He said periodically the word would be passed down "we're not taking prisoners today". He said it would be at times they had no ability to handle prisoners. However, he also said that NO SS men were taken prisoner.
I have heard that some combat groups, after liberating concentration camps, stopped taking prisoners.
I was just watching a doc on Kampfgruppe Peiper which was an SS unit known for war crimes during the bulge, probably the reason your dad was giving no passes to any SS. Their leader Joachim Peiper actually survived the war but got taken out by commies.
After the first concentration camps were liberated. An unwritten verbal order went out that no SS were to be taken prisoners. I heard this from several sources. I also known that the SS organizations were declared criminal organization at Nuremberg, that was retroactive to a Date in 1942. They were no longer afforded any protections of the Geneva Conventions after that date.
Your father handled a browning automatic rifle in WWII. I gotta believe your dad was one tough ass SOB. Those were killing machines that weighted a ton but were also fired from the hip at times. Respect. He must of felt things like no one else. I’d like to read his book one day because I believe his pov was unique as anyone’s. If I’m not mistaken each platoon had one BAR and that was all. Enlighten me if you care too.
so it was 'fine' for US troops to commit war crimes?
The best part of this story is Spears non chalantly telling Dick Winters, “Yeah, those stories are true. I shot all of those guys. I’m not going to sue.”
props to you for citing sources and mentioning that source in the video. so many people just steal content and never attribute it
I spoke to a Vietnam vet who was on a pilot rescue team. One rescue they snagged a couple of VC with the pilot who broke his leg on ejection. They all piled in a Huey and went back to base. One VC was cussin & spitting. The other 2 quiet. The pilot was screaming. The vet asked how could he help. Pilot said get this cussin VC off my leg. He opened the door and out Charlie went. My cousin who heard the story with me looked like he wanted to disappear. I told him later that the VC while a prisoner was still fighting and injuring a fellow American. It in my opinion might look ugly but so is war. Not all prisoner killings were murder.
I agree that if the VC was still resisting that makes him fair game. Still trying to hurt the injured pilot? Out he goes.
Out you go Chuck,bye bye,ya fucked around and found out!
One way to find out if commies can fly.
“It says here in this history book that luckily, the good guys have won every single time. What are the odds?” - Norm MacDonald
During my late teen years my uncle visited us in Maryland. He had been a Marine in the Pacific theater and fought in the battle of Tarawa. He talked about the brutality of the fight, the suicide attacks made by the Japanese soldiers day and night. I said I had read there were only a few Japanese POWs at the end of the battle. He said let me tell you something, Marines were rotated in and out of the fight and given time off but there was nothing to do. Japanese captured soldiers were kept in a quarry so we (Marines) having nothing to do went to the quarry and used the Japanese POWs for target practice. That is why only a small number of Japanese POWs returned. I have no reason to believe he was not telling the truth.
disgusting
Slightly different rules apply to Japanese prisoners at the point of capture. The Japanese were strictly forbidden to surrender and rarely did. If you took a prisoner, therefore, there was a heightened risk he might turn on you and pull out a grenade or something. It was still illegal to kill them, but there was more excuse for it than when taking German prisoners. However, when the Japs had been thoroughly searched and most likely stripped, there was no legitimate reason to kill them.
Read recently some comments by Charles Lindbergh concerning the Japanese in the Pacific war and they reflect your comments as his also. Indoctrination of the Japanese soldiers made them very reluctant to surrender, and I doubt many Allied soldiers were thrilled with captivity under the Japanese. British soldiers were ORDERED to surrender at the start of the Pacific war. Shooting POW's in a quarry pit differs very little from those well known photos of the Germans executing Jews by rifle fire at the start of the "Final Solution". I know of few wars (none really) that did not have atrocities. Films have seldom depicted the reality and that is something that must be shown if there is ever to be any chance of ending them or preventing so many.
I have a horrible story: I am Australian and worked with an older guy about 30 years ago now. When his Grandmother died, he got a bunch of stuff from her being the only grandchild, including a bunch of letters from his Grandfather written to his Grandmother during WW2 in Africa.
A couple of the letters surrounded his guilt and struggle with an incident involving the capture of Italian soldiers, who because they were on the move with very few supplies, they were ordered to execute the prisoners.
Obviously not the first or last time a similar order had been issued, but here's the "horrible" part: Because they were low on supplies including ammunition, they were ordered to bayonet them to death to save bullets .... that was the part that he couldn't get over.
He died in the war, but his Grandmother, who re-married, had kept everything of his, clothes and other personal items, and of course the letters.
That's gruesome...
The more I learn from the war the more I'm determined that the wrong side won
@@pog428 Then there is still a lot to learn...
@@pog428 You think the Axis should have won?
@@pog428pog.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Band of Brothers - Book & Series - is the BEST ever made! This History Review of Ronald Speirs is simply BRILLIANT! Thank you very, very much, History vs. Hollywood! 👍
History vs. Liars.
I was a cop for 33 years I wonder if the drunk Sgt wasn’t trying to commit suicide by grabbing his M1 and pointing it at a LT with a Thompson.
ACAB
Was thinking the same thing
What a great insight.
I suppose your reason for mentioning you're a cop is because what you're describing is similar to "suicide by cop".
@@Cre80s yes we had it happen quite often in the city I worked. That’s what it reminded me of. Plus if the Sgt was listed as killed in action his family would get compensation from the government but not if he committed suicide.
My father was a paratrooper with Co. H, 3rd Btn., 506th PIR, 101st ABN. He jumped into Normandy on 6/6/44. He told me the same thing about being told to take no prisoners. While I know that was true, I’m grateful it wasn’t always followed by either side. My father was captured in Normandy and spent the next 9 months in German POW camps. He survived to return home to my mother and raise our family, which is why I’m here today.
There is a fundamental problem with shooting or otherwise making it clear that surrender is not an option: it removes the option to surrender, it means that they are going to do anything to survive, fight to the last round, the last blade the last fist. The German army in that position were no different to rabid dogs and as the Soviet troops can attest: that turns a winnable battle in to a meat grinder.
Moreover, what goes around comes around, you get known as killing POWs - they will kill POWs which are basically a resource sink for the army that takes them.
The results of that are visible in all war theatres, in all of history.
War is at its heart immoral and unethical: there is always the option of mercy, but the form it takes is varied.
There are some basic rules to dress the horrors of war up in a guise of decency: but if they broken then everybody suffers that bit more.
WW2 and its particular circumstances pushed all of the boundaries of humanity out into the long grass, and we are still paying the price for it.
Very well articulatd.
@@steven7936 Outstanding to be sure!
"Rules of War" an oxymoron if there ever was one.
Rubbish!
The japs ignored the GC. SO..... 20K +
are dead in caves on Okinawa. We gave them a chance......!!
"When you put your hand into a bunch of goo that a moment before was your best friend's face, you'll know what to do."--General George S. Patton
My Uncle Maynard Quackenbush was a pilot of a paratroop transport plane that was converted to drop food on Bastogne, and Foy, and may have dropped rations to the Men of Easy Company while they were in the Ardennes near Bastogne. He told a story where to his right were German soldiers and to his left were American soldiers, not 100 yards apart. He flew as close to the trees to his left as he could and dropped the supplies. When he landed his plane was full of holes on both sides of the plane. He thinks in their desperation both sides were to trying to stop his plane from supplying them. In 1980 he went back to Bastogne and walked through that field he dropped supplies on. He could not believe those men withstood the might of the German Army so long in that forest in those tiny little foxholes. God bless all those men!
For all the commenters on here who say “I would’ve done it differently” you have no right to comment until you’ve been in war watching your friends die. Until then, shut up and thank a veteran who faced what you could not.
he is a war criminal
Big time.
@@BT-ir5zl
Did 30 years as a paratrooper, including time commanding troops on the two way rifle range. Put friends in aluminum boxes into aircraft for their last ride home. And so, I DO have the right to comment about posts like this.
I despise culls that make posts like this "shut up" post - particularly when most of them are from the "thank you for your service; but I decided to stay safe at home" crowd.
Thankfully and properly, American troops have too much character to act like Nazis except for rare exceptions such as My Lai in Vietnam. German troops in general did not do that, aside from the specially chosen and brainwashed SS troops.
There are are indeed situations where you simply cannot take prisoners, and Winters addressed both the allegations from the movie and situations like that in this video.
But murdering prisoners like a Nazi because you saw your friends die, when that actually did happen, is just more of being a Nazi.
If every American who saw friends die had been moved to murder prisoners because they had no self discipline, few enemy would have ever been taken prisoner, in any war.
@@AirborneMOC031 Thank you. You are are a real man who obviously managed to hang on to his decency, honour, dignity, integrity and compassion throughout the hell that you must have sometimes faced. I am grateful to people like you. As you say. Becoming a Nazi yourself is not the answer to facing and defeating them!
I remember Band of Brothers debuted on HBO right around 9/11 and the following months. I watch it every year still. Greatest series about #TheGreatestGeneration ❤
Great video. At least Spiers and the Americans have admitted shooting German prisoners. I knew a Canadian veteran of D-Day in my hometown who told stories about personally shooting German prisoners. I told this story on a Canadian CZcams channel about Canadians on D-Day, and I was attacked by the guy who runs the channel. He said that my story couldn't possibly be true and that I was either lying, or the veteran was making it up. This guy is typical of Canadians who want their soldiers to be portrayed as totally innocent and that they never killed any prisoners, when in fact this did happen. This is called "revisionist history" when you alter the facts to suit your story. Not all Canadians killed prisoners, but some did, just like the Americans, British, and other forces including the French Resistance. The Germans killed many prisoners during the Normandy campaign. It was an extremely brutal and ugly part of WW2.
Humans are humans everywhere, and war is highly stressful.
Canadians were especially irked by having to shed blood in Europe and of course Hitler and Germans were responsible for their journey across Atlantic and days under fire.
The Canadians had a problem with the 12th SS “Hitler Youth” Division on or shortly after D-Day. The SS shot some Canadian prisoners. After that, the Canadians frequently shot SS prisoners in retaliation. There are some videos on CZcams about this.
There is amble evidence that supports that Canadians executed members of the 12th SS in retaliation for them executing Canadian POWS.
The Geneva Convention was written because of the savagery committed by the Canadians towards the Germans during WW1
This was not just an occurrence in Normandy but in North Africa also. My father who was with the 756th Tank Battalion told me that it was not just the Germans and the Japanese that shot prisoners. He said in North Africa they were low on water and food and when they captured German prisoners, in most cases they would give them a cigarette to smoke and after they finished it, they would have them start to march off and then open fire on them. He explained the difference was they did not torture their prisoners as did the Germans and especially the Japanese. He said it was a very rough thing to do.
My dad was in the 638th Tank Destroyer Battalion. He was sent to hospital with trench foot on October 11th, 1944 while stationed in Belgium. On Nov 9 his remaining unit moved into Holland and had to stop overnight in a village. They backed the Tank Destroyer vehicle towards a building to cover it in case of air recon. Another unit had moved through the same village earlier in the day. They stacked mortar shells next to a building and failed to put a light on it as was standard practice. In the darkness the Tank Destroyer vehicle was backed into that stack of ammo and exploded. The entire unit was killed. The platoon commander at the time was my fathers best friend whom he had grown up with, graduated high school with, and was drafted with. His body was found 3 blocks away on top of a 2 story building and was only identified by his bright orange hair. My father dealt with survivors guilt the rest of his life.
Holy cow, what a story!
how's this relevant to Speirs. There's like 50 'my wife's uncle's grandfather was in...' comments. Feels like bots at this point.
@@maaz322 You feel like a bot, a bot for trolls, just coming in to poop on anyone and everyone's lives and personal stories to somehow "prove" that you're better than them when you actually offer no story, no value, nothing of your own or of any value but negativity. Cram it back where it came from and where it belongs. And get your own life instead of trying to poop on someone else's to make up for your own sorry self.
I've read a large number of WW2 memoirs and about 4 of them relate the shooting of prisoners. In one case, a sgt gave orders to take a few prisoners back to the CP and be back in 5 minutes. The CP was about a mile away! So the 2 men assigned the task, took the prisoners around the corner, shots were heard, and they returned. This happened in January or February 1945 after the Battle of the Bulge and the Malmedy Massacre was still on men's minds.
I knew a guy who just passed a few years ago, ex 101st abd, he saw... He told me in detail... I was floored when i saw it in the show on tv, it was portrayed just as he'd described it to me... The left corner of my heart is the book of his units actions
War is hell. Famous quote. I see lots of comments who had dads in that war. My dad was 17 in the navy and was spared from the invasion of japan by atomic bombs. It's all relative I guess. Do your job and come home safe. I truly miss the men that made our country strong, Hopefully it won't be a dirty word to be a patriot much longer.
Skip to 4:14 to miss all the time padding.
So I joined the military in 1984 specifically the Navy my father was a Korean War veteran and one of my great uncles was a World War II battle of the bulge army veteran. Both of them went to my Boot Camp graduation. After graduation, I introduced them to my company commander who I really think the world of even to today and my dad said that he was a Korean War veteran and my uncle Bill said that he was a veteran, my Boot Camp commander asked my great uncle about where he was in the war with my great uncle Bill told him I was blown away as I’d never heard of what had happened. He really never spoke it and no one ever did either. I went on to do many years in the military and did desert storm and desert shield. I went to both of their funerals in my full uniform. I don’t know if many people know but Disneyland in Anaheim California has a thing called the flag retreat they do every day and I have done this several times and I bring a white hat and I put it on and walk out there and salute the flag and sing the anthem or America the beautiful. I’m getting older and one day my dream is to go there And I’m saluting the flag my grandchildren that don’t exist yet come up with me and salute and sing the songs. I hope somebody sees that they understand what America is all about.
When I was in boot camp my grandfather a Marine from WWI, came to visit. At first they wouldn't let him take me off base for lunch at McDonald's in Fayetteville, but, then he said he told them "Do it for an old Marine" and the captain said "Take him Marine!"...and I got lunch!
My mom ran a nursing home for years. I met a lot of WW2 vets there. I am an Infantry vet myself of the 504 PIR 82nd. I recall one guy that fought from D Day Omaha right thru Battle of the Bulge would open up to me on his experiences. Well into his 80s then, he would weep hard when recalling how one of his leaders - a platoon sergeant and a Russian immigrant to US, killed unarmed German POWS ... torturing some with a knife. This old vet would weep recalling their screams and would say over and over that he wished someone would have stopped him, but everyone was afraid of him. That he should have gone to prison. Hollywood may make it look this way and that - but killing POWs is murder and also bad for unit moral. Just relaying a bit of WW2 history 2nd hand on the topic.
It would make Germans less likely to surrender and fight to the enemies costly end as they did on the eastern front.
Great post.
Bco. 1/504th here.
AIRBORNE!!
They were under orders to take no prisoners but any kind of torture was wrong 😢😢
I knew a friend of mine who was in the 9th infantry division. He told me a number of stories about what happened to him. But the one thing he told me that he said he never told anyone else, and it bothered him his whole life. During the battle of the bulge his section was under an infantry attack, all these Germans were running towards him all he could see in front of him was one German with a white cloth with a big red cross on his chest like a great big bulls eye. Well, he shot at that great big bulls eye, and yes he knew it was a medic. He said he was a young kid was scared and just started shooting. Afterwards he realized what he did, and it bothered him. After he told this to me, he said it helped that he was able to tell someone. I don't know why he picked me to tell this to.
My wifes grandpa was there, i had my dress greens hanging up and he just stood there and stared at it like it was speaking to him i knew he had stories and i wish i couldve talked to him more unfortunately the next day i was deployed and he had regrouped with his men in heaven while i was deployed
Rest easy Carl and Carl jr.(air force, wifes dad, secret squirrel stuff)
Given the right conditions every soldier can turn into a monster regardless
yes, there MAGA losers who will deny the right for a woman to control her own body!
EVERY PERSON given the right conditions can turn into a monster. The foot soldier is trained to kill and if deployed he did what he was trained to do…….when he gets back to his home, He is still a trained killer in a calm environment. We didn’t get enemy compassion classes in Infantry school.
The problem are those guys who already were sick bastards before the even were put in a uniform.
It's not just killing enemy soldiers who got captured or surrendered. There could be an argument made, why you can't always take them prisoner in some situations.
But something that gets even less talked about are the rapings of women by Western allied soldiers that started right after D-Day in France.
@@wolfgangkranek376 what happened there is for them to live with and they did so, you weren't there don't judge
@@BjornJohansen-cm1sb So you have difficulty with understanding written texts?
I was clearly speaking in general terms.
That said, if you bring up this aspect yourself...
Of course we can judge, what other people did, even if we weren't present.
We may judge it unfairly, but that's a different issue.
My uncle died of liver cancer. He drank himself to death. The horrors of the war did that to him. No one knew until he died that he had many medals from the war. My dad said he never talked about it.
Excellent video. The one odd thing about this topic with Speirs is, while Winters may not have had first-hand knowledge or confirmation of Speirs' specific shootings prior to their phone call, he must have been under the very same orders on "not-taking-prisoners" during his own time in theater. So not only would it have been very reasonable to assume the rumors were true he himself as a rising officer in the field must have seen many cases of this first hand if not even participating in it himself. I don't understand the kind of "tip-toeing-around" tone from him. Like most of these comments here confirm: it was war, it happened a lot, and much of it was on direct orders.
Because the orders were illegal and they knew it. Rape, looting, abusing pows or civilians are all war crimes that the allies pretended did not happen. Talking about it would be like talking about all the adultery, whoring and fraternization that took place. that sort of thing was to be kept from the people at home.
@@lindahl01 Thank you for your reply. Yes, I certainly understand all that. My point was if you're going to eventually not only talk talk about it, but make a book and TV series about it then what was with the 'playing coy' part!? Anyway, not a big deal. He's an American hero in any case and our boys had to what it took to win.
We should never place ourselves in a position to judge these remarkable brave men.
During the Siege of Tobruk, my Dad and his mates were often told before a Patrol against the Germans....and Italian, "Prisoners are NOT required." So the Black Flag was up, and no prisoners were taken. It's a fine distinction but the enemy WEREN'T given the opportunity to put their hands up, that's not murdering them after they'd surrendered. But of course, in a Siege, prisoners are a liability. They needed to be fed, guarded and put on outgoing Destroyers where their presence merely took up space for our wounded.
when this was done by the Axis, it was called a crime
Reading all these comments make me wish I was old enough to understand stories from my grandfather. He was in the 134th infantry regiment, who from my understanding relieved the 101st in the Ardennes. Granted its tough to ask any vet about things that happened, and my dad never heard much about it either. But he sure did love watching me play Medal of Honor: Frontline.
We all know that both the Japanese and Americans did not take prisoners during several island campaigns. Neither side had a place for prisoners and the Japanese basically did not give up. Americans only took prisoners when the islands were secure and the very few Japanese soldiers gave up and came out of their caves. If anyone wants a first hand of the fighting the Marines had in the Pacific you should read With the Old Breed by E. B. Sledge. A lot of this book was in the mini series The Pacific.
The Americans in the Pacific experienced unbelievable brutality and butchery by the Japanese. The Americans took no prisoners.
In the non-fiction book "World War II" by James Jones, author of "The Big Red One" and "From Here to Eternity," Jones talks about post war trauma and PTSD. He tells of meeting some vets after the war. They were in the Ardennes and captured several German soldiers. These Wehrmacht were tough old boys, they wouldn't talk. But the GIs needed info, so they took one guy aside and shot him through the head. "After that, they were eager to talk", the veteran said. "How can I explain that to my wife?" asked the vet. Like Jones, he had no answer.
The first mention of executions by paratroopers, that I can recall, came from the film version of The Longest Day. It's where the character portrayed by John Wayne tells the men in front of them that "you can't give the enemy a break. Send them to Hell." I would imagine that more men than Speirs were forced to do this. Speirs, however, was one of the few that survived the war and lived to tell about it.
Regardless of the prisoner issue: John Wayne was portraying, in 1962, General James Maurice Gaven, who was one star general at the time of the landing in 1944. General Gavin was 37 at the time of the landing; Wayne was 55 when he portrayed Gavin. Hmmm….something is not realistic here (this miscasting has been pointed out over the years). In summary; don’t believe everything you hear or see in the movies. Quite a few Axis troops were taken prisoner during that landing; and were not shot. In fact, killing the enemy after they are taken prisoner is a bad move as we generally have to deal with their friends and relatives after the war; eventually occupation will end. A prisoner who is taken and is treated fairly reasonably will probably be a friendly ally afterwards.
Whether you disagree with the casting of John Wayne in this film is your opinion and your opinion only. Wayne was the biggest star on the planet at this time and EVERY big film star in America, England, France and Germany jumped at the chance to be in this film. Finally, I do believe the reference comes from the book that carries the same title. The author sent out thousands of questionnaires to veterans who served in this invasion and interviewed hundreds more. I am going to trust his research. He did not make this stuff up.
@@Scottrchrdsn Regardless of the film in the real world during the first few days Allied Airborne forces were operating behind enemy lines so they had no holding facility for prisoners and as brutal as it was there was no other viable option.
My father was in the 3rd Armored during the bulge and after Malmedy they took no prisoners.
War is hell and hell is ugly. 😢
My dad was with the 191st Service Company at Anzio. Supplies had been cut off to both sides and they needed to march about 600 prisoners for several miles. Marching the distance without supplies would amount to torturing them to death. So an order was given to turn the tank's thirties on them, as an act of mercy. I guess you had to be there to understand if it was the right thing.
If true, that would have been a "massacre" far exceeding Malmedy. Shooting 600 men with machine guns would leave many wounded, so, did the troops individually attend to the wounded to insure they were dead, or simply leave them to suffer, thereby negating any "mercy"? In comparison to your story, I once read that Kruschev once admitted that thousands of Germans captured on the Eastern Front (as in Stalingrad) were shot because there was no food or shelter for them.
I genuinely get a lump in my throat whenever I see or hear Dick Winters interacting with his men. The BoB documentary with all of them, old and grey, but all 1000% still ready to go to war if that man asked them to. What a leader, what a human being 🙌🏼
Dick Winters is just an old man who p1ss3s his pants.
It happened in the Pacific theater as well. My Uncle was a marine who fought on Okinawa and he never talked about what he saw except that he had been forced to shoot surrendered Japanese soldiers.
My mom was a Navy WAVE serving in the States while she waited for our dad to come home. She and the other Navy wives shared letters from the men serving, many in the Pacific. She once told me our men were not the goodie two shoes as portrayed in the movies. She said the other wives and girl friends received letters telling them that the Japs were brutal, slaughtering American soldiers needlessly. So, in the letters they revealed that they, the Americans took no prisoners. That is why on the Pacific Islands less than a few Japs ever survived. Our soldiers and Marines slaughtered them to prevent more butchery by the Japanese.
Thank you for sharing this story. It’s brutal, but so important to pass down.
I was most impacted that some old Oregon farm family found out what happened what became of their brother/son from the BoB series. They sent their son to fight with Nazis, and finally learned his fate.
As a retired U.S. soldier, when I watched the movie, I was infuriated by the War Crime depicted in the movie. Our side shouldn't behave that way. This video explains what actually occurred, and provides testimonies from eye witness'. This is VERY different than the story presented in the movie.
In future, the stories should be told accurately. Killing the enemy in combat, or incapacitating them to prevent them re-entering combat when you have no reasonable means of securing them is not a war crime, it is an unfortunate circumstance of war. VERY different situation.
this clearly was a crime
It ain't a war crime if your side wins.
Story of the british
Your mom is a war crime
@@BrettonianKnight the British are just pirates.
How true...
Killing prisoners is a forbidden act, a war crime. But it's hardly new. I was listening to a recording of a British soldier from WW1 in the Imperial War Museum's audio files. His unit had a string of wounded German prisoners and called their headquarters to ask what should be done with them. They were told that NO German wounded were to sent back as prisoners under any circumstances. The interviewer asked, "Well, what did you do with them? The soldier replied casually, "We shot them" at which point you can hear the recorder being hastily shut off. To the soldier, it was just an accepted fact, something that happened. War is an ugly, ugly business and rules are only rules when it suits us.
Because that’s what “Total War” is. “Ask no quarter, Give no quarter.”
I’ll say this, I knew a WW2 vet, tank Sargent under Patton and while on the move to battle or in battle, they didn’t stop and hold prisoners until MPs came to relieve them of the prisoners. That’s all he would say about it. He was one of the very few of DD tanks to make it on the beach on D day.
God bless all WW2 veterans, living or not The greatest generation is a fitting title for these men, including my late father, RIP.
I had Dick WInters daughter as a teacher in High School.
My Father-in-Law was Infantry and landed on Utah on D-Day. He told both my wife and I a few years before he died after the Saving Private Ryan movie came out that he could not watch, of shooting captured Nazi soldiers in France whenever there were no officers present. He also said that if the CO asked you to take a prisoner to the rear and to take your time coming back, that it was kind of a code to shoot the prisoner after the prisoner was allowed to dig a trench for their body. Also, he said if the CO said take the prisoner back to HQ and get back on the double, it was the same code to just get out of sight of where everyone was, on the way back and let him have it. My Father-in-Law carried an M1 which is still today a great weapon. When I asked more, he said they were NAZI's and they were killing our guys so, we killed them. Some did make it back to HQ, especially if the CO said to deliver the prisoner to the company commander or someone in G2 he may have known but, more than half the time, we just shot them.
The soldiers weren't Nazi soldiers, they were German soldiers. Nazi was the political party. It would be like Germans calling the Americans soldiers Democratic Party soldiers.
criminal
Yeah I would not Be proud of that
SS? Justified. Wermacht? Criminal
After 30 years as a paratrooper and multiple deployments, this reads like this is code for saying "we were also murderers, just like the Nazis". Reminds me of stories from anonymous sources claiming that commanding officers gave code words to enlisted men to murder prisoners in Fallujah.
There is a big difference between being unable to take prisoners due to the immediate circumstances i.e. behind enemy lines, and a commanding officer confidently telling subordinates to murder prisoners out of his sight.
Gotta be confident that never in the future will that enlisted man develop a conscience, become a born again Christian, etc - or have a need to fink out that officer to save himself for something that he did. Like being witnessed murdering a prisoner later on, all on his own.
God only knows how many POWs were executed by all sides in this war.
More Germans died after surrendering than died fighting. Eisenhours death camps in the Rhein Valley, the Russians.... One day the truth will be out and people can talk about this war without good vs evil mythology attached.
Spears was the last Commander of Spandau Prison and knew Rudolph Hess.
They told us in basic not to be taken prisoner because they would either kill you or you would be tortured and then either killed or imprisoned until you would probably die anyway. Best odds are always to fight it out until you can fight no more. What really amazes me is that run he made across the battlefield without getting shot. He must have been a fast guy. I can see it happening, but still...
Dick Winters is the first in Hollywood to be better looking than the actor that portrayed him
Maybe "portrayed" might be a somewhat better word choice than "betrayed".
@@AWB9999 I fixed it, Google Voice is not very forgiving with English
I grew up next to a neighbor who was in the 101st Airborne during D Day, and yeah being behind enemy lines they shot German POWs. Just a matter of fact. He described it as such as well, with automatic gunfire from Thompson submachine guns.
Spears was NOT the only soldier of the Air Born to shoot prisoners. The fact is they were told to NOT take prisoners as it would slow them down! In those kinds of ops...operational Security is everything and you can not be burdened by prisoners. You are on the move there is no base camp to take them too. It was only later after the beach heads had been established and they could take prisoners safely and hold them properly. And the Germans they were not taking Prisoners that day either...so everyone really needs to shut up about it. There were war crimes going on for both sides. WAR IS NOT PERFECT!!
2:01 A drunken sergeant was told to go to the rear, refused, and pointed his rifle at the Commander - who shot him in self-defense.
It's interesting how people talk about not taking any SS prisoners. At Arnham, it was an SS officer who stopped the Regular Germany Army soldier executing British Paratrooper prisoners.