Band of Brothers -- TV Series

Photo of halftrack from a model show in California, courtesy of Chris Zellana

This series was great! I have a new-found respect for what
American soldiers did in World War 2.

Growing up in Canada, and having a very knowledgable History teacher
from England, perhaps biased my opinion too much against what America
accomplished in World War 2.

I grew up hearing from my father who fought in the Mediterranean, and
sometimes talked about how late it was until America finally got into
both World War 1 and World War 2. There was a lot of bitterness
about it in Canada and Britain.

My History professor Barry Leach emphasized that the Germans faced
a couple hundred divisions on the Eastern Front, whereas the
Russians faced nearly 200 German divisions or some incredible number
like that, The British, Canadians and Americans faced only about 15
ill-equipped German divisions in the West when they finally invaded
in 1944.

All that aside, and ignoring the Hollywood hype of some of the
movies that have been made, Band of Brothers brought home to me,
that although the bulk of the German might was not facing our
Canadian or American boys, it was still a huge sacrifice by all on
the Western Front and they often gave it in blood.

So Mr. Spielberg and Tom Hanks, my humble hat goes off to you, and
indeed to the soldiers of Easy Company, as well as the Canadians
who (you rarely if ever hear about), and to the Britons too who
fought and lost their lives, bringing freedom for people like us
today.

Kevin Burns