‘Band of Brothers’ Recap – ‘Part Three: Carentan’

1/8/2024

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Marc Warren as Private Albert Blithe in Episode 103 of ‘Band of Brothers’ – ‘Part Three: Carentan’. (Photo Courtesy of HBO.)

It wasn’t that long ago, that our discussions of the HBO series, Band of Brothers, spoke to a fact that everyone knows in some capacity when it comes to war. In that, war indeed hell and it is indeed brutal and that thankfully… is a message that war stories work to convey in their own brutal manner. Since this is oft a lesson that comes to light by way of elaborate and powerful sequences, the kind that feature stunning violence and shocking deaths and well… there is quite frankly, nothing wrong with that. Because those are real elements that everyone goes through that fights in a war and that is what they see, and there’s no better way to hammer home such an important lesson than by showing us the brutal nature of conflict.

Or at least, that used to be the line of thinking. For Band of Brothers is a series that changed the landscape as to how war stories showcase the real horrors that soldiers experience when combat gets underway. A feat that ‘Part Three: Carentan’ accomplished by offering up two unique aspects of war that we simply don’t think about but do in fact… have a grand impact upon psyches and people because of the ugliness of war. Such as how quickly lives are lost and how soldiers in combat have to reconcile the fact that a friend is gone, someone they trusted and that wasn’t easy for the men of the 101st back in the Second World War. Who dealt with that shocking truth when their next mission arrived. For at this point in time in the war, the mission was simple, they were headed to Carentan to seize the town for the Allied Forces, and well… when they arrived, the lesson got underway.

Because the Germans wanted the town as well, and that led to a brutal battle. Wherein… this company experienced losses. The kind they hadn’t experienced yet in wartime, and second by second, we lived through that horror as well. As bullets and explosions dropped characters/historical figures that we were getting to know and coming to like and there was no time for those still standing to reflect or mourn in that moment, they just had to fight. Just had to bear witness to death and horrific injuries and that brought about, a sobering sequence for certain. One that spoke to the cold nature of war, the brutality of it and yes, how fast lives are lost and how horrific that can be, and we did indeed see some of these men work to cope and explain how they made it through the day knowing that death would surround them that quickly.

Stephen Walters and Rick Warden as Technician Fifth Grade John ‘Jack’ McGrath and First Lieutenant Harry Welsh in Episode 103 of ‘Band of Brothers’ – ‘Part Three: Carentan’. (Photo Courtesy of HBO.)

Which really did hammer home the lesson at hand in a manner that few war stories have ever replicated. Because it was indeed powerfully visceral, direct, and rightfully icy. Yet, the story wasn’t done breaking new ground on such matters just yet. Because this story also featured a lot of Private Albert Blithe. Who was separated from his unit during the D-Day debacle and found his way to back to Easy Company and well… struggled to fight. Not because he was a coward, as some stories might showcase, but because… the failure of his mission, and the ugliness in front of him and the reality that he might die at ay second, was more than his mind could bear. To the point where he froze up, became seemingly blind in a split second, and struggled to function.

Giving the audience a glimpse into the formation of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in the field during war time, something we don’t discuss enough, and certainly didn’t when the show premiered. But as we all know now, PTSD is a very real thing and something that so many soldiers suffer from and that… is a genuine horror of war. Since it is a devastation of the psyche. All of which made for another powerful episode of this series. One that really did take the time to showcase war and its horrors in a different and far more impactful light. Because this didn’t feel cinematic or manufactured as is the case with the lesson in more traditional and grandiose war stories, it just felt awful. For death was everywhere, it came for so many in a split second and it rocked one man to his core and rightfully so.

Because war is awful, and it requires a very unique constitution mentally to get through it and even then, there are no guarantees those horrors won’t haunt those who fight in a manner that prompts them to need medical assistance to cope. But sadly, these men had to go through that, and these men did their jobs regardless because of the belief that they were indeed committing to a greater cause. But there is no preparation that one can undertake to reconcile seeing such carnage, and well… that does and should give us pause and make us wonder about why we fight wars in an era where the goals aren’t noble, and that musing is the true reason the horrors are put on display. But going deeper on that is for another time, and all we can do now, is celebrate this brilliant tale. One that really did offer up a powerful and moving story about the real suffering the good guys endured during the Second World War. Until next time.

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