ORIGINAL: Gil R.
...You know, this thread reminds me: a few weeks ago I was on another forum and saw some posts by people complaining that the story told was somewhat inaccurate, in that Ambrose pretty much highlighted the performance of one unit and thus minimized the roles played by other units in the same battles and theaters. Does anyone out there think there's something to this?
I think there is something to that. In general, certain units (the Airborne divisions, the Marine Corps, Third Army) get more film and ink spilled over them because of the perception that they are elite. To some extent, this is true, but you could make a strong case that the popular perception that the 101st "saved Bastogne" ignores the sacrifices made by the regular infantry divisions that faced the initial German assault against fantastic odds and performed magnificently before being overwhelmed. In BoB, the only picture that we get of this is of shell shocked, retreating GIs handing over ammo to our Airborne heroes.
Did that happen? Sure, but that's only part of the story. Part of it is the fact that the 101st did a great job while surrounded (a surrounded force is always a popular one in the media if they win out, and the "Nuts!" line is a classic sound bite), part of it is because the division in that sector, the 28th ID, was so badly demolished that most of the stories of heroics were witnessed by dead men and POWs, and the US Army was more comfortable praising "the cavalry that came in the nick of time and survived" than the division that was smashed buying that time because of bad Intel and poor army planning.
Read "Alamo in the Ardennes" for a pretty good picture of what the 28th did in front of Bastogne, and why so few people know about it.
BoB is an outstanding series, but anytime a particular unit or fighting man gets the media limelight, I think that taking care not to underestimate the contributions of others is in order.
In fact, I think that a major production about some non glamorous units like the 106th ID in the Bulge, the terrible waste of men in the Huertgen Forest that was perpetuated by inept leadership, the Marines paying such a high toll in blood for Tarawa when Betio island was used for squat afterwords, etc. would be a nice change from the usual focus on the upside of what the US armed forces did in WWII.
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