On this day in television history - Band of Brothers (2001)

Band of Brothers

11-part mini-series created by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks.

Based on the book Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne: From Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest by Stephen E. Ambrose.

Released in the United States on September 9, 2001.

Music by Michael Kamen.

Episode titles:
Currahee; Day of Days; Carentan; Replacements; Crossroads; Bastogne; The Breaking Point; The Last Patrol; Why We Fight; Points; We Stand Alone Together: The Men of Easy Company (series companion documentary).
 
Cast:

Kirk Acevedo, Eion Bailey, Michael Cudlitz, Dale Dye, Rick Gomez, Scott Grimes, Frank John Hughes, Damian Lewis, Ron Livingston, James Madio, Neal McDonough, Rene L. Moreno, David Schwimmer, Richard Speight, Jr., Donnie Wahlberg, Matthew Settle, Douglas Spain, Rick Warden, Marc Warren, Shane Taylor, Dexter Fletcher, Ross McCall, Matthew Leitch, Peter Youngblood Hills, Nicholas Aaron, Philip Barantini, Doug Allen, George Calil, Nolan Hemmings, Robin Laing, Michael Fassbender, Tim Matthews, Craig Heaney, Peter McCabe, Jamie Bamber, Ben Caplan, Mark Huberman, Phil McKee, Mark Lawrence, Rocky Marshall, David Andrews, Bill Armstrong, Jonie Broom, Doug Cockle, Alexis Conran, Dominic Cooper as Allington, Marcos D’Cruze, Tony Devlin, Jimmy Fallon, Simon Fenton, Iain Fletcher, Tom George, Ezra Godden, Stephen Graham, Luke Griffin, Tom Hardy, Matt Hickey, Andrew Howard, Nigel Hoyle, Lucie Jeanne, Corey Johnson, Marc Ryan-Jordan, Wolf Kahler, John Light, Joseph May, James McAvoy, Stephen McCole, Hugo Metsers, Benjamin Montague, Hans Georg Nenning, David Nicolle, Kieran O’Brien, Rebecca Okot, Jason O’Mara, Peter O’Meara, Oscar Pearce, Simon Pegg, Ben Peyton, Andrew Lee Potts, Dave Power, Luke Roberts, Iain Robertson, Toby Ross Bryant, Bart Ruspoli, Alex Sagba, Simon Schatzberger, Andrew Scott, Graham Seed, Adam Sims, Anatole Taubman, Stephen Walters, Paul Williams, Jonathan Young, Colin Hanks.

Recommended reading - D-Day: June 6, 1944. The Battle for the Normandy Beaches (1994)

 

D-Day: June 6, 1944. The Battle for the Normandy Beaches

by Stephen E. Ambrose.

Originally published in 1994.
 
ISBN-10: 1471158268
ISBN-13: 978-1471158261
 
Description from back cover:
 

D-Day is the epic story of men at the most demanding moment of their lives, when the horrors, complexities, and triumphs of life are laid bare. Distinguished historian Stephen E. Ambrose portrays the faces of courage and heroism, fear and determination — what Eisenhower called “the fury of an aroused democracy” — that shaped the victory of the citizen soldiers whom Hitler had disparaged.

 

Drawing on more than 1,400 interviews with American, British, Canadian, French, and German veterans, Ambrose reveals how the original plans for the invasion had to be abandoned, and how enlisted men and junior officers acted on their own initiative when they realized that nothing was as they were told it would be.

 

The action begins at midnight, June 5/6, when the first British and American airborne troops jumped into France. It ends at midnight June 6/7. Focusing on those pivotal twenty-four hours, it moves from the level of Supreme Commander to that of a French child, from General Omar Bradley to an American paratrooper, from Field Marshal Montgomery to a German sergeant. Ambrose’s D-Day is the finest account of one of our history’s most important days.

 

Covers from other editions:

       
                                                                                                                 
#D-Day, #veterans, #remembrance, #tribute, #military, #respect, #valor, #laurels, #America, #freedom, #heroes, #honor, #6June1944,