Editing Band of Brothers (miniseries) (section)

==Production==
The series was developed chiefly by [[Tom Hanks]] and [[Erik Jendresen]], who spent months detailing the plot outline and individual episodes.<ref name="TV Notes">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/12/02/arts/tv-notes-world-war-ii-the-mini-series.html |title=TV Notes: World War II, The Mini-Series |first=Lawrie |last=Mifflin |date=December 2, 1998 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=July 15, 2019 |archive-date=November 16, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201116173025/https://www.nytimes.com/1998/12/02/arts/tv-notes-world-war-ii-the-mini-series.html |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Steven Spielberg]] served as "the final eye" and used ''[[Saving Private Ryan]]'', the film on which he and Hanks had collaborated, to inform the series, although Jendresen served as showrunner.<ref name="Private Ryan">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/17/arts/television-radio-learning-how-the-private-ryans-felt-and-fought.html |title=Television/Radio: Learning How the Private Ryans Felt and Fought |first=Kristin |last=Hohenadel |date=December 17, 2000 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=August 24, 2008 |archive-date=November 16, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201116173154/https://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/17/arts/television-radio-learning-how-the-private-ryans-felt-and-fought.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Grater |first1=Tom |title='Band Of Brothers' showrunner Erik Jendresen on US TV industry: 'the fear of failure is extraordinary' |url=https://www.screendaily.com/news/band-of-brothers-showrunner-on-us-tv-industry-the-fear-of-failure-is-extraordinary/5131712.article |access-date=24 August 2022 |work=Screen International |date=17 August 2018}}</ref> Accounts of Easy Company veterans, such as [[Donald Malarkey]], were incorporated into production to add historic detail.<ref name="Private Ryan" />

===Budget and promotion===
[[File:Band of Brothers poster.jpg|thumb|A promotional poster for ''Band of Brothers'']]

''Band of Brothers'' was at the time the most expensive [[Miniseries|TV miniseries]] to have been made by any network.<ref name="Pentagon">{{cite news |title=On Television: HBO Bets Pentagon-Style Budget on a World War II Saga |first=Bill |last=Carter |newspaper=The New York Times |date=September 3, 2001 |access-date=August 24, 2008 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/03/business/on-television-hbo-bets-pentagon-style-budget-on-a-world-war-ii-saga.html |archive-date=November 16, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201116173030/https://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/03/business/on-television-hbo-bets-pentagon-style-budget-on-a-world-war-ii-saga.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Brothers">{{cite news |title='Brothers' invades fall lineup HBO's WWII miniseries battles network premieres |first=Gary |last=Levin |newspaper=[[USA Today]] |date=January 9, 2001}}</ref>  Its budget was about $125 million, or an average of $12.5 million per episode.<ref name="Private Ryan" />

An additional $15 million was allocated for a promotional campaign, which included screenings for World War II veterans.<ref name="Pentagon" /> One was held at [[Utah Beach]], Normandy, where U.S. troops had landed on [[Normandy landings|June 6, 1944]]. On June 7, 2001, 47 Easy Company veterans were flown to Paris and then traveled by chartered train to the site, where the series premiered.<ref name="Cable">{{cite news |title=HBO Cable network sets itself apart with daring fare |first=Gary |last=Levin |newspaper=USA Today |date=April 4, 2001}}</ref><ref name="Arts Abroad">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/07/arts/arts-abroad-a-normandy-landing-this-one-for-a-film.html |title=Arts Abroad: A Normandy Landing, This One for a Film |first=Alan |last=Riding |date=June 7, 2001 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=July 15, 2019 |archive-date=November 16, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201116173039/https://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/07/arts/arts-abroad-a-normandy-landing-this-one-for-a-film.html |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Chrysler]] was a sponsor, as its [[Jeep]]s were used in the series.<ref name="Jeep">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/10/business/media-business-advertising-jeep-s-manufacturer-seeks-capitalize-vehicle-s.html |title=Advertising: Jeep's manufacturer seeks to capitalize on the vehicle's featured role in 'Band of Brothers' |first=Stuart |last=Elliott |date=September 10, 2001 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=July 15, 2019 |archive-date=November 16, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201116173038/https://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/10/business/media-business-advertising-jeep-s-manufacturer-seeks-capitalize-vehicle-s.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Chrysler spent $5 million to $15 million on its advertising campaign, using footage from ''Band of Brothers''.<ref name="Jeep" /> Each of the spots was reviewed and approved by the co-executive producers Hanks and Spielberg.<ref name="Jeep"/>

The [[BBC]] paid £7 million ($10.1 million) as co-production partner, the most it had ever paid for a bought-in program, and screened it on [[BBC Two]]. Originally, it was to have aired on [[BBC One]] but was moved to allow an "uninterrupted ten-week run", with the BBC denying that this was because the series was not sufficiently mainstream.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/1492257.stm |title=Spielberg epic loses prime slot |date=August 15, 2001 |work=BBC News |access-date=July 15, 2019 |archive-date=June 1, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200601085917/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1492257.stm/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.newstatesman.com/200110080038 |title=The true drama of war |first=Andrew |last=Billen |date=October 8, 2001 |magazine=[[New Statesman]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090531132154/https://www.newstatesman.com/200110080038 |archive-date=May 31, 2009}}</ref> Negotiations were monitored by [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|British Prime Minister]] [[Tony Blair]], who spoke personally to Spielberg.<ref name="BBC">{{cite news |title=BBC pays £15m for new Spielberg war epic |first=Nicholas |last=Hellen |date=April 8, 2001 |newspaper=[[The Sunday Times]]}}</ref>

===Location===
The series was shot over eight to ten months on Ellenbrook Fields, at [[Hatfield Aerodrome]] in [[Hertfordshire]], England. This location had been used to shoot the film ''[[Saving Private Ryan]]''.<ref name="Private Ryan" /><ref name="Brothers" /> Various sets were built, including replicas on the large open field of 12 European towns, among them [[Bastogne]], Belgium; [[Eindhoven]], Netherlands; and [[Carentan]], France.<ref name="Hatfield">{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/hatfield-prepares-for-invasion-of-spielberg-brigade-739014.html |title=Hatfield prepares for invasion of Spielberg brigade |first=Clare |last=Garner |date=December 11, 1999 |newspaper=[[The Independent]] |access-date=July 15, 2019 |archive-date=November 16, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201116173033/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/hatfield-prepares-for-invasion-of-spielberg-brigade-739014.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Arts Abroad" /> [[North Weald Airfield]] in [[Essex]] was used for shots depicting the take-offs for the [[D-Day]] [[Normandy]] landings.

The village of [[Hambleden]], in [[Buckinghamshire]], England, was used extensively in the early episodes to depict the company's training in England, as well as in later scenes. The scenes set in Germany and Austria were shot in Switzerland, in and near the village of [[Brienz]] in the [[Bernese Oberland]], and at the nearby Hotel Giessbach.

===Historical accuracy===
To preserve historical accuracy, the writers conducted additional research. One source was the memoir of Easy Company soldier [[David Kenyon Webster]], ''Parachute Infantry: An American Paratrooper's Memoir of D-Day and the Fall of the Third Reich'' (1994).{{citation needed|date=October 2017}} This was published by [[LSU Press]], following renewed interest in World War II and more than 30 years after his death in a boating accident. In ''Band of Brothers'' Ambrose quoted liberally from Webster's unpublished diary entries, with permission from his estate.<ref name=BofB_Book/>{{refn|group=note|Webster is referenced 18 times in the index, and appears on 69 pages.}}

The production team consulted [[Dale Dye]], a retired [[United States Marine Corps]] captain and consultant on ''Saving Private Ryan'', as well as with most of the surviving Easy Company veterans, including Richard Winters, Bill Guarnere, Frank Perconte, Ed Heffron, and Amos Taylor.<ref name="Private Ryan" /><ref name="Vets">{{cite news |title=Actors & Vets Bond In 'Band Of Brothers' |first=Richard |last=Huff |date=September 9, 2001 |newspaper=[[New York Daily News]]}}</ref> Dye (who portrays Colonel [[Robert Sink]]) instructed the actors in a 10-day [[Recruit training|boot camp]] at the [[Longmoor Military Camp]] in Hampshire, culminating with parachute training at [[RAF Brize Norton]].<ref name="Vets" /><ref>{{cite web |last1=Warden |first1=Rick |title='Lunch At Longmoor' - Rick Warden takes Band of Brothers actors back to Bootcamp, 18 years on |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukanmadzCco |website=YouTube |date=July 2019 |access-date=21 August 2023 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Band of Brothers |url=https://warriorsinc.website/television-projects/band-of-brothers/ |website=Warriors, Inc. |access-date=21 August 2023}}</ref>

The production aimed for accuracy in the detail of weapons and costumes. Simon Atherton, the weapons master, corresponded with veterans to match weapons to scenes, and assistant costume designer Joe Hobbs used photos and veteran accounts.<ref name="Private Ryan" />

Most actors had contact with the individuals they were to portray before filming, often by telephone. Several veterans came to the production site.<ref name="Private Ryan" /> Hanks acknowledged that alterations were needed to create the series: "We've made history fit onto our screens. We had to condense down a vast number of characters, fold other people's experiences into 10 or 15 people, have people saying and doing things others said or did. We had people take off their helmets to identify them, when they would never have done so in combat. But I still think it is three or four times more accurate than most films like this."<ref name="Arts Abroad" /> As a final accuracy check, the veterans saw previews of the series and approved the episodes before they were aired.<ref>{{cite news |title=Miniseries put actors through boot camp |first=Sandy |last=MacDonald |date=September 15, 2002 |newspaper=[[The Daily News (Halifax)|Daily News]]|location=Halifax}}</ref>

Shortly after the premiere of the series, Tom Hanks asked Major Winters what he thought of ''Band of Brothers''. The major responded, "I wish that it would have been more authentic. I was hoping for an 80 percent solution." Hanks responded, "Look, Major, this is Hollywood. At the end of the day we will be hailed as geniuses if we get this 12 percent right. We are going to shoot for 17 percent."{{sfnp|Kingseed|2014|p=260}}

[[File:506 Inf Rgt DUI.jpg|thumb|150px|The 506th PIR Unit emblem]]
The liberation of one of the [[Kaufering concentration camp|Kaufering subcamps]] of [[Dachau concentration camp|Dachau]] was depicted in episode 9 ("[[Why We Fight (Band of Brothers)|Why We Fight]]"); however, the 101st Airborne Division arrived at Kaufering Lager IV subcamp on the day after<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10006152 |title=The 101st Airborne Division |website=The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum |access-date=May 9, 2016 |archive-date=July 7, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180707144109/https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10006152 |url-status=live }}</ref> it was discovered by the 134th Ordnance Maintenance Battalion of the [[12th Armored Division (United States)|12th Armored Division]], on April 27, 1945.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10006170 |title=The 12th Armored Division |website=The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum |access-date=May 27, 2015 |archive-date=November 16, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201116173215/https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-12th-armored-division |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The 12th Armored Division Memorial Museum: Liberation of Concentration Camps |url=http://www.12tharmoredmuseum.com/liberation.asp |website=The 12th Armored Division Memorial Museum |access-date=May 27, 2015 |archive-date=April 29, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150429123113/http://www.12tharmoredmuseum.com/liberation.asp |url-status=live }}</ref> German historian and [[Holocaust]] researcher [[Anton Posset]] worked with Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks as a consultant, providing photographs of the liberators and documentation of the survivors' reports he had collected over the years. The camp was reconstructed in England for the miniseries.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://buergervereinigung-landsberg.de/geschichte/orginalfilm.htm |title=Die Amerikanische Armee entdeckt den Holocaust |trans-title=The American Army discovers the Holocaust |website=Bürgervereinigung zur Erforschung der Landsberger Zeitgeschichte |language=de |access-date=July 28, 2018 |archive-date=November 16, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201116173226/http://buergervereinigung-landsberg.de/geschichte/orginalfilm.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

It is uncertain which Allied unit was first to reach the ''[[Kehlsteinhaus]]''. Several claim the honor, compounded by confusion with the town of [[Berchtesgaden]], which was taken on May 4 by forward elements of the [[7th Infantry Regiment (United States)|7th Infantry Regiment]] of the [[3rd Infantry Division (United States)|3rd Infantry Division]].<ref name=historynet>{{cite web |url=http://www.historynet.com/world-war-ii-race-to-seize-berchtesgaden.htm |title=World War II: Race to Seize Berchtesgaden |last=McManus |first=John C. |date=June 12, 2006 |website=HistoryNet |access-date=July 10, 2019 |archive-date=November 16, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201116173041/https://www.historynet.com/world-war-ii-race-to-seize-berchtesgaden.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-SS-Chronology/USA-SS-Chronology-5.html |editor-last=Williams |editor-first=Mary H. |date=1960 |title=Special Studies, Chronology 1941-1945 |series=[[United States Army in World War II]] |publisher=Center of Military History, United States Army |quote=In U.S. Seventh Army's XV Corps area, 7th Inf of 3d Div, crossing into Austria, advances through Salzburg to Berchtesgaden without opposition. |access-date=January 11, 2017 |archive-date=November 16, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201116173157/http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-SS-Chronology/USA-SS-Chronology-5.html |url-status=live }}</ref>{{refn|group=note| According to [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], Supreme Commander of Allied forces in Europe, the [[3rd Infantry Division (United States)|3rd Infantry Division]] was the first to take the town of Berchtesgaden; the "Eagle's Nest" is never mentioned.<ref>{{cite book |title=Crusade in Europe |url=https://archive.org/details/crusadeineurope00eise |url-access=registration |last=Eisenhower |first=Dwight D. |date=1948 |location=New York |publisher=[[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]] |page=[https://archive.org/details/crusadeineurope00eise/page/418 418] |quote="On May 4 the 3d division of the same corps captured Berchtesgaden." (The corps mentioned was the US XV Corps. The term "Eagle's Nest" is not in the quote nor the paragraph that mentions the capture of Berchtesgaden.)}}</ref> General [[Maxwell D. Taylor]], former Commanding General of the [[101st Airborne Division]], then attached to the [[XXI Corps (United States)|XXI Corps]], agreed.<ref>{{cite book |title=Swords and Plowshares |url=https://archive.org/details/swordsplowshares00tayl |url-access=registration |last=Taylor |first=Maxwell D. |date=1972 |location=New York |publisher=[[W. W. Norton]] |page=[https://archive.org/details/swordsplowshares00tayl/page/106 106] |isbn=9780393074604 |quote=3d Division units got into Berchtesgaden ahead of us on the afternoon of May 4}}</ref><!-- What did Taylor have to say, if anything, about the Kehlsteinhaus, which is the point at issue on this page? --> }} Reputedly members of the 7th went as far as the elevator to the ''Kehlsteinhaus'',<ref name=historynet/> with at least one individual claiming he and a partner continued on to the top.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/story/loc.natlib.afc2001001.09540/ |title=Veterans History Project: Interview with Herman Finnell |date=2001 |website=Library of Congress |access-date=July 15, 2019 |archive-date=November 16, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201116173048/http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/story/loc.natlib.afc2001001.09540/ |url-status=live }} Herman Louis Finnell of the 3rd Division, 7th Regiment, Company I, states that he and his ammo carrier, Pfc. Fungerburg, were the first to enter the Eagle's Nest, as well as the secret passages below the structure. Finnell stated that the hallway below the structure had rooms on either side filled with destroyed paintings, evening gowns, destroyed medical equipment and a wine cellar.<!-- Note: Unlike Hitler's Berghof, the Kehlsteinhaus was ''not'' bombed; purportedly SS troops which survived the air raid inflicted substantial destruction on the Berghof, Kehlsteinhaus, and elsewhere before leaving the area in advance of Allied occupation. It remains unclear who inflicted the destruction the Fungerburg describes, the SS, or prior U.S. troops. --></ref> However, the [[101st Airborne Division|101st Airborne]] maintains it was first both to Berchtesgaden and the Kehlsteinhaus.<ref>[[E Company, 506th Infantry Regiment (United States)|Easy Company of the 2nd Battalion 506th Regiment]], US 101st Airborne Division: {{cite video |year=1945 |title=Video: Allies Sign Control Law For Germany, 1945/06/14 (1945) |url=https://archive.org/details/1945-06-14_Allies_Sign_Control_Law_For_Germany |publisher=[[Universal Newsreel]] |access-date=February 20, 2012 }}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=November 2017}} Elements of the [[2nd Armored Division (France)|French 2nd Armored Division]], Laurent Touyeras, Georges Buis and Paul Répiton-Préneuf, were present on the night of May 4 to 5, and took several photographs before leaving on May 10 at the request of US command,<ref>{{cite book |title=Les Fanfares perdues: Entretiens avec Jean Lacouture |last1=Buis |first1=Georges |last2=Lacouture |first2=Jean |date=1975 |location=Paris |publisher=[[Éditions du Seuil]] |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=La Nueve. Los españoles que liberaron París |trans-title=The Nine. The Spaniards who liberated Paris |first=Evelyn |last=Mesquida |location=Barcelona |publisher=[[Ediciones B]] |date=April 2010 |language=es |isbn=978-8-49872-365-6}}</ref> and this is supported by testimonies of the Spanish soldiers who went along with them.

Major Dick Winters, who commanded the 2nd Battalion of the U.S. 506th PIR in May 1945, stated that they entered [[Berchtesgaden]] shortly after noon on May 5. He challenged competing claims stating, "If the 7th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Division was first in Berchtesgaden, just where did they go? Berchtesgaden is a relatively small community. I walked into the Berchtesgaden Hof with Lieutenant Welsh and saw nobody other than some servants. Goering's Officers' Club and wine cellar certainly would have caught the attention of a French soldier from [[Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque|LeClerc]]'s [[2nd Armored Division (France)|2nd Armored Division]], or a rifleman from the U.S. 3rd Division. I find it hard to imagine, if the 3rd Division was there first, why they left those beautiful Mercedes staff cars untouched for our men."{{sfnp|Kingseed|2014|pp=35-36}}