[NFHale]

Just saw “Kelly’s Heroes” the other night. Loved Savalas in that role too.

Also, he was “GuffY” in “The Battle of the Bulge”. Another memorable character. He was ready to fight the Germans with his machine gun, after his turret was blown off.

I always remember my dad saying that movie was bullsh*t - “There was NO sun there at all... I was there, I remember.” He was referring to the sun-drenched tank battle.

A better movie from that time is “Battleground”, from 1949. My old man always commented on that, saying it was pretty damn close to what he remembered of the Ardennes.

I often wonder what he’d think of “Band of Brothers”, were he still alive to have seen it. He was WWII Airborne, after all.

[Thibodeaux]

Worst line in the battle of the bulge.....

I’m going to commit my tanks!

[Bender2]

Re: “Battleground”, from 1949. My old man always commented on that, saying it was pretty damn close to what he remembered of the Ardennes.

I often wonder what he’d think of “Band of Brothers”, were he still alive to have seen it. He was WWII Airborne, after all.

My late Father never talked much about his service in the ETO, he went from North Africa to Italy to Southern France to Germany and into Austria when the war finally came to a close in Europe.

However, my Mom once told me she and he went to see Ernie Pyle's The Story of G.I. Joe with Burgess Meredith and Robert Mitchum that came out not long after the ware ended and my Dad was back.

She said she asked him afterward if the film was accurate?

"Torchy," he replied, "they came about as close as a Hollywood movie can."

It is one of my favorite war films and one of the first to have some accuracy in showing the effects of extended combat action on servicemen. Battleground is another film that got close for the times.

Now, the opening of Saving Private Ryan on Omaha Beach was very close according to an old service friend of my Father's that saw the film before he died in 2002 age 84.

I cannot imagine what it would be like to storm a defended, contested beach like they did in World War Two. If Saving Private Ryan is only close, I would dread having to do it. That's why the men who really did it are truly the Greatest Generation.

I would be ashamed for them to see the vast crop of idiots we have raise to lead this nation today--

[GOPsterinMA]

Good stuff.

I wonder what all the guys that fought (and especially those that didn’t make it back) WW2 would say about what the current state of the country is?