Summary

• Band of Brothers accurately depicts the stories of real American paratroopers, but it leaves out many real events from Easy Company's time in WWII.
• Many recruits in Easy Company didn't make it through the punishing training at Camp Toccoa, and only those who endured were part of the 140 paratroopers who shipped out on D-Day.
• The fate of Sergeant Charles "Chuck" Grant, who was shot in the head, is never confirmed in Band of Brothers, but he did survive thanks to quick thinking and the expertise of German doctors.

Band of Brothers was given high praise for its accurate depiction of American paratroopers in the war, but there are still some parts of the true story, like the Sergeant Grant Band of Brothers fate, that are left out. Based on the book of the same name by Stephen A. Ambrose, Band of Brothers was executive produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks after their successful collaboration on another big-budget war drama, Saving Private Ryan. However, while Saving Private Ryan follows a fictional troop during World War II, Band of Brothers' cast tackles the stories of real soldiers.

By virtue of being a 10-episode miniseries rather than a film, Band of Brothers is able to follow the 101st Airborne paratroopers of Band of Brothers' Easy Company from their early days of training all the way to the war's end. Easy Company is seen parachuting behind enemy lines on D-Day to save American troops landing on Utah beach, taking part in Operation Market Garden in Holland, holding the Allied line over a frigid winter in Belgium, and capturing Hitler's personal mountaintop retreat, the Eagle's Nest. Band of Brothers is packed with incredible stories from Easy Company's time in WWII, but even with the expanded runtime afforded by a miniseries, many real events are excluded.

Dozens Of Easy Company Recruits Dropped Out During Training

At the start of Band of Brothers' first episode, "Currahee," David Schwimmer's divisive Captain Herbert Sobel orders the 2nd platoon to run up and down the mountain – an exhausting "three miles up, three miles down." As they're leaving the barracks, Carwood Lipton notices that one member of the platoon, Private White, is sitting on his bed and making no move to join the other men on their run. When Lipton prompts him to get a move on, White continues to ignore the order, so Lipton relents and leaves him there. This is the closest the series gets to portraying just how many Easy Company recruits didn't make it through training at Camp Toccoa.

Under Sobel's leadership, the men of Easy Company were pushed through relentlessly punishing daily drills. Robert "Popeye" Wynn later recalled that some of the men in the unit lost 40 pounds during their training. In the documentary We Stand Alone Together, Paul "Buck" Rogers said, "They weeded out so many. They'd be there one day, and they'd be gone the next." Bill Guarnere added, "They couldn't keep up, you understand. They were good men, but they couldn't take that hard training." The recruits who couldn't cut it were transferred to other units, and those 140 paratroopers who shipped out on D-Day were those who endured.

Martin & Guarnere Got Matching Tattoos

When Easy Company returned to England following their victories on D-Day, Band of Brothers' real Easy Company soldiers John W. Martin and Bill Guarnere got leave to go to Scotland. While in Edinburgh and "drunk as a skunk," according to a later interview with Guarnere, the two of them got matching tattoos on their right arm of a paratrooper falling from the sky with an open parachute. "If I was sober I never would have got it," Guarnere said. He also got a tattoo in memory of his brother, a fellow soldier who had been killed while fighting with the 1st Armored Division in Italy.

Cobb Did Put The Dying German Soldier Out Of His Misery

In Band of Brothers episode 8, "The Last Patrol," Easy Company is stationed in Haguenau and a group of 12 men is chosen to cross over to the German line and bring back prisoners for interrogation. One prisoner is badly injured during the attack and the patrol leaves him behind on the bank of the river, with the man still calling out for help there the following day. At the suggestion that they put him out of his misery, Private Roy Cobb bluntly responds, "F**k his misery."

However, Band of Brothers' book reveals that Cobb actually did end up putting the wounded German soldier out of his misery. Staff Sergeant Robert Marsh and Private David Webster tried to end the dying man's life by throwing grenades at him, but couldn't get them close enough. What Band of Brothers' series leaves out is that "Cobb decided he could take it no more. He grabbed a grenade, went to the river bank, heaved it over, and finally killed the German."

The following Band of Brothers scene, where a drunken Cobb baits Webster and calls him "college boy," is also only part of the true story. Cobb actually got drunk after a "daytime scrounging mission" with another private, during which they were shot at by Germans and the other trooper got hit in the knee. They drank a bottle of schnapps each, and when Cobb was reprimanded by 1st Lieutenant Jack Foley for his drunk and disorderly behavior, he became violent and charged at Foley. Cobb was arrested and later court-martialed for his behavior.

Sergeant Grant Recovered From Being Shot In The Head

The Sergeant Grant Band of Brothers incident is one that might seem too strange to be true but is based on fact. In Band of Brothers' final episode takes place as World War II is ending and Easy Company's men are waiting to either be relieved of active duty or shipped out to the Pacific front. Though the fighting had stopped, men still died from other causes, such as PFC John Kanovec dying in a car accident. One such deadly incident was a shooting by "I" Company replacement Private Floyd W. Craver.

After getting very drunk, Craver shot and killed two Germans, then killed a British major and his sergeant who stopped to investigate the commotion. Craver's last victim was Staff Sergeant Charles "Chuck" Grant, who was shot in the head. As depicted in the series, Captain Ronald Speirs found a German brain specialist who had the skill to operate on Grant. His fate is never actually confirmed in Band of Brothers, but Grant did survive his gunshot wound thanks to the quick thinking of Speirs and the expertise of the German doctors. According to Marcus Brotherton's book A Company of Heroes, Grant "slowly recovered" but had lingering problems with his speech and was partially paralyzed.

Albert Blithe Survived & Fought In The Korean War

Easily the biggest error that made it into Band of Brothers' book and miniseries was the fate of Private Albert Blithe, who is shown being shot in the neck in episode 3, "Carentan." The episode's ending text states that Blithe never recovered from his wounds and died in 1948. Both of these details are wrong: Blithe was shot in the right shoulder, not the neck, and he returned to the army and even served in the Korean War.

In real life, Private Albert Blithe died at 44 years old in 1967 of a perforated ulcer and kidney failure caused by chronic alcoholism. The mistake in Band of Brothers arose from the fact that both Bill Guarnere and Edward "Babe" Heffron swore they'd been to Albert Blithe's funeral in 1948. It's unclear whether this was just due to faulty memories, or whether they attended the funeral of a different Albert Blithe.