Band of Brothers

You are correct. There are also frequent mentions of gliders in the dialogue.

"Nope, it is the 327th Glider Regiment, evident by the clubs on their helmets (the 506th used spades)."

Note further that there was no "Item" company in the 327th Glider Infantry Regiment (GIR) during the Ardennes Offensive. None. Yes, there were three battalions "organic" to the 327th GIR and wearing the clubs on their helmets. No, there was no 3rd Battalion as such.

Writer/producer Robert Pirosh obviously knew that the glider infantry regiments of U.S. Airborne divisions had originally been three-battalion National Army "leg" units which had been redesignated with only two battalions in the regimental table of organization ("A" through "D" companies in the 1st Battalion, "E" through "H" companies in the 2nd) when the airborne infantry divisions were devised.

In order to prevent this 1949 movie from drawing the jeers of veterans who could justifiably say "That was my outfit, and it wasn't like that at all!" Pirosh designated the companies considered in this movie as if their regiment did have a 3rd Battalion (companies "I" through "M") at Bastogne.

By this stage in the war, it had been found that glider infantry regiments were too "thin" with only two battalions, and the decision was made to increase each glider infantry regiment's establishment to three battalions. This was not done by raising a third battalion intrinsic to the regiment, but by "cannibalizing" one regiment to attach one of its battalions to each of two other glider infantry regiments. Thus the 327th Glider Infantry Regiment came to contain its two original 1st and 2nd Battalions and the "permanently attached" 1st Battalion of the 401st GIR.

No companies "I," "K," "L," or "M" existed in the glider infantry contingent of the 101st Airborne Division during the Ardennes Offensive. It wasn't until 6 April 1945 that a nominal 3rd Battalion of the 327th was "consolidated" with the 1st Battalion of the 401st GIR to yield companies "I" through "M" in the 327th Regiment for the first time since it had been reorganized and redesignated as the 327th Glider Infantry on 15 August 1942.


Oh good! My dog found the chainsaw!

Germany would have been eventually defeated by the Western allies just as it was in WW1, that is, without a major contribution from the Russians. But as this is all speculation, who is to say that without Western lendlease the Soviets might have been conquered by the Germans? Why else was Stalin so upset that the shipments of western food were curtailed at wars end? And as far as Hitlers plans for the English and US, it was certainly not to allow them to live in peace.

I can see that you are another brainwashed yank, wmarkely. Of course I acknowledge that an invasion to Japan would result in a number of casualties. How many? Nobody knows. Probably not nearly as many as most "bomb" defenders suggest.
You know a country can only fight while still have resources to do it. Japan's industry was almost completely destroyed and the remain industry would be an easy target for US bombers. Japan was running out of oil, even coal. Without fuel no modern army can keep fighting. Finally Japan was running out of weapons and ammunition. The people was trained to defend Japan using sticks and knifes! c'mon! Nobody will know how long would have resisted Japan but I'm afraid not much.
Somebody said the weapons are created to be used, any weapon. The atomic bomb was supposed to be used over Germany but the war was over before the bomb could be ready. So only a battered Japan stood fighting in the side of the axis. Why to launch the bomb? As I told you it wan't necessary to launch atomic bombs over civilians to defeat a country without resources to keep fighting a long battle. Why to drop it? Well, as I pointed out a weapon has to be used, besides the militar wanted to know how destructive were really atomic bombs over populated places. None test could say it properly. Before Hiroshima and Nagasaki everything were speculations. Therefore the bomb was dropped also for mere testing purposes.
Another aspect to consider is one aforementioned. The Soviet Union was ready to invade Northern Japan and to occupy the entire Korean peninsula, China and other parts of Asia. If USA couldn't defeat Japan fast enough they would have to share Japan's spoils with the Soviet Union (as happened in Germany or Korea), dividing the country. As a matter of fact Russia invaded and still retains the Kuril Islands. Japan still consider those Islands as part of their territory.
Before the scenario of Asia turning "red" and before the possibility of seeing Japan divided, the bomb became suddenly too convenient. It allowed US forces to control Japan, to enter Korea on time to ask for their share (South Korea) and to stop or slow-down "the red menace" in the rest of Asia.
Right, they (USA) also wanted to avoid casualties amongst US troops and that's another reason why Truman decided to drop the bombs over CIVILIANS in Japan. yep, invading Japan in a traditional way could have cause the death of hundreds of thousands of SOLDIERS from both sides, albeit I think Japan would have surrendered faster than you think for the reasons above expressed.

Then the reason(S) to drop the bomb was more complex than you in your naive and chauvinist comment expressed.
Truman had many things on mind when he decided to drop the bomb. And believe me that the lifes of japaneses were NOT one of them. He had geopolitical, internal politics, economical, propaganda, etc. reasons to do it (He wanted to show to the rest of the world who had now the bigger stick and was willing to use it).

I know you are gonna disagree because well, you've been brainwahsed for decades but IMO Truman is a war criminal in the same league than any Fascist leader. To decide the death of about 125-150,000 civilians in a second (mostly kids, women, babies, elder people, INNOCENT people) it's one of the most vile, despicable and coward acts of history. Dozens of thousands more of japanese suffered the consequences of the atomic radiation the rest of their poor lifes.
Besides all the experts are agree on this: The only reason why Stalin developed his own nuclear bomb was because USA was working on one. As a result of that the cold war started, and sometimes it wasn't so cold. At least once the "end of the world as we know it" was close, really close (Cuba Missiles Crisis). If instead of Kennedy and Khrushchev, two war-mongers were ruling their respective countries (a la Bush/Putin) most likely you wouldn't be alive to post your ignorant comment.
It is well known that the "Hawks" were pushing Kennedy to nuke Cuba and the Soviet Union, they didn't know the missiles in Cuba were fully operational and armed with nuclear heads. In the other hand the Soviet "hawks" were telling Nikita Khrushchev exactly the same "let's nuke USA once and for all!". Luckyly those two men behaved like great statesmen, not like cheap bullies.

So dropping the atomic bombs also brought the Cold War that lasted for 5 decades and that is still a shadow over the world. Just recently when USA tried to interfere directly in Georgia, Putin had to remind to USA and the rest of the world that they still have enough nukes to blow out the entire planet several times. They don't even need to be precise, dropping randomly a bomb like the "Czar Bomb" over any place in USA would cause millions of casualties. Granted Russia would be destroyed as well, same whole Europe, Middle East, Far Asia... In short: any site where a US militar base it's located.
Thanks to Oppenheimer, Truman et al. The world is now a more dangerous place to live in. Because not only USA and Russia owns nukes, also China, India, Pakistan, Israel, France, UK and probably North Korea. Plus for countries like Japan, Germany, South Korea, Brazil, Italy, etc. would take from months to a couple of years to create nuclear weapons if they had to. since they have the technology and resources to do it.

Keep praising that genocide known as Harry Truman, after all ignorance is bliss.
Farewell.