#Bastogne

[ghostofadragon]

god would never give something so painful

[saintmalosunsets]

Band of Brothers but it's just Gene looking for supplies

[adventures-of-grim-and-gracey]

I love how 'get a hot meal' became 1940s man code for you look fucked up

[balladofthe101st]

[terriblesolomons]

Ok but guys isn't it actually crazy how Eugene Roe's presence is literally defined by the ineffable silence of God....ep 6 has no narrative voice beyond the languageless vision of Roe's literal perspective....he brings with him silence in every episode he's in like the chaos after Jackson blows himself up stills completely when Doc runs in - they all go silent & frozen & breathless - when any man is wounded the very concept of words beyond orders fail...he talks about how Renee is blessed to calm the wounded she treats but it's evident that he brings with him something even graver than calm; it's unutterable, literally, it's a prayer, it's a response to the silence we meet (Roe meets) in his prayers (it's a reflection on the insane power we - they - have over our own - and their own - mortality - that silent and sometimes apparently godlike capacity to return (to the front lines) from the dead (that hell of lost brotherhood in the hospitals)?)

[magnoliasforyourmedic]

I was dead. My right leg was blown off, and the snow was red from all the blood. I went from burning hot to freezing. Me and Joe lay there freezing in the snow, shivering, bleeding, both of us were full of shrapnel. He said, "Jesus Christ, what the hell do I have to do to die?!" It was Joe's fifth time hit. Lipton, Malarkey, and Babe came running over to help, I was half out of it. Doc Roe was right there, trying to patch us up. Without him, we wouldn't be alive. Roe was the best medic we ever had. He was born to be a medic. You could always depend on him. You hollered, "Medic!" he was right there come hell or high water, he knew what he was doing. He was compassionate, took care of you mentally, physically, every way.

— William “Wild Bill” Guarnere describing Eugene “Doc” Roe in the book he cowrote with Babe Heffron, Brothers in Battle, Best of Friends

[sharkboyandlavalieb]

BASTOGNE - LINES & DOC ROE'S PRAYER OF SAINT FRANCIS -insp. x

[evidenceof]

[Renée voice]: Chocolat?

[yourspeirs]

[atomicradiogirl]

renée lemaire and the bastogne aid station

[aliciax3]

I was watching an interview with the sons of George Luz and Bill Guarnere, and Guarnere's son was talking about how he and his brother went to see Bill in the hospital when he had a heart attack and the doctor asked when he lost his leg and one of his sons goes "episode 7" 😂😂 and then the doctor asked when the last time Bill saw a doctor was and Bill said "Doc Roe in Bastogne" 🤣

[pookielious]

In honor of d day here's some of my random bofb cast photos collection !

[saintmalosunsets]

Doc Roe holding medical supplies in his mouth

[theworldatwar]

Wounded US soldiers are given medical treatment at a makeshift field hospital - Bastogne - January 1945

[newcathedrals]

who was Augusta Chiwy?

Episode 6 of Band of Brothers is a masterpiece, but I think writer Bruce C. McKenna made a huge error in only including Augusta Chiwy as a background character with no name in the episode, while Renée is a focus. I did some research on this amazing hero, who honestly deserves a miniseries of her own.

Renée Lemaire and Augusta Marie Chiwy (pronounced shee-wee) were nurses that lived in Belgium before the Battle of the Bulge. They volunteered to help Dr. John ‘Jack’ Prior (who was assigned to the 20th Armored Infantry Battalion) when the battle started. Dr. Prior evacuated the wounded soldiers he was taking care of from Noville to Bastogne as Noville was taken by German troops. Lemaire and Chiwy both volunteered to help Dr. Prior take care of the massive amounts of wounded men who were brought from the front lines into Bastogne. 

Augusta was born in Belgian-colonized Africa (in the part that is now Burundi) to a Belgian father and African mother. Her family moved to Belgium when she was a child, and she trained as a nurse there. She was visiting Bastogne to see her father when the Battle of the Bulge began. She chose to use her skills as a nurse to help the soldiers who were trying to defend Bastogne from German forces. 

Augusta Chiwy was heroic in her work during the Battle of the Bulge. War historian Peter Chaddick-Adams wrote that “Chiwy accompanied ‘Doc’ Prior to collect casualties from Mardasson Hill, north-east of Bastogne, wearing a GI uniform because her own clothes had become saturated with blood.” Chaddick-Adams wrote that Dr. Prior thought that bullets missed Augusta as she was out on the line because she was “so small.” Augusta was only 23 years old when she cared for hundreds of soldiers during the battle. 

Renée Lemaire was killed by the Luftwaffe on December 23 when German aircraft bombed the Bastogne aid station, along with thirty wounded soldiers who were also inside. Augusta Chiwy was blown through a wall but miraculously survived the bombing. Her contributions to saving lives, and providing comfort to many soldiers in their last moments were largely unrecognized until 2011, when Augusta Chiwy was granted Knighthood by the king of Belgium for her service in the battle. The American ambassador to Belgium also presented Chiwy with the Civilian Award for Humanitarian Service. At this ceremony, Chiwy said: “What I did was very normal. I would have done it for anyone. We are all children of God.”

She passed away at 94 years old on August 23, 2015. 

Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/world/europe/us-honors-belgian-nurse-for-heroism-in-world-war-ii.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/augusta-chiwy-forgotten-african-nurse-of-battle-of-the-bulge-dies-at-94/2015/08/27/8ff843ec-4bfb-11e5-84df-923b3ef1a64b_story.html

Snow and Steel: The Battle of the Bulge, 1944-45 by Peter Caddick-Adams, pages 374-375 

[cirr0stratus]

you guys ever think about how babe looked at gene after julian was killed. how he looked at HIM, and only him, and then back at the ground. do you think he thought just for a moment oh i get it now. i understand why you’re so distant. why you don’t keep anyone close.

you guys ever think about how gene couldn’t find babe that night because he wasn’t in his foxhole. he was with spina, in his and genes foxhole.

you guys think that maybe babe wasn’t looking for spina? how he didn’t talk until gene found him? maybe he was always looking for gene.