UPCOMING EPISODES

MK-19 Grenade Launcher/PPSH-41/WWII Weasel/Vertijet: # 79.

Airs on Friday, September 16 at 10:00pm ET

R. Lee Ermey, is back at HQ for a new season of shows jam-packed with gear, gun and guts. First, the Gunny is pitching horseshoes and because "close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades," it's the perfect introduction to Lee's trip to Camp Pendleton where he gets some trigger time with the MK-19 grenade launcher. Next, the focus is on Russian tactics and weapons of WWII. Lee shows us the Russian sub machine gun of choice during the campaign, the PPSH-41. Then, it's time for a test drive when a WWII Weasel shows up at HQ. Finally, it's time to dip into the Gunny's Fabulous Flops file for a segment about the Vertijet, America's first vertical take-off jet aircraft.

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M-1 Garand Rifle/First Assault Rifle/Jato/Golden Knights Parachute Team/Barrage Balloons

Airs on Friday, September 16 at 10:30pm ET

R. Lee Ermey answers viewer questions about the M-1 Garand, the rifle General Patton called "the greatest battle implement ever devised", and demonstrates the world's first assault rifle, the German MP-44. He takes to the sky to explain jet assisted take-off (JATO); offers an eye-popping look at the stunts performed by the Golden Knights, the Army's precision freefall parachute team; explains how barrage balloons protected London during the Blitz; and goes through the alphabet--military style! TVPG L

MK-19 Grenade Launcher/PPSH-41/WWII Weasel/Vertijet: # 79.

Airs on Saturday, September 17 at 2:00am ET

R. Lee Ermey, is back at HQ for a new season of shows jam-packed with gear, gun and guts. First, the Gunny is pitching horseshoes and because "close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades," it's the perfect introduction to Lee's trip to Camp Pendleton where he gets some trigger time with the MK-19 grenade launcher. Next, the focus is on Russian tactics and weapons of WWII. Lee shows us the Russian sub machine gun of choice during the campaign, the PPSH-41. Then, it's time for a test drive when a WWII Weasel shows up at HQ. Finally, it's time to dip into the Gunny's Fabulous Flops file for a segment about the Vertijet, America's first vertical take-off jet aircraft.

TVPG L

M-1 Garand Rifle/First Assault Rifle/Jato/Golden Knights Parachute Team/Barrage Balloons

Airs on Saturday, September 17 at 2:30am ET

R. Lee Ermey answers viewer questions about the M-1 Garand, the rifle General Patton called "the greatest battle implement ever devised", and demonstrates the world's first assault rifle, the German MP-44. He takes to the sky to explain jet assisted take-off (JATO); offers an eye-popping look at the stunts performed by the Golden Knights, the Army's precision freefall parachute team; explains how barrage balloons protected London during the Blitz; and goes through the alphabet--military style! TVPG L

Military Pilot Training/Flak/Doolittle Raid/One-Man Submarine/Military Radios: #36.

Airs on Saturday, September 17 at 12:00pm ET

How do we train our military pilots? What is flak and what is the origin of the word? How did the US pull off the daring Doolittle Raid against the Japanese during WWII? Did the OSS really use a 1-man submarine named Sleeping Beauty? What kind of radios are used in the field by today's military? Does a foxhole radio really work? Shot on location, R. Lee Ermey answers viewers' questions about military methods and technology with practical demonstrations by military experts in the field. TVPG L

WWII Half Track/Arctic Vehicles/Weird Weapons/Navy Hydrofoil/Combat Controller: #35.

Airs on Thursday, September 22 at 8:00am ET

Shot on location, R. Lee Ermey answers viewer questions about the military with practical demonstrations in the field. Lee tears around in a WWII M2A2 half track, with a combination of tracks and wheels; demonstrates Army vehicles designed for extreme arctic conditions, including the world's longest truck--the 572-foot Snow Train; strange weapons used by the Allies in WWII; and Navy hydrofoils. And he explains the function of Air Force combat controllers and Marine Corps gunnery sergeants. TVPG L

Grease Gun/Sten Gun/E-3 Sentry Awacs/J-Stars/Vietnam Fire Support Bases/"Charlie": #43.

Airs on Thursday, September 22 at 8:30am ET

R. Lee Ermey demonstrates the WWII American M3 submachine gun, a.k.a. the Grease Gun, and a similar British gun, the Sten Gun; takes viewers inside the E-3 Sentry early warning and control system--a high-tech aerial command and control center--and J-Stars, similar to AWACs, but linked to an Army command center housed in a Humvee; finds out how US fire support bases were constructed in Vietnam and their use, and how the slang term "Charlie" entered GI Jargon. TVPG L

506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division: #49.

Airs on Thursday, September 22 at 9:00am ET

Mail Call devotes an entire show to the gear and guys of "Easy Company"--the men depicted in Band of Brothers. Shot in a "You Are There" style, R. Lee Ermey hosts in a vintage jumpsuit, supported by a team of paratrooper reenactors using and demonstrating the real gear, weapons, and medical evac used during the Invasion of Normandy and through to the end of WWII. TVPG L

Krag-Jorgenson Rifle/Maine/Blackbird/Northern Warfare Training Center/Stalingrad: #53.

Airs on Thursday, September 22 at 9:30am ET

In this episode, R. Lee Ermey demonstrates the firepower of a Krag-Jorgenson rifle from the Spanish-American War, and explains what sank the USS Maine and why we're supposed to remember it. He catches up with history's fastest plane, the SR-71 Blackbird and finds out what went wrong with its predecessor, the U-2 spy plane. And he visits the Northern Warfare Training Center in Ft. Wainwright, Alaska, and answers a question about how extreme cold weather helped the WWII Allies in the Battle of Stalingrad. TVPG L

MP5/WWII Marine Corps Paratroopers/Pilot Headgear: #54.

Airs on Thursday, September 22 at 10:00am ET

With his bulldog Harley by his side, the Gunny demonstrates the firepower of the MP5--the gun of choice for Special Forces when they're in close-quarter battle. And we see the MP5 in action during a Navy SEALs live-fire training exercise. Next, R. Lee Ermey gives the often-overlooked Marine Corps paratroopers of WWII their due, and relates the story behind the photo of the Iwo Jima flag-raisers. Then, fighter pilots demonstrate the new state-of-the-art hands-free helmet system. TVPG L

Navy Marine Mammals/WC54 Ambulance/Desert Ducks: #55.

Airs on Thursday, September 22 at 10:30am ET

The Gunny proves that the Navy Marine Mammals program is no fish tale and discovers just how dolphins and sea lions help to win wars. Next, R. Lee Ermey discovers how we got our injured soldiers from the battlefield to field hospitals by the chain of evacuation in WWII, and takes a ride in the WC54 ambulance. Finally, we profile the Desert Ducks, the Navy unit in charge of delivering the mail to ships in the Persian Gulf. TVPG L

Musketeer/Hellcat & Zero/U.S. Army's High Altitude Rescue Team/XR-8 Syncopter: #56.

Airs on Thursday, September 22 at 11:00am ET

R. Lee Ermey does some fancy footwork, fencing his way through the gear of the French Musketeers. Next, the Gunny sizes up two of the greatest fighter planes of World War II--the US F6F Hellcat and the Japanese A6M Zero. Then, we find out what it takes to be a member of the US Army's High Altitude Rescue Team. Finally, Lee opens the "fabulous flops" file to spotlight the XR-8 Syncopter, a helo with blades that had a nasty tendency to intertwine. TVPG L

Marine Corps Marksmanship/The BAT/Maritime Safety & Security Teams: #57.

Airs on Thursday, September 22 at 11:30am ET

Marine Corps marksman, sharpshooter, expert? What's the difference? R. Lee Ermey aims to find out the difference, and handles some of the Corps' heralded Vietnam snipers' gear. Next, the Gunny reviews WWII coast artillery and examines one of WWII's most sophisticated missiles, the BAT. Finally, R. Lee checks out the Coast Guard's latest approach to the War on Terror, the Maritime Safety and Security Teams, and looks back at the first plane to cross the Atlantic, the Navy NC-4 flying boat. TVPG L

Silencers/Flashbang Grenade/WWII Japanese Gear/HITRON Teams: #58.

Airs on Thursday, September 22 at 12:00pm ET

The show opens with a "whisper" while the Gunny discovers why the military uses silencers in a live-fire demonstration, and he learns why silence isn't always golden in a demo of the flashbang grenade. Next, R. Lee Ermey checks out the weapons and gear of Japanese soldiers in WWII's Pacific Theater. And in Jacksonville, Florida, Lee catches up with the tough new Coast Guard HITRON teams, and profiles one of the military's premier heavy-lifting helos, the CH-54 Skycrane. TVPG L

Javelin Anti-Tank Missile/Tankgewehr 1918/P-3 Orion/SOG: #59.

Airs on Thursday, September 22 at 12:30pm ET

Gunnery Sergeant R. Lee Ermey learns how our troops stick it to enemy tanks with the Javelin anti-tank missile and looks back at the first anti-tank rifle, the massive bolt-action Tankgewehr 1918. Next, it's out to the open ocean for a little submarine hunting in the Navy's P-3 Orion aircraft and a look back at sub hunting planes of WWII. Finally, it's into the heart of the jungle to discover the weapons, gear, and tactics used by the Studies and Observations Group (SOG) during the Vietnam War.

Tonight's show is the season premier. Here's what's in store for you military history buffs...

UPCOMING EPISODES

MK-19 Grenade Launcher/PPSH-41/WWII Weasel/Vertijet: # 79.

Airs on Friday, September 16 at 10:00pm ET

R. Lee Ermey, is back at HQ for a new season of shows jam-packed with gear, gun and guts. First, the Gunny is pitching horseshoes and because "close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades," it's the perfect introduction to Lee's trip to Camp Pendleton where he gets some trigger time with the MK-19 grenade launcher. Next, the focus is on Russian tactics and weapons of WWII. Lee shows us the Russian sub machine gun of choice during the campaign, the PPSH-41. Then, it's time for a test drive when a WWII Weasel shows up at HQ. Finally, it's time to dip into the Gunny's Fabulous Flops file for a segment about the Vertijet, America's first vertical take-off jet aircraft.

M-1 Garand Rifle/First Assault Rifle/Jato/Golden Knights Parachute Team/Barrage Balloons Airs on Friday, September 16 at 10:30pm ET

R. Lee Ermey answers viewer questions about the M-1 Garand, the rifle General Patton called "the greatest battle implement ever devised", and demonstrates the world's first assault rifle, the German MP-44. He takes to the sky to explain jet assisted take-off (JATO); offers an eye-popping look at the stunts performed by the Golden Knights, the Army's precision freefall parachute team; explains how barrage balloons protected London during the Blitz; and goes through the alphabet--military style! TVPG L

Well my husband read it first and now I am almost done reading it. I have to say I am enjoying it very much, even though as my husband says, most of it is a re-hash of the Band of Brothers book (then movie), but obviously it does cover more regarding Dick Winters during the war and beforehand.

I did learn a lot and I can see why Dick Winters is such a well-respected man to this very day. It is sad to think that his health is so fragile as of late. I certainly hope that he will live the rest of his time is spent in peace and quiet.

There is one thing that did irk me though and I know that Joe and Russ from the 3rd Inf Div will get riled up too. Here's what is stated in the book on pages 193 and 194.

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Rolling south toward Austria, Winters and his battalion left Berchtesgaden behind, but sixty years after the war controversy still rages over who was first into that jewel of Nazism. In their history of the 101st Airborne, Rendevous with Destiny, authors Leonard Rappaport and Arthur Norwood Jr. substantiates a claim by veterans of the 7th Regiment of the 3rd Division that they first had the honor of taking the town. Winters has always contested that view, drawing on this own memories, a journal kept without his knowledge by Lieutenant Staplefeld, and Krochka's photographs.

"If they were the first ones there, where'd they go?" Winters said during an interview with this author. "It was a small town and, aside from service personnel at the hotel and few civilians, we didn't see anyone else."

If the old military adage is true that the British fight for King and Country, the Russians fight for Mother Russia, the Germans fight for the Fatherland and the Americans fight for souvenirs, then Winter's claim carries much validity, When they arrived, the posh Berchtesgaden Hof was unlooted, the German staff cars untouched and Goering's wine cellar was intact, a condition all but implausible had any American troops gotten there ahead of Winters and his men.

"As it stands in Rendevous with Destiny we were latecomers." Winters said. "But I assure you, members of the 2nd Battalion and the 506th have different memories and pictures to prove that we didn't do too badly in getting our share of the loot at Berchtesgaden during the last days of the war."

----------------

Now while I cannot personally fault Dick Winters, for what one man sees or what one battalion experiences, is only the story from their perspective, not the whole picture. He did not see the 3rd, so he assumed that they weren't there. That is all a part of the "fog of war". Most men only knew what went on in their battalions.

But, people do have to be careful about making assumptions. I could very well say, "I went to the dinner party last night and Sue was not there." It may have been true that she was not in attendance while I was there, but to say that she never showed up would be an assumption on my part. Sue could very well have arrived before or after my visit.

Someone once told me that a certain unit WAS NOT AT ANZIO. I told them that they were mistaken and that I knew men from this unit that were there. I also took quotes from books, etc. and showed him the evidence. He had based his conclusions from one book he read. That particular book did not mention this unit, therefore he assumed they weren't there. A very dangerous thing for an historian or writer to do.

Dont know if this is where this pic belongs, but. Came across this pic today on the web.

May have been by my French freind who has a French ww2 3rd Inf Div reenactment group. I am checking with him.

Attached Files

  FtFrere10thEng.M8XA.jpg (Size: 94 KB / Downloads: 0)

PFC Norman Steele - (Operator, Truck, 1/4 ton, General Purpose)

Of all the men and officers I knew during my WWII army service, I can still remember the names of many and the faces of quite a few. But there are only a handful with whom I was sufficiently close to remember the details of the adventures we shared. One of these is PFC Norman Steele, my jeep driver. I’m sure his skills and courage saved my life on more than one occasion.

In February 1944, I was a replacement 2nd Lieutenant assigned to the 7th Infantry Regiment on the Anzio Beachhead in Italy. My job was platoon leader of the I & R Platoon (Intelligence and Reconnaissance). I would be assuming command from Sgt. Claude Bond (pseudonym), a regular Army 1st sergeant who had held the job since my predecessor, platoon leader Lt. John Banks, had been KIA while leading a patrol across the Volturno River.

At my first meeting with Sgt. Bond, at night in one of the shell battered stone houses of the regimental forward CP near Conca, he described the platoon organization, personnel and equipment. He told me the platoon was assigned four jeeps, but these were kept back at Service Company to avoid attracting artillery fire on the forward Command Post. He told me that his own jeep driver was PFC Steele and he recommended that I use PFC Perrault, neither of whom I yet knew. There were two other drivers, one of whom later deserted in the Vosges Mountains of France and the other, a battle fatigue victim, who accidentally shot and killed himself in Germany. Although I had very limited Army experience at that point, I sized up Sgt. Bond quickly and was determined to start things off on the right foot. I told him there would be no personal jeep drivers in my platoon. If PFC Steele had been driving him, then Steele was obviously the platoon leader’s driver' and since I was now the platoon leader, Steele would be my driver. It turned out to be one of the best moves I ever made!

I met Steele for the first time a few nights later when it was his turn to bring up the nighttime rations, ammo and water in his jeep and trailer. I never saw him in daylight until about three months later when we broke out of the Beachhead and it became possible to use the roads again which heretofore were subject to pinpoint artillery fire during daylight hours.

Steele was rather short and a little stocky. I don’t remember ever seeing him without his helmet and the steel pot became part of his face in my memory. He was a skillful yet careful driver, totally focused on the job at hand. His night vision and sense of direction were uncanny. We traveled countless miles on unpaved roads, many of which had surely been mined by the retreating enemy. He had either x-ray vision or a lot of luck, because we never triggered one. You only do that once.

Our relationship was not formal, but neither was it one of familiarity. He called me “Lootenant,†never “sir,†and I called him Steele. We never talked about home or friends or made small talk. He was my driver for about a year and a half and I don’t even know where he was from. Our conversation was limited to the business at hand. He held up his end and I held up mine. We respected each other for that and we saw no need to discuss it. He seemed to resist any intrusion into the enlisted man/officer relationship and maybe I did too. That’s the way we had both been trained and army training translates into action without conscious thought.

I remember our jeep being caught in the open in broad daylight by a German tank during the Anzio Breakout. The tank was so well concealed that we couldn’t see it, but the burst of its first shell on the unpaved road 20 yards in front of us was terrifying. As our jeep skidded to a stop on my order, Steele and I bailed out and took cover in the shallow drainage ditches on opposite sides of the road. Several more 88 mm shells came screaming in and then the fire stopped. Again, on my signal, we made a dash back to the jeep and Steele got us out of there safely with wheels spinning.

On another occasion, in France, we were reconnoitering a dirt road one night, that ran around the enemy’s flank. We found the road ended at a farm about two or three miles ahead. On the way in, we noticed that the trees bordering the road had been heavily notched so that they could be dropped across the road with very little additional effort. On the way back out, one of the trees was down and lay across the road blocking our escape. While I covered the woods with our 50 caliber machine gun, Steele pulled a length of chain out of his tool compartment, chained the tree trunk to the front bumper of the jeep and pulled it far enough off the road to get by. Was it an ambush foiled by the threat of the machine gun? Or did the wind blow the weakened tree down? We will never know.

On a similar recon, this time also after dark, we saw no one going in. But coming back out, there was a huge American truck blocking the narrow dirt road. Steele stopped the jeep and we walked ahead, four of us, and found that another unit was moving in behind us and their truck had struck a mine. The right front wheel, fender and hood had been blown away. The road was mined and we had somehow missed the mine or mines on the way in. Where there is one mine, there are usually more nearby. Yet, Steele volunteered to drive the jeep around the truck on the narrow shoulder of the dirt road while the rest of us took cover behind the truck. Brave man!

We had many other close calls when we were spotted by the enemy and became the target of accurate tank or artillery fire. Steele’s nerve and driving skills were largely responsible for our escape in each case.

And he had other attributes. I have described in another anecdote how Steele solved the problem of broken glass in the windshield of our jeep while we were briefly off the line near Naples. Under cover of darkness, he swapped windshields with a U. S. Navy jeep, parked unattended in the city. Next morning, I saw him in the motor pool painting out the words U. S. Navy on the metal portion under the glass. And I have described the night we crossed the Rhine River and a flat trajectory 88mm enemy shell from across the river hit and destroyed the amphibious tank which was following closely behind us. With the amphibs destroyed, we were ordered to lead 4 conventual Shermans north to Worms in total darkness, where a pontoon bridge was near completion. We crossed the river and led them south to Sandhofen where armored support was badly needed.

And how he drove the lead jeep on our June 4, 1944 nighttime patrol into Rome, our mission to see if the Krauts had pulled out as rumored. Rome is an enormous city with dark winding streets and we expected to be ambushed at every corner. I was lost, but after accomplishing our mission, Steele found the way back in complete darkness without difficulty. Steele’s courage and driving skills played a large role in my survival.

In one of the many French villages we freed in Southern France, civilians lined the road cheering us. Young women climbed aboard to hug and kiss us. Older women offered us bottles of wine. And the old men stood at attention in the rear and saluted, wearing their old WWI uniforms and medals. One pretty young lady approached our jeep on the driver's side and gave Steele a big hug and kiss. She then leaned forward across his lap to give me a kiss in the front passenger seat. But before we made contact, she suddenly withdrew and backed away into the crowd. "What was that all about?" I asked Steele? He gave me a silly grin and said, "I squeezed her titty!"

And yet, the Army caste system, kept us from becoming good friends. In fact, when we were on Occupation Duty in Germany after the War and people were being rotated back to the States by a point system, I never even knew Steele was leaving until a new driver suddenly appeared and Steele was already gone. I never saw him again. In recent years, I have tried unsuccessfully to locate him through the Internet It’s said that you can’t go back, and maybe it’s better that way. But one of my strongest recollections of life as a 2nd Lt., Infantry is the terrible loneliness.

Russ Cloer