Band of Brothers, "Crossroads"
September 24, 2015 12:53 AM Subscribe
In the Band of Brothers episode "Crossroads", there's a pivotal scene in which the platoon prepares to assault a German position. Winters instructs his men, "Go on the red smoke," then hurls a canister of red smoke as far as he can, before taking off in the same direction at a sprint. Once the canister begins expelling the smoke, the rest of the platoon take off after him, running through the red smoke. Please break down this scene for me.
What exactly is the tactic/strategy being displayed here? Why does Winters throw the smoke? Why does he run ahead of the rest of the platoon? Why does he instruct them to wait until the smoke commences before following him? What does the red smoke signify?
It seems to me like all that red smoke would draw unwanted attention and remove the element of surprise from the assault. It also seems to me that Winters puts himself in an unnecessarily vulnerable position, heading out alone as he does. But then I don't know anything about military tactics. Can you explain to me Winters' intention in (a) deploying the smoke canister and (b) commencing the assault alone?
What exactly is the tactic/strategy being displayed here? Why does Winters throw the smoke? Why does he run ahead of the rest of the platoon? Why does he instruct them to wait until the smoke commences before following him? What does the red smoke signify?
It seems to me like all that red smoke would draw unwanted attention and remove the element of surprise from the assault. It also seems to me that Winters puts himself in an unnecessarily vulnerable position, heading out alone as he does. But then I don't know anything about military tactics. Can you explain to me Winters' intention in (a) deploying the smoke canister and (b) commencing the assault alone?
Best answer: While charging through a smokescreen has a long history as a military tactic, I don't think that was Winters' intention in this scene. A single smoke grenade seems inadequate to the task.
Colored smoke was often used as a signaling device. Even today, with the ubiquity of battlefield radio communications, soldiers still use smoke grenades to coordinate actions. A charge is more effective if done in unison by an entire unit. In my opinion, in the scene you linked the intention was to use the colored smoke as a mechanism to coordinate the charge rather than a loud voice command (which might be overheard by the nearby enemy unit) or by command passed man-to-man (this would produce a staggered charge).
I don't think it was Winters' intention to charge alone, I think he expected his unit to be on his immediate heels, but he miscalculated the time it would take for the smoke to discharge or the grenade malfunctioned slightly producing a longer than expected delay. Presumably Winters should have thrown the smoke grenade and then waited to run until he saw the smoke deploy from his own grenade like he ordered the rest of his unit to do, rather than throwing and then running. But that is the kind of mistake that is easy to make in the heat of battle.
posted by RichardP at 1:59 AM on September 24, 2015
Colored smoke was often used as a signaling device. Even today, with the ubiquity of battlefield radio communications, soldiers still use smoke grenades to coordinate actions. A charge is more effective if done in unison by an entire unit. In my opinion, in the scene you linked the intention was to use the colored smoke as a mechanism to coordinate the charge rather than a loud voice command (which might be overheard by the nearby enemy unit) or by command passed man-to-man (this would produce a staggered charge).
I don't think it was Winters' intention to charge alone, I think he expected his unit to be on his immediate heels, but he miscalculated the time it would take for the smoke to discharge or the grenade malfunctioned slightly producing a longer than expected delay. Presumably Winters should have thrown the smoke grenade and then waited to run until he saw the smoke deploy from his own grenade like he ordered the rest of his unit to do, rather than throwing and then running. But that is the kind of mistake that is easy to make in the heat of battle.
posted by RichardP at 1:59 AM on September 24, 2015
This is the episode where he's writing the letter throughout, no? I forget if he goes over it, but it seems he knew the Germans were pinned in, he ran ahead to flush them out, then everybody else came in and made a party of it.
There are some good comments on the video:
There are some good comments on the video:
Josh Stillman 2 weeks agoposted by rhizome at 2:13 AM on September 24, 2015
how come winters ran in by himself?
Trenchfoot 2 weeks ago
+Josh Stillman Lead from the front, and to be the first to fall if there were unseen enemy positions. He would get it and his boys would know to avoid or fall back. Also someone on here mentioned getting their first and disrupting their response as the Germans would have certainly heard a few dozen men running.
Dinglie Danglie Doodle 2 days ago
+Josh Stillman The smoke grenade malfunctioned or Winters miscalculated, so I've heard/read from a long time ago, IIRC. I don't remember the exact quote from Winters, but it was along the line that he was shocked to find out that he was so isolated/far ahead when he reached the Germans, but the die is cast(in my words...or Caeser's).
Bottom line is, It was an accident(shit happens moment) and not intentionally planned with some kind of purpose.
Best answer: Rhizome, your posting of a comment from the video suggesting that he discussed this in his memoirs was interesting. So I searched Winters' book "Beyond Band of Brothers" and he did write about this incident. He indicates that the smoke grenade was a signal for the charge and his arrival well ahead of his men was not intentional (he suggests that he inadvertently outran his men).
posted by RichardP at 2:33 AM on September 24, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by RichardP at 2:33 AM on September 24, 2015 [3 favorites]
I've often wondered whether the aim was that Winters would find out the hard way whether the Germans had eyes on the field he was running through but thus preventing the massacre of his whole company or whether the fizzle of the smoke grenade (there is a cut to the grenade to show this) is supposed to represent an unexpected delay that holds the company back (and the men hold to the order not to go ahead of the smoke popping). Perhaps the latter makes more sense. I think this incident also refers to the later themes of this episode as they develop. Winters is ahead of his company and effectively isolated, the battle is all told in flashback as he is writing a report on the action but in the second half of the episode he also goes on leave to Paris and feels incredibly isolated by his experiences in the battle and unable to engage with the city.
See the AV club reflection on the episode.
posted by biffa at 4:05 AM on September 24, 2015
See the AV club reflection on the episode.
posted by biffa at 4:05 AM on September 24, 2015
The book Band Of Brothers covers this incident better than the movie. As noted above, the smoke grenades failed to go off at the right time, which left Winters out ahead of the rest by himself.
posted by Flood at 4:24 AM on September 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Flood at 4:24 AM on September 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
Best answer: and to be the first to fall if there were unseen enemy positions. He would get it and his boys would know to avoid or fall back.
This doesn't sound right to me. A unit needs a leader and it would be careless for that leader to make himself so vulnerable just to flush out the enemy for his men, who would then be leaderless.
One of the things I tried to keep in mind while watching BoB is that the series focused on a couple dozen main characters but the unit itself contained over 100 men. Perhaps the smoke was used because it could be seen over a wider area by men that were spread out. A whistle or yell would not be heard down the line and passing the word down would stagger the charge. The smoke is a clear, unambiguous signal that everyone could see. As far as warning the Germans, since the men are charging when the smoke starts the Germans would know almost immediately anyway.
As others have said, Winters wrote in his book, as did Ambrose in the BoB book, that the smoke canister didn't start right away. Winters threw it, so he anticipated (incorrectly) when it would start spewing smoke, but the rest of the men waited until they actually saw the smoke.
I should add that my military training is limited to reading a shitload of WWII books and playing Call of Duty. I have no actual training in military tactics.
posted by bondcliff at 6:19 AM on September 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
This doesn't sound right to me. A unit needs a leader and it would be careless for that leader to make himself so vulnerable just to flush out the enemy for his men, who would then be leaderless.
One of the things I tried to keep in mind while watching BoB is that the series focused on a couple dozen main characters but the unit itself contained over 100 men. Perhaps the smoke was used because it could be seen over a wider area by men that were spread out. A whistle or yell would not be heard down the line and passing the word down would stagger the charge. The smoke is a clear, unambiguous signal that everyone could see. As far as warning the Germans, since the men are charging when the smoke starts the Germans would know almost immediately anyway.
As others have said, Winters wrote in his book, as did Ambrose in the BoB book, that the smoke canister didn't start right away. Winters threw it, so he anticipated (incorrectly) when it would start spewing smoke, but the rest of the men waited until they actually saw the smoke.
I should add that my military training is limited to reading a shitload of WWII books and playing Call of Duty. I have no actual training in military tactics.
posted by bondcliff at 6:19 AM on September 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
As bondcliff notes, a company would be over 100 men, even Band of Brothers wasn't shelling out on having a full company of US uniformed extras and another 2 of German uniformed extras, so the line would be a bit more spread out than in the episode and it would make sense to have a single mark for everyone to take their timing from.
posted by biffa at 7:03 AM on September 24, 2015
posted by biffa at 7:03 AM on September 24, 2015
A little bit of it is the training and experience that Winters has as a commander. He just tosses the smoke and then takes off and never looks back because:
1. Looking back implies to the rest of his troops that staying behind is an option. He never looks back and just assumes his men will follow him, making this assumption actually makes it more likely that they will indeed follow. This also means that he never see the grenade malfunction. He fully intended to take off ahead of everyone else, just not as far ahead as he ended up being.
2. He goes first so the rest of the men don't have time to think about themselves and about the insanity of what they're about to do. They know that if they don't follow him, Winters will be dead and the enemy will come for them next. Running at a bunch of guys with guns who want to kill you is not a natural thing, by putting himself out in the open by himself, his troops don't have to think anything other than, "Oh s**t, I better go cover Winters or we'll all screwed."
3. They know that they're charging into the enemy's flank and they're facing a different direction (where they expect the attack to come from) so they need to temper stealth with speed. The smoke from the grenade will obscure their outlines long enough for them to advance on the enemy position in case a few of the soldiers hear or happen to see their charge. Once the whole enemy position sees it coming, they'll turn and fire and the smoke will lose a lot of it's effect since they just need to throw a lot of rounds in their general direction rather than pick out individual targets. But, by the time the enemy can co-ordinate that, Winters and his men will be in a position to stop advancing and engage/return fire from cover. Any confusion on the enemy's part that lasts longer than that is just a bonus. And, as you can see when Winters clears the top of the hill and he and that German soldier just sort of stare at each other for a while. The first one to get their act together is the guy who lives, now project that effect out to the whole German unit. Even with the extra warning that Winter's early arrival gave them, they never really stood a chance in that first exchange.
It's also possible that his heart was pounding and his adrenaline was free flowing so he tossed the grenade, time was a little distorted so the few seconds he was supposed to wait for the smoke grenade to go off felt a LOT longer than it really was and his timing was. It felt like the normal five seconds or whatever but it was really just a moment. The rest of his troops were just a bit calmer and waited for the signal as they were ordered.
posted by VTX at 9:05 AM on September 24, 2015
1. Looking back implies to the rest of his troops that staying behind is an option. He never looks back and just assumes his men will follow him, making this assumption actually makes it more likely that they will indeed follow. This also means that he never see the grenade malfunction. He fully intended to take off ahead of everyone else, just not as far ahead as he ended up being.
2. He goes first so the rest of the men don't have time to think about themselves and about the insanity of what they're about to do. They know that if they don't follow him, Winters will be dead and the enemy will come for them next. Running at a bunch of guys with guns who want to kill you is not a natural thing, by putting himself out in the open by himself, his troops don't have to think anything other than, "Oh s**t, I better go cover Winters or we'll all screwed."
3. They know that they're charging into the enemy's flank and they're facing a different direction (where they expect the attack to come from) so they need to temper stealth with speed. The smoke from the grenade will obscure their outlines long enough for them to advance on the enemy position in case a few of the soldiers hear or happen to see their charge. Once the whole enemy position sees it coming, they'll turn and fire and the smoke will lose a lot of it's effect since they just need to throw a lot of rounds in their general direction rather than pick out individual targets. But, by the time the enemy can co-ordinate that, Winters and his men will be in a position to stop advancing and engage/return fire from cover. Any confusion on the enemy's part that lasts longer than that is just a bonus. And, as you can see when Winters clears the top of the hill and he and that German soldier just sort of stare at each other for a while. The first one to get their act together is the guy who lives, now project that effect out to the whole German unit. Even with the extra warning that Winter's early arrival gave them, they never really stood a chance in that first exchange.
It's also possible that his heart was pounding and his adrenaline was free flowing so he tossed the grenade, time was a little distorted so the few seconds he was supposed to wait for the smoke grenade to go off felt a LOT longer than it really was and his timing was. It felt like the normal five seconds or whatever but it was really just a moment. The rest of his troops were just a bit calmer and waited for the signal as they were ordered.
posted by VTX at 9:05 AM on September 24, 2015
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posted by re at 1:32 AM on September 24, 2015