Real vs. Reel: How accurate are the battle scenes in HBO's 'Band of Brothers' miniseries?

For the most part, the various battles depicted in Band of Brothers (the Normandy campaign, Operation Market-Garden, the Battle of the Bulge, and the patrol near Hagenau) are depicted as accurately as possible in a made-for-television miniseries.

Sure, the miniseries does get a few things wrong, such as its claim that Private Albert Blithe died in 1948 as a result of a wound he received at the battle for Carentan (Part Three: Carentan). This particular error has vexed the Blithe family since 2001; the real Private Blithe not only recovered from his wound, but stayed in the Army until his death (from health issues not caused by his World War II injuries) in 1967 at a U.S. Army base in West Germany. He was a Master Sergeant at the time of his death. This faux pas did not originate in Stephen E. Ambrose’s 1993 book; it originated with the episode’s writers, probably as a result of interviews with other veterans who thought Blithe had died in 1948.

Other than that, though, the events covered in the miniseries are historically accurate, especially the details about the paratroopers’ training, small unit tactics, and weapons effects.