Real vs Reel: How historically accurate is HBO's 'Band of Brothers'?

On Quora, Cory Dun asks:

How realistic is the miniseries Band of Brothers as far as the airborne divisions are concerned? Was Easy Company a real parachute infantry company?

I replied:

Cover of the 2001 "miniseries tie-in" edition. © 2001 Home Box Office and Simon & Schuster

Band of Brothers is a 10-part adaptation of Stephen E. Ambrose’s 1992 non-fiction book Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler’s Nest, which itself was a companion book to his 1988 book Pegasus Bridge: June 6, 1944. Based primarily on interviews with surviving E (or Easy) Company veterans, correspondence, unit histories, diaries, and other resources, Band of Brothers was a look at a light infantry unit (albeit an elite one) that fought in many of the major campaigns in Northwest Europe from D-Day all the way to V-E Day (May 8, 1945) and through the summer of 1945.

Because it is a dramatization of a non-fiction book and not a documentary, Band of Brothers does use artistic license to portray its real-life counterparts. As a result, time is compressed, huge chunks of the book that cover the minutiae of training for combat, planning operations, or daily life on base or on the battlefield are either condensed or skipped altogether, and much of the dialogue is invented, although its based on the material in the book and vetted by the Easy Company survivors themselves.

Generally speaking, executive producers Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, along with the late author of the book, worked with the episode writers to make sure the details were as accurate as possible, ranging from the style and color of the PT (physical training) outfits the actors wear during the scenes depicting Easy Company’s training in Georgia and North Carolina before embarking for England in 1943 to the weapons the paratroopers used in combat in France, Holland, Belgium, and Germany. And whenever possible, the cast members, including British actor Damian Lewis, would consult with the men they were playing (in Lewis’s case, Richard D. Winters) about their distinct personalities, their fears, their hopes, and even how to deliver their lines “in-character.”

The miniseries also benefitted from the presence of retired Marine Capt. Dale Dye, both onscreen at Col. Robert Sink, the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment’s commanding officer, and offscreen as the show’s senior military adviser. Dye trained the male cast members in a mini-boot camp to toughen them up for the physical rigors of “playing soldier,” as well as to educate them on WWII small-unit tactics, proper handling of the prop weapons, and GI slang and jargon of the era.

These factors make Band of Brothers as realistic as any adaptation of a true war story can possibly be and still be shown on TV and sold on home media for the average television watcher.

Was Easy Company a real parachute infantry company?

Yes. Easy Company was a real unit. It was not the only “Easy Company” in the U.S. Army; in the World War II phonetic alphabet used by the Anglo-American Allies in 1942–1945, Easy was the designator for the letter E, and it was usually used to identify the second infantry company of a regiment’s second battalion.

In the Army’s unit organization scheme of the time, the 101st Airborne consisted of three regiments, of which the 506th was one. Each parachute infantry regiment, in turn, was made up of three battalions, and each battalion had three line companies, which were further broken down into smaller sub-units called platoons and squads. In the 506th PIR, there were nine infantry companies in all, Able to Item.

So, Easy (or E) Company was the second of three companies (the others being Dog and Fox) in the 2nd Battalion, 506th PIR, or 2/506 in military shorthand.

Because of Band of Brothers, the 2/506th’s Easy Company is the most famous small unit to bear the name.

But it wasn’t the only Easy Company that served in World War II.