Belated Brothers

Okay, in some people's eyes this will make me fail BEDA in the eyes of some people but I do have an excuse. On Sunday I have no internet access, but I am writing this on Sunday. It won't be uploaded to blogspot until Monday, but nonetheless I am writing it now. Right now. Midday sunday. In my opinion, it counts! So nerrr. Anyway, I'm gonna change the date stamp on this post so it looks like I posted it yesterday. :P

Aaaaaanyway. Today has been a day for Band of Brothers and I seriously don't know how I'm only just getting round to seeing it. It's... there's not a word for it. I could say it's awesome, brilliant and great but it seems like too harsh a show to apply those adjectives to. It is an exceptionally good show, from a production, writing, content etc point of view. I have enjoyed what I've watched so far a great deal. But it's not easy to watch. It's not something you'd stick on to watch for the lulz. It's a hard show to watch. As I watched it I felt myself slipping partially into the emotion and the state of the situations Easy company were in. The fear, the terror even, the sense of being not just a group of soldiers, but a family of soldiers. There's such a feeling of unity that they had, it was amazing. the situations are obviously dire; there was an episode I watched yesterday in which Easy company were dug in in a woods and there was a German line across a clearing. It was winter, snowy and there was a load of fog; this meant that deliveries of ammunition, food and medical supplies were sparse. That together-ness was still there; it was always there.
It's also pretty graphic in its portrayal of the injuries they faced and bore and, personally, it's hard for me not to wince and turn away. But I feel like I should look out of, like, respect for the people who actually fought these battles. Seeing someone's neck opened and gushing from machine gun fire is tough to see. But you need to see it to believe it; to understand the feeling of knowing that you probably wouldn't make it home. It's something one of them says in an episode. There's one of the Airborn who is terrified. When he first landed in France he hid in a ditch and waited to be found. The officer talking to him said this; "We're all scared. You hid in that ditch because you think there's still hope. But Blithe, the only hope you have is to accept the fact that you're already dead. And the sooner you accept that, the sooner you'll be able to function as a soldier is supposed to function."
Accepting the fact that you're already dead; I can't imagine it. Knowing that you have a minority chance of going home. Knowing that there is a very high possibility that you could die any second. Knowing that you could die the moment you pop your head over the edge of cover. A well placed bullet and you're gone.
I can't imagine what that would do to you psychologically. But then... maybe it's the best mental state to be in in that situation. If you know that you're already dead then you fight with your life. You fight with every last breath you can let out.

I'm glad this show exists. It's tough, harsh, and thought provoking; but as someone who is living 4 generations after the Second World War, I need to know. I need to remember what was sacrificed. I know that the soldiers followed in Band of Brothers are Americans, but at times they fought alongside British soldiers. It needs to be remembered. If I forget that the reason I can sit here and type this in English instead of German then the sacrifices of so many men will have been for nothing. This sort of post you generally see surfacing around rememberance Sunday but this is in my mind now.

Never forget.