American Military Cemetery, Normandy, France (Present Day)
On Omaha Beach, Normandy, June 6, 1944 -- 0630 Hours
At the Farm House
In the Countryside
In A Village
In the Town
 
 

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Comments on the German Soldiers

• I noticed in books and novels that the the Germans were very skilled and had war experience for 9 years, including the war games in Spain and Austria. In the movies, they are depicted as clumsy and very stupid and inexperienced. That really pi**es me off because my long lost grandfather and my dad's father fought on both sides, German and American. Were the Germans really being gratuitously massacred in many horrible ways, or was it pure Nazi-ass propaganda by the Allies? Please tell me the truth. E Griffin
• According to all War Graves Registration departments of all nations involved in World War I and II, casualties suffered by all forces fighting German forces were from 4:1 to 6:1 in the German forces favor and in some cases even higher. The reasons for this difference are different for the two wars but are remarkable in either case. Anonymous
• The soldier who is taken prisoner at the radar station is Heer or regular army as can be attested by his collar tabs. I am assuming after he is released he is picked up by an SS unit as he is in the scene in the town at the end. When he enters the room with Melesh he is wearing an SS patterned smock and helmet cover and his collar tabs are SS EM (double SS runes and plain black tab). When he is on top of the US trooper, he is back to Heer Tabs and then when he exits the building he is back to SS tabs. Bryan Avery
• To set the record straight, my wife and I concluded that the German who kills Mellish is SS... period! Take a good look at the collar runes! Not to mention the guy's a lot more "yoked" than the skinny b**tard they let go at the radar site. mac_eek
• What is the German saying to Mellish when he kills him with the knife? Paul Dolle
• [Reply to Paul Dolle: My neighbor, who is a native German (32, born and lived in Germany 'til age 30), told me that he says something close to: "Don't be afraid... it won't take long... it won't hurt that much... just calm down." Bruno Asselin]
• I have always wondered about that and nobody could ever tell me (I'm almost afraid to know because that is already the most nightmarish scene I've ever seen). Roy4
• It is true that the German soldier says the above stated. It was a scene that stuck in my mind for a long time. What he did was to try to calm Mellish down so that his death would not be too painful. He even stayed with Mellish until he died and did not leave when he knew he had wounded Mellish mortally. It was the only moment when a German soldier was not depicted as a beast or animal in the whole movie, since he almost showed something like compassion/pity (Since I am German, I do not know which word is the correct one) with Mellish. Besides, the German that killed Mellish was not the same one from the Radar Station (Steam Boat Willie). Lars
• When Upham is talking to the German that knifed Mellish, what the German says translates to "I know the soldier. Upham." Joe H
• I think it would have been interesting if they equipped the Germans with some MP-44 Assault rifles. The only other war movie in which I saw them was the Battle of The Bugle starring Henry Fonda. James F Martin
  • [Reply to James F Martin: The MP44 (or STG44 as it was actually called) wasn't very common. As the name states it wasn't used until late 1944, I believe, and while the town battle took place, it probably wasn't handed out yet and still in testing phases. K Verzijl
• What is the last thing the German [SS] soldier says to Upham before Upham shoots him? I understand before that, '...Ich kenne den Soldat; ich kenne diesen Mann' but afterwards? Oliver Lu
• Is the movie portrayal of widespread ineptitude among German soldiers, and bravery and cleverness among "outnumbered" allied troops, really historically accurate? I have read that in actual squad-against-squad combat, the Germans inflicted an average of sixteen casualties for every one casualty that they received. During the battle for Caen, in one area, after receiving the brunt of the most heavy tactical-air-support bombing in history (allied), a minute German force, assembled on the spur of the moment, emerged from those positions. Scores of advancing allied tanks and men fell victim to them. Even during the "Battle of the Bulge", while depending largely on worthless replacements, and even with the total air-superiority of the western Allies, the Germans STILL inflicted marginally more casualties than they received. J Khalili
• [Reply to J Kahlili: With respect you are taking an extreme event and assuming it is normal. The event in Normandy you refer to was an action involving extreme terrain, exceptional circumstances and the skill and bravery of Germany's finest tank ace and is not normal. If every squad level action involved the kind of odds you describe then either millions more allied soldiers died or millions less were killed by the allies. Neil Holmes]
• The portrayal of the Germans encountered during the film is quite ludicrous. I certainly do not seek to defend the cause for which they fought, nor the moral integrity with which they often conducted themselves, but it cannot be denied by anyone with even the slightest knowledge of military history that they consistently out performed Allied units in the field time and again, despite being heavily outnumbered. They all appear to have been given convict haircuts, perhaps in a rather  successful attempt to completely dehumanize them to the audience. Reference to any period photos show this was not the case. They also behave in the most criminally inept manner. Despite the presence of reasonably low grade holding formations on the Atlantic Wall, the SS troops encountered in the later scenes would have been at the very least, led by well seasoned NCOs and officers schooled in combat on the Eastern Front. The behavior of the Tiger tank commander opening his turret hatch in the heat of a street battle was ludicrous. Anonymous
• [Reply to Anonymous: With respect part of the point of the movie is to portray the squads feelings on the war and therefore de-humanizing the German force is exactly the effect needed. Neil Holmes]
• Mr. Spielbergs' typically Jewish depiction of the Germans disgusts me. They were brave soldiers too, whatever their governments' cause, and they were allowed to have SOME hair, Steven. Why they are they portrayed as being animal-like skinheads who are totally lacking in character? They were just as brave and skillful as any other nations' army. C'mon Mr. Spielberg, leave bygones be bygones for Christs' sake! A. Hodder
  • [Reply to A. Hodder: He wrote about the "skinhead" look of the German soldiers. Well, that's because they were portrayed by active-duty soldiers who had short hair. That's no "Spielberg conspiracy," just a real-world aspect of making a movie. Speedy Print]
  • [Reply to A. Hodder: Are U.S. soldiers considered "skinheads" because we shave our heads? When I was in Iraq the best, most hygienic thing we could have done was to shave our heads. Jeremy Waters]
• [Reply to A. Hodder: I read with interest the comments on the German soldiers being portrayed as "convicts with their bullet-headed skin head appearance" and explanations that this was due to the extras being "serving soldiers". Well as a currently serving soldier myself, this strikes me as rather incongruous for the following reasons:

   - Whilst there is an amusing trend amongst some national armies to shave their heads in what I can only think is an attempt to accentuate their martial/macho bearing (in particular, the US Army), neither the British Army, nor the Irish Army follow this fashion. Indeed, it is currently a chargeable offence in the British Army to have a cropped hairstyle. The reason for this stems from attempts to distinguish off-duty soldiers from the Neo-Nazi skinheads of the 80s and 90's.
   - Any photos of the 1944 period would show the hair length of German troops to have been pretty long. Indeed, if there were any skin headed convict-look-alikes roaming the Bocage in '44, they would  have been U.S. paratroopers!
   - I doubt if the "serving soldier extras" (we are told were used) would have been employed to fill the parts of the fluent German speakers with speaking parts.
I shall be interested to see if the skin headed convicts make an reappearance in "Band of Brothers"! Anonymous]
• The German soldiers where not 'serving soldiers,' but where members of a British Waffen SS re-enactment group and were also unhappy at having to have their head shaved, as their own extensive research shows that this wasn't accurate. Sean Cheetham
• I was very disappointed of how the movie depicted the combat behavior of the GERMANS. For instance, the SS soldiers would not be just jumping out of the burning halftrack right in the field of Millers gunfire, nor would they simply walk down the middle of the streets only to be easily picked off by gunfire. There have been a lot of war movies depicting the Germans as making very obvious tactical mistakes only to make the allies look good for the movies, when in fact, after the war, we learned a lot of German tactics that are used in combat today.  I have spoken with two German combat veterans of WW2 and both were very disappointed at how the movie depicted the combat behavior of the Germans at all the battle scenes throughout the movie. Many young American, British, and Canadian soldiers were inexperienced and lacked combat time compared to the battle hardened SS divisions who were greatly outnumbered, and who still put up one hell of a fight up till the fall of Berlin. C. Gillette
• UPHAM has a lot of luck in the movie, i.e.,  when he asks the Germans to put their weapons down, it's 7 or 8 Germans against one American? What happened to the other Germans? Where they suddenly dead in that scene? Some German could've shot Upham from behind. MIKE had luck, too, when he engaged the German soldier. He threw his helmet, then shoots, then throws the gun away. Strange... because what would he have done if there was another German popping up from behind there? I still think it's a great movie! Kenneth
• Personally, I think the dumbest thing in the movie is the MG-42 guarding a damaged--thus defunct--radar station.  Why would the Germans need to protect it? That and the total lack of Allied aircraft or any German troops in these lovely, but deserted fields for the first half of the film.  It conveyed no sense of the turmoil and confusion that reigned behind German lines in those first crucial days.  Let's not forget those insipid crew-cuts on every tall, scary-looking German, either.  It was like a whole army of convict wrestlers.  STILL, it's the best attempt so far at capturing the Second World War in a Hollywood film to date, so let's hope the Industry hears us and tries to correct these errors in the next one. Jim N.
• There is great debate where I work concerning the German soldier they show mercy on and release. Is he the same German who kills the G.I. with the bayonet upstairs in that vicious hand to hand scene where the cowardly U.S. soldier stands on the stairwell and does nothing? Rod

[Send answers to EZpopstar@hotmail.com]

[See pix here - decide for yourself]

 

[Reply to Rod: Well, as a German and a moviemaker, I may hopefully help to finally solve this question. We are definitely talking about TWO different actors!!!
1. The captured MG Gunner, the soldier who killed Cpt. Miller who is finally shot by "Upham" is the German actor JOERG STADLER who also appeared in movies like SPY GAME. He is credited as the character named "Steamboat Willie" - He is definitely NOT the same guy that kills "Mellish".
2. This guy is played by a German stuntman called MAC STEINMEIER, who is -unfortunately- not credited in the end title, not even as a stuntman. This and the fact that they where wearing the same kind of hairstyle may have led to this confusion. MAC is Bavaria Studios' stunt-coordinator in Munich, Germany. Here is MACs Webpage: http://www.stuntdoubles.de/sued/steinm/steinm.htm
P.S. If you read a copy of the final script you will also see that they are not meant to be the same character. Mike]

[Reply to Rod: He is the same man! He wears a camo-pattern overcoat, but the sings on his collar show that he belongs to the Wehrmacht (regular German army)! apart from that, he has an accent. If you would be from Germany (like me) you would note his "slang." greez]

[Reply to Rod: In the scene where Upham shoots the man that brushed by him on the stairs (after killing Mellish), the German recognizes Upham, acting happy to see him, and calls him by name.. "Upham!" Then Upham shoots him. Also, there is a closeup of "Steamboat Willie" after he has lost his helmet (in the scuffle with Mellish?) and "Steamboat Willie" also shoots Captain Miller. "Steamboat Willie" was, indeed, the German who killed Mellish, and also Captain Miller.    ~Haifisch]

[Reply to Rod: The German is not the same that was operating the mg-40 nest and shoots Wade. He is a normal Werchact soldier. The one who kills Mellish in Remel is an SS soldier. Just because they both have skin heads doesn't mean they are the same person. Bob] 

[Reply to Rod: It is not the same German. The clothes are different in the final urban battle scene, as is the haircut and equipment he wears. The guy who passes Upham on the stairs also has higher eyebrows near the outsides of his eyes, and doesn't say a word of recognition to the little coward Upham. (who, consequently, would probably be hanged for his failure to fight and the cold-blooded murder of a surrendering enemy) Yet, when the German they let go sees Upham at the end, he immediately exclaims "Upham!" So, there you have it, it's all settled, not the same guy. J Ruh] 

[Reply to Rod: No, that is not the same German. The one that surrendered at the radar nest was a regular Vermacht. The one who kills Mellish in the old theatre was an SS trooper. If you look closely at the two of them. The SS one is a lot more brawnier than "Steamboat Willie". E McNaughton] 

[Reply to Rod: It is the same German soldier. He talks to Upham when digging. When he is holding his hands up, he says, "UPHAM" then he is shot by Upham. fgump77]

[Reply to Rod: I was a German extra on the film set and took part in all the final scenes around the French village (it's my groups Half track in the movie). I can tell you that the German that kills Mellish with the bayonet is NOT the same guy at the radar station or the guy that kills Hanks at the end. My wife raised this point and we argued like mad about it and I was da*n well there watching it and taking part in it!. Andy Colborn]

[Reply to Rod: Actually it is not the same German. Uphams friend does shoot Miller but it is another one that kills the Jewish G.I. Uphams buddy has a higher brow and a differently shaped nose. Just because they have their heads shaved doesn't mean they're the same! I noticed all of the facial characteristics due to my countless times of watching the movie and trying to prove my friends wrong. Thad Fuller]

[Reply to Rod: Yes, he is the same person that kills him in the knife scene. Joeslat]

[Reply to Rod: The German they show mercy on at the bunker is not the same German who kills the G.I. with the bayonet, but he is the same German that shoots Tom Hanks. Mike B] 

[Reply to Rod: The German soldier was the same. Just before the US corporal (Upham) shoots the German, the German calls Upham by his name. There is no other way the German soldier would know his name other than through having met him at the machine gun nest. Dan Gise] 

[Reply to Rod: The first German (released by Hanks at the machine gun nest) is tall and slender and has a scar on his face. He is also wearing his camouflaged poncho loosely tied over his battle tunic. The second German (who kills Mellish in the village), is an SS Trooper and wears a traditional camouflaged combat smock and is of a slightly bigger build. The confusion lays with Spielbergs genius. Throughout the film, the Germans are generally portrayed as a "faceless" enemy. We (the audience) never actually get to see them up close unless the actors do. This is because Spielberg wants to create the same generalization traits that soldiers build in warfare for their enemy. We simply see them as one - the enemy. Not individual enemy soldiers who have individual lives, backgrounds, origins etc. Therefore, the audience is compelled to believe that the German who passes the corporal by on the stairs is the same character, when really he is an individual filled with disgust that this American GI is whimpering before him and posses no threat. (Not all the German soldiers were evil Nazi types as every one believes.) B. Guynan]

[Reply to Rod: No, he is not the same. The soldier that bayonets Mellish is a SS infantryman (see the runes on his collar). The soldier who was given a break by Capt. Miller was a Whermacht grunt, who eventually shot Miller while Cpl. Upham was watching. Then Upham shots him. Ted] 

[Reply to Rod: No, the guy who kills Mellish in the bell tower was not the same Wermacht soldier from the mg-42 nest. When he descends the stairs and looks around, you could tell it wasn't him. You probably think so because all the Nazis in the film were Sinead O'connor look alikes. Both of the guys were bald, but their faces are totally different. Besides, when they all surrender to the kid with the M-1 (!Bull Crappola!) the German from the stairwell is standing right behind the previous one! Cyrus Clennon] 
[Reply to Rod: The German soldier they capture and release is wearing an army uniform. At the end of the movie I believe he is wearing SS collar tabs on his tunic. This seems strange to me. D. Fontaine] 
[Reply to Rod: The answer is that it is the same German. Later in the movie he also shoots Tom Hanks. Anonymous] 
[Reply to Rod: Yes, the German that killed the Jewish guy with the bayonet is the same one upon which they showed mercy. He is also the one who shot Tom Hanks (Captain John Miller) in the chest towards the end of the movie. Nik C.]
[Reply to Rod: The German SS soldier who put the knife into one of Miller's men (Mellish?) was NOT the same German soldier whom they set free earlier. W. K. Chung]
[Reply to Rod:  I can't believe you think it's the same German that killed Wade, they don't even sound alike, never the less look alike. If the Rangers had just shot that German fruitcake with a few hundred .30 caliber and ACP rounds right after Jackson and Reiben had beat is "fanny" up on the ground, we would not be having this ridiculous debate.  It was very bad for that Kraut scumbag to kill Wade in the movie anyway.  Wade didn't even have a weapon, for goodness sake! N. Waller]

[Reply to Rod:  This character is unnamed in the movie, but is referred to as "Steamboat Willie" in the credits. One very common mistake that viewers make in watching Saving Private Ryan is assuming that the German soldier set free by Miller is the same one that kills Private Mellish. The soldier that kills Mellish is from the Waffen-SS, while Steamboat Willie is a regular soldier in the Heer (Army). The two characters do bear a superficial resemblance to each other, largely due to their shaven heads and basic Germanic racial characteristics. In reality German soldiers did not have such closely-cropped hair, but for reasons unknown the production crew made sure that the German extras all received the same haircut. solomfb]

 

• From what I understand, in June of 1944 most if not all of German veteran combat soldiers were in the Ukraine attempting to stop the countless numbers of the Russian army and Russian partisans. All the Germans that I seen in this movie except for 1 (dead, with the Hitler youth knife), didn't look like kids to me. R_E_N_27 
• [Reply to N_E_N_27: Actually the Germans were largely forced out of the Ukraine by then. You must also remember that there were some veteran units in the Omaha sector - 352nd Infantry being the only division considered by the German High Command of being capable of attacking operations in the whole of the western front and contained large numbers of eastern front veterans. Also available during this time were elements of the 17th SS Panzer Grenadiers and the 3rd Fallschirmjaeger division, both performed well, all of whom fought against the Omaha beachhead. You also forget such units as 1st SS, 12th SS, Panzer Lehr, 501st Heavy Panzer Battalion and 21st Panzer Divisions, all veteran units fighting in Normandy - these against the British. Neil Holmes]
• The prisoner they take at the bunker and then leave free in the countryside is definitely a Wermacht soldier (two white stripes on each collar).  He's still a Wermacht soldier at the end when he comes back to fight side to side with his SS "comrades".  I spoke with a guy (a real German) doing his master degree on war crimes of the Wermacht at the Munich University and he told me that even in worst situations, SS and Wermacht were never mixing up together for some very profound mutual dislike. Bruno Asselin
• I am hoping that they were re-enacting an Ad-Hoc German unit in the final action sequence as there were regular Wehrmacht and SS mixed in the movie. Greg Way 
• [Reply to Greg Way: The SS and the Wehrmacht did fight together in adhoc units. This is standard Kampfgruppe tactics, ones that made the Germans superb at turning defeat into victory. These adhoc Kampfgruppes were made up of literally any manpower available (Luftwaffe, Naval, and Police etc.). Spencer Reeves]
• Surely the German soldiers that appeared from behind the downed wall in the town, would of heard the Americans talking, seeing as the Americans had a sentry posted only a few feet away. Could one of them surely have seen Ted Dansons character on the balcony above before they were all wasted, or am I just sad?!?!? Greg Way
• In the scene where the cowardly interpreter shoots the Kraut that he earlier helped, there stood an SS NCO with a Knights Cross around his neck. Surely a soldier who has won his countries most prestigious combat awards would have put his weapon down without a fight. One man against four, Naaa! Greg Way
• How come the S.S. guys looked like they had lobotomy's in the final scene in Remel? I don't think chances are highly probable that trained SS soldiers would walk in front of wave after wave of fire, falling like ducks!! Anonymous
• Anybody questions that German grenades were normally fused for around 4-5 seconds and thrown to explode at waist high and managed to land comfortably in front of American soldiers who had time to fuble around for them and pick them up and then throw them back the way they came at German soldiers? J. Warwick 
• [Reply to J. Warwick: I have known several WW2 combat veterans who have told me that it was common to have time to throw German grenades back at the Germans. German grenades had much longer fuses than American grenades ( I'm not totally sure, but I believe somewhere around 10-15 seconds) . Towards the end of the war, German munitions factories were being bombed and the quality of their grenades suffered to the point that German soldiers were uncomfortable holding a grenade until the last few seconds before throwing it. Sometimes a grenade blew up prematurely, sometimes not, thus giving Allied soldiers an opportunity to throw them back. fatstrat] 
• [Reply to J. Warwick: There are numerous accounts of people throwing grenades back at the enemy.  That's why when you pull the pins from grenades you are supposed to wait 2 sec and then throw them, this prevents the enemy from tossing them back at you.  American grenades generally have or had a 4-5 sec fuse. Jeremy Waters]
• Two of the soldiers being blasted by the 20mm later crawl screaming into cover when first a German soldier runs past them with a Panzerschreck, then another German soldier shoots them at close range. Vicious Germans aren't they. Germans, when wounded however, don't crawl around screaming in pain, they just lie quiet. A P H Steineck