question about film saving private ryan

Perhaps, but it also accurately reflects the tensions between the Brit/Commonwealth and US forces. Sir Richard Attenborough uses the same device in A Bridge Too Far when an American Major (Redford) clashes with a British tank commander after Nijmegen bridge is captured.
This was all part of the picture - to many Brits, American troops were undisciplined and and inexperienced while to Yanks the Brits were too slow and methodical. They got all this from their own high commands who were busily back-biting each other for reasons of their own. This stuff filters through an organization and becomes part of the background.

 

Incorrect, It represented what people 70 years later thought might have been tensions, coloured by WW2 era media speculation based on what stories might play to a US audience.

I have drawn attention to what paratroops of the 82nd and 101st cannot have known on 9-10 June 1944 and cannot have been the basis for any whinge about British soldiers or leadership

 

It is possible that the commander was told the defences had been taken out...the defensive machine gunner wouldnt have opened up (or shown himself) until they were close to the beach...

 

Miller has just come from the beach (a battalion of Rangers attached to the 28th Infantry) and is telling the para Captain what the rumors are. I find it perfectly plausible that an American might whinge about the Brits, just as a Brit at the time might whinge about the Yanks not driving inland to take the pressure off their front.

 

Miller on Omaha beach on 7-8th June is unlikely to have known much about anything outside Omaha beach apart from what he picked up from the BBC. On 7-8th June the US were not in any position to make a favourable comparison between their progress and that of the British. There was no reason for Speilberg to have put in the line about the British making tea in front of Caen apart from pander to the attitudes of a late C20th US audience.

Spielberg also took the decision to portray the efforts on Omaha Beach as solely American, ignoring the presence of the many British sailors who risked their lives to land the US troops on Omaha Beach. This was a very sore point among the Normandy Veterans when the film came out.

 

I'm not going to defend the film as an accurate portrayal of the Normandy battlefield because it.isn't, and I've laid out several objections in this very thread. But,basic information about the overall picture along the coast was available even to a Company Captain at any briefing.

The strategy discussed makes little sense. Why do you need Caen to take St. Lo? In fact, St. Lo was taken well before Caen. Yet, I can see a couple of company level officers having such a conversation, and of course it's Monty's fault - he's British! I can just as easily see a couple of Brit officers grousing about the Americans. Why don't they hit the German left flank so we can take Caen? Bradley is over-rated! Of course, it's an American movie so you don't hear the British side of the argument.

Such conversations were going on. They have no validity, but it was part of the general picture.

 

I thought Ryan was suppose to have been a paratrooper.

 

Anyone who had been briefed about the strategy for the campaign would have been aware that the job of the 2nd Army was to draw as much of the German army to Caen to allow the 1st Army to progress initially to take Cherbourg.

Company level officers would not have the knowledge to debate the matter. Furthermore, the horizons of those on Omaha beach are likely to be limited to linking to the VII coprs rather than worrying The main US army grouse at the time was with the BBC who disproportionately reported British actions and progress. They would be more concerned about the poor progress of their own V Corps than what the British were up to at caen. . .

If the company level officers were as prescient as they seem, they should have been thanking the British at Gold Beach for taking care of KG Muller, the three battalion battle group of reserves and SP guns positioned behind Omaha beach. These chaps were diverted initially by the SAS and dummy paratroops. Then they countermarched to try to stop the British break out from Gild beach, but were largely smashed by 50 Div .

However, it is much more likely that Speilberg wished to pander to the media spun story from WW2 and perpetuating a myth that the British and Canadians did not pull their weight in Normandyu. To this extent SPR is a slightly more subtle version of the nonsense perpetrated by U571 and pearl harbour.

 

Interesting. My impression was that at the time te stated objective was to take Caen and hopefully break out from thre.

 

I'm under that impression myself. Things don't always go according to plan thought, and adjustments must be made.

 

I happened to catch the conclusion, The Battle for Rummel, and caught the dialogue where the Captain ( played by Hanks) is setting up for the defense of the town. He orders the sniper into the bell tower and asks if he would like some company. The sniper (Pepper) announces her would like the .30 Cal. set up with him with a few hundred rounds. Now, possibly because of the defensive tactic they were taking, drawing them into the ambush into the center street, but it is customary to set up a machine gun emplacement with a sniper? Seems like an ill fated attempt because once that MG opens up the sniper is exposed. Has anyone else noticed this and found it ridiculous, LOL?

Deep thoughts I know.

 

I figured that once the Germans were in that close, the sniper's position had been compromised after a few shots and having the machine gun up there would be considered a plus in the pressing issue that was upon them at the time (Germans all over the place).

 

I can see that. It was also, IMO, a rock and hard place. There is no way they were going to be able to escape the tower once located.

 

Yes, they probably figured that out going in.

 

Agreed

 

Interesting article on the movie...

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaab--michigan-s-john-beilein-a-descendant-of-soldiers-that-inspired--saving-private-ryan--205604686.html