World War II - Screaming Eagles

It is the last week in November and it is time to wind up the World War I and World War II documentaries.  Let’s go to a documentary on World War II after the disappointment of yesterday’s documentary.  Today I am going to look at a documentary on the 101st Airborne Division and their impact on World War II.  The documentary has a run time of 53:58.  It is part of the Battle Honors series and it is called the Screaming Eagles.  It can be found on the War Stories YouTube Channel.

The Screaming Eagles were an integral part of the allied strategy during World War II.  They were the ones who would parachute into enemy territory and take down targets before the main army arrived.  Their training forged them together into a tight-knit fighting force.  These soldiers were the first soldiers to land in Normandy and would have a huge impact on turning the war into the Allies favor.

The 101st Airborne had their roots in World War I, however the war ended before they could see action.  The 101st Airborne was reborn during World War II in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  John O’Brien talks about foundations of the 101st Airborne and how the eagle became its symbol.  The first 101st was organized during the Civil War in Wisconsin.  This regiment was given an eagle as a mascot.  The regiment was disbanded but then reorganized as part of the Wisconsin National Guard and they adopted the Eagle rising from the flames as its mascot.  Eventually, the regiment was recognized again during World War II, where they would become a paratrooper unit.  This was a rather cool introduction to the 101st Airbourne, I did not know that the founding was in Wisconsin.

William Lee was the first man to lead this regiment and said that they were going to make history.  Thousands of men would volunteer willingly to jump out of airplanes.  The first veteran interviewed is Ed Shames who talks about volunteering.  The new volunteers were sent to Camp Toccoa and the training regiment was strict.  Carl Beck talks about the training and how tough it was.  It was designed to weed out recruits who would not make good paratroopers.  Shames recalls needing to have an IQ over 100 and runs up Currahee Mountain.  If you dropped out from the runs up Currahee, you would be shipped out of the regiment. 

The training was extremely physical, they were going to be a superior unit.  After three months of basic training and were known as the fittest soldiers in the army.  However, when they got to jump school these soldiers would not make friends with the instructors.  The jump school teachers could not keep up with the Toccoa-trained soldiers.  Everyone was going to jump and there were a variety of training methods of training to jump.  They had purpose-built weapons.

Eventually, the Screaming Eagles would join the rest of the US Troops in England.  They were preparing for an invasion of Europe.  The 82nd Airbourne had made the first jumps in Italy which would prove to be a success.  So it was decided that the Paratroopers would used again, only in numbers that would dwarf in comparison to what was used in Italy.  The Paratroopers were for the most part kept in the dark until the orders were received.  D-Day was going to happen.  To learn more about the 101st Airborne and their fight on D-Day continue to watch the rest of the episode.

I was a little bit nervous about this documentary because I was very familiar with the Easy Company story and I felt like I was going to miss the voices of Winters, Guarnere, and Heffron.  Then I saw Ed Shames and knew that he was part of Easy Company and was the last surviving paratrooper from Easy.  I was equally impressed with Carl Beck’s contribution to the documentary.  You almost had the sense that these were the last survivors of the 101st Airborne in general.  I was very happy with this documentary.  The sections on the 101st Airborne Museum were very well done as well.  I would show this episode to a history class and would use it for research purposes.