Dick Winters Says British Are Great Planners But Can't Execute | Band of Brothers

Well, I suppose it's time to upset all of my British friends and commenters. In an interview from the early 2000s, Major Dick Winters, who was portrayed by Damian Lewis in Band of Brothers, didn't hold back in his feelings about the British during World War II, stating that they were great at planning missions, but when it came to executing them, you better do it yourself, said Winters. In the clip you're about to hear, after offering his honest opinion of the British, Dick Winters goes on to talk about the British paratroopers who became trapped on the other side of the Rhine River after the Battle of Arnhem in the Netherlands. If you recall, the rescue mission to evacuate those trapped paratroopers, known as Operation Pegasus, was featured in Band of Brothers. Winters then discusses the British failures in the planning of Operation Market Garden, pointing out that 2nd Battalion jumped in too far from the Wilhelmina Canal, giving the small German force there enough time to blow up the bridge over it. He then criticizes the British for having to stop and have tea. Let's now listen to exactly what Winters had to say. You know, there's been a lot of books, a lot of movies about Operation Market Garden, a bridge too far, some of the things that happened. You were an active participant. You were there. What are your feelings on Market Garden? The British are wonderful planners. And if you have, if you want to make plans for an operation or to do anything, you cannot top the British. They're very good in that. But then if you wanted to execute it, you better do it yourself. But you can use a British plan. But in this case, the plans were, they had never run an operation, airborne operation before. And in running this thing, they made too many wrong decisions. And the ones that suffered the most is their own British paratroopers on the other side of the Rhine River up at Arnhem, who were, they jumped 8,000 men in there and they only got 6,500 out that lived through it. But it was, it was, for example, our, our mission was to capture this bridge over the Don, the Wilhelmia Canal. And the only problem was we jumped about three miles, two and a half miles away from it. So we had to assemble and then walk to it. Well, they had this small group of Germans that were on guard duty on this bridge, and they had all the time in the world to set the charges and be ready for us and blow it up right in our face. And as soon as they did that, then they withdrew. But the point, the important point was that the Germans, the Dutch, the Holland people, with their intelligence, they knew that the German force that was guarding this part of Holland at this point was no more than a good-sized police force. So if we'd have jumped on the objective, I'm sure as soon as we were coming down, they might have shot a couple of us, but they would have taken off on the run and we'd have taken When they finally got there, and the British, of course, have to stop and have tea when they reach that point, after that, then they got across the bridge, but that was all wrong. And it was just one thing after another like that in the whole thing. It was not planned properly. When Winters sort of humorously takes the jab at the British by saying that they had to stop and have tea, what he's referring to here is the British armored column stopping in the liberated town of Eindhoven for too long after they arrived in the late afternoon and evening hours of September 18th, a few hours after Easy Company and the 506th had reached the town. In his memoir, he states that the British promptly halted in the center of town, set up housekeeping and proceeded to make tea. This lack of urgency for the need to push on to the 82nd at Nijmegen and their comrades at Arnhem left us feeling a bit bewildered. The general notion that British troops would stop during active combat missions or battles for tea time is mostly a stereotype or exaggeration, mostly, and it can be debated how quickly they should have moved out of Eindhoven and departed from the celebrations there. Early in the war, the British government bought up much of the world's tea supply to help maintain civilian and military morale, as tea was seen as critical to keep spirits up and to give the troops a caffeine boost. While it's an exaggeration to say that British troops would stop mid-battle for tea, there were notable instances where British soldiers were caught off guard during tea breaks, which is where the stereotype mostly comes from. For example, during the Battle of Valais-Bocage on June 13, 1944 in Normandy, a British armored squadron from the 22nd Armored Brigade stopped near the town of Valais-Bocage for maintenance and a morning tea break. Crews dismounted from their vehicles, which included climbing out of their tanks to have tea and rest. While doing so, they were surprised and heavily attacked by German Tiger tanks, which resulted in significant losses. And this isn't the only example of attacks during tea breaks. The vulnerability it created later contributed to the British developing boiling vessels or built-in tea kettles for tanks after WWII so that crews could brew safely inside while remaining ready to fight. Now let's address Dick Winter's main critique in the clip, that the British excelled at strategic level planning but often failed when it came to execution. While many British units fought effectively during WWII, in general, they were seen as more rigid than their American counterparts. British training emphasized obedience to detailed plans from above with less delegation, and they were seen as being slow to adapt when plans went awry. Their lack of flexibility is highlighted in defeats such as in France in 1940, setbacks in North Africa, and issues in Operation Market Garden, as Winters indicated in the clip. During the interview, Winters didn't only take issue with the inability of the British to execute a plan. He went on to discuss how awful the British rations were. How important were the Hershey Bars? The Hershey Bars were very, very important, and if possible, they always accused the officers of taking the chocolate bars, the almond bars, you know, but that isn't true. But they were very important, they were very important not only for yourself, but you used to share with the children because they hadn't even had the taste of chocolate at this point in their life, the younger ones. The chocolate bar was very important. While Winters' view of British rations is somewhat typical, it's not necessarily true that British rations were awful or inherently worse than American ones. Part of this came down to personal taste and what you were used to eating, coffee vs tea for instance. However, it is true that American K and C rations were more generous and varied than British compo rations, in part due to the industrial capacity and supply advantages of the US during the war. The US possessed a massive agricultural output, while Britain was an island heavily dependent on food imports, which were under constant threat from German U-boats. British troops and civilians would sometimes become resentful over the lavish rations consumed by American soldiers stationed in England, which in some cases included steaks and ice cream while they themselves were more strictly rationed. As Winters indicates, it is true that during mixed operations, the sharing of rations occurred and each got to experience a taste of the other's culture. If you are interested in learning more about the rations consumed by the troops during the war, I would be doing you a disservice if I didn't mention the YouTube channel Steve1989MREinfo, which I'm sure some of you follow. In his videos he opens and tastes vintage and modern rations, including those from WWII and further back. And don't worry, he's only had to go to the hospital for food poisoning a couple times. Criticisms like those from Winters certainly went both ways during the war and in veterans recollections after it. The British were often quick to point out that the Americans were late to the party and they teased that American soldiers were overpaid, oversexed, and overhear, stemming from the fact that US soldiers earned more than their British counterparts and they were seen as flirtatious, boisterous, and were often successful with local British women, which led to jealousy and more than a few fistfights. The American soldiers would quip back that the British were underpaid, undersexed, and under Eisenhower, pointing out that US General Dwight D. Eisenhower as the Supreme Allied Commander was their boss. Most of this was all in good fun, minus of course certain occasions, usually when liquor was involved. While it was common for these men to criticize and take jabs at one another, they supported each other in battle and often worked closely together. And as we see during Operation Pegasus in Band of Brothers, when Easy Company helps to rescue around 140 trapped British paratroopers on the other side of the Rhine, these men would regularly put their lives on the line for one another. Oh, and in case you missed it, Tom Hanks as a cameo is one of these rescued British paratroopers. He can be seen celebrating the successful allied operation to rescue the trapped men. If you enjoyed hearing Major Dick Winters rag on the British, be sure to give this video a like. And if you want to learn more about Winters and the rest of the Band of Brothers veterans, be sure to subscribe to our channel.