I agree. I like the fact that the finished article with Thompson sling is on here now. An interesting double episode with a lot of British interaction is in Series 2 Episodes 25 and 26, named 'What Are the Bugles Blowin' For? I like the fact that the writers of Combat do not criticise the differences between the British and American way of doing things, but rather show that the British way, although different, also worked. The Combat team have a nice way of doing these things... combat series 2 episode 25 - Bing video combat series 2 episode 26 - Bing video Onward and upward, I will now be viewing some more Sgt Saunders and Lt. Hanley, et al!
So glad you are enjoying it. Imagine how much we liked it as eight and nine year old boys. Watch for lots of actors making appearances before they were famous.
Over the course of 152 episodes I estimate that Saunders may have personally killed upwards of 750 Germans. The other must see war program from the 60's was Twelve O'Clock High.
Watched this one last night. Had a little trouble understanding the British major when he was speaking low but got most of it. Good episode.
"Gaje" (Pierre Jalbert) had a brother who indeed was a hero. On May 8, 1984, Sargeant at Arms of the National Assembly of Quebec, Rene Jalbert, faced down a killer, who was armed with a machine gun, and convinces him to release his hostages taken in the chamber. Rene Jalbert served in both World War II and Korea, attaining the rank of major in the Royal 22e Regiment (The Van Doos).
From Rick Jason's aka Lt. Hanley autobiography 'Scrapbooks of My Mind'... On the series ending: Combat TV Series Comes to an End On Vic Morrow aka Sgt Saunders: Vic Morrow and Goodbye Vic On Dick Peabody aka PFC Littlejohn: Dick Peabody On Jack Hogan aka PFC Kirby and Pierre Jalbert aka Caje (also a PFC): Looking back on Combat
A number of articles about Combat by Dick Peabody - scroll to the bottom of the first page for the menu: Dick Peabody writes about Vic Morrow's death Interesting insights into the people who played the characters!
Review from IMDB that says it better than I could: User Reviews new to the series 19 February 2012 | by j-hanley61 – See all my reviews let me start by saying that i am watching combat every day now that it's on in my area. i never saw it when it was current and it's like a new show for me. i've seen about ten episodes and "the château" was the best one so far. that being said i feel it ran like a short movie, it was that good. it was nice to see Joan Hackett and looking so young and beautiful, and there was excellent acting though out.i have a dvr so i watched it again (3)times in all and just really like the way this episode plays out.strong in opening, very good middle,and a profound ending. you simply can't ask for much more from a show of this kind. i hope to see other episodes that move me as much as this one did. time will tell as i plan on watching every day.
Saunders carried a carbine instead of his Thompson in this episode. No explanation given. Another good episode.
After finishing viewing Combat and on the back of Canuck’s recommendation, I started watching Twelve O’Clock High. I found it heavy going at first, so I switched over to watching all episodes of Rat Patrol. When that had finished I went back to Twelve O’Clock High and just watched the last episode today. Strangely, I liked Rat Patrol even though it has no foot in reality whatsoever. It is quite charismatic. Twelve O’Clock High is probably better made than both Combat and Rat Patrol, and well worth viewing. There are still things that irritate, like: 1. The heavy push of the notion that the USAAF precision bombed (like laser guided weapons systems of today), whilst the RAF saturation bombed. The RAF’s policy and practice was to area bomb, as technology was not advanced enough to precision bomb. The USAAF’s policy was to precision bomb, but technology was not advanced enough to precision bomb. A good book I read on the subject a few years ago summed-up the achievements of the RAF and USAAF bomber offensives in Europe thus... The British area bombed with precision, whilst the USA precision bombed an area. 2. The huge successes at shooting down vast quantities of German fighter aeroplanes. I have always understood that it was otherwise. Anyway, I still enjoyed the 2.5 series...
Poor Hauptmann Dietrich. The Rat Patrol killed every man he had each week and he kept coming back for more.