The Real Life and Tragic End of Private Roy Cobb | Band of Brothers [5:03-10:09]

On a side note, Banner Brothers incorrectly refers to the citation as the presidential distinguished unit citation. However, at the time, it was just known as the Distinguished Unit Citation. It didn't become re-designated as the presidential unit citation until 1957. Conveniently, the series leaves out the fact that Cobb had been fighting in the war longer than almost all the other men in Easy Company and was likely already an experienced soldier by this point. It also leaves out the fact that most of the other soldiers who knew him said that Cobb was a likable, effective soldier. His close friend, Private David Kenyon Webster, wrote in his memoir that Cobb was invariably good-natured and friendly with others outside of specific incidents. Dick Winters described Cobb as hard-nosed, a regular army man who clearly understood combat. In Clancy Lyell's book, he says that Cobb was one of the guys who could be a pain in the butt, but you could count on him. Lyell states, because I knew him best, Roy Cobb was given to me to take care of. When he got drunk, he was a bastard first class, right? And one day, he got so drunk and was starting to tick off Captain Spears. I'm pretty sure Spears was going to kill him, so I dragged Cobb by the arm and took him away from him. You own that son of a bitch, Lyell. I don't want to see his darn face again unless he straightened out, Spears yelled at me. I said, all right, sir, understood, sir, and took him away from there. Lyell summed up Roy Cobb by saying that he was quite good as a combat soldier, and he was a nice guy except when he got a bottle of booze. Dick Winters spoke commendably of Cobb's actions during the October 5th, 1944, Crossroads Battle in the Netherlands, stating that he delivered extremely effective long-distance fire on the retreating Germans. John Martin also praised Cobb's efforts in the battle. For his action in the Netherlands, Cobb received the bronze star, which is believed to have been for his role in the defense of the town of Uden. Instead of portraying the positive aspects of Cobb, as noted by the veteran who knew him, band of brothers portrays Cobb as consistently bitter, abrasive, and somewhat cowardly. But why? Why turn the man into a one-dimensional a-hole for the series? The writers of the series needed villains in order to create drama, and they conveniently chose people who were already dead. This included Cobb, Herbert Sobel, and Norman Dyke, men whose negative traits were blown out of proportion and became the entirety of their characters. In Hagenau, France, Cobb took part in the February 15th, 1945 patrol, across the motor river, to retrieve a couple German soldiers to bring back and interrogate for intelligence. However, similar to what we see in the band of brothers' episode, the last patrol, his boat capsized twice in the icy water, and he and fellow soldiers, Thomas McCreery and Melvin Wynn, gave up and returned to the shore. Ultimately, the patrol managed to bring back two Germans and was forced to leave a wounded German soldier on the river bank. The soldier had been shot in the lungs and could be heard wheezing and crying out in pain throughout the night in between the shelling. In the series, David Kenyon Webster suggests, maybe we should put him out of his misery, to which Roy Cobb replies, This is followed by John Martin commenting, I can't listen to it anymore, before walking off. Here, Cobb is portrayed as being cold and ruthless as he's happy to let the German continue to suffer. However, in real life, Bob Marsh and David Kenyon Webster threw grenades across the river, but were unsuccessful in trying to put the man out of his misery. According to Ambrose, Cobb could no longer take the sound of the dying German. He went to the river bank and threw a grenade across, killing the man and ending his suffering. Toward the end of the episode, Cobb isn't toxicated after drinking a bottle of schnapps and gets into a verbal altercation with private David Kenyon Webster and Lieutenant Henry Jones Jr. This specific altercation is fictional. According to David Kenyon Webster's book, Parachute Infantry, Roy Cobb, Bill Morganty and Donald Wiseman had found several cases of schnapps in a house that was under direct observation by the Germans. The three men stacked the cases in the courtyard, but the Germans heard them and put mortars on the area, destroying most of the liquor. However, the men managed to bring back two bottles each while under rifle fire. Wiseman got nicked in the knee by a bullet as he fled the area. In real life, private Cobb then got into an altercation with private Bob Marsh at observation post two when Cobb was drunk and went upstairs to run a belt through a new machine gun they had been given. Marsh, who had never liked Cobb, went after him to stop him in a fight broke out. Cobb was left with a bloody nose and a black eye. Ambrose states in his book that it was Roy Cobb who then became my rate and started mouthing off at Lieutenant Jack Foley who ordered him to shut up. Cobb then charged it Foley and was tackled to the ground by two men. Sergeant John Martin pulled out his 45 but Foley told him to holster the weapon. Foley then ordered Cobb arrested.