Captain Herbert Sobel Jumped Into Normandy On D-DAY

There has been a lot of conjecture as to whether Herbert Sobel jumped into Normandy and if so exactly what he did.
This video should finally clear up the issue.

[timishii]

I think Sobel is a tragic figure. Those who knew him all say he performed his duties well, but was disliked because of his lack of personal skills which contrasted poorly to Dick Winters and Speirs, who were outstanding. This conclusion is supported by the fact his wife divorced him, taking his sons. Some time later he attempted suicide by shooting himself in the head but only succeeded in blinding himself. Sobel starved to death in a (VA?) nursing home, apparently abandoned by everyone. A horrible lonely death.

[jcwoodman]

Everybody makes mistakes it's how you perform moving forward...

[floydfanboy]

I never knew this! Good research! By this, it seems maybe Herbert Sobel wasn't as bad an officer as the men of company feared he would be in combat after all. We will never really know for sure, but it does put him in a new light. At least for me. Thank you for your service, captain Sobel.

[BillHalliwell]

G'day WWT, Thank you for this video. I've watched your previous videos about Herbert Sobel. I'm a retired journalist who, for the past 15 or so, has been a military historian.
Like millions of others, I 'met' Captain Herbert Sobel via 'Band of Brothers' TV adaptation of Mr Ambrose's book. At the time I watched I'd never seen an episode of 'Friends' so the actor, David Schwimmer, was unknown to me but truly did an impressive job of acting.
In a pure storytelling sense, every good story needs a 'villain' or a darker character who stands out from the crowd. It was a couple of years after seeing the TV version that I read the book and, frankly, I can't exactly recall if, in the book, the Sobel 'character' was as disliked as Schwimmer had portrayed him.
The instances of a 'softening' of the Sobel story seems to be mounting. Certainly our collective opinion of Sobel would have been different if the sad and unfortunate part of his post-war life had been mentioned in the TV story, especially in the last episode where the 'Winters' character listed the outcomes for Easy Company's main characters.
As is often the case, especially in TV adaptations, a 'bad guy' is either invented or accentuated for 'dramatic effect'.
Without knowing for sure, it does seem to me that Herbert Sobel just might have been a person not suited for the command of troops in the field, but one that was found to be a useful officer in another Army job. It also seems that, perhaps, his rejection from a command job may have weighed heavily upon him in later years; leading to his sad demise.
Outside of the dramatic story on TV and the book; I'm not qualified to pass judgement on just one individual officer in the US Army from so many years ago without hours even weeks of serious, in depth, historical research.
Cheers, Bill H.

[daf]

I contend that he was made to be the villain of a TV mini series. Television needs to have a villain to provide the black vs white, good vs evil paradigm that drives the drama of such productions. Whether he was or wasn't the best combat leader of the 506, he was a leader whose training regiment produced one of the best companies of WWII. Everyone who served in WWII deserves our eternal gratitude for their selfless devotion to duty and putting their lives on the line by jumping out of a plane into harms way. In many ways, BoB did Sobel a disservice. So many people think that the mini series is the gospel when it comes to the Easy Company story and that just isn't so. He may have had PTSD from his war experiences and that is why he attempted suicide. We will never know. So lets just salute him and give him credit for being there and providing excellent training that probably saved many lives.

[altonbunnjr]

Its good to see he did accomplish something after all. The shame about BOB is we never got to hear his side of events since he died so early.

[KOHTAOMURDERSDEATHISLAND]

You manage to dig up an enormous amount of credible information on your subjects. 👍👍

[HollywoodMarine]

Herbert Maxwell Sobel served 24 years in the US Army (Active, Reserve). He eventually retired at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel (O-5).

[davidcoleman]

I certainly wasn't aware that Sobel jumped into Normandy, and he deserves respect for doing so. Research likes this helps us to adjust our viewpoint. It's important, but it takes a lot of work. Props, again, for approaching your work with such dedication and attention to detail. Really enjoying these. Thank you.

[johnklein]

I can confirm for you that Herbert Sobel did drop into Normandy on the night of June 5th. He was in the same stick as my dear friend Lawrin "Larry" Lopes from 506th PIR Service Company (Larry was the driver for the 1st Battalion commander LTC William Turner, who was killed while poking his head out of a Stewart tank a few days later). In fact, Sobel landed in the same field as Larry, a little southwest of St. Marie du Mont. Larry went out the door right behind Sobel, and as he was on the ground struggling to get out of his parachute harness, Sobel walked up to him, took one look at Larry on the ground, and then walked away without saying a word. By the way, the field they landed in was completely quiet, there was no machine gun firing. Not sure what happened to Sobel after that, but Larry made his way into St. Come du Mont and was on the balcony of the church steeple early on the 6th with a few other 101st soldiers, and shot up a German halftrack as it entered the town square below them.

[dlxmarks]

Great work on this and I learned a number of new things about Sobel. It's unlikely to ever come to light but I would like to know what he thought when he found out about the fate of stick 66 and the deaths of E Company's HQ group.

[jdavison]

Thanks for another thorough and thoughtful video. I was glad to hear something good about Sobel. Whatever his shortcomings as a leader, he was clearly a brave man who made a real contribution to the war effort, and he suffered greatly towards the end of his life.
RIP.

[Lupintherd.]

We have to remember people do change. Our impressions of Sobel is based on his time with Easy company. Most Easy company members had little to no interaction after he was transferred out, so they still have a negative imprint of him. I think reality hit hard once he lost easy company, then the experiences of combat on D-day did change his perspective about life and the responsibilities of command. We do hear positive things about him as a father and a husband after the war so he probably was altered in many ways to be a better man.

As for his bitterness towards Easy after the war, well sometimes its harder to forgive someone else even if you were in the wrong but easier to change one's self.

As for his suicide attempt I think at the end you found this missing piece as to why he shot himself. Not because of losing easy company as some would say but the fact he lost a man to friendly fire might have been the reason and him sending that letter was a cathartic act.

[Bumper]

I was in the Army 1971-1973 and served under two company commanders while at my permanent party assignment. One was more personnel oriented like Dick Winters and the other was more mission oriented like Herbert Sobel, although neither in the extreme. The more personnel-oriented commander got the job done and was loved by the men. The more mission-oriented commander was concerned about getting the job done as efficiently as possible and was not liked so well. When I saw the Band of Brothers series, I was reminded of my former company commanders.

[chrispierdominici]

I think the additional information that you and other have gleaned is enormously helpful in fleshing out this man's service better, especially as a contrast to the seemingly skewed perspective that Ambrose conveyed, whether that be from the perspective of the men interviewed and/or Ambrose's own notorious laziness in verification of facts and stories.

The letter Sobel wrote for the man that was killed by friendly fire shows that he wasn't just a hard ass trainer, but cared about his men. His combat actions suggest that he wasn't a coward and might have been a halfway-passable leader of men in combat, even if he wasn't to be a great leader on par with someone like Dick Winters.

Given his challenge of interacting with people, he almost sounds like someone that might have had Asperger's, seeing his clear abilities to organize and train men effectively, but lacking any interpersonal skills that might have helped his men like him. At the very least he probably felt he had to keep his distance

Irrespective of his ostensible lack of leadership and interpersonal skills, he deserves credit for how he shaped E Company into a tough, resilient fighting force. That's not chump change.

It's unfortunate that this man was maligned and that by all accounts he struggled with finding himself throughout life, apparently leading an unhappy post-war existence. Regardless, it's shameful that, as a vet, he died in the manner he did, after trying to commit suicide years before -- all our servicemen and women deserve better for their service to our nation.

[tonylittle]

Sobel and guys like Sobel exist in every branch of our military. Sometimes in charge and some not. There’s no Shame in not being a combat leader. He proved himself as a trainer, which by the way today’s military uses the Sobel template. Meaning trainers are seldom in a soldier or Marines chain of command. To be honest, most of us who served, has been a Sobel at some point. Sink used wisdom to address the winters/Sobel issue. Otherwise Sobel may never have made it home. Always a pleasure watching your videos.

[adamlee]

When I first watched BoB, it didn’t sit easy with me how he was pilloried. He may not have been as competent as others but he was still more competent in that situation than I would have been. I don’t seem to remember Maj Winters ever publicly admonishing him though I may have missed that.

I think Capt Sobel should have some respect for what he achieved with Easy Co. He made them the best. That’s indisputable.

[vortega]

What an interesting, and complex individual. Rest in peace, it's too bad your final moments you were not taken care of properly.

[Gjudxdkjyzddhjnr]

All indications are that most of Easy had no problem with Sobel. It was a clique of Sgts centred around Winters 2nd platoon that mutinied and they were a minority of the company overall. Winters is damn lucky that he and the Sgts he goaded into rebellion weren't all shot.

It seems that Strayer (battalion CO) and Sink (Regimental CO) viewed Easy as a suspect company after that as Easy was mostly in battalion reserve in combat and was usually called upon when Dog and Fox companies were depleted sufficiently through casualties.

Easy Company was in reserve for the entire siege of Bastogne for example and only came on the line for the Foy attack nearly a month after entering combat

[Mr.Benson]

The crucible of combat can hone a man's skills much faster than even he might expect.