I was recently rewatching *Band of Brothers * on the History Channel. If it is on TV I will watch it. I have no idea how many times I have seen it. However, I have read the book only once. There is one part that I remember differently from the book to the miniseries.
I seem to remember that the character “Foxhole Norman” had a different (presumably his real) name in the book. He is LT Dykes on the show but I remember it different from the book. My copy happens to be a couple of thousand miles away right now so I can’t check. In the book he is relived by Winters and CPT Spears takes over during the battle. He lives and the men later see him as the aide to the Division Commander. On the show he is blown up while cowering behind a haystack.
As far as I know this was the only part that was significantly fictionalized from the book. Was there a libel problem? Was “Foxhole Norman” still alive and they were afraid he would sue? Why could they use his real name in print but not on TV? I know they didn’t have the same problem with CPT Sobel since he killed himself long ago. So whats the deal, did I remember it right? Why did they change it?
Lt Dyke was the one who was always absent during the battle of the bulge correct? I could swear he did die, on the episode right after the battle of the bulge when they are leaving the woods and going into the town. From what I remember, he died, and the Lt who shot the POWs during D-Day ran through town to link the two platoons of Easy together. He then was the commander of Easy till the end of the show.
I’m pretty sure he just gets relieved by the guy who does the suicide run through town - Steele, I think. Dyke stays behind the haystack and hides. If he gets blown up after this, I have no idea. It’s been awhile since I watched them, so I’ll have to check the DVD again.
So I guess he does die behind the haybale in the series, but not the book. Funny, I don’t remember his death scene at all. Now I’m going to have to go check it out.
Now I understand there are some factual differences between the show and real life, the most egregious error being the one about Albert Blithe. But I really don’t think that the epsiode showed Dyke being killed.
Man, I had the whole weekend to research this with both the book and the DVDs, and I didn’t . . .
I think it was just a quick scene after the assault on the village where there are 2 soldiers standing over a body and saying something about less Americans getting killed now. I could be wrong though.
OK, you can’t hold it against me anymore! I did a quick check of the book this morning and Lt Norman Dike is, in fact, depicted pretty much exactly as he is in the DVD. He did fail in his assault on Foy, he did survive it, and he did get kicked upstairs to the rank of Captain and served as an aide to a general.
And he is mentioned by name. So unless Ambrose changed the name when he wrote the book (and I didn’t see any footnote to that effect), Lt Norman Dike was a real person.