Growing up as a small child around 60 years ago, I used to watch a TV show called “Combat.” I remembered very little from the show as it ran from 1962-7 but I remember watching it. My mother once reminded me about how every week, she had to sit and watch “Combat” with me. Furthermore, while I can’t say for sure, I believe that when he wasn’t at sea, my father would watch the show with me.
You might be asking yourself, “Why is he going on about this ancient TV show?” Now, I could simply say that it’s down to my Asperger’s mind because after all, the show has been in my mind for six decades now. The simple answer is that it is because “Combat” has stuck in my mind all of these years that I finally got around to watching, now through much older and wiser eyes, I hope. If you’re interested, you can watch all five seasons, the fifth and final one in colour on Youtube. That’s what I have been doing and it’s been pretty eye opening.
“Combat” is a about a squad of US soldiers fighting in France in World War 2. Led by Lieutenant Hanley, played by the late Rick Jason and no-nonsense Sergeant Saunders, played by the late Vic Morrow, lead their troops against the Nazis. It accurately portrays the daily grind and moral dilemmas of the lower ranking soldiers. Having been one myself, although I only served in peacetime, I can relate to what these men were going through. It is also the longest running World War 2 TV series, going five years. Hell, the entire Western Front campaign was over in less than a year, so full marks to the writers for coming up with fresh ideas week after week for so long.
Being an American living in the UK, I feel compelled to make another point. “Combat” never portrays the myth that the US won World War 2 on its own. True, the show was about a squad of American soldiers but the British soldiers get their fair share of mention in it. In fact, in the fourth episode of Series One, Lt. Hanley has to assist a British bomb disposal expert in order to keep a village from being blown to pieces. Then the squad gets a lot of assistance from the French Resistance in many of the episodes. In another episode in Series Two, the squad liberates a concentration camp where Polish men are being held and the situation arises where the Poles fight along side the squad to repel the attacking Germans and get safely to the American lines. And that’s just what I’ve watched so far, I’m only in Series Two.
This leads me to another point. I am the first person to point out how Hollywood doesn’t normally give two stuffs about historical accuracy. Most of the cast had military backgrounds and the producer asked the US Army to assign a military advisor. The one sent was in the 82nd Airborne on D-Day. Therefore, I have not come across any historical inaccuracies. Like I said, the show focuses on the daily grind of a squad of US soldiers so obviously, the programme is from that viewpoint. I would have loved to have seen a British version of the show depicting them with the same struggles. Like the writer William March wrote in his book about World War 1, “Company K,” the struggles of the individual soldiers are the same, no matter what country they come from.
Now that I have written this, I am going to continue to go on the Tubes of You and watch “Combat.” I am finding the show very entertaining and eye opening as well.