Albert Blithe
The Easy Company private of the Carentan episode who really survived the war.
via Wikipedia: Albert Blithe · see source
Albert Blithe (June 25, 1923 - December 17, 1967) was a private first class in Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, and the viewpoint character of the episode "Carentan", played by Marc Warren.
Quick Facts
- Rank
- Private first class (WWII), later Master Sergeant
- Born
- June 25, 1923, Philadelphia
- Died
- December 17, 1967
- Played by
- Marc Warren
Facts from the source article.
Background
A Philadelphian who enlisted for the paratroopers on August 18, 1942, after three years of high school, he trained at Camp Toccoa under Captain Sobel. Mis-dropped on D-Day, he found Easy Company with other lost paratroopers; after the fight for Carentan he suffered a temporary case of hysterical blindness, recovered, and a few days later was shot in the collarbone by a sniper on a patrol to a farmhouse, receiving the Purple Heart on his 21st birthday. Easy Company lost track of him and assumed he died of the wound in 1948, a claim Stephen Ambrose repeated in his book and the series adopted; in fact Blithe stayed in the Army, served in Korea with the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team, where he earned a Bronze Star and a Silver Star, rose to master sergeant and died in 1967. Some Blu-ray editions correct the error in their 'Easy Company Field Guide' feature.
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