r/BandofBrothers • u/Straight_Arugula_473 • 3d ago
John hall
Was John Hall really killed at the assault on Brecourt manor ? Or was that just movie theatrics to make the seem more war time like for the movie . I’ve not found any info on him dying . He was the guy that landed right beside Winters when they made the jump . Radio operator Abel company I do believe .
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u/Traditional-Wave-180 3d ago
You may not have found anything because [1] he was not an Able Company radio man and, true to form, [2] they got his name wrong. His name was John Derrick Halls. He was an infantryman with 2nd Battalion HQ & HQ Company's mortar platoon. His ASN was 17091542.
1 Spetember 1942 - Enlisted
23 December 1943 - Duty to hospital
18 January 1944 - Hospital to duty
22 January 1944 - Duty to furlough
28 January 1944 - Furlough to duty
13 March 1944 - Duty to sick in quarters
16 March 1944 - Sick in quarters to duty
6 June 1944 - Killed in action
You can see a nice little profile on him here. (What I realize after looking a little is how pathetic the US government's ABMC is compared to the British CWGC and private memorial site. You can see his ABMC site here. We need to get better as a country at honoring the dead.)
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u/eliteniner 2d ago
I wrote an extensive bio/article on John D Halls here for anyone interested. It discusses the mistakes and confusion in the show as well
Excerpt
There is much confusion surrounding Pfc. Halls in online forums, due to small details that alter with oral histories being passed to authors, and eventually major TV networks. HBO’s “Band of Brothers” portrays a “John Hall” from New York, supposedly in A Company/506th that is KIA on the Brécourt assault by a landmine or grenade. After the war, veterans of the mortar platoon in HQ/2nd Bn/506th have since confirmed that the fictional "John Hall" in the show was in fact Pfc. John D. HALLS, and was a member of HQ Company. Many online sources still name Pfc. Halls as a member of A/506th, which is known to be false now. There was in fact no John Hall in A Company/506th. There was however a T-5 John D. Hall in the 506th, who was tragically killed with his whole stick on the D-Day drop when their plane went down prior to their exiting.Pfc. Halls’ daughter, MaryJo Wagner, PhD, has written a blog about her perspectives on discovering her father's service details: ++https://medium.com/illumination-curated/memorial-day-world-war-2-band-of-brothers-this-happened-to-me-a178c18ba674++
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u/aaron_grice 3d ago
I forget where I read it, but John Halls (who really DID have nickname “Cowboy” in his unit) stepped on a shoe mine just outside the trenches at Brecourt, and bled out before he was found.
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u/Mooch2112 1d ago
As others said, his name was John D. Halls. He did not step on a mine during the fighting at Brecourt. He was hit in the head by German rifle as he moved along the connecting trench between the gun positions (which was only a foot or so deep, not the complex trench line seen in the miniseries).
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u/V_T_H 3d ago edited 3d ago
The real John HallS, with an s on the end, was a mortarman with HQ Company of Easy’s battalion. He was killed at Brecourt, yes. There was a John Hall (with the same middle initial D as Halls) in the same Service Company as Lorraine who died when his plane crashed on D-Day.
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u/TooLate- 3d ago
Was just reading Gaurnere’s memoir and I believe he mentioned him