Band of Brothers is an HBO original World War II period piece starring an ensemble cast with Damian Lewis, Scott Grimes, David Schwimmer, and Ron Livingston among others. It was produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg based upon a book that chronicles the lives and struggles of the men from the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 2nd Battalion of the 101st US Army Airborne Division.
That military squad had the task to parachute into Europe after D-day and start gaining advantages over the enemy. It is a riveting, ten-part mini-series that features recollections from war veterans who fought tooth and nail for the survival of their country.
Across ten episodes, we see how these men train in their native US and are sent to Europe to fight across different regions as the Allies reconquered territory from the Axis powers. Setting aside plotlines and details, today we shift gears and set our focus on the Band of Brothers filming locations.
Band of Brothers Filming Locations
Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, and the cast and filming crew create a great war story with Band of Brothers, taking us to places like Belgium, France, and Germany. But through the magic of cinematography, these locations were recreated in other geographic parts between December 1999 and November 2000; it was over ten months of arduous work that followed the award-winning movie “Saving Private Ryan” and paved the way for another project chronicling the lives of soldiers in the pacific theater called “The Pacific”, it was the time for WWII productions like “The Thin Red Line” as well.
Band of Brothers was shot in Switzerland and in several places across England. Let’s dig in deeper and see how they transformed these locations into the multiple regions where Easy Company fought.
England
Hertfordshire, England, was one of the primary filming locations for this mini-series. The film crew worked with a team of architects to recreate accurate replicas of small towns in different parts of Europe at the Hatfield Aerodrome. These realistic copies were used to film many action sequences and were blown up.
A dozen towns were created to recreate Easy Company’s epic battles against the Germans in places like Carentan, Bastogne, Eindhoven, and other small villages that Easy Company liberated in their mission to liberate Europe from the Axis. Hertfordshire is a very popular film location for many production companies who have made other period pieces like Netflix’s “The Crown”, for example.
An entirely realistic barracks complex resembling Currahee was built on an aerodrome, and the shots where we see the privates jogging up and down a hill were shot in forest locations across the regions adjacent to these locations, thus giving the audience the idea that the action takes place in USA and France, but it is actually just the aerodrome areas employed for this amazing war drama.
Besides from Hertfordshire, Band of Brothers also used the North Weald Airfield to shoot those airplane takeoff scenes ahead of D-Day, as well as other rural locations where Easy Company conducted drill exercises ahead of their invasion of France in places like Surrey and East Sussex. The famous battle of the Bulge, the fight of the Ardennes forest, was entirely recreated in England.
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Switzerland
From Britain, the cast and crew moved to Switzerland, in Bern’s Oberland, to recreate the final days of the war and Easy Company’s deployment in Europe. More specifically, this Swiss region was chosen to recreate places in Austria and Germany. In the episode where Easy Company takes over Hitler’s Eagle Nest hideout, those scenes were filmed at a hotel, the Giessbach, and some exterior shots were taken in Brienz to represent Zell am See.
As you can see, Band of Brothers’ filming locations recreate iconic battlegrounds where men from all walks of life chose to fight for what they believed in. With great cinematographic detail, compelling stories, and accurate depictions, we see how this great miniseries came to life. If you’re interested in watching it, you can do it from HBO Max.
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