"Anna” in Band of Brothers was based on Augusta Chiwy, a 23-year old Congolese-Belgian nurse.
In December 1944, Augusta traveled home to Bastogne to celebrate Christmas with her father, right as Hitler launched a surprise attack on the Allied Front in Belgium. Within two days of her arrival, Bastogne was surrounded and under constant bombardment. The U.S. army's makeshift aid station was in dire need of medical staff, and Augusta stepped up to volunteer.
In spite of the army regulations prohibiting black nurses from treating white soldiers, and the prejudice with which many of them treated her, Augusta saved countless lives, working under horrific conditions with inadequate supplies, and even taking trips to the front line to evacuate the wounded while coming under enemy fire.
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"Anna” in Band of Brothers was based on Augusta Chiwy, a 23-year old Congolese-Belgian nurse.
Augusta was born in the Belgian Congo to a Congolese mother and a Belgian father. At the age of nine, she left with her father to his hometown of Bastogne, where she was raised and schooled. She attended nursing school and began working at a hospital in Leuven.
In mid-December 1944, Augusta traveled home to Bastogne to celebrate Christmas with her father, right as Hitler launched a surprise attack on the Allied Front in Belgium. Within two days of her arrival, Bastogne was surrounded and under constant bombardment by the German army. When U.S. Army doctor, Capt. John “Jack” Prior set up an aid station, he recruited two nurse volunteers, who were the only other people with formal medical experience remaining in town: Renée Lemaire (who was also visiting her family in Bastogne for the holidays) and Augusta.
In spite of the army regulations prohibiting black nurses from treating white soldiers, and the prejudice with which many of them treated her, Augusta saved countless lives, working under horrific conditions with inadequate supplies, and even taking trips to the front line to evacuate the wounded while coming under enemy fire. She survived the 1944 Christmas Eve bombing, and continued helping the wounded soldiers until the army left Bastogne.
After the war, Augusta rarely spoke of her experiences and dealt with PTSD, but she married and had two children, and later returned to career in nursing. She and Jack Prior stayed in touch up until his death. Her heroic contributions were ignored and went entirely unacknowledged for more than 60 years.
Finally, in 2007, a historian uncovered her story and she started receiving recognition at last, including a knighthood from the King of Belgium, the U.S. Army’s Civilian Award for Humanitarian Service, and being named an Honorary Member of the 101st Airborne. Her story was also turned into the Emmy Award-winning documentary called The Forgotten Angel of Bastogne.
In 2015, she died peacefully in her sleep at the age of 94, and was buried next to Renée Lemaire in Bastogne.
SOURCES
Augusta Chiwy: The Forgotten Nurse Who Saved Hundreds of American Lives During World War II - Task and Purpose
Augusta's War - YouTube, 6 mins
Augusta Chiwy - FindAGrave
Augusta's Story - Augusta Chiwy Foundation
Trendy fandoms are so interesting. Every once in a while there's a fandom around a tv show, book or game that just comes out out of nowhere and starts trending everywhere, and after a few months, no one talks about it anymore and everyone who was in that fandom then goes on to the next trendy thing. Rinse and repeat.
not me though. i love my early 2000s wartime boys who i only find:
- inexplicably in pairs in 2 seconds of in random movies —> Matthew Leitch & Craig Heaney in The Dark Knight, etc.
- my ENG-102 Julius Caesar assignment —> Damian Lewis
- The Conjuring —> Ron Livingston
- Jurassic Park as the kid who gets electrocuted —> Joseph Mazzello
- It: Chapter 2 —> James Ransone
- Bohemian Rhapsody (inexplicably paired again) —> Rami Malek & Joseph Mazzello (directed by Dexter Fletcher btw)
- Supernatural —> Brendan Fletcher
- Transformers —> Rick Gomez
- strange Swedish/Viking movies —> Alexander Skarsgård
- a gay 3-frame-split-screen film from 2002 that was worked on WHILE band of brothers was being filmed (and— you guessed it!— paired together again. only explicitly gay this time. inexplicably.) —> Matthew Leitch and Peter Youngblood Hills
- being an absolutely stunning posterboy for Caravaggio —> Dexter Fletcher
To celebrate editors in the fandom, the HBO War Video Archive is doing a spotlight series to learn a little bit about the people who make all of our favorite videos!
Today's spotlight (#17) is on @rockpaperscissuhs! They have been making videos for HBO War since spring 2024. My favorite video of theirs is "Bossy." There are some really beautiful, more serious videos that I could have picked, but at the end of the day I just love a clever, tongue in cheek fancam to an unexpected song that also serves as really great character analysis. And this video is a perfect example of that!
Check out their answers to 10 editing questions below, and find more of their videos right here on the HBO War Video Archive. Tell us in the tags or replies what your favorite @rockpaperscissuhs video is!
(Do you want to be part of this series, or do you have an editor you want to hear from? Let me know @hbowarvids!)
🎥 What made you want to start making fan videos?
I got fed up with ideas coming to me and having to settle for just wishing, “Somebody (with video editing skills) should make that!” And I had this moment of clarity that if I wanted this thing to exist so badly, I was just gonna have to give it a shot myself.
💻 What program do you use?
I’ve been using the free version of CapCut for desktop ever since I started. I’d definitely like to migrate to a different program, though, mainly because I absolutely despise how AI-friendly CapCut is.
💭 Where do you find inspiration for videos?
I’m really into making fanmixes with songs that fit whichever ships or characters I’m currently obsessing over, so I’ve gotten most of my ideas that way.
⌨️ Tell us a little bit about your process!
Once I get an idea I’m psyched about, I have to resist the temptation to dive in head first, because I’ll just get overwhelmed or stuck if I don’t begin editing with a clear vision and a cohesive plan to guide me. I brainstorm, gather clips, brainstorm more, get the audio set up, add in the clips, then fiddle around with it endlessly until I’m satisfied enough with it.
I gotta know the song (however much of it I’m using) inside and out, backwards and forwards, both the music and its lyrics/their meanings. That’s critical for figuring out how it connects with the characters and what story I wanna tell with my video, and what clips could pair well with each part of the song.
I’m working w/ strict limits in the mental energy department, so I’ll dive into it for a chunk of time until I get stuck or feel like I’ve just been staring at it for too long, and then take a break: usually a few days, sometimes even weeks (especially if I have multiple projects I’m alternating between). Leaving a project alone to simmer and then coming back to it with clear eyes and fresh perspective is something I’ve discovered to be tremendously helpful!
🗒️ What's your favorite part of editing?
Weaving audio and video together, and the rush I get from getting them to complement and enhance each other! Picking clips that fit the lyrics, getting everything synced, matching the movement or duration of clips with the beat and energy of the song, etc.
🎬 What video(s) are you proudest of (HBO War or otherwise)?
First and foremost, "Day After Tomorrow." It's such a gorgeously bittersweet song, and the messages and themes of it resonate with me, and pair so well with The Pacific. I just fell deeply in love with the project, and I’m extremely proud of how it turned out. I think I may have put more time & energy into it than nearly all my other edits put together!
Also my Vietnam War AU, which was probably an unwisely complicated project to attempt but it turned out so rad! Because there were nowhere near enough clips from The Pacific that could pass as Vietnam or in the late 1960s, what I ended up doing was skimming through a bunch of Vietnam War movies and documentaries at 3x speed, looking out for both general “scene-setting” clips to establish time/setting/mood, and “gap-bridging” clips which had similar background scenery to The Pacific clips, in order to help unify it all. And a side effect I had a lot of fun experimenting with effects and filters trying to balance out the hodgepodge of video quality and color grading, and making it all look more evenly retro!
🪫 Do you have a video that got away? A great idea you never made? (Now's the time!)
Last year I was making an edit to the Shakey Graves cover of the song "O Death," but it was so dark and morbid that, for the sake of my mental well-being, I decided to pull the plug on it. (I did make a gifset inspired by it, though.)
🖱️ What's something new you'd like to learn/try?
Weaving in dialogue/audio voiceovers. It’s something I’ve avoided up until now, but just started experimenting with in one of my current projects!
Also, I want to work towards loosening myself a bit from the clutches of perfectionism with my projects- practicing accepting that something is “good enough,” letting minor imperfections slide, etc.
👨💻 Do you have any advice for other editors or someone who wants to try editing?
— Start saving any video clips you cut out, and organize them however makes sense to you, so you can easily find and reuse them for future projects. You’ll thank yourself later! (I like using an external hard drive, but cloud storage, like Proton Drive, is also a solid option.)
— If you get frustrated or stuck on a project, or if it stops feeling fun, don’t force it! Seriously, sometimes you just need to ignore it for a few days, weeks, or even months, and come back and look at everything with fresh eyes and a clear head.
— Pick projects you really love, and keep experimenting and challenging yourself!
🎞️ Give a shout out to some of your favorite HBO War videos!
@lexalexie's “The Only Hope You Have is to Accept that You’re Already Dead” — Brilliant and well-made and absolutely chilling.
@genesscissors’s “Boots” — Brilliant at building up that tension- starting with clips of training, the contrast of action and stillness, the flashes and explosions at the song's climax, etc. It’s skin-crawling and horrific and genius.
@hillbillyshelmet’s “G.I.” — Repeatedly punches you in the gut as it pairs The Pacific clips with excerpts from the Vietnam War radio broadcasts by Hanoi Hannah.
@kbsd’s “Different Drum” — Brilliant example of how you can make something fresh and different with the same ol’ clips; approaching from a specific perspective, teaming up with the perfect song for it, and letting the lyrics help tell that story.
@sidsledge’s “Nutshell” — The broody depressing song pairs perfectly with his story. Devastating video, and a must-see for any Sledge fan.
@bossboudicca’s “Gangsta Rap Made Him a War Criminal” — Hot, entertaining, clever. Lives in my head rent-free.
@ww2yaoi’s explorations of Webster’s character in “Manchild” and “Ballad of a Homeschool Girl,” which are both well-executed and hilarious!
@handheldrope’s "Only Living Boy in New York" — Phenomenal storytelling and pairing of lyrics with clips, and I love the incorporation of clips that aren’t seen as often.
@atomicradiogirl’s Band of Brothers intro with the Masters of the Air theme — technically a very simple edit, but holy shit does it give me the chills.
I’ll wrap it up there, though I wish I could keep going because there’s so many talented creators and brilliant creations I’d love to shout out!
Thank you so much to @rockpaperscissuhs for being part of this spotlight series—go check out their videos and let them know your favorites! And thank you to everyone who continues to make and support amazing videos in this fandom. We'll have another editor spotlight on Wednesday!
got wine drunk at the weekend and decided i needed to plot the seating plan in this scene immediately
i always love seeing the dynamics and cliques in the show so it's fun to break down group scenes like this to see who’s hanging out with who! so:
there are some obvious gaps but I think I got the 'main' characters fairly mapped out :) officers not included, they're all at the side of the room
some combos of interest:
liebgott, talbert, malarkey and more: a combo i haven't noticed before! in the later liebgott-focused episodes there aren't many interactions with tab so I think their relationship gets overlooked but they have quite a few little moments early in the show (shoutout to @reallylilyreally and @escrivoir for the most perfect depiction of that friendship).
in this scene they start off sitting together before liebgott moves up for more and malarkey, and there are a lot of reaction shots to liebgott during the poem
and then theres this moment between more and liebgott later on
then there is, of course, this lovely cigarette pilfering by malarkey, who manages to be joined at the hip to muck without sitting at the same table
I’ve always been a little confused about why babe disappears immediately after sitting down next to luz at guarnere’s table in these two shots
in the next wide shot you can see he’s moved back at hashey and garcia's table but him and guarnere are turned around chatting. I guess he got kicked off the big boy table pretty quick :(
and further back in the same shot you can see bull and hoobler sitting opposite each other, laying the groundwork for hoobler et al’s rescue in replacements
so there we have it. let me know if I missed your blorbo or got anyone wrong :)
theartofmadeline
tangentwithtanner
kianamaiart
origamiaround
