Leaders, What is Your Opinion on the Portrayal of CPT Sobel in Band of Brothers?

CPT Sobel, the depiction whom in the Band of Brothers series, and as described by Soldiers that served with him, was to say the least unflattering. He was, like many a completely inexperienced Officer in his first experience of command, with only his own limited training and observations of other Officers and NCO's, to fall back on. With this in mind, I would say he did the best he could, and when his shortcomings were noted by his CO he was reassigned to duties more in line with his abilities.
He volunteered for Airborne, and while maybe not a great soldier or leader, he answered his nations call to arms.

The Drill instructor is not your buddy, he has a job to do. His job was to sharpen those troops to their best. Many easy company troops credit him with their combat readiness. In a combat environment he was not effective. As a drill instructor he was able to motivate his troops to rise to levels they otherwise would not have realized. He was totally hated.

Men of Easy company actually gave him credit for toughening them up. But as a leader he was a failure. And he sucked at map reading. He was a devoted husband and father who ended up blind, in a veterans home after a failed suicide attempt. I realize it is easy to armchair quarterback....but mostly the men who served under him hated his guts.

An adequate training officer, but a inept combat field commander.

You don't need to be a dick to inspire and properly train troops. I had a sadistic DI in basic that certainly ran us ragged and an inspiring DI in AIT that pushed us even harder. Guess who I'd rather train and serve with.

I never knew the man on which the character was based (and Hollywood does takes its liberties), so I can't say whether the portrayal of the man himself is accurate or not. However, I've run across a number of NCOs and officers that can fit into the suit that character wore (thankfully in the minority, unfortunately present). He was petty, vindictive and incompetent in the field. I'm sure you heard it: "shit floats to the top" or "fuck up, go up". Overall, a good sketch of something you're bound to meet in the service.

I recommend "The Pacific" as a truly complementary companion piece.

They got away with a lot of stuff in WWII when we were desperate for personnel that would never stand today. That's for sure.

How is it tarnished if it's true? Wouldn't be more accurate to say his actions "tarnished' his legacy? The book didn't go into the level of dislike his troops had for him, so I'd say they did him a kindness.

Even several of the guys in Easy Co. admitted later on they thought the series was hard on CPT Sobel. A lot of that was because of time limitations and ease of telling the story within the constraints of the medium. The book admits Sobel, even with his shortcomings, probably was the major driving factor in making Easy what it became.

No, the NCOs of the company did not trust him to lead them into combat and the mutiny was real. There's no doubt Winters despised him and with cause - the bogus charges Sobel wrote him up on were that - bogus Charlie Sierra. Sobel appears to have had a great organizational ability and the ability to train troops. However, he appears to have lacked whatever is to lead those troops into combat - to inspire the confidence in him to follow him to hell that Winters and others had. I have seen that before. Officers who were great on staff but failed miserably in command and leadership positions, through no apparent fault of their own but something in their persona or character that failed to inspire troops. I've also seen officers who had charisma whose troops would follow them to hell but weren't great with administration. Col Ruben Tucker comes to mind, who commanded the 504th PIR in the 82nd during World War 2.

Tucker has been called one of the best combat regimental commanders of World War 2; but was always in trouble for his inattention to paperwork. He got a chewing out after leaving Anzio and Italy for England when he took a stack of disciplinary reports and charges against his troops and dropping them off the side of the ship rather than dealing with it. I think there's more to the story, but...

Sobel probably wasn't as bad as the impression one gets from the series - and again, even some of the Easy vets admit it, but the producers had to compress two and a half years of history (from training to VE Day) into a relatively few hours. Bottom line is again, Sobel's personality (even his flaws) made Easy what it became if only by giving them a common foe to hate; but once having molded an excellent Infantry company he lacked the ability or gift to lead that unit into combat.

I had read "Band of Brothers" long before the mini-series came out. Sobel made a significant impression on me as I had suffered under a toxic company Commander who made Captain Sobel look like Captain Kangaroo.

My impression of Sobel from the book was a Commander who did the right things to develop a solid, cohesive unit for all the wrong reasons.

David Schwimmer portrayed Sobel very well. I don't think the series did as good a job at explaining Sobel as the book did, but the series came very close.