Trivia

Some scenes showing Capt. Sobel's incompetence and pettiness actually happened. Sobel had difficulty reading a map, which led to his getting lost many times in the field. He was also tricked by 'Maj. Horton' into cutting a wire fence, thereby releasing cows. In that instance, the only difference between what happened in real life and in the series was-that the actual event happened at night. Sobel also ran around exercises and rifle ranges with a leather aviation jacket. He went through the men's footlockers and confiscated allege "'contraband" and scattered their possessions. Sobel would also pick on soldiers, gigging them for the smallest of infractions or ones he just made up, like having dirty ears. The feud between Capt. Sobel and Lt. Winters, where the former altered the time of inspection and charged Winters with failure to carry out orders, did play out as shown. What was left out was, that Strayer and his staff found a legal loophole that got Sobel's charges set aside. Sobel followed it up by charging Winters with failure to ensure that the soldier cleaning the latrine was not properly shaved. That charge was also set aside but it also got the mutiny going. There were other acts that were not shown in the series; on a night exercise, Sobel and 1st Sgt. Evans decided to teach the importance of soldiers guarding their weapons as they slept by stealing about 50 rifles from sleeping troopers. Come morning the two assembled the company, chastising them for their failures. They were interrupted by angry members of Fox Company. The two thieves got lost, went into the wrong camp and stole the rifles from the wrong men. In another night exercise, Easy Company was lying in ambush. A wind came through the woods and ruffled the branches, leaves and grass. Sobel panicked and began shouting, "Here they come!'", thereby giving away Easy's position.

David Schwimmer was isolated from most of the other cast members during boot camp, to help generate a feeling of resentment among the men. Schwimmer joked that his only friend on set was Simon Pegg--who played Sobel's right-hand man Evans.

The directors of the episodes were told by producer Tom Hanks to listen to anything the actors said if they were relaying information from the real veterans. For example, if they were scripted to appear in one place that the real veterans said they weren't there for, they'd go to the director and get themselves removed from the scene.

Prime Minister Tony Blair actually asked Steven Spielberg to film the series in the UK. Blair's son Euan Blair even worked as a "gopher" during filming. The main shooting location was the Hatfield Aerodrome in Hertfordshire, England. With over 1,000 acres of open land and several airplane hangers for indoor sets, it was the perfect location. Some scenes from Saving Private Ryan (1998) were also filmed there.

Stephen Ambrose, who wrote the book on which this series is based, was not involved in production but was very impressed with the miniseries. The majority of veterans represented (or the families thereof) also applauded it. Many of the actors remained on good terms with the families of the veterans they portrayed.