Battleground (film) - Accuracy

Accuracy

Although the film is a fictionalized version of the siege of Bastogne, it is highly accurate with one major exception. There were no Germans disguised as Americans around Bastogne. Operation Greif, as it was known, only operated in front of the 6th SS Panzer Army, many miles to the north.

A minor inaccuracy is that, at the time of the Battle of Bastogne, the 327th Glider Infantry Regiment did not have an Item Company. When the airborne divisions were conceived early in World War II, the Army's senior commanders decided that the glider regiments would have only two battalions each. The first battalion would be made up of Able, Baker, Charlie, and Dog Companies, while the second would have Easy, Fox, George, and How Companies. When by 1944 it became evident that these two-battalion regiments were not suited to combat operations, certain glider regiments were broken up and their battalions attached to others. The 327th was assigned the First Battalion of the 401st Glider Infantry Regiment, getting "doubles" on Able, Baker, Charlie, and Dog Companies. Thus "the 2nd Squad, 3rd Platoon of Item Company, 327th Glider Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division," did not exist at the time of the Ardennes campaign. The producers did not want to have someone complain that he was in Item Company during the fighting around Bastogne, and that no such thing happened.

Robert Pirosh, also known as 'Polock' by his company, wrote the events and characters on the battlefield. He was in the 320th Infantry, 35th Division, 2nd Battalion, Company G.