The series was developed chiefly by
Tom Hanks and
Erik Jendresen, who spent months detailing the plot outline and individual episodes.
Steven Spielberg served as "the final eye" and used
Saving Private Ryan, the film on which he and Hanks had collaborated, to inform the series, although Jendresen served as showrunner. Accounts of Easy Company veterans, such as
Donald Malarkey, were incorporated into production to add historic detail. Its budget was about $125 million, or an average of $12.5 million per episode.
Chrysler was a sponsor, as its
Jeeps were used in the series. Chrysler spent $5 million to $15 million on its advertising campaign, using footage from
Band of Brothers. Negotiations were monitored by
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who spoke personally to Spielberg.
Location The series was shot over eight to ten months on Ellenbrook Fields, at
Hatfield Aerodrome in
Hertfordshire, England. This location had been used to shoot the film
Saving Private Ryan.
Historical accuracy To preserve historical accuracy, the writers conducted additional research. One source was the memoir of Easy Company soldier
David Kenyon Webster, ''Parachute Infantry: An American Paratrooper's Memoir of D-Day and the Fall of the Third Reich
(1994). This was published by LSU Press, following renewed interest in World War II and more than 30 years after his death in a boating accident. In Band of Brothers'' Ambrose quoted liberally from Webster's unpublished diary entries, with permission from his estate. Dye (who portrays Colonel
Robert Sink) instructed the actors in a 10-day
boot camp at the
Longmoor Military Camp in Hampshire, culminating with parachute training at
RAF Brize Norton. The production aimed for accuracy in the details of weapons and costumes. Simon Atherton, the weapons master, corresponded with veterans to match weapons to scenes, and assistant costume designer Joe Hobbs used photos and veteran accounts. Shortly after the premiere of the series, Tom Hanks asked Major Winters what he thought of
Band of Brothers. The major responded, "I wish that it had been more authentic. I was hoping for an 80 percent solution." Hanks responded, "Look, Major, this is Hollywood. At the end of the day, we will be hailed as geniuses if we get this 12 percent right. We are going to shoot for 17 percent." The liberation of one of the
Kaufering subcamps of
Dachau was depicted in episode 9 ("
Why We Fight"); however, the 101st Airborne Division arrived at Kaufering Lager IV subcamp on the day after it was discovered by the 134th Ordnance Maintenance Battalion of the
12th Armored Division, on April 27, 1945. German historian and
Holocaust researcher
Anton Posset worked with Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks as a consultant, providing photographs of the liberators and documentation of the survivors' reports he had collected over the years. The camp was reconstructed in England for the miniseries. It is uncertain which Allied unit was first to reach the
Kehlsteinhaus. Several claim the honor, compounded by confusion with the town of
Berchtesgaden, which was taken on May 4 by forward elements of the
7th Infantry Regiment of the
3rd Infantry Division. Reputedly, members of the 7th went as far as the elevator to the
Kehlsteinhaus, However, the
101st Airborne maintains it was first to both Berchtesgaden and the Kehlsteinhaus. Elements of the
French 2nd Armored Division, Laurent Touyeras, Georges Buis and Paul Répiton-Préneuf, were present on the night of May 4 to 5, and took several photographs before leaving on May 10 at the request of US command, and this is supported by testimonies of the Spanish soldiers who went along with them. Major Dick Winters, who commanded the 2nd Battalion of the U.S. 506th PIR in May 1945, stated that they entered
Berchtesgaden shortly after noon on May 5. He challenged competing claims, stating, "If the 7th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Division was first in Berchtesgaden, just where did they go? Berchtesgaden is a relatively small community. I walked into the Berchtesgaden Hof with Lieutenant Welsh and saw nobody other than some servants. Goering's Officers' Club and wine cellar certainly would have caught the attention of a French soldier from
LeClerc's
2nd Armored Division, or a rifleman from the U.S. 3rd Division. I find it hard to imagine, if the 3rd Division was there first, why they left those beautiful Mercedes staff cars untouched for our men."
Soundtrack The score was composed by
Michael Kamen, his final television composition before his death in 2003. The arrangement was conducted by Kamen and performed by the . ==Reception==