IMO? It's a case of bad history, preferential writing, and multilayered fandom overlaying pop history and preferential focus.
Both Ambrose and then later the BoB series created, in effect a 'cult of Winters' which not to dog on the actual Dick Winters, revolved around Winters' demonstrated preference for "Toccoa men" and close friendship with preferred people.
Well? Guess who had contact with each other and were able to interview with Ambrose, and then contact each other and be interviewed for the show?
Ambrose was a popular historian, a plagarist and a selective writer focused on creating a narrative and effectively popularized and fandomized a tiny unit in a much larger war to a fresh audience, as did the show.
Sobel fought heroically on D Day, was a demonstrably outstanding (if harsh) trainer of troops, struggled after the war, likely with undiagnosed PTSD, provided for but became estranged from his family after further tragedy, and tried to commit suicide via firearm, blinded himself, and died of neglect in a VA hospital in 1987. Before any book could be written, before any rebuttal could be done, and not in a way that lends itself to soppy, sepia-toned Spielbergism.
With him removed from his command of Easy Company, Herbert Sobel was assigned to lead an airborne school in Chilton Foliat, England, tasked with preparing the men for the upcoming Allied invasion of France. By the time D-Day rolled around on June 6, 1944, he and his staff had trained some 400 parachutists. On D-Day, Sobel, by then named the commander of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment’s service company, parachuted into Normandy.
Upon hitting land, he and four others took out a German machine gun nest with a grenade, before joining the rest of the 101st Airborne Division near Carentan.
Following his actions in Normandy, Sobel served as a staff officer with the 506th, receiving a promotion to logistics officer in March 1945. He remained in the US Army Reserve after World War II, eventually retiring with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
Herbert Sobel returned to Chicago, where he found work as a credit manager at a telephone equipment company. He married a woman named Rose, and the couple had three sons. A daughter was also born, but she died just a few days after birth.
In contrast to his time in the military, Sobel doted on his wife, making her breakfast each morning and pouring her a cocktail in the evening. While tough on his sons, he treated them well and put all of his savings into college funds, to ensure they could get adequate educations. Sadly, the Army veteran eventually became estranged from his family. Regarding one son, Michael, the two butted heads over their political beliefs.
In 1970, Sobel shot himself in the head with a small-caliber pistol. The attempt on his own life saw the bullet enter his left temple, severing his optic nerves. He was now completely blind. Speaking with FOX News, Michael remembered asking his mother why this had happened, saying, “I don’t know why he chose to do what he did. I asked my mom, but she wasn’t certain. She postulated that he thought he had cancer, but was unwilling to get tested for the disease.”
Following the incident, Sobel went to live in a poorly maintained VA assisted-living facility in Waukegan, Illinois. He died there on September 30, 1987, at the age of 75. According to his death certificate, the cause was malnutrition. No memorial service was held.
“Our contact with him had waned over the years. When he passed, we were unaware of the event,” Michael told FOX. “His sister attended to the details. It was days, perhaps even a week, after he died that his sister phoned my mom to let her know.”
See also the failures of basically everyone around Albert Blythe and how he was depicted in the show, vs how even the E Co. men were insisting Blithe was alive vs 'Never recovered from the wounds he received in Normandy"
