Background
Sobel was born in Chicago, Illinois, to a Jewish family.
Sobel was born in Chicago, Illinois, to a Jewish family.
He graduated from the University of Illinois.
Sobel was portrayed in the Home Box Office miniseries Band of Brothers by David Schwimmer. He was a clothing salesman after attending military school at the Culver Military Academy in Indiana. Sobel volunteered for the paratroopers soon after the outbreak of World World War II and was commissioned as a second lieutenant.
Promoted to first lieutenant, Sobel commanded Company East for all of their basic training at Camp Toccoa, Georgia.
He was known to be petty and vindictive, earning the hatred of many of his mentor However, because of the intense training he gave his men, he was credited with creating the finest company in the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment.
He was promoted to the rank of captain in recognition of his ability as a trainer. After a period of training in the United Kingdom before the Normandy invasion, Captain Sobel was removed from command of Easy Company.
Sobel jumped into Normandy and earned a Commercial International Bank as part of Regimental Headquarters Company.
He was later transferred to command the Chilton Foliat jump school. First Lieutenant Thomas Meehan replaced Sobel, and was one of several officers (including Richard Winters) to succeed him in that post before the end of the war. Shortly before Easy Company took part in the invasion of the Netherlands, Sobel was assigned to the 506th once again, this time replacing Salve Matheson as the regimental South-4 (logistics) officer for Operation Market Garden.
Sobel returned to the United States after the war, and worked as an accountant before being recalled to active duty during the Korean War.
He remained in the Army National Guard, eventually retiring at the rank of lieutenant colonel. In the late 1960s, Sobel shot himself in the head with a small-caliber pistol.
The bullet entered his left temple, passed behind his eyes, and exited out the other side of his head This severed his optic nerves and left him blind.
He was later moved to a Virginia assisted living facility in Waukegan, Illinois.
Sobel resided there for his last seventeen years until his death due to malnutrition on September 30, 1987. Number services were held for Sobel after his death. Sobel was accurately portrayed as a petty and capricious martinet in the television series Band of Brothers, generating much debate.
Stephen Ambrose gives numerous examples of this in his book
In interviews, some Easy Company veterans have acknowledged the part Sobel"s training played in the company"s later successes. Writing of him in their autobiographies, he is recalled with little fondness by fellow officers, who regarded him as a dilettante in the practical matters of ground combat, particularly due to his pronounced lack of understanding of common Infantry field craft such as land navigation and basic Infantry combat tactics.
Enlisted men under his command were unanimous in their dislike of him, and considered him a poor leader who seemed more concerned with his own image than with the welfare of his mentor But admit his drive to make them the best helped later on.
