Frit0 Bandit0 Posted March 13, 2010 Share Posted March 13, 2010 The Pacific (miniseries) Part 1 - 1st Marine Division, 5th Marine Regiment's assault on Guadalcanal as well as the Florida, Tulagi and Gavutu Islands * The Marine Raiders @ Paratroopers suffered significant casualties This was as BRUTAL as it gets / absolutely no quarter given Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philly McButterpants Posted March 13, 2010 Share Posted March 13, 2010 The Pacific (miniseries) Part 1 - 1st Marine Division, 5th Marine Regiment's assault on Guadalcanal as well as the Florida, Tulagi and Gavutu Islands * The Marine Raiders @ Paratroopers suffered significant casualties This was as BRUTAL as it gets / absolutely no quarter given Looks like it wil be very realistic. My dad passed in '95, but he had a ton of books on the Marine Corps in WWII. There's one that has a picture of him ferrying wounded back out to the landing craft at Iwo Jima. The book is at my mom's house. I'll have to dig it up to show my kids. My father in law has a silk rising sun flag that he took off of a dead Japanses soldier. They both served in the Pacific with the Marines. I'm glad to see that the Marines who went through hell on tiny little jungles scattered throughout the Pacific are getting some due as well. There was more than just storming the beach at Normandy to WWII . . . God Bless every one of 'em. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frit0 Bandit0 Posted March 13, 2010 Author Share Posted March 13, 2010 Looks like it wil be very realistic. My dad passed in '95, but he had a ton of books on the Marine Corps in WWII. There's one that has a picture of him ferrying wounded back out to the landing craft at Iwo Jima. The book is at my mom's house. I'll have to dig it up to show my kids. My father in law has a silk rising sun flag that he took off of a dead Japanses soldier. They both served in the Pacific with the Marines. I'm glad to see that the Marines who went through hell on tiny little jungles scattered throughout the Pacific are getting some due as well. There was more than just storming the beach at Normandy to WWII . . . God Bless every one of 'em. +1...They earned their blood stripes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkyMannn Posted March 13, 2010 Share Posted March 13, 2010 I understand this to be the Pacific version of Band of Brothers. Should be excellent. My father in law has a silk rising sun flag that he took off of a dead Japanses soldier. I have the same. It was the main thing of my Dad's passing that I insisted on. If my sister got it, it would be on Ebay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NCDAWG Posted March 13, 2010 Share Posted March 13, 2010 I understand this to be the Pacific version of Band of Brothers. Should be excellent. I have the same. It was the main thing of my Dad's passing that I insisted on. If my sister got it, it would be on Ebay Ditto, my Dad who passed two years ago was in charge of setting up the field hospitals behind the lines. When he passed I asked for and received the flag from his service. If my sibling had received it, it too would be on ebay. Thanks to all who serve and have served. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffaloBill Posted March 13, 2010 Share Posted March 13, 2010 +1...They earned their blood stripes. +1 nuff said Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dib Posted March 14, 2010 Share Posted March 14, 2010 My father in law was on Guadalcanal with the Cactus Air Force Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted March 14, 2010 Share Posted March 14, 2010 This was as BRUTAL as it gets / absolutely no quarter given No, it wasn't. Pelileu, Okinawa, Iwo, Buna-Gona, Stalingrad were as brutal as it gets. Which is not to say that Guadalcanal was any sort of picnic...but it's unbelievable how much of a pit places like Buna were. My father in law was on Guadalcanal with the Cactus Air Force What unit? Was he there in October of '42? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frit0 Bandit0 Posted March 14, 2010 Author Share Posted March 14, 2010 No, it wasn't. Pelileu, Okinawa, Iwo, Buna-Gona, Stalingrad were as brutal as it gets. Which is not to say that Guadalcanal was any sort of picnic...but it's unbelievable how much of a pit places like Buna were. True, but it was still brutal and in as much as the Marines had not yet anticipated their enemies mind set and how the Marines would soon adapt to it. Glad to see you on this thread...If there was ever a time for you to get a move on a book it sure seems like a good time now...with all the interest soon to be generated..ie on the Pacific campaign Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wooderson Posted March 14, 2010 Share Posted March 14, 2010 I'm pumped! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkyMannn Posted March 14, 2010 Share Posted March 14, 2010 I will post up a picture of the flag my Dad got. I know on Okinawa he was with the artillery firing away. He got the flag though when they were flushing Jap soldiers out of caves. There was an explosion in the cave he was entering, and the Jap soldier committed suicide by holding a grenade to himself. The flag then is blood covered and has changed to a orange type color over the years. In the white area of the flag is Japanese writing that is supposed to read as a biography if you will of the soldier who died. My dad had it translated by a Japanese guy he worked with decades later. So now it gets a little weird, or worse. One of the guys my dad served with was sort of messed up. He was pulling teeth with gold fillings out of a dead Jap soldier. Well, they stopped the guy, and my dad ended up with the teeth. When my dad died in 1994 it was his wish to be buried with those teeth. His idea was in some after life to return those teeth to the dead soldier. OK................. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frit0 Bandit0 Posted March 14, 2010 Author Share Posted March 14, 2010 ...."We found some of our boys with their heads chopped off and stuck on a stick left on the trail where we could see it....well they didn't scare anybody, they just infuriated us and we set out to do them one better"... "I'll tellya, we carved their ass up" "Some of the fighting on Guadalcanal was so brutal and primitive...." Marines at Guadalcanal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted March 14, 2010 Share Posted March 14, 2010 One of the guys my dad served with was sort of messed up. He was pulling teeth with gold fillings out of a dead Jap soldier. That was actually common behavior for front-line soldiers. By front-line standards, the guy your dad served with was probably rather normal. Which doesn't excuse the behavior...just explains it. War is just that dehumanizing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted March 14, 2010 Share Posted March 14, 2010 ...."We found some of our boys with their heads chopped off and stuck on a stick left on the trail where we could see it....well they didn't scare anybody, they just infuriated us and we set out to do them one better"... "I'll tellya, we carved their ass up" "Some of the fighting on Guadalcanal was so brutal and primitive...." Marines at Guadalcanal Read Bergerud's books. (Fire in the Sky and Touched With Fire - the last I know is still in print, as I've seen it recently). Great books, particularly the second. I suspect you'd like them. Also Richard B. Frank's Guadalcanal is a pretty authoritative history...albiet more from an operational point-of-view. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DPR4444 Posted March 15, 2010 Share Posted March 15, 2010 who watched the miniseries last night? any feedback? I dvred it, haven;t watched it yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PTS Posted March 15, 2010 Share Posted March 15, 2010 I didn't watch it yet but I did DVR it. I understand that one of the characters in the miniseries (last name Connolly) was from Buffalo. They did a story about it on last night's Channel 2 news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dib Posted March 15, 2010 Share Posted March 15, 2010 The kid from Buffalo is also mentioned in 'Helmet for my Pillow' by Leckie. Also read 'With the Old Breed' by Sledge From some reason it's a little hard to warm to the characters, I'm sure it's because it's so early (ep. 1) in the series. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted March 15, 2010 Share Posted March 15, 2010 I didn't watch it yet but I did DVR it. I understand that one of the characters in the miniseries (last name Connolly) was from Buffalo. They did a story about it on last night's Channel 2 news. Sgt. John Basilone, Medal of Honor winner during the end-of-October fight for Henderson Field. He and Mitchell Paige won MOHs in that same battle, for basically the same thing: destroying a Japanese regiment (each) with a couple of machine guns and two other guys. As for the series...too much unreality for me to suspend my disbelief. Ships don't sail nearly that close together; they certainly don't fight at boarding ranges (the naval battle they showed, the engagement ranges were on the order of 5000 yards. The cruisers engaged were about 200 yards long. The scale was WAY off). And I understand why they did it: if you spread everything out realistically, you wouldn't see anything. They have to compress things to fit them in frame. Still more unreality than I could stomach. And their coverage of Guadalcanal is going to SUCK, invariably. You could do a fifteen-part miniseries on that alone; trying to demonstrate it in three episodes is a complete joke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dib Posted March 15, 2010 Share Posted March 15, 2010 How could you possibly determine the ranges of the opponents from the scenes they showed? Why do you assume they were ships of both nationalities? They could have just been showing the American/Australian ships with the IJN out of frame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted March 15, 2010 Share Posted March 15, 2010 The kid from Buffalo is also mentioned in 'Helmet for my Pillow' by Leckie.Also read 'With the Old Breed' by Sledge Just finished it. Good book. It was nice to finally find something written on Peleliu. I actually read it because I just read a mediocre book on Okinawa, that referenced Sledge about every third page. So I thought "Well, if you're going to reference that book so much, maybe I should read that instead of your snooze-fest." I don't normally go for the memior-style history (particularly if some dumbass editor decides to put "The TRUE story of..." on the cover), but I was glad I made an exception for Sledge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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