Regarding the scene with the nurses, this is straight from Sledge's memoir: "On the beach, we walked over to one of many tables setup nearby. There I saw, of all things, an American Red Cross girl. She was serving grapefruit juice in small paper cups. Several of my buddies looked at the Red Cross woman sullenly, sat on their helmets, and waited for orders. But together with several other men, I went over to the table where the young lady handed me a cup of juice, smiled, and said she hoped I liked it. My mind was so benumbed by the shock and violence of Peleliu that the presence of an American girl on Pauvuvu seemed totally out of context. I was bewildered. "What the hell is she doing here?" I thought, "She's got no business here then some damn politician." As we filed passed to board trucks, I resented her deeply. Next to the tables stood a brand-spanking-new boot 2nd lieutenant. He was so obviously fresh from the States and officer's candidate school that his khakis were new and he wasn't even suntanned. He looked at me and said, "Ok, sonny, move out." Since my enlistment in the Marine Corps I had been called about everything imaginable, printable and unprintable. But fresh off Peleliu I was unprepared for "sonny". I turned to the officer and stared at him blankly. He returned my gaze and seemed to realize his mistake. He looked horridly away. My buddies' eyes still carried that vacant hollow look typical of men recently out of the shock of battle. Maybe that is what the young lieutenant saw in mine and it made him uncomfortable."
Sorry to be off topic but does anyone know of a tool to log back into an Instagram account?? I stupidly forgot the password. I love any tips you can offer me.
The scene where Sledge looks at the nurse... he isn't attracted to her at all like I assumed when I first saw it... he is pissed. In his Memoir sledge says when he got back and saw the clean lemonade girls and was ordered around by some green officer he was angry and didn't understand why the fuck they were there.
Every returning Marine was like Sledge. Simply “What the fuck are they doing here?” It wasn’t anything personal against the ladies. It just wasn’t the time for such things. Everyone was just too numbed, exhausted, and demoralized from Peleliu.
I agree, I think you can see that on Sledge's face too. Like confused disgust and agitation. Like Suraj, said It was a good intentioned idea to have nurses giving them Lemonade but after what they went through on Peleliu, it must've felt like getting a sticker instead of a raise- if that makes sense.
I understand why he would feel confusion and misunderstanding. Sometimes there are moments in life when you realize that the people you're relying on are so disconnected from you in terms of perception that it actually makes you feel like you don't know what's happening anymore.
The last Imperial Japanese soldier to surrender was in the Philippines in 1978. Dude had been living in a cave and startled some people when he stole some livestock. They flew in his old CO to relieve him of duty
@@theawesomeman9821 They had tried. He had killed some people and killed livestock. They were never able to find him. A Japanese college student actually found him while hiking in the area (he had heard tales and wanted to find the guy), and that kicked off the whole thing where they got the soldier's still living commanding officer to show up and ordered him to surrender
@@theawesomeman9821 oh they tried a few times because he kept raiding the local villages for supplies and even killed innocent civilians thinking they were disguised soldiers. He was just that good at hiding and avoiding capture.
Again a problem with understanding about the young woman on Pavuvu. They did not belong there. This pissed Sledge off in many ways. He just came from hell, saw over half his company dead and wounded, along with the rest of the inhumanity. Then he comes back to an island that was brutal i its own right, just to see some thing completely different. A fully equipped military base with pretty girls, handing out lemonade to Marines that are still numb from combat. Emotional whiplash to say the least. Those girls, and yes they are girls, are clean and naive thinking they belong there. Just kids playing at the big boys table. So all he can give them is that 1000 yard stare. Then the green butterbar opens his mouth. For those girls the Pacific was a camping adventure, for Sledge, it was hell. You will see this complete disconnect with a young woman again.
They still can't get past the fact that one of the actors starred in Mr Robot and they're too busy talking about how much they know about the war to notice
Hey, so yall know, Leckey didn't lose his religion. That was just Hollywood. Also, the guy in a blue shirt was a Seabee. Navy construction battalion. They are trained to build and also in combat. Apparently that guy hadn't been in combat yet.
That older Marine was a veteran of WW1. He was hard as nails compared to most. But on Peleliu, he succumbed to his PTSD (formerly referred to as Shell Shock) because the fighting there was just as brutal and chaotic. Fighting in those tightly packed hills closely resembled the trench warfare of the 1910s. All his memories and trauma came rushing back and overwhelmed him. I don't remember his name. Just remember reading about him.
Gunny Haney. And in Sledge's book, Haney wasn't even assigned anywhere. He just showed up. He was sent back Stateside one time, but he boarded a ship and came back to the Pacific and no one made him leave.
Just an aside, his name was Elmo M. Haney and he didn't actually fight in WW1. He enlisted too late to see combat, but he continued to serve around the world in the inter-war period.
In the memoir, Sledge mentioned a friend of his tried to take a Japanese hand home with him, stating that it could have been the one that shot their Skipper.
12:00 Basilone wasn't the first marine to receive the Medal of Honor. There first ones got it during the Civil War. He was the only enlisted marine to get it during WWII.
He wasn't the only Marine to get it during WWII. 22 Marines were awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions on Iwo Jima alone. 16 of them were enlisted Marines, 6 were officers, plus 4 more to Navy Corpsman, and 1 to a ship captain.
That guy that said "You're up boys" is Chesty Puller one of the most decorated Marines of all times. During the battle of peleliu, a bullet hit him and bounced off. However, he was old school with tactics, which may have resulted in some high casualties of the troops he commanded.
A lot more troops were deployed to Europe. It was a larger front. The Pacific were these tiny islands, with much higher rates of casualties but fewer troops involved.
To the non-combatants and those on the periphery of action, the war meant only boredom or occasional excitement, but to those who entered the meat grinder itself the war was a netherworld of horror from which escape seemed less and less likely as casualties mounted and the fighting dragged on and on. Time had no meaning, life had no meaning. The fierce struggle for survival in the abyss of Peleliu had eroded the veneer of civilization and made savages of us all. -Eugene Sledge
John Basilone was not the first marine to be awarded the medal of honor, that goes to John F Mackie back in the 1860's. The USMC had roughly 80 medal of honor recipients before ww2.
In Sledges memoir (I think) That scene where snafu is throwing the rock in the dead Japanese soldiers head really happened but it wasn't Snafu in real life. He didn't name the soldier in the memoir.
At the beginning, that's 1st Marine Regiment coming "off the line". In the three days of fighting up to that point, they'd already taken 80% casualties and the only casualties counted were dead or so badly wounded they couldn't stand up or hold a weapon anymore.
There's a documentary series on Netflix you should check out - Medal of Honor. One of the episodes is about Basilone. Fantastic series. Just one season. I really hope we get more someday.
In Eugene's book, he explained why he was so shocked and confused to see American girls serving drinks to the war-torn marines returning from combat. Just imagine having to spend countless weeks in a god forsaken piece of island, witnessing constant death and brutal combat day after day, only to then return to base and see young women serving drinks. It definitely makes sense why Sledge was thrown off by this. For the time he had spent on Peleliu, he had forgotten what a woman serving a drink had looked like. The face you guys saw Eugene give to the girl and the officer is the face of someone how had just witnessed hell itself, and was in disbelief of the fact that normal life still existed.
Snafu is mentioned several times in ‘With The Old Breed’ But his character in the series represents multiple marines Sledge encountered on Peleliu and Okinawa. The scene where Sledge is about to collect some gold teeth, in the book it was his squads medic. Not Snafu.
My Great Grandfather was in the Pacific as a Platoon Sergeant in the Army. According to my grandfather he hated the Red Cross with a passion ever since they got back from one of the islands (I don't believe the specific island was ever named. He rarely talked about the war) But when they got back the Red Cross was charging them for their cups of lemonade. Apparently he never got over that.
30 days on Peleliu, 30 straight days of someone trying to end your life. Sledge is so lucky that (in the show) SNAFU kept him from literally losing their humanity
Jay D'Leu was the one who ended up shitting hinself, he asked angrily to the guy with the BAR why he didn't shoot sooner, his response was that he wanted to see if he could rip the guy in half with the BAR and was aiming properly, he almost did.
the thing about Dunkirk is that it heavily focusses on the evacuation of Dunkirk and completely ignores the battle of Dunkirk. that was going on between French and German forces at the same time. the only think you see of that is french forces manning the barricade and some french colonial troops trying to get let on to the british boats. near the start.
@@Damo2690 that is actually a really good choice for the movie and it is a good movie, I am just saying that its like calling a movie "9/11 New York" and having it all be filmed in a house in Long Island.
The old man Sgt Haney became a first grade teacher after the war. He had previously been in the Banana Wars in Central America and there is some confusion if he did served in WW1. He had actually been out of the Marines and went back for WW2. In the book Sledge wrote he mentions Sgt Haney serving in WW1. Slegde wrote that Haney wasn't born from a woman but he had been issued by God to the Marines.
My friend received a Purple Heart from Afghanistan that was made back in 1945 in anticipation of the invasion of Japan. We thought there would've been 1 Million dead/wounded from the invasion. Hopefully there's some added context, especially with the end of Band of Brothers where Major Winters refers to the 101st being sent to the Pacific for the invasion. The invasion of Japan was going to be a bloodbath.
"Man, how are you about to go back to regular life after this?" answer: Now you understand why so many veterans are unemployed. This is why many who see military service and or combat feel as if there is no where for us when we return. When you go to war, one way or another, you arent coming home without support.
The guys asking for a trophies was a Sea-bee. A naval engineer. They do similar things to the Army Corpse of Engineers. I have a recommendation that this discussion on the mental state of SNAFU and other characters. VETTV has a series were the creator of VETtv talks with a therapist who works with vets, about his first movie, A Grunts Life. This was the movie Amazon Prime banned, because corporate leftist bullshit. Over several videos the two of them talk about the psychology of the characters in the film, and the challenges they would face back home.
Seven out of ten Marines in the 1st Marine Division were either killed or wounded during the Battle of Peleliu. One out of two Marines in the 7th Marine Division were, likewise, either killed or wounded during that same battle. The US Army eventually took over the battle from the Marines, due to all the losses suffered. In the end, the Peleliu airfield - the reason for the assault - was never used against Japanese forces. At least the Americans learned about the new method of Japanese defense (prior to this, all-out banzai attacks were the Japanese tactic of choice) which would be used in Iwo Jima, Okinawa and, had the Allies invaded, in the Japanese home islands. Timeline Check: It was while the Battle of Peleliu was going on that Capt. Richard Winters led Easy Company in combat one last time, as Easy Company's commander, in the crossroads battle (Band of Brothers Episode 5).
Concerning japanese surrender after the war, the power structure of their military was incredibly decentralized, and there was a lot of consternation about whether entire units across the pacific would flatly refuse and would have to be destroyed. They thankfully did for the most part once assured the emperor himself gave the order. It pretty much came down to the fact that that one man was both alive at that point and willing to give in unlike a certain other ww2 leader.
Peleliu ended up being an entirely pointless battle (even more so than Cape Gloucester). The whole idea was to seize the airfield and use it for strategic purposes but that never amounted to anything. Then there was the additional slap in the face to the Marines that back home in the US, Peleliu never got any attention at all because at the same time Douglas MacArthur returned to the Phillippines. For that, the Marines paid as dearly taking the island as the Japanese did defending it. Over the course of almost three months the Marines suffered nearly 11,000 casualties: 2,300 killed and 8,500 wounded while the Japanese also suffered nearly 11,000 casualties with over 10,700 killed and roughly 200 captured. The Japanese were so well entrenched that the Marine Corps calculated that it took U.S. forces over 1500 rounds of ammunition to kill each Japanese defender and that, during the course of the battle, the Americans expended 13.32 million rounds of .30 caliber, 1.52 million rounds of .45-caliber, 693,657 rounds of .50-caliber bullets, 118,262 hand grenades, and approximately 150,000 mortar rounds
There IS a movie biography about Basilone. It's called 'First To Fight', made in the early 60's. I saw it in a cinema back then but can't find it now on any streaming service.
Gunny had enough. He hit his emotional limit. Considering he was in the great war, and Peleliu was not his first campaign in this war, he was a tough bastard.
Damn Chris, glad youre ok. I just had the virus myself and it was not fun. I couldnt get out of bed for 12 full days. I have NEVER been that sick before in my entire life.
If watching the real footage was interesting. You should check out the AMAZING group of miniseries WWII in HD and Vietnam in HD. Also there's WWI in Color miniseries.
I was fixated on Pat during this episode. while everyone was talking he was just locked on his screen, no movement intensley watching and at times it almost looked like he was crossed eyed LOL.
Seeing stuff like this really nails home what a dishonor it is to not take care of veterans properly after they return home. They didn't just do a job - they gave up a part of their humanity forever, to fight on your behalf. The least their country can do is make sure they have whatever they need to make the most of what is left of their lives, when they return home. And to vow never to put them in harms way unless it's absolutely necessary.
Japan did not surrender after the first bomb. That is why the second was dropped. America was destroying dozens of Japanese cities via firebombs previously, which was equally horrific. The invasion of Japan would have cost millions of lives. With most of that being suffered by the Japanese civilian population. The Nuclear bombings were an evil act, as is war in its totality. But the alternatives are horrid to even imagine.
Brutal it was, but it does not overshadow the human cost and destruction of the Eastern Front. At the Eastern Front, you had two massive dictatorships go at each other’s throat with atrocities from both sides. Both sides were fanatical and very rarely prisoners were taken. Civilians were caught in the middle to which many fell victim to looting, murder, rape and even join the millions that the Holocaust murdered.
@@dastemplar9681 Yes, the Eastern Front was horrific. But the Pacific's horror encompassed a type of fanaticism that did not exist in the Eastern Front, which included using civilians as suicide bombers, human shields, even using babies. Neither Germany nor Russia did those kinds of atrocities.
At the beginning, Chris says they are only using their phones to communicate with each other, not look up stuff about the show. First of all, why would you need to interact through the phone if you can all hear each other anyway? Second, You guys realize not everything requires commenting right? You all seem to be a real tight group of friends, and that's cool...but damn. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm assuming it's to avoid uncomfortable silence. However, uncomfortable silences should never apply when watching a movie/tv show as intense and compelling as this. I'm not implying everyone should stay silent the entire time. I will say though, Marketa and Pat didn't seem to feel a need to frequently say something. Edit: Hmm, after reading all that, I sound like a prick, and my grammar sucks.😕 I honestly mean no disrespect.
Not just the Rape on Nanking. What they did with Manchuria, Philippines, the prisoners both civilian, and military, and unit 731. Unit 731 was a horror show of medical experimentation that would rival Mengele's. Live autopsies on gun shot wounds, biological war fair experimentation with anthrax, freezing prisoners to the point of death then autopsy. Inhuman stuff the Japanese was never held accountable for in the same manner as the Germans. Yes war crimes trials happened. But for some reason history lets it lie forgotten. Because of revisionist bullshit history over the "morality" of nuclear weapons.
That’s japanese victory for you, not defeat. You can be a monster in triumph and a coward in defeat. But we well know the japanese really were about it based on the thereafter.
@@dirus3142 Unit 731 leaders weren't held accountable because the Allies wanted their research. "The researchers involved in Unit 731 were secretly given immunity by the United States in exchange for the data they gathered through human experimentation. Other researchers that the Soviet forces managed to arrest first were tried at the Khabarovsk War Crime Trials in 1949. The Americans did not try the researchers so that the information and experience gained in bio-weapons could be co-opted into their biological warfare program, much as they had done with German researchers in Operation Paperclip." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731#Surrender_and_immunity What do you base "history lets it lie forgotten" on? How much average citizen Joe Schmo knows about Japanese war crimes versus German ones? Those that are interested in learning about this era of history can easily find information about war crimes committed by all parties (American, English, German, Japanese, etc etc).
People nowadays have a very backwards view on religion. In the distant past hardship pushed people to question their reality and pursue purpose beyond the mundane. Today's people are so pampered when they're presented with the harshness of reality they fold 34:48. The bible never said God would would make things "all good", it said he would make you aware of the bad, then the choice is yours. The easiest way to look at it is like becoming aware of the matrix , it's simultaneously good and bad depending on your outlook.
No matter if we dropped the bomb or not, the U.S and our allies were going to invade Japan. How many people in Japan and our army did we save by dropping the bomb? Think about it, the bombs killed over 200,00 Japanese. If we invaded Japan how many Japanese and Americans would have died? It estimated that millions of Japanese and mostly civilians would have died in the fighting and hundreds of thousands of Americans would have died. You can argue moral of the bomb or not, but please dont disreguard the good it did. The war would have dragged into 1946/47 if we did that and the cost lf human life would have been awful. Look at peliliu and other invasions and the destruction it did, imagine millions of troops and civilians fighting like that.
The conventional air raids on Japan caused more destruction than the atomic bombs. When you have 300 B-24/25s dropping incendiary bombs on cities primarily made of wood, fire storms happen. Think tornadoes of fire that form and go out of control. Same thing can happen with large forest fires in the conditions are right.
@@dirus3142 7 planes used to drop each bomb. 174 planes used to drop incendiary bombs in a raid. Fewer possible deaths of American airmen with the atomic bombs.
Seeing an old battle-hardened veteran like Gunnery Sergeant Haney break down the way he did is a testament to the intensity and brutality of Peleliu. It’s regarded as one of the bloodiest battles fought in the Pacific. Unfortunately the closer the Americans got to Japan, the more fanatical the Japanese resistance became. What I appreciate so much about this series is that it really puts you in the boots of the Marines in how mentally and emotionally exhausting the experience was for them. You thought Guadalcanal was rough and chaotic, but that was just the beginning of what was to come as the fighting got progressively more intense from there, leading to the bloodiest battles of them all, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. (10:47) Lew “Chuckler” Jurgens was wounded by a mortar shell that tore off a chunk near his crotch. It was a nasty injury but I saw nothing saying that he lost his leg. In fact he survived the war and went on to work back home in Chicago as a Steamfitter. (14:35-14:45) You are correct Chris. (22:00) Pavuvu & Banika was the closest Hospital and R&R site for the 1st Marine Division after the fighting at Cape Gloucester and Peleliu. There they could rest, recuperate, and train for their next campaign. The 1st Marines were so exhausted and suffered so many casualties at Peleliu that it would take months for them to recover. (33:50) For Marketa, That guy with the pit helmet you were asking about was from the US Navy, not the Army. The blue uniform he was wearing are known as navy dungarees, which were working uniforms traditionally worn by American sailors from 1913 to the 1990’s. He was a member of the Naval Construction Battalions (NCBs) also known as “Seabees”. They definitely didn’t experience the kind of combat that the Marines had seen, but they did play a major role in the Pacific building the airfields and the infrastructures needed to turn these islands into bases for the war effort.
Sledges look isnt a look of hormones it's of anger and rage. These people just came here safely on a boat to an established base and know nothing of the heartache the Marines went through, what he went through. These are people who are so close to the war yet so far away and would be credited the same as him. Also john baseline is not the first marine Corp medal of honor recipient. The first is john Mackie.
"The Vietnamese didn't have caves but they did sneak attacks" Why does one of yall have to make up some wrong shit in every episode 😂 the Vietnamese had miles and miles of tunnels and caves.
LOL'd about not doing a skit about WWII. Yeah, it would probably not be tasteful. There's usually a fine line about WWII subjects, but comedy sketches usually are received badly.
Regarding the scene with the nurses, this is straight from Sledge's memoir:
"On the beach, we walked over to one of many tables setup nearby. There I saw, of all things, an American Red Cross girl. She was serving grapefruit juice in small paper cups. Several of my buddies looked at the Red Cross woman sullenly, sat on their helmets, and waited for orders. But together with several other men, I went over to the table where the young lady handed me a cup of juice, smiled, and said she hoped I liked it. My mind was so benumbed by the shock and violence of Peleliu that the presence of an American girl on Pauvuvu seemed totally out of context. I was bewildered. "What the hell is she doing here?" I thought, "She's got no business here then some damn politician." As we filed passed to board trucks, I resented her deeply. Next to the tables stood a brand-spanking-new boot 2nd lieutenant. He was so obviously fresh from the States and officer's candidate school that his khakis were new and he wasn't even suntanned. He looked at me and said, "Ok, sonny, move out." Since my enlistment in the Marine Corps I had been called about everything imaginable, printable and unprintable. But fresh off Peleliu I was unprepared for "sonny". I turned to the officer and stared at him blankly. He returned my gaze and seemed to realize his mistake. He looked horridly away. My buddies' eyes still carried that vacant hollow look typical of men recently out of the shock of battle. Maybe that is what the young lieutenant saw in mine and it made him uncomfortable."
That book describes the horrible sights, sounds, and smells of war in such vivid detail. It was like watching a movie in my head.
@@Stevie8654 The series felt like a Disney show once I read Sledge's book
the 1,000 yard STARE.
This.
Sorry to be off topic but does anyone know of a tool to log back into an Instagram account??
I stupidly forgot the password. I love any tips you can offer me.
I'm disappointed that you just skipped the part where Cpt Haldane dies. That's one of the most emotional parts of the whole show.
He is what kept the whole company together and to loose him is so defeating.
These reactors are a little tone deaf at times
The scene where Sledge looks at the nurse... he isn't attracted to her at all like I assumed when I first saw it... he is pissed. In his Memoir sledge says when he got back and saw the clean lemonade girls and was ordered around by some green officer he was angry and didn't understand why the fuck they were there.
Every returning Marine was like Sledge. Simply “What the fuck are they doing here?” It wasn’t anything personal against the ladies. It just wasn’t the time for such things. Everyone was just too numbed, exhausted, and demoralized from Peleliu.
I agree, I think you can see that on Sledge's face too. Like confused disgust and agitation. Like Suraj, said It was a good intentioned idea to have nurses giving them Lemonade but after what they went through on Peleliu, it must've felt like getting a sticker instead of a raise- if that makes sense.
@@marissawojo441 Yeah, the marines must've felt so patronized.
I understand why he would feel confusion and misunderstanding. Sometimes there are moments in life when you realize that the people you're relying on are so disconnected from you in terms of perception that it actually makes you feel like you don't know what's happening anymore.
The last Imperial Japanese soldier to surrender was in the Philippines in 1978. Dude had been living in a cave and startled some people when he stole some livestock. They flew in his old CO to relieve him of duty
*1974
did no one bother to arrest him?
@@theawesomeman9821 he's hiding also shooting back if I remember correctly
@@theawesomeman9821 They had tried. He had killed some people and killed livestock. They were never able to find him. A Japanese college student actually found him while hiking in the area (he had heard tales and wanted to find the guy), and that kicked off the whole thing where they got the soldier's still living commanding officer to show up and ordered him to surrender
@@theawesomeman9821 oh they tried a few times because he kept raiding the local villages for supplies and even killed innocent civilians thinking they were disguised soldiers. He was just that good at hiding and avoiding capture.
SNAFU trying to keep someone else's humanity was a great scene.
In Sledge’s memoir it wasn’t Snafu. It was their medic, if I remember correctly.
@@TopGunner1994 An understandable change that does not diminish the history.
Again a problem with understanding about the young woman on Pavuvu.
They did not belong there. This pissed Sledge off in many ways. He just came from hell, saw over half his company dead and wounded, along with the rest of the inhumanity. Then he comes back to an island that was brutal i its own right, just to see some thing completely different. A fully equipped military base with pretty girls, handing out lemonade to Marines that are still numb from combat. Emotional whiplash to say the least. Those girls, and yes they are girls, are clean and naive thinking they belong there. Just kids playing at the big boys table. So all he can give them is that 1000 yard stare. Then the green butterbar opens his mouth. For those girls the Pacific was a camping adventure, for Sledge, it was hell.
You will see this complete disconnect with a young woman again.
Surprised the didn't mention the Captain's death scene. I think that is one of the most powerful scenes in the show.
They still can't get past the fact that one of the actors starred in Mr Robot and they're too busy talking about how much they know about the war to notice
Hey, so yall know, Leckey didn't lose his religion. That was just Hollywood. Also, the guy in a blue shirt was a Seabee. Navy construction battalion. They are trained to build and also in combat. Apparently that guy hadn't been in combat yet.
That older Marine was a veteran of WW1. He was hard as nails compared to most. But on Peleliu, he succumbed to his PTSD (formerly referred to as Shell Shock) because the fighting there was just as brutal and chaotic. Fighting in those tightly packed hills closely resembled the trench warfare of the 1910s. All his memories and trauma came rushing back and overwhelmed him.
I don't remember his name. Just remember reading about him.
Gunny Haney. And in Sledge's book, Haney wasn't even assigned anywhere. He just showed up. He was sent back Stateside one time, but he boarded a ship and came back to the Pacific and no one made him leave.
Just an aside, his name was Elmo M. Haney and he didn't actually fight in WW1. He enlisted too late to see combat, but he continued to serve around the world in the inter-war period.
Surj: Sledge’s story is the weakest
Everyone else: Wait and see
My favorite story of the show
WTF? Weakest? Sigh.
When did he say this
In the memoir, Sledge mentioned a friend of his tried to take a Japanese hand home with him, stating that it could have been the one that shot their Skipper.
12:00 Basilone wasn't the first marine to receive the Medal of Honor. There first ones got it during the Civil War. He was the only enlisted marine to get it during WWII.
He wasn't the only Marine to get it during WWII. 22 Marines were awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions on Iwo Jima alone. 16 of them were enlisted Marines, 6 were officers, plus 4 more to Navy Corpsman, and 1 to a ship captain.
That guy that said "You're up boys" is Chesty Puller one of the most decorated Marines of all times. During the battle of peleliu, a bullet hit him and bounced off. However, he was old school with tactics, which may have resulted in some high casualties of the troops he commanded.
A lot more troops were deployed to Europe. It was a larger front. The Pacific were these tiny islands, with much higher rates of casualties but fewer troops involved.
Hey Europe had screwups too - the Hedgerows weren't necessary and claimed 80,000 US lives.
Roughly two thirds of all American military deaths happened in Europe.
@@dastemplar9681 That's because a lot of the fighting in the Pacific were naval clashes. Largest naval battles in human history.
Probably already mentioned, but that guy in the blue shirt is most likely a member of the U.S. Navy Seabees (Construction Battalion “C.B.”)
To the non-combatants and those on the periphery of action, the war meant only boredom or occasional excitement, but to those who entered the meat grinder itself the war was a netherworld of horror from which escape seemed less and less likely as casualties mounted and the fighting dragged on and on. Time had no meaning, life had no meaning. The fierce struggle for survival in the abyss of Peleliu had eroded the veneer of civilization and made savages of us all.
-Eugene Sledge
“All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy. That's how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day" -Joker
The Joker didn't became crazy in one day, though.
Every mission was like D-Day on steroids in the Pacific.
Like fuck Sicily and the Italian campaign was on the same level as the Pacific campaign but most forget that
The translation of the Japanese burning in the Bunkers are:
"Mother! Mother!" and the other one is "God, help me please"
U are japanese girl.
John Basilone was not the first marine to be awarded the medal of honor, that goes to John F Mackie back in the 1860's. The USMC had roughly 80 medal of honor recipients before ww2.
He was the first Marine in WWII to receive the MoH.
In Sledges memoir (I think) That scene where snafu is throwing the rock in the dead Japanese soldiers head really happened but it wasn't Snafu in real life. He didn't name the soldier in the memoir.
At the beginning, that's 1st Marine Regiment coming "off the line". In the three days of fighting up to that point, they'd already taken 80% casualties and the only casualties counted were dead or so badly wounded they couldn't stand up or hold a weapon anymore.
There's a documentary series on Netflix you should check out - Medal of Honor. One of the episodes is about Basilone. Fantastic series. Just one season. I really hope we get more someday.
In Eugene's book, he explained why he was so shocked and confused to see American girls serving drinks to the war-torn marines returning from combat. Just imagine having to spend countless weeks in a god forsaken piece of island, witnessing constant death and brutal combat day after day, only to then return to base and see young women serving drinks. It definitely makes sense why Sledge was thrown off by this. For the time he had spent on Peleliu, he had forgotten what a woman serving a drink had looked like. The face you guys saw Eugene give to the girl and the officer is the face of someone how had just witnessed hell itself, and was in disbelief of the fact that normal life still existed.
Snafu is mentioned several times in ‘With The Old Breed’ But his character in the series represents multiple marines Sledge encountered on Peleliu and Okinawa. The scene where Sledge is about to collect some gold teeth, in the book it was his squads medic. Not Snafu.
My Great Grandfather was in the Pacific as a Platoon Sergeant in the Army. According to my grandfather he hated the Red Cross with a passion ever since they got back from one of the islands (I don't believe the specific island was ever named. He rarely talked about the war) But when they got back the Red Cross was charging them for their cups of lemonade. Apparently he never got over that.
30 days on Peleliu, 30 straight days of someone trying to end your life. Sledge is so lucky that (in the show) SNAFU kept him from literally losing their humanity
3/5 (Eugene Sledge’s battalion) Weapons Company’s 81s call sign is “Sledgehammer”
Fact:In the original book someone used a BAR to nail down the soldier
And snafu wasn't the one who told sledge not get the teeth it was a doctor.
Jay D'Leu was the one who ended up shitting hinself, he asked angrily to the guy with the BAR why he didn't shoot sooner, his response was that he wanted to see if he could rip the guy in half with the BAR and was aiming properly, he almost did.
the thing about Dunkirk is that it heavily focusses on the evacuation of Dunkirk and completely ignores the battle of Dunkirk. that was going on between French and German forces at the same time.
the only think you see of that is french forces manning the barricade and some french colonial troops trying to get let on to the british boats. near the start.
I mean. You don't even see the Germans
@@Damo2690 that is actually a really good choice for the movie and it is a good movie, I am just saying that its like calling a movie "9/11 New York" and having it all be filmed in a house in Long Island.
The old man Sgt Haney became a first grade teacher after the war. He had previously been in the Banana Wars in Central America and there is some confusion if he did served in WW1. He had actually been out of the Marines and went back for WW2. In the book Sledge wrote he mentions Sgt Haney serving in WW1. Slegde wrote that Haney wasn't born from a woman but he had been issued by God to the Marines.
If you have the new Microsoft flight simulator... fly over Pelelieu. It’s insane how small the island is.
small island, LOTS and LOTS of Japanese defenders.
They haven't even seen Okinawa yet. lol
Or Iwa Jima
My friend received a Purple Heart from Afghanistan that was made back in 1945 in anticipation of the invasion of Japan. We thought there would've been 1 Million dead/wounded from the invasion. Hopefully there's some added context, especially with the end of Band of Brothers where Major Winters refers to the 101st being sent to the Pacific for the invasion. The invasion of Japan was going to be a bloodbath.
"Man, how are you about to go back to regular life after this?" answer: Now you understand why so many veterans are unemployed. This is why many who see military service and or combat feel as if there is no where for us when we return. When you go to war, one way or another, you arent coming home without support.
My dad knew a guy as kid who served in Merrel's mauraders, he had a necklace of Japanese teeth as a Solider in Burma.
The guys asking for a trophies was a Sea-bee. A naval engineer. They do similar things to the Army Corpse of Engineers.
I have a recommendation that this discussion on the mental state of SNAFU and other characters.
VETTV has a series were the creator of VETtv talks with a therapist who works with vets, about his first movie, A Grunts Life. This was the movie Amazon Prime banned, because corporate leftist bullshit. Over several videos the two of them talk about the psychology of the characters in the film, and the challenges they would face back home.
Attempt #253: of trying to get The Normies to check out Symbionic-Titan or Primal.
Both made by Genndy Tartakovsky, the guy who made Samurai Jack.
I'm already rolling my eyes knowing what marketas opinion will be on the nuke
Operation Downfall/Coronet would have been much worse. Waaaaay higher death toll.
@@eodyn7 And campaing that drains resources for months, possibly years. Shit... Only bad choices on that table
Tom Hanks, is doing another series.
Masters of the air 👍🔥 can't wait
They’re supposed to start filming in March in London. But it’s going to be Apple TV instead of hbo for this one.
🙏
@@bloxHD I’ve been reading Gerald Astor’s The Mighty Eighth in anticipation. Great book.
Is he,,,,,,,,really?
Seven out of ten Marines in the 1st Marine Division were either killed or wounded during the Battle of Peleliu. One out of two Marines in the 7th Marine Division were, likewise, either killed or wounded during that same battle. The US Army eventually took over the battle from the Marines, due to all the losses suffered.
In the end, the Peleliu airfield - the reason for the assault - was never used against Japanese forces. At least the Americans learned about the new method of Japanese defense (prior to this, all-out banzai attacks were the Japanese tactic of choice) which would be used in Iwo Jima, Okinawa and, had the Allies invaded, in the Japanese home islands.
Timeline Check: It was while the Battle of Peleliu was going on that Capt. Richard Winters led Easy Company in combat one last time, as Easy Company's commander, in the crossroads battle (Band of Brothers Episode 5).
I think you mean the 1st Marine Regiment and the 7th Marine Regiment, both within the 1st Marine Division. There is/was no 7th Marine Division.
@@AZAZ-gs2wf You are correct, my mistake. Thanks for pointing that one out.
Concerning japanese surrender after the war, the power structure of their military was incredibly decentralized, and there was a lot of consternation about whether entire units across the pacific would flatly refuse and would have to be destroyed. They thankfully did for the most part once assured the emperor himself gave the order. It pretty much came down to the fact that that one man was both alive at that point and willing to give in unlike a certain other ww2 leader.
The last Japanese soldier held out in the Philippines until 1973 I think
Yes he tinked that the war didn't finish
Sorry for my bad English
This is why the military really push hydration in boot camp we were required to stay hydrated at all times
John Basilone was not the first Marine to earn the Medal of Honor lol
First exit to Camp Pendleton is Basilone Road.
In his book Eugene wrote that after Peleilu Gunny Haney said ”I’m going back to the States and staying there."
During WW2 the Navy extended its ranks to have a construction batallion they still have it to this day
Basilone was the first marine from WW2 to win the CMoH, the first marine to win it was either in the civil war or the Chinese boxer rebellion.
It was the American Civil War in 1861
Peleliu ended up being an entirely pointless battle (even more so than Cape Gloucester). The whole idea was to seize the airfield and use it for strategic purposes but that never amounted to anything. Then there was the additional slap in the face to the Marines that back home in the US, Peleliu never got any attention at all because at the same time Douglas MacArthur returned to the Phillippines. For that, the Marines paid as dearly taking the island as the Japanese did defending it. Over the course of almost three months the Marines suffered nearly 11,000 casualties: 2,300 killed and 8,500 wounded while the Japanese also suffered nearly 11,000 casualties with over 10,700 killed and roughly 200 captured. The Japanese were so well entrenched that the Marine Corps calculated that it took U.S. forces over 1500 rounds of ammunition to kill each Japanese defender and that, during the course of the battle, the Americans expended 13.32 million rounds of .30 caliber, 1.52 million rounds of .45-caliber, 693,657 rounds of .50-caliber bullets, 118,262 hand grenades, and approximately 150,000 mortar rounds
There IS a movie biography about Basilone. It's called 'First To Fight', made in the early 60's. I saw it in a cinema back then but can't find it now on any streaming service.
it's uploaded on youtube now!
The first US Marine to receive the Medal of Honor was Sergeant John F. Mackie during the American Civil War.
Bro toilet naps were the best. Wake up with dead legs and bruises from your elbows holding your head up haha
So yeah Gunnies body was just too old to take the heat of the island if I recall.
Gunny had enough. He hit his emotional limit. Considering he was in the great war, and Peleliu was not his first campaign in this war, he was a tough bastard.
Damn Chris, glad youre ok. I just had the virus myself and it was not fun. I couldnt get out of bed for 12 full days. I have NEVER been that sick before in my entire life.
That IMAX near the Eiteljorg Museum is pretty rad. Saw Attack of the Clones there.
yesssss been waiting for this one hope yall are having a wonder day sending love from Wyoming
the old guy fought in ww1 he's a gunnery seargarnt
If watching the real footage was interesting. You should check out the AMAZING group of miniseries WWII in HD and Vietnam in HD. Also there's WWI in Color miniseries.
I saw WWII in HD. That was fantastic.
I was fixated on Pat during this episode. while everyone was talking he was just locked on his screen, no movement intensley watching and at times it almost looked like he was crossed eyed LOL.
Seeing stuff like this really nails home what a dishonor it is to not take care of veterans properly after they return home. They didn't just do a job - they gave up a part of their humanity forever, to fight on your behalf. The least their country can do is make sure they have whatever they need to make the most of what is left of their lives, when they return home. And to vow never to put them in harms way unless it's absolutely necessary.
Basilone wasnt the first marine to be awarded the medal of honour
Highly reccomend the 'Fallen of WW2' on UA-cam to get a scope of casualties acroos all nations might be worth do a reaction
You guys need to read the books “With the Old Breed”,and “Helmet for my pillow”
Japan did not surrender after the first bomb. That is why the second was dropped. America was destroying dozens of Japanese cities via firebombs previously, which was equally horrific. The invasion of Japan would have cost millions of lives. With most of that being suffered by the Japanese civilian population. The Nuclear bombings were an evil act, as is war in its totality. But the alternatives are horrid to even imagine.
Midway is a great movie. they show how the resources were depleted/ damaged after Pearl Harbor
Did they cut out Capt. Haldane’s death? That’s what sent Sledge over the edge.
I'm on board for a reaction to the movie "Dunkirk"
Well the thing about them having "Ships and submarines out there" the Japanese did too and they had forced a retreat of our forces
Can't believe you cut out ack acks death
lol did he just call it "The Specific" ? ...twice in a row? lol
Yeah he’s not too bright.
The Pacific theater is known as the most brutal warfare in world history. That is why it wasn't really discussed for decades.
Brutal it was, but it does not overshadow the human cost and destruction of the Eastern Front. At the Eastern Front, you had two massive dictatorships go at each other’s throat with atrocities from both sides. Both sides were fanatical and very rarely prisoners were taken. Civilians were caught in the middle to which many fell victim to looting, murder, rape and even join the millions that the Holocaust murdered.
@@dastemplar9681 Yes, the Eastern Front was horrific. But the Pacific's horror encompassed a type of fanaticism that did not exist in the Eastern Front, which included using civilians as suicide bombers, human shields, even using babies. Neither Germany nor Russia did those kinds of atrocities.
The Assyrians and Ghengis Kahn say hello.....
I'm pretty sure there are worse.
The US had @161k killed in the Pacific/SE Asian theatre.
You Guys can Be like Kevin Costner in the Movie The Postman going from village to Village proforminng for the Villagers
Vietnam had some cave systems. Including the Rat tunnels I believe they were called.
Yup. Ever watch the interviews with one of the guys that was a tunnel rat hunting Vietcong in there? Brutal stuff
At the beginning, Chris says they are only using their phones to communicate with each other, not look up stuff about the show. First of all, why would you need to interact through the phone if you can all hear each other anyway? Second, You guys realize not everything requires commenting right? You all seem to be a real tight group of friends, and that's cool...but damn. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm assuming it's to avoid uncomfortable silence. However, uncomfortable silences should never apply when watching a movie/tv show as intense and compelling as this. I'm not implying everyone should stay silent the entire time. I will say though, Marketa and Pat didn't seem to feel a need to frequently say something.
Edit: Hmm, after reading all that, I sound like a prick, and my grammar sucks.😕 I honestly mean no disrespect.
Thats who that guy in the blue shirt was he was navy
Do some research into the rape of nanking. you already know the Japanese don't believe in surrendering.
Not just the Rape on Nanking. What they did with Manchuria, Philippines, the prisoners both civilian, and military, and unit 731. Unit 731 was a horror show of medical experimentation that would rival Mengele's. Live autopsies on gun shot wounds, biological war fair experimentation with anthrax, freezing prisoners to the point of death then autopsy. Inhuman stuff the Japanese was never held accountable for in the same manner as the Germans. Yes war crimes trials happened. But for some reason history lets it lie forgotten. Because of revisionist bullshit history over the "morality" of nuclear weapons.
That’s japanese victory for you, not defeat. You can be a monster in triumph and a coward in defeat. But we well know the japanese really were about it based on the thereafter.
@@dirus3142 Unit 731 leaders weren't held accountable because the Allies wanted their research.
"The researchers involved in Unit 731 were secretly given immunity by the United States in exchange for the data they gathered through human experimentation. Other researchers that the Soviet forces managed to arrest first were tried at the Khabarovsk War Crime Trials in 1949. The Americans did not try the researchers so that the information and experience gained in bio-weapons could be co-opted into their biological warfare program, much as they had done with German researchers in Operation Paperclip."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731#Surrender_and_immunity
What do you base "history lets it lie forgotten" on? How much average citizen Joe Schmo knows about Japanese war crimes versus German ones? Those that are interested in learning about this era of history can easily find information about war crimes committed by all parties (American, English, German, Japanese, etc etc).
People nowadays have a very backwards view on religion. In the distant past hardship pushed people to question their reality and pursue purpose beyond the mundane. Today's people are so pampered when they're presented with the harshness of reality they fold 34:48. The bible never said God would would make things "all good", it said he would make you aware of the bad, then the choice is yours. The easiest way to look at it is like becoming aware of the matrix , it's simultaneously good and bad depending on your outlook.
No matter if we dropped the bomb or not, the U.S and our allies were going to invade Japan. How many people in Japan and our army did we save by dropping the bomb? Think about it, the bombs killed over 200,00 Japanese. If we invaded Japan how many Japanese and Americans would have died? It estimated that millions of Japanese and mostly civilians would have died in the fighting and hundreds of thousands of Americans would have died. You can argue moral of the bomb or not, but please dont disreguard the good it did. The war would have dragged into 1946/47 if we did that and the cost lf human life would have been awful. Look at peliliu and other invasions and the destruction it did, imagine millions of troops and civilians fighting like that.
True. Thank goodness three planes were used on the towers, and not a whole lot of suicide vests.
The conventional air raids on Japan caused more destruction than the atomic bombs. When you have 300 B-24/25s dropping incendiary bombs on cities primarily made of wood, fire storms happen. Think tornadoes of fire that form and go out of control. Same thing can happen with large forest fires in the conditions are right.
The Japanese government estimated 20 million Japanese would die in that invasion. 20 million. That's their estimate, not ours.
@@saitamaxi8098 That was stupid.
@@dirus3142 7 planes used to drop each bomb. 174 planes used to drop incendiary bombs in a raid. Fewer possible deaths of American airmen with the atomic bombs.
If you guys are still going to react to ww2 stuff here's four movies, 2 in Europe and 2 in Pacific.
1.A Bridge to Far
2.Fury
3.Midway
4.Hacksaw Ridge.
Y’all should see Generation Kill next.
This was uploaded less than an hour ago.. how are some of these comments from 3 weeks ago?
Patreon
I don't know about you, but I found the show to be a bit dark from this episode and on.
I'm pretty sure that after they took the airfield and the island that it wasn't needed by the Americans anymore. So was essentially a waste of time.
I’m here for the Naruto run at 24:20
I never seen mr robot, you recommend it?
How does it get any worse than this? One word: Okinawa. Wait until you get to the Okinawa episode.
Seeing an old battle-hardened veteran like Gunnery Sergeant Haney break down the way he did is a testament to the intensity and brutality of Peleliu. It’s regarded as one of the bloodiest battles fought in the Pacific. Unfortunately the closer the Americans got to Japan, the more fanatical the Japanese resistance became.
What I appreciate so much about this series is that it really puts you in the boots of the Marines in how mentally and emotionally exhausting the experience was for them. You thought Guadalcanal was rough and chaotic, but that was just the beginning of what was to come as the fighting got progressively more intense from there, leading to the bloodiest battles of them all, Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
(10:47) Lew “Chuckler” Jurgens was wounded by a mortar shell that tore off a chunk near his crotch. It was a nasty injury but I saw nothing saying that he lost his leg. In fact he survived the war and went on to work back home in Chicago as a Steamfitter.
(14:35-14:45) You are correct Chris.
(22:00) Pavuvu & Banika was the closest Hospital and R&R site for the 1st Marine Division after the fighting at Cape Gloucester and Peleliu. There they could rest, recuperate, and train for their next campaign. The 1st Marines were so exhausted and suffered so many casualties at Peleliu that it would take months for them to recover.
(33:50) For Marketa, That guy with the pit helmet you were asking about was from the US Navy, not the Army. The blue uniform he was wearing are known as navy dungarees, which were working uniforms traditionally worn by American sailors from 1913 to the 1990’s. He was a member of the Naval Construction Battalions (NCBs) also known as “Seabees”. They definitely didn’t experience the kind of combat that the Marines had seen, but they did play a major role in the Pacific building the airfields and the infrastructures needed to turn these islands into bases for the war effort.
pat should get a furry hat, so you can pet pats hats..
Why cut ack ack death scene
Sledges look isnt a look of hormones it's of anger and rage. These people just came here safely on a boat to an established base and know nothing of the heartache the Marines went through, what he went through. These are people who are so close to the war yet so far away and would be credited the same as him. Also john baseline is not the first marine Corp medal of honor recipient. The first is john Mackie.
Y’all should watch the US National Archives.
Meat Crayon.. Dark Military Humor
Have I missed a reaction? Is this episode 8 or 7???
The US didn’t seriously fund the military until after WW2
Should watch WWII the fallen
Why did you skip the most emotional scene?
"The Vietnamese didn't have caves but they did sneak attacks"
Why does one of yall have to make up some wrong shit in every episode 😂 the Vietnamese had miles and miles of tunnels and caves.
LOL'd about not doing a skit about WWII. Yeah, it would probably not be tasteful. There's usually a fine line about WWII subjects, but comedy sketches usually are received badly.