The Pacific - Season 1 Episode 8 - Patreon Version
Added 2024-06-09 13:00:12 +0000 UTC
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I love the bad acting in the radio studio scene. USMC = United States Marine Corps. Unlike the Germans and Japanese, the common American practice was to rotate combat veterans home, the idea being that the new men coming in would benefit from training by those who actually had combat experience, whereas the Germans and Japanese remained in combat either until they were killed or physically no longer able to fight. This was especially the case with aircrews and pilots (thus one reason American pilots didn't achieve the high victory totals of their German and Japanese counterparts). This did indeed work out exactly as planned: The average quality of the American GI and airman entering combat by 1944 was higher than the average on the other side. The Marines are actually PART of the Navy, not an independent service. This was how the US Air Force began, as well: It was originally established as part of the Army, first as the Army Air Corps and, during WWII, the Army Air Force, before being split off as its own service in 1947. The Marines, however, remain part of the Navy to this day. About 350,000 women served in the US military during WWII, almost all in support roles (kitchen duty, nurses, administration, etc.). Others helped ferry aircraft as part of the WASPs, (Women's Air Service Pilots) with a few in special operations (including working undercover in occupied Europe with the local resistance units). The actress playing Riggi (Annie Parisse, best known for Law and Order) does have gorgeous eyes. Remember in Episode 2 when Basilone was carrying the machine gun? That was the M1917 .30cal water-cooled machine gun. It was heavy and cumbersome, and as you saw, Basilone burned his hands quite severely when he lost the mitt meant to protect him from the heat of the barrel. The gun Basilone is demonstrating "walking fire" with is its successor, the M1919, which replaced the water sleeve with an air-cooled barrel (the perforated shield). This was one of the most widely-used machine guns in the War, being the main crew-serviced heavy weapons in Marine and Infantry companies, as well as being one of the main defensive installations on aircraft. It was probably exceeded only by the big Browning M2 .50cal heavy machine gun, which was primary armament on fighters, defensive armament on the heavy bombers, and used extensively as support weaponry on numerous Allied vehicles (these were the machine guns Lecki was firing on the landing craft in episode 5). Although the M1919 has since been retired from service, the "Ma Deuce" is STILL used by the US military today (including, of all things, as a sniper rifle). This episode is a positively cruel bait-and-switch. It STARTS light with the romance between Basilone and Lena...and then goes right back to hell in its last fifteen minutes or so. Iwo Jima was one of the most brutal battles of the War. Allied casualties securing the island were horrendous, (1 in 3 Marines who landed on Iwo Jima were killed or wounded) while the Japanese were virtually wiped out. Even the capture of Mt. Suribachi — immortalized by Joe Rosenthal's famous photo "Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima" — was only the beginning (three of the six flag raisers were killed on Iwo Jima). Many of the same defense strategies we saw on Peleliu were used to even greater effect on Iwo Jima. The Japanese knew they couldn't hold the island, so the entire strategy was built around making it as costly for the Americans as possible. There were two movies about Iwo Jima in 2006, both of directed by Clint Eastwood: The first was Flags Of Our Fathers, which told the story of the Rosenthal photo. This was the movie everyone was banking on at the box office and with the critics. However, it was the second, Letters From Iwo Jima, told from the Japanese perspective, that turned out to be the critical darling. It received four Oscar nominations, though only took home one. There's some controversy over how, exactly, Basilone was killed. The most common story was he was killed by shrapnel from shell fire while running charges to take out the Japanese bunkers, though some witnesses claim he was struck by machine gun fire, which is what the show went with. Basilone was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross (the Navy's highest decoration, and second only to the Congressional Medal of Honor) for his actions on Iwo Jima. There have since been two US warships named in his honor. The first, USS Basilone, was a Gearing-class destroyer, launched in July, 1945, and christened by his widow. She never saw service during WWII, coming too near the Japanese surrender. The second, USS John Basilone, is a modern Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer launched in 2022, and is still in service today.
DE Wyatt
2024-06-09 15:04:41 +0000 UTCHey Dasah, so in my opinion the most fascinating and sad, fact of this show. Basilone actually did die on Iwo Jima and his wife, never remarried after his death, and loved no other man until she herself passes away. As their marriage ended only a few months later, the couple had no children. After John's death, She dedicated her life to serving the Marine Corps and her community and preserving John's memory and legacy, always wearing the wedding ring John gave her.
Thats MR. Baldamort
2024-06-09 13:19:58 +0000 UTC
