Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by unclestu (A) on April 14, 2010 at 13:47:37

In Reply to: RE: Gone through five episodes of the Pacific... what crap... posted by unclestu on April 13, 2010 at 19:46:29

I should humbly point out that in no way did I even attempt to demean the the fact that Sledge only served on two island campaigns. IIRC the typical casualty count on every island was shocking high: far higher than the 20 percent figure used in the European theater before pulling back regiments for regrouping and replenishing. In the Pacific, you had to be basically disabled or have won the fight in order to be pulled out. Take those flag raisers at Iwo Jima: three, or was it four, were killed after the photo, which did not mean that the fighting was over.

Add to that, some of the most devastating battles were judged in hindsight to be unnecessary. Some were even argued in the American high command even at the time to be useless (Peleliu, for example). At Guadacanal, US troops were abandoned, essentially, by the US Navy once the Japanese Imperial fleet showed up. It is definitely not a pretty picture.

Even Stephen Ambrose, who wrote the Band of Brothers, was open about admitting that finding a regiment that served successfully throughout the European theater, fighting in almost every major battle was a stroke of luck.

That both series are based on personal experiences shows the disparity of kind of war waged on the two fronts. On one front, the individual role in the general scope of things could readily be seen. On the other, one simply fought for survival. They fought for a tiny scrap of land, fighting both environment and the enemy. There were no real breakthroughs: there was no decisive tactical movements which dislodged the enemy. No one could retreat very far: it was killed or be killed:win or die. It was simply a brutal slug fest.