I’m Sledge’s book, Sledge was sitting with Haney on the ship after the battle, he tells that he asked Haney if it was as bad as WWI, Haney replies that he had never seen anything like it before.
Snafu was a real person who Sludge mentions several time in his memoir. In this series though, Snafu represents the general behavior of several different marines Sledge encountered throughout the war. Example: Sledge was discouraged from collecting gold teeth by his platoon’s corpsman. Also Sledge doesn’t specifically say that it was Snafu who tossed pebbles into an open head.
In Sledge's memoir a chaplain actually talked to him about not touching the teeth. It worked in series having Snafu do it but the chaplain had a bigger impact for me when reading the book.
The way the Marines gathered around Captain Haldane's dead body as he was being carried to the rear really had me sobbing. His men utterly loved him, and losing him was such a crushing blow to their morale. The way they were sobbing while others stood and saluted is just a testament to how great a leader and man the real Ack Ack must have been.
Lost a platoon Sgt bout 12 years ago and I can confirm that it still feels like yesterday when I found out. He’d moved onto another unit in pursuit of glory (I say that endearingly because he was literally the best leader I ever had) and I wasn’t even there the day that he was killed, but I’m pretty sure I’m still recovering from the news all these years later. Things will happen in life that I’ll immediately wish that him and others that I grew close with were here to share. It takes time, and you can’t spend eternity licking your wounds, which is what I believe that generation taught us. Manifest the negative energy back into something positive and start over.
The officer was a rookie 2LT and was mentioned in Sledge's book as not even having a sun tan yet. 2LT Robert MacKenzie would later join Sledge and the others on Okinawa in Ep 9 and 10.
Bravo to joe mazzelo on his harrowing performance playing eugene sledge. Crazy that he once played the happy go-lucky little boy in jurassic park and here he is in this show playing a character who acts amazingly through expression just as well as he does through dialogue.
Jurassic Park is prob my all-time fav movie, at least from my childhood and The Pacific one of my all time fav series as an adult. cool to see him in both
The death of Haldane parallels the "death" of Sledge's grip on his humanity, at least for a time. Ack Ack was a stabilizing force for his Marines. He worked to keep them sane and focused. Once he was gone, Sledge began to slip into a ruthless pragmatism.
The ambiguous way Remi Malek plays that "Don't" moment is something I'll always remember about the show, the way he lets the humanity peek out from behind his DGAF facade for a second and then plays it off. I wonder if it was written that way or just a choice in the performance. I wish I say it gets easier, ladies, but the next few are A Lot.
What makes the scene more tragic is if you hear what the two burning Japanese soldiers were screaming as they died 6:39 yelled "Mother! Mother!" 6:45 was screaming "God, help me! Please God, help me!"
Yep, Haney's instant transformation from badass commando who could take them all on by himself to frail old man is just shocking. Also incredibly underappreciated acting.
@@ciaranconlon84 In Sledge’s book With The Old Breed; Sledge was sitting with Haney on the ship after the battle, he tells that he asked Haney if it was as bad as WWI, Haney replies that he had never seen anything like it before.
Lowest point in the series for me. To see them lose such a good leader and such an experienced NCO in the same afternoon is a huge blow for the whole unit and I think the low point emotionally of the show.
Watch Gunny Haney succumb to shell shock shook me to my core. He seemed so tough in earlier episodes. I can't begin to imagine the mental stress that these Marines went through
In Sledge’s book With The Old Breed; Sledge was sitting with Haney on the ship after the battle, he tells that he asked Haney if it was as bad as WWI, Haney replies that he had never seen anything like it before.
@@MetalDetroit Haven't finished "With The Old Breed", yet, but there is so much mentioned in the book that couldn't be included in the miniseries due to time and gruesomeness. The part that made me open my eyes with a hint of horror was when Eugene mentioned the one Marine who thought it was cool to lop off a Japanese hand and keep it as a souvenir wrapped in a cloth. When he showed a couple of the other Marines with a hint of boasting, even the ones who harvested teeth were like, "Dude! What the hell? That's messed up, man! The hell is wrong with you?" The Marine got upset and walked away, but kept the hand. If likened to our modern way of speaking, Eugene basically says, "Welp! This is my life, now. This is what war does when men become desensitized and all concepts of dignity and decency disappear."
When I was in college there were still a great number of WW2 guys alive... We visited the barracks where George H.W. Bush had trained as a pilot at Fort Lauderdale Airport during WW2 and there was an older man there volunteering. These men were still pretty young and spry at this time. My professor asked if he would briefly share something about the war. The man was a bit shy and reluctant but said he and his 5-6 friends were all excited to join up together after Pearl Harbor and serve together, but that the Marines had only accepted him... He said he had been to Guadalcanal, a number of other places... and then he said Peleliu and just froze. It was very awkward. This was before Saving Private Ryan had sparked renewed interest in WW2 and encouraged veterans to speak about what happened. Many, most, had never really spoken about it. The silence went on as long as it's taking you to read this. The man choked, said "I'm sorry", and promptly walked outside got in his car and drove away. I had never heard of Peleliu before that.
The blanket that covered the captain after he passed, it’s the same type of blanket he told sledge that his father made back at home. Powerful scene if you ask me. A decent movie I’d suggest is the Midway movie from 2019. That battle was one of the most important battles in WW2 that turned the tide of the war.
I’ve always wished a movie would be made about the forgotten pacific front. The Aleutian island campaign was a brutal fight not only against the Japanese but Mother Nature herself.
I'm a 60 yr old USMC Veteran. Every Marine that ever was, is now, or ever will be, is my brother. Whatever race or creed, they are my brother. WM's my sisters. Knowing that I had the honor and privalege to wear the same uniform for ten years as Manila John, Sledgehammer, and Lucky, makes me weep. Don't feel bad about your tears girls, I have also cried a river for my fallen brothers watching this series. When I pass, I know I will find the last few lines of The Marines Hymn to be true. Maybe I can have a Blockbuster with my brothers. GOD BLESS AMERICA!
After the war, the US military said that the fighting that took place on Peleliu in the Umurbrogol Mountain pocket was the toughest fight the military faced during the entirety of WW2. I remember a line from Sledge’s memoir that said something to the effect that after the battle, he had no idea that the Battle of Peleliu was an outlier in terms of intensity and assumed every battle was like that, until he asked a marine who had fought since the outbreak of the war and had also fought on the Western Front during WW1 what they thought and they responded with something like, “I ain’t never seen anything like that…I’ve had enough, I want to go home”. Only then did Sledge realize how bad the battle actually was.
Actually it was Okinawa - 50,,000 US casualties (12,500 KIA), 200,000+ civilians killed as well as 77,000 Japanese military. And that was on a relatively small island. As horrible as the atomic bombs were, there were far less deaths than would have occurred if US had invaded the Home Islands.
Hmm… I didn’t see that way. I always saw it as like a WTF moment. We are going thru miserable hell on the front and here just behind the lines we have these clean beautiful women serving up fresh water and food and even that other officer who was telling him to stop looking was clean and chipper. I thought Eugene was irritated by the juxtaposition and then also was just taking in their beauty. I didn’t get that he was like they should’ve there or that he cares for their purity and goodness at all.
@@td811 so Eugene would go on to say in his book he was genuinely upset because of what the first comment stated, something like women so close to that hell, it upset him.
They may be an esthetic change from their coming back from battle but who says they are pure? That is pure sentimentalist non sense, one of the women could be carrying on an affair with a married officer and you wouldn't know it by her looks. Giving women the benefit of the doubt based on their looks is a biased privilege that only women get. Women are the "pure" sex where men are the impure sexually aggressive driven sex, that is societies bias of contempt for males and coddling protection of females even from the consequences of their actions.
I'm 5'6" and still shorter than most of my guys I last deployed with. Our "cupcake safe" base was under the first real attack it had had in years. I was going up and down the line handing out supplies. One of my guys said "Gunny, why are you ducking?" and I said "uhhh, they're shooting at us." and he said "yeah, but why are YOU ducking?" That got a bunch of laughs from the Marines at that point in the line. Those moments are really great to break up the seriousness of it and help us keep on doing our job.
And he got shot offscreen. It wasn't a huge scene, just the guy coming down and saying "Sniper got the Skipper. Ack Ack's dead". Death just happens, it doesn't give you a warning
The transformation of the gunny is what got me the most. At the beginning he was the strongest marine. At the end he looked like a feeble, scared old man. Really had me tear up
The two scenes in this series that hit me the hardest were the marine on the air field who had his chest blown out but was still trying to work the radio, still trying to do his job, dying while speaking. Then sniper got the skipper! What a gut punch. I didn't even know how much invested I'd become. They very covertly made you love the guy.
Gunney. The old man is the toughest of the tough a man that survived the First World War so when you see him break. Just imagine how a young marine would feel in that moment.
In Sledge’s book With The Old Breed; Sledge was sitting with Haney on the ship after the battle, he tells that he asked Haney if it was as bad as WWI, Haney replies that he had never seen anything like it before.
My dad was a Pacific theater vet. He spent some time ashore in the Solomon islands ( A bit more dense jungle than Peleliu) He was doing security in the "rear area" hospitals, but in the islands there weren't really rear areas. He went through two night attacks, was in hand to hand combat and got one of his purple hearts (grenade fragments) during those days. He always told war stories as I grew up, but they were usually light and often dark humor ones, until his last few years (and after I was out of high school) that's when I heard the real details. He always talked about the smell. You can imagine rotting bodies in that tropical heat and how you'd get hardened to it "because you had a job to do" He could never stand the smell of burning meat for example. He tried to temper his hatred for the Japanese in the 1970's by returning a flag he had captured to the family of the soldier he had found it on. War is brutal, but I think the island warfare in the Pacific was a whole other level. I remember this man (who was literally John Wayne, my biggest hero) crying when he talked about the things he had to do to stay alive. I wish he could have seen this series. He always thought the guys in the Pacific got a "bum wrap" vs those who fought the Germans.
I cry everytime when Skipper got hit & Gunny broke down.. E7 is the best in so many different ways. I have seen lot of soldiers died in combat. But that scene in Snafu throwing rocks in the head messed my mind, for almost a week when I close my eyes the scene comes in front of my eyes. Very powerful scene.
According to Eugene Sledge’s book “with the old breed” (which a lot of The Pacific is based on) his last interaction with Gunny Haney was “Instead of the usual old salt comment-something like, "You think that was bad, you oughta been in the old Corps,"-Haney answered with an unexpected, "Boy, that was terrible! I ain't never seen nothin' like it. I'm ready to go back to the States. I've had enough after that."
When Arianna said she thought she wouldn't cry as much this time... it's the intros. Interviewing the real survivors at the start puts you in an emotional spot right away.
It's important that we watch these and get a small sense of what people are willing to do for the country they love. Let's not let their sacrifice be in vain.
My uncle was a Marine, fought in Korea at Chosin ... we talked when I joined the Corps and about to deploy ... he said the first things that go away are patriotism, flag, apple pie and mothers ... then fighting for survival goes away ... the last anchor is fighting for your friends beside you and not letting them down. He called it love of a different sort.
The injured marines that they passed in the beginning were 1st Marine Reg, they are like big brother heroes at the time, so it was odd seeing them hurt
Chesty and the decimated 1st Mar Regiment were coming out, and the 5th Mar Regiment were going in relieving them. Both Regiments are in 1st Mar Division, along with the 7th Mar Regt.
They lost their two best officers, Ack Ack and Hillbilly, there. The men loved those two and it was like losing their parents. Also, getting replacement officers as good as them were slim. The 1st Marine division basically disappeared on Peleliu. They just kept rotating the 3 regiments regiments up into the ridge. That was Chuckler, from the 1st Marines, the same that Lucky and Runner were in, on the stretcher that Sledge, with the 5th Marines, stopped to ask him if he was ok. Then when the 5th couldn't fight anymore they would rotate down and the 7th Marines, that Basilone used to be with, would go up and they would just keep rotating. Each time a regiment came down, it was smaller. They were finally relieved by some Army units. The Japanese were changing their tactics around this time. It was no longer about winning, it was about basically turning into animals and making things as ugly as possible. It was about dying and taking as many Marines as possible with them, in hopes that the Americans couldn't stomach all the losses and the horror and want to negotiate a peace. They used these tactics on Iwo Jima and Okinawa as well. Unfortunately, for Japan, the strategy backfired. All it did was convince the U.S. that invading Japan itself, would be almost unbearable, with losses of soldiers and civilians in the millions. This is when they decided to use the atomic bombs.
Thank you guys for sticking through with this series despite how challenging emotionally it can be. These boys went through a literal storm; The Japanese were renowned defenders, digging tunnels between their positions and constantly able to appear behind friendly lines to conduct raids and attacks. Often times Bunkers would be remanned multiple times until they were either blasted shut, burned out, or buried with a dozer tank. Insane to think these fellas went through all of this yet history doesn’t remember them fully
Sometimes, people who've tried to stay 'good' in the face of horror reach a psychological crisis point where they realise that they simply don't have the mental and emotional strength to keep it up. Often they just break down completely, but sometimes they 'rationalize' that the only way to carry on is to dive into the horror and embrace it, a sort of "if I can't out-good it, I'll damn well out-bad it" kind of reaction. I think that's the point that Sledge got to with the teeth after Ack Ack was killed, but Snafu managed to talk him out of it. Good thing too, because, while that might work in the short term, in the long term, those who go down that path are the most likely to have problems re-calibrating to civilized life after the war.
Seeing Ack Ack die here is the equivalent if in Band of Brothers Winters died in combat before he became a Major. Imagine what that would have been to Easy company had that happened
ultimately the Marines failed in clearing the hills of Peleliu; the Army took over and finished it with plodding, conventional siege tactics that the Marines disdained. the Japanese positions in the hills were far too difficult to take with the straight ahead tactics the Marines preferred.
I see a lot of comments from servicemen thanking you guys for watching this and showing the respect the bravery of these men deserve. It's a small token of respect, but I guess watching their stories be known means that what they went through wasn't for nought, I'd imagine for some that maybe be broken brings them some measure of peace that they otherwise could not find. Glad you guys are toughing it out and learning the story. If we don't learn history, we're doomed to repeat it. I love that Rami Malek stops Sledge from going to the dark side like he did, he was protecting his humanity.
This is an emotionally draining series which they do really well to make you feel like the marines. I've seen tons of war stuff and this was particularly difficult to get through.
Near the end when the one Marine returns home his cab driver is an Soldier who fought in Europe. Listen carefully to what the cab driver tells the Marine, it is so truthful and respectful what he tells the Marine.
I saw the show before i read “With the Old Breed” so i remember anticipating different events. I do remember when Sledge recounts the story if the guy who shit his oants. When asked why the shooter (armed with a BAR) took so ling to ahoot, he replied that if he let the Japanese soldier get closer, he could test to see if he could cut the man in half with his BAR.
Part of the horror of Peleliu was that since the island was coral rock, it was impossible to properly bury the dead - so they would often just rot where they fell. In his memoir Sledge said the blowflies feeding on the bodies were so large they could barely fly, and even weeks after they left he could not get the smell out of his nose.
The Okinawa episode is going to be really tough for y’all. Next episode will crush you. Keep watching for the payoff in the last one which is heartbreaking and joyful in the same breath. Semper Fi all you Devil Dogs checking reactions
The show undersells how bad it was in mountains. Its volcanic island so basically they were having to live on jagged rocks. There was no soil to dig latrines or bury people in, and the fighting was so intense that bodies could not be moved away quickly. So, they had to fight with the bodies of the dead friends stacked up just behind the line, and the bodies of the Japanese were just left to rot in the sun. The smell was terrible and disease rampant. There was barely enough water to drink, and all the shelling was pulverizing the volcanic rock, creating a black dust that would get into their clothes. That would mix with sweat creating something like concrete that made everything abrasive. I don't know how anyone got through that sane. Peleliu was also an almost entirely pointless, it's strategic value already rendered moot by advances in other territories. It was arguably only proceeded with out of momentum and the pride of the commanders who planned it.
When I got out the marine corps in 1990, I became good friends with a marine who fought in WW2 in the Pacific. He wrote a book called, long road of war. An excellent book to read about his experiences on Peleliu and Okinawa. He talked a lot about the fighting on Peleliu. I feel a great sense of honor that I was lucky enough to have met him and to have been able to call him a friend. I miss you Jimmy. Semper Fi.
The Battle for the Pacific was like night and day compared to Europe. There was no R&R in Paris or London. The only respite was the time spent on transport ships on the way to the next brutal fight on yet another jungle island in the heat and rain and mud. These guys didn’t even get a bath for a month sometimes and often lost as much as 1/3 of their body weight before the current fight was over. And it was never over until they killed virtually every single enemy soldier. My first assignment in the Marine Corps was in 2nd Platoon, G Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division. These were the men that I was constantly reminded that I had to try to live up to.
I was in the USAF from 2001-2021. I first watched the Pacific while was stationed at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam. Over 10,000 Japanese soldiers died when the US retook Guam in 1944. War is the worst thing humans do to one another. I have alot of regrets from my time in the service. We no longer live in the United States these Marines fought for. Everything is inverted, and we are under tyranny. If Eugene, and Snafu saw what we have become, what would they say?
12:27 I'm sorry I was dying at that part 🤣 Him throwing pebbles into the guys head like a little kid and the reaction from them both still crying was just so funny for some reason
The skipper did die. He was killed by a sniper. He was by all accounts an incredible Marine and an even better man. However when he was shot and recovered they didn't cover his body and his head was completely blown off the sniper. RIP Andrew Haldane
In Sledge’s book With The Old Breed; Sledge was sitting with Haney on the ship after the battle, he tells that he asked Haney if it was as bad as WWI, Haney replies that he had never seen anything like it before.
In case you’re curious the way those Marines popped the pins on those grenades was TEXTBOOK! I am fairly certain that Maj.Dale Dye USMC Ret. East the military adivisetr for this
I read the book by Eugene Sledge. On one of those islands they were having to dig foxholes and they'd wind up digging into the bodies of the dead Japanese that had sunken into the mud.
The fighting in the Pacific was absolutely brutal. The Old Gunny broke too. I cant imagine being in the Marines in WWI then WWII and some even in Korea. You have to wonder how many men did we break?
Episodes 7 and 9 are the hardest to watch IMO. So if you made it through this episode, congratulations, only one more hard episode to make it through. You got this.
Read about Captain Andrew Haldane. He was so respected by every single person in the marines. No one ever heard him raise his voice and he demanded respect. Eugene Sledge wrote a book about their experience. Snafu didn’t speak to anyone until Eugene’s book came out.
Man, when Ack Ack died...Jesus. During my time in the Corps we had good officers and bad officers....then we had GREAT officers who knew how to lead men.
4:52 Eugene Sledge wrote about this in his book, that he was so used to obeying orders that he did so automatically and that he almost got his head blown off over it there.
the lose of a friend or a squad member is always tragic for this men that consider each other as brothers, but the lose of a good leader is a devastating blow, akin to that of loosing a parent, a good father that centers you, support you, guide you and berate you if its needed, they lost the "older brother" , "the dad" and the "grandfather" figures..... in one battle..... the miracle here is that the whole company didn't crumble, also a testament of this men great leadership
I'm an American that lives in Japan who has a love of history. I read so much about this era. My wife's ancestors fought in this war as did mine. Our children are half so it's interesting their two halves were once at war with each other.
On the ship back to Pavuvu from Peleliu, Sledge asked Gunny Haney how it compared to his prior experience. Haney fought in WWI, and every battle K35 was in since the beginning of WWII. Haney said it was easily the worst he ever saw.
The show is brutal, the memoirs are even harder if you can believe it. The sacrifice that these men made from all sides is truly incomprehensible, as are most wars.
In the pacific battles the closer we got to Japan the worse the battles got. American casualties climbed dramatically almost every battle. At Iwo Jima the Americans won but American Casualties exceeded Japanese casualties for the first time in the war. Despite being quite controversial today the reason the Atomic Bomb was dropped was because the American public was starting to REALLY grow weary of pacific casualties for islands that nobody in The States had ever heard of. The US and British had planned on 1 million US casualties, a half million British casualties and almost complete destruction of the Japanese civilian population (due to war and high suicide rates as seen in places like Saipan/Okinawa). According to many sources troops TODAY are still being issued Purple Hearts from 1945 because so many were made to n anticipation of an invasion of Japan. I’ve seen that argued about but the possibility of it being true is a testament to how horrific the war had became and was planned on being had the bombs not been dropped, regardless of the moral quandary today.
The Japanese soldier with his head missing and marines looking for gold teeth was inspired by the artwork of Michael Akkerman. He took memoirs from various soldiers in different theatres, including Audie Murphy, and illustrated them in an attempt to convey the horrors of war. It's a random, messy, chaotic business and hollywood has done a lot to glamorize it. I personally think one shouldn't get too interested in the whole thing, not because I don't think it's necessary (It very much is in many cases), but because there is a plethora of things one can better put their minds too. Things that are more creative, productive, and will bring about a peace of mind. War does not do this, in fact it does quite the opposite as you can see.
I respect your opinion JT, but I disagree. If every American had a good grasp of world history, our culture would be very different than it is today. Please keep in mind the generation that fought this war, had also survived the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl without any sort of social safety net. After the war, America immediately had the burden of rebuilding the economies of Europe and Japan, and facing down the enemies of freedom during the Cold War. All of this came at great personal and financial cost to this nation. As a result, taking a vicarious day trip through hell to get in touch with the courage, honor and goodness of our forefathers and foremothers by learning about what happened on places like Peleliu is more than a good thing; it is morally clarifying. Compare now the people from that time, to the people in our time: The politicians, the educators, the business leaders, the media, the religious leaders, and the common everyday people. We have lost something, and we are in the process of losing even more. If we all allow the America these people suffered for and handed to us, to die, what will our grandchildren's generation say about us?
@@dennissipsy3152 I agree that the average education of today’s youth is appalling, but one can appreciate the bravery of our forebears without getting into the macabre. Band of brothers did a great job of towing the line. You got to see the concentration camps, but they didn’t show the leatherworking projects the Nazi guards had taken up. (i.e Lampshades and wallets) I say to keep interest in war at a distance, because it inevitably draws you into subjects and scenes that should not be approached through a (if we were honest) bored, morbid curiosity. At the end of the day, it’s people killing people, which is never something healthy people should dwell on. I’m all for people learning about the battles and tactics of ww2, even down to the uniforms and technology, however some finer details can be left out. For those who have seen what a gun does to a person first hand, seeing it on a tv show so people can ooh and aah leaves a bad taste in the mouth. The greatest way to honor the bravery of those poor people (Both sides, btw) is to grant them dignity in death, not turn the events of their demise into a circus under a thinly veiled sense of admiration. I know people will come back and say, “Well, you don’t have to watch it if you can’t handle it.” But the original question isn’t if I can stomach it (I’ve seen it irl and chances are most haven’t.) but rather should one? Hollywood makes millions from indulging people’s desires, but not every fruit while pleasing to look at is good for food.
In Sledge's memoir, he writes about digging a foxhole and accidentally scooping the rotted ribcage off of a buried Japanese. That's when the smell hit him. The only thing worse than the intensity and horror of Peleliu for the US was the Hurtgen forest just before the Battle of the Bulge. That is another forgotten battle. It had 4x the casualties and lasted 5x as long but is overshadowed by the Ardennes, the 101st and Patton.
One of my niece who lived in Hawaii said: America 🇺🇸 don’t need men, I’ve shown her this movie, and told her, these men fought and died, the Imperial Japanese would had enslaved Filipinos, so I asked her, why ain’t you a slave by Male Japanese Soldiers.
The sad thing about Peleliu was after the Marines took the island, the Generals decided they didn't really need to take the island to achieve their objective. All those lives wasted for nothing.
This is the episode that stuck with me through the years since I've watched The Pacific. But in many ways, the worst is yet to come in this series. WWII in the Pacific was truly hell. God bless those men.
Gunney was a vet of WWI. For him to reach his limit is saying something.
I’m Sledge’s book, Sledge was sitting with Haney on the ship after the battle, he tells that he asked Haney if it was as bad as WWI, Haney replies that he had never seen anything like it before.
Gunny never left the United States during WWI
for the lads on the tip of the spear .... a tough way to spend their last few teenage years ... quickly aged beyond their years.
@@imnotyourfriendbuddy1883 really? I never knew this. I always figured he fought in france
@@childrenoftheabzu Sledge assumed he did but he didn't.
Snafu was a real person who Sludge mentions several time in his memoir. In this series though, Snafu represents the general behavior of several different marines Sledge encountered throughout the war.
Example: Sledge was discouraged from collecting gold teeth by his platoon’s corpsman.
Also Sledge doesn’t specifically say that it was Snafu who tossed pebbles into an open head.
Sludge 🫡
People really spoil on the channel.
In Sledge's memoir a chaplain actually talked to him about not touching the teeth. It worked in series having Snafu do it but the chaplain had a bigger impact for me when reading the book.
The way the Marines gathered around Captain Haldane's dead body as he was being carried to the rear really had me sobbing. His men utterly loved him, and losing him was such a crushing blow to their morale. The way they were sobbing while others stood and saluted is just a testament to how great a leader and man the real Ack Ack must have been.
The dedication to With The Old Breed is to Haldane. This shows what a great leader he was.
like a departed father ... their trusted, solid rock gone in an instant ... a different level of love.
Lost a platoon Sgt bout 12 years ago and I can confirm that it still feels like yesterday when I found out.
He’d moved onto another unit in pursuit of glory (I say that endearingly because he was literally the best leader I ever had) and I wasn’t even there the day that he was killed, but I’m pretty sure I’m still recovering from the news all these years later. Things will happen in life that I’ll immediately wish that him and others that I grew close with were here to share.
It takes time, and you can’t spend eternity licking your wounds, which is what I believe that generation taught us. Manifest the negative energy back into something positive and start over.
One of my favorite aspects of the whole show is Snafu and Eugene basically being each other’s moral accountants.
Sledge's "thousand yard stare" moment at the end. Those eyes have seen Hell and the officer knew it.
One of the best scenes in the episode for sure
The officer was a rookie 2LT and was mentioned in Sledge's book as not even having a sun tan yet.
2LT Robert MacKenzie would later join Sledge and the others on Okinawa in Ep 9 and 10.
Bravo to joe mazzelo on his harrowing performance playing eugene sledge. Crazy that he once played the happy go-lucky little boy in jurassic park and here he is in this show playing a character who acts amazingly through expression just as well as he does through dialogue.
Jurassic Park is prob my all-time fav movie, at least from my childhood and The Pacific one of my all time fav series as an adult. cool to see him in both
The death of Haldane parallels the "death" of Sledge's grip on his humanity, at least for a time. Ack Ack was a stabilizing force for his Marines. He worked to keep them sane and focused. Once he was gone, Sledge began to slip into a ruthless pragmatism.
The ambiguous way Remi Malek plays that "Don't" moment is something I'll always remember about the show, the way he lets the humanity peek out from behind his DGAF facade for a second and then plays it off.
I wonder if it was written that way or just a choice in the performance.
I wish I say it gets easier, ladies, but the next few are A Lot.
What makes the scene more tragic is if you hear what the two burning Japanese soldiers were screaming as they died
6:39 yelled "Mother! Mother!"
6:45 was screaming "God, help me! Please God, help me!"
I understood it😢
When the Lt died and Gunny Haney broke down it gets me everytime.
Yep, Haney's instant transformation from badass commando who could take them all on by himself to frail old man is just shocking. Also incredibly underappreciated acting.
@@ciaranconlon84 In Sledge’s book With The Old Breed; Sledge was sitting with Haney on the ship after the battle, he tells that he asked Haney if it was as bad as WWI, Haney replies that he had never seen anything like it before.
Same here. Always.
@@ciaranconlon84 I know, he didn't even look like the same person, it was like a completely different actor did that part.
Lowest point in the series for me. To see them lose such a good leader and such an experienced NCO in the same afternoon is a huge blow for the whole unit and I think the low point emotionally of the show.
Watch Gunny Haney succumb to shell shock shook me to my core. He seemed so tough in earlier episodes. I can't begin to imagine the mental stress that these Marines went through
Everyone has a limit to how much they can handle. Gunney went through WW1, WW2 and had enough
Everyone has a breaking point, even the strongest. That's the somber lesson we're reminded of from the Gunny.
In Sledge’s book With The Old Breed; Sledge was sitting with Haney on the ship after the battle, he tells that he asked Haney if it was as bad as WWI, Haney replies that he had never seen anything like it before.
@@MetalDetroit We get it. Stop repeating it over every comments there is
@@MetalDetroit Haven't finished "With The Old Breed", yet, but there is so much mentioned in the book that couldn't be included in the miniseries due to time and gruesomeness.
The part that made me open my eyes with a hint of horror was when Eugene mentioned the one Marine who thought it was cool to lop off a Japanese hand and keep it as a souvenir wrapped in a cloth. When he showed a couple of the other Marines with a hint of boasting, even the ones who harvested teeth were like, "Dude! What the hell? That's messed up, man! The hell is wrong with you?" The Marine got upset and walked away, but kept the hand.
If likened to our modern way of speaking, Eugene basically says, "Welp! This is my life, now. This is what war does when men become desensitized and all concepts of dignity and decency disappear."
They did such an amazing job showing the visceral, naked brutality of the Pacific Theater.
When I was in college there were still a great number of WW2 guys alive... We visited the barracks where George H.W. Bush had trained as a pilot at Fort Lauderdale Airport during WW2 and there was an older man there volunteering. These men were still pretty young and spry at this time. My professor asked if he would briefly share something about the war. The man was a bit shy and reluctant but said he and his 5-6 friends were all excited to join up together after Pearl Harbor and serve together, but that the Marines had only accepted him... He said he had been to Guadalcanal, a number of other places... and then he said Peleliu and just froze. It was very awkward. This was before Saving Private Ryan had sparked renewed interest in WW2 and encouraged veterans to speak about what happened. Many, most, had never really spoken about it. The silence went on as long as it's taking you to read this. The man choked, said "I'm sorry", and promptly walked outside got in his car and drove away. I had never heard of Peleliu before that.
😢
God bless his soul forever
What I love is the way Snafu always looked after Sledge.
The blanket that covered the captain after he passed, it’s the same type of blanket he told sledge that his father made back at home. Powerful scene if you ask me.
A decent movie I’d suggest is the Midway movie from 2019. That battle was one of the most important battles in WW2 that turned the tide of the war.
Oof I’ve watched this series many times and I never made that connection, Good eyes or I’m just blind lol
I’ve always wished a movie would be made about the forgotten pacific front. The Aleutian island campaign was a brutal fight not only against the Japanese but Mother Nature herself.
I'm a 60 yr old USMC Veteran. Every Marine that ever was, is now, or ever will be, is my brother. Whatever race or creed, they are my brother. WM's my sisters. Knowing that I had the honor and privalege to wear the same uniform for ten years as Manila John, Sledgehammer, and Lucky, makes me weep. Don't feel bad about your tears girls, I have also cried a river for my fallen brothers watching this series. When I pass, I know I will find the last few lines of The Marines Hymn to be true. Maybe I can have a Blockbuster with my brothers. GOD BLESS AMERICA!
I’m a young Marine watching this. Semper Fi!!
After the war, the US military said that the fighting that took place on Peleliu in the Umurbrogol Mountain pocket was the toughest fight the military faced during the entirety of WW2. I remember a line from Sledge’s memoir that said something to the effect that after the battle, he had no idea that the Battle of Peleliu was an outlier in terms of intensity and assumed every battle was like that, until he asked a marine who had fought since the outbreak of the war and had also fought on the Western Front during WW1 what they thought and they responded with something like, “I ain’t never seen anything like that…I’ve had enough, I want to go home”. Only then did Sledge realize how bad the battle actually was.
Im pretty sure they used that battle an Iwa as a gauge for mainland Japan invasion thats when they dropped nukes
I've read his memoir twice. One of the best accounts of one's experiences in war that I've ever read. I really want to give it another read.
Actually it was Okinawa - 50,,000 US casualties (12,500 KIA), 200,000+ civilians killed as well as 77,000 Japanese military. And that was on a relatively small island. As horrible as the atomic bombs were, there were far less deaths than would have occurred if US had invaded the Home Islands.
@@alanholck7995 he didnt say the costliest, he said the toughest.
It was Haney he was talking to
How Sledge hated to see the purity & goodness of those women so close to the hell they were all experiencing.
Hmm… I didn’t see that way. I always saw it as like a WTF moment. We are going thru miserable hell on the front and here just behind the lines we have these clean beautiful women serving up fresh water and food and even that other officer who was telling him to stop looking was clean and chipper. I thought Eugene was irritated by the juxtaposition and then also was just taking in their beauty. I didn’t get that he was like they should’ve there or that he cares for their purity and goodness at all.
@@td811 he said in his book that he felt like those women in clean uniforms hadn’t earned the right to be there.
IIRC Sledge goes into it more in his (extremely good) book.
@@td811 so Eugene would go on to say in his book he was genuinely upset because of what the first comment stated, something like women so close to that hell, it upset him.
They may be an esthetic change from their coming back from battle but who says they are pure? That is pure sentimentalist non sense, one of the women could be carrying on an affair with a married officer and you wouldn't know it by her looks. Giving women the benefit of the doubt based on their looks is a biased privilege that only women get. Women are the "pure" sex where men are the impure sexually aggressive driven sex, that is societies bias of contempt for males and coddling protection of females even from the consequences of their actions.
I'm 5'6" and still shorter than most of my guys I last deployed with.
Our "cupcake safe" base was under the first real attack it had had in years. I was going up and down the line handing out supplies.
One of my guys said "Gunny, why are you ducking?" and I said "uhhh, they're shooting at us."
and he said "yeah, but why are YOU ducking?"
That got a bunch of laughs from the Marines at that point in the line.
Those moments are really great to break up the seriousness of it and help us keep on doing our job.
When Captain Ack Ack went is when it got me. A true brave leader in literal hell.
And he got shot offscreen. It wasn't a huge scene, just the guy coming down and saying "Sniper got the Skipper. Ack Ack's dead". Death just happens, it doesn't give you a warning
The transformation of the gunny is what got me the most. At the beginning he was the strongest marine. At the end he looked like a feeble, scared old man. Really had me tear up
The two scenes in this series that hit me the hardest were the marine on the air field who had his chest blown out but was still trying to work the radio, still trying to do his job, dying while speaking. Then sniper got the skipper! What a gut punch. I didn't even know how much invested I'd become. They very covertly made you love the guy.
Gunney. The old man is the toughest of the tough a man that survived the First World War so when you see him break. Just imagine how a young marine would feel in that moment.
In Sledge’s book With The Old Breed; Sledge was sitting with Haney on the ship after the battle, he tells that he asked Haney if it was as bad as WWI, Haney replies that he had never seen anything like it before.
Oh boy, can’t wait for episode 8 😂
I appreciate you two being willing to cry on screen. This show just rips you apart.
My dad was a Pacific theater vet. He spent some time ashore in the Solomon islands ( A bit more dense jungle than Peleliu) He was doing security in the "rear area" hospitals, but in the islands there weren't really rear areas. He went through two night attacks, was in hand to hand combat and got one of his purple hearts (grenade fragments) during those days. He always told war stories as I grew up, but they were usually light and often dark humor ones, until his last few years (and after I was out of high school) that's when I heard the real details. He always talked about the smell. You can imagine rotting bodies in that tropical heat and how you'd get hardened to it "because you had a job to do" He could never stand the smell of burning meat for example. He tried to temper his hatred for the Japanese in the 1970's by returning a flag he had captured to the family of the soldier he had found it on. War is brutal, but I think the island warfare in the Pacific was a whole other level. I remember this man (who was literally John Wayne, my biggest hero) crying when he talked about the things he had to do to stay alive. I wish he could have seen this series. He always thought the guys in the Pacific got a "bum wrap" vs those who fought the Germans.
The look Sledge gave the officer at the end. It is such a brilliant film.
I cry everytime when Skipper got hit & Gunny broke down.. E7 is the best in so many different ways.
I have seen lot of soldiers died in combat. But that scene in Snafu throwing rocks in the head messed my mind, for almost a week when I close my eyes the scene comes in front of my eyes. Very powerful scene.
According to Eugene Sledge’s book “with the old breed” (which a lot of The Pacific is based on) his last interaction with Gunny Haney was
“Instead of the usual old salt comment-something like, "You think that was bad, you oughta been in the old Corps,"-Haney answered with an unexpected, "Boy, that was terrible! I ain't never seen nothin' like it. I'm ready to go back to the States. I've had enough after that."
When Arianna said she thought she wouldn't cry as much this time... it's the intros. Interviewing the real survivors at the start puts you in an emotional spot right away.
It's important that we watch these and get a small sense of what people are willing to do for the country they love. Let's not let their sacrifice be in vain.
My uncle was a Marine, fought in Korea at Chosin ... we talked when I joined the Corps and about to deploy ... he said the first things that go away are patriotism, flag, apple pie and mothers ... then fighting for survival goes away ... the last anchor is fighting for your friends beside you and not letting them down. He called it love of a different sort.
The injured marines that they passed in the beginning were 1st Marine Reg, they are like big brother heroes at the time, so it was odd seeing them hurt
Sledge is in 1st division too
Chesty and the decimated 1st Mar Regiment were coming out, and the 5th Mar Regiment were going in relieving them. Both Regiments are in 1st Mar Division, along with the 7th Mar Regt.
Whoops, preciate it
They lost their two best officers, Ack Ack and Hillbilly, there. The men loved those two and it was like losing their parents. Also, getting replacement officers as good as them were slim. The 1st Marine division basically disappeared on Peleliu. They just kept rotating the 3 regiments regiments up into the ridge. That was Chuckler, from the 1st Marines, the same that Lucky and Runner were in, on the stretcher that Sledge, with the 5th Marines, stopped to ask him if he was ok. Then when the 5th couldn't fight anymore they would rotate down and the 7th Marines, that Basilone used to be with, would go up and they would just keep rotating. Each time a regiment came down, it was smaller. They were finally relieved by some Army units. The Japanese were changing their tactics around this time. It was no longer about winning, it was about basically turning into animals and making things as ugly as possible. It was about dying and taking as many Marines as possible with them, in hopes that the Americans couldn't stomach all the losses and the horror and want to negotiate a peace. They used these tactics on Iwo Jima and Okinawa as well. Unfortunately, for Japan, the strategy backfired. All it did was convince the U.S. that invading Japan itself, would be almost unbearable, with losses of soldiers and civilians in the millions. This is when they decided to use the atomic bombs.
Thank you guys for sticking through with this series despite how challenging emotionally it can be.
These boys went through a literal storm; The Japanese were renowned defenders, digging tunnels between their positions and constantly able to appear behind friendly lines to conduct raids and attacks. Often times Bunkers would be remanned multiple times until they were either blasted shut, burned out, or buried with a dozer tank. Insane to think these fellas went through all of this yet history doesn’t remember them fully
Sometimes, people who've tried to stay 'good' in the face of horror reach a psychological crisis point where they realise that they simply don't have the mental and emotional strength to keep it up. Often they just break down completely, but sometimes they 'rationalize' that the only way to carry on is to dive into the horror and embrace it, a sort of "if I can't out-good it, I'll damn well out-bad it" kind of reaction. I think that's the point that Sledge got to with the teeth after Ack Ack was killed, but Snafu managed to talk him out of it. Good thing too, because, while that might work in the short term, in the long term, those who go down that path are the most likely to have problems re-calibrating to civilized life after the war.
Seeing Ack Ack die here is the equivalent if in Band of Brothers Winters died in combat before he became a Major. Imagine what that would have been to Easy company had that happened
Capt Haldane attended Bowdoin College. There is a memorial there in his honor.
Joshua Chamberlain of Little Round Top fame also hailed from Bowdoin.
The single most common thing I've ever known Medal of Honor recipients to say is that they wear the medal for those who didn't make it back.
ultimately the Marines failed in clearing the hills of Peleliu; the Army took over and finished it with plodding, conventional siege tactics that the Marines disdained. the Japanese positions in the hills were far too difficult to take with the straight ahead tactics the Marines preferred.
I see a lot of comments from servicemen thanking you guys for watching this and showing the respect the bravery of these men deserve. It's a small token of respect, but I guess watching their stories be known means that what they went through wasn't for nought, I'd imagine for some that maybe be broken brings them some measure of peace that they otherwise could not find. Glad you guys are toughing it out and learning the story. If we don't learn history, we're doomed to repeat it.
I love that Rami Malek stops Sledge from going to the dark side like he did, he was protecting his humanity.
This is an emotionally draining series which they do really well to make you feel like the marines. I've seen tons of war stuff and this was particularly difficult to get through.
Near the end when the one Marine returns home his cab driver is an Soldier who fought in Europe. Listen carefully to what the cab driver tells the Marine, it is so truthful and respectful what he tells the Marine.
The first burning Japanese was saying “ oka chan “ meaning mom
The other was saying “please help me god”
I saw the show before i read “With the Old Breed” so i remember anticipating different events. I do remember when Sledge recounts the story if the guy who shit his oants. When asked why the shooter (armed with a BAR) took so ling to ahoot, he replied that if he let the Japanese soldier get closer, he could test to see if he could cut the man in half with his BAR.
Gunny looking like a tough old piece of leather in earlier episodes to a confused old man, shout out to the actor's performance
Part of the horror of Peleliu was that since the island was coral rock, it was impossible to properly bury the dead - so they would often just rot where they fell. In his memoir Sledge said the blowflies feeding on the bodies were so large they could barely fly, and even weeks after they left he could not get the smell out of his nose.
The Okinawa episode is going to be really tough for y’all. Next episode will crush you. Keep watching for the payoff in the last one which is heartbreaking and joyful in the same breath.
Semper Fi all you Devil Dogs checking reactions
Watching Okinawa now
Captain Haldane was terrific officer and great human being.
The show undersells how bad it was in mountains. Its volcanic island so basically they were having to live on jagged rocks. There was no soil to dig latrines or bury people in, and the fighting was so intense that bodies could not be moved away quickly. So, they had to fight with the bodies of the dead friends stacked up just behind the line, and the bodies of the Japanese were just left to rot in the sun. The smell was terrible and disease rampant. There was barely enough water to drink, and all the shelling was pulverizing the volcanic rock, creating a black dust that would get into their clothes. That would mix with sweat creating something like concrete that made everything abrasive. I don't know how anyone got through that sane.
Peleliu was also an almost entirely pointless, it's strategic value already rendered moot by advances in other territories. It was arguably only proceeded with out of momentum and the pride of the commanders who planned it.
When I got out the marine corps in 1990, I became good friends with a marine who fought in WW2 in the Pacific. He wrote a book called, long road of war. An excellent book to read about his experiences on Peleliu and Okinawa. He talked a lot about the fighting on Peleliu. I feel a great sense of honor that I was lucky enough to have met him and to have been able to call him a friend. I miss you Jimmy. Semper Fi.
One of the best reactions out there, keep these boys memories alive!
Sledge said that every man who served with Captain Haldane recalled him as the best marine and officer they had served with.
The Battle for the Pacific was like night and day compared to Europe. There was no R&R in Paris or London. The only respite was the time spent on transport ships on the way to the next brutal fight on yet another jungle island in the heat and rain and mud. These guys didn’t even get a bath for a month sometimes and often lost as much as 1/3 of their body weight before the current fight was over. And it was never over until they killed virtually every single enemy soldier. My first assignment in the Marine Corps was in 2nd Platoon, G Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division. These were the men that I was constantly reminded that I had to try to live up to.
10:02 you see an old guy like that break and you think, “what chance do I stand?”
Arianna had the best line: "He's so not okay."
Seeing the Gunny break down crush them. The skippers death was a devastating hit
Remember Ack Ack said his father made blankets for the military. Haldane's body was covered in one of his father's blankets.
I was in the USAF from 2001-2021. I first watched the Pacific while was stationed at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam. Over 10,000 Japanese soldiers died when the US retook Guam in 1944. War is the worst thing humans do to one another. I have alot of regrets from my time in the service. We no longer live in the United States these Marines fought for. Everything is inverted, and we are under tyranny. If Eugene, and Snafu saw what we have become, what would they say?
It still means a lot to me when you ladies watch these.
12:27 I'm sorry I was dying at that part 🤣 Him throwing pebbles into the guys head like a little kid and the reaction from them both still crying was just so funny for some reason
The skipper did die. He was killed by a sniper. He was by all accounts an incredible Marine and an even better man. However when he was shot and recovered they didn't cover his body and his head was completely blown off the sniper. RIP Andrew Haldane
when a ww1 soldier starts crying you know its really bad.
In Sledge’s book With The Old Breed; Sledge was sitting with Haney on the ship after the battle, he tells that he asked Haney if it was as bad as WWI, Haney replies that he had never seen anything like it before.
In case you’re curious the way those Marines popped the pins on those grenades was TEXTBOOK! I am fairly certain that Maj.Dale Dye USMC Ret. East the military adivisetr for this
I read the book by Eugene Sledge. On one of those islands they were having to dig foxholes and they'd wind up digging into the bodies of the dead Japanese that had sunken into the mud.
The fighting in the Pacific was absolutely brutal. The Old Gunny broke too. I cant imagine being in the Marines in WWI then WWII and some even in Korea. You have to wonder how many men did we break?
7:49 “makes it easier” whewffff. That’s a line.
Episodes 7 and 9 are the hardest to watch IMO. So if you made it through this episode, congratulations, only one more hard episode to make it through. You got this.
Brace yourselves for episode 9, its straight up descent to hell.
Read about Captain Andrew Haldane. He was so respected by every single person in the marines. No one ever heard him raise his voice and he demanded respect. Eugene Sledge wrote a book about their experience. Snafu didn’t speak to anyone until Eugene’s book came out.
This is the 2nd thoughest episode to watch in the series I feel, but wait until episode 9 because that'll be pretty tough to watch for you two.
This show is the way it was. No rest no break constant danger
Man, when Ack Ack died...Jesus. During my time in the Corps we had good officers and bad officers....then we had GREAT officers who knew how to lead men.
4:52 Eugene Sledge wrote about this in his book, that he was so used to obeying orders that he did so automatically and that he almost got his head blown off over it there.
the lose of a friend or a squad member is always tragic for this men that consider each other as brothers, but the lose of a good leader is a devastating blow, akin to that of loosing a parent, a good father that centers you, support you, guide you and berate you if its needed, they lost the "older brother" , "the dad" and the "grandfather" figures..... in one battle..... the miracle here is that the whole company didn't crumble, also a testament of this men great leadership
I'm an American that lives in Japan who has a love of history. I read so much about this era. My wife's ancestors fought in this war as did mine. Our children are half so it's interesting their two halves were once at war with each other.
It was a corpsman a doc who helped sledge save his humanity. He talked sledge out of taking teeth
As a Marine I can tell you that throwing rocks at something is a great Marine Corps past time 😂
Oh shit, I’m from here. So much history and you can still find bombs,tanks,planes and a lot of other stuff still laying around.
On the ship back to Pavuvu from Peleliu, Sledge asked Gunny Haney how it compared to his prior experience. Haney fought in WWI, and every battle K35 was in since the beginning of WWII. Haney said it was easily the worst he ever saw.
Okinawa is going to destroy them, ain't it?
Huh?
Oh yeah, straw that breaks the camels back for these two has to be Okinawa
Yep.
@@Chiefblackmouth This was a prophetic statement.
There are so few left but we owe them so much
the glare you two girls had was priceless when the clean officer said stop looking at the females
The show is brutal, the memoirs are even harder if you can believe it. The sacrifice that these men made from all sides is truly incomprehensible, as are most wars.
Its like playing spot the Aussie actor, gunny is one of them
In the pacific battles the closer we got to Japan the worse the battles got. American casualties climbed dramatically almost every battle. At Iwo Jima the Americans won but American Casualties exceeded Japanese casualties for the first time in the war. Despite being quite controversial today the reason the Atomic Bomb was dropped was because the American public was starting to REALLY grow weary of pacific casualties for islands that nobody in The States had ever heard of. The US and British had planned on 1 million US casualties, a half million British casualties and almost complete destruction of the Japanese civilian population (due to war and high suicide rates as seen in places like Saipan/Okinawa). According to many sources troops TODAY are still being issued Purple Hearts from 1945 because so many were made to n anticipation of an invasion of Japan. I’ve seen that argued about but the possibility of it being true is a testament to how horrific the war had became and was planned on being had the bombs not been dropped, regardless of the moral quandary today.
Many Medal,of Honor recipients struggle with having the award . It brings back horrific experiences every time they look at it
The Japanese soldier with his head missing and marines looking for gold teeth was inspired by the artwork of Michael Akkerman. He took memoirs from various soldiers in different theatres, including Audie Murphy, and illustrated them in an attempt to convey the horrors of war. It's a random, messy, chaotic business and hollywood has done a lot to glamorize it. I personally think one shouldn't get too interested in the whole thing, not because I don't think it's necessary (It very much is in many cases), but because there is a plethora of things one can better put their minds too. Things that are more creative, productive, and will bring about a peace of mind. War does not do this, in fact it does quite the opposite as you can see.
I respect your opinion JT, but I disagree. If every American had a good grasp of world history, our culture would be very different than it is today. Please keep in mind the generation that fought this war, had also survived the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl without any sort of social safety net. After the war, America immediately had the burden of rebuilding the economies of Europe and Japan, and facing down the enemies of freedom during the Cold War. All of this came at great personal and financial cost to this nation. As a result, taking a vicarious day trip through hell to get in touch with the courage, honor and goodness of our forefathers and foremothers by learning about what happened on places like Peleliu is more than a good thing; it is morally clarifying. Compare now the people from that time, to the people in our time: The politicians, the educators, the business leaders, the media, the religious leaders, and the common everyday people. We have lost something, and we are in the process of losing even more. If we all allow the America these people suffered for and handed to us, to die, what will our grandchildren's generation say about us?
@@dennissipsy3152 I agree that the average education of today’s youth is appalling, but one can appreciate the bravery of our forebears without getting into the macabre.
Band of brothers did a great job of towing the line. You got to see the concentration camps, but they didn’t show the leatherworking projects the Nazi guards had taken up. (i.e Lampshades and wallets)
I say to keep interest in war at a distance, because it inevitably draws you into subjects and scenes that should not be approached through a (if we were honest) bored, morbid curiosity. At the end of the day, it’s people killing people, which is never something healthy people should dwell on.
I’m all for people learning about the battles and tactics of ww2, even down to the uniforms and technology, however some finer details can be left out. For those who have seen what a gun does to a person first hand, seeing it on a tv show so people can ooh and aah leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
The greatest way to honor the bravery of those poor people (Both sides, btw) is to grant them dignity in death, not turn the events of their demise into a circus under a thinly veiled sense of admiration.
I know people will come back and say, “Well, you don’t have to watch it if you can’t handle it.” But the original question isn’t if I can stomach it (I’ve seen it irl and chances are most haven’t.) but rather should one? Hollywood makes millions from indulging people’s desires, but not every fruit while pleasing to look at is good for food.
In Sledge's memoir, he writes about digging a foxhole and accidentally scooping the rotted ribcage off of a buried Japanese. That's when the smell hit him.
The only thing worse than the intensity and horror of Peleliu for the US was the Hurtgen forest just before the Battle of the Bulge. That is another forgotten battle. It had 4x the casualties and lasted 5x as long but is overshadowed by the Ardennes, the 101st and Patton.
As a combat vet Marine and the son of a WW 2 vet Marine it’s very realistic. Sad but true.
One of my niece who lived in Hawaii said: America 🇺🇸 don’t need men, I’ve shown her this movie, and told her, these men fought and died, the Imperial Japanese would had enslaved Filipinos, so I asked her, why ain’t you a slave by Male Japanese Soldiers.
At 6:39 the soldier that was burning to death was calling out for his mother...
I'm literally hanging on every week for this.
At 9:38, shows that a veteran like Gunny reaching his limit shows how much war can do to a man. Even one who is "used" to it.
More tears to come ahead..
The sad thing about Peleliu was after the Marines took the island, the Generals decided they didn't really need to take the island to achieve their objective. All those lives wasted for nothing.
This is the episode that stuck with me through the years since I've watched The Pacific. But in many ways, the worst is yet to come in this series. WWII in the Pacific was truly hell. God bless those men.
I saw Shane from The Walking Dead.
If Peleliu was horrible Okinawa was hell on earth how these guys functioned in these conditions which was nothing short of super human
Y'all are going to be so relieved when this mini-series is over. 🇺🇸 ❤ ✌ 🎥
Ack Ack was 27...he's the leader at 27. The world these men created through gunfire and sacrifice left a privelege they could only dream of.