- My Forums
- Tiger Rant
- LSU Recruiting
- SEC Rant
- Saints Talk
- Pelicans Talk
- More Sports Board
- Fantasy Sports
- Golf Board
- Soccer Board
- O-T Lounge
- Tech Board
- Home/Garden Board
- Outdoor Board
- Health/Fitness Board
- Movie/TV Board
- Book Board
- Music Board
- Political Talk
- Money Talk
- Fark Board
- Gaming Board
- Travel Board
- Food/Drink Board
- Ticket Exchange
- TD Help Board
Customize My Forums- View All Forums
- Show Left Links
- Topic Sort Options
- Trending Topics
- Recent Topics
- Active Topics
Started By
Message
re: Just watched Band of Brothers and The Pacific for the First Time
Posted on 5/24/21 at 5:13 pm to Tigerhalen
Posted on 5/24/21 at 5:13 pm to Tigerhalen
My grandfather was a WW2 vet. When I watched American Sniper with him afterwards he asked me:
“Why did they go house by house like that? In WW2 we would have just leveled the neighborhood and moved to the next one. No wonder we are losing in the Middle East. That movie isn’t war as I know it.”
“Why did they go house by house like that? In WW2 we would have just leveled the neighborhood and moved to the next one. No wonder we are losing in the Middle East. That movie isn’t war as I know it.”
0
Posted on 5/24/21 at 5:14 pm to NPComb
quote:
No disrespect to my Army brethren. The fight against the Japanese was on another level compared to the European/African theatre overall.
The U.S. Army was heavily involved in the battles of the South Pacific under the leadership of Douglas MacArthur. The two largest and bloodiest battles of the Pacific War - Manila and Okinawa - heavily featured U.S. Army soldiers.
Posted on 5/24/21 at 5:19 pm to Yoda Baby
quote:
I can agree to that. I haven’t done the math or the research myself to be honest. But a Marine on say Pelelue or Saipan or Okinawa spent 30+ days in straight brutal combat. Very few ETO guys did that.
It was just a different sort of fighting and it varied from unit to unit. The Army had a big garrison that was taken in the Phillipines. The USMC were already into heavy island fighting in 1942. In the European theater, major unit operations didn't really start until North Africa and not all of those guys made it all the way to Germany - some went to Italy.
Pacific Theater Marines (and their Army partners) didn't have to face German tanks or artillery. European theater Army units didn't have to face jungle warfare or Banzai attacks.
It's apples-to-oranges to a certain degree.
Posted on 5/24/21 at 5:21 pm to RollTide1987
quote:
The U.S. Army was heavily involved in the battles of the South Pacific under the leadership of Douglas MacArthur. The two largest and bloodiest battles of the Pacific War - Manila and Okinawa - heavily featured U.S. Army soldiers.
Reminds me of that old saying, "The USMC is outstanding! Just ask them."
Or the other one, "The Marine Corps makes headlines - the Army makes history."
It is what it is
Posted on 5/24/21 at 5:33 pm to Yoda Baby
My favorite uncle fought the "Japs", as he always called them, through out the Island Hopping campaign. There is a picture of him during the battle of Guadalcanal & he is barely recognized as human. He hated the Japs so bitterly that for the rest of his life he never bought anything manufactured in Japan. His son, my cousin, found an old photograph alblum, 50 or so pages of Marine pictures from the Campaign, totally uncensored, and some of the atrocities shown in those pictures were beyond belief. He made one comment that will go down in family lore: "had I been the pilot of the 2 planes ( that dropped the bombs), I'd have gone back, refueled, reloaded, and dropped 10 more. "
Posted on 5/24/21 at 6:04 pm to Yoda Baby
quote:
They absolutely were, and their service there should never be downplayed, but the Marines fought the toughest battles of the pacific and probably the whole war.
That is a very subjective opinion though certainly no serious historian or even a casual student of history would ever down-play the fierce combat faced by Marines in those battles in which Marines forces did the bulk of the fighting — e.g. the battles of Tarawa and Iwo Jima.
Yet the US Army fielded 21 Divisions and 6 Army Corps in the Pacific Ocean Theater compared to the Marine Corp’s 6 Divisions and 5 Air Wings.
While these Marine Corps units were engaged in it’s fierce and storied island hopping campaign, the US Army was slugging it out in New Guinea, the Aleutians, the Philippines, etc... not to mention fighting in the China-Burma-India Theater of Operations.
Also, because of the relatively small size of the Marine Corps, Army Divisions were often used to supplement the Marine Corps in many of the Marine’s most famous campaigns: Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Saipan, Mariana and Palau Islands, Okinawa, etc...
Of course it should be noted that the Air Force was a branch of the US Army so the total Army troop commitment dwarfed that of the Marine Corps. Yet the simple reality is the US Army participated in the bulk of the ground operations in the Pacific theater.
Now in no way does that defame or in anyway discount the Marine Corp’s storied legacy in WWII. It is simply an apples and oranges comparison because of the sheer size of both the US Army in WWII and the sheer geographic scale of the Pacific War.
Semper Fi!
This post was edited on 5/24/21 at 6:06 pm
Posted on 5/24/21 at 6:08 pm to LNCHBOX
quote:
We would be absolutely fricked if that took place today.
While I was getting my history degree, I spoke with many WWII veterans, and they said that same sentiment was around in the 40’s as well.
Posted on 5/24/21 at 6:13 pm to Keltic Tiger
Had an Uncle who was one of the nicest people you would ever meet. He was wounded severely with the Marines on okinawa. He had a hatred for the Japs and anything Japanese that was almost pathological.
Posted on 5/24/21 at 11:35 pm to Ace Midnight
quote:
"The Marine Corps makes headlines - the Army makes history."
This comment brings to mind William Manchester’s thoughts about Douglas MacArthur in American Caesar, Manchester’s magisterial biography of MacArthur. Manchester — a former Marine who received a Purple Heart at Okinawa — admired MacArthur’s ability to combine complex air and amphibious tactics with his bold “leap-frogging ” maneuver:
“The General had been given the broadest possible mandate, an advance along the north coast of New Guinea as far west as Vogelkop; but this was like instructing Eisenhower to proceed from Normandy to Prague, an equivalent distance while leaving the details up to him. It was in short, extremely vague.
....MacArthur ordered a series of intricate moves to keep the enemy off-balance. His Japanese adversary in Manila, General Hisaichi Terauchi, interpreted this to mean edge ahead, fighting village after village. MacArthur had something grander in mind: a tremendous four-hundred-mile leap to Hollandia, over two-hundred-miles behind the enemy’s supply depots. Dazzling in it’s conception and magnificent in it’s execution, MacArthur’s Hollandia lunge would have been beyond the grasp of all but a few of history’s greatest Captains. In retrospect, it looms as a military classic, comparable to Hannibal’s maneuvering at Cannae and Napoleon’s maneuvering at Austerlizt.
It is, of course, less famous. That may be attributed to the curious principle which seems to guide those historians who write of titanic battles. The higher the casualty list, the vaster the investment in blood, the greater the need to justify them. Thus the dead are enshrined in memory for the Verduns, the Dunkirks, the Tarawas while neglecting the decisive battles where the loss of life was small....
In World War II, Salerno and Peleliu are apotheosized, though neither actually contributed to the defeat of Germany or Japan, while in the capture of Ulithi, one of the Pacific’s finest anchorages which was essential for the invasion of Okinawa, is unsung. So it is with Hollandia....”
This post was edited on 5/25/21 at 12:00 am
Posted on 5/24/21 at 11:40 pm to LNCHBOX
quote:Ridiculous. We are more militarily dominant than ever.
We would be absolutely fricked if that took place today.
Posted on 5/24/21 at 11:41 pm to Tigerhalen
Ah WW2, America's Favorite War.
"GWOT Soldiers go frick yourselves."
Thanks. I mean a dead Hussein and Bin Laden couldn't agree more.
"GWOT Soldiers go frick yourselves."
Thanks. I mean a dead Hussein and Bin Laden couldn't agree more.
This post was edited on 5/24/21 at 11:45 pm
Posted on 5/25/21 at 4:03 am to tketaco
BOB was released in September of 2001. I was a 17 year old senior in high school back then. After 9/11, I dropped out and got my GED. When I went to MEPS in New Orleans, I told them I wanted 101st Airborne Infantry. I chose the Screaming Eagles because of BOB. Looking back almost 20 years later, I should have stayed in school. But, I wanted to get in on the action before the war ended. Haha I didn’t think we would still have forces in the ME 20 years later.
Posted on 5/25/21 at 5:42 am to Ace Midnight
quote:
It's apples-to-oranges to a certain degree.
Agree. I respect and deeply appreciate all that overcame huge obstacles every where to engage and defeat the enemy.
Having served in US Army, I will admit to trading good natured barbs with marines and sailors, but at the end of the day they were all my brothers.
No need for military identity politics.
Posted on 5/25/21 at 6:22 am to NPComb
quote:That is why the Army was there as well. We had to fight in both theaters.
The fight against the Japanese was on another level compared to the European/African theatre overall.
Posted on 5/25/21 at 6:38 am to LookSquirrel
quote:
I tried to watch it, found it Boring. Only because I just watched the first couple episodes and it looked more like a love story, or something
Watch it again and see it through. It may not be quite as good as BoB, but it’s close and craps on 99.8% of the stuff made today.
Posted on 5/25/21 at 6:39 am to Tigerhalen
Interesting timing. My wife and I have just one more episode left of BofB.
Posted on 5/25/21 at 11:31 am to Wolfhound45
quote:
That is why the Army was there as well. We had to fight everywhere.
FTFY, sir.
Posted on 5/25/21 at 11:43 am to Ace Midnight
quote:
FTFY, sir.
31 May is the final day. Sign out this Thursday morning at MacDill transition.
Posted on 5/25/21 at 11:45 am to LNCHBOX
quote:
We would be absolutely fricked if that took place today.
Not at all. The rank and file infantry and Marines are just as capable and likely better trained, they've just never been tasked with a battle worth fighting since WWII.
Posted on 5/25/21 at 11:47 am to Wolfhound45
quote:
31 May is the final day. Sign out this Thursday morning at MacDill transition.
I'm sure it feels good at this point to look back.
My last day in uniform is over 30 months in the past, crazy as that sounds. Came in under Reagan and mustered out under Trump. Could have been worse.
Page 4 of 5
Popular
Back to top
Follow TigerDroppings for LSU Football News