HBO's "The Pacific"

I watched the second episode over the weekend. I think the filmmakers are doing a good job within the scope of their project, which appears to be to show the entire Pacific War as experienced by the three Marines they selected as the main characters. It means that they have to leave a lot of important stuff out, and are struggling to do much character development.

The episode depicted the battleship bombardment of the airfield on October 14, but as far as I could hear, did not explain that to the viewer. I didn't hear any of the Marines say the next morning, "Hey, we got hit by warship artillery last night." I think it would have helped the viewer to know a little more detail about what had just happened. I understand that the day following the bombardment, the demoralized Marines at Lunga could actually see, unaided, the Japanese troop ships unloading down the coast at Tassafaronga. If the show could have depicted that, it would, in my opinion have really illustrated how mentally tough the campaign was for its participants, who never were really sure if they were going to make it or not until they actually left the island.

The show left out the fourth Matanikau action, when Puller's troops trapped a Japanese infantry battalion in a ravine and annihilated them.

The depiction of the Battle for Henderson Field left out some important details, such as the good job the Marines did with incorporating the South Dakota National Guard troops into their lines in the darkness and driving rain and in between the Japanese human wave attacks. A brief depiction of the Japanese POV would have been helpful here also, showing the utter chaos in the Japanese ranks as their officers tried to get them organized for the attacks in the relentless rain squalls with many of the exhausted and hungry men just completing their trek over the Maruyama Trail. The Japanese troops weren't given any time to rest because they were already late and were desperately trying to keep to their original timetable that had been coordinated with the Japanese Navy. Many of the Japanese soldiers had already run out of food. The 50-100 Japanese troops that broke through Puller's lines included a regimental commander, Colonel Masajiro Furimiya, who actually kept a diary of his week or so wandering around the jungle behind the Marine lines before he was killed.

I guess the Guadalcanal campaign deserves its own 10-part miniseries.

 

Just watched this week's installment; I may have to "break-up" with this show, it's just not doing it for me.

I think the production team may have gone a series too far.

 

Bob, That's a good document. I am reading James Brady's Hero of the Pacific: The Life of Marine Legend John Basilone. Brady goes on at length questioning the dates of Basilone's enlistment in the Army. He states that the Marine Corps records have it wrong, but there are no citations for his claim. The document that you provided is not listed in Brady's bibliography, but certainly should be. Brady died, however, just before the book went to print. The narrative was supposedly finished, but Brady's family had to provide some finishing touches, including the brief bibliography based on Brady's notes. Brady also spends much space critiquing Basilone's sister Phyllis' accounts of her brother's actions. Phyllis wrote a fourteen-part serial in the Somerset Messanger-Gazette in the first person, as if her brother was telling his own story. No doubt Phyllis had all the best intentions, but her story is embellished for sure. Her son, Basilone's nephew, Jerry Cutter took up the same first-person style when he co-authored the Basilone bio I'm Staying With My Boys: The Heroic Life of Sgt. John Basilone, USMC with Jim Proser. Since there is not much documentation on Basilone's life, Brady himself cannot help but refer to Phyllis Cutter's account at times, as well. It's good to see a primary document with Basilone's own words. Nice work!

Greg C.

 

Last night's episode sucked, they had to throw in really stupid sex scenes. Yes the Marines went around Australia screwing countless women and brawling in bars and then left to never see them again, but that episode didn't portray it that well.

 

Greg C. wrote:

I'm glad you enjoyed the transcript, I thought you might. What dates does Brady give and what does he say that the Marine Corps records show? I think since Basilone give the dates in the interview they're probably the most accurate. What do you think?

1986CamaroZ28:

I always wondered why, when we were on float and drew liberty in Australia, all the old grannie's looked at us with a wry smile and a twinkle in their eyes. I guess they were just remembering what it was like the first time the 1st Marine Division came to town.

 

From page 82 of Brady's book:
"We know to the day the date that John would later join the Marine Corps, but there is debate on when, even in what year he earlier joined the prewar U.S. Army in the mid-1930s. Doorly [Bruce W. Doorly, Raritan's Hero: The John Basilone Story. Privately published] believes John joined-up in June 1934. [Jerry] Cutter tells me that by his reckoning, John enlisted 'about three months before he turned eighteen [on November 4] , which would have been August of '34. I know his parents had to sign on.' [no citation] His Marine Corps records insist that he had joined the Army early in 1936. His 1935 Army service in the Philippines, thoroughly documented, indicates the Marine Corps data is incorrect. But the military records that might solve this small and perhaps unimportant question were destroyed by fire in 1973 at the Military Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri, where the archives were held. According to Marine historian Bob Aquilina, Marine and U.S. Navy records went untouched in the fire but the Army records of the time were burned.
"There may have been additional arguments within the family about John's enlistment, some fits and starts along the way, since with the requisite records missing, some contradictory evidence suggest that John didn't actually enlist until he was nineteen. The Marine Corps, which apparently keeps files on just about everything, even the other military services, reports on John's military service records that he joined the Army on February 5, 1936, and served on active duty with consistently excellent fitness reports until being discharged back to civilian life and the U.S. Army Reserve on September 8, 1939. Since there is reasonable proof that as a young soldier still on his first enlistment John arrived in the Philippines in March 1935 to start a two-year overseas tour, we can conclude that, at least this once, the Marine Corps got it wrong.
"All we get is a fanciful line or two supposedly from 'Johnny' to Phyllis Basilone as he left home for the Army. She describes him getting on a train from Raritan for Newark [NJ] and then travelling under the Hudson River to Manhattan, no date given. 'Well Sis, I'm on my way. I wonder if this is what I really want; everbody's advice is still ringing in my ears.' After all, the boy may not yet have turned eighteen."

It seems here that Brady did not consult the Basilone interview. A glaring omission.

 

I just assumed it was Vera in the trailer ( the very first trailer for the series ). I was kinda miffed but I should have expected it . I can't really condemn him or anything because he hadn't so much as seen a woman in months, and I did sort of feel sorry for him when she left him.

 

What did you guys think about the third episode??? I got to say i'm a little dissapointed with the series so far. hopefully next episode will have more action.

 

I actually liked it. I think it fleshed out Leckie, Basilone and Sid Phillips characters. One of my favorite scenes was the Marine shooting the dairy cow from the train. I paraphrase, "What the fugg are you doing, you shot that poor farmers cow". "What's the big deal he's steak anyway". "It's a dairy cow you moron". Typical Marine Corps. Pretty good shot though, probably 300+yards, offhand position and from a moving train.
Least favorite scene was the formation where they awarded Basilone his Medal of Honor. It showed a colonel and another Marine marching out with Basilone. They were not identified. I assumed the colonel was Merrit "Red Mike" Edson and the other Marine was Mitchell Paige. Edson however had already gotten his award on 31 Dec. 1943, but he was at the formation where Paige and Basilone got theirs as evidenced by the below picture. It would have been good to see Paige get his Medals of Honor also and hear his citation read. I would have liked more explaination of this event.

 

I had seen first 3 series. Very interesting, those who liked "Band of Brothers" will like "The Pacific" too.

 

That Sir, is a very bold statement. I was "hooked" on Band of Brothers the very first episode. I have yet to be so inspired by The Pacific, I think the only reason I tune into it weekly is out of respect for the story it tells, each week I hope that it will get better.

 

I'm pretty much along this mode of thinking. Lukewarm at best. The last episode bothered me with their long hair and going out on the town in their dirty battledress with no caps. Nitpicky but I actually missed the recent episode and it did not really 'bug' me. BoB actually made me want to watch the next one.

 

I browsed through the book at walmart. It seems that this series is leaving out a number of important naval battles as well as two other characters. This past Sunday night was a weak episode. We know that the characters are human and do want to have sex. Did we need to see it in graphic detail? Next week the action does pick up.

 

You must remember that the story is based on an individual Marine who wrote a book after the war, so the scope of the mini-series will cover on his activity, and those around him. There were a lot of very important naval battles, air battles and battles on other islands in that time frame too, but there is just so much information to be packed into an hour long show, once a week for ten weeks.

I echo formerjughead's and PzJgr's review and opinion on the mini-series so far. I am hoping that it improves as the series progresses. So far it does not jump out and grab me like BoB did. Maybe that mini-series ruined it for us all. It was, and will remain a tough act to follow.

 

I'm thinking the next episode will be much better with more focus on Sledge. Anxious to see his development as a Marine.

 

USMC Price,

I am amazed that in the transcript of interview of Sgt Basilone he relates that he and his men expended over 31,000 rounds of MG ammo.

And the MGs had no water coolant.

126 belts x 250 rounds.


John.

 

That is a lot of ammo for four guns to expend! I'm ashamed to admit that it never dawned on me to take a second and multiply it out. 31,000 rounds is an impressive figure. Thanks for the perspective John.

 

paul1967 wrote:

A-58 replied:

A-58 is correct the mini-series is primarily based on Robert Leckie's "Helmet for my pillow" and Eugene Sledge's "With the Old Breed at Peleilu and Okinawa". There are also two other books that additional information was taken from, Sledge's "China Marine" and Chuck Tatum's "Red Blood, Black Sand". I'd highly recommend reading the first two books if you haven't, they're excellent.
Ambrose's "The Pacific" was written as a companion book to the series. He included additional characters and event's that were never intended to be in the series. He even states in the forward that he doesn't cover much of Leckie's story. Ambrose's book places the mini-series in it's historical perspective in relation to the larger Pacific War, while the series focuses on the experiences of a few central characters, Leckie, Sledge and Basilone.
My wife bought me "The Pacific" the day it came out. IMO, it's not a bad book but it lacks the power and emotion of Leckie's and Sledge's books.

 

when you divide that between 4 Machine guns that's only 7,500 rds per gun over two days and nights and when you have a 450 -600 round per minute rate of fire I don't think it is that unbelievable. That's only a sustained rate of fire of 13 minutes per gun.

As far as the "coolant" the water jacket on the M1917 works the same as the radiator on your car as the water in the jacket is heated and expands it transfers to the condensor can, which is attached via a rubber hose. Repeated heating and cooling of the water forms a convection, so cool water from the condensor can is constantly replaceing the hot water in the water jacket.

When I was on Iwo Jima in 1990 you could still reach into the sand, on the invasion beaches, and grab handfuls of 30-06 casings.

 

I was wondering about that too. Granted the Guadacanal Marines had a supply problem, but how long after boarding the ship would they still be dressed in the ripped and torn battledress they came off the island with?

One thing about both BoB and this mini-series is the time elapsed factor. The film makes events that may have happened days or weeks apart seem as if they had happened consectively. If I recall Leckie's book, they were billeted in the stadium for quite awhile before the Marines stormed out and went AWOL. The film makes it appear as if that happened as soon as they got there.

Greg C.