OT "The Pacific": Your Reviews

[KG Erwin]

I thought Part 1 was fine, but yeah, the sudden jumps in time aren't explained very well. For someone who knows the course of the campaign, it's no problem. Of course, the cure to this would be to read Leckie's and Sledge's books.

Part 2 will deal with Basilone's winning of the MOH.

As for the seeming rushing through Guadalcanal, this will be offset by the inclusion of three episodes on Peleliu. This is obviously the centerpiece of the entire miniseries, as the suicidal charges by the Japanese will be replaced by the tenacious defense in depth that characterized the last battles of the war in late 1944-summer 1945.

[Gil R.]

Okay, as an ignoramus on such matters, what was wrong with the way the guys were carrying their tripods and other equipment?

When growing up I had a barber who had been stationed in Iceland during the war, so I agree that it wasn't Axis territory...

[Hartley]

The most egregious part about the map was that it predicts Fall Blau and Stalingrad 6 months in advance.

[JudgeDredd]

ORIGINAL: KG Erwin
...As for the seeming rushing through Guadalcanal, this will be offset by the inclusion of three episodes on Peleliu...

Oh - well that's Ok then. Erm, I thought (from my admittedly very limited knowledge of the Pacific Theatre) that Guadalcanal was a monster of a task and a tough fight? Seems like a sin to rush it in the mini series.

From what I'm reading here, it seems my initial thoughts months ago about this series were correct - it doesn't touch Band of Brothers.

I take no pleasure from saying that though, and will be rushing to post here when I see it and I'm proved wrong...any good miniseries about the Second World War should be relished...

[GoodGuy]

ORIGINAL: Gil R.

Okay, as an ignoramus on such matters, what was wrong with the way the guys were carrying their tripods and other equipment?

Well I'll have to wait 'til the series will be available here, but Sarge probably criticized it because it looked unrealistic, I guess. A .30 cals tripod wasn't as clunky as a MG42 tripod, but I can't imagine they hugged these pods. I checked out one of the trailers again, and there's a scene where you can see them shouldering their 30 cals, indeed, that looks authentic though. There is original footage from the Philippines where you can see soldiers walking around like that too, means rather relaxed, even though they walked through Jap territory. Maybe that comes with the tropic environment. [:D]

ORIGINAL: Grim.Reaper

When growing up I had a barber who had been stationed in Iceland during the war, so I agree that it wasn't Axis territory...

ORIGINAL: Hartley

The most egregious part about the map was that it predicts Fall Blau and Stalingrad 6 months in advance.

I find these 2 details to be more disturbing, tbh. Considering the budget and effort behind the series, one would think that the funding should have been sufficient to hire qualified historians. I guess their accountants found a sector where they thought they could save some money and that it wouldn't do any harm to the project, eh? [:D] [;)]

[NefariousKoel]

Also, I'm pretty sure those water-cooled .30 cal machineguns weren't exactly lightweight.  Carrying one at the ready to fire from the hip was probably not only very tiresome but impractical. [;)]

[GoodGuy]

ORIGINAL: NefariousKoel

Also, I'm pretty sure those water-cooled .30 cal machineguns weren't exactly lightweight.

What if they removed the water? [:D]

[Poopyhead]

The tripod actually weighs more than the weapon:
http://www.rt66.com/~korteng/SmallArms/ ... tm#compare
The tripod has a vest carryall that you can strap it to for going long distances. For moving at combat speed, you can collapse the rear two legs and loosen the forward leg to make an inverted “V” shape and then hang it over your shoulder.
There is a thread at the HBO forum about how people are disappointed with the first episode (actually several threads), pretty much for the same reasons mentioned here.

[Sarge]

Here is a good example how to hump a tripod in Indian country, never folded.......NEVER !

Two reasons, quick deployment or easily dropped when things get dicey . Its probably trivial to most but glaring to anyone that’s been in the field, guess its like seeing modern tanks in an WWII film .



note the secondary carbine........[;)]

[Titanwarrior89]

"Thats a fact, jack"[;)]

ORIGINAL: Sarge

Here is a good example how to hump a tripod in Indian country, never folded.......NEVER !

Two reasons, quick deployment or easily dropped when things get dicey . Its probably trivial to most but glaring to anyone that’s been in the field, guess its like seeing modern tanks in an WWII film .



note the secondary carbine........[;)]

[KG Erwin]

For those who need it, here's a nice interactive map provided by HBO: http://www.hbo.com/html/series/the-pacific/battlemaps/

[Gil R.]

ORIGINAL: NefariousKoel

Also, I'm pretty sure those water-cooled .30 cal machineguns weren't exactly lightweight.  Carrying one at the ready to fire from the hip was probably not only very tiresome but impractical. [;)]

I'll be more disturbed if I see the actors holding those things sideways just to look "cool."

[freeboy]

free channel on most systems, tv101 channel will be showing the part one again.. FYI

[Poopyhead]

Well the ratings are in. From 30 million people who subscribe to HBO, something like 3.4 million watched “The Pacific” (compared to 10 million for BoB), although for the rebroadcast 4.1 million either rewatched or watched for the first time. Obviously, not all of those that watched liked it.
I also found out that Dale Dye was the military technical advisor. I have always admired his work…until now.

[Mobius]

ORIGINAL: victor semensi
I'm trying to figure out why Iceland was colored red on the big map early in the show. It looked like red was used to show Axis occupied territory elsewhere.

I think it showed political control, not military control. Besides Iceland being red as part of Denmark, it also showed all the French Africa colonies as red because Germany controlled France. I didn't check the Congo or any other colonies of Denmark but they might have been red for the same reason.

[anarchyintheuk]

True, but you would think that they'd give the benefit of the doubt as to control to the US troops that were already on Iceland prior to PH as well as the British who had invaded in 1940. Perhaps invasion is too strong of a word.

[Mobius]

ORIGINAL: anarchyintheuk

True, but you would think that they'd give the benefit of the doubt as to control to the US troops that were already on Iceland prior to PH as well as the British who had invaded in 1940. Perhaps invasion is too strong of a word.

If that was a copy of a real map then it would have to have been made late 1941 to be shown during Christmas season 1941. There was all kinds of red in the Middleeast and there was British there in 1941. The map was mostly for effect. Show the political control and conquest control of the Axis to the maximum.

[KG Erwin]

OK, the rebroadcast of Part One is being shown tonight at 8 pm EDT. Part Two is coming up this Sunday at 9 pm.

[bairdlander2]

I thought retired marine Dale Dye worked on this project,so find it hard to beleive the carrying of weopons or anything was unrealistic.Maybe he was off the day they shot that footage?A lot of us here are serving or former servicemen/women and get tired of all the unrealistic portrayals.Or it could possibly be an individual units SOP?Not sure.

[Doggie]

Not everybody does everything by the book. You tell troops not to bunch up and they still huddle up. When the smoking lamp is out, somebody will light up under a poncho. When you're humping for miles and haven't seen anything but squirels, noise discipline goes out the window and you carry your gear the most comfortable way possible.

Even when you've been warned about booby traps and mines, you get tired of avoiding trails and gateways, and that pair of binoculars or commie pistol is irresistable.

You can't say something you see in a movie never happened in real life. Chance are, it did.