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Featured Replies

6 minutes ago, SuingToGetAMessageBoard? said:

How shitty would it be to volunteer to fight for your country just to have the seminal popular work on it portray you as the bad guy 

Well, it did give him quite a bit of credit, too.

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  • mininghorn88
    mininghorn88

    BoB is an all-time favorite of mine. When Spiers is running through the village is an incredible scene.  He has zero cares.  I am an avid collector of WII memorabilia and have talked to many veterans.

  • The Ace of Aces
    The Ace of Aces

    Since moving to Pennsylvania however many years ago, we started a tradition on Christmas Day if we are in town we drove over to Winters’ farm (15 or so miles away) and say a little prayer of thanks fo

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41 minutes ago, RPM said:

That's what the pause button is for.

That sounds like a lot of work to meThat sounds like a lot of work to me

16 minutes ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

That sounds like a lot of work to meThat sounds like a lot of work to me

Jimmy Two Times GIFs - Get the best GIF on GIPHY

From Sobol's Wiki page, 
"In 1970, Sobel shot himself in the head with a small-caliber pistol in an attempted suicide. The bullet entered his left temple, passed behind his eyes, and exited the other side of his head. This severed his optic nerves and left him blind. Soon afterward, he began living at a VA assisted living facility in Waukegan, Illinois.  He died there of malnutrition on 30 September 1987. No memorial services were held for him."
That's no way for anyone to die.

Damn, that’s awful and something I did not know. Not everyone that participated in the war saw combat, but every single one of them contributed for the winning effort in their own way. The war could not have been won without them.

Went to France in 2010 and made a special trip to Normandy. Its a must see. 

The American Cemetery at Omaha is a hauntingly beautiful place. I was pretty good until the guide mentioned that all grave markers face West, to the United States. 

Kind of shocked to read that Sobel died of malnutrition in a hospital.

5 hours ago, Hpara759 said:

Looked up Sobol's  (Find a Grave) site.....

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/19055620/herbert-maxwell-sobel

I then stumbled onto this because she is buried in the same cemetery.....has absolutely nothing to do with this thread but still interesting 

 https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/15906036/iva-d'aquino

 

I had no idea that tokyo rose was straight outta Compton.  Now that's a good bit of trivia.

How shitty would it be to volunteer to fight for your country just to have the seminal popular work on it portray you as the bad guy 
Norman Dyke as well. He mighta flaked out a bit during the attack on Foy, but he was also injured. Went on to have a respectable military career after that.
8 hours ago, Hate said:


Damn, that’s awful and something I did not know. Not everyone that participated in the war saw combat, but every single one of them contributed for the winning effort in their own way. The war could not have been won without them.

I think the ratio was something like 1 in 8 soldiers actually seeing combat during WW2.  I could be wrong but tend to remember that.

5 hours ago, bullzak said:

Went to France in 2010 and made a special trip to Normandy. Its a must see. 

The American Cemetery at Omaha is a hauntingly beautiful place. I was pretty good until the guide mentioned that all grave markers face West, to the United States. 

Yep it's a special place, and after touring Normandy all day, and ending your day there makes it even more incredible.

2 hours ago, Parliament said:
11 hours ago, SuingToGetAMessageBoard? said:
How shitty would it be to volunteer to fight for your country just to have the seminal popular work on it portray you as the bad guy 

Norman Dyke as well. He mighta flaked out a bit during the attack on Foy, but he was also injured. Went on to have a respectable military career after that.

 

two  Bronze Stars 

On 1/27/2021 at 2:16 AM, RPM said:

I love BoB but it's almost unwatchable (ok, highly frustrating) on History with all the commercial breaks. 

This.  I watched Points the other night and it was like 2 hours with commercials.

17 hours ago, Augustus said:

Kind of shocked to read that Sobel died of malnutrition in a hospital.

I see you are not familiar with the VA in the Vietnam era. They were hell holes.

Edited by RPM

They probably only fed him noodles and ketchup but called it spaghetti.

9 minutes ago, Hate said:

They probably only fed him noodles and ketchup but called it spaghetti.

Like some kind of shnuk. 

Rewatching on HBO Max for the first time since it originally aired. Gonna read the book when I’m done. 

10 minutes ago, 4th&Five said:

Rewatching on HBO Max for the first time since it originally aired. Gonna read the book when I’m done. 

The book is also really good. Ambrose's artist liberties aside. 

Ambrose had some really great books on the subject.  BOB is great, but so are D-Day and Citizen Soldiers.  He was a major contributing consultant to Saving Private Ryan and helped the National WWII Museum in New Orleans get off the ground.  Housed at the plant where the famous "HIggins" boats were made.  An adaption of a bayou flat bottom boat, cited by many (including Ike) as arguably the single most important item the US had to help win both the wars in the Pacific and help facilitate the Normandy invasion.  Without it, neither would have looked anything like what we now know amphibious beach assaults look like or how effective they can be.  

Speaking of the National WWII Museum, it is outstanding.  

17 minutes ago, baboso said:

Speaking of the National WWII Museum, it is outstanding.  

I was a little down on it.  It only hit on the highest of high points that it left so many gaps.  It was like 5 scenes from Europe, 5 from the Pacific.  All presented very grand way so you can really enjoy those scenes, but it was only those few.  That was my takeaway.  Nothing even moderately obscure discussed.  
 

Hard to say negative stuff about it.  I want to say what they did have was exceptional, just limited.

10 minutes ago, SuingToGetAMessageBoard? said:

I was a little down on it.  It only hit on the highest of high points that it left so many gaps.  It was like 5 scenes from Europe, 5 from the Pacific.  All presented very grand way so you can really enjoy those scenes, but it was only those few.  That was my takeaway.  Nothing even moderately obscure discussed.  
 

Hard to say negative stuff about it.  I want to say what they did have was exceptional, just limited.

I liked the Infantry Museum at Fort Benning better.

Tell you what, I LOVE the NImitz museum in Fredericksburg.  It's like this little gem in the Hill Country when the Admiral grew up.  They have one of a handful of remaining fully intact PT Boats left in the world.  A piece of Yamamoto's plane that was shot down.  A place where they do the live reenactments.  It's a must-see when I visit.  

Quote

At the height of the Pacific War Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz commanded more than two million men and women, 5,000 ships and 20,000 planes, yet he came from humble and landlocked beginnings. He was born February 24, 1885 to a widowed mother and grew up in the small German community of Fredericksburg, Texas. Young Chester lived with his mother at Grandfather Nimitz's famous steamboat-shaped hotel, where he grew close to his grandfather. He regarded his grandfather as "the most important man" in his life.

 

21 hours ago, Parliament said:
On 1/27/2021 at 10:11 AM, SuingToGetAMessageBoard? said:
How shitty would it be to volunteer to fight for your country just to have the seminal popular work on it portray you as the bad guy 

Norman Dyke as well. He mighta flaked out a bit during the attack on Foy, but he was also injured. Went on to have a respectable military career after that.

I read an article that kind of explained his panic MUCH better than the show did.  He was actually shot in either the upper arm or shoulder, and a bit panicky as a result, and Thats why he was relieved- he was wounded and the attack needed to move forward.

18 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:

 

two  Bronze Stars 

yeah I saw that as well.  one of the Bronze Stars was awarded for action in Holland leading Easy.  and the citation for that bronze star doesnt imply he was a total pussy.

 

There were several major errors made in the series based off of Ambrose's book when he didnt know the answer he just went with what the guys told him... which wasnt that big a deal in the book, but made a big deal of in the mini series.

#1  Liebgott... was CATHOLIC   he had Jewish ancestry and everyene assumed Jewish due to the name, but he was raised Catholic.  He never attended a reunion either.

#2 Albert Blithe was wounded in the upper chest or shoulder... not the neck, he didnt die, he re-upped with the army for 2 tours, served in Korea and stayed in the service until he died in 1967.  The issue was he was wounded badly enough to get sent home and he never wrote to any of the guys in Easy after getting wounded, so they all assumed he died of his wounds, and Ambrose just ran with that story-  where the 1948 came from may have been one of the guys just saying that off the cuff and Ambrose accepted it.   And because he did die before the major reunions of Easy started, everyone just thought he was dead of wounds.

 

2 hours ago, BabaYaga said:

Tell you what, I LOVE the NImitz museum in Fredericksburg.  It's like this little gem in the Hill Country when the Admiral grew up.  They have one of a handful of remaining fully intact PT Boats left in the world.  A piece of Yamamoto's plane that was shot down.  A place where they do the live reenactments.  It's a must-see when I visit.  

 

Meh......... Nimitz acted stupi............ never mind.

2 hours ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

Meh......... Nimitz acted stupi............ never mind.

Halsey steerred his fleet into not 1 but 2 fucking typhoons.  lost more than 800 men in the storms, and 3 fucking ships. yet we still promoted his ass to Fleet Admiral. 

16 hours ago, BabaYaga said:

Tell you what, I LOVE the NImitz museum in Fredericksburg.  It's like this little gem in the Hill Country when the Admiral grew up.  They have one of a handful of remaining fully intact PT Boats left in the world.  A piece of Yamamoto's plane that was shot down.  A place where they do the live reenactments.  It's a must-see when I visit.  

 

Yep.  Plan to spend AT LEAST 4 hours there though.  Shit is in depth.

8 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

Yep.  Plan to spend AT LEAST 4 hours there though.  Shit is in depth.

I've been at least 6 times and I still don't feel like I've given enough of my time.  I haven't been since my 40th birthday Central Texas Museum Tour so it's time to go back.

13 hours ago, AUS-97HORN said:

Halsey steerred his fleet into not 1 but 2 fucking typhoons.  lost more than 800 men in the storms, and 3 fucking ships. yet we still promoted his ass to Fleet Admiral. 

Yep, read about that in "The Admirals". Great read about the 5 naval admirals who progagated (ship board), and directed the war (from Washington) in the Pacific, and Atlantic.  Not his finest moments for damn sure, but in battle situations the man was solid.

On 1/28/2021 at 8:58 AM, RPM said:

I see you are not familiar with the VA in the Vietnam era. 

He died in 1987.

History now running The Pacific. Fortunately I have HBO Max and can avoid the 9 hours of commercials.

  • 2 weeks later...

If anyone is iced or snowed in today, History channel is showing the first 4 episodes this morning.

On 1/27/2021 at 10:11 AM, SuingToGetAMessageBoard? said:

How shitty would it be to volunteer to fight for your country just to have the seminal popular work on it portray you as the bad guy 

With regard to Sobel?

There's plenty of shitty leaders in the military, just like any other organization.  He derived 100% of his authority from his rank.  Winters didn't even need to have a rank, and the men followed him.  Sobel doesn't get auto-exempt from criticism that all of his NCOs risk being shot by a firing squad versus the prospect of facing almost certain death in combat.  Everyone's scared in combat, but you still need a glimmer of hope that you're going to beat the other guys.

Edited by slorch

21 minutes ago, slorch said:

With regard to Sobel?

There's plenty of shitty leaders in the military, just like any other organization.  He derived 100% of his authority from his rank.  Winters didn't even need to have a rank, and the men followed him.  Sobel doesn't get auto-exempt from criticism that all of his NCOs risk being shot by a firing squad versus the prospect of facing almost certain death in combat.  Everyone's scared in combat, but you still need a glimmer of hope that you're going to beat the other guys.

Even so, it appears that Sobel did in fact serve a purpose that served E Company well.

Just now, TwiceHorn said:

Even so, it appears that Sobel did in fact serve a purpose that served E Company well.

Agreed.  I acknowledged it multiple times in this thread that the Men of Easy said however fucked up Sobel might have been, they had a higher degree of mental toughness that carried them through the darkest of times.  That's why Sobel was reassigned to train more soldiers.   It's where he belonged.  It doesn't change the fact that the most important leaders within the men assigned to him felt facing a firing squad was safer than going into combat with Sobel.  I think it gets glossed over a bit how fucking harrowing it was for them to rebel against their C.O.

 

On 1/24/2021 at 7:53 PM, 4HE said:

One of my favorites. I remember being excited when The Pacific was first coming out after I had seen Band of Brothers. After watching, though, I remember it being almost depressing. That’s what made me dive deeper into studying the Pacific campaign. It amazes me how different the two theaters were. 

I believe this is why "The Pacific" isn't as highly regarded as "Band of Brothers".  BOB had better and more likeable characters (the closest Pacific could muster is John Basilone).  Warfare in the Pacific was such a meat grinder. D-Day and Bastogne seem to merge on Guadalcanal, Peleliu, Iwo, Okinawa, and dozens of other atolls. Month after month. Again and again. The Pacific seemed like a 10-part series of hell on Earth. 

5 hours ago, slorch said:

I think it gets glossed over a bit how fucking harrowing it was for them to rebel against their C.O.

I mean...

 

https://i.imgur.com/Y6yAjTn.gif

 

Fucking imgur.

I ought to have you all shot!

200?cb=20110301221921

Edited by Biff Tannen
why does that shit not embed?

1 hour ago, Saint Tacky said:

 

I believe this is why "The Pacific" isn't as highly regarded as "Band of Brothers".  BOB had better and more likeable characters (the closest Pacific could muster is John Basilone).  Warfare in the Pacific was such a meat grinder. D-Day and Bastogne seem to merge on Guadalcanal, Peleliu, Iwo, Okinawa, and dozens of other atolls. Month after month. Again and again. The Pacific seemed like a 10-part series of hell on Earth. 

I’m finishing reading “With the Old Breed”. The only book I’ve read that causes the hair on the back of my neck to stand up as it’s being told. It’s no misnomer that they are called the greatest generation. Good Lord I can’t even imagine myself in their shoes... Frankly, I don’t even want to. 

  • 3 months later...

I love the series, but I hate the History Channel version. Edited, tons of commercials.

On 5/30/2021 at 8:51 AM, RPM said:

I love the series, but I hate the History Channel version. Edited, tons of commercials.

Boy, you are kidding. Must have been 15 commercials at the top of the hour

Rewatched BoB and The Pacific last month and think I preferred The Pacific. 

On 5/30/2021 at 6:51 AM, RPM said:

I love the series, but I hate the History Channel version. Edited, tons of commercials.

Yep. Have to watch the HBO version. But showing the history channel series to my 9 year old was still pretty powerful. He had no idea. We didn't watch bastone or why we fight. He's not ready for that. But the last 2 episodes are still pretty mind blowing when you just don't know about it

7 hours ago, 4th&Five said:

Rewatched BoB and The Pacific last month and think I preferred The Pacific. 

Yikes. 

There is a lot to like about The Pacific.  If BoB didn't exist, The Pacific would be talked about with reverence of BoB.  After drinking heavily most of the weekend, I took this day to mostly watch The Pacific and I like it more every time I see it. It's different than BoB, but it's supposed to be different.  The PTO was nothing like what was being waged in Europe, and went on twice as long from a US perspective. 

11 minutes ago, Hate said:

There is a lot to like about The Pacific.  If BoB didn't exist, The Pacific would be talked about with reverence of BoB.  After drinking heavily most of the weekend, I took this day to mostly watch The Pacific and I like it more every time I see it. It's different than BoB, but it's supposed to be different.  The PTO was nothing like what was being waged in Europe, and went on twice as long from a US perspective. 

Three times, actually.  It was three years almost to the day from the invasion of Guadalcanal to VJ day.  Less than a year from D-Day to VE day.  That of course leaves out Sicily and North African operations.  But the period spanned by the series is much longer for The Pacific.

But I think the most important thing leading to the differences in the series was that The Pacific was based on individual memoirs, while BoB was based on sort of a collection of memoirs of a unit.  I don't think there's anything like that for the PTO.

Like The Wire and the first seasons of GoT, BoB is more sociological than character-driven, while The Pacific is almost entirely character driven.

Edited by TwiceHorn

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