The Pacific Ep.2 "Basilone" (2010) | First Time Watching | TV Reaction 

8:20 "... they're courageous, but they gotta be fearful, right?" -Toni "There is no courage without fear." -Master Sergeant Farell, U.S. Army

I visited John basilones grave last year in Arlington. What a legend. Love from England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

The Japanese trained there soldiers to die. They also instilled in them to be brutal and merciless. This inhumanity is what led to Japanese attrocities that were so henious that it horrified the Nazis.

Guys, you need to watch the intro with the vets and Tom Hanks narration. It's cut from some digital releases, but you can find them on RU-vid.

Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller is a famous and heroic Marine officer who led from the front and cherished his Marines. The Navy Cross Medal for valor is second only to The Medal of Honor and Chesty was awarded 5 of them during his career. he fought in the Banana Wars, Haiti, Nicaragua, World War II and the Korean War, and retired as a Lieutenant General. Chesty is revered and celebrated by every Marine to this day. Goodnight Chest, where ever you are.

A Japanese airfield on Guadalcanal would have threatened shipping routes between the US and Australia and all Allied naval craft in the Solomons.

The intros to these episodes, with clips from interviews with veterans and narration by Hanks, are brief and available on RU-vid. They lay out how each episode of the show fits into the overall strategies of the Pacific campaign, and what is at stake. They add so much to the understanding of this show that the decision to cut them out is inexplicable.

I have seen the reactions with the into of tom hanks narration and the real soldiers and footage it brings even more to it

This episode is far less intense than some of the later ones.

Later (issued in 1959), the M-60 machine gun was designed with a barrel that could quickly be changed if it overheated - if you had a spare barrel and the asbestos glove designed for the purpose.

My father wanted to join the Marines at 17, but my grandmother changed her mind about giving her permission at the recruiting station... so he had to wait until his 18th birthday (November of 1942). After basic training he was in training to be a tail gunner on a B-25 (or PBJ, as the Marines called it). His squadron was disbanded before he left the US, and he was folded into the infantry. He was in Hawaii, en route to Guam when the Japanese surrendered (thankfully).

Eugene Sledge: The actor is the boy from Jurassic Park. He does a GREAT job with this role.

My Grandfather was on the Canal and he always talked about the food, the 1 thing they don't show was that they had a large supply of soy sauce on the island. they had to downplay the battle and what Basilone really did and how bad the fight was by the end of the 2nd day it was him and 1 other marine were down to fighting with pistols and machetes.

1st Marines were voted off the island after 3 months. Took 3 more months to get the Japanese to leave. 15,000 American casualties and 20,000 Japanese casualties. Many ships and airplanes lost by both sides.

You can see the difference between the services in weaponry here - the Marines had bolt-action Springfield rifles (same as used in WWI), shotguns and water cooled "heavy" machine guns (weighed up to 100 lbs). The Army had semi-automaniac Garand rifles - much better to repel Japanese charges. The Marines were a part of the Navy whose allocations to the service were lacking until later in the war. The Marines had to make-do with whatever they got. You can also see the more primitive aspects of their weapons that made it difficult to fight in the jungle - bulky uniforms with pockets that weren't closed with button flaps, leather shoes, wooden ammo boxes that weren't water proof. It would have been tough to even survive let alone fight in such conditions.

They still have a parade in NJ for John Basilone. I was going to link the website for it but there is a spoiler if I do. If interested just google John Basilone parade.

The Island hoping campaign was not to take back every Island, but to take selected islands and let others "wither on the vine" This doctrine was the plan of Admiral Nimitz! Gen MacArthur wanted to retake island after island. That would have taken a great deal of time, men and supplies! The Part with John Basilone was "toned down" quite a bit! If they filmed what he actually did during the battle (over several days) the audience would find it hard to believe! The scene with the coffee demonstrates how hard it could be to do the Job of a "Mess Sailor" (he looked worn down) Long hours day after day and probably not seeing much in the way of daylight!

the idea of island hopping is to take territory of influence, imagine the map showing the islands, now imagine a circle showing the maximum range a squadron of small to medium bombers could cover on a flight with the airfield in the center, how far those bombers could reach is their area of influence, leaving the airfield with a full tank of gas and full payload of bombs, climbing to the clouds, then flying straight to a target, dropping the bombs then flying back to the airfield is called a sortie, the idea of selective island hopping is to capture one island with an airfield then use its area of influence to capture then next airfield so its area of influence overlaps with the previous so eventually you can send bomber groups from multiple airfields to the same target for maximum effect, like others have said you don't need to capture every single island, the japanese had 2-3 years head start capturing them all, digging in, creating fortresses and tunnel systems.. to capture them all would have bogged down the campaign and doubled even tripled the american casualties, with Nimitz plan to only capture selected airfield sized islands, the americans could capture an island then its area of influence would cover the neighboring islands meaning those japanese held islands wouldn't receive any supplies or reinforcements and eventually starve or become non combat effective... the plan from the start was to island hop until a island could be reached that could a) have an area of influence that could include the japanese mainlands and b) capture an airfield large enough to service heavy bombers so that they had a base to bomb major cities in japan and could use the new b29 super fortress bomber and its new top secret super weapon....the A bomb

My Grandpa also served in the Navy during WW2. He would have just turned 20 when the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred.

In this battle 3000 Japanese attacked instead of 800. The Japanese were forced to retreat ... their wounded were abandoned along the jungle trail if they couldn't walk. All our wounded were recovered and treated.

The Japanese were adept and sophisticated in defense. They were not in offense because they did not use their different type of forces as well as the American forces did. Just think after you have seen this what a Banzai attack is like. The soldiers are expected to die but take Americans with them. They would drink Saki all night and use spears if they didn't have rifles. The biggest Banzai charge was 4000 men on Saipan. Keep an eye on Leckie, Basilone and Sledge.

Great series. Thank y'all!

aw man, this series is going to wreck her lol This is going to be brutal watch but hang in there, they deserve to have their stories told.

You guy have no idea how much you're missing by not doing the version that contains the episode intros by Tom Hanks and the vets. The backstory, plus the vets' perspective is essential to really get the most out of this series.

It only gets more intense as you progress, hope your ready for it

They took the Island for the airfield.

Hello some episodes in Mt humble opinion are little slow..but the series as a whole is very brutal and Toni will be horrified..the us army fought the Germans in Europe and the marines had the pacific island hopping campaign..objective was to take all islands in the pacific and get as close to Japan as possible..before we attacked mainland Japan..where we expected up to one million causality on our side..that's why we dropped the bomb instead and forcing Japan to surrender.. I'll be watching..you're a nice couple..

From what I have read, the Marine Corps has to rely on old equipment handed down from the Army because they are the smaller service with the smallest budget. Therefore, the Marines never throw anything out. When the Army deploys, they bring EVERYTHING, hence the supply disparity.

Episode 5 is where shit gets real

Series turns into nightmare in episode 5 😘

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This woman is never gonna make it through this show. Might as well give up now. She’s way way to sensitive

It is a great series but not as good as Band of Brothers. Band of Brothers is a masterpiece and set an extremely high bar.

Toni I'm just letting you know now beware of episode 9... Bring your kleenex because you're going to need it

well that was fun.

The Marine Corps came to Guadalcanal on August 7, 1942, and they left in December 1942. The Army continued the fight on Guadalcanal until February 1943 when the Japanese pulled their survivors out because they could no longer supply them. Learning about the Pacific War takes time, and reading many books.