Very good ending. It’s sad so few of the guys lived to see this show. I am not surprised to see that Basilone’s wife did not marry again, it seems that losing someone so quickly could lead to that. For Band of Brothers many of them were alive in 2001 and are still around now.
I guess I will look into reading the Sledge and Leckie books. I think I will like this show better if I see it again now that I know all about the characters.
I also enjoyed the final episode overall - the end sequence with the pictures of the real guys and the bios was great.
I really recommend reading Sledge’s books, they’re great. You’ll actually see that much of the stuff he endured on Peleliu and Okinawa was actually worse than what was portrayed on the show.
I guess it took a while for Sledge to get back home - they said something about 6 months.
My father had to stay in Europe until March of 46 because of the points system , that was 10 months after the war ended. I don’t think they used a points system for the Pacific troops.
At one point Leckie was having dinner with his family, and asked if people wanted to knew whey he did it, and he said something that sounded like “Towing” or something, but I didn’t catch it. What was it?
Anyhow, I really wish we’d gotten to see a bit more of the news-of-victory and celebration (not to mention the surrender ceremony) but I can certainly see why they didn’t go that way.
Overall, I really enjoyed this series, although it’s very hard to really rate or assess it. It’s not really comparable to anything else.
I think Leckie said they fought for Television. He had just talked about how he was going to buy a TV.
Yes, Leckie said television.
Sledge describes the end of the war in “China Marine” where he said that a lot of companies had big parties but he and his buddies didn’t feel much like celebrating after all they had gone through and all the friends they had lost. So really, we saw that part of the victory and not the parades in the streets. Just a consequence of staying close to our protagonists.
Sledge was then sent to Beijing for six months on duty so that explains the “6 months” line on the train. I thought that was handled pretty inelegantly when they could have put “Six Months Later” on the screen and had the same dialog so people not in the know wouldn’t get lost. The goodbyes were pretty moving to me, though, particularly the way Snafu didn’t want to wake Sledge. Kind of a bittersweet moment, getting home but having to say goodbye to the only people that really made your time overseas bearable.
He said he fought for television and then stared at Vera for a long time, implying he fought for her or maybe to see her again.
I enthusiastically recommend Leckie’s books. His one volume histories of the Revolution, Civil War, and World War II especially are on my bedroom bookshelf (those are the “harem favorite” books) because they’re so well written and concise and great for reference when you need a quick fact or synopsis of a battle. He also makes great use of biography in his war books.
The wife and daughter who spoke of the nightmares. Who were they talking about? I missed it.
I have to ask this and it might as well be here. Why won’t the US Marines strap on their helmets? I’ve been raging at them for trying to fight a war one handed while fumbling with their helmets all along. Even a light breeze could knock them off. I realize they are probably uncomfortable to wear for long periods of time and it’s impractical to open and close the strap many time because it requires two hands. But seriously, is that worse than having your head blown off? Every time they have to duck for cover they are holding their helmets on with their hands. That’s just stupid.
I don’t think back then helmets were all that helpful in keeping you safe. They are not going to work against a big explosion. I don’t know how useful they were against machine gun fire either. Now helmets are made of kevlar so they are much better. But it does seem like keeping it strapped on is a good idea no matter what it’s made of.
They never said, which is kind of annoying. There were also at least two older guys that talked at the beginning of the episodes that were never identified. One was Bill Leyden, who died in 2008, but I still don’t know who the other guy I’m thinking of was.
Even kevlar helmets won’t stop a rifle bullet, when first introduced in WW1 the helmets were designed to protect the wearer from shrapnel, and steel helmets did that just fine.
A breeze will definitely NOT knock off a pisspot. As mentioned, even though made of steel, they are only really effective for glancing shrapnel or if somebody hits you on the head with a blunt object like a rifle butt. Very old helmets had straps that would allow a person to be choked with his own helmet from behind. I don’t know when that changed, but the WWII type helmets had a ball-and-clip arrangement that would break away under pressure to prevent being choked by your helmet strap. When those clips get old and worn, it takes very little pressure to cause them to separate. When that happens, there is no point in fastening the clip, since it won’t stay stay that way. A helmet is also an effective close-combat weapon unless you have to fumble with a clip.
It was Sledge’s wive.
I guess I didn’t think about it until the cabbie said it, but the guys in Europe got time off in Paris, London, etc. Pacific guys got very little of that, they were stuck on the islands most of the time. They had that trip to Australia but that was only 1 time.
The breeze thing was a slight exaggeration on my part. But I have a hard time accepting that all the reasons you listed trump protecting your noggin from shrapnel, ricochets, flying debris, concussion or simply being able to bend over unhindered. Besides a malfunctioning clip of course, which is a whole different rant.
I’ll accept that the strap was uncomfortable and made it harder to breath under duress. Like you said the WWII era straps went under the neck and not the chin like modern ones. Although other armies of the day did not seem to have that problem as much.
You know, I recognized the actress who played “Vera”, but couldn’t place her for the whole series. It was only after this finale that I remembered. She played the main character “Jaye” in Wonderfalls. This was quite a different role.
J.
The head is a small target. Riflemen are taught to shoot at center of mass. A wound takes three people out of action, a kill only one. I don’t know the statistics, but I’m sure that far more soldiers have been killed/wounded by other-than-head wounds and can see where a helmet would become less of a concern in situations other than when in one’s foxhole. It really doesn’t matter how tightly you cinch that strap, the bloody thing flops around on your head anyway when you’re running. If you cinch it too tight, the breakaway strap comes apart.
Here’s a wiki quote:
She also played the wife of the young FBI guy in Breach.