Spielberg/Hanks 'Masters of the Air' sequel is 'Band of Brothers' With Planes

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by Buehler445

I rewatched it recently and I thought it did a nice job of encapsulating the comparative meat grinder that was the pacific theater. Especially in comparison to the European theater.

If you haven't, I highly recommend reading Eugene Sledge's book, With The Old Guard, which his part of The Pacific is based upon. It reads like you and he are just sitting around and he's telling you what happened to him. The show only scratched the surface of how truly horrible it was.

I would have much rather fought in Europe than the Pacific.

[GloucesterChief]

Originally Posted by Buehler445

I rewatched it recently and I thought it did a nice job of encapsulating the comparative meat grinder that was the pacific theater. Especially in comparison to the European theater.

The Okinawa episode.

[Cheater5]

Originally Posted by Buehler445

I rewatched it recently and I thought it did a nice job of encapsulating the comparative meat grinder that was the pacific theater. Especially in comparison to the European theater.

I suppose, but as has been said by someone with far more historical knowledge and combat experience than me-- the deadliest battle is the one you're currently in. Who can say Tarawa was worse than Omaha Beach?

The fact that 8 of 11 Germans who died in WWII were killed by the Russians certainly helped the Allies, but the U.S. still lost more than twice the number of troops in Europe in a shorter amount of total time than we did in the Pacific.

A couple of months ago I posted a fact re: the air war over Europe; more Army Air Corps soldiers were killed in action over the skies of Europe than the entire Marine Corps during the war. Was the air war more of a meat-grinder than the Pacific theater? If you go by pure number of casualties, it certainly was.

Anyway. I didn't mean to come off like a dick. If we were drinking beers around a fire, you'd know by my tone of voice I'm just making conversation. I'm looking forward to this too.

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by Cheater5

I suppose, but as has been said by someone with far more historical knowledge and combat experience than me-- the deadliest battle is the one you're currently in. Who can say Tarawa was worse than Omaha Beach?

The fact that 8 of 11 Germans who died in WWII were killed by the Russians certainly helped the Allies, but the U.S. still lost more than twice the number of troops in Europe in a shorter amount of total time than we did in the Pacific.

A couple of months ago I posted a fact re: the air war over Europe; more Army Air Corps soldiers were killed in action over the skies of Europe than the entire Marine Corps during the war. Was the air war more of a meat-grinder than the Pacific theater? If you go by pure number of casualties, it certainly was.

Anyway. I didn't mean to come off like a dick. If we were drinking beers around a fire, you'd know by my tone of voice I'm just making conversation. I'm looking forward to this too.

The main thing that made the Pacific theater worse was the enemy. Your average German soldier wasn't all that different from your average American soldier. Sure, they were capable of great violence and acts of savagery, but generally if you were an American captured by Germans you'd survive mostly unscathed. Same with Germans captured by Americans. The Japanese, OTOH, were generally sadistic fanatics with little regard for their own lives and absolutely none for ours or anybody else's.

Sure, more people died in the European theater. More people fought there. And those bombers conducting daylight raids were deathtraps. But who would you rather face in combat; Germans or Japanese?