Thanks for watching! Just want to point out that our research team made some mistakes, and 'Robert Leckie' photos portrayed at 0:07, 0:45 & 1:13 are incorrect. Information about the Robert Leckie we're referring to can be found here - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Leckie_(author)
My grandpa who fought in the 508 PIR 82nd A/B Division didn't have a grand ole time from Normandy, Holland , And the Ardennes ( Battle of the Bulge ) ! That's just a fraction of all the European battles fought . And, there was diseases such as typhus , typhoid , Hepatitis , Malaria , and frostbite in losing a foot , toes , hands , hypothermia , trench foot , and Evan cardiac arrest for those who were scared shitless believe it or not. I would of loved some jar head ( Marine) tell my grandpa that his stint in the ETO was nothing compared to the PTO. With grandpa's severe issues of PSTD he would of killed the dude .
@@JohnEglick-oz6cd My father was also in WWII in the AAC, 8th Bomber Wing in Europe for the war, joining up 2 mos after Pearl. I think what is meant by a 'grand old time' was kind of referred to in the the miniseries "The Pacific" in the scene where Leckie returns home after the war and is driven home by a cabbie who had just recently returned from service in the ETO. As Leckie in Marine uniform offered payment for the ride, the cab driver says; "I ain't touchin' that. I may have jumped into Normandy but I got some liberties in London and Paris. You Gyrenes (Marines) got nothing but jungle rot, disease and misery... Welcome home" And he drives away. Any casual student of WWII knows that the experience of the American serviceman in Europe and the Pacific was extremely different in almost every aspect, and yet the sheer misery quotient would be hard to rate and quantify. As to who had the worse conditions it can be argued both ways but somehow that subtropical heat, humidity and the monsoons seem to me to be a sheer misery 24/7 365. Maybe because I'm in Louisiana and we have much the same climate and are getting it right now. 105F predicted today with a Heat Index of 112F. And about 96% humidity. I love where I live but I HATE the summers now.
Couple images 'implied' as Americans charging forward, are actually Soviet troops, likely taken in a re-enactment. You tell from their uniforms, Soviet jackboots, helmets and Tokarev firearms
My dad fought in ww2 Okinawa as a marine. He could relate to my uncle his little brother who fought in Vietnam as a marine. But not to me as I fought in a tank in the desert. Our experiences are so different but still horrible. Now my oldest can relate too as a combat vet.
My dad spent 2 1/2 years fighting in the Pacific. One day, watching television, someone on a news program commented that nuclear weapons were the most terrible weapons ever invented. My dad turned to me and said, “That person’s never seen anyone killed with a flamethrower”.
@@AlexandertheGreat001- Why wouldn’t it be? The last survivor of Iwo Jima was a Marine who won the Medal of Honor for burning japs alive in bunkers and he wrote a book about it and I myself have seen people roasted to death with thermobaric in cinerary bombs, just because you never had the courage to join the military does not mean that it never happened son.
Tbh, since my school made us meet with a chernobyl liquidators that explained to us the effect of radioactivity, i would say that your father unfortunatly underestimate how terrible a nuclear bomb is, especially if you survive it, radioactivity is terrible
I have talked to thousands of American WWII veterans, and from what I have been told time and time again that being in the Pacific was decidedly worse. Constant disease, bad supply lines overland, horrific environment, no meaningful R&R, and on top of that, the enemy was at another level of fanaticism. I wouldn't want to be in either theater, but I'd jump on Europe if given the choice in a heartbeat.
@@redaug4212 given the choice of death, I'd pick the quick carnage of the European battlefield to the slow rot of tropical disease. Scrub typhus is a horrifying disease. So is dengue fever, or anything else you can cook up on an island swamp. Neither theater is a good option, and the only comfort I find that Europe has that Papua New Guinea, the Solomons or any other Pacific hellhole don't is the lack of an environment that can kill you year round.
@@Bullet-Tooth-Tony- D-Day on Omaha beach cost 4,500 casualties, whereas D-Day on Iwo Jima cost 2,400 casualties. The rest of the Iwo Jima fighting was costlier, but then a more apt comparison would be losses on Iwo Jima vs the Normandy campaign as a whole (or at least the parts involving V Corps).
And to be clear, I'm not saying it was better in Europe than the Pacific as a whole, but at a personal preference, I'd rather be somewhere like France than Biak.
My great uncle was a medic during D-Day, and I always asked him what his experience was like. He never wanted to talk about what he saw during war. I could see he had a lot of trauma from what he experienced so I stopped asking at some point. He passed 2 years ago, and it wasn't until his funeral I found out he had wrote a book about his experience's. The man saved 21 people from a plane crash, received tons of medals, saved tons of people on the Beach's, and he had attended countless funerals for the people he couldn't save. And I had never heard any of this. It really breaks my heart sometimes because I wish I could tell him at how much of a hero he was, but he didn't feel that way about it. A true selfless man. Don't find many like him anymore.
It’s really unfortunate that the ones who served had a difficult time sharing their experiences overseas due to PTSD and trauma. My Great Uncle served as well, he never really told the family much besides the coins he brought back from Germany.
@frankkoolosko4255 I'm glad to hear he has lived to 102, I hope he has lived a great life man. Lived through one of the most brutal battles and lived past most people. I'd say big accomplishment.
My great grandfather was a Italian immigrant, he joined the U.S. army and was deployed to the European theater, he took part in the invasions of Italy and Sicily and had to invade his home town. His fellow soldiers had actually captured members of his extended family.
My grandfather, father’s father, fought from North Africa to Germany 1st infantry division. My great grandfathers on my mother’s side, fought in the Pacific. One was a marine who fought on Guadalcanal and Peleliu before being wounded by having his foot blown off by a mortar round. His brothers, my great-great uncles, were both in the Navy and were stationed at Pearl Harbor when the attack happened. One was on the USS Arizona, the other was on shore leave. Both miraculously survived, although the one who was on the Arizona had a piece of his ear torn off by shrapnel. The one on shore leave was killed later in the Philippines in 1944. The other great grandfather was an Army Air Force bomber crewman, a belly gunner on a B17. He was shot down, captured, tortured, escaped and returned to service to fly missions over Europe. My great uncle on my father’s mother’s side was a British Royal Marine. Other than the one sailor who died in the Philippines in ‘44, it was miraculous that all of these great men survived the war and I had the honor of getting to know them. And they all had the same thing to say- Fuck war. Edit: I did not expect this to blow up. I thought it would just be kind of glossed over.
@@darklight8338 so that a generation would not experience what he experienced. But war will always be a human thing and every generation will have a taste of it.
@@darklight8338 because he was still a soldier, there was still a war going on and he was deemed by medical personnel to be fit for service. It’s called orders. Edit: Sorry if I sounded snarky originally. It was not my intention to sound snarky or like smart ass. I just have trouble with saying things sometimes in a more socially acceptable way.
@@exudeku I’m glad that the shedding of my Kin’s blood was able to assist in the liberation of your country from oppression (Japanese or Nazi, whichever it was). Just regretful that it ever had to be liberated in the first place.
The only thing with that statement is that a lot of German troops fought in multiple theatres of war. But i would like to know how a soviet soldier fighting the Germans could relate to a American soldier fighting Japan. I wonder.
@@toasterhothead3312he Soviets routed the Japanese in Manchuria in 45. I’m sure most of the troops deployed in that operation had previous experience of fighting the Germans. The Soviets also fought the Japanese at Khalkin Gol in Mongolia just before ww2.
My grandfather fought in the Pacific. As a kid I noticed he and those like him didn't relate to veterans that fought in Europe. Pacific veterans were more solitary and unlikely to find relief in veterans organizations. They also identified strongly with the tropic climate and topography of the Pacific and would gravitate to similar places back home, like Florida. They were also more likely to be cynical of the war and the service.
My dad fought in the Pacific. One of his best friends fought in Europe. They spent many hours together talking about the war. "Cotton" told my dad how hard it was to kill people who looked just like him. My dad hated the Japanese for years. When he started going to reunions in the 90's he got past the hatred. It was very healing for him.
Not my dad. My aunt went to Hawaii. She said that my dad should go there for a vacation. My dad had been there on his way to Okinawa. He told her that he had been there once and that was enough! I was talking to a Helicopter pilot in Viet Nam. I told him that my dad was in WW2 and was stationed at Fort Rucker as part of the Wildcats. He said that that wasn't possible since it was a aviation base. I asked him who he thought built that base! The army knew what it was doing since the Fort was built in a hot humid swamp. Just like what he would be doing in the South Pacific.
When the 50th anniversary of D-Day rolled around in 1994, I was working with a guy that was WW2 veteran that had served in the Pacific. I asked if he could remember what his thoughts were at the time about the landings and he replied, “I didn’t give a damn. We were getting ready to land on Saipan and that was my focus. Couldn’t care less about what was going on in Europe.”😅
Thats actually pretty interesting when you think about it. D-Day was a very big achievement, but for Marines in the Pacific every operation started with their own version D-Day as a matter of course do to the nature of the island hopping campaign. For those in the Pacific D-Day would be just another beach landing to them.
@@CountKibblesNBits Fuck man Omaha and Utah would've probably been easy days for a lot of the marines that had to go through Saipan and Peleliu. Not trying to diminish what either side had to go through of course but the Pacific was really just a whole different level of brutal.
@@CountKibblesNBits It was actually because of the experience the US had in amphibious landings in the Pacific that D-Day went so well. Although there was a lot messed up in the execution.
I talked with a vet who fought in the Ardennes. Incredibly well decorated. He was adament about telling myself and some of my friend's about what happened, gruesome and heartwrenching stories that made him cry. He said he had to tell them no matter how much it hurt becaise someone had to remember his friends. He told us the greatest honor we could show them was to live happy, good lives.
My step-dad served with the 47th from Tunisia to Hurtguen and on. Never talked much but my goddaughter opened him up he said he preferred laughter, too much pain and memories of things out of his control, so best to just keep moving forward,till he would go to sleep as he said take ten, and wake up no longer tired and in pain.
One of my Great great uncles served with 3rd Marine Division, he was in the harsh jungle island of Bougainville and saw his buddies get Malaria and other jungle diseases and sporadic Japanese ambushes and attacks. Then he also went ashore with the 3rd Marine Division on Guam to retake the island from the Japanese, his LVT or amphibious vehicle was hit by a Japanese coastal gun, luckily he survived unscathed and rallied with the rest of his buddies. He was also present on Iwo Jima and was wounded in late or early March 1945 and they sent him home after spending months recovering in hospital in Hawaii and then moved to mainland US, he was honorably discharged on 12th August 1945 he was a corporal by the time he was discharged, 2 days before the Japanese capitulated. when he came back home to Lancaster, PA, he met with his high school and childhood friends who also served during the war and most served in European theater and there was this kind of rivalry between those who served in Pacific and Europe, although both respect each other, they always compared the environment of jungle, tropical and hot Pacific islands to the more populated and urbanized European theater, plus the guys who served in Europe always teased the guys who served in Pacific that they always get malaria, jungle diseases etc and the only RnR they get us probably seeing beaches, while the guys in Europe would brag that they could visit beautiful (sometimes ruined) towns and cities of Europe and they could meet friendly and liberated locals like in France and Italy or before D-Day, the people in UK, while the guys in Pacific would only meet the hostile Japanese or the friendly but distant Pacific islanders in the South Pacific or natives in Mariana islands, so the guys in Pacific would get teased because of where they served.
second husband of my grandma fought on the Eastern Front until he was captured in the Kurland pocket in late 1944 he could totally relate with the Russians from his generation who visited my grandma and they always were very excited and happy when sharing their old stories, translated by my slightly terrified gran ......she was halfjewish, born in Kiev and came as a little child to Germany (first stop, Auschwitz) - always had "mixed feelings" when reminded of war times......
@@ramal5708 My step-dad always said you would be amazed with what a bar of soap. Candy or a pack of cigarettes could bring u. Yes as for as luxuries are concerned, it was way rougher
My own experiences in Vietnam allow me some insight into the Pacific War. As a Marine, I too witnessed a lot an 18/19 year old boy shouldn't. We were burdened with leaders in Washington who didn't have a clue as to the direction or the objectives needed to win. At least the guys in my Dad's war (Army ETO.) tried to understand. They did have an objective in their war.
never understood a limited war. Not able to hit target on north vietnam never made sense to me. Same thing with UKraine who limited in their front as the official army isn't allow to hit russia directly or they may lose out on west aid package. Which i think its terrible as russia has made retaking ukraine land difficult with a deep defense line. Whole point of blitzkrieg is hit them where they arent.
@Marveryn about the NV, were bombed multiple times, if you are talking about amphibious landing, probably impossible, or too costly without considerable returns, about Ukraine, they are attacking Belgorod for some time, the west is turning a blind eye and somehow Russia too, since they had a different nuclear doctrine based on reaction, if the Ukraine government went further than skirmishes and artillery strikes on Belgorod their capital would become a pothole, either they fight for the occupied regions or they fight for the entire country, and guess what is less costly?
You can thank President LBJ, Defense Sec. Robert MacNamara and Gen. William Westmorland for the debacle and one senator in particular - a hero of the left - who made sure that nothing was to be sent to the ARVN after we withdrew in 1973 - Frank Church. The left won
My grandfather fought and was captured on Corregidor and spent 3.5 years as a POW of the Japanese. In the early 1950's, according to my aunt, the family had a cook out and all my uncles had been in Europe during the war, and swapped war stories all day. My grandfather, she said, never said and word and she doubted that he was actually in the war. He just couldn't relate to their experiences, or thought maybe they would never have understood his.
Makes sense. The European theatre was a tug and push between fronts. The Pacific theatre was quite frankly hopping islands and hoping this one wasn’t as horrific as the last because of how hot, disease ridden and pesky the enemy and island was
@@hybui123 "pesky" is a VERY VERY light way of describing Imperial Japan. Those mf's were Kpop stans on Steroids x1000000000 And some Islands like Papa New Guinea were extremely challenging because of how big it was and the landscape especially the mountain's and the thick forests and bush on all the islands
Island hopping seems, would have been like D-Day every new island. Imagine getting off those landing boats and facing reinforced, tug-in troops, bunkers, barriers, machine guns and artillery everytime you hit a new island. And the only rest is between battles and if your wounded, it would be a long while before carried to a spot to waite for evacuation to a hospital ship somewhere out in the ocean. Just guessing ; /
My father joined the United States Navy the day after Pearl Harbor. Most of his time was spent on supply runs, including the North Atlantic Convoy, but also in support of Anzio and then later in the Pacific on "milk runs" from San Francisco to Hawai'i. I asked him why *he* joined the way. Over time, he answered me three times. The first time he told me this was the stupidest question I could ask if I was of his generation ... but he said, "You're from the Vietnam generation and deserve another answer." The first answer: Patriotism, Pearl Harbor, Duty to the Nation. It was a direct, textbook answer, the Greatest Generation answering THE CALL. Years later he gave me the second answer: His father (a WWI vet) had a map of Europe on the wall of their house. He put in pins with flags to mark the movement of troops. When his father put the Nazi flag on Paris, his father cried. My father mentally then said, "I am going to get the b******s who made my father cry!" The third answer came a little bit before he died. "Oh god, it was such a relief! I wanted to get away so badly! I was so tired of being just Dad's son. And more, my mother's cooking was so awful! And her constant Bible reading! I just had to get out of that house!" All three of these answers were correct, but they were correct in very different ways.
The irony is my grandfather, so willing to fight for his country, dying in the war resulted in his children (my father included) being complete tearaways. My dad's brother joined a group of gangsters in seeking a father figure. It had a really bad effect on the families left behind. The mothers left with the choice of living a life of mourning or finding the will to move on and marry someone new. The children without fathers, mocked by those children who's fathers survived.
I am Vietnam I went to get away from Mum and Dad [only child ] Greek cousins, arranged marriages the lot . I joined to go to exotic places and meet exotic women I got both she is watching TV and we have been together55 years I am glad I went.
My dad got his draft notice about 6 months after PH for the army. He immediately joined the navy. He wanted a clean place to sleep at night and regular meals. He wound up being a cook. LOL.
I read Eugene Sledge's book "With The Old Breed" and after I finished it I couldn't imagine why anyone who has been in combat wouldn't have severe PTSD.
Had that exact thought after reading Sledge's book. I'm thankful that generation shouldered that burden for us future generations. I'd have lost my mind seeing what Sledge or Leckie saw.....
The Okinawa section is just horrifying. I can't imagine the absolute horror of those grasslands and prairies turned into vast muddy wastelands filled with craters and corpses, all that compounded by the rain
I've read many many memoirs from the war, and I have to say 'If you survive' is one of the most depressing. A new individual is introduced on one page, and then 3 pages later they're dead. This happens, again and again and again and again. After a while - you become emotionally exhausted and after that, you just detach. You get a sense for the indifference soldiers had for one another, because nobody expected anybody else to make it to the end of the day alive.
@@terminallumbago6465according to my grandfather after Normandy until like August of 1944 those guys that survived became like your family. August and September was spent slowly getting across France and to the German lines and then Ardennes happened. That is where the Germans really turned things into a meat grinder and the battle of the bulge. From Ardennes to VDay was almost 6 months. It was only 11 months, give or take, overall from D day to Victory in the ETO
I read a similar book called "Lost Boys" about the boy soldiers in the first world war, it was terribly sad. Many were working class or went in with the brothers and friends, some were lead by their teachers, others had fathers chase after them - and all generally did not survive long.
That's actually one of the... I wouldn't call it a "problem" but you know... Something to note about Band of Brothers. It's all about guys who stayed in close touch with each other for years after the war. That bond was the reason Ambrose chose their unit. So most of them survive. He just takes a few token guys who were there from the beginning to kill off like Muck and Pencala to write about their deaths...
If you were an US soldier and fell into German captivity, you had a very high chance of surviving the war. If you fell into Japanese captivity, assuming they even took you prisoner, your chances of survival were very slim. I think this pretty much points out to which of those theaters was worse.
True but you had a much higher chance of survival as an infantryman in the Pacific. A large percentage of the deaths of US troops in the Pacific were naval
@@XaviRonaldo0that doesn’t mean it was safer to be a infantry man in the pacific either though. I really don’t know why you’re trying to discredit people of their service. Kinda weird
My grandfather fought in the Pacific, surviving both Iwo Jima and Okinawa. He didn't talk about it much, but the stories he did tell were harrowing. Using the dead body of his friend in place of sand bags to take cover from enemy fire, that kind of thing. And yet, he held more of a grudge against the Germans. He bought himself and all his sons Kawasaki motorcycles at a time when very few Americans had ever heard the name. A lifelong GM loyalist who wouldn't consider a Ford, he bought my grandmother one of the first Honda Accords that ever rolled off the boat. When my dad bought a German Maico dirt bike and a VW Karmann Ghia, his old man went absolutely nuclear over it.
That sounds like bullshit. None of the US Marine Corps and Army units that fought on Iwo Jima also fought in Okinawa. Iwo Jima also ended less than a week before the Okinawa Campaign started and Iwo and Okinawa are 850 miles apart, so it wasn't logistically feasible. Even if he changed units (which was uncommon for enlisted men to do). Unless he was Jewish, etc, there is also no reason why an American who served in the PTO would hate Germans but somehow be very forgiving towards the Japanese. Hating them both, yeah, buying Japanese products before it was cool but going nuts over his children buying German products, no. Even American European Theater vets seldom hated Germans after the war.
@MG-wk2eh I might have the battles mixed up, since he died when I was 11. I know 100% he was at Okinawa, so Iwo Jima I can believe I misremembered. But the thing with him hating German products is definitely true. I should clarify though, the man went into nuclear rage quite often, so it's not like the Ghia was his biggest freak-out of the year, just for that Wednesday (or whatever). He'd blow up when he heard his boys playing Rubber Soul and "Back in the USSR" came on. He would rant at high volume about the poor quality of Chrysler door handles. The man was volatile. I don't think one had to be Jewish to get anti-German after seeing the newsreel footage from the camps. By contrast, I think he had a begrudging respect for the Japanese after seeing how tenacious they were. Perhaps that attitude would make good dirt bikes. Those Kawasakis made a big impression on him. I've got one of the same year and model from that initial 1960s purchase (it's on my channel if you don't believe), so clearly they were quality. His exposure to German things would have been all VW Bug, which didn't make a great impression. "So they're evil, AND they make bad cars?" Something like that. I can still see a shadow of it in my uncles, who to this day are somewhere between cold and combative about my dad's various German acquisitions. They didn't like the Ghia either, or the 914, or the Audi, or either of the BMW bikes. They were simply raised to believe there was something wrong about anything German.
@@MG-wk2ehWow. I hope you enjoy the award you won and the parade for calling out someone on the internet. Next time, instead of being immediately hostile, ask *how* it’s possible for that to occur. Nobody is handing out prize money for being a dick on the internet. *Be better*
@@redrocket604 Not really, at least not in America (anti-German hatred was common in Europe for a long time after the war). One example, although there's many other examples, is 'Easy Company' from Band of Brothers. They felt (retrospectively of course) the Germans they fought were mostly just kids like themselves and that under different circumstances they could've been friends who had stuff in common. German soldiers tended to treat Western Allied POWs and casualties well, generally abide by the Geneva Convention (of course, there were still atrocities on both sides), like not deliberating killing American medics. Combat medics would wear medical insignia on the battlefield, but not in the Asia-Pacific Theater because the Japanese would target them. Were there salty old bastards that went to their graves with bitterness and hate? Of course, but it was generally not the case.
My dad was a member of the 221 Airborne Medical Company of the 11th Airborne Division in the Pacific. Growing up he seldom talked about the war but made me become a Boy Scout, take Red Cross First Aid Classes, Red Cross Life Saving classes, Civil Defense classes, and help out at the local volunteer fire department. He said it was to train me if I ever needed it. I did. When I went to Vietnam he only gave me one bit of advice. "Don't get close to any of the people in your unit. It's real hard when they get killed."
I don't know where to start here. To begin with, I am German and grew up in a Village with a population of 1.500 in the 70s and 80s. I lived with my parents and my grandparents - dad's parents, and as it was usual these days, my parents had a grocery store at one half of the building and my grandparents a tavern on the other half. Our living room was next to the tavern, and sometimes the noise from there was louder than the TV. But we weren't allowed to turn the TV louder, because it could disturb the customers. Grandpa was born in 1905 and too old and un-fit to serve anywhere in an active combat unit, so he was drafted into the Landsturm, where he served along with other men of his age or veterans of the first world war as a dispatch rider at a nearby Luftwaffe ammunitions factory. So he was no combat veteran per sé, but somehow after the war our tavern became a watering hole for many of the veterans of the defeated nazi-german army, who fought and suffered everywhere battles took place. There was a U-Boat man, a Fallschirmjäger, who lost an arm on Kreta, the guy who "left" his legs in afrika, one half blind, one with only three fingers. And the other ones, with "only" scars or invisible injuries. Normally, there were the usual pub-talks: joking, bragging, cursing about stupid bosses, complaints over taxes, government, the wifes, which farmer bought which tractor... Same stuff as today. But on some occasions, the talk came to the war. Remember, it was in the 70s and 80s, and the men, who fought in it were the same age as I am today, or a little bit older. I always liked it to sneak in the adjacent club-room, open the sliding door a little bit and listen to the banter of the guests. I sometimes thought, the men were fighting in different wars, wich must have absolutely been possible, because they were so old from my perspective. The submariner was always about french women and some big parties in the harbor and the british enemy. The man without legs talked about the desert, and the heat, and the flies and the thirst - among other themes. The Fallschirmjäger didn't take part in conversations, he must have had his bit and according to his grand-children, with which i went to school, he never ever lost a word about the war. Most men of this party of the mangled and injured had served on the eastern front, and the only thing you heard about that was pretty much like "that was hell", "that was sh*t", "terrible, you can't imagine". And there was Onkel Herbert, who occupied norway until the end and got a comfy boad-ride back to germany after the end of the war. But that was ok for the others, because he was still a teenager then. Maybe, also on the axis side the perception of the war and experience was different from soldier to soldier, depending on which enemy he was facing. Western Allies in France, Afrika and Italy, the navies on the atlantic or the russians on the eastern front. It is remarkable, that the veterans from the russian front usually talked about the cold, the lack of food, villages with poor people, dust and endless marching days and very rarely about actual combat while the ones from the other fronts were more freely about their experiences. In a war this big, the experiences can only differ, depending on where you were in it.
Thanks for your post. Very interesting to hear your father's & other Germans experiences in uniform. My father served in US naval squadrons as a mechanic in the Pacific. As allied forces went "island hopping" across the South Pacific up toward the Philippines and farther north the Marines would land on an occupied island and then the aviation units would take over the Japanese airfield or make a quick airfield. Then, after securing all the neighboring islands, they would move to the next set of islands. They bounced from one island group to another, like frogs jumping from one lily pad to another. His only experience with "combat" was being confined to a medical tent with dengue fever that inflamed his joints so severely he could barely move. There was a single Japanese airplane that regularly flew over the base on a harassment flight and would drop a couple of small bombs. My dad said he was so mad at that pilot because he felt trapped and couldn't even get off the stretcher and run to an air raid trench. One thing that always made him smile was when he would talk about the cute French girls, the daughters of local plantation owners. Lol! 20 years later he met 2 former POWs of the Bataan Death march. He ended up knowing them for many years and so got to know their stories. The forces at US/Philippine fortress at Corregidor surrendered after weeks of Japanese bombardment. Hundreds of US & Philippine soldiers were brutalized and even beheaded on the march to slave labor camps across Asia. My Dad said one of the guys was really psychologically damaged while the other managed to cope but was still messed up. For me I went to school with lots of kids whose father's served and teachers whose husband's served. I remember one teacher whose husband served in the jungles of Burma and how he was repeatedly struck by disease and low rations. It just seemed so "normal" to grow up around WWII & Korean vets. Most were pretty even tempered but a few still had the mental scars but no one really talked about it.... Now days so few people know any veterans. Our military is very insular.
I was stationed in Germany in the last years of the 1980s. I knew a U-Boat man and met a lot of German vets. Many of them seemed to enjoy talking with us. I think sometimes they had a common bond even with the difference in age. In hindsight, this seems a bit strange since all of the Germans our age had to do military service. They seemed to think we were different. I eventually ended up with a wide range of experiences from Germany, Bosnia, and Afghanistan. I now feel a lot of sympathy for the German Afghan vets.
Thank you for passing on their stories. it's truly fascinating to hear about their experiences. The average person may never know about these stories unless they were in the right place and the right time, which you happen to have been.
@@willbass2869 when I started going to bars around town in the late 70s, there were still WWII vets available to sit and talk to and buy beers for. I'll never forget those conversations.
Following the years after the war, Sledge ended up connecting with one of his fraternity brothers, Buck Marsh, who was an infantryman attached to the 3rd armored division in Europe and who personally witnessed the legendary Cologne Panther-Pershing tank duel of which Adam Makos writes about in his book "Spearhead". The two actually bonded heavily over talking to each other about their contrasting experiences, and both said that doing so was the best thing that helped them mitigate the trauma they both experienced.
I’ll need to check his post war book out. I took a hiatus from an audiobook of With The Old Breed as I don’t read so I’m a bit bad about finishing things but I was near the end of his Okinawa time so I’m getting close to the end. One thing I realized throughout is just how much of the Pacific uses Sledge’s accounts. I can’t remember specifically but there were several things where I was like oh that happened to somebody else in the show but it actually is from his memoir. “One of the best combat memoirs of all time” is an understatement. He literally wrote it while in the foxhole rather than trying to remember after time passed.
@dblackout1107 What he did was take notes in the spaces of his issued Bible because keeping an "Official" diary is against Combat regulations and then throughout the years he would look at the notes and that would help his Recall for writing his book. I believe this method took him all the way till 1981, that's when it was released. His memory, recall was obviously Excellent I'm sure there was much he didn't have to TRY to remember, it would ALWAYS be there. Sledge also wrote a follow up to "With the Old Breed" called "China Marine" in 2002. It's about the time directly after Okinawa. He was shipped to China as part of a Post War occupation force, basically to take the Japanese, peacefully from THEIR Occupiers position. Seeing as Sledge didn't have enough "Points" this is how he had to finish serving out his time in the USMC. If you like Sledges First book and you liked the way he saw things and the way he wrote about it in his book this should definitely interest you. His fellow Marine R.V. Burgis" Burgie" also wrote a book much later than Sledge in 2010 about his time in the War. It's title is "Islands of the Damned". I enjoyed it, and it gave a little bit of a different perspective on the time he shared with "Sledgehammer," definitely worth the read.
WW2 messed my Polish grandfathers head up monumentally. He was angry and abusive to my mum and her siblings as children. I didn't want to know him before he died but when I grew up and started to understand what he went through I wondered what kind of father he would have been without all of that trauma.
@@Michael_Hunt You do realise that trauma can drastically change how a person acts, right? Prior to the war, he could've been the gentlest person in Poland. That was an incredibly ignorant response, from a very ignorant person.
Yeah being a soldier in both fronts was difficult in their own ways. The Pacific theatre in particular always sounds way more scary. You're on small islands in the sea where there's barely fresh water to drink, it's always hot af in the jungle, the enemy usually does not surrender, and the battles drag on far longer than they are expected to
@@robertsettle2590in Europe at least there were chains that could arrive on you, and battles rarely go south if you exclude the Kasserine pass or the Bulge Also, burma is considered part of the pacific campaign
@@robertsettle2590 it died more soviets in the battle of Stalingrad than it dided americasn combined. If you would lose a battle you would be killed later.
People from that generation seemed more stoic then later ones. Many experienced the poverty and hardships of the Great Depression prior to going to war. They were a tough bunch. I grew up knowing a few WWII vets. Most served on ground in Europe and the rest were naval vets who fought in the Pacific. My uncle was B-17 navigator who had to bail out over Yugoslavia and traveled with local patrician forces to allied lines. Very few ever discussed actual combat they experienced.
It seems like being forced into war drains you of emotions since this was a world war one way kore devastating then the first it seems rather obvious they would be somewhat dead inside
Well, I did three tours in Afghanistan in the earlier part of the war, and you very quickly learn that people have no clue what you are talking about. I also don't particularly care for the professional vet types who look for every opportunity to regale the world about their experiences in all sorts of venues where they expect attention and praise. I don't think, in any case, there was a big difference between the generations when you speak about the people on the ground. This is one of the reasons I get tired of GenX and Boomer types slandering millennials. I am a Boomer, but most of the people I was with were millennials, and I had absolute trust in them. My grandfather fought at Buna in the Papuan Campaign. He died in 99. It would have been interesting to have talked to him after a tour or two of my own.
@@erotzoll Well the reality is most people are so ignorant that they haven't the slightest idea as to what they don't know. They live incredibly sheltered lives and in those bubbles they live in cannot see it. I know known many Veterans, and I have heard a lot of stuff from them about their experiences. The only thing I know for absolute certainty is that I don't know anything. I have an idea and I can conceptualize things, but I will never understand much of that without having experienced it. And that's perfectly fine. For much of life you cannot understand without experience. And unfortunately most people just for what ever reason don't grasp that. I see that so many people these days that need to be an expert in everything. Especially those in my generation. But sadly most of them don't realize how truly ignorant they are. What I have gleamed from life is that I am a complete fool along with the rest of the worlds population. I cannot and will not know everything and will be wrong about most things I say without even realizing it. I obviously feel like I know better and thing I can do things better, but that cannot be true because everyone feels that. Being smart does not mean you know everything or that anyone should trust a word you say. I am just some random guy on the internet and my opinions mean nothing. Unfortunately people do not realize this is universally true.
In my experience born in 1947 I only knew 1 adult male who didn't serve in WW II. All 3 of his brothers did. He was married, with 1 child and partial support of his widowed mother as his responsibility. His job kept requesting a draft deferment as an essential worker They were different in many ways.
My great grandfather was in the Army during WW2, he fought in the Pacific. The only story I ever got out of him was when he had to run for his life and jump into the nearest ditch because the beach he was on was being bombed. He was a very quiet man and unfortunately drank himself to death but I know he finally found peace at the end. He was so happy at the end. My grandfather(his son) was a dog handler in the Air Force during Vietnam. He came back addicted to drugs and alcohol. He was a monster! He dropped death at 45. I wish things could have been different for him but I know what he saw and did in the jungle changed him forever. I saw 9/11 happen as a kid and joined the Navy at 18. I was so blessed to never be downrange. I lost so many friends from suicide who were. Talk to and thank your service men and women because you never know what they may be going through. I’ve seen survivor’s guilt take so many
My father is old enough to remember when WW2/Korea veterans were so dime a dozen that you'd casually run into them at bars and on the train or at your job. So I got very different stories when I was growing up than my friends did, who mostly went by what they saw on History Channel or in movies and Xbox games. The huge one is that I knew the Pacific campaign backwards and sideways while this is mostly ignored in America, even today.
My uncle Ralph, Pacific theater and my uncle, John European theater were my true father figures. They had different reactions to their service. For about 10 years after the war John was skittish to people coming up behind him. Ralph just buried his feelings in a quart of beer a day.
For the games, at least, it's easy to explain. Japan is a huge source of and market for them, even WW2 shooters, while Germany/Italy not so much. It's a lot easier to say 'we're fighting the fascists & the Nazis' as opposed to 'we're fighting your/our great grandfathers, and our emperor.'
My 7th grade history teacher did a great job teaching the war in the Pacific. All the desks were pushed back and boxes and books were islands with little signs identifying them. We went through the leadership, the strategy, the battles. He read aloud 1st person memoirs, real grown up history of the Pacific Theater. We listened to music of the time. This was in 1965-1966. Teachers today are not allowed teach in such a free way. If it's week three of the 2nd semester you are on page 167 chapter 3, and the effect of 21st curriculum micro-management makes most kids hate school.
In Afghanistan my unit was split up and scattered to different places with other units. Some had easy jobs, some were run into the ground. When we came back to our unit and reunited we all struggled to fit back together. It was also hard because you were completely removed from the ppl you experienced that with. Suicides happened, a lot of guys got in some trouble afterwards. Divorces happened.
Had a very similar experience in Iraq. Some in our unit was out and about nearly EVERY day. While others were essentially fobbits. When our unit got back to the states cliques developed around those who did things and those that sat in the rear. Oh, and add mefloquine. . . . so yeah we also had MANY divorces and suicides.
Hard to handle the trauma and the- damage that came- afterwards…. Which explains the drinking and coping mechanisms that we turned to. I say handle only because many turned to coping as recovering/ recovery ❤️🩹 was probably just too painful.
I was EOD. Our deployments were exactly like this. Unit split into 2-3 person teams, and sent to be attached to different units at different FOBs. Some more busy and dangerous than others.
Like many, my grandmother's brother was a coal miner from the age of 14. He and his brothers were happy when the war started as it got them out of the mines. His boat was torpeedoed at Dunkirk. He survived as he could swim, having grown up by the sea. He then went to East Asia where he ended up in a camp in Burma. He survived the war and no one in the family knew about his experiences until in the 80s he assaulted his wife. It all came out in court.
@@D-M-R69 You know, I never thought to ask. The judge took it into consideration and that's where the story always stopped. Now I'll have to ask and find out.
I used to work in the kitchens at a retirement home several years ago and we had one WW2 veteran there. On memorial day they would display stuff from various wars for everybody to look at and pay respects to. I was looking at one of the displays while on my break and the old man walks up to me and we have a brief conversation of his experiences in the Pacific. Told me so casually and matter of fact that one day he was out on patrol with his squad and they came under fire and he ended up shooting a guy out of a coconut tree. Glad he was able to survive the war and hope he's still doing well.
My war experience in Iraq and Afghanistan was different from my uncle that fought in Europe in WW2, and my father in Korea and Vietnam. I lost friends and saw the outcome of our firepower in our enemy. I was deployed for one year on each occasion. For me, it was traumatic to go out on a walking patrol, and I don't know if a sniper or IED would hurt me or a friend. In the case of my dad, it was constant violence for a whole year, and see friends, enemy soldiers, and civilians in pieces. My dad was my hero and I pray to God that I did not disappoint him and that I did my duty.
i understand i just have one question if you might answer: when you were on the battlefield did you have the feeling that you just helped your country destroy and kill the people of another's country for no military reasons ? thank you
@@laro_yas I did not have that feeling in Afghanistan. The reason was because the terrorist from Al-qaeda were responsible for killing innocent American civilians and for that they had to paid with their life. That is why I understand the Israeli soldiers that want to destroy Hamas terrorists. You have to understand that terrorist don’t want to negotiate they want to destroy us.
@@Edwin6932except for the fact relevant Al-Qaeda members weren’t in either of those countries and were literally funded by the same people that sent you there. But you do you I guess
Basically the GIs in Europe after liberation European cities would get wines and girls ,while the GIs in Pacific had to combat Japanese and Malaria at the same times
My uncle, George Willie Barton was in the Marines. He went into Guadalcanal on the 3rd wave ashore. Born in 1920 he died in 1972. 50 years is well below the average age of those born in the 1920s. Especially as a farmer with plenty of family always pitching in and being able to take time off when sick. My mother was making some navy beans and as they simmered on the stove the lid popped. Just that noise caused him to jump up and then get into a crawl. She heard the commotion and reassured him that it was just a pit on the stove. The nightmares his wife told my mother, that uncle Willie would have with sweats, talking and sometimes yelling in his sleep had to contribute to his early death. My dad and another of his brothers lived much longer. The PTSD had to contribute to his massive stroke that caused his death.
It is very sobering to learn of the lifelong struggle to battle the demons of memory. Thank you for sharing your uncle's story. Bless you for caring enough to share.
Being Canadian, our country did not have many troops deployed in the Pacific theatre, but rather most were in Europe. I had a Great-Uncle who was an RCAF Navigator, shot down and became a POW of the Japanese. He never really talked about the war, but his tongue would loosen up a wee bit after a few beers. What he went through was beyond cruel, and was only 78 pounds when the war ended. He never returned to full health and died in 1974. All other relatives I had who fought were in Europe and lived full productive lives. I suppose they had their mental scars as well, but we never saw them. Although they all fought in the same war, it was my opinion as a young relative that the war my Great-Uncle fought was way worse.
There was a known controversy involving famous war correspondent Ernie Pyle when he transferred from covering the war in Europe to the Pacific in 1945. He arrived there already enjoying a celebrity status, and was treated as such by the brass. He embarked on an aircraft carrier instead of a tin can destroyer, was given an officer's state room instead of bunkering up with sailors below decks, which gave him the wrong impression that life on a Navy ship is easy compared to the ground troops. Pyle wrote unflattering portraits of the Navy, and a particular piece describing troops living in relative comfort in one of the many island outposts. He was met with angry letters from readers and fellow war correspondents who reminded him that those idyllic islands were captured and paid for by the blood of thousands of troops first. He had to apologize and conceded that his heart still remained with the grunts in Europe. Pyle was later killed in Okinawa, hit by a Japanese machine gun fire while covering the 77th Infantry Division. Journalists like Ernie Pyle and others may have witnessed the worst of the battles and could write about them, but as a non-combatant they are still a long distant away from the real experiences of men who had to do the actual fighting and killing and making life and death decisions.
Or they become like Cronkite - bluntly stating, while attired in combat fatigues in Vietnam, that he would report what he wanted America to understand, we were losing the war, instead of facts. Pyle was a putz
I was deployed to Iraq in 08 and then again in 10’ and I can’t compare my experiences to theirs- and have never tried. The terrain, culture and warfare is just too different let alone the tactics used. The main difference though is our gear and equipment- and even then there’s still very little to talk about.
As someone who’s been in combat, it’s the hardest thing I have to deal with, I’m lucky I’m alive. I couldn’t comprehend what the 40s must’ve been like for those soldiers and the military it’s self. I take great pride in the US because my family immigrated here from Cuba and Mexico so we fight as if we are fighting for our own home and want to protect it. Even though the sacrifices are insanely great we still need these telling and stories to help better the future and give light to what was done and how we can be better
Well said. Thank you for loving your family, your comrades, and Country and for your service to preserve and protect our Nation and its interests. God bless you!
We talk a lot about the trauma of WWII troops and the difference between the ETO and PTO. We have tons of info on the trauma Vietnam vets went through. Why does nobody ever talk about the trauma Korean War vets experienced? Horrible weather (from sweltering heat to Siberian deep freeze), relentless night time human wave attacks from a numberless enemy, and then 2 years of WWI-style trench warfare. And then the added trauma of having fought in a war everybody keeps forgetting…
It truly is America's forgotten war. I've seen people describe the 50s as a decade of "peace" and prosperity following WW2, seemingly forgetting that the first 1/3rd of the decade we were in a horrific conflict that seems to have been largely suppressed or forgotten.
Back in the day the press even called it the Korean "Conflict" and refused to call it a War. I knew an old family friend who survived and it wasn't pretty. Remarkable man who was kicked out of home at 16 for being a deliquent and forged a fake birth certificate to enlist. Got sent to Korea basically as punishment because he crashed a jeep he wasn't supposed to be driving while stationed in Japan. Once in Korea, sense his new officers didn't like his attitude, they sent him and a few of his buddies to draw fire so that they could find the location of a machine gun nest... only instead of being good little human sacrifices they disobeyed orders, flanked the enemy, and returned with the broken machine gun. He was awarded a medal when his superior that wanted him dead tried to court martial him for disobeying a direct order but instead of being punished the military used it as a wittness statement for a bronze star. He didn't talk much about his experiences until he was really old and trying to make peace with God. Apparently they put him on a machine gun for most of the remainder of his service and he shot hundreds if not thousands of enemy troops dead because the Chinese, I believe it was, frequintly sent drugged up waves of soldiers trying to overwhelm positions with sheer numbers. Most of his PTSD, and fear that he was going to be sent to hell, came from knowing how many people he killed and how emotionally numb he was to pulling the trigger at the time.
I agree, it’s sad how it’s forgotten. I think a part of it is how many battle hardened veterans from ww2 went to Korea. I think there was less of a generational shock of not seeing the atrocities of war for the first time. For a lot of them I imagine it was something like “sigh, time for round two”. And then a lot of the people back home, still familiar with ww2 probably were thinking the same hearing the news
When I was a teenager back in the late 70s, I worked for a law firm as a messenger and one of the other messengers was a WW2 vet who had served in New Guinea where he got malaria. It still affected him all those years later where he would have recurrences of the disease and have to miss work. He was a meek and mild mannered little guy so it was always hard to imagine him as a soldier. The firm never hassled him about absences because all the big shots were veterans. The managing partner had been an officer in the war, in the OSS, and our direct boss of the messenger department was a retired career US Army sergeant and had served in combat in Korea & Viet Nam.
My grandfather was a Army veteran that survived Leyte. He was awarded a Silver Star and two Purple Hearts, then spent a year convalescent in a VA hospital. He talked very little about his experiences there. These are the things heros are made of.
My parents’ wedding pictures have a picture with both of my grandfathers. One was an MP in Europe who always had a good story about his time in the war. He seldom heard a shot fired in anger. The other was a combat veteran of Peleliu who was wounded in the pacific and dropped out of college to reenlist for Korea. He was almost killed in 1950 during the Chinese entry into the war. He never talked about anything, just about how hot the pacific was and how cold Korea was. The difference was stark. They even looked different ages.
Let's not forget U.S. armed forces personnel in the Pacific fought in a vast array of areas beyond those mentioned in the intro: In the mid-1960s we patrolled the Marianas Islands, Bonin Islands, Caroline Islands as well as the Marshall and Gilbert Islands. My Dad's ship visited Fiji.
My great grandma had seven sons who all went to fight in WWI. They all came home. Even survivors' guilt is a terrible thing. My granda tried to join up in WWII, even though he had been blinded in one eye, during WWI - shot under the chin, where the bullet had gone through the roof of his mouth, through his eye and out through the side of his head. It was 'only' his left eye. He reckoned he could still aim a rifle. My great grandma could never look other mothers in the eye - left or right. War is madness!
This is a great video! I think this is perhaps one of my favorite videos of yours after following you for years. This is a very under appreciated and under studied subject of the second world war. Most people today are so disconnected from these events that the fact that these men and women were in fact real people that lived real lives and the psychology of these soldiers is just lost and forgotten about today. I'm glad to see a larger channel covering this subject and I think this will do great things. Keep up the great work!
One WWII veteran, who served (and was wounded) in the ETO, but who had an appreciation for what the guys in the PTO went through (and in fact was instrumental in directing me to Sledge's and William Manchester's memoirs) was Paul Fussell, who wrote his own memoir of his time in the ETO, as well as Wartime, both highly recommended.
My dad fought in the pacific against the Japanese at Guadalcanal, Saipan, Tinian and Iwo Jima. He went to work at a brewery in New Orleans when he came home. He worked side by side with former German POWs who were sent to Louisiana during the war. It didn’t bother him. He said that They were not his enemies.
Was it Jax, Dixie, Falstaff or Regal brewery. Remember the Times Picayune had a "Picture From The Past". In one I'm sitting on a barstool next to my Pawpaw while my 3 uncles are playing cards at a table. It was Snell's Restaurant on 4th St in Marrero around 1960 & my grandfather was good friends with Red Snell. They even had slot machines in the back.
Thank you for creating this video. I'm 64 years old, and i have studied WWII throughout my entire life. At this point, I rarely hear any new facts I didn't already know, so instead, I appreciate hearing new interpretations and viewpoints on the impact of WWII. I welcome the way your video will help younger generations understand the experiences endured by the parents, teachers and neighbors of my generation.
I thought you might State one obvious difference. Units in Europe, once they arrived at the front, tended to stay in action continuously until the end of the war in Europe. Marine units would train, and train, for months in relatively peaceful environments, then be thrown into close combat, the most intense of all, for two or three weeks, until they had killed the island Garrison after vicious close fighting! Each type of Engagement very different, but both equally scarring to the individuals.
That " staying in action" is correct. But in Europe there were far more actually " relaxing" moment. Actual calmth on the front along a either friendly or beaten enemy civilian population. With weather most americans were more accustomed to. Meanwhile the marines were always fighting either japanese. The japanese and malaria, the japanese, malaria and the constant sun. Or fighting just the sun and malaria.
@@RK-cj4oc I wouldn't say that most American GIs were accustomed to sitting in a foxhole dealing with rain, mud, snow, sleet, and constant patrolling for weeks if not months. Nor do I think they would consider that a relaxing moment compared to being pulled off the line entirely.
@@redaug4212 Yeah, but that was while surrounded by friendly civillians with (mostly) known lines and knew where the enemy was. Not to mention they only spend 1 winter in actual Europe.Which is a world of difference from the constant. Endless. Never ending heat and malaria outbreak that is the pacific.
@@RK-cj4oc Friendly civilians were not unheard of in the Pacific theater either though. Filipinos, Melanesians, and Chamorros offered huge support for US troops in some of the most remote battlefields in the Pacific. And US forces spent two winters in Europe, not just one. Fighting in the central Apennine mountains in winter conditions was every bit as bad as fighting in winter conditions in France, Belgium, and Germany.
I'm glad you brought up the Japanese philosophy toward the war. You have to understand that what they wanted and what they valued, affected how they acted. I get very annoyed with people who attack Douglas MacArthur for evacuating the Philippines and later returning. They always look at it from a Western POV. Look at it with Japanese philosophy, which the soldiers subscribed to. MacArthur was the ultimate prize, BUT they failed in capturing him. That was a blow to their confidence. Also, when he returned, to the place where they had originally lost him, that was another blow to the psyche of the Japanese soldier. Another thing that was, probably even more devastating than the bomb, was that MacArthur made it clear to the Emperor that the Emperor had to tell his people, that Japan LOST. Japan didn't "LET the USA win". The US soldier DEFEATED the Japanese soldier. If you study the war from the Asian POV, you'll understand the Pacific theater much better.
MacArthur gets a bad rap, but he made allies for the US everywhere he went. Could you imagine how badly a guy like Patton might've handled the occupation of Japan?
@@KrikZ32All I know is that Patton was on the Eastern Theater in Europe, but what bad thing did he exactly do there? I just wanna know, not criticize, cuz I feel like I don’t know enough on Patton.
@@24adithyanonline He was a great military strategist and leader but after the war he was against getting rid of the Nazis and seemed to pretty much agree with them about Jewish people. It was the 40s, but even so you can google some of the stuff Patton said about jews and it gets pretty wild.
My father fought off the coast of North Africa, Normandy DDay, Cherboug, Southern France, Iwo Jima and Okinawa as a Marine Anti-Aircraft gunner on the battleship USS Arkansas. He didnt talk about his experiences much but his stories were fascinating when he did. A few years before he passed he wrote his WWII memoirs which we are so thankful to be able to pass down.
A pearl harbor survivor taught me how to shoot. His name was beachel Marion. He ended up operating a tank in the pacific. His most famous story was of a monkey he found with a cut leg. He nursed the monkey back to health and eventually kept it as a pet for the rest of the conflict. It would alert him and the other crewman to Japanese presence near them. He remembered only one time where he had to physically shoot at a Japanese soldier, and the painful part for him, he never knew as to whether that soldier got away or later passed.... I was lucky to be able to document some of these stories before his passing. It shows us that these men were people. And there still was humanity even in the midst of utter hell. Rip
My dad was at Schofield barracks on Oahu on December 7th. He said Europe got about 70% of the war output while they got about 25% iin the Pacific. I once asked him how long it would have taken to defeat the Japanese if we just went all out against them and ignored Europe entirely. He said in his opinon as a combat infantryman, they'd be landing on the Japanese home Islands by 1944 at the latest.
That was Roosevelt's gamble - it was a 2 front war for the US after all, but it was Japan that sucker punched the US. Think of all the factory production that went into building 100 escort carriers - designed for the U-boat war, all the Liberty Ships, the 8th and 15th air force. The biggest reason for the war going on so long in the Pacific was waiting for the industrial production to jump up and building all those carriers. 1943 was the big year when all those Essex carriers rolled out, so earlier than 1944 would have been impossible IMO. Not building stuff for the war in Europe wasn't going to make the Essex's start coming out sooner, but not building all that would have meant a lot more coming out when they were produced. So at that point, without worrying about a war in Europe, the US could have just rolled. BUT it took that long for the Atomic bomb to be finished. That saved a lot of US lives, landing in Japan was going to be extremely bloody.
I agree. The British fourteenth army fighting the Japanese in Burma and india was known as the "forgotten Army" as it received only a fraction of the resources that British forces in Africa and Europe were receiving. its exploits were also largely overshadowed by the battles against Germany and Italy. It was the same with the Royal navy and RAF the war against the European axis took priority. It was only when they were on the verge of defeat that Britain sent large forces to fight the Japanese.
@@lightfootpathfinder8218Makes sense that the UK would focus primarily on defeating Germany as Germany was a close and direct threat literally bombing and killing British civilians. Whereas Japan could in no way launch any military attack on the British mainland.
@@jcavilaramos5697 I agree it makes sence it's just a shame that the British forces in the far east (and to a certain extent the US forces that were fighting in the more obscure theatres of the war in the east like Burma, new guinea and the southeast Pacific) don't really get the same recognition as the British and US forces in Europe particularly the ones fighting from D-Day onwards.
@tileux yes I'd say new guinea was the Australian forces major theatre in the war against japan. It is known about in the UK as Australia was and is part of the commonwealth forces(most Commonwealth battles are known in the UK due to them being part of the empire) but I take your point it is overlooked
My grandfather fought in the Philippines and received a Bronze Star. Rarely if ever talked about the war. When he did, it was the same story about him and a buddy standing watch on a hillside hearing a noise and rolling a couple of grenades downhill. BOOM!!! no more noise. He would always say with a smile. It wasn't until many years after he died my mom gave me some copies of his service records, and I got a glimpse of what he went through. I know he was in Manilla and involved with that battle. One of the least talked about and bloodiest battles in the Pacific.
I've been honored to know and talk with many ww2 vets including one of my Grandfather's. Also many of our neighbors and guy's who volunteered at the local Recreation center as coaches. To this very day my friends and I still view these guy's as Heroes. They would all be rolling in their graves at the way this country has gone the last 10 years. We need to straighten out this mess in their honor and to All the Vets from Korea to Afghanistan and Iraq. Let's wake up and do it!
I go to the gym with one of the last WWII soldiers and his own family knew little of his experience until after his wife died and they found hidden in the attic a small box of mementos, and a small diary he wrote on cigarette papers with a nub of a pencil. I have spoken with him on several occasions but mainly listened to his story. He too did not share for years because he wanted to move on with life, and so many others had stories to share. He didn't want to impose on people. His last few months he was a POW. My name's sake was Monroe Gayle Pruiett, and he was captured in the Philippines, walked the Bataan death march, survived a hell ship to Japan and spent 2yrs in a Japanese POW camp. Yes, their stories and much different.
I grew up with parents & families who had been on the British & German sides of WW2. We grew up with my Dad's PTSD but we never knew what that was. Later in life, I got to know US WW2 veterans & I began to make more sense of it all. War also deeply affects the generations that follow 🕊
Great grandfather on my mom's side worked a lot with tanks during the Battle of the Bulge. He had the misfortune of having both of his hands crushed by the falling hatch of a Sherman, no doubt breaking several fingers. He was promptly reassigned to directing tank traffick, freezing his ass off, both hands bound together. Respect for a man who did his duty!
My neighbor growing up (who I thought was my grandpa lol) was a bronze star recipient from ww2 . He was a fantastic man, I also had a great grandpa and great great uncle who fought. I don’t believe we’ll see another generation quite like them. I was fortunate in 2012 to take a trip to Pearl Harbor where I got to meet some survivors of the attack who were telling their stories❤
My grandfather fought from N Africa to Germany. His brother was one of the “replacements” that were brought in. He was killed on Christmas Day. It’s amazing how so many, like my grandfather, survived for so long while at the same time so many barely got their footing before falling. We must remember that war is not pretty. It is a meat grinder in which people are forced to work. If you know any WWII vets, please record their stories and learn from them.
I applaud you sir! I'm a WW2 history buff and there are not many angles of this conflict I haven't explored, however.. this video was informative and intriguing in a very new way. Great job sir!
My father never talked about the war. He told people if they asked that he was in the Army. Would not go to any veterans clubs. He would occasionally when I was growing up give me advice if I ever had to go to war. Then always told me that he hoped I never had to. He said it was just his duty. We did have to go to a veterans hospital because of malaria symptoms. Many people were trying to get a look at my father. I asked a guy and he said my father was the highest decorated soldier they ever had in the hospital. When I asked him about it he said it wasn’t a important part of his life. it was just duty. After his death I found out my father was a OSS scout for Merrill’s Marauders. He has a MOH and four silver stars as well as other medals. He was also just awarded the Congressional Gold medal. The one thing he did always say was that no one should of had do what he did and that the Japanese soldiers didn’t want to be there anymore then the American soldiers.
I'm sorry, but just to clarify, you only found out your father was an MOH recipient after his death? Thank you for any clarification and thank you for telling the story of your father's sacrifice!
@@squeaky206 There aren't any, because as far as I'm able to determine, none of the 5307th Composite Unit (Merrill's Marauders) was ever awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor. Or least none were awarded that weren't done posthumously, which would be a prerequisite for the story to be true. @charleswinters7129 is lying.
@@rhvette It could be an innocent mistake. The unit received a number of honors. It could also be that individuals in the marauders did get the MoH and we're not aware of it
Men who fought in the pacific saw unimaginable horrors my uncle was a us marine on Okinawa and described it as the world felt like it was burning around you and it was the closest thing to hell you could experience. Most of the men who fought in the Pacifics most bloody battles where volunteers and between the ages of 16 and 19 fighting an enemy that believed their sole purpose was to kill you. My uncle said there was an another marine in his squad who many saw as sort of a role model because he had experienced combat already, this marine was 19 years old. However the European theater veterans had their fair share of trauma. The biggest example of this is seeing the effects of war on the civilian population. In the pacific most of the battles took place on islands whose only inhabitants where the Japanese military personnel, in Europe however they where fighting in towns and cities, many of which still had people living there, most of the men fighting in Europe where drafted, they experienced the horrors of concentration camps and the mass murders the Germans committed. Both groups of ww2 veterans experienced equal amount of horrors
i had a neighbor who was a 2-front veteran because he was a radio technician. he was shipped to europe and the pacific to lay down radio wire lines. he later became a firefighter and was the nicest man i'd ever met.
Two very very different wars. Both horrible in their own unique way. I'm grateful to the heroes who made it possible for us to be able to discuss it today.
My dad went to combat stress to deal with his PTSD a few years back, the guys from Iraq and Afghan couldnt relate to the trauma that those from Northern Ireland had because the difference in scenery triggered a lot of those from N. Ireland due to it looking like home, the roads and houses looked identical to where they was raised and where they currently live.
One of my grandfathers worked on his family farm during the war, while the other worked in a factory that produced aircraft parts. I have always felt proud of them for doing important work back home and the thought that they might have otherwise gone to the front and died terrifies me. If they were to die I wouldn't exist but it almost unnerves me to think that they could have and instead of having a family they would be a corpse in a photograph at which future generations could marvel.
the Robert Leckie you're talking about is different to the Robert Leckie you're showing. the Person you're showing was a pilot in the RAF and RCAF, spending his time in WW2 as a teacher at the air training school in Canada, reaching the rank of Vice Air Marshall for his troubles.
At the end of the series of the Pacific, Robert Leckie just out out of a taxi back at parents house. His taxi driver fought in the European theater, Robert tried to tip the taxi driver, and the taxi driver essentially said keel it, i got all my liberties in Europe, all you Pacific guys got malaria and jungle rot. Another person commented that when the guys in the Pacific were finally clming home, well ppl really kind of forgot about them. The European guys came home to parades and being called heros, by the time Japan surrendered, well the celebration of winning the war was kind of "yesterday's news" bc the war in europe had ended months prior. Kind of sad the guys in the Pacific didnt get as much recognition as the guys in the European theater
I disagree. There were huge celebrations over VJ Day (see photos from Times Square) and the Marines in the Pacific got plenty of press. The flag raising on Iwo Jima being the most iconic and publicized photo of the war tells as much. Now if you were in the Army in the Pacific theater, between MacArthur's staff and the Marine Corps' PR machine hogging the headlines, you would get little in the way of recognition. I also find it funny how the writers for The Pacific forgot that they dedicated an entire episode to Leckie taking liberties in Melbourne.
It’s true, I worked at the VA hospice and the pacific veterans carried their hatred for anything Japanese till they died. The fighting was that brutal. They were brave men. 🙏🇺🇸
My Mom's Dad was in the Navy in the European Theater on a Destroyer. He saw combat. Told me some harrowing stories while I was growing up. Then my Dad's father and uncle fought in the Pacific theater as Infantrymen. They weren't together though, in different companies. I never met my great Uncle. But my grandpa told me some stories of some of the battles he was involved in, and it sounded like it was so chaotic and terrifying. I wish they were still with us, I wish I could talk to them more about their experiences as an adult.
In the late 70s and into the 80s, I grew up in a neighborhood that was full of veterans from WW1, WW2, Korea and Vietnam -some Cold Warriors, too. They'd have get-togethers and cookouts and such and they'd talk, especially when the alcohol came out!. They seemed to relate to each other pretty welll even if they couldn't/wouldn't talk to their own families about what they'd experienced. My own family had vets who fought throughout the Med. Pacific and the Aleutians on my Dad's side. On my mom's side, two were POWS, Bataan Death March and the other was in the CBI theatre and was wounded. My dad was a Korean War vet. They all seemed to relate to eahother pretty well, too
My great uncle was stationed in the Philippines in the army before the Japanese invaded. He missed the boat and was stuck on the islands after the Americans pulled out and lost the area. Somehow he was able to evade Japanese forces for 4 years and lived with the indigenous people. Some point during his life there he was wounded and lost his leg. The man literally lived behind enemy lines in the worse conditions. He was never awarded or given acknowledgment for his bravery.
i mean....thats a hell of a story...but what sort of reward are you expecting he should receive? It sounds like when the japanese invaded and McArthur left the phillipines behind, your great uncle threw down his rifle and said "WELP guess im filipino now!" lol. Acknowledgement, yes, shouldve received plenty of that, but im having a hard time coming up with some reward lol
I think he meant acknowledgement later. He wasn't a coward, he was waiting his chance to be a guerilla fighter, saboteur and avoid Bataan death march. Blame McArthur for ignoring Intel and making preparations for Jap invasion attempt
When you wear the uniform of your country and serve in combat regardless of which conflict when I shipped out to Iraq my two grandfathers and my dad and 2 uncles saw me off and it was the first time in my life these men who were giants in my life had tears in there eyes knowing that my life would change forever they were proud to welcome me into the brotherhood but knew ptsd and maybe injury or death awaited me when I came home after my second tour after losing my leg and losing everyone in that humvee with me I got blown out turret my father held me every night for 8 months well I cried myself to sleep not because I lost my leg but because I hated the fact I survived and my fire team didn’t survivors guilt it horrible I miss my brothers and if it wasn’t for my dad and grandfathers during that time I would’ve taken my life to be reunited with them they made me realize it’s all chance and my brothers would want me to live life to the fullest in there honor .
My father was in the RAF Regiment and fought from Normandy (D plus 11) thru to Holland, then transferred to India and Burma. Hated the Japanese ( no Datsun for us). Between 45 and 46, still in Burma, used to control crowds demanding independence. One or two Brit s backed up by Japanese prisoners with bamboo canes. Returned home with malaria!
My father was in the Royal Marine Commandos and he hated the Japanese. He went to visit my sister in Australia in the 80s with a stop off in Hong Kong where he had also been during the war as well as Burma. He completely freaked out whilst there which my mum told me about in confidence because he was really embarrassed about it. PTSD never goes away. That generation never spoke of it though. He had malaria three times and his whole neck was covered in deep scars from all the leeches.
They wrote memoirs about it decades after the fact. Imagine it takes a long time for people to be able to discuss it, at least for most people. Respect to all of them.
My grandfather was with the New Zealand 3rd Division seeing action in Vella LaVella, Nissan Island, and Guadalcanal, aka the Islands. He was sent home sick, pretty much a broken man. As a machine gunner, he had lost much of his hearing, contracted malaria, was suffering nervous ehaustion (PTSD) and, as I only found out from my grandmother a few years before he died, he had received shrapnel wounds to his legs. Recently I stumbled across a photograph holding his son for the first time in '45, and his uniform just hung from him - realising that by that time he had spent many weeks being transported and rehabilitated (fattening up) before being allowed to return home. On demobing he returned to teaching but his old Colonel who also a senior teacher and on the Education Board, knew he needed time to mend and arranged he be sent on extended country service until he got better. It took many years, though, in truth, he never fully recovered. One upside was that many a child in the country districts he was posted learnt how to use a rifle properly and explosives (to clear tree stumps) safely. He rarely spoke of his time in the Islands but I recall the bitterness in his voice when he explained why he didn't attend the Returned Services Association was because the first time he went for a beer at his local RSA he was derided as a "brown bomber". Indeed, he was sensitive to way 3rd Div veterans were pretty much ignored by the RSA and official historians (there are very few publications) - I heard him muse, it was if they were an embarrassment because they hadn't seen "real" action (like 2nd Div). His view was, "People still died." He confided in me that he kept a short fused handgrenade on him to make sure he wasn't captured. This highlights the no quarter attitude in this theatre. I can only recall him going to a dawn sevice once, with my father (a serviceman, at the time) and myself as a wee boy; and this was the only time I ever saw him publicly wear his medals. What I realise is that his experiences on the Islands hung on him like a darkened thrall, which for the rest of his life, he did well enough to keep mostly at bay.
My great grandfather, who passed in December, was a SeaBee who worked on the targeting computers (for their gun turrets) on the B29s. He hopped along the islands right behind the landing forces to help establish the airfields etc. He finally ended up on Tinian and would often talk about how even after they took the island you'd suddenly hear gun fire within yards of you as Japanese hold outs would try and change the engineers to stop their work. What he never talked about often was his actual work and the bombings. (Tinian was where the Enola Gay launched from)
My Grandpa was a navy Seabee as well. M CB 9. Joined in 1959 so obviously missed ww2 but him and his buddies found a bunker on Okinawa and also told me about all the Japanese skeleton parts at the bottom of what was called suicide cliffs were the Japanese jumped from in order to avoid surrender.
My Dad was a Marine in WWII. He was at Tarawa, Saipan, and Okinawa. He would not talk about it, just like I didn't talk about it when I got home From Vietnam/Cambodia. There were thing he saw and did were beyond anything people who have never been there won't ever understand. Semper Fi.
My great uncle was a POW in the Bataan Death March and didn’t make it. He died of starvation. Both theaters were an awful part to be of but the Pacific Theater sounds so much worse.
My dad was in the Pacific in an artillery unit. 40 years later he still couldn't talk about it. My uncle who went ashore on D-Day talked about his time in Europe rarely, but only where his unit had gone, never about what they did or saw. As bad as Korea and Vietnam were, my uncles who fought in those would talk about being there, especially the ones at home from Vietnam between tours.
Two of my ancestors were at Normandy. One was a marine and the other a Naval engineer for the USS Cleveland. Man I can’t imagine what they thought and went through at France and the Pacific theater
If you haven't, I recommend reading the novel Unbroken. It tells the story of Louis Zamperini, a WWII Vet, who was a POW of the Japanese during the war. It details what he went through when he was captured by the Japanese after his bomber was shot doing in the pacific.
A man scared by war never heals 100 percent. They have that scar forever. Even great men are afflicted by these wounds that aren’t seen by their peers.
The Robert Leckie pictured at 0:08 and later is not the former US marine who was the author of the war memoir, Helmet for My Pillow, which along with Eugene B. Sledge's book With the Old Breed, formed the basis for the HBO series The Pacific (2010). The photo is of Air Marshal Robert Leckie, an officer in the Royal Air Force and the Chief of the Air Staff of the Royal Canadian Air Force from 1944 to 1947.
P.s. not all people watching a TH-cam video will see a pinned post, or even understand what that is, so editing it to include the correct image might be better for expanding your viewers. Otherwise you may get a reputation for inaccuracy that you don't deserve.
@@IanHutchings_KTF Yep. I did not read the fine print. The photo appears twice. I checked it out as the person is clearly wearing the uniform of an RAF officer. That should have been enough to alert the producers of the video. Don't blame the audience for sloppy work.
There's another HUGE difference between the European and Pacific Theaters. If you were fighting in Europe, when you were relieved, you'd get to go to London or Paris, with all the creature comforts and grateful local women and all that fun stuff. If you were fighting in the Pacific, and you weren't the First Marine Division after Guadalcanal (who got to go to Australia to be hailed as heroes and participate in what Bob Leckie called "The Great Debauch" - on a side note, the VERY Australian song Waltzing Matilda is still the official song of the 1st MarDiv), you'd get your R&R on Pavuvu, which was an uninhabited island until the US military went there, and generally hated by everyone.
The catch is though, unless you were in an Airborne unit or being prepared for a major amphibious invasion, you wouldn't get relieved from the frontline in Europe. You would just get moved to another part of the line where there wasn't as much fighting going on. Whereas in the Pacific, after an island campaign many units were pulled out of combat and sent to civilized areas for months. The 2nd Marine Division and 7th & 27th Infantry Divisions got to go to Hawaii, the 32nd and 41st Infantry Divisions got to go to Australia, the 25th Infantry Division got to go to New Caledonia, and the Americal Division got to go to Fiji.
@@redaug4212 Some in the Pacific that went on "R&R" would get attached to Navy SeaBee units to help build airfields. Only know about it because it happened to one of my grandfathers. Nearly 65 years later I got to help rebuild one of the airfields my grandfather worked on, awesome experience. It was a demonstration and evaluation of some of the Navy's new engineer equipment to see how fast an airfield could be built for combat aircraft. . . We built two within 30 days, tested them with C-17s and C-130s.
Just wanted to note what a superb job in dealing with a topic that is not glamourized or ignored by major media. I remember Civil War General Sherman, when asked about the "glory of war", told the graduating class at West Point that it was all poppycock and that there was nothing glorious in battle. WWI and WWII brought that sentiment home to many, many American's in an all too brutal manner. However, not to belittle the horrible sacrifice and loss by the soldiers who fought in the battles, the horrific loss suffered by the civilian populations has never really been quantified. The fire-bombing of Dresden and the nuclear bomb attacks were mentioned and yes, they caused an ungodly number of civilian casualties from just single incidents. But imagine, if possible, what it must have been like to live in cities being bombed repeatedly, for no other reason than to demoralize the population and to reduce their support for war! I just finished binge watching Band of Brothers for the third time since it was originally released and nothing brought me to tears over the sheer inhumanity toward man than Episode 9 when the true nature of the "final solution" to the Jewish problem was portrayed in all its ugliness.
It depends entirely on unit, campaign, year(s) of service, etc. Some units in the Pacific would have seen little combat compared to many units in Europe. This is precisely why I can't stand this Europe vs Pacific comparison. It's reduces the experiences of millions to nothing more than empty platitudes just so we can say "who had it worse".
@@poison1448 Except the Americans and other allies ( British, Australian, Chinese) were facing an opponent that would never surrender. Unlike the Soviets.
In and around 1975 and witnessed a conversation between my father and uncle talking about their experiences in the world II when my grandfather a WWI vet chimed in and told the they both had it easy compared to his wars experience. Since my sons and I all served in the same wars we pretty much have had similar experiences.
Both of my great grandparents fought in world war 2 one in the pacific and the other in Europe under the British forces. Weird to think how different their experiences would have been from one great grandfather storming the beaches of Normandy to fighting outside German whereas the other fought from Guadall canal to Okinawa.
My mother's father fought in the ground army in the deserts of Egypt in Africa, a Scot in the British forces. Whilst my father's father, a US pilot fought in the airs of the pacific. It really was a world spanning war.
My late father was an NCO in the U.S. Army during the Second World War, seeing combat in a segregated unit from Normandy to V-E Day in Czechoslovakia as a part of Patton's Third Army . One of his brothers was an officer in Italy with the 92nd Infantry Division. Another of my Dad's brothers served in the Coast Guard. And my Dad's oldest brother (born in 1917) served in the Naval Reserve. Thankfully they all survived the War.
My grandfather was a T-Sgt infantryman in Europe. From Normandy to the outskirts of Berlin. Battle of the bulge, other larger operations. His exact words about the Pacific Vets. “This poor boys had it rough”
An extended family member was shot down in the Pacific and was captured and tortured until his eventual release at the end of the war. He never spoke again and had to spend the rest of his life in an asylum, they believe that in resisting giving information to his captors something just switched off mentally. Adversely on the other side, another fought in the African theatre in totally different conditions and did well considering what they went through.
Both my grandfathers were in Europe, but their experiences were very different. One was a driver and wasn't really involved in combat, but he saw Dachau survivors and it shook him so deeply, he wouldn't really talk about it. When his family visited Europe I'm the 60s, he refused to visit any concentration camps because seeing what they had done had been so horrifying to him. My other grandfather was spying behind enemy lines, saw lots of combat, and was one of the few survivors in his unit. He didn't talk about it, I didn't know anything about his service until nearly 20 years after his death.
I fought in Vietnam/Cambodia 1970. There were things I witnessed and performed That is still causing me problems. There hasn't been a day in the last 53 years I haven't thought about Vietnam/Cambodia. Every single day.
The cost of fighting an enemy that were fighting for a homeland and cultural identity. I’d reckon an invading force in America would find the same level of brutality and malice fighting American guerrillas and militias
@@hybui123 You have no idea how brutal a Vietnam/Cambodia combat vet can be. I bet the vet from Iraq and Afghanistan could come up with a few dirty tricks also. There are no rules in war. I will kill you before you kill me...Hopefully
My dad was WW2 vet European theater, friends dad Pacific. My dad made friends with a former U-boat crewman after the war from Germany. Now my friends dad, well. In the late 70's I was at my friends house when another friend showed up with his brand new Datsun. He was showing us the car when dad who had served in Pacific came out of the house with a baseball bat. Without a word he completely beat the Datsun to the point that the car was totaled and walked back into the house without saying anything. Nothing could be brought into his house that said made in Japan on it ever till he died.
@@robertsettle2590It is not. Many, many people from the US to Australia who had to fight the japanese had this mindset. The japanese inflicted horrible acts, things that cannot be forgiven in onces life time. Sad for that friend.But partly understandable.
My dad fought in North Africa, Sicely and Italy. He still would not permit as he called it "cheap jap crap" in our home. He also would not meet with. German immigrants of his age as I had a friend whose dad was in the German army in WW2
Woah. Long time Geetsly's subscriber, and this popped up on my feed today. Clicked on it and a few other videos in other tabs to watch up next, and this voice came on and had to double check which channel I was on. Very nice surprise.
I think you can always relate a little. I’m a veteran of OIF and I’ve talked to Korean and Vietnam vets here and there. I don’t understand their wars exactly, but I understand the broad concept a hell of a lot better than some guy off the street. When someone who has never served asks me, or even someone who never deployed… I just avoid the topic. Explaining what a pizza tastes like to a tree v explaining it to someone who has just never had pizza.
Crimson tide came out shortly after we got back from a combat deployment. It still messes with me to this day. Sadly those who have never seen combat cant understand. I also dont pretend the combat I saw in the Navy was the same as a mud eaters.
Thanks for watching! Just want to point out that our research team made some mistakes, and 'Robert Leckie' photos portrayed at 0:07, 0:45 & 1:13 are incorrect. Information about the Robert Leckie we're referring to can be found here - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Leckie_(author)
Robert Leckie of the RAF/ RCAF was also an honorable warrior.
My grandpa who fought in the 508 PIR 82nd A/B Division didn't have a grand ole time from Normandy, Holland , And the Ardennes ( Battle of the Bulge ) ! That's just a fraction of all the European battles fought . And, there was diseases such as typhus , typhoid , Hepatitis , Malaria , and frostbite in losing a foot , toes , hands , hypothermia , trench foot , and Evan cardiac arrest for those who were scared shitless believe it or not.
I would of loved some jar head ( Marine) tell my grandpa that his stint in the ETO was nothing compared to the PTO. With grandpa's severe issues of PSTD he would of killed the dude .
@@JohnEglick-oz6cd My father was also in WWII in the AAC, 8th Bomber Wing in Europe for the war, joining up 2 mos after Pearl. I think what is meant by a 'grand old time' was kind of referred to in the the miniseries "The Pacific" in the scene where Leckie returns home after the war and is driven home by a cabbie who had just recently returned from service in the ETO. As Leckie in Marine uniform offered payment for the ride, the cab driver says; "I ain't touchin' that. I may have jumped into Normandy but I got some liberties in London and Paris. You Gyrenes (Marines) got nothing but jungle rot, disease and misery... Welcome home" And he drives away. Any casual student of WWII knows that the experience of the American serviceman in Europe and the Pacific was extremely different in almost every aspect, and yet the sheer misery quotient would be hard to rate and quantify. As to who had the worse conditions it can be argued both ways but somehow that subtropical heat, humidity and the monsoons seem to me to be a sheer misery 24/7 365. Maybe because I'm in Louisiana and we have much the same climate and are getting it right now. 105F predicted today with a Heat Index of 112F. And about 96% humidity. I love where I live but I HATE the summers now.
It's Operation Overlord.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Overlord
Couple images 'implied' as Americans charging forward, are actually Soviet troops, likely taken in a re-enactment. You tell from their uniforms, Soviet jackboots, helmets and Tokarev firearms
My dad fought in ww2 Okinawa as a marine. He could relate to my uncle his little brother who fought in Vietnam as a marine. But not to me as I fought in a tank in the desert. Our experiences are so different but still horrible. Now my oldest can relate too as a combat vet.
I'm glad all of you were able to make it out alive. Thank you and your family for their service 🇺🇲
Damn. Respect from India to your entire family.
Respect to your family.
Deepest thanks to all of you for your service!!
Thank u to u and ur family for all of ur yrs of service to protect our great nation! Serious respect to U, ur Uncle, ur Dad and ur Son! 🇺🇸
My dad spent 2 1/2 years fighting in the Pacific. One day, watching television, someone on a news program commented that nuclear weapons were the most terrible weapons ever invented.
My dad turned to me and said, “That person’s never seen anyone killed with a flamethrower”.
wow
@@AlexandertheGreat001- Why wouldn’t it be? The last survivor of Iwo Jima was a Marine who won the Medal of Honor for burning japs alive in bunkers and he wrote a book about it and I myself have seen people roasted to death with thermobaric in cinerary bombs, just because you never had the courage to join the military does not mean that it never happened son.
Tbh, since my school made us meet with a chernobyl liquidators that explained to us the effect of radioactivity, i would say that your father unfortunatly underestimate how terrible a nuclear bomb is, especially if you survive it, radioactivity is terrible
@@TheGirard62 I’m certain he was talking about the initial individual target and their slow immolation.
A Prolonged conventional warefare can surpass any horror of a nuclear bomb(Stalingrad)
I have talked to thousands of American WWII veterans, and from what I have been told time and time again that being in the Pacific was decidedly worse. Constant disease, bad supply lines overland, horrific environment, no meaningful R&R, and on top of that, the enemy was at another level of fanaticism. I wouldn't want to be in either theater, but I'd jump on Europe if given the choice in a heartbeat.
Odds of getting killed were far greater in Europe.
@@redaug4212 That's true, although to be fair weren't the odds at Iwo Jima worse than Omaha beach for example?
@@redaug4212 given the choice of death, I'd pick the quick carnage of the European battlefield to the slow rot of tropical disease. Scrub typhus is a horrifying disease. So is dengue fever, or anything else you can cook up on an island swamp.
Neither theater is a good option, and the only comfort I find that Europe has that Papua New Guinea, the Solomons or any other Pacific hellhole don't is the lack of an environment that can kill you year round.
@@Bullet-Tooth-Tony- D-Day on Omaha beach cost 4,500 casualties, whereas D-Day on Iwo Jima cost 2,400 casualties. The rest of the Iwo Jima fighting was costlier, but then a more apt comparison would be losses on Iwo Jima vs the Normandy campaign as a whole (or at least the parts involving V Corps).
And to be clear, I'm not saying it was better in Europe than the Pacific as a whole, but at a personal preference, I'd rather be somewhere like France than Biak.
My great uncle was a medic during D-Day, and I always asked him what his experience was like. He never wanted to talk about what he saw during war. I could see he had a lot of trauma from what he experienced so I stopped asking at some point. He passed 2 years ago, and it wasn't until his funeral I found out he had wrote a book about his experience's. The man saved 21 people from a plane crash, received tons of medals, saved tons of people on the Beach's, and he had attended countless funerals for the people he couldn't save. And I had never heard any of this. It really breaks my heart sometimes because I wish I could tell him at how much of a hero he was, but he didn't feel that way about it. A true selfless man. Don't find many like him anymore.
No you do not May he R.I.P
@jacktattis thank you appreciate it. Didn't know how great of a man I lost until he was gone.
It’s really unfortunate that the ones who served had a difficult time sharing their experiences overseas due to PTSD and trauma. My Great Uncle served as well, he never really told the family much besides the coins he brought back from Germany.
My wife’s 102-year-old uncle, is one of the last surviving D-Day soldiers and was at Normandy for the 75th anniversary and featured on fox
@frankkoolosko4255 I'm glad to hear he has lived to 102, I hope he has lived a great life man. Lived through one of the most brutal battles and lived past most people. I'd say big accomplishment.
My great grandfather was a Italian immigrant, he joined the U.S. army and was deployed to the European theater, he took part in the invasions of Italy and Sicily and had to invade his home town.
His fellow soldiers had actually captured members of his extended family.
What a homecoming.
Hey at least he liberated that shit from Mussolini. That guy was a spaz
Gives a very different meaning of homecoming
I wonder if he felt a bit traitorous doing that?
I bet after all of that everyone joked about him coming home and making a huge scene lol
My grandfather, father’s father, fought from North Africa to Germany 1st infantry division. My great grandfathers on my mother’s side, fought in the Pacific. One was a marine who fought on Guadalcanal and Peleliu before being wounded by having his foot blown off by a mortar round. His brothers, my great-great uncles, were both in the Navy and were stationed at Pearl Harbor when the attack happened. One was on the USS Arizona, the other was on shore leave. Both miraculously survived, although the one who was on the Arizona had a piece of his ear torn off by shrapnel. The one on shore leave was killed later in the Philippines in 1944. The other great grandfather was an Army Air Force bomber crewman, a belly gunner on a B17. He was shot down, captured, tortured, escaped and returned to service to fly missions over Europe. My great uncle on my father’s mother’s side was a British Royal Marine. Other than the one sailor who died in the Philippines in ‘44, it was miraculous that all of these great men survived the war and I had the honor of getting to know them. And they all had the same thing to say-
Fuck war.
Edit: I did not expect this to blow up. I thought it would just be kind of glossed over.
Your grandpas sacrificed for my country's freedom. Im sorry for your loss and rest in peace for those heroes
If they all say that why did one of them go back to fight another war especially after being tortured
@@darklight8338 so that a generation would not experience what he experienced. But war will always be a human thing and every generation will have a taste of it.
@@darklight8338 because he was still a soldier, there was still a war going on and he was deemed by medical personnel to be fit for service. It’s called orders.
Edit: Sorry if I sounded snarky originally. It was not my intention to sound snarky or like smart ass. I just have trouble with saying things sometimes in a more socially acceptable way.
@@exudeku I’m glad that the shedding of my Kin’s blood was able to assist in the liberation of your country from oppression (Japanese or Nazi, whichever it was). Just regretful that it ever had to be liberated in the first place.
The same could be said for German soldiers who fought on the Eastern vs those on the Western front
I bet this is even a starker contrast compared to the separation of the Allies in their theaters.
The only thing with that statement is that a lot of German troops fought in multiple theatres of war. But i would like to know how a soviet soldier fighting the Germans could relate to a American soldier fighting Japan. I wonder.
@@toasterhothead3312he Soviets routed the Japanese in Manchuria in 45. I’m sure most of the troops deployed in that operation had previous experience of fighting the Germans. The Soviets also fought the Japanese at Khalkin Gol in Mongolia just before ww2.
@@rullangaar
Also, didn’t the Soviets pull soldiers from Siberia and the Far East to Moscow in 1941?
@@phyrr2not really the climate of ukraine and northern france are very similar
My grandfather fought in the Pacific. As a kid I noticed he and those like him didn't relate to veterans that fought in Europe. Pacific veterans were more solitary and unlikely to find relief in veterans organizations. They also identified strongly with the tropic climate and topography of the Pacific and would gravitate to similar places back home, like Florida. They were also more likely to be cynical of the war and the service.
Most people gravitate to Florida.
My dad fought in the Pacific. One of his best friends fought in Europe. They spent many hours together talking about the war. "Cotton" told my dad how hard it was to kill people who looked just like him. My dad hated the Japanese for years. When he started going to reunions in the 90's he got past the hatred. It was very healing for him.
Not my dad. My aunt went to Hawaii. She said that my dad should go there for a vacation. My dad had been there on his way to Okinawa. He told her that he had been there once and that was enough!
I was talking to a Helicopter pilot in Viet Nam. I told him that my dad was in WW2 and was stationed at Fort Rucker as part of the Wildcats. He said that that wasn't possible since it was a aviation base. I asked him who he thought built that base! The army knew what it was doing since the Fort was built in a hot humid swamp. Just like what he would be doing in the South Pacific.
@aaronmorrison7716 especially if they are from there... like we are. Granddad left Miami for the USAF.
Omg you just described my grandfather
When the 50th anniversary of D-Day rolled around in 1994, I was working with a guy that was WW2 veteran that had served in the Pacific. I asked if he could remember what his thoughts were at the time about the landings and he replied, “I didn’t give a damn. We were getting ready to land on Saipan and that was my focus. Couldn’t care less about what was going on in Europe.”😅
Thats actually pretty interesting when you think about it. D-Day was a very big achievement, but for Marines in the Pacific every operation started with their own version D-Day as a matter of course do to the nature of the island hopping campaign. For those in the Pacific D-Day would be just another beach landing to them.
@@CountKibblesNBits I never thought of It that way.
@@CountKibblesNBits Fuck man Omaha and Utah would've probably been easy days for a lot of the marines that had to go through Saipan and Peleliu. Not trying to diminish what either side had to go through of course but the Pacific was really just a whole different level of brutal.
ETO veteran: "the carnage was horrible, people were getting mowed down as we slowly advanced on the beach."
PTO vet: "first time?"
@@CountKibblesNBits It was actually because of the experience the US had in amphibious landings in the Pacific that D-Day went so well.
Although there was a lot messed up in the execution.
I talked with a vet who fought in the Ardennes. Incredibly well decorated. He was adament about telling myself and some of my friend's about what happened, gruesome and heartwrenching stories that made him cry.
He said he had to tell them no matter how much it hurt becaise someone had to remember his friends.
He told us the greatest honor we could show them was to live happy, good lives.
God bless him and all those that didn't make it home.
My step-dad served with the 47th from Tunisia to Hurtguen and on. Never talked much but my goddaughter opened him up he said he preferred laughter, too much pain and memories of things out of his control, so best to just keep moving forward,till he would go to sleep as he said take ten, and wake up no longer tired and in pain.
One of my Great great uncles served with 3rd Marine Division, he was in the harsh jungle island of Bougainville and saw his buddies get Malaria and other jungle diseases and sporadic Japanese ambushes and attacks. Then he also went ashore with the 3rd Marine Division on Guam to retake the island from the Japanese, his LVT or amphibious vehicle was hit by a Japanese coastal gun, luckily he survived unscathed and rallied with the rest of his buddies. He was also present on Iwo Jima and was wounded in late or early March 1945 and they sent him home after spending months recovering in hospital in Hawaii and then moved to mainland US, he was honorably discharged on 12th August 1945 he was a corporal by the time he was discharged, 2 days before the Japanese capitulated. when he came back home to Lancaster, PA, he met with his high school and childhood friends who also served during the war and most served in European theater and there was this kind of rivalry between those who served in Pacific and Europe, although both respect each other, they always compared the environment of jungle, tropical and hot Pacific islands to the more populated and urbanized European theater, plus the guys who served in Europe always teased the guys who served in Pacific that they always get malaria, jungle diseases etc and the only RnR they get us probably seeing beaches, while the guys in Europe would brag that they could visit beautiful (sometimes ruined) towns and cities of Europe and they could meet friendly and liberated locals like in France and Italy or before D-Day, the people in UK, while the guys in Pacific would only meet the hostile Japanese or the friendly but distant Pacific islanders in the South Pacific or natives in Mariana islands, so the guys in Pacific would get teased because of where they served.
second husband of my grandma fought on the Eastern Front until he was captured in the Kurland pocket in late 1944
he could totally relate with the Russians from his generation who visited my grandma and they always were very excited and happy when sharing their old stories, translated by my slightly terrified gran ......she was halfjewish, born in Kiev and came as a little child to Germany (first stop, Auschwitz) - always had "mixed feelings" when reminded of war times......
@@ramal5708 My step-dad always said you would be amazed with what a bar of soap. Candy or a pack of cigarettes could bring u. Yes as for as luxuries are concerned, it was way rougher
My own experiences in Vietnam allow me some insight into the Pacific War. As a Marine, I too witnessed a lot an 18/19 year old boy shouldn't. We were burdened with leaders in Washington who didn't have a clue as to the direction or the objectives needed to win. At least the guys in my Dad's war (Army ETO.) tried to understand. They did have an objective in their war.
I know the answer is damn well no, but was there anything at all, that's was good about your experience there.
never understood a limited war. Not able to hit target on north vietnam never made sense to me. Same thing with UKraine who limited in their front as the official army isn't allow to hit russia directly or they may lose out on west aid package. Which i think its terrible as russia has made retaking ukraine land difficult with a deep defense line. Whole point of blitzkrieg is hit them where they arent.
@Marveryn about the NV, were bombed multiple times, if you are talking about amphibious landing, probably impossible, or too costly without considerable returns, about Ukraine, they are attacking Belgorod for some time, the west is turning a blind eye and somehow Russia too, since they had a different nuclear doctrine based on reaction, if the Ukraine government went further than skirmishes and artillery strikes on Belgorod their capital would become a pothole, either they fight for the occupied regions or they fight for the entire country, and guess what is less costly?
You were fighting communism.
You can thank President LBJ, Defense Sec. Robert MacNamara and Gen. William Westmorland for the debacle and one senator in particular - a hero of the left - who made sure that nothing was to be sent to the ARVN after we withdrew in 1973 - Frank Church. The left won
My grandfather fought and was captured on Corregidor and spent 3.5 years as a POW of the Japanese. In the early 1950's, according to my aunt, the family had a cook out and all my uncles had been in Europe during the war, and swapped war stories all day. My grandfather, she said, never said and word and she doubted that he was actually in the war. He just couldn't relate to their experiences, or thought maybe they would never have understood his.
Makes sense. The European theatre was a tug and push between fronts.
The Pacific theatre was quite frankly hopping islands and hoping this one wasn’t as horrific as the last because of how hot, disease ridden and pesky the enemy and island was
@@hybui123
"pesky" is a VERY VERY light way of describing Imperial Japan. Those mf's were Kpop stans on Steroids x1000000000
And some Islands like Papa New Guinea were extremely challenging because of how big it was and the landscape especially the mountain's and the thick forests and bush on all the islands
Island hopping seems, would have been like D-Day every new island.
Imagine getting off those landing boats and facing reinforced, tug-in troops, bunkers, barriers, machine guns and artillery everytime you hit a new island. And the only rest is between battles and if your wounded, it would be a long while before carried to a spot to waite for evacuation to a hospital ship somewhere out in the ocean. Just guessing ; /
A
Well plus this particular guy spent a majority of the war as a POW... Very different experience even from guys who fought in the Pacific...
My father joined the United States Navy the day after Pearl Harbor. Most of his time was spent on supply runs, including the North Atlantic Convoy, but also in support of Anzio and then later in the Pacific on "milk runs" from San Francisco to Hawai'i. I asked him why *he* joined the way. Over time, he answered me three times. The first time he told me this was the stupidest question I could ask if I was of his generation ... but he said, "You're from the Vietnam generation and deserve another answer." The first answer: Patriotism, Pearl Harbor, Duty to the Nation. It was a direct, textbook answer, the Greatest Generation answering THE CALL. Years later he gave me the second answer: His father (a WWI vet) had a map of Europe on the wall of their house. He put in pins with flags to mark the movement of troops. When his father put the Nazi flag on Paris, his father cried. My father mentally then said, "I am going to get the b******s who made my father cry!" The third answer came a little bit before he died. "Oh god, it was such a relief! I wanted to get away so badly! I was so tired of being just Dad's son. And more, my mother's cooking was so awful! And her constant Bible reading! I just had to get out of that house!" All three of these answers were correct, but they were correct in very different ways.
Thanks for sharing your family history. Interesting and enlightening.
The irony is my grandfather, so willing to fight for his country, dying in the war resulted in his children (my father included) being complete tearaways. My dad's brother joined a group of gangsters in seeking a father figure. It had a really bad effect on the families left behind. The mothers left with the choice of living a life of mourning or finding the will to move on and marry someone new. The children without fathers, mocked by those children who's fathers survived.
I am Vietnam I went to get away from Mum and Dad [only child ] Greek cousins, arranged marriages the lot . I joined to go to exotic places and meet exotic women I got both she is watching TV and we have been together55 years I am glad I went.
THis is one of the best youtube comments on any subject I have ever read
My dad got his draft notice about 6 months after PH for the army. He immediately joined the navy. He wanted a clean place to sleep at night and regular meals. He wound up being a cook. LOL.
I read Eugene Sledge's book "With The Old Breed" and after I finished it I couldn't imagine why anyone who has been in combat wouldn't have severe PTSD.
Had that exact thought after reading Sledge's book. I'm thankful that generation shouldered that burden for us future generations. I'd have lost my mind seeing what Sledge or Leckie saw.....
Eugene Sledge's book was one of the best combat memorandums I've ever read.
Very straightforward and to the point leaving little to the imagination.
The Okinawa section is just horrifying. I can't imagine the absolute horror of those grasslands and prairies turned into vast muddy wastelands filled with craters and corpses, all that compounded by the rain
Many do
I thought that as well when I finished reading it.
I've read many many memoirs from the war, and I have to say 'If you survive' is one of the most depressing. A new individual is introduced on one page, and then 3 pages later they're dead. This happens, again and again and again and again. After a while - you become emotionally exhausted and after that, you just detach. You get a sense for the indifference soldiers had for one another, because nobody expected anybody else to make it to the end of the day alive.
That’s a great book
I’ve heard before soldiers didn’t even bother to learn the names of replacements until they had survived a week.
@@terminallumbago6465according to my grandfather after Normandy until like August of 1944 those guys that survived became like your family. August and September was spent slowly getting across France and to the German lines and then Ardennes happened. That is where the Germans really turned things into a meat grinder and the battle of the bulge. From Ardennes to VDay was almost 6 months. It was only 11 months, give or take, overall from D day to Victory in the ETO
I read a similar book called "Lost Boys" about the boy soldiers in the first world war, it was terribly sad. Many were working class or went in with the brothers and friends, some were lead by their teachers, others had fathers chase after them - and all generally did not survive long.
That's actually one of the... I wouldn't call it a "problem" but you know... Something to note about Band of Brothers. It's all about guys who stayed in close touch with each other for years after the war. That bond was the reason Ambrose chose their unit. So most of them survive. He just takes a few token guys who were there from the beginning to kill off like Muck and Pencala to write about their deaths...
If you were an US soldier and fell into German captivity, you had a very high chance of surviving the war. If you fell into Japanese captivity, assuming they even took you prisoner, your chances of survival were very slim. I think this pretty much points out to which of those theaters was worse.
True but you had a much higher chance of survival as an infantryman in the Pacific. A large percentage of the deaths of US troops in the Pacific were naval
@@XaviRonaldo0that’s ridiculously incorrect. Look up casualty rates during Okinawa or Iwo Jima.
@@kevanbaconofficial I'm talking the Pacific overall. There were a lot of US ships sunk in the early campaigns in the South Pacific.
Just like on Eastern Front. Soviets and Germans treated their POWs very poorly, so the fighting was more ferocious on both sides.
@@XaviRonaldo0that doesn’t mean it was safer to be a infantry man in the pacific either though. I really don’t know why you’re trying to discredit people of their service. Kinda weird
My grandfather fought in the Pacific, surviving both Iwo Jima and Okinawa. He didn't talk about it much, but the stories he did tell were harrowing. Using the dead body of his friend in place of sand bags to take cover from enemy fire, that kind of thing. And yet, he held more of a grudge against the Germans. He bought himself and all his sons Kawasaki motorcycles at a time when very few Americans had ever heard the name. A lifelong GM loyalist who wouldn't consider a Ford, he bought my grandmother one of the first Honda Accords that ever rolled off the boat. When my dad bought a German Maico dirt bike and a VW Karmann Ghia, his old man went absolutely nuclear over it.
That sounds like bullshit. None of the US Marine Corps and Army units that fought on Iwo Jima also fought in Okinawa.
Iwo Jima also ended less than a week before the Okinawa Campaign started and Iwo and Okinawa are 850 miles apart, so it wasn't logistically feasible. Even if he changed units (which was uncommon for enlisted men to do).
Unless he was Jewish, etc, there is also no reason why an American who served in the PTO would hate Germans but somehow be very forgiving towards the Japanese. Hating them both, yeah, buying Japanese products before it was cool but going nuts over his children buying German products, no.
Even American European Theater vets seldom hated Germans after the war.
@MG-wk2eh I might have the battles mixed up, since he died when I was 11. I know 100% he was at Okinawa, so Iwo Jima I can believe I misremembered.
But the thing with him hating German products is definitely true. I should clarify though, the man went into nuclear rage quite often, so it's not like the Ghia was his biggest freak-out of the year, just for that Wednesday (or whatever). He'd blow up when he heard his boys playing Rubber Soul and "Back in the USSR" came on. He would rant at high volume about the poor quality of Chrysler door handles. The man was volatile.
I don't think one had to be Jewish to get anti-German after seeing the newsreel footage from the camps. By contrast, I think he had a begrudging respect for the Japanese after seeing how tenacious they were. Perhaps that attitude would make good dirt bikes. Those Kawasakis made a big impression on him. I've got one of the same year and model from that initial 1960s purchase (it's on my channel if you don't believe), so clearly they were quality. His exposure to German things would have been all VW Bug, which didn't make a great impression. "So they're evil, AND they make bad cars?" Something like that. I can still see a shadow of it in my uncles, who to this day are somewhere between cold and combative about my dad's various German acquisitions. They didn't like the Ghia either, or the 914, or the Audi, or either of the BMW bikes. They were simply raised to believe there was something wrong about anything German.
@@MG-wk2ehWow. I hope you enjoy the award you won and the parade for calling out someone on the internet. Next time, instead of being immediately hostile, ask *how* it’s possible for that to occur. Nobody is handing out prize money for being a dick on the internet. *Be better*
@@MG-wk2ehthere were a lot of European theater vets hated Germans for many years after the war
@@redrocket604 Not really, at least not in America (anti-German hatred was common in Europe for a long time after the war).
One example, although there's many other examples, is 'Easy Company' from Band of Brothers. They felt (retrospectively of course) the Germans they fought were mostly just kids like themselves and that under different circumstances they could've been friends who had stuff in common.
German soldiers tended to treat Western Allied POWs and casualties well, generally abide by the Geneva Convention (of course, there were still atrocities on both sides), like not deliberating killing American medics.
Combat medics would wear medical insignia on the battlefield, but not in the Asia-Pacific Theater because the Japanese would target them.
Were there salty old bastards that went to their graves with bitterness and hate? Of course, but it was generally not the case.
My dad was a member of the 221 Airborne Medical Company of the 11th Airborne Division in the Pacific. Growing up he seldom talked about the war but made me become a Boy Scout, take Red Cross First Aid Classes, Red Cross Life Saving classes, Civil Defense classes, and help out at the local volunteer fire department. He said it was to train me if I ever needed it. I did. When I went to Vietnam he only gave me one bit of advice. "Don't get close to any of the people in your unit. It's real hard when they get killed."
Bingo.
Give a damn without becoming attached….. because a wounded heart can often take longer to repair than a wounded body
Dad was right, that last part is the one that hurts the most.
I don't know where to start here.
To begin with, I am German and grew up in a Village with a population of 1.500 in the 70s and 80s. I lived with my parents and my grandparents - dad's parents, and as it was usual these days, my parents had a grocery store at one half of the building and my grandparents a tavern on the other half. Our living room was next to the tavern, and sometimes the noise from there was louder than the TV. But we weren't allowed to turn the TV louder, because it could disturb the customers.
Grandpa was born in 1905 and too old and un-fit to serve anywhere in an active combat unit, so he was drafted into the Landsturm, where he served along with other men of his age or veterans of the first world war as a dispatch rider at a nearby Luftwaffe ammunitions factory. So he was no combat veteran per sé, but somehow after the war our tavern became a watering hole for many of the veterans of the defeated nazi-german army, who fought and suffered everywhere battles took place. There was a U-Boat man, a Fallschirmjäger, who lost an arm on Kreta, the guy who "left" his legs in afrika, one half blind, one with only three fingers. And the other ones, with "only" scars or invisible injuries.
Normally, there were the usual pub-talks: joking, bragging, cursing about stupid bosses, complaints over taxes, government, the wifes, which farmer bought which tractor... Same stuff as today.
But on some occasions, the talk came to the war. Remember, it was in the 70s and 80s, and the men, who fought in it were the same age as I am today, or a little bit older. I always liked it to sneak in the adjacent club-room, open the sliding door a little bit and listen to the banter of the guests.
I sometimes thought, the men were fighting in different wars, wich must have absolutely been possible, because they were so old from my perspective. The submariner was always about french women and some big parties in the harbor and the british enemy. The man without legs talked about the desert, and the heat, and the flies and the thirst - among other themes. The Fallschirmjäger didn't take part in conversations, he must have had his bit and according to his grand-children, with which i went to school, he never ever lost a word about the war. Most men of this party of the mangled and injured had served on the eastern front, and the only thing you heard about that was pretty much like "that was hell", "that was sh*t", "terrible, you can't imagine". And there was Onkel Herbert, who occupied norway until the end and got a comfy boad-ride back to germany after the end of the war. But that was ok for the others, because he was still a teenager then.
Maybe, also on the axis side the perception of the war and experience was different from soldier to soldier, depending on which enemy he was facing. Western Allies in France, Afrika and Italy, the navies on the atlantic or the russians on the eastern front. It is remarkable, that the veterans from the russian front usually talked about the cold, the lack of food, villages with poor people, dust and endless marching days and very rarely about actual combat while the ones from the other fronts were more freely about their experiences.
In a war this big, the experiences can only differ, depending on where you were in it.
Thanks for your post. Very interesting to hear your father's & other Germans experiences in uniform. My father served in US naval squadrons as a mechanic in the Pacific. As allied forces went "island hopping" across the South Pacific up toward the Philippines and farther north the Marines would land on an occupied island and then the aviation units would take over the Japanese airfield or make a quick airfield. Then, after securing all the neighboring islands, they would move to the next set of islands. They bounced from one island group to another, like frogs jumping from one lily pad to another.
His only experience with "combat" was being confined to a medical tent with dengue fever that inflamed his joints so severely he could barely move. There was a single Japanese airplane that regularly flew over the base on a harassment flight and would drop a couple of small bombs. My dad said he was so mad at that pilot because he felt trapped and couldn't even get off the stretcher and run to an air raid trench.
One thing that always made him smile was when he would talk about the cute French girls, the daughters of local plantation owners. Lol!
20 years later he met 2 former POWs of the Bataan Death march. He ended up knowing them for many years and so got to know their stories.
The forces at US/Philippine fortress at Corregidor surrendered after weeks of Japanese bombardment.
Hundreds of US & Philippine soldiers were brutalized and even beheaded on the march to slave labor camps across Asia.
My Dad said one of the guys was really psychologically damaged while the other managed to cope but was still messed up.
For me I went to school with lots of kids whose father's served and teachers whose husband's served. I remember one teacher whose husband served in the jungles of Burma and how he was repeatedly struck by disease and low rations.
It just seemed so "normal" to grow up around WWII & Korean vets. Most were pretty even tempered but a few still had the mental scars but no one really talked about it.... Now days so few people know any veterans. Our military is very insular.
I was stationed in Germany in the last years of the 1980s. I knew a U-Boat man and met a lot of German vets. Many of them seemed to enjoy talking with us. I think sometimes they had a common bond even with the difference in age. In hindsight, this seems a bit strange since all of the Germans our age had to do military service. They seemed to think we were different. I eventually ended up with a wide range of experiences from Germany, Bosnia, and Afghanistan. I now feel a lot of sympathy for the German Afghan vets.
Thank you for passing on their stories. it's truly fascinating to hear about their experiences. The average person may never know about these stories unless they were in the right place and the right time, which you happen to have been.
Honestly, I'm so thankful I'm hearing about an experience that isn't US related -the comments here arn't from a very broad demographic it seems.
@@willbass2869 when I started going to bars around town in the late 70s, there were still WWII vets available to sit and talk to and buy beers for. I'll never forget those conversations.
Following the years after the war, Sledge ended up connecting with one of his fraternity brothers, Buck Marsh, who was an infantryman attached to the 3rd armored division in Europe and who personally witnessed the legendary Cologne Panther-Pershing tank duel of which Adam Makos writes about in his book "Spearhead". The two actually bonded heavily over talking to each other about their contrasting experiences, and both said that doing so was the best thing that helped them mitigate the trauma they both experienced.
I’ll need to check his post war book out. I took a hiatus from an audiobook of With The Old Breed as I don’t read so I’m a bit bad about finishing things but I was near the end of his Okinawa time so I’m getting close to the end. One thing I realized throughout is just how much of the Pacific uses Sledge’s accounts. I can’t remember specifically but there were several things where I was like oh that happened to somebody else in the show but it actually is from his memoir. “One of the best combat memoirs of all time” is an understatement. He literally wrote it while in the foxhole rather than trying to remember after time passed.
@dblackout1107 What he did was take notes in the spaces of his issued Bible because keeping an "Official" diary is against Combat regulations and then throughout the years he would look at the notes and that would help his Recall for writing his book. I believe this method took him all the way till 1981, that's when it was released. His memory, recall was obviously Excellent I'm sure there was much he didn't have to TRY to remember, it would ALWAYS be there.
Sledge also wrote a follow up to "With the Old Breed" called "China Marine" in 2002. It's about the time directly after Okinawa. He was shipped to China as part of a Post War occupation force, basically to take the Japanese, peacefully from THEIR Occupiers position. Seeing as Sledge didn't have enough "Points" this is how he had to finish serving out his time in the USMC. If you like Sledges First book and you liked the way he saw things and the way he wrote about it in his book this should definitely interest you.
His fellow Marine R.V. Burgis" Burgie" also wrote a book much later than Sledge in 2010 about his time in the War. It's title is "Islands of the Damned". I enjoyed it, and it gave a little bit of a different perspective on the time he shared with "Sledgehammer," definitely worth the read.
WW2 messed my Polish grandfathers head up monumentally. He was angry and abusive to my mum and her siblings as children. I didn't want to know him before he died but when I grew up and started to understand what he went through I wondered what kind of father he would have been without all of that trauma.
Worse that for Poland it didn't end in 1945.
He probably would have treated them like that without the trauma.
@@Michael_Hunt You do realise that trauma can drastically change how a person acts, right? Prior to the war, he could've been the gentlest person in Poland.
That was an incredibly ignorant response, from a very ignorant person.
@@TheLogman01 always with the excuses. Facts remain, that man beat his wife and child. *spits*
@@michaelbread5906absolute ꪀׁׅꪱׁׅᧁׁᧁׁꫀׁׅܻr tier take
Yeah being a soldier in both fronts was difficult in their own ways. The Pacific theatre in particular always sounds way more scary. You're on small islands in the sea where there's barely fresh water to drink, it's always hot af in the jungle, the enemy usually does not surrender, and the battles drag on far longer than they are expected to
Eastern front was worse
@@poison1448Im just talking about the two American perspectives
You are misinformed about the battles in Europe and the Mediterranean and even Burma.
@@robertsettle2590in Europe at least there were chains that could arrive on you, and battles rarely go south if you exclude the Kasserine pass or the Bulge
Also, burma is considered part of the pacific campaign
@@robertsettle2590 it died more soviets in the battle of Stalingrad than it dided americasn combined. If you would lose a battle you would be killed later.
People from that generation seemed more stoic then later ones. Many experienced the poverty and hardships of the Great Depression prior to going to war. They were a tough bunch. I grew up knowing a few WWII vets. Most served on ground in Europe and the rest were naval vets who fought in the Pacific. My uncle was B-17 navigator who had to bail out over Yugoslavia and traveled with local patrician forces to allied lines. Very few ever discussed actual combat they experienced.
It seems like being forced into war drains you of emotions since this was a world war one way kore devastating then the first it seems rather obvious they would be somewhat dead inside
Well, I did three tours in Afghanistan in the earlier part of the war, and you very quickly learn that people have no clue what you are talking about. I also don't particularly care for the professional vet types who look for every opportunity to regale the world about their experiences in all sorts of venues where they expect attention and praise. I don't think, in any case, there was a big difference between the generations when you speak about the people on the ground. This is one of the reasons I get tired of GenX and Boomer types slandering millennials. I am a Boomer, but most of the people I was with were millennials, and I had absolute trust in them. My grandfather fought at Buna in the Papuan Campaign. He died in 99. It would have been interesting to have talked to him after a tour or two of my own.
@@erotzoll Well the reality is most people are so ignorant that they haven't the slightest idea as to what they don't know. They live incredibly sheltered lives and in those bubbles they live in cannot see it. I know known many Veterans, and I have heard a lot of stuff from them about their experiences. The only thing I know for absolute certainty is that I don't know anything. I have an idea and I can conceptualize things, but I will never understand much of that without having experienced it. And that's perfectly fine. For much of life you cannot understand without experience. And unfortunately most people just for what ever reason don't grasp that. I see that so many people these days that need to be an expert in everything. Especially those in my generation. But sadly most of them don't realize how truly ignorant they are. What I have gleamed from life is that I am a complete fool along with the rest of the worlds population. I cannot and will not know everything and will be wrong about most things I say without even realizing it. I obviously feel like I know better and thing I can do things better, but that cannot be true because everyone feels that. Being smart does not mean you know everything or that anyone should trust a word you say. I am just some random guy on the internet and my opinions mean nothing. Unfortunately people do not realize this is universally true.
In my experience born in 1947 I only knew 1 adult male who didn't serve in WW II. All 3 of his brothers did. He was married, with 1 child and partial support of his widowed mother as his responsibility. His job kept requesting a draft deferment as an essential worker They were different in many ways.
@zackeryhardy9504 No truer words can be said. As they sum it up for the majority of us.
My great grandfather was in the Army during WW2, he fought in the Pacific. The only story I ever got out of him was when he had to run for his life and jump into the nearest ditch because the beach he was on was being bombed. He was a very quiet man and unfortunately drank himself to death but I know he finally found peace at the end. He was so happy at the end. My grandfather(his son) was a dog handler in the Air Force during Vietnam. He came back addicted to drugs and alcohol. He was a monster! He dropped death at 45. I wish things could have been different for him but I know what he saw and did in the jungle changed him forever. I saw 9/11 happen as a kid and joined the Navy at 18. I was so blessed to never be downrange. I lost so many friends from suicide who were. Talk to and thank your service men and women because you never know what they may be going through. I’ve seen survivor’s guilt take so many
My father is old enough to remember when WW2/Korea veterans were so dime a dozen that you'd casually run into them at bars and on the train or at your job. So I got very different stories when I was growing up than my friends did, who mostly went by what they saw on History Channel or in movies and Xbox games. The huge one is that I knew the Pacific campaign backwards and sideways while this is mostly ignored in America, even today.
My uncle Ralph, Pacific theater and my uncle, John European theater were my true father figures. They had different reactions to their service. For about 10 years after the war John was skittish to people coming up behind him. Ralph just buried his feelings in a quart of beer a day.
For the games, at least, it's easy to explain. Japan is a huge source of and market for them, even WW2 shooters, while Germany/Italy not so much.
It's a lot easier to say 'we're fighting the fascists & the Nazis' as opposed to 'we're fighting your/our great grandfathers, and our emperor.'
@@Reepicheep-1world at war had a Japanese campaign and no America vs Germany campaign tho
@@shadowling77777It had a Soviet vs German campaign though.
My 7th grade history teacher did a great job teaching the war in the Pacific. All the desks were pushed back and boxes and books were islands with little signs identifying them. We went through the leadership, the strategy, the battles. He read aloud 1st person memoirs, real grown up history of the Pacific Theater. We listened to music of the time. This was in 1965-1966. Teachers today are not allowed teach in such a free way. If it's week three of the 2nd semester you are on page 167 chapter 3, and the effect of 21st curriculum micro-management makes most kids hate school.
In Afghanistan my unit was split up and scattered to different places with other units. Some had easy jobs, some were run into the ground. When we came back to our unit and reunited we all struggled to fit back together. It was also hard because you were completely removed from the ppl you experienced that with. Suicides happened, a lot of guys got in some trouble afterwards. Divorces happened.
Had a very similar experience in Iraq. Some in our unit was out and about nearly EVERY day. While others were essentially fobbits. When our unit got back to the states cliques developed around those who did things and those that sat in the rear. Oh, and add mefloquine. . . . so yeah we also had MANY divorces and suicides.
Hard to handle the trauma and the- damage that came- afterwards…. Which explains the drinking and coping mechanisms that we turned to. I say handle only because many turned to coping as recovering/ recovery ❤️🩹 was probably just too painful.
I was EOD. Our deployments were exactly like this. Unit split into 2-3 person teams, and sent to be attached to different units at different FOBs. Some more busy and dangerous than others.
@@lawv804 I was commo but the rest of what you said also happened to me and my company as well. We all got split up into squads and platoons.
That’s a story as old as time. Just read about Odysseus and his struggles. Going to war means sacrificing a lot more than just your life.
Like many, my grandmother's brother was a coal miner from the age of 14. He and his brothers were happy when the war started as it got them out of the mines.
His boat was torpeedoed at Dunkirk. He survived as he could swim, having grown up by the sea.
He then went to East Asia where he ended up in a camp in Burma.
He survived the war and no one in the family knew about his experiences until in the 80s he assaulted his wife. It all came out in court.
What happened after?
@@D-M-R69 You know, I never thought to ask. The judge took it into consideration and that's where the story always stopped.
Now I'll have to ask and find out.
I used to work in the kitchens at a retirement home several years ago and we had one WW2 veteran there. On memorial day they would display stuff from various wars for everybody to look at and pay respects to. I was looking at one of the displays while on my break and the old man walks up to me and we have a brief conversation of his experiences in the Pacific. Told me so casually and matter of fact that one day he was out on patrol with his squad and they came under fire and he ended up shooting a guy out of a coconut tree. Glad he was able to survive the war and hope he's still doing well.
My war experience in Iraq and Afghanistan was different from my uncle that fought in Europe in WW2, and my father in Korea and Vietnam. I lost friends and saw the outcome of our firepower in our enemy. I was deployed for one year on each occasion. For me, it was traumatic to go out on a walking patrol, and I don't know if a sniper or IED would hurt me or a friend. In the case of my dad, it was constant violence for a whole year, and see friends, enemy soldiers, and civilians in pieces. My dad was my hero and I pray to God that I did not disappoint him and that I did my duty.
Yea the biggest difference being defeating Germany was a worthwhile cause where stealing oil from Iraq wasnt... you participated in a farce.
I love you and your family brother ❤
i understand i just have one question if you might answer: when you were on the battlefield did you have the feeling that you just helped your country destroy and kill the people of another's country for no military reasons ? thank you
@@laro_yas I did not have that feeling in Afghanistan. The reason was because the terrorist from Al-qaeda were responsible for killing innocent American civilians and for that they had to paid with their life. That is why I understand the Israeli soldiers that want to destroy Hamas terrorists. You have to understand that terrorist don’t want to negotiate they want to destroy us.
@@Edwin6932except for the fact relevant Al-Qaeda members weren’t in either of those countries and were literally funded by the same people that sent you there. But you do you I guess
Basically the GIs in Europe after liberation European cities would get wines and girls ,while the GIs in Pacific had to combat Japanese and Malaria at the same times
That's what Band of Brothers would have you believe anyways. The reality was MUCH worse for infantrymen in Europe.
@@redaug4212 You say that as someone who fought in Europe and The Pacific?
Like hell they did!!!! You are delusional MATE!!!!
@@rodafowa1279 no.....but did you?!
@@robertsettle2590 Nope. I'm also not making claims with absolutely no proof, either.
My uncle, George Willie Barton was in the Marines.
He went into Guadalcanal on the 3rd wave ashore.
Born in 1920 he died in 1972.
50 years is well below the average age of those born in the 1920s.
Especially as a farmer with plenty of family always pitching in and being able to take time off when sick.
My mother was making some navy beans and as they simmered on the stove the lid popped.
Just that noise caused him to jump up and then get into a crawl.
She heard the commotion and reassured him that it was just a pit on the stove.
The nightmares his wife told my mother, that uncle Willie would have with sweats, talking and sometimes yelling in his sleep had to contribute to his early death.
My dad and another of his brothers lived much longer.
The PTSD had to contribute to his massive stroke that caused his death.
It is very sobering to learn of the lifelong struggle to battle the demons of memory. Thank you for sharing your uncle's story. Bless you for caring enough to share.
Being Canadian, our country did not have many troops deployed in the Pacific theatre, but rather most were in Europe. I had a Great-Uncle who was an RCAF Navigator, shot down and became a POW of the Japanese. He never really talked about the war, but his tongue would loosen up a wee bit after a few beers. What he went through was beyond cruel, and was only 78 pounds when the war ended. He never returned to full health and died in 1974. All other relatives I had who fought were in Europe and lived full productive lives. I suppose they had their mental scars as well, but we never saw them. Although they all fought in the same war, it was my opinion as a young relative that the war my Great-Uncle fought was way worse.
There was a known controversy involving famous war correspondent Ernie Pyle when he transferred from covering the war in Europe to the Pacific in 1945. He arrived there already enjoying a celebrity status, and was treated as such by the brass. He embarked on an aircraft carrier instead of a tin can destroyer, was given an officer's state room instead of bunkering up with sailors below decks, which gave him the wrong impression that life on a Navy ship is easy compared to the ground troops. Pyle wrote unflattering portraits of the Navy, and a particular piece describing troops living in relative comfort in one of the many island outposts. He was met with angry letters from readers and fellow war correspondents who reminded him that those idyllic islands were captured and paid for by the blood of thousands of troops first. He had to apologize and conceded that his heart still remained with the grunts in Europe. Pyle was later killed in Okinawa, hit by a Japanese machine gun fire while covering the 77th Infantry Division.
Journalists like Ernie Pyle and others may have witnessed the worst of the battles and could write about them, but as a non-combatant they are still a long distant away from the real experiences of men who had to do the actual fighting and killing and making life and death decisions.
Or they become like Cronkite - bluntly stating, while attired in combat fatigues in Vietnam, that he would report what he wanted America to understand, we were losing the war, instead of facts. Pyle was a putz
I was deployed to Iraq in 08 and then again in 10’ and I can’t compare my experiences to theirs- and have never tried. The terrain, culture and warfare is just too different let alone the tactics used.
The main difference though is our gear and equipment- and even then there’s still very little to talk about.
Bill Maudlin was I believe the only true combat newsman and he was a cartoonist. Up Front was my Father's favorite book.
As someone who’s been in combat, it’s the hardest thing I have to deal with, I’m lucky I’m alive. I couldn’t comprehend what the 40s must’ve been like for those soldiers and the military it’s self. I take great pride in the US because my family immigrated here from Cuba and Mexico so we fight as if we are fighting for our own home and want to protect it. Even though the sacrifices are insanely great we still need these telling and stories to help better the future and give light to what was done and how we can be better
Well said. Thank you for loving your family, your comrades, and Country and for your service to preserve and protect our Nation and its interests. God bless you!
We talk a lot about the trauma of WWII troops and the difference between the ETO and PTO. We have tons of info on the trauma Vietnam vets went through. Why does nobody ever talk about the trauma Korean War vets experienced? Horrible weather (from sweltering heat to Siberian deep freeze), relentless night time human wave attacks from a numberless enemy, and then 2 years of WWI-style trench warfare. And then the added trauma of having fought in a war everybody keeps forgetting…
It truly is America's forgotten war. I've seen people describe the 50s as a decade of "peace" and prosperity following WW2, seemingly forgetting that the first 1/3rd of the decade we were in a horrific conflict that seems to have been largely suppressed or forgotten.
@@urgadurga That's even reflected in war movies. Only one that immediately comes to mind is Devotion
Pork chop hill, Retreat Hell! Are both Korean war movies
Back in the day the press even called it the Korean "Conflict" and refused to call it a War. I knew an old family friend who survived and it wasn't pretty. Remarkable man who was kicked out of home at 16 for being a deliquent and forged a fake birth certificate to enlist. Got sent to Korea basically as punishment because he crashed a jeep he wasn't supposed to be driving while stationed in Japan. Once in Korea, sense his new officers didn't like his attitude, they sent him and a few of his buddies to draw fire so that they could find the location of a machine gun nest... only instead of being good little human sacrifices they disobeyed orders, flanked the enemy, and returned with the broken machine gun. He was awarded a medal when his superior that wanted him dead tried to court martial him for disobeying a direct order but instead of being punished the military used it as a wittness statement for a bronze star. He didn't talk much about his experiences until he was really old and trying to make peace with God. Apparently they put him on a machine gun for most of the remainder of his service and he shot hundreds if not thousands of enemy troops dead because the Chinese, I believe it was, frequintly sent drugged up waves of soldiers trying to overwhelm positions with sheer numbers. Most of his PTSD, and fear that he was going to be sent to hell, came from knowing how many people he killed and how emotionally numb he was to pulling the trigger at the time.
I agree, it’s sad how it’s forgotten. I think a part of it is how many battle hardened veterans from ww2 went to Korea. I think there was less of a generational shock of not seeing the atrocities of war for the first time. For a lot of them I imagine it was something like “sigh, time for round two”. And then a lot of the people back home, still familiar with ww2 probably were thinking the same hearing the news
When I was a teenager back in the late 70s, I worked for a law firm as a messenger and one of the other messengers was a WW2 vet who had served in New Guinea where he got malaria. It still affected him all those years later where he would have recurrences of the disease and have to miss work. He was a meek and mild mannered little guy so it was always hard to imagine him as a soldier. The firm never hassled him about absences because all the big shots were veterans. The managing partner had been an officer in the war, in the OSS, and our direct boss of the messenger department was a retired career US Army sergeant and had served in combat in Korea & Viet Nam.
My grandfather was a Army veteran that survived Leyte. He was awarded a Silver Star and two Purple Hearts, then spent a year convalescent in a VA hospital. He talked very little about his experiences there. These are the things heros are made of.
My Great Grandpa Paul was in Europe. He helped liberate a few concentration camps.
My parents’ wedding pictures have a picture with both of my grandfathers. One was an MP in Europe who always had a good story about his time in the war. He seldom heard a shot fired in anger. The other was a combat veteran of Peleliu who was wounded in the pacific and dropped out of college to reenlist for Korea. He was almost killed in 1950 during the Chinese entry into the war. He never talked about anything, just about how hot the pacific was and how cold Korea was. The difference was stark. They even looked different ages.
Let's not forget U.S. armed forces personnel in the Pacific fought in a vast array of areas beyond those mentioned in the intro: In the mid-1960s we patrolled the Marianas Islands, Bonin Islands, Caroline Islands as well as the Marshall and Gilbert Islands. My Dad's ship visited Fiji.
Attu and Adak.
We are talking about ww2 not Vietnam but if you are going to mention a war and say don’t forget why not the Korean War it’s always forgotten
@@Chiken1223Probably because America legally doesn't consider it a war since Congress never signed off on it.
My great grandma had seven sons who all went to fight in WWI. They all came home. Even survivors' guilt is a terrible thing. My granda tried to join up in WWII, even though he had been blinded in one eye, during WWI - shot under the chin, where the bullet had gone through the roof of his mouth, through his eye and out through the side of his head.
It was 'only' his left eye. He reckoned he could still aim a rifle. My great grandma could never look other mothers in the eye - left or right.
War is madness!
This is a great video! I think this is perhaps one of my favorite videos of yours after following you for years. This is a very under appreciated and under studied subject of the second world war. Most people today are so disconnected from these events that the fact that these men and women were in fact real people that lived real lives and the psychology of these soldiers is just lost and forgotten about today. I'm glad to see a larger channel covering this subject and I think this will do great things. Keep up the great work!
Best response of the day.
One WWII veteran, who served (and was wounded) in the ETO, but who had an appreciation for what the guys in the PTO went through (and in fact was instrumental in directing me to Sledge's and William Manchester's memoirs) was Paul Fussell, who wrote his own memoir of his time in the ETO, as well as Wartime, both highly recommended.
My dad fought in the pacific against the Japanese at Guadalcanal, Saipan, Tinian and Iwo Jima. He went to work at a brewery in New Orleans when he came home. He worked side by side with former German POWs who were sent to Louisiana during the war. It didn’t bother him. He said that They were not his enemies.
Was it Jax, Dixie, Falstaff or Regal brewery. Remember the Times Picayune had a "Picture From The Past".
In one I'm sitting on a barstool next to my Pawpaw while my 3 uncles are playing cards at a table. It was Snell's Restaurant on 4th St in Marrero around 1960 & my grandfather was good friends with Red Snell. They even had slot machines in the back.
Thank you for creating this video. I'm 64 years old, and i have studied WWII throughout my entire life. At this point, I rarely hear any new facts I didn't already know, so instead, I appreciate hearing new interpretations and viewpoints on the impact of WWII. I welcome the way your video will help younger generations understand the experiences endured by the parents, teachers and neighbors of my generation.
I thought you might State one obvious difference. Units in Europe, once they arrived at the front, tended to stay in action continuously until the end of the war in Europe. Marine units would train, and train, for months in relatively peaceful environments, then be thrown into close combat, the most intense of all, for two or three weeks, until they had killed the island Garrison after vicious close fighting! Each type of Engagement very different, but both equally scarring to the individuals.
That " staying in action" is correct. But in Europe there were far more actually " relaxing" moment. Actual calmth on the front along a either friendly or beaten enemy civilian population. With weather most americans were more accustomed to. Meanwhile the marines were always fighting either japanese. The japanese and malaria, the japanese, malaria and the constant sun. Or fighting just the sun and malaria.
@@RK-cj4oc I wouldn't say that most American GIs were accustomed to sitting in a foxhole dealing with rain, mud, snow, sleet, and constant patrolling for weeks if not months. Nor do I think they would consider that a relaxing moment compared to being pulled off the line entirely.
@@redaug4212 Yeah, but that was while surrounded by friendly civillians with (mostly) known lines and knew where the enemy was. Not to mention they only spend 1 winter in actual Europe.Which is a world of difference from the constant. Endless. Never ending heat and malaria outbreak that is the pacific.
@@RK-cj4oc Friendly civilians were not unheard of in the Pacific theater either though. Filipinos, Melanesians, and Chamorros offered huge support for US troops in some of the most remote battlefields in the Pacific.
And US forces spent two winters in Europe, not just one. Fighting in the central Apennine mountains in winter conditions was every bit as bad as fighting in winter conditions in France, Belgium, and Germany.
Most men who fought in the pacific never talked about the war
I'm glad you brought up the Japanese philosophy toward the war. You have to understand that what they wanted and what they valued, affected how they acted. I get very annoyed with people who attack Douglas MacArthur for evacuating the Philippines and later returning. They always look at it from a Western POV. Look at it with Japanese philosophy, which the soldiers subscribed to. MacArthur was the ultimate prize, BUT they failed in capturing him. That was a blow to their confidence. Also, when he returned, to the place where they had originally lost him, that was another blow to the psyche of the Japanese soldier. Another thing that was, probably even more devastating than the bomb, was that MacArthur made it clear to the Emperor that the Emperor had to tell his people, that Japan LOST. Japan didn't "LET the USA win". The US soldier DEFEATED the Japanese soldier. If you study the war from the Asian POV, you'll understand the Pacific theater much better.
tThe US soldier beat the Jap I would say the Aussies the Kiwis the Brits the Indians the Gurkhas helped
MacArthur gets a bad rap, but he made allies for the US everywhere he went. Could you imagine how badly a guy like Patton might've handled the occupation of Japan?
This is horseshit Imperial Japan was beaten by industrial workers back home.
@@KrikZ32All I know is that Patton was on the Eastern Theater in Europe, but what bad thing did he exactly do there?
I just wanna know, not criticize, cuz I feel like I don’t know enough on Patton.
@@24adithyanonline He was a great military strategist and leader but after the war he was against getting rid of the Nazis and seemed to pretty much agree with them about Jewish people. It was the 40s, but even so you can google some of the stuff Patton said about jews and it gets pretty wild.
My father fought off the coast of North Africa, Normandy DDay, Cherboug, Southern France, Iwo Jima and Okinawa as a Marine Anti-Aircraft gunner on the battleship USS Arkansas. He didnt talk about his experiences much but his stories were fascinating when he did. A few years before he passed he wrote his WWII memoirs which we are so thankful to be able to pass down.
A pearl harbor survivor taught me how to shoot. His name was beachel Marion. He ended up operating a tank in the pacific. His most famous story was of a monkey he found with a cut leg. He nursed the monkey back to health and eventually kept it as a pet for the rest of the conflict. It would alert him and the other crewman to Japanese presence near them. He remembered only one time where he had to physically shoot at a Japanese soldier, and the painful part for him, he never knew as to whether that soldier got away or later passed.... I was lucky to be able to document some of these stories before his passing. It shows us that these men were people. And there still was humanity even in the midst of utter hell. Rip
My dad was at Schofield barracks on Oahu on December 7th. He said Europe got about 70% of the war output while they got about 25% iin the Pacific. I once asked him how long it would have taken to defeat the Japanese if we just went all out against them and ignored Europe entirely.
He said in his opinon as a combat infantryman, they'd be landing on the Japanese home Islands by 1944 at the latest.
That was Roosevelt's gamble - it was a 2 front war for the US after all, but it was Japan that sucker punched the US.
Think of all the factory production that went into building 100 escort carriers - designed for the U-boat war, all the Liberty Ships, the 8th and 15th air force.
The biggest reason for the war going on so long in the Pacific was waiting for the industrial production to jump up and building all those carriers. 1943 was the big year when all those Essex carriers rolled out, so earlier than 1944 would have been impossible IMO. Not building stuff for the war in Europe wasn't going to make the Essex's start coming out sooner, but not building all that would have meant a lot more coming out when they were produced.
So at that point, without worrying about a war in Europe, the US could have just rolled.
BUT it took that long for the Atomic bomb to be finished. That saved a lot of US lives, landing in Japan was going to be extremely bloody.
I agree. The British fourteenth army fighting the Japanese in Burma and india was known as the "forgotten Army" as it received only a fraction of the resources that British forces in Africa and Europe were receiving. its exploits were also largely overshadowed by the battles against Germany and Italy. It was the same with the Royal navy and RAF the war against the European axis took priority. It was only when they were on the verge of defeat that Britain sent large forces to fight the Japanese.
@@lightfootpathfinder8218Makes sense that the UK would focus primarily on defeating Germany as Germany was a close and direct threat literally bombing and killing British civilians. Whereas Japan could in no way launch any military attack on the British mainland.
@@jcavilaramos5697 I agree it makes sence it's just a shame that the British forces in the far east (and to a certain extent the US forces that were fighting in the more obscure theatres of the war in the east like Burma, new guinea and the southeast Pacific) don't really get the same recognition as the British and US forces in Europe particularly the ones fighting from D-Day onwards.
@tileux yes I'd say new guinea was the Australian forces major theatre in the war against japan. It is known about in the UK as Australia was and is part of the commonwealth forces(most Commonwealth battles are known in the UK due to them being part of the empire) but I take your point it is overlooked
My grandfather fought in the Philippines and received a Bronze Star. Rarely if ever talked about the war. When he did, it was the same story about him and a buddy standing watch on a hillside hearing a noise and rolling a couple of grenades downhill. BOOM!!! no more noise. He would always say with a smile.
It wasn't until many years after he died my mom gave me some copies of his service records, and I got a glimpse of what he went through. I know he was in Manilla and involved with that battle. One of the least talked about and bloodiest battles in the Pacific.
I've been honored to know and talk with many ww2 vets including one of my Grandfather's. Also many of our neighbors and guy's who volunteered at the local Recreation center as coaches. To this very day my friends and I still view these guy's as Heroes. They would all be rolling in their graves at the way this country has gone the last 10 years. We need to straighten out this mess in their honor and to All the Vets from Korea to Afghanistan and Iraq. Let's wake up and do it!
Well said, no pacifists here
I go to the gym with one of the last WWII soldiers and his own family knew little of his experience until after his wife died and they found hidden in the attic a small box of mementos, and a small diary he wrote on cigarette papers with a nub of a pencil. I have spoken with him on several occasions but mainly listened to his story. He too did not share for years because he wanted to move on with life, and so many others had stories to share. He didn't want to impose on people. His last few months he was a POW. My name's sake was Monroe Gayle Pruiett, and he was captured in the Philippines, walked the Bataan death march, survived a hell ship to Japan and spent 2yrs in a Japanese POW camp. Yes, their stories and much different.
I grew up with parents & families who had been on the British & German sides of WW2. We grew up with my Dad's PTSD but we never knew what that was. Later in life, I got to know US WW2 veterans & I began to make more sense of it all. War also deeply affects the generations that follow 🕊
Great grandfather on my mom's side worked a lot with tanks during the Battle of the Bulge. He had the misfortune of having both of his hands crushed by the falling hatch of a Sherman, no doubt breaking several fingers. He was promptly reassigned to directing tank traffick, freezing his ass off, both hands bound together. Respect for a man who did his duty!
I’m sure his buddies gave him a lot of shit for that lol
My neighbor growing up (who I thought was my grandpa lol) was a bronze star recipient from ww2 . He was a fantastic man, I also had a great grandpa and great great uncle who fought. I don’t believe we’ll see another generation quite like them. I was fortunate in 2012 to take a trip to Pearl Harbor where I got to meet some survivors of the attack who were telling their stories❤
My grandfather fought from N Africa to Germany. His brother was one of the “replacements” that were brought in. He was killed on Christmas Day. It’s amazing how so many, like my grandfather, survived for so long while at the same time so many barely got their footing before falling. We must remember that war is not pretty. It is a meat grinder in which people are forced to work. If you know any WWII vets, please record their stories and learn from them.
I applaud you sir! I'm a WW2 history buff and there are not many angles of this conflict I haven't explored, however.. this video was informative and intriguing in a very new way. Great job sir!
My father never talked about the war. He told people if they asked that he was in the Army. Would not go to any veterans clubs. He would occasionally when I was growing up give me advice if I ever had to go to war. Then always told me that he hoped I never had to. He said it was just his duty. We did have to go to a veterans hospital because of malaria symptoms. Many people were trying to get a look at my father. I asked a guy and he said my father was the highest decorated soldier they ever had in the hospital. When I asked him about it he said it wasn’t a important part of his life. it was just duty.
After his death I found out my father was a OSS scout for Merrill’s Marauders. He has a MOH and four silver stars as well as other medals. He was also just awarded the Congressional Gold medal. The one thing he did always say was that no one should of had do what he did and that the Japanese soldiers didn’t want to be there anymore then the American soldiers.
I'm sorry, but just to clarify, you only found out your father was an MOH recipient after his death? Thank you for any clarification and thank you for telling the story of your father's sacrifice!
What was his name?
Where be our sources?
@@squeaky206 There aren't any, because as far as I'm able to determine, none of the 5307th Composite Unit (Merrill's Marauders) was ever awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor. Or least none were awarded that weren't done posthumously, which would be a prerequisite for the story to be true. @charleswinters7129 is lying.
@@rhvette It could be an innocent mistake. The unit received a number of honors. It could also be that individuals in the marauders did get the MoH and we're not aware of it
Men who fought in the pacific saw unimaginable horrors my uncle was a us marine on Okinawa and described it as the world felt like it was burning around you and it was the closest thing to hell you could experience. Most of the men who fought in the Pacifics most bloody battles where volunteers and between the ages of 16 and 19 fighting an enemy that believed their sole purpose was to kill you. My uncle said there was an another marine in his squad who many saw as sort of a role model because he had experienced combat already, this marine was 19 years old. However the European theater veterans had their fair share of trauma. The biggest example of this is seeing the effects of war on the civilian population. In the pacific most of the battles took place on islands whose only inhabitants where the Japanese military personnel, in Europe however they where fighting in towns and cities, many of which still had people living there, most of the men fighting in Europe where drafted, they experienced the horrors of concentration camps and the mass murders the Germans committed. Both groups of ww2 veterans experienced equal amount of horrors
i had a neighbor who was a 2-front veteran because he was a radio technician. he was shipped to europe and the pacific to lay down radio wire lines. he later became a firefighter and was the nicest man i'd ever met.
Two very very different wars. Both horrible in their own unique way. I'm grateful to the heroes who made it possible for us to be able to discuss it today.
My dad went to combat stress to deal with his PTSD a few years back, the guys from Iraq and Afghan couldnt relate to the trauma that those from Northern Ireland had because the difference in scenery triggered a lot of those from N. Ireland due to it looking like home, the roads and houses looked identical to where they was raised and where they currently live.
One of my grandfathers worked on his family farm during the war, while the other worked in a factory that produced aircraft parts. I have always felt proud of them for doing important work back home and the thought that they might have otherwise gone to the front and died terrifies me. If they were to die I wouldn't exist but it almost unnerves me to think that they could have and instead of having a family they would be a corpse in a photograph at which future generations could marvel.
the Robert Leckie you're talking about is different to the Robert Leckie you're showing. the Person you're showing was a pilot in the RAF and RCAF, spending his time in WW2 as a teacher at the air training school in Canada, reaching the rank of Vice Air Marshall for his troubles.
Uh, yes, peterlaw is correct. The Leckie you are talking about was in the USMC.
Way to catch it you two! I’m glad to know I wasn’t the only one to have spotted this error made by The Front .
Using the wrong illustrations is typical of this channel.. little to no care in checkign carefully.... I HATE IT...
they state such in the pinned post
@@MysticalDragon73 you mean the pinned post that was posted a day after I made my comments?
At the end of the series of the Pacific, Robert Leckie just out out of a taxi back at parents house. His taxi driver fought in the European theater, Robert tried to tip the taxi driver, and the taxi driver essentially said keel it, i got all my liberties in Europe, all you Pacific guys got malaria and jungle rot. Another person commented that when the guys in the Pacific were finally clming home, well ppl really kind of forgot about them. The European guys came home to parades and being called heros, by the time Japan surrendered, well the celebration of winning the war was kind of "yesterday's news" bc the war in europe had ended months prior. Kind of sad the guys in the Pacific didnt get as much recognition as the guys in the European theater
I disagree. There were huge celebrations over VJ Day (see photos from Times Square) and the Marines in the Pacific got plenty of press. The flag raising on Iwo Jima being the most iconic and publicized photo of the war tells as much. Now if you were in the Army in the Pacific theater, between MacArthur's staff and the Marine Corps' PR machine hogging the headlines, you would get little in the way of recognition.
I also find it funny how the writers for The Pacific forgot that they dedicated an entire episode to Leckie taking liberties in Melbourne.
It’s true, I worked at the VA hospice and the pacific veterans carried their hatred for anything Japanese till they died. The fighting was that brutal. They were brave men. 🙏🇺🇸
My Mom's Dad was in the Navy in the European Theater on a Destroyer. He saw combat. Told me some harrowing stories while I was growing up.
Then my Dad's father and uncle fought in the Pacific theater as Infantrymen. They weren't together though, in different companies.
I never met my great Uncle. But my grandpa told me some stories of some of the battles he was involved in, and it sounded like it was so chaotic and terrifying.
I wish they were still with us, I wish I could talk to them more about their experiences as an adult.
In the late 70s and into the 80s, I grew up in a neighborhood that was full of veterans from WW1, WW2, Korea and Vietnam -some Cold Warriors, too. They'd have get-togethers and cookouts and such and they'd talk, especially when the alcohol came out!. They seemed to relate to each other pretty welll even if they couldn't/wouldn't talk to their own families about what they'd experienced.
My own family had vets who fought throughout the Med. Pacific and the Aleutians on my Dad's side. On my mom's side, two were POWS, Bataan Death March and the other was in the CBI theatre and was wounded. My dad was a Korean War vet. They all seemed to relate to eahother pretty well, too
My great uncle was stationed in the Philippines in the army before the Japanese invaded. He missed the boat and was stuck on the islands after the Americans pulled out and lost the area. Somehow he was able to evade Japanese forces for 4 years and lived with the indigenous people. Some point during his life there he was wounded and lost his leg. The man literally lived behind enemy lines in the worse conditions. He was never awarded or given acknowledgment for his bravery.
i mean....thats a hell of a story...but what sort of reward are you expecting he should receive? It sounds like when the japanese invaded and McArthur left the phillipines behind, your great uncle threw down his rifle and said "WELP guess im filipino now!" lol. Acknowledgement, yes, shouldve received plenty of that, but im having a hard time coming up with some reward lol
I think he meant acknowledgement later. He wasn't a coward, he was waiting his chance to be a guerilla fighter, saboteur and avoid Bataan death march. Blame McArthur for ignoring Intel and making preparations for Jap invasion attempt
@@ng4318if he harassed enemy behind the lines perhaps
Almost reminds me of The Thin Red Line
Thanks for creating/posting this. Very enlightening. I can't believe what my parents' generation lived through. I pray it was not for nothing.
When you wear the uniform of your country and serve in combat regardless of which conflict when I shipped out to Iraq my two grandfathers and my dad and 2 uncles saw me off and it was the first time in my life these men who were giants in my life had tears in there eyes knowing that my life would change forever they were proud to welcome me into the brotherhood but knew ptsd and maybe injury or death awaited me when I came home after my second tour after losing my leg and losing everyone in that humvee with me I got blown out turret my father held me every night for 8 months well I cried myself to sleep not because I lost my leg but because I hated the fact I survived and my fire team didn’t survivors guilt it horrible I miss my brothers and if it wasn’t for my dad and grandfathers during that time I would’ve taken my life to be reunited with them they made me realize it’s all chance and my brothers would want me to live life to the fullest in there honor .
You unfortunately have used the wrong photographs of Robert Leckie. I think the Robert Leckie you have here was the Canadian Air Force officer.
Very silly mistake on our part. Bringing this up to our team.
Yeah he did I just commented on that
@@TheFrontremove this video and upload it again with corrections.
My father was in the RAF Regiment and fought from Normandy (D plus 11) thru to Holland, then transferred to India and Burma. Hated the Japanese ( no Datsun for us). Between 45 and 46, still in Burma, used to control crowds demanding independence. One or two Brit s backed up by Japanese prisoners with bamboo canes. Returned home with malaria!
My father was in the Royal Marine Commandos and he hated the Japanese. He went to visit my sister in Australia in the 80s with a stop off in Hong Kong where he had also been during the war as well as Burma. He completely freaked out whilst there which my mum told me about in confidence because he was really embarrassed about it. PTSD never goes away. That generation never spoke of it though. He had malaria three times and his whole neck was covered in deep scars from all the leeches.
They wrote memoirs about it decades after the fact. Imagine it takes a long time for people to be able to discuss it, at least for most people. Respect to all of them.
My grandfather was with the New Zealand 3rd Division seeing action in Vella LaVella, Nissan Island, and Guadalcanal, aka the Islands.
He was sent home sick, pretty much a broken man. As a machine gunner, he had lost much of his hearing, contracted malaria, was suffering nervous ehaustion (PTSD) and, as I only found out from my grandmother a few years before he died, he had received shrapnel wounds to his legs.
Recently I stumbled across a photograph holding his son for the first time in '45, and his uniform just hung from him - realising that by that time he had spent many weeks being transported and rehabilitated (fattening up) before being allowed to return home.
On demobing he returned to teaching but his old Colonel who also a senior teacher and on the Education Board, knew he needed time to mend and arranged he be sent on extended country service until he got better.
It took many years, though, in truth, he never fully recovered.
One upside was that many a child in the country districts he was posted learnt how to use a rifle properly and explosives (to clear tree stumps) safely.
He rarely spoke of his time in the Islands but I recall the bitterness in his voice when he explained why he didn't attend the Returned Services Association was because the first time he went for a beer at his local RSA he was derided as a "brown bomber".
Indeed, he was sensitive to way 3rd Div veterans were pretty much ignored by the RSA and official historians (there are very few publications) - I heard him muse, it was if they were an embarrassment because they hadn't seen "real" action (like 2nd Div). His view was, "People still died."
He confided in me that he kept a short fused handgrenade on him to make sure he wasn't captured. This highlights the no quarter attitude in this theatre.
I can only recall him going to a dawn sevice once, with my father (a serviceman, at the time) and myself as a wee boy; and this was the only time I ever saw him publicly wear his medals.
What I realise is that his experiences on the Islands hung on him like a darkened thrall, which for the rest of his life, he did well enough to keep mostly at bay.
My great grandfather, who passed in December, was a SeaBee who worked on the targeting computers (for their gun turrets) on the B29s. He hopped along the islands right behind the landing forces to help establish the airfields etc. He finally ended up on Tinian and would often talk about how even after they took the island you'd suddenly hear gun fire within yards of you as Japanese hold outs would try and change the engineers to stop their work. What he never talked about often was his actual work and the bombings. (Tinian was where the Enola Gay launched from)
My Grandpa was a navy Seabee as well. M CB 9. Joined in 1959 so obviously missed ww2 but him and his buddies found a bunker on Okinawa and also told me about all the Japanese skeleton parts at the bottom of what was called suicide cliffs were the Japanese jumped from in order to avoid surrender.
My Dad was a Marine in WWII. He was at Tarawa, Saipan, and Okinawa. He would not talk about it, just like I didn't talk about it when I got home From Vietnam/Cambodia. There were thing he saw and did were beyond anything people who have never been there won't ever understand. Semper Fi.
War is hell…
My great uncle was a POW in the Bataan Death March and didn’t make it. He died of starvation. Both theaters were an awful part to be of but the Pacific Theater sounds so much worse.
My dad was in the Pacific in an artillery unit. 40 years later he still couldn't talk about it. My uncle who went ashore on D-Day talked about his time in Europe rarely, but only where his unit had gone, never about what they did or saw.
As bad as Korea and Vietnam were, my uncles who fought in those would talk about being there, especially the ones at home from Vietnam between tours.
Two of my ancestors were at Normandy. One was a marine and the other a Naval engineer for the USS Cleveland. Man I can’t imagine what they thought and went through at France and the Pacific theater
If you haven't, I recommend reading the novel Unbroken. It tells the story of Louis Zamperini, a WWII Vet, who was a POW of the Japanese during the war. It details what he went through when he was captured by the Japanese after his bomber was shot doing in the pacific.
Excellent piece. I grew up with veterans of both theaters and wholly agree with your findings.
A man scared by war never heals 100 percent. They have that scar forever. Even great men are afflicted by these wounds that aren’t seen by their peers.
The Robert Leckie pictured at 0:08 and later is not the former US marine who was the author of the war memoir, Helmet for My Pillow, which along with Eugene B. Sledge's book With the Old Breed, formed the basis for the HBO series The Pacific (2010).
The photo is of Air Marshal Robert Leckie, an officer in the Royal Air Force and the Chief of the Air Staff of the Royal Canadian Air Force from 1944 to 1947.
they pointed out such in the pinned post at the start of this.
I'd noticed this discrepancy too. Please excuse me raising it again later in the string.
P.s. not all people watching a TH-cam video will see a pinned post, or even understand what that is, so editing it to include the correct image might be better for expanding your viewers. Otherwise you may get a reputation for inaccuracy that you don't deserve.
@@IanHutchings_KTF Yep. I did not read the fine print. The photo appears twice. I checked it out as the person is clearly wearing the uniform of an RAF officer. That should have been enough to alert the producers of the video. Don't blame the audience for sloppy work.
There's another HUGE difference between the European and Pacific Theaters. If you were fighting in Europe, when you were relieved, you'd get to go to London or Paris, with all the creature comforts and grateful local women and all that fun stuff. If you were fighting in the Pacific, and you weren't the First Marine Division after Guadalcanal (who got to go to Australia to be hailed as heroes and participate in what Bob Leckie called "The Great Debauch" - on a side note, the VERY Australian song Waltzing Matilda is still the official song of the 1st MarDiv), you'd get your R&R on Pavuvu, which was an uninhabited island until the US military went there, and generally hated by everyone.
The catch is though, unless you were in an Airborne unit or being prepared for a major amphibious invasion, you wouldn't get relieved from the frontline in Europe. You would just get moved to another part of the line where there wasn't as much fighting going on.
Whereas in the Pacific, after an island campaign many units were pulled out of combat and sent to civilized areas for months. The 2nd Marine Division and 7th & 27th Infantry Divisions got to go to Hawaii, the 32nd and 41st Infantry Divisions got to go to Australia, the 25th Infantry Division got to go to New Caledonia, and the Americal Division got to go to Fiji.
@@redaug4212 Some in the Pacific that went on "R&R" would get attached to Navy SeaBee units to help build airfields. Only know about it because it happened to one of my grandfathers.
Nearly 65 years later I got to help rebuild one of the airfields my grandfather worked on, awesome experience. It was a demonstration and evaluation of some of the Navy's new engineer equipment to see how fast an airfield could be built for combat aircraft. . . We built two within 30 days, tested them with C-17s and C-130s.
Just wanted to note what a superb job in dealing with a topic that is not glamourized or ignored by major media. I remember Civil War General Sherman, when asked about the "glory of war", told the graduating class at West Point that it was all poppycock and that there was nothing glorious in battle. WWI and WWII brought that sentiment home to many, many American's in an all too brutal manner. However, not to belittle the horrible sacrifice and loss by the soldiers who fought in the battles, the horrific loss suffered by the civilian populations has never really been quantified. The fire-bombing of Dresden and the nuclear bomb attacks were mentioned and yes, they caused an ungodly number of civilian casualties from just single incidents. But imagine, if possible, what it must have been like to live in cities being bombed repeatedly, for no other reason than to demoralize the population and to reduce their support for war! I just finished binge watching Band of Brothers for the third time since it was originally released and nothing brought me to tears over the sheer inhumanity toward man than Episode 9 when the true nature of the "final solution" to the Jewish problem was portrayed in all its ugliness.
Soldiers in Europe was hard but the soldiers in the Pacific went through hell in every way possible
Eastern front was much worse than what any american experienced. That was much closer to hell.
@@poison1448That doesn’t mean the Pacific was a luxury resort though…
It depends entirely on unit, campaign, year(s) of service, etc. Some units in the Pacific would have seen little combat compared to many units in Europe. This is precisely why I can't stand this Europe vs Pacific comparison. It's reduces the experiences of millions to nothing more than empty platitudes just so we can say "who had it worse".
@user-qj3ez1oe4t nobody is implying it is. The Pacific theatre was horrible, but the Eastern front is too commonly ignored in Europe/USA.
@@poison1448 Except the Americans and other allies ( British, Australian, Chinese) were facing an opponent that would never surrender. Unlike the Soviets.
In and around 1975 and witnessed a conversation between my father and uncle talking about their experiences in the world II when my grandfather a WWI vet chimed in and told the they both had it easy compared to his wars experience. Since my sons and I all served in the same wars we pretty much have had similar experiences.
Both of my great grandparents fought in world war 2 one in the pacific and the other in Europe under the British forces. Weird to think how different their experiences would have been from one great grandfather storming the beaches of Normandy to fighting outside German whereas the other fought from Guadall canal to Okinawa.
My mother's father fought in the ground army in the deserts of Egypt in Africa, a Scot in the British forces. Whilst my father's father, a US pilot fought in the airs of the pacific. It really was a world spanning war.
My late father was an NCO in the U.S. Army during the Second World War, seeing combat in a segregated unit from Normandy to V-E Day in Czechoslovakia as a part of Patton's Third Army . One of his brothers was an officer in Italy with the 92nd Infantry Division. Another of my Dad's brothers served in the Coast Guard. And my Dad's oldest brother (born in 1917) served in the Naval Reserve. Thankfully they all survived the War.
My grandfather was a T-Sgt infantryman in Europe.
From Normandy to the outskirts of Berlin.
Battle of the bulge, other larger operations.
His exact words about the Pacific Vets.
“This poor boys had it rough”
My grandpa fought three wars in China and could really relate to the horrors fighting the Japanese
An extended family member was shot down in the Pacific and was captured and tortured until his eventual release at the end of the war. He never spoke again and had to spend the rest of his life in an asylum, they believe that in resisting giving information to his captors something just switched off mentally. Adversely on the other side, another fought in the African theatre in totally different conditions and did well considering what they went through.
Both my grandfathers were in Europe, but their experiences were very different. One was a driver and wasn't really involved in combat, but he saw Dachau survivors and it shook him so deeply, he wouldn't really talk about it. When his family visited Europe I'm the 60s, he refused to visit any concentration camps because seeing what they had done had been so horrifying to him.
My other grandfather was spying behind enemy lines, saw lots of combat, and was one of the few survivors in his unit. He didn't talk about it, I didn't know anything about his service until nearly 20 years after his death.
It was almost as if there were 2 different wars happening at the same time.
I fought in Vietnam/Cambodia 1970. There were things I witnessed and performed That is still causing me problems. There hasn't been a day in the last 53 years I haven't thought about Vietnam/Cambodia. Every single day.
The cost of fighting an enemy that were fighting for a homeland and cultural identity.
I’d reckon an invading force in America would find the same level of brutality and malice fighting American guerrillas and militias
@@hybui123 You have no idea how brutal a Vietnam/Cambodia combat vet can be. I bet the vet from Iraq and Afghanistan could come up with a few dirty tricks also. There are no rules in war. I will kill you before you kill me...Hopefully
@@hybui123 A communist invasion of a sovereign country is called "fighting on homeland for cultural identity"?
My dad was WW2 vet European theater, friends dad Pacific. My dad made friends with a former U-boat crewman after the war from Germany. Now my friends dad, well. In the late 70's I was at my friends house when another friend showed up with his brand new Datsun. He was showing us the car when dad who had served in Pacific came out of the house with a baseball bat. Without a word he completely beat the Datsun to the point that the car was totaled and walked back into the house without saying anything. Nothing could be brought into his house that said made in Japan on it ever till he died.
That is just pathetic and sad!
@@robertsettle2590It is not. Many, many people from the US to Australia who had to fight the japanese had this mindset. The japanese inflicted horrible acts, things that cannot be forgiven in onces life time. Sad for that friend.But partly understandable.
@@RK-cj4oc so hes ptsd ridden and actually aggressive dude needs to be locked up not be free if a fucking car sets him off
Yet I know no British Veterans who befriended German Veterans .
Very telling
My dad fought in North Africa, Sicely and Italy. He still would not permit as he called it "cheap jap crap" in our home. He also would not meet with. German immigrants of his age as I had a friend whose dad was in the German army in WW2
Woah. Long time Geetsly's subscriber, and this popped up on my feed today. Clicked on it and a few other videos in other tabs to watch up next, and this voice came on and had to double check which channel I was on. Very nice surprise.
Knew he sounded familiar
I think you can always relate a little. I’m a veteran of OIF and I’ve talked to Korean and Vietnam vets here and there. I don’t understand their wars exactly, but I understand the broad concept a hell of a lot better than some guy off the street.
When someone who has never served asks me, or even someone who never deployed… I just avoid the topic. Explaining what a pizza tastes like to a tree v explaining it to someone who has just never had pizza.
Crimson tide came out shortly after we got back from a combat deployment. It still messes with me to this day. Sadly those who have never seen combat cant understand. I also dont pretend the combat I saw in the Navy was the same as a mud eaters.