Tuesday, June 03, 2014
The Pacific: Third Time Round
Can I be forgiven for writing the third time about a 10-part mini-series? It was the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbour that brought the Americans officially into a war that the rest of the world had been waging for over two years and they would not be ready to engage until nearly a year later but yet guess who thinks they won the war? Guess it’s obvious I’m not an American. This is not to denigrate the sacrifices made by those who went into battle and never came home again or did so maimed in body and spirit.
This series is unique in making the war experience personal. The depiction of war is brutal and the enemy fanatical but it is the personal details that bring the horror of war home to us. Eugene Sledge would not be the first doctor’s son whose Father tried to keep him away from a war. Their ongoing relationship begins and ends the series. The startling normalcy of life back home is in stark contrast to the experience of the Marines on those small pieces of coral in the vast Pacific. There the jungle, the insects, the critters, and endemic diseases were every bit as much a danger as the enemy. Wars are won and lost on the stomachs of the men who fight them, an army marches on its stomach and cannot survive long without clean water.
The first landing contrasts arriving to find troops resting on the beach with the suspenseful march through an eerie and unknown jungle environment. Finding the abandoned enemy camp ups the ante then comes the rain.
Several themes seem to be common to all war movies. Inept West Point Educated Lieutenants whose book larnin’ ill equips them for the rigors of battle. Command decisions that squander hundreds and thousands of lives on meaningless objectives. Friendly fire incidents often involving aerial or ship to shore bombardment. Soldiers killed by their comrades because they did something stupid at night. The various manifestations of battle fatigue. The nightmares that last a lifetime after the war.
Had I been a veteran don’t know as I could have sat through this series.
This series is unique in making the war experience personal. The depiction of war is brutal and the enemy fanatical but it is the personal details that bring the horror of war home to us. Eugene Sledge would not be the first doctor’s son whose Father tried to keep him away from a war. Their ongoing relationship begins and ends the series. The startling normalcy of life back home is in stark contrast to the experience of the Marines on those small pieces of coral in the vast Pacific. There the jungle, the insects, the critters, and endemic diseases were every bit as much a danger as the enemy. Wars are won and lost on the stomachs of the men who fight them, an army marches on its stomach and cannot survive long without clean water.
The first landing contrasts arriving to find troops resting on the beach with the suspenseful march through an eerie and unknown jungle environment. Finding the abandoned enemy camp ups the ante then comes the rain.
Several themes seem to be common to all war movies. Inept West Point Educated Lieutenants whose book larnin’ ill equips them for the rigors of battle. Command decisions that squander hundreds and thousands of lives on meaningless objectives. Friendly fire incidents often involving aerial or ship to shore bombardment. Soldiers killed by their comrades because they did something stupid at night. The various manifestations of battle fatigue. The nightmares that last a lifetime after the war.
Had I been a veteran don’t know as I could have sat through this series.
# posted by garthmailman@gmail.com @ 10:19 am 
