The Pacific is based primarily on two memoirs of U.S. Marines: With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by Eugene Sledge; and Helmet for My Pillow by Robert Leckie.[3] The miniseries tells the stories of the two authors and Marine John Basilone, as the war against the Empire of Japan rages. It also draws on Sledge's China Marine[4] and Red Blood, Black Sand,[5] the memoir of Chuck Tatum, a Marine who fought alongside Basilone on Iwo Jima.[6]
The miniseries features well-known battles with Japan involving the 1st Marine Division, such as Guadalcanal, Cape Gloucester, Peleliu, and Okinawa, as well as Basilone's involvement in the Battle of Iwo Jima.
Historian Hugh Ambrose, son of Band of Brothers author Stephen E. Ambrose, wrote the official tie-in book to the miniseries,[7] which follows the stories of two of the featured men from the miniseries, Basilone and Sledge, as well as stories of Sledge's close friend Sidney Phillips and two men not featured in the series, Marine officer Austin Shofner and U.S. Navy pilot Vernon Micheel. The different cast provides a wider view of the Pacific theatre, allowing the book to include the fall of the Philippines, Midway, Philippine Sea and Luzon and expand the narrative to include depictions of life as experienced by prisoners of war, senior officers and the development of naval aviation. It was published in the U.K. and the U.S. in March 2010.[8]
Link :
# Part 1 "Guadalcanal/Leckie" #
# Part 2 "Basilone" #
# Part 3 "Melbourne" #
# Part 4 "Gloucester/Pavavu/Banika" #
# Part 5 "Peleliu Landing" #
# Part 6 "Peleliu Airfield" #
# Part 7 "Peleliu Hills" #
# Part 8 "Iwo Jima" #
# Part 9 "Okinawa" #
# Part 10 "Home" #
The Pasific's Weapons Review
Handgun
M1911
The
M1911 is a
single-action,
semi-automatic, magazine-fed, recoil-operated
handgun chambered for the
.45 ACP cartridge,
[1] which served as the standard-issue
side arm for the
United States armed forces from 1911 to 1985. It was widely used in
World War I,
World War II, the
Korean War, and the
Vietnam War. The M1911 is still carried by some U.S. forces. Its formal designation as of 1940 was
Automatic Pistol, Caliber .45, M1911 for the original Model of 1911 or
Automatic Pistol, Caliber .45, M1911A1 for the M1911A1, adopted in 1924. The designation changed to
Pistol, Caliber .45, Automatic, M1911A1 in the Vietnam era.
[1]
In total, the United States procured around 2.7 million M1911 and
M1911A1 pistols in military contracts during its service life. The M1911
was replaced by the
M9 pistol
as the standard U.S. sidearm in the early 1990s, but due to its
popularity among users, it has not been completely phased out. Modern
M1911 variants are still in use by some units within the
U.S. Navy and
U.S. Marine Corps.
[4]
Riffles
M1 Garand
The
M1 Garand (officially designated as
United States Rifle, Caliber .30, M1 and later it was just called
Rifle, Caliber .30, M1, and also abbreviated as
US Rifle, Cal. .30, M1) is chambered for the
.30-06 Springfield rifle cartridge. It was the first
semi-automatic rifle to be generally issued to the
infantry of any nation.
[4] Called "the greatest battle implement ever devised" by General
George S. Patton,
[5] the Garand officially replaced the
bolt-action M1903 Springfield as the standard
service rifle of the
United States Armed Forces in 1936 and was subsequently replaced by the
selective fire M14
in 1957. However, the M1 continued to be used in large numbers until
1963 and to a lesser degree until 1966. Like its predecessor, the M1
originated from the
Springfield Armory.
The M1 "is an air-cooled, gas-operated, clip-fed, and semiautomatic
shoulder weapon. This means that the air cools the barrel; that the
power to cock the rifle and chamber the succeeding round comes from the
expanding gas of the round fired previously; that it is loaded by
inserting a metal clip (containing a maximum of eight rounds) into the
receiver; and that the rifle fires one round each time the trigger is
pulled ".
[6] After the eight rounds have been shot the clip automatically ejects causing a "ping" noise to occur.
M1 carbine
The
M1 carbine (formally the
United States Carbine, Caliber .30, M1) is a lightweight, easy to use
semi-automatic carbine that became a standard firearm for the
U.S. military during
World War II, the
Korean War and the
Vietnam War,
and was produced in several variants. It was widely used by U.S. and
foreign military, paramilitary and police forces, and has also been a
popular civilian firearm.
Thompson submachine gun
The
Thompson is an American
submachine gun, invented by
John T. Thompson in 1919, that became infamous during the
Prohibition era. It was a common sight in the media of the time, being used by both law enforcement officers and criminals.
[6]
The Thompson was also known informally as: the "Tommy Gun", "Trench
Broom", "Trench Sweeper", "Chicago Typewriter", "Chicago Piano",
"Chicago Style", "Chicago Organ Grinder", and "The Chopper".
[7][8][9][10]
The Thompson was favored by soldiers, criminals, police and civilians alike for its ergonomics, compactness, large
.45 ACP cartridge, reliability, and high volume of
automatic fire. It has since gained popularity among civilian collectors for its historical significance.
Ithaca 37
The Ithaca 37 is a pump-action shotgun
made in large numbers for the civilian, military, and police markets.
It utilizes a novel combination ejection/loading port on the bottom of
the gun which leaves the sides closed to the elements. In addition, the
outline of the gun is clean. Finally, since shells
load and eject from the bottom, operation of the gun is equally
convenient for both right and left hand shooters. This makes the gun
popular with left-handed shooters.
M1917 Browning machine gun
The M1917 Browning machine gun is a heavy machine gun used by the United States armed forces in World War I, World War II, Korea, and to a limited extent in Vietnam, and by other nations. It was a belt-fed water-cooled machine gun that served alongside the much lighter air-cooled Browning M1919.
It was used at the battalion level, and often mounted on vehicles (such
as a jeep). There were two main iterations of it: the M1917, which was
used in World War I; and the M1917A1; which was used thereafter. The
M1917 was used on the ground and on some aircraft, and had a firing rate
of 450 round/min; the M1917A1 had a firing rate of 450 to 600
round/min.
M1919 Browning machine gun
Many M1919s were rechambered for the new
7.62×51 mm NATO round and served into the 1990s, as well as up to the present day in some countries. The
United States Navy
also converted many to 7.62 mm NATO, and designated them Mk 21 Mod 0;
they were commonly used on river craft in the 1960s and 1970s in
Vietnam.
M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle
The BAR was designed to be carried by advancing infantrymen, slung over the shoulder or fired from the hip, a concept called
"walking fire"—thought to be necessary for the individual soldier during trench warfare.
[1] However in practice, it was most often used as a light machine gun and fired from a bipod (introduced in later models).
[2] A variant of the original M1918 BAR, the
Colt Monitor Machine Rifle,
remains the lightest production automatic gun to fire the .30-06
Springfield cartridge, though the limited capacity of its standard
20-round magazine tended to hamper its utility in that role.
[2]
Bazooka
Bazooka is the common name for a man-portable recoilless rocket antitank weapon, widely fielded by the
US Army. Also referred to as the "Stovepipe", the innovative bazooka was amongst the first-generation of
rocket propelled anti-tank weapons used in
infantry combat. Featuring a
solid rocket motor for propulsion, it allowed for
high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) warheads to be delivered against
armored vehicles,
machine gun nests, and fortified
bunkers at ranges beyond that of a standard thrown
grenade or
mine. The Bazooka also fired a
HESH
round, effective against buildings and tank armour. The
universally-applied nickname arose from the M1 variant's vague
resemblance to the musical instrument called a "
bazooka" invented and popularized by 1930s U.S. comedian
Bob Burns.
M2 60 mm mortar
The U.S. M2 60 mm mortar was developed from the heavier 81 mm M1 Mortar to provide a lighter-weight alternative to company-level fire support.[1] The M2 attempted to bridge the gap between the 81 mm mortar and the hand grenade. Normally employed by the weapons platoon of a U.S. infantry company, the M2 is of the usual mortar pattern of the day.[1][2] It consists of a smoothbore metal tube on a rectangular baseplate, supported by a simple bipod with the elevation and traverse mechanisms. The firing pin was fixed in the base cap of the tube, and the bomb was fired automatically when it dropped down the barrel.
Though classed as a light mortar, the M2 had considerable range
compared to the 50 mm and 60 mm mortars of most other nations, and its
fixed-firing pin design allowed a high rate of fire by trained crews.[1]
M2 flamethrower
The
M2 flamethrower (M2-2) was an American man-portable backpack
flamethrower that was used in
World War II. It was the successor to the
M1 and M1A1 flamethrowers. Although its actual "burn time" was around 7 seconds and the flame was only effective out to around 20 metres,
[1] it was still a functional weapon that had many uses in the war. However, with the later arrival of
tanks and, especially,
flamethrower tanks,
the need for infantrymen to expose themselves to fire became
unnecessary, as tanks offered greater protection and greater firepower.
Though some M2s were sold off, the majority were scrapped when they were declared "obsolete."
