I think "The Pacific " is better than the "Band of Brothers". Only watched snippets..

[zeddy]

Re: I think "The Pacific " is better than the "Band of Brothers". Only watched snippe

As for the Brits, they were caught totally unprepared and from what I read there was panic & the majority of troops in Malaysia were running towards Spore & not staying to fight.

Once read a book about the conduct of the British and Aussie soldiers who were fighting the Japs in Malaya and Spore.. The only place where they accounted themselves well was in Gemas where they fought to the last man, till they succumbed under heavy Japanese pressure.. Yes you are right about the soldiers not staying to fight.. Lieutenant General Gordon Bennett, the overall Commander of the 8th Div of the AIF even fled Spore leaving his troops behind under the mercy of their Japanese captors...

 

[johnny333]

Re: I think "The Pacific " is better than the "Band of Brothers". Only watched snippe

Once read a book about the conduct of the British and Aussie soldiers who were fighting the Japs in Malaya and Spore.. The only place where they accounted themselves well was in Gemas where they fought to the last man, till they succumbed under heavy Japanese pressure.. Yes you are right about the soldiers not staying to fight.. Lieutenant General Gordon Bennett, the overall Commander of the 8th Div of the AIF even fled Spore leaving his troops behind under the mercy of their Japanese captors...

I remember reading about operation Matador from books at the British Library:p
Very different from NLB were they would remove any books that "embarrass" LKY or the PAP

Many of these historical books were damn critical of what went on when the Japs were landing in Malaysia. At that time there was alot of brass in Spore & they were giving conflicting orders. The cowardly behavior of some of the British troops did not escape notice :o

Fortress Spore fell because of the human element & that's something the PAP has not learned

 

[sleaguepunter]

Re: I think "The Pacific " is better than the "Band of Brothers". Only watched snippe

I think the answer lies in the organisation of the marines, they are more heavily armed with more machine guns than a typical chinese squad./platoon ?

Although the chinese army was one of the largest army, it consisted mostly of ill-equipped, inadequately trained, poorly organized, and ineptly led units. Many field commanders were not allowed to act independantly and had to receive orders from above. They relied on the west for most of their equipment because China at that time was an agrarian society. The Japanese had a blockade in place which was pretty effective.

As for the Brits, they were caught totally unprepared and from what I read there was panic & the majority of troops in Malaysia were running towards Spore & not staying to fight.

The chinese army were not under centralized command but under warlords. Many of the warlords then were either allies of japs or the kmt. kmt chiang keep most of america lend lease for himself and kept most of his own troops from the hotspots so most of the fighting were fought by the warlords. As the warlords themselves want to preserve strength, most retreat in the face of IJA advances. only a few kmt allied warlords fought bravely. chiang even withhold supplies to the front during IJA operation Ichigo to force the kmt general to withdrew from changsha. China had license to build most of the small arms that the chinese armies needed, US P40 denied jap airforce air superiority since 1941 so the blockade in a sense was irrevalent.

while a us marine division is about 21k men, but the bulk of the infantrymen were found in the 3 regiments that consist in the division which is about 3500men each and an assorted artillery pieces of 105mm and 155mm arrange into 2 battery. i admit that a marine company have more firepower compare to other armies as it have both 60mm and 80mm mortars. But it the inability to retreat with its back to the sea that force the marines to fight. marine tactics are simple, pound the objective with heavy weapons, then infantry advance. If kenna beaten back, more arty on objective and the infantry try again. the cycle continue till objective capture, one of the reason why marines suffer heavy losses. the only different between a chinese soldier and a marine was that the marine went thru basic training while the chinese was shanghaised into the kmt strength.

As for the british forces, they badly screw up. IJA fought them with less men, supplies and weapons. can only say the commander beh kan.

 

[sleaguepunter]

Re: I think "The Pacific " is better than the "Band of Brothers". Only watched snippe

it might be based on a true story in guadalcanal where battalions of japs charged a heavily defended u.s. marine position at night and were mowed down by machine guns throughout the night and early morning. it was slaughter. next morning, marines saw mounds of dead bodies in front of their gun positions. i believe it was the defense of henderson airfield.

i have not watch the show but i can guess it the battle of the bloody ridge where the understrength marine 1st raider battlion plus the disbanded marine parchute battlion defending the ridge against a whole japanese regiment. here the IJA and IJN screw up again, they lift the naval support fire too early and the IJA recce/scout choose to attack across the marine wires which slow them down. the marine threw the battlion hq people aka cooks/clerks as riflemen to counterattack and a couple of MOH was awarded for this battle.