Favorite Pacific Battles

[aag567]

Mine would have to Pelelui, the most bloody and pointless battle of the Pacific.

Some of the thing that made it the worst battle of the Pacific: Hard coral prevented you from being able to dig into the ground, the constant stench of death, Japanese Infiltrators would sneak into Marine positions, the Japanese defenses were bunkers linked up by tunnels, and the enviroment was very surreal and something out of a fiction.

For info on the battle read "With Old Breed" by E.b "Sledgehammer" and "Brotherhood of Heroes" by Bill Sloan.

[Wolfsburg]

Having a personal connection to it, I guess mine would be Iwo Jima (which I would argue was the bloodiest). I do think it's a bit weird to have a "favorite" battle, but I definately find it interesting...

[OliverMarshall]

Battle for Burma. Jungle fighting stretching on for hundreds of miles, not just until the other side of the Island.


I don't know too much about pacific battles so please don't bash me ;)

[NortherlyNanook]

Eh. Midway. Pretty much because it showed the beginning of ownage. I agree with Wolfsburg; it is kinda odd to have favorite battles...

[enigma]

Battle for Burma. Jungle fighting stretching on for hundreds of miles, not just until the other side of the Island.


I don't know too much about pacific battles so please don't bash me ;)
*pulls stick and bashes you one*

have to put this way, am aware the americans fought all these island battles but the Pacific doesnt intrest me.

However my intrest in that end of the world is same as Shrapnel's The Battle for Burma, The fall of Singapore and the Fall of Hong Kong - basically the British and Indian involvement in the fight for SE Asia.

[NicholasJohnson]

I always liked reading about Wake Island.

E.B. Sledge's book is very good, I think it should be mandatory reading in American schools. Some people just don't understand how brutal the Pacific War truly was.

[Sgt So and So]

Tarawa. My favorite WW2 pic ever is the two marines, one looking over the other with a Thompson, walking over trampled palm trees on Tarawa.:D

[BillSpargo]

Tarawa. My favorite WW2 pic ever is the two marines, one looking over the other with a Thompson, walking over trampled palm trees on Tarawa.:D
Yeah, it's really nice when shown beside colour footage of the bloated corpses of dead Marines being caressed by the gentle waves of the South Pacific.

[enigma]

Tarawa. My favorite WW2 pic ever is the two marines, one looking over the other with a Thompson, walking over trampled palm trees on Tarawa.:D
got a link to this pic :confused:


and i so hope the above post was sacasim.

[xplosiv]

Yeh I was just thinking the same thing.. O_O

Is this the pic you mean?
http://roscoe.typepad.com/roscoeblog/images/marines_ww2_158.jpg

[BillSpargo]

...and i so hope the above post was sacasim.

Not really, I disagree with the title of this thread. Nothing was meant against that particular poster, just a bit of perspective is needed.

[aag567]

Not really, I disagree with the title of this thread. Nothing was meant against that particular poster, just a bit of perspective is needed.

What other kind of term should I use?

[OliverMarshall]

i think you're looking at it the wrong way


he's talking about the one you're most intrested in, except if you called it most intrestign battle in Pacific then you would have a huge argument.


also




*pulls stick and bashes you one*

oww:p

[metsapeikko]

Mmmm, I just noticed that I dont really know much about Pacific battles much afterall.

[Tough Ombre 359th]

My favorite battle was Midway. The most decisive battle of the war in the Pacific. The American's kick some butt sinking 4 jap carriers that had bomb them at Pearl Harbor. This time we surprised them good.

[Thanato]

Hong Kong.

~Thanato

[BillSpargo]

What other kind of term should I use?

I think the other posters have given some suggestions.

Look at it from this perspective, ask a veteran in a crowded room what their favourite battle was. Watch as half the room cringes.
This is what makes me uncomfortable about WWII games with respect to those that live through them. I've never talked to someone who lived through these events about these events being used as entertainment. I hope this game will give players a better perspective of total war and its consequences.

I assume this thread is about the island hopping campaigns mostly conducted by US forces, however a special mention should be given to the often forgotten British 14th Army, the most decorated British army of the war. This army fought the Japanese in eastern India and Burma under savage conditions.

[Kaos]

You're all forgetting the Coral Sea! That was a battle...

[Lt.Buck]

Kokoda

"Kokoda" by Paul Ham, great read

[Lord Justin]

I was always interested in Guadalcanal, due to the island's size and the amount of raoming space the forces had. A lot of the small skirmishes there interest me (from what I know of them). Also, Iwo Jima (although it may seem cliche) because of its importance and simultaneous pointlessness and because both sides had had enough by that time and fought horribly, using the grimiest and most desperate methods. The island is also amazingly small for the amount of fighting that went on there.

Personally, 'favorite' battles are really impossible to figure. We didn't fight those battles, so we don't know what they were like. Being interested in certain battles is great, IMO. I think history, in all it senses, even down to the worst of human behavior, is intriguing and, much more importantly, significant and worthy of our attention and learning. I believe in learning from mistakes and what worse mistakes are there than wars?

[CBowling]

I would have to say Pearl Harbor interests me.


It was just a very well executed attack, and well planned. Though it was a pre-emptive strike, and was not in the actual "war", it could still count as a battle because we faught back at Pearl harbor.

[enigma]

I think the other posters have given some suggestions.

Look at it from this perspective, ask a veteran in a crowded room what their favourite battle was. Watch as half the room cringes.
This is what makes me uncomfortable about WWII games with respect to those that live through them. I've never talked to someone who lived through these events about these events being used as entertainment. I hope this game will give players a better perspective of total war and its consequences.

I assume this thread is about the island hopping campaigns mostly conducted by US forces, however a special mention should be given to the often forgotten British 14th Army, the most decorated British army of the war. This army fought the Japanese in eastern India and Burma under savage conditions.

Several of us have already mentioned the 14th Army.

I think your looking into the title a little too much, i know what you mean and where you coming from.

If someone asks me what my fav part of the war is, i understand they mean whats the part am most intrested in. So lets leave at that please.
We all know we wouldnt ask a vet what there fav part of the war was .... well unless it was Vladimir Peniakoff :D

So please lets leave it at this now ok :)

[2ltben]

I think the other posters have given some suggestions.

Look at it from this perspective, ask a veteran in a crowded room what their favourite battle was. Watch as half the room cringes.
This is what makes me uncomfortable about WWII games with respect to those that live through them. I've never talked to someone who lived through these events about these events being used as entertainment. I hope this game will give players a better perspective of total war and its consequences.

I assume this thread is about the island hopping campaigns mostly conducted by US forces, however a special mention should be given to the often forgotten British 14th Army, the most decorated British army of the war. This army fought the Japanese in eastern India and Burma under savage conditions.
That says alot about the narrative in most World War 2 games. The only game I've seen that didn't glorify war was Brothers in Arms. Despite the gameplay flaws and the amateur voice actors(they didn't exactly use professionals with a decade of experience), the story was fairly well done and definitely stood out from the crowd.

Really, no matter how much you try, designing a game as a game will always play as a game. The real skill is in designing a story and using a game as the medium through which its told. None of that "interactive movie" bullsh**, but games like the Final Fantasies, BIA, the various Lucasarts adventure games, and even going back to the old text adventures like Zork.

Designing a good singleplayer game is much more than making some gimmicky gameplay "innovations" and tossing in a few paragraphs of backstory.

[Wolfsburg]

I do think WWII games that are more interested in providing entertainment (such as MoH) over historical accuracy are disrespectful to the men who actually participated in the events depicted. That is why I enjoy WWII simulations (SHIII, IL-2, etc.) and strategy games (Combat Mission). While entertaining in their own right, at least there is some educational value included as well.

[enigma]

ok lets get back on topic now, lets open a new thread if we want to discuss the morals of the enternainment industry and the wording of peoples posts ;)

[BillSpargo]

Final words from me, I appreciate a considered and vigorous arguement. This site has probably a proportionally younger base than other ones I visit so I will have to take this into consideration and make allowances instead of picking apart everything a person writes.

I don't want anyone to respond to this post please. On with the thread.:)

[Lt. Hanley]

Solomon Islands Campaign
Gilbert Islands Campaign
Marianas Turkey Shoot
Okinawa

[Lordwatson]

Know nothing about the Pacific except the British Effort. So know very little about the whole thing. Should probably do some research on it sometime

[OliverMarshall]

I would just like to put in a word for British Pacific Fleet, which almost no one has heard of.



The fleet included 17 aircraft carriers (with 300 aircraft, about 25% of the total Allied air strength)), four battleships, 10 cruisers, 40 destroyers, 18 sloops, 13 frigates, 29 submarines, 35 minesweepers, other kinds of fighting ships, and many support vessels.

So it was a big thing, though most credit goes to the US.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Pacific_Fleet

[enigma]

i mentioned this to my friend a few weeks back, iirc the link shows a list of of some of the carriers, of which he worked out iirc, if they where at full capacitity air wise ... would if i remember correctly surpass 300 aircraft with ease.

That fleet was also issued with the rather unknown Supermarine Seafire ... a spitfire built for the carriers.

[Sgt So and So]

Yeh I was just thinking the same thing.. O_O

Is this the pic you mean?
http://roscoe.typepad.com/roscoeblog/images/marines_ww2_158.jpg
Yaya! Thx!

[Lt. Stephenson]

I'd say Pearl Harbor since two of my relatives faught in it. My Grandpa ended up shooting down a strafing Zero on Ford Island with four other Marines. Also my Great Uncle was killed on the U.S.S. Arizona.

[2ltben]

Tarawa. My favorite WW2 pic ever is the two marines, one looking over the other with a Thompson, walking over trampled palm trees on Tarawa.:D
That picture was taken on Okinawa, not Tarawa.

[xplosiv]

Any time Sgt So and so :cool:

I never knew the figures of the BPF were so high, '25% of the total allied air strengh'! :eek:

The carriers were subject to heavy and repeated kamikaze attacks but, because of their armoured flight decks, the British aircraft carriers proved highly resistant to kamikaze attacks, and survived direct hits with only superficial damage.

I read about the carriers of the USN only having wooden flight decks, why didn't they follow the Brits in making them armoured?

[enigma]

it seems the armoured flight decks proved to be a hazard as well as an aid.

Whereas we could basically sweep the burnt wreckage off the deck ... and the yanks would have a hole in the ship,
If the deck was attacked by heavy enough bombs ... they would penetrate and explode inside ... the extra armour would cause the explosion to deform the ship.

Or so ive read,
as well as that armoured flight decks mean less planes iirc and prehaps takes longer? not sure on the last one.

also read somewhere that the RN ended the war with around 30 odd carriers, fleet, light and escorts.

[xplosiv]

A bit more info on the armoured/wooden flight decks, I wont go pasting chunks of info :p

http://www.fogbugz.tkwebservice.com/?ahoy.2.96.3

Armoured ships~

After the fire was put out which was very quick the jap plane was just pushed over the side by the ships crane and normal services were resumed.

Yeh so it seems like they both have their advantages and disadvantages. The Americans had more planes for protection but more damage as a result of wooden flight decks. The Brits had armoured flight decks for more protection but less planes. :D

Although armour was a good thing, if an attack broke through the flight deck. It was much harder to repair the ship back to its usual state (as you have said enigma - deforms the ship). It was faster for the Americans to repair with wood. My vote is still on armour though :P

[NicholasJohnson]

That picture was taken on Okinawa, not Tarawa.

Wow, I am sorry, but this calls for a photo:


http://img391.imageshack.us/img391/4497/owned10ki1uc.jpg

[enigma]

me mate was saying the other day that the yanks took mobile dry docks with them to speed up the repairs of there ships.
Dont know what his sources are, nor have i ever heard of anything like that but hey something to look into :)

[Cypher2009]

October 25-27 1942 : The Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands / Guadalcanal Campaign.

The very engagement that saw the Yorktown class Aircraft Carrier, mad famous by the Dolittle raids, the USS Hornet, sunk and the USS Enterprise lost 44 crew from the Japanese attacks.

[Jensen]

I quite frankly find all the pacific battles boring.

[NicholasJohnson]

I quite frankly find all the pacific battles boring.

And why is that? Because there are no Germans (or some other country)? :confused:

[PaulSutton]

IWO JIMA Most definatly I am currently watching a 3 DVD set called Iwo Jima 36 Days of Hell. Man it looks like one mad ass fight from what I have watched so far. One interesting thing I have picked up is thet the Japs were verry good shots most of the Marines that got shot and killed by snipers were head shots.

[MadK]

Pearl harbor.

[Chukada]

Battle of Shanghai.

[Fallschirmjäger]

Though europe is my favourite area some of interest are tarawa,okinawa,and iwo jima,also the aleutions islands battles and others too.

[OliverMarshall]

I quite frankly find all the pacific battles boring.

same with me, most of the ones in the pacific were just abotu island hopping and so it was all the same one side (generally the japanese) would defend and island and the other (generally the allies) would pound it to pieces and then storm ashore, and then again with another island, again...The same with naval battles the americans or japanese would try to relieve an island under attack and the other side would try to stop it with large amounts of aircraft attacking other large groups of aircraft.

The only theater which I find intresting is Burma but that's not even in the pacific

[Fallschirmjäger]

Well there was a lot if them,though like you said there was burma and then also there was the fighting in indonesia or the philipines way bigger islands i suppose or the fighting in china,also the russians doing so early on and later in the war.