heavyartillery | [TP REWATCH] Part Five and Part Six

Welcome to the rewatch discussion post for PART FIVE and PART SIX of The Pacific.
You are welcome to discuss any and all aspects of the episodes in the comments on this post. Please recognize that others may hold different opinions than yours and continue to abide by our #1 rule: don't be a dick. Additionally, I ask that y'all take care to keep spoiler content off of spoiler-free threads. Otherwise, have fun!

Part Five
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Part Six
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If you'd like to chat about the episode in real time, join us over on Discord.*

To participate in discussions about previous episodes, you can visit the posts below:

Part One & Part Two
Part Three & Part Four

* Please note that during this rewatch, we have done away with spoiler friendly and spoiler-free Discord channels and will simply be using the dedicated channel for The Pacific. As such, if you participate in the discussion on the Discord server you may encounter spoilers.

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This is a comment thread for spoiler-free discussion of The Pacific: Part Five.

For spoiler friendly discussion of the episode, please see the thread below.

In this episode I was reminded of the one in Band of Brothers, where Webster rejoins the company. For Leckie I'm guessing it was not quite as long an absence. But it was one of those episodes showing the difference between someone new arriving versus someone old returning.

I was amused by Sledge's reunion with Sidney and how they were immediately come upon by an officer.

I was surprised to see Rami Malek, mostly because knowing this was made some time ago, I hadn't realized he'd been around that long.

I felt sorry for Sledge, to have his friend leave without even having said goodbye. But it looks like he'd have been a good person to pair with Leckie in terms of conversation and experience. Also convenient that the conversation was placed in contrast to what was going on in Band of Brothers at the time.

One thing I was thinking about when they departed from the ship in the floating tank, was how little discussion there is about the technology of the time. It's such a difference from World War I. It made me wonder exactly how much they get to train with. For example, did they ever get to train in riding in such a vehicle, or entering and exiting it?

And yet again, I keep wondering why those helmets are not strapped into place, given how Sledge's comes off while he's crawling up the beach, and Bill is later lying there without it as well.

Speaking of crawling up the beach, it amazes me that later groups of men were able to do so, given the number of bodies lying on it.

The assault on the Japanese tank was tense, and the rescue by the American tank unexpected and welcome. It seemed odd to have people eating and relaxing so soon after, but I guess you do it when you can.

The gold tooth scavenging seemed a bit much at the time but I imagine a lot more of it happened as the weeks went by. I'm sure that dismembered hand with a wedding ring wasn't the only one around.

There really wasn't very much training shown in the series. In reality they did train and practice landings, but the training craft were often not the ones they'd actually use. Sledge trained on one that had a ramp that let down, so he wasn't used to climbing over the side.

(A book by another marine that I read said they didn't have the tracked ones on his beach, and they all got dropped off on a reef and had to wade to shore while getting shot at.)

Thanks for that! It did make me curious because compared to more recent equipment, what was developed for WW II was actually quite effective at doing what it needed to. I daresay part of that is exactly why Eisenhower became so worried about the military industrial complex that was in business for the sake of making money rather than serving the needs of the soldier or the nation. As it happens, I just watched the movie The Pentagon Wars last night. Although it was framed as a satire, it was based on an actual event and the memoirs of the central character. And the reality was nothing to laugh about.

This is a comment thread for spoiler friendly discussion of The Pacific: Part Five.

By participating in this thread you acknowledge that you may encounter spoilers for later episodes in the series. For spoiler-free discussion of the episode, please see the thread above.

This is a comment thread for spoiler-free discussion of The Pacific: Part Six.

For spoiler friendly discussion of the episode, please see the thread below.

Edited 2020-01-25 14:38 (UTC)

Ack Ack is pretty attractive.

He is a handsome boy, it's very true. That superhero jawline and the vague silver foxiness even though he's not that old.

I noticed the references to water in the previous episode, given that it was rarely mentioned despite the constant heat. However given the scavenging at the end of the last episode, I imagine there will be a lot more of it, only it will be the canteens of the fallen which will be looked for.

Kind of interesting to see Sidney's arrival to report on Eugene given that he shipped out without a word. Less surprising to hear his description of Eugene's chances to his parents. I imagine most family members never knew the details of their loved one's experiences.

Certainly interesting to compare the events on Peleliu and how generally unknown the names are compared to sites in Europe. It makes me wonder if part of that is exactly what we saw with Sidney, which is the downplaying of how difficult things really were.

When Leckie was looking for the canteen, my first thought was of how smoking was certainly not going to help their thirst.

How insane that Leckie had to run backwards across that field after having made it through once, in the hopes of finding somebody he needed in that chaos. He must have been truly charmed to manage it twice. As he got taken away I wondered if he'd run into Howe on board the ship

Given all the screaming, it makes me think how much worse the dry throats would be.

It was really impressive to think of how the military was able to regroup and pull together weapons and ammunition overnight. And while officers were coordinating that, they also had to deal with morale among their men.

First spotting of a dog again. Wonder where it's getting its water?

I also wondered where these episodes were filmed? It would seem to be very expensive to go to actual locations.

I guess they hit the soldier having a freak out hard enough to kill him. I imagine it wasn't the only time in the war. Wonder what his family was told.

The wounded certainly seemed like the lucky ones at the end of the episode.

The ships were supposed to supply water, but they put it on shore in used oil drums that were contaminated, so mostly people didn't drink it, and the ones that did often got sick.

(In Leckie's book, I think, he talked about how smoking made the thirst worse, and was stupid, and he knew it was stupid, AND YET.)

Series was filmed in Australia. I play a game of "Been camping there!" when watching it. Though I suppose a lot of that has been destroyed by the fires.

Ugh! Unbelievable decision.

Ah, that makes sense (re: locations). And such a horror what's happening with the fires.

This is a comment thread for spoiler friendly discussion of The Pacific: Part Six.

By participating in this thread you acknowledge that you may encounter spoilers for later episodes in the series. For spoiler-free discussion of the episode, please see the thread above.

[TP REWATCH] Part Five and Part Six

Part Five [SPOILER-FREE]

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Part Five [SPOILER FRIENDLY]

Part Six [SPOILER-FREE]

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Part Six [SPOILER FRIENDLY]