World War II Historian Rates 9 More WWII Battles In Movies And TV | How Real Is It? | Insider

[@ryanb-ol2pf]

Flags of our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima are done with such care. Mr. Eastwood did a wonderful job...

[@chrisyungeberg6978]

It was technical mastery, how the recreated so man details

[@cruisinguy6024]

YES. Back when Blu-ray came out they were two of my first purchases to watch on my new Panasonic plasma TV and boy was it glorious

[@coiboyify]

My favourite WW2 film is Letters from Iwo Jima just because you are able to get one of the most in depth looks at Japanese military mentality of just infantry soldiers, something Western audiences dont get enough of. To see how they prepared for a battle they knew was most likely ending in defeat was insanely interesting

[@bubbaries]

⁠@@coiboyifyif you want a really good look at the Japanese military mentality in WWII, check out Flag of our Fathers Author James Bradley’s book Flyboys. Beyond terrifying the things they did. Cannibalism, comfort stations, Rape of Nanking/Nanjing, executions of POW’s, everything.

[@davidbray2500]

Damm, stole my comment I was going to make 😂

[@marvelfoxmorty5057]

Flag of our Father & Letter from Iwo Jima, Clint Eastwood really did a great job

[@christopherwang4392]

Let's not forget Ken Watanabe for his portrayal of General Tadamichi Kuribayashi in _Letters from Iwo Jima_ (2006). "Of all our adversaries in the Pacific, Kuribayashi was the most redoubtable." - USMC General Holland "Howlin' Mad" Smith

[@paddington1670]

Clint Eastwood does make good movies

[@joed9491]

Surprised me that he gave Flags a 10 and Letters a 9. Though a high school in itself, both deserved a 10 but I recall that Flags received the most criticism in the way the movie jumped around. Not by me though because I liked the way he did that.

[@ATinyWaffle]

I got to attend a talk where a Navajo code talker who helped develop the code spoke about his experiences during WWII. They were amazing patriots that had a large part in helping us win the war, especially in the Pacific.

[@ChrisJensen-se9rj]

Garbage Code "talkers" were in sufficient numbers to have anything more than a local effect and not on most battlefields either. They were relatively RARE, and played a very minor role. Don't take "Windtalkers" with anything but a grain of salt

[@ChrisJensen-se9rj]

Garbage There was insufficient numbers to have anything else but a local effect, and only in one or two battles. Don't take "Windtalkers" with anything else but a pinch of salt

[@jamesmccallum1248]

I was lucky enough to work on Hacksaw Ridge, pretty much for the duration of the shoot, as on-set decoration - dirt, gravel, rocks, etc. So I spent a LOT of time decorating those shots in this sequence!!! I can tell you that aside from the bunker you see being blown up ( which was actually achieved in-shot, surrounded by cast, crew and extras ), most of the battle-field was genuine. We dug it out with excavators and by hand, and it covered something about the size of a small football field. ( Try getting across it with a wheel-barrow filled with gravel as Mel Gibson's in charge!!! ) Aside from the daily, all-day brilliance of the cast and crew, there was one moment, hopefully relevant to this story, that will forever stand out among the most amazing things I've ever seen. It was costume day out at Fox Studios, Sydney, and while we were on set filming earlier scenes, the Japanese extras had arrived, and were for the first time assembled in full costume. It was lunch break, or smoko, and us Ozzie's were sat around in the midday sun, under the trees that fill the gated studio. Suddenly there was a yell - Haaaaiiii!!!!!!! ( or something similar - that's about as far as my Japanese extends ) Then, about forty Japanese men in full WW2 combat gear, weapons and all, assembled into formation. Dozens of Australian jaws dropped. It was intense. HAAAAAIIIIII!!!!!, came the cry again. And in response, forty Japanese soldiers commenced singing the Japanese Imperial anthem. It was breathtaking. About halfway through the rendition, the men started marching. As they marched away, just as many Australians were left gobsmacked, realising what we'd seen, which we would almost certainly never see again. The devotion with which those Japanese men performed was incredible. And a testament to their ancestors, and to the director's commitment to the reality of war. Later, on set, as they yelled action on a take that probably appears amongst the shots in this story, I had to take cover in a dug out filled with about a dozen Japanese extras. Twelve men in full combat gear, and one little ozzie in shorts and steel caps. It such a fun way to cap it all off.

[@Torana-gz5ls]

That must have been amazing to witness in real life. Us Ozzie's have been involved in some incredible movies. G'day from Tasmania.

[@kulio1214]

You type like a gay guy

[@iFlyNoWings]

Dr. McManus! My academic advisor for my military history major in undergrad!!

[@captainfactoid3867]

I only had him for one class but he was great!

[@stevenbrousseau7538]

We’ve emailed each other back-and-forth a couple of times. I wish I had him as a professor.

[@Camishere2040]

If you haven't already, he has a podcast, which is really cool, and he features weekly on another podcast called we have ways of making you talk usa. He kinda became the third host of it along with james holland and Al murray. Worth looking into!

[@Miller54K]

I dont know where he got you can't kill people parachuting. You most certainly can and it's not a war crime.

[@captainfactoid3867]

@@Miller54K you can shoot parachuting combatants. Not parachuting non-combatants like pilots or people bailing out a burning aircraft. Though if a paratrooper plane is one fire I have no idea who is in the right

[@charlesrobert-stafford4826]

Sees a Pearl Harbor clip : Sigh. "Okay, where to begin..." This movie really leaves a bad taste in historians mouths.

[@Adaephonable]

and almost anyone else that watches it. It is just a bad movie.

[@WillN2Go1]

Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor was a huge disappointment. It was too over the top, too much of the romance, too much posturing predictable. I rented the DVD and was playing it for a friend who was a WWII Veteran. He was watching it while I prepared dinner. I noticed the music score. A couple of minutes of music endlessly repeated over and over... Saved a few bucks on the score and orchestra and made the movie tedious.

[@chaws314]

We need a Saving Private Ryan / Band of Brothers quality Pearl Harbor movie or mini series.

[@stevenhenry9605]

Roger Ebert said it best: "Pearl Harbor is a two-hour movie squeezed into three hours, in which the Japanese military staged a surprise attack on an American love triangle."

[@WillN2Go1]

@@stevenhenry9605 This is terrific.

[@TheHistoryUnderground]

Always enjoy listening to John McManus talk history. 👍🏻

[@davekelsey8762]

YES!

[@somanytakennames]

When it got to Hacksaw Ridge I was really hoping we’d see him react to that guy using a torso as a ballistics shield whilst one handing a BAR 😂

[@Chevelle602]

Yeah super realistic right? Freaking movie was a joke.

[@NecramoniumVideo]

@@Chevelle602 Glad i was the only one seeing this, the movie was a military joke.

[@eldino2840]

I liked that movie but it wasn realistic at all

[@DeosPraetorian]

It was fine​@@NecramoniumVideo

[@Piece-Of-Time]

Forgot the "without reloading part" Still, this movie was amazing

[@tilaron]

The shifting in the chair when Pearl Harbor came up says a LOT :D

[@RogueSenpai]

just like uncle roger putting is leg down when he see something is wrong in the cooking process

[@NobbyClark-g3y]

He called for 'smoke' on the pillbox, it was used to limit the pillbox gunner's visibility as well as conceal any approach or flanking by the attacking force. Enabling a GI to throw or place a satchel charge on the target. The attackers wouldn't have been waiting at the base of Hacksaw ridge as the battleshipscfired in case a shell dropped short.

[@07foxmulder]

Flags of Our Fathers and Letters were absolutely fantastic.

[@davesvoboda2785]

The Navajo Code Talkers: before the war, a German linguist catalogued native American languages. That information was available to the Axis. But he somehow overlooked Navajo. So they had no clue.

[@seanhuntley6722]

One of the reasons it stayed off linguists' radar is Navajo wasn't a written language. On top of that it is very complex. People could study it for decades and barely scratch the surface.

[@JasonGroom]

Navajo was not well documented at the time, being primarily an oral language. Add to that, at the time, it was not known by very many people, even most native Navajo didn't speak it, or if they did, they didn't speak it well. Thankfully it has grown again in the community from that time, but then it was on the verge of being a dead language.

[@erwinorellano34]

they were heroes.

[@DazednMildlyConfused]

I didn't know that! Heard earlier that the US used code talkers in the first world war, so it would make sense that Germans were privy to it before WWII

[@uncledubpowermetal]

​@@seanhuntley6722I have a buddy whose fully Diné(Navajo); his dad is president of his reservation, my buddy is a native rights professor and a Rez musician and revitalizer....he speaks like 50 words of Navajo 😅

[@junkfish2007]

Thanks for bringing him back, he is phenomenal! Please do it again lol!

[@Camishere2040]

I love john, I listen to him weekly on the we have ways of making you talk podcast. He's a very knowledgeable ww2 historian. I hope to see him talk in we have ways fest next year!

[@bufatutuagonistes8876]

Studied for my Masters in Am History and managed four military Nat. Historic sites. I've read several of his books along with many many by other authors. John McManus is one of the best military historians in the USA and maybe the very best when it comes to understanding the grunt's perspective. Pick up one of his books about Normandy or the War in the Pacific and you won't be able to put it down.

[@aidanbyrne8267]

Why do you not use timestamps???

[@immie1709]

I know right, we've been spoilt it feels terrible without haha

[@cath1none]

just watch the video

[@aidanbyrne8267]

​@@cath1noneit's annoying to have to manually skip to the movies I'm interested in

[@matts5247]

Who cares? Like why would you just not watch the whole video Timestamps are for reference for videos where like you only need the info from a certain section. Not for something like this…

[@matts5247]

@@aidanbyrne8267 whether you’re interested in the movies or not is irrelevant like it’s an educational video and you will learn just the same whether it’s a movie you’re interested in or not

[@TheBeatlesMan96]

I remember seeing flags of our fathers with my dad and my brother in theatres when I was 12, It was absolutely amazing and still watch it from time to time.

[@joed9491]

Richard "Pete" Peterson, who was in Chuck Yeager and Bud Anderson's 357 Fighter Group at Leiston, told of the story of where he did shoot up a Luftwaffe pilot in a parachute. He had observed crew members of a B-17 bail out in their chutes and the Luftwaffe pilot coming around and strafing the Americans. Peterson got on the German's tail and plucked the B-109 just enough to damage it enough where the pilot would be forced to bail out and he did and which time he said he gave that German a dose of his own medicine. I cannot fault him for that and the anger he must've felt seeing the helpless Americans being shot up because as he said, it was an unwritten rule that you don't shot up someone in their chute that both sides, for the most part, adhered to.

[@gehrkegehrke2000]

Perhaps the german pilot thought the exact same thing when shooting at the bomber crew members. Can you fault him for the anger he must have felt seeing all the helpless civilians being killed? Can you?

[@johncartwright8154]

During the Battle of Britain, there were recorded instances of Luftwaffe pilots targeting bale-outs, either shooting or collapsing the canopy with a fly-by. An RAF pilot, shot down over home territory, if uninjured could be back in the air in hours. The LW realised the RAF had many replacement aircraft, but not so pilots.

[@briancrawford8751]

@@gehrkegehrke2000 He's dead, so it really doesn't matter.

[@jameshannagan4256]

@@gehrkegehrke2000 I can't, besides it's just unenlightened self-interest on the part of the pilots anyway. I think if it was my family down there hiding anywhere they could find and having to worry about being burned to death with napalm (horrible stuff) I don't think i'd be inclined to be so nice to enemy pilots.

[@joed9491]

You were way too generous with Pearl Harbor. I myself barely gave it a 1. Planes flying sideways in between buildings on the attack of Pearl Harbor and bombing of the ships made it look like they were attacking the Death Star. It was more of a romance inconvenienced by war but should've been titled "Ben Affleck Single-handedly Wins the War!" As for Battle of the Bulge, I don't know if it's true or not that Dwight D. Eisenhower walked out during the screening of the movie but he certainly publically came out and denounced it.

[@JakeKilka]

Ben Affleck didn't win the war single-handedly in Pearl Harbor; there was also the airplane mechanic, who dropped a couple of Zeros with his pump shotgun.

[@joed9491]

@@JakeKilka - You're wrong, he threw his monkey wrench and hit one of the propellers and caused it to break off!

[@jamesbutler8821]

The movie premiered just a few years b4 Ike died. I cant imagine him caring

[@joed9491]

@@jamesbutler8821 - You can't imagine him caring, are you serious? This was a major event in his life that was made into a movie that was so poorly done and you think he wouldn't of cared? He didn't die for another 4 years of congestive heart failure. You think he knew in 1965 that he was going to die within 4 years. I would imagine if he knew he was going to die the next day, it still would've mattered to him. But don't take my word for it, Google is your friend, look it up yourself to see that he did care very much.

[@azhvel2879]

to be fair he was only rating the dolittle raid portion that he was shown

[@gtmq8166]

TOP tier content. I hope you continue to have Prof. McManus as a commentator in your future videos.

[@stephendavis6267]

Very pleased to see "The Thin Red Line" gets its flowers. Far and away my favourite war film, and it is often overlooked and unnecessarily derided by those who expected more of a "Saving Private Ryan"-style film. But even though Malick is much more meditative as a filmmaker, he is just as skilled at filming action sequences as anyone.

[@07foxmulder]

Not really. The battle scenes in TTRL were second rate. Also, it’s not overlooked at all. It’s one of the most praised WW2 movies ever. Quit trying to be the underdog.

[@josephberrie9550]

it was an excellent film I have watched many times... I like the moody thoughtful reflections of the actors...I am sure it would reflect the day to day reality of war for the men at the sharp end of the war...commonly called the grunt if you are american or tommy if you are british

[@brutalxxghost4148]

maybe throwing the smoke would give time for a demo team to crawl through/ crouch upto the pill box/ bunker

[@Ishotbambisma0151]

Exactly the whole point of the smoke is to obscure the view the gunners have from the pillbox so that their essentially blind firing

[@projectdaaltaran]

Yeah i was a little confused by that too. A frag grenade wouldve done little good from that distance cause theres almost no way it goes through one of the openings.

[@matthewmiller5642]

I came here to say this. You’re only throwing a drag through that window while laying prone next to it. Smoke prevents the gun from being able to acquire targets and gives concealment for the flaking force to maneuver

[@rossbooth4635]

The Thin Red Line is soooo underrated so I'm glad he gave it a 9/10. I think it's just bad luck that it came out a few months after Saving Private Ryan.

[@MiketheMadness]

Funny title for a film about Americans

[@dr4gonborn992]

Another WW2 movie breakdown video that shits on Pearl Harbour. Love it.

[@yesssirr987]

Even though he's an American he spoke pretty unbiased about the perspectives of each side in battle. Nicely done.

[@bessnorm]

I spent the fall of 1967 at Camp Picket VA with the 6th Armored Cav in a tank company with M48s, we were stationed at Fort Meade and were preparing to replace the 11th Cav in Vietnam. I started as a loader and ended up as a tank commander. The Battle of the Bulge movie had just come out and was playing on the base. Captain Williams formed up the company and marched us to the theater and talked about the power of the tank. For a 20 year old kid (full of testosterone) to be given a 60 ton toy (not really but at 77 it feels like it now) and a Capt. Williams who said - "troops there are two speeds on your tank stop and go and go means GO!" it was one of my favorite times. Somehow the movie was the perfect movie for us at that time. Thanks for reminding me of that experience.

[@samminden1058]

7:04 they replicated Iwo Jima by filming in Iceland due to also being volcanic.

[@TheDemonicPenguin]

To be fair to Bulge, which yes, is hilariously inaccurate, there were a handful of Chaffee's in the battle.

[@cyberarchitect9280]

Okay I might be biased towards the Battle of Bulge but, I can see that German armored formations are a mess there's no sign of for example the Panzerkeil, also the infantry is nowhere to be found either. I don't know why the Americans couldn't get proper Shermans but on the German side....well they had to portrait hundreds of German tanks and after the war there weren't really that much avaiable especially in the '60s. So I think using the M47 in that case is somewhat understandable. Especially if we consider that in the Bridge to Far the German Panzer IV or maybe Tiger was played by a Leopard 1 if I remember correctly.

[@32a34a]

The Pacific is criminally under rated.

[@07foxmulder]

Nah. It’s good but it was bogged down by boring love stories because HBO decided they wanted to appeal to women.

[@jayr3381]

It's rated just fine and appreciated just fine. Y'all always use "underrated" for attention.

[@Railhog2102]

​@07foxmulder Same, My friend Eugene Iconetti himself on Saipan and Iwo Jima met Jon Seda who potrayed John Basilone who was a Raritan native, The NJPAC here in Newark had the premire as both Robert Leckie and John Basilone are NJ war heroes

[@cruisinguy6024]

I think The Pacific suffers because of the decision to follow different storylines whereas Band of Brothers was a single one. While I have watched The Pacific countless times I think BoB was the last of the great WWW movies. I think the golden era was the 1960s and 1970s when most of the veterans were still alive - and indeed many of them got into acting.

[@Chevelle602]

​@@07foxmulderno the problem was it skipped around too much so there was no character development.

[@Amm17ar]

I wish there was more Masters of the Air clips reviewed. I know they put a lot of effort into making the series authentic, to honour those who flew. Id like to know more about the show and the details they got right.

[@fosterfuchs]

There's a KZbin channel called Reel History, narrated by a history professor. He has a review video for each Masters of the Air episode, lasting 30+ minutes each.

[@stuff9680]

The movie Battle of the Bulge was like Patton, a movie made in Spain after Fransco Franco opened up the country and allowed movie companies to rent out Spainish equipment and soldiers for films

[@mojoblues66]

Regarding the use of post-war tanks, there simply weren't any working german WWII tanks available in the 60s, everything was destroyed. For example there is only one running Tiger I in existence, and restoration only started in 1990.

[@armageddontools]

You can bolt some plywood and make it look more german.

[@mojoblues66]

@@armageddontools They did that in "A Bridge too far" with a Leo I, not very convinving though.

[@biomike01]

Musée des Blindés in France are expecting their Tiger 1 to be operational soon so soon there will be 2 tiger 1s in running condition

[@jamesbutler8821]

Mockups! Kelly's Heroes did it just 5 years later

[@SimonHeartfield]

Plenty of Shermans about at the time of filming plus Kelly's Heroes had Tiger mock ups using T-34 chassis. No excuse

[@brettcurtis5710]

Some of the 1960s WW2 movies could do with an update with modern techniques - Battle of the Bulge, Patton and The Big Red One definitely. Others nailed it Battle of Britain, even Kelly's Heroes, it just took a bit of effort and a good accurate screenplay!

[@warnegoodman]

Disappointed there was no discussion of the part in Hacksaw Ridge when a soldier lifts up another soldier's dismembered torso and uses it as a shield while he charges a machine gun nest.

[@A_Norwegian]

That scene put me off the entire movie. Dumbest thing I've ever seen.

[@tylerschroeder3722]

Movie was so unrealistic

[@bradleysitsandsipstea33]

There’s some accounts from Omaha beach where guys were using the dead as human shields

[@alistairhackney]

In the U.K. Even now, we learn to throw grenades at distance. But we also learn how to "post" a grenade. Where we purposely drop them a foot away and then roll away from it (obviously we roll behind some kind of hard cover).

[@bradybeckman8273]

Using a smoke against a bunker is absolutely true. You want to Obscure the enemies vision and line of sight so you can maneuver with less risk of the enemy seeing you

[@axnyslie]

Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor is a war crime itself. Absolutely one of the worst movies ever made.

[@jeffrywilson7202]

Band of Brother and the Pacific do a great job on realism too. It's odd that he reviewed Pacific and Masters of the Air but not Band of Brothers. Three of the best miniseries ever.

[@Battleship009]

The Chaffee was in service in the US Army from 1944-1953. So yes, it was a WWII Tank.

[@carmelopearman5721]

So glad to see a focus on the pacific front!

[@rupturedduck6981]

Because the carrier was spotted early and the B-25s had to launch early they didn't have the ability to form up and fly in a cohesive formation. They had to fly single file to their individual targets. Also at the time there was a red dot in the center of each white star which may have confused the Japanese and I can't remember where I read this but on the day of the Doolittle raid took place there was to take place a practice raid which may have further confused the Japanese.

[@jamesbutler8821]

And if I recall they did not have the fuel to loiter to form up so each aircraft made their own way to the target on launch, which had them coming in widely scattered and at different times, which contributed to Japanese confusion

[@WIck3dNInJa]

"The infantry is really quite vulnerable in thes sort of ditches that they're in." I would really like to hear what Roel Konijnendijk has to say about that :D

[@xannejumangito536]

Been waiting for this!!!

[@cyanide7270]

5:40 if i were him, i would have also made mention of Franz Stigler, a German pilot that instead of shooting down a pretty messed up B17, decided instead of fly escort until they reached the English Channel nd then turned back. When he was being trained as a pilot his officer said that if he found out that any man shot someone under a parachute, he would shot them in turn. Franz saw that B17 as the crews parachute.

[@vegvisir9276]

Sabaton did a great song about that situation

[@cyanide7270]

@@vegvisir9276 that they did, and Yarnhubs animation to go with it.

[@Lunchbox224]

FWIW, at least one unit of M24 Chaffees served in the American sector of the Battle of the Bulge. McManus' point still stands. It's obvious the filmmakers could get a hold of what they had, accuracy be damned (and accuracy is damned all through that movie). I just thought it'd be fun to share.

[@MrLolx2u]

Flags of our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima were such a great film that many WWII historians just glossed over. It's one of if not the most accurate portrayals of the feelings of the war on both sides, the traitorous behaviors soldiers and ministers had about the war on both sides and how the soldiers and generals think about the war be it it's winning or losing or a war against themselves. What people didn't really know was that Letters of Iwo Jima was such a well researched film that what they did was very accurate, especially General Tadamichi Kuribayashi. Gen. Kuribayashi was from a long line of Samurai family dating as far back as being part of the aristocracy of the Sanada clan during the Sengoku period. When Kuribayashi was born, his family's fortunes was waning but that didn't stop Kuribayashi from being a very learned guy who was an excellent writer. By 1928, he had joined the imperial war academy and was given a choice to be sent overseas to study and he chose America and was sent to the US when he was 36 or 37 (I can't really remember) in 1928. He then went on to study in Harvard and passed it in flying colors in English, US History and US Politics. He stayed in America for about 4 years before being sent back to Japan and was again sent as a attache to Canada being the 1st Japanese military attache to ever do so. When Pearl Harbour happened, he was attached to the Hong Kong invasion and was kind to soldiers who would cite that he would regularly visit the wounded in the military hospital, something that was never done by any officers ever which granted him tons of respect. His luck (or totally unlucky) came when he was sent to Iwo Jima on 8th June 1944 to prepare the defenses against an oncoming Japanese invasion. He already knew he would be dead as he knows that he'll never make it back. Many historians would also later analyze that he was practically sent there as a suicide mission as the island was filled with volcanic ash thus making digging through it all rather tough let alone build fortifications. Also, him being sent there to do a suicide mission was because he was one of the few who was crazily against the idea of Japan poking the US for a war that they themselves cannot win thus Tojo just sent him to Iwo Jima to die. So what the movie done was rather accurate. He prevented his men from committing seppuku cuz he found it useless to throw away your lives for nothing when you can use that to fight the enemy even longer and if you really wanna die, clutch explosives and charge towards the enemy to take them down with you, he can speak very good English, he treated both his men and POWs rather well, his initial unpleasentness to be at Iwo Jima at all and his "never give up" attitude.

[@leoa4c]

It's interesting that shooting at someone who bailed from an aircraft was considered immoral, but dropping tens of thousands of bombs on unarmed civilians, by and large, wasn't.

[@v.heywood]

It's bonkers hey

[@MrdudeYT2012]

Story time So my dad’s uncle/great uncle actually fight during the Normandy campaign so she would’ve been like when the middle wave still hit Normandy beach and he was taken out of there because he was shot in the back twice so whenever he actually like went home after the second world war he kind of just hung out with my dad and other people because she was kind like that but he was paralyzed then spent saving Private Ryan comes out and he decides to watch it. My dad said that the first time that his uncle/great uncle watched it he was never able to watch it again. Sadly he has passed on in 2005 before I was born

[@josephhortin8738]

Evansville Indiana has the only working (to my knowledge) LST, the LST 325. Evansville was also the largest producer of the ships during the war

[@vallo105]

In the movie Pearl Harbor, don’t they actually crash land in China? Not Japan? I feel like he got that wrong

[@seanbumstead1250]

He did get that wrong

[@RW77777777]

3 pilots died when they ditched on the China coast 3 more were executed after capture by Japanese on the China mainland no casualties over Japan

[@manimrad]

Thats what i thought. His knowledge of the plane crashing was 3/10.

[@CarlosSantos-di3cm]

He said that it was wrong and that they landed in China....

[@CarlosSantos-di3cm]

He said that it was wrong and that they landed in China....

[@neethanielflores302]

Would’ve loved to hear his thoughts on FURY. Never seems to get brought up in most of these WW2 videos

[@christopherwang4392]

_War never ends quietly..._ However you feel about the film's questionable portrayal of military tactics, _Fury_ (2014) does a great job depicting the gritty and hellish nature of combat in Europe during the last days of World War II.

[@earthling_parth]

I love Fury. So raw and shows the unpredictable and unfair nature of war accurately. Also shows little pockets of vulnerability and joy like the breakfast egg scene with two German women in that building.

[@johncartwright8154]

Isn't that film discussed in a previous edition of this series though?

[@fabersoul]

5:15 - I have never understood the concept having "rules" in war... like I'm sorry, bur if someone's trying to kill me, there are no rules.

[@samplisticsam4678]

In the post-war war crimes trials, you better hope you didn't violate the rules if you lose

[@BananaHeadzHD]

If both sides use the same rules the war has a lot less suffering. Sure, there is still a lot of suffering, but be thankful we globally made a decision to not use poison gas and other biochemical weapons anymore.

[@Yora21]

It's all about "I really don't want our enemies do this to us, and they really don't want this done to them. So we are not going to start doing this, to not give them any ideas to do the same in revenge." And then later it got to the point that a majority of countries said "We so don't want anyone to start doing that thing, so if anyone ever tries doing that, they will suffer severe consequences from us, even if we're neutral in their war." Chemical weapons were used a lot in World War 1 and everyone hated it so much they agreed that nobody should do it ever again. The Germans, the Japanese, and the Soviets in World War 2 did countless horrible things, but none of them wanted to start chemical weapons making it back to the battlefields they were fighting in.

[@fabersoul]

@@Yora21 Ok this has given me good context as to why there are rules. That being said, me personally, war means killing. death is death, no matter how its delivered. If the objective is to end the enemy as quickly as possible, then use all means necessary. But I suppose if you think your side might lose, then playing by the rules means you'll be taken prisoner instead of being executed. I get the incentive but I still don't support it. I believe in ending the enemy using any method needed. its war. it's not a game.

[@BrickyMySticky]

@@fabersoulthe geneva convention is more for non combat situations, like “don’t kill POWs” or “Don’t shoot ejected pilots” and that kinda thing, there were very few rules on how too kill the enemy, besides chemical weapons and things.

[@sega8088]

Flags and Letters are two of the greatest war films ever made, Letters is one of Clint Eastwood's best films. Both are easily up there with Saving Private Ryan.

[@anthonycorona9435]

If Dr McManus is in it, I’m watching!

[@benjones3748]

Ww2 guy: nothing less than an 8/10 in the first half. Ditch guy: "am i a joke to you?"

[@Sithicas]

I always enjoy in theses videos when the expert/historians gets to Pearl Harbor :)

[@tripsaplenty1227]

My favorite WWII movies are Stalingrad(1993, Germany), Cross of Iron, SPR, Tora Tora Tora, Come and See, A Bridge too Far, The Pianist, Band of Brothers

[@caryg7562]

This review is fantastic.

[@lukeemberson5309]

My biggest complaint about hbo pacific is that they reduced Iwa Jima to 20 minutes of a single episode. It’s easily the most memorable battle in the pacific theater and it deserved a whole episode if not more. I get it, the backstory for the hero was important but so was the battle.

[@Goc4ever]

This video was pretty engaging, i really liked it.

[@Morhgoz]

Me Grandma had picture from her cousin living inUS of her, the cousin's, son in his uniform standing next to his brand new Cadillac... If I remember right he was shot down in Normandy carrying either bombs or paratroopers while piloting B-17... Gods of War bless you distand cousin, in the afterlife, may you rest in piece... someday I will get same Cadillac historically accurate etc

[@slowraceultra]

Thumbs up for John.

[@fingolfyn]

War never changes no matter on which side.

[@august_ross]

John McManus should become a voice actor.

[@adrianmyles4844]

In the book "The Thin Red Line" Lt Whyte's frontal attack is indeed seen as a mistake by Cpt Stein but seen as a "beautiful manoeuvre" by LTC Tall, highlighting their distinctly different approaches to warfare. I had a long conversation with an Australian Officer who fought in Vietnam, he said The Thin Red Line was a better example of what jungle fighting was like than any Vietnam War movie.

[@ianray8823]

Im glad The Thin Red Line still gets recognition

[@harjindersokhi9852]

The only aspect missing from the strafing scene is the gunsight in the F-4U Corsairs cockpit.

[@InvertedFreeSolo]

This was an excellent watch

[@Hmsdeacon]

Wind talkers was one of my favourite of all time

[@nunyabidness674]

Re: "I don't know of another case in film where both sides have been shown." Tora Tora Tora... They had 2 film crews, one "japanese" and one "americans". For the Japanese side, they called in veterans as advisors. For the American side, rather than advisors they used paperwork because there were just flat out too many versions of what happened at Pearl.

[@scottrok13]

I wonder if Born on the Fourth of July has been a part of this series of reviews? That friendly fire scene always creeps me out.

[@JesseOaks-ef9xn]

My Dad carried a flamethrower on Okinawa. He got a lot of attention from the Japanese. He said he was glad they didn't have armor piercing rounds in the guns that were aimed at him.

[@henrik3291]

The Norden bombsight was cutting edge, but it often did not help. It is the bombs themselves that are inaccurate.

[@baileyfry2433]

Like having a sniper scope on a musket

[@Adaephonable]

were, not are.

[@TheRealDuckofDeath]

@@Adaephonable Some of them are still buried in the mud around Europe, so they technically still are. 😋

[@henrik3291]

@@Adaephonable no, dumb bombs are still used and are still inaccurate.

[@two_owls]

Thin Red Line is so beautiful and haunting

[@Nghilifa]

I find it funny that in the scene where he points out the realism of the Corsairs strafing Mt. Suribachi, he fails to point out that there is no gunsight on the windscreen of the cockpit. Somehow the VFX guys forgot about that part.

[@alexanderleach3365]

Awesome video. Like to see more War movie rate comparison videos.

[@lokilowkey3049]

Surprising he didn't know/mention that the Norland bomb sight was a bit useless as only the lead bomber can use it and the following bombers followed his que.

[@JulezWinnfield]

Nor-land bombsight?🤔

[@lokilowkey3049]

@@JulezWinnfield you know what i mean, nerd. lol

[@JulezWinnfield]

@@lokilowkey3049 No, I didn't.

[@lokilowkey3049]

@@JulezWinnfield Lol, seriously. Then if in that context you couldn't figure it out, i question your intelligence.

[@JulezWinnfield]

@@lokilowkey3049 It's not my job to decipher someone elses mistake. I question your intelligience for being that presumptuous.

[@willhallam9999]

Just started reading this chaps Islands of Fire, really interestin.

[@cd5311]

You can tell this guy isn’t watching full clips. He’s saying stuff isn’t factual but if he watches some of the clips In full context that are right in SOME cases of his criticism

[@warsawtugger]

Interestingly, I think, when I was very young our next door neighbour, a scary Mr.West, told me how he’d served with a tank battalion with a Welsh regiment fighting the Japanese and that they very frequently communicated with each other in Welsh to prevent the enemy from understanding Comms intercepts.

[@And_rew92]

3:17 you throw smoke for concealment so you can move a bit easier. Throwing an explosive with do less than bugger all to the external wall of a 2ft thick concrete box.

[@DCS_World_Japan]

Corsair is missing its gunsight. No way for that pilot to effectively aim. Doolittle Raiders would have used delayed fuses, as they did drop at very low level.

[@TangoCharlie-mz8lh]

The sound design on Letters from Iwo Jima sounds like it's from the 80s, that's wild

[@PalmelaHanderson]

A common theme that happens in the depiction of almost any battle scene in movies is the condensation of the environment. The slopes are a lot steeper, the planes are much too close together, the distance to that pill box is much too close, the explosions are too big, etc. This goes back to the question of "is physical accuracy or emotional authenticity more important when telling the story?" What is more important - to accurately display the positions, equipment, and movement of everyone involved, or to convey the emotion of everyone involved? I'm sure to those men climbing up Hacksaw Ridge, it did feel like it was 800 feet of straight vertical rock. I'm sure to everyone on the beach at Omaha, those machine guns did feel like they were 200 feet away. In both cases, Mel Gibson and Spielberg respectively decided to lean into that for emotional effect. So, inaccurate? Yes. Emotionally authentic? Also yes. Sometimes a movie can swing too hard in the other direction, like Gettysburg or Alexander, and the end result is... they're kind of boring.

[@davidkinsey8657]

They filmed Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima on Iceland because it has the same type of volcanic ash beaches as Ieo Jima.

[@WalterOtterly]

Making a 400ft climb of a ladder seem like "not as tall as you'd think." It's 400ft! 400FT!

[@joshuariddensdale2126]

One of the few inaccuracies in Letters From Iwo Jima regards Kuribayashi's death. Many accounts agree that he was killed while personally leading the final attack, but since he was wearing a private's uniform, his body was never positively identified. However, some American accounts say that he committed suicide in his command cave. The movie kind of combines the two. He's badly wounded in the final attack and later shoots himself.

[@apersondoingthings5689]

The M24 did see its first action the battle of the bulge, with it starting to enter wide spread use in late 1944 to early 1945 if you consider 130 tanks wide spread. But some 30-50 M24s were present for the battle of the bulge, however the strategies they use for the tank were laughably bad considering the Chaffee was almost exclusively used by cav reconnaissance units. Any competent crew of which the U.S. had an abundance of more than competent crews, considering the great survival rates on U.S. tanks, would use the speed of the Chaffee to flank enemy tanks of which the 75mm could deal with all German tanks from the side from pretty decent ranges. Little bit of a side note, there is a case of British Shermans fighting of multiple German tanks. One of the German tanks was taken out by a Sherman going down an overlooking hill and ramming it. Bro and full on Roman galley mode

[@196cupcake]

In some real WWII footage, I want to say from the battle of the bulge, there was a US soldier driving a jeep with the back on fire. In a normal situation you'd immediately stop to put out the fire. I forget where I saw it. Anyway, I think that would have been a neat detail to include in some of these movies. It might come off as too over the top, but it actually happened.

[@ivanstepanovic1327]

As for tanks... True what was said here. I mean, "Kelly's Heroes" was filmed in 1970 and yet it depicts tanks used then way better. Sherman tanks are real, actual Sherman tanks that then Yugoslav army had in storage rooms (the movie was filmed in Yugoslavia) and as for the Tiger tanks... They look real enough. In fact, those were T-34s with tin metal sheet made to resemble Tiger and put on top of it. So, while they were not Tigers, you could barely tell the difference (only if you look at road wheels). A lot of effort unlike some other movies...

[@Jayjay-qe6um]

In the Pearl Harbor film, all the planes did made it China, no crash landing in Japan. And the Battle of the Buldge film, most probably WWII tanks is becoming rare in that time, maybe that's why they have used alternative tanks.

[@remkirkthegamer1157]

0:08 Not even the only film in that era to do that. Pattons were also used in the 1970 film Patton to represent German tanks. Although to be fair, WWII-era German tanks are hard to come by, most of them were destroyed. 16:06 Another inaccuracy: B-25s would not have made that sound going down. I don't know why Hollywood thinks every plane has the Jericho siren attached to them that only deploys when a plane is crashing. 17:56 There's actually a training film from the era that illustrates what he's saying really well. In "Crack That Tank", there's a camera view of what the driver of the tank is seeing (which is to say, almost nothing)

[@thecoolestloseruknow91]

When he was talking about the inaccuracies of Pearl Harbour, I was just thinking "It's Micheal Bay, what do you expect?" 😂 Man cares more about explosions and special effects than realism hahah

[@jdraven0890]

Yes, so I was surprised by "13 Hours" it's pretty restrained.

[@bobfromaccounting93]

Fun fact about the soil for Flags of our fathers - They actually spent over $1m on volcanic soil to spread for the scene, fun fact.

[@frankafricano2580]

You throw a smoke in front of the bunker so that they can't see you, chief. Then you maneuver on the bunker

[@really_dont_know1681]

Not really how you would provide concealment while attacking a fortified enemy position tho…

[@frankafricano2580]

@@really_dont_know1681 Suppress, Obscure, Secure a Foothold, Reduce

[@really_dont_know1681]

@@frankafricano2580 yeah there’s no smoke involved in that. You suppress and obscure by effective fires. Never had a smoke thrown in any scenario that wasn’t marking an obj, target, or LZ.

[@frankafricano2580]

@@really_dont_know1681 Smoke is absolutely used for obscuration

[@frankafricano2580]

@@really_dont_know1681 There is absolutely smoke involved in obscuration

[@Muschelschubs3r]

I would really like to see him react to movies without US battles. 1994's Stalingrad is a good one, Das Boot (duh), Talvisota, Tae Guk Gi (Brotherhood)...

[@roberthuffman6815]

Hacksaw Ridge is Urasoe Castle, and definitely not as prominent as in the movie. The entrance to a burial area there was once through a tunnel bored through the stone, but the bombardment blew away the roof of the tunnel.

[@paulwebster6406]

Not to discredit the presenter or anything but to question why a smoke grenade was thrown is silly because a frag isn’t going to do anything unless you post one through the slit which involves getting close and it’s open ground with no cover so to get close you need cover and smoke provides temporary cover and concealment which means the machine gunner wouldn’t have been able to see the Americans flanking the position I’m surprised he didn’t realise that

[@christopheryoder8292]

Regarding Hacksaw Ridge, I honestly hope the next Spielberg/Hanks collaboration should be about the 77th Infantry Division, which had a much more storied history than the incredible achievements of Desmond Dawes.

[@nevets68]

I'm sure the directors could magically conjure up "REAL WORLD WAR 2 TANKS" with their "get me of some of that stuff" wand.