Customer Reviews

The History Channel Presents D-Days in the Pacific

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Although this is not a in-depth study of the Pacific war, it goes into areas usually not covered by other videos of this genre, such as Victory at Sea, et al.

The program begins with the first American island invasion at Guadalcanal and covers the major invasions in chronological order as we battled our way to the Japanese homeland. What is interesting is that as it begins to cover a battle it displays a small info of text giving the date and the distance from Tokyo where the invasion is takng place. It's a nice reference to the viewer.

What differs this from most of the other similar programs is that it also mentions the blunders made by the American forces in this campaign, such as the Higgins boat landing craft being grounded on reefs 1,000 yards from the beaches of Tarawa Atoll that caused the unnecessary deaths and casualties of hundreds of Marines - a problem they could have avoided if they hadn't been so reluctant in using the tracked and armored LVT's which could have crawled over these barriers. It shows the growth in the knowledge and proficiency of the American forces as they went from being novices to seasoned veterans in these island invasions.

It also gives due credit to the role of the U. S. Army in the Pacific theater, an often overlooked and undermentioned chapter involving the brave soldiers of this proud branch of our U.S. military.

The quality of the sound and video is very good and a large percenatge is in color, I'm not sure if it is original color film or colorized afterward but it adds a nice dimension to the program. There are also alot of snips I have not seen before, and being a WWII buff have a nice collection of programs.

The narration is done well and the additional commentators are very knowledgeable and informative. It is very entertaing and even though each program runs only about 45 minutes I find myself taking over an hour to watch each one.

A nice addition to the library of any student of WWII or those who just want to learn something of the Pacific theater.

Remembering the many sacrfices on far flung beaches of the pacific. Well presented and not overdone.

Disk 1 was great.
On Disk 2, "Admiral Chester Nimitz" was great.
I had recently seen "The Bloody Hills of Pelileu" in another collection.
The "General Douglas MacArthur" selection is one of the WORST trumped-up fictional hagiographies using selected facts of Douglas MacArthur possible. It's given a little balance if you watch "Admiral Chester Nimitz."
It's available on netflix.