The Spielberg WWII Cinematic Universe

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D-Pad: Jun 28, 2006

Keyser_Soze posted:

..accounts like this (from the 398th website) where they make it through a horrific mission and then almost get got the next day by a V1 while on leave
in London are just .

My mom's uncle was a B-17 ball turret gunner in the 398th, 602 squadron who died over Belgium on his 17th mission in late Oct 1944
when the plane was torn in half by flak. Only the radioman survived (POW).

Am I reading that last bit correctly that the Americans lost 41 bombers and 28 fighters and the Germans lost 208 fighters? Why such a big difference?

# ¿ Feb 11, 2024 08:04

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 05:16

D-Pad: Jun 28, 2006

ded posted:

this guy is so full of poo poo

edit : for context - he claims they not only doubled the amount of .50 cal guns on the plane with 3 "spares" but also somehow dropped 2000lbs in weight

and thats only part of the nonsense he goes on about

I mean I skipped the video and just read the wikipedia article and all that is in the wiki article too. Apparently they got rid of a ton of stuff they considered non-essential and swapped out the engines for something faster as well as increasing the .50 cals by making some of the gunnery stations twin .50 cals instead of single.

# ¿ Feb 21, 2024 16:31

D-Pad: Jun 28, 2006

I'm reading Neptune's Inferno after a rewatch of The Pacific and seeing it mentioned in this thread. I know I have the benefit of hindsight and a book giving the actual tactical picture that they didn't always have at the time but goddamn I am getting mad reading about some of the stupid decisions these admirals are making.

What books can you recommend that cover the marine's pacific campaign similar to this one?

# ¿ Feb 26, 2024 07:08

D-Pad: Jun 28, 2006

ColonelJohnMatrix posted:

Neptune's Inferno really is an amazing read. I remember when I was first learning more about the Pacific I really was under the idea that after the battle of Midway the Japanese Navy was basically defeated, and so reading Neptune's Inferno I was totally floored. I had no real knowledge of the carrier duels or loving close quarters capital ship fighting that took place around the Solomons.

Yeah same. I had no idea about any of this stuff. I always had the impression the navy just steamrolled Japan after pearl harbor. I also didn't really realize how new a lot of the concepts and technology was and how much trouble they had adapting at the start. I also knew there were a lot of casualties but not at the level im reading about here goddamn.

# ¿ Feb 26, 2024 15:55

D-Pad: Jun 28, 2006

I grew up in Breckenridge TX which is a tiny insignificant town in nowhere Texas but we had a tiny airport for like cessnas and a company there (Ezell Aviation) was big in restoring ww2 fighters and there were a couple guys in town that owned several and frequently flew them. One of them was my friends grandpa and he would crash one of his fighters every couple of years (seriously I think he had like 7 crashes) and walked away from every one. We also had a pretty significant air show every year until I was in high school and I assume it was because of the presence of said company/hobbyists. Their site has some really cool pictures of their restoration projects: http://www.ezellaviation.com/

Is there a ww2 thread? As disappointing as this show is it got me to rewatch BoB and The Pacific (which I remember not liking but loved on rewatch) and then that got me to read Neptune's Inferno and now I am reading Ian Toll's pacific trilogy. I've never been into ww2 books but I definitely am now which is on brand considering I just turned 40. I want to read more but I don't want to fill this thread up with recommendation requests if there is a dedicated ww2 thread.

# ¿ Mar 11, 2024 15:35

D-Pad: Jun 28, 2006

I remember not liking the Pacific that much at the time but on recent rewatch I absolutely loved it and now I am reading books about the Pacific campaign. So much I didn't know compared to the European theater.

# ¿ Mar 15, 2024 17:11

D-Pad: Jun 28, 2006

This is cool. This company is building replica p-51s at a fraction of the cost of what a real one will run you.

https://bydanjohnson.com/your-own-p-51-only-modern-remarkable-sw-51-moves-into-production/

# ¿ Mar 16, 2024 00:51

D-Pad: Jun 28, 2006

mllaneza posted:

Okay, that had some real loving problems. I'll call out one that hasn't been mentioned yet.

The food relief drops in Holland. I have no problem with those being included. I have a huge loving problem with an exposition scene set on the airbase that those missions with the food relief missions visible from where they're loving standing. If they need food right over there, just don't take it off the loving truck. Drive it over!

Rosie's milk run was set up with all the classic tells of a last-minute tragedy. They even had some rando show up for his very first ever ride in an airplane. Some rear end in a top hat thinks he's super clever for "subverting" that trope. gently caress him. Putting the one person from the ground crew that had lines on that flight would have meant something and tied some things together. So many wasted chances for good storytelling.

Captain Westgate spinoff when?

lmao you thought those were supposed to be the real drops taking place 100 yards behind them and not practice drops?! I will never get over how bad some goons are at watching TV.

# ¿ Mar 16, 2024 07:08

D-Pad: Jun 28, 2006

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cv2yr7n14g4o

# ¿ Mar 25, 2024 00:51

D-Pad: Jun 28, 2006

I need to rewatch Generation Kill. That show did not get nearly enough love for how good it is.

# ¿ Apr 8, 2024 03:21

D-Pad: Jun 28, 2006

ColonelJohnMatrix posted:

I recently (well, like 2 years ago) read the crazy long Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer (the audiobook, which is an insane 50ish hours long if I remember right) and while there is A LOT to take in, one of the things I remembered most vividly from going through it is just how much that big German business was TOTALLY loving cool with the Nazi party and supported them.

As for the German people at large, when I was younger I gave them more of a benefit of the doubt- they were subjects of an evil regime and had also been through some wild poo poo post-WW1, so maybe they were kind of just victims versus a majority playing an active part. As I've gotten older and (sadly) seen a rise in nationalism/extremism and see how easy it is for various groups of people to be vilified and just how many people are actually totally cool with it....I'd assume a good portion of the population either agreed with the Nazi way of doing things or at the very least didn't necessarily disagree with a lot it. As long as it was happening to "those people" (whatever group a person may of disliked, for whatever reason), it was probably ok.

As someone who has always been fascinated with the interwar time period and done a good bit of reading/studying on it in regards to how the world went kinda batshit crazy, it's pretty scary seeing a lot of political rhetoric going on today that harkens back to it.

I've been reading the archives of the Atlantic from 1930 and the parallels are scary. Also op-eds were just as hilariously wrong in their predictions back then too.

# ¿ Apr 8, 2024 20:07

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 05:16

D-Pad: Jun 28, 2006

My understanding is that the Brits were the ones to push really hard for Italy and the Americans eventually gave in. Iirc the decision to invade mainland Italy wasn't made final until like halfway through the Sicily campaign although I think everyone pretty much knew it was inevitable after Sicily if they were going to take Sicily. There was a lot of opposition to Sicily as well but they needed something to do until they could invade cross channel because they didn't want the Soviets to be the only ones fighting and hoped to take some pressure off them.

# ¿ May 9, 2024 22:05

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > The Spielberg WWII Cinematic Universe