January, 1943
Balcombe Military Camp, Australia
None of the corpsman will outright say it's the Atabrine causing half his company's nightmares, but he's heard whispers, has picked up on the timing of his own dreams in relation to his fevers and when they give him the pills and when they don't. It's either that, or combat fatigue.
He'd really rather blame it all on a medication than something inside himself. Something he can't touch, or quit.
@rockpaperscissuhs practically begged me to go into depth about the events in episode 2 of The Pacific so I suppose I'll do that not that I was totally fishing to be asked
But real talk, for a long time this was one of the toughest episodes for me to understand, and therefore it was one of my least favorites. Not only are a lot of the scenes super dark, but I couldn't ever figure out when and where everybody was. Since then, I've taken a lot of time to research the events on Guadalcanal in the late summer/fall of 1942, so I hope this helps anyone who struggles with the timeline and details here as much as I did.
Good stuff below the cut.
The opening map in ep 2 states we're in October of '42. We see Basilone and his little group on what looks to be some kind of patrol. The only issue here is heavy machine guns didn't typically go on patrols, so perhaps they are meant to be advancing towards positions along the Matanikau river, which is something that was going on from roughly Oct 7-10. There's also a note in John's NARA file that confirms this.
Another little interesting tidbit from this opening scene is John's weapon, the M50 Reising submachine gun. We never see him with this weapon again, and perhaps for good reason. The Reising was first used in the Solomon campaigns, and withdrawn from frontline use just the next year in 1943. The following is an excerpt from Henry Shaw's First Offensive: The Marine Campaign for Guadalcanal (which I really recommend reading, it's short and free)
The Reising's major shortcoming was its propensity for jamming. This was due to both a design problem in the magazine lips and the fact that magazines were made of a soft sheet steel. The weapon's safety mechanism didn't always work and if the butt was slammed down on the deck, the hammer would set back against the mainspring and then fly forward, firing a chambered cartridge. The design allowed the entry of dirt into the mechanism and close tolerances caused it to jam. Finally, the steel used allowed excessive rust to form in the tropical humidity of the Solomons.
Anyhow, using the opening map below, John and friends are most likely about where I've put this blue circle, between Oct 7-10.
The next scene shows Leckie and friends hanging out in a hole somewhere, and I'd assume it's around the same timeframe and based on this old map with an early October date, they're potentially chilling to the west of Henderson Field (or perhaps have moved to the nw). The blue circled mark indicates an infantry unit (the square with the x through it), the two marks above the square indicate the unit is battalion sized, and the numbers on either side indicate that this unit is 2nd battalion, 1st Marine regiment (Leckie's battalion). This could also be where they were during the Battle for Henderson field, other maps show them in a similar position a few weeks later, so it's unclear where these army rations from 1918 are being eaten at the start of the episode.
Nothing super interesting about the maggoty rice scene that comes next, but a couple things worth noting that could improve one's viewing experience.
J.P. talks about how the Japanese Navy "sails up and down the slot every night and plasters us". New Georgia Sound and some areas to the SE of it were referred to as "the slot" during WW2, as it was a narrow passage in the middle of the Solomon Islands that saw a lot of ship traffic and numerous naval battles. The Japanese navy would have sailed this route frequently when attempting to resupply their own troops. We see this a little bit towards the end of episode 1.
The second point of interest in the maggoty rice scene™ is this rather gruesome signage, which I've put next to a real sign for a little comparison.
Atabrine, an antimalarial drug, was the brand name of the compound quinacrine, which was a synthetic version of quinine. Real quinine, which is derived from the Cinchona plant, was unavailable to the Allies, as all the areas where it grew, including the Dutch East Indies, were captured by the Japanese. This synthetic medicine, however, had a lot of pretty awful side effects, and many servicemen skipped doses to avoid these, preferring to take their chances with malaria. These side effects included yellowed skin, nausea, headaches, diarrhea, nightmares, psychosis, and in a very intentional rumor spread by the Japanese, impotence. Further reading here.
Next up, the arrival of the U.S. Army on Oct 13. The first group to arrive, the guys shown in this scene, are the 164th Infantry Regiment. This unit, although disparaged by the Marines, was the first Army unit to participate in offensive action in WW2. And with them, they brought M1 Garand rifles.
Sid: "Army gets the new stuff while we fight with shit my grandfather used".
The Marines were using the M1903 Springfield, which was a 5 round, bolt-action rifle, that saw action in WW1 and other conflicts prior to WW2. The Army arrived with the slightly heavier, 8 round semiautomatic M1 Garand. The USMC adopted this weapon a bit later, and it can be seen in the following episodes (notably on the train scene in episode 3, when Gibson "tests" his new Garand on an unsuspecting bovine).
Following this and some other scenes, we come to the nighttime bombardment. This occurred sometime between Oct 13-16, when the Japanese Navy ships Haruna and Kongō, along with an escort, shelled Henderson Field and the surrounding area for a brief period of time on each of the aforementioned dates. Below is another note from John's NARA file that mentions the dates and timing of this attack.
The most devastating of these attacks came on that first night, Oct 13, when both battleships fired almost 1,000 14-inch shells. This bombardment heavily damaged the airfield, rendered almost half the aircraft stationed at Henderson inoperable, and killed 41 men.
The next scene with Chesty Puller addressing his NCOs was probably one of the most confusing for me. We don't really get any maps or explanations, we aren't introduced to Hanneken, and we get a lot of information about different units and locations pretty quickly.
Puller: "Our battalion (1st battalion) will join Hanneken's (Herman Hanneken was in charge of 2nd battalion, while Chesty was in charge of 1st battalion) in our old position south of the airfield [1]. Topside thinks they are going to attack up by the Matanikau, hoping they can run their armor up the coast road [2] and right into the airfield. If that happens, they might pull Hanneken, put him up north to reinforce the 5th and the 1st Marines [3]. And that is gonna leave us alone, singled up on the line [4]."
I tried to make a shitty graphic, once again using the opening scene map.
USMC command had seen the Japanese advancing with armor along the coast near Point Cruz (the little spike north of the Matanikau river), so they assumed this was where the bulk of the attack would come from. By the time they knew another detachment was attacking from the south (towards Basilone's position with Puller's 1st battalion) it was already too late to send Hanneken's 2nd battalion back. Leckie's unit, 2nd battalion 1st Marine regiment, was about midway between the positions noted in map 4. On another note, because this also confused me a lot, 1st Marine regiment and 1st Marine Division are two different things. Basilone and Leckie are both part of the 1st Marine Division, while Basilone is part of the 7th Marine regiment and Leckie is part of the 1st Marine regiment. God knows why the military had to call them both the 1st. But anyway, size-wise it goes company -> battalion -> regiment -> division.
If you want a more detailed explanation of troop movements during this time period, I'll recommend this video. Narrator is annoying but the graphics are good and pretty easy to understand. My only other issue, and a minor one at that, is the video refers to Briggs as an incorrect rank. Speaking of which...
JP: "Where's Briggs headed?"
Manny: "Setting up an outpost south of the line."
Sergeant Briggs and 46 men of 1st platoon, A/1/7, ended up at an outpost about 1,500 yards south of John's position. Later in the episode, we see Briggs on the phone with Puller saying he "has the whole Japanese army coming your way". Briggs had come into contact with part of the Japanese 29th regiment, while more groups part of this unit had already advanced further towards Puller's position to the north and east. During this later scene, Puller tells Briggs to abandon the outpost and join Able company (to the east of John's position). Briggs and the majority of his men survived what was essentially a mad dash through the jungle and back to the line. Only four of his men were reported MIA/KIA. The following image is from a muster roll with details about the location and one of the men who was killed.
"Sector 3" is also mentioned once by Puller in the show; this was the map sector that John and his men defended.
Next, "limit stakes", gun emplacements, and asbestos gloves (or a lack thereof).
LaPointe: "Hey, you want some limit stakes in there, Sergeant?"
Machine gun stakes, sector stakes, or limit stakes are wooden or metal stakes put in the ground to restrict the range of left/right motion of a machine gun. These are used in conditions with low visibility to ensure the gunner is firing at the correct sector, and limits friendly fire incidents.
I've seen a few sources that say these machine gun emplacements would have had partial or full cover, more like a bunker with a roof (which makes sense to protect them from grenades and artillery). Hanks gets a pass with this issue however, as I imagine it's easier to film with no roof.
However, Hanks does not get a pass for the whole "John lost his glove and burned his arm and singlehandedly ran out and pushed over a mound of bodies" nonsense.
I might make some people upset with this opinion, but I'll put it out there anyway. As far as I know, the only reference to John losing his glove and getting second or third degree burns on his arm is in I'm Staying With My Boys by Jim Proser and Jerry Cutter, the latter of which is John's nephew. This account takes a LOT of liberties, and I do not believe half of what's in it. Between his military files, accounts of fellow Marines, and common sense, I've found numerous inaccuracies in this book. If John really received third degree burns to his arm, there would have been a record of his medical treatment/wounds, a mention of these wounds in his official Medal of Honor citation, or a mention by John himself in one of his official interviews (which I quote a bit from later). John is not ever recorded as being severely wounded until his death on Iwo Jima. Therefore, it's my opinion that, while they did have issues keeping the guns cool because they ran out of water during the night (and apparently at one point they were pissing in the water jackets), John did not burn his arm as it's shown in the miniseries. Jerry Cutter is fast becoming my Stephen Ambrose (derogatory).
I do think it's possible that he received some minor burns, cuts, scrapes, and things of that nature. No Rambo-style stuff though. Sorry Jerry.
And as for that mound of bodies he pushed over to give JP a clear field of fire...that probably didn't happen either. In the Proser and Cutter book, they give the credit to Private Garland, whom John ordered out to clear the bodies, but this is likely not true either. In John's own words, they simply changed the position of the machine gun. The following image is from an official transcription of an interview John gave in September of 1943.
I'm rewatching the episode as I write this, and it's occurring to me now that I should probably mention that Manny and JP are not real people. JP could be a stand-in for Richard Greer, and that's a whole other story. But in John's own words, the men with him that night that are also mentioned in the show are only Powell, Garland, and Evans. There are no records (that I can find) of a JP Morgan or Manny Rodriguez in the 7th Marines during this time period. Tom Hank's makes OCs too I guess.
The next few scenes, which are all basically pitch black, are fairly accurate to history as far as where John is going and what he's doing.
LaPointe: "They overran us, both guns are out!"
In the real John's interview, a runner did come over from the right flank and said both machine guns in that section were "busted". John states he took one of his guns from the left flank (barrel and tripod apparently, which is like a billion pounds), along with Powell and Garland. The distance to the other guns on the right flank was about 30 yards. He states the three of them ran into about eight Japanese soldiers during this trip. If John was actually hip-firing a huge, smoking hot, heavy machine gun, who knows. All he says about this skirmish is that he, Powell, and Garland "took care of" these eight soldiers.
In the show, we never see these two busted machine guns. In John's words, one was truly broken, but he was able to fix the other one which had a ruptured cartridge. In the show, we see him operating a single heavy machine gun after he moves positions, but in reality he was apparently operating both of them, rolling around and doing some crazy acrobatics all night.
John then leaves to go retrieve more ammunition. In the show, he runs a short distance and drapes some belts over his shoulders. In John's own words, he ran about 150 yards, through part of the Japanese perimeter, to retrieve the ammunition, which would have come in boxes like what we see attached to the side of the heavy Brownings (each of these boxes, when full, was around 20 lbs). Another excerpt from his interview:
The morning after, Puller mentions a couple interesting things. One being that they're being relieved by the 164th, which is the same army 164th Infantry Regiment that the Marines previously harassed and stole from. He also says to John that he's "putting him in for a medal". According to John, all Puller said was "nice work", and he was unaware of anything to do with a medal until later on.
Puller: "We're going to be moving west, towards Lunga, up on the ridge."
I'm not really sure what this is about, as far as I've seen Lunga and Lunga Point are north of 1/7's current position. John does mention moving right, which would've been west, up to a "knoll" but that's not anywhere near Lunga as far as I can tell.
This is when the episode takes a biiiiggg time skip. We see John and JP commiserating on the beach, and Leckie loading up onto a transport at the end of the episode. The 1st Marine Division didn't leave Guadalcanal until the end of December and early January. There were multiple important events that occurred between the Battle for Henderson Field and their departure for Australia, including fighting around Koli Point (where Chesty Puller was wounded), some naval battles and further bombardments from just offshore when the Japanese attempted a few more times to land troops and retake the airfield, and John got promoted to platoon sergeant in late November.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk, this was fun. I hope at least one person learned something and has a more enjoyable time watching episode 2 in the future. That makes it all worthwhile.
Also big thanks to @bleedingcoffee42, who has a link to John's files here.
I love questions and corrections if you think anything I said is untrue. Come yap or argue with me about Guadalcanal, it's my special interest <3
thinking about how i told joe mazzello that sledge resonated with me and eion bailey that webster resonated with me too. do you think they were concerned
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