The Pacific Episode 2

Key Battles of American History

History

4.7 • 861 Ratings

🗓️ 26 October 2024

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode, Dave and James discuss the second episode of HBO’s The Pacific. This episode deals primarily with the Battle of Henderson Field, especially Sgt. John Basilone’s role in the battle. Basilone and the Seventh Marines land on Guadalcanal to bolster the defenses around Henderson Field. During the Japanese attack on the Marine perimeter, Basilone, attempting to relocate his machine gun to a better position, bare-handedly cradles the hot barrel and severely burns his arms. Despite this, he continues fighting and kills scores of Japanese troops. Later, Basilone is awarded the Medal of Honor for his conduct during the battle.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's founding
0:10.8	right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased its
0:16.5	size, and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.
0:24.1	Welcome to Key Battles of American History,
0:26.8	a podcast in which we discuss American history through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars.
0:32.8	Here is your host, James Early.
0:43.3	Thank you. host, James Early. Hello and welcome back to our Guadalcanal series, Guadalcanal Air, Land, and
0:47.6	C.
0:48.1	Here we have another special episode in which we discussed the epic 2010 HBO miniseries, The Pacific.
0:55.7	Recently, we discussed the first episode in which we were introduced to the major characters,
1:01.1	Robert Lecky, Eugene Sledge, and John Basselon, and we're going to continue their story in this episode.
1:07.7	The first episode, of course, dealt with the early part of the Guadalcanal campaign.
1:11.8	We saw the landing of the first and fifth Marines on the island of Guadalcanal. Of course,
1:17.0	Robert Lecky was in the thick of that. He was in the first Marines. We saw him and his buddies
1:23.4	fight off the Japanese at the Battle of Alligator Creek. We saw little bits and pieces of other things like the Battle of Savo Island.
1:31.8	And then we were fast forwarded to September of 1942, and we saw the arrival of the
1:37.5	7th Marines, including Chesty Puller and John Basselone, among many, many others.
1:44.0	So the Pacific episode two picks up
1:47.5	the story another month later in October. So this goes really well with our previous battle
1:52.9	episode that we did on the Battle of Henderson Field. A good chunk of this episode is the
1:57.7	Battle of Henderson Field. We'll also see the bombardment, which submarines
2:02.8	just called the night, as well as many other things that we've mentioned in our regular battle episodes.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -157 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Key Battles of American History, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Key Battles of American History and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.