HBO's The Pacific

[Delthefunky]

Bolt action you have to cycle the action every time you fire, to bring a new cartridge from your magazine into the chamber. Semi-Auto, you simply the rifle once, and then every time you fire a new bullet is automatically ready to go for next time you squeeze the trigger. Fully automatic is much the same, except that you hold the trigger down and it just keeps firing, just like machine guns.

Automatic weapons use the gas discharged after firing to self-load the next round i believe, and they are a little less reliable then a manual loaded firearm.

[worth]

Exactly what Delthefunky said.

Vassili Zaitsev uses a bolt action rifle. His Mosin Nagant rifle does not use the gasses from the cartridge to cycle the action. He has to do it manually by pulling the bolt back, which extracts the cartridge, and then push a new bullet into the breech/chamber.

On all military weapons today, this is done "automatically" using the gasses, thus the term automatic/semi-automatic.

Edit:

This is a good simple animation of how the gasses work to push the bolt back:

http://science.howstuffworks.com/machine-gun7.htm

Click on the trigger and hold and it will go through the animation. Watch the barrel and the red/yellow gas and how it goes up into a gas tube, which pushes the bolt back.

[Ducay]

Originally Posted by wooohooo

Worth, that actually made a lot of sense. But out of curiosity, could you clarify the difference between semi-automatics and bolt action?

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=semi-automatic+vs+bolt+action

[3 Justin 3]

Wow I just read in the paper that this mini-series cost $200 million to make. That is a TON of money for what is essentially a tv show.

This series is going to be effing awesome!

[Dan02]

Originally Posted by 3 Justin 3

Wow I just read in the paper that this mini-series cost $200 million to make. That is a TON of money for what is essentially a tv show.

This series is going to be effing awesome!

More of a made for TV movie split up into 10 pieces. Assuming it's as good as BoB, I wouldn't be suprised if DVD sales alone covered the costs of production.

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by Komskies

Sorry if this is fata. HBO is showing the complete Band of Brothers series this weekend. 5 episodes on Saturday, and 5 on Sunday. I completely cleared my PVR out so I can record the whole thing.

The 1 TB PVR expander is your friend.

I already set mine to record these even though I already have Band of Brothers on DVD and on Blu Ray.

[d_phaneuf]

Originally Posted by Dan02

More of a made for TV movie split up into 10 pieces. Assuming it's as good as BoB, I wouldn't be suprised if DVD sales alone covered the costs of production.

ya BoB grossed like 220 million in dvd sales

and its one of those shows that will get people just to subscribe to HBO for the 10 weeks that its on

[T@T]

Just a reminder, starts in 30 minutes (7pm)

The "making of" is on now

[frinkprof]

First one was pretty good. The part in the transport boats reminded me of the beginning of Saving Private Ryan. Awesome scenery on the island.

[flip]

I have my PVR set to tape it later tonight.

I'm still trying to decide if I should watch it weekly like I always do with Dexter, or just tape them all and watch them back to back to back etc like I plan on doing with Spartacus: Blood and Sand.

[Azure]

I'm planning on getting them all and watch them at once. Should be good!

[Table 5]

Started off a little slow, but got more interesting near the end. Not quite BoB yet...but not sure it would be fair to assess just yet, since this was the build up episode, so hard to get a good gauge of how things will go.

[Nufy]

I watched the finale of BOB..."We Stand Alone...Together" tonight
What a powerful show when all the original members of easy company were interviewed and they recalled their experiences.

Just simply awesome.............................

[Delthefunky]

Finished watching "Kamikaze" which was very insightful, as I've said before I know little about the Pacific front of WWII. Then I watched Ep.1 and found it quite good.

Fighting a war of this kind on an island is quite a different theater then that of mainland Europe.

I've heard this series starts off a little bit slow, which I'm fine with! Now I just have to wait another week for Ep.2 !!!

[3 Justin 3]

I missed it.

Torrenting it in HD right now and will watch tomorrow.

The Pacific Theatre is just as fascinating as Europe IMO and in some cases even more fascinating.

[You Need a Thneed]

1 month free preview of Movie Channel and HBO Canada (lasts until the end of April) for the win.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

1 month free preview of Movie Channel and HBO Canada (lasts until the end of April) for the win.

I never get these previews ... I never get the Centre Ice one and not this one either.

wtf?!

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by nik-

I never get these previews ... I never get the Centre Ice one and not this one either.

wtf?!

I just called Shaw up, said I wanted to add the service, and asked if I could have a month free - which they can do. My service is definately going to be cancelled as soon as the Pacific is over - can't see myself paying 16 bucks a month for channels I'll basically never watch.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Delthefunky

Finished watching "Kamikaze" which was very insightful, as I've said before I know little about the Pacific front of WWII. Then I watched Ep.1 and found it quite good.

Fighting a war of this kind on an island is quite a different theater then that of mainland Europe.

I've heard this series starts off a little bit slow, which I'm fine with! Now I just have to wait another week for Ep.2 !!!

I've always thought it was interesting that there were two massively different types of war fought in WWII.

The European theatre was very much the last army on army war where set pieces were sent into play. It was also a war with more limited naval aims. To the American's it wasn't a truly emotional war, I don't think there was that hatred for the german troops until the discovery of the camps. But it wasn't a drive to the capital with annihilation in mind.

The Pacific theatre only featured set piece battles on the water. It was the first true carrier war and previewed the end of the battleship era. On the ground it was a nasty piecemeal war, there wasn't much in the way of major armor battles, this was truly a infantry man's war.

There was major hatred on both sides, but the American's fought that war with rage and vengence against a fanatical army that was willing to do anything to win. Most of the battles were about looking your enemy in the eyes and then shooting between them. The American's knew that if they were captured they wouldn't be treated the same as if the German's had captured them.

The Japanese had gained a reputation beyond fanaticism right into the scale of brutallity.

The U.S. Marine corps pretty well gained their reputation in this war as well. Before they were more seen as assualt troops for the navy, after WWII they were seen as an elite unit of their own with a god like stature in the military community.


On Iwo Jima and Guadalcanal to beat the Japanese you had to dig em out to the last man, and they didn't surrender enmasse when the odds were hopeless.

The Pacific theatre was a ugly war with an ugly ending.

[Pastiche]

The Pacific theatre only featured set piece battles on the water. It was the first true carrier war and previewed the end of the battleship era.

Actually the end of the battleship era was previewed in the Atlantic theatre where large battleships like the Hood and Bismarck were demonstrated to be pretty much useless. Battleships were all but obsolete in the Pacific Theatre as a result. Ever wonder why there were no American carriers moored at Pearl Habour and they were all conveniently out for maintenance that day? Meanwhile all those shiny big battleships like the Arizona were there to be sunk. Many people think that that wasn't a coincidence.