The content details the experimental formation and remarkable combat effectiveness of the 77th Infantry Division, nicknamed "The Old Bastards," a unit comprised of older, experienced men who defied expectations and became one of the most formidable fighting forces in the Pacific Theater during World War II.
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a lot of you probably already know the
name Desmond Doss and even more of you
would remember it if I reminded you that
he was the conscientious objector in
World War II that refused to carry a
weapon into combat despite that he saved
75 men at hacksaw Ridge as a medic but
what almost none of you have heard of is
the experimental unit that he was a part
of today we're talking about the 77th
Infantry Division aka the old bastards
ladies and gentlemen whether you realize
it or not we've all been exposed to the
concept that you should never
underestimate the old guy because
sometimes he just might be a complete
badass we see it everywhere there's
memes and commonly held sayings all over
the Internet like Youth and exuberance
is no match for old age and treachery or
beware an old man in a profession where
young men die and if that wasn't enough
in pop culture and TV there are
characters in pretty much every show and
every movie that are the embodiment of
this sentiment and they are more often
than not the fan favorite that everybody
loves on Nickelodeon a kids channel you
see characters like Uncle iro and King
Boomie in anime you see characters like
Master roshi in more adult shows you've
got characters like Mike from Breaking
Bad Lloyd from Yellowstone and Sir
barriston from Game of Thrones
characters like this are everywhere in
pop culture and they are catered to
every age group because it is never too
early to learn the simple concept of be
careful cuz that old man just might
whoop your [ __ ] ass and I bring all
this up because it raises one simple
question if old men really are such
badasses and experience is truly such a
valuable asset what would happen if you
made an entire Army out of old guys well
we don't have to wonder because in World
War II America did did just that and the
results speak for themselves and we're
going to get into it right after a word
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back to the
video okay here's the deal I've been
making pro-american history videos on
the internet for about 2 years now and
without fail every single time I make a
video about America and World War II I
get this exact keyboard warrior in the
comment section America didn't win World
War II they showed up late and tried to
take credit for it but okay look on one
hand I want to give this a serious
answer there's no American that's saying
America won World War II all by
themselves nobody is saying that it was
a huge team effort by The Big Three
America the UK and the USSR as well as a
bunch of other countries that were
occupied or close to being occupied they
all made humongous sacrifices to win
World War II it was a massive team
effort so when American says America won
World War II they're simply saying the
Allied Forces won America is part of the
Allied Forces therefore America won it
is a factually correct statement just
like it would also be a factually
correct statement to say that the USSR
and the UK also won World War II on the
other hand if we're talking [ __ ] I can
do that too because guess what when it
comes to world wars America's the MVP I
hate to break it to you but let's just
face facts here if World War II breaks
out tomorrow and we're picking teams by
lining all the countries up on the wall
like it's dodgeball and gym class guess
who's getting picked first America if
you disagree with that it's because
you're being disingenuous or you're
[ __ ] dumb and the whole America
showed up late to World War II thing
look number one seed in the tournament
gets a buy don't hate the player hate
the game furthermore it's not like World
War II was on the verge of ending and
America popped in at the last second so
they could be on the winning team okay
World War II ended because America came
off the [ __ ] top rope with aircraft
carriers Sherman tanks and atomic bombs
sorry I'm getting horribly sidetracked I
apologize the point I'm trying to get to
is that there's a lot of people on the
internet that like to say America showed
up late to World War II but the fact of
the matter is it's not like America had
a choice that was literally the only
option because in 1939 when World War II
kicked off America didn't really have a
military to go fight with okay let me
break this down for you 16 million
Americans served in the military in
World War II and at its peak the US
military had 12 million people actively
serving in it in 1939 when World War II
started America's military had 200,000
people in the Army and 100,000 people in
the Navy to put that into perspective
America had the 19th largest military on
the planet and 18th was Portugal which
is approximately the size of Indiana
which is one of America's 50 states and
if that wasn't bad enough Not only was
the American Military small it also just
wasn't very good at this point in time
either they were so underfunded that the
American Military only had 329 light
tanks that were outdated and 1,800
aircraft that were also outdated and if
that wasn't bad enough not only did they
not have good equipment and there wasn't
very many of them they didn't really
know how to fight either because America
hadn't Revisited its battle doctrines
since World War I meaning the only fight
that America knew how to participate in
was trench warfare which was not what
World War II was so if America wants to
have a meaningful impact in World War II
they're going to have to rebuild an
entire military from the ground up both
physically and conceptually so the
American government and the American
Military got to work on this right away
in 1939 because they knew America was
going to have to participate in this war
whether the public wanted to or not and
hint the American public wanted
absolutely nothing to do with World War
II from 1939 through 19 1941 at this
point in time the American public very
much viewed World War II as a European
conflict that America had no business
getting involved with and they wanted
nothing to do with it despite that the
United States government started to
Institute a draft in October of 1940
forcing young men into the military to
grow its military size just in case fast
forward about a year December 7th 1941 a
day that will live in infamy Japan
attacks Pearl Harbor committing the
cardinal sin of [ __ ] with America's
boats essentially flipping the American
public sentiment of we don't want to be
involved to cabanga it is in less than
24 hours on December 8th 1941 the
American government Congress has
officially declared war on Japan 3 days
after that December 11th Hitler declares
war on America at which point all of
America is pretty much like I mean you
didn't touch the boats but [ __ ] it you
can get some too it's so bold strategy
cotton let's see if it pays off for him
in the days and weeks and months
following the attack on Pearl Harbor not
only have hundreds of thousands of young
men volunteered to join the United
States military but the draft would ramp
up as as well the Army was growing so
much so fast that they were activating
and standing up new divisions left and
right one after another and by March of
1942 these new divisions that were being
stood up were almost entirely comprised
of draes they had some officers and some
ncos that were assigned to stand up the
entire division but aside from that all
of the new guys that were coming in were
all untrained new recruits that were
drafted and one of these first all
drafty divisions was the 77th infantry
division now I need you to understand
how absolutely crazy this situation is
standing up a new division is a
humongous undertaking okay a military
unit of that size that's like 15,000 men
that is a living breathing entity okay
there's history there's standard
operating procedures there's leadership
there's a way of doing things and that
way has probably been written in blood
for years by the men that came before
you and you're just popping one up
overnight okay that's [ __ ] crazy okay
let me explain this in a hypothetical so
hopefully you can understand a little
bit better okay imagine that you showed
up to work tomorrow let's say that you
you worked on an assembly line for four
and you're building F-150s and you
showed up to work and they gave you and
a couple of your buddies that you work
with keys and they're like hey drive
across town There's a big ass empty
building I need you to go ahead and
start another manufacturing PL there's
no machines figure out the machines you
need figure out what order they need to
go in figure out the new [ __ ] car
that you're going to build and figure
out all of this [ __ ] how you're going to
pay everybody taxes everything figure
all of it out by the way the new
Workforce is coming in next week none of
them are [ __ ] trained you have to go
ahead and train them on all the [ __ ]
that you haven't even figured out
yourself yet good luck and if that
wasn't hard enough the 77th Infantry
Division was a guinea pig division it
was literally an experiment you see the
high ranking military and the government
were concerned and they didn't know what
it was going to take to win World War II
and they didn't know if they had enough
young men 18 19 20 21 22 23 what if all
of those young men got taken out and we
needed to rely on the older generation
of men to go fight this war they needed
to know what these older men in their
30s and 40s and 50s would be capable of
physically doing on on the battlefield
and they needed to get that data now so
they had it in the future should they
need it so when they comprised the 77th
Infantry Division they basically gave
them all of the old guys okay the
average age of a drafty in 1942 was 23
years old the average age of somebody in
the 77th ID was 33 years old and bear in
mind that's the average the oldest new
recruit I could find in the 77th
Infantry Division was 53 years old and
he was a World War I veteran and some of
you are probably like yeah 53 is pretty
old but 33 isn't that old at all why are
you making a big deal about this okay
look as far as joining the military at
the age of 33 that's ancient that's
almost unheard of I mean think about it
you can join the military at 17 years
old be done and have 20 years in service
with a full pension at 37 38 years old
and these guys are joining at 33 I mean
when I went through basic and AIT the
oldest guy we had was my buddy Flores he
was 28 years old and everybody called
him grey Bush the wise so the point I'm
trying to get across to you is like yeah
it's really weird to join the military
that late in life but also it's a good
kind of weird because every person
that's been in the military ever if you
came up to them and asked them hey if
you had to go off to war and you could
either go with a platoon of 18yearold
kids or a platoon of 30-year-old men
everybody's picking the 30-year-old men
100% of the time because you got to
realize when these 18 19 20-year-old new
recruits are coming in for training half
the battle is having the Army the drill
instructors come in and teach these kids
all the life lessons that mommy and
daddy never got around to while they
were growing up as kids they don't have
to do that with a bunch of 30-year-old
men these guys have been out the real
world for 15 years getting their asses
whooped by life and eating [ __ ]
sandwiches they're already with the
program so the 77th ID shows up to Fort
Jackson South Carolina for basic
training that's 16 weeks and then
another 12 weeks for their Advanced
Training which for most of them is just
going to be infantry and they absolutely
crush it they show up and there's very
little like disciplinary or life lessons
being handed out by the drill sergeants
because well they're older than most of
the drill sergeants it's literally a
bunch of middle-aged men showing up
being like okay I'm here show me what I
got to do to not die and then whenever
somebody was being an [ __ ] they would
Polie themselves like one of the new
recruits is being a dick all the other
new recruits would handle that issue
internally before it even got to the
drill sergeants because they wanted
everybody squared away so fast forward
two months they are on week eight out of
the 16 for basic training and they are
Head and Shoulders above all the other
new training divisions they are the best
division they have they are so good that
when Winston Churchill came over from
England halfway through their basic
training they were the unit that was
selected to do a parade for Winston
Church Hill to show off how badass the
American Army was going to be and here's
what Winston Church Hill had to say
about it quote the faces of the men gave
me the greatest and everlasting memory
of the day I have never been more
impressed than I was with the bearing of
the men whom I saw the undemonstrative
therefore Grim determination of the
newly drafted bodies bodess ill for our
enemies so this experimental guinea pig
unit of old guys is absolutely crushing
it they go on they finish basic training
I don't have the exact stats but it is
documented that a disproportionately
high amount of all of the 77th infantry
qualified as expert with the M1 grand
right out of basic training from there
they go and they do their 12 weeks of
Advanced Training and they do a great
job at that too at this point upper
military is kind of looking at these
guys like okay well this is this is
actually kind of working let's see what
these old guys can really do so they
send them down to Louisiana for eight
weeks and they're going to do a war game
the 77th ID going up against another new
division that just got stood up full of
23y olds literally the old guys versus
the new guys Youth and exuberance versus
old age and treachery we're going to
have a legit war game and see who
outperforms the other and when I tell
you the 77th ID whooped that other
division's [ __ ] ass it is a complete
understatement oh my God I almost died I
almost died that was so scary okay now
at this point it's winter in Louisiana
it's going to be cold at night
especially considering they're not
allowed to have tents and they're not
allowed to have fires they're just out
there sleeping on ground for 2 months
doing this war game going Force against
Force so naturally the 77th ID wants to
play the mental Warfare game and ruin it
right out of the gate for these young
kids so bearing in mind that it's winter
and everybody's going to be cold at
night the 77th launches a bunch of very
aggressive Ambush attacks basically
pinning the other force between them and
a river and they just keep advancing
closer and closer until the other
division is forced to cross the river on
foot getting all of their [ __ ]
completely soaked okay and some of you
are probably like oh they got a little
bit wet who cares trust me if you were
living outside for 2 months and every
possession that you owned to your name
was on your back in a backpack and you
weren't allowed to have a tent or fire
to dry your clothes and all your [ __ ]
just got soaked you would care okay
there's nothing worse than walking
around for 16 hours holding a gun with a
heavy backpack on and the only comfort
you get at the end of the day is some
dehydrated food and the opportunity to
change out your wet socks for more wet
socks okay whether you believe me or not
I just need you to trust me it's going
to take a mental toll on some 18 19 20
year-old kids believe me and from there
it only gets like a thousand times worse
I keep reiterating this but you got to
remember these are middle-aged men okay
these are dudes that are working
construction jobs in the 1940s before
OSHA was around walking around on I
beams with no harnesses eating lunch and
nobody gives a [ __ ] you got dudes that
were working in offices before they had
an HR department okay these guys are
bringing so much workplace pranks and
Tom Foolery to the table these
20-year-olds aren't going to know what
hit them so one of the big things the
77th does is they start pretending to be
in this other division at night like
they'll roll up at night there's like
one guy left awake you know pulling
guard Duty whatever they'll roll up to
him be like hey uh Commander so and so
whatever the [ __ ] said I need to take
this Jeep and go take it over to HQ blah
blah blah and he's oh okay cool yeah
whatever man he like nods back off of
sleep while he's supposed to be on guard
77th ID guy just steals their Jeep I
mean strategically transfers it to a
different location like they're stealing
all their vehicles they're stealing all
their equipment and then you know
usually when you're doing military stuff
you want to sever enemies Communications
so they can't communicate at all not the
77th ID no we've got [ __ ] Jimmy who
worked for the phone company for 10
years we're going to find the enemy
communication lines we're going to tap
into them and then we're just going to
start feeding them bad Intel to make
complete [ __ ] chaos Behind Enemy
Lines and then all the boys are going to
gather around the radio at night and
we're all going to listen to the higher
ups in their chain of command complain
performing at the conclusion of this war
game the 77th ID has just completely
outclassed the other division full of
young men and it really starts raising
some eyebrows because now people really
want to know what these old guys are
physically capable of
doing and this is where it goes from
being kind of fun to not fun at all for
the 77th ID because the real experiments
are about to begin they send the entire
77th to a place called Camp Hider it's
about 100 miles outside of Phoenix
Arizona in the middle of the desert so
they show up to Camp Hider it's
literally just the desert with a couple
of tents not even enough tents for the
entire division they have to go and dig
their own Wells to find their own water
and then because they didn't have enough
tents they're out there literally
building mud Huts to live in so after
they get done literally building an army
base from scratch the Army comes along
and they're like hey we want to know how
far a normal dude can March in the
desert in 100° heat if we only give him
one qu of water so here's what you guys
are going to do we're going to force you
to March and you're just going to keep
marching until a certain number of you
pass out that way we'll have a really
good idea of how far a single dude can
go on one Court of water water so this
is already borderline cruel and unusual
punishment but it doesn't stop there
because after they figure out how far a
guy can go on a single CT of water they
decide that they're going to start
having six day exercises where they have
the second Lieutenant the lowest ranking
officer that presumably knows the least
guide a platoon of men through the
desert for 6 days straight and if they
want to be able to get their next day's
supply of water and food they have to be
in the right place at the right time at
the end of the day otherwise they just
don't get the food and water you thirsty
Stanley they're literally doing some
Hunger Games [ __ ] with their own troops
and for those of you that don't know
it's literally a running joke in the
military that lieutenants suck at Land
Navigation and always get lost there's
literally men that die from exposure and
dehydration during this period at Camp
hder from the 77th Infantry Division and
this goes on for 6 months that the 77th
is out in the middle of the desert
having experiments run on them and after
that 6-month period came to an end and
they got orders saying they were going
to move on to some other type of
training they decided that in true
military fashion they were going to put
this behind them by utilizing a dark
sense of humor the joke was that their
time in the desert was just as shitty as
actually going to war so they came up
with their own metal The Hider campaign
medal to commemorate their time in the
desert that they would all wear on their
uniforms as a joke the ribbon of the
metal was made out of a piece of
sandpaper and the metal itself was a
broken thermometer and to absolutely
nobody surprise the war department
decided that they were not going to
officially recognize The Hider campaign
medal regardless the entire unit is now
being shipped back over to Pennsylvania
where they are going to have one month
of advanced rifle Marksmanship training
despite the fact that most of them
already qualified as expert so they go
they do that they get even better at
shooting than they already were and then
after that the Army comes out and
they're like hey I've got this new
Subzero temperature sleeping bag that I
want to have tested so we're going to
take you guys our guinea pig division
we're going to send you over to West
Virginia have you go up in the mountains
with this new Sleeping Bag no tents no
fires I just want you to live there for
a month hang out freezing your ass off
and just sleep in these sleeping bags at
night and if you guys survive we'll know
they work okay good see you in a month I go
go
on why are you the way that you are so
they go they do that they freeze their
balls off for a month they climb back
down from the mountain and the Army is
like hey guess what it's uh early 1944
we've decided that we don't need you
guys for D-Day you're not going to be
going over to the European theater we're
actually going to send you over to the
Pacific to help out the Marine Corps so
next step of your training you're going
to head over to Virginia and you guys
are going to train for a month doing
amphibious Landings in winter in the
Atlantic Ocean but good news you're
already cold so have fun so they go they
do that they crush it just like
everything else they do now they're
headed off to Hawaii where they're going
to go through jungle warfare training
for 6 weeks now this is probably the
most important training that the 77th is
going to get considering that they're
going into war in the Pacific Theater up
against the Japanese in a jungle
environment and the Japanese are
presumably already masters of their own
environment and pretty much everybody in
the 77th is hyper aware of this and it
makes them take this chunk of training
that much more serious and one of the
things that they notice is when they
show up to jungle warfare school there's
the archway that they walk through it
says jungle warfare school and it's got
the tagline below it in quotes it says
if they don't stink Stick them which is
obviously referring to what you're
supposed to do with your bayonet if you
come across to an enemy's corpse that
isn't decomposing because at this point
in time it was highly likely that that
person wasn't actually dead and they
were pretending to be dead or hurt so
that they could Ambush you and I believe
that's one of the big lessons that the
77s took to heart from this period of
training for reasons that we're going to
find out in a little
bit so they finished jungle warfare
school and that's it they're going off
to war in the Pacific Theater after over
two years of training in multiple
different climates in multiple different
terrains all over the United States
spanning over the course of two years
this unit that is now on average 35
years old is headed to war so July 1944
they show up and they're going to be
helping the Marine Corps with the Marana
Islands campaign this is a Marine Corps
operation they are running the show and
the Man In Charge is the Marine Corps
General Holland howling mad Smith and he
has not been very impressed with the
Army's performance so far helping him
with the first island in the Mariana
Islands campaign sipan during the Battle
of Sian General Smith was so unimpressed
with the 27th ID's performance that he
actually had their General relieved of
command and had a Marine Corps General
placed in charge of an army division so
General Smith is already not thinking
very highly of the Army's capabilities
and when he finds out that he is being
reinforced with the 77th ID a guinea pig
unit that is comprised mostly of
middle-aged men he's not very happy
about it so they're getting ready to
invade Guam and general Smith's plan is
to not send in the 77th Infantry
division as a singular fighting unit
he's going to split them up and
basically use them for reinforcements
like if this unit over there lost to
platoon he's just going to take a
platoon from the 77th give it to those
guys over there and he's basically going
to disband and peace meal out the entire
division is his plan and that's exactly
what happens for the amphibious landing
on Guan they take some of the 77th ID
platoon they give them out to some of
the Marine Corps units some of the other
Army divisions and they send them into
battle couple days later General Smith
wondering how the old guys are doing
writes out to his commanders like hey
how are these old guys performing can we
use more of them what's the deal and to
General Smith's surprise according to
all of his leaders in the field these
old dudes can throw down they're
absolutely awesome a marine Battalion
Commander even went so far as to say and
I quote there is no doubt in our minds
that the 77th were good people to have
alongside in a fight as a result we
started referring to them as the 77th
Marine Division okay full stop I need
you guys to really appreciate what just
got said here okay the Marine Corps I
love them but they're not good at a
whole lot really if I were the
commander-in-chief I wouldn't call up
the Marine Corps unless I wanted
something dead broken or pregnant that's
really where they shine that's their
wheelhouse you want to know what the
Marines aren't good at giving
compliments to other people they're just
they're not about it okay so for the
Marine Corps to look over at the 77th ID
guys a bunch of middle-aged army dudes
killing people in battle and go you're
one of us that's the best compliment the
Marines know how to give okay it's it's
a huge deal this is the equivalent of
the Jedi Council giving you a seat on
the council and giving you the rank of
Master this is unprecedented allow
disappoint M lightly the council does
not you on this Council we Grant you the
rank of Master what take a seat Master
Skywalker what so when General howling
mad Smith reads this he's like damn okay
well if one of my Battalion commanders
thinks that these are Marines I'm going
to treat them like Marines I'm not
piecing out the 77th infantry division
one platoon at a time anymore I'm going
to send in the entire division on the
Marines right flank so pretty much
immediately the entire 77th infantry
division is sent in and they make an
amphibious landing on the beach on the
marinees right flank 15,000 middle-aged
men from the East Coast rolling up in
amphibious tractors getting out with M1
Grands and Tommy Guns ready to [ __ ] [ __ ]
up this is the metaphorical equivalent
of dad getting home from work the
Japanese just don't know it yet and this
amphibious landing and their movement up
the beach and into battle was absolutely
textbook it was the epitome of slow as
smooth and smooth as fast it was the
least chaotic amphibious Landing anybody
had ever seen and as all this is going
on the Navy and some seagoing Marines
are watching this amphibious Landing
take place and a seagoing marine
famously says would you look at those
old bastards go officially christening
them with their new nickname the old
bastards now the battle Guam rages on
for about two more weeks until the
island is secured on August 10th 1944
and at the conclusion of this battle it
becomes clear to absolutely everyone
including General howling mad Smith that
his Battalion Commander was correct
about the 77th Infantry Division because
over the past two weeks of the battle of
Guam the old bastards have racked up
2,741 confirmed kills and sustained only
248 in return okay that is a ratio of 11
to1 going up against an enemy that has
home field advantage and the luxury of
playing defense from fortified machine
gun positions which is absolutely insane
and with a performance like that their
new monikers of the old bastards and the
77th Marines are pretty much set in
stone with even General Holland howling
mad Smith himself referring to them as such
because of their incredible performance
at Guam they are then given some rest
and relaxation in new calonia so they
hop in the boats and head there
immediately they get about halfway there
and then the Big Green weenie strikes
change of plans no more RNR we're going
to turn the boats around and head
straight over to the Philippines because
in leay MacArthur has four divisions and
they are completely stalled out and they
need the old bastards help now the
Japanese government has pretty much come
out and said that they are going to make
the battle of leay a decisive battle for
this war and for that reason they
throwing all the resources and Manpower
they have to win this battle against
America and not lose this island and up
until this point they're doing a great
job and then the 77th showed up they
show up to latay Thanksgiving Day 1944
with the energy of dad didn't get to
take his nap and now it's going to be
[ __ ] everybody's problem okay
oversimplified version of what's going
on here the Americans have one half of
the island the Japanese have the other
the Americans are getting resupplied on
their back end and the Japanese are
getting resupplied on their back end
from a place called orach Bay so the
77th infantry is like that's fine hear
me out we'll hop in the boats we'll
drive around leay make an amphibious
landing and we'll take over orach Bay
cut off their supplies game over we win
to which the chain of command is like
that's absolutely crazy you're going to
be outnumbered 3 to one and we're not
going to be able to get you any more
supplies to which the 77th is like
that's fine we'll just bring some
supplies with us and then we'll steal
all the enemy [ __ ] and as far as being
outnumbered 3 to one we've been hanging
out with the Marines this entire time
and if they've taught us anything that's
just a Target Rich environment let's
[ __ ] run it so fast forward a couple
of days December 7th the 77th ID makes
an amphibious Landing in orok Bay they
catch the Japanese completely off guard
take over the entire thing get their
entire division into the bay in 35
minutes then they start bringing in
artillery and M10 tank destroyers so
they get everything squared away they
establish a defensive perimeter also
known as a beach head then first thing
tomorrow bright and early they're going
to start kicking ass right right
everything's great couple hours later
guess who shows up a Japanese Landing
ship full of Japanese troops not having
gotten the memo that America runs orach
Bay now so the old bastards under the
cover of night aim all of the artillery
and the M10 tank destroyer at this ship
as it gets closer and closer getting
ready to offload its barges full of
troops and more supplies the ship gets
as close as it's going to get it sends
out its first barge and the old bastards
just wait patiently as the barge gets
closer and closer and as it gets within
50 ft of them they open fire with the 50
caliber machine guns pretty much sinking
it immedi immediately as the man on top
of the M10 tank destroyer yells out get
some flares in the air so I can hit
these sons of [ __ ] as the flares get
shot up the enemy ship is illuminated as
the artillery and the M10 open fire on
it sinking it in a matter of minutes
according to the 77th ID's unit histori
and this is believed to be the only time
in World War II history where an
infantry unit has successfully sunk an
enemy Naval vessel so they're already
off to a great start and what happens
next is described by an observer from
the war department as a divisional epic
over the course of the next 8 weeks the
77th goes on an absolute Rampage taking
over three cities in Airfield and
securing 43 miles of main supply chain
roads okay it's not a big island there's
not that many roads they've basically
taken over all of them and the entire
time they're doing this they are
acquiring enemy supplies everything from
food to vehicles and anything they don't
use they destroy and they're not just
out there stealing all the enemy [ __ ]
they're out there giving out death
certificates like they're oer Winfree
giving out cars because during this
period they are credited with
19,4 56 confirmed kills in return they
suffered 543 Americans killed in action
that's a lot I'm not trying to diminish
that in any way but it needs to be said
that that is a 36:1 ratio okay 19,000 to
500 is an ass whooping in a half and
this would be studied at Fort Benning by
the advanced Officers Training Program
for the next 40 years on how to conduct
a clinical textbook level ass whooping
this two-month long Rampage page would
bring an end to the Battle of Le with
America securing the island and the 77th
would immediately be shipped over to
begin preparations for the Battle of
okanawa so they get to the staging area
for the Battle of okanawa at which point
they are informed that there is a small
island chain known as the cararo islands
it is 15 Mi off the coast of okanawa and
the chain of command believes that they
are going to be of strategic importance
and the 77th has to go clear them out
now the Camaro islands is made up of
four main islands and the old bastards
decide that they're going to take all
four of them at once because apparently
they're in a hurry so that's what they
do they launch an amphibious landing on
all four Islands at the exact same time
some of the islands they take over with
zero resistance whatsoever and the other
Islands they face very very little
resistance and for a second it was so
easy that they were kind of thinking
maybe they just wasted a bunch of time
and resources capturing these islands
anyways but upon further investigation
what they found was a fleet of 360
hastily made boats that were filled to
the brim with explosives that the
Japanese were going to use in a kamakazi
style attack but instead of planes they
were going to be driving explosive boats
directly into American ships during the
main invasion of okanawa so being able
to prevent the enemy from using these
weapons during the invasion of okanawa
made this entire Mission completely worth
worth
it fast forward a couple of days April
1st 1945 Easter Sunday the Battle of
okanawa begins it is two Marine
divisions and four Army divisions making
the initial landing and the 77th is not
one of them they are being held back
back in reserve and just to be clear
they're not being held in reserve
because the chain of command thinks that
they're the second string backup guys
they're being held in reserve because
they have the reputation of being the
problem solvers and they want to save
the 77th until they diagnose where the
real problem's at and they're going to
send the 77th in then pretty much
immediately after the invasion of
okanawa it becomes very clear to the
chain of command that they missed a
nearby Airfield there is a small island
neighboring okanawa known as leima and
on that island there is a Japanese
Airfield and that Airfield needs to go
away is that Airfield is being guarded
by 5,000 Japanese soldiers that are very
well dug in and they are not about to
give up without a fight so they send in
the 77th the old bastards make quick
work of it securing the entire island of
leima in 6 days with none of the
Japanese willing to surrender virtually
all of them were killed in combat
approximately 5,000 enemy Soldiers with
the 77th losing 258 men in return and
while the old bastards are securing
leima the Battle of okanawa is still
raging on it is one of the bloodiest
most hardfought battles in America
history the island is being guarded by
over a 100,000 Japanese soldiers with
hundreds of heavy artillery pieces
thousands of mortar positions and
fortified machine gun positions they
have The High Ground and they have
underground tunnel networks this entire
battle is a [ __ ] meat grinder the
entire island of okanawa is an enormous
problem and nobody is having a good time
but one of the most problematic areas is
a 100 foot high cliff face where the
96th Infantry Division has been
absolutely shredded this place is known
as the escarment or as it would later
become known as hacksaw Ridge the old
bastards are being sent in to do what
the 96th Infantry Division couldn't pull
off as they show up they send two
battalions up the 100t High Cliff face
to engage the enemy the Japanese drove
both battalions back forcing all of them
to retreat all of them except for one
one of the youngest old bastards a
26-year-old medic by the name of Desmond
Doss who was unique in that he refused
to carry a weapon into battle because he
was a conscientious objector that didn't
want to hurt anybody he only wanted to
to save people he stayed up top while
everybody else retreated and while
evading the enemy he managed to go
around and find wounded Americans and
begin lowering them down the cliff face
all through the remainder of that day
and all through the night by the next
morning he had single-handedly lowered
75 men down a 100t cliff face saving all
of them the next day the 77th would
attack again this time sending up one
battalion to engage the enemy and the
other Battalion out and around the side
to flank them during this battle Desmond
Doss would become mortally wounded by
grenade shrapnel and sniper fire while
wounded he continued to insist that the
other Medics and litter bearers continue
to save other men rather than himself
the old bastards would finally take the
ridge killing over 3,500 Japanese
soldiers and losing over 600 men of
their own but amongst them was not
Desmond Doss the men of the 77th got
Doss evacuated in time he would survive
and eventually go on to be awarded the
Medal of Honor for his actions at
hacksaw Ridge but as his journey in
World War II came to an end the old
bastards still had work to do
now the 77th is going to be sent to
capture Sheri Castle but in order to do
that they have to punch through the
sheeri line which is essentially a
natural wall of hills and cliffs and on
top of them is 50,000 Japanese soldiers
Manning fortified machine gun positions
with overlapping fields of fire at this
point almost all of the American forces
are stopped in their tracks somewhere
along this line two Marine divisions and
another Army division both stuck unable
to penetrate through the spot where the
77th have to break through to get to
Castle is approximately half a mile wide
and 2 mi in length it takes him 32 days
of constant fighting to clear that 2
miles during those 32 days and in that
single plot of land the Japanese forces
suffered 14,000 men killed in action all
of the American divisions managed to
break through the sheeri line around the
same time and the Battle of okanawa
would rage on for a little bit longer
but the sheeri line breaking was the
last major defensive maneuver that the
Japanese were able to do everything
after that was small scale skirmishes
and this would rapidly bring about an
end to the Battle of okanawa after
okanawa had been secured the 77th would
receive word that they are to be shipped
back to the Philippines where they are
going to be retooled refitted and
receive a bunch of new guys to replace
the men that they had lost and they are
going to be the only combat unit that
was present in the Battle of okanawa
that is also to partake in the first
wave of the invasion of Mainland Japan
which is probably the shittiest
compliment imaginable hey you guys did
such a great job that you get to do it
again luckily however after arriving to
the Philippine island of SIU the 77th ID
would receive word that America had
utilized a new type of weapon by
dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki forcing the Japanese to
surrender and they would not have to go
and invade the mainland of
Japan this is terrific news but it left
just one thing the 77th ID had to do
before they could finally go back home
you see all throughout the Philippines
southeast Asia and the rest of the
Pacific there were still Japanese
military members all over the place
scattered pretty much everywhere many
these groups of Japanese soldiers would
refuse to surrender for months or in
some cases even years or decades
refusing to believe that the Japanese
empire would ever surrender and in the
case of SIU where the 77th currently
were up in the mountains there were
approximately 5,500 Japanese soldiers
fortunately they were willing to
surrender because they got orders
directly from the emperor Unfortunately
they were willing to surrender to
literally anybody except for the old
bastards bear in mind we're back in the
Philippines these Japanese soldiers
hiding up in the mountains and sea are
the remnants of what was left after the
battle of leate when the 77th went on a
two-month long Rampage destroying
everything now to be fair we don't know
for sure why these guys were willing to
surrender to literally anybody except
for the old bastards maybe it was
because they remembered a bunch of
middle-aged men with a blue Statue of
Liberty patch on their shoulder whooping
their ass and they just didn't want to
surrender to him or I I have it I have
an alternative Theory you see along this
entire Journey the 77th has not only
gained a reputation for being extremely
effective in combat but but they've also
gained a reputation for kind of sort of
not really taking a whole lot of
prisoners compared to everybody else now
bear in mind this is the Imperial
Japanese not many of these guys got
taken as prisoner because they would
rather die in combat than lose their
honor by surrendering despite that out
of all the PS that were taken the 77
somehow managed to take on the least you
know what let me just read you guys the
stats and you can come to your own
conclusions for all of the Pacific
Theater across all branches of the US
military approximately 50,000 Japanese
PS were taken that is a ratio of 44 to1
for every 45 enemy soldiers that the
American forces came up against 44 of
them were killed in action and one was
taken prisoner the 77th Infantry
Division on the other hand only managed
to take
358 PS which is a ratio of
122 to one and it gets way worse if you
want to talk about the Battle of okanawa
in particular during the Battle of
okanawa all of the US forces combined
took a total of
10,801 Japanese prisoners of war that is
a 10:1 ratio of those 10,801 PS taken by
the US forces at the Battle of okanawa
the 77th ID was responsible
for 58 of them at a ratio of 278 to1
compared to the US Armed Forces ratio of
10:1 okay now to be completely honest I
have no idea why it's like that perhaps
it's because the old bastards displayed
exceptional rifle Marksmanship maybe
it's the fact that they took the jungle
warfare lesson of if they don't stink
Stick them to heart and they followed
through with that throughout the entire
War either way the fact of the matter is
they've developed the reputation that
they don't really take prisoners and now
there's 5,500 Japanese soldiers hiding
up in the mountains that are too scared
to surrender to the 77th ID and they
need them to surrender so that they can
finally go home and mow their lawn after
like 4 years you always start before
everyone wakes up including
roosters what the hey shut up you shut
up so the leadership of the 77 sends it
up the chain of command hey you're going
to have to get some other unit out here
to accept this surrender because they're
willing to surrender to anybody except
for us to which the big army is like
just [ __ ] figured out no I'm not sending
another group of guys out there get them
to surrender one way or the other make
it happen Chop Chop hurry up now the
obvious answer is to just practice
classic American diplomacy where you
show up with a gun and a sandwich and
ask them which one they would prefer and
let them know that both is an option the
old bastards on the other hand have an
even better idea they are going to close
this Saga out the same way they opened
it up by pulling schoolyard [ __ ] and
Tom Foolery so here's what they come up
with a lot of the new reinforcements
that they were getting weren't old guys
anymore it was just whoever the Army had
so it was 18 19 20year old kids so they
took them had them take the blue Statue
of Liberty 77th ID patches off their
uniform and they're going to send them
up the mountain have the Japanese
surrender to them separate them from
their guns right there and March them
down the mountain so that's exactly what
happens they start marching the Japanese
down the mountain Japanese are happy
because they've gotten to surrender to
literally anybody except the the old
guys with the blue Statue of Liberty
patch on their shoulder and then they
get to the bottom of the mountain where
there's a bunch of old guys with the
Statue of Liberty patch on their
shoulder so the Japanese promptly [ __ ]
their pants thinking that they're all
about to die at which point the 77th is
like look calm down we don't we don't
care we're not going to hurt you I just
need you guys to get on the boats so we
can ship you off to wherever the Army
wants you so that we can then get on our
boats and we can go home CU we're sick
of this [ __ ] and that's what happens
that's it the 77th goes back home the
unit gets deactivated and everybody
lives happily ever after so in
conclusion that is a story of the 77th
Infantry Division aka the old bastards a
bunch of middle-aged men originally seen
as nothing more than a bunch of guinea
pigs whose only meaningful contribution
to the war effort could be to collect
data points and run experiments on that
would somehow go on to become one of the
most effective fighting forces the world
had ever seen they saw combat in the
Pacific Theater For 11 months and during
that time they would lose 2,100 men but
for every old bastard that fell on the
battlefield he would take take with him
22 enemies the 77th was credited with
43,6 51 confirmed kills during this time
period they were the busiest Army
division in the Pacific Theater and they
were the only Army division that was
declared to be Marines by the Marine
Corps for this the members of the 77th
were awarded six Medals of Honor 19
distinguished service crosses two
distinguished service medals 335 silver
stars 22 Legions of Merit 25 Soldier medals
medals
4,433 bronze stars and 16 distinguished
unit citations thank you for watching
best way to support the channel is go by
some merch over the fat electrician.
out seriously this is one of the best
stories and one of the funnest things
that I've ever got to research that
being said for some reason once I found
out that pretty much all these guys were
from the East Coast the only thing I
could picture in my head was that all
15,000 of these dudes were Rich High you
know angry cops here from YouTube it's
one of the most terrifying thoughts I've
ever had in my entire life just 15,000
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