Movie, Books, or Show Suggestions Please.

[Skyviper 1,101]

So after getting a prime subscription (why not I order a bunch of junk anyway) I saw all the nice movies they have included with it. As well some really interesting series. For instance Man in the High Castle. I marathon watched both series and now I'm waiting for them to come out with season 3. That's a really cool show.

 

So I decided to check out some war movies and here's what I got so far.

 

Twelve O' Clock High (Heard about it, never seen it)

Against the Sun         (Looks promising)

Fortress                     (A B-17 movie done in 2012)

The Man Left Behind (Summary states: Chronicles the return of U.S. Army Col. (Ret.) Paul R. Longgrear to the battlefield at Lang Vei, Vietnam, where in                                              1968 he faced down North Vietnamese tanks and was forced to make the most difficult decision of his life.) *Shrugs* it's free.

Above and Beyond   (The incredible story of the escape from Nazi-occupied Europe by Jewish-American Pilot Bruce Sundlun and his subsequent return to                                           support the French Resistance.) All 15 people who watched it gave it 5 stars. Again why not it's a free movie and I got plenty of time.

 

And for this evenings entertainment. A movie that I was thinking about for a long time, one of my favorite movies. With an actor I did not know was a Brigadier General. He served in the United States Army and later in the United States Air Force. 1941-1968.

 

Strategic Air Command

 

 

But I'm wondering" what are some forms of entertainment you may be willing to suggest? Good books? Movies? TV Shows?

 

Comedies, sci fiction, alternate history, military, aviation, naval.

 

Thank you for your time.

 

 

[skyfly 10]

Porkchop Hill - the best Korean War film, in my opinion, both in terms of the story and the production value. Very little in the way of American weaponry standing in for Communist guns, lots of the real Eastern Bloc gear. Based on the eponymous historical battle in the Iron Triangle, it's about a US Army unit tasked with taking a hill and holding it against the Chinese, with weighty implications for the truce negotiations at Panmunjon. And it stars Gregory Peck, so what's not to like!

 

The Hunters- not that great of a movie (doesn't really live up to the book it was based on), but it has a handful of pretty good F-86 dogfighting scenes filmed with real aircraft doing real ACM. Has F-84 Thunderstreaks standing in for MiGs, unfortunately, but understandable practice for a 1960s film. It's a fictionalized account of the rivalry and competition between the top Sabre aces of the USAF in Korea, based on a book written by a Sabre pilot who flew in Korea.

 

Hell's Angels- has some of the best WWI dogfighting scenes ever made with aircraft and pilots that actually saw service in the war. Real S.E.5 and Fokker D.VIIs tangling in the skies over southern California, which isn't a great stand-in for northern France, but doesn't detract too much from the dogfights. The aircraft are done up in make-believe paint schemes, too, but again it's not a big deal considering the aircraft themselves are the real thing. Unfortunately the story is really terrible, but the dogfights more than make up for it.

 

Dien Bien Phu - very good film about the eponymous siege in northern Indochina. Lots of period correct aircraft, small arms, artillery, and even tanks! It just follows the story of the siege, mostly from the French side.

 

Downfall / Der Untergang- very good recent film about Hitler's last days in the Fuhrerbunker, based on a couple of definitive accounts and memoirs written by the surviving bunker staff. Very good drama/story, and period correct gear and weaponry.

 

For TV series, "Band of Brothers" and "The Pacific" are the definitive modern WW2 series to watch. They are both based on excellent books and memoirs of the WW2 experiences of historical US Army and USMC units respectively. Also "Unsere muttere, unsere vatere" (titled "Generation War" for international release) seems to be the German equivalent for Eastern Front, though that TV show is not really based on any historical account.

[+Nightshade/PR 7,947]

Here's my short list, for starters.

 

TV Shows / Series

Terra Nova

Firefly

Outcasts

Penny Dreadful

Salem's Lot

National Geographic - How to Survive the end of the World (series)

Catastrophe (Documentary Series)

 

Movies

In Harms Way

The Killing Fields

Vampire Nation

Forbidden Planet

Krakatoa - The Last Days

 

Books

The Berserker Series - Fred Saberhagen

A Prayer for the Ship - Douglas Reeman

Into The Out Of - Alan Dean Foster

Armor - John Steakley

Robopocalypse - Daniel H Wilson

The Meg Series, The Loch, and Vostok - Steve Alten

 

And for just laugh your a$$ off pure foolishness - Big Trouble in Little China. Trailer Here -

[+Nightshade/PR 7,947]

I cannot believe I forgot one of my all-time favorites...

[Emp_Palpatine 501]

I suggest the Honor Harrington book series.

As well as Legend of the Galactic Heroes book and/or anime.

Both are military SF.

[RUSTYMORLEY 162]

Have you seen Kelly's Heroes, great movie, some big name actors,  and got some tanks in it as well, and some Tigers which I believe were built on T-34 chassis but even so look pretty good. Well worth a couple of hours entertainment. !!!

[33LIMA 972]

Some mostly off-the-beaten track stuff, from my own favourites, by subject category...

 

 

Armoured and land warfare

White Tiger - despite the sureal apects, much the best tank film yet made, in my book English - subtitled version can be viewed here, as I write this -

The Beast - interesting tank fim based on soviets in Afghanistan and using an Israeli 105mm-gunned T-55 as a T-62 - preview available here -

Mailed Fist by John Foley  - much the best tankie memoir I've read, by a Churchill troop leader in NW Europe, 1944-45 - https://www.amazon.com/Mailed-Fist-John-Foley/dp/0583124917/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483792013&sr=8-1&keywords=mailed+fist

Caen - Anvil of Victory by Alexander McKee - great grunt-level account from both sides, by one of my favourite authors

With the Jocks by Peter White - down to earth and detailed account of what it was really like to be an infantry platoon commander in NW Europe, 1944-45

The Irish War by Tony Gerriaghty - all you really need to know about 'the Troubles' in one book - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Irish-War-Tony-Geraghty/dp/0002556170/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1483794658&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=the+irtish+war

Contact! by AFN Clarke - the BBC short film, rather than the book - classic and largely ultra-realistic squaddie-eye view of 'the Troubles'  was on youtube at one point, now available on Amazon - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088949/ and https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01N52QKDL?tag=_&camp=1406&creative=6394&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=B01N52QKDL&adid=14DGBEEEQRNKY1WPXPWQ&

 

Air Warfare

Richthofen - a true history of the Red Baron by William E Burrows - won't tell you the serial # of each plane he flew but much the best-written and most personal account of MvR - https://www.amazon.com/Richthofen-True-History-Red-Baron/dp/0151771723/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1483792504&sr=8-5&keywords=richthofen

Flying Fury by James McCudden - one of the most-quoted WW1 pilot memiors, and much the best of those written at the time - https://www.amazon.com/FLYING-FURY-Years-Flying-Illustrated-ebook/dp/B00DJ75KS8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483792863&sr=8-1&keywords=flying+fury

No Parachute by Arthur Gould Lee - probably the best of the post-war WW1 pilot memoirs - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1909166049/ref=s9_psimh_gw_g14_i6_r?ie=UTF8&fpl=fresh&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=&pf_rd_r=X5J4AYNWX3KA6BWVQ3XT&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=a6aaf593-1ba4-4f4e-bdcc-0febe090b8ed&pf_rd_i=desktop

The Big Show by Pierre Closterman - if a better, more vivid WW2 fighter pilot memoir exists, I have yet to read or hear of it - if you read only one of this genre, it has to be this one - https://www.amazon.com/Big-Show-Greatest-Military-Paperbacks/dp/0304366242/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483793051&sr=8-1&keywords=the+big+show+clostermann

The Schweinfurt Regensburg Mission by Martin Middlebrook - told with the author's customary ability to weave tactical aspects and first person accounts into a compelling story and a comprehensive history - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Schweinfurt-Regensburg-Mission-Middlebrook-Martin/dp/0684179830/ref=pd_sim_14_5?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=MKC44RGAKAWFT46JY4Q2

The Friendless Sky by Alexander McKee - participant's eye view of WW1 in the air, told with humanity and insight - https://www.amazon.com/friendless-sky-Alexander-McKee/dp/0586058230/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1483793166&sr=8-2&keywords=the+friendless+skies

On a Wing and a Prayer by Joshua Levine (also published under the melodramatic and inaccurate title Fighter Heroes of WW1) - excellent account of the experiences of participants over the Western Front in WW1 - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Joshua-Levine-Prayer-Pioneering-Aviation/dp/B00I60LAWI/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1483794228&sr=1-7&keywords=joshua+levine

A Brief History of the Royal Flying Corps by Ralph Barker - a superb account and often moving, weaving together the personal stories of many airmen, famous and otherwise.

Biggles of 266 by WE Johns - despite the 'boy's own' audience, conveys a pilot's eye view of WW1 in the air as well or better than many more serious accounts, often written with a modern perspective - https://www.amazon.com/Biggles-266-Rewards-W-Johns/dp/0603034071/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483793322&sr=8-1&keywords=biggles+of+266

The Blue Max - despite a few liberties with markings and trigger mechanisms, still much the best WW1 air war film - one air combat sequence here is -

The Battle of Britain - still much the best WW2 air war film, in my book - the opening sequence alone is worth the price of admission -

 

Naval warfare

Pursuit by Ludovic Kennedy - the familiar tale of Bismarck told with humanity by someone who was there -  https://www.amazon.com/PURSUIT-Chase-Sinking-Battleship-Bismarck/dp/B000QGMRG8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1483793375&sr=8-2&keywords=pursuit+the+sinking+of+the+bismarck

Few Survived by Edwin Grey - a darker take on submarines - https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/cka/Few-Survived-History-Submarine-Disasters-Edwyn-Gray/0708833942/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1483793722&sr=1-1&keywords=few+survived

Iron Coffins by Herbert A Werner - my favoutite U-boat commander memior - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Iron-Coffins-U-boat-Commanders-1939-45/dp/0304353302/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1483793842&sr=1-1&keywords=iron+coffins

 

Science fiction

Hyperion by Dan Simmons - by a long chalk, the best sci-fi book I've ever read, the sequel 'Fall of Hyperion' is also highly recommended - https://www.amazon.com/Hyperion-Cantos-Dan-Simmons/dp/0553283685/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1483796092&sr=1-1&keywords=hyperion+cantos

 

Other movies

The Mission is not to be missed - moving and epic tale of good, evil and those caught in the middle, beautifully acted, filmed and scored, a movie great  - https://www.amazon.com/Mission-Robert-Niro/dp/B004G7UTXG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483796322&sr=8-1&keywords=the+mission

[Skyviper 1,101]

Thank you for the suggestions everyone!

 

Porkchop Hill - the best Korean War film, in my opinion, both in terms of the story and the production value. Very little in the way of American weaponry standing in for Communist guns, lots of the real Eastern Bloc gear. Based on the eponymous historical battle in the Iron Triangle, it's about a US Army unit tasked with taking a hill and holding it against the Chinese, with weighty implications for the truce negotiations at Panmunjon. And it stars Gregory Peck, so what's not to like!

 Hey is that anything like Hamburger Hill? This movie sounds very intense I'll be looking it up.

 

Here's my short list, for starters.

 

TV Shows / Series

Terra Nova

Firefly

Outcasts

Penny Dreadful

Salem's Lot

National Geographic - How to Survive the end of the World (series)

Catastrophe (Documentary Series)

 

Movies

In Harms Way

The Killing Fields

Vampire Nation

Forbidden Planet

Krakatoa - The Last Days

 

Books

The Berserker Series - Fred Saberhagen

A Prayer for the Ship - Douglas Reeman

Into The Out Of - Alan Dean Foster

Armor - John Steakley

Robopocalypse - Daniel H Wilson

The Meg Series, The Loch, and Vostok - Steve Alten

 

And for just laugh your a$$ off pure foolishness - Big Trouble in Little China. Trailer Here -

 

Thank you for the suggestions. You're the second person that recommended Firefly to me. So I'll be looking into that too.

 

I cannot believe I forgot one of my all-time favorites...

Okay that was hilarious! I think I remember seeing bits and pieces of that before but didn't know what was watching.

 

I suggest the Honor Harrington book series.

As well as Legend of the Galactic Heroes book and/or anime.

Both are military SF.

I checked out the LOTGH Anime and that looks promising. Thank you!

 

Have you seen Kelly's Heroes, great movie, some big name actors,  and got some tanks in it as well, and some Tigers which I believe were built on T-34 chassis but even so look pretty good. Well worth a couple of hours entertainment. !!!

YES I own Kelly's Heroes. Love that movie. One of my favorite scenes is the General listening to them trying to cross the river. "Do you hear that? They even brought the grave diggers with them!" People are the after gold and he's thinking they're ready to die fighting the Germans. That is a good movie.

 

Some mostly off-the-beaten track stuff, from my own favourites, by subject category...

 

 

Armoured and land warfare

White Tiger - despite the sureal apects, much the best tank film yet made, in my book English - subtitled version can be viewed here, as I write this -

The Beast - interesting tank fim based on soviets in Afghanistan and using an Israeli 105mm-gunned T-55 as a T-62 - preview available here -

Mailed Fist by John Foley  - much the best tankie memoir I've read, by a Churchill troop leader in NW Europe, 1944-45 - https://www.amazon.com/Mailed-Fist-John-Foley/dp/0583124917/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483792013&sr=8-1&keywords=mailed+fist

Caen - Anvil of Victory by Alexander McKee - great grunt-level account from both sides, by one of my favourite authors

With the Jocks by Peter White - down to earth and detailed account of what it was really like to be an infantry platoon commander in NW Europe, 1944-45

The Irish War by Tony Gerriaghty - all you really need to know about 'the Troubles' in one book - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Irish-War-Tony-Geraghty/dp/0002556170/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1483794658&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=the+irtish+war

Contact! by AFN Clarke - the BBC short film, rather than the book - classic and largely ultra-realistic squaddie-eye view of 'the Troubles'  was on youtube at one point, now available on Amazon - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088949/ and https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01N52QKDL?tag=_&camp=1406&creative=6394&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=B01N52QKDL&adid=14DGBEEEQRNKY1WPXPWQ&

 

Air Warfare

Richthofen - a true history of the Red Baron by William E Burrows - won't tell you the serial # of each plane he flew but much the best-written and most personal account of MvR - https://www.amazon.com/Richthofen-True-History-Red-Baron/dp/0151771723/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1483792504&sr=8-5&keywords=richthofen

Flying Fury by James McCudden - one of the most-quoted WW1 pilot memiors, and much the best of those written at the time - https://www.amazon.com/FLYING-FURY-Years-Flying-Illustrated-ebook/dp/B00DJ75KS8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483792863&sr=8-1&keywords=flying+fury

No Parachute by Arthur Gould Lee - probably the best of the post-war WW1 pilot memoirs - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1909166049/ref=s9_psimh_gw_g14_i6_r?ie=UTF8&fpl=fresh&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=&pf_rd_r=X5J4AYNWX3KA6BWVQ3XT&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=a6aaf593-1ba4-4f4e-bdcc-0febe090b8ed&pf_rd_i=desktop

The Big Show by Pierre Closterman - if a better, more vivid WW2 fighter pilot memoir exists, I have yet to read or hear of it - if you read only one of this genre, it has to be this one - https://www.amazon.com/Big-Show-Greatest-Military-Paperbacks/dp/0304366242/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483793051&sr=8-1&keywords=the+big+show+clostermann

The Schweinfurt Regensburg Mission by Martin Middlebrook - told with the author's customary ability to weave tactical aspects and first person accounts into a compelling story and a comprehensive history - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Schweinfurt-Regensburg-Mission-Middlebrook-Martin/dp/0684179830/ref=pd_sim_14_5?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=MKC44RGAKAWFT46JY4Q2

The Friendless Sky by Alexander McKee - participant's eye view of WW1 in the air, told with humanity and insight - https://www.amazon.com/friendless-sky-Alexander-McKee/dp/0586058230/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1483793166&sr=8-2&keywords=the+friendless+skies

On a Wing and a Prayer by Joshua Levine (also published under the melodramatic and inaccurate title Fighter Heroes of WW1) - excellent account of the experiences of participants over the Western Front in WW1 - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Joshua-Levine-Prayer-Pioneering-Aviation/dp/B00I60LAWI/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1483794228&sr=1-7&keywords=joshua+levine

A Brief History of the Royal Flying Corps by Ralph Barker - a superb account and often moving, weaving together the personal stories of many airmen, famous and otherwise.

Biggles of 266 by WE Johns - despite the 'boy's own' audience, conveys a pilot's eye view of WW1 in the air as well or better than many more serious accounts, often written with a modern perspective - https://www.amazon.com/Biggles-266-Rewards-W-Johns/dp/0603034071/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483793322&sr=8-1&keywords=biggles+of+266

The Blue Max - despite a few liberties with markings and trigger mechanisms, still much the best WW1 air war film - one air combat sequence here is -

The Battle of Britain - still much the best WW2 air war film, in my book - the opening sequence alone is worth the price of admission -

 

Naval warfare

Pursuit by Ludovic Kennedy - the familiar tale of Bismarck told with humanity by someone who was there -  https://www.amazon.com/PURSUIT-Chase-Sinking-Battleship-Bismarck/dp/B000QGMRG8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1483793375&sr=8-2&keywords=pursuit+the+sinking+of+the+bismarck

Few Survived by Edwin Grey - a darker take on submarines - https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/cka/Few-Survived-History-Submarine-Disasters-Edwyn-Gray/0708833942/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1483793722&sr=1-1&keywords=few+survived

Iron Coffins by Herbert A Werner - my favoutite U-boat commander memior - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Iron-Coffins-U-boat-Commanders-1939-45/dp/0304353302/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1483793842&sr=1-1&keywords=iron+coffins

 

Science fiction

Hyperion by Dan Simmons - by a long chalk, the best sci-fi book I've ever read, the sequel 'Fall of Hyperion' is also highly recommended - https://www.amazon.com/Hyperion-Cantos-Dan-Simmons/dp/0553283685/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1483796092&sr=1-1&keywords=hyperion+cantos

 

Other movies

The Mission is not to be missed - moving and epic tale of good, evil and those caught in the middle, beautifully acted, filmed and scored, a movie great  - https://www.amazon.com/Mission-Robert-Niro/dp/B004G7UTXG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483796322&sr=8-1&keywords=the+mission

Those sounds great. The Battle of Brittan looks very interesting. Hyperion also has my interests too because I remember creating a character that I called Hyperion. I had no idea it was a book. So I'm curious to know what that's about just in case I wrote a similar story.

 

Again everyone thank you so much for the list!

[+Menrva 4,200]

I also suggest the following movies. They are all based on real stories;

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplomacy_(2014_film)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woman_in_Gold_(film)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Railway_Man_(film)

 

Diplomacy is a bit fictionalized, yet it gives an idea of how Paris was on the brink of total destruction (on Hitler's orders) as soon as the Nazis were in retreat.

Woman In Gold is a story of justice. It deals with one particular painting of Klimt, which was stolen by the Nazis during the war and which has been at the center of a legal battle years ago.

The Railway Man shocked me, it is such an extraordinary story, amazing to think it is real. It is based on the book of the same name.

 

One of my favourite TV series is Person Of Interest. I still have to watch the fifth and last season.

Edited January 8, 2017 by blaze95

[+Nightshade/PR 7,947]

I was reading this past weekend, and remembered another book. It won't take a lot of time to read. You may remember it as the poorly done movie "Screamers", with Peter Weller. The actual story is titled "Second Variety", written by Philip Kindred Dick. ( Yes, the same one of Blade Runner fame, even if the book is actually titled something else) Anyway, here it is; free of charge.

 

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32032/32032-h/32032-h.htm

[skyfly 10]

Thank you for the suggestions everyone!

 

 Hey is that anything like Hamburger Hill? This movie sounds very intense I'll be looking it up.

 

In my opinion, Pork Chop Hill was a more intense film than Hamburger Hill, but in very much the same vein. In Hamburger Hill, the operation is spread out over several weeks with periodic respites from the brutal fighting as units are rotated in and out, but in Porkchop Hill, the entire battle is compressed into just 48 hours of non-stop, trench-clearing combat. Overall, Pork Chop Hill is a pretty faithful adaptation of the book and historical battle it was based on, and with the exception of addressing the teething troubles of the multiracial composition of the post-WW2 US Army, there is almost no political agenda or hamhanded moral message, which is atypical of most American films made during the 1950s. It's an ode to the grunt in the foxhole that doesn't try to use their sacrifices and suffering to push any patriotic propaganda.

[JediMaster 451]

PKD also wrote Man in the High Castle.

 

Speaking of alternate history, there is a film called Fatherland that aired about a decade back on cable, takes place in the early 60s in Germany after they won the war. It kind of leaves you wanting to see more, but it was a one-off.

[+Nightshade/PR 7,947]

Here's a sample to get your mind working on the Science Fiction trail. The name of the story is "Answer" and the author is Frederic Brown. What you see below is all there is, but it's GREAT!!!

 

*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

 

Dwar Ev ceremoniously soldered the final connection with gold. The eyes of a dozen television cameras watched him and the sub-ether bore through the universe a dozen pictures of what he was doing.

 

He straightened and nodded to Dwar Reyn, then moved to a position beside the switch that would complete the contact when he threw it. The switch that would connect, all at once, all of the monster computing machines of all the populated planets in the universe—ninety-six billion planets—into the supercircuit that would connect them all into one supercalculator, one cybernetics machine that would combine all the knowledge of all the galaxies.

 

Dwar Reyn spoke briefly to the watching and listening trillions. Then after a moment's silence he said, "Now, Dwar Ev."

 

Dwar Ev threw the switch. There was a mighty hum, the surge of power from ninety-six billion planets. Lights flashed and quieted along the miles-long panel.

 

Dwar Ev stepped back and drew a deep breath. "The honor of asking the first question is yours, Dwar Reyn."

 

"Thank you," said Dwar Reyn. "It shall be a question which no single cybernetics machine has been able to answer."

 

He turned to face the machine. "Is there a God?"

 

The mighty voice answered without hesitation, without the clicking of a single relay.

 

"Yes, now there is a God."

 

Sudden fear flashed on the face of Dwar Ev. He leaped to grab the switch.

 

A bolt of lightning from the cloudless sky struck him down and fused the switch shut.

[JediMaster 451]

That reminds me a of great short story by Isaac Asimov called The Last Question.

 

It's from the golden era of SF and it shows in the writing (there's zero hand-holding, but it's not hard to understand or anything) but it's a timeless story more or less.

[Capitaine Vengeur 263]

Movies for "Silent Hunter" afficionados like me: Operation Pacific (1951), and Run silent, run deep (1958), good interiors and aspects of everyday life inside the US subs of the Pacific War; The enemy below (1957), same thing about life and combat action aboard the US Navy escort destroyers during WW2 - yet poor job regarding the German sub: prefer the classical Das Boot (1981).

 

Movies about the Sengoku Jidai era (I'm playing much "Shogun 2: Total War" at the moment, too much I think): Kagemusha (1980), Ran (1985) - and other older classical gems by Kurosawa of course, but colour is really a must for this era's scenogrphy.

 

Movies about the American Civil War I'm also fond of: Gettysburg (1993) and Gods and generals (2003), linked to each other - too bad they did not made the last part of the planned trilogy about the last months of the Confederacy.

 

My favourite book ever about war seen from very close range: The forgotten soldier by Guy Sajer (1965), autobiography of a French-German conscript in the Grossdeutschland division between 1943 and 1945, who took part in some of its most terrible battles and deeds: Kursk of course, but also the apocalyptic crossing back of the Dniepr, agonizing Russian winters, partisan warfare with destructions of villages, naval evacuations on the Baltic Sea in 1945 with terror on heels... The book is said to be on the recommended reading list of the US Army Command College. The author later became a very prolific and one of my favourite comic book artists, producing of course several books about war but also comical series ironically located in the Soviet Union's gulag (a fate he escaped narrowly on several times).

[+Nightshade/PR 7,947]

I'm a David Drake fan; I got hooked on his style of writing years ago, the 1st time I read his signature work: Hammer's Slammers. I've been a fan since. This is one of his best(in my opinion), if lesser known works.

                                                                                                                                   Something Had to Be Done

There's a mistake in this story which a fan who'd been a unit clerk called to my attention. I haven't corrected it for this appearance, but I want to point it out.

A character is described as wearing "a Silver Star (medal) with V for Valor." The clerk explained that the Silver Star was by definition an award for valor; there was no additional V endorsement as there might be with the (lower-status) Bronze Star or Army Commendation Medal.

I made the mistake because I based the description on a real soldier whom I knew with 2nd Squadron and whom I'd been told had been awarded a Silver Star with V for his courage at Fort Defiance. Obviously I was told wrong. My bet now is that the guy got a Bronze Star with V because he was a Spec 4 and, quite frankly, medals were more a matter of rank than of merit in Viet Nam. (I know of a lieutenant colonel who got a Silver Star for being so detested by his men that they shot down his helicopter when he flew over them on a road march. The loss was attributed to enemy action, of course.)

But that brings up the question of truth, which is one I wrestle with a lot. I wrote these stories very close to the period of their setting, and they're as true as I could make them—but what the people on the ground "knew" isn't necessarily the truth.

For example, there was a widely hated form of 90-mm ammunition, a shrapnel round called Green Ball (from the nose color) or Dial-A-Dink (from the fact that you rotated the fuse to detonate the round at a chosen distance from the gun; ideally just short of the dink, the Vietnamese, you were trying to kill). It was a complex and not particularly reliable round. We got a lot of it, and it was always the first thing tank commanders burned up during Mad Minutes when they were firing as many rounds as possible into the darkness for sixty seconds.

The 90-mm gun of our M48 tanks had a T-shaped muzzle brake. I was told that Green Ball had a tendency to blow off the front half of the brake, and it was certainly true that many of the tanks had damaged muzzle brakes.

Actually, the damage (I now know) had nothing to do with the type of ammunition. It was simply a result of guns firing thousands of rounds in jungle anti-guerrilla operations, when they'd been designed to fire hundreds of rounds (at most) during armored battles in Europe. Because we disliked Green Ball, we blamed the failures on the ammunition.

So you can't depend on my fiction to tell you the truth . . . but as for how it felt and what we thought, that's real and I stand by it today. Writing short stories and writing novels are two different things—as different as writing prose fiction and scripting for television. There are people who do both superbly well (Arthur C. Clarke above all), but the ability to do one doesn't say much about the likelihood that the same person will be able to do the other. The marketplace today is geared to novels. That's fine, and it's by writing novels that I earn my living.

But I came up through short stories, which necessitated me developing skill in writing tight prose. "Something Had to Be Done" is the best I've ever done at packing a story effectively in a brief compass. I'm very proud of it.

***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

"He was out in the hall just a minute ago, sir," the pinched-faced WAC said, looking up from her typewriter in irritation. "You can't mistake his face."

Capt. Richmond shrugged and walked out of the busy office. Blinking in the dim marble were a dozen confused civilians, bussed in for their pre-induction physicals. No one else was in the hallway. The thick-waisted officer frowned, then thought to open the door of the men's room. "Sergeant Morzek?" he called.

Glass clinked within one of the closed stalls and a deep voice with a catch in it grumbled, "Yeah, be right with you." Richmond thought he smelled gin.

"You the other ghoul?"the voice questioned as the stall swung open. Any retort Richmond might have made withered when his eyes took in the cadaverous figure in ill-tailored greens. Platoon sergeant's chevrons on the sleeves, and below them a longer row of service stripes than the captain remembered having seen before. God, this walking corpse might have served in World War II! Most of the ribbons ranked above the sergeant's breast pockets were unfamiliar, but Richmond caught the little V for valor winking in the center of a silver star. Even in these medal-happy days in Southeast Asia they didn't toss many of those around.

The sergeant's cheeks were hollow, his fingers grotesquely thin where they rested on top of the door or clutched the handles of his zippered AWOL bag. Where no moles squatted, his skin was as white as a convict's; but the moles were almost everywhere, hands and face, dozens and scores of them, crowding together in welted obscenity.

The sergeant laughed starkly. "Pretty, aren't I? The docs tell me I got too much sun over there and it gave me runaway warts. Hell, four years is enough time for it to."

"Umm," Richmond grunted in embarrassment, edging back into the hall to have something to do. "Well, the car's in back . . . if you're ready, we can see the Lunkowskis."

"Yeah, Christ," the sergeant said, "that's what I came for, to see the Lunkowskis." He shifted his bag as he followed the captain and it clinked again. Always before, the other man on the notification team had been a stateside officer like Richmond himself. He had heard that a few low-casualty outfits made a habit of letting whoever knew the dead man best accompany the body home, but this was his first actual experience with the practice. He hoped it would be his last.

Threading the green Ford through the heavy traffic of the city center, Richmond said, "I take it Pfc Lunkowski was one of your men?"

"Yeah, Stevie-boy was in my platoon for about three weeks," Morzek agreed with a chuckle."Lost six men in that time and he was the last. Six out of twenty-nine, not very damn good, was it?"

"You were under heavy attack?"

"Hell, no, mostly the dinks were letting us alone for a change. We were out in the middle of War Zone C, you know, most Christ-bitten stretch of country you ever saw. No dinks, no trees—they'd all been defoliated. Not a damn thing but dust and each other's company."

"Well, what did happen?"Richmond prompted impatiently. Traffic had thinned somewhat among the blocks of old buildings and he began to look for house numbers.

"Oh, mostly they just died," Morzek said. He yawned alcoholically. "Stevie, now, he got blown to hell by a grenade."

Richmond had learned when he was first assigned to notification duty not to dwell on the ways his . . . missions had died. The possibilities varied from unpleasant to ghastly. He studiously avoided saying anything more to the sergeant beside him until he found the number he wanted. "One-sixteen. This must be the Lunkowskis'."

Morzek got out on the curb side, looking more skeletal than before in the dappled sunlight. He still held his AWOL bag.

"You can leave that in the car," Richmond suggested. "I'll lock up."

"Naw, I'll take it in," the sergeant said as he waited for Richmond to walk around the car."You know, this is every damn thing I brought from Nam? They didn't bother to open it at Travis, just asked me what I had in it. 'A quart of gin,' I told 'em, 'but I won't have it long,' and they waved me through to make my connections. One advantage to this kind of trip."

A bell chimed far within the house when Richmond pressed the button. It was cooler than he had expected on the pine-shaded porch. Miserable as these high, dark old houses were to heat, the design made a world of sense in the summer.

A light came on inside. The stained-glass window left of the door darkened and a latch snicked open."Please to come in," invited a soft-voiced figure hidden by the dark oak panel. Morzek grinned inappropriately and led the way into the hall, brightly lighted by an electric chandelier.

"Mr. Lunkowski?"Richmond began to the wispy-little man who had admitted them. "We are—"

"But yes, you are here to tell us when Stefan shall come back, are you not?" Lunkowski broke in."Come into the sitting room, please, Anna and my daughter Rose are there."

"Ah, Mr. Lunkowski," Richmond tried to explain as he followed, all too conscious of the sardonic grin on Morzek's face, "you have been informed by telegram that Pfc. Lunkowski was—"

"Was killed, yes," said the younger of the two red-haired women as she got up from the sofa. "But his body will come back to us soon, will he not? The man on the telephone said . . . ?"

She was gorgeous, Richmond thought, cool and assured, half-smiling as her hair cascaded over her left shoulder like a thick copper conduit. Disconcerted as he was by the whole situation, it was a moment before he realized that Sgt. Morzek was saying, "Oh, the coffin's probably at the airport now, but there's nothing in it but a hundred and fifty pounds of gravel. Did the telegram tell you what happened to Stevie?"

"Sergeant!" Richmond shouted. "You drunken—"

"Oh, calm down, Captain," Morzek interrupted bleakly."The Lunkowskis, they understand. They want to hear the whole story, don't they?"

"Yes."There was a touch too much sibilance in the word as it crawled from the older woman, Stefan Lunkowski's mother. Her hair was too grizzled now to have more than a touch of red in it, enough to rust the tight ringlets clinging to her skull like a helmet of mail. Without quite appreciating its importance, Richmond noticed that Mr. Lunkowski was standing in front of the room's only door.

With perfect nonchalance, Sgt. Morzek sat down on an overstuffed chair, laying his bag across his knees.

"Well," he said, "there was quite a report on that one. We told them how Stevie was trying to booby-trap a white phosphorous grenade—fix it to go off as soon as some dink pulled the pin instead of four seconds later. And he goofed."

Mrs. Lunkowski's breath whistled out very softly. She said nothing. Morzek waited for further reaction before he smiled horribly and added, "He burned. A couple pounds of Willie Pete going blooie, well . . . it keeps burning all the way through you. Like I said, the coffin's full of gravel."

"My god, Morzek," the captain whispered. It was not the sergeant's savage grin that froze him but the icy-eyed silence of the three Lunkowskis.

"The grenade, that was real," Morzek concluded. "The rest of the report was a lie."

Rose Lunkowski reseated herself gracefully on a chair in front of the heavily draped windows."Why don't you start at the beginning, Sergeant?"she said with a thin smile that did not show her teeth. "There is much we would like to know before you are gone."

"Sure," Morzek agreed, tracing a mottled forefinger across the pigmented callosities on his face. "Not much to tell. The night after Stevie got assigned to my platoon, the dinks hit us. No big thing. Had one fellow dusted off with brass in his ankle from his machine gun blowing up, that was all. But a burst of AK fire knocked Stevie off his tank right at the start."

"What's all this about?" Richmond complained. "If he was killed by rifle fire, why say a grenade—"

"Silence!" The command crackled like heel plates on concrete.

Sgt. Morzek nodded. "Why, thank you, Mr. Lunkowski. You see, the captain there doesn't know the bullets didn't hurt Stevie. He told us his flak jacket had stopped them. It couldn't have and it didn't. I saw it that night, before he burned it—five holes to stick your fingers through, right over the breast pocket. But Stevie was fine, not a mark on him. Well, Christ, maybe he'd had a bandolier of ammo under the jacket. I had other things to think about."

Morzek paused to glance around his audience. "All this talk, I could sure use a drink. I killed my bottle back at the Federal Building."

"You won't be long," the girl hissed in reply.

Morzek grinned."They broke up the squadron, then," he rasped on, "gave each platoon a sector of War Zone C to cover to stir up the dinks. There's more life on the moon than there was on the stretch we patrolled. Third night out, one of the gunners died. They flew him back to Saigon for an autopsy but damned if I know what they found. Galloping malaria, we figured.

"Three nights later another guy died. Dawson on three-six . . . Christ, the names don't matter. Some time after midnight his track commander woke up, heard him moaning. We got him back to Quan Loi to a hospital, but he never came out of it. The lieutenant thought he got wasp stung on the neck—here, you know?" Morzek touched two fingers to his jugular. "Like he was allergic. Well, it happens."

"But what about Stefan?" Mrs. Lunkowski asked. "The others do not matter."

"Yes, finish it quickly, Sergeant," the younger woman said, and this time Richmond did catch the flash of her teeth.

"We had a third death," Morzek said agreeably, stroking the zipper of his AWOL bag back and forth. "We were all jumpy by then. I doubled the guard, two men awake on every track. Three nights later, and nobody in the platoon remembered anything from twenty-four hundred hours till Riggs' partner blinked at ten of one and found him dead.

"In the morning, one of the boys came to me. He'd seen Stevie slip over to Riggs, he said; but he was zonked out on grass and didn't think it really had happened until he woke up in the morning and saw Riggs under a poncho. By then, he was scared enough to tell the whole story. Well, we were all jumpy."

"You killed Stefan." It was not a question but a flat statement.

"Oh, hell, Lunkowski," Morzek said absently, "what does it matter who rolled the grenade into his bunk? The story got around and . . . something had to be done."

"Knowing what you know, you came here?" Mrs. Lunkowski murmured liquidly. "You must be mad."

"Naw, I'm not crazy, I'm just sick." The sergeant brushed his left hand over his forehead. "Malignant melanoma, the docs told me. Twenty-six years in the goddam army and in another week or two I'd be warted to death.

"Captain," he added, turning his cancerous face toward Richmond, "you better leave through the window."

"Neither of you will leave!" snarled Rose Lunkowski as she stepped toward the men.

Morzek lifted a fat gray cylinder from his bag."Know what this is, honey?"he asked conversationally.

Richmond screamed and leaped for the window. Rose ignored him, slashing her hand out for the phosphorous grenade. Drapery wrapping the captain's body shielded him from glass and splintered window frame as he pitched out into the yard.

He was still screaming there when the blast of white fire bulged the walls of the house.

Edited January 16, 2017 by Nightshade/PR

[Skyviper 1,101]

^                        ^                               ^                                 ^                                ^                                 ^                                         ^                                                                 

 

Wow

What a story. I can get into his style.

 

 

In other news. I finally got to watch Ex Machina. All I have to say is. Damn that's a good story and I want to see a squeal.

[RUSTYMORLEY 162]

Here's a sample to get your mind working on the Science Fiction trail. The name of the story is "Answer" and the author is Frederic Brown. What you see below is all there is, but it's GREAT!!!

 

*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

 

Dwar Ev ceremoniously soldered the final connection with gold. The eyes of a dozen television cameras watched him and the sub-ether bore through the universe a dozen pictures of what he was doing.

 

He straightened and nodded to Dwar Reyn, then moved to a position beside the switch that would complete the contact when he threw it. The switch that would connect, all at once, all of the monster computing machines of all the populated planets in the universe—ninety-six billion planets—into the supercircuit that would connect them all into one supercalculator, one cybernetics machine that would combine all the knowledge of all the galaxies.

 

Dwar Reyn spoke briefly to the watching and listening trillions. Then after a moment's silence he said, "Now, Dwar Ev."

 

Dwar Ev threw the switch. There was a mighty hum, the surge of power from ninety-six billion planets. Lights flashed and quieted along the miles-long panel.

 

Dwar Ev stepped back and drew a deep breath. "The honor of asking the first question is yours, Dwar Reyn."

 

"Thank you," said Dwar Reyn. "It shall be a question which no single cybernetics machine has been able to answer."

 

He turned to face the machine. "Is there a God?"

 

The mighty voice answered without hesitation, without the clicking of a single relay.

 

"Yes, now there is a God."

 

Sudden fear flashed on the face of Dwar Ev. He leaped to grab the switch.

 

A bolt of lightning from the cloudless sky struck him down and fused the switch shut.

 

 

 

 

According to the Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy the answer to life, the Universe and Everything was provided by a super computer called Deep Thought and after a couple of millenia of reasoning and thought the answer is............................(42).

 

 

Now it all makes sense - it's not 41 and it's not 43......... it's been 42 all along. What was I thinking all these years.!!!!

 

 

It's an odd TV series but very funny in places. I can reccomend it, and don't forget to keep your towel handy, you never know when you are gon'na need it. !!!

 

 

PS. Thanks for all the Fish..!!!!

Edited January 19, 2017 by RUSTYMORLEY

[+Nightshade/PR 7,947]

And all these years I had 7 pegged as it. Silly me, I obviously should have paid more attention in math class.

 

Try this on for size. There's no hidden meaning behind it, and no point made other than the author's.

 

The Fallen Angel

At 8:32 PM on June 16, 2024, Gerhardt Skarda conjured up Lucifuge Rofocale, one of the major demons of the Infernal Realm, and offered his soul in exchange for three wishes. He was granted, and received within 48 hours, irresistibility to beautiful women, the Chancellorship of Germany, and life everlasting.

At 11:54 PM on June 16, 2024, Mohammet Achmed ensnared, within a carefully-drawn pentagram, a youthful son of the demon Baal. They flipped a coin - Achmed’s soul against unlimited credit anywhere in the world - and Achmed won.

At 1:02 AM on June 17, 2024, Robert Taft Ellington, a world-class Grandmaster at chess, played for his soul against Lucifer himself. He applied the Indian defense and announced mate on the 27th move. Lucifer, who had foolishly accepted a bishop sacrifice without properly protecting his queen, agreed to make him the most popular singer of the decade, with groupies to match.

And in Hell, where there is no time or date, and where even location is subject to the whim of its Dark Master, the princes and generals of the pits perched in conclave on a flat outcropping of rock, high above their sullen ruler.

“Why does he do it?” asked one, the newest member of the elite group. “Surely he could win a chess game against anyone who ever lived!”

“Just as I could win a coin flip,” agreed the son of Baal, “or step beyond the boundaries of a pentagram at will.”

“And just as I could have made all women ugly, destroyed Germany, and allowed Skarda life everlasting while toiling in the pits beneath us,” added Lucifuge Rofocale.

“Then why?” persisted the questioner. “Hell is teeming with the suffering and the damned. Why even pretend to seek for more? The Dark Master avoids the ones we have now.”

“Of course he does,” said Lucifuge Rofocale. “For he himself is damned beyond the suffering the others shall ever undergo. They, like you, have never known Paradise.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Do you think he enjoys the suffering of the damned?” asked the son of Baal.

“Why not? I do.”

“But you were born a demon, and he an angel.”

The newcomer shook his horned head. “I still don’t see what difference that makes.”

“You have all Eternity before you,” said Lucifuge Rofocale. “There will come a time when you comprehend your master.”

And as they spoke, Lord Lucifer strode through the lava streams of Hell. Finally, he stopped and, as he had done a billion times before and as he would do a trillion times in the future, he raised his gaze to Heaven. The brilliance of the light seemed to grow in intensity as he stared at it, and an instant later, tears of pain streaming down his face, the Dark Master let his consciousness float upward and outward, joining for the merest flickering of an instant the triumphant and pleasure-filled bodies and souls of Skarda and Achmed and Ellington and a million others, as he grasped futilely for a tiny taste of the Paradise he had relinquished so long ago.

[charlielima 328]

Flying leathernecks

Donavan's reef

Zulu

Bridges over toko ri.

A bridge to far

The professional

Tobruk

The purple plain

The great waldo pepper

They were expendable

Midway

PT-109

The green berets

March or die

Wild geese

The big red 1

Patton

M.A.S.H

Kelly's heroes

Dirty dozen

We were soldiers

Flight of the intruder

Master and commander

Horatio Hornblower

Strategic air command

and

Doctor Strangelove

 

CL

Edited January 20, 2017 by charlielima

[Skyviper 1,101]

I'm kind of wanting to watch Sully ... but then at the same time I don't want to watch it. He's a good pilot but after seeing the things fighter pilots do and are able to walk away from.

[Toryu 156]

Go, watch it. It's been directed by Clint Eastwood, so you can't do anything wrong there. Certainly better than the 23rd comic-hero movie or Transformer-bullsh*t or Star Wars knock-off.

 

BTW: People always think that the Hudson-landing was a wonder of stick-and-rudder skills. It wasn't - my grandma could have done the landing, and so could any other pilot (professional or private) worth his "wings".

The issue that set Sully apart from many others was the decision to no try for the obvious (an airport or a long, inviting road*), but take the widest, longest and safest (!) runway available, without trying to knee-jerk the airplane to a (rare in NYC) clear landing-spot. This is what saved the lives of all the people.

This and the good prevailing weather.

 

 

Are you into anything special, book-wise? I've got tons of books, many of which I could recommend. Depends on what you're looking for, though. :)

They say fact is more gripping than fiction, because fiction has to make sense...

 

___

*

1) In the 1970s, there was a DC-9 in Georgia (Southern Airlines) that had just departed Atlanta, flown through a bad southern storm and had it's engines drowned and banged-up by hail and biblical downpours.

The pilots had their windshields smashed and flew through the clouds blindly. When they came out of the soup and realized they wouldn't be able to make the runway of Dobbins AFB, where they were getting vectored to. They saw a straight road, though and tried to shoot for it. They made it, but not without slicing a wing through a gas-station, turning the almost-have-gone-well landing into an inferno with a sizeable loss of life.

One of the pilots had been in the military, flying fighters.

 

2) In the early 1980s, there was an Air Florida 737 in Washington D.C., going south to Florida. They were inexperienced with winter operations and decided to do some nonstandard-stuff (powerbacking with the use of their reversers, trying to keep the wings de-iced by taxiing close behind a DC-9 in front of them and taking-off without the use of engine anti-ice). They didn't realize their EPR-reading was extremely mismatched from their take-off N1-setting. They took off with substantially less power than was required for their calculations.

Hence they ended up rotating with iced-up wings and too little power and stalled it out of ground-effect right into a brigde.

The co-pilot (pilot flying that day) was an F-15 pilot, yet was unable to recognize the issues (he was close, though) and also unble to fly the airplane - including thinking about just firewalling the throttles.

 

What do we learn from this? Fighter-pilots die for dumb resons as well. Accident-reports of all air forces are filled with accidents just like that.

The issue tha they are surviving combat (well, many aren't) does not neccessarily mean they're superior aviators.

 

Fun fact: Hans-Joachim Marseille, who was the leading western front ace of the WW2 Luftwaffe and probably the best deflection-shooter of all times, was a crappy pilot (he crashed several airplanes, mostly on landing), but he made up for it in combat.

Edited January 24, 2017 by Toryu

[+Nightshade/PR 7,947]

Well, if you're like me, and are fascinated by the things nature and the cosmos can throw at you, try this one for size.

 

"A minor seismic disturbance in a remote section of the Pacific causes barely a ripple of concern for Kai Tanaka, acting director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Honolulu. But when an airliner en route from L.A. to Sydney vanishes in the same location, Kai is the first to realize that a mysterious explosion has unleashed a series of massive waves destined to obliterate Hawaii. In just one hour, Kai will lose all he has ever known—including his wife and daughter— unless he can save them from nature’s most destructive force"

Edited January 25, 2017 by Nightshade/PR

[+Nightshade/PR 7,947]

If you're a Sci-Fi military Fiction fan, I must suggest the Portal Wars series, by Jay Allan. It's a 3-book set that consists of: #1 Gehenna Dawn / #2 The Ten Thousand / #3 Homefront.

 

Here's a synopsis:

 

Erastus. An unimaginable nightmare. A searing hot world, covered with cracked, burning deserts and sweltering jungles. A hostile planet far from Earth, it was the most hellish place men have ever tried to survive. Called Gehenna by the condemned men sent to fight there, it forged the few who survived its murderous battles into the strongest soldiers in history.

Jake Taylor was a New Hampshire farm boy who wanted nothing more than to marry his girlfriend, work on the farm, and maybe one day write a great novel. But mankind was fighting the alien Tegeri and their bio-mechanical cyborg soldiers, and UN Central needed men…men to go to war on hostile worlds like Erastus.

Jake wasn’t given a choice, not a real one. He found himself torn from home and family, conscripted for life and shipped to Erastus to take his place in the battle lines, never to return. In this alien hell, Taylor and his cybernetically-enhanced comrades fight their never-ending war against the servants of the Tegeri, the manufactured soldiers they call simply, the Machines.

Jake survives battle after battle, rising steadily through the ranks, giving all to the desperate fight to save Earth. But endless combat in hell carries a cost, and Taylor can feel himself losing what little is left of his spirit, his humanity. When he finally discovers a terrible secret…that everything he’d believed, all he’d fought for his entire life, was nothing but a monstrous lie, he must decide who is the real enemy, and how far he is willing to go to right a horrific wrong.

[Skyviper 1,101]

I learned that Band of Brothers is free on amazon prime. So ... yeah.

 

But I just came across Upotte. Never heard anything about it. It's a very silly show but very interesting. I think you have to be a gun nut to really like the show though.