wrbones
05-17-03, 12:36 PM
got this in an email from sealaywer ( yeah, I spelled his name right )
GLOBAL SPECIAL PRESENTATION:
WAKE ISLAND, ALAMO OF THE PACIFIC
Two-hour special…
Monday, June 2, from 9-11 pm ET/PT
New York, NY., May 1, 2003 — In the dark days of December 1941, a handful of U.S. Marines restored hope to a nation rocked by the Pearl Harbor disaster by making a gallant stand against impossible odds at Wake Island. Stranded 2,000 miles west of Hawaii and aided only by a few hundred civilian construction workers, 450 Leathernecks held out for sixteen days, beating off air, sea, and land attacks by numerically superior Japanese forces. Wake’s defenders sank the first two Japanese warships lost in World War II and killed nearly 1,000 of their attackers. These small victories inspired a Hollywood blockbuster and left the American people determined to continue a war that had begun so disastrously at Pearl Harbor.
In this extraordinary account, the History Channel takes six survivors of the siege of Wake Island back to the scene of their heroic stand, more than sixty years later. The Wake saga is recreated by the very men who lived it. They retrace their steps and recount their experiences, which included repeated exposure to naval and air bombardment, close infantry combat, and eventual capture. The Japanese would subject Wake’s defenders to three-and-a-half years of beatings, slave labor, and a starvation diet. The Japanese executed more than 100 Wake Islanders, but the majority survived to bear witness to a story that remains one of the proudest chapters in the annals of the U. S. Marine Corps.
Dr. Gregory J. W. Urwin of Temple University’s History Department and Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy served this production as senior historical consultant and appears frequently on camera. The script was based on his prize-winning book, Facing Fearful Odds: The Siege of Wake Island.
This global special presentation debuts Monday, June 2 from 9-11 pm ET/PT.
GLOBAL SPECIAL PRESENTATION:
WAKE ISLAND, ALAMO OF THE PACIFIC
Two-hour special…
Monday, June 2, from 9-11 pm ET/PT
New York, NY., May 1, 2003 — In the dark days of December 1941, a handful of U.S. Marines restored hope to a nation rocked by the Pearl Harbor disaster by making a gallant stand against impossible odds at Wake Island. Stranded 2,000 miles west of Hawaii and aided only by a few hundred civilian construction workers, 450 Leathernecks held out for sixteen days, beating off air, sea, and land attacks by numerically superior Japanese forces. Wake’s defenders sank the first two Japanese warships lost in World War II and killed nearly 1,000 of their attackers. These small victories inspired a Hollywood blockbuster and left the American people determined to continue a war that had begun so disastrously at Pearl Harbor.
In this extraordinary account, the History Channel takes six survivors of the siege of Wake Island back to the scene of their heroic stand, more than sixty years later. The Wake saga is recreated by the very men who lived it. They retrace their steps and recount their experiences, which included repeated exposure to naval and air bombardment, close infantry combat, and eventual capture. The Japanese would subject Wake’s defenders to three-and-a-half years of beatings, slave labor, and a starvation diet. The Japanese executed more than 100 Wake Islanders, but the majority survived to bear witness to a story that remains one of the proudest chapters in the annals of the U. S. Marine Corps.
Dr. Gregory J. W. Urwin of Temple University’s History Department and Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy served this production as senior historical consultant and appears frequently on camera. The script was based on his prize-winning book, Facing Fearful Odds: The Siege of Wake Island.
This global special presentation debuts Monday, June 2 from 9-11 pm ET/PT.