Faced with attacks from Japanese kamikaze pilots, Japanese soldiers positioned in underground tunnels and the Yamato, the heaviest and most powerfully armed battleship ever constructed, the Americans fought a grueling 83 day battle and ultimately suffered over 82,000 casualties.
Directed by Mel Gibson, Hacksaw Ridge is the true story of World War II hero Desmond Doss. The film also features Avatar star Sam Worthington and Vince Vaughn in supporting roles. Although it's a true story, many viewers may wonder how historically accurate Hacksaw Ridge is.
The bloodiest day of World War II is widely considered to be the first day of the Battle of Stalingrad, which was on August 23, 1942. The Battle of Stalingrad was a pivotal and brutal confrontation between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II.
In doing so, the Allied forces had a foothold for the planned invasion of mainland Japan. However, the development of the atomic bomb led to the surrender of Japan, meaning the war ended only a few months after the successful capture of Hacksaw Ridge.
Most characters in Hacksaw Ridge are real as it is a biographical film. Desmond is the central figure and his life experiences are faithfully depicted. Other characters in the movie are composites or represent multiple people.
Hacksaw Ridge (2016) - Full Last battle Scene [1080p]
How many died at Hacksaw Ridge?
About 2,500 Americans lost their lives and nearly twice as many Japanese troops. In the movie Hacksaw Ridge, they show Japanese soldiers killing wounded American soldiers. Is this portrayal accurate? Not only captured military prisoners, but also civilians.
Eventually, the Americans took Hacksaw Ridge. Okinawa was captured inch by bloody inch. Several days later, during an unsuccessful night raid, Desmond was severely wounded.
This question has been answered in a documentary starring the actual Desmond Doss. The japanese didn't cut the rope because that was the only entrance to the battlefield.
On May 4, 1945, Doss spent 12 hours single-handedly retrieving and lowering wounded soldiers from the battlefield to safety, down the edge of the cliff at Hacksaw Ridge. He tried to rescue both American and Japanese soldiers, though no Japanese soldiers survived.
The American Civil War is the conflict with the largest number of American military fatalities in history. In fact, the Civil War's death toll is comparable to all other major wars combined, the deadliest of which were the World Wars, which have a combined death toll of more than 520,000 American fatalities.
Table ranking "History's Most Deadly Events": Influenza pandemic (1918-19) 20-40 million deaths; black death/plague (1348-50), 20-25 million deaths, AIDS pandemic (through 2000) 21.8 million deaths, World War II (1937-45), 15.9 million deaths, and World War I (1914-18) 9.2 million deaths.
While it's hard to say with certainty, by many accounts the deadliest day in human history was actually the result of a natural disaster. On the morning of 23 January 1556, a massive earthquake rocked China's Shaanxi province, at the time considered the 'cradle of Chinese civilization'.
Using cargo nets, Doss' battalion was tasked with climbing a treacherous, 400-foot-high jagged cliff, nicknamed Hacksaw Ridge, to get to a plateau. Waiting for them were thousands of heavily armed Japanese soldiers entrenched in hidden caves and holes.
Desmond Thomas Doss (February 7, 1919 – March 23, 2006) was an American United States Army corporal who served as a combat medic with an infantry company in World War II. Due to his religious beliefs, he refused to carry a weapon.
World War II American Army Medic Desmond T. Doss, serving during the Battle of Okinawa, refuses to kill people and becomes the first man in American history to receive the Medal of Honor without firing a shot.
Following Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in 1941, Congress amended the act to require all able-bodied men ages 18 to 64 to register with their local draft board for military service for the duration of World War II plus six months after. In practice, however, only men 18 to 45 were drafted.
What country killed the most German soldiers in World War II?
Russians also point to the fact that Soviet forces killed more German soldiers than their Western counterparts, accounting for 76 percent of Germany's military dead.
After Doss and his unit scale a ridge, they come upon a field full of body parts and corpses, some with intestines hanging out, others being eaten by rats. Then the bullets and explosives start flying. “You want to wreak havoc with a lot of blood to emphasize the courage of the character,” says Gibson.
At around the halfway mark, the fighting comes, and the film explodes into a kaleidoscope of horrors. To put it bluntly, Hacksaw Ridge contains some of the most gruesome and brutally violent mass battle scenes I've ever seen on the big screen.
This Maeda Escarpment Peace Monument was erected to honor the war dead from the 2nd Battalion of the 32nd regiment who lost their lives during the battle at Maeda Escarpment (Hacksaw Ridge). As of today, there is a grass field stretching in front of the monument.
The Japanese liked to target corpsmen and Army medics, as well as doctors. They knew if they hurt or killed someone with medical training, they wouldn't be able to help other wounded Marines or soldiers.
What did Desmond Doss do for a living after the war?
Doss had many public speaking engagements after appearing on the television program This Is Your Life in 1959. He also worked with Seventh Day Adventist scouting programs.
Although official estimates are unclear, by the end of the war in 1945 approximately three percent of the Japanese population, more than 2 million people, had died.
