Real-life hero Desmond Doss saved 75 soldiers in WWII without firing a shot, as depicted in the 2016 biographical war film Hacksaw Ridge, directed by Mel Gibson. Despite some minor changes to the story, Hacksaw Ridge was praised by Doss's son for its historical accuracy.
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.
There was hand-to-hand combat on Hacksaw Ridge, but not the way it was depicted in the film. In the film, American and Japanese troops charge at each other with bayonets, knives, and the like as if they were on a medieval battlefield, and did not have accurate high powered rifles and machineguns at their disposal.
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 real-life Harold Doss, Desmond's brother, served in the Navy and not the Army like portrayed in Hacksaw Ridge and survived the war without any injuries.
E154: Tour of Hacksaw Ridge - WW2 Okinawa Battle Sites
How many conscientious objectors won the Medal of Honor?
He was twice awarded the Bronze Star Medal for actions on Guam and in the Philippines. Doss further distinguished himself in the Battle of Okinawa by saving an estimated 75 men, acting on his own, becoming the first of only three conscientious objectors to receive the Medal of Honor for this and other actions.
Doss saved 75 men — including his captain, Jack Glover — over a 12-hour period. The same soldiers who had shamed him now praised him. “He was one of the bravest persons alive,” Glover says in the documentary. “And then to have him end up saving my life was the irony of the whole thing.”
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.
As usual on Okinawa, Japanese casualties were many times greater than the number of American lives lost. Upwards of 3,000 Japanese are believed to have died in the fight for Hacksaw Ridge.
During this battle, then- Army Pfc. Desmond T. Doss, a medic, rescued 75 of his wounded comrades and later received the Medal of Honor for his actions. He was later promoted to the rank of colonel.
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.
Desmond Doss is credited with saving 75 soldiers during one of the bloodiest battles of World War II in the Pacific — and he did it without ever carrying a weapon.
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.
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.
Both sides bore heavy losses, but on May 6, 1945, the Americans gained control of Hacksaw Ridge. Over 73 years later, U.S. Marines and Sailors revisited the battleground to pay their respects and learn the history of Hacksaw Ridge.
The battle scenes are very graphic, realistic, and absolutely spine chilling to watch. They are long, and filled with bloody gunfire, graphic stabbings with knives and bayonets, and many explosions which separate limbs and leave blood everywhere. Guts, limbs, intestines, and blood everywhere.
How many US soldiers were killed on Hacksaw Ridge?
As fighting surged back and forth over the ridge for several days, about 2,500 Americans lost their lives and nearly twice as many Japanese troops, said Chris Majewski, a former marine who, as director of the island's battle of Okinawa museum, leads regular battlefield tours of the site.
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Among the dead was the Tenth Army's commander, Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr., killed on June 18 by enemy artillery fire during the final offensive. He was the highest-ranking American general killed in action during World War II.
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.
In the film, Desmond's marriage to Dorothy coincides with his being imprisoned ahead of Desmond's court marshal, causing him to miss his wedding. However, in real life, Desmond was not court marshaled and was married to Dorothy before leaving for active service.
Doss, who was injured at Hacksaw Ridge (known as Maeda Kochi in Japan) in Urasoe during the fighting, was admitted to a U.S. army hospital five and a half years after the war for symptoms including persistent dreams of the battle, suffering from what we now know as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Hacksaw Ridge, a 500-foot-high plateau, is in southern Okinawa. The plateau on top stretched about 4,200 yards from east to west. Its face was a crest consisting of a sheer rock wall that could only be scaled with ladders or special climbing gear.
The battlefield, located on top of a sheer 400-foot cliff, was fortified with a deadly network of Japanese machine gun nests and booby traps. The escarpment, nicknamed Hacksaw Ridge for the treacherously steep cliff, was key to winning the battle of Okinawa.
