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 from our sponsor this video is brought to you by Henson shaving okay here's the deal Henson is a 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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 about how poorly they're 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 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 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 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. comom quack bang 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 angry drill sergeants storming up the [Music] beach
