Why didn't
the battleship move closer and just blow the whole ridge up? The whole plan to climb up the ropes was really poorly designed. It is really shocking how horrible these battles are waged back then.
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MovieChat Forums > Hacksaw Ridge (2016) Discussion > Why didn't
Because the Japanese were in tunnels through the place. Battleships have massive guns, yes. Do you know how long they'd take to pound a cliff into the ground? That's a lot of time and ammunition. For a more cynical reason? It's probably a lot more "cost effective" to just throw waves of guys at the cliff than to constantly pummel it with shells.
shareWell look at the battle for Iwo Jima...that island was surrounded by battleships that pounded it into dust time and time again with wave after wave of airstrikes and bombardment...yet when the Americans stormed the shore, they all came out of their tunnels as strong as ever and put up one hell of a fight.
Yeah unfortunately there seems to often be much more to a battle than first meets the eye. I doubt the initial 'softening' of the ridge had much, if any effect at all, considering that there was no reason for many Japanese to be above ground without the presence of Americans to shoot at.
Makes sense.
Theoretically, they could have kept lobbying one bomb after another until the actual cliff itself was completely obliterated to the point where the underground tunnels were buried in dirt, but it would have been too much firepower and the U.S. Military/contractors couldn't produce munition that large at such a fast rate, at least not during World War II.
Instead, they sent Soldiers and Marines to take care of the enemy when the Navy could not. It's cheaper to send a wave of men in to kill the opposing force rather than wasting massive artillery. Since the draft was going on at the time, Military personnel could be expended.
Though, four months after the battle of Hacksaw Ridge, President Harry S. Truman decided to just drop a nuclear bomb on parts of Japan anyhow in August of 1945. The second World War was over the next month after Adolf Hitler committed suicide.
So, yeah, we essentially wound up doing that towards the end.