MELBOURNE AUSTRALIA – As Melbourne’s CBD was plunged back into wartime with the filming at the weekend of the new Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg WWII film The Pacific, a service was held yesterday to honour the US servicemen who fought in the South Pacific.
A small group of US veterans, many of whom spent time in Australia during World War II, laid a wreath for their comrades at the Shrine of Remembrance yesterday.
Capt Dale Dye, who served in Vietnam, stood alongside the men yesterday.
Capt Dye is the senior military adviser for The Pacific. He said yesterday’s service was an emotional reminder of the close bond US and Australian servicemen and women shared during the Allies’ Pacific campaign.
“Everybody who lives in the free world owes these chaps a huge debt of gratitude,” he said.
Capt Dye said a visit to the the set of The Pacific at the weekend brought back strong memories for the veterans of Australia in 1943.
“The memories the scene invoked were enormous,” he said.
The US 1st Marine Division was one of the most famous to land in Melbourne during World War II.
Capt Dye said the men had been fighting in the Battle of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands and were suffering from tropical diseases and malnutrition when they arrived.
“It was heaven for them because they had just come from hell,” he said.
“They were sent to Melbourne to rest and recuperate. But the minute they got a look at the Australian pubs and the Australian women walking around out they went.”
The US veterans were brought to Australia by the Greatest Generations Foundation, an organisation dedicated to helping veterans revisit the places they served.
