![]() ![]() Patient demeanor or no, time was not on Putnam’s side. Longtime colleagues described the married father of three as “able, level-headed, cooperative.” At five foot nine, he fit comfortably in the cramped cockpit of a fighter plane, flying combat missions in Nicaragua in 1931-32. He was commissioned in 1926 and became a fighter pilot in 1928. Born in Michigan in 1903, he had joined the Marine Corps in 1923 after dropping out of Iowa State University. It would take lots of hard work, plenty of time, and a bit of luck to whip the island’s air defenses into shape. There were no bunkers to camouflage and protect planes on the ground, and most of the aviation fuel was stored above ground, vulnerable to attack. The island’s crushed-coral airstrip was too narrow to allow more than one plane at a time to take off-a major problem if Putnam’s squadron had to get aloft in a hurry. It lacked radar to warn of approaching planes, relying instead on a lookout with binoculars atop a 50-foot-high water tower. Marine Corps)Īs of December 4, 1941, the day VMF-211 arrived, Wake Island was a work in progress. He became the first Marine airman to be awarded the Medal of Honor (U.S. Elrod (left) shot down two aircraft, sank a destroyer and kept ferociously fighting on foot. Putnam (right) led his Marines to Wake Island, where his leadership and their courage would be tested. His new home was “far less advanced in construction than had been anticipated,” he wrote-a relatively kind description for what lay before him. If the lively reception instilled any optimism in Putnam’s mind, it quickly faded when he climbed out of the cockpit and looked around. “Nothing much was lacking but the strip of red carpet,” recalled Major Walter L. They were Wake Island’s first fighters, and personnel on the island were overjoyed to finally have some aerial protection. 50-caliber machine guns and capable of carrying a pair of 100-pound bombs. The commander of Marine fighter squadron VMF-211, Putnam had arrived with 11 other Wildcats-rugged aircraft armed with four. ![]() Putnam landed his F4F-3 Wildcat fighter on Wake Island, a small horseshoe-shaped atoll 2,000 miles west of Pearl Harbor, he was surprised to see dozens of cheering Marines and civilians lining the runway. With that said, BATTLE OF BLOOD ISLAND was a decent little picture.Hard Luck Island: The Battle of Wake CloseĪs Major Paul A. The film ran a short 63-minutes and even at that there were some moments that dragged. With the low-budget that means there aren't any large action scenes or anything like that so one shouldn't go into this expecting anything like that. This here was one of a number of films that Corman shot in Puerto Rico and the locations certainly helped the film. Both Devon and Gans were good in their role and this added to the entertainment value as well. I liked the way the story developed and I'd argue that the character development was good as well. This meant you couldn't stage large action scenes but instead everything had to be done on a small scale. I thought Rapp was very smart with the screenplay since he was working with very little money. ![]() Rapp, which he adapted from a short story by Philip Roth. I think the best thing for the film was the story by Joel M. With all of that in mind, I found the film to be entertaining for what it was but there are no questions that it did feature some flaws. The film was obviously working on a very low-budget and it was meant to be the second of a double feature with of course the first movie being of a bigger budget. BATTLE OF BLOOD ISLAND had Roger Corman as Executive Producer so that should tell you what to expect. As the two stay on the island long their anger towards each other grows. Ken has been left crippled so it's up to Moe to do everything from finding food and shelter to making sure the bad guys don't hear them. Battle of Blood Island (1960) ** 1/2 (out of 4) American GI's Moe (Richard Devon) and Ken (Ron Gans) are the only survivors of their platoon and they wash up on an island held by the Japanese. ![]()
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