Stuart Liss

The movie "Hacksaw Ridge" toned down the heroism of Desmond Doss because Mel Gibson felt audiences would find it too hard to believe. After taking the brunt of a grenade blast to save his fellow soldiers on Okinawa during World War II, Desmond Doss was left with 17 pieces of shrapnel stuck in him, an injury that's shown in the movie. He waited for five hours until fellow soldier Ralph Baker was able to reach him. Baker, along with several other men, carried Desmond on a litter through an intense enemy attack.

What's not shown is that as they were moving him, Desmond saw another soldier on the ground who was badly wounded. He rolled off the litter and crawled over to patch the man up. Desmond gave up his litter to the man. While waiting for help to come back, Desmond was wounded again, this time by a sniper's bullet that shattered his left arm. He fashioned a splint out of a rifle stock and crawled the remaining 300 yards under fire, eventually reaching the safety of an aid station. He was transported to the hospital ship Mercy.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 08:58 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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