Victory at Sea S1E04 Midway is East

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00:00♪♪♪

00:10♪♪♪

00:20♪♪♪

00:30♪♪♪

00:40♪♪♪

00:50♪♪♪

00:55And now, Midway is East.

01:00♪♪♪

01:03Yesterday it was Pearl Harbor.

01:05Today it is the whole Southeast Pacific.

01:08Hardened by the campaigns in China,

01:11fired by the sacred mission of extending Hirohito's dominion

01:14over 12 million square miles of the Pacific,

01:17the hordes of Imperial Japan surge south and east

01:21on a deluge of destruction.

01:23Glory is their goal.

01:26Glory and oil, and rubber and rice.

01:30Mysterious, haunting names of the Far East

01:34are the notes of an Allied dirge.

01:38Manila, Mindoro, Mindanao, Hong Kong, Hainan, Hanoi,

01:45Makassar, Mandalay, Malaya, Bataan, Bangkok, Borneo,

01:53Cambodia, Cavite, Corregidor, Batavia, Bandung, Bali,

02:01Singapore, Shanghai, Sumatra, Panay, Palembang, Pescadores,

02:09Surabaya, Sumbawa, Sumba, Banzai.

02:15♪♪

02:25♪♪

02:35♪♪

02:45♪♪

02:55♪♪

03:05♪♪

03:15♪♪

03:25♪♪

03:31For a century, Hong Kong has stood as a symbol

03:33of British prestige in the Orient.

03:35The Japanese strike and Hong Kong falls

03:39on Christmas Day, 1941.

03:42♪♪

03:52♪♪

04:02Hong Kong was British.

04:04Manila is American.

04:07But the Japanese are impartial.

04:10Manila's turn.

04:12♪♪

04:32The mightiest fortress in all the East, Singapore.

04:36Key to Malaya, key to Java,

04:39key to the wealth of the Indies.

04:41Look seaward for trouble.

04:44But behind the unsuspecting back of the British,

04:46the Japanese begin their creeping assault.

04:49Deep in the jungle that is thought to be impenetrable,

04:52the enemy comes crawling down on Singapore.

04:56The jungle does not stop them.

04:58The scattered defenders do not stop them.

05:01Nothing stops them.

05:03♪♪

05:32♪♪

05:42♪♪

05:52♪♪

06:02♪♪

06:12♪♪

06:22♪♪

06:32The tiger of Malaya, General Yamashita,

06:35forces a conqueror's demands on the helpless English.

06:39With hope gone, with defenses crumbled,

06:44with no aid in sight,

06:47General Percival signs away the greatest outpost

06:50in the British Empire.

06:53Two months later, 36,000 Americans in the same plight

06:58begin their march of death.

07:02Bataan and Singapore.

07:06Defeat, catastrophe,

07:10humiliation for Great Britain and the United States.

07:16Far away in Washington,

07:18President Roosevelt strikes the only note of relief

07:21in the unending Allied dirge.

07:24♪♪

07:46There is no real relief.

07:49Corregidor, America's last stand in the Philippines.

07:55In common suffering, a new bond of brotherhood

07:59is forged between Americans and Filipinos.

08:02♪♪

08:30♪♪

08:47On May 6, 1942,

08:50General Wainwright surrenders all armed forces to the enemy.

08:56The Philippines have fallen.

09:00♪♪

09:10♪♪

09:19In five horrible months, the enemy, like an octopus,

09:23has stretched his tentacles across vast spaces of the Pacific,

09:26devouring prize after prize

09:29to satiate his appetite for conquest.

09:32♪♪

09:35But the day after Corregidor's fall

09:38comes the Battle of the Coral Sea.

09:41American carrier planes pounce on a Japanese invasion force

09:44out to engulf Port Moresby and cut off Australia.

09:48For the first time in history,

09:50men of war fight it out without once sighting each other.

09:55When the battle is over, the Japanese retreat.

10:00One of their carriers has been sunk.

10:03Two others are badly damaged.

10:06The United States loses the carrier Lexington.

10:10Few know it, but the tide is turning.

10:15Out from America, across the enormous ocean waste,

10:19transports stream toward Australia with supplies and men.

10:25The build-up begins.

10:29♪♪

10:45Personalities who will dominate the coming struggle emerge.

10:48General MacArthur in Australia and in Pearl Harbor, Admiral Nimitz.

10:53As the Japanese prepare to strike again,

10:56Nimitz makes a fateful decision.

10:59He gathers available ships together in the central Pacific,

11:02deducing that Midway is the enemy's objective.

11:05Nimitz appoints Admiral Spruance to command a carrier task force

11:08in the defence of Midway Island,

11:101,000 miles west of Pearl Harbor,

11:133,500 miles east of Tokyo.

11:18♪♪

11:25Midway itself sends incessant patrols in search of the elusive Japanese.

11:30Massive forces are converging on this pinpoint in the ocean,

11:34which the enemy wants as his eastern outpost.

11:38For America, it is the last century between Japan and Hawaii.

11:43The Pacific War is focused on a coral atoll,

11:48six miles in diameter.

11:52Day after day, hour after hour,

11:55planes search and search and search.

12:01And then, through a gap in the clouds,

12:04Japanese troop transports.

12:09But what the spotting plane does not see is the Japanese striking force,

12:13which outnumbers the Americans in every class.

12:16Battleships, cruisers, carriers, destroyers, planes.

12:22♪♪

12:28The same carriers that raped Pearl Harbor are headed for Midway.

12:32Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu.

12:40Aboard the flagship Akagi, Admiral Nogumo,

12:43who directed the attack on Pearl Harbor, plots his new mission.

12:48Execute an aerial attack on Midway,

12:50destroying all enemy forces in preparation for landing.

12:55The pilots assigned to the task are also veterans of December 7th.

12:59The elite of Fleet Air Arm, the pride of the Imperial Navy.

13:04Confident, fanatical,

13:07they prepare to slaughter the Marines defending Midway

13:10and add the island to their unbroken string of conquests.

13:14♪♪

13:42♪♪

13:52♪♪

14:12♪♪

14:32♪♪

14:46Midway blazes, but Midway stands.

14:52Far at sea, Admiral Spruance increases speed to 25 knots

14:56and prepares to close the Japanese.

14:59Admiral Fletcher, officer in tactical command, orders,

15:03proceed southwesterly and attack enemy carriers when definitely located.

15:10The tireless search planes hit the jackpot.

15:13The enemy carriers are finally located.

15:20Midway has been badly hit, but Midway comes back fighting.

15:25♪♪

15:40So loaded with fighting equipment is this stationary aircraft carrier,

15:44little room is left for its natives, the Goonie Birds.

15:48Midway hits the Japanese with all it has.

15:51Every available land-based plane is sent against the enemy fleet.

16:21♪♪

16:45♪♪

17:06Bomb after bomb.

17:09Miss after miss.

17:12Not one hit.

17:14The Japanese come through the attack unchecked.

17:17The invasion of Midway is still on.

17:205,000 troops stand by for landing orders.

17:24♪♪

17:35But Spruance's task force is closing in.

17:38The admiral now knows the approximate location of the enemy carriers.

17:43It is June the 4th, 1942.

17:47A moment for command decision.

17:52Pilots are summoned to the ready room and briefed.

17:54Crewmen are called to station.

17:56Spruance has cast the die.

17:59The task force will risk an all-out attack against superior odds,

18:02hoping to surprise the enemy, hoping to annihilate the enemy.

18:07♪♪

18:21Pilots, man your planes.

18:24In all three American carriers, in Hornet, in Enterprise, in Yorktown,

18:30the young and the brave prepare for battle.

18:35Some will fall in flames from the sky they seek to dominate.

18:40Some will perish in the ocean, whose mastery they seek to win.

18:47But the ritual of launching takes its disciplined course,

18:50as precise and ordered as a ballet.

18:53♪♪

19:20The enemy, still unaware of the approaching American fleet,

19:23prepares for another strike on Midway Island.

19:27Below decks, the pilots are at ease,

19:30while their planes, which are armed with torpedoes,

19:33in case the United States Navy is sighted,

19:36are rearmed for another bombing mission.

19:40Poor intelligence is an enemy blunder, a godsend to Spruance.

19:49But all-out attack begins with all-out disaster.

19:55Hornet's torpedo squadron eight runs into murderous enemy flak

19:58and swarming zero fighters.

20:01Torpedo eight's 15 planes, all are destroyed,

20:07and not one hit is scored.

20:11♪♪

20:23Out of a total of 41 torpedo planes from three carriers,

20:27only six survive.

20:30The news is grim.

20:35But the attack continues.

20:37Five bombers go in.

20:40♪♪

20:46Enemy defences, off balance from the earlier assault,

20:49are unequal to the new attack.

20:51The carriers are hit.

20:53In two amazing minutes, the course of battle is reversed.

20:57It is the Americans who inflict the slaughter.

21:01The Japanese who crumble.

21:04♪♪

21:34Akagi, smashed and sinking.

21:38♪♪

21:41Kaga, smashed and sinking.

21:45♪♪

21:50The American submarine Nautilus jumps into the fight

21:53and sights the smoking carrier Soryu.

21:56Torpedoes from below are added to bombs from above.

22:00♪♪

22:04Soryu, smashed and sinking.

22:08♪♪

22:14One Japanese carrier, off to the north, remains untouched.

22:18Hiryu.

22:20♪♪

22:24A scouting plane finally spots the Americans.

22:27The Japanese lash back.

22:30♪♪

22:58Yorktown is the target, and Yorktown knows it.

23:02Detection gear picks up the avenging enemy.

23:05Thirty to forty planes approaching from west-southwest,

23:08forty miles out.

23:10Hell is on the wing.

23:13♪♪

23:27Prepare your battle stations.

23:30♪♪

23:39Fighters take off to meet the attack.

23:41From ship and sky, the Japanese encounter fierce defense,

23:44but they press their assault to the limit.

23:48♪♪

23:53♪♪

24:22♪♪

24:37♪♪

25:04♪♪

25:20Yorktown is hit.

25:23She is dying.

25:25♪♪

25:27But retaliation is on the way.

25:30Planes from the Enterprise ring down the curtain

25:33on the Battle of Midway.

25:36♪♪

25:41Kiryu, smashed and sinking.

25:45Four Japanese carriers,

25:48gone, and with them, their irreplaceable pilots.

25:53Yorktown is dead.

25:57And so are Japanese plans to dominate the eastern Pacific.

26:01Admiral Spruance, his ships, and his men

26:06have won the Battle of Midway,

26:09one of the most decisive victories in naval history.

26:14The Imperial Japanese Navy retreats.

26:18♪♪

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