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00:00
00:30In the first six months of 1943, nine new aircraft carriers joined the Pacific Fleet.
00:37By January 1944, a single unit, Task Force 58, had six fleet carriers and six light carriers.
00:45It had more aerial strength than the entire U.S. Navy possessed in 1941.
00:51The Navy's growing power would be applied to Admiral Nimitz's strategy of leak-probing,
00:56island by island, towards Rabaul, the key Japanese outpost in New Britain.
01:01♪♪
01:05The way would then be clear to move on to Japan.
01:08♪♪
01:11The United States Army Air Forces adopted another approach.
01:15They created whole new air forces in each theater, as required.
01:19♪♪
01:26The Bismarck Sea lies between the Admiralty Islands to the north and New Britain and New Guinea to the south.
01:32♪♪
01:36Japanese sea lanes were regularly patrolled by General George Kinney's B-17s and B-24s.
01:42♪♪
01:45Every flight was a hazard.
01:47Planes were overweight from fuel and bombs.
01:50They were taking off from short coral runways.
01:53It was dreary, dangerous work.
01:55They were flying at the limits of their range.
01:58The patrols lasted as long as 12 hours over the trackless waters.
02:02If the aircraft were damaged by the enemy, getting back to base was problematic.
02:07♪♪
02:11On December 30, 1942, reconnaissance photos showed the heaviest concentration of shipping ever seen at Rabaul.
02:19There were 70 merchant and 21 warships.
02:23For the next 90 days, these ships became prime targets for the Fifth Air Force.
02:29Attacks were mounted on Rabaul and on convoys being sent to reinforce Japanese garrisons in New Guinea.
02:36♪♪
02:47The Japanese responded with heavier fighter escorts.
02:50This was just what Kinney wanted.
02:52His goal was to destroy Japanese air power on the ground and in the air.
02:59♪♪
03:09♪♪
03:18As Japanese aerial strength declined, General Kinney's forces built up.
03:23By March 1943, he had 114 bombers and 154 fighters,
03:29including aircraft of the Royal Australian Air Force.
03:32♪♪
03:39It was a mixed bag.
03:41The most promising planes were the new B-25 C-1 Mitchells.
03:45They had been modified for strafing with eight forward-firing .50 caliber machine guns.
03:51They could sweep in low over land or water.
03:54♪♪
03:58They could sling a 500-pound bomb with a five-second delay fuse
04:02inside a thin-walled merchant ship and blow its bottom out.
04:06♪♪
04:13Dozens of Japanese garrisons were condemned to slow starvation
04:16as Japan's merchant fleet was eradicated by aerial attack, mines, and submarines.
04:22♪♪
04:28But Japan remained determined to reinforce New Guinea.
04:32In early March, the 51st Japanese Infantry Division was sent down the Bismarck Sea
04:38in a convoy of eight destroyers and seven merchant ships.
04:42The weather was bad.
04:44The Japanese hoped to make the five-day journey hidden from Kenney's forces.
04:48♪♪
04:51The American Fifth Air Force had a wide variety of aircraft types,
04:55all differing in performance,
04:57but they were able to mount a coordinated action on March 2nd
05:00that sank all of the transports and four of the destroyers.
05:04♪♪
05:08General MacArthur described it as the decisive aerial engagement
05:12in the Pacific theater of the war.
05:15General George Kenney and his Fifth Air Force had created an aerial blockade.
05:20It doomed Japanese troops on New Guinea to fitful resupply
05:24by submarines or small barges operating at night.
05:27♪♪
05:34Kenney honed his weapon in combat.
05:36He continually raised performance standards.
05:39It was like a baseball club transforming itself into a World Series winner
05:43in the course of the spring season.
05:50There was an increasingly violent argument between MacArthur and Nimitz
05:54over the main axis of attack on Japan.
05:57They also argued over who should control the majority of the forces.
06:01♪♪
06:06MacArthur and Nimitz neither liked nor respected each other.
06:10Their arguments confirmed the wisdom of the decision
06:13to limit the Pacific offensive in favor of Europe.
06:17The bickering led to a cutback on the objective to capture a ball
06:21and advance beyond the Solomon Islands in 1943.
06:25The bitter losses at Guadalcanal and in New Guinea
06:28made it obvious that island-hopping tactics should be adopted.
06:32Islands harboring Japanese aviation installations or large troop concentrations
06:36would be neutralized by bombing.
06:39Then they would be bypassed and left to starve.
06:42Frontal assaults were to be avoided whenever possible.
06:48The Japanese Navy and Merchant Marine were to be systematically hunted down and destroyed.
06:53The object was to force them to abandon the Bismarck-Solomon's line of resistance.
06:58To the southwest, General MacArthur used his newfound air power capability
07:03in movements up the New Guinea coastline.
07:08A landing would be made, a perimeter established, and an airfield built.
07:15C-47s would fly in the necessary fuel and supplies.
07:19Within days, P-38s and the new Republic P-47 Thunderbolts
07:24would be operating to cover the next landing.
07:29But Allied forces were still subject to threats from Japanese aircraft at Rabaul and Wiwak.
07:38Kenny decided to deal with Wiwak first.
07:41On August 17, 1943, B-24s and B-17s smashed airfields around Wiwak
07:48with over 200 tons of bombs.
07:54Two hours later, they were followed up by B-25s and P-38 Lightnings.
08:19Japanese planes on the ground were decimated.
08:24The Japanese later referred to the Black Day of August 17.
08:40150 aircraft and their irreplaceable air and ground crews had been destroyed.
08:49Rabaul became the graveyard of the Japanese Naval Air Force.
08:54Japanese Army pilots were drawn off from Rabaul to other battlefields.
08:59They were replaced from the rapidly diminishing pool of Japanese naval aviators.
09:04The carrier admirals protested, but their protests had no effect.
09:09In preparation for the invasion of Bougainville,
09:12General Kenny undertook to kill Rabaul with a series of air raids.
09:19On October 12, 1943, he launched the biggest raid yet seen in the Pacific theater.
09:26349 aircraft, Liberators, Lightnings, Mitchell attack planes, and Australian Bofighters.
09:48.
10:12The airfields around Rabaul were smashed with strafing and parafrag bombs.
10:18The attacks were over in minutes. They destroyed or damaged 152 Japanese aircraft. They also
10:31set off explosions in the fuel and ammunition dumps. The loss of fuel and ammunition was
10:37crucial. It was even harder to replace than airplanes.
10:54The vice slowly closed on Bougainville. By October 15th, Major General Nathan Twining,
11:00the new air commander in the Solomons, possessed a striking force of 223 aircraft. There were
11:07264 fighters. Among them were the tried and true F-4Fs, Bell P-39s, and Curtis P-40s.
11:22There were also 163 of the new F-4U Corsairs, 48 Grumman Hellcats, and 22 P-38s. All of
11:36these new aircraft had superb performance. They dramatically outclassed anything the
11:40Japanese had to offer in speed, range, armor, and armament.
11:48The gull-winged Corsair was known to the Japanese as the Whispering Death. It would remain in
11:54production longer than any other U.S. fighter. From 1940 to 1952, 12,500 would be built.
12:03Its huge Pratt & Whitney R-2800 radial engine generated 2,100 horsepower for takeoff.
12:11The Corsair was extraordinarily rugged and versatile. It could lift huge ordnance loads
12:16and deliver them with precision. Its top speed was 446 miles an hour, and its range was just
12:23over 1,000 miles. For the Marines, the Corsair was a weapon that made the beloved Wildcat
12:30seem like a toy. Flying from land and sea, it achieved an 11-to-1 kill ratio against
12:36Japanese fighters. Some Japanese officers rated it the best fighter they faced.
12:45The Corsair's chief rival, the Grumman F-6F Hellcat, was designed specifically to counter
12:51the Zero. It did just that.
12:57By the end of the war, the Hellcat had racked up over 5,000 victories against about 250 losses.
13:08The Hellcat was extremely maneuverable and rugged. It could take on the best Japanese
13:13aircraft and pilots in one-on-one combat.
13:21In just three years, Grumman built more than 12,600 of the F-6Fs, improving them continually.
13:33Not every new American aircraft was an immediate success. The Curtiss SB-2C-1 Helldiver earned
13:40the nickname the Beast. It was difficult to handle and had many mechanical problems. For
13:50a long time, many of its crews preferred the old Douglas Dauntless. It took months
13:54in action for the Helldiver to prove itself. Even then, it never gained the degree of acceptance
14:00given so willingly to the Dauntless and the Avenger.
14:06For the crews in the Pacific, there was an increasing number of creature comforts. As
14:11soon as bases were stabilized, shipping space was found for such items as ice-making machines,
14:16fans, and washing machines. They were luxuries undreamed of in the early days of Guadalcanal.
14:24It was part of an American pattern of making life comfortable. It could never be eradicated,
14:29even under wartime conditions.
14:35Japanese soldiers, who considered themselves lucky if they had rice to cook, looked on
14:40captured American K-Rations with awe.
14:47The Bougainville invasion was commanded by Admiral Halsey. It began on November 1, 1943,
14:53and provoked a sharp reaction from the Japanese.
14:57Japan still felt strong at sea. In a replay of tactics that had worked well at Guadalcanal,
15:03the high command sent a powerful group of cruisers and destroyers to counterattack the
15:07American landings at Empress Augusta Bay.
15:10But the Japanese were beaten in a brilliant night action. Rear Admiral Merrill's outnumbered
15:16and outgunned fleet used radar ranging to sink one cruiser and a destroyer. The Japanese
15:22admiral fled to save his ships.
15:25The Japanese then deployed six additional heavy cruisers to Rabaul to crush Merrill's
15:30forces.
15:33Admiral Halsey responded. He ordered his carriers and Kenny's bombers to attack the Japanese
15:38fleet in the harbor at Rabaul.
15:46Raids took place on November 5th and 11th. They destroyed the aerial opposition and mauled
15:51the enemy fleet so badly that the heavy cruisers were never again sent to sea.
16:15The Japanese were badly shaken by the loss of so many experienced air crews. They withdrew
16:21their ships and remaining aircraft 600 miles north to Truk.
16:29On Bougainville, the ground battle followed the Guadalcanal scenario. 27,000 American
16:34troops formed a perimeter around the beachhead. Inside this perimeter, an airfield was soon
16:44built.
16:51Japanese forces were miles from the invasion site. They had great difficulty in coming
16:56to battle via the jungle trails. Often, they resorted to traveling down by barges at night.
17:09In the end, an uneasy stalemate grew as the Japanese remained concentrated in the area
17:14in the south around Bouin. There, they spent much of their time growing food to survive.
17:21The battle continued well into 1945. Some Japanese troops, sick and malnourished, held
17:28out until the end of the war.
17:31In a six-month period, from October 1943 to March 1944, the Bismarck Archipelago had been
17:37isolated thanks to effective cooperation of land, sea, and air forces. The Japanese
17:42Air Force at Rabaul had been destroyed.
17:49By January 1944, the fast carrier force of the Pacific Fleet had reached an undreamed
17:55of level of strength. There were four Essex-class carriers, six light carriers, and the old
18:02tried-and-true Enterprise and Saratoga. There were enough other ships to provide an effective
18:09anti-aircraft screen or to take on the Japanese combined fleet if necessary.
18:18As his strength built, Rear Admiral Mark Mitcher became confident enough to go in harm's way,
18:24confronting Japanese island-based aircraft.
18:35In the early months of 1944, the Americans struck Kwajalein, the world's largest coral
18:40atoll, with one of the most complicated amphibious operations in history.
18:50Once again, there was no Japanese aerial resistance. The incredibly swift manner in
18:55which the Americans gobbled up the Gilbert and Marshall Islands unnerved the Japanese.
19:00They were left without time to prepare their next line of defense in the Marianas adequately.
19:17The defense of the islands came to be regarded in Japan as buying time to delay the invasion
19:22of the Japanese mainland. In effect, the Japanese high command had exchanged one illusion for
19:29another.
19:30At the beginning of the war, the Japanese had hoped that a series of stinging defeats
19:35would bring the Allies to the negotiating table.
19:39Now they hoped to secure a negotiated peace by making the prospect of an invasion too
19:43costly for the Allies, given that everyone, man, woman, and child, would resist, even
19:49if they only had bamboo sticks as weapons.
19:56In New Guinea in March 1944, the Fifth Air Force cleared the way for General MacArthur
20:01to leapfrog along the northwest coast. Between March 11th and 16th, General Kenney's bombers
20:07dropped 1,600 tons of bombs and fired a million rounds of ammunition. The bulk of the Japanese
20:14Air Force was left as derelict wrecks.
20:17But by late March, the Japanese had scraped together 351 aircraft. They stationed them
20:23at three air bases near the port of Hollandia. The Americans knew that the Japanese anti-aircraft
20:29defenses were heavy. A new strategy was followed.
20:34On March 30th, Liberators, escorted by P-38s, plastered the airfield with 120-pound frag
20:40cluster bombs and 20-pound fragmentation bombs. Anti-aircraft fire was lighter than expected.
20:48No determined attacks came from the Japanese fighters. The attack was repeated the following
20:53day with similar results. 209 aircraft were destroyed. The Japanese flew many of their
20:59remaining aircraft out of the area, once again conceding air superiority. A three-wave
21:06Allied attack on April 3rd destroyed Hollandia as an air base.
21:13Japanese air opposition in New Guinea was now negligible.
21:21Japanese ground resistance on New Guinea continued, but at last MacArthur was poised for a return
21:27to the Philippines. But first, there were the vital Marianas Islands.
21:37The United States now lived by the rule, no inadequate measures. The armada dispatched
21:42against the Marianas Islands was immense. The 5th Fleet had seven battleships, 21 cruisers
21:50and 69 destroyers. Admiral Mitchell's four carrier groups had 15 aircraft carriers and
21:57almost 1,000 aircraft.
22:06The islands of the Marianas, Guam, Saipan and Tinian, controlled the sea lanes of the
22:11Central Pacific. American success in the Marianas would sever Japan's jugular vein. Also, the
22:18Boeing B-29 bomber would have bases within range of the Japanese mainland.
22:25Command of the Japanese fleet was given to Vice Admiral Ozawa Jisaburo. Only six months
22:31earlier, his force would have been overpowering. His battleships included the two largest and
22:37most powerful ever built. But they were one war out of date.
22:44After so many defeats, Japan was thirsting for a victory. Ozawa had 100 aircraft based
22:50in the Marianas. The Japanese aircraft had a range advantage over the Americans. Ozawa
22:55hoped to catch the Americans napping, giving them a one-two punch with his land-based and
23:00carrier-based aircraft. But misfortune stalked the Japanese. Half their plan was destroyed
23:07by Admiral Mitcher's Task Force 58.
23:14Task Force 58 included 470 Grumman Hellcats, 199 Grumman Avengers, as well as Douglas SBDs,
23:23Curtis Helldivers and even three BOT F4U-2 night fighters.
23:31At 1,300 hours on June 11, Mitcher sent 211 Grumman Hellcats to hit airfields at Guam,
23:41Saipan and Tinian. Eighty-one Japanese aircraft were shot down. Another 29 were destroyed
23:51on the ground. But this carnage was only a prelude to what would become known as the
23:56Great Marianas Turkey Shoot a few days later.
24:01On June 15, four carriers under Rear Admiral J.J. Jocko Clark struck Iwo Jima and Chichijima.
24:09They were the Japanese mustering points for staging to the Marianas. Clark launched his
24:14Hellcats, Avengers and Helldivers from 135 miles south of Iwo Jima.
24:22Thirty-eight Zeros intercepted the Americans. Twenty-eight of them were shot down.
24:44The Americans then proceeded to strafe the airfields, fuel dumps and small vessels.
24:51On June 15, Saipan was invaded. Before the day was out, 20,000 Marines were on shore,
25:09complete with their artillery.
25:17Admiral Spruance issued orders for the complete destruction of Ozawa's fleet. He told Admiral
25:22Mitcher that the carriers should be knocked out first.
25:27Meanwhile, the Japanese launched their own attack. The American Hellcats fell on the
25:34aging Zeros and shot them out of the sky.
25:47Only a few Japanese aircraft broke through to the fleet. Withering anti-aircraft fire
25:53claimed 17 more victims. Only one bomb hit was scored on the battleship South Dakota.
26:00Of the 65 attackers, between 40 and 60 were destroyed. It was the greatest single day's
26:06victory in the Pacific War, and more was to come. Late the following afternoon, American
26:12aircraft finally located the Japanese fleet. Spruance ordered an attack.
26:35The light carrier Hiryu was sunk. The Zuikaku, veteran of so many battles, took a direct
26:41hit but survived. Two light carriers, the Junyo and the Chiyoda, were damaged by bombs.
26:48The Japanese lost at least 65 Zeros, as well as other aircraft.
27:00Ozawa's force was now a hollow shell. 400 planes had been shot down or lost on the three
27:06sunken carriers. An entire second generation of naval aviators was killed. The battle for
27:13Saipan ended on July 9th. Admiral Nagumo, who had begun his nation's war so brilliantly
27:20at Pearl Harbor, was the island's commanding general. He committed suicide.
27:28Guam and Tinian were liberated by August 12th, 1944. It had been a long and bloody campaign.
27:42More than 600 Japanese aircraft were destroyed at the cost of 65 U.S. Navy planes. The almost
27:4810 to 1 victory ratio showed how markedly superior U.S. aircraft, pilots, and tactics
27:54had become.
28:01Work began immediately on Saipan to create runways for the Boeing B-29s. At last, the
28:07home islands of Japan would be within range of bombing raids from bases in the Pacific.
28:15Japan strained every fiber to resist the American advance. Increasingly, it found itself relying
28:24on the spirit of gyokusai, meaning the crushing of jewels, which implied that the proud Japanese
28:30people would prefer death to defeat or surrender.
28:37The idea of gyokusai, combined with the irresistible force of the American onslaught, to create
28:42a climate in which the extreme measure of suicide attack became logical. It was already
28:48apparent to any Japanese pilot that he could not live through combat. It was only a small
28:54step to decide that a suicide flight that could take out a valuable ship could be far
28:59more useful to Japan.
29:13Tokkōtai was portrayed to the Japanese people as a totally voluntary effort by patriots
29:19who became war gods. But the program became increasingly a psychological confidence trick.
29:26Many of the early kamikaze pilots felt that they were following the proud bushido warrior
29:31tradition. Many others were tricked into volunteering and then kept in the cause by a combination
29:37of social pressure and military orders.
29:44In defending the Philippines against the return of General MacArthur, the Japanese staked everything
29:50on the likelihood of a climactic sea battle. The Japanese plan was called Victory One.
29:58An American carrier attack began on October 12, 1944. In three days, four carrier groups
30:11flew 2,498 sorties.
30:18Admiral Fukudome Shigeru reported that more than 500 of his planes had been shot down
30:23like so many eggs thrown against the stone wall of indomitable enemy formations.
30:37General MacArthur's promise to return to the Philippines began to be fulfilled on October
30:4217, 1944. American troops began to land on Ede, October 20. They met little opposition
30:50as they moved inland and began improving airfields at Dulag and Tacloban.
31:00In the meantime, the Japanese Operation Victory One lumbered along. Its 64 ships were about
31:07to be pitted against 216 American and two Australian Navy ships.
31:14On October 24, a Japanese Judy dive bomber slipped through the American Hellcats and
31:19put two bombs into the light carrier Princeton's torpedo storage area.
31:31The explosion sank the Princeton and damaged the cruiser Birmingham. The Americans responded
31:37with a furious attack by 259 aircraft. They scored 19 torpedo and 17 bomb hits on the
31:43super battleship Musashi.
31:51On the night of October 24, American PT boats and destroyers demolished the van of the Japanese
31:56Southern Force.
32:01The next day, Admiral Kurita's fleet of four battleships, six heavy cruisers and 11 destroyers
32:08burst upon the American transports in almost perfect execution of his part of the Victory
32:13One plan.
32:16Kurita assumed he had surprised Mitchell's Task Force 38. But in fact, only three destroyers,
32:22four destroyer escorts and six small escort carriers stood between the Japanese and the
32:27Allied invasion force.
32:33Rear Admiral Clifton Sprague ordered his forces to attack. His tiny tinny destroyers and destroyer
32:40escorts raced in to savage the Japanese with torpedoes and small gunfire.
32:49The carriers launched their torpedo-armed Grumman Avengers. Two other groups of escort
32:54carriers also launched their aircraft.
32:59Kurita had to contend with 253 fighters and 143 torpedo planes. The American crews flew
33:07sortie after sortie. They sank three Japanese heavy cruisers with torpedoes.
33:16Suddenly, incredibly, Kurita ordered his center force to retire. It was a monumental American
33:23victory, the stuff of the old John Wayne movies. But it was a victory won at great cost, and
33:29there was more to come in the form of the first attacks by the Kamikaze Corps.
33:37On October 25th, Lieutenant Seiki led four Zeros laden with 251-kilogram bombs through
33:44the American escort carrier's defensive screen.
33:52A second wave of five Zeros broke through the Wildcat fighters. One of them sent its
34:05bomb crashing through the flight deck of the St. Lo. It set off fires and explosions that
34:10ultimately sank the ship. Not one of the six carriers went unscathed. It was an inauspicious
34:17beginning for a drama that would rise to greater heights before the battle for the
34:21Philippines was over and culminate in the battles to come on Okinawa.
34:30Admiral Halsey began the Battle of Cape Engano on October 25th. Helldivers, Hellcats and
34:37Avengers savaged the Japanese.
34:44In three waves of attack, the Japanese lost four carriers. Ozawa made his getaway with
34:50absolutely nothing to show for the battle.
34:56The Battle of Leyte Gulf was finished. So, for all practical purposes, was the Japanese
35:01Navy. But the U.S. had been presented with a new and apparently unsolvable problem, the
35:07Kamikaze attack.
35:14The Japanese, heartened by their Kamikaze successes, would harass the American fleet.
35:22They would carefully husband their Kamikaze assets. They would try to concentrate on important
35:26targets. Aircraft carriers were first priority, then battleships or cruisers when possible.
35:34The Americans developed new defensive tactics. Destroyers were placed as picket ships as
35:39far as 60 miles away from the carriers to provide early warning.
35:48Combat air patrols were divided into three altitudes. High Cap flew up to 25,000 feet.
35:55Med Cap flew at 10,000 and Jack Cap as low as 3,000.
36:03Far-ranging fighter sweeps, nicknamed the Big Blue Blanket, were sent deep into the
36:08Philippines to catch the Kamikazes forming up.
36:13The attacks could not be stopped, but an inherent weakness emerged. Even when they struck a
36:20ship squarely, the aircraft often did little damage.
36:28It was a hard physical fact that most of the planes, even at the end of their plunge, didn't
36:37have the mass required to cause fatal damage. They were unable to reach the terminal velocity
36:42of a bomb delivered by a dive bomber.
36:49Attacks caused fire, explosions and casualties on ships, but the increasingly expert Navy
36:54damage control teams were able to save most of the ships themselves.
37:03General MacArthur had returned to the Philippines to fight the Japanese. They had 350,000 troops
37:09spread out over the islands.
37:12The Japanese General Yamashita was unable to resist the onslaught of American air and
37:17ground forces. Japanese land-based air power was wiped out early on.
37:25By the fall of 1944, the Pacific Theater was receiving enough men and materiel to wage
37:33war on an unprecedented scale. The island-hopping strategy was working perfectly.
37:43On October 3, 1944, the Joint Chiefs of Staff ordered the B-29 bombings to be stepped up.
37:50The bases for the B-29s were to be Saipan and two others yet to be acquired from strong
37:55Japanese defending forces, Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
38:03Iwo Jima was located in the Bonin Islands. It was only four and a half miles long and
38:08two and a half miles wide, but it was vital as an intermediate base for B-29s and for
38:14the new long-range P-51 escort fighters.
38:21The invasion was planned for February 19, 1945. Carrier planes from Task Force 38 struck
38:28mainland Japan, reducing any air support the Japanese may have been able to provide.
38:36Iwo Jima's defenses were virtually impervious to bombing and heavy naval gunfire. Marine
38:47soldiers had to contest each pillbox and each cave until the final surrender on March 24.
38:55Okinawa was 57 miles long and 12 miles wide. It was located strategically only 350 miles
39:07from the Japanese mainland. It was also directly on communication lines to Formosa and mainland
39:12China.
39:16On Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945, 60,000 men of the invasion force landed with training
39:23film precision.
39:25The United States wanted Okinawa as a springboard for the invasion of Japan, but this island
39:31was just as prepared for a long defense as Iwo Jima. Its 100,000-man garrison would fight
39:40the most costly ground battle in the Pacific theater.
39:53The Japanese allowed the invaders to overrun three-quarters of the island. They retreated
39:58to the south. The retreat reduced Japanese exposure to naval bombardment. It also pinned
40:05down the huge American fleet of combat vessels, auxiliaries, and transports for air attack.
40:24American carrier Task Force 58 was positioned to the north and carried out strikes against
40:29airfields on Kyushu. Task Force 57 of the Royal Navy's Pacific fleet operated to the
40:35south, warding off attacks from Formosa. The British carrier's steel decks proved invulnerable
40:42to Kamikazes.
40:43The Japanese air campaign to defend Okinawa was called Kikusai, or Floating Chrysanthemum.
40:51Its first attack took place on April 6.
40:54The Allies were ready. 250 enemy aircraft were shot down even before they reached the
40:59radar picket screen. The attackers lost another 55 inbound to Okinawa and 171 while making
41:06the attack. In just a few minutes, 476 chrysanthemums floated no more.
41:21But 180 of the suicide planes got through. They sank a destroyer, two merchant ships,
41:28and an LST landing ship tank. 466 Americans were killed. Morale was sharply shaken by
41:35the way the Japanese planes continued to bore in, even after they were hit and burning.
41:51On the afternoon of April 8, Kikusai II was launched. Most of the Japanese pilots attacked
42:08the radar picket stations to the north. They sank a destroyer.
42:51But the intensity of the kamikaze attacks dwindled as the Japanese ran out of planes
43:09and pilots. In 10 Kikusai assaults, there were almost 2,000 kamikaze attacks. There
43:17were also 6,300 sorties by fighters and bombers of the Army and Navy Air Forces.
43:30The kamikaze attack was terrifying. It seemed to each sailor on each ship that the suicide
43:35plane was heading directly at him.
43:48The attackers sank 21 ships. They damaged 43 others so badly that they had to be scrapped.
43:54They put another 223 out of action for more than a month.
44:01The U.S. Navy's personnel losses were greater than it had incurred in all wars before World
44:06War II. 4,907 officers and men killed, 4,824 wounded. Most of these were due to the kamikaze
44:14attacks.
44:18On land, the fighting was the most intense so far experienced in the Pacific War. After
44:2711 weeks of bitter fighting, the islands were secured. 135,000 Japanese soldiers had been
44:33killed.
44:38The ruthless conduct of the Japanese overlords caused 75,000 Okinawan civilian deaths. 7,374
44:46American soldiers were killed. Both sides lost their commanders.
44:53Official U.S. government pronouncements minimized the effect of the kamikaze attacks. In later
44:59years, this would have been called a cover-up.
45:03The truth was that the kamikaze attacks hurt the Navy. If Japan had been able to sustain
45:08them, the casualty figures for the war would have been vastly increased.
45:16The fanatical Japanese resistance and the grievous American losses on Okinawa showed
45:31just how high a price would have to be paid for an invasion of the home islands of Japan.
45:40Their ranges would be shorter and the number of airfields from which attacks could be made
45:44would be greater. Millions of casualties would be unavoidable.
45:55With the fall of Okinawa and the occupation of the Philippines, the strategic hopes of
46:00Admiral Nimitz and General MacArthur were now fulfilled.
46:02The way had been prepared for a final aerial assault on Japan. Now, the hard task of invasion
46:18would at last be possible.
46:22The great American advance through the South Pacific has overshadowed long and hard-fought
46:26battles in other parts of Asia.
46:33Flying the hump between India and China was dangerous business. Flying conditions were
46:43abominable. Aircraft heavily laden with supplies for embattled China would take off in the
46:48dense, moist heat of India's Brahmaputra Valley. They would climb to meet turbulence and icing
46:54over the mountain ranges.
46:56The route between Dinjan in India and Kunming in China was called the Aluminum Trail because
47:02it was littered with a wreckage of 450 aircraft.
47:07The hump operation carried 650,000 tons of material to China. It enabled the building
47:13of airfields for B-29s to attack Japan. It provided the means for attacking Japanese
47:18shipping in the seas around China and Indochina.
47:26And under the same conditions, the 10th and 14th Air Forces supported the Pacific War
47:37effort and contributed greatly to the Allies' relentless march toward the home islands of
47:42Japan.
48:25For more UN videos visit www.un.org
48:55The End

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