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  • 6/22/2025
Transcript
00:00Previously on the last days of World War II, the world's first atomic device was secretly
00:05and successfully detonated in the New Mexico desert.
00:09In Potsdam, Germany, Allied leaders met to discuss the future of Europe and coordinate
00:15a strategy to finish off Japan.
00:18And in the Pacific, an Allied armada launched an all-out bombardment of the Japanese home
00:22islands.
00:25This week, in the Pacific, US bombers continue to pound Japanese cities.
00:31In Germany, President Truman decides that he is prepared to use an atomic bomb against
00:36Japan.
00:38And in the US, a plane crashes into the Empire State Building, unleashing a wave of panic
00:44on the streets of New York City.
00:55July 22nd, the Pacific Ocean.
01:10US warships maintain their merciless assault on the Japanese mainland.
01:15Under the cover of darkness, nine destroyers manage to sneak past Japanese defences and
01:20sail into Tokyo Bay.
01:22The American warships unleash torpedoes and gunfire against an unsuspecting Japanese convoy,
01:31sinking one ship and damaging two more.
01:36Out in the Pacific Ocean, Allied ships are resupplied in preparation for one of the largest
01:40naval operations yet.
01:45Two days later, aircraft from the carriers of the Third Fleet launch a devastating attack
01:49on what remains of the Japanese fleet.
01:56Their main target is the Kyurei naval base, housing the last of Japan's large warships.
02:09Airfields on Shikoku and Kyushu are also bombed and strafed.
02:13Hundreds of Japanese aircraft are destroyed on the ground.
02:18July 24th.
02:19Warships at Kyurei are attacked by wave after wave of American dive bombers and torpedo bombers.
02:25There is virtually no Japanese fighter defense.
02:33Sailors of the Imperial Navy look on in horror as their battleships, the Hyuga, the Issei and
02:39the Haruna are demolished.
02:42The heavy cruisers Aoba and Tone are sunk.
02:45British aircraft also claim the escort carrier, Kaio.
02:50US aircraft strike along the Japanese coast from Osaka to Nagoya.
02:55July 25th.
02:57Ships and aircraft from the US Third Fleet continue to attack the airfields, factories and ports
03:02of the Japanese mainland.
03:04In order to demonstrate to the Japanese people that their military is now powerless, B-29
03:13bombers scatter leaflets over 11 Japanese cities, warning that that town is a target for future
03:19firebombing.
03:20Residents are urged to evacuate or suffer the consequences.
03:29The dropping of leaflets prior to the firebombs in Japan really had very little effect.
03:36And the civilian casualties were massive despite the leaflets.
03:41They did give a warning, but it was a cryptic warning.
03:46And they didn't identify any particular place.
03:50Pressure on the Imperial Command mounts.
03:53Thousands of Japanese civilians are now homeless and struggling to survive.
03:57Industrial and agricultural production has almost ground to a halt.
04:04Committed to fight on, to the death if necessary, rather than accept unconditional surrender,
04:09the Supreme War Council prepares for the invasion of Japan's home islands.
04:15The Japanese army stands at 2,350,000 men, concentrated on Kyushu and around Tokyo.
04:22They will be supported by 4 million Japanese reservists and a volunteer militia force of 28 million men and women.
04:33Imperial Headquarters issues the following adamant directive.
04:37The homeland operation must be a decisive one, in which the invasion forces will be quickly sought out and annihilated.
04:44The assault must be undertaken with the resolve that each man will take an enemy to death with him at the water's edge.
04:52But 1,600 miles south on Tinian Island, scientists are constructing two weapons upon which rests American hopes that a bloody invasion will not be necessary.
05:04July 26th, the USS Indianapolis arrives at Tinian Island.
05:09On board, important components for one of the atomic bombs.
05:18We arrived at Tinian on July the 26th and offloaded this cargo on the barges and they immediately took it to an airfield there.
05:28So I took it ashore and we had it loaded aboard a truck and we trucked it up to the laboratories up at Northfield where all the Los Alamos people were waiting for it.
05:41This special delivery is a part of the project codenamed Alberta.
05:45Back in March, a team of scientists, technicians and military officials were transferred from the National Atomic Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico, to Tinian Island.
05:56After their arrival, components of the atomic bombs will be delivered piece by piece.
06:01All of these shipments were closely coordinated between Los Alamos and this group of ours out there at Tinian.
06:10We knew what was coming. We knew when it was coming.
06:14July the 27th, Kirkland Air Force Base, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
06:20Five C-54s of the 509th Composite Group depart for Tinian Island with the last components of the Little Boy and Fat Man atomic bombs.
06:30Once on the island, scientists would assemble the bombs in preparation for deployment over Japan.
06:35Each would weigh in at approximately 10,000 pounds. Fat Man is a plutonium-based bomb five feet in width.
06:44Little Boy, two and a half feet across, has a uranium-235 core.
06:48It is the U-235 that the USS Indianapolis has come to deliver.
06:53The heavy cruiser had set sail from San Francisco on July the 16th.
06:59Her top secret mission was known only to a handful of people, including Harry Truman and Winston Churchill.
07:05The contents of the Indianapolis' large wooden crates was a mystery to most of the crew.
07:10Not even the ship's captain, Charles McVeigh, knew what was on board.
07:14What he did know, however, was that he and his crew of 1,200 men had been given a mission of grave importance.
07:21Just before the Indianapolis had set sail for Tinian, a coded signal was flashed to the ship which read,
07:27Indianapolis under orders of Commander-in-Chief and must not be diverted from its mission for any reason.
07:33Six hours after arriving at Tinian, the USS Indianapolis is underway once more.
07:42Their destination is Guam, 120 miles to the south.
07:46We immediately went to Guam after dropping off this crate and canisters,
07:56and the captain and his executive officer went ashore to get the orders for the forward area.
08:05July the 27th, Guam. Captain McVeigh and his crew arrived safely.
08:10But now they're ordered to make the long and dangerous passage to Leyte in the Philippines.
08:16After reaching Leyte, the ship would have a two-week break for repairs
08:20and then move forward to Okinawa to prepare for the invasion.
08:24July the 28th, 9am. The Indianapolis sets off for the Philippines.
08:30McVeigh expects to arrive at Leyte in three days.
08:33Concerned by the state of the ship's engines, he plans to maintain lower speeds.
08:38But to get to Leyte, the Indianapolis will have to run the gauntlet of Japanese submarines lurking in the Pacific waters.
08:45Another American ship has recently fallen prey to the vestiges of the Japanese Navy.
08:51Four days previously, the destroyer Underhill was sunk by a chiton, a suicide midget submarine.
08:58The Underhill, protecting a troopship convoy sailing from Okinawa to Leyte, lost 112 men, about half its crew.
09:06Although he receives a warning about Japanese submarines in the area, McVeigh is not told about this particular incident.
09:17He requests an escort for the journey to Leyte anyway. His request is denied.
09:22He was told the waters were safe and an escort would not be necessary.
09:28We were a heavy cruiser. Heavy cruisers, battleships and carriers did not carry Soundire device.
09:35That's a device that could detect submarines underwater.
09:39So they always requested just escort carrier. Escorts are destroyers and destroyer escorts.
09:48They had Soundire device. They could detect submarines. But he was told it was not necessary.
09:54The captain is forced to rely on a tactic known as zigzagging, randomly changing course and speed to present a difficult target.
10:01Any major ship or any ship traveling in areas that might have submarines in it would zigzag. That would be going back and forth.
10:11And during the early part of the wars, that was fairly effective.
10:16But the submarines, both in the Japanese Navy and the American Navy, were so well equipped and so much improved,
10:26that it wouldn't have made any difference whether we were zigzagging or not.
10:30A coded signal is flashed to US bases on Leyte, warning of the ship's expected arrival on July the 31st.
10:38But the message is distorted and indecipherable. Incredibly, a request for a repeat signal is not made.
10:45Additionally, the Indianapolis' secret mission has left her name deleted from most arrival and departure boards in the Philippine sea frontier.
10:53She is the first major warship to travel through this region without an escort since the war began.
11:05The stage is set for the greatest disaster in the history of the United States Navy.
11:11In Germany, leaders of the Big Three continue deliberations over the future of Europe and the fate of Japan.
11:21July the 23rd. Potsdam, Germany.
11:25President Truman has received daily reports of the offensive against Japan since his arrival at Potsdam one week ago.
11:31He is awestruck by how much Japan has been able to endure and still refuse demands for an unconditional surrender.
11:39Now, locked in discussions with Churchill and Stalin, he focuses on the tasks at hand, redrawing the borders of post-war Europe and bringing a swift conclusion to the brutal war raging in the Pacific.
11:57Since the successful testing of the atom bomb on July the 16th, the balance of power between the victorious allies has shifted.
12:04Truman realizes that the possession of the bomb gives the US what he himself describes as an ace in the hole.
12:11He hopes he can use this secret weapon to put the brakes on Stalin's imperialist schemes in both Europe and the Far East.
12:18I think he was probably quite aware that this bomb would give him leverage and even, if you will, a kind of personal confidence.
12:26Although the prospect of atomic warfare would later depress him greatly,
12:31Churchill's first reaction is relief that his American ally has made the discovery before the Soviets.
12:38July the 24th, 7.30pm.
12:41Truman decides to inform Stalin about the newly developed atomic bomb.
12:46Many people in the United States government were encouraging President Truman at Potsdam to tell the Soviets about the bomb
12:53so that they wouldn't be surprised when we used it and feel that we had kept a secret from them.
13:02Truman tells Stalin that the US has developed a new weapon of extraordinary destructive power,
13:07a weapon that no nation would be able to withstand.
13:10But to Truman's astonishment, Stalin seems neither surprised nor impressed by what the US president has told him.
13:17Truman, in fact, said to Stalin basically the following,
13:23we have a powerful new weapon, bigger than anything we've ever had before.
13:29And Stalin's response was to pretend that this was of no great importance to him and he'd never heard of it before.
13:36He said something like, well, I hope you put it to good use against the Japanese.
13:40According to one account of the conversation, Stalin dryly congratulates Truman on what he refers to as a bit of luck.
13:50After years of painstaking research, millions of dollars and the toil of thousands of people,
13:56including some of the brightest scientific minds in the world,
13:59the success of the Manhattan Project is more than a bit of luck.
14:04As Stalin strides off, Truman watches apprehensively.
14:08When Churchill asks how Stalin reacted to the news, Truman says, I don't know.
14:13He never asked a question.
14:15I think Truman's handling of the information that he gave to Stalin in particular was fairly savvy.
14:26Whether that's evidence of Truman's skill or whether it was simply that he was briefed for this particular incident, I'm not sure.
14:34This was still very early in his presidency.
14:37And, you know, we just really don't know how confident he was in his own abilities and decision-making powers at that point.
14:47Both Truman and Churchill now wonder if the Soviet leader is aware of the importance of what he's just been told.
14:53Stalin was perfectly aware. He had more information about the bomb in his hands than probably Barry Truman did.
15:02What Truman and Churchill don't realize is that Stalin had known about the US atomic bomb program since March 1942.
15:08Lavrenti Beria, the sinister and much-feared head of Soviet security, had subsequently infiltrated the Manhattan Project.
15:17A highly effective network of Soviet spies had kept the Kremlin up to date with US progress on the atomic bomb.
15:24Following his meeting with Truman, Stalin rushes back to the villa where he is staying and anxiously confers with Marshal Zhukov,
15:31Andrey Gromyko, Soviet ambassador to the US, and Foreign Minister Molotov.
15:36He orders them to accelerate the Soviet Union's own atomic bomb program, which, unbeknownst to the Allies, had been underway since 1942.
15:46To date, however, it has not been a priority.
15:49July 25th, President Truman makes the decision to use the atomic bomb against Japan in early August.
16:03Foremost, in his mind, is the desire to bring a decisive and immediate end to the war, and spare as many American lives as possible.
16:11For the Soviets, Japan's sudden defeat would afford them no time to enter the war, costing them territorial acquisitions agreed at Yalta.
16:22The Soviet Union agreed to enter the war against Japan three months after the defeat of Germany.
16:30Stalin asked for a return, essentially, to the status quo before the Russo-Japanese War of 1904.
16:38They would have a predominant presence in Manchuria after the Japanese left, and the Allies basically agreed to that.
16:46So that Russia would take control again of the Manchurian railway.
16:51They would have the port at Dalian, and they would get back the Sakhalin island, Kurel Islands, and possibly, and this was not entirely clear,
17:01that possibly the Soviet Union would also play a role in the occupation of Japan itself.
17:09This was never promised.
17:11On the other hand, Stalin seemed to think that that was still a possibility until the very end.
17:16However, Truman knows that the newly developed atomic bomb may not only avoid the slaughter anticipated in an invasion of Japan,
17:23but could preempt Stalin from entering the war against Japan, removing his justification for expansion.
17:30Truman and our government, up to the time of the successful test of the bomb in July of 1945,
17:40had been trying to encourage the Russians to enter the war.
17:43We wanted them to fight because we wanted them to put pressure on the million-man Japanese army, still afield in Manchuria,
17:52while we were putting pressure coming up from the south to the Japanese home islands.
17:57With the bomb, Truman realized he had a decisive weapon which he was quite sure would end the war,
18:03and at that point we didn't need the Russians anymore.
18:07We didn't want them to enter the war if we could avoid it because we didn't want another divided country like Germany.
18:13As divisions surface amongst the Allies, Churchill breaks off an argument with Stalin over the future of Poland and Czechoslovakia,
18:22and leaves the conference.
18:24He boards a plane for London, accompanied by the Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden,
18:27and his political rival, Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Labour Party, Clement Attlee.
18:37They are returning to London because the results of the general election are about to be announced.
18:42It has taken three weeks to collect and count the votes of the men and women serving overseas.
18:48Churchill knows the Labour Party is a real threat,
18:52but remains hopeful that his wartime leadership will be rewarded with another term in office.
18:58July 26th, Great Britain.
19:02The results of the country's first general election in ten years are about to be announced.
19:07Winston Churchill's Conservative Party managers have assured him that they would retain a substantial majority in Parliament.
19:13The Prime Minister anticipates returning to the Potsdam Conference within a matter of days.
19:17Winston Churchill was a prodigy. He possessed a gift with language which has certainly never been surpassed in the English-speaking world in the 20th century and perhaps never in history.
19:34Winston Churchill.
19:37Winston Churchill, popularly regarded as the saviour of his country and the greatest Britain of the century,
19:41had led Great Britain as Prime Minister since May 1940.
19:45Winston Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, on November 30th, 1874, to a Conservative politician and his American wife.
19:56At 21, he joined the 4th Queen's Own Hussars, a distinguished cavalry regiment.
20:05He would spend the next four years on active service overseas, in India and the Sudan, before resigning and becoming a war correspondent in the Boer War.
20:13In 1900, Churchill entered the political arena, being elected Conservative MP for Oldham on the back of his wartime exploits.
20:29By 1910, he was Home Secretary in Herbert Asquith's cabinet, having defected to the Liberals in 1904.
20:35The following year, Churchill was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty.
20:42Nearly 30 years later, at the outbreak of the Second World War, Churchill was once again serving as First Lord of the Admiralty.
20:50On May the 10th, 1940, Neville Chamberlain resigned as Prime Minister, following the disastrous attempt to save Norway from German conquest.
20:57There was only one man to succeed him, Winston Churchill, the man who had been outspoken against the dangers of the Nazi regime in the 30s, and the man who had been so vehemently opposed to the policy of appeasement.
21:14Churchill knew that his time had come. He later wrote,
21:17I felt as if I were walking with destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial.
21:26The Second World War was his moment of destiny, and he did things which probably no other national leader could have done.
21:36Above all, most of us believe that any other British Prime Minister in 1940, after the Germans had swept across France, would have made terms with Hitler.
21:43Because what chance of Britain alone to survive? Churchill alone possessed the stupendous moral stature to perceive that death or extinction was preferable, that you couldn't negotiate with something as absolutely evil as Hitler.
21:59And he was almost alone in this. The French, after all, a great country. France perceived it better to make a deal than to go down.
22:07But Churchill alone saw that Nazism was something so evil that it had to be fought literally to the death.
22:17On June the 4th, 1940, faced with the imminent possibility of a German invasion, he rallied the nation with a now immortal speech to Parliament.
22:27Churchill delivered a resounding and emotional promise that Britain will be defended whatever the cost, that the country would never surrender,
22:34and that the fight would take place on the beaches, in the streets, in the fields, and in the hills. Churchill then got to work.
22:44He had an instinct for war, an understanding of it, and above all, this boundless combativeness that he understood that once you were engaged against an enemy in a war of national survival,
22:54there was no time for any more compromises or arguments. You had to fight and fight again until you attained victory.
23:02Laden with honours from all over the world, including the Nobel Prize for Literature, Churchill would remain a Member of Parliament until July 1964, just four months short of his 90th birthday.
23:13In 1963, U.S. President John F. Kennedy named Churchill the first honorary American citizen.
23:23Now therefore I, John F. Kennedy, the President of the United States of America, under the authority contained in an act of the 88th Congress, will hereby declare Sir Winston Churchill an honorary citizen of the United States of America.
23:40After his death in 1965, his body lay in state at Westminster Hall, before his funeral in St. Paul's Cathedral.
23:49It was the first state funeral for a non-royal since Lord Roberts in 1914.
23:55History probably will judge him to have been the greatest war leader there ever was, and certainly the British people still judge him as the greatest leader in our history.
24:06And I think not only Britain, but the whole cause of freedom and democracy was very, very lucky to have him in those most terrible years.
24:15July 26th, London, 9am. Churchill is unsettled by sudden fears that he has lost the election.
24:25As he later wrote, the power to shape the future will be denied to me. The knowledge and experience I had gathered, the authority and goodwill I had gained in so many countries, would vanish.
24:35The votes have been counted and the results are in. The Labour Party has won by a landslide. Clement Attlee will be the new Prime Minister.
24:44Churchill, of course, was devastated by election defeat. And he felt that it was base in gratitude by the British people after all he'd done to save them.
24:59But when his wife Clementine said that it could be a blessing in disguise, that he said, well, if that is so, it's a blessing at the moment, very well disguised.
25:09The Labour Party has gained 393 seats. The Conservatives, just 213.
25:18The Labour Party's great victory shows that the country is ready for a new policy to face new world conditions.
25:28The very fact that the electorate shifts after this great victory is not simply a political shift. It's a shift in a sense of what's really important.
25:41And it is, I think, the first sign of what will be an increasing trend in the post-war era, which is to de-emphasise the kind of Churchillian vision of national glory and purpose, and to try to build societies based on security, welfare, individual happiness, consumer goods and the like.
26:06And although it seemed insulting and brutal to Churchill at the time to throw him out, I think most of us feel that it was a case in which democracy worked remarkably well, that Britain got a different sort of government to tackle the terrible challenges of peace.
26:23As Churchill's defeat makes headlines around the world, another political leader, once a national hero, completes his fall from grace.
26:32July the 23rd, Paris. Amid protests and disorder, the sensational trial of Marshal Henri-Philippe Pétain, the former Premier of France, begins at the Palais de Justice.
26:44Accused of collaboration with the Nazis, 89-year-old Marshal Pétain was the head of the Vichy government in France.
26:57At the outbreak of World War II, he was serving as the French ambassador to Spain.
27:02Then, in 1940, at the age of 84, Pétain became the Prime Minister of France.
27:07After taking office, he negotiated his country's surrender to Nazi Germany.
27:14Pétain was convinced that all of Europe, including Britain, would be forced to follow suit.
27:21Hitler had decided not to occupy all of France and allowed the French to govern the unoccupied zone from the spa town of Vichy, 220 miles south of Paris.
27:31Pétain ruled what became known as the Vichy regime, leading a right-wing, collaborationist government.
27:41But Hitler's terms changed in November 1942, when all of France was occupied by the German army.
27:48In April 1945, Pétain returned to France of his own free will, knowing he was accused of treason.
27:55Over the course of the trial, a parade of political figures, including ex-Prime Ministers Paul Reynard and Édouard Deladier,
28:02and former President Albert Lebrun, would testify against him.
28:06Pétain refused to recognise the authority of the court, saying disdainfully,
28:10a Marshal of France asks mercy of none.
28:14On August the 15th, Pétain was found guilty and sentenced to death by a vote of 14 to 13.
28:25On the grounds of Pétain's old age, President Charles de Gaulle immediately commuted the sentence to life imprisonment.
28:32Pétain would live only another six years.
28:35He died at the age of 95, a month after being released from a prison island in the Bay of Biscay.
28:41July 26th, 7pm, London.
28:50Following his defeat at the Poles, Churchill is driven to Buckingham Palace and offers his resignation to King George VI.
28:57The King will later ask Clement Attlee to form a new government.
29:02Later that evening, Churchill addresses the British public.
29:09He thanks them for their steadfast support during the dark days of the war,
29:13and for the kindnesses shown to his cabinet.
29:19July 27th, Churchill meets with his Chiefs of Staff for the last time.
29:23Field Marshal Allenbrook, affectionately nicknamed Brookie by Churchill, is on the verge of tears.
29:29As he would later write, it was a very sad and very moving little meeting,
29:34at which I found myself unable to say much for fear of breaking down.
29:40With that, the 70-year-old Churchill left Downing Street, where he had served as Prime Minister for five years.
29:48News of the general election upset reaches President Truman in Germany.
29:52July 26th, Potsdam.
29:57Truman is stunned when he learns of Churchill's defeat.
30:00Churchill would not be returning to Potsdam.
30:03But, before he left, he had signed the Potsdam Declaration.
30:07The official ultimatum of the US and Great Britain is now ratified by China.
30:13It states,
30:14The full application of our military power, backed by our resolve, will mean the inevitable and complete destruction of the Japanese armed forces,
30:23and just as inevitably, the utter devastation of the Japanese homeland.
30:28The time has come for Japan to decide whether she will continue to be controlled by those self-willed militaristic advisers,
30:35whose unintelligent calculations have brought the Empire of Japan to the threshold of annihilation,
30:41or whether she will follow the path of reason.
30:44The Potsdam Declaration, while it asked for unconditional surrender, really laid down conditions for the Japanese to understand would be a consequence of their surrender.
30:58One was that they had to give up their whole empire, not only the territory they'd been conquering since 1941.
31:05It also demanded that the Japanese submit to a period of occupation by American forces for a period not determined.
31:16And it also insisted that war criminals be tried by the Americans.
31:22Stalin has not signed the Potsdam Declaration.
31:26Japan will have no such warning of the Soviet Union's impending entry into the war.
31:31The document also makes no mention of an atomic bomb.
31:34July 28th, Clement Attlee, Britain's newly elected Prime Minister, leaves London for Germany to join the Potsdam Conference.
31:43It is clear at Potsdam that the United States and the Soviet Union are the primary actors.
31:52Even before there is a switch from Churchill to Attlee, it's the big two rather than the big three.
32:02And that doesn't change when Attlee comes in.
32:07Ernest Bevin, who had replaced Anthony Eden as Foreign Secretary, accompanies him.
32:12As Attlee and Bevin head to Potsdam, Truman receives Japan's response to the ultimatum issued two days earlier.
32:19Prime Minister Kentaro Suzuki proclaims that his government will respond to the Potsdam Declaration with Mokusatsu.
32:28Now, Mokusatsu is a very interesting word.
32:31Literally, it means killed by silence.
32:37And it could have any number of meanings.
32:39It could mean just treating this Potsdam Declaration with contempt.
32:43On the other hand, it could have a much milder meaning, which is simply we're ignoring it or we're not responding to it.
32:49The Prime Minister, I think, decided that, well, we don't really have to respond to this.
32:56Time, in a sense, is on our side, since they didn't know about the atomic bomb.
33:02And, of course, it was construed as Japan rejects totally the American ultimatum.
33:09And, again, the Americans felt, all right, we have to go ahead with what we have to do.
33:14We have to drop the atomic bombs.
33:17Truman immediately confirms his decision that the bomb will be used against Japan.
33:22His overriding concern is to save the lives of American servicemen,
33:26hundreds of thousands of whom are expected to become casualties if the Allies are forced to invade Japan.
33:33When you look at it from the perspective of the American military,
33:36there are two and a half million Japanese troops in the home islands.
33:41There are 28 million civilians who are supposedly enrolled in a voluntary militia.
33:46There are 5,000 kamikaze planes. There are 5,000 regular aircraft.
33:50There are hundreds, if not thousands, of motorboats that are loaded with TNT.
33:55And you're expecting anywhere from half a million to a million casualties.
34:02Far removed from the tense climate within the Sicilian Hot Palace in Potsdam,
34:06hundreds of people on the streets of New York City are in a state of panic.
34:11July 28th, New York, 9.49am.
34:16On a foggy and overcast morning, a bomber emerges from the clouds
34:20and slams into the Empire State Building.
34:24The Empire State Building and all New York City were wrapped in fog,
34:28as a B-25 Mitchell bomber, trying to reach a nearby airport,
34:31crashed into the tallest structure in the world.
34:34Named after General Billy Mitchell, a famous American air power pioneer,
34:41the B-25 entered service in February 1941.
34:44A week later, B-25s were used in one of the most daring, albeit ineffective, raids of the war,
34:50when 16 of them took off from the carrier USS Hornet and headed for Japan.
34:55Under the command of Colonel James Doolittle, the B-25s achieved complete surprise,
35:06striking targets in Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe and Nagoya.
35:11The attack would become known as the Doolittle Raid.
35:15Although the physical damage caused by the B-25s was minimal,
35:19the psychological effect of the raid was more lasting.
35:22It gave the US public a much-needed boost to morale
35:25and made the Japanese people realize they were not beyond reach.
35:29The B-25, equipped with up to 14 machine guns
35:32and capable of carrying a 4,000-pound bomb load,
35:35had a range of 1,500 miles at a cruising speed of 284 miles an hour.
35:40Some versions of the plane were also modified to carry a 75-millimeter cannon.
35:45It was crewed by six men and proved particularly useful in the Pacific theatre,
35:50where it was used for low-level attacks on Japanese airfields and shipping.
35:58The B-25 also saw service with the US 12th Air Force in the North African and Italian campaigns.
36:08By the end of the war, dozens of different variants had been produced to meet the needs of each theatre.
36:13Although it was a medium bomber, it was a very successful bomber.
36:20The B-25 would remain in service with US Air Forces until 1959.
36:25July 28th, New York.
36:31A B-25 Mitchell bomber crashes into the Empire State Building.
36:35The incident sparks hysteria on the ground.
36:38Many actually believe the city is under enemy attack
36:41as flames engulf the famous landmark and debris falls onto the streets below.
36:46The American bomber had, in fact, been on a routine flight from Bedford, Massachusetts.
36:54The plane's pilot, Lieutenant Colonel William Smith,
36:57a 27-year-old husband and father of one from Alabama,
37:00was en route to New Jersey to pick up his commanding officer.
37:04While flying over New York's LaGuardia Airport,
37:07he requests a weather report from air traffic control.
37:10The report back is of low visibility.
37:13The control tower urges Smith to land,
37:16but Smith requests and receives permission from the military to continue to Newark.
37:24The last transmission from air traffic control to Smith will turn out to be a fatal warning.
37:29From where I'm sitting, I can't see the top of the Empire State Building.
37:35Confronted with dense fog, Smith drops the bomber to a lower altitude to regain visibility.
37:41But the fog is like a prism, distorting objects and disorientating even the most experienced pilots.
37:48Smith soon finds himself in the middle of Manhattan,
37:50surrounded by skyscrapers just 600 feet off the ground.
37:55He tries to dodge buildings by twisting and climbing, but his efforts prove futile.
37:59Travelling at 250 miles per hour, the 12-ton bomber smashes into the north side of the Empire State Building.
38:09The plane's high-octane fuel ignites.
38:16Flames pour down the side of the building, and inside through hallways and stairwells, down to the 75th floor.
38:23When the plane hit the building's north side, parts of it were jammed into the walls.
38:29Others plummeted down elevator shafts.
38:32Still others crashed through seven consecutive walls and out to south side, causing damage to nearby buildings.
38:37One elevator fell 80 floors, but its girl operator miraculously escaped death.
38:46The crash claims 14 lives, including the plane's three-man crew.
38:5026 more are injured.
38:56News of the B-25 crash into the Empire State Building is splashed across front pages around America.
39:07It warrants only fleeting interest on the front lines of the Far East,
39:11as Allied infantry continue to fight it out with Japanese forces.
39:15July 22nd, China.
39:19The US Far East Air Force launches an attack on shipping facilities and air bases in Japanese-held Shanghai.
39:27Five days later, Chinese troops march into Kuilin.
39:31The Japanese mount a fierce resistance in a month-long battle for control of the province.
39:36In Borneo, Japanese resistance is disintegrating as Australian forces continue their advance.
39:47The island, occupied by the Japanese since 1942, is now almost entirely controlled by Allied troops.
39:55July 23rd, Borneo.
39:58Australian forces establish a six-mile beachhead after yet another unopposed landing in Balikpapan Bay.
40:04Within a week of landing, the 7th Australian Division has secured the Dutch oil port and neighbouring airfields.
40:15Japanese defenders, massively outnumbered, outgunned and cut off from their supplies, have little chance.
40:21The loss of Borneo is another blow to the Japanese, who had relied heavily on the region for oil.
40:26It constituted 40% of their supply.
40:30Japan's strategic position is now hopeless.
40:34Yet Japanese imperial headquarters intend to fight on.
40:37But now the Allies have a new weapon in their arsenal, of unprecedented destructive power.
40:47And they are preparing to use it.
40:50Next, on the last days of World War II, as the Potsdam Conference draws to a close,
40:56President Truman will stand by his order to drop an atomic bomb on Japan.
41:03No President could have decided otherwise.
41:07No President could have decided,
41:09we'll sacrifice tens of thousands, perhaps a hundred thousand American lives to avoid using this weapon against the Japanese people.
41:19In the Pacific, US B-29s will continue their merciless bombardment of the Japanese mainland.
41:25And after fulfilling a top secret mission, the USS Indianapolis will disappear in the Pacific.
41:35All I was concerned about is, are we going to sink?
41:55No, no.
41:56No.
41:57No, no.
41:58No.
41:59No.
42:00No.

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