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00:00Previously on the last days of World War II, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery successfully
00:06crossed the Rhine in a massive operation, only to be upstaged by his rival, US General
00:11George Patton.
00:13Operation Varsity, the largest airborne assault of the war, landed 22,000 troops across the
00:19Rhine.
00:21In the Pacific, the US Navy began a series of attacks on Japanese merchant vessels and
00:26industrial targets.
00:29This week, the Allies are poised for the final push towards Berlin, but the drive to the
00:34German capital is complicated by competing strategies and political needs.
00:41General Eisenhower faces a crucial decision.
00:44In the Pacific, one prolonged and bloody battle ends as another begins.
00:49As Iwo Jima is finally secured, US forces, under a barrage of kamikaze attacks, prepare
00:55to land on Okinawa.
01:00The 25th of March, Allied troops sweep German resistance aside as they push their way into
01:26Germany's heartland.
01:31The excitement was that we were on the offensive and nobody was stopping us, there was no opposition.
01:36You could see by what was happening, you could smell surrender.
01:45Many units gave up, and they would just march down the road, and we'd just tell them to keep
01:50going, somebody in the rear will take care of you, and they seemed to be happy to do that.
01:56There were just thousands and thousands of troops.
02:00These were beaten men.
02:01You had 13-year-olds and 65-year-olds, and they were only too happy to stop their fighting
02:08and to be taken by the Americans and be fed.
02:12Nobody on the British-American or Soviet side had the faintest idea how bad conditions were,
02:17that the Germans were starving, that there was disease everywhere, because the Germans went
02:21on fighting in an organized way to the end, so they assumed that there was food and stuff
02:25there wasn't.
02:27We treated them very humanely.
02:33We didn't take any of their food away from them, we didn't take any of their water, and
02:37by the way, most of them had snobs in their canteen rather than water.
02:42As Allied troops storm through German towns east of the Rhine, many civilians also give up,
02:48hanging out white flags in the hope that their homes will be spared.
02:52We would go into a town, and there were white linens floating out of every window, and everybody
02:58was welcoming as ever, you know.
03:04But some fanatical resistance does remain, especially amongst SS units, and die-hard Nazis
03:11will punish any sign of defeatism with brutal, exemplary punishment.
03:17The most devoted supporters of the Third Reich were not only willing to die with the regime
03:24in those last weeks, but were determined to take as many of their own people with them
03:28as they could.
03:29As Allied troops weed out German resistance, the final assault on Berlin is more and more
03:35on people's minds.
03:38As they close in on Germany's capital city, the gifted but egotistic Allied commanders,
03:44General George Patton and Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, both hope to be in at the death.
03:55Despite long-standing differences in style and strategy, Patton and Monty have at least
03:59one thing in common, total disagreement with their boss.
04:03The rival generals believe that a narrow frontal attack, a single thrust into the heart of the
04:08Reich, is the most effective strategy to take Berlin.
04:12However, the Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight Eisenhower, prefers a broad-front strategy.
04:22The broad-front strategy was an attempt to roll up the German front all the way from north
04:28to south.
04:29In part, this was motivated by military common sense, the desire not to leave significant
04:36German forces on one's flanks.
04:38The 25th of March.
04:40Eisenhower's next objective in the north is the Ruhr Valley.
04:44The British Second Army from the north, Simpson's US Ninth Army from the rear, and Hodges' US
04:49First Army, advancing from the Remargan Bridgehead, will encircle the Ruhr.
04:56Our division was assigned, with a number of others, to take that Ruhr pocket.
05:02In other words, we had the Germans surrounded, and they fought bitterly for a while, until
05:07it became obvious that they were going to be defeated there.
05:14German iron, coal, and steel factories are all centered in the Ruhr Valley.
05:19If it can be isolated, German war production will be crippled, and over 300,000 German troops
05:24under the command of Field Marshal Modell would be trapped.
05:32The encirclement of the Ruhr pocket meant that, really, the German force was negated.
05:40It did not have any power, any kick, anything to fight back.
05:46By the end of the week, the Ruhr pocket is almost completely encircled.
05:51The Allies race almost 200 miles in a week.
05:57The 25th of March, as Allied forces tighten the vice on the Ruhr pocket, to the south,
06:03General Patton's US Third Army captures the city of Darmstadt.
06:09Already devastated by British bombing raids, US infantry mop up pockets of resistance in
06:14and around the city.
06:20Later that night, Patton makes a controversial and uncharacteristically reckless decision.
06:27Patton's aversion to direct assaults has earned him a reputation as not only a brilliant combat
06:32leader, but one who is intent on minimizing casualties.
06:36But now Patton orders General William Hogue, commander of the 4th Armoured Division, to dash
06:42over 50 miles behind enemy lines, to free 700 US prisoners of war who are being held at
06:48a camp near Hammelburg.
06:51Thinking the order overly ambitious, Hogue immediately voices opposition to the mission.
06:57Patton now realizes his order will draw the attention of the Allied High Command.
07:02There was a large force, there'd be a lot of hoo-ha about this, and it would have to be discussed
07:08at the top level, and Bradley, or even Eisenhower, would say, what's going on, George?
07:14Why are we sending these guys to this one POW camp to liberate it?
07:19What's the strategic objective?
07:20Why are we doing this?
07:22We're going to liberate them in a matter of days anyway.
07:25What's the rush?
07:26What's the hurry?
07:27The 26th of March, Patton decides to assign the mission to a small armoured task force,
07:33led by Captain Abraham J. Baum. 294 men, 53 armoured vehicles, half-tracks and jeeps, will break
07:43through the German front lines.
07:47It was Abraham Baum's mission to take just 300 men, they had only 15 maps, they didn't
07:59exactly know where the camp was, they were promised air cover, but it wasn't guaranteed,
08:04they had to go behind German lines, liberate 700 POWs, and then come back.
08:09They only had enough fuel to get there and come back, they couldn't have any kind of serious
08:14diversion, it basically was a suicide mission.
08:18Baum also expressed concern over the order, but for Patton, this mission was personal.
08:24Colonel John Waters was married to Patton's daughter.
08:30Patton knew his son-in-law was in this POW camp, and he wanted to get him out and get
08:35him home, and that's what he did.
08:40Just before midnight, Baum and his task force set out.
08:49By the next morning, they find themselves within a few miles of their objective.
08:54But as the task force closes in on the camp, they are suddenly attacked by a German assault
08:58gun battalion.
09:03The 27th of March.
09:05It's been less than 24 hours since Captain Baum's task force received orders from General
09:10Patton to attempt to rescue American POWs held at a camp near Hamelberg.
09:16At the outskirts of the camp, the column comes under fire, but a brief skirmish is enough to
09:21drive off the German guards.
09:23After securing the area, Baum is stunned by what he finds within the prison gates.
09:28He got there and looked over this camp, and he saw thousands of emaciated, crying, joyous
09:37American POWs running towards him through a break in the wire of this POW camp.
09:44Baum realizes his mission is hopeless.
09:46He knew that he couldn't take them.
09:49There were thousands, thousands.
09:51He had, by now, only about 220 guys with him and a dozen vehicles.
09:57He couldn't take 7,000.
09:59And Baum has to stand there and say, hey, we're not the front lines.
10:04We're a task force.
10:07The real front lines are 70 miles that way.
10:10And you imagine what these guys, they go from joy to just bewilderment.
10:16What the hell are you talking about, you're not the front lines?
10:18What are you doing here, then, you know?
10:20Baum can only free a small number of prisoners.
10:23Patton's son-in-law, Colonel John Waters, is not one of them.
10:26The great irony of this was that Waters was shot by a German guard during the battle to
10:32take, um, Hammelberg.
10:34But this guy, who is the objective of the mission, is shot and injured, and there's no way they
10:39could take him out anyway.
10:41Now Baum must make the dangerous trip back across German territory to the Allied lines.
10:46But the Germans are now fully alert to his presence.
10:57The 28th of March, Baum's armoured column runs into trouble outside the village of Hestorf,
11:02five miles from the camp.
11:04Soon they are surrounded and under attack from German tanks and infantry.
11:09Outgunned and outnumbered, Baum tells his men to form small groups and try to get back
11:14across the lines.
11:22The raiders and the POWs who survived the battle are recaptured.
11:27Baum himself is shot in the thigh and forced to surrender.
11:31Over the next few days, only 15 Americans make it back to safety.
11:36Less than two weeks after Baum's ill-fated mission, the camp would be liberated.
11:41Those wounded in the Hammelberg raid, including Captain Baum and Patton's son-in-law Colonel
11:46Waters, would be freed by the 14th Armoured Division on the 5th of April.
11:55Meanwhile, the bulk of Patton's troops are pushing eastward into the German heartland.
12:02The 26th of March, the 6th Armoured Division, under the command of General Robert Groh, begins
12:09their final drive toward Frankfurt.
12:12Near the town of Saxenhausen, they find one of the few bridges still standing across the
12:16Main River.
12:17But it has been so damaged that it cannot support vehicles.
12:21Foot soldiers, however, are able to cross.
12:24Faced with the prospect of losing one of their major cities, the Germans mount a ferocious
12:32resistance.
12:33The US advance is halted by heavy German artillery fire.
12:37It's impossible to make the bridge safe for heavy vehicles under such a barrage.
12:43Despite the heavy enemy fire, US troops still manage to reach the north bank of the river.
12:49Three days later, Patton's Third Army also reaches Frankfurt.
12:58The city is under Allied control by the end of the week.
13:03To the south, the US 7th Army, under the command of General Alexander Patch, completes its sweep
13:08of the Tsar Palatinate, a huge and vital area of heavy industry south of the Mosul River.
13:17Today its patch is turned across the Rhine, near the town of Worms.
13:23The task of leading the assault is given to forces under the command of General Wade H.
13:27Haslip.
13:30The attack on Worms is scheduled for 2.30pm.
13:33US High Command knows that 22 German divisions have already escaped across the Rhine.
13:39Nevertheless, they expect minimal resistance.
13:45But the Germans mount a vigorous defence.
13:52One weapon the American infantry are relying on is the M20 Bazooka.
14:00The Bazooka was a shoulder-mounted US anti-tank rocket launcher.
14:07They used a shaped charge in the form of a rocket.
14:11And it became a very effective anti-tank weapon.
14:17You could launch this rocket and it could pierce the armour of a tank.
14:22Eisenhower once said the Bazooka was one of the weapons crucial to Allied victory in World War II,
14:27and outclassed all similar weapons in use at the time.
14:34The Bazooka fired a warhead on a fin-stabilised rocket.
14:38It had an effective range against tanks of about a hundred yards.
14:47The weapon was fired by two men.
14:49One man held it, and the other man loaded it.
14:53Once he loaded it, he tapped the gunner on the head and he fired it.
14:57Not only can you use the weapon against armour, which was what it was designed to do,
15:02but you could also use this weapon against fixed fortifications.
15:05And in the Pacific, it's going to become a very effective weapon for going after Japanese
15:11in pillboxes, bunkers, and in caves.
15:16As an assistant Bazooka man, I never let the fellow who was the Bazooka man get very, very far from me.
15:22I had a sack under my arm containing ten rounds for the Bazooka amnesion.
15:27And as we got to the point where we needed the Bazooka, I was to place myself behind him,
15:32facing away, so we were back to back.
15:35And then as he fired the Bazooka, I would reload it for him, and tap the wire around the thing,
15:40and then hit him on the head, let him know, it was all set to go again.
15:43When the Bazooka was first demonstrated in 1941, the top brass were so impressed,
15:48they immediately ordered 5,000.
15:52The 26th of March, as Patch's troops crossed the Rhine at Worms,
15:56more than half of their assault boats are lost to enemy fire.
16:02The US 7th Army, once across the Rhine, face pockets of resistance in surrounding villages.
16:09Before long, Allied air support lends a hand, and the battle for the river crossing at Worms is soon over.
16:1542 US troops are killed, and 150 are wounded in the assault.
16:212,500 German soldiers surrender.
16:30By nightfall, General Bradley's 12th Army Group has established four secure bridgeheads across the Rhine.
16:37The 1st Army's at Remargen, the 3rd Army's on the Rhine Gorge and at Oppenheim, and the 7th Army's at Worms.
16:47The Allied front line now stretches along the Rhine from the North Sea to the Swiss border.
16:52Eisenhower's broad front strategy has successfully cleared German territory west of the Rhine,
16:57but it has cost precious time.
17:04The 26th of March, Berlin.
17:07Inside the crumbling German capital, the Nazi regime calls upon the exhausted and demoralized citizens of Germany
17:14to resist the Allies by becoming guerrillas, declaring,
17:17hatred shall be our prayer and revenge our battle cry.
17:23There was an effort on the part of Goebbels to create weapons caches, to create networks
17:29that could disseminate information and orders to this group that would be known loosely as the werewolves.
17:36But despite his efforts, the werewolf program never gets off the ground.
17:40Most Germans simply want the war to be over as quickly as possible.
17:45The werewolf organization really never existed.
17:55There were, of course, isolated incidents of sabotage after the war.
17:59There were murders, there were attacks on American soldiers, but they were so isolated
18:05that any effort to really tie them together into a coherent resistance organization is fanciful.
18:13As German civilians suffer in the ravaged streets of Berlin, 50 feet below ground,
18:18the atmosphere in Hitler's bunker grows increasingly tense.
18:23His remaining henchmen are locked to his side by a sense of duty, loyalty,
18:28and even a delusional idea that Hitler's favor is still worth seeking.
18:36Hitler's leadership style encouraged this kind of paranoia, so that one really didn't know
18:41where one stood.
18:43By now, Hitler is divorced from reality, and few are brave enough to shatter his illusions.
18:50But his words still command obedience.
18:55Up until the very end, as long as Hitler was able to get radio communiques out of the bunker,
19:02his orders were followed.
19:06In an attempt to slow the approaching allies and exact revenge for the relentless bombing
19:10of German cities, Hitler launches his weapon of vengeance, the V-2 rocket.
19:16For the last six months of the war, the V-2 rocket replaced the V-1.
19:24Nicknamed the Buzz Bomb or Doodlebug, the V-1 had been in use since June 1944.
19:33Launched from fixed ramps, the 26-foot-long aircraft had a wingspan of 18 feet
19:39and carried a warhead which weighed 1,875 pounds.
19:49Hitler insisted on a far more powerful and terrifying weapon.
19:54German scientists came up with the 46-foot-long V-2, which carried a one-ton warhead.
20:00The V-2 was a rocket. It was a ballistic rocket.
20:05It subscribed a ballistic trajectory into the target, and there was no warning for when it came in.
20:12Flying through the upper atmosphere at up to 3,600 miles per hour,
20:16with a range of 200 miles, the V-2 was unstoppable once launched.
20:23Firing sights were mobile and easily concealed, reducing their vulnerability to air attack.
20:32The first V-2 was launched from Holland on the 8th of September 1944.
20:37Due to its incredible speed, it fell only a few minutes later on the leafy residential area of Chiswick in West London,
20:44killing three people, injuring 17, and destroying six homes.
20:49This was something different. Before, the British always had warning.
20:53They knew that there was an air raid coming. Radar would pick up the aircraft, the sirens would go off,
20:59people would go down into the underground or the shelters, no problem.
21:04The first time you knew you were being hit with a V-2 is when the raid went off.
21:09So it was more of a terror weapon than it was a weapon of military utility.
21:18Churchill believed that deaths resulting from a mass panic would be much greater than those from the attacks themselves.
21:26So, as the first V-2s began to fall, the British people were told the huge explosions were from gas leaks.
21:33Not until November did the government admit that a new terror had been unleashed on Great Britain.
21:46In a six-month period, Germany launched more than 1,000 V-2s at England.
21:51517 of them struck London.
21:54Hitler's new vengeance weapon killed 2,745 people and injured more than 6,000.
22:01The only way to stop a V-2 was to destroy the launch platforms on the ground.
22:09But because German forces moved the mobile units quite frequently, this proved excruciatingly difficult.
22:18The 27th of March, two V-2s hit London.
22:22One hits a block of flats, killing 131 people.
22:26But as the Allies forge deeper into Germany, the V-2 launchers are forced so far back that England is no longer in range.
22:38This attack on Britain would be the last.
22:41The 28th of March.
22:44As the Western Allies continue their successful advance from the west, the Red Army continues its murderous rampage from the east.
22:54As US troops reach Frankfurt, German General Heinz Guderian, Army Chief of Staff, decides that he must be firm and direct with Hitler.
23:03Guderian realises that the war is lost, but he hopes that Germany can still be saved from total destruction.
23:10Upon hearing Guderian's grim assessment, a heated argument ensues.
23:16Hitler relieves Guderian of his duties, telling him that he isn't physically up to the strain of high command.
23:22This is affecting his judgment, Hitler tells him.
23:26He is told to return in six weeks.
23:28Guderian's dismissal throws a blanket of gloom over the German staff.
23:33Confused by Hitler's defiance of military logic, they conclude that Hitler is deranged.
23:39The 25th of March. The Eastern Front. The Red Army attacks in Hungary and Czechoslovakia.
23:50The Second Ukrainian Front attacks along the north bank of the Danube River and across the Hron.
23:57Germany's ally Hungary has been defeated and overrun, and very few of her troops fight on.
24:03Soviet forces will reach the Austrian border in just a matter of days.
24:07The 27th of March. The 6th SS Panzer Army suffers heavy casualties in intense fighting,
24:15as it tries to hold the Soviet advance along the Raba river line.
24:22The Red Army is fighting a brutal campaign, revenging the many atrocities committed by Germans in the USSR.
24:29And they are intent on Berlin.
24:34Germans had killed 22 million Russians, laid waste to the country, and this was a prize.
24:42The Russians were not going to be denied.
24:45Berlin was the decisive symbol of the Second World War.
24:50It was the heart of Hitler's empire and the very focus of Nazi tyranny.
24:55And Stalin was absolutely determined that it should be the Soviet Union that had in his eyes the glory of capturing it.
25:03The 28th of March. On the Western Front, Allied troops also await the order to drive on Berlin.
25:09Eisenhower is acutely aware that his ground forces and their commanders are desperate to reach the German capital first.
25:16But Eisenhower does not order an advance.
25:21Simpson wanted the authority to press on to Berlin to beat the Russians to get there.
25:30The Russians were about 70 miles on the other side of Berlin, the Oder River, and Berlin looked like the big prize.
25:38Who didn't want to take Berlin? And Eisenhower said no.
25:43We were stopped. General Simpson, who was the commanding officer of the 9th Army, had ideas that he was going to race to Berlin
25:52because he felt he could do it within 24 hours.
25:56When he got back to his headquarters, he found out that there was an order from General Eisenhower's headquarters
26:02to stop what you're doing and stay where you are.
26:06Eisenhower has decided that the Red Army should take the German capital.
26:11He communicates his decision to Stalin on the afternoon of the 28th in a personal message, without consulting his chiefs of staff.
26:22Pre-wartime conferences had already decided that the Berlin and the area around Berlin would go to the Soviets, would be part of the Soviet zone.
26:31So expending American lives and American material to capture Berlin simply for some sort of propaganda victory would have been a mistake.
26:40General Bradley estimates that taking Berlin will cost 100,000 Allied casualties.
26:47Eisenhower deems that too high a price for what he considers to be a trophy rather than a strategic priority.
26:53It was not a pleasant opportunity to go to Berlin. Berlin was like having your back to the wall.
27:00And this was the last stroke of Nazi Germany. This was to be defended by snipers and anything else in this town.
27:12Stalin does not trust Eisenhower and orders his marshals to press on with plans to encircle and take the German capital.
27:21It is clear that the battle over Berlin would cost many lives and since there is another army which does not seem to be interested in sparing the lives of its men and is very interested in occupying Berlin, then Eisenhower and the British are willing to let the Russians do the dirty work and for them to some extent to reap the benefits.
27:48The decision has been made. Eisenhower will not order an attack on Berlin. The Western Allies will halt on the Elba.
27:55The 30th of March, Good Friday. To the north, Soviet forces in Poland seize the city of Danzig. The city where the first shots of the European war were fired is demolished by bombs and gunfire and then torched.
28:11Residents of Danzig and the refugees who crowd the city are raped, beaten and murdered. The Soviets take 10,000 German prisoners and capture 45 U-boats in the harbour.
28:26But Stalin is not at ease. He wants Berlin. He is determined that glory and revenge will be his.
28:38Stalin claims that the Western Allies and Germany have come to an arrangement, that the Germans are surrendering in such droves in the west, not out of fear of the Russians, but to create a corridor for the Western Allies to reach Berlin first.
28:51Stalin has massed enormous forces on the Oda in readiness for a direct attack on Berlin.
29:02Although Eisenhower has told Stalin that he won't try to capture the German capital, the news stuns Stalin, who is viewing the Western Allies with increasing suspicion.
29:11And when Eisenhower signalled to Stalin and told him directly that he had no intention of going to Berlin, Stalin simply didn't believe him because he couldn't imagine that any general who had any possibility of gaining that great symbolic triumph would forego it.
29:28While Stalin is guarded, Eisenhower's decision and his communications with the Soviet leader have infuriated Churchill. Churchill has made it clear he does not trust Stalin and believes it's crucial to meet up with the Red Army as far east as possible.
29:43Churchill felt that Eisenhower had taken a narrow military view of the situation rather than a larger political one, given the fact that there were all the warning signs of real trouble with the Soviets coming.
29:54In those last months of the war, you had Churchill desperately concerned, alarmed about the loss of Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, all those countries he could see falling under the Soviet hegemony.
30:07He'd come to the conclusion that being nice to Stalin was a waste of time, that in the end the only thing that the Soviets understood was strength and toughness.
30:17Churchill also believes that stopping short of the German capital is a slap in the face to British and American troops. Montgomery is also enraged.
30:27The British deride Eisenhower's deference to Stalin, later referring to the incident as, have a go, Joe, the call used by London prostitutes to entice GIs.
30:39The 31st of March. Despite his critics, Eisenhower will not be swayed. His decision stands. The Soviets will take Berlin.
30:48Later that day, Eisenhower makes a radio broadcast to the German people, urging them to save themselves from further useless sacrifice and loss of life, and calls upon them to surrender.
30:59The Supreme Allied Commander sends word to the Kremlin that he is sending his forces south.
31:06The 25th of March. The Pacific. US Marines, who have been on the tiny island of Iwo Jima for over a month, drive the Japanese back into the extreme northwest corner, where they still hold two usable airfields.
31:21Remaining Japanese forces are determined to fight to the last man. They want to teach the Allies the cost of invading Japanese soil.
31:34As US Marines close in on the survivors, 200 Japanese soldiers make a suicidal banzai charge. Every last one is killed.
31:44The general who leads the attack, Tadamichi Kuribayashi, is believed to be among the dead, but his body is never identified.
31:53The 26th of March. US forces finally control the entire island of Iwo Jima. The last act of defiant Japanese resistance has proved futile.
32:03The cost to both sides has been staggering. Of the 82,000 US troops who had come ashore in February and March, nearly 7,000 are dead and 18,000 more are wounded.
32:21Japanese losses are even more horrific. Only 216 of the 21,000 men defending the island survive. Those who are not killed in action or taken prisoner commit suicide.
32:40For their bravery in combat, 27 US Marines are given America's highest award for gallantry, the Medal of Honour.
32:48Of all the medals to be won by US Marines during World War II, one third are awarded for actions on Iwo Jima.
32:56US Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz would comment, among the Americans who served on Iwo Island, uncommon valour was a common virtue.
33:04Meanwhile, the fighting on Okinawa is just getting underway.
33:10Okinawa is the largest of the Ryukou Islands, about 300 miles southwest of the Japanese mainland.
33:17It's also an essential stepping stone on the way to the Japanese home islands.
33:27US Navy Task Force 58 launches a series of devastating airstrikes against the island and opens up a ferocious naval bombardment.
33:40These attacks are designed to pave the way for an amphibious landing, scheduled for the 1st of April, just one week away.
33:47Under the command of General Mitsuru Ushijima, one of Japan's ableist commanders, 100,000 troops of the 32nd Army are preparing to defend the island.
34:06General Ushijima holds no illusions. The struggle will be ferocious and to the death.
34:11General Ushijima, the commander of the Japanese 32nd Army in Okinawa was a soft-spoken man, but he radiated a quiet competence that inspired the devotion and loyalty of his subordinates.
34:25He's also a smart tactician. He realizes that he's got an island 60 miles long to defend with about 100,000 troops. He can't defend all of it.
34:38Ushijima prepares his defense. At sea, submarines launch unsuccessful attacks against US warships.
34:45Determined to fight on and willing to die, the Japanese have resorted to suicide plane attacks.
34:56Any pilot who volunteers to become a kamikaze, meaning divine wind, will earn himself an honorable death.
35:03Ushijima has 2,000 such volunteers at his disposal in the defense of Okinawa.
35:14It just must have been hellish for the American sailors offshore.
35:195,000, at least 5,000 American sailors will die during the Okinawa campaign.
35:24They weren't throwing kisses at us, they were throwing airplanes and bombs at us.
35:30I didn't even know the word kamikaze. Divine wind, I didn't see anything divine about it.
35:35If there was ever anything that was going to crack a person's psyche and crack his ability to carry on, it was a kamikaze.
35:56I couldn't understand why they were doing this.
35:58And to this date, I have a hard time understanding how a person could do that.
36:05They take a heavy toll on the US Navy.
36:08At Okinawa, kamikazes will sink about 30 warships and they'll damage about 360 more.
36:15The Americans will lose more ships at Okinawa than they lost at Pearl Harbor, which was a naval disaster.
36:23The 26th of March, the Japanese unleash a relentless wave of kamikaze attacks and hit eight US ships.
36:32The battleship Nevada, light cruiser Biloxi and six other smaller warships are damaged.
36:37US carrier-based planes bomb and strafe airfields on Kyushu, Japan's southernmost island, in an attempt to prevent further kamikaze attacks.
36:54The US 77th Infantry Division, commanded by General Andrew Bruce, storms the beaches of the Karama Islands, off the southwest coast of Okinawa.
37:05Bruce's forces aim to establish a supply and repair base for ships taking part in the invasion of Okinawa.
37:13US troops also land on the neighbouring island of Tokashiki.
37:24The terrified Japanese civilians have been told by their government that the Americans are barbaric and bestial.
37:31They have been told that the Americans will slaughter them all without mercy.
37:34Frightened and desperate, some take tragic and extreme measures to escape a cruel and degrading death.
37:44The first person we killed was our mother, who gave us life.
37:51Everything around me, including my mind, was in absolute chaos.
37:55I don't remember the details.
37:59But what I do remember is that we first tried to tie her neck with rope.
38:05Finally, we took a stone and bashed in her head.
38:09That's the brutal thing we did to our mother.
38:13I was only 16, and I couldn't stop crying because of the sadness that I had never experienced before.
38:20I will never cry in my life like that again.
38:30The 28th of March.
38:33In the Ryukus, the British Pacific Fleet joins the action, commanded by Vice Admiral Sir Bernard Rawlings.
38:40Counterattacks by Japanese explosive boats and submarines fail.
38:51The 30th of March.
38:53Two days later, as the strikes on Okinawa continue, the Japanese hit back with waves of kamikaze attacks.
38:59The heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis is badly damaged.
39:07But still, Allied ships close in on the island.
39:10The naval force that the Allies, mainly the United States, gathered to attack Okinawa was one of the hugest armadas, probably the hugest armada in human history.
39:20More than 1,400 ships.
39:23There were 40 American aircraft carriers, fleet carriers and light carriers, with about 1,000 aircraft.
39:30As far as the eye could see, that's all you saw were ships.
39:33It seemed there must have been 1,000 ships there.
39:36And, my goodness, we just couldn't imagine what we were going to face at that point.
39:43By the 31st of March, 50,000 American troops are ready to begin Operation Iceberg, the amphibious landings on Okinawa.
39:54It would prove to be one of the bloodiest and most hard-fought campaigns of the entire war.
40:00They're closing in on the Japanese home islands and hoping to set things up for the defeat of Japan,
40:06which they expect will have to be accomplished through an invasion of the home islands themselves.
40:10Next, on the last days of World War II, Operation Iceberg, the invasion of Okinawa begins.
40:19As U.S. forces mount a massive offensive to capture the island,
40:24Japanese officials spread propaganda among the civilian population.
40:28The Japanese authorities tell them that when the Americans come ashore, they'll murder them,
40:34they'll rape their women, they'll barbecue and eat their children.
40:37And the kamikaze attacks continue in a bid to drive off the Allied warships.
40:46Nobody told us, but I mean, you know, you just knew that after Okinawa was going to be Japan itself.
40:52No.
40:53No.
40:54No.
40:55No.
40:56No.
41:01No.
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