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00:00♪♪♪
00:10♪♪♪
00:20♪♪♪
00:30♪♪♪
00:40♪♪♪
00:50♪♪♪
00:55And now, conquest of Micronesia.
00:59♪♪♪
01:03Ranging far, sweeping wide,
01:06American warships venture deep into the central Pacific.
01:10Bigger, faster, mightier carriers are the core of the task force
01:14destined to destroy the Japanese Empire.
01:17Around the carriers, the battleships are ringed.
01:20Around the battleships, the cruisers.
01:22Around the cruisers, destroyers.
01:25It is on, 1943.
01:28Radically new tactics are the United States Navy's answer
01:31to the challenge of World War II.
01:34♪♪♪
01:47The immediate targets are the Gilbert and Marshall Islands,
01:50scattered for 1,000 miles aboard the equator.
01:53Mandated to the Japanese in 1920,
01:56the islands are studded with enemy fortifications.
01:59Land-based planes cannot reach them.
02:02The Navy's floating airfields audaciously sail into striking range
02:05and deliver the blows that lead to invasion, to conquest.
02:09♪♪♪
02:24Like homing pigeons, the Hellcats and Corsairs return.
02:28Mission accomplished.
02:30Marcus Island has been worked over,
02:32but the flying sailors will be back.
02:35The carriers are nibbling at their prey, preparing for the kill.
02:40♪♪♪
02:49Pilots make their combat intelligence reports.
02:52This information is the blueprint for future assaults.
02:56After hard-hitting months at sea, the task force returns to base,
03:00to Pearl Harbor.
03:02♪♪♪
03:07Eighteen months ago, the scene of the most humiliating military catastrophe
03:11in the history of the United States.
03:14Today, Pearl Harbor is the mightiest of bases,
03:17sheltering an ever-expanding fleet, ever-increasing assault forces.
03:21And only minutes away is Honolulu,
03:24a secret haven in the midst of war,
03:26an interlude for sailors between battles.
03:29♪♪♪
03:58♪♪♪
04:08♪♪♪
04:33Assault troops.
04:35They come from places like Kansas, Alabama, and Oregon.
04:39They are destined for places like Tarawa, Kwajalein, and Inuitok.
04:44The names are worlds apart,
04:46but global strategy demands they be brought together.
04:49Tokyo lies 4,000 miles westward by sea.
04:53It cannot be reached unless these men first suffer,
04:56and bleed, and die,
04:58on intervening coral atolls that block the way.
05:01♪♪♪
05:22The victor of the Battle of Midway, Admiral Spruance,
05:25is named commander, Central Pacific Forces,
05:28by his chief, Admiral Nimitz.
05:30Under Spruance, powerful fast carrier forces sail from Pearl Harbor
05:35to test the possibilities of sustaining seaborne air power
05:38far from base, far from land support.
05:41The fleet is out to strike, to strike and stay.
05:46♪♪♪
06:01The fast, new Essex-class carriers bring air power where air power is needed,
06:05anywhere, anytime.
06:08Each of the 27,000-ton ships can be driven through the water
06:11at a speed that keeps pace with the fastest units in the fleet.
06:15♪♪♪
06:38The hours are long from battle to battle,
06:41and between their bouts with death,
06:43the ship's company and the pilots live and play as best they can.
06:47For the 2,500 sailors, the ship is a seagoing city,
06:52organized for the routine of day-to-day existence,
06:55as well as the requirements of war.
06:57♪♪♪
07:17♪♪♪
07:37♪♪♪
07:55But the business of warships is war,
07:58and the task force speeds steadily toward the target, into battle.
08:03♪♪♪
08:13The islands to be seized are part of Micronesia, the tiny islands.
08:17Strategy for the coming conquest is explained to the men who must execute the plans.
08:22While Marines claw up the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific,
08:26while soldiers push northwestward on New Guinea in the Southwest Pacific,
08:30the carrier group smash at enemy defenses in the Central Pacific,
08:34compelling him to split his forces, confusing him as to the main line of attack.
08:39The hour for action approaches.
08:41♪♪♪
08:56In the middle of the Pacific, in the middle of nowhere,
09:00every sailor in every part of the ship prepares for the coming attack.
09:05♪♪♪
09:16In the general mess, ships' cooks break out special chow
09:19they have stowed away for moments like this.
09:22Intense, long moments before battle.
09:25♪♪♪
09:47None says, but all know, some shipmates, at ease today,
09:53will be dead or wounded tomorrow.
09:56Dawn and action come all too soon.
10:00It is later than they dare think.
10:04♪♪♪
10:30♪♪♪
10:48The carrier planes go in to bomb and strafe the target,
10:51and the ships unleash arsenals of shell fire.
10:54At Taro and Makin, at Kwajalein and Inuitak,
10:58at Majuro, at Roy, and at Namur,
11:01sailors prepare the way for soldiers and marines.
11:04♪♪♪
11:31♪♪♪
11:58♪♪♪
12:22♪♪♪
12:29But no preparation can purge the landings of their terror.
12:33Japanese resistance makes an inferno of every beachhead,
12:36a hell of every shoreline.
12:39American troops are pushed to the limit of endurance,
12:42but they endure.
12:44♪♪♪
12:54♪♪♪
13:15Supply ships keep fighting ships at sea in combat.
13:19Though hundreds of miles from Pearl Harbor,
13:22though thousands of miles from California,
13:25there is no lack of essential ammunition, food, materiel, fuel,
13:30to keep the enemy on the run,
13:32to give those in battle more than they need to fight their fight.
13:52♪♪♪
14:20Carrier aircraft not only spearhead invasion,
14:23but they lend close support to ground troops when and where needed.
14:27Other carriers roam far afield to pound down such enemy bastions as Truk,
14:32a formidable fleet anchorage in the central Pacific,
14:35an island the Japanese have encrusted with armament,
14:38aircraft, pilots, and soldiers in their attempt to dominate Micronesia.
14:43♪♪♪
14:58♪♪♪
15:13♪♪♪
15:33♪♪♪
15:53♪♪♪
16:22Plane after plane, squadron after squadron, group after group,
16:27the carriers hurl skyward young pilots who will help break the Japanese hold on the central Pacific.
16:33Twelve fast carriers, 100 planes to every ship,
16:38fighting Hellcats, dive-bombing Dauntless,
16:41Avengers armed with torpedoes,
16:44winged warcraft fill the sky.
16:47♪♪♪
17:16♪♪♪
17:25♪♪♪
17:29Into combat information centers come the first warnings of counterattack,
17:33and all hands know the carriers will be the major targets.
17:37Radar data is swiftly translated into symbols and precisely plotted.
17:42The meaning of plot and symbol is all too clear,
17:45all too simple.
17:47Enemy planes approaching.
17:49♪♪♪♪
18:09♪♪♪
18:29Fighter direction officers order out the carriers' combat air patrol to intercept the attackers,
18:34beat them off, shoot them down.
18:37♪♪♪♪
19:06♪♪♪♪
19:35♪♪♪♪
20:02♪♪♪♪
20:08Over the crucial, burning islands,
20:11other carrier planes bomb and strafe in close support of the guy on the ground
20:15who is slugging it out with a rifle, a carbine,
20:18or perhaps a hand grenade, flamethrower, or bayonet.
20:22But it works.
20:23American soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen,
20:27as a team, crack and then pulverize the Japanese and their defenses.
20:57♪♪♪♪
21:24♪♪♪♪
21:29Island after island falls, and the Japanese never give up until they die.
21:35But there are always a few survivors, too stunned to fight on, too broken to resist.
21:41♪♪♪♪♪
22:05Back from the battle come the wounded and maimed.
22:10♪♪♪♪♪
22:16Back to the carriers come the shattered and crippled.
22:21♪♪♪♪♪
22:45♪♪♪♪♪
23:15♪♪♪♪♪
23:28The planes and their pilots, the ships and their sailors,
23:32the landing troops have destroyed the Japanese in the Central Pacific.
23:38They have profoundly altered the course of World War II.
23:42They have torn over 800,000 square miles of Pacific Ocean area from the enemy.
23:48Tarawa. Kwajalein.
23:51Enewetak. War.
23:55Tarawa. Kwajalein. Enewetak. Sacrifice.
24:03Tarawa. Kwajalein. Enewetak. Victory.
24:11♪♪♪♪♪♪
24:39The conquest of Micronesia.
24:42♪♪♪♪♪♪
24:50Oh God, we pray Thee that the memory of our comrades fallen in battle
24:58be ever sacred in our hearts
25:01and that the sacrifice which they have offered for our country's cause
25:06may be acceptable in Thy sight.
25:09♪♪♪♪♪♪
25:24And may this sailor find repose with the plane in which he gave his life
25:31that we might live.
25:34Into Thy hands, O Lord, we commend the soul of Thy servant departed,
25:41now called unto eternal rest,
25:45and we commit his body to the deep.
25:50♪♪♪♪♪♪