Air Power Disc 3
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00:00:00In 1931, the Japanese General Staff is training a soldier who will not surrender, a soldier
00:00:14who will die rather than surrender.
00:00:211942, the South Pacific.
00:00:30The Japanese military planners have succeeded.
00:00:34The average Japanese soldier believes that if he surrenders, he brings disgrace not only
00:00:39upon his country and himself, but upon his whole family as well.
00:00:44Unless he will fight well, and he will die well, his mind admits no other possibilities.
00:00:55How shall we fight an enemy who will not surrender?
00:00:59We must find another way to fight the forgotten war and destroy the Japanese who will not
00:01:04surrender.
00:01:05There is only one tedious, long plan that may work.
00:01:10Destroy the Japanese, not with bullets, but with starvation.
00:01:15Here is the Allied plan of battle in the South Pacific.
00:01:18The Japanese supply chain to New Guinea seems vulnerable.
00:01:22We will attempt to blockade all supplies coming over water to New Guinea with sea power and
00:01:27air power.
00:01:28At the same time, the Japanese supply bases on New Guinea will be interdicted by American
00:01:34air power.
00:01:36The first step must be the destruction of the Japanese ground-based air power on New
00:01:40Guinea.
00:01:41Top secret, estimate of New Guinea-based Japanese air force.
00:01:49There is some misapprehension to the effect that the Japanese air force is a third-rate
00:01:53carbon copy of a Western air force.
00:01:56The facts are the Japanese Zero has better high-altitude capabilities, better maneuverability
00:02:03than any plane the Allies own.
00:02:05The Japanese fliers in New Guinea were combat-trained in China.
00:02:09They are as good as any group of Western pilots in the air.
00:02:14The Japanese spirit of death before surrender is evidenced by the fact that the Japanese
00:02:18airmen do not wear parachutes.
00:02:24Most serious, the Japanese bombers can operate 2,000 to 10,000 feet above any intercepting
00:02:31planes.
00:02:32Thus the Japanese can bomb us at will.
00:02:35The American air force is operating with obsolescent P-39s and P-40s.
00:02:42Spare parts must be scavenged from wrecked planes.
00:02:46Everything is in short supply.
00:02:50Shortly after this report was made, a new American fighter plane arrives in the Pacific.
00:02:56The twin-tailed P-38, the Lightning, a rugged, fast plane which is supposedly designed to
00:03:02win superiority for the Americans at high altitude.
00:03:06But the P-38 is designed for the European war and must be adapted for South Pacific
00:03:11fighting.
00:03:12There are only a handful of them, not enough to win aerial supremacy unless they are used
00:03:16with the older and more numerous P-40s.
00:03:43The Lightnings are flying top cover.
00:03:45Below the Lightnings are the P-40s waiting to take on the enemy planes when the Lightnings
00:03:50drive them to middle altitudes.
00:03:5225,000 feet, the Japanese air force aims at Fort Moresby.
00:03:5830,000 feet, the Lightnings dive to the attack.
00:04:2820,000 feet, the American P-40s can complete the kill now that the Japanese planes have
00:04:52been forced down to the middle altitudes.
00:05:2218,000 feet, stripped of their fighter protection and driven to low altitudes, the Japanese
00:05:33bombers are vulnerable.
00:05:47100 feet, with the air above them cleared, the American B-25s can counterattack.
00:06:07They come in at treetop level to strike the enemy planes on the ground.
00:06:30The Japanese cannot control the air, even over their own airstrips.
00:06:38The first line of enemy pilots is rapidly being wiped out or exhausted.
00:06:46The Japanese know that unless they can reinforce these bases, they will have to be abandoned.
00:06:54If the New Guinea offensive is to continue, the airmen of the Emperor must be resupplied.
00:07:08In New Guinea, both sides not only fight each other, they fight for life in a land where
00:07:13civilized man cannot live.
00:07:19In some parts of New Guinea, you could expect 120 inches of rain a year.
00:07:28You'd go for months without getting dry.
00:07:32The mud gave you trench foot, the stagnant water gave you mildew fungus in the inner
00:07:36ear, mosquitoes, malaria, dengue fever.
00:07:45No matter how sick or lonely you were, there was always somebody who was worse off, because
00:07:51no disease is worse than combat, and nothing hurts more than shrapnel.
00:08:15Still, all the Americans have food and adequate medical supplies.
00:08:42The situation is worse for the Japanese.
00:08:45If the enemy's New Guinea offensive is to continue, the soldiers of the Emperor need
00:08:50help.
00:08:54Four hundred miles away, in the harbor of Rabaul, Japanese supplies for New Guinea.
00:09:00Four hundred miles away, everything needed to bolster the faltering attack of the Imperial
00:09:04Army.
00:09:19Message from General Imamuro, Japanese Army Commander, to Admiral Kusaka, Japanese Naval
00:09:24Commander, request resupply of New Guinea garrison at Lye.
00:09:36Field order from General Imamuro, 7,000 soldiers are ordered to reinforce the Papuan Peninsula
00:09:42of New Guinea by March 3rd, 1943.
00:09:49A Japanese convoy of 16 ships, including four warships, leaves New Britain.
00:10:17The Lye resupply convoy departs Rabaul, New Guinea, 28 February, 1943.
00:10:24Under the cover of bad weather, it will move through the Bismarck Sea.
00:10:29Under land-based air protection, the convoy will turn into Vityaya Strait and proceed
00:10:34to Lye.
00:10:36Only one thing can stop the Japanese from reinforcing New Guinea, Allied air power.
00:11:00These are medium bombers.
00:11:30B-25s.
00:11:31They were built to bomb at 12,000 feet.
00:11:35The original idea was that the pilot would control four forward-firing machine guns.
00:11:40But in the South Pacific, the rules are thrown away.
00:11:44The bombardier has been eliminated so the plane can be equipped with up to 14 machine
00:11:49guns firing forward.
00:11:51The high-altitude bomb site has been thrown away.
00:11:54The oxygen equipment has been thrown away.
00:11:58These planes will fight the battle right down on the deck just as low as they can get.
00:12:05Before the B-25s reach the battle area, the heavy, high-altitude B-17s prepare for the
00:12:11attack.
00:12:28The enemy ships begin a turning maneuver to spoil the bombardier's aim.
00:12:40The high-altitude attack is only moderately successful.
00:12:47Now the Royal Australian Boforts and Bofighters are brought down to the deck.
00:12:57The American B-25s are maneuvered into position.
00:13:06And the concentrated, low-level attack begins.
00:13:51At the critical moment, 500-pound bombs are skipped into the sides of the Japanese ships.
00:14:21The firepower of the land-based aircraft is devastating.
00:14:40Of 16 ships, 12 will be beached or sunk.
00:14:45But the battle against Japanese supply is not over.
00:14:49The Allied planes bear inland, searching out the remnants of the enemy's material.
00:14:53The techniques that worked at masthead level will work at palm tree height.
00:15:08Fragmentation bombs attached to parachutes.
00:15:32Relayed action bombs.
00:16:02Rotting in the holds of the Japanese ships are supplies that will never reach their troops.
00:16:07Although the campaign in the South Pacific is far from over, Japanese offensive hopes
00:16:11lie broken on the water's edge.
00:16:32And the tides of the Bismarck Sea wash ashore the bodies of the men who were killed by Allied
00:16:38air power.
00:16:48Death has come to the soldier who 10 years before learned the goal of the Japanese warrior.
00:16:54Family or death.
00:17:15A bomb-shocked survivor is taken prisoner against his will.
00:17:18He must be tied down to prevent him from committing suicide.
00:17:23There is no greater disgrace than surrender.
00:17:27Ten years before, he had learned Bushido, the unbreakable code of the Japanese soldier.
00:17:39Victory or death.
00:17:41Never surrender.
00:17:50Thus the New Guinea rainforest closes around the starving Japanese.
00:17:56100,000 bypassed Japanese in New Guinea will eat their last meal and then die in the rainforest.
00:18:20Without food, without medicine, the blockaded Japanese perish in New Guinea.
00:18:36Each white box contains the remains of a Japanese soldier, sailor, or airman.
00:18:41The Japanese dead are being returned to the homeland.
00:18:52In a land where the military dominates the Japanese religion, the militarist has this
00:18:57explanation of death.
00:18:59In our struggle against the enemy's industrial resources, we must put our spirits and bodies
00:19:04against American steel.
00:19:06Death is necessary for victory.
00:19:14In a land where the military dominates the press, victory is worshipped and defeat is
00:19:19not mentioned.
00:19:21Only the highest officials know that Japan has been reversed at Midway and New Guinea.
00:19:39A spokesman of the general staff says, the only thing we fear is that the enemy will
00:19:44not come out to do battle.
00:19:46The Pacific is a Japanese lake through which we can travel with impunity.
00:19:52This is not solely boasting.
00:19:54In 1943, American propaganda has overplayed the Japanese defeats and underplayed the Japanese
00:20:01victories.
00:20:04For the Pacific is a Japanese lake.
00:20:09The Marianas are Japanese.
00:20:12The Philippines are Japanese.
00:20:15The Marshalls are Japanese.
00:20:18The Gilberts are Japanese.
00:20:21Only in New Guinea and the Solomons are the Allies resisting.
00:20:31Of all the Allied surface weapons, only one is sufficiently strong to venture into Japanese
00:20:37territory, the American aircraft carrier.
00:20:41Across Pearl Harbor and Midway, the aircraft carrier is the dominant silhouette of the
00:20:45scenes.
00:21:00An aircraft carrier is a landing strip moving at 30 knots into the wind.
00:21:05Carrier landing requires practice and skill.
00:21:09It takes teamwork between the pilots and the deck crew.
00:21:14Flaps down, arresting gear down, power on.
00:21:19Both eyes on the landing signal officer.
00:21:21The technique is to keep the nose high and the tail low so the tail hook will catch one
00:21:25of the wires stretched across the deck.
00:21:31There's a slot that leads down the center of the deck and the landing signal officer's
00:21:35job is to see that you come up the groove.
00:21:39Pick up your wing.
00:21:45Set it down easy.
00:21:51Cut your power.
00:21:59Out of the groove, waved off.
00:22:05A little high, but within limits.
00:22:12Bad landing coming up.
00:22:16He bounces over the deck wires and hits the barrier that protects the aircraft part forward.
00:22:27Farther down the deck, the plane directors do a ballet underneath the propellers of the
00:22:31parking airplanes.
00:22:40About an inch of deck space can be wasted.
00:23:00Roll the wings.
00:23:03You're home.
00:23:13November 1943.
00:23:16The Pacific Fleet is being ordered into its greatest offensive action to date.
00:23:23For three days, the big carriers lay to refueling.
00:23:26And safe waters, fuel oil, aviation gas, and supplies come aboard.
00:23:48Now from Hawaii and New Zealand, from San Diego, Pearl Harbor, Samoa, and Guadalcanal,
00:23:54the task force assembles.
00:23:57The whole armada covers 50 square miles of ocean.
00:24:01The fleet is steaming to an island of only 290 acres, Tarawa.
00:24:19Here is our objective, Tarawa and its airstrip.
00:24:48Control of Tarawa means control of the Gilbert Islands.
00:24:52Control of the Gilberts means bases from which we can invade the Marshalls.
00:24:57Control of the Marshalls means bases from which we can invade the Marianas.
00:25:02Control of the Marianas means bases from which we can attack Japan herself.
00:25:07This is the central Pacific pattern.
00:25:13The center of the pattern is the American aircraft carrier.
00:25:16The planes are armed and ready.
00:25:19The Army Air Force has already bombed Tarawa.
00:25:22The naval carriers will finish the job.
00:25:25The naval pilots are told there is the suspicion the Japanese have abandoned Tarawa.
00:25:30Nevertheless, the bombing and shelling will far exceed anything ever done in the past.
00:25:36Never in the history of warfare will so much high explosive be dropped on so small an area.
00:25:54Against 290 Japanese acres, we launch 200 planes.
00:26:20Within 7 minutes, the few enemy planes on the airstrip are knocked out.
00:26:42The island is bombed and the returning planes report no signs of life.
00:26:48Nevertheless, the fire control centers call for the first of 3,000 tons of naval shells.
00:26:5910,000 yards from the beach, the Marines transfer to the landing craft.
00:27:28The run-in has been timed for high tide so that the heavier ships can sail over the coral reef.
00:27:556,000 yards.
00:27:58The first error is apparent.
00:28:00The tide is moving in the wrong direction.
00:28:02It is low tide, not high, but there's no answering fire from the beach.
00:28:08The island may be abandoned.
00:28:133,000 yards.
00:28:18The enemy is there.
00:28:322,000 yards.
00:28:37The Japanese are on Tarawa in great strength.
00:28:501,000 yards.
00:28:52Low tide.
00:28:53The landing craft run aground on the coral below the waterline.
00:28:57There is nothing the trapped Marines can do but go ashore on foot.
00:29:01Troops wade to the beach line against increasing small arms fire.
00:29:2510 yards.
00:29:26Some units cannot gain the beach.
00:29:43The small, narrow beachhead is only 20 yards at its deepest point.
00:29:47It is already too expensive.
00:30:04For the first time in the history of the United States Marines, this signal is sent.
00:30:09Issue in doubt.
00:30:11If the enemy mounts a counterattack, he will push us into the sea.
00:30:37On the second day, the 2nd Marine Division makes its move inland.
00:31:02The Navy has fired 3,000 tons of high explosive into one half a mile of island.
00:31:08The carrier planes have flown 1,000 sorties.
00:31:12It still takes the flamethrower, the machine gun, the rifle, and courage.
00:32:02On the fourth day, Tarawa is secured.
00:32:24But the cost is heavy.
00:32:25A unit finds six men out of 10 have been wounded.
00:32:31One out of eight lays dead on the beach.
00:32:41The battle for Tarawa is won.
00:33:03Some men talked about Tarawa in terms of tactics.
00:33:10Some men talked in terms of how many sorties had been flown.
00:33:15Some said we should have done more bombing.
00:33:21Others said we needed more rockets, or we could have worked closer to the infantry.
00:33:28The facts were, and we knew it, that a lot of Marines were dead, but not one airman had
00:33:35died at Tarawa.
00:33:45A new kind of carrier action is called for.
00:33:48The Japanese could not have built Tarawa into a fortress if they did not have a supply bastion
00:33:54deep in the central Pacific.
00:33:56This supply point is the strongest Japanese position outside the home islands.
00:34:02If it can be neutralized, further invasions may not be so costly.
00:34:08The island is Truk.
00:34:11Truk is the Japanese Gibraltar.
00:34:14Truk supplies the Marshalls, the Marianas, the Carolines, New Guinea.
00:34:23Truk will not be invaded.
00:34:25Truk will be destroyed from the air.
00:34:55βͺβͺβͺ
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00:36:05Japanese sound detectors pick up the American planes.
00:36:16The Japanese fighter strength on Truk equals the incoming Americans.
00:36:25The Japanese Zero is the same plane used in the attack on Pearl Harbor.
00:36:33The Americans are flying a new fighter, the Hellcat.
00:36:37Slightly less maneuverable than the Zero, the Hellcat is more rugged
00:36:41and can out-climb and out-dive the enemy.
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00:38:22Once the American fighters have won supremacy, the dive bombers are sent in.
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00:38:48The fighter victory is so overwhelming that not a single enemy plane challenges the dive bombers.
00:38:56The only resistance comes from the enemy's anti-aircraft guns.
00:39:02The white balls floating up lazily are Japanese anti-aircraft bullets.
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00:39:25The enemy ships in the lagoon are in an impossible position.
00:39:29If they stay in truck, they have no protection.
00:39:33If they try to leave the harbor, the surface forces of the United States Navy are waiting to destroy them.
00:39:39In one day, naval air power sinks 200,000 tons of shipping.
00:39:45βͺβͺβͺ
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00:39:57Coming home.
00:40:01Some planes have been hauled by flak.
00:40:05The formations are ragged.
00:40:09Some are low on gas.
00:40:13But most make it.
00:40:29He runs out of gas just short of the carrier.
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00:41:13The plane is thrown overboard to clear the flight deck.
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00:41:37The victory at Truk is not without cost.
00:41:41But after the American carrier has landed,
00:41:45but after the American carrier strikes,
00:41:49the Japanese write off Truk as a naval base.
00:41:53The air in the Central Pacific has been cleared of enemy opposition.
00:41:57βͺβͺβͺ
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00:42:09Now air power reaches to the west
00:42:13and to the north toward the last islands, Japan.
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00:42:45American B-24s,
00:42:49outbound to Truk, Wewak, Biak, the Carolines,
00:42:53the Marianas.
00:42:57Outbound to a hundred places whose names Americans never knew before the war
00:43:01and have forgotten since the war.
00:43:05The B-24, a flying gas tank,
00:43:09not wanted in the European theater of operations because it handles like a truck
00:43:13and cannot easily be flown in formation.
00:43:17The B-24 sent to the Pacific because it has the longest range of any American airplane.
00:43:21Over the vast Pacific, range is essential.
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00:43:33Flags straight ahead.
00:43:37They're wide. Phosphorus 100 feet low.
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00:43:45I'm clutched in. Estimate the target.
00:43:4930 seconds.
00:43:53Bomb's away.
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00:44:07Truk, Wewak, Biak, the Carolines, the Marianas.
00:44:11The B-24 was not designed for this kind of bombing.
00:44:15It was built as a strategic weapon to bomb the enemy's home industries.
00:44:19But in the spring of 1944,
00:44:23we are 3,000 miles short of Japan.
00:44:27This long-range bomber is the tip of our offensive spear,
00:44:31the longest-reaching tactical weapon in our arsenal.
00:44:35The B-24 strikes at Japanese shipping, Japanese supply dumps,
00:44:39Japanese airfields.
00:44:43But not yet at Japan itself.
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00:44:59The losses are never as high as Europe, but some planes will never return.
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00:45:09Some men will never return.
00:45:13Some run short of gas and ditch in the Pacific.
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00:45:41Some run into trouble and try to make it into the first field they see.
00:45:45Wheels up, coming into a fighter base where the runway is too short for a heavy bomber.
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00:46:29Most make it home to airstrips bought in blood.
00:46:33Buena Mission, Bella Lavella, Ley, Munda.
00:46:37A hundred places whose names have been forgotten.
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00:46:57Most make it home to tropical heat, boredom, uneasiness, uncertainty.
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00:47:10Most make it home to the bomber bases.
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00:47:20This is the bomber line in May 1944.
00:47:24We hold parts of New Guinea and some of the islands in the Bismarck Sea.
00:47:29The bomber line threatens the Japanese positions in the Carolines.
00:47:33We hold the Solomons and the Gilberts.
00:47:37The bomber line protects our convoys to Australia.
00:47:40We hold bases in the Marshalls.
00:47:43The bomber line threatens Japanese positions in the Marianas.
00:47:47But there is a 3,000-mile gap between our bomber line and Japan.
00:47:54The logical step, the next chain of islands, the Marianas.
00:48:00In May of 1944, the Americans assemble an invasion fleet.
00:48:05A correspondent wrote,
00:48:07We have assembled 500 ugly ships and are loading them with a quarter of a million naval shells
00:48:12and more than a half million cubic feet of refrigerated foodstuffs.
00:48:16We are carrying railroad equipment for the narrow-gauge railroad we expect to repair on Saipan.
00:48:24We've brought together 130,000 men and 10 million rounds of small arms.
00:48:29Saipan and the Marianas will fall because the percentages are all ours.
00:48:39But there's another percentage nobody talks much about.
00:48:42In two years of invading islands,
00:48:44we've learned that there will be slightly more than one American casualty
00:48:48for every two Japanese soldiers on the island.
00:48:51This means that 10,000 Americans of this group
00:48:54will be killed, wounded, or missing by the time Saipan is taken.
00:49:0010,000 casualties at a minimum.
00:49:03That's what it will cost to advance the bomber line 1,000 miles.
00:49:25The approach to battle takes three weeks.
00:49:28During the first days, poker, crap games, speculation, conversation.
00:49:48Later, the ships are quieter.
00:49:50Casual discussions disappear.
00:49:54Slowly, the tension relaxes.
00:49:57The sea is so vast that there seems no end to the voyage.
00:50:01It is so calm that danger seems remote.
00:50:04All hands, now hear this.
00:50:07The destination of this task force is the Marianas.
00:50:12This unit is assigned to the invasion of Saipan.
00:50:16Our primary objective is the Acelito airfield.
00:50:20Resistance is expected to be heavy.
00:50:23Unit commanders will make known all particulars of the order of battle.
00:50:28That is all.
00:51:24Gunfire
00:51:32The barrage continues for two days and nights.
00:51:35After the first hours, the effects of any bombardment must diminish.
00:51:40The enemy is either dead or hidden in fortified positions.
00:51:44Saipan is riddled with caves,
00:51:46and only a direct hit at the mouth of a cave can be effective.
00:51:53The fire is shifted to the shoreline to cover the first waves of American troops.
00:52:24The attack force, the 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions.
00:52:28The reserve force, the 27th Infantry Division.
00:52:54Now it's all behind you.
00:52:59All the big ships, the big guns, the training, the planning.
00:53:03It's all behind you.
00:53:09You're all alone, and in the next 10 minutes you may be dead.
00:53:14All you have left in the world are the 12 men in your squad.
00:53:18What happens to them happens to you.
00:53:21You're going where they're going.
00:53:38Japanese resistance begins.
00:53:41Not all the enemy's heavy guns have been knocked out.
00:53:45The Japanese begin to recover from the effects of the naval bombardment.
00:53:51Japanese artillery begins to find the range of the American landing craft.
00:54:21The first waves land without too much difficulty.
00:54:25There is some disorganization because some units have landed in beaches not assigned to them.
00:54:31The move inland is delayed.
00:54:34The whole action is behind schedule.
00:54:40The Japanese have a long way to go,
00:54:43but the Japanese have a long way to go.
00:54:48The Japanese have regrouped.
00:54:51They begin heavy fire against the beachhead.
00:54:56Explosion
00:55:16The American beachhead is 100 yards deep, but it is pinned to the sand and not moving.
00:55:26Some troops begin to dig in.
00:55:31If the assault waves dig in on the beach,
00:55:34they will be slaughtered by the enemy's mortars and artillery.
00:55:40But if the men get up, they will be in an exposed position.
00:55:45The issue is in balance.
00:55:50Everyone waits for the next man to move.
00:55:53Then one man takes command.
00:55:56The rest follow, and the Marines get up and go in.
00:56:23Explosion
00:56:47As the Americans reach toward the first airfield,
00:56:50the Japanese resistance between the beach and the first airstrip crumbles.
00:56:56The battlefield turns quiet.
00:57:02There are two possibilities.
00:57:04Either the enemy has decided not to defend the flat land surrounding Aslito Field,
00:57:09or he is drawing the Americans into an exposed position.
00:57:14Explosion
00:57:19The order of the day reads, advance with caution.
00:57:23Secure the airfield, but be prepared to withdraw if the Japanese counterattack.
00:57:32Aslito Airfield is taken.
00:57:35Explosion
00:57:45Heavy equipment comes ashore immediately.
00:57:52Tractors and bulldozers to clear away the wrecked Japanese equipment.
00:57:58Explosion
00:58:03Raiders and sheep's foot rollers to lengthen the runway.
00:58:08Putting the equipment on shore so soon is a calculated risk.
00:58:12We are concentrating our material into a small area.
00:58:17A major counterattack could be disastrous.
00:58:21But a serviceable airstrip will permit American fighter planes to land.
00:58:27The airfield is our first objective, and we must take the risk.
00:58:41The Japanese prepare their counterattack.
00:58:44It is to be a maneuver without military meaning,
00:58:47but with great religious overtones to the Japanese themselves.
00:58:51A banzai charge, a suicide attack which will not end until the last Japanese is dead.
00:58:58Explosion
00:59:08Gunfire
00:59:12Explosion
00:59:25The American lines waver, but the attack is beaten off.
00:59:31Now the infighting begins.
00:59:42The remaining Japanese are holed up in the caves of Saipan.
00:59:46They will not surrender. They must be burned in their caves.
01:00:02They will not surrender. They must be blown out of their caves by grenades.
01:00:11Explosion
01:00:17They will not surrender. They must be killed by small arms fire.
01:00:27The Japanese lose 32,000 men.
01:00:36The Americans take 16,000 casualties.
01:00:41Music
01:00:44Music
01:01:06We underestimated the number of Japanese on Saipan by 12,000.
01:01:12We underestimated how bitter the fight would be to extract the Japanese from the caves of Saipan.
01:01:18The Japanese suicide charge split the ranks of one division and led to heavy American casualties.
01:01:28On Saipan, 16,000 casualties.
01:01:32On Tinian, 2,500 casualties.
01:01:36On Guam, 10,000 casualties.
01:01:40Total casualties before the Marianas are secured, 28,000.
01:01:46Music
01:02:01Explosion
01:02:04The Marianas are American.
01:02:07We took our losses so that we could build airstrips.
01:02:12We mourn our dead, hospitalize our wounded, and build airstrips.
01:02:1828,000 feet of runways are being built.
01:02:22For each foot, one American casualty.
01:02:26Music
01:02:36There's no longer any need for combat men.
01:02:39The war is turned over to the machines.
01:02:42The battlefield is becoming an airfield.
01:02:57There's something special about the runways we are building.
01:03:01Their foundations are more than twice as thick as the runways of any bomber base ever built in the Pacific.
01:03:07Their width is half again as great as any strip we have ever built.
01:03:16A B-24 bomber can land in a mile of runway,
01:03:20but the bulldozers scratch out airstrips a mile and a half long.
01:03:24Only a handful of officers know why the extra half mile of runway is necessary.
01:03:36Then, in the skies above the island, a new airplane, the B-29.
01:03:44Inbound to Saipan, Tinian, Guam, the Marianas.
01:03:50Inbound, the Superfortress, the highest, biggest, fastest bomber of the war.
01:03:55Inbound to take over the battle.
01:04:01This is an airplane built to fight the war in a new way.
01:04:05Not a tactical bomber, not a weapon to be used against the Japanese Army and Navy,
01:04:10but a strategic bomber built to destroy Japanese industry and the Japanese home islands.
01:04:19Now that the Marianas have been taken, strategic bombardment of Japan can begin.
01:04:30This is what the sacrifice of the foot soldier was for.
01:04:34This airplane will carry the burden of the war to Japan.
01:04:39This airplane will end World War II.
01:04:49βͺβͺ
01:05:05The emperor is troubled. The war is going badly.
01:05:09The Americans are in the Marianas only 1,500 miles away.
01:05:13The high command knows that Japan can no longer win the war,
01:05:17but they dare not admit the possibility of defeat.
01:05:21The home army numbers two million,
01:05:23and behind the strength of the Japanese military forces are the factories,
01:05:27the strategic heart of the Japanese war machine.
01:05:31βͺβͺ
01:05:35By late summer 1944, Japanese effort is concentrated on preparations for defense.
01:05:41The apparently inevitable invasion is coming.
01:05:44The Japanese strategy is, let the Americans come.
01:05:48When the Americans invade, they will face so great a strength of weapons and men
01:05:53that no battle in history will be bloodier.
01:05:56This is the only strategic plan the Japanese have left.
01:06:00The strategic resources of the nation are concentrated for this purpose alone.
01:06:05βͺβͺ
01:06:27The American Air Force also has a strategic plan.
01:06:31From the Marianas Islands, 1,500 miles to the southeast,
01:06:35throw an aerial and naval blockade around the home islands.
01:06:39From the Marianas, bomb the factories that make the tools of war.
01:06:45From the Marianas, destroy the Japanese capacity to make war.
01:06:51The Air Force hopes that an invasion of Japan will not be necessary,
01:06:55for the strategic weapon is at hand.
01:06:58βͺβͺ
01:07:04In theory, this strategic bomber should settle the issue.
01:07:08In theory, we know just where the bomb should be placed.
01:07:12First priority, bomb the Japanese aircraft industry.
01:07:16Halt the manufacture of military planes.
01:07:20Establish air supremacy over Japan.
01:07:25Second priority, bomb Japanese port and urban industrial areas.
01:07:30Submarines will blockade Japan.
01:07:33B-29s will destroy the enemy's tools.
01:07:36This is the theory of strategic bombardment.
01:07:39These are the weapons.
01:07:42βͺβͺ
01:07:48The 21st Bomber Command at Saipan is combat ready.
01:07:52Its first target, the Nakajima Aircraft Engine Plant,
01:07:56producing nearly 30% of all combat aircraft engines in Japan.
01:08:00For the first time since the Doolittle Raid,
01:08:03two and one half years earlier,
01:08:05American bombers are flying a mission to Tokyo.
01:08:09βͺβͺ
01:08:13βͺβͺ
01:08:17βͺβͺ
01:08:21βͺβͺ
01:08:2424 November 1944,
01:08:27the first super fort raid against Tokyo.
01:08:30The attitude of the command staff is one of confidence.
01:08:33Some opposition is expected from enemy fighters or flak,
01:08:36but casualties are expected to be light.
01:08:39The B-29 is especially designed for this kind of mission.
01:08:43It is the first very long range, high altitude precision bomber.
01:08:47The planes carry enough bombs to destroy the Nakajima plant
01:08:51on this single mission alone.
01:08:55111 super forts carrying a bomb load of over half a million pounds.
01:09:01The first wave of the strategic Pacific-based assault against Japan.
01:09:06The theory of continuous strategic bombardment in the Pacific
01:09:10is about to be tested.
01:09:12βͺβͺ
01:09:30Five hours out of the Marianas and still several hundred miles from Japan,
01:09:35the B-29s encounter a typically severe weather front
01:09:38and are forced to climb.
01:09:40The planes are unable to go above or around the storm.
01:09:44They must go through it.
01:09:46βͺβͺ
01:09:59Some planes are driven so far off course that they miss Japan completely.
01:10:06Coming into the target, an unexpected obstacle.
01:10:09The B-29s are swept along by the fastest winds in any part of the world,
01:10:14a river of air called the jet stream.
01:10:17The winds increase the speed of the bombers by approximately 40%.
01:10:21The super forts are moving too fast for accurate bombardment.
01:10:26The bombardiers cannot compensate for the wind speed.
01:10:32The target is obscured by clouds.
01:10:36βͺβͺ
01:10:47Only 24 of the 111 bombers hit the target.
01:10:52Less than 20 tons of bombs fall into the target area.
01:10:56Most fall wide into the dock and urban areas and into Tokyo Bay.
01:11:01βͺβͺ
01:11:11Japanese fighter defense is less effective than anticipated.
01:11:15βͺβͺ
01:11:40Japanese planes drop phosphorus bombs into the American formations.
01:11:47Only one super fort is lost, rammed by a suicidal Japanese fighter.
01:11:52βͺβͺ
01:11:57The score is even.
01:11:59Less than 1% loss to the attacking B-29s.
01:12:04Less than 1% damage to the aircraft engine factory.
01:12:08βͺβͺ
01:12:14The homework flight is 1,500 miles.
01:12:17The bombers have expended their fuel reserves fighting the storm.
01:12:22The trip home is five hours of tension.
01:12:25There is an absolute minimum of fuel.
01:12:281,500 miles with no place to land, no place to jump,
01:12:33nothing but the Pacific below.
01:12:36βͺβͺ
01:13:05βͺβͺ
01:13:13Tank by tank, the fuel gauges re-empty.
01:13:19All tanks are almost dry when the Marianas come into view.
01:13:24βͺβͺ
01:13:35The crippled planes come in first.
01:13:38The right outboard engine is feathered.
01:13:41βͺβͺ
01:14:01βͺβͺ
01:14:28βͺβͺ
01:14:41βͺβͺ
01:15:06βͺβͺ
01:15:19During the next three months, this is how they will come home.
01:15:23Short of fuel, straining to make the runway.
01:15:26Although bombing results will improve,
01:15:29Japanese resistance will also increase.
01:15:32During the next three months, the number of ditchings increase.
01:15:36There is nothing wrong with the theory of strategic bombardment.
01:15:40There's nothing wrong with the Superfort.
01:15:42It is a rugged plane that can take battle damage
01:15:45which would down any other bomber.
01:15:47The men fly their missions, take their losses,
01:15:50and return when they can to the bomber bases.
01:15:53The men know the bombers need fighter escort over Japan.
01:15:57The crippled bombers need a refueling and repair point
01:16:00between the Marianas and Japan.
01:16:03With a refueling point, we could carry less gas and more bombs.
01:16:07Something must be done.
01:16:10A hundred minor modifications are made in the Superforts.
01:16:22The orders come down the chain of command.
01:16:24The 7th Air Force and all available bombers of the 20th Air Force
01:16:29are ordered to bomb a new target, Iwo Jima.
01:16:35It is 1,500 miles from the Marianas to Japan.
01:16:39Halfway between the Marianas and Japan is a small island, Iwo Jima.
01:16:45For 72 days previous to the invasion,
01:16:48the bombers will strike the island.
01:16:51Then 61,000 Marines will take Iwo Jima.
01:16:55Iwo Jima is only eight square miles of volcanic ash and rock
01:16:59dominated by Mount Suribachi.
01:17:02It has only two assets.
01:17:04It is 700 miles closer to Tokyo.
01:17:07It has three airfields.
01:17:25βͺβͺ
01:17:30βͺβͺ
01:17:35βͺβͺ
01:17:40βͺβͺ
01:17:44Marines are told to expect a three or four-day battle.
01:17:49The Navy will deliver a three-day barrage preceding the landings.
01:17:53βͺβͺ
01:17:58But the Marines are veterans of island warfare.
01:18:01They know the Japanese tactics.
01:18:04The enemy will be underground, hidden in caves.
01:18:08The enemy will be protected by thick-walled concrete fortifications.
01:18:13The Marines know they will take Iwo as they have taken other islands,
01:18:18by individual combat.
01:18:21The last religious service aboard ship before D-Day.
01:18:25βͺβͺ
01:18:35βͺβͺ
01:18:51βͺβͺ
01:18:56βͺβͺ
01:19:06βͺβͺ
01:19:16βͺβͺ
01:19:24βͺβͺ
01:19:30D-Day, February 19, 1945.
01:19:35βͺβͺ
01:19:45βͺβͺ
01:19:55βͺβͺ
01:20:05βͺβͺ
01:20:13No answering fire from the shore.
01:20:16βͺβͺ
01:20:31The first waves of Marines land unopposed.
01:20:34They cross the island at its narrowest point.
01:20:37Then the enemy opens fire.
01:20:39βͺβͺ
01:20:45Naval and aerial bombardment have caused little damage to the enemy's fortifications.
01:20:50Japanese artillery and mortars are zeroed in on every foot of the island.
01:20:55βͺβͺ
01:21:08By noon, it is apparent that this will be the costliest battle in Marine history.
01:21:13By noon, casualties in some battalions are as high as 25%.
01:21:19βͺβͺ
01:21:25The surface ships are called on to support the Marines.
01:21:28βͺβͺ
01:21:33The vessels move almost to the shore to fire point-blank into the Japanese positions
01:21:37only yards from the attacking Marines.
01:21:39βͺβͺ
01:22:01A tank attack fails.
01:22:03There is no room for maneuver, for flanking attacks, or deception.
01:22:07There's only one order, move straight ahead.
01:22:11Take the losses and get it over quickly.
01:22:15It cannot be done quickly.
01:22:17The enemy is too well entrenched.
01:22:20βͺβͺ
01:22:50βͺβͺ
01:23:07On the fifth day, the Marines take Mount Suribachi.
01:23:11βͺβͺ
01:23:2021 days later, Iwo Jima is officially declared secure.
01:23:25The eight square miles of Iwo Jima cost 19,000 Marine and Navy wounded,
01:23:316,800 Marine and Navy dead.
01:23:34The price is fantastic, but the price had to be paid.
01:23:38βͺβͺ
01:23:53From now until the war ends, some 2,400 crippled planes
01:23:57will make emergency landings at Iwo.
01:24:00βͺβͺ
01:24:0625,000 American flyers who might not have returned to the Marianas
01:24:10will be saved because the Marines took Iwo Jima.
01:24:15The first crippled super forts land even before the concrete surface has been laid.
01:24:20βͺβͺ
01:24:49βͺβͺ
01:24:56After Iwo is taken, Japan is doomed.
01:25:00Strategic bombardment will end the war.
01:25:04βͺβͺ
01:25:35βͺβͺ
01:25:40βͺβͺ
01:25:47It is early 1945.
01:25:49Japanese contradictions are apparent even on the surface.
01:25:53Old isolationist Japan mingles with modern expansionist Japan.
01:25:58The Japanese are costumed in two contradictory attitudes,
01:26:02progress and isolation.
01:26:05Japan has become the most industrialized nation of the East,
01:26:09the fourth largest industrial country of the world.
01:26:12Its whole war machine runs on an industrial base,
01:26:16and yet material weapons of the war mean little.
01:26:19The strategic heart of Japan may sustain her war effort,
01:26:23but a Japanese spokesman says, and the country believes,
01:26:26that the weapons of war are nothing more than the extension of the medieval samurai sword.
01:26:31βͺβͺ
01:26:38But some members of the American military have the mistaken belief
01:26:42that if the strategic part of Japan is bombed out,
01:26:45Japan, without the weapons of war, must surrender.
01:26:50βͺβͺ
01:27:18βͺβͺ
01:27:23βͺβͺ
01:27:35The Japanese defenses are inadequate to stop the Americans.
01:27:39This is Western war in an Eastern setting.
01:27:43American bombers are attempting to repeat the pattern of the European war.
01:27:49High altitude, daylight precision bombardment.
01:27:53The bombs are aimed solely at Japanese industrial and strategic targets.
01:27:58βͺβͺ
01:28:07Japanese heavy industry is often housed in wooden buildings.
01:28:11Although not many incendiaries are used,
01:28:14from the beginning it is evident that firefighting equipment is inadequate.
01:28:18βͺβͺ
01:28:30Daylight precision bombardment is first attempting to destroy the Japanese aircraft industry.
01:28:35Vast as the wreckage is, daylight bombing is not yet decisive, even in American terms.
01:28:42In the traditional Japanese terms, it means even less.
01:28:46The Minister of War has written,
01:28:48Inadequacy of strength is not our worry.
01:28:51Why should we worry about that which is only material?
01:28:57The few American planes which are shot down in this period
01:29:00are not frightening to the Japanese spirit.
01:29:03Instead, they are symbols of American cowardice.
01:29:06They carry too many guns, say the Japanese.
01:29:09They carry too many weapons of defense.
01:29:13These massive American bombers are loaded with precautions and safety devices.
01:29:18The Americans do not understand that this is a struggle between life or death.
01:29:23There is no middle ground such as surrender or safety.
01:29:27It is evident from these crashed planes
01:29:30that the Americans have an overwhelming material superiority.
01:29:34It is also clear that a strong spiritual weapon
01:29:37will be needed to hold off the Americans' material advantage.
01:29:43βͺβͺ
01:29:48Thus the Japanese reach into their medieval past
01:29:51and tie an old concept to air power.
01:29:54The Japanese Army and Navy airmen are asked to commit controlled suicide.
01:29:59βͺβͺ
01:30:04The code of suicide came from a sect of ancient Shinto warriors called samurai.
01:30:09According to this code, called bushido,
01:30:12the ultimate act of violence was not murder, but suicide.
01:30:16Ceremonial suicide was to be judged not as an act of weakness,
01:30:20but as an act of the greatest moral strength.
01:30:24Volunteers are requested for special suicide squadrons.
01:30:28It is explained to the Japanese airmen
01:30:30that if they dive into American planes and ships,
01:30:33the weak American spirit will be broken.
01:30:36The United States cannot withstand the heavy losses
01:30:39which suiciders alone can inflict on the Americans.
01:30:42All those who commit suicide will preserve order,
01:30:45defeat anarchy, defend the emperor, advance two military ranks,
01:30:49and above all, will have an assured place in the temple of Japanese warriors,
01:30:54the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo.
01:30:58Some pilots will go out with less than one total day of flying experience.
01:31:03All that is necessary is to know how to control the plane
01:31:06and how to dive into American planes and ships.
01:31:09They are taught only the rudiments of evasive tactics.
01:31:13βͺβͺ
01:31:35The divine weapon is ready.
01:31:38The contradictory weapon, the weapon of suicide to preserve order,
01:31:42stands waiting on Japanese airfields.
01:31:45βͺβͺ
01:32:00Fifteen hundred miles to the southeast in the Marianas Islands,
01:32:04the Americans are readying an attack.
01:32:06The United States is preparing to seize Okinawa,
01:32:09less than 400 miles from the Japanese home islands.
01:32:13If the Americans cannot understand the Japanese,
01:32:16we are equally incomprehensible to the enemy.
01:32:19The American myth is that human life is so precious
01:32:22that all fighting must be done so far as possible with machines and supplies.
01:32:27Men will be risked only as a last resort.
01:32:30Our national material standard is mass production,
01:32:33and we have produced a mass of equipment beyond anything the world has ever seen.
01:32:39The only debate is, how shall all of this be used?
01:32:43If the European war is to be duplicated,
01:32:46we will have to make an amphibious landing on Japan proper.
01:32:50In the final analysis, runs the orthodox argument,
01:32:53the American foot soldier will have to meet the Japanese foot soldier.
01:32:57Machines and material can take us only so far.
01:33:02The most controversial weapon of war is the B-29, very long-range bomber.
01:33:08Strategic bombing fits the American myth perfectly.
01:33:12A maximum of destruction to the enemy with a minimum of risk to ourselves.
01:33:17The Marianas are covered with B-29s,
01:33:20but strategic bombardment has been only moderately successful.
01:33:24Weather, distance, navigation, all these factors are working against the B-29.
01:33:30The orthodox argument runs,
01:33:32strategic bombardment did not end the war in Europe.
01:33:36It will not end the war in Japan.
01:33:40In March 1945, the American Air Force turns its back on its traditions.
01:33:45If the B-29s cannot end the war with high-altitude daylight explosive bombardment,
01:33:51another plan will be put into operation.
01:33:54The B-29s are ordered to go in at night, not daylight.
01:33:58Not 7,000 feet, not 30,000 feet.
01:34:02With incendiaries, not high-explosive bombs.
01:34:08All armament, all weight-consuming defensive measures are to be taken out of the planes.
01:34:13All the things which made the B-29 a high-altitude bomber are to be removed.
01:34:18They will go in at low altitude, crammed to the weight limit with incendiary bombs.
01:34:25300 B-29s are to be risked in a billion-dollar gamble.
01:34:30Not only the planes and the careers of the commanders are put on the line,
01:34:34the lives of 3,000 airmen are at stake.
01:34:37This is the biggest gamble the American Air Force has ever taken.
01:35:25These are the reasons we took the gamble.
01:35:28The Japanese air raid defenses are particularly weak.
01:35:31Japanese early warning system is five years behind time.
01:35:35Japanese radar is inadequate.
01:35:38The enemy must rely on sound detectors and searchlights rather than radar.
01:35:42The enemy has practically no night-flying interceptors,
01:35:46and his anti-aircraft guns will be inaccurate at night.
01:35:49Most of all, the Japanese cities are fire traps.
01:35:53On March 9, 1945, the worst fire in the history of the world consumes Tokyo.
01:36:01On March 9, 1945, the worst fire in the history of the world consumes Tokyo.
01:36:07In one night, an area the size of Manhattan is burned to the ground.
01:36:12In one night, one million people are killed.
01:36:16On March 9, 1945, the worst fire in the history of the world consumes Tokyo.
01:36:22On March 9, 1945, the worst fire in the history of the world consumes Tokyo.
01:36:28In one night, one million people are burned out of their homes.
01:36:32In one night, more people are killed than the atomic bomb will kill at Hiroshima.
01:36:49Night after night, the B-29s burn out Japan.
01:36:54Tokyo, Kobe, Osaka, Nagoya.
01:36:59The Japanese cities, one by one, go up in smoke.
01:37:03The whole nation is on the edge of panic.
01:37:24The end of the world
01:37:36The Minister of Home Affairs says,
01:37:38there is no defense against these raids.
01:37:41To the Japanese, it is the end of the world.
01:37:46If the world is ending, then suicide.
01:37:50If the Japanese cannot entertain the possibility of surrender,
01:37:53and the accepted means of defense are inadequate, then suicide.
01:38:14Each pilot is given his ceremonial belt.
01:38:16On this robe, worn beneath the flight suit, are the symbols of Bushido,
01:38:20the ultimate code of the samurai warrior.
01:38:46The end of the world
01:39:09The samurai flies to death in a western-style aircraft,
01:39:12five years behind the times.
01:39:15The cry he uses to dismay the Americans is,
01:39:18Babe Ruth, go to hell.
01:39:23The United States fleet is now off Okinawa.
01:39:26These planes will find their way to the ship.
01:39:45The end of the world
01:40:15The end of the world
01:40:25The United States Navy is off Okinawa,
01:40:28supporting the invasion of the island.
01:40:31These ships are within range of the kamikaze.
01:40:35Radar has picked up large formations of Japanese planes.
01:40:40The fleet reinforces its combat air patrol.
01:40:45The end of the world
01:41:03The Japanese divide their forces.
01:41:06Their best pilots are to engage the American combat patrols.
01:41:11Once the American planes are engaged,
01:41:14a wave of suicide pilots are to crash into the American ships.
01:41:19At this stage of the war, even the best Japanese pilots
01:41:22are no longer a match for the Americans.
01:41:39On the waiting ships, it is evident that the American planes
01:41:42cannot knock down all of the Japanese fighters.
01:41:46By sheer weight of numbers, the enemy must break through.
01:42:13The end of the world
01:42:21The Japanese fly second-rate planes,
01:42:24but their determination to die makes them first-rate pilots.
01:42:28The kamikaze concentrate on the American aircraft carriers.
01:42:32The flattops are a prize well worth a hundred suicides.
01:42:42The end of the world
01:43:12The end of the world