191 - Ladies and Gentlemen, We Got Him - Yamamoto - WW2 - April 23, 1943 

The death of a single person can set the stage for two world wars, the fall of empires, and the rise of nuclear super powers. So yes, the death of a single person can change the course of a war.

I'm not so sure it's a myth so much as overstated. In this case, Yamamoto's moment of greatness has already passed, and his surviving wouldn't make much difference. His dying before the plans to attack Pearl Harbor were developed would be a different matter. Perhaps instead of saying history is made by great men it would be more accurate to attribute it to moments of greatness, where one includes infamy in greatness. It would also be more accurate to attribute moments of greatness to other processes that create the possibility of them existing. I'm not sure I'm stating that very well, not enough caffeine this morning.

Yes, it can. If a very high-ranking commander is killed, the battle can change. Even a commander killed by the opposing force can change the outcome of the war.

@@treybryant7863 I dunno, in medieval times where battles were fought by a few thousand men each, getting your commander killed would see armies collapse. Even in the massed battles of antiquity, like Gaugamela where seeing their commander flee the field of battle caused the Persian army to collapse. But by WW2 battles were so massive, and attritional in nature, and the armies so well organized, that executive officers could always take over command, I don't see a single person change the war. Battles, yes, the whole war? It can be argued that French general Weygand lost the war for France, but considering the state that the French army was in I'm not sure if anyone else could have saved France after the Race to the Somme and Dunkirk. Not unless they had full access to the German battle plan and some months to prepare. I reckon that the leaders of their respective countries could have lost the war. Would anyone else but Churchill have kept the UK in the war? Would anyone else then Stalin and his ruthlessness kept the USSR from collapsing? Would anyone else but Roosevelt have steered the US from abandoning the war in Europe and focus on the Pacific exclusively?

I think his death prolonged the war for the Japanese. He was against suicide attacks and I think his pull would have eventually convinced the Emperor to ask for peace.

The Japanese still don't understand this, meanwhile us indians take the being late bit to heart

​@@shivangbhardwaj826indeed

Thanks for watching, Rick

@@WorldWarTwo didn't the Admiral actually survive for a brief moment on the ground? I seem to recall stories of being reached by villagers and found not fully deceased.

@@michigangeezer3950 hmm 🤔 never heard of that story before

@@michigangeezer3950 That's not true. A .50 caliber bullet entered his left lower jaw and exited above his right eye. A Japanese search team found him the next day.

@@michigangeezer3950 no I believe he actually got hit by a 50 cal from the plane. Died instantly

That's quite amazing, thanks for sharing that about him here. It never ceases to amaze me how closely connected we are to the war.

Thank You, as It wasn't the "loudmouth" Tom Lanphier. Who coincidently almost gave away, that "We" had broken the Japanese Naval Code ! btw - The Air Force in the 1990's had Chuck Yeager & His Wingman in the ETO - Bud Anderson (Neither ever flew in the Pacific)review the case. They credited Lanphier. According to my Mentor; former 339th Squadron member & past President of the " American Fighter Ace Association" the late George Chandler- Lanphier & Yeager were very close friends ... 'Nuff said !

Rex was raised in nearby Culver and just south of Culver is Peter Skeen Ogden State Park which has a Rex T Barber memorial plaque and a bridge named after him. And as a side note, Madras has the Erickson Aircraft Collection which is housed in an old hangar and has a really cool collection of rare WW1 ,WW2 & Cold war era fighters & bombers. Check it out next time your in Madras it's well worth it.

And thinking that American generals were planing to invade France in 1942 or 1943 when there were certainly more than two German divisions when there were no Italian Front to divert German reserve divisions.

Lmao I love that part 11:56

The Second Battle of El Alamein was celebrated in Britain as a huge victory and Churchill gave a famous speech about it. Yet it involved defeating a force of only about 10 understrength German and Italian divisions. On the Russian front that would have warranted a routine daily dispatch.

@@donjones4719 There might ten Axis divisions in Panzer Army Afrika but they were well entrenched , fortified their positions with extensive anti tank guns and minefields in depth (something Red Army did not always face regularly in vastness of Eastern Front since lines were overstreched in 3.000 mile long front) and British Eighth Army was not operating on its home territory or close to Europe , evertything they had to bring overseas from much longer distances

To be fair it was 2 divisions defending against a naval invasion, which would put them at a considerable advantage

That's amazing to have met him. He must have had incredible stories during his life.

The US sent fighters over that island for a month afterwards, in an attempt to hide their penetration of Japanese codes.

Thanks for watching, Eleanor

I should clarify that he intercepted the message and translated if. I apologize for any confusion.

@@Kurenai1819 thankyou for clarification!

Best pirate it though since Roman Polanski directed it.

Do they recognize the name Yamato or Yamamoto?

Both accounts stay faithful to the facts of the uprising.

It's honestly one of the greatest movies I've ever seen in my life. Uprising too.

Great info, thank you.

Thank you Jeffrey! We just appreciate having you here every week!

@merdiolu81 Thank you for always bringing an extra dimension to the comments with your sources.

@@WorldWarTwo You are welcome

Oh... You post here too. Nice!

Someone mentioned the Americans withdrew after shooting down the bombers without destroying any of the Japanese fighters. The Japanese thinking it was not a targeted strike was just self-delusional.

@@Yora21 Some of the high ranking officers at Rabaul had warned Yamamoto not to go, as they themselves had close runs in with American fighters/ambushes. Chief of Staff Ugaki wanted him to go nonetheless. They knew the US were targeting high ranking offical flights in and around Bougainville

Couldn't agree more.

Thanks for the suggestion

It's more than romanticized. The death scene is an act of worship. I had trouble keeping my lunch down.

If Yamamoto had lived, would it have changed the outcome of the war? Or would Japan losing be slower?

@@tigertank06 Probably not. Assuming he wasn't scapegoated, the Japanese fleet isn't in any condition to do more than hold out against the American juggernaut. And by this stage, the Allies have made it clear that only unconditional surrender would be accepted.

"Churchillian", that is ... !

I wonder what it means!

Your understanding is correct.

Yamamoto was tactically and (to a lesser extent) strategically solid, but in the middle-the operational level-he failed pretty hard. The PH raid he badly advocated for directly played into American hands, for example, because by 1941 War Plan Orange had changed from a fast offensive towards Japan to a prolonged campaign of attrition where the USN would gradually fall back and allow Japan to overextend while building up a massive new fleet, before moving onto the offensive afterwards in an island-hopping campaign. By launching the PH raid Yamamoto effectively guaranteed this scenario-the one that the US wanted by 1941-would happen. It would have made much more sense for Japan to skip PH and the Philippines (which, unlike their assumptions, lacked the capacity for major American fleet operations at this point), and just go for British Malaya and the Dutch East Indies, using the Philippines as bait to lure the Americans into reverting to the older iterations of War Plan Orange instead of the newer, more prolonged strategy that would be more favourable to the US. Japan would still lose WWII, but it would be a closer fight than what historically went down.

@@bkjeong4302 I agree it would have been smarter to just avoid attacking US possessions. But I don't think the fight would have been that much closer. I just think the end would have come a year or two later. That said I don't think the leadership at the liason conferences would have ever allowed that as a possibility. And both missing the carriers at PH and Midway ultimately boiled down to luck (at least going by the videos on this channel) so had those things happened it would have given Japan a bit more time without changing the outcome. And as we saw he was regularly lied to so some of his decisions were made due to bad information. Though I agree he was not a great admiral and made some big mistakes he had some factors going against him. That said, ultimately Japan could not win against the US and he knew that.

@@specialnewb9821 Missing the carriers at PH was bad luck, but the issue is more with the idea of a PH strike in and of itself regardless of the target. At Midway Yamamoto made a bunch of operational-level mistakes (in large part due to mission creep), luck was only part of it.

They were, however, still having difficulty persuading certain army commanders to come round to their doctrine of the use of air power. On 14 April, Ike visited Ain Beida to discuss plans for the final push. Also there were Patton, Bradley, and Mark Clark. Tooey Spaatz had been asked to attend but his plane had had to make a forced landing and he’d missed the conference. Once more, it had been left to Alex to defend Mary Coningham’s air policy. He insisted that the army and air forces plan their operations together on a co-equal basis and then carry them out in coordination, even though both Patton and Clark, in particular, were still dead against this. Later, Spaatz arrived and Larry Kuter also joined the discussions, but the arguments had not abated until Ike told the assembled commanders that he was getting goddamned tired of hearing the ground forces claiming they needed control of the air. ‘One would believe that our case had been settled,’ noted Larry. From then on there was no more argument. Patton and Clark might not like it, but they had now lost their control of the air forces for good. In the meantime, more and more aircraft and equipment were arriving - 225 Squadron were now equipped entirely with Spitfires. Also being used in the theatre for the first time were Spitfire Mark IXs, a considerable improvement on the Mark V and the equal of the latest 109s and 190s. Larry Kuter also managed to arrange for a new American radar unit to be installed at 242 Group’s HQ. This new model was much more powerful than anything the RAF could lay their hands on and provided cover for the entire northern half of Tunisia and beyond the Cap Bon peninsula. Crucially, this meant they now had advance warning of Axis aircraft coming into the Tunisian bridgehead. Over several meetings between 7 and 10 April, Hitler and Mussolini reaffirmed that Tunisia was to be held at all costs, and so they continued to pour in supplies and reinforcements. But with the numbers of ships being sunk increasing, they had to rely more and more on the air bridge, using Ju 52s and the huge six-engined Messerschmitt 323s in this lifeline across the sea from Sicily and southern Italy. When the weather was favourable, these enemy air armadas would frequently make two trips in one day. From the many sources of intelligence now available to them, NATAF began to get a picture of when these missions might occur and so, with Spaatz and Mary’s approval, Larry began preparing to intercept this air bridge using as many Allied aircraft as possible, in an operation codenamed FLAX. The first proper FLAX mission took place on 5 April, when long-range American P-38 Lightnings shot down thirteen enemy aircraft north-east of Cap Bon. A further eleven were knocked out of the sky by P-38s operating over the Sicily Straits. Fourteen enemy aircraft were destroyed during attacks on airfields in Sicily and a further eighty-five damaged. Helping NATAF over Sicily were Air Marshall Keith Park’s forces on Malta, who were now bombing and strafing the Axis airfields on a daily basis. By now, the 33rd Fighter Group was based at Sbeitla. Lieutenant Jim Reed had flown his first mission from there on 7 April, dropping fragmentation cluster bombs on a mountain road jammed with Italian vehicles and equipment. Jim had observed plenty of light flak and although they had been asked to strafe the enemy once they’d dropped their bombs, they had not done so. This would have meant two sweeps over the same target, a practice the Desert Air Force never observed and which, understandably, Jim’s CO, Colonel Momyer, was reluctant to follow. Jim flew a repeat performance that afternoon, but by the third mission of the day, the group had been ordered to strafe after the bomb run. ‘The end result,’ noted Jim, ‘was that most of our planes were shot up.’ Five aircraft never made it back, and several others returned with landing gear hanging down and holes torn out of the wings and fuselages. ‘This was a case of someone giving orders who did not know what they were doing,’ noted Jim.42 After that, the order was clarified: they were to strafe only if they saw a separate target. The 33rd moved again on 12 April, this time to Ebba Ksour in the plains near Kairouan. At last Jim felt he was leaving behind the memories of mountains, mud, and rain. ‘The country around our new home is beautiful,’ he noted in his diary. Flight Lieutenant John Fairbairn of 73rd Squadron felt much the same. The fighters of the Desert Air Force were also moving up into the plains. After all the sweaty months in the desert,’ noted John, ‘it was great to find trees and flowers everywhere.’ Pitching his tent in the middle of a peach orchard, he was thrilled to find an abundance of green, unripe fruit hanging heavily over him. He was also pleased to be able to hear the dawn chorus once more, a sound that had eluded him in the desert. Even better, cigarettes and alcohol arrived in plentiful amounts, and before long there was even a piano in their mess tent. ‘We began to enjoy the spoils of war,’ he noted.’ The boys of the 57th Fighter Group were also now up in the plains, at a new airfield three miles down the road from El Jem, home to one of the largest and best-preserved Roman amphitheatres in the world. Duke Ellington was now a flight commander in the 65th Fighter Squadron, and early on 18 April - Palm Sunday - they got intelligence that there might be a large force of German aircraft bringing over supplies to Tunisia. Relishing the prospect, Duke put himself on the first mission of the day, patrolling over the Cap Bon area looking for transports. He went up a second time, but still saw nothing. Then at 5 p.m., the 57th sent off its final mission of the day, forty-six aircraft in all from all three squadrons, although on this occasion Duke stayed behind. Accompanying them was another US fighter squadron, the 314th, with a Spitfire top cover provided by the RAF’s 92 Squadron. This time, the 57th struck lucky. Droning towards them at low altitude and in perfect formation were sixty-five Ju 52 transports, escorted by over twenty German and Italian fighters. They were first spotted many miles offshore: it was a fine afternoon, and the setting sun glinted off their surfaces. ‘They were the most beautiful formation I’ve ever seen,’ said one pilot. ‘It seemed a shame to break them up as it looked like a wonderful propaganda film.’ But break them up they did. While the Spitfires and the 64th FS stayed aloft to fend off the fighter escort, the rest peeled off and dived, jumping on the cumbersome transports in a mass of blazing gunfire. As the Americans swept over them, some of the Junkers blew up in mid-air, while others plummeted into the sea; some fluttered from the sky like leaves; others limped on, trailing smoke. The American pilots could barely contain their excitement. Larry Kuter was listening to the fight unfold on 242 Group’s radarscope. ‘All conversations were in the clear,’ he noted. ‘Code names of units and targets were forgotten … From my electronic view, the scene resembled the feeding frenzy of our Atlantic coast Bluefish.’ In what became known as the ‘Palm Sunday Turkey Shoot’ the 57th, along with their RAF Spitfire escorts from 260th Sq and 314th FS colleagues, shot down seventy-four enemy aircraft. While Duke Ellington was thrilled that the 57th had done so well, he was absolutely gutted to have missed out. ‘I had two guys in my flight who I’d just finished putting through the training programme and who had only been with the squadron a couple of weeks, and both got victories,’ says Duke, then adds, ‘Damn! That was our first big battle and I missed it.’ Even more galling for Duke was that later that night their airfield was attacked by Ju 88s. Duke leapt out of his tent only just in time, flinging himself into the nearest slit-trench - only in his confusion he went for the wrong one and ended up lying in the squadron latrines. When the raiders had gone and he returned to his tent, he found it riddled with pieces of shrapnel. For the Allied commanders, however, the Turkey Shoot couldn’t have come at a better time. Only a few days before, Ike had been stunned to learn about the level of bad press they were getting back home in the States, where it seemed that 2nd US Corps were being blamed by American journalists for not securing a more decisive victory over the Axis during the recent fighting. ‘This has had a most disheartening effect at home,’ Ike told Bradley, ‘and apparently morale is suffering badly.’ Well, now the journalists had something good to write about for a change, and news of the 57th’s exploits soon spread across America. Since the Battle of the Mareth Line, 519 Axis aircraft had been shot down, and nearly twice as many destroyed or damaged on the ground. Allied losses in the same period had been 175. At last, the Allies were masters of the air. With that secured, the final push for victory could begin. Together We Stand - James Holland

Hubris.

Imagine if it was 8 mins late he would of been completely missed

Being casually late and changing plans at the last minute were tactics that Hitler used to escape untimely death. 🤷🏻‍♂️

@@nickmacarius3012 it’s amazing he lived with the 50+ attacks he dealt with.

@@misterbaker9728 Luckily for the allies, being late was frowned upon in both Japanese & military society. I was also thinking, had he just been on the other plane, he’d likely have been fished out of the ocean instead of going into the trees.

I think by April 1943 the game was already over as Yamamoto had himself predicted. His assassination had an impact on both US and Japanese morale, but IMHO had very little real impact on rest of the war.

Stephen From an American intern - We'll always be grateful for our beloved Allies across the pond. Cheers.

"Pip, Pip, and all that sort of rot!"

Too bad England has been destroyed from within all those soldiers died for nothing

As a Netherlander who's countrymen have been suffering greatly at the hands of the Imperial Japanese army and navy, so do I: hiep hiep hoera!

@@chesterswortham5197 so what exactly are you implying?

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@@WorldWarTwo It is my pleasure to follow your work and thank you very much for replying

The fact that most of their carriers are sunk by this point has a lot to do with that as well…

@@wilberwhateley7569 and most of their trained aircrew, directly as a result of Yamamotos and Nagumos disaster at Midway.

If Yamamoto had lived, would it have changed the outcome of the war? Or would Japan’s loss have been slower?

@@tigertank06 no Yamamoto alive wouldn't have changed the course of the war. His prophesy of America making good it's initial losses was coming true. Up to 1942, he had trained & the IJN to fight to its strengths (night fighting & carrier warfare). Once those chips were negated (radar) or destroyed, he could only make the IJN die honourably. Whether he would've approved the use of kamikaze and sent the Combined Fleet to its doom in the Philippines Oct 1944 is debatable. Even more debatable is whether he could've tried convincing Hirohito to accept a surrender, given he was the only leader with the influence to do so at the risk of being assassinated by the Army pre 1940.

@@marks_sparks1 I think there's something really to this as the war drags on longer. In the earlier stages, the Allies in particular didn't really know how to fully utilize their war fighting capabilities. Thus brilliant leadership and strategy could secure enormous victories both in Europe and the Pacific. But as this war drags on experience, and weeding out truly awful commanders, lessened the leadership gap. But perhaps more vitally the Allies far greater production capacity meant that even the most brilliant Axis plans could only do so much. When one side can consistently bring 2, 3, 4, or more times more equipment, personnel, munitions, etc, and is increasingly at least competent from the lowest grunt to the highest theater commander; there's really not much brilliance on the weaker side can do than change the specific ways they lose the war.

I always liked that show.

World at War. I watched as a 10 year old girl and have been an armchair historian ever since.

Too bad is hard to find on the internet.. I know a channel that has like 7 eps tho

I didn't see it until the 2000s as I was born in '81. Best ww2 doc. It had Speer, zhukov, and dönitz being interviewed on the documentary. I thought that was incredible.

I hope that’s what happens in 45 with the axis leaders

@@steffanyschwartz7801 or yknow with zelensky over putins grave...

@@doopboop8359 You mean with Putin over Zelensky's grave as he drinks vodka in Kiev.

@@jejema6263 doesn't seem like that'll happen any time soon

@@edvelociraptor1794 It took Stalin and the Soviet Union to get to Berlin, it might take the same amount of time, but like Stalin, Putin will inevitably be the one dancing.

There is a wonderful old move (1956) titled, “the man who never was” on operation mincemeat. It stars Clifton Webb, Gloria Grahame and Stephen Boyd. Worth a watch.

I love the fact that one of the officers behind Operation Mincemeat was a certain Commander Ian Fleming

Mark Thanks for watching every week to see how the war develops.

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FDR was determined to make war on Japan. Taking the general's advice wouldn't have stopped it.

@@wastedhawkbeverages5030 The first part of your statement is true but only because of the militarist behaviour. If the militarist had not seized power and no militarist had stayed in power the situation would not have deteriorated. Admiral Yamamoto had actually been threatened by the militarist years earlier when he had advocated for peace and given what happened to non-militarist in Japan at that time he took the threat very seriously.

@@sgeskinner You're giving FDR too much credit. Making Japanese militarism our business was solely for the purpose of pursuing postwar imperialist goals.

Yamamoto was in favor of the war.

THANK YOU Viktor & welcome aboard the TimeGhost Army!! We're very glad to have such overwhelming support from our audience and I'm always happy to welcome a new enthusiastic history aficionado. Stay tuned

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Thanks for watching as always

Arrogant ignorance often comes back to bite in war.

The US conducted a ruse to make it seem like he was caught up in a routine fighter sweep. Firstly no announcement was made of Yamamoto's death, with the US feigning ignorance of the passengers aboard the two downed bombers. Second, additional fighter sweeps were conducted over the area afterward to help convince the Japanese that it was simply an unlucky encounter with routine fighter sweeps. The Japanese were not necessarily foolish in not realizing their codes had been compromised.

The Americans of that day were wise enough not to boast of their accomplishment. Had the Americans done so, the Japanese would have indeed changed their codes instead of chalking it up to bad luck.

USA had broken Japanese codes as far back as 1905. This made them accept a worse deal, than were accepting at the peace conference at the Treaty of Portsmouth.

I believe it was arrogance

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Thanks Chris!

The 2002 movie, The Pianist, does also show life in the Warsaw Getto during the German occupation, and briefly portrays the 1943 Warsaw Getto uprising later on as well.

@@gunman47 Yes of course, but I left it for 1944-1945 as there was already this one focused only in the ghetto uprising

Thanks for the suggestions, Nano

VdeVictoria It is amazing to think that 190 weeks have passed since the war began. Thanks for watching with us all this time.

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Good point, I had forgotten about them.

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The one thing the Axis could have done to have a chance of winning in Africa would have been to take out Malta early in the war. This was their one huge mistake that pretty much made it impossible for them to build up forces in the theater. Allied efforts against their shipping would have been much less effective if they didn't have that big 'unsinkable aircraft carrier' right in their way, and if Axis air forces were able to operate out of Maltese airstrips instead. Logistics was everything.

Thanks Joe!

Her is an article. You should check the bibliography at the bottom. It seems there are a couple of books on them.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Guards

That's quite amazing Scott, thanks for sharing about your great uncle's involvement

I thought Spartacus said they were supplied by the Underground with weapons?

@@robertkras5162 They had some rifles and grenades but not much, though more obtained from German soldiers they killed during the uprising.

And people still question why the 2nd Amendment is important.

Happy Birthday!!! Thank you for spending it with us

Thank you for watching! We'll definitely have more on the French forces as the war moves on, stay tuned

One of the supporting British artillery units was 56th Heavy Regiment, Royal Artillery, in which served Lance Bombardier Terence 'Spike' Milligan, who went on to transform British post-war comedy. Years later he organized a re-union for those involved in fighting for Longstop Hill, which was attended by a group of Afrika Korps veterans. Talking to one of them, Spike discovered he was a fellow gunner. In fact they worked out that they had fired at each other during the battle. It was pointed out that their presence at this reunion meant they were both bloody awful shots. The German vet signed Milligan's dinner menu with 'Dear Spike, sorry I missed' - "thus proving the Germans do have a sense of humour".