450 Marines Vs The Imperial Japanese Navy - Wake Island 

I get asked alot to cover major battles. They are very hard to do because so much is going on all at once. This is my first attempt at one, please let me know if you want more like this or if I should just stick to my regular stuff.

I'm rather shocked to hear that the commander who was smart enough to think "don't shoot until they're within 4,000 yards" couldn't figure out he was playing a game of telephone by himself for 11 hours.

My Grandfather served in Wake Island as a naval civilian contractor. After Pearl Harbor occurred, he trained with Marines to load Machine guns and went on patrols during the battle. Became a POW of Imperial Japan and he was sent to a prison camp in Shanghai, China. Returned to US. October 1945 and became a U.S. Citizen as result of his service in Wake Island. Ask Grandpa about Wake Island. He said, "I helped," And that was it. If I ever had a bad day, I always remember, my Grandpa's experience put things in perspective. Thanks Grandpa.

>Be United States Marine. >Instructions are cut off. _Doom Music Starts._

Japanese Imperial Navy: We have them surrounded! Marines: They have us surrounded! Those poor bastards!

I heard a story once, from the 70's or early 80's. There was a barracks inspection at Quanttico, colonel with all attending lower officers and NCOs. An old man who was visiting the base happened in; he was wearing his ribbons. A Lance Corporal saw him, read the ribbons and immediately called out "Wake Island Marine on the Deck!". Everyone, including the officers, snapped to attention and saluted.

"lack of instruction means default destruction" is a perfect quote

3:06 Putting a bayonet on a 5-Inch gun is the most Marine thing I have ever heard.

Things I’ve learned from TFE: Don’t look at doc funny, if you shoot the officer you’ll find out it isn’t a war crime the first time, grunts and crafts are awesome, and hold your fire until you see the whites of their eyes is still a viable tactic.

I just want to give props to those 400 civies that had the balls to go down fighting instead of running off and hiding somewhere. We need more people like them in this world

One minor correction: the coastal artillery cannons were taken from the second USS Texas, the one that later did the gangster lean at Normandy and is currently in dry dock being repaired in Houston. They were some of her secondary battery that were removed during a refit in the mid-1920s, when she was rebuilt to focus more on long-range gunnery and given torpedo blisters along her sides.

"What did you do with the rugs, dude?" "They really tie the room together, man!"

20 years ago I had the pleasure of meeting one of those Marines in person. At 80-plus years of age, he remembered every detail of the fight and POW camp. The Alamo of the Pacifc.

When the video started I wondered why they never taught us about this in school but when you mentioned the government abandoning soldiers it made a lot more sense

"Apparently the IJN Smellyou and Tasteyou were too busy" I died good shit man

My late uncle was one of the marines on Wake. .30 cal machine gunner, Kuku point, on the Wilkes island section of Wake proper. He survived the torture, forced labor, and starvation in the Japanese POW camps. Had his appendix removed with a razor blade and was stitched up with whatever thread they could scrap together.

Finally he made a video on wake island. The greatest story of the marine corps in ww2.

My great grandpa was one of those construction workers, he wound up in a Shanghai pow camp. It’s awesome hearing this cause he never talked much about it so no one really knew why he had been through.

I'd been avoiding this one, due to the sad nature of the outcome, but you managed to tell it so well, and I was not aware that many made it through the war. Thank you.

Interesting side note. The last vessel to leave Wake island just prior to the Japanese attacks was a commercial tug boat named Arther Foss (of tug boat Annie fame). That boat continued on throughout the war and survives to this day as the flagship of Foss Maritime, she’s had her home port change from Tacoma to Seattle Washington since then.

You should consider the story of Guy Gabaldon - a Marine, raised by a Japanese family in California, who during the Battle of Saipan, literally talked 800 Japanese soldiers to surrender to him. It's a fantastic story - one of many. He was awarded the Navy Cross for that.

"...given a lack of instruction, Marines resort to de-struction..." True story. Great job covering this historic battle!

The civilian workers were employed by the Morrison-Knudsen Construction company out of Boise, Idaho. And 98 civilians were left on the island to work on fortifications for the Japanese. And on 5 October 1943 they were marched to the beach where all 98 were beheaded and their bodies put in a mass grave.

My grandfather was a Navy man on Wake Island. He was granted the Purple Heart and was a POW. He never liked talking about that time. But! He came to my 4th grade class of delinquents and told his story of what happened, and we all listened like angels with wide eyes and ears. We all still talk and praise him till this day. He still had albums of photos and “relics” of Wake Island. I miss him dearly. One of the last times he ever got to tell his story in person and now he can live on, including the book that was written.

I know there’s a lot to cover with Wake Island but I’d like to mention Captain Henry T. Elrod “Hammerin Hank”. His plane was shot down but he survived and after crash landing he lead a group of marines on the ground during an attack. Unfortunately he died during that attack. He’s the first Marine Corps Aviator to receive the Medal of Honor for his actions in the air and on the ground.

Japanese Navy: "We have destroyed their artillery we can advance!" also Japanese Navy: "Why do I hear boss music?"

My grandfather was one of Marines that was at the battle of Wake Island. He was one of those POW's and was taken to Japan. My mother told me that he and other POW's saved some women, children, and elderly by jumping into the water during a air raid. Be safe and be 😎

I spent over a decade in Marine Corps Aviation and Wake Island was something of an unofficial required study. I was always amazed at the similarities between the surrender of Wake Is and the surrender of Corregidor Is.

My Grandad served in WWI (yes, one) as a Medic & it's great to see those "tools" being used here. BTW, he survived & passed away when I was 2. I still have the love letters he sent to my Nana during the "Great War". Priceless.

My grandfather was a marine on Wake Island and got to spend the rest of the war as a guest of the Imperial Japanese. Thanks for covering this!

Just discovered your channel and loving your content. As a retired Marine MSgt it is heartwarming to hear you describe the exploits of my brothers. Marines are taught a lot of history in order to instill Esprit de Corps but most of the stories are pretty basic. I had never heard the details of Wake and always believed we lost due to overwhelming forces and lack of supplies. Thank you for the details and the succinct and humorous presentation. In the process of catching up on all your content. Keep it coming please!

“If 450 of those marines and civilians can do that, imagine what we’ll be able to do when we’re ready.” And that, ladies and gentlemen in my opinion, was the final spark that lit the flame of this nation. Political lines be damned, divisions broken, and a surge of unity and iron willed resolve. Americans of all strips and colors and stars took up any means and ways they could to provide and ensure they and their boys and girls overseas would ALWAYS be ready.

Since the number of living WWII veterans is dwindling quickly stories like this will keep their heroism alive. Looking forward to more like this.

I get more out of your 16 minutes videos than I do from a 2 hour history channel documentary. Lol I love the light comedic aspect you add while still remaining factual. Keep it up! Love your stuff!

Have you ever stumbled upon a RU-vid channel and immediately said to yourself, "welp, I know how I'll be spending the next however long it takes to watch every single video on this channel"? That's me the last 2 hours.

This was special to me because my father was one of the Marines stationed on Wake. At the time, it onlynhad half of the unit there and the other half was still at Pearl Harbor awaiting transport to Wake. The unit was the 1st Defense Battalion, which was a reinforced battalion. After the surrender, he and about a company's worth of men were held in a POW camp on mainland China. They were there until about 1-1.5 years before the end of the war when they were shipped to Japan for use as slave labor. My father was finally repatriated back to the States in 1946 and was kept at Golden Gate Naval Hospital for a year. After that year when he was discharged from the hospital, he was discharged from the Marines. After Korea happened, he reenlisted but, because of his POW status, was kept stateside.

I had to pause for laughter when you mentioned fixing bayonets to artillery pieces. My brother's a Marine so I one hundred percent, iron-clad guarantee his response would be, "Wait, we can do that?"

The Battle of Sunda Strait is a pretty hallowing tale. The USS Houston (a heavy cruiser, already damaged from previous engagements, having one of her main battery turrets knocked out), the HMAS Perth (a light cruiser), and a Dutch destroyer attempted to escape the falling Dutch East Indies through the Sunda Strait. They ran into a Japanese invasion force, consisting of 1 light carrier, 1 seaplane carrier, 5 cruisers, 12 destroyers, 1 minelayer, and 58 troopships. The result was all Allied vessels being sunk, with the Japanese machine-gunning survivors in the water, before taking 675 POWs (of which around half would make it home); the Japanese suffered 4 troopships sunk or grounded, 1 cruiser damaged, 3 destroyers damaged, and the minelayer being sunk by friendly fire. Some reports state that the Houston emptied all of her magazines for all her ammo, from her main guns to her secondaries to her AA to her saluting guns. Numerous reports state her crew carried 8" ammo from the rear magazine of the broken turret and took it to the forward magazines for use. When the city of Houston found out about the disappearance and presumed sinking of the Houston, it held an enlistment initiative, in which 1,000 people enlisted into the Navy on the first day

Calling the Navy for support after 12/7: "Would love to help ya son, but I don't actually exist right now."

"They've got us surrounded... Poor bastards"

A good friend’s father was a civilian contractor on wake. He spent several years in a POW camp after being captured. These Marines and contractors were next level tough.

Anyone that has ever met a Marine knows that a single squad of unsupervised Marines could conquer the planet in a month ( three weeks if there is alcohol involved ).

I love your presentations on Dan Daly, Nasty McNeice, and Wake Island. Would you please do one for Army General Patton and Marine Corps General Puller.

I was an 0811 (Marine Artillery) and that initial contact is every artilleryman’s wet dream. That is a close and direct fire mission. Direct fire is being able to see and aim at what you are trying to hit. These Marines lived the dream and fucking won

Get this man a teaching position somewhere where his pearls of history and wisdom will be appreciated.

This is a prime example why you never assume the worst. Had that Major not assumed defeat and forced everyone he found to surrender, that island could have very well remained in American hands.

The quote attributed to Yamamoto about waking a sleeping giant is actually a myth. There's nothing to indicate he said or wrote that. However, it is absolutely plausible that he did say it, because he made it very clear that he believed attacking the US was a terrible idea. Yamamoto studied at Harvard in the 20s and spoke fluent English, so he had a much better understanding of US attitudes and capabilities than his peers in the Japanese navy.

This may be your best video yet - not a lot of people know about Wake island and what took place there. I think it's also pretty clear that this one meant a little more to you than maybe some of your others. Thanks for your work on all of your videos; always look forward to seeing them.

You need to cover the story of USS Marblehead. A ww1 era crusier that was supposedly sunk by the Japanese 4 times but manged to went from the asian pacific, to the Indian ocean, to the ports of Africa, through the wolf packs of German subs in the Atlantic, back to the port in New York while being on the verge of sinking.

"Given a lack of instruction, they will resort to destruction". Epic. Love these new vids with a more detailed slice of events because you not only cover the equipment used but the men using said equipment. Surely he kept the rugs, I'd like to think they are in a family members home to this day.

The documentary on (I think from history channel) wake island I watch every few years never gets old. It’s gold seeing those vets return to the area and talk about the experience

You are phenomenal!!!! I’ve learned more of our military history from your videos than I ever did in school!

The naval infantry that attacked Wake Island is a but more complicated than a Japanese version of our Marine Corps. They were actually Army infantry, but the Navy's Army. The Japanese military made had an incredible level of distrust between the Imperial Army and Navy. They didn't trust each other to the point that the navy had infantry regiments and the army had ships. And everybody had airplanes, which absolutely didn't coordinate.

If you want another battle, the Battle of Samar would be absolutely brilliant in your style.

Well done ! You are one of the very few people who understand the history of this battle correctly. The Marines were not expecting to surrender and went into battle knowing that they’d likely die fighting, and so they fought so aggressively and bravely. In the final battle, the Marines actually wiped out all of the Japanese soldiers on Wilkes Island and were assembling to mount a counter attack on Wake, when Major Deveraux approached and told them to surrender. This battle deserves a historically accurate movie. I hope someone makes it.

I like the way The Fat Electrician does history. On my way in an Air American DC8 to L.b.J. 's war the plane stopped to refuel at Wake. Their was still a damaged tank on the beach.

I was a member of VMA-211 "Wake Island Avengers". I had the pleasure of stopping at Wake Island on my way back from a deployment to Japan. We got to meet several surviving members from the original 211 group back when they were called the Wake Island Defenders. It was amazing to a part of the same unit that served during that fight!

I did the math, and if you count the 400 civilians and 70 navy coremen, then the battle was fairly even (troop numbers wise) because that adds up to 920 vs. the 900 Japanese soldiers. With this in mind, doing the math means that for the US rag-tag team, they managed a 1-7.5 ratio of men lossed to men that survived. Meanwhile the japanese managed a 2-3 ratio of men lossed to men that survived. To put this in an easier to relate numbers perspective, the US lost 3 out of every 22.5 people while the Japanese lost 15 out of every 22.5 people! Massive respect to these men who knew they were in an uphill battle like no other yet fought on and made the enemy hurt far worse than anyone could have ever imagined!

Thanks for your videos bro, this is the history our people need to hear. Keep on rockin.

I absolutely love how you tell stories. I can't go a single second without not paying attention and going "wait what!?" either by what happened in the story or some joke you said

"Given a lack of instruction, resort to destruction" Might be one of the greatest quotes ever. Banger story time

I like the longer form videos because it slows down your cadence without removing any of the information or sidesplitting humor. This story was told with a special degree of reverence, though. More, please.

Your story telling style is fantastic, I really enjoy the stories Ive heard so far

That was excellent commentary! Enjoyed it & thank you!

As a Marine, I always loved learning about the history of our brothers and sisters. It really made you proud of the Title and honor you carry when you earn that EGA. These men were next level. Super proud to be able to share the title with such superior men of honor.

hey in all seriousness thank you for telling this story. My great grandfather was actually a private contractor on Wake. Essentially what happened was what I've been told. But the complement of Marines ready to fight any person that was still a private contractor was given a gun instead. Hear your marine. Good luck. Thanks for shedding some light on just what he had to go through on wake. And as the story he says electrian goes became a first generation POW of WW2, still damn proud of it and to stuborn to die he live to 96 and i had the honor of knowing him and have is name as my middle name.

I love this segment. Thank you. My grandfather was one of those Marines that defended Wake Island. He was just 19 years old. He did not talk much about his time as a POW. He passed in 1968; just before I was born.

This was great. Hopefully we will see more of them from you. Thank you

My boyfriend and I recently started watching your videos and while watching this one the story of the escaped Wake Island American in China started to sound really familiar… and then you showed the photo of the solider standing next to Mao and confirmed my suspicion that hey! that’s my great grandpa! I love the mention and coincidence of me seeing your video. Before passing away, he wrote a book about his experience called Rescued by Mao by William “Bill” Taylor. I really don’t know what he did with those Chinese rugs so I’ll have to ask my great grandma… If I find out I’ll be sure to comment again but I love the content, keep up the amazing work!

Every time I listen to you, I get a pride I can't describe. . . Other than that I'm blessed to be an American. Thank you for this lesson.

I really want to thank you and your way of telling the story.. Major D. had my dad on a cushman m/c carry his orders until he got blown off twice and couldn't get back to him, so he didn't carry the surrender order. this order was given by Commander Cuntingham USN that had top command on Wake..being a POW for 3yrs.11mos. was beyond your worst nightmare. he told me my first story when I was 12, he passed the next year.

Love the story telling bro... keep it up. I laughed more than once but I appreciate how you keep it accurate at the same time.

Anytime you hear the Marines you know its gonna be good

Dude these longer videos are awesome. You’re reverence, respect and sense of humor for these stories are amazing. Keep up the awesome work homie

I knew about this story and the details of it. You deliver it well!

Amazing video! Dude your brand of humor fits with these stories so well!

I just want to make sure you are aware that you've singlehandedly kept recruitment numbers from reaching zero across all of the branches. And he managed to do it in such a funny and entertaining way while still honoring and holding those that have served in reverence. Just want to say thank you for your service sincerely from all of us proud red-blooded Americans!

for a first attempt at covering a major battle, you did a commendable job! I never knew that much about Wake Island, despite being a fan of WW History and being the daughter of a Navy fanboy, couldnt join when he was a kid due to medical reasons, and I felt I learned a great deal. I never would have thought such a trouncing would ever occur outside of the early ages of firearms. I'm rambling , too long; didnt read, you did a hell of a job!

Dude... keep these stories coming. Every topic you cover is gonna be gold. This is the most epic channel I've ever seen yet!!

I'm at work and the clock flys by so fast while watching your videos. Ty for making these

Ah, yes, my favorite discount history teacher. Named your child after a Kentucky legend, and bring us the greatest historic military badassery that even they don't own up to or tell us about. You're a gift to the American people. One day I will buy all of your merchandise. One day.

I get that this is a huge time investment for you. I'm 64 . I have read about this and seen documentaries over 1/2 century. The way you told their battle in just 26 min., you told it the way I would have wanted my story told if I had been there. Thank you for your effort. Now, more please.

You are a great storyteller. I have read many of these accounts before but your delivery and humor make these stories even better. Well done, my friend!

Love the long format videos! 😊

I agree you asked the most important question, "What did the marine do with the rugs?" Loved the break down of the battle, and I can't wait to see your take on other battles!

Its so interesting to hear the story of Wake Island. Im in naval aviation and we use Wake Island as a fuel stop getting across the ocean because our plane (C130T) is big and slow. Believe it or not Wake is one of my most favorite locations on Earth. Very small island, obviously no cell service and they'll open the bar for you if they have stock. Also, you can see the whole *ucking galaxy at night with maybe 10 lights on the island being your only light pollution (so basically zero). Its so quiet and peaceful to see that and hear gentle waves. Wake Island is my happy place. 👍🏼

I love the retelling of these battles in "The Fat Electrician" way of retelling this. I could listen to these posts all day

Bro, I just discovered your channel yesterday and it’s freaking awesome!!

As a Marine, I love these videos. Anytime you do one about Marines, I know I’m going to love it. Semper Fidelis

We Marines love our history. Thank you for doing an outstanding job on this video. Keeping our four father's story alive.

you're becoming one of my favorite channels. if my history teacher were this entertaining I would have gotten way less sleep in class and had to sneak out of way less detentions.

I had the opportunity to stop at Wake Island for refueling on a deployment to the Philippines and it's hard to imagine how small it is until you've seen it. I can't imagine it being your last stand.

First thing i see in the title: marines Next thing i think: this isnt gonna end well. For anyone

I don't care what anyone says. Your story telling is great. And wont put folks to sleep like other short content creators out there. Keep up the great work. Gonna have to send you a tip for this one!

Had to give it a rewatch on lunch brake. I love ur content.

@9:23 "given a lack of instruction, they will resort to destruction". Poetry

I can't think of a better example for the phrase "don't start what you can't finish" than Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor.

I like the way this guy writes, and his delivery style. He sure does put an exclamation point on it 😂

My grandfather was a Seebee on these islands at this time.. God i wish he was here today to tell me stories

Young brother, just subscribed to you channel after seeing a segment on the “filthy fifteen.” Love the commentary so much I finally got about to watching “The dirty dozen.” Thanks for the history lesson, that I never got a Bragg. Again thanks for the documentary without the spin. Keep up the good works young man. 👍