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It was during this battle that other ships mistakenly believed the USS North Carolina was on fire and offered assistance. She wasn't burning, however. What they were seeing was the absurd amount of AAA she was firing off.
This is not the only time the Enterprise will enjoy luck. The IJN reported her sunk in this battle only to make an appearance at the Battle of Santa Cruz.
Happened with yorktown cv-5 as well. Japanese reported her sunk at the battle of coral sea only to see her fixed in 72 hours at pearl and show up at the battle of midway
Refueling the Wasp was not only doctrine, it was a result of the constant problem in the earlier Pacific naval war, poor reconnaissance. It plagued both sides constantly throughout the war but especially earlier. I give Fletcher more credit than many, he was perpetually at a disadvantage, the Japanese at that point still had better doctrine, torpedos, sailors, planes, and pilots. Fletcher was also hampered by his perpetual orders of maintaining calculated risk at all times, which just gives you even more to think about when trying to formulate a plan. I still think Fletcher was dealt a poor hand by history after holding his own in multiple battles in which he was outclassed. King really hated him for some reason and Nimitz liking him wasn't enough, I remember Nimitz wanted to give him a medal and King wanted to sack him, insane. People often forget that Fletcher was the officer in command at Midway and Fletcher was man enough to give command to Spruance when his ship was out of the fight and if it wasn't for Hornets flight to nowhere Fletcher would probably would have went down as one of WW2s biggest hero's. It really is interesting how Halsey made so many more mistakes but was liked enough by King to overlook them but Fletcher gets blamed for things that really couldn't be avoided.
Because of actions of this action and the marines on Guadalcanal, I am alive today. My grandfather served in the 2AIF (second Australian Imperial Force) and it was only because of you yanks that he survived (his words, but he would of never admitted it back then). Marines did not rescue us, but because of the pressure asserted by the Marines and the US Navy the Japanese invaders had to pull back as their supply lines were toast. Due to the heroes in the 2AIF, the US Marine Corps as well as the US Navy, the Imperial Japanese Army never invaded Darwin. So many things went wrong, but even more things went right. A shift in either of these two things in Japans favor, would of been a totally different story and possible outcome in the Pacific theatre. So a bit of trivia for you all, I know most of you probably know your WWII history, but I just wanted to say thanks, 80 years later and still grateful. Cheers.
I really appreciate the attention to the moves, deployment, and intersection of ships and planes in your videos about World War II in the Pacific. I don’t know any other channel that offers this quality of detail.
A few years back my brother was an australian diplomat on bougainville. He took some leave, and visited the nearby solomons islands. He visited the grave of MoH winner Roger Young.
@@alekzanderhomburgAdmiral Bull Halsey tried his darndest to save the Enterprise, launching a nationwide charity campaign, but at that time, the country still wanted to put WW2 in the rearview mirror.
The thing with the Solomons Campaign was that this was the only time in the Pacific War where the Japanese could take on the Allies and some times win. The thing about that though - when Halsey threw his ships against the Japanese - was that the Americans could replace their losses and the Japanese could not. Never again were the Japanese able to take on the Americans as equals giving as much as they got. Each Side lost 24 ships, nick naming the waters off Guadalcanal as _"Iron Bottom Sound"_ . .
The Japanese never equaled the Americans right from the start because the Americans were by far the worlds richest country in the world since 1916 and they also have the worlds biggest industrial capacity backed by a super abundance of natural resources. Japan is a very tiny tiny little little volcanic island nation with almost non existent natural resources to begin with.
On the contrary, in the early days of the Japanese expansion into Indonesia, the defending forces of the ABDA (American, British, Dutch and Australian) fleet were almost completely destroyed in the battles of the Java Sea and Sunda Strait, as against very low casualties on the Japanese side. The heavy cruisers HMS Exeter, USS Houston, light cruisers HMAS Perth, HMNLS Java and de Ruyter and the destroyers HMNLS Kortenaer, HMS Electra, HMS Jupiter and HMS Encounter, HMNLS Evertsen and Witte de Withe, USS Pillsbury and USS Edsall were all lost within a few days of each other, whereas only a single Japanese destroyer was forced to retire because of damage, and a Japanese minesweeper and a troop transport were sunk by friendly fire in the Sunda Strait.
Your research into this battle was spot on. I studied WWII sea battles at the Navel Academy and was honored that my step father stormed the beaches of Normandy and survived. My interest in sea battles helped drive me to be a carrier pilot. My service had only Soviet MiG's and bombers to chase away from our battle group. Keep up the great work!!
Excellent video. Love these videos putting a spotlight on what went down in the Solomons. I am hoping someday there is a movie made about the incredibly brave and tenacious Aussies who fought on the Kokoda trail. Unsung heroes if there ever were.
Admiral Carleton Wright had such a singularly strong influence on the outcome of the Guadalcanal Campaign that only Captain Bode of the cruiser Chicago exceeded his efforts. But his career went on to greater notoriety in retrospect when he commanded the Port of Chicago weapons depot. His career really has earned him closer historical scrutiny.
@@rinnafarcoast2216 This is a synthesized voice . The computer is not programmed for Japanese pronunciation. There are several other mispronunciations of English words. Another in the series pronounces "bow" as in bow and arrow, not bow of a ship.
its so amazing to hear details such as the dud bomb that almost took out the enterprise. Its those little moments that really make you think about possible consequences. Great video!
Nothing can bring the Lucky E down! No matter how big of a hit she takes, she just comes back stronger and with a vengeance that makes the sea gods shudder! The Grey Ghost may be gone but her spirit still lives on! Kinda glad they didn't make her into a Museum Ship. Most Successful Warship in the entirely of WWII but i rarely hear much about it except for that series the History Channel did which was GOATED btw. Great Vid and looking forward to the next one!
Thank you for the content. Some of the comments are a bit rough but that’s social media for you. I did not know this part of WWII before or how close Enterprise got to being sunk. 1942 was a pivotal time when the US and Allied Forces held on to the knife edge in the South Pacific. Europe was burning. The cost was enormous beyond human comprehension. The madness of war at its most extreme how people could be so barbarous. I’m glad I don’t live in Gaza or the Ukraine. Thank god I’m too old for war… Dad’s Army for me now perhaps.
I really appreciate your work and that off all the history channels that do these map overviews as it gives a better sense of the battle then just still maps.
I thought that this was quite good. Thanks. [I'll note that, although Aussies may do better, most Americans, if they've even heard of Guadalcanal, have no very good sense of just how high the stakes were there, and in the Eastern Solomon Islands generally. They also probably don't know that almost the entire U.S. Pacific aircraft carrier fleet (that luckily survived the Pearl Harbor attack) was wiped out while fighting in the battles over the Eastern Solomons. Only the Big E (the Enterprise) survived, and that was with a lot of luck - as your video capably shows here.]
Another wonderful historical coverage episode about naval strikes between US fleets and Japanese empire fleets around Selamon Islands in 1942 ( Florida and Guadalcanal Islands) ... thank you 🙏 ( house of history) channel for sharing...
If you know of a story that could place a 3rd engineer of the Dutch merchant fleet (dad) in "East Asia" and "South Pacific" in the 1943-1945 time frame, I would love to hear it.
Thanks a lot, a great video, I like the animation. I understand Fletcher was blamed for sending the Wasp away (unfairly so in my opinion as she was low on fuel and he made the best decision he could have made with what information was available to him at the time), but how could he have been blamed for Saratoga being torpedoed? Did he ignore a warning on Japanese submarine operating in close proximity of Sara?
@daerkkijewski713 It wasn't merely the torpedo attack on Sara. His decision to withdraw the carriers from the initial landings at Guadalcanal led to the disaster off Savo. His decision to detach Wasp for refuelling before this battle led to more criticism. Then after this battle, he got orders to pursue the retreating enemy fleets, which he failed to do. If Sara had been in pursuit, it wouldn't have been where it was ultimately torpedoed. It all added up over a period of time. Not just this one specific incident.
It would seem that the Japanese Imperial forces had a knack for exaggerating and overestimating the damage they inflicted. To the point that they apparently sunk more USN battleships than the USN had in their total inventory and being built.
On a flat map, we can't see how Japanese planes broke through such a large number of American fighters over the aircraft carriers. The problem there was that most American fighters were located at the wrong altitude - below the Japanese planes and did not have time to gain altitude. Therefore, only 2 flights of American Wildcats took part in the battle.
It really is amazing how bad the Japanese intel was, they were way off on the amount of US troops on the island and even on the remaining US fighting ships throughout the entire struggle. You would think they would've realized at some point the US was heavily committed after losing so many ships and men. This battle was the death knell for the remaining great pilots they were even using carrier pilots to take off from Rabaul and make that long ass flight to Gaudalcanal in those flimsy planes which when they got shot up even a little bit, weren't usually going to make it all that distance back. Because of the distance when the planes were shot down or damaged the pilots had almost zero chance of survival and they had no real rescue doctrine for shot down pilots so they lost the cream of the crop of their remaining pilots.
This is a perfect example of a peacetime military going into a wartime military the first battle of the Solomon was led by a Commander that was in his position through politics rather than abilities he had the same if not more of the tools and materials to take on the Japanese has his Flagship the one with the worst radar system blocked any kind of form of communication between the ships and failed to establishing the basic commands and responses prior to engagement and then stop and started giving the Japanese an advantage which cost him and three other captains their ships and their Crews the next man facing an equal Force and containing only 60% of the forces and materials that Swift had wisely used his training and his understanding of the tools available especially radar it was unfortunate that he didn't have a few weeks with the entire flotilla because if they had the training that he had giving his own ship South Dakota would have never gotten into a position they were in but this is common in any beginning of War when the military has to go from peacetime bureaucrats to soldiers there's bound to be some napkin incompetent in the wrong positions unfortunately I guess it wasn't as bad as the defensive Hong Kong boy did that turn into a joke bureaucracy in the middle of a battle
@@davidforbes7772 ah yes one of those who would correct the punctuation on his own death warrant this is what happens when you can't attack the message you attacked the messenger you're one of those ones that confuse literacy with intellect
Please make videos on the British Pacific Fleet operations and the East Indies Fleet under Admiral Sir James Somerville 🇬🇧 It includes Bombing of Sumatra refineries, Palembang Oil fields, Operation Meridian, Operation Cockpit...all those Requesting you from the last 1 year almost I can understand that you have so many suggestions from everyone but Please🙏🏻
I have read that one of the American misconceptions at that time was the belief that Japanese night vision was less acute than the Caucasian version and that therefore engaging them at night provided an advantage. False arrogance, it turned out. Later, the US radar was better though.
As far as I have seen, at sea etc., All commercial vessels in Japan, have Maru as the last part of the name. Military vessels don't use that designator.
Guadacanal was equally unpleasant for the Japanese, and the US forces were FAR better supplied and the US Navy was voluminous by comparrison to the Japanese and Guaacanal was NOT the first tme the Japanese had lost, they had lost to the Australians on the Kokoda t rail and they had an ivnasion force at Milne Bay pushed back into the sea, also by the Australians!
@@davidforbes7772 Until the very LAST 6 months of WW2 the British actually had MORE MEN, MORE SHIPS, MORE PLANES, in actual combat contact with the enemy than did the USA, it was only in this final 6 months that USA prepoderance surpassed that of the kindgom that was half the size of Idaho.
@@HenriHattarThats mainly because the Commonwealth troops had already been in direct combat with the Italians and Germans for over two years before the U.S. was attacked at Pearl Harbor. Then the Commonweath forces in Asia got mauled and forced back to India and Australia while a relatively small force of U.S. troops held out for months in the Philippines. After the U.S. and Great Britain agreed on a "Germany First" strategy, a large part of the U.S. effort was focused on building up and training troops in England for the eventual invasion of France. All the fighting in the Western and Southern Pacific, plus Western Africa and later Sicily and Italy were mostly done with our "spare" forces, while itcwas the main effort for the Commonwealth. Plus, the U.S.S.R. provided more troops killing Germans than ANYBODY in the Western Allies.
@@kenle2 The SMALL forces of US troops who held out in The Philippines actually ournubered the Japanese 2 to one ! As to the figting in Syria that you allude to as well as South and West pacific being done by your SPARE forces? where were your NOT SPARE forces? I would say you are full of hogwash with a bit of dogshit thrown in and totally unfamiliar with what really took place.
Hey HoH, love your work and historical accuracy. Just a comment ~ You can't call Pearl Harbour a defeat. It was an unprovoked sneak attack. Japanese American ambassador reassured the U.S. there was no intention of declaring war against them, then, at the last minute, just a couple of hours pre strike, war against U.S. was declared. The Japanese wanted to make sure the U.S. had no time to organise any meaningful defence, hoping to take our U.S. carriers. The rest, as they say, is history! Jack ~'()'~
Fletcher was constantly obsessed with refueling. Reducing his carriers by 1/3 while knowing the enemy was in the area was a grave error. Fletcher was probably an OK peace time admiral, but lacked the killer instinct to be a great wartime commander. A lot of historians are eager to make excesses for Fletcher, but if your reputation has to relay on excuses made by others on your behalf, your reputation as crap in the first place.
What gives with the Avengers? I thought they were great airplanes. BullSh*t. Every tube I watch, 1 out or 10 torpedo's, launched by Avengers, hit their target. What a waste.
@@sillyone52062 WHY? cartoons are second rate. okay for kiddo's. adults prefer human actors and live studio settings. WAKE UP AND LOOK AROUND AT THE NUMBER OF PODCASTS OF NON-CARTOON PEOPLE.
Removing Fletcher, in my opinion, was an outrageous mistake, and one which the Japanese were glad to see. A commander can only strategize and plan operations based on intel! Fletcher was involved in the battle of midway and was a pivotal factor in the Midway battle taking out four of Japan's best carriers, and equally important, Japan lost a huge portion of their experienced pilots. The U.S. high command made another ridiculous error in removing their best tank commander for slapping a shell shocked soldier, who was terrified and refused to fight. From Patton's point of view, shell shock, now called "post-traumatic stress disorder" was not understood at the time and Patton was enraged with this soldier refusing to fight laying comfortably and safewhen his brother's in arms were out in the thick of it risking life and limb and covering each other's back! Patton had a strong love and respect for his men who fought battle after battle with honour and courage. While his men were out there fighting battle after battle, losing buddies and witnessing unimaginable carnage while this able bodied soldier with no actual wounds laid in a bed. I don't condone this, however, I can understand why Patton had such a strong action. In the end, they stupidly removed a general who had the best record of success and who axis forces were terrified of! His second in command, Bradly was given command, Bradly was an average strategist and never had the full respect of his new command who just loved and thoroughly trusted Patton. Jack ~'()`~
For historic accuracy, feet is the correct unit of measure to use in this case. You are welcome to ask Google to convert for you if you're needlessly upset by the choice.
