The Battle of Wake Island 1941 - Animated 

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I didn’t realise that the Wake defenders sank a couple of Japanese ships and initially drove off the invasion force. I already thought that the defenders were heroes for holding their ground against overwhelming odds. But I have a great deal more respect having watched this video.

My grandfather, George Rosandick, was one of the Morrison Knudsen contractors working on the airfield on Wake when the Japanese came. He spent the entirety of the war, 4.5 years, in a Japanese POW camp watching his friends killed and in a constant state of hunger. His trial absolutely changed the path of my families’ life. He passed in 2005 but his greatest achievement was the strong, loving family he raised and left in his native Idaho. He didn’t hold a grudge against the Japanese people and visited Japan and Wake again later in his life. Thank you for telling this story.

A lot of the defenders were hastily equipped civilian contractors as well. Though a large portion of them and the marine wake POWs would be murdered by the Japanese before the end of the war.

Imagine promised help, although late, then getting news that that mission was abandoned.

Huge props to those Wildcat pilots for all those accurate hits. It had probably been a awhile since they had had a chance to train with anything.

The men defending Wake island were legendary and shall never be forgotten. It is sad to see how they were treated after the battle, they all should get Medals, including the civilians. "As we lay down our arms on the twenty third day The Japs cheered the news of defeat. But they could not believe a few crummy Marines Had stopped the whole Japanese fleet." -Wake Island by Oscar Brand

If they knew how savage the Japanese were to prisoners they would have probably fought to the last man.

Something that is very saddening. after wake island was captured. 98 soldiers and civilians were kept on the island for slave labor. they were treated horribly and tortured regularly. Soon the US was advancing on the pacific so the Japanese commander ordered all of the 98 to be killed. 1 soldier or civilian managed to escape and hide next to a large boulder for a few hours. He etched into the rock the words “ 98, US, PW 5-10-43”. soon after he was captured and personally beheaded by the japanese commander. The rock is now known as “98 rock” and you can actually go and see it

Our company goes to Wake regularly. It's really impressive to see some of the old sites and "98 rock" is a solemn reminder of what awaited these brave men after they surrendered. There were about 1200 civilians on Wake Island at the time of the attack, mostly military contractors and some Pan Am Airlines employees.

As bombs fell on Ford Island and torpedoes slammed into Battleship Row, the 520 soldiers, sailors, and marines of the Wake Island garrison found themselves trapped on a glorified sand spit in a suddenly hostile Pacific. Trapped with them were 1,221 civilian employees of the Morrison-Knudson construction company. While many of the MK men refused to help the garrison during the campaign, hundreds stepped forward to fill whatever role was needed. They utilized the heavy construction equipment on hand to dig trenches and build bunkers. They laid and wired dozens of improvised mines made from dynamite and blasting powder. They carried ammunition for the atoll’s antiaircraft batteries during the endless air raids and, when the shorthanded garrison couldn’t man all of the guns, formed an impromptu gun crew to help. Their mechanics worked day and night to aid the marine aviators in refueling, rearming, and repairing the dwindling handful of war-torn Wildcats that flew patrols until they literally fell apart. They cheered with the garrison as the shore batteries sank a Japanese destroyer during the first invasion attempt, the first enemy surface ship sunk during the war, then cheered again when word came back that a second destroyer had succumbed to the atoll’s pilots. And when the last Wildcat had been shot down, as food and ammunition dwindled, as the bombing intensified, as word came from Pearl Harbor that the vital rescue force had been ordered to turn back, and as a second Japanese fleet appeared over the horizon, they stood with the garrison and met the invaders at the water’s edge, fighting with rifles, rocks, and their own bare hands. The 3" gun that rained fire into the Japanese patrol boats on the south shore was captained by Marine Lieutenant Robert Hanna and Corporal Ralph Holewinski. Manning the gun alongside them were civilians Bob Bryan, Paul Gay, and Eric Lehtola. Bryan and Gay would not survive the night. Major Paul Putnam, commanding officer of VMF-211, was ordered to take his 22 surviving officers and men and form a scratch defensive line between the shore and the airfield. As they moved out to take their positions, 22 civilians, led by work boss John Sorenson, followed them. Putnam ordered the MK men to turn around, warning that they had no spare weapons for them and that if they were captured the Japanese would surely execute them. Sorenson, who towered over the diminutive Marine, responded, "Major, do you think you're really big enough to make us stay behind?" And so Putnam made his stand with half his force comprised of civilians. Ten of them would die in the fighting. Sorenson would be among them, killed as he charged a Japanese position with his bare hands to buy time for his comrades. Captain Henry "Hammerin' Hank" Elrod, the pilot who had on the 12th attacked a formation of over twenty Japanese aircraft by himself, shooting down two in the process, and then capped his success by sinking the destroyer Kisaragi, was also with Putnam's group. Reportedly wielding a Thompson submachine gun, and then a captured light machine gun, as well as he handled a Wildcat, Elrod was at the point of every counterattack against the Japanese. He was killed early in the morning of the 23rd, gunned down as he threw grenades to cover men bringing up ammunition and taking back the wounded. He would be posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for actions in the sky and on the ground, the first to be given to an aviator during the war. But despite these efforts, it wasn’t enough. On December 23rd, fifteen days after the start of the war, the defenders surrendered. The Japanese quickly transferred the garrison and the able-bodied civilians off the atoll, putting them to work in POW camps in Japan and China. The wounded, and several members of the defender’s medical staff who volunteered to stay behind, remained on the islands as they were quickly cut off by the advancing Allied counter offensive. Soon, the occupying forces received a taste of their own medicine as American bombing raids and blockades severely hampered resupply efforts. Facing potential starvation, the Japanese commander made an appalling choice. On October 5th, 1943, the 98 remaining American prisoners were taken to the northern end of the island, blindfolded, and then killed with machine guns. Amazingly, one of the POWs managed to escape the massacre, but he was discovered the following morning and executed. At the end of the war, the Japanese garrison surrendered to the American Navy. When questioned about what happened to the POWs that had remained on the island, the commander insisted that the shelter they were staying in had been hit by an American bomb, killing all of them. Knowing that this was a lie, as it was to convenient to have taken place, the Americans conducted a search of the island. They quickly found what they were looking for Unbeknownst to the Japanese, they had not covered all of their tracks. In the dead of night, the massacre’s lone survivor returned to the beach and, in the darkness, carved a message into a coral boulder at the water’s edge: 98 US PW 5-10-43 When confronted with this, the garrison admitted to their crimes. The Japanese commander was sentenced to death, and his subordinates spent the rest of their lives in prison. Today, Wake Island is wildlife sanctuary, established to protect the thousands of rare bird species that call the coral atolls of the Pacific their home. The airbase there is used as an emergency field for transpacific flights, and the total population numbers less than 100 American military personnel. The rock, and its mournful message, are still there.

Our dear friend Richard was a civilian contractor who volunteered to assist the Marine shore battery. He was sworn in, and He was captured with the Marines, while his co-workers, ( civilians who did not fight) were tortured & butchered by Japanese, and many worked to death by Japanese Marines of the IJN who were "fiendish animals" according to Richard, who worked in coal mines in Japan as slave labour till liberation in August, 1945.

Should be noted that the last WW2 MoH recipient passed away on the 29th of June. RIP, Hershel "Woody" Williams...

I have such fond memories of playing "wake island" in Battlefield 1942 when I was younger, that I honestly got really happy when I saw the notification for this video. Always wanted to know how it actually went down.

Those Marines simply shot the HELL out of anything that came near them. I was always disappointed that Wake Island wasn't recaptured a lot sooner in the Pacific War. If for Morale reasons if nothing else. We would've owed it to those Marines who so gallantly did their Duty and gave the Japanese Navy a really bad bloody nose so soon after Pearl Harbor.

Been waiting for this one! Probably my favorite battle of the early war

I can't recommend "Pacific Alamo" by John Wukovits enough, it is an excellent coverage of pre-, during and post-battle, and tells the stories of those involved [civilian, USMC, IJN] very well.

Such a damm shame those brave men were not reinforced or rescued somehow, submarine, etc. They served and fought so bravely. It hurts me to see they were abandoned. Excellent video by the way. I have read a few great books on the subject but, the video and narration here are well done and help further. thank you for great historical work!

Love your videos. A small suggestion - it struck me that this video would have been improved by adding dimensions at various points of the narration like how long is the southern shore, how wide is the mouth of the harbor, how far from the northeast battery to the southwest battery, etc. Some scale to the island would have provided a higher level of appreciation of what was going on, the difficulty the American had given their small numbers, etc

The first invasion attempt was horrifyingly incompetent lol

This was my favourite map for defending in BF1942 and BF2. Thanks for the video dude, amazing as usual.

Absolutely wonderful job, covering these often overlooked/rushed events of the war and showing the details and actions on such small levels really aids in elevating the actions of everyone involved and brings things down to an individual level something usually reserved for larger battles

I didn't realize the Wildcats on Wake were used for bombing ships. That's incredible.

Played the hell out of this map in Battlefield 1942 Demo…Didn’t know it was such a crazy last stand situation

My Grandfather William Taylor was a civilian contractor on Wake who helped fight off the Japanese invasion. It’s amazing how brave those men were. After the battle he was one of the lucky ones taken prisoner to mainland China and put in a prison camp. He miraculously escaped by jumping off a moving train and was captured/rescued by Communist Chinese forces under the command of General Mao. He wrote a book “Rescued By Mao” that tells his whole story.

Wake Island 2007 was my favorite map in Battlefield 2, and I've loved playing on it in any game it's featured in. I learned some of the history about it thanks to those games, but the detail and visuals took it to a whole 'nother level for me. Amazing work.

i wish you had included what happened to the Marines captured and how few of them survived the Japanese prison camps. also, a big part of the story you left out is the civilian workers on the island and the hell they went through under Japanese hands.

Wow, the Japanese really underestimated the US on that first try. You should ALWAYS be afraid of a cornered enemy that will fight HARD, even outnumbered and outgunned, be very cautious.

Though Wake Island fell, their stand in the darkest days gave the People what they needed most; Hope and Heroes.

Among the the the Japanese aviators shot down in this battle was warrant officer Noboru Kanai, widely believed to be the bombardier who dropped the fatal bomb on the USS Arizona. His plane was apparently hit by ground fire and last seen spinning out of control out to sea in flames. Neither he nor his fellow crewmen were ever seen again. Small bit of revenge there by the defenders of Wake.

That was depressing to hear, didn't know much about wake but once I heard that the carriers turned around I knew those Marines were dead. Hindsight being 20-20, the commander of the island shouldn't have surrendered. Sad to know how they were afterwards.

Great video. My grandfather fought on Wake as a merchant marine, spent the rest of the war in POW labor camp. He had some interesting stories

It must be such a good feeling to have your shell land on an enemy ship. All that trigonometry and math, all the near misses. It must be an intense pleasure release to see an explosion instead of a spray of water.

Don't forget that these were Marines in the early part of the war. Most were armed with WW1 bolt action Springfields and the machine guns were water-cooled .30cals. The more iconic M1 Garands and such were not in full production yet or given out to these older units.

This really shows the absolute grit of US forces in the 40s. Can't say how much respect I have for these tough sons-of-bitches and the bloody nose they gave the Japanese navy.

hello, I absolutely love your videos the animations are absolutely amazing and give a really nice overview of the battles. one thing which would be nice is if there were a distance scale so the viewer can get a better grasp on the distance between the combatants, for example, if the animation is somewhat to scale it would become easier to grasp the scale of witch the battle is fought. LOVE THE VIDES CEAP EM UPP :D

A great illustration of the Wake Is battle. I learned a lot and eagerly awake your next production of operations room.

the treatment of the surrendered defenders was horrific. the civilian construction workers massacred, the naval troops and marines sent to horrible pow camps on hell ships. the story of commander Cunningham. after all that when the Japanese when they realised how screwed they were after being isolated attempted to convince the US POWs left on the island that they wanted to "be friends"

It’s a tragedy what the Japanese did to those men after they surrendered. An even bigger tragedy is that very few were even held accountable for their crimes.

I learned so much by watching your videos! Thanks for being a great resource!

My uncle was a Marine stationed at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked on Dec. 7. What I didn't know(until recently)was that he was on the transport that was going to reinforce Wake Island after the Marines there had repulsed the first attack. The task force turned around after they heard of Wake being taken. He recently passed(age 98), he was a favorite uncle, loud but loving

"Posted 14 minutes ago?!" *grabs beer and steaks* "LET'S GOOOOOO!"

I remember playing this level over and over in Battlefield 1942

Loved the video @The Operations Room! Can't wait for the next video guys! Wake island would later be Cut off from Supply during the Island Hopping Campaign in the Pacific even though Aircraft Carriers like USS Hornet (CV-12) or her Essex-class Sister Ship USS Yorktown (CV-10) would steam by and pull One off Air Raids on the Island and her Japanese Captors.

I didn’t know how bravely the US forces fought on Wake Island! I especially didn’t know that sank 2 Japanese ships. Well done yet again!

No matter the ad, I will watch it due to the quality of these videos

Don't ever forget about the story of Butch Coolidge and his gold watch. Butch's grandfather, Dane Coolidge, a marine on Wake Island, knew he was facing death as the Japanese attacked. He handed his gold watch off to a gunner of an airforce transport plane named Winaki and had it delivered back to his wife in America. Butch, who would later become a prizefighter, treasured this watch. It was his birthright. He treasured the watch so much, that when his girlfriend Fabienne forgot to pack it when they were moving, he would have to go back to their apartment and kill a man to retrieve it.

@3:43 I like how you emphasized the "Nissan" landing crafts

I’ve always been more interested in the European theatre of WWII, but your videos have all of a sudden made me fascinated with the Pacific theatre as well. Well done!

All my experiences of this battle have been played out through the Battlefield games over the past 20 years, which mostly recently in BFV involved a hacker in a tank sniping me from a mile away... Now it's interesting to finally see how it actually played in great detail over 80 years ago. Thank you again for all your top quality and fascinating work!

Really doing justice to these pacific theater engagements.

beautifully researched, scripted and delivered as always. TheOperationsRoom has quickly become my favourite military history channel on yt.

It's 01:07 where I am so imma watch it tomorrow, but I'm hella excited, your videos are always top-notch quality

Love these type of vids from you. Now to actually watch it.

It feels weird being able to reasonably accurately imagine the terrain of this battle, due to my experience playing on Wake Island in Battlefield 2.

Excellent as always. I had no idea the Wake defenders had done so well. Much admiration

6:43 "Changes from a ship into a ball of flame" spit out my coffee at just how calmly you said that.

This is what I love about history. I am constantly being reminded how wonderful it is to be an American.

I recently read a good book by Duane Schultz on Wake Island’s defense, and this was a good accompanying video to help me visualize the battlefield better. Thanks, always enjoy these.

Babe wake up Operations Room just dropped another banger

Amazing that VMF 11 was able to score direct hits with bombs on Cruisers and Destroyers with just 4 aircraft. Compared to Midway with 127 land based aircraft that didn't hit anything, including 4 huge aircraft carriers.

Brutal battle but an incredibly brave stand by the US forces. Another belter Francis 👍🏽

Awesome video. I love researching WW2 ( I'm 43 and the son of an army Captain so I started early. haha) .. I had no idea that the Japanese had held Wake til the end. I mostly focus on the European theater but this proves that there's always something new to learn! Thank you

0:48 >Historically accurate >destroys plane with artillery I mean, I guess it's not impossible... Love the video as always!

Rest in eternal paradise to my brothers before me and these brave marines who fell upholding their duty.

Wow, heard of how the POWs were treated after the surrender, but this is the first clear description of the battle. Excellent telling of history, Operations Room!!

Amazing as always. Never even heard of this battle! Thank you so much for what you do brother, we really appreciate it. Could I make a suggestion? When you run out of WW2/1 battles it'd be cool to see some revolutionary war stuff. Much love from Texas.

I cannot tell you how pumped I am when I get a notification that you've uploaded a new video. These are all extremely so well done and I appreciate and applaud all the work that goes into creating these. I've learned an incredible amount of military history. Thank you so much!

You forgot to mention that the POW's were treated horrendously and most died. 98 were massacred and 114 died in POW camps of maltreatment and starvation.

Can't imagine how they felt when they new reinforcements weren't coming. They fought like hell though.

Well produced and animated series of documentaries in which the narrator does a great job of bringing the viewer back in time and into the heart of these ferocious battles. Worth anyone's time who likes history.

A true hero's fight - told wonderfully by a highly skilled historian. Well done, yet again sir, I anxiously await your next posting. Hoping that you will honor the brave men under the command of Commander Richard O'Kane (whose grave site I just visited at Arlington National Cemetery) on their final patrol in the Formosa Strait. Please keep them coming sir.

That first attack sounds like some IJN planner forgot how dangerous shore batteries are. One real cruiser, two oversized destroyers that weren't particularly good when they were built 30 years before, and some destroyers against a 5-inch battery is a comical example of overconfidence.

Five American servicemen, who were part of the Wake Island garrison, were tortured and beheaded by the Japanese on the ship Nitta Maru in front of the other American POWs. Their bodies were then used for bayonet practice until they were unrecognizable as human forms. Then they were simply swept off the boat. RIP

Excellent animation. Really helps visualise the battle(s).

My Grandfather was a machine gunner somewhere around the airstrips. Was a POW for 45 months. Thanks for telling the story!

I really, genuinely, love this channel. I get butterflies everytime there is an upload. I love this shit so much. Thank you TOR. You make my days so much better.

Although overwhelmingly outnumbered, the Marines are not going down without a fight and fight they did to the end. Don’t mess with the Devil Dogs! Semper Fi ! 🇺🇸

Very good documentary of Wake island. The Operations Room did it again

I love Wake Island missions in the game Heroes over Pacific and favorite map in BF 1942

This is like The Alamo

Great video, such an interesting story.

I spent a lot of time on that Island....in Battlefield 1942 the game as Vexador (gaming name).

i just want to say, the war thunder sponsor is what made me smile, im really glad people are helping each other out when they are in the same boat : )

I got here 30 seconds after the video was uploaded

excited to watch this !

Ops Room covering one of my favorite WW2 battles to study means it's going to be a good day

Great videos. Please do Leyte Gulf, Santa Crus Islands and the Marianas turkey shoot! Can't wait to see them

Wake up mom dad, the ops room posted

Awesome! What about a video of the Canadian infantry at the Medak Pocket in Croatia? That would be great

That is some remarkable gunmanship from the Marines.

These videos are so great, my friends all come up to me for questions about ww2

Why are people upset with Operations Room calling the attack on Pearl Harbor a preemptive strike?

Never heard of this and it’s wonderful what the Americans achieved. The animation is incredible and tells the story so well Bob England

Studied this part of the theater intensely. RIP to those who were lost and God bless the sailor's who endured captivity.

I was THERE! Battlefield 1942 circa 2002! We lost a lot of good players on those servers….

Thanks for your work Op-Rm. Can I request a graphic on one of the most important battles of WWII, the Battles of Imphal and Kohima?

Could we get a video on the naval battle of Leyte gulf?

As always, nicely done. A few other operations I'd like to see: Pointe Du Hoc, The Battle of Remagen, Pegasus Bridge.

I know this island better than my parents home where I've played this Map in every Btf and Shooter I had, even in company of heroes