Im a Latino on my latino country. Yesterday my nephew came back to port from an 8 month mission on his Coast guard cutter. His base is in Honolulu. Viva USA amigos!
Yamamoto knew this before anyone ....he knew he was on borrowed time from the very start....he knew he had to have a smashing victory which made him reckless ...and he Knew he couldn't fight a sustained campaign...he said "ill run wild for a year ...then I can promise nothing"
What must our fathers think having fought this great crusade to free the world, only to see the way their grandchildren behave against it's nobility and it's institutions, it's values, and all that is good that they died to preserve? Breaks the heart.
THE greatest generation----------my Father was at Guadalcanal ; he contracted Dengue Fever, & " combat fatigue " from lack of sleep. he was awarded The Navy Cross & a Purple heart, spent 19 months in New Zealand, recovering his mind & health. The Greatest Generation.
Two of my uncle's fought on Guadalcanal. One was with the 1st Marine division and the other with the United States Marine air wing. Both survived the war and served for thirty years (active duty and in the reserves).
I remember this on TV as a little girl. My father was USNA 42 graduated Dec. 41 sent out to the Pacific as gunnery officer on a destroyer. When asked if he was scared at Midway he replied "The mind of an ensign is a wonderful thing." He had written in his Annapolis journal about studying for finals when they got the news of Pearl Harbor.
My father graduated from Annapolis in June, 1940. I asked him one day if he was worried at all about graduating at a time when the whole of Europe was aflame and falling to the Nazis. He said that he and other Pacific-bound graduates were concerned for classmates who were heading to Atlantic duty stations, given how the First World War played out, but no, they weren't particularly worried since they themselves were headed to a tropical paradise called.....Pearl Harbor.
Midway in June 1942 was a great victory for the allies, particularly the USN. A month earlier the Battle of the Coral Sea, mentioned briefly the at the start of this episode, was fought with two US carrier Task Forces (TF) and one Australia cruiser task force. The carrier battle was the main action however the cruiser TF commanded by an RAN admiral from HMAS Australia, the RAN's flag ship, blocked the Japanese troop carrying transports approaching New Guinea from the north east forcing them to withdraw. The combined action of the two US and one Australian lead TF not only won the battle but was a strategic victory that halting the Japanese thrust south towards New Guinea, then Australian territory, and the Australian mainland which is the size of the USA mainland but with a then population of only 7 million and lightly defended.
To Ethercruiser1 & Brian Sedlock : Both war documentaries were great. However, they both would be ONLY second to Ken Burn's 1990 PBS war documentary THE CIVIL WAR. Note: I have all three documentaries on DVD.
@@peterjohnson617 The US broke Japans code and figured out they planned a surprise attack against Midway Islands, which is why the carriers were at Midway.
WHAT ????? Full details were revealed in the world media November, December 1945. eg trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/48667116?searchTerm=american%20code%20breakers%20japanese
This show was done in the 50s...years after the war was over. The code breaking was general knowledge in the US by then...it was the first show to make extensive use of German and Japanese footage that had been captured during and after the war..
Henry Rockwell my dad was at Pearl Harbor also when it got attack said he was never more scared in his life God bless our patriots are heroes their hearts would sing in sadness to see what the grandchildren are doing todayWake up America trouble is coming
Admiral Isoroku Yamamato declared that he would run wild the 1st year of the war but had no hope of victory if the war lasted longer than that. He was in charge of the Imperial Japanese Navy and made up the plans for both Pearl Harbor & Midway. He knew the industrial power of the United States having been a naval attache in Washington, D.C. years prior and knew it was far greater than Japan's. He disagreed with Tojo's desire to fight the U.S. but the Emperor relented eventually and so the Pacific Theatre's fate was sealed at that point.
@@pressureworks You're right, my mistake. What I should've said that it saved America from Japanese enslavement and it was a turning point in the Pacific War.
Perhaps Winston Churchill said it best "The annals of war at sea present no more intense, heart-shaking shock than this battle, in which the qualities of the United States Navy and Air Force and the American race shone forth in splendour.
I remember as a child watching these Victory at Sea episodes . The Victory at Sea sound track was always running thru my head . It was unusual for an actual Symphony orchestra to do the music for all these episodes .
My old brain has forgotten the details. I do recall that the composer of this music initially turned down a request to compose it. The article I read said he watched the video of one episode. He was so moved, he did the music.
The mistake was showing US torpedo bombers attacking during the US dive bomber attack. During the part about the torpedo attacks the narrator correctly commented that none of the torpedoes scored a hit.
A not well known fact about WWII, is how terrible the U.S. torpedoes were. They had a 70 percent failure rate, when properly aimed and set. Detonation systems that would not fire straight on, in some conditions. Magnetic detonators were deactivated in July of 1943. Then the problems with the Contact detonators became obvious! 50% detonation at 45 degree strike angles, improving with more angle, but almost never detonating when straight on at 90 degree strike angles. Firing pins were jamming due to increased torpedo speed of 45 knots or so, and the huge forces when the torpedo hit straight on. They also ran 10 to 12 feet deeper than set, not fixed until August of 1942. Both submarine and aerial torpedos. For several years... shameful. Not enough effort/money dedicated to testing, and then denial by those who should have been searching for a fix.
Midway was an incredible victory against a much superior Japanese force. Never liked the highly emotional narration of "Victory at Sea". But I have nothing but respect for the incredible skill and bravery of the Americans who stopped the Japanese onslaught and sank all four Japanese aircraft carriers engaged at Midway.
here in 2021 as an older person it is quite easy to tell the fake from the real footage. when I first watched in the late 50`s it was all so real........great film making......thanks
What a great way to describe it! I can't remember any actions in WWII when heavy bombers were successful attacking moving warships. The Japanese learned to have lookouts watching for high altitude bomb releases, and then turned their ships to avoid the drop zone. Big heavy bombers could not withstand the antiaircraft fire if they came in low, plus the enemy fighter planes were much more effective at lower altitudes. They could take off and reach the bombers quickly, if the interceptors did not have to gain a lot of altitude.
@@davidrowley8251 There weren't any. Medium bombers could be effective, most notably at the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, where they used skip-bombing tactics rather than bombing from altitude. Heavy bombers were basically useless.
A wonderful treat for me. I found this DVD collection, while running a Tuna boat in these same waters. I could actually look out my window, and see these islands, and experience the miserable heat firsthand. I would watch one episode, every night, when we shut down to drift. When I hear the opening music, I am back aboard, and motoring through the South Pacific all over again!
No! These are among the very best documentaries of WW II. The new documentaries are longer for more commercials. The new script writers are morons who repeat the same information again and again. They think the the audiences of today are stupid and can't remember what was just said a few minutes earlier.
@@JR-lk8fe I know, it's 11 months later, but you are so correct; I despise it when right after some commercials, we have to listen to a recap of the entire show up to that time. I am 68 and I also remember watching Victory At Sea many years ago. What I didn't realize those many years ago but what I notice today is the amount of recreation of a lot of the story; I thought it was all actual footage. But that's okay, I know that it had to be done to fill out the story line. And of course the magnificent musical score by the incredible Richard Rogers that so eloquently captures the mood of everything from being in the midst of battle to the tranquil times in-between. My late Father was enlisted aboard the Escort Carrier Lunga Point and was at Okinawa and Iwo Jima and saw plenty of action fighting off the Kamikazes.
I think that The World at War’ by Thames Television in England is another epic masterpiece and i hope that viewers who have not seen it can access the programme episodes in other parts of the world. The stupidity of mass killing and of the donkeys who led it is also made crystal clear in another British series about WW 1 made in black and white in the mid 60’s. Given away by the Daily Mail newspaper circa 20 years ago in Britain. Along with ‘Victory at Sea’ these 2 shows cover every base that the public can be told about the two apocalyptic crimes of the 20th Century. Churchill said that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance and all 3 shows comprise a comprehensive document which should put everyone in no doubt that these bestial horrors could be the end of the Earth 🎸
World at War came close. The combination of the music and Graves' narration are the best. Only seven years after victory . The evil that constituted the Axis was still fresh in everyone's mind
Not mentioned in this account is the triumph of the Code Breakers in Pearl, who deciphered the Japanese Naval Codes and gave Nimitz the intelligence that told him when and where the Japanese were going to attack. The American Navy ambushed the Japanese, who had no idea where they were.
Ok I note some intercuts with Japanese propaganda films, 2:57 suspiciously looks like Toshiro Mifune who served in the Aerial Photography unit during World War II.
This episode demonstrates why a modern mighty Navy is a must, for national survival and global dominance. Germany and France both lacked a modern Navy which is why they are no longer global military heavyweights
12:32 "The same carriers that hit Pearl Harbour are headed for Midway"... Well the best 4 out of the 6.. so yes the 4 had been at Pearl, but 2 were not available for Midway due to Battle of the Coral Sea. The Battle of the Coral Sea was a waste. a great strategic loss. The USN might not have attended Midway if 6 carriers had turned up. "We will just have to not lose any more islands", they'd say, and carry on. For Japan, the Battle of Midway was always about sinking the USN . Not about having Midway.
12:20 ... Only 4 of 6 carriers of the Kido Butai ( A name for their fleet carrier group ) were on the way. 6 had gone to Pearl Harbour. Only four were going to Midway. The two that had been sent to Battle of Coral Sea were not going to Midway, one was too damaged to go, and as four still had more planes than the USA could send to Midway, and they expected to be able to surpise the USA, they felt safe. If four or more fleet carriers had been sent to the Coral Sea, then they would have had much better success there , Or they could have just not done the Coral Sea thing at all. So they could have had six fleet carriers for Midway ? But they needed to save fuel, and they needed fleet carriers at home for defense, to become the fleet in being, eg the Doolittle Raids had just happened, and it seems the Doolittle raids had achieved something... conservatism in the Japanese strategy, But of course, If 6 fleet carriers went to Midway, the USA were going to have to let the invasion happen handing Midway to the Japanese temporarily... they were never going to send capital ships to Midway to save it, unless they knew they had reasonable strength and strategy for winning the war of attrition - in this case of the carriers, planes and pilots.
The music score by Richard Rogers for the complete series is considered as one complete symphony. Therefore the longest symphony written some 13 hours in length.
I was on a cruise ship and we hit a storm. I went t outside and caught the action as we fought the sea. The only thing I could think of was the opening music to VAC. The k you Mr Rodger’s.
This documentary is out of sequence. Midway bomber took off before the Japanese attacked. It shows the Japanese attack and then we spotted their carrier and launch the bombers. There were no American planes at Midway when the Japanese attacked.
Breaking the Japanese Code was not mentioned here. I assume this was still classified at the time this show was created? I wonder when the codebreaking was declassified?
There are a few good documentaries of World War two. Ken Burns 'The War' is one, but none has yet supplanted Victory at Sea. It is a true classic. America at it's greatest moment.
Despite the jingoistic rhetoric from the narrator, please remember that, when this series was first broadcast in 1952, the Korean War was on, and Japan was the "unsinkable aircraft carrier" that was crucial to the allied success in that war.
Sadly, the military was still saddled with that narcissistic loser, MacArthur. Truman finally found his balls and sacked that bastard but not before a lot of men died for nothing!
WHAT ? Do you mean that Japan should have been bombed some more, since it was unsinkable ? Its like you are suggesting that the americans stopped at 2 nukes because it might sink if they kept going. ??? What are we to remember ? What they did think... better to build the country back up so that it can be a good ally ??? Or do you mean Japan was anti-communist at the start ? But you could say Japan attacking turned China communist...looking at the dates...
@@isilder Not at all. I was stating that I think the narrator's rhetoric was overly jingoistic because the Japanese/US relationship in 1952 when this series was first broadcast was dramatically different from what it was in 1941 when the Battle of Midway occurred.
"come you back you British soldier, come you back to Mandalay' I heard that somewhere. A professor at my college traveled east and I saw his fotos of Hong Kong with Japanese tanks. I was a kid following the European war in the newspapers of the day. !
The Japanese pilots were NOT KILLED . they survived. the japanese destroyers came in and rescued them . This video tells us that the carriers are "smashed and sinking"... Well they are on fire, and they burn through the night, and are scuttled the next day !!!. So they weren't neccessarily sinking, and certainly didnt go down without the healthy and walking wounded being rescued. The japanese didn't want to let the carriers to get taken by the Americans... The lack of pilots for the Battle of Phillipines Sea and for Leyte Gulf was not due to Midway.. They had a few reserves to make up for human losses at Midway, eg they had 2 fleet carriers left, and most of the crew from 6.. so plenty of crew for the remaining 2. The attrition of the pilots was more to do with the years of fighting, eg over the Solomon Islands ... The useless attacks at trying to attrition the american supply equipment and garrison ... what, with the 1000's of supply boats that the allies had built for the US army and navy pacific fleets ? attrition ? they didn't do anything but slow the growth of the pacific build up a little. Thats where the attrition of japanese aircrew came about. a ... Ending... Decisive battle ? IJN wanted to destroy all the ships of the USN and US army. Carriers, battleships,cruisers and destroyers, army transports, and so too the USN might have destroyed those of the japanese there at Midway ? But the USN lets the rest of the IJN and army invasion forces escape... but for two heavy cruisers which had collided during the night and so got themselves crippled and left behind.... And while the battle was losses of 4 to 1 , the result was IJN had two fleet carriers in the next year, and USN had two or three...or one... which was damaged... at one stage. Enterprise, damaged held the fort on its own. Tthe drama of the equality continues through the Guadacanal campaign, the equality that resulted from Midway is why neither side should just cross the border and run wild... The japanese did successfully invade the Solomon Islands *instead* of the south of New Guinea. And having fleet carrier equality, the americans could now start the land campaigns... This video also misses that great drama of the mistakes of the USN at Midway,..eg the Hornet flight to nowhere, where the plan B attack of a Hornets airgroup arriving as one big group failed, because they all went off on the wrong bearing. (But VT8, from Hornet, torpedo bombers, did disobey.. and did attack the carriers but no got no hits and got totally destroyed...) and how that the flight to nowhere meant they didnt return to Hornet.. they went to Midway or ditched..
I am seventy years old and saw this series as a child. I remember the narrator saying “And now . . . “. This episode “Midway is East” is one of the most confusing of the whole series. I don’t know why they didn’t do a better job on this battle. Midway was definitely the turning point of the Pacific Campaign. It’s really confounding why with all the material on hand at the time they did do a better job. Oh well, you can’t hit a home run at ever "At Bat”
I fell in love with this when it first aired - watched it with my Father - still do - Has anyone considered a colorized version? I Would be very keen to add it to my collection! Donna
25:30 ... planes from the Enterprise attack Hiryu .. Yorktown is damaged and doomed, but that leaves Hornet ? Well Hornet had some planes reserved for recon but mostly its attack force was in a mess as they had completely messed up in the morning attack, and went the wrong direction. Hornet's torpedo bombers, tragically, did navigate correctly , defying orders, and attacked for no result and a complete 100% loss of planes, and most personnel. But the dive bombers never found their target carriers and with a lack of experience, they were led beyond the range for return to the carrier and had planes land on Midway and many planes ditched in the sea. Hornet had done the recon, and still they did send in a follow up attack after Enterprise.. Enterprise had already doomed the Hiryu so Hornet's group attacked other ships.
25:11 A Japanese Judy 2 dropping a bomb. According to relevant information, this footage was taken by a nerveless cameraman aboard USS Lexington (the new one) in 1944.
The Japanese were prepared for war the us were not and the British were occupied trying to save their own country so the Japanese had a pretty free hand throughout the Pacific but once the us got going they weren't ever going to let them away with their atrocities
After the torpedo planes are shot down the dive bombers come in as in the real battle. But the video shows more torpedo planes in low level attack dropping their big fish.
Victory at Sea has got its admiral wrong. The American admiral who was in tactical command at Midway and responsible for the sinking of four Japanese carriers was Admiral Fletcher. Fletcher only turned over command to Spruance after the Yorktown was abandoned.
Absolutely wrong. Yorktown, Fletcher's flagship was delayed at Pearl Harbor repairing damage from the Battle of the Coral Sea. Fletcher nominated Spruance to command a task force including Enterprise and Hornet with the understanding that Fletcher would be in overall command when Yorktown joined the battle and Nimitz concurred. The crucial decision by Spruance to attack the IJN main force based on incomplete knowledge of the tactical situation happened before that. Allegedly, Fletcher was madder than the proverbial wet hen and Spruance paid a price for it in career terms.
@@dalecomer5951 Halsey strongly suggested to Nimitz that Spruance should command TF16. Nimitz appointed him to command of TF16. TF17 arrived at Point Luck on the afternoon of June 2nd and upon arrival, Fletcher, being senior to Spruance, was in tactical command of both task forces. The decision to attack when the whereabouts of only two IJN carriers was known, was made by Fletcher. There was no animosity between Fletcher and Spruance.
@@billmactiernan6304 So the movie got it all wrong? I forgot about Halsey being "indisposed." Glenn Ford knew Spruance personally. Ford continued his service in the reserves for some time after the war. Amazing they could get that scene in the movie so wrong.
i was just on the midway in san diego. I don't think a torpedo did hit. The video doesn't quite say that. It says the Nautilus was shooting at it. I also have been on the Nuclear Nautilus up in Ct.
The torpedo didn't explode, (we had faulty torpedos at the start), but it caused a Destroyer to lag behind trying to find the Sub, it then ran at Full speed to catch up with the Carriers. That Sub led Wade McClusky & his dive Bombers tithe 4 carriers.
The Submarine torpedo did hit a Carrier after the dive bombers had struck. But it didn't explode as usual and broke apart with the warhead sinking. The Japanese sailors in the water promptly climbed on the floating torpedo shell and found it quite handy as a lifesaver.
the torpedo bombers still surprises me could not get close enough to make hits, but their attack and sacrifice pulled down the Japanese air cover and the Dive bombers had a field day. But even then they only scored a handful of hits. Fortunately the hits were severe, planes were on the deck being serviced, etc.
