All language subtitles for The Pacific War in Color Series 1 6of8 Fire From The Sky 1080p

NARRATOR: In late 1944,

\h\h\h\h\hthe Pacific War is
building to a brutal climax.

\hOne island swallows an
entire Marine regiment.

\hPVT SLEDGE: We were in
a death trap on Peleliu.

\h\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: Another
becomes a beacon of bravery.

\h\h\hPVT MENDEZ: Iwo Jima
was 36 days of pure hell.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: Japan
fights with ferocity.

America fights with fire --

\h\h\h\higniting the
war’s deadliest day.

MG LEMAY: It was as though Tokyo

\h\hhad dropped through
the floor of the world.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: With
rare home movies ...

and front line stories ...

hear the voices ...
and feel the fight.

PVT SLEDGE: My heart pounded as
we churned toward that inferno.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

PVT SLEDGE: I became part
of a proud, high-spirited,

elite outfit.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hNARRATOR:
Twenty-year-old Eugene Sledge

is just joining the 1st Marines

\h\has they train in
the Pacific in 1944.

\hThe division was
gutted in battles

\h\hfor Guadalcanal
and Cape Gloucester.

\h\h\h\h\hThey are full of
replacements like Sledge.

\h\h\h\h\h\hEighty-five
percent are not yet 21.

PVT SLEDGE: The veterans
taught the replacements

\h\hall the ins and outs of
combat with a ruthless foe.

\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: They’re on a
tropical South Pacific island

\h\hcalled Pavuvu. It
sounds like paradise.

\h\h\hThe 1st Marines
think it’s a hellhole.

\hPVT SLEDGE: We led
a Spartan existence.

\h\hWarmed-over C-rations and
stale coffee passed for chow.

\hNARRATOR: Space is so tight
they have to march in circles.

\hEvery drill is a
battle with bugs.

\h\h\hSome joke that they’ll
welcome a return to combat.

\h\hUntil they’re loading
up for their next battle.

PVT SLEDGE: We, not being fools,
were all scared to death.

\h\hThe veterans, because
they knew what to expect.

The new men, because we didn’t.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\hI hung weakly to
the side of the tractor

\h\h\h\hand prayed that I
would do my duty, survive,

and not wet my pants.

\h\hNARRATOR: Sledge inches
closer to his first combat.

\hThe scene before
him is pure hell.

\h\h\h\h\hPVT SLEDGE: The
beach was a sheet of flame

\h\hbacked by a huge
wall of black smoke,

\h\h\has though the
island was on fire.

[artillery fire and explosions]

\hNARRATOR: The beach
is already smoldering

with twisted metal and blood.

PVT SLEDGE: My heart pounded as
we churned toward that inferno.

\h\h\hWe got to the beach
amid erupting shell bursts

\h\h\h\hand the rattle of
enemy machine gun bullets

against the steel Amtrac.

\h\hNARRATOR: Within an
hour, casualties number

in the hundreds ...

... while the advance
is measured in yards.

\hThe 1st Marines are
taking it on the chin.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hAmericans want
Peleliu in case it interferes

\hwith a bigger invasion on
the way -- the Philippines.

\h\h\h\hJapanese film
shows them overrunning

\hthe American territory
in 1941, taking control

of 16 million Filipinos
and 7,000 American POWs.

\h\h\h\h\hEver since, Army
General Douglas MacArthur

has been itching
to take it back.

At every opportunity,
he repeats his mantra:

"I shall return."

\hHe makes the promise;
America makes the plan.

It includes sending Marines

\hto take the small
airfield at Peleliu,

which could be a nuisance to the
Army’s Philippines offensive.

This isn’t lost on the troops,

\h\hwho dub themselves
"MacArthur’s Marines."

PVT SLEDGE: We were ordered
\h\hto capture the airfield,

\h\hand we started across at
a trot in the searing heat.

\h\h\h\hThe ground rocked and
swayed from shell concussions.

\h\h\hAnd streams of machine-gun
tracers streaked past our ears.

\h\hNARRATOR: Within hours,
the wounded start piling up.

[artillery fire]

\h\h\h\h\h\hThe Japanese are
lobbing their repelling fire

from this craggy
jumble of peaks.

The 1st Marines nickname
it "Bloody Nose Ridge."

\hOne of the officers
approaching the ridge

is New Yorker George Haggerty.

LTN HAGGERTY: When
my company went in

we were 250 strong
with six officers.

\hA few days later I
found my commander,

\h\hand he said, "You and I
are the only officers left.

And we only have about 20 men."

\h\h\hNARRATOR: Down
to a skeleton unit,

\h\hthe commander sends
Haggerty and six others

\h\hto find a hidden
Japanese emplacement

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthat already
bloodied much of the company.

\h\h\h\h\hLTN HAGGERTY: He
said, "When you get there,

signal to me and we’ll come up."

[distant artillery fire]

We crawled our way up the field.

[explosion]

\hSome of the grenades we threw
up, they threw back down at us.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hNARRATOR:
Haggerty gets close enough

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hto signal his
commander for reinforcements.

\hLTN HAGGERTY: We signaled and
signaled, and nothing happened.

\h\hInstead, our own
armored LVTs came up

and starting firing at us.

[artillery fire]

They thought we were Japanese.

NARRATOR: Haggerty stumbles
\hback with shrapnel wounds

from enemy and friendly fire.

♪ ♪

[explosion]

\h\h\h\h\hLTN HAGGERTY: I went
back to look for my commander

\hand ask him why he hadn’t
brought the reinforcements.

\h\h\h\h\hI found him with a
little hole between his eyes

\h\hand the whole back
of his head blown off.

\h\h\hThat was the end of
the war for my battalion.

\h\h\h\hWe didn’t have
any more troops left.

\h\hNARRATOR: From the air,
Peleliu looks like the moon.

\h\h\h\hUnderneath, there’s an
old network of mining tunnels

that the Japanese transform
\hinto a front unto itself.

\h\hPVT SLEDGE: There never
was a front line on Peleliu.

\hThe whole island
was a front line.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hNARRATOR:
Japanese are everywhere,

but nowhere to be seen.

Americans end up shooting
blindly into the ground.

\hThey think they win a hill,
only to smell Japanese cooking

wafting up from below ground.

The subterranean maze
is so confounding that

the Americans resort to blasting
shut any hole they see ...

\h\h\hwhether they think
anyone’s inside or not.

\h\h\h\h\hIt takes two bloody
weeks to secure the airfield,

\h\hand they’re uncertain
it was ever a real threat.

The 1st Marines’
overall strength

is down by nearly 60 percent.

\h\h\h\h\h\hMacArthur’s
Marines are fading fast.

With Bloody Nose
Ridge surrounded

and the main airfield secure,

\hAmericans turn to
the smaller airfield

on the islet of Ngesebus.

\h\h\h\hThey don’t know what
lies across the shallow reef

dividing the islands.
So they don’t tiptoe.

\h\hThey bring all the
might they can muster.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\h\hA textbook landing
goes off without a problem.

But -- there’s no payoff.

The airfield is useless --

\h\h\h\h\hwith unfinished
runways made of soft sand.

The battle for the rest
of Peleliu will drag on.

But with both airfields secure,

\h\h\h\h\hthe invasion of the
Philippines is about to begin.

[artillery fire]

NARRATOR: Pre-dawn bombardment
\h\h\h\hilluminates MacArthur

\hon the day he’s
been waiting for.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\h\hThe choreography of an
invasion is now well-rehearsed.

\h\hBut each man knows the
Philippines are different.

The size of the islands.

Sixteen million civilians.

Thousands of allied prisoners.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hAnd the
half-million Japanese defenders

\h\h\hwaiting somewhere
behind the veil of smoke

now rising from the coast.

Americans land first on
Leyte, hoping to win it

\h\hbefore invading Luzon
and the capital of Manila.

\h\h\h\h\hUnlike Peleliu, the
beach is not heavily defended.

\h\h\h\h\hBy afternoon,
MacArthur wades ashore.

As the news cameras roll,

\hhe swaggers onto the
sand without a helmet.

\h\hThere may be no
combat on the beach,

but there is some dark comedy.

The scale of the invasion
strains the supply chain.

\h\h\h\hOn the first day,
107,000 tons come ashore.

But not in the right order.

\h\h\h\h\hIn the rush to
unload, urgent supplies

\h\hare buried under
less important ones.

And ... it’s the rainy season.

\h\h\h\h\h\hCaptain John
Hanna takes home movies

\h\h\hof the muck his
unit has to navigate.

\h\h\h\h\h\hIt’s thick.
Slick. And inescapable.

\h\h\h\h\h\hThough the water
buffalo don’t seem to mind.

Back on his ship, Hanna films
locals approaching in canoes.

\h\h\hThey’re looking for
safe harbor in the shadows

\hof American ships that
now blanket Leyte Gulf.

But so many ships in one place
make an irresistible target.

American carriers provide

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthe only air
support for the invasion.

\h\h\h\h\hIf Japan can
disable this lifeline,

\h\hthey could isolate
the Americans on land.

\hThe Imperial Japanese
Navy decides to attack.

♪ ♪

American ships buzz to life.

The Battle of Leyte Gulf

\h\h\h\h\hwill decide the
future of the Philippines.

\h\hNaval battles often boil
down to pilot versus pilot.

In the air, Americans
continue to dominate.

[explosion]

\hAs Japanese fighters
fall away, an American

\h\hgets a clear shot at an
enemy ship. He doesn’t miss.

\hOut of desperation,
Japan changes tactics.

\h\h\h\hTheir planes dive
closer to American ships.

\hHidden in the smoke, this
one punches through staccato

anti-aircraft fire, flying
lower than anyone expects.

\h\hNavy man Charles Ripper is
shocked at what he sees next.

SN RIPPER: Coming towards
\hus was a Japanese plane,

\h\h\hjust skimming over the
water. We jumped for cover.

\h\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: It
lands a suicidal blow.

♪ ♪

[explosion]

\h\h\hThese are the first
organized kamikaze attacks

\h\h\hof the Pacific War.
They will not be the last.

\h\h\h\h\h\hOver four days,
America loses six warships,

but Japan loses 26.

The seas around the Philippines
are now American waters.

\h\hThe ground war will be
bloody, and Manila awaits.

\h\hBut only one side will
have air and sea support.

The other will slowly choke.

Back on Peleliu, the 1st Marines

\h\hhave to finish
what they started.

They fire grenades with rifles.

They throw Molotov cocktails.

And they deploy a new weapon

\h\h\hcalled the Navy
Mark One Flamethrower.

It shoots a blazing laser
of napalm up to 150 yards.

PVT FOX: We were limited by not
being able to use poison gas.

\h\h\h\h\hOther than that,
just about anything went.

\hNARRATOR: Americans also
drop napalm from the air.

It’s a new tactic getting its
first big tryout on Peleliu.

\h\hThey hope to scorch
Japanese they can’t see.

They provide powerful fireworks,

but they have little effect
on deep Japanese positions.

\h\hKilling the enemy from
a distance isn’t working.

It’s going to take close combat.

\h\h\hPVT FOX: As a
private first class,

\h\h\h\hyour war lies
within 15 feet of you.

It’s kinda like Gettysburg.

\h\hNARRATOR: Fred Fox
is an Army infantryman

attached to the 1st Marines.

\h\hHis entire World
War II combat career

\h\h\h\his 48 hours on
Peleliu -- at age 18.

\h\h\hPVT FOX: I was
only in one battle.

\hBut the two days that
I fought at Peleliu ...

marked my life more
than anything else.

NARRATOR: Here, a
medical evacuation

gets burned into memory.

[explosion]

Three lie wounded.

\hEnemy fire pins down two
corpsmen just yards away.

Five lives hang in the balance.

\h\h\hPVT FOX: A thousandth of a
second, a hundredth of an inch,

and that’s the difference

\hbetween whether
I was dead or not.

NARRATOR: The corpsmen struggle
to carry the stretcher case.

The other two combine whatever
\h\h\hstrength they have left

to get themselves out.

\h\h\h\h\h\hThe scene is
repeated over and over,

\has the war plays out on
the tiny stage of Peleliu.

\h\h\h\hPVT FOX: You’re
talking about an island

that’s about two miles wide,

\h\h\h\h\hand you get
maybe 11,000 Japanese

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand 28,000
Americans mad at each other?

\hNARRATOR: The 1st
Marines are trapped

on this cage of an island

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthat seems
determined to swallow them all.

\h\h\h\hPVT FOX: Some
mention a premonition

of when they’re gonna die.

\hOne sergeant in
the tent with me,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hbeen through
Guadalcanal and New Britain.

\h\h\hOn Peleliu he said, "I
don’t want to go out there.

I’m not gonna make this."

And he didn’t.

He didn’t make it two minutes.

NARRATOR: In their
third year of war,

and sixth week on Peleliu,

the 1st Marines are in no
mood to play by the rules.

\h\h\h\hPVT SLEDGE: We
never took prisoners,

even when some tried to give up.

We routinely shot both dead

\h\hand wounded in the head,
to make sure they were dead.

♪ ♪

\h\h\hNARRATOR: By the end of
October, it’s still not over.

But it is for the 1st Marines.

Almost a third of their
men are dead or wounded.

MacArthur’s Marines load up

\h\h\hand leave Peleliu
for the Army to finish.

It will take another month.

\h\h\hPeleliu becomes one of
the enduring question marks

of the Pacific War.

Eighteen hundred dead.

Eight thousand wounded.

All for some dusty airfields

\h\h\hthat may not have
been a threat after all.

\hPVT SLEDGE: All too many young
Americans were sent to Peleliu,

\hand into oblivion. Before
they had ever really lived.

\h\hNARRATOR: In the
march toward Japan,

America seems lost in
the Southwest Pacific.

\hIn the Central Pacific,
the path is more clear --

island-hop toward Japan

\h\h\h\h\h\hwith daring and
distant amphibious assaults.

\hAmericans have advanced as
far as the Mariana Islands.

\hSaipan, Guam and Tinian
are all recently captured,

and at the mercy of
American machinery.

\h\hThey are paving the way
for a brand new aircraft --

the B-29 Superfortress.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hBut from the
factory to the flight line,

it’s plagued with problems.
\h\hDeliveries are delayed.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hIn Kansas,
Raymond Halloran’s crew

\h\hhas been training on
other aircraft instead.

LTN HALLORAN: We had 11
people in our B-29 crew.

They were from 11
different states.

It was sort of Americana.

The gunner was from Michigan,
\h\h\hradarman from Oklahoma.

\h\hYou wonder where these
kids are all coming from.

\hOne day, we came
out to this ramp,

\h\hand out there was a
brand-new, silver B-29.

What a beautiful thing!

\hThat was going to be
ours to take overseas.

We were so excited.

NARRATOR: For the first time,
\h\hthey are flying untethered

\hfrom a training script,
unsupervised by superiors.

Halloran is 21 years old.

\hLTN HALLORAN: We
were going alone.

It was crystal clear.

\h\h\hWe climbed to about
20,000 feet, moving west.

NARRATOR: They fly over the
familiar landscape of home,

\h\h\hheading toward a
distant, abstract war,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hsomewhere in the
direction of the setting sun.

\h\h\hLTN HALLORAN: There was
very little said for a while.

\hThen we got out
over the Pacific.

\h\hThere wasn’t a sound
in the plane -- nothing.

Nobody said a thing.

\hI had a definite feeling that
I’m leaving everything behind --

\h\h\h\h\h\hmy mother and
father, and my training --

and I am going into combat.

I think on that evening, at
that time, at that altitude,

\hI converted from
youth to manhood.

I could do the job of a man.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: Also on
the way to the Marianas

is General Curtis LeMay.

\hThese are his home
movies from the war,

\h\h\hwhich have never
been broadcast before.

\h\h\h\h\h\hHe’s arriving from
India, where his bombing group

\h\h\h\hhad trouble striking
Japan from such a distance.

\hHe hopes the Marianas will
change the B-29 equation --

\h\h\hif he can whip
his men into shape.

\h\h\h\h\h\hMG LEMAY: We had
crews that weren’t trained,

\h\h\hand we had outfits
that weren’t organized.

Everything was wrong.

\hNARRATOR: As he comes in for a
landing at his new headquarters,

LeMay’s reputation is already
\hcirculating on the ground.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hLTN BRADEN: We
called him "Old Iron Pants"

because he was a tough cookie.

\h\h\hHe was the George
Patton of the Air Force.

NARRATOR: In the winter of 1944,
hundreds of brand new B-29s

\hbegin streaming
into the Marianas

like giant migratory birds.

\h\h\hMG LEMAY: We had just
six weeks to move the B-29s

to bases in the Marianas,

fly a few shakedown flights,

and launch an operation.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: American
air power is building up

\h\h\hlike a storm cloud
in the Central Pacific.

Japan can only guess when
it will thunder overhead.

NARRATOR: Japan is rattled.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hAmericans are
encroaching dangerously close.

\h\h\h\hA Japanese film
shows a geography lesson

turning into a dire warning.

\h\h\h\h\hThe teacher
pinpoints the Marianas

\h\hand draws an arc
that includes Tokyo.

\h\h\h\h\h\hAir raid drills
signal a tense new reality.

In public, one admiral

\hdescribes the defeat
in measured language.

ADM KURIHARA: Our garrison
on Saipan fought bravely.

All of them died a heroic death.

\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: In private,
another admiral is more blunt,

\h\hsaying simply:
"Hell is upon us."

ANNOUNCER: Bombs are wheeled up

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hto a B-29
Superfortress on Saipan Island.

It is only the beginning

as these mighty bombers prepare
for the first raid on Tokyo

in two and a half years.

NARRATOR: American newsreels
paint the B-29 as a savior.

But it can barely soar.

♪ ♪

\h\h\hThey labor to take off
with 10,000 pounds of bombs.

\h\hThis one almost
runs off the runway.

\hMM EARP: When they
picked up that B-29,

\hyou could almost
see it screaming.

NARRATOR: In January of 1945,
\hB-29s begin raids on Japan.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hThe entire
rationale for island hopping

will now be put to the test.

\h\h\h\hEn route, crews
review their targets ...

what little they
know about them.

MG LEMAY: We didn’t really
know anything about Japan.

We didn’t have any secret agents

\h\h\h\hcreeping around
sending us information.

\h\hNARRATOR: But an even bigger
problem looms at 25,000 feet --

a roaring tailwind.

\hLTN BRADEN: We were
scooting across Tokyo

at 500 miles an hour.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: Bombs drop
into this lashing wind --

and scatter like feathers.

\h\h\h\hLTN BRADEN: We not
only missed the target --

I’m not even sure we hit Tokyo.

NARRATOR: Americans try flying
\hthe missions into the wind.

\h\h\h\hLTN BRADEN: One
plane tried that one day

\h\h\hand they found
out they were going

three miles an hour backwards.

\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: The
B-29 was built to bomb

\hfrom the safety
of high altitude.

No one imagined its payload

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hsplashing
harmlessly into the sea.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hANNOUNCER:
Heading back to Saipan,

the first Superfortress mission
over Tokyo is a success.

\hNARRATOR: Curt LeMay
knows it really isn’t.

The B-29 still isn’t landing

\h\h\h\h\hthe knockout
punch it was made for.

\hIn Guam, this one doesn’t
even make it off the runway.

\hGeneral LeMay films
the wreckage himself,

\hand he can feel the
heat -- in every way.

MG LEMAY: They said if you don’t
get results, you’ll be fired.

If you don’t get results,

\h\h\h\h\h\hit’ll mean a mass
amphibious invasion of Japan.

NARRATOR: One way
to improve results

\h\h\his to keep more B-29s
from crashing along the way.

\h\h\h\hAmericans look for a
place to land a broken B-29

between the Marianas and Japan.

\hThere’s only one
choice. Iwo Jima.

\h\h\hRaymond Halloran’s
crew, fresh from Kansas,

\h\h\hgets its very
first combat orders.

\h\h\h\h\h\hLTN HALLORAN: The
mission was to go to Iwo Jima,

\h\h650 miles away,
to bomb the runway.

NARRATOR: By now,
the Army Air Force

is trying to prove the value
of the B-29 any way it can.

\hLCDR ANDERSON: The Air
Force wanted to come in

\h\h\hand saturate every
square inch of Iwo Jima,

because there were no civilians.

\hThen all we’d have to
do is walk on the beach,

\h\h\h\hput up the flag,
and bury dead Japanese.

\h\hNARRATOR: From above,
the island looks lifeless.

\h\hHalloran quickly
finds out otherwise.

\hLTN HALLORAN: They opened
up with anti-aircraft fire.

\hNARRATOR: Japanese
footage reveals guns

aiming straight up at
the incoming bombers.

\h\h\hLTN HALLORAN: I
didn’t know they were

going to be shooting at us.

We had a few little holes in
our plane when we came back.

\hHow proud we were of that.
It proved we were in combat.

NARRATOR: Halloran’s crew

\h\h\h\h\hgets a little
nicked up over Iwo Jima.

\h\hAmericans hope the ground
invasion is just as harmless.

For centuries, Mount Suribachi

\h\h\h\hcrowned a barren
island of little value.

\h\h\hBut in 1945, two
armies want it badly.

\h\h\h\h\hJapan is using it to
attack B-29s passing overhead.

\hAmerica sees it as an
emergency landing strip.

\hThey will both now use
it as a slaughterhouse.

[explosions]

ST BRUNTON: I went topside just
about the time we were leaving,

and I saw that rock.

\h\hIt was the most desolate
looking piece of real estate

I ever saw in my life.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: As landing craft
circle waiting for the signal,

\h\hAmericans fear the enemy
will fight back with fire --

\h\h\h\h\hand explode barrel
bombs of fuel on the beach.

\hMarines smear their faces
with white anti-flash cream

to guard against burns.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\hAt 9:02 a.m., the
first wave hits the sand.

\h\h\h\hMAN: Everybody
out. Move, move, move.

NARRATOR: The beach
is steep and loose.

\h\h\hThey struggle in
the fine volcanic ash.

But resistance is light.

\h\h\h\h\hThere are no
barrel bombs of fuel.

But as more waves come ashore,

more men and machines
get stuck in the sand.

PVT LIBERTY: You were walking in
mush almost up to your knees.

It was a struggle.

NARRATOR: Soon, the crowd on the
beach reaches critical mass.

\hThat’s when the
Japanese open up.

[explosions]

\hCPL SHERRILL: I could
look up from my foxhole

\h\h\h\hand it was just 20, 30
mortars in the air at a time.

NARRATOR: By 9:20 a.m.,

\h\hit’s an unceasing,
ear-splitting barrage.

\h\hNo Japanese are
on the beach itself.

Most are entrenched
on Mount Suribachi.

Inside the mountain is a maze of
tunnels and monster pillboxes

with walls up to
four feet thick.

\h\hThe Japanese can pummel
the entire beach with lead.

\hMarines are trapped within
yards of where they landed.

\hThere’s no place
to go except down.

\h\h\h\hSGT GRAY: We decided
we’d clean out a shell hole

\hand make it a little
deeper for a shelter.

And we hit something down there.

\hWhen we uncovered
it, it was a Marine.

NARRATOR: Bodies are buried ...

trapped ...

and torn apart.

\h\h\h\h\hSuribachi is
like a hunting stand,

and Americans are easy prey.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hThe barrage
continues into the night.

Here, the Japanese score a hit

\h\h\h\h\hon an American
ammo dump on the beach.

[explosions]

LCDR ANDERSON: It was bullets
\hand all kinds of ammunition

exploding all around.

It was like Chinese fireworks.

NARRATOR: The first
day on Iwo Jima ends

\hwith the beach on fire and
supplies going up in smoke.

\h\h\h\h\hAmericans resolve to
turn the tide the next day --

by scaling Suribachi.

\h\hNARRATOR: The assault
on Mount Suribachi begins

\h\h\h\hby punching it
from the air and sea.

Americans make the dormant
volcano seem alive again.

Then, Marines start to climb up.

Soon, blood starts to flow down.

[explosions]

\h\h\h\hOne unit supported by
tanks pushes up for six hours,

\hadvances only 200 yards, and
tallies 162 dead and wounded.

\h\hAs usual, Americans
rarely see the Japanese.

\h\h\h\h\hSo they pour
fire into every hole.

[explosions]

\hAfter four days of
relentless fighting,

\h\h\h\h\h\ha handful of
Marines get to the top.

\h\h\h\hThey plant a small flag
tied to some old Japanese pipe.

A few hours later, a
larger flag goes up.

Gilberto Mendez can see
it from his troop ship,

\hand his emotions
go into overdrive.

\h\h\h\hHe’s about to come
ashore to join the fight.

PVT MENDEZ: My heart was beating
a thousand times a minute.

My skin was like chicken skin.

I lost my fear.

If those guys made it, I could.

But it was false, that feeling,

\h\h\h\h\hbecause the good
stuff hadn’t started yet.

NARRATOR: This is home movie
footage of pre-war Manila.

As the capital of
a U.S. territory,

it’s infused with
American style --

from western clothes ...

to neon glitz.

♪ ♪

But when the Allies return

to wrestle it back
from the Japanese,

it’s a different city.

\h\h\hNow ashen and hollow,
it’s the bombed-out backdrop

\h\hfor the biggest urban
battle of the Pacific War.

[explosions and artillery fire]

MacArthur prohibits air strikes,
trying to spare civilians.

It takes street-by-street
\h\h\hguerrilla warfare.

\h\hAmerican tanks roll into the
University of the Philippines.

The campus is under siege.

\h\h\h\hHere, University
Hall becomes a gun nest.

\h\h\h\h\hJapanese rifles
crack from the top floor.

[gunfire]

Allies fire back, taking chunks
out of the colonial facade.

\h\h\hThe Pacific War is
turning Manila to dust.

Finally, the city goes quiet.

♪ ♪

Civilians are in survival mode.

\h\h\h\hAmerican POWs enjoy
their first taste of freedom

in more than two years.

\hKneeling over this body
is serviceman Dan Rocklin.

\h\hHe films the horrors
that now litter Manila.

But he also captures Filipinos
\h\h\hstriving for normalcy.

\h\h\h\h\hRocklin’s film has
never been broadcast before.

His footage reveals
a blossoming hope --

\hthat the storm of war
may finally be passing.

\hAlmost a week into the
battle for Iwo Jima ...

... fresh troops come ashore
to reinforce depleted units.

PVT MENDEZ: As replacements,
\h\hwe were a nobody group.

\h\h\hWe went wherever we were
needed. I didn’t know anybody.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: But Gilberto
Mendez gets to know Iwo Jima

in a hurry.

\h\hPVT MENDEZ: The first
days I was on the ground,

\h\h\h\hI urinated in my
pants because I thought

\h\hif I dropped my rifle
to pee I would be killed.

NARRATOR: The flag already
flying on Mount Suribachi

\h\his the enduring
symbol of Iwo Jima.

\h\h\h\h\hBut the north is the
where Marines have to win it.

The Japanese have abandoned

\h\hBanzai charges and
costly counterattacks.

\h\hNow they simply wait to
ambush advancing Americans.

[explosion]

Including Gilberto Mendez.

\h\h\hPVT MENDEZ: I
saw something shine.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hIt was a
Japanese officer’s sword,

\h\hand he was leading
his men out of a cave.

The bullets were flying.

[gunfire]

\h\h\h\hWhen I saw below his
neck, I pulled the trigger,

one shot after another.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hThey found
thirteen holes in his body.

I made hamburger out of him.

\hNARRATOR: More and more bodies
litter the volcanic landscape.

In Japanese, Iwo Jima
means "sulfur island."

\hThe steam smells
like rotten eggs.

\h\hFreshly dug foxholes
are too hot to get into.

\h\hPVT MENDEZ: You couldn’t
stay 15 minutes in one place

because your boots
would get too hot.

\h\hNARRATOR: One Marine
even tries on the boots

of a dead Japanese soldier,

hoping they might keep
his feet from burning.

Combat is close.

[explosion]

Fiery.

And exhausting.

Two weeks into the battle,

\h\h\hnearly 10,000 American
wounded have been evacuated.

\h\h\h\h\hIncluding Gilberto
Mendez, with a head injury.

\h\h\h\hPVT MENDEZ: An
explosion picked me up

and I hit the ground again, with
a terrible ringing in my ear.

I was choking on my own tongue.

\h\h\hA corpsman tried
to pull my tongue out

\h\h\h\hby piercing it
with a big safety pin.

\h\hNARRATOR: Under tents
and inside hospital ships,

\h\hdoctors and nurses tend to
injuries beyond description.

And some beyond repair.

\hBut soon, the reason for all
this carnage comes into view.

♪ ♪

\hCPL WALKER: Those planes were
coming back shot full of holes,

and tore all to pieces.

\hNARRATOR: On March
4th, the first B-29

comes in for a forced landing.

Hundreds more will sputter into
Iwo Jima from raids in Japan.

\hThis one is so crippled it
can’t even make the runway.

But the crew will be spared.

\h\h\hEven with Iwo
Jima as a life raft,

\hB-29 raids into
Japan are failing.

\h\h\h\h\hThe overall game
plan still isn’t working.

\hSo Curtis LeMay
changes the rules.

MG LEMAY: We weren’t going
to be able to defeat Japan

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\husing high
altitude precision bombing.

I had to do something radical.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: The entire
premise of island hopping

\h\h\h\h\hnow rests on
Curt LeMay’s command.

So he designs a drastically
\hdifferent kind of mission.

\h\h\h\h\h\hDavid Braden
remembers the briefing.

LTN BRADEN: We were going
to fly in at 5,000 feet --

\h\h\h\ha surprise attack,
probably around midnight.

\hNARRATOR: LeMay thinks going
in low will solve the problem

\h\h\hof high winds
and blinding clouds.

But that’s not the only change.

LTN BRADEN: We were to carry
10 tons of incendiary bombs.

\h\hNARRATOR: Until now,
America’s use of napalm

\hhas been specific to a target
-- a cave, or a jungle hideout.

\h\h\h\h\h\hNow, LeMay has
something bigger in mind.

\h\hMG LEMAY: Tokyo
would be our target.

The primary target.

The secondary target.

And the only target.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: Three
hundred and twenty-five B-29s

\htake off in the
afternoon skies --

\h\h\h\hdouble the number ever
used in a single raid before.

\hThey fly in groups,
at night, lights off.

\hFlying in low, the big slow
planes could be easy targets.

\h\hCrews fear they’re
on a suicide mission.

LTN BRADEN: We were saying,

\h"We are going to be
the American kamikazes

\h\hand they are going to
shoot us down like crazy."

\h\hNARRATOR: Then,
Tokyo appears below.

The first of more than three
million pounds of firebombs

drop into the night.

LTN BRADEN: A firestorm started.

\h\hThe updrafts from
the heat of the fires

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthrew the
airplanes all over the sky.

It was frightening.

\h\h\h\h\h\hThere’d be an
aircraft right next to you

\h\hand you didn’t even
know the guy was there.

NARRATOR: The air is
swirling with ashes,

\h\h\h\hand crews can smell
burning flesh at 5,000 feet.

MG LEMAY: The firestorm
consumed so much oxygen

that those who did not die by
the flames simply suffocated.

\h\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: The next
morning, Japan is in shock.

♪ ♪

\h\hMG LEMAY: It was as
though Tokyo had dropped

through the floor of the world
\hand into the mouth of hell.

NARRATOR: Sixteen square miles
of central Tokyo are in ashes.

\h\hAn estimated 100,000 are
killed -- mostly civilians.

It’s the single deadliest
\hday of the Pacific War.

\hNeither atomic bomb will kill
this many on the day it drops.

\hTo LeMay, it’s an
unqualified success.

\hHe draws up plans to
firebomb other cities,

bring Japan to its knees,

and force surrender.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hMG LEMAY: We had
stockpiled enough incendiaries

to follow the Tokyo raid

\h\hwith just about all the
major urban areas in Japan.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: For LeMay,
the fire is only starting.

\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: By
late March, Iwo Jima

\his finally under
American control.

\h\h\hSupplies drop down that
will help turn this arid rock

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hinto a
full-fledged military base.

♪ ♪

\h\h\hJapanese troops will keep
pouring out of this underworld

for months.

They too are exhausted,
\hbut unwilling to quit.

♪ ♪

Here, Americans liberate Koreans

\hwho had been toiling
at Japanese gunpoint.

They report Japanese are still
\hinside, and won’t surrender.

Once all the Koreans are out,

\ha demolition team
seals the cave shut.

[explosion]

\h\hIwo Jima is now
an island of tombs.

\hSome 20,000 Japanese and
7,000 Americans are dead.

\h\hPVT MENDEZ: We were
told the whole operation

\h\hwould take only
three to four days.

\hIt turned out to be
36 days of pure hell.

[explosions]

\hNARRATOR: Japan can sense the
pressure coming from all fronts.

Ships from the sea.

Boots on the ground.

And fire from the sky.

\h\hThe Japanese Empire is
on the verge of collapse,

\hbut there is no
sign of surrender.

\hAmericans have one
more island to take

before invading Japan itself.

\h\hSurvivors of Peleliu and
Iwo Jima are on their way --

to Okinawa.

\h\h\hDon’t ask them
which one is worse.

\hLTN HAGGERTY: I
can’t answer that.

How do you compare hell to hell?