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Midway is one
of those honest events

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where we do not know
the result ahead of time.

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These pilots all say
to themselves

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"We're gonna do it,

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we're gonna risk a lonely death
out on the ocean"

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and all they can do is shake hands
and tear up.

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There's a lot of drama
til the very last moment.

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Things are really on a knife’s edge.

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Rarely in history
does one naval force

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annihilate the other naval force

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and almost never do you find
the tipping of history itself

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turned more swiftly
and more completely

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than the Battle of Midway.

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The Battle of Midway
is one of the most dramatic events

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of World War Two.

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Now, rare footage
from around the world

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expertly restored in full color

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tells the story
as you've never seen it before.

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December 1941.

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Japan's devastating surprise attack
on the US Pacific Fleet

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of Pearl Harbor

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has brought the United States
into the war against the Axis powers.

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Caught cold and unprepared,

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the American military is reeling.

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Eight Pacific Fleet Battleships
have been critically damaged or sunk.

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I think the Americans
were stunned to figure out

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how efficient the Japanese were.

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The characteristic stereotypes
that Americans had of Japanese

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as being little tiny people
with buck teeth

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who were not very clever
was washed away pretty quickly

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after Pearl Harbor.

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So the Japanese had superiority
when the war began,

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both in terms of numbers
and in terms of quality.

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The US was not
a big military powerhouse

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in the years prior to World War Two.

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It had the 17th largest army in the world
when World War Two broke out,

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and there was even
a great question as to whether

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our navy was kind of even
a practical weapon of war so,

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for the United States,
they were kind of starting

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in a hole as it were.

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After the humiliation
of the Pearl Harbor attack,

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a new man has been put in charge
of what remains of the Pacific Fleet.

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His name is Chester W. Nimitz.

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Nimitz comes out
to take command of the Pacific Fleet

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after Pearl Harbor
and he sees this smoking harbor.

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He's in hip boots,
wading around in these damaged ships

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trying to get them repaired

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and the Americans
are barely hanging on.

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Everybody just felt kinda bad.

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We should've been ready,
and expected it,

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we should've fought back better,
this is awful.

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And then Nimitz comes

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and there was something
about his ability to inspire,

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not in a pound the podium way,
but in a quiet,

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I'm on your side,
we're a team kind of way.

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At the same time
he was a risk taker by instinct

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and a hard charging,
hard driving warrior.

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Fleet Admiral Nimitz
has an incredibly difficult task

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in front of him.

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The Japanese are currently
roaming the Pacific unchecked,

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taking territory almost at will.

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And Nimitz currently
has only four effective ships

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to try and stop them.

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The aircraft carriers Lexington,

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Hornet, Enterprise and Yorktown.

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Nimitz's big issue is that

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he can't let the Japanese
run wild anymore.

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So he's got to keep the Japanese
at bay,

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but also protect the assets that he has,
he can't afford to lose warships

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or he certainly can't afford
to lose warships

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unless he extracts a higher toll
from the Japanese.

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So this is the sort of balancing game
that he has to play.

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But Nimitz's bosses
in Washington

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have little sympathy
for his predicament.

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President Franklin D. Roosevelt
wants a headline grabbing operation

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as soon as possible.

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Franklin Roosevelt
is a domestic politician.

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He has been commander in chief
when Pearl Harbor was attacked.

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The last thing he can do is therefore,
we cannot reply.

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He does not want the US Armed Forces
to look to be hiding,

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he doesn't want them
to look to be passive.

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Supposedly, Roosevelt said

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"Tell Nimitz to get the hell out
to Pearl Harbor

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and don't come back 'til the war is won."

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The plan cooked up
in Washington

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is a bombing raid
on Japan's capital, Tokyo.

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Led by Colonel James Doolittle.

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But Doolittle's planes
can only be launched inside

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Japanese waters,

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from one of Admiral Nimitz's
few remaining aircraft carriers.

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Nimitz knows the raid is purely symbolic
and risky.

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Doolittle's heavy bombers
are not even designed

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for carrier runways.

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Nimitz I think was directed
to send this operation forward

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whether he liked it or not.

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I guess a betting person
might have wondered whether or not

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it can even have been attempted.

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It will be a one-way mission
for these crew men.

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They were gonna basically fly off
a carrier deck,

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bomb Tokyo and then land
in safe airfields in China,

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that's the plan.

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So it is an extremely bold operation.

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When Colonel Doolittle's first bomber
heads off the flight deck,

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there is this moment
where it just dips below the bow

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and it looks like it's about to plunge
into the ocean too heavy

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with its own bomb load.

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Then it just barely gets aloft
and then rises up above the horizon.

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Nimitz is relieved to hear
that Colonel Doolittle has launched.

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And the carriers have turned back
safely towards Hawaii.

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What he doesn't realize
is the raid will make his carriers

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a priority target for the enemy.

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When the bombers unleash
a small shock raid on Tokyo,

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they have scored a publicity victory
for the American people

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but the attack enrages Japan.

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Several of the bombs land in the grounds

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of the emperor's palace.

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This is unbelievable,
this is something that

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every right-thinking Japanese
is appalled by.

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Emperors are divine,
they're not like presidents,

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you can just sort of get another one.

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He's divine so if through your oversight
as a military man the emperor is killed,

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the mass suicide of the entire
Japanese high command

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would have followed instantly.

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Doolittle's raid
was a great shock

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to the Japanese populace
because this was at the time

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still in the early stage of the war
that they were told

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that Japan was winning.

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Assaulting the Imperial Palace,
there was lots of outrage.

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But one senior
Japanese military man

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sees the outrage as an opportunity.

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Ever since Pearl Harbor,

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the commander in chief
of the combined fleet,

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Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto

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has argued that the American carrier fleet

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needs to be attacked again

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and completely finished off.

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Yamamoto is fighting a battle,

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a bureaucratic institutional
resource battle

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to continue the offensive naval war,
to finish off the American fleet.

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Now he's got the evidence.

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The Americans have proved his point.

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The fact that the Doolittle raids

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were launched from the aircraft carriers
off the coast of Japan,

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that really fortified Yamamoto's argument

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that the American Pacific Fleet
has to be completely destroyed

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for Japan to be safe.

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We have to remember
that men like Yamamoto

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are from the first generation
of post Samurai Japan,

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so they're related to the warrior leaders
of a medieval country.

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He's not somebody who thinks
that just beating them is enough,

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he wants to wipe them out.

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He wants to make sure
they cannot do anything else.

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The entire Japanese Military
is now galvanized

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behind Admiral Yamamoto.

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His plan is to lure
the American aircraft carriers

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out of their base in Pearl Harbor

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for a decisive naval battle

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that will finish off
Nimitz's Pacific Fleet completely.

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And to entice them into battle,

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he decides to invade
a tiny US held Atoll island,

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halfway across the Pacific.

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Midway is a valuable forward airfield

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and refueling base for the Americans.

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The Japanese see their attack
on midway as bait.

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They will bait the Americans
into sending the carriers

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from Pearl Harbor,

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so when the Americans steam in
to defend Midway,

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they'll be caught by surprise
by this much bigger Japanese fleet.

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So at Midway, they are laying a trap

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and it's a very potent trap.

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But before Yamamoto
can even initiate his Midway plan,

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an unexpected opportunity
comes his way.

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Two of his carriers are supporting
an assault on Port Moresby

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in Allied held Guinea.

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When they encounter
the USS Lexington and Yorktown.

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Out of nowhere,
Yamamoto has an early shot

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at destroying half of Nimitz's
carrier fleet.

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And for the first time in history,
two fleets fight

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without ever seeing each other.

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While a battleship is limited
by its speed

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and the reach of its guns,

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a carrier's dive and torpedo bombers
can strike across hundreds of miles.

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Now we're beyond
visible range, over the horizon.

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Radar technology very primitive,
long range reconnaissance quite spotty,

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the ability to then
coordinate reconnaissance

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with the guys on the flight deck.

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So you're groping around in the dark

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looking for an enemy
that you can't always find.

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 Amid the mayhem
in the Coral Sea,

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the Japanese are confident
they've scored a key victory.

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Two of their carriers are damaged,

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but the US Lexington is ripped apart
by explosions and sinks.

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And the USS Yorktown

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is a smoldering wreck
and surely doomed.

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Two of the United States'
four carriers are down,

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before the Midway assault
has even begun.

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The Japanese
start the war, thinking

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"I'm not sure we can do this,"
by Midway, they think they can

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and there's a degree
of contempt creeping in.

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They know the Americans,
they're big and strong

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but they're not very clever.

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 An increasingly confident
Admiral Yamamoto

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calls his senior commanders
together on a battleship

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to run through the top-secret details
of his surprise attack on Midway.

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Yamamoto has devised
a carefully choreographed ambush.

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Timing will be critical.

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The Japanese had a love
of intricate battle plans

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with multiple forces
that are all moving and clockwork

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and then they all come together

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at exactly the right place
and exactly the right time.

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First,
the powerful Japanese carrier fleet

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will launch a surprise
attack on Midway.

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Its airplanes will decimate
the island's defenses

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and clear the way
for a ground invasion.

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The attack will trigger the American fleet
to scramble from Pearl Harbor,

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and sail over a thousand miles
into a trap.

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Admiral Yamamoto himself
will hold a large battleship fleet

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away from the island,
in reserve.

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By the time the American
carriers arrive,

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the Japanese will have secured
Midway's airfields

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and control of the skies.

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The Japanese carrier fleet
will then be in a powerful position

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to overwhelm
and destroy the Americans.

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The man in charge
of this vital carrier force

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is Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo.

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Nagumo should have a good
three or four days

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before he's gonna be faced
with those American carriers.

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And that's gonna give him time
to put Midway out of business,

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invade Midway, turn it
into an advance base for the Japanese

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and then he will turn
and face the next threat that is coming,

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which should be the American Navy.

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But the interesting thing here
is that Yamamoto and Nagumo

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really don't like each other.

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00:14:13,800 --> 00:14:15,680
These two guys don't get along at all

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and yet by the reasons of seniority
he ends up getting placed

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in command of the world's
foremost carrier force.

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And he really didn't have a good feel
for this weapon system,

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he didn't really know how to operate it.

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Admiral Nagumo is a classic
surface warfare procedure-based officer,

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he does exactly what the doctrine says,

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he does what he's been told to do

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and he does it according to the manual.

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And Nagumo
is not the man to be left

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with a great deal of initiative.

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 But if the Japanese
battle plan relies

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on secrecy and surprise,

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it's already under threat.

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In Hawaii, a United States
cryptography unit called Hypo

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00:15:02,000 --> 00:15:05,840
is trying to decipher
encoded Japanese radio traffic.

250
00:15:07,240 --> 00:15:10,240
Leading the team at Hypo
is the eccentric

251
00:15:10,320 --> 00:15:12,440
captain Joseph Rochefort.

252
00:15:13,240 --> 00:15:15,080
Rochefort is someone
who is viewed

253
00:15:15,160 --> 00:15:18,480
with extreme suspicion
by conventional naval officers

254
00:15:18,560 --> 00:15:22,440
who see him as way too much
of an irreverent egghead.

255
00:15:22,800 --> 00:15:26,080
He works in this workshop
where he sets up these massive tables

256
00:15:26,160 --> 00:15:29,680
with saw horses and planks
and he spreads out the Japanese codes

257
00:15:29,760 --> 00:15:32,280
and he shuffles around them
wearing a smoking jacket

258
00:15:32,360 --> 00:15:33,760
and carpet slippers.

259
00:15:35,680 --> 00:15:38,280
He was a bit of a fellow
who worked off the reservation.

260
00:15:38,760 --> 00:15:41,160
He had spent time in Japan.

261
00:15:41,640 --> 00:15:44,080
And therefore, had learned
not just the Japanese language

262
00:15:44,280 --> 00:15:46,800
but a lot about Japanese culture
and, therefore,

263
00:15:46,880 --> 00:15:49,560
they looked at code messages
not just for what they said

264
00:15:49,640 --> 00:15:50,840
in terms of language

265
00:15:51,120 --> 00:15:53,320
but for what they implied
in terms of meaning.

266
00:15:54,560 --> 00:15:57,080
But even so, the cryptanalysts

267
00:15:57,200 --> 00:16:01,120
at Hypo could really only crack
about 20% of the Japanese code,

268
00:16:01,200 --> 00:16:04,320
the rest of it had to be kind of
determined through guesswork.

269
00:16:06,760 --> 00:16:08,000
That May,

270
00:16:08,080 --> 00:16:11,960
Rochefort starts to pick up
on numerous Japanese communiqués

271
00:16:12,040 --> 00:16:17,000
about operations
against a target code named AF.

272
00:16:19,280 --> 00:16:21,760
Spinning back through
his photographic memory,

273
00:16:22,080 --> 00:16:25,560
Rochefort thinks he knows
what AF stands for.

274
00:16:26,800 --> 00:16:28,240
And he remembered

275
00:16:28,440 --> 00:16:30,880
an intercept from March 1942

276
00:16:31,440 --> 00:16:33,520
of a Japanese patrol plane

277
00:16:33,920 --> 00:16:37,920
saying that it was passing by
a target that is designated AF.

278
00:16:38,360 --> 00:16:41,880
And the only American possession
that it could possibly have been

279
00:16:41,960 --> 00:16:43,920
passing was Midway Island.

280
00:16:45,840 --> 00:16:48,400
Rochefort is convinced
an attack on Midway

281
00:16:48,480 --> 00:16:50,040
is little more than a week away,

282
00:16:51,040 --> 00:16:54,760
so he quickly files a report
with his superiors in Washington,

283
00:16:56,320 --> 00:16:58,640
but his report is dismissed.

284
00:16:59,480 --> 00:17:01,640
In Washington,
the chief of naval intelligence,

285
00:17:01,720 --> 00:17:04,240
he would say, "Well,
I'm not really sure, how do you know this?"

286
00:17:04,520 --> 00:17:05,640
He says, "Well I can tell".

287
00:17:05,720 --> 00:17:07,359
"Well no, you can't tell,

288
00:17:07,480 --> 00:17:09,760
that could be anything,
that could be Seattle

289
00:17:09,839 --> 00:17:12,520
for all you know or San Francisco,

290
00:17:12,640 --> 00:17:15,079
how do you know AF is Midway?"

291
00:17:15,240 --> 00:17:16,920
Chain of command was skeptical.

292
00:17:23,119 --> 00:17:24,839
Daybreak, the 4th of June.

293
00:17:26,280 --> 00:17:30,800
The Japanese carrier fleet has moved
to within 250 miles of Midway.

294
00:17:32,480 --> 00:17:34,920
Its commander, Admiral Nagumo,

295
00:17:35,280 --> 00:17:38,720
is now in position to initiate
the attack on the island.

296
00:17:40,840 --> 00:17:43,440
If you were looking at this
encroaching Japanese fleet

297
00:17:43,520 --> 00:17:44,640
at Midway Island,

298
00:17:44,800 --> 00:17:46,800
you'd have to say
that they have the upper hand.

299
00:17:46,880 --> 00:17:50,400
They've got four carriers
loaded with advanced aircraft.

300
00:17:50,960 --> 00:17:52,600
The air crews are highly trained,

301
00:17:52,680 --> 00:17:55,400
they've been in action
at Pearl Harbor and the coral sea,

302
00:17:56,160 --> 00:17:58,680
and this is gonna be
a very formidable opponent

303
00:17:58,760 --> 00:18:00,240
for the US to come up against.

304
00:18:02,400 --> 00:18:04,560
All four Japanese carriers

305
00:18:04,640 --> 00:18:07,480
coordinate the mass launch
of attack planes.

306
00:18:12,480 --> 00:18:13,880
And at 6:20,

307
00:18:13,960 --> 00:18:17,920
the Japanese squadrons appear
as a swarm over Midway.

308
00:18:21,160 --> 00:18:23,760
The renowned film director,
John Ford,

309
00:18:23,840 --> 00:18:25,600
is stationed on the island

310
00:18:25,800 --> 00:18:28,040
and manages to capture the attack.

311
00:18:30,080 --> 00:18:32,040
This is the only footage
that will survive

312
00:18:32,120 --> 00:18:33,120
the battle of Midway.

313
00:18:37,280 --> 00:18:40,960
For the Americans
who are on Midway, on the ground,

314
00:18:41,040 --> 00:18:44,120
is a fearsome scene,
it's like Pearl Harbor come again

315
00:18:44,840 --> 00:18:47,480
because they're being attacked from above
and they have very little

316
00:18:47,560 --> 00:18:49,800
to defend themselves.
All that are on the ground

317
00:18:49,880 --> 00:18:52,760
just a few scattered anti-aircraft guns.

318
00:18:55,320 --> 00:18:56,960
But as the Japanese airplanes

319
00:18:57,040 --> 00:18:59,600
light up an inferno beneath them,

320
00:19:00,640 --> 00:19:02,800
they notice something unusual.

321
00:19:03,880 --> 00:19:05,760
One of their key targets,

322
00:19:06,080 --> 00:19:07,920
the island's bomber planes,

323
00:19:08,400 --> 00:19:11,320
are nowhere to be seen
on the airfields below.

324
00:19:13,360 --> 00:19:16,120
There's almost no airplanes there.

325
00:19:16,680 --> 00:19:20,240
They're not on the airfield
and the Japanese are curious about that.

326
00:19:20,560 --> 00:19:21,760
Why has that happened?

327
00:19:21,840 --> 00:19:24,200
The American airplanes
must be in the air somewhere.

328
00:19:27,640 --> 00:19:30,400
Earlier that morning,
John Ford's cameras

329
00:19:30,480 --> 00:19:34,160
capture the moment
the American bombers scrambled.

330
00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:37,680
And now they appear

331
00:19:38,120 --> 00:19:41,080
directly over the Japanese carrier fleet.

332
00:19:42,040 --> 00:19:44,840
Nagumo's plan for total surprise

333
00:19:45,120 --> 00:19:47,200
seems to have been compromised.

334
00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:50,240
That must have been
quite a sight.

335
00:19:50,320 --> 00:19:53,160
And that is a problem for Nagumo.

336
00:19:53,360 --> 00:19:57,560
Midway doesn't seem to be as quiet
an area as he might have supposed.

337
00:20:00,440 --> 00:20:05,360
Amongst the counter offensive
are high altitude B17 bombers,

338
00:20:05,800 --> 00:20:08,160
untested in naval warfare.

339
00:20:10,360 --> 00:20:14,400
The Japanese skippers realized
that it takes a long time for the bomb

340
00:20:14,480 --> 00:20:17,280
to make it from 20,000 feet down
to where your ship is

341
00:20:17,360 --> 00:20:20,040
and so what they would do
is they would watch the aircraft

342
00:20:20,120 --> 00:20:22,760
and as soon as the bombs were dropped
they would then

343
00:20:22,960 --> 00:20:25,160
put the ship into a hard turn.

344
00:20:26,800 --> 00:20:28,960
The results from the photographs
are quite dramatic

345
00:20:29,040 --> 00:20:32,160
that all around these Japanese ships
are, you know,

346
00:20:32,240 --> 00:20:35,480
huge columns of water
from sticks of eight or ten bombs

347
00:20:35,840 --> 00:20:36,960
landing in the drink.

348
00:20:41,160 --> 00:20:43,880
The Japanese fleet
launches dozens of fighter planes

349
00:20:44,080 --> 00:20:47,680
called Zeros to defend against the attack.

350
00:20:50,360 --> 00:20:53,800
If one group of fighters
sees an enemy strike coming in,

351
00:20:54,840 --> 00:20:57,120
all of the fighters
will sort of follow them,

352
00:20:57,240 --> 00:20:58,800
almost like white blood cells,

353
00:20:58,880 --> 00:21:01,360
they'll just follow them
into this attack vector.

354
00:21:03,960 --> 00:21:07,600
The Japanese used this
incredible fighter called the Zero.

355
00:21:10,120 --> 00:21:12,760
And it is incredible
in terms of its speeds,

356
00:21:12,840 --> 00:21:14,640
maneuverability and its climb.

357
00:21:16,280 --> 00:21:18,920
In the hands of a veteran aviator

358
00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:21,320
can be a death dealing weapon of war.

359
00:21:23,080 --> 00:21:25,120
The veteran Zero pilots
are soon on top

360
00:21:25,200 --> 00:21:27,480
of the rookie flyers from Midway.

361
00:21:29,240 --> 00:21:31,160
I saw one flying over my head,

362
00:21:31,240 --> 00:21:34,120
it seems I could reach up
and touch him and before I knew it

363
00:21:34,200 --> 00:21:35,720
he was back onto my tail.

364
00:21:36,080 --> 00:21:38,640
They were the most maneuverable
airplane I think I've ever seen.

365
00:21:40,960 --> 00:21:44,720
The island's counter strike,
over 50 aircraft strong,

366
00:21:44,960 --> 00:21:48,640
fails to land a single blow
on the Japanese carriers.

367
00:21:51,880 --> 00:21:55,760
But one attack
very nearly kills Admiral Nagumo.

368
00:21:57,680 --> 00:21:59,880
Towards the end, a B17 gets shot down

369
00:21:59,960 --> 00:22:01,920
and as it comes diving down
the pilot seems

370
00:22:02,040 --> 00:22:04,640
to have set a course
to crash into the flagship

371
00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:06,880
and comes within
a pretty short compass

372
00:22:06,960 --> 00:22:09,640
of running straight into him
and his command team.

373
00:22:11,240 --> 00:22:15,720
Nagumo had probably not expected much
in the way of American resistance at all,

374
00:22:15,920 --> 00:22:18,000
so for the Americans to be throwing

375
00:22:18,080 --> 00:22:20,320
basically the kitchen sink at him,

376
00:22:20,640 --> 00:22:24,120
his blood is up at this point,
the adrenaline is pumping.

377
00:22:25,600 --> 00:22:29,040
Rattled, Nagumo
wants to hit Midway again

378
00:22:29,120 --> 00:22:30,720
and destroy its defenses.

379
00:22:32,320 --> 00:22:35,040
But the remaining bombers
he has on board

380
00:22:35,120 --> 00:22:38,800
are armed with torpedoes
for attacking ships.

381
00:22:39,840 --> 00:22:44,280
So Nagumo orders them to switch
to ground attack weapons,

382
00:22:44,560 --> 00:22:48,560
but he will have to wait some time
before the attack can begin.

383
00:22:50,480 --> 00:22:53,680
This is not a spot sort of thing
that just magically happens,

384
00:22:53,760 --> 00:22:58,760
it's gonna be 90 minutes to two hours’
worth of effort to make the switchover

385
00:22:58,840 --> 00:23:01,360
from naval attack weapons
to land attack weapons.

386
00:23:02,320 --> 00:23:06,600
He's not gonna have a strike force
available to go for some hours

387
00:23:06,920 --> 00:23:10,840
so once Nagumo gives that order,
he's committed.

388
00:23:17,920 --> 00:23:21,320
But just under 30 minutes later

389
00:23:21,680 --> 00:23:26,160
a message crackles over the radio
on the bridge of Nagumo's flagship.

390
00:23:27,120 --> 00:23:29,320
It's from one of his search planes.

391
00:23:30,120 --> 00:23:31,880
The news arrives back late

392
00:23:32,440 --> 00:23:33,920
and it's very bad news.

393
00:23:35,720 --> 00:23:39,760
US Navy ships
of unspecified type

394
00:23:40,000 --> 00:23:42,120
spotted near Midway.

395
00:23:43,320 --> 00:23:47,240
When that radio message comes in
from his scout plane at 07:40,

396
00:23:48,120 --> 00:23:51,800
there has gotta be a real
sinking feeling in Nagumo's stomach.

397
00:23:52,760 --> 00:23:54,680
The search was sent
to confirm a negative,

398
00:23:54,760 --> 00:23:56,840
there are no Americans
waiting to ambush me.

399
00:23:57,600 --> 00:23:59,800
And it confirms a positive
which is the very thing

400
00:24:00,200 --> 00:24:02,200
that he's not factored
into all of his decisions

401
00:24:02,480 --> 00:24:04,200
because they're not meant to be there.

402
00:24:04,920 --> 00:24:07,680
He's already committed
to hitting Midway again.

403
00:24:07,880 --> 00:24:09,680
His aircraft down in the hangars

404
00:24:09,760 --> 00:24:12,640
are halfway re-armed at this point,

405
00:24:12,720 --> 00:24:14,840
so he's totally wrong footed.

406
00:24:15,720 --> 00:24:19,240
And there shouldn't be American ships
out there at all.

407
00:24:20,600 --> 00:24:23,000
The plan says that the Americans
aren't gonna show up

408
00:24:23,080 --> 00:24:24,720
for another three or four days.

409
00:24:25,440 --> 00:24:27,160
Why are there American ships here?

410
00:24:29,240 --> 00:24:30,880
Sometimes in the history of war,

411
00:24:31,000 --> 00:24:32,720
intelligence is vastly overrated

412
00:24:32,840 --> 00:24:35,440
and we love making mountains
out of molehills.

413
00:24:35,840 --> 00:24:37,880
This is not the case going in to Midway.

414
00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:42,240
Turned away
by his immediate superiors,

415
00:24:42,320 --> 00:24:44,640
cryptologist Joseph Rochefort

416
00:24:44,720 --> 00:24:46,360
was not deterred.

417
00:24:48,440 --> 00:24:51,920
He used a back channel
to reach Admiral Nimitz.

418
00:24:54,840 --> 00:24:57,840
Rochefort lays out his hunch
that the Japanese fleet

419
00:24:57,920 --> 00:25:02,560
are preparing to attack
a place codenamed AF.

420
00:25:04,040 --> 00:25:06,640
Nimitz listens,
but needs confirmation

421
00:25:06,720 --> 00:25:08,960
that the target is Midway.

422
00:25:11,360 --> 00:25:13,240
Admiral Nimitz
naturally wanted to know

423
00:25:13,320 --> 00:25:17,000
positive and beyond doubt
what place AF represented.

424
00:25:18,040 --> 00:25:20,560
Since we had no proof,
Joe and I agreed

425
00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:23,280
that we should entice the enemy
by radio deception

426
00:25:23,360 --> 00:25:25,800
to furnish such proof if possible.

427
00:25:27,800 --> 00:25:31,080
 Midway Island
sends a false emergency message,

428
00:25:31,600 --> 00:25:33,920
saying that their water system
is broken.

429
00:25:36,960 --> 00:25:39,800
Later that same day,
American intelligence

430
00:25:39,960 --> 00:25:42,720
intercepts a Japanese message
saying,

431
00:25:42,800 --> 00:25:45,160
that AF is low on water.

432
00:25:48,520 --> 00:25:50,120
Rochefort had proof

433
00:25:50,200 --> 00:25:52,760
that AF was Midway.

434
00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:56,720
And it's like wow, eureka,
we've got it.

435
00:25:57,000 --> 00:25:58,880
Now they can bait their own trap

436
00:25:58,960 --> 00:26:00,600
for the Japanese at Midway.

437
00:26:01,120 --> 00:26:03,000
You can imagine
Admiral Nimitz's delight

438
00:26:03,080 --> 00:26:05,960
when I showed him the above
decrypted transmitted message

439
00:26:06,040 --> 00:26:08,600
and allowed him to prepare
his warm reception

440
00:26:08,680 --> 00:26:11,160
for those visitors in early June.

441
00:26:11,960 --> 00:26:15,240
You can almost see him
metaphorically stroking his chin

442
00:26:15,320 --> 00:26:18,240
and saying, "I'm game, let's go."

443
00:26:22,040 --> 00:26:24,040
The morning of the attack,
Nimitz's fleet

444
00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:26,960
is laying in wait near Midway,

445
00:26:27,240 --> 00:26:29,840
ready to ambush the Japanese.

446
00:26:31,360 --> 00:26:33,520
The tables have been turned

447
00:26:34,840 --> 00:26:38,000
and the Americans have not two carriers,

448
00:26:38,200 --> 00:26:39,760
but three.

449
00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:45,120
The USS Yorktown,
the ship the Japanese were convinced

450
00:26:45,200 --> 00:26:47,560
was destroyed in the Coral Sea,

451
00:26:47,720 --> 00:26:49,680
is steaming through the ocean.

452
00:26:50,680 --> 00:26:52,280
Against all odds,

453
00:26:52,640 --> 00:26:54,880
the burning hulk had made it back

454
00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:57,200
to Pearl Harbor for repairs.

455
00:26:57,880 --> 00:27:00,600
The naval architects say
it's gonna take three to six months

456
00:27:00,720 --> 00:27:03,440
to get this in shape,
just ready to go to sea.

457
00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:06,560
And Nimitz looks at him coolly

458
00:27:06,640 --> 00:27:08,440
and says "You can have three days.

459
00:27:08,600 --> 00:27:11,640
I've gotta have it battle ready
in three days,"

460
00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:13,440
and by golly, it was.

461
00:27:14,520 --> 00:27:16,720
Nimitz now has three carriers

462
00:27:16,800 --> 00:27:20,080
and the island itself,
an unsinkable carrier,

463
00:27:20,360 --> 00:27:22,480
to take on the Japanese.

464
00:27:23,920 --> 00:27:25,960
And the advantage of surprise

465
00:27:26,320 --> 00:27:29,200
means he'll be able to strike first.

466
00:27:30,720 --> 00:27:33,840
 Every time we had steak and eggs
on the aircraft carrier,

467
00:27:33,920 --> 00:27:36,640
you knew that was gonna be
a rough, rough day.

468
00:27:36,800 --> 00:27:39,680
And that morning,
they gave us steak and eggs.

469
00:27:43,360 --> 00:27:45,360
At 7:00 a.m. that morning,

470
00:27:45,440 --> 00:27:48,560
under the command
of Rear Admiral Raymond Spruance…

471
00:27:48,640 --> 00:27:50,200
Start the engines.

472
00:27:50,560 --> 00:27:52,520
 …two of US Navy's
three carriers,

473
00:27:52,600 --> 00:27:54,480
Enterprise and Hornet,

474
00:27:54,600 --> 00:27:56,680
launched their strike
on the Japanese fleet.

475
00:28:02,240 --> 00:28:05,600
Squadrons of torpedo bombers
and then dive bombers

476
00:28:06,120 --> 00:28:07,120
take to the air.

477
00:28:12,720 --> 00:28:15,080
Meanwhile, Admiral Nagumo

478
00:28:15,280 --> 00:28:17,080
is still grappling with the news

479
00:28:17,360 --> 00:28:18,760
that an American fleet

480
00:28:18,840 --> 00:28:20,680
is already at Midway.

481
00:28:22,680 --> 00:28:24,760
Now the question is
what do you do?

482
00:28:25,040 --> 00:28:28,320
The plan may not be going
according to plan anymore.

483
00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:30,760
Remember, the primary objective

484
00:28:30,840 --> 00:28:33,080
in the entire campaign
was to sink the American carriers.

485
00:28:33,120 --> 00:28:34,960
Midway is the bait,
carriers are the target.

486
00:28:35,480 --> 00:28:37,560
So now, he's gotta rethink
his entire plan,

487
00:28:37,640 --> 00:28:40,040
"Wait a minute, maybe instead
of a second strike on Midway,

488
00:28:40,120 --> 00:28:42,480
I should use those planes
to attack the carrier."

489
00:28:44,520 --> 00:28:48,120
Despite his previous order
to attack Midway Island,

490
00:28:48,400 --> 00:28:50,800
there are still some planes on board,

491
00:28:50,880 --> 00:28:52,920
armed to strike ships.

492
00:28:54,280 --> 00:28:57,520
But according to Japanese doctrine,
you should only attack

493
00:28:57,600 --> 00:29:01,080
with a fully coordinated group of planes

494
00:29:01,600 --> 00:29:05,640
and Nagumo is a strictly
by-the-book commander.

495
00:29:07,600 --> 00:29:09,800
So instead of sending what he has,

496
00:29:09,880 --> 00:29:13,520
he decides to wait until all his planes

497
00:29:13,760 --> 00:29:17,040
have switched from bombs
back to torpedoes.

498
00:29:18,840 --> 00:29:21,080
It'll be at least another two hours

499
00:29:21,240 --> 00:29:23,640
before they're ready to launch an attack.

500
00:29:24,960 --> 00:29:28,600
He has to do something
outside the parameters of the rule book

501
00:29:29,080 --> 00:29:30,920
and he's not prepared to do that.

502
00:29:31,240 --> 00:29:33,640
So he's made a mistake and now,

503
00:29:33,720 --> 00:29:36,080
he's insisting on unmaking that mistake

504
00:29:36,160 --> 00:29:39,800
in a position where he has not got
the time to do that.

505
00:29:42,120 --> 00:29:43,560
Down in the hanger decks,

506
00:29:43,920 --> 00:29:45,240
chaos reigns

507
00:29:45,960 --> 00:29:48,480
because the order comes down
from Nagumo

508
00:29:48,920 --> 00:29:50,880
that we have to re-arm these planes again.

509
00:29:53,560 --> 00:29:55,720
And in the helter skelter

510
00:29:56,080 --> 00:29:58,240
hubbub of the hangars now,

511
00:29:58,320 --> 00:30:00,880
we have a situation
where there's no time

512
00:30:01,120 --> 00:30:04,440
to stow those land attack
weapons properly.

513
00:30:05,080 --> 00:30:06,960
They're just shoved up
against the bulkheads.

514
00:30:07,920 --> 00:30:10,000
You've got ordnance scattered
all over the place,

515
00:30:10,080 --> 00:30:12,400
these planes are also being fueled,

516
00:30:12,520 --> 00:30:15,200
meaning that the hangars now
are a tinder box.

517
00:30:17,360 --> 00:30:20,760
Nagumo's carrier fleet
is still re-arming

518
00:30:21,120 --> 00:30:23,320
when, at 9:20 a.m.,

519
00:30:23,520 --> 00:30:26,920
planes from Nimitz's carriers
appeared in the sky.

520
00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:32,120
But as the squadron draws close,

521
00:30:32,520 --> 00:30:34,080
it's clearly alone

522
00:30:34,400 --> 00:30:36,760
and unprotected by fighter planes.

523
00:30:38,800 --> 00:30:40,360
The United States may have had

524
00:30:40,600 --> 00:30:41,920
the advantage of surprise,

525
00:30:43,320 --> 00:30:44,880
but they've squandered it.

526
00:30:46,680 --> 00:30:49,000
The problem for the Americans
at this stage of the war

527
00:30:49,080 --> 00:30:51,000
is that they're not nearly as good

528
00:30:51,080 --> 00:30:52,600
as the Japanese are

529
00:30:52,680 --> 00:30:54,440
at coordinating the activities

530
00:30:54,520 --> 00:30:56,080
of multiple flight decks.

531
00:30:56,640 --> 00:31:00,080
Enterprise and Hornet's launches
are just miserable affairs

532
00:31:00,160 --> 00:31:03,280
and they end up
with multiple squadrons in the air

533
00:31:03,640 --> 00:31:07,200
that are flying in different directions
completely unsupported

534
00:31:07,320 --> 00:31:10,280
and none of them know
where each other even is.

535
00:31:15,200 --> 00:31:18,680
The first squadron to arrive
are torpedo bombers.

536
00:31:20,080 --> 00:31:22,760
These torpedo planes are slow,
they are under armed,

537
00:31:22,840 --> 00:31:24,560
and they are up against zeros

538
00:31:24,640 --> 00:31:26,600
that in many cases
have an advantage and speed

539
00:31:26,680 --> 00:31:28,760
of over 200 miles an hour.

540
00:31:28,880 --> 00:31:31,400
It's like they were hanging on a string

541
00:31:31,560 --> 00:31:34,800
and just having these fighters
go past them and take runs.

542
00:31:35,000 --> 00:31:36,920
This is one of the most horrific portions

543
00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:39,160
of the battle for the Americans.

544
00:31:40,080 --> 00:31:41,080
Worse still,

545
00:31:41,160 --> 00:31:44,760
the lumbering planes are armed
with a faulty weapon.

546
00:31:46,160 --> 00:31:50,760
The problem that they have with this plane
is it has a highly dysfunctional torpedo

547
00:31:51,520 --> 00:31:54,560
and this torpedo generally fails
to detonate

548
00:31:54,640 --> 00:31:55,880
90% of the time.

549
00:31:56,440 --> 00:31:59,480
They had tested it
in prewar gunnery tests

550
00:31:59,600 --> 00:32:02,400
and it only went off 10% of the time.

551
00:32:03,200 --> 00:32:05,880
The American admirals decided
to chance it anyway

552
00:32:05,960 --> 00:32:09,000
and send these three torpedo squadrons
into the fray.

553
00:32:12,720 --> 00:32:15,840
They were all pretty terrifying,

554
00:32:16,320 --> 00:32:18,800
I was hit by a piece of shrapnel.

555
00:32:18,960 --> 00:32:20,360
I had blood all over the place.

556
00:32:20,440 --> 00:32:22,320
I didn't know how badly
I was hit

557
00:32:22,760 --> 00:32:24,480
but I fired for a while

558
00:32:24,560 --> 00:32:27,560
and then he stopped firing
and I guess he had just been killed.

559
00:32:29,040 --> 00:32:30,840
The torpedo pilots, I think,

560
00:32:30,920 --> 00:32:33,440
are some of the bravest individuals
at this battle

561
00:32:33,520 --> 00:32:35,360
because they sort of go into the fight

562
00:32:35,560 --> 00:32:38,480
knowing that really all
they are going to be used for

563
00:32:38,560 --> 00:32:41,600
is as fodder on the off chance

564
00:32:41,680 --> 00:32:43,760
that maybe one of the torpedoes
might go off

565
00:32:43,880 --> 00:32:45,400
and do some damage.

566
00:32:46,200 --> 00:32:49,280
The morning of the battle,
a dive bomber pilot told the story

567
00:32:49,680 --> 00:32:52,080
that his best friend
was a torpedo bomber pilot

568
00:32:52,160 --> 00:32:54,880
and they basically have a final farewell

569
00:32:55,240 --> 00:32:57,640
and they know at that point

570
00:32:57,760 --> 00:33:00,480
that chances of coming back are not good

571
00:33:01,560 --> 00:33:04,600
because they can't say goodbye,

572
00:33:05,040 --> 00:33:06,960
they can't say sorry,
"This has happened to you,"

573
00:33:07,200 --> 00:33:09,640
all they can do is shake hands
and tear up.

574
00:33:13,920 --> 00:33:15,560
These deaths are not easy things

575
00:33:15,640 --> 00:33:17,800
because, you know,
when these planes are hit,

576
00:33:17,960 --> 00:33:20,920
they explode
in these enormous balls of fire.

577
00:33:21,920 --> 00:33:26,000
Aviation gas spreads over,
so it is not a pleasant way to go out.

578
00:33:27,440 --> 00:33:29,520
To have courage like that to face death

579
00:33:29,880 --> 00:33:32,480
knowing that, you know,
you have little chance of success

580
00:33:32,560 --> 00:33:36,040
is just a human quality
that is just difficult to imagine.

581
00:33:41,080 --> 00:33:43,000
From the first torpedo squadron,

582
00:33:43,080 --> 00:33:45,880
only one man survives.

583
00:33:47,600 --> 00:33:51,040
And the next two squadrons
are massacred as well.

584
00:33:53,520 --> 00:33:57,320
In the end, just four planes
make it back.

585
00:34:03,960 --> 00:34:06,400
America's hopes now rest solely

586
00:34:06,480 --> 00:34:08,120
on their dive bombers.

587
00:34:08,880 --> 00:34:10,239
But so far,

588
00:34:10,639 --> 00:34:12,840
they've been nowhere to be seen.

589
00:34:13,639 --> 00:34:15,760
Sent off in the wrong direction,

590
00:34:15,920 --> 00:34:19,480
they are hopelessly lost
and running low on fuel.

591
00:34:21,800 --> 00:34:24,800
We get to where
they're supposed to be, they're not there.

592
00:34:25,800 --> 00:34:29,040
Nothing, I mean,
just ocean as far as you can see.

593
00:34:29,480 --> 00:34:33,800
And at this point in time
we were just about as far as we should be

594
00:34:33,880 --> 00:34:36,320
if we wanted to get back to the carrier.

595
00:34:38,719 --> 00:34:39,920
They've got a compass,

596
00:34:40,000 --> 00:34:42,920
they've got a pencil
and that's how they're gonna navigate

597
00:34:43,000 --> 00:34:46,639
over three or four hundred miles
of open ocean.

598
00:34:46,719 --> 00:34:48,280
There is no GPS,

599
00:34:48,360 --> 00:34:50,320
there is no satellite communications.

600
00:34:50,639 --> 00:34:52,280
You're completely blind

601
00:34:52,360 --> 00:34:56,040
and you're flying over
this completely featureless seascape.

602
00:34:57,080 --> 00:34:59,160
They're pretty much
on their own out there.

603
00:34:59,240 --> 00:35:02,600
Middle of the ocean,
just trying to figure out

604
00:35:03,320 --> 00:35:05,320
where, if they were the Japanese fleet,

605
00:35:05,720 --> 00:35:06,720
you would go.

606
00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:08,280
Which direction you'd head in

607
00:35:08,360 --> 00:35:10,920
and hoping that you can find something

608
00:35:11,160 --> 00:35:12,640
to lead you to those ships.

609
00:35:14,240 --> 00:35:16,520
 Admiral Nagumo sees the battle

610
00:35:16,600 --> 00:35:19,480
swing dramatically back in his favor.

611
00:35:21,880 --> 00:35:23,920
Critically for Nagumo,
the torpedo threat,

612
00:35:24,000 --> 00:35:25,960
the one that really would have
spoiled his morning

613
00:35:26,040 --> 00:35:28,040
has gone away,
they've been massacred.

614
00:35:28,160 --> 00:35:30,080
Now they can get on with the job in hand.

615
00:35:30,160 --> 00:35:32,240
They can finish getting that strike ready

616
00:35:32,360 --> 00:35:33,560
and finish off the Americans.

617
00:35:33,720 --> 00:35:35,240
Brilliant, the Americans have failed.

618
00:35:37,440 --> 00:35:41,840
Nagumo’s strike planes
will shortly all be armed with torpedoes

619
00:35:42,240 --> 00:35:45,840
and all four carriers
can launch a concentrated attack

620
00:35:45,920 --> 00:35:47,080
on the Americans.

621
00:35:49,440 --> 00:35:51,440
Having wasted its advantage,

622
00:35:51,680 --> 00:35:54,000
Nimitz's Pacific carrier Fleet

623
00:35:54,440 --> 00:35:56,960
is facing total destruction.

624
00:35:57,280 --> 00:36:00,040
This is the US Navy,
there is no reserve.

625
00:36:00,440 --> 00:36:02,040
If you lose at Midway,

626
00:36:02,120 --> 00:36:04,760
this is really America's last shot

627
00:36:05,040 --> 00:36:07,680
to kind of check the Japanese
and prevent them

628
00:36:07,800 --> 00:36:10,200
from making their position indomitable.

629
00:36:12,480 --> 00:36:14,960
But there will be a final twist

630
00:36:15,200 --> 00:36:17,200
in the Battle of Midway.

631
00:36:19,400 --> 00:36:22,520
At 10:25 in the morning,
on June 4th 1942,

632
00:36:22,600 --> 00:36:24,360
the Japanese were winning the Pacific War.

633
00:36:25,440 --> 00:36:26,840
And five minutes later,

634
00:36:27,160 --> 00:36:29,960
the pendulum had shifted completely
to the other side.

635
00:36:30,280 --> 00:36:32,440
Almost never in history

636
00:36:32,520 --> 00:36:36,120
do you find the tipping of history itself

637
00:36:36,480 --> 00:36:39,280
so swift and so decisive
in such a tiny moment.

638
00:36:41,200 --> 00:36:44,800
The battle turns
on an incredible slice of luck.

639
00:36:47,480 --> 00:36:48,640
Far out at sea,

640
00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:52,480
the leader of a lost
American dive bomber squadron

641
00:36:52,800 --> 00:36:56,000
spots something unusual in the distance.

642
00:36:57,360 --> 00:36:59,520
On the horizon,
the American pilots

643
00:36:59,600 --> 00:37:02,160
see a giant rainbow
coursing through the air.

644
00:37:02,920 --> 00:37:05,480
Now what it is, it is a spectrum of color

645
00:37:05,560 --> 00:37:09,720
coming through the water spout
of a lone Japanese destroyer, the Arashi.

646
00:37:10,800 --> 00:37:13,640
The Japanese destroyer
is on its own

647
00:37:13,920 --> 00:37:15,800
with no carriers in sight.

648
00:37:16,800 --> 00:37:19,760
But despite being dangerously
low on fuel,

649
00:37:20,040 --> 00:37:23,000
the squadron leader decides
to go with his gut

650
00:37:23,560 --> 00:37:25,560
and follow the ship's wake.

651
00:37:25,920 --> 00:37:28,000
When your skipper, McClusky,

652
00:37:28,240 --> 00:37:30,640
turns the plane
and extends the search,

653
00:37:30,920 --> 00:37:32,480
you know what he's asking of you.

654
00:37:32,880 --> 00:37:35,160
He's asking you to keep flying with him,

655
00:37:35,560 --> 00:37:38,520
to risk not coming back at all
and landing out on the ocean,

656
00:37:38,880 --> 00:37:40,840
all on the off chance you're gonna find

657
00:37:40,960 --> 00:37:43,440
the Japanese fleet
and do something important.

658
00:37:44,720 --> 00:37:47,320
Then, 10 minutes later,

659
00:37:47,560 --> 00:37:49,640
at 10:05 a.m.,

660
00:37:50,520 --> 00:37:51,840
a miracle.

661
00:37:52,800 --> 00:37:54,440
The US dive bombers

662
00:37:54,840 --> 00:37:58,040
find the entire Japanese carrier fleet.

663
00:38:00,240 --> 00:38:02,160
It must have been an incredible sight.

664
00:38:02,280 --> 00:38:06,080
To be 15,000 feet up
and you've got these carriers

665
00:38:06,320 --> 00:38:08,200
spread out underneath you.

666
00:38:08,760 --> 00:38:11,760
One pilot who survived
and lived into his 90s

667
00:38:12,160 --> 00:38:13,920
said that he could close his eyes

668
00:38:14,080 --> 00:38:17,520
and the one thing
he could remember vivid, clear as day,

669
00:38:17,640 --> 00:38:20,360
was the sight of the Japanese fleet
out on the horizon.

670
00:38:21,280 --> 00:38:24,320
The Japanese have just
recently painted

671
00:38:24,720 --> 00:38:26,560
huge Hinomaru,

672
00:38:26,680 --> 00:38:29,480
a big red meatball if you will,

673
00:38:29,560 --> 00:38:31,720
on the front of every one
of their flight decks

674
00:38:31,800 --> 00:38:33,640
and of course the American
dive bomber pilots

675
00:38:33,720 --> 00:38:34,880
are looking at this like,

676
00:38:34,960 --> 00:38:37,000
"Well, that's a perfect aiming point."

677
00:38:40,600 --> 00:38:42,080
Incredibly,

678
00:38:42,160 --> 00:38:46,600
a squadron of dive bombers
from the resurrected USS Yorktown

679
00:38:47,080 --> 00:38:50,840
comes across the Japanese
at the same time.

680
00:38:53,400 --> 00:38:56,160
By sheer luck,
we're now gonna have a situation

681
00:38:56,240 --> 00:38:59,040
where we have four squadrons
of attack planes

682
00:38:59,360 --> 00:39:02,360
attacking the Japanese
from two different directions

683
00:39:02,440 --> 00:39:04,320
and from multiple altitudes.

684
00:39:04,880 --> 00:39:07,640
Japanese fighters have scattered

685
00:39:07,720 --> 00:39:10,160
because they are chasing away
a final torpedo squadron.

686
00:39:11,960 --> 00:39:14,920
And so, though the American
torpedo bomber attacks

687
00:39:15,000 --> 00:39:17,880
were something
of a horrible waste of life,

688
00:39:18,240 --> 00:39:21,320
when the dive bombers show up,
there is nothing there to stop them.

689
00:39:21,920 --> 00:39:23,520
The higher altitudes

690
00:39:23,640 --> 00:39:26,200
are virtually fighterless.

691
00:39:26,960 --> 00:39:29,120
Now, the Japanese
do not have radar

692
00:39:29,480 --> 00:39:31,920
and it's a lookout
on the Japanese flagship

693
00:39:32,000 --> 00:39:36,160
who's looking up and all of a sudden
sees the American dive bombers

694
00:39:36,440 --> 00:39:39,200
and he yells out,
"dive bombers."

695
00:39:41,680 --> 00:39:44,240
A witness said
it looked like this silver cascade

696
00:39:44,320 --> 00:39:45,800
coming down over the top.

697
00:39:46,360 --> 00:39:49,480
They roll into their dives
and go down towards their targets,

698
00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:52,400
and dive bombing
is a death-defying tactic

699
00:39:53,480 --> 00:39:55,000
and they plunge downward

700
00:39:55,080 --> 00:39:57,920
at about an 80-degree angle
towards the earth

701
00:39:58,480 --> 00:40:00,640
with the hood open,
which means the wind

702
00:40:00,760 --> 00:40:03,880
is roaring into the cockpit,
the whole thing is jarring.

703
00:40:03,960 --> 00:40:06,240
Anti-aircraft bursts
are puffing around you.

704
00:40:08,400 --> 00:40:11,200
And then pull out
as low as you can go,

705
00:40:11,280 --> 00:40:13,680
that gives you the best chance
of finding a hit.

706
00:40:14,640 --> 00:40:16,600
So, it's almost like playing
Russian roulette

707
00:40:16,680 --> 00:40:18,440
with the surface of the sea.

708
00:40:19,800 --> 00:40:23,960
Pilots have trained for a year
before the Battle of Midway

709
00:40:24,320 --> 00:40:28,320
so that they can prove
what their dive bombers are capable of,

710
00:40:28,400 --> 00:40:31,800
that they can sink these Japanese ships

711
00:40:31,880 --> 00:40:34,280
and that's not about luck,
that's about training.

712
00:40:35,880 --> 00:40:39,800
The veteran US dive bombers
are incredibly accurate.

713
00:40:45,360 --> 00:40:46,920
In just five minutes,

714
00:40:47,160 --> 00:40:50,480
they land direct hits
on three Japanese carriers.

715
00:40:53,440 --> 00:40:55,200
Soryu is hit by three bombs,

716
00:40:55,320 --> 00:40:58,080
Kaga is hit by so many bombs

717
00:40:58,160 --> 00:41:00,160
that the Japanese lose track

718
00:41:00,240 --> 00:41:02,960
of how many bombs hit her,
they simply can't count.

719
00:41:03,680 --> 00:41:06,720
Akagi, on the other hand,
is only hit by one bomb

720
00:41:06,880 --> 00:41:09,760
and it's put in just absolutely
the perfect position

721
00:41:09,840 --> 00:41:12,200
to do maximal damage to the flagship.

722
00:41:13,080 --> 00:41:14,520
To make matters worse,

723
00:41:14,880 --> 00:41:18,560
Admiral Nagumo's squadrons
are trapped below decks,

724
00:41:19,320 --> 00:41:22,440
switching between bombs and torpedoes.

725
00:41:23,440 --> 00:41:25,080
Just consider for a moment,

726
00:41:25,280 --> 00:41:28,960
it's a metal box
that is full of fueled aircraft,

727
00:41:29,240 --> 00:41:32,800
there are bombs lying
all around the perimeter of this box

728
00:41:33,120 --> 00:41:35,120
and now, a thousand pounds
of high explosive

729
00:41:35,360 --> 00:41:38,240
comes slicing through
a wooden flight deck

730
00:41:38,400 --> 00:41:39,480
and detonates.

731
00:41:39,880 --> 00:41:42,240
It must have been like the sun exploding.

732
00:41:43,440 --> 00:41:45,120
Japanese deck crewmen

733
00:41:45,480 --> 00:41:47,560
scythed down by the dozens,

734
00:41:47,640 --> 00:41:50,440
immediately those decks are covered

735
00:41:50,520 --> 00:41:52,320
with burning fuel.

736
00:41:52,400 --> 00:41:55,360
It's an absolute holocaust.

737
00:41:56,360 --> 00:41:58,640
Three of the four Japanese carriers,

738
00:41:58,840 --> 00:42:01,640
the powerhouse of the imperial navy,

739
00:42:02,000 --> 00:42:05,640
are ripped apart by fire and explosions.

740
00:42:07,480 --> 00:42:09,720
Even when I got
10 or 20 miles away,

741
00:42:09,800 --> 00:42:13,040
I could see items of the ship
blowing up in the air

742
00:42:13,120 --> 00:42:14,440
a thousand feet high,

743
00:42:14,520 --> 00:42:16,760
they were like a haystack on fire.

744
00:42:20,080 --> 00:42:21,600
In a matter of minutes,

745
00:42:21,680 --> 00:42:25,360
the Battle of Midway has been
utterly turned on its head.

746
00:42:28,000 --> 00:42:30,960
A stunned Admiral Nagumo
is forced to abandon

747
00:42:31,040 --> 00:42:33,480
his burning carrier flagship…

748
00:42:35,240 --> 00:42:39,080
and zero fighters are forced to ditch
in the sea.

749
00:42:40,520 --> 00:42:44,000
But despite the destruction,
the Japanese do not give up.

750
00:42:44,360 --> 00:42:46,880
They have a final throw of the dice.

751
00:42:48,440 --> 00:42:51,440
Their only remaining carrier,
the Hiryu,

752
00:42:51,520 --> 00:42:53,040
launches an attack.

753
00:42:53,560 --> 00:42:55,520
The strike leader
taking off from Hiryu

754
00:42:55,600 --> 00:42:56,960
knows that his plane is damaged,

755
00:42:57,440 --> 00:42:59,520
he doesn't have enough fuel on board

756
00:42:59,600 --> 00:43:01,800
to hit the Americans and get back,

757
00:43:02,800 --> 00:43:04,400
but he takes off anyway.

758
00:43:08,520 --> 00:43:10,880
Two separate waves
of Japanese planes

759
00:43:11,000 --> 00:43:12,920
attack the USS Yorktown,

760
00:43:13,360 --> 00:43:14,840
crippling the ship.

761
00:43:16,800 --> 00:43:20,080
But this hardy vessel
known as The Fighting Lady

762
00:43:20,520 --> 00:43:23,160
still has the final say in the battle.

763
00:43:24,240 --> 00:43:28,000
Its dive bombers hunt down
and devastate

764
00:43:28,080 --> 00:43:30,400
the last remaining Japanese carrier,

765
00:43:30,880 --> 00:43:32,000
the Hiryu.

766
00:43:33,680 --> 00:43:36,520
Stranded over 300 miles away,

767
00:43:36,640 --> 00:43:40,800
in a slow battleship,
powerless to influence the battle,

768
00:43:41,200 --> 00:43:45,920
Admiral Yamamoto eventually hears
of the American ambush.

769
00:43:48,120 --> 00:43:51,080
And ultimately, that all four

770
00:43:51,160 --> 00:43:53,680
of his carriers have been hit.

771
00:43:55,200 --> 00:43:58,120
His plan has horribly backfired,

772
00:43:58,880 --> 00:44:01,760
the vital heart of the Japanese Navy

773
00:44:02,280 --> 00:44:03,560
is destroyed.

774
00:44:05,080 --> 00:44:08,400
This must have been
an absolutely devastating personal blow

775
00:44:08,640 --> 00:44:11,160
because he is the guy

776
00:44:11,240 --> 00:44:14,920
who led to the creation
of this carrier force,

777
00:44:15,000 --> 00:44:17,720
he understands its value to the nation.

778
00:44:18,040 --> 00:44:21,560
And so to have, you know,
half of that force

779
00:44:21,640 --> 00:44:25,880
being ripped to pieces within a space
of just a few hours,

780
00:44:26,160 --> 00:44:30,440
he understands
what a horrendous blow this is

781
00:44:30,520 --> 00:44:32,840
to Japan's chances in this war.

782
00:44:33,920 --> 00:44:36,520
These ships are now on fire,
stem to stern,

783
00:44:36,600 --> 00:44:38,320
they've been burning for hours.

784
00:44:38,680 --> 00:44:42,080
And yet you, as an engine crewman,

785
00:44:42,160 --> 00:44:43,960
have to stay at your post.

786
00:44:44,800 --> 00:44:48,400
So, these guys are trapped below decks
and eventually,

787
00:44:48,480 --> 00:44:51,320
the decks turned red above them
as the fires

788
00:44:51,400 --> 00:44:53,960
inexorably work their way down
through the ship

789
00:44:54,040 --> 00:44:56,720
and many of these men are roasted alive.

790
00:44:57,240 --> 00:44:59,480
There's no way out of these spaces.

791
00:45:04,680 --> 00:45:08,680
 As the two navies retire
from the monumental Battle of Midway,

792
00:45:09,400 --> 00:45:12,960
the true enormity
and human cost of the battle

793
00:45:13,160 --> 00:45:14,920
starts to become clear.

794
00:45:15,760 --> 00:45:19,720
More than 3,000
Japanese and American serviceman

795
00:45:20,080 --> 00:45:23,200
have been killed in the space of one day.

796
00:45:24,960 --> 00:45:26,400
It all began to sink in

797
00:45:26,480 --> 00:45:28,600
to the members of the other squadrons

798
00:45:29,040 --> 00:45:30,960
that have to look at the empty
ready rooms

799
00:45:31,040 --> 00:45:32,520
where their buddies had once been

800
00:45:32,600 --> 00:45:36,520
and to see all their friends' clothing
just hanging quietly on hooks.

801
00:45:36,920 --> 00:45:38,760
That's kind of the real kicker

802
00:45:38,920 --> 00:45:43,160
that exists in the squadron ready rooms
and after this fight is over.

803
00:45:44,120 --> 00:45:46,760
 For the rival
American and Japanese admirals,

804
00:45:47,720 --> 00:45:50,800
there is much soul searching to be done.

805
00:45:51,400 --> 00:45:53,800
Nimitz understood
had it not been

806
00:45:53,960 --> 00:45:56,240
for a fortuitous series of events

807
00:45:56,440 --> 00:45:58,360
more than halfway through the battle,

808
00:45:58,440 --> 00:46:00,440
he could have been running back
to Pearl Harbor

809
00:46:00,520 --> 00:46:02,280
with his tail between his legs.

810
00:46:02,880 --> 00:46:07,080
Nagumo and his staff officers,
as they're making their way practically

811
00:46:07,360 --> 00:46:11,640
as refugees back towards Tokyo,

812
00:46:12,080 --> 00:46:15,240
obviously there's gonna be
a little explaining that has to be done.

813
00:46:15,520 --> 00:46:18,400
How did you lose four carriers
in one day?

814
00:46:20,120 --> 00:46:24,480
The Japanese begin spreading
disinformation about this battle.

815
00:46:24,600 --> 00:46:27,400
They don't tell the Japanese public

816
00:46:27,640 --> 00:46:29,320
that they've lost this battle.

817
00:46:29,400 --> 00:46:31,560
There's a huge cover up that goes on.

818
00:46:31,960 --> 00:46:35,720
And so, in that context,
you've got a guy like Yamamoto

819
00:46:35,800 --> 00:46:39,440
who is really the naval equivalent
of a rock star,

820
00:46:39,680 --> 00:46:42,320
you can't get rid of him
without people noticing.

821
00:46:42,560 --> 00:46:44,840
This is a guy that spends
a lot of his time

822
00:46:44,920 --> 00:46:47,840
answering letters from school children.

823
00:46:48,080 --> 00:46:51,120
So, just 'cause you've lost the battle,

824
00:46:51,200 --> 00:46:54,880
doesn't mean that you can get rid
of Yamamoto, he's kept in place.

825
00:46:55,360 --> 00:46:57,160
And in fact, a lot of the officers

826
00:46:57,240 --> 00:47:00,280
that are responsible for this disaster
are kept in place

827
00:47:00,360 --> 00:47:03,560
and it's all part of the cover up
to the Japanese people.

828
00:47:05,160 --> 00:47:07,440
On the other hand,
the American victory at Midway

829
00:47:07,520 --> 00:47:10,960
was great news in the United States,
banner headlines.

830
00:47:11,480 --> 00:47:14,800
The euphoria that followed
that victory was important

831
00:47:14,880 --> 00:47:17,120
because America got up off the mat,

832
00:47:17,200 --> 00:47:19,120
all the news had been bad

833
00:47:19,200 --> 00:47:22,120
from December 1941
all the way through May.

834
00:47:22,640 --> 00:47:23,920
As for Nimitz,

835
00:47:24,000 --> 00:47:28,680
I think this was definitely
proof enough that he was the man capable

836
00:47:28,760 --> 00:47:32,120
of leading the United States
the rest of the way across the Pacific.

837
00:47:32,240 --> 00:47:34,080
He came in, he listened to the people

838
00:47:34,520 --> 00:47:36,440
who were telling him the right thing

839
00:47:36,800 --> 00:47:38,000
and ultimately,

840
00:47:38,120 --> 00:47:40,640
to win the victory
the United States needed.

841
00:47:41,640 --> 00:47:44,200
But, just two months later,

842
00:47:44,480 --> 00:47:46,320
Nimitz's marines are involved

843
00:47:46,400 --> 00:47:48,680
in brutal ground combat,

844
00:47:49,000 --> 00:47:52,200
trying to retake Guadalcanal
in the Solomon Islands

845
00:47:52,280 --> 00:47:53,720
from the Japanese.

846
00:47:55,080 --> 00:47:57,520
Staring the Americans
in the face after Midway

847
00:47:57,880 --> 00:47:59,960
is all these fortified island chains,

848
00:48:00,040 --> 00:48:02,840
the Gilberts, the Carolines,
the Marshalls, the Marianas.

849
00:48:02,920 --> 00:48:05,920
So, Nimitz looks at these strategic
predicament after Midway

850
00:48:06,000 --> 00:48:08,880
and it's every bit as thorny
as it was after Pearl Harbor.

851
00:48:09,600 --> 00:48:11,560
Somehow, you're gonna have
to get to Japan

852
00:48:11,640 --> 00:48:14,080
and impose America's will on Japan

853
00:48:14,160 --> 00:48:15,760
and yet how to do this?

854
00:48:17,560 --> 00:48:22,240
 America pours its huge
industrial resources into the war effort.

855
00:48:23,840 --> 00:48:25,800
By 1943,

856
00:48:26,000 --> 00:48:27,520
the United States is producing

857
00:48:27,600 --> 00:48:30,520
a new state-of-the-art aircraft carrier

858
00:48:30,640 --> 00:48:32,000
every month,

859
00:48:33,360 --> 00:48:35,960
creating a fleet of over 90.

860
00:48:36,280 --> 00:48:40,000
Their military might is overwhelming.

861
00:48:42,160 --> 00:48:44,240
Admiral Yamamoto is hunted down

862
00:48:44,320 --> 00:48:47,200
and killed by American fighter planes.

863
00:48:48,480 --> 00:48:52,560
And Vice Admiral Nagumo
oversees another defeat,

864
00:48:52,840 --> 00:48:54,760
this time in Saipan.

865
00:48:55,120 --> 00:48:57,520
He kills himself in shame.

866
00:48:59,160 --> 00:49:02,520
But the bloodiest battles
in the Pacific War

867
00:49:03,040 --> 00:49:04,440
are still to come.

868
00:49:06,120 --> 00:49:09,680
And a new terror will be unleashed.

869
00:49:10,280 --> 00:49:14,040
 Manned planes pouring
into a wall of anti-aircraft fire,

870
00:49:14,560 --> 00:49:17,960
bomb and gas flame
the most terrible weapon.

871
00:49:18,680 --> 00:49:20,120
A kamikaze.

872
00:49:25,061 --> 00:49:29,561
Re-sync and redact: BLU DUAINE
blu.duaine@protonmail.com