1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,000 © anoXmous @ http://thepiratebay.sx/user/Zen_Bud 2 00:00:04,001 --> 00:00:08,001 © anoXmous @ http://thepiratebay.sx/user/Zen_Bud 3 00:00:08,002 --> 00:00:12,002 © anoXmous @ http://thepiratebay.sx/user/Zen_Bud 1 00:00:17,976 --> 00:00:21,478 (narrator) This tiny island, less than one square mile, 2 00:00:21,563 --> 00:00:24,481 cost more than 4,000 lives. 3 00:00:24,566 --> 00:00:28,694 This is Tarawa, typical of some of the most concentrated fighting of the war 4 00:00:28,778 --> 00:00:32,406 as the Americans drive the Japanese back island by island 5 00:00:32,490 --> 00:00:35,075 across the Pacific. 6 00:01:43,311 --> 00:01:49,691 ln February 1942, Japanese bombers attacked the Australian mainland. 7 00:01:52,070 --> 00:01:55,489 The raid temporarily knocked out the naval base of Darwin. 8 00:01:55,573 --> 00:01:58,117 With the Japanese advancing across New Guinea, 9 00:01:58,201 --> 00:02:01,286 some Australians thought this was the prelude to invasion, 10 00:02:01,371 --> 00:02:05,415 but the Japanese army and navy were unable to agree. 11 00:02:05,542 --> 00:02:08,877 Their invasion plans were shelved. 12 00:02:11,089 --> 00:02:14,341 ln fact, the Japanese found they were overextended. 13 00:02:14,425 --> 00:02:17,594 ln the appalling conditions of the New Guinea jungle, 14 00:02:17,679 --> 00:02:20,180 the Australians, with American support, 15 00:02:20,265 --> 00:02:24,852 turned back the Japanese advance on the vital base of Port Moresby. 16 00:02:24,978 --> 00:02:28,856 Along the Kokoda Trail the Allies counterattacked. 17 00:02:30,650 --> 00:02:36,905 Sickness and disease were obstacles as formidable as Japanese bullets. 18 00:02:48,835 --> 00:02:53,255 By the end of 1942, the threat to Australia had been removed. 19 00:02:53,381 --> 00:02:56,091 The stage was set for the long and bitter struggle 20 00:02:56,176 --> 00:03:00,262 to push the Japanese back to their homeland. 21 00:03:00,346 --> 00:03:04,933 The Allied oftensive came under the separate command of two rivals, 22 00:03:05,018 --> 00:03:08,061 General Douglas MacArthur in the southwest Pacific 23 00:03:08,146 --> 00:03:12,608 and Admiral Chester Nimitz in the central Pacific. 24 00:03:12,692 --> 00:03:16,236 American strategy was to mount a two-pronged attack on an enemy 25 00:03:16,321 --> 00:03:18,113 whose conquests extended 26 00:03:18,198 --> 00:03:22,367 over thousands of square miles of land and ocean. 27 00:03:23,536 --> 00:03:27,331 MacArthur's task was to thrust upwards from the Solomons and New Guinea 28 00:03:27,415 --> 00:03:29,249 to the Philippines. 29 00:03:29,334 --> 00:03:31,043 The forces under Nimitz 30 00:03:31,169 --> 00:03:35,047 were to make a series of giant leaps from island to island - 31 00:03:35,173 --> 00:03:40,135 the Marshall lslands, the Marianas, lwo Jima, Okinawa. 32 00:03:40,220 --> 00:03:45,474 They would start in the Gilberts in November 1943 at Tarawa. 33 00:03:47,977 --> 00:03:53,732 Each one of you is much better than the Jap. 34 00:03:53,816 --> 00:03:58,612 You're better physically. You're better mentally. You have better weapons. 35 00:03:58,696 --> 00:04:02,658 You'll have better support so that you'll be able to lick him hands down 36 00:04:02,742 --> 00:04:06,245 when it comes to individual fighting. 37 00:04:06,329 --> 00:04:08,914 Let me repeat again what the general said. 38 00:04:08,998 --> 00:04:13,126 lf you have to run any chances whatsoever to get a prisoner, 39 00:04:13,211 --> 00:04:14,503 then don't get him. 40 00:04:14,587 --> 00:04:16,672 (laughter) 41 00:04:24,847 --> 00:04:26,723 (narrator) The first objective 42 00:04:26,808 --> 00:04:30,477 of Nimitz's island-hopping armada's Tarawa atoll 43 00:04:30,561 --> 00:04:32,688 had become a Japanese fortress 44 00:04:32,772 --> 00:04:36,566 from whose airstrip planes could strike at the US fleets. 45 00:04:36,651 --> 00:04:38,819 Tarawa had to be taken. 46 00:04:39,445 --> 00:04:43,115 This was the first time a seaborne attack had been launched 47 00:04:43,199 --> 00:04:48,453 against a heavily defended atoll protected by a coral reef. 48 00:05:05,555 --> 00:05:09,224 No one in the initial assault force of 5,000 marines realised 49 00:05:09,309 --> 00:05:13,020 just how strong the defences of Tarawa were. 50 00:05:13,104 --> 00:05:16,898 (man) They thought they would level the island and demolish everything, 51 00:05:17,025 --> 00:05:21,236 that there wouldn't be a living soul on the island. 52 00:05:22,905 --> 00:05:25,198 (mon 53 00:05:25,283 --> 00:05:29,202 "This is gonna be the easiest invasion we ever had." 54 00:05:31,331 --> 00:05:37,002 He says, "We'll only need two men - one with a rifle and one with a slate." 55 00:05:37,086 --> 00:05:40,005 "One to shoot 'em, one to chalk 'em up." 56 00:05:42,258 --> 00:05:44,760 "lt's gonna be real easy." 57 00:05:46,596 --> 00:05:50,223 (mon next to me on the deck and said, 58 00:05:50,308 --> 00:05:53,852 "Some of our people aren't aiming very well today." 59 00:05:53,936 --> 00:05:57,064 He said, "You don't think those are our shells, do you?" 60 00:05:57,148 --> 00:06:02,069 l realised then that we're being shot at and there were Japanese on Tarawa. 61 00:06:06,741 --> 00:06:11,495 (mon you could kick hell out of the Japanese. 62 00:06:11,579 --> 00:06:13,789 The marines would have no problem with them 63 00:06:13,873 --> 00:06:17,876 if we could get our feet on the beach. 64 00:06:22,256 --> 00:06:24,257 (soidier) Let's go! Let's go! 65 00:06:31,891 --> 00:06:36,061 (mon was only 800 or 900 yards wide 66 00:06:36,145 --> 00:06:42,067 and when you put 20,000 men on an island like that, it's quite crowded. 67 00:06:48,449 --> 00:06:53,120 There were Japs in front of the lines, behind the lines, all over. 68 00:07:04,966 --> 00:07:08,718 (mon that perhaps we could take this island 69 00:07:08,803 --> 00:07:10,637 within a very short time 70 00:07:10,721 --> 00:07:16,226 and it was quite evident within hours of landing that this would not be so. 71 00:07:28,448 --> 00:07:32,159 (mon covered up with the naval gunfire, 72 00:07:32,243 --> 00:07:35,745 the next morning, within about 20 yards of where l was, 73 00:07:35,830 --> 00:07:38,790 l watched the Japanese digging out. 74 00:07:38,875 --> 00:07:43,587 They were digging the sand out of the place so that they could see out. 75 00:07:51,429 --> 00:07:53,722 (narrator) The battle raged for three days 76 00:07:53,848 --> 00:07:59,227 with the Japanese gradually pinned back into one end of this tiny island. 77 00:08:45,900 --> 00:08:51,446 The Japanese commander boasted that Tarawa could not be taken in 100 years. 78 00:08:52,323 --> 00:08:58,203 (mon of nearly 6,000 dead men 79 00:08:58,287 --> 00:09:00,789 on an island this small, 80 00:09:01,415 --> 00:09:04,417 and considering it's one degree from the equator, 81 00:09:04,502 --> 00:09:07,546 the amount of heat you have there, 82 00:09:07,630 --> 00:09:11,716 you can imagine the smell you get within a day or two 83 00:09:11,801 --> 00:09:13,510 from all this rotting flesh. 84 00:09:13,594 --> 00:09:17,931 lt was a sort of sweet smell - 85 00:09:18,015 --> 00:09:21,726 sickly sweet, l described it - 86 00:09:21,811 --> 00:09:24,813 and l don't know anywhere in World War ll 87 00:09:24,897 --> 00:09:28,066 where there was such a concentration of death. 88 00:09:33,447 --> 00:09:40,078 (narrator) When it was all over, of 3,000 Japanese, only 17 surrendered. 89 00:09:40,162 --> 00:09:44,833 The Americans lost over 1 ,000 dead and 2,000 wounded. 90 00:09:47,378 --> 00:09:50,005 Public opinion in the United States was shocked 91 00:09:50,089 --> 00:09:56,344 that such heavy losses had been incurred in so short a period of fighting. 92 00:09:58,806 --> 00:10:02,892 After Tarawa, American invasion forces headed for the Mariana lslands 93 00:10:02,977 --> 00:10:06,521 of Saipan, Tinian and Guam. 94 00:10:06,606 --> 00:10:09,065 The naval task force protecting the landings 95 00:10:09,150 --> 00:10:12,986 was positioned to the west of Saipan. 96 00:10:13,070 --> 00:10:17,365 Approaching from Okinawa in June 1944 was Japan's mobile fleet, 97 00:10:17,450 --> 00:10:22,037 looking for a naval success that would yet turn the war in their favour. 98 00:10:27,501 --> 00:10:30,337 Suddenly, from their radar, the Americans realised 99 00:10:30,421 --> 00:10:33,214 that they had been spotted by the Japanese. 100 00:10:44,644 --> 00:10:47,604 Every available American fighter was put into the air 101 00:10:47,688 --> 00:10:52,400 to meet wave after wave of Japanese carrier-borne planes. 102 00:11:26,686 --> 00:11:32,524 Many Japanese pilots were comparative novices with no battle experience. 103 00:11:34,819 --> 00:11:38,154 Their aircraft were poorly armoured. 104 00:11:40,491 --> 00:11:43,660 For the American flyers swooping down on their opponents, 105 00:11:43,744 --> 00:11:46,746 it was as easy as shooting turkeys. 106 00:12:07,184 --> 00:12:11,855 After the first encounter, all but one of the American planes returned. 107 00:12:38,299 --> 00:12:43,011 Rearmed and refuelled, the Americans were ready for the next Japanese move. 108 00:12:43,095 --> 00:12:45,847 There were two more onslaughts to be faced. 109 00:12:45,931 --> 00:12:49,768 However, the Americans had nearly 900 carrier planes, 110 00:12:49,852 --> 00:12:52,771 twice the number of the Japanese. 111 00:12:56,901 --> 00:13:01,321 The Marianas turkey shoot lasted just eight hours. 112 00:13:02,698 --> 00:13:08,119 ln one day, Japanese naval air power was virtually destroyed. 113 00:13:08,204 --> 00:13:13,208 The original force of 430 planes was reduced to about 100. 114 00:13:24,720 --> 00:13:27,347 American losses were comparatively light. 115 00:13:27,431 --> 00:13:30,683 Pilots mattered more than machines. 116 00:14:02,842 --> 00:14:07,554 At the end of the day, the Americans had won the air battle, 117 00:14:07,638 --> 00:14:12,392 but had yet to locate the Japanese fleet, now retiring. 118 00:14:16,063 --> 00:14:22,318 The following day, the Americans continued their search for the enemy. 119 00:14:44,174 --> 00:14:45,884 lt was not until late afternoon 120 00:14:46,010 --> 00:14:49,554 that their aircraft sighted the mobile fleet over 200 miles away, 121 00:14:49,638 --> 00:14:53,057 at the extreme limit of the range of the American bombers. 122 00:14:53,142 --> 00:14:56,227 But the order was given - attack. 123 00:15:18,834 --> 00:15:21,878 ln the fading light, the principle objective of the strike - 124 00:15:21,962 --> 00:15:26,299 the Japanese carrier force - was badly mauled. 125 00:15:39,897 --> 00:15:43,316 One carrier was sunk and two others damaged. 126 00:15:43,400 --> 00:15:48,029 This great naval battle, in which neither fleet fired on the other, 127 00:15:48,113 --> 00:15:51,491 ended with the Japanese reduced to only 35 aircraft 128 00:15:51,575 --> 00:15:54,327 retreating to their bases in Japan. 129 00:16:00,793 --> 00:16:07,048 The American planes now faced the problem of getting back to the carriers. 130 00:16:08,133 --> 00:16:12,053 The decision to attack had meant that they might easily run out of fuel 131 00:16:12,137 --> 00:16:14,681 on the journey home. 132 00:16:17,017 --> 00:16:22,855 First to return were the fighters which had been protecting the task force. 133 00:16:53,554 --> 00:16:56,097 Landing in the dusk was difticult enough, 134 00:16:56,181 --> 00:16:58,725 but later on the torpedo planes and bombers 135 00:16:58,809 --> 00:17:02,395 would have to find their carriers in pitch darkness. 136 00:17:02,521 --> 00:17:04,772 Some would never make it. 137 00:17:55,199 --> 00:17:59,410 Then it turned into probably the blackest night l've seen in my life. 138 00:17:59,536 --> 00:18:04,332 And over the ocean... l guess we were at about 7,000 feet flying home, 139 00:18:04,416 --> 00:18:09,420 kind of our best altitude for fuel, and it was black as the ace of spades. 140 00:18:09,505 --> 00:18:14,217 And we could hear nothing, just ourselves, except the cries of... 141 00:18:14,301 --> 00:18:18,262 l won't say "cry", but a very perfunctory call, 142 00:18:18,347 --> 00:18:21,182 "l'll have to land in the water. l'm out of fuel." 143 00:18:21,266 --> 00:18:23,392 And this continued just constantly 144 00:18:23,477 --> 00:18:27,814 until all the torpedo planes that had surVived the strike went into the water. 145 00:18:27,898 --> 00:18:32,693 Then about 100 miles from the force, the dive bombers began to run out of fuel 146 00:18:32,778 --> 00:18:35,196 and they called out, "This is..." 147 00:18:35,280 --> 00:18:38,616 whatever the call was. l don't really remember. 148 00:18:38,700 --> 00:18:41,369 "l'm going in. Out of fuel." 149 00:18:41,453 --> 00:18:46,207 And then it became quite quiet until we got within range of the force 150 00:18:46,333 --> 00:18:52,672 and then you could start to make out what was happening at the task force 151 00:18:52,756 --> 00:18:55,174 and what the recovery course would be - 152 00:18:55,259 --> 00:18:57,844 we'd not yet seen it as the ships were blacked out, 153 00:18:57,928 --> 00:19:02,306 which was a normal operating procedure, so it couldn't be detected from the air. 154 00:19:02,391 --> 00:19:06,060 The admiral knew that we'd have an awful problem getting aboard. 155 00:19:06,145 --> 00:19:10,189 We didn't have time to really look for the force. A decision was made. 156 00:19:10,274 --> 00:19:13,860 The command was given to the carriers to turn their lights on. 157 00:19:18,490 --> 00:19:22,994 (narrator) The task force succeeded in rescuing the majority of the air crews 158 00:19:23,078 --> 00:19:25,830 who had been forced down in the ocean. 159 00:19:25,914 --> 00:19:28,833 Victory in this, the Battle of the Philippine Sea, 160 00:19:29,418 --> 00:19:31,377 meant the Mariana landings could go ahead 161 00:19:31,461 --> 00:19:35,339 without interference from the Japanese navy. 162 00:19:47,060 --> 00:19:51,522 At a cost of 3,000 American dead, Saipan fell. 163 00:19:58,071 --> 00:20:00,823 Tinian was less heavily defended. 164 00:20:00,908 --> 00:20:03,868 Guam held out for three weeks. 165 00:20:12,461 --> 00:20:15,463 Get out of there! Move back quick! 166 00:20:17,049 --> 00:20:19,425 (narrator) Moving west from the Marianas, 167 00:20:19,509 --> 00:20:23,387 a US amphibious force was switched by Nimitz to MacArthur's command 168 00:20:23,472 --> 00:20:26,474 as the two rival prongs began to come together. 169 00:20:26,558 --> 00:20:29,352 The objective was the Palau group of islands. 170 00:20:29,436 --> 00:20:33,314 These had to be taken before the invasion of the Philippines. 171 00:20:44,743 --> 00:20:49,038 On one island, Peleliu, the Americans again ran into fanatical resistance 172 00:20:49,122 --> 00:20:53,084 from a crack force of 10,000 Japanese troops. 173 00:21:05,347 --> 00:21:08,099 lnstead of meeting the Americans on the beaches, 174 00:21:08,183 --> 00:21:12,353 the Japanese had withdrawn into a labyrinth of caves and tunnels. 175 00:22:08,827 --> 00:22:11,287 The Americans had to contest every yard 176 00:22:11,371 --> 00:22:14,665 against an enemy determined to fight to the death. 177 00:22:20,380 --> 00:22:22,214 ln the bloody battle for Peleliu, 178 00:22:22,299 --> 00:22:27,219 four out of every ten Americans taking part were killed or wounded. 179 00:22:40,650 --> 00:22:45,696 lt was months before all the Japanese had been winkled out. 180 00:22:54,706 --> 00:22:59,335 There were no easy victories on these Pacific islands. 181 00:22:59,419 --> 00:23:05,674 Some of the dead marines could only be identified by their fingerprints. 182 00:23:10,263 --> 00:23:15,393 On October 20, 1944, MacArthur fulfilled his promise. 183 00:23:15,477 --> 00:23:18,521 He returned to the Philippines. 184 00:23:19,022 --> 00:23:22,066 The landings were virtually unopposed. 185 00:23:22,150 --> 00:23:25,945 The Japanese had retired inland to their main defences. 186 00:23:26,029 --> 00:23:28,155 But the invasion touched oft the largest 187 00:23:28,240 --> 00:23:30,908 and most complex naval battle in history. 188 00:23:30,992 --> 00:23:34,537 The Battle for Leyte Gulf was to last for four days. 189 00:23:35,080 --> 00:23:38,124 Four Japanese forces converged on the Philippines 190 00:23:38,208 --> 00:23:42,294 from Borneo, Formosa and mainland Japan. 191 00:23:42,379 --> 00:23:46,340 The Americans had two fleets - the Seventh and the Third. 192 00:23:46,425 --> 00:23:49,844 The Japanese aim was to destroy the American invasion shipping 193 00:23:49,928 --> 00:23:51,637 in Leyte Gulf. 194 00:23:51,763 --> 00:23:55,349 After a series of confused engagements hundreds of miles apart, 195 00:23:55,434 --> 00:23:59,311 the lmperial Japanese Navy suftered heavy losses. 196 00:23:59,396 --> 00:24:03,232 lt ceased to be an eftective fighting force. 197 00:24:10,407 --> 00:24:14,535 On land, torrential rain had delayed the progress of MacArthur's men 198 00:24:14,619 --> 00:24:19,915 fighting against a Japanese army numbering nearly 400,000. 199 00:24:20,917 --> 00:24:25,296 By February 1945, three months after the Leyte landings, 200 00:24:25,422 --> 00:24:31,093 the Americans were closing in on the Philippines capital Manila. 201 00:24:41,688 --> 00:24:44,148 For the first time in the Pacific war, 202 00:24:44,232 --> 00:24:48,402 the Americans were fighting their way into a big city. 203 00:25:07,339 --> 00:25:12,176 The battle raged from street to street, house to house. 204 00:25:24,272 --> 00:25:26,815 Many civilians lost their lives, 205 00:25:26,900 --> 00:25:30,653 some executed by the retreating Japanese. 206 00:25:53,510 --> 00:25:59,765 MacArthur's second hour of triumph - his return to the Philippines capital. 207 00:26:01,977 --> 00:26:05,229 Americans taken prisoner during the Japanese invasion 208 00:26:05,313 --> 00:26:09,358 were released after three years in captivity. 209 00:26:33,842 --> 00:26:35,926 With the capture of the Philippines, 210 00:26:36,011 --> 00:26:40,180 supply routes carrying war materials for Japanese industry would be cut. 211 00:26:40,265 --> 00:26:44,018 The Japanese command knew that when they had lost the Philippines, 212 00:26:44,102 --> 00:26:46,854 they had lost the war. 213 00:26:53,903 --> 00:26:58,282 After liberation, revenge. The settling of personal scores 214 00:26:58,366 --> 00:27:00,784 against Filipinos accused of collaborating 215 00:27:00,869 --> 00:27:03,370 during the years of Japanese occupation, 216 00:27:03,455 --> 00:27:05,748 now at last at an end. 217 00:27:36,988 --> 00:27:39,114 February, 1945. 218 00:27:39,199 --> 00:27:42,451 lwo Jima, eight square miles of volcanic rock 219 00:27:42,535 --> 00:27:45,329 only 600 miles from the coast of Japan, 220 00:27:45,413 --> 00:27:50,125 was the target for the next leap across the central Pacific. 221 00:27:50,210 --> 00:27:51,543 From lwo Jima, 222 00:27:51,628 --> 00:27:56,715 American bombers could raid Japanese cities almost at will. 223 00:27:56,800 --> 00:27:59,718 From the dominating heights of Mount Suribachi, 224 00:27:59,803 --> 00:28:03,972 the Japanese could see practically everything that moved on lwo Jima. 225 00:28:04,057 --> 00:28:10,104 Once again, the main Japanese forces were inland, away from the beaches. 226 00:28:11,439 --> 00:28:16,944 For 76 days before the landing, the Americans had bombarded lwo Jima. 227 00:28:23,493 --> 00:28:28,747 (man) The waste, the barrenness of the place... 228 00:28:28,832 --> 00:28:32,710 lt was like a nightmare. lt was the closest thing you could see to hell. 229 00:28:32,836 --> 00:28:37,756 lf ever hell looked like anything, it must look like lwo Jima. 230 00:28:43,138 --> 00:28:47,474 (mon those boats you were scared. 231 00:28:47,559 --> 00:28:51,145 You were scared until you hit the beach. 232 00:28:53,106 --> 00:28:56,066 (mon you're going in to kill 233 00:28:56,192 --> 00:28:58,861 and we were taught that we had to kill or be killed. 234 00:28:58,945 --> 00:29:02,656 lt was either us or the Japanese, one or the other. 235 00:29:02,741 --> 00:29:07,494 And when you're faced with this situation as a young man - 236 00:29:07,579 --> 00:29:09,663 l was only 19 - 237 00:29:09,748 --> 00:29:11,957 it's confusing. 238 00:29:12,041 --> 00:29:17,254 You're built, in the Marine Corps, to take orders and obey orders, 239 00:29:17,338 --> 00:29:22,009 but at the same token you're still a human being and you're only 19 or 20. 240 00:29:22,093 --> 00:29:25,721 Most of us were only 18, 19, 20, during those days. 241 00:29:33,855 --> 00:29:37,232 l think the public has the idea that marines are supermen, 242 00:29:37,317 --> 00:29:40,861 but l don't think there was a marine in the amphibious landing craft 243 00:29:40,987 --> 00:29:45,157 that wasn't afraid, including the ofticers. 244 00:29:56,377 --> 00:30:00,506 l was always taught to hate them in the Marine Corps, to detest them, 245 00:30:00,590 --> 00:30:05,302 and that they were animals. We were the men, they were the animals. 246 00:30:05,386 --> 00:30:10,891 By the same token, we were taught that they would die for the emperor. 247 00:30:10,975 --> 00:30:13,519 We weren't taught to die for our president. 248 00:30:13,645 --> 00:30:18,065 And to fight or to come up against an individual who wants to die, 249 00:30:18,149 --> 00:30:22,820 or who doesn't care about dying, is a tough thing to combat in your mind. 250 00:30:22,904 --> 00:30:28,408 We wanted to live. We wanted to kill him and we wanted to surVive. 251 00:30:34,290 --> 00:30:38,877 (mon because there's too much fire above you 252 00:30:38,962 --> 00:30:45,217 and it's that constant wondering, is somebody gonna drop a lucky one in there 253 00:30:45,301 --> 00:30:50,097 and you're too far out to swim with all that gear on? 254 00:30:50,223 --> 00:30:53,308 And what are you gonna get into when you get there? 255 00:30:53,393 --> 00:30:55,936 That's a hell of a place to be. 256 00:31:15,957 --> 00:31:18,417 (mon 257 00:31:18,501 --> 00:31:22,379 and you saw the ash and nothing living, 258 00:31:22,463 --> 00:31:26,633 it was... if there's ever been hell, this was it. 259 00:31:34,309 --> 00:31:37,144 Well, we hit the beach itself. 260 00:31:37,228 --> 00:31:40,314 Actually, there was a little incline 261 00:31:40,398 --> 00:31:44,943 and everybody clung to the incline because the fire was that heavy. 262 00:31:45,028 --> 00:31:47,321 And everything that hit the beach 263 00:31:47,405 --> 00:31:49,865 was blasted out of the water as fast as it hit. 264 00:31:58,625 --> 00:32:02,586 (mon This was my fourth operation. l was 18. 265 00:32:02,670 --> 00:32:05,172 My first operation, l was 16. 266 00:32:11,638 --> 00:32:13,639 (mon 267 00:32:13,765 --> 00:32:19,269 and rhythmically just kept on tattooing every man along the line. 268 00:32:19,354 --> 00:32:24,691 And you just couldn't avoid it. The slaughter was fantastic. 269 00:32:24,776 --> 00:32:29,404 We just walked into a web and there was no way out. 270 00:32:29,489 --> 00:32:31,657 You couldn't get oft the beach. 271 00:32:31,741 --> 00:32:38,956 (mon was a depressing scene. 272 00:32:39,082 --> 00:32:45,337 lt knocked your morale when you started to see people from your own team dead. 273 00:32:45,421 --> 00:32:50,926 From the water's edge to a sort of a rise, 274 00:32:51,010 --> 00:32:56,431 there was a tremendous amount of bodies just lying there. 275 00:33:13,574 --> 00:33:16,785 (mon 276 00:33:16,911 --> 00:33:20,372 possibly 300 yards in, 277 00:33:20,456 --> 00:33:25,585 just as far as they, meaning the Japanese, decided for us to go. 278 00:33:28,840 --> 00:33:34,553 (mon oft the island, not that first night. 279 00:33:34,637 --> 00:33:37,264 lt was just too congested. 280 00:33:37,348 --> 00:33:43,020 There was nothing that could move oft that island the first night. 281 00:33:48,860 --> 00:33:50,944 (narrator) Dug in on Mount Suribachi, 282 00:33:51,029 --> 00:33:56,033 the Japanese commander had concentrated his artillery. 283 00:33:59,454 --> 00:34:05,542 The preliminary bombardment again failed to knock out the Japanese strong points. 284 00:34:05,668 --> 00:34:10,797 They could only be taken one at a time by the men on the ground. 285 00:34:10,882 --> 00:34:13,008 lt would take longer to capture lwo Jima 286 00:34:13,092 --> 00:34:17,929 than the five days allowed for by the American command. 287 00:34:26,272 --> 00:34:30,942 (mon was gone completely. 288 00:34:31,027 --> 00:34:32,402 You woke in the morning 289 00:34:32,487 --> 00:34:36,448 and you'd look out across this expanse of no-man's-land 290 00:34:36,532 --> 00:34:40,660 and it was bubbling and seething with steam coming out of the ground. 291 00:34:40,745 --> 00:34:43,455 ln fact, we had to use cardboard from C ration packs 292 00:34:43,539 --> 00:34:49,002 to put down in the foxhole so that your ass wouldn't burn up. 293 00:34:52,298 --> 00:34:56,301 lf there is a hell, l'm living through it now, 294 00:34:56,385 --> 00:35:01,848 so l don't have to worry about going to hell in the future. l've been there. 295 00:35:15,113 --> 00:35:18,198 One of the guys came up to me. He was a man with a family. 296 00:35:18,282 --> 00:35:22,911 l never did even know him, just meeting him at that particular day. 297 00:35:22,995 --> 00:35:25,372 l said, "We're in the mortar outfit back here." 298 00:35:25,456 --> 00:35:27,582 "Fairly well safe, no problems." 299 00:35:27,667 --> 00:35:32,879 Before the day was over, he and half of my other squad was dead. 300 00:35:36,551 --> 00:35:40,762 (mon get callous to dead and bloated bodies, 301 00:35:40,847 --> 00:35:44,766 but you never get callous to your own friends in that way, 302 00:35:44,851 --> 00:35:48,728 and l think that perhaps was the most terrible thing of lwo Jima. 303 00:35:48,813 --> 00:35:52,357 (mon all the tragic things that happened, 304 00:35:52,441 --> 00:35:55,110 you'd go crazy. You wouldn't surVive it. 305 00:35:55,194 --> 00:35:58,405 (mon you're gonna make it. 306 00:35:58,489 --> 00:36:03,285 You're scared, but you still think you're gonna make it. 307 00:36:42,742 --> 00:36:46,661 (mon messes l myself had ever seen. 308 00:36:46,746 --> 00:36:49,039 l don't know who the beach master was, 309 00:36:49,123 --> 00:36:54,794 but he probably had the roughest job of any man l've ever heard of. 310 00:37:01,093 --> 00:37:03,428 (narrator) lt may have looked confusing, 311 00:37:03,512 --> 00:37:07,933 but the supply organisation backing the assault force was proof of the factor 312 00:37:08,017 --> 00:37:10,685 that made America's victory over Japan inevitable 313 00:37:10,770 --> 00:37:15,106 from the day of Pearl Harbour - her overwhelming industrial strength. 314 00:37:22,198 --> 00:37:25,617 (mon seemed to permeate the men - 315 00:37:25,701 --> 00:37:29,496 get that million-dollar wound and get oft this damn place. 316 00:38:06,409 --> 00:38:08,451 (narrator) lnland from the beaches, 317 00:38:08,536 --> 00:38:11,746 That's Jim became another battle of attrition. 318 00:38:30,975 --> 00:38:33,893 Day after day, the Americans inched forward 319 00:38:33,978 --> 00:38:37,647 against Japanese who preferred death to surrender. 320 00:38:37,732 --> 00:38:43,445 Their leader still hoped the Americans might tire of their losses and the war. 321 00:38:43,529 --> 00:38:46,990 (mon On lwo, it was hand-to-hand fighting. 322 00:38:47,074 --> 00:38:51,077 You didn't know who was even in the hole with you half of the time. 323 00:38:51,162 --> 00:38:53,163 (mon 324 00:38:53,247 --> 00:38:57,334 We lost most of our people in this particular fashion. 325 00:38:57,418 --> 00:39:00,337 You went into the caves and fought it out with the guy. 326 00:39:00,421 --> 00:39:03,673 One of you came out. 327 00:39:05,885 --> 00:39:10,680 (mon they were underground so deeply. 328 00:39:10,765 --> 00:39:14,726 You know, it was so heavily defended, really. 329 00:39:32,161 --> 00:39:35,372 (narrator) After three days' fighting on Mount Suribachi, 330 00:39:35,456 --> 00:39:38,249 the Stars and Stripes flew on the summit. 331 00:39:38,334 --> 00:39:42,087 (mon to holler, "There goes the flag," 332 00:39:42,171 --> 00:39:44,714 and l don't care where you were on that island, 333 00:39:44,799 --> 00:39:50,011 you could see right up to Suribachi that the flag was raised. 334 00:39:50,096 --> 00:39:52,764 And everybody started to howl, 335 00:39:52,890 --> 00:39:56,476 because we figured, well, the island was secure. 336 00:39:56,560 --> 00:39:59,020 lt was far from secure. 337 00:39:59,105 --> 00:40:01,189 We had a long way to go yet. 338 00:40:01,273 --> 00:40:05,318 But it was nice to see the flag up there anyway. 339 00:40:11,158 --> 00:40:14,869 (mon to take prisoners, 340 00:40:14,954 --> 00:40:18,206 but we had some bad experiences on Saipan taking prisoners. 341 00:40:18,332 --> 00:40:22,961 You'd take 'em and as soon as they'd get behind the lines they'd drop grenades 342 00:40:23,045 --> 00:40:25,130 and you'd lose a few more people. 343 00:40:25,214 --> 00:40:27,424 You're a bit leery about taking prisoners 344 00:40:27,550 --> 00:40:31,469 when they're fighting to the death and so are you. 345 00:40:34,765 --> 00:40:36,599 OK, you can kick oft right now! 346 00:40:37,935 --> 00:40:41,813 (mon on their own. When they did, 347 00:40:41,897 --> 00:40:44,482 one in the front would come out with his hands up 348 00:40:44,567 --> 00:40:48,736 and one behind him, he'd come out with a grenade. 349 00:40:54,452 --> 00:40:59,914 (mon he was sitting against a stone wall 350 00:41:00,040 --> 00:41:05,879 with his knees up under his helmet, as we used to sit quite often, 351 00:41:05,963 --> 00:41:10,675 when one of the enemy ran out onto the top of the stone wall 352 00:41:10,759 --> 00:41:15,763 and held a small explosive charge to his abdomen. 353 00:41:16,974 --> 00:41:20,226 And a chunk of his torso, 354 00:41:20,311 --> 00:41:22,145 the lower torso, 355 00:41:22,229 --> 00:41:27,317 went spiralling into the air and came down on John's knees 356 00:41:27,401 --> 00:41:31,404 with the absolute posterior devoid of any clothes 357 00:41:31,489 --> 00:41:34,365 staring him right in the face. 358 00:41:34,450 --> 00:41:38,161 And he looked at that and he says, "God, am l hit that bad?" 359 00:41:38,245 --> 00:41:40,872 (laughs) 360 00:41:40,956 --> 00:41:47,629 And that was the trigger that released the tensions of the previous night. 361 00:41:47,713 --> 00:41:49,547 And there were several of us 362 00:41:49,632 --> 00:41:54,093 that were perfectly useless for as much as an hour. 363 00:41:54,178 --> 00:41:58,389 We were just laying on the ground in convulsions. 364 00:42:07,107 --> 00:42:12,445 (narrator) Of 21 ,000 Japanese troops on lwo Jima when the attack began, 365 00:42:12,530 --> 00:42:14,989 only 200 were taken alive. 366 00:42:21,330 --> 00:42:24,791 (mon a total of six days 367 00:42:24,875 --> 00:42:27,627 and it seemed like 6,000 years. 368 00:42:30,798 --> 00:42:34,884 (narrator) lwo Jima's airfields were functioning before the island was taken 369 00:42:34,969 --> 00:42:38,972 thanks to the American construction battalions, the CBs. 370 00:42:40,224 --> 00:42:46,354 They played a key role here and indeed in the whole Pacific war. 371 00:42:46,939 --> 00:42:52,026 Now the time had come to penetrate the inner ring of Japan's defences. 372 00:42:53,654 --> 00:42:56,823 350 miles from the mainland was the last great barrier 373 00:42:56,907 --> 00:43:00,535 between the Allies and the planned invasion of lmperial Japan - 374 00:43:00,619 --> 00:43:03,413 the Japanese island of Okinawa. 375 00:43:03,497 --> 00:43:07,208 On April 1 , 1945, the Americans attacked. 376 00:43:48,751 --> 00:43:51,502 Japan's young suicide pilots, the kamikazes, 377 00:43:51,587 --> 00:43:55,006 swarmed to the defence of Okinawa. 378 00:43:58,886 --> 00:44:04,932 Many flew their fatal missions in obsolete aircraft, even trainers. 379 00:44:23,285 --> 00:44:26,371 (man) So many things were happening and so quickly, 380 00:44:26,455 --> 00:44:29,957 that it was a little bit like a big boxer in a ring 381 00:44:30,042 --> 00:44:33,670 when he's being hit to the chin, face, body and everywhere else, 382 00:44:33,754 --> 00:44:38,257 cos we were catching it from so many difterent angles. 383 00:44:45,099 --> 00:44:48,309 ln a regular attack, it's a sporting chance you've got. 384 00:44:48,394 --> 00:44:52,271 With regular bombs and bullets, you think you've got a very good chance, 385 00:44:52,356 --> 00:44:57,944 but war is not so much of a sport when you're fighting human bombs. 386 00:45:03,701 --> 00:45:07,078 (narrator) Over 2,000 kamikaze pilots met their deaths. 387 00:45:07,162 --> 00:45:12,291 But they destroyed 30 US warships and damaged 200 more. 388 00:45:24,096 --> 00:45:26,431 (man) You were praying that you could surVive 389 00:45:26,515 --> 00:45:29,434 whatever kind of explosion would come about. 390 00:45:29,518 --> 00:45:31,561 Your life flashed in front of you, 391 00:45:31,645 --> 00:45:34,230 as you didn't know if it would be seconds or minutes 392 00:45:34,314 --> 00:45:36,858 until your life would be snufted out. 393 00:45:36,984 --> 00:45:39,152 (narrator) US casualties were so severe, 394 00:45:39,236 --> 00:45:45,324 at one point it seemed the invasion of Okinawa might be stopped in its tracks. 395 00:45:46,702 --> 00:45:48,536 (man) The gunners can't turn it oft. 396 00:45:48,620 --> 00:45:52,915 Once they gear themselves up to fight man against man bomb, 397 00:45:53,000 --> 00:45:58,463 even though the plane is down, it's hard for the gunner to stop. 398 00:46:24,031 --> 00:46:27,909 One man, he was in a 40 millimetre mount, 399 00:46:27,993 --> 00:46:32,163 and he had been fighting against quite a number of planes that had come in, 400 00:46:32,247 --> 00:46:35,208 but we had been hit in his area also two or three times, 401 00:46:35,292 --> 00:46:38,961 and all of a sudden, with nobody understanding why, 402 00:46:39,046 --> 00:46:41,506 he yelled, "lt's hot today," jumped over the side 403 00:46:41,590 --> 00:46:43,925 and that's the last we ever saw of him. 404 00:46:44,009 --> 00:46:46,928 But had he stayed aboard, he might have surVived. 405 00:46:47,012 --> 00:46:50,598 But of course, we couldn't find his body or anything after that. 406 00:46:50,682 --> 00:46:53,434 But it was an unusual type of reaction. 407 00:46:53,519 --> 00:46:58,481 He stayed with it just as long as he could, until he broke. 408 00:46:58,565 --> 00:47:01,150 And then that was the end of his fighting. 409 00:47:01,235 --> 00:47:04,779 But every man, l believe, has a breaking point. 410 00:47:04,863 --> 00:47:08,449 And the kamikaze, l would estimate, 411 00:47:08,575 --> 00:47:14,247 probably tests that breaking point more than any other form of combat. 412 00:47:19,002 --> 00:47:22,338 (narrator) lnitial landings on Okinawa were unopposed, 413 00:47:22,422 --> 00:47:24,173 but as they pushed inland, 414 00:47:24,258 --> 00:47:27,343 they came up against a Japanese army of 100,000 troops, 415 00:47:27,427 --> 00:47:31,806 withdrawn into a heavily fortified central area. 416 00:47:50,576 --> 00:47:52,952 The steep hills and narrow ravines of Okinawa 417 00:47:53,036 --> 00:47:57,164 formed a natural citadel for Japanese defenders. 418 00:47:58,792 --> 00:48:00,793 Outnumbered two to one, 419 00:48:00,878 --> 00:48:05,214 they made the Americans pay in blood for every foot of Japanese soil. 420 00:48:43,128 --> 00:48:46,547 With Japan herself close to surrender, 421 00:48:46,632 --> 00:48:51,510 not every Japanese soldier wanted to fight on to the end. 422 00:50:34,114 --> 00:50:37,700 (narrator) The civilians of Okinawa suftered appalling losses. 423 00:50:37,784 --> 00:50:42,621 24,000 were killed. Many thousands more injured. 424 00:50:42,706 --> 00:50:44,915 (man) Once they found out 425 00:50:45,000 --> 00:50:48,335 we weren't going to do the things that they had heard, 426 00:50:48,420 --> 00:50:52,131 they could understand, "Hey, this is just another human being." 427 00:50:52,215 --> 00:50:54,717 Possibly they felt the same as we did, 428 00:50:54,801 --> 00:50:58,554 that we weren't there because we wanted to be there, 429 00:50:58,638 --> 00:51:02,892 we were told that this is what we had to do. 430 00:51:02,976 --> 00:51:04,602 (narrator) To many Americans, 431 00:51:04,686 --> 00:51:07,688 at the end of their great advance across the Pacific, 432 00:51:07,814 --> 00:51:09,982 it now seemed that the animals, 433 00:51:10,067 --> 00:51:14,528 the faceless fanatics eager to die for their emperor, 434 00:51:14,613 --> 00:51:18,157 were human beings like themselves. 435 00:51:18,241 --> 00:51:22,620 (man) They showed kindness to their own people, which we didn't really think. 436 00:51:22,704 --> 00:51:27,208 We thought life was cheap to them, but that's not true. 437 00:51:27,292 --> 00:51:30,586 They showed a lot of kindness to their own wounded 438 00:51:30,670 --> 00:51:33,589 and would tote 'em on their back, 439 00:51:33,673 --> 00:51:40,513 and two or three would carry 'em, although they were weak themselves. 440 00:51:40,597 --> 00:51:43,349 So they were people just like us. 335 00:52:43,779 --> 00:52:45,323 © anoXmous @ http://thepiratebay.sx/user/Zen_Bud 336 00:52:45,324 --> 00:52:49,324 © anoXmous @ http://thepiratebay.sx/user/Zen_Bud 337 00:52:49,325 --> 00:52:53,325 © anoXmous