All language subtitles for The.Pacific.War.in.Color.S01E05.Striking.Distance.1080p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org

In the unpredictable Pacific,

even the best laid plans
have a price.

They began screaming
and making awful noises.

I was glad to be alive
when I got off that damn place.

America fights
for two islands at once

to claw within
striking distance of Japan.

If these new warplanes
can get off the ground.

Crews who had gone
before us did not come back.

With color combat footage...

...and a general’s
own home movies,

hear the voices
and feel the fight.

The beach was a sheet of flame,

as though the island was on fire.

These are home movies
of India in 1944.

The traveler captures
everything from street kids

to the Taj Mahal.

But the filmmaker
is not a typical tourist.

This is general Curtis Lemay
of the U.S. Army Air Forces.

His personal films
from the Smithsonian archives

have never
been broadcast before.

They reveal his new
classified assignment.

The project was top secret,

and I knew nothing of it

until I got orders to go over
to India in July 1944.

At age 37,

he’s one of the youngest
generals in the Army.

He’s just been sent to India
on a daring mission--

bomb Japan from here.

On paper, it’s possible, barely.

Americans are secretly
developing the B-29,

known as the superfortress.

It’s the longest-range bomber
ever developed.

In theory, it could bomb targets
more than 1,500 miles away.

But the airplane is being
rushed into service,

unproven and unpredictable.

It was in pretty bad shape

insofar as being ready
for combat.

B-29 crews wonder
if they’ve signed up

for a cutting-edge airplane,
or a death trap.

Crews who had gone before us,

and there weren’t too many,
did not come back.

Despite the setbacks,

America is desperate
to strike Japan.

Curtis Lemay will try
to make India the springboard,

more than 3,000 miles away.

it will be, quite literally,
a long shot.

Another flash point
in the Pacific War

is far closer to Japan--
the Mariana islands.

One island is already
under American control--Saipan.

It’s now being transformed
into a forward base

that could launch
the B-29 against Japan.

Japanese still occupy
two nearby islands

that threaten
American air operations.

Tinian has four airfields,
making it a key target.

Guam also has airfields,

but its value
is more than tactical.

it’s personal.

Before the war, Guam was a U.S.
territory with a Marine base.

This rare prewar color film

shows local kids parading
for military personnel

in the capital, Agana.

Guamanian natives,
the Chamorros,

are American nationals.

But in 1941,
the Japanese overran Guam

just three days after
the attack on Pearl Harbor.

This newsreel touts the victory.

20,000 American civilians

instantly became
Japanese subjects.

They have been forced
to learn Japanese

and dig defenses at gunpoint.

Now the Americans
are ready for revenge.

More than 800 ships
surround the Marianas,

the biggest armada yet
gathered in the Pacific.

Prelanding bombardment
is ruthless.

This time, cameras capture Agana
from above,

being pummeled
by its former occupiers.

America is flexing
its growing air and sea power,

but its manpower is eroding.

The battle for Saipan
took a heavy toll.

Now they plan to fight
for two islands at once--

Guam and Tinian.

Replacement troops pour in,
fresh from boot camp.

They try to get a read on what
it’s like from the veterans.

They were trying
to engage some of us

into a little conversation,

asking "what’s it like here?
what’s it like here?"

and we didn’t say much.

Japan also feels the strain.

On Tinian, 9,000 troops
are completely surrounded

by the American naval blockade.

Japanese troops are about
half Navy and half Army.

They loathe working together.

They have different
defensive plans

and steal each other’s provisions.

But they are still united

in their fervor
to defend the homeland.

One soldier writes...

We have spent 20 days under
unceasing enemy bombardment,

but everyone is full
of fighting spirit.

Now they wait for the
Americans to test their mettle.

Some of the Americans
are already plenty tested.

Veterans of previous invasions

wonder how many times they can
storm a beach and survive.

Before an invasion,

they feed you steak and eggs
at 4:00 in the morning.

It’s like a guy going to
the electric chair or something.

Well, I’d been wounded
at Tarawa,

been wounded on Saipan,

and this was my third time
getting steak and eggs,

and I just urinated
all over myself.

I mean, that’s how scared I was.

I was shaking.

Invasion day on Tinian
is nicknamed Jig-day.

The massive force approaches
the only beaches wide enough

for a large-scale
amphibious landing.

Here, the Japanese are waiting.

Ships run into the teeth
of their defenses.

The battleship Colorado
takes a devastating hit

that kills 43 sailors.

She has to limp back to Saipan.

Americans press on.

Marines climb down nets
into landing craft.

They head for shore.

Then they stop.

Ships begin pulling back.

A Japanese defender
wonders what’s going on.

It becomes quiet after the
enemy warships leave.

Maybe the enemy is retreating.

They are not.

It’s a large-scale diversion.

At the same time, marines
are quietly approaching

Tinian’s narrow northern beaches.

Americans have never attempted
a major amphibious landing

on such narrow beaches.

Leadership hotly debated
if they would work.

Troop tractors have to come in
almost single file.

Charles Pase is about to jump
onto an exposed patch of sand.

The beach was tiny.

It was the kind you take your
girlfriend to go skinny-dipping.

Protected only by steel helmets

and cotton uniforms,

men are bottled up
on the narrow beaches.

It could quickly
turn into a slaughter.

But resistance is light.

The Japanese are fooled.

By day’s end, more than
15,000 troops are ashore,

already outnumbering the entire
Japanese force on Tinian.

25,000 more are on the way.

It’s a major tactical victory,

but they aren’t relaxing.

Nighttime counterattacks have
been common on other islands.

Marines dig into the sand,

fight off the urge to sleep,

and wait.

The Japanese don’t disappoint.

The first night, they race north
to meet the invading Americans.

Thousands rush the marines

in a bloody banzai assault
in the darkness.

It’s a close-fisted rumble
of hand-to-hand combat.

Daylight reveals the aftermath.

You don’t need tanks.

You need undertakers.

I never saw so many dead Japs.

In one frantic night,
Americans kill 1,200 Japanese,

one seventh of the entire
defense force on Tinian.

The night attacks
are terrifying,

but marines begin
to hope for them.

They’d rather wipe out
the Japanese in waves

than dig them out of hiding,
one by one.

Japan also launches a few
surprise attacks in the air.

They are determined,
but decimated.

It’s hard to sneak up
on an 800-ship navy.

If they crashed close to us,

we sent someone out to rescue
them and bring them in.

When they came aboard our ship,
marines stood guard over them

and would take them in
to interrogate.

Since taking heavy losses

in the battle
of the Philippine sea

a month earlier, Japan’s
air power is weakening.

On Tinian, America hopes
to land the killer blow.

Tinian’s four airfields
are the key target.

The one closest to the landing
beaches is Ushi Point.

Americans expect
stiff resistance.

Instead, they find

an undefended,
windblown ghost town.

Americans poke
through its ruins.

Now bombers give way to builders.

A naval construction battalion
lays down a 4,700-foot runway.

While smaller planes now
come and go from Ushi Point,

the landing strip is long enough

for America’s newest plane,
the B-29.

About a year from now, one will
take off from this very spot--

its name, the Enola Gay.

With Ushi Point in hand,

Americans have yet another
air base in the Marianas.

Planes buzz over Tinian’s
orderly agricultural landscape.

It was nothing like the jungle

at Bougainville
or Guadalcanal or Borneo

or any of those places.

The enemy still has
many places to hide,

so planes cut across the island
and take picture after picture.

Rolls of film become reams
of intelligence.

Photos become as important
as field weapons.

Experts turn them
into accurate maps.

Some are stereoscopic pictures.

A stereogram shows
the landscape in relief

and can even reveal
a camouflaged hideout.

Previous invasions like Tarawa

were more like
fumbling in the dark.

For Tinian, they have
the clearest picture yet

of any island
invaded in the pacific.

But there is one threat
that remains out of sight

until it’s too late...

...mines.

With America’s increasing
control of the sea and sky,

the Japanese try to slow
their advance any way they can.

They use anti-tank mines,

underwater mines,

and antipersonnel mines.

The inexperienced
are the most in danger.

We heard a boom
and looked back,

and one of the replacements
had stepped on a mine.

Nobody even knew his name.

Tinian is riddled with them.

Marines use their own explosives
to detonate them safely.

Most mines are improvised.

many are duds.

They cause more headaches
than casualties,

but each one
is like a speed bump.

No one advances until
it’s exploded safely.

Also slowing the Americans
is sugar cane.

Fields that look orderly
from the air

are dense thickets
on the ground.

The enemy could be hiding

Anywhere within
the 10-foot stalks.

But marine Victor Maghakian
turns the tables

and uses the sugar cane
to his advantage.

I went on a reconnaissance

and spotted
a large enemy patrol.

They moved into position
about 50 feet from my platoon.

They were digging in,
making lots of noise,

and didn’t suspect
that we were so close.

I passed the word down
to fire upon my signal.

We opened up
and let them have it

as fast as we could
pull our triggers.

Knee-high grazing fire
into the cane field.

They began screaming
and making awful noises.

Next morning, we found
between 35 and 40 dead Japs.

I did not lose a man.

In the quiet interior
of Tinian,

any sound you make
could be your last.

But on the coast, Americans are
making an industrious racket.

We had to put
two divisions ashore

across these almost
nonexistent beaches.

You had very little
landing area.

Engineers come up with the answer.

This is a pontoon causeway,
a temporary floating pier.

Ships can pull up to it
like a dock

and unload everything
from food to heavy machinery.

One ship unloads 30 trucks
in just 6 minutes.

Countless boxes can now move
from Saipan to Tinian

without ever touching
anyone’s hands.

Fears of the small beaches
becoming a choke point

are soon dispelled.

With pontoon causeways, supplies
are flooding in without a hitch.

Engineers aren’t just working
on the supply line.

They’re working on weapons.

Conventional bombs
demand pinpoint accuracy.

But targeting by sight
is tricky.

Americans often drop
several bombs

and hope one hits the mark.

During the battle of Tinian,

officers gather on Saipan
to watch this film.

It shows the field-testing
of a new type of weapon.

It’s called napalm,

a combustible mixture
of sticky gel and fuel

designed to spread and burn.

Americans have no problem
using fire.

It’s already pouring out
of flamethrowers and tanks.

But this is a whole new level
of destruction.

Now an airplane
can become a dragon.

With one breath,
it can set a bridge ablaze...

...set water on fire...

...or turn a field
of green earth

into a lifeless,
charred dead zone

where no one can hide.

After watching this film, the
brass on Saipan don’t hesitate.

They order 8,500 pounds of it.

Inside of a year, America’s use
of napalm in the Pacific

will spread like wildfire.

Americans are more than halfway
through the island.

The enemy could be
hiding anywhere

in the island’s
tall sugar cane fields.

Tanks offer
a higher vantage point

and extra firepower.

Crews like to name their tanks.

Rumbling through Tinian
are "Ill Wind" and "King Kong."

Tucked inside, drivers
and gunmen roam the island,

systematically engaging
target after target.

The American advance
is a steady, grinding push,

but the Japanese
are about to strike back

with sudden fatal force.

Across an exposed landscape,

Japanese options
for counterattacks are limited.

They tend to fall back
to more defensible positions.

On Tinian, there are few,

except the cliffs
on the southern coast.

This is where the Japanese
make their ferocious last stand.

Mortars rain down
with a menacing whistle.

American casualties
begin to spike.

On previous islands,
cliff fighting proved costly,

so on Tinian, they
sharpen their strategy.

Leaders order ground troops to
hunker down in their foxholes.

Then they call in the Navy.

For two and a half hours,

five ships coordinate
an all-out firestorm.

615 tons of shells
crash into the cliffs.

Planes launched from Saipan
drop another 69 tons.

The concentration of fire
is more intense

than anything seen
on Tarawa or Saipan.

As the smoke clears,

marines get the signal
to advance on the cliffs.

Somehow, the Japanese guns
have survived the Navy assault.

One keeps firing with impunity,

and Americans can’t find it.

With marines on the cliff,

the Navy can no longer
use blanket fire.

Sailors can only watch
helplessly from afar.

We witnessed the fighting

on the mountains up above us

and the cannons

and the firing

and the hollering.

It was two or three miles away,

but you could hear it
out at sea.

Pinned down but
so close to victory on Tinian,

a handful of marines take
matters into their own hands.

One jumps up, runs ten yards,
and drops on his belly.

Another does the same,
leapfrogging past the first.

And without a plan,
without orders,

they zigzag toward
the Japanese gun.

Finally they get close enough
to point it out.

A tank blasts away.

then the Navy
launches big shells at it.

20 bodies surround the bunker,

a concrete dugout hiding
a 47-millimeter anti-tank gun

that fired out of a narrow hole.

It’s almost indestructible.

With the last ridge
finally under American control,

the bulk of the battle is over.

The campaign for Tinian
takes nine days.

389 Americans are killed,
and more than 1,800 wounded.

Tinian is not as deadly
as Saipan,

not as shocking as Tarawa,

not as infamous as Iwo Jima,

but for the men left here
under white crosses,

it’s the end of their war.

Raising the flag
is a symbol of victory,

but not the end of violence.

Americans will continue
to find Japanese troops

hiding all over Tinian.

A Marine regiment pulls

the unglamorous duty
called mop-up.

After a battle that officially
lasted less than two weeks,

they will spend five more months

crisscrossing the island
several times,

killing an average

of almost four Japanese
holdouts every day.

We had to blow them out,
explode them out.

None of them would surrender.

Charles Pase was
on the Jig-Day invasion force

and stays for mop-up on Tinian.

We had big loudspeakers

up on the cliffs
overlooking these caves

and interpreters telling them

to come out
with their hands up.

here, soldiers
and civilians finally emerge

from a cramped coastal hideout,

almost three weeks after
Americans declare victory.

Hidden from the war, they have
no idea which side is winning.

Many are in rags.

A few come out
in business attire.

But they all now share
an unknown future

under a new occupier.

Although the enemy still hides
in small pockets,

Tinian’s main objectives
are firmly in American hands--

the airfields.

in 1941, Japan staged
an audacious advance

across the Pacific from these
very airfields on Tinian.

Now Americans will use them
to push back towards Tokyo.

Most of the burned-out Japanese
Zeros have been swept aside

and replaced by long rows
of American fighters,

wings folded up
like resting butterflies.

They won’t be dormant for long.

The Marianas will soon become
the latest and largest hub

of American air power
in the Central Pacific.

Given what’s happening
on mainland Asia,

The transition
can’t come soon enough.

Curtis Lemay is a rising star.

In the European theater,

he was promoted
to major general,

one of the youngest
in the army.

These are
his own personal films,

revealing his new top secret
assignment in India.

His mission--use the unproven
new B-29 bomber to strike Japan,

more than 3,000 miles away.

The strategy
is literally a stretch.

The plan is to launch
the planes from India,

fly over the Himalayas,
and land in China.

There, they will refuel,

fly over Japanese-occupied
Chinese territory,

and strike Japan.

Somewhere in Western China,

these farmers transformed
saturated rice paddies

into airfields.

American newsreels capture

some of the 10,000 Chinese
working on each airfield,

building runways by hand

with stones
hauled out of the river.

There were workers
pulling wagons

with tires
they had taken from cars,

which were now useless

because there was
no longer any gasoline.

Rocks are about
the only resource available,

since Japan controls
the surrounding supply routes.

There’s no easy way
to import anything,

including an airfield’s
lifeblood--fuel.

So the B-29s coming from India
are basically supply planes,

carrying fuel instead of bombs

over the tallest mountain range
in the world,

nicknamed The Hump.

B-29 navigator David Braden
knows the problem firsthand.

For every gallon of gas

we could haul
over The Hump in a B-29,

it took two gallons of gas
for the plane to fly it over.

The math isn’t sustainable,

but the enthusiasm to bomb Japan
overrules the logistics.

They proceed with the plan.

The raids begin
in the summer of 1944.

After so much trial and error,

the B-29’s promise
is finally in the air,

and Curt Lemay’s strategy
is on the line.

We believed that if
strategic air power

were properly applied,

an enemy could be defeated
without having to expend

as many American lives
on the battlefields.

A squadron of B-29s

finally makes it
into Japanese airspace.

America has high hopes.

These are the first airstrikes
on mainland Japan

since the Doolittle raid
of 1942.

That raid didn’t destroy much.

Now, two years later, America
runs into the same problems.

Target intelligence is spotty.

Clouds prevent good sighting.

Winds blow the bombs off course.

Some miss by 20 miles.

In nine separate raids
from China,

only five percent
of the bombs hit their targets.

A lot of it didn’t work,

and they just had to find out
the hard way.

this is Japanese footage
of one raid’s aftermath.

It’s not bomb damage.

It’s a fallen B-29
in Eastern China.

This is the price of testing
a new airplane in combat.

If we lost hydraulic fluid,

the prop would fly off.

Sometimes the whole
damned engine seized

and twisted
right out of the wing.

In raids from China,

nearly 100 B-29s
are lost to mechanical failure.

Pieces of this precious
secret airplane

are now strewn
across enemy territory,

along with the remains
of its crew.

This is the state

of the most expensive weapons
program of World War II.

Right now, it looks like

a $3 billion investment
in wishful thinking.

Curt Lemay’s job is
to turn things around somehow.

It was great to finally
be able to bomb Japan,

but we would have to do
better, a lot better.

He has some ideas,

but first he needs to move
his operation

from the distant airfields
of South Asia

to the Mariana islands,
right on Japan’s doorstep.

He can’t until Americans
take back Guam.

The battle for Guam is
nearly simultaneous to Tinian.

The landing is called W-Day.

When the Japanese took Guam
more than two years ago,

less than 500 American troops
were there to defend it.

Now 54,000 are coming ashore
to wrestle it back.

Just an hour after landing,
marines take heavy fire

from the top
of a 1,000-foot barrier

called Chonito Ridge.

I couldn’t see any Japanese,

but the fire was just sustained,

really heavy fire.

Marines get pinned on
the slope for two straight days,

barely 100 yards
from the enemy at the top.

All they can do
is throw lead back uphill

and hope it hits something.

One commander finally
gets over the ridge.

He never comes back.

Another marine tumbles downhill,
shot through both legs.

The Japanese have every
advantage, including gravity.

They begin rolling hand grenades
down the slope.

For 50 straight hours,
men pick forward,

up the unforgiving terrain
and through unrelenting fire.

Finally, the decimated marines

glimpse their own comrades
on the ridgetop.

Another unit had scrambled up
the back side of Chonito Ridge

and finally won it over.

After two days
of fierce fighting on Guam,

the view from the top
is not comforting.

the landing beaches remain
in sight behind them,

and the rest of the island
lay ahead.

From the ridge,
Americans fan out.

Some approach Guam’s capital,
Agana.

This rare prewar color footage
reveals Agana as a tidy town

with old Spanish architecture,

overlooking a peaceful shore.

Now it’s a debris field.

Centuries of history
lie in ruins.

For marines stationed on Guam
since 1898,

this was home away from home.

Agana had more than 40 years
of American influence

woven into it.

Now it’s liberated,
but also obliterated,

mostly by America’s own bombs.

Away from the front lines,

Americans try
to escape the destruction

with a little construction...

...like turning a foxhole
into a home.

American can-do culture
is crossing the pacific

along with
all the battle hardware.

Troops take pride in making
the best out of the worst.

One even builds
his living quarters

under a wrecked landing craft.

Other found objects,
like this Japanese diving suit,

bring laughs to those
who need them most.

A stray puppy brings
a welcome distraction.

They call her Sake,

a name inspired
by the deep stash of liquor

troops find
in a captured supply depot.

It’s probably their first taste
of Japanese culture.

But the escape from reality
is brief.

As the battle moves north,

both sides keep trading volleys.

The nasty business of flushing
the enemy out of caves

brings out packs
of raw dynamite.

Merle Hatch sneaks up to a cave
with Japanese hiding inside.

We could hear ’em talking.

Our guy fired his flamethrower
in for a few minutes,

and they were all dead.

Americans leave the bodies

but take the crates
of Japanese whisky.

Japanese are dying by the score,

but they’re making America pay
for every mile of Guam.

On the same beaches
they stormed at the start,

wounded Americans
are heading back out to sea.

Invasion waves come in,
and evacuation waves go out,

as inevitable as the tide.

I was glad to be alive

when I got off that damn place.

The lucky ones
can leave with a close call

and a good story.

The unlucky ones will never leave.

The dead on Guam and Tinian
create a bleak landscape.

Decomposing bodies
bring risk of disease,

and there is
no escaping the stench.

We had to cover them quick

because of the stink.

It was bad.

Americans begin a grisly routine.

Dog tags will be sent to family.

Fingerprints will become part
of a grim database.

There is only as much honor
and reverence

as circumstances allow.

In the end, speed and
efficiency win out.

Sometimes there was no way

you could know
whose body was going in where.

Only God knows.

Americans try to give
every one of their own

a marked burial site.

But the Japanese body count
is often ten times higher.

Facing thousands of corpses
on every island,

Americans resort to mass graves.

Here, they make Japanese POWs

gather their own war dead
for pit burial.

In this rare case,

Americans give a Japanese
officer a military funeral.

They identified him
among the other bodies

and honor him accordingly.

But most of the men
will remain nameless.

Every island in the path
of the Pacific War

is becoming a killing field,

and Americans will soon decide
which island is next.

Ten-hut!

On August 10th,

officials declare Guam
back in American hands.

Commander of all forces
in the Central Pacific,

admiral Chester Nimitz
is there for the flag raising.

Nimitz will soon
move his headquarters

from Pearl Harbor
here to Guam.

He is confident that the
American push across the Pacific

is unstoppable.

Men and might
will soon pour into Guam

and transform it into
a thundering U.S. military base

far larger than it
was before the war.

The locals will never return

to the simpler lives
they had before.

But smiles reveal that freedom
is all that matters right now.

With Americans finally
in control of the Marianas,

the B-29 will move
off mainland Asia.

Curt Lemay’s experiment in India
and China has largely failed.

China had proved to be

a horrible, almost impossible
logistical situation,

and we knew it.

Now he’ll bring his operation

and his home movie camera
to the Central Pacific.

As soon as American
forces captured the Marianas,

we moved over to Guam.

The Marianas
would be the beginning

of the end of the road
to Tokyo.

from his new base,
Lemay will become the mastermind

of the most destructive
bombing raids to date

in the history of warfare.

The American air strategy
is evolving,

but the ground strategy
remains blunt--

send wave after wave of men
across the Pacific.

Here, troops in Hawaii train
for a land invasion of Japan.

They run trough a mockup
of a Japanese town.

President Roosevelt is on hand.

He’s in Hawaii
for a crucial meeting

to plot the next steps
of the Pacific War.

He has summoned his two primary
commanders in the field,

admiral Nimitz
and general MacArthur.

The trio first meets
Baltimore.

Each plays to the cameras--

Nimitz in his brilliant
dress whites,

MacArthur in his
distinctive leather jacket,

despite the heat,

and Roosevelt, seated to hide
his inability to walk.

As the motorcade proceeds
through military choreography,

each man’s mind
is surely turning.

The pending meeting is laced
with long-simmering tension.

Roosevelt once called MacArthur

"one of the most dangerous
men in America."

MacArthur would
later describe FDR

as "a man who never told the
truth if a lie would suffice."

within the lush surroundings of
the Holmes estates in Waikiki,

the men conclude a day of pomp
with dinner.

Then they finally retire
to the living room.

Nimitz argues that pushing
farther up the Central Pacific

will choke off the Japanese
mainland and force surrender.

MacArthur all but demands

that Americans retake
the Philippines first.

The men are cordial,
but off camera,

MacArthur isn’t shy to raise
the temperature of the argument.

Roosevelt later confides
that nobody ever talked to him

the way that MacArthur did.

The meeting sets the table

for the next phase
of the Pacific War.

Nimitz will continue
island-hopping

toward the mainland,

including a rocky
no-man’s-land called Iwo Jima.

The Philippines is finally
on the agenda.

MacArthur’s invasion
is planned for October.

Nearby there’s an island
with a Japanese airfield

that might cause trouble.

They decide to take that first.

It’s called Peleliu.

Compared to bigger targets,

Peleliu is almost
an afterthought.

One general thinks it will be,
quote, "A quickie."

Some journalists peel off
looking for bigger stories.

But for some of these men,

Peleliu will be
the story of their lives.

I was 18 years old.

I was only in one battle.

But the two days
that I fought at Peleliu

marked my life
more than anything else.

from the terrain
to enemy strength,

Americans do not
have a clear picture

of the island they’re invading.

For troops on approach,
the picture is all too clear.

The beach was a sheet of flame

backed by a huge wall
of black smoke,

as though the island was on fire.

All right, everybody out!

Americans are fresh off victories

at Guam and Tinian,

which had a clear
sense of purpose

and went according to plan.

But the Pacific War follows
no one’s plan for very long.