- 7/10/2024
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00:00It's the most horrific singular battle of the Pacific War.
00:15Seven straight days of hell.
00:25And we just, we didn't shut the hell.
00:30The world just blew up.
00:55By 1945, America's Central Pacific Campaign has, for the past three years, been sending
01:22soldiers, sailors, and marines sweeping across the Pacific.
01:32They have endured brutal battles against an enemy fortified on nightmarish islands that
01:37have fallen one by one to the American forces.
01:46The ever-increasingly violent war has moved them closer and closer to their prime target,
01:51the Japanese mainland.
02:21Only one island stands to block the way to Japan, Okinawa.
02:29It is here, only 365 miles from the doorstep of Japan, that the last great battle of World
02:36War II will unfold.
02:41The conquest of Okinawa will provide America the critical staging ground for the immense
02:45invasion planned to hit the Japanese homeland on November 1st.
02:54For Japan, impregnable to attempted invasion for over a thousand years, Okinawa is the
03:01last hope against defeat.
03:05The island's 100,000 defenders must not only hold it, but inflict such unimaginable horror
03:11and violence against the American soldiers and marines that the United States will lose
03:16the stomach for any landing on the Japanese mainland or extension of the war.
03:24The Japanese strategy is to simply drown in blood America's will to go on.
03:30The staunch defenders have prepared a nightmare for the coming invaders.
04:00We happened to be part of the largest naval armada in the history of the war.
04:13There were over 1,500 ships involved.
04:16We looked out over the rail of our troop transport as far as the horizon were ships.
04:26There were over 40 aircraft carriers involved in the Battle of Okinawa.
04:30That's a lot of aircraft carriers.
04:33Some 18 battleships, 200 destroyers and auxiliary ships, I can't tell you.
04:40There were over 1,000 troop transports in there.
04:57On board the massive armada are over 100,000 soldiers and 88,000 marines of the 1st and 6th Marine Divisions.
05:10Included is the 29th Marine Regiment.
05:14It's mostly kids, barely out of high school, from small towns drained of young men by four
05:19years of war.
05:32By the time I became 18 and eligible for the draft, there weren't many people left in Saugerties
05:39that hadn't been touched by the war.
05:44They had gold stars in the windows where their sons or fathers, husbands had been killed.
05:56It was very much with us, we were all very much aware of what was going on.
06:01It was ever present that we were at war.
06:09We were told that we were going into combat, that much we knew.
06:14Then finally they mentioned we're going to an island called Okinawa.
06:19And we all said, huh, what, where?
06:22Nobody ever heard of it.
06:24It was supposedly going to be a pretty brutal landing.
06:31Well, we knew that people get hurt in war.
06:37You know, it's a lot of suffering, body parts and what have you, and it's a grim business.
06:47We had that in mind, no one was deluding themselves into thinking it would be anything but bloody.
07:07♪♪
07:17♪♪
07:27♪♪
07:37♪♪
07:47♪♪
08:01The shelling from the ships stopped because we had to get ashore and they didn't want to drop anything on us.
08:09So we got rather quiet.
08:12It was eerily quiet.
08:16We really didn't know what was going on ashore.
08:21I expected that we'd be walking over bodies, which was the case on every landing in the Pacific.
08:31The first wave got beat up, the second wave got beat up, and the third wave got beat up.
08:39♪♪
08:49♪♪
08:59♪♪
09:09Command had anticipated initial losses to be in the thousands,
09:12with devastating Japanese artillery and machine gun fire expected to greet the landing force.
09:19But all across the eastern beaches, resistance is surprisingly sporadic and minor.
09:28There's no time in moving cautiously inland toward the planned objectives.
09:33The 29th Marines move quickly north from the landing site.
09:38They join Army units in a relatively quick clearing of the island's northern half
09:43against nothing worse than a few bloody scuffles with Japanese delaying forces,
09:48all quickly broken past.
09:53With objectives being met in days rather than weeks,
09:57there's talk of being home by Christmas.
10:00Many speculate that the enemy has abandoned the island
10:04to prepare instead for an invasion of his homeland.
10:08While the mystery of Okinawa grows, no one is complaining.
10:14♪♪
10:32The comparative cakewalk ends on April 9th
10:36when advancing U.S. Army units run into savage resistance.
10:41Leathernecks are soon ordered south to bolster them.
10:44♪♪
10:50The trip south was an eye-opener when we saw the Army coming north
10:56because they obviously had been beat up.
10:58They looked like they had been mauled over and they were dejected and dirty.
11:03♪♪
11:09As the men of the 29th move forward,
11:12they are unaware that ahead lay the horrible truth to the mystery of Okinawa.
11:19The American forces had unknowingly already fallen into a brilliant trap
11:24orchestrated by Okinawa's General Mitsuru Ushijima.
11:30After three years of losing islands across the Pacific,
11:34the Japanese have adopted a new strategy.
11:37Rather than waste troops defending at the water's edge,
11:40they will allow their enemies to quickly advance through Okinawa's center and north
11:45while they lie in wait at the island's southern tip
11:48where Ushijima has planned a vast marine cemetery.
11:53In an area less than 10 miles wide and deep,
11:56he has concentrated some 100,000 troops deep underground
12:01in a complex web of tunnels
12:03interlocked for mutually supporting fire along a bristling defense line.
12:07♪♪
12:12The most formidable of these is the Shuri-Yanaburo Line,
12:17just six narrow miles across.
12:20It is a murderous collection of small interconnected hills,
12:24each able to annihilate attacks on the others.
12:28They soon earned infamous nicknames,
12:31Half Moon, the Horseshoe, and most critical, Sugarloaf.
12:36♪♪
12:45Sugarloaf Hill started on May 12th and ended up on May 18th.
12:51So you're talking seven straight days of hell.
12:56It's the most horrific singular battle of the Pacific War.
13:02No singular battle surpasses Sugarloaf Hill in its viciousness and its death.
13:09There were 2,600 Marines wounded and killed in that seven-day battle.
13:15♪♪
13:21The next seven days will exalt the young, tight-knit Marines of the 29th
13:26into Marine legend.
13:29Their selfless sacrifice will earn immortality
13:33in a battle of such brutality that its very name
13:36will come to symbolize valor against impossible odds.
13:40♪♪
13:43In seven days, only 60 of them will be left alive.
13:48Seven days that will change the war.
13:52Seven days that will change the world.
13:57After more than a week helping clear Okinawa against only sporadic resistance,
14:02the Army's 96th Division returns to the battlefield.
14:07The battle is fierce.
14:09The battle is fierce.
14:11The battle is fierce.
14:13The battle is fierce.
14:15The battle is fierce.
14:17The battle is fierce.
14:19The battle is fierce.
14:21The battle is fierce.
14:23After more than a week helping clear Okinawa against only sporadic resistance,
14:27the Army's 96th Division recoils before a murderous hornet's nest
14:31of defensive lines across the southern end of the island.
14:37Elements of the 6th Marine Division, including the 29th Marines,
14:41rush to the front line to relieve the exhausted Army units.
14:48In front of them looms Sugarloaf Hill.
14:52Sugarloaf Hill is larger than any battle in their history.
14:55Sugarloaf Hill is larger than any battle in their history.
15:05Sugarloaf is the critical interconnecting hill that links the entire Japanese defense line across the island.
15:12It is only 50 feet high and 500 yards long.
15:17But the Japanese have heavily fortified both the forward and reverse slopes,
15:21with 122 heavy machine guns, 7 anti-tank guns, 16 mortars, and 2 howitzers.
15:30Artillery rolls out of caves on tracks for quick firing and withdrawal.
15:36The approach to the hill is a barren patch of earth,
15:39which the Americans must cross against lethal machine gun and artillery fire.
15:45The artillery annihilates slow-moving tanks before they can get close enough to be effective.
15:56The approach to it was complete barren.
15:59Those Marines walking across the field or tanks or whatever was coming towards Sugarloaf Hill were wide open.
16:08The caves were tremendous on Okinawa.
16:10Every hill had caves connected to the other hills.
16:14So if you happened to kill 30 or 40 Japanese on the hill and you thought you took the hill,
16:21at nighttime another fresh 30 or 40 would be up there.
16:27The Japanese, well-rehearsed and brilliantly orchestrated,
16:31simply disappear deep into caves and trench lines during the American artillery barrages.
16:39They re-emerge on the crest as the shelling ceases and slaughter the charging Leathernecks.
16:48That radio was on.
16:50We could hear the reports of the unit that was on the hill, and we knew they were getting beat up.
16:56The word might come in, can't hold it, you got to hold it, you got to stay there, you got to hold it, we can't hold this hill.
17:04We're down to 12 men.
17:09Because to stay there was just pure death.
17:16And then they'd come down and they'd pass the units as they're going to the rear,
17:20and just to look at those guys, you knew there was hell there.
17:26With the amount of fire going back and forth, rifle fire, machine gun fire, mortars, artillery, the world just blew up.
17:40To cope with it, the best thing to do is not concentrate on yourself.
17:48If you think too much about yourself, good chance you'll crack up.
17:54And that's not what you're trained for.
17:58You're overwhelmed, but you have to keep your status in mind.
18:05The job, the job, the job.
18:10It was around mid-afternoon when our assault took place.
18:16We split our force, someone up the west side, someone up the east.
18:22And when we got to the top, the Japanese forces just released their well-rehearsed defense.
18:33It rained mortars.
18:35And because that hill was kind of sharp at the top,
18:39there was no way we could stand and shoot down at them without getting killed.
18:48Finally, a sergeant named Ike Warnermaker, who was in charge of the defense,
18:56Finally, a sergeant named Ike Warnermaker sensed what was happening to us and passed the word,
19:05we got to get out of here or we're going to be annihilated.
19:09Get the wounded, get the dead, and let's go.
19:17Our lieutenant was killed.
19:19Several of our sergeants were killed.
19:23A lot of people were wounded.
19:28My guess is out of an attack force of 80-some, maybe 40 came off unscathed.
19:41Maybe scared to death.
19:43But, you know, you had all your arms and all your legs and your eyesight was okay.
19:51You hadn't lost your bearings.
19:55To come to the realization that you've just done that is sort of a revelation to yourself.
20:01Because, you know, when you're in combat, you're thinking,
20:04Wow, how bad can this get?
20:50The Japanese send waves of kamikaze pilots on suicide attacks meant to drive the fleet out to sea
20:57and maroon the troops ashore.
21:09They have brilliantly and horrifically pitted the lives of the sailors
21:13against those of their brother marines and soldiers fighting inland.
21:18Without the fleet's support, the troops ashore face a certain doom.
21:22But if the ships stay, the swarming kamikaze attacks could very well destroy the American fleet.
21:34With the fate of both hanging in the balance,
21:37all hope turns to a desperate fight on tiny Sugarloaf.
21:41It holds the key to the capture of Okinawa and the release of the captive fleet.
21:49But for the men of the 29th and their fellow marines fighting for their lives,
21:54Sugarloaf is fast becoming the costliest battle in the entire Pacific War.
22:12The Battle of Okinawa
22:26By May of 1945, the Japanese have turned the battle for Okinawa
22:30into a horrific double showdown on land and sea.
22:36With kamikaze attacks now ravaging the fleet offshore,
22:40Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander-in-Chief, United States Pacific Fleet,
22:44must make wrenching decisions.
22:48If he keeps his fleet in place to support the men ashore, he could lose it.
22:54If he sails for safer waters, he will doom the landed troops
22:58in their desperate need of the fleet's life-saving firepower and supplies.
23:04Nimitz, unwilling to trade one set of lives for the other,
23:08demands what seems impossible.
23:11Take Sugarloaf now.
23:18Sugarloaf remains the critical hill anchoring the dreaded Shuri Line
23:22running across the southern neck of the island.
23:26It must be cracked so American forces can penetrate into the heart of the Japanese defenses,
23:31take Okinawa, and release the beleaguered fleet.
23:39Admiral Nimitz was suffering so terribly with the kamikaze sinking
23:43and killing the sailors that he kept saying,
23:46I can't stand up this island for any longer.
23:50If I stay up this island any longer, the Navy's going to be whittled down the candlesticks.
23:56Adding to this growing military storm is the impact of the Okinawa campaign on the home front.
24:03Every day, the Pacific battle drags on, increases the need for more replacement units.
24:12But the only troops left are the exhausted survivors just returned home from years of war.
24:19You have to consider also in there the disease factor and the illness factor.
24:26And you add the men that had battle fatigue.
24:30When you put all of these units together, now lost in that battle,
24:36and you add the men that had battle fatigue,
24:39and you add the men that had battle fatigue,
24:41when you put all of these units together, now lost in that battle,
24:47and you say, where do we get the replacements?
24:52They had to come from Europe.
24:54These poor guys had just been through three, four years in Europe,
24:57all kinds of combat, here they were now going to be transferred to Okinawa.
25:06I always think the greatest generation were our parents.
25:10My brother was overseas, I was overseas,
25:13just think of the fear that they went through every day.
25:17The letters that came home.
25:20Or the man walking up, knocking on your door with the telegram.
25:24If in those days if the parents saw a Western Union man coming toward them,
25:29they knew that that Western Union telegram told them, your son is killed.
25:43We knew that if we weren't taking ground every day, we weren't winning.
25:51When you went up, there was 30 of you, or 18 or 20.
25:56You get to the top, there's only four or five left.
26:00They're dropping all around you.
26:14The War on Terror
26:23Artillery, machine guns, everything under the sun,
26:26and we just were getting shot to hell.
26:31The wounded were just streaming back,
26:34and the whole valley floor was covered with dead Marines.
26:38I've never been able to really explain how bad it was.
26:44We were a band of brothers.
26:49When they asked me to be an officer, I said no, just because of that very thing.
26:55These were my buddies, you know, I didn't want to leave them.
27:07War on Terror
27:12I was wounded and I walked out of the little aid station.
27:18I couldn't stand being around men to me that were really wounded.
27:22I just walked out, and where did I go? Right back to my unit.
27:26I couldn't wait to get back to it.
27:30As casualties continue to mount on land and sea,
27:33the Japanese are also dying in mass.
27:38Okinawa, the last great battle of World War II,
27:42has come down to a ghastly ordeal of attrition, with no end in sight.
27:51Sugarloaf alone has killed or wounded almost 2,000 men in just four days of fighting.
28:04But the dwindling men of the 29th and their fellow Marines,
28:09who have already suffered mightily, will do what Marines do best,
28:13adapt and overcome.
28:17The Japanese on Okinawa are about to find out
28:21what their predecessors on previously conquered islands now know.
28:26And that is, the Marines don't quit. Ever.
28:31In the battle to come, they will bring the fight.
28:35And they will stand as legends in a battle that will forever change the course of history.
29:31We're going to feed down there. We're not going away.
29:34They just came off the hill. Well, they went up at 8 o'clock.
29:37It's 9.30, 10 o'clock. They're on their way back.
29:40You're kidding me. No. They got the hell kicked out of them.
29:45C Company's going up, or D, or F, or whatever company might be going up next.
29:51Not the same unit could do it. They would just be shot to hell.
29:55Plus, they were not full strength.
29:57No unit that went up there had the 200 or the 30 or whatever.
30:02They were whittled down.
30:08I had that trip back to the Battalion Aid Station by Amtrak.
30:13There was 15 or 20 of us in there.
30:18Everybody is bleeding. Everybody.
30:21Guy on my left is bleeding all over me.
30:24One on my right, he's got an upper body wound.
30:26He's bleeding on me.
30:28And the blood is running down my leg and into my shoe.
30:32So, blood is the one thing we all have in common.
30:43They put all the bodies in the alligator tractor.
30:47Amtrak's that came up to the bottom of the hill.
30:50An Amtrak is built such that in the bottom of the Amtrak
30:54there's always four to six inches of water.
30:58All the dead bodies were loaded in the bottom of the Amtrak
31:02and Niles Anderson was hanging on the ladder.
31:06And as the Amtrak was going toward the rear, it lurches.
31:11Niles Anderson was washed amongst the bodies.
31:18When he got out of that Amtrak, he just was almost crazy.
31:25It's an island of death.
31:33It's a never-ending thing. It's something you live with.
31:37Just like you have to live with the odor of the battlefield.
31:41You got all these remains unburied.
31:48One thing they can't film, and that's the odor.
31:50You open up a can of rations.
31:53What do you taste?
31:56You taste death.
32:00You had men fighting that were wounded.
32:03You had men that were sick.
32:05Diarrhea was frequent within the group.
32:08Hunger was there. Wetness.
32:10All the clothing was damp.
32:12They were slogging through mud.
32:14The disease was rampant.
32:17You sleep in a hole every night
32:20that you just dug freshly yourself and your buddy.
32:25And when you're in a foxhole and it rains,
32:28and the hole starts to fill up with water,
32:33it's misery of a special kind,
32:36especially when you're afraid to get out of the hole.
32:39You're afraid to get out of the hole.
32:42It's misery of a special kind,
32:45especially when you're afraid to get out of the hole
32:47that somebody's going to shoot you.
32:57By May 17th, the Marine Brothers of the 29th,
33:01bearing the brunt of the frontal attacks on Sugarloaf,
33:04are ravaged and exhausted by ten unsuccessful assaults
33:08over six days.
33:12Nimitz's fleet continues to lose men and ships
33:17to the remorseless stream of kamikaze attacks,
33:20but stubbornly refuses to strand the men ashore.
33:27The impregnable Sugarloaf has locked the battle for Okinawa
33:31into a meat grinder with no end in sight.
33:34In our case, we just knew what was going on,
33:37and it was frightening to us.
33:43What the heck is going on?
33:46We can't take that damn hill.
33:52And finally, Captain Mabey, with D Company,
33:55he got the idea of a simultaneous attack
33:58around both sides of the hill.
34:01Mabey believes the Japanese defenses have been weakened enough
34:05by constant Marine assaults for a daring new attack.
34:09Mortars will pound Sugarloaf, forcing the enemy underground,
34:13as Mabey's tanks sneak to their left and right flanks.
34:17As vulnerable Marines rush the hill to draw the enemy back out,
34:21Mabey's tanks will catch the Japanese in the open
34:25and cut them to pieces.
34:27Allowing the assaulting Marines to finally reach
34:30and hold the crest of Sugarloaf.
34:33All he needs is the human bait to draw the enemy out into the open.
34:44What is left of the 29th's assault platoons stands up for the job.
34:49With fewer than 100 men left,
34:52this must be their final charge up Sugarloaf.
34:54It will be their 11th attempt,
34:57and one way or another, their last.
35:00Of the few hundred of their brothers
35:03who began the battle for Sugarloaf with them six days ago,
35:07they are all who remain.
35:10By the end of the day, only 60 of them will still be alive.
35:16The deadliest battle of the Pacific War
35:19will be decided not by vast armies,
35:21or great armadas,
35:24but by a small group of men,
35:27who together must overcome the impossible
35:30to save their brothers fighting for their lives
35:33on land and at sea.
35:52On May 18th, 1945,
35:56after six days with ten unsuccessful attempts to capture Sugarloaf,
36:01the vital key to Okinawa,
36:04the Marines prepare for one last desperate assault
36:08to win this deadliest of crucial battles.
36:11The ravaged 29th has no strength left for a second attack.
36:16If this one fails,
36:18the 29th will likely no longer exist.
36:28A thunderstorm of Marine artillery and mortars
36:31pounds Sugarloaf,
36:34driving the defenders back underground.
36:37Tanks from the 6th Tank Battalion
36:40race around Sugarloaf
36:43to secure positions on both sides of the hill.
36:46Within minutes, a half-dozen of them
36:49fall to Japanese armor-piercing guns
36:52and well-placed minefields,
36:55throwing the attack plan into doubt.
37:05But instantly, a dozen Marine rocket trucks rush up,
37:08dodging enemy shellfire
37:11and delivering devastating fire.
37:13As the tanks reorganize.
37:25At 0830, with the plan in disarray,
37:28the shelling ceases
37:31as the 80 men of the 29th begin their assault.
37:44As always,
37:47the Japanese reemerge from underground
37:50to deliver stinging fire from their surface positions.
38:13With the tanks struggling to round the hill,
38:16the Marines charge forward
38:19in an effort to reach the Japanese holding the crucial crest.
38:28The attack wavers
38:31as the assault meets the same curtain of steel
38:34that shredded ten previous attacks.
38:44At last,
38:47the tanks reach their flanking positions
38:50and unleash hell.
38:53Shells and machine-gun bullets rip into the Japanese
38:56as the charging Marines reach the crest.
39:13And the words pass,
39:16we got it.
39:19We got that damn hill.
39:22We're on top of that hill.
39:25And that's how the word came through
39:28that we finally got that son of a gun.
39:31After seven days,
39:3411 attempts,
39:37and over 2,600 Marine casualties,
39:40Sugarloaf is in American hands.
39:43With the lock to the dreaded Shuri Line
39:46finally broken,
39:49fresh troops rush in to relieve the 29th
39:52and begin unwinding its murderous interlocked defenses.
39:55On June 21, 1945,
39:58victory is declared,
40:01bringing an end to the hideous 82-day bloodbath.
40:14Nimitz's battered fleet
40:17never abandoned the men fighting ashore.
40:20With over 4,900 sailors
40:23and 34 ships lost to the Kamikazes,
40:26it has rightly earned the title
40:29the fleet that came to stay.
40:32With Okinawa in American hands,
40:35the planned invasion of Japan can now go forward.
40:43But the Japanese have sealed their fate
40:46in their scheme to inflict massive death on Okinawa.
40:49Devastating American losses
40:52convince President Truman
40:55that an invasion of the imperial homeland
40:58might consume a million U.S. servicemen.
41:01Rather than risk continued loss of American lives,
41:04he turns to the nuclear option.
41:07The devastation unleashed on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
41:10quickly bring Japanese surrender
41:13and the end of World War II.
41:26In the battle for Okinawa,
41:29no unit pays a higher price
41:32than the men of the 29th.
41:34The men of the 29th
41:37who lose over 75% of their brothers.
41:40They earn through blood, courage,
41:43and incredible sacrifice
41:46their rightful place among the legendary heroes
41:49who won the last great battle of World War II.
41:56It humbles the heck out of you
41:59to read what some of these men did
42:01and say, my God, he survived?
42:04The admiration and the camaraderie
42:07was tremendous.
42:10It's a tremendous brotherhood.
42:13It was a feeling of pride
42:16that I have to this day.
42:19You're a Marine forever.
42:22They never get the Marine out of your body.
42:24It's hardly a day in my life
42:27that I don't remember it.
42:30I wake up in the morning
42:33very often thinking about it
42:36or someone or something that happened.
42:39We were a band of brothers.
42:42These were my buddies, you know,
42:45and I didn't want to leave them.
42:50The battle for Sugar Loaf Hill
42:52The battle for Sugar Loaf Hill, of course,
42:55is in the annals of the history of the Marine Corps,
42:58is one of the big battles,
43:01along with Belleau Wood and Chosin Reservoir
43:04and so many other battles.
43:07We were a page of that history
43:10and a deserving page.
43:17All young men mostly are 18, 19 years old.
43:21There were 265 men in our company
43:24and after the serious fighting in that area,
43:27there were 60 men left standing.
43:30And as a survivor,
43:33I think it gives a man
43:36enough self-confidence
43:39to last a lifetime.
43:45And I'm grateful.
43:51That I was a Marine
43:54and that I survived.
44:01Semper Fidelis.
44:04And may God rest all those guys
44:07that never saw another Easter Sunday.
44:10They're the real heroes.
44:20The Battle for Sugar Loaf Hill
44:23The Battle for Sugar Loaf Hill
44:26The Battle for Sugar Loaf Hill
44:29The Battle for Sugar Loaf Hill
44:32The Battle for Sugar Loaf Hill
44:35The Battle for Sugar Loaf Hill
44:38The Battle for Sugar Loaf Hill
44:41The Battle for Sugar Loaf Hill
44:44The Battle for Sugar Loaf Hill
44:47The Battle for Sugar Loaf Hill
44:50The Battle for Sugar Loaf Hill
44:53The Battle for Sugar Loaf Hill
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