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00:00The South Pacific, 1942.
00:04The U.S. Marine Corps leads the attack on the Pacific Islands of the Japanese Empire.
00:10And for the first time in their history, they launch an amphibious assault with tanks.
00:16They knew they would have to have that type of support to knock out defensive positions in amphibious assault.
00:22All of a sudden our tank hit a hole.
00:25They were throwing everything but the kitchen sink at that thing.
00:30People say, well, I didn't realize there were tanks in the Pacific.
00:34They seize one island fortress after another.
00:37There's no real way to carry a large cannon around the battlefield for direct fire infantry support except a tank.
00:43But they face an enemy ready to meet them tank versus tank.
00:48Man, we were firing and firing and firing.
00:50Fighting across a battlefield as wide as the ocean itself.
00:54If they hit them, they're gone.
00:56Tanks go head to head in the Pacific War.
01:00Today, the palm-fringed beaches of the South Pacific are a destination for holidaymakers seeking paradise.
01:28But in World War II, they would become a blood-soaked graveyard for the U.S. Marine Corps.
01:38In December 1941, the Japanese launch a surprise attack against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
01:50Striking at the heart of American power in the Pacific, and dragging the U.S. into the Second World War.
02:01For more than 50 years, the Japanese have been pursuing a policy of aggressive military expansion.
02:09Their empire now stretches halfway across the Pacific Ocean from mainland Asia.
02:16The Japanese military machine has been unstoppable, swallowing one island chain after another, from the Marianas to the Gilberts and to the Solomons.
02:32Japan's strategy was pretty effective at this particular point, because basically, they had managed to run riot all through the Southern Pacific.
02:40Each island in its possession is now a fortress, bristling with manpower and heavy armor.
02:53The goal was to make it so expensive for the Americans to come back and counterattack them, that the Americans would lose hope and simply give up on recovering or counterattacking the Japanese and seizing back this empire.
03:05And in June 1942, with a decisive naval victory at the Battle of Midway, the Americans turned the tide of war.
03:23A common saying is that before Midway, the Japanese never stopped advancing.
03:28After Midway, the Japanese never stopped retreating.
03:30The Americans go on the offensive, and it's the Marines who are tasked with rolling back the Japanese empire across 6,000 kilometers of ocean, with the plan to seize one island stronghold after another, until they reach mainland Japan itself.
03:51Overshadowed by the achievements of the infantry, the role of the tank in the Pacific War has been untold.
04:00People say, well, I didn't, I didn't realize there were tanks in the Pacific.
04:04There's very little written about the tanks in the case of the Marine Corps.
04:09The infantry always has this strange love-hate relationship with tanks.
04:13They don't like to be around the tank because it takes fire.
04:17But when you're taking fire from an enemy position, there's nothing quite like that direct fire cannon and those heavy machine guns and that armored protection to help eliminate enemy positions.
04:26There's no real way to carry a large cannon around the battlefield for direct fire infantry support except a tank.
04:36The Marines' first hurdle is Guadalcanal, which they seek to take with overwhelming force.
04:43Including 20,000 troops and more than 50 light tanks.
04:47But it becomes a protracted and bloody campaign.
04:54Not only are the Pacific Islands garrisoned by tens of thousands of soldiers, but the Japanese are also fanatical in defense.
05:03They never give up.
05:06You either kill them or get killed.
05:09This is war.
05:10They don't give up.
05:11And crucially, the U.S. Marines' front-line armored weapon, the M3 light tank, proves a failure.
05:20The light tanks did not possess enough firepower with their small 37-millimeter cannons to do much against the major Japanese defenses.
05:29So the light tanks of the Marine Corps are replaced with the Sherman.
05:32The medium M4A2 Sherman tank, with a 75-millimeter main cannon, its firepower is a significant upgrade in the Marines' armored capability.
05:53How do they compare?
05:54With the lessons learned at Guadalcanal, a victory that takes six months and comes at a cost of more than 7,000 casualties,
06:15the U.S. Marines move on to their next objective, Tarawa.
06:196,000 kilometers from Tokyo, and part of the Gilbert Island chain, Tarawa is at the outermost edge of the Japanese Pacific Empire.
06:32It's a remote and sparsely populated atoll of tiny islands and coral reefs.
06:38The Japanese realized, having executed several amphibious assaults themselves,
06:43that the best place to defeat an amphibious assault is at the water's edge,
06:46where the troops are still wading ashore, where they're still knee-deep and struggling.
06:50So most of their defenses were sighted around the perimeter of the island.
06:54So confident as Japanese Rear Admiral Keiji Shibasaki,
06:58he boasts that a million men could not take the island in a thousand years.
07:04Dug in behind the defensive seawall at Tarawa are 5,000 soldiers,
07:0965 heavy guns,
07:12and 7 tanks.
07:16These islands were so small that the entire perimeter of the island could be fortified.
07:24So there was no chance except to assault these things frontally.
07:28Advancing on Tarawa, the Americans now have 14 medium tanks,
07:34dozens of light tanks,
07:36and 20,000 Marines.
07:39November 20th, 1943.
07:53At 0500 hours, the American attack begins with a massive naval bombardment.
07:59Its aim, to destroy the Japanese defenses and breach the seawall.
08:03We could see the planes dive-bombing the island.
08:14The heavy cruisers were there.
08:15They had 12-inch guns, and they were blasting the island like crazy.
08:19What I was worried about is I was worried about why them things might hit me.
08:31At 0900 hours, the first wave of Marines go in.
08:43On a small island like Tarawa, the only thing you can do is attack right into the teeth of the defenses,
08:53just kind of slog ashore, and try to do the best you can in this frontal assault.
08:56Three waves of Amtrak's lead the attack,
09:05followed by Sea Company with 14 Shermans.
09:11A kilometer from the beaches, they're unloaded on a coral reef.
09:21Then you go in the lagoon, then you go in.
09:24And that's when things got rough.
09:31Because it's now that the U.S. tankers come within range of the Japanese heavy gun.
09:39All our positions on all beaches opened on enemy landing craft.
09:44The Americans appeared to be surprised and confused.
09:47Wading ashore through three feet of water, under murderous fire,
09:53the tankers encounter an unforeseen hazard.
09:56The shell holes, created by their own naval bombardment.
10:00All of a sudden, our tank hit a hole.
10:02They were under fire, I mean, they were throwing everything but the kitchen sink at that thing.
10:15So I opened the hatch and slid down the back of the tank into the water.
10:25And I don't know how I did it without getting hit,
10:27because all I could hear in the water was put, put, put, put, put, put all over.
10:31And out of the six tanks I had on that beach, three I've drowned out in the water.
10:41But we did get ashore with, I got ashore with three vehicles.
10:45But far from being destroyed, the Japanese seawall is still intact,
10:56barring their way and effectively trapping them on the beach.
11:02The tank, you can't drive over that five-foot seawall.
11:09And they had built, in some cases, positions actually into or just atop the seawall.
11:15It was a very effective defense, with interlocking fields of fire.
11:19What remains of C Company must now run the gauntlet of the anti-tank guns,
11:25desperate to find a breach through the seawall.
11:27And if they could manage to fire into the area behind the tracks,
11:30they could penetrate the very thin armor there.
11:36They would simply pump rounds into these tanks until they were destroyed or caught fire.
11:45Two tanks from Bale's company find a gap in the seawall and make it off the beach.
11:53It has now taken the U.S. Marines six hours to establish a beachhead on Tarawa.
12:05And the cost has been high, with 50% of their tank capability already destroyed.
12:12Looking back on it, we're pretty naive,
12:16because the intelligence did not reveal the true nature of the Japanese defenses,
12:24the tenacity of the Japanese.
12:28But with the seawall breached, the tables have now been turned.
12:32It was strange.
12:33All the Japanese defenses were oriented seaward.
12:41And we were on shore.
12:47So that once you could get in behind these things,
12:49you could knock them out by attacking the rear entrances
12:51without coming under so much intense fire.
12:59You had to find the opening.
13:01Because these things were dug into the ground
13:06and they were covered with mounds and mounds of sand.
13:14We realized you had to start firing into the openings.
13:17But we had not gone more than a hundred yards inland
13:32and we ran into this Japanese tank showed up.
13:35When I saw him and I caught him out of the corner of my eye,
13:46this movement,
13:48and I realized what it was,
13:51the Japanese tank stuck its turret up over a revetment.
13:56I told the gunner and he started to traverse over there.
14:07He probably had to traverse that gun 30, 40 degrees
14:13to get on that target.
14:17And he fired before I told him to.
14:19That was a prepared position for the Japanese tank
14:33where it could sit there and then drive, pull up,
14:39put its turret and gun up over the revetment and fire.
14:42And that's what it did.
14:43The Hago light tank armed with a 37-millimeter main gun.
14:54In a straight fight,
14:55it should prove no match for the medium Sherman M4.
14:58That projectile hit right on the end of our gun tube.
15:11Took a piece out of our gun tube
15:13and fragments came down the tube
15:16and it lit up like a Christmas tree.
15:20It was a lucky shot.
15:22It was a lucky shot.
15:25Bale's tank is disabled,
15:27but he has backup.
15:29The other tank that was with us fired.
15:41And that other tank fired,
15:43and all I know is he blew the turret off.
15:50We call them a tin can.
15:52And that's what they are.
15:53I mean, compared with our tank.
16:07It takes three days for the Marines to clear the atoll.
16:124,700 Japanese are killed,
16:15including Rear Admiral Shibasaki,
16:17with only 17 choosing to surrender.
16:20And in the space of just 76 hours,
16:25the Marines themselves lose nearly 1,000.
16:29Tarot caused a major change
16:31in the way the United States viewed the war
16:33and the attitudes, particularly.
16:35Because up to that point,
16:37on the home front,
16:38movies had always, you know,
16:40depicted people with relatively bloodless shoulder wounds
16:43or people dying with a noble, you know,
16:45quip on their lips.
16:46But for the first time,
16:47the Commandant of the Marine Corps
16:48authorized the release of photographs
16:50of American casualties,
16:52including dead Marines on the beach,
16:53dead Marines floating in the lagoon.
16:55And he made the comment,
16:56there is no royal road to Tokyo.
17:00Having punctured the Japanese Empire's
17:02first line of defense in the Pacific
17:04at Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands,
17:06the Americans now advance on the Marianas
17:09and the island of Saipan.
17:10The Japanese considered the Mariana
17:14as actually the last defensive line
17:16before the home islands.
17:19Much bigger than Tarawa
17:21and halfway to Japan itself,
17:23the Marianas hold the strategic key
17:25to the war in the Pacific.
17:30The Japanese know that if their airstrips
17:33on the Marianas are captured,
17:35American super fortress bombers
17:36will for the first time
17:37be within range of Tokyo itself.
17:40So they were prepared
17:41to defend these things
17:42with a major effort.
17:55June 15th, 1944.
17:58The U.S. Marines
17:59launched their amphibious assault.
18:01Saipan was the first
18:08of the real large landmasses
18:10that the Marines attacked
18:12during the course of the Pacific War.
18:14So the Japanese could not have
18:15as heavy a defense
18:17of the beaches themselves.
18:18We did not encounter
18:24the bomb craters
18:27at all off the beach.
18:29We didn't encounter
18:31the heavy Japanese gunfire
18:33from emplacements.
18:35And as far as I was concerned,
18:37I got my company ashore pretty easily.
18:41Unlike on Tarawa,
18:44the main Japanese defenses
18:45are situated behind the shoreline.
18:48And as the U.S. Marines
18:49advance off the beaches,
18:51they discover the Japanese
18:52are waiting for them,
18:54dug into a network
18:55of almost impregnable bunkers.
18:58All they had pillboxes all over,
19:00and they were connected underground.
19:02So they were in a pillbox over here,
19:13firing,
19:14and before you know it,
19:15they'd go underground to another one
19:17and come up again.
19:18Which means the U.S. Marines
19:20have to clear and destroy
19:22each defensive position.
19:25One by one.
19:30So the Marines
19:31not only had to kill
19:32the defenders of position,
19:33they had to physically destroy
19:35that position
19:36to keep it from being reoccupied.
19:38And the only way
19:39they can do that
19:40is to burn them out,
19:41using the newest weapon
19:42in the U.S. Marines' armory.
19:48The Satan Flame Tank
19:50is a reconditioned
19:51Stuart M3 light tank.
19:54It's 37-millimeter main cannon,
19:57refitted with a Canadian-designed
19:58Ronson flamethrower.
20:01It was an absolutely deadly weapon
20:06against any sort of fixed position
20:08because it doesn't really kill
20:11the enemy by burning,
20:12but it consumes all the oxygen
20:13and suffocates even somebody
20:14inside a closed position.
20:16With a range of just 55 meters,
20:19the flamethrowers are only effective
20:20at close quarters.
20:21The flame tank had to approach
20:24within a certain distance,
20:25rendering itself vulnerable
20:26to enemy counterattack
20:28by infantry with these
20:29little grenade mines
20:30or a suicide weapon
20:32they call the lunge mine,
20:34an anti-tank mine
20:34on the end of a bamboo pole
20:36that they would come up
20:37and shove against the side
20:38of the tank.
20:40They had a lot of success
20:41sticking these against
20:42the engine doors
20:43on the light tanks
20:44where the armor
20:45was much thinner.
20:51The Marines' advance
20:53now becomes a game
20:54of cat and mouse
20:55with the Japanese suicide bombers,
20:57with the Sherman supporting
20:59both infantry and flame tanks.
21:01So it was simply a matter
21:07of working with the infantry
21:08and slow going
21:09and digging these people out.
21:14Then we went down
21:16about a thousand yards
21:17toward a big pillow box
21:18about 20 foot high.
21:21I mean the big one.
21:31I started throwing
21:34the shells in there.
21:39We fired about,
21:40oh I'll get
21:40eight or ten shells
21:41of that thing.
21:45And nothing would happen,
21:46they just fell off.
21:48Just like me
21:49shooting my BB gun
21:50in my barn out here.
21:52They just hit it
21:53and roll off.
21:59Can you imagine?
22:00Nothing can get through that.
22:01We pulled back
22:11and the light tanks
22:12had flamethrowers on them.
22:19There's no way
22:20you can knock
22:20that thing out.
22:21You had to burn them out.
22:23That's the only way
22:24you could do it.
22:27But with its limited range,
22:29the Satan tank
22:30needs protection.
22:31I was more concerned
22:32about being spawned
22:33by the Japanese
22:34than I was
22:35about Japanese gunfire.
22:40So the idea was
22:41of course
22:42that these escort tanks
22:43could stand off
22:44in some position
22:44off to the side
22:46to the rear
22:47wherever required
22:48to protect the flame tanks
22:49from this type
22:50of counterattack.
22:50So they took
22:56flamethrowers up there
22:57and they burned them out.
23:04So as they burned them out
23:05while we picked them off.
23:07By day's end,
23:23a beachhead has been established.
23:27But the Japanese on Saipan
23:29are far from finished.
23:30As the U.S. Marines
23:36clear the Japanese defenses
23:38on Saipan,
23:39the Japanese tank formations
23:44that have been held
23:45in reserve
23:46prepare to strike back.
23:47The Japanese principle
23:50was always
23:51to try to counterattack.
23:52They had almost a cult
23:54of the attack
23:55and the counterattack.
23:57Whether we attack or not,
23:59we are going to die.
24:01Let's advance together
24:02against the American devils
24:03and leave our bones
24:05on Saipan.
24:09The problem is
24:10it came to be
24:11a kind of a situation
24:12where they saw dying
24:13in one of these things
24:14as almost a kind of a goal
24:15into itself.
24:18As night falls
24:19at the end of day two,
24:21the U.S. Marines
24:23reach one of the island's
24:24airstrips.
24:27At 0.330 hours,
24:29the heavy rumble
24:30of Japanese tanks
24:31can be heard approaching.
24:35The Japanese
24:36came over this ridgeline.
24:42Must have had
24:43every tank they had
24:44on Saipan.
24:46Because I don't know
24:47if anybody ever saw
24:48anymore Japanese tanks.
24:51It was a big, big attack.
24:53A big attack
24:53for an island like that
24:55and a force like that.
24:58They had sent in
24:59major units,
25:00including the largest
25:01single Japanese tank unit
25:03that the Americans
25:04encountered during
25:05the course of the Pacific War.
25:0737 tanks
25:09lead the Japanese charge.
25:11A full-frontal
25:12bonsai-style attack
25:13straight at the American lines.
25:19A bonsai attack
25:21is just a maze of confusion.
25:28It's just simply
25:30a horrible maze of confusion.
25:32like anything at night
25:38you can't see.
25:43You're not sure,
25:44but you know it's there.
25:45Can you hear it?
25:46man, they came up
25:51over that ridgeline.
25:54And man,
25:55we were firing
25:56and firing and firing.
26:01They just came at you
26:02and kept coming.
26:03Taking the Marines
26:07by surprise,
26:08the Japanese smash
26:10through the American
26:10front line
26:11and the battle
26:12becomes a mass brawl
26:14of tank versus tank.
26:20As they advanced
26:21to 300 yards,
26:23they encountered
26:26the anti-tank company
26:27and this tank too.
26:33It's turned into
26:33just a huge melee
26:34with things all
26:35mixed in together.
26:42Tracer bullets
26:43light up the night sky.
26:45Explosions and shell bursts
26:46illuminate the battlefield.
26:47With tanks firing
26:54at point-blank range,
26:56the Japanese Hago
26:57now finds itself
26:58hopelessly outgunned
26:59by the U.S. Sherman.
27:07And typical Japanese tanks
27:10didn't stand a chance.
27:13The Japanese armor,
27:15they had little light tanks
27:16there, but...
27:17they didn't...
27:18they didn't do any good.
27:24Their 37-millimeter guns
27:26were not big enough.
27:28Their armament
27:29was not heavy enough.
27:32Our medium tanks
27:33blew the light tanks away.
27:38Flames from the stricken tanks
27:40now enable the Americans
27:42to pick out their targets.
27:45One of the aspects
27:46of the Japanese tanks
27:47was that they were...
27:48their design was such
27:49that in a lot of cases
27:51you could actually
27:52knock them out
27:52with heavy machine gun fire.
27:57And there were instances
27:58where they smothered
27:58these things
27:59with enough 30-caliber
28:00heavy machine gun fire
28:01to actually get rounds
28:02through the vision
28:04embrasures,
28:05through small chinks
28:05in the armor,
28:06and kill the crew inside
28:09disabling the tank.
28:13We just kept...
28:14we kept
28:15mowing them down.
28:17But the more we mowed down,
28:18the more it's...
28:19the more it came.
28:19This thing went on
28:35all night long.
28:36By dawn,
28:37the Americans
28:38were able to come out
28:39over the battlefield.
28:41And there were about
28:4233 Japanese tanks,
28:44you know,
28:44in various stages
28:45of disrepair,
28:46shall we say,
28:47strewn about the battlefield.
28:48Well, walking around there
28:51looking at that
28:52after it was over,
28:53you know,
28:53it looked great.
28:55It looked great.
28:57It kind of looked like
28:58going out on a baseball field
28:59after your team
29:00wins a baseball game.
29:04The action on that night
29:06succeeded in destroying
29:07about three-quarters
29:08of the major Japanese
29:09armored force
29:10on the island.
29:11After that night attack,
29:13the Japanese
29:14had no more tanks left.
29:18Although outnumbered
29:21and overwhelmed
29:21by superior American armor,
29:24the Japanese defenders
29:25on Saipan
29:26refused to surrender.
29:29It will take
29:30the U.S. Marines
29:30another three weeks
29:32to clear the island.
29:35At the end of which,
29:37they will be confronted
29:38with the final horror,
29:40the mass suicide
29:41of Japanese civilians.
29:43They were scared
29:48of the Americans.
29:50They thought
29:51they were going to get killed
29:52and murdered
29:53and raped.
29:56They were up
29:57on the end
29:57of the island there.
29:59And the whole family
30:01would just jump off
30:02the cliff at one time.
30:06Women throwing
30:08their children off
30:09the cliffs.
30:10You know,
30:15I don't know
30:16how anybody
30:17could have
30:17stopped it.
30:25All they really
30:26had to do
30:27was raise
30:28a white flag
30:29and we wouldn't
30:30do nothing to them.
30:31with the capture
30:45of Saipan
30:46and the Marianas,
30:47the Americans
30:47are now within range
30:49to launch daily
30:49bombing raids
30:50against Japan itself
30:52in preparation
30:54for a full-scale invasion.
30:56But Iwo Jima,
31:01a tiny volcanic island
31:02situated halfway
31:03between Saipan
31:04and the Japanese mainland,
31:06remains a thorn
31:07in the American side.
31:09It was a Japanese
31:10radar base
31:11that gave them
31:12hours of warning
31:13of the approach
31:13of the American raids
31:14and Japanese fighter planes
31:17flying out of there
31:18were picking off
31:19crippled American bombers
31:20trying to make it
31:21back to the Marianas.
31:22Measuring just
31:2321 square kilometers,
31:25Iwo Jima is an
31:26unremarkable dot
31:27in the ocean.
31:29But the battle
31:30that raged here
31:31would make it infamous
31:32in the annals
31:33of the U.S. Marine Corps.
31:36February 19, 1945.
31:41To their surprise,
31:43the Marines'
31:44amphibious landing
31:45is unopposed
31:46by the Japanese.
31:48Contrary to
31:49Defense at the Water's Edge,
31:51at Iwo Jima,
31:52what they had planned
31:53to do was to actually
31:54let the Americans
31:55come ashore.
32:02The first problem
32:02that presented itself
32:03at Iwo Jima
32:04was simply the nature
32:05of the beaches.
32:05A lot of the beach sand
32:07is not sand in the sense
32:08we normally think of it,
32:09but volcanic ash.
32:10And a man
32:11jumping out
32:12of a landing craft
32:13and struggling
32:14up onto the beach,
32:15when he got into
32:16the dry sand,
32:17every step you took,
32:18you sank in
32:18up to your knees.
32:19vehicles just floundered in it,
32:26tanks trying to advance
32:28through it.
32:28The tracks would begin
32:29to churn this material,
32:31but the tank would be
32:31sitting on its belly
32:32with its tracks churning
32:33and just throwing up ash
32:35and sinking in deeper
32:36and deeper and deeper.
32:36When we hit the beach,
32:41that loose volcanic ash
32:44had built up into the tracks
32:46to where one of the tracks
32:49exploded.
32:50As the first tanks
32:56advance off the beaches
32:57and get onto firmer ground,
32:59they encounter a new danger.
33:08What they were doing
33:09was burying a 500-pound bomb
33:14about that far underground
33:16and then setting
33:18a 10-pound anti-tank mine
33:21on it.
33:24In some cases,
33:25these were command detonated.
33:27They could be detonated
33:28electronically by somebody
33:29waiting in a nearby cave.
33:31The American tanks push on,
33:34not knowing when or where
33:36another mine will strike.
33:42The tank went up in the air.
33:44The turret come off
33:46and landed right side up.
33:51And the tank went over.
33:55The driver and the sister driver,
33:58they're dead before the dirt clears.
34:00It made a hole big enough
34:27to almost bury the tank in.
34:30And everybody in it was dead.
34:39Each step taken by the U.S. Marines
34:41on Iwo Jima
34:42will be fraught
34:43with unforeseen dangers.
34:47One military engineer
34:48who looked at the island of Iwo Jima
34:51after the battle
34:51said that it was probably
34:52the most heavily fortified place
34:54on the planet.
34:57To protect themselves
34:59against magnetic mines,
35:01the tankers have bolted wooden planks
35:03to the sides of the Shermans.
35:07But as the Marines
35:09are about to discover,
35:10the Japanese no longer
35:12have to rely on suicide attacks.
35:15Because for the first time
35:16in the war in the Pacific,
35:18Japanese gun capability
35:20is now a match for the Sherman.
35:27One of the major obstacles
35:28that the American tanks
35:29had to cross
35:30was two interconnected airfields
35:32on the central part of the island.
35:40And the real problem
35:41was that a lot of the Japanese
35:42anti-tank guns
35:43had been positioned
35:44to defend this open ground
35:45because they knew
35:47that this central plateau
35:48was going to be
35:49a major axis of advance
35:51for any sort of tank.
35:56The idea was
35:57just smother them
35:58with artillery fire
35:59and that's what they did.
36:00There was mortars
36:10and big guns
36:13flying all over around them.
36:19It was essentially built up
36:21as one huge ambush.
36:26The 47
36:27on EWO,
36:30that's the first time
36:30we met
36:31the 47s.
36:36The breech-loading
36:3747-millimeter
36:38anti-tank gun.
36:41With a barrel length
36:42of 2.5 meters
36:43and a muzzle velocity
36:44of 830 meters per second,
36:47it presents
36:48the first serious challenge
36:50to U.S. armor
36:51in the Pacific.
36:51Yeah, they would go
36:57through the tank
36:58anywhere it wanted to.
37:07As the tanks advanced
37:08over this relatively
37:09open terrain,
37:10these 47-millimeter
37:11anti-tank guns,
37:12and in some cases
37:13larger guns,
37:14were able to fire
37:15into the sides
37:15and rear of the tank.
37:16You know,
37:24any time you
37:24penetrate the engine,
37:25that's going
37:25to disable the tank.
37:28So it was vulnerable,
37:30you know,
37:30to fire
37:31if it was engaged
37:33from the rear.
37:35There are photographs
37:37of tanks
37:38that have anywhere
37:39from 12 to 15 penetrations
37:41on one side
37:42of the tank alone.
37:42Yeah, a lot of tanks
37:54were gunned in.
38:02It's really always
38:03difficult to assess
38:04how many tanks
38:05were knocked out
38:05in any particular action,
38:07but the estimate
38:08for this one
38:09is somewhere
38:09around 33 or so.
38:12The American advance
38:14is slow
38:14and the cost
38:15is high,
38:16but it's also
38:17unstoppable.
38:23And on the fifth day
38:24of the battle
38:24for Iwo Jima,
38:25the U.S. Marines
38:26plant the stars
38:27and stripes
38:28on the summit
38:28of Mount Suribachi,
38:30the highest point
38:31on the island.
38:34And Joel Rosenthal's
38:36photograph
38:36will become
38:37an iconic image,
38:38not only of the Marines'
38:39triumph,
38:40but also
38:41of their struggle.
38:42It will take
38:44another 30 days
38:45of the fiercest fighting
38:46in the whole
38:47of the Pacific War
38:48for the Americans
38:49to secure the island.
38:54And with 26,000
38:56wounded or killed,
38:57it's the only battle
38:58in which the U.S. Marines
39:00suffer more casualties
39:02than the Japanese.
39:04We had all kinds
39:06of good information,
39:07but whether it was
39:10going to be
39:10as bad as it was,
39:13I don't think
39:14we had any idea
39:16that it was
39:16going to be
39:18a month long,
39:19but it got dangerous.
39:23a lot of guys
39:32bought it.
39:34A hell of a lot.
39:40By the spring
39:41of 1945,
39:43the Axis powers
39:44are on the brink
39:45of total defeat.
39:46In the Pacific War,
39:51the U.S. Marine Corps
39:52has fought
39:525,500 kilometers
39:54halfway across the ocean
39:56to reach
39:57Japanese home territory.
40:01Okinawa,
40:02600 kilometers
40:03from the mainland,
40:04is the first
40:05of the home islands
40:06to be attacked.
40:07But with nowhere
40:10left to retreat,
40:12the Japanese
40:12are prepared
40:13to defend Okinawa
40:14and their homeland
40:16to the death.
40:25I figured we'd have
40:27to fight
40:27the whole Japanese.
40:28Yeah.
40:29And it's bad
40:30because they're going
40:31to fight,
40:31they'd fight
40:32to the last man.
40:34April 19th,
40:361945.
40:38The battle
40:38for Okinawa
40:39is raging.
40:41Working in tandem
40:42with ground troops,
40:4330 tanks advance
40:44against Japanese
40:45infantry positions
40:46on Kokosu Ridge.
40:48Tanks are very vulnerable
40:49to close infantry assault.
40:52When a tank
40:53comes under attack
40:53by enemy infantry,
40:54the preferred method
40:55is having your own
40:55infantry with you.
40:57But in the heat
40:57of the battle,
40:58the U.S. tanks
40:59lose contact
41:00with their own infantry.
41:07They sent a lot
41:09of the medium tanks
41:10out into Japanese
41:12occupied territory
41:13unescorted by infantry.
41:17Undefended
41:18by ground troops,
41:19the column makes
41:20a power drive
41:21through enemy lines,
41:22which are teeming
41:23with anti-tank guns.
41:24They had all these
41:27artillery pieces
41:29and heavy anti-tank guns
41:30in caves.
41:33They'd roll them out
41:34and fire them,
41:35and they were good at it.
41:37Twenty-two tanks
41:46make it as far
41:46as Kokosu Village,
41:48a booby-trapped
41:49Japanese stronghold.
41:51Where lacking
41:52any ground reconnaissance,
41:54the tankers
41:55are ambushed.
42:04Cut off
42:05deep within enemy lines
42:06and with no hope
42:07of reinforcement,
42:09the tankers' only chance
42:10is to blast
42:11and burn their way out.
42:14I mean,
42:15those people
42:15are trying to kill you,
42:16and you're going to kill them.
42:18That's it.
42:28Of the 30 tanks
42:29that set out
42:30on the mission,
42:31only eight returned.
42:36Kokosu Ridge
42:38is the last major
42:43tank engagement
42:44of the Pacific War,
42:45although Okinawa
42:46will not be taken
42:47for another two months.
43:00Losses on both sides
43:02are dreadful
43:02with more than
43:04100,000 fatalities.
43:09But however desperate
43:11their defense
43:12of their homeland,
43:13the Japanese cause
43:14is now hopeless.
43:15By June 1945,
43:27Okinawa is secured.
43:34On August 6,
43:36Theonola Gay
43:37takes off
43:38from the Marianas
43:39to drop the first
43:40atomic bomb
43:40on Hiroshima.
43:41And within a week
44:01of the second bomb
44:02on Nagasaki,
44:03the Japanese surrender
44:05unconditionally.
44:06Of all the campaigns
44:20of the Second World War,
44:22none was more fiercely
44:23contested
44:24than the South Pacific.
44:26For the Japanese,
44:28the cost is enormous.
44:32Total defeat,
44:34and more than
44:35two million casualties.
44:40Casualties for the U.S. Marines alone
44:42amount to more than
44:4395,000 men.
44:46But ultimate victory
44:48is theirs.
44:50You do your job.
44:53You don't...
44:54All you do is
44:55get him before he gets you.
44:56That's the name of the game.
44:58And central to the U.S. victory
45:01was the role
45:03of the tanker.
45:05I feel proud
45:06of the tanker.
45:10Tanks are always
45:11part of it.
45:12I've always been
45:13very proud
45:13of that tank gunning.
45:19They wouldn't have
45:20went in the world
45:20without tanks
45:21as far as I'm concerned.
45:23But between the tanks
45:24and the ground troops,
45:25that's what took
45:26the islands.
45:28I'm scared
45:29about another
45:31room.
45:341944
45:48War
45:50War
45:51War
45:53War
45:55War
45:56War
45:58Gracias por ver el video.
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