- 2 days ago
World War II With Tom Hanks S01E06 Guadalcanal englishsubtitle watchfull🎯🎯
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:05It's hard to comprehend the scale of the Pacific Asian theater war. It stretches from Hawaii to
00:11Burma, from the Aleutian Islands to Indochina. In 1942, the United States sends fighting men
00:18to far-up places most Americans had never heard of. They are soldiers, sailors, airmen,
00:24and Marines from every town in America. They will confront an enemy whose moral code does not
00:30permit surrender. All wars change the world, but none of them change the world like the Second
00:38World War did. Japan's on the march. Germany's on the march. No one can imagine a nightmare they're
00:46about to unleash. The most destructive war in human history. Suddenly, the world is turned upside down.
00:54And all hell is let loose. The West is stunned by the speed of the advance. You get the allies
01:03led by
01:04the big three. Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin. Men who are dealing with immensely complicated questions.
01:13It's the biggest military operation of human history. The allies have to come together,
01:19not just militarily, but industrial scale. It's a global perspective. They have to fight in every
01:25climate from the Arctic to the jungles of the Pacific, to the deserts of Africa, and the depths of the
01:31ocean.
01:35But there was no certainty of victory. It was going to be a horrific bloodbath.
01:41We see humans at their absolute worst, how they treat other human beings. And we see them at their
01:47absolute best, willing to give their lives that others might live. World War II was a struggle in
01:53which there could be one victor and one vanquish.
02:01World War II
02:02World War II
02:04World War II
02:07World War II
02:20Hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan invades the Philippines.
02:31World War II
02:35World War II
02:36World War II
02:36World War II
02:38World War II
02:41World War II
02:42World War II
02:42World War II
02:42World War II
02:42World War II
02:46World War II
02:55World War II
03:04In the event of a Japanese major invasion, the forces would withdraw to Bataan.
03:12Bataan is strategically located next to Manila Bay.
03:16It's this rocky peninsula. It's got two dormant volcanoes that are sitting in the middle of it.
03:21And so it's really good defensive terrain.
03:25On December 23, 1941, U.S. and Filipino troops begin their retreat to the peninsula of Bataan.
03:37You have this chaotic retreat.
03:41About 100,000 U.S. and Filipino troops, and we should add the 25,000 civilians,
03:49Filipino but also Americans, now desperate to escape the attacking Japanese.
03:57As the troops retreat, the Japanese continue following a well-planned,
04:03well-coordinated offensive aimed at British and Dutch colonies.
04:12They have already invaded Burma, Borneo, and Malaya.
04:17They take Hong Kong on Christmas Day, then move further into Malaya.
04:24Malaya is considered difficult jungle terrain.
04:29But the Japanese, using bicycle infantry and some tanks, managed to push south to the island of Singapore,
04:40known as the Gibraltar of the East.
04:46Singapore was our military base with its massive naval facilities.
04:53Guns facing into the sea so that it could protect that position,
04:58and really a military HQ for the empire in the Far East.
05:03They begin their assault on February 8th.
05:15Winston Churchill, back in London, is looking on in horror.
05:19He's an empire man.
05:20He said many times he didn't come to power to oversee the liquidation of His Majesty's empire.
05:26But it's crumbling before his eyes.
05:30Churchill cannot abandon the defense of Britain and the Battle of the Atlantic.
05:37He cannot risk losing the whole of the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Middle East to Axis forces.
05:44So what's got to go?
05:46Unfortunately for Churchill, he's got to scrimp and save when it comes to defense in the Far East.
05:52It's just too much for Britain to handle.
06:00The Japanese take advantage of British military mistakes and capture the island in only seven days.
06:09Tens of thousands of Commonwealth troops are trapped and imprisoned.
06:17Singapore was the granite foundation of the British Empire in Asia.
06:23And boom, in the space of days, it falls.
06:34The idea that Japanese forces could go into this historic place,
06:38a real symbol of British power and prestige in Asia, and take it within such a short time,
06:44is absolutely tremendous as far as Japanese are concerned.
06:48This is Britain's fall of Rome moment in its Asian empire.
06:54Japan has plunged into the war and is ravaging the beautiful, fertile, prosperous,
07:00and densely populated lands of the Far East.
07:04The British Empire now for centuries had been the most powerful empire the world had ever seen.
07:10The Japanese had cracked it like an egg.
07:15By the time the shock of Pearl Harbor, you know, wears off,
07:18the Japanese have taken their empire and expanded it seemingly overnight.
07:28Japan's Asian offensive has two primary war aims.
07:32First, the seizure of raw materials like oil and rubber.
07:37Second, to replace the Western colonial powers who have long dominated the region
07:44and establish an empire of their own.
07:49This is one of the most audacious offensives in military history.
07:56In late 1941, early 1942, it's good news every week, almost every day coming in.
08:04They are liberating Asia. They are pushing back white Western colonial power.
08:14The speed and scope of the Japanese offensive stuns the world.
08:20A year earlier, General Tomoyuki Namishita, the commander of the assault on the Philippines,
08:26consults with Japan's Axis ally, Nazi Germany.
08:31Japan is eager to adapt the Wehrmacht's blitzkrieg tactics to a very different theater of war.
08:41He was really admiring the German blitzkrieg, the German lightning war.
08:45And he took the German blitzkrieg as the role model for a future Japanese war in Southeast Asia.
08:52So we must surprise the enemy. We must be fast.
08:59It's always movement, movement, movement.
09:02For the enemy, for their enemy, for the allies, it looks like the Japanese aren't even thinking
09:06about what they're doing because they're moving so fast and they're moving constantly.
09:12But this has a kind of shock effect on the troops there that are trying to defend the peninsula.
09:21The Japanese have learned to move quickly, move stealthily. They fight well at night,
09:29which is what most armies are not good at. They are pretty good at operational art,
09:34don't attack strong points, envelop the enemy, put them in untenable positions,
09:38either in time or space. And hence, it defines a lot of their victories early in the war.
09:45The British underestimated the Japanese. I think part of that was racism. I think they were,
09:51they were astonished that a non-European race could defeat Europeans in battle.
09:58They didn't consider Asian people capable of what the Japanese are doing. After the Japanese land in Malaya,
10:06Singapore's governor, Sir Shenton Thomas, allegedly says,
10:10well, I suppose you'll have to shove the little men off.
10:17But British hubris is no match for Japanese military prowess.
10:24There had always been this faction in the Imperial Japanese army called the Kodoha,
10:29the Imperial Way faction, whose belief was because of Japan's extraordinary fighting spirit
10:35and the blood of their soldiers, we can overcome the odds. And that really is drummed into the soldiers.
10:43So there is this esprit de corps within the Japanese army. It's guided by this belief in Bushido,
10:49the way of the warrior.
10:53Japanese military discipline is instilled by physically harsh measures.
10:59Officers abuse non-commissioned officers, who in turn, abuse the men.
11:05You can see in diaries and in letters home, people saying,
11:09I got beaten up today. I got slapped. I got punched. I had a rifle butt get me in the
11:14stomach.
11:16There is a fair amount of ritualistic abuse that takes place as they go through,
11:22what they would refer to as lessons.
11:26It's all about self-sacrifice. They are all about suppressing individual needs and desires
11:31for the sense of whatever the nation needs, for whatever the emperor might need.
11:40In just two months of fighting, Japan has achieved most of its objectives and appears to be winning the war.
11:48Except in the Philippines, where U.S. and Filipino troops are fighting back.
12:07After more than a month of fighting, U.S. and Filipino forces continue to resist the Japanese on the Bataan
12:15Peninsula.
12:17But supplies, food and ammunition are running perilously short.
12:23Supplies, provisions, ammunition, they're strewn about the Philippine Islands and they're not where the defenders need them.
12:31The American forces are now completely isolated and surrounded.
12:40They don't have what they need to survive.
12:44The men spend a lot of their time just foraging for food.
12:47Every snake, monkey, anything within the Bataan Peninsula is fair game.
12:55The commanding officer of both American and Filipino troops in the Philippines is the charismatic and controversial General Douglas MacArthur.
13:05MacArthur is the son of a civil war hero.
13:08MacArthur is the son of a civil war hero.
13:08He's confident, courageous, a proven battlefield leader.
13:14MacArthur is begging for more troops, for more supplies, for more ships.
13:19But none of those things are coming.
13:20The U.S. doesn't have them.
13:24The Japanese, of course, they're coming after MacArthur's force.
13:27They know they can't leave an army like this with MacArthur and consider the Philippines have been occupied.
13:39In Washington, President Roosevelt faces a very difficult situation.
13:43The American people expect the troops to be supported, but he knows resupplying and reinforcing Bataan is impossible.
13:52Also, for both political and symbolic reasons, he must retrieve General MacArthur from the Philippines.
13:59You couldn't afford to let MacArthur be captured.
14:03You couldn't do it because it was bad for the American spirit.
14:07You can't let a man like this go down.
14:11He's a figure of history.
14:17MacArthur does everything he can to inspire his troops in Bataan.
14:20And he's prepared to go down with the ship.
14:24But FDR orders MacArthur to leave the Philippines.
14:32Three weeks later, he sends a rescue operation.
14:36And MacArthur, with his wife and young son, leaves the Philippines on a small torpedo boat.
14:44He promises, I will return.
14:47And this is his commitment to the American people, but more importantly, to himself.
14:56Knowing that America must make a stand, General MacArthur issues a final order to his men.
15:05MacArthur orders the garrison to fight to the last, which is completely unrealistic.
15:16Soldiers are dying in medical tents merely because there's not enough medicine to save them.
15:20So everybody's in a weakened condition, but the defense is quite heroic.
15:28But the soldiers on Bataan realize that they're being sacrificed.
15:35So the battling bastards of Bataan is written by a journalist named Hewitt.
15:39The battling bastards of Bataan.
15:42No mamas, no papas, no Uncle Sam.
15:45No aunts, no uncles, no cousins, no nieces, no pills, no planes, no artillery pieces.
15:50And no one gives a damn.
15:52For all the people left in Bataan, I'm sure that's exactly what they thought.
16:04After four months of fatigue, hunger and disease, the Bataan garrison surrenders.
16:15But their ordeal is just beginning.
16:20The Japanese didn't expect that so many allied defenders of the Philippines would actually
16:25surrender and become prisoners of war.
16:33One of the things you're taught in the Japanese military is you don't surrender.
16:38You're disgracing your family.
16:40You're disgracing your home, your village, your country, the emperor.
16:45Surrender is dishonorable, not only to yourself, but to your family.
16:48Anybody who surrenders is inherently dishonorable.
16:53The idea that you would surrender and that you would expect to be treated with respect,
16:59having done so, really is disgusting to a lot of the Japanese soldiers.
17:06The Japanese marched the 75,000 American and Filipino troops to a POW camp 65 miles north of Bataan.
17:17These men are exhausted. They're malnourished. The Japanese, they line them up and they march them out.
17:25In 110 degree heat with no food,
17:28no water and Japanese guards just beating you and kicking you and stabbing you the whole way.
17:38And so if you're a recruit out there and you've received umpteen beatings from your own senior officers
17:43on the way to where you are now, then it's a very short hop to having a Westerner in front
17:48of you,
17:48asking for food, asking for water and slapping them, punching them, perhaps even shooting them.
17:56The Japanese will drink their canteens and then dump the contents out on the roadside.
18:04Wounded troops will fall to the ground. They will be instantly banded or shot.
18:10They have been taught to regard Western soldiers, and I think white Western civilians generally,
18:17with really no respect at all. These people are lesser, almost to the point of being a slightly lesser
18:22species. Thousands die on what will become known as the Bataan Death March.
18:35The loss of the Philippines will cripple America's military capability in the Pacific
18:41for months. It's also a serious blow to morale at home.
18:46In a matter of just a few months, the Japanese have conquered an empire of 500
18:52million people. The Japanese have the upper hand in the Pacific.
18:57It's not clear what or who can stop them.
19:14Spring in Tokyo. Japan controls vast areas of the Pacific and Southeast Asia.
19:20To protect this growing empire, Japan will consolidate its new territory and push into
19:27various island chains to create an even stronger barrier against the United States.
19:36The Japanese say we've got to consolidate our position quickly. We have to create a defensive
19:41bastion between the United States and Japan. So all these island chains, threaded like pearls,
19:48generals, they have got to be strengthened. They've got to be fortified into some kind of defensive perimeter.
19:54Japan deploys thousands of troops to outposts stretching far into the South Pacific.
20:01The Japanese are making absolutely sure that what they've got, they will hold.
20:16In the US, war production accelerates. FDR calls for 60,000 planes and 125,000 tanks to be produced in
20:271942.
20:29And in June, the US Navy defeats the Japanese at the Battle of Midway.
20:37It's Japan's first decisive defeat.
20:41The victory at Midway has taken place in June 1942, but this is a naval victory. It's only directed
20:47against Japanese warships. Eventually, the Americans know they're going to have to retake
20:51real estate. They're going to actually have to capture islands. The Japanese plan in the South
20:58Pacific is to build a lot of airstrips which are going to allow them to use air power to defend
21:04these stronghold positions. To counter, America sends in the old breed,
21:12the 1st Marine Division. The Marine Corps was always soldiers from the sea. Back in the revolution,
21:20when we invade Nassau, right? We are meant to come from the sea. That's the mission. In support of the
21:26Navy. That's their purpose. After World War I, what they really start to do is turn their attention to,
21:31what does the next war look like? And what they start to realize is Japan is becoming a power in
21:36the Pacific. If we're going to fight in the Pacific, then we need to figure out how to conduct amphibious
21:40landings.
21:43Amphibious landings on this scale are unprecedented.
21:47Well, there's no sneaking up on an island. They can see ships coming. So everything across the beach
21:53is a frontal assault. Machine guns, rapid fire artillery. It's suicide. Terrible idea. And the Marine
21:59Corps goes, got it. We'll take that one. And that's how they get into amphibious operations,
22:05because that would be what was necessary to operate in the Pacific.
22:10The training for the U.S. Marines Corps is probably the toughest in the U.S. Armed Forces
22:14at this point. They are designed for amphibious warfare, but to travel relatively lightly, because,
22:21of course, if you attack a coast from the sea, you can't take much heavy equipment with you.
22:25Their job is as an elite assault force, but don't leave them in a campaign for too long,
22:31because they don't have all the heavy weapons to be able to do the job over a considerable period of
22:37time.
22:39The Navy has ships, and the Army has tanks and artillery. What does the Marine Corps have?
22:44It has culture. So if you join the Marine Corps, it's because maybe you can be one of those elite.
22:50You know you get to go fight the Japanese.
22:57The majority are new recruits. They're relatively inexperienced. They've had some pretty hurried
23:03training. And now, all of a sudden, in 1942, they're going to go into action against what they know and
23:10fear is a very formidable opponent. They've read a lot of the stories about how the Japanese are almost
23:17supermen. Until we actually face them in close combat, we'll never know if we're good enough to
23:23take on these guys.
23:26In the summer of 1942, an American B-17 on routine patrol reports that the Japanese are building an
23:35airstrip on the largest of the Solomon Islands, Guadalcanal.
23:45If the Japanese are successful, they will build an air base on Guadalcanal and potentially sever
23:49the lines of communication with Australia, which is meant to be a jumping off point for any campaign
23:55that's going to come from the Southern Pacific. We cannot let that happen.
24:01The Americans know that Australia is crucial to their hold over the Pacific.
24:09What's at stake certainly for the United States Marine Corps is they've hitched their horse to
24:13this idea of amphibious operations. Now they actually have to go execute it.
24:20If the Americans are going to roll back Japanese power in the Pacific,
24:24it's going to have to be boots on the ground. And boots on the ground, it will be in Guadalcanal.
24:40Early on August 7th, 1942, the 1st Marine Division approaches Guadalcanal.
24:51They are the first U.S. troops to take the offensive in World War II.
24:57What's interesting about all amphibious landings is that if they're opposed and you don't really
25:02understand the terrain you're getting into, there's always the possibility of disaster. And
25:07that was absolutely the case at Guadalcanal.
25:20After the naval bombardment, the Marines will land and attempt to capture the airfield and secure the
25:26island. The intelligence for the landings at Guadalcanal is so thin that they don't know what
25:32the interior looks like. And they certainly don't know how many defending troops are there.
26:0010,000 Marines reach the shore.
26:08To their relief, the landing is unopposed. There are no Japanese defending the beachhead.
26:18The Japanese have only 2,500 men on the island, most of them conscripted labor to build the airfield.
26:27The Marines are astonished at how easy it is. They move inland and then very quickly capture the airfield.
26:36The Marines build a defensive perimeter around the airstrip, which they name Henderson Field,
26:44after a Marine dive bomber killed at the Battle of Midway.
26:51Supplies for the Marines on Guadalcanal are being held just offshore by a U.S. Navy task force anchored in
26:59Sabo Sound.
27:05But two days after the landing, the calm of Sabo Sound is shattered.
27:20It's the middle of the night. These American cruisers are asleep. They don't come to battle stations quickly.
27:34In the space of 25 to 30 minutes, the Japanese have sunk four Allied cruisers, killed more than 1,000
27:43Allied sailors.
27:48So it's a disastrous defeat for the Americans, the worst naval defeat since Pearl Harbor.
27:54You've got bodies washing up on the shore. It's grisly.
28:01So many American ships are sunk that Sabo Sound is christened Iron Bottom Sound.
28:12Vulnerable to air attack, the task force pulls out before they've unloaded all the Marines' food and ammunition.
28:23General Vandergrift is the commander of the 1st Marine Division. He's understandably upset that
28:28the Navy have skedaddled. But it's absolutely vital also that he gives a sense of confidence to his men.
28:36We're going to get through this. We are U.S. Marines after all.
28:40The first wave of Japanese troops land east of the Marines' defensive perimeter on August 18.
28:48Their objective, Henderson Airfield.
28:54The airfield is in a key position to maintain the shipping lanes from America to Australia.
29:01That supply line is like the Allied sciatic nerve. So this is a very serious development.
29:10It must have been very spooky for the Marines. They are abandoned on the island.
29:14They can hear the Japanese ships coming in. They know there must be trouble ahead.
29:21What options do ground forces have? You can attack, you can defend, and you can retreat.
29:27Well, guess what? The Marines can no longer retreat. So no matter what, we're going to have to fight it
29:33out.
29:36The untested Marines are about to face Japanese soldiers for the first time.
29:54The U.S. Marines
30:11The Marine Division is dug in around Henderson Airfield, bracing for a Japanese assault.
30:22Commanding the Japanese troops is the veteran colonel Kianao Ichiki.
30:29The Marines know that all the Japanese have done up to this point is win.
30:34They start to almost have these superpowers.
30:38They're quiet at night. They're all snipers.
30:41They don't require any arrest. They're fanatical.
30:44All of these things start to build almost a super samurai adversary.
30:50On August 21st, Ichiki's troops attack the Marine lines.
31:00The Marines respond with rifle, mortar, and machine gun fire.
31:13The Japanese have got about 200 guys trying to get across this sand spit and then moan down.
31:21Ichiki just sloughs that off. He'll launch two more attacks.
31:28The Marines will beat them back.
31:31The fighting is brutal.
31:36Often hand to hand.
31:41Some Japanese soldiers even use ancestral samurai swords.
31:52The battle doesn't end until 5 o'clock that evening.
31:5744 Marines are dead.
32:01But nearly 900 Japanese soldiers are killed.
32:07The Marines are stunned.
32:10How could a battalion commander throw 900 men away?
32:14Who would do that?
32:19After the battle, Colonel Ichiki commits suicide.
32:25Just a single Japanese soldier surrenders.
32:31They may look dead, but if they've got a weapon, they're going to shoot you when you go past.
32:36If they've got a grenade, they may blow themselves up with a grenade to kill you.
32:40This is a different kind of enemy.
32:44The U.S. Marines on Guadalcanal realized that to combat that and to protect themselves,
32:50they are going to have to be equally ruthless.
32:52And this produced an incredibly brutal form of warfare that I think was unequaled in the Second World War.
32:59The Marines now understand what will be required to defend Guadalcanal.
33:07The island has become a proving ground for a generation of young Americans.
33:16The Japanese conduct regular airstrikes on Henderson Field.
33:25And continue to move men and supplies into attacking positions.
33:31Every night, the Japanese are using fast transports and depositing troops and supplies on Guadalcanal
33:37via what's going to be known as the Tokyo Express.
33:43They are absolutely determined to retake this island.
33:46Their whole strategy for moving forward in the Southern Pacific is based on recapturing Guadalcanal.
33:53And they're going to pretty much send as many troops as they can to make sure that they do the
33:58job.
34:00Van der Grift and his staff start taking preventative action in case they're overwhelmed.
34:06So they start burning vital intelligence papers.
34:10By October, the Japanese force has more than doubled its size.
34:15But the U.S. Navy is able to resupply the Marines from newly constructed supply bases.
34:23Guadalcanal is now a battle of attrition.
34:26Who will give in first?
34:30The Japanese are very good at night attacks, and so nights are horrific.
34:38Imagine being a 19 or 20-year-old American kid.
34:41And you're in a foxhole, maybe with one other person, right?
34:44One guy sleeps, the other is on watch.
34:45And you can hear the other foxholes with your compatriots, but they're not visible in the dark.
34:49And remember, these islands are really black as night.
34:52And you hear screaming from another foxhole.
34:59This is life or death.
35:03You go to sleep.
35:04You may not wake up.
35:06This man was with you 24 hours ago.
35:10Now his throat's cut in a foxhole next to you.
35:17This is a war of man against man.
35:20This is personal.
35:24And as darkness comes down every night, the fear grows deeper and deeper.
35:33Even though they're deprived of sleep, lack sufficient food, and battle tropical diseases,
35:42the Marines maintain their morale.
35:46But their casualty rate is climbing.
35:49And they begin to suspect they're being abandoned.
35:56A lot of people are catching malaria, dysentery.
35:59They don't have enough food.
36:01They're just becoming increasingly incapable of functioning.
36:08General Vandegrift estimates that less than half his force is fit enough to fight.
36:15The Japanese are still coming.
36:17Guadalcanal is gonna be where the Japanese teach the Americans the cost of punching a hole in that defense perimeter.
36:24They'll say, look at the effort it took.
36:26Look at the number of men you lost on Guadalcanal.
36:29How long do you think it'll take you to batter your way across the Pacific?
36:38One night, two months into the battle, the Japanese deliver a bombardment designed to crush the Marine spirits.
36:47But the Marines just dig their foxholes deeper.
36:53A thousand shells are sent over in 80 minutes.
36:57We're talking about 14-inch shells, described by some of the guys like the weight of small cars.
37:05Most of the Marines' planes at Henderson Field are destroyed in the bombardment.
37:16The U.S. reinforces the Marines.
37:20But the Japanese reinforce their troops as well.
37:25Control of the island and the entire U.S. campaign in the Pacific is at stake.
37:32All eyes are on Guadalcanal.
37:47In America, Guadalcanal is front page news.
37:51It's on everyone's minds.
37:54It was observed, Guadalcanal is not a name, but an emotion.
38:01You young Americans today are conducting yourselves in a manner that is worthy of the highest, proudest traditions of our
38:11nation.
38:12All the attention of the American public is focused on this island.
38:16Roosevelt knows this is the first big American ground offensive of the war, is going horribly wrong.
38:23They have to hold on to Guadalcanal.
38:28Roosevelt sends a note to the Joint Chiefs and says,
38:30I want to be sure of something, that every available man, ship and plane is being devoted to the struggle
38:37on Guadalcanal.
38:38We here at home are supremely conscious of our obligations to you. We will not let you down.
38:51The campaign gets a new commander, Admiral William Bull Halsey.
38:59Halsey is coming into this campaign as like a defibrillator on the heart.
39:03Halsey looks the part. Halsey is this leathery, old commander who's been successful.
39:09He's a can-do, combative guy. He can't wait to get to the Japanese.
39:12His line was, you hit him hard, you hit him fast, you hit him often.
39:16This is entirely in keeping with the mentality of your average Marine.
39:23Admiral Halsey promises the Marines all the support they need on Guadalcanal.
39:28In just a few weeks, he gets the chance to demonstrate it.
39:34A large Japanese fleet carrying 14,000 troops is approaching Guadalcanal.
39:43This body of water is the size of a bathtub.
39:46So risking your battleships to send them up to Iron Bottom Sound, I mean, it honestly makes the hair stand
39:51up on the back of my neck even now.
39:53But Halsey is determined that he is going to fight with everything that he's got, and so he pushes all
39:59his chips into the middle of the table.
40:07Halsey instructs the U.S. Navy Task Force to attack the Japanese fleet in the Sound.
40:22For two days, American and Japanese warships battle in Savo Sound.
40:35The fighting is fierce.
40:40It's ship-to-ship combat at its most intense.
40:52Nearly 2,000 Americans are killed.
40:56But the Japanese are only able to land a quarter of their force.
41:05Bull Halsey and the U.S. Navy have turned the tide.
41:10And the Japanese begin to withdraw from Guadalcanal.
41:18Most of the Marines on Guadalcanal are relieved by the U.S. Army.
41:24A generation of Americans have proven to the world that they're capable of fighting this war.
41:31But Guadalcanal has also revealed how long and difficult this conflict is going to be.
41:38And how steep the price of victory.
41:47It was the first clash of arms between the Japanese Army and American Marines and soldiers.
41:55And in that victory, the Americans came out ahead.
42:03Halsey put it best when he said, prior to the battle, the Japanese advanced at their will.
42:10After the battle, they retreated at Oz.
42:14It's a long road to Tokyo.
42:16But Guadalcanal is the first step.
42:24The Marines who hold the line for months on Guadalcanal are sure their country has forgotten them.
42:31But when the 1st Marine Division is relieved by Army units and sent to Australia to recuperate,
42:37they learn that they're actually heroes.
42:40That year, in 1942, Hitler escalates his campaign against the Jews of Europe to an unimaginable level.
Comments