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The 1944 invasions of the Marshall Islands (Operations Flintlock and Catchpole) were pivotal World War II Central Pacific campaigns launched in January and February 1944. They marked the U.S. military’s shift to large-scale island-hopping, seizing Japanese-held atolls to build advanced naval and air bases
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00:00.
00:39The End
00:59What makes a battle?
01:01This is what it takes to make a battle.
01:04These are American supplies out of the factories, foundries, mines harvested from the soil.
01:09Pouring in from all sections, all states, from the East and the South, from the Midwest and the West.
01:17Supplies, equipment, weapons, made with one purpose and one purpose only.
01:23These are the factors of war, the backbone of battle.
01:28Take them away, destroy them, diminish them in number or quality,
01:33fail to replace them in time, and first the soldier and then the nation.
01:38Faces defeat, destruction, and death.
01:42Without them, no battle is possible.
01:45You, the millions of workers, men and women, young and old, high school kids and grandmothers,
01:50Democrats and Republicans, Protestants, Catholics and Jews, white and colored,
01:56You, who make them, know their purpose.
02:00Give them to our fighting men and you give them the overwhelming power of the world's greatest industrial democracy.
02:06The power we are now using to rid the world of the Nazis.
02:10The power that will break the empire that produced the Jap executioners and murderers.
02:16Here, we are combat loading our transport.
02:25American sea power, probably the greatest naval force ever assembled,
02:30heads for our first land penetration of Japanese territory, the Marshall Islands,
02:35center gate in Jap fortress Pacific.
02:39Timed with new blows at northern Paramashiru and southern Rabao,
02:43the invasion of the 32 Marshall Atolls stands as a masterpiece of amphibious strategy.
02:49For 75 days, our land and sea-based bombers blasted the outer islands.
02:56This was the first battle mission for many of these aircraft carriers.
03:00But our later tactics depended on them, depended on their softening blows.
03:05This was the first round in a finished fight.
03:23Remember the look of those Jap hangars.
03:24You'll see them again later.
03:26You'll see them again later.
03:45The Jap sent up planes trying to drive us off.
03:48But the attempt ended in spectacular suicide, like this.
04:20This bombardment led the Japs to expect our attack
04:22attack on the fringe of the marshals.
04:24But our blow was struck at the very center, the Kwajalein Atoll.
04:29We struck at both ends of the 70-mile atoll simultaneously.
04:33While the 7th Infantry headed for the main island of Kwajalein in the south,
04:37here in the north, the 4th Marines prepared to invade Roy and Namur.
04:43The battle wagon blasted Roy and Namur with 5,000 tons of anger, twice as much as Berlin
04:50was getting at just about the same time.
05:02The men climbed down to the assault craft and wait for the signal for H-hour.
05:11There it is.
05:31There it is.
05:38There it is.
05:57There it is.
06:08Communication posts, coordinating the battles on land, sea, and air.
06:14They started straight in, covering their advance with mortar fire.
06:18On a half-mile wide coral island, there's no room for complicated tactics and flanking.
06:23There's just infighting, shell hole hopping across flat empty sand with no cover.
06:30Each man fights his own war against the Japs, hidden out there somewhere in the rubble.
06:56From the start, the jig was obviously up for the Japs on Roy.
07:00Germans would have quit right away, but Japs are Japs.
07:05They crept behind wreckage and took pot shot there.
07:08They dug into the ground like rats.
07:11It was a matter of finding out where they were hiding and blowing them apart with bangalores
07:15and grenades.
07:17There they go, to their Jap ancestors.
07:28The complete job on Roy took five and one half hours.
07:31The stuff you see here and the stuff you're going to see was brand new, secretly assembled
07:36in depots for this particular battle.
07:39It was new because the older stuff gets used up, burned up, or worn out.
07:43And because the faster we move, the more stuff we need.
07:47Each success leads to another and larger battle, which cannot be won, cannot even be launched,
07:53until the mountains of equipment earmarked for it are actually at dockside.
07:58While the Marines were organizing their supply dumps here at Roy and Namur, the 7th Infantry
08:04were riding in for the kill 50 miles south at Kwajalein.
08:08Kwajalein was a bigger island than Roy and Namur, more powerfully defended.
08:12It was harder for our planes and naval guns to level it completely, easier for the Japs
08:17to hang on.
08:19Before the direct assault, our tactics were to flank Kwajalein.
08:23We landed artillery on the two small islands on either side and blasted at close range.
08:30We brought artillery shells ashore.
08:48It took only a few moments of firing to empty these shell cases.
08:5460 seconds after the barrage was lifted, the infantry hit the beach at Kwajalein.
09:14One more Japs kill box.
09:27Sometimes they'd go crazy, try making a break for nowhere, like that.
09:59It was the same kind of dirty sergeant as by a astronaut.
10:01business, smoking and burning and blasting them out dead or alive. Only it was tougher.
10:08Out of 10,000 Japs, only 264 surrendered. When they did, they came out dazed and shaking.
10:24This Jap made signs indicating that there were ten other Imperial Marines still living
10:28in that pillbox. We can't blame them much for not believing what the loudspeaker was telling
10:33them, that we treat them fairly under the rules of the Geneva Convention. The guy was
10:38nuts enough to believe that Japan was going to dictate peace in the White House. He would
10:42hardly expect him to believe the truth when he heard it, or even when he saw it, as we
10:47fixed up the wounded. These sullen human beings were in terror that they'd receive the same
10:53faith they had given our boys at the dance. Instead, we gave them cigarettes, food and
11:00water. Soft, huh? The record shows who's soft. We just happen to be civilized. That's the
11:09difference.
11:12We told you to remember those hangars. This is what it took to make a battle. Burn, twisted,
11:19broken equipment. Stuff made for battle and destroyed in battle. You've got to be able
11:25to lose it. Lose it all. Make it all again. Keep on making it, no matter what. For that
11:29last battle. That final battle. Jap pillboxes, five feet of concrete. It took 16 inches of American
11:39firepower to let the air in. Anti-aircraft guns, gun mounts, shore guns. Radio tower that flashed
11:49the last message to Tokyo that came too late. And this also is what it took to make a battle.
12:29And this. And this. And this. And this. And this.
12:57But none of these men will be forgotten. This American will not go to his grave on Kwajalein
13:03unidentified. He'll be remembered too. The brave Marines and soldiers who fell here have comrades
13:15who will never forget. Nor let the murderers in Tokyo forget. Yes, there'll be more battles.
13:24Harder and fiercer battles. Until all these honored dead are avenged with a terrible justice. And
13:30from home, from the millions who make the stuff of battles, must come the power for this justice.
13:55in moments of crisis involving the safety of our native land, the American people have
14:01invariably rallied against the danger with courage, faith, and resolution. For the past
14:08two years we have been in one of these moments of crisis, perhaps the greatest in our history. On the
14:14battlefield and on the home front, men and women are daily making great sacrifices so that freedom
14:21and our way of life may be preserved. There is now in progress the fifth war loan drive to raise
14:27money
14:27so as to ensure that this conflict will be brought to the speediest possible conclusion and with the least
14:34lost in lives. Complete success in that drive will meet the acclaim of the forces in the field and will
14:40be
14:41renewed proof that all Americans are one solid phalanx of determination in this great war. All of us
14:49profoundly trust that soon the world may be restored to a just peace. Until we can, with God's help,
14:54bring about that happy realization of our dreams. Each of us must seek incessantly for ways and means
15:01by which the value of our services to our country may be enhanced. Right now we can do so by
15:06buying bonds.
15:08Let's make this particular victory a quick and decisive one.
15:18Back the attack. Buy more than before.
15:24The
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