- 2 days ago
For educational purposes
It was in the late summer of 1943 that the American Navy launched its operation to drive the Japanese from the Central Pacific.
The Aircraft Carrier was to play a crucial role in its success, for not only did the new carriers give the Americans enormous fire-power, the US shipyards were turning them out at the rate of one per month.
This programme tells the dramatic story of the desperate struggle for the Pacific, it features rare footage of Aircraft Carriers in action and examines their role in this vital theatre of the war.
"Carrier Warfare" also includes informative 3D computer graphics.
It was in the late summer of 1943 that the American Navy launched its operation to drive the Japanese from the Central Pacific.
The Aircraft Carrier was to play a crucial role in its success, for not only did the new carriers give the Americans enormous fire-power, the US shipyards were turning them out at the rate of one per month.
This programme tells the dramatic story of the desperate struggle for the Pacific, it features rare footage of Aircraft Carriers in action and examines their role in this vital theatre of the war.
"Carrier Warfare" also includes informative 3D computer graphics.
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LearningTranscript
00:03In the modern battle fleet, the aircraft carrier takes pride of place.
00:12It is now unthinkable that a modern superpower could join battle without the aircraft carrier at the heart of its
00:18fleet.
00:22Yet despite its crucial role, the aircraft carrier is a comparatively young invention.
00:30Carriers only rose to prominence during the maelstrom of World War II, when the cunning of the Japanese Imperial Navy
00:36unleashed the full power of the carrier on the unsuspecting world.
01:06The End
01:06The End
01:06The End
01:23In the dim morning light of December 5th, 1941, far out in the North Pacific, a powerful Japanese
01:30fleet was steaming rapidly eastwards with great stealth.
01:32The commander, Admiral Nagumo, deliberately steered a course to minimize the risk of observation
01:38by foreign ships or aircraft.
01:40The destination, Pearl Harbor.
01:44The huge Japanese armada under Nagumo's command was radically different from any naval task
01:49force ever before assembled.
01:51At its core rode a group of six large ultra-modern aircraft carriers, which between them could
01:57fly off more than 360 warplanes.
02:01The long, seagoing reach of the carriers, matched with the formidable strike capacity
02:05of their air complement, gave the combined fleet an offensive capability unprecedented
02:09in naval history.
02:13The concept of a mass airstrike mounted exclusively from ships was still novel, and Admiral Nagumo
02:18was not convinced it would prove effective.
02:21Nevertheless, he prepared his fleet for action, following a meticulously prepared timetable.
02:27The attack could only be stopped by express orders from the commander-in-chief in Tokyo,
02:32Admiral Isroko Yamamoto.
02:44For some time, Japan and the United States had been moving closer to war.
02:49Japan nurtured ambitions to become the dominant regional power in Asia, and her aggressive expansion
02:55on the Chinese mainland roused American anxieties.
03:04So far, American retaliation had been limited to crippling economic sanctions.
03:08High-level negotiations between the two sides were continued in Washington, but by midnight
03:13on December 6th, both sides knew they would surely fail.
03:18As the talks continued, the task force swung around on the more southerly course, heading
03:23for a bearing 200 miles from the Hawaiian islands.
03:31Far away in Tokyo, Yamamoto closely monitored his fleet's progress.
03:35The Admiral was Japan's most gifted commander.
03:39It was because of his energy and foresight that the Imperial Navy possessed its magnificent
03:43carrier force.
03:46The strategy devised for the forthcoming campaign was also largely Yamamoto's creation.
03:52He knew that the Soviet Union and Britain were desperately embroiled in their mortal struggle
03:56against Hitler's Germany.
03:59In the early months of the war, Japan's principal enemy would be the United States.
04:04In the coming war, Yamamoto believed that Japan's best, and perhaps only chance, was to strike
04:10first and to strike hard, so that a weakened America might just be persuaded to sue for peace.
04:18With hindsight, it was a long shot.
04:20But in December 1942, the Japanese high command were convinced it would succeed.
04:26A vital centerpiece of the hit-first strategy was a surprise attack against the American base
04:31at Pearl Harbor, home of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
04:35The entire air strength of Yamamoto's carrier force was committed to this single operation.
04:40The entire plan had been carefully tested in a series of war games.
04:46Directly after the first raid on Pearl Harbor, Yamamoto intended to launch a rapid series of
04:51further attacks against a wide variety of objectives to destroy the U.S. fleet.
04:56There was never a serious intention of an assault on the U.S. mainland.
05:01Yamamoto's only hope was that by the time America had rebuilt her naval strength, Japan
05:05would have secured a great empire, protected by a vast ring of island bases around the Pacific,
05:10from which she could successfully negotiate a peace settlement.
05:14Success in the initial carrier strike was therefore crucial.
05:19Yamamoto's confidence had been strengthened by the performance of similar British carriers
05:23in the European war.
05:26He had made an intensive study on the raid of Taranto Harbor the previous year,
05:30when a strong Italian battleship was disabled by a handful of elderly British biplanes.
05:40Yamamoto saw to it that his aircraft carried torpedoes, specifically adapted to drop and run in shallow harbor waters.
05:50As the carrier group approached the attack station,
05:53Nagumo's ship enjoyed the cover of cloud and grey skies.
05:58Ahead and below the warships travelled a stealthy advanced guard of Japanese submarines.
06:08Yamamoto's major concern was that not all the American fleet would be in the port.
06:14Intelligence reports suggested that they were.
06:16This was a significant development as by then the Washington negotiations had finally broken down.
06:23Yamamoto knew he must destroy the American carriers to prevent any U.S. counter-strike.
06:28Aboard the Japanese ships, everybody now knew that war was imminent.
06:33Expectations rose to fever pitch.
06:35Yamamoto signalled his message to the fleet.
06:38The fate of the Empire hangs on this enterprise.
06:42Every man must devote himself unsparingly to the task at hand.
06:55On December 6, Tokyo began an extended transmission to its Washington embassy.
07:01The message ended with a declaration of war to be presented at one o'clock the following day.
07:06Because it took so long to decode, the declaration was actually delivered late.
07:11By then, the Japanese had struck their first unexpected blow.
07:20At six o'clock local time, the carriers turned into the wind and increased their speed to 24 knots.
07:26The decks vibrated to the roar of powerful engines.
07:31On the pilot's headbands were inscribed, the Japanese characters mean certain victory.
07:37By 6.30, the first wave of 100 aircraft was aloft and speeding in the skies towards Pearl Harbor.
07:56Shortly before eight o'clock, the attackers reached the target zone.
08:05Visibility and weather conditions were ideal.
08:07And to their delight, the Japanese found they had caught their enemy hopelessly off guard.
08:17Surprise was complete.
08:19American resistance was disorganized and ineffectual.
08:24On the airfield, both squadrons of American warplanes were destroyed where they stood.
08:30In the great harbor, Japanese bombs and torpedoes transformed the great battleship row below them
08:35to a nightmare inferno of explosions, fires and smoke.
09:07They had a求 desire amongst other기를
09:11Amid the chaos, the second wave of aircraft found easy prey.
09:16When the raiders finally returned to their carriers, they left behind a scene of unparalleled devastation.
09:23Eight battleships and ten other ships had been sunk or badly damaged.
09:27Hundreds of aircraft were out of action, many of the port facilities reduced to ruins.
09:45In achieving all this, just 29 Japanese aircraft had been lost.
09:50This was heartening for Yamamoto, who had been prepared to sacrifice one third of the task force.
09:57Only one thing spoiled the euphoria of the celebrations.
10:01None of the reported American aircraft carriers was actually in port during the attack, and all had escaped unscarred.
10:11For Yamamoto, this was a matter of serious concern.
10:14From Tokyo, he urgently signaled Admiral Nagumo, ordering him to find and sink the American carriers.
10:21Yamamoto also urged further strikes against Pearl Harbor, designed to destroy the remaining installations there.
10:28Despite the expressed wishes of the commander-in-chief,
10:31the strict code of Japanese military etiquette yielded the final decision to the commander at the front,
10:36and disregarded the huge naval superiority, which presented him with a chance which might never come again.
10:43Admiral Nagumo was determined to risk the fleet no more.
10:47Satisfied with the glory of the day, Nagumo turned his ships around and headed back for safer waters.
11:03In the United States, the first garbled reports on the raid at Pearl Harbor were received with incredulity.
11:09However, it quickly became apparent that the American arms had suffered a humiliating defeat.
11:15President and public responded with outrage and fury.
11:21In Berlin, Hitler received the news of Pearl Harbor with delight and warmly approved of the Japanese methods.
11:27That's the way to do it, he exclaimed.
11:30Strike hard without warning and ask questions afterwards.
11:35Hitler, who considered the American President Roosevelt to be incompetent,
11:39took grim pleasure in declaring war in the United States on December the 11th.
11:44As justification, he submitted a long list of American violations of neutrality.
11:51America now found herself embroiled in two conflicts, one in Europe and one in the Pacific.
11:58The powerful isolationist lobby, which had long preached that America should stay and not go to war,
12:04soon disintegrated.
12:05The war effort was in full swing.
12:09In Washington, the first of many inquiries into the reasons for the Pearl Harbor debacle was set up.
12:15Not for many years would the whole truth emerge.
12:18It made sorry reading.
12:21Although both British and American codebreakers had detailed full knowledge of the raid,
12:25the information was not passed on either to the President or to the commander on the spot at Pearl Harbor.
12:34In the interim, however, there was little America could do to immediately strike back,
12:38until the huge emergency war production got into its stride.
12:51Every passing week, it seemingly brought news of fresh Japanese victories and conquests,
12:56and the American military were forced to learn some bitter lessons.
13:01It had been widely assumed that Japanese ships, aircraft and weaponry were poor copies of Western models.
13:07Each day brought grim evidence to the contrary.
13:10Much of the Japanese war machines were far superior to the Western powers.
13:15The Allies also underestimated their adversities in a number of other respects.
13:20It was assumed, for example, that the physique of the Japanese and their curious eyes
13:24rendered it impossible for them to become accomplished aviators.
13:28In fact, Japan's magnificently trained carrier pilots were among the best in the world.
13:34One major lesson from Pearl Harbor was grasped straight away.
13:37The American Navy, like others, had long since debated as to whether the battleship or the aircraft carrier should be
13:43given priority.
13:46Yamamoto's bombs and torpedoes had settled that question beyond doubt.
13:50For the Pacific War, America's main naval production priority were carriers and the aircraft to fly from them.
14:00Pondering their future strategic options, American commanders were far from disheartened.
14:05They knew that in the long term, the war-making capacity of the United States far exceeded that of Japan.
14:12Designers, shipyards and factories were already working furiously to provide the carriers and aircraft that America would need.
14:24Above all, the existing American carrier forces were still intact.
14:28And much to the gratification of the military, Pearl Harbor submarine base and merchant ships were left largely undamaged.
14:42Even more importantly, so were the vast oil depots.
14:46If Nagumo had struck at these huge stocks of fuel, no American naval action could have been contemplated until 1943.
14:55In time, the Japanese would pay dearly for Nagumo's caution.
14:59But by spring 1942, the seemingly unstoppable tide of conquest was still spreading onwards and upwards.
15:10President Roosevelt and his advisers were desperate for any kind of American success and were prepared to sanction an unusual
15:17undertaking.
15:19On April 18th, 16 B-25 bombers, under the command of Colonel James Doolittle, performed the hazardous feat of taking
15:26off from a carrier deck.
15:29After a journey of more than 600 miles, they unloaded their bombs over Tokyo, before flying on in a vain
15:36effort to reach China.
15:39News of the exploit was received in the United States with jubilation and gave an immense boost to public morale.
15:46Although Doolittle's bombers did little damage, the portals were ominous and their foray unsettled the Imperial High Command.
15:55Fearful revenge reprisals were made against the civilians on the Chinese mainland.
16:01One far-reaching consequence of the Doolittle raid was to persuade Yamamoto that the enemy's carrier group must be forced
16:08into battle,
16:09while Japan still enjoyed naval superiority.
16:21Although the American fleet had been reinforced by two carriers transferred from the Atlantic,
16:26Japan still enjoyed a distinct superiority in carrier strength and battleships.
16:32Yamamoto's men also had a better understanding of the tactics of carrier warfare.
16:37Whereas America was setting up a number of small task forces, each with a single carrier as the nucleus,
16:44the Japanese kept their carriers bunched together to produce maximum striking power where it mattered most.
16:54In battle, this enabled a sizeable contingent of aircraft to maintain air cover over the vital carriers.
17:01The Japanese had other advantages. Their carrier aircraft were significantly better than those of the opposition.
17:09The fast Zero Fighter was a match for any aircraft of any air force currently in service.
17:17The construction of the Zero Fighter sacrificed everything for lightness.
17:21Not even the pilot's seat enjoyed the protection of armour.
17:25Consequently, even a single bullet hit could easily prove fatal.
17:30Perhaps it was the legacy of the Samurai Code which frowned on cowardice and any sign of weakness,
17:36but placing valuable pilots in unarmoured cockpits was a false economy on a grand scale.
17:42Both sides had devoted intense thought to the training of their airmen, for naval aviation was a difficult art.
17:52Merely landing at sea on a relatively small rectangular deck, which may be pitching and yawning in the heavy seas,
17:57was a dangerous operation even for the most skilled.
18:07A rigorous selection process followed by a long training during three years at sea ensured that Yamamoto's pilots were of
18:14exceptional quality.
18:16However, because of an extensive civil industry, America had the immediate benefit of a large pool of trainers,
18:22and the first class training scheme would in time provide excellent pilots in abundance.
18:34The Americans also possessed two further advantages, the existence of which was scarcely even guessed at by the Japanese.
18:43Firstly, the British had passed on the full secrets of their radar technology, the most advanced in the world, and
18:49was still being improved.
18:52Radar was invaluable not only to locate the position of the enemy and warn of his approach,
18:57but also in allowing aircraft to get safely home to the mothership.
19:02The Japanese pilot, after flying hundreds of miles, had to rely on pinpoint accuracy of navigation to find his ship
19:09again,
19:09usually with no landmarks to help him.
19:13All too often the penalty for pilot error was a lonely death in the vastness of the ocean.
19:19The second great advantage of America was their code-breaking task force,
19:23which supplied a constant, reliable guide to Japanese intentions and movements.
19:28This intelligence was to be instrumental in bringing about a naval engagement of a kind unknown in previous history,
19:35a jewel between two carrier strike forces.
19:47After four months of extraordinary unbroken success, the Japanese military had become dangerously overconfident,
19:53and resolved on a further extension of their defensive perimeter.
19:58They envisaged as a first step the occupation of the Pacific island of Tulagi in the Solomons,
20:03to be followed by an assault on Port Moresby in Papua, New Guinea.
20:10The invasion fleet sailed out on May 1, 1942, accompanied by one small and two large carriers.
20:17The Americans knew exactly where the Japanese were headed for, and Admiral Fletcher was dispatched to intercept them.
20:25Fletcher's task force comprised the carriers Lexington and Yorktown, together with their respective groups of destroyer and cruiser escorts.
20:36The first blood was drawn by aircraft from the Yorktown, which, on May 4th, sank a destroyer and other vessels
20:43of the invasion convoy at Tulagi.
20:52Two days later, the Imperial Navy lost a carrier for the first time,
20:56when the Shahal fell victim to a combined airstrike launched by Fletcher's ships.
21:04Later, the Americans realized that the Shahal was not one of the major carriers,
21:08and the Japanese must know now that an enemy task force was in the vicinity.
21:13There ensued a period of frantic moving and intense aerial activity.
21:17The Japanese sank a destroyer, but lost heavily in the air.
21:20After one fierce dogfight, some of the surviving Japanese aircraft lost their bearings,
21:24and mistook the Yorktown for their own vessel.
21:35The next day, May 8th, brought what came to be known as the Battle of the Coral Sea.
21:40It was the first time that an action was joined by two groups of ships,
21:44which remained far out of sight of each other throughout.
21:52The fighting at the Battle of the Coral Sea was carried out by air fleets from the carriers.
21:58Flights of aircraft from the two sides located each other's ships at almost precisely the same time.
22:03Within the space of half an hour, two waves of aircraft were sent aloft, one Japanese and one American.
22:11The Americans reached their quarry first.
22:14After two attacks, the carrier Shakurko was hit by three bombs, one of which started a serious fire.
22:26On the US side, the Lexington radar picked up the approaching enemy at a range of 60 miles,
22:32and the American air patrols took off to intercept it.
22:36Unfortunately, the Americans were sent to the wrong altitude,
22:40and the Japanese attackers flew on undisturbed above and below the American fighters.
22:48One Japanese bomb detonated deep inside the Yorktown, and a blaze developed.
22:54Two more bombs hit the Lexington, which also took a torpedo on either side.
22:59The Yorktown crew succeeded in extinguishing the fire, and the vessel remained operational.
23:05For a while it seemed that the Lexington would be saved,
23:08but following a large explosion the vessel was abandoned and sunk.
23:13Fortunately, her precious crew and aircraft had first been transferred to the Yorktown.
23:19To set against the loss of the Lexington,
23:21the Americans had sunk only one minor enemy carrier,
23:24but they had damaged the Shakurko and forced her to return to Japan for repairs.
23:30The second Japanese carrier, the Zuikaka, had also suffered severe damage.
23:37Both of these crucial Japanese warships would still be out of action at a crucial time in the war,
23:42while the Yorktown could continue on.
23:45So overall, the American commanders justly regarded the Battle of the Coral Sea
23:49as both a significant victory and a turning point.
23:53The first serious hurt had been inflicted on the mighty Japanese carrier force.
23:59American pilots had now given proof that they could match their opponents in the air,
24:03and the attempted invasion of Port Moresby had been rebuffed.
24:07Very soon, the American pilots would outstrip the Japanese,
24:11not just in terms of training, but also in numbers.
24:24The Imperial Japanese forces were strongly imbued with the old martial tradition of Bushido,
24:29whereby it was considered a high honor to die for the Emperor.
24:32This disdain for personal safety meant that the Japanese did not place such a high price
24:37on the moral aspects of saving human lives.
24:40The Japanese made few efforts to recover the precious airmen who had come down in the sea.
24:45Their system of training was still slow and meticulous,
24:48which precluded a rapid replacement to those who were lost.
24:52The Imperial Navy had begun to hemorrhage.
24:56The Americans, by contrast, made extraordinary efforts to rescue downed pilots.
25:02The Americans would risk an expensive submarine simply to pick up a crew.
25:07In addition to humanitarian concerns,
25:09they were moved by a lively sense of the value of a widely trained, experienced operator.
25:19Cumulatively, this difference in attitudes worked ever more to the benefit of the Americans.
25:28In Tokyo, the strategic situation was clearly grasped by Admiral Yamamoto.
25:34He still deferred unquestioningly to the Imperial will,
25:37but he had always been strenuously opposed to the war.
25:43It was he who had famously predicted that the Japanese forces would be able to run wild for six months,
25:49but thereafter, the superiority of the military industrial might of the United States
25:53eventually would begin to assert itself with irreversible effect.
26:01The six months were not quite expired,
26:04and Yamamoto had only four major carriers operational in the Pacific.
26:09Ominous news of fresh carriers under contract in the US sounded grim alarms.
26:16Accordingly, Yamamoto drew up a plan intending to force the Americans into the major fleet engagement,
26:21while he still had the strength.
26:25In the vast Pacific, the tiny atoll of Midway,
26:28possessed a strategic importance far disproportionate to its size.
26:33Yamamoto knew that the Americans could not possibly countenance its capture by the Japanese,
26:38as such a move would menace the entire basis of their ocean defence.
26:43If Midway was attacked to the American fleet,
26:46whatever its condition, must come out and fight.
26:58In no other arena of war was so much sophisticated and diverse technology concentrated in one battle,
27:05nor so many desperate and finely honed human skills called upon as in the Battle of Midway.
27:12Carrier aircraft required exceptional engineering and design.
27:16A capability to deliver bombs or torpedoes must be combined with the agility indispensable for aerial combat.
27:28Undercarriages needed to be unusually sturdy to cope with the inevitable heavy landings.
27:33Airframes had to be able to withstand being jerked to a sudden halt,
27:36or being hurled into the air by a powerful catapult.
27:47The landing officers who guided down aircraft were themselves experienced pilots.
27:52On the accuracy of their split second judgement, an entire succession of men's lives were dependent.
28:08On May 20th, a long transmission from Yamamoto to his fleet was intercepted by the American codebreakers.
28:16It was clear that a major operation was about to take place.
28:19But because Yamamoto was using new letter codes for place names, the objective was unclear.
28:25They suspected that the Japanese would go for midway.
28:28By cunning deception, they obtained confirmation.
28:33Details of the forthcoming attack was passed on to Chester Nimitz, commander of the US Pacific Fleet.
28:40Nimitz took care to position his carriers where the enemy would least expect them.
28:44After three days of extraordinary efforts, the Yorktown, damaged in the Coral Sea battle,
28:49was repaired sufficiently to go once more to war.
28:57As the most senior Japanese commander, it was again Admiral Nagumo who led the strike force sailing for midway.
29:04His four large carriers, Agaki, Kaga, Soryu and Hiryu, were all veterans of Pearl Harbor.
29:15Because of the larger size of Dagumo ships, the Japanese had a strong advantage in the strength of carrier aircraft.
29:22270 against the Americans, 180.
29:26The ratio was only slightly improved by a number of elderly aircraft, which the Americans flew from the Midway Island
29:32itself.
29:36The Japanese carrier groups were well supported by battleships, cruisers and destroyers.
29:43The Americans had three carriers at sea, Enterprise, Hornet and Yorktown, again accompanied by numerous cruisers and destroyers.
29:51However, the Americans knew the disposition of the enemy ships and where each was steaming.
29:56The Japanese, however, did not know what opposition they might encounter.
30:02On June 3rd, Nagumo's forces were discovered by an American aircraft.
30:07And by June 4th, the distance between the two hostile battle groups had closed to 250 miles.
30:15Whether for bad or for ill, the decisive engagement so long sought by Yamamoto was to hand.
30:21On this same day's events would rest the mastery of the Pacific.
30:25Nagumo believed that he still commanded the element of surprise.
30:29But he was soon disabused of that notion as a flight of American bombers arrived from Midway.
30:35However, the slow, unwieldy machines were far outclassed by the Japanese Zeros and succeeded only in hitting a small supply
30:41vessel.
30:46Partly because of this attack, Nagumo decided to reduce the defenses at Midway before proceeding with the invasion and a
30:53strike was launched.
30:56Alerted by their radar, Midway defenders flew up to meet the oncoming flow and sustained heavy losses.
31:03The Japanese bombs got through, inflicting heavy damage on island installations.
31:08However, they failed in their primary objective of bombing the enemy planes on the ground.
31:15The Americans had put all their aircraft aloft.
31:17And as the Japanese raiders left unscarred, their commander radioed that a second raid would be needed.
31:25Nagumo resolved on the second foray on the island and was confirmed in his decisions by another flight of bombers
31:31from Midway.
31:32These were again easily rebuffed by the fighting of the fleet.
31:37The Japanese admiral still had no information about the American carriers,
31:41which in the meantime had moved into position and set off their own airstrikes.
31:47Nagumo's bombers returned a second time from Midway and were rearming just as the first wave of hostile torpedo bombers
31:53came into the attack.
31:55In this potentially grave situation, the Zeros, which were still airborne, proved their worth.
32:00More than 100 enemy aircraft were shot down, driven off or forced to ditch without scoring a single hit.
32:07Despite all the benefits of their radar and code breaking, the Americans had suffered horrendous losses with nothing to show
32:14in return.
32:18Then there occurred an astonishing reversal of fortune.
32:22A group of 50 dive bombers from the Enterprise had strayed off course and flown far beyond their target zone.
32:28Returning to the fleet, their commander was alerted by the position of a Japanese destroyer.
32:33He guessed correctly that she was steaming directly for the main carrier force and was quickly able to find the
32:39scene of battle.
32:40The Japanese Zeros were all at low altitude, dealing with the remainder of torpedo bombers, while the incoming bombers were
32:46all at high altitude.
32:51Because the carriers had been servicing relays of fighters, their decks were crisscrossed with fuel hoses and cluttered with bombs.
32:59It was precisely 10.25 in the morning when the first American dive bombers swooped down into the attack.
33:05Within the space of only five minutes, the balance of power in the Pacific had utterly transformed.
33:20No less than three of the four Japanese carriers sustained direct hits.
33:25The bombs set off sequences of further explosions and furious fires broke out.
33:29A raging conflagration swept through the flagship, Akagi.
33:34The firefighters won a sufficient respite for many of the surviving crew to be saved,
33:38and Admiral Nagumo himself moved his flag to the cruiser Nagara.
33:44On the Kaga, a furious inferno trapped hundreds below deck with no hope.
33:49Numerous others perished in the water, lapped around by burning oil.
34:04The Soryu was left dead in the water and was blazing along her entire length.
34:08She was abandoned and later sank.
34:11It had taken a total of nine accurately delivered bombs to eliminate half of Japan's first-line carrier fleet.
34:32The Soryu had escaped the orcelot, her parcel force of fighters and bombers still largely intact.
34:42Directly the planes of Hiru had been serviced and repaired.
34:45He ordered a counter-strike which found the Yorktown.
34:54Forewarned by radar, the Yorktown discontinued her refuelling operations.
35:03Her defence patrols went up to intercept the Japanese and a fierce aerial combat ensued.
35:16Breaking through the melee, a group of dive bombers plunged down on the Yorktown and succeeded in scoring three hits.
35:23As the Japanese turned away, they had the satisfaction of seeing the Yorktown covered in smoke and bright flames.
35:30After their own terrible experience that morning, they were sure that the ship was finished.
35:37Yet she was not.
35:38The crew responded to the crisis with courage.
35:43The fires were extinguished, power and steering was regained and the Yorktown could still fly off some aircraft.
35:49These were needed, for the Hiru had sent off a second strike which arrived mid-afternoon.
35:58Penetrating the weaker air defences, the Japanese bombers roared in low and launched their torpedoes,
36:04two of which hit their target.
36:06Disabled and burning, the Yorktown was soon abandoned.
36:15Meantime, the Enterprise and Hornet were assembling their air strength for a last desperate strike against the Hiru.
36:22For the second time that day, fortune favoured the Americans.
36:25The dive bombers streaked down out of the sun, catching the exhausted Japanese totally unaware.
36:31Four bombs ripped into it, fuel tanks ignited and fire travelled speedily through the decks.
36:36There was no chance of saving the great vessel.
36:51It was 5.10 in the afternoon and the Battle of Midway was over.
36:55The smaller force had defeated the larger.
36:58The Imperial Navy's magnificent carrier strike force, which that morning had sailed to battle with such proud hopes, had passed
37:05into oblivion.
37:15On the morning of June the 5th, Yamamoto was deeply disconsolate and shocked by the loss of his carriers.
37:22He called off the invasion.
37:25The Japanese ships turned away from Midway.
37:27It was the first conclusive naval defeat in the history of the rising sun.
37:37Although Midway had brought about a decisive and irreversible shift in the balance of power,
37:42a huge and gruelling struggle had yet to be endured before the Americans and their allies achieved final victory.
37:54Within two years, another 14 fleet carriers and over 70 light escort carriers would come down American slipways.
38:02Arriving in the Pacific, they would fly off from their decks an invincible new generation of faster, better aircraft.
38:17Yamamoto told his men that the real fight was now one between Japanese discipline and American industrial might and technology.
38:24But he would not live to see the conclusion.
38:27In April 1943, American code breakers discovered that Yamamoto was to make an inspection of frontline air bases.
38:35His aircraft was intercepted and shot down.
38:38Yamamoto died.
38:46Slowly, after a tortured series of campaigns, the American forces clawed their way back bit by bit into island after
38:52island.
38:56As the Japanese empire shrank and the character of the sea war in the Pacific changed, so did the role
39:02of the aircraft carrier.
39:07Increasingly, the carrier was used to provide air support for amphibious assaults or ground operations.
39:14Carriers also proved their value as an attack force against distant objectives.
39:19In November 1943, a surprise carrier strike devastated a large Japanese invasion fleet.
39:34The following February, another carrier-based assault hit the Japanese base at Turk Island, dropping 30 times the weight of
39:41bombs dropped at Pearl Harbor.
39:43The Americans did not need to capture the island.
39:46Instead, its garrison was simply sidestepped and left to wither on the vine.
39:52By this means, much time and many lives were saved.
40:01The effectiveness of Japan's carrier force had sharply deteriorated.
40:05There was a crucial shortage of trained pilots, and the summer of 1944 saw the last naval engagement to be
40:12fought principally by contending carrier groups.
40:17Dozens of warships and hundreds of Japanese land-based aircraft also participated.
40:25The Battle of the Philippine Sea commenced on the morning of June 19th, when the Japanese carriers launched their first
40:32airstrike.
40:37Throughout the day, the skies echoed with the sound of cannons and machine gun fire from innumerable dogfights.
40:43The outcome was a massacre, in which returning American pilots shot down over 400 enemy aircraft for the loss of
40:5030 of their own.
41:01Meanwhile, American submarines had intervened to deadly effect, with enormous loss of life.
41:27Although further great battles were yet to come, the American carriers were increasingly deployed, not as independent strike forces, but
41:35rather as integrated components in the vast combined defenses, advancing with ever-gathering might against the Japanese mainland.
41:45Despite the dwindling resistance, at no stage of the Pacific War could any ship feel completely safe.
41:51It was always the carriers whose destruction was most eagerly sought by the Japanese.
41:58Accordingly, it was the men on the carriers who first experienced the terror of a fearsome new Japanese tactic which
42:05appeared in late 1944.
42:21The kamikaze was the first effective guided missile.
42:24The projectile was a fast aircraft, its warhead a cargo of high explosives.
42:31The highly accurate guidance system was a human pilot devoted to certain death for the greater glory of the Sun
42:37Emperor.
42:39The kamikaze was seen by the Japanese commanders as offering the capability to create maximum destruction on the enemy with
42:46a minimal outlay.
42:50In 1945, the kamikaze pilots appeared in greater numbers, claiming a number of victims.
42:58Although the majority of kamikazes were shot down or missed their target, the few that did get through caused appalling
43:05damage and casualties.
43:07Their effect in material tons was limited, but as a weapon of terror, they caused panic disproportionate to their numbers.
43:32Air patrols were increased, vigilance was sharpened, and the kamikazes were usually destroyed on the way in, but the suicide
43:39pilots posed a seemingly unsolvable riddle.
44:10Matt, this was such a bit of an organization that is a special issue.
44:15The kamikaze attacks were a significant factor behind the decision to use atomic weapons on Japan in August 1945.
44:36The crowds awaiting returning American servicemen were as glad and as jubilant as were those rejoicing the end of the
44:42Great War in 1918.
44:44But in one respect, this homecoming was different.
44:47For as the ship steamed slowly in, it was the aircraft carrier, not the battleship, that held pride of place.
44:55The day of the carrier had dawned.
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