4 Most Feared & Deadliest WWII American Soldiers

[Music] the official narrative of the history of the united states involvement in the second world war begins on december 7th 1941 when the empire of japan launched an attack on the united states naval base at pearl harbor however if one was to examine american actions in the decade leading up to that infamous event a case could be made that the united states was engaged in opposition to the three axis powers germany italy and japan even before germany invaded poland in 1939. almost exactly four years before pearl harbor u.s navy gunners aboard the gunboat uss penae found themselves fending off an attack by japanese aircraft while anchored outside the chinese city of nan king sales of american military equipment and strategic materials to japan and germany were increasingly restricted while american diplomats worked to curtail fascist expansion as the situation in europe and asia deteriorated when war did finally erupt many americans offered their services as medical personnel such as the american ambulance an organization in great britain which carried civilians wounded in the blitz to hospital for some however they wanted to take a more direct action against fascist tyranny american fighter pilots fought for the royal air force during the battle of britain as a part of the eagle squadron while in china americans flew against the japanese as the now legendary flying tigers at sea the u.s navy fought an undeclared war against german u-boats in the north atlantic while in the pacific american and japanese sailors eyed one another suspiciously waiting for warfare to explode after pearl harbor and the subsequent declaration of war by nazi germany on december 11 1941 the united states threw its mighty industrial economic and military weight into the fray few events in history have so galvanized the american people as the country's entry into the fight for those who were not overly committed to the defeat of fascism in conflicts away from the american homeland a sentiment that had kept america out of the fighting until 1941 there was now a new motto avenge pearl harbor american forces fought in almost all regions of the globe where fighting was going on as well as providing huge amounts of military material to the strained war industries of britain and the soviet union in 1942 when a country goes to war on such a scale there are no unimportant people every soldier sailor or airmen be here janitor or a general is playing their part to defeat the enemy but as in every country there are always those who seem to have a talent for fighting the enemy in this latest installment in the wars of the world's deadliest combatants series we are going to look at four americans who not only went above and beyond in the service of their country but earned the respect of their comrades and the fear of their enemy these are the four deadliest americans of world war ii [Music] tank warfare had matured to the point of an exact science during the second world war and victory in this field could only be achieved by balancing three factors tank capability tank availability and tank crew skill the germans produced some of the greatest tanks of the war and skilled crews to use them but there were never enough meanwhile the americans produced the generally competent but not excellent tank the m4 sherman but these were built in huge numbers and driven by well-trained crews by the war's end combined with british canadian and soviet tanks the german army being outclassed was inevitable but while german tank commanders such as kurt nitzpal have been adorned with near legendary status for their devastating impact it does not mean that the allies did not produce their own tank aces lafayette green pool was one of twins born in odom texas on july 23 1919 graduating from high school in 1938 he then attended the texas college of arts and industries in kingsville where he studied engineering at this time he also began an amateur boxing career but after completing his first year at kingsville he was forced to leave college after being drafted into the us army in the summer of 1941 being assigned to the newly created third armored division becoming a tank commander of an m4 sherman his instructors noted that paul was a natural aggressive and demanding leader always pushing his crew to do better he was selected for a commission to become an officer but turned it down because he was worried it would take him out of the action when the third armoured finally deployed to combat that deployment finally came in september of 1943 when the third armoured arrived in the united kingdom to participate in the upcoming d-day landings during an 83-day period between june and september 1944 paul and his crew were in heavy combat in northern france and belgium and he would lose three m4s in that time poole's loss rate can be attributed to his tank being put at the front during the 21 separate engagements by commanders who knew paul and his crew were not only very aggressive but highly skilled and as we'll see poole would more than make up for the loss of these vehicles paul and his crew would go on to destroy a staggering 250 vehicles with their sherman's gun ranging from trucks to armored vehicles self-propelled artillery guns and perhaps most impressively 12 tiger and panther tanks both of which are technically superior to paul's sherman paul christened each of his three tanks as in the mood adding two and three on the vehicles that followed his first which was destroyed by a deadly anti-tank rocket in the mood 2 was lost to friendly fire from an american lockheed p-38 lightning fighter plane while commanding in the mood 3 on september 5th 1944 paul's sherman was operating against the siegfried line a series of defensive positions and obstacles aimed at keeping the allies out of germany itself they were suddenly ambushed by a german panther considered by many as the finest german tank of the war and every inch superior to the sherman the panther fired its 75 millimeter main gun sending a shell tearing through the sherman's armor and wounding pool whose own shot ricocheted off the panthers thick armor paul recalled shouting back it up baby baby being the nickname of his driver before losing consciousness at which time a second shot from the panther destroyed the sherman's ammo rack tipping the vehicle over down into a ditch poole fell out of the turret and while seriously injured he was still alive his leg was so badly injured it had to be amputated thus taking him out of the war forever however he took with him a string of medals including the famous legends as well as the accolade of being considered america's top tank ace after receiving a prosthetic leg he eventually opened a gas station in sinton texas before re-enlisting in the army as an instructor eventually even returning to the third armored division tragically his son special forces captain jerry lynn poole senior was declared missing in action during the vietnam conflict in 1970 when his uh-1 helicopter was shot down in cambodia lafayette green pool died in his sleep on may 30 1991 at his home in texas at the age of 71 he was interred at the fort sam houston national cemetery in san antonio on june 12 1942 the skies over the iconic golden gate bridge in san francisco buzzed with the sound of twin-engined american fighters performing aerobatics that startled drivers and onlookers these same aircraft had also flown extraordinarily low over the nearby home of a pilot who'd recently got married one of the pilots flew his aircraft so low that the wash from the aircraft's props blew clothes off a washing line outside a small house four pilots were reprimanded by their commanding officer for their antics and one of them richard bong was ordered to drive to the house where the washing had been blown away and helped put out the family's next load of washing to dry little did anyone know that this insubordinate joyriding pilot was about to become an american legend and within just two and a half years he would have the highest tally of enemy planes falling to his guns above any other american pilot richard bong was born on september 24 1920 in the city of superior wisconsin the first of nine children born to swedish immigrants carl t bong and his wife dora richard and his family grew up on a farm near the small time of poplar wisconsin and attended both the local grade school and high school but completed his senior year at the superior central high school in 1938 having to commute 22 miles from his home to get there each and every day bong's interest in aviation can be traced to a visit by president calvin coolidge to wisconsin in 1928. president coolidge would receive mail from washington via a mail plane and it was this unassuming little airplane that lit the spark for his love of flying in 1938 he attended superior state's teachers college but still determined to be a pilot he enrolled in a government-sponsored program to train new pilots having earned his private license he decided to join the army air corps in early 1941. where he received training on air combat tactics in a bt6 texan trainer at luke field in arizona during his time at luke field bong would not only be introduced to the powerful lockheed p-38 lightning twin engine fighter but would demonstrate his prowess in the air as one of his instructors captain barry goldwater put it quotes i taught him fighter gunnery he was a very bright student but the most important thing came from a p-38 czech pilot who said bong was the finest natural pilot he'd ever met the pilot recalled that he could never prevent bong from getting on his tail even though bong was flying an at-6 a very slow airplane bong received his army wings almost a month after the attack on pearl harbor and like many of his comrades he expected to be thrown into the thick of the fighting however his skills were such that senior officers decided instead to keep him on at luke field as an instructor there he remained for four months until transferring to hamilton field san francisco and it was here that he found himself at the controls of a p-38 lightning an aircraft to which he would soon become synonymous the p38 may not fit the image most people have of a world war ii piston engine fighter with its twin engines and its boom configuration but the p-38 was one of the most important aircraft of the war it was not as agile as the single-engined types such as the japanese zero but it was fast and it was hard hitting thanks to a nose bristling with guns and it had long range which made it ideally suited for escorting bombers finally in september 1942 bong would enter the fray against the enemy in the pacific theater flying from brisbane australia and then port moresby new guinea as part of the ninth fighter squadron of the 49th fighter group known as the flying knights however p-38s were in short supply and so he found himself initially at the controls of a curtis p-40 warhawk until they arrived on december 27 1942 captain thomas j lynch led a flight of 12 p38s including one flown by bong from the schwimmer airstrip to intercept a force of some 40 japanese fighters and bombers spotted over buna on the northern coast of new guinea the american pilots pressed their attack hard against the japanese cutting down 12 of them two of which were claimed by bong less than two weeks later his squadron was again in combat attacking a convoy attempting to reinforce japanese troops in new guinea during the attack the p-38s were engaged by japanese nakajima kai 43 fighters those that the allies codenamed oscar and two of them fell before bong's guns the very next day bong bought down another oscar which with five kills under his belt meant he was officially an ace but this was only the beginning of an impressive tally of victories on july 26 1943 bong claimed four japanese fighters while in combat over the city of ley in papua new guinea he spent the end of 1943 on leave in the united states where he met and fell in love with marjorie vatendar and when he returned to combat in january 1944 he named his aircraft marge and adorned its nose with her picture soon he would be adding to his number of aerial victories and when asked about his tactics for success bong would say that he would get in as close to his target as he could before firing to give them the full force of the p-38s firepower on april 12 1944 bong claimed two more kills taking his score to 27 which meant he had now surpassed america's highest scoring ace of world war one eddie rickenbacker bong immediately became a celebrity and within a month he was back in the united states undertaking a publicity tour promoting the sale of war bonds by july he was back in combat and beginning on october 10th when he downed another oscar and a nakijama j-1n his tally was growing once more it would do so until december 17th 1944 when he shot down another oscar it was his 40th air-to-air victory that month bong received the medal of honor from general douglas macarthur his citation stating that he still flew combat missions despite his status as an instructor by then he had achieved the rank of major which would have qualified him for a squadron command but he had continued to go up with his men to engage the enemy in january 1945 bong returned home to continue his publicity work bringing an end to his combat career this allowed him to marry margaery on february 10 1945 and then become a test pilot assigned to the lockheed corporation in burbank california in this new role he was trading his p-38 for the new jet-powered p-80 shooting star on august 6 1945 he was taking off to perform a routine acceptance flight of the p-80a when the aircraft's primary fuel pump malfunctioned bong managed to bail out of the aircraft but was too low for his parachute to deploy safely and he fell to his death his death was headline news across the united states sharing the space with one other major event that occurred that day the atomic bombing of hiroshima when discussing the topic of submarine warfare during world war ii most will think of the u-boat menace that nearly starved britain into submission and claimed hundreds of thousands of allied sailors lives it is easy to forget therefore that the allies themselves waged an effective submarine campaign particularly against japan which like britain was an island nation dependent on a supply of materials to be shipped in to keep the country's war machine running one u.s navy submarine captain in particular would become so successful that his name would be spoken in submarine history alongside the most successful u-boat captains his name was richard o'cain heralding from a prominent irish-american family richard o'cain was born in dover new hampshire on february 12 1911. intent on a career in the u.s navy he graduated from the u.s navy academy at annopolis in may 1934 after which he was commissioned as an officer in the fleet serving aboard the cruiser uss chester and then the destroyer uss pruitt before retraining for submarine duty in 1938 he would serve aboard the submarine uss argonauts between 1938 and 1942 by which time america was firmly in the fight against japan in early 1942 he transferred to the newly completed submarine uss wahoo taking the role of executive officer being second only to the captain under the captaincy of lieutenant commander marvin kennedy the wahoo undertook its first war patrol on august 23rd 1943. patrolling west of truck new guinea wahoo's first attack was less than successful with three torpedoes being dispatched against a lone freighter all of which missed only to then have the freighter attempt to ram the american submarine this set the tone for the patrol and several targets of opportunity were missed by the submarine under kennedy's command a second patrol was undertaken beginning on november 8th with one addition to the crew lieutenant commander dudley walker morton who was also expected to take over command of the wahoo in the coming months this patrol was more successful and included the sinking of a japanese submarine but it was after morton took command that the wahoo began to forge a fearsome reputation becoming one of the most successful submarines in the fleet compared to kennedy morton was both highly skilled and highly aggressive pressing home his attacks but operating in a relatively unorthodox manner typically the captain would man the periscope and command the attack from what he saw but morton found this restricting instead he plotted and calculated the attack using his charts with information fed to him by o'kane manning the periscope this gave o'cain a wealth of experience in conducting attacks and it was not long before his experience was needed elsewhere in july 1943 o'cain was slated to take command of the new uss tang which became operational on october 15 1943 just five days after the uss wahoo had disappeared in the sea of japan it was later discovered the soap had been hit by a bomb dropped from a japanese plane it was actually the second time okay had been transferred from a ship before it was lost as his first submarine the uss argonaut was sunk on january 10 1943 by japanese destroyers now with a submarine of his own o'kane was able to apply all he'd learned from morton and add some of his own creativity in conducting operations on february 17th 1944 the tang claimed its first victim when o'kane attacked a japanese convoy near the mariana island chain from 1500 yards o'kane put three torpedoes into the nearly 7 000 ton goten maru over the coming days using poor weather for cover o'kane and the crew of the tang made several successful attacks on japanese shipping by the end of her first patrol the tang had expended all 24 of its torpedoes 16 of which had struck the target after this first patrol o'kane undertook search and rescue duties between the paolo islands and the davao gulf before beginning a highly successful combat patrol on june 8th 1944. on the 24th of june while operating southwest of kagoshima japan o'kane detected a convoy of six large ships guarded by up to 16 escorts o'kane fired a spread of three torpedoes at one of the ships and then fired a similar spread at a second target hearing explosions indicating hits o'kane reasoned he had sunk two ships but post-war analysis shows he actually sunk twice as many later in the patrol on june 30th o'kane fired a single torpedo at the transport ship nikki maru cutting it in half and killing some 3 200 japanese soldiers who were on board completing the patrol with eight ships claimed sunk although the actual total was 10. the crew of the uss tang received a presidential unit citation for their actions on september 24th 1944 o'cain commanded the uss tang on its fifth patrol into the formosa straits and more japanese shipping would be sent to the bottom by the submarine under his leadership on october 24th okane sank a tanker only to see a nearby escort destroyer explode as well the cause of which is still to this day uncertain either one of his torpedoes missed the target and struck the destroyer instead or the exploding tanker destroyed the vessel or in the frenzy japanese defensive fire it was unlucky enough to be struck with friendly fire under okane the uss tang was now the most successful submarine in u.s history having sunk 33 enemy ships however tang's luck ran out early the next morning firing her last torpedo the weapon malfunctioned and circled back on the american submarine o'kane attempted to evade the torpedo but it struck near the rear of the submarine which began to sink quickly nine men including o'kane were able to escape before the submarine hit the bottom and were soon picked up by the japanese they were confronted by survivors of their own attack from the day before who proceeded to beat them mercilessly spending the rest of the war in a pow camp upon his release o'cain was awarded the medal of honor for conspicuous gallantry remaining in the navy after the war he testified at japanese war crimes trials and became an instructor before retiring in 1957. richard o'cain died from pneumonia on february 16 1994 aged 83. on october 23 1999 the u.s navy commissioned the destroyer uss o'kane christened in his honor it is not uncommon for ex-service personnel to enter public life after their time in the armed forces many become involved in politics and numerous presidents themselves are combat veterans such as john f kennedy and george bush senior both of whom saw combat during world war ii others write about their experiences often becoming celebrated authors and authorities on combat during their respective conflicts but a few such as audi murphy find more high-profile careers in the glitz and glamour of hollywood but his true story surpasses any of the characters he portrayed on the silver screen save perhaps the one time he portrayed himself audie murphy was born into a large family on june 20th 1925 in kingston texas the seventh of 12 children his father was an inconsistent factor in his early life until he left altogether forcing murphy to drop out of school in the fifth grade in order to go to work to help support the family he would also go hunting with a rifle to help feed them which helped him hone his shooting skills after pearl harbor murphy was determined to fight but was at the time still too young so his sister lied for him claiming he was a year older than he was unfortunately it would not be that easy as his tough upbringing had left him underweight and he was rejected by all three branches of the armed forces until finally he scraped by the army's requirements undertaking advanced infantry training at fort made he was recognised for his skills with a rifle earning marksmen and expert badges for shooting murphy was deployed to french morocco in early 1943. he became a message runner a highly dangerous job and also recognized as a good soldier he was promoted quickly in september of 1943 murphy participated in the salerno landings in italy and not long after his position was ambushed by german troops he and another soldier repelled the german attack with a combination of machine gun fire and hand grenades killing five germans in august 1944 his unit transferred from italy to southern france murphy with his courage and skill with a rifle had already accumulated a sizable collection of medals and awards and on october 14 1944 he was commissioned as a second lieutenant however his most notable combat was yet to come in january 1945 murphy and his men were engaged in fighting in the so-called colmar pocket an area of central alsace france held by the german 19th army during fighting on january 26th german troops scored a direct hit on an m10 tank destroyer causing it to burst into flames and forcing the crew to abandon it under heavy fire murphy ordered his men to retreat to positions in the woods but he remained behind firing his m21 carbine rifle at enemy troops and directing artillery fire via his field radio seeing that its 50 caliber machine gun was still intact and loaded murphy mounted the burning tank destroyer and began using it to fend off advancing german troops crawling through the ditch towards him during an hour of intense fighting murphy stood on the smoldering tank destroyer killing or wounding over 50 germans he did not come off unscathed he sustained a leg wound but only stopped after he ran out of ammunition for the 50 caliber gun finally abandoning the m10 the injured murphy rejoined his men to command them in the ongoing fight demanding his wound be treated in the field rather than at an aid station for his extraordinary courage that day murphy received the medal of honor shortly after he was promoted to first lieutenant and he found himself at the regimental headquarters for the rest of the war as the war came to an end murphy found himself labeled the most highly decorated soldier of the war this coupled with his dashing boyish good looks made him a celebrity in the united states bringing him to the attention of movie producer james cagney while murphy and cagney would fall out before he ever starred in a film the ball was already rolling for his acting career while in 1949 he published his autobiography to hell and back despite being known for his war service murphy became one of hollywood's great actors in the popular western genre although he had reservations in 1955 he agreed to star as himself in a movie adaptation of to hell and back which became universal studios most successful movie up to that point he would continue acting until 1969 when his career ended with the perhaps somewhat appropriately titled a time to die sadly as with many who have fought for their country murphy was left with psychological scars from his time at the front he battled post-traumatic stress disorder for the rest of his life something which he tried to hide until he learned of troops returning from the career and vietnam wars suffering similar conditions to his own and so he used his celebrity status to draw attention to the problems facing veterans on may 28 1971 murphy and five others were killed when the private plane he was flying aboard crashed into the brush mountain in virginia in poor weather his remains were recovered and buried in arlington national cemetery and there you have the four greatest and most feared american combatants of the second world war please leave a comment with your own thoughts down below and remember to like this video and subscribe to support the channel thank you for watching and i'll see you next time

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Length: 29min 37sec (1777 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 04 2020