Battle Of The Marianas: Smashing Japan’s Front Door | Battlezone | War Stories

[Music] right after pearl harbor the japs grabbed up most of the islands in the pacific at guadalcanal we learned how to fight the [ __ ] and he learned that we were coming back at new georgia took us a bit longer but we learned a lot more at new britain we beat the japan jungle fighting macon atoll brought us into the gilberts tarawa was fast and tough and expensive kwajalein was next it gave us control of the marshals we were halfway back and our wetac made veterans of us all now we were ready to smash at japan's front door the marianas islands saipan tinian and guam [Music] d-day the battle for the marianas the lst's unload their amtrak we attack again a joint assault force of army navy marine corps and coast guard saipan nothing can stop the amtrak's except direct hit hello we keep driving in one of our planes is hit [Music] jeff fire pins us down we start across the beach the jab throws everything he has at us many of us are hit even the wounded carry on we secure our first foothold in the marianas another d-day to the south another joint assault force smashes at guam the coast guard gets us through heavy enemy fire guam is american ground the first piece of territory the [ __ ] took from us we're taking it back the flag is planted again on guam it has a special meaning for every one of us in saipan we strike for our first objectives tank and infantry teams push inland we push on to the jab air base here it is haslito field precision bombing and shelling before d-day wrecked the hangars and buildings but save the runways now we can use ground-based fighters and bombers the nips get out in such a hurry we captured many of their planes undamaged [Music] this zero was caught in its revetment [Music] with the aslito field secure we head north through the cane fields we hack through the hills and underbrush day after day taking with us only the most important things weapons one night they masked their tanks and counter-attacked this is what happened to all their tanks [Applause] [Music] the japs knocked out one of ours those are the japs the navy's big guns keep hammering away when this [ __ ] ammunition done blew up it shook the whole island [Music] the flame throwers move up heavy enemy fire is coming from those caves we burn them out of their pill boxes the fight is on for garapan capital of the marianas army artillery goes into action at the same time we shell tillian island across the channel from saipan when we take tinian we get the biggest airfield of the marianas the battle for garapana montepacho goes on 24 hours a day this tank runs interference while we evacuate our wounded under heavy jet fire snipers have to be cleaned out we use rockets we smoke them out with incendiaries we take a jet prisoner the battle from inside a tank [Music] lieutenant general holland smith u.s marine corps commanding the assault forces another jab oil dump goes up thunderbolts take off from our new field we bless the [ __ ] command post overlooking tanipag harbor [Music] we bomb jab strong points in the hills the japs bring down another one of our [Music] planes we enter garapen now it's house to house fighting the waiting behind hedges underneath buildings behind walls everywhere 37s are used to knock them out of their emplacements [Music] [Music] a [ __ ] makes a run for it carapan is ours gaps fall back slowly [Music] it's tough going in the hills tracers find their gun positions we corner them on the north end of the island [Music] loud speakers are broken out and a friendly native broadcasts an appeal for them to surrender we hold our fire we wait [Music] many civilians do surrender [Music] they set up community kitchens and make rice balls [Music] for those who refuse to surrender [Music] the final cleanup is on our front line advances a sniper is burned out we reduce a bunker some try to escape by swimming hand grenades are effective they take up positions in the cliffs we have to pick them off one by one [Applause] some choose suicide by jumping others surrender and some fight until the end [Music] we buried our dead 4 [Music] 470. [Music] o'connor vandermeer schultz levine keller fatigue smith olsen [Music] [Music] [Applause] so [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] this is my hometown it's called youngstown and it's in the state of ohio near the pennsylvania boundary [Music] [Applause] [Music] in youngstown we make steel we make steel and talk steel i guess it's the same in sheffield england or that place the russians built in the urals magnetogors i'd like to tell you something about how we make steel here and while i'm at it introduce you to some friends of mine who work in the mills [Music] look down any street in town and you'll see the mills at the end of it there are 25 miles of them along the mahoning river and today they're busy day and night every eight hours the shifts change fifteen thousand men to the ship the men going to work can see the freight trains bringing in the raw materials iron ore coal and limestone [Applause] this is the ore it looks like dirt but in a few weeks it'll become part of a ship a tank or a gun and in peace time an office building a bridge or a dam structure [Music] [Applause] an overhead crane picks it up and carries it over to the skip hoists which take it up to the top of the blast [Music] furnace in the blast furnace the boys smelt the oar into iron the first step in making steel molten iron comes out at 3 300 degrees [Music] the slag comes up to the top like cream in a pitcher and goes out the other way [Music] i johnny chunko on the snort valve controlling the blast when things get too hot he's got to think quick and move quicker peter zeman's the blower head man on the shift he tells him when it's time to stop the flow and this is frank mele a friend of mine frank came here from italy 45 years ago he's got his own place up in the hill come christmas it's full up with his children and grandchildren frank doesn't talk much but i know how he feels about his home his kids and the satisfaction he gets knowing they'll grow up with the same chance as the kids next door or any other kids in the country this is the open hearth where the molten iron from the blast furnace is mixed with scrap iron and the two purified into steel i remember the first time i saw it the size of the place the noise the sirens wailing when the big stuff moved overhead and the heat hitting you like a solid wall it's something you don't forget [Music] these boys are slagging lining a furnace with dolomite this protects the wall of the furnace against the extreme temperature [Music] down the line bob wentworth is charging scrap iron scrap that came from farms backyards and attics all over the country collected by school kids and housewives to do their part in the war next door tommy hughes is giving one of the furnaces a drink of hot iron from the 35 ton ladle this iron is fresh from the blast furnace [Music] these are the foreman bill reilly and john strauss john came here from croatia he's got two sons the older is a captain in the army the younger ed is still in high school he's a substitute on the football team next year when he gets a little more beef on him he'll be a regular [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] of course it isn't all football education comes first the principal mr glasgow understands the kids he believes they should help plan their own schooling ed's interested in flying so along with languages and literature he gets courses in physics and aerology and internal combustion engines it means a lot to have free education like this for your kids if you listen in on these youngsters of course you'll hear them talk about football and dances and things of that sort but you'll hear other things too talk about what kind of a world this can be after the war things maybe their parents didn't talk about enough they know what's going on these kids and that's all to the good yes if you listen to them you get to appreciate how much democracy depends on education education for everybody [Music] in the open heart the steel's nearly finished the first and second helpers take a sample mike hubinsky is the first earl strong as his assistant mike's people came here from czechoslovakia earl's ancestors came from england in the 17th century when there wasn't much to america but a few colonial villages along the coast by inspecting samples of the molten steel the boys can tell exactly when the furnace should be tapped earl's a musician he plays bull fiddle with the youngstown symphony orchestra no professionals here they're all steel workers and their wives and daughters [Applause] [Music] the maestro michael picocelli is a time keeper in the mills and there's been plenty of bad jokes about that [Music] [Applause] they're rehearsing a piece by gerald myrovich youngstown boy who's in the navy now steel men get in the habit of doing things together like in the mill the open hearth gang rattles out the hole in the rear of the furnace and lets the steel out roaring and spitting at 3000 degrees [Music] the pit gang dumps in alloys to give it the special qualities they want in this batch [Music] this ladle weighs 100 tons but the overhead crane handles it like a toy lifts it over to a line of ingot molds where it's tapped off we call this teaming [Music] just to be on the safe side another test is made to be sure that the alloys have been added in proper amounts [Music] the ingots are carried over to the blooming mill where they get their first shaping [Music] [Music] it looks rough but these rollers squeeze the ingots down to a tolerance of a sixteenth of an inch [Music] george bannon and clarence kinney control the operation from the pulpit they've been doing this together for so long they work like one man with four hands [Music] when the ingots flattened to a slab fred ingram takes over he cuts a slab with hydraulic shears under many tons of pressure [Music] fred's a shop steward for the union which has an agreement with the mill he represents the workers on the plant's labor management committee these days they're discussing production problems and they've been doing a great job up there working together planning together figuring out new ways to make more steel we've got the machines like this one in the hot strip mill we're in one continuous operation a slab of steel is flattened into a sheet each roller operates at a different speed synchronized to handle a slab that's growing longer and thinner and moving faster all the way down the line [Music] this is it steel only a few hours ago it was iron ore now it's finished and on its way to become a part of the new world that's building we've proved we can lick production problems we've got the equipment the science everything it takes to get the job done but when the war is over we're going to have other problems we know about that in youngstown we've had it here before there were times when there was no smoke in the sky the mills were quiet the street full of men angry questioning wondering we're beginning to understand that these things don't just happen in one place they happen everywhere we're thinking that all this production all over the world that's doing such a job in a war can do a job in peace too if we can just learn to work together and i guess we're beginning to learn [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] so [Music] the battlefields of america are the production lines the sweat and muscle and brains of men and women pounding out the tools of victory slugging out more and more and more twisting the axis into a trembling question mark men and women million strong fighting over here but over the vast expanse of the interior american front there are critical industrial areas areas with production schedules unfilled or threatening to be unfilled because of labor shortages [Music] a mighty industrial program moving faster and faster labor supply to match it lagging behind a question mark of our own how to make them balance without lowering the production goal all over the land these critical areas of manpower shortage victory shortage areas of concentrated war industries charged with the duty of turning out more and more and more here in these vital areas crisis the program must be met labor supply must be found let's take a look at one american community one of many and watch it face its problem dayton ohio home of right field the air force's material command headquarters and patterson field air service command headquarters city of phenomenal employment rides statistics for americans population 1941 210 000 1943 275 000 industrial employment 1941 58 000 1943 118 000 more than doubled statistics for nazis and japs time fuses aircraft instruments machine guns precision optics carbines tank tracks searchlights yes let's look at dayton on april 7 1943 a meeting of 200 leading citizens is called speaking at the moment is mr sc allen president of the national cash register company in dayton today there is grave danger that our war production goals in this area may fall short of achievement because of manpower difficulties briefly under present conditions the number of people available for war work does not meet the industrial demand consequently dayton has been classified as a group one critical area word reaches us that the war procurement agencies may be forced to transfer work elsewhere in order to be assured of meeting production schedules it was not necessary that conditions in dayton reach this serious state we neglected the essential adjustments of the community to alter circumstances and emergencies of war but it is not too late much of immediate and future importance is at stake our responsibility to the war needs of the nation our responsibility to the people of dayton that their new war problems are met through wartime measures this is a job which statement itself must face it cannot be done for us by washington or by official edict or by waiting and hoping it must be accomplished by local leadership and local action it is our responsibility out of this meeting grows another men's designating themselves an emergency committee aptly chosen name representatives of labor the cio the af of l representatives of government area director of the war manpower commission deputy regional director of that agency the chief of program requirements for the region leading industrialists [Music] leading retailers the city's mayor the secretary of the chamber of commerce the commanding generals of wright and patterson fields men representing every interest in community life convinced that within the community itself are the resources necessary to fulfill dayton's war activities vices and studies of the war manpower commission and its local area war manpower committee make it perfectly clear that there are three sound ways of meeting this situation first we must find more war workers from within dayton itself from people working in non-essential jobs and from people not working at all second if we utilize our present labor force to the fullest are anticipated labor requirements will be reduced third local conditions must be conducive to retaining the labor we have more labor from within the community full utilization of the labor we have retention of the labor we have these are the answers not one of them but all of them that is the general basis on which we must work out a detailed program dayton's last monthly report of estimated labor requirements showed the apparent need of thousands of more workers flowing into the city drawn from beyond dayton's boundaries in the future as in the recent past all roads all signs would point or wheels would roll to dayton but a community like a paper bag blown too full of air must burst dayton is crammed jammed up to its neck over its ears every living facility taxed a city coming out at the seams the job of the emergency committee was to strengthen the existing war manpower commission program by guaranteeing the effective support of every element of the community around another table the local management labor committee in dayton it's called the dayton war manpower committee was joined by members of the emergency committee and drew up their plans they posed this consideration the threatened efficiency could be overcome with a fuller utilization of present manpower with recruitment of more local manpower labor supply could meet the demand precise information was lacking on many aspects of the employment situation therefore an inquiry went out to all manufacturers hiring eight people or more to the personnel offices of the airfield to all retailers all recognize the importance of their individual cooperation they provided a foundation for the whole program self-imposed ceilings of employment ceilings representing absolute minimum labor requirements and signed agreements not to break through those ceilings they analyzed their estimates of future labor needs to see where they could be cut by more efficient use of every man hour where requirements could be met in other ways than an increase of workers the war employers pledged in writing not to increase employment levels above the revised figures retailers were to cut back to their 1940 employment levels and the signed pledges went out to the war manpower commission [Music] thus a community stop gap an industrial tourniquet war manpower commission washington dc revised estimates of increases in date and employment for one year from may first show reduction 18 394 as compared with march 1st estimate marion a greg area director yes community action was taking effect the survey had brought out important facts six thousand jobs held by men could be done by women industry had opened a host of jobs available for women in dayton now on the strength of this a woman's committee walked the streets and knocked on the doors every woman in 3 000 dayton homes was interviewed did you know there are all sorts of interesting war jobs open for women right away three women on your block say they'd get a war job if their neighbor did how about you some answered yes some no some maybe on a poll sampling basis ten thousand said they were available seven thousand said yes part-time nine thousand said maybe most of those who said maybe had a reason but the community knew about that was planning to meet that 11-day nurseries more to follow here women can leave their children while they work confident of the best of care in the most pleasant of surroundings more statistics for americans the more day nurseries the more women for war work the less labor shortage with sufficient child care nurseries as their answer to women with small children dayton's emergency committee and its local management labor committee went to work they were determined no woman should cash a check board a bus see a movie or walk down the street without getting acquainted with the idea that she was needed each week they printed a pamphlet called the war worker this listed all jobs open to women and men from assistant chemists to machine operators to lens grinders to conductors and if a woman went into a bank a woman stepped into a grocery if a girl hopped a bus if a girl went to the theater she bumped into the war worker every medium of publicity was used motion pictures were made of dayton women at work in war factories these films were shown in dayton theaters wedged in between features and shorts dayton women are marching to war women are driving the buses that carry war workers to their jobs women are doing their part in keeping wartime dayton supplied with clean laundry women are preparing and serving the food for the hungry war workers yes in every essential wartime activity in the factories at the airfields dayton women are helping to keep the wheels of industry turning and hundreds of these women have never worked before at such jobs but the war manpower commission says at least twelve thousand more dayton women are needed to fill the shoes of the men who have gone to war the dayton radio stations took their mics to the assembly lines and interviewed the women young and old who were fighting on the production battlefields of america tell me mrs bradley how do you like working in a factory well right now there isn't anything i'd like better how does your husband feel about it he feels fine about it every evening when i come home i get an extra kiss and all over the city new eye marks of a community at war every month 36 billboards which used to prate of nylon and bedroom slippers and lingerie now spoke another language advertisements popped up in the papers dayton women had gone to war before but now 700 women a month not normally in the labor market are applying for war jobs dayton was finding a new pride in itself the prestige of war work was being hammered home women who went out to fight on the production lines were gaining the city's respect so did dayton's program get underway the community have begun to search out undeveloped sources of labor supply workers are being hired for what they can contribute not disqualified because of irrelevant infirmities here in dayton deaf mutes cleaning segments of bifocal lenses [Music] blind workers [Music] crippled workers older workers part-time workers from hitherto unthought of groups in dayton many members of the junior association of commerce marched to the uscs and volunteered for four hours of part-time work every day high school schedules were rearranged for students who would take part-time jobs yes people from within dayton are being enlisted the employment stabilization plan of the war manpower commission had been in operation since the beginning of the year new controls have been added all male workers clear through the united states employment service certain occupations are reserved for women alone free movement from less essential to essential employment is being encouraged many hands in the community are transferring from peacetime luxury work to wartime critical work [Music] [Applause] and as with the other groups acquiring a sense of community responsibility here labor played its full share gave its whole-hearted cooperation and to forestall indecision to bring the employment office to the prospective worker representatives of plants on the priority list moved into the uscs and hired applicants right on the spot some measures designed to find workers some to utilize some to retain some common to all three common to all workers is the sheer matter of how to live in a community in dayton it was found that a hundred thousand war workers had only three hours a week to shop thus other hours that should have been spent at work were taken off to obtain the very necessities of life with people not in war work having the advantage of regular shopping hours a blow was being given to the morale of war workers to the importance of war work dayton faced this with courage and aggressive leadership to gain full support for the war manpower program the emergency committee did a little explaining a little cajoling a little persuading [Music] yes this is now dayton on a monday night or a wednesday night a one-shift town adjusting itself to a three-shift tempo the retail stores are open the five and ten is open the markets are open the department stores are open retailers are able to hire high school girls working part-time as sales ladies thus finding it easier to go back to their 1940 employment levels with no inconvenience to the stores essential shopping needs of the community are being met the banks are open [Music] some companies send groups of late shift workers down in buses to cash their checks and girls who had no time for permanence unless they took time off from work are now being made beautiful at night that goes for the men too and there's the important item of recreation and relaxation entertainment of the men on the fighting front is a must for fighting morale it's been found true back home in the movies and bowling alleys and special dances at odd hours for odd shifts a potential is recaptured and built up a potential of ultimate production back of the workbenches the sheer matter of where to live presents a formidable problem in dayton rooms beds floor space all jam-packed overflowing the housing problem is aided greatly by the regulation of in-migration but with insufficient quarters for many already in the city housing projects are keeping pace with the rest of the emergency program priorities are being speeded up and the city is dotted with various stages of housing construction large projects temporary as well as permanent for white and colored people in dayton are opening their homes to war workers buildings are being converted for their use there's still a housing problem but it's being lit war industry cities are war crowded cities in many ways the sheer business of how to get places the sheer discomfort prevented many people in dayton from entering the labor market the community and the airfields face this bugaboo along with the others to combat it industrial plants organize share the ride movements new loading platforms were built shelters were built over the old platforms [Music] new buses were obtained and added to regular schedules there's still a transportation problem but it's being linked along with the improvement of community service facilities for war workers there is improvement of plant facilities the factories are perpetual motion machines in dayton they're running round the clock the workers are coming in and going out in an endless stream living days endlessly the same dating industrialists did some thinking about that some of them had for a long time they had found there were simple ways to lower absenteeism and prevent turnover indeed to stimulate even further the get a war job spirit of the city a cafeteria so that men and women can have hot meals on the spot one of them even has a cafeteria with an exclusive touch and a lot of dayton women who are undecided about war work made up their minds when they heard about this it's recognized that the efficiency of people is unlike the efficiency of machines and it's been found that they work harder and produce more if they have a chance to lean back and stop working now and then occasional rest periods giving a man a chance to have a smoke or eat an apple as simple a thing as that in many plants there are minor medical treatments available over and above emergency aid and a dentist with full equipment these sort of services save many a worker a half day off more ways of forestalling that half day off a group of personal services for the people in the plans at the plans all of these tend to more complete realization of the workers productivity to induce more members of the city to go to work to retain workers in their jobs an important element of this last is the exit interview provided for by the employment stabilization plan here the personnel representative of one of the plants and a worker are sitting down and talking it out a sympathetic interest in the reasons prompting the decision to quit more often than not results in the decision to remain and contributes to better job relations one shift comes out and another goes in in dayton the black of night is punctuated by the blue white blaze of the factories inside as in the day men and women are manning the production lines and inside more plans for increasing the efficiency of those men and women here at night and during their regular working hours a class is being trained in the particular skills which they require at their jobs the wmc's training within industry program is an integral part of dayton's formula thus dayton is facing its present and its future with full speed ahead on any and every aspect of manpower with the cooperation of the radio and the newspapers the city has become manpower conscious and no manpower event occurs without finding its way into the press the local management labor committee and the emergency committee have taken off their coats and gone to work and are discovering the truth of their original contention the answer is not just more workers the answer is something like this [Music] [Applause] no model town no panaceas no permanent solution but a movement a common effort a community at war so let's take a look at another meeting of the emergency committee just four months later dayton has partially solved her manpower problem it also means that war production schedules in this area are no longer threatened by labor shortages this was our goal and we may well feel proud of its achievement the whole community participated but we know such a program does not result from a general spontaneous action it can only take bold form through direct activity of top local leadership it cannot be delegated we also know such groups as ours cannot do the entire job our effectiveness derives from the support and cooperation which we give to the war manpower commission and the other appropriate governmental agencies which must carry the burden of making these programs work we know our job is not finished war problems are never fully solved our work must continue unrelaxed we will not fail if we observe the fundamental lesson of our recent experience war production is human production the product of the minds bodies and spirit of the people if those persons responsible for production would only spend as much time on human relations as they do on the mechanics of production our manpower problems would be well on their way to solution the way of life of people in the community as well as in the factory cannot be separated from their capacity to produce all over the land areas of labor shortages cities with problems like data cities with problems peculiar to themselves all with problems they can overcome by aggressive leadership local leadership communities at war pounding out the deadly weapons of [Music] victory [Music] communities at war all of them confronted with these words the words of a great american soldier this is a hard war a bitter bloody war make no mistake our men know it and are ready for it but they want to be assured above all else that the home front is behind them

Channel: War Stories

Views: 365,608

Keywords: military history, war, war documentary, military tactics, war stories, history of war, battles, ww2, world war 2, wwii, marianas wwii, battle of marianas ww2, marianas ww2, america ww2, wwii documentary 2020, wwii documentary for students, national archives ww2, ww2 factory, history documentary, full length documentaries, documentary movies - topic, world war ii

Id: HJ16CHVQn80

Length: 62min 18sec (3738 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 07 2021