Battle Of The Philippine Sea: The Conflict That Crushed Japanese Air Power | Air Wars | War Stories

this channel is part of the history hit Network in June 1944 American forces began a decisive phase of their Advance across the Central Pacific towards the Japanese Homeland invasion of the Mariana Islands was considered critical for success there as elsewhere in the vast Pacific Ocean aircraft carriers would be the key to Victory thank you [Music] most of the air air-to-air action that I had was all built around the Marianas and the first battle of the Philippine Sea that was the most intense that was an active part of of the war unfortunately we had the opportunity to be there at that time a lot of shoot Downs a lot of changing of the tide of relative strengths between the enemy and ourselves Ariana's we're a 425 mile long chain of 15 Islands stretching from fatalon De piros in the north to Guam in the south just over 300 miles to the north lay Japanese bases on Iwo Jima and 250 miles south in the Caroline Islands apart from Guam nearby Saipan and tinian had operational airfields with emergency landing strips as well all three would be prime targets capture of the Marshall Islands one thousand miles east of the Marianas in February and March 1944 provided anchorages from which to mount the assault including Beach landing craft 535 warships and auxiliary vessels would take part in the operation codenamed forager which involved transporting 127 571 troops was scheduled for the 15th of June Admiral Chester A Nimitz commander-in-chief Pacific would exercise overall command but Direct Control of all operation forager forces devolved on Admiral Raymond a spruance commander of the U.S fifth Fleet under spruance vice admiral Mark a mitcher led the first carrier task force 58 which provided air cover for the joint expeditionary force of marine and army units destined to carry out the invasion Mitch's task force 58 comprised four independent carrier task groups known as task groups 58 1 2 3 and 4. protected by escorting Cruisers and destroyers [Music] in all the 14 aircraft carriers would deploy 896 bombers and Fighters by the 8th of June the joint expeditionary Force had concentrated in the marshals with its own close escort of Warships troops Bound for saipak left on the 9th of June those for Guam on the 12th as the final plans were drawn up critical aerial reconnaissance was carried out by long-range aircraft based in American occupied New Guinea the martial admiralty and Solomon Islands on the 18th of April as Naval liberators photographed Saipan and Guam escorting B-24 bombers attacked military targets on the 26th of April until the eve of the operation regular photographic reconnaissance flights were mounted from the marshals the B-24 bomber The Liberator is best known for its cooperation with the B-17 Flying Fortress and the Strategic bombing campaign against Germany but in the Pacific stripped of all its Armament and its bombing capability and given extra fuel it became a photo reconnaissance aircraft with a range of 2 000 miles which was further than any other aircraft in the Pacific at that time it had a speed of 300 miles per hour and capable of a ceiling of 30 000 feet it therefore was invaluable when it was operating from territory to being captured from the Japanese like the Solomon Islands and the Marianas who could cover a vast distance and it was invaluable to Admiral experience's fifth Fleet history hit is a streaming platform that is just for history fans with fantastic documentaries covering fascinating figures and moments in history from all over the world from the Battle of Trafalgar and the revolutionary era right through to the second world war if you are looking for your next military history fix then this is the service for you we're committed to Bringing history fans award-winning documentaries and podcasts that you cannot find anywhere else sign up now for a free trial and War Stories fans get 50 off their first three months just be sure to use the code War Stories at checkout for some time the Japanese had anticipated an attack on their defensive perimeter in the Western Pacific which arched two thousand miles Northwest from New Guinea the commander-in-chief of the Japanese combined Fleet Admiral soyemu Toyota decided on a risky strategy of offense operation ago would lure the American Fleet into a decisive battle with full strength whether Japanese could use their shore-based aircraft to full advantage on the 3rd of May he designated the Palau islands and Western Carolines Yap and Wale as the decisive battle areas Toyota planned that a decoy force would entice the Americans into the Trap which would be sprung by the first mobile Fleet under vice admiral gisaboro Ozawa from tawitawi in the Sulu archipelago on receiving the executive order osawa would proceed immediately to the area east of the Philippines without leaving a Trace complete success is anticipated Toyota declared on the 16th of May osawa's Fleet converged on tawitawi of the southern tip of the Sulu archipelago five days later Toyota signaled prepare for aego the basic fear of the Japanese was the American aircraft carriers and the basis of operation ago was to lure the Americans into a position where their aircraft carriers could be attacked and neutralized that meant that to make the maximum use of land boast aircraft they had to be lured to the southwest of the Philippine Islands there is an additional problem as far as the Japanese were concerned was they were shorter fuel so what they aimed to do was to lure the fleet into this area and to attack both the aircraft carriers and also the task force Landing Force having got rid of the aircraft carriers it was then the possibility or indeed what they sought was a fleet battle [Music] land-based naval aircraft of the japanese-based Air Force would play a pivotal role in operation ago even after a formidable force was detached to New Guinea in early June 172 aircraft were stationed on Saipan tinian and Guam another 268 in Easy reach of the islands a further 500 were capable of being quickly flown in from Japan and the occupied territories aego required The Base Air Force to destroy at least one third of the enemy task force carrier units prior to the decisive battle as well as putting up regular reconnaissance flights before and during it although he was aware of American activity in the central masawa still had to get to get carriers within range when General MacArthur's troops attacked biak island off the New Guinea Coast he spotted an opportunity on the 9th of June he suggested to Toyota the Japanese Naval reinforcements might draw the American Fleet into the anticipated zone of decisive battle and enable them to launch ago the following day vice admiral matumi ogaki was detached from mazawa with two battleships a light Cruiser and six destroyers towards biak within two days he was recalled to implement aego the build up to operation forager had been gradual in the last week of May American carriers attacked Marcus and wake Islands to the north of the Marianas and from the 3rd of June land-based Army Air Force aircraft bombed the Caroline and Palo islands in the south [Music] then on the 11th of June task force 58 began to bomb and strafe the Mariana Islands at 1 pm 208 Fighters and eight torpedo bombers attacked Saipan tinian and Guam we make our sweep on Guam expecting to catch all the planes on the ground and everybody having a brunch here at the swimming pool and it ain't so the airplanes aren't on the ground they're all up in the air Fighters are way up above us they came down on our backs right as we get got into our runs and started down and the anti-aircraft fire was exceptionally heavy we lost three Pilots to what we believe were the five inch size weapon it blew them right out of the sky one survived it uh and we ran into this terrific ground fire and then the the zeros jumped us and we got into on everything breaks down one on one uh essentially you're a wing man if he can stay with you or if he and I ended up with getting two of them and we chased a third but that was that was a good scrap we made many strikes on Guam the four carrier task groups continued to pound the three Islands during the 12th of June the following day as two of them sailed North to attack chijijima and Iwo Jima from which Japanese reinforcements might be flown South the other two continued to engage Saipan and tinian preceded by heavy Naval bombardments on the 14th of June at dawn on the 15th of June covered by an air umbrella and the fire from warships offshore two Marine divisions landed on the west coast of Saipan American activity prior to The Landings had persuaded azawa to recall ugaki's Force the mobile Fleet left tawi tawi on the 13th of June and two days later was fueling his ships at the guimara Strait in the Philippines where Toyota signaled azawa to attack the enemy in the Marianas area and annihilate The Invasion Force activating a go operation for the decisive battle the following day at 4 50 PM Ozawa and ugaki Rendezvous east of the Philippines Ozawa now had nine carriers five fleet and four light with five battleships 13 Cruisers and 28 Destroyers he had 430 carrier aircraft and 43 sea planes for reconnaissance and Gunnery observation duties on his battleships and cruisers the considerable Armada but inferior to the Americans nor had it concentrated without Trace as Toyota hoped the submarine seahorse reported ugaki moving North another submarine flying fish spotted Ozawa on the move the standard American submarine was the t-class submarine which had a speed of nine knots underwater and on the surface 21 knots that meant therefore it's much more effective on the surface stalking and picking off individual ships they were had 21 inch torpedoes and a crew of 85. they were used not only for stalking ships but also for observation and blockading purposes and this became very important when they were spotting the movement of the first Cruiser Fleet at the Mariana Turkish shoot because of the submarine reports spruance now knew that two Japanese Naval forces were at Sea Ozawa and ugaki and therefore postponed the invasion of Guam during the morning of the 16th of June under vice admiral Willis a Lee spruance created a separate force of seven battleships four heavy Cruisers and 13 destroyers with air cover provided by task group 58-4 to form a screen in front of the American main Force radar-equipped seaplanes were flown from the marshals to operate from roadsteds off the west of Saipan once that area had been secured on the 17th of June those Bruins had no intention of being passive our Heir will first knock out enemy carriers then we'll attack enemy battleships and cruisers to slow down or disable them American warships would follow up these aerial attacks to force a fleet action and with the help of the carriers aircraft pursue any survivors without firm information about the enemy spruance reasoned he could not afford to sail west during the night of the 17th 18th of June in case the Japanese slipped by to put the invasion at risk at 3 45 a.m on the 18th of June a signal from the submarine cavalla revealed that the previous evening a large Japanese force had been cited 780 miles west of Saipan steering East spruance calculated that it could not be in a position to threaten him until the 19th of June Ozawa had refueled his force on the 17th of June and resumed his Eastwood course that evening when kavana saw him he had organized his ships into three forces a force comprised three Fleet carriers Tai ho in which azawa flew his flag zuikaku and shokaku with 207 aircraft B Force under rear Admiral T joshima had the two Fleet carriers union with the light carrier ryoho together containing 135 aircraft these two groups 15 miles apart were escorted by one Battleship four Cruisers and 16 Destroyers the bait foresee 125 miles ahead under vice admiral karita consisted of three light carriers with 88 aircraft escorted by four battleships five Cruisers and eight Destroyers the Japanese carriers tended to be smaller than the Americans their Fleet carriers were 20 000 tons and They Carried about 60 aircraft their light carriers were about ten thousand tons and They Carried something like 40 to 45 aircraft so they were considerably smaller than the Americans as Dawn broke on the 18th of June neither Commander knew the precise location of the other kavala's information was over six hours old azawa had two slight advantages his carrier-based Tzatziki Fighters and dual torpedo bombers could attack the Americans at extended range and fly on to refuel a japanese-held Guam and Rota Islands on his battleships and cruises the reconnaissance seaplanes had a greater range than any of the U.S aircraft and could therefore give azawa early warning of his enemy's position the Americans gave code names to all the Japanese aircraft they refer to the Zeke aircraft which is in fact a zero that's a Mitsubishi Naval type O aircraft mark one and that was the type of aircraft that was used at the time of Pearl Harbor it had two 20 millimeter cannon and two 7.7 millimeter cannon I had a speed of around 350 miles per hour the Jill was an academic torpedo bomber which carried a single torpedo at a speed of 260 miles per hour air search is mounted from ridges carriers Adorn on the 18th of June proved truthless but in the afternoon the Japanese made their longer range town 3 14 PM one search aircraft reported several carriers two battleships an unknown number of other ships another at 4pm unknown number of carriers 10 plus other ships further south task force 58 had been located beyond the battleship Shield rear Admiral Obayashi the carrier group commander in 4C prepared to launch 67 aircraft against the Americans at 4 37. Ozawa was more cautious countermanded the order an altered course to keep outside the range of the U.S reconnaissance aircraft [Music] the following morning the 19th of June he intended to contact and destroy the enemy Bruins due to his fear of being caught too far west of Saipan had turned back as night fell on the 18th of June then Pacific Fleet headquarters at Pearl Harbor reported that at 8 23 PM its direction finding stations had used intercepted enemy Wireless signals to locate azawa 350 miles west southwest of task force 58. mitcha sought permission to change course so that he could be in a position to attack with his aircraft at dawn still concerned that a sizable Japanese force might sneak past him spruance denied his request apart from not trusting the direction finders information he was worried that a garbled message from the submarine Stingray might mean the enemy was closer than thought wow a U.S naval seaplane had picked up on its radar two large groups of ships in the Philippine Sea almost certainly azawa's A and B forces such are the fortunes of war that due to bad Communications spruance did not receive this information until 9 00 am on the 19th of June other aerial sweeps sent out during the night in adorned from task force 58 failed to pinpoint the Japanese Ozawa was better served at 4 45 am on the 19th of June 4C catapulted 16 seaplanes from its escort ships to search for The Americans at 7 30 one-sighted task group 58 won sent off at 5 15 am 13 torpedo bombers from 4C reached the picket destroyers of Lee's Battleship screen but lost seven of their number to marauding hellcats without causing damage the Kate was a Nakajima Naval torpedo bomber which was the standard Japanese torpedo bomber at this time in the Pacific it carried one torpedo of 764 pound but it could also be used as a level bomber the Jake was a seaplane it was the standard Naval torpedo bomber in the Pacific could carry a one 250 kilogram bomb or the equivalent rate in depth charges it had a range of 1 200 miles and a speed a cruising speed of 203 miles per hour what its great assets was that it had air-to-surface radar Ozawa now had enemy carriers in his sights though he was unaware that the Japanese Naval code had been broken which gave mitcher time to organize a warm welcome disaster though had already begun to hamper the Japanese operation even as azawa's Flagship Tai ho was launching her aircraft a torpedo from the submarine albacore struck although the carrier continued to function are known to those on board she had sustained a mortal blur it's Dawn on the no Jew hellcats of task force 58 had been flying protective patrols over the fleet two Judy dive bombers from Guam were intercepted at 5 30 am 20 minutes later six bomb carrying zikis were driven off 6 30 am radar reported aerial activity over the island 100 miles away hellcats arriving at 7 20 found Japanese aircraft taking off from a roti field and summon help shortly after 8 A.M a large force of enemy aircraft was reported heading towards Guam from the southwest reinforcements from truck and Yap Islands mitcher reviewing the situation concluded that we were probably due for a working over by both land-based and carrier-based planes he ordered his three Southern task groups each to send 12 hellcats to take over the Guam patrols and together they accounted for 30 zikis or hams at five bonds meanwhile the first of four major raids that day had been launched from the Japanese carriers at 8 30 am 16 ziki Fighters 45 bomb carrying Ziggy's and eight Jill torpedo bombers were dispatched by 4C an hour and a half later they were picked up by radar in Admiral Lee's Battleship screen at a range of 150 miles mitcha immediately recalled the hellcats from Guam leaving only a small standing Patrol there and warned task force 58 to be ready for a maximum fighter effort the 1019 he gave the executive order and four minutes later the first American fighters took off to counter what became known as raid one the Grumman Hellcat fighter was the standard Naval fighter in the Pacific in 1944. it had 6.5 machine guns and a speed of 376 miles per hour a range of just over a thousand miles but it could be used as a fighter bomber in which case it could carry a maximum of two thousand pounds of bombs one of the Adam was described was as truly award-winning aircraft the enemy aircraft were now 72 miles away orbiting at twenty thousand feet prior to hitting the American carriers which gave the Defenders time to stack between 17 and 23 000 feet for a coordinated response 1036 Mitchell signaled all his carriers to keep Fighters available to repel these attacks Landing planes as necessary at that very moment a formation of 24 Japanese bombers and 16 Fighters came under attack from essex's hellcats which dispersed the formation and shot down six we were going into Guam to to try to catch everything there but we only got in about halfway and we got a hey rube which means uh turn around and come back and we need help and we started back and we were almost looking down I remember on the right side about uh oh two o'clock I guess and you could see Japanese Cates and Val diver the typical carrier makeup uh heading in for the force and so what we did we we caught them going in and we went on down and again I got caught up in the fighters uh before I got into the main attack group but we had others that were in and shooting down the uh the dive bombers and the torpedo planes and uh we had a good mix up there I think I got a couple of down that time the fighters the minute they detect you they break right back into you and leave their support it gets down there to 1-1 again and it's a it's a dog fight some of the attacking aircraft managed to evade the forward hellcats and continued towards their targets only to run into a second defensive three or four got Beyond The Destroyer pickets to attack the battleships we're at 10 49 a bomb struck South Dakota causing minor damage reached the carries this raid was officially broken up at 10 57. the Japanese lost 42 from the 69 which set out Raid 2 launched from mazawa's force a at 8 56 comprised 53 Judy dive bombers 27 Jill torpedo bombers and 48 ziki Fighters shortly after takeoff One Pilot crash dived a torpedo heading for his own ship and eight other aircraft turned back with engine trouble flying over 4C two more were shot down by trigger-happy-friendly Gunners and ate others so badly damaged the at 1107 the remaining 109 were identified by radar at a range of 115 miles and intercepted 60 miles out by urgently scrambled hellcats attacking at 11 39 the American fighters accounted for about 70. but the survivors kept going to be met by the concentrated anti-aircraft fire at Lee Street and 42 more hellcats six duties attacked task group 58-2 where an overhead burst caused casualties on wasp and near misses did some damage to Bunker Hill four of the dive bombers were shot down one escaped a rotor another to Guam simultaneously a small group of jills attacked task group 58-3 an unsurvived and no damage was done bringing Raid 2 to an ignominious conclusion over the 129 aircraft launched the Japanese had lost 98. they were not however finished Raid 3 comprising 15 Ziggy Fighters 25 Ziggy fighter bombers and seven Jill dive bombers took off from Force B between 10 and 10 15. due to false information they were initially sent too far north and 27 returned having seen nothing the remainder did pick up amended instructions but were detected 100 miles from the battleships at 12 55. 40 hellcats intercepted them and accounted for seven a few did attack task group 584 on the flank of Admiral Lee's scream did no damage but escaped from the 47 launched on Raid 3 therefore survived the Japanese zero was a very lightweight very agile aircraft and a good power loading uh absolutely zero pilot protection no no uh armor for the pilot or the oil tank or anything like that it was really a time bomb in a in a way uh just waiting to be uh set off I think I only had one encounter where I was higher we were higher than the than the zeros when we got into combat they were always way above us up in the center where we couldn't see him we got jumped several times there in my in that cruise and ever saw him until the bullet started flying and you didn't stay in dog fight for zero it could turn tighter it could you know outmaneuver you and all of that that was a cardinal error to try you may make a turn or two but then you had to get out of there he'd be right on your tail you couldn't if he was an experienced pilot so most of the work against it was a slash attack maybe one uh quick turn or a wing over and back into it again but then you either had another enemy or you cleared out some way because you just don't you weren't going to do it raid four the final attempt launched between 11 and 11 30 a.m involved 30 ziki's nine Judy and 27 Val dive bombers fighter bombers and six Jill torpedo bombers from three Force B carriers and one force a carrier the craft of this raid was sent too far south and found some made for rotor were picked up by radar 45 miles from task group 582 and five were shot down elsewhere hellcats attacked other Raiders claiming nine successes a group of 49 aircraft from raid 4 made from Guam jettising their bombs on route as they did so at 1449 they were picked up on task force 58 Radars and 12 hellcats went off in the seat I'm reaching Guam they found the enemy machine circling a rotate field waiting to land at this point 15 more hellcats arrived and the Americans shot down 30 of the 49 enemy one feature of the action during the 19th of June was lack of interference from the Japanese Islands particularly Guam which were attacked at intervals by American formations in order to clear their decks for fighters to engage the incoming Japanese attacks task force 58 carriers had sent off their bombers to orbit many did not Circle idly at 10 40 24 from Hornet hit Guam at 1300 dive bombers from Lexington attacked 30 parked aircraft there projected during the afternoon by Fighters other bombers carried out more raids and until 1845 hellcats kept our patrols over the island in talking to uh the Japanese subsequent to the war the thing they feared most were the Hellcat strafing the troops on the ground you can imagine you put yourself in a slit trencher in your belly and palm trees out there and have the for a flight of four Fighters coming down and you've got uh 12 50 calibers going to absolutely devastating [Music] the Guam operations were not without cost six hellcats and one bomber were lost four of them two anti-aircraft fired during the four enemy raids minor damage was suffered by the carrier's wasp and Bunker Hill the battleships Indiana and South Dakota and 31 men killed by noon on the 19th of June though the danger to the American Fleet was over Commander Paul D Bui described the Carnage achieved by the hellcats as easy as shooting turkeys and the legend of the great Mariana's turkey shoot was born [Music] ozawa's airstrikes had failed spectacularly 243 out of the 373 aircraft launched by his three naval forces failed to return another 50 to 60 shore-based machines or reconnaissance seaplanes had also been destroyed American losses were 29 aircraft 27 Airmen after those rescued were counted during the afternoon of the 19th of June azawa suffered more Grievous setbacks at 12 20 PM the carrier shukaku was torpedoed by the U.S submarine Kavala finally sinking after a massive magazine explosion shortly after 3 pm at 3 32 the damage suffered in its own earlier torpedo attack caused a similar explosion on Tai ho which sank at 5 15 pm Ozawa had already transferred his flag first to the Destroyer wakatsuki then at 506 PM the cruiser agoro he had survived but two of his nine carriers had moved the time of the Mariana turkey shoot in June 1944 the Japanese had already lost a number of carriers so to lose two Fleet carriers on that day the 19th of June for them was a major blow Tahoe and Chicago were both Fleet carriers carrying 60 plus aircraft according to the American Naval historian Samuel Morrison this was a decisive action after which the Japanese could never compete on the same level with the Americans Ozawa was misled by reports from returning Pilots of vast numbers of Hellcat losses and claims of up to six carriers in flames Tokyo radio declared that 11 U.S carriers and many other ships had been sold unaware that so many of his own aircraft had failed to reach the safety of friendly airfields on the 20th of June azawa planned to review his ships and recover the aircraft that he believed had flown on to Guam and Rota with Lee's Battleship screen 25 miles in front of them at 8 pm on the 19th of June three of Mitch's task groups turned West steaming at 23 knots to preserve fuel in pursuit of azawa they left behind task group 58-4 to cover the japanese-held Mariana Islands during the night its aircraft strafe tinian and Rota and again Bond Guam Mitchell was aware of spirits's stern warning to ensure adequate protection of Saipan but also the fifth Fleet Commander's desire to attack the enemy the next day if they knew his position with sufficient accuracy locating azawa would not as it could be easy in theory task force 58 should have closed on the Japanese during the night of the 19th 20th of June because the mobile fleet was then steaming at only 18 knots but two hours before the American set off in Pursuit azawa altered corpse he therefore eluded long-range reconnaissance liberators from the admiralty Islands seaplanes operating from the shelter of American Health Saipan and patrolling American submarines maintaining radio silence on the 20th of June the Japanese Commander had effectively vanished from 5 30 am Ozawa sent up relays of seaplanes from 4C to look for his enemy at 7 13 am one reported two American search aircraft but no warships he decided to continue refueling his Fleet but poor Communications on his present Flagship agoro meant that the exercise was highly disorganized and did not get underway until noon at 1pm Ozawa transferred his flag yet again to the carrier sukaiko there he learned the full extent of his losses the previous day however he clung to the belief that heavy damage had been inflicted on the Americans during the 19th of June and was determined to seek battle again on the 21st of June messages from tinian led him wrongly to conclude that air reinforcements had arrived from Iwo Jima and truck and Toyota had not discouraged him from renewing action suddenly his confidence was shattered at 4 15 the cruiser otago intercepted an American Transmission the Japanese had been cited within half an hour azawa had stopped all refueling changed course and set off at 24 knots in an attempt to outrun his pursues throughout the morning and early afternoon the Americans had mounted increasingly desperate searches 3 38 PM an Avenger aircraft had last spotted as our ships approximately 275 miles Northwest of task force 58. but its message was incomplete [Music] not until 405 was the exact location of the three enemy groups received by task force 58. this was the transmission picked up by otago it was late in the day and the Japanese were at extreme range for the American carrier-based aircraft but mitcha immediately prepared to launch his squadrons Commander fifth fleet was informed that the carriers were firing their bolt in witch's words a single shot venture at 4 21 PM task force 58 turned into the wind and within 10 minutes it six Fleet carriers had launched 77 dive bombers 54 torpedo bombers and 85 fighter escorts all the hellcats and helldivers carrying extra belly tanks 30 minutes into their flight the American Pilots were given an amended location for the enemy Ozawa was 60 miles further away than originally thought this made mitcher abandon an intended second strike and gave those already in the air grave doubts about their ability to safely regain their carriers fuel would be at a premium we knew we weren't going to get back surprises that you don't necessarily like as we came up what we call the fly one position this is where the single one is to to launch a deck launch and the talker who was holding a Blackboard and he's got his earphones on and he's got a Blackboard he's holding it against the wind over the deck new enemy position the bearing was a little bit different but distance 305 miles and right at that time you know there's no way we're not we're not going to get back the fighters uh would be the best off the torpedo planes are worsed off and the die bombers in between so you got this on your mind as you're going out [Music] with the sun low on the horizon at 6 40 PM the Japanese were sighted six tankers and six destroyers were trailing the three main groups which were virtually in line and each tightly concentrated to allow maximum anti-aircraft fire in the absence of formidable air cover an aircraft from Hornet Yorktown and Bataan made for azawa's force a zawa's new flagship through ikaku were so severely damaged that it seemed in danger of sinking but did manage to link back to court squadrons from Bunker Hill Monterey and Cabot have concentrated on 4C where the carrier chioda battleship Aruna and Heavy Cruiser Maya suffered badly in the meantime aircraft room wasp set about the tankers causing two to be scuttled after heavy damage [Music] we got your head tucked between the shoulders because the AAA fire was horrendous one thing that I remember vividly is the color there was purple bursts lavender greenish blue as well as white and black it was like Fourth of July in force B all the carriers were hit a single bomb struck the old which escaped severe damage yunyo similarly remained in action despite being hit amid chips by two bombs EO however was first struck by two Torpedoes from Bello Woods Avengers then hit by dive bombers from Enterprise it sank two hours later leaving behind a devastated enemy shortly after 7 PM the American Pilots faced a hazardous return journey in darkness with dangerously low fuel we started home and it's dark and about a third of the way back we started hearing the torpedo planes call out it was not just our ship there were other carriers and ships involved uh running out of gas preparing to ditch and call after call after call from there on out it was chaos the first Pilots reached the carriers at 8 45 pm in an effort to guide them in mitcha ordered all carrier lines to be switched on the perilous tactic had Japanese submarines be near star shells were sent up and destroyers played their searchlights over the waves to pick out men and rafts in the water despite the various efforts to help several aircraft piled up on flight decks on Lexington five aircraft were involved in a multiple crash there was hysteria and I'll just call it hysteria pandemonium had developed nobody knew where their ships were they were running out of fuel we had four of our Pilots ran out of fuel right there by the ship two of them ditched right alongside the ship and two others went down in the landing pattern and then we had people making Landing approaches on Cruisers destroyers anything that had a light in on it and so that command turn on the lights from The Mark mitcher was a lifesaver those lights came on just while I was in my Approach we had Pilots that were down in the water we had them on other carriers we had pilots from other carriers in our carrier we had a lot of strange people in the ready room and we had to start sorting it all out well we started getting reports that we had Carmichael and so and so and so and so aboard the Yorktown and so and so aboard one of the other carriers and we were reporting who we had back to their home carriers and uh that was quite a night the last aircraft landed safely at 10 52. in addition to 20 aircraft lost over the Japanese Fleet 17 hellcats 35 helldivers and 28 Avengers had been lost on the way back a massive rescue operation meant that in the end only 16 pilots and 33 crewmen were lost during this phase of the operation together with six men killed on the carriers during deck crashes at 7 12 pm on the 20th of June at virtually the same time that his aircraft were leaving ozawa's Fleet Mitchell proposed that Lee's battleships be sent in immediate pursuit of the Japanese spruance insisted that task force 58 be kept together and a dawn make the best practicable speed as a concentrated Force towards Ozawa after the American aircraft had been recovered on the evening of the 20th of June following their attack upon the Japanese there is a proposal that Admiral needs battleships should immediately set off to try and slow down the Japanese it was later known that they were approximately 570 miles from Okinawa at this time admus Bruins veto the idea on the grounds you wanted to keep the whole of the task force tactically concentrated during the night sphere was that if Admiral Lee had set off with these battleships they had no air cover and even if they caught up with the Japanese it was doubtful whether they could have done enough damage to slow them down before the task force 58 to caught them up so he was therefore cautious and rightly so had Admiral Leeds battleships got within range of the Japanese it is likely that they would have been devastated by the remaining Japanese aircraft experience was not to know that the Japanese had lost those two aircraft carriers but they still did have aircraft which could have attacked Bruins was encouraged by the report of a reconnaissance seaplane at 1 30 am on the 21st of June that some of azala's ships were trailing oil American search aircraft continued to Shadow the Japanese but by 743 the enemy were 360 miles away the main enemy Fleet might now be out of range but spruance pinned his hopes on catching damaged ships which had fallen behind throughout the 21st of June task force 58 presidents as search aircraft continued to scour the area without finding any enemy warships at 8 30 pm spruance pulled off the hunt effectively though the battle of the Philippine Sea ended on the evening of the 20th of June its outcome decided by the turkey shoot of the previous day the result for the Japanese was critical the American Landings in the Marianas had not been halted and very soon Japan itself would feel the weight of a sustained offensive by B-29 bombers from captured Mariana airvis [Music] during the evening of the 21st of June Ozawa offered his resignation which Toyota refused so he remained in command of the mobile Fleet which reached Okinawa on the 22nd of June two-day battle the Japanese neither sank nor seriously damaged a single American warship at the end Ozawa had only 35 operational carrier aircraft over 100 Japanese aircraft were destroyed on the Marianas and other Japanese territory in Associated attacks including those which ditched or crashed after successfully completing their missions on the 20th of June the Americans lost 130 aircraft [Music] the great Mariana's turkey shoot opened the way for ultimate success in the war against Japan it was a decisive victory for the Americans foreign

Channel: War Stories

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Keywords: military history, war, war documentary, military tactics, war stories, history of war, battles, Full Documentary, WW2, Pacific Theatre, Imperial Japan, Battle of the Philippine Sea, Second World War, World War Two, Naval Warfare, Air Wars

Id: aqsdkKCUUfI

Length: 49min 30sec (2970 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 28 2023