- My name's Dan Snow, and I wanna tell you
about "History Hit TV". It's like the Netflix for history, hundreds of exclusive documentaries and interviews with the
world's best historians. We've got an exclusive offer available to fans of "Timeline". If you go to "History Hit TV", you can either follow the
information below this video, or just Google "History Hit TV" and use the code, "Timeline", you get a special introductory offer. Go and check it out. In the meantime, enjoy this video. (relaxing instrumental music) - [Robin] The South Pacific, 1942, the US Marine Corps leads the attack on the Pacific islands
of the Japanese Empire. (cannon shots exploding) And for the first time in their history, they launch an amphibious
assault with tanks. (cannon shots exploding) - They knew they would have
to have that type of support to knock out defensive positions
in amphibious assaults. (cannon shots exploding) - All of a sudden our tank hit a hole. (tank rumbling) They were throwing everything but the kitchen sink at that thing. (cannon shots exploding) - People say, well, I didn't realize there
were tanks in the Pacific. - [Robin] They seize one
island fortress after another. - There's no real way
to carry a large cannon around the battlefield for direct fire infantry
support except a tank. (cannon shots exploding) - [Robin] But they face an
enemy ready to meet them, tank versus tank.
(cannon shots exploding) - Man, we were firing
and firing and firing. (rapid gunfire exploding)
- Firing across a battlefield as wide as the ocean itself. (landmine exploding) - If it hit them they're gone. - [Robin] Tanks go head to
head in the Pacific War. (tank thudding in gravel) (dramatic ominous instrumental music) (tanks rumbling) (cannon shots exploding) (landmine exploding) (tank thudding in gravel) (relaxing instrumental music)
(waves swishing) - [Robin] Today, the palm-fringed beaches of a South Pacific are a destination for holiday makers seeking paradise. (festive children chatting)
(waves swishing) (ominous instrumental music) But in World War II, they would become a blood-soaked graveyard for the US Marine Corps. (airplane engines roaring) In December, 1941, the Japanese launch a surprise attack against the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, (bombs exploding) striking at the heart of
American power in the Pacific and dragging the US into
the Second World War. (trees thudding)
(tank rumbling) For more than 50 years, the Japanese have been pursuing a policy of aggressive military expansion. (tank rumbling) Their empire now stretches
halfway across the Pacific Ocean from Mainland Asia. (water splashing) The Japanese military
machine has been unstoppable, swallowing one island chain after another. From the Marianas to the Gilberts (tanks rumbling) and to the Solomons. - Japan's strategy was pretty effective at this particular point, because basically they had
managed to run riot all through the Southern Pacific. (cannon shot exploding) They had things pretty much their own way. (cannon shot exploding) (water swishing) - [Robin] Each island in its possession is now a fortress, bristling with manpower and heavy armor. (tank rumbling) - The goal was to make it so
expensive for the Americans to come back and to counter attack them that the Americans would
lose hope and simply give up on recovering or counter
attacking the Japanese and seizing back this empire. (dramatic ominous instrumental music) - [Robin] But give up they did not. (anti-missile shots exploding) And in June, 1942, with a decisive naval victory
at the Battle of Midway, the Americans turn the tide of war. (cannon shots exploding) - A common saying is that before Midway, the Japanese never stopped advancing. After Midway, the Japanese
never stopped retreating. - [Robin] The Americans
go on the offensive. And it's the Marines who are tasked with rolling back the Japanese Empire across 6,000 kilometers
of ocean with the plan to seize one island
stronghold after another, until they reach Mainland Japan itself. (tank rumbling) Overshadowed by the
achievements of the infantry, the role of the tank in the
Pacific War has been untold. (cannon shot exploding) - People say, well I didn't
realize there were tanks in the Pacific. - There's very little
written about the tanks in the case of the Marine Corps. The infantry always has this strange love, hate relationship with tanks. They don't like to be around
the tank because it takes fire. But when you're taking fire
from an enemy position, there's nothing quite like
that direct fire cannon and those heavy machine guns
and that armored protection to help eliminate enemy positions. There's no real way to
carry a large cannon around the battlefield for direct fire infantry
support except a tank. - [Robin] The Marines'
first hurdle is Guadalcanal, which they seek to take
with overwhelming force. (dramatic ominous instrumental music) (water splashing) Including 20,000 troops and
more than 50 light tanks. But it becomes a protracted
and bloody campaign. (rapid machine gunfire) Not only are the Pacific
Islands garrisoned by tens of thousands of soldiers, but the Japanese are also
fanatical in defense. (cannon shots exploding) - They never give up. You either kill them or get killed. This is war. They don't give up. - [Robin] And crucially,
the US Marines' frontline armored weapon, the M3 Light Tank, proves a failure. - The light tanks did not
possess enough firepower with their small 37 millimeter cannons to do much against the
major Japanese defenses. (tank rumbling) - [Robin] So the light tanks of the Marine Corps are
replaced with the Sherman. (tank rumbling) (dramatic ominous instrumental music) The medium M4A2 Sherman Tank with a 75 millimeter main cannon, its firepower is a significant upgrade in the Marines' armored capability. (tank rumbling) - How did they compare? Like night and day. It was kind of like comparing a small Ford to a big Cadillac. (dramatic ominous instrumental music) - [Robin] With the lessons
learned at Guadalcanal, a victory that takes six
months and comes at a cost of more than 7,000 casualties, the US Marines move on to
their next objective, Tarawa. 6,000 kilometers from Tokyo and part of the Gilbert Island chain, Tarawa is at the outermost edge of the Japanese Pacific Empire. (waves swishing) It's a remote and sparsely populated atoll of tiny islands and coral reefs. - The Japanese realized, having executed several
amphibious assaults themselves, that the best place to defeat
an amphibious assault is at the water's edge where the troops are still wading ashore, where they're still
knee-deep and struggling. So most of their defenses were
cited around the perimeter of the island. - [Robin] So confident
is Japanese Rear Admiral, Keiji Shibazaki, he
boasts that a million men could not take the island
in a thousand years. Dug in behind the defensive seawall at Tarawa are 5,000 soldiers, 65 heavy guns, (dramatic ominous instrumental music) and seven tanks. - These islands were so small
that the entire perimeter of the island could be fortified. So there was no chance except to assault these things frontally. - [Robin] Advancing on Tarawa, the Americans now have 14 medium tanks, dozens of light tanks, and 20,000 Marines. (dramatic ominous instrumental music) (cannon shots exploding) November 20th, 1943, at 05:00 hours the American attack begins with a massive naval bombardment. Its aim, to destroy the Japanese defenses and breach the seawall. - We could see the planes
dive bombing the island. (bomber engines rumbling) (bomb exploding) The heavy cruisers were there
and they had 12 inch guns and they were blasting
the island like crazy. (missiles shots exploding) (missiles exploding) - What I was worried about
is I was worried about one of them things might hit me. (Cpl. William laughing) (wind howling)
(waves swishing) - [Robin] At 09:00 hours, the first wave of Marines go in. (missile whirring)
(missile exploding) - On a small island like Tarawa, the only thing you can do is
attack right into the teeth of the defenses, just kind of slog ashore and
try to do the best you can in this frontal assault. (water swishing) (dramatic ominous instrumental music) - [Robin] Three waves of
Amtracs lead the attack, followed by C Company with 14 Shermans. (dramatic ominous instrumental music) A kilometer from the beaches, they're unloaded on a coral reef. (water splashing from missile shots) - Then you go into the
lagoon and then you go in, and that's when things got rough. (cannon shots exploding) - [Robin] Because it's now
that the US tankers come within range of the Japanese heavy guns. (cannon shots exploding)
(rapid gunfire) - [Officer Kiyoshi] All our
positions on all beaches opened on enemy landing craft. The Americans appeared to
be surprised and confused. (metal clanging from gunfire)
(cannon shots exploding) - [Robin] Wading ashore
through three feet of water under murderous fire, the tankers encounter
an unforeseen hazard, the shell holes created by
their own naval bombardment. - All of a sudden our tank hit a hole. (water splashing from missile shots) (gunfire exploding) (tank rumbling) They begun to fire on me and
they were throwing everything but the kitchen sink at that thing. (metal clanging from gunfire) (gunfire exploding) So I opened the hatch
and slid down the back of the tank into the water. And I don't know how I did
it without getting hit, because all I could hear under water was, (Cpl. William imitating gunfire) all over.
(metal hatch clanging) - Out of the six tanks
I had on that beach, three have drowned out in the water. (metal clanging from gunfire)
(cannon shots exploding) (water splashing) But we did get ashore. I got ashore with three vehicles. (rapid gunfire) (cannon shots exploding) (tank rumbling) - [Robin] But far from being destroyed, the Japanese seawall is still intact, barring their way and
effectively trapping them on the beach. (tank rumbling) - The tank, you can't drive
over that five-foot seawall. (cannon shots exploding) - And they had built in some cases, positions actually into
or just atop the seawall. It wasn't a very effective defense with interlocking fields of fire. (cannon shots exploding)
(rapid gunfire exploding) - [Robin] What remains
of C Company must now run the gauntlet of the anti-tank guns, desperate to find a breach
through the seawall. - And if they could manage
to fire into the area behind the tracks, they could penetrate the
very thin armor there. (rapid gunfire exploding) They would simply pump
rounds into these tanks until they were destroyed or caught fire. (rapid gunfire exploding) - [Robin] Two tanks from
Bale's company find a gap in the seawall and make it off the beach. (rapid gunfire exploding)
(tank rumbling) (ominous instrumental music) It has now taken the US Marines six hours to establish a beachhead on Tarawa. And the cost has been high, with 50% of their tank
capability already destroyed. - Looking back on it, we were pretty naive, because the intelligence did
not reveal the true nature of the Japanese defenses, the tenacity of the Japanese. (tanks rumbling) - [Robin] But with the seawall breached, the tables have now been turned. - It was strange. All the Japanese defenses
were oriented seaward. (cannon shots exploding) and we were on shore. (cannon shots exploding) - So that once you could
get in behind these things, you could knock them out by
attacking the rear entrances without coming under so much intense fire. (cannon shots exploding) - You had to find the opening because these things
were dug into the ground and they were covered with
mounds and mounds of sand. (cannon shots exploding) We realized you had to start
firing into the openings. (turret humming while turning) (cannon shots exploding) (tanks rumbling) But we had not gone more
than a hundred yards inland and we ran into, this Japanese tank showed up. (dramatic ominous instrumental music) (turret clanging while rotating) When I saw him and I caught him out of
the corner of my eye, this movement, and I realized what it was. The Japanese tank stuck its
turret up over a revetment. I told the gunner and he started
to traverse over there. (tanks rumbling) And he probably had to traverse that gun 30, 40 degrees to get on the target. (dramatic ominous instrumental music) And he fired before I told him to (tank meatal squeaking) (cannon shot exploding)
and he missed. (cannon shot exploding) That was a prepared position
for the Japanese tank (tank rumbling) where it could sit there and then pull up, put its turret and gun up
over the revetment and fire. And that's what it did. (tank rumbling)
(cannon shot exploding) - [Robin] The Ha-Go Light Tank, armed with a 37 millimeter main gun. In a straight fight, it should prove no match
for the Medium Sherman M4. (tank rumbling)
(cannon shot exploding) - That projectile hit right
on the end of our gun tube. (cannon shots exploding) Took a piece out of our gun tube and fragments came down the tube and (cannon shot exploding) it lit up like a Christmas tree. It was a lucky shot. It was a lucky shot.
(rapid gunfire exploding) - [Robin] Bale's tank is disabled, but he has backup. - The other tank that was with us fired. (cannon shot firing) (cannon shot exploding) (fire crackling) And then that other tank fired and all I know is it blew the turret off. (tank rumbling) - We call them a tin can
and that's what they are. I mean, compared with our tank. (rapid gunfire exploding) (gunfire exploding) - [Robin] It takes three
days for the Marines to clear the atoll. 4,700 Japanese are killed, including Rear Admiral Shibazaki, with only 17 choosing to surrender. (water trickling) And in the space of just 76 hours, the Marines themselves
lose nearly a thousand. - Tarawa caused a major change in the way the United
States viewed the war and the attitudes, particularly. Because up to that point, on the home front, movies had always depicted people with relatively bloodless shoulder wounds or people dying with a
noble quip on their lips. But for the first time, the commandant of the Marine
Corps authorized the release of photographs of American casualties, including dead Marines on the beach, dead Marines floating in the lagoon. And he made the comment, "There is no royal road to Tokyo." (dramatic ominous instrumental music) - [Robin] Having punctured
the Japanese Empire's first line of defense
in the Pacific at Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands, the Americans now advance on the Marianas and the island of Saipan. - The Japanese considered the Mariana as actually the last defensive
line before the home islands. (waves swishing) - [Robin] Much bigger than Tarawa and halfway to Japan itself, the Marianas hold the strategic key to the war in the Pacific. (dramatic ominous instrumental music) The Japanese know that if their airstrips on the Marianas are captured, American super fortress bombers
will for the first time be within range of Tokyo itself. - So they were prepared
to defend these things with a major effort. (cannon shots exploding) (missiles hissing)
(missiles exploding) (waves swishing)
(amphibious vehicle rumbling) - [Robin] June 15th, 1944, the US Marines launched
their amphibious assault. (amphibious vehicle rumbling) (water splashing) - Saipan was the first of
the real large land masses that the Marines attacked
during the course of the Pacific War, so the Japanese could not
have as heavy a defense of the beaches themselves. (ominous instrumental music) (waves swishing) - We did not encounter the bomb craters at all off the beach. We didn't encounter the heavy
Japanese gunfire emplacements. And as far as I was concerned, I got my company ashore pretty easily. (waves swishing) - [Robin] Unlike on Tarawa, the main Japanese defenses are situated behind the shoreline. And as the US Marines
advance off the beaches, they discover the Japanese
are waiting for them, dug into a network of
almost impregnable bunkers. - Oh, they had pillboxes all over and they were connected underground. (dramatic ominous instrumental music) (cannon shot exploding) So they were in a pillbox
over here, firing, and before you knew it, they'd go underground to
another one and come up again. - [Robin] Which means the
US Marines have to clear and destroy each defensive position, (bomb exploding) one by one. (bomb exploding) - So the Marines not only had to kill the defenders of position, they had to physically
destroy that position to keep it from being reoccupied. (flamethrower roaring) - [Robin] And the only
way they can do that is to burn them out using the newest weapon in the US Marines armory. (flamethrower roaring)
(dramatic instrumental music) The Satan Flame Tank is a reconditioned Stuart M3 Light Tank. Its 37 millimeter main cannon, refitted with a Canadian
design Ronson flamethrower. (dramatic ominous instrumental music) (flamethrower roaring) - It was a absolutely deadly
weapon against any sort of fixed position. (flamethrower roaring) Because it doesn't really
kill the enemy by burning, but it consumes all the oxygen and suffocates even somebody
inside a closed position. (fire crackling) - [Robin] With a range of just 55 meters, the flamethrowers are only
effective at close quarters. - The flame tank had to approach
within a certain distance, rendering itself vulnerable
to enemy counterattack by infantry with these
little grenade mines or a suicide weapon they
call the lunge mine, an anti-tank mine on
the end of a bamboo pole that they would come shove
against the side of the tank. (flamethrower roaring) They had a lot of success sticking these against the engine doors on light tanks where the armor was much thinner. (anti-tank mine exploding)
(fire crackling) (tank rumbling) - [Robin] The Marines'
advance now becomes a game of cat and mouse with the
Japanese suicide bombers, (tank rumbling) with the Sherman supporting
both infantry and flame tanks. (fire crackling) (cannon shot exploding) - So it was simply a matter
of working with the infantry and slow-going and
digging these people out. (tank rumbling)
(metal squeaking) - Then we went down about a thousand yards toward a big pillbox about 20-foot high. (rapid gunfire exploding)
I mean a big one. (rapid gunfire exploding)
(cannon shots exploding) I started throwing shells in there. (cannon shots exploding)
(rapid gunfire exploding) We fired about, oh, I guess eight or 10 shells at that thing. (cannon shots exploding)
(rapid gunfire exploding) And nothing would happen, they just fell off, just like me shooting my
BB gun at my barn out here. It'd just hit it and roll off. (cannon shots exploding)
(rapid gunfire exploding) (metal clanging) Can you imagine? There ain't nothing can get through that. (cannon shots exploding)
(rapid gunfire exploding) We'd pull back and the light tanks had
flamethrowers on them. (rapid gunfire exploding)
(metal clanging) There's no way you can
knock that thing out. You had to burn them out. (metal clanging from gunfire) That's the only way you could do it. (rapid gunfire exploding) - [Robin] But with its limited range, the Satan Tank needs protection. - I was more concerned about
being swarmed by the Japanese than I was about the Japanese gunfire. (rapid gunfire exploding)
(cannon shots exploding) (flamethrower roaring) - So the idea was, of course, that these escort tanks could
stand off in some position, off to the side, to the rear, wherever required to
protect the flame tanks from this type of counter attack. (flamethrower roaring) (fire crackling) - So they took flamethrowers up there and they burned them out. (rapid gunfire exploding) (flamethrower roaring) So as they burned them out
while we picked them off. (fire crackling) (flamethrower roaring) (fire crackling) (somber instrumental music) - [Robin] By day's end a
beachhead has been established. But the Japanese on Saipan
are far from finished. (tank rumbling) As the US Marines clear the
Japanese defenses on Saipan, (flamethrower roaring)
(fire crackling) the Japanese tank formations
that have been held in reserve prepare to strike back. (ominous instrumental music) - The Japanese principle was always to try to counter attack. They had almost a cult of the
attack and the counter attack. - [General Yoshitsugu]
Whether we attack or not, we are going to die. Let's advance together
against the American devils and leave our bones on Saipan. (dramatic ominous instrumental music) - The problem is it came
to be a kind of a situation where they saw dying
in one of these things as almost a kind of a goal unto itself. (tank rumbling) - [Robin] As night falls
at the end of day two, the US Marines reach one
of the island's airstrips. (tanks rumbling) At 03:30 hours, the heavy rumble of Japanese
tanks can be heard approaching. (dramatic ominous instrumental music) - The Japanese came over this ridge line. (tanks rumbling) They must've had every
tank they had on Saipan because I don't know if anybody ever saw any
more Japanese tanks. (tanks rumbling) It was a big, big attack, big attack for an island like
that and a force like that. - They had sent in major units, including the largest
single Japanese tank unit that the Americans
encountered during the course of the Pacific War. - [Robin] 37 Tanks lead
the Japanese charge. A full frontal banzai-style attack, straight at the American lines. (cannon shots exploding)
(tanks rumbling) - A banzai attack is
just a major confusion, (cannon shots exploding)
(tanks rumbling) and just simply a
horrible, major confusion. (cannon shots exploding) Like anything, at night you can't see. (cannon shots exploding)
(missiles whirring) You're not sure but you know
it's there and you hear it. (cannon shots exploding)
(tanks rumbling) - Man, they came up over that ridge, (cannon shots exploding)
(tanks rumbling) and man, we were firing
and firing and firing. (cannon shots exploding) - They just came at you and kept coming. (rapid gunfire exploding)
(cannon shots exploding) - [Robin] Taking the Marines by surprise, the Japanese smashed through
the American frontline and the battle becomes a mass
brawl of tank versus tank. (rapid gunfire exploding)
(cannon shots exploding) (fire crackling) - As they advanced two or 300 yards, they encountered the anti-tank
company and this type too. (rapid gunfire exploding)
(cannon shots exploding) - It turned into just a huge melee with things all mixed in together. (rapid gunfire exploding)
(cannon shots exploding) - [Robin] Tracer bullets
light up the night sky. Explosions and shell bursts
illuminate the battlefield. (rapid gunfire exploding)
(cannon shots exploding) With tanks firing at point blank range, the Japanese Ha-Go now finds
itself hopelessly outgunned by the US Sherman. (cannon shots exploding)
(rapid gunfire exploding) - And typical, the Japanese
tanks didn't stand a chance. (rapid gunfire exploding)
(cannon shots exploding) - The Japanese armor, they had little light tanks there but they didn't do any good. (rapid gunfire exploding)
(cannon shots exploding) - Their 37 millimeter
guns were not big enough. Their armor was not heavy enough. (cannon shots exploding) - Our medium tanks blew
the light tanks away. (rapid gunfire exploding)
(cannon shots exploding) - [Robin] Flames from the stricken tanks now enable the Americans
to pick out their targets. (rapid gunfire whirring) - One of the aspects of
the Japanese tanks was that their design was such that, in a lot of cases, you could actually knock them out with heavy machine gunfire. (rapid gunfire whirring) And there were instances where
they smothered these things with enough 30 caliber
heavy machine gunfire to actually get rounds
through the vision embrasures, through small chinks in the armor (metal clanging from gunfire)
(rapid gunfire exploding) and kill the crew inside
and disable the tank. (tank exploding)
(fire crackling) - We just kept mowing them down. (rapid gunfire exploding) But the more we mowed down, the more came. (fire crackling)
(rapid gunfire exploding) (cannon shots exploding) (fire crackling) (tanks rumbling) - [Oscar] This thing
went on all night long. By dawn, the Americans were able to come out over the battlefield and there were about 33 Japanese tanks in various stages of
disrepair shall we say, strewn about the battlefield. (fire crackling)
(ominous instrumental music) - Well, walking around there and look at that after it was over, it looked great. It looked great. It kind of looked like going
out on a baseball field after your team wins a baseball game. (ominous instrumental music) - The action on that night succeeded in destroying about three quarters of the major Japanese
armored force on the island. - [Lt. Edward] After that night attack, the Japanese had no more tanks left. (tank rumbling) - [Robin] Although
outnumbered and overwhelmed by superior American armor, the Japanese defenders on
Saipan refused to surrender. It will take the US
Marines another three weeks to clear the island, (gunfire exploding) at the end of which
they will be confronted with the final horror, the mass suicide of Japanese civilians. (waves swishing) - They were scared as Americans. - They thought they were gonna get killed, murdered and raped. - They were up on the
end of the island there and the whole family would
just jump off the cliff at one time. - Women throwing their
children off the cliffs. I don't know how anybody
could have stopped it. (indistinct chatter on loudspeaker) - And all they really had
to do is raise a white flag and we wouldn't do nothing to them. (ominous instrumental music) (bomber engines rumbling) - [Robin] With the capture
of Saipan and the Marianas, the Americans are now within range to launch daily bombing
raids against Japan itself, (bomber engines roaring) in preparation for a full scale invasion. But Iwo Jima, a tiny volcanic island
situated halfway between Saipan and the Japanese mainland, remains a thorn in the American's side. - It was a Japanese radar
base that gave them hours of warning of the approach
of the American raids. (bombs whistling) And Japanese fighter planes flying out of there were picking off
crippled American bombers trying to make it back to the Marianas. - [Robin] Measuring just
21 square kilometers, Iwo Jima is an unremarkable
dot in the ocean. But the battle that raged
here would make it infamous in the annals of the US Marine Corps. (wind howling) February 19th, 1945. (cannon shots exploding) To their surprise, the Marine's amphibious
landing is unopposed by the Japanese. - Contrary to the defense
of the water's edge, at Iwo Jima, what they had planned to do was to actually let the Americans come ashore. (tanks rumbling) The first problem that
presented itself at Iwo Jima was simply the nature of the beaches. A lot of the beach sand is not sand in the sense we normally think of it, but volcanic ash. And a man jumping out of a landing craft and struggling up onto the beach, when he got into the dry sand, every step you took, you sank in up to your knees. (tanks rumbling) Vehicles just floundered in it. Tanks trying to advance through it, the tracks would begin
to churn this material, but the tank would be sitting on its belly with its tracks churning
and just throwing up ash and sinking in deeper
and deeper and deeper. (tanks rumbling) - When we hit the beach, that loose volcanic ash had
built up into the tracks to where one of the tracks exploded. (tank rumbling)
(tank tracks exploding) - [Robin] As the first tanks
advance off the beaches and get onto firmer ground, they encounter a new danger. (tanks rumbling)
(ominous instrumental music) (landmine exploding) - What they were doing was burying a 500-pound bomb about that far underground, and then setting a 10-pound
anti-tank mine on it. (ominous instrumental music)
(tank rumbling) - In some cases these
were command-detonated. They could be detonated
electronically by somebody waiting in a nearby cave. - [Robin] The American tanks push on, not knowing when or where
another mine will strike. (tank rumbling)
(landmine exploding) - The tank went up in the air, the turret come off and
landed right side up. (turret metal clanging) And the tank went over. The driver and the assistant driver, they're dead before the dirt clears. (tank metal creaking) (dramatic ominous instrumental music) (tank rumbling) (landmine exploding) (tank metal creaking) (tank thudding in gravel) It made a hole big enough
to almost bury the tank in and everybody in it was dead. - [Robin] Each step
taken by the US Marines on Iwo Jima will be fraught
with unforeseen dangers. - One military engineer
who looked at the island of Iwo Jima after the battle said that it was probably the
most heavily fortified place on the planet. (ominous instrumental music) - [Robin] To protect themselves
against magnetic mines, the tankers have bolted
wooden planks to the sides of the Shermans. But as the Marines are about to discover, the Japanese no longer have
to rely on suicide attacks, because for the first time
in the war in the Pacific, Japanese gun capability is
now a match for the Sherman. (tank rumbling) - One of the major obstacles
that the American tanks had to cross was two interconnected airfields on the central part of the island. (tanks rumbling)
(ominous instrumental music) And the real problem was that a lot of the Japanese anti-tank
guns had been positioned to defend this open ground, because they knew that this
central plateau was going to be a major access of
advance for any sort of tanks. (tanks rumbling) The idea was just smother
them with artillery fire, and that's what they did. (cannon shots exploding)
(rapid gunfire exploding) (turret whirring into position) - There was mortars and big guns flying all around. (cannon shots exploding) - It was essentially built
up as one huge ambush. (cannon shots exploding) - The 47 on Iwo, that's the first
time we'd met the 47s. (ominous instrumental music) - [Robin] The breech loading
47 millimeter anti-tank gun with a barrel length of
two and a half meters and a muzzle velocity of
830 meters per second, it presents the first serious challenge to you as armor in the Pacific. (dramatic ominous instrumental music) (cannon shots exploding) - Yeah, they would go through the tank anywhere it wanted to. (cannon shots exploding) (tank rumbling) (cannon shots exploding) - As the tanks advanced over
this relatively open terrain, these 47 millimeter anti-tank guns, and in some cases, larger guns, were able to fire into the
sides and rear of the tank. (cannon shots exploding) (tanks rumbling) (fire crackling) - Anytime you penetrate the engine, that's going to disable the tank. So it was vulnerable to fire if it was engaged from the rear. (cannon shots exploding)
(fire crackling) There are photographs of
tanks that have anywhere from 12 to 15 penetrations on
one side of the tank alone. (cannon shots exploding) (turret whirring into position) - Yeah, a lot of tanks were done in. (cannon shots exploding) (fire crackling) - It's really always difficult to assess how many tanks were knocked
out in any particular action. But the estimate for this one
is somewhere around 33 or so. - [Robin] The American advance is slow and the cost is high, but it's also unstoppable. (cannon shots exploding) And on the fifth day of
the battle for Iwo Jima, the US Marines plant the stars
and stripes on the summit of Mount Suribachi, the highest point on the island. And Joe Rosenthal's photograph
will become an iconic image, not only of the Marines' triumph, but also of their struggle. It will take another 30 days
of the fiercest fighting in the whole of the Pacific
War for the Americans to secure the island. (airplane engines rumbling) (bomb exploding) And with 26,000 wounded or killed, it's the only battle in which the US Marines
suffer more casualties than the Japanese. - We had all kinds of good information, but whether it was gonna
be as bad as it was, I don't think we had any idea that it was gonna be a month long. But it got dangerous. (Cpl. Charles chuckling) A lot of guys bought it, a hell of a lot. (parachutes flapping) - [Robin] By the spring of 1945, the axis powers are on
the brink of total defeat. (artillery shots exploding) In the Pacific War, the US Marine Corps has fought five and a half thousand kilometers, halfway across the ocean, to reach Japanese home territory. (tank rumbling) (ominous instrumental music) Okinawa, 600 kilometers from the mainland, is the first of the home
islands to be attacked. (tank rumbling) But with nowhere left to retreat, the Japanese are prepared
to defend Okinawa and their homeland to the death. (ominous instrumental music) (rapid gunfire exploding) (cannon shots exploding) - I figured we'd have had
to fight the whole Japanese. And it's bad because they're
gonna fight to the last man. (tanks rumbling) - [Robin] April 19th, 1945. The battle for Okinawa is raging. Working in tandem with ground troops, 30 tanks advance against
Japanese infantry positions on Kakazu Ridge. - The tanks are very vulnerable
to close infantry assault. (cannon shots exploding) When a tank comes under
attack by enemy infantry, the preferred method is having
your own infantry with you. - [Robin] But in the heat of the battle, the US tanks lose contact
with their own infantry. (tanks rumbling) - They sent a lot of the medium tanks out into Japanese occupied territory
unescorted by infantry. (cannon shots exploding) - [Robin] Undefended by ground troops, the column makes a power
drive through enemy lines which are teaming with anti-tank guns. (cannon shots exploding) - They had all these artillery pieces and the heavy anti-tank guns in caves. (cannon shots exploding) They'd roll them out and fired them and they were good at it. (tanks rumbling) (cannon shots exploding)
(fire crackling) (rapid gunfire exploding) - [Robin] 22 Tanks make it
as far as Kakazu Village, a booby trapped Japanese stronghold, (rapid gunfire exploding) where lacking any ground reconnaissance, the tankers are ambushed. (rapid gunfire exploding) Cut off deep with an enemy lines and with no hope of reinforcement, the tanker's only chance is to
blast and burn their way out. (flamethrower roaring) - I mean, those people
are trying to kill you and you're gonna kill them, that's it. (rapid gunfire exploding)
(cannon shots exploding) (tanks rumbling) - [Robin] Of the 30 tanks
that set out on the mission, only eight return. (tanks rumbling) (ominous instrumental music)
(wind howling) (cannon shots exploding) Kakazu Ridge is the last
major tank engagement of the Pacific War, although Okinawa will not be
taken for another two months. (cannon shots exploding) Losses on both sides are dreadful with more than 100,000 fatalities. (fire crackling) But however desperate their
defense of their homeland, the Japanese cause is now hopeless. (cannon shots exploding)
(fire crackling) (flag flapping in wind) (tanks rumbling) By June, 1945, Okinawa is secured. (airplane engines rumbling) On August, 6th, the Enola Gay takes off from the Marianas to drop the first atomic
bomb on Hiroshima. (hatch doors whirring) (atomic bomb rumbling) (ominous instrumental music) And within a week of the
second bomb on Nagasaki, the Japanese surrender unconditionally. (somber instrumental music) (tank rumbling) Of all the campaigns of
the Second World War, none was more fiercely contested
than the South Pacific. For the Japanese, the cost is enormous. (somber instrumental music) Total defeat, and more
than 2 million casualties. Casualties for the US Marines alone amount to more than 95,000 men. But ultimate victory is theirs. - You do your job. All you do is get him before he gets you. That's the name of the game. - [Robin] And central to the US victory was the role of a tanker. (tank rumbling) - I feel proud of the tankers. (tanks rumbling) - Tanks were always part of it. I've always been very
proud of that tank enemy. (flamethrower roaring) (tank rumbling) - They wouldn't have won
the war without tanks as far as I'm concerned. But between the tanks
in the ground troops, that's what took the islands. (tanks rumbling) (dramatic ominous instrumental music)
