When WWII Went Global: Japan's Big Mistake | WWII In Numbers | War Stories

october 1940 in a tight presidential election franklin d roosevelt is running for an unprecedented third term as war rages across europe he sends a message to the american public i have said this before but i shall say it again and again your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign war the american public are almost universally opposed to the idea of going into war so if roosevelt gets branded as a war monger he's going to lose that election even after the fall of france in 1940 over 85 percent of americans oppose sending us troops into an overseas conflict less than 16 percent of the american public support even sending aid to the beleaguered allies in europe he could see the signs and he knew the united states would eventually have to enter this war on some level but he has a voting base that he has to answer to fdr wins the election but he cannot keep his promise by the end of roosevelt's time in office nearly 15 million americans will have fought in this world war summer 1940 even as president roosevelt promises to keep america out of the war on the other side of the atlantic a beleaguered winston churchill is looking for a fight britain is in pretty dire straits the battle of britain is being waged overhead the british expeditionary force has been thrown out of europe so what is needed is some kind of arena some kind of theater of war where britain can fight and where britain can succeed churchill finds it in the mediterranean the mediterranean theatre wasn't just important as a means of allowing the british to fight it was actually strategically very very important we actually got our oil from the persian gulf and that had to come through the suis canal right through the mediterranean if britain was to be thrown out of egypt it would lose that access to its oil the middle east can provide britain with over 126 million barrels of oil a year it's a vital resource transported from the persian gulf through the suez canal in june 1940 italian dictator benito mussolini who already controls neighboring libya decides to take egypt and its precious waterway mussolini had real delusions of grandeur a sense of his own importance he sees adolf hitler and germany grabbing for territory to create a new german empire and what mussolini wants to create is a new roman empire in the mediterranean basin the plan basically was to seize control of the entire north african coast to take it away from britain it's the fight that churchill is looking for but the numbers weigh heavily against him 250 000 italian troops land in libya and march on egypt against a mere 36 000 brits on paper it looks like it's going to be an easy campaign but the battle wasn't carried out on paper a sudden attack by the british forced the italians back by february 1941 the british have advanced 500 miles captured 130 000 italians 380 tanks and 1290 artillery guns britain loses less than two thousand killed and wounded a furious hitler diverts to the desert two divisions earmarked for the invasion of russia named the africa corps the new force is commanded by general irvine rummel rommel's leadership was what turned the africa corps into one of the most iconic units of the entire war because british tanks outnumber germany's by more than three to one rommel is advised not to attack but rommel simply ignored what he was told he saw his opportunity and he launched a sudden attack [Music] it might seem suicidal but rommel has an ace up his sleeve the 88 millimeter flak cannon designed as an anti-aircraft gun rommel knows that it's also an effective tank killer just like he did in france rommel drew out the british forces into an area ambush them then with the 88 millimeter guns it took the british completely by surprise what the british had just done to the italians rommel did to the british by april 1941 churchill's initial desert victory is in tatters rommel has the british under seizure to brook and they have more to worry about than just north africa because mussolini has taken the fight to the mediterranean after a botched invasion of egypt the italians preside over a botched invasion of greece in response churchill diverts 62 000 troops from the desert to defend greece churchill sees this as a great opportunity to score yet another quick victory over the italians but the problem is is that hitler then looks at what happens and decides he has to clear up the mess just as he did in north africa what does that mean the british are now fighting a far more capable german force in less than three weeks hitler's panzers overrun both greece and yugoslavia forcing the british to evacuate 43 000 troops to the island of crete hitler responds by launching an airborne invasion of crete with up to 30 000 paratroopers backed by 480 bombers british forces are effectively trapped winston churchill orders general waverle to stay there and fight to the last man wavel realizes that it's not a good idea and defies the order and evacuates sixteen thousand five hundred men wavel is dismissed for disobedience but his decision saves british lives 16 500 men lived to fight another day if that had been hitler those 16 500 men would have been needlessly squandered these events profoundly affect the war even outside the mediterranean because the time it takes hitler to chase the british out of crete has a domino effect on germany's invasion of russia by delaying operation barbarossa even by one month that pushes the germans one month closer to the onset of russian winter and russian winter will grind them to a halt the situation in the mediterranean is absolutely crucial for the outcome of the war the british troops evacuated from crete are sent back into the desert against rommel but the conflict will soon find itself mired in the vast expanses of the desert itself first the british had the upper hand then the germans took the upper hand then the british took it back and the reason for that was because of supply lines germany's supply line starts in tripoli britain's in alexandria a distance of almost 1200 miles of desert that makes sustained advance by either side too difficult to refuel and re-arm the result is inevitable deadlock there was no obvious end to this what was actually going to change make a sudden difference and end this conflict the surprising answer will take place on a tiny island on the other side of the world [Music] june 1941 over four million soldiers are locked in a devastating campaign across a 2000 mile long front in what is already one of the bloodiest conflicts in human history the invading army grinds forward into a seemingly endless country china the campaign in china is a major all-out continental conflict for the japanese that is costly japan has already lost over 1.8 million soldiers and committed more than 70 of its economy to war the japanese had got themselves into a situation where they felt that expanding the war was the only way that they could bring about a conclusion a japanese occupation of key airfields in indochina greatly worries the american president roosevelt is in a really tricky position he really wants to stop this japanese expansion throughout asia but he can't do anything about it militarily so what does he do he's got to use america's economic muscle roosevelt takes the decisive move of freezing japanese assets in the united states which freezes millions and millions of yen that then turns into this outright all-encompassing oil embargo japan imports 90 percent of its oil from the us and for the japanese that feels like castration to further demonstrate america's resolve usa to china is doubled the powerful pacific fleet sails out of california to pearl harbor in hawaii 35 b-17 bombers are based in the philippines within striking range of japan roosevelt's hoping that if he flexes his military muscle then japan will back down but he's reckoned without japan's desperate need for oil the japanese were backed into a corner and they basically had two options option a was that they could discontinue the war in china which was certainly the american objective or option b was that they could double down and expand war in asia and the japanese chose option b the japanese army is under the control of general hideki tojo aka the razer in october 1941 tojo becomes prime minister and draws up plans to create a new japanese southern resources area the japanese military began to think well where can we get additional resources in the obvious place is southeast asia resources from british malaya from burma from dutchies indus and so on it's a plan to take over all of southeast asia its code name is operation zed operation zed allows 50 days for the conquest of the philippines 100 days for malaya and 150 days for the dutch east indies before pushing on into burma and even india tojo's plan amounts to conquering roughly a sixth of the world's surface in just six months doing so will make armed confrontation with the industrial might of america unavoidable at first glance this seems insane this is crazy japan has got to land a knockout blow in the very first round if she wants any chance of succeeding the usa is the largest economy in the world producing more steel aluminium and oil than every other major state combined it produces goods worth over a trillion dollars a year japan's economy produces only 196 billion dollars more than five times less than the usa but these numbers count for nothing to tojo because japan has one thing the americans can never match warrior spirit if you join the japanese army at that point the training was very focused inspired by the tradition of what was known as bushido the way of the warrior there was a strong psychological element that enabled the japanese to feel that there was something superior and resilient about the japanese military training [Music] by contrast they think that the americans are kind of soft and a bit lilly-livered just a nation fit for making movies and motor cars with no stomach for war many of the japanese leaders thought that if they could hit the americans hard enough they would make terms immediately they certainly didn't think of them as real warriors people who could resist japanese soldiers for five minutes tojo has also run the numbers and he believes the americans aren't ready to fight you might expect that the world's most powerful economy is going to have a military to match it but in 1941 the american economy is not geared for war it geared for commerce in 1941 american military spending accounts for just two percent of its national output compared to japan's 70 the united states actually had a relatively small army it was the 18th largest army in the world the united states of america was unprepared for war but the united states had an excellent navy the united states and the interwar period had developed naval aviation to a level that it was among the leaders of the world all of america's strength lies in its navy in almost every class of ship its power in the pacific is almost equal to japan's but without its warships america cannot hope to repel a japanese onslaught the japanese thought that once you neutralize the american pacific fleet they would be reasonably secure americans would half and apart from some but will not actually engage in in serious war tojo needs to take out the us navy and his intelligence network provides him with the opportunity he finds out this vital piece of intelligence that the entire u.s pacific fleet is going to be at pearl harbor in hawaii too tempting a target to pass up located 2500 miles west of los angeles on the hawaiian island of oahu the port of pearl harbor is the largest american base in the pacific and on paper it's formidable oahu by 1941 had been turned into the death star oahu had coast artillery positions and batteries effectively all approaches were extremely well covered they appear strong in fact the island's defenses are limited what oahu was well prepared for was a direct amphibious assault that was supported by battleships what oahu was less prepared for was this new thing called the air raid on the 7th of december 1941 the first wave of the most powerful naval air force ever assembled flies low towards hawaii a grand armada of 49 bombers 40 torpedo bombers 51 dive bombers and 43 fighters is heading for pearl harbor these are very very experienced air crew they've been fighting in china for four years each man has on average 800 hours of combat experience as 183 planes close in 130 ships of the u.s pacific fleet sit at anchor in the bay and nearly 400 aircraft are parked on the ground the position is impossibly vulnerable only a quarter of the machine guns guarding the harbour are actually manned and the anti-aircraft guns don't even have any ammunition and worse still it's the weekend so most of the high command are taking some time off and leaving justin junior cadets in charge it's hopeless before a single bomb has been dropped commander of the japanese air fleet mitsuo fushida gives the victory signal torah torah torah the fighters and the dive bombers now peel off and they attack the air bases [Music] the japanese are carrying out a well-coordinated attack against every installation on the island the japanese torpedo bombers along with five mini submarines then go for the battleships the arizona takes a direct hit and that goes down with its crew of 1500 men within minutes arizona's exploded oklahoma is capsizing utah is capsizing [Music] at 9 00 am a second wave of 167 aircraft hits the base to finish off the fleet they leave behind a landscape of destruction the japanese destroy 188 aircraft damage and sink 21 warships and they killed just under 2 500 americans both military personnel and civilians but something is missing from the kill list admiral yamamoto has been told that all u.s aircraft carriers are absent actually all the aircraft carriers have been sent to midway where they're acting as a kind of forward defense shield but yamamoto suspects they're being held back as a trap it's enough to persuade him not to risk a third attack wave aimed at pearl harbor's undamaged refueling stations the third wave could have knocked out pearl harbor completely but yamamoto simply can't afford to take that risk at that point the fleet had turned and was sailing away the day after pearl harbor president roosevelt makes a speech to the u.s congress calling for a declaration of war december 7 1941 a date which will live in infamy the united states of america was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the empire of japan [Music] but japanese high command has utterly misjudged the american response to their attack the japanese attack on pearl harbor was extremely effective at off the american people it inspired a hatred of japan a rage and anger which unified the country as nothing else could have done they completely misread that movie in congress the motion to declare war passes almost unanimously [Music] pearl harbor has united america against the axis powers and the whole world is now officially at war even as the first bombs drop on pearl harbor [Music] japanese forces are already on route to their south east asian resource zone their biggest target is british malaya and its capital singapore it's been said that if india was the jewel in the crown of the british empire then malaya was the industrial diamond in today's prices malaya is worth over 10 billion pounds a year and 23 percent of its trade also passes through malayan ports administering and profiting from this industry a 31 000 europeans living a life of imperial luxury among 5 million malays and chinese life in the colonies has not really changed since the 19th century you've got this endless round of garden parties cricket matches social events physical separation between the white and asian populations is enforced in workplaces restaurants and neighborhoods the japanese cite european imperialism in asia as a key driver of their expansion into the so-called southern resource zone the japanese used a very strong argument that it was they who were actually liberating other parts of asia through the imposition of their own empire from the control of the british and the french now in fact this was a deeply deceptive idea japanese empire was often just as brutal or even more so when the japanese invade malaya its defenders are under equipped and undermanned there are only 10 british battalions stationed in the province accompanied by 145 aging buffalo fighter and blenheim bomber aircraft these are not very good planes they're slow they're not very maneuverable and the japanese zero can absolutely out fight them on day one nearly 100 british planes are shot down leaving just 50 against nearly 600 japanese [Music] but britain still has its most powerful weapon in hand months before the invasion winston churchill sends to the philippines an elite royal navy fleet known as force said led by the hms prince of wales britain's most sophisticated modern battleship and the hms repulse is most decorated cruiser within a day they're suddenly attacked by this japanese air force and the british fleet has got no air cover at all both flagships are sent to the bottom of the ocean taking with them the invincibility of the royal navy these sinkings produce a shockwave that resounds around the world because these ships have been brought down quickly with small lightly armed aircraft having sunk the royal navy japan sends in 60 000 ground troops the ferocity and guile of the japanese invasion takes the british by surprise japan's plans depend upon the kind of blitzkrieg tactics the germans used against the french and the low countries back in 1940 but actually malaya is a very different type of terrain than europe it's crisscrossed by lots of rivers it's jungle and so motorised transport doesn't really work as effectively in those sort of conditions so japan comes up with this ingenious solution it's called the bicycle this is a 1930s bicycle not a million miles away from the bicycle used by the japanese army in the invasion of malaya in 1941. every japanese division had 6 000 of these things the japanese soldier could carry himself his equipment and his ammunition but more importantly you can go through the jungle with it you can go virtually anywhere even if the tire shredded completely you could run on the rims and there are stories about british units panicking hearing these metal rims clattering down roads and assuming that they were tanks but the key feature of the bicycle is it doesn't require fuel the advance can go ahead in almost any conditions without the need for any motor transport the british chose to defend the roads and to position their troops around the roads and the japanese with large forces of bicycles which they exploited brilliantly simply whenever they met the british they went round them to reach singapore japan's bicycle army advances on average 12 miles a day for 55 days 660 miles 95 fighting engagements and 250 bridge repairs later they reach their target the british simply don't expect any attack to come from the north why because it's jungle but out of the jungle spring 30 000 japanese seventy thousand defenders are completely unprepared for the japanese attack the numbers favor british colonial forces by more than two to one but many lack the will to fight after years of social exclusion many of the colonial native troops are absolutely unwilling to die with their british masters why would they want to in fact some even actually welcome the japanese troops on the 15th of february in 1942 singapore surrenders the british suffered in malaya not just a defeat but the humiliation because these despised orientals who were supposed to be near savages yes in the minds of many british people they wiped the floor with the british and australian troops the germans had estimated that it would take 16 divisions and that it would take months to reduce singapore and produce its surrender and the japanese did it in a couple of weeks with two divisions a bell rings out across singapore signaling the surrender and there's this class from the school children they ask their teacher what's that bell for and he replies the end of the british empire in the philippines and determined to avoid such humiliation of the americans the philippines are america's largest foothold in the pacific and as a result japan desperately needs to conquer them the philippines are commanded by us general douglas macarthur within 10 hours of the japanese strike on pearl harbor he finds himself facing a devastating attack the japanese attack initially comes in the form of air raids followed by japanese amphibious landings on the island of luzon and general douglas macarthur commanding american and also philippine forces makes a tactical decision that the way he will fight will be to back down this peninsula that's on the western side of manila bay that's called bataan besieged by almost 200 000 japanese troops macarthur is outnumbered four to one and he has 25 000 civilians under his protection pummeled by relentless japanese bombardment and racked with rampant malaria macarthur's force resists until february but the situation is hopeless macarthur realizes that he simply can't hold out any longer so he's ordered to abandon the philippines and he gets on board a torpedo boat and he turns and waves the people he's leaving behind and he says i shall return he was ordered to leave the philippine islands so that we would not have to face something as the british faced at singapore where you see this well-known general come out and surrender to the japanese the 11 500 american and sixty four thousand filipino soldiers left behind are rounded up forces that surrender on the bataan peninsula then have to be moved to a prisoner of war holding area at a place called camp o'donnell 68 miles and they're forced to cover that distance on foot so many prisoners die on the infamous 68-mile walk to camp o'donnell that it becomes known as the bataan death march the japanese force thousands to march through these absolutely appalling conditions and along the way uh they chop off the heads of american officers with samurai swords they just sort of run bayonets through filipinos it's basically murder and about 1100 americans are killed along the way along with 5 000 filipinos it's utterly horrific the way is now clear for the japanese to assault their key targets once they control malaya in the philippines the japanese are now ready to take the dutch east indies and burma now these are vital for the japanese because they're going to get 70 percent of the world's tin almost all the world's rubber and massive oil reserves it also opens the way towards australia with unexpected results that forces australia to then recall troops that were committed in the north african desert and so the australians who are opposing italians are pulled back toward australia leaving a vacuum there that emboldens axis forces in north africa it's a completely unforeseen consequence of something that's become a truly global war and this is a global war in more ways than one as the americans retreat to lick their wounds they've more than just japan to worry about you've got hitler knocking on the gates of stalingrad and then you've got the british massively on the back foot in north africa and what's worse still for the allies is that hitler's u-boat are wreaking havoc in the north atlantic [Music] unable to conquer britain hitler decides to starve her into submission instead as an island nation britain has 50 million mouths to feed and two-thirds of the food that it uses to feed those males comes from abroad britain required at least 23 million tons of supplies a year just to keep alive and to continue fighting britain also relies on imported raw materials ninety percent of its copper ninety percent of our weapons grade bauxite and 95 of its vital oil and rubber come mostly from the united states but britain is on the verge of financial collapse so in march 1941 president roosevelt forces through the lend lease act a credit lifeline that allows britain to buy whatever it needs from the us and pay for it later america didn't want britain to fall to the nazis because we were the last bastions of the free world in europe without american support then britain wouldn't really be able to stay going to survive convoys of britain's 3 000 strong merchant fleet constantly traverse the atlantic [Music] protecting them is the british royal navy [Music] but lurking beneath the surface is a fleet of dead-eyed hunters on a mission to destroy them all [Music] their submarines germany's u-boats the u-boat itself is capable of intercepting the aid that's being shipped across the atlantic and potentially even stopping the flow of goods reaching britain if not stopping it entirely at least slowing it to a trickle to the point that britain can be brought to its knees submarine fleet admiral karl donitz calculates that goal requires 600 000 tons of allied shipping to be sunk every month he asks hitler for a fleet of 300 u-boats but gets just 43. adolf hitler underestimates what the u-boat's capable of it's his one and only true strategic weapon during the second world war and he undercuts it he doesn't think that they're capable of delivering war-winning results which they easily could have produced but even in small numbers u-boats are devastating accounting for 70 percent of ships sunk by the german navy there is a sense i think in which the u-boat arm which is very small in 1940 sometimes only a dozen boats at sea outperforms its limitations and extracts a huge toll from british and later on american and canadian shipping u-boats prowl the 600-mile wide mid-atlantic gap known to sailors as the black pit because it is out of range of allied air cover donets maximizes his small fleet's kills by sending them to hunt in wolf packs a wolf pack would operate in coordination with one another a group of say five u-boats drove a wedge into a convoy they separated the faster ships from the slower ships and if they could separate the convoy it was easy hunting wolf packs are devastating sinking a full quarter of british shipping in the first year of the war then in early 1941 they reached admiral donnet's target of 600 000 tons a month and pushed britain to breaking point they were in a target-rich environment and they were they were the hunters when up to 57 men live for six months in a cramped metal tube in which they're liable to drown or be blown to smithereens unshakable commitment to their cause is vital the average age of the u-boat crewman was 21 years old these are young people who had grown up uh under nazi indoctrination and so they were raised to do exactly what they were told and they were raised to put up with quite horrifying conditions it was really a floating metal coffin 75 of u-boat men perish among the highest mortality rate of any of the wars armed services it's a terrible sacrifice but for german high command it's worth it because the wolf packs are delivering for the german submariners this period was known as the happy time it wasn't a happy time for churchill he later wrote about it being the only time in the war where he was genuinely scared april 1941 in the atlantic ocean the british navy hunts for german u-boats but they cannot find them because they don't know where they are the german u-boats are guided by messages which are encrypted in undecipherable codes the encrypted codes are produced by enigma a machine that can produce a mind-boggling 1253 trillion code combinations until enigma is deciphered britain risks defeat and even starvation to crack the enigma machine all the greatest minds are assembled at bletchley park in buckinghamshire including the famous mathematician alan turing based in hut 8 at bletchley's government code and cipher school 29 year old turing has his work cut out because the germans reset enigma daily these encrypted messages were believed by the german regime to be unbreakable the human mind is not capable of running through the potential settings quickly enough because there are only 24 hours in a day and the codes change every 24 hours so turing doesn't try to break the code himself he envisions something far more powerful than a human brain turing creates a special machine and this enables him to analyze thousands of transmissions at a time it's really the world's first computer and it's called the bomb what turing's created is something so technologically far ahead of its time and i think that's why we marvel at its creation it is just extraordinary on april 1st 1941 bletchley park first breaks the enigma code thanks to touring more than a million enemy transmissions are intercepted laying bear the position of germany's wolf packs around which over 1.2 million tons of shipping are re-routed britain's transatlantic lifeline is open [Music] but it doesn't last long germany's enigma code gets an upgrade the germans notice that they haven't intercepted a convoy for six months or so so to be on the safe side they add an additional rotor to the enigma enigma's code combinations increased 26 times to over 32 and a half thousand trillion a number that even alan turing's proto-computer cannot cope with for the wolf packs hunting season is back on this enigma blackout could not have come at a worse time because the us is about to send lots of people and lots of equipment across the atlantic through the potentially dangerous waters where u-boats are hunting in the last six months of 1941 u-boats sink just over 720 000 tons of allied shipping in the first quarter of 1942 alone sinkings rise to 2.6 million tons and by year's end that figure rises to almost 8 million tons and 1662 ships to make matters worse the royal navy's oil reserves are down to just two months the allies need another breakthrough it comes in spectacular fashion in mediterranean waters off the egyptian coast in october 1942 u-boat 559 is actually hit by hms pettard and sunk below the water line while it was sinking three royal navy sailors dove overboard swam to the u-boat went aboard it rummaged through it as it's sinking the u-boat suddenly rolls over and two of the sailors go down with it sacrificing their lives but it was vital because the survivor actually pulled a code book from that u-boat and when turing poured over it back at bletchley park they were able to break the upgraded enigma codes that sacrifice was so worthwhile because soon thereafter bletchley park is reading the u-boat male again over the next year the germans sink only 812 ships for the loss of 242 submarines at the same time new weapons like the hedgehog anti-submarine system and the b-24 bomber come online the pendulum swings and the hunters become the hunted facing total annihilation donitz orders all his u-boats to withdraw from the north atlantic on the 24th of may 1943 the following month is the first in the whole war in which not a single convoy is attacked that is what turns the tide on the u-boat and from may 1943 until the end of the conflict the u-boat is no longer the scourge of the seven seas [Music] yet all this will be for naught if the soviets cannot win the battle for russia on the banks of the river volga a desperate struggle for survival is being fought out in a nondescript city whose name will echo through history stalingrad you

Channel: War Stories

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Keywords: military history, war, war documentary, military tactics, war stories, history of war, battles, wwii in numbers, world war 2, ww2 documentaries, ww2 footage, pearl harbour, tobruk ww2, churchill, roosevelt speech, roosevelt, roosevelt vs churchill, japan wwii, US navy, O‘ahu ww2, oahu pearl harbor, world war ii in numbers episodes, full documentary, hitler ww2, tojo japan ww2

Id: -9ZemwInS_0

Length: 44min 57sec (2697 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 13 2021