National Geographic: The Lost Fleet of Guadalcanal (1993)

[Music] this is the battleship Texas the only surviving US naval vessel to serve in both world wars she saw action from the North Sea to the Pacific Ocean hello I'm proud to be joining National Geographic in a tribute to those who served in the South Pacific the men who fell in one of the fiercest battles of our time at Guadalcanal you know the day I turned 18 I went down and enlisted in the Navy and I was still in pre flight training when we heard about Guadalcanal for six months they fought over that tiny South Pacific island and the losses were enormous and yet it was one of the defining moments of world war two I got to the Pacific about fourteen months later and by then the war had begun to turn our way still as a pilot on the aircraft carrier San Jacinto I can tell you there was plenty of tough fighting left on September 2nd 1944 our group was sent out to attack the Japanese radio towers on a little island called chichi Jima about 650 miles from Japan in the middle of the bombing run my plane was hit we managed to drop our bombs and get away but we had to bail out over the water I was lucky enough to be rescued nearly three hours later by one of our submarines my crew was less fortunate five decades have passed since World War two and now veterans from both sides allied and Japanese are returning to the South Pacific they come to honor their fallen friends and coming with them is dr. Robert Ballard the man who found the Titanic and the battleship Bismarck and with the cooperation of the US Navy he will be searching for the great ships that went down in those terrible battles Ballard's bringing state-of-the-art technology to survivors well they're bringing their memories and yet each comes to retell the same story the story of the Lost fleet of Guam canal [Music] in the beginning Waddell canal was simply an obscure island in the southwest Pacific by the end it was known as the island of death [Music] in 1942 a world war descended upon Guadalcanal [Music] we didn't what to expect we didn't work coming what was going to fall [Music] in six months of ferocious fighting tens of thousands of men died [Music] then this type of savagery one reverts to an almost barbaric type of existence and you do things under these conditions that nobody in their right mind are normally would do [Music] every man was wounded in spirit haunted by what he'd seen and felt [Music] I looked at him he looked with me he gave me a smile that was it [Music] [Music] I haven't told this [Music] for 50 years the Battle of Guadalcanal lived on only in memory [Music] until Robert Ballard the explorer who'd found the wrecks of the Titanic in the Bismarck came to the vast graveyard of ships that waited unseen and untouched on the ocean floor I've walked many battlefields on land the guns are gone the tanks are gone but here the ships are still locked in combat frozen in time [Music] they're like ghost ships with the guns still at the ready as if they haven't finished the battle as if it's still going on [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] in 1992 Bob Ballard brought the research vessel Lanie choas to Guadalcanal in a joint expedition with the National Geographic Society in the US Navy Ballard hoped to explore several crucial ships lost in the battle in the chaos of war no one had recorded exactly where they went down his mission to reassemble the fractured pieces of the past [Music] Ballard's destination was a remote volcanic island in the Solomons chain of the South Pacific his target area was the channel north of Guadalcanal an area now called iron bottom sound' there's no other place in the world like iron bottom sound' where we're so many ships sank in a single campaign there's not just one ship down there that we're after there are our fifty ships going down there should be like like visiting a huge underwater museum giving us an opportunity to to visit a battlefield still waiting for us fifty years later with Ballard where others hoping to make a connection to the past survivors returned to Guadalcanal for the 50th anniversary of the battle bringing their memories of six months of war good to meet you what ship okay we have veterans from both sides here both American and Japanese fifty years ago these guys were trying to kill each other today they're here together and what we're hoping to do is to reunite these survivors with their old ships to probe iron bottom sound' the Navy had equipped Ballard with a costly but somewhat temperamental collection of high-tech tools the Scorpio a remote-controlled undersea vehicle capable of sending video images back to the surface undersea chling a free diving submarine with a three-man crew ballot would have just 18 days to explore and photograph the ships below forward well [Music] we've got a lot riding on this expedition the Navy's loaned us all this equipment and they're they're expecting us to find ships and veterans have come from all over the world to be here so you know they're expecting to see their old ships it's a lot of pressure probably the biggest challenge we've ever had the war in the Pacific had begun in December 1941 when Japanese bombers raided the US base at Pearl Harbor the architect that the Japanese attacked was a man who did not want to go to war Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto a commander of the Japanese fleet understood American military power he had begged his Prime Minister to avoid war instead he was ordered to plan an attack if I'm told to fight I will run wild and win victory after victory after that I have no expectation of success at first Yamamoto did run wild in a few short months Japan swept quickly through the Pacific and the Allies suffered a series of shocking humiliations the British garrison at Singapore fell to a conquering Japanese force of third size in February Japanese planes demolished a port in northern Australia on Bhutan 76,000 allies surrendered [Music] even emperor hirohito noted the fruits of war are tumbling into our mouth almost too quickly after eight months of war the Japanese occupied 20 million square miles of territory five times more than Nazi Germany in America the nation mobilized as quickly as it could my friend Henry Brunckhorst and I decided we were going to join the Marine Corps cause everybody knew they were the first to fight they were right in Somerville Massachusetts 18 year-old Harry Horseman left home and headed for a war 8,000 miles away when we left in early June my regiment went by train as it turned out it was a Pullman train which had dining cars on so we went off the war and a blaze of luxury posters had never gone beyond our own home state borders I was a world traveler I had been to Vermont New Hampshire though from Massachusetts among the others heading west were lieutenant commander Jack Wintel and his wife Mary Klein we had a wonderful marriage I was madly in love with him and I think he was with me and I've often laughed he was so handsome and I've had people say how did you get him well I had him their courtship in the mid 30s had been a storybook romance the handsome Midshipmen and the southern belle soon after Jack shipped out very Clyde received the first in a long series of letters darling I'll never forget the terrible letdown as I saw you pull away at San Francisco it can only be erased by seeing you again and enjoying your loveliness by just being near you you have all my love now and forever jack by the summer of 1942 scores of ships laden with thousands of Marines were steaming across the Pacific to stop the Japanese advance Bert dowdy from Oakland California was a gunner on a destroyer the Munson there's more friendship on the smaller ship there's been a biggest ship you have a small crew here on the offices of men and you get to know one another and you're real close with real bodies we would go my little kids at that time we had a lot of guts and we were ready to take on all damn world marine Harry horsemen was aboard a troop transport life on a transport is not a bed of roses you're in each other's way all the time as crowded everybody initially gets dysentery somebody had a record player but they only had one record apparently and it was cherry ravine and the Connell of Venice we heard this all the way across the Pacific those two songs [Music] the commander of the Marines was general Archer Vandegrift a soft-spoken Virginian of equal parts determination and optimism he would meet both in July intelligence radioed an urgent message the Japanese were building an airstrip that threatened Australia soon bender grips task force the first American offensive and people are set out to take that Airstream a target an island called waddle canal [Music] nearly 50 years later a very different expedition made Waddell canal its target Bob Ballard began his exploration of iron bottom sound' with a preliminary survey on a small ship called the Restless M Ballard's main tool was a sonar fish a device that bounced sonar signals off the ocean bottom with it Ballard hoped to map the positions of many of the ships lost in iron bottom sound' you'd think it would be easy to find chips and iron bottom sound' but it's not when the ships were sinking no one took accurate positions by nightfall Atlanta Road to anchor off lunga point but but it was impossible to keep the ship afloat the Japanese what was going through their minds well when you read the logs and they were getting blown up and fires were burning and it's it's really hard to try to figure out where they might have taken their ships because they're not where they said they were so where did they go something big but debris all around it even the most modern sonar is a very inexact tool from the vague echo images it was tricky enough for Ballard to locate a sunken ship much less tell its identity well we'll do it again after weeks of frustration for Ballard and his crew an unmistakable shape finally appeared on the sonar screen oh wow what a knack yeah exactly we got got from there to there is the ship finally [Laughter] we gotta get by the end of the first expedition Ballard had found only a few ships and even their identities were uncertain the next year he would still have to search for most of his major targets [Music] before World War two Waddell canal was far removed from what was called civilization the first wheel many Solomon Islanders ever saw came on the bottom of an air claim Guadalcanal was an insignificant piece of the British Empire a remnant of the era of English glory run by the colonial service which for decades had been attracting people like Martin Clemens Clemens had studied at Cambridge he was an aristocrat but also an adventurer before the war Clemens applied for a job with the colonial service where he would get more adventure than he ever dreamed halfway through the interview they said oh you like sailing don't you I said yes well how would you like to go to the Solomon Islands I said oh rather rushed off home find out whether it plays as there were but Clemens days as a colonial administrator ended in mid 1942 when the Japanese landed on Guadalcanal Clemens hastily organized a network of loyal Scouts and moved into the hills with only an office safe a 300-pound Cala radio a hundred and ninety carriers and his three volumes Shakespeare soon Clemens would set up his teller radio behind enemy lines the young man from Cambridge was now a spy I got used to sleeping very lightly and waking at the slightest sound but the main feeling was that we were entirely alone Clemens was isolated in the Guadalcanal jungle he was one part of a network called the coast Watchers men who reported on enemy activities from hideouts in Japanese territory they soon became the Allied eyes and ears in the Solomons soon after the Japanese arrived on Guadalcanal that it was quite obvious they were going to do some building and there anything they could be building was an airfield I had to find a large squad of Scouts keeping a very detailed check on it and every new Hut they put up we found out what was in it or every new gun we worked out what the position was the Japanese new Clement was there they hunted for four months he lived on terror room and good luck he walked in streams to avoid blood harvest still Clemens kept sending in reports waiting and patiently for the Allies to take action that's a lot went through one's brain and so many sensations of fear no help in sight and I couldn't see any coming for a very long time on August 6 Japanese workers set up beacons along their newly finished airstrip then drank sake and celebration Martin Clemens despaired in his diary he wrote is nothing going to happen after all [Music] the next morning August 7 1942 Allied ships began shelling the beach at Guadalcanal neither side really wanted this island to the Japanese Waddell Canal was just another step south but the Allies could not let them take it so hairy horsemen and 11,000 other Marines found themselves heading toward Shore to fight a battle that had to be one Island that didn't really matter we've greatly relieved to find out that nobody was firing at us once we got a foot on shore where the hell was the enemy [Music] the landing was a cakewalk the Japanese construction units at the airstrip ran for the hills leaving the Marines to unload their supplies at what seemed like peace fair Seoul was the marine documentary film maker on Guadalcanal we came in with the first wave no opposition of course and then some officers that here you are doing anything put that camera down and come and help move these boxes we came up here with the absolute irreducible minimum of supplies we were desperately in need of food ammunition everything else fortunately the naval bombardment had not only superficial damage and scared the Japs out but they left a whole great big Locker full of all kinds of canned goods tons of rice of course and then also I have to tell you about the the beer that we found there were cases in cases of this stuff and one liter bottles and the fellows tried it and they said it was terrible and the language officer looked at it and he said well I'm not surprised it's fly spray from his hideout in the hills Martin Clements wants the Marines swarming over the beach his months of starvation and fear were finally over that took me an awful lot of thought to realize that I really had come down and I wasn't stuck in the bush forever but we then had to face up to the problem of how we managed to contact the Americans and I said well there's only one thing to do and that's to form up in two lines and we fly our Union Jack awareness Mart's down the beach one morning a marine sentry beheld an amazing sight two lengths of minimally clad Islanders rifles on shoulders led by one starving white man in tattered clothing and one small dog the Sentry raised his rifle but he didn't shoot and I tried to say something to him but nothing happened my mouth wouldn't speak Clemens was soon given the job of supplying the Marines with Scouts his days as a spy were over the Marines occupied only a small fraction of the island but it was the crucial fraction they had the unfinished airstrip vandagriff wrote home we have the place we set out to take the fighting is now over but the fighting was not over it would last for six full months [Music] at the Japanese base and ribald 600 miles away life was not greatly disturbed by the landing yamamoto expected to wipe the marines off the island with one brush of the armored sleeve [Music] we immediately ordered a decisive counter-attack by both sea and air [Music] fighter pilots Saburo sekai was part of the rain one of Japan's leading aces Sakai had already shot down 54 enemy planes after nearly four hours to reach the Allied landing force of 60 ships we had never seen such a large enemy fleet how magnificent I thought a swarm of American fighters zoomed off aircraft carriers to meet the threat Sakai soon squared off with an enemy pilot that's enough he and I got into a one-on-one dogfight I aimed at shot at the Grumman from behind suddenly his plane slowed down engine damage then I saw something terrible I saw for the first time a wounded opponent who was tormented by my efforts to kill him and the possibility of death how sad I thought but then I thought this is war you've got to do this so I dropped back behind him aimed and squeezed off a burst of my 20 millimeter cannon his canopy blew up [Music] I prayed for this man whose face I had seen so clearly Sekai next attacked a group of eight dive box [Music] one night Charlotte went down at the same instant their bullets began dull to me but cannot be exploded with tremendous force but shot I thought then I spun down the inside of my head pure white I thought killed in action killed in action killed in action I've made others go through this many times and now it was my turn [Music] Sekai managed to gain control of his plane though horribly mutilated and drenched in his own blood he flew for five more hours and landed at dusk back home and revolve even a Sakai squadron limped home a Japanese striking force was steaming south the next 36 hours would bring one of the most humiliating defeats in American naval history the defeat caused by a brilliant Admiral who Nietzsche mikawa and an incredible chain of allied blunders the mistakes began early an Australian search pilot sighted the Japanese fleet but no one received his report for eight hours an American Admiral took aircraft carriers away from the area another Admiral assume the Japanese will only attack by air the 3rd Admiral sailed off to a meeting while mikawa still undetected raced at flank speed for a night attack hirato UCA had joined the Navy at 17 he now operated searchlights on Macau as flagship the choke I know usually we were very nervous at dinner because we knew we'll be facing the enemy soon I wasn't exactly scared but the tension certainly took my appetite away but I was division chief and I didn't want to make the young sailors even more nervous so I ain't everything [Music] the Allied commander had made the mistake of dividing his force into two groups to the east of nearby Sabo Island undetected Mikawa crept closer and closer to the southern group sliding by an American Lookout ship at whispering distance for the crew everyone was in their battle positions the only sound we could hear was the screws of the ship moving through the water at 1:38 a.m. mikawa began firing torpedoes at ships that still didn't know he was there [Music] you can see red yellow and blue in the sky although it was right in the middle of the fighting I thought how beautiful [Music] four minutes the Australian Cruiser Canberra took 24 directives igniting a tremendous bonfire amidships Burt Warren was four levels below deck when smoke began to surge through the ship suddenly everything started to go down the light started to go down we were losing revolutions from our engines and everything was going dead then we had to find our way out to a darkened ship or you can think of us to get some fresh air this became a thing of prime importance in the mind is to be able to breathe not just to survive but to breathe warned finally reached open air only to find the deck strewn with the wounded and dead seven minutes Mikawa had devastated the cruisers of the southern group he now turned toward the northern group five miles away [Music] incredibly the Japanese presence was still unknown the captains and many crew members of all three American cruisers were literally asleep petty officer Leonard Jocelyn was in his bunk aboard the USS Quincy when General Quarters sounded I jumped out on my bed and under my clothes and lighters I went to the signal bridge [Music] and then a roll of shells are right by that cross the bomber ship then a roller shells up to the stern of our ship we can see them common and there is they were just like red liner it's coming right straight at us and a week and it's coming to seem to me like it's coming right straight at me [Music] the Quincy's somehow managed to return fire on the choke eye but soon the Japanese bombardment became overwhelming Isis everybody down and when I was laying down the one of the officers came out of the pilothouse on the other side of the ship he came out they said let's be men not mice well I thought how I'd like to be a mouse and he nowhere said it when he got hit with a shell all three cruisers in the northern group were soon reduced to flaming ruins McCowan now control the sea close by were 22 defenseless American transports still half loaded with food and ammunition desperately needed by the Marines on Guadalcanal their soul was on one of the transports you could hear the Thunder rolling across from the gunfire and then it was quiet it was dark and one plane up above us and they dropped a flare and all the transports were silhouetted against that light and we knew the Japanese ships must be over there and captain Perkins said well this is it nice to know you fellas the shells are on the way but no shells were on the way Mikawa could have ended the entire campaign by destroying the transports but he failed to finish the job convinced his victory was complete he headed home on this night of Allied blunders the final mistake belonged to the Japanese all the same the Battle of Tsavo island was one of the most crushing losses in the history of the u.s. Navy in less than 40 minutes Macao sank four of the five allied cruisers damaged the fifth and killed over a thousand Allied sailors [Music] fifty years after the Battle of Tsavo Island Bob Ballard returned to the site of the Allied disaster he began his main expedition to iron bottom sound' with the research ship Lainey choez after two days of sonar search he located an object the size of an American Cruiser by mid-afternoon both underwater vessels were ready to go Ballard and his two-man crew went first in the Navy submarine in secret [Music] it's all secret advice permission submergence rumors are clear over Tulsi cleared my beds are open my vents are open the crew lowered the robotic vehicles Scorpio 20 minutes after the Seacliff submerge the Scorpio would provide the light needed for the Seacliff to film in the deep sea its cameras sent video images back up to the lane each OS where operators control the movement of the robotic vessel with a joystick [Music] when you dive you're heading into the unknown so what are you gonna find there what's it gonna look like [Music] ballard researching for the quincy the first ship lost in hired balance on [Music] sooner not driving course two-seven-zero for 500 yards we have a sonar [Music] you can sense it when you get close you follow a trail of debris that leads you right to the ship [Music] [Applause] [Music] allard had found his ship the wreck was without doubt the Quincy we're coming in on the back of the bridge now if we can just drop down a little Skorpios into good positions you can see its lights shining in see the whole of just above the bridge [ __ ] all of them they took a lot of shots right into the bridge one two three four five shots [Music] I don't sell [Music] whenever you dive on a ship for the first time you you start to wonder who was a board becomes very special it becomes very lifelike you have these encounters [Music] there were people young people so many of the people who died here were just kids when you think about that [Music] 389 men died on the quinsy one of the survivors was Leonard Jocelyn years later on have nightmares and dreams at night and I would see the ship coming into port let's see the men waving I could see the signal bridge I knew that I was supposed to be up there but the ship would fade away and I tried to catch it in another port and the same thing I could see the men waving the Sigma bridge I knew how supposed to be up there but the ship would leave me and then the dream would fade but many times the years later even I would dream of this ship and the men [Music] and they're waving happy [Music] on the Solomon Islands even the first week of war shattered the old colonial picture of the world Tom tootle ooh had grown up on Guadalcanal and been educated by the British who had taught by the missionaries that they'd be a British Empire is the greatest of the most strongest Empire after it'll be Roman Empire and then the War break out with Japan and we are told that they're not to be scared of the Japanese because the lily ala man is no match to the year the British Navy and the Allied forces Tom - too low like many solomon islanders worked with the allies the 2lewd was a porter when all this more than equipment and the transport arrived is so amazing that we just can understand it and he really affect our lives you see a change overnight [Music] the Solomon Islander is assisted in what was now the Americans critical task finishing the airstrip the Battle of Tsavo island had crippled the Navy so the Marines were totally vulnerable to attack by air and sea the airstrip was still a muddy morass of ruts and bumps but it was the Marines only hoped for defending themselves before the war arbol Jones had worked at Universal Studios he now found himself a long way from Hollywood we arrived at Henderson Field to set up the airfield and get it operational we were totally unprotected there until we got planes of our own in the in the air the Japanese planes could just waltz in and attack us anytime they felt like it very scary on August 20th the Americans again spotted planes flying low of the airfield if we thought it was another of those bombings that we've been having and strafing attacks and we looked up and here is the ocean blue airplanes of the United States of America and we start the holler they're ours they're ours the Americans were not the only ones who valued the airstrip after crushing the Allied Navy at Sabo Island the Japanese now set out to take back Guadalcanal 900 crack soldiers landed just east of the airfield young sergeant from Hokkaido solder Nobu Okada was one of those soldiers the idea of the United States forces taken away the airfield that Japan had built that was really humiliating the leader of the Japanese force was Colonel kyo-ahn oka chiki chiki was a tough and tested commander he was also supremely confident but he had reason to be confident Japanese soldiers have overwhelmed the Allies in every previous battle I think the cheeki unit was the most elite units in the entire Japanese army [Music] we be initiated into battle you might say we were like Hollywood high school we were going up against Los Angeles Raiders on August 20th hairy horsemen and the other Marines dug in on the bank of a sluggish River they called the tenor ooh the Marines didn't have long to wait the cheeki did not Scout American positions and he did not try to avoid them we just naturally assumed that we could break the enemy line he recharged in a dinosaur [Music] the Japanese made their initial charge with this while screaming and it was eerie [Music] I was hit in the mouth by a shotgun [Music] I've heard a faint sound like a click then I felt the bullet my jawbone was tough enough to block the bullet but then I had to dig it out with my fingers when the first casualty that I had experience with was a chap named Rogers and when he was shot his his brain and his blood spattered all over another fellow and myself that was said a little bit to the rear of and I think now the only thing that I can remember was that she's a fraud just got it it cheeki sent waves of attackers crashing against the American lines using bayonets against machine guns tactics which had already served the Japanese well when daylight came the site before us was almost unbelievable that hundreds of mangled bodies over there and we took I suppose great satisfaction in our work the chi-chi's elite detachment had been annihilated a cheeky hurried back to camp in shame he tore his regiments flag to tatters burned the scraps and committed harakiri of course I'd never seen enemy dead before most of the people there had and it was a shattering experience and I remember thinking at the time how fortunate we were that we weren't there lying dead we took very very very few prisoners several of those who were tried to be taken prisoner kill themselves right there on the spot some took shots at their rescuers if you wanna call us rescue us at that time I think our immediate reaction was that we realized that this was going to be a different kind of war this was to be a war of savagery set the tone for the rest of the war in the Pacific by day six of the expedition Ballard had found five ships survivor Bert Warren joined the crew as the robotic vehicle Scorpio approached his old ship the Canberra it's really something to see the look on the face of a veteran when he finally sees his ship again it's it's like a window into time [Music] the first time I saw Canberra was from botanical gardens in Sydney she was what she looked the white lady she just looked beautiful and because she was named Canberra after a capital city the people of Australia said well that represents Australia they had a particular affection for the ship and not only that they had a good bunch of sailors on board and when I got ashore I didn't create a great deal of trouble [Music] don't lose visual get off about 10 feet would you like to try your hand at the stick we're going to sit in the chair if you want to try I think you might have a steady a hand on me I trust this father you know he'll be right next to you okay well I'll get that man puts it down the vehicle goes down push it up the vehicle pose like a total swish exactly this is where I spent the last hour marks on down this area you say don't you get a touch of a gun tart some pretty little whatever it is or you edge of the deck here on them okay back for a little bit five watching the the ship's movie screens of what it looks like now I kept getting flashes back the men that we had to leave dare me that we couldn't get off they were too badly smashed about to move and of course my thoughts were for those two and I wondered just what does happen to them when they're down there - there [Music] where I had some mixed thoughts when I saw a camera now to say it she looked pretty nice with a blue background and green weed and little white yellow groups of coral teeth she looked as though she was a nice lady with a couple of bouquets that rounded and I reckon that was pretty good [Music] in September 1942 Jack rentals letters from the South Pacific began to reach Mary Clyde and their children back home in Louisiana I was lonely when he went away naturally I was for him and we didn't know how long it's going to be Mary Clyde Winton and her daughter Jackie came to Guadalcanal on the 50th anniversary of the campaign wish I could see you Jackie and Judy for a little while the girls must be grown a good deal one thing that has impressed me so terribly much one thing that has impressed me so terribly much is the extremely small value of material things compared with the greater things such as a chance to live [Music] your picture almost speaks to me the only difficulty is that you're so far away that I can't touch you I reached for you a thousand times a day why aren't we tortured so for the Americans on Guadalcanal loneliness was the least of their problems victory at 1000 liver did not feed the Marines the lack of supplies who became agonizing the rations were short supplies were short everything was short except the rain except the bugs except the malaria that made its appearance dysentery you were fighting these elements as well as the enemy there was a total hellhole we lived in squalor absolute squalor we slept in our little pup tents for Less pup tents on our back in the mud breakfast was thin gruel and the other meal was rice socks and underwear were distant memories the malaria caseload numbered in the thousands the sick hungry exhausted Marines seemed to be sliding toward their rule gentle Vandegrift wrote day by day I watched my Marines deteriorate in the flesh one night some of the first broadcasts of Tokyo Rose came on the radio and she played for the latest beautiful music of Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey you say don't you wish you were in the arms of your lover and Griffith Park tonight she'd save sweet things to us you know and then she'd get very dramatic and she'd say you Marines you 5th Marines on the Montano Caju we know right where you are and tomorrow you will be dead for the Marines surrounded on their small corner of the island there was nothing to do but wait for the day when the enemy would come we don't know what to expect we didn't want to come what was going to fall as summer turned into fall the Japanese began loading ships for an overwhelming new offensive after the shock at 10 aru the first defeat for the Japanese army Yamamoto realized that this remote jungle island was of immense importance night after night he shipped massive reinforcements to Guadalcanal but what he hoped would be the decisive battle in the Pacific War even as the Japanese mast on the island general van der grift received a message from his commanding officer it said the Navy fearful of losing more ships could no longer support the Marines on Guadalcanal the Marines were on their own and a handwritten note accompanied the official one if worst came to worst Vandergriff was authorized to surrender [Music] in his first 10 days at Guadalcanal Ballard had filmed several of the lost ships he was after with a week left to go he began to search for the powerful battleship kurushima the largest ship in iron bottom sound' Karishma is the ship we want the most but it's going to be tough all we have to go on is where the Japanese Admiral said it went down but we've been in Guadalcanal for weeks now and none of the ships have been in the Admirals positions we're getting close to the Admirals position well it nothing there nothing mud lots of money searching for ships with sonar is a very frustrating business it can fool you you can go by our rock formation a geologic feature and think it's a ship when it really isn't our geology [Music] yeah we got something corne geology that's it well but it's got to be a big some point what's its length the ballard dilation was short-lived the battery of the submarine Seacliff failed to take a charge at the same time the power supply of the robotic vessel Scorpio burned itself out the expedition had suddenly hit the wall it's the worst part of the expedition at 14 ships identified and submarine [Music] Scorpio is also broken so we can't get any of our assets down and we've got less than a week ago [Music] pistol shot you don't have another one no we don't have any spirits on board let's take a look at it god that's cremated you got some of this back at home yeah we've got a spare back in the other vehicle that we can cannibalize and bring that out here but could be anywhere from one to three days before we get a flight in forget it okay this is serious stuff we just find the battleship and now we can't film it it's never easy and there's always a problem the part is on another submarine out at sea right now it has to come in to San Diego drop the batteries out of that submarine steal the parts jump on an airplane fly halfway around the world to get the parts here it's maddening [Music] fifty years earlier the Marines on Guadalcanal faced impending disaster they controlled only a shallow arc of land on a large island the Japanese ruled the sea cutting off allied supplies but the Americans had one trump card a pockmark rutted track called Henderson field [Music] whoever held Henderson field held the key to victory [Music] the airfield was called an unsinkable aircraft carrier until the night that Admiral Yamamoto battleships tried to sink it on the island on October 12th was my birthday I had now reached the advanced stage through a lot of good luck to be 19 years old and lo and behold about 1 a.m. on the 13th is tremendous blasts all of a sudden curve seemingly to us out of nowhere and a big flash of light rose up out of the iron bottom sound' against those low-hanging clouds in a staccato pounded against those bangs and this went on louder like like freight trains whizzing overhead and I thought jeez I'll never live to see my 19th year hell of a time I only have one day it'd be 19 general van der grift wrote until someone has experienced Shelley he cannot easily grasp the sensation of helplessness fear and shock a man comes close to himself at such times [Music] the next morning the Marines crawled out of their foxholes to find Henderson field or wrecked their radio station destroyed most of their plane fuel blown up a hit on a rationed dumped it spangled the landscape with shards of spare most of the American plans were either damaged or destroyed they fired 973 14-inch shells out of that night and they tore that airfield up they tore our planes up they tore everything up with American planes disabled the Japanese were free to land troops for a new offensive the next day the Marines woke to a humiliating spectacle a huge task force calmly unloading soldiers in plain view of the Americans the Japanese landing men equipment artillery of which we could do nothing about we were powerless at this point and we were given gunnysacks which we were told had the last of the rations you're going to be issued in the last of the ammunition it wasn't so good a future at that point the Japanese army soon launched its offensive sideways their plan was complex to march all the way around the Marines and attack from behind on October 16th the Sendai division began their march they ended up chopping trails to a trackless jungle completely losing some units and exhausting the rest after three days they sharpened bayonets expecting to fight the next morning but couldn't find the enemy's for five more days finally on October 24th at least some of the Japanese force attacked the ridge just south of Henderson Field the Japanese outnumbered the Marines by three to one but they charge straight at fortified positions these dubious tactics seem to work after days of furious fighting the Japanese took the crest of a ridge west of the airfield on October 25th they radioed Banzai right wing captured airfield the report was premature marine artillery blasted the Japanese off the ridge the Americans surged forward and the battle was over 2,200 Japanese lost their lives American deaths numbered just 84 [Music] for the Japanese army the aftermath of the battle for Henderson Field was as bad as the bloodbath itself the Sendai division had to retreat the way it had come through 30 miles of swamp and jungle this time it would be without food [Music] one officer wrote in his diary October 27th we haven't eaten for three days I have to rest every two meters October 29th I don't know how many men must be left behind today the soldiers abandon their equipment they started to eat leaves bark roots the entire Japanese force was starving they began to call Guadalcanal the island of death I wonder how long this will last it makes me feel like a little bird in the rain our Tillery officer akio tommy was one of those starving on Guadalcanal they say mr. Rajah soju very often we would smell the delicious scent of the food cooking at the American bases when the window after our way I received the packet of black tea just one time I didn't drink the tea drinking it would have been wasteful I ate it as the Japanese soldiers retreated starving and defenseless many were taken prisoner most of the Japanese Army soldiers were in very bad shape instead of fighting they are looking for food and so when we captured them they were very grateful that we were feeding them and at the APO W compound Roy we hata a second-generation japanese-american was assigned to Military Intelligence over 20 years before his parents left Japan with a dream they came to America to find a better life after Pearl Harbor they lost their farm they lost everything but an album of photos boys family was sent to an internment camp in Arizona while Roy was in Guadalcanal fighting for his country I thought that I was doing the correct thing at all times and there was no hesitation on my part to even fire at any Japanese soldier if they're on the other side of the frontlines on Waddell canal we had to volunteer to interrogate Japanese prisoners the Japanese commanders never expected their soldiers to surrender they hadn't even told her soldiers not to talk so it was very easy to get information from the prisoners the early prisoners were bleeding in their mouths and I asked him why how come you have injuries are on your mouth he said the Marines used to use their rifle but to take out all these gold teeth that they were had in their mouths so this is how I found out they were treated poorly by some of the marine soldiers we took some prisoners and a guard was placed on him in the middle of night he shot them why he gets hired a standing watch so he shot them we knew that they didn't try to escape they couldn't so and in this type of savagery one reverts to an almost barbaric everyday type of existence and you do things under these conditions that nobody in their right mind or normally would do they probably and us but we did them [Applause] the island of quiet villages after only a few months of war had become almost unrecognizable to Tom - to Lu and the other Solomon Islanders when we went to war with the Allies as a porter or as a spies or as a scout we just don't understand what is all about this an American war is a Japanese war maybe but it's not as someone Ellen rules but as they landed on our source then we are caught in it and of course we we think that we're helping the Allies without relation realizing what is all about [Music] after nearly a week of waiting and with only four days left in Guadalcanal the expedition's submarines were finally functional Ballard prepared to dive just before dark [Music] service control this is Seacliff delta 2 decimal 5 over as we dive we we try to occupy ourselves with our equipment checking our sensors making sure we're on course no target on the sonar but what you're really thinking about is what we're gonna see and we finally get down there [Music] but a sea cliff near the ocean bottom Ballard suddenly noticed something very disturbing on his carbon dioxide indicator [Music] yep stop as the co2 level rose oxygen was disappearing breathing would soon become impossible the Seacliff was three thousand feet deep the ascent back to the surface would take over an hour [Music] a backup meter confirmed the danger control Sinclair co2 continues to rise request permission to terminate over [Laughter] [Music] fight in panic the men were soon forced to use an emergency oxygen supply [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] control-z quest pose departed from face shield expedite with one oxygen mask out of condition the three divers had to share two masks [Music] [Music] with agonizing slowness the Seacliff rosed for the surface [Music] we came here to document the war to document the insanity it took so many lives the last thing I expected was to join the men who died in iron bottom sound' I'm glad we survived this one [Music] in November 1942 the majestic battleship curry Shima led a powerful fleet of 61 ships toward Guadalcanal with the fleet when the Empire's final hopes to recapture the island their plan called for the fleet to bombard Henderson Field eleven troop transports would then land 7,000 fresh soldiers on the island [Music] the Japanese command wrote the coming naval battle is the fork in the road which leads to victory for them over us Misha Haru Shinya from Tokyo had enlisted only because every young man in Japan had to Stuart more dot from Indiana had dreamed of the Navy and the imaginary event called war these two young men worlds apart were about to meet in combat we knew the Japanese were gonna strike that the intelligence reports were just so definite I can remember from the island came the fragrance of flowers tropical flowers and I didn't feel like you know going into battle [Music] an innovation called radar gave the Allies the advantage of surprise in theory but the American commander did not trust the newfangled instrument he knew where the Japanese ships were but he didn't fire he didn't fire for eight long minutes ships that could hit targets 12 miles away came within 5 miles and 2 miles and one then less so todo Jana Courtney suddenly I could see a line of American cruisers directly in front of us so we snapped on our searchlights egg-yolk came a searchlight right on their ladder I could still see that light off the port bow burning a hole right through it was just amazing at that point I saw the forward guns of the Atlanta swing out so rapidly and fire in minutes 13 American and 14 Japanese ships were all firing almost at random one of the men doing the firing miss Burt Dow D on the Munson we were really not anything that move I believe we hit out ships now on ships Japanese done the same we hit the Japanese they night it was just one hell of a brawl the two formations dissolved in the chaos opposing ships came so close that sailors shot at each other with machine guns more docks Atlanta was smashed by two full battery salvos from another American ship every man on the bridge including Mourdock was hit I saw Admiral Scott coming toward me and I saw him take it his last step hope and that was it for him he was killed right there Shania's Akatsuki attracted an avalanche of fire from five enemy ships including the [ __ ] that levered Mahoney I thought every part of the ship became unstable started to quiver and Shake and the ship began to sink and we all had to jump into the sea on Burt Dowdy's Monson the captain thought he was being fired on by friendly ships he switched on recognition bytes and the destroyer was immediately struck by 37 shells one hell of a bang and that's it I got hit and I just went out I lay there unconscious all night long I didn't get off the ship only a few miles away Stuart Murdock was trapped on the bridge of the Atlanta Shell's kept exploding all around him Mourdock and panic vaulted over the bridge rail a 20-foot drop to the deck down away and I hit pretty certain a bunch of dead bodies that on that gun in placement because I I heard the noise of their you know their lungs their they whatever it was a shattering kind of feeling right that month that I've done that at dawn seven damaged ships still drifted burning and smoking on the glassy surface of iron bottom sound' one of them was the mumps where Bert down he was still unconscious pieces of shrapnel lodged in his skull and his ship sinking beneath it his help came in the end from sharks three of doubt his friends made it off the ship but the Sharks were so terrified they finally paddled back to the sinking destroyer they happened to see somebody move it was me and they said no for crying out buddy Bert he saw me buddy Bert [Music] and I was alive while Dowdy's buddies got him off the ship Japanese survivors floated on the surface of iron bottom sound' one of them was mushy Haru Shinya many hours passed and the sea and sky gradually became light looking toward the East I saw a small American book coming slowly toward me they tried to rescue me but I blurted out in English no thanks still you are not really free when you're treading water in the ocean so eventually I gave up for us being captured was extremely shameful much worse than dying [Music] by afternoon boats varied the wounded Americans including Stuart more dock to land I remember being with the others there and there was one seaman on a stretcher right by me very seriously why don't you can tell and I looked at him he looked at me and he he gave me a smile that was it [Music] I haven't told this [Music] now boys remember this [Music] for both sides the battle was incredibly costly the Americans lost two cruisers seven destroyers on over 1700 men the Imperial Navy two battleships one Cruiser three destroyers and nearly 1,900 men a standoff but the next day that standoff turned into a decisive American victory bombers sank seven Japanese troop transports ending the Japanese attempt to reinforce ending Japanese hopes to retake the island ending any true possibility of the Japanese hold in the South Pacific [Music] fifty years after the decisive battle men who had fought each other met again on the lane each arrests were you the first Japanese shiftable searchlights yes I think so I think it was on us I think if you were the first so doctor I think by some through the first searchlight the cake from the Japanese was on MATLAB so we immediately swung our turrets often important left and started firing and I'm sure other ships did the same thing [Music] with three days to go in the expedition Ballard's crew lowered his Scorpio the two veterans watch from the lane each OS hoping for the chance to get a glimpse of their old ships there it is there it is well that was quickly well that just comes right on there's your ship that's a love can out of this damn damage for that torpedo yeah that damn thing set the ship just right up right so ragged it spread out the ship floated on the spot where the two men had fought reviving their memories of war in a war you don't think personally do you think there's something out there and you don't care what it is I need to shoot and you don't think about what's happening do you yeah yeah man I couldn't look too far either Ballard and Shinya reviewed video images of a destroyer they hope with Shania's Akatsuki but identification proved to be a bewildering puzzle the destroyers Akatsuki and Ayanami were virtually identical and both ships had been sunk in the same battle one of the few distinguishing features had been the name of the ship painted on the home but I yeah personai the only remaining Japanese character was the first one and both Akatsuki and Ayanami began with the same character but both ships had the same that is the same for Ballard in Shinya the identity of the wreck would remain a frustrating riddle Lynden gone I've come to think that the spectacle of human beings killing each other is without equal the devil in us makes us enjoy watching it but no one can make us enjoy having it done to us I kept saying I was on borrowed time really it's a feeling that I have a legacy I just have a feeling am i a worthy survivor how can I live my life so that it's worth it what happened in the days after the November naval battle the American fleet Lindt south for repairs mary clyde level began to hope that her husband Jack would soon get shore leave in San Francisco darling the day will soon be here when I'll be able to come back home for quite a spell by mid-november Mary Clyde was waiting expectantly for news when that Western Union fella came up on the doorstep I thought it was my cue to come to San Francisco and when I got the top two went to the door the man said lady this is a death message we regret to inform you that your husband Lieutenant Commander Jack will was killed in action and buried at sea I thought that he would be untouchable he was he was good but nothing would happen to him but you know you mature you grow you grow up you realize that life's not that way four weeks after his death Jaques letters kept coming darling the moon has been beautiful of late hope you've seen it I've looked at it and longed for you think of you all day and until I fall asleep then I dream of you I wish I could call you on the telephone tonight just to tell you how much I love you [Music] marry Clyde rental never remarried [Music] Seacliff control on the bottom depth 3:05 and you give us a range and bearing to the target over only 36 hours before the end of the expedition Bob Ballard tried one last time to explore the Kirishima [Music] finally he was within yards of the elusive battleship in the days when it was just built the kurushima was the pride and joy the Japanese fleet and for 20 years when people thought of the Imperial Navy it's her they thought of now she's come to this [Music] look at that upside down [Music] 800 feet upside down down [Music] I've never seen a ship in the deep sea upside down they always write themselves bismarck righted itself Titanic writing himself normally they roll back coming on the way down this one didn't roll it must have been that a superstructure you're not gonna backed like a keel oh wow look at that it's coming right in by the window back off boy look at the size his head propeller 15-20 feet across wha what our getting a little too close and look at is it coming in your window it looks like we're just about the brush against it Wow look at the size of those propellers hun believable [Music] Karishma was the last Japanese ship to sink in a November naval battle and when she went down the hopes of an entire country went down with her after four months of fighting the Americans had a stranglehold on the island the marines turned over their hard-won territory to the Army the Marines bore little resemblance to the fresh young man who had waded ashore their uniforms were in tatters the men themselves sick exhausted worn out the shock of that leaving Guadalcanal numbness and there was no jumping or joy and nobody with any hilarity I couldn't believe that reaction when I look back on it and we just shuffled who loaded into the Higgins boat and leave this place [Music] as bad as conditions were for the Americans they were worse for the Japanese without food or reinforcements the remaining soldiers seemed doomed to die on the island but on 3 February nights the Japanese Navy slipped through the curtain of Allied surveillance to steal 11,000 troops away from their fate the last act of the campaign like so much before it was a mix of courage blunder and simple luck when we were pulling out from Guadalcanal we left the soldier there who was still breathing I will never forget that the image of the young soldier just being left there unconscious but still breathing that keeps coming back to my mind even today for the Marines after months on the frontlines the next stop was Melbourne the Australians Marines agreed were suitably grateful [Music] you know the people of our study with marvelous marvelous everybody had an adopted family it seemed and certainly had girlfriends [Music] Feldman was the piece of cake particularly the parade front of all those Aussies like that people are shouting god bless you yank aside Australia old ladies would come around hug about the neck old soldiers from World War one that shaking hand it brought it all home that what we had done was not in vain and it was appreciated [Music] in a few months the name Guadalcanal had gone from obscurity to legend the campaign turned the war around in a literal sense before Guadalcanal the Japanese always advanced after Guadalcanal they were always in retreat the road now led only one way toward Japan on August 15 1945 Emperor Hirohito broadcast news of Japan's surrender Japanese soldiers returned home to desolation and even shame after the war we were supposed to stop wearing the military uniform but we have no other clothes so we just ripped off the insignia and kept wearing the uniform as long as I was wearing it I still felt I was a soldier but there was nothing much to do there I spent every day in an absent-minded state from August when the war ended until February I didn't do any work I just stayed at home for many the war gradually became a forgotten part of the past but for sada Nobu Okada went phased Harry Horseman at the Battle of tinaroo River there could be no forgetting for the years two enemies had begun to exchange letters the letters eventually numbered in the hundreds and in 1992 they finally met in Tokyo a very strange offshoot of the Battle of Guadalcanal seemed to forge in later years that rapport between Americans and Japanese this picture Oh helo general this is with soldiers on the field who faced each other suffered the same conditions they worse than us of course while we were hungry they starved I was 18 horsemen had brought relics taken from dead Japanese soldiers on Guadalcanal he hoped that Okada would be able to recognize signatures from the doomed a cheeky detachment and the memorabilia could be returned to the families of the dead I hope this one will end up with a family they can be found over the years Horseman's letters to Okada had helped Japanese survivors and relatives locate the burial sites of soldiers killed on Guadalcanal the Japanese came to perform a Buddhist write over the remains of the dead without the ceremony the spirits of the dead would be forced to roam over the earth [Music] [Music] [Music] on the 50th anniversary of the campaign the now independent nation of the Solomon Islands honored the men who had served in the war one of those men was Tom titular the very moment employ I'm waiting for this has now arrived receive a southern island middle another honored guest at the ceremony was former Coast watcher Martin Clemens reunited with his Scouts [Music] [Applause] for better or worse the Second World War brought the Solomon Islander z' into the civilized world [Music] they're coming in all disposition I'm coming in on the bow in his Guadalcanal expedition Bob Ballard had located 14 ships and film 12 36 more vessels still wait for discovery a journey's end Ballard laid down a plaque to honor those who died in iron bottom sound' [Music] they didn't [Music] in a way you you think it's a little strange putting a plaque thousands of feet deep in the ocean who's gonna see it after all maybe that's the right place for it because this is their gravesite this is where they died this is where they'll always be [Music] if the technicians of the world were to leave it to survivors you wouldn't have any wars they wouldn't have any [Music] I just have a feeling Papa knows we're here [Music] I'm sitting here and I look out there I can just picture those fellows out there and as I'm telling my story here they're just saying to me I know they are coming like it is Bert really tell it like it is so I'm trying my best fellas that's why I came back there just to pay my respects to you fellas out there there are always they with me you're in my mind think of the good times we have I salute you the way it is I don't know what else I can tell [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] we hope you have enjoyed this presentation and National Geographic video library for two years Australian filmmakers Hogan and Carruthers lived in the outback their closest and constant companions were a camera and a mob of sixty Eastern grey kangaroos until now much of the Kangaroos behavior has been a mystery but you can witness the unfolding of nature's drama the unique bond between parent and offspring the dangers stalking outside the mob and the struggles were then set up camp on the other side of the world in the valley of the kangaroos [Music] think you have what it takes to brave Alaska where an average winter day could be 50 below zero and your closest neighbor could be 50 miles away where the mail only comes three times a year but there are more recipes for moose than you can count sound tough it is but that's a small price to pay for independence and you've got to be tough if you're braiding Alaska [Music]

Channel: Rando Retro Video

Views: 566,858

Keywords: national, geographic, natgeo, nat, geo, explorer, society, video, documentary, lost, fleet, guadalcanal, world, war, WWII, WW2, japan, japanese, warship, robert, ballard, US, USA, navy, president, george, bush, george w. bush, kenner, kage kleiner, leonard, feinstein, elfstrom, mark, adler, stacy, keach, 1993

Id: MU3osN3UJaw

Length: 112min 49sec (6769 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 04 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/YOUREABOT]

One of the few VHS I still own, the others including NatGeos Titanic and Bismarck.