August 7th 1942. The famous Japanese Tainan Air Group is based in Rabaul. The airmen share a meal before todays mission. The chief in the mess hall prepare the food for the airmen, which brings us to the sponsor of todays video. All top chefs know the importance of
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you can get $50 off any purchase. Treat yourself or someone you love with these flawless traditional Japanese steel kitchen knives. The pilots scramble with orders to escort military bombers to the islands of Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and the Florida Islands. One of the pilots in the group is Saburo Sakai,
Petty Officer Second Class. Sakai is a renowned ace pilot
who has already won numerous aerial battles, and he was an invaluable asset to the group. The Japanese Bombers let loose their deadly cargo
from high altitude. As the Japanese head for home
they nervously watch the skies. Suddenly there’s a cry from over the radio. Bandits! The fight is on. The US fighters go for the japanese bomber formation and Japanese escorts joined the fray. Saburo Sakai and three other pilots from his group engage a Grumman F4F Wildcat fighter in combat. Good odd’s for the Japanese. But at the controls of the wildcat is future ace, James “Pug” Southerland. He manages to evade the Japanese fighters
and get’s on Sakai’s tail. Southerland lines up the Zero. But to Sakai’s amazement
he doesn’t fire. Inside the Wildcat Southerland is confounded by his machine guns which have jammed. If he can keep on this zero maybe he can scare it off or even get the guns to be operational. He chases Sakai and the Japanese pilot
is weaving in the air, pulling hard in turns, trying to shake off the US fighter and get on it’s tail. Finally with colossal effort he manages to get
behind the Wildcat. This dogfight is one of the tensest Sakai ever had. His A6M2 has only 60 rounds per barrel
for its 20-mm cannon, so Sakai switched them off to conserve ammo
and only used the 7.7mm rounds. Sakai later said, “I had poured about five or six hundred rounds of ammunition directly into the Grumman, the airplane did not fall, but kept on flying. I thought this very odd — it had never happened before — and closed the distance between the two airplanes
until I could almost reach out and touch the Grumman. To my surprise, the Grumman's rudder and tail were torn to shreds, looking like an old torn piece of rag. With his plane in such condition, no wonder the pilot was unable to continue fighting! A Zero which had taken that many bullets would have been a ball of fire by now.” Southerland said of the battle: “My plane was in bad shape but still performing nicely
in low blower, full throttle, and full low pitch. Flaps and radio had been put out of commission... The after part of my fuselage was like a sieve. She was still smoking from incendiary but not on fire. All of the ammunition box cover on my left wing were gone and 20mm explosives had torn some gaping holes
in its upper surface... My instrument panel was badly shot up,
goggles on my forehead had been shattered, my rear view mirror was broken, my plexiglass windshield was riddled. The leak proof tanks had apparently been punctured
many times as some fuel had leaked down into the bottom of the cockpit even though there was no steady leakage. My oil tank had been punctured
and oil was pouring down my right leg.” At this moment with the Wildcat practically disabled
but still flying, Sakai switched to the 20mm cannons. Ripping into the wildcat it’s left wing shears off and starts to tumble out of the air. Southerland knows he’s done. He Bails out and despite being wounded he parachutes to safety. Sakai rejoins the group. As he gains altitude together with his supporting fighters,
he spots a lone Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber. Several Japanese attack and another fight is on. Despite the odds being against him,
the Pilot Lieutenant Dudley Adams shoots into Sakai’s plane
with his two .50inch forward machine guns. He puts fist-sized hole into the Sakai’s plane canopy, but The Zeros quickly gain upper hand and skillfully working together they down the Dauntless. Adams manages to bail out of his stricken warbird and his parachute opens.... His gunner Harry Elliot does not make it out... Sakai and his group continue to search for new targets. As they approach the Tulagi island There’s another cry across the radio... Bandits! It’s a group of eight aircraft. They’re distant but Sakai is confident it’s another group of Wildcats and starts gaining altitude to engage them. Sakai had superior long-distance vision
and reflexes way better than his wingmates. So he turned first and hit the throttle so quickly that his wingmen were unable to catch up
and lagged far behind. The Japanese approach the formation from behind and below with Sakai in the lead. Closing fast now on the “wildcats” Sakai noticed them bunching up. Strange, but it looks like the Japanese were still undetected by the Americans. Closer and closer he got.... And then Sakai’s blood ran cold. It’s not Wildcats, it's Dauntlesses. With their rear machine guns
pointing right at the attacking Japanese. The Americans had spotted Sakai and his supporting fighters clear as day, all the way. They had bunched up for greater defense and are now preparing to rain down hell on the Japanese attackers. Sakai rocks his wings in warning: It’s Dauntlesses! But at the terrific speed the Zero is too close to dodge. If it disengages it’s a sitting duck. Best to fight on and try and take down the Americans. Without choice Sakai engages. He opens up with machine guns, receiving eight streams of bullets in return. Saburo is weaving and dodging as best he can and clip’s one Dauntless which starts leaning to the side and falling. Then another. One of the bullets, sent by rear-gunner Harold Jones,
goes right through the Zero’s canopy, and it didn’t miss this time. The bullet plowed through the metal frame of Sakai’s goggles, denting it, tearing the leather of his helmet and breaking his skull, while the glass from the shattered canopy flies inside and injures his eyes. Sakai passes out and The US pilots report their victory as they watch the Japanese fighter disappearing down below. Saburo Sakai slowly and painfully comes to his senses. What happened? Where is he? With a jolt he realizes that the blue haze looming large
is the sea and he and his damaged aircraft are hurtling towards it... Blind in the right eye, barely seeing anything with his left, half of his body paralyzed, he struggles to pull the Zero out of the uncontrolled dive.
It’s not working. His mind still clouded, he starts searching for an American warship to ram. If he would die that day, he would do so as a samurai. But luckily for him — and for any US warships —
there are none around, and the cold air blasting through the broken canopy finally brought Sakai to his senses. With exceptional skill he manages to get his plane
under control. Checking his instruments and he calculates he just might be able to return to the Rabaul airfield if he is careful. Sakai points the nose of his Zero along the Solomon Islands, roughly towards the base. Trying and failing to stop the bleeding in his head and control the aircraft at the same time, he loses and regains consciousness, correcting his course every time he came to. Once, he woke up to the feeling of blood beating in his head like a hammer: he was flying upside down, dangerously close to the open water he frantically returns the plane to the upright position and gains altitude. And when he sees a volcano in the distance, he realizes
he’s almost home. With fuel quickly running out, he dives to land, and nearly crashes into fighters lined up on the airfield, pulling up and going around again he puts the warbird down on the second attempt. Everyone thought he had been killed in battle, and the personnel of the base ran to his severely damaged fighter in astonishment. As they dragg Sakai, bleeding and barely able to move, out of the plane, he insists on reporting to his superior officer, and only then he collapses. With a serious head injury that led to partial paralysis and lost of sight in his right eye, Saburo Sakai managed an almost five-hour trip across 560 naval miles and made it back to his base in one piece. Months of surgery gave him back the functionality
to the left side of his body. However, his right eye would never see again. He became an expert instructor, but by June 1944 the war was going on against Japan and they desperately needed pilots…
and Sakai answered the call. By August 15th 1945, Japan concluded a cease-fire agreement with the Allied forces, and on August 18, two reconnaissance Consolidated B-32 Dominators were flying over the country’s territory to see if it complied with the cease-fire. Suddenly, 17 Japanese fighters mistake the planes for B-29 bombers and attack... seriously damaging them and killing one of the personnel. One pilot involved was Saburo Sakai, he and his fellow pilots were all labeled “undesirable.” In September, the war ended and Sakai was promoted to sub-lieutenant, and decommissioned from the Navy. The after war years weren’t kind on Sakai: his skills as a fighter pilot became useless. He was left out of work, finding odd jobs and constantly in need of money. In 1947, his wife died of illness. In 1952, he married again and opened a small printing shop. He invited family members of his fallen comrades and other “undesirables” like himself to work there. In 1955, a Dutch pilot came to the US occupation administration, telling a story no one had heard before. He said he had been transporting civilians in a DC-3 from the island of Java in 1942 when a Japanese fighter intercepted him
and ordered him to follow. When the pilot refused, the fighter shifted its position
as if to attack, but then its pilot saw women and children on board. In the fighter was Sakai. He had been given simple orders: bring down all aircraft over Java, be it civilian or military. But when Sakai saw women and children inside the Dutch plane, he felt he had to disobey his orders. With this news, Sakai rose from an “undesirable”
to a war hero, he couldn’t believe what happened, but the real worldwide fame came to him two years later, when his autobiographical book Samurai!
was published in the US. After the war ended, Sakai became a Buddhist acolyte, vowing to never take the life of any living creature — not even a mosquito. This vow, as well as his opposition
to the policy of rearmament, didn’t bring him much sympathy, but he stood his ground. He kept his active position even in old age. Microsoft’s developers consulted him in creating
Combat Flight Simulator 2. He said: “To fly is just like swimming.
You do not forget easily. I have been on the ground for more than ten years. If I close my eyes, however, I can again
feel the stick in my right hand, the throttle in my left, the rudder bar beneath my feet. I can sense the freedom and the cleanliness and all the things which a pilot knows. In the year 2000 he passed away at the age of 84. If you haven's yet, please subscribe to the channel
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