The Battle of Midway 1942: Told from the Japanese Perspective (1/2)

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it's been six months since the attack on Pearl Harbor and so far the war has been triumphant for the Empire of Japan they had achieved a string of victories across the Pacific and had captured many research rich territories however Japan still found herself in a difficult position despite all of their successes their biggest opponent the United States had yet to show any signs of surrendering this was worrisome Japan needed to end the war quickly before the US with his mighty industrial strength ultimately defeated him so what Japan needed was to win a decisive battle one that would demoralize the Americans and finally bring them to the negotiating table it was considered that America's centre gravity was as Pacific Fleet primarily its carriers destroyed this and you destroyed their will to continue the war therefore the only chance Japan had a winning this war was if the American carrier fleet was destroyed but the question was how to provoke the carriers from leaving it's safe base at Pearl Harbor the answer attacking objective the Americans wouldn't relinquish without a fight and after much debate it was decided that Midway would be that objective if the Japanese attacked an invading Midway the Americans was certainly responding force and this would finally give the Imperial Japanese Navy a chance to annihilate the American carrier fleet once and for all and thus operation mi was created with the objective of capturing Midway and destroying the Pacific Fleet the Japanese premise their plan on achieving surprise and therefore would have to make the 3,000 mile voyage on radio silence also they were to disperse their forces in order to avoid detection and mask their intentions in conjunction there was another operation to the north to take over the Aleutian Islands which was codenamed Operation Al and so on the early hours of June 4th all the forces were in position to attack a small tiny Atoll in the Central Pacific the stage was set for one of the most epic engagements in naval history this is the Battle of Midway the battle will be told from the Japanese perspective the fog of war will be included during this video that means you the audience member will only know the positions of the Americans the moment the Japanese commander knew of it this is to put the audience member in the commander's seat to see how they would have reacted themselves given the unique circumstances and complex scenarios that plagued the Japanese on the morning of June 4th so to start off let's see who the commander was and what is forces worth spearheading the mi formations were for top of the line fleet carriers of the first mobile striking force also known as the Kido butai this was the most destructive offensive weapon the Japanese Navy had and would be the main protagonists of the upcoming fight its commander is Vice Admiral Nagumo xishi he was 55 and had assumed command of the first air fleet in April of 1941 he didn't get this post because he had a naval aviation experience in fact he has specialized in torpedoes he got the job simply based on seniority it was said his command style lacked decisiveness and that he was too reliant on his staff nevertheless in June of 1942 he was the most experienced carrier commander in the world Nagumo had four carriers with him this day his flagship was the ACOG II the ACOG he was the oldest and longest of all the flat tops she had a large aircraft capacity and since she had been converted from a batterer Cruiser Hall possessed the high speed Chicago was a battleship conversion so this made her the least maneuverable and the slowest of the four but she did embark the most aircraft while typical squadron strength was 18 she herself carried 27 carrier attack planes these two carriers were just solid war horses of the Kido butai they packed a mean punch and were not to be messed around with next came to two dashing Cavaliers of Cary Division two they were the smaller but more nimble salute class they were designed from the keel up had a good air group size and a very high speed due to their light holes and construction however the downside was that they were lightly armored the so do came first being commissioned in 1937 she was well liked in the Navy her near sister ship the hero was almost identical but had a larger bridge and was slightly better armored real Adam Yamaguchi was a commander of Carrier Division two and he made the hero his flagship he was another high-ranking member of the fleet and was known to be an aggressive hot temper commander compared to Nagumo from the four carriers Nagumo had a combined strength of 248 aircraft 260 total aircraft if one includes the Scout planes from his escorting cruisers what was equally important in the aircraft themselves was the quality of Nagumo's air crews it wasn't a stretch to say that at this point in the war the best naval pilots in the world who were on board these four ships Nagumo's mission was not going to be a walk in the park he essentially had a dual mission one take out Midway he needed to neutralize the base and its aircraft before the invasion convoy arrived two days later and task number two was to keep a lookout for enemy carriers that might appear in the defense of the islands now this was unlikely as the Americans were not expected to react so quickly to the invasion but as a safe measure he was to keep half of his strike force armed with anti shipping weapons in the event the Americans did show up early it has to be mentioned here that there were some ominous signs for the Japanese as mentioned the Japanese were counting on surprise for this bold operation to succeed however on the eve of battle there were signs that this may not be going their way intelligence had revealed suspicious enemy activities around Midway meaning the Americans were more alert than they should have been and second it must be emphasized that the Japanese up to this point have failed to confirm the location of the carriers the Japanese believed they would have to face a two possibly three carriers two therefore so it was imperative that they get a confirmation of their whereabouts it was believed that they would still be in Pearl Harbor during the first days of the operation and there were two attempts to verify this the first was a reconnaissance mission to record her Pearl Harbor however this mission had been canceled but there was still a fallback plan a picket line of submarines ahead of Nagumo's force and so far none of them had reported anything at all this indicated to Nagumo that the American carriers were most likely still import so as far as Nagumo was concerned everything was going as planned dawn June 4th compared to the scatter cloud cover to the northeast the key to boot I found itself under low but like cumulus clouds the carriers continue to steam into the wind which is coming from the southeast to prepare for the air raid at O 4:30 a strike of 108 aircraft was launched against Midway all of these planes were launched in just 10 minutes a testament to the skill and training of the Japanese pilots leading the strike was lieutenant tomonaga Joey she he was a veteran of the air war over China but this will be his first combat sortie against the Americans Nagumo had to keep the other half of his planes in reserve in case American carriers appeared the pilots in this group were the a-team the best Aikido boat I had to offer akagi's torpedo squadron was said to be the best in the Navy while carry Division two had the reputation of having the best dive bombers any report of an American carrier and these pallets will make easy work of them at the same time of the launch of the Midway Strike Group reconnaissance planes were sent out from the escorting cruisers the search consisted of seven lines six of which stretched out to 300 miles clearly with only seven planes to cover more than a hundred and seventy-six thousand square miles the search effort can be considered half-hearted perhaps even negligent but in the goo Mo's defense it must be reminded that this was a precautionary air search simply put Nagumo and his staff were convinced that no enemy carriers would appear this early into the battle although I would say criticism is justified I mean given the fact that inter reported suspicious activities around Midway and given the bad weather in the area Nagumo should have doubled his search efforts as a safety measure it's what a prudent commander would have done anyway the launch of the search planes went well accepted the launching of float plane number four from the cruiser Tony was delayed for thirty minutes as the military proverb goes no plan survives contact with the enemy and today would be no exception the operation officially began to unravel at oh five thirty two an american catalina pvy was spotted surveying the kedo bousai dam Nagumo had been spotted meaning surprise had been lost this meant that the Americans would be able to get their land-based aircraft airborne before his strike arrived as predicted the Americans have been able to launch all of its planes before the strike arrived the Bombers went to attack the Japanese carriers only the fighters stayed behind to defend the islands these were 18 obsolete buffaloes and six Wildcats they intercepted the Japanese io6 20 30 miles from the base they never stood a chance with the more agile zeros in the ensuing battle 13 buffaloes and two Wildcats were lost the carrier strike aircraft pushed through and began their bomb runs carried Division two level bombers struck first at OU 634 the dive bombers would come next at o 640 on Easter Island the power plant command posts gasoline lines and miss Hawke were destroyed but damage to the runways was minor on Sand Island the oil tanks were set ablaze and the water lines were hit a seaplane hangar in various base facilities were also destroyed for their effort American fighters and anti-aircraft fire destroyed 11 Japanese planes another 14 will be rendered unserviceable when they landed back on their carriers that's a 23% loss the damage to Midway support facilities had been heavy but the base wasn't out of the fight the Air Group commander lieutenant tomonaga looked back at the condition of Midway and with great dissatisfaction had to report back to Nagumo that a second strike was needed to neutralize the base what follows next is a series of complicated vents and situations happening to poke the Kido butai and onboard Nagumo's headquarters so I'll tackle them separately starting with the initial air strikes against Aikido butai @o 710 60 bf Avengers and 4 army b-26s were spotted approaching two Japanese carriers this would be the first of four separate attacks from Midway base aircraft that would harassed him throughout the early morning over 30 fighters were sent to destroyed the ten American warplanes the Avengers selected the hero zero swarmed over them and one by one the torpedo bombers were shot down only two were able to launch at the hero or from extreme range and they missed the four b-26s which had been modified to carry torpedoes went for the acog ii only two were able to launch but they both missed the real danger was posed by the last b-26 the damaged bomber made no attempt to pull out of its attack instead it headed directly for a caucus bridge Nagumo and his staff saw this and were shocked the Americans were not supposed to show this kind of bravery the bomber pressed on and at last minute narrowly missed the bridge in crash into the sea his suicide attack had failed but surely he had given the Goom on his staff one hell of a scare despite the bravery and determination the attack had failed to achieve a single hit 5 Avengers and two Marauders have been shot down the Japanese lost two zeroes half an hour later at O 753 a new force was spotted approaching the mobile force 16 Marine Corps Dauntless dive bombers nine zeros set out to destroy them the dive bombers pressed on and went for the hero instead of going for a steep dive ensuring accuracy these planes conducted a glide bombing attack they were clearly inexperienced pilots if this was their way of attacking they managed to bracket the heater with some near misses but ultimately no hits were scored they lost half of their squadron leaving only eight survivors to return to Midway the Japanese lost only one zero and shortly after that attack fifteen army b-17s attacked from 20,000 feet at this altitude the b-17s were immune to the anti-aircraft fire below them however this also greatly diminished their accuracy they went after the Soto he drew an ACOG II but the carrier's below them had more than enough time to conduct evasive maneuvers and avoid the bombs there were no losses on either sides and no hits were scored only near misses on the Soto and hero caused any alarm a remarkable set of photographs were taken at this moment here's the hero dodging a couple of very near misses note the three fighters of combat air patrol under flight deck here we got the ACOG II in the goomers flagship while under attack easily noticeable is the red Rising Sun painted on the deck and the third picture shows the Soto she's conducting a tight turn to starboard to avoid being hit carrier doctrine and flight deck operations need to be commented on here during attacks the main priority was obviously the defense of the carriers this came in three forms anti-aircraft fire combat air patrol and evasive maneuvers Japanese anti-aircraft fire capabilities were very weak so could not be counted on so dis left fighter cover and evasive maneuvers as the main forms of Defense for Nagumo's force there was a downside though one due to the evasive maneuvers that require wild and violent turns it was obviously dangerous to spot or launch a squadron of aircraft while being bombed so let's say you wanted to launch an airstrike but then you found yourself under attack it would actually be better to wait until the attack was over to then fire off for strike and second point as these pictures show Japanese flight decks had to be kept clear anyways during air attacks for the replenishment of their own fighters and this was rather frequent since a zero had about seven seconds of Canon ammunition fighters were given priority because they did after all provide the most effective measure of Defense hence the only activity you would see during attacks was the recovery replenishment and relaunching of these small packets of fighters three at a time sometimes six at a time in other words and the point I'm trying to drive in here was that as a general rule you couldn't launch a strike while under attack so let's just say hypothetically then at this moment Agumon wanted to send a strike it was prudent to just wait until the attack was over maybe 15 20 minutes and then launch his aircraft so maybe these attacks aren't being accurate or deadly but they are hindering flight operations keep this in mind as you will see the fateful consequences of it Midway's final attack came at 2711 old marine corps Vindicator dive bombers arrived from the southeast these were obsolete bombers and they wisely decided not to go for the formatively defended carriers instead they selected the battleship Haruna as their target there were 11 fighters on combat air patrol to oppose them the Americans persisted and made their dives on the Haruna but once again none of them scored a hit to vindicate errs were lost during the attack and in the midst of all of this a submarine had been spotted in a oh wait when t5f fired a torpedo at the battleship Karishma the battleship dodge did by turning to port and the destroyer dashi was detached and sent in pursuit to chase down the summer as you can see this had all been a narrow escape for the Japanese these series of close calls surely had everyone on the edge of their seats although the Japanese were impressed by the determination of the attacks they were not impressed by the skills of these pilots just by 52 planes being dedicated to the attack not a single hit was achieved on the Japanese the biggest success these attacks had was that a had kept the Japanese off-balance from a 700 - Oh a 30 which as we will see was a critical time for Nagumo during the early morning attacks on the Quito booty a more serious situation with developing in the high command with Nagumo and his staff surely after all 700 hours Nagumo received tominaga as report that a second strike was needed the news was unpleasant but had actually been expected how could a force of 72 bombers half of which were armed with medium sized bombs be expected to neutralize a fortified base he could allow tomonaga flight to return refuel and rearm and then send them back but of course this would take hours to complete allowing the Americans to lick their wounds and reform their defense this would contribute further casualties or alternatively he could strike the Americans while they were still down he could use his reserve aircraft who at the moment stood idly by doing nothing but these were exclusively off the table because Yamamoto had ordered them to be reserved in case of an enemy carrier task force appearing but surely Yamamoto wasn't expecting a Goomba to fight an entire battle with only half his strength I mean come on this was tantamount to making Nagumo fight this entire battle with one arm tied behind his back and this right here had been the fault in the whole midway plan there simply weren't enough planes there weren't enough planes to do the dual mission to both attack Midway and to keep a reserve in case enemy carriers appeared so Nagumo looked at the maps and by now his air searches were reaching their maximum range and so far nothing had been found or reported so why not use these planes for the second strike and let's not forget that at this moment a maverick plane from Midway had just tried to suicide crash into his bridge Midway was clearly still a threat and as long as his airbase was operational it posed a danger to his carriers this is what probably prompted Nagumo's consequent decision Midway had to be neutralized thus at 11:15 Nagumo went against Yamamoto's orders and ordered the rearmament of his reserve aircraft the rearming process began in the hangars below torpedoes were removed and lamb bombs installed the dive bombers weren't affected by this because they were armed once they have been spotted on the flight decks so in reality this chaotic fast-paced rearming process was happening only in the hangars of the first carrier division all in all this process was going to take about an hour and a half to complete then 30 minutes into the rearmament process at ol 7:45 Nagumo received a report that Tony plane the one that had been delayed ran across an American force site what appears to be ten enemy surface units Nagumo was stunned he quickly cancelled and reversed the rearmament order and took stock of the situation it will basically boil down to two options for him send an immediate strike right now or send the strike after Tom maracas planes were recovered this is what is most commonly known as Nagumo's dilemma so I will ask the viewer to put themselves in the Gumo shoes for a while to better understand his conundrum and I'll let you know it's not as simple as it looks many factors have to be considered keep in mind that you would have had only 15 minutes to decide on the correct course of action so let's first dive into the aggressive option which is attacking immediately okay first off deciding didn't even make sense based on the location Tony number 4 plane was never supposed to come across it either he wasn't where he was supposed to be or the task force location was incorrect this brings up the composition factor it was unknown what did 10 ships mean it could be a carrier task force or they could simply be auxilary ships Nagumo didn't know and this was unsettling what if he sends a strike and the sighting proved to be just as stories or support ships this had actually happened to an emoticon a month earlier in the Battle of Coral Sea Nagumo did not want a repeat of that mistake but there were two additional alarming clues about the sighting why was there force 240 miles northeast of Midway there would be no reason for a force to be in this location unless it contained a carrier and if it was a carrier it would be in a prime position to unleash an attack on the Japanese's flank and more importantly why was a steering into the wind as it was known it was procedure for aircraft carriers to steam into the wind when launching the aircraft Nagumo and his staff apparently saw the validity of these two clues but in the end came to the conclusion that it was most likely just a surface force second the rearmament process wasn't as devastating as many believe the Val dive bombers weren't affected by this only the Cates 34 had been armed with torpedoes but now only 19 were ready 15 have been switched to land bombs so instead of having a full strike complement of 78 planes he now only had 64 planes properly armed although that's only a difference of 15 64 planes were more than enough to sink any task force encountered and here's a third factor time Nagumo was restricted on time because tominaga spores would soon be arriving at about Oh a 15 and it would be low on fuel meaning they had to be landed quickly unless they were forced to ditch se this was the worst timing ever for Nagumo Japanese flight decks were restricted in that they could only do one operation at a time they could either launch recover or spot aircraft thus Nagumo had to decide either launch his counter strike now or recover the Midway strike the fuel situation was troubling if he didn't want to lose any more plane stretching he needed to finish the recovery by Oh 8:45 the latest why oh wait 45 well let's take a look and work backwards to calculate the time constraints it's also in 45 now tominaga splaine's had enough field to fly overhead until about oh nine fifteen it would take 20 to 30 minutes to land him that makes oh wait 45 the threshold you better finish your launching process by this time or I'll start losing aircraft by ditching this leaves Nagumo with an hour of leeway and it took about 45 minutes to spot and launch an air strike so if he wants to take this opportunity to launch an attack with what he's got he can but he would have to start the process by Oh 800 the latest thus this is the 15 minute window Nagumo got to make a decision geez talk about being under pressure huh was an attack feasible yes it was it will be a tight squeeze but if he began now by Oh a hundred by Oh a forty-five his counter strike would have taken off in tominaga explains who will be flying on fumes at this point with Dan land however scratch that hypothetical because I also in fifty-three dakedo boot I came under attack by those dive bombers theoretically he could still launch a strike while under attack although this was rarely done in combat and it was extremely risky but one thing was for sure that 45-minute launching process would have definitely stretched out closer to the length of an hour as a result the possibility of tominaga Zaire group having to commit a mass ditch would become likely disposing of perhaps dozens of aircraft at the start of a battle was unthinkable so Nagumo had to decide does he attack this unknown target based in this sketchy unconfirmed location with some of his planes carrying the wrong ordnance and risk losing additional planes by unnecessary ditching or he could simply wait until tominaga strike had landed and then after recovery launch a full balanced strike and whatever this target is with the proper ordnance this was clearly the ultra safe choice that offered no unnecessary risk but what made Nagumo think he still had time well if we take the reported position face-value the location meant that even if this force contained a carrier it wouldn't have been within strike range of an escorted strike the Americans will have to close a distance and then launch a strike which meant it wouldn't reach Nagumo's carriers until about 10:15 some two hours from now thus Nagumo would have the time to launch his own counter strike before he himself was reached so I asked a viewer to press pause and consider the options honestly with all this information at hand what would you have done with the conservative mindset in aguma had it's not too difficult to imagine which course of action he took he went for the safest option he would recover his plane's first and then launch a powerful well balanced strike at the enemy the gumo opted for this choice because it promised mass and coordination over anything else for as much as Nagumo has been criticized his decision was doctrinal if any other Japanese commander had been in his place they would have also made the same decision so let's continue the saga down below the crews and the hangars worked feverishly to change the Kate's with Lam bombs back again two torpedoes in the midst of all the chaos the bombs were not stored away safely instead they were laid haphazardly around the hangar above in the bridge Nagumo waited impatiently for further information and it wasn't until oh wait 20 that identification of the surface units finally came through the enemy is accompanied by what appears to be a carrier this was dreadful news well you may ask why not attack now that you have definite confirmation of a carrier well it would still take 45 minutes to get the aircraft out of the hangar spotted and launched meanwhile tominaga zaire group would all run out of fuel and crash into the sea and just there you lost 97 planes also the strike would have to go uh Ness courted since all the fighters have been brought up to assist in the air defense of the mobile force during the recent attacks so the option of launching an undistorted strike which was bound to receive heavy losses and lose 97 planes Dramastic wasn't seriously going to be considered by Nagumo basically it was too late for Nagumo to attack now he had made his bed and now he had to lay in it he would have to wait thankfully for him the last morning attacks die down by o8 37 the kiddo boot I finally got a break from all the morning attacks and could now begin recovering the aircraft from Oh 8 37 - Oh 910 tominaga strike force was safely landed while one can sympathize with the predicament Nagumo is in there was a decision that was questionable the Kido boot I changed course to the northeast after recovering the air strike why this was not necessary Japanese planes out range the Americans there was no reason to close the gap it would just make it quicker for your opponent to reach you a wiser decision would have been to head Northwest still allowing you to strike back but keeping you at the extreme striking range of the Americans with the last of his aircraft recovered Nagumo was now free to begin spotting his planes on the decks it was looking good for Nagumo all he needed now was a 45-minute uninterrupted window and a powerful counter-strike will be dealt to the Americans however events with soon foil his high hopes off to the north enemy aircraft were spotted damn instead of preparing to launch a strike in the gumo would now be forced into evasive maneuvers and focus on protecting his carriers from the forthcoming assault these 15 Devastator torpedo bombers were coming in and with no escorts they would be easy prey for the 30 fighters that were protecting the mobile force the four carriers turn to port to present their stern to the incoming attackers what followed next was a stern pursuit which put the devastators at a disadvantage because of their slow speed they could barely break a hundred knots while carrying their ordnance the fighters swarmed over them with impunity and they were cut to pieces two-thirds were intercepted before they were even close to making their run-ins only three got close enough to threaten de Soto but ultimately only one just one of the 15 who was able to launch its torpedo however not only the history Domus but the pilot was shot down himself the attack had lasted about 15 minutes although the Japanese probably didn't know it at the moment they had just destroyed an entire squadron and there were no hits to stand for it there would only be one survivor of the 30 aircrew who participated in this heroic attack but as soon as that attack was over at Oh 9:40 another one began this time from the south it was at this time that Nagumo had to have realized that his mobile force was in serious trouble it was imperative than a gumo get his planes off the deck before being hit himself all he needed was a 45-minute window to launch an airstrike but during attacks he couldn't launch a strike because his flight decks were solely occupied with the replenishment of the combat air patrol fighters to add to the mess he was in a dangerous state because at the moment he was at his most vulnerable his planes were fully fueled armed and parked densely within the hangars of his carriers and more disturbingly it was clear that these were carrier base bombers obviously the reported location of the carriers had been wrong this whole time they had actually been 55 miles closer when they were spotted out 728 thus his mobile force had been within American strike range this entire time this is a clear example of the fog of war just like at Coral Sea the Japanese commander had made a decision based on the information at hand although unbeknownst to him the information having incorrect sometimes you can just plain out have bad luck one thing was for sure Japanese Scout planes needed to practice their ship identification and spotting skills oh well maybe Nagumo can dodge this attack as well the 14 torpedo bombers came in honest courted the two divisions had selected the kaga as their target and they were trying to do an anvil attack on the slow carrier but it would be difficult to do with their slow lumbering planes initially they came in on a post but then zeros swarmed over them and the rightmost division took the brunt of the attack two torpedoes were launched with the kaga dodged him with additional zeros added to the fray only three torpedoes from the other division were released but just as before the kaga skillfully avoided them as well once again an attack have been pressed on gallantly by the Americans but it had been ineffective nine of the 14 bombers were shot down and of these five survivors one had to ditch on the return trip only one zero was lost and when that attack finished guess what another one began you have got to be kidding for the last 50 minutes these piecemeal attacks although as ineffective as they were were delaying the launch of the desperately needed Japanese Counter Strike in more frightening judging this to be the third torpedo squadron there definitely had to be more than one carrier actually there wasn't just one there were three boy it wasn't a Gumo in trouble also the Japanese must have asked themselves at this point where were the dive bombers if the devastators had made it this far an imminent dive bombing attack was sure to come but something was different with his forthcoming attack these twelve torpedo bombers came in with an escort of six Wildcats the zero set out to intercept him but little did they know they were in for a surprise for the first time in the war the famous statue was used named so by its creator Jimmy thatch who was leading the division the planes would start in a beam defense position once a zero was on the table Wildcat the two sections would turn towards each other this allowed one section to get a head-on attack on the chase and zero it would either kill or brush off two zeros on your partner's tail the process could easily be repeated this defensive maneuvers stunned the zero pilots up to this point in the war the Japanese pilots would always come out victorious in dogfights against their opponents but now they were the ones getting beaten for zeroes were shot down and only one wildcat was lost during this interception Thach in his fighter squadron alone attracted the attention of over 2009 first the escort had done an excellent job 11 of the 12 diverse layers were actually able to push through for their run-ins and this post a considerable threat to the carriers this caused the remaining zeros who were looking up for any nearby dive bombers to descend from their high altitude patrols to shoot down these intruders therefore as we can see the northeast sector became a magnet sucking in all the fighters on combat air patrol disturbingly does have the effect of leaving the carriers with no overhead protection what we are seeing here is a dangerous example of target fixation all eyes were glued on this developing threat that the situational awareness that is keeping a lookout for any other threats was forgotten this was leaving the kita booty in a vulnerable state the American bombers carried on but with fresh zeroes diving from above the Devastator stood little chance to prevail the same story played out and over half were shot down eventually only five would end up launching at the hero but the Japanese carrier successfully avoided them the end result would be that 10 of the 12 torpedo bombers were lost and one of their four escorts for no hits this last torpedo attack probably accounted for about seven fighters the time was 10:20 the torpedo attack was halfway through and as expected not one had struck home it was a testament to the prowess of the Japanese pilots the Kido booty had been in combat for the last three hours and had avoided all the bombs and torpedoes thrown at it with its evasive maneuvers and its skilled fighters Nagumo had been quite lucky actually his mobile force with no radar has shot down 53 aircraft at his point and had lost only 11 fighters itself and there wasn't even a scratch on his ships but it was precisely at this moment when all the fighters were down below fighting off this latest assault in the northeast sector that a new threat emerged high above 50 dive bombers were approaching overhead undetected and unopposed and coming from two different directions Nagumo's luck had finally run out [Music] [Applause] dakedo boot I had never been faced with the feet before in the previous six months they had ruled the Seas they had sunk five capital ships on light carrier two cruisers and half a dozen destroyers but now they're unbroken string of victories would come to an end these dive bombers weren't rookies like the Midway based bombers these were the eighteen of the Pacific Fleet and with no opposition the result would be deadly from the South came two squadrons in the all teamed up on one carrier the enormous cargo 30 dive bombers began their steep dives from 19,000 feet takagi was practically taken by surprise and she received four hits one of which landed on the bridge killing the captain and his staff the planes being fully fueled and armed inside the hangar ignited causing a chain of secondary explosions she quickly became an inferno the Soto was attacked by 13 dive bombers three bombs were placed evenly along the center her flight deck all her hangars were hit and just like the kaga the bombs set off a chain of explosions inside the ship fires immediately engulf the carrier and looked after the acog 'i might get off scot-free however when the cargo is being pummeled three dive bombers peeled off at the last moment and went for her with pure scale a bomb was dropped in its upper hangar it didn't seem serious at first a carrier this big could have certainly survived his single hit but just like her sister ships the planes and bombs inside her hangars began to detonate thereafter fire spread uncontrollably and the acog II the flagship of the Kino butai was doomed [Music] in less than five minutes history had changed the powerful Kido boot I have been rent only one have been able to escape destruction the hero the outcome of the battle now rested upon the shoulders of the hero and her early pilots [Music] you [Music] you

Info

Channel: Montemayor

Views: 3,721,267

Rating: 4.8999462 out of 5

Keywords: Midway, USN, IJN, Nagumo's Dilemma, Aircraft Carrier Battle

Id: Bd8_vO5zrjo

Channel Id: undefined

Length: 41min 46sec (2506 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 27 2019

Reddit Comments

Extremely cool, please keep this kind of content coming!

👍︎︎ 35 👤︎︎ u/[deleted] 📅︎︎ Apr 28 2019 🗫︎ replies

Respect to the pilot that narrowly missed the bridge.

👍︎︎ 19 👤︎︎ u/gepgepgep 📅︎︎ Apr 28 2019 🗫︎ replies

This is better than 99% of documentaries on TV. Absolutely fascinating and well narrated, cant wait for part two!

👍︎︎ 14 👤︎︎ u/I_enjoy_Dozer 📅︎︎ Apr 28 2019 🗫︎ replies

Curious as to what the reason was again for the 45 minute launch window considering they were able to launch over 100 in ten minutes, initially. Can’t recall what the reasoning was? Fueling, arming? Most of these planes were on the carriers already so those things should have already been completed, thus shortening the launch time, no?

👍︎︎ 8 👤︎︎ u/MehulET247 📅︎︎ Apr 28 2019 🗫︎ replies

When will 2/2 be available? This was great!

👍︎︎ 8 👤︎︎ u/ohbud 📅︎︎ Apr 28 2019 🗫︎ replies

Well put together and good perspective too

👍︎︎ 13 👤︎︎ u/Boatsmhoes 📅︎︎ Apr 27 2019 🗫︎ replies

Man, that channel makes some great content. I really enjoyed his Coral Sea and Pearl Harbor videos and was looking forward to his new content.

👍︎︎ 5 👤︎︎ u/Not_A_Vegetable 📅︎︎ Apr 28 2019 🗫︎ replies

It was interesting to see the decisions that they had faced. There are so many factors that were in play like wind positioning to launch, landing windows, arming times, scouting patterns etc.

👍︎︎ 4 👤︎︎ u/lurker12346 📅︎︎ Apr 28 2019 🗫︎ replies

magic

👍︎︎ 3 👤︎︎ u/[deleted] 📅︎︎ Apr 28 2019 🗫︎ replies