NARRATOR: Previously
on "Battle 360." Truk Lagoon, the
Central Pacific. Like a hammer of hell,
Enterprise's warplanes nail the Gibraltar of the Pacific
and gave the Japanese Empire a Pearl Harbor of their own. Now the big E turns toward
the Mariana Islands, one deadly step closer
to the enemy Homeland. And the American submarines
have the Imperial Fleet locked in their sights. USS Enterprise, a
fighting city of steel. She is the most revered and
decorated ship of World War II. On this 360-degree battlefield,
where threats loom on the seas, in the skies, in
the ocean depths, the Enterprise's enemies could
be anywhere and everywhere. There's nowhere to run when
the battle's all around you. "Battle 360, USS Enterprise,
D-day in the Pacific." Dawn, June 13, 1944. In the waters off Saipan
in the Mariana Islands, aircraft carrier USS
Enterprise clears for action. Her massive flight deck is
alive with revving engines, as the TBF Avengers
of Torpedo Squadron 10 prepare to hit enemy
positions on Saipan. In command of Torpedo
10 is Bill Martin. He's a seasoned leader with two
bloody years aboard Enterprise under his belt. The finest officer
you'd ever meet. Everybody trusted him, and
he was an excellent pilot. He'd been around quite a while. He'd been in a scouting
squadron before, and so he was just an
all-around good officer. NARRATOR: Flying in the
big Avenger with Martin are Radioman First Class JT
Williams and Ordinanceman WR Hargrove. Their target is a Japanese flak
battery on the southern tip of the island, where
in just a few days US ground troops will
be slogging ashore. The enemy stronghold is covered
with antiaircraft artillery, and its Enterprise's
job to wipe them out. We were dropping bombs on
land targets and any ships or anything that
happened to be there. It was not like we'd
had at Guadalcanal. We didn't have much
opposition there. By then we had the F6F's and
we were pretty well protected. NARRATOR: For two days,
Enterprise and the fleet of American carriers have
been launching airstrikes against Saipan, pummeling
the island with bombs in anticipation of
a major invasion by US Marines and soldiers. 200 miles away, an American
battleship division moves within range
of the enemy island for a massive bombardment. USS New Jersey and
her sister Iowa-class battleships open fire
with heavy broadsides from their 16-inch batteries. These warships are a new
generation of fast battleships. The Iowa-class battleship
weighs in at 45,000 tons with an overall
length of 887 feet. In addition to dozens of
5-inch, 40-millimeter, and 20-millimeter antiaircraft guns,
they pack an impressive nine 16-inch, 50-caliber rifles
capable of killing a target at 25 miles. There's just one problem. The gunners on these ships
are raw and inexperienced in shore bombardment. 10,000 yards away, enemy
machine gun nests, pillboxes, and bunkers weather
the incoming fire. Most of the 2,400
16-inch projectiles, each weighing nearly a
ton, are simply wasted. They barely scrape the surface
of the Japanese positions. The Japanese were very, very
good at entrenchment and cover and concealment. So it was very difficult to
even see their targets, first of all, much less being able
to put effective naval gunfire on top of them. NARRATOR: It's going to take a
lot more to wipe out the enemy defenses. 10 miles away, Bill Martin's
group of seven TBF Avengers arrives over their target-- Japanese gun
emplacements and bunkers. Martin's plane peels off and
heads for a Japanese flak battery. He's got two 500-pound bombs,
enough ordinance to annihilate the enemy position. But the Japanese see him
coming and open fire. At 12,000 feet, bursts
of steel flak pepper the air all around his Avenger. Martin rolls into a steep dive,
heading right for his target at high speed. Really, the plane should
have been about 250 knots for a diving profile. This guy is going
maybe 350, 360. It's pretty fast. The plane wasn't
really made for that. It's doing a mission
it's not designed for. NARRATOR: At 350 miles per hour,
and in a near vertical dive, Martin's plane catches
a load of shrapnel just as he releases
his bomb load. Martin's in a flat
spin, out of control. His Avenger begins a
deadly tumbling freefall towards the earth. Extreme negative Gs are
literally pulling the pilot out of his seat. You might not be able to
reach your stick and throttle. You might not be able
to actuate the com link to talk to your crew member. The blood is being
pushed into your face, and you just can't
think straight. NARRATOR: He tries to
call Williams and Hargrove on the mic. No answer. His plane is on fire. Only seconds separate
Martin from a fiery death. At the last possible moment,
he releases his harness, jerks the rip cord, and is
pulled out of the burning aircraft. Martin's parachute
blossoms just as his plane slams into a lagoon. His body makes a rough
landing in five feet of water, as charred debris
falls all around him. 30 feet away, his
Avenger crackles under an oily black
plume, a funeral pyre for his veteran crew. With Japanese machine guns
and rifles firing at him from shore, Martin
slowly makes his way to a reef 1,000 yards away. TOM WATTS: He paddled
outside the lagoon. They're shooting at him for
a while, but he got outside. Somebody came in
and picked him up. NARRATOR: Martin is later
rescued by the cruiser Indianapolis. And the next day, he's returned
to the big E, very lucky to be alive. And it's only the beginning. On the night of June 14,
an American submarine makes a startling discovery. For the first time in
more than 18 months, a massive Japanese fleet
has taken to the seas, and it's headed right for
Saipan and USS Enterprise. Flashback one month
earlier, May 1944. For six months, the US
Fleet has been raising hell in the Central Pacific, and
carriers like USS Enterprise have seen their
share of the action. Now, the US Command
prepares for the next phase of battle, a major drive on
the Central Pacific's Mariana Islands. The US Navy sets their sights
on Saipan, the main focus of the operation. And the fleet is ripped
and ready for action. By now, the American war
machine has built an armada unlike anything ever seen. And so what you have is a
Pacific fleet that ends up with a large number
of aircraft carriers, carriers that can move
quickly, more and more ships. It's a bigger, faster,
and much more deadly Navy. NARRATOR: If the US
can capture Saipan, the island will offer an
ideal base for US Army B-29 Superfortress bombers. From here, the massive warplanes
can begin strategic bombing of the home islands. MARTIN MORGAN: We would be able
to contribute to the battle a major strategic air campaign
against the Japanese home islands. And it was thought that, by
subjecting the Japanese home islands to a protracted
strategic air campaign, the likes
of which we were doing to the Germans and Europe,
it would accelerate the end of the war. NARRATOR: Target-- Saipan. Objective-- seize the heavily
defended enemy island, crush the Japanese garrison. Strategy-- carriers
like Enterprise will hammer the
island with warplanes. Battleships will
pummel it from the sea. And US Marines and soldiers
will battle the enemy on land. As Allied forces push in on
the Empire from all sides, the Japanese Army and Navy will
be divided, faced with fighting a multi-front war. It poses a horrendous
problem for the Japanese. They're strained everywhere. And the planes that could be
sent to the Central Pacific to fight the US
Navy in many cases are going down to New Guinea
to fight against the Army down there. NARRATOR: By 1944, the Axis
powers are on the defensive, as the Allies prepare
for massive invasions in the Pacific, in
France, and in Italy. When you consider that
American forces are heavily engaged in combat in
Italy, that American forces are also about to conduct the
opposed amphibious landing in Normandy on June 6. So the United States
military, it's demonstrating that it
is capable of engaging in broad offensive operations
on opposite sides of the world simultaneously. NARRATOR: Saipan will be one
of the most important invasions of the war, a Normandy
of the Pacific. And D-day is set for June 15. At the island base of Majuro
in the Marshall Islands, thousands of men from the
Navy, Army, and Marine Corps get ready for the invasion. Most of the sailors and
Marines from different ships are strangers, from
every corner of the USA. But not all of these fighting
men are destined to get along. By 1944, a 150-year
rivalry still divides the Marines of the
fleet from the ship's sailors. Damage control man Pedro
Sandoval from Laredo, Texas, gets a close look
at this rift when he has a chance run-in
with a childhood friend from back home. This Marine came aboard
our ship looking for me. He walked in the
shop, and I seen him. And he was just
like a brother to me before we even
joined the service. And I gave him a big hug,
and everybody's looking at me, what's wrong with him? Giving the Marine a hug? And the Marines that were
with him were surprised too. I said, "He's just
like a brother to me, and I haven't seen him
since I left for the war." NARRATOR: Enterprise will sail
as the flagship of her task group, but she is only part of
a massive armada of 15 carriers, seven battleships, 14 cruisers,
over 50 destroyer escorts, and a score of transports,
oilers, and supply ships. One of the most beautiful
sights I've ever seen. There were 14, 15 big United
States carriers there, as well as light carriers
and cruisers and destroyers. I have never in my
life seen such a bunch of ships getting together. NARRATOR: The entire naval force
is under the command of Vice Admiral Marc Mitscher. At 57 years old, Wisconsin
native Marc Mitscher is a hard-fighting admiral
and former naval aviator. As a career veteran with
more than 30 years at sea, he knows how to use
carriers like Enterprise and their aircraft in mortal
combat against the enemy. Among the 15 carriers
that Mitscher commands are six of the new
Essex-class fleet carriers. Each of these giant flattops
displace more than 36,000 tons fully loaded, 10,000
more than Enterprise. They also pack heavier armament,
with four twin 5-inch guns, eight single 5-inch guns, eight
quad mount 40 millimeters, and more than 40
20-millimeter guns. They can also carry 110
aircraft to the Enterprise's 90. June 6, 1944. Enterprise and her task group
steam away from the island of Majuro, bound for Saipan. As the ship cruises
through the open seas, her executive officer
comes on the loudspeaker and announces the news of the
Normandy invasion in France. But the beaches of Normandy
are half a world away. Enterprise and the
Pacific fleet are heading for a D-day of their own. For the men of
Enterprise, the road to victory and the way
home is through Saipan and the Philippine Sea. But each time the Big
E heads into battle, her men can only wonder
when their famous luck might run out. Louisiana native and Enterprise
Marine Louis Michot already knows the risks after
six months aboard ship. You know your time
might be coming. Hey, you keep-- you just get
it off your mind, do your job. You can't lie down. You get hit, you get hit. That's why war is hell. I knew I was in danger,
but so was all my comrades. We were working like a team. We had to just keep going,
do what we're trained to do. NARRATOR: This time, Enterprise,
the fleet, and the Marines are up against 32,000
Japanese troops. Dug in on the
hillsides of Saipan, like their brothers at
Guadalcanal and Tarawa, these defenders will
fight to their death. But for the first time since
the Battle of Santa Cruz, a massive Japanese carrier fleet
is also preparing for battle. Battered by the bloodbaths of
Midway, Guadalcanal, and Santa Cruz, the Imperial Navy
has finally rebuilt and is ready to meet the Big E. The Japanese Navy
has tried frantically to build their carrier force
into some sort of a replica of what they had at the
beginning of the war. They have more carriers now. NARRATOR: Among the
Japanese carriers are sister ships
Shokaku and Zuikaku, the very same vessels
that the Big E squared off against in the Eastern
Solomons and Santa Cruz. And now they're back for
a rematch with Enterprise. So we were loaded for bear. And we knew where they were
and when they were coming. NARRATOR: The imperial
task force also includes the new mega-carrier Taiho. It's unlike anything that Big
E has ever gone up against. Taiho, which means
great phoenix, is 30,000 tons of imperial iron. Built by Kawasaki, she has
two enormous hangar decks, compared to Enterprises one. 61 aircraft. And instead of wood,
her flight deck is plated with 3
inch armored steel. Her weaponry consists of 12 99
millimeter flak guns and 51 25 millimeter machine guns. She is the flagship of
the entire carrier force. Commanded by Vice
Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa AKA, the Gargoyle. He's 6 feet tall, has a
chest covered with medals. And is the mastermind of
the empire's carrier fleet. Veteran of Java,
Sumatra, and Guadalcanal. There's just one problem. Japan is running out
of expert pilots. Most of them wiped out in
the first year of the war. Ozawa's pilots are raw
and poorly trained. And it's a stark contrast
to the fleet air arm that the Japanese began
the Second World War with, when you consider that
those were among the cream of the crop of Naval aviation. But they're all gone. And by this stage of
the war, in their place, are new,
moderately-trained pilots. Pilots who are
not up to the task of going up against seasoned
American Naval aviators. They were pretty far gone,
as far as skill was concerned. The difference
between 1943 and 1944 was all the difference
in the world. We had it, they didn't. NARRATOR: June 11th, 1944-- D-Day minus four. The veteran Hellcat fighters,
called the Grim Reapers, launch their first attack
against the Marianas from the Big E.
Admiral Mitscher, a former pilot himself, gives
the Reapers a simple order-- cut their damn throats. In the skies over
Saipan, the Hellcats blast enemy aircraft and their
pilots into the afterlife. Next, the fighter planes
strafe the airfield with hot 50 caliber led. Parked aircraft are destroyed
and go up in flames. Fuel tanks explode. And enemy gunners
are blown to pieces. For two solid days, American
fighters and bombers ravage Saipan and the nearby
islands of Rota, Tinian, and Guam. Doing all they can before
the Marines storm the shore. Next, the Iowa class battleships
turn their guns on the Saipan. And Bill Martin has a close
call when his plane is blown out of the sky. But after three days
of hard fighting, Saipan is still a
fortress island. And for the crew
of USS Enterprise, the battle for the Marianas
has only just begun. In response to the
American attacks, Admiral Ozawa has taken to the
seas, headed for a showdown. He has one mission-- crush the US fleet. June 15, 1944-- D-Day and the
invasion of Saipan. Enterprise launches a major
airstrike of SBD dive bombers, Hellcat fighters, and
Avenger torpedo planes. It's part of a massive
support mission. While the Marines wade
ashore, planes from Lexington and Enterprise will hit
the beaches and pillboxes with bombs and machine gun fire. The assault is led by
Commander William Killer Kane of Enterprise. The veteran pilot
will lead 68 planes from the two ships in the
brutal assault on Saipan. This is before
the Marines landed. We'd go in first and hit
all the anti-aircraft. This was one of the major
operations of the war, as far as the number of
troops landing and all that. Because the Japanese, they
didn't want you to take Saipan at all. That was a big blow to them. NARRATOR: As Kane's strikeforce
heads into the deadly airspace, they can clearly see the
Marines heading for the beaches. As the American airmen
battle the Japanese positions with round after round
of bombs and bullets, 20,000 US Marines wade ashore
and face the Japanese defenders in hellish combat. In one single day of
battle, 2,000 Americans are killed or wounded on Saipan. 2,000 men, for less than a 1/2
a mile of Japanese real estate. A gruesome start to one of the
biggest battles in the Pacific War. 7:00 PM-- Carriers Enterprise,
Lexington, and Bunker Hill cruise the waters off Saipan. As the sun begins
to set on D-Day, the ships prepare for another
night in the hostile Central Pacific. Suddenly, the main search
radar on the Enterprise pick something up. It's an incoming air
assault. 22 miles away, seven land-based
Fran torpedo bombers head right for Enterprise
and carrier Lexington. Within minutes, the
enemy planes will be within striking distance. 10 miles ahead of the Frans,
spotters on Enterprise can now clearly see the
incoming assault. Seconds later, the guns of the task
force roar into action. 5 inch, 38 caliber rifles
from Enterprise and Lexington thump out a volley of
explosive projectiles. 40 millimeter and 20
millimeter antiaircraft guns spray red hot streams
of fire into the air. The American task
force is formed up in a defensive circle. Their mission is simple-- unleash an umbrella of fire. Protect the Big E and the
other carriers at all costs. Difficult battle line of
an American Naval task force in the summer of 1944
in the Pacific Theater consisted of aircraft
carriers at the center of the formations. Close to the
carriers, battleships, bringing the most guns
to the battle area. Out from the battleships, you
would have a ring of cruisers. And then, finally, destroyers
on the outskirts of the battle formation. And the purpose and point of
this kind of battle formation was to engage incoming
Japanese aircraft as far away from the most important
ship as possible. And the most important
ship, of course, was the aircraft carrier. NARRATOR: The enemy
planes hugged the air just over the waves,
on a headlong charge into the fusillade of gunfire. From his battle station,
Enterprise Marine Lieutenant Richard Harte watches as one
Japanese plane is torn by flak. You can see the
shells hitting it. And Inside caught fire, and you
could see the pilot silhouetted against the blaze
inside the plane. But still flying it and
still concentrating. NARRATOR: In the
confusion of battle, American ships fire
in all directions. US sailors now face the Japanese
pilots and friendly fire. I can see this right now. I'm on the flight deck, again. Flying low. Bunker Hill is firing right into
the flight top of [inaudible].. And we're firing across our
flight deck level at the Japs as they come down. [making gunshot sounds] NARRATOR: By flying low
among the American ships, the Japanese pilots know
that US gunners will have to fire into their own men. Anybody who stood up
would probably be shot down. It was that bad. All of the ships that
were protecting the carriers were putting up so
much fire frantically and in a frenzied way,
attempting to bring down the Japanese torpedo aircraft. They had rounds falling
on friendly ships and friendly vessels. NARRATOR: A sailor manning
one of the Big E's batteries takes a 40 millimeter
round to the head. Just feet from a powder
locker for the 5 inch gunners. Had the round not hit
the sailor and exploded, it would have hit that
ammunition storage locker and detonated the ammunition
on the inside, which would have caused enormous damage. And would have led to
even greater loss of life. NARRATOR: Enterprise
holds her own. Her 5 inch and 40
millimeter batteries hammer away into the night. But 1,000 yards ahead,
a Fran torpedo plane drops its payload. In a matter of moments, it
could be all over for the Big E. At the last second, the ship
heals over into a hard turn and just barely
dodges the warhead. Her gunners destroy two
of the enemy planes. Smashing them into
crumpled burning steel. Within minutes, the chilling
nighttime battle is over. Amazingly, only three US sailors
are killed, but more than 50 are wounded. All victims of
friendly crossfire. Well, friendly fire or
fratricide, of course, it is going to happen. We don't accept it,
but it does happen. It's happened in every war that
we've ever been involved in. Every war that's
ever been fought. And there are certain measures
that you can take to avoid it, but there's no 100% way. NARRATOR: But even
more harrowing is what lies over
the distant horizon. 1,200 nautical miles away,
American submarine SS Flying Fish cruises through the waters
off the Philippine Islands, on the hunt for any
Japanese vessels that might head for Saipan. Flying Fish is a
Gato class submarine. 311 feet long, she has
10 21 inch torpedo tubes, capable of launching
24 torpedoes. And is armed with a
single 3 inch deck gun. Right now, subs like Flying Fish
are the eyes of the US fleet. Amazingly, the submarine
spots Admiral Ozawa's forces. One by one, the dark shapes
of six aircraft carriers appear on the horizon. Immediately, the sub
reports the sighting. Admiral Marc Mitscher now knows
that Ozawa and his carriers are on the way. Thanks to the lone submarine,
Enterprise and the US fleet know that an all-out
carrier battle is coming. The US command is
now dead certain that Ozawa is on
his way to Saipan, so they order Mitscher
to divide his forces. While the older battleships like
USS Tennessee and Pennsylvania remain at Saipan with
the escort carriers, Mitscher leads the eight fleet
carriers, including Enterprise, and seven light carriers West
to the island of Tinian, where they will intercept
Ozawa's forces. The new fast battleships
and the cruisers form a battle line well
ahead of the carriers. They will provide an
anti-aircraft barrier, and will finish off any enemy
vessels crippled in battle. Ozawa's forces head Northeast
from the Philippines in two elements. The first line of warships
are light carriers, cruisers, and the super battleships
Musashi and Yamato under the command of
Admiral Takeo Kurita. 100 miles to the rear, are
carriers Zuikaku, Shokaku, and Taiho, with three
additional light carriers. Ozawa has 450 carrier
aircraft and another 530 land-based planes on Guam. He plans to use these planes to
wipe out a third of Mitscher's force. For two days, Japanese
and American scout planes search the seas for
each other's carriers. But still, the Americans have
no idea where Ozawa's ships are. Or if they're within punching
distance of the Big E and her task force. Dawn, June 19th, 1944. USS Enterprise launches a strike
of radar-equipped TBF Avengers, led by Bill Martin, who
survived a crash landing just days before. Their mission--
find Ozawa's fleet and report their location
back to the task force. At the same time, the
Grim Reaper's Hellcats will fly combat air patrol and
intercept any Japanese planes that may strike the US carriers. Among the Reapers this day
is Donald Flash Gordon, a seasoned fighter pilot and
veteran of many Enterprise battles. I was [inaudible]
for combat air patrol. So we knew the fleet was out
there and headed toward us. So we expected airstrikes. And we were 100 and
some miles West of Guam. NARRATOR: For nearly
two years, Gordon has been fighting in the
skies over Enterprise, at Santa Cruz, Rennell
Island, and Truk. He has four confirmed
enemy kills to his name. But in order to become a fighter
ace, he needs at least one more kill. Will this be the day? 5:40 AM, Enterprise
prepares for action. Her crew mans battle stations. Machine guns are
locked and loaded. And 5 inch shells are ready
to slam into the breaches of her long range rifles. Everybody is running
up down the ladders. And the sailors are
going where they belong, and we're going where we belong. And everybody's--
it's an emergency. When they sound the general
quarters, the battle stations. The buzzer goes off,
you know that means. That means battle stations. It means you're under
attack or you're about to. NARRATOR: 100 miles away,
land-based Japanese planes from Guam are
already on their way, ready to terrorize
the American ships. But the Hellcats of
the US task force stop them dead in their tracks. The air is filled with roaring
50 caliber machine gun fire as a score of hard-hitting
fighter planes tear into the
Japanese air strike. Everyone wanted to be
in the action, I tell you. It was amazing. NARRATOR: Within minutes, 30
enemy planes are destroyed. Burning wrecks chewed up
and tossed into the sea. Back on Taiho, Ozawa has no idea
that the air strikes from Guam have failed. He's now determined to
slam Mitscher's spearhead-- the American battleship force. The Japanese carriers
launch their first strikes against the American fleet. As one wave of planes
roars into the skies, another prepares to
follow in its wake. But at the same time,
submarine USS Albacore, sister to the Flying
Fish, spots carrier Taiho just as she launches
her warplanes. Albacore immediately fires
off a spread of six torpedoes against the giant ship. Moments later, one
of the torpedoes makes a direct hit against
Taiho's starboard side. The warhead slams into the ship
and nails her aviation fuel storage tanks. Oil and gas lines
are open to the sea, and dangerous fumes slowly
start to fill the ship. But the Taiho steams on. Her crew unaware that they are
sailing on a ticking time bomb. Back on Enterprise, radar picks
up Ozawa's incoming airstrike. They are only 140 miles from
the American task force. Immediately, the
Big E's 5 inch guns level their barrels, ready to
pound the incoming imperial war birds. Inside the ship,
the officers and men of the Combat Information
Center are hard at work. Here, the flight
direction officers vector the Big E's fighters
into the oncoming Japanese. Each ship within a task force
had a fighter director officer sitting in the Combat
Information Center. Through the use of radar,
through the use of the fighter director officers, the
ships had an ability to vector their
combat air patrol or their defensive aircraft to
engage inbound enemy aircraft, intent on attacking
the task force. NARRATOR: As Enterprise prepares
for the sting of enemy bombs, her fighter planes
charge headlong into the incoming storm. 10 miles out, the Grim Reapers
close in on a formation of Kate torpedo planes. Flying his second
mission of the day is Flash Gordon, in the lead
of a section of two Hellcats. Now Gordon maneuvers into
position behind the Kates and draws a bead on
the enemy flyers. We got behind a formation
of four and shot those down. And I saw a single
one down on the water. And I got down behind him. NARRATOR: Flash Gordon chases
the Kate into a solid wall of American anti-aircraft fire. It looks like the enemy
pilot is on a suicide run. I wasn't going
to fly into that AA because he wasn't
going to survive, and I just will survive. So just about the time
I'm ready to do a 180, he drops his torpedo a
good 5 miles or more. And turn right and
I shot him down. NARRATOR: Gordon immediately
pulls out of a gunfight, as the enemy plane
tumbles to the sea. Finally, after two years of
battle with the Enterprise, Grim Reaper Donald Flash
Gordon of Fighting Squadron 10 is a fighter ace. I never had a dogfight. I either got head on or tail on. They never saw us coming. And that's the way
to fight a war. NARRATOR: The Japanese planes
that aren't destroyed by Flash Gordon and the Grim
Reapers are blown to pieces by 5 inch 38 caliber rifles and
the thundering 40 millimeter cannons of Enterprise
and the American fleet. And if you hear the
big guns going off, it vibrates the whole ship,
regardless of where you are. You know we're under attack when
you hear the 5 inch guns start firing. They made a lot of noise. Big, big explosion. [inaudible] the boys on
duty are handling the-- [inaudible] up, you
know they close. Or, matter of fact, we under
attack, when the 20 millimeters opened up, she's in range. So it's a lot of excitement. Nothing dull about
it whatsoever. NARRATOR: From his battle
station on Enterprise, Marine Officer Richard
Harte helps direct the fire of Enterprise's flak batteries. Suddenly, he watches
as a Japanese bomb slams into the
battleship South Dakota. I remember seeing a
bomb hit to South Dakota. And being impressed with the
tremendous sheet of flame that a bomb puts
out when it hits. NARRATOR: The lives of 27
men are ended in an instant. But still, the South Dakota,
veteran of Santa Cruz and Guadalcanal, never loses
speed and keeps on fighting. South Dakota is the only ship
hit by the enemy assault. [music playing] Wave after wave of enemy
planes are wiped out by the fighter
planes of Enterprise and the other carriers. The killing goes on for hours. The Japanese air attack
is a complete failure. Nearly 400 enemy aircraft
are blown out of the sky by American Hellcats and
the guns of USS Enterprise and the US fleet. It's one of the greatest
victories for the American Navy and a horrific defeat
for the Japanese. The poorly trained enemy fliers
are no match for the Big E. A young American pilot
will later compare it to an old fashioned
turkey shoot. The name sticks. I forget how many-- we downed nearly all of them. And the pilots
came back laughing, that it was [inaudible]
turkey shoot. If I'm not mistaken,
the Enterprise was credited with
downing around 70 of all those planes that day. NARRATOR: The Great Marianas
turkey shoot completely devastates Japan's
Naval air forces. Our fighters just
completely annihilated them. The biggest real air
battle of the war. It was a tremendous day for
carrier aircraft, carrier aviation. NARRATOR: For Gargoyle Ozawa,
the losses are devastating. And his troubles
are far from over. [music playing] That afternoon, aircraft carrier
Shokaku, Enterprise's nemesis from the Eastern
Solomons and Santa Cruz, enters the crosshairs
of USS Cavalla. The American sub fires off a
salvo of torpedoes and scores three direct hits
on the carrier. Burning and settling low
in the water, the flames reach her powder magazine
and blow the ship apart. The flat top that helped
launch the Pearl Harbor attacks pitches into the deep. Payback. Only miles away, carrier
Taiho, Ozawa's flagship, presses through the surf. Earlier that day, she was hit
by a US submarine Albacore. But the damage seems minor. Her crew has no idea that
their fate is sealed. A sudden explosion of gas
vapors roars through the ship. Tears open her flight deck. Bulges her size and
punches holes in her hull. As the sun sets over the
bloody waters off the Marianas, Ozawa watches as his flagship
slips beneath the waves. The American task force has
just destroyed the pride of the Japanese carrier fleet. Two of the enemy's finest
ships were sent to the bottom by American firepower. And hundreds of their war
planes blown out of the sky. But back aboard Enterprise,
the day's victory is shadowed by frustration. The Big E's own bombers
and torpedo planes have failed to hit
the enemy fleet. So then the problem was, you
still had to find the Japanese. NARRATOR: Though Taiho and
Shokaku have been sunk. Ozawa's task force still
packs a menacing punch. As the sun rises over
the Philippine Sea, Marc Mitscher knows that
the surviving Japanese must be stopped. The situation is
getting desperate. If he doesn't find the Japanese
within the next few hours, it will be too late to
launch a major airstrike. And he will simply have to
fight the same ships, again. Victory hangs in the balance. the Imperial Navy , has been sent to halt an
American offensive at Saipan. The US fleet has been
putting up a vicious fight. Blasting hundreds of enemy
planes out of the sky. Yet, Enterprise and
her carrier comrades have been unable to locate
the main enemy fleet. Now, the skies over
the Philippine Sea are filled with
American airplanes on the hunt for Admiral Ozawa. Target-- the Japanese fleet. Objective-- drive the
remains of Ozawa's task force from the Philippine Sea. Strategy-- fly constant searches
until the Imperial ships are spotted and destroyed. But to seek and destroy mission
goes on for hours, and still, Admiral Marc Mitscher
cannot find Admiral Ozawa. Tension is high aboard the Big
E as the afternoon wears on. But at 3:40 PM,
they hit pay dirt. 300 miles away, Enterprise
search planes finally discover the enemy fleet. Among the Enterprise
sailors in the sky is Tom Watts of
Torpedo Squadron 10. I was in one of
the search planes. Found them the next day. NARRATOR: Now, Marc Mitscher
paces the deck of carrier Lexington, knowing that the
next few hours could change the course of the
entire campaign. It will be 4:00 PM before
he can refuel his bombers and get them airborne. If they launch late in
the day, the air groups will have to fly for two hours
before they reach the enemy. And even if they
survive the battle, they will have to
find their way back to the carriers in the dark. Sending the attack now could be
a death sentence for hundreds of American pilots, a
disaster for the entire Navy. But as each minute
passes, Mitscher realizes that complete
victory slips further away. Finally, he gives
a simple order-- launch 'em. Within minutes, in the
ready rooms of Enterprise and every flattop in the
fleet, Mitscher's final orders are chalked on the
blackboards-- get the carriers. 4:30 PM, 240 Hellcats,
Avenger torpedo planes, and dive bombers
roar to the skies over the wine-dark
Philippine Sea. They head right into
the late afternoon sun, on the prowl for Admiral Ozawa. Killer Cain leads the
Enterprise strike. 11 dive bombers, five Avengers,
and 12 F6F Hellcat fighters. Among the pilots are
Flash Gordon and James Jig Dog Ravage. Every pilot knows the factors
of speed, distance, time, and fuel. Flash Gordon is thankful he's
in a Hellcat, with a belly tank. We had a lot of
fuel in the Hellcat because we had umpteen fuel, if
you just knew how to conserve. NARRATOR: But leading
the older, slower SBDs, Jig Dog Ramage is
less optimistic. He warns his rear seat
gunner, Dave Cawley. So I call Cawley and
said, looks like we're going to have a bath tonight. So get everything ready. NARRATOR: The Enterprise flyers
head into a blood red sun. Uncertain of combat. Dead certain that the next few
hours could spell disaster. 6:30 PM-- finally, after
two hours in the air, Killer Kane's air group
spots the enemy fleet. 12,000 feet below, they've
discovered a major part of Ozawa's force-- three carriers, Ryuho, Junyo,
and Hiyo and cruisers Mogami and Nagato. It's a free for all. Kane's forces immediately split
up and make a run for the enemy vessels. The Japanese surface ships
open up with a deadly fusillade of flak, as the dive bombers and
Hellcats begin their assault. But they keep right on coming. Jig Dog Ramage and five
SBDs lineup from a bombing run on the carrier Ryuho. Jig Dog wings over and makes
a steep dive on the ship. I put the pipper, as we called
it, just forward to the bow and went down to the 2,000
feet, maybe a little lower. Dropped my bomb. NARRATOR: Ramage delivers 1,000
pounds of tear on the Ryuho and immediately pulls
out of his dive. It's a crippling near miss. One by one, four other
SBDs drop their payloads over the Imperial flattop. From his rear seat
position, Cawley gets a choice opportunity
to admire the grisly work of his comrades. Ryuho has been mauled
and carrier Hiyo is wounded by torpedoes
and is burning. Enterprise bomb hits
help finish her off. Just as the Hellcats
rejoin the dive bombers, Flash Gordon spots a
target of opportunity. Way down on the water,
maybe 10 miles East, I saw a Zero headed
West, about 900 feet. NARRATOR: Gordon immediately
firewalls the Hellcat and pulls the big plane into
a half loop and a half roll. He races after the
Zero, draws a bead, and cuts loose with
his rapid fire 50s. Pulled up in the top of
the loop and shot him down. He blew up. And we came back down and
joined up with the bombers. NARRATOR: The Zero was Flash
Gordon's seventh and final kill of World War II. He and his fellow pilots
escaped the last enemy flak bursts and head for home. But though the battle with
the Japanese task force might be over, the struggle
to survive the flight back to Enterprise has just begun. As the last rays of light
disappear over the horizon, the Enterprise
pilots and air crews continue their long trek home. Ramage and his
fellow dive bombers will have to carefully
conserve their fuel supply. It was very quiet. About halfway back,
I told Cawley, I think we're going to make it. But for some American pilots,
their luck has run out. Many are battle-damaged. And the heavy Avengers are
already running out of gas. There's no telling
if any of the flyers will ever see Enterprise or
the American fleet, again. In the confusion,
groups of planes scatter, heading off
in different directions into the unknown. The situation seems hopeless. Over the radio,
Enterprise pilots can hear the painful distress
calls of their fellow airmen, followed by the sickening sound
of aircraft hitting the water. Patches of green
phosphorescences-- the dye markers for
aviators in distress-- dock the blackness
of the Pacific, marking the spot where the
journey has ended for some Navy pilots. The painful odyssey
goes on for two hours. It's absolute desolation. A dark sea that stretches
endlessly in every direction. But then, just as
all hope seems lost, Grim Reaper Flash Gordon
sees the impossible-- the destroyer escorts
of the US fleet. One by one, the
little gunships turn on their bright searchlights,
marking the way back for their fellow
sailors in the sky. And then some destroyers
had been set out to meet us. And their search lights were
up and home is that way. I'll never forget. NARRATOR: Back on Enterprise,
her sailors and Marines can only wait and watch the
dark skies for their war planes and pilots. Our pilots had
limited fuel left. And everybody was pulling
for the guys to make it home. NARRATOR: 8:45 PM,
the first war planes arrive over the
American task force. It's simply chaos. Most are flying on fumes. And even worse,
distant lightning has confused some pilots,
and now they're headed off in the wrong direction. Mitscher could have a
catastrophe on his hands. So ignoring standard
Naval procedures, he utters one of the most famous
commands in the Pacific War-- turn on the lights. The entire fleet illuminates
in a shower of search beams and running lights
aboard the carrier decks. Even escort vessels
fire off star shells to light up the skies. But the guiding lights
are a mixed blessing for many of the pilots. Sounds real good,
to light up all ships. But it was very difficult
because you couldn't tell the carriers from the destroyers
and cruisers and so forth. NARRATOR: Night carrier
operations are a new strategy. And most of the young
pilots have never made a landing in the dark. Many of them make
rough water landings. The air is filled with crunching
sounds of steel and saltwater. There was a fiasco down there. No one was getting aboard. And some did. They had an accident. NARRATOR: From their battle
stations along the flight deck, the Big E's Marines have a
dangerous front row seat. Two of them would try
to land the same time and they'd go respective ways. One go clockwise, one
go counterclockwise. NARRATOR: Within minutes,
Enterprise's flight deck looks like a parking lot. Jig Dog Ramage and his
fellow bomber pilots scatter across the fleet,
landing on any friendly deck they can find. In the skies overhead,
Flash Gordon and his fellow Reapers orbit over
the task force, searching for a place to land. But now, they're also
running on fumes. Little after 10:00, my number
four man said his red light was on. So we got down in
the landing pattern, when I came around,
the deck was fouled. And I landed aboard
the Lexington. Well, it was 10:20. I'd been in the air six hours. NARRATOR: 10:20 PM,
the last of 23 planes that make it aboard
Enterprise touches down on her flight deck. Most of them are
from other carriers. In the confusion, the air
groups have been completely jumbled up. But miraculously, the
Big E only has one pilot missing in the desperate
night carrier landings-- Killer Kane. Everyone else has either made
it aboard a friendly ship or has been rescued. The last ditch assault on
the Japanese task force and the frantic night
recovery has cost the US fleet 99 warplanes. But thankfully, the
human toll is much less. Only 49 pilots and air crewmen
and six flight deck sailors have been lost in
the chaotic battle. For the next two days, destroyer
escorts criss-cross the sea, searching for Killer Kane. For some of these ships, the
reward for a salvage flyer is an extra ration of
ice cream for the crew. On the afternoon of
the 22nd, a destroyer approaches the Enterprise,
flashing its signal lights. Suddenly, the hearts of
everyone aboard are lifted. The question from
the destroyer-- how much ice cream
is Killer Kane worth? [music playing] Since he was a commander, they
wanted 25 gallons of ice cream for the commander. Group commander, they wanted
extra rations of ice cream. they got it. NARRATOR: A few
tubs of ice cream are a small price to pay
for the veteran aviator. [music playing] The Battle of the
Philippines Sea is a disaster for
the Japanese Navy. Admiral Ozawa has failed to
drive the US fleet from Saipan. And the defeat has cost him
hundreds of Imperial pilots and three aircraft carriers-- Hiyo, Taiho, and Shokaku. Some of the best
news we got there was to hear that our own
nemesis, the Shokaku, had been put down. For the Japanese, the
aftermath of the battle is a recognition that their
carrier force is finished. They may still have
vessels, but they no longer have aircraft or pilots to
put aboard those vessels. NARRATOR: But the Japanese
fleet is not finished, yet. The Big E's nemesis Zuikaku
is still afloat and so are the battleships. Massive battle wagons,
Musashi and Yamato, along with an armada of
cruisers and destroyers are ready to meet the
Enterprise in battle. The bloody combat on Saipan
goes on for another three weeks. It becomes one of the
most costly battles of the entire Pacific War. More than 16,000 US Marines
soldiers are killed or wounded taking the island. 24,000 Japanese soldiers
perish in the battle. Even worse, some 5,000 Japanese
soldiers and civilians-- men, women, and children--
commit suicide, rather than surrender to US forces. For the Americans, these
nightmarish scenes only foreshadow the horrors to come. As Enterprise moves closer
to the Philippine Islands and the Imperial homeland,
she faces an ominous future.
