WAR ON THE SEAS

[Music] Thank You Latin Julian and they complete we know nuke importance is to arrive whatever they were punished or you know enormity they're completing were little you issues they return to Ithaca condo a butcher a usual means of the [Music] [Music] high tech orange two-year comparable nor the v10 no no went for a walk back of the same token Arizona Oklahoma vanished been here very Rondo Rachel Bosnia Californian Ottawa we hiked a no of the stock you [Music] December 7 1941 a date which will live in infamy United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan with the unbounding determination of our people we will gain the inevitable triumph so help us God on December 8 1941 the grim work of Salvage began at Pearl Harbor the Pacific Fleet was shattered the fleet on which had rested not only the balance of naval power in the Pacific but the security of the homes and cities of the western United States as well and in the months that were to pass before this fleet could be rebuilt the remnants of the US Navy had the almost hopeless task of holding in check the mightiest array of military and naval power it had ever faced Prime Minister Hideki Tojo and his war cabinet had assumed the task of eliminating the United States as a factor in the European war by involving it in a desperate struggle in the Pacific for the first time the incredible plan of the exes coalition was clear to gain immediate control of the Pacific we knew we must first destroy the American fleet at Pearl Harbor by a surprise attack then Guam and wake was for easily into our hands driving down from Formosa we would seize the Philippines from Indochina we would knock out Singapore this would leave the Netherlands East Indies New Guinea and Australia helpless before the conquering armies of our sublime Emperor the last obstacle to our final drive would be removed from Burma we would overrun or India then striking eastward through Midway Pearl Harbor and the Aleutians we would complete a great pincer movement against the United States whose forces by then would be hopelessly divided between the Atlantic and Pacific at bestest cotton Tojo's axis partners were counting on America's entry into the war to slow up the ever-growing flood of lend-lease aid to Britain and Russia with the United States fighting for survival in the Pacific our fewer for saw him into American imperialism in Europe and North Africa where he was planning to win the war swiftly by a series of brilliant folks after conquering European Russia the few US forces would arrive through the Caucasus oil fuse into Asia Minor their warmers victorious armies proceeding through Egypt were joined them in a push to India injunction with our Japanese allies with a great heartland of Europe Asia and North Africa in his hands the fewer would be ready for his final goal conquest of North and South America but first the supply lines the jugular vein of the United Nations must be choked off from bases in no way our bombas must wipe out the convoy whose two moments in the Mediterranean our air forces must prevent convoys from getting through to Malta and Egypt our great submarine fleet operating out of phases in Concord France and Norway was assigned the major share in sweeping the Atlantic clear of Allied convoys at our impregnable bases the Fuehrer had built up the greatest submarine fleet in history to dominate the Atlantic and end any Allied hopes of decisive help from America operating in mass a challange they were to prey on shipping along the coasts of North and South America and they where to disrupt the ocean supply lines to Britain and Russia thinly guarded for lack of escort ships with Hitler's plan already close to succeeding the United States Navy began improvising defenses along the vulnerable North American coast small craft sufficiently seaworthy to leave harbor were bought or commandeered to form a corsair fleet whose patrol vessels waged a valiant for almost ineffectual battle against the u-bolts long-neglected later than aircraft were found to be one of the most deadly enemies of the u-boat Navy blimps so pitifully inadequate in number proved themselves invaluable in protecting convoys anywhere within a hundred miles of the shore operating out of hastily established naval air stations from Newfoundland to Trinidad the Navy's big patrol bombers added another measure of protection for convoys working against great odds playing and fighting in all-weather learning by experience the secret of coordination with service craft the Air Patrol grow in efficiency [Music] the battle against the u-boats whose attacks on vital tankers and bauxite carriers had littered American features with oil and debris became more and more evenly fought within a few months the effectiveness of Nazi submarines approaching the North American coast had been greatly reduced by the vigilance of the Navy's Flyers but only on rare occasions were they able to catch a u-boat on the surface and attack it with positive results [Music] allemande pouch the turnin there are still a loose Alice right now [Music] [Applause] as the wolf pack's moved further out to see beyond the range of patrol planes their only danger was from the surface escort sometimes these included large war vessels but more often they were destroyers or Corvettes always too few in numbers for the work they had to do for the United States was fighting a seven ocean war with a one ocean Navy day and night the u-boats funneled the convoys in mid-atlantic their cruise tracking each change of course made by the convoy as the ship steamed eastward night hours were the hours of greater danger or darkness which concealed lurking u-boats turned lumbering cargo ships into targets silhouetted against the sky a laforet my name is not coming though yes the torpedo barrage oh yeah [Music] [Music] at the rate of hundreds of thousands of tons a month Allied shipping carrying the wealth and hopes of America was going to the bottom the toll was to be reckoned at as much as a million tons in a single month before the men of the u.s. Navy fighting on grimly and doggedly using what escort ships they had while waiting for more were to see at last but tide of battle turning slowly in their favor allemande pouch Tatiana look Dylan Dylan I came to watch Dylan Dylan [Music] the convoy route to Murmansk past Hitler's bomber bases in Norway was the most perilous stretch of the Atlantic over this route the Nazi Luftwaffe held pitiless and unbreakable sway from their bases all along the coast German long-range bombers lay in wait to spot the convoys and keep them under surveillance until short-range dive bombers could strike at all costs the Nazis were determined to stop the flow of lend-lease aid to Russia [Music] [Music] [Music] men of the Navy and the Merchant Marine knew that assignment to the Murmansk run was almost a sentence of eventual death but for every ship destroyed for every crew lost a dozen others got through with their cargoes intact and somehow during years in which the Mediterranean was an access Lake upon which Allied convoys ventured only at certain and terrible cost the British Navy kept pushing supplies through to Malta even harder than the parents sea was the narrow Sicilian channel swarming with access bombers torpedo planes and fighters [Music] to Londonderry to Murmansk and to Malta under a hail of palm then through the wolf pack's the Atlantic convoys got through main file with the Japanese advancing throughout the whole western Pacific in early 1942 the commanding officer of the US Pacific Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz faced a formidable task the Philippines were gone and Hong Kong and Singapore were going as Japan capitalized on the paralyzing blow at Pearl Harbor with much of his fleet either sunk or in by dock Admiral Nimitz first had to establish a supply line to Australia through waters dangerously close to enemy bases the first few convoys of troops and supplies sail to the southwest by roundabout routes to evade Japanese forces they got through but too much time was lost for every day the enemy was smashing his way closer to Australia serious threat to American convoy lanes were the Gilbert and Marshall island bristling with Japanese airfields and naval bases with what forces were available these bases had to be neutralized a carrier striking force was sent out to do the job this was the first action in which a naval force built up around the carrier had ever entered [Music] in a maneuver that completely baffled the enemy the task force struck and spot hard [Music] [Music] the Japanese were caught flat-footed their installations were rendered useless and the route to Australia was safe for many months to come during these months men and supplies poured in ever-mounting numbers into Australia and New Zealand New Caledonia and a score of outlying islands were thus secured from Japanese seizure by the spring of 1942 the Pacific Fleet both on the surface and in the air was beginning to regain its strength and none too soon for Japanese forces were already massing for a series of powerful thrusts first against Australia then against American bases in Midway in the distant Aleutians in two fateful engagements the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway u.s. task forces were to test the full impact of Japan's naval night [Music] [Music] a gentleman an enemy carrier has been reported in this vicinity our mission will be to attack their bombers as soon as contact is made enemy main body there's two to zero this does one on a tripod mount the best contact Sunday thank makes is already room already route from Air flight enemy main body bears two to zero true distance one to five miles pilots man your planes [Music] three engines [Music] start our engine [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] chambers to Bamako in tomatoes late work no battleships cruisers destroyers passport no attack [Music] [Music] stretch one foot top chambers two carriers stretch one flattop [Music] good go and read your plastid another one out of these tests the US Navy emerged with smashing victories ranking and importance with the most decisive naval engagements in world history the Battle of Midway was the worst defeat the Japanese Navy had ever suffered the Panama Canal and the American cities on the Pacific coast were free from immediate threat and where Japan had suffered staggering losses in the two engagements with two battleships heavily damaged five aircraft carriers and three cruisers sunk the United States losses of two carriers and 177 planes were by comparison small meanwhile another US weapon was playing its heroic part in the Pacific the navies under seas fleet consisting of less than a hundred long-range submarines of which not more than a third could be at sea at one time was assigned the hard and perilous job of penetrating within the enemy held areas of the Pacific to disrupt Japan's vital supply lines and destroy its invaluable shipping for the enemy must be prevented as much as possible from making use of its enormous gains in the Pacific [Music] slipping through a maze of Japanese island bases us submarines carried their offensive right up to the very shore of Japan itself constantly in danger from enemies surface and air patrols seldom able to get to the surface for air and sunlight the men of the submarine fleet hung up brilliant records of daring and achievement within a few months while sustaining almost negligible losses the pig boat sunk close to a million tons of Japanese shipping fire one [Music] south from San Diego in late June of 1940 - steamed a heavily guarded convoy of transports supply ships and Warcraft it was carrying troops of the 1st Marine Division the finest fighting force in the United States their secret objective was the Solomon Islands where the entrenched Japanese were dangerously close to the u.s. supply line to Australia [Music] by dawn on August 7th after preliminary bombardment by the surface vessels the first marine battalion swarmed ashore on Guadalcanal and Tulagi bridgeheads were established and held on both Islands then began one of the most desperate campaigns in the history of the Marine Corps for supplies the us fighting men depended to a great extent on what they had seized from the Japs time and again though heavily outnumbered they throw back the attacks of picked Japanese troops with horrific losses [Music] supporting naval units repeatedly blasted Japanese sea forces attempting to land reinforcements on Guadalcanal the battle-hardened US Navy was showing the standards of gunnery daring and leadership that had long been its proud tradition this series of attacks culminated in the memorable night engagements of November 1942 when war ships slugged it out with each other in the darkness [Music] [Music] [Music] the decisive beating given the Japanese who lost 11 warships and 12 auxiliaries marked the end of their advance the beginning of their retreat and with the enemy checkmated in the Pacific the United States was ready at last to take up the offensive it had long been planning in another theater the invasion of North Africa by forces which had to be ferried over as much as 3,000 miles of ocean was to be one of the biggest landing operations in the history of warfare upon the US Navy now rebuilt and expanded to greater strength than ever before fell the responsibility for transporting in safety hundreds of thousands of men and all their equipment a task accomplished without the loss of a single leg [Music] the heavy firepower of the Navy's guns immobilized enemy warships neutralized saw batteries and gave protection to the landing forces in the wars first big and clean-cut American victory on land the Navy and the army had achieved the triumph of joint planning organization and execution and it was the mounting flood of materials and manpower which the Navy continued to deliver through the Nazi submarine blockade that paved the way for new and smashing alized victories in the Atlantic Theater within a few months the counter-attacking Red Army was to wipe out all of the Nazis 1942 advances and the British drive began at Alamein was to culminate in the great victory of Tunisia by spring of 1943 the Allied High Command knew that the time was near for which all that had gone before was but a preparation the invasion of Europe and the great offensive against Japan in the Pacific and to back up the invading forces there now existed on new and ever-growing US Navy in comparably bigger and more powerful than the old a Navy already vasn't Lee in action and all the Seas of the world from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean from the Arctic to the South Pacific still coming down the ways of hundreds of American shipyards every day for combat vessels of every type great ships like the Iowa New Jersey unmatched in speed firepower and armor giant aircraft carriers and fast cruisers tiny PT boats that so heroically proved their worth off patan and Guadalcanal the American Navy as in the day of John Paul Jones had just begun to fight now at last there were ships and guns for fighting men who throw hard and crucial months had had to do so much with so little not yet is the worldwide battle one that began in the catastrophe of December 1941 but today the men of the Navy know that theirs is no longer a desperate battle against defeat but an affirmative battle confident and determined a battle for final and inevitable victory [Music] [Music]