Hey everyone, glad to see that for the most you're enjoying this review. Unfortunately I messed up one small detail at 8:36 that one of you was kind enough to point out. I accidently referred to Tsar Nicholas as Tsar Nicholas I. He wasn't. He was Tsar Nicholas II. I think when I was recording, my dyslexia misread II as I. Sorry about that!
It's alright mate I'm just happy to watch a new video of your reviews and if I may say I saw Midway when it was released and I enjoyed it. But if I may ask what other reviews do you have planned in the future? Sincerely a fan from Australia.
"Pearl Harbor" is a two-hour movie squeezed into three hours, about how on Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese staged a surprise attack on an American love triangle.
Meanwhile at the other side of the Pacific, the IJN could have transferred the air group of the damaged Shoukaku to its sister ship Zuikaku to join the other 4 Fleet carriers.
@@paulsteaven Yes, and they should have. They could have pulled down the 2 light carriers from the Aleutians, or plugged the hole NE of Midway with a cruiser that had a float plane. If you haven't read it, "Shattered Sword" is a fantastic book.
@@ghostwriter4618 they should have before the invasion of Aleutian Island started and maybe the other light carrier(s) available to join the Kido Butai. If they'd done that, they just not increase the CAP for their task force but they also prevented the Akutan Zero from happening since that captured intact zero was from the light carrier Ryujo that was sent to cover the Operation AL. I'd read that book few times and give me valuable insights about the many problems that the both sides encountered like the infamous "Nagumo's dilemma".
@@littlefluffybushbaby7256 Oh, yes, I know. But I was meaning that,of recent movies, not classics, Midway did Pearl Harbor better, as the opening act, than Pearl Harbor, a movie that was supposed to be all about Pearl Harbor!
Fun fact: There is a district in the old capital of Finland, Turku, called Port Arthur. This is because when Port Arthur was lost, construction workers building the then new district joked about building "a new Port Arthur to replace the one lost" and the name stuck.
Of note, Australia has a Port Arthur as well. It's also the site of the 1996 mass shooting that led to drastic tightening of Australia's firearm ownership policies. So if you're talking to an Australian and you mention Port Arthur, this is what they will be thinking of (if they're over thirty anyway).
Fun fact, I was born in Dalian, which is essentially the modern metropolitan city of Port Arthur. I have visited where the beach head that the Ruskis built those pillboxes, and they are still there, as the Japanese left them there and used them themselves.
As an Australian, whose country was separated by only a small stretch of water away from the Japanese Empire in 1941, the Battle of Midway was a godsend. Even now I feel thankful that our American friends won the battle that day and began the liberation of the Pacific. One of the most important days in history.
My grandfather was in the pacific theater. I’m glad we were able to help our family across the pacific when we were needed. Hopefully we’re now on a track to be the help the world needs again. Sorry about the last four years, we’re trying to do better!
@@wuwei7006 Yeah, sorry about that. Of course, American help at the time wouldn't have taken a very good form. We don't have the best track record of dealing with native peoples.
The Doolittle Raid ended up being more than a morale booster, but strategically brilliant ...as it forced Japan to keep many resources in the home island for defense, restricting their offensive forces.
Dawg, it’s the 1940s, the intention was not to solely bomb civilians. You’re looking at planes that are using highly inaccurate ordnance, are low on fuel and trying to get to safety, and are more or less likely tweeking out because it’s their first ever mission over there. You can argue the point later on, but that again was far after the the bombing of Tokyo. Unfortunately the only way you could insure that your target would be hit was if you sent hundreds of planes to carpet bomb an entire city. If we’re being technically the us wasn’t throwing babies into the air and ski shooting them or r*ping women left and right. You can say what you want but World War Two like many wars is not black and white, but gray. However one side was definitely far worse than the other.
@@berginusmc 250,000 from what i understand. I had a teacher in high school who survived the bataan death march.... he shared some of his stories....i'd believe the 250k.
The only ship that the Japanese thought they sank three times, they counted it as sunk in Coral then midway through Midway, then finally when it did go down.
I love how the ship Yorktown is such an amazing character all on her own gets nearly sunk, her crew amazingly saves her, rebuilt in beyond record time for the decisive battle, nearly gets sunk again during said battle but is miraculously saved yet again, to the point where when she gets hit for the third and final time the Japanese don't even realize it was the same carrier they thought had already been sunk. One of my favorite stories from the Pacific war, her crew were mad-lads of the highest caliber
Its funny how the yorktown class ships never dissapointed, the uss yorktown example you gave, uss hornet doing the doolittle raid, and uss enterprise participating in almost all key naval battles, its nice that these ships preformed their tasks above and beyond
if you are interested in the ships from that time I recommend the enterprise. I`m personally fond of her. she received the nickname the gray gosh because multiple times she was reported sunk only to show up in the next battle.
@@kreigguardsman3355 the Yorktown at Midway is a second ship with the same name. The original Yorktown was lost after Midway. She got torpedoed by a submarine while under tow headed back to port. The one in Charleston was originally going to be called “Bonhomme Richard.”
Being educated in the US, Yamamoto was well aware that the industrial ability of the US. Their hopes of bring the US to the peace talks critically depended on the destruction of the carriers. When he found out that didn't happen, he wrote in his personal diary: "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”
Yamamoto was also the one who had the _audacity_ to laugh in the presence of the Emperor when another commander suggested a land invasion of mainland America. He supposedly delivered that famous line about "behind every blade of grass, behind every tree and fencepost, behind every car and window there is an American rifle waiting for you".
If you research that quote it's actually not proven he said this. However he certainly understood the risks and the extremely problematic outcome of the strike. He actually warned against war with the United States in entirety
He never wrote it and as far as we know, he never said it. The line is from Tora Tora and likely based on a quote from Napolean. There were other people who said similar things like radio commentators in the US but no record of Yamamato ever writing or saying this has ever been produced
Must be so nice to write your high school paper on American history. I had to do mine on Canadian history which, don’t get me wrong, has its highlights but American history is certainly filled with cooler stuff.
@@sandvichomnom2779 not a red and white flag waving nationalist here but Canada has as much of an interesting history as the US... and dare I say a more interesting one
@@potatoboyhats905 creation of Quebec, Hudsons bay expansion, expedition into the Yukon and northern passage such as the Franklin expedition, American invasion of Quebec, war of 1812, confederation, all history from then onwards. Untouched gem really
Torpedoes failed 90% of the time . And the torpedo bombs were slow,needed the fighters to protect them .The battle or Midway was poorly planned,but the dive bombers were very good !
The should have got this guy onto solving it? ‘Eugene Bennett Fluckey (October 5, 1913 - June 28, 2007), nicknamed "Lucky Fluckey",[1] was a United States Navy rear admiral who received the Medal of Honor and four Navy Crosses during his service as a submarine commander in World War II.’ He apparently rebuilt all his torpedos after having failures and they operated perfectly?
Interesting timeline: Every two months. December 1941: Pearl Harbor. February 1942: Marshall’s raid. April 1942: Doolittle Raid on Tokyo. June1942: Midway. August 1942: Guadalcanal.
Fun Fact there are no Mountains on all of the 100's of Marshall Islands period but some how there are Mountains on the Raid in Marshall Islands depicted in the film
My dad was a dive bomber pilot in the South Pacific, and he never told us that detail! I was so glad to see the footage in this review (starting at 15:35). I had known my dad was brave, but this was absolutely crazy!
I was unable to find a link to info that indicated the "windshield" on the Dauntless was openable. Now, the sliding "canopy" was left open for ditching safety purposes. It also would allow for enough air circulation to prevent fogging.
Thank you for mentioning the often forgotten fact that Japan retaliated against the Chinese people for their aiding the Doolittle raiders by killing roughly 250,000 Chinese peasants.
@@anbitye2134 What do you mean? If my family was going to be killed, I would have not helped anyone. I would have minded my own business or even helped the Japanese.
@@silverletter4551 Nah mate, just remember this, no need to think it should not happen or feel sorry for the Dolittle Raid. There can be no victory without sacrifice, Chinese know about this just as good as Russians. Dolittle himself, just like back in US, is held as a hero by the Chinese, there is even a memorial museum in Zhejiang province where Dolittle landed.
The one thing that always annoys me is how Hollywood tends to put the Dive Bomber Siren from the Stukka Dive Bomber on every single aircraft that goes into a dive.
A great detail I love was that, the ship moored next to the Arizona was on fire. When the Arizona detonated, you can see that the shockwave literally blew out every single fire on that smaller ship. This actually happened in real life, and really shows the Roland did his research on this movie. …just wish he did the same on Moonfall…
How did they do that so long ago? It would probably take months to rebuild a ship in modern times. Are people just dumber now or lazier? Lost our work ethic perhaps.
@@silverletter4551 carriers are more complicated and much, much bigger now than they used to be. On top of that, repairing a ship as fast as possible for an emergency battle, and making sure a ship is prepped for a long, arduous service life, are two different things.
Well it's a misconception that the officer said it would take that long, the only damage to Yourktown really was a hol in the deck which wasn't hard to patch up
@@littlefluffybushbaby7256 yeah heard that was due this fall for release after years and years of either delays or just work since I first heard the rumor like 2 years ago.
and "generation kill" . everyone remembers Band of Brothers and The Pacific..... but the same production company did a HBO series on the Iraq/Iran war..... from 2001 till today.... . Generation Kill is...... not PG-13 (did they even cuss in BoB??) and thats probably why most havent seen it . also because it was FAR lower budget than Pacific or BoB......FAR lower!! and this war i still far to recent for a lot of people who lost family...... . . but talking to my cousin (and a few other family that were in WW2)..... and seeing EX-military people talk about Generation Kill on youtube..... . i think its more real than not....... especially the emotional / command BS / general realism with "sitting at camp" stuff (aka a combat-jack) . . . however..... the terrorists act like B move bad guys.... shooting from the hip..... having NO tactics or strategy.... probably even said "dirkka dirkka jihad" at some point...... . but ya.... some of it shows the insurgents actually doing what they would do (tactically.... in fire fights and ambushes and crap) other times its "shoot from the hip...... wearing 20 dollar costumes......with D movie acting..... . . . ya gotta remember..... GK released in 2008.... the USA (aka 100% of HBO viewers.... for a HBO mini-series)...... we just had a BIG push (this is when my cousin went on deployment) so a LOT of people had personal connections . a lot of WW2, namn, ETC movies are made 10, 20.....70 years.... after the battle its your grandfather's movie...... VS your brother or son's movie . "hits ya right in the feels" . . . TLDR..... they show the insurgents as IN-F'IN-comment idiots..... because if they showed these "goat herders" as actually trained, battle hardened, pushed back the USSR dudes..... . well.... that might scare all the Karens'..... and the studio will get sued to death . so they run straight at in-placed US troops..... spraying and praying like its CS-GO.....(a video game)
@@kainhall Generation Kill is my favorite because they talk more like what I remember in the military. I was in the Navy during that time period and it gets the fucked up conversations perfect.
@@kainhall "HBO series on the Iraq/Iran war." Iran war? I assume you mean Afghanistan as the unit depicted fought in Afghanistan prior, and the show literally just covers the initial invasion of Iraq to the fall of Baghdad.
It’s amazing seeing how all the protocols followed by the modern US military, which seem a little excessive, all come from past experiences written in blood. And a huge majority of those lessons were learned in WW2. Fascinating.
Defence protocols for ships against aircraft, combat narative for both armed and unarmed combat and how to deal with unconventional military with blitz tactics similar to what was delt with in the spanish american war, sea combat was a big one as well as air to air combat which drastically changed from ww1 to ww2, and then the biggest one was how america used sea planes like pby's to both gather intelligence and harrass shipping lanes due to there ability to land and refuel anywhere using subs islands other ships or other sea planes and the number one biggest lesson was carrier combat and the usefullness of carrier based aircraft
Next time he can give us a shout to him leaving for a year beforehand lol people unsub after a week is ridiculous, but si is leaving for a year or so like a few other history ytubers have done without a word. Lol
Had my first date going to this movie, I thought it would had some forced romance and drama bullshit going on like pearl harbour so why not? Well, she just sat through 2+ hours of planes and boats shooting eachother. We're together for 2 years now.
"That was Washington. They've intercepted several Japanese messages claiming that the target of their upcoming attack...is out of fresh water." "Interesting, sir. I heard that Midway accidentally sent out an unencrypted transmission that their water plant was broken." "And is their water plant broken?" "Not that I know of sir. I love this.
@@ryangibson5462 You for one hasn't ... guess those gaming headphone has pressed a little too hard on the string between your ears .. that string to keep your ears in place. Your head is keeping the distance between your ears .. as its primary (and only) task in life. If I was you, I would put up my head for organ donation you would even get some money before "donating" a prime organ ... argumentation would sound like: "Head for organ donation, nearly new, never used" You ever thought about that funny noise sounding, when you shake your head? Like one marble in a jar???
@@mitchellhawkes22 Meh, don't care, it's a cocol scene =D Plus, I think it was more just a joke between them, I don't think Nimitz didn't know, he was just amused by the ruse.
No one has content like yours. Seriously, it's your storytelling skills, mixed with your love of cinema that make these videos so special. I only wish I could watch more!
@@antonvoloshin9833 Erh, I'll take your word for IT? ..Erta problema..partjemu Ja Nje dumaju erta PRAVDA? Yup! 2 years of Russian in 1996-1998 did help (F-you! Googletran..gavnor ;-D ) DA! I'm a bit 'rusty'...
And Jake Weber also portrayed Raymond Spruance quite well, even though his appearances were very brief- which didn't do justice to Spruance's important role in Midway.
History Buffs? Now that’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time. A long time... *Little reference to one of the actors in the movie, it’ll be a quote. “He ain’t all there is he?”*
It’s a lot more historically accurate than the old one but it still has some things that bug me. It would have been better if this were a mini series so it leads up to the midway battle. Last soundtrack. I still prefer John Williams midway.
@@yoehonjohn4832 There are always going to be things that bug us. There isn't a perfect movie, and there will always be liberties that have to be taken.
I liked it much more than Pearl Harbor, but it was somewhat inconsistent in its depiction of the timeline AND you were a bit lost in about what was happening if you did not know what was happening beforehand. Why did Midway launch its planes and why did they not engage the incoming bombers and what about Hornets planes (which didn't even participate in the battle as they went on a sightseeing tour of water way north of the Kido Butai).
The attention to detail for authenticity is amazing , like the 100% cotton uniforms of the naval officers or what really got my attention was the Chinese insurgents using German weapons like the Mauser 98 rifles and the C96 Mauser broomhandle pistol , which Germany had been supplying to the Chinese before 1937 . I would have liked to see at least one of the Chinese wearing a German 1935 helmet . It is the attention to details no matter how small that makes this another reason this movie is great .
Midway was the last movie I watched with my father before he died. We were desperately looking forward to watching your historical review together. Thankyou for making this. I’m watching this with him in spirit.
I'm sorry for your loss. I'm glad you guys got to see a good movie for the last one. One that sparked some interesting after-movie conversation to be sure. Take care my friend.
More like: - I don't envy the new commander. - (Meaningful silence) P R O C E S S I N G . . . P R O C E S S I N G . . . - It's me, isn't it? (What makes that scene is the pause it takes for Nimitz to get it)
My grandfather served in WW2. Every year on December 7th when my dad was growing up, he would sit at the breakfast table with everyone and he would look down and say " on this day we where attacked."
@Marty Genesis no he just had pride in his nation and his service. He fought both the Germans on d Day and occupied Japan after his unit was ordered to help take the Philippines. He saw true horrors in the war and didn't talk about it once, was shot twice and was pretty anti war on most wars after nam. He loved people and was famous for saying if anyone ask him his feeling about the German or japanese soldiers he fought "ah horse sh*t, they where soldiers under orders lol us." Or " war is started my old men who can't get along, but finished by young men who can fight and have everything to loose." He went through a lot of theropy to be right with everything that happened. And years with AA to be right with himself.
It's crazy how Roland Emmerich. The man who's famous for non sensical Hollywood Movies. Makes a historically accurate movie which is made like it came out of the 60s or 70s. Except with CGI. Honestly. This is the type of movie I've always waited for...
Woody Harrelson has to be in the good graces of just about every studio in Hollywood. He shows up in more movies than any actor I can think of. Good thing, because I love his acting.
A very interesting note I found is that when investigating the Mark 14 torpedo and it's aerial variant it was found that the current torpedo bomber tactics of coming slow and low actually increased the chances of a miss or failure. Coming in fast in a shallow dive was found to be far better for it after they fixed the main issue of the duds.
What finally got me on the Nebula bandwagon was Polymatter’s video on China’s collapsing demographics; the fact that I could be missing out on something by watching only the shorter RUclips version was too much.
Nick I don’t know how you do it, but you make these documentaries as suspenseful as the films you’re reviewing. Leaving this on the cliffhanger “the battle of Midway was about to begin” and then cutting to your outro made me audibly “argh” and appreciate how much I love your channel. Part two here we go!!
As a history teacher here in Australia I love your work, used the episode on Rome recently to discuss the reasons why Caesar was murdered. Just watched the film Midway today so I could watch this. Keep it up!
The battles in Alaska is an often overlooked campaign of the war. My grandfather fought the Japanese hand to hand on the island of Attu and on "Engineer Hill" where an American company of combat engineers fought off a Japanese banzai charge. My grandfather was boyonetted in the back and it went out right below his collarbone. He died before I was born but he told my dad it was brutal when my dad got a little older and he started asking about all my grandfather's scars.
I'm a complex man, with an intricate and troubled backstory, morally ambiguous nature, and deep character arc. My allegiances seem to change with the wind, for reasons lost to many, and few know me well enough to get past my nigh impregnable emotional barriers. But yeah- I see a History Buffs video, I also click it.
My father served in the Navy during WWII, and retired after 20 years. He was a civilian for me. He never talked much, though one time when he was at my teaching job and noticed a globe. He pointed out the Solomon Islands where he was stationed.
The Russo-Japanese War tie in to Pearl Harbor was quite interesting. I'd never heard that kind of analysis presented when talking about Japan's decision to attack the US. It would make sense that Japan would feel more confident about going up against a larger Western power when you consider that they had succeeded in beating the Russian Empire just a generation earlier.
Years ago I spent a Saturday touring 3 WWII museums in Fredericksburg, TX with my sons Venture Crew. One of them, I believe it was then called the George Bush Museum, was laid out chronologically from Commodore Perry sailing in to Tokyo Harbor in 1853. The point of how Japan was treated by the major powers was really driven home to me. As a point of interest, our Scoutmasters father was part of the crew that actually captured a Japanese mini-Sub on December 7th, 1941.
My great grandfather fought the Japanese in Manchuria. The main reason the Russians lost was because of poor logistics along the not-yet finished trans-siberian railway. Most of the regional resources were being used for inferstructure and it was difficult to bring men and resources from Europe.
I've read that Admiral Nagumo had the "Z Flag" that was flown on the flagship "Mikasa" at the battle of Tsushima, and flew it once again as a symbol of victory after Pearl Harbor. He also ordered the "Z Flag" to be flown while his planes were taking off to bomb Midway Island.
After seeing Woody Harrelson in some other movies, it's hard to picture him as a serious Admiral in this one...although he does look somewhat like the real Admiral Nimitz.
Exactly my thoughts! Woody looked like the real person, but is so horrifically miscast and unbelievable. I expect him to crack a smile and deliver some sarcastic joke . LOL
Understandable I did the same with Inglorious Bastards, thinking it just another blood thirsty movie with shallow characters. And blood thirsty it was, but shallow? Most certainly not
When learning about this subject, it always struck me as to how clueless the Japanese military seemed to be about the concept of code breaking, while they seemed to be very intelligent and skillful at so many other aspects of the war. Perhaps it was the factional rivalries between the different compartments of the military that hampered their comprehension of code breaking?
it's possible yeah, I mean afaik if a plane comes to the sea, the army won't even inform the navy, saying it's the navy problem, while the navy said it's army problem since the bomber target is a land target, they won't even repair each other plane who land on their base, and even goes as far with the saying "IJA Have their own navy and IJN Have their own army."
If anything cryptologists have one blind spot, that if they rolled a code someone else could crank it. Even the Germans were so confident with enigma it never really cross their mind that there was weakness in the system. Then you've got the allies with the merchant code for civilian ships, they knew that code or should have known that code had been compromised, I say compromise rather than cracked because it's possible that they got hold of the documents from sinking allied merchantment, by reading enigma they should have known. The Japanese at the same time just before Midway change their Naval codes and it was just through a stroke of luck and genius that Rochfert was was able to partially crack it before Midway.
A granddaughter of Gen. Doolittle said that the newer Midway film miss-portrayed him. Film showed him a gruff personality. She said reality was that he was known as a temperate man fully in control of himself. But my gosh the special effects!
@@brucechmiel7964 , I wonder if the closest onscreen portrayal of Doolittle isn't Spencer Tracy in "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo." That picture was made in 1942/43. right after the raid and many of the people involved in its making would have been alive when Doolittle first became known to the public during the First World War. The real Doolittle would have been as familiar to them as a celebrity and personality as, say, Colin Powell is to us today.
@@TricksterDa Like Eisenhower, Doolittle spent World War I training others in the States. He didn't really become any kind of celebrity until the Thirties, through air racing and a number of aviation firsts (first outside loop; first flight entirely on instruments, etc.). After reading his his autobiography, I say that Jimmy Cagney would have been a lot closer in portraying Doolittle as he really was--although I'm guessing Doolittle could have matched the real Spencer Tracy drink for drink. BTW, the background picture I have on my laptop is Doolittle's plane taking off from the USS Hornet on April 18, 1942.
They and the yard workers that stayed aboard knowing full-well they were riding along on a busted up ship headed to fight the Japanese Kido Butai. As for ShainAndrews comment; ease up a little, astrinymris9953 may be a civilian trying to pay a sincere compliment the only way he can. You say it with whatever words you have, I and the rest of the veterans who read these comments will understand what you're saying and we'll appreciate it!
"it is good that war is so terrible, lest we should grow too fond of it". There's a lot of emotion that this information brings to our families that were affected by this battle, but it's good that this Battle is remembered.
It actually wasn't. It was a desperate gamble which should have alerted the Japanese that the US could read their messages. To this day historians are confused as to why the Japanese fell for it rather than immediately changing their codes.
@@RandomStuff-he7lu a small isolated island outpost sending a message to the admiralty that they have mintainance / supply issues isn't out of the ordinary. Why would the Japanese get suspicious of an airbase just sending another simple mintainance log?
28:23 Another Addition to that. While USS Yorktown was being repaired at Hawaii, in those 48 to 72 hours, Hawaii was subjected to multiple power outages (constantly), as power was diverted from Hawaii to the Pearl Harbor repair docks.
I would love if you reviewed Der Untergang. It is so underrated and probably the most historically accurate movie about World War 2. Bruno Ganz's performance of Adolf Hitler was unbelievable, and when you see him in the film it was like actually seeing the evil dictator himself. The other characters were also extremely well portrayed too.
If you want to learn more about the early war American Torpedo problems, I would recommend checking out Drachinifel's video 'The Mark 14 Torpedo - Failure is like onions.'
Since Nick mentioned Tsushima, the voyage that the 2nd pacific squadron took from the Baltic to East Asia is also worth mentioning I think. 'The Russian 2nd Pacific Squadron - Voyage of the Damned', with the latter part of this title being a great summary.
I especially loved that the film included Academy Award-winning director John Ford and his wounding-in-action at Midway (of his record 4 Oscars for directing, one was for his documentary of the battle that he shot during the battle)
You spoke of humbling. At the School that teaches US Navy Corpsmen, medics essentially, there is glass case that holds a Navy Dress White Uniform. The uniform is stained in blood and oil. On the left sleeve the Red Cross armband was removed and the fabric beneath was still stark white. Humbling thing as a student.
Finally, someone makes the same connection that I have made for years, the Japanese had defeated a shaky Russian empire that was at best a weak sister to the other European powers. The Japanese reckoned the US would accept the same resolution as the Russia Empire had. It's called underestimating your opponent and overestimating your own ability. It is almost always a fatal miscalculation and for the Japanese it was the end of their world as they knew it.
While Russia's decline was a factor, don't undersell Japan here, their rapid modernization in the late 19th/early 20th century is a formidable feat, going from a backwards isolationist nation to a major imperial power in about a generation, I don't blame the Japanese being so prideful in this era.
You alone made that connection? For whole years you say. The 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War and it’s impact on Japanese Navy Doctrine has been understood by military historians for decades. I’m pretty sure I read that connection in both Stokesbury’s and Keegan’s short histories of the war both written before 2000.
"and no one thought that the shallow water torpedo's would work!" The British look on sipping tea: "Well we did show the Japanese how to do it in Taranto"
I mean Louis Mountbatten outright predicted the attack on pearl harbor. Which isn't surprising since it was exactly what they would have done in the Japanese position (except they would have attacked at night). The WW2 British navy is heavily underrated, especially their carrier arm.
If memory serves me right, HMS Warspite stopped by Hawaii on her way to repairs and also said that Pearl Harbor would be an easy target for torpedos as it had been there for Taranto.
To add to the repair of The Yorktown, they had thousands of welders working on the ship for the entirety of the 48hrs, and even dedicated a majority of the island’s power plant to the port
If you are looking for a great book to read about Midway check out "Shattered Sword". It's from the Japanese side and explains very nicely how and why they lost.
To be accurate, it is written from Japanese source material. It also corrects (the books claim not mine, I will actually be downloading both books soon) many errors in Mitsuo Fuchida's Midway: The Battle That Doomed Japan which would be from a Japanese view (he was the Air Group commander aboard the Akagi during pearl harbor and was aboard her when she was attacked at midway).
The battle of midway is one of the most decisive battles in history. In A battle the chance of the Imperial Japanese to win which is small already got smaller
the Japanese would have done better to sail away from Midway and the American carriers while recovering theitr planes than straight at them....remember their planes could outrange ours....then turnabout and launch a full strike from a distance....that would probably have allowed them to win the battle
Too bad she met the breakers at the end of the war. Most Battle Stars of any American Warship of WW2. The light cruiser San Diego came close, but she was no Enterprise.
I was literally on the edge of my seat when you stopped. That's ok it gives me something to look forward to. I love the original Midway and so far this one looks very good.
I’ve watched the “Midway” from the 1970s, Pearl Harbor and now this. Excellent review from Nick and an amazing movie. I’m captivated by the heroism exhibited by the sailers and flyers. Bless them all.
What a fantastic presentation. This is the ONLY way movies should be reviewed. Sending to my Dad, who taught me about Midway as he hung out there enroute to the Philippines circa 1970.
The story of the Yorktown being turned around in three days is the one I tell to people to remind them that anything is possible when you muster all your effort and tools. On a meta level, seeing Midway rank #1 in the box office on its opening week was an epic finger to Hollywood for their refusal to make war pictures.
Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line, Dunkirk, Hurt Locker, Inglorious Basterds, Three Kings, Platoon, Jarhead, Full Metal Jacket, Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, Glory, Hacksaw Ridge, Fury, 1917, Flags of Our Fathers, Letters From Iwo Jima, War Horse, etc etc. I could go on and on - I ain't even mentioning the awful shit they put out, like Pearl Harbour, or even the really incredible miniseries like Band of Brothers, The Pacific, and Generation Kill. What you talking about bro? Hollywood makes war stuff, it's a staple genre and well-served by quality shit.
onylra the ambivalent Nice. And how about all the Churchill films, and “Then There Were Giants.” And three Stalingrad classics. And Gettysburg and Andersonville.
So were you disappointed that this movie barely mentioned how the Yorktown was repaired and put to sea? Midway was so much trivia and very short on interesting facts.
Hollywood was only too happy to make Iraq and Afghanistan war movies telling us all how evil and corrupt the west is. They're not necessarily always wrong and this would have been fine if they weren't being made and shown whilst our troops were out there taking bullets and seeing their friends getting blown up in wars our government's had sent them to. Even if you don't agree with war don't go making propaganda films for the other side.
@@nahladel So in other words don't actually represent the reality of wars that's like telling a reporter in nam not to report on ambushes or the tet offensive wars aren't always just we literally kicked in Iraqs teeth just about a decade before we invaded it the fuck did it do to get invaded again oh wait nothing there were no wmds iraq had them when we sold them to some to fight Iran in the deadliest war since WWII
What he's referring to isn't the concept of a harbor attack itself, but the idea that Pearl Harbor was incredibly shallow, which led both the US and the Japanese to believe that aerial torpedoes couldn't function in such shallow waters. It wasn't until the Japanese modified their torpedoes that it became possible for aerial torpedoes to function in said shallow waters.
@@Dragunov8808 My point being that something similar and just as "impossible" had been done previously, which should have been a red fucking flag to anyone regarding Pearl Harbor, but no.
Using about 20 or so planes to raid a harbour like Taranto is not thought to be impossible. The idea of 6 carriers with hundreds of planes coordinating together to form a single cohesive fighting force to strike a harbour is thought to be impossible.
The National Museum of the Pacific War (a.k.a The Nimitz Museum) in Nimitz's hometown of Fredericksburg, Texas is awesome. They do reenactments and fire blanks. The heat from the flamethrower was unexpected and unnerving.
Roland Emmerich did his best to portray things accurately... but he's still Roland Emmerich so it still came off as silly/ a video game trailer. I'd say he was the wrong director for the film but he practically funded it himself so he was the only choice. It's a lot better then making no movie at all, which is more then I could say for Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor.
I feel the same way. Personally, I’ve been more of a fan of the 1976 movie, though probably do to a mix of nostalgia, a preference for its heavier focus on Midway rather than mixing together a lot of Pearl Harbor, Doolittle, Coral Sea and Midway, and the uniqueness of a movie using actual footage of the battle. I think the modern version could’ve been better without some of the more silly parts, but it’s still a good historical portrayal.
I also thought the script was a bit sophomoric and there was a good deal of overacting and overdramatization. But it was comprehensive and covered lesser-known parts of the battle and the events of the first 6 months of the war.
I actually loved the movie. Mainly, for re-creation of the "Big E" and planes. And finally, Waldron's sqadron flew Devastators, not Dauntlesses as in the 1976 movie. But there was one thing I missed - Thatch's boys and their Wildcats.
To bad so many 'superiors' and bureaucrats in Washington didn't want to share credit and punished Joe Rochefort. He had a plaque in his office that said, "We can accomplish anything so long as no one cares who gets the credit."
I've always said that the US won WW2 through intel, logistics and war production. We knew where to go, we had the means to get there and we had the means to have the proper gear for it.
The intel put the people in the right place. But without the skill of those actually doing the fighting it wouldn't have mattered. Example what if the American pilots just missed the Japanese carriers and didn't sink 4 maybe just sunk one or none? Intelligence is very important no argument there but it cant win a battle alone.
Lastly, every American *should* learn about the events of Midway. This moment in time was *the* most pivotal in our history, and is still effecting history to this day. Much respect for everything sacrificed on both sides.
@@TheIndianalain I do have to agree with his stance, now that I've watched both videos, on not really respecting the fanatics of the Japanese military and government. For those who fought when they did not want to or simply felt they were doing it to defend their country/family/way of life...I still respect those soldiers who sacrificed their lives and well-being.
One could argue many points in American history were absolutely pivotal. Valley Forge, Gettysburg, Midway. Every single time all seemed lost, a final desperate defense and so many times won through great leadership, grit and a bit of luck
@@FasterthanLight11 Coral Sea is important recipe for success of the US in Midway, because they prevented the Japanese in sending 6 fleet carriers for Midway operation. Even though they only damaged the 2 enemy carriers in Coral Sea the US have breathing room in Midway
27:36 God that is such a well crafted scene. It very well mixes the historical context of Target AF with cinematic greatness through acting, music, and camerawork.
You said just above the engine stalling, in fact the engine will run at all airspeeds (low, higher may break it) when they say stall speed it is the speed at which the wing is no longer capable of providing lift
Here is a detail that the movie gets wrong: The overall commander for the Americans at Midway was Admiral Fletcher, not Spruance. Spruance was Fletcher's subordinate.
Fletcher did not act as Spruance's superior but as an equal. He even allowed Spruance to initiate the main air strike and that he would then follow Spruance's lead. When Yorktown was damaged later in the day, Fletcher was not in a position to exercise overall command and turned Spruance loose to act on his own. So Spruance, a rookie at carrier operations, ended up making most if not all of the critical command decisions during the battle despite officially being subordinate to Fletcher.
@@kevinfrank5527 Mostly true, but still contains Samuel Elliot Morrison's distortions. Spruance attacked first on Fletcher's orders (we have them now), Fletcher could not attack with Yorktown's air group immediately because he had to recover his scout planes first. The crucial battle decisions were made by Nimitz and Fletcher. Fletcher only commanded the mop up phase of the battle. I know the following is a cheap shot given Spruance's lack of experience commanding carriers, but it is till truth. The launching of Task force 16's strike group was a fiasco. Hornet's air group was insubordinate and refused to launch its strike to the reported sighting instead choosing to fly due west into nothing. Enterprises launch took over an hour and never assembled into a coordinated strike force. The Enterprise air group proceeded to the target piece meal and took appalling losses. Spruance was the Task force 16 commanding officer and should be at least some of the responsibility for this.
Welcome back. Missed your content. This was amazing. You summed up the staggering responsibility that Nimitz faced. That guy saved of the Pacific. Gave me chills watching this.
As an Australian, Nimitz is definitely one of my very favourite Americans in history. If he had have screwed up, my country probably would have been attacked by the Japanese again at some point.
There's a small inaccuracy that I found in the movie, and I found it watching this video. At the 3:36 mark during a fly-by of the USS Arizona and USS Vestal you can see the USS Nevada aft of the Arizona, the last in line of Battleship Row, and on B-turret you'll notice three gun barrels. This is wrong. The Nevada was equipped with ten 14" rifles in four turrets, arranged A to D, 3-2-2-3. One of the reasons I'm familiar with this fact is that my grandfather was briefly on the crew that manned the port battery of B-turret, serving aboard her for the voyage from Pearl Harbor to Puget Sound where she completed her upgrades and repairs. Gotcha, Midway! ;-)
My great-grandfather went to college with Doolittle and they regularly wrote each other. They had attended the same college and found a common interest, namely their time training for the Great War.
@@mitchellhawkes22 You are correct, he was never sent to Europe and performed his wartime service as a flight instructor in the US. My Great-grandfather was sent overseas just as the war was drawing to a close, thankfully never having had to fight. Despite both never having actually engaged in conflict, they both performed a duty to the nation.
@@mitchellhawkes22 Also, i'm well aware of what WW1 is. Its how both my great-grandfather and my grandfather referred it as because I didn't know what either of them were talking about at the time of them telling me the story.
The character work isn't the best, but from what I can tell, they stick to the history fairly well, and they do an excellent job of portraying the battles themselves. Yeah there's a lot of CGI, but it's well done and the direction is generally good during the combat.
You should watch 3 part series of RUclips vids depicting midway battle from Japanese perspective.... Also read the after action reports submitted by the squadron commanders... Nick did a good job on the morning battles, but the movie horribly depicted the late afternoon battle and completely ignored the skirmishes over the next few days
The Doolittle raid wasn't spotted by "fishing boats". Japanese patrol boats were placed there, for just that eventuality. The B-25s had longer range than the Japanese expected.
Hey everyone, glad to see that for the most you're enjoying this review. Unfortunately I messed up one small detail at 8:36 that one of you was kind enough to point out. I accidently referred to Tsar Nicholas as Tsar Nicholas I. He wasn't. He was Tsar Nicholas II. I think when I was recording, my dyslexia misread II as I. Sorry about that!
It's alright mate I'm just happy to watch a new video of your reviews and if I may say I saw Midway when it was released and I enjoyed it. But if I may ask what other reviews do you have planned in the future? Sincerely a fan from Australia.
Don't worry about it dude, the quality of your videos is always great.
It's alright.
It's all good I'm dyslexic to. We all make the odd mistake.. And it certainly doesn't get in the way of great content like yours
Worth the wait. Yay!
"Pearl Harbor" is a two-hour movie squeezed into three hours, about how on Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese staged a surprise attack on an American love triangle.
@Dragon On Coke He's referring to a line from the Roger Ebert review of 'Pearl Harbor'.
Terrible Writing Advice would like to know your location.
@michael boultinghouse all credit to Roger Ebert
@michael boultinghouse lol was truly an 'artiste' ...
Well if they included a bonus scene of emperor Hirohito getting a short drop with a sudden stop. Would that make it better?
"we need at LEAST two weeks before she can put back out to sea"
"you have 3 days"
they did it in 48 hours...
legends
"We must assume they it wasn't sunk and they were able to repair her."
And according to "Incredible Victory" some of the construction workers had to be flown off once she was out to sea, enroute to Midway.
Meanwhile at the other side of the Pacific, the IJN could have transferred the air group of the damaged Shoukaku to its sister ship Zuikaku to join the other 4 Fleet carriers.
@@paulsteaven Yes, and they should have. They could have pulled down the 2 light carriers from the Aleutians, or plugged the hole NE of Midway with a cruiser that had a float plane. If you haven't read it, "Shattered Sword" is a fantastic book.
@@ghostwriter4618 they should have before the invasion of Aleutian Island started and maybe the other light carrier(s) available to join the Kido Butai.
If they'd done that, they just not increase the CAP for their task force but they also prevented the Akutan Zero from happening since that captured intact zero was from the light carrier Ryujo that was sent to cover the Operation AL.
I'd read that book few times and give me valuable insights about the many problems that the both sides encountered like the infamous "Nagumo's dilemma".
The great irony: Midway did a better job depicting Pearl Harbor than Pearl Harbor..
For Pearl I'd go for "Tora,Tora,Tora". HB already covered it I think.
@@littlefluffybushbaby7256 Oh, yes, I know. But I was meaning that,of recent movies, not classics, Midway did Pearl Harbor better, as the opening act, than Pearl Harbor, a movie that was supposed to be all about Pearl Harbor!
That love story ???
"Pearl Harbor" was a turd pile.
@@skippa7324 I’m pretty sure they had some AA guns but they only started shoving them wherever they could fit after this and other carrier battles.
Fun fact: There is a district in the old capital of Finland, Turku, called Port Arthur. This is because when Port Arthur was lost, construction workers building the then new district joked about building "a new Port Arthur to replace the one lost" and the name stuck.
Fun fact. There's a town in Texas called Port Arthur where Janis Joplin and the rap group UGK were from.
Fun fact: I knew non of those facts.
Of note, Australia has a Port Arthur as well. It's also the site of the 1996 mass shooting that led to drastic tightening of Australia's firearm ownership policies. So if you're talking to an Australian and you mention Port Arthur, this is what they will be thinking of (if they're over thirty anyway).
Fun fact, I was born in Dalian, which is essentially the modern metropolitan city of Port Arthur. I have visited where the beach head that the Ruskis built those pillboxes, and they are still there, as the Japanese left them there and used them themselves.
None of this was fun.
When the world needed him most, he returned! Yes!
Yes
Yes
Heh, I'll yell: YAY when he does Das Boot!
Agreed
Arthur?
As an Australian, whose country was separated by only a small stretch of water away from the Japanese Empire in 1941, the Battle of Midway was a godsend. Even now I feel thankful that our American friends won the battle that day and began the liberation of the Pacific. One of the most important days in history.
Don't you mean the Battle of Coral Sea?
I think, or was it another battle like that?
My grandfather was in the pacific theater. I’m glad we were able to help our family across the pacific when we were needed. Hopefully we’re now on a track to be the help the world needs again. Sorry about the last four years, we’re trying to do better!
Too bad America did not intervene for the Aboriginal nation, it would have been a God-Send.
@@wuwei7006 Yeah, sorry about that. Of course, American help at the time wouldn't have taken a very good form. We don't have the best track record of dealing with native peoples.
The Doolittle Raid ended up being more than a morale booster, but strategically brilliant ...as it forced Japan to keep many resources in the home island for defense, restricting their offensive forces.
It led to the slaughter of 100,000 thousand Chinese civilians
@@berginusmc ...Japan had already committed atrocities greater then that before then
@@berginusmc . Yes sadly true, but that is nothing the Americans could control in war
Dawg, it’s the 1940s, the intention was not to solely bomb civilians. You’re looking at planes that are using highly inaccurate ordnance, are low on fuel and trying to get to safety, and are more or less likely tweeking out because it’s their first ever mission over there. You can argue the point later on, but that again was far after the the bombing of Tokyo. Unfortunately the only way you could insure that your target would be hit was if you sent hundreds of planes to carpet bomb an entire city.
If we’re being technically the us wasn’t throwing babies into the air and ski shooting them or r*ping women left and right. You can say what you want but World War Two like many wars is not black and white, but gray. However one side was definitely far worse than the other.
@@berginusmc 250,000 from what i understand. I had a teacher in high school who survived the bataan death march.... he shared some of his stories....i'd believe the 250k.
Despite being sunk eventually, Yorktown was one hell of a ship taking so many beatings.
they were still trying to save her when a jap sub finished her....tough ship!
Pretty fitting name in that case.
The only ship that the Japanese thought they sank three times, they counted it as sunk in Coral then midway through Midway, then finally when it did go down.
speaking of the russian baltic fleet: Their journey to the pacifc should be comedy film. the amount of stuff that went wrong is amazing!
Those poor British fishermen weren't laughing, though.
Kamchatka wants to know if you've seen Torpedoboats
If there is one to be made, I hope its the same director from the death of stalin, that would be perfect.
stuff for monthy python film.
Drachinifel - Voyage of the the Damned
If this is a two-parter...then you’re Midway through it.
Take my like and fuck off
Nicely done
I literally stopped any rolled my eyes when I read this.
Have a like and go to your room.
Bah dum tsh
Seriously? You went there.
I love how the ship Yorktown is such an amazing character all on her own
gets nearly sunk, her crew amazingly saves her, rebuilt in beyond record time for the decisive battle, nearly gets sunk again during said battle but is miraculously saved yet again, to the point where when she gets hit for the third and final time the Japanese don't even realize it was the same carrier they thought had already been sunk.
One of my favorite stories from the Pacific war, her crew were mad-lads of the highest caliber
Its funny how the yorktown class ships never dissapointed, the uss yorktown example you gave, uss hornet doing the doolittle raid, and uss enterprise participating in almost all key naval battles, its nice that these ships preformed their tasks above and beyond
if you are interested in the ships from that time I recommend the enterprise. I`m personally fond of her. she received the nickname the gray gosh because multiple times she was reported sunk only to show up in the next battle.
She is currently docked in a Charleston harbor. Love her story
@@kreigguardsman3355 the Yorktown at Midway is a second ship with the same name. The original Yorktown was lost after Midway. She got torpedoed by a submarine while under tow headed back to port. The one in Charleston was originally going to be called “Bonhomme Richard.”
@@TheEvilMrJeb Could you imagine if Yorktown survived the war only to be scrapped?
Being educated in the US, Yamamoto was well aware that the industrial ability of the US. Their hopes of bring the US to the peace talks critically depended on the destruction of the carriers. When he found out that didn't happen, he wrote in his personal diary: "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”
Yamamoto was also the one who had the _audacity_ to laugh in the presence of the Emperor when another commander suggested a land invasion of mainland America. He supposedly delivered that famous line about "behind every blade of grass, behind every tree and fencepost, behind every car and window there is an American rifle waiting for you".
He's a good admiral. Happy things didn't go his way though
If you research that quote it's actually not proven he said this. However he certainly understood the risks and the extremely problematic outcome of the strike. He actually warned against war with the United States in entirety
He never wrote it and as far as we know, he never said it. The line is from Tora Tora and likely based on a quote from Napolean.
There were other people who said similar things like radio commentators in the US but no record of Yamamato ever writing or saying this has ever been produced
@@Flowersinadesertof course he did. I saw it in tora tora tora.
I wrote my high school history term paper on the counterintelligence that led to the victory at Midway. Awesome to see it here!
Must be so nice to write your high school paper on American history. I had to do mine on Canadian history which, don’t get me wrong, has its highlights but American history is certainly filled with cooler stuff.
@@sandvichomnom2779 not a red and white flag waving nationalist here but Canada has as much of an interesting history as the US... and dare I say a more interesting one
@@u.h.forum. As neither American nor Canadian...Got any highlights?
@@potatoboyhats905 creation of Quebec, Hudsons bay expansion, expedition into the Yukon and northern passage such as the Franklin expedition, American invasion of Quebec, war of 1812, confederation, all history from then onwards. Untouched gem really
@@u.h.forum. I’m British and we have you both beat. Sorry lads
"We need two weeks to repair"
"You have three days"
I thought that kind of conversation only happened in Star Trek.
there is the plausibility that it happened in Star Trek because of that...
@@nunyabidness674 Maybe a more realistic part of that universe than I'd thought.
@@nunyabidness674 a few of the Original series cast and crew were WWII vets, so that makes sense.
And Star Trek is make believe. The dockmen had it done in TWO. LEGENDS of the seas.
by the book.
I was happy to hear someone talk at length about the tragedy of the defective torpedoes the American forces were using on their planes and subs.
He said early days of the war. More like early years.
@@88porpoise to me, it's not even that they denied the claims of bad torpedos, it's that it took *two years* for them to admit it, and fix it.
There was an entire movie with John Wayne about the torpedo problem.
Torpedoes failed 90% of the time . And the torpedo bombs were slow,needed the fighters to protect them .The battle or Midway was poorly planned,but the dive bombers were very good !
The should have got this guy onto solving it?
‘Eugene Bennett Fluckey (October 5, 1913 - June 28, 2007), nicknamed "Lucky Fluckey",[1] was a United States Navy rear admiral who received the Medal of Honor and four Navy Crosses during his service as a submarine commander in World War II.’
He apparently rebuilt all his torpedos after having failures and they operated perfectly?
Interesting timeline: Every two months.
December 1941: Pearl Harbor.
February 1942: Marshall’s raid.
April 1942: Doolittle Raid on Tokyo.
June1942: Midway.
August 1942: Guadalcanal.
March 1942 Raid on Lae, May 1942 Battle of Coral Sea....not seeing it.
Busy 2 years
Fun Fact there are no Mountains on all of the 100's of Marshall Islands period but some how there are Mountains on the Raid in Marshall Islands depicted in the film
I never knew they flew with their wind shield open to prevent fogging. That is nuts. But I mean all aerial combat really is pretty nuts
My dad was a dive bomber pilot in the South Pacific, and he never told us that detail! I was so glad to see the footage in this review (starting at 15:35). I had known my dad was brave, but this was absolutely crazy!
They also left it open so if they crashed on landing, if the canopy rails were bent they could get out (from what I've read).
I was unable to find a link to info that indicated the "windshield" on the Dauntless was openable. Now, the sliding "canopy" was left open for ditching safety purposes. It also would allow for enough air circulation to prevent fogging.
That is why future of naval warfare belongs to aircraft, carriers and submarines
Open to keep from fogging ,started there dive from 19000 ft .
Thank you for mentioning the often forgotten fact that Japan retaliated against the Chinese people for their aiding the Doolittle raiders by killing roughly 250,000 Chinese peasants.
I guess they shouldn't have helped then? It was war. The US killed a lot of people too.
@@silverletter4551 I thought Ben Shapiro made people smarter, not dumber
@@anbitye2134 What do you mean? If my family was going to be killed, I would have not helped anyone. I would have minded my own business or even helped the Japanese.
@@silverletter4551 are you American?
@@silverletter4551 Nah mate, just remember this, no need to think it should not happen or feel sorry for the Dolittle Raid. There can be no victory without sacrifice, Chinese know about this just as good as Russians. Dolittle himself, just like back in US, is held as a hero by the Chinese, there is even a memorial museum in Zhejiang province where Dolittle landed.
The one thing that always annoys me is how Hollywood tends to put the Dive Bomber Siren from the Stukka Dive Bomber on every single aircraft that goes into a dive.
Yeah. If you jumped off a bridge, it would make Stuka siren sounds on the way down like a bugs bunny cartoon.
@@Christopheromoan hahahaha!
Or how all dogfighting the planes never lose energy at all and can climb and turn like Fokker DR1s.
The Dauntless Dive Bomber had the dive sirens as well.
got that right
A great detail I love was that, the ship moored next to the Arizona was on fire. When the Arizona detonated, you can see that the shockwave literally blew out every single fire on that smaller ship. This actually happened in real life, and really shows the Roland did his research on this movie.
…just wish he did the same on Moonfall…
Oh yeah I noticed that when I watched it in the movie. But less said about moonfall the better lol
Repair ship USS Vestal(AR-4) was moored alongside USS Arizona. She survived WW2 & was scrapped 7/1950
“It’ll take 2 weeks to fix this ship!”
“You have 3 days”
*does it in 2 days*
How did they do that so long ago? It would probably take months to rebuild a ship in modern times. Are people just dumber now or lazier? Lost our work ethic perhaps.
@@silverletter4551 carriers are more complicated and much, much bigger now than they used to be. On top of that, repairing a ship as fast as possible for an emergency battle, and making sure a ship is prepped for a long, arduous service life, are two different things.
Youre describing my bosses day dreams
Both Yorktown and Enterprise later that year proved the world that Wooden flight deck could be patched up quickly if they got holed.
Well it's a misconception that the officer said it would take that long, the only damage to Yourktown really was a hol in the deck which wasn't hard to patch up
Nick did “Band of Brothers” a while back, he should also do “The Pacific” at some point.
I think there's also a third one of those series coming out soon about the 8th Air Force
@@littlefluffybushbaby7256 yeah heard that was due this fall for release after years and years of either delays or just work since I first heard the rumor like 2 years ago.
and "generation kill"
.
everyone remembers Band of Brothers and The Pacific.....
but the same production company did a HBO series on the Iraq/Iran war..... from 2001 till today....
.
Generation Kill is...... not PG-13 (did they even cuss in BoB??)
and thats probably why most havent seen it
.
also because it was FAR lower budget than Pacific or BoB......FAR lower!!
and this war i still far to recent for a lot of people who lost family......
.
.
but talking to my cousin (and a few other family that were in WW2).....
and seeing EX-military people talk about Generation Kill on youtube.....
.
i think its more real than not....... especially the emotional / command BS / general realism with "sitting at camp" stuff (aka a combat-jack)
.
.
.
however..... the terrorists act like B move bad guys....
shooting from the hip..... having NO tactics or strategy.... probably even said "dirkka dirkka jihad" at some point......
.
but ya.... some of it shows the insurgents actually doing what they would do (tactically.... in fire fights and ambushes and crap)
other times its "shoot from the hip...... wearing 20 dollar costumes......with D movie acting.....
.
.
.
ya gotta remember..... GK released in 2008....
the USA (aka 100% of HBO viewers.... for a HBO mini-series)...... we just had a BIG push (this is when my cousin went on deployment)
so a LOT of people had personal connections
.
a lot of WW2, namn, ETC movies are made 10, 20.....70 years.... after the battle
its your grandfather's movie...... VS your brother or son's movie
.
"hits ya right in the feels"
.
.
.
TLDR..... they show the insurgents as IN-F'IN-comment idiots.....
because if they showed these "goat herders" as actually trained, battle hardened, pushed back the USSR dudes.....
.
well.... that might scare all the Karens'.....
and the studio will get sued to death
.
so they run straight at in-placed US troops..... spraying and praying like its CS-GO.....(a video game)
@@kainhall Generation Kill is my favorite because they talk more like what I remember in the military. I was in the Navy during that time period and it gets the fucked up conversations perfect.
@@kainhall "HBO series on the Iraq/Iran war." Iran war? I assume you mean Afghanistan as the unit depicted fought in Afghanistan prior, and the show literally just covers the initial invasion of Iraq to the fall of Baghdad.
It’s amazing seeing how all the protocols followed by the modern US military, which seem a little excessive, all come from past experiences written in blood. And a huge majority of those lessons were learned in WW2. Fascinating.
can you detail which protocols in specific you have in mind ?
Defence protocols for ships against aircraft, combat narative for both armed and unarmed combat and how to deal with unconventional military with blitz tactics similar to what was delt with in the spanish american war, sea combat was a big one as well as air to air combat which drastically changed from ww1 to ww2, and then the biggest one was how america used sea planes like pby's to both gather intelligence and harrass shipping lanes due to there ability to land and refuel anywhere using subs islands other ships or other sea planes and the number one biggest lesson was carrier combat and the usefullness of carrier based aircraft
**Comes home glad it's Friday**
**Sees HistoryBuffs upload**
*All in the world is right again*
Same.
Welcome back Nick, RUclips is whole again.
Finally it is
You have no idea how many times I've rewatch the old videos waiting for a new one
How? It worked yesterday :-P
Next time he can give us a shout to him leaving for a year beforehand lol people unsub after a week is ridiculous, but si is leaving for a year or so like a few other history ytubers have done without a word. Lol
...for now...
Massive shoutout to your editor. History Buffs has really upped their game. Welcome back Nick.
Had my first date going to this movie, I thought it would had some forced romance and drama bullshit going on like pearl harbour so why not?
Well, she just sat through 2+ hours of planes and boats shooting eachother.
We're together for 2 years now.
GG King
I saw the first half of the comment before loading the second half. A surprise to be sure but a welcome one. Wish this worked for me
Magic of the cinema
..Yup she's a keeper.
Absolute win
"That was Washington. They've intercepted several Japanese messages claiming that the target of their upcoming attack...is out of fresh water."
"Interesting, sir. I heard that Midway accidentally sent out an unencrypted transmission that their water plant was broken."
"And is their water plant broken?"
"Not that I know of sir.
I love this.
That smirk he gives him. Admiral Nimitz could appreciate some good sarcasm.
@@ryangibson5462 And you of cause knew Adm. Nimitz in person
@@tellyonthewall8751 Obviously, I mean who hasn't. Lol
@@ryangibson5462 You for one hasn't ... guess those gaming headphone has pressed a little too hard on the string between your ears .. that string to keep your ears in place. Your head is keeping the distance between your ears .. as its primary (and only) task in life. If I was you, I would put up my head for organ donation you would even get some money before "donating" a prime organ ... argumentation would sound like: "Head for organ donation, nearly new, never used"
You ever thought about that funny noise sounding, when you shake your head? Like one marble in a jar???
@@mitchellhawkes22 Meh, don't care, it's a cocol scene =D Plus, I think it was more just a joke between them, I don't think Nimitz didn't know, he was just amused by the ruse.
No one has content like yours. Seriously, it's your storytelling skills, mixed with your love of cinema that make these videos so special. I only wish I could watch more!
If history: How about Mark Felton?
And if on the 7 seas: How about Drachinifel?
@@dallesamllhals9161 yeah Mark Felton is really good!
There is one... but it's in Russian, but really great.
@@antonvoloshin9833 Erh, I'll take your word for IT?
..Erta problema..partjemu Ja Nje dumaju erta PRAVDA?
Yup! 2 years of Russian in 1996-1998 did help (F-you! Googletran..gavnor ;-D )
DA! I'm a bit 'rusty'...
Sorry boss, I’ve got to take a half hour break. History buffs just uploaded
Underrated comment.
Understandable.
Ok
Step into my office. My computer has surround sound.
lol, watching it on my lunch right now
Woody Harrelson did an awesome job portraying Nimitz as did Dennis Quaid portraying Bull Halsey.
think Cagney did a better job playing Halsey....["The Gallant Hours"]
And Jake Weber also portrayed Raymond Spruance quite well, even though his appearances were very brief- which didn't do justice to Spruance's important role in Midway.
I urge you to make your next project “Valkyrie” (2008, United Artist) starring Tom Cruise
Agree!
agreed
Meh 😑 the original German version is much better
I've only watched the 2008 version so far, but I'd be interested in seeing how they both compare, jointly. Take the pepsi challenge, so to speak.
@@seokeady well hearing the Germans speak German makes it a lot more convincing for me 😉
History Buffs? Now that’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time. A long time...
*Little reference to one of the actors in the movie, it’ll be a quote. “He ain’t all there is he?”*
As my brother told me, "This is the movie you were hoping it would be." I was hoping for something close to "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and we got it.
It’s a lot more historically accurate than the old one but it still has some things that bug me. It would have been better if this were a mini series so it leads up to the midway battle. Last soundtrack. I still prefer John Williams midway.
@@yoehonjohn4832 There are always going to be things that bug us. There isn't a perfect movie, and there will always be liberties that have to be taken.
I liked it much more than Pearl Harbor, but it was somewhat inconsistent in its depiction of the timeline AND you were a bit lost in about what was happening if you did not know what was happening beforehand. Why did Midway launch its planes and why did they not engage the incoming bombers and what about Hornets planes (which didn't even participate in the battle as they went on a sightseeing tour of water way north of the Kido Butai).
The attention to detail for authenticity is amazing , like the 100% cotton uniforms of the naval officers or what really got my attention was the Chinese insurgents using German weapons like the Mauser 98 rifles and the C96 Mauser broomhandle pistol , which Germany had been supplying to the Chinese before 1937 . I would have liked to see at least one of the Chinese wearing a German 1935 helmet . It is the attention to details no matter how small that makes this another reason this movie is great .
Midway was the last movie I watched with my father before he died. We were desperately looking forward to watching your historical review together.
Thankyou for making this. I’m watching this with him in spirit.
I'm sorry for your loss. I'm glad you guys got to see a good movie for the last one. One that sparked some interesting after-movie conversation to be sure. Take care my friend.
RIP
Your father :-(
“I don’t envy the new commander”. “It’s me isn’t.” Admiral Nimitz
That grammar feels off, like it works but not really
More like:
- I don't envy the new commander.
- (Meaningful silence)
P R O C E S S I N G . . . P R O C E S S I N G . . .
- It's me, isn't it?
(What makes that scene is the pause it takes for Nimitz to get it)
My grandfather served in WW2. Every year on December 7th when my dad was growing up, he would sit at the breakfast table with everyone and he would look down and say " on this day we where attacked."
@Marty Genesis please tell me where the brainwashing is. Please, by all means, explain where remembrance of a historic day is brainwashing, go ahead.
@Marty Genesis you are truly confused
@Marty Genesis *Japan fought for survival*
*Raped nanking*
@Marty Genesis Firstly, I'm not American. Secondly, just because America committed atrocities, doesn't mean that Japan can do it as well.
@Marty Genesis no he just had pride in his nation and his service. He fought both the Germans on d Day and occupied Japan after his unit was ordered to help take the Philippines. He saw true horrors in the war and didn't talk about it once, was shot twice and was pretty anti war on most wars after nam. He loved people and was famous for saying if anyone ask him his feeling about the German or japanese soldiers he fought "ah horse sh*t, they where soldiers under orders lol us." Or " war is started my old men who can't get along, but finished by young men who can fight and have everything to loose."
He went through a lot of theropy to be right with everything that happened. And years with AA to be right with himself.
It's crazy how Roland Emmerich. The man who's famous for non sensical Hollywood Movies. Makes a historically accurate movie which is made like it came out of the 60s or 70s. Except with CGI.
Honestly. This is the type of movie I've always waited for...
movie does a good job conveying the desperation that was common at this time.....
Woody Harrelson has to be in the good graces of just about every studio in Hollywood. He shows up in more movies than any actor I can think of. Good thing, because I love his acting.
Or he’s good at his job
Me too
For this role, he's definitely the best choice. I was shocked how similar he looks to Nimitz
He had his 15 minutes of being an A list movie star. This is what he was always meant to be - an outstanding character actor.
Him and mattew are brothers soo
A very interesting note I found is that when investigating the Mark 14 torpedo and it's aerial variant it was found that the current torpedo bomber tactics of coming slow and low actually increased the chances of a miss or failure. Coming in fast in a shallow dive was found to be far better for it after they fixed the main issue of the duds.
Drachinifel did a video on the Mark 14.
This has probably the most effective Nebula ad I've ever seen, because dangling Part Two like that is pretty irresistible.
coming right after Patrick (H) Willems teasing the finale to the Charl saga
What finally got me on the Nebula bandwagon was Polymatter’s video on China’s collapsing demographics; the fact that I could be missing out on something by watching only the shorter RUclips version was too much.
It is but like the game stop clerks learned all those years ago I can out wait $60 games till they hit the bargain bin. See y’all next week!✌🏻
Nick I don’t know how you do it, but you make these documentaries as suspenseful as the films you’re reviewing. Leaving this on the cliffhanger “the battle of Midway was about to begin” and then cutting to your outro made me audibly “argh” and appreciate how much I love your channel. Part two here we go!!
As a history teacher here in Australia I love your work, used the episode on Rome recently to discuss the reasons why Caesar was murdered. Just watched the film Midway today so I could watch this. Keep it up!
Loved history class when I was a kid
The battles in Alaska is an often overlooked campaign of the war. My grandfather fought the Japanese hand to hand on the island of Attu and on "Engineer Hill" where an American company of combat engineers fought off a Japanese banzai charge. My grandfather was boyonetted in the back and it went out right below his collarbone. He died before I was born but he told my dad it was brutal when my dad got a little older and he started asking about all my grandfather's scars.
I'm a simple man i see a History Buffs video, i click it.
True...true.
Yeah
Word
True
I'm a complex man, with an intricate and troubled backstory, morally ambiguous nature, and deep character arc. My allegiances seem to change with the wind, for reasons lost to many, and few know me well enough to get past my nigh impregnable emotional barriers.
But yeah- I see a History Buffs video, I also click it.
My father served in the Navy during WWII, and retired after 20 years. He was a civilian for me. He never talked much, though one time when he was at my teaching job and noticed a globe. He pointed out the Solomon Islands where he was stationed.
the wait was worthy, this episode is one of the most complete you've ever made!
"I don't care if he consults coffee grounds while doing the boogie woogy as long as the intel is good
That had me rolling!
Reminds me of a line from "Blue Thunder""
"Did you know he checks his sanity with a stopwatch?"
"What do you use? A dipstick?"
@@mitchellhawkes22 seethe
The Russo-Japanese War tie in to Pearl Harbor was quite interesting. I'd never heard that kind of analysis presented when talking about Japan's decision to attack the US. It would make sense that Japan would feel more confident about going up against a larger Western power when you consider that they had succeeded in beating the Russian Empire just a generation earlier.
Years ago I spent a Saturday touring 3 WWII museums in Fredericksburg, TX with my sons Venture Crew. One of them, I believe it was then called the George Bush Museum, was laid out chronologically from Commodore Perry sailing in to Tokyo Harbor in 1853. The point of how Japan was treated by the major powers was really driven home to me. As a point of interest, our Scoutmasters father was part of the crew that actually captured a Japanese mini-Sub on December 7th, 1941.
My great grandfather fought the Japanese in Manchuria. The main reason the Russians lost was because of poor logistics along the not-yet finished trans-siberian railway. Most of the regional resources were being used for inferstructure and it was difficult to bring men and resources from Europe.
@@samvodopianov9399 I can only imagine the challenges of moving men and material across the vast nation under the conditions of that time.
They didn’t want to mess with the USSR tho
I've read that Admiral Nagumo had the "Z Flag" that was flown on the flagship "Mikasa" at the battle of Tsushima, and flew it once again as a symbol of victory after Pearl Harbor. He also ordered the "Z Flag" to be flown while his planes were taking off to bomb Midway Island.
After seeing Woody Harrelson in some other movies, it's hard to picture him as a serious Admiral in this one...although he does look somewhat like the real Admiral Nimitz.
Woody is a dang good actor. I had no issues believing him to play Gen Nimitz even with hairpiece.
Exactly my thoughts! Woody looked like the real person, but is so horrifically miscast and unbelievable. I expect him to crack a smile and deliver some sarcastic joke . LOL
worked with Woody on "Kingpin"...funny dude!....quite a stretch from "Munson" to Nimitz....but he did ok....
Going to be honest, I avoided this movie without giving it a real chance because of just how corny and over-the-top the trailers were.
I did the same but was pleased when I finally viewed it on HBO Max.
Huh, weird, I remember seeing the first trailer and thinking the movie looked fucking awesome. Didn't like the second trailer as much.
Because those are actually correct actions taken by menM
Understandable
I did the same with Inglorious Bastards, thinking it just another blood thirsty movie with shallow characters.
And blood thirsty it was, but shallow?
Most certainly not
Yea, the marketing for this movie was pretty shit.
When learning about this subject, it always struck me as to how clueless the Japanese military seemed to be about the concept of code breaking, while they seemed to be very intelligent and skillful at so many other aspects of the war. Perhaps it was the factional rivalries between the different compartments of the military that hampered their comprehension of code breaking?
it's possible yeah, I mean afaik if a plane comes to the sea, the army won't even inform the navy, saying it's the navy problem, while the navy said it's army problem since the bomber target is a land target, they won't even repair each other plane who land on their base, and even goes as far with the saying
"IJA Have their own navy and IJN Have their own army."
I have never seen a more dysfunctional nor more toxic relationship than that of the relationship between the IJN and the IJA.
If anything cryptologists have one blind spot, that if they rolled a code someone else could crank it. Even the Germans were so confident with enigma it never really cross their mind that there was weakness in the system. Then you've got the allies with the merchant code for civilian ships, they knew that code or should have known that code had been compromised, I say compromise rather than cracked because it's possible that they got hold of the documents from sinking allied merchantment, by reading enigma they should have known. The Japanese at the same time just before Midway change their Naval codes and it was just through a stroke of luck and genius that Rochfert was was able to partially crack it before Midway.
Now that you mention it, I would love to learn more about Japanese politics during the Second World War!
For a culture that seems to emphasises so much on cohesion and social harmony, this kind of factionalism is a baffling contradiction.
A granddaughter of Gen. Doolittle said that the newer Midway film miss-portrayed him. Film showed him a gruff personality. She said reality was that he was known as a temperate man fully in control of himself. But my gosh the special effects!
Thing is, shes portraying someone from her memory in the relaxed time on shoreleave, not in war time in a middle of a battle
@@mitchellhawkes22 They never could get his casting right. He was a short bald man. "So lets have Alec Baldwin and the Fucking Punisher play him."
@@brucechmiel7964 , I wonder if the closest onscreen portrayal of Doolittle isn't Spencer Tracy in "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo." That picture was made in 1942/43. right after the raid and many of the people involved in its making would have been alive when Doolittle first became known to the public during the First World War. The real Doolittle would have been as familiar to them as a celebrity and personality as, say, Colin Powell is to us today.
@@TricksterDa Just like in 43’ everyone knew who John Basilone was.
@@TricksterDa Like Eisenhower, Doolittle spent World War I training others in the States. He didn't really become any kind of celebrity until the Thirties, through air racing and a number of aviation firsts (first outside loop; first flight entirely on instruments, etc.). After reading his his autobiography, I say that Jimmy Cagney would have been a lot closer in portraying Doolittle as he really was--although I'm guessing Doolittle could have matched the real Spencer Tracy drink for drink.
BTW, the background picture I have on my laptop is Doolittle's plane taking off from the USS Hornet on April 18, 1942.
The repair and firefighting crews on Yorktown were the real MVPs of the Battle of Midway!
Right... it's just a game after all.
They and the yard workers that stayed aboard knowing full-well they were riding along on a busted up ship headed to fight the Japanese Kido Butai. As for ShainAndrews comment; ease up a little, astrinymris9953 may be a civilian trying to pay a sincere compliment the only way he can. You say it with whatever words you have, I and the rest of the veterans who read these comments will understand what you're saying and we'll appreciate it!
"it is good that war is so terrible, lest we should grow too fond of it". There's a lot of emotion that this information brings to our families that were affected by this battle, but it's good that this Battle is remembered.
War is inevitable.
Liberty is not.
Well said
@Andrew Vidito yes
@Andrew Vidito Fredericksburg, the General said it on Telegraph Hill. A beautiful area, it's a growing town these days
@Andrew Vidito haha Currahee is a Mount in my home town, my name is Nehemiah Austin
That trick about the water pumps to get the proof for the code breakers was honestly genius
Simple yet effective
It actually wasn't. It was a desperate gamble which should have alerted the Japanese that the US could read their messages. To this day historians are confused as to why the Japanese fell for it rather than immediately changing their codes.
@@RandomStuff-he7lu a small isolated island outpost sending a message to the admiralty that they have mintainance / supply issues isn't out of the ordinary.
Why would the Japanese get suspicious of an airbase just sending another simple mintainance log?
@@Indoor_Carrot Because it was sent unencrypted. That should have raised suspicions.
@@RandomStuff-he7lu pretty sure it wasn't the first unencrypted message.
Don't forget how arrogant and desperate Japan was to damage America too
28:23 Another Addition to that. While USS Yorktown was being repaired at Hawaii, in those 48 to 72 hours, Hawaii was subjected to multiple power outages (constantly), as power was diverted from Hawaii to the Pearl Harbor repair docks.
I would love if you reviewed Der Untergang. It is so underrated and probably the most historically accurate movie about World War 2. Bruno Ganz's performance of Adolf Hitler was unbelievable, and when you see him in the film it was like actually seeing the evil dictator himself. The other characters were also extremely well portrayed too.
Downfall?
...Der Untergang is underrated? I thought it was considered as THE Hitler movie....
GANZ was magnificent!
I hate to say Ive seen many funny meme's and shorts about "Someone" calls Hitler...i.e. Beavis and Butthead call Hitler
@@cleverusername9369 yes Downfall the German name is der untergang
I love downfall one of my fav movies Bruno ganz should have gotten an Oscar for his performance
If you want to learn more about the early war American Torpedo problems, I would recommend checking out Drachinifel's video 'The Mark 14 Torpedo - Failure is like onions.'
The best quote from that video has to be at the beginning “who invented the Mk 14? What was the Mk 14? *Why* was the Mk 14”
Since Nick mentioned Tsushima, the voyage that the 2nd pacific squadron took from the Baltic to East Asia is also worth mentioning I think. 'The Russian 2nd Pacific Squadron - Voyage of the Damned', with the latter part of this title being a great summary.
That entire channel is a brilliant naval military channel in general. So much good content.
@@silaskuemmerle2505 but no one is asking, How is the Mk 14?
I especially loved that the film included Academy Award-winning director John Ford and his wounding-in-action at Midway (of his record 4 Oscars for directing, one was for his documentary of the battle that he shot during the battle)
HE HAS RETURNED ONCE AGAIN, but he will return to darkness for a few months. Also im excited to watch this!
You spoke of humbling. At the School that teaches US Navy Corpsmen, medics essentially, there is glass case that holds a Navy Dress White Uniform. The uniform is stained in blood and oil. On the left sleeve the Red Cross armband was removed and the fabric beneath was still stark white. Humbling thing as a student.
Wow, I'd love to see a pic of that
Finally, someone makes the same connection that I have made for years, the Japanese had defeated a shaky Russian empire that was at best a weak sister to the other European powers. The Japanese reckoned the US would accept the same resolution as the Russia Empire had. It's called underestimating your opponent and overestimating your own ability. It is almost always a fatal miscalculation and for the Japanese it was the end of their world as they knew it.
While Russia's decline was a factor, don't undersell Japan here, their rapid modernization in the late 19th/early 20th century is a formidable feat, going from a backwards isolationist nation to a major imperial power in about a generation, I don't blame the Japanese being so prideful in this era.
You alone made that connection? For whole years you say. The 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War and it’s impact on Japanese Navy Doctrine has been understood by military historians for decades. I’m pretty sure I read that connection in both Stokesbury’s and Keegan’s short histories of the war both written before 2000.
@@RipOffProductionsLLC To be honest though Russia was pretty bad in the early 1900's
they virtually wiped out British, French and Dutch empires from all of South East Asia
@@tusharkumar4444 because French and Dutch was occupied and British was fighting a three front war
"I don't envy the new commander."
"...Bruh."
@@mitchellhawkes22 I'd not bet against it being inserted for a little bit of dark comedy
"and no one thought that the shallow water torpedo's would work!"
The British look on sipping tea: "Well we did show the Japanese how to do it in Taranto"
I mean Louis Mountbatten outright predicted the attack on pearl harbor. Which isn't surprising since it was exactly what they would have done in the Japanese position (except they would have attacked at night). The WW2 British navy is heavily underrated, especially their carrier arm.
If memory serves me right, HMS Warspite stopped by Hawaii on her way to repairs and also said that Pearl Harbor would be an easy target for torpedos as it had been there for Taranto.
its right there
u can ask for refuge. be like me. a citizen
I thought Taranto had deeper water.
"I don't envy their new commander... its me isn't it?" Love it.
THE GOD OF HISTORICAL ACCURACY HAS RETURNED TO OUR GRACES, MANKIND WILL BE RESTORED AGAIN!
PLEASE STOP SHOUTING!!!!!!!!!
@@bazsnell3178 NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
*LOUD NOISES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*
PRAISE THE SUNNNNNN
Get real, according to the new version 2 or 3 people won several battle all by themselves.
The SHEER cinematic proportions of your reviews sends chills down my spine
Always worth the wait
To add to the repair of The Yorktown, they had thousands of welders working on the ship for the entirety of the 48hrs, and even dedicated a majority of the island’s power plant to the port
I had low expectations for this movie, but am glad to say it exceeded my expectations on every level!
Just yesterday I thought " Where is that masterful rouge History Buffs?" and lo and behold less than 24 hrs later here you are. Huzzah!
Same
Now time fore oversimplified to uploaf
Same dude
I always thought he was more of a bleu than a rouge
Dude, me too.
He’s returned like Napoleon. Hopefully you can stay a while.
So, does that mean one last brief blaze of glory before being banished to a barren rock in the middle of the ocean?
Until one day near the small town of Waterloo
Don't you mean like Douglas MacArthur?
@@weldonwin Yep, down to St. Helena.
With hope, his glory will too be eternal
If you are looking for a great book to read about Midway check out "Shattered Sword". It's from the Japanese side and explains very nicely how and why they lost.
Excellent book
Thank you just added it to my audio book library
To be accurate, it is written from Japanese source material. It also corrects (the books claim not mine, I will actually be downloading both books soon) many errors in Mitsuo Fuchida's Midway: The Battle That Doomed Japan which would be from a Japanese view (he was the Air Group commander aboard the Akagi during pearl harbor and was aboard her when she was attacked at midway).
The battle of midway is one of the most decisive battles in history. In A battle the chance of the Imperial Japanese to win which is small already got smaller
the Japanese would have done better to sail away from Midway and the American carriers while recovering theitr planes than straight at them....remember their planes could outrange ours....then turnabout and launch a full strike from a distance....that would probably have allowed them to win the battle
“Nimitz sent the Enterprise”
I’ll just assume that was a battle won.
A fellow man of culture, I see
The grey ghost is the MVP
Irl plot armor.
Too bad she met the breakers at the end of the war. Most Battle Stars of any American Warship of WW2. The light cruiser San Diego came close, but she was no Enterprise.
@@chem9773 Lucky E bullshit intensifies. Seriously, if anyone reading this puts Enterprise on your PvP defence fleet go fornicate yourself.
Makes my day getting a notification from History Buffs!! 👍
I was literally on the edge of my seat when you stopped. That's ok it gives me something to look forward to. I love the original Midway and so far this one looks very good.
I’ve watched the “Midway” from the 1970s, Pearl Harbor and now this. Excellent review from Nick and an amazing movie. I’m captivated by the heroism exhibited by the sailers and flyers. Bless them all.
The original is great… this is it but with CGI and don’t @ me it looks better
What a fantastic presentation. This is the ONLY way movies should be reviewed.
Sending to my Dad, who taught me about Midway as he hung out there enroute to the Philippines circa 1970.
The story of the Yorktown being turned around in three days is the one I tell to people to remind them that anything is possible when you muster all your effort and tools. On a meta level, seeing Midway rank #1 in the box office on its opening week was an epic finger to Hollywood for their refusal to make war pictures.
Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line, Dunkirk, Hurt Locker, Inglorious Basterds, Three Kings, Platoon, Jarhead, Full Metal Jacket, Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, Glory, Hacksaw Ridge, Fury, 1917, Flags of Our Fathers, Letters From Iwo Jima, War Horse, etc etc. I could go on and on - I ain't even mentioning the awful shit they put out, like Pearl Harbour, or even the really incredible miniseries like Band of Brothers, The Pacific, and Generation Kill. What you talking about bro? Hollywood makes war stuff, it's a staple genre and well-served by quality shit.
onylra the ambivalent Nice. And how about all the Churchill films, and “Then There Were Giants.” And three Stalingrad classics. And Gettysburg and Andersonville.
So were you disappointed that this movie barely mentioned how the Yorktown was repaired and put to sea? Midway was so much trivia and very short on interesting facts.
Hollywood was only too happy to make Iraq and Afghanistan war movies telling us all how evil and corrupt the west is. They're not necessarily always wrong and this would have been fine if they weren't being made and shown whilst our troops were out there taking bullets and seeing their friends getting blown up in wars our government's had sent them to. Even if you don't agree with war don't go making propaganda films for the other side.
@@nahladel So in other words don't actually represent the reality of wars that's like telling a reporter in nam not to report on ambushes or the tet offensive wars aren't always just we literally kicked in Iraqs teeth just about a decade before we invaded it the fuck did it do to get invaded again oh wait nothing there were no wmds iraq had them when we sold them to some to fight Iran in the deadliest war since WWII
"...a feat thought to be impossible..." [laughs in Taranto 1940]
What he's referring to isn't the concept of a harbor attack itself, but the idea that Pearl Harbor was incredibly shallow, which led both the US and the Japanese to believe that aerial torpedoes couldn't function in such shallow waters. It wasn't until the Japanese modified their torpedoes that it became possible for aerial torpedoes to function in said shallow waters.
@@Dragunov8808 My point being that something similar and just as "impossible" had been done previously, which should have been a red fucking flag to anyone regarding Pearl Harbor, but no.
Using about 20 or so planes to raid a harbour like Taranto is not thought to be impossible. The idea of 6 carriers with hundreds of planes coordinating together to form a single cohesive fighting force to strike a harbour is thought to be impossible.
Maledetta Albione!
*angry Duce noises
The National Museum of the Pacific War (a.k.a The Nimitz Museum) in Nimitz's hometown of Fredericksburg, Texas is awesome. They do reenactments and fire blanks. The heat from the flamethrower was unexpected and unnerving.
The fire fighting crews aboard Yorktown were in a league of their own.
Midway is.... weird. It is historically accurate in a lot of places, and in others it is a maddeningly cartoonish farce.
Roland Emmerich did his best to portray things accurately... but he's still Roland Emmerich so it still came off as silly/ a video game trailer. I'd say he was the wrong director for the film but he practically funded it himself so he was the only choice. It's a lot better then making no movie at all, which is more then I could say for Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor.
I feel the same way. Personally, I’ve been more of a fan of the 1976 movie, though probably do to a mix of nostalgia, a preference for its heavier focus on Midway rather than mixing together a lot of Pearl Harbor, Doolittle, Coral Sea and Midway, and the uniqueness of a movie using actual footage of the battle. I think the modern version could’ve been better without some of the more silly parts, but it’s still a good historical portrayal.
I also thought the script was a bit sophomoric and there was a good deal of overacting and overdramatization. But it was comprehensive and covered lesser-known parts of the battle and the events of the first 6 months of the war.
I actually loved the movie. Mainly, for re-creation of the "Big E" and planes. And finally, Waldron's sqadron flew Devastators, not Dauntlesses as in the 1976 movie. But there was one thing I missed - Thatch's boys and their Wildcats.
That maybe true, but Roland Emmerich did manage to portray the timeline of the events leading up to Midway better than most movie.
Can you do Letters from Iwo Jima or Flags of Our Fathers next, and also were all so happy for your return!
Be interesting if he does Hacksaw Ridge and comment how much the movie downplays events.
Some day, they need to make a book and movie about the repair of the Yorktown before the details are lost. Those men were unsung heroes.
intel won that battle more then anything. we cracked their codes and discovered the trap. intel is the most important thing in a war.
To bad so many 'superiors' and bureaucrats in Washington didn't want to share credit and punished Joe Rochefort.
He had a plaque in his office that said, "We can accomplish anything so long as no one cares who gets the credit."
I've always said that the US won WW2 through intel, logistics and war production. We knew where to go, we had the means to get there and we had the means to have the proper gear for it.
The intel put the people in the right place. But without the skill of those actually doing the fighting it wouldn't have mattered. Example what if the American pilots just missed the Japanese carriers and didn't sink 4 maybe just sunk one or none? Intelligence is very important no argument there but it cant win a battle alone.
I won't deny that intel helped win, but there were a lot of complex factors that went into the outcome, including Nagumo's Dilemma.
@@terryrussel3369 and Turing in UK was put into prison regardless of his team accomplishements, just for being gay?;/ past was the worst.
Lastly, every American *should* learn about the events of Midway. This moment in time was *the* most pivotal in our history, and is still effecting history to this day. Much respect for everything sacrificed on both sides.
Right, and maybe one day a decent director will make a good movie about it... That's definitely not the case for this movie.
@@TheIndianalain I do have to agree with his stance, now that I've watched both videos, on not really respecting the fanatics of the Japanese military and government. For those who fought when they did not want to or simply felt they were doing it to defend their country/family/way of life...I still respect those soldiers who sacrificed their lives and well-being.
One could argue many points in American history were absolutely pivotal. Valley Forge, Gettysburg, Midway. Every single time all seemed lost, a final desperate defense and so many times won through great leadership, grit and a bit of luck
1965 Hart-Celler Act had much greater long-term impact on the American history and society that the whole war with Japan.
@@FasterthanLight11 Coral Sea is important recipe for success of the US in Midway, because they prevented the Japanese in sending 6 fleet carriers for Midway operation.
Even though they only damaged the 2 enemy carriers in Coral Sea the US have breathing room in Midway
I’d like to suggest an episode on The Last Emperor; having recently read Edward Behr’s biography of Puyi after seeing the movie is fascinating.
27:36 God that is such a well crafted scene. It very well mixes the historical context of Target AF with cinematic greatness through acting, music, and camerawork.
You said just above the engine stalling, in fact the engine will run at all airspeeds (low, higher may break it) when they say stall speed it is the speed at which the wing is no longer capable of providing lift
was hoping to find this comment!
Here is a detail that the movie gets wrong: The overall commander for the Americans at Midway was Admiral Fletcher, not Spruance. Spruance was Fletcher's subordinate.
Brilliant! Also, Halsey wasn't even there, he'd been invalided with psoriasis. Far as I can tell, credit should go to Fletcher and Nimitz
Fletcher did not act as Spruance's superior but as an equal. He even allowed Spruance to initiate the main air strike and that he would then follow Spruance's lead. When Yorktown was damaged later in the day, Fletcher was not in a position to exercise overall command and turned Spruance loose to act on his own. So Spruance, a rookie at carrier operations, ended up making most if not all of the critical command decisions during the battle despite officially being subordinate to Fletcher.
@@kevinfrank5527 Mostly true, but still contains Samuel Elliot Morrison's distortions. Spruance attacked first on Fletcher's orders (we have them now), Fletcher could not attack with Yorktown's air group immediately because he had to recover his scout planes first. The crucial battle decisions were made by Nimitz and Fletcher. Fletcher only commanded the mop up phase of the battle.
I know the following is a cheap shot given Spruance's lack of experience commanding carriers, but it is till truth. The launching of Task force 16's strike group was a fiasco. Hornet's air group was insubordinate and refused to launch its strike to the reported sighting instead choosing to fly due west into nothing. Enterprises launch took over an hour and never assembled into a coordinated strike force. The Enterprise air group proceeded to the target piece meal and took appalling losses. Spruance was the Task force 16 commanding officer and should be at least some of the responsibility for this.
Welcome back. Missed your content. This was amazing. You summed up the staggering responsibility that Nimitz faced. That guy saved of the Pacific. Gave me chills watching this.
The Pacific War really was the US Navies finest hour.
The Japanese could have easily won that war had things played out just a little differently.
As an Australian, Nimitz is definitely one of my very favourite Americans in history. If he had have screwed up, my country probably would have been attacked by the Japanese again at some point.
There's a small inaccuracy that I found in the movie, and I found it watching this video. At the 3:36 mark during a fly-by of the USS Arizona and USS Vestal you can see the USS Nevada aft of the Arizona, the last in line of Battleship Row, and on B-turret you'll notice three gun barrels. This is wrong. The Nevada was equipped with ten 14" rifles in four turrets, arranged A to D, 3-2-2-3. One of the reasons I'm familiar with this fact is that my grandfather was briefly on the crew that manned the port battery of B-turret, serving aboard her for the voyage from Pearl Harbor to Puget Sound where she completed her upgrades and repairs.
Gotcha, Midway! ;-)
My great-grandfather went to college with Doolittle and they regularly wrote each other. They had attended the same college and found a common interest, namely their time training for the Great War.
@@mitchellhawkes22 You are correct, he was never sent to Europe and performed his wartime service as a flight instructor in the US. My Great-grandfather was sent overseas just as the war was drawing to a close, thankfully never having had to fight. Despite both never having actually engaged in conflict, they both performed a duty to the nation.
@@mitchellhawkes22 Also, i'm well aware of what WW1 is. Its how both my great-grandfather and my grandfather referred it as because I didn't know what either of them were talking about at the time of them telling me the story.
Even though this is the first part, and you're covering the history, I am now more intrigued by the film and will probably watch it this weekend.
It's a great movie. You won't be disappointed.
some people give it shit because it's mainly CGI but honestly it doesn't even look that bad and represents the history very well in my opinion
@@taloob493 agreed
The character work isn't the best, but from what I can tell, they stick to the history fairly well, and they do an excellent job of portraying the battles themselves. Yeah there's a lot of CGI, but it's well done and the direction is generally good during the combat.
I think I've seen the movie about four times now.
As a history lover that was never particularly drawn to WW2, this was very invigorating! One of your best no doubt.
AS A FORMER HISTORY TEACHER, HS & COLLEGE, I AM PROUD TO SAY THIS IS THE BEST HISTORY BASED MOVIE REVIEW SHOW ON YT.
You should watch 3 part series of RUclips vids depicting midway battle from Japanese perspective.... Also read the after action reports submitted by the squadron commanders... Nick did a good job on the morning battles, but the movie horribly depicted the late afternoon battle and completely ignored the skirmishes over the next few days
@@GTASpuds725 can you tell me what's their channel? I wanna know what the Japanese thought of this movie
THANKS
The Doolittle raid wasn't spotted by "fishing boats". Japanese patrol boats were placed there, for just that eventuality. The B-25s had longer range than the Japanese expected.