Ya know, Nobody ever highlights the efforts and accomplishments of the Salvage teams of Pearl Harbor after 07 DEC. YOUR segment is the only thing I have ever seen over so many years. THANK YOU.
My Dad served on the Yorktown CV-5 from Norfolk to Midway (he was 17 at the time). He is still with us at 96 years old. After surviving the sinking of the Yorktown and being transported back to Pearl, he worked on the West Virginia down in the engine room cleaning up, still body parts to remove etc. I can't even fathom what those brave men and women went through.
The salvage teams deserve the utmost respect. They were doing things that had never been done before in the worst of conditions, surrounded by their dead colleagues.
When I was in graduate school, I had the honor of doing oral history interviews of Pearl Harbor survivors. The first one was a man who was the 'primer' man for a main gun of the Nevada. His story about the day was fascinating to hear. Most of the crew stayed with the ship during the salvage and recovery phase, and did any task asked of them. Another man I interviewed was in the fire control center of the Tennessee, which is deep in the ship. They could feel explosions from outside, but until they came on deck they had no idea what had gone on outside. I have held in my own hand a piece of bomb shrapnel he picked up from the deck of the Tennessee. It was a great pleasure to interview these men. Those oral histories are archived at Youngstown State University, Maag Library, Youngstown Ohio.
Yes. Amazong footage, most of which I have never seen before (and I have been looking for Pearl Harbor color references for a long, long time.) Excellent work! 👍
My Great Uncle Harold Carmack was one of the men trapped inside and tapping on the underside of the Arizona. He worked in the boiler rooms in the bottom of the ship. May he rest in peace and be remembered.
RIP. Do you know that a Japanese submarine was spotted spying close to Pearl Harbor just before the attack and that the US Oahu radar signal picked up the Japanese planes coming ? Do you believe that the lieutenant Kermit Tyler mistook those planes with American B-17s , not asking further orders from upper layers of command? Would a 5 years old kid believe that? Check here the truth about WW2 : ruclips.net/video/toJQIuPRJrU/видео.html
My father had just returned from breakfast on the West Virginia (BB-48) when the attack started. At 19 years old, he ended up swimming, badly burned and blinded he spent over a year in the hospital. He regained his eyesight, and numerous skin grafts. Plagued by bad nightmares at times. Retired in 1961.
The Battle of the Pacific was won by a logistics and production effort that is unparalleled in history. Admiral Yamamoto was so very correct in understanding the economic potential of the US and the true failure of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. Viewed almost 80 years later, the tenacity, speed, and skill of the recovery effort at Pearl is still an astounding achievement. It turned shock and defeat into an unsung victory that laid the foundation for VJ Day. Lest we Forget.
All i can say is thank the Heavens for Admiral Chester Nimitz, who took command of the Pacific fleet after Admiral Kimmel was fired. He immediately began getting the US Navy back on its feet and in fighting trim. The results were stunning, 6 months after Pearl Harbor the IJN was dealt a fatal blow at Midway and was never the same after losing all 4 of their aircraft carriers.
@@deanladue3151 To be fair Kimmel wasn't entirely to blame. The foolish decision makers at the Navy department in Washington had him operating with one hand tied behind his back.
@@deanladue3151 They didn’t fire enough officer’s. They revered McCarthy who I don’t believe was so brilliant, he was more concerned about looking victorious than actually taking care of his men and insuring that we had proper logistics
retired US Navy... My first time in Pearl Harbor, I flew in... had to undergo medical exams and further Clearance interviews... My first time passing the Arizona was leaving port and while doing maintenance on the Flight deck of Kilauea, AE-26... The Air Det chief came out and saw us all standing in place facing starboard. He immediately started yelling at us to get back to work...to which a very Cheeky Po3 responded, "Stand at Attention, chucklehead" I have been in and out of Pearl Harbor 19 times...yet I had no idea of the gruesome details of the recovery. They were the greatest generation and it becomes more and more aparent with each story told.
I'd known that the Americans had carried out some truly herculean feats of repair and recovery after Pearl Harbour, but its quite interesting to hear the details of how it was done. It's fascinating on the level of "amateurs study tactics, but professionals study logistics" kind of way. Thanks!
@@glenchapman3899 Not trying to be an ass here but some of our greatest achievements as humans were due to finding ways of being more efficient at carnage.
@@korbell1089 Completely agree. I just wish we could change the balance. More wonderful innovation and a lot less carnage. Maybe the younger generations can be a bit more successful than mine was
@Da Big Kahuna Catfish I often feel the same way about the younger generations now but then I think about the troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and similar places and realize not all are the sniveling whiners who know everything yet know nothing.
When you pause the video for a moment and think about some of the statistics involved coupled with the limited resources and the fact that it was even accomplished at all is staggering, let alone on the timeline it was done in. Here is a salute to all of the unsung heroes that worked in some of the worst conditions imaginable to refloat these ships. A truly forgotten piece of history. Smart video, thank you.
Great video! My Dad was one of the salvage divers that dove on the Nevada, California, & West Virginia. He never talked much about it, but he did mention what a terrible job it was to recover the bodies on the California. One thing he did talk about was how rewarding it was when some of the ships were afloat again & how pleased he was when they were able to roll the Oklahoma back over again before reflecting it. This is the first time I have ever seen any of the photos of them actually working on the ships.
Those closeups of the divers emerging from the depths, and then leaping back in to do more dangerous work again were an eye opener for me. Placed in the context of this film and the audio narrative gave the colour images real life. There may be more clips in the cannister where these were stored. Perhaps some clips of your Dad too . . .
The sheer effort to salvage the battleships and then those same battleships getting their sweet revenge sinking Japanese ships later on in the war is quite amazing
All the histories I have read/heard made rather light of what was clearly a herculean effort. There was also an admitted degree of bloody-mindedness mixed in with the pragmatic need for the ships. Even US sources admit that building new hulls and equipment for Cassin and Downes was mostly an effort to say "screw you" to the Japanese. The rest was propaganda... to point to how few ships were lost to the ongoing war effort.
They sank nothing. Take the US battleships away from the Surigao Strait and pretty much nothing changes in terms of ships sunk. It was mostly US destroyers' torpedo work. US Battleships just landed a few damaging hits on the Yamashiro. They were useful at shore bombardments, but smaller, less resource and manpower intensive ships would have done just as well.
@@VersusARCH "They sank nothing." The presence of large capital ships often affects the deployment of the enemy's units without needing to sink anything: just because they rarely fired on another ship, does not mean the battle would have gone the same if the Japanese had not had to reckon with the potential of dealing with them. Although not able to go one for one with the newer Japanese Battleships, even the best cruisers the Japanese could muster would not have been able to challenge them directly. Much like how old British battleships often deterred German cruisers from attacking convoys, deploying an older battleship in a smart location could effectively deny the Japanese lighter units access to or through a choke point, catching or sinking them wasn't their job, just forcing them to go another way can be strategically significant. Sinking enemy ships is really only the last 10% of the effort of waging naval war and in many ways it's optional: if you can bottle up the enemy fleet in harbor or deny them the use of the sea lanes, you've done most of the work already. The U.S. fleet certainly could have done the job without these old slow gunnery barges, but they were far from useless even ignoring the shore bombardment role.
@@jermainerace4156 You just described US world policy concerning carriers. Just having a aircraft carrier in the area is often enough to make the point. Carriers being the modern version of Battleships for waving the flag. At a certain point the enemy is forced to respond to having such a large military asset wandering around in their backyard. In peacetime it's back down or go to war. In wartime it's bring your own large assests, attack with a massive air strike, or be very very clever.
@@readhistory2023 To be really fair though, by the middle of the wwr carriers were already primary in the role of projecting force, and these old battleships were mostly a deterrent to cruisers and destroyers, and I suspect would have been quite vulnerable to carrier strikes if the IJN could have spared any, submarines if they werent so slow, and possibly destroyer swarms once again if the IJN could have spared any.
I've once read the memoirs of a US Navy salvage diver who worked in the wreck of the USS Arizona, dragging a heavy suit with air, electricity and telephone cables, in pitch black dark, through destroyed compartments and hundreds of decomposing bodies floating around. I cannot imagine a tougher job.
Excellent series! My Dad- Charles K. Anderson- was a USN medical corpsman stationed at the Dispensary (Building 72, I believe...which is still there, preserved) on Ford Island in 12/7/41 directly next to the USS California. He witnessed and, of course, participated in the entire event first hand. He also received personal hand-signed commendation letters from Nimitz and Forrestal for a rescue of crewman from a PBY seaplane which crashed near Ford island after the attack. I have those letters in original copy. Dad later sailed on the tanker Neosho (which was docked on Battleship Row that day) , a 175' PC boat, and a rocket-launching assault craft in the South Pacific war. He survived and rarely spoke about the war.
I shall never again complain about a task involving "too much effort". Having taking part in a few minor salvage operations, I can attest to the remarkable nastiness of the interior of a sunken vessel. Since oil floats on water, as the water is pumped out, whatever oil is floating around inside the hull, will be perfectly distributed over every suface of the interior as the water level sinks. The oil binds any dirt and grime floting in the water, so every surface, nook and crannie will be covered i muck. The bilge of a ship or boat is often like a sewer. Any water, including condensation that enters the ship will catch dirt and grime, bread crumbs, toenail clippings, grease and anything a person might disgard, and flush it down into the bilge. Under normal circumstances there is never enough water in the bilge to actually flush out all the dirt and residue, so over time cakes of foulness will build up in all inacessible parts of the interior. Just imagine the state of your house, if there were hidden compartments all under the furniture and floors, where noone ever had a chance to reach with any mop or vacuum cleaner. Now, when a ship sinks, all those years of built up grime and dirt will dissolve in the water. Add oil or diesel, and why not the content of the septic tank and whatever food stores you had on board to the mixture, and you will have one very nasty soup filling upp your boat. I thankfully never had to deal with neither live ammunition nor the remains of human beings in any salvage. I can not even begin to imagine what that must be like.
People underestimate the nastiness of flooding in general - even on "dry" land, flooding isn't just water levels rising but all the other stuff that comes up with the water. Serious flooding can leave a house in very similar condition to the above, at least up to the high-water mark. Though fortunately in a flooded house 1) the water will (usually) go down on its own eventually, and 2) you (usually) don't have to clean up thousands of tons of spilled fuel oil.
I have worked on cleaning, and repairing, several boats that had been sunk. Everything you said was spot on. Besides being intensely nasty, it's also very creepy going down into the bowels of the ship.
@@invadegreece9281we do repair work on river tugs. They sink quite often when not pushing a tow.. I once watched a small tug dive under water, like a submarine, because he was going to fast coming around our dock. The creepy boats are the ones that somebody died in. Usually from their life vests hanging up on something.
@@johngault7329 ah I see, just think of the horror of going through something like that but 100 times bigger while hearing tapping and hammering from the rescue efforts while it’s basically pitch black.
Hearing about those poor men who died in the dark air pockets has got to be the most depressing and dark thing out of this affair. It's bad enough to die in combat, but to survive, have hope of being rescued, only to slowly suffocate... that's just all kinds of fscked up.
And to know air, sunshine, and other people are only yards away. But you can't get out and nobody can get to you. We use the word horrific quite a bit, but ... that's horrific.
It’s worse, because cutting a hole in the ship to get to the men could have caused the ship to sink further. Due to the air pockets displacing large amounts of water. Cutting a hole would have released the air flooding the compartment and drowning any survivors.
Honestly, I would rather go that way than drown. Running out of air in a compartment like that, people just get sleepy and pass out. Sure, the waiting would be awful, but all things considered, I think it wouldn't be as bad as, say, burning when a fuel store goes up. There are far worse ways to go.
I read somewhere that at night time when sailors were on guard duty. You could hear the trapped men banging away. It haunted a lot of men and many tried to get out of doing guard at night.
most who have not served in the military or in heavy industrial and construction jobs think that warfare is mostly about being a billy badass and shooting up the enemy. Nope. Warfare is mostly about maintaining, repairing, and caring for the complex systems that allow billy badass to even exist. The work done by mechanics, repairers, construction and metal workers, and technicians is really what wins wars.
In a much larger sense, conducting war is about 4 things. 1) Extracting raw materials needed for warfare. 2) Transporting those materials to a location for processing. 3) Processing those raw materials into weapons/supplies. 4) Transporting those weapons/supplies to the battlefield.
@@Kevin_Kennelly I would ask you to consider, no argument intended, that you missed the single biggest item which is trained and well-led people. None of the material counts for a plug nickel without the men and now women that make those machines do their job. It's amazing what are a lesser equipped highly trained individual can accomplish against a better equipped lesser trained group.
@@sundiver137 I think you meant N.B. Forrest, not Grant. And the battle he made that statement after (Brice's Crossroads), he actually got there last with the least and still won.
@Shariff khan why does a man (born in 1953) who headed for a time an organisation (formed in 1947) need to be investigated for an attack which took place in 1941? Time travel?
My late father-in-law arrived within weeks of the bombing working throughout the war on Ford Island as an aviation machinist mate while all this work was proceeding within yards of his duty station. This is the most complete review of these events I have ever read or seen. Thank you. Jim
This video is very well done and appreciated. When I was in high school I had a teacher his name was Russell Smith he was on the uss Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor his stories of the attack (he was on duty)and its aftermath were harrowing!He was an actual hero you could touch (or more importantly could touch you)!Somehow he convinced me to join the Navy straight out of school!I loved that man! what an awesome friend!
Previous videos just skip the salvage efforts and go right to further battle narratives. This was an important look at the less glamorous but vitally important work to reclaim several key ships. Thanks, and thanks for correctly pronouncing Nevada.
can you give me a key to pronouncing Nevada that I can remember? Oh and I am out here in the land of the Ar-kan-sas and Ark-an-saw rivers LOL. Name changes right at the border. Actually I have been told by somebody who knows these things (native American anthropologist) that both the Kansans and the Arkansans are pronouncing the names seriously wrong LOL
@@aldenconsolver3428 I know what you mean. I'm from the southeast part of Kansas. We pronounce it like the state. If you go to Wichita and say Arkansas, they'll get very mad. "It's Ar-kan-sas." I just use the short term Ark. Ark River and Ark City. The name for Kansas came from the Kansa indians. It's pronounced Kan-za. Don't you just love people from a state created long after another state telling them their name is pronounced differently? Then, the natives tell you that you're both wrong. Some names in the US I don't even know how to pronounce. Then, we can't even agree on spellings. Pittsburg and Pittsburgh are great examples.
@@michaelpiatkowskijr1045 if you’re an Alabama native you don't pronounce Talladega Tal-ah-day-gah you pronounce it Tal-ah-dig-ah which, as a Georgia native, sounds really...dumb. This is the craziest example I can think of for what you're talking about. Edit;Correcting auto complete misspelling.
My uncle served in the Canadian Merchant Navy during the war and made his first visit to Pearl Harbour in 1944. He said it still looked like a disaster area and it was extremely difficult for him to explain the feeling he had but you can sense a great sense of loss. Probably a sentiment felt all through North America and the rest of the free world that Sunday December 7th. Before Sept 11, 2001 I would hear and watch the stories of the veterans talk about the attack. All sharing that perilous day which at the moment. Was a date of defeat and unimaginable loss. To which the later generations would never quite understand and less though as the greatest generation disappeared. But the we as part of a free world were given our own taste of Pearl Harbour, Sept 11, 2001. A date which everyone of age of memory and feeling. Knows where they were and exactly what they were doing. I just want to thank you for bringing to life that feeling I got from listening to those who have passed. The actual event of that Sunday. Reminding myself of that misery to which was a war that was as of November 11, 1918. Never to have happened. But did. Plunging an estimated 60 million to their deaths. This series certainly gives essence to those times of the disparity and struggle that must have been felt but yet at a hushed silence to not break the confidence or spirit of America resolve.
Nice essay. I never thought my baby boomer generation would experiance an event on the scale of Pearl Harbor. September 11, 2001 brought us great sadness & shock. Followed by sincere unity & resolve. Now we have Covid-19. Where is the unity & resolve to defeat this enemy? Victory requires everyone to do their bit, all the time, everyday. Our troops suffered fatigue in war for years. Mask on, please be kind. Happy (in a different way) Holidays.
One of Stephen Ambrose best quotes is that the men of ww2 were part of the WE generation. True of his citizen GIs and all thoes in my grandads generation in England (born 1926) he always talks of "we".... "We just got on with it". "We'll manage lad". Always think of Ambrose quote when thinking of these amazing people.
@@CSSVirginia most people don't serve combat duty so it was literally like a job. It would be really embarrassing to have people bloviate about how they feel honored about your service when you really just moved freight around in the continental USA during the great depression when men were desperate for work.
This is why I love this channel... As a naval history enthousiast I have seen lots of footage of the pacific war. But I have never seen this footage, and have never read anything so comprehensive concerning the pearl harbor savage effort. My hat's off to you good sir, love it!!!
Been a warships buff an a Pearl Harbor nut for 50 years, but this is the best I ever saw! You out did your self, how the hell did you find this color footage, it's like a 70 year time machine! Well done! There's a book I read called "Journey into Darkness" about a 19 year old diver at Pearl, goes well with this. Can't wait till part 3, probably all about turning over the Oklahoma.
Great color video of divers and tenders working the West Virginia. Proud to say that's one of my jobs; being a dive tender for the RCSO Dive Team. Great stories, thanks for telling them.
This is turning out to be one of my favourite you tube videos. I've been fascinated by marine salvage for 50 years and have read and seen endless pieces. This is right near the top. Thank you so much.
This is absolutely astounding this kind of real unfettered history about the lengthy process of recovering and salvaging as much as possible and recycling anything else. Thank you for all the time you put in to make this video. It has been a treat to watch as a bit of a history buff.
This is a most interesting series, as much is - justifiably - made of the BANG-BANG events. The salvage and repair is time consuming, dangerous, dirty and extreemly unpleasant. Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) is closely enough as toxic as Hydrogen Cyanide (HCN). It is however important to have this work documented - especially because it is so often overlooked.
One of its dangerous properties is the fact that it has a very strong and rotten smell at first but human organism loses its ability to detect H2S after a few minutes. Sailors and other people might have thought it was just smelly and farty down there but it was ok because the smell "vanished" after few minutes and they have a lot of work to do. Sadly that was the time they would start to duffer from effects of this toxic gas. We've been reminded of this many times during my time in labs at high school and college to always act as if there is dangerous level of H2S when we start to smell it and to tell others because they might not sense it anymore. This has usually lead to some fart jokes but at least we've remembered to do so.
Hydrogen Sulfide is absolutely nasty stuff, responsible for far more famous and notable poison gasses, as it's almost common in enclosed spaces where any biological activity is taking place. So, the presence of hydrogen sulfide literally everywhere is to be expected. Its a testament to the abilities and efficiency of the work crews that more men weren't killed in the salvage work.
@@mortisCZ I used to work in a Sewer plant. H2S was a constant danger- and since we worked around it all the time, we couldn't smell it and had remote sensors in the area it was prevalent... To this day (almost 30 years since I last worked there) I still have trouble smelling it..
I'm somewhat in awe of the fact that concrete was among the materials to refloat these battleships. Also, this is the most extensive footage of Pearl Harbor post-attack that I've seen.
I think that the efforts probably tool the work of almost every diver crew in the Us, particularly the western US. Those men weren't all sailors, being a skilled diver was an exempt position during WWII mobilization, and many of the divers depicted were private persons, likely already on contract with the Navy and the Navy yard. As you might notice, some of those shown are clearly of native Hawaiin descent as will the records show. Almost everyone in Hawaii was outraged at the attack on Pearl Harbor and was more than willing to work wherever they could to assist. In early 1942, the residents of Hawaii were still apprehensive of a potential invasion of the island chain by the Japanese.
Absolutely fascinating. My father was a WW2 navy veteran and I thought I knew a lot of this history but this presentation and it’s detailed information filled in a lot of unknowns. Tremendous job you have done! Thank you!
I highly recommend, “Descent into Darkness: The Divers of Pearl Harbor”. “Descent into Darkness tells of the heartbreaking and nearly impossible work of the salvage divers of Pearl Harbor, men who literally had to swim through the aftermath of the December 7, 1941 attack. Told through Raymer’s experiences, the 1996 memoir tells of some of the unsung heroes of Pearl Harbor while providing readers with an inside look at one of the nation’s most devastating historical events.” It’s heroic, horrific and heartbreaking all at the same time.
A terrific read I agree. You might also like to read "Trapped at Pearl Harbour" by Stephen Bower Young. Trapped in the overturned Oklahoma for 25 hours before being rescued. For Drachinifel - Incredible series, thank you for putting it all together.
Also recommended are "Raising the fleet" ,"Resurrection" and "Pearl harbor: fleet salvage and final appraisal". These can be obtained from the Naval Archives and your better book dealers. These books are on the more technical aspect of how to re-float a battleship.
I even more highly recommend my documentary "the biggest crime in history" for finding out about Kermit Tyler and the US radar signal that picked up the Japanese planes coming . Check here the truth about WW2 : ruclips.net/video/toJQIuPRJrU/видео.html
That book definitely is a must read for those wanting to know and understand more of what the divers had to go through during salvage and recovery operations. His descriptions of feeling by hand in water filled compartments was so eerie because by that time when they were diving into the interiors of the ships the bodies of dead seamen were sometimes floating above them with their skeletal limbs hanging down scraping the tops of the divers helmets. I don't know how they could keep going below and keep encountering things like that but they did.
"Dead ships sail again. A fleet has arisen from Pearl Harbor." That line from Victory at Sea always chokes me up, and I keep thinking of it as I watch this series of videos.
I had a radio talk-show program a decade ago in Cincinnati, and I had a guest who was a Pearl Harbor Survivor on. He was an amazing resource for that day. His name was Joe Whitt and he was on the USS San Fransisco. He passed away in April, 2021 at the age of 97 and our cinversations prior to the program, during, and after the program were riveting. I visited him off and on since, with him and his wife over an informal meal. My father was with the 1st Marines in WW II with his most intense fighting on Okinawa. Great generation!
Those hard hat divers... Unimaginable levels of bravery and risk. Thanks for posting this series Drach.I actually hadn't seen this footage till now...and I've seen a lot. Well done sir.
I wonder what the Admiralty thought when the first pilots began returning with reports of the attack. They told them about the various ships they'd torpedoed or hangers they'd bombed. Then someone asked about the carriers. And the pilots said "What carriers? We didn't see any."
I read an article that made a pretty good case that missing the submarines turned out to be as bad - maybe worse - than missing the carriers. Considering the sub fleet wiped out the Japanese merchant fleet, a good part of their naval fleet, incoming supply, and any chance to get enough fuel around.
I have rewatched this series on Pearl Harbour Salvage many times over the years and find it just as good to watch as my first viewing years ago. I have always been amazed at how quickly the U.S. Navy was able to recover the large majority of the severely damaged ships. Naturally the location being in Harbour was a major factor in the recovery process. There are some very sad finds during the recoveries. The West Virgina has some sad deaths with the poor Sailors who lasted two weeks plus in the Engine Room Lockers before the course of time took over. Over the total War, there must have been other cases where men were trapped below decks in ships and or submarines sinking in shallow waters of under 50 metres depth (Truk Lagoon plus countless other places) where crew members had to endure a similar slow wait for that final day. War is such a ~nice~ pass-time we Human's engage ourselves in. Yours truly, Byron
Thank you for this tale. heroic efforts from men who were really unsung heroes. Us mechanics get little thanks for our life's work, fixing the machinery that does the work and moves our goods on a daily basis. These were the front line workers of that era
The saddest part of this was the days and weeks after the attack. Hearing the multiple tappings coming from the ships slowly getting less and less. While watching one video about the attack on Pearl Harbor. A soldier who was stationed there recalled that. Hearing the hammering from inside those ships and as time went on becoming less and less because they couldn't be reached.
Here's something more upsetting: a Japanese submarine was spotted spying close to Pearl Harbor just before the attack and the US Oahu radar signal picked up the Japanese planes coming . This information was "mistook" by the information lieautenant Kermit Tyler then with American B-17s . Would a 5 years old kid believe that? Check here the truth about WW2 : ruclips.net/video/toJQIuPRJrU/видео.html
Admiral Nagumo: "We wiped out their fleet at Pearl Harbor, all their battleships are dead!" Miracle Max the Wizard: "Turns out your friend here is only MOSTLY dead. See, mostly dead is still slightly alive."
I got better! SEE? (punches Japanese units with 14 or 16" shells) And just for good measure, we'll terrorize your friends the Germans with HIGHLY accurate 14" fire from Nevada at Normandy.
Thank you for this excellent series on the salvage efforts at Pearl Harbour. This is a subject that really only gets mentioned in passing. Considering the critical early battles were going on concurrent is mind-blowing. What a colossal impossible effort! I eagerly await the next installment in this series. Truly fascinating, thanks again!
Love seeing the bits of the West Virginia. My Great Grandpa Donald Branson was on the WV during Pearl Harbor. I don't just mean stationed on her, but ON DECK. A dud bomb landed 10ft from him & he dove overboard. They tried to ship him back to the states because he was "shell shocked" (now known as PTSD), but he kept on & was shortly transferred to the USS Salt Lake City. The Salt Lake city was a Pensacola class cruiser which was one of the most highly decorated ships where he served primarily as a coxwain until the end of the war.
I was stationed at PEARL HARBOR from 79 to 83, and I can tell you that the SLUDGE in that harbor is so DEEP and THICK that raising anything that sinks into it is beyond super-human, the word "Herculean" comes to mind. Things like this are why we, America the Beautiful are indeed a SUPERPOWER
A coworker years ago told me when she was stationed there , one could see bullet impacts from Japaneese planes that strafed the airfields and buildings. A person could find this all over the older sections of the base but you had to know what to look for.
I’m shocked by those huge massive pieces of wooden hull patches they used. I had never seen those before. The amount of craftsmanship and work that went into making those is astounding to me. Also, the cleanup of these areas that had been underwater must have been nightmarish. The smell is something that I doubt can be described in our vocabulary.
In 2001 before visiting Hawaii I requested public relations at Pearl to visit Utah. They were only too happy to assist. Be at Nimitz Gate at 09.00, a US Navy Ensign will meet you. We had our own private tour around the restricted areas of Ford Island an given a full history. The US Navy told us the Utah was the forgotten ship and were grateful we had taken the time to pay our respects from Australia. I'm always upset at the disrespectful way so many tourist behave around what are war graves. These men deserve our respect.
As a young Navy brat in the early 60s, my brothers and I would take our bikes over to Ford Island (via a liberty launch - the sailors were only too happy to load them on to the launch). We’d ride around the island and would often swim out to the wreck of the USS Utah and climb all over it. Didn’t think much about it; it’s a different perspective when you’re 8-9 years old. Definitely not forgotten.
@@Nick-kn5lb My son had a current military ID at the time we visited Hawaii. He was able to get us past the guard gate to go see USS Utah where she still rests. Glad we made the effort. She was just a training ship in 1941, with a skeleton crew on her on the morning of Dec. 7th, but still she sported the silhouette of a battleship from the air. So she probably absorbed some attack effort that would have been much more destructive if loosed on the other side of Ford Island, among the fleet battleships along Battleship Row. Fighting to the last the only way she could.
@@technovelo I love the way he turns a phrase - it's the dry humor. I saw the episode on the Battle of Samar and was hooked. There are sooo many of those in that episode.
This series is really educational. This is the first time that I've seen any in depth coverage of the salvage of damaged and sunk ships in the aftermath of the Pearl Harbor attacks.
An outstanding job recounting the enormous efforts of the Pearl Harbor salvage. Content of this quality is what ought to be found on the History Channel.
My father was the hot shell man on one of the 5 inch guns on the Pennsylvania. I heard the stories many times - especially their sitting on the deck at night watching the torches cutting into the side of the Oklahoma to rescue sailors. The Helena was berthed where Pennsylvania, as flagship, was usually dockside. These are some of the best pictures I have seen. Thank you.
This is a fascinating topic. In the same vein, it would be equally interesting to have a detailed look at the repairs done to USS Yorktown after the Battle of Coral Sea and the heroic effort to get her ready for the anticipated fight at Midway. I've always wondered how they were able to pull that off as swiftly as they did.
I, too, would love a video on just the Yorktown's return to fighting. We all understand it was a fast turn-around, but because of that it may not have been documented well enough for Drach to make a 10 to 15 minute video out of.
@@workingguy-OU812 That occurred to me. I think the extent to which she was damaged at Coral Sea is fairly well documented, but I've no idea how complete the record of patching her up might be.
@@silentotto5099 It would perhaps be a better video on a RUclips channel dedicated toward organization and logistics - they probably threw every living human being into that supply-chain and work-force during those days to make it happen. Unless an officer's memoirs covered it, I can't see anyone being allowed to document it vs. helping out. Perhaps one of the workers created a memoir?
@@workingguy-OU812 I recall reading somewhere that they threw about 1,500 men at the task, and even then they didn't so much repair the ship as patch her up enough so that she could operate. I know that the navy created a course centered around the damage control the crew of USS Yorktown performed in the wake of Coral Sea to use in training damage control teams. That tells me that the navy had an interest in documenting the real life experiences of how to deal with dire circumstances. That may have carried over to the repair. But, as you say, it was an 'all hands on deck' effort and when push comes to shove, documentation may have been neglected. Drach would know. :)
My grandfather was there during that time as a crane operator during the racing and salvaging of the stricken ships. He said that the job was something he would never forget, even as he was able to remember and forget other jobs he did after the war, but the work at pearl harbour when removing pieces of steel and other parts of the raising and salvaging of ships, was when they started rising or ships being dug and lifted from inside coffer dams, became the unforgettable site and smell of the sailors remains being exposed to the air. Even with all the horrible sites from being at different areas of combat during the remainder of the war, he still had nightmares and couldn't get the remembering of the sight and especially the smell of the bodies that were discovered and found during the work of reflecting or salvaging of the ships. He told of how the smell covered the air in the harbour and never smelled anything else like it in his life. So after hearing the stories he told me, it became clearer and clearer why the anger against the Japanese was so great, even though I knew there is death everywhere during war, but the bombing and sinking, killing of Navy ships and personnel along with civilians from the unprovoked of war from Japan while the Navy men and women lay asleep .
I discovered your channel a few days ago through the Battle of Jutland episodes and then the Part 1 of the Pearl Harbor Salvage Efforts. Needed a pick me up and lunch and you sir provided it. Thank you so much for all the work that you do.
Tremendous work you've done here, Drach. I've never seen this color footage of the salvage efforts. My grandfather worked in a shipyard in WWII and it makes me proud of him to see this. Very emotional moments when those battleships rose from the bottom with their crews on deck.
Having been born on December 7th (about 50 years later) I’ve always been called the Pearl Harbor baby. I was always quick to watch movies or read books about what happened that day and the following months, I had caught snippets of the tapping heard from Oklahoma, men surviving two plus weeks after the attacks and always wanted to hear more about the salvage efforts. Thank you Drach for working so hard to provide insight into sometimes little known naval history. The English accent just adds too the experience. Cheers from your former colony 🍾
Thank you very much. I have never before realized the importance of the dry docks and infrastructure of Pearl Harbor to the war effort. We had a navy and one half because of this repair capacity. This repair capacity kept us in the war for the first two years. Imagine if carriers could not have been quickly repaired.
Met an old gentleman one time, who was wearing a USS Nevada cap. After thanking him for his service, I asked him if he was on it when it beached... He said , No, but I was on it when we refloated it! 😁
My uncle was an MM2 stationed at 32nd St. San Diego when Pearl Harbor was attacked. On the 10th he was cut orders to Pearl Harbor. One of his proudest moments was when Nevada and several other ships were refloated. His comment was, "I helped that happen....!"
My late Father-in-Law was a BM2 on the Nevada during the attack. As a young sailor I asked him if he was going to go to the movies to see Tora, Tora, Tora. He said "Nope, I was there and don't have to see a recreation of it that can never do the real attack justice"!
My Grandfather William Frank Curtis was on BB36 during the attack. He was on his 50. It got hit. He woke up under the bodies of his 2 best Friends. He looked down and saw he was toe tagged as well. He served on. On the Enterprise then back to the Nevada and finished on the Alaska as the Radioman. Then on to The Boston Fire Department. One Hell of a man.
As a U.S. Navy Veteran and historian, I commend you on 2 excellent, and very accurate videos, Seeing many here who are interested in this subject matter, I would recommend reading the book "Descent Into Darkness: Pearl Harbor, 1941: a Navy Diver's Memoir" By Cdr. Edward C. Raymer, USN (Ret.) who was of the aforementioned divers, who conducted hundreds of dives during these salvage operations, He was in fact, the diver that recovered the purser's safe from the U.S.S. ARIZONA. He details the work they did, and how they did it. Inventing procedures used to this day by Naval salvage divers all over the world.
Thanks so much for researching, compiling and presenting these two documentaries. In the many years that I've been studying WWII, especially from the time the United States became involved, this is the very first time that I've seen any film of the salvage efforts and refloating of most of the fleet. It was so inspiring to me to see the camraderie and teamwork of the young men puting their lives at great risk to get our navy back up and functional. These are the many unsung, unheard of heroes whose stories deserve to be told. I hope that more historians follow your example and bring these men the recognition they deserve by our country!
Way hay, up she rises Way hay, up she rises Way hay, up she rises Drydock in the morning Refit and repair ‘er Refit and repair ‘er Refit and repair ‘er Sitting in Pearl Harbor
I remember an account of the salvage of West Virginia: when a diver made the first exploration of the hull he became confused when he couldn't find the ship even though he was sure he had been walking straight for it. He contacts his line tender to ask if he was near the ship, and the reply was that the diver's bubbles had already disappeared inside the hull. The diver then realized that the damage was so massive that he'd walked into the gaping maw of the blown-open hull without knowing it. He continued his walk, and went almost to the ship's mid-beam before encountering the first wreckage.
Can attest to this based on the pictures I've seen, the damage caused by "mere" air dropped torpedo's beggars belief. U.S aerial torpedoes (after improvements) were known as the best, IMO likely because of poor Japanese damage control. Now look at damage inflicted by Japanese aerial torpedoes at Pearl, no damage control can cope with that!
@@ToreDL87 to be fair the battle wagons at pear were all relatively old due to that pesky Washington Naval Treaty and as a result had significantly less torpedo protection compared to a more modern ship
@@collinwood6573 As was also the case with Japanese ships (such as Kongo-class, Fuso-class, Ise-class etc), if you don't mind me saying. At any rate there's a limit to how much torpedo protection you can put on a ship, eventually you'll hit the spot with diminishing returns in regards to speed & maneuverability to dodge not just torpedoes but many other threats. To give an example, a class of armored cruisers Norway ordered from England had one of them temporarily used with England during a war, resulting in it being delivered to the Norwegians, finally, with a torpedo belt so big that meme's have been made about it, Drachinifel had a video on it. The Norwegians literally couldn't safely operate it 😂 Then again, the two ships that they did receive with scant protection against torpedoes, was also sunk by torpedoes (though, through unsavory means)..
I was a Gunnersmate first class in the USCG. I was on several ships, including two fromWW2. I can say confidently that there ARE ghosts of those sailors still on their ships. I have met some.
I am completely WOW'd by your documentary. My grandfather went aboard the USS California during her refit in Puget Sound and stayed on her until she got back to Philadelphia for decommissioning. I have been fascinated by her history and during my own years in the Navy, stepped onshore on Tinian Island which the ship helped "soften up" for American occupation. The color video beyond amazing, especially considering the length. I am very curious as to why the ships might have been black. Aside from the soot and the oil, it seems as though there are straight lines between the black and "battleship gray" areas. I have also seen a short video on RUclips of the USS California getting underway after refit in which she again looks black. Great job in filling in the gaps of knowledge that I did not have of the time frame between December 7th and their re-floating. My hat is off to you Sir!
This series of three is absolutely outstanding. It gives an unprecedented perspective of the Pearl Horbor raid - and of the gigantic scale of the US Navy’s capability there.
Phenomenal work, Sir! You have out done yourself with the level of research, script writing, video editing and sheer quality on these 2 videos. Bravo Zulu, Drach.
All I can think of to say here is "Wow!" This is very well done and presented sir. You never fail to leave me impressed and to provide information I hadn't learned previously. I spent four years stationed on Oahu with one of those in Pearl Harbor. Looking forward to Part 3. There is now a causeway / draw span crossing from the shore close to where Aloha Stadium is today over to Ford Island, passing near where Nevada had been berthed and obviating the need for a vehicle ferry and many of the personnel launches that frequently crossed the harbor. My wife was stationed on Ford Island for about six months and learned that personnel launches were at best uncomfortable ways to travel, especially when (towards the end of her enlistment) she was seven months pregnant.
Pinned post for Q&A :)
If you could have any ship ever, which one would you chose?
Will you do more battle reports? And if so when?
What if the all the US BBs damaged were able to salvage, would that make any difference?
How do you do My good man
What if the Japanese fleet had been destroyed at Tsushima? (Butterfly effect)
Ya know, Nobody ever highlights the efforts and accomplishments of the Salvage teams of Pearl Harbor after 07 DEC. YOUR segment is the only thing I have ever seen over so many years.
THANK YOU.
Yeah I've only ever been told about the attack and the reaction, never about the salvage mission
I know right, I found this channel a little over two years ago and I have watched this series 3 times
Agreed! I've watched 100's of hours or WWII footage and was never aware of this. Thanks for producing this!
My Dad served on the Yorktown CV-5 from Norfolk to Midway (he was 17 at the time). He is still with us at 96 years old. After surviving the sinking of the Yorktown and being transported back to Pearl, he worked on the West Virginia down in the engine room cleaning up, still body parts to remove etc. I can't even fathom what those brave men and women went through.
I know its been 3 years later, I hope you and your father are well. People were harder then, they were built different.
Men only. There were no women in the battleship crews at that time.
The salvage works carried out at Pearl Harbour were nothing short of bloody heroic ! As a retired Diver I offer my respects.
The salvage teams deserve the utmost respect. They were doing things that had never been done before in the worst of conditions, surrounded by their dead colleagues.
When I was in graduate school, I had the honor of doing oral history interviews of Pearl Harbor survivors. The first one was a man who was the 'primer' man for a main gun of the Nevada. His story about the day was fascinating to hear. Most of the crew stayed with the ship during the salvage and recovery phase, and did any task asked of them. Another man I interviewed was in the fire control center of the Tennessee, which is deep in the ship. They could feel explosions from outside, but until they came on deck they had no idea what had gone on outside. I have held in my own hand a piece of bomb shrapnel he picked up from the deck of the Tennessee. It was a great pleasure to interview these men. Those oral histories are archived at Youngstown State University, Maag Library, Youngstown Ohio.
Do you still have paper you wrote on the interviews?
Do have a recording of this interview?
Less than 10 minutes in, and I’m extremely impressed by the quantity and quality of color footage you’ve found.
Yes. Amazong footage, most of which I have never seen before (and I have been looking for Pearl Harbor color references for a long, long time.)
Excellent work! 👍
No joke. Pretty amazing.
@@Fitzwalrus06 I can direct you to the source files if you want :)
@@Drachinifel That would be marvelous. Thank you very much!😎
@@Fitzwalrus06 drop me an email or a discord DM :)
My Great Uncle Harold Carmack was one of the men trapped inside and tapping on the underside of the Arizona. He worked in the boiler rooms in the bottom of the ship. May he rest in peace and be remembered.
RIP
Sorry to hear this. Thanks to Family Search I see that Harold is my 10th cousin.
RIP Harold.
RIP. Do you know that a Japanese submarine was spotted spying close to Pearl Harbor just before the attack and that the US Oahu radar signal picked up the Japanese planes coming ? Do you believe that the lieutenant Kermit Tyler mistook those planes with American B-17s , not asking further orders from upper layers of command? Would a 5 years old kid believe that? Check here the truth about WW2 : ruclips.net/video/toJQIuPRJrU/видео.html
Your uncle could not get out of the Arizona because the hatches were welded shout
An unsung hero.
My father had just returned from breakfast on the West Virginia (BB-48) when the attack started. At 19 years old, he ended up swimming, badly burned and blinded he spent over a year in the hospital. He regained his eyesight, and numerous skin grafts. Plagued by bad nightmares at times. Retired in 1961.
Thanks for his service.
Thank you for his service
Thank you for his service
I'm really sorry how much he suffered for the rest of his life since the Japanese attacks! R.I.P. 🙏🙏🙏🇺🇸
Thank you for his service.
Amazing footage. No time wasted in recovering ships. A differnt breed of people back then.
The Battle of the Pacific was won by a logistics and production effort that is unparalleled in history. Admiral Yamamoto was so very correct in understanding the economic potential of the US and the true failure of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. Viewed almost 80 years later, the tenacity, speed, and skill of the recovery effort at Pearl is still an astounding achievement. It turned shock and defeat into an unsung victory that laid the foundation for VJ Day. Lest we Forget.
Now we can't figure out what bathroom to use
All i can say is thank the Heavens for Admiral Chester Nimitz, who took command of the Pacific fleet after Admiral Kimmel was fired. He immediately began getting the US Navy back on its feet and in fighting trim. The results were stunning, 6 months after Pearl Harbor the IJN was dealt a fatal blow at Midway and was never the same after losing all 4 of their aircraft carriers.
@@deanladue3151 To be fair Kimmel wasn't entirely to blame. The foolish decision makers at the Navy department in Washington had him operating with one hand tied behind his back.
@@deanladue3151 They didn’t fire enough officer’s. They revered McCarthy who I don’t believe was so brilliant, he was more concerned about looking victorious than actually taking care of his men and insuring that we had proper logistics
@@Nightverslonn all by design.
retired US Navy...
My first time in Pearl Harbor, I flew in... had to undergo medical exams and further Clearance interviews... My first time passing the Arizona was leaving port and while doing maintenance on the Flight deck of Kilauea, AE-26... The Air Det chief came out and saw us all standing in place facing starboard. He immediately started yelling at us to get back to work...to which a very Cheeky Po3 responded, "Stand at Attention, chucklehead"
I have been in and out of Pearl Harbor 19 times...yet I had no idea of the gruesome details of the recovery. They were the greatest generation and it becomes more and more aparent with each story told.
I'd known that the Americans had carried out some truly herculean feats of repair and recovery after Pearl Harbour, but its quite interesting to hear the details of how it was done. It's fascinating on the level of "amateurs study tactics, but professionals study logistics" kind of way. Thanks!
Yes it is amazing to think humans are capable of such carnage and such innovation all in the same event
@@glenchapman3899 Not trying to be an ass here but some of our greatest achievements as humans were due to finding ways of being more efficient at carnage.
@@korbell1089 unfortunately very true, the only saving grace may be what we do with it afterwards.
@@korbell1089 Completely agree. I just wish we could change the balance. More wonderful innovation and a lot less carnage. Maybe the younger generations can be a bit more successful than mine was
@Da Big Kahuna Catfish I often feel the same way about the younger generations now but then I think about the troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and similar places and realize not all are the sniveling whiners who know everything yet know nothing.
Vastly underreported piece of history. Thnx for righting this wrong.
You mean the entire Japanese side of the war? Yes, it is horribly under-reported and misunderstood.
@@princeofcupspoc9073 ; The renewed interest because of certain games is at-least a start.
@@princeofcupspoc9073
He was talking about pearl harbor
I don't know how you managed to get Japanese perspective of the war from that
@@princeofcupspoc9073 Your comment does not coincide with the one you replied to.
@@cleveland2286 pretty sure they just meant the pacific war.
When you pause the video for a moment and think about some of the statistics involved coupled with the limited resources and the fact that it was even accomplished at all is staggering, let alone on the timeline it was done in. Here is a salute to all of the unsung heroes that worked in some of the worst conditions imaginable to refloat these ships. A truly forgotten piece of history. Smart video, thank you.
Great video! My Dad was one of the salvage divers that dove on the Nevada, California, & West Virginia. He never talked much about it, but he did mention what a terrible job it was to recover the bodies on the California. One thing he did talk about was how rewarding it was when some of the ships were afloat again & how pleased he was when they were able to roll the Oklahoma back over again before reflecting it. This is the first time I have ever seen any of the photos of them actually working on the ships.
Those closeups of the divers emerging from the depths, and then leaping back in to do more dangerous work again were an eye opener for me. Placed in the context of this film and the audio narrative gave the colour images real life. There may be more clips in the cannister where these were stored. Perhaps some clips of your Dad too . . .
I'm glad someone is covering what was done at Pearl. The salvage was hurculean and impressive to say the least.
Honors and kudos to those sailors able and willing to wear those incredibly heavy dive suits and get all that work done.
I'll second that! Nothing short of monumental. Literally moving mountains. 🫡
The sheer effort to salvage the battleships and then those same battleships getting their sweet revenge sinking Japanese ships later on in the war is quite amazing
All the histories I have read/heard made rather light of what was clearly a herculean effort.
There was also an admitted degree of bloody-mindedness mixed in with the pragmatic need for the ships. Even US sources admit that building new hulls and equipment for Cassin and Downes was mostly an effort to say "screw you" to the Japanese. The rest was propaganda... to point to how few ships were lost to the ongoing war effort.
They sank nothing. Take the US battleships away from the Surigao Strait and pretty much nothing changes in terms of ships sunk. It was mostly US destroyers' torpedo work. US Battleships just landed a few damaging hits on the Yamashiro. They were useful at shore bombardments, but smaller, less resource and manpower intensive ships would have done just as well.
@@VersusARCH "They sank nothing." The presence of large capital ships often affects the deployment of the enemy's units without needing to sink anything: just because they rarely fired on another ship, does not mean the battle would have gone the same if the Japanese had not had to reckon with the potential of dealing with them. Although not able to go one for one with the newer Japanese Battleships, even the best cruisers the Japanese could muster would not have been able to challenge them directly. Much like how old British battleships often deterred German cruisers from attacking convoys, deploying an older battleship in a smart location could effectively deny the Japanese lighter units access to or through a choke point, catching or sinking them wasn't their job, just forcing them to go another way can be strategically significant. Sinking enemy ships is really only the last 10% of the effort of waging naval war and in many ways it's optional: if you can bottle up the enemy fleet in harbor or deny them the use of the sea lanes, you've done most of the work already. The U.S. fleet certainly could have done the job without these old slow gunnery barges, but they were far from useless even ignoring the shore bombardment role.
@@jermainerace4156 You just described US world policy concerning carriers. Just having a aircraft carrier in the area is often enough to make the point. Carriers being the modern version of Battleships for waving the flag. At a certain point the enemy is forced to respond to having such a large military asset wandering around in their backyard. In peacetime it's back down or go to war. In wartime it's bring your own large assests, attack with a massive air strike, or be very very clever.
@@readhistory2023 To be really fair though, by the middle of the wwr carriers were already primary in the role of projecting force, and these old battleships were mostly a deterrent to cruisers and destroyers, and I suspect would have been quite vulnerable to carrier strikes if the IJN could have spared any, submarines if they werent so slow, and possibly destroyer swarms once again if the IJN could have spared any.
I've once read the memoirs of a US Navy salvage diver who worked in the wreck of the USS Arizona, dragging a heavy suit with air, electricity and telephone cables, in pitch black dark, through destroyed compartments and hundreds of decomposing bodies floating around. I cannot imagine a tougher job.
I can only imagine the night mares most of these salvage people experienced during and for years after the war!
That's straight nightmare material 😢
Agreed
Excellent series! My Dad- Charles K. Anderson- was a USN medical corpsman stationed at the Dispensary (Building 72, I believe...which is still there, preserved) on Ford Island in 12/7/41 directly next to the USS California. He witnessed and, of course, participated in the entire event first hand. He also received personal hand-signed commendation letters from Nimitz and Forrestal for a rescue of crewman from a PBY seaplane which crashed near Ford island after the attack. I have those letters in original copy. Dad later sailed on the tanker Neosho (which was docked on Battleship Row that day) , a 175' PC boat, and a rocket-launching assault craft in the South Pacific war. He survived and rarely spoke about the war.
I shall never again complain about a task involving "too much effort".
Having taking part in a few minor salvage operations, I can attest to the remarkable nastiness of the interior of a sunken vessel.
Since oil floats on water, as the water is pumped out, whatever oil is floating around inside the hull, will be perfectly distributed over every suface of the interior as the water level sinks. The oil binds any dirt and grime floting in the water, so every surface, nook and crannie will be covered i muck.
The bilge of a ship or boat is often like a sewer. Any water, including condensation that enters the ship will catch dirt and grime, bread crumbs, toenail clippings, grease and anything a person might disgard, and flush it down into the bilge. Under normal circumstances there is never enough water in the bilge to actually flush out all the dirt and residue, so over time cakes of foulness will build up in all inacessible parts of the interior. Just imagine the state of your house, if there were hidden compartments all under the furniture and floors, where noone ever had a chance to reach with any mop or vacuum cleaner.
Now, when a ship sinks, all those years of built up grime and dirt will dissolve in the water. Add oil or diesel, and why not the content of the septic tank and whatever food stores you had on board to the mixture, and you will have one very nasty soup filling upp your boat.
I thankfully never had to deal with neither live ammunition nor the remains of human beings in any salvage. I can not even begin to imagine what that must be like.
People underestimate the nastiness of flooding in general - even on "dry" land, flooding isn't just water levels rising but all the other stuff that comes up with the water. Serious flooding can leave a house in very similar condition to the above, at least up to the high-water mark. Though fortunately in a flooded house 1) the water will (usually) go down on its own eventually, and 2) you (usually) don't have to clean up thousands of tons of spilled fuel oil.
I have worked on cleaning, and repairing, several boats that had been sunk. Everything you said was spot on.
Besides being intensely nasty, it's also very creepy going down into the bowels of the ship.
@@johngault7329 what ships out of curiosity? Civilian or Navy or company owned?
@@invadegreece9281we do repair work on river tugs. They sink quite often when not pushing a tow..
I once watched a small tug dive under water, like a submarine, because he was going to fast coming around our dock.
The creepy boats are the ones that somebody died in. Usually from their life vests hanging up on something.
@@johngault7329 ah I see, just think of the horror of going through something like that but 100 times bigger while hearing tapping and hammering from the rescue efforts while it’s basically pitch black.
Hearing about those poor men who died in the dark air pockets has got to be the most depressing and dark thing out of this affair. It's bad enough to die in combat, but to survive, have hope of being rescued, only to slowly suffocate... that's just all kinds of fscked up.
And to know air, sunshine, and other people are only yards away. But you can't get out and nobody can get to you. We use the word horrific quite a bit, but ... that's horrific.
:-(
It’s worse, because cutting a hole in the ship to get to the men could have caused the ship to sink further. Due to the air pockets displacing large amounts of water. Cutting a hole would have released the air flooding the compartment and drowning any survivors.
Honestly, I would rather go that way than drown. Running out of air in a compartment like that, people just get sleepy and pass out. Sure, the waiting would be awful, but all things considered, I think it wouldn't be as bad as, say, burning when a fuel store goes up. There are far worse ways to go.
I read somewhere that at night time when sailors were on guard duty.
You could hear the trapped men banging away. It haunted a lot of men and many tried to get out of doing guard at night.
most who have not served in the military or in heavy industrial and construction jobs think that warfare is mostly about being a billy badass and shooting up the enemy. Nope. Warfare is mostly about maintaining, repairing, and caring for the complex systems that allow billy badass to even exist. The work done by mechanics, repairers, construction and metal workers, and technicians is really what wins wars.
In a much larger sense, conducting war is about 4 things.
1) Extracting raw materials needed for warfare.
2) Transporting those materials to a location for processing.
3) Processing those raw materials into weapons/supplies.
4) Transporting those weapons/supplies to the battlefield.
Armatures think Tactics; Professionals thing Logistics.
@@sb859 To quote Grant, "The firstest with the mostest."
@@Kevin_Kennelly I would ask you to consider, no argument intended, that you missed the single biggest item which is trained and well-led people. None of the material counts for a plug nickel without the men and now women that make those machines do their job. It's amazing what are a lesser equipped highly trained individual can accomplish against a better equipped lesser trained group.
@@sundiver137 I think you meant N.B. Forrest, not Grant. And the battle he made that statement after (Brice's Crossroads), he actually got there last with the least and still won.
Never underestimate the power of lessons learned and a shrinking patient list.
@Shariff khan why does a man (born in 1953) who headed for a time an organisation (formed in 1947) need to be investigated for an attack which took place in 1941? Time travel?
@Shariff khan the last place I'd expect to see the Peyton Manning mask meme. At least it wasn't a Rickroll.
My late father-in-law arrived within weeks of the bombing working throughout the war on Ford Island as an aviation machinist mate while all this work was proceeding within yards of his duty station. This is the most complete review of these events I have ever read or seen. Thank you. Jim
This video is very well done and appreciated. When I was in high school I had a teacher his name was Russell Smith he was on the uss Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor his stories of the attack (he was on duty)and its aftermath were harrowing!He was an actual hero you could touch (or more importantly could touch you)!Somehow he convinced me to join the Navy straight out of school!I loved that man! what an awesome friend!
Previous videos just skip the salvage efforts and go right to further battle narratives. This was an important look at the less glamorous but vitally important work to reclaim several key ships. Thanks, and thanks for correctly pronouncing Nevada.
Indeed people forget the other jobs in the armed forces, as in my family there was a cook and a truck driver in the british army in ww2.
can you give me a key to pronouncing Nevada that I can remember? Oh and I am out here in the land of the Ar-kan-sas and Ark-an-saw rivers LOL. Name changes right at the border. Actually I have been told by somebody who knows these things (native American anthropologist) that both the Kansans and the Arkansans are pronouncing the names seriously wrong LOL
@@aldenconsolver3428 I know what you mean. I'm from the southeast part of Kansas. We pronounce it like the state. If you go to Wichita and say Arkansas, they'll get very mad. "It's Ar-kan-sas." I just use the short term Ark. Ark River and Ark City.
The name for Kansas came from the Kansa indians. It's pronounced Kan-za.
Don't you just love people from a state created long after another state telling them their name is pronounced differently? Then, the natives tell you that you're both wrong. Some names in the US I don't even know how to pronounce. Then, we can't even agree on spellings. Pittsburg and Pittsburgh are great examples.
@@aldenconsolver3428 In American, it's pronounced either "Nev-ah-da" or "Nev-add-a". Both are OK, but never "Nev-aid-a".
@@michaelpiatkowskijr1045 if you’re an Alabama native you don't pronounce Talladega Tal-ah-day-gah you pronounce it Tal-ah-dig-ah which, as a Georgia native, sounds really...dumb. This is the craziest example I can think of for what you're talking about.
Edit;Correcting auto complete misspelling.
My uncle served in the Canadian Merchant Navy during the war and made his first visit to Pearl Harbour in 1944. He said it still looked like a disaster area and it was extremely difficult for him to explain the feeling he had but you can sense a great sense of loss. Probably a sentiment felt all through North America and the rest of the free world that Sunday December 7th.
Before Sept 11, 2001 I would hear and watch the stories of the veterans talk about the attack. All sharing that perilous day which at the moment. Was a date of defeat and unimaginable loss. To which the later generations would never quite understand and less though as the greatest generation disappeared. But the we as part of a free world were given our own taste of Pearl Harbour, Sept 11, 2001. A date which everyone of age of memory and feeling. Knows where they were and exactly what they were doing.
I just want to thank you for bringing to life that feeling I got from listening to those who have passed. The actual event of that Sunday. Reminding myself of that misery to which was a war that was as of November 11, 1918. Never to have happened. But did. Plunging an estimated 60 million to their deaths. This series certainly gives essence to those times of the disparity and struggle that must have been felt but yet at a hushed silence to not break the confidence or spirit of America resolve.
Nice essay.
I never thought my baby boomer generation would experiance an event on the scale of Pearl Harbor.
September 11, 2001 brought us great sadness & shock. Followed by sincere unity & resolve.
Now we have Covid-19. Where is the unity & resolve to defeat this enemy? Victory requires everyone to do their bit, all the time, everyday.
Our troops suffered fatigue in war for years.
Mask on, please be kind.
Happy (in a different way) Holidays.
I once asked a WWII Veteran about his service and replied by saying; "we were just doing our job" and he meant every word of it !
I heard several of them say that either in person or interviews.
My grandfather would say that
One of Stephen Ambrose best quotes is that the men of ww2 were part of the WE generation.
True of his citizen GIs and all thoes in my grandads generation in England (born 1926) he always talks of "we".... "We just got on with it". "We'll manage lad".
Always think of Ambrose quote when thinking of these amazing people.
@@CSSVirginia most people don't serve combat duty so it was literally like a job. It would be really embarrassing to have people bloviate about how they feel honored about your service when you really just moved freight around in the continental USA during the great depression when men were desperate for work.
That's what I say about 1966 and the Vietnam war. Doesn't stop the faces and names at 2 in the morning though.
This is why I love this channel... As a naval history enthousiast I have seen lots of footage of the pacific war. But I have never seen this footage, and have never read anything so comprehensive concerning the pearl harbor savage effort.
My hat's off to you good sir, love it!!!
Been a warships buff an a Pearl Harbor nut for 50 years, but this is the best I ever saw! You out did your self, how the hell did you find this color footage, it's like a 70 year time machine! Well done! There's a book I read called "Journey into Darkness" about a 19 year old diver at Pearl, goes well with this. Can't wait till part 3, probably all about turning over the Oklahoma.
Great color video of divers and tenders working the West Virginia. Proud to say that's one of my jobs; being a dive tender for the RCSO Dive Team.
Great stories, thanks for telling them.
This is turning out to be one of my favourite you tube videos. I've been fascinated by marine salvage for 50 years and have read and seen endless pieces. This is right near the top. Thank you so much.
Very well done, Drachinifel. These two Pearl Harbor Salvage videos have been fascinating.
This is absolutely astounding this kind of real unfettered history about the lengthy process of recovering and salvaging as much as possible and recycling anything else. Thank you for all the time you put in to make this video. It has been a treat to watch as a bit of a history buff.
This is a most interesting series, as much is - justifiably - made of the BANG-BANG events. The salvage and repair is time consuming, dangerous, dirty and extreemly unpleasant.
Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) is closely enough as toxic as Hydrogen Cyanide (HCN).
It is however important to have this work documented - especially because it is so often overlooked.
One of its dangerous properties is the fact that it has a very strong and rotten smell at first but human organism loses its ability to detect H2S after a few minutes.
Sailors and other people might have thought it was just smelly and farty down there but it was ok because the smell "vanished" after few minutes and they have a lot of work to do.
Sadly that was the time they would start to duffer from effects of this toxic gas.
We've been reminded of this many times during my time in labs at high school and college to always act as if there is dangerous level of H2S when we start to smell it and to tell others because they might not sense it anymore. This has usually lead to some fart jokes but at least we've remembered to do so.
Hydrogen Sulfide is absolutely nasty stuff, responsible for far more famous and notable poison gasses, as it's almost common in enclosed spaces where any biological activity is taking place. So, the presence of hydrogen sulfide literally everywhere is to be expected. Its a testament to the abilities and efficiency of the work crews that more men weren't killed in the salvage work.
@@mortisCZ I used to work in a Sewer plant. H2S was a constant danger- and since we worked around it all the time, we couldn't smell it and had remote sensors in the area it was prevalent...
To this day (almost 30 years since I last worked there) I still have trouble smelling it..
Hydrogen Sulfide (H2SO4) ! ! !
@@danclayberger770 H2SO4 is Sulphuric Acid NOT Hydrogen Sulphide.
I'm somewhat in awe of the fact that concrete was among the materials to refloat these battleships.
Also, this is the most extensive footage of Pearl Harbor post-attack that I've seen.
They made whole concrete ships too
Honors and kudos to those sailors able and willing to wear those incredibly heavy dive suits and get all that work done.
I think that the efforts probably tool the work of almost every diver crew in the Us, particularly the western US. Those men weren't all sailors, being a skilled diver was an exempt position during WWII mobilization, and many of the divers depicted were private persons, likely already on contract with the Navy and the Navy yard. As you might notice, some of those shown are clearly of native Hawaiin descent as will the records show. Almost everyone in Hawaii was outraged at the attack on Pearl Harbor and was more than willing to work wherever they could to assist. In early 1942, the residents of Hawaii were still apprehensive of a potential invasion of the island chain by the Japanese.
"Willing?" I don't think they had much choice.
If you want to read more about the divers and the risks they undertook, read "Descent into Darkness: Pearl Harbor, 1941―A Navy Diver’s Memoir"
Periscope films has some hardhat diving films for those who are interested
Yes, the hard hat divers were likely the most unsung of the unsung heroes of WWII.
This pair of videos may be some of your very best work. Thank you.
The famous quote from the repair crews at Pearl: "The difficult we do right away; the impossible takes a little longer."
Isn't that a SEEBEE Motto.?
The very same motto was also informally used by the Waffen SS.
That was Napoleon.
..."the difficult we approach with caution; the impossible we do not attempt".
Absolutely fascinating. My father was a WW2 navy veteran and I thought I knew a lot of this history but this presentation and it’s detailed information filled in a lot of unknowns. Tremendous job you have done! Thank you!
I highly recommend, “Descent into Darkness: The Divers of Pearl Harbor”.
“Descent into Darkness tells of the heartbreaking and nearly impossible work of the salvage divers of Pearl Harbor, men who literally had to swim through the aftermath of the December 7, 1941 attack. Told through Raymer’s experiences, the 1996 memoir tells of some of the unsung heroes of Pearl Harbor while providing readers with an inside look at one of the nation’s most devastating historical events.”
It’s heroic, horrific and heartbreaking all at the same time.
A terrific read I agree. You might also like to read "Trapped at Pearl Harbour" by Stephen Bower Young. Trapped in the overturned Oklahoma for 25 hours before being rescued. For Drachinifel - Incredible series, thank you for putting it all together.
Also recommended are "Raising the fleet" ,"Resurrection" and "Pearl harbor: fleet salvage and final appraisal". These can be obtained from the Naval Archives and your better book dealers. These books are on the more technical aspect of how to re-float a battleship.
Thanks! Maybe they mention my uncle.
I even more highly recommend my documentary "the biggest crime in history" for finding out about Kermit Tyler and the US radar signal that picked up the Japanese planes coming . Check here the truth about WW2 : ruclips.net/video/toJQIuPRJrU/видео.html
That book definitely is a must read for those wanting to know and understand more of what the divers had to go through during salvage and recovery operations. His descriptions of feeling by hand in water filled compartments was so eerie because by that time when they were diving into the interiors of the ships the bodies of dead seamen were sometimes floating above them with their skeletal limbs hanging down scraping the tops of the divers helmets. I don't know how they could keep going below and keep encountering things like that but they did.
"Dead ships sail again. A fleet has arisen from Pearl Harbor." That line from Victory at Sea always chokes me up, and I keep thinking of it as I watch this series of videos.
I had a radio talk-show program a decade ago in Cincinnati, and I had a guest who was a Pearl Harbor Survivor on. He was an amazing resource for that day. His name was Joe Whitt and he was on the USS San Fransisco. He passed away in April, 2021 at the age of 97 and our cinversations prior to the program, during, and after the program were riveting.
I visited him off and on since, with him and his wife over an informal meal.
My father was with the 1st Marines in WW II with his most intense fighting on Okinawa.
Great generation!
i can't get over how hard these fellas worked to do all this in the time they did! nice work that crew and thanks!
Those hard hat divers...
Unimaginable levels of bravery and risk.
Thanks for posting this series Drach.I actually hadn't seen this footage till now...and I've seen a lot.
Well done sir.
"We missed the carriers, submarine pens, and fuel tanks.
Meh, it'll be fine"
I wonder what the Admiralty thought when the first pilots began returning with reports of the attack. They told them about the various ships they'd torpedoed or hangers they'd bombed. Then someone asked about the carriers. And the pilots said "What carriers? We didn't see any."
@@christopherconard2831 "OOOHHhhh NOOOOoooo"
@@christopherconard2831 D'oh
You mean you didn't get the carriers?!
A shamefur dispray!!
I read an article that made a pretty good case that missing the submarines turned out to be as bad - maybe worse - than missing the carriers. Considering the sub fleet wiped out the Japanese merchant fleet, a good part of their naval fleet, incoming supply, and any chance to get enough fuel around.
I have rewatched this series on Pearl Harbour Salvage many times over the years and find it just as good to watch as my first viewing years ago. I have always been amazed at how quickly the U.S. Navy was able to recover the large majority of the severely damaged ships. Naturally the location being in Harbour was a major factor in the recovery process. There are some very sad finds during the recoveries. The West Virgina has some sad deaths with the poor Sailors who lasted two weeks plus in the Engine Room Lockers before the course of time took over. Over the total War, there must have been other cases where men were trapped below decks in ships and or submarines sinking in shallow waters of under 50 metres depth (Truk Lagoon plus countless other places) where crew members had to endure a similar slow wait for that final day. War is such a ~nice~ pass-time we Human's engage ourselves in. Yours truly, Byron
Thank you for this tale. heroic efforts from men who were really unsung heroes. Us mechanics get little thanks for our life's work, fixing the machinery that does the work and moves our goods on a daily basis. These were the front line workers of that era
The saddest part of this was the days and weeks after the attack. Hearing the multiple tappings coming from the ships slowly getting less and less.
While watching one video about the attack on Pearl Harbor. A soldier who was stationed there recalled that. Hearing the hammering from inside those ships and as time went on becoming less and less because they couldn't be reached.
Here's something more upsetting: a Japanese submarine was spotted spying close to Pearl Harbor just before the attack and the US Oahu radar signal picked up the Japanese planes coming . This information was "mistook" by the information lieautenant Kermit Tyler then with American B-17s . Would a 5 years old kid believe that? Check here the truth about WW2 : ruclips.net/video/toJQIuPRJrU/видео.html
Getting the Nevada etc refloated and moving was an amazing effort..............great archive footage and narration ))
What these men went through.
I'm humbled.
Thanks for bringing this to light, I never would have known.
Admiral Nagumo: "We wiped out their fleet at Pearl Harbor, all their battleships are dead!"
Miracle Max the Wizard: "Turns out your friend here is only MOSTLY dead. See, mostly dead is still slightly alive."
I got better! SEE? (punches Japanese units with 14 or 16" shells) And just for good measure, we'll terrorize your friends the Germans with HIGHLY accurate 14" fire from Nevada at Normandy.
@@pyroman6000 lol
Good reference to Max, iconic character.
Your attention to detail is greatly appreciated.
"An angry velociraptor deity with C4-equipped claws had taken a swipe at the ship"
What would i do without those lines, Drach?
The works revealed in this video are a testament to the skill, dedication and sweat of the Recover/Salvage teams.
Respect.
Thank you for this excellent series on the salvage efforts at Pearl Harbour. This is a subject that really only gets mentioned in passing. Considering the critical early battles were going on concurrent is mind-blowing. What a colossal impossible effort! I eagerly await the next installment in this series. Truly fascinating, thanks again!
Love seeing the bits of the West Virginia. My Great Grandpa Donald Branson was on the WV during Pearl Harbor. I don't just mean stationed on her, but ON DECK. A dud bomb landed 10ft from him & he dove overboard. They tried to ship him back to the states because he was "shell shocked" (now known as PTSD), but he kept on & was shortly transferred to the USS Salt Lake City. The Salt Lake city was a Pensacola class cruiser which was one of the most highly decorated ships where he served primarily as a coxwain until the end of the war.
I was stationed at PEARL HARBOR from 79 to 83, and I can tell you that the SLUDGE in that harbor is so DEEP and THICK that raising anything that sinks into it is beyond super-human, the word "Herculean" comes to mind.
Things like this are why we, America the Beautiful are indeed a SUPERPOWER
I was stationed in Oahu in the Army in 2003 for many years. Nobody has ever stated such extensive information.
BRAVO 👏
A coworker years ago told me when she was stationed there , one could see bullet impacts from Japaneese planes that strafed the airfields and buildings. A person could find this all over the older sections of the base but you had to know what to look for.
I’m shocked by those huge massive pieces of wooden hull patches they used. I had never seen those before. The amount of craftsmanship and work that went into making those is astounding to me. Also, the cleanup of these areas that had been underwater must have been nightmarish. The smell is something that I doubt can be described in our vocabulary.
The Utah is the forgotten wreck of Pearll Harbor. I stumbled on to her when I was on Ford Island in 2005. Nobody visits.
In 2001 before visiting Hawaii I requested public relations at Pearl to visit Utah. They were only too happy to assist. Be at Nimitz Gate at 09.00, a US Navy Ensign will meet you. We had our own private tour around the restricted areas of Ford Island an given a full history. The US Navy told us the Utah was the forgotten ship and were grateful we had taken the time to pay our respects from Australia. I'm always upset at the disrespectful way so many tourist behave around what are war graves. These men deserve our respect.
@@Nick-kn5lb that would be awsome
As a young Navy brat in the early 60s, my brothers and I would take our bikes over to Ford Island (via a liberty launch - the sailors were only too happy to load them on to the launch). We’d ride around the island and would often swim out to the wreck of the USS Utah and climb all over it. Didn’t think much about it; it’s a different perspective when you’re 8-9 years old. Definitely not forgotten.
@@Nick-kn5lb My son had a current military ID at the time we visited Hawaii. He was able to get us past the guard gate to go see USS Utah where she still rests. Glad we made the effort. She was just a training ship in 1941, with a skeleton crew on her on the morning of Dec. 7th, but still she sported the silhouette of a battleship from the air. So she probably absorbed some attack effort that would have been much more destructive if loosed on the other side of Ford Island, among the fleet battleships along Battleship Row. Fighting to the last the only way she could.
This was really a huge task for brave man to salvage this disaster. On another subject why do we have to have people with a dialect Do the narration
26:19 Drachism of the day: "...but now looked more like an angry velociraptor deity with C4-equipped claws had taken a swipe at the ship".
Now that's an image.
Had to scroll to far to find this
I love his use of language.
2nd place - "The rudder had vanished, which seemed very careless..." 28:23
@@technovelo I love the way he turns a phrase - it's the dry humor. I saw the episode on the Battle of Samar and was hooked. There are sooo many of those in that episode.
Thank you for these videos, and accompanied comments, they are very interesting
Love the content, and your style is awesome.
Thanks for the content.
Salute to all those who went before us...
This series is really educational. This is the first time that I've seen any in depth coverage of the salvage of damaged and sunk ships in the aftermath of the Pearl Harbor attacks.
Every few months I learn something new about a topic I felt I was above-average in regards to a level of knowledge. This is an amazing story. Thanks.
An outstanding job recounting the enormous efforts of the Pearl Harbor salvage. Content of this quality is what ought to be found on the History Channel.
I am blown away by the research, sincerely
Absolutely fascinating
My father was the hot shell man on one of the 5 inch guns on the Pennsylvania. I heard the stories many times - especially their sitting on the deck at night watching the torches cutting into the side of the Oklahoma to rescue sailors. The Helena was berthed where Pennsylvania, as flagship, was usually dockside. These are some of the best pictures I have seen. Thank you.
This is a fascinating topic. In the same vein, it would be equally interesting to have a detailed look at the repairs done to USS Yorktown after the Battle of Coral Sea and the heroic effort to get her ready for the anticipated fight at Midway. I've always wondered how they were able to pull that off as swiftly as they did.
Yorktown sailed towards the Midway engagement with some of the civilian repair workers on board.
I, too, would love a video on just the Yorktown's return to fighting. We all understand it was a fast turn-around, but because of that it may not have been documented well enough for Drach to make a 10 to 15 minute video out of.
@@workingguy-OU812 That occurred to me. I think the extent to which she was damaged at Coral Sea is fairly well documented, but I've no idea how complete the record of patching her up might be.
@@silentotto5099 It would perhaps be a better video on a RUclips channel dedicated toward organization and logistics - they probably threw every living human being into that supply-chain and work-force during those days to make it happen. Unless an officer's memoirs covered it, I can't see anyone being allowed to document it vs. helping out. Perhaps one of the workers created a memoir?
@@workingguy-OU812 I recall reading somewhere that they threw about 1,500 men at the task, and even then they didn't so much repair the ship as patch her up enough so that she could operate.
I know that the navy created a course centered around the damage control the crew of USS Yorktown performed in the wake of Coral Sea to use in training damage control teams. That tells me that the navy had an interest in documenting the real life experiences of how to deal with dire circumstances. That may have carried over to the repair.
But, as you say, it was an 'all hands on deck' effort and when push comes to shove, documentation may have been neglected.
Drach would know. :)
My grandfather was there during that time as a crane operator during the racing and salvaging of the stricken ships. He said that the job was something he would never forget, even as he was able to remember and forget other jobs he did after the war, but the work at pearl harbour when removing pieces of steel and other parts of the raising and salvaging of ships, was when they started rising or ships being dug and lifted from inside coffer dams, became the unforgettable site and smell of the sailors remains being exposed to the air. Even with all the horrible sites from being at different areas of combat during the remainder of the war, he still had nightmares and couldn't get the remembering of the sight and especially the smell of the bodies that were discovered and found during the work of reflecting or salvaging of the ships. He told of how the smell covered the air in the harbour and never smelled anything else like it in his life. So after hearing the stories he told me, it became clearer and clearer why the anger against the Japanese was so great, even though I knew there is death everywhere during war, but the bombing and sinking, killing of Navy ships and personnel along with civilians from the unprovoked of war from Japan while the Navy men and women lay asleep .
Well said!
I discovered your channel a few days ago through the Battle of Jutland episodes and then the Part 1 of the Pearl Harbor Salvage Efforts. Needed a pick me up and lunch and you sir provided it. Thank you so much for all the work that you do.
Tremendous work you've done here, Drach. I've never seen this color footage of the salvage efforts. My grandfather worked in a shipyard in WWII and it makes me proud of him to see this. Very emotional moments when those battleships rose from the bottom with their crews on deck.
Thank you very very much for bringing this wonderful documentary of an often forgotten key to VICTORY.
Having been born on December 7th (about 50 years later) I’ve always been called the Pearl Harbor baby. I was always quick to watch movies or read books about what happened that day and the following months, I had caught snippets of the tapping heard from Oklahoma, men surviving two plus weeks after the attacks and always wanted to hear more about the salvage efforts. Thank you Drach for working so hard to provide insight into sometimes little known naval history. The English accent just adds too the experience. Cheers from your former colony 🍾
Thank you very much. I have never before realized the importance of the dry docks and infrastructure of Pearl Harbor to the war effort. We had a navy and one half because of this repair capacity. This repair capacity kept us in the war for the first two years. Imagine if carriers could not have been quickly repaired.
Met an old gentleman one time, who was wearing a USS Nevada cap. After thanking him for his service, I asked him if he was on it when it beached... He said , No, but I was on it when we refloated it! 😁
That had to be exciting, standing on a dead ship as it suddenly breaks loose and floats, gradually rising.
My uncle was an MM2 stationed at 32nd St. San Diego when Pearl Harbor was attacked. On the 10th he was cut orders to Pearl Harbor. One of his proudest moments was when Nevada and several other ships were refloated. His comment was, "I helped that happen....!"
My late Father-in-Law was a BM2 on the Nevada during the attack. As a young sailor I asked him if he was going to go to the movies to see Tora, Tora, Tora. He said "Nope, I was there and don't have to see a recreation of it that can never do the real attack justice"!
@@williamc.1198 true
My Grandfather William Frank Curtis was on BB36 during the attack. He was on his 50.
It got hit.
He woke up under the bodies of his 2 best Friends.
He looked down and saw he was toe tagged as well. He served on.
On the Enterprise then back to the Nevada and finished on the Alaska as the Radioman. Then on to The Boston Fire Department.
One Hell of a man.
As a U.S. Navy Veteran and historian, I commend you on 2 excellent, and very accurate videos, Seeing many here who are interested in this subject matter, I would recommend reading the book "Descent Into Darkness: Pearl Harbor, 1941: a Navy Diver's Memoir" By Cdr. Edward C. Raymer, USN (Ret.) who was of the aforementioned divers, who conducted hundreds of dives during these salvage operations, He was in fact, the diver that recovered the purser's safe from the U.S.S. ARIZONA. He details the work they did, and how they did it. Inventing procedures used to this day by Naval salvage divers all over the world.
Thanks so much for researching, compiling and presenting these two documentaries. In the many years that I've been studying WWII, especially from the time the United States became involved, this is the very first time that I've seen any film of the salvage efforts and refloating of most of the fleet. It was so inspiring to me to see the camraderie and teamwork of the young men puting their lives at great risk to get our navy back up and functional. These are the many unsung, unheard of heroes whose stories deserve to be told. I hope that more historians follow your example and bring these men the recognition they deserve by our country!
What do we do with a sunken warship
What do we do with a sunken warship
What do we do with a sunken warship
Sitting in Pearl Harbor?
Way hey and up she rises
Way hey and up she rises
Way hey and up she rises
Drydock in the morning!
Drain the water and refloat them
Drain the water and refloat them
Drain the water and refloat them
Sitting in Pearl Harbour!
Way hay, up she rises
Way hay, up she rises
Way hay, up she rises
Drydock in the morning
Refit and repair ‘er
Refit and repair ‘er
Refit and repair ‘er
Sitting in Pearl Harbor
Get them up, and send them right out,
Get them up, and send them right out,
Get them up, and send them right out,
To fight in the Pacific!
@@karlmarx7333& et al with apologies as appropriate:
沈没した軍艦をどうするか
沈没した軍艦をどうするか
沈没した軍艦をどうするか
真珠湾に座っていますか？
やあ、彼女は上がる
やあ、彼女は上がる
やあ、彼女は上がる
朝の乾ドック！
水を排出し、それらを再浮上させます
水を排出し、それらを再浮上させます
水を排出し、それらを再浮上させます
真珠湾に座って！
なんてこった、彼女は上がる
なんてこった、彼女は上がる
なんてこった、彼女は上がる
朝の乾ドック
修理と修理
修理と修理
修理と修理
真珠湾に座って
スリガオで戦うために彼らを送り出す
スリガオで戦うために彼らを送り出す
スリガオで戦うために彼らを送り出す
早朝に！
Yourself and Dr Felton essential viewing. Thanks
I remember an account of the salvage of West Virginia: when a diver made the first exploration of the hull he became confused when he couldn't find the ship even though he was sure he had been walking straight for it. He contacts his line tender to ask if he was near the ship, and the reply was that the diver's bubbles had already disappeared inside the hull. The diver then realized that the damage was so massive that he'd walked into the gaping maw of the blown-open hull without knowing it. He continued his walk, and went almost to the ship's mid-beam before encountering the first wreckage.
Creepy...
Can attest to this based on the pictures I've seen, the damage caused by "mere" air dropped torpedo's beggars belief.
U.S aerial torpedoes (after improvements) were known as the best, IMO likely because of poor Japanese damage control.
Now look at damage inflicted by Japanese aerial torpedoes at Pearl, no damage control can cope with that!
@@ToreDL87 to be fair the battle wagons at pear were all relatively old due to that pesky Washington Naval Treaty and as a result had significantly less torpedo protection compared to a more modern ship
@@collinwood6573 As was also the case with Japanese ships (such as Kongo-class, Fuso-class, Ise-class etc), if you don't mind me saying.
At any rate there's a limit to how much torpedo protection you can put on a ship, eventually you'll hit the spot with diminishing returns in regards to speed & maneuverability to dodge not just torpedoes but many other threats.
To give an example, a class of armored cruisers Norway ordered from England had one of them temporarily used with England during a war, resulting in it being delivered to the Norwegians, finally, with a torpedo belt so big that meme's have been made about it, Drachinifel had a video on it.
The Norwegians literally couldn't safely operate it 😂
Then again, the two ships that they did receive with scant protection against torpedoes, was also sunk by torpedoes (though, through unsavory means)..
Thank you for covering this remarkable & massive effort.
Massive respect to those industrial strength divers...
Two weeks of waiting for a rescue that never came, my God what a cruel way to die.
A superior piece of historic recounting. Very well done.
Gosh, I was so ready to watch this after watching Part 1, twice.
Honestly I get more excited for these than many movies I've seen in theater. Another excellent video!
I was a Gunnersmate first class in the USCG. I was on several ships, including two fromWW2. I can say confidently that there ARE ghosts of those sailors still on their ships. I have met some.
A clear and concise summary of a horrendously complicated topic.
Very informative. My girlfriend's father was an Arizona survivor. That fact makes this documentary series more personal.
Awesome! I’ve never seen the entirety of the color film footage of the salvage. Thanks Drach!
Thank you. I now have a greater appreciation for the salvage crews.
I am completely WOW'd by your documentary. My grandfather went aboard the USS California during her refit in Puget Sound and stayed on her until she got back to Philadelphia for decommissioning. I have been fascinated by her history and during my own years in the Navy, stepped onshore on Tinian Island which the ship helped "soften up" for American occupation. The color video beyond amazing, especially considering the length. I am very curious as to why the ships might have been black. Aside from the soot and the oil, it seems as though there are straight lines between the black and "battleship gray" areas. I have also seen a short video on RUclips of the USS California getting underway after refit in which she again looks black. Great job in filling in the gaps of knowledge that I did not have of the time frame between December 7th and their re-floating. My hat is off to you Sir!
This series of three is absolutely outstanding. It gives an unprecedented perspective of the Pearl Horbor raid - and of the gigantic scale of the US Navy’s capability there.
Thank you for your efforts to make this work happen. History of the after battle of Pearl Harbor is important.
Phenomenal work, Sir! You have out done yourself with the level of research, script writing, video editing and sheer quality on these 2 videos. Bravo Zulu, Drach.
All I can think of to say here is "Wow!" This is very well done and presented sir. You never fail to leave me impressed and to provide information I hadn't learned previously. I spent four years stationed on Oahu with one of those in Pearl Harbor.
Looking forward to Part 3.
There is now a causeway / draw span crossing from the shore close to where Aloha Stadium is today over to Ford Island, passing near where Nevada had been berthed and obviating the need for a vehicle ferry and many of the personnel launches that frequently crossed the harbor. My wife was stationed on Ford Island for about six months and learned that personnel launches were at best uncomfortable ways to travel, especially when (towards the end of her enlistment) she was seven months pregnant.
This is amazing information, very informative . Thank you for your work putting this together.