Join the TimeGhost Army: bit.ly/WW2_191_PI At TimeGhost we focus on creating chronological historiography precisely because we want to see the whole picture, and avoid the myth that history is made by great men. Yamamoto's death however certainly is not without its consequences. Can the death of a single person change the course of the war?
The death of a single person can set the stage for two world wars, the fall of empires, and the rise of nuclear super powers. So yes, the death of a single person can change the course of a war.
I'm not so sure it's a myth so much as overstated. In this case, Yamamoto's moment of greatness has already passed, and his surviving wouldn't make much difference. His dying before the plans to attack Pearl Harbor were developed would be a different matter. Perhaps instead of saying history is made by great men it would be more accurate to attribute it to moments of greatness, where one includes infamy in greatness. It would also be more accurate to attribute moments of greatness to other processes that create the possibility of them existing. I'm not sure I'm stating that very well, not enough caffeine this morning.
Yes, it can. If a very high-ranking commander is killed, the battle can change. Even a commander killed by the opposing force can change the outcome of the war.
@@treybryant7863 I dunno, in medieval times where battles were fought by a few thousand men each, getting your commander killed would see armies collapse. Even in the massed battles of antiquity, like Gaugamela where seeing their commander flee the field of battle caused the Persian army to collapse. But by WW2 battles were so massive, and attritional in nature, and the armies so well organized, that executive officers could always take over command, I don't see a single person change the war. Battles, yes, the whole war? It can be argued that French general Weygand lost the war for France, but considering the state that the French army was in I'm not sure if anyone else could have saved France after the Race to the Somme and Dunkirk. Not unless they had full access to the German battle plan and some months to prepare. I reckon that the leaders of their respective countries could have lost the war. Would anyone else but Churchill have kept the UK in the war? Would anyone else then Stalin and his ruthlessness kept the USSR from collapsing? Would anyone else but Roosevelt have steered the US from abandoning the war in Europe and focus on the Pacific exclusively?
I think his death prolonged the war for the Japanese. He was against suicide attacks and I think his pull would have eventually convinced the Emperor to ask for peace.
The decision of whether to take him down at all, much less make it look like a coincidence so the Japanese don't know about the Allied codebreakers is such a fascinating aspect of history. Thank you so much!
@@WorldWarTwo didn't the Admiral actually survive for a brief moment on the ground? I seem to recall stories of being reached by villagers and found not fully deceased.
@@michigangeezer3950 That's not true. A .50 caliber bullet entered his left lower jaw and exited above his right eye. A Japanese search team found him the next day.
Rex Barber, the pilot who shot down Yamamoto, was a little league coach in one of the little league tournaments I played in, mid ‘60s in Madras, Oregon. Had no idea who he was at the time........he was just Coach Barber.
Thank You, as It wasn't the "loudmouth" Tom Lanphier. Who coincidently almost gave away, that "We" had broken the Japanese Naval Code ! btw - The Air Force in the 1990's had Chuck Yeager & His Wingman in the ETO - Bud Anderson (Neither ever flew in the Pacific)review the case. They credited Lanphier. According to my Mentor; former 339th Squadron member & past President of the " American Fighter Ace Association" the late George Chandler- Lanphier & Yeager were very close friends ... 'Nuff said !
Rex was raised in nearby Culver and just south of Culver is Peter Skeen Ogden State Park which has a Rex T Barber memorial plaque and a bridge named after him. And as a side note, Madras has the Erickson Aircraft Collection which is housed in an old hangar and has a really cool collection of rare WW1 ,WW2 & Cold war era fighters & bombers. Check it out next time your in Madras it's well worth it.
And thinking that American generals were planing to invade France in 1942 or 1943 when there were certainly more than two German divisions when there were no Italian Front to divert German reserve divisions.
The Second Battle of El Alamein was celebrated in Britain as a huge victory and Churchill gave a famous speech about it. Yet it involved defeating a force of only about 10 understrength German and Italian divisions. On the Russian front that would have warranted a routine daily dispatch.
@@donjones4719 There might ten Axis divisions in Panzer Army Afrika but they were well entrenched , fortified their positions with extensive anti tank guns and minefields in depth (something Red Army did not always face regularly in vastness of Eastern Front since lines were overstreched in 3.000 mile long front) and British Eighth Army was not operating on its home territory or close to Europe , evertything they had to bring overseas from much longer distances
Many years ago, I had the good fortune of a chance meeting with Lieutenant Lawrence Graebner (ret.), near the end of his life. He was a P-38 pilot in the screening force that battled the Japanese Zeros that were escorting the bombers. He had a beautiful painting of a P-38 over the ocean, with the autographs of many US pilots who survived that mission. Additionally, he was shot down twice during the war, near Iwo Jima.
When I first found you guys, I didn't expect to be eagerly awaiting new vids each week. Awesome idea to follow the war chronologically, and excellent execution. Trying to pair back my subscriptions, so I can't join the Timeghost army yet, but wanted to show my appreciation.
One of the interceptors of Yamamoto’s visit to the Solomon Islands was Harold Fudenna, a Japanese American with the Military Intelligence Service. (Yankee Samurai, Nisei Linguists)
16:17 This may be good time to watch the 2002 biographical film *The Pianist* , where the uprising is briefly portrayed from the eyes of Polish-Jewish pianist and composer *Władysław Szpilman* , which he indirectly helped to aid by smuggling in weapons before the uprising started. One notable part of the film is the recreation of a real-life photograph of Jürgen Stroop and others during the uprising from the Stroop Report. The 2001 film *Uprising* is also a good film to learn about the 1943 uprising.
With a huge superiority in tanks, guns and shells (343,000 rounds were allotted to First Army) Anderson relied on strength rather than subtlety to shatter the enemy. He planned to attack the pivotal point of the Axis defence in the area bounded by Peter’s Corner, a location eight miles east of Medjez on the road to Tunis, further along the same road to Massicault thence north to El Bathan, as well as driving the enemy from high ground in the south-west, including Longstop Hill, where over 200 enemy weapon pits had been entered on Allied battle maps. This task fell to General Allfrey’s 5th Corps; Evelegh’s 78th British Infantry Division was detailed to take Djebel Ang and Longstop Hill while Major-General Glutterbuck’s 1st Infantry Division drove forward along the Medjerda River to Djebel bou Aoukaz and El Bathan. On the northern edge of the Goubellat Plain, Hawkesworth’s 4th British Infantry Division was to secure Peter’s Corner and push into high hills beyond Ksar Tyr. Entrances to the Goubellat plain were to be seized by Crocker’s 9th Corps, using Freeman-Attwood’s 46th British Infantry Division. When the initial break-in had been made, Briggs’ 1st British Armoured Division and Keightley’s 6th British Armoured Division were to swing north-east towards Massicault, smashing German armour which Anderson expected would be put in east of the Medjerda, and cut off any enemy still opposing 5th Corps’ advance on a line from El Bathan to Massicault. Further south still around Pont du Fahs, Koeltz’s 19th French Corps, with its three infantry divisions - Mathenet’s Maroc, Conne’s d’Alger and Boissau’s d’Oran - together with Le Coulteux’s Armoured Group and Lieutenant-Colonel Lindsay’s 1st King’s Dragoon Guards, was later to pinch out the enemy salient which bulged from Takrouna south-west towards Robaa before swinging north to the vicinity of Bou Arada. Before Anderson could deploy his forces, von Arnim put in a spoiling attack to assess their strength, code-named Operation Fliederblüte (‘Lilac Blossom’), at Banana Ridge, five miles east of Medjez overlooking German positions on the plain below - one of the jumping off points for 1st British Division’s 3rd Brigade - and nearby Djebel Djaffa, where 4th British Infantry Division’s 10th Brigade was lodged. Under a cloudy sky and fitful moon on the night of 20/21 April, rapidly advancing armoured units of 10th Panzer Division, together with infantry from Generalmajor Schmid’s Hermann Goring Division supported by 80 tanks, overran artillery positions on Banana Ridge. At first light their main attack opened as Panzerabteilung 501’s Tigers, supported by 88s, began a pincer movement. They ran straight onto guns brought up ready for the opening stages of Operation Vulcan. Firing over open sights, the gunners knew from intelligence reports all about the weakest point of the Tigers - the traverse ring attaching turret to body. Losing many of their tanks, surviving crews from 10th Panzer Division fought on foot in the light of burning hulks which lit up the countryside. Behind their armour, the infantry suffered terribly from concentrated artillery fire while machine-gun bursts destroyed most of those still on their feet. A British bayonet charge from 10th Brigade, supported by Churchill tanks, re-took the whole ridge. At Djebel Djaffa, south-east of Medjez, the attackers came within half a mile of 4th Division’s HQ and neared Peter’s Corner but here again the combined weight of Churchills supported by 17-pounder anti-tank guns repulsed them. There was some anxiety lest the troops, readying themselves for the forthcoming attack, might have taken too much of a beating and suffered serious disruption to their gun lines. In fact, German casualties were roughly equal but their loss of tanks much greater; proportionately they could ill-afford either. Bloody Road to Tunisia - David Rolf
122 aircraft carriers were built by the US in WWII. 29 were main fleet carriers, The US now has 11 nuclear powered fleet carriers. The Missouri (BB-63), famous for being the ship on which the Japanese instrument of surrender was signed, was the last battleship in the world to be decommissioned on 31 March 1992. So Yamamoto was absolutely right, and that far-sightedness cost him his life.
Someone mentioned the Americans withdrew after shooting down the bombers without destroying any of the Japanese fighters. The Japanese thinking it was not a targeted strike was just self-delusional.
@@Yora21 Some of the high ranking officers at Rabaul had warned Yamamoto not to go, as they themselves had close runs in with American fighters/ambushes. Chief of Staff Ugaki wanted him to go nonetheless. They knew the US were targeting high ranking offical flights in and around Bougainville
The Japanese lost both Betties but not Zeros. All six survived that day, but the pilots are given every opportunity to atone for failing to protect Yamamoto. Within few months, all of them were killed or wounded in action except for Shoich Sugita who was killed on April 15, 1945. Kenji Yanagiya was the only one who survived the war. He was wounded in action in the Solomons shortly after the Yamamoto mission and sent back to Japan.
A formidable capable enemy is one that should be killed quickly. o7 ED: My understanding is that Yamamoto believed that strategy was the best possible but that it was still an unlikely gamble. That is he was trying to make the best of bad options.
Yamamoto was tactically and (to a lesser extent) strategically solid, but in the middle-the operational level-he failed pretty hard. The PH raid he badly advocated for directly played into American hands, for example, because by 1941 War Plan Orange had changed from a fast offensive towards Japan to a prolonged campaign of attrition where the USN would gradually fall back and allow Japan to overextend while building up a massive new fleet, before moving onto the offensive afterwards in an island-hopping campaign. By launching the PH raid Yamamoto effectively guaranteed this scenario-the one that the US wanted by 1941-would happen. It would have made much more sense for Japan to skip PH and the Philippines (which, unlike their assumptions, lacked the capacity for major American fleet operations at this point), and just go for British Malaya and the Dutch East Indies, using the Philippines as bait to lure the Americans into reverting to the older iterations of War Plan Orange instead of the newer, more prolonged strategy that would be more favourable to the US. Japan would still lose WWII, but it would be a closer fight than what historically went down.
@@bkjeong4302 I agree it would have been smarter to just avoid attacking US possessions. But I don't think the fight would have been that much closer. I just think the end would have come a year or two later. That said I don't think the leadership at the liason conferences would have ever allowed that as a possibility. And both missing the carriers at PH and Midway ultimately boiled down to luck (at least going by the videos on this channel) so had those things happened it would have given Japan a bit more time without changing the outcome. And as we saw he was regularly lied to so some of his decisions were made due to bad information. Though I agree he was not a great admiral and made some big mistakes he had some factors going against him. That said, ultimately Japan could not win against the US and he knew that.
@@specialnewb9821 Missing the carriers at PH was bad luck, but the issue is more with the idea of a PH strike in and of itself regardless of the target. At Midway Yamamoto made a bunch of operational-level mistakes (in large part due to mission creep), luck was only part of it.
From Kenya...HE is a great narrator,HE makes Ww2 action sound like the battles are in real time,HE talks and acts as if he was a participant in all major WW2 battles from Caribbean West Indies in the west to Moscow in the East ,HE is Indy Neidell....
The 2011 Japanese movie *Isoroku* does a decent job of showing Combined Fleet Commander Isoroku Yamamoto’s life during the war and his death during during Operation Vengeance at Bougainville in the Solomon Islands. It may be a little romanticized which is understandable given that this is a Japanese film after all, but it is still worth a watch in my opinion.
@@tigertank06 Probably not. Assuming he wasn't scapegoated, the Japanese fleet isn't in any condition to do more than hold out against the American juggernaut. And by this stage, the Allies have made it clear that only unconditional surrender would be accepted.
I've been following Indy for over 5 years now, since The Great War channel, and he's been my best RUclips find to date. All of the new channels, including this one, are all so well done. They're organized and prepared with such great care and I absolutely love Spartacus and Astrid as addtional hosts. The production crew really made an effort in bringing in awesome, interesting, well informed people on board, and the quality shows for it. Keep up the awesome work everyone!
With the loss of Yamaguchi at the Battle of Midway, and now Yamamoto on his inspection tour, the Japanese Navy had lost two of it's highest proponents of using aircraft carriers to fight the war. My opinion of course, but the Japanese seemed to take a more lackluster effect when using carriers from this point on as a form of mass force against targets.
@@tigertank06 no Yamamoto alive wouldn't have changed the course of the war. His prophesy of America making good it's initial losses was coming true. Up to 1942, he had trained & the IJN to fight to its strengths (night fighting & carrier warfare). Once those chips were negated (radar) or destroyed, he could only make the IJN die honourably. Whether he would've approved the use of kamikaze and sent the Combined Fleet to its doom in the Philippines Oct 1944 is debatable. Even more debatable is whether he could've tried convincing Hirohito to accept a surrender, given he was the only leader with the influence to do so at the risk of being assassinated by the Army pre 1940.
@@marks_sparks1 I think there's something really to this as the war drags on longer. In the earlier stages, the Allies in particular didn't really know how to fully utilize their war fighting capabilities. Thus brilliant leadership and strategy could secure enormous victories both in Europe and the Pacific. But as this war drags on experience, and weeding out truly awful commanders, lessened the leadership gap. But perhaps more vitally the Allies far greater production capacity meant that even the most brilliant Axis plans could only do so much. When one side can consistently bring 2, 3, 4, or more times more equipment, personnel, munitions, etc, and is increasingly at least competent from the lowest grunt to the highest theater commander; there's really not much brilliance on the weaker side can do than change the specific ways they lose the war.
The episode may have come a little late for us Patreon and TimeGhost Army members, but better later than never. Just ask Combined Fleet Commander Isoroku Yamamoto, perhaps the history could have been a little different had he just delayed his scheduled flight to Bougainville in the Solomon Islands just a little. Who knows?
@@misterbaker9728 Luckily for the allies, being late was frowned upon in both Japanese & military society. I was also thinking, had he just been on the other plane, he’d likely have been fished out of the ocean instead of going into the trees.
I think by April 1943 the game was already over as Yamamoto had himself predicted. His assassination had an impact on both US and Japanese morale, but IMHO had very little real impact on rest of the war.
I love the P-38’s. In video games they always have great maneuverability at low speeds allowing one to put a lot punishment on targets, especially ground targets, in a single pass. I wonder how well they do in reality compared.
On 14 April, Royal Navy submarine HMS Safari returned from a patrol that was, according to Captain Fawkes, CO of the 8th Flotilla, ‘outstanding among so many outstanding patrols carried out by this fine submarine’. Six, possibly seven, vessels had been sunk and destroyed. Around 5 p.m. on 10 April, Safari had been in the Gulf of Cagliari, off the coast of Sicily, when they had spotted a convoy of three merchant ships, including one tanker. Accompanying these were a minesweeper, several E-boats, destroyers, and aircraft. Despite this formidable protective force, Bryant decided to attack as though there was no escort at all, firing two torpedoes at the cargo liner, and two at the tanker. Anxiously they waited, then several minutes later heard the explosions as all four hit home. By now well below periscope depth, the crew could nonetheless hear the tell-tale creaks and groans of ships breaking up. They immediately came under heavy and sustained depth-charging. HMS Safari dived, but hit the bottom of the sea at only 270 feet and then became stuck. It was a nerve-racking time, because they were only a mile offshore, and the moment they tried using the main motors to free themselves they were heavily depth-charged again, the boat shaking with the blasts. Although lying still in one position when under attack was dangerous in the extreme, there was nothing for it but to sit it out until dark, when Bryant at last thought it was safe to blow the main ballast tank and climb once more. Even so, a hunting craft spotted the tell-tale bubbles and promptly sent down a further ten depth charges. Despite this unnerving experience, Bryant decided to spend another day, the third in a row, in the area. ‘This was very risky,’ admits Ronnie Ward, ‘but we all trusted Ben implicitly.’ And his contemptuous daring paid off. The third ship in the convoy had since run aground - presumably due to its haste to try and get away from Safari the previous day. Two torpedoes sent her to the bottom. E-boats then peppered the sea with a further twenty-one depth charges, all more powerful than any the submariners had previously come up against. But, once again, they managed to slip away. ‘The valour, daring and skill displayed in this patrol,’ Fawkes continued, ‘is done little justice by the wording of the patrol report. The submarines from both the 8th and 10th Flotillas were doing better than they had the previous winter: fifteen vessels were sunk between them in March, and their total for April was to be a further seventeen. Royal Navy surface ships, however, had not sunk a single thing in March. For the Allies to draw the North African campaign to a speedy conclusion they needed to make a far larger dent in the Axis supply line and this could only really be achieved by air power. Royal Navy Mediterranean Fleet commander Admiral Cunningham knew this, and so did General Tooey Spaatz. On taking over the air command, Spaatz had wasted no time in getting to know Cunningham and trying to do what he could to help the naval effort. ‘Admiral,’ Spaatz had told him on a visit to Cunningham’s HQ, ‘I’ve just come to tell you that we don’t know a darned thing about this business of working over the sea. Will you help?’ Of course, Cunningham replied. ‘I already held Spaatz in high esteem,’ wrote Cunningham later, ‘but that simple remark of his endeared him to me more than ever.’ The two had worked closely ever since. Doolittle’s heavy bombers continued to paste Axis-held ports. With the assistance of the other air commands, however - 9th US Air Force included - NATAF was able to increase the tempo of its air operations considerably. ‘We just have to make a success of things in front,’ Mary Conningham Desert Airt Force commander told his staff. ‘We have turned everyone upside-down behind, and the only way of proving to them that the new brooms are an improvement is to produce results at the front.’ Vice Air Marshall Tommy Elmhirst felt that by the beginning of April they were doing just that, and was now very satisfied with what he termed their ‘New Order’. So was Larry Kuter. ‘As our air attacks on Luftwaffe airdromes began to increase, their attacks on our ground forces began to diminish.’ Their strategy was paying off.
They were, however, still having difficulty persuading certain army commanders to come round to their doctrine of the use of air power. On 14 April, Ike visited Ain Beida to discuss plans for the final push. Also there were Patton, Bradley, and Mark Clark. Tooey Spaatz had been asked to attend but his plane had had to make a forced landing and he’d missed the conference. Once more, it had been left to Alex to defend Mary Coningham’s air policy. He insisted that the army and air forces plan their operations together on a co-equal basis and then carry them out in coordination, even though both Patton and Clark, in particular, were still dead against this. Later, Spaatz arrived and Larry Kuter also joined the discussions, but the arguments had not abated until Ike told the assembled commanders that he was getting goddamned tired of hearing the ground forces claiming they needed control of the air. ‘One would believe that our case had been settled,’ noted Larry. From then on there was no more argument. Patton and Clark might not like it, but they had now lost their control of the air forces for good. In the meantime, more and more aircraft and equipment were arriving - 225 Squadron were now equipped entirely with Spitfires. Also being used in the theatre for the first time were Spitfire Mark IXs, a considerable improvement on the Mark V and the equal of the latest 109s and 190s. Larry Kuter also managed to arrange for a new American radar unit to be installed at 242 Group’s HQ. This new model was much more powerful than anything the RAF could lay their hands on and provided cover for the entire northern half of Tunisia and beyond the Cap Bon peninsula. Crucially, this meant they now had advance warning of Axis aircraft coming into the Tunisian bridgehead. Over several meetings between 7 and 10 April, Hitler and Mussolini reaffirmed that Tunisia was to be held at all costs, and so they continued to pour in supplies and reinforcements. But with the numbers of ships being sunk increasing, they had to rely more and more on the air bridge, using Ju 52s and the huge six-engined Messerschmitt 323s in this lifeline across the sea from Sicily and southern Italy. When the weather was favourable, these enemy air armadas would frequently make two trips in one day. From the many sources of intelligence now available to them, NATAF began to get a picture of when these missions might occur and so, with Spaatz and Mary’s approval, Larry began preparing to intercept this air bridge using as many Allied aircraft as possible, in an operation codenamed FLAX. The first proper FLAX mission took place on 5 April, when long-range American P-38 Lightnings shot down thirteen enemy aircraft north-east of Cap Bon. A further eleven were knocked out of the sky by P-38s operating over the Sicily Straits. Fourteen enemy aircraft were destroyed during attacks on airfields in Sicily and a further eighty-five damaged. Helping NATAF over Sicily were Air Marshall Keith Park’s forces on Malta, who were now bombing and strafing the Axis airfields on a daily basis. By now, the 33rd Fighter Group was based at Sbeitla. Lieutenant Jim Reed had flown his first mission from there on 7 April, dropping fragmentation cluster bombs on a mountain road jammed with Italian vehicles and equipment. Jim had observed plenty of light flak and although they had been asked to strafe the enemy once they’d dropped their bombs, they had not done so. This would have meant two sweeps over the same target, a practice the Desert Air Force never observed and which, understandably, Jim’s CO, Colonel Momyer, was reluctant to follow. Jim flew a repeat performance that afternoon, but by the third mission of the day, the group had been ordered to strafe after the bomb run. ‘The end result,’ noted Jim, ‘was that most of our planes were shot up.’ Five aircraft never made it back, and several others returned with landing gear hanging down and holes torn out of the wings and fuselages. ‘This was a case of someone giving orders who did not know what they were doing,’ noted Jim.42 After that, the order was clarified: they were to strafe only if they saw a separate target. The 33rd moved again on 12 April, this time to Ebba Ksour in the plains near Kairouan. At last Jim felt he was leaving behind the memories of mountains, mud, and rain. ‘The country around our new home is beautiful,’ he noted in his diary. Flight Lieutenant John Fairbairn of 73rd Squadron felt much the same. The fighters of the Desert Air Force were also moving up into the plains. After all the sweaty months in the desert,’ noted John, ‘it was great to find trees and flowers everywhere.’ Pitching his tent in the middle of a peach orchard, he was thrilled to find an abundance of green, unripe fruit hanging heavily over him. He was also pleased to be able to hear the dawn chorus once more, a sound that had eluded him in the desert. Even better, cigarettes and alcohol arrived in plentiful amounts, and before long there was even a piano in their mess tent. ‘We began to enjoy the spoils of war,’ he noted.’ The boys of the 57th Fighter Group were also now up in the plains, at a new airfield three miles down the road from El Jem, home to one of the largest and best-preserved Roman amphitheatres in the world. Duke Ellington was now a flight commander in the 65th Fighter Squadron, and early on 18 April - Palm Sunday - they got intelligence that there might be a large force of German aircraft bringing over supplies to Tunisia. Relishing the prospect, Duke put himself on the first mission of the day, patrolling over the Cap Bon area looking for transports. He went up a second time, but still saw nothing. Then at 5 p.m., the 57th sent off its final mission of the day, forty-six aircraft in all from all three squadrons, although on this occasion Duke stayed behind. Accompanying them was another US fighter squadron, the 314th, with a Spitfire top cover provided by the RAF’s 92 Squadron. This time, the 57th struck lucky. Droning towards them at low altitude and in perfect formation were sixty-five Ju 52 transports, escorted by over twenty German and Italian fighters. They were first spotted many miles offshore: it was a fine afternoon, and the setting sun glinted off their surfaces. ‘They were the most beautiful formation I’ve ever seen,’ said one pilot. ‘It seemed a shame to break them up as it looked like a wonderful propaganda film.’ But break them up they did. While the Spitfires and the 64th FS stayed aloft to fend off the fighter escort, the rest peeled off and dived, jumping on the cumbersome transports in a mass of blazing gunfire. As the Americans swept over them, some of the Junkers blew up in mid-air, while others plummeted into the sea; some fluttered from the sky like leaves; others limped on, trailing smoke. The American pilots could barely contain their excitement. Larry Kuter was listening to the fight unfold on 242 Group’s radarscope. ‘All conversations were in the clear,’ he noted. ‘Code names of units and targets were forgotten … From my electronic view, the scene resembled the feeding frenzy of our Atlantic coast Bluefish.’ In what became known as the ‘Palm Sunday Turkey Shoot’ the 57th, along with their RAF Spitfire escorts from 260th Sq and 314th FS colleagues, shot down seventy-four enemy aircraft. While Duke Ellington was thrilled that the 57th had done so well, he was absolutely gutted to have missed out. ‘I had two guys in my flight who I’d just finished putting through the training programme and who had only been with the squadron a couple of weeks, and both got victories,’ says Duke, then adds, ‘Damn! That was our first big battle and I missed it.’ Even more galling for Duke was that later that night their airfield was attacked by Ju 88s. Duke leapt out of his tent only just in time, flinging himself into the nearest slit-trench - only in his confusion he went for the wrong one and ended up lying in the squadron latrines. When the raiders had gone and he returned to his tent, he found it riddled with pieces of shrapnel. For the Allied commanders, however, the Turkey Shoot couldn’t have come at a better time. Only a few days before, Ike had been stunned to learn about the level of bad press they were getting back home in the States, where it seemed that 2nd US Corps were being blamed by American journalists for not securing a more decisive victory over the Axis during the recent fighting. ‘This has had a most disheartening effect at home,’ Ike told Bradley, ‘and apparently morale is suffering badly.’ Well, now the journalists had something good to write about for a change, and news of the 57th’s exploits soon spread across America. Since the Battle of the Mareth Line, 519 Axis aircraft had been shot down, and nearly twice as many destroyed or damaged on the ground. Allied losses in the same period had been 175. At last, the Allies were masters of the air. With that secured, the final push for victory could begin. Together We Stand - James Holland
Operation Mincemeat is coming out on Netflix soon as well! Seen the trailer already and it looks exciting. Glad to hear it mentioned in this episode too ❤
There is a wonderful old move (1956) titled, “the man who never was” on operation mincemeat. It stars Clifton Webb, Gloria Grahame and Stephen Boyd. Worth a watch.
In the 70's as a child I remember watching the excellent World at War series on TV, it was narrated by Sir Lawrence Olivier and it must be said he was nearly as good as you Indie. They had an interview with the pilot credited with shooting down Yamamoto's plane. I can't remember every detail but he did say it was a lucky shot because as he was closing in he tested his guns to make certain they would work and that hit the plane so he let rip. He came across as a very humble and modest man.
I didn't see it until the 2000s as I was born in '81. Best ww2 doc. It had Speer, zhukov, and dönitz being interviewed on the documentary. I thought that was incredible.
The Gallant Hours (1960) with James Cagney about the Guadalcal Campaign covers the decision, and how it was arrived at, to 'take out' Yamamoto. Fine movie.
Given the title, I was half expecting Indy to walk onto a stage with the rest of the TimeGhost crew like Paul Bremer did in 2003. Perhaps an option for if anything happens to other govt/military leaders in the war
@@edvelociraptor1794 It took Stalin and the Soviet Union to get to Berlin, it might take the same amount of time, but like Stalin, Putin will inevitably be the one dancing.
Wow. He actually died relatively early in the war. I mean from the main officers of the Axis countries and of all the participants in the war actually he was killed in action. I suspect we might hear about more casualties of commanders who were the masterminds behind major operations of the war in th furure, both during the conflict in all theaters and after it ends but I must admit I didn't have in mind he was killed this way in 1943. Thank you for enlightening me Time Ghost team. Keep on your great work and happy Easter from 🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷👍🐣
Another outstanding presentation, Indy!! I'll say it again: your series deserves to be considered for some kind of recognition by other documentarians. I have yet to find another that reaches your level. Keep up the great work!
Regarding Lindberg's role as consultant: it was Lindberg who taught the P-38 pilots how to stretch their operating range. This improved the P-38's range by about 30%.
I just stumbled on your fabulous channel and am now a new subscriber! What a brilliant idea to present WWII news as current events. I'm excited to deep dive into your episodes! Thank you from Seattle!!
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First time watching and I am very impressed! So impressed that I have subscribed. Looking forward to the next video. If TV news existed during WWII it sure might have looked just like this video.
THANK YOU!! And welcome aboard! We're grateful there are so many caring people out there interested in history, so thanks for subscribing & we look forward to seeing you in the discussion comments!
I hate to correct you here, but Musashi had relieved Yamato as Yamamoto's flagship on 11 February 1943. She also carried Yamamoto's ashes back to Japan.
Oh man, I had meant to ask if you guys used '2194 Days of War' ... the big red book? I found that book at my grandparents house and read it so many times as a kid!
My great uncle, a P-38 pilot was in the same wing, though not the squadron that shot down Yamamoto. He said the Bettys were dropping and moving fast and the two planes that shot them down only had one chance to do so, a long deflection shot. The pilot said he thought he hit them with the rubber gun plugs that he had forgotten to clear first.
The biggest axis failures so far are air losses, they are doing some retreats sure and holding off attacks using luftwaffe's capable ground support but Allied and soviet fighter force really starting to hurt them
It's rather fantastic how sideline Soviet landing force on Malaya Zemlya (Litle land) peninsula became a thorn in side of the German 17th army defending at Kuban bridgehead.Also,air battles at Kuban demonstrated that Germans were no longer masters of the air on the Eastern front (Stalingrad was first crack,but Kuban finally shattered Luftwaffe).
As a major history buff, I have often contemplated, given the opportunity, which historical figures I would like to sit down with and have a conversation in order to learn from their perspective. Admiral Yamamoto is definitely in the top five.
THANK YOU Viktor & welcome aboard the TimeGhost Army!! We're very glad to have such overwhelming support from our audience and I'm always happy to welcome a new enthusiastic history aficionado. Stay tuned
An interesting WW2 movie to watch around this week is "Uprising" (2001) by Jon Avnet. This TV film covers the events in the Warsaw getto throughout the war, culminating with the Ghetto uprising. It's available in youtube Period covered: September 1939 - 16 May 1943 Historical accuracy: 4/5 IMDB grade: 7.2/10 Other: Winner of 1 Emmy There's also the Isoroku (2011) film as other people mention, dealing with Yamamoto's life until his death.
The 2002 movie, The Pianist, does also show life in the Warsaw Getto during the German occupation, and briefly portrays the 1943 Warsaw Getto uprising later on as well.
Operation Mincemeat is a fantastic story. The book by the same name by Ben MacIntyre goes into great depth of how the operation was carried out. This counter intelligence operation is more fantastic than any James Bond story.
Another amazing and detailed videos lads. Did you have any information about where the 1st Battalion Irish Guards were at this point in Tunisia? They served with distinction in the theatre, but I can never find any information about them?
Well he should look on the bright side...his death saved him from living thru the humiliation and near destruction of Japan that he knew was coming..and saved him being tried as a war criminal
Of the 18 P-38's that took off for the job. One never made it off the ground, it was so heavily loaded with fuel, the tires on the landing gear popped. One had to turn around due to engine problems. Also, to keep the fact that we had broken the Japanese code. The P-38's had to keep up this patrol for a few weeks. All in all a well done interception.
Excellent work as usual but still as a Greek I found a little mistake at 13:01. While talking about the possibility of an allied invasion of Greece ,the western Thrace is not included (greek since 1919) but the Dodecanese islands are (greek since 1947). Thanks and keep up the good work.
I apologize for any confusion. Harold Fudenna intercepted the message of Yamamoto’s plan to fly to the Soloman Islands. He translated the message to his superior.
In the video it is said Yamamoto misread the Americans. I disagree. He read the US correctly. That is why he advised against war. Since he was overruled he made the only plans that he thought had any chance of success. However his original assessment was accurate.
@@wastedhawkbeverages5030 The first part of your statement is true but only because of the militarist behaviour. If the militarist had not seized power and no militarist had stayed in power the situation would not have deteriorated. Admiral Yamamoto had actually been threatened by the militarist years earlier when he had advocated for peace and given what happened to non-militarist in Japan at that time he took the threat very seriously.
@@sgeskinner You're giving FDR too much credit. Making Japanese militarism our business was solely for the purpose of pursuing postwar imperialist goals.
All the U.S. Army Air Force P-38 Pilots involved in the Yamamoto Attack were awarded Navy Crosses ! This just scratches the surface on this mission, that took place One Year to the Day of the "Doolittle Raid".(April 18th, 1942 - April 18, 1943)
Hey I loved the episode. I know that patreon gets me gaureteed answeres to questions but I simply lack the money right now for it which is a shame as I've been watching since ww1 began in 2014 when I was a sophomore in high school and your content has brought me immeasurable joy and solace from my own problems (I could've been at the somme for instance but I'm not and should count my blessings I wasn't alive then) but I just wanted to ask one thing Are you planning on covering the government structure of fascist Italy at all and the internal goings on there? Italy doesn't get the same press as Japan or the nazis and I find them very interesting All the best your fan Cody
It is somewhat amazing that despite Yamamoto's flight being rather conveniently ambushed, the IJ military still does not accept that their codes may be compromised and so they do nothing.
The US conducted a ruse to make it seem like he was caught up in a routine fighter sweep. Firstly no announcement was made of Yamamoto's death, with the US feigning ignorance of the passengers aboard the two downed bombers. Second, additional fighter sweeps were conducted over the area afterward to help convince the Japanese that it was simply an unlucky encounter with routine fighter sweeps. The Japanese were not necessarily foolish in not realizing their codes had been compromised.
The Americans of that day were wise enough not to boast of their accomplishment. Had the Americans done so, the Japanese would have indeed changed their codes instead of chalking it up to bad luck.
USA had broken Japanese codes as far back as 1905. This made them accept a worse deal, than were accepting at the peace conference at the Treaty of Portsmouth.
Lindbergh was somewhat making up for the anti-war position he took before Perl Harbor. His changes made a big difference in the range of fighers. IIRC Lindbergh flew a couple of combat missions - but not this one.
Lindbergh also had an aerial victory during the war. In July of 1944 while piloting a P-38 as part of an escort for US bombers, he shot down a Mitsubishi Ki-51 dive bomber. Not that his war service (which by all accounts, was exemplary) excuses his pre-war Nazi sympathies or repugnant racial views. He was a great aviator, but as a man he left much to be desired.
@@lycaonpictus9662 How were his views any different from the average person's back then? Ony difference was that he was more public about expressing them.
Another great episode from the best WW2 channel ever! Concerning the Tunisian campaign, would it be possible to fit in some info about the French forces we see on the animated map? Are they taking active part in the fighting or just holding their area of the front? Are they still using their 1940 equipment , tanks and aircraft? Thanks!
![Noob To Max With DRAGON REWORK In Blox Fruits [FULL MOVIE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LnBMOinoOvA/mqdefault.jpg)
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At TimeGhost we focus on creating chronological historiography precisely because we want to see the whole picture, and avoid the myth that history is made by great men. Yamamoto's death however certainly is not without its consequences. Can the death of a single person change the course of the war?
The death of a single person can set the stage for two world wars, the fall of empires, and the rise of nuclear super powers. So yes, the death of a single person can change the course of a war.
I'm not so sure it's a myth so much as overstated. In this case, Yamamoto's moment of greatness has already passed, and his surviving wouldn't make much difference. His dying before the plans to attack Pearl Harbor were developed would be a different matter. Perhaps instead of saying history is made by great men it would be more accurate to attribute it to moments of greatness, where one includes infamy in greatness. It would also be more accurate to attribute moments of greatness to other processes that create the possibility of them existing. I'm not sure I'm stating that very well, not enough caffeine this morning.
Yes, it can. If a very high-ranking commander is killed, the battle can change. Even a commander killed by the opposing force can change the outcome of the war.
@@treybryant7863 I dunno, in medieval times where battles were fought by a few thousand men each, getting your commander killed would see armies collapse. Even in the massed battles of antiquity, like Gaugamela where seeing their commander flee the field of battle caused the Persian army to collapse. But by WW2 battles were so massive, and attritional in nature, and the armies so well organized, that executive officers could always take over command, I don't see a single person change the war. Battles, yes, the whole war? It can be argued that French general Weygand lost the war for France, but considering the state that the French army was in I'm not sure if anyone else could have saved France after the Race to the Somme and Dunkirk. Not unless they had full access to the German battle plan and some months to prepare. I reckon that the leaders of their respective countries could have lost the war. Would anyone else but Churchill have kept the UK in the war? Would anyone else then Stalin and his ruthlessness kept the USSR from collapsing? Would anyone else but Roosevelt have steered the US from abandoning the war in Europe and focus on the Pacific exclusively?
I think his death prolonged the war for the Japanese. He was against suicide attacks and I think his pull would have eventually convinced the Emperor to ask for peace.
The best quote I ever heard about the death of Yamamoto: " Always be either 5 minutes late or early because being right on time did Yamamoto in "
The Japanese still don't understand this, meanwhile us indians take the being late bit to heart
@@shivangbhardwaj826indeed
The decision of whether to take him down at all, much less make it look like a coincidence so the Japanese don't know about the Allied codebreakers is such a fascinating aspect of history. Thank you so much!
Thanks for watching, Rick
@@WorldWarTwo didn't the Admiral actually survive for a brief moment on the ground? I seem to recall stories of being reached by villagers and found not fully deceased.
@@michigangeezer3950 hmm 🤔 never heard of that story before
@@michigangeezer3950 That's not true. A .50 caliber bullet entered his left lower jaw and exited above his right eye. A Japanese search team found him the next day.
@@michigangeezer3950 no I believe he actually got hit by a 50 cal from the plane. Died instantly
Rex Barber, the pilot who shot down Yamamoto, was a little league coach in one of the little league tournaments I played in, mid ‘60s in Madras, Oregon. Had no idea who he was at the time........he was just Coach Barber.
That's quite amazing, thanks for sharing that about him here. It never ceases to amaze me how closely connected we are to the war.
Thank You, as It wasn't the "loudmouth" Tom Lanphier. Who coincidently almost gave away, that "We" had broken the Japanese Naval Code ! btw - The Air Force in the 1990's had Chuck Yeager & His Wingman in the ETO - Bud Anderson (Neither ever flew in the Pacific)review the case. They credited Lanphier. According to my Mentor; former 339th Squadron member & past President of the " American Fighter Ace Association" the late George Chandler- Lanphier & Yeager were very close friends ... 'Nuff said !
Rex was raised in nearby Culver and just south of Culver is Peter Skeen Ogden State Park which has a Rex T Barber memorial plaque and a bridge named after him. And as a side note, Madras has the Erickson Aircraft Collection which is housed in an old hangar and has a really cool collection of rare WW1 ,WW2 & Cold war era fighters & bombers. Check it out next time your in Madras it's well worth it.
Western allies: "We need to abandon Husky if there are two German divisions."
Stalin facing 185 German divisions: "Bro....."
And thinking that American generals were planing to invade France in 1942 or 1943 when there were certainly more than two German divisions when there were no Italian Front to divert German reserve divisions.
Lmao I love that part 11:56
The Second Battle of El Alamein was celebrated in Britain as a huge victory and Churchill gave a famous speech about it. Yet it involved defeating a force of only about 10 understrength German and Italian divisions. On the Russian front that would have warranted a routine daily dispatch.
@@donjones4719 There might ten Axis divisions in Panzer Army Afrika but they were well entrenched , fortified their positions with extensive anti tank guns and minefields in depth (something Red Army did not always face regularly in vastness of Eastern Front since lines were overstreched in 3.000 mile long front) and British Eighth Army was not operating on its home territory or close to Europe , evertything they had to bring overseas from much longer distances
To be fair it was 2 divisions defending against a naval invasion, which would put them at a considerable advantage
Many years ago, I had the good fortune of a chance meeting with Lieutenant Lawrence Graebner (ret.), near the end of his life. He was a P-38 pilot in the screening force that battled the Japanese Zeros that were escorting the bombers. He had a beautiful painting of a P-38 over the ocean, with the autographs of many US pilots who survived that mission. Additionally, he was shot down twice during the war, near Iwo Jima.
That's amazing to have met him. He must have had incredible stories during his life.
Once again an excellent presentation, especially covering hesitations regarding the shooting down of the central Japanese military leader.
Thanks for watching, Eleanor
4:30 "do not figure out their codes are insecure"
This is the greatest weakness of all, to not learn from failure.
The US sent fighters over that island for a month afterwards, in an attempt to hide their penetration of Japanese codes.
When I first found you guys, I didn't expect to be eagerly awaiting new vids each week. Awesome idea to follow the war chronologically, and excellent execution. Trying to pair back my subscriptions, so I can't join the Timeghost army yet, but wanted to show my appreciation.
Thank you Jeffrey! We just appreciate having you here every week!
One of the interceptors of Yamamoto’s visit to the Solomon Islands was Harold Fudenna, a Japanese American with the Military Intelligence Service. (Yankee Samurai, Nisei Linguists)
I should clarify that he intercepted the message and translated if. I apologize for any confusion.
@@Kurenai1819 thankyou for clarification!
16:17 This may be good time to watch the 2002 biographical film *The Pianist* , where the uprising is briefly portrayed from the eyes of Polish-Jewish pianist and composer *Władysław Szpilman* , which he indirectly helped to aid by smuggling in weapons before the uprising started. One notable part of the film is the recreation of a real-life photograph of Jürgen Stroop and others during the uprising from the Stroop Report. The 2001 film *Uprising* is also a good film to learn about the 1943 uprising.
Best pirate it though since Roman Polanski directed it.
Do they recognize the name Yamato or Yamamoto?
Both accounts stay faithful to the facts of the uprising.
It's honestly one of the greatest movies I've ever seen in my life. Uprising too.
With a huge superiority in tanks, guns and shells (343,000 rounds were allotted to First Army) Anderson relied on strength rather than subtlety to shatter the enemy. He planned to attack the pivotal point of the Axis defence in the area bounded by Peter’s Corner, a location eight miles east of Medjez on the road to Tunis, further along the same road to Massicault thence north to El Bathan, as well as driving the enemy from high ground in the south-west, including Longstop Hill, where over 200 enemy weapon pits had been entered on Allied battle maps. This task fell to General Allfrey’s 5th Corps; Evelegh’s 78th British Infantry Division was detailed to take Djebel Ang and Longstop Hill while Major-General Glutterbuck’s 1st Infantry Division drove forward along the Medjerda River to Djebel bou Aoukaz and El Bathan. On the northern edge of the Goubellat Plain, Hawkesworth’s 4th British Infantry Division was to secure Peter’s Corner and push into high hills beyond Ksar Tyr.
Entrances to the Goubellat plain were to be seized by Crocker’s 9th Corps, using Freeman-Attwood’s 46th British Infantry Division. When the initial break-in had been made, Briggs’ 1st British Armoured Division and Keightley’s 6th British Armoured Division were to swing north-east towards Massicault, smashing German armour which Anderson expected would be put in east of the Medjerda, and cut off any enemy still opposing 5th Corps’ advance on a line from El Bathan to Massicault. Further south still around Pont du Fahs, Koeltz’s 19th French Corps, with its three infantry divisions - Mathenet’s Maroc, Conne’s d’Alger and Boissau’s d’Oran - together with Le Coulteux’s Armoured Group and Lieutenant-Colonel Lindsay’s 1st King’s Dragoon Guards, was later to pinch out the enemy salient which bulged from Takrouna south-west towards Robaa before swinging north to the vicinity of Bou Arada.
Before Anderson could deploy his forces, von Arnim put in a spoiling attack to assess their strength, code-named Operation Fliederblüte (‘Lilac Blossom’), at Banana Ridge, five miles east of Medjez overlooking German positions on the plain below - one of the jumping off points for 1st British Division’s 3rd Brigade - and nearby Djebel Djaffa, where 4th British Infantry Division’s 10th Brigade was lodged. Under a cloudy sky and fitful moon on the night of 20/21 April, rapidly advancing armoured units of 10th Panzer Division, together with infantry from Generalmajor Schmid’s Hermann Goring Division supported by 80 tanks, overran artillery positions on Banana Ridge. At first light their main attack opened as Panzerabteilung 501’s Tigers, supported by 88s, began a pincer movement. They ran straight onto guns brought up ready for the opening stages of Operation Vulcan. Firing over open sights, the gunners knew from intelligence reports all about the weakest point of the Tigers - the traverse ring attaching turret to body. Losing many of their tanks, surviving crews from 10th Panzer Division fought on foot in the light of burning hulks which lit up the countryside. Behind their armour, the infantry suffered terribly from concentrated artillery fire while machine-gun bursts destroyed most of those still on their feet. A British bayonet charge from 10th Brigade, supported by Churchill tanks, re-took the whole ridge.
At Djebel Djaffa, south-east of Medjez, the attackers came within half a mile of 4th Division’s HQ and neared Peter’s Corner but here again the combined weight of Churchills supported by 17-pounder anti-tank guns repulsed them. There was some anxiety lest the troops, readying themselves for the forthcoming attack, might have taken too much of a beating and suffered serious disruption to their gun lines. In fact, German casualties were roughly equal but their loss of tanks much greater; proportionately they could ill-afford either.
Bloody Road to Tunisia - David Rolf
@merdiolu81 Thank you for always bringing an extra dimension to the comments with your sources.
@@WorldWarTwo You are welcome
Oh... You post here too. Nice!
122 aircraft carriers were built by the US in WWII. 29 were main fleet carriers, The US now has 11 nuclear powered fleet carriers.
The Missouri (BB-63), famous for being the ship on which the Japanese instrument of surrender was signed, was the last battleship in the world to be decommissioned on 31 March 1992.
So Yamamoto was absolutely right, and that far-sightedness cost him his life.
I understand that P-38 sweeps continued over Bougainville for some weeks after that to make that first one seem "normal."
Someone mentioned the Americans withdrew after shooting down the bombers without destroying any of the Japanese fighters. The Japanese thinking it was not a targeted strike was just self-delusional.
@@Yora21
Some of the high ranking officers at Rabaul had warned Yamamoto not to go, as they themselves had close runs in with American fighters/ambushes. Chief of Staff Ugaki wanted him to go nonetheless.
They knew the US were targeting high ranking offical flights in and around Bougainville
The Japanese lost both Betties but not Zeros. All six survived that day, but the pilots are given every opportunity to atone for failing to protect Yamamoto. Within few months, all of them were killed or wounded in action except for Shoich Sugita who was killed on April 15, 1945. Kenji Yanagiya was the only one who survived the war. He was wounded in action in the Solomons shortly after the Yamamoto mission and sent back to Japan.
Great info, thank you.
A formidable capable enemy is one that should be killed quickly. o7
ED: My understanding is that Yamamoto believed that strategy was the best possible but that it was still an unlikely gamble. That is he was trying to make the best of bad options.
Your understanding is correct.
Yamamoto was tactically and (to a lesser extent) strategically solid, but in the middle-the operational level-he failed pretty hard. The PH raid he badly advocated for directly played into American hands, for example, because by 1941 War Plan Orange had changed from a fast offensive towards Japan to a prolonged campaign of attrition where the USN would gradually fall back and allow Japan to overextend while building up a massive new fleet, before moving onto the offensive afterwards in an island-hopping campaign. By launching the PH raid Yamamoto effectively guaranteed this scenario-the one that the US wanted by 1941-would happen.
It would have made much more sense for Japan to skip PH and the Philippines (which, unlike their assumptions, lacked the capacity for major American fleet operations at this point), and just go for British Malaya and the Dutch East Indies, using the Philippines as bait to lure the Americans into reverting to the older iterations of War Plan Orange instead of the newer, more prolonged strategy that would be more favourable to the US. Japan would still lose WWII, but it would be a closer fight than what historically went down.
@@bkjeong4302 I agree it would have been smarter to just avoid attacking US possessions. But I don't think the fight would have been that much closer. I just think the end would have come a year or two later.
That said I don't think the leadership at the liason conferences would have ever allowed that as a possibility. And both missing the carriers at PH and Midway ultimately boiled down to luck (at least going by the videos on this channel) so had those things happened it would have given Japan a bit more time without changing the outcome. And as we saw he was regularly lied to so some of his decisions were made due to bad information. Though I agree he was not a great admiral and made some big mistakes he had some factors going against him.
That said, ultimately Japan could not win against the US and he knew that.
@@specialnewb9821 Missing the carriers at PH was bad luck, but the issue is more with the idea of a PH strike in and of itself regardless of the target.
At Midway Yamamoto made a bunch of operational-level mistakes (in large part due to mission creep), luck was only part of it.
From Kenya...HE is a great narrator,HE makes Ww2 action sound like the battles are in real time,HE talks and acts as if he was a participant in all major WW2 battles from Caribbean West Indies in the west to Moscow in the East ,HE is Indy Neidell....
Thank you for watching, Michael! 🇰🇪
The 2011 Japanese movie *Isoroku* does a decent job of showing Combined Fleet Commander Isoroku Yamamoto’s life during the war and his death during during Operation Vengeance at Bougainville in the Solomon Islands. It may be a little romanticized which is understandable given that this is a Japanese film after all, but it is still worth a watch in my opinion.
Couldn't agree more.
Thanks for the suggestion
It's more than romanticized. The death scene is an act of worship. I had trouble keeping my lunch down.
If Yamamoto had lived, would it have changed the outcome of the war? Or would Japan losing be slower?
@@tigertank06 Probably not. Assuming he wasn't scapegoated, the Japanese fleet isn't in any condition to do more than hold out against the American juggernaut. And by this stage, the Allies have made it clear that only unconditional surrender would be accepted.
The Operations Room channel presents a very well done animated description of the attack on Yamamoto's plane.
"Pusillanimous" is such a Churchill word to say
"Churchillian", that is ... !
I wonder what it means!
Been looking forward to this episode for a few weeks now. There was only one Yamamoto.
I've been following Indy for over 5 years now, since The Great War channel, and he's been my best RUclips find to date. All of the new channels, including this one, are all so well done. They're organized and prepared with such great care and I absolutely love Spartacus and Astrid as addtional hosts. The production crew really made an effort in bringing in awesome, interesting, well informed people on board, and the quality shows for it. Keep up the awesome work everyone!
@Vaughn Thank you so much for your kind words and your longtime support! Our channel couldn't succeed without you in the TimeGhost Army
Don't forget Sunday Baseball!
With the loss of Yamaguchi at the Battle of Midway, and now Yamamoto on his inspection tour, the Japanese Navy had lost two of it's highest proponents of using aircraft carriers to fight the war. My opinion of course, but the Japanese seemed to take a more lackluster effect when using carriers from this point on as a form of mass force against targets.
The fact that most of their carriers are sunk by this point has a lot to do with that as well…
@@wilberwhateley7569 and most of their trained aircrew, directly as a result of Yamamotos and Nagumos disaster at Midway.
If Yamamoto had lived, would it have changed the outcome of the war? Or would Japan’s loss have been slower?
@@tigertank06 no Yamamoto alive wouldn't have changed the course of the war. His prophesy of America making good it's initial losses was coming true. Up to 1942, he had trained & the IJN to fight to its strengths (night fighting & carrier warfare). Once those chips were negated (radar) or destroyed, he could only make the IJN die honourably. Whether he would've approved the use of kamikaze and sent the Combined Fleet to its doom in the Philippines Oct 1944 is debatable. Even more debatable is whether he could've tried convincing Hirohito to accept a surrender, given he was the only leader with the influence to do so at the risk of being assassinated by the Army pre 1940.
@@marks_sparks1 I think there's something really to this as the war drags on longer. In the earlier stages, the Allies in particular didn't really know how to fully utilize their war fighting capabilities. Thus brilliant leadership and strategy could secure enormous victories both in Europe and the Pacific. But as this war drags on experience, and weeding out truly awful commanders, lessened the leadership gap. But perhaps more vitally the Allies far greater production capacity meant that even the most brilliant Axis plans could only do so much. When one side can consistently bring 2, 3, 4, or more times more equipment, personnel, munitions, etc, and is increasingly at least competent from the lowest grunt to the highest theater commander; there's really not much brilliance on the weaker side can do than change the specific ways they lose the war.
This channel is one of the delights of this world. The writing, the maps, the whole production - just amazing! Thank you so much!
Thank you so much for watching! Please stay tuned for more every week
It's ANZAC Day in Australia tomorrow. Thanks for helping us never forget Timeghosters
Thank you Tom 🇦🇺
The episode may have come a little late for us Patreon and TimeGhost Army members, but better later than never. Just ask Combined Fleet Commander Isoroku Yamamoto, perhaps the history could have been a little different had he just delayed his scheduled flight to Bougainville in the Solomon Islands just a little. Who knows?
Imagine if it was 8 mins late he would of been completely missed
Being casually late and changing plans at the last minute were tactics that Hitler used to escape untimely death. 🤷🏻♂️
@@nickmacarius3012 it’s amazing he lived with the 50+ attacks he dealt with.
@@misterbaker9728 Luckily for the allies, being late was frowned upon in both Japanese & military society.
I was also thinking, had he just been on the other plane, he’d likely have been fished out of the ocean instead of going into the trees.
I think by April 1943 the game was already over as Yamamoto had himself predicted. His assassination had an impact on both US and Japanese morale, but IMHO had very little real impact on rest of the war.
I love the P-38’s. In video games they always have great maneuverability at low speeds allowing one to put a lot punishment on targets, especially ground targets, in a single pass. I wonder how well they do in reality compared.
"Doctor said the head shot killed him"
I'm glad they brought a doctor to insure us.
On 14 April, Royal Navy submarine HMS Safari returned from a patrol that was, according to Captain Fawkes, CO of the 8th Flotilla, ‘outstanding among so many outstanding patrols carried out by this fine submarine’. Six, possibly seven, vessels had been sunk and destroyed. Around 5 p.m. on 10 April, Safari had been in the Gulf of Cagliari, off the coast of Sicily, when they had spotted a convoy of three merchant ships, including one tanker. Accompanying these were a minesweeper, several E-boats, destroyers, and aircraft. Despite this formidable protective force, Bryant decided to attack as though there was no escort at all, firing two torpedoes at the cargo liner, and two at the tanker. Anxiously they waited, then several minutes later heard the explosions as all four hit home. By now well below periscope depth, the crew could nonetheless hear the tell-tale creaks and groans of ships breaking up.
They immediately came under heavy and sustained depth-charging. HMS Safari dived, but hit the bottom of the sea at only 270 feet and then became stuck. It was a nerve-racking time, because they were only a mile offshore, and the moment they tried using the main motors to free themselves they were heavily depth-charged again, the boat shaking with the blasts. Although lying still in one position when under attack was dangerous in the extreme, there was nothing for it but to sit it out until dark, when Bryant at last thought it was safe to blow the main ballast tank and climb once more. Even so, a hunting craft spotted the tell-tale bubbles and promptly sent down a further ten depth charges.
Despite this unnerving experience, Bryant decided to spend another day, the third in a row, in the area. ‘This was very risky,’ admits Ronnie Ward, ‘but we all trusted Ben implicitly.’ And his contemptuous daring paid off. The third ship in the convoy had since run aground - presumably due to its haste to try and get away from Safari the previous day. Two torpedoes sent her to the bottom. E-boats then peppered the sea with a further twenty-one depth charges, all more powerful than any the submariners had previously come up against. But, once again, they managed to slip away. ‘The valour, daring and skill displayed in this patrol,’ Fawkes continued, ‘is done little justice by the wording of the patrol report.
The submarines from both the 8th and 10th Flotillas were doing better than they had the previous winter: fifteen vessels were sunk between them in March, and their total for April was to be a further seventeen. Royal Navy surface ships, however, had not sunk a single thing in March. For the Allies to draw the North African campaign to a speedy conclusion they needed to make a far larger dent in the Axis supply line and this could only really be achieved by air power.
Royal Navy Mediterranean Fleet commander Admiral Cunningham knew this, and so did General Tooey Spaatz. On taking over the air command, Spaatz had wasted no time in getting to know Cunningham and trying to do what he could to help the naval effort. ‘Admiral,’ Spaatz had told him on a visit to Cunningham’s HQ, ‘I’ve just come to tell you that we don’t know a darned thing about this business of working over the sea. Will you help?’ Of course, Cunningham replied. ‘I already held Spaatz in high esteem,’ wrote Cunningham later, ‘but that simple remark of his endeared him to me more than ever.’
The two had worked closely ever since. Doolittle’s heavy bombers continued to paste Axis-held ports. With the assistance of the other air commands, however - 9th US Air Force included - NATAF was able to increase the tempo of its air operations considerably. ‘We just have to make a success of things in front,’ Mary Conningham Desert Airt Force commander told his staff. ‘We have turned everyone upside-down behind, and the only way of proving to them that the new brooms are an improvement is to produce results at the front.’ Vice Air Marshall Tommy Elmhirst felt that by the beginning of April they were doing just that, and was now very satisfied with what he termed their ‘New Order’. So was Larry Kuter. ‘As our air attacks on Luftwaffe airdromes began to increase, their attacks on our ground forces began to diminish.’ Their strategy was paying off.
They were, however, still having difficulty persuading certain army commanders to come round to their doctrine of the use of air power. On 14 April, Ike visited Ain Beida to discuss plans for the final push. Also there were Patton, Bradley, and Mark Clark. Tooey Spaatz had been asked to attend but his plane had had to make a forced landing and he’d missed the conference. Once more, it had been left to Alex to defend Mary Coningham’s air policy. He insisted that the army and air forces plan their operations together on a co-equal basis and then carry them out in coordination, even though both Patton and Clark, in particular, were still dead against this. Later, Spaatz arrived and Larry Kuter also joined the discussions, but the arguments had not abated until Ike told the assembled commanders that he was getting goddamned tired of hearing the ground forces claiming they needed control of the air. ‘One would believe that our case had been settled,’ noted Larry. From then on there was no more argument. Patton and Clark might not like it, but they had now lost their control of the air forces for good.
In the meantime, more and more aircraft and equipment were arriving - 225 Squadron were now equipped entirely with Spitfires. Also being used in the theatre for the first time were Spitfire Mark IXs, a considerable improvement on the Mark V and the equal of the latest 109s and 190s. Larry Kuter also managed to arrange for a new American radar unit to be installed at 242 Group’s HQ. This new model was much more powerful than anything the RAF could lay their hands on and provided cover for the entire northern half of Tunisia and beyond the Cap Bon peninsula.
Crucially, this meant they now had advance warning of Axis aircraft coming into the Tunisian bridgehead. Over several meetings between 7 and 10 April, Hitler and Mussolini reaffirmed that Tunisia was to be held at all costs, and so they continued to pour in supplies and reinforcements. But with the numbers of ships being sunk increasing, they had to rely more and more on the air bridge, using Ju 52s and the huge six-engined Messerschmitt 323s in this lifeline across the sea from Sicily and southern Italy. When the weather was favourable, these enemy air armadas would frequently make two trips in one day. From the many sources of intelligence now available to them, NATAF began to get a picture of when these missions might occur and so, with Spaatz and Mary’s approval, Larry began preparing to intercept this air bridge using as many Allied aircraft as possible, in an operation codenamed FLAX. The first proper FLAX mission took place on 5 April, when long-range American P-38 Lightnings shot down thirteen enemy aircraft north-east of Cap Bon. A further eleven were knocked out of the sky by P-38s operating over the Sicily Straits. Fourteen enemy aircraft were destroyed during attacks on airfields in Sicily and a further eighty-five damaged. Helping NATAF over Sicily were Air Marshall Keith Park’s forces on Malta, who were now bombing and strafing the Axis airfields on a daily basis.
By now, the 33rd Fighter Group was based at Sbeitla. Lieutenant Jim Reed had flown his first mission from there on 7 April, dropping fragmentation cluster bombs on a mountain road jammed with Italian vehicles and equipment. Jim had observed plenty of light flak and although they had been asked to strafe the enemy once they’d dropped their bombs, they had not done so. This would have meant two sweeps over the same target, a practice the Desert Air Force never observed and which, understandably, Jim’s CO, Colonel Momyer, was reluctant to follow. Jim flew a repeat performance that afternoon, but by the third mission of the day, the group had been ordered to strafe after the bomb run. ‘The end result,’ noted Jim, ‘was that most of our planes were shot up.’ Five aircraft never made it back, and several others returned with landing gear hanging down and holes torn out of the wings and fuselages. ‘This was a case of someone giving orders who did not know what they were doing,’ noted Jim.42 After that, the order was clarified: they were to strafe only if they saw a separate target.
The 33rd moved again on 12 April, this time to Ebba Ksour in the plains near Kairouan. At last Jim felt he was leaving behind the memories of mountains, mud, and rain. ‘The country around our new home is beautiful,’ he noted in his diary. Flight Lieutenant John Fairbairn of 73rd Squadron felt much the same. The fighters of the Desert Air Force were also moving up into the plains. After all the sweaty months in the desert,’ noted John, ‘it was great to find trees and flowers everywhere.’ Pitching his tent in the middle of a peach orchard, he was thrilled to find an abundance of green, unripe fruit hanging heavily over him. He was also pleased to be able to hear the dawn chorus once more, a sound that had eluded him in the desert. Even better, cigarettes and alcohol arrived in plentiful amounts, and before long there was even a piano in their mess tent. ‘We began to enjoy the spoils of war,’ he noted.’
The boys of the 57th Fighter Group were also now up in the plains, at a new airfield three miles down the road from El Jem, home to one of the largest and best-preserved Roman amphitheatres in the world. Duke Ellington was now a flight commander in the 65th Fighter Squadron, and early on 18 April - Palm Sunday - they got intelligence that there might be a large force of German aircraft bringing over supplies to Tunisia. Relishing the prospect, Duke put himself on the first mission of the day, patrolling over the Cap Bon area looking for transports. He went up a second time, but still saw nothing. Then at 5 p.m., the 57th sent off its final mission of the day, forty-six aircraft in all from all three squadrons, although on this occasion Duke stayed behind. Accompanying them was another US fighter squadron, the 314th, with a Spitfire top cover provided by the RAF’s 92 Squadron.
This time, the 57th struck lucky. Droning towards them at low altitude and in perfect formation were sixty-five Ju 52 transports, escorted by over twenty German and Italian fighters. They were first spotted many miles offshore: it was a fine afternoon, and the setting sun glinted off their surfaces. ‘They were the most beautiful formation I’ve ever seen,’ said one pilot. ‘It seemed a shame to break them up as it looked like a wonderful propaganda film.’ But break them up they did. While the Spitfires and the 64th FS stayed aloft to fend off the fighter escort, the rest peeled off and dived, jumping on the cumbersome transports in a mass of blazing gunfire. As the Americans swept over them, some of the Junkers blew up in mid-air, while others plummeted into the sea; some fluttered from the sky like leaves; others limped on, trailing smoke. The American pilots could barely contain their excitement. Larry Kuter was listening to the fight unfold on 242 Group’s radarscope. ‘All conversations were in the clear,’ he noted. ‘Code names of units and targets were forgotten … From my electronic view, the scene resembled the feeding frenzy of our Atlantic coast Bluefish.’
In what became known as the ‘Palm Sunday Turkey Shoot’ the 57th, along with their RAF Spitfire escorts from 260th Sq and 314th FS colleagues, shot down seventy-four enemy aircraft. While Duke Ellington was thrilled that the 57th had done so well, he was absolutely gutted to have missed out. ‘I had two guys in my flight who I’d just finished putting through the training programme and who had only been with the squadron a couple of weeks, and both got victories,’ says Duke, then adds, ‘Damn! That was our first big battle and I missed it.’
Even more galling for Duke was that later that night their airfield was attacked by Ju 88s. Duke leapt out of his tent only just in time, flinging himself into the nearest slit-trench - only in his confusion he went for the wrong one and ended up lying in the squadron latrines. When the raiders had gone and he returned to his tent, he found it riddled with pieces of shrapnel.
For the Allied commanders, however, the Turkey Shoot couldn’t have come at a better time. Only a few days before, Ike had been stunned to learn about the level of bad press they were getting back home in the States, where it seemed that 2nd US Corps were being blamed by American journalists for not securing a more decisive victory over the Axis during the recent fighting. ‘This has had a most disheartening effect at home,’ Ike told Bradley, ‘and apparently morale is suffering badly.’ Well, now the journalists had something good to write about for a change, and news of the 57th’s exploits soon spread across America.
Since the Battle of the Mareth Line, 519 Axis aircraft had been shot down, and nearly twice as many destroyed or damaged on the ground. Allied losses in the same period had been 175. At last, the Allies were masters of the air. With that secured, the final push for victory could begin.
Together We Stand - James Holland
Operation Mincemeat is coming out on Netflix soon as well! Seen the trailer already and it looks exciting. Glad to hear it mentioned in this episode too ❤
There is a wonderful old move (1956) titled, “the man who never was” on operation mincemeat. It stars Clifton Webb, Gloria Grahame and Stephen Boyd. Worth a watch.
I love the fact that one of the officers behind Operation Mincemeat was a certain Commander Ian Fleming
Thanks!
Thanks for watching, Rodger!
In the 70's as a child I remember watching the excellent World at War series on TV, it was narrated by Sir Lawrence Olivier and it must be said he was nearly as good as you Indie. They had an interview with the pilot credited with shooting down Yamamoto's plane. I can't remember every detail but he did say it was a lucky shot because as he was closing in he tested his guns to make certain they would work and that hit the plane so he let rip. He came across as a very humble and modest man.
I always liked that show.
World at War. I watched as a 10 year old girl and have been an armchair historian ever since.
Too bad is hard to find on the internet.. I know a channel that has like 7 eps tho
I didn't see it until the 2000s as I was born in '81. Best ww2 doc. It had Speer, zhukov, and dönitz being interviewed on the documentary. I thought that was incredible.
Thanks
Thank you for watching, Alex
Excellent, again.
Thanks @Säbelzahnmöwe
The Gallant Hours (1960) with James Cagney about the Guadalcal Campaign covers the decision, and how it was arrived at, to 'take out' Yamamoto. Fine movie.
Given the title, I was half expecting Indy to walk onto a stage with the rest of the TimeGhost crew like Paul Bremer did in 2003.
Perhaps an option for if anything happens to other govt/military leaders in the war
I hope that’s what happens in 45 with the axis leaders
@@steffanyschwartz7801 or yknow with zelensky over putins grave...
@@doopboop8359 You mean with Putin over Zelensky's grave as he drinks vodka in Kiev.
@@jejema6263 doesn't seem like that'll happen any time soon
@@edvelociraptor1794 It took Stalin and the Soviet Union to get to Berlin, it might take the same amount of time, but like Stalin, Putin will inevitably be the one dancing.
Doctor: He took a 50 cal shot to the shoulder and the head, and then was in a plane crash.
General: Ok, but what killed him?
Hubris.
Wow. He actually died relatively early in the war. I mean from the main officers of the Axis countries and of all the participants in the war actually he was killed in action. I suspect we might hear about more casualties of commanders who were the masterminds behind major operations of the war in th furure, both during the conflict in all theaters and after it ends but I must admit I didn't have in mind he was killed this way in 1943. Thank you for enlightening me Time Ghost team. Keep on your great work and happy Easter from 🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷👍🐣
Thank you for watching and Happy Easter to you 🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷
@@WorldWarTwo
It is my pleasure to follow your work and thank you very much for replying
I really like how you have the circle with the general of the operation on the map
You guys have been very consistent with the episode schedule, thanks for keeping it up!
Thanks for watching, Christopher! It's only with the help of you in the TimeGhost Army that we're able to do it
As a Brit I feel morally and culturally obliged to phrase my congratulations to the American pilots as such: Good show ol' chaps!
Stephen From an American intern - We'll always be grateful for our beloved Allies across the pond. Cheers.
"Pip, Pip, and all that sort of rot!"
Too bad England has been destroyed from within all those soldiers died for nothing
As a Netherlander who's countrymen have been suffering greatly at the hands of the Imperial Japanese army and navy, so do I: hiep hiep hoera!
@@chesterswortham5197 so what exactly are you implying?
Thank you for the lesson.
I love/hate that these are so well done that I'm always excited for next week's video. Y'all are awesome!
Thank you for watching every week, Jared!
Another outstanding presentation, Indy!! I'll say it again: your series deserves to be considered for some kind of recognition by other documentarians. I have yet to find another that reaches your level. Keep up the great work!
Thanks @michael hancock! We will take the recognition of all of you out there in the TimeGhost Army for now 🙂
Another great video. Wish the page still got as much attention as it used to, you guys do such a fantastic job. Keep it up
Love the series. Instead of narrating, it feel like telling a story.
Thank you for watching, glad you're enjoying the show!
You're amazing Indy, thanks for all the work you and all the others put into this! :)
Thanks for watching, Nikolaj!
These are my favorite videos y’all do, this is my comment to tempt the algorithm.
👍👍👍
Getting a strong 1950s vibe from this tie. Love a good throwback. 3.5/5
Thanks Gianni! Your tie ratings are tough but fair.
Хвала!
The P-38 Lightning is my favorite WWII aircraft
Regarding Lindberg's role as consultant: it was Lindberg who taught the P-38 pilots how to stretch their operating range. This improved the P-38's range by about 30%.
Following u guys for years. Time goes very fast, already 1943. We getting older with u
VdeVictoria It is amazing to think that 190 weeks have passed since the war began. Thanks for watching with us all this time.
I just stumbled on your fabulous channel and am now a new subscriber! What a brilliant idea to present WWII news as current events. I'm excited to deep dive into your episodes! Thank you from Seattle!!
Jakal Thank you so much for subscribing, welcome aboard! I'm thrilled you found our channel, please check out all our specials & weekly episodes. And stay tuned for more
Thanks for a great episode!
Thanks for watching as always, Diego!
I apologize for missing you today . I haven't been well...
Good job per usual.
Thanks for watching!
First time watching and I am very impressed! So impressed that I have subscribed. Looking forward to the next video. If TV news existed during WWII it sure might have looked just like this video.
THANK YOU!! And welcome aboard! We're grateful there are so many caring people out there interested in history, so thanks for subscribing & we look forward to seeing you in the discussion comments!
I find it amazing that, knowing the outcome, I still sit fascinated each week, wondering how each new battle will turn out. Great job, as always.
Thank you!
Damm, first Midway, then Guadacanal and now this.
Love the production of this History Show, congrats!
Thank you wigglepuppy!
I love this series especelly after I saw the titel of this episode, as always great episode good work.
Thanks Dog of War!
I hate to correct you here, but Musashi had relieved Yamato as Yamamoto's flagship on 11 February 1943. She also carried Yamamoto's ashes back to Japan.
World's largest and most expensive floating offices
Great Video Indy!! It is so amazing how every week it is a whole different war as you said.
Mark Thanks for watching every week to see how the war develops.
Oh man, I had meant to ask if you guys used '2194 Days of War' ... the big red book? I found that book at my grandparents house and read it so many times as a kid!
Always a great work!!! Nice to watch and recommend your videos.
South Brazil congrats all WW2 team!
Thank you so much Marcelo! 🇧🇷
Im new to your channel, I find it so interesting, as well as how you narrate everything! You do a great job WW2!
Thank you very much!
My great uncle, a P-38 pilot was in the same wing, though not the squadron that shot down Yamamoto. He said the Bettys were dropping and moving fast and the two planes that shot them down only had one chance to do so, a long deflection shot. The pilot said he thought he hit them with the rubber gun plugs that he had forgotten to clear first.
That's quite amazing Scott, thanks for sharing about your great uncle's involvement
I would really love to see a spotlight on heinz guderian. My wife is related to him through marrage.
The biggest axis failures so far are air losses, they are doing some retreats sure and holding off attacks using luftwaffe's capable ground support but Allied and soviet fighter force really starting to hurt them
It's rather fantastic how sideline Soviet landing force on Malaya Zemlya (Litle land) peninsula became a thorn in side of the German 17th army defending at Kuban bridgehead.Also,air battles at Kuban demonstrated that Germans were no longer masters of the air on the Eastern front (Stalingrad was first crack,but Kuban finally shattered Luftwaffe).
Good point, I had forgotten about them.
A most enjoyable episode indeed!
Thank you Frank!
As a major history buff, I have often contemplated, given the opportunity, which historical figures I would like to sit down with and have a conversation in order to learn from their perspective. Admiral Yamamoto is definitely in the top five.
Subscribed! Very well put together. I look forward to new content!
THANK YOU Viktor & welcome aboard the TimeGhost Army!! We're very glad to have such overwhelming support from our audience and I'm always happy to welcome a new enthusiastic history aficionado. Stay tuned
An interesting WW2 movie to watch around this week is "Uprising" (2001) by Jon Avnet.
This TV film covers the events in the Warsaw getto throughout the war, culminating with the Ghetto uprising.
It's available in youtube
Period covered: September 1939 - 16 May 1943
Historical accuracy: 4/5
IMDB grade: 7.2/10
Other: Winner of 1 Emmy
There's also the Isoroku (2011) film as other people mention, dealing with Yamamoto's life until his death.
The 2002 movie, The Pianist, does also show life in the Warsaw Getto during the German occupation, and briefly portrays the 1943 Warsaw Getto uprising later on as well.
@@gunman47 Yes of course, but I left it for 1944-1945 as there was already this one focused only in the ghetto uprising
Thanks for the suggestions, Nano
I recommend reading John Deane Potter's biography of Admiral Yamamoto.
Nice video once again. As always.
Thanks for watching as always
It's been a long trip but USS Robin arrived this week, which should be worth a mention. Anything that irritates Admiral King can't be all bad.
Operation Mincemeat is a fantastic story. The book by the same name by Ben MacIntyre goes into great depth of how the operation was carried out. This counter intelligence operation is more fantastic than any James Bond story.
I wonder how those troop inspections are going to go....
Hope the admiral's plane doesn't run into any turbulance...
Another amazing and detailed videos lads. Did you have any information about where the 1st Battalion Irish Guards were at this point in Tunisia? They served with distinction in the theatre, but I can never find any information about them?
Her is an article. You should check the bibliography at the bottom. It seems there are a couple of books on them.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Guards
My wife visited the crash site while working in Boganville. She has cool pics standing near the tail section.
Well he should look on the bright side...his death saved him from living thru the humiliation and near destruction of Japan that he knew was coming..and saved him being tried as a war criminal
Turned 32 today, no better way to spend it other than relaxing and watching WW2 videos!
Happy Birthday!!! Thank you for spending it with us
Well done! Thanks!
Thanks Chris!
Of the 18 P-38's that took off for the job. One never made it off the ground, it was so heavily loaded with fuel, the tires on the landing gear popped. One had to turn around due to engine problems. Also, to keep the fact that we had broken the Japanese code. The P-38's had to keep up this patrol for a few weeks. All in all a well done interception.
Excellent work as usual but still as a Greek I found a little mistake at 13:01.
While talking about the possibility of an allied invasion of Greece ,the western Thrace is not included (greek since 1919) but the Dodecanese islands are (greek since 1947).
Thanks and keep up the good work.
Thank you for watching & for that note
Brezhnev periodically were at the taman’ peninsula beachhead as political officer and later ‘wrote’ memoirs about this operation.
I apologize for any confusion. Harold Fudenna intercepted the message of Yamamoto’s plan to fly to the Soloman Islands. He translated the message to his superior.
In the video it is said Yamamoto misread the Americans. I disagree. He read the US correctly. That is why he advised against war. Since he was overruled he made the only plans that he thought had any chance of success. However his original assessment was accurate.
FDR was determined to make war on Japan. Taking the general's advice wouldn't have stopped it.
@@wastedhawkbeverages5030 The first part of your statement is true but only because of the militarist behaviour. If the militarist had not seized power and no militarist had stayed in power the situation would not have deteriorated. Admiral Yamamoto had actually been threatened by the militarist years earlier when he had advocated for peace and given what happened to non-militarist in Japan at that time he took the threat very seriously.
@@sgeskinner
You're giving FDR too much credit.
Making Japanese militarism our business was solely for the purpose of pursuing postwar imperialist goals.
Yamamoto was in favor of the war.
All the U.S. Army Air Force P-38 Pilots involved in the Yamamoto Attack were awarded Navy Crosses ! This just scratches the surface on this mission, that took place One Year to the Day of the "Doolittle Raid".(April 18th, 1942 - April 18, 1943)
Oh this is a good episode
Thanks for watching, Mads. Glad you enjoyed it
Another great video
Thank you for watching, gojokid!
Hey I loved the episode. I know that patreon gets me gaureteed answeres to questions but I simply lack the money right now for it which is a shame as I've been watching since ww1 began in 2014 when I was a sophomore in high school and your content has brought me immeasurable joy and solace from my own problems (I could've been at the somme for instance but I'm not and should count my blessings I wasn't alive then)
but I just wanted to ask one thing
Are you planning on covering the government structure of fascist Italy at all and the internal goings on there? Italy doesn't get the same press as Japan or the nazis and I find them very interesting
All the best your fan
Cody
Thanks for watching Cody, We'll definitely have more on Italy through the rest of the war. Stay tuned
It is somewhat amazing that despite Yamamoto's flight being rather conveniently ambushed, the IJ military still does not accept that their codes may be compromised and so they do nothing.
Arrogant ignorance often comes back to bite in war.
The US conducted a ruse to make it seem like he was caught up in a routine fighter sweep.
Firstly no announcement was made of Yamamoto's death, with the US feigning ignorance of the passengers aboard the two downed bombers.
Second, additional fighter sweeps were conducted over the area afterward to help convince the Japanese that it was simply an unlucky encounter with routine fighter sweeps.
The Japanese were not necessarily foolish in not realizing their codes had been compromised.
The Americans of that day were wise enough not to boast of their accomplishment. Had the Americans done so, the Japanese would have indeed changed their codes instead of chalking it up to bad luck.
USA had broken Japanese codes as far back as 1905. This made them accept a worse deal, than were accepting at the peace conference at the Treaty of Portsmouth.
I believe it was arrogance
I miss hearing about Wadi Zag Zag
We got him
4 Weeks and Indy might say the Gamer word during the Dambuster raid segment
Great series ! Can't wait saturdays.
Thank you for joining us every week
2:23 Is that the Lindbergh who was the first man to fly across the atlantic?
Yes. He was brought in as a consultant on long range flying and fuel efficiency.
Lindbergh was somewhat making up for the anti-war position he took before Perl Harbor.
His changes made a big difference in the range of fighers.
IIRC Lindbergh flew a couple of combat missions - but not this one.
Lindbergh also had an aerial victory during the war. In July of 1944 while piloting a P-38 as part of an escort for US bombers, he shot down a Mitsubishi Ki-51 dive bomber.
Not that his war service (which by all accounts, was exemplary) excuses his pre-war Nazi sympathies or repugnant racial views. He was a great aviator, but as a man he left much to be desired.
I always understood that Alcock and Brown were the first to fly across the Atlantic in a war surplus bomber in 1919?
@@lycaonpictus9662 How were his views any different from the average person's back then? Ony difference was that he was more public about expressing them.
Another great episode from the best WW2 channel ever!
Concerning the Tunisian campaign, would it be possible to fit in some info about the French forces we see on the animated map?
Are they taking active part in the fighting or just holding their area of the front?
Are they still using their 1940 equipment , tanks and aircraft?
Thanks!
Thank you for watching! We'll definitely have more on the French forces as the war moves on, stay tuned