Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Part 5 of memoirs of a Japanese Naval Aviator and Flying Ace, He was one of the Imperial Japanese Navy's top aces, with over 60 confirmed kills in air to air combat. He also had a charmed life which somehow saw him through the war despite the tremendous losses the IJN took. He saw active action in South East Asia and Pacific Theater of World War 2 Here is the link of the playlist ruclips.net/p/PLGjbe3ikd0XGLxNyj6uVM2YdDEBkUWzyd Link of part 1 ruclips.net/video/6dPu-SZOwHY/видео.html Link of part 2 ruclips.net/video/NkYH90wYUbk/видео.html Link of part 3 ruclips.net/video/vj-TQwUW-i8/видео.html Link of part 4 ruclips.net/video/07cIRpQSORo/видео.html
It would be so welcomed, if you would number or indicate an order to the various stories. It's not so easy to determine, and often, I find the sequence I assumed was not a chapter even related to the previous. I do enjoy your presentations!
@paulnewsom8525 Sir, when ever you watch some video ,you will find a link of playlist of that series in video description ,go to that link and you will find all the parts in sequence ,secondly the easiest way is to go to comments section of the video you are watching ,see the first comment (it will be a pinned comment by channel WW2 Tales) ,In this comment you will find the links of all the previous parts of that series ,Kind Regards
I don't have words for how much I love these stories. And it bothers to no end to see people knocking the Japanese for how confident they were. In 1941 Japan knew they were top banana in the Pacific but would have to fight America for superiority. And they pushed that advantage. I don't hold that against them. I would attempted a sneak attack myself! To see if I could knock you down and keep you down right from go! That is what a nation at war is supposed to do. Even though Japan was our enemy in 1941, I have nothing but the highest respect for their soldiers. Especially this man. In his own personal writings he is very understanding of how weak American machinery was and how green our pilots were. Yet courage brought them back over and over. I love that show of respect. At the same time American production ramped up, the way Yamamoto knew it was going to (the whole sleeping giant thing), our pilots were getting forged in fire. By the time we had the Thunderbolt, Lightning, and Corsair, then the nail in the coffin, the P54Mustang with the RR Merlin Engine, the pilots that flew them were crack fighter pilots. Then, it was the Japanese who showed un matched bravery. I tip my hat.
The P39s were hard pressed to compete with the Zeroes. When the P 38s and the Hellcats and Corsairs came on the scene, the Zeroes were turned into flaming wrecks.
The Cactus Air Force flew them all and reduced the number of experienced Japanese pilots. Americans changing air combat tactics made them all effective to an extent.
P-39 was short-legged and didn't have great high altitude perf... but at mid-low levels, was faster than the Zero, more rugged, better dive speed and handling, and had better firepower.
What we had were pilots, lots of pilots. Because we would recuse them at sea and gave them armor plated aircraft with self sealing tanks that brought them home alive. We also sent our best pilots home to train new pilots. You can replace an airplane, you cannot replace the experience one pilot can teach to another.
Very true - after the battle of Midway, for instance, the USN moved heaven and earth to pick up as many downed pilots as they possibly could - the Japanese hardly seemed to bother. So, month by month, US pilots got more and more experienced and the IJN pilots got less and less experienced as lost aircrew were replaced with inexperienced recruits culminating in actions like the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot.
@@vikingraider1961 There was one Ace who was shot down over the Philippines. He was rescued by Guerrillas and fought with them for 5 months before he could be evacuated by the US.
... and it was one of the biggest problem (with the lack of gaz) of the Luftwaffe at the end of the war: despite the massive bombings the German industry was able to produce a sh*tload of aircraft each month, with new or enhanced models. But without any pilots to put in them.
It is amazing to hear the other side's account of the fighting, since I have heard it from one side only. Thank you for the all videos. They are amazing.
The production rate of new fighters was so high when they really got going in the states that they didn't bother rebuilding aircraft that were circulated back to the states. the Dark Skies channel explains it much better. But it showed how important the industrial base was to fighting a war.
Then Bots did fly combat aircraft? That's how THE USA won so easily. Low grade comic book history on these pages and dignified with my patient correspondence.
The US had twenty times the industrial capacity of Japan. They also had a system to rotate experienced pilots back to the states as trainers. They out produced the Japanese in both aircraft and pilots.
@@edwardadams9358 This is just idiocy and psydo popular history from the archives. Why was the war even fought? Who is afraid of economic projections coming out of a Depression?
@@edwardadams9358 Yamamoto said Japan could not win a prolonged war against the USA for those very reasons. Both Japan and Germany were geared to a quick victory. As the war went on they could not keep up with the losses mainly in quality trained personnel.
I thought of him. I read him in I think 1963. Great story teller and I am not impugning his accuracy. That book tells us why the Japanese lost the air war. They never learned to train a large number of mediocre pilots, as we did, and let the odds guarantee that enough of them would be talented, or lucky enough to become highly skilled
By late 1944, Grumman was building so many F6F Hellcats coming of the production line, that by the time they made it to the fleet, they were pushing F6Fs off the aircraft carriers rather than replacing the engines. The Japanese never increased the throughput of the pilot training. At the same time, the army airforce and navy were training thousands and thousands of pilots.
I love listening to fighter pilot stories. They fascinate me. As a pilot I have very high respect even for these enemy pilots. So much knowledge and technique involved in the action.
More than any other WWII fighting soldier, opposing fighter pilots were eager to get together and trade stories and techniques, after the war was over. Because they truly had more in common with each other, than with most of their countrymen. And it didn't hurt that, among gentlemen, winner buys. 🍺
Fascinating intimate look into their lives during the war. WW2 was a defining moment in history for the US, facing an existential threat from an initially-superior war machine. Sadly, the many military conflicts we have been involved in since lack this clear imperative and justification. The terrible waste of lives and resources on both sides due to the miscalculation of Japan's leadership is overwhelming.
Unfortunately the media got too involved in our wars after WW2. Instead of fighting wars how we need too in a military way we have to fight in a political way for lack of better words
No doubt that dictator leaders like Tojo and Hitler started a war that ultimately brought death, misery and destruction if their people and country. Same thing is being repeated in Gaza today. Foolish leaders never learn from history. People should be condemning those Hamas leaders not those they opposed and upon whom they started the war. Ignorance prevails.
The 4 survivors from the downed Allied aircraft getting ripped apart by sharks while the Japanese Zero circled over to watch it is unreal. Imagine surviving bailing out of your flaming aircraft just have yourself and the other crewmembers eaten by sharks before you can even get into the life raft...Pure nightmare material.
I remember a scene from an old war movie in which a German officer shows a fresh chocolate cake to some generals, which they found in a downed US plane and which was to be a birthday cake for some American general. One of the German generals was like "So, it's a cake, what about it?" and the officer said "You don't understand. We can barely supply our troops and they have enough planes to transport fresh cake over the atlantic."
My memory of that scene was the general said, “they have enough fuel to fly chocolate cake across the ocean.” Maybe memory fails, but what a statement of the state of the Allies’ industrial might and logistics capability.
Yeah! A great monologue. As a YT junkie this has the ring of truth. In the great scheme of things this was not a decisive battle but I really appreciate the WII Tale. Well done sir for bringing a diary to us.
The U.S. suffered 52,173 aircrew combat losses. But another 25,844 died in accidents. More than half of these died in the continental U.S. The U.S. lost 65,164 planes during the war, but only 22,948 in combat. There were 21,583 lost due to accidents in the U.S., and another 20,633 lost in accidents overseas.
It's not the quality of the plane that matters, the quality of the pilots is what matters. The USAF and the USN had to relearn this lesson in the skies of Vietnam. The USAF proceeded to blame the plane while the USN revamped their training.
To alaindao7374 the quality of the plane does matter according to your theory we could have fought ww2 with biplane as long as we had good pilots because the quality of the plane doesn't matter
No, it was like he said, in that particular area they had high levels of success. Nishizawa flew with him, had 106 kills, all the pilots were high caliber. There are stories told by the pilots that went up against them about how good they were. One pilot used the term, those boys from Lae were “Hell on wheels.”
They were the most experienced pilots fighting since 1936 in Cina, flying the best fighter plane of that specific time. Their opponents were mostly inexperienced “green” pilots flying inferior machines. Until better tactics and airplanes were deployed, the Americans could just “resist”. Only few months passed and everything changed
What gets lost in these dialogs, at least during the early stages of the Pacific war, was that US forces were hastily deployed to slow down the Japanese advances, with men and equipment in short supply. As a result, the Japanese had the tactical advantage of numbers, with better aircraft and pilots than the US. The only US advantage was that of time and excellent intelligence, which proved decisive at Midway.
The viewpoint of Saburu Sakai is enlightening. American History books confirm how the A6M2 Zero dominated the South Pacific during the early part of the war. My step dad, Dyke Lansdale explained to me many times about how obsolete and outmoded American fighter aircraft were when the war broke out. "Two loops!" he said, "and the Japanese fighter would be on your tail!"
@@johnemerson1363 My step father wasn't a pilot. He actually, at the time of the war worked in an aircraft factory, making P-40's. He said two loops, technically incorrect as it may be. 😏
@@Rumblegrumbler Actually, if you tried to follow a Zero in a loop in a Wildcat, the Zero would be on you before you finished the loop. The Wildcat would stall out before the Zero and after the stall, the Zero would snap around and be on the Wildcats tail. End of argument.
I thought this was funny on the P-39 Wikipedia page: "[I]t soon became a joke in the Pacific Theatre that a P-400 was a P-40 with a Zero on its tail." (the P-400 was a variant of the P-39)
The Allies had 90% of the worlds supply of aviation fuel by Jan. 1945. German and Japanese fighters did not have enough fuel to effectively react to Allied bombers or interceptors.
Remember that America dropped two Atomic bombs on two different Japanese cities. After the second Atomic bomb attack, the Japanese surrendered to America and ceased all hostilities. In the early 1980's I got to shake the Captains hand that dropped both Atomic bombs on Japan...which ended the war with Japan. I would say we got even with Japan for the unwarranted attack on Pearl harbor. I've been to Japan about a dozen times back when I was Flying jumbo jets in the cargo configuration.
In a way, the U.S. DID have an "Inexhaustible supply" of aircraft (of armaments in general, actually). Imagine an aircraft company being told (during war time, mind you) to SLOW DOWN production of fighters!??!! US industrial might was never in peril from air attack or want of raw materials. Their only real "bottle-necks" were caused by transportation of those raw materials in quantities sufficient to keep up with production.
When WWII began, the U,S. was a neutral country. The American aircraft industries in particular were busy building aircraft for France, Belgium, Great Britain, China, and several other countries. The U.S. was not building any significant numbers of aircraft for their own use because they were not at war. There was no immediate need, although many manufacturers seemed to know that there would be a need and soon. When the U.S. was drawn into the war, their industries were NOT ready to immediately supply their own needs . It was not just like turning on a tap. This took time to ramp up production from mid to late 1930's levels. The P-51 Mustang owes its genesis NOT from a U.S. requirement BUT from a relatively modest American aircraft company's (North American) reaction to a BRITISH suggestion that they build P-40's under license! The rest is, as they say, history. The U.S. Entered the war still operating a BIPLANE type (Curtiss Helldiver) in Samoa yet a scant few years later were dropping the first atomic weapons. @@JeffreyWilliams-dr7qe
It's strange that the Luftwaffe were able to down Fortresses, and these guys seem to have found it near impossible to do so. How good were they when facing technologically equivalent aircraft ?
The Zero had limited firepower. Plus, the Germans figured out the best way to attack the B-17 was head on, aiming for the nose and cockpit. The defensive Armament was weaker, and there was a lot of glass.
I believe the Japanese figured that out as well. He comments on it in another chapter. The Zero had it limitations though, and one of them was that its top speed wasn't the greatest. Like 320-330 MPH, which is about 15-25 MPH slower than an Bf-109e and 55-65ish less than the F's, the German contemporaries at the same time. And that speed difference really matters, because the B-17 top speed at proper altitude was 318 MPH. Every plane has its tradeoffs, and the Zero basically traded away things for range and maneuverability. The Germans also had radios in their planes, so they could coordinate better. And the spotting situation was better, with the planes having to go overland and the use of radar.
@@Axterix13 The problem was that the IJN and the IJA were mortal enemies. IJA: They travel over sea. Its a navy problem. IJN: They attack targets on land. It is an army problem. So nobody warned eachother and so they did not scramble to intercept
@@freddakin7119Coming in from "12 O'clock High" - thus the title of the book and movie. Was clueless until a college buddy mentioned it 6 years after the TV series was gone.
The successes of the Lae group were, as Sakai said, not replicated elsewhere. Even so, the claimed kills of the Lae Group do help explain why the U.S. had begun building the F6F before America entered the war.
Read the book Samurai I don’t remember who wrote it. I don’t remember when the Lae wing moved to Rabaul , he was shot up and barely made it back to Rabaul. Was in the hospital in Japan for a long time, lost sight in one eye.
There is an old saying that amateurs study tactics experts study logistics. How many times did the Japanese fail to take this lesson to heart and send their troops into battle with only what they could carry on their backs not realizing that they would be engaging for weeks if not months with such meager supplies.
It's interesting see hear it from the Japanese side. The narrator mentions nothing of Japanese losses in the first 40 minutes while at the same time talking about tremendous air victories. 55 minutes in before the first Japanese fighter loss is mentioned, and it was downed by a bomber.
Yeah I wondered about that. In the first several months you would think that the Japanese had no planes shot down. And the Zeros absorbed huge amounts of .50 damage unaffecting their performance.
Like the Persian Immortals an army that when they lost men they were immediately replaced by a different soldier. Had to be rough to face a daily enemy that grew as well as their equipment was so superior. Tokyo may have lied to the home folks but he men on the lines knew they were losing.
I wonder what the Code of Bushido pilots who understood why the Naval High Command was reluctant to award battle decorations and promotions would've thought of LBJ who wrangled a Silver Star (he had an aide award him at every campaign whistle and train stop) for a milk run where he was as much use as a mail sack and the other crew members of the craft received bumpus. 🤔
I've never been a big believer in confirmed kill numbers. I think a lot of exaggeration went on for moral purposes. He was credited with 60 kills, might gave been 1/2 that.
Very sporting of the Japanese to hold their lives as insignificant. It made replacing pilots a real problem for them. They weren't brave, they were stupid.
Just watching this episode made me feel better about the eventual annihilation of Japanese army and naval aviation. Early on the Americans lost many good pilots, many naval and merchant marine, some to sharks which is never talked about. The modern shark lovers deny much of the shark killing of servicemen.
I may be a jingoist, but I( don't believe most of the claims made by this Japanese pilot. This recount of success over the American bombers reminds me of the claimed success of previous Japanese naval officers.
It isn't that I dispute the account of one B-17 being lost.or one thousand (although the preponderance of those losses were in Europe) It is the entire narrative of successful Japanese encounters that I have my doubts about.@@DoBraveryFPS
The tell of a lot of usa losses at such an amount that it seems like how did the usa win the war but I think their exaggerated victories against the USA
Many here still seem to comment as tho this fine pilot was somehow "just lucky" to be so successful against the American planes. He was however an excellent aviator and only the limits of his plane kept him from being more so. He was also a very honorable man. Enemy or not, please try to respect him for what he was.
@@JeffreyWilliams-dr7qe …..My dad was a navigator flying these low level strafing missions in the B-25. He recalled looking over at the lead wingman dropping their bombs. The bombing technic was skip bombing with delayed fuses so the aircraft could be clear of the detonation. My original comment is from a conversation I had with him telling me it was a 1,000lb bomb bouncing higher than the aircraft he was flying in. Unfortunately for him, there was an issue with a low level bombing run they were performing on a ship in Hainan harbor and the bomb blew up prematurely. He, the pilot, and copilot were picked up by a submarine about 14 hours later while Japanese Zero’s straffed the sub during recovery.
Thanks to your family especially your father. Having conversations like these are prized but did not come often in my experience from the Pacific War combat veteran in our house. B25 best medium bomber of Ww2.
Let's see America VS Japan WWII America had over 2x as many people available to work in factories 7/24/365 without stop We had unlimited supplies needed to make everything We had 1ks of miles of ocean between us and our enemies making our factories rail lines supply lines etc etc and most importantly our factory workers immune to bombing America had 2x as many men available to become war fighters and America could easily afford to pick only the most qualified men to be pilots America also had all the resources needed in unlimited amounts to be able to properly train our fighter pilots America unlike the Japanese also often took their best most experienced fighter pilots out of action and had them instruct new pilots on how best to fight Japanese fighters America had the unbeatable combination of unlimited production capabilities No one produced better made more excellent quality equipment and the best most reliable most durable piston driven fighters of the war and in quantity at least 3 or 4x greater than our enemies ever dreamed of doing being flown buy extremely capable extremely well trained pilots When your pilots are as good if not better than any your fighter planes are better than any your logistics of keeping your fighters well maintained and fuled and replaced as needed as often as needed can not be matched let alone stopped and you have more of everything than your enemies AND your bombing his factories out of existence and sinking his supply ships faster than he can replace them AND your navy now has 2-3× more aircraft carriers than anyone else AND America had broken Japanese Naval coded communications America would have had to made a deliberate effort to loose to the Japanese in WWII Truth is Japan never really stood a chance against America especially after the battle of Midway
Don’t forget we were fighting on 3 fronts. Japan, Italy and the western front. We had I believe almost 150,000,000 people. Germany had 90,000,000, Russia 150,000,000. Japan 85,000,000. Today America 335,000,000-Russia 150,000,000.
Remember only the living write. There’s no way that a dead ace can say “ This is my story and how I died “ so it only stands to reason that the best fighter who actually survived is writing this
This sounds like gross exaggerations. All these aircraft explode? And 4 kills in one sortie is damn near impossible. Even the all time ace of aces, a german with 352 kills never got 4 a day.
While I don't know if Hartmann ever shot down 4 in one day, he is credited with 5 or more kills in a single day 18x. Of those, 26 February 1944 was 10 planes in two missions, while 24 August 1944 was 11 in two. Which means he not only has shot down (or at least been credited with shooting down) 4+ planes in a day multiple times, he has most definitely also been credited with doing it in one sortie. Though, if you look at the various names on a WW2 ace in a day lists, flying against the Russians was apparently easy mode ;) But worth noting the gross exaggeration aspect could definitely be at play there. The actual records of his kills were lost in the war, and the reconstructed attempts include crediting him with some kills on days that A) his squadron didn't fly and B) the Soviet records don't record the planes he supposedly shot on that day as being lost. So, yeah, exaggeration most definitely happens. And others have topped that 11. The most is Emil Lang, who received credit for shooting down 18 Russian planes in one day in 1943. And he's one of five Germans to claim 15+ kills in a single day, four of them against the USSR. Heck, Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer, the top night ace, apparently shot down 10 British bombers in a single night.
David McCampbell was credited with 9 in one mission, landed with two rounds left and zero fuel. Battle of Leyte Gulf, 1944. His Medal of Honor citation says he attacked a formation of 60 enemy aircraft with only a wingman in support.
@@Hasdrubal_Barca that's not possible!!! Typically, fighters of the WW2 era had 7 or 8 SECONDS of ammunition. Nobody could do 4 in a single sortie. Certainly not 9.
@@timjones1583 The F6F had 400 rounds per gun, so with a firing rate around 800 rounds per minute, that gives about 30 seconds of firing. By comparison, the early A6M had 60 rounds for each of its two 20mm cannon, and 500 for each of its two 7.7mm machine guns. Cannon armed planes tended to have smaller magazine capacity since they did more damage per shot, the later A6M got up to 125 rounds for the cannon. Don't take my word for it, though. Read up on McCampbell.
I find this hilarious. Another anecdote about the much overhyped but never proven prowess of the zeke. Literally never once did it dominate its enemy and even when they did get kills, this man is talking like he and his friends downed an entire air force 😂😂😂
I have some doubt about the authenticity of this account. Why would a Japanese pilot use Imperial measurement? Even German or Russian accounts always use metric. This series seems like fiction, or at least a Martin Cadin-ish rewrite.
The English translation of the book was undoubtedly aimed at an American audience, and hence the translator / editor decided to change to Imperial units.
@@gregschinn6943 I don’t know. The combat descriptions seem way too lurid. I was listening to a B-24 pilot. I can’t remember his name. He was a governor and had tried but failed for the presidential nomination. (I’m not American so I don’t recall this race). Anyway, he was discussing a particularly difficult raid where they nearly got shot down. He couldn’t remember if it was his 15th or 18th mission. I met a Halifax navigator and he recalled a night where he saw bombers blowing up on the way to the target and all the way back. He could not remember the town they bombed that night. It was the Nuremberg raid 107 bombers shot down. I have had traumatic stuff happen to me and I can’t recall it in order. It is all mixed up. Listening to veterans and interviewing victims for 26 years this just rings phoney.
Undoubtedly Sakai used “artistic licence” to fill out extensive descriptions of dogfights and the emotions he felt during these. However, he does state that he kept a detailed diary during his time at Lea.
@@gregschinn6943 I did not realise that this was Sakai’s book. I’m giving myself a pat on the back for saying it sounded like Martin Cadin’s work. Cadin wrote the book Samurai with Sakai. Cadin’s work has been generally discredited since his death. I grew up reading and loving his books. I also enjoyed the Six Million Dollar Man on TV, but older and better read I no longer take his work seriously.
When listening to this one would wonder how the Empire of the Sun could get rolled up and defeated in only four years. How did they even lose at Guadalcanal? OK, maybe this pilots memoirs are the only highlight of the war after Pear Harbor and the Philippines invasion. 🤔
It is very annoying to hear of many allied defeats, one after the other, especially when they are attributed to carelessness and negligence. This is more than balanced, perhaps, by poor and often arrogant decision making by Japanese generals, admirals and top leaders ---beginning with the decision for war against the United States, the Pearl Harbor attack, the failure to understand that Japanese codes had been broken and the willingness to sacrifice so many of your troops for whom you were responsible. I take a measure of solace that American planes and pilots improved markedly as the war went on, while the top Japanese leadership NEVER DID. And after a slow and fumbling start by George Marshal, Admirals King and Nimitz and General MacArthur, they eventually came together in providing sterling leadership to win the war. The same thing applies to Franklin Roosevelt, who provoked Japan to war and then was unprepared when it started. But again, he wound up a gigantic military effort that climaxed with the destruction of Japanese cities and finally by the use of atomic bombs. I suppose that slow and fumbling start is excused by the crushing victory in the end.
@@johnrisher3007 Roosevelt provided arms and munitions to China before Pearl harbor and imposed "sanctions" on Japan after they occupied French Indochina. At that time the United States was providing 80% of Japans oil.
There is a whole history behind how Roosevelt provoked Japan into war. FDR was a master politician who ran for office by promising to keep us out of the war - meanwhile knowing all along he was building up US industry and shipping arms to Russian and England and provoking war. He embargoed Japan and froze their assets. Also by shipping munitions to the UK and Russia he knew he was inviting the ire of Germany, so it was no surprise that Germany declared war on the US. I bet few people realize that it was France and England who first attacked Germany. Why? Because Germany went into Poland to reclaim German lands taken in WWI. But also Germany was going after Russia who had also taken Poland and Ukraine, as well as Baltic States and was attacking Finland. That's a war we are still fighting today: Russia. Russia has had expansionist goals since 1918 and has been trying to spread disconnect in other countries, like they still do today. Big question is - if Germany was going after Russia why did we stop them? Well - and this is well documented, but somehow you don't hear about it. FDR had a lot of pro communists in his adminstration. They thought Russia was a model for the world. The New York Times wrote glowingly about Russia's Potemkin villages and how wonderful the "worker's" paradise was. And that's why FDR started so many social programs in the US (by the way his interference with captialism extended the depression by years). Also did you realize before Japan attacked the US, they were at war with Russia. Yes Russia was fighting a two front war. But FDR put pressure on Japan, and the Japanese made a peace with Russia and came after the US instead. Russia then brought its troops back from its war with Japan in time to save Moscow from the Germans. But did Russia help us in our war with Japan - not until they knew we had the bomb - they wanted a piece of the spoils. So what was Japan doing? it was trying to establish an empire - like all the european powers were doing in Asia - they learned from the European empires and gunboat Perry. So the big question is why was FDR helping England maintain it's Empire (by the way the US had to help Austrailia defend itslef from the Japanese because it had sent most of its troops to Africa and Europe to fight for the british). And why did we help Russia fight the Germans, when they were doing the same thing the Germans were doing. Oh what a tangled web. @@johnrisher3007
Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Part 5 of memoirs of a Japanese Naval Aviator and Flying Ace, He was one of the Imperial Japanese Navy's top aces, with over 60 confirmed kills in air to air combat. He also had a charmed life which somehow saw him through the war despite the tremendous losses the IJN took. He saw active action in South East Asia and Pacific Theater of World War 2
Here is the link of the playlist ruclips.net/p/PLGjbe3ikd0XGLxNyj6uVM2YdDEBkUWzyd
Link of part 1 ruclips.net/video/6dPu-SZOwHY/видео.html
Link of part 2 ruclips.net/video/NkYH90wYUbk/видео.html
Link of part 3 ruclips.net/video/vj-TQwUW-i8/видео.html
Link of part 4 ruclips.net/video/07cIRpQSORo/видео.html
It would be so welcomed, if you would number or indicate an order to the various stories. It's not so easy to determine, and often, I find the sequence I assumed was not a chapter even related to the previous. I do enjoy your presentations!
@paulnewsom8525 Sir, when ever you watch some video ,you will find a link of playlist of that series in video description ,go to that link and you will find all the parts in sequence ,secondly the easiest way is to go to comments section of the video you are watching ,see the first comment (it will be a pinned comment by channel WW2 Tales) ,In this comment you will find the links of all the previous parts of that series ,Kind Regards
How do you spell this pilot's name?
@davidrussell2239 Saburo
I don't have words for how much I love these stories. And it bothers to no end to see people knocking the Japanese for how confident they were. In 1941 Japan knew they were top banana in the Pacific but would have to fight America for superiority. And they pushed that advantage. I don't hold that against them. I would attempted a sneak attack myself! To see if I could knock you down and keep you down right from go! That is what a nation at war is supposed to do. Even though Japan was our enemy in 1941, I have nothing but the highest respect for their soldiers. Especially this man. In his own personal writings he is very understanding of how weak American machinery was and how green our pilots were. Yet courage brought them back over and over. I love that show of respect. At the same time American production ramped up, the way Yamamoto knew it was going to (the whole sleeping giant thing), our pilots were getting forged in fire. By the time we had the Thunderbolt, Lightning, and Corsair, then the nail in the coffin, the P54Mustang with the RR Merlin Engine, the pilots that flew them were crack fighter pilots. Then, it was the Japanese who showed un matched bravery. I tip my hat.
The P39s were hard pressed to compete with the Zeroes. When the P 38s and the Hellcats and Corsairs came on the scene, the Zeroes were turned into flaming wrecks.
The Cactus Air Force flew them all and reduced the number of experienced Japanese pilots. Americans changing air combat tactics made them all effective to an extent.
P-39 was short-legged and didn't have great high altitude perf... but at mid-low levels, was faster than the Zero, more rugged, better dive speed and handling, and had better firepower.
@@jonbowden5207 Yeah, the problem was their high altitude performance.
What we had were pilots, lots of pilots. Because we would recuse them at sea and gave them armor plated aircraft with self sealing tanks that brought them home alive. We also sent our best pilots home to train new pilots. You can replace an airplane, you cannot replace the experience one pilot can teach to another.
Very true - after the battle of Midway, for instance, the USN moved heaven and earth to pick up as many downed pilots as they possibly could - the Japanese hardly seemed to bother. So, month by month, US pilots got more and more experienced and the IJN pilots got less and less experienced as lost aircrew were replaced with inexperienced recruits culminating in actions like the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot.
@@vikingraider1961 There was one Ace who was shot down over the Philippines. He was rescued by Guerrillas and fought with them for 5 months before he could be evacuated by the US.
Also the employment of submarines for search and rescue as well as life guard duty along bomber routes later in the war
... and it was one of the biggest problem (with the lack of gaz) of the Luftwaffe at the end of the war: despite the massive bombings the German industry was able to produce a sh*tload of aircraft each month, with new or enhanced models. But without any pilots to put in them.
It was also much easier to teach a young pilot boom and zoom tactics, than it is to train a young pilot to be an effective dog fighter.
It is amazing to hear the other side's account of the fighting, since I have heard it from one side only. Thank you for the all videos. They are amazing.
The production rate of new fighters was so high when they really got going in the states that they didn't bother rebuilding aircraft that were circulated back to the states. the Dark Skies channel explains it much better. But it showed how important the industrial base was to fighting a war.
Then Bots did fly combat aircraft? That's how THE USA won so easily. Low grade comic book history on these pages and dignified with my patient correspondence.
The US had twenty times the industrial capacity of Japan. They also had a system to rotate experienced pilots back to the states as trainers. They out produced the Japanese in both aircraft and pilots.
@@edwardadams9358 This is just idiocy and psydo popular history from the archives. Why was the war even fought? Who is afraid of economic projections coming out of a Depression?
@@edwardadams9358
Yamamoto said Japan could not win a prolonged war against the USA for those very reasons. Both Japan and Germany were geared to a quick victory. As the war went on they could not keep up with the losses mainly in quality trained personnel.
I readily recognized who this Japanese pilot is, I have his autobiography. It's Saburo Sakai. he had anywhere from 28 to 64 aerial kills.
I read Sakai’s book Samurai more than half a century ago.
Sakai is one of very few Japanese aces which survived the war.
I thought of him. I read him in I think 1963. Great story teller and I am not impugning his accuracy. That book tells us why the Japanese lost the air war. They never learned to train a large number of mediocre pilots, as we did, and let the odds guarantee that enough of them would be talented, or lucky enough to become highly skilled
Sakai's personal logs refer to 202 air victories
I have the book 📕 ZERO.
By late 1944, Grumman was building so many F6F Hellcats coming of the production line, that by the time they made it to the fleet, they were pushing F6Fs off the aircraft carriers rather than replacing the engines. The Japanese never increased the throughput of the pilot training. At the same time, the army airforce and navy were training thousands and thousands of pilots.
I love listening to fighter pilot stories. They fascinate me. As a pilot I have very high respect even for these enemy pilots. So much knowledge and technique involved in the action.
More than any other WWII fighting soldier, opposing fighter pilots were eager to get together and trade stories and techniques, after the war was over. Because they truly had more in common with each other, than with most of their countrymen. And it didn't hurt that, among gentlemen, winner buys. 🍺
WW2 Tales my new favorite channel.
Fascinating intimate look into their lives during the war. WW2 was a defining moment in history for the US, facing an existential threat from an initially-superior war machine. Sadly, the many military conflicts we have been involved in since lack this clear imperative and justification. The terrible waste of lives and resources on both sides due to the miscalculation of Japan's leadership is overwhelming.
Unfortunately the media got too involved in our wars after WW2. Instead of fighting wars how we need too in a military way we have to fight in a political way for lack of better words
No doubt that dictator leaders like Tojo and Hitler started a war that ultimately brought death, misery and destruction if their people and country. Same thing is being repeated in Gaza today. Foolish leaders never learn from history. People should be condemning those Hamas leaders not those they opposed and upon whom they started the war. Ignorance prevails.
it is tragic to think of such brave men dying like this. wonder how much better the world would be if they had been allowed to grow old.
The 4 survivors from the downed Allied aircraft getting ripped apart by sharks while the Japanese Zero circled over to watch it is unreal. Imagine surviving bailing out of your flaming aircraft just have yourself and the other crewmembers eaten by sharks before you can even get into the life raft...Pure nightmare material.
I remember a scene from an old war movie in which a German officer shows a fresh chocolate cake to some generals, which they found in a downed US plane and which was to be a birthday cake for some American general. One of the German generals was like "So, it's a cake, what about it?" and the officer said "You don't understand. We can barely supply our troops and they have enough planes to transport fresh cake over the atlantic."
The movie was the " Battle of the Bulge " .
I remember that scene well.
@@ToddBrooks-o5m Correct, tank commanders if I remember right,
My memory of that scene was the general said, “they have enough fuel to fly chocolate cake across the ocean.” Maybe memory fails, but what a statement of the state of the Allies’ industrial might and logistics capability.
@@duncanidaho2097 It could have been a translation thing, I watched the movie in German
Yeah! A great monologue. As a YT junkie this has the ring of truth. In the great scheme of things this was not a decisive battle but I really appreciate the WII Tale. Well done sir for bringing a diary to us.
very kind of you Sir
"Never mess with America's boats." Sun Tzu
The U.S. suffered 52,173 aircrew combat losses. But another 25,844 died in accidents.
More than half of these died in the continental U.S. The U.S. lost 65,164 planes during the war, but only 22,948 in combat.
There were 21,583 lost due to accidents in the U.S., and another 20,633 lost in accidents overseas.
As soon as the hellcat appeared the zero became a death trap
Repeat ad nauseam!
The F4U and its 11:1 kill ratio also, the Japanese nickname for it was "Whistling Death".
It's not the quality of the plane that matters, the quality of the pilots is what matters. The USAF and the USN had to relearn this lesson in the skies of Vietnam. The USAF proceeded to blame the plane while the USN revamped their training.
That’s because the zero was made out of wood and paper meche
To alaindao7374 the quality of the plane does matter according to your theory we could have fought ww2 with biplane as long as we had good pilots because the quality of the plane doesn't matter
Interesting listening to this segment. You would think these fighter pilots destroyed the entire American air force.
It’s really hard to listen to the exaggerations by these jap pilots. They were all deluded by their emperor.
Listening to this Japanese ace pilot, one would think that he won the war single-handedly.
No, it was like he said, in that particular area they had high levels of success. Nishizawa flew with him, had 106 kills, all the pilots were high caliber. There are stories told by the pilots that went up against them about how good they were. One pilot used the term, those boys from Lae were “Hell on wheels.”
They were the most experienced pilots fighting since 1936 in Cina, flying the best fighter plane of that specific time. Their opponents were mostly inexperienced “green” pilots flying inferior machines. Until better tactics and airplanes were deployed, the Americans could just “resist”. Only few months passed and everything changed
What gets lost in these dialogs, at least during the early stages of the Pacific war, was that US forces were hastily deployed to slow down the Japanese advances, with men and equipment in short supply. As a result, the Japanese had the tactical advantage of numbers, with better aircraft and pilots than the US. The only US advantage was that of time and excellent intelligence, which proved decisive at Midway.
What an interesting and informative video. Thanks very much
So nice of you Sir ❤️
The viewpoint of Saburu Sakai is enlightening. American History books confirm how the A6M2 Zero dominated the South Pacific during the early part of the war. My step dad, Dyke Lansdale explained to me many times about how obsolete and outmoded American fighter aircraft were when the war broke out. "Two loops!" he said, "and the Japanese fighter would be on your tail!"
fu****ck american history books .. lies from p.1
Not two loops, two 360 degree turns.
@@johnemerson1363 My step father wasn't a pilot. He actually, at the time of the war worked in an aircraft factory, making P-40's. He said two loops, technically incorrect as it may be. 😏
@@Rumblegrumbler Actually, if you tried to follow a Zero in a loop in a Wildcat, the Zero would be on you before you finished the loop. The Wildcat would stall out before the Zero and after the stall, the Zero would snap around and be on the Wildcats tail. End of argument.
Americans evolved tactics too. The Thach weave for the Wildcats and Hellcats. The shoot and zoom, then return, for the P-38s.
I thought this was funny on the P-39 Wikipedia page: "[I]t soon became a joke in the Pacific Theatre that a P-400 was a P-40 with a Zero on its tail." (the P-400 was a variant of the P-39)
Our victories paled in comparison to the catastrophic loss at Midway
The Allies had 90% of the worlds supply of aviation fuel by Jan. 1945. German and Japanese fighters did not have enough fuel to effectively react to Allied bombers or interceptors.
Yamamoto told the Emperor that attacking Pearl Harbor will be a huge mistake.
These students of the IJN can cite documents from sides equally well. In Japanese. Now reading Clausewitz in German. Unbelievable!
Wow this guy is a god on land and air it’s amazing
Th
e Owen Stanley mountains were a death trap for many thousands of Japanese Army troops. Dead by disease, starvation never to get into the fight.
Remember that America dropped two Atomic bombs on two different Japanese cities. After the second Atomic bomb attack, the Japanese surrendered to America and ceased all hostilities. In the early 1980's I got to shake the Captains hand that dropped both Atomic bombs on Japan...which ended the war with Japan. I would say we got even with Japan for the unwarranted attack on Pearl harbor. I've been to Japan about a dozen times back when I was Flying jumbo jets in the cargo configuration.
In a way, the U.S. DID have an "Inexhaustible supply" of aircraft (of armaments in general, actually). Imagine an aircraft company being told (during war time, mind you) to SLOW DOWN production of fighters!??!! US industrial might was never in peril from air attack or want of raw materials. Their only real "bottle-necks" were caused by transportation of those raw materials in quantities sufficient to keep up with production.
Where the Hell were they in early 1942? Yeah yeah!
When WWII began, the U,S. was a neutral country. The American aircraft industries in particular were busy building aircraft for France, Belgium, Great Britain, China, and several other countries. The U.S. was not building any significant numbers of aircraft for their own use because they were not at war. There was no immediate need, although many manufacturers seemed to know that there would be a need and soon. When the U.S. was drawn into the war, their industries were NOT ready to immediately supply their own needs . It was not just like turning on a tap. This took time to ramp up production from mid to late 1930's levels. The P-51 Mustang owes its genesis NOT from a U.S. requirement BUT from a relatively modest American aircraft company's (North American) reaction to a BRITISH suggestion that they build P-40's under license! The rest is, as they say, history. The U.S. Entered the war still operating a BIPLANE type (Curtiss Helldiver) in Samoa yet a scant few years later were dropping the first atomic weapons. @@JeffreyWilliams-dr7qe
@stephengardiner9867 OK you got me I just fell out of a tree somewhere. Thanks for all the upper case presentation.
And it was not only planes.
@@benterbenter9281 So?
There is always a supply of ideas !!!
TY
It's strange that the Luftwaffe were able to down Fortresses, and these guys seem to have found it near impossible to do so. How good were they when facing technologically equivalent aircraft ?
The Zero had limited firepower. Plus, the Germans figured out the best way to attack the B-17 was head on, aiming for the nose and cockpit. The defensive Armament was weaker, and there was a lot of glass.
I believe the Japanese figured that out as well. He comments on it in another chapter.
The Zero had it limitations though, and one of them was that its top speed wasn't the greatest. Like 320-330 MPH, which is about 15-25 MPH slower than an Bf-109e and 55-65ish less than the F's, the German contemporaries at the same time. And that speed difference really matters, because the B-17 top speed at proper altitude was 318 MPH. Every plane has its tradeoffs, and the Zero basically traded away things for range and maneuverability.
The Germans also had radios in their planes, so they could coordinate better. And the spotting situation was better, with the planes having to go overland and the use of radar.
@@Axterix13I’m guessing that range is not an issue in European theater, and much more so in Pacific theater.
@@Axterix13
The problem was that the IJN and the IJA were mortal enemies.
IJA: They travel over sea. Its a navy problem.
IJN: They attack targets on land. It is an army problem.
So nobody warned eachother and so they did not scramble to intercept
@@freddakin7119Coming in from "12 O'clock High" - thus the title of the book and movie. Was clueless until a college buddy mentioned it 6 years after the TV series was gone.
I wonder if anyone has cross checked this guy's claims against Allied records. Every plane he shoots at explodes....
All the footage of airplanes being shot down burst into flames. Just watch the war footage from the pacific.
The successes of the Lae group were, as Sakai said, not replicated elsewhere. Even so, the claimed kills of the Lae Group do help explain why the U.S. had begun building the F6F before America entered the war.
Yep
two 20 mm auto cannons with tearing incendiary bullets does woke havoc on nearly anything
Read the book Samurai I don’t remember who wrote it. I don’t remember when the Lae wing moved to Rabaul , he was shot up and barely made it back to Rabaul. Was in the hospital in Japan for a long time, lost sight in one eye.
As far as motivation went.. the emperor's planes made wonderful targets....ask Admiral Yamamoto....oh wait...you can't...
Well, the Zero didn't remain the superior fighter plane in the Pacific Theatre of WW2.
No kidding, Boomer.
You should read the book.
Significant Japanese overclaiming, and the US at the time also did the same.
@@raywhitehead730 With reservations. Martin Caiden was a gifted writer that embellished quite a bit.
I have seen estimates on both sides at about 7 to 1. @@hoodoo2001
50 tons of supplies per fighting soldier the Americans produced compared to 2.5 tons for every fighting Japanese soldier.
There is an old saying that amateurs study tactics experts study logistics. How many times did the Japanese fail to take this lesson to heart and send their troops into battle with only what they could carry on their backs not realizing that they would be engaging for weeks if not months with such meager supplies.
This guy was a fighter god it seems
What's that old saying ?? " He who laughs last laughs best" !!
It's interesting see hear it from the Japanese side. The narrator mentions nothing of Japanese losses in the first 40 minutes while at the same time talking about tremendous air victories. 55 minutes in before the first Japanese fighter loss is mentioned, and it was downed by a bomber.
Yeah I wondered about that. In the first several months you would think that the Japanese had no planes shot down. And the Zeros absorbed huge amounts of .50 damage unaffecting their performance.
Like the Persian Immortals an army that when they lost men they were immediately replaced by a different soldier. Had to be rough to face a daily enemy that grew as well as their equipment was so superior. Tokyo may have lied to the home folks but he men on the lines knew they were losing.
I get tickled at Japanese personnel using SAE instead of metric units of measure
I wonder what the Code of Bushido pilots who understood why the Naval High Command was reluctant to award battle decorations and promotions would've thought of LBJ who wrangled a Silver Star (he had an aide award him at every campaign whistle and train stop) for a milk run where he was as much use as a mail sack and the other crew members of the craft received bumpus. 🤔
I've never been a big believer in confirmed kill numbers. I think a lot of exaggeration went on for moral purposes. He was credited with 60 kills, might gave been 1/2 that.
These complimentary titles don't seem to have anything to with the actual story. It seems to be just click bait.
It’s a quote from the actual writing, however it is a bit clickbaity
My how times have changed
I keep wondering were are the wingmen
Very sporting of the Japanese to hold their lives as insignificant. It made replacing pilots a real problem for them. They weren't brave, they were stupid.
B-17s in the Pacific. If the AAF had it to do over, I think they would have passed.
Just watching this episode made me feel better about the eventual annihilation of Japanese army and naval aviation.
Early on the Americans lost many good pilots, many naval and merchant marine, some to sharks which is never talked about.
The modern shark lovers deny much of the shark killing of servicemen.
I may be a jingoist, but I( don't believe most of the claims made by this Japanese pilot. This recount of success over the American bombers reminds me of the claimed success of previous Japanese naval officers.
Over 4500 B-17s (of some 12k) were lost during WW2. Why is it hard to believe when you hear of one being shot down?
It isn't that I dispute the account of one B-17 being lost.or one thousand (although the preponderance of those losses were in Europe) It is the entire narrative of successful Japanese encounters that I have my doubts about.@@DoBraveryFPS
@@DoBraveryFPS Yes, and the AAF had the highest number of men killed (between 20 30,000) of any of the services in WW II.
@@DoBraveryFPS Most went down in Europe.
The tell of a lot of usa losses at such an amount that it seems like how did the usa win the war but I think their exaggerated victories against the USA
The sad thing about Japanese was they could not admit defeat due to their stupidity of their belief that their Emperor was a God.
Simplistic to the extreme.
Perhaps everything you believe in is stupid.
@@raywhitehead730 he's right, though
Many here still seem to comment as tho this fine pilot was somehow "just lucky" to be so successful against the American planes. He was however an excellent aviator and only the limits of his plane kept him from being more so. He was also a very honorable man. Enemy or not, please try to respect him for what he was.
The B-25’s flew so low that bomb’s were bouncing higher than the bombers.
I thought we knew what we were doing.
@@JeffreyWilliams-dr7qe what do you mean?
@CJP-oz6hr Well, It's usually not a good thing if a bomb just dropped from your plane a second or two takes off your wing.
@@JeffreyWilliams-dr7qe …..My dad was a navigator flying these low level strafing missions in the B-25. He recalled looking over at the lead wingman dropping their bombs. The bombing technic was skip bombing with delayed fuses so the aircraft could be clear of the detonation. My original comment is from a conversation I had with him telling me it was a 1,000lb bomb bouncing higher than the aircraft he was flying in. Unfortunately for him, there was an issue with a low level bombing run they were performing on a ship in Hainan harbor and the bomb blew up prematurely. He, the pilot, and copilot were picked up by a submarine about 14 hours later while Japanese Zero’s straffed the sub during recovery.
Thanks to your family especially your father. Having conversations like these are prized but did not come often in my experience from the Pacific War combat veteran in our house. B25 best medium bomber of Ww2.
Poor fools.
I don't know how your commenters do it; the ai reader's pronunciation mistakes make this unlistenable for me.
@theoneandonlysoslappy Sir sorry for the inconvenience ,we are trying our best to fix it in latest uploads
"Aircrafts"... *sigh*. I suppose he herds sheeps too.
Did Chuck Norris train you?
Greatest defeat?.. you lost 4 carriers and 280 planes and 1,000 Naval personnel in Midway compared to your victory in Lae..
Yes but at the time they 30:42 didnt know what really happened at that time
The author is delusional. His claimed kills are completely out there compared to historical loss records.
If the B-26 losses were at bad as claimed the 22nd BG would have been destroyed. @@tannertempleton3404
@@tannertempleton3404 He seems perfectly honest to me.
As he says at 25:00 .
Let's see
America VS Japan WWII
America had over 2x as many people available to work in factories 7/24/365 without stop
We had unlimited supplies needed to make everything
We had 1ks of miles of ocean between us and our enemies making our
factories rail lines supply lines etc etc and most importantly our factory workers immune to bombing
America had 2x as many men available to become war fighters and America could easily afford to pick only the most qualified men to be pilots
America also had all the resources needed in unlimited amounts to be able to properly train our fighter pilots
America unlike the Japanese also often took their best most experienced fighter pilots out of action and had them instruct new pilots on how best to fight Japanese fighters
America had the unbeatable combination of unlimited production capabilities
No one produced better made more excellent quality equipment and the best most reliable most durable piston driven fighters of the war and in quantity at least 3 or 4x greater than our enemies ever dreamed of doing being flown buy extremely capable extremely well trained pilots
When your pilots are as good if not better than any your fighter planes are better than any your logistics of keeping your fighters well maintained and fuled and replaced as needed as often as needed can not be matched let alone stopped and you have more of everything than your enemies AND your bombing his factories out of existence and sinking his supply ships faster than he can replace them
AND your navy now has 2-3× more aircraft carriers than anyone else AND America had broken Japanese Naval coded communications America would have had to made a deliberate effort to loose to the Japanese in WWII
Truth is Japan never really stood a chance against America especially after the battle of Midway
Don’t forget we were fighting on 3 fronts. Japan, Italy and the western front. We had I believe almost 150,000,000 people. Germany had 90,000,000, Russia 150,000,000. Japan 85,000,000. Today America 335,000,000-Russia 150,000,000.
Remember only the living write. There’s no way that a dead ace can say “ This is my story and how I died “ so it only stands to reason that the best fighter who actually survived is writing this
This sounds like gross exaggerations. All these aircraft explode? And 4 kills in one sortie is damn near impossible.
Even the all time ace of aces, a german with 352 kills never got 4 a day.
While I don't know if Hartmann ever shot down 4 in one day, he is credited with 5 or more kills in a single day 18x. Of those, 26 February 1944 was 10 planes in two missions, while 24 August 1944 was 11 in two. Which means he not only has shot down (or at least been credited with shooting down) 4+ planes in a day multiple times, he has most definitely also been credited with doing it in one sortie. Though, if you look at the various names on a WW2 ace in a day lists, flying against the Russians was apparently easy mode ;) But worth noting the gross exaggeration aspect could definitely be at play there. The actual records of his kills were lost in the war, and the reconstructed attempts include crediting him with some kills on days that A) his squadron didn't fly and B) the Soviet records don't record the planes he supposedly shot on that day as being lost. So, yeah, exaggeration most definitely happens.
And others have topped that 11. The most is Emil Lang, who received credit for shooting down 18 Russian planes in one day in 1943. And he's one of five Germans to claim 15+ kills in a single day, four of them against the USSR. Heck, Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer, the top night ace, apparently shot down 10 British bombers in a single night.
David McCampbell was credited with 9 in one mission, landed with two rounds left and zero fuel. Battle of Leyte Gulf, 1944. His Medal of Honor citation says he attacked a formation of 60 enemy aircraft with only a wingman in support.
@@Hasdrubal_Barca that's not possible!!!
Typically, fighters of the WW2 era had 7 or 8 SECONDS of ammunition. Nobody could do 4 in a single sortie. Certainly not 9.
@@timjones1583 The F6F had 400 rounds per gun, so with a firing rate around 800 rounds per minute, that gives about 30 seconds of firing. By comparison, the early A6M had 60 rounds for each of its two 20mm cannon, and 500 for each of its two 7.7mm machine guns. Cannon armed planes tended to have smaller magazine capacity since they did more damage per shot, the later A6M got up to 125 rounds for the cannon.
Don't take my word for it, though. Read up on McCampbell.
I find this hilarious. Another anecdote about the much overhyped but never proven prowess of the zeke. Literally never once did it dominate its enemy and even when they did get kills, this man is talking like he and his friends downed an entire air force 😂😂😂
I have some doubt about the authenticity of this account.
Why would a Japanese pilot use Imperial measurement?
Even German or Russian accounts always use metric.
This series seems like fiction, or at least a Martin Cadin-ish rewrite.
The English translation of the book was undoubtedly aimed at an American audience, and hence the translator / editor decided to change to Imperial units.
@@gregschinn6943
I don’t know.
The combat descriptions seem way too lurid. I was listening to a B-24 pilot. I can’t remember his name. He was a governor and had tried but failed for the presidential nomination. (I’m not American so I don’t recall this race).
Anyway, he was discussing a particularly difficult raid where they nearly got shot down. He couldn’t remember if it was his 15th or 18th mission.
I met a Halifax navigator and he recalled a night where he saw bombers blowing up on the way to the target and all the way back.
He could not remember the town they bombed that night. It was the Nuremberg raid 107 bombers shot down.
I have had traumatic stuff happen to me and I can’t recall it in order. It is all mixed up.
Listening to veterans and interviewing victims for 26 years this just rings phoney.
Undoubtedly Sakai used “artistic licence” to fill out extensive descriptions of dogfights and the emotions he felt during these. However, he does state that he kept a detailed diary during his time at Lea.
Autocorrect error: Lae
@@gregschinn6943
I did not realise that this was Sakai’s book.
I’m giving myself a pat on the back for saying it sounded like Martin Cadin’s work. Cadin wrote the book Samurai with Sakai.
Cadin’s work has been generally discredited since his death.
I grew up reading and loving his books. I also enjoyed the Six Million Dollar Man on TV, but older and better read I no longer take his work seriously.
not quite true. we did not have enough pilots for all the aircraft we had. or enough carriers for all or them to be parked at.
These replies here are remarkably ignorant with dashes of chest pounding ‘Merica
When listening to this one would wonder how the Empire of the Sun could get rolled up and defeated in only four years. How did they even lose at Guadalcanal? OK, maybe this pilots memoirs are the only highlight of the war after Pear Harbor and the Philippines invasion. 🤔
They lost because they dove when they should have dived.
Sounds like you won the war by yourself! I think you lost.
What won the US the war:
- Infinate destroyer glitch.
- Infinate plane glitch.
- 3D Essex printer line.
The plural of aircraft is NOT aircrafts. Look it up.
It is very annoying to hear of many allied defeats, one after the other, especially when they are attributed to carelessness and negligence.
This is more than balanced, perhaps, by poor and often arrogant decision making by Japanese generals, admirals and top leaders ---beginning with the decision for war against the United States, the Pearl Harbor attack, the failure to understand that Japanese codes had been broken and the willingness to sacrifice so many of your troops for whom you were responsible.
I take a measure of solace that American planes and pilots improved markedly as the war went on, while the top Japanese leadership NEVER DID.
And after a slow and fumbling start by George Marshal, Admirals King and Nimitz and General MacArthur, they eventually came together in providing sterling leadership to win the war.
The same thing applies to Franklin Roosevelt, who provoked Japan to war and then was unprepared when it started. But again,
he wound up a gigantic military effort that climaxed with the destruction of Japanese cities and finally by the use of atomic bombs.
I suppose that slow and fumbling start is excused by the crushing victory in the end.
How do you figure Roosevelt started the war. I never heard that before
@@johnrisher3007he didn't, of course, but was eager to get involved in conflicts he knew were unavoidable.
@@johnrisher3007 Roosevelt provided arms and munitions to China before Pearl harbor and imposed "sanctions" on Japan after they occupied French Indochina. At that time the United States was providing 80% of Japans oil.
"carelessness and negligence". You really should study more history before posting nonsense.
There is a whole history behind how Roosevelt provoked Japan into war. FDR was a master politician who ran for office by promising to keep us out of the war - meanwhile knowing all along he was building up US industry and shipping arms to Russian and England and provoking war. He embargoed Japan and froze their assets. Also by shipping munitions to the UK and Russia he knew he was inviting the ire of Germany, so it was no surprise that Germany declared war on the US.
I bet few people realize that it was France and England who first attacked Germany. Why? Because Germany went into Poland to reclaim German lands taken in WWI. But also Germany was going after Russia who had also taken Poland and Ukraine, as well as Baltic States and was attacking Finland. That's a war we are still fighting today: Russia. Russia has had expansionist goals since 1918 and has been trying to spread disconnect in other countries, like they still do today. Big question is - if Germany was going after Russia why did we stop them? Well - and this is well documented, but somehow you don't hear about it. FDR had a lot of pro communists in his adminstration. They thought Russia was a model for the world. The New York Times wrote glowingly about Russia's Potemkin villages and how wonderful the "worker's" paradise was. And that's why FDR started so many social programs in the US (by the way his interference with captialism extended the depression by years). Also did you realize before Japan attacked the US, they were at war with Russia. Yes Russia was fighting a two front war. But FDR put pressure on Japan, and the Japanese made a peace with Russia and came after the US instead. Russia then brought its troops back from its war with Japan in time to save Moscow from the Germans. But did Russia help us in our war with Japan - not until they knew we had the bomb - they wanted a piece of the spoils. So what was Japan doing? it was trying to establish an empire - like all the european powers were doing in Asia - they learned from the European empires and gunboat Perry. So the big question is why was FDR helping England maintain it's Empire (by the way the US had to help Austrailia defend itslef from the Japanese because it had sent most of its troops to Africa and Europe to fight for the british). And why did we help Russia fight the Germans, when they were doing the same thing the Germans were doing. Oh what a tangled web. @@johnrisher3007
Dude sure tells a whole bunch of lies dont he. Listen to him and Japan won thr war !!