The Bataan Death March is just one example of man's inhumanity to man during this war. We have an entire bi-weekly subseries called War Against Humanity that covers the atrocities committed by all sides. The playlist for that is right here: ruclips.net/p/PLsIk0qF0R1j4cwI-ZuDoBLxVEV3egWKoM And check out our day-by-day coverage of the war on Instagram. It's a great companion to these weekly episodes. instagram.com/WW2_Day_By_Day/ And please read our rules of conduct before you comment, saves everyone headaches (and loads of time): community.timeghost.tv/t/rules-of-conduct/4518
Since 1989, here in southern New Mexico at White Sands Missile Range, a memorial march has been held to remember the Death March-- The Bataan Memorial Death March. Interesting fact: Why we remember the Bataan Death March with a memorial march is because of the 10,000 who marched, 1,186 were from New Mexico and from combat, prisons, or shortly after liberation, 829 never returned home. Those men were from the New Mexico 200th Coast Artillery, New Mexico National Guard. Here's more about the memorial march and its history: bataanmarch.com/
When I was about 8 or 9, I met a man who had survived that. I had never heard of the march at that point and it was only years later that I realized what he must have gone through. Unfortunately, he had passed away by the time I found out.
'No, that's not over-optimistic, that's just plain stupid' - is a quote that perfectly describes Japanese plans for 1942. I love that it was placed at the very beginning of the episode.
The Japanese did not have the shipping capacity to support a force to hold Hawaii. Furthermore, their Army leadership were completely against providing land forces to invade Hawaii in the first place. At least Yamamoto's Midway plans will result in a decisive naval battle.
Exactly. They were so pessimistic in the early days of the Pacific war but because of continuous victories they begin to experience the "victory disease". Not to mention the already abyssmal cooperation between the IJA and the IJN which hampered combat operations extensively.
@@principalityofbelka6310 I think the Japanese themselves have the saying for something like this: "after every victory, remember to tighten your helmet straps".
As I heard it the Pearl Harbor attack was intended to be a knockout blow that would convince us that resistance is futile. They don't know us very well, do they?
the germans at least won that battle on a tactical level against a force twice their own size and it was close to their own supply lines. The japanese on the other hands nearest supply port is half an ocean away and they got absolutely crushed by a force smaller than theirs. Comparing the two is actually unfair to the german high seas fleet
@@matthiasbindl7085 Arguably the British also won on the tactical level, since the german Fleet had to run away and many of the german ships were heavily damaged, but certainly it was a much closer fought battle than Midway. If you haven't seen them already, I recommend Drachinfel's three videos on the Battle of Jutland.
@@matthiasbindl7085 tactical victory means little in the strategic context if the victor is unable to capitalize on the success. Germany lost Jutland on the strategic level.
Here in the Philippines we celebrate April 9th as so-called "Araw ng Kagitingan" or Day of Heroism. Even though the peninsula fell, the fight continued.
Yup, we celebrate that. In context, I think that was the last bastion to fall before the Japanese in Southeast Asia. Correction: Ahh, of course Corregidor still stands.
Met a distinguished English gentleman at church in 2002. He was a survivor of the HMS Hermes, the carrier sunk by Kido Butai near Colombo during this week’s raid. The Hermes, with no planes on board, and a destroyer were found and sunk by over 60 Japanese dive bombers. Imagine being so helpless as that gentleman was that day. Tears streamed down his face as he told me the story.
Better still? The only a/c on board hermes were "stringbag" bombers. Not only did Hermes have no combat air patrol it could not have had such since bombers make terribly bad fighters.
@@MarkVrem a/c here stands for "aircraft". If you're trolling, well played, but your likely not a native speaker of English so... maybe not? a/c does usually stand for air conditioning.
Besides Prince Philip, who served in the war, passing away this week. The last American Medal of Honor recipient for the European Theater passed away as well. Only one remains for the Pacific. It feels in many ways like the end of era lately.
Prince Philip was on the battleship HMS Valiant at the Battle of Cape Matapan in March 1941, and also in Tokyo Bay for the Japanese Surrender in 1945 on the destroyer HMS Whelp.
@@stevekaczynski3793 And February was the 10th anniversary of the U.S. losing its last WWI veteran. Next year will be the 10th anniversary of the last WWI veteran to pass away.
Kido Butai is on a roll! There's no way they could get taken down. It'll be interesting to see how severely they crush the Americans when Yamamoto's plan goes into action!
Arrived here from 1914. The great war Between two wars. It took me 6 months! It was an insane journey really. It changed my worldview completely. Life in quarantine was quite productive thanks to u💝
I binge-watched about half of the WWI series as well, and wish I hadn't. Watching the episodes as they're released is way better when it comes to understanding the overall flow of the war and how various events connect with one-another. Reading about them tends not to help with that because large blocks of time get skipped over. But getting things as they occur, as the people fighting the war would have understood them, gives you a lot of insight into why they made the decisions they did at the time.
Japan: "Yo Germany can you guys launch an offensive through the middle east so we can link up in India and drive Britain out of Asia?" Germany: _looks at lack of Japanese help with the USSR_ ".....No."
Also, Germany's closest forces to British India are 2,000 miles away in Ukraine, and would require crossing several mountain passes and deserts. Like...just not possible.
@@matthewbadley5063 ...excuse me! Didn't you read the Führer's directive? After the Soviet armies are destroyed on the Don, he's heading for the mountain passes of the Caucasus... after that, it's all downhill...
My grandmother passed this week. She was the last of the generation that lived the Japanese occupation and definitely carried that with her. I studied history undergrad, Int. Affairs grad, but now I really feel the need to make sure this history is remembered, not due to some residual animosity toward the Japanese people, but to acknowledge the dangerously prideful, yet insecure pseudo-philosophies that made themselves so susceptible to committing such unthinkable violence
It is just now starting to set in that we are entering Spring 1942. These next few months are going to be crazy. Fall Blau, Coral Sea, Midway, El Alamein, and the start of Stalingrad. The Phony War feels like a lifetime ago.
Spoiler Alert: Remember, as Churchill said, "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
When I was a boy scout in the mid-1960s, my Assistant Scout Master was an ex Marine and a Bataan Death March survivor. He never talked openly about it. My best recollection of him was his love of raw onion sandwiches.
@@stevekaczynski3793 This is almost certainly a holdover from the Great Depression. My grandparents grew up during those times (born in 1922 and 1924) when there was nothing else to make a sandwich out of. They would eat onion sandwiches periodically afterward, saying that doing so "made them feel young again". Though they would only have them for lunch when they weren't planning to go out or expecting company.
My great grandad was in the 84th Infantry and even though he thankfully was never a POW he never talked with my mom (his granddaughter) about what he went through a lot like your Marine Scout Master (from what I've heard from Marine culture you're only an ex Marine if you get kicked out) and my mom says he enjoyed sardines right out of the tin
The plans for Midway AND Stalingrad in the same week? If you ever misscalculate something, feel comfort that at least you are not the Axis HQs on early April 1942
@@Rahulrao2576 I see that you hate Great Britain, the British, and all the those who speak English in the British isles... Ok... Do you live in England? By the way, i'm am Portuguese, i'm not defending the British, i'm just saying that hate doesn't resolve anything...
@@Rahulrao2576 Like any country in the world, Britain did big mistakes (even my home country), i don't like the countries that use the past tragedies to make sure that his people still can obey like a robot to their leaders, in 80 years, the world changed a lot, we only need to look at the past to learn from those mistakes, not to instill hate to make the same mistakes that others did to them, we don't need to live in the past, we need to learn from the past to march to the future... That's all i wanted to say
Profiles on Bataan survivors would be interesting. One survivor was Joe Kieyoomia who was taken to Japan and tortured because his captors assumed he was Japanese. Then when they learned he was Navajo Indian he was tortured again because they thought he knew the Navajo Code. During which he was held in Nagasaki when the atomic bomb was dropped on it. Afterwards he was finally released.
They should have give him a medal for being the unluckiest guy in the war to actually survive it. Good point about the Code though, just knowing Navajo wouldn't have been enough for him to read the messages. I'm sure they'll cover this in detail when they get to the special episode on Codetalkers.
@@belbrighton6479 I learned about him years ago when reading the book Navajo Weapon: The Navajo Code Talkers. It had a chapter about the ordeal that he lived through. Joe was a soldier in the 200th Coast Artillery which was part of the Philippines defense during the Japanese invasion. Aside from that book there were a number of news articles about him up till his death in 1997.
My grandfather was among one of the many that fell during the Bataan Death March. He shipped out at the outbreak of war and that was the last time his wife ever saw him. She was pregnant when he left, and a daughter (i.e., my mom) was born nine months later.
That's crazy, I feel like the channel did something they don't usually do which is write the episode as though to justify or gloss over the brutality of the death march.
The Axis are fun: Italy is really bad at executing generally good plans, Germany is good at executing mediocre plans and the Japanese are great at executing absolutely idiotic plans.
One (of the many) thing that is great about this series is how you feel that the Axis can actually win, despite knowing how this all ends. Right now, the Allies are getting hit left and right. There's no way the Axis can lose this, right?
that`s right, however, imho, those axis lucky days have already ended by approximately november. See: germany now has a lot of long campaigns that it can`t win fast and put some pressure off her limited resourses, japanese seemingly winning, but main allies resources are deployed aganist germany and all this time (excluding PH) best japanese units fight second-class allied colonial troops, and they haven`t captured anything that america wanted to defend at any cost, probably philippines only
@@user-if4zv5nj5m The Axis had to win quickly or else they'd lose a long war, and it's the twelve months starting around November 1941 that their efforts to win quickly fell short despite impressive initial gains.
@@Madhattersinjeans fast War is also a common focus of nations who have land borders with their enemies i.e. Soviets don't focus on economic warfare much (strategic bombing, convoy interseption) just because you can afford to count on long economic - based war if you are surrounded by sea, but if you have land borders with enemies you can simply find enemy taking your capital before your war of attrition affects him
The one thing we had though was the disproportionately massive manufacturing base with Essex class carriers already under construction on the ways of US shipyards since before Pearl Harbor. We were biding time and that prescient confidence of Franklin Roosevelt about the inevitable outcome of this thing clearly comes through in his war declaration speech. But most Americans without this kind of insight, were probably having their private concerns about our future in the Pacific about now. . Now the military junta in Japan knew of our Essex class carriers under construction and were betting the farm on a quick war and a panicky US suing for peace in the unlikely event of our west coast becoming vulnerable to the Kido Butai with only a few months before the new carriers were commissioned . . . Man those are the kinds of suckers that a good poker player wants to see at the table
I would like to spotlight a certain person that wasn’t mentioned in this episode. Sqn. Leader Leonard Birchall, a Canadian pilot who was the reason the British got the advance warning about the Japanese advancing on Ceylon. He is shot down in the middle of his transmission and is captured. He’ll spend the rest of the war in a POW camp where he displays bravery by negotiating better treatment for the men as well as taking severe beatings on their behalf. By war’s end he will be responsible for significantly reducing the fatality rate in every camp he’s sent to. I hope they do a special episode on him.
Honestly, it is already impressive enough that the Japanese were able to stretch their army so well between China and the Pacific. Having to take even more territory would surely create many more issues than it’s worth
@@FOLIPE logistics also works against the Allies too. The Americans and the British have to supply their forces halfway araound the world. Relatively speaking the Japanese have shorter lines of communications with their industrial heartland much closer to re supply. The problem for Japan is that the US massively dwarfed the Japanese industrial capacity and it was a matter of time when the Japanese are unable to match the attrition losses they suffered, doubly so for their Navy.
@@senpainoticeme9675 The US and UK have long supply lines, but they control them very well for the most part and they are directed to a few centres from where they don't need to be distributed far. The Japanese on the other hand have massive fronts, so their supply lines are very scattered.
Having been stationed in the US Navy at Subic Bay, I've been to Mt Samat and Corregidor a few times, very impressive memorials at both sites. The memorial cross on Samat is incredible and one can take an elevator ride to the "T" of the cross for an impressive view of the Bataan Peninsula. Several years ago I had the honor of visiting the gravesite of Arthur Clemenson, an uncle of my good friend. He asked me to visit as no one from his family had ever been to the Manila Cemetery. Arthur survived the battle and death march, but perished at the Camp O'Donnell POW camp a month later. That was really an honor for me and the cemetery officials provided me a wonderful booklet about Arthur to bring back to the family.
@@minsapint8007 Friendly reminder that the Confederate leaders declared slavery to be the cause for secession during the secession debates and the declarations of secession they later drafted. A sample from Mississippi's declaration of secession: "Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-- the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun. These products have become necessities of the world, and a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization. That blow has been long aimed at the institution, and was at the point of reaching its consummation. There was no choice left us but submission to the mandates of abolition, or a dissolution of the Union, whose principles had been subverted to work out our ruin." The Confederates started a civil war because they didn't get the results they wanted from a fair and democratic presidential election, and feared that their "rights" to keep 4 million Americans in chains were now in danger. While it is true that they viewed Lincoln as the villain, that was also based on a belief that African peoples were inherently inferior to white men and that their enslavement to the latter was both right and proper and ordained by God. Tyrants rarely see themselves as such, and that was also true for the Confederate leadership. You'd be hard pressed to find a more unjust cause for war in all of American military history than that of the Confederacy's rebellion.
@@minsapint8007 Well, from the point of view of the Confederacy, there were people they could and should legally be allowed own, so maybe we shouldn't take their point of view seriously.
“It is possible... that a lack of forewarning about the enemy might one day come back to haunt them.” That first shock is slowly crossing the North Pacific right now...
The Hornet left San Francisco on the 2nd of April. By today the 10th, the Enterprise has joined her as an escort. It's a good thing kido buti is in the Indian ocean.
3:44 With the fall of Bataan, it looks like Corregidor will likely fall pretty soon in a number of days given its isolation and lack of help forthcoming. In the meantime though, the Coral Sea looks like a possible next staging area for the Imperial Japanese Navy after their rather successful Indian Ocean Raid.
Thank you for telling the story of Bataan. My great-great uncle JD was one of the few hundred Americans who survived the fall of Bataan, the Bataan Death March, and Cabanatuan. When they shipped him back home he was still too weak to walk. He had to ask and sometimes pay people to help him move trains. Many Americans seem to forget that we ever fought on land in the Philippines. I hope that when the time comes you'll cover the rescue mission that freed my uncle JD and the rest of the surviving American POW's at Cabanatuan. I also hope that Astrid will look into "High Pockets" Claire Phillips and the rest of the underground network that smuggled supplies and information to and from Cabanatuan for her Spies and Ties series. Thank you to the TimeGhost team for all the work you do on your different channels and projects. We’re the battling bastards of Bataan; No mama, no papa, no Uncle Sam. No aunts, no uncles, no cousins, no nieces, No pills, no planes, no artillery pieces And nobody gives a damn.
Little known fact about the Easter Sunday raid is that with the sinking of HMSs Dorsetshire, Cornwall, Hermes and Hollyhock, the fledgling South African Naval Forces suffered their greatest loss of the war, with 65 seconded officers and ratings killed - not commemorated and remembered by few.
i wouldn´t call anything in the north africa campaign to be part of the most important battles of ww2. The thing was an afterthought to the real battles going on in europe and asia
@@matthiasbindl7085 North Africa is more important than the numbers involved suggest. It is Suez, the route to India and the southern supply line to Russia and access to oil from Iraq, Iran and the gulf that are under threat. Suez is the lynchpin of the Empire without it Britain is on the verge of defeat.
I don't think any battle won by the Axis after 1941 could be considered very important because the balance of power was already greatly shifting in favor for the Allies because of their much greater industrial capacities
That's so silly to think that Kido Butai would not learn from said bomber raid and adapt. Something like that would NEVER happen again to them, being caught with pants down like that.
To be fair it's not like they didn't try developing shipborne radar. They were just late starters and had lots of problems getting it ready. And by the time that some of the ships started getting it, it was irrelevant as the war was already all but lost.
@@ab-lymphocite5464 Lack of effective fighter coordination and control was just as crippling as lack of radar. The fighter pilots were expected to spot threats themselves and respond to them accordingly - there was no provision for anyone on the ship to keep the fighter pilots updated with a complete picture of the battle, or to direct their activities so that they didn't all pounce on the first visible threat and leave the ships open to attack by other planes. This, more than the lack of radar, was what led to the disaster at Midway. At one point in the battle Japanese cruisers were trying to alert the fighters to incoming attacks by firing their main guns at the enemy planes because they had no other way to relay the warning to the fighters. And since the fighters kept using all their fuel and ammo chasing after attackers who had already dropped their ordnance, the flight decks of the carriers were kept in constant use recovering CAP planes and launching new ones and there was no opportunity to set up and launch the planned attack on the US carriers that had been spotted.
@@brucetucker4847 Ah that's what you were getting at. Yes, fighter pilots do have a tendency of doing that if they aren't given specific orders. I didn't know about the cruiser thing, thanks for sharing that!
@@brucetucker4847 Not only that, they apparently took the radios out of the Zeros to "save weight" in a fighter that was already more maneuverable than their opponents' and relied on hand signals to communicate.
had the honor of meeting the former 1st SGT from the 111th New Mexico Cavalry some years ago at the Bataan Museum in Santa Fe. Just as WW2 was dawning they were converted to the 200th Coastal Artillery and sent to the Philippines. Fired the first shots. Surrendered at Battan. He was present at the Death march and subsequent captivity. While we were there a couple of Japanese exchange students wandered in asking for directions. He literally had a physical reaction when he saw them. (no fault of theirs or his) His breathing locked up, heart rate and BP shot up. We came very close to calling 911. This was in 1994. That's how deep those scars ran.
My great-uncle was a survivor of the Bataan Death March. I never knew him, but from what my family has told me his hair had gone grey by the time he was thirty.
Hey World War 2 I hope you feature this in the future. I am not sure how true is this or not I learned that in the near future of the war in the Philippines one of the Filipino resistance groups found/capture some important papers coming from a certain Japanese officer that died from an airplane crash at sea. The paper contain plans of the Japanese on the Pacific theater and their strategies. I hope you add this in your videos. Keep up the great work.
I'm guessing Indy only briefly mentioned the infamous Bataan death march, because Spartacus will cover it more in-depth in the crimes against humanity series?
Will Spartacus be covering the "Bataan Death March" more thoroughly on WaH? While it will be a difficult subject (As is most everything covered on WaH.) it definitely deserves more scrutiny. Also just wanted to shout thanks to everyone that works on this show. You're doing great work.
The sad reality is it wasn’t even top 100 most evil things Japan did when compared to bubonic plague, bayoneting women and children, but I agree it should be discussed.
@@ChevyChase301 You're not wrong, though it should still be covered, if for no other reason than to keep the memory of the men, women, and children that were murdered during that brutal march alive. The more light that is shone on all of these crimes, the more difficult they are to deny.
At White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, the US Army still conducts a Bataan Death March. It is in commemoration of the actual death March. Believe it is roughly 25 miles in length. While in the US Army, had always wanted to participate but could never get the proper permission from leadership to attend. Has been an ongoing event for past 30+ years.
I’ve lived my entire 60 year life knowing how WWII turned out. But, at the time of the war this vid covers, things looked very grim for the Allies. My Dad said it was a scary time to grow up. He literally thought the Nazis and the Japanese would invade one day (the USA). I can’t imagine what that was like. It must’ve seemed like the shadow of evil was falling all over the world.
While in the US Army in 1990 I was assigned to be a pallbearer for the funeral of a Death March survivor. I had no idea what I was in for when I was told to report to the Chaplain's office in dress uniform. That was by far the most memorable and moving detail I ever lucked into in the service.
My Great Uncle Ornie Kudick was a POW and took part in the Bataan death march. He survived and came home to farm in Wisconsin until his death in the early 90s. His brother (Elroy) served as a paratrooper in France days after D-Day. Their youngest brother (Norman) served 20 years, taking part in both Korea and Vietnam.
I do hope the lack of radar on the Imperial Japanese Navy's Kido Butai will not come back to bite them one day. They might have been lucky to escape the air attack by the Bristol Blenheim bombers this time, but they may not be so lucky the second time.
Hah! Radars are not necessary for the Kido Butai! The offensive spirit of the Japanese navy will prevail against the so called superior allied equipment.
British carrier doctrine with its biplane torpedo bombers (Swordfish) relied on night attacks, as demonstrated when they clobbered the Italian battleships at Taranto. If they had found Kido Butai in the dark... (Great book recommendation - “To War in a Stringbag.” The author fought many battles, including the raid on Taranto.)
A great uncle was in the military during the war and saw the aftermath of the Japanese occupation and the Death March. He never spoke of the war, but on his death bed around 1990 he muttered the word "Japs" as if it was the most foul word he could muster.
I had no idea the Japanese were so victorious in Asia. Australia and India are really threatened and I don’t see any hope. Or how Japan did not end up winning the war in the Pacific. My heart goes out to the men of the Royal Navy who met a watery end. We shall remember them.
My Father was in a Air Force Recon Wing in the late 50s. The Wing had 3 ex Army Air Corp vets from Clark Field/Bataan with congressional metals of honor. Each man was completely broken. Every morning they were issue two bottles of grain alcohol and would return to quarters.
Some winners of the highest decorations for valour went on to have quite sad lives even if they survived. Post-traumatic stress disorder seems to be common for them.
Best episode yet, Indy and crew! As a proud specialist of the Timeghost Army I commend you on your efforts! Your in depth analysis, combined with great and rare footage really is fantastic! Special compliment to Indy for his performance 👍
5:58 I'm looking forward to the coverage on the Kokoda Track Campaign. I am fascinated with this battle, just because almost literally nobody over here (in the Netherlands) has ever heard of it.
A great reminder how Philippines fought to very end even it was abandoned by United States of America. Fellow Filipinos should consider this lesson in dealing with current situation in Sount China Sea. As a lot is of people are clamoring for war with China. Filipinos never learned from the past and allowed politicians to weaken the state to a state which is now. To the heroes of Battan lest we forget.
@@ennui9745 have you not seen what the media propaganda, commentaries, and people in the internet had been asking for a long time. Which is the military option against China which we all know will never prosper since the decay of AFP is so evident the even Singapore could take over in a matter of weeks.
Love how real time gives a better perspective on just how far the Kido Butai travelled in such a short time frame. They must have seemed like ghosts. Well, until the codebreakers busted them.
The radar was a British invention, the British due to the Lend-lease, passed the technology the Americans who mass produced to equip their Navy and Army
Germany: if we take Moscow, Russia will be forced to surrender! Japan: if we take Hawaii, the US will be forced to surrender! I’m noticing a pattern here...
I am completely confident that Japan will win the war before the end of 1942. Edit: I am also sure that Midway will be a decisive Japanese victory and that victory will end the war in Japan's favour.
For a nation whom we're told explored, exploited and ruled the waves for over 300 years or so it is especially embarrassing for the Royal Navy to underestimate the Imperial Japanese Navy to such an extent as to bring the proverbial knife to a gunfight... Just as Rome found out and The United States will do, laurels are hardly bedding and bloated, greed and condescension must be addressed..
While overly ambitious as well it was much less so than an attack on Hawaii. A push into India wouldn't require a supply chain stretched out across half the Pacific.
My uncle was on the Death March. He was truly the kindest man I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. He NEVER had a bad word to say of anyone nor did he talk of his harrowing ordeals. He was also on a prison ship going to Japan that was attacked by the US Navy. I view him as a true role model. I was always amazed that after all he went through he did not have a hateful bone in his body. With that said, when he was on his death bed at the VA hospital in Puttsburgh he did have a bit of a freak out when a Pillipino nurse entered his room one night. I suppose he didn't hold a grudge but he also never forgot. Rest in Peace Uncle Sonny.
4th April 1942 Atlantic Ocean : German submarine U-505 torpedoed and sank Dutch cargo ship Alphacca 200 miles off Ivory Coast, French West Africa at 2329 hours; 15 were killed, 57 survived. On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, at 2335 hours, U-154 torpedoed and sank US tanker Comol Rico in Caribbean Sea ; 3 were killed, 39 survived. German submarine U-552 torpedoed and sank US tanker Byron D. Benson 16 kilometers east of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, United States at 2257 hours local time (recorded in U-552 logs as at 0447 hours on 5 Apr 1942, German time), killing 10 of 38. Malta : Greek submarine Glavkos was bombed and sunk by Axis aircraft at Malta. Royal Navy Fleet auxilary tanker RF Plumleaf was also bombed and sunk by Luftwaffe JU-87 Stuka dive bombers in Valetta harbour Sevastapol , Crimea : Soviet destroyer Sovershenny was destroyed by German shelling at Sevastopol , Crimea Leningrad : 62 Luftwaffe JU-87 Stuka dive bombers and 70 other bombers escorted by 59 Bf 109 fighters attacked Soviet fleet at Kronstadt near Leningrad, Russia in the afternoon, damaging battleships October Revolution and Petropavlovsk, cruisers Maxim Gorky and Kirov, and destroyers Silny and Grozyashchi. After dark, He 111 bombers, some of which had participated in the Kronstadt attack in the afternoon, bombed Leningrad. Lae , Papua New Guinea : In the morning, Australian pilot John Jackson alone flew over Lae on the northern coast of New Guinea and made a strafing run. In the afternoon, he led a group in attacking the same location, destroying several Japanese aircraft on the ground. Burma : Japanese aircraft bombed areas of Mandalay, Burma, killing more than 2,000, most of whom were civilians. Indian Ocean : Operation C started by Japanese Imperial Navy to drive Royal Navy out of Indian Ocean. As Japanese carriers sailed toward Ceylon, the fleet was discovered by a Royal Canadian Air Force PBY Catalina flying boat 400 miles south of the island. A Japanese Zero fighter from carrier Hiryu shot down the Catalina aircraft (3 killed, several captured) but not until they radioed in the fleet’s location. Admiral James Sommerville , Commander of Royal Navy Eastern Fleet , already aware of approaching Japanese Navy aircraft carrier fleet for a few weeks due to Japanese Navy wireless decryption , therefore got exact location of enemy fleet and its rough approach , ordered all of his ships (five pre-1918 WWI era old battleships , one old WWI era aircraft carrier HMS Hermes with only 20 old aircraft on board and ten cruisers , and 18 destroyers) to leave Ceylon and Calcutta to meet up a secret supply base C south of Addu Atoll. Bataan , Philippines : General Douglas MacArthur, now relocated to Australia per President Franklin Roosevelt’s orders, radioed Jonathan Wainwright, saying that “under no conditions should Bataan be surrendered; any action is preferable to capitulation”. Meanwhile, at Bataan in the Philippine Islands, Japanese troops moved toward Mount Samat, threatening to take this dominant position. Starved and ranks thinned out disease US and Philippino troops from US II Corps retreat to their final defence line to avoid being crushed by heavy Japanese artillery fire and airpower. Rastenburg , East Prussia : Hitler orders heavy bombing raids on British historic towns as revenge for bombing of Lubeck , they are called Baedeker Raids , after the German tourist guidebooks. Meanwhile in Berlin , Goebbels writes in his diary that he was actually relieved that tough and resilient noerhern Germans were bombed rather than softer southerners Washington , USA : President Franklin Roosevelt’s special envoy Harry Hopkins and General George Marshall departed Baltimore, Maryland, United States by plane to lay the US strategic war plans, that had already been approved by the President, before the British War Cabinet and Chiefs-of Staff Committee.
5th April 1942 Atlantic Ocean : German submarine U-154 torpedoed and sank US tanker Catahoula just off the northeastern coast of the Dominican Republic at 2318 hours; 7 were killed, 38 survived. Cologne , Germany : 263 British bombers (179 Wellington, 44 Hampden, 29 Stirling, and 11 Manchester aircraft) from RAF Bomber Command attacked the Humboldt Engineering Works Company at Kalk near Köln, Germany; most of the bombs fell far from the Humboldt factories. The British lost 5 aircraft; one of the aircraft shot down crashed in Köln, killing 16 and wounding 30. Rastenburg , East Prussia : Adolf Hitler issued Führer Directive No. 41, calling for the invasion of the Caucasus region and Stalingrad, both in southern Russia. Adolf Hitler ordered a renewed offensive in the Leningrad, Russia region in the Soviet Union. At his East Prussian headquarters at Rastenburg, Hitler agreed with SS Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler, at a dinner-time talk on April 5, that ‘Germanic’ children from the occupied lands could be taken away from their parents and brought up in special Nazi schools. ‘If we want to prevent Germanic blood from being absorbed by the ruling class of the country we dominate’, Himmler explained, ‘and which subsequently might turn against us, we shall have gradually to subject all the precious Germanic elements to the influence of this instruction.’ Himmler envisaged, as he explained to Hitler, that Dutch, Flemish and French children of ‘Germanic’ origin would all come within the sphere of the special schools. Oslo , Norway : On the very day that Himmler set out his ‘Germanic’ school scheme to Hitler at Rastenburg, the vast majority of Norway’s Lutheran clergy, meeting in German-occupied Oslo, issued a declaration emphasizing the sovereignty of God above all ideologies; the declaration was read from pulpits throughout Norway, and 654 of Norway’s 699 ministers of religion resigned from their positions as civil servants, while continuing to do their work as clergymen. Malta : Italian aircraft attacked Valetta Harbour, Malta, causing fatal bomb damage to minesweeper HMS Abingdon and Royal Navy destroyer HMS Gallant (both were never repaired , HMS Gallant was used as a blockship and her guns anti anti aircraft armament were added to harbour defences) and also damaging destroyer HMS Lance. Mediterranean Sea : While sailing in an Axis convoy bound for Libya , Italian cargo ship Ninetto G. was torpedoed and sunk by Royal Navy submarine HMS Una off Syracause , Sicily. Burma : Japanese and Chinese troops clashed at Yedashe in central Burma. Bataan , Philippines : Japanese troops from 48th Infantry Division attacking with heavy artillery and air support defeated the Philippine 21st Division at Mount Samat on the Bataan Peninsula, Philippine Islands. Inside the Allied lines, General Jonathan Wainwright doubled rations for front line troops despite being short in food in order to give the troops strength. US submarine USS Snapper delivered 20 tons of food to Corregidor, Philippine Islands and evacuated 27 personnel. Port Moresby , Papua New Guinea : Seven Japanese Type 1 bombers, escorted by 4 Zero fighters, attacked Seven Mile airfield near Port Moresby, Australian Papua. Stores of fuel and ammunition were destroyed at the cost of one Zero fighter, which was shot down by Kittyhawk fighters. Ceylon , Indian Ocean : Commander Mitsuo Fuchida of Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi commanded a 125-aircraft raid against Colombo, Ceylon. In the morning, Japanese carriers Akagi , Soryu , Hiryu , Shoakaku , Zuikaku launched 36 D3A2 dive bombers and 53 B5N2 torpedo bombers, escorted by 36 Zero fighters, against the British naval base at Colombo, Ceylon, bombed and sinking Royal Navy merchant cruiser HMS Hector, Royal Navy destroyer HMS Tenados and Norwegian tanker Soli , damaging port facilities, while shooting down 25 British aircraft; eight Japanese aircraft were lost in this attack. Around noon, Japanese cruiser Tone’s floatplane spotted Royal Navy light cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire 200 miles southwest of Ceylon; 53 Japanese carrier aircraft were launched to attack, bombing and sinking light cruisers HMS Dorsetshire at 1350 hours (234 killed) and HMS Cornwall at 1400 hours (190 killed); 1,122 survived from both ships. Following Admiral Following Ozawa’s force’s attack on the British naval base at Colombo, Ceylon, the force is split creating a Northern Group commanded by Rear Admiral Takeo Kurita consisting of cruisers Kumano and Suzuya; the Center Group consisting of the carrier Ryujo and cruisers Chokai and Yura under Admiral Ozawa; and the Southern Group comprised of heavy cruisers Mogami, and Mikuma under Captain Shakao Sakiyama for the purposes of smaller raids against merchant shipping. British cargo ship Dardanus was bombed and badly damaged by Japanese carrier borne aircraft in Bay of Bengal , she was intercepted and finished off next day by Japanese heavy cruisers Mogami, and Mikuma British cargo ship Harpasa was bombed and sunk by Japanese cxarrier borne aircraft in Bay of Bengal US cargo ship Washingtonian was torpedoed and sunk by Japanese submarine I-5 in Indian Ocean. Tokyo , Japan : Japanese Navy leadership accepted the planned attack on Midway.
6th April 1942 Atlantic Ocean : German submarine U-160 torpedoed and damaged US tanker Bidwell 50 kilometers east of Wilmington, North Carolina, United States at 0807 hours, killing 1 of 33 aboard; her crew would manage to repair and bring her back to port for repairs. At 1700 hours, U-571 torpedoed and sank Norwegian tanker Koll 250 miles northwest of Bermuda; 2 were killed, 33 survived (1 of whom would later die of exposure before being rescued). German submarine U-754 torpedoed and sank Norwegian tanker Kolskegg in Atlantic Ocean Mediterranean Sea : While sailing away from Malta to Gibraltar (to avoid Axis air raids on Malta) , Royal Navy destroyer HMS Havock ran aground off Cape Bon, Tunisia and was scuttled by her crew who landed on Vichy French controlled Tunisia and interned. Germany : 157 British bombers (110 Wellington, 19 Stirling, 18 Hampden, and 10 Manchester aircraft) from RAF Bomber Command attacked Essen, Germany; most of them were turned back by a storm. 5 aircraft were lost in this mission Rzhev-Vyazma Sector , Demyansk pocket , Russia : German Luftwaffe group II./KG 27 flew a supply operation for the German troops trapped in Kholm, Russia. Three He 111 aircraft failed to return; one of which was forced to land within the pocket due to heavy damage. The crew of the downed He 111 aircraft removed the aircraft’s radio and used it to help direct further supply runs. Melbourne , Australia : First men of US 41st Division arrived at Melbourne, Australia. South West Pacific : Japanese troops landed on Bougainville, Solomon Islands and Lorengau, Admiralty Islands. Rabaul , New Britain : At 0200 hours, B-17 bombers of US 22nd Bomb Group were launched from Seven Mile airfield near Port Moresby, Australian Papua. One hour later, the faster B-26 bombers were launched. Flying toward Rabaul, New Britain, this was the first B-17 combat mission against that location as well as the first B-26 combat mission. The B-17 bombers struck first (despite the fact that the two were supposed to be attacking at the same time), causing no damage. By the time the B-26 bombers arrived, 7 Japanese A5M fighters were already in the air, although they failed to close in on the B-26 bombers. The B-26 bombers caused very little damage. Bataan , Philippines : Japanese aircraft continued to attack American and Filipino targets at Bataan, Philippine Islands. Burma : Japanese troops from 15th Army captured Mandalay, Burma. Off Akyab on the western coast of Burma, Japanese aircraft bombed and sank Indian sloop HMIS Indus. India : Carrier borne Japanese planes bomb Vizagapatam and Cocanada in east coast of India. Indian Ocean : Japanese warships sank 13 freighters southeast of India, while carrier aircraft from Ryujo conducted raids against ports Vizagapatam and Cocanada on the eastern coast of India, sinking 3 ships. Kurita’s Northern Group attacked and sank seven merchant ships totaling 41,000 tons along India’s northeastern coast south of Calcutta (Kolkata). Sakiyama’s Southern Group of Mogami, Mikuma and destroyer Amagiri sank four merchantmen totaling 19,000 tons with two of them finished off with torpedoes from Amagiri.
7 April 1942 Atlantic Ocean : German submarine U-552 torpedoed and sank British freighter British Splendour at 0417 hours (12 were killed, 41 survived) and Norwegian whale factory ship Lancing at 1052 hours (1 was killed, 49 survived) off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, United States. Mediterranean Sea : Royal Navy submarine HMS Turbulent sank Italian freighter Rosa M. with 39 rounds from the deck gun 7 miels south of Petrovac, Yogoslavia at 1730 hours. German submarine U-453 torpedoed and damaged British hospital ship HMHS Somersetshire with three torpedoes 40 miles North of Sid Barrani, Egypt at 1300 hours; 2 were killed, 180 survived. The survivors reboarded the ship later and was able to sail to Alexandria, Egypt for repairs. Malta : British tugs HMS Emily and HMS Hellespont were sunk at Malta by Axis air raids. Bay of Bengal : Japanese submarine I-6 sank British freighter Bahadur 300 miles west of Bombay, India at 1920 hours. Philippines : A Japanese dive bomber destroyed an ammunition truck near American field hospital No. 1 at Bataan, Philippine Islands at 1000 hours. Shortly after, Japanese aircraft returned to attack the hospital, which had large red crosses painted on the roof, killing 89 and wounding 101; a significant portion of the drug supplies were destroyed in this attack. On the front lines, with tank support Japanese assaulted positions held by US and Filipino troops of the US II Corps along the San Vicente River, penetrating the line by noon, forcing the Allies to fall back to the line at the Mamala River in the afternoon, which would also abandoned by 2100 hours under heavy Japanese artillery fire for the Alangan River further to the south. Sobibor , Poland : A third SS death camp began its work, when, south-east of Warsaw, from the medieval town of Zamosc, 2,500 Jews were rounded up and sent by train to an ‘unknown destination’. That destination was in fact a camp just outside the village of Sobibor, which had been chosen as the site of a third death camp, on the pattern of Chelmno and Belzec. All who were brought to Sobibor were to be gassed within hours, except for a few hundred set aside for forced labour. From the 2,500 Jews of Zamosc, only one, Moshe Shklarek, was chosen to work. The others were all gassed. By the end of the year, more than a quarter of a million Jews had been brought to Sobibor and murdered, most of them from central Poland, but some from as far west as Holland, more than eight hundred miles away. The killings at Sobibor were kept a close secret. Even the already deceptive terminology was being tightened up. On April 10 Himmler’s personal secretary had informed the Inspector of Statistics of the Reich that henceforth ‘no mention should be made of the “special treatment of the Jews”. It must be called “transportation of the Jews towards the Russian East”.’
8 April 1942 Atlantic Ocean : German submarine U-84 torpedoed and sank Yugoslavian cargo ship Nemanja 300 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, United States at 0457 hours; 13 were killed, 34 survived. Just 10 miles off St. Simons Island, Georgia, United States, U-123 torpedoed and sank US tanker Esso Baton Rouge (killing 3 of 62) at 0844 hours , and damaged US tanker Oklahoma (killing 19 of 37) at 0752 hours. Far to the south, Italian submarine Calvi torpedoed sank US tanker Eugene V. R. Thayer with a torpedo and 120 shells from her deck gun 20 miles off the northern coast of Brazil. North Sea : The 2,374-ton steam merchant Ara was a Swedish refrigerated cargo steamer struck a mine and sank in the North Sea near the Island of Borkum, Helgoland, Germany. German cargo ship Kurtzee struck a mine and sank Skjervoy , Norway Iceland : Allied convoy PQ-14 departed Reykjavík, Iceland; it was consisted of 24 merchant ships, escorted by 2 minesweepers and 3 anti-submarine trawlers. Barents Sea : Soviet submarine ShCh-421 struck a mine , heavily damaged and scuttled by her own crew who were rescued in Barents Sea Germany : 272 RAF bombers (177 Wellington, 41 Hampden, 22 Stirling, 13 Manchester, 12 Halifax, and 7 Lancaster aircraft) conducted a night raid on Hamburg, Germany (heaviest RAF bombing raid on one target yet) ; 4 Wellington and 1 Manchester aircraft were lost in this attack. Malta : Mooring vessel HMS Moor was serving as a boom defence vessel with 29 Maltese on board when she struck a mine at the harbour entrance of Valetta, Malta at 1715 hours. She broke up and sank instantly. Only one person survived, diver Toni Mercieca, who was picked up by a boat from the gate vessel Westgate and conveyed to Bighi Naval Hospital. NOTE : In Malta the bombing continued with increased fury and during April 6700 tons of bombs were dropped. The 7th and 8th April were two of the worst days, a great deal landing on the dockyard, which was put almost completely out of action. Raids were frequent and the average was nine alerts a day but British air defences stoutly opposed them shooting down six Axis aircraft on 7th and downing nine more Axis aircraft in 8th April. Mediterranean Sea : Italian bombers sank British minesweeping whaler HMS Svana and anti-submarine whaler HMS Thorgrim off Alexandria, Egypt. Royal Navy light cruiser HMS Penelope (nicknamed as HMS Pepperpot because of being targeted so many Axis air attacks and splinter damage suffered) sailed away from Malta and managed to reach to Gibraltar three days later. Leningrad , Soviet Union : Soviet forces opened a railway link into Leningrad in northern Russia. Ceylon : A RAF Catalina flying boat spotted a Japanese carrier fleet approaching Royal Navy base Trincomalee, Ceylon. On this news, Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Hermes and Australian destroyer HMAS Vampire departed Trincomalee in an attempt to escape the impending attack and Trincomalee air defences put in full alert. Indian Ocean : The Japanese Navy officially agreed to the German request to conduct submarine raids against Allied shipping in the Indian Ocean, although the submarines were already in position or underway. Later that day, Japanese submarine I-3 torpedoed and sank British collier Fultala 200 miles off the southern tip of India at 0150 hours. Her entire crew were rescued. Burma : Japanese troops overran Chinese 200th Division and New 22nd Division defensive positions at Yedashe, Burma. China : First supplies via HUMP airbridge from India over Himalayas to Chunking , Nationalist China was delivered New Britain : Japanese troops based in Rabaul landed in Western New Britain. Bataan , Philippines : Japanese bombers and fighters attacked US II Corps positions digging in along the Alangan River at Bataan, Philippine Islands at 1100 hours, but these positions successfully repulsed the first Japanese assault shortly after; the Japanese would return with tank support, however, overrunning the line. General King , US Commander of the Luzon Force ordered all munition dumps at Mariveles Habor at Bataan destroyed, and medical staff began withdrawing to Corregidor island. General Wainwright along with a few thousand essential personnel and troops already garrisoned Corregidor , hoping to hold a few more weeks. American submarine USS Seadragon delivered 20 tons of food to Corregidor in the Philippine Islands; on the return trip, she evacuated the final 21 radio intelligence personnel from the US Navy Station CAST facility. Pearl Harbour , Hawaii : USS Enterprise and Task Force 16 departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii to make rendezvous with USS Hornet, which was en route to strike the Japanese home islands. London , UK : A US delegation led by Harry Hopkins and General George Marshall arrived in Britain to discuss US and British strategy on opening a second front in Europe by invading France.
9 April 1941 Atlantic Ocean : German submarine U-123 torpedoed and sank US freighter Esparta within 10 kilometers of Cumberland Island, Georgia, United States at 0716 hours, killing 1 of 40 aboard. To the northeast, 20 kilometers off the coast of North Carolina, United States, German submarine U-160 torpedoed and sank US freighter Malchace at 0758 hours, killing 1 of 29 aboard. Off Cape Lookout , North Carolina German submarine U-552 torpedoed and sank US tanker Atlas, killing 2 of 34 aboard. At 1004 hours, northwest of Iceland, German submarine U-252 torpedoed and sank Norwegian cargo ship Fanefjeld, killing all 24 aboard. Malta : Italian bombers hit and heavily damaged Royal Navy destroyer HMS Lance at Malta; she would soon be written off as a total loss. Mediterranean Sea : Royal Navy submarine HMS Thrasher intercepted an Axis supply convoy , torpedoed and sank Italian cargo ship Gala 20 miles southwest of Benghazi, Libya. Worthing , UK : German bombers attacked Worthing in southern England, United Kingdom during the day, damaging a hospital and a gasometer and killing 2. Rzhev-Vyazma Secotor , Demyansk Pocket , Russia : German relief attempts toward the Kholm encirclement were met with limited success. Soviet General Mikhail Yefremov , besieged in Vyazma sector commits suicide rather than dishonour of captured by Germans. Having been severely wounded in the back, unable to help his men and unwilling to be taken prisoner, put a pistol to his temple. ‘Boys,’ he said, ‘this is the end for me, but you go on fighting.’ Then he shot himself; his men, fighting on, though almost beaten, never gave up. Some, reaching the nearby Soviet front line, returned in due course to harry the Germans behind the lines. Crimea , Ukraine : Repeated Soviet attacks by 51st Soviet Army on German positions at Kerch, Russia failed to break through. Black Sea : Soviet light cruiser Voroshilov was damaged by German aircraft at Novorossiysk, Russia. Rabaul , New Britain : Just before 1200 hours, eight USAAF B-26 Marauder bombers attacked Japanese held Simpson Harbor and Vunakanau airfield at Rabaul, New Britain, damaging ships in the harbor, port facilities, and several parked aircraft. Port Moresby , Papua New Guinea : In the morning, eight Zero fighters attacked Seven Mile airfield new Port Moresby, Australian Papua, damaging one Hudson aircraft and one Kittyhawk aircraft on the ground. In the afternoon, Type 1 bombers escorted by four Zero fighters attacked Seven Mile once again; Australian fighters failed to scramble fighters. Trincomalee , Ceylon : Japanese carrier aircraft from Akagi , Kaga and Shoakaku attacked the harbor at Trincomalee, Ceylon at 0700 hours. The port facilities were badly damaged , tanker British Sergeant and freighter Sagaing were hit by bombs and both sank at the harbour but British air defences and RAF interceptors were ready this time and tracked the incoming raid by radar before attack started. RAF Hawker Hurricare fighters and anti aircraft guns shot down 18 Japanese aircraft over Trincomalee at the cost of five Hurricanes shot down. In retaliation nine RAF Bleinheim bombers lifted off from Trincomalee , found and counter attack Japanese carrier fleet but their sorties made no hits but only near misses. Five Bleinheim bombers were shot down by anti aircraft defences or Japanese Zero interceptors defending the fleet. In exchange RAF Hawker Hurracane fighters escorting RAF bombers shot down five more Japanese Zero fighters defending the fleet. Two hours later, empty Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Hermes , her decks were devoid of aircraft and Australian destroyer HMAS Vampire were detected 90 miles further south by Japanese scout planes. At 1035 hours, 94 Japanese carrier aircraft attacked and sank HMS Hermes (307 killed) which was hit by 40 bombs and sank Australian destroyer HMAS Vampire (9 killed) with 13 bomb hits ; hospital ship Vita rescued survivors from both warships. At 1207 hours, 20 Japanese carrier dive bombers attacked and sank British oiler Athelstane (all aboard survived) , Norwegian tanker Norviken and Royal Navy corvette HMS Hollyhock (48 were killed, 17 survived) in the Indian Ocean. Bataan , Philippines : More than 76,000 emaciated , diseased and starved US and Filipino troops (12.000 American 63.000 Phillipine) , remainder of the US II Corps under General Edward King on the Bataan peninsula at Luzon, Philippine Islands, surrendered to the Japanese 14th Army (50.000 strong) at 1230 hours; it was the largest American surrender in history. General King announces he ordered to surrender to prevent a mass slaughter of soldiers and civilians cornered in south of Bataan. Before doing so, US and Phillipine troops destroyed fuel dumps, ammunition stores, scuttled submarine tender USS Canopus, tug USS Napa, four Phillipine torpedoboats and floating drydock USS Dewey. Only 2.000 soldiers out of 78.000 , retreated to Corregidor island held under command of General Wainwright who is defending Corregidor island with 13.000 US and Phillipine troops with no resupply or reinforcements. Number of so many surrendered troops pose a major logistical problem for Japanese 14th Army under General Homma whose attention is focused to reducing Corregidor , final US and Phillipine bastion in Luzon. Most American and Philippine prisoners would be confined to POW holding area Camp O’Donnell but nearest railhead 105 km away from Bataan. Devoid of food , water and medical supplies and a lot of them already wrecked by disease , most of the prisoners would be forced marched by Japanese , in conditions of such terrible brutality and privation that more than 800 Americans, and at least 5.000 Filipinos, perished in what later became known as the ‘March of Death’. Many of those who died were clubbed or bayoneted to death when, too weak to walk further, they stumbled and fell. Others were ordered out of the ranks, beaten, tortured and killed. A further sixteen thousand Filipinos, and at least a thousand Americans, died of starvation, disease and brutality during their first few weeks in prisoner-of-war camps. Philippine Sea : Before dawn, Japanese light cruiser Kuma was attacked by US motor torpedo boats PT-34 and PT-41 in the Cebu Strait between Cebu and Bohol in the Philippine Islands but sustained no damage; the only torpedo that hit Kuma failed to detonate. PT-34 would be found and destroyed by Japanese aircraft after daybreak, killing 2.
Oooo, 1:00 is that a new map feature i spot? it providing a picture in picture presentation through a 3D object, its even got shading on the map behind it. 10/10
Yamamoto's aggressiveness in 1942 is explained in part by his correct belief that if the Japanese did not defeat the Americans in 1942, the U.S.'s superiority in resources and manufacturing would win out over the long term. HI was the American center of gravity in the Pacific, so Yamamoto's goal was sound. The problem for the Japanese in the Midway campaign was divided command and control, overly complex planning, flawed execution of the plan and poor communication security. Not to mention the entire Coral Sea campaign where the IJN supported an Army plan to take New Guinea, which ended up being just a costly distraction. The New Guinea Campaign divided the forces of the Kido Butai in the lead up to Midway, and ultimately lost some of their irreplaceable carriers and pilots permanently. Even if the New Guinea plan succeeded and cut the supply lines to Australia, the US would not have settled for peace. If Japan destroyed the US fleet and invaded HI, the US may have sued for peace. Yamamoto was faced with a closing window for victory in 1942 and had to make the largest effect towards his goal with limited forces.
The Bataan Death March is just one example of man's inhumanity to man during this war. We have an entire bi-weekly subseries called War Against Humanity that covers the atrocities committed by all sides. The playlist for that is right here: ruclips.net/p/PLsIk0qF0R1j4cwI-ZuDoBLxVEV3egWKoM
And check out our day-by-day coverage of the war on Instagram. It's a great companion to these weekly episodes. instagram.com/WW2_Day_By_Day/
And please read our rules of conduct before you comment, saves everyone headaches (and loads of time): community.timeghost.tv/t/rules-of-conduct/4518
Love the new visuals... & the foreshadowing. 😉
The Fall of Bataan is actually celebrated here in the Philippines as "Araw ng Kagitingan."
And we commemorate every 9th of April for all the troops that were lost during the march here in The Philippines
Since 1989, here in southern New Mexico at White Sands Missile Range, a memorial march has been held to remember the Death March-- The Bataan Memorial Death March.
Interesting fact: Why we remember the Bataan Death March with a memorial march is because of the 10,000 who marched, 1,186 were from New Mexico and from combat, prisons, or shortly after liberation, 829 never returned home. Those men were from the New Mexico 200th Coast Artillery, New Mexico National Guard. Here's more about the memorial march and its history: bataanmarch.com/
When I was about 8 or 9, I met a man who had survived that. I had never heard of the march at that point and it was only years later that I realized what he must have gone through. Unfortunately, he had passed away by the time I found out.
The map guys continue to up their game! We notice and appreciate their craft
Thanks!
I think its the youtubeur “Eastory” shout to them and they do great map videos
@@bastien5589 *Eastory
@@bastien5589 Eastory*
@@WorldWarTwo The show is very well produced in general, not just the maps. Congratulations and keep up the good work.
4:15 "Japanese logistics break down"
I've got an idea for a drinking game...
Count me in!
I am in
Good thing you did not come up with the idea during Barbarossa, we would be wasted bye now
Gotta get a new kidney.
That got a laugh from me lol. Count me in!
'No, that's not over-optimistic, that's just plain stupid' - is a quote that perfectly describes Japanese plans for 1942. I love that it was placed at the very beginning of the episode.
The Japanese did not have the shipping capacity to support a force to hold Hawaii. Furthermore, their Army leadership were completely against providing land forces to invade Hawaii in the first place. At least Yamamoto's Midway plans will result in a decisive naval battle.
Exactly. They were so pessimistic in the early days of the Pacific war but because of continuous victories they begin to experience the "victory disease". Not to mention the already abyssmal cooperation between the IJA and the IJN which hampered combat operations extensively.
@@principalityofbelka6310 I think the Japanese themselves have the saying for something like this: "after every victory, remember to tighten your helmet straps".
As I heard it the Pearl Harbor attack was intended to be a knockout blow that would convince us that resistance is futile. They don't know us very well, do they?
Well said. Looking for an overrated commander in WWII? Look at Yamamoto. Perhaps his time at Harvard gave him a skewed view of Americans.
germany, 1916 "let's bait the british into a massive naval battle"
japan, 1942 "let's bait the americans into a massive naval battle"
the germans at least won that battle on a tactical level against a force twice their own size and it was close to their own supply lines. The japanese on the other hands nearest supply port is half an ocean away and they got absolutely crushed by a force smaller than theirs. Comparing the two is actually unfair to the german high seas fleet
Germany 1918, let's bait the British into a massive air battle.
Intialy they don't seem to have taken the bait.....
@@andrewpease3688 yeah, that´s a better comparision
@@matthiasbindl7085 Arguably the British also won on the tactical level, since the german Fleet had to run away and many of the german ships were heavily damaged, but certainly it was a much closer fought battle than Midway.
If you haven't seen them already, I recommend Drachinfel's three videos on the Battle of Jutland.
@@matthiasbindl7085 tactical victory means little in the strategic context if the victor is unable to capitalize on the success. Germany lost Jutland on the strategic level.
Here in the Philippines we celebrate April 9th as so-called "Araw ng Kagitingan" or Day of Heroism. Even though the peninsula fell, the fight continued.
Technically it's the Day of Valor, but you're not far off!
Battling bastards of Bataan.
Yup, we celebrate that. In context, I think that was the last bastion to fall before the Japanese in Southeast Asia. Correction: Ahh, of course Corregidor still stands.
@@shaider1982 Though Corregidor hasn't fallen yet which means the Japanese can't risk sending soft skin ships past it.
Based and Pinopilled.
Met a distinguished English gentleman at church in 2002. He was a survivor of the HMS Hermes, the carrier sunk by Kido Butai near Colombo during this week’s raid. The Hermes, with no planes on board, and a destroyer were found and sunk by over 60 Japanese dive bombers. Imagine being so helpless as that gentleman was that day. Tears streamed down his face as he told me the story.
Better still? The only a/c on board hermes were "stringbag" bombers. Not only did Hermes have no combat air patrol it could not have had such since bombers make terribly bad fighters.
@@QuizmasterLaw I can't imagine life without Air Conditioning in with the summer looming.
@@MarkVrem um, guilty of Canada, what is this thing called "air conditioning" which thou speakest of?
@@MarkVrem a/c here stands for "aircraft". If you're trolling, well played, but your likely not a native speaker of English so... maybe not? a/c does usually stand for air conditioning.
Did he tell you what he did after the raid? As in what he did later on in the war.
Besides Prince Philip, who served in the war, passing away this week. The last American Medal of Honor recipient for the European Theater passed away as well. Only one remains for the Pacific. It feels in many ways like the end of era lately.
About 20 years ago the last survivors of active service in WW1 were dying off and we are seeing this now with the later conflict.
Prince Philip was on the battleship HMS Valiant at the Battle of Cape Matapan in March 1941, and also in Tokyo Bay for the Japanese Surrender in 1945 on the destroyer HMS Whelp.
RIP Prince Philip
The memory of the Great Wars has fallen. Begun, the Zoomer Age, has.
@@stevekaczynski3793 And February was the 10th anniversary of the U.S. losing its last WWI veteran. Next year will be the 10th anniversary of the last WWI veteran to pass away.
Kido Butai is on a roll! There's no way they could get taken down. It'll be interesting to see how severely they crush the Americans when Yamamoto's plan goes into action!
They will be unstoppable. I am sure that Japan has already won
I was surprised that they did not have radar but then it is a relatively new technology.
It’s not over yet, this war is only at its MIDWAY point
@@jimelliot4904 nice punch 👍
In Japan, Yamamoto is know as a tratior Fr33Mas0n who lead Japan to ruin. They even executed Yamamoto before he could reveal is involvement.
Arrived here from 1914. The great war Between two wars. It took me 6 months! It was an insane journey really. It changed my worldview completely. Life in quarantine was quite productive thanks to u💝
You're welcome!
I binge-watched about half of the WWI series as well, and wish I hadn't. Watching the episodes as they're released is way better when it comes to understanding the overall flow of the war and how various events connect with one-another. Reading about them tends not to help with that because large blocks of time get skipped over. But getting things as they occur, as the people fighting the war would have understood them, gives you a lot of insight into why they made the decisions they did at the time.
"it's a trap !" - Yamamoto when realising something isn't quite like planned, for the Midway operations.
“It’s over Japan! I have the high ground!” -US pilots flying over Japanese carriers with bombs
@@indianajones4321 "you underestimate my carriers !"
@@Duke_of_Lorraine “Don’t try it!”
@@indianajones4321 BANZAI !!!! (jumps anyway)
@@Duke_of_Lorraine Sinks four carriers and a heavy cruiser
Japan: "Yo Germany can you guys launch an offensive through the middle east so we can link up in India and drive Britain out of Asia?"
Germany: _looks at lack of Japanese help with the USSR_ ".....No."
Also, Germany's closest forces to British India are 2,000 miles away in Ukraine, and would require crossing several mountain passes and deserts. Like...just not possible.
@@matthewbadley5063 Bro, you think we gave a sh*t about logistics? More Japanese soldiers probably died of starvation than enemy action in WWII.
That is surprisingly funny.
@@matthewbadley5063 ...excuse me! Didn't you read the Führer's directive? After the Soviet armies are destroyed on the Don, he's heading for the mountain passes of the Caucasus... after that, it's all downhill...
@@matthewbadley5063 They could take the easier way over Aegypt though if they break through :D
My grandmother passed this week. She was the last of the generation that lived the Japanese occupation and definitely carried that with her. I studied history undergrad, Int. Affairs grad, but now I really feel the need to make sure this history is remembered, not due to some residual animosity toward the Japanese people, but to acknowledge the dangerously prideful, yet insecure pseudo-philosophies that made themselves so susceptible to committing such unthinkable violence
May she rest in peace
@@WorldWarTwo Appreciate that. Keep up the good fight!
@Olivier Verdys Not just in Asia. This kind of thinking falls under the umbrella of Populist Nationalism. It is a cancer everywhere.
@Thanos 6.0 Philippines. Overlooked that detail. She was in Manila.
Can you guys do a special about the Philippine resistance, it is a very interesting part of WW2 but is little talked about
Do it,please Indy
That sounds really interesting!
Oh, yes please. My maternal grandfather participated in guerrilla activities during the Japanese occupation.
Yeah and that teacher assassin/guerilla fighter too!
I agree!
Indy, do this please!
It is just now starting to set in that we are entering Spring 1942. These next few months are going to be crazy. Fall Blau, Coral Sea, Midway, El Alamein, and the start of Stalingrad. The Phony War feels like a lifetime ago.
Heheh Mother of all battles in Stalingrad will soon start.
wtf put a spoiler warning >:(
Spoiler Alert:
Remember, as Churchill said, "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
And do not forget the daring bombing attack that the US is going to do in the next 2 weeks...
Yesterday was Araw ng Kagitingan(day of Valor) in the Philippines. To commemorate soldiers who died in WW2 or more specifically Bataan
When I was a boy scout in the mid-1960s, my Assistant Scout Master was an ex Marine and a Bataan Death March survivor. He never talked openly about it. My best recollection of him was his love of raw onion sandwiches.
Possibly malnutrition in captivity caused him to have odd dietary cravings in later life?
@@stevekaczynski3793 This is almost certainly a holdover from the Great Depression. My grandparents grew up during those times (born in 1922 and 1924) when there was nothing else to make a sandwich out of. They would eat onion sandwiches periodically afterward, saying that doing so "made them feel young again". Though they would only have them for lunch when they weren't planning to go out or expecting company.
My great grandad was in the 84th Infantry and even though he thankfully was never a POW he never talked with my mom (his granddaughter) about what he went through a lot like your Marine Scout Master (from what I've heard from Marine culture you're only an ex Marine if you get kicked out) and my mom says he enjoyed sardines right out of the tin
The plans for Midway AND Stalingrad in the same week? If you ever misscalculate something, feel comfort that at least you are not the Axis HQs on early April 1942
@Thanos 6.0 And another reason why I don't think Auchinleck was a great commander.
@@Rahulrao2576 I see that you hate Great Britain, the British, and all the those who speak English in the British isles... Ok... Do you live in England?
By the way, i'm am Portuguese, i'm not defending the British, i'm just saying that hate doesn't resolve anything...
@@Yamato-tp2kf He didn't say that he hated any of those things
@@Rahulrao2576 Like any country in the world, Britain did big mistakes (even my home country), i don't like the countries that use the past tragedies to make sure that his people still can obey like a robot to their leaders, in 80 years, the world changed a lot, we only need to look at the past to learn from those mistakes, not to instill hate to make the same mistakes that others did to them, we don't need to live in the past, we need to learn from the past to march to the future... That's all i wanted to say
To be fair, the original German plan considered taking Stalingrad an optional, secondary objective. Didn't quite turn out that way.
Profiles on Bataan survivors would be interesting. One survivor was Joe Kieyoomia who was taken to Japan and tortured because his captors assumed he was Japanese. Then when they learned he was Navajo Indian he was tortured again because they thought he knew the Navajo Code. During which he was held in Nagasaki when the atomic bomb was dropped on it. Afterwards he was finally released.
Damn, he survived through everything
Wow. Imagine how many times he must have thought "You got to be kidding me."
They should have give him a medal for being the unluckiest guy in the war to actually survive it. Good point about the Code though, just knowing Navajo wouldn't have been enough for him to read the messages. I'm sure they'll cover this in detail when they get to the special episode on Codetalkers.
Where can I find out more? This is fascinating.
@@belbrighton6479 I learned about him years ago when reading the book Navajo Weapon: The Navajo Code Talkers. It had a chapter about the ordeal that he lived through. Joe was a soldier in the 200th Coast Artillery which was part of the Philippines defense during the Japanese invasion. Aside from that book there were a number of news articles about him up till his death in 1997.
My grandfather was among one of the many that fell during the Bataan Death March. He shipped out at the outbreak of war and that was the last time his wife ever saw him. She was pregnant when he left, and a daughter (i.e., my mom) was born nine months later.
You should be proud of his service and sacrifice to help defeat evil.
That's crazy, I feel like the channel did something they don't usually do which is write the episode as though to justify or gloss over the brutality of the death march.
ご愁傷様でございました。May he never be forgotten.
@@TheMCD1989 I think they'll go over it in a lot more detail in WAH so that might be why it's left a bit more vague here
@@TheMCD1989 why would you say that? The WW2 team is doing a brilliant job of telling the story without bias
That slow zoom on Indy's pondering at the end was a cinematographic masterpiece!
The Axis are fun: Italy is really bad at executing generally good plans, Germany is good at executing mediocre plans and the Japanese are great at executing absolutely idiotic plans.
Lmfao
One (of the many) thing that is great about this series is how you feel that the Axis can actually win, despite knowing how this all ends. Right now, the Allies are getting hit left and right. There's no way the Axis can lose this, right?
that`s right, however, imho, those axis lucky days have already ended by approximately november. See: germany now has a lot of long campaigns that it can`t win fast and put some pressure off her limited resourses, japanese seemingly winning, but main allies resources are deployed aganist germany and all this time (excluding PH) best japanese units fight second-class allied colonial troops, and they haven`t captured anything that america wanted to defend at any cost, probably philippines only
@@user-if4zv5nj5m The Axis had to win quickly or else they'd lose a long war, and it's the twelve months starting around November 1941 that their efforts to win quickly fell short despite impressive initial gains.
@@brucetucker4847 didn't see it in this "one year" perspective but yeah, fits just well in November
@@Madhattersinjeans fast War is also a common focus of nations who have land borders with their enemies i.e. Soviets don't focus on economic warfare much (strategic bombing, convoy interseption) just because you can afford to count on long economic - based war if you are surrounded by sea, but if you have land borders with enemies you can simply find enemy taking your capital before your war of attrition affects him
The one thing we had though was the disproportionately massive manufacturing base with Essex class carriers already under construction on the ways of US shipyards since before Pearl Harbor. We were biding time and that prescient confidence of Franklin Roosevelt about the inevitable outcome of this thing clearly comes through in his war declaration speech. But most Americans without this kind of insight, were probably having their private concerns about our future in the Pacific about now.
.
Now the military junta in Japan knew of our Essex class carriers under construction and were betting the farm on a quick war and a panicky US suing for peace in the unlikely event of our west coast becoming vulnerable to the Kido Butai with only a few months before the new carriers were commissioned . . . Man those are the kinds of suckers that a good poker player wants to see at the table
I would like to spotlight a certain person that wasn’t mentioned in this episode. Sqn. Leader Leonard Birchall, a Canadian pilot who was the reason the British got the advance warning about the Japanese advancing on Ceylon. He is shot down in the middle of his transmission and is captured. He’ll spend the rest of the war in a POW camp where he displays bravery by negotiating better treatment for the men as well as taking severe beatings on their behalf. By war’s end he will be responsible for significantly reducing the fatality rate in every camp he’s sent to. I hope they do a special episode on him.
I met him and spoke with him when he was a guest at an army function I attended. I assume he has passed now, as that was about 25 years ago.
@@minuteman4199 That’s amazing to hear! And I believe he died in 2004 sadly.
fuck yeah another tyler s wazzup broham
@@bigvinnie3 Haha, thank for the kind words fellow Tyler S, are you also Canadian?
@@tylersteph1996 hahah yeah but i live in the us now
Honestly, it is already impressive enough that the Japanese were able to stretch their army so well between China and the Pacific. Having to take even more territory would surely create many more issues than it’s worth
It's impressive that they didn't collapse immediately being this stretched.
@@FOLIPE logistics also works against the Allies too. The Americans and the British have to supply their forces halfway araound the world. Relatively speaking the Japanese have shorter lines of communications with their industrial heartland much closer to re supply.
The problem for Japan is that the US massively dwarfed the Japanese industrial capacity and it was a matter of time when the Japanese are unable to match the attrition losses they suffered, doubly so for their Navy.
@@senpainoticeme9675 The US and UK have long supply lines, but they control them very well for the most part and they are directed to a few centres from where they don't need to be distributed far.
The Japanese on the other hand have massive fronts, so their supply lines are very scattered.
I have a strange feeling that Indy was foreshadowing with that ending.🤨
Yes.
Are you sure it wasn't more mid way through the episode?
Definitly your imagination. Indy never does foreshadowing
Nah your imagining things. Also how can you foreshadow the future, as it hasn't happened yet.
You think?
Having been stationed in the US Navy at Subic Bay, I've been to Mt Samat and Corregidor a few times, very impressive memorials at both sites. The memorial cross on Samat is incredible and one can take an elevator ride to the "T" of the cross for an impressive view of the Bataan Peninsula. Several years ago I had the honor of visiting the gravesite of Arthur Clemenson, an uncle of my good friend. He asked me to visit as no one from his family had ever been to the Manila Cemetery. Arthur survived the battle and death march, but perished at the Camp O'Donnell POW camp a month later. That was really an honor for me and the cemetery officials provided me a wonderful booklet about Arthur to bring back to the family.
"I would rather be a little nobody, then to be a evil somebody"
- Abraham Lincoln
I suppose that, from the point of view of the Confederacy, Lincoln failed in that objective.
@@minsapint8007 Friendly reminder that the Confederate leaders declared slavery to be the cause for secession during the secession debates and the declarations of secession they later drafted. A sample from Mississippi's declaration of secession:
"Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-- the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun. These products have become necessities of the world, and a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization. That blow has been long aimed at the institution, and was at the point of reaching its consummation. There was no choice left us but submission to the mandates of abolition, or a dissolution of the Union, whose principles had been subverted to work out our ruin."
The Confederates started a civil war because they didn't get the results they wanted from a fair and democratic presidential election, and feared that their "rights" to keep 4 million Americans in chains were now in danger.
While it is true that they viewed Lincoln as the villain, that was also based on a belief that African peoples were inherently inferior to white men and that their enslavement to the latter was both right and proper and ordained by God. Tyrants rarely see themselves as such, and that was also true for the Confederate leadership. You'd be hard pressed to find a more unjust cause for war in all of American military history than that of the Confederacy's rebellion.
@@lycaonpictus9662 Amen.
_"Stop posting comments/quotes in my name or I will kill you"_ - Lincoln
@@minsapint8007 Well, from the point of view of the Confederacy, there were people they could and should legally be allowed own, so maybe we shouldn't take their point of view seriously.
“It is possible... that a lack of forewarning about the enemy might one day come back to haunt them.” That first shock is slowly crossing the North Pacific right now...
The Hornet left San Francisco on the 2nd of April. By today the 10th, the Enterprise has joined her as an escort. It's a good thing kido buti is in the Indian ocean.
3:44 With the fall of Bataan, it looks like Corregidor will likely fall pretty soon in a number of days given its isolation and lack of help forthcoming. In the meantime though, the Coral Sea looks like a possible next staging area for the Imperial Japanese Navy after their rather successful Indian Ocean Raid.
I would say that the number of days before Corregidor falls will turn out to be a number of weeks.
Spoiler Alert:
Surprise, it takes almost a month.
Thank you for telling the story of Bataan. My great-great uncle JD was one of the few hundred Americans who survived the fall of Bataan, the Bataan Death March, and Cabanatuan. When they shipped him back home he was still too weak to walk. He had to ask and sometimes pay people to help him move trains. Many Americans seem to forget that we ever fought on land in the Philippines. I hope that when the time comes you'll cover the rescue mission that freed my uncle JD and the rest of the surviving American POW's at Cabanatuan. I also hope that Astrid will look into "High Pockets" Claire Phillips and the rest of the underground network that smuggled supplies and information to and from Cabanatuan for her Spies and Ties series. Thank you to the TimeGhost team for all the work you do on your different channels and projects.
We’re the battling bastards of Bataan;
No mama, no papa, no Uncle Sam.
No aunts, no uncles, no cousins, no nieces,
No pills, no planes, no artillery pieces
And nobody gives a damn.
Little known fact about the Easter Sunday raid is that with the sinking of HMSs Dorsetshire, Cornwall, Hermes and Hollyhock, the fledgling South African Naval Forces suffered their greatest loss of the war, with 65 seconded officers and ratings killed - not commemorated and remembered by few.
A decisive fleet action at Midway? Sounds like a great idea for Japan.
Trade
I get
Strategic Victory with 1 carrier scuttled
You get
4 carriers sunk
Indy's Kidō Bu-Tie-Barn.
In one week the stage was seat for 3 of the most important battles of the war!
@Thanos 6.0 Tolbruk? I think you mean the 1st and 2nd battles of El Alimain
i wouldn´t call anything in the north africa campaign to be part of the most important battles of ww2. The thing was an afterthought to the real battles going on in europe and asia
@@matthiasbindl7085 North Africa is more important than the numbers involved suggest. It is Suez, the route to India and the southern supply line to Russia and access to oil from Iraq, Iran and the gulf that are under threat. Suez is the lynchpin of the Empire without it Britain is on the verge of defeat.
Also Coral Sea
I don't think any battle won by the Axis after 1941 could be considered very important because the balance of power was already greatly shifting in favor for the Allies because of their much greater industrial capacities
That's so silly to think that Kido Butai would not learn from said bomber raid and adapt. Something like that would NEVER happen again to them, being caught with pants down like that.
To be fair it's not like they didn't try developing shipborne radar. They were just late starters and had lots of problems getting it ready. And by the time that some of the ships started getting it, it was irrelevant as the war was already all but lost.
@@ab-lymphocite5464 Lack of effective fighter coordination and control was just as crippling as lack of radar. The fighter pilots were expected to spot threats themselves and respond to them accordingly - there was no provision for anyone on the ship to keep the fighter pilots updated with a complete picture of the battle, or to direct their activities so that they didn't all pounce on the first visible threat and leave the ships open to attack by other planes. This, more than the lack of radar, was what led to the disaster at Midway. At one point in the battle Japanese cruisers were trying to alert the fighters to incoming attacks by firing their main guns at the enemy planes because they had no other way to relay the warning to the fighters. And since the fighters kept using all their fuel and ammo chasing after attackers who had already dropped their ordnance, the flight decks of the carriers were kept in constant use recovering CAP planes and launching new ones and there was no opportunity to set up and launch the planned attack on the US carriers that had been spotted.
@@brucetucker4847 Ah that's what you were getting at. Yes, fighter pilots do have a tendency of doing that if they aren't given specific orders. I didn't know about the cruiser thing, thanks for sharing that!
@@brucetucker4847 Not only that, they apparently took the radios out of the Zeros to "save weight" in a fighter that was already more maneuverable than their opponents' and relied on hand signals to communicate.
had the honor of meeting the former 1st SGT from the 111th New Mexico Cavalry some years ago at the Bataan Museum in Santa Fe. Just as WW2 was dawning they were converted to the 200th Coastal Artillery and sent to the Philippines. Fired the first shots. Surrendered at Battan. He was present at the Death march and subsequent captivity.
While we were there a couple of Japanese exchange students wandered in asking for directions. He literally had a physical reaction when he saw them. (no fault of theirs or his) His breathing locked up, heart rate and BP shot up. We came very close to calling 911.
This was in 1994. That's how deep those scars ran.
Japan, winning so much they don't know what to do with all of this winning!
I wonder if they will get tired of all the winning.
four years repeats itself!
Hint: It’s war crimes.
"We can defeat literally anyone!"
- "So... we go back to fighting Chin--"
"MAYBE INDIA NEXT!!!?!??"
Hahaha!
My great-uncle was a survivor of the Bataan Death March. I never knew him, but from what my family has told me his hair had gone grey by the time he was thirty.
Hey, crazy idea. If the carrier fleet wasn't expecting an aerial attack, let's maybe sneak something at the Home Islands and say hi to Tojo himself.
Doesn't seem like that would damage the Japanese mainland very much, but I guess it'd be better to "do little" than sit by and do nothing at all ;)
@@Raskolnikov70 It would be a bit of a sting to their pride, though I'm not sure how you could get close enough
Hey World War 2 I hope you feature this in the future. I am not sure how true is this or not I learned that in the near future of the war in the Philippines one of the Filipino resistance groups found/capture some important papers coming from a certain Japanese officer that died from an airplane crash at sea. The paper contain plans of the Japanese on the Pacific theater and their strategies. I hope you add this in your videos. Keep up the great work.
Love to see that Indie hasn’t forgotten his texan roots. Absolutely flawless accent.
I like that during the recap part from 0:55 to 1:15 you showed recordings of things which were talked about.
Oh I like this one. Reminds me of a test screen but with softer colours that play off each other well... Nicely done. 4.5/5
Ayyy, Gianni's back. I haven't seen you on the last few videos.
@@emisat8970 I've commented on every single one though, but glad to be of service!
I'm guessing Indy only briefly mentioned the infamous Bataan death march, because Spartacus will cover it more in-depth in the crimes against humanity series?
Good guess.
Almost certainly. Watch this series long enough and you can guess which events will get their own episodes.
Araw ng Kagitingan: Day of Valor
The Fall of Bataan
Will Spartacus be covering the "Bataan Death March" more thoroughly on WaH? While it will be a difficult subject (As is most everything covered on WaH.) it definitely deserves more scrutiny. Also just wanted to shout thanks to everyone that works on this show. You're doing great work.
The sad reality is it wasn’t even top 100 most evil things Japan did when compared to bubonic plague, bayoneting women and children, but I agree it should be discussed.
@@ChevyChase301 You're not wrong, though it should still be covered, if for no other reason than to keep the memory of the men, women, and children that were murdered during that brutal march alive. The more light that is shone on all of these crimes, the more difficult they are to deny.
Yes
At White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, the US Army still conducts a Bataan Death March. It is in commemoration of the actual death March. Believe it is roughly 25 miles in length. While in the US Army, had always wanted to participate but could never get the proper permission from leadership to attend. Has been an ongoing event for past 30+ years.
I’ve lived my entire 60 year life knowing how WWII turned out. But, at the time of the war this vid covers, things looked very grim for the Allies. My Dad said it was a scary time to grow up. He literally thought the Nazis and the Japanese would invade one day (the USA). I can’t imagine what that was like. It must’ve seemed like the shadow of evil was falling all over the world.
And JRR Tolkien was in Britain writing the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Let's not forget the Filipino resistance against Japanese Occupation!
This is an american channel so they focus entirely on themselves of course.
@@hcir5341 Why should it take a different accent and ethnicity to make you have some readable sense? Brainless.
@@AstropilotStudios wtf are you talking about?
@@hcir5341 I'm calling you wrong.
Well, they had a special episode of Thailand as the part of Axis nation. So hopefully they will had the episode for Filipino guerillas.
You have got to admit "kido Butai" Has had one heck of a Pacific Tour!! A right menace!!
What's better than waking up after your Saterday Afternoon nap when you get a notification that Indy uploaded a new video !!
While in the US Army in 1990 I was assigned to be a pallbearer for the funeral of a Death March survivor. I had no idea what I was in for when I was told to report to the Chaplain's office in dress uniform. That was by far the most memorable and moving detail I ever lucked into in the service.
"Remember Bataan, Never Forget" motto of the 1-194th CAB.
Indy's speculation about the Kido Butai at the end of the video is excellently done within the parameters of this show, good job crew (again :) )
that Indy ending was great as always
friend of my fathers was at Bataan. he didn't talk about his experience but from what my father told me it was horrific.
Indy on the phone: That's wildly speculative.... well, that's how you see it. I have to hung up now, mom, i'm on RUclips.
Loved the dramatic ending! Absolutely brilliant.
My ancestor, private Alberto Rayla, fought in Bataan and was forced to take part in the Death March. He died in Camp O'Donnel.
I'm liking this new design where you show small footage in the corner while you quickly go over the events of the week
This series is amazing.
My Great Uncle Ornie Kudick was a POW and took part in the Bataan death march. He survived and came home to farm in Wisconsin until his death in the early 90s. His brother (Elroy) served as a paratrooper in France days after D-Day. Their youngest brother (Norman) served 20 years, taking part in both Korea and Vietnam.
I do hope the lack of radar on the Imperial Japanese Navy's Kido Butai will not come back to bite them one day. They might have been lucky to escape the air attack by the Bristol Blenheim bombers this time, but they may not be so lucky the second time.
Hah! Radars are not necessary for the Kido Butai! The offensive spirit of the Japanese navy will prevail against the so called superior allied equipment.
British carrier doctrine with its biplane torpedo bombers (Swordfish) relied on night attacks, as demonstrated when they clobbered the Italian battleships at Taranto. If they had found Kido Butai in the dark... (Great book recommendation - “To War in a Stringbag.” The author fought many battles, including the raid on Taranto.)
Or their lack of central direction over how their CAPs engage threats.
@Thanos 6.0 "Men's eyes see well enough."
What need. Japan has essentially won. I am sure it won't come back to bite them at all.
Wow this Nagumo guy is pretty chill, i'm sure he will do well against the naval campaigns against America.
A great uncle was in the military during the war and saw the aftermath of the Japanese occupation and the Death March.
He never spoke of the war, but on his death bed around 1990 he muttered the word "Japs" as if it was the most foul word he could muster.
Thank You for featuring Bataan. Last Friday April 9, 2021 it was Bataan Day a National Holiday in the Philippines.
I had no idea the Japanese were so victorious in Asia. Australia and India are really threatened and I don’t see any hope. Or how Japan did not end up winning the war in the Pacific. My heart goes out to the men of the Royal Navy who met a watery end. We shall remember them.
Indy, the way to end each episode with a tiny tidbit that has HUGE implications for the future of WWII is truly electrifying, 10/10 and thank you.
My Father was in a Air Force Recon Wing in the late 50s. The Wing had 3 ex Army Air Corp vets from Clark Field/Bataan with congressional metals of honor. Each man was completely broken. Every morning they were issue two bottles of grain alcohol and would return to quarters.
Some winners of the highest decorations for valour went on to have quite sad lives even if they survived. Post-traumatic stress disorder seems to be common for them.
"of course that can't happen"!!! Thanks again for an excellent episode
You're welcome!
It's funny because I know you're going to be saying "this week comes the fall of Bataan" again
Best episode yet, Indy and crew! As a proud specialist of the Timeghost Army I commend you on your efforts! Your in depth analysis, combined with great and rare footage really is fantastic! Special compliment to Indy for his performance 👍
Love you guys and hoping for more Sabaton History
5:58 I'm looking forward to the coverage on the Kokoda Track Campaign. I am fascinated with this battle, just because almost literally nobody over here (in the Netherlands) has ever heard of it.
A great reminder how Philippines fought to very end even it was abandoned by United States of America. Fellow Filipinos should consider this lesson in dealing with current situation in Sount China Sea. As a lot is of people are clamoring for war with China. Filipinos never learned from the past and allowed politicians to weaken the state to a state which is now. To the heroes of Battan lest we forget.
No one's "clamoring" for a war with China, but China might attack us anyway whether you like it or not.
@@ennui9745 have you not seen what the media propaganda, commentaries, and people in the internet had been asking for a long time. Which is the military option against China which we all know will never prosper since the decay of AFP is so evident the even Singapore could take over in a matter of weeks.
@@rmcl7583 China isn't as powerful as you think it is. Their economy is collapsing right now.
The breakdown on where all those troops were at 10:00 is very impressive, and shows an impressive amount of research in just a few minutes!
Love how real time gives a better perspective on just how far the Kido Butai travelled in such a short time frame. They must have seemed like ghosts. Well, until the codebreakers busted them.
They were busted at both the Battle of the Coral Sea and at Midway.
THANKS TOO ALL THAT MAKE THESE PROGRAMMES , STILL NO NOTIFICATIONS FOR SPARTYS VIDS .
Did Japanese carriers have onboard radar? The Blenheim incident suggests not.
The radar was a British invention, the British due to the Lend-lease, passed the technology the Americans who mass produced to equip their Navy and Army
Ive been waiting for Bataan since FOREVER!!!. Thanks.
Germany: if we take Moscow, Russia will be forced to surrender!
Japan: if we take Hawaii, the US will be forced to surrender!
I’m noticing a pattern here...
the bataan death march was just the start of hell on earth for the survivors of Bataan. Never Forget
Yesterday, my country commemorated the 79th anniversary of the Fall of Bataan
My mother worked with a survivor years ago, she said he suffered from health problems all his life.
I am completely confident that Japan will win the war before the end of 1942.
Edit: I am also sure that Midway will be a decisive Japanese victory and that victory will end the war in Japan's favour.
Indeed. I think the same. They have won essentially.
Home by new year baby! (And by home I of course me back to the China front for the next 60 years)
Great stuff, keep them coming
Thanks, we will!
For a nation whom we're told explored, exploited and ruled the waves for over 300 years or so it is especially embarrassing for the Royal Navy to underestimate the Imperial Japanese Navy to such an extent as to bring the proverbial knife to a gunfight... Just as Rome found out and The United States will do, laurels are hardly bedding and bloated, greed and condescension must be addressed..
I really like the little bubble in the beginning that helps visualise last week's event :)
R.I.P. Prince Philipe
he was a veteran of the Battle of Cape Matapan.
If say, there was a major naval battle at a place called Midway, might you guys do an entire episode on just it?
"We don't have the forces to take Hawai'i. You know what, lets invade India." WHAAAT?
While overly ambitious as well it was much less so than an attack on Hawaii. A push into India wouldn't require a supply chain stretched out across half the Pacific.
@@lycaonpictus9662 They were also expecting at least some Indians would see them as liberators.
My uncle was on the Death March. He was truly the kindest man I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. He NEVER had a bad word to say of anyone nor did he talk of his harrowing ordeals. He was also on a prison ship going to Japan that was attacked by the US Navy. I view him as a true role model. I was always amazed that after all he went through he did not have a hateful bone in his body. With that said, when he was on his death bed at the VA hospital in Puttsburgh he did have a bit of a freak out when a Pillipino nurse entered his room one night. I suppose he didn't hold a grudge but he also never forgot. Rest in Peace Uncle Sonny.
4th April 1942
Atlantic Ocean : German submarine U-505 torpedoed and sank Dutch cargo ship Alphacca 200 miles off Ivory Coast, French West Africa at 2329 hours; 15 were killed, 57 survived. On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, at 2335 hours, U-154 torpedoed and sank US tanker Comol Rico in Caribbean Sea ; 3 were killed, 39 survived.
German submarine U-552 torpedoed and sank US tanker Byron D. Benson 16 kilometers east of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, United States at 2257 hours local time (recorded in U-552 logs as at 0447 hours on 5 Apr 1942, German time), killing 10 of 38.
Malta : Greek submarine Glavkos was bombed and sunk by Axis aircraft at Malta. Royal Navy Fleet auxilary tanker RF Plumleaf was also bombed and sunk by Luftwaffe JU-87 Stuka dive bombers in Valetta harbour
Sevastapol , Crimea : Soviet destroyer Sovershenny was destroyed by German shelling at Sevastopol , Crimea
Leningrad : 62 Luftwaffe JU-87 Stuka dive bombers and 70 other bombers escorted by 59 Bf 109 fighters attacked Soviet fleet at Kronstadt near Leningrad, Russia in the afternoon, damaging battleships October Revolution and Petropavlovsk, cruisers Maxim Gorky and Kirov, and destroyers Silny and Grozyashchi. After dark, He 111 bombers, some of which had participated in the Kronstadt attack in the afternoon, bombed Leningrad.
Lae , Papua New Guinea : In the morning, Australian pilot John Jackson alone flew over Lae on the northern coast of New Guinea and made a strafing run. In the afternoon, he led a group in attacking the same location, destroying several Japanese aircraft on the ground.
Burma : Japanese aircraft bombed areas of Mandalay, Burma, killing more than 2,000, most of whom were civilians.
Indian Ocean : Operation C started by Japanese Imperial Navy to drive Royal Navy out of Indian Ocean. As Japanese carriers sailed toward Ceylon, the fleet was discovered by a Royal Canadian Air Force PBY Catalina flying boat 400 miles south of the island. A Japanese Zero fighter from carrier Hiryu shot down the Catalina aircraft (3 killed, several captured) but not until they radioed in the fleet’s location. Admiral James Sommerville , Commander of Royal Navy Eastern Fleet , already aware of approaching Japanese Navy aircraft carrier fleet for a few weeks due to Japanese Navy wireless decryption , therefore got exact location of enemy fleet and its rough approach , ordered all of his ships (five pre-1918 WWI era old battleships , one old WWI era aircraft carrier HMS Hermes with only 20 old aircraft on board and ten cruisers , and 18 destroyers) to leave Ceylon and Calcutta to meet up a secret supply base C south of Addu Atoll.
Bataan , Philippines : General Douglas MacArthur, now relocated to Australia per President Franklin Roosevelt’s orders, radioed Jonathan Wainwright, saying that “under no conditions should Bataan be surrendered; any action is preferable to capitulation”. Meanwhile, at Bataan in the Philippine Islands, Japanese troops moved toward Mount Samat, threatening to take this dominant position. Starved and ranks thinned out disease US and Philippino troops from US II Corps retreat to their final defence line to avoid being crushed by heavy Japanese artillery fire and airpower.
Rastenburg , East Prussia : Hitler orders heavy bombing raids on British historic towns as revenge for bombing of Lubeck , they are called Baedeker Raids , after the German tourist guidebooks.
Meanwhile in Berlin , Goebbels writes in his diary that he was actually relieved that tough and resilient noerhern Germans were bombed rather than softer southerners
Washington , USA : President Franklin Roosevelt’s special envoy Harry Hopkins and General George Marshall departed Baltimore, Maryland, United States by plane to lay the US strategic war plans, that had already been approved by the President, before the British War Cabinet and Chiefs-of Staff Committee.
5th April 1942
Atlantic Ocean : German submarine U-154 torpedoed and sank US tanker Catahoula just off the northeastern coast of the Dominican Republic at 2318 hours; 7 were killed, 38 survived.
Cologne , Germany : 263 British bombers (179 Wellington, 44 Hampden, 29 Stirling, and 11 Manchester aircraft) from RAF Bomber Command attacked the Humboldt Engineering Works Company at Kalk near Köln, Germany; most of the bombs fell far from the Humboldt factories. The British lost 5 aircraft; one of the aircraft shot down crashed in Köln, killing 16 and wounding 30.
Rastenburg , East Prussia : Adolf Hitler issued Führer Directive No. 41, calling for the invasion of the Caucasus region and Stalingrad, both in southern Russia.
Adolf Hitler ordered a renewed offensive in the Leningrad, Russia region in the Soviet Union.
At his East Prussian headquarters at Rastenburg, Hitler agreed with SS Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler, at a dinner-time talk on April 5, that ‘Germanic’ children from the occupied lands could be taken away from their parents and brought up in special Nazi schools. ‘If we want to prevent Germanic blood from being absorbed by the ruling class of the country we dominate’, Himmler explained, ‘and which subsequently might turn against us, we shall have gradually to subject all the precious Germanic elements to the influence of this instruction.’ Himmler envisaged, as he explained to Hitler, that Dutch, Flemish and French children of ‘Germanic’ origin would all come within the sphere of the special schools.
Oslo , Norway : On the very day that Himmler set out his ‘Germanic’ school scheme to Hitler at Rastenburg, the vast majority of Norway’s Lutheran clergy, meeting in German-occupied Oslo, issued a declaration emphasizing the sovereignty of God above all ideologies; the declaration was read from pulpits throughout Norway, and 654 of Norway’s 699 ministers of religion resigned from their positions as civil servants, while continuing to do their work as clergymen.
Malta : Italian aircraft attacked Valetta Harbour, Malta, causing fatal bomb damage to minesweeper HMS Abingdon and Royal Navy destroyer HMS Gallant (both were never repaired , HMS Gallant was used as a blockship and her guns anti anti aircraft armament were added to harbour defences) and also damaging destroyer HMS Lance.
Mediterranean Sea : While sailing in an Axis convoy bound for Libya , Italian cargo ship Ninetto G. was torpedoed and sunk by Royal Navy submarine HMS Una off Syracause , Sicily.
Burma : Japanese and Chinese troops clashed at Yedashe in central Burma.
Bataan , Philippines : Japanese troops from 48th Infantry Division attacking with heavy artillery and air support defeated the Philippine 21st Division at Mount Samat on the Bataan Peninsula, Philippine Islands. Inside the Allied lines, General Jonathan Wainwright doubled rations for front line troops despite being short in food in order to give the troops strength.
US submarine USS Snapper delivered 20 tons of food to Corregidor, Philippine Islands and evacuated 27 personnel.
Port Moresby , Papua New Guinea : Seven Japanese Type 1 bombers, escorted by 4 Zero fighters, attacked Seven Mile airfield near Port Moresby, Australian Papua. Stores of fuel and ammunition were destroyed at the cost of one Zero fighter, which was shot down by Kittyhawk fighters.
Ceylon , Indian Ocean : Commander Mitsuo Fuchida of Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi commanded a 125-aircraft raid against Colombo, Ceylon.
In the morning, Japanese carriers Akagi , Soryu , Hiryu , Shoakaku , Zuikaku launched 36 D3A2 dive bombers and 53 B5N2 torpedo bombers, escorted by 36 Zero fighters, against the British naval base at Colombo, Ceylon, bombed and sinking Royal Navy merchant cruiser HMS Hector, Royal Navy destroyer HMS Tenados and Norwegian tanker Soli , damaging port facilities, while shooting down 25 British aircraft; eight Japanese aircraft were lost in this attack. Around noon, Japanese cruiser Tone’s floatplane spotted Royal Navy light cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire 200 miles southwest of Ceylon; 53 Japanese carrier aircraft were launched to attack, bombing and sinking light cruisers HMS Dorsetshire at 1350 hours (234 killed) and HMS Cornwall at 1400 hours (190 killed); 1,122 survived from both ships.
Following Admiral Following Ozawa’s force’s attack on the British naval base at Colombo, Ceylon, the force is split creating a Northern Group commanded by Rear Admiral Takeo Kurita consisting of cruisers Kumano and Suzuya; the Center Group consisting of the carrier Ryujo and cruisers Chokai and Yura under Admiral Ozawa; and the Southern Group comprised of heavy cruisers Mogami, and Mikuma under Captain Shakao Sakiyama for the purposes of smaller raids against merchant shipping.
British cargo ship Dardanus was bombed and badly damaged by Japanese carrier borne aircraft in Bay of Bengal , she was intercepted and finished off next day by Japanese heavy cruisers Mogami, and Mikuma
British cargo ship Harpasa was bombed and sunk by Japanese cxarrier borne aircraft in Bay of Bengal
US cargo ship Washingtonian was torpedoed and sunk by Japanese submarine I-5 in Indian Ocean.
Tokyo , Japan : Japanese Navy leadership accepted the planned attack on Midway.
6th April 1942
Atlantic Ocean : German submarine U-160 torpedoed and damaged US tanker Bidwell 50 kilometers east of Wilmington, North Carolina, United States at 0807 hours, killing 1 of 33 aboard; her crew would manage to repair and bring her back to port for repairs. At 1700 hours, U-571 torpedoed and sank Norwegian tanker Koll 250 miles northwest of Bermuda; 2 were killed, 33 survived (1 of whom would later die of exposure before being rescued).
German submarine U-754 torpedoed and sank Norwegian tanker Kolskegg in Atlantic Ocean
Mediterranean Sea : While sailing away from Malta to Gibraltar (to avoid Axis air raids on Malta) , Royal Navy destroyer HMS Havock ran aground off Cape Bon, Tunisia and was scuttled by her crew who landed on Vichy French controlled Tunisia and interned.
Germany : 157 British bombers (110 Wellington, 19 Stirling, 18 Hampden, and 10 Manchester aircraft) from RAF Bomber Command attacked Essen, Germany; most of them were turned back by a storm. 5 aircraft were lost in this mission
Rzhev-Vyazma Sector , Demyansk pocket , Russia : German Luftwaffe group II./KG 27 flew a supply operation for the German troops trapped in Kholm, Russia. Three He 111 aircraft failed to return; one of which was forced to land within the pocket due to heavy damage. The crew of the downed He 111 aircraft removed the aircraft’s radio and used it to help direct further supply runs.
Melbourne , Australia : First men of US 41st Division arrived at Melbourne, Australia.
South West Pacific : Japanese troops landed on Bougainville, Solomon Islands and Lorengau, Admiralty Islands.
Rabaul , New Britain : At 0200 hours, B-17 bombers of US 22nd Bomb Group were launched from Seven Mile airfield near Port Moresby, Australian Papua. One hour later, the faster B-26 bombers were launched. Flying toward Rabaul, New Britain, this was the first B-17 combat mission against that location as well as the first B-26 combat mission. The B-17 bombers struck first (despite the fact that the two were supposed to be attacking at the same time), causing no damage. By the time the B-26 bombers arrived, 7 Japanese A5M fighters were already in the air, although they failed to close in on the B-26 bombers. The B-26 bombers caused very little damage.
Bataan , Philippines : Japanese aircraft continued to attack American and Filipino targets at Bataan, Philippine Islands.
Burma : Japanese troops from 15th Army captured Mandalay, Burma. Off Akyab on the western coast of Burma, Japanese aircraft bombed and sank Indian sloop HMIS Indus.
India : Carrier borne Japanese planes bomb Vizagapatam and Cocanada in east coast of India.
Indian Ocean : Japanese warships sank 13 freighters southeast of India, while carrier aircraft from Ryujo conducted raids against ports Vizagapatam and Cocanada on the eastern coast of India, sinking 3 ships.
Kurita’s Northern Group attacked and sank seven merchant ships totaling 41,000 tons along India’s northeastern coast south of Calcutta (Kolkata).
Sakiyama’s Southern Group of Mogami, Mikuma and destroyer Amagiri sank four merchantmen totaling 19,000 tons with two of them finished off with torpedoes from Amagiri.
7 April 1942
Atlantic Ocean : German submarine U-552 torpedoed and sank British freighter British Splendour at 0417 hours (12 were killed, 41 survived) and Norwegian whale factory ship Lancing at 1052 hours (1 was killed, 49 survived) off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, United States.
Mediterranean Sea : Royal Navy submarine HMS Turbulent sank Italian freighter Rosa M. with 39 rounds from the deck gun 7 miels south of Petrovac, Yogoslavia at 1730 hours.
German submarine U-453 torpedoed and damaged British hospital ship HMHS Somersetshire with three torpedoes 40 miles North of Sid Barrani, Egypt at 1300 hours; 2 were killed, 180 survived. The survivors reboarded the ship later and was able to sail to Alexandria, Egypt for repairs.
Malta : British tugs HMS Emily and HMS Hellespont were sunk at Malta by Axis air raids.
Bay of Bengal : Japanese submarine I-6 sank British freighter Bahadur 300 miles west of Bombay, India at 1920 hours.
Philippines : A Japanese dive bomber destroyed an ammunition truck near American field hospital No. 1 at Bataan, Philippine Islands at 1000 hours. Shortly after, Japanese aircraft returned to attack the hospital, which had large red crosses painted on the roof, killing 89 and wounding 101; a significant portion of the drug supplies were destroyed in this attack. On the front lines, with tank support Japanese assaulted positions held by US and Filipino troops of the US II Corps along the San Vicente River, penetrating the line by noon, forcing the Allies to fall back to the line at the Mamala River in the afternoon, which would also abandoned by 2100 hours under heavy Japanese artillery fire for the Alangan River further to the south.
Sobibor , Poland : A third SS death camp began its work, when, south-east of Warsaw, from the medieval town of Zamosc, 2,500 Jews were rounded up and sent by train to an ‘unknown destination’. That destination was in fact a camp just outside the village of Sobibor, which had been chosen as the site of a third death camp, on the pattern of Chelmno and Belzec. All who were brought to Sobibor were to be gassed within hours, except for a few hundred set aside for forced labour. From the 2,500 Jews of Zamosc, only one, Moshe Shklarek, was chosen to work. The others were all gassed. By the end of the year, more than a quarter of a million Jews had been brought to Sobibor and murdered, most of them from central Poland, but some from as far west as Holland, more than eight hundred miles away. The killings at Sobibor were kept a close secret. Even the already deceptive terminology was being tightened up. On April 10 Himmler’s personal secretary had informed the Inspector of Statistics of the Reich that henceforth ‘no mention should be made of the “special treatment of the Jews”. It must be called “transportation of the Jews towards the Russian East”.’
8 April 1942
Atlantic Ocean : German submarine U-84 torpedoed and sank Yugoslavian cargo ship Nemanja 300 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, United States at 0457 hours; 13 were killed, 34 survived. Just 10 miles off St. Simons Island, Georgia, United States, U-123 torpedoed and sank US tanker Esso Baton Rouge (killing 3 of 62) at 0844 hours , and damaged US tanker Oklahoma (killing 19 of 37) at 0752 hours.
Far to the south, Italian submarine Calvi torpedoed sank US tanker Eugene V. R. Thayer with a torpedo and 120 shells from her deck gun 20 miles off the northern coast of Brazil.
North Sea : The 2,374-ton steam merchant Ara was a Swedish refrigerated cargo steamer struck a mine and sank in the North Sea near the Island of Borkum, Helgoland, Germany.
German cargo ship Kurtzee struck a mine and sank Skjervoy , Norway
Iceland : Allied convoy PQ-14 departed Reykjavík, Iceland; it was consisted of 24 merchant ships, escorted by 2 minesweepers and 3 anti-submarine trawlers.
Barents Sea : Soviet submarine ShCh-421 struck a mine , heavily damaged and scuttled by her own crew who were rescued in Barents Sea
Germany : 272 RAF bombers (177 Wellington, 41 Hampden, 22 Stirling, 13 Manchester, 12 Halifax, and 7 Lancaster aircraft) conducted a night raid on Hamburg, Germany (heaviest RAF bombing raid on one target yet) ; 4 Wellington and 1 Manchester aircraft were lost in this attack.
Malta : Mooring vessel HMS Moor was serving as a boom defence vessel with 29 Maltese on board when she struck a mine at the harbour entrance of Valetta, Malta at 1715 hours. She broke up and sank instantly. Only one person survived, diver Toni Mercieca, who was picked up by a boat from the gate vessel Westgate and conveyed to Bighi Naval Hospital.
NOTE : In Malta the bombing continued with increased fury and during April 6700 tons of bombs were dropped. The 7th and 8th April were two of the worst days, a great deal landing on the dockyard, which was put almost completely out of action. Raids were frequent and the average was nine alerts a day but British air defences stoutly opposed them shooting down six Axis aircraft on 7th and downing nine more Axis aircraft in 8th April.
Mediterranean Sea : Italian bombers sank British minesweeping whaler HMS Svana and anti-submarine whaler HMS Thorgrim off Alexandria, Egypt.
Royal Navy light cruiser HMS Penelope (nicknamed as HMS Pepperpot because of being targeted so many Axis air attacks and splinter damage suffered) sailed away from Malta and managed to reach to Gibraltar three days later.
Leningrad , Soviet Union : Soviet forces opened a railway link into Leningrad in northern Russia.
Ceylon : A RAF Catalina flying boat spotted a Japanese carrier fleet approaching Royal Navy base Trincomalee, Ceylon. On this news, Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Hermes and Australian destroyer HMAS Vampire departed Trincomalee in an attempt to escape the impending attack and Trincomalee air defences put in full alert.
Indian Ocean : The Japanese Navy officially agreed to the German request to conduct submarine raids against Allied shipping in the Indian Ocean, although the submarines were already in position or underway. Later that day, Japanese submarine I-3 torpedoed and sank British collier Fultala 200 miles off the southern tip of India at 0150 hours. Her entire crew were rescued.
Burma : Japanese troops overran Chinese 200th Division and New 22nd Division defensive positions at Yedashe, Burma.
China : First supplies via HUMP airbridge from India over Himalayas to Chunking , Nationalist China was delivered
New Britain : Japanese troops based in Rabaul landed in Western New Britain.
Bataan , Philippines : Japanese bombers and fighters attacked US II Corps positions digging in along the Alangan River at Bataan, Philippine Islands at 1100 hours, but these positions successfully repulsed the first Japanese assault shortly after; the Japanese would return with tank support, however, overrunning the line. General King , US Commander of the Luzon Force ordered all munition dumps at Mariveles Habor at Bataan destroyed, and medical staff began withdrawing to Corregidor island. General Wainwright along with a few thousand essential personnel and troops already garrisoned Corregidor , hoping to hold a few more weeks.
American submarine USS Seadragon delivered 20 tons of food to Corregidor in the Philippine Islands; on the return trip, she evacuated the final 21 radio intelligence personnel from the US Navy Station CAST facility.
Pearl Harbour , Hawaii : USS Enterprise and Task Force 16 departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii to make rendezvous with USS Hornet, which was en route to strike the Japanese home islands.
London , UK : A US delegation led by Harry Hopkins and General George Marshall arrived in Britain to discuss US and British strategy on opening a second front in Europe by invading France.
9 April 1941
Atlantic Ocean : German submarine U-123 torpedoed and sank US freighter Esparta within 10 kilometers of Cumberland Island, Georgia, United States at 0716 hours, killing 1 of 40 aboard. To the northeast, 20 kilometers off the coast of North Carolina, United States, German submarine U-160 torpedoed and sank US freighter Malchace at 0758 hours, killing 1 of 29 aboard. Off Cape Lookout , North Carolina German submarine U-552 torpedoed and sank US tanker Atlas, killing 2 of 34 aboard.
At 1004 hours, northwest of Iceland, German submarine U-252 torpedoed and sank Norwegian cargo ship Fanefjeld, killing all 24 aboard.
Malta : Italian bombers hit and heavily damaged Royal Navy destroyer HMS Lance at Malta; she would soon be written off as a total loss.
Mediterranean Sea : Royal Navy submarine HMS Thrasher intercepted an Axis supply convoy , torpedoed and sank Italian cargo ship Gala 20 miles southwest of Benghazi, Libya.
Worthing , UK : German bombers attacked Worthing in southern England, United Kingdom during the day, damaging a hospital and a gasometer and killing 2.
Rzhev-Vyazma Secotor , Demyansk Pocket , Russia : German relief attempts toward the Kholm encirclement were met with limited success.
Soviet General Mikhail Yefremov , besieged in Vyazma sector commits suicide rather than dishonour of captured by Germans. Having been severely wounded in the back, unable to help his men and unwilling to be taken prisoner, put a pistol to his temple. ‘Boys,’ he said, ‘this is the end for me, but you go on fighting.’ Then he shot himself; his men, fighting on, though almost beaten, never gave up. Some, reaching the nearby Soviet front line, returned in due course to harry the Germans behind the lines.
Crimea , Ukraine : Repeated Soviet attacks by 51st Soviet Army on German positions at Kerch, Russia failed to break through.
Black Sea : Soviet light cruiser Voroshilov was damaged by German aircraft at Novorossiysk, Russia.
Rabaul , New Britain : Just before 1200 hours, eight USAAF B-26 Marauder bombers attacked Japanese held Simpson Harbor and Vunakanau airfield at Rabaul, New Britain, damaging ships in the harbor, port facilities, and several parked aircraft.
Port Moresby , Papua New Guinea : In the morning, eight Zero fighters attacked Seven Mile airfield new Port Moresby, Australian Papua, damaging one Hudson aircraft and one Kittyhawk aircraft on the ground. In the afternoon, Type 1 bombers escorted by four Zero fighters attacked Seven Mile once again; Australian fighters failed to scramble fighters.
Trincomalee , Ceylon : Japanese carrier aircraft from Akagi , Kaga and Shoakaku attacked the harbor at Trincomalee, Ceylon at 0700 hours. The port facilities were badly damaged , tanker British Sergeant and freighter Sagaing were hit by bombs and both sank at the harbour but British air defences and RAF interceptors were ready this time and tracked the incoming raid by radar before attack started. RAF Hawker Hurricare fighters and anti aircraft guns shot down 18 Japanese aircraft over Trincomalee at the cost of five Hurricanes shot down.
In retaliation nine RAF Bleinheim bombers lifted off from Trincomalee , found and counter attack Japanese carrier fleet but their sorties made no hits but only near misses. Five Bleinheim bombers were shot down by anti aircraft defences or Japanese Zero interceptors defending the fleet. In exchange RAF Hawker Hurracane fighters escorting RAF bombers shot down five more Japanese Zero fighters defending the fleet.
Two hours later, empty Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Hermes , her decks were devoid of aircraft and Australian destroyer HMAS Vampire were detected 90 miles further south by Japanese scout planes. At 1035 hours, 94 Japanese carrier aircraft attacked and sank HMS Hermes (307 killed) which was hit by 40 bombs and sank Australian destroyer HMAS Vampire (9 killed) with 13 bomb hits ; hospital ship Vita rescued survivors from both warships. At 1207 hours, 20 Japanese carrier dive bombers attacked and sank British oiler Athelstane (all aboard survived) , Norwegian tanker Norviken and Royal Navy corvette HMS Hollyhock (48 were killed, 17 survived) in the Indian Ocean.
Bataan , Philippines : More than 76,000 emaciated , diseased and starved US and Filipino troops (12.000 American 63.000 Phillipine) , remainder of the US II Corps under General Edward King on the Bataan peninsula at Luzon, Philippine Islands, surrendered to the Japanese 14th Army (50.000 strong) at 1230 hours; it was the largest American surrender in history. General King announces he ordered to surrender to prevent a mass slaughter of soldiers and civilians cornered in south of Bataan. Before doing so, US and Phillipine troops destroyed fuel dumps, ammunition stores, scuttled submarine tender USS Canopus, tug USS Napa, four Phillipine torpedoboats and floating drydock USS Dewey. Only 2.000 soldiers out of 78.000 , retreated to Corregidor island held under command of General Wainwright who is defending Corregidor island with 13.000 US and Phillipine troops with no resupply or reinforcements.
Number of so many surrendered troops pose a major logistical problem for Japanese 14th Army under General Homma whose attention is focused to reducing Corregidor , final US and Phillipine bastion in Luzon. Most American and Philippine prisoners would be confined to POW holding area Camp O’Donnell but nearest railhead 105 km away from Bataan. Devoid of food , water and medical supplies and a lot of them already wrecked by disease , most of the prisoners would be forced marched by Japanese , in conditions of such terrible brutality and privation that more than 800 Americans, and at least 5.000 Filipinos, perished in what later became known as the ‘March of Death’. Many of those who died were clubbed or bayoneted to death when, too weak to walk further, they stumbled and fell. Others were ordered out of the ranks, beaten, tortured and killed. A further sixteen thousand Filipinos, and at least a thousand Americans, died of starvation, disease and brutality during their first few weeks in prisoner-of-war camps.
Philippine Sea : Before dawn, Japanese light cruiser Kuma was attacked by US motor torpedo boats PT-34 and PT-41 in the Cebu Strait between Cebu and Bohol in the Philippine Islands but sustained no damage; the only torpedo that hit Kuma failed to detonate. PT-34 would be found and destroyed by Japanese aircraft after daybreak, killing 2.
That map on the south summer offensive plans in the USSR is really great work!
A few years ago Japan was fighting against China and USA at the same time, how the time's have changed
Few? It is around 80 years ago
Not long ago US were fighting with the Mujadeen in Afghanistan against the Russians. How times have changed.
@@myview5840 And China also support the USA and fight with the Mujadeen in Afghanistan against the Russians in that time.
Oooo, 1:00 is that a new map feature i spot? it providing a picture in picture presentation through a 3D object, its even got shading on the map behind it. 10/10
Come on America, now is not the time to surrender we got this, USA!
I love the foreshadowing at the end about Midway! Lol great stuff.
Yamamoto's aggressiveness in 1942 is explained in part by his correct belief that if the Japanese did not defeat the Americans in 1942, the U.S.'s superiority in resources and manufacturing would win out over the long term. HI was the American center of gravity in the Pacific, so Yamamoto's goal was sound. The problem for the Japanese in the Midway campaign was divided command and control, overly complex planning, flawed execution of the plan and poor communication security. Not to mention the entire Coral Sea campaign where the IJN supported an Army plan to take New Guinea, which ended up being just a costly distraction. The New Guinea Campaign divided the forces of the Kido Butai in the lead up to Midway, and ultimately lost some of their irreplaceable carriers and pilots permanently. Even if the New Guinea plan succeeded and cut the supply lines to Australia, the US would not have settled for peace. If Japan destroyed the US fleet and invaded HI, the US may have sued for peace. Yamamoto was faced with a closing window for victory in 1942 and had to make the largest effect towards his goal with limited forces.
Time to continue watching this most excellent series.
Thank you for watching every week