The US Carrier Yorktown (named after the battle that won the US Revolutionary War) was not damaged during the battle of Pearl Harbor as stated in the video. It was actually damaged during the US-Japanese battle of the Coral Sea.
@@upperleftcoastchelseafan7718 Actually I'ld love to go for that. Would be fun even.I love Simon's videos. But these are mistakes, maybe just that, we're humans right? But these mistakes should have been corrected whilst editing the video. Anyway I love Simon's vids, I also love watching Blackadder. Simon's accent, well, I like it actually...
I was a submariner and our history with WW2 is really important to the culture. There was a submarine that was nicknamed "the seventh fleet" because it sunk SO much Japanese tonnage and was so wildly aggressive that it by itself was thought to be a fleet by them.
Something I learned recently was that while the Japanese were running a war game scenario, a junior officer placed the us carriers exactly where they ended up being. His results came out the same as the real battle but was dismissed because the japanese thought there was no way for the americans to know thier plans
Yeah, I cought that on Dan Carlin's podcast. Unrealistic or not, always wargame a worst case scenario. Even though the US had the drop on the Japanese fleet, this one really came down to the wire! Too many people may never realize how much of our current way of life we owe to those who made the ultimate sacrifice in that battle 😯
It really is interesting but after years of WW2 study I think the Japanese were not just arrogant- they were desperate. Yamato knew there was a window to win the war. He knew this because of his experience in America, seeing first hand their industrial capabilities. The irony is that his method to defeat the US has been the only way- break the spirit of its people. The primary reason Japan lost the war was timing. Had they come in earlier and right after Pearl, I think they would have.
@@fredflux2738 Yamamoto spent years in America, studied at Harvard and was the Naval Attaché in Washington. He knew Japan could not win a sustained campaign.
I Love how the Brits seem to appreciate the Battle of Midway the same way we Americans do the Battle of Britain. I am a Yank fascinated how the Spitfire totally embarrassed the Germans and Hermann Goering. It is amazing to me how both battles seem to turn on some luck, I call it Godly intervention. German pilots, apparently off course, decided to let go of their bombs on London, turned out to be a fortuitous respite for the Royal Air Force. We can all look back and see these things in clear vision. The Allies were blessed, I believe at least the UK and USA were. Edit: This is the 1st video I watched and the narration and explanation was very thorough and entertaining. Outstanding video. I gladly subbed and will enjoy the Long playlist.
Coral Sea, Yorktown was heavily damaged at The Battle of Coral Sea and was repaired at Pearl, in 48 hrs. The Battle of Coral sea was the first time opposing navy forces engaged each other without seeing each other.
Yeah It was hilarious to have him say that the carriers had been away during the attack at pear and then somehow got hit with a bomb at the same battle!
Yeah I caught that too and it pretty much pissed me off. There are some great, highly researched videos on the Battle of Midway. I was trying to fall asleep while watching this one, so I didn't respond until now. There were a few other mistakes made here. It's as if the guy was phoning it in. I've lost faith in this channel's history documentaries.
The Yorktown's story was one of the best parts of this battle. They were damaged in the Battle of the Coral Sea (not Pearl Harbor as stated in the vide) and sailed for Midway with the repair crews still on board because they were in pretty bad shape. During the battle the ship was hit by the Japanese and burning, but because the repair crews were already onboard they were able to get the fire under control. The Japanese thought the ship was sunk and when they came back for another attack run saw the Yorktown without any fire and thought it was a second carrier, so they attacked it again instead of moving on to another ship. What the repair crews were able to accomplish with the ship alone was nothing short of amazing even though it was eventually lost from the damage it took during that second attack.
The Yorktown sailed from Pearl Harbor as soon as the union tradesmen were on board for their shift. The Navy didn't inform their local's shop stewards that was going to happen so held the workers at gunpoint as the vessel casted off the lines and headed to sea. The workers were told they'd be shot if they tried to jump overboard and shot in the water if they managed to do that. Then they were told to get to work or they'd be thrown overboard once the islands disappeared behind the horizon. The Navy did have a vessel sailing with the Yorktown to take the workers back to Pearl Harbor once their work was completed so finished up in record time so they could return home ASAP.
08:44 Simon is actually incorrect at this point. The carrier Yorktown wasn't damaged in the Pearl harbor bombings it was actually damaged in the Battle of the Coral sea where USS Lexington was lost also.
He got a lot of stuff wrong. Yorktown torpedo bombers sinking Soryu, the destroyer Arashi which McClusky followed to the Japanese fleet identified as a cruiser, etc.
I only got part way through the video. There were too many basic errors to take it seriously as history. For example, the United States only declared war on Japan. Germany, Italy & most of their puppets declared war on the US.
Building two sets of concentric fortifications - one facing inward to defend against the besieged garrison and one facing outward to defend against relieving forces - was actually a pretty common feature of ancient, medieval, and early modern sieges! Although the sheer scale of the walls Caesar built at Alesia is impressive, and definitely worth a video
My uncle served in the Aleutians in WW2. I asked him once what it was like. He summed it up as, "The enemy only attacked once, and by the time we got there, they had left." I always thought he was underplaying what really happened but it wasn't until I read his obituary that I learned by how much. Long story short, the Japanese held two islands for a year. After a long bloody fight for the first, 35000 American and Canadian soldiers invaded the second. My uncle was in the first wave of that attack, scaling a thousand foot cliff to open the beaches for those who followed. But as he said, by the time they got there the enemy had left. Under the cover of fog the Japanese had already evacuated. There aren't many quality videos on the subject of the bombing of Dutch Harbor and the subsequent occupation, nor the battles which followed. In the grand scheme of things it was just a diversionary attack in a massive global conflict, but it is quite a story. For example, of the almost 2400 troops on Attu only 28 were taken alive. I would love to see you tackle the topic at some point.
Loving the new channel Simon. Bio Geo and now Warographics are some of the best content on UA-cam. Great idea doing a war channel. How can you ever understand history properly without learning about our wars. Keep up the great work.
we humans do love our wars.... our evolution is that of our pointy stick, and their ever-pointier, ever-deadlier successors. sticks of wood, sticks of wood with stone attached, sticks of wood with bronze attached, sticks of wood with iron attached..... etc etc etc, until we arrive today at our flying sticks with nuclear warheads attached. Everything we have ever done or will ever do we are going to do over and over and over again.
try to think about anything humans have ever invented in reference to a pointy stick or a stick with something else attached. Trust me, there's A LOT more than it might seem at first glance. (e.g. bow and arrow: stick bent by string that shoots smaller pointy sticks)
The story of the three sister Yorktown class carriers (Yorktown, Hornet, Enterprise) always gets me, they bore the brunt of the early war for the US and in the end only Enterprise survived and managed to become the most decorated US ship from WW2. It's a true shame that she was scrapped after the war.
The decryption of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s communications gave the United States Navy a huge advantage during the Battle of Midway. This allowed them to prepare defend and counter attack! This was the greatest naval win of any navy in history
Absolutely! If you find that interesting I reccomend checking out Simon's video on agent Garbo. It is in the same vein as that and also one of the most incredible stories of WWII. Not to mention one of the all time best videos across all of Simon's channels. Happy new year!
It is interesting to note that, in 1941, both Japan and the USA believed that battleships, not aircraft carriers, were still the main weapon in naval warfare. So the main Japanese aim at Pearl Harbour was always the battleships. With so many battleships out of action after Pearl Harbour, the US improvised by centering their war effort on the carriers This proved to be the right choice.
That was every naval planner's thought process at the time. The flat tops were just too new and untested and many admirals, Nagumo included, didn't think they would amount to much aside from an expensive support ship. The war in the Pacific was what moved the carrier from a barely tolerated ship in some navies to the new capital ship.
No. USN did not convert to a primarily a carrier force.. USN had to reserve its fleet carriers to fight IJN fleet carriers .. they had to keep them as the defense only, because they could not afford to lose them to submarine attacks .... This is the sort of thing Mcarthur would damm the navy to hell for.. he would say, we need the carriers to do aerial attacks . Nimitz would say " nah, if we lose our last carrier,the Kido Butai can sail along wiping you out. They must hold back their carriers to protect from ours!.." . Have a look at Guadalcanal campaign. When did USN carriers participate ? When the Kido Butai participated, and only to turn the Kido Butai back.... What the USN did was create a massive invasion force, which included 150 escort carriers , but also massive numbers of navy and army surface ships of all sorts,so as to be able to invade Phillipines, Indonesia, Japan.. anywhere.. not to use the carrier as the primary thing .
The Japanese brutally executed captured US Airmen, while US held captured Japanese Airmen until the end of the war. You can tell who the good guys are just from something as simple as this.
Nagumo's real blunder was not pulling his forces back about 50 miles west or northwest when the American carrier was detected. Had he done this, he could have placed his carriers more or less out of range of the American carrier planes while still being able to use the "long legs" of his own aircraft to attack the US fleet. However, this didn't fit with Japanese aggressive fleet doctrine and training, so this option was never considered. It is somewhat unlikely that he could have carried out an attack even if his Kates had been armed with torpedoes, since it would have taken 45 minutes to get those planes onto the decks, spotted and launched. Meanwhile, he was under attack for almost this entire time, meaning he had to launch and land CAP fighters as well land his Midway strike. Not only this, but having the planes on the deck with ordinance attached would have made a prime target for any attaching bomber firing its machine guns at the loaded carrier decks. There are a couple of videos by Montemayor that go into quite a bit of detail on this (ua-cam.com/video/Bd8_vO5zrjo/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/BXjydKPcX60/v-deo.html and ua-cam.com/video/WHO6xrSF7Sw/v-deo.html ).
23:46 the ship they had trailed was the IJN Arashi, which was a destroyer, not a cruiser. Earlier in the day a USN submarine (the USS Nautilus) had launched an unsuccessful torpedo attack against the IJN Kirishima and the Arashi had stayed behind to hunt the submarine as the rest of the formation moved on. The Arashi, a Kagero class destroyer, was misidentified by the submarine crew as a cruiser. After giving up the hunt for the Nautilus, the Arashi made high speed to rejoin towards the group, sailing in a straight line, thereby leading McClusky's flight to the carrier formation.
Leaving the Arashi behind to deal with the submarine was a big mistake. For a slow moving convoy, it would be prudent to leave behind one destroyer, less the submarine quickly resurface and could then overtake the convoy. But in this case, they would be better to leave the submarine behind with no destroyer and leave it in the wake of the 25 knot fleet. The submarine would be unlikely to catch up. If they insist on keeping the submarine down for a few hours, they could leave the Arashi behind, but order it, in no circumstances, to attempt to rejoin the fleet. Instead it must make it's own way back, assuming it has enough fuel left to do so on it's own. Often, destroyers had to be refueled by larger ships to complete a long voyage like the Midway operation.
A B-26 (Suzie Q) piloted by 1LT James O. Muri actually buzzed the deck of the Akagi skimming its length to escape both the Japanese fighters and the AA fire and although badly damaged it survived (was the only B-26 out of 6 that did so). This was in addition to the B-26 mentioned in the video that was shot down in an attempt to dive into a ship.
Would love to see you do the "forgotten battle" you mentioned, Simon. I've known for years about to attack on the Alaskan islands, but, I could never find much on it as it's vastly overshadowed by Midway
My understanding of the Aluetian battle was that it was meant as a diversion to lure American aircraft carriers there so that the Japanese could attack Midway without interference. Didn’t work however since Naval code breakers found that Japanese were intending to attack Midway.
during that battle, one of the attacking Japanese Zeros were shot down, landed intact enough to be salvaged and sent back to the US where it was put thru tests and data from those tests helped in creating the F6F Hellcat, F4U Corsair and P-38 lighting.
My dad was at Midway , he was on USS Hughes DD 410, he would tell me about his time during the battle, he was a helmsman, he told my about the Yorktown going down. I miss him he was a great Dad.
23:49 it was a destroyer, the Arashi, which was ordered to chase down an American submarine (Nautilus) after that submarine made an unsuccessful attack on a cruiser; however did have a major unintentional role since they were the reason why the Arashi was rushing back to join the Japanese fleet.
Simon: The Battle off Samar is worthy of its own video, seperate from the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Of which it was a part. US Navy - 6 small escort carriers, 3 destroyers and 4 destroyer escorts versus the Imperial Japanese Navy: 4 battleships (including Yamato), 6 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers and 11 destroyers. The Japanese still lose. I'm not American but I'm still immensely proud of those Tin Can Sailors. They were amazing.
Samar was the last stand of the tin can sailors johnston and the other destroyers and des fought the japs like battleships no fear and did heavy damage to the japs
@@donaldkepple4927they didn’t just damage the Japanese they drove them off. And they didn’t have have the bravery of battleships but that of destroyers. Never insult the crew of a destroyer by comparing them to a battleship.
Nagumo was actually a very incompetent commander and has been upsetting Yamamoto during the raid on Pearl Harbor by being too conservative on the attack. He was eventually been left for dead all over Pacific islands along with others who survived Midway. Yamaguchi was actually more accustomed to AC strategy but Nagumo was a senior in navy school so he outranked Yamaguchi. Yamaguchi decided to stay and fight because he thought that they have sunk two American's AC instead of one.
I agree. Nagumo gets a lot of bad press, but he was actually a good commander. His problem at Midway was that he was given a virtually unworkable plan with inadequate forces.
@@nicholasconder4703 Absolutely. Nagumo's situation was completely impossible even before the Dauntlesses arrived, and had been referred to as 'Nagumo's Problem'. Simon's description of the situation made it seem less serious than it was; while evading US air attacks, the IJN carriers *could not launch or recover aircraft*. At all. If the US airstrikes prior to the carrier aircraft arriving hadn't been there, Nagumo in theory could've resolved the issue, but crucially those attacks took away the time that could've been used to do it, leaving him in this position.
Nagumo wasn’t incompetent. He was a battleship admiral who didn’t fully appreciate the intricacies of the kido butai. He is thought to have been chosen to command the kido butai in order to placate the battleship faction of the IJN.
@@taskdon769 I think it really had more to do with a plan that scattered the Japanese fleet across half the Pacific Ocean than Nagumo's decisions. In the time that he was in charge of the Japanese carrier forces, Nagumo gave a pretty good accounting for himself (apart from Midway). The IJN's defeat at Midway had more to do with Nagumo being given insufficient forces to suppress the island's air power, protect the troop transports and landings, then fight off a possible American attack. He didn't have enough carriers and aircraft to do all that, even had the Americans acted according to the Japanese plan. Also, Japanese carrier doctrine was somewhat lacking. The US carriers later in the war always assigned one carrier in a Task Force to CAP duty, freeing up the other 2-3 carriers to be ready at all times to launch strikes at a moments notice. After their foray into the Indian Ocean in April the IJN had found some issues with their carrier doctrine, but had not had time to implement changes by the time of Midway. So it wasn't Nagumo being the wrong man for the job, as Yamaguchi would likely have made similar decisions and mistakes if he had been in charge, but rather issues with Japanese carriers and the IJN carrier doctrine that was at fault.
You mentioned it in this video it would be cool to see the battle of the Aleutian Islands, during a portion of it known as operation cottage Canadian troops were requested to aid US soldiers in securing an island. Japanese had already retreated but thick fog got in the way of visual confirmation. This was the only point throughout the war that United States soldiers and Canadian soldiers engaged each other in combat. Through the fog a Canadian soldier mistook an American for Japanese and opened fire, the ensuing firefight resulted in 28 Americans and 4 Canadians dead, with 50 wounded on both sides. Progress was also hampered by mines, timed bombs, accidental ammunition detonations, vehicle accidents and booby traps
@@canadianbacon9819 except in this case, this wasn't fighting. This was trigger happy Canadians blowing away a US patrol because they failed to positively identify their targets. The irony being that this exact incident would once again take place in 2002 when a National Guard pilot dropped a 500 lbs bomb on Canadian forces at Tarnak Farm in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Just goes to show that the fog of war can be extremely dangerous, both for friend and foe.
@@DirtyMikeandTheBoys69 initially yes.. despite Canada's kind reputation we have a historical record of not just being trigger happy but stab happy as well. but the firefight that ensued between the two forces lasted for a significant period of time with 50 being injured on both sides the total casualties are mentioned above they're definitely was a period of actual engagement between Canadians and Americans, we're both sides were exchanging fire, however most of the campaign consisted mostly of booby traps and trying to locate the Japanese. Significant battles on other Islands during the campaign though, I am familiar with the incident you are speaking of it truly is as you say extremely dangerous for all combatants. But in that situation four Canadians were killed and several more were injured. The situation on the Aleutian Islands however saw much higher casualties with around 130 total on both sides. The Americans definitely returned fire and attempted to defend themselves from the onslaught, Canadian soldiers were told to prepare for heavy Japanese defenses and to approach the situation with complete combat readiness I don't think either force was assuming that they would run into each other in the time frame that they did their advance was very fast despite small setbacks here and there, not to mention in the dense fog the Americans could not see the Canadians either as they returned fire basically right away, the Canadians just happened to see the Americans first in this situation the fog was so thick it obscured their vision enough to allow the fight to go on for the period it did. I don't know all the specifics of the engagement for sure but that's why I would like Simon to make a video
@@canadianbacon9819 I'm very familiar with the incident as I'm not only from Alaska, but I spent my military service in Alaska. I've also helped out at the local WWII-Alaska museum on more than one occasion and that battle is talked about quite frequently in the memoirs of the men who were there. I highly recommend you read some of the first hand accounts. It's not as poetic or heroic as you think it is. Albeit I may be misreading your comment. Either way, there were numerous incidents in WWII that saw American forced under fire from their Canadian or British comrades. Which is why I wince every time someone says "My grandad fought in WWII and said when the British fired, the Germans ducked. When the Germans fired, the British ducked. When the Yanks fired, everyone ducked." Because more often than not, it was the other way around unfortunately.
@@DirtyMikeandTheBoys69 much respect for your service despite our differences in nationality. I have read accounts from Canadians but not from the American point of view I will definitely have to check it out. And if it sounded glorious with the way I was writing it I did not mean it to come off that way to me this is an unfortunate situation of friendly fire that ensued into a deadly firefight between allies, my writing style is definitely an issue I write books so it's a habit to pump it up a bit lol. But it is one of those hidden parts of history than not many people know about. The reason I bring it up is that friendly fire is common unfortunately but this is one scenario where friendly fire escalated into something more which is rare, this incident could only be set in motion by the culmination of events leading up to the period, stiff Japanese resistance on other Islands previously cleared in the campaign, specifically the battle of Attu(allied forces expected the same level of resistance on this island) as well as the thick fog(obscured visibility) and the booby traps(gave the Allies reason to believe the Japanese were still on the island), all of it just linked up so well for the Japanese and that's why I believe it has historical significance.
My grandfather would tell me and my siblings his experience in the Pacific during WW2 and his story about midway always stuck with me, he was there, and his account was harrowing. He was so proud of his country, and also to have fought along so many brave men who gave him their stories to tell. Great video once again!
The Battle of Midway is also noteworthy for something else. It represents a major shift in naval tactics away from battle ships to aircraft carriers. You could argue this was started with the pursuit and eventual sinking of the Bismarck but Midway was the first major naval engagement fought and won by aircraft carriers. Naval doctrine was pretty much changed forever after Midway
@@killer19183 There were probably several pre-Midway battles you could identify as the turning point. You could argue it was the sinking of the Bismarck where Ark Royal was, more by necessity than design, instrumental in disabling the ship enough for it to be intercepted, surrounded and eventually destroyed by conventional means. The Coral Sea was a proving ground for Carrier warfare, again partly by necessity rather than design because following Pearl Harbor, carriers is what the US had available. But I think all parties were still learning how to use aircraft carriers in a major engagement, something the US clearly did better than their Japanese counterparts The signs were all there that it was going to happen well before Midway, however I think Midway is pretty much the rubicon, the point at which Air Superiority unquestionably became the dominant and deciding factor in naval warfare. It was a large set piece battle, planned around carriers and beyond visual range combat from the outset, with a definitive (and decisive) outcome.
@@Paul_Inman the irony is that the road to victory for the IJN at Midway was their surface ships in front and carriers behind. The IJN battleships should have been used at night to shell Midway.
@@jameshannagan4256 yes. Very very different in which most who cannot be objective really are unable to comprehend. Notice how many don’t even want to discuss the IJN approaching Midway with surface ships up front in perhaps 6 sectional groups. Doesn’t make sense to form one large body.
If im not mistaken, they didnt have ejection seats yet at this point, so those guys were actually bailing out of those fighters under their own power. Cant imagine how incredibly difficult this must of been in a damaged fighter plane thats going down
Whistle boy and his team of wonderful collaborators have made these past 21 months a whole lot more bearable and I thank them every day for that. The Battle of Stalingrad has to be one of the craziest parts of the war. Perhaps a future video? 🙂
Dang Fact boy, do you ever sleep?? Loving the new channel and every other channel. I could listen to you read the phone book, you got such a soothing voice and I love the British accent
8:48 How could The Yorktown been damage during the attack on Pearl Harbor when that day she was on the docks of Norfolk Virginia on the Atlantic Ocean i think you meant to say that she was damage during The Battle of The Coral Sea where she lost one her carrier sister The Lexington
Nor did Simon mean to say the US declared war on Germany and Italy the next day. As he knows, war with the European Axis didn't come for several days, when they declared war on the US in solidarity with Japan.
1:14 As I understand it, Roosevelt could only justify a declaration of war against Japan, even though he wanted to stop Germany. It was Germany that declared war against the U.S. Correct me if I’m wrong of course.
Yorktown was damaged at the battle of the Coral Sea. She barely made it back to Pearl Harbor. Within four days of docking, ship workers got her repaired enough to get underway to Midway. When they left they still hand ship workers on board making repairs.
Another great one fact boi. I'd love to see a breakdown of: the defense of Ft. Vaux in WWI's Battle of Verdun, the Siege of Masada, Zhukov's Defense of Moscow, or Sobieski's breaking of the Siege of Vienna. Let's be honest, I'll watch regardless of what's covered.
@@scottmwilhelms2437 This is true, but this is UA-cam. You'd have a harder time finding one that's not covered unless you look for conflicts not involving the 'western world' in any way - which would be awesome. Trust me, I'm always game for learning about stuff I don't know about but if I don't know about it I can't list it in the comments section here. I've read a couple things about an old Vietnamese book on guerilla war that they've kept secret and use to this day which leads to some awesome feudal-era defenses in the region. I'd love to hear more on that. You?
If you loved doing this stream on Midway, the best carrier battles in history were in the Solomon Islands/Coral Sea area. Also, read Neptune's Inferno about the Solomon Islands Naval Campaign and the weird fact that on tonnage of shipping something like 1/4 of the greatest Naval Battles happened in the Coral Sea and Soloman Islands in about 10 months from May of 1942 till February of 1943
Mr Whistler is a man of many talents and skills. Biographics, Geographics and now Warographics. One can only guess what he shall accomplish next. Great stuff Simon.
Love all your channels Simon This one is no exception I hope you and your team have an awesome 2022 and continue the fantastic content on all your channels
Dear Lord, Simon. You come to this story with no preparation. Everyone misses the USN's raid on The Marshall and Gilbert Islands. And miss the raid on Japanese forces invading Lae on New Guinea. But you actually said that the Yorktown was damaged by a Japanese 500 lb bomb at PEARL HARBOR. Of course, the Yorktown and Lexington were the American carriers at the battle of the Coral Sea in May, 1942. The Lexington was sunk. The Yorktown was damaged, returning to Pearl Harbor just 72 hours before it set sail behind the Enterprise and Hornet. You mention the Saratoga earlier. It was in Bremerton for repairs after being torpedoed in January by a Japanese submarine. The Yorktown had been transferred from the Atlantic after this to keep up Pacific carrier strength. It was reinforced by squadrons from the Saratoga, and in May/June 1942 had the most experienced naval aviators in the USN. Contrast that to Hornet's green fliers, under the disastrous Stanhope Ring, led by a Marc Mitscher who was far from the commander of Task Force 58 he would be later. Mitscher's After Action Report had unmistakable omissions and inaccuracies; something that was shocking for the USN during WWII. The USN used those AAR in their ability to learn from mistakes. Mitscher's and Ring's mistakes must have been Courts Martial worthy.
As I've enjoyed many of your other videos, I was disappointed that this one is often superficial, with careless factual errors, i.e. Wade McClusky's group following "a cruiser" to find the Japanese carriers. It was the DESTROYER Arashi, NOT a cruiser. Montemayor's 3 part analysis of the Midway battle is WAY more factually researched and easier to follow. Also sloppy pictures i.e. showing a ship mounted anti aircraft battery while talking about on island defenses.
I'd say the same about using a pic of a Japanese carrier packed with bi-planes (!) when referring to the wrecks of the Akagi & Kaga being found in 2019. Why *that* pic for heaven's sake?
I read this story once and from it, you can see how miniscule mistakes can lead the greatest of disasters. There was a young Japanese sailor changing out the antenna on a Japanese recon patrol plane. He had the new antenna on the plane when he heard a seagull. He was severely homesick and melancholy. He walked to the side of the ship and as he watch the seagull he thought of the times when, as a child his mother and father had taken him to the beach to feed the seagulls and he longed to a child again and to relive the times that he had so much fun with his family. The recon plane took of and spotted the US fleet and radioed in the coordinates but the message was never received by Japanese command. When the young Japanese sailor saw the seagull, in his trip down memory lane and in his sorrow, he forgot to tighten the bolts on the antenna and it blew off. Consequently, the Japanese lost the battle of Midway.
That’s not a true story though. The Japanese had always intended on maintaining complete radio silence for that mission, especially at that stage in the mission.
I love all the work you put into these videos! It would be a very long video to do but I think it would be cool to see you do an entire video on the Enterprise's history during WW2. Keep doing such fantastic work Simon!
I dislike the mythology of decisive battles such as Gettysburg and Midway. The truth is that even if Midway had been taken and all 3 American carriers sunk, it would not have greatly altered the War. Hawaii itself could easily have been fortified sufficient to prevent takeover by invasion. Mainly though, people seem to forget that by the end of 1942 the US had already built 20 escort carriers of the Bogue, Charger, and Sangamon classes, another 13 in the first half of 1943, and a whopping 36 of the Casablanca class in the 2nd half of 1943. The US had been building the Gato class submarines since 1940 and began building the Balao class in 1942. Beginning in December 1942, the new, more capable Essex carrier was built and 6 more of this class more would be built before the end of 1943 along with 9 of the Independence, light carrier class. And these were backed up by the 2700 Liberty and 500 Victory cargo ships built during WWII. It makes for a much better story if we pretend that the US was on the verge of defeat and was only saved by luck at Midway. In reality, Japan could not possibly have stood against the Navy the US built in 1943 and it only got worse in 1944.
@@johngalt2506 True, although the Wildcat 2 continued to be used on escort carriers since the Hellcat needed a longer runway. Similar to the situation in Britain with the Hurricane.
Thanks for the video -- learned some new things about the battle, and enjoyed your summary. One thing would point out is that Parshall and Tully in "Shattered Sword" along with some other contemporary Japanese war historians have revised the original western understanding of the battle based on Fuchida's account -- that our understanding of armed Japanese planes blowing up in a huge chain on the decks was either not accurate or at the very least an exaggeration. Though the in-flux state of fuel and bombs likely played a role as you say, they suggest it was more below decks. The Akagi, victim of only a few bombs due to a mistake in targeting by the inexperienced dive bombing crew (all hitting going after Kaga instead of properly splitting due to a recently transferred pilot's mistake) was expected to be just fine, but had some damage control disasters that did her in. It's been a while, but I think they had some leaking fuel fumes and they tried to vent them but it ended up spreading it to other hangars causing the subsequent explosion to be fatal for the ship. Particularly liked the viewpoints of the Midway fighter pilots -- I enjoy getting perspective from the secondary players. Thanks, again!
The fumes and venting disaster was a later carrier, the Taiho. It was initially thought that Akagi might have been towed, but from the initial damage, not to mention the impracticality of a tow, it seems fanciful.
@@maemorri Thanks for the correction! I will see if I can revisit some old sources and rediscover what it is that made the few hits on the Akagi so devastating.
@@maemorri Yes, I will review some more, but one source that is pretty reliable suggests it was just the single hit was right into upper hanger and fire spread rapidly due to the fuel lines and exacerbated by munitions on the various decks it spread into. Thanks again.
@@victortuber9116 I don't disagree with your layer comment. Akagi also potentially suffered catastrophic failure in damage control. But your initial comment about venting explosive gases applies to Taiho and not Akagi.
I think calling it Nagumos Blunder is a bit harsh, he didnt really have much of an option ....he had been ordered to keep half his planes in reserve, he had to bring his first wave home, and launch his second but had been harried and delayed by American attacks, and he ultimatly made his choice following Japanese Navy doctorine of playing it safe, i think its a choice a fair few would make given the circumstances ....if anything his only mistake was steaming towards the American fleet rather than away from it (Japanese planes had greater ranges) but given he had no way of knowing that his initial recon on the American fleet was incorrect and that he had been in range of the American planes the whole time .... i think its fairer to not really call it a blunder, Also Yorktown wasnt damaged at pearl, she wasnt even at pearl, she was damaged at the battle of coral sea
Actually, the Americans did score a torpedo hit on a tanker, Akebono Maru, but did not cause enough damage to prevent that ship from continuing on with the rest of the convoy. The torpedo was dropped from a PBY Catalina, of all things.
As has been previously noted, Yorktown was damaged at Coral Sea, not Pearl Harbor. Nimitz was told it would take months to repair her, but he gave the yard only three days to have her at sea. My late father was 20 year old Damage Controlman striker at the time, and said he never worked so hard and long (around the clock) in his life on anything in the Navy as he did helping to get Yorktown ready to go. He said the same about his shipmates and civilian workers. Many historical sources have identified the U.S. Navy's superior damage control capabilities as being a key component of victory over the Japanese Navy in WWII. I'm in awe of the fact that our Navy was able to raise and return to service most of the ships sunk at Pearl Harbor, or get the Yorktown ready to join the fight at Midway in less than three days. I also think we owe a great deal to a quirky little code-breaker, Commander Joe Rochefort, who worked in his bath robe and slippers, and who convinced Nimitz he was right about AF being Midway, at the risk of his career. Had he backed down, we can only speculate on how things might have turned out differently in this battle. Fortunately for me, Dad was not one of the sailors selected to sail with the carrier to continue repairs underway, or I might not be here. My father remained in the Navy until retirement in 1980 as a Master Chief, having enlisted in 1939. These people truly were the "Greatest Generation".
The US only declared war on Japan (making de jure what was de facto). Hitler unilaterally (and I’m sure to the exasperation of the professional German staff officers) declared war on the US. There was no treaty requirements for Hitler to do so, the Tripartite Alliance was a defensive one. Japan, being the belligerent here, forsook the mutual defence provisions.
TIK did a rather interesting video on this. Turns out that Hitler may have already considered himself at war with the US, and just formalized it ua-cam.com/video/VwTMR76qv3M/v-deo.html .
Really a sort of footnote, but a mention of Ens. George Gay's survival of Waldron's attack would have been nice. Gay floated in the ocean and watched the rest of the show that day. He survived the war and became a pilot for TWA.
To talk about Midway, you have to include the Battle of the Coral Sea, which sidelined 2 Japanese carriers; Shokaku and Zuikaku, fully 1/3 of the mainline carriers. Yorktown was damaged in that battle. You also didn't 'eject' from WW2 fighters, there were no ejection seats. You jumped out. Yorktown wasn't sunk at Midway, it was sunk under tow by submarine, after the battle, along with the Hammann: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Yorktown_(CV-5)#Salvage_and_sinking
Fully agree about Coral Sea - if the Japanese hadn't gotten a bloody nose there, they could have shown up at Midway with 6 carriers and things might have turned out very differently. You're right about ejection seats at Midway, but there were aircraft with such seats in WW2 near the tail end of things.
@@executivedirector7467 If they would have taken the air wing off of Shokaku (I think) and put it on Zuikaku - they would have had 5. It was against their doctrine, but it might have made a difference, as well. (It could be the other way around, with the air wings on the undamaged carrier)
I'll be honest. I'm 64. I spent 20 years in USN. Most of it stationed in Pearl. I'm a relatively intelligent guy and I know a little bit about Naval History. But this was the absolute first time I've ever heard of a plane called the "Brewster Buffalo". Wow. Got to look that one up. Thanks Simon.
Subscribed to this channel as soon as I saw it. Love it. Being a Canadian military member there's several battles I'd like to see: -Battle of Vimy Ridge 9-12 April 1917 (WWI) -Juno Beach 6 June 1944 (WWI) -Battle of Kapyong 22-25 April 1951 (Korea) -Operation Medak Pocket 9-17 Sept 1993 (Former Yugoslavia) -Operation Medusa 2-17 Sept 2006 (Afghanistan)
Yorktown was damaged at the Battle of Coral Sea. Not at Pearl harbor. The Battle of Coral Sea was the first instance of naval vessels being attacked and attacking each other only by aircraft.
Wow. Great story telling. I got goosebumps listening at times. As an American is really raises a bit of patriotism within you to see so many soldiers fighting together against a brutal govt. And there’s no doubt about that, the Japanese were extremely brutal to its enemies during the war. Great story.
Que buen video. I hope you keep up with many more videos of battles.You're a very enjoyable host. Thank you. Gracias amigo. Very good way to learn English.
I've been dying for a channel that covers historical wars, Wars are so fascinating in terms of history, I would love to see you cover the Battle of Stalingrad at some point!
Absolutely fantastic viewing - thankyou for posting. Cant wait to see your one about the Aleutian Islands if you make it :). Also, just in case it's interesting, I recently saw a documentary about the Japanese Aircraft carriers of WW2 which illustrated the fatal design flaw that they suffered from - unlike the British and American carriers their flight decks were not reinforced with any bomb-proofing material, so that even in the absence of all the ordanance present due to the high number of fully armed aircraft below decks, any bomb impacting on the surface would travel straight through and detonate right next to the ships magazine - obviously a guarenteed disaster.
A very nice coverage of the battle, thank you. Still I have one point of critique: Calling Nagumos decisions an "error" is a very Armchair-General hindsight thing to say. He acted precisely as the naval codex of the IJN demanded him to. If there was a mistake, it was in the HC of the IJN, forcing him to keep half his bombers armed for naval battle, when it was very obvious, that the remaining numbers of aircraft wouldn't be enough to neutralize Midway. They overestimated the perceived advantage of having the element of surprise and it was at that time already doctrine, that no battle plan should be centered around this fact. Rather overkill than failure was the general motto, failing to follow this, was the actual mistake. Therefor rearming his planes for a second run on Midway was actually expected by IJN high command but optimistically dismissed. Nagumos supposed second mistake, as you mentioned it, cannot be seen as a mistake alltogether. Because of the piecemeal attack of american squadrons the flight decks were reserved for CAP-fighters, an absolutely vital point to the defense. If he would've launched his second strike before receiving the returning planes from Midway, it would've caused a mass ditching of those, essentially meaning throwing away 1/3 to 1/2 of his planes, an unacceptable loss for any carrier commander, no matter the nation. At this point in the battle there was no reasoning for him to do so and potentially face military trial at home due to an unnecessary and huge waste of material and more importantly, human personell who were almost all veteran pilots from Pearl Harbour. Thats why it is called "Nagumo's Dilemma", there was no right or wrong decision here, the attacks of the Americans literally forced him into an unwinnable spot as we can see in hindsight. His only real mistake was not pulling back his fleet to the north but rather steaming towards the Americans after their detection and later keeping the Hiryu with the fleet when actually hoping for a surface battle.
Love the new channel I absolutely love military history I have a few recommendations for videos 1. Battle of Remagen, 1945: Seizing the last bridge over the Rhine 2. Battle of Hue, 1968: The Vietnam War’s bloodiest urban battle 3. Battle of Bunker Hill, 1775: British victory at a great cost 4. Yorktown, 1781: The battle that gave America independence 5. Operation vengeance, 1943: The plan to kill the mastermind of Pearl Harbor 6. The Alamo, 1836: The battle that paved the way for Texas independence from Mexico 7. Guadalcanal, 1942-43: Americas first offensive in the pacific 8. Stalingrad, 1942-43: The bloody battle that changed WWII 9. Khe Sanh, 1968: US Marines under siege 10. Battle of the Bulge, 1944-45: The Nazis failed Ardennes Offensive 11. Iwo Jima, 1945: The iconic battle of the US Marines 12. Chosin, 1950: The Marines miraculous escape in the brutal winter 13. Mogadishu, 1993: Black Hawk Down 14. Fallujah, 2004: Urban death trap of Iraq 15. Inchon, 1950: Turning the tide of the Korean War 16. Gettysburg, 1863: The turning point of the American Civil War
Brilliant video, Factboi. I was a little late to this one, my bad. Damn, Midway... everytime Simon mentioned America's carriers arriving and taking names, the Team America soundtrack played in my head.
Im so happy Simon is addicted to youtube chanels, im addicted to Simons videos. Learn more from you (and sabaton...) about history than i did 12 years in school 🙈
This channel scratches the same itch as the early 2000's History channel but with a way better narrator and no crappy reenactment footage. Congrats on another hit channel fact boy!
The US Carrier Yorktown (named after the battle that won the US Revolutionary War) was not damaged during the battle of Pearl Harbor as stated in the video. It was actually damaged during the US-Japanese battle of the Coral Sea.
Yes indeed, this is a very serious misstatement of the video.
True, and IJN Yamato's sistership was called Mushasi, not Mashasi...
And mcclusky followed a destroyer to find the Japanese fleet, not a cruiser. Though this fact is less important than the coral sea mistake.
@@thestrum71 Sure that wasn't his british/chek accent just pronouncing it all weird? Ha ha
@@upperleftcoastchelseafan7718 Actually I'ld love to go for that. Would be fun even.I love Simon's videos. But these are mistakes, maybe just that, we're humans right? But these mistakes should have been corrected whilst editing the video. Anyway I love Simon's vids, I also love watching Blackadder. Simon's accent, well, I like it actually...
I was a submariner and our history with WW2 is really important to the culture. There was a submarine that was nicknamed "the seventh fleet" because it sunk SO much Japanese tonnage and was so wildly aggressive that it by itself was thought to be a fleet by them.
Something I learned recently was that while the Japanese were running a war game scenario, a junior officer placed the us carriers exactly where they ended up being. His results came out the same as the real battle but was dismissed because the japanese thought there was no way for the americans to know thier plans
Junior Officer: you sunk my battleship
Yamamoto: what the hell are you idiots doing?
Senior officer: winning, sir
Yeah, I cought that on Dan Carlin's podcast. Unrealistic or not, always wargame a worst case scenario. Even though the US had the drop on the Japanese fleet, this one really came down to the wire!
Too many people may never realize how much of our current way of life we owe to those who made the ultimate sacrifice in that battle 😯
It is not completely confirmed to be true as it was from the testimonies of some of the Japanese officers but it makes quite an interesting tidbit.
It really is interesting but after years of WW2 study I think the Japanese were not just arrogant- they were desperate.
Yamato knew there was a window to win the war. He knew this because of his experience in America, seeing first hand their industrial capabilities. The irony is that his method to defeat the US has been the only way- break the spirit of its people.
The primary reason Japan lost the war was timing. Had they come in earlier and right after Pearl, I think they would have.
@@fredflux2738 Yamamoto spent years in America, studied at Harvard and was the Naval Attaché in Washington. He knew Japan could not win a sustained campaign.
I Love how the Brits seem to appreciate the Battle of Midway the same way we Americans do the Battle of Britain. I am a Yank fascinated how the Spitfire totally embarrassed the Germans and Hermann Goering. It is amazing to me how both battles seem to turn on some luck, I call it Godly intervention.
German pilots, apparently off course, decided to let go of their bombs on London, turned out to be a fortuitous respite for the Royal Air Force. We can all look back and see these things in clear vision. The Allies were blessed, I believe at least the UK and USA were.
Edit:
This is the 1st video I watched and the narration and explanation was very thorough and entertaining.
Outstanding video.
I gladly subbed and will enjoy the Long playlist.
🎉😂Ujj😂🎉
Coral Sea, Yorktown was heavily damaged at The Battle of Coral Sea and was repaired at Pearl, in 48 hrs.
The Battle of Coral sea was the first time opposing navy forces engaged each other without seeing each other.
Yeah It was hilarious to have him say that the carriers had been away during the attack at pear and then somehow got hit with a bomb at the same battle!
Beat me to it.
When he said Pearl Harbor I was like ?????? You mean Coral sea.
Was probably the writer messing with Simon for no Christmas Bonus. J/k
@@itachi-wg3gu to the Blazement!
@@Hunter1836 Either that, or there was a friendly fire incident that has been covered up for decades. Oops, just started a new conspiracy theory!
Yeah I caught that too and it pretty much pissed me off. There are some great, highly researched videos on the Battle of Midway. I was trying to fall asleep while watching this one, so I didn't respond until now. There were a few other mistakes made here. It's as if the guy was phoning it in. I've lost faith in this channel's history documentaries.
The Yorktown's story was one of the best parts of this battle. They were damaged in the Battle of the Coral Sea (not Pearl Harbor as stated in the vide) and sailed for Midway with the repair crews still on board because they were in pretty bad shape. During the battle the ship was hit by the Japanese and burning, but because the repair crews were already onboard they were able to get the fire under control. The Japanese thought the ship was sunk and when they came back for another attack run saw the Yorktown without any fire and thought it was a second carrier, so they attacked it again instead of moving on to another ship. What the repair crews were able to accomplish with the ship alone was nothing short of amazing even though it was eventually lost from the damage it took during that second attack.
Despite the damage from the second attack, it was still afloat and undertow when sunk by a sub.
@@drcthru7672 and didn't they also name new carriers Yorktown just to fuck with the Japanese navy making them think it still somehow survived.
The Yorktown sailed from Pearl Harbor as soon as the union tradesmen were on board for their shift. The Navy didn't inform their local's shop stewards that was going to happen so held the workers at gunpoint as the vessel casted off the lines and headed to sea. The workers were told they'd be shot if they tried to jump overboard and shot in the water if they managed to do that. Then they were told to get to work or they'd be thrown overboard once the islands disappeared behind the horizon. The Navy did have a vessel sailing with the Yorktown to take the workers back to Pearl Harbor once their work was completed so finished up in record time so they could return home ASAP.
@@billwilson3609 citation?
@@billwilson3609 that sounds massively made up. What's your source
08:44 Simon is actually incorrect at this point. The carrier Yorktown wasn't damaged in the Pearl harbor bombings it was actually damaged in the Battle of the Coral sea where USS Lexington was lost also.
A Simon channel factually incorrect? The heck you say?!
I noticed that immediately. I had to replay it to confirm what I heard.
He got a lot of stuff wrong. Yorktown torpedo bombers sinking Soryu, the destroyer Arashi which McClusky followed to the Japanese fleet identified as a cruiser, etc.
I only got part way through the video. There were too many basic errors to take it seriously as history. For example, the United States only declared war on Japan. Germany, Italy & most of their puppets declared war on the US.
Sorry about that. Good correction. Thank you.
Do the battle of Alesia! Building two walls and defending them both is one of the craziest things I've ever heard of!
Ancient Fortnite.
Building two sets of concentric fortifications - one facing inward to defend against the besieged garrison and one facing outward to defend against relieving forces - was actually a pretty common feature of ancient, medieval, and early modern sieges! Although the sheer scale of the walls Caesar built at Alesia is impressive, and definitely worth a video
My uncle served in the Aleutians in WW2. I asked him once what it was like. He summed it up as, "The enemy only attacked once, and by the time we got there, they had left." I always thought he was underplaying what really happened but it wasn't until I read his obituary that I learned by how much. Long story short, the Japanese held two islands for a year. After a long bloody fight for the first, 35000 American and Canadian soldiers invaded the second. My uncle was in the first wave of that attack, scaling a thousand foot cliff to open the beaches for those who followed. But as he said, by the time they got there the enemy had left. Under the cover of fog the Japanese had already evacuated.
There aren't many quality videos on the subject of the bombing of Dutch Harbor and the subsequent occupation, nor the battles which followed. In the grand scheme of things it was just a diversionary attack in a massive global conflict, but it is quite a story. For example, of the almost 2400 troops on Attu only 28 were taken alive. I would love to see you tackle the topic at some point.
The Canadians and Americans actually wound up firing on each other, each thinking they were Japanese.
Find the book The 1000 Mile War, it’s the definitive history of the war in Alaska.
Loving the new channel Simon. Bio Geo and now Warographics are some of the best content on UA-cam. Great idea doing a war channel. How can you ever understand history properly without learning about our wars. Keep up the great work.
we humans do love our wars.... our evolution is that of our pointy stick, and their ever-pointier, ever-deadlier successors. sticks of wood, sticks of wood with stone attached, sticks of wood with bronze attached, sticks of wood with iron attached..... etc etc etc, until we arrive today at our flying sticks with nuclear warheads attached. Everything we have ever done or will ever do we are going to do over and over and over again.
try to think about anything humans have ever invented in reference to a pointy stick or a stick with something else attached. Trust me, there's A LOT more than it might seem at first glance. (e.g. bow and arrow: stick bent by string that shoots smaller pointy sticks)
@@alexander-mauricemillamlae4567 pens are pointy sticks... and the pen is mightier than the sword.
@@kryan1234567890 the sword is a much larger pointy stick tho
@@PaulRudd1941and is also currently running a second series covering WWII weekly!
The story of the three sister Yorktown class carriers (Yorktown, Hornet, Enterprise) always gets me, they bore the brunt of the early war for the US and in the end only Enterprise survived and managed to become the most decorated US ship from WW2. It's a true shame that she was scrapped after the war.
I still CANNOT understand that! She was in (almost) every scrap in the pacific War! She ranks right up there with the USS Constitution!
@@guhalakshmiratan5566 it's a boat
The Big E sails again
@@grilledleeks6514 it’s also a piece of history
@@grilledleeks6514 it's not a boat idiot it's a ship. Believe it or not there is a difference between a ship and a boat
The decryption of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s communications gave the United States Navy a huge advantage during the Battle of Midway. This allowed them to prepare defend and counter attack! This was the greatest naval win of any navy in history
Absolutely! If you find that interesting I reccomend checking out Simon's video on agent Garbo. It is in the same vein as that and also one of the most incredible stories of WWII. Not to mention one of the all time best videos across all of Simon's channels. Happy new year!
If only they used Nord VPN
It was quite the coup that the intelligence at Pearl gave out the false flag that Midway (AF) was thirsty.
It is interesting to note that, in 1941, both Japan and the USA believed that battleships, not aircraft carriers, were still the main weapon in naval warfare. So the main Japanese aim at Pearl Harbour was always the battleships. With so many battleships out of action after Pearl Harbour, the US improvised by centering their war effort on the carriers This proved to be the right choice.
That was every naval planner's thought process at the time. The flat tops were just too new and untested and many admirals, Nagumo included, didn't think they would amount to much aside from an expensive support ship. The war in the Pacific was what moved the carrier from a barely tolerated ship in some navies to the new capital ship.
Erm the Japanese were the first to really understand the importance of carriers and planes. All be it they were overly proud of Yama
Also the Japanese didn’t destroy the fuel tanks at Pearl Harbor which some say was a big mistake.
The Japanese intended to destroy the carriers but, they were at sea.
No. USN did not convert to a primarily a carrier force.. USN had to reserve its fleet carriers to fight IJN fleet carriers .. they had to keep them as the defense only, because they could not afford to lose them to submarine attacks .... This is the sort of thing Mcarthur would damm the navy to hell for.. he would say, we need the carriers to do aerial attacks . Nimitz would say " nah, if we lose our last carrier,the Kido Butai can sail along wiping you out. They must hold back their carriers to protect from ours!.." . Have a look at Guadalcanal campaign. When did USN carriers participate ? When the Kido Butai participated, and only to turn the Kido Butai back.... What the USN did was create a massive invasion force, which included 150 escort carriers , but also massive numbers of navy and army surface ships of all sorts,so as to be able to invade Phillipines, Indonesia, Japan.. anywhere.. not to use the carrier as the primary thing .
The Japanese brutally executed captured US Airmen, while US held captured Japanese Airmen until the end of the war. You can tell who the good guys are just from something as simple as this.
Nagumo's real blunder was not pulling his forces back about 50 miles west or northwest when the American carrier was detected. Had he done this, he could have placed his carriers more or less out of range of the American carrier planes while still being able to use the "long legs" of his own aircraft to attack the US fleet. However, this didn't fit with Japanese aggressive fleet doctrine and training, so this option was never considered. It is somewhat unlikely that he could have carried out an attack even if his Kates had been armed with torpedoes, since it would have taken 45 minutes to get those planes onto the decks, spotted and launched. Meanwhile, he was under attack for almost this entire time, meaning he had to launch and land CAP fighters as well land his Midway strike. Not only this, but having the planes on the deck with ordinance attached would have made a prime target for any attaching bomber firing its machine guns at the loaded carrier decks. There are a couple of videos by Montemayor that go into quite a bit of detail on this (ua-cam.com/video/Bd8_vO5zrjo/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/BXjydKPcX60/v-deo.html and ua-cam.com/video/WHO6xrSF7Sw/v-deo.html ).
23:46 the ship they had trailed was the IJN Arashi, which was a destroyer, not a cruiser. Earlier in the day a USN submarine (the USS Nautilus) had launched an unsuccessful torpedo attack against the IJN Kirishima and the Arashi had stayed behind to hunt the submarine as the rest of the formation moved on. The Arashi, a Kagero class destroyer, was misidentified by the submarine crew as a cruiser.
After giving up the hunt for the Nautilus, the Arashi made high speed to rejoin towards the group, sailing in a straight line, thereby leading McClusky's flight to the carrier formation.
Leaving the Arashi behind to deal with the submarine was a big mistake. For a slow moving convoy, it would be prudent to leave behind one destroyer, less the submarine quickly resurface and could then overtake the convoy. But in this case, they would be better to leave the submarine behind with no destroyer and leave it in the wake of the 25 knot fleet. The submarine would be unlikely to catch up.
If they insist on keeping the submarine down for a few hours, they could leave the Arashi behind, but order it, in no circumstances, to attempt to rejoin the fleet. Instead it must make it's own way back, assuming it has enough fuel left to do so on it's own. Often, destroyers had to be refueled by larger ships to complete a long voyage like the Midway operation.
A B-26 (Suzie Q) piloted by 1LT James O. Muri actually buzzed the deck of the Akagi skimming its length to escape both the Japanese fighters and the AA fire and although badly damaged it survived (was the only B-26 out of 6 that did so). This was in addition to the B-26 mentioned in the video that was shot down in an attempt to dive into a ship.
this is quickly becoming my favorite channel on UA-cam …
Would love to see you do the "forgotten battle" you mentioned, Simon. I've known for years about to attack on the Alaskan islands, but, I could never find much on it as it's vastly overshadowed by Midway
My understanding of the Aluetian battle was that it was meant as a diversion to lure American aircraft carriers there so that the Japanese could attack Midway without interference. Didn’t work however since Naval code breakers found that Japanese were intending to attack Midway.
during that battle, one of the attacking Japanese Zeros were shot down, landed intact enough to be salvaged and sent back to the US where it was put thru tests and data from those tests helped in creating the F6F Hellcat, F4U Corsair and P-38 lighting.
@@larryo6874 Look up Castner's Cutthroat, quite interesting.
My dad was at Midway , he was on USS Hughes DD 410, he would tell me about his time during the battle, he was a helmsman, he told my about the Yorktown going down. I miss him he was a great Dad.
23:49 it was a destroyer, the Arashi, which was ordered to chase down an American submarine (Nautilus) after that submarine made an unsuccessful attack on a cruiser; however did have a major unintentional role since they were the reason why the Arashi was rushing back to join the Japanese fleet.
0:50 - Chapter 1 - Joining the fight
3:25 - Chapter 2 - Battle plan
9:25 - Chapter 3 - The battle begins
17:45 - Chapter 4 - Nagumo blunder
21:25 - Chapter 5 - Sinking ships
27:30 - Chapter 6 - The next day
29:20 - Chapter 7 - Aftermath & impact
I must answer to His Majesty...
thanks
Simon: The Battle off Samar is worthy of its own video, seperate from the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Of which it was a part. US Navy - 6 small escort carriers, 3 destroyers and 4 destroyer escorts versus the Imperial Japanese Navy: 4 battleships (including Yamato), 6 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers and 11 destroyers. The Japanese still lose. I'm not American but I'm still immensely proud of those Tin Can Sailors. They were amazing.
Also USS Johnston and Ernest E.Evans who won the Medal of Honor
@@darthdooku6246 as deserved!
Samar was the last stand of the tin can sailors johnston and the other destroyers and des fought the japs like battleships no fear and did heavy damage to the japs
@@donaldkepple4927they didn’t just damage the Japanese they drove them off. And they didn’t have have the bravery of battleships but that of destroyers. Never insult the crew of a destroyer by comparing them to a battleship.
@@jdog345 you are damn right on that
Nagumo was actually a very incompetent commander and has been upsetting Yamamoto during the raid on Pearl Harbor by being too conservative on the attack. He was eventually been left for dead all over Pacific islands along with others who survived Midway. Yamaguchi was actually more accustomed to AC strategy but Nagumo was a senior in navy school so he outranked Yamaguchi. Yamaguchi decided to stay and fight because he thought that they have sunk two American's AC instead of one.
I agree. Nagumo gets a lot of bad press, but he was actually a good commander. His problem at Midway was that he was given a virtually unworkable plan with inadequate forces.
@@nicholasconder4703 Absolutely. Nagumo's situation was completely impossible even before the Dauntlesses arrived, and had been referred to as 'Nagumo's Problem'.
Simon's description of the situation made it seem less serious than it was; while evading US air attacks, the IJN carriers *could not launch or recover aircraft*. At all.
If the US airstrikes prior to the carrier aircraft arriving hadn't been there, Nagumo in theory could've resolved the issue, but crucially those attacks took away the time that could've been used to do it, leaving him in this position.
Nagumo wasn’t incompetent. He was a battleship admiral who didn’t fully appreciate the intricacies of the kido butai. He is thought to have been chosen to command the kido butai in order to placate the battleship faction of the IJN.
@@MaxwellAerialPhotography You are right, it has more to do with Yamamoto's decisions by not giving the right man on command.
@@taskdon769 I think it really had more to do with a plan that scattered the Japanese fleet across half the Pacific Ocean than Nagumo's decisions. In the time that he was in charge of the Japanese carrier forces, Nagumo gave a pretty good accounting for himself (apart from Midway). The IJN's defeat at Midway had more to do with Nagumo being given insufficient forces to suppress the island's air power, protect the troop transports and landings, then fight off a possible American attack. He didn't have enough carriers and aircraft to do all that, even had the Americans acted according to the Japanese plan. Also, Japanese carrier doctrine was somewhat lacking. The US carriers later in the war always assigned one carrier in a Task Force to CAP duty, freeing up the other 2-3 carriers to be ready at all times to launch strikes at a moments notice. After their foray into the Indian Ocean in April the IJN had found some issues with their carrier doctrine, but had not had time to implement changes by the time of Midway. So it wasn't Nagumo being the wrong man for the job, as Yamaguchi would likely have made similar decisions and mistakes if he had been in charge, but rather issues with Japanese carriers and the IJN carrier doctrine that was at fault.
You mentioned it in this video it would be cool to see the battle of the Aleutian Islands, during a portion of it known as operation cottage Canadian troops were requested to aid US soldiers in securing an island. Japanese had already retreated but thick fog got in the way of visual confirmation. This was the only point throughout the war that United States soldiers and Canadian soldiers engaged each other in combat. Through the fog a Canadian soldier mistook an American for Japanese and opened fire, the ensuing firefight resulted in 28 Americans and 4 Canadians dead, with 50 wounded on both sides. Progress was also hampered by mines, timed bombs, accidental ammunition detonations, vehicle accidents and booby traps
@The Notorious Mr. Dee lol absolutely man Canadian are nice until the fighting starts... But afterwards we still send that respect
@@canadianbacon9819 except in this case, this wasn't fighting. This was trigger happy Canadians blowing away a US patrol because they failed to positively identify their targets. The irony being that this exact incident would once again take place in 2002 when a National Guard pilot dropped a 500 lbs bomb on Canadian forces at Tarnak Farm in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Just goes to show that the fog of war can be extremely dangerous, both for friend and foe.
@@DirtyMikeandTheBoys69 initially yes.. despite Canada's kind reputation we have a historical record of not just being trigger happy but stab happy as well. but the firefight that ensued between the two forces lasted for a significant period of time with 50 being injured on both sides the total casualties are mentioned above they're definitely was a period of actual engagement between Canadians and Americans, we're both sides were exchanging fire, however most of the campaign consisted mostly of booby traps and trying to locate the Japanese. Significant battles on other Islands during the campaign though, I am familiar with the incident you are speaking of it truly is as you say extremely dangerous for all combatants. But in that situation four Canadians were killed and several more were injured. The situation on the Aleutian Islands however saw much higher casualties with around 130 total on both sides. The Americans definitely returned fire and attempted to defend themselves from the onslaught, Canadian soldiers were told to prepare for heavy Japanese defenses and to approach the situation with complete combat readiness I don't think either force was assuming that they would run into each other in the time frame that they did their advance was very fast despite small setbacks here and there, not to mention in the dense fog the Americans could not see the Canadians either as they returned fire basically right away, the Canadians just happened to see the Americans first in this situation the fog was so thick it obscured their vision enough to allow the fight to go on for the period it did. I don't know all the specifics of the engagement for sure but that's why I would like Simon to make a video
@@canadianbacon9819 I'm very familiar with the incident as I'm not only from Alaska, but I spent my military service in Alaska. I've also helped out at the local WWII-Alaska museum on more than one occasion and that battle is talked about quite frequently in the memoirs of the men who were there. I highly recommend you read some of the first hand accounts. It's not as poetic or heroic as you think it is. Albeit I may be misreading your comment. Either way, there were numerous incidents in WWII that saw American forced under fire from their Canadian or British comrades. Which is why I wince every time someone says "My grandad fought in WWII and said when the British fired, the Germans ducked. When the Germans fired, the British ducked. When the Yanks fired, everyone ducked." Because more often than not, it was the other way around unfortunately.
@@DirtyMikeandTheBoys69 much respect for your service despite our differences in nationality. I have read accounts from Canadians but not from the American point of view I will definitely have to check it out. And if it sounded glorious with the way I was writing it I did not mean it to come off that way to me this is an unfortunate situation of friendly fire that ensued into a deadly firefight between allies, my writing style is definitely an issue I write books so it's a habit to pump it up a bit lol. But it is one of those hidden parts of history than not many people know about. The reason I bring it up is that friendly fire is common unfortunately but this is one scenario where friendly fire escalated into something more which is rare, this incident could only be set in motion by the culmination of events leading up to the period, stiff Japanese resistance on other Islands previously cleared in the campaign, specifically the battle of Attu(allied forces expected the same level of resistance on this island) as well as the thick fog(obscured visibility) and the booby traps(gave the Allies reason to believe the Japanese were still on the island), all of it just linked up so well for the Japanese and that's why I believe it has historical significance.
My grandfather would tell me and my siblings his experience in the Pacific during WW2 and his story about midway always stuck with me, he was there, and his account was harrowing. He was so proud of his country, and also to have fought along so many brave men who gave him their stories to tell. Great video once again!
God damn right Simon. Im pumped about this channel.
The Battle of Midway is also noteworthy for something else. It represents a major shift in naval tactics away from battle ships to aircraft carriers. You could argue this was started with the pursuit and eventual sinking of the Bismarck but Midway was the first major naval engagement fought and won by aircraft carriers. Naval doctrine was pretty much changed forever after Midway
I thought it was at coral sea where yorktown and lexington fought
@@killer19183 There were probably several pre-Midway battles you could identify as the turning point. You could argue it was the sinking of the Bismarck where Ark Royal was, more by necessity than design, instrumental in disabling the ship enough for it to be intercepted, surrounded and eventually destroyed by conventional means. The Coral Sea was a proving ground for Carrier warfare, again partly by necessity rather than design because following Pearl Harbor, carriers is what the US had available. But I think all parties were still learning how to use aircraft carriers in a major engagement, something the US clearly did better than their Japanese counterparts
The signs were all there that it was going to happen well before Midway, however I think Midway is pretty much the rubicon, the point at which Air Superiority unquestionably became the dominant and deciding factor in naval warfare. It was a large set piece battle, planned around carriers and beyond visual range combat from the outset, with a definitive (and decisive) outcome.
@@Paul_Inman the irony is that the road to victory for the IJN at Midway was their surface ships in front and carriers behind.
The IJN battleships should have been used at night to shell Midway.
@@f430ferrari5 The battle would have been very different that is for sure.
@@jameshannagan4256 yes. Very very different in which most who cannot be objective really are unable to comprehend.
Notice how many don’t even want to discuss the IJN approaching Midway with surface ships up front in perhaps 6 sectional groups.
Doesn’t make sense to form one large body.
If im not mistaken, they didnt have ejection seats yet at this point, so those guys were actually bailing out of those fighters under their own power. Cant imagine how incredibly difficult this must of been in a damaged fighter plane thats going down
Whistle boy and his team of wonderful collaborators have made these past 21 months a whole lot more bearable and I thank them every day for that. The Battle of Stalingrad has to be one of the craziest parts of the war. Perhaps a future video? 🙂
He does have one on one of his other channels but I agree it should get the Wargraphics treatment.
To do the battle of Stalingrad justice Simon would have to do several videos. I for one would love to view.
Yeah, Stalingrad would be interesting.
Hitler lost Stalingrad when he refused to let Von Paulous to retreat.
Dang Fact boy, do you ever sleep?? Loving the new channel and every other channel. I could listen to you read the phone book, you got such a soothing voice and I love the British accent
Love this channel, one of your best.
8:48 How could The Yorktown been damage during the attack on Pearl Harbor when that day she was on the docks of Norfolk Virginia on the Atlantic Ocean i think you meant to say that she was damage during The Battle of The Coral Sea where she lost one her carrier sister The Lexington
Nor did Simon mean to say the US declared war on Germany and Italy the next day. As he knows, war with the European Axis didn't come for several days, when they declared war on the US in solidarity with Japan.
Lexington and Yorkown were not sisters, in fact Lexington was a converted Battlecrusier
1:14 As I understand it, Roosevelt could only justify a declaration of war against Japan, even though he wanted to stop Germany. It was Germany that declared war against the U.S. Correct me if I’m wrong of course.
You are correct!
Yeah true, but there is a lot of politics surrounding declaring war, stuff that excites politican nerds and many others.
This is correct
Germany had no choice, but to support their ally. Even though they knew that if the US ended up in the war there was no way to actually win.
One of the worst decisions Hitler made. (That's why the US didn't want Hitler killed or deposed. He was so good at bad decisions.)
Yorktown was damaged at the battle of the Coral Sea. She barely made it back to Pearl Harbor. Within four days of docking, ship workers got her repaired enough to get underway to Midway. When they left they still hand ship workers on board making repairs.
Very good video, best in years Simon
GREAT story, so many fascinating nuances to consider in both sides of the battle. Very well told, as always!
Another great one fact boi. I'd love to see a breakdown of: the defense of Ft. Vaux in WWI's Battle of Verdun, the Siege of Masada, Zhukov's Defense of Moscow, or Sobieski's breaking of the Siege of Vienna.
Let's be honest, I'll watch regardless of what's covered.
This is UA-cam so many of those have been covered. Verdun even has a Lego version.
ua-cam.com/video/qo-58zeyETQ/v-deo.html
@@scottmwilhelms2437 This is true, but this is UA-cam. You'd have a harder time finding one that's not covered unless you look for conflicts not involving the 'western world' in any way - which would be awesome. Trust me, I'm always game for learning about stuff I don't know about but if I don't know about it I can't list it in the comments section here.
I've read a couple things about an old Vietnamese book on guerilla war that they've kept secret and use to this day which leads to some awesome feudal-era defenses in the region. I'd love to hear more on that. You?
Whats better than a channel geared towards a subject close to my heart (military history)? A Simon "Fact Boy" Whistler military history channel.
Mindreader! I was just lamenting not having a new Midway video to watch and suddenly you come through! Thanks for the vid. Enjoy your new year, Simon.
If it exists, Simon has a video for it. The 1st rule of youtube 😄.
I was looking for something to help me get a little sleep. Simon you legend! Happy new year!
Too interesting to help me sleep. Great
If you loved doing this stream on Midway, the best carrier battles in history were in the Solomon Islands/Coral Sea area. Also, read Neptune's Inferno about the Solomon Islands Naval Campaign and the weird fact that on tonnage of shipping something like 1/4 of the greatest Naval Battles happened in the Coral Sea and Soloman Islands in about 10 months from May of 1942 till February of 1943
Mr Whistler is a man of many talents and skills. Biographics, Geographics and now Warographics. One can only guess what he shall accomplish next. Great stuff Simon.
Love all your channels Simon
This one is no exception
I hope you and your team have an awesome 2022 and continue the fantastic content on all your channels
Dear Lord, Simon. You come to this story with no preparation. Everyone misses the USN's raid on The Marshall and Gilbert Islands. And miss the raid on Japanese forces invading Lae on New Guinea. But you actually said that the Yorktown was damaged by a Japanese 500 lb bomb at PEARL HARBOR. Of course, the Yorktown and Lexington were the American carriers at the battle of the Coral Sea in May, 1942. The Lexington was sunk. The Yorktown was damaged, returning to Pearl Harbor just 72 hours before it set sail behind the Enterprise and Hornet.
You mention the Saratoga earlier. It was in Bremerton for repairs after being torpedoed in January by a Japanese submarine. The Yorktown had been transferred from the Atlantic after this to keep up Pacific carrier strength. It was reinforced by squadrons from the Saratoga, and in May/June 1942 had the most experienced naval aviators in the USN. Contrast that to Hornet's green fliers, under the disastrous Stanhope Ring, led by a Marc Mitscher who was far from the commander of Task Force 58 he would be later. Mitscher's After Action Report had unmistakable omissions and inaccuracies; something that was shocking for the USN during WWII. The USN used those AAR in their ability to learn from mistakes. Mitscher's and Ring's mistakes must have been Courts Martial worthy.
Mark Mitscher was overrated as a tactician...
@@rachaelsdaddontdrink you didn't know him so why should we take your word for it
Woah, a really late War graphics? Thank you Simon! Happy holidays and happy new year to your crew and family!
@Joey Wheeler 4 am here in America
@@666soso wouldn't that make it early 😝
Simon and team you are a total legend!
DAMMIT SIMON!!! Now I'll never get to sleep at night. I'm up half the night watching your videos as it is! And now this channel!?!?
As I've enjoyed many of your other videos, I was disappointed that this one is often superficial, with careless factual errors, i.e. Wade McClusky's group following "a cruiser" to find the Japanese carriers. It was the DESTROYER Arashi, NOT a cruiser. Montemayor's 3 part analysis of the Midway battle is WAY more factually researched and easier to follow. Also sloppy pictures i.e. showing a ship mounted anti aircraft battery while talking about on island defenses.
I'd say the same about using a pic of a Japanese carrier packed with bi-planes (!) when referring to the wrecks of the Akagi & Kaga being found in 2019. Why *that* pic for heaven's sake?
I read this story once and from it, you can see how miniscule mistakes can lead the greatest of disasters.
There was a young Japanese sailor changing out the antenna on a Japanese recon patrol plane. He had the new antenna on the plane when he heard a seagull. He was severely homesick and melancholy. He walked to the side of the ship and as he watch the seagull he thought of the times when, as a child his mother and father had taken him to the beach to feed the seagulls and he longed to a child again and to relive the times that he had so much fun with his family.
The recon plane took of and spotted the US fleet and radioed in the coordinates but the message was never received by Japanese command. When the young Japanese sailor saw the seagull, in his trip down memory lane and in his sorrow, he forgot to tighten the bolts on the antenna and it blew off. Consequently, the Japanese lost the battle of Midway.
That’s not a true story though. The Japanese had always intended on maintaining complete radio silence for that mission, especially at that stage in the mission.
I love all the work you put into these videos! It would be a very long video to do but I think it would be cool to see you do an entire video on the Enterprise's history during WW2.
Keep doing such fantastic work Simon!
No pilots 'ejected', they bailed out. That said an excellent presentation and summary. Thank you.
I dislike the mythology of decisive battles such as Gettysburg and Midway. The truth is that even if Midway had been taken and all 3 American carriers sunk, it would not have greatly altered the War. Hawaii itself could easily have been fortified sufficient to prevent takeover by invasion.
Mainly though, people seem to forget that by the end of 1942 the US had already built 20 escort carriers of the Bogue, Charger, and Sangamon classes, another 13 in the first half of 1943, and a whopping 36 of the Casablanca class in the 2nd half of 1943. The US had been building the Gato class submarines since 1940 and began building the Balao class in 1942. Beginning in December 1942, the new, more capable Essex carrier was built and 6 more of this class more would be built before the end of 1943 along with 9 of the Independence, light carrier class. And these were backed up by the 2700 Liberty and 500 Victory cargo ships built during WWII.
It makes for a much better story if we pretend that the US was on the verge of defeat and was only saved by luck at Midway. In reality, Japan could not possibly have stood against the Navy the US built in 1943 and it only got worse in 1944.
Also the F6F was just coming into service.
100% correct. Japan was never going to win.
@@johngalt2506 True, although the Wildcat 2 continued to be used on escort carriers since the Hellcat needed a longer runway. Similar to the situation in Britain with the Hurricane.
Can you do the history of The Thunderbirds?
It's a long story that's always evolving and while witnessing their presence, captivates
Yes, the story of Jeff Tracy and International Rescue! Will need to get footage from Gerry and Sylvia Anderson.😁
Excellent addition to your channels, I'm very much enjoying this. Thanks for all you do to educate us.
My dad was/ is a survivor of the USS YORKTOWN. He told me he would pray the rosary everyday to be able to see his birthday which is June 7th.
Thanks for the video -- learned some new things about the battle, and enjoyed your summary. One thing would point out is that Parshall and Tully in "Shattered Sword" along with some other contemporary Japanese war historians have revised the original western understanding of the battle based on Fuchida's account -- that our understanding of armed Japanese planes blowing up in a huge chain on the decks was either not accurate or at the very least an exaggeration. Though the in-flux state of fuel and bombs likely played a role as you say, they suggest it was more below decks. The Akagi, victim of only a few bombs due to a mistake in targeting by the inexperienced dive bombing crew (all hitting going after Kaga instead of properly splitting due to a recently transferred pilot's mistake) was expected to be just fine, but had some damage control disasters that did her in. It's been a while, but I think they had some leaking fuel fumes and they tried to vent them but it ended up spreading it to other hangars causing the subsequent explosion to be fatal for the ship. Particularly liked the viewpoints of the Midway fighter pilots -- I enjoy getting perspective from the secondary players. Thanks, again!
The fumes and venting disaster was a later carrier, the Taiho. It was initially thought that Akagi might have been towed, but from the initial damage, not to mention the impracticality of a tow, it seems fanciful.
@@maemorri Thanks for the correction! I will see if I can revisit some old sources and rediscover what it is that made the few hits on the Akagi so devastating.
@@maemorri Yes, I will review some more, but one source that is pretty reliable suggests it was just the single hit was right into upper hanger and fire spread rapidly due to the fuel lines and exacerbated by munitions on the various decks it spread into. Thanks again.
@@victortuber9116 I don't disagree with your layer comment. Akagi also potentially suffered catastrophic failure in damage control. But your initial comment about venting explosive gases applies to Taiho and not Akagi.
@@maemorri Got it! Thanks!
I think calling it Nagumos Blunder is a bit harsh, he didnt really have much of an option ....he had been ordered to keep half his planes in reserve, he had to bring his first wave home, and launch his second but had been harried and delayed by American attacks, and he ultimatly made his choice following Japanese Navy doctorine of playing it safe, i think its a choice a fair few would make given the circumstances
....if anything his only mistake was steaming towards the American fleet rather than away from it (Japanese planes had greater ranges) but given he had no way of knowing that his initial recon on the American fleet was incorrect and that he had been in range of the American planes the whole time .... i think its fairer to not really call it a blunder,
Also Yorktown wasnt damaged at pearl, she wasnt even at pearl, she was damaged at the battle of coral sea
Actually, the Americans did score a torpedo hit on a tanker, Akebono Maru, but did not cause enough damage to prevent that ship from continuing on with the rest of the convoy. The torpedo was dropped from a PBY Catalina, of all things.
As has been previously noted, Yorktown was damaged at Coral Sea, not Pearl Harbor. Nimitz was told it would take months to repair her, but he gave the yard only three days to have her at sea. My late father was 20 year old Damage Controlman striker at the time, and said he never worked so hard and long (around the clock) in his life on anything in the Navy as he did helping to get Yorktown ready to go. He said the same about his shipmates and civilian workers. Many historical sources have identified the U.S. Navy's superior damage control capabilities as being a key component of victory over the Japanese Navy in WWII. I'm in awe of the fact that our Navy was able to raise and return to service most of the ships sunk at Pearl Harbor, or get the Yorktown ready to join the fight at Midway in less than three days.
I also think we owe a great deal to a quirky little code-breaker, Commander Joe Rochefort, who worked in his bath robe and slippers, and who convinced Nimitz he was right about AF being Midway, at the risk of his career. Had he backed down, we can only speculate on how things might have turned out differently in this battle.
Fortunately for me, Dad was not one of the sailors selected to sail with the carrier to continue repairs underway, or I might not be here. My father remained in the Navy until retirement in 1980 as a Master Chief, having enlisted in 1939. These people truly were the "Greatest Generation".
The Yorktown was damaged at the Coral Sea not Midway.
The US only declared war on Japan (making de jure what was de facto). Hitler unilaterally (and I’m sure to the exasperation of the professional German staff officers) declared war on the US. There was no treaty requirements for Hitler to do so, the Tripartite Alliance was a defensive one. Japan, being the belligerent here, forsook the mutual defence provisions.
TIK did a rather interesting video on this. Turns out that Hitler may have already considered himself at war with the US, and just formalized it ua-cam.com/video/VwTMR76qv3M/v-deo.html .
Really a sort of footnote, but a mention of Ens. George Gay's survival of Waldron's attack would have been nice. Gay floated in the ocean and watched the rest of the show that day. He survived the war and became a pilot for TWA.
Correct
Great piece Simon, thank you.
To talk about Midway, you have to include the Battle of the Coral Sea, which sidelined 2 Japanese carriers; Shokaku and Zuikaku, fully 1/3 of the mainline carriers. Yorktown was damaged in that battle.
You also didn't 'eject' from WW2 fighters, there were no ejection seats. You jumped out.
Yorktown wasn't sunk at Midway, it was sunk under tow by submarine, after the battle, along with the Hammann:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Yorktown_(CV-5)#Salvage_and_sinking
The "Dark Skies/Seas" brain fog is loose!;)
I eject!
Fully agree about Coral Sea - if the Japanese hadn't gotten a bloody nose there, they could have shown up at Midway with 6 carriers and things might have turned out very differently.
You're right about ejection seats at Midway, but there were aircraft with such seats in WW2 near the tail end of things.
@@executivedirector7467 If they would have taken the air wing off of Shokaku (I think) and put it on Zuikaku - they would have had 5. It was against their doctrine, but it might have made a difference, as well. (It could be the other way around, with the air wings on the undamaged carrier)
@@frankpinmtl Quite right. Shattered Sword points this out.
One small fun fact: Richard Halsey “Dick” Best, was the only US pilot to sink two enemy aircraft carriers in a single day.
Dusty Kleiss hit two carriers that day also, the Kaga and the Hiryu.
I'll be honest. I'm 64. I spent 20 years in USN. Most of it stationed in Pearl. I'm a relatively intelligent guy and I know a little bit about Naval History. But this was the absolute first time I've ever heard of a plane called the "Brewster Buffalo". Wow. Got to look that one up. Thanks Simon.
I think the Brewster Buffalo was not a 'bad' plane. Instead, it was a VERY obsolete plane, which was fine in its day. But its day was not 1942
I think this may be your best channel yet. Thank you!
Man you don’t have any idea how happy this new page makes me
Great video and even better Narration. Thank you for that.
One of, if not your best Simon!
Subscribed to this channel as soon as I saw it. Love it. Being a Canadian military member there's several battles I'd like to see:
-Battle of Vimy Ridge 9-12 April 1917 (WWI)
-Juno Beach 6 June 1944 (WWI)
-Battle of Kapyong 22-25 April 1951 (Korea)
-Operation Medak Pocket 9-17 Sept 1993 (Former Yugoslavia)
-Operation Medusa 2-17 Sept 2006 (Afghanistan)
Great job describing the events of that amazing sea battle.
Yes ! The channel we all wanted.
It seems every other day he makes a new channel and I am not disappointed by it.
Ensign was the Naval Rank I believe not his first name ;). Amazing work as always Simon. Love everything you do!
The movie, pearl harbor, was covered here, in under 3.5 mins. Much appreciated.
this channel and megaprojects are my favorites. damn simon, you have so much content.
This guy is blowing by SO much great information. The Midway videos done by the History channel is much more informative and done in a better way.
Another excellent presentation!! Thank you for all of your efforts to research and write these videos.
I NEEDED this channel
New to this channel, I can imagine his voice in my home for hours of content! Keep up the fantastic work!
Yorktown was damaged at the Battle of Coral Sea. Not at Pearl harbor. The Battle of Coral Sea was the first instance of naval vessels being attacked and attacking each other only by aircraft.
Great vid..as usual! Ty
This channel is straight fire mate
Good work. Thank you!
Wow. Great story telling. I got goosebumps listening at times. As an American is really raises a bit of patriotism within you to see so many soldiers fighting together against a brutal govt. And there’s no doubt about that, the Japanese were extremely brutal to its enemies during the war. Great story.
Que buen video.
I hope you keep up with many more videos of battles.You're a very enjoyable host. Thank you. Gracias amigo. Very good way to learn English.
Keep it up! You're English is very good from what I can tell. Good luck and happy new year!
I've been dying for a channel that covers historical wars, Wars are so fascinating in terms of history, I would love to see you cover the Battle of Stalingrad at some point!
Possibly the most epic battle of World War 2 and the most effective in the long run.
Absolutely fantastic viewing - thankyou for posting. Cant wait to see your one about the Aleutian Islands if you make it :).
Also, just in case it's interesting, I recently saw a documentary about the Japanese Aircraft carriers of WW2 which illustrated the fatal design flaw that they suffered from - unlike the British and American carriers their flight decks were not reinforced with any bomb-proofing material, so that even in the absence of all the ordanance present due to the high number of fully armed aircraft below decks, any bomb impacting on the surface would travel straight through and detonate right next to the ships magazine - obviously a guarenteed disaster.
You never know when you're going to click an unrecognized UA-cam channel, and yet again, its Simon Whistler.
These channels are popping up at an unprecedented rate, keep it up blaze boy
A very nice coverage of the battle, thank you. Still I have one point of critique: Calling Nagumos decisions an "error" is a very Armchair-General hindsight thing to say. He acted precisely as the naval codex of the IJN demanded him to.
If there was a mistake, it was in the HC of the IJN, forcing him to keep half his bombers armed for naval battle, when it was very obvious, that the remaining numbers of aircraft wouldn't be enough to neutralize Midway. They overestimated the perceived advantage of having the element of surprise and it was at that time already doctrine, that no battle plan should be centered around this fact. Rather overkill than failure was the general motto, failing to follow this, was the actual mistake. Therefor rearming his planes for a second run on Midway was actually expected by IJN high command but optimistically dismissed.
Nagumos supposed second mistake, as you mentioned it, cannot be seen as a mistake alltogether. Because of the piecemeal attack of american squadrons the flight decks were reserved for CAP-fighters, an absolutely vital point to the defense. If he would've launched his second strike before receiving the returning planes from Midway, it would've caused a mass ditching of those, essentially meaning throwing away 1/3 to 1/2 of his planes, an unacceptable loss for any carrier commander, no matter the nation. At this point in the battle there was no reasoning for him to do so and potentially face military trial at home due to an unnecessary and huge waste of material and more importantly, human personell who were almost all veteran pilots from Pearl Harbour.
Thats why it is called "Nagumo's Dilemma", there was no right or wrong decision here, the attacks of the Americans literally forced him into an unwinnable spot as we can see in hindsight.
His only real mistake was not pulling back his fleet to the north but rather steaming towards the Americans after their detection and later keeping the Hiryu with the fleet when actually hoping for a surface battle.
I'm really enjoying this new channel
Love the new channel I absolutely love military history I have a few recommendations for videos
1. Battle of Remagen, 1945: Seizing the last bridge over the Rhine
2. Battle of Hue, 1968: The Vietnam War’s bloodiest urban battle
3. Battle of Bunker Hill, 1775: British victory at a great cost
4. Yorktown, 1781: The battle that gave America independence
5. Operation vengeance, 1943: The plan to kill the mastermind of Pearl Harbor
6. The Alamo, 1836: The battle that paved the way for Texas independence from Mexico
7. Guadalcanal, 1942-43: Americas first offensive in the pacific
8. Stalingrad, 1942-43: The bloody battle that changed WWII
9. Khe Sanh, 1968: US Marines under siege
10. Battle of the Bulge, 1944-45: The Nazis failed Ardennes Offensive
11. Iwo Jima, 1945: The iconic battle of the US Marines
12. Chosin, 1950: The Marines miraculous escape in the brutal winter
13. Mogadishu, 1993: Black Hawk Down
14. Fallujah, 2004: Urban death trap of Iraq
15. Inchon, 1950: Turning the tide of the Korean War
16. Gettysburg, 1863: The turning point of the American Civil War
Excellent... as usual!
Brilliant video, Factboi. I was a little late to this one, my bad.
Damn, Midway... everytime Simon mentioned America's carriers arriving and taking names, the Team America soundtrack played in my head.
Im so happy Simon is addicted to youtube chanels, im addicted to Simons videos. Learn more from you (and sabaton...) about history than i did 12 years in school 🙈
What? A New Channel from Simon I’m not yet subscribed?? Love it!!
This channel scratches the same itch as the early 2000's History channel but with a way better narrator and no crappy reenactment footage. Congrats on another hit channel fact boy!