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00:00♪♪♪
00:10♪♪♪
00:20♪♪♪
00:30♪♪♪
00:40♪♪♪
00:50♪♪♪
00:55And now, Midway is East.
01:00♪♪♪
01:03Yesterday it was Pearl Harbor.
01:05Today it is the whole Southeast Pacific.
01:08Hardened by the campaigns in China,
01:11fired by the sacred mission of extending Hirohito's dominion
01:14over 12 million square miles of the Pacific,
01:17the hordes of Imperial Japan surge south and east
01:21on a deluge of destruction.
01:23Glory is their goal.
01:26Glory and oil, and rubber and rice.
01:30Mysterious, haunting names of the Far East
01:34are the notes of an Allied dirge.
01:38Manila, Mindoro, Mindanao, Hong Kong, Hainan, Hanoi,
01:45Makassar, Mandalay, Malaya, Bataan, Bangkok, Borneo,
01:53Cambodia, Cavite, Corregidor, Batavia, Bandung, Bali,
02:01Singapore, Shanghai, Sumatra, Panay, Palembang, Pescadores,
02:09Surabaya, Sumbawa, Sumba, Banzai.
02:15♪♪
02:25♪♪
02:35♪♪
02:45♪♪
02:55♪♪
03:05♪♪
03:15♪♪
03:25♪♪
03:31For a century, Hong Kong has stood as a symbol
03:33of British prestige in the Orient.
03:35The Japanese strike and Hong Kong falls
03:39on Christmas Day, 1941.
03:42♪♪
03:52♪♪
04:02Hong Kong was British.
04:04Manila is American.
04:07But the Japanese are impartial.
04:10Manila's turn.
04:12♪♪
04:32The mightiest fortress in all the East, Singapore.
04:36Key to Malaya, key to Java,
04:39key to the wealth of the Indies.
04:41Look seaward for trouble.
04:44But behind the unsuspecting back of the British,
04:46the Japanese begin their creeping assault.
04:49Deep in the jungle that is thought to be impenetrable,
04:52the enemy comes crawling down on Singapore.
04:56The jungle does not stop them.
04:58The scattered defenders do not stop them.
05:01Nothing stops them.
05:03♪♪
05:32♪♪
05:42♪♪
05:52♪♪
06:02♪♪
06:12♪♪
06:22♪♪
06:32The tiger of Malaya, General Yamashita,
06:35forces a conqueror's demands on the helpless English.
06:39With hope gone, with defenses crumbled,
06:44with no aid in sight,
06:47General Percival signs away the greatest outpost
06:50in the British Empire.
06:53Two months later, 36,000 Americans in the same plight
06:58begin their march of death.
07:02Bataan and Singapore.
07:06Defeat, catastrophe,
07:10humiliation for Great Britain and the United States.
07:16Far away in Washington,
07:18President Roosevelt strikes the only note of relief
07:21in the unending Allied dirge.
07:24♪♪
07:46There is no real relief.
07:49Corregidor, America's last stand in the Philippines.
07:55In common suffering, a new bond of brotherhood
07:59is forged between Americans and Filipinos.
08:02♪♪
08:30♪♪
08:47On May 6, 1942,
08:50General Wainwright surrenders all armed forces to the enemy.
08:56The Philippines have fallen.
09:00♪♪
09:10♪♪
09:19In five horrible months, the enemy, like an octopus,
09:23has stretched his tentacles across vast spaces of the Pacific,
09:26devouring prize after prize
09:29to satiate his appetite for conquest.
09:32♪♪
09:35But the day after Corregidor's fall
09:38comes the Battle of the Coral Sea.
09:41American carrier planes pounce on a Japanese invasion force
09:44out to engulf Port Moresby and cut off Australia.
09:48For the first time in history,
09:50men of war fight it out without once sighting each other.
09:55When the battle is over, the Japanese retreat.
10:00One of their carriers has been sunk.
10:03Two others are badly damaged.
10:06The United States loses the carrier Lexington.
10:10Few know it, but the tide is turning.
10:15Out from America, across the enormous ocean waste,
10:19transports stream toward Australia with supplies and men.
10:25The build-up begins.
10:29♪♪
10:45Personalities who will dominate the coming struggle emerge.
10:48General MacArthur in Australia and in Pearl Harbor, Admiral Nimitz.
10:53As the Japanese prepare to strike again,
10:56Nimitz makes a fateful decision.
10:59He gathers available ships together in the central Pacific,
11:02deducing that Midway is the enemy's objective.
11:05Nimitz appoints Admiral Spruance to command a carrier task force
11:08in the defence of Midway Island,
11:101,000 miles west of Pearl Harbor,
11:133,500 miles east of Tokyo.
11:18♪♪
11:25Midway itself sends incessant patrols in search of the elusive Japanese.
11:30Massive forces are converging on this pinpoint in the ocean,
11:34which the enemy wants as his eastern outpost.
11:38For America, it is the last century between Japan and Hawaii.
11:43The Pacific War is focused on a coral atoll,
11:48six miles in diameter.
11:52Day after day, hour after hour,
11:55planes search and search and search.
12:01And then, through a gap in the clouds,
12:04Japanese troop transports.
12:09But what the spotting plane does not see is the Japanese striking force,
12:13which outnumbers the Americans in every class.
12:16Battleships, cruisers, carriers, destroyers, planes.
12:22♪♪
12:28The same carriers that raped Pearl Harbor are headed for Midway.
12:32Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu.
12:40Aboard the flagship Akagi, Admiral Nogumo,
12:43who directed the attack on Pearl Harbor, plots his new mission.
12:48Execute an aerial attack on Midway,
12:50destroying all enemy forces in preparation for landing.
12:55The pilots assigned to the task are also veterans of December 7th.
12:59The elite of Fleet Air Arm, the pride of the Imperial Navy.
13:04Confident, fanatical,
13:07they prepare to slaughter the Marines defending Midway
13:10and add the island to their unbroken string of conquests.
13:14♪♪
13:42♪♪
13:52♪♪
14:12♪♪
14:32♪♪
14:46Midway blazes, but Midway stands.
14:52Far at sea, Admiral Spruance increases speed to 25 knots
14:56and prepares to close the Japanese.
14:59Admiral Fletcher, officer in tactical command, orders,
15:03proceed southwesterly and attack enemy carriers when definitely located.
15:10The tireless search planes hit the jackpot.
15:13The enemy carriers are finally located.
15:20Midway has been badly hit, but Midway comes back fighting.
15:25♪♪
15:40So loaded with fighting equipment is this stationary aircraft carrier,
15:44little room is left for its natives, the Goonie Birds.
15:48Midway hits the Japanese with all it has.
15:51Every available land-based plane is sent against the enemy fleet.
16:21♪♪
16:45♪♪
17:06Bomb after bomb.
17:09Miss after miss.
17:12Not one hit.
17:14The Japanese come through the attack unchecked.
17:17The invasion of Midway is still on.
17:205,000 troops stand by for landing orders.
17:24♪♪
17:35But Spruance's task force is closing in.
17:38The admiral now knows the approximate location of the enemy carriers.
17:43It is June the 4th, 1942.
17:47A moment for command decision.
17:52Pilots are summoned to the ready room and briefed.
17:54Crewmen are called to station.
17:56Spruance has cast the die.
17:59The task force will risk an all-out attack against superior odds,
18:02hoping to surprise the enemy, hoping to annihilate the enemy.
18:07♪♪
18:21Pilots, man your planes.
18:24In all three American carriers, in Hornet, in Enterprise, in Yorktown,
18:30the young and the brave prepare for battle.
18:35Some will fall in flames from the sky they seek to dominate.
18:40Some will perish in the ocean, whose mastery they seek to win.
18:47But the ritual of launching takes its disciplined course,
18:50as precise and ordered as a ballet.
18:53♪♪
19:20The enemy, still unaware of the approaching American fleet,
19:23prepares for another strike on Midway Island.
19:27Below decks, the pilots are at ease,
19:30while their planes, which are armed with torpedoes,
19:33in case the United States Navy is sighted,
19:36are rearmed for another bombing mission.
19:40Poor intelligence is an enemy blunder, a godsend to Spruance.
19:49But all-out attack begins with all-out disaster.
19:55Hornet's torpedo squadron eight runs into murderous enemy flak
19:58and swarming zero fighters.
20:01Torpedo eight's 15 planes, all are destroyed,
20:07and not one hit is scored.
20:11♪♪
20:23Out of a total of 41 torpedo planes from three carriers,
20:27only six survive.
20:30The news is grim.
20:35But the attack continues.
20:37Five bombers go in.
20:40♪♪
20:46Enemy defences, off balance from the earlier assault,
20:49are unequal to the new attack.
20:51The carriers are hit.
20:53In two amazing minutes, the course of battle is reversed.
20:57It is the Americans who inflict the slaughter.
21:01The Japanese who crumble.
21:04♪♪
21:34Akagi, smashed and sinking.
21:38♪♪
21:41Kaga, smashed and sinking.
21:45♪♪
21:50The American submarine Nautilus jumps into the fight
21:53and sights the smoking carrier Soryu.
21:56Torpedoes from below are added to bombs from above.
22:00♪♪
22:04Soryu, smashed and sinking.
22:08♪♪
22:14One Japanese carrier, off to the north, remains untouched.
22:18Hiryu.
22:20♪♪
22:24A scouting plane finally spots the Americans.
22:27The Japanese lash back.
22:30♪♪
22:58Yorktown is the target, and Yorktown knows it.
23:02Detection gear picks up the avenging enemy.
23:05Thirty to forty planes approaching from west-southwest,
23:08forty miles out.
23:10Hell is on the wing.
23:13♪♪
23:27Prepare your battle stations.
23:30♪♪
23:39Fighters take off to meet the attack.
23:41From ship and sky, the Japanese encounter fierce defense,
23:44but they press their assault to the limit.
23:48♪♪
23:53♪♪
24:22♪♪
24:37♪♪
25:04♪♪
25:20Yorktown is hit.
25:23She is dying.
25:25♪♪
25:27But retaliation is on the way.
25:30Planes from the Enterprise ring down the curtain
25:33on the Battle of Midway.
25:36♪♪
25:41Kiryu, smashed and sinking.
25:45Four Japanese carriers,
25:48gone, and with them, their irreplaceable pilots.
25:53Yorktown is dead.
25:57And so are Japanese plans to dominate the eastern Pacific.
26:01Admiral Spruance, his ships, and his men
26:06have won the Battle of Midway,
26:09one of the most decisive victories in naval history.
26:14The Imperial Japanese Navy retreats.
26:18♪♪