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  • Previously on Battle 360, Truk Lagoon, the Central Pacific.

  • Like a Hammer of Hell, Enterprise's airplanes nailed the Gibraltar of Pacific

  • and gave the Japanese Empire a Pearl Harbor of their own.

  • Now the Big-E turns towards the Mariana Islands,

  • one deadly step closer to the enemy homeland.

  • And the American submarines have the Imperial fleet locked in their sights.

  • USS Enterprise, a fighting city of steel

  • ---She is the most revered and decorated ship of the WWII.

  • On this 360 degree battle,

  • where threats loom on the seas, in the skies, and in the ocean depth.

  • the Enterprise's enemy can be anywhere and everywhere.

  • There is nowhere to run when the battles are all around you.

  • The Battle 360...USS Enterprise...D-Day in the Pacific.

  • Dawn, June 13, 1944, in the waters off Saipan, in the Mariana islands,

  • aircraft carrier USS Enterprise clears for action.

  • Her massive flight deck is alive with revving engines

  • as the TBF Avengers of Torpedo Squadron 10 prepare to hit enemy positions on Saipan.

  • In command of Torpedo 10 is Bill Martin.

  • He's a seasoned leader with 2 bloody years aboard Enterprise under his belt.

  • The finest officer you'd ever meet. Everybody trusted him.

  • He was an excellent pilot, he had been around quite a while,

  • and he'd been in a scouting squadron before.

  • So, he was just an all-around, good officer.

  • Flying in the big Avenger with Martin are radioman first class Williams and ordnance man W.R. Hargrove.

  • Their target is a Japanese flak battery on the southern tip of the island,

  • where in just a few days, ground troops will be slogging ashore.

  • The enemy stronghold is covered with anti-aircraft artillery and it's Enterprise's job to wipe them out.

  • We were dropping bombs on land targets and any ships or anything that happen to be there.

  • It was not like we had at Guadalcanal. We didn't have much opposition there.

  • BY THEN, WE HAD THE F6Fs, and we were pretty well-protected.

  • For 2 days, Enterprise and the fleet of American carriers have been launching air strikes against Saipan,

  • pummeling the island with bombs in anticipation of a major invasion by U.S. marines and soldiers.

  • 200 miles away, an American battleship division

  • moves within the range of the enemy island from a massive bombardment.

  • USS New Jersey and her sister Iowa-class battleships open fire with heavy broadsides from their 16" batteries.

  • These warships are the new generations of the fast battleships.

  • The Iowa Class battleship weighs in 45,000 tons with an overall length of 887 ft.

  • In addition to a dozens of 5", 40mm, and 20mm anti-aircraft guns,

  • they pack a ___ 9 16" 50 caliber rifles, capable of killing a target at 25 miles.

  • There's just one problem: The gunners on these ships are raw and inexperienced in shore bombardment.

  • 10,000 yards away, enemy machine gun nests, pillboxes, and bunkers weather the incoming fire.

  • Most of the 2,400 16-inch projectiles, each weighing nearly a ton, are simply wasted.

  • They barely scrape the surface of the Japanese positions.

  • The Japanese were very, very good at entrenchment, cover, and concealment,

  • so it was very difficult to even see their targets first of all,

  • much less being able to put effective naval gunfire on top of 'em.

  • It's going to take a lot more to wipe out the enemy defenses.

  • 10 miles away, Bill Martin's group of 7 TBF Avengers arrives over their target:

  • Japanese gun emplacements and bunkers.

  • Martin's plane peels off and heads for a Japanese flak battery.

  • He's got 2 500-pound bombs, enough ordnance to annihilate the enemy position.

  • But the Japanese see him coming and open fire.

  • At 12,000 feet, bursts of steel flak pepper the air all around his Avenger.

  • Martin rolls into a steep dive, heading right for his target at high speed.

  • Really, the plane should have been at about 250 knots for a diving profile.

  • This guy's going maybe 350, 360. It's pretty fast.

  • The plane wasn't really made for that. It's doing a mission it's not designed for.

  • At 350 miles per hour and in a near-vertical dive,

  • Martin's plane catches a load of shrapnel just as he releases his bomb load.

  • Martin's in a flat spin, out of control.

  • His Avenger begins a deadly, tumbling free fall towards the earth.

  • EXTREME NEGATIVE G's Are literally pulling the pilot out of his seat.

  • ?==>You might not be able to reach your stick of throttle.

  • (?)You might not be able to actually calm ___ and talk to your crew member.

  • The blood has been pushed into your face. You just need to keep thinking straight.

  • He tries to call Williams and Hargrove on the mic. No answer.

  • His plane is on fire. Only seconds separate Martin from a fiery death.

  • At the last possible moment, he releases his harness,

  • jerks the ripcord, and is pulled out of the burning aircraft.

  • Martin's parachute blossoms just as his plane slams into a lagoon.

  • His body makes a rough landing in five feet of water as charred debris falls all around him.

  • 30 ft away, his Avenger crackles under an oily, black plume, a funeral pyre for his veteran crew.

  • With Japanese machine guns and rifles firing at him from shore,

  • Martin slowly makes his way to a reef 1,000 yards away.

  • So he paddled outside the lagoon. They were shooting at him for a while but he got outside.

  • Somebody came in and picked him up.

  • Martin is later rescued by the cruiser Indianapolis.

  • And the next day, he is returned to the Big-E, very lucky to be alive.

  • And it is only the beginning.

  • ON THE NIGHT OF June 14th, An American submarine makes a startling discovery.

  • For the first time in more than 18 months, a massive Japanese fleet has taken to the seas

  • and it's headed right for Saipan and USS Enterprise.

  • Flash back. One month earlier, May 1944.

  • For 6 months, US fleet has been raising hell in the central Pacific,

  • and carriers like USS Enterprise have seen their share of the action.

  • Now the US command prepares for the next phase of battle,

  • a major drive on the central Pacific's Mariana Islands.

  • The US navy sets their sights on Saipan, the main focus of the operation.

  • (?)And the fleet is ___ ready for action.

  • By now the American war machine has built an Armada unlike anything ever seen.

  • That's what you have on the Pacific Fleet. It ends up with a large number of aircraft carriers.

  • These carriers can move quickly. More and more ships. Its bigger, faster, and much more deadly navy.

  • If the US can capture Saipan, the island will offer an ideal base

  • for the US Army B-29 Superfortress bombers.

  • From here, the massive warplanes can begin strategic bombing of the home islands.

  • We would be able to contribute to the battle

  • a major strategic air campaign against the Japanese home islands.

  • And it was thought that

  • by subjecting the Japanese home islands to a protracted, strategic air campaign,

  • the likes of which we were doing to the Germans in Europe, it would accelerate the end of the war.

  • Target: Saipan.

  • Objective: Seize the heavily defended enemy island; crush the Japanese garrison.

  • Strategy: Carriers like Enterprise will hammer the island with warplanes,

  • battleships will pummel it from the sea,

  • and US marines and soldiers will battle the enemy on land.

  • As Allied forces push in on the empire from all sides,

  • the Japanese army and navy will be divided, faced with fighting a multi-front war.

  • It poses a horrendous problem for the Japanese in that they're strained everywhere.

  • And planes that, you know, could be sent to the central Pacific navy,

  • in many cases, are going down to New Guinea to fight against the army down there.

  • By 1944, the Axis power was on the defensive.

  • As the Allies are prepared for the mass invasion in the Pacific, in France and Italy,

  • You can consider that the American forces are heavily engaged in combat in Italy

  • that the American forces are also about to conduct the landing in Normandy on June 6.

  • the US military is demonstrating its capable of engaging an broad offensive operations

  • on opposite sides of the world simultaneously.

  • Saipan will be one of the most important invasions of the war,

  • a Normandy of the Pacific. AND D-Day IS SET FOR June 15th.

  • At the Island base Majuro, the Marshall Island,

  • thousands of men from the Navy, Army and Marine Corps get ready for the invasion.

  • Most of the sailors and marines from different ships are strangers from every corner of USA.

  • Not all this fighting men are destined to get along.

  • By 1944, a 150 year rivalry still divides the marines of the fleet and the ship sailors.

  • Damage control men Pedro Sandoval from ___ of TX gets a close look at this rift

  • when he has a chance to run in a childhood friend from back home.

  • There is a marine came aboard ship, looking for me. He walked in the shop when I see him ___

  • He was just a brother to me before we even joined the service. And I gave him a big hug,

  • and everybody looked at me. What? What's wrong with him? You gave a marine a hug. You are..

  • The marines waiting there were surprised too.

  • As he was just like a brother to me and I hadn't seen him since I left for the war.

  • Enterprise will sail as the flagship of her task group, but she is only part of a massive armada of

  • 15 carriers, 7 battleships, 14 cruisers, over 50 destroyer escorts,

  • and a score of transports, oilers, and supply ships.

  • One of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen: There were 14, 15 big United States carriers there,

  • as well as light carriers and cruisers, destroyers.

  • I have never, in my life, seen such a bunch of ships getting together.

  • The entire naval force is under the command of Vice Admiral Marc Mitscher.

  • At 57 years old, Wisconsin native Marc Mitscher is a hard-fighting admiral and former naval aviator.

  • As a career veteran with more than 30 years at sea,

  • he knows how to use carriers like Enterprise and their aircraft in mortal combat against the enemy.

  • Among the 15 carriers that Mitscher commands are 6 of the new Essex Class fleet carriers.

  • Each of these giant flat top with displacement more than 36,000 tons fully loaded,

  • 10,000 more than Enterprise.

  • They also pack heavy armaments: 4 twin 5" guns, 8 single 5" guns, 8 quad mount 40 mms,

  • and more than 40 20 mm guns.

  • They can also carry 110 aircraft to Enterprise's 90.

  • June 6, 1944, Enterprise and her task group steam away from the island of Majuro, bound for Saipan.

  • As the ship cruises through the open seas, her Executive Officer comes on loud speaker

  • and announced the news of Normandy invasion in France. But the beaches of Normandy are half a world away.

  • Enterprise, the Pacific are heading for a D-Day of their own.

  • For the men of Enterprise, the road to victory and the way home is through Saipan and the Philippine sea.

  • But each time the Big-E heads into battle, her men can only wonder when their famous luck might run out.

  • Louisiana native and Enterprise marine Louis Michot already knows the risks after 6 months aboard ship.

  • You know your time might be coming which you keep-- you just get it off your mind and do your job.

  • Can't lie down. If you get hit, you get hit.

  • That's why war is hell. I knew I was in danger, but so was all my comrades.

  • And we were working like a team. We had to just keep going and do what we're trained to do.

  • This time, Enterprise, the fleet, and the marines are up against 32,000 Japanese troops.

  • Dug in on the hillsides of Saipan, like their brothers at Guadalcanal and Tarawa,

  • these defenders will fight to their death.

  • But for the first time since the battle of Santa Cruz,

  • a massive Japanese carrier fleet is also preparing for battle.

  • Battered by the bloodbaths at Midway, Guadalcanal, and Santa Cruz,

  • the Imperial Navy has finally rebuilt and is ready to meet the Big-E.

  • The Japanese navy has tried frantically to build their carrier force

  • into some sort of replica of what they had at the beginning of the war.

  • They have more carriers now.

  • Among the Japanese carriers are sister ships Shokaku and Zuikaku,

  • the very same vessels that the Big-E squared off against in the eastern Solomons and Santa Cruz.

  • And now they're back for a rematch with Enterprise.

  • So, we were longing for bearing(?) and we knew where they were and when they were coming.

  • The Imperial task force also includes the new mega carrier, Taiho.

  • It's unlike anything the Big-E has ever gone up against.

  • Taiho, which means "great phoenix," is 30,000 tons of imperial iron built by Kawasaki.

  • She has 2 enormous hangar decks, compared to Enterprise's one; 61 aircraft;

  • and instead of wood, her flight deck is plated with three-inch armored steel.

  • Her weaponry consists of 12 99-millimeter flak guns and 51 25-millimeter machine guns.

  • She is the flagship of the entire carrier force.

  • Commanded by Vice-Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa a.k.a. the Gargoyle.

  • He's six feet tall, has a chest covered with medals,

  • and is the mastermind of the empire's carrier fleet, veteran of Java, Sumatra, and Guadalcanal.

  • There's just one problem: Japan is running out of expert pilots.

  • Most of them wiped out in the first year of the war. Ozawa's pilots are raw and poorly trained.

  • There is a stark contrast to the fleet air arm that the Japanese began the second world war with,

  • when you consider that those were among the cream of the crop of naval aviation. But they're all gone.

  • And by this stage of the war, in their places are new, moderately trained pilots,

  • pilots who were not up to the task of going up against seasoned American naval aviators.

  • They were pretty far gone as far as skills concerned.

  • The differences between 1943 and 1944 was all the devils in the world. We had, they didn't.

  • June 11, 1944, D-Day, minus four.

  • The veteran Hellcat fighters called the grim reapers launch their first attack against the Marianas from the Big-E.

  • Admiral Mitscher, a former pilot himself, gives the reapers a simple order: "Cut their damn throats."

  • In the skies over Saipan, the Hellcats blast enemy aircraft and their pilots into the afterlife.

  • Next, the fighter planes strafe the airfields with hot .50 caliber lead.

  • Parked aircraft are destroyed and go up in flames.

  • Fuel tanks explode. And enemy gunners are blown to pieces.

  • For 2 solid days, American fighters and bombers ravage Saipan and the nearby islands

  • of Rota, Tinian, and Guam, doing all they can before the marines storm ashore.

  • Next, the Iowa-Class battleships turn their guns on Saipan.

  • And Bill Martin has a close call when his plane is blown out of the sky.

  • But after 3 days of hard fighting, Saipan is still a fortress island.

  • And for the crew of USS Enterprise, the battle for the Marianas has only just begun.

  • In response to the American attacks, Admiral Ozawa has taken to the seas,

  • headed for a showdown. He has one mission, crush the U.S. fleet.

  • June 15, 1944, D-Day in the invasion of Saipan.

  • Enterprise launches a major air strike of SBD dive bombers, Hellcat fighters, and Avenger torpedo planes.

  • It's part of a massive support mission. While the marines wade ashore,

  • planes from Lexington and Enterprise will hit the beaches and pillboxes with bombs and machine-gun fire.

  • The assault is led by commander William "killer" Kane of Enterprise.

  • The veteran pilot will lead 68 planes from the 2 ships in the brutal assault on Saipan.

  • This is before the marines landed. You'd go in first and hit all the anti-aircraft.

  • This is one of the major operations of the war as far as, you know, number of troops landing and all that,

  • 'cause the Japanese, they didn't want you to take Saipan at all. I mean That was a big blow to them.

  • As Kane's strike force heads into the deadly airspace,

  • they can clearly see the marines heading for the beaches.

  • As the American airmen batter the Japanese positions with round after round of bombs and bullets,

  • 20,000 US Marine wade ashore and face the Japanese defenders in hellish combat.

  • In one single day of battle, 2,000 Americans are killed or wounded on Saipan.

  • 2,000 Men for less than a half a mile of Japanese real estate.

  • A gruesome start to one of the biggest battles in the Pacific war.

  • 7:00PM, carriers Enterprise, Lexington, and Bunker Hill cruise the waters off Saipan.

  • As the sun begins to set on D-Day, the ships prepare for another night in the hostile central Pacific.

  • Suddenly, the main search radar on the Enterprise picks something up.

  • It's an incoming air assault. 22 miles away,

  • 7 land-based Fran torpedo bombers head right for Enterprise and carrier Lexington.

  • Within minutes, the enemy planes will be within striking distance.

  • 10 miles ahead of the Frans, spotters on Enterprise can now clearly see the incoming assault.

  • Seconds later, the guns of the task force roar into action.

  • 5" 38-caliber rifles from Enterprise and Lexington thump out a volley of explosive projectiles.

  • 40-mm and 20-mm anti-aircraft guns spray red-hot streams of fire into the air.

  • The American task force is formed up in a defensive circle.

  • Their mission is simple: Unleash an umbrella of fire, protect the Big-E and other carriers at all costs.

  • The typical battle line of an American naval task force in the summer of 1944 in the Pacific theater

  • consisted of aircraft carriers at the center of the formation;

  • uh...close to the carriers, battleships bringing the most guns to the battle area;

  • out from the battleships, you would have a ring of cruisers;

  • and then finally, destroyers on the outskirts of the battle formation.

  • And the purpose and point of this kind of battle formation was to engage incoming Japanese aircraft

  • as far away from the most important ship as possible,

  • and the most important ship, of course, was the aircraft carrier.

  • The enemy planes hug the air just over the waves, on a headlong charge into the fusillade of gunfire.

  • From his battle station, Enterprise Marine Lieutenant Richard Harte watches as one Japanese plane is torn by flak.

  • You could see the shells hitting, and inside caught fire,

  • and you can see the pilot silhouetted against the blaze inside the plane,

  • but still flying it, still concentrating.

  • In the confusion of battle, American ships fire in all directions.

  • US sailors now face the Japanese pilots and friendly fire.

  • I can see this right now. I'm on the flight deck again, lying low,

  • Bunker Hill is firing RIGHT INTO THE FLIGHT over there-- I fire across.

  • I fire at and the japs they come down there.

  • Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta.

  • By flying low among the American ships, the Japanese pilots know

  • US gunners will have to fire into their own men.

  • Anybody who stick up was probably shot down. It's that bad.

  • All of the ships that were protecting the carriers

  • were putting up so much fire frantically and in a frenzied way,

  • attempting to bring down the Japanese torpedo aircraft.

  • They had rounds falling on friendly ships and friendly vessels.

  • A sailor manning one of the Big-E's batteries takes a 40 mm round to the head

  • just a bit from the powder locker for the 5" guns.

  • (???)Had a wrong luck, sailor on exploding would hit that ammunition storage locker

  • and detonated the ammunition on the inside

  • which would've caused enormous damage and would've led to even greater loss of life.

  • Enterprise holds her own, her 5" and 40-mm batteries hammer away into the night.

  • But 1,000 yards ahead, a Fran torpedo plane drops its payload.

  • In a matter of moments, it could be all over for the Big-E.

  • At the last second, the ship heels over into a hard turn and just barely dodges the warhead.

  • Her gunners destroy two of the enemy planes, smashing them into crumpled, burning steel.

  • Within minutes the chilling nighttime battle is over.

  • Amazingly, only 3 US sailors are killed, but more than 50 are wounded, all victims of friendly crossfire.

  • Well, friendly fire, fratricide, of course, I mean, it is gonna happen.

  • I mean, we don't accept it, but it does happen,

  • and it's happened in every war that we've ever been involved in,

  • every war that's ever been fought, you know?

  • And there are certain measures that you can take to avoid it, but there's no 100 % way.

  • But even more harrowing is what lies over the distant horizon.

  • 1,200 Nautical miles away,

  • American submarine USS Flying Fish cruises through the waters off the Philippine islands

  • on the hunt for any Japanese vessels that might head for Saipan. Flying Fish is a Gato-Class submarine.

  • 311 ft long, she has 10 21" torpedo tubes capable of launching 24 torpedoes

  • and is armed with a single 3" deck gun.

  • Right now, subs like Flying Fish are the eyes of the U.S. fleet.

  • Amazingly, the submarine spots admiral Ozawa's forces.

  • One by one, the dark shapes of six aircraft carriers appear on the horizon.

  • Immediately, the sub reports the sighting.

  • Admiral Marc Mitscher now knows that Ozawa and his carriers are on the way.

  • Thanks to the lone submarine, Enterprise and the US fleet know that an all-out carrier battle is coming.

  • The US command is now dead certain that Ozawa is on his way to Saipan,

  • so they order Mitscher to divide his forces.

  • While the older battleships, like USS Tennessee and Pennsylvania

  • remain at Saipan with the escort carriers,

  • Mitscher leads the 8 fleet carriers, including Enterprise, and 7 light carriers west to the island of Tinian

  • where they will intercept Ozawa's forces.

  • The new fast battleships and the cruisers form a battle line well ahead of the carriers.

  • They will provide an anti-aircraft barrier and will finish off any enemy vessels crippled in battle.

  • Ozawa's forces head northeast from the Philippines in 2 elements.

  • The first line of warships are light carriers, cruisers,

  • and the super battleships Musashi and Yamato

  • under the command of Admiral Takeo Kurita.

  • 100 Miles to the rear are carriers Zuikaku, Shokaku, and Taiho,

  • with 3 additional light carriers.

  • Ozwa has 450 carrier aircraft and another Ozawa has 450 carrier aircraft and another 530 land-based planes on Guam.

  • He plans to use these planes to wipe out a third of Mitscher's force..

  • For 2 days, Japanese and American scout planes search the seas for each other's carriers,

  • but still the Americans have no idea where Ozawa's ships are

  • or if they're within punching distance of the Big-E and her task force.

  • Dawn, June 19, 1944. USS Enterprise launches a strike of radar-equipped TBF Avengers,

  • led by Bill Martin who survived a crash landing just days before.

  • Their mission: Find Ozawa's fleet and report their location back to the task force.

  • At the same time, the grim reapers' Hellcats will fly combat air patrol and intercept

  • any Japanese planes that may strike the U.S. carriers.

  • Among the reapers this day is Donald "flash" Gordon,

  • a seasoned fighter pilot and veteran of many Enterprise battles.

  • I was with pre-dawn launch for combat air patrol, so we knew the fleet was out there and headed toward us.

  • So we expected their strikes. We were 100 and some miles west of Guam.

  • For nearly 2 years, Gordon has been fighting in the skies over Enterprise

  • at Santa Cruz, Rennell Island, and Truk.

  • He has 4 confirmed enemy kills to his name,

  • but in order to become a fighter ace, he needs at least one more kill---

  • Will this be the day?

  • 5:40 AM, Enterprise prepares for action.

  • Her crew mans battle stations, machine-guns are locked and loaded,

  • and 5" shells are ready to slam into the breeches of the long-range rifles.

  • And everybody is running up and down the ladders, the sailors are going where they belong,

  • and we're going where we belong.

  • And everybody's-- it's an emergency when they sound the general quarters, battle situations.

  • The buzzer goes off, and you know what that means.

  • That means battle situations, it means you're under attack or you're about to.

  • 100 Miles away, land-based Japanese planes from Guam

  • are already on their way, ready to terrorize the American ships.

  • But the Hellcats of the US task force stop them dead in their tracks.

  • The air is filled with roaring 50-caliber machine gun fire

  • as a score of hard-hitting fighter planes tear into the Japanese air strike.

  • Everyone wanted to be in the action, I tell you. It was amazing.

  • Within minutes, 30 enemy planes are destroyed; burning wrecks chewed up and tossed into the sea.

  • Back on Taiho, Ozawa has no idea that the air strikes from Guam have failed.

  • He's now determined to slam Mitscher's spearhead, the American battleship force.

  • The Japanese carriers launch their first strikes against the American fleet.

  • As one wave of planes roars into the skies, another prepares to follow in its wake.

  • But at the same time, submarine USS Albacore, sister to the Flying Fish,

  • spots carrier Taiho just as she launches her warplanes.

  • Albacore immediately fires off a spread of 6 torpedoes against the giant ship.

  • Moments later, one of the torpedoes makes a direct hit against Taiho's starboard side.

  • The warhead slams into the ship and nails her aviation fuel storage tanks.

  • Oil and gas lines are opened to the sea, and dangerous fumes slowly start to fill the ship.

  • But the Taiho steams on, her crew unaware they are sailing on a ticking timebomb.

  • Back on Enterprise, radar picks up Ozawa's incoming air strike.

  • They're only 140 miles from the American task force.

  • IMMEDIATELY, THE Big-E's 5" guns level their barrels, ready to pound the incoming imperial war birds.

  • Inside the ship, the officers and men of the Combat Information Center are hard at work.

  • Here, the flight direction officers vector the Big-E's fighters into the oncoming Japanese.

  • Each ship with the task force had a fighter director officer sitting and the Combat Information Center.

  • In the use of radar through the use of the fighter director officers, the ships had an ability

  • to vector the combat air patrol in defensive of the aircraft

  • to engage inbound enemy aircraft intent upon attacking the task force.

  • As Enterprise prepares for the sting of enemy bombs,

  • her fighter planes charge headlong into the incoming storm.

  • 10 miles out, the Grim Reapers close in on a formation of Kate torpedo planes.

  • Flying his second mission of the day is Flash Gordon, in the lead of a section of two Hellcats.

  • Now Gordon maneuvers into position behind the Kates and draws a bead on the enemy fliers.

  • We got behind a formation of 4, and shot those down.

  • And I saw a single one down on the water, and I got down behind him.

  • Flash Gordon chases the Kate into a solid wall of American anti-aircraft fire.

  • It looks like the enemy pilot is on a suicide run.

  • I wasn't going to fly into that AA, 'cause he wasn't gonna survive. I just wanna survive,

  • So just about the time I'm ready to do a 180,

  • he drops his torpedo a good 5 miles or more from any ship

  • and turned right-- and I shot him down.

  • Gordon immediately pulls out of the gunfire as the enemy plane tumbles to the sea.

  • Finally, after 2 years of battle with the Enterprise,

  • Grim Reaper Donald "flash" Gordon of Fighter Squadron 10 is a fighter ace.

  • I never had a dogfight. I either got a head-on or a tail-on.

  • They never saw us coming. And that's the way to fight a war.

  • The Japanese planes that aren't destroyed by Flash Gordon and the Grim Reapers

  • are blown to pieces by 5" .38 caliber rifles

  • and the thundering 40-mm cannons of Enterprise in the American fleet.

  • If he had a big gun going off it vibrates the whole ship. It goes the way you are.

  • You know we are under attack when you hear the 5" guns start firing

  • that made a lot of noises, big, big explosion because at battery the boys on duty are handling ...

  • When you hear the 20's are open, you know they were close.

  • Or we are under attack. When the 20 mm opens up, he is in range.

  • So there is a lot of excitment. there's no doubt about it whatsoever.

  • On his battle station on Enterprise, Marine officer Richard Harte helps direct the fire of Enterprise's flak batteries.

  • Suddenly he watches as a Japanese bomber slams into the battle ships South Dakota.

  • I remember seeing a bomb hit South Dakota

  • and being impressed with tremendous sheer flame that the bomb puts out when it hits.

  • The lives of 27 men are ended in an instant.

  • But still the South Dakota, veteran of Santa Cruz and Guadalcanal,

  • never loses its speed and keeps on fighting.

  • South Dakota is the only ship hit by the enemy assault.

  • Wave after wave of enemy planes are wiped out by the fighter planes of Enterprise and the other carriers.

  • The killing goes on for hours. The Japanese air attack is a complete failure.

  • Nearly 400 enemy aircraft are blown out of the sky by American Hellcats

  • and the guns of USS Enterprise and the U.S. fleet.

  • It's one of the greatest victories for the American navy and a horrific defeat for the Japanese.

  • The poorly trained enemy fliers are no match for the Big-E.

  • A young American pilot will later compare it to an old-fashioned turkey shoot. The name sticks.

  • (?)I have hit how many?

  • We downed nearly all of them and the pilots came back laughing---there was a turkey shoot.

  • If I'm not mistaken, Enterorise was credited with down around 70 of all those planes that day.

  • The great Mariana's turkey shoot completely devastates Japan's naval air forces.

  • Our fighters just completely annihilated them. The biggest real air battle of the war

  • -- that was a tremendous day for carrier, aircraft, carrier aviation.

  • For Gargoyle Ozawa, the losses are devastating, and his troubles are far from over.

  • That afternoon,

  • aircraft carrier Shokaku, Enterprise's nemesis from the eastern Solomons and Santa Cruz,

  • enters the crosshairs of USS Cavalla.

  • The American sub fires off a salvo of torpedoes and scores 3 direct hits on the carrier.

  • Burning and settling low in the water, the flames reach her powder magazine and blow the ship apart.

  • The flat-top that helped launch the Pearl Harbor attacks pitches into the deep. Payback.

  • Only miles away, carrier Taiho, Ozawa's flagship, presses through the surf.

  • Earlier that day, she was hit by submarine Albacore,

  • but the damage seems minor. Her crew has no idea that their fate is sealed.

  • A sudden explosion of gas vapors roars through the ship,

  • tears open her flight deck, bulges her sides, and punches holes in her hull.

  • As the sun sets over the bloody waters off the Marianas,

  • Ozawa watches as his flagship slips beneath the waves.

  • The American task force has just destroyed the pride of the Japanese carrier fleet.

  • 2 of the enemy's fighter ships set to the bottom by American firepower

  • and hundreds of their war planes blow out of the sky.

  • But back aboard Enterprise, the day's victory is shadowed by frustration,

  • THE Big-E's OWN BOMBERS And torpedo planes have failed to hit the enemy fleet.

  • So then the problem was, we still had to find the Japanese.

  • Though Taiho and Shokaku have been sunk, Ozawa's task force still packs a menacing punch.

  • As the sun rises over the Philippine sea, Marc Mitscher knows that the surviving Japanese must be stopped.

  • The situation is getting desperate. If he doesn't find the Japanese within the next few hours,

  • it will be too late to launch a major air strike,

  • and he will simply have to fight the same ships again. Victory hangs in the balance.

  • June 29th 1944, the Imperial Navy has been sent to hault the American offensive at Saipan.

  • U.S. fleet has putting up a vicious fight,blasting hundreds of enemy's airplane out of the sky.

  • Yet Enterprise and the carrier comrades have been unable to locate the main enemy fleet.

  • Now the skies over the Philippine sea are filled with American airplanes on the hunt for Admiral Ozawa.

  • Target: the Japanese fleet.

  • Objective: drive the remains of Ozawa's task forces from the Philippines Sea.

  • Strategies: flight constant searches until the imperial ships are spotted and destroyed.

  • The seek and destroy mission goes on for hours and still Admiral Marc Mitscher cannot find Admiral Ozawa

  • Tension is high aboard the Big-E as the afternoon wears on.

  • But at 3:40 PM, they hit pay dirt.

  • 300 Miles away, Enterprise search planes finally discover the enemy fleet.

  • Among the Enterprise's sailors in the sky is Tom Watts of Torpedo Squadron 10.

  • I was in one of the search planes. Found them there next day.

  • Now Marc Mitscher paces the deck of Carrier Lexington,

  • knowing that the next few hours could change the course of the entire campaign.

  • It will be 4:00 p.m., before he can refuel his bombers and get them airborne.

  • If they launch later in the day, the air groups will have to fly for 2 hours before they reach the enemy.

  • And even if they survive the battle, they'll have to find their way back to the carriers in the dark.

  • Sending the attack now could be a death sentence for hundreds of American pilots,

  • a disaster for the entire navy.

  • But as each minute passes, Mitscher realizes that complete victory slips further away.

  • Finally, he gives the simple order, "Lunch them".

  • Within minutes in the ready rooms of Enterprise and every flat-top in the fleet,

  • Mitscher's final orders are chalked on the blackboards: "Get the carriers."

  • 4:30PM, 240 Hellcats, Avenger torpedo planes and dive bombers

  • roar through the skies over the wine dark Philippine sea.

  • They head right into the late afternoon sun, on the prowl for Admiral Ozawa.

  • Killer Kane leads the Enterprise strike.

  • 11 dive bombers, 5 Avengers, and 12 F6F Hellcat fighters.

  • Among the pilots are Flash Gordon and James "Jig dog" Ramage.

  • Every pilot knows the facts of speed, distance. time, and fuel.

  • Flash Gordon is thankful he is in a Hellcat with a belly tank.

  • We have a lot of fuel in the Hellcat.. We have... I think you... if you just know how to conserve.

  • But leading the older, slower SBDs, Jig dog" Ramage is less optimistic.

  • He warns his rear seat gunners Dave Cawley.

  • So I called Cawley and said that "Looks like we are going to have a bath tonight. So get everything ready."

  • The Enterprise flyers head into a blood-red sun, uncertain of combat, dead certain that the next few hours could spell disaster.

  • 6:30 PM, finally, after two hours in the air, Killer Kane's air group spots the enemy fleet.

  • 12,000 ft below, they've discovered a major part of Ozawa's force,

  • 3 carriers: Ryuho, Junyo, and Hiyo, and cruisers Mogami and Nagato.

  • It's a free for all. Kane's forces immediately split up and make a run for the enemy vessels.

  • The Japanese surface ships open up with a deadly fusilade of flak

  • as the dive bombers and Hellcats begin their assault.

  • But they keep right on coming.

  • Jig dog Ramage and 5 SBDs line up for a bombing run on the carrier Ryuho.

  • Jig dog wings over and makes a steep dive on the enemy ship.

  • I put the pipper, as we called it, just forward of the bow, went down to 2,000 feet,

  • maybe a little lower, dropped my bomb.

  • Ramage delivers 1,000 pounds of terror on the Ryuho

  • and immediately pulls out of his dive---it's a crippling near-miss.

  • One by one, four other SBDs drop their payloads over the imperial flat-top.

  • From his rear seat position, Cawley gets a choice opportunity to admire the grizzly work of his comrades.

  • Ryuho has been mauled and carrier Hiyo is wounded by torpedoes and is burning.

  • Enterprise bomb hits help finish her off.

  • Just as the Hellcats have rejoined the dive bombers, Flash Gordon spots a target of opportunity.

  • Right down on the water, maybe 10 miles east, I saw a zero...head west...at 900 ft.

  • Gordon immediately firewalls the Hellcat

  • and pulls the big plane into a half loop and a half roll.

  • He races after the zero. Draws a bead and cuts loose with his rapid-fire 50s.

  • Pull up and a top loop and shot him down. He blew up. We came back down and joined with the bombers.

  • The zero was Flash Fordon's 7th and final kill of WWII.

  • He and his fellow pilots escape the last enemy flight burst and head for home.

  • But though the battle with the Japanese task force might be over,

  • the struggle to survive the flight back to Enterprise has just begun.

  • as the last rays of light disappear over the horizon,

  • the Enterprise pilots and air crews continue their long trek home.

  • Ramage and his fellow dive bombers will have to carefully conserve their fuel supply.

  • That was very quiet. About halfway back then, I told Cawley: I..I.. think we're going to make it.

  • But for some american pilots thier lucks run out.

  • Many are battle damaged, and the heavy Avengers are already running out of gas.

  • There's no telling if any of the fliers will ever see Enterprise or the American fleet again.

  • In the confusion, groups of the planes scatter heading off in different directions into the unknown.

  • Situation seems hopeless.

  • Over the radio, Enterprise pilots can hear the painful distress calls of their fellow airmen,

  • followed by the sickening sound of aircraft hitting the water.

  • Patches of green phosphorescence, the dye markers for aviators in distress, dot the blackness of the pacific,

  • marking the spot where the journey has ended for some navy pilots.

  • The painful odyssey goes on for 2 hours.

  • It is absolute desolation, a dark sea that stretches endlessly in every direction.

  • But then, just as all hope seems lost, Grim Reaper Flash Gordon sees the impossible:

  • The destroyer escorts of the U.S. fleet.

  • One by one, the little gunships turn on their bright searchlights,

  • marking the way back for their fellow sailors in the sky.

  • And then some destroyers had been set out to meet us,

  • and their searchlights were up---'Home is that way.' I'll never forget.

  • Back on the Enterprise, her sailors and marines

  • can only wait and watch thedark skies for their warplanes and pilots.

  • (?)Our pilots had limited fuel left and to every body was ____, the gas made them home.

  • 8:45 PM, the first warplanes arrive over the American task force. It's simply chaos.

  • Most are flying on fumes, and even worse,

  • distant lightning has confused some pilots and now they're headed off in the wrong direction.

  • Mitscher could have a catastrophe on his hands.

  • So, ignoring standard naval procedures, he utters one of the most famous commands in the Pacific War,

  • "Turn on the lights."

  • The entire fleet illuminates in a shower of search beams and running lights aboard the carriers decks.

  • Even escort vessels fire off star shells to light up the skies.

  • But the guiding lights are a mixed blessing for many of the pilots.

  • Sounds real good, light up all the ships,

  • but it was very difficult because you couldn't tell the carriers from the destroyers and cruisers and so forth.

  • Night carrier operations are a new strategy,

  • and most of the young pilots have never made a landing in the dark.

  • Many of them make rough water landings.The air is filled with crunching sounds of steel and salt water.

  • There was a fiasco down there. No one was getting aboard, and some did, they had an accident.

  • From their battle stations along the flight deck, the Big-E's marines have a dangerous front row seat.

  • Two of them are trying to land at the same time when they would--they'd go respective ways,

  • one go clockwise and one'd go counter-clockwise.

  • Within minutes, Enterprise's flight deck looks like a parking lot.

  • Jig dog Ramage and his fellow bomber pilots scatter across the fleet,

  • landing on any friendly deck they can find.

  • In the skies overhead, Flash Gordon and his fellow reapers orbit over the task force,

  • searching for a place to land.

  • But now, they're also running on fumes.

  • My #4 man said, his red light was on.

  • So we got down in the landing pattern,

  • and when I came around, the deck was foul, I landed aboard the Lexington.

  • That was 10:20. I've been in the air six hours.

  • 10:20 PM, The last of the 23 planes that make it aboard Enterprise touches down on her flight deck.

  • Most of them are from other carriers.

  • In the confusion, the air groups have been completely jumbled up,

  • but miraculously, the Big-E only has one pilot missing in the desperate night carrier landings, Killer Kane.

  • Everyone else has either made it aboard a friendly ship or has been rescued.

  • The last ditch assault on the Japanese task force and the frantic night recovery fleet 99 war planes.

  • But thankfully, the human toll is much less;

  • only 49 pilots and air crewmen, and 6 flight deck sailors have been lost in a chaotic battle.

  • For the next two days, destroyer escorts crisscross the sea searching for Killer Kane.

  • For some of these ships, the reward for a salvaged flier is an extra ration of ice cream for the crew.

  • ON THE AFTERNOON OF THE 22nd, A destroyer approaches the Enterprise flashing its signal lights.

  • Suddenly, the hearts of everyone aboard are lifted.

  • The question from the destroyer: "How much ice cream is Killer Kane worth?"

  • And since he was a commander, they wanted 25 gallons of ice cream for a commander, a group commander.

  • They wanted extra rations of ice cream. They got it.

  • A few tubs of ice cream are small price to pay for the veteran aviator.

  • The battle of the Philippine Sea is a disaster for the Japanese navy.

  • Admiral Ozawa has failed to drive the US fleet from Saipan,

  • and the defeat has cost him hundreds of imperial pilots, and 3 aircraft carriers, Hiyo, Taiho, and Shokaku.

  • Some of the best news we got there was to hear that our own nemesis Shokaku had been put down.

  • For the Japanese, the aftermath of the battle is a recognition that their carrier force is finished.

  • They may still have vessels, but they no longer have aircraft or pilots to put aboard those vessels.

  • But the Japanese fleet is not finished yet.

  • The Big-E's nemesis, Zuikaku is still afloat and so are the battleships.

  • Massive battlewagons, Musashi and Yamamoto, along with an armada of cruisers and destroyers,

  • are ready to meet the Enterprise in battle.

  • The bloody combat on Saipan goes on for another 3 weeks.

  • It becomes one of the most costly battles of the entire pacific war.

  • More than 16,000 U.S. marines and soldiers are killed or wounded taking the island.

  • 24,000 Japanese soldiers perish in the battle.

  • Even worse, some 5,000 Japanese soldiers and civilians, men, women, and children, commit suicide

  • rather than surrender to U.S. forces.

  • For the Americans, these nightmarish scenes only foreshadow the horrors to come.

  • As Enterprise moves closer to the Philippine islands, and the imperial homeland,

  • she faces an ominous future.

  • Soon on "battle 360," it's the greatest sea battle of all time and one of the deadliest.

  • American general Douglas MacArthur has vowed to return to the Philippines,

  • and Enterprise is going to help get him there.

  • In the epic battle of Leyte Gulf, the Japanese Navy makes an apocalyptic last stand.

Previously on Battle 360, Truk Lagoon, the Central Pacific.

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太平洋のDデー-マリアナ沖海戦(グアム・サイパンとトルコ戦、1944/6/12~19 (太平洋上的D日--馬里亞納海戰記(關島塞班島與打火雞之役,1944/6/12~19))

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    dave に公開 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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