National Geographic: Untold Stories of World w*r II (1998)

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National Geographic: Untold Stories of World w*r II (1998)

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In a century riddled with unrest,

World w*r Two remains the epic tale...

an event of unparalleled impact.

Even now,

we are uncovering new information.

about secret weapons...

and villainous tactics,

about extraordinary heroism...

and boundless shame;

about a time when one life

or one b*llet, or one b*mb

separated infamy and glory...

defeat and victory...

tyranny and freedom...

untold stories of World w*r II.

On the 16th of July, 1945...

a b*mb exploded in the American desert

a very different kind of b*mb.

The furious energy of

the atom had been unleashed.

That power might have landed

in the wrong hands,

had a few brave men not waged a secret

w*r against Germany's atomic program.

At the height of the Second World w*r,

Germany's n*zi Party

marched toward global domination,

led by its ambitious,

remorseless leader.

Adolph h*tler had the will

to conquer the world.

All he needed was the w*apon.

And he had found the means to make one

in the most unlikely place.

It was here,

in the snow-packed mountains of Norway,

that a handful of soldiers on

skis fought to stop h*tler's dream

of possessing the ultimate w*apon.

Old men now,

they remember how they risked their

young lives for the cause of liberty.

They would stop at nothing

in order to conquer the world.

So the feeling that they had to be

stopped became very, very strong.

We were quite certain that

if we are caught by Germans,

we would all have been ex*cuted.

It would take three daring attempts

before they succeeded.

April 9, 1940.

German warships penetrated Oslo Fjord.

The blitzkrieg had come to Norway.

Within two months, the besieged nation

was forced to surrender.

Well, it took some time to realize it,

actually.

But when Autumn 1940 came,

and the darkness came in over Norway,

you certainly realized that it was not

the same Norway you had the year before

To understand it, you need to have

the experience of being occupied.

To live in an occupied country is

the most distressing thing you can do.

A vast occupying army flooded

the country.

The Nazis now controlled all aspects

of Norwegian life.

No actually w*r between each Norwegian

and each German.

We had to do the best out of it.

I think that was the common opinion.

Inside, of course,

most Norwegians hated them.

They introduced Gestapo in Norway,

when they understood that

resistance was coming

started arresting people,

torturing people,

k*lling people, et cetera et cetera.

And then we certainly understood

what an occupation meant to people.

h*tler's grasp extended

into every corner of the country.

In this remote Norwegian valley,

the Germans seized

a very special prize

the Norsk Hydro factory.

Surrounded by mountains,

the factory had been built on the face

of a cliff overlooking a deep

and impassable gorge.

For the Nazis,

it was an ideal location

for a wartime project difficult

to b*mb and easy to defend.

But, to the generals in Berlin,

Norsk Hydro offered even more.

In 1940, it was the only

hydroelectric plant in the world

producing large amounts

of an extremely rare substance:

deuterium oxide,

also known as heavy water.

As soon as they took control

of the plant,

production went into high gear.

When word reached Great Britain,

a powerful sense of foreboding swept

through the allies.

As the most likely target

for a German A-b*mb,

Britain faced the greatest peril.

Is it possible they do not realize

that we shall never cease

to persevere against them until

they have been taught a lesson

which they and

the world will never forget?

Winston Churchill's spirited defiance

of the Nazis became a rallying point

for resistance fighters from

all over conquered Europe.

Young Norwegians eager

for combat joined the army

of exiles gathering in Britain.

There was no sacrifice that was

too big to try to get the Germans out.

The British created

a secret organization

the Special Operations Executive

to fan the fires of resistance.

You volunteered and you were trained

by the British to go back to Norway

and work behind the lines

on sabotage instruction,

reporting radio information,

wireless operating,

and that sort of thing.

A few young resistance fighters would

return to Norway undercover,

armed with a plan to destroy

the heavy-water factory.

They were country boys and city kids,

engineers and outdoorsmen,

university students

and career soldiers.

Shock troops in a clandestine

w*r against h*tler's a-b*mb,

they would become legends

in their homeland.

And some of them would even star

in this 1948 movie

chronicling their real-life exploits.

Scenes from this film give a revealing

glimpse of the daring mission.

October, 18, 1942

Four of the men returned home

in dangerous night parachute jump.

Their mission:

to guide a British expl*sives team

to the heavy-water plant.

When we were leaving

for the dropping zone,

you felt that some

of the people sending you

didn't expect to see you once more,

so we had to more or

less cheer them up and say,

It's not that this easy

to get rid of us.

We'll be back. Just wait and see.

Our target is

the heavy-water production.

That was all. They said it's important

and we have to destroy it.

I knew that the heavy water

was important

for the Germans' w*apon production,

but in which way I had no idea.

The commandos' first objective was to

establish a secret landing field

on the Hardangervidda,

a huge plateau north of the factory.

Crossing that bleak expanse,

the Norwegians took over an empty cabin

and made radio contact with England.

The operation could begin.

For the first sortie, the British sent

a force in gliders towed by bombers

a plan that needed clear weather.

But over Norway, clouds, winds,

and snow had cut visibility

to near zero.

For the Norwegians on the ground...

the flight had become

a disaster waiting to happen.

I tried to get a connection

with England

and warn them that

at that time it wasn't possible.

And then, suddenly,

I heard interference in my headphones

and I knew they were not far away.

And shortly after, we also heard

the engines on the aircraft,

and it came dead on us,

passed over us and disappeared.

After about half an hour,

the next plane with a guide glider came

and it came right to us correctly,

turned, and went away.

The British troops never arrived

at the rendezvous point.

We got a message from

London that both gliders

and one of the Halifaxes had crashed

in the mountains.

That was the end of

the Freshman operation.

It was a complete disaster.

The soldiers who survived the crash

were rounded up and ex*cuted.

The Allies' secret w*r against the

heavy-water factory was now exposed.

To avoid detection,

the commandos withdrew deeper

into the Hardangervidda.

For weeks, perhaps months,

they would have to live off a land

where little existed but snow and ice.

When this mission

of the gliders failed,

we had actually no supplies

for further stay in the mountains.

So we were dependent upon reindeer,

but at that moment, there were few

or no reindeer at all in our area,

because of the wind directions.

It was so very difficult

to get the reindeers,

but the day before Christmas,

Jens, he sh*t a reindeer.

Jens learned that if you take

the stomach of a reindeer,

you get vitamins

from the reindeer moss.

So we cut up the stomach and

took out the reindeer moss,

the contents, and mixed it

with blood and everything,

and made a nice porridge mixed

with brain.

And we were eating it

and it probably saved our lives.

So on Christmas Eve...

we had a real fun party.

We chatted; we had a good time

at Christmas Eve.

I remember well.

You know your comrades outside

and inside.

You know what he is going to say

before he opens his mouth.

They had endurance, they had the will

to hold on when there is nothing

in you except the will which says

to hold on.

They would have to hold on through

the darkest months of winter.

But each day the Nazis' supply

of heavy water was growing,

drop by precious drop.

London had to make a move.

A second Norwegian squad,

specially trained in expl*sives,

would drop onto the Hardangervidda

and join their comrades

in an as*ault on the heavy-water plant

February, 16, 1943

under cover of night

the six new men landed.

Now the commandos were ready to strike

a blow against h*tler's A b*mb

if they could penetrate the factory's

formidable and deadly defenses.

To the commandos, the heavy-water

plant appeared impervious to att*ck.

To reach the factory, the saboteurs

had to cross a deep, narrow gorge.

There was only one road in.

over a suspension bridge.

And the bridge was patrolled 24 hours

a day by German soldiers.

Any direct as*ault would be doomed.

But the chasm itself, with its steep,

icy wall, lay unguarded.

Someone said he thought it was rather

impossible to cross that gorge.

But it was decided that one should

go down in daylight and find out.

In daylight,

I went down into the valley.

I climbed down the gorge,

crossed the river,

and started climbing up

on the other side.

And then the same way back up

to my friends up in the mountains...

and told the fact that was possible

to cross the gorge.

You felt that this may be serious,

very serious for you,

and you accepted that

you might not come through.

We climbed down the river and up

on the other side,

and our plan was to get in position

for the att*ck by 11:30,

because at 12 o'clock at night,

there was guards down

at the suspension bridge.

We wanted to see the German guards

being relived,

coming up in the factory area,

and enter the barracks,

before we went inside.

We all thought we would be discovered

when we forced the gate.

But nothing happened.

Two of us carried a full set

of charges,

in case one should be sh*t,

there should always be a reserve.

The task for the demolition team:

To attach expl*sives

to the heavy-water cells,

located in a basement room.

Meanwhile, their comrades

on lookout waited.

Each passing moment increased

the chance of discovery.

If we had been discovered,

I knew that during such circumstances

you have to act.

Do I sh**t? A sh*t would, of course,

maybe spoil the whole operation.

Inside, they overpowered

a Norwegian workman.

Holding him at gunpoint,

the saboteurs placed their charges,

pausing only to decide how much time

they would need to escape

before the blast.

Suddenly, they were interrupted

by their c*ptive.

He broke in and said, It's all right,

you may blow the factory,

that's all right.

But may I have my glasses?

Because it's hopeless to get

new glasses in Norway today.

And you would have thought that

you probably said, Damn your glasses!

We have no time for looking

for glasses!

But instead,

you dropped what you were doing

and you searched all around

the room and you found

you found the-the holster for

his glasses and gave him and he said,

thank you very much,

and so we went on with taping the fuses.

So far, they had beaten the odds.

Now the commandos had only seconds

to make their escape.

And after a few minutes one minute,

maybe two minutes they were there,

with us on the railway line.

And we ran the same way back

as we had come in.

The road conditions and

the snow condition were excellent...

because on the railway,

quite a lot of the snow had blown

away on the other side,

and that was frozen solid ground,

and we didn't put a mark.

So everything was actually on our side

With determination, skill, and daring,

the saboteurs had dealt a

crippling blow to their enemy

without losing a man.

But heavy water had become

a German priority,

and within six months,

the factory was back in operation.

The Allies had to assume the worst:

n*zi scientists were close than ever

to building a b*mb.

Another att*ck on the factory

was set in motion

this time, from the air.

In a bold noonday raid,

hurled destruction at the plant.

The raid damaged factory buildings and

k*lled civilians in a nearby shelter.

But the heavy water, secured in

the basement, went untouched.

With production halted,

the Germans decided to move

the operation to the safety

of the Fatherland,

and inadvertently gave the commandos

one last chance to destroy it forever.

We had got information

from London that the Germans.

had planned to take down

the remaining heavy water.

Team members secretly scouted

the route.

The heavy water would be loaded

onto railway cars

and taken by train to Lake Tinnsjo.

Here, the cars would go aboard a

passenger ferry

for the two-hour trip across the lake.

A well-placed charge could sink the

ferry, and with it all the heavy water

But sinking a public ferry

meant paying a terrible price.

Our conclusion was that the sinking

of the ferry

was about the only possible solution.

It would have to be civilian sabotage,

which was naturally a

very serious thing to deal with.

There was no doubt in our mind

that there were going to be

human lives taken,

and furthermore, it could be anybody.

And Rjukan was a small town,

and it was really

almost like all family.

Fearing neighbors and

friends might die,

the Norwegians sent

an urgent message to London.

The British reply was immediate

and uncompromising.

It has been talked over

and the conclusion is they heavy water

has to be-to be destroyed.

Good luck and when you get such a

message from London, you have to do it

Not to be.

They were sad.

But everyone in my family

was scared to what they hear.

I couldn't do anything about it.

The Germans never put any guards

on the ferry.

They were watching their barrels

on the railway.

But the ferryboat itself

was not guarded at all.

At ten o'clock

on a quiet Sunday morning,

the ferry men cast off

from the dock on schedule.

Forty-five minutes later,

at the appointed spot,

a blast tore through the bottom

of the boat.

It was a very, very bad blow,

and the ferry rapidly rose,

and the cargo on the ferry-there

were railway wagons, you see

so they rushed down and

tilted the ferry still more.

Within moments, the mortally damaged

ferry had sunk beneath the surface,

carrying with it innocent passengers

and n*zi Germany's atomic ambitions.

And the heavy water being

on board went down with the ship

and it's still on the bottom

of the Tinnsjo Lake.

Later, the Allies would learn that

the Nazis were never close

to an atomic breakthrough.

The U.S. won the A-b*mb race.

Within months of the German defeat,

America dropped the first atomic b*mb.

But in the Allies hands,

the b*mb helped to win a w*r,

not perpetuate one.

If h*tler had the b*mb, he might

have used it to devastate the world.

The Norwegian resistance fighters

did their part to stop him.

Their mission was one of the greatest

feats of sabotage in m*llitary history

something that had to be done,

at all costs, and was.

You have to fight for your freedom

and for peace.

It's not something that

you have every day.

You have to fight for it every day,

to keep it.

It's like a glass bowl;

it's very easy to break.

It's easy to lose.

Half a world away, on December 7, 1941

American learned the cost of freedom,

when Japan devastated Pearl Harbor.

That sneak att*ck included

the stealth weapons of their day

midget submarines

They were sleek, deadly, and,

until now, consigned to history.

The National Park Service

and the U.S. Navy

have searched for the wreck

of a Japanese midget submarine.

An hour before the

Japanese savaged Pearl Harbor,

a U.S. destroyer sank the tiny vessel.

The encounter could have

warned American forces

that bombs and torpedoes were

about to rain on Battleship Row.

But it did not.

Marine archeologist Dan Lenihan

directed the hunt for the midget sub.

Jim Delgado was the project's historian

Their collaboration grew out

of earlier research

below the surface of Pearl Harbor.

They searched for evidence

of a bygone conflict

a battle waged underwater

by five midget submarines.

One sub played a special role.

It was particularly exciting about the

midget sub that's outside the entrance

It would have represented the

first exchange of hostilities

between the United States

and Japan in World w*r II.

And, because, remember,

that this sub was sunk

an hour before

the planes att*cked Pearl Harbor.

An incredibly important,

significant find if we could do it.

The search for the midget sub

focused on a square mile

of debris-laden bottom.

The area is a graveyard of w*r relics,

like this old Navy plane.

A thousand feet down, in the darkness,

everything begins to resemble a sub.

But what they're looking for is

eighty feet long and six feet across.

It carried two torpedoes and was

manned by an officer and a navigator.

They were going to come on in,

sit, and wait.

And then, when the att*ck occurred,

when the planes came in,

when all hell broke loose

in Pearl Harbor, they would surface,

fire their torpedoes,

and wreak as much havoc as they could,

swing around Ford Island,

head back on out, and rendezvous

with their mother subs to be

taken back to Japan.

The mother ships moved into position

off Diamond Head before midnight,

December 6, 1941.

They arrived ahead of

the Imperial Navy task force.

Each mother ship had a

midget sub strapped to its hull.

The larger craft would release

the midgets before dawn

and retrieve them after the att*ck.

But the tiny vessels would

never return from the battle

a clash of giants that

had been brewing for years.

From Manchuria to French Indochina

in less than a decade,

Japan had rolled up a long list

of conquests across Asia.

Despite an Allied embargo on w*r

materials, she was growing stronger.

By late 1941,

the vast resources of Southeast Asia

lay before the "Rising Sun".

Their only protection:

a scattering of British

and Dutch outposts

and the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

I think there was a general sense

that w*r would break out.

I don't think anybody expected that it

would take place here at Pearl Harbor.

Successfully surprising an island

fortress four thousand miles away

also seemed impossible

to Japanese leaders.

But admiral Isoroku Yamamoto

convinced them this daring raid

was the only way to disarm

the "sleeping giant".

Japan had to

smash American's Pacific Fleet,

even if that meant attacking its

home base in Oahu's natural harbor.

Japanese pilots trained hard through

the fall of 1941.

So did the crews handpicked

to pilot the midget subs,

the fastest boats of their kind.

Soon they would have their chance

for glory.

In Washington,

Japanese diplomats continued

to seek peace through negotiation

until the final hour.

Not even Japan's ambassador knew

of the coming att*ck.

December 7, 1941.

As Oahu slept, the Japanese task

force brought 350 att*ck planes

into striking distance of Pearl Harbor

just two hundred miles away.

In Washington,

m*llitary intelligence teams had

broken Japan's diplomatic code.

They knew an armada was somewhere

in the Pacific.

But they did not know its destination.

Near diamond Head,

dawn was approaching.

The Japanese mother subs surfaced

to release the midget submarines.

But something went wrong.

At 6:30 a.m., a seaplane pilot

and a freighter crew

reported a strange sub

approaching Pearl Harbor

The captain of a nearby destroyer,

the U.S.S. Ward,

realized intruders were trying to

penetrate the fleet's defenses.

His gunners opened fire.

The midget sub began sinking

in a thousand feet of water.

Depth charges finished her off.

The Ward reported the sinking twice.

But before notifying Pacific Fleet

commander Husband E. Kimmel,

district headquarters waited

thirty minutes.

The delay was all the attackers needed

News of the sub might have prevented

what happened next.

Well, the message was radioed in

that they fired

on and depth-charged this sub.

It didn't reach Admiral Kimmel.

It wasn't until just a few minutes

before the att*ck commenced in earnest

with the planes coming in, that the

admiral was finally phoned and told,

look, we got this message in

from the commander

of the Ward saying that

he's fired upon a sub

operating in the defensive zone.

Kimmel says,

Why wasn't I told about this?

He's putting his uniform on,

he's heading out,

and that moment the planes come

screaming in overhead,

the bombs start dropping.

At five minutes to eight, forty

torpedo planes roared over Ford Island

bearing the mark of the Rising Sun.

Accompanying them were

fifty-one dive bombers,

forty-nine high-level bombers,

and forty-three fighters.

American sailors thought they

were seeing a practice drill.

Bombs and b*ll*ts found them

eating breakfast, ironing uniforms,

or staring into the fatal sky.

Arizon... Oklahoma... California.

One by one, great ships sank.

The West Virginia alone took

six torpedoes and countless bombs.

Pearl Harbor's air defense

b*rned on the runways.

Only a handful of pilots managed

to scramble into a sky

thick with enemy planes.

The midget subs' moment had come.

But one had been sunk by the Ward.

A second was depth-charged outside

the harbor.

Of the three that remained,

two posed a thr*at to Battleship Row.

Between waves of attacking planes,

Sub Three fired a torpedo and missed.

Moments later,

it was rammed and depth-charged

by a destroyer making for the open sea

Sub and crew hit bottom.

Overhead,

the Japanese continued their as*ault.

But now smoke and anti-aircraft fire

obscured their targets.

The "sleeping giant" had awakened.

an amm*nit*on magazine,

battleship Arizona blazed toward

her doom.

Survivors staggered into waters aflame

with burning oil.

Japan's brilliant, relentless att*ck

had k*lled more than 2,400.

Americans and crippled most

of the U.S. battleships in the Pacific

For the midget subs, though,

the battle was not as glorious.

Two still roamed Hawaiian waters.

Number Four, which may have fired

at Battleship Row,

radioed news of Japan's victory to

the fleet that evening.

Then she disappeared,

never to be heard from again.

The subs may not have seen

resounding success...

But Japan needed heroes,

so the propaganda machine

reincarnated their crews

as the nine young gods of Pearl Harbor

This wartime Japanese feature

told their story

with luxurious exaggeration.

In truth, quarters were cramped,

and reeked of battery fumes.

The midget subs helped create

confusion at Pearl Harbor,

but didn't affect the w*r's outcome.

And what of the last midget sub

at Pearl Harbor?

Commanded by ensign Kazuo Sakamaki,

it suffered a fate worse than sinking.

On December 8,

as President Franklin D. Roosevelt

called for w*r,

Sakamaki's sub washed up

on the far shore of Oahu,

undone by a faulty gyroscope.

The submarine wouldn't function right.

So he drifted all the way around

the island to the opposite end

and then went ashore on the morning

of December 8 at Bellows,

where he and his crewman assigned to

the sub tried to blow the ship up.

It didn't work.

They jumped into the water.

The crewman then drowned,

but Sakamaki washed ashore

and become the first washed ashore

and became the first prisoner of w*r

that the U.S. captured

in the Pacific: P.O.W. Number One.

Sakamaki spent the w*r in prison.

His sub toured the U.S.,

helping to sell w*r bonds

a souvenir of dark days.

At w*r's end,

after throwing its all at U.S. forces,

Japan let slip a new w*apon of terror.

For decades,

the scars left by kamikaze att*cks

enforced a silence on both sides.

But the men who fought those battles

will never forget them.

Nineteen forty-four.

Japan, its back to the wall,

makes a final,

fanatic effort to stave off defeat.

In an act incomprehensible to Americans

the empire orders thousands

of men to certain death.

Before an att*ck,

pilots drink a toast of sake

a warrior's welcome

to the death that awaited.

They were kamikazes named for a typhoon

that saved Japan from Mongol invaders.

Some were veteran pilots,

many were idealistic students eager

to die for their nation's glory.

Kamikazes inflicted awful punishment

on their enemies.

More than three thousand fliers dove

to their deaths.

They sank fifty-seven ships and

damaged more than three hundred others

Their att*cks k*lled at

least three thousand Americans

and wounded more than six thousand.

The kamikazes were the deadliest w*apon

ever launched against the U.S. Navy

so frighteningly effective that their

existence was initially kept secret

from the American public.

On April 16th, 1945, kamikazes knocked

the U.S.S. Laffey out of the w*r.

The Laffey was rebuilt;

she now is a museum ship in Charleston

North Carolina.

Today, she's receiving visitors her

skipper and four crew members

from World w*r II.

The sight of their ship raises a tide

of memories for these comrades-in-arms

Rear Admiral F. Julian Becton,

who d*ed in 1995,

was 81 when he gave this interview.

He commanded the Laffey during

the invasions of Normandy

and the Philippines.

Steaming toward Okinawa,

he knew what perils lay ahead.

The kamikazes were

the most effective w*apon

that the Japanese developed

during the w*r.

And it was a desperate effort

on their part to do it,

but they were terribly they had a

terrible effect on our ships out there

Ensign James Townley would win

a Silver Star

for his valor aboard the Laffey.

My opinion of the kamikazes were that

they were misguided people.

Then we learned more about them.

We found out that, yes, they were the

"Sons of the Divine wind",

or whatever they chose to call them.

We called them "One-Way Charlies".

And we were really scared

to death of them,

because no matter what you did,

unless you could sh**t them out

of the air, they were coming in.

Gunner's Mate Second Class

Lawrence Delewski

would earn a Bronze Star

before his 21st, birthday.

Everybody has their own way of thinking

and their own way of thinking,

and their own ideas.

And their ways didn't suit us.

There was-I certainly didn't feel

as complacent as I feel now,

At that point,

I was ready to k*ll them all.

In Japan, another group of

old comrades gathers for a reunion.

These men were once the elite of the

Japanese Kamikaze Corps-the Thunder God

They should be long dead,

but they survived some

because they flew fighter cover,

others because seniority

kept them out of combat

to await American's invasion

of the homeland.

Now largely forgotten, they once

made up an awesome att*ck force.

Their w*apon was the okha, which meant

"exploding cherry blossom".

But Americans gave it the code

name baka, meaning "fool".

The weapons were another type

of kamikaze att*ck,

a baka b*mb captured on Okinawa.

It's a two-and-a-half-ton flying b*mb,

dropped from a mother plane

and carrying a su1c1de pilot.

Three rocket propulsion units are

set off on approaching the target,

giving a maximum level speed

of 535 miles per hour.

The baka's punch is an

armor piercing 2,600lb. Warhead.

It's the first

w*apon specially designed

for the Kamikaze Flying Corps.

Reserve Lieutenant Hachiro Hosokawa

was a senior member of an okha squadron

There is a Japanese word,

inujini "to die like a dog",

meaning to die in vain.

It is a wasteful death without honor.

When I became a pilot, this situation

was already so bad

that fighting in

an ordinary way was no use.

We were chosen as elite pilots.

Each of us received a headband

and a dagger.

We thought it was a

privilege granted only to the members

of the Human torpedo Unit,

the elite Okha Corps,

and that we would die gloriously.

These were the Thunder Gods.

All had volunteered;

all were ready to die.

Each year, they gather to pray

for their fallen comrades.

Commander Kunihiro Iwaki

was Vice Commander of the Corps.

The w*r situation was going so badly

for Japan at that time

that we realized that any semblance

of normal m*llitary tactics

could not possibly succeed.

And we had to do the unthinkable

or the incomprehensible

in terms of the m*llitary acts

in last ditch attempt to primarily get

the American aircraft carriers.

Given that situation,

the men realized they had to become

one with the b*mb

in that last, final struggle.

Lieutenant Morimasa Yunokawa commander

on okha squadron.

The thought of my death crossed my mind

only for a fraction of a second.

I was then thinking of only to serve.

No matter how you try to understand

how things were then,

now in this peace time,

I don't think you can.

A kamikaze could send

a ship to its grave

but each flier only had one chance

for success.

Pilots were supposed to aim

for battleships and aircraft carriers,

but destroyers and

their radar gear also were targets.

Aboard the Laffey,

nervous sailors repeated tales

of picket ships breaking in half

and sinking immediately.

The crew would always debate

where is the safest place to be.

That was always the big talk.

Is it safer to be below,

or is it safer to be on deck,

or in the bridge, or wherever.

They all had their own theories

about where was the safest place.

Of course, there was no safe place.

In April 1945,

the noose was tightening on Japan.

As the Battle of Okinawa began,

destroyers patrolled fifty miles

closer to Japan

tempting kamikazes taking off

from the mainland.

su1c1de attackers had sunk several

destroyers on this battle station

now it was the Laffey's turn

to stand watch.

On April 16th, the ship began its

third day on the perimeter.

The mood aboard was tense.

At 8:27 a.m.,

the Laffey's number came up.

Well, the first ones were just they

sorta circled around out pretty far,

maybe, oh eight, ten thousand yards.

And then all of a sudden,

it's like some sort of a signal,

they started coming in.

And first they just came in one

or two at a time,

and you just couldn't take them

all under fire.

So that's when we started getting hit.

For eighty minutes,

the Laffey's crew fought off

the heaviest kamikaze att*ck ever

on a single ship.

Our closest call was a plane coming in

on the starboard beam,

and it was, when I first saw it,

was low on the water,

about ten thousand yards out.

I figured it was about

eight seconds away from certain death,

Unless our gunners got it.

And our Mount 52,

which was just forward of the bridge,

was f*ring at it, and f*ring fast.

I noticed that the bursts

were just off just missing him.

So I just moved it,

and the next one went right into his

hit him right in the nose,

and just blew him up.

And that one is the one that would

have gotten us all.

And it just literally disintegrated,

and everybody heaved

a big sigh of relief.

And just after that,

then there came one in out of the sky

on the port side,

and one came in low on the water

on the port quarter,

and we were at it all over again.

On the morning of April 16th,

we had a su1c1de plane hit us

right about here.

It hit with enough impact

so that this g*n

was blown up, canted upward at

more than a 45 degree angle.

The motor of that plane skidded along

the inside of this left hand g*n

and wound up at the hatchway

in the back of the g*n on this side.

And when he hit over there, I was

blown up the deck about fifteen feet.

When I regained consciousness,

that's where I was.

Ripped from stem to stern

by the att*cks of Jap su1c1de pilots

at Okinawa,

the destroyer U.S.S. Laffey comes home

the Laffey was struck by everything

in the Jap book.

In the savage attempt

to finish her off,

Seven b*mb-loaded planes crashed

on her decks.

the final score was:

nine enemy planes sh*t down

by the Laffey,

but 32 of her brave men were dead

or missing, and 60 were wounded.

In the worlds of her skipper,

Commander Becton,

she was truly

"the ship that would not die".

Flying conventional aircraft,

kamikaze pilots caused terrible damage

but the okha Corps never really got

a chance to affect the w*r's outcome.

The bombers that carried

the okhas were slow,

and American fighter pilots sh*t down

most of them

before they could release

their deadly cargo.

By w*r's end, Hosokawa was

his unit's only surviving officer.

He found the transition

to peacetime troubling.

All of a sudden, the w*r was over,

and I had the feeling of someone

who had been in the eye of a typhoon.

And suddenly the typhoon is gone,

the weather is clear and beautiful.

No one, nothing is left but myself,

and the feeling is, why?

It's a very strange feeling that

I cannot understand

why the typhoon spared me.

They were doing

what they felt was right,

just as we were doing

what we felt was right.

It had to be.

How else could you put your life

on the line for something

you didn't believe in?
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