Week 299 – Kamikazes versus Admirals! – May 18, 1945
Week 299 – Kamikazes versus Admirals! – May 18, 1945
The kamikaze menace continues unabated, with suicide flyers hitting not one but two Admirals’s flagships. There’s plenty of fighting on land, though, as the Americans advance on Okinawa and take a dam on Luzon to try and solve the Manila water crisis, but even after last week’s German surrender there is also still scattered fighting in…
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This bit about the late-war recruitment is pretty good detail.
13:22 I heard more then half of the suicide flights never made it to the boats.
My dad said that he became frustrated when, at the end of the hostilities in Europe, a guy in his outfit that had became so scared by shelling that he ran through a screen door and put himself in for a Purple Heart for the slight scratches that resulted from his own folly. This guy was awarded the Purple Heart for this,and got to go home sooner than the rest of the guys in his platoon. Dad said that all of the guys in the platoon hated this guy. Apparently, the guy also wrote his folks a flowery letter about his personal bravery after his hometown local paper received notice that he had been awarded the Purple Heart and his folks wrote him asking what happened. My dad said that the guy was at fault for his own injuries, slight as they were in the first place. It seems that a warning was given that the Germans were seen preparing their artillery pieces to shell them, and everybody else had taken cover in their slit trenches while the would be hero went sneaking into the mess hall to steal some food. Unfortunately for him, a shell landed fairly close and he decided to run for the slit trenches without bothering to open the screen door to the outside first and just busted through it, giving him some very slight scratches. He became very unpopular for this and many other charming personality traits, but I was reminded of the story when you described the point system, as my father had talked about it.
1:30 it’s still so surreal to me after years of watching this channel. ❤ thank you Indy for everything!
and the J would stand for nothing! 😂
Fabulous.
Does anyone know what is the status of the German diplomats in neutral countries is after May 9? Does the German state still exist? What about the German assets in these countries? Ie., in Switzerland or Sweden.
I did the battle tour on Oki when I was there. Those tunnels and defenses the Japanese had were incredibly well prepared and dug deep. Training there was brutal enough, but could not imagine how hellish that battle was.
6:09 Shigeru Yoshida's arrest on charges of "defeatist rumors" reminded me of something that should get a WaH episode about it: the Shindo Renmei, a brazilian-japanese organization that refused Japan had surrendered, and led to a wave of violence, with Shindo Renmei more fanatic members killing 23 people and injuring another 147, and leading to waves of violence against japanese, members or not, due to the attacks (including a riot in 1946 caused by two Shindo Renmei murders, and another one of a brazilian trucker by a japanese one, that led to a Army intervention to be quelled)
Wheels within wheels within wheels – I missed hearing that Indyism
Truman needed a miillion 18-19 year olds for the invasion of the home islands. This might have focussed his attention even more on the atomic bomb project.
Another awesome video
The 6 months of training was only about 18 year old draftees. 17 year olds who joined the Navy or Marines with parental agreement could be deployed at any moment after their training ended. It also had no impact on 18 year olds already deployed. This amendment had little practical impact in hindsight. US troops were already fully engaged in Okinawa the Phillipines with few new replacements being brought in by this point. Since Japan surrendered in august we never got to see how this amendment would have hit manpower levels. But the US was running out of new troops by summer 45. Its doubtful another 2 years could have been sustained.
Will you guys be doing anything on after the war? In particular on soldiers returning home for all nations allied and axis
I imagine some peoples' faces showing "half" joy after reading that the war ended only in "half of the world"
Interestingly, there is still fighting by Axis forces in Europe struggling to reach the Western Allies, despite the Surrender, only to have their hopes dashed by the British handing them and all Axis prisoners of Slovak heritage to the Soviets? Meanwhile, in the Pacific, the Japanese fight a piecemeal war divided between the Pacific, Tojo has fallen and Togo can try to save Japan, Konoe the Crown Prince, a disciple to Nazi, fascism, continues to speak w Hirohito who calls for defense and attacks on the USN USMC USArmy? in Okinawa? The US Marines and tenth Army make gains on Okinawa, Shuri castle still in Japanese hands, and the upcoming MAEDA escarpment aka HACKSAW? The USAAF and Army battle and decimate the Japanese in the Phillipines> The Points system, time in combat, and theatres?
Thank you.
My paternal uncle who had enlisted January 1942, landed in North Africa and fought in Italy until surrender told of then being sent home for leave and then on to reporting to an Army base near Walla Walla, Washington for training for the Invasion of Japan.
The returning combat vets from Europe got word of the restructure of the draft and of Army training, grumbling turned into rioting.
My uncle was taking a smoke break under the deck of the base commander's office veranda and overhead the General ordering the Colonel of the base MP's to put down the mutiny by shooting the mutineers.
The Colonel responded. "Sir, before the War I was an elected county sheriff. Someday this war will end and I will not be the one answering to all the mothers and fathers and grand parents and uncles and aunts, all of them voting American citizens, as to how I gunned down their kin. I will put down this trouble."
The Colonel took two thompsons with him, walked into the middle of the base and fired into the air.
"All right boys you made your point. Stop now or I will have to clap you into irons."
That summer dozens of Army bases saw riots by the returning overseas combat veterans.
This must have been a factor in the decision to use the superbomb upon Japan.
Why has the liberation of Denmark not been covered?
The Bunker Hill was a mess , it and the Franklin the worst Carrier attacks in the War, as good book about the Bunker Hill is out there .
Don't worry Japanese people, the war will be over in only 3 months. How bad can it be?
wow after years of watching this series (even supporting it on patreon for a bit) it feel so surreal that there no war in Europe from this point on well good work guys what a great series its been
Enola Gay
I had naively assumed that when the surrender documents were signed everyone in Europe would stop fighting. It was news to me that this did not happen. How desperate those German troops in the Balkans must have been, to try to fight their way to get through one army in order to surrender to another. And then, having succeeded, to be turned back. I know they had to know about what their armies had done in the Soviet Union, but this just illustrates once again how there is nothing fair about war.
OMG, at around 12:15 we can see footage of USS Alaska that was commissioned only some months before the battle. An interesting ship in its own right.
Hey Indy,
I know this is a later subject but would you consider doing a special on POW repatriation. I know especially for German POWs many either didnt come home or got released long after the war (like 50's or 60's if i recal). I know there was a movie about a German Soldier who got captured in Stalingrad and made his way home years later (name escapes me)
Arguable a better story was about a Korean POW who initially fought for the Japanese at Khalkin Gol, got captured, fought for the Russians at Stalingrad (or somewhere in 42, dont remember exactly) then got captured by the Germans and fought in an international unit at Normandy and surrendered to the Americans. (My Way i think was the movie title, honestly one of the best WW2 movies iv seen in years)
thanks
Right at the end of the video Indy mentions a video about Japanese politics. If you watchit, the astounding thing is that that sort of system is very much how South Korea operates today. Instead of Zaibatsu corporations they have Chaebol corporations.
Why is so much time and effort put into American battles compared to other nations?
I grew up in the 1980s, during the height of the Reagan-era Cold War, and the idea of a Nuclear Winter was an ever-present part of the culture. I certainly grew up thinking that dropping the
A-bombs on Japan was unnecessary and a needless escalation into the nuclear arms race that followed. But as I watch this series, seeing the Japanese government fully onboard with suicide in the name of prolonging a war that they knew they would end in total defeat, I now completely understand why Truman slept soundly at night.
The scope of this project boggles my mind. One of these days I'm going to go back and watch from Week 1 (because I didn't come in until much later) but it's almost impossible to face as a member of the freakin *audience*; I can only imagine how daunting it must have been to create.
well Indys done WW1 and WW2 is almost over…for maximum job security, 100 years war next?
My Grandpa joined the US air force when he was 18 in 1945 but because of training time was never actually deployed and was then dismissed and sent home when the war ended but he still received a medal for his technical service in the war. He later rejoined the air force and fought in the Korean War.
“That’s funny.”
“What?”
“That Zero is kamakazeing where there ain’t no US ships.”
The issue of Japan at this stage of war was : What Japanese civilian statesmen and politicians saying , said wtc were meaningless. Civilian goverment was not running Japan , it was being run by extreme militarist and ultra nationalist clieque of soldiers gathering mostly from brain washed lower rank officedrs (mostly yopung , hot headed and manipulated by nationalist education and propaganda) to top ranking generals leading war effort , a group of Japanese versions of Hindenburg / Ludendorff from WWI. For them admitting defeat and forgoing Bushido and Shinto , Imperial system which promised a bright new Japanese Empire inb the world , was unthinkable culturally , that was how they were raised and how they rose in ranks and came into power into absolute leadership.
Otto Von Bismarck once said , soldiers are poor statemen because their vision is limited with vision of a gunsight.