Pearl Harbor - EP 2 - World War Two Reaction

[00:00:00]Welcome back everyone. Pearl Harbor episode dos or two, whatever. We have this is Genda's plan.

[00:00:10]Uh yeah, let's jump right in. And first, we're watching this sequentially, so make sure you start at the beginning.

[00:00:17]>> It's 6:48 a.m. And on the destroyer Ward, skipper William Outerbridge has just called general quarters. Man your battle stations. There's a submarine at Pearl Harbor, and it ain't one of ours.

[00:00:32]>> It's going to get real.

[00:00:35]>> Here in December 1941, neither Japan nor the US is really capable of seeing things from the other's perspective. To Tokyo, with the Allied oil and raw materials embargo, Allied support for Chiang Kai-shek in China, and Anglo-American cooperation, it looks like Washington wants to curb Japanese development and ambitions.

[00:00:56]Japanese resources have been overextended by the war in China. And their leaders are pretty desperate. But, being demoted to a minor power dependent on the US really is a future too humiliating for them to consider.

[00:01:09]>> I just noticed he has a mug with himself on it. I think I've mentioned that before in another video, but it's hilarious.

[00:01:16]>> However, the US totally underestimates that sentiment. And also that Japan might be willing to start a war that doesn't really look that winnable for them. The US also very much underestimates >> And by the way, as you can tell, since the Meiji Restoration, uh or the Meiji Restoration, Japan has westernized so much.

[00:01:36]>> Japanese military, especially the Imperial Japanese Navy. Misunderstanding all this means the US not offering much of anything in exchange for a Japanese political defeat. Now, the general Japanese attack plan for this big offensive had always been to take as much territory in Southeast Asia as possible, and assume the US Navy would then either come to the relief of the Philippines, would attack Japan itself, or would cut off communications between the home islands and the new empire. So, as the American fleet crosses the Pacific, a fleet of submarines and maybe destroyers would harass them so that by the time they cross, they'll be weakened to the point that the Japanese fleet can beat them in open battle. That's the thinking.

[00:02:20]So, Japan has built a large submarine fleet specifically trained for action against warships and some super battleships designed for the big slugfest.

[00:02:29]In January 1941, though, Combined Fleet Commander Yamamoto explains to Navy Minister Oikawa that a surprise attack by planes from carriers at Pearl Harbor would destroy both the ships that are there and American morale. But Yamamoto has to sell this to the rest of the naval leadership, which is not easy. And it is only by threatening to resign several times now in October that he gets his way.

[00:02:55]War in Southeast Asia has been decided by then, and losing their most important fleet commander just before hostilities start is not an option. So, on October 20th, the Admiralty agrees to his and Genda's plan if they go to war with the US.

[00:03:09]>> All right, so that comes down to Genda's plan right there. So, you know, it's kind of a crossroads.

[00:03:15]It's preemptive at uh in the conservative fashion.

[00:03:20]Or they feel like they're already at war because of the embargo.

[00:03:24]And because of their ambitions and they feel like they've been wronged in some way even though, you know, >> There are conceptual problems with the plan, however.

[00:03:33]First off, if they do manage a sneak attack on the US, it is way more likely to provoke anger and revenge than destroy morale.

[00:03:43]>> But do they believe that?

[00:03:44]>> The whole plan also has a flawed assumption that the US is any threat to the flank of a southward Japanese advance because it isn't.

[00:03:56]>> Oh.

[00:03:58]Oh, so you're saying that the United States would be a paper tiger if they were to take the Philippines, Micronesia, uh Indonesia, Malaysia, etc. All those places.

[00:04:09]>> The Pearl Harbor fleet is not equipped with the tankers and supply ships that it would require for any attack across the Pacific Ocean. The Americans, of course, know this, which is one big reason why they aren't expecting any attack, and a lot of their Pacific fleet has been transferred to the Atlantic in 1941 anyhow.

[00:04:29]>> Mhm, Battle of the Atlantic, protecting escorts, right?

[00:04:33]>> In spite of the knowledge of these publicly conspicuous transfers, Yamamoto persisted with what has to be considered a manic single-mindedness. In the Japanese Navy war game conducted in September 1941, the aircraft carrier Yorktown, which had left for the Atlantic the preceding April, was sunk in Pearl Harbor.

[00:04:52]And Pearl is a shallow port, as I said.

[00:04:55]So, the ships attacked would be grounded or not deeply sunk, which makes it a hell of a lot easier to repair them and return them to service. Open seas action, according to the old plan, well, that would be quite different.

[00:05:08]>> Right, because if they're a mile under the water, they're they're gone. There's nothing you can do.

[00:05:13]>> But Yamamoto is not considering large strategic concerns, just immediate tactical victory.

[00:05:20]And an immediate tactical victory is what the destroyer Ward is hoping for right now. The number one gun is swinging out to aim at the conning tower of the spotted submarine. Gun three is ready and loaded, and the men bring up ammunition for guns two and four. With engines cranked to full, Ward heads for the gap between Antares and the barge she's towing, now some 400 yd from the sub. Antares lights signals that she's being followed, and a PBY Catalina flying boat patrolling above dropped smoke pots to mark the sub's position.

[00:05:51]>> So, I mean, they've been exposed.

[00:05:55]I I mean, I would say all hands on deck, but what what's going on, guys?

[00:05:59]>> Ward is close enough to not need the smoke pot, and the sub, sub I-20, does not seem to have noticed Ward yet, and is still following Antares toward the harbor entrance. This is from Ward's log.

[00:06:14]Open fire with number one and three guns, and began dropping depth charges set for 100 ft. One shot was fired from each gun. The shot from number one gun missed, passing directly over the conning tower. The shot from number three gun, fired at a range of 560 yd or less, struck the submarine at the waterline, which was the junction of the hull and conning tower. Damage was seen by several members of the crew. This was a square, positive hit. There was no evidence of ricochet. The submarine was seen to heel over to starboard. The projectile was not seen to explode outside the hull of the submarine.

[00:06:51]There was no splash of any size that might result from an explosion or ricochet. Immediately after being hit, the submarine appeared to slow and sink.

[00:07:00]>> Okay. This is By the way, I never knew this happened. What?

[00:07:05]>> She ran into our depth charge barrage, and appeared to be directly over an exploding charge. The submarine sank in 1,200 ft of water, and could not be located with supersonic detectors.

[00:07:16]>> Did it actually sink, or is that an assumption?

[00:07:19]>> There was a large amount of oil on the surface where the depth charges exploded.

[00:07:24]>> So.

[00:07:25]>> Whoever went down with that submarine are the first Japanese casualties caused by America in World War II.

[00:07:34]>> Oh my god.

[00:07:36]>> [laughter] >> Dang.

[00:07:40]>> I said last time that it was who decided those subs would move in before the aerial attack. I would like to say a few words now about Yamamoto himself. Born Takano Isoroku in 1884, the future commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet spent his youth in rather poor circumstances. His father had been part of the privileged samurai class.

[00:08:02]>> What?

[00:08:04]That's crazy.

[00:08:05]>> But had fought on the losing side of the shogunate in the Boshin War of 1868, which left the family disgraced >> Ah, that's why. That's why. That's why.

[00:08:13]Okay.

[00:08:14]>> and impoverished. Takano had a quick mind, and after studying at the prestigious Naval Academy at Hiroshima, was posted in 1905 aboard the cruiser Nisshin. Japan was then at war with the Russian Empire and won a series of stunning victories. At the Battle of Tsushima, Takano got his first taste of battle, losing two fingers on his left hand.

[00:08:36]His rapid advances and achievements post-war got the attention of the samurai clan Yamamoto. See, a member of the family was without an heir, and it was quite common at the time that such samurai families would adopt a promising young man into the family to carry on the family name.

[00:08:52]Following a >> Really?

[00:08:54]>> traditional Buddhist ceremony, Takano left his old name behind and joined clan Yamamoto. This was not just a mere name, though. It also catapulted Yamamoto Isoroku into the ranks of Japan's high society.

[00:09:07]He was among a group of officers soon sent to the States, and he enrolled at Harvard University, studying advanced English and economics. From 1925 to 1928, he served as an official naval attaché in Washington, D.C.

[00:09:21]>> So, he has a lot of diplomatic experience.

[00:09:24]>> He then took command of the new aircraft carrier Akagi.

[00:09:28]He rose to be one of the most influential military men in Japan and an advocate for a dominant position of naval aviation.

[00:09:36]>> Well, yeah, to about it.

[00:09:38]Japan and the United Kingdom are very similar in terms of geography and not in like topography, but geography.

[00:09:45]Um they are island nations. They need to be reliant on a dominant air force and a dominant uh navy because their armies, obviously the Japanese army, it's very formidable, especially as they enter China and they have their their doctrine, etc. But and they're more marine-based uh army, I would say, versus like just standard army because they're going to have to be ambiguous or not ambiguous, amphibious uh so many times uh when it comes to their island-hopping campaign.

[00:10:15]But >> [clears throat] >> to be successful as a nation like uh Japan and IE uh the United Kingdom, they want to emulate the United Kingdom, as you can obviously tell, with their ambitions of being an empire. They see the West and they've basically been Westernizing since the Meiji Restoration and this is becoming more of a um an ambition to do that, they're going to have to have naval supre- supremacy in the in this sphere of the world.

[00:10:43]>> [snorts] >> That means China, Indochina, all the colonial powers, uh they should leave this sphere of their world. It's kind of like the Monroe Doctrine, right?

[00:10:54]Uh but this is a different uh form of that.

[00:10:57]>> He reorganized the pilot school and under his strict leadership, Japanese naval aviation became one of the most specialized and confident groups within the entire military.

[00:11:08]He had hoped that war could be avoided through diplomacy, but you know, if diplomacy failed and war became inevitable, then it must be fought from the best possible starting position. To Yamamoto, Japan needs the knockout blow.

[00:11:23]If not with the first strike, then with the second. Everything else leads to defeat. The conquest in Southeast Asia must be finished before the US can retaliate. And the size of that time window will be determined by the effectiveness of this first strike.

[00:11:40]But, that strike needs surprise for maximum effectiveness. And that surprise might soon be blown. The destroyer Ward is still roaming around the entrance to Pearl and spots a white sampan sailing in the restricted area.

[00:11:56]>> A what?

[00:11:57]>> When Ward heads over to investigate, the sampan takes off. Ward chases it down, whereupon the sampan's Japanese skipper turns off his engine and waves a white flag.

[00:12:08]Sampans being in the restricted area is not actually that rare. They go there for better fishing. But, Outerbridge thinks the white flag is a bit odd for the surrender.

[00:12:21]Perhaps the skipper heard the guns firing earlier though and and wants to make sure everyone knows he comes in peace. Well, Ward notifies the Coast Guard to escort the sampan to Honolulu.

[00:12:33]These are all fairly small ships seeing the first action at the harbor this morning. But, remember, Japan still has the world's largest fleet of aircraft carriers just a few hundred miles away.

[00:12:44]>> And they don't even know. That's the crazy thing, right? In today's time, we would know immediately. We being the United States. The United States would know the coordinates of where these people are because of satellite imagery and tech military technology of such.

[00:13:00]And we could obviously launch, you know, a blackbird or anything else that we would want to do and immediately know everything that we needed to know.

[00:13:09]However, this is 1941.

[00:13:11]So, this is like an like a tiger ambushing its prey at this point.

[00:13:15]>> Their first wave of planes has flown.

[00:13:18]Second wave [snorts] is being brought up on deck.

[00:13:25]In the 1920s and 1930s, airplanes were still small, for fragile biplanes, only capable of flying a short range until they had to land and refuel. Over the open sea, that also meant that half their range was eliminated.

[00:13:39]>> And it is insane to like I I even remember watching um this this should be live on the channel now.

[00:13:46]Uh sink the Bismarck and just saying the British aviation, the British uh planes I was like, "Wow, these look so I don't know, outdated the the the machinery that they're flying.

[00:14:02]It's just crazy how much aviation changed from 1939 to 1945.

[00:14:08]So much changes from 1939 to 1945 in terms of military technology. You have to.

[00:14:14]>> dated, so they could make it back to base.

[00:14:17]Navigational instruments were very basic and and aircraft were easily affected by the weather and the stormy seas. Pilots would get lost at sea or miss their targets by miles. Japan's carrier Akagi once lost an entire sortie in a storm.

[00:14:33]Their weaponry was also way too weak to attack heavily armored warships and the accuracy of bombing a target on the move was close to zero.

[00:14:42]>> Oh my god, did you see that? That torpedo basically went straight towards the bank.

[00:14:46]>> There was little faith and even less evidence that aircraft could ever challenge or replace warships as the king of the ocean.

[00:14:55]>> Yeah, I mean, you think about the doctrine of the last 400 years of naval warfare. It's just been, you know, broadside cannon fire, broadside cannon fire and then that of course you get in the 19th century and it becomes more, you know, projectile guns and and you get better through the naval arms race all the way through World War I and obviously we know what UK and Germany did and and the whole world, right?

[00:15:20]Um and then not to mention, you know, like Japan and and and other nations, like most impor- uh gosh.

[00:15:30]Dennis.

[00:15:30]Like the Russo-Japanese War, we saw Japan being able to take care of a Western power, but quite insane.

[00:15:38]>> The Japanese Navy was run by the gun club, which advocated a powerful surface fleet of the biggest, baddest battleships available.

[00:15:48]But, if a coordinated bomber attack could preemptively damage the enemy fleet, it might solve Japan's numerical inferiority problem.

[00:15:58]It was an intriguing theory that some cheap little planes could actually damage or even sink a super expensive warship.

[00:16:07]But, just a theory.

[00:16:08]The first major problem was how to bring aircraft onto the naval battlefield in the first place. They required portable air bases, hence the idea of the aircraft carrier.

[00:16:18]Japan introduced carriers into its fleet in 1918. Though the first seaplane carrier, the Hosho, was still little more than a small prototype. But, it was a beginning, a first carrier from which aircraft could safely take off and land.

[00:16:33]However, carriers were soon limited in space and size by the Washington Naval Treaty. So, the next evolutionary step of Japanese carriers was the conversion of former battleships into carriers.

[00:16:49]>> Weird schematics for sure, but interesting.

[00:16:53]>> Both Akagi and Kaga are converted warships, a flat top on the massive hull of a much heavier ship design. One thing the Japanese put heavy emphasis on is hangar space.

[00:17:04]Unlike the Americans who parked their planes on the flight deck, the Japanese use elevators to transport their aircraft into closed hangars for refuel and rearmament.

[00:17:13]>> My bad.

[00:17:15]>> This might prove to be a flaw one day, but for today's mission, it increases the aircraft capacity of Kaga and Akagi to 90 each, and that is quite a force.

[00:17:25]Yamamoto lobbied to convert the two hybrid carriers into full carriers, and to get rid of the silly naval guns since he has no intention of having them near the battle line. Soryu and Hiryu, the next to be built, are full carriers.

[00:17:40]Soryu can hold 68 aircraft in a double deck hanger system, and its sister Hiryu 73 on two decks. But just Kaga, Akagi, and Hosho used 54,000 of the 81,000 tons set by the 1930 London Naval Treaty.

[00:17:57]>> Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. There's 81,000 ton limit.

[00:18:01]>> So this was [clears throat] way over the limit, but you know >> Wait, hold on.

[00:18:06]>> Hosho used 54,000 of the 81,000 tons set by the 1930 London >> Well, okay. So that's total? Oh, that's So that's like militarization like limitation. Like you can't you can't build up arms for this because, you know, you'd use it. It's It's It's similar to like reduction of nuclear weapons, right?

[00:18:29]>> Naval Treaty. So this was way over the limit, but you know, by 1934 the Japanese hardliners in charge said, "Screw it." And disregarded all such treaties. Today, the Japanese Navy has six carriers at its disposal, and the Shokaku and Zuikaku carriers are fast enough to outrun most battleships and large enough to easily carry 72 aircraft each. The First Air Fleet is at the height of its power with the striking force of six carriers chosen to attack Pearl Harbor. Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu, Shokaku, and Zuikaku.

[00:19:06]>> Mhm.

[00:19:09]All right.

[00:19:09]>> bridge now radios in the report of the sunken sub. He has actually already done so once 2 minutes ago, but thinks his first message may be interpreted as him acting from sonar contact and not from an actual sighting. And they sure did see the sub. This message reads, "Attacked, fired on, depth bombed, and sunk submarine operating in defensive sea area. There should now be no mistaking that he saw something and used his ship's guns to sink it. He had actually begun writing and then decided against sending an even stronger toned message. "Sighted conning tower of strange sub, fired two rounds at point-blank range."

[00:19:52]Some of Ward's crew are worried that they may have sunk an American sub.

[00:19:58]>> Yeah, I mean that would be interesting. Friendly fire is but I mean how obvious would that be that it would be friendly fire if like the build of the of the sub the communication and all of that.

[00:20:22]It is It is I mean like is it unprecedented to see a Japanese sub in the region?

[00:20:29]>> sub that just happened to be unmarked.

[00:20:31]Like out >> unmarked per se. So, they don't even know.

[00:20:35]>> Their bridge is confident it is not.

[00:20:37]Meanwhile, in the skies to the north of Oahu, Mitsuo Fuchida is leading the first wave of Japanese planes now just over an hour away >> And they go in this U-shape?

[00:20:46]>> from attack.

[00:20:48]>> Almost like a V like well it's an inverted version of how geese fly.

[00:20:54]>> Fuchida thinks >> There was a considerable tailwind from the north, which made me think arrival time to Oahu would be shorter than originally scheduled.

[00:21:06]But since we were flying above the clouds, the sea surface was not visible.

[00:21:11]Under these conditions, we could not use dead reckoning in navigation to measure our drift.

[00:21:17]>> Talk last time about the torpedo bombers. But, Fuchida also has a bunch of the 135 dive bombers that came today flying with him.

[00:21:26]An alternative to classic horizontal bombing is dive or glide bombing.

[00:21:33]Pilots send their planes into a dive, closing in on their targets to just a few yards range, and only then do they release their ordnance and bank away.

[00:21:42]The technique evolved quickly in the 1930s and attracted a major audience.

[00:21:47]Soon, a daring pilot could put his plane into a nearly vertical dive. The concept >> You got to be able to pull that up.

[00:21:54]>> The concept was simple, and the best thing of all is that the pilot only has to aim with the nose of his plane. The Japanese embraced the concept with open arms. It embodies the Japanese military slogan Nikuhaku Hichu, press closely, strike home.

[00:22:10]But, they needed major technological advances to make dive bombing actually viable. See, a nearly vertical dive put such a stress on the plane's frame that it threatened to break the planes apart.

[00:22:24]>> That would be horrible. And then you're just going to fall where the bomb fell.

[00:22:28]>> So, in licensing agreements with German manufacturers Heinkel and later Junkers, who was experimenting with the Junkers 87 Stuka, Japanese manufacturer Aichi came up with a new and more sturdy plane, the Aichi D3A1 Type 99 Carrier Bomber.

[00:22:44]>> Did you use better material or did you add material?

[00:22:48]>> Aircraft carriers are the obvious targets for this sort of attack because a carrier does not need to be sunk to be eliminated. Just destroy its ability to launch and retrieve aircraft by disabling its flight deck, and well, there you go. And that can be done by just a couple of hits. So, dive bombing becomes the preferred method for anti-carrier warfare. Dive bombers are brought today in part because of the hope that carriers would be at Pearl. If so, then this would be their priority target.

[00:23:18]Just in general, by now the Japanese navy has nearly abandoned the traditional horizontal bomber in favor of torpedo and dive bombing. However, the plan today has revived the usefulness of naval horizontal bombing.

[00:23:33]For once, the battleships will be as >> Oh, yeah, they'll be very close together and yeah.

[00:23:39]>> stationary as airfields and docks. And the target area is predetermined. So, an ideal approach can be calculated beforehand. More importantly, intelligence reports that the capital ships in Battleship Row, in Pearl Harbor, are moored in pairs, meaning that only the outer ships will be vulnerable to torpedoes. So, horizontal bombers are very much needed. The development of the armor-piercing Type 99 shell with trinitroanisole explosive filler has kept >> Golly, the anatomy of this is interesting.

[00:24:11]>> the horizontal bomber back onto the playing field, modified with an >> Mhm.

[00:24:19]>> aluminum shock-absorbing plug placed ahead >> About 66 lb.

[00:24:25]Oh, the whole thing is about a ton. Holy crap.

[00:24:30]>> of the charge to only allow the bomb to detonate after penetrating a ship's armor, it can cause devastating damage.

[00:24:38]So, today, the Nakajima B5N has a dual purpose, both torpedo and classic horizontal bombing.

[00:24:46]But, with the development of new technology and new more powerful aircraft, naval pilots need improved training.

[00:24:55]Between 1930 and 1937, the Japanese Navy did a complete overhaul of the training and recruitment systems of pilots, mechanics, bombers, and observers. It opened its programs for a wider audience to draw non-commissioned officers from regular fleet service, and pilots and mechanics directly from civilian life.

[00:25:14]Yamamoto argued against the excessive use of the quality over quantity principle.

[00:25:24]>> Interesting.

[00:25:25]I mean, obviously you having quality and quantity would be a good good thing, but I'm guessing if you have quantity, you have room to spare, or men to spare?

[00:25:36]Is that Is that the conversation here?

[00:25:38]And because of the numerical disadvantage you have immediately?

[00:25:41]>> That program had produced only a small group of elite fighter aces. If the carrier fleet is to be successful, they must rely on a broad mass of well-trained and disciplined formation.

[00:25:52]Pilots at sea need formation flying, and each naval pilot must master carrier deck landings and takeoffs. Carrier aviation must run like a well-oiled machine, since a single attack aircraft, no matter how good or daring the pilot, cannot achieve success on his own. The three aircraft shotai formation is composed of a leader and his two wingmen. Together they form an equilateral triangle at the same altitude, and only shortly before combat make a looser formation. The three-man shotai may also be extended to a nine-fighter chutai formed from three shotai.

[00:26:30]But despite the new training organizations, the Japanese >> And of course you learn that from birds.

[00:26:36]>> task force still relies on an elite cadre of pilots, specially trained for the attack on Pearl Harbor, with over 800 flying hours each.

[00:26:45]If the cadre is spent, it will take time and effort to be replaced. Although very capable for a first strike, the lack of a reserve could doom Japan in case of a long war of attrition.

[00:27:00]On Soryu, Fujita listened with his comrades to fighter pilot Lieutenant Fuchida leader's grim council.

[00:27:06]>> "What are you going to do in case you have engine trouble in flight?" he demanded. Then without pause, he answered for himself.

[00:27:12]"In case of trouble, I will fly straight to my objective and make a crash dive into an enemy target >> Kamikaze.

[00:27:18]>> rather than make an emergency landing."

[00:27:21]>> Wow.

[00:27:25]>> 7:00 >> The Kamikaze I wonder how the Kamikaze doctrine comes into place, you know? Like what what solicits or not solicits what positions the Kamikaze move?

[00:27:41]Is it from the emperor, for the emperor?

[00:27:45]Is it the military's like rules of engagement in case of scenarios XYZ blah blah blah?

[00:27:54]Like what is it? Is it individualistic religious like fervor what is it? That's interesting to me. Like why do people become Kamikazes?

[00:28:07]It's it's it's got to be inherited hereditarily religious, right?

[00:28:10]>> 7:00 a.m. And the first attack wave under Fuchida reaches optimal height.

[00:28:16]>> There is yet more action both at and under sea right now on the Oahu coastline. A submarine has actually invaded Hawaii. It has been beached on the east coast of Oahu, but it's early morning and no one has noticed it yet.

[00:28:34]>> However, a patrolling PBY plane logs a report at 7:00 a.m. that it has sunk a submarine about a mile out from the entrance to the harbor. This report will will some minutes to be decoded and it might not be believed. All kinds of things are reportedly cited and it's pretty much always nothing.

[00:28:53]Well, this time it's not nothing.

[00:28:57]At any rate, Squadron 24 now has four of its six PBY-5 boat planes depart Pearl Harbor for scheduled training exercise in operational area C5. One of the remaining two planes is out of commission for structural changes. The other is in standby status for ready duty.

[00:29:16]The PBY Catalina flying boats have been produced for several years now and were originally designed to be long-range bombers of transport ships >> Really?

[00:29:27]>> ships and enemy supply lines. They have the huge advantage of not requiring runways or decks.

[00:29:34]>> Yeah, I mean, think about that. The the tactical advantage of being able to like deploy and lift off from water or land on water.

[00:29:44]>> So, the whole ocean is available to them. The PB >> As long as there's clear calm waters, right? If it's if it's not calm waters, it'd be pretty devastating.

[00:29:53]>> stands for patrol boat according to naval aircraft designation and the Y is the code that is assigned to Consolidated Aircraft, the manufacturer.

[00:30:02]The PBY-5 has two 1,200 horsepower engines and has a range of just over 2,500 miles.

[00:30:09]Pearl Harbor has some other defenses as well and they are active this morning.

[00:30:15]The Army has the Opana radar station on the northern tip of Oahu. It is one of five such mobile stations on Oahu which send info to Fort Shafter which plots the aircraft picked up by the stations.

[00:30:27]Stations can pick up planes within 150 miles.

[00:30:31]Opana station is in operation between 4:00 and 7:00 a.m. this morning. About the only traffic they pick up during the 3-hour shift is a couple planes coming in from the northeast at 6:45, about 130 miles out. But, the two privates running the station stay a few minutes beyond 7:00 this morning because the breakfast truck still hasn't arrived. And now, at 7:02 a.m., the biggest blip the guys have ever seen flashes onto the screen. So big, they think the machine is broken for a second, but it is indeed a huge flight of planes coming from the north, 3° east at 137 miles and closing. The headphones that connect directly to the information center are dead, but the regular army phone connection works. They tell the switchboard operator that there is a huge flight of unknown planes coming in from the north.

[00:31:28]>> Well, at least the warning was given.

[00:31:29]>> He writes down the message thinking that he's alone, but then realizes he's not.

[00:31:36]Lieutenant Kermit Tyler is on duty, having been scheduled, for whatever reason, from 4:00 to 8:00 this morning.

[00:31:45]Tyler takes the message, but doesn't think much of it for now.

[00:31:50]Anyhow, Ward picks up another sub >> I guess they had so many false flags that it's like the boy who cried wolf.

[00:31:58]>> a bison R at 7:03. What is going on here? Outerbridge immediately has five depth charges dropped right over the spot indicated, and a black oil bubble soon rises to the surface 300 yd astern of the Ward. Outerbridge alerts 14th Naval District Headquarters to stand by for further messages. But, back to the skies. There actually are a bunch of American planes that are going to arrive soon. On the night of December 6th, a group of >> B-17s >> 12 B-17 heavy bombers takes off from Hamilton Field, California. Although the ultimate destination is the Philippines, they are to rendezvous at Pearl Harbor.

[00:32:40]>> And aren't the Philippines being invaded right now?

[00:32:43]>> Today.

[00:32:44]The B-17s are unarmed though, to make them as light as possible in order to save fuel.

[00:32:50]The USAAF, the United States Army Air Forces, currently sees the B-17 bomber as a strategic heavy bomber in a specifically offensive role. It is to be a high-flying long-range bomber outfitted with strong enough defensive firepower to withstand enemy fighter attacks along the way.

[00:33:10]It takes its nickname Flying Fortress from the amount of damage it can take before being brought down. The new B-17 Model E came out in September this year.

[00:33:21]Unlike its predecessors, this model has been designed with offensive warfare in mind. Modified with a much larger tail and a fuselage strengthened with a vertical tail fin, rudder, and horizontal stabilizer, the new B-17E can carry a maximum bomb load of 4,200 lb. Now featuring a new tail gunner position in addition to the dorsal gun turret behind the cockpit and a ventral ball turret just behind the bomb bay.

[00:33:50]>> God damn it, the Millennium Falcon.

[00:33:52]>> It is armed with 10.50 caliber machine guns and one.30 caliber machine gun. It is 20% heavier than the earlier models and is now powered by upgraded versions of the turbocharged Wright R-1820 Cyclone 9 engines with 1,000 horsepower each. The B-17 bombers just about to arrive over Pearl Harbor today are flying straight into an unexpected war zone, unarmed as they are. They have no ability to defend themselves.

[00:34:26]>> What a circumstance.

[00:34:28]>> And now, north of Oahu, the Japanese carriers are turning into the wind.

[00:34:34]Second wave of attack planes is readying to take off.

[00:34:40]Japan began beefing up its aircraft industry in the 30s. In the past, it relied heavily on foreign designs and licensing agreements. But with Japan's rise to power comes the desire to break its domestic industry free from foreign dependency. Yamamoto is chief of the technical bureau of the naval air department and then chief of the department itself in the 30s. And he aims to align civilian-owned aircraft enterprises with the needs of the Navy.

[00:35:09]From 1937 onward, Japanese aircraft production is in high gear. The two largest manufacturers for the Navy, Mitsubishi and Nakajima, soon become two of the largest manufacturers in the world. And by the end of the decade, Yamamoto's desire for autonomy has been nearly achieved. The industry increasingly relies on its own domestic products, and the private sector comes increasingly under governmental control.

[00:35:36]Japan's disadvantage in industrial capacity and natural resources can, however, not be fully eliminated. Japan is less industrialized than the West and has fewer experienced scientists and technical experts available. Hence, the popular desire for quality over quantity that Yamamoto wishes to reverse.

[00:35:56]The fourth type of plane in action today, the fighter, was also nearly eliminated by the Japanese Navy.

[00:36:03]>> A fighter? So, like dog fighting?

[00:36:05]>> The models of the 1920s and early 1930s were too short-range to even accompany their own bombers into battle.

[00:36:13]Wouldn't it be better to get rid of fighters on carriers altogether and use the space for more bombers? But Minoru Genda, star pilot and co-author of today's plan, could see that a new plane could unleash the fighter's potential. A single-seat fighter.

[00:36:30]>> Zeros.

[00:36:31]>> That could outperform the enemy's carrier planes, especially if, despite the first strike, the enemy still got planes into the air.

[00:36:39]Since a lucky enemy hit can a carrier, fighters are needed to diminish that possibility.

[00:36:46]Mitsubishi develops the A6M all-metal monoplane with elliptical inverted gull wings and powered by a 500 horsepower engine. Designed to provide the minimum amount of air resistance, the A6M, soon dubbed the Zero by the Americans, is unparalleled in speed and maneuverability in 1941 in the Pacific and comes armed with two 7.7 machine guns and two 20-mm cannons.

[00:37:10]These fighters, that now have the range of bombers, will descend on any planes that manage to scramble into the air.

[00:37:17]They will shield their bombers should surprise fail and during any further attack waves.

[00:37:24]>> So, at this point, in 1941, December, who has a better air force?

[00:37:31]Germany or Japan?

[00:37:38]>> Lieutenant Tyler decides to call back Opana Station to get more information about that huge incoming blip of planes. It turns out the blip is now even bigger and it is arriving in a hurry, now just 113 miles away. It is heading quickly for Oahu.

[00:37:57]Tyler is now extremely curious and will continue to follow the advancing blip.

[00:38:03]So, this is where we stand, 60 minutes after the Japanese planes take off from the decks of Nagumo's Kido Butai, but it is 60 minutes that has not been all that quiet. There are how many unarmed American bombers soon to fly into a harbor likely to be overrun by these Japanese planes? Maybe more importantly, there are how many submarines or even submarines prowling the waters outside of Pearl >> So much happening.

[00:38:29]>> Harbor. Some have been sunk, and the details reported in, but has anyone listened? Has anyone sensed the danger the Americans are in? The blip is growing closer, and the harbor is slowly awakening, but can it possibly awaken in time before that blip becomes a giant hornets nest of angry insects thirsty for blood?

[00:38:51]>> Join us next time.

[00:38:53]Really interesting to see how much how much you know, obvious signs are being missed here. And you I guess I guess I mean you don't know what you don't know. So like there's the reconnaissance into the Pacific. Is it necessary or deemed even a thing, but my goodness, it's I mean this is an ambush. This is a uh a uh surprise attack. What can you do against a surprise attack? Uh just because there's a submarine here, could that just mean that they're trying to get reconnaissance or do something like specifically on like a lone wolf mission or something to disrupt XYZ?

[00:39:32]Oh, man.

[00:39:34]We're two episodes in.

[00:39:36]Make sure you subscribe so you make sure you see all the rest of them.

[00:39:40]I'll see you guys next time. Peace out.

[00:39:42]Bye-bye.