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00:03 [THEME MUSIC]
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00:55 And now, Midway is East.
00:58 Yesterday, it was Pearl Harbor.
01:05 Today, it is the whole Southeast Pacific.
01:08 Hardened by the campaigns in China,
01:11 fired by the sacred mission of extending Hirohito's dominion
01:14 over 12 million square miles of the Pacific,
01:17 the hordes of Imperial Japan surge south and east
01:20 on a deluge of destruction.
01:23 Glory is their goal, glory and oil and rubber and rice.
01:30 Mysterious, haunting names of the Far East
01:33 are the notes of an Allied dirge.
01:38 Manila, Mindoro, Mindanao, Hong Kong, Hainan, Hanoi,
01:45 Makassar, Mandalay, Malaya, Bataan, Bangkok, Borneo, Cambodia,
01:54 Cavite, Corregidor, Batavia, Bandung, Bali, Singapore,
02:02 Shanghai, Sumatra, Panay, Palembang, Pescadores,
02:09 Surabaya, Zimbabwe, Zumba, Banzai.
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03:11 For a century, Hong Kong has stood
03:32 as a symbol of British prestige in the Orient.
03:35 The Japanese strike, and Hong Kong falls on Christmas Day,
03:40 1941.
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03:49 Hong Kong was British.
04:04 Manila is American.
04:06 But the Japanese are impartial.
04:09 It is Manila's turn.
04:11 [MUSIC PLAYING]
04:32 The mightiest fortress in all the East, Singapore,
04:36 key to Malaya, key to Java, key to the wealth of the Indies,
04:41 looks seaward for trouble.
04:44 But behind the unsuspecting back of the British,
04:46 the Japanese begin their creeping assault.
04:49 Deep in the jungle that is thought to be impenetrable,
04:52 the enemy comes crawling down on Singapore.
04:55 The jungle does not stop them.
04:58 The scattered defenders do not stop them.
05:01 Nothing stops them.
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06:01 [EXPLOSION]
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06:18 The tiger of Malaya, General Yamashita,
06:35 forces a conqueror's demands on the helpless English.
06:39 With hope gone, with defenses crumbled,
06:44 with no aid in sight, General Percival
06:48 signs away the greatest outpost in the British Empire.
06:53 Two months later, 36,000 Americans in the same plight
06:58 begin their march of death.
07:02 Bataan and Singapore, defeat, catastrophe,
07:10 humiliation for Great Britain and the United States.
07:16 Far away in Washington, President Roosevelt
07:18 strikes the only note of relief in the unending Allied dirge.
07:22 [MUSIC PLAYING]
07:25 [EXPLOSION]
07:39 [MUSIC PLAYING]
07:43 But there is no real relief.
07:48 Corregidor, America's last stand in the Philippines.
07:54 In common suffering, a new bond of brotherhood
07:58 is forged between Americans and Filipinos.
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08:34 [MUSIC PLAYING]
08:37 On May 6, 1942, General Wainwright
08:51 surrenders all armed forces to the enemy.
08:55 The Philippines have fallen.
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09:02 [MUSIC PLAYING]
09:05 In five horrible months, the enemy, like an octopus,
09:22 has stretched his tentacles across vast spaces
09:25 of the Pacific, devouring prize after prize
09:28 to satiate his appetite for conquest.
09:32 [MUSIC PLAYING]
09:35 But the day after Corregidor's fall
09:37 comes the Battle of the Coral Sea.
09:40 American carrier planes pounce on a Japanese invasion force
09:44 out to engulf Fort Moresby and cut off Australia.
09:48 For the first time in history, men of war
09:51 fight it out without once sighting each other.
09:55 When the battle is over, the Japanese retreat.
10:00 One of their carriers has been sunk.
10:03 Two others are badly damaged.
10:06 The United States loses the carrier Lexington.
10:10 You know it, but the tide is turning.
10:15 Out from America, across the enormous ocean waste,
10:19 transports stream toward Australia with supplies and men.
10:25 The buildup begins.
10:27 [MUSIC PLAYING]
10:31 Personalities who will dominate the coming struggle emerge.
10:48 General MacArthur in Australia and in Pearl Harbor,
10:51 Admiral Nimitz.
10:53 As the Japanese prepare to strike again,
10:56 Nimitz makes a fateful decision.
10:58 He gathers available ships together
11:00 in the central Pacific, deducing that Midway
11:03 is the enemy's objective.
11:05 Nimitz appoints Admiral Spruance to command a carrier task force
11:08 in the defense of Midway Island, 1,000 miles west
11:11 of Pearl Harbor, 3,500 miles east of Tokyo.
11:18 [MUSIC PLAYING]
11:21 Midway itself sends incessant patrols in search
11:28 of the elusive Japanese.
11:30 Massive forces are converging on this pinpoint
11:33 in the ocean, which the enemy wants as his eastern outpost.
11:37 For America, it is the last century
11:40 between Japan and Hawaii.
11:43 The Pacific war is focused on a coral atoll,
11:48 six miles in diameter.
11:51 Day after day, hour after hour, planes search and search
11:59 and search.
12:01 And then, through a gap in the clouds,
12:04 Japanese troop transports.
12:09 But what the spotting plane does not see
12:11 is the Japanese striking force, which outnumbers
12:13 the Americans in every class--
12:15 battleships, cruisers, carriers, destroyers, planes.
12:21 The same carriers that raped Pearl Harbor
12:30 are headed for Midway.
12:32 Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu.
12:37 Aboard the flagship Akagi, Admiral Nogumo,
12:43 who directed the attack on Pearl Harbor,
12:45 plots his new mission--
12:48 execute an aerial attack on Midway,
12:50 destroying all enemy forces in preparation for landing.
12:54 The pilots assigned to the task are also
12:56 veterans of December 7th.
12:59 The elite of Fleet Air Arm, the pride of the Imperial Navy.
13:04 Confident, fanatical, they prepare
13:07 to slaughter the Marines defending Midway
13:10 and add the island to their unbroken string of conquests.
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13:17, [EXPLOSIONS]
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14:45 Midway blazes, but Midway stands.
14:49 Far at sea, Admiral Spruance increases speed to 25 knots
14:56 and prepares to close the Japanese.
14:59 Admiral Fletcher, officer in tactical command, orders,
15:03 proceed southwesterly and attack enemy carriers
15:05 when definitely located.
15:06 The tireless search planes hit the jackpot.
15:13 The enemy carriers are finally located.
15:14 Midway has been badly hit, but Midway comes back fighting.
15:25 [MUSIC PLAYING]
15:28 So loaded with fighting equipment
15:41 is this stationary aircraft carrier,
15:43 little room is left for its natives, the goonie birds.
15:48 Midway hits the Japanese with all it has.
15:51 Every available land-based plane is sent
15:53 against the enemy fleet.
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16:51 Bomb after bomb, miss after miss, not one hit.
17:14 The Japanese come through the attack unchecked.
17:17 The invasion of Midway is still on.
17:19 5,000 troops stand by for landing orders.
17:22 [MUSIC PLAYING]
17:26 The Spruance's task force is closing in.
17:38 The admiral now knows the approximate location
17:40 of the enemy carriers.
17:42 It is June the 4th, 1942, a moment for command decision.
17:48 Pilots are summoned to the ready room and briefed.
17:53 Crewmen are called to station.
17:55 Spruance has cast the die.
17:58 The task force will risk an all-out attack
18:00 against superior odds, hoping to surprise the enemy,
18:04 hoping to annihilate the enemy.
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18:13 Pilots, man your planes.
18:24 In all three American carriers, in Hornet, in Enterprise,
18:28 in Yorktown, the young and the brave prepare for battle.
18:35 Some will fall in flames from the sky they seek to dominate.
18:40 Some will perish in the ocean, whose mastery they seek to win.
18:47 But the ritual of launching takes its disciplined course,
18:50 as precise and ordered as a ballet.
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18:59 The enemy, still unaware of the approaching American fleet,
19:23 prepares for another strike on Midway Island.
19:27 Below decks, the pilots are at ease,
19:29 while their planes, which are armed with torpedoes in case
19:33 the United States Navy is sighted,
19:35 are rearmed for another bombing mission.
19:39 Poor intelligence is an enemy blunder, a godsend to Spruance.
19:46 [MUSIC PLAYING]
19:49 But all-out attack begins with all-out disaster.
19:55 Hornet's torpedo squadron eight runs
19:56 into murderous enemy flak and swarming zero fighters.
20:01 Of torpedo eight's 15 planes, all are destroyed,
20:07 and not one hit is scored.
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20:16 Out of a total of 41 torpedo planes from three carriers,
20:26 only six survive.
20:30 The news is grim.
20:32 But the attack continues.
20:36 The dive bombers go in.
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20:45 Enemy defenses, off balance from the earlier assault,
20:48 are unequal to the new attack.
20:50 The carriers are hit.
20:53 In two amazing minutes, the course of battle is reversed.
20:57 It is the Americans who inflict the slaughter.
21:00 The Japanese crumble.
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21:34 Akagi smashed and sinking.
21:37 [MUSIC PLAYING]
21:40 Kagami smashed and sinking.
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21:47 The American submarine Nautilus jumps into the fight
21:53 and sights the smoking carrier Soryu.
21:56 Torpedoes from below are added to bombs from above.
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22:04 Soryu smashed and sinking.
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22:10 One Japanese carrier off to the north
22:16 remains untouched to hear you.
22:18 [MUSIC PLAYING]
22:22 A scouting plane finally spots the Americans.
22:27 The Japanese lash back.
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22:35 Yorktown is the target, and Yorktown knows it.
23:01 Detection gear picks up the avenging enemy.
23:04 30 to 40 planes approaching from west, southwest, 40 miles out.
23:09 Hell is on the wing.
23:11 [MUSIC PLAYING]
23:14 Man your battle stations.
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23:32 Fighters take off to meet the attack.
23:40 From ship and sky, the Japanese encounter fierce defense,
23:44 but they press their assault to the limit.
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23:49 [EXPLOSIONS]
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24:42 [EXPLOSIONS]
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24:55 [EXPLOSIONS]
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25:02 [EXPLOSION]
25:20 Yorktown is hit.
25:23 She is dying.
25:24 But retaliation is on the way.
25:29 Planes from the Enterprise ring down the curtain
25:32 on the Battle of Midway.
25:34 [MUSIC PLAYING]
25:37 Kiryu smashed and sinked.
25:45 Four Japanese carriers, gone, and with them
25:49 their irreplaceable pilots.
25:52 Yorktown is dead.
25:56 But so are Japanese plans to dominate the Eastern Pacific.
26:01 Admiral Spruance, his ships, and his men
26:06 have won the Battle of Midway, one of the most decisive
26:10 victories in naval history.
26:13 The Imperial Japanese Navy retreats.
26:18 [MUSIC PLAYING]
26:21 (dramatic music)
26:24 (dramatic music)