Battle of the Philippine Sea - The Largest Carrier Battle Ever (1/2) - Animated

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Imagine being so unconcerned with your enemy's primary attack you just F off and find something else to do. What a boss.

Wow, hats off to Warrant Officer Komatsu (8:26) - diving his plane into the water to pick off a torpedo is both brave and amazing.

Just because people get confused about this from time to time: A turkey shoot does not involve shooting turkeys. It's a competition where you shoot at stationary targets for points. The winner gets a turkey as a prize. So the guy was saying it was like target shooting. Actually shooting turkeys can be pretty tricky, from what I hear ;)

The submarine USS Cavalla, which sunk the carrier Shōkaku, is on permanent display at Seawolf Park at Galveston, Texas. You can even go inside and roam around.

That damage control decision on the Taihou was astonishingly devastating. I knew the Albacore was ultimately responsible but didn't know the specifics until now.

The sheer amount of planes you have animated... Bravo, sir!

I had absolutely no idea that Filipino guerrillas were involved in this level of critical espionage before the Battle, and I've been a mostly naval history buff for years. Bravo Philippines, half this victory belongs to you. Edit: Got a good chuckle out of the idea of the bomber pilots getting bored of waiting and just wandering off to pound the island. Kinda like the British destroyers at Cape Matapan casually loitering around a wrecked Italian-cruiser, 'poking it with a stick' and deciding whether or not to board it and take it as a prize like in the good ole' days.

The incident with the Filipino guerillas is called by local historians as "The Koga Incident". This small, but important chapter in this battle is worthy of a documentary. Two planes carrying Japanese officials crashed because of a typhoon off Cebu islands. Filipino guerillas quickly canoed thru the wreckage and picked up a case. They also captured a survivor, a high ranking Japanese officer. Upon reaching home, the guerillas quickly hide into the mountains and notified their American guerilla commander about the incident. They copied all the documents and forwarderd it to MacArthur's HQ in Australia, which also housed the Allied Intelligence Bureau (there was no OSS in the south Pacific area). The capture of the Japanese official reached the ocupying Japanese and threatened to massacre a village. A standoff ensued until a negotiation was reached. The case and the Japanese must be returned. A surreal situation occured later, unarmed Filipino guerillas and Japanese soldiers exchanging cigarettes. A prisoner exchange. The papers reached Australia and the rest is history.

This former USN submariner appreciates your highlighting the significant contributions of US Navy Submarines to this decisive victory.

"They got bored so they bombed guam" I love this.

"I know we've been planning this attack for months, carriers are prime targets, and we rely completely on surprise, but let's just orbit and ponder the situation for ten minutes, gentlemen." - Japanese air boss.

For the Taiho the torpedo hit actually disabled the forward elevator bay leaving it stuck in a open position. The repair crew successfully boarded over the gapping hole in the flight deck to resume operations about an hour later. Which is pretty impressive. It was this elevator shaft that the fuel fumes came from. Oil leaked and mixed with seawater in the bottom of the shaft. The fumes got so bad they lowered the other elevator shaft, smashed out any portholes and turned on the ventilation system which was the only way to exchange air with the outside. So really they did the only thing they could in regards to the fumes. They did however open up other compartments that had not yet had fumes leak into in a attempt to gain more airflow. I imagine when the explosion happened lots of bulk head doors that should have been closed for battle were wide open. The part they really screwed up on was they failed to properly pump out the elevator shaft or to spray any fire suppression foam in the elevator shaft to try and pre smother the ship sized pressure cooker bomb they now had. This wouldn't have prevented the initial flash explosion from all the fumes in the hanger decks, but it probably would have stopped the ship destroying explosion in the elevator shaft. Though a flash explosion of that size probably would have crippled her, just not outright sunk her. I suspect the problem was the captain prioritizing maintaining flight operations at all cost rather than admitting the ship had suffered a critical hit that would have required them retiring from battle. Something that was unacceptable of the flagship at the very beginning of the battle from only a single torpedo hit. Another example of Japan prioritizing offense over everything else.

"They attack the airfield to pass some time" That tickeled me

Imagine being the guy who decides to launch an attack on the enemy's airfield and winning, with the entire reason behind it simply being "'cuz I was bored"

You know it’s a massive battle when it’s named after an entire sea instead of an Atoll or something.

15:52 "the bastards have finally drawn blood, shoot them down!" Woooooow the disrespect, dear God😅

"Frustrated and bored, some squadron leaders decide to attack the Japanese airfields on Guam to pass the time" As one does, of course

the research that must go into these videos is astounding and to tie it all off with these animations is just perfect. thank you operations room team!

The fact that Albacore did not survived the war and later was sunk by a mine in November 1944 off Hokkaido, the wreck of the sub was found in 2022 by group of Japanese researchers. USS Albacore (SS-218) On Eternal Patrol