Battle of the Philippine Sea - The US Navy Knocks Out The Japanese Carriers (2/2) - Animated

Correction - Ryuho not Ryujo*

One of my favorite moments from this battle was after the night battle. The USS Enterprise somehow only had one missing pilot who never landed on a carrier or was picked up that night. Their top pilot, William R. "KILLER" Kane (or just Killer Kane, which is such a badass name). Two days into the search, a destroyer speeds up along the Enterprise frantically flashing its signal light in a message that read "How much ice cream for Killer Kane?" (This was a customary reward for rescuing pilots). This then turned into an old-fashioned haggling match (partly because there is a rivalry between the different ship classes, even now). The destroyer crew argued that they deserved more because he was a unit commander and an ace so surely he is worth the 25 gallons they requested (it would be 30 gallons because its packaged in 10 gallon containers and in my heart i know they knew that and just wanted to swindle more from the Enterprise XD). So after holding Killer Kane for ransom they were rewarded their 25 gallons of ice cream, the Enterprise got her pilot, Kane learned he was worth exactly 25 gallons of ice cream to his unit (lol), and the day was saved.

The fact that it is a US victory despite Japan attacking first, US-bombers getting bored and attacking an airbase, and the japanese attacking second as well, is wild

One minor detail that got missed in the previous episode, but comes up right at the beginning here. One of the big reasons that Ozawa did not know the results of the previous days attacks was most of his attack squadrons were launched to do shuttle bombing runs. What that means is they were launched at greater than half the planes range, with the instructions to attack the Americans, land on one of the island airfields, and fly back to the carriers in the morning. There were two reasons for this. The first it allowed Ozawa to keep his carriers back further outside of expected American Carrier range. And second and more importantly, Ozawa’s team had some serious doubts about the barely trained Japanese pilots ability to land back on their carriers after an intense day of combat. He didn’t know the results because most of the Japanese pilots weren’t expected to return until morning. Above and beyond his communications difficulties.

39 out of 450? So basically as a Japanese pilot in this battle you had an over 92% chance of being killed or at the very least losing your aircraft, with your chance of survival with your plane in tact being at only 8%

"Turn on the lights" always gets me. They knew launching an attack too close to sundown was dangerous, and they gave those pilots the best chance to land safely even though it put the ships at risk.

200+ planes launched in 11 minutes is an amazing feat of coordination.

"We have enough fuel to reach and bomb the carriers but not to get back." "Launch anyway." War is brutal.

The sheer balls needed to take off into the Pacific knowing you’ll probably not find your way back is hard to fathom.

I’ve never seen a bad video by these guys.

Everyone always focuses on Midway, but the late-war battles make Midway look like a tiny skirmish.

The animation is smooth, this man's educational commentary is on point

The fact that Zuikaku managed to contain its damage, unlike other IJN CVs at Midway, showed how important it was to have a veteran DCP crew. It was sth the IJN could achieve, but trajically not on more ships.

The audacity of Mitscher in turning on the lights on his carriers is one of the bravest move in Naval history, risking his carriers to be visible in the middle of night by IJN subs is rather ballsy move, but quite rewarding in saving the lives of his aviators, although some had to ditch they did in fact rescued those who did, unlike the IJN who didn't value their aviators much as the USN.

This is the best battle history channel ✊🙏

That nighttime landing must have been an amazing sight.

10:20 That animation of the planes colliding on the flight deck is the cherry on top. Such a superbly animated and produced video.

Those who criticised Spruance were utterly wrong. It's that simple. His primary mission was protection of the invasion forces. He achieved that mission gloriously. At Leyte Gulf by contrast the glory-hunter Halsey failed in his primary mission to protect the invasion shipping. It was only thanks to the miracle of Taffy 3 that Halsey didn't have massive shipping and personnel losses to deal with.

I still tear up everytime I hear about fleet lighting up their carriers... ... in hope of showing their pilots the way home

“Turn on the lights” gives me goosebumps every time I hear this story. I love it!