Losing Hiryu Meant Losing The Battle (Ep.15)

[@WW2Tales]

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Part 15 of battle of midway from Japanese Perspective , Image used in this video depicts Imperial Japanese Naval Battleship Haruna. Link of the playlist kzbin.info/aero/PLGjbe3ikd0XHzcsNpM8r8Z5NRMk_BaaCe Link of Part 1 kzbin.info/www/bejne/l4jShoqigtd4mtU Link of Part 2 kzbin.info/www/bejne/fYaqhXeoiZakhsk Link of Part 3 kzbin.info/www/bejne/b6WVlpSJZcp9qZI Link of Part 4 kzbin.info/www/bejne/o3e4dpygmayAd8U Link of Part 5 kzbin.info/www/bejne/qaDCqqJqfK5kipo Link of Part 6 kzbin.info/www/bejne/j6vLqXx5bq9sp5Y Link of Part 7 kzbin.info/www/bejne/aoaqn4etnqyjhaM Link of Part 8 kzbin.info/www/bejne/d2jcqmCInbypl9E Link of Part 9 kzbin.info/www/bejne/rYCQi2NmjZWsbrc Link of Part 10 kzbin.info/www/bejne/bJm6YXWoq6ygaZI Link of Part 11 kzbin.info/www/bejne/gHbTi3atqbCshq8 Link of Part 12 kzbin.info/www/bejne/qJ2lkqWEjbF6grs Link of Part 13 kzbin.info/www/bejne/d4fTpISkjK-IY8U Link of Part 14 kzbin.info/www/bejne/iaPPmYSCbrV0p6s

[@sgt.grinch3299]

Thank you for another fine episode Sir. I appreciate your efforts to keep the memories of these brave men alive.

[@pnicoll7211]

⁸⁸

[@WW2Tales]

@sgt.grinch3299 Sir we are very much grateful to you, kind regards

[@2Oldcoots]

Incredibly valuable episode that will enrich the historical understanding of anyone who listens to it! My first memory of my father was of him holding the rifle he took from a Japanese soldier he had killed on Okinawa. He taught me that Victory is the only moral outcome of war because it minimizes the total killed and wounded. We have forgotten and that is unforgiveable.

[@sgt.grinch3299]

Agreed. Quick victory saves lives.

[@WW2Tales]

Sir thank you so much for sharing your father's memories with us 💐🙏

[@SeattlePioneer]

> Ummmm. So the Japanese were right to fight on and on and on. Should have fought on after city fire and atomic bombing, blockades of food supplies and invasions of the home islands?

[@tannertempleton3404]

A lesson for Western support for Ukraine. It's time to stop baby stepping around Russians egos and give Ukraine everything they need to win.​@@sgt.grinch3299

[@rickj.9202]

This has been an amazing series. Thank you!

[@WW2Tales]

Thank you so much Sir 🙏

[@christopherconard2831]

Unfortunately the US Navy would forget many of these lessons about damage control. When the USS Forrestal CV-59 caught fire in 1967, deck crews alternated between water and foam. The use of water was in hope of further cooling certain areas. Instead it washed away the foam and caused reignition of several extinguished fires. Damage control had been ignored and become lax over the previous generation. The Navy immediately updated all requirements for shipboard equipment and training with it. All crews would be drilled regularly in dealing with various potential issues on board.

[@barryb7682]

Imagine being on a ship blazing inferno and heading down into the flames and smoke to the bowels of hull to perform damage control tasks.. knowing any moment the ship may explode and or slip beneath the surface forever. I know doing so is part of the job, but dang, that is hard to imagine being in such a dire situation. I enjoy memoirs that spark the imagination with displays of extra ordinary human courage, honor, and other redeeming characteristics of mankind. War is truely horror and hell on earth. War is mankind at its worst, but within such hell, if one looks, one can find mankind at its best.

[@Adiscretefirm]

Explosion is at least quick, many ships that weren't cracked in half rolled before they sank. Imagine being stuck in the pitch dark with no chance of escape

[@steveharris7116]

I really appreciate this series, this had provided me the most in depth look at this battle. The writing is easy to listen to and the technical details provided a lot of insight as to the outcome of the battle.

[@Outlier999]

What the vast majority of Axis veterans, especially the Japanese, regretted most was that they lost.

[@Zerox_Prime]

LOSING THE HYRIU LOST THE BATTLE? Nonsense, the battle was already a tactical and strategic victory for the USN. Also, the Hyriu couldn't even sink a crippled, patched up Yorktown!

[@konstantinossoukeras3904]

Most informative episode

[@WW2Tales]

Sir thank you so much for your kind words 💗

[@sgt.grinch3299]

Excellent episode. I’m here right away because I can’t watch tonight.

[@WW2Tales]

@sgt.grinch3299 Thank you so so much Sir, welcome onboard , Kind Regards

[@jusdafax1]

One cannot possibly imagine the horrendous interrogation techniques used against that poor Ensign who was captured by the Japanese. Given their barbarous reputation, and their total disdain for anyone taking prisoner, I shudder to think what they did to him.

[@allenhamilton6688]

Wasn't the gunner of that plane sent over the side with an anchor for not answering the questions?

[@thomasbeach905]

What they did was attach weights and throw him overboard.

[@jahmanoog461]

Not only was he tied, weighted and thrown overboard, he was thrown off the stern, into the propellers.

[@Dav1Gv]

Another great video, thanks

[@WW2Tales]

Sir really appreciate your time and consideration 🙏

[@Zerox_Prime]

Not mentioned was that after the American flyer gave his Japanese captors the information they requested, they tied an anchor to his ankle and tossed him overboard.

[@janrobertsson8691]

They saw him as a traitor, due to their code of honor.

[@factchecker9358]

Why not at least mention the war crimes of Japanese in this case and many more.

[@klackon1]

@@janrobertsson8691. The so called Samurai Bushido code of honour was a myth. Throughout history they betrayed one another whenever it was convenient to do so. In one of his books, the distinguished historian Dr. Stepehn Turbull (an expert in Japanese Samurai history), refers the "the golden age of the turncoat". They bayoneted pregnant Chinese and murdered babies. They were despicable.

[@berenc7619]

​@@janrobertsson8691 the Japanese considered themselves superior and above the Gennva Convention requirements of how POWs were to be treated. This is why so many Japanese officers were hanged after being tried and convicted of war crimes.

[@Zerox_Prime]

Amazingly informative.

[@WW2Tales]

Glad it was helpful!

[@davidsmith7372]

For a true look at differences in damage control. Look up the Franklin. I knew a man who was aboard when hit . Their captain actually wanted to court martial men blown overboard for leaving their post . From what I understand his next command was a desk.

[@richardthornhill4630]

After Midway, the Japanese could no longer claim dominance over the Pacific Ocean. The winds of change were blowing ever stronger.

[@dannyski6912]

Japan lost the war on December 7, 1941. Although Midway, without a doubt played a role in shortening the conflict, the spooling up of the American war production in 1942 sealed the faith of Japan(and Germany) by spring of 1943. The Pacific War was a terrible waste of human lives, but its outcome was never in doubt.

[@joseph-sj7do]

Japanese denied they had lost 4 Carriers as US claimed claiming only losing one , the Germans got suspicious when Japs asked if the Graf Zeppelin German Carrier was for sale !

[@Paul-zf8ob]

In the navy everyone was trained in damage control. I was on the fire party for 2 years.

[@greggdavis4869]

The honorable Japanese later executed Ensign Osmus.

[@charlesjames1442]

“Interrogated”

[@denvan3143]

After the surrender of Japan was announced 50 POW airmen were executed. “Honor”, evidently has different meanings in the two languages.

[@jurgschupbach3059]

​@@denvan3143 obvious be thankful for the cold war at the horizon............ if not for that reason ..........the tea ceremony would look pretty different today

[@RalphTempleton-vr6xs]

The lack of damage control practices by the IJN is unfathomable to me. The height of arrogance( or the ultimate measure of indifference)

[@dontall71]

And the fact that so many men go to sea but can't swim!

[@RalphTempleton-vr6xs]

It's as if they thought they would never be successfully attacked, so they only gave minimal thought to what to do when it happened! Of course, if they'd thought everything through they never would have started a war they couldn't win...

[@gordonbickel7182]

Read about the USA carrier Forestall. The fire that changed how the USN trains the future and present navy personnel. The 1967 leadership failed to learned the ww2 ship losses

[@doctordetroit4339]

They were offensive minded and, since they won pretty much every battle unscathed until Coral Sea a couple weeks earlier, damage control and recon were neglected. Plus their carriers were not built to take a hit. But they learned the hard way.

[@stevewhite3424]

Sort of like the US Navy and the Forrestall fire which was self inflicted.

[@JimRibby]

Enjoy your programing. But I suffer from moderate hearing loss. Closed captions are very helpful to me. For some reason it is turned off on this episode. Still it is an excellent series.

[@WW2Tales]

@JimRibby Dear Sir ,closed captions take some time to load, Kindly recheck, if you are still facing the issue, please advise us ,we will immediately rectify the issue, May you always stay healthy and blessed Sir , Kind Regards WW2 Tales

[@JimRibby]

@@WW2Tales Thank you they're on now. When I first opened it it was about 10 minutes after it was posted. I'm watching it again. I really appreciate your work

[@WW2Tales]

@@JimRibby Dear Sir Jim , we are honored to have you on our channel , when ever a new video uploads , just wait for few minutes and subtitles will be available , regards

[@billfarrell7051]

Unless I missed it, the narrator fails to reference the Midway land-based fighters and bombers when accounting the remaining American aircraft late in the battle.

[@armenflintstone]

I was under the impression that one aspect of American damage control rules and practice was basically “invented” at the coral sea battle, by someone on the Yorktown who conceived an idea to blow fuel out of the aircraft refueling lines on the main deck. The practice was new at midway and basically saved Yorktown twice after getting hit twice. I’m sure someone here can correct or clarify this memory. Whatever the source of this imprecise memory, the imperial navy did not have a similar practice.

[@factchecker9358]

Their forces were split with two carriers useless in the Aleutians. That was crucial, like Custer and many more.

[@Vanayr]

The lack of redundancy and crew wide training is a mental model I just don’t understand.

[@jimyates445]

Yea, my bad. Halsey wasn't there.

[@keithbusick6859]

Well they had enough dauntless dive bombers to sink 1 and badly damage 1 another cruiser

[@Paul-zf8ob]

Spraying water on gas just flings gas everywhere.

[@philipmiller2618]

The Akagi and the Kaga were old and more armored. Both were meant to be battleships but were reconfigured. The Soryu and the Hiryu were newer, lighter and less armored. The were also faster. However, in the end it didn't matter. Exploding planes, bombs and torpedoes in the Japanese hanger decks on their carriers doomed all four carriers. Some American carriers later in the war also suffered the same fate such as the Franklin. Big fires in WW2 carriers were hard to put out.

[@tomdowney7519]

The fire pits at NAS Whidbey IS, prove you wrong every time they light to fire pits. you can put out a JP fuel fire by water.

[@stevewhite3424]

JP fuels, which are essentially diesel with additional addithis, are far harder to light and far easier to extinguish than aviation gasoline.So no he is not wrong you are.

[@tomdowney7519]

@@stevewhite3424 The lighter the fuel is the easier to mix with water, thus it is easier to extinguish.

[@stevewhite3424]

@tomdowney7519 Please tell me you are not a firefighter and have never fought a significant fire in your whole life

[@tomdowney7519]

@@stevewhite3424 22 years a sailer, with all the training. that goes with it.

[@stevewhite3424]

@tomdowney7519 And you were trained to flood an av gas fire on the flight deck with water??????

[@philipmiller2618]

Does anyone know how much of Midway's airpower was left when the battle ended? They had lost a lot, that is certain. If the Japanese surface force had attacked Midway, could the island have defended itself? I don't have this answer, anyone?

[@RalphTempleton-vr6xs]

If the main body assault force had come on to attack midway, they likely would not have been successful. The islands at Midway, though damaged, we're still capable of mounting considerable defense both surface and air. The Japanese could not have held midway in any event and imo has no intention of doing so. The purpose of the task force was to engage and destroy US forces, not to take midway,and with the loss of the carriers this was no longer possible

[@sgt.grinch3299]

I’m here for Al Gore’s Rhythm.

[@WW2Tales]

@sgt.grinch3299🙏

[@philipmiller2618]

It's fascinating to consider that the whole battle turned on four Japanese carriers and three American carriers. The other ships, no matter how big, were basically irrelevant. The oilers on both sides were even more valuable than the Japanese battleships. Not everyone realized at the time.

[@factchecker9358]

But the condition of outnumbered carriers of the Americans was due to the regrettable focus on surface war ships back at DC, up till the shock of Pearl Harbor. That was the same headquarters that disbelieved Midway was the target.

[@larryyoung5757]

The narrative detailed root causes of the Japanese defeat at Midway in another episode. This episode brings the most important cause into focus. America valued life, the lives of their ships and crews. Japanese valued death. All their systems in operations emphasized only offensive capability. Their vaunted Zeros were fast, long reaching, maneuverable and matchboxes with unlined tanks and little armor. Their inability at long range recon, fire-fighting aboard damaged ships and survival of their sailors were the victims of their offensive first and always philosophy. America won the battle because of its values, courage, caution, the belief in the capacity of the individual and were more daring than the Japanese in strategy.

[@jaman878]

The Zero was a highly advanced fighter. It’s not as though the Japanese didn’t understand the issues of armor and self sealing fuel tanks. The problem was they were saddled with puny engines. The A6M2 Zero’s Sake engine only generated 940 hp. They achieved the performance spec by weight savings anywhere they could. The result was a fighter that was fast, maneuverable long ranged and heavily armed. The Zero was venerable to hit and run tactics and the US discovered this during 1042. By 1943 the Americans had better aircraft and tactics and the Zero was outclassed.

[@Paul-zf8ob]

What a disaster for the Japanese. 4 carriers! Yamamoto should have kept his 2 smaller carriers with over 60 planes they could have used. That alone would have changed this battle!

[@berenc7619]

The Japanese military leaders engaged in hubris , which caused the deaths of nearly a million fighting men and bankrupted the people of Japan .

[@infernalone666]

9:34 "one can scarcely see the japanese with such a fatalistic approach to the expenditure of their own human resources" Also japan: kamikaze attacks and banzai charges

[@SeattlePioneer]

The Japanese gave up Banzai charges as being wasteful and ineffective. Their determined use of fortifications at Iwo Jima and Okinawa was far more costly for Americans to deal with. By contrast, Kamikaze attacks were very costly to the US Navy, and made good use of surplus aircraft and partly trained pilots. They made regrettably good sense, I think.

[@infernalone666]

@@SeattlePioneer both were still a wasteful fatalistic expenditure of human lives nonetheless. And my point is they don't get to be so high and mighty about it when they went well and beyond once things turned against them.

[@SeattlePioneer]

WAR is a wasteful expenditure of human life.

[@infernalone666]

@@SeattlePioneer are we discussing wastefulness of war? Are we discussing vietnam? Are we discussing the mentality of soldiers? Or the morality behind them? I don't think we are. I'm certainly not! I'm saying don't sneer down the actions of someone when you're about to do the same x2

[@denvan3143]

@@SeattlePioneer North Vietnam did not win, there has been an ongoing cease-fire. And north Vietnam was backed by China; nobody was backing Japan after the Allied victory in Europe. Yes, war is a waste, and once the decision has been made for war, there are no good choices, only selecting between bad and worse. Death is a part of war, but when victory is not possible, the killing must stop or death becomes an end in itself. The Japanese imperial military transformed in steady stages into a death cult, we’re killing civilians and enemy. Combatants was the goal, even though there was no possibility of victory. The Japanese imperial forces killed as many as 19 million civilians in China, Korea, Vietnam, and the Philippines; where was the courage in that? Correction: the cease-fire has been between north and South Korea but again, Vietnam had the backing of communist China. A particular feature of the Vietnamese people is that they had suffered centuries of invasion and occupation by other countries and had developed a culture of gorilla warfare, recorded in non-literate, pictograph books, diagramming various weapons and death traps that were easily constructed: very low Tech and also very effective. The Vietnamese people saw no difference between the imperialistic French and the Americans who replace them. In both cases to Vietnamese people were pond who were used by much larger countries. Any claimed to virtue the north Vietnamese might have laid claimed to were laid bare by the Kmer Rouge when they massacred millions of South Vietnamese in the killing fields. Not much courage there.

[@philipmiller2618]

If Hiryu meant to use Nagumo as a shield, it failed. Nagumo's force only consisted of surface ships, which was almost useless for stopping American planes. What was important was that Nagumo and Hiryu's captain, Yamaguchi, errored by bringing Hiryu into an easy flying range of the American carriers. Only about 90 miles away. This was suicidal. Japanese planes had longer range, so Hiryu should have been farther away to the NW, where it may have been safe. At that moment, the Hiryu was the most valuable ship in the Japanese Navy. It's hopes hinged on this one ship. Then Nagumo flung the Hiryu into the fires of defeat by having Hiryu close the range. Huge mistake.

[@walterquick8649]

Ads on my UTUBE really SUCK!!!

[@orlandofurioso7958]

TIP: 1. View KZbins using "Brave" as your browser. 2. Enable Brave's "Shields Up" option. This is guaranteed to work. I don't use Brave as my default browser. It's secondary and only for my enjoyment of KZbins free from ads. If you open a KZbin in Chrome, "share" it with Brave. The curved arrow under the KZbin is how you "share".

[@anthonydolan3740]

Abe's name is pronounced /ah bay/.

[@jimyates445]

The devastation and incompetence of the US's battlegroups cluster fks were never covered. Yorktown pretty much had the most common sense flight operations, Enterprise's sudden change of direction without letting pilots know was not a good move.(yes, I get comms being monitored and possibly putting Enterprise as a main target). Still, the more I learn, the more I am convinced of Halsey's incompetence.

[@sgt.grinch3299]

It was a steep learning curve. Both sides were in uncharted waters.

[@paulgee8253]

Halsey wasn’t at Midway. Your opinion isn’t based on much study.

[@DalonCole]

you need to learn much much more evidently

[@SeattlePioneer]

Good point. The top admirals in the USN mostly made courageous and excellent decisions, while the IJN admirals made a lot of poor and mistaken decisions. By contrast, IJN pilots and commanders did splendidly, while the USN pilots and commanders proved that they had a LOT yet to learn. The dive bombing attacks that sank three IJN carriers were lucky examples of courageous USN pilots. The devastating losses and ineffectiveness of USN torpedo planes showed what happened when luck wasn't smiling. The USN learned the lessons of coordinating their attacks later in the war, and ultimately could have taught the IJN lessons on that. Unfortunately, the Japanese developed the kamikaze tactic to a very effective degree, and the USN struggled to deal with that effectively. (I except the Yamato foolishness from that general praise.)

[@tyroneearnest4513]

Fascinating topic but no video effort

[@jeffmcdonald4225]

It's kind of hilarious, really. The author assures us that we'll reported facts never happened, because eye witnesses are unreliable, then almost immediately relates "facts" stated by only one person (like the appearance of the red faced captain at the window). I rarely trust an author who suddenly "discovers" facts that no one else knew, over 60 years after the fact.

[@harryfuller3881]

Fair. I suggest you read the book. You will find a better description of the source material. Most of it was not “new” in Japan, just to Western readers.