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Previously, on World War II in HD.
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A whale hit us. We just couldn't believe it. You know, a whale.
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New recruit Jack Yusen's maiden voyage on the Samuel B. Roberts is cut short in the Atlantic,
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and fate reroutes him and his ship to the pacific.
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Our sonar guy is picking up a Japanese sub.
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I race up to the bridge to see what's going on, and one of the guys yells: "we're right on top of it."
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It feels good to score our first kill.
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Also in the pacific theater: It's damned frustrating. I want to be in the action.
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Austrian immigrant turned US soldier Jack Werner watches the heat of the battle on Kwajalein from the deck of a ship.
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So instead of actually fighting, it looks like I'll be the man behind the man behind the gun.
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I make a promise to myself,
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I will never sit on the sidelines again.
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Grant us a common faith, that man shall know bread and peace,
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That he shall know justice and righteousness, freedom and security,
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an equal opportunity and an equal chance to do his best,
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not only in our own lands but throughout the world.
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For the past three years, nearly 65,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war
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have been at the mercy of their Japanese captors.
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They've been starved and tortured, and they're barely surviving.
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Their ordeal began in the spring of 1942.
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Led by general Douglas Macarthur, the Filipino and American troops
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were trying to defend the Philippines against an overwhelming Japanese invasion force.
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But with the fall of the islands inevitable, President Franklin Roosevelt ordered
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Macarthur to personally withdraw and abandon his remaining men.
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What happened next, was an atrocity only made public many months later,
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after two American officers pulled off a daring escape.
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Known as the Bataan Death March, the Japanese forcibly marched 75,000 prisoners
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65 miles to an internment camp, known as Camp O'Donnell.
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Along the way, they brutalized them, subjecting them to unspeakable acts of violence.
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An estimated 10,000 died during the march.
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Now, in the fall of 1944, General Macarthur and the American military are ready to return to the Philippines.
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to liberate the islands and rescue the survivors of the Bataan Death March.
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We find out through our officers that we're forming up to attack the Philippine Islands.
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We're gonna be part of helping to liberate those islands and free those guys.
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18-Year-old sailor Jack Yusen and his destroyer escort,
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USS Samuel B. Roberts, are sailing with the US 7th fleet,
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part of an American armada of more than 600 ships steaming toward the Philippine Islands.
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We're taking 250,000 troops.
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Our convoy is 20 miles wide, 35 miles long.
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Every kind of ship imaginable, and a few I couldn't have pictured even in my wildest dreams.
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Yusen and his ship are going to take part in the first crucial hurdle in the Philippine Campaign, recapturing the Island of Leyte.
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Located on the outer eastern edge of the Central Philippine Archipelago,
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Leyte will provide military with an important staging area to support the eventual invasion of Luzon,
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and the liberation of the Philippine Capital at Manila.
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It's our job to keep any Japs from sneaking through and attacking our landing forces.
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If we don't do our job, men ashore will die.
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As Yusen and his ship take up defensive positions off the island of Samar, 100 miles to the southwest,
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The US 6th army approaches Leyte's beaches.
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As we head in, I can feel the tension rising,
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just thinking that we are to be some of the first men to hit the beach.
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First Sergeant Jack Werner is heading toward the beaches of Leyte.
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Although Werner saw action last year on Attu and later on Kwajalein,
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this is his first amphibious landing on a beach under fire.
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As soon as the ramp comes down, we sprint across the water.
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A mortar hits right behind me.
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My commanding officer is dead, and a bunch of other guys are wounded.
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Werner and his platoon sprint toward the thick dune grass at the edge of the beach.
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It's so dense, we can't see anything.
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Seems like a good place to take cover and regroup for a moment.
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Jap fire is coming down around us.
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I don't understand how they can possibly see us through the grass,
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and then it dawns on me.
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As we lay there, I discover,
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to my amazement that I was the ranking person in that group.
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As a first sergeant, I was second in command after the commanding officer, who had been killed.
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We were really tuckered down there,
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and I really didn't know where that fire was coming from.
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But it's up to me to figure it out and get us out of this.
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One of my scouts, this kid from Kentucky, crawls over to me and points up to the coconut trees.
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I can hardly believe it. Japanese snipers have tied themselves to the trees so they can pick us off with a perfect line of sight.
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I motion to everyone, ordering them to lay down a covering fire while the kid from Kentucky crawls into position.
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And just like that, he takes care of two of them himself.
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Reinforcements come racing in from the beach.
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They help us finish off the snipers and tell us to withdraw to the shore.
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I was only in command for an hour, but I feel I did reasonably well.
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At least I didn't get anybody killed.
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When I'm in this plane, I'm so busy looking, thinking.
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It's a lot to know, but once you get the hang of it, you can do things that birds can't do.
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One year ago,
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22-year-old Arkansas native Shelby Westbrook was a welder living in Toledo, Ohio.
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Now he's in Alabama, training to become a pilot with the army air force's first all-black fighter group.
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Known as the Tuskegee Airmen, the soldiers train at a segregated campus.
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They are commanded by White and Puerto Rican officers.
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We may have separate facilities, but it's a good feeling knowing that we are doing what a lot of folks said we couldn't.
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I could've gone into the infantry, but when the draft board started sending me letters, I made an application for the air corps.
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First, they were only accepting college graduates for flight training,
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and then they ran out of college graduates,
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so then they started recruiting those with two years' college,
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and when they ran out of the two-year college folks, they came up with a written test.
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If you could pass the test, then you could qualify for the program.
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So that's how I came.
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Cause I had no college training, and now I'm a commissioned pilot in the 332nd fighter group.
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Westbrook and the Tuskegee airmen are filmed in color in stateside films like this one.
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Produced by the military,
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this film was intended to publicize the inclusion of African-Americans in the army air forces.
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After their training, the fighter group's overseas combat action is shot in black and white.
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The briefing officer gets out this huge map of the entire European theater.
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He says, "Gentlemen, today we're going after the oil refineries."
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We all look around. Everyone knows this won't be a milk run.
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Westbrook and the 332nd fighter group are escorting bombers
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as part of an ongoing Allied strategy to bomb Nazi oil facilities.
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Their target is the Germans' massive oil refining complex in Blechhammer, Poland.
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There, the Germans are using the area's natural deposits of soft coal to produce synthetic oil,
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which they use to fuel nearly all of their planes.
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Blechhammer is among the most heavily defended targets in the Reich.
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The amount of flak is unbelievable.
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There's so much anti-aircraft fire and smokescreens, it's hard to see anything.
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Some smoke clouds are so dense, like a thunderstorm from hell just sitting in the sky,
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our bombers are completely disappearing in them.
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As the b-17s finish their drop and begin to turn back, German fighters close in.
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There's no time to feel, only time to react.
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Our big bombers are like sitting ducks, so it is up to us to protect them.
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It's time to do our job.
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To protect the bombers, Westbrook and the other pilots are drawn into tense air-to-air combat with German fighters.
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running dogfights that drag the American pilots from 20,000 feet to below 5,000.
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The dogfights only last a matter of minutes,
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the amount of time it takes to empty the 1,200 rounds of 50-caliber ammunition in each plane.
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After eight hours in the air, Westbrook
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and the rest of the Tuskegee squadron are finally back in friendly skies.
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Once the bombers land, the fighters peel off and head back to their own small airstrip at Ramitelli,
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completely separated from the white pilots.
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When I'm flying, all I can think about is what I'm doing.
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The responsibility is exciting.
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But when I get back here, the reality of the danger hits me.
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This is a serious business.
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We're on the beach and resting when a single landing craft appears.
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And sure enough, it's General Macarthur,
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who is returning to Leyte as he has promised.
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After fighting off a group of Japanese sharpshooters on Leyte,
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first sergeant Jack Werner is back on the secured beach,
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Just in time to see General Macarthur land with the American liberation forces.
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Dark sunglasses, pressed pants.
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Some of the soldiers are snickering.
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I can't believe it. Some of these soldiers have no respect.
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The General just strolls onto the beach and walks into the jungle, and that is the last I see of him.
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People of the Philippines, I have returned.
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By the grace of Almighty God, our forces stand again on Philippine soil,
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soil consecrated in the blood of our two people.
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We have come dedicated and committed to the task of destroying
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every vestige of enemy control over your people.
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The hour of your redemption is here.
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While General Macarthur marks his triumphant return to Philippine soil,
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the situation offshore takes a dramatic turn, putting the entire invasion in jeopardy.
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The navy's lightly armored transport ships are moored just off Leyte's beaches,
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carrying supplies and reinforcements for the troops already ashore.
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But the heavily armed third fleet, which had been protecting them
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and the American soldiers ashore, is suddenly gone.
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After receiving word that the Japanese Imperial navy's last four carriers are to the north,
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the third fleet has moved off in pursuit.
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With Leyte's beaches now vulnerable to attack,
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two powerful Japanese task forces steam toward the island in a pincer move.
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The first approaches from the south, where it is stopped by a line of American battleships.
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But the second, a heavily armed force of battleships, cruisers, and destroyers, approaches from the north.
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Their mission is to destroy the American transport force and halt the liberation of the Philippines.
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The only thing standing in their way is a handful of small outgunned American vessels,
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including Jack Yusen's ship, the Samuel B. Roberts.
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We're looking out at the sky about 70 miles towards the horizon and we can see lightning and hear thunder.
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But it's no storm. It's a battle.
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Over the loudspeaker the captain says:
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"uncover all guns. This is not a drill. This is for real!"
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We have no idea what's happening.
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We all knew that there was gonna be a big battle to retake the Philippines, but we all thought it was going to be on land.
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Captain makes an announcement: "There is a Japanese task force coming down from the north,
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battleships, cruisers, and destroyers.
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We will do our duty, though the outcome is doubtful."
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"The outcome is doubtful". What does that mean?
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All I want is to do my job and make my family proud.
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24-Year-old Oregon native Jimmie Kanaya is a medic with the 442nd regimental combat team,
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America's only all Japanese-American army combat unit.
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The son of Japanese immigrants,
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Kanaya enlisted in the army before the December 7, 1941, attack on pearl harbor.
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After pearl harbor, I felt kind of helpless that I look like...
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I look like the, you know, like the enemy, so to speak, and that I had no control over it.
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It was a very helpless feeling, like you can't win.
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But we had to grin and bear it and make sure that, you know, you're not going to be affected by it.
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I had to be myself.
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I had to be who I am and fight for my rights if I could.
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Only two months after Pearl Harbor, the US Government began setting up government-run relocation centers.
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Over 120,000 Japanese nationals and Japanese Americans were relocated to these internment camps.
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All were pulled from their homes and jobs, without due process of law, and identified as potential threats to national security.
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Kanaya's family was no exception.
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Right before he ships off to war, he visits them at their new home,
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an internment camp in Minidoka, Idaho.
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It gives me an uneasy feeling, like being in a prison camp.
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It's full of hastily built, constructed tar paper shacks, and there are very minimal amenities.
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Seeing that gives me more of a reason to want to prove to our country
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that we're just as loyal as the average citizen.
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It gives me more of a reason to want to fight.
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While some army divisions fighting in Europe are filmed in color,
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the overseas combat action of Kanaya's 442nd regimental combat team is filmed in black and white.
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The past few weeks have been a blur
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crossing the Mediterranean, jumping on trucks in Marseilles, sleeping on the side of the road.
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It will actually be kind of nice to be in a foxhole again.
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After proving their fighting ability in an impressive campaign against the Germans in Northern Italy,
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Kanaya and the 442nd are now in combat in the mountainous region along the French-German border.
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Here in the Vosges Mountains, Hitler's forces are doing their best to slow the Allied army's advance into Germany.
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Because of the region's steep cliffs and dense forests,
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American tanks, artillery, and airpower are virtually useless.
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It's the ideal terrain for the Germans to make a stand, their backs against their homeland.
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These mountains are impossible to move through.
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The Germans could be just about anywhere out here.
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As Kanaya and the 442nd approach the hill town of Bruyeres,
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They come under heavy shelling.
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After three days of vicious fighting, Bruyeres falls to the men of the 442nd.
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But they get no time to rest.
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The Colonel says that another battalion is trapped on the other side of the mountain from us,
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and they've got a lot of wounded who need to be evacuated.
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So I grab three other medics and we set out.
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The path is treacherous and thick with trees.
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It makes me a bit nervous.
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This kind of terrain makes it easy for the Germans to hide.
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After struggling over the mountainous trails through no-man's-land,
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Kanaya and the three medics arrive in Biffontaine.
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There they find more than a dozen wounded men, seven of them on stretchers.
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There's no way we can transport all these men back ourselves.
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So the battalion commander assigns us 35 German prisoners to use as litter bearers.
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I don't like this one bit.
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You can't mix weapons with the red cross flag.
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It's a violation of the Geneva Convention.
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But being a medic that takes orders from infantry, I have no control over the decision made by a superior officer.
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When we set out, I tell my medics head way back.
222
00:23:28,540 --> 00:23:33,530
Because if the Germans stop us along the way, there could be a firefight.
223
00:23:44,390 --> 00:23:49,220
We're almost at the bottom of the hill when the whole column stops.
224
00:23:52,480 --> 00:23:56,560
It's a German patrol, more than 20 men.
225
00:23:57,200 --> 00:24:01,010
Our commanding officers know there's no sense trying to fight.
226
00:24:02,200 --> 00:24:05,300
We are completely outnumbered and outgunned.
227
00:24:08,800 --> 00:24:14,950
There's no time for emotions. You're too busy trying to avoid the portable flak batteries on the ground below.
228
00:24:19,970 --> 00:24:23,350
22-Year-old Tuskegee airman Shelby Westbrook is flying his 31st mission with the 332nd fighter group.
229
00:24:28,030 --> 00:24:33,380
Today he is escorting a group of b-24 liberators on a bombing run over Germany.
230
00:24:40,030 --> 00:24:42,800
I'm hit somewhere in the coolant system.
231
00:24:43,100 --> 00:24:46,390
Squadron leader tells me to peel off and head back to base.
232
00:24:46,750 --> 00:24:49,400
Pilot closest to me forms up to escort me home.
233
00:24:49,720 --> 00:24:51,760
But I'm starting to lose altitude.
234
00:24:55,320 --> 00:24:57,170
I'm coming down out of the clouds.
235
00:24:57,760 --> 00:24:59,340
There are mountains in front of me.
236
00:25:00,200 --> 00:25:04,970
I'm on the east side of the black alps over German-occupied Yugoslavia.
237
00:25:16,700 --> 00:25:21,110
We have two aircraft down, but that's the least of our problems.
238
00:25:21,140 --> 00:25:25,510
Now we have to find a way to get out of here with our lives.
239
00:25:26,600 --> 00:25:28,620
We're looking to find out where we are.
240
00:25:29,240 --> 00:25:33,440
When we see guys in German uniforms, with rifles at the ready.
241
00:25:33,980 --> 00:25:38,970
So we stopped. And we both had sidearms of .45 automatics.
242
00:25:38,980 --> 00:25:43,350
But, hey, they already had theirs aimed at you.
243
00:25:44,110 --> 00:25:48,500
Then all of a sudden, both the guys took their guns and put them on their shoulder.
244
00:25:48,830 --> 00:25:51,540
And we looked, and there was a little red star on their cap.
245
00:25:51,820 --> 00:25:53,790
They were Tito Partisans.
246
00:25:56,900 --> 00:26:03,830
Westbrook and his wingman have been rescued by a Yugoslavian resistance group known as Tito's Partisans.
247
00:26:05,540 --> 00:26:08,510
To help him throw the Germans out of his homeland,
248
00:26:08,510 --> 00:26:12,730
communist party leader Josip Broz Tito struck a deal with the Allies.
249
00:26:13,640 --> 00:26:18,610
In exchange for weapons and ammunition, he and his 200,000 resistance fighters
250
00:26:18,620 --> 00:26:22,380
have promised to protect and return downed Allied pilots,
251
00:26:22,500 --> 00:26:24,690
helping them through German-held territory.
252
00:26:26,620 --> 00:26:31,040
We sleep by day and march in the middle of the night when there's no moon.
253
00:26:32,670 --> 00:26:34,200
This is a new kind of danger.
254
00:26:40,840 --> 00:26:43,320
We can hear a booming from far away.
255
00:26:44,190 --> 00:26:45,910
We all know we're outgunned.
256
00:26:47,490 --> 00:26:54,300
Jack Yusen and the Samuel B. Roberts are off Samar island, positioned to the north of Leyte island.
257
00:26:54,680 --> 00:26:59,760
Their original mission was to patrol for subs and rescue downed pilots,
258
00:27:00,090 --> 00:27:05,690
but now they have just learned that a powerful Japanese task force is quickly bearing down on them.
259
00:27:07,580 --> 00:27:11,970
The odds are stacked against us, but this is what we came here to do.
260
00:27:13,340 --> 00:27:15,720
And we're all determined we'll do our duty.
261
00:27:39,530 --> 00:27:42,470
Hoping to avoid almost certain destruction,
262
00:27:42,470 --> 00:27:46,980
the small task force's escort carriers are ordered to pull back.
263
00:27:49,250 --> 00:27:54,500
Sammy B., along with three other destroyer escorts and three destroyers,
264
00:27:54,770 --> 00:27:59,990
are the only thing standing between the enemy and the vulnerable transports unloading at Leyte.
265
00:28:03,920 --> 00:28:07,820
Although they are hopelessly outmatched by the massive firepower
266
00:28:07,820 --> 00:28:10,800
of the Japanese heavy cruisers and battleships,
267
00:28:10,800 --> 00:28:15,030
they do the only thing they can: turn and attack.
268
00:28:30,900 --> 00:28:32,910
Something hits the portside stern.
269
00:28:35,020 --> 00:28:39,430
Then somebody yells out that our boys back there are all got disintegrated.
270
00:28:39,730 --> 00:28:45,990
That's when I had a big lump in my throat because two of my closest shipmates are on that gun.
271
00:28:46,480 --> 00:28:53,340
That was their battle station, John Peoney and Leonard Goldstein.
272
00:28:53,690 --> 00:28:57,200
And I kept thinking, "they're both gone; they're both gone."
273
00:29:06,120 --> 00:29:08,430
And that's when I knew this is a fight to the finish.
274
00:29:08,830 --> 00:29:14,940
We're gonna be in this until either we beat them or they're gonna get, they're gonna beat us.
275
00:29:18,870 --> 00:29:20,800
And that's the way we fought for the next hour.
276
00:29:23,360 --> 00:29:29,550
The Sammy B. manages to land a few hits on the Japanese cruisers before suffering another direct hit.
277
00:29:32,010 --> 00:29:35,470
Within minutes, Yusen's ship starts taking on water.
278
00:29:36,300 --> 00:29:38,930
The men are ordered to abandon ship.
279
00:29:49,670 --> 00:29:53,080
I make it to the raft, and I glimpse back at the ship.
280
00:29:55,200 --> 00:29:59,520
And there she goes, the Samuel B. Roberts.
281
00:30:01,600 --> 00:30:03,570
We're all crying like babies.
282
00:30:10,110 --> 00:30:12,570
We can only see a few yards because of the waves.
283
00:30:13,260 --> 00:30:16,500
Makes us feel like we're all alone.
284
00:30:18,650 --> 00:30:21,610
I feel something brush against my leg.
285
00:30:22,350 --> 00:30:26,000
A man nearby screams: "Sharks!"
286
00:30:28,290 --> 00:30:30,920
I look at the German prisoners we have with us.
287
00:30:32,760 --> 00:30:34,780
Our only option is to surrender.
288
00:30:36,290 --> 00:30:39,780
Now we're the prisoners and they are our captors.
289
00:30:40,790 --> 00:30:42,290
The tables are turned.
290
00:30:49,020 --> 00:30:52,630
Only moments ago, Japanese-American medic Jimmie Kanaya
291
00:30:52,630 --> 00:30:56,570
was transporting wounded GIs through the Vosges Mountains.
292
00:30:58,230 --> 00:31:03,020
Now he is in the hands of a German patrol,
293
00:31:03,020 --> 00:31:06,630
being forcibly marched deep into enemy territory as a prisoner of war.
294
00:31:08,810 --> 00:31:10,270
I feel worse than helpless.
295
00:31:11,240 --> 00:31:13,900
I'm completely at the mercy of my captors.
296
00:31:17,390 --> 00:31:20,860
These front-line German troops seem especially agitated.
297
00:31:21,750 --> 00:31:25,320
One steals my watch while another frisks me for money.
298
00:31:26,750 --> 00:31:28,710
I'm thinking about trying to escape.
299
00:31:29,580 --> 00:31:33,990
But what would happen to my other medics and to the wounded guys if I did get away?
300
00:31:36,170 --> 00:31:38,490
The guards might take their anger out on them.
301
00:31:39,430 --> 00:31:41,150
No, I can't let that happen.
302
00:31:41,810 --> 00:31:44,850
No matter what, I have to stand fast.
303
00:31:52,880 --> 00:31:54,610
I wonder about how long I'll be here.
304
00:31:55,810 --> 00:32:00,840
All I can think about is the last time I saw my parents at the internment camp in Idaho.
305
00:32:14,670 --> 00:32:18,560
It's kind of ironic that here I was fighting for our country,
306
00:32:18,560 --> 00:32:21,870
and I'm in enemy territory and behind barbed wires
307
00:32:21,870 --> 00:32:26,660
and my parents and brother and sister were in a friendly country behind barbed wires.
308
00:32:26,660 --> 00:32:28,800
And how do you answer that?
309
00:32:33,550 --> 00:32:38,280
In December, Kanaya arrives at a POW camp near Warsaw, Poland.
310
00:32:38,690 --> 00:32:41,270
There he is held until January of 1945,
311
00:32:41,280 --> 00:32:46,830
when the approaching Russian army forces the Germans to retreat with their prisoners.
312
00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:50,880
Kanaya and 1,400 other POWs are forced on
313
00:32:50,880 --> 00:32:56,610
a 380-mile death march to another POW camp near Hammelburg, Germany.
314
00:32:57,870 --> 00:33:02,100
My mother really prayed for me even that I was still alive.
315
00:33:02,100 --> 00:33:05,800
And then when they found out I was alive, they continued praying then,
316
00:33:05,800 --> 00:33:09,460
because while you're in captivity you're still uncertain as to your future.
317
00:33:12,600 --> 00:33:16,750
Kanaya remains a prisoner of the Germans until April 1945,
318
00:33:16,750 --> 00:33:22,030
two years after his parents are freed from the internment camp in Idaho.
319
00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:26,760
When he is finally liberated, Kanaya is close to starvation.
320
00:33:27,600 --> 00:33:31,720
But unlike many he was imprisoned with, he survived.
321
00:34:10,930 --> 00:34:14,120
All around us are fins. When the fins drop,
322
00:34:14,120 --> 00:34:17,970
we all start clinging to the raft a little harder.
323
00:34:19,590 --> 00:34:26,340
18-Year-old Jack Yusen and his shipmates Samuel B. Roberts are adrift in the Philippine sea.
324
00:34:27,390 --> 00:34:32,190
Hours earlier, their ship was sunk while trying to fight off a Japanese task force.
325
00:34:33,070 --> 00:34:37,830
Now Yusen and his shipmates are at the mercy of the elements.
326
00:34:39,730 --> 00:34:43,940
I was sleeping, dozing outside the net,
327
00:34:43,940 --> 00:34:50,850
when I heard something pushing me on my thigh under the water.
328
00:34:52,370 --> 00:34:57,990
And I looked down and there was a tiger shark pressing my leg.
329
00:34:58,040 --> 00:35:01,270
I said: "Oh my God, big one."
330
00:35:02,120 --> 00:35:04,280
Oh, I said: "God, get him away.
331
00:35:05,830 --> 00:35:07,540
Get him away from me, please.
332
00:35:07,540 --> 00:35:09,790
I'll go home. I want to be a good guy.
333
00:35:09,800 --> 00:35:12,410
I'm not gonna fight with my brother again.
334
00:35:13,860 --> 00:35:18,990
I'll find me a nice girl, get married. I'll have a good family.
335
00:35:18,990 --> 00:35:21,340
Please get me out of this."
336
00:35:23,850 --> 00:35:25,440
I looked down and he was gone.
337
00:35:27,300 --> 00:35:33,800
A few seconds later, two men down from me, a shark took his right leg right off.
338
00:35:36,960 --> 00:35:38,130
And we had to cut him loose.
339
00:35:39,780 --> 00:35:46,560
We pushed him away because we had nothing for him, no morphine, no bandages, no nothing.
340
00:35:47,420 --> 00:35:53,410
When we pushed our shipmate away, the sharks went to him and gave us a reprieve.
341
00:35:57,790 --> 00:35:59,540
All around me, guys are giving up.
342
00:36:00,180 --> 00:36:05,820
No food. No water. No hope.
343
00:36:07,080 --> 00:36:09,650
Sleeping days and marching nights is taking its toll.
344
00:36:10,830 --> 00:36:11,820
We have to be careful.
345
00:36:12,630 --> 00:36:15,410
The Germans could be anywhere.
346
00:36:22,710 --> 00:36:26,150
Having narrowly survived a crash landing in Yugoslavia,
347
00:36:26,150 --> 00:36:30,280
Tuskegee airman Shelby Westbrook is in enemy-occupied territory.
348
00:36:30,920 --> 00:36:36,370
He is being escorted by armed Yugoslavian resistance fighters known as Tito's Partisans.
349
00:36:37,510 --> 00:36:40,140
Dressed in German uniforms as a disguise,
350
00:36:40,140 --> 00:36:45,280
the partisans are attempting to guide Westbrook back to his airfield in Italy.
351
00:36:47,900 --> 00:36:51,090
You don't know what your conditions are going to be from one minute to the next.
352
00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:54,400
You are always n edge.
353
00:36:53,840 --> 00:36:59,040
All of a sudden, you would hear a voice. I think the word was stoi.
354
00:36:59,760 --> 00:37:04,330
Right out of the darkness you'd hear the word stoi, and everybody would freeze.
355
00:37:06,940 --> 00:37:09,030
When the partisans froze, you froze.
356
00:37:09,310 --> 00:37:12,270
You stopped. You didn't make any noises.
357
00:37:13,250 --> 00:37:18,280
And there would be this quiet sound in the middle of black darkness.
358
00:37:18,580 --> 00:37:24,510
And all of a sudden, you'd hear some voices start a little conversation.
359
00:37:26,490 --> 00:37:31,630
And a couple minutes later, you'd start moving again.
360
00:37:33,430 --> 00:37:35,050
It's strange to feel so helpless.
361
00:37:36,140 --> 00:37:41,480
But all I can do is trust these guys and stay ready for whatever comes next.
362
00:37:43,820 --> 00:37:48,750
For the next four weeks, Shelby Westbrook hides behind enemy lines.
363
00:37:49,340 --> 00:37:55,930
With the help of the Partisans, he eventually reaches the Port of Zara on Yugoslavia's Adriatic Coast.
364
00:37:56,230 --> 00:38:01,360
There he meets British commandos, who transport him back to his squadron in Italy.
365
00:38:02,690 --> 00:38:08,320
Westbrook goes on to fly another 29 missions before his tour of overseas duty is over.
366
00:38:08,650 --> 00:38:12,480
When I got back to the tents,
367
00:38:12,480 --> 00:38:16,560
I started teasing the other guys and saying: "hey, I'll see you guys later. I am on my way home."
368
00:39:12,440 --> 00:39:17,200
Stranded in the Philippine Sea, time is running out for Jack Yusen
369
00:39:17,200 --> 00:39:21,380
and the other survivors of the sunken Samuel B. Roberts.
370
00:39:25,780 --> 00:39:29,850
Although it is possible to survive up to five weeks without food,
371
00:39:29,850 --> 00:39:33,670
most people can only last three to five days without water.
372
00:39:35,490 --> 00:39:39,580
Guys are drinking so much saltwater, they're starting to hallucinate.
373
00:39:46,330 --> 00:39:51,650
"Hello, hello dear..." A guy yells out: "Oh, there's my mother on the back porch.
374
00:40:02,770 --> 00:40:08,320
I'm gonna go see her. Come on. Hi, mommy!" He starts swimming away.
375
00:40:11,070 --> 00:40:12,710
One of the boys went after him.
376
00:40:13,380 --> 00:40:17,960
When he got near him, the guy that was swimming away pulled out his knife.
377
00:40:18,190 --> 00:40:22,180
He was gonna kill the guy who was gonna save him, bring him back to the raft.
378
00:40:22,510 --> 00:40:24,720
He said: "I'm gonna see my mother, get away from me."
379
00:40:25,060 --> 00:40:27,110
We never saw him again.
380
00:40:27,590 --> 00:40:30,130
He went to see his mother on the back porch.
381
00:40:35,890 --> 00:40:38,750
I don't know how much longer we're going to be able to hold on.
382
00:40:43,980 --> 00:40:47,980
Way off in the distance, I see a patrol ship.
383
00:40:50,120 --> 00:40:53,900
It gets closer and we see the American flag on its stack.
384
00:40:57,170 --> 00:41:03,440
Oh, man, we start yelling: "Hey, hey!" Guys waking up.
385
00:41:03,980 --> 00:41:07,660
And he circles us, and we're yelling at him.
386
00:41:07,990 --> 00:41:12,620
And the captain of that little ship, he came out on the port wing of the bridge with a megaphone.
387
00:41:13,810 --> 00:41:21,740
"Who are you?" We all yelled out: "Samuel B. Roberts, DE 413."
388
00:41:23,810 --> 00:41:25,110
And he still circles.
389
00:41:26,830 --> 00:41:30,280
Now we're getting pissed off.
390
00:41:30,550 --> 00:41:34,340
And we start cursing at him, every curse word you could ever think of.
391
00:41:34,580 --> 00:41:40,260
He comes around again and he says: "Who won the World Series?"
392
00:41:40,260 --> 00:41:44,020
We all yell out: "St. Louis Cardinals!"
393
00:41:46,020 --> 00:41:53,100
You could hear the bells: "ring, ring.", stop, stop, lifelines are coming out.
394
00:42:00,220 --> 00:42:01,550
And that's how we got saved.
395
00:42:59,310 --> 00:43:03,430
Yusen's task force lost four ships and 850 men,
396
00:43:03,430 --> 00:43:07,900
including 90 sailors from the USS Samuel B. Roberts.
397
00:43:08,660 --> 00:43:11,780
But their courageous stand against the enemy succeeded.
398
00:43:12,500 --> 00:43:20,690
Mistaking Yusen's small group of ships for a far larger force than what was actually present, the Japanese fleet turned and retreated.
399
00:43:23,570 --> 00:43:26,760
The American invasion of Leyte is a success.
400
00:43:27,040 --> 00:43:31,370
Three months later, American forces invade the main island of Luzon.
401
00:43:32,270 --> 00:43:35,900
They liberate the island and the remaining POWs.40705
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