Original subtitles

Narrator: The japanese zero is a killer.

Werneth: The zero was state-of-the-art,

Nimble and deadly in combat.

Murphy: That's all the pilot had to do,

Was look through this gun sight right here.

Whatever he had in his sights, he was gonna shoot.

Grant: Japanese aviators were elite,

Hand-picked, well trained.

These aviators could cause death

And destruction on an incredible scale.

Narrator: The japanese zero

Racks up victory after victory,

Heading into a pivotal battle.

Hallion: The stakes going into midway were enormous.

Narrator: To beat the zero,

America must develop new tactics

And build bigger, faster, more rugged fighters.

Anderegg: The corsair is an absolutely beautiful airplane.

Lynch: This aircraft was designed to be a zero killer.

Narrator: Pitting muscle against agility,

It's a duel to the death in the skies over the pacific.

(dramatic music)

December 7th, 1941, pearl harbor, hawaii.

Japan catches america sleeping.

Grant: At pearl harbor that morning,

People look up from the deck of a battleship

And they see japanese planes at low level.

(aircraft engine thrums)

Narrator: Dr. Rebecca grant is one of

The foremost civilian experts on air combat history.

Grant: The sense of shock is indescribable, overwhelming

That a japanese attack was coming

On this beautiful, clear Sunday morning.

(dramatic music)

Narrator: At 7:40am, the first japanese planes

Swoop in over the harbor and hammer

Everything in their path.

(dramatic music)

Grant: All around, you have explosions, strafing,

Fires, oil slicks, crews desperately trying

To save the battleships that they're on.

(dramatic music)

On the ground at hickam, hangars are burning,

Oil is exploding, planes are taxiing;

It's chaos and devastation.

(dramatic music)

Narrator: Leading the charge

Is japan's premier fighter, the zero.

Grant: The mitsubishi a6m zero is japan's

Top of the line fighter plane.

It is the dominant fighter in the pacific

In December of 1941.

The zero is light, it's fast,

And it has a phenomenal carrier range.

It's the perfect navy fighter for japan.

Narrator: The zero is so light and maneuverable,

It can fly circles around american fighters.

Murphy: This is the japanese zero,

The most feared airplane at the beginning of world war ii.

Narrator: Mark murphy is an international

War bird instructor and airshow pilot.

Murphy: The greatest strengths that the zero has,

By far, is its agility.

It's a light airplane.

This air frame is one of the thinnest

Of any of the combat airplanes.

So the skin is so thin on this airplane

That our ground crew is not allowed

To push on this fusillage or the wings on this airplane

Because if you put any pressure on that at all,

Well you can see how light and thin that is,

The skin is actually moving.

On a lot of the other airplanes during world war ii,

You could push anywhere on here; not on the japanese zero.

Narrator: Weighing less than 4000 pounds,

The zero reaches speeds of over 340 miles per hour.

And when the zero slips in behind an enemy plane,

It drops the hammer.

(engine roars)

Murphy: One of the deadly features of this aircraft

Are these two 30 caliber machine guns.

The pilot had to cock the gun,

And they were synchronized to shoot through the propellor

So they're in-line guns.

That's all the pilot had to do,

Was look through this gun sight right here.

Whatever he had in his sights, he was gonna shoot.

(dramatic music)

Narrator: Adding even more punch,

The zero carries two wing- mounted 20-millimeter cannons.

(dramatic music)

At pearl harbor, the japanese planes

Hit most of the american battleships

And pound the airfields.

(engines roar)

And this is just the beginning.

200 miles from hawaii, six japanese aircraft carriers,

The largest naval strike force ever assembled,

Launches a second wave.

Grant: December 7th 1941, the japanese fleet

Under admiral yamamoto is honed to a knife's edge.

(dramatic music)

Narrator: With the zero and their highly trained pilots,

Japan believes it can seize control of the western pacific.

(dramatic music)

Grant: The japanese pilots embarked with the carrier

Task forces are the best of the best.

They've been chosen through an elite system.

Their training includes everything from gymnastics

To lots and lots of flying hours.

These japanese pilots are truly the elite.

Nothing stands in the way of japan's sea forces.

The only obstacle is the american fleet at pearl harbor.

What yamamoto wants more than anything

Is to catch the american aircraft carriers in port.

Japan knows that they have to knock the fleet out.

Narrator: The zero pilots understand the risks are huge,

But when they race in over pearl harbor,

It's already in flames.

Their job is to finish off the americans.

Grant: It's up to the zeros to shoot down

Any american planes unlucky enough to take to the air,

But the zeros have another mission

And that is to use their 20 millimeter cannons to strafe.

They strafe crewmen on the decks of the battleships,

They strafe hickam field,

They strafe aircraft on the ground.

The zeros, with their guns, are spreading

Death and destruction all across

Pearl harbor and ford island.

Narrator: Americans know the story of pearl harbor,

From the survivors' accounts.

Ron werneth has heard the story first-hand

From the japanese attackers.

(dramatic music)

One of his most interesting interviews

Was zero pilot, iyozo fujita.

Werneth: Lieutenant junior grade iyozo fujita

Thought that he would die.

(aircraft engines roar)

Narrator: An hour after the first assault,

Fujita's enemy now knows he's coming.

Werneth: Fujita-san heard the order of charge to attack.

Then they started swarming towards their target.

So in the case of the fighters,

Their target was kaneohe bay naval air station.

They did two passes but there was heavy anti-aircraft fire

As well as heavy smoke, so that obscured the target.

Narrator: A zero flown by another pilot, fusata iida,

Is hit and begins to leak fuel.

Werneth: So his aircraft was mortally wounded, leaking fuel,

And so he waved goodbye to lieutenant junior grade fujita,

And he pointed down, I'm gonna make my attack,

And then he went down in the smoke.

And that was it, so in essence,

Lieutenant iida became the first kamikaze of the war.

(dramatic music)

Narrator: A handful of american planes

Climb to challenge the attackers.

Fujita now takes command of the zeros.

(dramatic music)

Werneth: So fujita-san was flying

And then he heard from behind him

Y'know, a rat-tat-tat, that there's fighters,

And he looked behind him and there was

Four enemy fighters and then next thing you know,

It became an aerial melee.

(dramatic music)

Narrator: The first big dogfight between

Americans and japanese rages all around fujita.

Werneth: And one of the fighters came in

And did a head-on run attack at fujita

And that was second lieutenant gordon sterling.

And initially, fujita said I'm gonna ram right into him,

And I'm gonna do what my leader did

In front of me and sacrifice my life for japan.

But then, just as that thought occurred,

Sterling pulled up and he had his clear shot of the belly,

So then he dropped about 100 rounds

Into the belly of the curtis b-36,

Which went down and crashed.

Narrator: Fujita wins one of the first dogfights

Against an american in world war ii.

But his zero has taken several hits.

Werneth: His oil pressure's low, his aircraft is smoking,

And he doesn't even know if he's gonna be able

To make it back to his carrier.

(dramatic music)

Narrator: Once in sight of the carrier,

Fujita can't wait while other pilots land.

(dramatic music)

Werneth: So he said, y'know, I don't have time

For a normal landing, I'm gonna have to

Make an emergency landing.

So he came right in the pattern and swooped down,

Flaps down, tail wheel down, and just as he touched down,

The number one engine cylinder actually fell off

And he came to a stop.

Narrator: With the zero flying cover,

Japan has won a shocking victory.

But that victory is incomplete.

Grant: Yamamoto's plan for pearl harbor is a success,

With one exception: He hasn't caught

The carriers in pearl harbor.

(dramatic music)

That means that the u.S. Still has

Its most important weapon, their aircraft carriers.

Pearl harbor has proven beyond all doubt,

Both to the imperial japanese navy and to the u.S. Navy

That it's the aircraft carrier

That will dominate the war in the pacific.

Narrator: To win this war, the american navy

Needs to find a way to beat the zero.

In early 1941, the japanese a6m zero

And its pilots seem invincible.

For over a decade, japan has trained

A cadre of top fighter pilots.

Grant: For the japanese pilots, the takeaway is confidence.

They've won a huge victory,

The planning has paid off, and they've seen great success

And the zero has paid off big.

It's a wonderful attack platform with it's 20mm guns.

The shock to the u.S. Navy is incredible

And yet, the u.S. Naval aviators know

That now the war rests on their shoulders.

They will have to take the fight to the enemy

From their carrier decks.

(dramatic music)

Narrator: America still has three

Aircraft carriers in the pacific,

With more under construction.

And it has a long history with this weapon's platform.

(dramatic music)

1910, hampton roads, virginia.

For the first time, a pilot takes off

From the deck of a ship.

It's a fragile, 50 horsepower wood and canvas craft

But its potential is clearly huge.

(dramatic music)

In 1922, america converts a coal ship

Into its first carrier, the uss langley.

(dramatic music)

In 1932, rear admiral harry yarnell tests

The carrier's striking power.

During a navy war game, he launches a mock attack

And takes the defenders completely by surprise.

The war game's umpires declare that his planes

Would have sunk every battleship

And destroyed most of the airfields.

(dramatic music)

Yarnell's target in this war game?

Pearl harbor, hawaii.

(dramatic music)

While the american navy ignores the war game's lesson

On pearl harbor's vulnerability,

The japanese navy is watching and learning.

In 1941, when they attack pearl harbor,

They follow almost the exact route and tactics.

After the humiliating defeat at pearl harbor,

American pilots fear the zero.

Werneth: To put this into perspective,

Somebody like fujita-san or his contemporaries

To be combined with a powerful modern fighter

Like the zero, is an incredible combination.

(dramatic music)

Narrator: For six months after pearl harbor,

The u.S. And japanese navies spar in a string of skirmishes

And fight to a draw at the battle of coral sea.

(dramatic music)

With each mission, the zero pilots keep winning

And growing more confident.

Their plane is a pilot's dream, even today.

(dramatic music)

Murphy: There's about five of these in the world

That are flying today.

There's a lot of amazing things about flying this airplane.

One of them is the acceleration on take-off,

(engine roars)

It just goes like it's got a rocket engine on it.

It's climbing and climbing and the angle is so steep.

One of the things that I'm so appreciative of

Is just how simply it does a roll or maybe a loop with it;

It's just so light, so nimble,

So effortless to do those type of things.

(dramatic music)

And it was a deadly combination for the japanese pilots.

Werneth: So what is really remarkable with fujita-san,

He said that flying a zero was like

An extension of his body,

Y'know the wings and everything,

He became part of the zero, to the point where he could

Even fall asleep on one of these long missions

And then his number two and number three men

Had to worry about him

Because the airplane's flying and he's sleeping.

Narrator: But six months after pearl harbor,

America is now awake

And laser-focused on beating the zero.

It's america's turn to catch japan asleep at the wheel.

Lee: In 1940, american intelligence analysts

Broke the japanese code called jn-25,

Which the japanese used to communicate

With the imperial fleet.

Narrator: Russell lee is chair of the aeronautics

Department at the national air and space museum.

Lee: By doing this, it was a huge break

For the american forces and it allowed them to,

With varying degrees of accuracy,

Predict pretty much exactly what the

Japanese fleet was going to do.

Narrator: Codebreakers learn of japanese

Plans to invade the strategically crucial

Island of midway.

Risking all of their available aircraft carriers,

American commanders decide to challenge the japanese.

Hallion: The stakes going into midway were enormous.

Narrator: Dr. Richard hallion is an author

And aerospace historian.

Hallion: Midway pits two opposing forces

In the most significant naval clash of the 20th century;

Indeed, one of the most significant

Naval clashes of all time.

You have the japanese fleet built around

Four powerful attack carriers

With highly trained air crew, excellent aircraft,

Combat tested, riding a wave of victory

With every expectation of success.

Opposing them are three american carriers

With airmen that have seen too many defeats

That realize that their backs are now against the wall

And it is on their shoulders that the survival of midway

And possibly the entire control of the central pacific,

Perhaps even the hawaiian islands and australia rests.

We knew where they were going to be,

We knew that we could confront them

But there was every expectation

That we might lose that battle.

Midway was a very close run thing;

There were no guarantees going into that battle.

(dramatic music)

Werneth: Coming into midway, a typical japanese pilot

Of course would be confident, maybe almost too confident

Because up until that time, they won every battle.

They're flying a state-of-the-art airplane,

They have excellent training,

Everything was victory, victory, victory.

(dramatic music)

Narrator: June 4th, 1942.

The battle begins.

Unaware that three american carriers

Are only 200 miles away, the japanese launch

Their first wave of bombers against midway island.

Hallion: They launch punishing attacks on midway

And it is during that, that the japanese,

Through reconnaissance, become aware

That there are american carriers out there.

They can no longer think of just attacking midway,

Now they have to reconfigure the aircraft

And those carriers to attack ships.

They go from soft target bombs to armor-piercing bombs.

The decks of the ship then become littered

With bombs, with supplies as they trying to

Reconfigure those aircraft on deck.

Narrator: Just when japanese carriers

Are most vulnerable, american torpedo bombers

Close in for the kill.

(tense music)

But zeros swoop in to stop them.

Zero pilot iyozo fujita is among the first

To attack the slow-moving torpedo bombers.

Werneth: Fujita-san, he knows that there's probably

Gonna be guns in the back and guns in the front,

So he decides to do a diagonal attack

And with the performance of the zero,

He can do that attack several times and repeat, repeat.

All this is happening in the blink of an eye,

Y'know, combat action takes seconds

And he goes to the formation,

Gets several kills during the first time,

Banks up, turns around, comes back and does it another time.

I believe all together, he does it three times

And then in the end, between just himself

And one other pilot,

They're able to knock down seven american torpedo bombers,

All in just a couple of passes.

Narrator: The americans drop only

A handful of torpedoes and they miss their mark.

Fujita and the other zero pilots

Shoot down most of the bombers.

With the zero, japan again seems on the verge of victory.

Hallion: When the battle opened, it goes against us

And it looks like it may have a very bleak outcome indeed.

The air attacks on midway destroy most of

The aircraft forces that we have on the island

And the aircraft that we send

Aloft are shot out of the sky.

The attacks that we send initially

Against the japanese fleet, lumbering torpedo planes,

Are shot out of the sky at low altitude.

The japanese fighters absolutely destroy them

And at this point in the battle,

It's looking like the united states may lose

And lose very, very badly.

Narrator: Zeros have crushed the american torpedo bombers

And japanese aviators prepare to strike the u.S. Fleet.

(dramatic music)

June 4th, 1942.

After reducing midway island to a smoking ruin,

Japanese airplanes refuel to attack the american fleet.

(engines roar)

But as the zeros try to sweep american fighters

From the sky, they run up against a new type of warrior.

Lieutenant commander john "jimmy" thach

Leads one squadron of navy fighters,

Flying the grumman wildcat.

Anderegg: Jimmy thach was a navy fighter pilot,

A highly experienced guy.

Narrator: Dick anderegg flew over 4000 hours

In fighter jets and was director of the air force

History and museums program.

Anderegg: It's been my experience

As an air force fighter pilot

All of my life, that the ones that are the best

Are the ones that study the most

And thach was a good example of that.

Thach studied the adversary and he knew

What the advantages zeros had over his wildcats

And so he devised tactics to accentuate the advantages

That they would have and minimize the disadvantages

The wildcats would have against the zeros.

Narrator: Thach's slower, less agile wildcat

Seems impossibly outmatched by the zero.

Anderegg: The mitsubishi zero was a very light,

Very agile, quick turning, fast and fast climbing fighter.

The strengths of the wildcat was that it was

A rugged airframe, could take battle damage.

Narrator: With six 50 caliber machine guns,

It can also dish it out.

(dramatic music)

Before midway, thach spends hours

Devising ways to counter the zero.

Anderegg: He did this by using matchsticks

On his kitchen table at night,

Over quite a period of time of laying out

If I have a wildcat here and a wildcat here,

And a zero shows up here, what are we going to do?

(tense music)

Narrator: Thach wants the wildcats

To fly in teams of two or four.

They spread out and scan the sky behind each other.

Then, when a zero latches onto one wildcat's tail,

They counter-attack.

Turning toward each other, the lead plane

Draws the zero right in front of the second plane's guns.

If the zero survives or doesn't break off its attack,

They cross back and try again.

Anderegg: If one airplane was attacked,

They could turn towards each other in a weave,

Which would bring the attacker in front of the wingman,

And if that didn't work then,

As they came apart they could weave again

And this was constantly being an effort

To make the attacker commit to one of them,

Which would leave free the wingman,

Or the flight leader if the wingman was under attack,

To then in turn attack the attacker.

Narrator: This tactic became known as the thach weave.

At midway, thach uses it against the zero

For the first time.

Anderegg: On June 4th of 1942, thach himself was able to

Test in combat the actual tactics that they were using.

When a zero latched onto thach's wingman's tail

Committed to that wingman and they started their weave,

Thach was actually able to then convert

Behind the attacking zero and shoot it down

And this was a great confidence builder for him

And for all the other pilots who had been practicing

This weave tactic prior to combat.

Narrator: With the thach weave,

Wildcats go toe-to-toe with a zero and hold their own.

And by tangling with the zeros,

Thach's wildcats distract them from an even greater threat.

Thousands of feet above the dueling fighters,

The japanese zeros fail to spot another

Group of bombers, sbd dauntlesses.

Lee: Sbd stands for scout bomber douglas.

The sbd wasn't a particularly fast airplane

And so some navy pilots nicknamed it slow but deadly.

(dramatic music)

Narrator: Led by lieutenant commander c. Wade mcclusky,

Two squadrons of sbd dauntlesses

Launch from the carrier enterprise.

(dramatic music)

Lee: It carried a crew of two; the pilot and a gunner.

The dauntless was designed

To carry out dive-bombing attacks.

It could carry a 500 pound or a 1000 pound bomb,

Slung right beneath the cockpit

On the outside of the airplane between the landing gear.

The dive bomber was the world war ii

Precision attack platform.

(dramatic music)

Narrator: Mcclusky's mission is to find

And take out the japanese carriers.

Grant: So when mcclusky forms up his group,

He's still 175 miles from the last known position

Of the japanese fleet.

They fly towards that position

But when they arrive, empty ocean.

Mcclusky makes the most important

Decision of the battle

Narrator: Low on fuel, mcclusky can give up the hunt

And return to the carrier,

Or he can keep searching for the japanese fleet

And risk having to ditch his plane in the pacific.

Grant: The whole battle of midway turns on

This decision by this one man.

Mcclusky decides to continue the hunt.

He flies seven more minutes and then he sees it,

A japanese destroyer heading north at flank speed,

Catching up with the fleet.

(dramatic music)

Narrator: The destroyer leads mcclusky

Right to the japanese fleet.

(dramatic music)

Grant: Mcclusky catches the japanese carriers

With the zeros out of position.

That means mcclusky can start the dive bombing runs

Without being challenged by the zeros.

It's the best possible moment for him to attack.

Narrator: Half of the dauntlesses

Dive on the carrier akagi and the rest attack the kaga.

Grant: So now for mcclusky, his world narrows down.

He pitches the dauntless over into a 70 degree dive.

In his sights, the kaga gets bigger and bigger

As mcclusky aims for the center island

Of the japanese aircraft carrier.

(dramatic music)

He dives and dives and dives, the bomb is released,

And he pulls up and away.

(dramatic music)

Narrator: Bombs smash through the two carriers' decks.

Both erupt in flames.

(dramatic music)

And more dauntlesses are on the prowl.

Grant: A few minutes later, dive bombers from the uss yorktown

Attack the third japanese carrier,

Setting it on fire as well.

That's three japanese carriers down.

(dramatic music)

Narrator: Still the dauntlesses aren't done.

Later that day they destroy the fourth japanese carrier.

(dramatic music)

But the battle isn't over.

The japanese hit back.

(dramatic music)

Their bombers repeatedly strike the uss yorktown,

Leaving it a smoldering wreck.

Hallion: It was a hard and indeed, brutally fought battle

With tremendous losses on both sides

But at the end of the day,

Japan had lost four aircraft carriers,

A cruiser the next day.

The war from that point on was a very different war.

Narrator: Compounding the japanese loss,

A zero crash lands 1800 miles away

On the american island of akutan.

Nearly intact, it becomes an intelligence bonanza,

Unlocking some of the zero's greatest secrets.

American test pilots determined that

While it's light and extremely agile,

The zero doesn't turn well to the right,

It can lose power in a steep dive,

And its controls become harder to handle at high speeds.

With this new intelligence on the zero,

American pilots are now trained to exploit its flaws.

(aircraft falls and explodes)

Grant: The battle of midway is bad news for the zero

Because american aviators have now learned

The tactics to use against the zero

And just as important, they've learned

That they want faster, heavier and highly gunned airplanes.

Narrator: Fortunately, american designers

Have been developing beefy, rugged fighters.

The next generation f6f grumman hellcat

Is heavily armored but as fast as the zero.

(dramatic music)

And a second muscle-bound fighter,

The f4u corsair, is even faster.

Anderegg: The corsair is an absolutely beautiful airplane.

Its strengths were that it was fast,

A huge engine, 2000 horsepower.

Narrator: The corsair is america's

First single-engine fighter to reach speeds

Of over 400 miles per hour at sea level.

Lynch: This is the mighty f4u corsair,

One of the most powerful and lethal

Aircraft of world war ii.

(tense music)

Narrator: Charlie lynch has over 2000 hours

Flying experience in world war ii war birds.

Lynch: It combined great speed with hard-hitting armament,

Good armor protection,

Self-sealing fuel tanks, and good range.

This aircraft was designed to be a zero killer.

The pratt & whitney double wasp r-2800 engine

Was 18 cylinders, two stage supercharger

And produced 2000 horsepower.

In order to harness the tremendous power of this engine,

Hamilton standard propeller, the largest of its time,

Was fitted to the aircraft.

This propellor is over 13 feet in diameter.

In order to have enough clearance for the propellor,

They wound up creating this bent wing design.

This allowed for a shorter landing gear

But maximized the clearance of the propellor

Off the carrier deck.

This was an elegant solution to a very

Complex engineering problem.

(dramatic music)

Narrator: Heavily armored, the corsair

Weighs almost three times more than the zero.

Anderegg: In typical american fashion for design,

The corsair was a big airplane.

There's always that trade-off in fighters;

Light and agile, maybe susceptible to battle damage.

You make it heavier, you'll probably

Take more battle damage and still survive

And come back to fight another day.

(engine roars)

Narrator: The navy has two strong options:

The corsair or the hellcat

And runs them through a series of trials.

The powerful corsair proves to be a handful.

Anderegg: It was a very difficult airplane to land

On a carrier

Because of the extremely long nose.

If we look, we'll see the nose is like

From propellor hub to windscreen is 15 feet.

Narrator: Pilots can't see the carrier deck

Until they're almost on top of it

And the early landing gear is unforgiving.

(dramatic music)

Anderegg: An additional problem the corsair had,

If you landed too hard, you could bounce,

And if you bounced, then your hook

Misses the wire, the cable.

So it was a good design for carriers

But it was not a great design.

Because of the nose and the soft landing gear,

It was a very difficult airplane to land on a deck.

(engine roars)

Narrator: It struggles with carrier landings

But the corsair is just too good a plane

For the navy to abandon.

Anderegg: The perfect airplane for the marine corps

Was the corsair

Because the marine corps in the pacific

Was doing almost all of its flying off of runways,

Off of fixed bases, so they didn't have to

Go on and off the carrier.

Lynch: Flying the f4u corsair is an amazing experience.

You push that throttle up with those

2000 horsepower kicking you in the pants.

(dramatic music)

As you hurtle down that runway,

You begin to appreciate just how powerful this aircraft is.

For young navy pilots, flying this airplane

For the first time must have been

Both exhilarating and truly scary.

(dramatic music)

Narrator: Speed is just one of the corsair's advantages.

It's also a great gun platform.

Lynch: The corsair packed a tremendous offensive punch

By incorporating three 50 caliber

Browning machine guns in each wing.

It absolutely chewed through enemy

Aircraft ships and ground targets.

Narrator: In early 1943, front line marine fighter units

Start flying the corsair.

It seems almost custom built for pilots

Like gregory "pappy" boyington.

Grant: Boyington and the corsair was a perfect match.

Boyington brought a great depth of experience.

He'd flown a lot before world war ii

And then his experience in the flying tigers

Was of great, great value and all that boyington wanted

Was to get hold of a corsair and a squadron

And get into combat.

Anderegg: He was pugnacious, he was hard drinking,

He was profane, he was a brawler,

He was kind of the stereotype of what people

Would think about world war ii

Fighter squadron commanders being

And he was a fantastic combat leader

Because when he flew, he led,

He didn't send other people out to do it.

He went out and did the mission.

Narrator: In the south pacific,

Boyington builds what would become

One of the most famous fighter squadrons

Of the war; the black sheep.

Grant: So the black sheep were pilots who hadn't fit into

Or been assigned to another squadron.

Boyington suggested pulling them together

Into one coherent unit, vmf-214,

And they took the name the black sheep squadron.

Narrator: But it's unclear how this group of misfits

And their heavy, hard-punching fighter will fare

Against the light, nimble zero.

(dramatic music)

September 16th, 1943.

The south pacific.

Marine squadron vmf-214, better known as the black sheep,

Puts its f4u corsairs to the test.

They're flying cover in a mission

To bomb a japanese airbase.

(tense music)

Suddenly, dozens of japanese zeros pounce.

(dramatic music)

Anderegg: Boyington was out in front of the bombers

And a zero flew right by him, right out on front of him

And he said well, thank you very much

And shot him down, so that was the very first kill.

(dramatic music)

After shooting down that first zero,

Boyington makes a hard turn back towards

Where the zeros and the bombers are

And sees he has a tail advantage on a zero in front of him.

What he doesn't realize is how much overtake he has

And when he shoots he actually barely misses

The flaming wreckage of this airplane that he shot down,

By his account within 50 feet.

(dramatic music and explosions)

Narrator: The black sheep and their corsairs

Trade blows with zeros in a chaotic melee.

Anderegg: He spies a zero diving down towards the bombers

And he cuts 'em off, gets on his tail

And when the zero is pulling up towards the bombers,

That allows boyington to close

By pulling lead and it gives him a third kill.

Narrator: Boyington then chases

And shoots down two more zeros.

Anderegg: So by boyington's account, he had five kills,

So that made him a marine ace

And that gave him the ace in a day status.

By the time this fight was over

And boyington returned to base,

He had very little gas, only 10 gallons left,

Which is not much for the engine the size of a corsair

And very little ammunition, 30 rounds of ammunition left,

So that was a long, hard fight

And he took it right to the last minute.

By him doing that, he established himself

As the leader of his squadron, who could go out

And shoot down airplanes with this corsair airplane,

Which is a tremendous confidence builder

And a big boost to all the young,

20 year old pilots in his squadron.

Narrator: Boyington and his corsairs

Have put the japanese on notice.

Instead of dancing with the quick-turning zero,

They'll try to make the fight a heavyweight slug-fest.

Anderegg: So it's not uncommon for pilots, fighter pilots

Who know they're disadvantaged in turning ability,

To use hit and run, or what's sometimes called

Boom and zoom or smash and run tactics,

Where they get above the adversary,

Dive on them, and shoot

If they get the kill, fine, they get the kill

But if they miss or the guy sees them and turns,

Then they zoom and trade that altitude,

That air speed for altitude

And then come back down and try it again.

And what happens now if they get down in here

And they say oh, it's time to go home

Or I don't like this, there's too many guys,

Then they just dive away and it's way too late

For this adversary to reverse and come back and chase them.

So this vertical fight and using altitudes and air speeds

Is exactly what corsairs did in the pacific

Against the much more agile zeros.

Narrator: The zero wasn't built

For this brawling style of fight.

It's so light and fragile, a single burst

From a corsair's guns can tear it apart.

Werneth: The zero was designed specifically

To be a long-range maneuverable fighter.

No armor plate, no self-sealing fuel tanks,

So the goal of the fighter was to win the air battle.

Pilot's survivability, that was secondhand.

(dramatic music)

Narrator: The heavily-armed corsair

Earns the name whistling death,

For the sound it emits in a dive.

And zero pilot iyozo fujita comes to fear the plane.

Werneth: Fujita-san thought the corsair

Was an excellent aircraft.

Japanese navy pilots knew what they were up against;

That it was an awesome, american modern-day fighter.

Narrator: July 4th, 1944.

Fujita is once again stationed on the front lines.

Werneth: During the summer of 1944, fujita-san

Was assigned to be stationed at iwo jima.

There was incoming american air attacks

And during one of these attacks,

He was flying a late model zero.

Narrator: A squadron of corsairs races toward iwo jima,

Thousands of feet above fujita and other zeros.

Werneth: They scrambled and he couldn't even rise

To meet the threat in time because it wasn't quick enough.

(dramatic music)

Narrator: Then a corsair screams toward them

At a blistering speed.

Werneth: And a corsair came out of the clouds

And before he could even do anything,

The corsair scored successful hits on the fusillage

And there was smoke and drive fluid and that was it.

Narrator: Torn apart by the corsair,

Fujita's zero is in a death spiral,

Heading straight for the ground.

(dramatic music)

He fights to regain control of his plane

(dramatic music)

But the american corsair has inflicted

Too much damage on his zero

(dramatic music)

And he crashes onto the island.

(dramatic music)

Werneth: So he ended up having to ditch

And land and that was the end of it.

So the corsair got him pretty easily.

Narrator: Fujita survives but he's now fighting

For a very different military than just three years earlier.

Japan is in full retreat and its commanders begin to panic.

Werneth: Everything went nuts as is

What I heard is the chaotic situation.

So at that time, nobody might've been thinking level-headed.

Narrator: Desperate, fujita's commanders

Call for volunteers on a new and terrifying mission,

Suicide bombers.

(dramatic music)

Named for a legendary storm that saved japan

From invasion almost 700 years earlier,

They are known as the divine wind or kamikaze.

Werneth: The average pilot, they weren't crazy.

They wanted to die for japan, die for their families,

And make a difference.

They knew that they were probably gonna be dying anyway

Because they can see what's going on.

(dramatic music)

Narrator: Zeros, once the premier dogfighters,

Are now relegated to the role of manned bombs.

They have the speed to outrun allied patrol planes

But still thinly armored;

A single hit can send them down in flames.

(dramatic music)

October 25th, 1944.

An enormous american fleet has gathered off the philippines

And the japanese command aims to defeat it,

No matter what the cost.

They let loose the first group of five

Hand-picked kamikazes.

One zero carrying a 550 pound bomb

Smashes into the flight deck of the light carrier st. Lo.

The suicide attack triggers catastrophic fires

And sinks the carrier.

Emboldened, japanese commanders race

To turn as many pilots as possible into kamikazes,

(dramatic music)

Including some in iyozo fujita's squadron.

Werneth: They told him to pick 12 men.

Pick 12 of your men to do these suicide missions.

And he said no, I can't do it, it's a waste of men.

What are 12 men gonna do against 400 landing craft?

It's gonna do nothing, it's just gonna waste their lives.

So he refused to do it.

But in the end, his superiors picked those men anyway

And tearfully, fujita-san retold

How he had to still say goodbye and wave them off,

Knowing that they wouldn't come back.

Narrator: In the philippines, kamikaze missions

Start as small, scattered attacks.

(dramatic music)

But as the allies approach okinawa,

The japanese furor grows.

They assemble hundreds of kamikazes.

Knowing they'll have a desperate fight,

The american navy readies the fastest planes in its arsenal.

Anderegg: The corsair was very well suited for this job

Because of its speed.

It could actually run down these kamikaze airplanes.

Narrator: For two years, corsairs had been land-based,

Unable to pass carrier tests.

But the navy values the plane's speed and power,

So keeps trying.

Pilots are trained to look around the plane's long nose

By approaching the carrier deck from an angle

And to stop the corsair from bouncing

Over the arresting wires,

Engineers rework the landing gear.

At the end of 1944, corsairs had been cleared

To fly off carriers and are ready to take on the kamikazes.

April 16th, 1945.

The uss intrepid is home to corsair unit vh10

And division leader philip kirkwood.

The new jersey native just turned 23

The day before and he's ready for action.

Vf10 and kirkwood's mission, stop any incoming kamikazes.

(dramatic music)

North of okinawa, kirkwood spots three

Enemy planes heading toward a destroyer.

Few experienced japanese pilots have survived

Four years of brutal air combat.

By 1945, most are new, young and practically untrained.

Anderegg: When vf10 encountered many kamikaze aircraft

North of the fleet, they immediately attacked

And the kamikaze tactic was just to go as fast as you could

And go straight ahead and the kamikaze pilots

Were not trained dogfighters.

I mean, they weren't even trained to land the airplane.

Narrator: Kirkwood takes out one

And his wingmen down the other two.

For the rest of the day, they chase down kamikazes

That swarm around the outer defenses of the american fleet.

For kirkwood, it's a race with the japanese pilots

More than a dogfight.

Werneth: The skill level of the pilots at that time

Was very poor.

I believe some could barely fly, towards the end of the war.

Narrator: Diving through his own ship's

Anti-aircraft fire, kirkwood takes down two more kamikazes

And chases away many others.

At the end of the day, he's shot down six kamikazes

And his group, vf10, claims more than 30 kills.

Grant: American pilots, by the end of the war,

Had combined ingenuity, smarts and tactics

And now it was the american pilots who were

Experienced and the masters of the air.

Narrator: But vf10's own carrier,

The intrepid, is hit by a kamikaze

And will need to return to port for repairs.

(sirens blare and things explode)

By the end of the battle of okinawa,

Japanese kamikazes sink 30 allied ships,

But at a huge cost.

They lose 1500 planes and pilots.

Okinawa is a grim harbinger of what lies ahead

For the remaining zero pilots.

Werneth: Towards the end of the war, japan was conserving

As many airplanes and boats and everything,

To do massive suicide attacks against american landings.

If an invasion takes place, we're gonna cause

As much damage as we can of these invaders

Coming into our homeland.

Narrator: But the invasion never comes.

September 2nd, 1945.

After american atomic bombs destroy the cities

Of hiroshima and nagasaki, japan officially surrenders.

(tense music)

The second world war is over but the corsair

Fights on for decades longer.

Grant: The corsair, with modifications,

Was eventually used from carrier decks.

And it proved its value by continuing

In combat through korea.

It was really the only one of the world war ii fighters

That had an almost equally prominent role in the korean war

As it had had in world war ii.

With new armaments like its rockets,

The corsair was able to be an effective support

And close air support platform in korea,

Just as it had been in world war ii.

Narrator: 25 years after world war ii,

These war horses continued to fight

In central american battles.

In 1969, honduran corsair pilot, fernando soto,

Shoots down two salvadorean corsairs and a mustang.

It was the last piston engine air-to-air combat of all time.

(dramatic music)

A very different fate awaited the zero.

In 1941, the zero seemed unstoppable.

Then just four short years later,

The plane that once struck fear in allied hearts

Is only valued for its metal and parts.

By 1946, most zeros are turned to scrap.

Of the 11,000 produced by japan,

Only five zeros are airworthy today,

Living reminders of the agile plane

That once blazed its way across the pacific.

(dramatic music)