Original subtitles

\h\hNARRATOR: In 1943 America launches a bold new strategy...

... that promises victory...

... but delivers the unexpected.

\h\h\hCPL. ROUSH: There was no battle before, no battle since,

like Tarawa.

NARRATOR: Ferocious conflicts will shape the course of the war

sparking new innovations

and breaking new barriers.

With color combat footage...

\h\h\h... and rare film from behind-the-lines...

\hhear the voices... and feel the fight.

\h\hCOL. DONOVAN: It looked like you’re headed for hell.

Because you were.

[♪ theme music ♪]

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: November 1943.

A full-scale invasion force \hcuts through the open sea.

One hundred ships. 35,000 men.

\h\hThey’re the tip of the spear in America’s

first large-scale amphibious assault of the Pacific War.

Confidence rides high.

\h\h\h\h\hThe size of the fleet dwarfs the target --

Tarawa, a whisper-thin atoll

\h\h\hwith an airfield tucked in the corner.

This island is half the size of New York’s Central Park.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hThe commanding officers lay out their prize.

\hThe airbase is one of Japan’s most important,

and the Americans must secure it to advance in the Pacific.

\hAll have been trained... but few have been tested.

\hMarine combat cameraman Norm Hatch is among them.

\h\h\h\h\hHe’s carrying three cameras and 5,000 feet of film.

He’s confident about the battle.

SGT. HATCH: We packed shovels along with us, but we figured

we didn’t have to dig any foxholes, only Jap graves.

NARRATOR: Hatch films the long days leading up to the invasion.

Marines assemble ammunition...

\h\h\h\h... test-fire weapons into the sea.

[gunfire]

Exercise relieves the tension.

On the eve of the invasion,

\h\hFather Frank Kelly helps calm the nerves.

He’s a familiar face to those who fought on Guadalcanal.

\h\hBut for the rest, it’s their first taste of war.

\h\h\h\hIt will be an unforgettable baptism.

♪ ♪

\h\hBefore dawn, the Marines pour into the landing craft.

As daylight breaks, the ships open fire above their heads

to soften defenses.

\h\h\h\hThey pound the tiny island for four solid hours.

\h\h\hJohnnie Singleton recalls the destruction:

JOHNNIE: We thought that after all our bombarding and attacking

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthere would be nothing left on the island.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: Then, Navy planes take over.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hIn all, Americans rip into Tarawa

\h\h\h\hwith over four million tons of steel.

\h\h\h\h\hPTE. PASE: The Navy promised that they would have

all the Japs killed by the time we got there.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hSo we really weren’t all that worried.

\h\hNARRATOR: The plan is to land the Marines

on the island’s northern beaches

and move towards the key target -- the airstrip at the center.

\h\h\hSheltered in the landing craft, the men are confident.

They’re using amphibious tractors called Amtraks

for the first time.

\hAmericans hope they can plow through the Japanese defenses.

\h\h\hAs troops approach, the Navy ships silence their guns.

The island looks lifeless.

[radio static]

\h\h\h\hSuddenly, incoming fire grazes the invaders.

\h\hMarines feel relatively safe huddled in their boats.

But the pounding intensifies.

[cannon fire]

\h\h\hThen, unexpectedly, the boats grind to a halt.

SGT. BROWN: They anticipated the tide was going to be in.

It didn’t turn out that way.

\h\h\hThe boats ran into a reef about 500 yards out.

\h\h\hSGT. HATCH: The Japs began to get in our range

and the range of the Amtraks.

\h\h\hSGT. ARTHUR: The water was a real low.

We were just sitting out there being slaughtered.

\h\h\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: Naval planners misjudged the tide.

\h\hThey expect five feet of water over the reef --

but there’s only three.

The Amtraks are stranded.

[artillery fire]

Machine-gun fire intensifies \h\h\hand mortars rain down.

The men are sitting ducks.

\h\h\h\h\hThey have one choice: abandon ship --

or be blown out of the water.

\h\h\h\hNorm Hatch is watching the invasion

unravel right in front of him.

\h\h\h\h\h\hSGT. HATCH: Everybody had to go over

with 80 pounds of gear and drop in the water.

\h\h\h\hThe Marines are forced to wade 700 yards

under Japanese mortar and machine-gun fire.

\h\h\hThey are being mowed down in rows.

PTE. PASE: We could see the machine gun bullets

\h\h\h\h\hhitting the water like raindrops.

We’d see a man disappear.

\h\h\hThen, another man would disappear.

\h\hNARRATOR: Hatch carries his hand-cranked 35mm camera

\h\h\hand wades in right beside machine gunners.

\h\hThey fight their way onto the crowded beach.

Men are pinned down in waves.

\h\hSGT. PERRY: We ran into a hornet’s nest.

CPL. ROUSH: It was brutal... \h\h\hup front and personal.

Eyeball to eyeball.

\h\hNARRATOR: Some units have already lost half of their men.

What began as a smooth operation is quickly going awry.

\h\h\h\h\h\hJapanese footage reveals the unnerving truth.

\h\hTarawa is a heavily defended killing field,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hwith 5,000 soldiers ready to fight.

\h\hHundreds of pillboxes, gun nests, minefields, and bunkers

\h\h\hdot the island -- all surrounded by a huge seawall

made of coral and coconut logs.

\h\h\h\hThe Marines that have finally made it onto the beach

\h\h\h\h\hare now trapped against the massive wall.

\h\h\h\h\h\hThe Amtraks were supposed to help the Marines

breach these defenses.

\hBut many remain stuck on the reef hundreds of yards offshore.

\h\hThose that make the beach are often too shot up to work.

\hThe few that do work are unable to clear the wall.

\h\h\h\hPTE. HARRISON: We were using old alligator tractors,

the first ones built.

They were like a big tin can...

My tractor reared up on the sea wall, and most men fell out.

[cannon fire]

\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: The Navy opens fire again,

\h\hhoping to cover the incoming troops.

\h\h\h\h\hBut things are going from bad to worse.

\h\h\h\h\h\hMarines can no longer coordinate attacks.

\h\h\h\hPHM. OBERMILLER: A lot of things went wrong.

\h\h\hThe radios got salt water in them,

\h\h\h\hso we didn’t have communications.

♪ ♪

\h\hNARRATOR: Just a few hours into the invasion,

\h\h\h\h\h\hhundreds of bodies cover the beach.

Tanks can’t even get around them.

\h\hAmericans thought they were prepared for Tarawa.

How did it come to this?

\h\h\hBefore Tarawa, the Allies had begun

\h\h\h\hto roll back the Japanese in the Pacific.

In June and July 1943

\hAmericans invade the remote Aleutian Islands near Alaska.

\h\hIn a few short weeks they reclaim these barren cold lands

\h\h\h\hfrom Japan and regain control of the North Pacific.

\hIn the far flung islands of the Southwest Pacific,

\hGeneral MacArthur is inching forward,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\htargeting strongholds through New Guinea,

New Britain,

and the Solomons.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hFrom here, MacArthur envisions a path

to liberate the Philippines

\h\h\hand eventually invade Japan itself.

But Admiral Nimitz proposes \hanother route to Japan --

\hfar bolder and demanding an entirely new form of warfare:

island-hopping.

\h\h\h\h\hNortheast of MacArthur’s theater --

\h\h\h\h\h\hstarting with Tarawa in the Gilberts --

\h\h\h\htiny islands become stepping stones to leap-frog

through the open waters of the Central Pacific -- to Japan.

\h\h\h\hLed by Nimitz, the troops set off for Tarawa,

\h\hconfident they have enough men and machines

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hto easily overrun the tiny atoll.

\h\hBut what should have been a cakewalk

\h\h\his turning into the bloodiest American landing

of the Pacific War.

[artillery fire]

NARRATOR: While troops on Tarawa experience hell on earth,

a smaller unit is sent to invade

the neighboring island of Makin.

\h\h\h\h\hLucky for them it’s a different world.

\hThe Americans outnumber the defenders two to one,

\h\h\h\hand the Japanese have few heavy weapons.

\h\hThey quickly secure a large chunk of the island,

\h\hmeeting occasional pockets of resistance.

\h\h\hBut back on Tarawa it’s a different story.

For those who have survived this far, luck may be running out.

They can’t move.

\h\hThey are pinned down by enemy fire,

and the reinforcements \h\hare having trouble

making it to the landing zones.

\hDuring the night the Japanese have swum out

\hto wrecked amphibians and set up machine guns.

\h\h\h\hNow Americans turn their guns back out to sea

\hto pick off their own hijacked landing craft.

\h\h\h\hOn the beach, the Japanese continue to hurl

\h\hmassive firepower from dug-in defenses.

CPL. ROUSH: The Japanese were mostly underground all the time.

\h\h\h\hThen you’d go by, and they’d come out and fire at you

as you were passing by.

You can’t imagine it...

It was unrealistic.

NARRATOR: So far 1,500 Americans are dead, missing or wounded.

\h\h\h\hCPL. ROUSH: The medics were overwhelmed.

\h\hThere were so many guys that were in such bad shape

that many of them were marked dead and they were still alive.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: Fresh Marine reinforcements

finally begin to arrive.

\h\h\hThey have a tiny toe-hold on the island

\h\hand command pockets of the northern beaches.

\h\h\hAs the day winds on they link up scattered Marine units,

\h\h\htake the airfield in the center of the island,

and try to push across Tarawa.

♪ ♪

\hThe Marines call in Sherman tanks to help,

\h\h\hthe first to see action in the Pacific.

\h\h\hBut visibility from inside is poor.

The relatively light 37mm guns

\h\hare powerless against the strong Japanese fortifications.

\hAnd tank radios have different frequencies

than infantry radios.

The Shermans are worthless.

\h\hOf the 14 used in the battle, only two survive.

By the end of D+1,

\h\hMarines have split the island’s defenses in half.

They’ve crossed the airstrip

and occupy abandoned defensive works on the south side.

CPL. ROUSH: We just charged \h\hright across the island,

shooting anything,

trying to blow up every bunker that we went by.

\h\hNARRATOR: But capturing Tarawa will take a lot more

than just running over it.

SGT. HATCH: This wasn’t going to be any 24-hour operation.

\h\hThere were plenty of Japs on the island,

\h\h\h\h\hand they had decided to die there.

♪ ♪

\h\h\hNARRATOR: The Marines still face an awesome task:

\h\h\hThey must advance east across the island,

\h\hremoving each pillbox and foxhole along the way.

It’s a dirty and dangerous job.

Marines use hand grenades and fire to blast out the enemy.

\hCAPT. KERR: They would use flamethrowers and shoot them

\h\h\h\h\h\hin through the openings into the bunker.

\h\hThe flames really didn’t burn people up.

\hGuys would either suffocate or run out

\h\h\h\h\hbecause you had sucked up all the oxygen.

[artillery fire]

\h\hNARRATOR: The battles are ferocious and intense.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hRarely do Americans see their enemy.

\h\h\h\h\h\hBut Norm Hatch captures one epic moment.

\h\hSGT. HATCH: I heard one of the Marines yell,

\h"Here come the Japs," so I just swiveled my body...

That’s the only time to the best of my knowledge in the

\hPacific War that the enemy is in the same frame as us.

NARRATOR: As D+2 grinds on,

\hthe Marines mop up remaining Japanese positions, one by one.

The island looks blown to bits.

It’s like advancing through a wasteland.

Snipers are everywhere.

They tie themselves in the trees

and take potshots at the Americans.

[sounds of combat]

\h\hThe battle for Tarawa is now a war of extermination.

\hThe men on land are not the only victims.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hA Japanese submarine scores a direct hit

.

\hShe sinks in 23 minutes, and loses 687 of her men.

Truman Gill sees the tragedy

.

\h\h\hCPL. GILL: I jumped up and saw an aircraft carrier

\hthat had been hit by a big torpedo...

all the ammunition exploded.

The men were instantly killed...

\h\h\hNARRATOR: This strike will count as more than 30%

of the total loss of American life during the Battle.

[artillery fire]

\h\h\hA few hours later Allied ships and planes

\hunload another massive barrage onto the island.

It appears to pay off.

\h\hOnly a few pockets of resistance remain.

But those pockets are fierce.

Here, Marines use a flamethrower

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hagainst a stubborn enemy stronghold.

\h\hNorm Hatch keeps his camera rolling.

[artillery fire]

\h\h\hSGT. HATCH: There wasn’t any end. You just walked away.

\h\h\h\h\hThere wasn’t anybody left to fight.

\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: After three days of fighting,

\h\h\h\hAmericans finally declare the island secure.

♪ ♪

\h\h\hThe Japanese have fought to the last man.

\h\h\h\h\h\hOf their 5,000 soldiers, only 17 survive.

Americans take few prisoners; most are Korean laborers.

\hTo guard against concealed weapons,

they cut away their clothes.

Japan once boasted it would take a million men a hundred years

to take Tarawa.

America proved otherwise. \hBut at a shocking cost.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: President Roosevelt grants permission

\h\h\hto release images of the battle to the public.

\hFILM NARRATOR: Each hour is getting close.

\h\h\hFor three days before we moved in,

\h\h\hover 4 million pounds of explosives

\hhave been dropped down on the island.

It didn’t seem possible

\h\hthat anyone could live through that bombardment.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: The film shows Americans

\hthe true ravages of the war -- uncensored.

\h\h\h\hFILM NARRATOR: These are Marine dead.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: The nation is shocked.

\h\hA tropical island has become a putrid graveyard.

\h\h\hThousands of bodies lie decaying in the scorching heat.

\h\h\h\hIt takes three days of hard fighting,

\hover 1,000 dead and 2,000 wounded,

\h\h\hto capture an island of less than three square miles.

\hFILM NARRATOR: This is the price we have to pay

for a war we didn’t want.

\hAnd before it’s over there’ll be more dead

on other battlefields.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: The film wins an Oscar.

Tarawa leaves the public shaken, and the military under fire.

The newly secured airfields \h\h\hprove highly valuable,

but the cost was too great.

\h\h\h\hIsland hopping has failed its first big test.

\h\hFor war planners, it’s back to the drawing board.

\h\h\h\hThey redesign the plan, from top to bottom.

[artillery fire]

Troops train under live fire,

\hlearn how to use upgraded weapons,

\h\h\h\h\hand experiment with new landing craft.

\h\h\hThe failures of Tarawa also spark a new concept --

Underwater Demolition Teams,

\h\h\ha precursor to the U.S. Navy SEALS.

\h\h\h\h180 men join the first training program.

\h\h\hThey practice underwater reconnaissance and demolition

\hto clear the path for future assaults.

\h\h\hOther ideas push America to think big.

\h\hThe new Essex-class carrier joins the force.

It is faster, larger,

\h\hand carries almost 100 fighter planes --

\h\henough to support a distant island invasion.

Equipped with better radar,

\hit can detect enemy planes farther away --

giving it more confidence \h\hin the wide open seas.

SN. JONES: Finally it could go deeper in enemy territory

than any other carrier had been

\h\h\hsince the Japanese had struck Pearl Harbor.

NARRATOR: Another type of carrier --

the Independence class --

also enters the scene.

[artillery fire]

\h\hIt’s actually a converted cruiser --

\h\h\h\h\hsmaller, but faster than the Essex.

\h\hThey operate in groups to concentrate firepower.

Nimitz and the Allies are hoping these new flat-tops

\h\h\h\hwill be the key to island-hopping’s success.

\h\hBoth the Essex and Independence carriers

\h\h\h\h\hwill launch a new airplane -- The F6F Hellcat.

They are specially modified to deal with their prime adversary

-- the Japanese Zero.

It’s 30 miles per hour faster,

\hwith better armor and more firepower.

But improvements don’t stop here.

\h\h\h\h\hAfter their testy start at Tarawa,

\hAmericans completely overhaul the Amtraks.

\h\h\h\h\hSporting a new design, they’re faster.

More protected.

And deadlier.

Some have howitzer rockets to blast Japanese fortifications.

They’ll be stronger, but harder to drive.

SGT. GRAY: They started putting armor plating on our tractors.

They would just cut a little \hslot for you to look out.

\h\h\hYou couldn’t see much, only straight ahead of you.

\hNARRATOR: Sherman tanks -- another Tarawa flop --

also get an overhaul.

\h\h\hThey have better radios, and a telephone on the outside

\h\h\h\hso infantry can talk to the crew inside.

\h\h\h\h\hThey have more armor, and bigger guns.

\h\hAnd some have a totally new weapon.

Fire.

Americans wonder if flamethrowers

can destroy what traditional \h\h\h\hfirepower could not.

[artillery fire]

With this new machinery,

the US hopes to finally flex its muscle over the Pacific.

\hBut it’s all in the hands of boys.

Guys barely out of high school

\h\htrain for a life they never expected.

\h\hDoug Aitken recalls the rough waters off California:

ENS. AITKEN: We went for a few weeks up and down the coast --

for training.

I think it was better known as,

\h\h"Get rid of your seasickness, guys."

I was sick as a dog wondering

\hwhy in the world did I ever join the Navy.

NARRATOR: Each landing team learns the ropes,

net climbing and disembarking.

\hThey receive a week of amphibious training

\hand rehearse with simulated naval gunfire and air support.

\hPTE. BAYE: We did some training with Amtraks...

That was a scary thing.

Here you are going off the end of an LST ramp

and the nose diving down into the water,

\h\h\hyou’re wondering how much water can we take on

before we’d start sinking...

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: The troops practice hand to hand combat,

\hjungle attacks, and fire their weapons --

all with live ammunition.

\h\h\h\h\hSGT. MUMME: You’d be surprised the people in there

that got hurt in basic training.

They didn’t give a damn.

"Hell, we’re at war. Shape up."

That’s how they put us in shape.

\h\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: After a final briefing, they load up

\h\h\h\hfor a 2,000-mile trip across the Pacific.

\hFor most, it’s the farthest they’ve ever been from home --

on the way to their first war.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hST. BRUNTON: The commander inherited a bunch of

green, untested, untried, \huntrained people like me

into operating his ship.

I was just a kid when I went in.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hI had never been anyplace, hadn’t done anything.

\h\h\hSGT. PERRY: It was easy for us country boys

\hbecause we were used to hard work.

But some of the city boys,

\hyou would hear them crying in their bunks.

NARRATOR: It’s a 10-day voyage.

Soldiers pass the time getting briefed on their targets...

getting to know each other...

and preparing for a time-tested ritual of naval bonding --

hazing.

When a ship crosses the equator,

\h\hnew troops endure the Neptune Ceremony.

\h\h\h\hThis transforms a new recruit into a trusty sailor.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hIn Navy slang, a Polliwog becomes a Shellback.

♪ ♪

\hNaval officer John Herchak -- dressed as a chaplain --

USS Knox

and films the folly with his own camera.

There is often a beauty contest,

and each department must present

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hat least one contestant in swimsuit drag.

\h\h\h\hPresiding over the ceremony is King Neptune,

ruler of the high seas.

MM. EARP: They shave you, they make you go up to King Neptune,

and he’s got this great big dong and you have to go kiss it.

\h\h\h\h... They cut your hair and paint it yellow.

\h\h\hSN. RIPPER: Damn, the things those guys did to us.

It was unbelievable.

We were black and blue,

\h\h\h\hand I was sure glad when that day was over with.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: For now it’s all fun and games,

despite the painful hazing.

But as they steam directly into war,

\hreal pain is just beyond the horizon.

\h\hNEWSREEL: In the shadow of the pyramids near Cairo, Egypt,

\hin the heart of the Muslim world,

\hthe leaders of China, Great Britain and the United States

\hmeet face to face for the first time.

\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: At the Cairo Conference in November of 1943,

the three heads of state

\h\h\h\h\hagree to the overall plan for the defeat of Japan.

America will maintain

\h\h\h\h\h\h\ha two-pronged approach across the Pacific.

\h\h\h\h\hMacArthur will advance from New Guinea,

\h\h\h\hisolating Japanese strongholds in the South.

Nimitz will keep island-hopping up the Central Pacific.

\h\hAfter the capture of Tarawa in the Gilberts,

\h\h\h\hthe next step is the low-lying Marshall Islands.

The first stop -- Kwajalein.

\h\h\hAmerica steams west with new tools, and a new strategy.

\hThe key commanders who fought on Tarawa

\h\h\hhave absorbed their lessons well.

They now know amphibious warfare requires more of everything:

more shelling, more landing craft, and more air support.

\h\h\h\h\h\hIn late November, airplanes launched from Tarawa

\hbegin to zero in on the Marshalls.

[aircraft and artillery sounds]

\hAmerican bombers drop more than 111 tons of explosives.

Here, a fighter locks onto a prime target --

a Japanese airfield.

The onslaught continues for two months, knocking

virtually every Japanese plane out of commission.

\h\h\h\h\hBut Japanese film reveals the hidden truth --

\h28,000 ground troops await the Americans --

23,000 more than Tarawa.

♪ ♪

Long and crescent-shaped,

\hKwajalein is the largest coral atoll in the world.

\h\hThe targets are the main island of Kwajalein

at the southern tip

\h\h\hand the island of Roi-Namur the next day.

Since they’re 40 miles apart,

\h\hthe assault requires two separate campaigns.

\h\hThe plan -- hit Kwajalein on Day 1.

\h\h\h\h\h\hThen attack Roi-Namur the next day.

\h\h\h\h\hAs they approach Kwajalein on February 1st,

the enemy is nowhere in sight, and the bomb damage is surreal.

CMD. KIMMINS: I have never seen such a shambles in my life.

\hThe beach was a mass of highly colored fish

\h\hthat had been thrown up there by nearby explosions.

NARRATOR: One soldier confesses,

\h"The entire island looked as if it had been picked up

20,000 feet and then dropped."

\h\h\h\h\hAs Americans sneak up to Kwajalein,

\h\hthere is barely a whimper of crossfire.

\h\h\h\h\hThe Japanese are defending the ocean side,

\h\hbelieving the reef side is too shallow for landing craft.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hBut the new Amtraks make it possible.

\hThe Japanese are caught defending the wrong beach.

\hThe landings go off with the precision of a drill.

\h\h\hThey clear the island in four days.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hOn Roi-Namur, Japanese are also overwhelmed.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hOf 3,500 defenders, only 51 survive.

\hThe islands are secured in a day.

\h\h\h\hAmerica sweeps aside the embarrassment of Tarawa

with a glowing victory.

\h\hHeavy machinery will pave America’s new stepping stone

in the Pacific.

The men celebrate their triumph.

\h\h\hA dip in the surf helps clean off the Kwajalein dirt.

\hAdmiral Nimitz himself comes to inspect the island in person

\h\hand congratulate the troops on their success.

But they might be even more impressed by who comes next.

Now that the island is secure,

America deems it safe for nurses.

Women in the Pacific

\h\h\h\h\h\h\haren’t allowed anywhere near combat areas.

Little more than a year ago,

\h\h\h\h77 nurses were taken prisoner in the Philippines.

\hSo on Kwajalein, nurses are under a tight watch --

\hfenced-in quarters, strict curfews, and armed escorts.

MARGARET: Conditions were very primitive.

\h\h\hThere were 24 nurses and millions of mosquitoes

all living in one tent.

\h\h\h\h\hKATHRYN: We worked seven to seven,

and we rotated for night duty.

We didn’t get a day off.

NARRATOR: They work hard...

\h\h\h\hand make the most of whatever downtime they have

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hin their temporary tropical home.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\h\h\hSo far 60,000 nurses serve far and wide

on America’s war fronts.

\h\h\h\h\hBut women are doing more than nursing.

\hEvery service branch is making room for new roles.

\hSome jobs are familiar, but others are brand new.

♪ ♪

By now, close to half a million women are working in factories.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hThey’re building bombs, weapons, and aircraft.

\h\hThe Willow Run Ford factory outside Detroit

saw few women before the war.

Now thousands of them are building the B-24 bomber.

\h\h\h\h\hThey pick up where the men left off

\h\h\hand stay on pace to build one bomber an hour.

They operate cranes, assemble parts and install wiring.

\h\h\h\h\hWomen prove they can build airplanes from scratch.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hBut who will deliver them to the army?

When a shortage of pilots hits the Army air force in 1943...

the WASPS are born. Women Air Force Service Pilots.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hLed by top aviator Jackie Cochran,

WASPS are trained at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas,

\h\h\hmaking it the first coed military flying field

in US history.

LORRAINE: We went through the same training as the men did,

ground school in the morning.

And flying in the afternoon, primary, basic, advanced...

\hnight flying and instrument flying.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: But wartime films reveal

\h\h\h\h\h\hthey can’t quite escape the old stereotypes.

\h\hFILM NARRATOR: Though each girl is a pilot when she comes,

\h\h\h\h\h\hshe must adjust herself to a new technique,

and hairdos are sacrificed.

\h\h\hTime out for the daily sunbaths, storing up energy

\h\h\h\h\hagainst the grueling training of minds and bodies,

\h\h\h\h\hwhile the tremendous responsibilities that lie ahead.

Six American beauties.

\h\hTwelve, for there’s a pilot and copilot in each.

NARRATOR: The news spreads fast and the rumors start flying.

\h\hDuring the first week at Sweetwater,

more than 100 male pilots

make unnecessary forced landings

just to have a look at the young women.

\h\h\h\hSoon the place is barred from all outsiders

and becomes known as "Cochran’s convent."

\hNearly 1,100 women earn their wings --

\h\h\hthe first women to fly American military aircraft.

They take test flights,

\h\h\hferry planes from factories to air bases,

and fly simulated strafing missions.

\h\h\h\hWomen log more than 60 million miles

flying every type of airplane.

Many will end up in the skies over the Pacific.

\h\h\h\h\h\hBETTY: I flew 43 different types of aircraft.

There were a lot of men who didn’t think

\h\hwomen could fly military planes, but we showed them.

♪ ♪

\hNARRATOR: World War II is everybody’s war.

But only a few have the power to decide

where the war will go next.

For Admiral Nimitz,

\h\h\h\h\hit’s been a steep learning curve.

Tarawa was a debacle, but the lessons applied at Kwajalein

were a stunning success.

Now Nimitz wants to press on

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hwith his island-hopping campaign.

But General MacArthur still isn’t convinced.

\h\h\h\hGEN. MACARTHUR: Island hopping with extravagant losses

and slow progress is not my idea

of how to end the war as soon and as cheaply as possible.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: Instead MacArthur wants to keep

the pressure on in the South Pacific.

\hDubbed "Operation Cartwheel," his plan

\his to gain footing on the New Guinea coast...

\hmove up the ladder of the Solomons to Bougainville...

and isolate Rabaul,

\h\h\h\h\h\hthe strongest Japanese base in the area.

\hJapanese footage reveals Rabaul’s awesome defenses.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\h\hKnown as the "Pearl Harbor of the South Pacific,"

\h\hit houses five airfields, hundreds of anti-aircraft guns,

and more than 100,000 troops.

\hHere the Japanese have built a mighty fortress,

and they won’t back down easily.

\h\h\hBut American planes buzz overhead, undeterred.

The Japanese brace themselves.

\h\h\h\hBy the winter of 1943, MacArthur has his sights set on

the large island of Bougainville in the northern Solomons.

\hFrom there he can easily strike Rabaul

\h\hand silence Japan’s air power in the region.

A force of 14,000

\h\h\h\h\h\hsets out to attack Bougainville on November 1st.

\h\hThe Japanese call in their heavy cruisers and destroyers

from Rabaul.

The US Navy is shorthanded.

Many ships are tied up

\h\hwith island-hopping in the Central Pacific.

\h\h\h\hIn a desperate move, they put the new generation

of Essex and Independence \h\hcarriers to the test.

Bombers join the mission.

\h\h\h\h\h\hThey eliminate their targets one by one,

damaging ships and two-thirds of the Japanese planes.

\hAmerica’s first big attack from a carrier

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hsucceeds in crippling Japan’s air power.

\h\hBougainville finally falls into Allied hands.

\h\h\hBut Americans won’t stop until they neutralize Rabaul.

\h\h\h\h\hThe raids and the strafing missions continue.

Many of these are staged from a handful of small airbases

\h\h\h\h\h\hcarved out of the mountainous New Guinea jungle.

This one belongs to the 345th Bombardment group,

\h\hotherwise known as the Air Apaches.

\h\h\hThese are Captain John Hanna’s home movies

\h\h\hwhich have never been broadcast before.

He captures camp life --

\h\h\htime-killing rituals like chess and horseshoes.

\hIt’s how many of them relax before a mission.

And a big one is coming.

The 345th aims for Kavieng,

\h\ha key link in the Japanese supply chain

that runs all the way out to Rabaul.

\h\h\h\h\h\hAmericans will aim squarely for the supply dumps

in a risky low-level attack.

\h\h\h\hThere were once plans to invade Kavieng,

\h\h\h\hbut MacArthur is saving his ground forces

\h\h\h\h\h\hfor an eventual invasion of the Philippines.

\h\hThe Allies will try to neutralize it

with air power alone.

Captain Hanna films the action himself.

\h\hBullets fly from nose guns with telltale sparks.

\hBursts of anti-aircraft fire litter the sky above the harbor.

\h\h\h\hThey aim for Japanese planes, fuel, and cargo ships.

\h\h\h\h\hFlying in formation through the smoke is chaotic.

\h\hOne plane almost drops its bombs on another one below it.

\hOn the way out, they spot a listing Japanese freighter

and try to finish it off.

\h\h\h\h\hIn this daring raid, Americans cripple

\h\ha linchpin of the Japanese supply chain.

These low-lying raids

\h\hsucceed in putting a stranglehold on Rabaul.

\h\h\h\hThe Japanese supply chain is eventually severed,

\h\h\h\hand 100,000 Japanese troops on Rabaul are stuck,

left to wither on the vine.

\hGeneral MacArthur is finally moving closer to his target --

the Philippines.

\h\h\hHe continues his advance along the coast of New Guinea.

\h\h\h\h\hMeanwhile, the island-hopping campaign

continues in the Central Pacific.

\hAfter his victory at Kwajalein, Nimitz

eyes the harbor and airstrip \hon the atoll of Eniwetok.

But it’s protected -- by Truk,

\h\h\hone of Japan’s strongest remaining bases in the pacific.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hWith four airstrips and 400 planes,

\h\h\h\h\hTruk could make the Eniwetok invasion a nightmare.

\h\hTwo days before landing on Eniwetok,

\h\h\h\h\h\h300 fighter planes launch off the Essex carriers.

♪ ♪

\h\hTracers flying, they take dead aim on Truk’s airfields.

\h\h\hThirty separate strikes deliver unrelenting pressure.

Each one is more powerful

\h\h\hthan the Japanese strike at Pearl Harbor.

\h\h\h\hAmericans take out 250 planes and forty naval ships.

♪ ♪

Truk is silenced.

\h\hNever again will Japan use it as a major operating base.

\h\h\hThe skies are cleared for an assault on Eniwetok.

♪ ♪

More than 10,000 men approach the target.

For two days American ships blast the island

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hwhile the invasion force waits --

and hopes the enemy is buckling.

\h\h\hOn the beach, resistance is light.

There are only a few thousand defenders on the island.

But it won’t be a picnic.

[gunfire]

\h\hJapan also took lessons from Tarawa.

\h\h\h\h\hHere they built pillboxes just as strong,

\h\h\hbut now they’re connected underground.

[gunfire]

\h\h\h\hTroops caught in these spiderweb networks

are shot at from all sides

as the Japanese rapidly shift from one foxhole to another.

Progress is slow.

\h\hIt takes four days for the Americans to clean up Eniwetok.

♪ ♪

262 soldiers lie dead -- while Japan loses more than 2,000.

It’s another victory for Nimitz.

The Marshall Islands are finally in Allied hands.

The Japanese are stung, but not stagnant. They will respond.

With the capture of the Marshalls

10 weeks ahead of schedule,

\h\hAmericans ratchet up their entire effort in the Pacific.

\h\h\hThey build more naval bases, more fortifications,

and more airfields.

\hThey make bold plans to move more quickly.

\h\h\h\hAmericans proved that a frontal invasion

from the water onto a fortified beachhead is possible.

\hAmphibious assaults are now coming of age.

\hIsland hopping will soon become synonymous

with the Pacific War.

\h\h\hBut the next step is far bigger, a lot farther,

\h\h\h\hand will be a test unlike any other.