Original subtitles

NARRATOR: In late 1944,

\h\h\h\h\hthe Pacific War is building to a brutal climax.

\hOne island swallows an entire Marine regiment.

\hPVT SLEDGE: We were in a death trap on Peleliu.

\h\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: Another becomes a beacon of bravery.

\h\h\hPVT MENDEZ: Iwo Jima was 36 days of pure hell.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: Japan fights with ferocity.

America fights with fire --

\h\h\h\higniting the war’s deadliest day.

MG LEMAY: It was as though Tokyo

\h\hhad dropped through the floor of the world.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: With rare home movies ...

and front line stories ...

hear the voices ... and feel the fight.

PVT SLEDGE: My heart pounded as we churned toward that inferno.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

PVT SLEDGE: I became part of a proud, high-spirited,

elite outfit.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: Twenty-year-old Eugene Sledge

is just joining the 1st Marines

\h\has they train in the Pacific in 1944.

\hThe division was gutted in battles

\h\hfor Guadalcanal and Cape Gloucester.

\h\h\h\h\hThey are full of replacements like Sledge.

\h\h\h\h\h\hEighty-five percent are not yet 21.

PVT SLEDGE: The veterans taught the replacements

\h\hall the ins and outs of combat with a ruthless foe.

\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: They’re on a tropical South Pacific island

\h\hcalled Pavuvu. It sounds like paradise.

\h\h\hThe 1st Marines think it’s a hellhole.

\hPVT SLEDGE: We led a Spartan existence.

\h\hWarmed-over C-rations and stale coffee passed for chow.

\hNARRATOR: Space is so tight they have to march in circles.

\hEvery drill is a battle with bugs.

\h\h\hSome joke that they’ll welcome a return to combat.

\h\hUntil they’re loading up for their next battle.

PVT SLEDGE: We, not being fools, were all scared to death.

\h\hThe veterans, because they knew what to expect.

The new men, because we didn’t.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\hI hung weakly to the side of the tractor

\h\h\h\hand prayed that I would do my duty, survive,

and not wet my pants.

\h\hNARRATOR: Sledge inches closer to his first combat.

\hThe scene before him is pure hell.

\h\h\h\h\hPVT SLEDGE: The beach was a sheet of flame

\h\hbacked by a huge wall of black smoke,

\h\h\has though the island was on fire.

[artillery fire and explosions]

\hNARRATOR: The beach is already smoldering

with twisted metal and blood.

PVT SLEDGE: My heart pounded as we churned toward that inferno.

\h\h\hWe got to the beach amid erupting shell bursts

\h\h\h\hand the rattle of enemy machine gun bullets

against the steel Amtrac.

\h\hNARRATOR: Within an hour, casualties number

in the hundreds ...

... while the advance is measured in yards.

\hThe 1st Marines are taking it on the chin.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hAmericans want Peleliu in case it interferes

\hwith a bigger invasion on the way -- the Philippines.

\h\h\h\hJapanese film shows them overrunning

\hthe American territory in 1941, taking control

of 16 million Filipinos and 7,000 American POWs.

\h\h\h\h\hEver since, Army General Douglas MacArthur

has been itching to take it back.

At every opportunity, he repeats his mantra:

"I shall return."

\hHe makes the promise; America makes the plan.

It includes sending Marines

\hto take the small airfield at Peleliu,

which could be a nuisance to the Army’s Philippines offensive.

This isn’t lost on the troops,

\h\hwho dub themselves "MacArthur’s Marines."

PVT SLEDGE: We were ordered \h\hto capture the airfield,

\h\hand we started across at a trot in the searing heat.

\h\h\h\hThe ground rocked and swayed from shell concussions.

\h\h\hAnd streams of machine-gun tracers streaked past our ears.

\h\hNARRATOR: Within hours, the wounded start piling up.

[artillery fire]

\h\h\h\h\h\hThe Japanese are lobbing their repelling fire

from this craggy jumble of peaks.

The 1st Marines nickname it "Bloody Nose Ridge."

\hOne of the officers approaching the ridge

is New Yorker George Haggerty.

LTN HAGGERTY: When my company went in

we were 250 strong with six officers.

\hA few days later I found my commander,

\h\hand he said, "You and I are the only officers left.

And we only have about 20 men."

\h\h\hNARRATOR: Down to a skeleton unit,

\h\hthe commander sends Haggerty and six others

\h\hto find a hidden Japanese emplacement

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthat already bloodied much of the company.

\h\h\h\h\hLTN HAGGERTY: He said, "When you get there,

signal to me and we’ll come up."

[distant artillery fire]

We crawled our way up the field.

[explosion]

\hSome of the grenades we threw up, they threw back down at us.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: Haggerty gets close enough

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hto signal his commander for reinforcements.

\hLTN HAGGERTY: We signaled and signaled, and nothing happened.

\h\hInstead, our own armored LVTs came up

and starting firing at us.

[artillery fire]

They thought we were Japanese.

NARRATOR: Haggerty stumbles \hback with shrapnel wounds

from enemy and friendly fire.

♪ ♪

[explosion]

\h\h\h\h\hLTN HAGGERTY: I went back to look for my commander

\hand ask him why he hadn’t brought the reinforcements.

\h\h\h\h\hI found him with a little hole between his eyes

\h\hand the whole back of his head blown off.

\h\h\hThat was the end of the war for my battalion.

\h\h\h\hWe didn’t have any more troops left.

\h\hNARRATOR: From the air, Peleliu looks like the moon.

\h\h\h\hUnderneath, there’s an old network of mining tunnels

that the Japanese transform \hinto a front unto itself.

\h\hPVT SLEDGE: There never was a front line on Peleliu.

\hThe whole island was a front line.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: Japanese are everywhere,

but nowhere to be seen.

Americans end up shooting blindly into the ground.

\hThey think they win a hill, only to smell Japanese cooking

wafting up from below ground.

The subterranean maze is so confounding that

the Americans resort to blasting shut any hole they see ...

\h\h\hwhether they think anyone’s inside or not.

\h\h\h\h\hIt takes two bloody weeks to secure the airfield,

\h\hand they’re uncertain it was ever a real threat.

The 1st Marines’ overall strength

is down by nearly 60 percent.

\h\h\h\h\h\hMacArthur’s Marines are fading fast.

With Bloody Nose Ridge surrounded

and the main airfield secure,

\hAmericans turn to the smaller airfield

on the islet of Ngesebus.

\h\h\h\hThey don’t know what lies across the shallow reef

dividing the islands. So they don’t tiptoe.

\h\hThey bring all the might they can muster.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\h\hA textbook landing goes off without a problem.

But -- there’s no payoff.

The airfield is useless --

\h\h\h\h\hwith unfinished runways made of soft sand.

The battle for the rest of Peleliu will drag on.

But with both airfields secure,

\h\h\h\h\hthe invasion of the Philippines is about to begin.

[artillery fire]

NARRATOR: Pre-dawn bombardment \h\h\h\hilluminates MacArthur

\hon the day he’s been waiting for.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\h\hThe choreography of an invasion is now well-rehearsed.

\h\hBut each man knows the Philippines are different.

The size of the islands.

Sixteen million civilians.

Thousands of allied prisoners.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hAnd the half-million Japanese defenders

\h\h\hwaiting somewhere behind the veil of smoke

now rising from the coast.

Americans land first on Leyte, hoping to win it

\h\hbefore invading Luzon and the capital of Manila.

\h\h\h\h\hUnlike Peleliu, the beach is not heavily defended.

\h\h\h\h\hBy afternoon, MacArthur wades ashore.

As the news cameras roll,

\hhe swaggers onto the sand without a helmet.

\h\hThere may be no combat on the beach,

but there is some dark comedy.

The scale of the invasion strains the supply chain.

\h\h\h\hOn the first day, 107,000 tons come ashore.

But not in the right order.

\h\h\h\h\hIn the rush to unload, urgent supplies

\h\hare buried under less important ones.

And ... it’s the rainy season.

\h\h\h\h\h\hCaptain John Hanna takes home movies

\h\h\hof the muck his unit has to navigate.

\h\h\h\h\h\hIt’s thick. Slick. And inescapable.

\h\h\h\h\h\hThough the water buffalo don’t seem to mind.

Back on his ship, Hanna films locals approaching in canoes.

\h\h\hThey’re looking for safe harbor in the shadows

\hof American ships that now blanket Leyte Gulf.

But so many ships in one place make an irresistible target.

American carriers provide

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthe only air support for the invasion.

\h\h\h\h\hIf Japan can disable this lifeline,

\h\hthey could isolate the Americans on land.

\hThe Imperial Japanese Navy decides to attack.

♪ ♪

American ships buzz to life.

The Battle of Leyte Gulf

\h\h\h\h\hwill decide the future of the Philippines.

\h\hNaval battles often boil down to pilot versus pilot.

In the air, Americans continue to dominate.

[explosion]

\hAs Japanese fighters fall away, an American

\h\hgets a clear shot at an enemy ship. He doesn’t miss.

\hOut of desperation, Japan changes tactics.

\h\h\h\hTheir planes dive closer to American ships.

\hHidden in the smoke, this one punches through staccato

anti-aircraft fire, flying lower than anyone expects.

\h\hNavy man Charles Ripper is shocked at what he sees next.

SN RIPPER: Coming towards \hus was a Japanese plane,

\h\h\hjust skimming over the water. We jumped for cover.

\h\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: It lands a suicidal blow.

♪ ♪

[explosion]

\h\h\hThese are the first organized kamikaze attacks

\h\h\hof the Pacific War. They will not be the last.

\h\h\h\h\h\hOver four days, America loses six warships,

but Japan loses 26.

The seas around the Philippines are now American waters.

\h\hThe ground war will be bloody, and Manila awaits.

\h\hBut only one side will have air and sea support.

The other will slowly choke.

Back on Peleliu, the 1st Marines

\h\hhave to finish what they started.

They fire grenades with rifles.

They throw Molotov cocktails.

And they deploy a new weapon

\h\h\hcalled the Navy Mark One Flamethrower.

It shoots a blazing laser of napalm up to 150 yards.

PVT FOX: We were limited by not being able to use poison gas.

\h\h\h\h\hOther than that, just about anything went.

\hNARRATOR: Americans also drop napalm from the air.

It’s a new tactic getting its first big tryout on Peleliu.

\h\hThey hope to scorch Japanese they can’t see.

They provide powerful fireworks,

but they have little effect on deep Japanese positions.

\h\hKilling the enemy from a distance isn’t working.

It’s going to take close combat.

\h\h\hPVT FOX: As a private first class,

\h\h\h\hyour war lies within 15 feet of you.

It’s kinda like Gettysburg.

\h\hNARRATOR: Fred Fox is an Army infantryman

attached to the 1st Marines.

\h\hHis entire World War II combat career

\h\h\h\his 48 hours on Peleliu -- at age 18.

\h\h\hPVT FOX: I was only in one battle.

\hBut the two days that I fought at Peleliu ...

marked my life more than anything else.

NARRATOR: Here, a medical evacuation

gets burned into memory.

[explosion]

Three lie wounded.

\hEnemy fire pins down two corpsmen just yards away.

Five lives hang in the balance.

\h\h\hPVT FOX: A thousandth of a second, a hundredth of an inch,

and that’s the difference

\hbetween whether I was dead or not.

NARRATOR: The corpsmen struggle to carry the stretcher case.

The other two combine whatever \h\h\hstrength they have left

to get themselves out.

\h\h\h\h\h\hThe scene is repeated over and over,

\has the war plays out on the tiny stage of Peleliu.

\h\h\h\hPVT FOX: You’re talking about an island

that’s about two miles wide,

\h\h\h\h\hand you get maybe 11,000 Japanese

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand 28,000 Americans mad at each other?

\hNARRATOR: The 1st Marines are trapped

on this cage of an island

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthat seems determined to swallow them all.

\h\h\h\hPVT FOX: Some mention a premonition

of when they’re gonna die.

\hOne sergeant in the tent with me,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hbeen through Guadalcanal and New Britain.

\h\h\hOn Peleliu he said, "I don’t want to go out there.

I’m not gonna make this."

And he didn’t.

He didn’t make it two minutes.

NARRATOR: In their third year of war,

and sixth week on Peleliu,

the 1st Marines are in no mood to play by the rules.

\h\h\h\hPVT SLEDGE: We never took prisoners,

even when some tried to give up.

We routinely shot both dead

\h\hand wounded in the head, to make sure they were dead.

♪ ♪

\h\h\hNARRATOR: By the end of October, it’s still not over.

But it is for the 1st Marines.

Almost a third of their men are dead or wounded.

MacArthur’s Marines load up

\h\h\hand leave Peleliu for the Army to finish.

It will take another month.

\h\h\hPeleliu becomes one of the enduring question marks

of the Pacific War.

Eighteen hundred dead.

Eight thousand wounded.

All for some dusty airfields

\h\h\hthat may not have been a threat after all.

\hPVT SLEDGE: All too many young Americans were sent to Peleliu,

\hand into oblivion. Before they had ever really lived.

\h\hNARRATOR: In the march toward Japan,

America seems lost in the Southwest Pacific.

\hIn the Central Pacific, the path is more clear --

island-hop toward Japan

\h\h\h\h\h\hwith daring and distant amphibious assaults.

\hAmericans have advanced as far as the Mariana Islands.

\hSaipan, Guam and Tinian are all recently captured,

and at the mercy of American machinery.

\h\hThey are paving the way for a brand new aircraft --

the B-29 Superfortress.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hBut from the factory to the flight line,

it’s plagued with problems. \h\hDeliveries are delayed.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hIn Kansas, Raymond Halloran’s crew

\h\hhas been training on other aircraft instead.

LTN HALLORAN: We had 11 people in our B-29 crew.

They were from 11 different states.

It was sort of Americana.

The gunner was from Michigan, \h\h\hradarman from Oklahoma.

\h\hYou wonder where these kids are all coming from.

\hOne day, we came out to this ramp,

\h\hand out there was a brand-new, silver B-29.

What a beautiful thing!

\hThat was going to be ours to take overseas.

We were so excited.

NARRATOR: For the first time, \h\hthey are flying untethered

\hfrom a training script, unsupervised by superiors.

Halloran is 21 years old.

\hLTN HALLORAN: We were going alone.

It was crystal clear.

\h\h\hWe climbed to about 20,000 feet, moving west.

NARRATOR: They fly over the familiar landscape of home,

\h\h\hheading toward a distant, abstract war,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hsomewhere in the direction of the setting sun.

\h\h\hLTN HALLORAN: There was very little said for a while.

\hThen we got out over the Pacific.

\h\hThere wasn’t a sound in the plane -- nothing.

Nobody said a thing.

\hI had a definite feeling that I’m leaving everything behind --

\h\h\h\h\h\hmy mother and father, and my training --

and I am going into combat.

I think on that evening, at that time, at that altitude,

\hI converted from youth to manhood.

I could do the job of a man.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: Also on the way to the Marianas

is General Curtis LeMay.

\hThese are his home movies from the war,

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

\h\h\h\h\h\hHe’s arriving from India, where his bombing group

\h\h\h\hhad trouble striking Japan from such a distance.

\hHe hopes the Marianas will change the B-29 equation --

\h\h\hif he can whip his men into shape.

\h\h\h\h\h\hMG LEMAY: We had crews that weren’t trained,

\h\h\hand we had outfits that weren’t organized.

Everything was wrong.

\hNARRATOR: As he comes in for a landing at his new headquarters,

LeMay’s reputation is already \hcirculating on the ground.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hLTN BRADEN: We called him "Old Iron Pants"

because he was a tough cookie.

\h\h\hHe was the George Patton of the Air Force.

NARRATOR: In the winter of 1944, hundreds of brand new B-29s

\hbegin streaming into the Marianas

like giant migratory birds.

\h\h\hMG LEMAY: We had just six weeks to move the B-29s

to bases in the Marianas,

fly a few shakedown flights,

and launch an operation.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: American air power is building up

\h\h\hlike a storm cloud in the Central Pacific.

Japan can only guess when it will thunder overhead.

NARRATOR: Japan is rattled.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hAmericans are encroaching dangerously close.

\h\h\h\hA Japanese film shows a geography lesson

turning into a dire warning.

\h\h\h\h\hThe teacher pinpoints the Marianas

\h\hand draws an arc that includes Tokyo.

\h\h\h\h\h\hAir raid drills signal a tense new reality.

In public, one admiral

\hdescribes the defeat in measured language.

ADM KURIHARA: Our garrison on Saipan fought bravely.

All of them died a heroic death.

\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: In private, another admiral is more blunt,

\h\hsaying simply: "Hell is upon us."

ANNOUNCER: Bombs are wheeled up

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hto a B-29 Superfortress on Saipan Island.

It is only the beginning

as these mighty bombers prepare for the first raid on Tokyo

in two and a half years.

NARRATOR: American newsreels paint the B-29 as a savior.

But it can barely soar.

♪ ♪

\h\h\hThey labor to take off with 10,000 pounds of bombs.

\h\hThis one almost runs off the runway.

\hMM EARP: When they picked up that B-29,

\hyou could almost see it screaming.

NARRATOR: In January of 1945, \hB-29s begin raids on Japan.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hThe entire rationale for island hopping

will now be put to the test.

\h\h\h\hEn route, crews review their targets ...

what little they know about them.

MG LEMAY: We didn’t really know anything about Japan.

We didn’t have any secret agents

\h\h\h\hcreeping around sending us information.

\h\hNARRATOR: But an even bigger problem looms at 25,000 feet --

a roaring tailwind.

\hLTN BRADEN: We were scooting across Tokyo

at 500 miles an hour.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: Bombs drop into this lashing wind --

and scatter like feathers.

\h\h\h\hLTN BRADEN: We not only missed the target --

I’m not even sure we hit Tokyo.

NARRATOR: Americans try flying \hthe missions into the wind.

\h\h\h\hLTN BRADEN: One plane tried that one day

\h\h\hand they found out they were going

three miles an hour backwards.

\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: The B-29 was built to bomb

\hfrom the safety of high altitude.

No one imagined its payload

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hsplashing harmlessly into the sea.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hANNOUNCER: Heading back to Saipan,

the first Superfortress mission over Tokyo is a success.

\hNARRATOR: Curt LeMay knows it really isn’t.

The B-29 still isn’t landing

\h\h\h\h\hthe knockout punch it was made for.

\hIn Guam, this one doesn’t even make it off the runway.

\hGeneral LeMay films the wreckage himself,

\hand he can feel the heat -- in every way.

MG LEMAY: They said if you don’t get results, you’ll be fired.

If you don’t get results,

\h\h\h\h\h\hit’ll mean a mass amphibious invasion of Japan.

NARRATOR: One way to improve results

\h\h\his to keep more B-29s from crashing along the way.

\h\h\h\hAmericans look for a place to land a broken B-29

between the Marianas and Japan.

\hThere’s only one choice. Iwo Jima.

\h\h\hRaymond Halloran’s crew, fresh from Kansas,

\h\h\hgets its very first combat orders.

\h\h\h\h\h\hLTN HALLORAN: The mission was to go to Iwo Jima,

\h\h650 miles away, to bomb the runway.

NARRATOR: By now, the Army Air Force

is trying to prove the value of the B-29 any way it can.

\hLCDR ANDERSON: The Air Force wanted to come in

\h\h\hand saturate every square inch of Iwo Jima,

because there were no civilians.

\hThen all we’d have to do is walk on the beach,

\h\h\h\hput up the flag, and bury dead Japanese.

\h\hNARRATOR: From above, the island looks lifeless.

\h\hHalloran quickly finds out otherwise.

\hLTN HALLORAN: They opened up with anti-aircraft fire.

\hNARRATOR: Japanese footage reveals guns

aiming straight up at the incoming bombers.

\h\h\hLTN HALLORAN: I didn’t know they were

going to be shooting at us.

We had a few little holes in our plane when we came back.

\hHow proud we were of that. It proved we were in combat.

NARRATOR: Halloran’s crew

\h\h\h\h\hgets a little nicked up over Iwo Jima.

\h\hAmericans hope the ground invasion is just as harmless.

For centuries, Mount Suribachi

\h\h\h\hcrowned a barren island of little value.

\h\h\hBut in 1945, two armies want it badly.

\h\h\h\h\hJapan is using it to attack B-29s passing overhead.

\hAmerica sees it as an emergency landing strip.

\hThey will both now use it as a slaughterhouse.

[explosions]

ST BRUNTON: I went topside just about the time we were leaving,

and I saw that rock.

\h\hIt was the most desolate looking piece of real estate

I ever saw in my life.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: As landing craft circle waiting for the signal,

\h\hAmericans fear the enemy will fight back with fire --

\h\h\h\h\hand explode barrel bombs of fuel on the beach.

\hMarines smear their faces with white anti-flash cream

to guard against burns.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\hAt 9:02 a.m., the first wave hits the sand.

\h\h\h\hMAN: Everybody out. Move, move, move.

NARRATOR: The beach is steep and loose.

\h\h\hThey struggle in the fine volcanic ash.

But resistance is light.

\h\h\h\h\hThere are no barrel bombs of fuel.

But as more waves come ashore,

more men and machines get stuck in the sand.

PVT LIBERTY: You were walking in mush almost up to your knees.

It was a struggle.

NARRATOR: Soon, the crowd on the beach reaches critical mass.

\hThat’s when the Japanese open up.

[explosions]

\hCPL SHERRILL: I could look up from my foxhole

\h\h\h\hand it was just 20, 30 mortars in the air at a time.

NARRATOR: By 9:20 a.m.,

\h\hit’s an unceasing, ear-splitting barrage.

\h\hNo Japanese are on the beach itself.

Most are entrenched on Mount Suribachi.

Inside the mountain is a maze of tunnels and monster pillboxes

with walls up to four feet thick.

\h\hThe Japanese can pummel the entire beach with lead.

\hMarines are trapped within yards of where they landed.

\hThere’s no place to go except down.

\h\h\h\hSGT GRAY: We decided we’d clean out a shell hole

\hand make it a little deeper for a shelter.

And we hit something down there.

\hWhen we uncovered it, it was a Marine.

NARRATOR: Bodies are buried ...

trapped ...

and torn apart.

\h\h\h\h\hSuribachi is like a hunting stand,

and Americans are easy prey.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hThe barrage continues into the night.

Here, the Japanese score a hit

\h\h\h\h\hon an American ammo dump on the beach.

[explosions]

LCDR ANDERSON: It was bullets \hand all kinds of ammunition

exploding all around.

It was like Chinese fireworks.

NARRATOR: The first day on Iwo Jima ends

\hwith the beach on fire and supplies going up in smoke.

\h\h\h\h\hAmericans resolve to turn the tide the next day --

by scaling Suribachi.

\h\hNARRATOR: The assault on Mount Suribachi begins

\h\h\h\hby punching it from the air and sea.

Americans make the dormant volcano seem alive again.

Then, Marines start to climb up.

Soon, blood starts to flow down.

[explosions]

\h\h\h\hOne unit supported by tanks pushes up for six hours,

\hadvances only 200 yards, and tallies 162 dead and wounded.

\h\hAs usual, Americans rarely see the Japanese.

\h\h\h\h\hSo they pour fire into every hole.

[explosions]

\hAfter four days of relentless fighting,

\h\h\h\h\h\ha handful of Marines get to the top.

\h\h\h\hThey plant a small flag tied to some old Japanese pipe.

A few hours later, a larger flag goes up.

Gilberto Mendez can see it from his troop ship,

\hand his emotions go into overdrive.

\h\h\h\hHe’s about to come ashore to join the fight.

PVT MENDEZ: My heart was beating a thousand times a minute.

My skin was like chicken skin.

I lost my fear.

If those guys made it, I could.

But it was false, that feeling,

\h\h\h\h\hbecause the good stuff hadn’t started yet.

NARRATOR: This is home movie footage of pre-war Manila.

As the capital of a U.S. territory,

it’s infused with American style --

from western clothes ...

to neon glitz.

♪ ♪

But when the Allies return

to wrestle it back from the Japanese,

it’s a different city.

\h\h\hNow ashen and hollow, it’s the bombed-out backdrop

\h\hfor the biggest urban battle of the Pacific War.

[explosions and artillery fire]

MacArthur prohibits air strikes, trying to spare civilians.

It takes street-by-street \h\h\hguerrilla warfare.

\h\hAmerican tanks roll into the University of the Philippines.

The campus is under siege.

\h\h\h\hHere, University Hall becomes a gun nest.

\h\h\h\h\hJapanese rifles crack from the top floor.

[gunfire]

Allies fire back, taking chunks out of the colonial facade.

\h\h\hThe Pacific War is turning Manila to dust.

Finally, the city goes quiet.

♪ ♪

Civilians are in survival mode.

\h\h\h\hAmerican POWs enjoy their first taste of freedom

in more than two years.

\hKneeling over this body is serviceman Dan Rocklin.

\h\hHe films the horrors that now litter Manila.

But he also captures Filipinos \h\h\hstriving for normalcy.

\h\h\h\h\hRocklin’s film has never been broadcast before.

His footage reveals a blossoming hope --

\hthat the storm of war may finally be passing.

\hAlmost a week into the battle for Iwo Jima ...

... fresh troops come ashore to reinforce depleted units.

PVT MENDEZ: As replacements, \h\hwe were a nobody group.

\h\h\hWe went wherever we were needed. I didn’t know anybody.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: But Gilberto Mendez gets to know Iwo Jima

in a hurry.

\h\hPVT MENDEZ: The first days I was on the ground,

\h\h\h\hI urinated in my pants because I thought

\h\hif I dropped my rifle to pee I would be killed.

NARRATOR: The flag already flying on Mount Suribachi

\h\his the enduring symbol of Iwo Jima.

\h\h\h\h\hBut the north is the where Marines have to win it.

The Japanese have abandoned

\h\hBanzai charges and costly counterattacks.

\h\hNow they simply wait to ambush advancing Americans.

[explosion]

Including Gilberto Mendez.

\h\h\hPVT MENDEZ: I saw something shine.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hIt was a Japanese officer’s sword,

\h\hand he was leading his men out of a cave.

The bullets were flying.

[gunfire]

\h\h\h\hWhen I saw below his neck, I pulled the trigger,

one shot after another.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hThey found thirteen holes in his body.

I made hamburger out of him.

\hNARRATOR: More and more bodies litter the volcanic landscape.

In Japanese, Iwo Jima means "sulfur island."

\hThe steam smells like rotten eggs.

\h\hFreshly dug foxholes are too hot to get into.

\h\hPVT MENDEZ: You couldn’t stay 15 minutes in one place

because your boots would get too hot.

\h\hNARRATOR: One Marine even tries on the boots

of a dead Japanese soldier,

hoping they might keep his feet from burning.

Combat is close.

[explosion]

Fiery.

And exhausting.

Two weeks into the battle,

\h\h\hnearly 10,000 American wounded have been evacuated.

\h\h\h\h\hIncluding Gilberto Mendez, with a head injury.

\h\h\h\hPVT MENDEZ: An explosion picked me up

and I hit the ground again, with a terrible ringing in my ear.

I was choking on my own tongue.

\h\h\hA corpsman tried to pull my tongue out

\h\h\h\hby piercing it with a big safety pin.

\h\hNARRATOR: Under tents and inside hospital ships,

\h\hdoctors and nurses tend to injuries beyond description.

And some beyond repair.

\hBut soon, the reason for all this carnage comes into view.

♪ ♪

\hCPL WALKER: Those planes were coming back shot full of holes,

and tore all to pieces.

\hNARRATOR: On March 4th, the first B-29

comes in for a forced landing.

Hundreds more will sputter into Iwo Jima from raids in Japan.

\hThis one is so crippled it can’t even make the runway.

But the crew will be spared.

\h\h\hEven with Iwo Jima as a life raft,

\hB-29 raids into Japan are failing.

\h\h\h\h\hThe overall game plan still isn’t working.

\hSo Curtis LeMay changes the rules.

MG LEMAY: We weren’t going to be able to defeat Japan

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\husing high altitude precision bombing.

I had to do something radical.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: The entire premise of island hopping

\h\h\h\h\hnow rests on Curt LeMay’s command.

So he designs a drastically \hdifferent kind of mission.

\h\h\h\h\h\hDavid Braden remembers the briefing.

LTN BRADEN: We were going to fly in at 5,000 feet --

\h\h\h\ha surprise attack, probably around midnight.

\hNARRATOR: LeMay thinks going in low will solve the problem

\h\h\hof high winds and blinding clouds.

But that’s not the only change.

LTN BRADEN: We were to carry 10 tons of incendiary bombs.

\h\hNARRATOR: Until now, America’s use of napalm

\hhas been specific to a target -- a cave, or a jungle hideout.

\h\h\h\h\h\hNow, LeMay has something bigger in mind.

\h\hMG LEMAY: Tokyo would be our target.

The primary target.

The secondary target.

And the only target.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: Three hundred and twenty-five B-29s

\htake off in the afternoon skies --

\h\h\h\hdouble the number ever used in a single raid before.

\hThey fly in groups, at night, lights off.

\hFlying in low, the big slow planes could be easy targets.

\h\hCrews fear they’re on a suicide mission.

LTN BRADEN: We were saying,

\h"We are going to be the American kamikazes

\h\hand they are going to shoot us down like crazy."

\h\hNARRATOR: Then, Tokyo appears below.

The first of more than three million pounds of firebombs

drop into the night.

LTN BRADEN: A firestorm started.

\h\hThe updrafts from the heat of the fires

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthrew the airplanes all over the sky.

It was frightening.

\h\h\h\h\h\hThere’d be an aircraft right next to you

\h\hand you didn’t even know the guy was there.

NARRATOR: The air is swirling with ashes,

\h\h\h\hand crews can smell burning flesh at 5,000 feet.

MG LEMAY: The firestorm consumed so much oxygen

that those who did not die by the flames simply suffocated.

\h\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: The next morning, Japan is in shock.

♪ ♪

\h\hMG LEMAY: It was as though Tokyo had dropped

through the floor of the world \hand into the mouth of hell.

NARRATOR: Sixteen square miles of central Tokyo are in ashes.

\h\hAn estimated 100,000 are killed -- mostly civilians.

It’s the single deadliest \hday of the Pacific War.

\hNeither atomic bomb will kill this many on the day it drops.

\hTo LeMay, it’s an unqualified success.

\hHe draws up plans to firebomb other cities,

bring Japan to its knees,

and force surrender.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hMG LEMAY: We had stockpiled enough incendiaries

to follow the Tokyo raid

\h\hwith just about all the major urban areas in Japan.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: For LeMay, the fire is only starting.

\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: By late March, Iwo Jima

\his finally under American control.

\h\h\hSupplies drop down that will help turn this arid rock

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hinto a full-fledged military base.

♪ ♪

\h\h\hJapanese troops will keep pouring out of this underworld

for months.

They too are exhausted, \hbut unwilling to quit.

♪ ♪

Here, Americans liberate Koreans

\hwho had been toiling at Japanese gunpoint.

They report Japanese are still \hinside, and won’t surrender.

Once all the Koreans are out,

\ha demolition team seals the cave shut.

[explosion]

\h\hIwo Jima is now an island of tombs.

\hSome 20,000 Japanese and 7,000 Americans are dead.

\h\hPVT MENDEZ: We were told the whole operation

\h\hwould take only three to four days.

\hIt turned out to be 36 days of pure hell.

[explosions]

\hNARRATOR: Japan can sense the pressure coming from all fronts.

Ships from the sea.

Boots on the ground.

And fire from the sky.

\h\hThe Japanese Empire is on the verge of collapse,

\hbut there is no sign of surrender.

\hAmericans have one more island to take

before invading Japan itself.

\h\hSurvivors of Peleliu and Iwo Jima are on their way --

to Okinawa.

\h\h\hDon’t ask them which one is worse.

\hLTN HAGGERTY: I can’t answer that.

How do you compare hell to hell?