All language subtitles for Worlds.Greatest.Warships.S01E01.Bismarck.Hitlers.Great.Warship.1080p.HDTV.H264-LiNKLE

Warships of the ultimate
symbol of a nation's military might.

These things are monstrous.

One does of technology.

Enormous vessels crewed
by thousands bristling

with massive guns
and powerful aircraft

they can deliver terrifying this
structure and turn the tide of history.

The chef are built
to win the war.

There was no other reason.

From the beginning
of the twentieth century

to the present day.

These are the stories
of classic warships.

From dreadnoughts to baseball.

To Japan months monster
see warrior yamato.

The American super ships
Wisconsin Lexington and enterprise

to today's cutting edge
royal Navy carriers is.

These are the world's
greatest warships.

On September the
second nineteen forty five.

Officers of the Japanese high command
boarded a mighty American battleship to

officially surrender
to the allies.

Is my honest.

Run this solemn occasion.

A better world.

Shalimar a job with a
bloody carnage of a pie.

Ceremony took place on
board and Iowa class battleship.

A huge floating fortress
and fitting theater

to end the bloodiest
war in human history.

In a war that saw the rise and fall of the
greatest warships the world would ever see.

Bristling leviathans capable
of brutal violence but also

facing a fight for survival
from a new deadly threat.

These

with a giant battleships
of world war two.

Template for these ships
of the nineteen forties

was laid down decades
earlier before world war one.

With the revolutionary
hms dreadnoughts

nineteen o six.

Fifteen years of non-stop
arms race and then the war

itself resulted in huge
fleets of these warriors ships.

It's the first world
war comes to an end

dreadnought battleships
are still the currency

by wage nations measure
their power and prestige.

The cost of having
serious naval status

was crippling already
weak post-war economies.

Something has to be done.

All the main naval powers.

The united states
great britain and.

Japan France and Italy are invited
to Washington for a conference

and the treaty that
re results from that

puts a cap on naval spending a naval
allocation for all the signatory palace.

You get arms
limitation to try and.

Reduce the number of
battleships the size of battleships.

And the capacity and
capability of battleships.

A ten year hiatus on battleship
building was also agreed.

Plus a maximum weight
of thirty five thousand tons.

So when building started
again in the mid nineteen thirties.

Battleship designers were confronted
with a dizzying array of challenges.

A battleship as a compromise
between three primary factors

that gunnery

armor protection and
it's propulsion system.

Naval author Mark steel is an
expert on battleship specifications.

The Washington naval
treaty was an effect for most of

the nineteen thirties up
until nineteen thirty seven

and without thirty five thousand
and to limit it was very hard

to build a balance ship
with heavy firepower.

Good protection and a high speed

you can never fit all of these
systems of bought a single hole

to the degree
that you might like.

What everyone's doing is
looking for innovative ways.

Of trying to keep
within treating them as.

By the same time give your
ship the biggest punch you can.

The punch came from guns that by
the late thirties were more powerful

than ever.

So what you're looking at here
is a fourteen inch naval gun this is

almost as big as guns
get in the royal Navy

this can fire shell that
is a white a small car.

So that's what naval warfare
is his playing time their hurling

basically vw beetles
across the say at each other

and twenty two miles range

so they're firing over the horizon they're
firing much further from you can see.

For its newest battleship.

The royal Navy wanted
ten of these guns on board

but unless turrets to
keep the weight down.

So to of the turrets would need to
house an unprecedented for guns.

Hms king George the fifth.

An age thirty five thousand.

Island.

Ten fourteen inch guns.

Sixteen five point full

fourteen inch
guns in one target.

Now

that is an interesting concept he saves
a huge amounts of weight usually have

two guns per turrets
hey you're saving.

Face the two hundred and fifty tons
of stay away from the turrets alone.

It was a very very
clever and inventive way

of trying to solve a
very difficult problem.

They were accustomed
to building twin gun turrets.

They built the triple
turrets arrangement

but they'd never tried
to quadruple before.

With the king George the fifth class the
British though they build the best wash it

possible and the
treaty restrictions.

The Navy begins
to take proper shape.

And beyond but not everyone
was playing by the rules

of an active to be widened.

Hitler's Nazi party had risen to power
pledging to rebuild Germany military might.

It already defiantly tone of the hate
the versailles treaty which are strict to

Germany to a tiny
coastal patrol Navy.

Now

on the Eve of world war two.

The launch of Bismarck
makes a powerful statement.

Be small it wasn't only in military
weapon was also a status symbol indicating.

The re gaining of
German see power.

Also a symbol for German
technological achievements.

Hitler had agreed with britain to stick to
the Washington treaty maximum tonnage.

Thirty five thousand
tons of Germans deal is

launched in the presence
of the pharaoh himself

the truth was.

Bismarck weighed over
forty one thousand tons.

They cheat engine their ship
sizes that extra six thousand tons.

Is translated into quite a
load of extra military valley.

Bismarck was one
quarter of a kilometer long.

Thirty six meters
across her been.

As wide as an eight
Lane motorway.

She was crewed by
of two thousand men.

Steam turbines drove three huge screws
giving the Bismarck of thirty not until the

speed and a cruising range of
over sixteen thousand kilometers.

The eight thirty eight
centimeters guns could fly their

shells over nineteen
kilometers with deadly accuracy.

A thick belt of rock hard
on protected her waterline

turrets and magazines.

Bismarck was quite
simply the most advanced

most fearsome ship ever built.

Is now Hitler could unleash his rule-breaking
secret weapon on the Atlantic convoys.

Britain's wartime the lifeline.

I.

I may nineteen forty one.

German armies controlled
half of scandinavia

north Africa most of Europe.

But not brit.

After the refs

held his efforts sporting
his plans to invade.

Hitler knew he was still
defeat britain to win the war.

He focused on its achilles heel.

The vulnerable but
crucial Atlantic convoys.

Or new that britain was dependent vast
amounts of or supplies coming from america.

And also coming from the
British empire up around Africa.

Into

britain.

The German Navy employed her vessels
not in a vain see battle in the north sea.

Bot against the British
lines of communication

because these have been.

Identified as the
week strategic point

of britain.

German naval command
made a bold decision.

Bismarck along with only the a heavy
cruiser a support was tasked to attack

allied shipping.

As from its main base
scapa flow in Scotland.

The royal Navy still
controlled the north sea.

So Bismarck's naked along the
coast of Norway and past Iceland.

Where it could get the vulnerable convoys
shuttling between britain and america.

Now those convoys
a perfectly structured

to protect

the merchant ships

from submarines what you want to do when
you have a submarine threat is put all your

merchant ships together
and surrounded by

smaller ships that
can sink submarines.

Jumped on.

The only time that job is done as if a
battleship cats among st them because of

battleship can sync any one of
those the classical so long range

and then Polish off

every merchant ship

firing its main guns at a
range of twenty two miles.

As Bismarck set sail

her captain and lindeman
was in optimistic mood.

I have their
contacting feeling that

this ship will be able to
accomplish animation designed to me.

Where for the first time in years
or ship most fighting qualities.

I at least a match
for and the enemy.

At this moment succeeded

got into a convoy and
sunk a dozen ships.

And then got home safely that
would have been something.

Real problems dealing with.

Like Hitler.

Winston Churchill new
the stakes were high.

Britain could not lose
what he called this

battle of the Atlantic.

Without victory he said.

There is no survive.

Next Bismarck made her dash
for the Atlantic past Iceland.

He or she was detected
by British patrols.

Realizing this may be
their only chance to capture.

Hms prince of wales a
brand new king George the

fifth class battleship
was ordered to set sail.

Prince of wales.

Was still being
finished off in scapa flow

there were a civilian

engineers on the ship
finishing off its guns

but it was dispatched
straightaway to go in

search for the Bismarck.

Andrew chung this
curator of the ship's plans

archive at the royal maritime
museum in greenwich.

These ones top secret sketches
compare Bismarck's designed

to the design of the hms
king George the fifth class.

What the admiralty was extremely keen to
know was how Bismarck compare pads to the

king George the fifth
class battleships which of

course I'll most modern
battleships at the time

what we're looking at is a very basic
general arrangement drawing of the two ships

what is really remarkable about the two
ships is not the difference is between them

but how incredibly similar they
both are in terms of the weight of

offensive power they both kerry.

But with an extra and illicit
six thousand tons to play with

Bismarck's designers have been
able to build in a clear advantage.

Bismarck is a much wider ship
then the king George the fifth.

This is what allowed
the Germans to build and

significantly more water
tight compartmentalization

and this made the ship not only a better
and more stable gun platform but also made

her that much harder to
flood and therefore sink.

On may twenty fourth
nineteen forty one

the prince of wales along with
post-world war one battle cruiser hms hood.

Caught up with Bismarck.

Hood was britain's
largest warship.

She was fast

lightly armoured and a
soft target for Bismarck.

Artillery

and a level of training offer a gun
crews was excellent so only shortly after.

Bismarck had started
to fire at hms hood.

The first shells hit.

Bismarck's huge
shells had penetrated

dec igniting the after magazine where
ammunition with explosives were stored.

Sailor on board the prince
of wales witness to see.

Hold of the our ship with
embedded in a flash of blame

my.

Which wrote high into the air
in the shape of a giant matter.

Older made to pop or better
record with a vicar of blame it.

On the water surface.

There was no time
to abandon her.

Out of hoods crew of one
thousand four hundred and eighteen.

Only three survived.

Brand new prince of wales
had made a poor showing to.

A revolutionary full gun
turrets proving highly unreliable.

Quite often the
quadruple tolerates.

Didn't work.

I

There are gaps in the operating
of the fourteen inch TV.

Despite failings.

One shell landed
at telling blood.

Since the wheels
managed to strike Bismarck

up near the by which.

The ability to get independent
thousand tons of fuel oil.

From the Botox tanks.

Those heads.

Ended Bismarck's sortie into
Atlantic and the decision was made

to run down towards the plans

to try and get repaired.

Bismarck was on the run

and her commander

admiral logins new the royal
Navy would be out for revenge.

Taman of the
battleship Bismarck.

You have covered
yourself with glory

the shrinking off
their better crews out.

As not only military
but psychological value.

For she was the
pride of great britain.

Henceforth

the enemy will try to
concentrate tasteful false us

and bring them interact
action against us.

Been up that by flying boat.

Come on.

Which will echo done
the put it all the time.

Almost everything the
royal Navy has will float

is put into the Atlantic
to try and find Bismarck.

That many assets
looking for base Mark.

It's very hard for
her to get away.

She was leaving and
altria behind her she went

which would make it
easier for her to be located.

Eventually

she was attacked by
British swordfish to beaumont

these old fashion

by planes came in and
eighty miles an hour.

Drop their torpedoes.

One so fish torpedo
disabled Bismarck's rudder.

Locking her into a tight to.

With his ship
now a sitting duck.

Luncheon sense a defiant
final message to his superiors.

Shape.

Unable to manoeuvre.

What about fight
to the last child.

Decisive blow it comes at
the end bulk of the hopefully

she's up with a and she is
pummeled from long range.

By British battleships.

Hms king George the fifth

sister ship of the
prince of wales

was one of the first on the see.

Have full them to what better

and along with hms Rodney

they scored hundreds of
hits on the stricken battleship.

Even Bismarck's formidable
lama could only take so much.

A British eyewitness recalled.

Considering the punishment
she had received already.

She fought back inefficiently.

On one can but
admire the courage.

Of those man.

Passed within a
couple of miles of her.

Just as she sank

at eleven hundred hours.

By then.

She was just a smoking crack.

At neighbor but that
but I've ended up

about eight in oh.

At home in britain.

The sinking is a huge
boost for flagging me wrong.

And the find up can get.

You get.

Taken as for Germany
the losses also profound.

The basement the
most cherished as.

The blossom off.

German shipbuilding
technology a powerful ship.

The largest ship afloat

almost unthinkable and
now this vessel is lost

and this is of course a
massive psychological setback.

Loss of Bismarck had
a profound effect upon.

Hitler's strategic
thinking via via his Navy.

He.

Felt very keenly
the loss of prestige.

That had resulted from
this mission which to be

honest had been a really
bad idea in the first place.

Adolf Hitler really has very very little
interest in Navy's famously said at one

point to have on land am
a heroin see am a coward.

At the decided his
u-boats could take care of

the Atlantic convoys
from beneath the waves.

Next month he turned
back to what he knew best.

Fighting online and.

In June nineteen forty one.

Hitler or the invasion
of the Soviet union.

Within four months his armies
were at the door to Moscow.

The Soviets needed how.

UK s and britain started to
send convoys of ships loaded

with crucial supplies of
bombs equipment and food

from Scotland by the freezing northern
ocean to the northern sea ports of rush.

Cowboys were getting through

and Hitler find his armies
fighting Soviets in American trucks

Canadian tanks
and British aircraft.

He needed an effective
weapon to try and stop

the components.

Therapists launched
in nineteen forty one

was slightly bigger and
faster than Bismarck.

She was hit the
last great battleship.

She would not follow
in her sisters wake.

He doesn't want to risk
another prestige ship.

On an operation that would
probably only result in its destruction.

It results in tirpitz being sent to the
relative security of the Norwegian fjords

and we see a very interesting reversion
almost the first world war naval thinking.

I have this incredibly
powerful warship

but we dare not use
it in case we lose it.

By parking his last great
battleship and a fjord

Hitler had stumbled upon a
way to make tirpitz very effective

without risking her etsy.

I.

Beheld Norway had a
paralyzing effect on the British.

Admit that the British had to
keep the number of the heavy ships.

In scapa flow.

As a direct the tenant to the

is coming here.

The beneficiaries
with the Japanese

because the British had to have to
fleet carriers and three battleships.

Tied up in scapa flow

watching tirpitz when they would
desperately needed in the far east.

War was still in the balance
and Churchill wanted to it sunk.

It would take the best minds
and bravest man two years to do.

Most beat on.

Sinking of the tirpitz.

Would be a new victory

the destroy action of this

last great visible symbol.

Of German see power.

June nineteen forty two.

It was Jack jackboot was
still firmly on Europe's throat.

Is u-boats were wreaking
havoc in the Atlantic.

But what was left
of his surface Navy

was deployed with great care.

Tirpitz sculpt in the
fjords of Norway.

Menacing the convoys
that supplied the Soviets

as they pushed back
against the German invaders.

Churchill in the admiralty
feared the damage a

rampaging tirpitz could
inflict on these convoys.

One was unlucky enough
to be at see when a message

that tirpitz was on the
move was intercepted.

A protective esco
was sent to into set to.

Leaving the convoy defenseless
against u-boats and the no fathom.

Threat of tirpitz coming
out was enough for them

to order the scattering
of convoy pq seventeen

with the result that that's
a convoy was slaughtered.

The.

Great irony being that tirpitz hadn't
even really salty to tall to come after the

convoy but it illustrates
the the the fear which the

presence of their ship and
genders in British naval mines.

So again you see this
wolf and the function

of of capital ships of
of huge battleships.

As symbols of power.

Tirpitz induced panic and caused the loss
of twenty four out of thirty five ships.

Churchill's obsession with
attacking and destroying

the ship he called
the beast intensified.

A location was known

but getting a tirpitz
was at different matter.

She was very well protected

floating in a kind of of cage

with a kind of steel nets
around to protecting her against.

Attacks from u-boats
or submarines.

It was a huge a number of
anti after of batteries around

in addition to her
own considerable.

Anti aircraft armament.

And.

They had also devices to
to set up kind of artificial.

Mr or a fork just to

to cover the vessel
from from air attack.

Even if all this was overcome.

Tirpitz had a formidable
last line of defense.

So well I'm sat on here

is a pace of solid crop
stale fourteen inches thick

and this is part of the main on about
from the German battleship tirpitz.

When you build a battleship
you can't Alma the entire

thing it would be so heavy
it would sink like a stone

so will you can do is pick the most
important parts of the ship and protect them.

So this belt was designed to run for
hundreds of fate along the side of the shape

and that's there to protect

the engines the boilers.

The ammunition magazines
and the shell rooms

this is basically the
tirpitz is coated on.

Doesn't attacks by
aircraft from carriers

long range bombers
had made a little impact

but.

Like all battleships.

Tirpitz had a soft underbelly.

It was this lightly
armoured lower a whole

will be targeted next to.

Say you see attacks by x craft
miniature submarines which

can sneak in through the
defenses without anyone seeing

and plant charge
is underneath tirpitz

and the the compatible

kind of

and damage a hull and that that works
fairly well but doesn't sink the ship.

With turpin soon the fully
operational once again

the British come on turned
to a man knew how to

track record of destroying
hard to hit targets.

Bonds Wallace was the man behind the dumb-ass
think bouncing ballrooms that had caused

havoc in Germany's
industrial heartland.

A and Murray is an
expert on his work.

Mountains Wallace's
as up the best petition of

into something that that
of the twentieth century.

He had such unusual ideas.

Many of which were
proven to work successfully.

To destroy tirpitz.

Wallace initially adopted his
dumb-ass to gone to attack a ship's hull.

He called his idea.

Highball.

The workshops at Portsmouth historic dockyard
have painstakingly restored a highball

that he and his team retrieved
from locks driven in Scotland.

It was here bombing runs
were practice by specialist

pilots and aircraft in
preparation for an attack on to.

Mosquito was a small
bomber but had new armament.

Extremely fast.

Squadron all
probably night kind.

Of those aircraft with
a fluent up the fiord

drop at at the correct
distance so the the

would have.

Skip then.

Hit the.

Fake armor on the side of the.

Ship.

But it wouldn't have
exploded they are it would

have continued to spin and it would have
ruled dive in underneath the keel of the

ship we the the
steel was orderly.

Probably an inch
or two at the most

and it would have
detonated they are had.

In a large hole in
the bottom of the shit.

That was all good in theory

but the Germans will one step
ahead as proven by tirpitz next morning

when the Germans
very inconveniently.

Had the ship

positioned in a fiord where
it was very difficult to attack

by.

Aerial torpedo or with high
ball because it needed up

a real Annabelle run up and an approach
to the the ship in the field and it would

have been very difficult to attack
hit broadside on unfortunately.

The am industry asked
Wallace to think again.

He revisited an older more conventional
design for a dumb-ass stink bomb.

One that didn't bounce.

Wallace had originally
proposed a very large.

Bomb which would have
gone deep into the ground.

So the administration said

could we try some of those.

They had success with six ton.

In which was called tall boy.

It's all boy was one of the most

awesome weapons built
in britain during the war.

Only a stripped down Lancaster
heavy bomber had the power

to carry that twelve thousand
pound earthquake ball.

As.

A normal bomb
would just have been

a single metal casting
full of explosive with

a straight tail on the back

to boy was machined to
have a lovely smooth casing

and they were balanced so that
the the week was distributed equally

Wallace also borrowed an
idea from the the ok Charles

which was.

On the the tail fins of the ball

he actually angled them

at five degrees so as the bomb

fail and that would have been
falling for something like thirty seconds

the bomb would
actually have spun.

And that sort of gyroscope
weekly stabilized that

gave it a nice straight

flight path all the
way down to the grind.

On November twelve
nineteen forty four

the twenty fourth mission
against tirpitz was launched.

To Lancaster squadrons dropped
twenty nine two boys from high altitude

the fjord.

Massive explosion

say of the the magazines
insight the targets and.

Tongued over
within a few minutes.

So tirpitz.

Like Bismarck
was lost to history.

Thousands of miles away.

War was raging in the pacific

where the American
Navy was unleashing an all

new battleship of the
Japanese imperial fleet.

It remains an icon of American
warship building at its best.

The Iowa class battleship.

The Iowa's have a very
good claim for being the finest

battleships ever produced.

They have the right
balance of Alma

speed and armaments
it's absolutely nailed days.

They were the first u s battleships completely
free a free t restrictions which meant

that the u s could pull the whole of its
production capacity of these vessels.

Almost every battleship before
has have to compromise somewhere.

Those ones get the
balance absolutely perfectly.

This is USS Wisconsin.

One of four Iowa class battleships
launched in nineteen forty three.

Still afloat as museums.

Follow me into the czar room.

Clayton Allen looks after
Wisconsin now permanently

moored in the naval
port of Norfolk Virginia.

We are the last
battleship in the u s

Navy battleship fleet

maybe sixty four

there are no more
battleships in the us Navy.

So what we're seeing
here is Broadway

it's the longest continuous
passage on the ship.

It's two hundred and fifty
feet long and six feet wide

and the sailors adopted that
named Broadway because

on a hot summer see me night

and all the lights are lit up and so
they're trying to connect a home.

The original design complement for this
ship was to have nineteen hundred men

but because of a threat a kamikaze they
added more gunners mates that way we could

pull watch in the guns
twenty four hours a day

and of the thousand extra minute

so about a crew of
twenty nine hundred and.

Crew working inside the ship and pre
operational areas were well protected.

This is what we call the citadel

and if we were under attack you
would want to be inside this space

inside this seventeen
inches of armor

the lookouts the
helmsman Lee helmsman

the captain

the officer the deck all
these men are protected

and they have to be
inside here during combat.

These were very advanced chips
even by the standards of world war two.

They were very heavily armed
with nine sixteen inch guns.

Most importantly with their
electronic eyes that sense

that suits in terms of search
radars gunnery radars.

Now we're going to go
down in the heart and soul.

We're going down seven decks.

Welcome to the engine room
one we have for engine rooms

collectively each engine room
at maximum speed can produce

fifty three thousand
shaft horsepower.

So at thirty three knots or thirty
seven and a half miles an hour

at two hundred and twelve
thousand shaft horsepower

that's amazing when
you're pushing around

fifty eight thousand tons
of ship men and armor.

With a range of twenty
five thousand miles.

Wisconsin could almost
circumnavigate the globe.

As we use a lot of fuel

two point three million
gallons of fuel every two weeks.

We try and

maintain the tank
levels and eighty percent

we never want
to have to tell the

Pentagon sorry we need to
get fuel before we go there

all you do is say yes
we're headed there now.

When Wisconsin and

the war in April
nineteen forty four.

All those formidable
capabilities would be fully tested.

Radar and anti aircraft batteries were
crucial in protecting against kamikaze attacks

on the vulnerable us carry of.

But it was when American soldiers have
to fight the Japanese hand-to-hand the

Wisconsin's big guns
would make that mop.

In preparation for
an invasion of Japan.

Us marines fought a
bitter campaign to play

the Japanese occupiers
from islands across the

pacific region.

From the Marshall
islands to Guam.

From iwo jima and
finally talk in our.

For trying to work
our way to Japan.

We know we need to
conquer some key island chain

so that we can have
a foothold for aircraft

and so to help with that we did
shore bombardment in okinawa.

Again and iwo jima.

Looking for pillbox is that kind of
thing and softening the beach at.

Tell mum power served as
Wisconsin's fire control officer.

Or in.

Main battery plot.

We're going to control the fire.

Of.

The turrets here was
in charge of making sure

we got a proper solution on
the target we were assigned.

Tom bombarded sure targets of Vietnam using
the same guns as his predecessors when

they supported island
landings in the second mobile.

Guys are on the beach.

And they need help.

Okay they don't
have time to wait for.

An aircraft authority
or that kind of thing.

That's where we are
very accomplished that is

once we find the target

we can land on that
target over and over again.

If we were putting
troops to sure.

They have no
better friend than a.

Our class battleships.

Japanese defiance was finally landed when
to atomic bombs were delivered by aircraft.

Greatest ceremonial owner
of the war was given to a ship.

The Iowa class USS Missouri.

Her for that was the stage for the allies
vanquished enemy to finally surrender.

War had been a brutal
humiliating disaster for Japan.

Pops nothing embodied
the catastrophe mold

and the story of the
most powerful battleship.

Ever built.

She is the most superb battleship
that humankind has ever produced.

Unfortunately that title slips
from her grasp very quickly.

I.

And nineteen forty as
war had raged in Europe.

Japan was defiantly
building as military

strength for the coming
struggle against the usa.

Imperial Japanese Navy was
already assembled an impressive fleet.

Then they launched the mightiest
battleship the would ever float.

Yamato.

Battleships of got progressively
bigger and more capable and

the Japanese build

the largest super super
treadmills in the world.

Acknowledging they could never
have build a america or in quantity.

Yamato designers
opted to go big.

They built a battleship there
were seventy thousand tons

which gave them a
qualitative over match guess

a likely American
battleship of the day.

That was the only
chance a Japanese saw

and be successful against the
Americans and a major feat engage.

Tomatoes whole was huge.

Longer than three boeing seven
four seven years of nose to tail.

She was.

In twenty three
thousand tons of armor.

In places of a sixty
centimeters thick.

But it was her peerless fire power
which made yamato so fearsome.

Nine eighteen inch guns
arranged in three turrets

with a lie largest ever
mounted on a ship.

Yamato was designed to secure
a maintain naval supremacy

in the pacific for Japan.

Yamato in some respects in the
context of her time was the most superb.

Battleship that humankind
has ever produced

unfortunately that title slips
from her grasp very quickly.

The pacific theater
is a very different wool

and battleships play their role

but there's nowhere don't
think way you can see it

more sharper focus on the fact
that battleships have to be part of.

A combined cohesive fleas.

In the vast pacific theater.

The aircraft carrier escape.

Able to deliver ordinance
accurately have a huge rages.

After that carry carrier fleet was
decimated at the battle of midway.

Japan's ability to
protect its most valuable

ships from usa heritage
was greatly diminish.

Japanese battleships are being forced
to operate more and more without a cover

and what is he exposes is
have incredibly vulnerable

day all if they're not
part of a balance place.

Admiral Yamamoto.

Rather disparagingly likened
yamato to an ancient religious scroll

the sorta thing old people in the superstitious
hang up on their walls to give them

comfort but otherwise have
no practical value whatever.

Despite being fitted with one
hundred and sixty two anti aircraft guns

yamato was kept at bay by the constant
threat of attack by American planes.

By the time the Americans reach

in our just two hundred and fifty
seven kilometers from Japan itself.

Yamato was finished
as a tactical weapon.

All that was left.

Was for her three thousand crewmen
to join that kamikaze pilot compatriots.

The ultimate sacrifice.

She sent on a do
or die mission really.

To to join penetrate
the American fleet.

That is surrounding okinawa
and supporting the landings there

she sent in without air cover.

The theories she will go in at high
speed all guns blazing and actually ground

herself deliberately
as an unsinkable

a battery.

One before reaching okinawa

over a one hundred u s aircraft
unleashed a relentless attack.

She put up quite a fight but
her weaponry was ineffective.

Her crew will not
have the quality that

characterized the
imperial Navy at the bigger.

War

and she effectively suffered the same fate
of any Japanese warship that tried to put

out of its harbor in the
spring of nineteen forty five.

Finally.

After seventeen directions

the pride of the
Japanese Navy detonated.

A mushroom clouds six
kilometers hi Rose into the sky

the flash of light was
seen from Japan itself.

All hans were lost.

Yamato is inevitable demise
alongside those of bismol can tirpitz

signaled the
battleship at had its day.

Old big on.

Power alone was no longer know.

Aircraft carriers
with the future.

But there was one
extraordinary exception.

America's mighty.

Iowa class battleships.

The for Iowa's was so capable of fitted so
well into the all powerful us carrier fleas

the they alone of all world
war two battleships how to.

The post-war Korea's.

In the decades that followed

the Iowa's bombarded
shorelines in Korea Vietnam

and following an extensive refit

were again brought back into service by
Ronald Reagan in the nineteen eighties

the Russians at the
time think and nineteen

eighty had about seventeen
hundred active duty ships

and we had four hundred

and so there's a build up the
fleet and to keep the costs down

they decided they would bring back
ships that were sitting in ready reserve

and we could.

Build referred that and
making a modern ship

it was three hundred eighty five million
bring this ship back to life and modernize

it bring on computers
and that kind of thing

but it did some tests and tried
to computerized the guns but

frankly.

You can't fix what isn't broken

and it works really well
manipulated by hand.

Wisconsin last fired her guns and launch
missiles bombarding Iraqi positions join the

first Gulf war in
nineteen ninety one.

Before being
decommissioned later that yet.

But Wisconsin and her
three sisters ships were

preserved as regal
reminders of a bygone era.

To me it's amazing

you know built and thirty
nine months by hand.

Forty five thousand tons of steel
you could use a ship again today.

We going to throw
these chains off

and spruce her up a little bit

and train up some.

Good Americans.

Will they know but
that's a different story

could they yes that amazes me.

Battleship may have lost its
crimes of the aircraft carrier.

But while they ruled.

These imperious castles of steel
shape the history of naval warfare.

In battleship went from being

the yard state the currency by which
Navy's measured their worth and importance

right through to a plateau
where they became.

A vast the important powerful useful naval
assets and then kind of tipping off the

end where they
became a subsidiary.

A nice to have platform.

Able to provide I'd

gunfire simple for
change the show.

Do they will ever forget them

the twentieth century really the
first half of the twentieth century

is dominated by the battleship.

Next time.

The mighty dreadnoughts

the story of how one man's
vision lead to a revolutionary wash it

would spark an arms race.

Message was modernize.

Modernize

or die.

An arms race that would
lead to the first will war.

The greatest see battle
the world had ever seen.

Story of warships so powerful.

That they changed the world.

And the incredible mighty dreadnought
monster worship of world where one is bang

next latency at nine.

Next night we stay in the
high seas joining the crew

of a royal Navy destroyer
heading off of and seven.

Expedition

to see me.

And.