All language subtitles for Drain.the.Oceans.S02E14.1080p.WEB.h264-TBS_track3_[eng]

NARRATOR: Pearl Harbor
is just the beginning.

In the terrifying weeks after
Japan's surprise attack,

more shocking blows
fall upon the Allies,

as a wave of terror
spreads across the Pacific,

leaving behind a tragic
trail of wreckage

on the ocean floor.

Imagine if we could
empty the oceans,

letting the water
drain away to reveal

the secrets on the sea floor.

Now, we can.

Using accurate data and
astonishing technology

to bring light once
again to a lost world.

This time...what can a
shattered wreck in the South
China Sea reveal

about the technical
brilliance of the
Japanese navy?

ANTHONY: The result was
complete collapse of half

of the ship's systems
from a single blow.

NARRATOR: What secret
weapon sends this
mighty battleship down?

OSAMU: If you can't see it
coming, how do you avoid it?

Well, the answer is you don't.

NARRATOR: And why does
this sleepy Australian port
become a second Pearl Harbor?

[theme music plays].

December 1941.

The empire of Japan
is on the march.

It already holds
parts of China.

Now it targets the regions
beyond, sparking conflict
with America and her allies.

Including Great Britain.

From the fortress of Singapore,

the Royal Navy dominates
the South China Seas.

Can the ruins of a mighty
battleship reveal just how
badly the British misjudged

the power of their new enemy?

After the surprise attack
on Pearl Harbor,

Winston Churchill worries
that Japan might invade

the Dutch East Indies
and British Malaya,

areas rich in the resources

that Japan badly
needs, especially oil.

Seeing the imminent threat,
the Royal Navy mobilizes a
battle group of six powerful

war ships, and
call it Force Z.

Its mission is to head north east from Singapore, on the lookout for Japanese invaders.

Leading the convoy is
a brand new battleship,
HMS Prince of Wales.

Churchill believes that
her mere presence will be
enough to deter the enemy.

ERIC: Prince of Wales was a
state of the art battleship,
very heavily protected.

The ship with its armor was
pretty immune to attack.

ROD: The battleship was
the supreme embodiment of

a nation's sea
power and majesty.

If you saw Prince of Wales
coming over the horizon, you
knew you were in big trouble.

NARRATOR: Armed with ten
14 inch main guns, plus
16 secondary guns and

anti-aircraft capability,
the Prince of Wales is
lethal to targets at sea,

on land and in the air.

She's also well protected.

Armor shields the deck, and an additional 15 inch thick belt surrounds her massive hull.

Force Z is 50 miles
east of British Malaya,

when it encounters Japanese naval units for the first time.

But by early afternoon
the following day,

the Prince of Wales is at the bottom of the South China Sea,

and Britannia's rule over
these waters is over.

Decades later, diver
Rod MacDonald is part
of a military expedition

to research what happened here.

ROD: My role in this
expedition is basically
to try and work out

exactly why the wreck sank.

When this vessel was
built, it was a state
of the art battleship.

NARRATOR: The location of
the wreck is well known.

But her condition has
not been revealed in
such detail before.

Over 200 feet down, the
mighty Prince of Wales,

silent on the sea floor.

There are areas
of serious damage.

Over weeks, the divers scour
the wreck, gathering data.

And as the waters roll back,

light shines for the first
time in almost 80 years

on HMS Prince of Wales.

It's mostly intact,

but its starboard side
is punctured by three
massive holes.

From their position below
the water line, they look
like torpedo strikes.

Elsewhere on the
wreck, further details
of her final battle.

The smaller 5.25 gun turrets
on the starboard side
are all aimed downwards.

As the British sailors
fight to defend their ship,
what are they shooting at?

The answer may lie
with another ship, the
USS North Carolina.

A battleship built to
similar specifications.

It survived its own deadly
encounters with the Japanese.

Naval historian Anthony
Tully believes this
battleship holds clues

about the downfall of
its British cousin.

ANTHONY: Behind us here,
the North Carolina's
secondary battery,

a five inch 38 caliber guns.

The Prince of Wales
had eight five inch
mounts of similar size.

These guns were trained
low on the horizontal.

They're not elevated like
this, but rather like this.

NARRATOR: Guns trained low
couldn't hit distant ships.

And they aren't for
taking on submarines.

Tully believes it can only
mean one thing, air attack.

ANTHONY: So they're trying
to track the planes 'cause
the Japanese aircraft were

attacking at wave top level
and they had to lower them
to this level to even have a

chance of hitting them.

NARRATOR: 5.2 inch guns
are formidable against
attacking aircraft,

but the armor belted
hull is the Prince of
Wales ultimate defense,

impervious to most gun
fire and torpedoes.

ERIC: If any ship
would be able to shrug
off an air attack,

it was Prince of Wales.

ROD: No battleship had
been sunk in action
in the open sea.

The big guns of battleship
were the only things

that could take out
another battleship.

NARRATOR: Despite
all this protection,

somehow the Japanese
managed to break through.

The drained wreck
exposes more clues.

The holes reveal
whatever hit this hull
created massive damage,

much bigger than damage
caused by a typical
torpedo of the day.

It points to one thing, a
new Japanese wonder weapon.

The type 91 torpedo.

OSAMU: The standard torpedo
can break the surface and

run in an erratic directionthat you don't intend it to go.

But the Japanese had
pretty much worked the bugs
out of their torpedoes.

NARRATOR: The Japanese
military used the 91,
with devastating effect,

for the first time just days
earlier at Pearl Harbor.

OSAMU: It came as a nasty
surprise to the Allies.

The war head was quite
powerful compared to other
contemporary torpedoes.

It could be released at a
higher altitude, at a longer
distance from the target,

at higher speed.

These innovations made it
a revolutionary version
of an aerial torpedo.

NARRATOR: The type 91 torpedo
is indeed revolutionary.

At its nose is a warhead
carrying a payloads of
450 pounds of explosive.

Wooden stabilizers on its tail fins guide it into the water.

On entering, the
fins snap off.

Then an internal depth
meter keeps the missile
from rolling off target,

and at a steady 20
feet below the surface.

But if the torpedo was at this depth, it should have hit the ship right in the armor belt.

ROD: If any of these torpedoes
had hit the armor belt,

Prince of Wales would
have survived unscathed.

NARRATOR: But the
damage on the wreck is
way below the armor...

On the ship's soft underbelly.

How did the Japanese
91s strike so low?

NARRATOR: The battleship
HMS Prince of Wales is sunk

while patrolling the
South China Sea.

Japanese aerial torpedoes,
designed to strike at
precisely 20 feet below

the water line, have
pierced the battleship.

But her hull is supposed
to be impenetrable.

Looking at what remains of
the battered wreck, the hull
damage shows torpedoes strike

three times on the
starboard side,

outside the protective
armor belt and below the

normal operating
depth of the type 91.

And there's another
hole on the port side,
close to the stern.

Can this torpedo strike
explain the ship's fate?

The damage at the stern attracts the attention of naval historian Anthony Tully.

He's on board the USS North
Carolina, a ship with similar

design features to
the Prince of Wales.

ANTHONY: This is the
propeller shaft we're seeing.

If you were standing
right here, it would
be spinning like crazy.

Because of the torpedo hit,
you had a bent shaft rotating
out of, out of alignment.

NARRATOR: The bent
shaft causes a dangerous
chain reaction.

A ship's hull is divided into partitions known as bulkheads.

These add strength and can
be sealed off to contain
water if flooding occurs.

They are what allow a warship to take a hit but stay afloat.

Running through these
bulkheads are the ship's
four propeller shafts.

A damaged but still rotating
shaft would rupture the

bulkhead seals all
along its length.

This would allow water to
flood the engine room, deep
in the center of the ship.

ANTHONY: This entire
space, this entire vast
claustrophobic space,

would be filled with water.

ROD: It doesn't take
much water inside a ship to
alter the trim of the ship.

NARRATOR: If flooding makes the ship list to one side, it would raise the armor belt out

of the water, exposing the
ship's vulnerable hull to
further torpedo strikes.

ROD: If the ship had been on
an even keel, that torpedo
would have hit the armored

belt, which would have
dealt with it quite easily.

NARRATOR: Using all the
evidence, we can now recreate
what likely happened.

It's late morning.

Force Z are spotted by
enemy aircraft and turned
back, heading to Singapore.

But the hunter
becomes the hunted.

Japanese bombers arriving
from nearby bases
spot the British fleet.

The Prince of Wales lowers
her anti-aircraft guns and
opens fire on the enemy.

A bomber now at wave top level on her attack run launches her deadly type 91 torpedo.

It strikes the
Prince of Wales.

Right by the port propeller.

ERIC: It is impossible
to protect the propellers and
steering gear of a battleship.

NARRATOR: The flooding
ship starts to list.

The armored section rises up,
bringing the unprotected hull

into the firing line
of the torpedo.

OSAMU: It's a sitting duck.

NARRATOR: Three more torpedoes strike the Prince of Wales,

on the starboard side,
beneath the armor plating.

A state of the art
battleship is now brought down
by a handful of torpedoes.

ERIC: In about 100 minutes,
less than two hours, one of
the most modern battleships in

the world had been sunk
by torpedo bombers.

NARRATOR: Force Z loses the
Prince of Wales and one other
warship in the battle group,

HMS Repulse.

840 British sailors are
dead and naval warfare
has been changed forever.

ERIC: No battleship had been
sunk by air attack at sea.

This is a major landmark
in naval history.

NARRATOR: This catastrophic defeat marks the beginning of the end for the British Empire

in the east, and the Japanese
have only just begun.

What can we learn of the
scale of Japan's ambition
from a vessel lost over

3,000 miles from Japan itself?

Expedition diver Mac McCarthy
has been investigating wrecks

in the Pacific
Ocean for decades.

War records reveal a
Japanese submarine, I-124,

was sunk off the coast of
Australia in January, 1942.

And he wants to find it.

His mission takes him to
waters north of Australia.

To an area declared a
war grave and off limits
to diving since 1976.

MICHAEL: I had a personal
desire to see it because it
had so much mystery around it.

NARRATOR: In 1988, Mac and
his team gained permission
to explore the wreckage.

MICHAEL: The problem was that
the position fixing in those
early days wasn't very good,

so it was very difficult
to locate the wreck.

NARRATOR: The crew
deploys a side scan sonar.

MICHAEL: You clearly
start to see this pointy
shape, which is about,

of course it's a
glorious moment.

Oh heckety deck, look at this.

NARRATOR: Mac's team have
pinpointed what looks
like their sunken sub.

Next, they lower an ROV.

MICHAEL: There we all
were around the screen.

And then down it goes.

We're watching the compass and
we're watching what's in front

and then there
comes the submarine.

NARRATOR: The submarine
has suffered damage.

But is this the sub
he's looking for?

To find out, we're
now able to drain the
waters of the Timor Sea.

The submarine appears.

A five and a half inch deck
gun is clearly visible.

The conning tower shows signs
of damage from enemy attack.

It must have been hit
hard and repeatedly.

And there's more.

Markings visible on the tower.

Japanese submarine, I-124.

Submarines are the ultimate
maritime stealth weapon.

Nearly undetectable when
submerged, but something
must have found this one.

Australian naval historian Tom Lewis is trying to work out

what the submarine
was doing here.

He's found blueprints
that match the sunken
sub's features.

TOM: If you look at
this, you've got torpedo
tubes, ballast tanks,

you've got diesel engines,
you've got electric batteries,
you've got periscopes.

You sort of say okay, German
U-boat from World War I.

So, Japan took the
plans of one of the German
U-boats and they copied it.

NARRATOR: But this isn't a straight copy of a German sub.

The Japanese take the design and develop it further to give the submarine a new role.

TOM: This is a mine
laying submarine.

It's designed in a different
way from other submarines
of World War I and II.

The mines are bigger than
the average sort of mine.

You make a big mine and
you dispense it and it's
got more fire power,

it's got more punch.

NARRATOR: The I-124 is one
of four underwater mine layers
in the Imperial Japanese Navy.

280 feet long, it carries
a crew of over 75 men.

Its armed with torpedoes,
and a deck gun, and it carries
42 powerful sea mines.

MICHAEL: This book here is
the wreck inspection journal,
which we have to keep.

NARRATOR: So what was
this minelayer doing here?

Mac McCarthy finds a map
detailing the war movements of
all four Japanese mine layers.

MICHAEL: These are the
Japanese records and they
show the movements of these

Japanese submarines in the
north Australian coast, and
their proximity to the coast.

NARRATOR: The Japanese subs
are targeting this critical
supply route between northern

Australia and the
Dutch East Indies.

A mine layer should
be undetectable.

So how did it somehow
make itself a target?

NARRATOR: Off the coast of
northern Australia, diver
Mac McCarthy has found

a Japanese World
War II submarine.

A closer look at the
drained wreck reveals
something unusual.

Hatches in the hull
have been blown open.

Elsewhere on the sea
bed, something curious.

Objects that looks
like oil barrels.

These are submarine killers.

Depth charges.

Depth charges are deployed
when a submarine is spotted.

As a charge sinks
to a pre-selected
depth, it detonates.

The shockwave can
send a sub down.

This sub must have been
spotted then hit hard.

But how did the enemy
know where I-124 was?

January 19th, 1942,
the submarine sends

a routine message
that is picked up by
Allied intelligence.

The following day, a torpedo
attack on a US ship

alerts them to Japanese
submarine activity.

The Australian sub-killer,
Deloraine, armed to the
teeth with depth charges,

heads off to search for it.

While Japanese and German
subs are similar, their tactics are very different.

The Germans target
merchant shipping,

while Japanese subs shadow and attack Allied task-forces.

TOM: The Japanese strategy
in World War II, how they use
their submarines, is floored.

They attack warships.

It's a sort of odd concept.

NARRATOR: When the Deloraine
spots a torpedo fired at it,
it's the clue the crew needs.

For once, the Japanese
navy is too ambitious
for its own good.

It allows the Deloraine to pinpoint the sub, then attack.

Now using evidence from
historical records and
our drained shipwreck,

we can illustrate
I-124's final hours.

The I-124 is laying mines
in the Allied shipping lane.

Allied intelligence
alerts HMAS Deloraine to
the presence of a sub.

She fails to find it.

The I-124 spots the Australian warship first and attacks.

A torpedo narrowly misses
and the Deloraine is alerted
to the sub's position.

TOM: Unfortunately, they
took on a modern warship,

specifically designed
to kill submarines.

NARRATOR: The minesweeper
immediately charges the sub.

MICHAEL: Where do you go?

Once they've got a lock
on you and they can see
where it's come from,

they know where you are.

It's a suicidal position.

NARRATOR: I-124 is
pummeled by round after
round of depth charges.

Seconds later the hatches blow and she plunges to the depths.

The first Japanese submarine
to be sunk by the Australian
Navy in World War II.

There are no survivors.

Despite their advanced
technology, the Japanese
strategy of using subs for

pre-emptive attacks
costs them dearly here.

But the wreck of I-124 is
evidence that the Japanese
do quickly bring the war to

northern Australia.

They will be back,
and in shocking force.

Maritime archaeologists David Steinberg and Silvano Young are leading an expedition dive

in Darwin Harbor,
northern Australia.

They've come to investigate
the largest ever
attack on Australian soil.

The only warning is the
drone of an air armada.

Nearly 200 Japanese
planes descend on Darwin,
strafing the harbor.

Next, they target
the town itself.

Nine naval vessels are sunk.

And hundreds are
dead and wounded.

DAVID: It's a massive
attack and was devastating
and overwhelming and

lived in people's memories.

Those that experienced
it will never forget it.

I think Darwin is
Australia's Pearl Harbor.

NARRATOR: David and Silvano
are searching for evidence
to understand just why

the raid was so successful
and so deadly.

DAVID: There it is.

One of the main things we're
gonna be looking for is any
damage that's been done from

the attack on the
9th February, 1942.

DAVID [over radio]:
Heading down.

Roger, left surface, 0918.

On a wreck.

SILVANO: Yeah, Roger, just
have a swim round and just
work out where you are.

DAVID [over radio]: This looks
like a structure here.

NARRATOR: But the dive
can only reveal so much.

Using data from David
and Silvano's survey,

we can lay the floor
of Darwin Harbor bare.

To reveal not a ship...

But a plane.

Camouflaged paintwork suggests it's military, not civilian.

Features on the plane
help David identify it.

It's a Catalina.

The Catalina is an
Allied flying boat.

It was used for vital
intelligence gathering
and surveillance.

SILVANO: The Catalinas were
essential for the Allied war
effort because the only way

you were, you were gonna
find the enemy at sea
was with your own eyes.

DAVID [over radio]: Here you've got some tall sheeting and I'm just, oh look at this.

Does that look burnt to you?

SILVANO: Certainly does.
It's definitely burnt.

NARRATOR: There's
clear evidence of fire.

SILVANO: That's most
definitely burn damage
from the fire that caused

the loss of the aircraft.

NARRATOR: So what
caused this fire?

And ultimately sent
this Catalina down.

DAVID [over radio]: Can you
see this clearly?

We've got more
examples of damage.

SILVANO: So you got
machine gun damage.

NARRATOR: Returning to
the drained wreckage,
there's more evidence.

More signs of gunfire.

Under the pilot's
window, something else.

Larger holes.

Tell-tale signs.

SILVANO: Yeah, that
looks like 20 millimeter
canon damage there.

NARRATOR: Which points to
one particular fighter plane.

A brilliantly designed killer
that is a vital cog in Japan's
military machine,

the Zero.

SILVANO: Yeah, it's
very exciting, yeah.

It was really a
process of elimination.

There was Zeroes that came
down, strafing on them.

NARRATOR: The Mitsubishi A6M,
or Zero, is a fighter plane

capable of launching
from aircraft carriers.

It carries a pair of 7.7
millimeter machine guns.

and a twenty millimeter
cannon in each wing.

It has an unparalleled
range of over 1,500 miles.

OSAMU: The Zero is an
iconic Japanese fighter.

It is to the Japanese what the
Spitfire is to the British.

NARRATOR: Japan attacks Darwin with her best, and fresh evidence beneath the waters

of the harbor reveals a
secret tactic that almost
guarantees success.

NARRATOR: David Steinberg
and Silvano Young have found
one plane in Darwin harbor.

Now they extend their search.

And discover two
more downed Catalinas.

Mapping the position of
all three planes reveals
they lie in a line.

They couldn't have
all crashed this way,

the wrecked flying boats
must have been moored at

the time of the attack.

Evidence on the drained
Catalina sheds light on

Japanese tactics that
February morning.

The position of the damage, all on one side, is revealing.

The bullet-holes all
lie on its south side,

suggesting the
direction of the attack comes

not from the sea,
but from inland.

An approach from the south,
over the Australian mainland,
would surprise the Allies.

And Tom Lewis thinks
the Japanese tactic of
attacking in the morning

gave them another advantage.

TOM: There's a number
of reasons for attacking
from the south.

The first is you're
attacking out of the sun.

You've still got
the sun behind you,

which is good because it
blinds your defenders.

So it gives you that
element of surprise.

NARRATOR: At the time of the
attack, Darwin is a small
town of 2,000 civilians.

But Darwin's size
belies its importance.

Its location isn't just the
perfect place for launching
surveillance aircraft,

like the Catalinas, as
David and Silvano discover

as they continue to
scour the sea bed.

They find another wreck.

A large ship.

Much of it is gone, salvaged
in the decades since it sank.

But enough remains to
reveal what it was.

A cargo ship.

DAVID: We can see there is
trucks and motorbikes andammunition and also on this

side is gas masks and
mortars, military equipment.

NARRATOR: And the importance
of Darwin becomes clear.

It's a crucial link in
the Allies supply chain.

A base for vessels and the
hub for shipping ammunition
and other vital supplies.

Now, it's possible
to understand exactly what
happened in Darwin harbor.

188 planes are launched
from four Japanese
aircraft carriers,

nearly 200 miles to the north.

But rather than heading
directly to Darwin,
the planes fly east,

circling around the town.

They want to attack Darwin
harbor from the south.

TOM: You would have
seen the aircraft coming
towards you this way,

crossing the beach down there.

NARRATOR: The Australians
are unprepared.

The town is poorly defended
for an attack from the air.

The Catalinas are sitting
ducks as the Zeroes
circle round to attack,

protected by the full
glare of the sun.

The pilots swoop down,
unleashing the full
force of their weapons.

Machine gunning
the moored planes.

A second wave of
planes arrives.

High altitude bombers.

TOM: The place was in
absolute pandemonium.

NARRATOR: The fighters
and bombers destroy
30 military aircraft

and nine ships
anchored in the harbor.

TOM: Behind is left chaos,
ships on fire, ships sinking,

people underwater
who are dead.

OSAMU: Darwin remained
ineffective as a harbor
that could support the war.

NARRATOR: The Japanese have
used advanced technology
and smart tactics against

an unsuspecting and
unprepared enemy.

The Allied supply chain into
the Pacific is crippled.

And still, the
shockwave spreads.

In Washington DC and London,
Allied leaders are astonished

at the scale and speed
of Japan's victories.

Just days before the
Darwin bombing, the
Japanese also capture

the famous British
stronghold of Singapore.

Now Japan has its eye on Java, in the Dutch East Indies, today known as Indonesia.

The Imperial Navy mobilizes
a landing fleet to seize
its precious oil fields.

The Allies scramble
to stop them.

Pulling together a force that
includes one of Australia's
most famous warships,

HMAS Perth.

At 550 feet long, the
light cruiser HMAS Perth
is almost twice the length

of the Statue of Liberty.

Achieving 32 knots,
she is built for speed.

Armed with almost 40 guns, the Perth is a fearsome opponent.

But the Allied fleet she' s
sailing in is unprepared
for what's to come.

ERIC: There was an ad hoc forceof cruisers and destroyers

from four different countries,

Australia, Britain,
the United States
and the Netherlands.

So you have this
almost Rag, Tag and
Bobtail force of ships

against the very highly trainedand motivated Japanese Navy.

NARRATOR: The two fleets meet in the Battle of the Java Sea,

and the Allies don't
stand a chance.

They lose five vessels.

Along with 2,300 lives.

ERIC: There was no
common doctrine.

No common signaling system.

The whole thing degenerated
into complete chaos.

NARRATOR: Two Allied cruisers
escape, seeking refuge on
the southern coast of Java.

An American heavy cruiser,
USS Houston, and HMAS Perth.

ERIC: They had been told
that there were no Japanese
forces in the vicinity

so therefore they could
have a safe passage.

NARRATOR: But 48
hours after escaping the
Japanese in the Java Sea,

the Perth disappears.

Diver Andrew Fock and
skipper Vidar Skoglie lead
an expedition to unravel

the fate of the
Australian warship.

Her last known position is
in the Sunda Strait, a narrow
passage of water between the

islands of Java and Sumatra.

Andrew surveys the area.

Eventually, the sonar
detects something promising.

VIDAR: The biggest thrill of
all is to find a new wreck.

You never know what you're
gonna find down there.

NARRATOR: The team dives.

They encounter
a massive wreck.

And as the waters roll back...

We can see for the first time

a huge vessel
lying on her port side.

With four large gun
turrets visible and several gaping holes in the hull.

It's definitely the Perth.

The guns on one of
the turrets are pointing
straight down into the sand

and the sighting ports on the two half turrets are both open.

These guns were operational
and firing to the end.

She did not go down
without a fight.

NARRATOR: Andrew and
Vidar are investigating
the wreck of HMAS Perth.

The exposed starboard side
of the Perth hull shows
several gaping holes,

and underneath they
find something else.

VIDAR: It had some very
serious torpedo damage
right behind the bow.

We could actually swim
through the hole from
one side to the other.

NARRATOR: Using the data, we
can look beneath the wreck,

to reveal something impossible to see from diving alone.

Two bigger holes on
the opposite port side.

The Perth was under attack
from both directions.

And one attacker hit
the ship with something
unusually powerful.

A typical torpedo wouldn't
cause such massive damage.

Wartime records suggest
the most likely cause was
something that wreaked havoc

in the Java Sea days before,

a Japanese wonder weapon.

The long lance torpedo.

ERIC: The long last was
by far the most effective
torpedo in the world,

and the western navies
had virtually no
idea of its existence.

NARRATOR: Reaching faster
speeds than anything
else afloat at the time,

the long lance has a
huge warhead, packing
around twice the payload

of an average torpedo.

It has an astonishing
range of 23 miles.

Inside, it uses
a revolutionary
system of propulsion

which leaves no
trail of bubbles.

OSAMU: The standard
surface torpedo ran
on compressed air,

which means that
you get bubbles.

It leaves a wake in the
water which you can see
from quite a distance.

You can see it coming.

If you can't see the torpedo
coming, how do you avoid it?

Well the answer it you don't.

You can't.

NARRATOR: Its ability
to target ships at distances
unheard of means the Japanese

can attack the Allies
while keeping their
own ships out of range.

Tragically for the Perth, she
escapes one Japanese fleet,

then sails unwittingly into
the path of a second.

ERIC: What they didn't
realize was that they were

running into a major
Japanese invasion force.

NARRATOR: It's now
possible to understand the
final hours of HMAS Perth.

In the Java Sea, the Allies
take on the Japanese.

Over the course of the
battle, they are hit hard.

The Perth escapes.

Told that the Sunda Strait is
safe, the captain heads for
this narrow stretch of water

off the Java coast.

But she's spotted by
a Japanese destroyer.

Minutes later, three entire
destroyer divisions close in.

Salvos of torpedoes
come from all sides.

The Japanese go
in for the kill.

ERIC: Now they could
concentrate a superior
force of long lance fitted

destroyers against
the Allied ships.

NARRATOR: Two long
lance torpedoes likely
hit the port side,

causing a massive explosion.

ERIC: It was very difficult to
counter a long lance because
you couldn't see it coming.

NARRATOR: The Perth goes down
just eight minutes later,

along with 375 sailors.

Another emphatic victory
for the Japanese navy.

The following day, Japanese
landing fleets begin their
invasion of Java island.

Just one day after
originally planned.

ERIC: With the delay
of the invasion of Java
by a mere 24 hours,

and the heavy losses suffered,

this must go down as one
of the greatest disasters
in naval history.

NARRATOR: Thousands of Allied
lives were lost across the
region in just three days.

But today, surveys reveal that little remains of the Perth,

or many other ships
sunk by the Japanese.

These and other vessels face
another more recent enemy...

Salvagers, with the wrecks
being illegally ripped
apart for their metal.

VIDAR: The grab itself would
go down on top of the wreck
and it would stab into it,

that would close up
and then just tear, tear
chunks of metal off.

So piece by piece,
they would rip it up.

ANDREW: There's just
no wreck at all.

As if it's just been lifted.

NARRATOR: What remains of these wrecks is a continuing reminder of the first shocking

months of the Pacific war.

And the price of
Allied overconfidence.

ERIC: There was
a tendency at this time to
underestimate the Japanese.

OSAMU: The Japanese actively
encouraged that kind of
misperception on the part of

the western countries because
they didn't want them to know
how advanced they really were.

NARRATOR: Less than three
months after Pearl Harbor,

the empire of Japan is at
the apex of its power.

With superior technology and
strategy, it now controls the
entire region and its oil.

It will take the Allies
three deadly years to

defeat an enemy they so
shockingly underestimated.

Captioned by Cotter
Captioning Services.