1 00:00:03,503 --> 00:00:06,301 In a century riddled with unrest, 2 00:00:07,874 --> 00:00:11,810 World War Two remains the epic tale... 3 00:00:14,681 --> 00:00:17,582 an event of unparalleled impact. 4 00:00:18,151 --> 00:00:21,314 Even now, we are uncovering new information. 5 00:00:22,822 --> 00:00:25,017 about secret weapons... 6 00:00:26,092 --> 00:00:28,117 and villainous tactics, 7 00:00:29,863 --> 00:00:32,331 about extraordinary heroism... 8 00:00:32,465 --> 00:00:34,365 and boundless shame; 9 00:00:36,302 --> 00:00:41,638 about a time when one life or one bullet, or one bomb 10 00:00:42,375 --> 00:00:45,674 separated infamy and glory... 11 00:00:46,379 --> 00:00:48,677 defeat and victory... 12 00:00:50,083 --> 00:00:52,278 tyranny and freedom... 13 00:00:55,688 --> 00:00:59,385 untold stories of World War II. 14 00:01:15,375 --> 00:01:18,811 On the 16th of July, 1945... 15 00:01:19,012 --> 00:01:24,040 a bomb exploded in the American desert a very different kind of bomb. 16 00:01:24,818 --> 00:01:28,515 The furious energy of the atom had been unleashed. 17 00:01:29,189 --> 00:01:32,056 That power might have landed in the wrong hands, 18 00:01:32,192 --> 00:01:38,461 had a few brave men not waged a secret war against Germany's atomic program. 19 00:01:40,233 --> 00:01:42,292 At the height of the Second World War, 20 00:01:42,435 --> 00:01:46,201 Germany's Nazi Party marched toward global domination, 21 00:01:46,339 --> 00:01:49,706 led by its ambitious, remorseless leader. 22 00:01:52,312 --> 00:01:55,304 Adolph Hitler had the will to conquer the world. 23 00:01:56,583 --> 00:01:59,177 All he needed was the weapon. 24 00:02:01,888 --> 00:02:04,721 And he had found the means to make one 25 00:02:04,858 --> 00:02:07,292 in the most unlikely place. 26 00:02:10,330 --> 00:02:13,595 It was here, in the snow-packed mountains of Norway, 27 00:02:13,733 --> 00:02:18,500 that a handful of soldiers on skis fought to stop Hitler's dream 28 00:02:18,638 --> 00:02:20,663 of possessing the ultimate weapon. 29 00:02:24,110 --> 00:02:25,407 Old men now, 30 00:02:25,545 --> 00:02:30,278 they remember how they risked their young lives for the cause of liberty. 31 00:02:30,783 --> 00:02:35,413 They would stop at nothing in order to conquer the world. 32 00:02:35,555 --> 00:02:39,992 So the feeling that they had to be stopped became very, very strong. 33 00:02:41,494 --> 00:02:44,827 We were quite certain that if we are caught by Germans, 34 00:02:45,031 --> 00:02:48,125 we would all have been executed. 35 00:02:50,870 --> 00:02:54,897 It would take three daring attempts before they succeeded. 36 00:03:03,416 --> 00:03:05,816 April 9, 1940. 37 00:03:05,985 --> 00:03:09,113 German warships penetrated Oslo Fjord. 38 00:03:10,056 --> 00:03:13,287 The blitzkrieg had come to Norway. 39 00:03:15,428 --> 00:03:19,626 Within two months, the besieged nation was forced to surrender. 40 00:03:21,234 --> 00:03:24,431 Well, it took some time to realize it, actually. 41 00:03:24,571 --> 00:03:29,031 But when Autumn 1940 came, and the darkness came in over Norway, 42 00:03:29,175 --> 00:03:35,273 you certainly realized that it was not the same Norway you had the year before 43 00:03:37,617 --> 00:03:42,987 To understand it, you need to have the experience of being occupied. 44 00:03:44,857 --> 00:03:50,762 To live in an occupied country is the most distressing thing you can do. 45 00:03:57,670 --> 00:04:01,003 A vast occupying army flooded the country. 46 00:04:02,508 --> 00:04:06,467 The Nazis now controlled all aspects of Norwegian life. 47 00:04:08,114 --> 00:04:12,676 No actually war between each Norwegian and each German. 48 00:04:13,653 --> 00:04:15,644 We had to do the best out of it. 49 00:04:15,788 --> 00:04:18,154 I think that was the common opinion. 50 00:04:18,992 --> 00:04:22,291 Inside, of course, most Norwegians hated them. 51 00:04:26,766 --> 00:04:28,666 They introduced Gestapo in Norway, 52 00:04:28,801 --> 00:04:32,794 when they understood that resistance was coming 53 00:04:34,474 --> 00:04:37,034 started arresting people, torturing people, 54 00:04:37,176 --> 00:04:39,440 killing people, et cetera et cetera. 55 00:04:39,579 --> 00:04:46,075 And then we certainly understood what an occupation meant to people. 56 00:04:51,124 --> 00:04:54,992 Hitler's grasp extended into every corner of the country. 57 00:04:57,463 --> 00:04:59,863 In this remote Norwegian valley, 58 00:04:59,966 --> 00:05:03,367 the Germans seized a very special prize 59 00:05:04,070 --> 00:05:06,595 the Norsk Hydro factory. 60 00:05:07,607 --> 00:05:12,567 Surrounded by mountains, the factory had been built on the face 61 00:05:12,712 --> 00:05:15,681 of a cliff overlooking a deep and impassable gorge. 62 00:05:17,417 --> 00:05:18,509 For the Nazis, 63 00:05:18,651 --> 00:05:22,143 it was an ideal location for a wartime project difficult 64 00:05:22,288 --> 00:05:25,257 to bomb and easy to defend. 65 00:05:27,226 --> 00:05:31,856 But, to the generals in Berlin, Norsk Hydro offered even more. 66 00:05:34,167 --> 00:05:39,104 In 1940, it was the only hydroelectric plant in the world 67 00:05:39,238 --> 00:05:43,106 producing large amounts of an extremely rare substance: 68 00:05:43,643 --> 00:05:47,739 deuterium oxide, also known as heavy water. 69 00:05:54,187 --> 00:05:56,587 As soon as they took control of the plant, 70 00:05:56,723 --> 00:05:58,987 production went into high gear. 71 00:06:05,031 --> 00:06:06,726 When word reached Great Britain, 72 00:06:06,866 --> 00:06:10,199 a powerful sense of foreboding swept through the allies. 73 00:06:11,771 --> 00:06:14,706 As the most likely target for a German A-bomb, 74 00:06:14,841 --> 00:06:17,469 Britain faced the greatest peril. 75 00:06:18,378 --> 00:06:22,974 Is it possible they do not realize that we shall never cease 76 00:06:23,116 --> 00:06:27,610 to persevere against them until they have been taught a lesson 77 00:06:27,754 --> 00:06:30,746 which they and the world will never forget? 78 00:06:31,591 --> 00:06:36,324 Winston Churchill's spirited defiance of the Nazis became a rallying point 79 00:06:36,462 --> 00:06:39,659 for resistance fighters from all over conquered Europe. 80 00:06:42,168 --> 00:06:45,069 Young Norwegians eager for combat joined the army 81 00:06:45,204 --> 00:06:48,071 of exiles gathering in Britain. 82 00:06:48,207 --> 00:06:55,340 There was no sacrifice that was too big to try to get the Germans out. 83 00:07:00,086 --> 00:07:02,919 The British created a secret organization 84 00:07:03,322 --> 00:07:08,316 the Special Operations Executive to fan the fires of resistance. 85 00:07:09,328 --> 00:07:13,287 You volunteered and you were trained by the British to go back to Norway 86 00:07:13,433 --> 00:07:17,995 and work behind the lines on sabotage instruction, 87 00:07:18,137 --> 00:07:22,437 reporting radio information, wireless operating, 88 00:07:22,575 --> 00:07:24,133 and that sort of thing. 89 00:07:28,581 --> 00:07:33,644 A few young resistance fighters would return to Norway undercover, 90 00:07:33,786 --> 00:07:37,654 armed with a plan to destroy the heavy-water factory. 91 00:07:40,026 --> 00:07:43,359 They were country boys and city kids, 92 00:07:43,496 --> 00:07:46,488 engineers and outdoorsmen, 93 00:07:46,632 --> 00:07:49,999 university students and career soldiers. 94 00:07:51,003 --> 00:07:55,736 Shock troops in a clandestine war against Hitler's a-bomb, 95 00:07:55,875 --> 00:07:59,174 they would become legends in their homeland. 96 00:08:01,814 --> 00:08:05,648 And some of them would even star in this 1948 movie 97 00:08:05,785 --> 00:08:08,219 chronicling their real-life exploits. 98 00:08:09,455 --> 00:08:13,915 Scenes from this film give a revealing glimpse of the daring mission. 99 00:08:17,663 --> 00:08:20,029 October, 18, 1942 100 00:08:21,167 --> 00:08:25,365 Four of the men returned home in dangerous night parachute jump. 101 00:08:25,505 --> 00:08:28,531 Their mission: to guide a British explosives team 102 00:08:28,674 --> 00:08:30,403 to the heavy-water plant. 103 00:08:32,512 --> 00:08:35,310 When we were leaving for the dropping zone, 104 00:08:35,448 --> 00:08:38,576 you felt that some of the people sending you 105 00:08:38,718 --> 00:08:40,652 didn't expect to see you once more, 106 00:08:40,786 --> 00:08:43,016 so we had to more or less cheer them up and say, 107 00:08:43,155 --> 00:08:46,147 It's not that this easy to get rid of us. 108 00:08:46,292 --> 00:08:48,954 We'll be back. Just wait and see. 109 00:08:54,133 --> 00:08:57,364 Our target is the heavy-water production. 110 00:08:57,503 --> 00:09:01,735 That was all. They said it's important and we have to destroy it. 111 00:09:03,976 --> 00:09:06,911 I knew that the heavy water was important 112 00:09:07,013 --> 00:09:09,948 for the Germans' weapon production, 113 00:09:10,082 --> 00:09:13,518 but in which way I had no idea. 114 00:09:17,156 --> 00:09:21,183 The commandos' first objective was to establish a secret landing field 115 00:09:21,327 --> 00:09:25,286 on the Hardangervidda, a huge plateau north of the factory. 116 00:09:29,535 --> 00:09:31,332 Crossing that bleak expanse, 117 00:09:31,470 --> 00:09:36,430 the Norwegians took over an empty cabin and made radio contact with England. 118 00:09:37,643 --> 00:09:40,077 The operation could begin. 119 00:09:43,282 --> 00:09:48,481 For the first sortie, the British sent a force in gliders towed by bombers 120 00:09:49,288 --> 00:09:51,950 a plan that needed clear weather. 121 00:09:52,491 --> 00:09:55,153 But over Norway, clouds, winds, 122 00:09:55,294 --> 00:09:58,593 and snow had cut visibility to near zero. 123 00:10:01,033 --> 00:10:02,933 For the Norwegians on the ground... 124 00:10:03,069 --> 00:10:06,903 the flight had become a disaster waiting to happen. 125 00:10:07,039 --> 00:10:09,837 I tried to get a connection with England 126 00:10:09,976 --> 00:10:15,346 and warn them that at that time it wasn't possible. 127 00:10:16,749 --> 00:10:18,080 And then, suddenly, 128 00:10:18,217 --> 00:10:24,281 I heard interference in my headphones and I knew they were not far away. 129 00:10:24,423 --> 00:10:29,554 And shortly after, we also heard the engines on the aircraft, 130 00:10:29,695 --> 00:10:35,361 and it came dead on us, passed over us and disappeared. 131 00:10:35,801 --> 00:10:38,065 After about half an hour, 132 00:10:38,204 --> 00:10:45,042 the next plane with a guide glider came and it came right to us correctly, 133 00:10:45,177 --> 00:10:47,907 turned, and went away. 134 00:10:50,383 --> 00:10:53,910 The British troops never arrived at the rendezvous point. 135 00:10:57,423 --> 00:11:01,325 We got a message from London that both gliders 136 00:11:01,460 --> 00:11:07,262 and one of the Halifaxes had crashed in the mountains. 137 00:11:07,400 --> 00:11:10,392 That was the end of the Freshman operation. 138 00:11:10,536 --> 00:11:12,663 It was a complete disaster. 139 00:11:14,840 --> 00:11:18,799 The soldiers who survived the crash were rounded up and executed. 140 00:11:22,548 --> 00:11:27,679 The Allies' secret war against the heavy-water factory was now exposed. 141 00:11:29,255 --> 00:11:30,779 To avoid detection, 142 00:11:30,923 --> 00:11:34,450 the commandos withdrew deeper into the Hardangervidda. 143 00:11:36,162 --> 00:11:38,221 For weeks, perhaps months, 144 00:11:38,364 --> 00:11:42,824 they would have to live off a land where little existed but snow and ice. 145 00:11:43,869 --> 00:11:47,270 When this mission of the gliders failed, 146 00:11:47,406 --> 00:11:52,343 we had actually no supplies for further stay in the mountains. 147 00:11:52,812 --> 00:11:56,179 So we were dependent upon reindeer, 148 00:11:56,315 --> 00:12:01,685 but at that moment, there were few or no reindeer at all in our area, 149 00:12:01,821 --> 00:12:03,846 because of the wind directions. 150 00:12:05,558 --> 00:12:09,585 It was so very difficult to get the reindeers, 151 00:12:09,729 --> 00:12:14,962 but the day before Christmas, Jens, he shot a reindeer. 152 00:12:17,436 --> 00:12:22,965 Jens learned that if you take the stomach of a reindeer, 153 00:12:23,042 --> 00:12:25,670 you get vitamins from the reindeer moss. 154 00:12:25,811 --> 00:12:33,411 So we cut up the stomach and took out the reindeer moss, 155 00:12:33,552 --> 00:12:37,044 the contents, and mixed it with blood and everything, 156 00:12:37,189 --> 00:12:42,183 and made a nice porridge mixed with brain. 157 00:12:44,296 --> 00:12:48,596 And we were eating it and it probably saved our lives. 158 00:12:50,736 --> 00:12:52,397 So on Christmas Eve... 159 00:12:52,538 --> 00:12:55,029 we had a real fun party. 160 00:13:21,634 --> 00:13:25,764 We chatted; we had a good time at Christmas Eve. 161 00:13:25,905 --> 00:13:27,736 I remember well. 162 00:13:32,578 --> 00:13:36,014 You know your comrades outside and inside. 163 00:13:36,148 --> 00:13:39,709 You know what he is going to say before he opens his mouth. 164 00:13:40,286 --> 00:13:48,352 They had endurance, they had the will to hold on when there is nothing 165 00:13:48,494 --> 00:13:52,157 in you except the will which says to hold on. 166 00:13:53,732 --> 00:13:57,224 They would have to hold on through the darkest months of winter. 167 00:13:58,904 --> 00:14:02,738 But each day the Nazis' supply of heavy water was growing, 168 00:14:02,875 --> 00:14:05,036 drop by precious drop. 169 00:14:06,345 --> 00:14:08,540 London had to make a move. 170 00:14:09,982 --> 00:14:13,816 A second Norwegian squad, specially trained in explosives, 171 00:14:13,986 --> 00:14:17,114 would drop onto the Hardangervidda and join their comrades 172 00:14:17,256 --> 00:14:19,622 in an assault on the heavy-water plant 173 00:14:23,362 --> 00:14:26,092 February, 16, 1943 174 00:14:28,767 --> 00:14:32,498 under over of night the six new men landed. 175 00:14:33,672 --> 00:14:37,733 Now the commandos were ready to strike a blow against Hitler's A bomb 176 00:14:38,644 --> 00:14:43,013 if they could penetrate the factory's formidable and deadly defenses. 177 00:14:53,158 --> 00:14:57,993 To the commandos, the heavy-water plant appeared impervious to attack. 178 00:14:59,298 --> 00:15:04,326 To reach the factory, the saboteurs had to cross a deep, narrow gorge. 179 00:15:05,571 --> 00:15:07,539 There was only one road in. 180 00:15:08,274 --> 00:15:10,333 over a suspension bridge. 181 00:15:10,976 --> 00:15:15,470 And the bridge was patrolled 24 hours a day by German soldiers. 182 00:15:17,016 --> 00:15:20,042 Any direct assault would be doomed. 183 00:15:21,654 --> 00:15:26,751 But the chasm itself, with its steep, icy wall, lay unguarded. 184 00:15:27,793 --> 00:15:32,958 Someone said he thought it was rather impossible to cross that gorge. 185 00:15:33,032 --> 00:15:37,560 But it was decided that one should go down in daylight and find out. 186 00:15:38,170 --> 00:15:41,196 In daylight, I went down into the valley. 187 00:15:41,340 --> 00:15:44,275 I climbed down the gorge, crossed the river, 188 00:15:44,410 --> 00:15:47,470 and started climbing up on the other side. 189 00:15:47,613 --> 00:15:52,778 And then the same way back up to my friends up in the mountains... 190 00:15:52,918 --> 00:15:59,380 and told the fact that was possible to cross the gorge. 191 00:16:13,439 --> 00:16:19,571 You felt that this may be serious, very serious for you, 192 00:16:19,712 --> 00:16:26,276 and you accepted that you might not come through. 193 00:16:32,257 --> 00:16:34,748 We climbed down the river and up on the other side, 194 00:16:34,893 --> 00:16:40,832 and our plan was to get in position for the attack by 11:30, 195 00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:42,558 because at 12 o'clock at night, 196 00:16:42,701 --> 00:16:45,761 there was guards down at the suspension bridge. 197 00:17:14,500 --> 00:17:18,231 We wanted to see the German guards being relived, 198 00:17:18,370 --> 00:17:20,702 coming up in the factory area, 199 00:17:20,839 --> 00:17:25,071 and enter the barracks, before we went inside. 200 00:17:32,684 --> 00:17:36,950 We all thought we would be discovered when we forced the gate. 201 00:17:37,089 --> 00:17:38,716 But nothing happened. 202 00:17:39,758 --> 00:17:43,194 Two of us carried a full set of charges, 203 00:17:43,328 --> 00:17:47,321 in case one should be shot, there should always be a reserve. 204 00:17:49,501 --> 00:17:51,799 The task for the demolition team: 205 00:17:52,004 --> 00:17:54,598 To attach explosives to the heavy-water cells, 206 00:17:54,740 --> 00:17:56,674 located in a basement room. 207 00:18:00,112 --> 00:18:03,639 Meanwhile, their comrades on lookout waited. 208 00:18:03,782 --> 00:18:07,775 Each passing moment increased the chance of discovery. 209 00:18:07,853 --> 00:18:09,980 If we had been discovered, 210 00:18:10,122 --> 00:18:15,059 I knew that during such circumstances you have to act. 211 00:18:15,194 --> 00:18:19,358 Do I shoot? A shot would, of course, 212 00:18:19,498 --> 00:18:22,490 maybe spoil the whole operation. 213 00:18:26,205 --> 00:18:29,641 Inside, they overpowered a Norwegian workman. 214 00:18:30,209 --> 00:18:33,701 Holding him at gunpoint, the saboteurs placed their charges, 215 00:18:33,846 --> 00:18:37,247 pausing only to decide how much time they would need to escape 216 00:18:37,382 --> 00:18:38,815 before the blast. 217 00:18:39,785 --> 00:18:42,549 Suddenly, they were interrupted by their captive. 218 00:18:43,155 --> 00:18:46,386 He broke in and said, It's all right, you may blow the factory, 219 00:18:46,525 --> 00:18:47,082 that's all right. 220 00:18:47,226 --> 00:18:49,524 But may I have my glasses? 221 00:18:49,661 --> 00:18:54,064 Because it's hopeless to get new glasses in Norway today. 222 00:18:54,199 --> 00:18:58,966 And you would have thought that you probably said, Damm your glasses! 223 00:18:59,037 --> 00:19:01,198 We have no time for looking for glasses! 224 00:19:01,340 --> 00:19:03,035 But instead, you dropped what you were doing 225 00:19:03,175 --> 00:19:05,370 and you searched all around the room and you found 226 00:19:05,511 --> 00:19:10,073 you found the-the holster for his glasses and gave him and he said, 227 00:19:10,215 --> 00:19:13,912 thank you very much, and so we went on with taping the fuses. 228 00:19:41,046 --> 00:19:43,571 So far, they had beaten the odds. 229 00:19:43,715 --> 00:19:47,515 Now the commandos had only seconds to make their escape. 230 00:19:48,887 --> 00:19:53,187 And after a few minutes one minute, maybe two minutes they were there, 231 00:19:53,325 --> 00:19:55,555 with us on the railway line. 232 00:19:55,694 --> 00:19:59,391 And we ran the same way back as we had come in. 233 00:20:04,403 --> 00:20:07,429 The road conditions and the snow condition were excellent... 234 00:20:07,573 --> 00:20:08,597 because on the railway, 235 00:20:08,740 --> 00:20:11,573 quite a lot of the snow had blown away on the other side, 236 00:20:11,710 --> 00:20:16,044 and that was frozen solid ground, and we didn't put a mark. 237 00:20:17,015 --> 00:20:19,848 So everything was actually on our side 238 00:20:22,554 --> 00:20:25,546 With determination, skill, and daring, 239 00:20:25,691 --> 00:20:29,149 the saboteurs had dealt a crippling blow to their enemy 240 00:20:29,294 --> 00:20:31,194 without losing a man. 241 00:20:33,465 --> 00:20:37,128 But heavy water had become a German priority, 242 00:20:37,269 --> 00:20:41,000 and within six months, the factory was back in operation. 243 00:20:43,442 --> 00:20:45,706 The Allies had to assume the worst: 244 00:20:45,844 --> 00:20:49,507 Nazi scientists were close than ever to building a bomb. 245 00:20:50,882 --> 00:20:53,578 Another attack on the factory was set in motion 246 00:20:54,653 --> 00:20:57,053 this time, from the air. 247 00:21:00,492 --> 00:21:02,653 In a bold noonday raid, 248 00:21:02,794 --> 00:21:07,288 176 American bombers hurled destruction at the plant. 249 00:21:10,068 --> 00:21:15,096 The raid damaged factory buildings and killed civilians in a nearby shelter. 250 00:21:16,408 --> 00:21:21,107 But the heavy water, secured in the basement, went untouched. 251 00:21:24,116 --> 00:21:25,606 With production halted, 252 00:21:25,751 --> 00:21:27,184 the Germans decided to move 253 00:21:27,319 --> 00:21:30,482 the operation to the safety of the Fatherland, 254 00:21:30,622 --> 00:21:36,083 and inadvertently gave the commandos one last chance to destroy it forever. 255 00:21:37,129 --> 00:21:41,532 We had got information from London that the Germans. 256 00:21:41,667 --> 00:21:47,003 had planned to take down the remaining heavy water. 257 00:21:51,510 --> 00:21:54,274 Team members secretly scouted the route. 258 00:21:56,048 --> 00:21:58,744 The heavy water would be loaded onto railway cars 259 00:21:58,884 --> 00:22:01,114 and taken by train to Lake Tinnsjo. 260 00:22:02,187 --> 00:22:04,815 Here, the cars would go aboard a passenger ferry 261 00:22:04,990 --> 00:22:07,550 for the two-hour trip across the lake. 262 00:22:09,294 --> 00:22:14,527 A well-placed charge could sink the ferry, and with it all the heavy water 263 00:22:16,868 --> 00:22:21,737 But sinking a public ferry meant paying a terrible price. 264 00:22:21,873 --> 00:22:25,365 Our conclusion was that the sinking of the ferry 265 00:22:25,510 --> 00:22:28,604 was about the only possible solution. 266 00:22:29,381 --> 00:22:31,508 It would have to be civilian sabotage, 267 00:22:31,650 --> 00:22:35,142 which was naturally a very serious thing to deal with. 268 00:22:37,522 --> 00:22:39,615 There was no doubt in our mind 269 00:22:39,758 --> 00:22:42,625 that there were going to be human lives taken, 270 00:22:42,761 --> 00:22:45,992 and furthermore, it could be anybody. 271 00:22:46,131 --> 00:22:49,294 And Rjukan was a small town, 272 00:22:49,434 --> 00:22:52,597 and it was really almost like all family. 273 00:22:54,039 --> 00:22:56,667 Fearing neighbors and friends might die, 274 00:22:56,808 --> 00:23:00,175 the Norwegians sent an urgent message to London. 275 00:23:03,515 --> 00:23:07,474 The British reply was immediated and uncompromising. 276 00:23:08,420 --> 00:23:10,615 It has been talked over 277 00:23:10,756 --> 00:23:15,819 and the conclusion is they heavy water has to be-to be destroyed. 278 00:23:16,094 --> 00:23:20,963 Good luck and when you get such a message from London, you have to do it 279 00:23:21,099 --> 00:23:21,497 Not to be. 280 00:23:21,633 --> 00:23:22,600 They were sad. 281 00:23:22,734 --> 00:23:25,328 But everyone in my family was scared to what they hear. 282 00:23:25,470 --> 00:23:27,438 I couldn't do anything about it. 283 00:23:42,254 --> 00:23:46,884 The Germans never put any guards on the ferry. 284 00:23:47,392 --> 00:23:51,089 They were watching their barrels on the railway. 285 00:23:52,164 --> 00:23:56,100 But the ferryboat itself was not guarded at all. 286 00:24:10,015 --> 00:24:12,779 At ten o'clock on a quiet Sunday morning, 287 00:24:12,984 --> 00:24:15,748 the ferry men cast off from the dock on schedule. 288 00:24:21,593 --> 00:24:25,290 Forty-five minutes later, at the appointed spot, 289 00:24:25,997 --> 00:24:28,761 a blast tore through the bottom of the boat. 290 00:24:34,139 --> 00:24:40,442 It was a very, very bad blow, and the ferry rapidly rose, 291 00:24:40,579 --> 00:24:45,346 and the cargo on the ferry-there were railway wagons, you see 292 00:24:45,484 --> 00:24:50,786 so they rushed down and tilted the ferry still more. 293 00:24:54,292 --> 00:24:58,991 Within moments, the mortally damaged ferry had sunk beneath the surface, 294 00:24:59,130 --> 00:25:01,928 carrying with it innocent passengers 295 00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:05,527 and Nazi Germany's atomic ambitions. 296 00:25:06,304 --> 00:25:10,934 And the heavy water being on board went down with the ship 297 00:25:11,009 --> 00:25:16,606 and it's still on the bottom of the Tinnsjo Lake. 298 00:25:22,687 --> 00:25:24,314 Later, the Allies would learn that 299 00:25:24,456 --> 00:25:27,789 the Nazis were never close to an atomic breakthrough. 300 00:25:30,729 --> 00:25:33,823 The U.S. won the A-bomb race. 301 00:25:39,304 --> 00:25:44,139 Within months of the German defeat, America dropped the first atomic bomb. 302 00:25:47,846 --> 00:25:51,976 But in the Allies hands, the bomb helped to win a war, 303 00:25:52,083 --> 00:25:53,983 not perpetuate one. 304 00:25:55,153 --> 00:25:59,681 If Hitler had the bomb, he might have used it to devastate the world. 305 00:26:02,027 --> 00:26:06,088 The Norwegian resistance fighters did their part to stop him. 306 00:26:08,733 --> 00:26:13,932 Their mission was one of the greatest feats of sabotage in military history 307 00:26:14,072 --> 00:26:19,100 something that had to be done, at all costs, and was. 308 00:26:21,546 --> 00:26:24,947 You have to fight for your freedom and for peace. 309 00:26:26,151 --> 00:26:28,176 It's not something that you have every day. 310 00:26:28,320 --> 00:26:29,947 You have to fight for it every day, 311 00:26:31,089 --> 00:26:32,454 to keep it. 312 00:26:33,191 --> 00:26:38,026 It's like a glass bowl; it's very easy to break. 313 00:26:38,163 --> 00:26:39,755 It's easy to lose. 314 00:26:50,342 --> 00:26:54,403 Half a world away, on December 7, 1941 315 00:26:54,546 --> 00:26:57,777 American learned the cost of freedom, 316 00:26:57,916 --> 00:27:00,680 when Japan devastated Pearl Harbor. 317 00:27:02,454 --> 00:27:06,914 That sneak attack included the stealth weapons of their day 318 00:27:07,025 --> 00:27:09,152 midget submarines 319 00:27:09,794 --> 00:27:15,755 They were sleek, deadly, and, until now, consigned to history. 320 00:27:28,980 --> 00:27:31,471 The National Park Service and the U.S. Navy 321 00:27:31,616 --> 00:27:35,052 have searched for the wreck of a Japanese midget submarine. 322 00:27:35,754 --> 00:27:38,518 An hour before the Japanese savaged Pearl Harbor, 323 00:27:38,657 --> 00:27:41,751 a U.S. destroyer sank the tiny vessel. 324 00:27:41,893 --> 00:27:44,521 The encounter could have warned American forces 325 00:27:44,663 --> 00:27:48,861 that bombs and torpedoes were about to rain on Battleship Row. 326 00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:50,524 But it did not. 327 00:27:52,070 --> 00:27:56,370 Marine archaeologist Dan Lenihan directed the hunt for the midget sub. 328 00:27:57,742 --> 00:28:00,506 Jim Delgado was the project's historian 329 00:28:03,314 --> 00:28:05,908 Their collaboration grew out of earlier research 330 00:28:05,984 --> 00:28:08,111 below the surface of Pearl Harbor. 331 00:28:12,590 --> 00:28:15,787 They searched for evidence of a bygone conflict 332 00:28:15,960 --> 00:28:20,056 a battle waged underwater by five midget submarines. 333 00:28:23,001 --> 00:28:25,469 One sub played a special role. 334 00:28:26,337 --> 00:28:31,036 It was particularly exciting about the midget sub that's outside the entrance 335 00:28:31,176 --> 00:28:34,475 It would have represented the first exchange of hostilities 336 00:28:34,612 --> 00:28:37,638 between the Untied States and Japan in World War II. 337 00:28:37,782 --> 00:28:42,082 And, because, remember, that this sub was sunk 338 00:28:42,220 --> 00:28:46,088 an hour before the planes attacked Pearl Harbor. 339 00:28:46,224 --> 00:28:49,352 An incredibly important, significant find if we could do it. 340 00:28:52,163 --> 00:28:53,630 The search for the midget sub 341 00:28:53,765 --> 00:28:56,734 focused on a square mile of debris-laden bottom. 342 00:29:00,705 --> 00:29:05,438 The area is a graveyard of war relics, like this old Navy plane. 343 00:29:06,411 --> 00:29:11,610 A thousand feet down, in the darkness, everything begins to resemble a sub. 344 00:29:11,750 --> 00:29:16,187 But what they're looking for is eighty feet long and six feet across. 345 00:29:16,588 --> 00:29:21,491 It carried two torpedoes and was manned by an officer and a navigator. 346 00:29:21,626 --> 00:29:24,060 They were going to come on in, sit, and wait. 347 00:29:24,195 --> 00:29:27,358 And then, when the attack occurred, when the planes came in, 348 00:29:27,499 --> 00:29:31,299 when all hell broke loose in Pearl Harbor, they would surface, 349 00:29:31,436 --> 00:29:32,664 fire their torpedoes, 350 00:29:32,804 --> 00:29:36,604 and wreak as much havoc as they could, swing around Ford Island, 351 00:29:36,741 --> 00:29:39,574 head back on out, and rendezvous 352 00:29:39,711 --> 00:29:45,377 with their mother subs to be taken back to Japan. 353 00:29:48,686 --> 00:29:52,383 The mother ships moved into position off Diamond Head before midnight, 354 00:29:52,524 --> 00:29:54,958 December 6, 1941. 355 00:29:55,860 --> 00:29:58,954 They arrived ahead of the Imperial Navy task force. 356 00:30:00,031 --> 00:30:03,296 Each mother ship had a midget sub strapped to its hull. 357 00:30:04,335 --> 00:30:07,532 The larger craft would release the midgets before dawn 358 00:30:07,672 --> 00:30:09,765 and retrieve them after the attack. 359 00:30:10,341 --> 00:30:13,401 But the tiny vessels would never return from the battle 360 00:30:13,545 --> 00:30:16,708 a clash of giants that had been brewing for years. 361 00:30:19,484 --> 00:30:23,614 From Manchuria to French Indochina in less than a decade, 362 00:30:23,755 --> 00:30:27,816 Japan had rolled up a long list of conquests across Asia. 363 00:30:29,527 --> 00:30:34,123 Despite an Allied embargo on war materials, she was growing stronger. 364 00:30:34,999 --> 00:30:38,833 By late 1941, the vast resources of Southeast Asia 365 00:30:38,970 --> 00:30:40,904 lay before the ''Rising Sun''. 366 00:30:42,106 --> 00:30:43,505 Their only protection: 367 00:30:43,641 --> 00:30:46,269 a scattering of British and Dutch outposts 368 00:30:46,411 --> 00:30:48,902 and the U.S. Pacific Fleet. 369 00:30:49,047 --> 00:30:52,244 I think there was a general sense that war would break out. 370 00:30:52,383 --> 00:30:55,750 I don't think anybody expected that it would take place here at Pearl Harbor. 371 00:30:57,355 --> 00:31:01,758 Successfully surprising an island fortress four thousand miles away 372 00:31:01,893 --> 00:31:04,987 also seemed impossible to Japanese leaders. 373 00:31:06,164 --> 00:31:10,123 But admiral Isoroku Yamamoto convinced them this daring raid 374 00:31:10,268 --> 00:31:13,431 was the only way to disarm the ''sleeping giant''. 375 00:31:14,439 --> 00:31:17,636 Japan had to smash American's Pacific Fleet, 376 00:31:17,775 --> 00:31:22,075 even if that meant attacking its home base in Oahu's natural harbor. 377 00:31:25,216 --> 00:31:29,277 Japanese pilots trained hard through the fall of 1941. 378 00:31:30,021 --> 00:31:33,320 So did the crews handpicked to pilot the midget subs, 379 00:31:33,458 --> 00:31:35,551 the fastest boats of their kind. 380 00:31:36,361 --> 00:31:39,524 Soon they would have their chance for glory. 381 00:31:41,766 --> 00:31:42,528 In Washington, 382 00:31:42,667 --> 00:31:46,068 Japanese diplomats continued to seek peace through negotiation 383 00:31:46,204 --> 00:31:47,762 until the final hour. 384 00:31:49,040 --> 00:31:52,874 Not even Japan's ambassador knew of the coming attack. 385 00:32:01,686 --> 00:32:03,984 December 7, 1941. 386 00:32:05,223 --> 00:32:10,320 As Oahu slept, the Japanese task force brought 350 attack planes 387 00:32:10,461 --> 00:32:15,330 into striking distance of Pearl Harbor just two hundred miles away. 388 00:32:16,868 --> 00:32:17,800 In Washington, 389 00:32:18,002 --> 00:32:22,803 military intelligence teams had broken Japan's diplomatic code. 390 00:32:23,007 --> 00:32:25,976 They knew an armada was somewhere in the Pacific. 391 00:32:27,011 --> 00:32:29,275 But they did not know its destination. 392 00:32:30,181 --> 00:32:33,116 Near diamond Head, dawn was approaching. 393 00:32:33,251 --> 00:32:37,415 The Japanese mother subs surfaced to release the midget submarines. 394 00:32:37,822 --> 00:32:39,483 But something went wrong. 395 00:32:39,624 --> 00:32:43,321 At 6:30 a.m., a seaplane pilot and a freighter crew 396 00:32:43,461 --> 00:32:46,692 reported a strange sub approaching Pearl Harbor 397 00:32:48,533 --> 00:32:51,696 The captain of a nearby destroyer, the U.S.S. Ward, 398 00:32:51,836 --> 00:32:56,296 realized intruders were trying to penetrate the fleet's defenses. 399 00:32:56,441 --> 00:32:58,409 His gunners opened fire. 400 00:32:59,978 --> 00:33:03,379 The midget sub began sinking in a thousand feet of water. 401 00:33:03,514 --> 00:33:05,709 Depth charges finished her off. 402 00:33:09,320 --> 00:33:12,289 The Ward reported the sinking twice. 403 00:33:13,191 --> 00:33:16,592 But before notifying Pacific Fleet commander Husband E. Kimmel, 404 00:33:16,728 --> 00:33:19,595 district headquarters waited thirty minutes. 405 00:33:20,431 --> 00:33:23,559 The delay was all the attackers needed 406 00:33:23,701 --> 00:33:27,535 News of the sub might have prevented what happened next. 407 00:33:27,672 --> 00:33:29,162 Well, the message was radioed in 408 00:33:29,307 --> 00:33:32,174 that they fired on and depth-charged this sub. 409 00:33:32,310 --> 00:33:34,676 It didn't reach Admiral Kimmel. 410 00:33:34,812 --> 00:33:38,771 It wasn't until just a few minutes before the attack commenced in earnest 411 00:33:38,916 --> 00:33:42,010 with the planes coming in, that the admiral was finally phoned and told, 412 00:33:42,153 --> 00:33:43,984 Look, we got this message in from the commander 413 00:33:44,122 --> 00:33:46,488 of the Ward saying that he's fired upon a sub 414 00:33:46,624 --> 00:33:47,648 operating in the defensive zone. 415 00:33:47,792 --> 00:33:50,283 Kimmel says, Why wasn't I told about this? 416 00:33:50,428 --> 00:33:53,192 He's putting his uniform on, he's heading out, 417 00:33:53,331 --> 00:33:55,993 and that moment the planes come screaming in overhead, 418 00:33:56,100 --> 00:33:57,727 the bombs start dropping. 419 00:34:03,274 --> 00:34:07,711 At five minutes to eight, forty torpedo planes roared over Ford Island 420 00:34:07,845 --> 00:34:10,040 bearing the mark of the Rising Sun. 421 00:34:11,816 --> 00:34:14,614 Accompanying them were fifty-one dive bombers, 422 00:34:14,752 --> 00:34:17,050 forty-nine high-level bombers, 423 00:34:17,188 --> 00:34:18,849 and forty-three fighters. 424 00:34:20,825 --> 00:34:24,261 American sailors thought they were seeing a practice drill. 425 00:34:24,996 --> 00:34:29,524 Bombs and bullets found them eating breakfast, ironing uniforms, 426 00:34:29,667 --> 00:34:31,965 or staring into the fatal sky. 427 00:34:38,743 --> 00:34:43,373 Arizona...Oklahoma...California. 428 00:34:45,216 --> 00:34:48,982 One by one, great ships sank. 429 00:34:49,554 --> 00:34:53,991 The West Virginia alone took six torpedoes and countless bombs. 430 00:34:56,127 --> 00:34:59,756 Pearl Harbor's air defense burned on the runways. 431 00:35:00,565 --> 00:35:01,964 Only a handful of pilots managed 432 00:35:02,100 --> 00:35:05,627 to scramble into a sky thick with enemy planes. 433 00:35:10,108 --> 00:35:12,440 The midget subs' moment had come. 434 00:35:13,478 --> 00:35:16,003 But one had been sunk by the Ward. 435 00:35:17,048 --> 00:35:20,245 A second was depth-charged outside the harbor. 436 00:35:20,651 --> 00:35:24,587 Of the three that remained, two posed a threat to Battleship Row. 437 00:35:25,590 --> 00:35:32,018 Between waves of attacking planes, Sub Three fired a torpedo and missed. 438 00:35:32,597 --> 00:35:35,122 Moments later, it was rammed and depth-charged 439 00:35:35,266 --> 00:35:37,962 by a destroyer making for the open sea 440 00:35:40,304 --> 00:35:43,000 Sub and crew hit bottom. 441 00:35:46,110 --> 00:35:49,273 Overhead, the Japanese continued their assault. 442 00:35:49,413 --> 00:35:53,509 But now smoke and anti-aircraft fire obscured their targets. 443 00:35:54,018 --> 00:35:56,646 The ''sleeping giant'' had awakened. 444 00:36:00,458 --> 00:36:03,359 Ripped by a bomb that set off an ammunition magazine, 445 00:36:03,494 --> 00:36:06,292 battleship Arizona blazed toward her doom. 446 00:36:08,032 --> 00:36:11,729 Survivors staggered into waters aflame with burning oil. 447 00:36:13,638 --> 00:36:18,666 Japans' brilliant, relentless attack had killed more than 2,400. 448 00:36:18,809 --> 00:36:23,473 Americans and crippled most of the U.S. battleships in the Pacific 449 00:36:33,991 --> 00:36:37,859 For the midget subs, though, the battle was not as glorious. 450 00:36:37,995 --> 00:36:40,987 Two still roamed Hawaiian waters. 451 00:36:41,132 --> 00:36:44,363 Number Four, which may have fired at Battleship Row, 452 00:36:44,502 --> 00:36:47,960 radioed news of Japan's victory to the fleet that evening. 453 00:36:48,072 --> 00:36:51,371 Then she disappeared, never to be heard from again. 454 00:36:54,612 --> 00:36:58,309 The subs may not have seen resounding success... 455 00:36:58,449 --> 00:37:01,714 But Japan needed heroes, 456 00:37:01,852 --> 00:37:05,015 so the propaganda machine reincarnated their crews 457 00:37:05,156 --> 00:37:08,751 as the nine young gods of Pearl Harbor 458 00:37:10,428 --> 00:37:12,487 This wartime Japanese feature 459 00:37:12,630 --> 00:37:15,929 told their story with luxurious exaggeration. 460 00:37:16,701 --> 00:37:20,535 In truth, quarters were cramped, and reeked of battery fumes. 461 00:37:21,339 --> 00:37:24,502 The midget subs helped create confusion at Pearl Harbor, 462 00:37:24,642 --> 00:37:27,042 but didn't affect the war's outcome. 463 00:37:29,347 --> 00:37:32,316 And what of the last midget sub at Pearl Harbor? 464 00:37:32,850 --> 00:37:35,512 Commanded by ensign Kazuo Sakamaki, 465 00:37:35,653 --> 00:37:38,520 it suffered a fate worse than sinking. 466 00:37:38,656 --> 00:37:39,714 On December 8, 467 00:37:39,857 --> 00:37:42,951 as President Franklin D. Roosevelt called for war, 468 00:37:43,027 --> 00:37:46,827 Sakamaki's sub washed up on the far shore of Oahu, 469 00:37:46,998 --> 00:37:49,558 undone by a faulty gyroscope. 470 00:37:50,501 --> 00:37:52,162 The submarine wouldn't function right. 471 00:37:52,303 --> 00:37:55,466 So he drifted all the way around the island to the opposite end 472 00:37:55,606 --> 00:38:01,010 and then went ashore on the morning of December 8 at Bellows, 473 00:38:01,145 --> 00:38:05,343 where he and his crewman assigned to the sub tried to blow the ship up. 474 00:38:05,483 --> 00:38:08,384 It didn't work. They jumped into the water. 475 00:38:08,519 --> 00:38:09,076 The crewman then drowned, 476 00:38:09,220 --> 00:38:11,051 but Sakamaki washed ashore and become the first washed ashore 477 00:38:11,188 --> 00:38:14,180 and became the first prisoner of war that the U.S. captured 478 00:38:14,325 --> 00:38:18,421 in the Pacific: P.O.W. Number One. 479 00:38:19,764 --> 00:38:22,927 Sakamaki spent the war in prison. 480 00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:26,492 His sub toured the U.S., helping to sell war bonds 481 00:38:26,971 --> 00:38:29,496 a souvenir of dark days. 482 00:38:34,845 --> 00:38:39,646 At war's end, after throwing its all at U.S. forces, 483 00:38:39,784 --> 00:38:43,117 Japan let slip a new weapon of terror. 484 00:38:49,060 --> 00:38:53,053 For decades, the scars left by kamikaze attacks 485 00:38:53,197 --> 00:38:55,995 enforced a silence on both sides. 486 00:38:59,103 --> 00:39:02,561 But the men who fought those battles will never forget them. 487 00:39:08,212 --> 00:39:09,509 Nineteen forty-four. 488 00:39:10,047 --> 00:39:13,141 Japan, its back to the wall, makes a final, 489 00:39:13,284 --> 00:39:15,684 fanatic effort to stave off defeat. 490 00:39:17,855 --> 00:39:20,949 In an act incomprehensible to Americans 491 00:39:21,092 --> 00:39:24,960 the empire orders thousands of men to certain death. 492 00:39:27,698 --> 00:39:31,395 Before an attack, pilots drink a toast of sake 493 00:39:31,535 --> 00:39:34,368 a warrior's welcome to the death that awaited. 494 00:39:38,676 --> 00:39:44,979 They were kamikazes named for a typhoon that saved Japan from Mongol invaders. 495 00:39:45,716 --> 00:39:47,581 Some were veteran pilots, 496 00:39:47,718 --> 00:39:52,451 many were idealistic students eager to die for their nation's glory. 497 00:40:04,802 --> 00:40:08,829 Kamikazes inflicted awful punishment on their enemies. 498 00:40:09,407 --> 00:40:12,535 More than three thousand fliers dove to their deaths. 499 00:40:13,711 --> 00:40:18,910 They sank fifty-seven ships and damaged more than three hundred others 500 00:40:19,049 --> 00:40:22,143 Their attacks killed at least three thousand Americans 501 00:40:22,286 --> 00:40:24,345 and wounded more than six thousand. 502 00:40:24,955 --> 00:40:30,120 The kamikazes were the deadliest weapon ever launched against the U.S. Navy 503 00:40:30,261 --> 00:40:34,561 so frighteningly effective that their existence was initially kept secret 504 00:40:34,698 --> 00:40:36,222 from the American public. 505 00:40:50,114 --> 00:40:56,246 On April 16th, 1945, kamikazes knocked the U.S.S. Laffey out of the war. 506 00:40:57,521 --> 00:40:59,045 The Laffey was rebuilt; 507 00:40:59,190 --> 00:41:02,785 she now is a museum ship in Charleston North Carolina. 508 00:41:03,661 --> 00:41:08,325 Today, she's receiving visitors her skipper and four crew members 509 00:41:08,466 --> 00:41:09,990 from World War II. 510 00:41:14,572 --> 00:41:20,204 The sight of their ship raises a tide of memories for these comrades-in-arms 511 00:41:22,346 --> 00:41:24,371 Rear Admiral F. Julian Becton, 512 00:41:24,515 --> 00:41:29,475 who died in 1995, was 81 when he gave this interview. 513 00:41:30,154 --> 00:41:31,382 He commanded the Laffey during 514 00:41:31,522 --> 00:41:34,252 the invasions of Normandy and the Philippines. 515 00:41:34,391 --> 00:41:38,054 Steaming toward Okinawa, he knew what perils lay ahead. 516 00:41:39,263 --> 00:41:41,731 The kamikazes were the most effective weapon 517 00:41:41,866 --> 00:41:44,528 that the Japanese developed during the war. 518 00:41:44,668 --> 00:41:47,535 And it was a desperate effort on their part to do it, 519 00:41:47,671 --> 00:41:53,439 but they were terribly they had a terrible effect on our ships out there 520 00:41:56,714 --> 00:41:59,581 Ensign James Townley would win a Silver Star 521 00:41:59,717 --> 00:42:01,742 for his valor aboard the Laffey. 522 00:42:03,153 --> 00:42:08,682 My opinion of the kamikazes were that they were misguided people. 523 00:42:08,826 --> 00:42:10,691 Then we learned more about them. 524 00:42:10,828 --> 00:42:15,231 We found out that, yes, they were the ''Sons of the Divine wind'', 525 00:42:15,366 --> 00:42:17,994 or whatever they chose to call them. 526 00:42:18,135 --> 00:42:20,126 We called them ''One-Way Charlies''. 527 00:42:20,271 --> 00:42:24,139 And we were really scared to death of them, 528 00:42:24,275 --> 00:42:25,674 because no matter what you did, 529 00:42:25,809 --> 00:42:28,209 unless you could shoot them out of the air, they were coming in. 530 00:42:29,780 --> 00:42:32,180 Gunner's Mate Second Class Lawrence Delewski 531 00:42:32,316 --> 00:42:35,547 would earn a Bronze Star before his 21st, birthday. 532 00:42:35,686 --> 00:42:37,017 Everybody has their own way of thinking 533 00:42:37,154 --> 00:42:38,815 and their own way of thinking, and their own ideas. 534 00:42:39,023 --> 00:42:41,992 And their ways didn't suit us. 535 00:42:42,059 --> 00:42:48,225 There was-I certainly didn't feel as complacent as I feel now, 536 00:42:48,365 --> 00:42:49,992 45 years later. 537 00:42:50,334 --> 00:42:53,633 At that point, I was ready to kill them all. 538 00:42:57,041 --> 00:43:01,637 In Japan, another group of old comrades gathers for a reunion. 539 00:43:02,112 --> 00:43:09,018 These men were once the elite of the Japanese Kamikaze Corps-the Thunder Gods. 540 00:43:09,153 --> 00:43:10,586 They should be long dead, 541 00:43:10,721 --> 00:43:14,248 but they survived some because they flew fighter cover, 542 00:43:14,391 --> 00:43:17,326 others because seniority kept them out of combat 543 00:43:17,461 --> 00:43:20,089 to await American's invasion of the homeland. 544 00:43:21,398 --> 00:43:26,165 Now largely forgotten, they once made up an awesome attack force. 545 00:43:27,771 --> 00:43:32,333 Their weapon was the okha, which meant ''exploding cherry blossom''. 546 00:43:32,743 --> 00:43:36,873 But Americans gave it the code name baka, meaning ''fool''. 547 00:43:38,015 --> 00:43:40,506 The weapons were another type of kamikaze attack, 548 00:43:40,651 --> 00:43:42,983 a baka bomb captured on Okinawa. 549 00:43:43,087 --> 00:43:45,055 It's a two-and-a-half-ton flying bomb, 550 00:43:45,189 --> 00:43:48,989 dropped from a mother plane and carrying a suicide pilot. 551 00:43:50,260 --> 00:43:53,627 Three rocket propulsion units are set off on approaching the target, 552 00:43:53,764 --> 00:43:58,724 giving a maximum level speed of 535 miles per hour. 553 00:44:03,173 --> 00:44:07,200 The baka's punch is an armor piercing 2,600lb. Warhead. 554 00:44:07,344 --> 00:44:09,574 It's the first weapon specially designed 555 00:44:09,713 --> 00:44:11,943 for the Kamikaze Flying Corps. 556 00:44:20,057 --> 00:44:25,962 Reserve Lieutenant Hachiro Hosokawa was a senior member of an okha squadron 557 00:44:32,636 --> 00:44:37,403 There is a Japanese word, inujini ''to die like a dog'', 558 00:44:37,541 --> 00:44:39,475 meaning to die in vain. 559 00:44:40,344 --> 00:44:42,539 It is a wasteful death without honor. 560 00:44:43,747 --> 00:44:47,683 When I became a pilot, this situation was already so bad 561 00:44:47,818 --> 00:44:50,810 that fighting in an ordinary way was no use. 562 00:44:52,022 --> 00:44:54,582 We were chosen as elite pilots. 563 00:44:54,725 --> 00:44:58,126 Each of us received a headband and a dagger. 564 00:44:59,363 --> 00:45:02,526 We thought it was a privilege granted only to the members 565 00:45:02,666 --> 00:45:04,691 of the Human torpedo Unit, 566 00:45:04,835 --> 00:45:07,429 the elite Okha Corps, 567 00:45:07,571 --> 00:45:10,199 and that we would die gloriously. 568 00:45:20,150 --> 00:45:22,675 These were the Thunder Gods. 569 00:45:22,820 --> 00:45:26,813 All had volunteered; all were ready to die. 570 00:45:28,092 --> 00:45:32,552 Each year, they gather to pray for their fallen comrades. 571 00:45:35,733 --> 00:45:39,829 Commander Kunihiro Iwaki was Vice Commander of the Corps. 572 00:45:46,643 --> 00:45:51,580 The war situation was going so badly for Japan at that time 573 00:45:51,715 --> 00:45:56,152 that we realized that any semblance of normal military tactics 574 00:45:56,286 --> 00:45:58,982 could not possibly succeed. 575 00:45:59,056 --> 00:46:04,494 And we had to do the unthinkable or the incomprehensible 576 00:46:04,628 --> 00:46:06,596 in terms of the military acts 577 00:46:06,730 --> 00:46:11,531 in last ditch attempt to primarily get the American aircraft carriers. 578 00:46:12,770 --> 00:46:14,931 Given that situation, 579 00:46:15,072 --> 00:46:20,009 the men realized they had to become one with the bomb 580 00:46:20,144 --> 00:46:22,476 in that last, final struggle. 581 00:46:25,149 --> 00:46:29,313 Lieutenant Morimasa Yunokawa commanded on okha squadron. 582 00:46:33,023 --> 00:46:38,586 The thought of my death crossed my mind only for a fraction of a second. 583 00:46:38,729 --> 00:46:41,721 I was then thinking of only to serve. 584 00:46:41,865 --> 00:46:45,767 No matter how you try to understand how things were then, 585 00:46:45,903 --> 00:46:49,669 now in this peace time, I don't think you can. 586 00:46:52,676 --> 00:46:55,975 A kamikaze could send a ship to its grave 587 00:46:56,113 --> 00:46:59,446 but each flier only had one chance for success. 588 00:47:00,584 --> 00:47:04,680 Pilots were supposed to aim for battleships and aircraft carriers, 589 00:47:04,822 --> 00:47:09,156 but destroyers and their radar gear also were targets. 590 00:47:09,293 --> 00:47:10,521 Aboard the Laffey, 591 00:47:10,661 --> 00:47:14,563 nervous sailors repeated tales of picket ships breaking in half 592 00:47:14,698 --> 00:47:16,689 and sinking immediately. 593 00:47:18,635 --> 00:47:21,399 The crew would always debate where is the safest place to be. 594 00:47:21,538 --> 00:47:22,800 That was always the big talk. 595 00:47:22,973 --> 00:47:27,137 Is it safer to be below, or is it safer to be on deck, 596 00:47:27,277 --> 00:47:28,801 or in the bridge, or wherever. 597 00:47:28,979 --> 00:47:31,948 They all had their own theories about where was the safest place. 598 00:47:32,049 --> 00:47:33,949 Of course, there was no safe place. 599 00:48:04,748 --> 00:48:09,344 In April 1945, the noose was tightening on Japan. 600 00:48:11,488 --> 00:48:13,649 As the Battle of Okinawa began, 601 00:48:13,790 --> 00:48:17,282 destroyers patrolled fifty miles closer to Japan 602 00:48:17,427 --> 00:48:20,760 tempting kamikazes taking off from the mainland. 603 00:48:24,301 --> 00:48:29,000 Suicide attackers had sunk several destroyers on this battle station 604 00:48:29,139 --> 00:48:32,302 now it was the Laffey's turn to stand watch. 605 00:48:33,977 --> 00:48:38,346 On April 16th, the ship began its third day on the perimeter. 606 00:48:39,016 --> 00:48:41,143 The mood aboard was tense. 607 00:48:42,352 --> 00:48:46,015 At 8:27 a.m., the Laffey's number came up. 608 00:48:52,362 --> 00:48:57,664 Well, the first ones were just they sorter circled around out pretty far, 609 00:48:57,801 --> 00:49:01,794 maybe, oh eight, ten thousand yards. 610 00:49:01,939 --> 00:49:03,566 And then all of a sudden, 611 00:49:03,707 --> 00:49:06,005 it's like some sort of a signal, they started coming in. 612 00:49:06,143 --> 00:49:09,203 And first they just came in one or two at a time, 613 00:49:09,346 --> 00:49:16,809 and you just couldn't take them all under fire. 614 00:49:16,954 --> 00:49:21,516 So that's when we started getting hit. 615 00:49:21,658 --> 00:49:22,590 For eighty minutes, 616 00:49:22,726 --> 00:49:26,389 the Laffey's crew fought off the heaviest kamikaze attack ever 617 00:49:26,530 --> 00:49:27,929 on a single ship. 618 00:49:32,703 --> 00:49:38,835 Our closest call was a plane coming in on the starboard beam, 619 00:49:38,976 --> 00:49:41,740 and it was, when I first saw it, 620 00:49:41,878 --> 00:49:44,472 was low on the water, about ten thousand yards out. 621 00:49:45,248 --> 00:49:47,944 I figured it was about eight seconds away from certain death, 622 00:49:48,085 --> 00:49:49,347 Unless our gunners got it. 623 00:49:49,486 --> 00:49:50,953 And our Mount 52, 624 00:49:51,021 --> 00:49:54,684 which was just forward of the bridge, was firing at it, and firing fast. 625 00:49:54,825 --> 00:49:59,785 I noticed that the bursts were just off just missing him. 626 00:49:59,930 --> 00:50:05,027 So I just moved it, and the next one went right into his 627 00:50:05,168 --> 00:50:07,500 hit him right in the nose, and just blew him up. 628 00:50:07,637 --> 00:50:10,401 And that one is the one that would have gotten us all. 629 00:50:10,540 --> 00:50:13,703 And it just literally disintegrated, 630 00:50:13,844 --> 00:50:16,142 and everybody heaved a big sigh of relief. 631 00:50:16,279 --> 00:50:17,109 And just after that, 632 00:50:17,247 --> 00:50:20,546 then there came one in out of the sky on the port side, 633 00:50:20,684 --> 00:50:25,280 and one came in low on the water on the port quarter, 634 00:50:25,422 --> 00:50:27,413 and we were at it all over again. 635 00:50:46,877 --> 00:50:48,435 On the morning of April 16th, 636 00:50:48,578 --> 00:50:51,308 we had a suicide plane hit us right about here. 637 00:50:52,149 --> 00:50:56,745 It hit with enough impact so that this gun 638 00:50:56,887 --> 00:51:03,053 was blown up, canted upward at more than a 45 degree angle. 639 00:51:03,193 --> 00:51:07,960 The motor of that plane skidded along the inside of this left hand gun 640 00:51:08,098 --> 00:51:13,559 and wound up at the hatchway in the back of the gun on this side. 641 00:51:13,703 --> 00:51:19,141 And when he hit over there, I was blown up the deck about fifteen feet. 642 00:51:19,776 --> 00:51:22,745 When I regained consciousness, that's where I was. 643 00:51:28,852 --> 00:51:30,046 Ripped from stem to stern 644 00:51:30,187 --> 00:51:33,020 by the attacks of Jap suicide pilots at Okinawa, 645 00:51:33,156 --> 00:51:35,818 the destroyer U.S.S. Laffey comes home 646 00:51:36,026 --> 00:51:38,551 the Laffey was struck by everything in the Jap book. 647 00:51:38,695 --> 00:51:40,424 In the savage attempt to finish her off, 648 00:51:40,564 --> 00:51:43,226 22 suicide pilots roared over her. 649 00:51:43,366 --> 00:51:46,164 Seven bomb-loaded planes crashed on her decks. 650 00:51:46,303 --> 00:51:47,770 the final score was: 651 00:51:47,904 --> 00:51:50,338 nine enemy planes shot down by the Laffey, 652 00:51:50,474 --> 00:51:55,002 but 32 of her brave men were dead or missing, and 60 were wounded. 653 00:51:58,215 --> 00:52:00,683 In the worlds of her skipper, Commander Becton, 654 00:52:00,817 --> 00:52:04,184 she was truly ''the ship that would not die''. 655 00:52:08,658 --> 00:52:13,960 Flying conventional aircraft, kamikaze pilots caused terrible damage 656 00:52:14,097 --> 00:52:18,534 but the okha Corps never really got a chance to affect the war's outcome. 657 00:52:19,369 --> 00:52:22,167 The bombers that carried the okhas were slow, 658 00:52:22,305 --> 00:52:25,138 and American fighter pilots shot down most of them 659 00:52:25,275 --> 00:52:28,108 before they could release their deadly cargo. 660 00:52:29,713 --> 00:52:35,015 By war's end, Hosokawa was his unit's only surviving officer. 661 00:52:35,152 --> 00:52:38,519 He found the transition to peacetime troubling. 662 00:52:44,394 --> 00:52:46,055 All of a sudden, the war was over, 663 00:52:46,196 --> 00:52:49,996 and I had the feeling of someone who had been in the eye of a typhoon. 664 00:52:50,834 --> 00:52:56,329 And suddenly the typhoon is gone, the weather is clear and beautiful. 665 00:52:57,040 --> 00:53:02,706 No one, nothing is left but myself, and the feeling is, why? 666 00:53:02,846 --> 00:53:05,815 It's a very strange feeling that I cannot understand 667 00:53:05,982 --> 00:53:08,109 why the typhoon spared me. 668 00:53:13,557 --> 00:53:16,685 They were doing what they felt was right, 669 00:53:16,826 --> 00:53:19,351 just as we were doing what we felt was right. 670 00:53:19,996 --> 00:53:21,327 It had to be. 671 00:53:21,464 --> 00:53:22,954 How else could you put your life 672 00:53:23,099 --> 00:53:26,227 on the line for something you didn't believe in?