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@antlerman7644

6 ай бұрын

The animations have gotten much better, the sinking effects were a nice touch.

@oqlassic8799

6 ай бұрын

Where are the sources? 1mil subs and not citing even one source?

@rayw3294

6 ай бұрын

Hi mate, can you do the battles of Changsha. The ones in charge in China now completely obliterate from history, but massive in WW2. The Taliban obliterated their history too. Changsha was one of their biggest triumphs in WW2 at and exceptional sacrifice like the Russians at Stalingrad. Maybe Chinese people should do it.

@dziban303

6 ай бұрын

The silhouette used to represent _Princeton_ at 22:47 is wrong. Looks like an Essex-class rather than an Independence-class CVL

@devildogcrewchief3335

6 ай бұрын

If I'm mistaken so be it but I think what you spoke about in this video is really never discussed. I have always been under the impression that the Northern Force had escaped and that the Japanese carriers were sunk at later dates. Thank you for educating me today but then, that's what I get for not diving deeper into the subject matter.

To be fair, Halsey was _really_ lucky that Taffy 3 fought a _spectecular_ action against the main force and managed to score an improbable strategic win. Because if center force would've been successfull in rolling up the rear of the landing operations as planned, his departure to the north (against orders, it has to be said!) would not have gone over as smoothly as they did. The navy was ready to overlook the problem because on balance the IJN lost big time - but let's face the post facto truth of this: it was Taffy 3's exceptional performance who earned this victory, not anything Halsey did or didn't do. And I think he himself knew this best as indicated by his breakdown when faced with what was happening to Taffy 3 and his inability to take back his mistake.

@danroby6550

6 ай бұрын

To be faaaaaair

@DarkFenix2k5

6 ай бұрын

That sounds about right. I think the messages from Taffy 3 had already made his mistake clear to him and he was probably already holding in absolute horror at his own mistake, then he gets a message from Nimitz that reads basically like "what the *&^% are you doing?" and it finally breaks his composure altogether.

@blshouse

6 ай бұрын

Fabulous Monday morning quarterbacking. A more reasonable way of looking at it is that Halsey did exactly what he was mandated and ordered to do, in light of the information he had available to him at the time. Halsey was informed that the Japanese center force was retreating after they had been mauled the day before. So there was no reason to leave Task Force 34 behind, as far as any American officer knew at the time. The US Navy was laser focused on destroying the Japanese fleet carriers, and that was Halsey's priority mission. No one in the Navy, not Halsey, not Nimitz, nor anyone else knew that the Japanese Norther force was a toothless decoy. None of then knew Center Force had turned around and would attack Taffy 3. Not until it was too late.

@cedricbaccay633

6 ай бұрын

With aircrafts from taffy 1 and 2 🙂

@mbryson2899

6 ай бұрын

Mitscher relied on carrier air power to destroy the Japanese carriers at the Phillipines Sea, holding back Lee and his fast battleships. It's likely that Halsey was taking no such chances at Leyte Gulf.

Funny how both the Americans and Japanese got a chance to have at least one very stubborn destroyer facing off against a vastly superior enemy force and sacrificing itself to save the rest of the fleet, and on the same day at that.

@RCAvhstape

6 ай бұрын

I think it demonstrates how scary torpedoes had become to surface commanders. One destroyer with a well-aimed salvo can ruin your whole day.

@astratan2238

6 ай бұрын

An unfortunately common feature for the entire war, to be fair. DD captains were built different.

@wolftamer5463

6 ай бұрын

@@astratan2238 Ardent and Acasta charging Scharnhorst and Gneisnau trying to protect Glorius be like:

@Ozraptor4

6 ай бұрын

@@RCAvhstape The US cruiser commander was a veteran of the night fighting in the Solomons (he was in command of USS Portland during the Naval Battle of Guadacanal) so had first hand knowledge of how lethal Japanese torpedoes were.

@jamesmanger4392

6 ай бұрын

This right here. It's not the size of the dog in the fight, and all that.

While we can criticise him for leaving the San Bernardino straight unguarded, I think he should be criticised for not leaving even a picket ships. 2 destroyers patrolling the area will be enough to spot all the BB fleet coming.

@danielpetrucci8952

6 ай бұрын

Or even leave 4 light Cruisers and 2 Hevey Cruisers

@kerberos623

6 ай бұрын

@@danielpetrucci8952 heck even 4 torpedo boats could have snuck in and done damage in that strait.

@d.olivergutierrez8690

6 ай бұрын

Honestly what baffles me the most are the Halsey after battle “excuses” for not leaving ships behind patrolling the strait: 1.That he feared that the Japanese could rearm their carriers with land base aircrafts making them worth all their ships attention🤦🏻‍♂️, yeah just like how the Americans could slap mustangs and thunderbolts in their carriers duh. 2. That he not deployed task force 34 alone because the lack of air support since he was gathering all the planes, low key saying that he didn’t believe Iowa and co could defeat yamato and friends without air support🙄, fact that obviously gained the angry stare of some of the battleships admirals.

@legoeasycompany

6 ай бұрын

@@d.olivergutierrez8690 on no. 2 I think it was referred to as "lacking air cover" of having those capital ships out there without fighter support. But for that there's a certain 3 fleets of Taffy who I'm sure could spare a wild cat or two to avoid having to fight the IJN capital units if it only required them to protect the bigger ships from enemy aircraft.

@TheSchultinator

6 ай бұрын

​@@legoeasycompanyNot just Wildcats, the Taffys had Avengers to throw at Center Force! It's this action and the two (TWO!) typhoons he took 3rd Fleet through that make me question his ability as a fleet admiral.

Interesting thing about Zuikaku, in nearly every battle she participated in, the outcome was the same: Her sister Shōkaku was damaged, Zuikaku escapes without so much as a scratch on her. It happened at Coral Sea, Eastern Solomons, and Santa Cruz Islands. Zuikaku only took battle damage for the first time in her career after Shōkaku was sunk at Philippine Sea, and was sunk the first time she went into a battle without Shōkaku here at Cape Engaño. Her name, meaning Auspicious Crane, ended up being rather fitting. Also thanks for mentioning Hatsuzuki, she's long been one of my favorite Japanese destroyers for her actions during this battle. Almost like Japan's USS Johnston in a way, and on the same day as well.

@matthewp9156

6 ай бұрын

i find it shallow and pedantic

@wolftamer5463

6 ай бұрын

Yes, the Hatsuzuki deserves a spot at the table of WW2’s madlad destroyers alongside Gloworm, Ardent, Acasta, Edsall, Laffey, Johnston, Hoel, Heerman, and Laffey reincarnated.

@brixenlang3207

6 ай бұрын

@@wolftamer5463+ Samuel B. Roberts

@aaronishii5874

6 ай бұрын

Small boy attack!

@richardletaw4068

6 ай бұрын

Phenomenal insights. Being a linguist, I especially like that knowledge. The Japanese were fighting for evil ends, and often hobbled themselves with limited thinking and internecine warfare (a virtual civil war between IJA and IJN, ffs (which FAR predated WWII, and extended to the assassination of cabinet members and candidates for PM)), but there was still a twisted sense of honor there. So very, very sad. Nor am I certain that their peculiar cruelty, manifested throughout their entire history, is gone. How could it be? It had to go SOMEwhere…

Imagine being Admiral Ozawa; being the decoy force to find out you're the only one to have successfully pulled off your mission, everyone else being wiped out (Nishimura) or quitting at one point or another (Shima and Kurita). It had to have been frustrating to have found that out, whether in the days/weeks/months after the battle or in the years following the war.

@matthewp9156

6 ай бұрын

id be like "WTF bro?!"

@wolftamer5463

6 ай бұрын

Though as far as I know Ozawa and Kurita remained good friends for the rest of their lives. Kurita openly wept at Ozawa’s funeral.

@recoil53

6 ай бұрын

How about all the dead sailors? All for nothing. It was a plan that shouldn't have worked, but it did and the opportunity was refused. A quick look at the map shows that there wouldn't be another opportunity.

@burnstick1380

6 ай бұрын

The things that must suck the most was that we was basically the decoy. And whilst his mission worked he did no damage whatsoever. Because all the other failed he had nothing to show for this vain-less sacrifice.

@recoil53

6 ай бұрын

@@failtolawl *Kurita

As I recall, not only is "The World Wonders" a seeming reprimand by itself, but I think as a phrase it's part of a few lines from "The Charge of the Light Brigade," wherein it's in tandem with another phrase: "Someone had blundered." So assuming Halsey knew his Tennyson (he probably did), one phrase would also have recalled the other, and would have thus seemed even more damning. He would have interpreted it as a message from Nimitz saying, in metaphor, "you have made a terrible and costly mistake."

@adrielsebastian5216

6 ай бұрын

And coincidentally, Cape Engaño and Samar both happened on the 90th anniversary of the Charge of the Light Brigade

@recoil53

6 ай бұрын

Which isn't wrong. You do have to wonder if the radio man purposely left it in. Halsey had been getting increasingly dire and desperate situation reports and pleas for help, which he kept ignoring. The radio room had to have known this.

@UnshavenStatue

6 ай бұрын

What's more hilarious is that every other ship in his fleet correctly removed that padding. *only* Halsey's flagship forgot to delete the padding.

@_Wombat

6 ай бұрын

You wouldn't believe this if it was written in fiction. And it happened in fact, incredible.

@Matt-ey5so

5 ай бұрын

"All nature is but art, unknown to thee; all chance, direction, which thou canst not see" @@_Wombat

"The world wonders" The world's greatest coincidental accidental burn.

Admiral Halsey really threw an actual temper tantrum on the bridge of a warship

@RadioactiveSherbet

6 ай бұрын

If you've watched the video on the 2nd Pacific Squadron, that was just another Tuesday for Admiral Rozhestvensky. (yes, I googled his name. No way I was trying to spell that without help.)

@barrydysert2974

6 ай бұрын

​@@RadioactiveSherbetDrach's re-telling the epic saga of the 2nd Pacific Squadron is my favorite episode! i've watched it at least 3 times !:-)

@ramal5708

6 ай бұрын

If you visit USS New Jersey in Camden, NJ. The tour guide would tell you exactly where Halsey threw temper tantrum, also his navy cap to the floor, plus when one of his staff tried to calm him down.

@d.olivergutierrez8690

6 ай бұрын

My only consolation about this mess is the fact that at least for a brief moment the guy realized the absolute bs that he just orchestrated, and not other than Nimitz to scold him, one of the only people that could make him cry from his own cringe.

@colbygordon6936

6 ай бұрын

US admirals throughout the entire war caused the deaths of thousands of sailors due to their own egos. Admiral King in the Atlantic with his refusal to listen to the British about how to counter submarines is an excellent example. The Kriegsmarine's most successful 6 months are entirely because King was a stuck up cunt.

After this series of battles, Halsey got mocked by various journalists for taking Ozawa’s bait and neglecting Samar, calling the battle series ‘Bull’s Run’, in comparison with American Civil War’s major Union defeat at Battle of Bull Run. ‘Bull’ of course was Halsey himself.

@thenumbah1birdman

6 ай бұрын

The superlative Pacific Trilogy by Ian Toll actually calls Cape Engano "The Bull Run" instead of "Cape Engano" on its diagram page lol

@vcv6560

6 ай бұрын

A truly fantastic series @@thenumbah1birdman.

@captainclone1367

6 ай бұрын

Admiral Halsey did not like the nick name Bull and never used it himself.

@thenumbah1birdman

6 ай бұрын

@@captainclone1367 yes, because a bull is a powerful, aggressive animal that gets distracted by a decoy before the real threat comes in from behind.

I’m always surprised at how many crewmen are killed when the ship sinks 1-2 hours after the captain orders them to abandon ship.

@Mrhalligan39

6 ай бұрын

Nobody around to do search and rescue between the time the Japanese leave and the Americans arrive. Japanese sailors often refused rescue efforts.

@akawd41

6 ай бұрын

@@Mrhalligan39oh I always thought it literally meant going down with the ship and not all lost sailors after the sinking to. That makes a lot more sense now

@McCracken216

6 ай бұрын

@@Mrhalligan39 I'm pretty sure the number lost also includes all of those killed by the actual impacts of bombs, shells and torpedoes, etc. Many (in some cases most) of those lost were already dead before the order was given.

@Mrhalligan39

6 ай бұрын

@@McCracken216 The number of crew lost in a sinking is basically the mustered crew at the time of the battle minus the number of survivors recovered. Whether they were killed during the battle, were trapped inside the vessel as it sank, or died of exposure or wounds before being rescued is not usually captured by that information. Unless a vessel undergoes a catastrophic explosion like HMS Hood, it can usually be assumed that at least some crew members will survive to make it into the water. Japanese sailors frequently refused rescue by American ships, and even American sailors were often abandoned by badly damaged task forces or in fear of submarine attack. Look up the survivors of USS Juneau, USS Indianapolis, or of Taffy 3 at Samar. Many ships were “lost with all hands” because literally nobody was sent to rescue survivors.

@user-nd7bz5zf4s

6 ай бұрын

You do realize the Americans rescued not one of the Japanese Sailors at Engano and the Japanese fleet was already in full retreat. Those Japanese ships that did return to help rescue their survivors were mostly prevented from doing so by American forces. Also, they are in the middle of the ocean, with no land in sight for hundreds and hundreds of miles away. When they say ''there were no Japanese survivors'', etc. they mean they died days and weeks later at sea because they were never rescued. Think, why did 600 Americans die in a period of 3 days after Indianapolis sank?

History treats Halsey far better than he deserves. His blunders are monumental, From Taffey 3 to Typhoon Cobra. If there was a blunder to be made Halsey was there to make it.

@NotTheCIA1961

6 ай бұрын

I can even accept falling for a trap in the heat of the moment. But leaving nobody behind to just keep an eye on the strait boggles the mind. A single ship or even PT boat could have made the difference by just giving additional heads up.

I can’t explain the hype I feel when a new operations room ww2 navy video comes out.

@mirvjournal1693

6 ай бұрын

The hype is real

@q-p_____W

6 ай бұрын

Yeah these vids are incredible & especially the annunciation of all the flowing naval terms and names of admirals etc

@SecNotSureSir

6 ай бұрын

This year, I read Neptunes Inferno, Shattered Sword, and Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors. I’m stoked when these videos debut.

"I've read this book. Your conclusions were all wrong, Ryan. Halsey acted stupidly."

@Victor-bl2ge

2 ай бұрын

I think you mean "Halshey acted eshtupidly."

@jamesrussell7760

Ай бұрын

@@Victor-bl2ge Hahaha! Sean Connery had a tendency to chew on his words!

It's incredible that essentially every ship in task force 38 had been built in the past 2 and a half years. The manufacturing capacity of the US back then was truly on another level

What a brave last stand by the Hatsuzuki, it wasn't meant to be like Taffy 3 though.

@sirboomsalot4902

6 ай бұрын

I wouldn’t say that; ultimately, her sacrifice allowed the survivors to escape

@natureofparadise2380

6 ай бұрын

Thats is called " the world is round sometimes time is yours and sometimes time is not yours" 😭😭😭😭

@Xeonerable

6 ай бұрын

No matter the side, when someone storms head on into their fate to buy time for their survivors to escape is an admirable thing. The few times that human decency can still shine through in the horrors of war.

@wolftamer5463

6 ай бұрын

She still has a seat at Valhalla. No different from destroyers like Ardent and Acasta which charged the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. They could not save the Glorius, and most of the survivors died, but their bravery will not be forgotten.

Ahh yes, Halsey's empty victory. I still despise him for leaving Taffy 3 on their own during the onslaught of Center Force

At this point of the war, Halsey was out of his element and no longer needed. The war had passed him by. The fact that he took Admiral Lee from a final battleship battle is a historical war crime.

@thenumbah1birdman

6 ай бұрын

TWICE, too-had Halsey not broke his nerve after "the world wonders" Lee would've run up against the Japanese carrier-battleships and sunk them. Halsey's two critical decisions at Leyte, not just the first to commit the "bull run", robbed Lee.

@chaosXP3RT

6 ай бұрын

Halsey, like so many commanders and admirals before him, was chasing glory. He wanted his glorious, decisive victory and it left him blind to the real objectives. The Japanese were always going to target the landings at Leyte because the goal was to prevent the US from retaking the Philippines. Halsey fell for the Japanese ruse because he lost sight of what their true target really was.

@recoil53

6 ай бұрын

At this point in the war, American material superiority was such that they needed a game manager and not somebody who would bet it all on nothing. Just take the islands, hold off any naval help, go on to the next target. But King wanted an aggressive admiral. I feel like Fletcher would have been good here if King wasn't so dead set on getting rid of him.

@skullsaintdead

6 ай бұрын

@@recoil53Agreed, Fletcher seemed to have this pragmatic 'resist the urge to go for glory, lest it bite you in the face' attitude that most admirals/commanders don't have. Indeed, they're often discredited for having restraint, as he was, most unfortunately if you ask me.

@recoil53

6 ай бұрын

@@skullsaintdead And it's not like Fletcher didn't know when to take a risk, it's just that in the Solomons he was let down by Naval Intelligence.

It's really nothing short of a miracle that Ise and Hyuga got through Leyte without being destroyed as they were already obsolete and their conversion to partial carriers effectively just made them less capable in both categories.

@captin3149

6 ай бұрын

That may very well have been what saved them, as there were more important targets to go after.

@wolftamer5463

6 ай бұрын

Those redesigns are the warship epitome of “it looks cool but is absolutely worthless”. Kinda like cheetahs.

@recoil53

6 ай бұрын

What's weird is that although everybody knew conversions were half-assed and useless, there were plans floated around to do the same to the Montana hulls.

@scottperry7311

6 ай бұрын

As part of that conversion a significant number of AA guns were put on the two ships while eliminating two of the main battery turrets. As the war had taught, air power was more potent than surface power, so the new armament of the two battleships gave it an advantage over its old configuration, though not a significant one. It was because the Americans where hyper concerned with the threats the Aircraft Carriers posed that saved the Battleships survived, due to the fact that the Americans concentrated overwhelming force on destroying those carriers in lieu of attacking a other vessels equally. If the attacks by American aircraft had more equally divided between the ships of the Japanese fleet it is more likely that a number of other vessels of that fleet would have been sunk, or so seriously damaged as to be unable to retreat from the battle zone before additional attacks arrived to finish them off. It was the Americans navy inability to understand how utterly devastated the Japanese carrier fleet had become and its inability to pose a real threat, that allowed the rest of the Japanese navy to escape. This allowed the survival of not just the battleships, cruisers, and destroyers of the Japanese carrier force, but also those ships that survived the battle with Taffy 3.

@user-nd7bz5zf4s

6 ай бұрын

Notice that throughout the Pacific War, most Battleships took considerable amounts of punishment by aircraft before being sunk or not, as well as having large amounts of AA and artillery firepower. Fleet carriers never had these aspects, which is why the hybrid battleship with aircraft was an ingenious invention by the Japanese. Not only being massive armored tanks they could assist in CAP around the battleships and provide the ASW role that the Japanese so desperately needed in the Pacific war. Sadly this never turned into reality, as they embarked on no aircraft.

“Japan ceases to be a naval power, that dream is over. The once magnificent imperial fleet is no more, it dies in the battle of Leyte Gulf and it dies in vain” - victory at sea

@thenumbah1birdman

6 ай бұрын

Great classic series

This battle doesn't get enough recognition. It's honestly so poetic how Lexington gets her revenge and finishes off the last of the original 6. Edit: Even further into the art of revenge, the sinking of the Tama is exactly what happened to Juneau all the way back in '42.

@nursestoyland

6 ай бұрын

The Lady Lex Strikes Back!

@andrewmontgomery5621

6 ай бұрын

@@nursestoyland. Hence her nickname "The Blue Ghost".

@andrewmontgomery5621

6 ай бұрын

There's the old Klingon Proverb that I think it's perfect here and that's "Revenge is a dish best served cold".

@nursestoyland

6 ай бұрын

@@andrewmontgomery5621 yep

@JohnRodriguesPhotographer

6 ай бұрын

I understand the sentiment. The original USS Lexington, CV2, was lost during the Battle of Coral Sea. The USS Lexington, CV16, the museum ship in Corpus Christie, is an Essex class carrier. Are you saying revenge for the ship she named after or Pearl Harbor? Just curious.

IJN Hatsuzuki. A single Akikuzi class destroyer going up against an entire fleet with just 5 torpedoes and a whole load of 100mm high explosive shells meant for air defense. Though I have few good words for the Japanese Empire of her time. Credit must be given to the bravery of her last stand, doubtlessly saving many lives

@RCAvhstape

6 ай бұрын

Whatever else you can say about the Imperial Japanese, they weren't cowards.

@matthewp9156

6 ай бұрын

@@RCAvhstape they were also really good at catching babies on their bayonets

@LauPaSat-pl

6 ай бұрын

@@matthewp9156 Wasn't that army's (not navy's) thing?

@wolftamer5463

6 ай бұрын

@@LauPaSat-plThe Navy still committed war crimes too. Besides killing plenty of Allied prisoners of war, the Special Naval Landing forces also took part in killings such as the Manila Massacre in 1944-45. Doesn’t necessarily change the fact that we can appreciate the bravery of this crew in taking on such high odds to save their comrades though.

@wolftamer5463

6 ай бұрын

@@matthewp9156See my above comment for a bit of historical context.

It’s always a good day whenever operation room uploads

@DaveSCameron

6 ай бұрын

Fkn brilliant ❤😂

@pellew26warspite6

6 ай бұрын

So say we all….

While is true that neither Nimitz, his staff, Halsey himself or US Naval Intelligence in the Pacific knew about the state of the IJN carrier aviation at that point of the war, and the fact that the Japanese plan was succesful in using its remaining carriers as bait. The failure of Admiral Halsey will be always his lack of precaution in not leave a squadron/picket force to protect San Bernardino and his subsequent lack of clear communication towards 7th Fleet and Honolulu.

@Mrhalligan39

6 ай бұрын

If he had clearly communicated his intention to leave San Bernardino Strait unguarded, his orders would have been countermanded. Halsey’s problem was that he was a carrier admiral flying his flag on a battleship for comfort’s sake. Moving his staff at sea was impossible, detaching New Jersey would take him away from the battle he wanted to fight, and not detaching New Jersey would leave his picket force at a disadvantage. Halsey knew exactly what he was doing. He convinced himself Kurita was in retreat and thought no more of it.

@Whiteghost785

6 ай бұрын

As mentioned in a previous video, The split command of the battle of Leyte Gulf was a major flaw all around and could be partially to blame. Halsey was definitely to blame as he wanted to complete his personal goal of destroying the japanese fleet instead of defending Leyte. I think him missing he Battle of Midway(he was ill) plays a strong part in this since he did not get his massive victory he was hunting for

@fakecubed

6 ай бұрын

Japan's plan to get its last carriers sunk was a brilliant success. Good for them. One can argue with perfect hindsight that the Japanese carriers were useless at that point, and strategically there was no reason to destroy them, but destroying the Yamato at San Bernardino would not have mattered to the outcome of the war either. Would not have changed the timeline for the Philippines, or any other future battle. It might have resulted in a few less American deaths off Samar, maybe saved a couple destroyers and an escort carrier, but the US at that point had so much of everything. It was naval pilots that mattered most, and naval pilots were almost completely unaffected by Leyte Gulf, except gaining a bit more experience. It's easy to say that Halsey should've left some ships at San Bernardino, and that Kurita would turn around, but there was really no reason to think he would, and ships cannot be everywhere. If naval commanders guard every strait all the time, there won't be enough forces to win decisive battles when it matters. Everything Halsey knew, everything the US Navy knew, said that the Japanese were extremely cautious about committing their biggest battleships and that carriers would win the war. After we sank one big battleship, and the other retreated, that should have been it. At any other time, it would have been it, and the biggest threat in the Pacific at that point should have been the Zuikaku. If Japan had been a lot smarter about rotating experienced aircrews to train new ones the way Americans did, the Zuikaku would have been the biggest threat in the Pacific. But the fog of war is a very real thing, war is not a complete information game. With the limited information Halsey had, and with the directives he had been given by his superiors as a matter of theater strategy, his choice was correct. Failing to leave even just one guy behind with a rowboat and a radio might have been a tactical mistake, and it certainly got men killed, but even if he made the perfect hindsight decision it would have probably gotten other men killed. Maybe not as many. Maybe more. Unexpected things happen in war. It isn't reasonable to expect commanders to make perfect hindsight decisions in every situation.

@Mrhalligan39

6 ай бұрын

@@fakecubed “Hindsight is 20/20” is no defense of a military commander. It is literally their job to see more clearly, to understand more clearly, to plan more carefully than the enemy. The Navy’s primary job at Leyte was to protect the landing fleet. Halsey failed to do so. If not for Ernest Evans’ bravery and Kurita’s failure of nerve, the Center Force’s attack would have gone through and at the very least disrupted the landings if not causing a complete catastrophe. It is important to note that all these questions and criticisms were well known at the time, and that is those who make excuses for Halsey who are the revisionists in this case.

@fakecubed

6 ай бұрын

@@Mrhalligan39 Hypothetical losses are not an indictment of a military commander. The landings were already completed and Japan's ships never got in sight of the shore where they happened. The Americans won at Leyte Gulf. Could it have been an even bigger victory? Perhaps, but Japan was already beat. The additional surface combatants the Americans might have hypothetically sunk were irrelevant to the outcome of the war, as were the small number of escort ships that the Japanese did sink. Halsey's primary mission in the Pacific was to sink Japanese carriers, which he did, and the land war in the Philippines was not in any way affected by anything the Japanese accomplished that day. Ultimately, Sprague had the forces he needed to turn back the Center Force. After any battle there is always lessons learned and room for improvement. Always. But military commanders are not gods, they are not omniscient or omnipotent, and anyone expecting them to be is as crazy as the Japanese when they thought there was ever any possibility of victory at Leyte Gulf.

Halsey, like so many commanders and admirals before him, was chasing glory. He wanted his glorious, decisive victory and it left him blind to the real objectives. The Japanese were always going to target the landings at Leyte because the goal was to prevent the US from retaking the Philippines. Halsey fell for the Japanese ruse because he lost sight of what their true target really was.

"Halsey acted stupidly."

@Randomnocluedude

6 ай бұрын

One ping only

@valecrassus7835

6 ай бұрын

I understood these references!

@platinumtaterbug

6 ай бұрын

Your conclusions were all wrong, Ryan!

To think New Jersey and Yamato were so close to throw hands with their friends.

@d.olivergutierrez8690

6 ай бұрын

Drachinifel has an interesting war game video about that what if battle, although he actually buff kurita in that video so he actually fights to the end instead of pulling an 180 like in samar.

Is anyone else reminded of the old school Nintendo game "1942" when seeing the formations of fighters animations?!?! Great work as always!

@hunterwyeth

6 ай бұрын

That would make a great April fools video

@michaelusswisconsin6002

6 ай бұрын

Played it on arcade machine

this channel has created a great blend of describing strategic concerns, applications of tactics, and narrative engagement with descriptions of actions on the human scale. fantastic work as always

One minor thing that doesn't get mentioned a lot is that Adm. Ozawa also detached and sent Ise and Hyuga, his two BB-Vs, south another 50 miles further the day before (Oct. 24th), ostensibly to act as a vanguard for his main force, but it could also be interpreted as Ozawa wanting to make doubly-sure that 3rd Fleet noticed him. Both the detachment and the main force were spotted by American scout planes, and the BB-Vs returned overnight to rejoin the main force before the main battle on the 25th. It's mainly a commentary on how both Ise and Hyuga were regarded as extra-expendable assets among a bait force in the IJN battle plan...which makes it kind of ironic that they both survived the battle, while the four Japanese carriers were all sunk.

Hats off to the brave men of IJN Hatsuzuki. It’s too bad her men couldn’t have had a post war beer with men of USS Johnston, USS Hoel, and USS Samuel B Roberts. No shortage of courage aboard these tin can destroyers on both sides.

@scottgiles7546

6 ай бұрын

Now you have me wondering if you can make a boilermaker with Beer and Sake as I could see those crews trying it.

@oldgoat142

6 ай бұрын

@@scottgiles7546 That's an outstanding idea!!

@kalashnikovdevil

6 ай бұрын

@@scottgiles7546 You absolutely can. It's called a sake bomb.

Kind of wish that Halsey had left some of the fast battleship in the strait. Would have been interesting to see which faired better in a battleship to battleship engagement. But it's all history now.

@SmilingIbis

6 ай бұрын

I've always been curious if he had left a half dozen submarines patrolling the straits, but we'll never know.

@michaelkovacic2608

6 ай бұрын

Honestly, leaving NOTHING there at all is a very major blunder. He had something like 60 destroyers, and the San Bernardino Strait is very narrow. 5 DDs would have guaranteed that 7th Fleet would have had hours of warning when Center Force navigated the Strait. It is one thing to not cover it with heavy units, but quite another to leave it completely unmonitored.

Big hugs to the Operations Room team from Paraguay, amazing stuff as always

Fun fact: Many of the names in the Philippines are from spanish origin. "Engaño" means "deceit", so cabo engaño can be translated as cape deceit. A foreshadowing name for things to come! [btw: Ñ is pronounced GN as in "lasaGNa"]

@DaveSCameron

2 ай бұрын

Cheers, I’m a huge fan of words and suchlike. Best wishes from Liverpool.👍☘️📚

Cmdr. Winters is example of great leader, he stayed behind alone above IJN fleet to document the enemy formation also at the beginning directing his planes to focus on Zuikaku instead of crippled and easy target Chiyoda. Imo targeting the larger and still functional carrier is more of a priority than the easier and crippled one.

Still of the view that Cape Engano should’ve been a one on one battle between Enterprise and Zuikaku.

"I know thish book, Ryan. Your conclusionsh were all wrong; Halshey acted shtupidly."

@FlexBeanbag

6 ай бұрын

kzread.infoBmc9NFfhx74?si=7Y3zfjXuHYfP1Rp-

As an amateur WW2 naval historian for decades, to this day I still don't understand why Halsey sent his most powerful unit, TF 38.1, to Ulithi for rest and replenishment. Under McCain there were 2 CV and 2 CVL. There was a significant amount of firepower in TF 38.1 but Halsey just sent them away from the battle. Would you for a second believe Spruance would send Jockco Clark away from Saipan when the marines were still landing on Saipan and fighting for their lives? Halsey probably did not regain the full firepower of TF 38 until the last day of the battle. Curiously, no historian ever talked about the negative effect of TF 38.1 not with Halsey during the Battle of Cape Engano.

@thenumbah1birdman

6 ай бұрын

At the time, Halsey was convinced the Japanese navy would not sortie to contest Leyte, so after McCain had pounded the land defenses Halsey sent them off. This is also why he was so out of positon when USS Darter and Dace radioed in their report of the Center force.

Hes dropping a hint at 24:22 hes going to do Operation Ten Go(The last battle of the Yamato) cant wait!!!!!!!!!!

@vcv6560

6 ай бұрын

I'll bet it ends with a bang!

Ozawa: i expected destruction of my fleet, but if kurita carried out his mission, that was all i wished Americans: yeah...about that....

Tiny clarification: he remained in command of the third fleet, which was the designation of that fleet when commanded by Halsey. When commanded by Spruance it was 5th fleet. So Spruance was in command of that same fleet for parts of the war after

I think the people who can repair ships in the middle of the ocean after being hit by bombs and torpedos are the craziest magicians this world has ever seen.

Aptly named: "Cape Engaño" means Caped Deception.

@angelsc7588

4 ай бұрын

truly! the incorrect pronunciation & spelling kinda hurts but the quality of the content is superb

this video sure has helped me to understand Ryan and Ramius' conversation aboard the Red October - thank you!

@devildogcrewchief3335

6 ай бұрын

When Ramius said "Halsey acted stupidly"...

@realracing3713

4 ай бұрын

Me too

11:37 Did you guy's know The Battleship New Jersey receives operating support from the New Jersey Department of State also from a number of business's and private individuals like yourselves. They really appreciate your support 😎 (That's our boy, he is right there.)

I’m amazed at the propulsion system aboard hatzizuki. How tf did it move with the weight of the sailors balls on board. Incredible bravery

Wikipedia on Halsey says that what made Halsey good at the beginning of the war was his ability to take calculated risks, but that this worked against him later. He was on the cover of Look magazine in February 1943. Once they do that to you, you have some plot armor.

After finishing this series, I’m convinced the US Navy required a clinical insanity diagnosis for officer promotions. The things they managed to pull off successfully are just wild.

On Dec. 2, 1941 when the words were sent to Adm. Nagumo, "Climb Mount Niitaka" (Jade mountain, in what was then Formosa), the call to start the Kido Butai towards Pearl Harbor, I doubt that no-one guessed that in 2 years, 10 months and 25 days the IJN would be a completely spent force

Looks like Captain Amano of the Hatsuzuki felt that he could do one better than captain Ernest Evans and that Samuel B. Roberts. A commendable effort. And one that did have it's intended purpose. Nicely done Captain Amano.

Glad that you included Hatsuzuki's final battle, that's so often missed, which was every bit as heroic as the tin cans at Samar. Also, minor nitpick, but there were 3 destroyers and 1 light cruiser in addition to Hatsuzuki.

Then Halsey compounded his arrogance by sailing directly into a typhoon which sank at least one destroyer. I guess the Hero of Dolittle's Tokyo raid kept extending his fifteen minutes of fame.

This is hand's down the best channel on KZread, By far! Keep it up mate!

@Fireheart1945

6 ай бұрын

To be fair, Montemayor covers the same Pacific War material, though going much more in depth (and hence the videos take much longer). Regardless, I do like that TOR covered Leyte Gulf; not a bad depiction by any means.

Man... Halsey's tantrum will always be the funniest part of the Leyte Gulf battle. 😂

Whoah, the production value of this video feels like a huge step up, I love the different layers of airplanes and the tilts and pans add a lot, too. And just in general, the animations have gotten so detailed, you're videos have become such a pleasure to look at! Keep up the good work!

Thank you for tackling this massive cluster of a battle with your usual professionalism!

We’re getting all these fantastic episodes on the Pacific War, I hope we get Santa Cruz islands. Out of the six aircraft carrier battles it and Coral Sea are the only tactical Japanese victories, but like at Coral Sea they fail to gain any kind of strategic advantage. It was also where Enterprise lost her last sister, Hornet.

@GM-fh5jp

6 ай бұрын

I'd love to see a replay of Murata and his experienced flyers as they execute what was probably the finest carrier attack of WW2 off Santa Cruz. Some of the books describing he and his dedicated airgroup are sad but wonderful to read. Pure luck saved a badly damaged Enterprise when Takahashi's airgroup missed the formation by 50 miles. Still, the Japanese should have done better...the sudden shock of flying into pulverising levels of AA fire from the carriers and escorts must have been dreadful.

Salute for hatsuzuki. She knew she was likely doomed but she still fought valiantly

Where is task force 34, the world wonders Taffy 3: Its aight, we got this!

Imagine you're the commander of the battleship division Task Force 34 (Lee) and received an order to run towards the enemy carriers for a surface action, then later, you are told 'Where is Lee!? Send Lee!' (Back, Back 500 miles south). LMAO 🤧😆🤣

@reyesmarlon5805

6 ай бұрын

Some of USS Washington's crew expressed their dissapointment with this turn of event. From the book "Battleship At War", the story of the USS Washington.

@d.olivergutierrez8690

6 ай бұрын

The chance for every type of warship in the us fleet to shine in battle, just for the most overrated admiral on us history to be there and handle the whole task force like a kid that didn’t want to share his toys.

This is what I find more than a bit baffling. Didn't the USN have some idea of the size of the remaining IJN order of battle in October 1944? Why did Halsey think he needed all six BBs, 6 CAs, 9 CLs and 58 DDs in addition to 16 CV/CVLs? Surely, some of these assets could have been left behind. Yes, BB-62 would have to stay with TF 38 as she carried the Admiral himself. Just one third of Halsey's surface force in San Bernardino Strait would have been overkill. Not questioning the pursuit of Ozawa, just the failure to reasonably assess enemy strength. Maybe Willis realized this when he wanted to stay behind to protect Kincaid.

@thenumbah1birdman

6 ай бұрын

Halsey could've also just transferred his flag, or modified TF34 so that Iowa and NJ are along for the ride with Mitscher (and given they are 5 knots faster than every other TF34 capital vessel it would make sense). The excuses brought up to try and absolve halsey of his first blunder are incredible, especially when one considers that officers in 3rd fleet had Intel that Kurita was heading east. It probably stems from Halsey's idea of not splitting forces to avoid defeat in detail-but as you said the previous battles (Solomons, Philippine sea and Formosa) should've brokered some indication of the IJN's diminished air and sea power, and magically Halsey's compunction against splitting force disappears as soon as he makes his second blunder and turns lee back just 40 miles from Ozawa. Truly baffling.

@warwatcher91

6 ай бұрын

Operations room kind of made a error here. Halsey was missing one of his task groups, 38.1 under VADM McCain. It had Hornet, Wasp, Hancock, Cowpens and Monterey. Effectively 40 percent of his strength was off refueling. What he had was still a powerful force, be not nearly as much as it could have been.

The gloryhound "Bullshit" Halsey should never have been placed in command of any formation larger than a squadron.

Admiral Halsey was nicknamed “Admiral Haul-ass” at the time

@emanwe01

6 ай бұрын

Seems fitting.

(Enterprise bombs Zuiho) Enterprise: Birney Strong sends his regards. For context, At the Battle of Santa Cruz nearly 2 years earlier. 2 of Enterprise’s Dauntlesses piloted by Charles Irvine and Stockton Birney Strong had bombed Zuiho’s aft flight deck and took her out of the battle. Also, all of the World War 2 carrier battles had at least one Yorktown-Class Carrier present. Coral Sea-Yorktown Midway-Yorktown, Enterprise and Hornet. Eastern Solomons-Enterprise. Santa Cruz-Enterprise and Hornet. Philippine Sea-Enterprise. Cape Engano-Enterprise.

Halsey is lucky that there were men like Captain Evans there. In case it isn’t clear…. FU Halsey. "No battle damage was incurred, nor inflicted on the enemy by vessels while operating as Task Force Thirty-Four." Willis Augustus Lee.

You forgot a important detail. The battleships of TF 34 were almost within gun range of the decoy force. It is then he ordered them to turn around and head back south. Two hours were spent refueling the destroyers.

@mkaustralia7136

2 ай бұрын

I think you will find that Lee’s force was about 4 hours away from the Surago Strait and Kurita still had over 2 hours steaming to get to the landing beaches. It is a very interesting war game to keep Kurita going after the Taffy 3 fight. The aircraft from other Taffy groups, Oldendorff’s old battle line and possibly aircraft from the fast carriers are fun counters.

@Hockey-Baseball.

2 ай бұрын

@@mkaustralia7136 I don’t think you understand what I said. But I do understand what you are saying.

The constraints YT puts your content is sad. Yet you’re producing some of the most concise stuff. Thank you.

Like Connery said in "The Hunt for Red October", "Halsey was a fool".

Ah yes, that time Halsey got deceived by a decoy force. Still, worth covering because it finishes off the IJN's vaunted carriers, which would've been a real pain in the ass if they were allowed to hang around for the rest of the war.

@decentish8546

6 ай бұрын

He should’ve just pursued them with the carrier fleet and it’s escorts and left task force 34 behind. They had more than enough surface ships to cover the carriers without the need for the fast battleships.

@thenumbah1birdman

6 ай бұрын

No, they wouldn't have been, because after this engagement Japan was out of fuel and pilots. And even if that were true Halsey could've easily split his force to take both Kurita and Ozawa-while people will point out he didn't want to do this, he wasn't above it as proven by his second blunder of turning south just 15 minutes out of main battery range.

Small detail: the silhouette counter for 3rd fleet uses South Dakota class battleships to describe heavy cruisers.

i am so happy i found this channel several years back! You bring a whole new dimension to my 50+ years studying WWII. Thank You for proving there is always more to be learned !:-)

I am thankful for The Operations Room!

Imo the most underrated ww2 naval battle, 5 total carriers sunk is insane

@zacklewis342

6 ай бұрын

Underrated perhaps, but it was only 1 fleet and 3 light carriers. Midway saw 5 fleet carriers sunk.

@gaiusoctavius6107

6 ай бұрын

@@zacklewis342 true, but it includes the American fleet carrier Princeton

@S0RGEx

6 ай бұрын

​@@gaiusoctavius6107Light carrier, Princeton was an Independence-class.

@gaiusoctavius6107

6 ай бұрын

@@S0RGEx oh yeah I forgot, but still it was barely smaller than the earlier “fleet” carriers like Hiryu and Soryu which fought at midway

It's hard to imagine the amount of grief Halsey was dealing with, knowing that he was the reason so many lives in Taffy 3 were sacrificed to achieve victory.

A suggestion: Edit and put together all the parts into a single video. Would make for a great YT documentary :)

Thank you for all the videos telling the story of the Battle of Leyte Gulf. All of them are excellent. WELL DONE!

What strikes me in this video is how wave after wave of USN planes are launched, find the enemy, attack, return and are recovered, seamlessly. It shows a marked improvement over Midway and the early war by men who had become practiced professionals

Wow! Both sides had brave Destroyers that was willing to fight an entire fleet.

Take no prisoners We had a cool old guy was a ship’s navigator in WW2 WIA Coral Sea USS Lexington Lost a leg and hand his war was over He was a post man after the war for 52 years

"the last naval battle of aircraft carriers is about to begin" love it

Thank you "Oscar Romeo !" Good Show! 🐿

A new Operations Room video always makes my day.

The information boards are so nice. I hope you will continue to make these on future videos.

Cape Engaño, the last hoorah of the Kido Butai. Even though they scored a tactical victory in keeping Halsey's carriers distracted, their tactical victory was a pyrrhic one indeed and in the end it was all for nothing as Kurita lost his nerve and had his fleet retreat thanks to the heroic efforts of Taffy 3 and their escorts. (not to mention the copious amount of air support they got from Taffy 2 and Taffy 1.) The once proud Zuikaku met her end falling in vain as a sacrificial decoy. -- Both Gambier Bay and Chiyoda where two of three Aircraft Carriers to be sunk by surface guns in history. They were both gunned down and sunk on the same day no less. Gambier Bay was sunk by Yamato and/or Chikuma. Chiyoda was sunk by Wichita, Santa Fe, Mobile and New Orleans. -- Hatsuzuki made her last stand against Task Force 34 on the same day Johnston, Hoel and Samuel B Roberts made theirs against Kurita's Fleet. All destroyers went out swinging like heroes protecting their respective fleets.

Freaking Taffy 3 went full on last stand to the death and pulled something amazing out of their hats. Tom Hanks and the Tiger at the end of SPR vibes.

Thanks Oproom.

Battle of Cape Engano, a.k.a. the Revenge for Pearl Harbor. Very fitting that the successor carrier named for Lexington got to deliver the final blow to the last survivor of the Japanese carrier force that struck Pearl.

@derpynerdy6294

6 ай бұрын

Not exactly since she sunk lol but yes a new one

All these videos were very fun to watch. I can’t wait to see you cover Operation Ten-go.

Great presentation: very detailed and thorough!

Never get tired of the background music. Great Content as always ❤

So what I got from this series, is that the "Battle of Leyte Gulf" is really several separate battles fought in relatively close proximity to each other.

@Mrhalligan39

6 ай бұрын

In one sense yes, in another sense it was a campaign conducted according to a single Japanese plan, like the Battle of Kursk or the Battle of Verdun.

Always a good day when The Operations Room posts a new vid.

been waiting intently for this video since the last one you posted

I’d love to see a lot more naval battles from you guys!

Another beautyfull video. Thank you guys!

Bruh Halsey sounds like such an egotistical baby boy.. dude was in command of probably the most powerful naval force on the planet at the time and he gets urgent messages that people he was meant to be protecting were in danger and he tells them "its too late for you" lol and then when his commander unintentionally tells him off he starts crying like a kid while people are dying because of him... i havent finished the vid yet but i really hope there was consequences for his actions

@thenumbah1birdman

6 ай бұрын

Halsey received no consequences for his double-blundering at Leyte, and incredibly escaped consequences for getting ~700 men killed by blundering into 2 typhoons in early-mid 1945. He was too heavily lauded by the US public for that to be done in a graceful manner.

@d.olivergutierrez8690

6 ай бұрын

Unfortunately he didn’t 😒

finally, some coverage of this battle! *Battle 360*

It know you do mostly modern stuff but some stuff from you about the age of sail could be really cool I think

Halsey was both right and wrong. He needed to send ships after the Japanese northern force, but he also needed to leave a force to defend the invasion fleet.

@Mrhalligan39

6 ай бұрын

Halsey had well enough strength to do both. Detaching his battleship escorts would still have left N overwhelming force of carrier aircraft at his disposal.

Gez, can you imagine being on one of the remaining Japanese ships after the carriers were taken out and seeing a flock of 100 American strike fighters coming in? It must have felt like the end of the world. Then they all whiff their bombs. 😂