20th Century Time Machine | Operation Hailstone: The Airstrike on Truk Island (1944) - Newsreel @20thCenturyTimeMachine | Uploaded April 2018 | Updated October 2024, 2 hours ago.
A public domain video
Incredible footage of an air battle as America takes the Truk Island from the Japanese.
Operation Hailstone, 17–18 February 1944, was a massive United States Navy air and surface attack on Truk Lagoon conducted as part of the Allies' offensive drive through the Pacific Ocean theater during World War II.
Prior to Hailstone, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) used Truk as an anchorage for its Combined Fleet. The coral atoll surrounding Truk's islands created a safe harbor whose few points of ingress the Japanese fortified with anti-aircraft guns and other equipment. Allied estimates of Truk's defenses and its role as an IJN stronghold led newspapers and military men to call it the "Gibraltar of the Pacific," or to compare it to Pearl Harbor. Its location in the Caroline Islands also made Truk an ideal shipping hub for material moving from Japan's home islands down through the South Pacific Mandate and into the Southern Resources Area.
By early 1944 Truk was increasingly unsustainable as a forward base of operations for the IJN. The United States Army under General Douglas MacArthur had moved up through the South Pacific, isolating Japanese strong points as part of Operation Cartwheel; and the U.S. Navy, under the command of Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, had seized areas in the nearby Marshall Islands. As a result, the IJN relocated Combined Fleet's forward base to Palau and had begun clearing warships out of Truk in advance of Hailstone.
Nevertheless, the attack on Truk caught a large number of auxiliary and cargo ships in the harbor, as well as some warships. Between submarine, surface and air attacks over Hailstone's two days, around 250 Japanese planes were destroyed. Approximately forty ships—two light cruisers, four destroyers, nine auxiliaries, and over two dozen cargo vessels—were sunk. Considerable damage was inflicted on the lagoon's various island bases, including communications centers, supply dumps, and a submarine base. Truk remained effectively isolated for the remainder of the war, cut off and surrounded by the Allies' island hopping campaign.
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youtube.com/channel/UC_S8ZlDCRkMMgc7ciw8X-hg
The 20th Century Time Machine takes you back in time to the most important historical events of the past century. Watch documentaries, discussions and real footage of major events that shaped the world we live in today.
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A public domain video
Incredible footage of an air battle as America takes the Truk Island from the Japanese.
Operation Hailstone, 17–18 February 1944, was a massive United States Navy air and surface attack on Truk Lagoon conducted as part of the Allies' offensive drive through the Pacific Ocean theater during World War II.
Prior to Hailstone, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) used Truk as an anchorage for its Combined Fleet. The coral atoll surrounding Truk's islands created a safe harbor whose few points of ingress the Japanese fortified with anti-aircraft guns and other equipment. Allied estimates of Truk's defenses and its role as an IJN stronghold led newspapers and military men to call it the "Gibraltar of the Pacific," or to compare it to Pearl Harbor. Its location in the Caroline Islands also made Truk an ideal shipping hub for material moving from Japan's home islands down through the South Pacific Mandate and into the Southern Resources Area.
By early 1944 Truk was increasingly unsustainable as a forward base of operations for the IJN. The United States Army under General Douglas MacArthur had moved up through the South Pacific, isolating Japanese strong points as part of Operation Cartwheel; and the U.S. Navy, under the command of Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, had seized areas in the nearby Marshall Islands. As a result, the IJN relocated Combined Fleet's forward base to Palau and had begun clearing warships out of Truk in advance of Hailstone.
Nevertheless, the attack on Truk caught a large number of auxiliary and cargo ships in the harbor, as well as some warships. Between submarine, surface and air attacks over Hailstone's two days, around 250 Japanese planes were destroyed. Approximately forty ships—two light cruisers, four destroyers, nine auxiliaries, and over two dozen cargo vessels—were sunk. Considerable damage was inflicted on the lagoon's various island bases, including communications centers, supply dumps, and a submarine base. Truk remained effectively isolated for the remainder of the war, cut off and surrounded by the Allies' island hopping campaign.
Subscribe - never miss a video!
youtube.com/channel/UC_S8ZlDCRkMMgc7ciw8X-hg
The 20th Century Time Machine takes you back in time to the most important historical events of the past century. Watch documentaries, discussions and real footage of major events that shaped the world we live in today.
youtube.com/watch?v=EHAZA5h5cmo
NASA’s Apollo 11 Original Mission Video of the Moon Landing as aired in 1969
youtube.com/watch?v=EDHMqba13Ws
The Counterculture of the 1960s and the Youth Around the World
youtube.com/watch?v=mntdoWQLa9Y
Iran 'King of Kings' Mohammed Reza Pahlavi's Reign During the 1960s
youtube.com/watch?v=FdoPqrqWfU4
Remembering Vietnam: Twelve Critical Episodes in the Vietnam War
youtube.com/watch?v=Svxv6ev-EfA
The John Glenn Story (1962) - Academy Award Nominated Best Documentary Short.
youtube.com/watch?v=Wwr2yM4OmHE
The Coup that Overturned the Ngo Đình Diem Regime in Vietnam (1963)
youtube.com/watch?v=hVGDKaeuer4
The Battle of Russia (1943) - Nominated Film For Best Documentary
youtube.com/watch?v=EUcG30fAPM0
CIA'S Human Experiments With Mind Control: Project MK ULTRA
youtube.com/watch?v=jL0CAmYN9Kk
A Prophet in His Own Time: Ray Bradbury - Story of a Writer (1963)
youtube.com/watch?v=zO8qFZ95Wpw
The Spanish Earth: Hemingway, Ivens, and the Spanish Civil War (1937 Poetic Documentary)
youtube.com/watch?v=vsp5hNQfZl4
The American Response to Sputnik: The Launch of Explorer 1 - January 31, 1958.
youtube.com/watch?v=p0-oKG_1YiU
Listen to Britain: A Depiction of Life in England During WWII - Poetic Propaganda Film (1942)
youtube.com/watch?v=ci4od6ja2JE
A Tribute to John F. Kennedy: Years of Lightning Day of Drums (1964)
youtube.com/watch?v=nOOb16ZuZx0
Apollo 16: High-Speeding Rover in "Lunar Grand Prix" - Nothing So Hidden (1972 documentary)
youtube.com/watch?v=_xa6zPbo46g
