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00:00During the Second World War, an entire generation recorded their personal experiences for posterity.
00:08Combat cameramen braved enemy fire to send home moving images, many of them in color.
00:15They captured history, and in the process they captured ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events,
00:22bearing witness to the color of war.
00:30Music
00:46World War II was the first mechanized war,
00:50with men in tanks and other armored vehicles pounding across a lethal and modern battlefield.
00:57The very importance of these machines to the new tactics of combat also made them magnets for enemy fire.
01:05Riding into battle in a claustrophobic steel shell,
01:09these men were forced to confront a whole range of weapons and tactics
01:13that were specifically devised to destroy them and their machines.
01:19They also had to overcome the challenges of hostile climate,
01:22brutal terrain, and the mechanical breakdowns of their own vehicles.
01:29For the tank crews, this turned the war into a harrowing struggle for survival,
01:34one that they faced in every theater around the globe.
01:39Music
01:48The Second World War depended on technology like no other conflict in history.
01:54It changed the nature of battle forever,
01:56making mechanized forces the backbone around which any army is built.
02:02The United States alone constructed over 3,200,000 military vehicles during the war.
02:09By 1945, there was one vehicle for every four men.
02:15This revolution was the result of a new wave of military thinking,
02:19which occurred in the 1920s and 30s.
02:24For thousands of years, armies depended upon foot-borne infantry supported by horse-mounted cavalry.
02:32This age-old method of warfare now began to give way to the increasing use of armored machines
02:38such as half-tracks, armored cars, and tanks.
02:44Covered by hardened steel armor plates to protect their occupants from enemy fire,
02:49some of these vehicles could carry up to 20 or more fully armed soldiers into battle.
02:57They also mounted weapons ranging from machine guns to heavy cannon,
03:01providing a potent offensive punch.
03:05Given these unique qualities, many pre-war strategists envisioned the new mechanized forces
03:11fulfilling the traditional role of the cavalry,
03:14launching massed hell-for-leather charges at the enemy.
03:23Armor is a weapon of opportunity.
03:26Through its great speed, firepower, and flexibility of maneuver,
03:29it is capable of surprising the enemy and attacking him before he is capable of defense.
03:35Continuous action against the flanks and rear so confuses the enemy
03:38that he becomes easy prey for the remainder of the army.
03:44But the actual battlefield employment of mechanized forces
03:47was often far different from what theorists predicted and what many historians have recorded.
03:54Indeed, the conditions faced by the men who served on and in the machines of war
03:59were not appreciably better than those who went into battle the old-fashioned way, on foot.
04:06At first, however, many of the men who joined the new mechanized formations saw only the advantages.
04:14At the time, I had no idea what an armored infantry regiment was,
04:20but I figured out that it was a new type in which you rode instead of walked most of the time.
04:26I said I would like that.
04:29After a day of training, the mounted troops had to scrub down their mounts,
04:34clean and polish saddles, bridles, scabbard, boots,
04:38and all other leather gear before they could go to evening mass.
04:42We only had to wash our truck, and that took much less time.
04:48The main striking force of an armored unit was its tanks.
04:52These tracked behemoths were designed to be the ultimate armored weapon,
04:56the king of the modern battlefield.
04:59The crews who manned them came from every corner of America.
05:03To many, they were the armored cavalry or tankmen.
05:07They referred to themselves simply as tankers.
05:12Some of these men, including Corporal Jim Rotschadel,
05:16were reluctant to serve in the relatively new machines.
05:20An officer came by one day and started talking to me.
05:24I'd like to have you in my tank, he said, as my gunner.
05:28You can't tell an officer to go to hell.
05:31I said, I'd rather not, really.
05:35He didn't say much.
05:37He left, and then he came back another time and said,
05:40well, that's the way it's going to be.
05:43You're going to be my gunner.
05:45I didn't want to be inside of a tank.
05:47Have you ever been inside of a tank?
05:49It's claustrophobic when you're locked in there.
05:52I couldn't say no, so I became his gunner, and that's where I stayed.
05:58Being a tanker meant adapting to harsh battlefield conditions
06:02and a series of imperfect machines.
06:05In America, tank development following World War I
06:08had been severely hindered due to a shrinking military budget.
06:12But after the German Blitzkrieg in France in 1940,
06:16during which tanks were extensively used with devastating results,
06:20the U.S. Army redoubled its efforts to develop a new family of tanks
06:24to counter the impressive German vehicles.
06:31They fell into two main groups.
06:35Light tanks, such as the M3 and M5 Stuart,
06:38were relatively small and built for speed
06:41to fill the need for armed reconnaissance and swift strikes at the enemy's flanks.
06:47Mounting a 37-millimeter cannon and up to three machine guns,
06:51the Stuart weighed 14 tons, carried a crew of four,
06:55and could reach speeds of up to 36 miles an hour.
07:01The backbone of U.S. mechanized forces was the medium tank.
07:05Larger and more heavily armed than light tanks,
07:08medium tanks were meant to bear the brunt of armored combat,
07:12either in support of infantry units or operating in independent formations.
07:18The main U.S. medium tank to seek combat in World War II was the M4 Sherman.
07:24Between 1942 and 1946, American factories produced over 49,000 of them.
07:32The Sherman weighed in at 32 tons and was armed with a 75-millimeter main gun,
07:38later upgraded to a higher-velocity 76-millimeter gun,
07:42which had greater penetrating power than the earlier weapon.
07:48The fully-armed Sherman carried 97 rounds of either high-explosive or armor-piercing shells
07:55and was protected by 2 1⁄2 inches of frontal armor.
07:59A .30-caliber bow-mounted machine gun was used for close combat situations.
08:06Depending on the model, it had a top speed of 24 to 30 miles an hour.
08:13Five men comprised a Sherman crew.
08:16The tank commander sat or stood in the turret.
08:20In the turret itself was the gunner, who aimed and fired the main gun, and the gun's loader.
08:25In the front of the vehicle sat the driver and the assistant driver,
08:29who also manned the bow-mounted machine gun.
08:32Each position came with its own hazards.
08:40I felt sorry for my loader.
08:42He was sitting in a position, and the breach on these 75 cannons is a huge breach.
08:47The shells were about two feet long.
08:49And when you fired, it went back almost to the back of the turret.
08:54It was a hell of a position.
08:57Visibility for all tank crews was extremely limited.
09:01Their view of the outside world was restricted to the bits and pieces
09:05glimpsed through a few periscopes and narrow slits in the turret and hull.
09:10One Allied tank driver described the difficulty of trying to see in and from his tank during a battle.
09:20With every round fired, clouds of dust obscured the driving compartment.
09:25The roar of the tank's engine was drowned by louder noises,
09:29so that its behavior had to be gauged by the instrument panel.
09:33And yet I am loathe to take my eyes for an instant from my periscope or visor.
09:39Cut off from visible contact with the outside world,
09:42the wireless operator could not possibly know in which direction the vehicle was moving.
09:50The tanks were not designed with the crew's comfort in mind either.
09:55One tanker described the difficulties of devising a sleeping arrangement for his crew.
10:02We had a rotation plan in our tank.
10:05The engine compartment stayed hot almost all night.
10:09We used to take turns, one night apiece, sleeping on the engine compartment.
10:14You can just imagine, you get cold in that goddamn piece of steel.
10:18And those tanks were cold.
10:21Sanitary conditions in a tank were also far from ideal.
10:27Right in front of the assistant driver, there was a four-inch steel pipe with a cap on it.
10:32You ate enough cheese that you didn't have any problem about that.
10:35But you might have to pee.
10:37You would piss in a brass shell casing, hand it over to the loader, and he'd drop a mound.
10:41That was the sanitation.
10:44In the European theater, another unsettling fact of life
10:48was quickly brought to the attention of the Sherman crews.
10:52Their vehicles were no match for the enemy's tanks.
10:56It was a lesson that was paid for in blood.
11:04Our German gunners see our tanks coming.
11:07They say to each other,
11:09Why do the Americans do this for us?
11:12Bang! And it burns like 20 haystacks.
11:16All the people inside, my God.
11:19Those funny tanks with the little guns, and so high and straight,
11:23we can see them from a long way in our gun sights.
11:26Those square signs, and it's in the armor.
11:30Why does the country of Detroit send their men out to die in these things?
11:36In the European theater of World War II,
11:39both Allied tankers and their German counterparts
11:42coined the term Ronsons for the American Shermans.
11:46This based on the popular slogan of the Canadian Ronson cigarette lighter.
11:51Always lights the first time.
11:54Throughout the campaign, the German tanks were used
11:57as a means of suppressing the enemy.
12:01Always lights the first time.
12:04Throughout the campaign, the late model German Mark IV,
12:08with its high-velocity 75-millimeter gun,
12:11and the even more powerful Panther and Tiger,
12:15outclassed most models of the Sherman in firepower.
12:20In the Pacific theater, however, the story was far different.
12:26Here, the smaller Japanese tanks,
12:28with their weaker armor and low-velocity guns,
12:31were no match for the Shermans.
12:34On Peleliu in 1944,
12:37Marine tankers destroyed several outgunned Japanese tanks
12:41in one day of intense tank-to-tank combat.
12:45There's a tank dead ahead of you, but there's going to be fire on it.
12:49There's a tank dead ahead.
12:54One of the jabbed tanks got behind one of ours
12:56and was blazing away at the back of the Sherman.
12:59I remember screaming at our tank to look back when suddenly
13:02the Sherman's turret swiveled 180 degrees
13:05and let loose a 75-millimeter round
13:07that blew the turret right off the jabbed tank.
13:10It continued to run for a ways like a beheaded chicken.
13:18Though well-documented, tank-to-tank battles
13:21were relatively rare occurrences in most theaters during World War II.
13:27The more common experience for tank men
13:29was slugging it out with entrenched enemy infantry and artillery.
13:35It was a type of combat that hadn't been taught
13:37in the cavalry-minded atmosphere of the armored training schools
13:40back in the States.
13:44Instead, it had to be learned by experience
13:47in a brutal game of trial and error.
13:52When the first shell hit, I was afraid like all of us were.
13:56We were told in training,
13:58Don't freeze.
14:00I guess a few guys did.
14:02They got so petrified or frightened, they just froze.
14:06But I kept saying to myself,
14:08Don't freeze. Watch.
14:10So I didn't freeze.
14:12But I was damn scared.
14:17To many soldiers, the Sherman appeared to be
14:20a massive fighting machine,
14:22able to move at high speed and simply crush any obstacle in its path.
14:28When the weather was fair and the terrain was solid and flat,
14:31this was certainly the case.
14:34However, the battlefields of World War II
14:36were anything but hospitable to the tanks and their crews.
14:44From the quicksand and rugged mountains in North Africa
14:48to the mud, ice, snow and freezing temperatures in Europe,
14:52the tankers constantly struggled to keep their vehicles moving.
14:57A single broken track or clogged carburetor
15:00could completely immobilize a tank.
15:03Indeed, throughout the war,
15:05most tank losses were due to mechanical breakdown,
15:08accounting for no less than 75% of losses in some formations.
15:15We cannot operate in the ground below.
15:17It is too soft. Is that clear? Over.
15:22The sheer weight of the machines often became their own worst enemy
15:25as they frequently bogged down in the mud
15:27or were hampered in fields that had been pounded
15:30into glutinous soup by intense artillery barrages.
15:36Many Allied tankers were faced with a dangerous problem
15:39when they entered the narrow bocage or hedgerow country in northern France.
15:47I never knew what a hedgerow was.
15:49When I saw those hedgerows, I said,
15:52my God, no wonder nobody can see anything.
15:55They were taller than the one-story houses
15:57and the hedgerows were so close together that you couldn't see nothing.
16:02My God, traveling down those roads, all of a sudden,
16:05bam, a shell would smack one of the lead tanks
16:08and the lead tank would pull back.
16:10Sometimes, it would just knock it right out.
16:18In the Pacific, marine tankers faced equally brutal conditions
16:22in their island-hopping campaigns.
16:25In the often intense tropical heat,
16:27the crews battled the uneven, swampy conditions
16:30in dense South Pacific jungles.
16:33The tankers developed their own methods for dealing with the foul terrain.
16:38We followed trails.
16:40When there wasn't any trail, we would just start through the jungle.
16:44When we got balled up so much we couldn't go anywhere,
16:47we'd back off and with the canister ammunition
16:49shoot a hole big enough to drive a tank through.
16:54Coping with the incessant demands of weather and terrain
16:57was the first of many challenges for the tank crews.
17:00Tankers also had to learn how to fight effectively
17:03without putting their vehicles in unnecessary danger.
17:09Charging into battle at full throttle with guns blazing,
17:12as envisioned by pre-war armored theorists,
17:15had been tried by U.S. tanks
17:17during the early phases of the North Africa campaign in late 1942.
17:24But these tactics had caused huge losses
17:26from entrenched enemy anti-tank guns and were quickly abandoned.
17:32During the remainder of the conflict,
17:34U.S. tank warfare usually took on a decidedly less dashing personality.
17:41Tanks do not rush forward in the mechanized version of the Flying Wedge.
17:45They advance hesitatingly,
17:47like diffident fat boys coming across the floor at a party
17:52to ask for the next dance,
17:54stopping at the slightest excuse,
17:57going back,
17:59then coming on again.
18:01They are timid creatures.
18:05The vulnerability of tanks to a multitude of enemy anti-tank weapons
18:09brought about an important new relationship for the tank crews,
18:13a collaboration with the infantry.
18:17It was a partnership that would ultimately benefit both the men and their machines.
18:28The infantry were senior partners.
18:32They first decided how a position should be attacked
18:35and were then given an appropriate number of tanks to support them.
18:40The infantry scoured all bushes, hedges and ditches
18:43to clear out any bazooka men or snipers.
18:47Each partner was aware of the difficulties and limitations of the other.
18:52If, in the event, tanks suffered heavy casualties,
18:55they saved the lives of the infantrymen and the sacrifice was worthwhile.
19:02TANKERS
19:09Infantrymen in World War II had the highest respect for tankers.
19:14Where an infantryman could die for cover when under fire,
19:17tankers were trapped inside their vehicles,
19:20forced to keep moving until they were actually hit.
19:25We all liked tank men.
19:27We admired them.
19:29I would rather have been an infantryman than a tank man any day of the week.
19:34Might feel safer inside as long as nothing happens.
19:37But you couldn't hope for a pleasant death if anything did happen.
19:41Shut up in a blazing steel room.
19:45One of the biggest obstacles to effective tank and infantry offensives was communication.
19:51In the early days of the war, the infantry lacked portable radios
19:55and were therefore unable to communicate with the crews of a buttoned-up tank.
20:00As a result, tank commanders were forced to improvise.
20:07It meant that the tank commander, me, either got out of the tank to talk to the infantry
20:12or an infantryman crawled up on the turret.
20:15We would turn the turret away from the Japanese.
20:18The tank commander's hatch was on a rotating ring and I would rotate that
20:22and put one of those hatch covers between me and the Japanese.
20:25It protected us from one direction.
20:28But God knows, you could have gotten hit from anywhere.
20:35In the Pacific, marine specialists solved the problem by attaching a telephone intercom
20:40on the back of the tanks, allowing safe and effective contact.
20:47Tank-to-tank communication was also a problem with the early model AM radios,
20:51which were hampered by static and poor reception.
20:56The later development of noise-free FM radios allowed tankers to communicate effectively
21:01and coordinate their offensives.
21:05This combat recording from an anonymous Pacific island
21:08captures actual tank-to-tank radio transmissions in a marine tank platoon.
21:14An infantry said that they'd like to have you fire over them green villages
21:18about 11 o'clock to your left with the three SPACs on.
21:23All right.
21:24Fire several rounds into that and to the other buildings around there.
21:28The infantry have requested it. Over.
21:31There was one just a little long.
21:33Let's get this one in the building.
21:35We fired at 1,200 yards range, so make it about 1,500.
21:39Here we go with an HE.
21:41This is congo to all vehicles. That should be sufficient for that building.
21:47But even when communication was good,
21:49the tactics of armor-infantry cooperation did not always work smoothly.
21:55They said there was a machine gun fire going into them from our vehicles.
21:58I don't think there is, but that's what they said. Over.
22:05My tank had advanced across a clearing
22:07and was covering the advancing infantry.
22:09I was watching like a hawk for any machine gun nest or sniper.
22:13The first waves started across,
22:15and suddenly there was the crackle of an enemy machine gun,
22:18and I saw one of the boys go down.
22:21I was beside myself with self-blame.
22:24I had not located that nest.
22:27I could not contain my self-derogation for several days.
22:32During the Battle of the Falaise Gap in 1944,
22:36During the Battle of the Falaise Gap in 1944,
22:39a tragic error was recorded by Sergeant Steve Crisco.
22:44I was firing 75mm shells into a wooded area
22:48as fast as my loader could ram them into the gun's breech.
22:52Suddenly, a running, hand-waving infantryman materialized in my periscopic view.
22:57I reached up, grabbed onto the hatch rim,
22:59and hoisted myself up into a standing position.
23:02The infantryman said,
23:03Stop! You're killing our own men!
23:07I fell back onto the gunner's seat,
23:09laid my head on my crossed arms, and cried.
23:13As far as I was concerned,
23:16the war was over for me.
23:20Steve Crisco's tank commander,
23:22fresh out of Officer's Candidate School,
23:24had ordered him to fire the volley of shells.
23:27But Crisco adamantly blamed himself
23:29for the deaths of the infantryman.
23:33The next day,
23:34I learned that my tank commander had screwed up orders.
23:38He had been told,
23:39Don't fire on the left.
23:41But inadvertently, he heard,
23:43Fire on the left.
23:46I refused to go into battle with him again.
23:51Despite mistakes such as this,
23:53after numerous battles in Europe and on Pacific Islands,
23:56the tank-infantry relationship was cemented
23:59and became effective in many battlefield situations.
24:04The tanks were often instrumental
24:06in rescuing wounded infantrymen
24:08and evacuating them to aid stations in the rear.
24:13This partnership would change the face of tank warfare
24:15for years to come.
24:19However, as the tankers continued to fight,
24:21one thing that did not change
24:23was the daunting array of anti-tank weapons and tactics
24:26hurled at them by the enemy.
24:30Facing these threats
24:31was the most terrifying aspect of armored warfare.
24:38It takes 20 minutes for a medium tank to incinerate,
24:41and the flames burn slowly.
24:43So, figure it takes 10 minutes
24:45for a hardy man within to perish.
24:48You wouldn't even be able to struggle,
24:49for chances are both exits would be sheeted with flame and smoke.
24:54You would sit, read good housekeeping,
24:58and die like a dog.
25:09The deadly threats to allied tank crews
25:11were sometimes inherent to the battlefield,
25:14striking down men and machines
25:16before they had a chance to fight.
25:20In Europe and the Pacific,
25:22the amphibious landing was the routine way
25:25tanks were delivered to enemy territory.
25:28Facing heavy surf and intense enemy fire,
25:30tanks were often unloaded far short of the beach.
25:34As a result of their massive weight and closed hatches,
25:37some quickly sank beneath the waves,
25:39taking their crews with them.
25:42For those that unloaded successfully,
25:44their trip to the beach had only begun.
25:49We hit a shell hole,
25:51and we had water that came bubbling in.
25:54It hit the batteries and started forming chlorine gas.
25:57We had to open our hatches.
25:59We had seawater coming in,
26:01but we had to have some way of getting that gas out.
26:04We couldn't breathe.
26:09After numerous amphibious losses,
26:12new solutions were attempted.
26:14Some platoons began waterproofing their tanks,
26:17using a sticky, putrid substance called bostic.
26:22Another solution, late in the war,
26:24was the T-6 flotation device,
26:27a series of six steel floats
26:29that allowed the tank to fire its gun
26:31while maneuvering atop the waves.
26:36Once the tankers arrived in the battle zone,
26:39the potential threats to their lives multiplied.
26:42In both theaters of World War II,
26:44enemy artillery posed a significant danger.
26:49In North Africa and Europe,
26:51the dreaded German 88, or 88-millimeter gun,
26:54which was originally designed as an anti-aircraft weapon,
26:57proved equally deadly in the anti-tank role,
27:00delivering a high-velocity round at low trajectory.
27:05The distinctive whine of the 88 shell
27:07was easily recognized by the tankers,
27:10who understood the consequences of a hit.
27:15We were coming into this open field.
27:17When we got in there, the German 88s got us.
27:20They hit my tank, and it exploded.
27:22And I hollered,
27:23Abandon tank!
27:24The tank was on fire.
27:26I jumped out of the turret and hit the back deck.
27:28Blood was coming out of the top of my combat boot,
27:31and I knew I was hit.
27:33When I got down off the tank and looked up,
27:35I saw the loader coming out of the turret,
27:37and he was on fire when he hit the ground.
27:39I knew Koron, my gunner, didn't come out,
27:42because the 88 hit him directly.
27:45And I had some of his flesh on my helmet.
27:58But a far more common anti-tank weapon used by the Germans
28:02was a shoulder-fired, bazooka-like weapon
28:05called the Panzerfaust.
28:07As demonstrated in this German training film,
28:10at close range, one undetected enemy soldier
28:13could immobilize or destroy a tank with a single shot.
28:19The Panzerfaust fired a warhead
28:21that Allied tankers referred to as a football.
28:24The projectile could penetrate over five inches of steel,
28:28twice the thickness of the Sherman's frontal armor,
28:31almost always ensuring a kill.
28:34...under the arm...
28:39Tankers quickly learned that the armor plating of a Sherman
28:42was not thick enough to protect them from many forms of attack.
28:46Attempts to improve a tank's defenses included adding spare track,
28:51sandbags, and wooden planks to the vulnerable spots
28:54on the turret and side-mounted sponsons.
28:58The improvised armor offered a slight sense of additional security.
29:05In the Pacific, a more desperate method was often unleashed
29:09upon the Sherman crews in the dense jungle cover.
29:15At random moments, Japanese soldiers rushed out
29:18and attempted to place a magnetic explosive charge
29:21near the exposed suspension or thinner belly armor,
29:25often holding the explosive in place with their bodies.
29:29Tank crews soon discovered a way to counter these tactics.
29:35Whenever we would get in the scrap,
29:38and Japs would be coming in to put these different types of bombs
29:41that they would stick on the sides of your tank,
29:44we would just spray each other with machine gun fire.
29:47We would call the platoon and tell them,
29:49boys, scratch my back.
29:51They would just spray the hell out of us
29:54for watching out that they didn't knock our periscopes out.
29:57In both theaters, Army and Marine tank commanders
30:00were subjected to a danger that was literally aimed directly at them.
30:05The sniper's bullet.
30:07As tank commanders, their role was to maintain
30:10a constant vigil on the battlefield.
30:17It was a tank commander who usually rode into battle
30:20with his head exposed to enemy fire.
30:22With clothes hatched, vision is scarcely satisfactory
30:25by use of a 2-inch by 6-inch periscope.
30:28It was preferable, although much more dangerous,
30:31to go into battle with open hats
30:33and the tank commander's head bobbing up and down
30:36like a pull target on a firing range.
30:41But even the most alert tank commander
30:44often could not avoid the deadly and hidden threat of landmines,
30:48which were nearly impossible to detect from a tank.
30:52While combat engineers detected and diffused countless mines,
30:56it was not possible to locate them all.
31:00In the Pacific theater, the Japanese often employed
31:03a fearsome variation on the standard anti-tank mine.
31:08They would wire the mines to large aircraft bombs,
31:11some weighing up to 500 pounds,
31:14and bury them in areas where tanks were anticipated.
31:18These images captured on Okinawa
31:21bear witness to the terrifying power of one of these devices.
31:27The tank backed over a landmine.
31:30There was a 250-pound bomb underneath the landmine.
31:33It blew the tank right up in the air.
31:36These two guys popped out of the turret like corks out of a bottle.
31:40Neither one of them got hurt.
31:43The driver and the assistant driver were pinned in there
31:46as the tank went up in the air and came down upside down.
31:51The entire engine compartment was blown off.
31:54The tank was on fire, and they never got those guys out.
31:58They were trying to force open the escape hatch, and they couldn't.
32:06Whether rocked by a landmine, a Panzerfaust,
32:10an artillery shell, or an enemy tank,
32:13one thing was always certain to the Sherman crews.
32:17They either exited quickly, or they died a horrible death.
32:26The combination of high-octane gasoline and their own high-explosive shells
32:31ensured that the tank became an instant inferno,
32:34often burning or brewing up for several days.
32:43I had the shitty job of going back to those tanks
32:46and getting the dog tags of those who had died.
32:49We made up a little box.
32:51If you found anybody's remains, you always put their dog tags in that box.
32:56It went with the body.
32:58It was like getting into a furnace after something's been destroyed.
33:02I'd go where the tank driver was supposed to be sitting,
33:05and I'd find a dog tag.
33:08I wouldn't even find the body.
33:11It was a horrible experience,
33:13especially when you're going to get in a tank yourself the next day.
33:18Those guys never knew what hit them.
33:21Those tanks exploded.
33:24Nobody had a chance.
33:29Despite the dangers, the tankers battled on.
33:32In the sands of North Africa, the cold and mud of Europe,
33:37and the unbearable heat of the Pacific,
33:40thousands of these men fought and died in their own armored version of combat.
33:46Yet of all their brutal victories,
33:48one had an otherworldly life like no other.
33:52It was a little-known but vitally important
33:55armored campaign on a steaming, sulfurous speck of volcanic rock
33:59in the middle of the Pacific.
34:05We stopped in a column and got out to take a smoke break.
34:09It was an incredible sight.
34:12There were probably four or five hundred Japanese bodies laid out in rows.
34:17The Japanese had been dragging them back all this way and lining them up.
34:22It was a horrible stench and a really shocking sight to us.
34:27We realized we were really putting the hurt on them at that point.
34:33The Battle of Iwo Jima
34:38During the Iwo Jima campaign,
34:40U.S. Marine tank crews played an often-forgotten but crucial role.
34:45For thousands of Marines, the story began aboard ship,
34:49just days away from what would become known as Operation Detachment.
34:56Dear Mom and all,
34:58you probably won't get this letter for a long time.
35:01It'll be held up until the forthcoming operation is well underway.
35:05We're aboard a ship going back into combat.
35:08I was glad to get aboard ship.
35:10It's clean and you always get good chow just before a battle.
35:15The name of the vehicle I'm now driving is Cape Town 43.
35:21Corporal Wayman Whitfield's new tank, Cape Town 43,
35:25was a part of C Company 4th Tank Battalion,
35:28one of three tank battalions totaling over 150 tanks to serve on Iwo Jima.
35:36Like thousands of other Marines,
35:38he said his farewells in a hurried letter before the invasion.
35:43This will probably be my last letter for a long time,
35:46so don't worry about me and I'll write it my first chance.
35:51Say hello to everyone for me.
35:54All of my love, your devoted son, Wayman.
36:04For two days, U.S. Navy warships maintained an intense bombardment
36:08on Japanese defenses around the island's lone peak of Mount Suribachi.
36:14The ferocity of the attack and the limited amount of return fire
36:17fueled speculation that the tanks would not be needed on the island.
36:22We thought the Japanese defenders would be wounded or dazed.
36:25The infantry would go in there and mop up in three or four days
36:28and wouldn't need any armor.
36:33But when the first waves of Marines did land on the Iwo beaches,
36:37it quickly became obvious that the Japanese were hardly neutralized.
36:43They had only withdrawn deep into the island's honeycomb of bunkers and caves,
36:48riding out to preparatory bombardment.
36:52Pinned down by deadly fire in their beach positions,
36:55the infantry put out a desperate call to the tank crews.
37:00The first tank companies were loaded aboard LSM landing ships
37:03and hurriedly launched toward the beaches.
37:07As the vessels attempted to land,
37:09they were battered by heavy surf and endless rounds of Japanese artillery fire.
37:19Bob Neiman was Wayman Whitfield's company commander.
37:26The ship is catching hell.
37:28Only one thing saved it from being sunk.
37:30It was so thin-skinned that the Japanese shells would go in one side
37:34and out the other before they would explode.
37:37It was a very frustrating experience.
37:39Tanks were needed ashore, but we couldn't get ashore.
37:44Radio correspondent Dick Mawson also described the scene.
37:49There are several of these amphibious landing craft coming in for landing with us at this time,
37:53and as these ships moved in toward the beach, they drew quite a bit of fire.
37:59The tanks that were landed earlier this morning were bogged down in soft sand.
38:03We don't know just what sort of a reception we're going to have when we get in there,
38:06although we have a pretty good idea.
38:08After hours of frustrating and costly attempts to land the tanks,
38:12the first Shermans finally rolled onto the beaches.
38:17When we first rolled off the LSM,
38:19the only thing I could see was through my periscope.
38:22Then we began to see wounded and dead bodies.
38:26It was a terrible sight.
38:28I couldn't see anything.
38:29I couldn't see anything.
38:30I couldn't see anything.
38:31I couldn't see anything.
38:32I couldn't see anything.
38:33I couldn't see anything.
38:34I couldn't see anything.
38:35I couldn't see anything.
38:36We began to see wounded and dead Marines on the beach,
38:39and we knew it wasn't a John Wayne movie.
38:43It was for real.
38:51What many thought would take only three or four days
38:54turned into a bloodbath that lasted well over a month.
39:00For the infantrymen, the tank crews were lifesavers.
39:06Because of the lack of any vegetation or other natural cover,
39:09the men often depended on the tanks to bail them out
39:12when they became pinned down by heavy gunfire.
39:18Hoppy, this is Bob.
39:19Watch those infantrymen in front of you now
39:21if they don't get the muzzle blast.
39:23Be very careful of that.
39:25This is Congo to Fred and all vehicles.
39:28Cease firing.
39:29Do not fire any more rounds now
39:32unless you see enemy opening up.
39:34The infantry wish to go forward
39:36and do not want us to fire right up by platoon.
39:41Dislodging the Japanese from their deep network of caves
39:44proved to be a challenging assignment for the tankers.
39:49For this job, specially modified Shermans proved invaluable.
39:54The tank dozer was often credited
39:56as the most effective armored vehicle on Eworld.
40:00It used a heavy blade to smash and bury cave openings,
40:03sealing the enemy inside.
40:09Flamethrower tanks, nicknamed Satans or Zippos by the Marines,
40:14were also extensively used,
40:16dispersing a fiery napalm mixture
40:18to incinerate the Japanese inside their caves and strongpoints.
40:24While their role was limited,
40:26they were a source of fear to the enemy.
40:30At the height of the battle,
40:31the flame tanks were unleashing 10,000 gallons of napalm a day.
40:37Mixing the fuel fell to the maintenance men
40:39who worked round the clock
40:41to repair damaged tanks and keep them armed and fueled.
40:48What we did when we weren't busy operating the retriever
40:50was to mix the glop, as we called it,
40:53the stuff they used for the flamethrower tanks.
40:56We fixed that stuff by the 55-gallon barrel,
40:58several of them every day.
41:02Finally, through a desperate team effort,
41:06the infantrymen and the tank crews
41:08managed to root out all major pockets of Japanese resistance.
41:13During one of these battles,
41:15Weyman Whitfield's Cape Town 43
41:17was attempting to rescue the crew of another Sherman
41:20that had been disabled by a mine.
41:23Whitfield's company commander described what happened next
41:27in a letter to the young Marine's mother.
41:32It was during the second week of fighting
41:34that your son's tank was leading the attack
41:36against enemy positions on the central airfield
41:39when it struck a powerful mine.
41:42The force of the explosion was so great
41:44that your son and three of the remaining four men
41:47were killed instantly,
41:49while the fifth man was blown from the tank.
41:53Whitfield's Cape Town 43
41:55was one of 32 Marine tanks
41:57knocked out around Iwo's central airfield that day.
42:03In all, 47 tanks were written off
42:06as total losses during the campaign,
42:09one of the highest numbers for any battle in the Pacific.
42:16For his accident,
42:19for his acts of heroism,
42:21Weyman Whitfield was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star.
42:25He was buried with full military honors.
42:28One of Weyman's best friends
42:30also wrote a letter of condolence to his mother.
42:34I know how you must feel about Whit and his death,
42:37but you mustn't let it get you down.
42:40There were many of us that would have given our lives
42:43to have him alive,
42:45but I don't think he wanted it that way.
42:49You could tell by the way he talked,
42:51and looked at you,
42:53and the way he let his hair grow long.
42:56I think he knew he was going to die,
42:58and that's why he kept going up all the time,
43:01so it would be him instead of someone else.
43:05He was a man well worth being proud of.
43:12This is an epitaph that could well apply
43:14to every one of the U.S. tankers
43:16who gave their lives during the Second World War.
43:19For despite the vast transformations in combat
43:22during the 20th century,
43:24machines did not dominate the battlefields of World War II.
43:29Instead, it was the men in the machines
43:32who made the difference between defeat and victory.
43:46World War II
43:48The Battle of the Bulge
43:50The Battle of the Bulge
43:52The Battle of the Bulge
43:54The Battle of the Bulge
43:56The Battle of the Bulge
43:58The Battle of the Bulge
44:00The Battle of the Bulge
44:02The Battle of the Bulge
44:04The Battle of the Bulge
44:06The Battle of the Bulge
44:08The Battle of the Bulge
44:10The Battle of the Bulge
44:12The Battle of the Bulge
44:14The Battle of the Bulge
44:16The Battle of the Bulge
44:18The Battle of the Bulge
44:20The Battle of the Bulge
44:22The Battle of the Bulge
44:24The Battle of the Bulge
44:26The Battle of the Bulge
44:28The Battle of the Bulge
44:30The Battle of the Bulge
44:32The Battle of the Bulge
44:34The Battle of the Bulge
44:36The Battle of the Bulge
44:38The Battle of the Bulge
44:40The Battle of the Bulge
44:42The Battle of the Bulge
44:44The Battle of the Bulge
44:46The Battle of the Bulge
44:48The Battle of the Bulge