World War II In Color: Part 11 The Island War

With the Allies closing in on Berlin back in Europe in Episode 11 of World War II In HD Color (See Episode List Here) the focus moves to the fight in the Pacific. The Americans were involved in a massive marine war with the Japanese but had gained the upper hand at sea. Now they needed to close in on Japan itself and a number of plans had been put forward. Either way they would need to take a number of the Japanese controlled Islands in a bid to cut of supply lines to the mainlands. Huge resources were committed to taking targets such as the Gilbert Islands, The Marshall Islands, Saipan and eventually but controversially The Philippines.

 It was a series of savage battles with huge losses on both sides but the Japanese belief of  "Die Before Surrender" led to catastrophic losses on their side. On one Island; out of over 20,000 troops 17 prisoners were taken the rest had perished, a complete Japanese Garrison of 32,000 died on an Island in the Mariana. Even early in the Island Wars it had become apparent to Roosevelt and his Generals this Japanese mindset would mean an attack on the Japanese mainland would cost unthinkable American lives, one estimate revealed later was 250,000. In the documentary we see shocking footage of the kamikaze pilots who volunteered for suicide missions to fly their planes into American ships and shockingly on Saipan thousands civilians threw themselves from cliffs rather than be captured.

This series is the first time footage from World War Two can be seen in HD Color and is narrated by Robert Powell. All 13 episodes will be available on Documentary Fans over the coming week you can find them here : Watch The Complete World War II in HD Color Series.

Watch the full documentary now on Documentary Fans Release Date: 2010 Duration: 45 Minutes.