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I am a long-term fan of Jon going back to his and Mr Tully's seminal work "Shattered Sword". And whilst I admire all of his work, this speech borders on being his very best! Factual, accurate and delivered in a measured, unemotive "matter of fact" format and yet capturing a contporary emotion and tension that is palatable. Another brilliant presentation totally worthy of a great historian at the very pinnacle of his game!

Just returned from visiting the museum. It's been nearly 50 years since I last visited as a little boy, and how impressive things have changed! We spent a few hours there, and frankly could have spent two days to really see it all in detail. Thanks for such great work!

Good stuff. They would be proud to see female pilots in A10 Warthogs showing bad guys the error of their ways. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrt

Without all the defeats in 1942 and the lessons learned from it, the Allies wouldn't be able to start big in 1943

Outstanding presentation. Although I do not agree that the Battle of the Tenaru River/Alligator Creek dictated how the terms of the Pacific War would be fought. That happened already during the fiercely fought Bataan Campaign. I understand that most, but not all, our troops fighting there ended up killed or POW. Still, reports were sent from the Philippines back to the US, and even examples of captured materials for study via submarine, I think. So it's not as if the fight in 1941-1942 in the Philippines was some black hole from which nothing emanated. If one sees it differently, that's OK, I'd like to understand more.

On January 19, 1944, the Australian Ninth Infantry Division uncovered the Japanese 20th Division’s entire cryptographic library in Sio, New Guinea. This find allowed the Central Bureau, the Southwest Pacific Area’s multinational signals intelligence organization, to master the Imperial Army's codes and ciphers and provide timely intelligence to Allied forces. Would like to see more detail on this. For instance, does it mean Allies were reading all IJA codes in all theatres of operation, China, Burma, Philippines, etc, or just New Guinea?

Russia will preserve Ukraine is another Afghanistan for America long live Putin

Great Job Mr. Symomds. You kept me hanging on every word and minute! Fantastic Presentation. Would Love to have been a student of yours.

The interesting thought-game is whether there even would have been a battle of midway without all that intelligence. Even coral sea came about from intelligence, but assuming it still occurred as in history Halsey would have taken hornet and enterprise to replace Yorktown after the battle. Midway would not have been reinforced so there’s a chance it would have fallen. Nimitz would have stewed in Pearl Harbor with Saratoga on the west coast and the other three carriers somewhere in the South Pacific. Pearl itself was probably safe as all those planes were still there and not on midway. Perhaps there would have been a battle like midway when the us decided to recover it or a delayed Guadalcanal campaign might have sprang from defending the supply line to Australia. No effect on the ultimate outcome as the Essex and light carriers would still have appeared.k

Dr. Houghton's description of the breaking of JN-25 prior to Midway sounds an awful lot like how it is portrayed in the movie "Midway." This includes comments about the lack of hygiene.

I was very disappointed that there was no mention of the “On The Roof Gang” that made up the Navy and Marine Corps Radioman that made up station Hypo and other stations throughout the Pacific. Matt Zullo is probably the leading expert on this group and its activities. Midway was the proof that the Navy had the code breaking expertise to be relied on for the remainder of the war.

Station Hypo was a part of OP-20-G, but not all of it.

The use of tabulation machines helped a lot.

Very good presentation, thank you for your time!...

Looking forward to your next presentations also.

Dr. Vince Houghton always does good presentations. Thank you.

Stark reality nukes don't exist.

The General was, imho, a blow hard, bent on self agrandisement. He was really, just ridiculous. Ive felt his counter ego in the Nazi regime was Goering. Boyh WW1 decorated vets, way past their prime, or...usefulness. Admiral Nimitz was his polar opposite. He did his job to win the war and help the grunts as he could.

I remember when Nimitz took Command of the Navy. He was a shock. Discipline went down the toilet. Took years to get it back. Not good.

Parchal is always enjoyable

The Germans almost did it, with a very poor logistics train/trail, meddling by AH and against an enemy in his own backyard. They were good soldiers. Had the Nazis NOT been a group of genocidal maniacs, fosted German nationalism for all people and acted in concert with other countries, quite possibly, the soviets would have been crushed.

What an awesome lecture!!!

I thought I’d learn something. Not

Fire the interrupter

Neither the invasion nor the blockade seems to me to have been more “humane” than the atomic bombs. I recall the forced and uncoditional terms imposed by the Allies on Germany, when they refused to negotiate with the revolutionary government of Germany and continued the starvation blockade of the German people until the German delegate signed the Versailles Treaty. Paradoxically the Japanese came away with a more honorable peace in 1945 than the Germans did in 1919. What sort of place would Japan have been in 1950 when Communism had triumphed in China.

The US sacrifices will always be remembered and valued...but do not forget that Australia fielded 11 Divisions (to US roughly 25 Divisions) and were the first to defeat the Japanese army at Milne Bay in August-Sept. 42. We also cleared the rest of New Guinea and the western Pacific, which enabled US forces to concentrate on the Central and Eastern Pacific. It highlights that we all need allies, and Australia has stood shoulder to shoulder with the US since.

Very interesting talk. Thanks for sharing.

The best thing King did was to make the US Navy’s voice heard by the command of US forces. Otherwise he was a real dick to his force commanders, always the Monday morning quarterback. Nimitz’ subterfuge to get Halsey to Midway was one of the keys to winning the battle. King continuously criticized Ray Spruance for not pursuing the enemy fleet aggressively after decisively winning two major carrier fleet battles, the only US admiral to do so without leaving landing forces and their support groups stranded. King was a dour critic of his commanders, possibly the best strategic commanders in the US. Operations

Maybe Band of Brothers might get more viewers?

During the war, Hitler paid I.G. Farben 6x the market price of oil for a very limited quantity, about 5% of the national need. Additional newly drilled wells in the Romanian fields would have cost less and provided Germany with additional oil at perhaps 2x market price. Almost any prodcing field increases production in the short run with more wells, though not much more over the field's lifetime. The cost of Germany's attempt to capture and benefit from the Russian fields was huge in arms and men, a poor choice.

love and admire fellow Texan Admiral Nimitz.

Fascinating and enlightening. Wish my history classes in school had been this informative.

Sped up WW2 by a few years. (Would've lost without lend lease)

Semper fidelis, fellas! USMC.❤.

Re: could Japan have been compelled to surrender without using the Atomic bomb? Perhaps, but it would have meant continued suffering of Allied POW’s, as well as additional combat fatalities of sailors and airmen. Honestly, which other country in WW2 would have hesitated using a weapon that might achieve quick victory? None of them. And surely not our enemies!

Yes.

I was familiar with quite a bit of the info. here. However, you've presented a not insignificant number of important smaller details I did not know. Thank you for that. God bless the memory of Adm. Nimitz. In late 1941, FDR saw/knew things about Nimitz the rest of us couldn't see.

My father served on the USS Hansford in WW2. He was an electricians mate

The title of this video does not match the content.

I’m saving this video to watch later when I have enough time to really appreciate the information - my grandfather was in the 118th medical battalion in the pacific and it’s extremely difficult to get a decent idea of what he might’ve experienced. He was dubbed a litter bearer and truck driver but it’s still difficult to know what someone in his shoes might’ve seen or done. Thank you for this video!

Thanks for this great program on a pivotal period in WWII. I'm curious as to whether or not you’ve heard of recrnt accounts I've heard that in the last stages of planning Olympic, before Hiroshima, the King absolutely refused to have the Navy participating in the landings once he learned we would not have an overwhelming superiority of manpower in the invasion. He instead said the if the government didn’t surrender, we should continue blockade and bombardment.

If you followed the US Railroad industry during WWII, the War Production Board and its influence is utterly fascinating. In the twenties, the success of diesel-electric locomotives for switching applications is proven. By the mid to late thirties, diesel-electric passenger locomotives have also become a success story as well, first with the then new light weight passenger cars and later with conventional heavyweight passenger cars. But it's not until 1939 that GM's subsidiary Electro Motive Corporation (EMC) (which would become the Electro Motive Division (EMD) on January 1, 1941) that we saw the introduction of successful road freight diesel-electric locomotives with EMC's four unit FT. FT's were what the railroads wanted, but by the time the War Production Board is up and running they realize they need EMD's prime movers (the diesel power plant in a diesel-electric loco) as well as in some cases the electric transmission (generators coupled to the prime mover plus electric motors to power the wheels) for things like submarines and landing craft. And the RR's (with a few exceptions such as RR's such as the Santa Fe which operate largely in a desert environment) are forced to buy new large modern steam locomotives for road freight service rather than the EMD FT's they would prefer. So most of the last great steam locomotives are produced not because the RR's wanted steam but because the War Production Board forced them to turn to steam. The War Production Board also forbade new experimental designs and in many cases, RR's would have to borrow other roads' blueprints because they were not allowed to develop new designs.

Excellent video. I was the Admiral Nimitz Museum director at the time of the Yamamoto Mission Retrospective in 1988. It was an amazing event, with so much more info coming out during the before and after hours of our get together. I remember Mr. Yanagiya telling us in response to a question about the speed of their reaction to the arrival of the P-38s, that he said the Zeros were not carrying radios at the time, so they only went after the Americans after they were visually sighted. When asked about lack of radios, he said that they took them out of their planes because the plane handled much better without that weight. There were so many more great memories from that terrific event. I'm glad the museum continues to feature the items from that fabled mission.

Excellent...another book I need. The land battles fought to liberate the Philippines is a subject overlooked by some. A teacher of mine participated....his description was horrible...his admiration of the Philippine fighters and civilians was boundless.

OMG Parshall’s “ehh” hand signal front & center after the NZ 2nd infantry division was described as “the best infantry division in the Commonwealth!”

My grandfather of 11th airborne would of loved this and the unit in Alaska!

Look up the story of Rear Admiral Charles “Swede” Momson and his meeting with Admiral King and how Swede made the mail run on time. It’s in Momson’s biography “the Terrible Hours”

WHEN ARE WE GETTING VOLUME 2 OF TOWER OF SKULLS?!?!?!

The discucssion of the Ukraine conflict would seem to be a perfect time to compare Putin to Hitler. After all, Hitler reassured his generals that the USSR was so weak, "You have only to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down." ...or words to that effect. Isn't that just what Putin promised as his "Special Military Operation" began? Here and elsewhere there is mention of Putin and Stalin but this overlooks the parallels between Putin and Hitler.