Show Notes
This week we take a step back from the battles and the conquests to take a look at the major players.
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Before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Yamamoto predicted that he would win victory after victory for the first six months or so of the war, but beyond that he had 'no expectation of success.' In June 1942, he decided to force one more major engagement, which he hoped would decide the course of the war. The battle would take place on the tiny atoll of Midway … but little does he know the Americans have intercepted his plan.
Allied fortunes in the Pacific are at their lowest ebb. They’ve been beaten on every front. Their colonies have been overrun. A ragtag fleet is scraped together to face off against the Imperial Armada of Japan. Will the Allies prevail?
The hammer falls on the British. Soon retreat turns into a rout, but will the Japanese be able to take the Gibraltar of the East, the fortress once thought impregnable: the great redoubt of Singapore?
Things look grim for the United States. Many of the Pacific fleet's battleships have been damaged or destroyed at Pearl Harbor. The U.S. army is small and unprepared for war … And now their strongest redoubt in the Pacific, the Philippines is under attack.
A day that will live in infamy. A day that shaped the American character and forever changed the American outlook on the war. December 7th, 1942. The attack on Pearl Harbor.