Hello everyone! Just a disclaimer - I did not produce the CG animation for this video, but I worked several hours to fully translate it from Japanese! If you enjoyed this video or any of my other translations (Japanese WWII veteran interviews, documentaries, etc) please consider a small donation on Patreon (www.patreon.com/TakaLeon) so I can do this more frequently. Thank you!

Damn. This should be a movie.

This is far superior than anything that might come out of Hollywood. Magnificent! Thank you!

The sheer quality and attention to historic accuracy of your master work is imo the benchmark for cgi history reenactment and gaming enthusiasts. Respect.

Brave japanese pilots they have my respect. They flew right into that wall of fire.

この時代の雷撃機や爆撃機乗りのパイロットは殆ど当たらんとは言えあの弾幕の中に爆弾や魚雷抱えて突っ込んでくとか本当に凄い

This is way better than that History Channel crap. It shows both sides, and it doesnt lazily repeat already shown scenes and doesnt re tell everything 10 times over because of Ad breaks. More of these, please!

If the creator did some editing with the lighting/light warping, added material textures/realism, added voice acting, and the people being replaced with actual actors, this would totally be a high-budget movie in terms of quality.

Thank you very much for providing the subtitles for the best CGI battle docu ever!

This was an amazing bit of CGI. The way the pressure wave from the torpedo hits on Horne literally made the ship "bend" as they passed through her hull... That was sublime. This little vignette of the Battle of Santa Cruz was an exceptional treat to stumble upon. Thank you so much for posting it!!!

In addition to weapons, depictions of people was good.The aircraft carrier Hornet, which is difficult to sink quietly, was extraordinarily robust. Thank you for CG Documentary !!

The recent discovery last month of the USS Hornet sitting at 17,000 feet down led me to watch this video. Well done. This should be a movie.

祖国のために戦い抜い死んでいった多くの搭乗員たち、君たちのことは忘れない！

I cannot praise the quality of this fine piece of work highly enough. Seriously, being a history freak, I knew how the battle would turn out, but I was still on the edge of my seat. Very well done!

I like these documentaries videos like this, it shows both sides forces, deployments and accurate event timeline without any propaganda bs. Thank you for the video and the efforts.

17:36 "I'm done for. I'm going in!" The bravery of these men is unsurpassed.

Excellent rendition of the Santa Cruz battle. Even included depiction of the Thatch weave. Nice. I'm glad we are allies now. Seems finally fitting after all. Thanks for your fine production.

May God bless those men who fought and died in the war and those that who are still with us to this day

Amazing CGI reenactment! Gotta hand it to the artists who created this. I've read books on this battle, yet the video left me on the edge of my seat. THANK YOU!!!

Master piece.

実写映画を上回る素晴らしい作品だと思います。両軍戦死者皆様方のご冥福をお祈りします。

Excellent documentary and CG!!! However - a little known fact - is that the USN did not really have 'no' operational carriers left for that brief period. HMS Victorious (or Illustrious, not sure) was leased from the British to cover the short fall of carriers while awaiting the repairs of Saratoga and Enterprise, commissioning of the Essex classes and the recall of Ranger from the Atlantic. The leased British carrier received radio call-sign 'USS Robin'!

This CG is way better than anything you see on Discovery, Nat Geo and History Channel. 30 min of pure battle no interview with war veteran or military expert.

I had read in several sources about this Battle, but this is the first video on it I have seen, and it is historically accurate.

Such a great work! Attention to detail is outstanding

I feel the CG in most documentaries I watch is horrible, but in this it was actually pretty good. Also, great work as always. Keep it up!

Astoundingly done. Marvelously animated. A jewel piece of CG video! I cannot find enough adjectives to praise this work. Today it is much easier to do a work on this quality: there are several platforms to simulate such sceneries. However this preceded all of them! And even worked on human behaviors, expresions and movements! DCS Supercarrier is just doing this since a couple of years ago and you cannot use it to create characters, lest historical characters! It surely was a task set out with love.

Juno, great video with attention to historical accuracy. Thanks for posting.

the thach weave saved many a carrier pilot early in the war..my great uncle was an aerial radioman/gunner on the Hornet.. he was badly burned when she was hit..but survived and had to be discharged from the navy..he hated to leave..

Oh my lord. I never knew this existed. Time to watch ten times

Very fine presentation, quality and attempt at historical accuracy is fantastic

Parts of this were sublime, i.e. the pilots eye views.

Finally - something that depicts the effects of a torpedo more clearly

Amazing, love to see more of this !

This is just AWSOME and to think that that battle actually happened with real men, torpedo, fighter, bomber squadrons and the brave men on both sides. EXCELLENT WORK!!!

Nagumo was like "Nope, not falling for that shit again" and turned when a scout plane was reported shot down pretty early in the battle.

Very well made. I liked it a lot. Well done.

That was brilliantly done.

「16:45」　体当たりしたのは、佐藤(Sato)兵曹長(warrant officer)の爆撃機だな。

By the end of the Santa Cruz battle, at least 409 of the 765 elite Japanese carrier aviators who had participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor were dead (148 KIA @ Santa Cruz). The Japanese won a tactical victory at Santa Cruz but were subsequently unable to further exploit the situation to their advantage. The quality and quantity of newly graduated Japanese pilots declined markedly and this severely limited Japanese offensive operations for the remainder of the war.

salute to all who fought in this battle.

Very good historically accurate and respectful video!

thanks so lot for your vdo, i was looking for documentary made by japanese and thanks for the english subtitle that can let me understand the entire story

Thanks for the video and translation. A couple of times the CG just looked so real.

This is beyond impressive!

今観ても素晴らしい仕上がりです。特に発艦時にちゃんと操縦者が操縦席で立ち上がって前方視界を確保しながら発艦していく様子まで再現できているのは、なかなか他の製作動画ではありませんね。当時の実録(白黒)映像などを観ても、例えばラバウル基地からの零戦離陸時にも、同じようにコックピットの風防から頭一つ分出ているのが分かりますから。制作者の細部に渡る心配りがさすがです。

Great choice for music. Well done!

That was amazing! Thanks.

Really enjoyed this, thank you!

Gotta say, The CG work on this puts Hollywood to shame, it was so lifelike and more importantly, believable. Compared to what comes out of those big movie studios... Geezzz this was good. Compared to the latest Midway movie... well, there is no to compare, this beats it all the way!

Thank the right people for both the art and the human portrayal! Splendid translation too!

Good work. Makes the chaos of carrier warfare understandable. Two things got left out. The seamanship of the Captain of the Enterprise combing not one but two salvos of torpedoes despite the textbook execution of a "hammerhead attack by the IJN torpedo bombers. Few ships could match the nimble handling of that class of carrier. The skipper made his turns shorter by reversal of engines in the inboard side. There was some damage to the propulsion due to this radical flank speed manuever but he put her into port with no torpedo hits. Second, Santa Cruz was the first tactical use of VT fuses in 5" DP guns. The IJN strike planes suffered grievously before they could even begin their attack. Surviving strike plane pilots thought the US had invented a 5 inch machine gun. More than anything else, the VT flak of the USN made Santa Cruz a Pyrrhic victory. Carrier survived but the last of their experience strike air crew were killed.

Great CG work.

Great vids!!! MORE PLEASE!!

Good job really. Need to make more of this...

Awesome job, well done.

男たちの大和の戦闘シーン。この人に依頼すればよかったのに・・・ちゃんと記録に基づいた攻撃シーンを作成してくれたことでしょう。

The Hornet was built very well. Took a severe beating from all sides and still was tough to put down.

NGL I keep coming back for the sound effects, let alone the rest of the well-researched history and animation quality.

Santa Cruz was also the last of the four great carrier vs carrier battles of 1942. There wouldn't be another one for two years. This is a fantastic presentation, with only one minor nitpick: in October, 1942, U.S. ships were not yet equipped with the 40 mm AA guns shown here. Decent medium range AA weapons were not yet deployed in the Pacific Fleet at this time. That being said, congratulations on a remarkable piece of work. Great attention to detail.

Well done!

salute to the brave Japanese : from India with love & respect.

You do good work, the re-enactment was very well done. Thank you.

Isoroku Yamamoto was stationed in the United States for several years as a soldier. He understood better than anyone else that the longer the war dragged on, the more Japan would find itself in dire straits. He was concerned that the war had started before Japan's overall national strength and war potential had reached a sufficient level. He knew full well that Japan could not win the war if it fought properly, and he wanted to destroy the American carrier fleet in one fell swoop while the war was still in Japan's favor, thereby eliminating the American desire to continue the war and bring about an early peace. However, the "Battle of Midway" to achieve this goal resulted in the destruction of Japan's main carrier fleet due to the ineptitude of the Japanese commanders in the face of overwhelming odds. Of course, Admiral Yamamoto felt strongly responsible for the failure to achieve the objective in the Battle of Midway under his command. He probably foresaw Japan's defeat at this point. I imagine that his subsequent actions were intended to intentionally patrol the front lines of the South Pacific, where enemy aircraft were flying overhead, and apologize to the Emperor with an honorable death in battle.

2 fleets of well trained and heroic sailors and airmen. The world will never see this again.

At 16:33 and 16:52 Shigeyuki Sato Aichi D3-A1

Great job! I would have left off music during battle scenes to make it more realistic and dramatic, but otherwise this was beautiful production work.

Great animation! My compliments!

I might be wrong but at the end of the vid there is an aerial shot of a Yorktown class carrier with a destroyer along side. I believe that is the Yorktown with the Destroyer Hamman, before she was torpedoed by an I-Boat which sunk them both. All in all a very good effort, kudos!

best damn representation of Battle of Santa Cruz I've ever seen

I was completely engrossed in this movie. The terrific soundtrack was very integral in my enjoyment.

Great job. Well done.

この手の動画のコメント欄に、何故か中国人がコメントして文句書いてあるの何で？

It is all the little details in these movies that really make them remarkable. That attention shows the passion and love for this history. Fantastic job!

This is wonderful

Great video and animation.

superb work thumbs up

Thank you for your posting, Juno!! I like the original video “The Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands（南太平洋海戦）”. But one day, I found your post with English sub!! It’s amazing for me because you certainly translate old Japanese Navy word, for example, in case when Syokaku(翔鶴) had hit bomb by SBD, IJN soldier told situation of Syokaku like that “We’ve lost a boiler”. Even Japanese doesn’t usually call one boiler to１缶 in recently!! In particularly this ward was told over 70 years ago in Japan, you know. So you definitely understand wards which are Japanese old style. How did you learn these Japanese old style wards?? By the way, as for me, I’m a Physical Therapist at hospital of Kyoto Japan, and I often care patients of over 85 years to near 100 years old who were solders at WWⅡ. They sometimes told me “I couldn’t talk about WW, even for my family after end of WWⅡ over 70 years because I had so hard experiences at Battle Front. But in currently I think, if I can’t talk about WWⅡ(in particularly their duties were to fight at Philippines to China and Okinawa), nobody will know the realities of War those days. Therefore I’d like to talk with you about this, until I die.” This original video made by Japanese Web Co about 10 years ago I remember, however you attached Eng sub will make US or foreigners convey realities of Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, I think. The important things are to understand what they fought for nation and families those days not only US but also Japanese about 75 years ago. And we have to convey the fights of WWⅡ towards next generations for the future. Your translate video will make us share the historical Battle of WWⅡ with each other easily than before! Sorry for the long message, and please forgive me about my poor English sentences!! I’m looking forward to watching your next posts!!

Japanese lost large % of their veteran pilots so it wasn’t just a “shortage of carrier aircraft” that put an end to Kido Butai.

我が青春 小学生の時に百度は観た

I'm not a fan of Halsey once he gets promoted to higher and higher commands, but this him at his peak and in his most challenging role. Some have asked if he was too rash in sending his last carriers out to fight at Santa Cruz - but he had Ghormley's failures to consider and, as he wrote afterwards to Nimitz, "I felt I had to start throwing punches". And he did have to; there was no other option. If he hadn't sent Kincaid to engage, Nagumo would have been free to flatten Henderson and put the whole of Cactus in jeopardy. This, like the horrendous sacrifice of 1st Naval Guadalcanal less than a month later, was an absolutely necessary defensive action which Halsey could not avoid ordering, despite the horrible risks. Ironically, these two defeats are actually peak Halsey and he deserves credit for having the guts to sacrifice his own men, which we know he felt terrible about doing.

Good Lord....flying a torpedo bomber on either side was incredibly brave! What stouthearted men!

Incredible!

Excellent and Thanks

Fantastic.

Magnificent ! Does anybody know about something like this about incredible Tanaka's performance at Tassafaronga ?

In the scene at around 16:53 where the Val (Type 99) crashes into the Hornet, the 500 pound bomb it was carrying did not explode. The damage to the Hornet could have been repaired had it not been hit by a torpedo.

I'd like to see more animations like this

Those poor tail gunners, on both sides. A US MA2 50. cal creates a temporary wound cavity that exceeds the size of a human body. In other words you're a pink mist w/ large chunks. God knows what those 20mm the Japanese had did. Crazy brave on both sides.

Way more realistic than midway, pearl harbor and many ohter cgi effect ww2 movies.

Pretty good account. It was the attrition in the last of the quality well trained veteran carrier aircrews, though, that I think had the bigger strategic implications for the IJN. It had an effect on the remaining Naval battles whereas our shortage in carriers were about to be supplemented by the Essex Class carriers coming off of shipyard ways within months of this battle.In that regard I'd still call Savo Island our worst night in '42.And that could've been worse yet if only Mikawa knew where our carriers were . . . or weren't in that case.

Juno, I've seen this guy's work before: can't remember the name but its BRILLIANT!!!

very very impressive

Absolutely correct--- Santa Cruz WAS the turning point! Midway and Coral Sea were the battles of containment were the US stopped the Japanese advance. They were not the turning points. Santa Cruz WAS the turning point. Yet how many Americans have ever heard of the Battle of Santa Cruz? Hollywood has done two flashy, sexy, big bucks movies on 'Midway', but nothing on Santa Cruz! Thank you for a great video! Now howsa about one on the Battle of the Eastern Solomons?

The superficial impression that most get about the Battle of Midway is that the balance of carriers swung decisively over to the U.S. side thereafter. This later battle, that has hitherto passed me by, demonstrates that there was, indeed, no such swing at all. Thanks for this very realistic uploading, therefore.

Beautifully done. I think Santa Cruz is the true turning point of the Pacific War. For after this Japan could no longer challenge US’s command of the sea and control of the skies.

nice well done,

Did that gunner at 15:20 just flip off the wildcats? Haha this is so well done and more entertaining that most documentaries. Subscribed.

Who is Tochibayashi Masaru and how do I find more of their work?! it really brings the entire battle to life.

Excellent. Beautifully presented, more accurate in details than any documentary I have viewed, better CG than Discovery network, certainly more historically accurate than the documentaries shown on the AHC channel. The only thing I could disagree with was the stated reason for the building of the airstrip on Guadalcanal. In several histories I have read that the strip was not being built for the strategic purpose of isolating Australia. As I understand it there was no thought given to that purpose until after the US and Australia invaded. Like the Allies, until the invasion very few in the Japanese military had even heard of Guadalcana. My heartfelt thanks to the creater of this video.