You Americans may not know this but Midway and many subsequent battles have been incorporated in street naming in Australia . Both the battles and the major American ships honoured in our geography naming . We don't forget our friends and what your men and women scarficed in both blood and treasure. Especially the former . That's why we have remained your most reliable ally since 1942.

The reason the US pilots were better is more complex. First of all the US had been training more pilots than we needed. And when we had too many pilots - we increased the amount of training they got. Another critical difference is what we did with our best pilots. Japan kept their best pilots on the front lines - where they flew until they were killed or too severely injured to fly. The US identified the best pilots in the combat units and after they were deemed to have enough expierence - they were pulled back and became instructors in combat tactics and operations. When the next batch of 'aces' came back to teach - the first batch were trained in leading flights of combat aircraft - and became the leaders and cadre of newly formed squadrons. (Which gave them another opportunity to pass on what they knew.) We had figured out that it isn't the best pilots who win wars. It's the average pilots. And we made sure that our new and average pilots had much more training than the average enemy pilot. The Japanese started the war with a two year long pilot training program that produced the best pilots in the world. But that system couldn't keep up with combat losses. As the war progressed - the Japanese pilots were given less and less training as the critical demand for pilots forced abbreviated training programs. As the war progressed the amount of training American pilots kept increasing (and they were taught my people with recent combat expierence) while the amount of training Japanese pilots decreased over time.

There was so much working against the Japanese in the Philippine Sea. There pilots were almost all raw green recruits. Part of the reason Ozawa planned for them to land on Guam was he had his doubts about how many of them could land on a Carrier. Many had barely 100 hours of flight training. And it wasn't "quick thinking" of the Fighter Directors. It was practice and training. Taking to heart the lessons learned at Santa Cruz, and building a cohesive doctrine of fighter control that was followed by every operator. Spruance and Mitscher had taken the lessons learned in '42, the stumbling early steps of true Carrier Operation. They took the Japanese innovation of the Kido Buttai massed Carriers and they spent '43 forging it into something new and devastating. The true modern Carrier Task Force. Carriers not simply as a strike force. But as a means of true Power Projection. A Carrier Force that did not have to retreat and slip away into the night after striking. And instead held it's ground. Attack it at your peril. Add to that how superior the US ships themselves were by that point, with much improved air search radars and radar targeting directors. Plus the new radar proximity shells. And finally the weather itself was working against Ozawa. The conditions were just perfect that every one of his planes streamed long white contrails behind themselves in an otherwise clear blue sky. Spruance gets a lot of grief for not letting his Carriers charge off ala Halsey. He recognized his missions was to protect the Marines. To protect the beaches. He kept his Carriers where they could do that. And trusted the shear enormity of the Navy's vastly improved air defenses to do the job. He even used a trick the Japanese had considered. Sending the Battleships and Battlecruisers out miles ahead of the US Carriers to form an AA interdiction wall. On top of the 300+ Japanese planes shot down, both Taiho and Shokaku sank with almost their full air compliment aboard. This broke the back of Japanese Naval Aviation. It's final deathblow would come a few months later over Formosa, in the prelude for Leyte Gulf.

There's a reason the Hellcat was nicknamed "The Ace Maker" and "Zero Killer". Arguably the best fighter of the entire war out of both sides. It's a shame it rarely gets its day in the sun. Everyone talks about the more popular fighters while this one had a 20:1 kill ratio. No fighter of that time could boast such a record. Grumman makes amazing aircraft.

At first I scuffed at a female narrator, with the conviction in her voice, she won me over. Itz relieving to hear a young voice preserving our history, with so many wanting to destroy it. THANK YOU, MA’AM !!! U.S Army veteran 83-89. Salute.

My compliments on your wonderful audio! It is so refreshing to hear real human voice and not that foul computer generated crap! With the plethora of the CGA, and the need for real human audio seems like there would be plenty of work out there for skilled narrators, Kudos to her, great job!

I think a few have mentioned this already. At first, I too was a little surprised at the female voice. I'm not used to that when it comes to war videos. But, I admit she narrated very well.

There is one thing missing from this commentary: the quality of Japanese pilots fell off sharply after the Battle of Midway. Before that battle, the Japanese had the best Naval Aviators in the world, and the most experienced, arguably, aerial combat pilots. Many of them were killed at Midway. The Japanese simply did not have the time or resources to properly train new pilots to replace those that had been lost. This was similar to what the British faced at the Battle of Britain. There is a certain irony to this as the Japanese flight schools and training were patterned after the British training. FYI: the british helped them set up these schools years before the war broke out. By this time in the war, the Allies were rotating experienced pilots home to train the newer pilots. This was something the Axis nations simply could not do.

The outcome of this fight was set due a prior battle at Midway where Japan lost most of its experienced pilots. Secondly the US ability to destroy nearly all oil tankers into Japan meant there was very little fuel to train new pilots. Thus they were willing, but with next to no experience. The US were the complete opposite, their pilots had been progressively experienced in combat or well trained with unlimited oil and other resources.

Today marks the 77th anniversary of that aerial shootout. Needless to say, aces like Alex Vraciu and David McCampbell came into their own and more than a few others became aces themselves in the process!

I agree with a previous poster that the narrator, Laura Lawfer Orr, did a fantastic job! Enjoyed the video overall, Y'all keep up the good work! Going to try to watch one of your productions each day.

Outstanding commentary and historic detail. Brilliantly done - thank you. R

well said, great presentation of events.

Great video and commentary!

Really well narrated. Nice video! 💛🙏🏼

A very fascinating and well narrated video. I almost felt as if I were there in person.

One of the F6F guys who came out to the CAF seminar was assigned to Low CAP. They only stayed there a short time because as he said, '' It was raining aircraft parts down there''. He didn't get a shot but felt a lot safer after they moved up.

Important history, excellent presentation! Aloha 😊🇺🇸🤙🏼👏🏼

The american pilots didnt have luck. The IJN carrier force at this point of the war was a shadow of its former self. They didnt have the seasoned veterans they once had, most of them have died in previous battles. On the other hand, the american pilots were not only trained and experienced at this point of the war, they had better equipment and aircraft. The american also have the knowledge on how to use their aircraft carriers unlike at the start of the war. The IJN pilots were basically running a mission doomed from the start.

Great video.In fact,as good a video as I have seen anywhere.

Japan had spent the entire last year rebuilding their carrier air fleet, and then lost 90% of it in a single day.

It's significant that this battle was the first the U.S. used Proximity Shells. These rounds only needed to get close to their target to do effective damage. The project was as secret as the Manhattan Project for obvious reasons.

So much to learn here

The hellcat was (is) one hell of a plane to say the least. George H.W. Bush was also part of the turkey shoot that day.

One of the most important contributions to the lopsided victory was not given by the narritor. That was the first use of the proximity fuse in the American anti-aircraft shells. It was hugely effective. It had returning Japanese pilots driven nearly out of their minds with fear, from how deadly it was. Ozawa had 430 carrier aircraft before the June 19 battle started. He returned with only 35 operational ones. Japan lost 2 to 3 thousand mostly in the three ships sunnk, but in the two day battle American losses were 31 killed on ships including those from friendly fire and 76 fliers.

Only 360 rounds for 6 victories? That’s incredible! If memory serves, the f6f carried 6 guns with 400 rounds… each! Boggles the mind what he could have done had more targets presented the opportunity.

On paper, the IJN had USA flat-footed and should have won. Quick thinking and superior quality of pilots won the day.

I attended a ceremony on the island of Saipan where a USAF officer was touting the accomplishments of these pilots. He TRULY did not see to know that they were USN and not AAF! Were any USMC pilots involved flying off the carriers?

What a difference 1944 is from 1942 how much the Japanese Carrier pilots had suffered due to losses.

Makes you think of the poor bastards in Devastators and other out dated aircraft that died at Midway, what a difference 2 years made? God bless all those who lost their lives in WW2 from whichever side they were on.

Wow 60 shots a plane on average that's a dead eye pilot. A sniper with wings.

By that time our pilots had much more experience also.

The USS Lexington aircraft carrier was damaged and sunk in 1942 during the battle of the Coral Sea. This video states the USS Lexington was in the battle in the Phillipines in 1944 ?!! Please explain.

Hellcat and the training

The Japanese were having a hard time understanding that the Hellcat was a Wildcat on steroids. The venerable Zero was simply no match

The US after Coral sea came up with a method to flood their magazines and fuel tanks with nitrogen. These prevented fires and explosions.

That ship counted 143 kills.

At the battle of the Philippine Sea, Admiral Halsey sould have been in command of the US fleet, and at the Battle of Leyte Gulf it should have een Spruance. Philippine Sea needed a man of action, Leyte Gulf needed a more sober American Admiral,