The Marianas Turkey Shoot: Japan's Naval Air Power Died in a Day

On 19 June 1944, the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot cost Japan the bulk of its carrier-based naval aviation in a single day over the Philippine Sea, a force it would never rebuild for the rest of the war. This video tells the full story of the Battle of the Philippine Sea, from the F6F Hellcats and radar-directed fighter control of Task Force 58, to Vice Admiral Ozawa's First Mobile Fleet and its four doomed raids on 19 June 1944, to the submarine sinkings of the carriers Taiho and Shokaku the same day. It covers the origins of the battle in the collapsing Japanese pilot-training pipeline after Midway and the Solomons, the American Navy's own training and fighter-direction buildup through 1943, the minute-by-minute breakdown of the four Japanese raid waves against Task Force 58, the "mission beyond darkness" strike on 20 June that sank the carrier Hiyo, and the long-term collapse of Japan's naval air arm that followed all the way to Leyte Gulf in October 1944. Built from after-action reports, squadron loss tables, and the official Naval History and Heritage Command record of the battle, not the shorthand version most documentaries repeat. Subscribe for the definitive history of the United States in the Second World War, new documentaries every few days. #WW2 #WorldWarII #PacificWar #USNavy #F6FHellcat #BattleOfThePhilippineSea #TaskForce58 #NavalHistory #WWIIDocumentary #CarrierWarfare #USAInWW2