5 Battleships Were Wrecked at Pearl Harbor — What They Did Next Shocked the World

Japanese bombs and torpedoes wrecked five American battleships at Pearl Harbor in December 1941. West Virginia and California were left on the bottom; Tennessee, Maryland and Pennsylvania were damaged. On the night of 25 October 1944 all five were waiting at the top of Surigao Strait when Vice Admiral Shoji Nishimura's battle force came north in the dark, expecting only transports. The audio of every Battlewatch documentary is on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2nnWOCN... From inside the Japanese plan, the video follows the Sho operation and Nishimura's run ahead of schedule, the PT boats and Captain Jesse Coward's destroyer torpedo attack, and Rear Admiral Jesse Oldendorf's battle line crossing the T with radar the Japanese did not have, until Yamashiro was gone, Shima had turned back, Shigure was the only one of seven ships to come home, and Mississippi had fired the last salvo ever fired by a battleship at another battleship. Around it: Musashi sunk by carrier aircraft in the Sibuyan Sea, Taffy 3 against Yamato's battle line off Samar with Commander Ernest Evans and USS Johnston, and USS Nevada, the one battleship that got under way at Pearl Harbor. Chapters: 0:00 The Ships Japan Left on the Bottom 2:41 The Morning They Went Down 19:35 The Battle Line 31:53 The Battleship That Planes Killed 41:37 The First Wave 51:58 Down by the Bow 59:42 The Little Ships Off Samar 1:11:05 Draw Her Fire 1:20:26 Fifty Hours in the Water 1:25:04 The One Battleship That Ran 1:31:07 Casting Off 1:40:15 Old Imperishable Sources: Naval History and Heritage Command, H-Gram 038-2: The Battle of Surigao Strait (2020): https://www.history.navy.mil/about-us... Samuel Eliot Morison, The Battle of Surigao Strait, USNI Proceedings (1958): https://www.usni.org/magazines/procee... U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, Interrogation Nav No. 79, Cdr Shigeru Nishino (1945): https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/... Naval History and Heritage Command, DANFS: West Virginia II (BB-48): https://www.history.navy.mil/research... Naval History and Heritage Command, DANFS: California V (BB-44): https://www.history.navy.mil/research... Combinedfleet.com, IJN Battleship Musashi: Tabular Record of Movement: https://www.combinedfleet.com/musashi... U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, Interrogation Nav No. 35, RAdm Tomiji Koyanagi (1945): https://ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/USSB... Naval History and Heritage Command, The Battle off Samar: The Sacrifice of Taffy 3: https://history.navy.mil/browse-by-to... Robert C. Hagen, his 1945 account of USS Johnston at Samar: https://ussjohnston.org/permission/us... Naval History and Heritage Command, DANFS: Nevada II (Battleship No. 36): https://history.navy.mil/research/his... F. W. Scanland, USS Nevada Report of December 7, 1941 Raid (1941): https://history.navy.mil/research/arc... Samuel J. Cox, NHHC, USS Nevada (BB-36) Commemoration remarks (2016): https://history.navy.mil/about-us/lea... Archival film, photographs and the terminology of the time are used in this video for history and teaching, and a few moments with no surviving film may be shown as reconstructions, labelled on screen. It is not meant to glorify war or to offend any person, nation or group. #SurigaoStrait FOOTAGE AND IMAGE SOURCES Archival film, most screen time first: Naval Action in the Philippines (111-ADC-9649): https://catalog.archives.gov/id/23414 US Carrier Task Force in the Philippine Islands (111-ADC-9618): https://catalog.archives.gov/id/23382 Air Action in the Pacific, USS Iowa Under Attack and USS Intrepid (428-NPC-6303): https://catalog.archives.gov/id/77819 Carrier Planes Attack Japanese Shipping (111-ADC-9607): https://catalog.archives.gov/id/23371 Invasion and Bombardment of Leyte, Shipping Activity in Leyte Bay (428-NPC-5808): https://catalog.archives.gov/id/77676 D-Day Philippine Operations (111-ADC-3187): https://catalog.archives.gov/id/16990