14-Inch Guns vs. Japan's Fortress Islands: USS Texas at Iwo Jima and Okinawa Full WW2 Documentary

The 14-inch guns of USS Texas could not elevate past fifteen degrees, yet in 1945 the Navy sent her against two island fortresses built to survive exactly that kind of gun. No 14-inch shell would ever reach most of the men waiting underground at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. This documentary follows the battleship USS Texas, BB-35, commissioned in 1914, from her New York-class design and her 1,500-pound shells to her two Pacific campaigns. It covers the three-day bombardment of Iwo Jima beginning on 16 February 1945, Lieutenant General Kuribayashi's tunnel fortress, the seven-day preparation for Okinawa, General Ushijima's Shuri Line, the kamikaze threat of Operation Ten-Go, and the fifty days Texas spent at general quarters while 36 American ships were sunk around her. It compares the two Japanese fortress systems and shows what naval gunfire could and could not do against caves and tunnels. Built from Marine Corps and Army campaign histories, Navy ship records and first-hand crew accounts, with every figure checked against the record and every disputed number hedged. Subscribe for the definitive history of the United States in the Second World War — new documentaries every few days. #WW2 #WorldWarII #PacificWar #USNavy #WWIIHistory #USSTexas #IwoJima #Okinawa #MilitaryHistory #USAInWW2