Victory at Sea — Season 1, Episode 25: SUICIDE FOR GLORY: Okinawa

Episode synopsis

In one last ditch effort at glory, having lost most of their best men in military actions, Japan employs suicide pilots--the Kamikaze--men who would willingly crash their planes into ships in order to destroy the American spirit. But the U.S. Navy and Marines are ready for them with their guns, and they fought heroically against the onslaught. And on Okinawa, Americans fight a major battle with the Japanese Army.

About Victory at Sea

Victory at Sea is a documentary television series about naval warfare during World War II that was originally broadcast by NBC in the USA in 1952–1953. It was condensed into a film in 1954. Excerpts from the music soundtrack, by Richard Rodgers and Robert Russell Bennett, were re-recorded and sold as record albums. The original TV broadcasts comprised 26 half-hour segments—Sunday afternoons at 3pm in most markets—starting October 26, 1952 and ending May 3, 1953. The series, which won an Emmy award in 1954 as "best public affairs program", played an important part in establishing historic "compilation" documentaries as a viable television genre. Over 13,000 hours of footage gathered from US, British, German and Japanese navies during World War II were perused in the making of these compelling episodes.

More episodes from Season 1

• E1DESIGN FOR WAR: Battle of the Atlantic, 1939-1941
• E2THE PACIFIC BOILS OVER: Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941
• E3SEALING THE BREACH: Anti-submarine warfare, 1941-1943
• E4MIDWAY IS EAST: Japanese victories & the Midway Battle
• E5MEDITERRANEAN MOSAIC: Gibraltar, Allied & enemy fleets, Malta
• E6GUADALCANAL
• E7RINGS AROUND RABAUL: Struggle for the Solomon Islands
• E8MARE NOSTRUM: Mediterranean Command, 1940-1942
• E9SEA AND SAND: Invasion of North Africa, 1942-1943
• E10BENEATH THE SOUTHERN CROSS: War in the south Atlantic
• E11THE MAGNETIC NORTH: War from Murmansk to Alaska
• E12THE CONQUEST OF MICRONESIA: Carrier warfare--Gilberts and Marshalls