WWII in Color: Road to Victory (TV Series) The Battle of the Philippine Sea (2021) User Reviews

Interesting but too many unforced errors

[almont-57736 · 7/10 · 27 December 2021]

Maybe it's a small thing, but it's grating to watch a program with so many experts (Craig Symonds!) delivering a riveting narrative, and yet so little attention to detail. A segment about directing a combat air patrols from carriers shows a P-47, a land-based Army fighter. They show B-26s dropping bombs while discussing hitting the Marianas, again an Army plane that took no part in the battle. In another segment they discuss Japanese strike aircraft running into American fighters, accompanied by footage of US dive bombers. I get it, you have this cool footage you want to use, but there's plenty of images that are correct for your story.

Wawro said "Forget Midway" in this video

[nanonta · 7/10 · 10 February 2022]

The Battle of the Philippine Sea was very important, but without Midway it might have taken the US a year or two longer to take the Mariana Islands. At Midway Japan lost not only 4 of its best carriers, but also 2,000 pilots and crew aboard the carriers. Japan built more carriers but never recovered. The Japanese pilots at Philippine Sea were far less skillful/experienced than their Midway pilots had been.

This video did explain well Ozawa's plan and why it failed. Radar helped the US deploy and shoot down the attacking planes.

Here is something that the video could have included but didn't. After the Marianas were lost, Tojo asked a diplomat to make peace with the US. The diplomat answered that it is easier to start a war than to stop it.