Sunday morning 7 December 1941 is a date that is printed in the collective American mind. It was the day the Japanese launched their devastating surprise attack on the American Naval Base in Pearl Harbour on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Not the Americans, nor any of the Colonial Powers in the far East and Pacific were able to adequately respond to the Japanese declaration of war and their subsequent sweeping conquest of the pacific. There was another island, about 3200 kilometres west of Hawaii… it was held by a small American force… and it too came under heavy attack that fateful day. For the next 2 weeks, it would be under heavy siege by the Japanese, attempting to capture Wake Island.

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Following the attack on Pearl Harbour, the Japanese embarked on a steamroll campaign and managed to carve out a gigantic Pacific empire. Within 5 months they captured the islands of Guam and Wake, the Philippines, French Indochina, Burma, Thailand, Malaya and the Dutch East Indies, ¾ of New Guinea and Papua, the Bismarck Archipelago and a substantial part of the Gilbert and Solomon islands. To the north, they threatened Alaska, to the south, Australia, and to the West they were making plans to invade India.
This is the story of that tiny atoll 3200 kilometres west of Hawaii, consisting of 3 islets. It was held by 450 US marines and 75 Army signal corps and Navy personnel with over 1500 civilians under their protection. The commander of Wake was Officer Winfield Scott Cunningham. In the weeks leading up to the Pearl Harbour (and Wake atoll) attacks the Americans were constructing an airfield on the atoll. Once completed, it would be a floating aircraft carrier.
The Japanese ruined that plan by their attack several hours after the attack on Pearl Harbour. 36 Japanese Mitsubishi medium bomber planes flew over, bombed and destroyed seven of the 12 Wildcat fighters stationed on Wake. 23 marine personnel on the atoll were killed. Several more raids followed the next day and the American soldiers tried to repel the Japanese as well as they could. But it wasn’t until 11th December that real fighting broke out again.

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Time Codes:

1:00 The Japanese Attack
3:56 The Ambush
6:40 The Japanese Return

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