Battle of Midway Archival Footage - Episode 524

The Unauthorized History of the Pacific War

Captain William Toti, USN

Naval History And Heritage Command, History, Imperial Japanese Navy, Sam Cox, Admiral King, Cruisers, Spruance, Fargo, Seth Paridon, Fighters, Pacific War, Stavridis, Cactus Air Force, December 7, Station Hypo, William Toti, Bombers, Bill Toti, Navy, Halsey, Submarines, Society & Culture, Education, Us Navy, Mush Morton, Cincpoa, Documentary, Guadalcanal, Imperial Japan, World War Ii, Midway, Aircraft Carriers, Cryptology, Wake Island, Nimitz, Cincpac, Macarthur, Pearl Harbor, Wahoo, Courses, Battleships, New Guinea

4.9 • 872 Ratings

🗓️ 14 October 2025

⏱️ 90 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week Seth Paridon and Jon Parshall take a look at the archival footage shot just before and during the Battle of Midway from June 3-7, 1942. Some of the footage we go through here was shot in late May 1942 aboard USS Enterprise and shows such future Midway heroes such as Wade McClusky, Dusty Kleiss, Cleo Dobson and others. The guys then go through the John Ford material that was shot on the Midway atoll from May 27-June 7, 1942. In these shots we see some of VMSB-241's SB2U Vindicators, including the bird flown by Richard Fleming, the battles only Medal of Honor recipient. Tune into this one and get a new perspective on the footage you have been seeing for years. #wwiihistory #ww2 #usnavy #usa #usarmy #medalofhonor #enterprise #aircraft #aircraftcarrier #cv6 #midway #wwii #wwiihistory #ww2 #worldwar2 #usnavy #usnavyseals #usmc #usmarines #saipan #usa #usarmy #aircraft #aircraftcarrier #battleship #battleships #ussenterprise #aircraftcarriers #museum #essex #halsey #taskforce38 #wwii #wwiihistory #ww2 #usnavy #usa #usarmy #medalofhonor #enterprise #aircraft #aircraftcarrier #cv6 #midway #wwii #wwiihistory #ww2 #worldwar2 #usnavy #usnavyseals #usmc #usmarines #saipan #usa #usarmy #aircraft #aircraftcarrier #battleship #battleships #ussenterprise #aircraftcarriers #museum #hollywood #movie #movies #books #mastersoftheair #8thairforce #mightyeighth #100thbombgroup #bloodyhundredth #b17 #boeing #airforce wwii #wwiihistory #ww2 #usnavy #usa #usarmy #medalofhonor #enterprise #aircraft #aircraftcarrier #cv6 #midway #wwii #wwiihistory #ww2 #worldwar2 #usnavy #usnavyseals #usmc #usmarines #saipan #usa #usarmy #aircraft #aircraftcarrier #battleship #battleships #ussenterprise #aircraftcarriers #museum #hollywood #movie #movies #books #oldbreed #1stMarineDivision #thepacific #Peleliu #army #marines #marinecorps #worldwar2 #worldwar #worldwarii #leytegulf #battleofleytegulf #rodserling #twilightzone #liberation #blacksheep #power #prisoner #prisonerofwar #typhoon #hurricane #weather #iwojima#bullhalsey #ace #p47 #p38 #fighter #fighterpilot #b29 #strategicstudying #tokyo #boeing #incendiary #usa #franklin #okinawa #yamato #kamikaze #Q&A #questions #questionsandanswers #history #jaws #atomicbomb #nuclear #nationalarchives #nara #johnford #hollywood #fdr #president #roosevelt #doolittle #doolittleraid #pearlharborattack #salvaged

Transcript

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0:00.0	The
0:07.0	The Hello and welcome to episode 524 of the unauthorized History of Pacific War
0:43.4	podcast. My name is Seth Peridon, historian and deputy director of the Mississippi Armed Forces
0:47.0	Museum. And with me, as always, is my good buddy, historian and author, John Parshall.
0:51.5	How are you this September the 9th?
0:55.8	I'm good, actually.
0:59.0	Just got back from Fredericksburg, Texas.
1:03.8	I was down at National Museum of the Pacific War,
1:05.9	aka the Nimitz Museum.
1:07.5	They blinked me up madly.
1:14.8	Here I am rocking my new, new Nimitz Cup here. I'm loving that. And, you know,
1:21.5	it's a really great museum. They're in the middle of tearing up all of their exhibits and redoing them. And I got kind of the sneak peek behind the scenes as they're reinstalling all that stuff but they're going to be
1:28.2	reopening on December 6th and I think it's but they are open for business right now
1:33.5	they are open for business they have some other exhibits but the the main concourse
1:39.6	is all all tore up at this point. But yeah, great staff.
1:45.4	I just had a wonderful time.
1:47.8	The people I work with Nicole and Kina and Lauren and Ron as always treated me very, very well.
1:54.7	And I just wanted to give a special shout out too to Maggie up on the third floor who watches us religiously for God knows what
2:03.6	reason I was say I'm sorry I don't know you're sorry but I apologize you know I was I was up there
2:09.0	getting my bag and I walked past her desk and there you and I were large as life on her monitor
2:14.0	blathering about something so you know thank you Maggie and we'll see see you again soon, I hope. Yeah, we'll have to make a journey out there. We need to, yeah, for sure, because I had a chance to spend an hour plus, a couple hours with Nicole, the head curator there, just looking at the stuff that the public doesn't get to see that's in their collection.
2:36.7	They have over 50,000 3D artifacts there, and there's some really cool things.
	...

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