Hello and welcome to episode 108 of the unauthorized history of the Pacific War podcast.

My name is Seth Bairdon, historian and deputy director of the Mississippi Armed Forces Museum here at Camp Shelby.

And with me as always is my esteemed co-host, retired Navy captain Bill Toadie,

former skipper of the Fast Sucetack submarine USS, Indianapolis, Commodore Submarine Squadron 3 in Pearl Harbor, and many other postsings.

How are you doing, Bill?

I'm doing well, Seth. Looking forward to this. Yep, this is a good one. Aside from Bill and I, we have another special guest for this week's episode. I've known this dude for some 14 years now, which is a long time. And I've worked with him on and off for a great many of those 14 years in one way or another.

I have tremendous work for his, or tremendous a long time. And I've worked with him on and off for a great many of those 14 years in one way or another. I have tremendous work for, our tremendous respect for his work. And I'm excited to have him on our show. I'd like to welcome my friend, the fantastic historian, John Partial. John, what's going on? Delighted to be here. Thanks for being here, man. I appreciate it. Yeah. Now, if you've been paying attention as we've progressed through the early portion of the Pacific War in our episodes, you know what time we are nearing. It's the so-called, so-called turning point of the Pacific War. And we can argue that moniker if we so choose. Oh, yes. We're doing Global Canal? For sure, for sure. But regardless, it's time for midway. But instead of jumping right into the exciting stories of SBDs screaming down on Kiyubutai, we got to set the stage. And that's what the three of us are going to do here today. We're going to set the stage. So hold your horses. The SBDs will come, I promise. But right now, the three of us are going to tell you what happened before the SBDs came screaming down on Q and Tai. The best way to

start, I guess, is let's give a sit rep of the situation in the Pacific late May 1942. What's what's the Pacific War looking like right now, guys?

What is, what are we looking like?

I think even beyond just the Pacific, the world is a dumpster fire at this point, if you're

on the Allied side.

When I talk about this time of the year, I typically try to create a little time capsule.

It's like,

you know, the Russians have just gotten clobbered at Kerch and Karkoff. The British are on the receiving end shortly of an attack from Rommel and are on their back heels. The U.S. East

Coast is being turned into a shooting gallery by German U-boats.

And then, yeah, fast forward to what's happened in the Pacific.

It's been disastrous.

Malaya, Burma, Sumatra, Java, all gone.

The Philippines have just collapsed, and it's the largest surrender of American troops in U.S. history, over 75,000

fill American troops from Batan alone. The British have lost 138,000 in Malaya and Singapore,

including 120,000 into Japanese internment camps. I mean, it is a disaster right at the moment.

There's actually, at the beginning of April, Kuta Bhutai has just launched this massive

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