The Battle for Wake Island-Part 1- December 8-11 Episode 525

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

🗓️ 21 October 2025

⏱️ 100 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week Seth Paridon and Jon Parshall tackle the topic of the American defense of Wake Island. In this much-anticipated series of episodes, Seth and Jon take a look at why Wake was occupied in the first place, what it took to build Wake into a useful base, as well as the commanding officers, both American and Japanese. Finally, the guys get into the story of the Marine defense of Wake on December 11, 1941 against a Japanese amphibious landing. It's the story you know with the details you don't. You won't want to miss this one. l #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 525 of the unauthorized history of the Pacific War podcast.
0:44.8	My name is Seth Peridon, historian and deputy director of the Mississippi Armed Forces Museum.
0:49.0	And with me, as always, is my good buddy co-host and author and historian, John Marshall.
0:53.5	How are you this fine? September the 16th.
0:56.4	Do not right. You know, I was looking back last week on our midway footage episode, and I was like,
1:03.8	just feeling like I was a little flat, you know. So my goal this week is to is to be a little more scintillating.
1:11.0	You know, I'm just going to up the sense, which is why I'm wearing, you know, again, the high-energy red.
1:15.8	I'm going to get my Japanese special naval landing forces freak on, you know.
1:20.4	So, yeah, I'm good.
1:22.0	Oh, the other thing I want to do is also give a shout out.
1:25.0	Oh, there you go.
1:25.6	Yeah, to my old salt friends who very kindly
1:29.0	replaced my broken cup. So here I am, you know, death to decalf. Granted, I'm drinking high,
1:35.8	high test tea out of this and not coffee. Hope we're still friends, but nevertheless, thank you so
1:40.5	much. Good. Yeah, but your wife drinks the coffee, though. Oh, yeah. No, she loves that stuff. Got the gaze craving. I'm looking at her right now. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Anyway, she's over there. She's listening, you know? Yeah. There you go. As little as possible as she said. Well, I was going to say, I apologize in advance because here we go.
2:03.9	All right.
2:04.8	Well, this is a topic, and we're going to break, you know, if you're seeing the opening credits of this, it's already abundantly clear that we're breaking this into two parts, but we're breaking this topic into two parts because there's a lot to talk about.
2:17.8	And it's something that people have wondered why we didn't do it to begin with.
2:22.6	So we're going to do it here now.
2:24.9	And it's a legendary story.
2:27.1	So let's get into it.
	...

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