The Destruction of Force Z - Episode 530

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

🗓️ 25 November 2025

⏱️ 93 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week Seth Paridon and Jon Parshall dig into the destruction of Force Z at the hands of the Imperial Japanese Navy's air arm. Sent as a deterrent to Japanese aggression in the area in December 1941 by Winston Churchill, Force Z was supposed to be the "big stick" of Royal Navy power in the Pacific. Comprised of HMS Prince of Wals and battlecruiser HMS Repulse, as well as four destroyers, the paltry battleship force under Adm Sir Thomas Phillips sortied from Singapore on December 8 to break up the Japanese invasion fleet headed for Malaya. What occurred after, is often cited as the demise of the battleship as the queen of the seas. In short order, the Japanese Betty's and Nell's, slinging torpedoes, eviscerated the two capital ships and altered the shape of the Malayan campaign. Tune in to hear this relatively unknown story. #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 #medalofhonor #tarawa #malayalam

Transcript

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0:00.0	The
0:07.0	The The
0:23.6	The Hello and welcome to episode 530 of the Unauthorized History of Pacific War podcast.
0:47.7	My name is Seth Pared and historian and deputy director of the Mississippi Armed Forces Museum.
0:51.1	And with me as always is my co-host, author and historian, good buddy,
0:54.7	John Parshall. How are you this October the 28th, John?
0:58.4	How did we get here? I am great, actually. Just got back last week from doing a little trip
1:06.2	down to Texas. I was speaking at the Greenville World War II History Roundtable, and I have the coffee
1:13.2	cup from the Audi Murphy Museum to prove it. So yeah, just wanted to give a shout out again
1:19.9	to the roundtable to Duran, to David, who squired me all over the place, Skipper, Steely, Kevin, and all the rest of the gang.
1:29.6	It was fun to have my co-author, Tony Tully, up there for that talk as well. It's good to see
1:35.4	him. And I just wanted to say hello to Debbie and her son and Brandon and Chuck and John Mag and
1:42.7	everybody else who turned out. I hope you had a good time.
1:45.4	I certainly had a good time and hope to see you all again sometime in the future.
1:50.8	So there you go. Those are really good people. I went back in the summertime, I think it was,
1:56.3	and I went over there and they were just outstanding human beings.
2:00.1	They're really, really good people.
2:01.2	It's a good little organization. Yep. Very generous hosts. So I had a good time. Outstanding. Outstanding. All right. Well, we got an interesting one. To be clear, we said last week we were going to get into the Malaya ground campaign. And we lied. We lied. And we so often do. Right? Because capriciously looking over the timeline of things, it seemed to make sense to actually
2:22.7	pivot and take care of this episode, which is Force Z, which is why I'm rocking, you know,
2:30.2	the Maritime Blue today, because we're going to do a little, little naval action.
2:40.7	Because the destruction of Force Z actually happens right before the first major ground battle in Malaya,
2:45.6	which is a Jitra. So, yes, we are yanking the carpet, and we're going to go over and do Force City,
	...

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