the most confused battlefield in history

THE BATTLE OF THE CORAL SEA

"Without a doubt, May 7, 1942, vicinity of Coral Sea, was the most confused battle area in world history."

- U.S. Vice Admiral Duckworth

I just released only my second YouTube video in the last two months. Let's talk about why it has taken so long and what has gone into making it.

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These two productions have taken weeks because they have both been a part of a single massive project—an all-encompassing documentary on the Battle of the Coral Sea, told from the perspectives of the men who actually participated in the battle—from both sides. This proved to be extremely challenging, but in this newsletter edition, I will explain a little bit about each soldier represented in the video and why their stories are unique.

This video ended up being so large that I was forced to break it into two videos, Part 1—which was released in May, and Part 2—which was just released last night.

In both parts, there are a few soldiers who tell of their stories at the Battle of the Coral Sea. Here is a little about them:

First, we see one of the most famous participants in the battle, an American SBD Dauntless pilot by the name of Stanley "Swede" Vejtasa. Swede is an iconic figure in this battle because of a single dogfight that he took part in, wherein he took on three Japanese Zeros and supposedly, shot them down. In reality, he likely damaged two of these nimble fighters (as I cover in Part 2) but his survival in this situation is no less impressive. Taking on such agile aircraft in a slow Dauntless was a monumental accomplishment, and surviving to tell the tale was the real reward - and this could be seen clearly from the four SBDs that were shot down in his flight in the first few seconds of this engagement. Swede's narration in the video come from a few excerpts taken from his book "Seven at Santa Cruz" which I recommend!

Second, we meet our only Japanese perspective in the battle, Japanese Zero ace Tetsuzo Iwamoto. Iwamoto was an extremely skilled pilot, and one of the highest scoring Japanese aces in the war. During the Battle of the Coral Sea, flying off the Zuikaku, he offers our only glimpse into the Imperial Navy side of this clash. His insight and opinions, to me, provide a valuable perspective on how things looked outside of our often ignored "echo chamber" of the Allied side of things. For example, it was fascinating to me to see him call the American torpedo attack on May 8th "cowardly" as he watched TBDs miss with their torpedoes, noting that Japanese pilots would have gotten much closer in their attack runs before dropping. All of his commentary in the video comes from a transcription of his personal diary, which was found after he passed away following the war.

Next, we meet British coastwatcher Martin Clemens, offering our only perspective from the English. Stationed on the island of Guadalcanal with Solomon natives, he was a Coastwatcher, assigned to scan the oceans and horizons for enemy activity. Clemens offers an interesting look into the raid on Tulagi from his book "Alone on Guadalcanal" which also seems to be a good read from what I have seen so far.

After that, we see commentary from Walt Nelson, a TBD gunner and radio man flying from the USS Essex. Nelson brings us our only real recorded interview from a living veteran. Nelson unfortunately passed away some years ago, but this commentary was recorded while he was still with us. This interview was licensed from the National WWII Museum and is particularly insightful because it gives us a look into every attack executed on Japanese carriers during the battle.

Then finally, we have some excellent interview content from Noel Gayler, an F4F Wildcat pilot operating off of the Lexington as well. Gayler was interestingly actually assigned to escort Walt Nelson during the May 8th attacks on the Japanese fleet, but his flight was broken up by an attack by Tetsuzo Iwamoto's men, and he was forced to separate. All of Gayler's commentary comes from us courtesy of an interview conducted by the Bureau of Aeronautics and can be read here on NARA's website.

If you want to see how their stories come together, please check out the videos listed above on my YouTube channel!

OTHER BIG NEWS!

Also - in other new, I am happy to make a HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT! I have officially partnered with the 390th Memorial Museum in Tucson to bring the Arizona Premiere of 10 Good Men to the Fox Tucson Theatre! And just when this event could not get any better, I am thrilled to say that TWO of the B-17 veterans from the film will be in attendance as well!

If you want to be a part of this once-in-a-lifetime event, get your tickets HERE before they sell out. If you can't make it, check out our other new showings at 10GoodMen.com - or Pre-Order the DVD!

UPCOMING SHOWINGS OF 10 GOOD MEN:

​Milwaukee, WI - July 1st, 7th, 14th, and 21st

​Nantucket, MA - July 1st

​Pensacola, FL - July 3rd (WITH TJ!)

​Atlanta, GA - July 17th-23rd (WITH TJ OPENING NIGHT!)

​Savannah, GA - July 25th (WITH TJ AT MIGHTY 8TH MUSEUM!)

​Sante Fe, NM - July 28th

​Tucson, AZ - August 7th (WITH TJ AND VETERANS FROM FILM)

Glendale, CA - November 4th (With TJ - To Be Announced)

Seattle, WA - November 11th (With TJ - To Be Announced)

Additional screenings to be added soon in Tampa, Chicago and other cities are in the works. Check back soon on the Where to Watch page on the 10 Good Men website for more dates!

Thank you all so much for your continued support. More info on showings, tickets, and screenings will be coming soon.

-Your grateful friend, TJ

If you would like to help support our efforts to get to these heroes, please consider joining my Patreon. Plus, get all sorts of behind-the-scenes content! You can join here: TJ3 History Patreon!​

That is all I have for today—Thanks for reading, and I will talk to you guys soon!

Please reply with your thoughts or feedback here! Here's to saving more history together.

-TJ

TJ3Business@gmail.com
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