The narration still abrades. When a Japanese airplane is shot down, the pilot is "sent into the afterlife." No Americans are sent into the afterlife. One of the commentators, a Marine sergeant, respects the gallantry and skill of individual Japanese pilots like Saburo Sakai, but such remarks are rare. His loyalties are subjective and immovable. If you got into an argument with him, you'd lose.
And Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa was recognized by both sides as one of the most effective strategists in the Japanese Navy. At the same time, he did exactly what he was ordered to do. In this case that meant sailing against overwhelming American naval and air forces. He lost. The impression the viewer gets is that Ozawa was stupid.
And, as in all the episodes, Admiral William F. Halsey becomes "Bull" Halsey, a nickname invented by the press that even Halsey himself, impulsive and aggressive, hated. I'm tempted to give these canards a pass because the visual effects are so impressive, the events seen are largely accurate and often more informative than anyone should expect.
Also, the narrator, wittingly or otherwise, cruises through a Homeric epithet. At twilight the TBFs take off over "the wine dark sea," which Wikipedia translates as Oînops póntos. The sea had to be SOME color so that the oral tradition could be passed on in the proper cadence. If the rhythm was screwed up, the speaker would know he'd left something out. But nobody knows why Homer kept describing the sea as the color of wine. What the hell kind of wine was it -- blue? At least the aircraft returned at night, not when rosy fingered dawn was lightening the horizon. Some may view all this as a digression. I certainly do.
The invasion of Saipan shouldn't really be categorized as just another invasion of a Japanese-occupied island. Saipan WAS Japanese in its culture, economy, and loyalties, and it had been since the 1920s. It was a high volcanic island and from the sea, one could pick out typical Japanese terraces and housing. There were ten times as many Japanese on Saipan than any other ethnic group. It was a flourishing community, and many civilians committed suicide when the attack succeeded.
Anyway, by this time the war was won by the Allies, both in Europe and in Asia, but nobody doing the actual fighting knew it. The most sensible thing at this point, in 1944, would have been for both the major Axis power -- Japan and Germany -- to surrender, with or without terms. But it's never easy for the leaders and the people of any nation to admit defeat. This was the year that some of the officer corps in Germany tried to blow up Hitler and failed. Their object seems to have been waging a better defensive war while suing for acceptable terms of surrender to the West.
