Download or read book Carrier Strike US Naval Warfare in the Pacifi written by Donald Nijbor and published by . This book was released on 2019-01-08 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the end of the day on December 6, 1941, the American Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor lay shattered. In a single devastating surprise attack the Imperial Japanese Navy had demonstrated the awesome striking power of a combined carrier fleet - before proceeding to rampage across the Pacific, seizing territory from the Aleutians to Singapore. With the highly maneuverable Zero fighter and 'Val' dive-bomber, flown by experienced crews, the Japanese were able to overwhelm even the best Allied resistance. But within a year of Pearl Harbor, the tide had turned. The US Navy's successful Guadalcanal campaign marked the beginning of a remarkable fight-back. Fast new fleet carriers such as the Essex and Independence class warships were introduced and the ruggedly powerful Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter gave the US a clear advantage in the air. In a series of epic naval battles and running skirmishes, the US Navy's Fast Carrier Task Force inflicted massive damage on the Japanese fleet before a new threat began to appear - the kamikaze. Unable to score hits by conventional means, the Japanese took to crashing bomb-laden aircraft directly into American vessels. Yet despite such fanatical tactics, the US Navy's carrier fleet fought its way across the Pacific to launch attacks on the Japanese homeland in 1945. In Carrier Strike: US Naval Air Warfare in the Pacific, historian Donald Nijboer tells the full story of the American carrier fleet during the Second World War - the vessels, the crew, the aircraft and the pilots as well as their British Royal Navy allies and the deadly Imperial Japanese Navy forces they faced in combat

Download or read book Task Force 58 written by Rod Macdonald and published by Frontline Books. This book was released on 2021-11-30 with total page 653 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The new breed of American fast aircraft carriers could make thirty-three knots, and each carried almost 100 strike aircraft. Brought together as Task Force 58, also known as the Fast Carrier Task Force, this awesome armada at times comprised more than 100 ships carrying more than 100,000 men afloat. By 1945, more than 1,000-combat aircraft, fighters, dive- and torpedo-bombers could be launched in under an hour. The fast carriers were a revolution in naval warfare – it was a time when naval power moved away from the big guns of the battleship to air power projected at sea. Battleships were eventually subordinated to supporting and protecting the fast carriers, of which, at its peak, Task Force 58 had a total of seventeen. This book covers the birth of naval aviation, the appearance of the first modern carriers in the 1920s, through to the famous surprise six-carrier _Kido Butai_ Japanese raid against Pearl Harbor on 8 December 1941 and then the early US successes of 1942 at the Battles of the Coral Sea and Midway. The fast carriers allowed America, in late 1942 and early 1943, to finally move from bitter defence against the Japanese expansionist onslaught, to mounting her own offensive to retake the Pacific. Task Force 58 swept west and north from the Solomon Islands to the Gilbert and Marshall Islands, neutralising Truk in Micronesia, and Palau in the Caroline islands, before the vital Mariana Islands operations, the Battle of Saipan, the first battle of the Philippine Sea and the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot. The strikes by Task Force 58 took Allied forces across the Pacific, to the controversial Battle of Leyte Gulf and to Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Task Force 58 had opened the door to the Japanese home islands themselves – allowing US bombers to finally get close enough to launch the devastating nuclear bombing raids on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Task Force 58 participated in virtually all the US Navy’s major battles in the Pacific theatre during the last two years of the war. Having spent many years investigating naval shipwrecks across the Pacific, many the result of the devastating effectiveness of Task Force 58, diver and shipwreck author Rod Macdonald has created the most detailed account to date of the fast carrier strike force, the force that brought Japan to its knees and brought the Second World War to its crashing conclusion.

Download or read book Carrier Strike written by Eric Hammel and published by Daniel Hammel. This book was released on 2020-12-21 with total page 421 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: CARRIER STRIKE The Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, October 1942 By Eric Hammel The Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, a strategic naval action in the bitter Guadalcanal Campaign, was history’s fourth carrier-versus-carrier naval battle. Though technically a Japanese victory, the battle proved to be the Empire of Japan’s last serious attempt to win the Pacific War by means of an all-out carrier confrontation. Only one other carrier battle occurred in the Pacific War, in June 1944, in the Philippine Sea. By then, however, the U.S. Navy’s Fast Carrier Task Force was operational, and Japan’s dwindling fleet of carriers was outnumbered and completely outclassed. Though hundreds of Japanese naval aviators perished in the great Marianas Turkey Shoot of June 19–20, 1944, it was during the first four carrier battles—in the six-month period from early May through late October 1942—that the fate of Japan’s small, elite naval air arm was sealed. It was at Coral Sea, in May, that Japan’s juggernaut across the Pacific was blunted. It was at Midway, in June, that Japan’s great carrier fleet was cut down to manageable size. And it was at Eastern Solomons, in August, and Santa Cruz, in October, that Japan’s last best carrier air groups were ground to dust. After their technical victory at Santa Cruz, the Japanese withdrew their carriers from the South Pacific—and were never able to use them again as a strategically decisive weapon. Of the four Japanese aircraft carriers that participated in the Santa Cruz battle, only one survived the war. Following Santa Cruz and the subsequent series of air and surface engagements known as the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, the Imperial Navy’s Combined Fleet never again attempted a meaningful strategic showdown with the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Though several subsequent surface actions in the Solomons were clearly Japanese victories, their results were short-lived. After November 1942, Japan could not again muster the staying power—or the willpower—to wage a strategic war with her navy. Once the veteran carrier air groups had been shredded at Eastern Solomons and Santa Cruz, Japanese carriers ceased to be a strategic weapon. The Santa Cruz clash was deemed a Japanese victory because U.S. naval forces withdrew from the battlefield. That is how victory and defeat are strictly determined. But on the broader, strategic, level, the U.S. Navy won at Santa Cruz—because it was able to achieve its strategic goal of holding the line and buying time. Japan was unable to achieve her strategic goal of defeating the U.S. Pacific Fleet in a final, decisive, all-or-nothing battle. The technical victory cost Japan any serious hope she had of winning the Pacific naval war. The “victory” at Santa Cruz cost Japan her last best hope to win the war in the Pacific. Once again, author-historian Eric Hammel brings to the reading public an exciting narrative filled with the latest information and written in the edge-of-the-seat style that his readers have enjoyed for nearly two decades, in nearly thirty acclaimed military history books. As was the case with its companion volume, Carrier Clash, this new book is based upon American and Japanese battle reports and the recollections of many airmen and seamen who took part.

Download or read book Carrier Strike written by Eric M. Hammel and published by Pacifica Press (CA). This book was released on 1999 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eric Hammel. It was a Japanese victory-but it spelled the end for Japan in the war at sea. In Carrier Strike, critically acclaimed military historian Eric Hammel gives a blow-by-blow, edge-of-your-seat account of this crucial naval battle-a turning point in the bitter Guadalcanal Campaign. Drawing on American and Japanese battle reports and the recollections of aviators and seamen who were there, Hammel recreates World War II's fourth - and last - carrier versus carrier battle, the battle of the Santa Cruz Islands in October 1942. Written in the heart-stopping style that Hammel's readers have come to expect, Carrier Strike offers the only up-to-date, up-close, in-depth look at the battle that cost Japan any hope of winning the war in the Pacific.

Download or read book Pacific Carrier War written by Mark Stille and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-10-14 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A detailed and comprehensive study of the carrier formations of the Pacific War, including their origins, development and key battles from the Coral Sea, through Midway and Guadalcanal to the battle of the Philippine Sea. The defining feature of the Pacific Theatre of World War II was the clash of carriers that ultimately decided the fate of nations. The names of these battles have become legendary as some of the most epic encounters in the history of naval warfare. Pre-war assumptions about the impact and effectiveness of carriers were comprehensively tested in early war battles such as Coral Sea, while US victories at Midway and in the waters around Guadalcanal established the supremacy of its carriers. The US Navy's ability to adapt and evolve to the changing conditions of war maintained and furthered their advantage, culminating in their comprehensive victory at the battle of the Philippine Sea, history's largest carrier battle, which destroyed almost the entire Japanese carrier force. Examining the ships, aircraft and doctrines of both the Japanese and US navies and how they changed during the war, Mark E. Stille shows how the domination of American carriers paved the way towards the Allied victory in the Pacific.

Download or read book USN Carriers vs IJN Carriers written by Mark Stille and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-05-20 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The IJN was a pioneer in naval aviation, having commissioned the world's first carrier, which was used against the US fleet at Pearl Harbor. The Americans followed suit, initiating a huge aircraft carrier development program. As the War in the Pacific escalated into the largest naval conflict in history, the role of the carrier became the linchpin of American and Japanese naval strategy as these rival vessels found themselves locked in a struggle for dominance of this critical theater. This book provides an analysis of the variety of weaponry available to the rival carriers, in particular the embarked aircraft as well as the powerful ship-borne guns. Study the design and development of these revolutionary ships and 'live' the experiences of the rival airmen and gun crews as they battled for victory in a duel of skill, tenacity and guts.

Download or read book Triumph in the Pacific The Navy s Struggle Against Japan written by E. B. Potter and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2016-07-26 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here in a single volume is one of the most authoritative, thoroughly documented accounts of the U.S. Navy’s war against Japan. This is the story of the achievements, defeats, and victories of both the American and the Japanese navies as they met and battled in the greatest naval war of all time. This dramatic narrative brings to life both the glorious and the infamous—the decisive encounters at Midway...Guadalcanal...the Philippine Sea...Leyte Gulf...Iwo Jima...Okinawa...and the other points in the Pacific where history was made from 1941 to 1945. The information for TRIUMPH IN THE PACIFIC was gathered by historians at the Naval Academy at Annapolis under the direction of E. B. Potter, the Academy’s Chairman of Naval History, and Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz who, as Commander in Chief Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas, was a principal figure in the conflict. The book is marked by authenticity, conciseness, objectivity, and the accuracy of years of painstaking research and preparation.

Download or read book The First Team written by John B. Lundstrom and published by US Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 1984 with total page 584 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ace fighter pilots like Jimmy Thach and Butch O'Hare are justly renowned for their daring exploits in the perilous early months of the Pacific War when the U.S. Navy carrier fighting (VF) squadrons amassed a remarkable combat record in the face of desperate odds. Yet, exactly how these skilled aviators and their squadron mates- called the 'first team, ' in keeping with athletic jargon popular at the time- overcame the odds to help turn the tide of war has, until now, remained little known. With this comprehensive operational history of carrier-based air warfare, their heroic feats can at last be closely examined.

Download or read book Early Pacific Raids 1942 written by Brian Lane Herder and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-06-22 with total page 97 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating exploration of how between February 1 and March 10, 1942, three small US task forces launched several unexpected raids across the Japanese defensive perimeter in the Central and South Pacific. After the devastating Japanese blows of December 1941, the Allies found themselves reeling with defeat everywhere in the Pacific. Although stripped of his battleships and outnumbered 10:3 in carriers, the US Navy commander-in-chief Admiral Ernest J. King decided to hit back at Japan's rapidly expanding Pacific empire immediately, in an effort to keep the Japanese off-balance. On February 1, 1942, Vice Admiral Bill Halsey led the US Pacific Fleet carriers on their first raid, using high-speed hit-and-run tactics to strike at the Japanese, at a time when most of the Japanese carrier fleet was in the Indian Ocean. Halsey's aggressive commitment inspired its American participants to invent the mythical “Haul Ass With Halsey” club. The last of the 1942 US carrier raids in March 1942 would form a defining moment in the Pacific War, prior to a new phase of high-seas battles between the opposing fleets. This superbly illustrated book documents for the first time in a single volume this little-known but important World War II naval campaign. The fabulous illustrations, including maps and colour artworks, bring to life the US air and naval raids on the Japanese bases in the Marshall and Gilbert Islands, Rabaul, Wake Island, Marcus Island, and Lae and Salamaua in northern New Guinea.

Download or read book Winning a Future War written by Norman Friedman and published by . This book was released on 2019-02 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "To win in the Pacific during World War II, the U.S. Navy had to transform itself technically, tactically, and strategically. It had to create a fleet capable of the unprecedented feat of fighting and winning far from home, without existing bases, in the face of an enemy with numerous bases fighting in his own waters. Much of the credit for the transformation should go to the war gaming conducted at the U.S. Naval War College. Conversely, as we face further demands for transformation, the inter-war experience at the War College offers valuable guidance as to what works, and why, and how."

Download or read book US Navy Aircraft Carriers 1922 45 written by Mark Stille and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-05-20 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The USS Langley, the first American aircraft carrier, entered service in 1922. Despite being converted into an aircraft tender, it was the first step in a new direction for the US Navy and naval warfare. This book covers the design, development and operation of USN aircraft carriers built prior to World War II, including their aircraft and weaponry. It also explains their various successes and losses such as the first carrier vs carrier battle at Midway; the battle of the Coral Sea; the battle of the Philippine Sea; and the Operation Torch landings.

Download or read book The Pacific Naval War 1941 1945 written by David Wragg and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2011-07-12 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This vividly detailed WWII history chronicles the bitter conflict at sea between Allied and Japanese naval forces. The Pacific War was primarily fought at sea. Naval power allowed the Japanese to mount their attack on Pearl Harbor and then advance westwards and southwards. It also enabled the Allies to strike back and even take the war to Japan itself. The tide turned very quickly, with the US victory at Midway in June of 1942 ending any Japanese hope of domination. The book begins with the decisions that led Japan into war, and the difficult situation faced by the Royal Navy elsewhere. It then describes how, within a couple of years, the Royal Navy was able to send the strongest and most balanced fleet in its history to severely disrupt Japanese operations. Historian David Wragg also covers how the Royal Australian Navy developed into a viable naval force ready to become a major fleet in the immediate postwar years. The progress of the war is supported by eyewitness accounts from those involved in the fighting at sea.

Download or read book Santa Cruz 1942 written by Mark Stille and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-09-20 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A highly illustrated account of the fourth major carrier battle of the war in the Pacific. Despite myth, the Japanese carrier force was not destroyed at Midway but survived to still prove a threat in the Pacific Theater. Nowhere was this clearer than in the battle of Santa Cruz of October 1942. The stalemate on the ground in the Guadalcanal campaign led to the major naval forces of both belligerents becoming inexorably more and more involved in the fighting, each seeking to win the major victory that would open the way for a breakthrough on land as well. The Japanese were able to gain a tactical victory at Santa Cruz and came very close to scoring a strategic victory, but they paid a very high price in aircraft and aircrew that prevented them from following up their victory. In terms of their invaluable aircrew, the battle was much more costly than even Midway and had a serious impact on the ability of the Japanese to carry out carrier warfare in a meaningful manner. Illustrated richly throughout, this volume examines the encounter at Santa Cruz and its significance.

Download or read book The Philippine Sea 1944 written by Mark Stille and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-09-21 with total page 97 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After suffering devastating losses in the huge naval battles at Midway and the Soloman Islands, the Imperial Japanese navy attempted to counter-attack against the US forces threatening the Home Islands. Involving the US Fifth Fleet and the Japanese Mobile Fleet, the battle of the Philippine Sea took place during the United States' amphibious invasion of the Mariana Islands during the Pacific War. The two fleets clashed on 19-20 June 1944 and the Japanese carrier fighters were shot down in devastating numbers by US aircraft in what became known as the “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot”, before US counterattacks and submarine strikes forced the withdrawal of the Japanese fleet. Fully illustrated with stunning specially commissioned artwork, Mark Stille tells the enthralling story of the last, and largest, carrier battle of the Pacific War, the one that saw the end of the Imperial Japanese Navy as a formed fighting force.

Download or read book US Navy Aircraft Carriers 1922 45 written by Mark Stille and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-05-20 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The USS Langley, the first American aircraft carrier, entered service in 1922. Despite being converted into an aircraft tender, it was the first step in a new direction for the US Navy and naval warfare. This book covers the design, development and operation of USN aircraft carriers built prior to World War II, including their aircraft and weaponry. It also explains their various successes and losses such as the first carrier vs carrier battle at Midway; the battle of the Coral Sea; the battle of the Philippine Sea; and the Operation Torch landings.

Download or read book Sustaining the Carrier War written by Stan Fisher and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2023-03-15 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ability of the United States Navy to fight and win a protracted war in the Pacific was not solely the result of technology, tactics, or leadership. Naval aviation maintenance played a major role in the U.S. victory over Japan in the second World War. The naval war against Japan did not achieve sustained success until enough aircraft technicians were available to support the high tempo of aviation operations that fast carrier task force doctrine demanded. When the United States realized war was imminent and ordered a drastic increase in the size of its aviation fleet, the Navy was forced to reconsider its earlier practices and develop new policies in maintenance, supply, and technical training. Not only did a shortage of technicians plague the Navy, but the scarcity of aviation supply and repair facilities in the Pacific soon caused panic in Washington. While the surface Navy's modernization of at-sea replenishment was beneficial, it did not solve the problems of sustaining war-time aircraft readiness levels sufficient to a winning a naval air war. Fisher outlines the drastic institutional changes that accompanied an increase in aviation maintenance personnel from fewer than 10,000 to nearly 250,000 bluejackets, the complete restructuring of the naval aviation technical educational system, and the development of a highly skilled labor force. The first comprehensive study on the importance of aircraft maintenance and the aircraft technician in the age of the aircraft carrier, Sustaining the Carrier War, provides the missing link to our understanding of Great Power conflict at sea.

Download or read book American Carrier Air Power at the Dawn of a New Century written by Benjamin S. Lambeth and published by Rand Corporation. This book was released on 2006-05-22 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the Afghanistan war, U.S. carrier-based fighters substituted almost entirely for land-based theater air forces. The Navy's carriers again played a key role in conducting around-the-clock operations against Saddam Hussein's forces in Iraq. American carrier air power is now able to conduct coordinated deep-strike missions well beyond coastal reaches. The Navy's performance over Afghanistan and Iraq showed how the nation's carrier force can provide around-the-clock target coverage, consistently accurate target attack, and multiple successful target attacks per sortie.