The Biggest Battles of the Pacific Theater: The History of the Decisive Campaigns that Led to Victory Over Japan in World War II

475 Pages·2016·19.95 MB·English

by  Charles River Editors

The Biggest Battles of the Pacific Theater: The History of the
Decisive Campaigns that Led to Victory Over Japan in World
War II
By Charles River Editors
A Japanese cruiser under attack during the Battle of Leyte Gulf
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Introduction
The light aircraft carrier Princeton on fire during the battle of Leyte Gulf
The Battle of Leyte Gulf
“Should we lose in the Philippines operations, even though the fleet should be
left, the shipping lane to the south would be completely cut off so that the fleet,
if it should come back to Japanese waters, could not obtain its fuel supply. If it
should remain in southern waters, it could not receive supplies of ammunition
and arms. There would be no sense in saving the fleet at the expense of the loss
of the Philippines.” – Soemu Toyoda, Combined Fleet Chief of the Imperial
Japanese Navy
The waters of the Pacific Ocean – stretching deep blue under the tropical sun,
or scourged by typhoons – provided World War II's most far-flung battlefield.
Two of the world's premier mid 20th century maritime powers, the United States
of American and the Empire of Japan, grappled for supremacy across that vast
expanse.
Although not as well-remembered as D-Day or even the attack at Pearl Harbor
that preceded it, the Battle of Midway was one of the most unique and important
battles fought during World War II. In fact, the turning point in the Pacific
theater took place between June 4-7, 1942 as a Japanese fleet moved a sizable
fleet intending to occupy Midway Island and draw the American navy near.
Instead, American aircraft flying from three aircraft carriers that had been away
from Pearl Harbor in December 1941 got a bearing on the Japanese fleet and
sunk four Japanese aircraft carriers, permanently crippling Japan’s navy. The
Battle of Midway was one of the first major naval battles in history where the
enemy fleets never actually saw or came into contact with each other.
By the time the Battle of Midway was over, the defeat was so devastating that
it was actually kept secret from all but the highest echelons of the Japanese
government. Along with the loss of hundreds of aircraft and over 3,000 men
killed, the four Japanese aircraft carriers lost, when compared to America’s one
lost carrier, was critical considering America’s huge shipbuilding superiority.
However, the Battle of Midway could also have easily turned out differently.
Japan began the battle with more carriers, more and better aircraft, and more
experienced crews than the Americans, and if the battle of the Coral Sea was any
indication, the two sides had irrefutable proof of the dominance of the aircraft
carrier in the Pacific. The implications of earlier clashes were now starkly
underlined, and the fighting was now clearly about timing. The carrier fleets
were incredibly powerful and crucially important, yet at the same time they were
hugely vulnerable weapons systems. The protagonists at Midway were putting
into practice a newly emerging naval doctrine, one which ultimately meted out a
terrible punishment to the side that miscalculated. Carrier versus carrier combat
had come of age.
The Guadalcanal Campaign, which ran from August 1942 to February 1943,
was a bitter and protracted struggle that also happened to be a strange and
transitional confrontation quite unlike any other in the long Pacific War. In
conjunction with the American victory at the Battle of Midway, Guadalcanal
represented the crucial moment when the balance of power in the Pacific tipped
in favor of the Allies, but the idea that Guadalcanal would be such a significant
battle would have come as a surprise to military strategists and planners on both
sides.
Nonetheless, by the time the Guadalcanal campaign was underway, it was a
confrontation that neither side actively sought, but that both sides came to
believe they could not afford to lose. When Allied forces landed on the island, it
was an effort to deny the Japanese the use of the island and other nearby islands,
but the Japanese defenders fought bitterly in an effort to push them off the
island, resulting in a rather unique battle that consisted mostly of a Japanese
offensive against Americans that invaded amphibiously and dug in. While the
Americans closed the campaign with a substantial material advantage, the
American garrison on Guadalcanal was initially undermanned and terribly
undersupplied.
Eventually, nearly 100,000 soldiers fought on the island, and the ferocity with
which the Japanese fought was a fitting prelude to campaigns like Iwo Jima and
Okinawa. The campaign would include six separate naval battles, three large-
scale land clashes, and almost daily skirmishing and shelling. Not surprisingly,
the campaign exacted a heavy toll, with more than 60 ships sunk, more than
1200 aircraft destroyed, and more than 38,000 dead. While the Japanese and
Americans engaged at sea and in the skies, of the 36,000 Japanese defenders on
the ground, over 30,000 of them would be dead by the end of the Guadalcanal
campaign, while the Americans lost about 7,000 killed.
By the end of the fighting, the Guadalcanal Campaign had unquestionably
become a turning point in the Pacific War, representing both the last gasp of the
Japanese offensive and the first stirrings of the American onslaught. In the wake
of the Japanese defeat, Major General Kiyotake Kawaguchi asserted,
“Guadalcanal is no longer merely a name of an island in Japanese military
history. It is the name of the graveyard of the Japanese army.”
By the spring of 1943, American military planners had begun to create a plan
to dislodge Japan from east and southeast Asia. When Admiral Chester Nimitz
was directed to capture an island in the Bonin group, Iwo Jima stood out for its
importance in making progress against the mainland, with three airfields that
would allow American air forces to attack the Japanese mainland. But the
Japanese were also well aware of how important Iwo Jima was, and they fought
desperately in bunkers and tunnels that required the Americans to carefully clear
them out gradually. Less than 5% of the Japanese soldiers on Iwo Jima were
taken alive, and American casualties were estimated at 26,000, with 6,800 killed
or captured. A month later at Okinawa, which lasted from April-June, the
Americans suffered an estimated 62,000 casualties, with 12,000 Americans
killed or captured. These deadly campaigns came after widely-held predictions
that taking these islands would amount to no more than a brief footnote in the
overall theater. However, the national character of the Empire was equally
misunderstood. Following the month of Iwo Jima, “commentator after
commentator in the Anglo-American camp agreed that the Japanese were more
despised than the Germans…uncommonly treacherous and savage…alluding to
their remarkable tenacity…refused to give up any territory and incurred
thousands of losses daily without any possibility of surrender.”
Near the end of 1944, as Allied forces were pushing across the Pacific and
edging ever closer to Japan, plans were drawn up to invade the Ryuku islands,
the most prominent of them being Okinawa. Military planners anticipated that an
amphibious campaign would last a week, but instead of facing 60,000 Japanese
defenders as estimated, there were closer to 120,000 on the island at the
beginning of the campaign in April 1945. The Battle of Okinawa was the largest
amphibious operation in the Pacific theater, and it would last nearly 3 months
and wind up being the fiercest in the Pacific theater during the war, with nearly
60,000 American casualties and over 100,000 Japanese soldiers killed. In
addition, the battle resulted in an estimated 40,000-150,000 Japanese civilian
casualties.
To do so, parts of the Philippines were considered main strategic points in the
potential Allied attack in the Pacific. The end goal of the Allied plan was an
invasion of the Japanese home islands, in which heavy aerial bombardment
would precede a ground assault. In order for this to occur, Allied forces would
have to occupy areas surrounding Japan, with China adding to Luzon (the largest
island in the Philippines) and Formosa (a large island off the coast of China) to
create a triangle from which they could launch their bombers.
Given the horrific nature of the combat put up by the Japanese, it’s no surprise
that the final campaigns had a profound psychological effect on the men who
fought, but it also greatly influenced the thinking of military leaders who were
planning subsequent campaigns, including a potential invasion of the Japanese
mainland. The casualty tolls ultimately helped compel President Truman to use
the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in an effort to end the war before
having to attempt such an invasion.
The Biggest Battles of the Pacific Theater: The History of the Decisive
Campaigns that Led to Victory Over Japan in World War II analyzes the
fighting between the Americans and Japanese across the Pacific. Along with
pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the biggest
battles of the Pacific like never before.
The Biggest Battles of the Pacific Theater: The History of the Decisive
Campaigns that Led to Victory Over Japan in World War II
About Charles River Editors
Introduction
The Philippines Campaign of 1941-1942
Before the Campaign
MacArthur in the Philippines
Disaster in the Air
The Japanese Landings
Bataan
The End of Bataan
The End of the Campaign
The Bataan Death March
The Aftermath of the Campaign
Coral Sea
Strategic Background
Operation Mo
First Contact on May 4
Searching for the Enemy, May 5-6
May 7
May 8
The Results
Midway
Japanese Planning
The First Blows
Early Attacks on the Kido Butai
The Tide Turns
The Hiryu Strikes Back
The End of Hiryu
The Aftermath
Guadalcanal
Leadership
The Invasion and Battle of Savo Island
Early Operations
Buildup
Interlude
A True Offensive
The End of the Campaign
The Battle of Leyte Gulf
The Background Before the Battle
Palawan Passage and the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea
The Battle of Surigao Strait
The Battle Off Samar
The Battle at Cape Engaño
The Philippines Campaign of 1944-1945
The Results of the Battle of Leyte Gulf
Moving Toward Luzon
Luzon
Advancing to Manila
Taking Manila
Mopping Up
Iwo Jima
The Strategic Importance of Iwo Jima
The Japanese Defense of Iwo Jima
The Opening Phase
Raising the Flag on Mount Suribachi
Fighting on the Northern End of the Island
Securing Iwo Jima and the Aftermath of the Battle
Bibliography
Okinawa
Planning for Okinawa
The Beginning of the Battle of Okinawa
Fighting in the South