Truk 1944–45
Truk 1944–45

Author: Mark Lardas

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2021-12-23

Total Pages: 97

ISBN-13: 1472845838

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A fully illustrated history of how the US Navy destroyed Truk, the greatest Japanese naval and air base in the Pacific, with Operation Hailstone, and how B-29 units and the carriers of the British Pacific Fleet kept the base suppressed until VJ-Day. In early 1944, the island base of Truk was a Japanese Pearl Harbor; a powerful naval and air base that needed to be neutralized before the Allies could fight their way any further towards Tokyo. But Truk was also the most heavily defended naval base outside the Japanese Home Islands and an Allied invasion would be costly. Long-range bombing against Truk intact would be a massacre so a plan was conceived to neutralize it through a series of massive naval raids led by the growing US carrier fleet. Operation Hailstone was one of the most famous operations ever undertaken by American carriers in the Pacific. This book examines the rise and fall of Truk as a Japanese bastion and explains how in two huge raids, American carrier-based aircraft reduced it to irrelevance. Also covered is the little-known story of how the USAAF used the ravaged base as a live-fire training ground for its new B-29s -- whose bombing raids ensured Truk could not be reactivated by the Japanese. The pressure on Truk was kept up right through 1945 when it was also used as a target for the 509th Composite Squadron to practise dropping atomic bombs and by the British Pacific Fleet to hone its pilots' combat skills prior to the invasion of Japan.

Operation Squarepeg
Operation Squarepeg

Author: Reg Newell

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2017-11-28

Total Pages: 222

ISBN-13: 1476628327

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In late January 1944 a force of New Zealand soldiers and Allied specialists undertook a daring behind the lines reconnaissance of the Japanese-held Green Islands of Papua New Guinea. The New Zealand Army's largest amphibious operation of World War II followed two weeks later. The Japanese contested the invasion with air power and inflicted heavy damage on the American cruiser USS St. Louis. After landing, the New Zealanders pushed inland and encountered fanatical Japanese defenders entrenched in thick jungle. Allied engineers--including the famed Seabees--then built airfields, roads and shipping facilities. The seizure of the Green Islands completed the encirclement of the main Japanese base in the South Pacific at Rabaul. A memorable but overlooked action of the Pacific War, "Operation Squarepeg" involved a diverse force of Allied sailors, soldiers and airmen that included Charles Lindbergh and future U.S. president Richard Nixon.

Rabaul 1943–44
Rabaul 1943–44

Author: Mark Lardas

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2018-01-25

Total Pages: 92

ISBN-13: 1472822455

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In 1942, the massive Japanese naval base and airfield at Rabaul was a fortress standing in the Allies' path to Tokyo. It was impossible to seize Rabaul, or starve the 100,000-strong garrison out. Instead the US began an innovative, hard-fought two-year air campaign to draw its teeth, and allow them to bypass the island completely. The struggle decided more than the fate of Rabaul. If successful, the Allies would demonstrate a new form of warfare, where air power, with a judicious use of naval and land forces, would eliminate the need to occupy a ground objective in order to control it. As it turned out, the Siege of Rabaul proved to be more just than a successful demonstration of air power – it provided the roadmap for the rest of World War II in the Pacific.

The Fleet at Flood Tide
The Fleet at Flood Tide

Author: James D. Hornfischer

Publisher: Bantam

Published: 2017-11-14

Total Pages: 690

ISBN-13: 0345548728

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The extraordinary story of the World War II air, land, and sea campaign that brought the U.S. Navy to the apex of its strength and marked the rise of the United States as a global superpower Winner, Commodore John Barry Book Award, Navy League of the United States • Winner, John Lehman Distinguished Naval Historian Award, Naval Order of the United States With its thunderous assault on the Mariana Islands in June 1944, the United States crossed the threshold of total war. In this tour de force of dramatic storytelling, distilled from extensive research in newly discovered primary sources, James D. Hornfischer brings to life the campaign that was the fulcrum of the drive to compel Tokyo to surrender—and that forever changed the art of modern war. With a close focus on high commanders, front-line combatants, and ordinary people, American and Japanese alike, Hornfischer tells the story of the climactic end of the Pacific War as has never been done before. Here are the epic seaborne invasions of Saipan, Tinian, and Guam, the stunning aerial battles of the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot, the first large-scale use of Navy underwater demolition teams, the largest banzai attack of the war, and the daring combat operations large and small that made possible the strategic bombing offensive culminating in the atomic strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. From the seas of the Central Pacific to the shores of Japan itself, The Fleet at Flood Tide is a stirring, authoritative, and cinematic portrayal of World War II’s world-changing finale. Illustrated with original maps and more than 120 dramatic photographs “Quite simply, popular and scholarly military history at its best.”—Victor Davis Hanson, author of Carnage and Culture “The dean of World War II naval history . . . In his capable hands, the story races along like an intense thriller. . . . Narrative nonfiction at its finest—a book simply not to be missed.”—James M. Scott, Charleston Post and Courier “An impressively lucid account . . . admirable, fascinating.”—The Wall Street Journal “An extraordinary memorial to the courageous—and a cautionary note to a world that remains unstable and turbulent today.”—Admiral James Stavridis, former Supreme Allied Commander, NATO, author of Sea Power “A masterful, fresh account . . . ably expands on the prior offerings of such classic naval historians as Samuel Eliot Morison.”—The Dallas Morning News

The Navy of World War II, 1922-1947
The Navy of World War II, 1922-1947

Author: Paul Silverstone

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012-09-10

Total Pages: 446

ISBN-13: 1135864721

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The Navy of World War II, 1922-1946 comprehensively covers the vessels that defined this momentous 24-year period in U.S. naval history. Beginning with the lean, pared-down navy created by the treaty at the Washington Naval Conference, and ending with the massive, awe-inspiring fleets that led the Allies to victory in the Second World War, the fourth volume in the celebrated U.S. Navy Warship series presents a detailed guide to all the warships that exhibited the might of the U.S. Navy to the fullest. Showcasing all the ships—both the famous and the often overlooked-that propelled the U.S Navy to prominence in the first half of the twentieth century, The Navy of World War II catalogues all the warships from this era, including those that did battle in the European, Mediterranean, and Pacific Theaters from 1941-1946. From the fleet attacked at Pearl Harbor, to those that fought valiantly in the Battle of the Guadalcanal, to the official surrender of the Japanese on the deck of the USS Missouri, this latest volume is the definitive guide to the warships that defined this pivotal period in U.S. naval history. Each volume in the U.S. Navy Warship series represents the most meticulous scholarship for its particular era, providing an authoritative account of every ship in the history of the U. S. Navy from its first incarnation as the Continental Navy to its present position as one of the world’s most formidable naval superpowers. Featuring convenient, easy-to-read tabular lists, every book in the series includes an abundance of illustrations, some never before published, along with figures for actions fought, damages sustained, casualties suffered, prizes taken, and ships sunk, ultimately making the series an indispensable reference tool for maritime buffs and military historians alike. A further article about Paul Silverstone and the Navy Warships series can be found at: http://www.thejc.com/home.aspx?ParentId=m11s18s180&SecId=180&AId=58892&ATypeId=1

Guadalcanal 1942–43
Guadalcanal 1942–43

Author: Mark Stille

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2019-11-28

Total Pages: 97

ISBN-13: 1472835506

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The campaign for Guadalcanal, which stretched from August 1942 until February 1943, centered on Henderson Field. The airfield was captured by the US on 8 August and placed into operation by 20 August. As long as the airfield was kept operational and stocked with sufficient striking power, the Japanese could not run convoys with heavy equipment and large amounts of supplies to the island. Instead, they were forced to rely on night runs by destroyers which could not carry enough men or supplies to shift the balance decisively against the American garrison on the island. The American air contingent on the island, named the 'Cactus Air Force', comprised Marine, Navy and Army Air Force units. It had the challenging mission of defending the airfield against constant Japanese attacks, and more importantly, of striking major Japanese attempts to reinforce the island. The mission of neutralizing Henderson Field fell primarily to the Imperial Navy's Air Force flying out of airfields in the Rabaul area. The units charged with this mission were among the most accomplished in the entire Imperial Navy with a high proportion of very experienced pilots and a superb air superiority fighter (the famous 'Zero'). However, the distance from Rabaul to Guadalcanal handicapped Japanese operations and their primary bomber was terribly vulnerable to interception. This book traces the air campaign from both sides and explores the factors behind the American victory and the Japanese defeat. The text is supported by full-colour illustrations and contemporary photography.

Japanese Military Strategy in the Pacific War
Japanese Military Strategy in the Pacific War

Author: James B Wood

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2023-06-14

Total Pages: 151

ISBN-13: 1461638089

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In this provocative history, James B. Wood challenges the received wisdom that Japan's defeat in the Pacific was historically inevitable. He argues instead that it was only when the Japanese military prematurely abandoned its original sound strategic plan—to secure the resources Japan needed and establish a viable defensible perimeter for the Empire—that the Allies were able to regain the initiative and lock Japanese forces into a war of attrition they were not prepared to fight. The book persuasively shows how the Japanese army and navy had both the opportunity and the capability to have fought a different and more successful war in the Pacific that could have influenced the course and outcome of World War II. It is therefore a study both of Japanese defeat and of what was needed to achieve a potential Japanese victory, or at the very least, to avoid total ruin. Wood's argument does not depend on signal individual historical events or dramatic accidents. Instead it examines how familiar events could have b

“Big Week” 1944
“Big Week” 1944

Author: Douglas C. Dildy

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2022-02-17

Total Pages: 97

ISBN-13: 1472824520

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A rigorous new analysis of America's legendary 'Big Week' air campaign which enabled the Allies to gain air superiority before D-Day. The USAAF's mighty World War II bomber forces were designed for unescorted, precision daylight bombing, but no-one foresaw the devastation that German radar-directed interceptors would inflict on them. Following the failures of 1943's Schweinfurt-Regensburg raids, and with D-Day looming, the Allies urgently needed to crush the Luftwaffe's ability to oppose the landings. In February 1944, the Allies conceived and fought history's first-ever successful offensive counterair (OCA) campaign, Operation Argument or “Big Week.” Attacking German aircraft factories with hundreds of heavy bombers, escorted by the new long-range P-51 Mustang, it aimed both to slash aircraft production and force the Luftwaffe into combat, allowing the new Mustangs to take their toll on the German interceptors. This expertly written, illustration-packed account explains how the Allies finally began to win air superiority over Europe, and how Operation Argument marked the beginning of the Luftwaffe's fall.