2009-10.2.2.K

=The Pacific Theater (Asia)=

After the attack on Pearl Harbor it took The American Pacific fleet to get everything running again. War was declared on Japan December 8, 1941 then Germany declared war on the US December 11, 1941.

Doolittle’s Raid on Japan
The most dating mission ordered from the Americans in the Pacific war was Doolittle’s Raid on Japan. April 18th 1942 an attack on Japan was led by Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle from the aircraft carrier ‘Hornet’. The planes that were launched from the ‘Hornet’ were B-25 “Mitchell” Medium Bomber aircraft, and were equipped to carry enough fuel to make it to Japan and land in China. The ‘Hornet’ left port on April 2nd, and planed to get to Japan and drop the bombs on April 18th. The ‘Hornet’ met up with the ‘Enterprise’, another US aircraft carrier, while traveling to Japan. The two ship[s were going to sail 400 miles from the shore of Japan and launch the ships, but when they reached 600 miles off the shore of[[image:http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/g40000/g41197.jpg width="150" height="122" align="right" caption="USS Hornet lauching planes" link="http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/g40000/g41197.jpg"]] Japan, they ran into Japanese boats, who sent a warning to the Japanese bases. The ‘Hornet’ and the ‘Enterprise’ knew they couldn’t go on much further before they were fired upon. The ‘Hornet’ launched its 16 planes, each with five crew men. The planes bombed Japan but none of the planes made it to the airfields’ in China, three crew men survived the crash, but only to be executed by the Japanese.

Battle of Midway
The Japanese captured on island after another in the Pacific, they expanded throughout the sea, but was stopped dead at the Battle of Midway. There was a lot of activity happening at Pearl Harbor in the May of 1942, the air craft carriers ‘Enterprise’ and the Hornet’ were moored in port and the ‘Yorktown’ joined them for repairs. While ass the repairs where happening at Pearl Harbor; Japan was planning to take Midway which would put them at a good distance from America. The Commander-in-chief of the Pacific fleet, Admiral Chester Nimitz got intelligence that the Japanese were planning to battle the American Navy. Admirals Spruance and Fletcher had their ships waiting for the attack. Yamamoto’s plan was to lure the American ships away from the main body of the fleet, but this plan would fail because the Americans knew what they were going to do. May 28, 1942, a task force of 16 American Navy ships sailed with the ‘Enterprise’ in the lead and commanded by Rear Admiral Raymond Spruance. The Commander-in-chief of Combined Fleet of Japan, Yamamoto, believed Japan would gain control of the Pacific after the all out naval battle. The Battle of Midway started June 4, 1942; the US attacked the Japanese main Fleet, and sunk 2 battleships on the first bombing with B-17s. Over the next 3 days the US would destroy most of Japan’s naval Strength. The battle of Midway started to open the Pacific to America.

The Battle of Midway lead to a technique called “Island hopping” which was used from January, 1943- August, 1945. “Island Hopping” used a combination of forces; the main idea was to bypass the strongly held islands and to hit the weak islands to crumble the outposts of the Japanese fleet.

Kamikaze pilots were seen throughout WW2. A Kamikaze pilot was a last-ditch effort from the Japanese who had planes but very few skilled flyers. The Japanese took any volunteers and gave them old planes and the motto was “One Man, One ship.” Later the Kamikaze pilots were men who were out of gas and who had dropped all ammo and bombs and then go in to a state of suicide and crash in to ships, buildings, ground or the other air craft they are against. The first time the Kamikaze pilot was used was when fighting the allied forces in the Philippians. Germany adopted the Kamikaze ways of fighting and trained men before the war.

Guadalcanal
On August 7 1942 to February 9, 1943, a 90 mile island called Guadalcanal that was fought over. The Battle of Guadalcanal each side had no long-term strategy, so the battle was down to a test of inventiveness. Each side lost 23 ships in four months; the Japanese had a hard time replenishing and replacing their soldiers where Allied forces had no problem. The Japanese withdrew from Guadalcanal in December because they underestimated the Allied numbers but the island wasn’t declared safe until February.

Battle of Philippine Sea
Between June 19th and June 20th, 1944 that battle of the Philippe Sea was the last great carrier battle of World War two. The Battle of Midway had damaged the Japanese carrier force but in 1944 Japan still had a bigger carrier force than America. The Japanese fleet was sighted June 15 by American Submarines. A Few days later the Japanese sent out a search party to find out where American ships where in the sea. When discovered a message was sent and a battle broke out in the Philippe’s, 35 Japanese planes were shot down and American Retaliated and total war broke out.

Battle of Iwo Jima
The Battle of Iwo Jima or otherwise known as Operation Detachment lasted from February 19- March 26, 1945. The United States fought for and captured Iwo Jima. The more than 18,000 Japanese soldiers fought to protect the island with some positions on the island were heavily fortified with bunkers, hidden artillery and underground tunnels. Only 216 Japanese soldiers were captured the rest were killed or were missing. The Battle was the first American attack on the Japanese Home Islands. In June of 1944 Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi was assigned to command the defense of Iwo Jima. The American Air forces dropped bombs Iwo Jima for days on end. 21,000 Japanese soldiers were in the volcanic tunnels waiting for the 110,000 Marines in 880 ships to land on the beach. Iwo Jima was the largest invasion up to that time in the Pacific Theater. The Japanese had a unique strategy, they didn’t fight above ground they had 1,500 rooms into the volcanic rock in Iwo Jima. Also the Japanese didn’t plan to survive and the last main part of their strategy was that before the Japanese solider killed himself he had to kill 10 American soldiers. When the American solider landed in Iwo Jima they couldn’t dig foxholes and where sitting ducks to the Japanese gunners; the heavy fire from the Japanese made it impossible to land men in an orderly fashion. “One hundred thousand men fighting on a tiny island one-third the size of Manhattan, for 36 days Iwo Jima was one of the most populated 7.5 miles on earth.” While men where landing on the beaches the American navy guns opened fired on Iwo Jima again and again, after a while one- hundred- ten bombers dropped more bombs on the island then the navy ships opened fired again. There was a 75% casualty on the American side, and the battle was won inch by inch. The American forces use liquid gas, napalm, and hand grenades to take out the underground Japanese. At the end of the Battle many US Marines earned the Medal of Honor than in any other battle in US history. In the 36 days there were 25,851 US casualties (1 in 3 were killed or wounded) but almost all of the 22,000 Japanese perished. The American flag was raised at Iwo Jima February 19, 1945 which marked the end of the Battle at Iwo Jima and to Remember all who where lost during the invasion.

Battle of Okinawa
The bloodiest battle of the Pacific war was the last major battle, The Battle of Okinawa which lasted from April 1, 1945 – June 22, 1945. The Main target was to take the large island of Okinawa that was 340 miles away from Japan. More ships were used, more troops were ashore, more supplies was used, many bombs were used, and many more naval guns were fired against shore targets than any other Battle in the Pacific. There were more people killed than the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. 38,000 Americans wounded, 12,000 or more were killed or missing, the Japanese lost 107,000 soldiers. After much “Island Hopping” the Allies approached Japan to gain Okinawa to use as an aircraft base. The Japanese surrendered weeks after the battle of Okinawa, because of the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima and from the USSRs formal declaration of war on Japan.

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