Aboard the USS Shangri-La · July 28, 1945 The Imperial Japanese Navy was the second most powerful navy in the Pacific War in World War II and the third largest navy in the world after the U.S. and Royal navies. During the first years of the war the Japanese Combined Fleet, the IJN’s main ocean-going component, dominated the…
Off the Mariana Islands, Central Pacific · June 12, 1944 On this date in 1944 in the Marianas, U.S. carrier aircraft began attacking Japanese defenses on Saipan, Tinian, and Guam in preparation for the three-week battle on Saipan. On July 9 U.S. Marines declared Saipan secured, calling the battle for the island “the decisive battle of…
Washington, D.C. · April 3, 1945 On this date in 1945 the Roosevelt administration appointed Gen. Douglas MacArthur Commander-in-Chief U.S. Army Forces Pacific (AFPAC), responsible for all Army and Army Air Forces units in the Pacific theater excepting Maj. Gen. Curtis LeMay’s Twentieth Air Force based in the Marianas. At the same time Adm. Chester…
When October 23–26, 1944 Where Leyte Gulf, a body of water immediately east of the island of Leyte in the Central Philippines, adjoining the Philippine Sea of the Pacific Ocean Who American naval forces under Admiral William “Bull” Halsey, Jr. (1882–1959), commanding the U.S. Third Fleet, and Vice Admiral Thomas Kinkaid (1888–1972), commanding the U.S….
