“When first spotted by our screening ships and combat air control, they were still not visible from the carriers, but they soon appeared as tiny dark specks in the blue sky, little above the horizon...” Mitsuo Fuchida, a Japanese captain in the Japanese Navy during World War 2 recalled about the Battle of Midway. The Battle of Midway took place on the island of Midway Atoll on June 4 - June 7, 1942, and was a conflict between Japan and United States of America. The Japanese Navy tried to take over the Midway Atoll, but unbeknownst to them, the U.S cracked the code and surprised them at the Midway Atoll with their navy. The code the U.S received on plans the Japanese Navy had made to siege the island of Midway Atoll caused the Battle of Midway and …show more content…
America had 3 aircraft carriers (Yorktown, Enterprise and Hornet), 8 cruisers, 14 destroyers, and the aircraft located at Midway. The Battle of Midway began quickly. Many bombs were dropped on the ships at sea. The turning point of the battle was when the Japanese battleships sunk because the aircraft in the sky forced them to shoot at the planes, but more bombers dropped bombs on the Japanese battleships, causing them to sink. This loss of Japanese aircraft proved a deciding factor in the battle. Japanese fleet commander Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto made plans to lead the Japanese Navy and attack the 2 islands that make up Midway Atoll. He thought that the U.S. could not win a battle based so close to its broken Pearl Harbor. Admiral Yamamoto was expecting to ambush America, but America surprised them with the ambush. American Navy successfully sank the Japanese Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, and Hiryu aircraft carriers, with 322 planes and over 5,000 soldiers on them. Japan also lost the heavy cruiser
The United States wanted the volcanic islands of Japan to be able to control the mainland of Japan and with Japan’s navy being weakened due to multiple situations, such as a lack of oil. The United States say this as a sign of weakness and began to attack the volcanic islands south of Japan. These attacks took out the Japanese navy fronts stationed in the islands and put the Japanese navy in a standstill in terms of being effective in the war efforts. The United States gained control of the Mariana Islands and Guam. The B-29s that were stationed in the Mariana Islands would help aid the American forces when they decided to try to conquer Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945.
The development of carrier-based air power was vital to the outcome of the battle and the war. The use of intelligence and surprise attacks also became the standard for future naval operations. The U.S. was able to use its intelligence to anticipate the enemy’s movements and launch a successful attack. Furthermore, the use of surprise attacks allowed the United States to catch the Japanese off guard, leading to the United States Navy’s success. The U.S. emerged victorious, and the battle marked the beginning of the end for Japan's empire.
victories in its war against Japan—came to an end In the four-day sea and air battle, the outnumbered U.S. The Pacific Fleet succeeded in destroying four Japanese aircraft carriers with the loss of only one of its own, the Yorktown, thus reversing the tide against the previously invincible Japanese navy.” “Yamamoto’s plan consisted of a feint toward Alaska followed by an invasion of Midway by a Japanese strike force. When the U.S. Pacific Fleet arrived at Midway to respond to the invasion, it would be destroyed by the superior Japanese fleet waiting unseen to the west. If successful, the plan would eliminate the U.S. Pacific Fleet and provide a forward outpost from which the Japanese could eliminate any future American threat in the Central Pacific.”
The target was US escort carriers, and this resulted in about 5000 kamikaze pilots died while only destroying 34 escort carriers. An estimated 1321 Kamikaze planes had dived into Allied naval forces. Even though about 3,000 Americans and Brits had died, the attacks did not damage the naval forces enough to stop the Allied capturing the Philippines, Iwo Jima, and
The United States had been already attacking Japan from the air from B-29
In late spring of 1942, the United States and Japan engaged in a series of naval battles, climaxing in the Battle of Midway on June 3–6, 1942, in which Japan suffered a catastrophic defeat. For the next year, the United States engaged Japan in a protracted struggle for the Solomon Islands, which lay near vital Allied shipping routes. Between August 1942 and February 1943, Allied forces carried out an invasion on the island of Guadalcanal—the beginning of a long series of Allied offensives that would eventually force the
The Battle of Iwo Jima was one of the bloodiest battles of World War Two. Iwo Jima had air stips that both the United States and the Japanese wanted to help them during World War Two. This battle did not end up going exactly as planned for either country. Both countries had their own strategy but neither succeeded. The Battle of Iwo Jima is an important battle to know about when discussing World War Two.
Instead of ships using their limited storage space and adding valuable pounds carrying extra fuel, they could make a stop in Hawaii and refuel for the second part of the journey. Hawaii came with Pearl Harbor, but with the acquisition of this new military base, where the United States stationed over one hundred ships, came a new military strike. On December 7, 1941, Japanese forces targeted the Hawaiian naval base of Pearl Harbor, sinking or severely damaging five battleships, three destroyers, seven other boats, and wrecking more than 200 planes. The United States retaliated, going into World War II, which then resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of
This was the start of the long invasion of Iwo Jima. The Battle of Iwo Jima was fought between the Japanese army and the United States Marine Corps (USMC). The battle, known to the USMC as "Operation Detachment", started on February 19, 1945 and lasted until March 26, 1945 when the last Japanese soldiers were captured or killed. Japan knew that the importance of defending Iwo Jima as its loss would facilitate American air raids against Japanese Home Islands. However Imperial Japanese Navy had already lost almost all of its power and could not prevent U.S. from landing.
The Battle of the Coral Sea was the first major engagement in naval history where both sides never came in direct contact from their main guns. The battle was waged in the Coral Sea, in the south Pacific and lasted from 4 to 8 May 1942. The utilization of the aircraft carrier and naval warplanes as the main battle platforms, shaped the outcome of this battle and those that would ensue during the Pacific theater of World War II. Allied forces under the command of Rear-Admiral (RADM) Frank Fletcher, were comprised of Task Force 11 with the USS Lexington as the main battle platform and Task Force 17 with the USS Yorktown as the main battle platform.
There wasn 't much of a battle considering the fact that it was very unexpected and Franklin D. Roosevelt had just spoke to the Japanese and they seemed to be on good terms. The event only lasted around two hours and in that short amount of time 20 American naval vessels were destroyed, 8 battleships, and 200 airplanes. There were around 2,000 American casualties while 1,000 others were only wounded. The day after this attack the president of the United States declared war on
In total over 2,400 were dead, and over 1,000 were injured in the onslaught; the attack also saw the destruction of eight battleships, three light cruisers and destroyers, and four other naval vessels (Civil Rights, Japanese Americans). With the Japanese
This attack also resulted from the failure in communication, as well as the misinterpretation of radar signals. This also marks the turning point in the naval history as the age of the battleship came to an end and the age of the aircraft carrier was ushered
Fuchida brought up the question of “what should we have done that we did not and why did we fail?” Ironically as it may have been, it was said that the Midway Islands would post the greatest threat to American naval power in the Pacific.” Yet, somehow the American naval power won the battle in the pacific. Fuchida blamed that the plans for the operation were studied and drawn up by the Combined Fleet Headquarters and the Naval General Staff in Tokyo. Fuchida said that Admiral Yamamoto did not want his fleet commanders, whose energies were fully occupied with the conduct of the first-phase operations in so many far-flung theaters, to be bothered by other
The attack killed 2,400 americans. Navy battleships were destroyed/damaged. More than 200 planes were damaged .