The Pacific Battles Between the United States and Japan
Attack on Pearl Harbor- December 7th, 1941
This battle was Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. It was what started the war, and is probably the most famous out of all of the battles.
Sinking of the Prince of Wales and Repulse- December 10th, 1941
Three days after Pearl Harbor, the Japanese demonstrated to the Royal Navy exactly what happens to surface craft who stick their necks out without friendly aircover. Britain's Force Z, centered on the battleship Prince of Wales and the battlescruiser Repulse, attempted to intercept the Japanese amphibious forces off of Malaya. They were located by planes of several IJN air groups off the eastern coast of the peninsula, and subjected to multiple attacks, the third of which left both capital ships sinking. With their demise, the road to Singapore lay open.
Raids into the Indian Ocean, March 31st through April 9th, 1942
Having effectively put an end to Allied naval strength in the South Pacific with the annihilation of the ABDA forces around Java, Kido Butai (the Japanese carrier striking force) raided westward into the Indian Ocean so as to destroy the remnants of British naval power there. By attacking the main British fleet bases at Colombo and Trincomalee on Ceylon and driving the Royal Navy from the area, the westward flank of the Japanese defensive perimeter would be secure, and operations in Burma could continue unmolested. Starting on March 31, 1942, five Japanes carriers (Kaga had returned to Japan for engine work on March 2) began shooting up practically everything that moved in the Bay of Bengal. On April 5th, Nagumo hit Colombo and sank a number of ships. That afternoon the Japanese also caught two British heavy cruisers offshore and quickly sank them. On April 9th they attacked Trincomalee, and in the process discovered and sank the British light carrier Hermes, a destroyer, and some auxiliaries. Nagumo turned for home upon the conclusion of this raid.
Battle of the Coral Sea, May 7-8th, 1942
Fresh from their successes in the Indian Ocean, the Japanese decided (unwisely) to extend their defensive perimeter outwards from their main forward base of Rabaul, in New Britain. Accordingly, they put together two invasion forces; one intending to land troops at Port Moresby, on the southern tip of New Guinea, and a second to put troops ashore on the island of Tulagi, in the southern Solomons. Simultaneously, a powerful screening force centered on the carriers Shokaku and Zuikaku was dispatched from Truk to prevent any interference from any Allied naval forces that might be in the area. As it turned out, the carriers Lexington and Yorktown were in the Coral Sea, the Americans having been alerted to the likelihood of such a Japanese move by radio intelligence. What followed was the first true carrier vs. carrier battle, where neither task force actually came within sight of each other, and the issue was decided entirely by aircraft.
Battle of Midway- June 4th, 1942
The Battle of Midway marked the high-water mark of the Japanese Navy. Unfortunately, the confidence and skill that had given them victory after victory in the first six months of the war now led them to commit their forces to an invasion of Midway Island, an unwise over-extension of their defensive perimeter. This might not have proven fatal, had not the operational plan devised by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto and Combined Fleet staff been needlessly complex, and had not the Americans possessed the radio and cryptographic intelligence assets that they did. However, as the result of these factors (and some breathtakingly effective repair efforts to get Yorktown back into action after the beating she suffered at Coral Sea) the Americans managed to commit three heavy carriers to the Japanese four off of Midway, and possessed forewarning of Japanese intentions in the area. Yet even this might not have been enough, given Japanese superiority in training and tactics. However, the Americans benefitted from a surfeit of both bravery and luck on this day. The subsequent dive-bombing attack was one of the most effective of the war. Three Japanese carriers (Akagi, Kaga, and Soryu) were heavily hit and would later sink, despite strenuous damage control efforts. Hiryu, which avoided the morning bloodbath, managed to launch an afternoon attack which crippled the hard-hit Yorktown (she would be sunk soon thereafter by a Japanese submarine), but then she, too, was found and sunk later in the day. Kido Butai, the feared Japanese carrier striking force which had ranged across the Pacific and beaten its foes with near-impunity, had been destroyed at a stroke. For the Japanese Navy, this marked the end of any real strategic offensive capability. They would rebuild their airwings, and eventually replace their carriers, but they would never again possess a 'critical mass' of both large carriers and well-trained air groups. From now on, the war would be fought against the backdrop of an inexorable increase in US naval might, which might not be immediately deployable, but was demonstrably building. The Japanese, meanwhile, would find their strength increasingly on the wane. And the anvil of the Solomons, where the logistical and material backbone of Nihon Kaigun would be permanently and irrevocably broken, lay just ahead.
Battle of the Komandorski Islands- March 26th, 1943
By March, 1943, the Americans were beginning to get serious about retaking the islands of Attu and Kiska, which had been captured by the Japanese in 1942. Consequently, they placed a squadron in the area tasked with inderdicting any Japanese resupply convoys to the area. On March 26, 1943, this task group found what they were seeking, but got more than they bargained for. A Japanese convoy of two transports was coming north, escorted by eight warships, including two heavy and two light cruisers. What followed was one of the more 'pure' long-range naval gunfire engagements of the war.
Destruction of Truk, February 17th-18th, 1944
Truk had been the main base for Combined Fleet since the beginning of the war, and for the first two years of the conflict was considered an unassailable bastion. However, by early 1944 the American carrier forces in the Pacific had grown so monumentally in strength that attacks that would have been unthinkable a mere six months earlier became possible. In early February, Task Force 58 under Admiral Mitscher came against Truk with an enormous force of eight carriers and six battleships. Warned by radio intelligence, the Japanese had withdrawn the majority of their heavy surface units immediately prior. However, the Americans had a field day against the few light surface combatants they found, as well as against the numerous transports anchored in the lagoon. In two days of raids, American aircraft destroyed most of the ground facilities and fighter cover, and wiped out practically everything afloat. Those vessels which managed to flee the atoll were eliminated by the American surface and submarine forces ringing the area. Truk was reduced to near-uselessness, and would sit out the remainder of the war as a virtual backwater, cut of from the ongoing American offenses in the central Pacific.
Battle of the Phillipine Sea- June 19th-20th, 1944
Sinking of Yamato- April 7th, 1945
With the battle for Okinawa raging full force, it was decided to send superbattleship Yamato on a suicide mission to the island. Ostensibly, her sortie was designed to draw off American airpower in order to allow a massive suicide strike (kikusui) by land-based aircraft from Japan to hit the American invasion forces ringing the island. Accordingly, Yamato was fueled for a one-way trip, and sent out with nine escorts led by the light-cruiser Yahagi, skippered by Tameichi Hara. In the event Yamato made it to the island, her orders were to beach herself and make use of her 18.1" guns in support of the land fighting there.
Final Destruction- July 24th & 28th, 1945
By July, 1945, Nihon Kaigun had been reduced to such a state of impotence that American and British surface forces ranged at will off the coasts of the Home Islands. The pitiful remnants of the once-proud Japanese fleet were confined to harbor; damaged and bereft of fuel. In late July, Task Force 38, under Admiral Halsey, came to administer the coup de grace. The results were so one-sided as to be hardly worth being called a battle (most of the Japanese vessels couldn't even get under way). Still, for the US Navy, it was a fitting close to a war that had begun for them at Pearl Harbor. This was truly the end of the road for the Imperial Japanese Navy.
If you want further information about World War Two battles, you may go look at my source at:
http://www.combinedfleet.com/map.htm
I also wanted to add this. Hopefully the person that needs to read this, well, will.
unrealism [uhn-REEL-is-m]
n : a representation having no reference to concrete objects or
specific examples, a goal is set that cannot be acomplished
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