Okinawa - The U.S. Army in the Pacific had been pursuing an "island-hopping" campaign, moving north from Australia towards Japan. On April 1, 1945, they invaded Okinawa, only 300 miles south of the Japanese home islands. By the time the fighting ended on June 2, 1945, the U.S. had lost 50,000 men and the Japanese 100,000.…
Cooper C. Little Period 6 Language Arts 10-30-2014 The Battle for Iwo Jima On February 19th, 1945, The United States Marine Corps sent an invasion force to capture the island of Iwo Jima. Iwo Island was critical to both sides, because it was only 650 miles from Tokyo, Japan’s capitol.…
The attack left the base badly damaged resulting into one out of nine battleship’s being destroyed in the process however this was also a good thing for the American navy because the Japanese didn’t destroyed the supply depot for the ship’s fuel the same with they failed to destroy the american aircraft carriers. When the american fleet was trying to repair itself the Japanese moved down south in order to get more resources for their military they went so far south that they invaded new Guinea the Australian military were training local militia to face the threat that was soon to come. American forces soon came to fight off the japanese military when they broke the Japanese codes when both sides met it was then called the battle of the Coral sea, the…
In response, the Japanese tried to reinforce their troops through the Tokyo Express by sea, but the U.S. troops fought the arriving Japanese troops on the beach in what was called the Navy Battle of Guadalcanal (www.guadalcanal.com; www.historylearningsite.co.uk). In that battle, only four thousand of the ten thousand Japanese troops were able to get through and escaped into the jungle. The Americans and the Japanese continued to fight intensely in the mountainous jungle in hot conditions, where many on both sides died from fighting, heat exhaustion and diseases. The Americans continued to attack from air, land and sea and won the battle for Guadalcanal on February 9th 1943…
The Americans knew the enemy moves, thanks to their cryptographers. But Vice Adm. William F. Halsey, the aggressive commander of the Southwest Pacific Theater, had virtually no ships to hurl at Kondo. All his cruisers and destroyers had been used up in the Friday 13th battle. The carrier Enterprise was still only partially repaired after being damaged at the Battle of Santa Cruz, but her 78 planes could screen Guadalcanal by day. The problem would be a night surface…
and it happened in 1942. During this time the perceptions of the Japanese military was demolished by the Doolittle raid. They thought that their homeland was immune from air attack and in order to protect Japan they had to extend their defensive perimeter eastward to a tiny island called Midway. Midway was thousands of miles from Hawaii and it was where the U.S. aircraft stationed was located. The Japanese really wanted to get control of this island to protect Japan from air attack so they threw most of the imperial fleet into this battle but the Americans had intercepted the Japanese code and knew something was about to happen.…
Their commander, Vice Admiral Nagumo had his attack force in position 275 miles North of Hawaii on the morning of December, 7, 1941. His commander, Mitsuo Fuchida, led the first wave of aerial attack. At 6:00 AM, the attack force was already up in the air and on their way to Pearl Harbor. The Japanese pilots saw eight battleships, but, they were discouraged that they were unable to find any of the aircraft carriers. Japanese Lieutenant Commander Murata’s Torpedo bombers were launching their torpedoes, while, Lieutenant Commander Itaya’s fighters were engaging the U.S. resistance in the sky. Another Japanese Commander, Mitsuo Fuchida, led his bombers to Barber’s Point. However, when their was no U.S resistance , the Japanese realized their surprise attack was successful. The attack began with the first bomb falling on Wheeler Field, and the bombs that proceeded after were on Hickam Field and bases at Ford Island. Smoke from the bombings was making vision difficult As a result, Murata dropped the torpedos short of battleships that were anchored east of Ford…
Involved was the secret passage of an entire fleet including six aircraft carriers, two battleships and three cruisers over a distance of some 3,700 miles across the North Pacific.Some 26 Japanese ‘cruiser’ submarines were concentrated around the Hawaiian Islands, their mission to pick off any American ships that survived the main air attack. In the event they achieved nothing during the main attack, although an American carrier was damaged near Hawaii in January. Five small two-man submarines, launched from larger submarines, attempted to enter the harbour early on 7 December but failed. An American destroyer sank one of the boats off the entrance to Pearl Harbor about an hour and 15 minutes before the air attack began, and nearly cost Japan the element of surprise. Fleet Commander, Vice Admiral Nagumo, received his final orders on December 1 and on the morning of December 7 the battle group was in position 275 miles north of…
forces land. The first U.S. Marine Division was commanded by Major-General Alexander Vandegrift, who had a lot of men in it that had no combat experience. Vandegrift was told that the men would have time to train when they were in the Pacific, but by the end of June, half of the division still had not been in the war zone and the attack was five weeks away. The whole forces were lacking in reliable maps, tide charts, and etc. The ones that were used were lacking the basics of details. The naval force had no charts for hazards underwater, so they could not calculate how far inshore a ship could go. Because of theses issues, it was agreed to put back the day of the attack from August 1st to August 4th and then to August…
President Truman sent a message to Japan, asking them “surrender immediately or face prompt and utter destruction”(Campbell). Japan had been warned about their destruction, but refused to surrender. Their The U.S. military had already taken control of Okinawa. Okinawa had proven to be devastating. The invasion inflicting around 50,000 casualties on the invaders. Okinawa showing us what invading the Japanese islands will be like. Japan and Japanese militants were not going to give up easily. Japan was desperate to win. Desperate enough to deploy a battleship, named Yamato, on a suicide mission to Okinawa. Where is was supposed to attack American ships and then go ashore to become a doomed steal fortress. This did not happen because Yamato was sunk after leaving its port.…
First battle was in the Philippines. Teddy Roosevelt was Asst. Sec of Navy and ordered Admiral Dewey to attack Spanish Fleet in Philippines.…
Beginning on December 7, 1941, the sovereign fleet of the Japanese Navy began one of it devastating campaign, japan attacked the U.S whenever it had bases, ships, or men. Japan had perilously close to wiping out the Pacific in one day. By early 1942, the powerful station at Midway was one of the few targets lift standing. In 1942, Admiral Yamamoto, the man who created the Pearl Harbor attack began to create a second attack on Midway because Japan needed these atoll islands at Midway, as it would have meant that they could further contain the U.S. Navy and transportation of troops and supplies moving from the U.S. As the war goes on Japanese carrier Hiryu struck the USS Yorktown, which was severely damaged. According to Lieutenant John D. Lorenz “The sky was turning black from the anti-aircraft fire but on they came.…
After Japan invaded French Indochina, the U.S. froze Japanese assets and cut off iron supplies. This infuriated the Japanese and made them even more certain that they needed a larger pacific empire. WWII was a war with 3 nations - Italy, Germany and Japan - all believing they were the ultimate race, that all other nations were inferior to them. The United States was involved through providing financial aide and supplies to the allied forces but they had not stepped up to get involved yet. Japan felt that attacking the US would provide them an easy win, and a country with a lot of land and resources to rule once they did defeat us. Japan attacked at 07:55am on December 7, 1941. They only sent 2 of the 3 waves of attacking forces before deciding enough damage had been done. But they knew that the U.S. were not going to sit back after the attack on them either. They did not have their aircraft carriers in…
The Battle of Iwo Jima (19 February – 26 March 1945) was a pivotal conflict during World War II characterized by some of the fiercest fighting in the Pacific Campaign. For Japan, Iwo Jima served as their last line of defense protecting their homeland from the Allied advancements. Japan knew the strategic significance of the island for both Allied and Axis powers and was equally certain that the U. S. would seek to secure it. Resolved that America would pay a huge price for every inch of ground gained, The Battle of Iwo Jima become the bloodiest battle of World War II and remains the most costly of battles in Marine Corps history. Three Marine Divisions conducted an amphibious landing and assault to destroy one heavily defended Japanese Division on the 7.5 square mile island of Iwo Jima. The 36-day assault claimed 6,766 U.S. lives and nearly 20,000 wounded. For the Japanese, the loss was even more staggering with only 1,083 survivors of the original 21,060 defenders. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, the commander for Japanese forces, “proved to be Japan’s greatest wartime general and…the most redoubtable adversary” for the United States. Kuribayashi displayed brilliant leadership and tactical application of strategic objectives, as he skillfully employed the art and science of mission command in his epic defense of Iwo Jima.…
On August 5th, 1864, Rear Admiral David Farragut led the Union navy into Mobile Bay, Alabama, to face a smaller Confederate fleet under the command of Admiral Franklin Buchanan and neutralize three forts surrounding Mobile Bay to complete the Union blockade of the Gulf of Mexico. The battle would prove pivotal in the Union victory, as well as President Abraham Lincoln's re-election three months later. The Union fleet, under Farragut, used sheer power and numbers to decimate the Confederates.…