Midway: The Approach
Due to the vast distances between the islands of the Central Pacific, both the Americans and the Japanese used long range patrol aircraft extensively to keep an eye on the vast expanse of ocean separating […]
Central Pacific
Midway: Plans and Preparations
By March 1942 the Japanese had accomplished their pre-war goals of capturing the Netherlands East Indies and Malaya, together with the rich oil fields which they hoped would supply their economy. Burma was on the […]
Submarine Reconnaissance Missions
One of the lesser known aspects of the air war in the Pacific is the extent to which the Japanese made use of submarine-launched aircraft. Although several navies had experimented with submarine aircraft carriers between […]
The Doolittle Raid
In December 1941, with the shock of Pearl Harbor still evident, many senior commanders in the United States expressed a desire to hit back directly at Japan. President Roosevelt himself was amongst the first to […]
Operation K
The Japanese, keen to press back against the Americans in the Central Pacific as well as keeping up-to-date with developments at Pearl Harbor, planned an audacious mission to conduct a combined bombing/reconnaissance attack on the […]
The Wake-Marcus Raids
The US Navy’s carrier fleet in the Pacific continued to flex its muscles even after the abandoned attempt to attack Rabaul on February 20th. Admiral King in Washington and Nimitz in Hawaii were keen to […]
In Defence of the Lexington
The relatively easy capture of Rabaul in 1942 gave the Japanese a useful base of operations to support offensive moves in the South Pacific. Plans were prepared for landings on the northern coast of New […]
The Marshalls-Gilberts Raid
Since the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Pacific Fleet’s carrier force had been kept busy. Whilst waiting for the newly appointed Admiral Chester Nimitz to arrive and take control of the situation, three carriers had […]
Wake Island
Wake Island was claimed as a US possession in 1899, after the Spanish-American war. The tiny V shaped coral island lay 2,000 miles from Hawaii, but less than half that distance from key Japanese bases […]
Pearl Harbor: The Second Wave
As the first wave of aircraft was beginning their attack on Pearl Harbor, a second wave was already winging its way south to join in the attack. Whilst the first wave had the Pacific Fleet […]