Major Battles/Campaigns of the Pacific Theater

1. Major Battles/Campaigns of the Pacific Theater By: Alison Lew Matt Guttman Michelle Paras

2. Topics • Island-Hopping Strategy • Battle of Coral Sea • Battle of Midway • Battle of Guadalcanal • Battle of Iwo Jima • Battle of Okinawa

3. Island-Hopping Strategy • formulated by Chester William Nimitz • overall plan for the conduct of the war in the Pacific • consisted of developing a series of assaults on selected Japanese islands while either entirely skipping over others or subjecting some islands to air attack only • American strategists realized that by only attacking some islands, Japanese forces on the missed islands would be isolated and useless, even though they weren't attacked

4. Island-Hopping Strategy Locations Attacked • From Tarawa and Makin in the Gilbert Islands, American forces jumped ahead to Eniwetok and Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands, and then they jumped to Saipan, Tinian and Guam in the Mariana Islands.

5. Battle of Coral Sea • On May 7th and 8th 1942, Japanese and U.S. aircraft carriers engaged in battle • The U.S. navy had three carriers in the Pacific: the Lexington, the Saratoga, and the Enterprise and the Yorktown and the Hornet later transferred from the Atlantic fleet. • Carrier warfare was risky especially since there was no airborne or ship-borne guidance system and no radar on the American ships at that time.

6. Battle of Coral Sea • The U.S. dive-bomber, the Dauntless, was one of the important planes used for searching. The planes were the “eyes and ears of the fleet”. Pilots had to find their way to their target using vision and manual navigation. • It was exceptionally dangerous; if the carrier changed course the aircraft would have trouble locating it again and safely landing on the carrier was not guaranteed.

7. Battle of Coral Sea • The Americans were fortunate to have interpreted the Japanese diplomatic code. • The Japanese were overconfident after their victory at Pearl Harbor, so they showed and telegraphed their naval strategy and plans which helped the U.S. Navy get back in the fight. • The first battle happened close to Port Moresby, near Australia in the Coral Sea. • The Lexington and Yorktown were sent to block the Japanese invasion force, while the Japanese had three carriers attacking. • It was the first carrier-on-carrier battle in modern warfare. • The U.S. and Japanese were separated by 175 miles of ocean, but dive-bombers and torpedo bombers from both sides found the enemy's carriers.

8. Battle of Coral Sea • The Japanese carrier Shokaku was badly damaged, and the Americans had already sunk the light carrier Shoho in a previous encounter. • On the American side, The Yorktown was slightly damaged, but the Lexington caught fire when its fuel line bursted. The ship was abandoned before it sank. • The Battle of the Coral Sea was important for the U.S. Navy. It stopped the Japanese navy in that part of the Pacific and gave the American sailors and aviators much valuable battle experience and confidence.

9. Battle of Coral Sea Result of Coral Sea • Technically the Battle of Coral Sea proved a draw, but strategically it was a victory for the U.S. because it forced the Japanese to call off their attack on New Guinea

10. Battle of Midway -Before the war happened, Japan had naval superiority, but after the war U.S. was equal with them • They fought over the pacific midway atoll • Japan’s combined fleet commander Yamamoto sought to destroy the U.S. Pacific fleet’s aircraft carrier forces, which had embarrassed them at the Battle of Coral Sea

11. Battle of Midway • Yamamoto planned on knocking down Midway’s defense • Then follow up with an invasion of the atoll’s two small islands and establish a Japanese force there • The invasion was suppose to be a surprise, but American’s communication intelligence found out and told

12. Battle of Midway • Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, the U.S. Pacific Fleet commander found out about the attack and had his carriers ready to ambush the Japanese

13. Battle of Midway • The base at Midway was damaged by Japanese air attack • Even though it was damaged, it was still operational and later became an important component in the American Trans-pacific offensive

14. Battle of Guadalcanal • First major offensive launched by the Allies against Japan took place on Guadalcanal from August 7th 1942 to February 9th 1943 • Since Pearl Harbor the Japanese had advance toward the South Pacific, threatening the route between Australia and the U.S. • On August 7th the Marines landed on Guadalcanal • First 24 hours nothing happened on land, but the marines were fighting already

15. Battle of Guadalcanal • The Americans attacked with the most amphibious force, with three carriers the “Wasp,” “Enterprise”, and “Saratoga” • American troops mounted attacks by land and by sea, but in the end 13,000 Japanese troops had escaped • But in the end the U.S. took control of the island on February 9th 1943

16. Iwo Jimahttp://www.iwojima.com

17. Iwo Jima Japan’s Strategy • General Kuribayashi • An aristocrat • Educated in Canada • One of the only soldiers ever granted an audience by Emperor Hirohito • General Kuribayashi's command center had 5 ft. thick walls, a 10 ft. thick roof. This cement capsule was under 75 ft. of solid rock.

18. Iwo Jima Japan’s Strategy • Didn’t fight above ground. Dug 1,500 rooms in the rock connected by 16 miles of tunnel • “No Japanese Survivors” • Each Japanese soldier had to kill 10 American soldiers before dyeing themselves

19. Iwo Jima Location • Both US and Japan valued the sulfurous island • Iwo lay half way between Japan and US naval bases in the Marianas • The US had no protective fighters with enough range to escort the big super-fortresses. many bombers fell prey to Japanese fighter-interceptor attacks. Iwo was ideally located as a fighter-escort station and an ideal sanctuary for crippled bombers returning from Japan.

20. Iwo Jima US Invasion • American Air Forces bombed Iwo in the longest aerial offensive in the war • Ironically the bombing had little effect (underground forces weren’t harmed) • 21,000 underground Japanese waited for the American naval attack • 110,000 marines in 880 ships sailed from Hawaii to Iwo in 40 days • The largest armada invasion up to that time in the Pacific War

21. Iwo Jima The Land Battle • Shortly before 2am on Feb. 19, 1945, the Navy's big guns opened up on Iwo Jima again, signaling the beginning of D-Day. • One-hundred-ten bombers screamed out of the sky to drop more bombs. After the planes left, the big guns of the Navy opened up again. • At 8:30am the first wave of Marines moved towards the deadly shores. Once ashore, the Marines were bedeviled by the loose volcanic ash. Unable to dig foxholes, they were sitting ducks for the hidden Japanese gunners.

22. Iwo Jima The Land Battle • One hundred thousand men fighting on a tiny island one-third the size of Manhattan. For 36 days Iwo Jima was one of the most populated 7.5 miles on earth. • "Throwing human flesh against reinforced concrete." • Liquid gas, napalm and hand grenades were more useful against the underground Japanese.

23. Iwo Jima Epilogue • More Marines earned medals of honor on Iwo than any other battle in US history • In 36 days of fighting there were 25,851 US casualties (1 in 3 were killed or wounded). • By war's end, 2,400 B-29 bombers carrying 27,000 crewman had made emergency landings on Iwo Jima.

24. Okinawahttp://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/okinawa-battle.htmOkinawahttp://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/okinawa-battle.htm

25. Okinawa • Okinawa was the largest amphibious invasion of the Pacific campaign and the last major campaign of the Pacific War. • More ships were used, more troops put ashore, more supplies transported, more bombs dropped, more naval guns fired against shore targets than any other operation in the Pacific.

26. Okinawa • More people died during the Battle of Okinawa than all those killed during the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. • Casualties totaled more than 38,000 Americans wounded and 12,000 killed or missing • 100,000 Okinawan civilians perished in the battle.

27. Okinawa • 34 allied ships and craft of all types had been sunk, mostly by kamikazes, and 368 ships and craft damaged. • The fleet had lost 763 aircraft. • The cost of this battle, in terms of lives, time, and material, weighed heavily in the decision to use the atomic bomb against Japan just six weeks later.

28. Okinawa • Japanese human losses were enormous: 107,539 soldiers killed and 23,764 sealed in caves or buried by the Japanese themselves; 10,755 captured or surrendered. • The Japanese lost 7,830 aircraft and 16 combat ships.

29. Okinawa • By late October 1944, Okinawa had been targeted for invasion by Allied forces. This invasion -- code named Operation Iceberg --- would see the assembling of the greatest naval armada ever. • Admiral Raymond A. Spruance's 5th fleet included more than 40 aircraft carriers, 18 battleships, 200 destroyers and hundreds of assorted support ships. • Some 1,300 US ships surrounded the island. Of those, 365 were amphibious ships. Over 182,000 troops would make up the assault, planned for April 1, 1945, Easter Sunday.

30. Okinawa • On September 29, 1944 B-29 bombers conducted the initial reconnaissance mission over Okinawa and its outlying islands. • On October 10, 1944 nearly two hundred of Admiral Halsey's planes struck Naha, Okinawa's capital and principal city, in five waves. • The document ending the Battle of Okinawa was signed on September 7, 1945.