Learn about ww2 naval warfare with these old magazine article. Find information concerning WW II at sea
Here is a Collier’s profile of U.S. Admiral Raymond Spruance (1886 – 1969):
“Outside Navy circles, very few know much about the man who bosses our task forces in the Pacific and has never lost an engagement. But Admiral Nagano knows of Spruance; so does Tojo – because, if it weren’t for Spruance at Midway, Japanese carriers might now be based at Pearl Harbor.”
Here is a Collier’s profile of U.S. Admiral Raymond Spruance (1886 – 1969):
“Outside Navy circles, very few know much about the man who bosses our task forces in the Pacific and has never lost an engagement. But Admiral Nagano knows of Spruance; so does Tojo – because, if it weren’t for Spruance at Midway, Japanese carriers might now be based at Pearl Harbor.”
Here is a Collier’s profile of U.S. Admiral Raymond Spruance (1886 – 1969): “Our latest successes in New Guinea, the Solomons and
In the seven months since Pearl Harbor the aircraft carrier has replaced the battleship as the true capital ship of modern naval warfare. The carrier’s rise to power reached a crushing climax in the battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway – the two most decisive naval engagements of the war thus far. Opposing fleets only struck at each other with bomber and torpedo planes and never fired a shot except in self-defense against aircraft.
Admiral Pete Mitscher was one of the primary architects of American naval aviation during the 20th Century.In this column, one of the officers who served under him during the admiral’s command of carrier Task Force 58 recalls why he came to admire the man as deeply as he did.
One of Admiral Pete Mitscher’s officers recalls the man with tremendous admiration:
They used to think a carrier was a hit-and-run fighter, but Pete changed that. He said, ‘Hit’em and stay. Hit’em again tomorrow. And he did.’
The War Shipping Administration is never at a loss for an answer when asked what’s been authorized, what’s in the works, what’s been shipped and where everything is at the moment? Nevertheless, the Transportation Inventory Department is a tidy place, with no visible signs of agitation. The TID has never lost so much as a bolt. Once it took twenty-two weeks to find a couple of airplane engines which had got themselves lost.
Not only did Germany limit the size of her fleet, but she failed to push technical developments. For example, she was behind the Allies in developing radar, and her torpedoes were mechanically deficient. She was ahead of the Allies in perfecting magnetic mines, but these proved to be a short-lived advantage… The priority for naval construction was so low that when the war began in September, 1939, the naval strength allowed in the treaty of 1935 had not been reached.
Thus, in the opinion of Admiral Doenitz, Germany, for the second time within 25 years, lost her bid for world supremacy because of her weakness at sea.
Click here to read about an American destroyer on D-Day.
The baby flat-top Liscome Bay was sunk by a torpedo from an enemy submarine on the day before Thanksgiving of 1943. The Liscome Bay was on her first battle assignment, covering the occupation of Makin in the Gilbert [islands]…The torpedo struck a half an hour before dawn and it was still dark when Liscome Bay sank.
The ship went under in less than twenty-four minutes; up to that time it was the U.S. Navy’s second largest loss since the sinking of the Arizona at Pearl Harbor. Only 260 men survived.
Attached is a 1947 report by the U.S. Navy summing up the remarkable roll that naval aviation played during the last half of the war with Imperial Japan:
In the advance across the Central Pacific the carrier task force with it’s extreme flexibility and mobility had been the dominant factor. It established the conditions under which long-range amphibious advances were possible. It never failed to gain command of the air at the required time and place, successively overwhelming the air garrisons not only of the Japanese perimeter but of the major fortresses of Formosa and the Philippines, and maintained command of the air until shore-based air forces could be established.
To read articles about W.W. II submarines, Click here.
