World War Two – Page 32 – Old Magazine Articles

The U.S. Navy’s War: Tarawa to Tokyo
(Dept. of the Navy, 1947)

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.

What the Navy Learned During the Pacific War
(Dept. of the Navy, 1947)

The following is an essay from the office of the Chief of Naval Operations concerning what the U.S. Navy learned about carrier warfare during the four year war against Japan.

The U.S. Navy’s War: Pearl Harbor to Midway
(Dept. of the Navy, 1947)

An essay on the U.S. Navy’s progress during the first six months of World War Two.

Japan’s decision to launch a war was based on the assumption that the conflict in Europe would render Russia and Great Britain negligible factors in the Far East. It was based on the further assumption that the United States, already committed to near belligerency in the Atlantic could not, even if finally successful in that theater, mount an offensive in the Pacific in less than 18 months to two years and would not in any case be willing to pay the price of total victory in the Pacific.

The Sinking of the Liscome Bay
(Yank Magazine, 1944)

A World War Two article from YANK MAGAZINE recalling the sinking of a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier off the coast of the Gilbert Islands –

Japanese Naval Losses Measured in Tons
(Dept. of the Navy, 1947)

Four graphs from a 1947 Naval study illustrate the amount of Japanese aircraft and assorted sea faring vessels that were destroyed during the course of World War Two.

The Battle of Midway
(Yank Magazine, 1943)

Written months after the battle, this is the Yank report on the naval engagement that was the turning point in the war:

The Jap had failed to get a foothold on Australia. Strategists reasoned that he would now strike east, at an outpost of the North American continent. Alaska became the No. 1 alert; bombers were flown to Midway; carriers came north and Admiral Nimitz pushed patrols far out toward the Bonins and Wake islands… A navy patrol found the enemy first, in the early hours of June 3 [1942]… Reconnaissance showed a Jap force of about 80 ships approaching Midway.

– the contest that followed proved to be the first truly decisive battle in the Pacific war.

Click here to read more about Midway.

The Battle of the Coral Sea
(Newsweek & Yank Magazines, 1942 – 3)

From the 4th through the 8th of May, 1942, the Japanese and American fleets exchanged blows in their first major engagement. The Americans won, but not by much; the most important battle would take place four weeks later at Midway. But the Yanks were happy with the way it turned out nonetheless:

It was a victory all right – but it was not as decisive as it sounded, to a jubilant America. For in the north in the mandated islands the main Japanese Fleet still stood ready for action at any moment – a fleet as yet largely unscathed, a fleet that has always come back for more, a fleet that does not like the taste of defeat.

Read about the Battle of Leyte Gulf…

Halsey at Leyte Gulf
(Pageant Magazine, 1960)

The Battle of Leyte Gulf (October 23 – 26, 1944) was the largest naval battle in World War II – as well as the most decisive. Given the naval weaponry that exists in the digital age, it is highly unlikely that opposing navies will ever again have need to come within visible range of one another again. This article tells the history of that battle, shedding light on a few of the important naval campaigns that came before. Written sixteen years after the events by a knowledgeable author, you will gain an understanding of the thoughts that were going through Admiral Halsey’s cranium when he commanded the largest battle fleet ever assembled.

Read about the Battle of Midway…

An Interview with U.S. Admiral Chester Nimitz
(Yank Magazine, 1944)

Yank correspondent H.N. Oliphant interviewed Admiral Chester William Nimitz (1885 – 1966) for the August 4, 1944 issue regarding the progress in the Pacific Theater of Operations. At that time, the battle of the Marianas was being waged and it was a subject of much concern as to it’s significance.

In the Central Pacific, we have in three swift leaps advanced our sea power thousands of miles to the west of Pearl Harbor. Now our western-most bastions face the Philippines and undoubtedly worry the man on the street in Tokyo concerning the immediate safety of his own skin.

Click here to read about Admiral Mischer…

Click here to read a unique story about the Battle of the Sula Straits…

‘We Can Win On Both Oceans”
(The American Magazine, 1942)

Frank Knox was FDR’s Secretary of the Navy between 1940 through 1944. Arm and arm with his lieutenant, Under Secretary James Forrestal, the two men made good on the Two-Ocean Navy Bill passed by Congress during the summer of 1940:

I am proud of this Navy of ours. Every American has a right to be proud of it, to know that it is, up to now, the greatest navy in history. But we cannot afford to be complacent about it. It is still not the navy that our country needs and that our fighting men in the ships deserve.