This is the second volume of Toll's planned trilogy on the war in the Pacific. The first volume finished at Midway in June, 1942. The US was looking for a place to start the rollback of the Japanese conquests. Washington chose the furthest of the Solomon Islands, a place few Americans had ever heard of - Guadalcanal.
On the morning of August 7, US Marines waded ashore, unopposed. The US was taking the offensive for the first time in the war. A major problem existed in the minds of the Navy, Marine and Army commanders on site - the Yanks weren't ready, were not adequately supplied and had been rushed into the invasion by Admiral Ernest King. Within a week, the Marines had more or less finished 'Henderson Field' and 31 airplanes landed to provide air cover for the expected Japanese attacks. The Japanese sent a major carrier task force south from Truk and the third carrier battle of the war ensued. In the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, the US prevailed. The tentative hold that the Marines had at the 'Canal' was safe until the next attempt to unseat them. Matters escalated as the Japanese attacked daily from the air and slowly built up their troops on the ground. The Americans were reinforced in Sept. by both air and ground forces. A month later, the Japanese made their biggest push of the campaign, sending 2 battleships to bombard the airfield. October and November saw almost daily major naval engagements. Because the US planes from Henderson Field could protect the seaward approaches during the day, the Japanese brought troop and supply ships in at night. Destroyers and cruisers accompanied them to shell the US position. Even though the Americans won the naval battles north of the Canal, the Japanese managed to achieve numerical superiority. By mid-November, they had 30,000 troops on the ground. However, the Imperial navy could not supply their needs and slowly they wasted away to starvation, malaria and beri-beri. In early February, the Japanese were able to evacuate about 10,000 men. The Battle of Guadalcanal* was over.
The next objective was the large Japanese naval base at Rabaul, New Britain. Halsey would head north up the Solomon's; MacArthur would head up the north coast of New Guinea. Neither responded affirmatively to King's suggestion that they bypass Rabaul completely. It took from February, 1943 to February, 1944 for the two forces to advance past Rabaul and occupy the Admiralties. Once they had decimated and eliminated Rabaul as a naval air base, Halsey and MacArthur concurred and bypassed the 100,000 man garrison, letting it sit there unengaged and totally forlorn. By the end of 1943, it was obvious the war in the Pacific was won. The Japanese aviators who had conquered the region were almost all dead and the replacements were not nearly as skilled. Her navy had lost all but a few of its carriers. As Yamamoto had predicted before the war, Japan could not engage in a war of attrition with the larger US. The only question was how long it would take and how many lives would it cost.
Submarines played an integral part in the success of the US Navy. After tossing the rulebook out and taking a more aggressive stance, they sunk more of Japan's naval and merchant shipping than the carriers and the surface fleet. However, they were thwarted by defective torpedoes, a problem that the Ordnance Dept. in Washington refused to address. Toll quotes the leading historian of the sub service stating, "The torpedo scandal of the US submarine force in WWII was one of the worst in any kind of warfare." By the last two years of the war, the torpedo problem was resolved and the submariners swept the seas of all merchant shipping. The home islands were isolated. The price in men and material was heavy - a 22% fatality rate was the highest of any American endeavor in the war.
For the Navy, victory over Japan was not supposed to be a charge north from the Solomons or New Guinea. Every war game for the last forty years had planned on a cross-Pacific attack that captured the Marshals, Gilbert's, and further west, the Mariana's. In 1943, Nimitz began to plan for that which every Navy officer had trained. In an operation called Galvanic, 116 combatant ships sailed west headed for Tarawa#, the Marines first contested landing in a series whose names resound through history. The Marines were slaughtered on the first day on Tarawa. Day 2 "was the proudest and most terrible day in the history of the Marine Corps." By the third day, 4,000 Japanese were dead, at a cost of 1,000 Marines. The US would learn and do better the next time. Kwajalein and Eniwetok fell in early 1944. The Japanese positions in the central Pacific no longer existed. The Gilbert's and Marshals were now forward American bases.
In Tokyo, the strategy (hope) was to bring about a 'decisive fleet battle' in the western Pacific and deliver the coup de grace with the country's two leviathans, the battleships Yamoto and Mushashi. US strategists weighed MacArthur's demands to return to the Philippines as opposed to pursuing Nimitz's central Pacific approach. The decision was made to let both proceed, but it became clear that taking the Mariana's would allow the new B-29 to raid the home islands. Taking Guam, Saipan and Tinian would allow the US to punish the Japanese and close out the war. Chester Nimitz had the inside track. While the Marines battled on Guam, most of the combat ships in the fleet sailed west into the Philippine Sea. Japan's First Mobile Fleet sailed out to meet them. "On any terms other than direct comparison with the resources of the Fifth Fleet, the Japanese fleet was an awesome force. It was the largest concentration of carrier air power the Imperial Navy had ever amassed." The June 19, 1944 Battle of the Philippine Sea has become known as the 'Mariana's Turkey Shoot'. Japan lost 293 planes to an American tally of 25. The next day the Americans further pursued and demolished what was left of the air power of the Japanese Fleet. They fled north having lost over 400 planes and three carriers. Back in the Mariana's, first Saipan and then Guam and Tinian fell. The Japanese fought to the last man^. Saipan was also the first time the US had fought in the Pacific on an island with civilians present. Convinced that they would be tortured and eaten by the Americans, many of the civilians threw themselves off the cliffs of the island. The victories in the Mariana's and the seas to the west were very significant and laid the ground for the recapture of the Philippines and the assault on the home islands. Guam became Pearl Harbor west. Eventually, over 200,000 men were stationed there. Even Nimitz moved CINCPAC HQ to Guam. They were still 1,000 miles from Tokyo with a great deal yet to accomplish. I suspect none of them dreamed it would all be over in a little more than year.
Throughout this book, Toll sets forth a lot of statistics. The only campaign where we were shorthanded was Guadalcanal. Thereafter, the numbers were compelling. We always had more ships, planes, ammunition, men and supplies. During the sail to the Mariana's, a fighter pilot, while observing the fleet in motion, wrote, "I looked down on this power and wondered what kind of fools the Japanese were. They had made one of the greatest miscalculations of all time and boy, were they going to pay for it." By the end of the war, the US had 119 aircraft carriers in the Pacific. We had four when the war began. I was surprised to read throughout the book of Hirohito's involvement. Toll depicts him as very, very involved with all aspects of naval strategy, receiving reports and making demands upon his government. This is a long, long way from the naive marine biologist who is depicted so often as uninvolved and distracted. Another theme throughout this book is inter-service rivalries and even rivalry between the Navy's brown and black-shoe officers. The brown-shoe officers were they aviators; the black were the old guard battleship officers. In addition, the Marine Corps felt that neither set of Admirals understood them. The submariners felt misunderstood. The man who calmed the waters, quieted the tensions and resolved the problems was Nimitz, who clearly is depicted as the Pacific iteration of Ike.
Needless to say, I think it's great book. As the son of an Army sergeant, who I believe saw action in the Marshall's, Gilbert's, Mariana's and Okinowa, and as someone who grew up in the 50's where the 'sneak attack on Pearl Harbor' was a frequent reference, I guess I've always considered the Pacific personal. I suspect I will always find the successes of the 'Greatest Generation' inspiring.
*Time and again throughout the sections on the Canal, the author references Richard Tregaskis of the International News Service and his 1943 classic 'Guadalcanal Diary'. Over 55 years later, I can still see the book in my local Queens Borough Public Library. It had a hard green cover and gold lettering.
#Tarawa, along with Marianas, Iwo Jima and Okinowa are memorialized on the facade of the Navy Marine Corps Stadium at Annapolis.
^A sergeant, Soichi Yokoi, held out in the woods of Guam until 1972.
On the morning of August 7, US Marines waded ashore, unopposed. The US was taking the offensive for the first time in the war. A major problem existed in the minds of the Navy, Marine and Army commanders on site - the Yanks weren't ready, were not adequately supplied and had been rushed into the invasion by Admiral Ernest King. Within a week, the Marines had more or less finished 'Henderson Field' and 31 airplanes landed to provide air cover for the expected Japanese attacks. The Japanese sent a major carrier task force south from Truk and the third carrier battle of the war ensued. In the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, the US prevailed. The tentative hold that the Marines had at the 'Canal' was safe until the next attempt to unseat them. Matters escalated as the Japanese attacked daily from the air and slowly built up their troops on the ground. The Americans were reinforced in Sept. by both air and ground forces. A month later, the Japanese made their biggest push of the campaign, sending 2 battleships to bombard the airfield. October and November saw almost daily major naval engagements. Because the US planes from Henderson Field could protect the seaward approaches during the day, the Japanese brought troop and supply ships in at night. Destroyers and cruisers accompanied them to shell the US position. Even though the Americans won the naval battles north of the Canal, the Japanese managed to achieve numerical superiority. By mid-November, they had 30,000 troops on the ground. However, the Imperial navy could not supply their needs and slowly they wasted away to starvation, malaria and beri-beri. In early February, the Japanese were able to evacuate about 10,000 men. The Battle of Guadalcanal* was over.
The next objective was the large Japanese naval base at Rabaul, New Britain. Halsey would head north up the Solomon's; MacArthur would head up the north coast of New Guinea. Neither responded affirmatively to King's suggestion that they bypass Rabaul completely. It took from February, 1943 to February, 1944 for the two forces to advance past Rabaul and occupy the Admiralties. Once they had decimated and eliminated Rabaul as a naval air base, Halsey and MacArthur concurred and bypassed the 100,000 man garrison, letting it sit there unengaged and totally forlorn. By the end of 1943, it was obvious the war in the Pacific was won. The Japanese aviators who had conquered the region were almost all dead and the replacements were not nearly as skilled. Her navy had lost all but a few of its carriers. As Yamamoto had predicted before the war, Japan could not engage in a war of attrition with the larger US. The only question was how long it would take and how many lives would it cost.
Submarines played an integral part in the success of the US Navy. After tossing the rulebook out and taking a more aggressive stance, they sunk more of Japan's naval and merchant shipping than the carriers and the surface fleet. However, they were thwarted by defective torpedoes, a problem that the Ordnance Dept. in Washington refused to address. Toll quotes the leading historian of the sub service stating, "The torpedo scandal of the US submarine force in WWII was one of the worst in any kind of warfare." By the last two years of the war, the torpedo problem was resolved and the submariners swept the seas of all merchant shipping. The home islands were isolated. The price in men and material was heavy - a 22% fatality rate was the highest of any American endeavor in the war.
For the Navy, victory over Japan was not supposed to be a charge north from the Solomons or New Guinea. Every war game for the last forty years had planned on a cross-Pacific attack that captured the Marshals, Gilbert's, and further west, the Mariana's. In 1943, Nimitz began to plan for that which every Navy officer had trained. In an operation called Galvanic, 116 combatant ships sailed west headed for Tarawa#, the Marines first contested landing in a series whose names resound through history. The Marines were slaughtered on the first day on Tarawa. Day 2 "was the proudest and most terrible day in the history of the Marine Corps." By the third day, 4,000 Japanese were dead, at a cost of 1,000 Marines. The US would learn and do better the next time. Kwajalein and Eniwetok fell in early 1944. The Japanese positions in the central Pacific no longer existed. The Gilbert's and Marshals were now forward American bases.
In Tokyo, the strategy (hope) was to bring about a 'decisive fleet battle' in the western Pacific and deliver the coup de grace with the country's two leviathans, the battleships Yamoto and Mushashi. US strategists weighed MacArthur's demands to return to the Philippines as opposed to pursuing Nimitz's central Pacific approach. The decision was made to let both proceed, but it became clear that taking the Mariana's would allow the new B-29 to raid the home islands. Taking Guam, Saipan and Tinian would allow the US to punish the Japanese and close out the war. Chester Nimitz had the inside track. While the Marines battled on Guam, most of the combat ships in the fleet sailed west into the Philippine Sea. Japan's First Mobile Fleet sailed out to meet them. "On any terms other than direct comparison with the resources of the Fifth Fleet, the Japanese fleet was an awesome force. It was the largest concentration of carrier air power the Imperial Navy had ever amassed." The June 19, 1944 Battle of the Philippine Sea has become known as the 'Mariana's Turkey Shoot'. Japan lost 293 planes to an American tally of 25. The next day the Americans further pursued and demolished what was left of the air power of the Japanese Fleet. They fled north having lost over 400 planes and three carriers. Back in the Mariana's, first Saipan and then Guam and Tinian fell. The Japanese fought to the last man^. Saipan was also the first time the US had fought in the Pacific on an island with civilians present. Convinced that they would be tortured and eaten by the Americans, many of the civilians threw themselves off the cliffs of the island. The victories in the Mariana's and the seas to the west were very significant and laid the ground for the recapture of the Philippines and the assault on the home islands. Guam became Pearl Harbor west. Eventually, over 200,000 men were stationed there. Even Nimitz moved CINCPAC HQ to Guam. They were still 1,000 miles from Tokyo with a great deal yet to accomplish. I suspect none of them dreamed it would all be over in a little more than year.
Throughout this book, Toll sets forth a lot of statistics. The only campaign where we were shorthanded was Guadalcanal. Thereafter, the numbers were compelling. We always had more ships, planes, ammunition, men and supplies. During the sail to the Mariana's, a fighter pilot, while observing the fleet in motion, wrote, "I looked down on this power and wondered what kind of fools the Japanese were. They had made one of the greatest miscalculations of all time and boy, were they going to pay for it." By the end of the war, the US had 119 aircraft carriers in the Pacific. We had four when the war began. I was surprised to read throughout the book of Hirohito's involvement. Toll depicts him as very, very involved with all aspects of naval strategy, receiving reports and making demands upon his government. This is a long, long way from the naive marine biologist who is depicted so often as uninvolved and distracted. Another theme throughout this book is inter-service rivalries and even rivalry between the Navy's brown and black-shoe officers. The brown-shoe officers were they aviators; the black were the old guard battleship officers. In addition, the Marine Corps felt that neither set of Admirals understood them. The submariners felt misunderstood. The man who calmed the waters, quieted the tensions and resolved the problems was Nimitz, who clearly is depicted as the Pacific iteration of Ike.
Needless to say, I think it's great book. As the son of an Army sergeant, who I believe saw action in the Marshall's, Gilbert's, Mariana's and Okinowa, and as someone who grew up in the 50's where the 'sneak attack on Pearl Harbor' was a frequent reference, I guess I've always considered the Pacific personal. I suspect I will always find the successes of the 'Greatest Generation' inspiring.
*Time and again throughout the sections on the Canal, the author references Richard Tregaskis of the International News Service and his 1943 classic 'Guadalcanal Diary'. Over 55 years later, I can still see the book in my local Queens Borough Public Library. It had a hard green cover and gold lettering.
#Tarawa, along with Marianas, Iwo Jima and Okinowa are memorialized on the facade of the Navy Marine Corps Stadium at Annapolis.
^A sergeant, Soichi Yokoi, held out in the woods of Guam until 1972.
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