Naval History Test 3

ADM Soraku Yamamoto

Commander and Chief of Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Planned the attack.

ADM Spruance

Commander of the 5th fleet during WW2. Directly involved in the battle of Midway.

Battle of Java Sea

Feb 1942- ABDA force is easily destroyed by the Japanese. Forces a reconsideration of Allied strategy.

Pearl Harbor-The Implications

Two waves of air attacks sink the USS Arizona, California, Oklahoma, and Nevada. The attack also leaves the USS W. Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Tennessee severely damaged. What the Japanese fail to attack is the U.S. oil reserves, submarine base, repair facilities and the carriers that were out to sea at the time. The implication of the attack is that the U.S. finally enters WW2 and declares war against Japan. Due to the tripartite pact Germany also declares war against U.S.

Franklin Roosevelt

U.S. president during WW2, declared war on Japan the day after Pearl Harbor "day which will live in infamy"

Conflicting Plans in Atlantic

US enters the war in DEC 1941. The U.S. wants to take on Germany directly first so that we could move on to the pacific. England wants to focus the war effort in North Africa to avoid the stalemate they had in WW1, where the Soviets want the allies to focus on a western front to alleviate some pressure on their Eastern Front. The final plans ends up being an invasion of Europe from the South at Italy, and West in France while USSR continues to push from the East.

Leyte Gulf 2

25 October 1944 was most violent day in Naval history. 3 separate but strategically linked battles took place within 300 miles of Leyte gulf. Battle of Surigao Strait- 6 battle ships, 8 cruisers and 21 destroyers commanded by RADM Oldendorf sat at the end of the Surigao Strait between Leyte and Dinagat Islands. As the Japs entered the strait Oldendorf launched a furious attack of torpedoes and shells that left the the Japanese southern force with 1 badly damaged destroyer. Battle off Samar-American ships took heavy losses and were outnumbered/surprised by Japanese ships from Kurita's attack force. American aircraft answered the calls for help and sank a few of Kuritas ships. Battle of Cape Engano- Kurita was in retreat from Leyte gulf and was chased off by aircraft that managed to sink all four japanese carriers.

First Moves in the Pacific

After P.H. we start losing Wake Island, the Philippines. We're focused on the Atlantic per our Germany First strategy. The allies pool resources and form ABDA (American, Brit, Dutch, Australian). There's disagreement towards objectives and the ABDA force is destroyed in the Java Sea. Americans take over, our strategy is Philippines first, but theres further disagreement in the high ranks between ADM Nimitz and Gen. McArthur.

Mediterranean Campaign

Allied Naval superiority caused a German surrender of N.Africa because Rommel and his men had no escape route. After this the allies plan an invasion of Sicily and Eisenhower once again is in charge of Operation HUSKY. Landed 3 divisions of 24,000 men on the 3 beaches in Sicily. The 500+ ships repelled 24 nazi air attacks where US Anti Aircraft mistakingly shot down 22 U.S. transport planes during the confusion. Operation AVALANCHE delivered British and American troops into Italy for their final attack. Operation SHINGLE was an allied attempt to leap past the axis fortified gustav line and secure the open road to Rome.

Major Combatants

Allies: U.S., England, France, Russia Axis: Japan, Germany

Leyte Gulf Controversy

Although it was a victory some attribute the battle to have been controversial. The mistakes of the day lied in communication errors partly because of the complicated command structure. Kinkaid assumed that task force 34 was guarding San Bernadino Strait and Halsey assumed that Kinkaid had sufficient resources to guard the landing beaches without help. This confusion helps explain why we suffered such heavy casualties during the Battle Off Samar.

LCDR John C Waldron

American Naval aviator. Lead a squad of torpedo bombers at Midway, every plane was shot down and only one person survived. They successfully distracted the Japanese air patrol guarding the fleet allowing for other air assets to sink the Japanese carrier group at Midway.

Battle of Philippine Sea (Marianas Turkey Shoot)

American pilots downed almost every Japanese aircraft that tried to attack the carriers anchored off the Marianas. As US planes easily defeated the Japanese aviators, American subs sunk 2 carriers. Later that night CAPT Marc Mitscher launched 200 planes that attacked a retreating Japanese fleet sinking 1 carrier and damaging several other ships. Decisive American victory as Japanese naval air power would cease to exist from this point on.

North Africa: TORCH

Americans had reluctance about a North African campaign because they knew it would delay their amphibious assault on Europe. They were uncertain that the Soviets could hold out until then. FDR ended up siding with Churchill due to his persistency and we went with a North Africa campaign. In N. Africa we were up against the vichy french who were the primary defenders. Torch called for British and American troops to land at Oran and Algeria on the Med Coast, While U.S. forces landed in French Morocco from the Atl. Ship guns took out shore batteries and planes from US Aircraft Carriers shot up French planes on the ground. U.S. experienced limited resistance and quickly convinced the Vichy French to lay down their arms and support the allies.

Leyte Gulf 1

As the US charged towards the Philippines, Marines and Army landed on Peleliu under the command of VADM Bull Halsey of the newly re-designated 3rd fleet. Launched 3 prong landings on either side of the island and took massive casualties upon discovering the vast networks of caves on the island that made the Japs invincible to air strikes and naval gunfire. It would serve as a foretaste for Iwo Jima and Okinawa. After Peleliu the combined 3rd (Halsley) and 7th (VADM Kinkaid) fleet moved to Leyte, Philippines where they carried out an amphibious landing. The Japanese really wanted to hold on to the Philippines as it was the reason why they went to war in the first place.

Guadalcanal

August 1942-Feb 1943: We're trying to get the airfield in Guadalcanal. RADM Richmond Turner is in charge. We go ashore with Marines for an amphibious assault. We stopped the Naval bombardment of the island way too soon and the water was very shallow so many LVT's were lost and Marines had to walk through the water to the shore where they were mowed down. The Japanese kept sending in reinforcements to the island by way of the "Tokyo Express". Japanese Naval Reinforcements also destroyed several allied cruisers making the Battle at Salvo Island the worst defeat in American Naval history after Pearl Harbor. Japanese eventually evacuated after they were severely outnumbered by the Americans.

Chester Nimitz

Became CNO in 1945 and was instrumental in the establishment of a Navy nuclear submarine program. Was in over all command of the Navy in the Pacific during WW2. In charge of Central Pacific Islands campaign. Was the US signatory for Japanese surrender.

Evacuation of Dunkirk

British and allied troops were evacuated from Dunkirk Harbor in 1940 when they were cut off and completely surrounded by German troops. They had hoped to rescue 45,000 people but ended up rescuing 338,000.

Arleigh Burke

CNO Involved in cold war nuclear submarine program. Known as the most famous destroyer officer of WW2. Served 3 years as CNO during the cold war.

VADM Nagumo

Carried out the attack and Pearl Harbor based on Yamamoto's instructions.

VADM Charles Momsen

Created a breathing apparatus for sinking submarines called the momsen lung. Served as assistant secnav and upon his departure from the Navy he worked for defense contractors.

German Goals in Atlantic

Cripple allied shipping and to maintain control of the seas via troop supply and movement as well as exhibit air superiority. They achieved this with their subs and luftwaffe (german airforce).

ADM Turner

Didn't believe that Japanese would attack at Pearl Harbor.

American Response to U-boats

Donitz had stationed uboats off the coast of American ports in the Atlantic and to counter their threat Admiral King instituted a convoy system for protecting American merchant vessels. Also, U.S. shipyards could build merchant tonnage faster then Germans could sink them. We were able to reduce the amount of merchant losses but never completely destroy the uboat fleet.

The Marshalls

Feb 1944- Marshall Islands had been in Japanese possessions since 1914. Japanese had a ring of air bases on these islands. Nimitz was determined to apply his lessons learned at Tarawa to the Marshalls. Night time scouts of the beaches by navy frogmen were conducted to avoid losing ships to the coral reefs and naval bombardment was extended. Also ships used signal flags to communicate more effectively. In order to capture Eniwetok Islands we had to destroy the Jap air power from Truk island which we successfully did. We took limited casualties compared to the 9,000 japanese losses. Neutralizing Truk led the Navy-Marine Corps team to be able to bypass the carolines islands altogether and move to the Marianas.

Iwo Jima

Feb-March 1945: Capturing Iwo Jima was strategic because the U.S. had began using the B-29 Superfortress Bomber to launch raids on mainland Japan. The obstacle to these raids were Japanese aircraft that could intercept them from their base in Iwo Jima. Also badly damaged B-29s had no place to land en route back to the Marianas. MGEN Harry Schmidt commanded the amphibious assault teams and the Army Air Force bombed the island for 74 days while Spruance provided Naval gun bombardment for 4 days (proved to be inadequate). The landing troops encountered mortar and artillery from Mt. Suribachi. Marines went into the underground bunkers and used grenades and flamethrowers as their most effective weapons. Americans lost 7,000 men and Japanese lost 21,000. American fire bombers used the island as a launching point to inflict damage and death on Japans civilian population.

Fleet Admiral King

First fleet admiral to hold both CNO and Commander and Chief at the same time.

Gen McArthur

Focused on liberating the Philippines. In charge of South Pacific Command.

Fall of France

France falls to the Germans in 1940. Out of it comes Vichy France which is a puppet regime established by the Germans. The British start seizing the French ships before the axis can get their hands on them.

General Hideki Tojo

General in charge of the Japanese dictatorship at the time.

Karl Donitz

German U-Boat commander in charge of the U-Boat effort during WW2.

Wolfpack Tactics

German U-Boats traveled in wolfpacks. They would first spot the ship, relay its coordinates back to hq, hq would assign a pack to attack, and the U-boats would conduct a coordinated night strike on the ships.

CAPT John Rockefort

Hard worker, took no days off. Trained in the Japanese language. Commanded the strategic intel group in D.C. Excellent cryptologist and tricked the Japanese into giving away their intent to attack Midway by falsifying a report about water issues on the island and eliciting a Japanese response.

Battle of Britain

Hitler fresh off a victory over France wants to move on to England. Decides that he must have control of the air first so he utilizes the German Air Force. The British in order to counter the attack move their ships from Scapa Flow and luckily posses advanced warning technology such as the radar. British use their anti air guns to shoot down many German planes in addition to German planes bombing cities and not airfields which distracts them from the critical British resources. Eventually they divert their attention away from England to USSR and defending their men in North Africa.

William "Bull" Halsley

In charge of the doolittle raid. Aggressive commander. Commanded carrier division 2, in charge of the U.S.S. Enterprise. Missed the battle of Midway due to a skin rash. Once the U.S. found the Japanese fleet he sent the entire U.S. fleet to destroy it. Fourth and final person to hold the rank of Fleet Admiral. Also naval aviator and proponent of air craft carrier war fare.

Pearl Harbor-The Attack

Japanese decide to launch an attack on Pearl Harbor Hawaii. This is after Gen. Tojo takes over the Japanese gov't. The idea is conceived by ADM Yamamoto, and carried out by VADM Nagumo. Their plan was to use a combo of six carriers and their air assets, diplomatic deception, radio silence and stormy weather. Navy issued a war warning to the pacific fleet but even then they were not expecting the attack on Pearl Harbor. The week before they beefed up harbor defenses and the night before the attack (Dec 6) the U.S. sunk a midget japanese sub that failed to get relayed up the chain of command. Attack was launched on a Sunday, Radar failed to detect the attack because it was happening at the same time when a fleet of B-17 Bombers was expected to arrive in Hawaii from California. They attack in 2 waves and catch us completely off guard.

Okinawa

Japs were very desperate now as we were closing in on their mainland. Lacking experienced pilots and fuel they relied on Kamikaze pilots (suicide pilots). They hurled some 2,000 kamikaze planes into the landing force in hopes of dettering the American fleet. Amphibious assaulters experienced surprisingly little resistance and Americans were able to secure two airfields in the first day. The reason was because the 100,000 Jap defenders had entrenched into caves and tunnels in the southern quarter of the island. First kamikaze attack took place on 6 April nearly 700 planes (half of them kamikazes) struck the US fleet near okinawa. Sank 6 ships and damaged 17 others. US managed to sink the jap super battleship Yamato. Altogether the Japs in their subsequent kamikaze attacks sunk 34 ships and damaged 368 others. Nearly 5000 sailors killed and another 5000 wounded. On the island the US lost 7,600 men and 41,000 injured while the Japanese lost 80,000 men making it the bloodiest battle of the Pacific.

Operation Cartwheel

July-Nov 1943: The U.S. began an advancement towards Rabaul (New Guinea). Broken into several naval engagements. The Battle of Kula Gulf-Japanese force of 10 destroyers against Allied's 3 light cruisers and four destroyers. Allies sank one Jap destroyer and ran the other aground and the Japs claimed 1 allied cruiser. Battle of Kolombangara- Allies had 3 cruisers and 10 destroyers. Japs had 1 cruiser, 5 destroyers and 4 transports. Allies sank the 1 cruiser while the japs sank the 3 cruisers and 1 destroyer. Battle of Vella Gulf- 6 Allied destroyers using radar intercepted 4 jap destroyers. Allies destroyed 3/4. Due to Naval victories the amphibious assaulters skipped over a few islands that were effectively cut off by the naval victories. Rabaul wasn't even invaded after it was rendered useless due to Naval victories in the region.

Battle of Midway

June 1942- The Japanese objective is to destroy the remaining U.S. fleet in the pacific. The Americans want to defend Midway Island and surprise the Japanese before they could find us. The outcome of the battle is that the U.S. loses one carrier and the Japanese lose 4/6 carriers and are put on the defensive for the rest of the war. Heroism of LCDR John Waldron is remembered here for distracting the Japanese Air Patrol long enough for McCulsky and his dive bombers to swoop in and destroy the Japanese carriers whose decks were strewn with ordinance and fuel hoses.

Marianas Islands

June 1944-Americans leaped from the Marshalls to the Marianas bypassing the Carolines. Marianas were more than 1000 miles from the nearest allied base. Required a huge fleet of 700 plus ships. Only 4/15 islands had military significance: Saipan, Tinian, Rota and Guam. Saipan was primary US target and had significant Japanese population. Japanese relied on the army to defend these islands as the navy was running low on fuel. Japanese fueled the ships they did send with unprocessed crude oil (dangerous). Also the Japanese lacked experienced Naval aviators as most of them had been killed already.

Battle of Coral Sea

May 1942- The U.S. loses its carrier Lexington and severely damages the carrier Yorktown. The Japanese lose one carrier and start planning for a major fleet-fleet battle. The Japanese objective was to secure New Guinea in preparation of their invasion of Australia. The U.S. objective was to stop them.

Lt General Chesty Puller

Most decorated Marine in history

Gilberts (Tarawa)

Nov 1943- Was a "warm up" for the upcoming amphib assaults on the Marshall Islands. Lead by Nimitz. The Japanese really beefed up their defenses on Beti Island (Tarawa). Major obstacle to amphib assault was the coral reef surrounding the island. Many LVTs sank and men had to wade to shore. Japanese fought to the last man and Americans took many casualties due to American gunfire from the sea ceasing too early as well as the grounded landing craft. This was the first time Americans had experienced such ruthless resistance to their amphibious assaults in the Pacific theatre.

Normandy

Operation NEPTUNE is the Naval component of the landings on June 6 1944 (D-day). Germans know that it is coming but are not sure when. It involved over 4,000 ships, 714,000 men, 111,000 vehicles. Involved paratroopers, aerial bombing, surface gunfire and minesweeping of the British Channel. The fleet met in area Zebra and amassed there. General Eisenhower is the overall commander with Adm Ramsay (British Navy). U.S. lands at Utah, Omaha where they experienced the brunt of the fighting and the Canadians and British took Gold, Juno and Sword.

U.S. Goals in Atlantic

Preserve control of the seas and prevent the Germany Navy from openly operating in the Atlantic ocean. Also move supplies and troops safely between US and UK. Achieved this by laying mines, convoy systems and using the royal air force.

German U-boat Campaign

Primarily commanded by Karl Donitz who contrived the tonnage strategy used by the Germans. Was aimed at destroying the maximum amount of allied gross tonnage. Prime hunting grounds were off the coast of Ireland where German uboats would target merchant ships and sink them. Nearly crippled the British Economy if it weren't for American intervention.

John Lejeune

Saw combat in the Spanish American War as well as WW1. Naval academy graduate. Believed in interservice cooperation between USMC and Navy. Commandant from 1920-1929. After retiring as commandant he served as Superintendent of VMI.

General Dwight D Eisenhower

Supreme allied commander in Europe during WW2. Over saw the landings during Normandy and Operation TORCH.

The Ultra

The British were able to crack the German communications using this device which allowed for allied shipping to learn where the U-Boats were heading so that the allied ships could avoid the area and outsmart the U-boats.

Catalysts for War in Pacific

The French are defeated in South East Asia as the Japanese take over indo-china. Japan joins tripartite pact with Germany and Italy. U.S. begins to impose oil and steel sanctions on the Japanese.. U.S. at this time was one of the biggest suppliers of oil so the Japanese had no place else to turn to for fuel. In order to get more oil they would have to invade the dutch east indies but the U.S. controlled Philippines stands in the way.

Warnings of Impending War with Germany

The Germans began to quickly develop their military causing concern throughout Europe and the Western World. Hitler came to power and we were concerned by his party's extremist views and emphasis on expansion. Once Nazi Germany began expanding to Poland, Czechoslovakia, Rhineland then their intentions became clear. The U.S. however remained neutral in the conflict doing our best to stay out of it, yet still aiding our allies in England with ships through the lend-lease act.

Common Themes of Pacific Battles

The Japanese tactics and plans were needlessly over complicated. Code-breaking technology alerted both sides of incoming attacks in many instances. The fateful decisions by aircraft carrier commanders often made a big difference in the outcome of battles and the overall war.

Split Command

The split command between ADM Nimitz and Gen. McArthur was a complete failure. Detrimental to the overall war effort. McArthur is given command of W. Pacific, Nimitz is in charge of the Central Pacific Islands. The 2 separate commands wasted alot of resources and duplicated actions thus wasting time. McArthur's plan was Australia, New Guinea, and Philippines where Nimitz plan was Marshalls, Carolines, Marianas, Philippines. Modified plan orange and emphasis on Amphibious Assaults.

Lend-Lease Act

We would effectively allow the allies to "borrow" supplies such as tanks, ships, equipment with the hope that they would return them post war. Very little was returnable after war for obvious reasons.

Smaller Atlantic Skirmishes

Were no major memorable battles like Jutland in World War 1.. A few small skirmishes such as the Bismark, HMS Hood, HMS Prince of Wales. Regular aircraft engagements as well.