Back to the Pacific
Wikipedia's featured article today is on the Imperial Japanese Navy. It's not bad, but for a maniacally detailed analysis there is no substitute for combinedfleet.com, which is beyond category in every respect. Their summary page of the Pacific War gives the best overview I've ever seen of the naval war against Japan, along with the ability to drill down to detailed descriptions of all the major battles in the context of the broader campaigns.
It was such a huge war, many major battles are forgotten today. On one particularly surreal night off Guadalcanal in 1943, 24 U.S. and Japanese surface ships engaged in the equivalent of a knife-fight in a phone booth:
"[Callaghan's] attempt to cross the Japanese 'T' instead placed his ships on a collision course with the enemy. By the time fighting commenced at 0148, the range between the leading elements of each force had closed to a ludicrous 1000 yards. The result was a point-blank brawl of monstrous proportions as both formations passed through each other."
Glad I wasn't there...
posted by Anonymous at 9:43 PM
1 Comments:
The most underrated aspect of the naval war in the Pacific were our Fleet Submarines, which destroyed a large majority of all Japanese cargo - and in particular oiler- ships; an island empire beset by submarine destruction of it's economic lifeline, much like England in 1940, but unlike England it couldn't cope. Japan's empire was defeated less by mass bombing raids and naval losses than by the destruction of its oil supply routes, which got so bad that when the huge 20 inch gun battleship Yamato left oits last mission in 1945, it went without the fuel to get back.
In spite of the carrier, the US Fleet submarine was perhaps the most effective American naval asset, destroying Japan's ability to fuel its industrial infrastructure. When US boats finally got reliable torpedos (early 1943!), and without an effective counter, their Radar, Huff-Duff tracking ability , extreme daring and independence and long-range capabilities doomed Japan's industry.
I almost think of the surface actions as elaborate support for the submarine actions. Next time you're by the USS Pampanino, pay your props.
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