World War II by Stephen W. Sears

Author:Stephen W. Sears [Stephen W. Sears]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History/Military/World War II
ISBN: 9781612308524
Publisher: New Word City, Inc.
Published: 2015-03-16T04:00:00+00:00

The aircraft carrier Taiho was the pride and joy of the workmen at the Kawasaki Dockyard near Tokyo. Commissioned in March 1944, the 33,000-ton Taiho was designed to be the deadliest fighting ship in the Imperial Japanese Navy. Like American Essex-class carriers, she had profited from wartime lessons: a reinforced hull to withstand torpedo damage, very heavy antiaircraft protection, and a flight deck armored with nearly four inches of steel to shrug off bomb hits.

The Taiho was also equipped with new planes, as were most of Japan’s carriers by 1944. There was a faster, more heavily armed version of the Zero; a new type of torpedo bomber, the Jill, faster and longer ranged than the old Kate; and a dive bomber, called the Judy by the Americans, that was a great improvement over the Val. All in all, the Taiho was the equal of the newest American carriers, but she was the only one of her class. In March 1944, the U.S. Pacific Fleet could send into action seven Essex-class flattops.

Such odds did not greatly discourage Japan’s warlords. Remembering all too well that at Midway the underdog had won, they fell that their re-equipped carrier force, fighting close to home, was ready for one mighty naval battle, a “Japanese Midway,” to pull victory out of deepening defeat. This, at any rate, was the hope of Admiral Soemu Toyoda, who became the Imperial Navy’s new commander in chief soon after the Taiho was commissioned. For the first time since the Guadalcanal campaign, there was the definite prospect of a carrier battle. It remained only for the Americans to make the first move.

The U.S. high command was as eager for a showdown battle as Japan’s warlords. One goal of Admiral Nimitz’s Central Pacific offensive, in fact, was to lure the Japanese Navy out of hiding. But it took a good deal of effort by Admiral King in Washington before Nimitz’s next objective was approved by the war planners. General MacArthur argued that all forces in the Pacific should be thrown into his New Guinea-Philippines line of advance. Admiral King argued that the conquest of the Mariana Islands, some 1,000 miles west of the Marshalls, would yield far greater dividends. Tokyo itself was only 1,500 miles to the north, within range of the new Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers then rolling off American production lines. B-29s flying from the Marianas, King said, could bring devastation to Japan’s home islands far more quickly than anything MacArthur might do in the South Pacific. King won his point, just as he had won his fight to invade Guadalcanal, and in March 1944, orders went out for the capture of the Marianas. The invasion date was set for mid-June.

While the men and equipment needed for an amphibious operation were assembled, Admiral Nimitz exercised his carriers by lending General MacArthur a hand in New Guinea. Fast-moving carrier task forces struck at the Palau and Caroline islands (including a second devastating raid on Truk), destroying hundreds of Japanese planes scheduled for the defense of New Guinea.

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