Aerial Warfare: A Very Short Introduction by Frank Ledwidge

Author:Frank Ledwidge [Ledwidge, Frank]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780192526359
Google: DcjXDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Published: 2020-03-26T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

The Second World War: the air war in the Pacific

On 7 December 1941, Japan’s extensive naval preparations, which included a study of the Royal Navy’s attack on Taranto, finally bore fruit. Or so it seemed. A fleet of 400 aircraft, flown by a highly trained elite corps of naval aircrew launched from four aircraft carriers, sank six US battleships at anchor in their Pearl Harbor base. At that stage in the war, only Japan was capable of coordinating an attack from multiple aircraft carriers, a difficult and complex task. Unfortunately for the Japanese, the key target, three fleet aircraft carriers (USS Lexington, USS Saratoga, and USS Enterprise), were on exercises at sea.

By way of retaliation for Pearl Harbor, US forces executed a swashbuckling response. On 18 April sixteen twin-engined B-25 Mitchell bombers, under the command of Colonel Jimmy Doolittle, were launched from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet stationed 650 miles off the east coast of Japan. The aircraft made their way to several cities at low level, dropped some bombs and flew on to China (one aircraft landed in the Soviet Union) where most of the aircrew were captured. Due to the distances involved it was not possible for the aircraft to return to their carrier base; indeed, recovery to the ship of such relatively large aircraft would have been impossible anyway. The message the raid sent was clear and unequivocal; the Japanese islands were not safe. The raid was deeply shocking for Japanese commanders and a great propaganda coup for the Americans. Remarkably, although most were captured, seventy-one of the eighty aircrew on board the B-25s survived the war.

In early 1942, a series of Japanese successes captured extensive territory in the west and south Pacific. The Malayan Peninsula was overrun, two British battleships were sunk at sea by aircraft, and then the great fortress of Singapore itself was taken in February 1942, arguably the greatest defeat in British military history. The British imperial colony of Burma was taken by May of 1942, and India itself was threatened. Japanese forces swept away US possessions in the Philippines and invaded New Guinea. At one point Australia itself seemed to be at risk of invasion, and indeed the city of Darwin was bombed in February 1942. US forces recovered quickly. At the Battle of the Coral Sea (May 1942), US Navy aircraft sank one Japanese carrier and seriously damaged another for the loss of one of their own. Because the attacks were delivered entirely from the air this was the first ever battle at sea in which neither fleet saw the other.

The first full-scale clash of carrier fleets, the Battle of Midway (June 1942), was a disaster for Japan. The intention was to take the Midway Island group and extend Japan’s defensive perimeter, an attractive idea after James Doolittle’s raid. Four of their superb fleet carriers were sunk against one American equivalent, the USS Yorktown. Whilst Japan could ill afford the loss of so many ships, of equal importance was the loss of so many trained and experienced aircrew.

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