#2 Chester W. Nimitz,

Nimitz was the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet during World War II. One of the navy’s foremost administrators and strategists, he commanded all land and sea forces in the central Pacific area.

A graduate (1905) of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Nimitz served in World War I as chief of staff to the commander of the U.S. Atlantic submarine force, a tour of duty that convinced him of the effectiveness of submarine warfare.

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (December 1941), Nimitz was elevated to commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet, a command that brought both land and sea forces under his authority. Using the Navy and the Marines, Nimitz executed the island hopping strategy across the Central Pacific. By June 1942 he had proudly announced the decisive victory at the Battle of Midway and the Coral Sea, where enemy losses were 10 times greater than those of the United States at Pearl Harbor. In succeeding years, the historic battles of the Solomon Islands (1942–43), the Gilbert Islands (1943), the Marshalls, Marianas, Palaus, and Philippines (1944), and Iwo Jima and Okinawa (1945) were fought under his direction.

The Japanese capitulation was signed aboard his flagship, the USS “Missouri,” in Tokyo Bay on Sept. 2, 1945. In December 1944 Nimitz had been promoted to the Navy’s newest and highest rank—that of fleet admiral.

#3: Douglas MacArthur:

MacArthur was the Commander of Allied forces in the Southwest Pacific during WWII.

Born into a military family on January 26, 1880, Douglas MacArthur would follow in the

footsteps of his father, Arthur MacArthur, Jr. He attended the US Military Academy at

West Point, graduating in 1903 at the top of his class. During WWI, MacArthur fought

on the Western front in France, where he commanded a brigade division during the

Meuse-Argonne campaign. During his WWI service he was promoted to brigadier

general.

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, MacArthur commanded the

defense of the Philippines until Mar., 1942, when, under the orders of President

Roosevelt, he left for Australia to take command of Allied forces in the Southwest

Pacific. Despite being forced to leave the island, MacArthur took a vow, “I shall

return.” Using the forces of the United States Army, he launched the New Guinea

campaign and later (Oct., 1944–July, 1945) directed the campaigns that led to the

liberation of the Philippines. He was promoted (Dec., 1944) to the new rank of general

of the army (five-star general). MacArthur accepted the surrender of Japan on the

U.S.S. Missouri on Sept. 2, 1945.

#4 GuadalCanal- August 7th, 1942

American military planners sought to capitalize on the victory at Midway by going on

the offensive in the Southwest Pacific. The goal of the battle was to gain possession of

Guadalcanal air base to protect Australia. On August 7 the 1st Marine Division landed

on the north side of Guadalcanal and, encountering very little resistance, captured the

airbase that the Japanese had been building there.

The campaign for Guadalcanal, however, had just begun, and would continue through

the rest of the year. It involved battles fought on land, sea, and air, as both sides

sought to reinforce and supply their troops on the island. Eventually, though, the

Americans succeeded in cutting off all sources of supply to the Japanese on

Guadalcanal, so that by the end of November they were facing starvation. Realizing

that the situation was hopeless, the Japanese decided to evacuate the island, and they

did so under cover of darkness at the beginning of February. The United States had

lost 1,600 killed and 4,700 wounded in the struggle for Guadalcanal, but these

casualties paled before those of the Japanese—nearly 24,000 dead, from battle,

disease, or starvation.

A MARINE DIARY: MY EXPERIENCES ON GUADALCANAL By J. R. Garrett

August 8, 1942

Hauled ammunition from battery to ammo dump and had an air raid at noon. The USS

Elliot, a Marine Transport, was hit by suicide dive bomber. It was very damaged and

was beached to keep it from sinking in the harbor. A destroyer was damaged also.

There was one Jap plane and prisoners taken during the battle. Wild shooting during

the night.

#5 Saipan: June 15th, 1944

US Admiral Nimitz’s offensive through the Central Pacific continued west toward

Saipan in the Mariana Islands. The purpose of the battle was to control Saipan and set

up a major airbase to stage air raids on Japanese cities. On June 11 aircraft from

Nimitz’s carriers began to pound Saipan, and four days later two divisions of U.S.

Marines stormed the island. By the end of the first day 20,000 men had landed, to face

a Japanese garrison of 32,000. Two days later the U.S. presence was strengthened by

the arrival of the 27 th Infantry Division.

Progress on Saipan was slow at first. Nevertheless, by June 25 Mount Tapotchau, the

highest point on the island, was in Allied hands, making further Japanese resistance

difficult. On August 7 the defenders launched a final suicide attack on the Americans,

after which the island was fully secured. The Japanese lost more than 26,000 men,

while American casualties exceeded 16,500.

“A first lieutenant in the 3d Battalion, 24th Marines, John C. Chapin, later remembered

vividly the extraordinary scene on the beach when he came ashore on Saipan:

“All around us was the chaotic debris of bitter combat: Jap and Marine bodies lying in

mangled and grotesque positions; blasted and burnt-out pillboxes; the burning wrecks

of LVTs that had been knocked out by Jap high velocity fire; the acrid smell of high

explosives; the shattered trees; and the churned-up sand littered with discarded

equipment.”

#6 The Battle of the Philippine Sea: June 19 1944

The Japanese attacked the American fleet to protect their holdings in the Philippines and Mariana Islands. Therefore just as the Americans began their bombardment of Saipan, the bulk of the Japanese battle fleet sailed from the Philippines toward the Marianas. By this time, however, U.S. naval superiority in the Pacific was nothing short of overwhelming, and the American fleet in the Marianas consisted of fifteen carriers, seven battleships, and 21 cruisers.

On the 19th, the Japanese launched a series of four air strikes against the U.S. carrier force, but every plane was intercepted and shot down, while two of the Japanese carriers were sunk by American

submarines. The following day U.S. aircraft spotted the remaining Japanese carriers, sinking one more and forcing the rest to withdraw. The victory was so lopsided—nearly 400 Japanese aircraft and pilots lost, compared to fewer than 30 American—that U.S. airmen began calling the engagement “The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot.”

Ray Pomeroy US Navy

“There were more than 100 torpedoes fired from our fleet toward the Japanese fleet. During the battle two of their battleships blew up,” he said. “After our torpedo run all our cruisers were in a semi-circle firing their six and eight inch guns at the Japanese. When the cruisers got the range you could see their shells flying through the air and landing smack on target.

“Behind the cruisers were six American battleships, some of whom we recovered from Pearl Harbor,” the old salt said with satisfaction.

By the time the shooting ceased the Japanese had suffered a resounding defeat at the Surigao Strait. What was left of the emperor’s fleet retreated toward Japan and safer waters. The American amphibious landing on Leyte was saved from Japanese destruction.

#7 The Philippines: - October 1944-January 1945

After securing New Zealand, MacArthur’s next target was the Philippine Islands, from which U.S. forces—as well as MacArthur himself—had been driven two and a half years earlier. The purpose of regaining the Philippines was to establish a staging area for what was anticipated as the final battle in the Pacific—an invasion of Japan.

MacArthur’s plan was to land his troops on Leyte, followed by an invasion of the main island of Luzon. Air attacks on the Philippines began on October 12, and the invasion force sailed from Hollandia two days later. The first landings on Leyte took place on the 20th, and included MacArthur himself,

dramatically illustrating that he had fulfilled the promise he had made in 1942, “I shall return.” The Japanese garrison on Leyte was made up almost entirely of inexperienced draftees; nevertheless they put up a much tougher fight than MacArthur had expected, and the island was not cleared of enemy troops until late December.

The unexpectedly stiff resistance encountered by U.S. troops on Leyte caused MacArthur to push back his planned invasion of Luzon to early January 1945. The first landings on Luzon occurred at Lingayen Gulf, on the northwest side of the island, and additional landings took place in the following weeks at various locations along the western and southern coasts. On March 3 Manila, the Philippine capital, was liberated in an operation that cost 6,500 American casualties—but which also saw the deaths of 100,000 Filipinos, many of them civilians slaughtered by the Japanese.

Combat in the Philippines continued until the end of the war; however, by the end of March Luzon was clearly in Allied hands, and attention shifted to operations further north—and closer to Japan.

#8 The Battle of Leyte Gulf- October 23 1944

The commander of the Japanese fleet, Admiral Toyoda Some, went on the attack to trap the Americans between two groups of battleships and cruisers. Unfortunately for Toyoda, the plan started to go wrong almost immediately. In a whole series of engagements in and around the Gulf of Leyte the Japanese Navy was crippled, losing no less than three battleships, six cruisers, and all four of the carriers. The Americans suffered the loss of one large and two smaller escort carriers.

The Battle of Leyte Gulf was the largest naval battle in history, and marked the last major effort on the part of the Japanese Navy to affect the course of the war. However, it also saw the first use of a horrific

new weapon—the Kamikaze (Japanese for “divine wind”), planes packed with explosives and flown by pilots who were trained to crash them into enemy ships.

Recollections of LT Walter B. Burwell, MC, USNR, a medical officer on USS Suwannee (CVE-27)

Shortly thereafter, we were hit by the first Kamikaze. Our sister ship, the [escort aircraft carrier] Santee (CVE-29), was actually hit first, but 19 minutes later another Kamikaze managed to get through all the antiaircraft fire and crash into our flight deck about amidships and penetrate to the main deck. This attack did not do nearly as much damage as the second attack the next day.

I was asleep when the second attack occurred. The thing that woke me up was the sound of our antiaircraft guns going off. When I heard the guns, I jumped up and started for the dressing station. Just as I got to the doorway there was a terrific explosion and we lost our lights. I went into the dressing station and helped our corpsmen pull some of the wounded out from under wreckage when there was a second explosion. That one shattered all the bulkheads and broke water mains.

#9 Iwo Jima: February 19th 1945

Allied military planners, namely Admiral Nimitz, attacked Iwo Jima to gain control of

an island even closer to Japan; one that was within range for fighters to accompany the

bombers. The Japanese, anticipating that Iwo Jima would be a target, had begun

reinforcing and fortifying the island in mid-1944, so that by the beginning of 1945 it

held 21,000 Japanese soldiers and was honeycombed with pillboxes and gun

emplacements connected by underground passages.

Naval and air bombardment of Iwo Jima began in the final weeks of 1944, but the

Marine landings did not begin until February 19. The invaders met fierce resistance,

including Kamikaze attacks that sunk one U.S. aircraft carrier and damaged another.

However, four days afterward American soldiers captured Mount Suribachi, the

highest point on the island, which became the scene for one of the most famous

photographs of the war. Japanese resistance on the island continued through March in

what would end up being the costliest battle of the war thus far; there were 25,000

U.S. casualties, including nearly 7,000 dead. Fewer than 1,100 of the Japanese

garrison survived; the final two did not lay down their arms until 1951—six years after

the war ended.

#10 Okinawa: April 1st, 1945

With the northern Philippines safely in Allied hands, and Iwo Jima available as a base

for fighter escorts for bombing raids, Okinawa remained as the last stepping-stone in

Admiral Nimitz plan for the anticipated invasion of the Japanese home island.

However, the Japanese had anticipated that Okinawa would be a target, and installed a

garrison of 80,000 men for the island’s defense.

Marine landings began on April 1, but since the Japanese commander decided not to

fight on the beaches, 50,000 U.S. soldiers were on shore by the end of the day. The

real problems began a few days later, when the invasion fleet was subjected to

withering Kamikaze attacks that damaged twenty-five ships and sank three others.

Meanwhile a powerful series of fortifications, bad weather, and dogged resistance on

the part of the Japanese, slowed the land offensive to a crawl. It took more than two

and a half months to pacify the island, but in mid-May some of the defenders began

surrendering voluntarily. Unlike previous instances, they were not fighting to the last

man—a sure sign that Japanese morale was fading. Nevertheless, for the United States

it was the costliest operation of the war, with American forces suffering nearly 50,000

casualties. Japanese losses, both civilian and military, were more than twice that

figure.

OKINAWA DIARY

by Ray Boffardi

May 24 – The Japs pulled their heaviest air raids thus far. We teamed up with 4 other

APD’s so as to have a greater concentration of firepower. Four Jap planes came down

in flames. Aside fram these, some 16 others were ‘splashed’. They came in all night.

They managed to score a few hits, but they certainly paid for it in planes. The Mighty B

came out undamaged. We stood at our battle stations for about 8.30 hours.