Transcript Sea Power and Maritime Affairs

The Philippines
• Initial strike on 8 December
1941 destroys U.S. aircraft
• General Douglas MacArthur
evacuates Manila
–
–
–
Retreats to Bataan Peninsula
and Corregidor Island
12 March - MacArthur
evacuates with family to
Australia under orders from
FDR in a Navy patrol boat
U.S. and Filipino forces
surrender on 6 May 1942 leads to the Bataan Death
March
I SHALL RETURN!
Bataan Death March
Govt. Archives Photo
Govt. Archives Photo
Fleet Admiral
Ernest J. King
• Commander in Chief,
U.S. Fleet (COMINC)
• Chief of Naval
Operations (March
1942)
• Proponent of changing
previously agreed upon
“Germany First” strategy
and moving resources
to the Pacific theatre of
war
Fleet Admiral
Chester W.
Nimitz
• Admiral Chester
W. Nimitz relieves
Kimmel as
Commander in
Chief, U.S. Pacific
Fleet
• Includes North,
Central, and South
Pacific Areas
U.S. Defensive Organization/ Plans
• MacArthur - Commander in Chief Southwest Pacific
Area
–
–
Australia, New Guineau, East Indies, and Philippines
Fleet elements in this zone remained under Nimitz's control
• Controversial command structure
–
No common superior -- two separate wars in the Pacific
• Overwhelming U.S. industrial and logistical superiority
–
Allows divided command until forces converge on
Philippines in 1944
• Post Pearl Harbor Primary Goal : Hold the Line
– Guard lines of communication between Hawaii, Midway and
Australia
– Divert Japanese drive into East Indies
Doolittle Raid on Tokyo- Apr 1942
• Admiral “Bull” Halsey commands TF
16 - Hornet and Enterprise
• Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle
- B-25 “Mitchells”
• Early launch caused by sighting by
Japanese pickets
• Increase in American morale
• Erases Japanese resistance to
Yamamoto’s Midway plan
Battle of the Coral Sea
4-8 May 1942
• Japanese attempt to cut U.S. communications
to Australia
– Japanese sent a 2 carrier strike group into the
Coral Sea from the Eastern Solomons & an
invasion force with an escort carrier Shoho
• Nimitz sent only available carriers, Lexington
& Yorktown to block Japanese advance under
Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher (Task Force 17)
• Pure carrier engagement — first in history –
Ships never saw each other
Battle of the Coral Sea
• Japanese carrier Shoho sunk
– Zuikaku and Shokaku damaged
–
Japanese tactical victory
– Took more kills
– Lexington sunk by torpedo and Yorktown badly
damaged
• U.S. strategic victory
– Japanese advance temporarily halted
– Result the of Battle of the Coral Sea: Yamamoto
now believed that the American fleet had to be
destroyed and pushed ahead his next
offensive…Midway
Japanese Carrier Shokaku