Battleships and heavy cruisers, the backbone of the world’s major navies before 1941, served as flagships, command and control ships or gunnery support platforms. Smaller escort, or “jeep,” carriers provided additional aircraft for close-air support for the invasion forces and replacement crews and aircraft for the larger fleet carriers.

The Japanese defenders, left on these isolated, bypassed islands, would eventually weaken from starvation and disease.ĭuring these naval operations, aircraft carriers provided the major offensive firepower for the American invasion fleets as they moved westward.

This island-hopping strategy had three major goals: dislodge the enemy forces in some places, neutralize them in more heavily defended areas and secure airfields and supply bases as the launching points for future attacks on less defended islands. Senior Allied leaders knew that they did not have the manpower or war materiel to invade every Japanese-held island, so they adopted an “island-hopping” strategy-attacking selected islands and bypassing major strongholds. Throughout the long Allied counterattack across the Pacific, the Americans used Navy task forces, built around aircraft carriers, from the central Pacific across the western Pacific in amphibious invasions of selected Japanese-held islands.

naval aviation, the Americans invaded Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands and launched attacks along the northern coast of New Guinea. Although the war in the Pacific and East Asia had gone badly for the Allies during the six months after the Japanese attack on Allied possessions in early December 1941, the tide of war had turned in favor of the Allies over the first six months of 1942.įollowing the American naval victories at Coral Sea (May 4-8) and Midway (June 4-7), both achieved by U.S.

Us navy world war ii pacific theater