Pacific Theater
Death of the Super Battleship Yamato and Musashi
By Herb KugelSpecial Sea Attack Force (SSAF) was an ordinary-sounding name for the pitifully tiny remnant of what was once the mighty Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). Read more
Pacific Theater
The Pacific Theater during World War II is generally regarded as the area of military confrontation between the Allied powers and Imperial Japan. The Pacific Theater consists of the entire operational expanse of the war from the Aleutian Islands in the north to Australia in the south, including island chains such as the Solomons, Gilberts, Marshalls, and Marianas. The China-Burma-India (CBI) Theater is also considered a major component of the Pacific Theater.
Pacific Theater
A Company K in the Pacific: From Guadalcanal to Peleliu
By Jason AbadyIn April 1942, a group of young Marines, having recently graduated from Officers Candidate School, arrived at New River, North Carolina, a sprawling tent city that stretched over a vast area and would eventually become known as Camp Lejeune. Read more
Pacific Theater
The OSS and the Fourth Dimension of Warfare
By Bob BerginMajor General John K. Singlaub was a young airborne lieutenant when he took up an offer from the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) to become engaged in “hazardous duty behind enemy lines.” Read more
Pacific Theater
Leonard J. Thom: JFK’s XO on PT-109
By Michael J. BellThe name Leonard Jay Thom may not mean anything to a great many people today, and that is unfortunate. Read more
Pacific Theater
Pearl Harbor: The Sleeping Giant Awoken
By Flint WhitlockIt was, as the phrase goes, another perfect day in paradise. As the sun rose above the Pacific in the clear, cloudless sky east of the Hawaiian Islands, on December 7, 1941, the giant U.S. Read more
Pacific Theater
Japanese Attack on the Philippines: The “Other” Pearl Harbor
By Sam McGowanWhile the surprise Japanese attacks against U.S. military bases in the Hawaiian Islands on December 7, 1941, are certainly the best-known aspect of the opening of hostilities between the two aLess well known today were the Japanese attacks on Clark Field and Iba Field on the opening day of hostilities in the Philippines. Read more
Pacific Theater
A Navy Chaplain on Iwo Jima: Doing God’s Work in Hell
By Reverend E. Gage HotalingBACKSTORY: The Reverend E. Gage Hotaling, the son of a Baptist minister, was born in Wellsville, New York, on January 21, 1916. Read more
Pacific Theater
Helldiver Lieutenant Klenk
By Robert F. DorrLieutenant William A. “Bill” Klenk, piloting a Curtiss SB2C-3 Helldiver, bristled at the “clawing, miserable weather,” with inverted pyramids of cloud hanging from a low ceiling and gray murk everywhere. Read more
Pacific Theater
Oahu’s Museums and Memorials
By Flint WhitlockThere are few places on earth that have as many World War II museums, memorials, and monuments located in such a small area as the island of Oahu. Read more
Pacific Theater
4 Unsolved Mysteries of the Jimmy Doolittle Raid on Tokyo
By Susan ZimmermanApril 18, 1942, will forever live in American military glory as the date of the Jimmy Doolittle Raid on Tokyo––a gutsy, never-before-attempted combat mission to fly North American B-25 Mitchell bombers off the deck of an aircraft carrier and attack an enemy capital. Read more
Pacific Theater
The Yorktown Diary of Ed Reynolds
By Pat ReynoldsSuppose you found a magic door that opened onto some of the most crucial battles fought in the Pacific during World War II? Read more
Pacific Theater
From the Philippines to Borneo: A PT Boat Skipper’s Life
By John NieselWhen the four members of the Japanese surrender delegation climbed aboard the deck of PT-375 on September 8, 1945, the boat’s skipper, Lieutenant Henry “Hank” Blake, directed the men to an open area on the forward deck where the Japanese could be closely watched for any signs of treachery. Read more
Pacific Theater
Doughboy White: The Lost Battalion of Leyte
By Nathan N. PreferOn October 20, 1944, General Douglas MacArthur redeemed his personal pledge to the people of the Philippines. Read more
Pacific Theater
Pathfinder Fire Storm: the B-29s Over Tokyo That Helped End the War
By Robert F. DorrMajor Sam P. Bakshas woke up that morning with the secrets in his head. He was one of the men flying B-29 Superfortress bombers from three Pacific islands—Guam, Saipan, and Tinian. Read more
Pacific Theater
Marine Air Power in the Philippines
By Eric HammelAfter the Japanese stopped resisting in the skies over Rabaul and pulled their aircraft out of the Solomons and Bismarcks battle area in mid-February 1944, it began to appear that U.S. Read more
Pacific Theater
Kiwis Over the Pacific: The RNZAF in World War II
By Allyn VannoyDuring early World War II operations in the Pacific, Geoff Fisken would become one of the most outstanding pilots of the RNZAF—the Royal New Zealand Air Force. Read more
Pacific Theater
Shootout in the “Slingshot”: First Day of the Guadalcanal Campaign
By John J. DomagalskiThe fading daylight of August 6, 1942, found the American heavy cruisers Astoria and Chicago as part of Task Force 61, under the command of Vice Admiral Jack Fletcher, steaming toward the South Pacific island of Guadalcanal. Read more
Pacific Theater
Voices of the Axis: The Radio Personalities of Fascist Propaganda
By Chuck LyonsMildred “Midge” Gillars was born in Portland, Maine, took drama lessons in New York City, appeared in vaudeville, worked as an artist’s model in Paris and a dressmaker’s assistant in Algiers, and taught English at the Berlitz School in Berlin before—motivated by love and fear—she became the notorious “Axis Sally,” one of the Nazis’ leading radio propagandists. Read more
Pacific Theater
Holding New Guinea: A First Defeat For Japan’s Land Forces
By John BrownOne blazing hot day in mid-January 1942, Cornelius “Con” Page, an Australian plantation manager and coastwatcher on Tabar Island 20 miles north of New Ireland reported on his radio a Japanese aircraft passing Tabar and heading for Rabaul on the Australian-administered island of New Britain. Read more
Pacific Theater
Liberating Guam
By David H. LippmanAbove all, the island was defendable. From Ritidian Point in the north to the extreme southern coastline, Guam is 34 miles long, made in an irregular shape covering 228 square miles, the largest of all Pacific islands between Japan and New Guinea. Read more
