Pacific Theater
Iceberg in the Pacific
By Michael E. HaskewThe curious coincidence was obvious to everyone. April 1, 1945, was both Easter Sunday and April Fool’s Day. 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
Japan’s Kamikaze Pilots Hit Hundreds of Ships
By Nathan N. PreferThe nation of Japan was hopeless before the invading force. They were outnumbered, and the enemy was about to land on the shores of the Imperial Home Islands. Read more
Pacific Theater
American Women Answered the Call of Duty
By Susan ZimmermanOn December 7, 1941, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. The next day, the United States declared war on the Empire of Japan, and the following day President Franklin D. Read more
Pacific Theater
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress was Outdated When WWII Began
By Sam McGowanIn the minds of many military enthusiasts, there was only one bomber in the United States inventory during World War II. Read more
Pacific Theater
The Japanese Surrender at Tokyo Bay
By Michael D. HullAfter six years of global destruction, suffering, and death, World War II was almost over in the Spring of 1945. Read more
Pacific Theater
Savage Fight for Hill 700 on Bougainville
By Nathan N. PreferThe campaign to reduce the importance of the major Japanese base at Rabaul on the island of New Britain—begun more than a year earlier at Guadalcanal and Buna, New Guinea—was finally in its last stages by November 1943, as U.S. Read more
Pacific Theater
U.S. Navy’s First Attack Against the Japanese
By Glenn BarnettOn the night of November 11, 1940, an event occurred that would change naval warfare for all time. Read more
Pacific Theater
Controversial Allied Escort Carriers were Versatile Weapons
By Michael HullUngainly, slow, and lacking armor, the escort carriers of the American and British navies were the versatile, unsung workhorses of the second half of World War II. Read more
Pacific Theater
Savage Struggle on the Kokoda Trail
By Christopher MiskimonThe Japanese attacked the Australians near the remote village of Kokoda in New Guinea in the middle of the night on July 29, 1942. Read more
Pacific Theater
MacArthur’s Battle to Liberate Manila Amid Murder & Mayhem
By James M. Scott
On the early evening of March 11, 1942, General Douglas MacArthur, his wife Jean, and the couple’s four-year-old son Arthur walked out onto Corregidor’s north dock in preparation to escape the battered Philippine island. Read more
Pacific Theater
Bombing Burma’s Bridges
By Bob BerginThirty-five Boeing B-17C Flying Fortress bombers of the 7th Bomb Group happened to be on their way to Asia the morning the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Read more
Pacific Theater
Doolittle’s Raiders: The Men Who Shaped the Pearl Harbor Payback
By Nathan N. Prefer
In the months that led up to Doolittle’s raiders assembling to strike back at Tokyo, President Franklin D. Read more
Pacific Theater
Eleanor Roosevelt and Admiral Halsey
By John WukovitsPrim, proper, and lacking any trace of braggadocio, the first lady of the United States, Eleanor Roosevelt, preferred placid pastimes and exchanging letters with close friends. Read more
Pacific Theater
What Made the B-25 Mitchell Bomber so Legendary
By Michael D. HullLittle more than four months after the disastrous attack on Pearl Harbor, America went on the offensive against Japan with one of the boldest and best remembered bomber raids of World War II. Read more
Pacific Theater
USS Sealion: the Only American Submarine to Sink an Enemy Battleship
By Chace V. Howland“Thornton! Go let the captain know he’s needed in the conning tower.” Nineteen-year-old Quartermaster Third Class Ed Thornton from Three Notch, Alabama, scurried to the conning tower hatch and slid down the ladder into the control room. Read more
Pacific Theater
The Palawan Massacre: The Story from One of its Few Survivors
By Dick Camp, Col., USMC, Ret.
Superior Private Tomisaburo Sawa of the Imperial Japanese Army fixed the bayonet on his Type 99 Arisaka rifle and carefully checked to make sure the weapon was loaded. Read more
Pacific Theater
Why the U.S. Dropped the Atomic Bomb on Japan in WWII
By Robert A. RosenthalHow did we get to dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima? Who was responsible? Where and when did it begin? Read more
Pacific Theater
The Story of Ruby Boye, Australia’s Only Female Coastwatcher
By Patrick J. ChaissonFor Australian coastwatcher Ruby Boye, an Allied agent stationed on the South Pacific island of Vanikoro, it started much like any other morning. Read more
Pacific Theater
The Makin Island Raid: What Really Happened to the Marines?
By Peter McQuarrieIn August 1942, the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion conducted the Makin Island raid in the Central Pacific. The purpose of the raid was to destroy Japanese installations on the island, gather intelligence, and to test the raiding tactics of the U.S. Read more
Pacific Theater
Sinking Japanese Submarine I-1
By Bruce PettyGordon Bridson was born in Wellington, New Zealand, in 1909, but shortly thereafter his family moved to Auckland, where he attended Auckland Grammar School. Read more
