Pacific Theater
Bloody Brawl on Guadalcanal
By Mike PhiferThe column of sweaty, exhausted Japanese soldiers trudged single file through the thick, dark jungle. For days they had been pushing inland from the western end of Guadalcanal. 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
Duel to the Death on Saipan
By David Alan JohnsonOn board one of the transports headed for the island of Saipan in early June 1944, a battalion surgeon gave a group of Marines a lecture on what they could expect when they reached their destination. Read more
Pacific Theater
USS Indianapolis: Gallant Ship, Tragic End
By Michale D. HullThere was tight security and feverish activity on the dock at the Hunters Point Navy Shipyard in San Francisco Bay around 3 am on Monday, July 16, 1945. Read more
Pacific Theater
Last Act in the Dutch East Indies
By Arnold BlumbergImmediately after the Japanese attack on the United States Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, the Japanese realized that the oil reserves needed to carry on their new war against the Western powers were not as adequate as first thought. Read more
Pacific Theater
Survival off Samar
By David Alan JohnsonAt exactly 6:45 on the morning of October 25, 1944, Rear Admiral Clifton A.F. Sprague received a message from one of his pilots on antisubmarine patrol. Read more
Pacific Theater
Seek…Attack…Destroy
By Patrick. J. ChaissonAdmiral Soemu Toyoda needed answers. The newly appointed commander in chief of Japan’s Combined Fleet, Toyoda found himself facing several unpleasant facts. Read more
Pacific Theater
Witness to the Opening Salvos at Pearl Harbor
By Brian H. WrightOn Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, Gunner’s Mate Russell Winsett, 19, awoke at 5 am as he did most mornings. Read more
Pacific Theater
Battling for Bougainville
By Jon DiamondKey Allied victories in the Pacific have been singled out as seminal turning points against the Japanese. The American Navy’s sinking of four enemy carriers at Midway crippled future Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) initiatives on the scale mounted during the war’s initial six months. Read more
Pacific Theater
The Buna Front: A Ghastly Nightmare
By Jon DiamondAsk anyone who was there and they will tell you that Papua New Guinea, especially along the northern coast, was a tropical hell. Read more
Pacific Theater
“Butch” O’Hare: the Original Top Gun
By Patrick ReynoldsEdward Henry “Butch” O’Hare rocketed to fame in February 1942 by singlehandedly taking on eight Japanese torpedo bombers bent on destroying the aircraft carrier USS Lexington and shooting down several of them. Read more
Pacific Theater
The Greatest Disaster
By David H. LippmanAmid rain, lightning, and dark, the British admiral and American general picked their way through choppy seas to the transport USS McCawley, off the coast of Guadalcanal. Read more
Pacific Theater
JFK’s First Brush with Death
By John DomagalskiActivity at Japanese air bases in the northern Solomon Islands reached a fever pitch as the South Pacific sun rose on the morning of April 7, 1943. Read more
Pacific Theater
Steel Typhoon at Okinawa
By Blaine TaylorAs one island or island group in the Pacific was fought over by American and Japanese forces, it became clear that Japan’s days as a combatant in World War II were numbered. Read more
Pacific Theater
Deadly Dash Forward
By Gene Eric SaleckerBy the time the attack on Pearl Harbor plunged the United States into World War II, Japan had been preparing for an all-out offensive in the Pacific for months. Read more
Pacific Theater
Bomber Command Pathfinder
By Bruce PettyAlan George was born in 1918 and was fourth-generation New Zealander. His great grandparents arrived in New Plymouth in 1841 from Cornwall, England, aboard the 506-ton ship Oriental. Read more
Pacific Theater
Last Letter Home
By Phil ScearceOn December 1, 1942, Lance Corporal Kiyoshi Koto wrote his last letter home. By that time, his unit’s command structure was decimated and the battle strength of his army and its supporting navy was ravaged. Read more
Pacific Theater
Rising Sun, Descending Darkness
By William Strook“Finally at Corregidor there was only a little crowd of American soldiers and Filipino soldiers and American nurses at the beaches, with nothing at their backs but the waters of the Pacific, and the flag came down. Read more
Pacific Theater
Hellish Battle in a Tropical Paradise
By Nathan N. Prefer“But here are men who fought in gallant actions, as gallant AS ever hero’s fought,” wrote the poet Lord Byron (1788-1824). Read more
Pacific Theater
How Capitalism Won WWII: This Is Capitalism and Expert Rob Citino Explain
By Nicholas Varangis“We won because we smothered the enemy in an avalanche of production, the like of which he had never seen, nor dreamed possible.” Read more
Pacific Theater
USS Lexington: A Lady to the End
By Michael D. HullResponding to a November 27, 1941, war warning message from Admiral Harold R. “Betty” Stark, chief of naval operations, America’s prized handful of aircraft carriers were fortuitously absent from Pearl Harbor when Japanese planes savaged the Pacific Fleet on Sunday, December 7. Read more
