Battle of the Philippine Sea

Battle of the Philippine Sea
Part of the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign of the Pacific Theater (World War II)

The carrier Zuikaku (center) and two destroyers under attack by U.S. Navy carrier aircraft, June 20, 1944
DateJune 19–20, 1944
Location
Philippine Sea
Result American victory[1]
Belligerents
 United States  Japan
Commanders and leaders
Units involved
Strength
  • 3 fleet carriers
  • 6 light carriers
  • 5 battleships
  • 7 heavy cruisers
  • 2 light cruisers
  • 31 destroyers
  • 24 submarines
  • 6 oilers
  • ~450 carrier aircraft
  • ~300 land-based aircraft
Casualties and losses
  • 2 fleet carriers sunk
  • 1 light carrier sunk
  • 2 oilers sunk
  • 550–645 aircraft destroyed[2]
  • 1 fleet carrier damaged
  • 2 light carriers damaged
  • 1 battleship damaged
  • 1 oiler damaged
  • 2,987 dead (est.)

The Battle of the Philippine Sea was a major naval battle of World War II on 19–20 June 1944 that eliminated the Imperial Japanese Navy's ability to conduct large-scale carrier actions. It took place during the United States' amphibious invasion of the Mariana Islands during the Pacific War. The battle was the last of five major "carrier-versus-carrier" engagements between American and Japanese naval forces,[3][N 1] and pitted elements of the United States Navy's Fifth Fleet against ships and aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy's Mobile Fleet and nearby island garrisons. This was the largest carrier-to-carrier battle in history, involving 24 aircraft carriers, deploying roughly 1,350 carrier-based aircraft.[4]

The aerial part of the battle was nicknamed the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot by American aviators for the severely disproportional loss ratio inflicted upon Japanese aircraft by American pilots and anti-aircraft gunners.[5] During a debriefing after the first two air battles, a pilot from USS Lexington remarked "Why, hell, it was just like an old-time turkey shoot down home!"[6] The outcome is generally attributed to a wealth of highly trained American pilots with superior tactics and numerical superiority, and new anti-aircraft ship defensive technology (including the top-secret anti-aircraft proximity fuze), versus the Japanese use of replacement pilots with not enough flight hours in training and little or no combat experience. Furthermore the Japanese defensive plans were directly obtained by the Allies from the plane wreckage of the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy's Combined Fleet, Admiral Mineichi Koga, in March 1944.[7][8][N 2][N 3]

During the course of the battle, American submarines torpedoed and sank two of the largest Japanese fleet carriers taking part in the battle.[9] The American carriers launched a protracted strike, sinking one light carrier and damaging other ships, but most of the American aircraft returning to their carriers ran low on fuel as night fell. Eighty American planes were lost. Although at the time the battle appeared to be a missed opportunity to destroy the Japanese fleet, the Imperial Japanese Navy had lost the bulk of its carrier air strength and would never recover.[2] This battle, along with the Battle of Leyte Gulf four months later, marked the end of Japanese aircraft carrier operations. The few surviving carriers remained mostly in port thereafter.

  1. ^ Crowl 1995, p. 441
  2. ^ a b c Shores 1985, p. 205
  3. ^ Smith, Douglas Vaughn (27 June 2005). "Chapter I: Introduction" (PDF). Carrier Battles: Command Decision in Harm's Way (Thesis). Florida State University. Archived from the original on 14 January 2019. Retrieved 14 January 2019. The reference to "five carrier battles" was reiterated in Smith's 2013 book of the same title, ISBN 9781612514420, published by Naval Institute Press.
  4. ^ Polmar 2008, pp. 377–400.
  5. ^ Shores 1985, p. 189.
  6. ^ Potter 1990, p. 160.
  7. ^ "Japan Imperial Navy Z Plan – Two Nisei Served on Translation Team". Japanese American Veterans Association. Archived from the original on 30 December 2021. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
  8. ^ "Translation of the 'Z PLAN' and the Battle of the Philippine Sea". Go For Broke. Archived from the original on 30 December 2021. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
  9. ^ Roscoe 1949, pp. 331–333.


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