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Air War in the Pacific
Dr Richard R. Muller
USAF School of Advanced Air & Space Studies
Maxwell AFB, AL USA
12 March 2014
Outline
•  Introduction
•  The Airpower
Balance
•  Carrier Aviation
•  Theater Air Power
•  Strategic
Bombardment
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The Pacific Theater(s)
•  Central Pacific
•  South Pacific
•  Southwest Pacific
•  China-Burma-India (CBI)
•  Aleutians…
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Theater factors
•  Geography
•  Distance
•  Inhospitable combat
environment
•  Logistical challenges
•  Impact of…and on…
air power?
The Airpower Balance--Japan
•  First rate naval and air
forces
–  Army, naval aviation schism
•  Mahanian naval tradition—
the decisive battle
•  Integrated air power with
battle line
•  The Kido Butai
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IJN Carrier Force
•  Multi-carrier operations
– 6 fleet carriers at Pearl
Harbor
•  Rapid generation of
strikes
•  “Glass jaw”
–  Armor, damage control
–  Training regimen
Japan—Aviation Technology
•  Carrier aircraft: state
of the art
– A6M “Zero-sen”
– B5N torpedo plane
– D3A dive bomber
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The formidable Zero
Long range strike and ISR
•  Land based naval attack planes
–  Island bases; littoral ops (China)
•  Long range flying boats
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The Airpower Balance: US
•  ORANGE: USN’s vision of
a future war, 1890s-1940s
•  Central Pacific drive
•  Mahan’s decisive clash of
the battlefleets
•  Updated into air age
USS Indianapolis, 1932
ORANGE: The third dimension
•  1921: BuAer established
•  RADM Wm Moffett
•  Dirigibles, flying boats
–  “eyes of the fleet”
•  CV-1: USS Langley
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Forging a Fast Carrier Force
•  1927: advent of “fast
carriers” Lexington (CV-2)
and Saratoga (CV-3)
•  From fleet auxiliary to
“complete freedom of
action” separate from
battle line
–  Aviators vs “the Gun Club”
Honing the Edge: Fleet Problems
•  I (1923): validated need for
carriers to cover vast Pacific
•  V(1927): simulated air strike
•  IX (1929): attack on Panama
Canal
•  Sun, 7 Feb 1932: simulated
carrier strike on Pearl Harbor
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Increasing sophistication
•  XVIII (1937): tested use
of carriers for support of
amphibious landing
–  Support landing or retain
freedom of maneuver
against enemy force?
•  Most important
questions raised…
Fog of war…
Amphibious warfare
•  US Marine Corps—a
service in search of a
mission
•  Small Wars, 1920s
•  Amphibious assaults on
defended shores, 1930s
–  Organic air power
•  Integration with ORANGE
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Army Air Corps
•  Billy Mitchell: displace
USN as pillar of
national defense
•  ACTS: focus on
impending war with
Germany
The Carrier War
•  Carrier strike
capability integral to
Japanese designs
•  US ability to absorb
blow, recover, go on
offensive
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Why Pearl Harbor?
•  Forward base, US Pacific
Fleet
•  Adm Yamamoto argued for
quick strike to sweep US
fleet aside, allow Japan to
seize resource zone,
defensive perimeter
–  “For six months I will run
wild…”
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“Infamy”
•  Sunday, 7 December
1941
•  2 attack waves from 6
IJN flattops disabled US
Pacific Fleet, airpower
•  Smashing tactical
success
The Japanese Run Wild
•  Malaya, Wake, Guam
•  Philippines
–  Disaster at Clark Field
•
•
•
•
•
Prince of Wales and Repulse
Singapore, 15 Feb 42
Dutch East Indies
Burma
Threaten Australia
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On the Defensive
•  Carrier raids
•  The Doolittle Raid,
18 Apr 42
–  Effects?
•  Battle of the Coral
Sea, 4-8 May 42
•  Midway, 4-6 June 42
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Midway: June 1942
•  Japanese plan: extend
defensive perimeter, lure
Pacific Fleet into decisive
battle
–  Complex plan
•  USN response
–  Codebreaking (Station HYPO,
Hawaii)
–  Station 3 carriers NE of Midway
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Midway: a near-run thing
•  Planning set the stage…
now it’s up to the
operational commanders
•  4 June: Midway strike
•  The air-sea battle of 4
June
–  Fog, friction, chance…
CENTPAC
•  The US Navy’s Ideal War
–  War Plan ORANGE
•  The might of US industry
–  Growth of fast carrier task
force
•  Bring Japanese home
islands under direct attack
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CENTPAC and the wider war
•  Japanese defensive perimeter
–  Interior vs Exterior lines
•  Keep defenders off-balance
–  Role of MacArthur’s effort,
SWPAC
•  Only US and its allies capable
of contemplating such a
strategy
A Tale of Two Recapitalizations (1)
•  Essex-class carriers
•  Independence-class
light carriers
•  New generation of
carrier aircraft
•  Supporting technology
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ESSEX-class fast carrier
•  Heart of the fast carrier task force
•  Capitalized on experience gained
with Yorktown class
•  27,100 tons
•  872 feet long
•  33 knots
•  100 aircraft
“One of the most important products of
America’s warmaking capability…”
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INDEPENDENCE-class light carrier
•
•
•
•
11,000 tons displacement
622 feet long
45 aircraft
Augmented by dozens of
escort or “jeep” carriers
•  US builds 100+carriers;
Japan only launches 10
carriers during entire war
New generation of carrier aircraft
•  Grumman F6F “Hellcat”
•  Grumman TBF/General
Motors TBM Avenger
•  Curtiss SB2C “Helldiver”
•  Vought F4U “Corsair”
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Supporting technology
•  AAA protection
–  5 inch, 40mm, 20mm
–  Proximity fuse
•  Radar
•  Command and control
–  Combat Information Center
•  Communications
–  VHF
•  The personnel dimension
USAAF revitalized
•  P-40, P-39, A-20 give
way to P-38, P-47, P-51,
late-model B-25
•  B-29 in pipeline
•  Slowed somewhat by
Europe-first strategy
–  Kenney “living beyond his
means”
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A Tale of Two Recapitalizations (2)
•  IJNAF: stuck with
obsolescent 1941 front line
•  New types: too few, too late
–  Critical neglect of ASW, air
defense
•  Training program
–  Sakai’s testimony
Kawanishi N1K2 “George”
Marianas operations, June 1944
•  Midway: 3 carriers (ca. 250
aircraft), 8 cruisers, 14 destroyers
•  Marianas: Task Force 58
(Mitscher) under Fifth Fleet
(Spruance): 15 carriers (891
aircraft), 7 BBs, 21 cruisers, 69
destroyers
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Marianas operations
•  Support to amphibious
landing force
–  B-29 bases
•  Japanese task force sorties
•  19 June: Battle of the
Philippine Sea
–  “Great Marianas Turkey
Shoot”
At Full Stride
•  Fast carrier ops, 1944-1945
–  Amphibious assaults (Philippines,
Iwo, Okinawa)
–  Fleet actions (Leyte, October
1944)
•  Flexibility, mobility, endurance
–  “the fleet that came to stay”
“Murderers’ Row” (1944)
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The Kamikaze Campaign
•  Nimitz: Only thing not
predicted…
•  Kamikaze Special Attack
Force (Tokkō)
•  “Divine Wind”
–  Totally alien to Western
mindset
•  Present day implications?
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Theater Air Power
•  Land based
airpower’s
contribution
enormous…yet not
quite what prewar
doctrine predicted
Guadalcanal and the Solomons
•  First major US offensive
of the war
–  FDR demanded daily
updates
•  THE model for joint
expeditionary operations
in hostile environment
•  The sea/air/land/subsurface battle for
Guadalcanal
AAF P-39s, Guadalcanal
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Why Guadalcanal?
•  Post-Midway,
opportunity to take
limited offensive
•  Japanese airstrip
construction on
Guadalcanal
•  US landing, 7 Aug 42
–  WATCHTOWER
Japanese land-based torpedo planes
attack US landing force, 8 Aug 42
Context
•  Harsh, bare base
conditions
•  Climate
•  Disease
•  Logistical nightmare
•  Distance from US
•  Confined operating area
–  “The Slot”
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The Land/Sea /Air Battle for
Guadalcanal
•  “unique for variety and
multiplicity of weapons
employed and for
coordination between
sea power, ground
power and air power”
--Morison
Marines dig in, Henderson Field
The Guadalcanal Campaign
•  Henderson Field
•  CACTUS Air Force
•  Japanese reinforcements,
US defense
–  Tokyo Express
–  Banzai charges
•  Japanese withdrawal, Feb 43
–  “Tokyo Express no longer has
terminus on Guadalcanal”
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The Southwest Pacific Theater
•  An airpower laboratory
•  New Guinea
•  “Island Hopping”
–  Bypass strongholds
•  George Kenney, Fifth Air
Force
•  Battle of Bismarck Sea,
March 43
Kenney’s Air Power Formula
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•
Air control
Air blockade
Hammer enemy positions
Cover/assist own forces
Advance bomber line…
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A war for airbases…
B-25 skip-bombing
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31 (Beaufighter) Sqdn RAAF in SWPAC
Turning the vertical flank
•  New Guinea airlift ops
•  Wau, Jan 43
–  Reinforce, hold key
airstrip
•  Nadzab, Sept 43
–  Enable offensive
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7th (Australian) Division, airlanded at Nadzab, 11 Sep 43
The CBI
•  AVG—the Flying Tigers
–  Claire Chennault
•  The Hump
–  William Tunner
•  Imphal/Kohima
•  First Air Commandos
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Closing In
•  Japanese strategy: make
war so costly…
–  New defensive doctrines
•  Iwo Jima, Feb 45
•  Okinawa, Apr-May 45
•  The limits of airpower?
–  “blowtorch and corkscrew”
Strategic Bombardment
•  Prewar thinking: focus
on Europe
–  AWPD-1, 42
•  B-17, B-24 really
“theater-range” aircraft
–  B-15, B-19 not developed
Douglas B-19
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Early efforts
•  B-17s as deterrent,
Pearl Harbor,
Philippines
•  Midway
•  Raids on Rabaul
The B-29 Campaign
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•
•
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China ops
Marianas bases
Twentieth Air Force
Low level incendiary attacks
March 1945: Operation
MEETINGHOUSE, Tokyo
–  Possibly most lethal air attack
in history
Not “global reach,” but
“hemispheric reach”: B-29
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The Atomic Strikes
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Manhattan Project
Little Boy and Fat Man
Hiroshima, 6 Aug 45
Nagasaki, 9 Aug 45
Emperor Hirohito:
“Bear the
unbearable…”
Expert testimony
•  Hideki Tojo, former Japanese
premier, 1945, on principal
causes of Japan’s defeat
–  The US submarine campaign
–  The island-hopping campaign,
bypassing key Japanese
strongholds
–  The independent operations of fast
carrier task forces
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Two Visions of Victory
•  USN: The triumph of the
fast carrier task force
•  USAAF: strategic air
power
•  Stage set for postwar
rivalry
–  Revolt of the Admirals, 1949
Pushed to the background?
•  Contribution of
theater air power
•  Airmobility
–  Strategic and
tactical
•  Unconventional
ops
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Summing Up
•  Allies went from holding
strategy to massive
counteroffensive to bring
Japan under siege
•  Airpower even more central
than in Europe…
•  Dawn of atomic age…roots of
the Cold War…AirSea Battle?
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