Description
Book SynopsisA fully illustrated history of how the US Navy destroyed Truk, the greatest Japanese naval and air base in the Pacific, with Operation Hailstone, and how B-29 units and the carriers of the British Pacific Fleet kept the base suppressed until VJ-Day.In early 1944, the island base of Truk was a Japanese Pearl Harbor; a powerful naval and air base that needed to be neutralized before the Allies could fight their way any further towards Tokyo. But Truk was also the most heavily defended naval base outside the Japanese Home Islands and an Allied invasion would be costly. Long-range bombing against Truk intact would be a massacre so a plan was conceived to neutralize it through a series of massive naval raids led by the growing US carrier fleet. Operation
Hailstone was one of the most famous operations ever undertaken by American carriers in the Pacific.This book examines the rise and fall of Truk as a Japanese bastion and explains how in two huge ra
Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION CHRONOLOGY ATTACKER'S CAPABILITIES Long-range air power in 1944 DEFENDER'S CAPABILITIES The ‘Gibraltar of the Pacific’ CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVES Keystone of the Pacific War Allied objectives and plans Japanese objectives and plans THE CAMPAIGN From feared bastion to the Allies’ punchbag Background: 1939-January 1944 Operation
Hailstone: February 1944 April Showers: April 1944 Truk Besieged: March 1944–June 1945 Operation
Inmate: June 14-15, 1945 AFTERMATH AND ANALYSIS Surviving Aircraft FURTHER READING INDEX
