PHILIPPINE SEA, BATTLE OF THE

PHILIPPINE SEA, BATTLE OF THE (19–20 June 1944). During the offensive against Japan in the central Pacific beginning in November 1943, the Fifth Fleet of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, led by Adm. Raymond A. Spruance, assaulted strategically important Saipan in the Mariana Islands in June. Japan's under trained pilots were quickly shot down by seasoned American navy airmen; Japan's sea command fared little better. In June 1944, two Japanese heavy carriers sank from torpedoes from the American submarines Albacore and Cavalla, and a third fell prey to American planes as it tried to escape westward. The Japanese fleet surrendered control of the Marianas and the central Pacific to the U.S. Navy; from these islands, long-range bombers reached Tokyo in November 1944.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Lockwood, Charles A. Battles of the Philippine Sea. New York: Crowell, 1967.

Miller, Nathan. The Naval Air War, 1939–1945. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1991.

Smith, Robert Ross. The Approach to the Philippines. Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, U.S. Army, 1996.

Y'Blood, William T. Red Sun Setting: The Battle of the Philippine Sea. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1981.

Clark G. Reynolds/A. R.

See also Aircraft Carriers and Naval Aircraft; Japan, Relations with; World War II; World War II, Air War Against Japan; World War II, Navy in.