While both the Allies and Axis sides possessed their military powers through the army, battleships, and tanks, air warfare was also crucial for either side to win in and played an important role in the outcome of WWII. They were used in many tactical missions, as well as to transport troops, equipment, and supplies to the battlefield in mere minutes. Many major events happened due to air bombings and fights in the sky, including the bombings of Pearl Harbor, which eventually dragged the U.S. into the war, all the way to the Atom bomb droppings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Planes have been proved effective regarding both sides, and WWII would have turned out a whole lot differently without them. The Luftwaffe was the aerial warfare branch of …show more content…
Starting to advance with a Japanese fleet on November 26th, they would launch a total of 360 planes about 275 miles (440 km) north of Hawaii. By 7:55, the first wave of 200 aircraft started, which included torpedo planes, bombers, and fighters. The second wave was mainly to attack carriers first, cruisers second, and save the battleships for last. No one expected a reconnaissance attack until it was too late. A U.S. Private detected on his radar a massive amount of planes, but was told to simply ignore it because it was a group of B-17’s that they were expecting. However, on their way to reinforce the Philippines, 12 unarmed B-17’s, commanded by Lt. Barthelmess, Major Landon, and Capt. Carmichael, found themselves in the middle of the assault. Harbored ships, as well as the U.S. Military Aircraft were open targets for the Japanese, allowing them to bomb most of their ships for the first half hour. Among the battleships that were destroyed were the Arizona, Oklahoma, California, Nevada, and West Virginia, along with three cruisers, three destroyers, and other vessels. Also, the planes destroyed over 180 aircraft. America had a casualty count of about 3400, while the Japanese lost only 29 to 60 planes, losing less than 100. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor crippled the U.S. naval and air strength in the Pacific. On …show more content…
It mainly ended the threat of further Japanese invasion in the Pacific. Beginning on June 3, 1942, U.S. bombers from Midway Island struck ineffectual at the Japanese carrier strike force. Early the next morning, Japanese planes from the strike force attacked and bombed Midway heavily, while the Japanese carriers again escaped damage from U.S. land-based planes, but as the morning progressed, the Japanese carriers were soon overwhelmed by the logistics of almost simultaneously sending a second wave of bombers to finish off the Midway runways, avoiding bombs of attacking Allied planes, and trying to launch more planes to sink the sighted U.S. naval forces. A wave of U.S. torpedo bombers was almost completely destroyed during their attack on the Japanese carriers at 9:20 am, but an hour later, 36 carrier-launched U.S. dive-bombers caught the Japanese carriers while their decks were cluttered with armed aircraft and fuel. The U.S. planes quickly sank three of the heavy Japanese carriers and one heavy cruiser. In the late afternoon U.S. planes disabled the fourth heavy carrier (scuttled the next morning), but its aircraft had badly damaged the U.S. carrier Yorktown. The Battle of Midway brought the Pacific maritime strengths of Japan and the United States
The attack, which lasted two hours, was devastating. Thousands of American soldiers and sailors had been killed or wounded; 300 aircraft, dry docks, airfields, and 20 naval vessels had been destroyed by hundreds of Japanese fighter planes (Source E). The scale of the attack was immense, and the American losses were great. The American naval base, near Honolulu in Hawaii, was defenceless as “although the US had cracked Japanese radio codes, in this case the raw data was not interpreted correctly by army and
However, it all changed during Pearl Harbor. Starting on December 7, 1941, Japanese air raids dropped bombs on battleships. The bombing did not stop, even after four hours, the bombing had not finished. Throughout the time, Japanese aircraft completely dominated the skies and caused terror to Americans. The damage had caused five of the eight battleships to be destroyed and sunk, 21 American ships to be sunk, and the death of thousands (Chen).
The eight U.S. Navy battleships present at Pearl Harbor were damaged with four sunk. In addition, cruisers, destroyers, and U.S. aircraft were damaged or destroyed. 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 wounded. The attack was a shock to the American people, and it led directly to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s declaration of war with Japan.
Japanese bombers Attacked the U.S Navy’s Pacific Fleet at the Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The U.S Navy also had problems with communication because of the Japanese Code Breakers were faster at breaking codes than the Americans making a new code. Many of the Japanese were learning English in the U.S. They had also learned lots of the slang terms. The battle
A huge breakthrough came when a man named Joseph Rochefort broke the Japanese code and foretold of an attack on the two islands of midway that the Japanese were interested in. Japans goal in this was to lure out the rest of Americas pacific fleet and destroy them. Luckily for Americans they had no idea that we knew what they were going to do. The Pacific Fleet Including the USS Enterprise, USS Hornet, USS Yorktown, and all of the supporting ships went to Midway and waited for the Japanese to get there. The battle began on June 4th, 1942 approximately 6 months after the devastation of Pearl
The Japanese succeed in destroying almost 20 American naval vessels, which included eight giant battleships, and more than 300 airplanes. The USS Arizona was docked in this harbor, and it was badly struck and damaged by the Japanese enemy. Since this event happened on a Sunday,
The Battle of Britain was struggling with hard times which meant that the British Royal Air force erupted over Britain between July and October of 1940. The battle happened above Britain. The battle, which was the first major military campaign in history to be fought completely in the air (-www.History.com). Germany wanted to control the flying space in the sky. Many months later, the battle ended with the British Empire winning, and this great victory protected them from the invading Germans who
In the early morning Japanese planes had flown out of the clouds and began sinking ships, either by raining fire on the soldiers, or flying their planes straight into the ships. By the end of the attack, 2,400 Americans were dead. The attack was unexpected and unnecessary. The sunken ships are still left at the bottom of the harbor, as a memorial to the soldiers who lost their lives to the tragic events of Pearl Harbor. President Harry S. Truman announced that “The Japanese began the war from the air at
Because of anti-aircraft fire more Japanese planes were
December 7, 1941 Japanese bombers bombed the warships that were stationed in
Hawaii time, on a Sunday, 360 Japanese war planes attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor. The surprise attack that, lasted about two hours, against the United States immediately put us into World War II. On this day two radar operators had spotted an alarming large group of aircraft coming their way from the north. They were told to not be alarmed due to the fact that a flight of B-17s were expected from the United States during that time. Thus, when the air assault coming from the Japanese came, it came as a surprise to the naval base.
During the war the Japanese carriers started to sink. June 7 the U.S begin to start attacking the Japanese after they have claimed to Islands. U.S ended up suffering 4 carriers. U.S ended up winning the war ending the Japan threat to the Hawaiian Islands and United States.
The initial Japanese bombing strike was not as successful as planned on Midway, and another round of aerial bombing is ordered. The US launched a counter attack from USS Yorktown, USS Enterprise, and USS Hornet with their fighter planes and bombers. While the Japanese fighter planes and bombers were refueling and rearming, US planes bombed and disabled three of the Japanese carriers Kaga, Soryu, and Akagi. The Kaga and Soryu sank on 4 June and Akagi sank on 5 June, this left the Japanese with only one function carrier, Hiryu, in the battle. It was during this attack by the US that the Japanese realized that the US had carriers in the area.
Just before seven o’clock in the morning on Sunday, December seventh, 1941, the first wave of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American Naval base of Pearl Harbor. This attack completely took the United States of America by surprise. The first wave of attacked targeted the base’s airfields and battleships. The second wave of planes went after the remaining ships and the shipyards. Then, the Japanese dropped a one thousand seven hundred and sixty pound bomb on the U.S.S. Arizona.
On the morning of December 7th 1941, the Japanese Imperial Navy launched a surprise attack on the Pearl Harbour Naval Base, on the isolated U.S. controlled tropical island state of Hawaii. The Japanese attacked with 353 aircraft, from fighter planes, bombers, and torpedo planes launched off of 6 Japanese aircraft carriers. The U.S lost 4 of their 8 battleships and another 4 were damaged. The Japanese also sank 3 cruisers, 3 destroyers, an anti aircraft training ship, and a minelayer. 188 U.S aircraft were destroyed and 2403 Americans were killed with another 1178 wounded.