(d) "In the Pacific * * * in 1944, when the US Navy tore the heart out of its rival [Japan] at the 'Great Marianas Turkey Shoot' and then at Leyte Gulf. In the Marianas, the imbalance of forces was so great that the numerically (and qualitatively) superior U.S. naval aviators simply blew the Japanese pilots out of the skies. At Leyte Gulf, the greatest sea battle in history, the Japanese lost no fewer than four carriers, three battleships and about 300 aircraft. Thereafter, Japan fell further and further behind, losing aircraft and surface ships. Its ordeal was compounded by the activities of American submarines. At last, an unconscionable two years after the start of hostilities, the submarines were fighting with a decent torpedo—one that would run straight and actually detonate on impact instead of misfiring or veering off-course. The subs ran riot against Japan's shipping, cutting it off from raw materials—oil most of all. Still, as Mr Kennedy reminds us, Japan was able to exact a fearful cost through its fanatical resistance and the mass deployment of kamikaze suicide airplanes against U.S. ships.
(i)
(A) For Great Marianas Turkey Shoot, see Battle of the Philippine Sea
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Philippine_Sea
(June 19–20, 1944; 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)
• turkey shoot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_shoot
(B) Philippine Sea
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Sea
("Its southwestern border comprises the Philippine islands of * * * Leyte * * * Its eastern border is the second island chain")
, whose top map shows Nanpō Shotō 南方諸島, comprosed of Izu Islands 伊豆諸島 in the north and Bonin 無人 (also known as Ogasawara 小笠原) Islands in the south.
• The Chinese pronunciation of kanji 方 is hō, which is softened to pō when the character 方 is positioned not in the first of the compound term.
(ii) geography
(A) Mariana Islands are composed of two administrative divisions of US Territories: Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI; capital and largest city Saipan (2020 Census 47k; I can not find origin or meaning of Saipan) ) and Guam.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariana_Islands
(B) Guam (2020 census: 154 thousand persons; located south southwest of Saipa by 133 miles air distance; air distance between midway atoll and Guam is 6318 miles, see Figure 1 Japanese offensive, December 1941-April 1942 (whose arrows show what Japan successfully occupied) in
The Battle of Midway: Turning the Tide in the Pacific (Teaching with Historic Places). National Park Service, US Department of Interior, undated.
https://www.nps.gov/articles/the ... historic-places.htm
): " ortuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, while in the service of Spain, was the first European to visit the island [in] 1521. * * * It is the southernmost and largest island in the Mariana Island archipelago." en.wikipedia.org for Guam. US took possession of Guam from Spain in the 1898 Spanish–American War. The day after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, 1941, Japan overpowered Guam. After Battle of Guam (July 21 - Aug 10, 1944), US repossessed Guam.
• The Spanish named Guam from an indigenous term grahan. See
An Act Relative to Changing the Official Name of Guam to Its Name in the Chamorro Language, Namely 'Guahan'
https://www.guamlegislature.com/ ... %20No.%20B331-30%20(COR).pdf
("Section 1. Legislative Findings and Intent. Guam is referred to as Guahan in the Chamorro language. Guahan is 'a place that has' ie, a place of resources. Guahan is all [sic; redundant] all-encompassing. According to the Guam Historian of the government of Guam, the etymology of Guahan could be derived from the base word, guaha. Guaha means, there is, have, exist. The final 'n' is a grammatical marker which denotes 'possession off.' Thus guaha plus the 'n' marker for possessive quality implies, 'a place of resources.' The 'n' grammatical feature of Guahan is a similar feature of most of the Mariana Islands - Saipan, Tinian, Agrigan, Agrihan, Pagan, Aalamagan, Sarigan, Guguan")
• The Spanish in 1668 renamed what is now Mariana Islands, to honor regent of Spain at the time:
Mariana of Austria
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariana_of_Austria
(1634 – 1696; Spanish name: Mariana + sometimes rendered Maria Ana in English, besides Mariana; was born near Vienna by Maria Anna of Spain and Ferdinand, a son of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II of Habsburg and would succeed his father as Ferdinand III.
(C) Midway Atoll
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midway_Atoll
("Roughly equidistant between North America and Asia, Midway is the only island in the Hawaiian Archipelago that is not part of the state of Hawaii. * * * The atoll was sighted on July 5, 1859, by [American] Captain NC Brooks
is the second in the western end of Hawaiian Islands.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_Islands
• The last is Kure Atoll
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kure_Atoll
("its English name was for a Russian navigator who sighted the atoll")
• Both Kure and Midway Atolls have been in US possession ever since first sightings, including WWII.
• Atoll, National Geographic Society, undated
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/atoll/
• What Is a Lagoon? National Ocean Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), US Department of Commerce, undated
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/lagoon.html
("There are two types of lagoons: atoll and coastal. Atoll lagoons form when an island completely subsides beneath the water, leaving a ring of coral that continues to grow upwards. At the center of the ring is a body of water that is often deep. The combination of coral growth and water creates a lagoon. It may take as long as 300,000 years for an atoll formation to occur")
(iii) Pacific Theater of WWII
(A) Pacific War; Theatre of war, World War II. Encyclopaedia Britannica, undated
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pacific-War
(a map with the heading "Expansion in 1942" and caption: "Japanese expansion in World War II[:] In World War II the Japanese military forces quickly took advantage of their success at Pearl Harbor to expand their holdings throughout the Pacific and westward toward India. This expansion continued relatively unchecked until mid-1942. Then, after losing the Battle of Midway, Japan was forced on the defensive. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc"
(B) Battle of Midway (June 4–7, 1942)
Battle of Saipan (June 15 to July 9, 1944)
(iv) revisit Battle of the Philippine Sea
(A) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Philippine_Sea
("The Battle of the Philippine Sea (June 19–20 [days after Battle of Saipan was underway], 1944) was a major naval battle of World War II 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, and pitted elements of the United States Navy's Fifth Fleet against ships and aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy's Mobile Fleet [機動艦隊] 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. The aerial part of the battle was nicknamed the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot by American aviators")
• View table displaying lopsided 'strength": 7 US carriers v 3 Japan's; ~900 carrier aircraft (US) v (on Japan's side) ~450 carrier aircraft AND ~300 land-based aircraft)
• section 1 Background:
section 1.2 Advantages for the Americans:
"Meanwhile, IJN [Imperial Japanese Navy] aircrew losses, suffered during earlier carrier battles at Coral Sea [May 4-8, 1942], Midway, and the long Solomon Islands campaign of 1942–43, had greatly weakened the Japanese Navy's ability to project force with its carriers.[16] Losses suffered in the Solomons drastically reduced the number of skilled carrier pilots available to fill the carrier air groups. It took nearly a year for the Japanese to reconstitute their groups following the Solomons campaign.
"Japan no longer had enough oil tankers to transport the required volume of petroleum from the Dutch East Indies to Japanese refineries. Without adequate supplies of refined residual fuel oil, Japanese aircraft carriers refueled with unrefined Tarakan petroleum in June 1944. This undesalted petroleum damaged boiler tubes, and the unremoved naphtha fraction volatilized to form explosive atmospheres incompatible with aircraft carrier damage control procedures.
section 1.5 Perceived advantages for the Japanese:
"The Japanese had some advantages they hoped would turn the battle in their favor. Though outnumbered in ships and aircraft, they planned to supplement their carrier airpower with land-based aircraft.[11]
"The battle area was dominated by the easterly trade winds. Naval aircraft of the era needed a head wind blowing down the flight deck bow to stern to enable the aircraft to launch. The easterly trade winds that dominated the Central Pacific seas meant that aircraft carriers would necessarily have to be steaming eastward to launch and recover aircraft; consequently a fleet located to the west of the Marianas would be in position to initiate and break off the battle, placing the initiative in the hands of the Japanese.
section 3 Battle shows "Map of the Battle of the Philippine Sea."
• There is no need to read the rest of this Wiki page, which is too long for me.
(B) https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Philippine_Sea
("The battle was a great defeat for the Japanese Navy, which lost three aircraft carriers and some 600 aircraft in two days of combat. This happened because the Japanese airplanes were getting old and their pilots had little training, compared to the more modern and better trained American forces. After the battle, the Japanese Navy was almost completely destroyed. This victory for Allied forces opened the door for the invasion of Iwo Jima [硫黄島 (pronunciation: i-ō tō); Feb 19-Mar 26, 1945]")
(C) https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-the-Philippine-Sea
full text: "Battle of the Philippine Sea, (June 19–20, 1944), naval battle of World War II between the Japanese Combined Fleet [聯合艦隊, which had 2-3 Mobile Fleets 機動艦隊] and the US Fifth Fleet. Known as 'the greatest carrier battle of the war,' it accompanied the US landing on Saipan and ended in a complete US victory.
"It began on the morning of June 19, when Admiral Ozawa Jisaburō [小沢 治三郎, then 第一機動艦隊兼第三艦隊司令長官] , determined on a showdown with the US invaders, sent 430 planes in four waves against ships under the command of Admiral Raymond Spruance. The result for the Japanese was a disaster: in the first day of the battle the Japanese lost more than 200 planes and two regular carriers; and, as their fleet retired northward toward safe harbour at Okinawa, it lost another carrier and nearly 100 more planes. Having already achieved a great victory, Spruance decided late on the second day not to press his attack further, a controversial decision to this day. During the two days of battle, US losses totaled 130 aircraft and some damage to ships.
(v) Battle of Leyte Gulf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Leyte_Gulf
(Oct 23-26, 1944; table for "Strength" and "Casualties and losses")
(vi) "At last, an unconscionable two years after the start of hostilities, the [American] submarines were fighting with a decent torpedo—one that would run straight and actually detonate on impact instead of misfiring or veering off-course. The subs ran riot against Japan's shipping"
(i) run
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/run
("1: to act wildly or without restraint
2: to occur in profusion <daffodils running riot>"
(ii) to run riot: "If people run riot, they behave in a wild and uncontrolled manner <Rampaging prisoners ran riot through the jail> Synonyms: rampage, go wild, be out of control, raise hell"
https://www.collinsdictionary.co ... english/to-run-riot
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发表于 5-7-2022 11:49:32
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