Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner
(1885–1961),US naval officer who proved to be the most gifted amphibious commander the Pacific war produced.Though he was one of the US Navy's most outstanding pre-war planners—he wrote ...
aircraft carrier
A large warship equipped to serve as a base for aircraft that can take off from and land on its deck.
Alexander Archer Vandegrift
ˈvændǝˌgrift(1887–1973) U.S. marine officer. Born in Charlottesville, Virginia, Alexander Vandegrift enlisted in the marine corps in 1908 and was commissioned a second lieutenant the next year. He ...
Americal Division
US Army division formed in May 1942 from Task Force 6184 which garrisoned New Caledonia in the Pacific war. After the destruction of the Philippine division in the Philippines campaign ...
amphibious Ships and Landing Craft
Ships designed to carry, land, and support assault forces and capable of being loaded or unloaded in the objective area by Navy personnel without external assistance.
amphibious warfare
Warfare consisting of attacks launched from the sea by naval and landing forces embarked in ships or craft and involving the landing and establishing of forces on a hostile shore.[...]
Axis strategy and co-operation
Although the leaders of the Axis spoke frequently in public of their co-operation, and they were bound by various treaties (see Tripartite Pact, Pact of Steel, and Anti-Comintern pact), in ...
battle of Cape Esperance
One of the many naval night actions fought off Guadalcanal during the Pacific war. It took place on the night of 11/12 October 1942 when a US Navy Task Force ...
battle of Eastern Solomons
This took place in August 1942 during the Pacific war and was one of several encounters between the Japanese and US navies off Guadalcanal. Yamamoto's Japanese Combined Fleet lost one ...
Battle of Midway
In 1942, off the Midway Islands in the central Pacific, a decisive sea battle in which the US navy repelled a Japanese invasion fleet, sinking four aircraft carriers. This defeat marked the end of ...
battle of Santa Cruz Island
Fought between US and Japanese carrier forces on 26 October 1942 off Guadalcanal during the Pacific war. Though the Japanese lost 100 aircraft, against 74 lost by the Americans, it ...
battle of Savo Island
Encounter during the Pacific war between an Allied naval force screening US marine landings at the start of the Guadalcanal campaign, and seven Japanese cruisers commanded by Vice-Admiral Mikawa ...
battle of Tassafaronga
The last of several fierce naval night encounters between Japanese and US warships off Guadalcanal during the Pacific war. It took place off the island's Tassafaronga Point and was a ...
Battle of the Coral Sea
The first confrontation between American and Japanese aircraft carriers in World War II, on May 7–8, 1942. Apprised by intelligence of an impending Japanese invasion of New Guinea and the ...
battleship
The modern equivalent of, and the name derived from, the older sailing ship of the line.From Ship of the Line to ‘Ironclad’.The introduction into warfare at sea during the 1840s and 1850s of the ...
Cactus Air Force
Mixed force of US aircraft, mostly Marine Corps aviation, which played a critical part in the Guadalcanal campaign, CACTUS being the codename for the US landings there on 7 August ...
Carlson's Raiders
Was the name given to 2nd Raider Battalion (see USA, 5(f). It was commanded by Lt-Colonel Evans Carlson of the US Marine Corps who had first suggested that the marines ...
carriers
1. Design and developmentBefore the Second World War, aircraft carrier design was driven by naval aircraft characteristics and by the constraints of the 1922 Treaty for the Limitation of ...
Chester Nimitz
(1885–1966)US admiral. After various surface ship commands and shore appointments, he took over command of the Pacific Fleet in 1941 following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. From his Hawaii ...
Chuichi Nagumo
(1886–1944) vice admiral in the Japanese navy during World War II. Nagumo commanded the aircraft carrier strike force that launched the attack on Pearl Harbor (1941). His decision not to ...
