A fascinating exploration of how between February 1 and March 10,
1942, three small US task forces launched several unexpected raids
across the Japanese defensive perimeter in the Central and South
Pacific.
After the devastating Japanese blows of December 1941, the Allies found
themselves reeling with defeat everywhere in the Pacific. Although
stripped of his battleships and outnumbered 10:3 in carriers, the US
Navy commander-in-chief Admiral Ernest J. King decided to hit back at
Japan's rapidly expanding Pacific empire immediately, in an effort to
keep the Japanese off-balance.
On February 1, 1942, Vice Admiral Bill Halsey led the US Pacific Fleet
carriers on their first raid, using high-speed hit-and-run tactics to
strike at the Japanese, at a time when most of the Japanese carrier
fleet was in the Indian Ocean. Halsey's aggressive commitment inspired
its American participants to invent the mythical "Haul Ass With Halsey"
club. The last of the 1942 US carrier raids in March 1942 would form a
defining moment in the Pacific War, prior to a new phase of high-seas
battles between the opposing fleets.
This superbly illustrated book documents for the first time in a single
volume this little-known but important World War II naval campaign. The
fabulous illustrations, including maps and colour artworks, bring to
life the US air and naval raids on the Japanese bases in the Marshall
and Gilbert Islands, Rabaul, Wake Island, Marcus Island, and Lae and
Salamaua in northern New Guinea.
