A history of the US Navy's remarkable 1945 South China Sea raid
against the Japanese, the first time in history that a carrier fleet
dared to rampage through coastal waters.
As 1945 opened, Japan was fighting defensively everywhere. As the Allies
drew closer to the Home Islands, risks of Japanese air and sea attack on
the US Navy carrier force increased. US forces wanted to take the island
of Luzon which provided a base for Japanese aircraft from Formosa
(Taiwan) and Indochina, and from where attacks could easily be
devastating for the invasion fleet. US Naval Intelligence also believed
Japanese battleships Ise and Hyuga were operating out of Cam Ranh
Bay. A fast carrier sweep through the South China Sea was a potential
answer with the bonus that it would strike the main nautical highway for
cargo from Japan's conquests in Southeast Asia.
Task Force 38 would spend the better part of two weeks marauding through
the South China Sea during Operation Gratitude, a month-long sweep of
the area, which launched air strikes into harbors in Indochina, the
Chinese coast and Formosa, while targeting shipping in the high-traffic
nautical highway. By the time the Task Force exited the South China Sea,
over 300,000 tons of enemy shipping and dozens of Japanese warships had
been sunk. With follow-up air strikes against Japanese harbors and
airfields in Formosa and the Ryukyu Islands, the success of the sweep
was unprecedented.
Using detailed battlescenes, maps, bird's eye views, and diagrams of air
strikes at Luzon, this intriguing account of Task Force 38's reign in
the South China Sea proved that aircraft carriers could dominate the
land-based air power of the fading Japanese. From the Korean War through
to Vietnam, to the campaigns in Iraq, aircraft carriers could sail
safely offshore, knowing their aircraft would prevail on both sea and
land.
