Spatula: "I allready answered that. I just hate it when some people think that the americans were the only and unstopable mega-force in WW2. Kiwis, Aussies, and brits had been fighting the japanese in the pacific well before the americans showed up. The americans did very little until their own naval base was attacked."Spatula, you are just plain wrong about this. Sorry, no other way to put it.
http://www.worldwar-2.net/asia.htm "7th December 1941 : At 6:15 Honolulu time, the first wave of Japanese aircraft take of from their carriers which are located about 200 miles north of Hawaii. At 7:50, 43 fighters, 51 dive-bombers, 70 torpedo-bombers and 50 ordinary bombers arrive over Hawaii...Surprise was complete and within a few minutes 5 battleships and 2 light cruisers had been sunk and a large number of aircraft (180) destroyed on the ground...The Americans lost 2,729 killed and 1,178 wounded, while the Japanese losses amounted to just 29 aircraft (59 airmen) and five mini-submarines. The Japanese also attacked Malaya, Shanghai, Manila, Thailand, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Japanese declare war on UK and US. 8th December 1941 : Japanese land in Thailand, North East Malaya. Guam, Midway Wake and the Philippines are bombed. Offensive against Hong Kong begins. Thailand surrenders.
The United States and Great Britain declare war on Japan. 10th December 1941 : British retreat in Malaya after the loss of Kota Bahru airfield. Prince of Wales and Repulse are sunk by Japanese aircraft off Malayan coast.
11th December 1941 : US Marine gunners and airmen repulse first Japanese landing attempt at Wake.
15th December 1941 : British retreat in Malaya and Burma’s southern most tip. Artillery battle rages at Hong Kong.
19th December 1941 : Japanese land in Hong Kong. British evacuate Penang
22nd December 1941 : Japanese launch the main invasion of Philippines in the Lingayen Gulf.
23rd December 1941 : Japanese occupy Wake Island.
25th December 1941 : Hong Kong surrenders after a 7 day siege, with heavy Canadian casualties being reported.
3rd January 1942: Churchill and Roosevelt announce the unified ABDA (American, British, Dutch and Australian) Command in the SouthWest Pacific, under Wavell.
7th January 1942: British forces continue their retreat in central Malaya.
16th January 1942: The Japanese invade Burma from Thailand. Heavy US losses on the Bataan Peninsula as the Japanese advance.
21st January 1942: First Japanese bombing of New Guinea.
23rd January 1942: Japanese troops land at Balikpapan in Borneo and occupy Rabaul on New Britain Island.
Australia appeals to UK and US for immediate reinforcements. 24th January 1942: US destroyers torpedo three Japanese transports off Balikpapan.
This is the first US surface action since 1898 but the Japanese landings continue undisrupted.
25th January 1942:
Australia mobilises fully. 7th February 1942: Lt. General Percival, the commander at Singapore, says city will be held to the last man.
8th February 1942: Japanese land on Singapore Island.
15th February 1942: Singapore surrenders through shortage of water, food, petrol and ammunition. Japanese capture 80,000 British troops and 9,000 are killed.
17th February 1942: Japanese invade Bali, despite allied naval interception and bomb Darwin on Northern Australia.
27th February 1942: The Battle of the Java Sea begins and continues for three days, during which the Allies lose five cruisers and six destroyers. the Japanese lose just 4 transports.
6th March 1942: Japanese occupy Batavia in Java and cut all roads north of Rangoon, trapping the British at Pegu.
8th March 1942: Large-scale Japanese landings in New Guinea. Rangoon falls but the British forces escape to the north.
14th March 1942: US troops arrive in Australia in force.
9th April 1942: US-Filipino forces surrender on Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines. This is the largest capitulation in US History. Japanese aircraft sink the British carrier Hermes, the destroyer Vampire and three other warships in Indian Ocean.
18th April 1942: Colonel Doolittle leads 16 US Army B25 bombers from the carrier Hornet in first air raid on Tokyo and Japan.
4th May 1942: US carrier force engages part of Japanese invasion fleet in Battle of Coral Sea, the first naval battle fought entirely with aircraft.
6th May 1942: Corregidor surrenders after five months resistance, with 15,000 prisoners taken by 1,000 Japanese.
27th May 1942: Japanese Combined Fleet sets sail to capture Midway Island.
4th June 1942: US fleet engages Japanese in the decisive Battle of Midway. After three days the Japanese retreat with heavy losses.
19th July 1942: Japanese invasion fleet leaves Rabaul for Buna, New Guinea.
21st July 1942: Japanese land at Buna.
7th August 1942: US land on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.
8th August 1942: Japanese naval counter-attack beaten off in Solomon Islands. US Marines take Henderson Airfield.
9th August 1942: Battle of Savo Island begins as 7 Japanese cruisers and a destroyer approach undetected west of Savo Island, Solomon Islands and sinks the U.S. heavy cruisers, Quincey, Vincennes and Astoria and the Australian cruiser Canberra. They also damage 1 cruiser and 2 destroyers. The allied ships depart and the Guadalcanal area is in the control of the Japanese forces.
19th August 1942: Japanese send 4 transport ships with an close escort of a cruiser and 4 destroyers to strengthen their land forces on Guadalcanal, Solomon Is. Movement is covered by 3 carriers, 2 battleships, 5 cruisers and 17 destroyers.
20th August 1942: 31 U.S. aircraft touchdown on the newly completed Henderson Field airstrip on Guadalcanal to help the Marines fighting over the control of the island.
22nd August 1942: First wave of Japanese reinforcements wiped out by US forces on Guadalcanal.
24th August 1942: Battle joined in the Eastern Solomons with the Japanese trying to land reinforcements on Guadalcanal. US forces beat off the Japanese Combined Fleet sinking the carrier Ryujo, but suffering damage to the carrier Enterprise.
25th August 1942: Battle of Eastern Solomon's continues with a Japanese destroyer being sunk off Santa Isabel. According to some sources Japanese succeed in landing troops on Guadalcanal in the night from destroyers. Nauru, Gilbert Is. and Goodenough, off the SE coast of New Guinea are occupied by Japanese. Battle of Milne Bay, Papua, begins. Japanese Special Naval Landing Force of 1,200 men come ashore.
26th August 1942: Two thousand Japanese land at Milne Bay, South East of Port Moresby and advance up Kokoda Trail.
29th August 1942: Japanese warships begin to evacuate Milne Bay.
31st August 1942: 1,200 Japanese reinforcements landed on Guadalcanal by ‘Tokyo Express’.
6th September 1942: Australians force total Japanese evacuation of Milne Bay, with just 1,000 troops surviving to be evacuated.
7th September 1942: US Marines launch a surprise raid on the Japanese base at Talou, Guadalcanal.
8th September 1942: Japanese advance from Kokoda to Owen Stanley Ridge in an overland drive for Port Moresby, New Guinea.
11th September 1942: Japanese drive halted by Australians at loribaiwa, just 32 miles from Port Moresby.
21st September 1942:
British forces begin their first land counter-offensive against the Japanese in Arakan, Western Burma.8th October 1942: Strong Japanese rearguard action against the Australians at Templeton Crossing on the Kokoda Trail in New Guinea.
11th October 1942: The US Navy surprises a Japanese naval squadron in the night 'Battle of Cape Esperance', off Savo Island in the Solomons. The Japanese lose one cruiser and a destroyer, while the US Navy loses just a single destroyer.
15th October 1942: 4,500 Japanese troops land as reinforcement for Guadalcanal as battle continues.
16th October 1942: The Japanese are forced back by Australians at Templeton Crossing, New Guinea. The shelling of Henderson Airfield continues.
24th October 1942: The land battle begins in earnest around Henderson Field, with the elite Japanese 2nd Division being wiped out.
26th October 1942: Battle of Santa Cruz, with US forces attacking the large Japanese supporting fleet near Guadalcanal and shooting down 100 aircraft, damaging two carriers, a battleship and three cruisers.
29th October 1942: The Japanese forced to retreat in Solomons. The US retains control of all their positions on Guadalcanal. An Australians force completes the evacuation of the Templeton Crossing positions in New Guinea.
2nd November 1942: The Australians recapture Kokoda in New Guinea.
13th November 1942: First sea battle off Guadalcanal in the Pacific begins in confusion.
15th November 1942: Another night action off Guadalcanal costs the US Navy three destroyers for Japanese battleship Kirishma.
16th November 1942: US and Australian forces join up for the assault on the last Japanese stronghold in Northern Papua, the Buna-Gona bridgehead.
1st December 1942: The Australians take Gona in New Guinea.
7th December 1942: US make a beachhead South of Buna, cutting off Japanese forces there.
9th December 1942: Fresh US troops relieve the besieged 1st Marine Division on Guadalcanal.
10th December 1942: The Allies control the whole of the Gona area in New Guinea.
13th December 1942: The Japanese make successful new landings North of Buna.
17th December 1942: The Final US-Australian assault on Buna begins.
"So, CLEARLY
"Kiwis, Aussies, and brits had been fighting the japanese in the pacific well before the americans showed up." is an incorrect statement.
The Commonwealth did not declare war on Japan until Dec 8, the same day the US did. Both Commonwealth forces and US forces were engaged from that point forward. The Commonwealth initially in Maylay and Hong Kong, the US at Wake Island.
On 23 January 1942 Australia appeals to UK and US for immediate reinforcements and by 14 March 1942 US troops arrive in Australia in force. I find this a pretty impressive response for a country that was totally unprepared for WW2.
As the Timeline shows, all Allied forces basically were reeling back from the Japanese onslaught. The first minor victory was 24 January 1942 when US destroyers torpedo three Japanese transports off Balikpapan. Australia didn't even mobilize fully until the next day.
A real turning point came on 4 May 1942, when US carrier forces engaged part of Japanese invasion fleet in Battle of Coral Sea.
On the face of it, the Battle of the Coral Sea appeared to be a victory for the Japanese. The Imperial Navy had sunk one American fleet carrier and damaged another, sunk an oiler and a destroyer, while losing only Shoho and a large number of planes, and suffering severe damage to Shokaku and enough damage to Zuikaku to keep both out of the war for several months. It was a tactical victory for the Imperial forces.
However, the battle was a strategic victory for the Americans.
The Coral Sea meant the end of Japanese expansion southward. They would never again threaten Australia and New Zealand.The significance of the Battle of the Coral Sea was that the Americans had foiled the occupation of Port Moresby and the knockout of Australian air power. These were necessary before carrier strikes by the Japanese against Australia.
The first real setback for the Japanese was 4 June 1942 when the US Navy engaged and defeated the Japanese in the decisive Battle of Midway.
Then, on 7 August 1942, the US landed Marines on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. This was the true beginning of the drive in the Pacific that pushed the Japanese back to their home islands.
A month later, the Australians hit Milne Bay in New Guinea, putting Commonwealth troops on the offensive. The Owen Stanley campaign followed.
From there on, the tide was turning; offense took the place of defense. Like it or not, the offensive in the Pacific from New Guinea and the Solomons on to the home islands of Japan was conducted primarily by US Forces.
[This message has been edited by Toad (edited 01-16-2001).]
