U.S. At War: Year Without Precedent

The year ending March 1, 1945 was "without precedent in naval history." So wrote Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King in a cold and prideful report made public last week. In those twelve months the Navy:

¶ Fought 72 great and little battles, among them the Battle of the Philippine Sea and the Battle for Leyte Gulf.

¶ Aided the invasion of Europe.

¶ Pushed the Pacific frontier 3,000 miles closer to Tokyo. (In a historic 19 days—Jan. 31 to Feb. 19—the throbbing Navy, spread-eagling the Pacific, supported landings at Nasugbu on Luzon, bombarded Manila Bay, supported landings at Mariveles and Corregidor, made a carrier task force attack on Tokyo, supported the landings on Iwo Jima and bombarded Paramushiro—an area of operations covering 860,000 square miles.)

¶ Sank, according to King, at least two Jap carriers, three battleships, eight cruisers, 20 destroyers, damaged many more. (Other Navy estimates: seven carriers, 21 cruisers, 52 destroyers; plus more than 6,000 planes destroyed.) U.S. losses in the same period in the Pacific listed by King: five carriers, seven destroyers, two destroyer escorts; plus (according to other Navy sources) 1,147 planes.

These accomplishments, said Admiral King, were the results of coordination of all arms—land, sea, air. Ernest King, a "battleship admiral," gave due credit to air power and especially praised the work of U.S. submarines. But triumphantly he declared: "The renewed importance of the battleship is one of the interesting features of the Pacific war. . . . Battleship fire provides the only gun (or weapon for that matter) which is sufficiently powerful and accurate to knock out reinforced concrete pillboxes eight to ten feet thick. . . . The battleship is a versatile and essential vessel, far from obsolete."