Jeffrey J. Clark, Chief of Military History
| Chief, Histories Division Editor in Chief | Richard W. Stewart Keith R. Tidman |
Contents
| Section | Page | |
| I. | THE ALLIED DEFENSIVE | [2] |
| II. | THE STRATEGIC DEFENSIVE AND TACTICAL OFFENSIVE | [76] |
| III. | THE OFFENSIVE—1944 | [213] |
| IV. | THE FINAL PHASE | [328] |
| V. | THE CHINA-BURMA-INDIA THEATER | [412] |
| VI. | THE COLLAPSE OF JAPAN AND THE END OF THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC | [443] |
| APPENDIX A: LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS | [463] | |
| APPENDIX B: LIST OF PICTORIAL SOURCES | [464] | |
| INDEX | [475] |
.. to Those Who Served
THE ALLIED DEFENSIVE
SECTION I
The Allied Defensive[1]
Before 7 December 1941, while war was actively being waged in Europe and the Far East, the United States, still a neutral, was expanding its manufacturing facilities to meet the demands for additional war materials, both for the growing U.S. forces and those of the Allies. On 7 December the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor in an attempt to so cripple U.S. naval power that future Japanese conquest and occupation in the Pacific would meet with little or no opposition. This attack dealt a serious blow to Navy and Army Air Forces units stationed in the Hawaiian Islands. On the same day two Japanese destroyers attacked the island of Midway, but were beaten off by the defending troops. On 8 December Wake was assaulted. The attacks on Wake were continued for two weeks and the small U.S. garrison was forced to surrender on 23 December. Another weak garrison on the island of Guam, unable to resist the enemy attacks, fell on 10 December.
[1] See Louis Morton, The Fall of the Philippines, Washington, D.C., 1953, in the series U.S. ARMY IN WORLD WAR II.