Query: Seeking information on US Navy Pacific WW II

[Michael Emrys]

I wonder if there is some readily accessible list of ships' arrival times in the theater and dates of their loss if any. I am particularly interested in aircraft carriers but anything bigger than a subchaser would be nice to know.

Michael

[John Kettler]

Michael Emrys,

Ships rotated in and out of the PTO throughout the war, with some vessels doing several such drills. To help answer your question, it would help greatly to know what it is you seek to learn US warship looses in the PTO are certainly known and available, but dates of loss tell you nothing about arrival dates. For that, you would need to find the historical records for a particular ship. Below is the link to the master list for US Navy WW II ship losses, by vessel type. It is NOT broken down by theater, so you may need to do some checking if you don't recognize the place name where the sinking occurred.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Navy_losses_in_World_War_II

There is a ton of material on Wiki and other sites covering the history of individual warships. Below is the link to the USS Longshaw's history. I picked this destroyer randomly to make my point. Some of the smaller vessels lack such detail and will require consulting of specialized naval references.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Longshaw_(DD-559)

Sample specialized naval reference book.

https://www.amazon.com/PC-Patrol-Craft-World-War/dp/0964586711

Brother Ed is a walking encyclopedia on the PTO naval war and has an impressive research library. If you have a specific question on a vessel which is a destroyer or larger, he may well have highly detailed info available that far exceeds anything online. Worked with him on Steel Typhoon, which covers the second halt of the Pacific War using the Command at Sea gaming system for miniatures.

Regards,

John Kettler

 

 

[Michael Emrys]

46 minutes ago, John Kettler said:

To help answer your question, it would help greatly to know what it is you seek to learn

Thanks, John, I was hoping you might weigh in on this since I know you have an interest in naval history too.

I am mostly interested in knowing how the balance of forces USN/IJN worked out over the course of the war. For instance, if I have it right, at the beginning of 1943 the USN only had two carriers left in the Pacific—the Enterprise and the Saratoga—and they both were knocked up for repairs! But gradually over the course of the year both light and fleet carriers trickled into the theater. Plus, the Brits were good enough to loan the USN the HMS Victorious for part of the year. It also helped that most of the fighting during that year was in the SW Pacific where land based air was quite able to fill the gaps.

But the Central Pacific was another matter and Nimitz's island hopping campaign had to wait until significant numbers of fast carriers were available.

Michael

[John Kettler]

Michael Emrys,

There have been quite a few books written on carrier ops in the Pacific, and the OOBs for both sides are known, in detail. Have been up for mucho hours, so can't produce titles on demand, but I did rember one online resource for the IJN which is worth its weight in gold. You'll understand why once you start exploring it. It's The Imperial Japanese Navy Page.

http://www.combinedfleet.com/kaigun.htm

Here is something similar I just found for the US side of the War in the Pacific.  The Pacific War: The U.S. Navy

http://www.microworks.net/pacific/

Here's what the US started with at Pearl Harbor on the day the war began.

https://ww2-weapons.com/us-navy-in-late-1941/

Here's what it finished with in the Pacific.

https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/u/us-pacific-fleet-organization-1may1945.html

Regards,

John Kettler

[MOS:96B2P]

Thanks @John Kettler.  Lots of interesting stuff in the first link.  +1

[Erwin]

Suggest checking out Grigsby's WAR IN THE PACIFIC (original or Admiral's Edition) game.  That game has dates for the arrival of every unit in the Pacific theatre, ships, squadrons, ground units etc.

[Michael Emrys]

8 hours ago, MOS:96B2P said:

Thanks @John Kettler.  Lots of interesting stuff in the first link.  +1

Ditto for me too.

Michael