> />

Murderer's Row: The Marianas Turkey Shoot

June 19th, 1944

"It was a gorgeous day for a battle. The nineteenth dawned at 0430, casting a semitropical light over the enormous expanse of the Philippine Sea. At that hour Mitscher's group lay a hundred miles northwest of Guam. Not quite ninety minutes later the sun appeared behind Saipan, revealing beautiful flying conditions: a warm morning with the evening's clouds dissipating before noon." 

              From Clash of the Carriers by Barrett Tillman

The first battle of the Philippine Sea is the largest carrier versus carrier battle in history, with 15 US Navy carriers and over 900 carrier aircraft, facing 9 Imperial Japanese Navy carriers and just under 500 carrier aircraft. Japan, realized that Saipan, would give the Americans a base for the new B-29's to expand the bombing campaign made it the highest priority to reinforce and defend the island. The Japanese navy made a series of maximum effort attacks to thwart the invasion with all available forces. At this time the IJN was still a formidable force with over a dozen aircraft carriers, and hundreds of planes and pilots to place into battle. Admiral Ozawa launched the first attack on the American carriers at 0600 on the morning of 19 June 1944. At that time the Admiral had almost 500 carrier aircraft under his command. By the end of the battle, late in the evening the next day, he had only 35 serviceable aircraft left. The blow was something the Japanese Navy would never recover from. Just five months later, the only thing the remaining carriers could be used for was as a decoy for Admiral Halsey at Leyte Gulf.

This FSO Setup will attempt to recreate the air battle that took place over the Philippine Sea on the 19th and 20th of June, 1944.

• Frame 1- July 10th, 2009- (0600 Tower Time)

• Frame 2- July 17th, 2009- (1100 Tower Time)

• Frame 3- July 24th, 2009- (1700 Tower Time)

Axis:

• Prev
• Next