Pearl Harbor Research Paper

While both the Allies and Axis sides possessed their military powers through the army, battleships, and tanks, air warfare was also crucial for either side to win in and played an important role in the outcome of WWII. They were used in many tactical missions, as well as to transport troops, equipment, and supplies to the battlefield in mere minutes. Many major events happened due to air bombings and fights in the sky, including the bombings of Pearl Harbor, which eventually dragged the U.S. into the war, all the way to the Atom bomb droppings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Planes have been proved effective regarding both sides, and WWII would have turned out a whole lot differently without them.

The Luftwaffe was the aerial warfare branch of

Starting to advance with a Japanese fleet on November 26th, they would launch a total of 360 planes about 275 miles (440 km) north of Hawaii. By 7:55, the first wave of 200 aircraft started, which included torpedo planes, bombers, and fighters. The second wave was mainly to attack carriers first, cruisers second, and save the battleships for last. No one expected a reconnaissance attack until it was too late. A U.S. Private detected on his radar a massive amount of planes, but was told to simply ignore it because it was a group of B-17’s that they were expecting. However, on their way to reinforce the Philippines, 12 unarmed B-17’s, commanded by Lt. Barthelmess, Major Landon, and Capt. Carmichael, found themselves in the middle of the assault. Harbored ships, as well as the U.S. Military Aircraft were open targets for the Japanese, allowing them to bomb most of their ships for the first half hour. Among the battleships that were destroyed were the Arizona, Oklahoma, California, Nevada, and West Virginia, along with three cruisers, three destroyers, and other vessels. Also, the planes destroyed over 180 aircraft. America had a casualty count of about 3400, while the Japanese lost only 29 to 60 planes, losing less than 100. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor crippled the U.S. naval and air strength in the Pacific. On

It mainly ended the threat of further Japanese invasion in the Pacific. Beginning on June 3, 1942, U.S. bombers from Midway Island struck ineffectual at the Japanese carrier strike force. Early the next morning, Japanese planes from the strike force attacked and bombed Midway heavily, while the Japanese carriers again escaped damage from U.S. land-based planes, but as the morning progressed, the Japanese carriers were soon overwhelmed by the logistics of almost simultaneously sending a second wave of bombers to finish off the Midway runways, avoiding bombs of attacking Allied planes, and trying to launch more planes to sink the sighted U.S. naval forces. A wave of U.S. torpedo bombers was almost completely destroyed during their attack on the Japanese carriers at 9:20 am, but an hour later, 36 carrier-launched U.S. dive-bombers caught the Japanese carriers while their decks were cluttered with armed aircraft and fuel. The U.S. planes quickly sank three of the heavy Japanese carriers and one heavy cruiser. In the late afternoon U.S. planes disabled the fourth heavy carrier (scuttled the next morning), but its aircraft had badly damaged the U.S. carrier Yorktown. The Battle of Midway brought the Pacific maritime strengths of Japan and the United States