Battle of the Philippine Sea 1944

About the battle

The Battle of the Philippine Sea was a major naval battle of World War II on 19–20 June 1944 that eliminated the Imperial Japanese Navy's ability to conduct large-scale carrier actions. It took place during the United States' amphibious reconquest of the Mariana Islands during the Pacific War. The battle was the last of five major "carrier-versus-carrier" engagements between American and Japanese naval forces, and pitted elements of the United States Navy's Fifth Fleet against ships and aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy's Mobile Fleet and nearby island garrisons. The battle was the largest carrier-to-carrier engagement in history, involving 24 aircraft carriers, deploying roughly 1,350 carrier-based aircraft.

The aerial part of the battle was nicknamed the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot by American aviators for the severely disproportional loss ratio inflicted upon Japanese aircraft by American pilots and anti-aircraft gunners.

Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of the Philippine Sea (revision 1380578755), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.

Other battles of the Pacific War

• Battle off Horaniu 1943
• Bougainville campaign 1943
• Landing at Nadzab 1943
• Landing at Scarlet Beach 1943
• Landings at Cape Torokina 1943
• Battle of Angaur 1944
• Battle of Biak 1944
• Battle of Leyte Gulf 1944
• Battle of Morotai 1944
• Battle of Ormoc Bay 1944

All 56 battles of the Pacific War →

Browse more: battles at sea · Islands & open ocean · World War II era battles

Further reading

• Wikipedia: Battle of the Philippine Sea
• Wikidata Q504347