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    OPERATION FORAGER: Air Power in the Campaign for Saipan
    OPERATION FORAGER: Air Power in the Campaign for Saipan
    OPERATION FORAGER: Air Power in the Campaign for Saipan
    Ebook166 pages1 hour

    OPERATION FORAGER: Air Power in the Campaign for Saipan

    By Lieutenant Commander Mark D. Tate USN

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    This study is an examination of historical data to determine the effectiveness of air power in supporting operations during the battle for Saipan during June and July 1944. The battle was fought during a critical phase of World War II, over an island whose strategic significance would become manifest during the war’s closing months. The Japanese correctly believed that losing Saipan would mean the beginning of the end for the Empire.

    The study determines that the role of air power was critical in protecting the amphibious force, defeating the Japanese fleet, decimating land-based Japanese air forces, and supporting the troops on the ground. Air power at Saipan created an environment which made an American victory inevitable.

    The study examines the assets available and their effectiveness in various types of air support employed at Saipan, and looks at joint air employment. It concludes that anti-air combat and airfield interdiction were highly successful, while fleet action and close air support were moderately successful. It examines factors involved and the results produced. It concludes that joint operations were conducted, but that these were operations of coexistence rather than real coordination.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTannenberg Publishing
    Release dateNov 6, 2015
    ISBN9781786250865
    OPERATION FORAGER: Air Power in the Campaign for Saipan

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      Book preview

      OPERATION FORAGER - Lieutenant Commander Mark D. Tate USN

      This edition is published by PICKLE PARTNERS PUBLISHING—www.picklepartnerspublishing.com

      To join our mailing list for new titles or for issues with our books – picklepublishing@gmail.com

      Or on Facebook

      Text originally published in 1995 under the same title.

      © Pickle Partners Publishing 2014, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

      Publisher’s Note

      Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

      We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

      OPERATION FORAGER: AIR POWER IN THE CAMPAIGN FOR SAIPAN

      By

      Lieutenant Commander Mark D. Tate, USN

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Contents

      TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

      ABSTRACT 5

      ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 5

      LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 6

      CHAPTER ONE — INTRODUCTION 7

      The Statement of the Problem and Its Relevance 7

      Secondary Questions 7

      Limitations and Delimitations 8

      The Significance of the Study 9

      Assumptions 10

      Definition of Terms 11

      CHAPTER TWO — LITERATURE REVIEW 12

      Books and Other Publications 12

      Documents and Official Histories 13

      CHAPTER THREE — RESEARCH DESIGN 15

      CHAPTER FOUR — SETTING THE STAGE 17

      Central Pacific Background Situation 17

      U.S. Preparations of the Theater 18

      The Operation FORAGER Plan 21

      Enemy Forces 23

      CHAPTER FIVE — THE BATTLE BEGINS: THE EARLY PHASES 24

      Preparation of the Landing Area 24

      The Landings 27

      The Japanese Respond 29

      The Air Battle of the Philippine Sea 30

      CHAPTER SIX — AIR OPERATIONS DURING THE BATTLE 38

      Forms of Air Support Employed 38

      Combat Air Patrol/Anti-air Combat 39

      Fleet Action 41

      Reconnaissance 42

      Antisubmarine Warfare 42

      Airfield Interdiction 43

      Transport/Medevac 45

      Close Air Support/Artillery Spotting 45

      CHAPTER SEVEN — CLOSE SUPPORT OPERATIONS 46

      Assets 46

      Control Procedures 47

      Army Air Force Employment 48

      Employment of Observers/Spotters/Marine Air 51

      Support from the Fast Carriers 52

      Support from the Escort Carriers 53

      Effectiveness 56

      Problems Encountered 59

      Responsiveness of CAS 59

      Request Procedures 59

      Communications Limitations 60

      Limits of Effectiveness 60

      Interference with Artillery 60

      Fratricide Avoidance 61

      Jointness 61

      CHAPTER EIGHT — CONCLUSIONS 62

      Successes 62

      Failures 62

      Implications for Subsequent Operations 63

      Implications for Joint Operations in the Pacific 64

      Lessons for Current Operations 65

      Conclusions/Answers to the Research Questions 65

      TABLE 1 — AIRCRAFT DESIGNATIONS 68

      United States 68

      Japanese 68

      TABLE 2 — TASK GROUP COMPOSITION 69

      TABLE 3 — ESCORT CARRIER GROUPS 70

      NORTHERN FORCE 70

      TABLE 4 — D-DAY STRIKE TAKE-UP/ORDNANCE 71

      FIGURES 72

      REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 75

      BIBLIOGRAPHY 76

      Books 76

      Studies 77

      Periodicals 77

      Government Documents 77

      ABSTRACT

      This study is an examination of historical data to determine the effectiveness of air power in supporting operations during the battle for Saipan during June and July 1944. The battle was fought during a critical phase of World War II, over an island whose strategic significance would become manifest during the war’s closing months. The Japanese correctly believed that losing Saipan would mean the beginning of the end for the Empire.

      The study determines that the role of air power was critical in protecting the amphibious force, defeating the Japanese fleet, decimating land-based Japanese air forces, and supporting the troops on the ground. Air power at Saipan created an environment which made an American victory inevitable.

      The study examines the assets available and their effectiveness in various types of air support employed at Saipan, and looks at joint air employment. It concludes that anti-air combat and airfield interdiction were highly successful, while fleet action and close air support were moderately successful. It examines factors involved and the results produced. It concludes that joint operations were conducted, but that these were operations of coexistence rather than real coordination.

      ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

      I am deeply grateful to all the people who have assisted me in this endeavor. In addition to the invaluable assistance of my thesis committee, I acknowledge the outstanding support of the staff of the Combined Arms Research Library at Fort Leavenworth. I also extend my sincere thanks to the staff at the Air Force Historical Research Facility at Maxwell Air Force Base for their important contributions of valuable information and their willingness to help.

      LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

      AAF—United States Army Air Force

      AP—armor piercing shells

      BB—battleship

      BLT—battalion landing team

      CA—heavy cruiser

      CL—light cruiser

      CAS—close air support

      CNO—Chief of Naval Operations

      COM—commander (prefix, as in C0M5THFLT, Commander 5th Fleet)

      CTF—commander, task force

      CTG—commander, task group

      CV—fleet or fast aircraft carrier

      CVL—light carrier

      CVE—escort carrier

      DD—destroyer

      DE—destroyer escort

      Div—division (suffix)

      JCS—Joint Chiefs of Staff

      LC—landing craft

      LCI—landing craft, infantry

      LCM—landing craft, mechanized

      LCVP—landing craft, vehicles and personnel

      LSD—landing ship, dock

      NAS—naval air station

      RON—squadron (suffix, as in PATRON 6, Patrol Squadron 6)

      Sc—air search radar

      Sg—surface search radar

      Tf—task force

      TF51—Joint Expeditionary Force (VADM Richmond K. Turner, commander)

      TF52—Northern Attack Force, Saipan and Tinian

      TF53—Southern Attack Force, Guam

      TF 51.1—floating reserve, carrying 27th Division (U.S. Army)

      CHAPTER ONE — INTRODUCTION

      The Statement of the Problem and Its Relevance

      The research questions to be examined are as follows: How effective was the air campaign in supporting amphibious force projection operations during the Saipan campaign, and to what extent could it be considered a joint effort? In an era of increasing emphasis on joint operations, a study of how these operations were conducted (or at least attempted) during the Pacific War, or even how they were avoided, can be of great significance to military scholars today. If some lessons can be learned in this area from the greatest land, air, and naval war in history, they may be of great value in creating doctrines and operational relationships which will enable modern planners to continue to field an effective military in an increasingly austere fiscal environment. In short, the study of jointness in the past can help provide modern naval aviation and its counterparts in the sister services with the proper context to make jointness possible and successful today.

      The campaign to regain the Marianas, and Saipan in particular, provides an ideal laboratory for the study of how American commanders used air power from all the services at their disposal to accomplish a very difficult mission, and it can provide an understanding of the relationships of the services to each other in the larger scheme of things. The use of joint forces was really still in its infancy during World War II, and the ways that were found then to solve the many problems which arose and to capitalize on the strengths of joint forces are still very relevant.

      Secondary Questions

      One secondary question is, simply asked: How was the use of the various sea and land-based air assets planned and executed in support of the amphibious operations necessary to capture the heavily defended Japanese bastion at Saipan? Admiral Chester Nimitz’s Operation FORAGER, the plan to attack and seize Saipan, Tinian, Guam, and the other islands in the archipelago, was the most ambitious campaign in size and scope attempted in the Pacific to that point. As a result it required the most assets and the most detailed and careful planning. The use of air power in that campaign, including its strengths and weaknesses, may provide powerful lessons and insights for the present, in a day when the value of air power and its ultimate ability to strategically influence the outcome of a campaign or a war are still very much in debate.

      The current world military and fiscal environment makes it more critical than ever before that current strategists determine realistically what can and cannot be done with air power. A realistic look at a major historical example can be of great value. Also, the renewed emphasis on littoral warfare serves to highlight the relevance of successful past uses of air power in support of amphibious forces.

      Another secondary question relates to how the conduct of the overall battle affected the air campaign. It asks: What were the needs of the forces involved on the ground and on the sea for support from the air, what were the assets available, and how were they used? Another secondary question is closely related: Was this truly a joint operation or primarily an effort by carrier-borne naval air assets? If a case can be made that it was joint, was this the result of a conscious decision by American commanders that joint air forces were the best mix to accomplish the goals of the naval and ground forces, or was it something that came about by the natural progression of the war, by temporary expediency, or by simple chance?

      The answers to the several facets of this secondary question may shed much light on the machinery of the American juggernaut in the Central Pacific as it began what would have been the greatest amphibious operation in history except for Operation OVERLORD, which was being carried out halfway around the world at almost exactly the same time.

      Yet another secondary question asks how the above considerations regarding assets available and their uses affected the conduct of combat operations in the campaign for Saipan, and whether they

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