Curated category
Naval aviation operations and battles
- Indian Ocean raidThe Indian Ocean raid, known to the Japanese as Operation C, lasted just eleven days in April 1942, yet it shook the foundations of British imperial power in…
- Operation PedestalBy late July 1942, the island of Malta faced a desperate shortage of fuel. Air Vice-Marshal Keith Park warned that only a few weeks of aviation fuel remained…
- Battle of Leyte GulfThe Battle of Leyte Gulf, fought from the 23rd to the 26th of October 1944, pulled more than 200,000 naval personnel into a single sprawling confrontation in…
- Battle of MidwayOn the morning of the 4th of June 1942, the Japanese carrier force known as the Kido Butai launched 108 aircraft toward a tiny atoll 1,300 miles northwest of…
- Battle of the Philippine SeaThe Battle of the Philippine Sea, fought on the 19th and the 20th of June 1944, was the largest carrier-to-carrier naval engagement in history.
- Sinking of Prince of Wales and RepulseWinston Churchill and his cabinet met on the 17th of October and the 20th of October to discuss sending a modern battleship to the Far East.
- Battle of the Coral SeaOn the 4th of May 1942, the Imperial Japanese Navy began Operation MO with a clear goal: seize Port Moresby in New Guinea and Tulagi in the Solomon Islands.
- Battle of CreteThe Battle of Crete began at 08:00 on the 20th of May 1941, when dozens of Junkers Ju 52 aircraft disgorged German paratroopers into the skies above Maleme…
- Siege of Malta (World War II)The Siege of Malta was a military campaign that ran from June 1940 to November 1942, pitting the air and naval forces of Italy and Nazi Germany against the…
- Battle of TarantoThe Mediterranean Sea became a deadly choke point in 1940. British convoys traveling from Gibraltar to Egypt faced constant threats from Italian naval forces.