Pearl Harbor - US Battleship Fleet
Pearl Harbor - US Battleships
 bigpigeon.us webpage World Wars > WW II - Japan > Japan Lashes Out, updated by RAC 17 Sep '19.   Not yet complete.
In December 1941, Japan launched a coordinated series of suprise attacks in the Central Pacific and in eastern and southeastern Asia. For the next five months, the Japanese military was successful beyond their expectations in portions of the central, south, and southwestern Pacific and in southeast Asia, the Philippines, and the Dutch Indies. ​
Links to the WW II - Japan Lashes Out subordinate webpages
==> This is a work in progress - some webpages, including this one, are incomplete.
Major Japanese advances during the first six months of the War with Japan
  • 7 Dec: Japanese air attack on United States military bases on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, especially Pearl Harbor.
  • 8 Dec: First Japanese bombing of Wake Island in the mid-Pacific. Wake defenders repelled the first landing on 11 Dec. Wake fell on 23 Dec.
  • 8 Dec: Japanese attacked Guam, a US territory in the Mariana Islands. Guam fell on 10 Dec.
  • 8 Dec: Hong Kong, then a British colony, invaded. Hong Kong fell on 25 Dec.
  • 8 Dec: Japanese landings began in Malaya, then a British colony. Japanese then advanced down the Malay Peninsula to the strait opposite Singapore, then a British colony.
  • 8 Dec: Half of Philippine Air Force destroyed in air raids eight hours after the Pearl Harbor attack.
  • 15 Dec: Japanese landings began the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia. Resistance ended on 9 Mar 1942.
  • 22 Dec: Japanese major landings in the Philippines begin on Luzon Gulf north of Manila. 
  • 8 Feb 1942: Japanese launched an offensive on the island fortress of Singapore. Singapore fell on 15 Feb.
  • ​3 Apr: Japanese launched their final offensive against American and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula. Bataan fell six days later. Survivors walked to a prison camp under extremely brutal conditions.
  • 6 May: Organized resistance in the Philippines ended with the surrender of the island of Corregidor.
  • early 1942 - Japanese overrun much of Burma.
The Japanese Empire - Mid 1942
Japanese Empire - Mid 1942
The First American Carrier Raids
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the American aircraft carriers based at Pearl were at sea, and thus survived. In Februrary and March of 1942, US carrier and cruiser forces made a series of attacks on Japanese positions in the central and southwest Pacific. Although these air raids and shore bombardments failed to inflict major damage, they did not incur major losses and were valuable training exercises.
  • 1 Feb '42 - Marshall & Gilbert Islands, USS Enterprise & USS Yorktown
  • 20 Feb '42 - off Rabaul
  • 24 Feb & 4 Mar '42 - Wake & Marcus Islands
  • 10 Mar '42 - Lae & Salamaua, New Guinea - USS Lexington & USS Yorktown
Sources for the  WW II - Japan Lashes Out webpage
  • The webpage header photo Pearl Harbor - US Battleships is courtesy of dailymaverick.co.za.
  • Early Raids in the Pacific Ocean  (https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/e/early-raids-pacific-ocean.html)