U. S. Naval Aviation in the Pacific

The purpose of this review, which was prepared by officers on duty in the Operations Division, including Air Combat Intelligence officers with extensive service in the Pacific, is to analyze the relation between air and sea power. It is based upon the experience of naval aviation in the war against Japan as recorded in the files of the Navy Department. Reports of the United States Strategic Bombing Survey have also been consulted and the chart of the progress of the war has been taken from one of them. The danger inherent in any report confined to one aspect of the ear is that it may mislead the reader into forgetting that the conflict was won by a combination of ground, naval, and air forces, each of which carried its share of the common burden. All operated within the framework of strategic plans, and it is the aim of the analysis to show how naval aviation fulfilled it part of those plans. Since it is from the lessons of experience that plans for the future must be derived, the report is presented in the hope that it will prove of some value to those responsible for the future security of the United States.