WWII Pacific Campaigns and Battles - Naval Focus

[M. Sarsfield]

I created this list about 8 months ago, not realizing at the time that the stock game lacked most of these events. So, I recommend installing RSRDC, if you don't already have it. This is not to imply that all of these events are in RSRDC, but that the improved campaign layer of that mod will/should reflect realistic traffic in the areas noted below.

I did the best that I could with finding all of the relevant naval and amphibious events and the correct start and end dates, but you may disagree with a few. In some cases I had multiple sources giving me conflicting data and I had to make a best guess.

Bold-faced (single) battles and campaigns dictate the order of information below based on their start dates. Feel free to copy and use this list anyway that you see fit.


WWII Pacific Campaigns and Battles - Naval Focus

Attack on Pearl Harbor, 7 Dec., 1941
Invasion of the Gilbert Islands, 8 Dec., 1941
Battle of Guam, 8 Dec., 1941
Invasion of Thailand, 8 Dec., 1941
Battle of Wake Island, 8 - 23 Dec., 1941
Invasion of Malaya, 8 Dec., 1941 - 31 Jan., 1942
Philippines Campaign, 8 Dec., 1941 - 6 May, 1942
* Invasion of Luzon, 8 Dec., 1941 - 6 Jan., 1942
* Battle of Davao, 20 Dec., 1941
* Battle of Bataan, 7 Jan. - 10 Apr., 1942
* Battle of Corregidor, 1 - 6 May, 1942
Naval Force Z Sunk (Malaya), 10 Dec., 1941
Netherlands East Indies Campaign, 15 Dec.,1941 - 8 Mar., 1942
* Invasion of Borneo, 15 Dec., 1941 - 1 Apr., 1942
* Invasion of Manado, 11 - 13 Jan., 1942
* Battle of Balikpapan, 23 - 24 Jan., 1942
* Invasion of Ambon, 30 Jan. - 3 Feb., 1942
* Battle of Makassar Strait (Flores Sea), 4 Feb., 1942
* Battle of Palembang, Sumatra, 13 - 15 Feb., 1942
* Invasion of Bali, 18 Feb., 1942
* Battle of Lombok/Badung Strait, 18 - 20 Feb., 1942
* Battle of the Java Sea, 27 Feb., 1942
* Battle of Sunda Strait, 28 Feb. - 1 Mar., 1942
* Invasion of Java, 28 Feb. - 8 Mar., 1942
Invasion of Hong Kong, 18 - 25 Dec., 1941
Solomon Islands / Guadalcanal Campaign, 25 Jan., 1942 - 21 Aug., 1945
* Japanese Landings, 25 Jan. - Jun., 1942
* Allied Landings on Guadalcanal and adjacent islands, 7 & 8 Aug., 1942
* Battle of Eastern Solomon Islands, 24 & 25 Aug., 1942
* Japanese Landing at Milne Bay, N.G., 25 Aug., 1942
* "Tokyo Express" & Operation Ke, 29 Aug., 1942 - 9 Feb., 1943
* Battle of Cape Esperance, Guadalcanal, 11 & 12 Oct., 1942
* Battle of Santa Cruz Islands, 26 Oct., 1942
* Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, 12 - 15 Nov., 1942
* Operation Cartwheel Landings, 21 Jun., 1943 - 1 Nov., 1943 (See below **)
* Battle of Empress Augusta Bay, Bougainville, 1 & 2 Nov., 1943
Invasion of Singapore, 8 - 15 Feb., 1942
Timor Campaign, 19 Feb., 1942 - 10 Feb., 1943
New Guinea & New Britain Campaigns, (late) Jan. 1942 - (early) Aug. 1945
* Japanese Invasion of New Britain, 23 Jan., - Feb. 1942
* Battle of Coral Sea, 4 May - 8 May, 1942
* Japanese Invasion of N.G., Jul., 1942
* Battle of Bismarck Sea, 2 - 4 Mar., 1943
* Operation Cartwheel Landings, 21 Jun., 1943 - 20 Mar., 1944
-- New Georgia, 21 & 30 Jun., 5 Jul., 1943 **
-- Woodlark Island and Kiriwina, 30 June, 1943
-- Rendova, 30 Jun., 1943 **
-- Vella Lavella, 15 Aug., 1943 **
-- Arundel Island, 27 Aug., 1943 **
-- Lae, N.G., 5 Sep. 1943
-- Treasury Islands, 27 Oct., 1943 **
-- Choiseul Island, 28 Oct., 1943 **
-- Bougainville, 1 Nov., 1943 **
-- Arawe, New Britain, 15 Dec., 1943
-- Cape Glouscester, New Britain, 26 Dec., 1943
-- Saidor, N.G., 2 Jan., 1944
-- Admiralty Islands, 29 Feb., 1944
-- Emirau Island, 20 Mar. 1944
* Hollandia, N.G. Landings, 21 - 27 Apr., 1944
* Biak Island Landing, 27 May, 1944
Battle of Midway, 4 - 7 Jun., 1942
Gilbert and Marshall Islands Campaign, 20 Nov., 1943 - (late) Feb., 1944
* Battle of Tarawa, 20 - 23 Nov., 1943
* Battle of Makin, 20 - 24 Nov., 1943
* Battle of Kwajalein, 31 Jan. - 3 Feb., 1944
* Attack on Truk (Operation Hailstone), 17 - 18 Feb., 1944
* Battle of Eniwetok, 17 - 23 Feb., 1944
Marianas Islands Campaign, 15 Jun. - 8 Aug., 1944
* Battle of Saipan, 15 Jun. - 9 Jul., 1944
* Battle of Philippine Sea (Operation A-Go), 19 - 20 Jun., 1944
* Battle of Guam, 21 Jul., - 8 Aug., 1944
* Battle of Tinian, 24 Jul., - 1 Aug., 1944
Palau Islands Campaign, 15 Sep. - 25 Nov., 1944
* Battle of Peleliu, 15 Sep. - 25 Nov., 1944
Philippines Campaign, 20 Oct., 1944 - 2 Sep., 1945***
* Battle of Leyte Gulf, 23 - 25 Oct., 1944
-- Battle of the Sibuyan Sea, 23 & 24 Oct., 1944 (East of Mindoro)
-- Battle of Surigao Strait, 24 Oct., 1944 (East of Leyte)
-- Battle off Cape Engaño, 24 & 25 Oct. 1944 (East of Luzon)
-- Battle off Samar, 25 Oct. 1944 (East of Samar)
Battle of Iwo Jima, 9 Feb. - 26 Mar., 1945
Battle of Okinawa, 1 Apr. - 21 Jun., 1945
* Operation Ten-Go, 7 Apr., 1945
Borneo Campaign, 1 May - 15 Aug., 1945

*** Good article on when WWII in the Pacific really ended...http://marinebuddysearch.net/scuttlebutt/corps-stories/ww2/lesson.asp (http://marinebuddysearch.net/scuttlebutt/corps-stories/ww2/lesson.asp)

[Old Dog]

Great stuff, many thanks M Sarsfield !

What we would like to have you do for us now is to.....:rotfl::rotfl:

[scrag]

Aloha,
Sorry about my ignorance but what is "RSRDC".
Concur with the concept - is this a message that would simply occur or could someone conduct a patrol in the area of the battle and interact with the participants?

[M. Sarsfield]

RSRDC is the Run Silent, Run Deep Campaign mod by Lurker, I believe. It completely rewrites the way Allied and Axis ship traffic is generated in the game based on historical data. It's a must-have along with Real Fleet Boats (RFB) or Trigger Maru (TM). You can read more about these and other mods in the sticky posts in the SHIV Mod forum.

[Torps]

It would be nice to incoprorate these battles into the game it definately would add to game no dought.

[M. Sarsfield]

It would be very impressive. Especially, with a combined Air Campaign mod.

[M. Sarsfield]

I made a few minor changes to the list. BUMP.

[peabody]

Great work, nice list, must have taken a long time. I just did a Single Mission on the Battle of Bismark Sea (just posted it in the mission forum) and the info I had was it was mostly air from the Allied side. Maybe I got ahold of some misinformation? Maybe my mission is all wrong. Good Grief Charlie Brown. Well, anyway thanks for putting the effort in to it, maybe i'll steal an idea for another mission.;)

Peabody

[M. Sarsfield]

Thanks, peabody. I forget how many hours I spent on it. Part of it was a self-taught history lesson, since I never really followed the PTO much. European theater hogs a lot of the attention for WWII, unfortunately.

As for Battle of Bimarck Sea, the allies had 39 heavy bombers, 41 medium bombers,
34 light bombers, and 54 fighters. Some of the aircraft included B17's, B-24's, B-25's, P-38's, and Bristol Beaufighters. 2 bombers and three fighters were lost.

The Japanese had 8 destroyers, 8 troop transports, and 100 aircraft. 8 transports, 4 destroyers, 20 fighters, and at least 3,000 Japanese troops were destroyed/killed. For 3 days after the battle Allied patrol boats and planes were ordered to gun down surviving Japanese vessels and men as retaliation for some allied bomber crews being killed while parachuting from their plane.

So, basically, it was a lop-sided air battle. Of the 6,900 Japanese troops destined for New Guinea, about 800 made it.