Ray Merriam

Central Pacific Campaigns and Operations: Including the Gilbert-marshall Islands Campaign and the Occupation of the Marianas 1 June 1943-1 September 1 Ray Merriam

Publisher Marketing: Merriam Press Military Monograph 124. Fourth Edition (February 2012). First published as Chapters IX and X of The Campaigns of the Pacific War as part of the USSBS series in 1946. Primarily concerned with naval operations, including naval and land-based air operations, it covers both American and Japanese plans and operations in this theater of the war. The bulk of this work is composed of more than a dozen appendices, many of which are, or contain, extensive charts and tables of information, including orders of battle, strengths, casualties, losses, rosters, postwar question and answer historical interrogations, and translations of Japanese directives, operations orders, dispatches, reports, war diary excerpts, etc. Very important and useful source of highly detailed information. Contents: Chapter 1: Central Pacific Operations: From 1 June 1943 to 1 March 1944 Including the Gilbert-Marshall Islands Campaign; Appendix 68: Strength of Opposing Ground Forces, Casualties and Japanese Garrison Strength in the Central Pacific; Appendix 69: Extracts from Official Reports of the Imperial Japanese Government Concerning the Gilbert-Marshalls Campaign; Chapter 2: The Central Pacific Campaign, 1 March to 1 September 1944, Including the Occupation of the Marianas; Appendix 71: Combined Fleet Ultrasecret Operation Order 73; Appendix 72: Imperial Headquarters Directive 373; Appendix 73: Combined Fleet Ultrasecret Dispatch 041213; Appendix 74: United States Forces Involved; Appendix 75: Chain of Command, Japanese Forces in Marianas-Carolines, 1 June 1944; Appendix 76: Order of Battle, Defense Forces in Ogasawara-Marianas-Carolines, 1 June; Appendix 77: 1 June 1944-Assigned Strength, Base Air Forces, Marianas and Carolines (No Army Air in Central Pacific); Appendix 78: Battle of the Philippine Sea, 19-20 June 1944 Task Organization-First Mobile Fleet; Appendix 79: First Mobile Fleet Classified No. 1048 (5 September 1944): Detailed Battle Report of AGO Operations; Appendix 80: From the Files of the Navy Board of Merit; Appendix 81: Translation of Japanese Documents; 4 maps; 14 appendices.