Awakening the Sleeping Giant, Pt. 3—Projecting Massive Power in 1944 | Channel Markers

We continue our series on building the US Navy in World War II with Part 3, when the Navy perfects power projection. In 1944, the mailed fist of American industrial might relentlessly battered the hard-pressed Axis Powers. The American Way of War envisions the application of overwhelming force. It doesn’t want a fair fight. To this end, Admiral King demanded the US possess an indisputably superior navy that would meet and destroy the enemy at the times and places chosen by the Allies at minimum cost. Which it was doing well. National leaders had already agreed to accept nothing less than the unconditional surrender of Germany and Japan. When the final victory would be won was still difficult to predict. In any event, the war wouldn’t be over in 1944. As a result, despite its growing burden on national resources, including manpower, and as the other services complained, Admiral King pressed ahead with single-minded purpose to achieve his massive warship building program. More ships meant more operations. More operations meant a faster end to the war, King argued. Big ships and small continued to slide down the building ways. But building a fleet as large and expensive as King's would never be simple and free of controversy. Each year brought new external and internal challenges. Fighting the fleet and fighting for the fleet was a complex business, especially in 1944, the year in which the Navy launched the two largest amphibious operations in history, one at Normandy, France, the other at Saipan, in the Marianas Islands, only days and many thousands of miles apart in June. By the end of the year, the US Navy was undisputed master of the seas, so how many more ships would it need to win? How about the last two IOWA-class battleships, ILLINOIS (BB-65) and KENTUCKY (BB-66)? Did the Navy need HAWAII (CB-3)? How many fleet carriers was enough? With the invasion of Japan planned for 1945 and 1946, the answers weren't easily reached in 1944.

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Additional reading, for starters:

Joel R. Davidson, The Unsinkable Fleet: The Politics of U.S. Navy Expansion in World War II (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1996).

Norman Friedman, U.S. Aircraft Carriers: An Illustrated History, rev. ed. (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2022) and U.S. Cruisers: An Illustrated Design History, rev. ed. (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2021).

Samuel E. Morison, History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vols. 6-13 (Boston, MA: Little Brown & Co., 1950-1959; reprinted Naval Institute Press, 2010-2012).

John C. Reilly, Jr., comp. and ed., Operational Experience of Fast Battleships: World War II, Korea, Vietnam (Washington, DC: Naval Historical Center, 1989).

Image & video Sources: US National Archives; US Naval Institute, Naval History & Heritage Command.

Channel Markers, Ep. 21 | Pt. 3, 1944