2. Battle of the Philippine Sea
After just four days of the United States’ amphibious invasion of the Mariana Islands during the Pacific War, the Battle of the Philippine Sea broke out. It was a decisive naval battle of the Second World War as it was American forces’ aim to eliminate the Imperial Japanese Navy’s ability to conduct large-scale carrier actions.
The Japanese troops first launched an attack on the American Navy on June 19, 1944, hoping to impose a decisive defeat to the U.S. fleet. But by the following day, late in the afternoon, the Japanese marines were retreating, as they were sustaining a major defeat themselves. The Imperial fleet was seriously weakened after three of their carriers had been sunk and nearly 400 aircraft were destroyed.
The aerial theater of the Battle of the Philippine Sea was termed as the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot by American aviators as they had severely inflicted a disproportional loss upon the Japanese aircraft.