Seventy Years Ago: First Year Of The Pacific War

The war had been going on for a year. It was mostly a naval war.

If the war were scored like a game of checkers, you would conclude that Japan was ahead. But Japan had made no significant advances since the early weeks. Repeated attempts to take control of Papua New Guinea had failed. Japan was hanging on to Buna, Salamaua and Lae on the northern coast by their fingernails.

Japanese soldiers on Guadalcanal had been unable to expel US Marines. The Japanese navy was unable to supply troops with food, much less with ammunition.

But fierce battles at sea had been costly to both sides. The score in ships sunk:

Warship losses in the First Year of the Pacific War.

	U.S.	Allies	Japanese
Battleships	2	2 RN	2
Fleet Carriers	4	-	4
Light Carriers	-	1 RN	2
Heavy Cruisers	5	3 RN , 1 Aus	4
Light Cruisers	2	2 Dutch, 1 Aus	2
Destroyers	23	8 Dutch, 7+3 RN. 2+2 Aus	26
Submarines	7	5 Dutch	21