Konstam, Angus/Hector, Gareth (Illustr.) Okinawa 1945

The Royal Navy's biggest carrier campaign

The invasion of Okinawa was famously the culmination of the United States' island-hopping campaign. Less well known is the fact that it was also the largest campaign of the British Pacific Fleet in the war against Japan, carried out by five aircraft carriers over two months with a specific task. The Fleet Air Arm's task in Okinawa was to suppress and destroy the Japanese airfields on the Sakashima Islands, which were used as bases for kamikaze planes and as flight routes for aircraft from Japan to Okinawa. In this book, naval expert Angus Konstam provides a newly researched account of the Fleet Air Arm's air campaign at Sakashima. By 1945, aircraft carriers and their crews were well prepared and ready to take on challenging and important targets. He explains the capabilities of the Fleet Air Arm in the late war in Okinawa and analyses their effectiveness against the still dangerous Japanese air force. As is well known, the Royal Navy's armoured aircraft carriers in Okinawa proved to be much more resistant to kamikaze attacks than the Americans' wooden aircraft carriers. This book is packed with spectacular original drawings, photographs, diagrams and maps and provides a superbly illustrated history of the Royal Navy's most extensive carrier campaign.