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In the early morning hours Japanese reconnaissance finds US Task Force 58 while remaining undetected. The Japanese immediately launch 372 aircraft, in four waves, to strike the American fleet. Overall, the Japanese have about 550 planes (including those on Guam) while the Americans have roughly 950. Furthermore, US radar provides significant advance warning of the attack. There is enough time to launch an air raid on Guam before the Japanese can arrive over their target. American fighters begin intercepting the incoming Japanese planes while 50 miles away. Many of the attackers are shot down before reaching the American fleet; US anti-aircraft defenses accounts for many more. The only hit achieved by the Japanese is on the USS South Dakota which is damaged by one bomb.

The Japanese lose 240 aircraft and the Americans lose 29. The attackers fly on to Guam where American aircraft strike and destroy another 50 Japanese planes.

Meanwhile, the Japanese aircraft carriers Taiho and Shokaku are sunk by the US submarines Cavalla and Albacore.

American participants refer to the day as "The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot" because of the ease with which the Japanese forces have been suppressed.

'The Battle of the Philippine Sea contributed as much to victory as if Ozawa's fleet had been destroyed; for without its air arm the fleet was crippled, and the six carriers that survived were useful only as decoys to lure another American admiral to do what Spruance had declined to do. Admiral Toyoda had announced on 15 June "the fate of the Empire rests on this one battle." He was right. It decided the Marianas Campaign by giving the United States Navy command of the surrounding waters and air. Thus, the Japanese land forces in Saipan, Tinian and Guam were doomed, no matter how bravely and doggedly they fought. And victory in the Marianas made an American victory over Japan inevitable.'

-- Admiral Spruance

I hate to find fault in Naval Aviation, now, or then. Some of the best men on the planet are or have been Naval Aviators. But Admiral Mitscher was wrong in his desire to pursue the Japanese Imperial Navy, and Raymond Spruance was correct not to do so. The landing fleet must be protected and there was no doubt that such a huge Japanese fleet had no possible destination but the Marianas.

We all know Raymond Spruance's role at Midway, where it REALLY counted.

In mid-1943 Admiral Spruance recieved command of the Central Pacific Force, later to become the 5th Fleet. He held that job until the end of the war.

Admiral Chester Nimitz (whom you all know I hold in very high respect) trusted Spruance, who was his Chief of Staff and then Deputy Commander to the Commander in Chief, Pacific. Nimitz.

Nimitz, a remarkable judge of character, could have had any man in the Navy he wanted for those jobs except Admiral King.

Spruance could be counted on to take terrible risks if the situation demanded it (recollect the very early launch of the air strikes at Midway and the real likelihood of the loss of the only American aircraft carriers left. Remember only Enterprise survived). At the same time Admiral Spruance was a man never controlled by his emotions, a man who maintained icy control of himself at all times, who, as far as I can find out, never took a reckless risk. A man with a mind as hard as a diamond and sharper than a razor.

Unlike Admiral Halsey upon occasion, heh, heh.

Okay, guys, high-resolution smile--everybody say "Lexington".

Admiral Raymond Spruance speaking at the ceremony in which he relieved Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz
(standing behind him) as CINCPAC-CINPOA on November 24th, 1945, on board the USS Menhaden (SS-377)
at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

"Upon completion of these proceedings, Senator Richard "Turban" Durbin shall be fired from number one tube so as to assume his duties
as man without a country on eternal jihad against the nation which gave him birth and now awards him the fish kaddish he would wish."