Fortitude

Fortitude. Striking the Japanese Home Islands. Throughout 1944 and early 1945, US and Allied amphibious assaults, supported by massive American air and naval power, breached the offshore defenses of Japan's home islands. In the summer of 1944, US forces seized the Mariana Islands of Guam, Saipan, and Tinian where Army Engineers and Navy Seabees constructed bases for long-range B-29 bombers. general Douglas MacArthur, aboard his flagship cruiser USS Nashville, returned to liberate the Philippines. , The battleship USS Tennessee, rebuilt after Pearly Harbor, provided heavy fire support for the amphibious drive across the Pacific. In the Philippines campaign, the USS Tennessee fought at Suriago Strait in the crucial US victory at Leyte Gulf, the largest sea battle in history. In attacking eight Japanese-held islands from January to October 1944, the ship steamed ahead over 500,000 miles, fired 5,792 14-inch shells , 25,855 5-inch shells, and 75,213 40-mm shells. The USS Tennessee earned 10 battle stars during the war., Frequently attacked by suicide Kamikaze pilots, US forces converged in 1945 and moved toward the Japanese home islands, capturing Iwo Jima and Okinawa after fierce struggles. Almost 7,000 Americans and 21,000 Japanese died on Iwo Jima. The invasion of Okinawa, a critical strategic battle, cost the lives of 21,000 Americans and 110,000 Japanese. In the China-Burma-India theater, US, Chinese, and British forces took the offensive to hasten an end to the four-year conflict.