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The Coral Sea, 7th May 1942
In May 1942, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) prepared to capture Port Moresby on New Guinea. Its airfield could be used to dominate the Coral Sea and isolate Australia from the United States. The invasion force – spearheaded by aircraft carriers Shokaku and Zuikaku – was unaware that the Americans had cracked their codes and…
Assault on the dry dock, St Nazaire, 28th March 1942
The colossal German battleship Tirpitz was a major threat to British sea routes in early-1942. If deployed in the Atlantic it would take refuge in the port of St Nazaire, where the Normandie Dock – the largest of its kind in the world – was big enough to accommodate it for repairs. If the dry…
Plaju refinery, Palembang, 14th February 1942
Japan’s conquest of the Dutch East Indies (modern Indonesia) depended heavily on securing the vast natural resources of the archipelago. Near Palembang, capital of South Sumatra, was an Allied airfield (‘P1′) as well as two oil refineries – Plaju and Sungei Gerong – which processed a third of the Indies’ oil production. If the refineries…
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Empire of History 