THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WORLD WAR II AVIATION
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COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO
March 14, 2022
Early U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier Raids in The Pacific
February – April 1942
The museum will host a special event this Saturday, March 19th, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the first offensive actions by the United States Navy in the Pacific.

Former Navy officer John Lynch will present the little-known story of the early raids against Japanese bases in the Pacific. The museum’s Douglas SBD-4 Dauntless dive bomber, a later version of the SBDs that flew in the early raids, is planned to fly, weather permitting.

Come join us to hear the story of the early raids and how they taught many important lessons that would serve the Navy well in coming struggles with the Japanese in the Pacific on the road to Tokyo. The Navy’s senior leaders, aircrews, and seamen got their first taste of carrier combat in these raids. That combat experience would allow them to stifle the Japanese thrust into the Coral Sea and would win the Battle of Midway.
Did you know that not one battleship engaged in any of the early 1942 Pacific raids on Japanese bases? The strikes were a combination of carrier attacks and bombardments. Carriers began to show their beyond-the-horizon capabilities while cruisers provided the biggest guns.

Through the course of these actions over two months, the U.S. was on the attack for the first time in the war. The results were not momentous and the losses were light, but the raids represented the first steps in the rise of the aircraft carrier as the new “ship of the line.”

Check the museum’s website at https://www.worldwariiaviation.org for more details and event updates. Doors will open at 8:00 am. The presentation will begin at 9:30, followed by the planned SBD flight. Normal admission prices apply.