Marianas Turkey Shoot

This was a series of 5 large scale carrier battles That marked the death of the Imperial Japanese Naval Air Force. 956 American planes battled with 750 Japanese (300 land based). The Japanese were the first to strike with 68 plane strike on the American flotilla. The attack was repelled with 40 Japanese being shot down. this was followed up with 107 additional attackers. 97 of them didn't return to their carriers. Another 47 plane wave was repelled with 7 shot down. This left the final assault of  82 aircraft to suffer heavy losses with only 9 returning to base. At the end of day one 356 Japanese shot down to the Americans 30. The following day saw the Japanese lose another 250+ aircraft while the Americans topped out at 93. 80 of which crashed due to crashes in the dark. Final count, 123 to 645. This was the last great air battle of the Pacific theater.

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