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Casualty Info
Home Town Phoenixville, PA
Last Address 919 W Bridge St Phoenixville, PA (Parents)
Casualty Date Oct 26, 1944
Cause KIA-Killed in Action
Reason Artillery, Rocket, Mortar
Location Pacific Ocean
Conflict World War II
Location of Interment Buried at Sea - N/A, Pacific Ocean
Mariana and Palau Islands Campaign (1944)/Battle of Philippine Sea
From Month/Year
June / 1944
To Month/Year
June / 1944
Description The Battle of the Philippine Sea (June 19–20, 1944) was a major naval battle of World War II that eliminated the Imperial Japanese Navy's ability to conduct large-scale carrier actions. It took place during the United States' amphibious invasion of the Mariana Islands during the Pacific War. The battle was the last of five major "carrier-versus-carrier" engagements between American and Japanese naval forces, and pitted elements of the United States Navy's Fifth Fleet against ships and aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy's Mobile Fleet and nearby island garrisons.
The aerial part of the battle was nicknamed the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot by American aviators for the severely disproportional loss ratio inflicted upon Japanese aircraft by American pilots and anti-aircraft gunners. During a debriefing after the first two air battles a pilot from USS Lexington remarked "Why, hell, it was just like an old-time turkey shoot down home!" The outcome is generally attributed to American improvements in pilot and crew training and tactics, technology (including the top-secret anti-aircraft proximity fuze), and ship and aircraft design. Although at the time the battle appeared to be a missed opportunity to destroy the Japanese fleet, the Imperial Japanese Navy had lost the bulk of its carrier air strength and would never recover. During the course of the battle, American submarines torpedoed and sank two of the largest Japanese fleet carriers taking part in the battle.
This was the largest carrier-to-carrier battle in history.
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
June / 1944
To Month/Year
June / 1944
Last Updated: Mar 16, 2020
Personal Memories
Memories In November 1943, his ship provided air support for the Gilbert Island landing on 'Bloody Tarawa' in November. George's ship participated in the Marshall Islands campaign (Kwajalein, and Eniwetok) in January 1944, and the Hollandia landings on New Guinea by shuttling replacement aircraft to the larger fleet carriers in April.
In June, the Suwannee supported the landings on Saipan and Guam in the Marianas and drew first blood in the Battle of the Philippine Sea when she sunk the Japanese submarine I-184 on June 19th.
In October, George's ship supported our return to the Philippines when we landed on Leyte Island on October 20, 1944. The Japanese reacted with a complicated plan for the Naval Forces, involving a decoy force to draw away Halsey's fast fleet carriers and battleships, and three fleets flanking our forces to destroy the unprotected troop transports and cargo ships. The result was the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle in history. The battle covered 100,000 square miles, involved 200,000 participants and 6 battle fleets on October 24-25.
The Japanese plan almost worked, as a battle fleet snuck through and spotted the escort carriers with only destroyers and destroyer escorts to protect them and the transports. The attack of these escorts and the escort carrier aircraft returning (most without bombs and low on fuel) against a Japanese battleships, is vibrantly described in James Hornfischer's The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors.
George' ship was in 'Taffy 1'further south of Taffy 3 which was involved in the running surface battle. But danger came from another quarter - the first kamikaze attacks of the war at 7:40 a.m. on October 25th. Suicide attacks were yet unknown and completely surprised the crews of the American ships. The first kamikaze hit a sister ship, the USS Santee CVE 29. The antiaircraft gun crews destroyed the next two and damaged a third, which rolled over and smashed into Suwannee opening up a 10-foot hole in the flight deck into which the aircraft's bomb exploded opening the hole to 25 feet and causing a number of casualties.
Aviation Machinist Mate 3rd Class George Warren Dobson was Killed In Action on October 25th 1944 by the kamikaze.
