Introduction
The Battle of the Philippine Sea in June, 1944, fought between the United States and Imperial Japan, was the largest aircraft carrier battle of all time. The Battle of Leyte Gulf, fought four months later in the Philippines, was the largest naval battle in history. When the battles were over, America was almost certain of victory in the Pacific war.
Thesis
The Battles of the Philippine Sea and Leyte Gulf in 1944 were a turning point in history leading to American victory in the Pacific. Ultimately, this victory saved many Japanese and American lives by avoiding an American invasion of Japan, and it set Japan on a path to become one of the most successful economies in the later 20th century.
"The battle was a total rout, a disastrous defeat for the overmatched, outnumbered Japanese, who lost a third of their carriers and 90 percent of the airplanes their ships brought into the fray. Their planes were shot out of the sky like . . . well, like turkeys. . ."
-Stephen Coonts in the foreword of Clash of the Carriers by Barrett Tillman
"In a two-and-a-half-hour running cataclysm in the Philippine Sea, the Americans performed the impossible, turning back the Japanese in it's last desperate gamble and changing the course of World War II in the Pacific."
-James D. Hornfischer in The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors