Wake Island in WW2 History | World War II Database

24 Feb 1942

US Pacific Islands

USS Enterprise launched aircraft to attack Wake Island. Cruisers USS Salt Lake City and USS Northampton shelled Wake Island. ww2dbase [Enterprise | Salt Lake City | Northampton | Wake Island | TH]

5 Oct 1943

US Pacific Islands

Task Force 19 consisting of Essex-class carriers Essex, Lexington, and Yorktown with light carriers Cowpens, Independence, and Belleau Wood escorted by cruisers New Orleans, San Francisco, Birmingham, Nashville, Santa Fe, and Mobile and destroyers Hull, Hazelwood, Bancroft, Caldwell, Coghlan, Braine, Halford, Kidd, Bullard, Chauncey, John Rodgers, Harrison, Murray, Ringgold, Sigsbee, Schroeder, Dashiell, Conner, Burns, Boyd, and Bradford began two days of strikes against Wake Island. So intense was the bombardment that island commander Rear Admiral Sakaibara Shigemitsu was convinced it was a prelude to an invasion and he ordered the execution of all 98 remaining POWs that had been there since 23 Dec 1941, many of whom had been civilian contractors at the time of their capture. ww2dbase [Yorktown (Essex-class) | Independence | Cowpens | San Francisco | Essex | Nashville | Hull | Birmingham | Lexington (Essex-class) | New Orleans | Wake Island | DS]

4 Sep 1945

Photo(s) dated 4 Sep 1945

Raising the US flag over Wake Island after Japan

Japanese RAdm Shigematsu Sakaibara signing the surrender of Wake Island to US Marine BGen Lawson Sanderson aboard USS Levy, 4 Sep 1945. Care was made to ensure the Japanese surrendered Wake to the Marines.

Timeline Section Founder: Thomas Houlihan
Contributors: Alan Chanter, C. Peter Chen, Thomas Houlihan, Hugh Martyr, David Stubblebine
Special Thanks: Rory Curtis

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