World Battlefronts: Mitscher Shampoo

It was audacious—but it was the calm audacity of a gambler who bets his stack on a four-ace hand. The main striking force of the U.S. Pacific Fleet—so much greater than any other of the world's fleets that such comparisons have become meaningless—steamed undetected, through filthy weather, to within easy fighter-plane range (200 to 300 miles) of Tokyo. It was organized into the Fifth Fleet, under precise, calculating Admiral Raymond Ames Spruance. Its carriers again had become Task Force 58, and were under the command of slight, puckish Vice Admiral Marc...