War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's founding

right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased its size,

and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.

Welcome to Key Battles of American History,

a podcast in which we discuss American history

through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars.

Here is your host, James Early.

Music James Early. Hello and welcome back to Key Battles of the Pacific Theater of World War II.

This is James, your host, as always, and I'm delighted to be with you again.

In our last couple of episodes, Scott and I took a

brief pause or break from the narrative of the key battles, and we did a couple of topical episodes.

I'm sure you remember, but just in case you didn't, I'll recap. And we talked about

submarines and the vital role that they played in the Pacific War, especially

in the last couple of years of the war.

And then we also talked about the bombing campaigns, in particular the bombing campaigns

with the B-29 Super Fortress Bombers under the leadership of General Curtis LeMay, and how both

of those campaigns, both the submarine campaign and Curtis LeMay, and how both of those campaigns,

both the submarine campaign and the bombing campaign,

really tighten the screws around Japan

and put a squeeze on them and made it very, very difficult for them to continue.

Now we're going back into the battles narrative,

and we're going to look at our eighth key battle.

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