The Battle of the Philippine Sea during World War II
The Battle of the Philippine Sea was an air-sea battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II fought between the US Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy on 19 and June 20, 1944, off the Mariana Islands. The action was a disaster for the Japanese forces, who lost almost all of their carrier-borne aircraft and a third of the carriers involved in the battle. It was so one-sided that American pilots nicknamed it "The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot", and after the battle the aircraft carrier force of the IJN (Imperial Japanese Navy) was no longer militarily effective.