Eighty years ago this week the USN sweeps the South China Sea

 

USN Admiral Halsey mounted Operation Gratitude in the South China Sea to eliminate the remains of the IJN Combined Fleet which might have threatened the landings on Luzon.  In the event he did not, as he had expected, find any major surface units in Cam Ranh Bay off Vietnam. Air strikes were conducted over the whole zone including Hong Kong and Taiwan. Severe storms badly hampered sea refuelling operations  but the USN sank 300,000 tons of shipping in port and in convoy including 25 tankers, which crippled Japanese logistics capability.

Hitler conferred with von Rundstedt at his headquarters in the West. He authorised a major withdrawal from the Ardennes salient, marking the end of this last, disastrous offensive. He returned to Berlin, never to leave again. Supreme command would henceforth be exercised from the shadows.

Adolph Galland was dismissed as the Luftwaffe fighter leader for openly criticising Goering's leadership, notably Operation Bodenplatte which had squandered the last aircraft reserves. A group of fighter commanders protested in what has been described as a revolt, but Goering ignored them. This had almost no practical significance; no change in operational strategy could have rescued the German air effort from the fatal consequences of inferior economic resources.