Talk:United States Navy in World War II

August 2011
This is a new article covering a major topic of general interest. While specific battles are well covered in Wikipedia, there is no overall view of the naval history of the war, or the part the U.S. played. For starters the text is copied from other articles, but I will be adding to it today. Rjensen (talk) 22:54, 7 August 2011 (UTC)


 * While the number of ships constructed is useful information, I feel some total numbers of each type of warship at particular points in the war would be more useful to know and seems to be lacking in this article. I will attempt to do some calculations but if someone already has a source it will be most useful.


 * Edit: It seems a source already lists this. I feel this is more relevant to the article than ships constructed in the introduction.Celestial Oblivion (talk) 10:26, 9 December 2012 (UTC)

"Saddest attack" v. "worst defeat"
User:A.amitkumar seems to be opposing the reversion of Pearl Harbor being the "saddest attack" back to its original "worst defeat" on his talk page. In reliable sources there are; I wonder if A.amitkumar has any sources for "saddest attack" or some other preferred phrase?  Spinning Spark  01:15, 6 June 2013 (UTC)
 * This battle (Savo Island) was the worst defeat suffered by the American Navy since Pearl Harbor
 * Pearl Harbor was the worst defeat ever suffered by the American Navy
 * Pearl Harbor was a stunning defeat
 * Pearl Harbor, the worst single defeat in U.S. military history
 * Next to Pearl Harbor, it was the worst defeat suffered by the U.S. Navy
 * The result was the worst naval defeat in American history before Pearl Harbor
 * a defeat record that would stand until the back stabbing attack on our Navy in Pearl Harbor
 * After the devastating defeat of American forces at Pear Harbor...
 * The Battle of Pearl Harbor was one of history's most lopsided tactical triumphs...
 * The Japanese surprise attack at Pearl Harbor, the worst naval defeat in American history...
 * ... marked the worst defeat in the history of the United States Navy until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor...
 * At Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Imperial forces handed the American Navy one of the worst defeats in its history


 * And my argument is as september 11 is not a defeat so is not pearl harbor. I personally don't agree these books to be reliable sources but just POV's by any one who can publish a book. I would stand with the consensus formed in this talk page irrespective of how sensible i feel it might be and not revert them if changed according to the consensus here. Amit (talk) 02:36, 6 June 2013 (UTC)


 * On what basis do you claim these are not reliable sources. They are not unreliable just because you don't agree with them.  I agree self-published material are dubious RS, but have you actually done any kind of assessment on any of them?  Just taking the first few; The road to victory: From Pearl Harbor to Okinawa is written by Dale Dye, a notable military author, and published by Osprey Publishing, a specialist military publisher.  The ABA Journal is published by the American Bar Association - are you accusing them of being unreliable? Best of Times, Worst of Times is written by Walter Laqueur, a notable historian and published by University Press of New England.  And frankly, this is not the issue.  The issue is your insistence on reverting to the utterly incorrect "saddest attack" phrase.  It is for you to justify that with reliable sources which so far you have miserably failed to do.  You haver no basis at all for this position and I am now going to revert you.  Spinning  Spark  08:24, 6 June 2013 (UTC)
 * I have not showed any insistence, but you have by reverting the edit without even waiting for any other neutral editor to take a look and comment (because after one revert I have agreed to consensus on any change through this talk page). Now that you have already changed it, I am going to leave it as it is. Amit (talk) 14:06, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

Claim that the USN in 1943 was larger than all combatant navies combined
The statement that "the USN was larger than all combatant navies combined by 1943" is a ridiculous claim and an attempt to distort history the Royal Navy already had or built between 1939 and 1945 approx 9000 + ships of 40+ different classes/types during that period. 17 different navies took part in WW2 the German Kriegesmarine built over 1200+ could have been 1500 u boats alone not including its surface fleet when you look at the the total amount of ships that the USN had at its disposal in 1943 it was not larger than 17 navies combined yes today its larger than all navies combined by TONNAGE not combined vessels. That source is a page number with no link to verify the book's claim and does not provide any statistical evidence such as total amount of ships, totals by ship classes for cross reference both here or else where when you look at articles on Wikipedia alone at all the major combatants (not minor) and do simple simple arithmetic's to 1943 the claim (numbers do no add up), I will refrain from reverting for now until this is sorted out.--Navops47 (talk) 03:02, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

Article is too Narrow in Scope
This article purports to cover the history of the united states navy during world war two, yet is almost entirely focused on American combat versus the IJN. It practically ignores operations against the Kreigsmarine, particularly the submarine warfare in the Atlantic campaign. It also makes no mention of the Naval Battle of Casablanca, the only major surface action the United States navy fought in the European theater. It also completely ignores the massive amphibious operations the navy conducted in Europe and Africa during the war, notably in Operation Torch, the Invasion of Sicily, the Invasion of Normandy, and the Invasion of Southern France.XavierGreen (talk) 20:34, 29 March 2016 (UTC)

Construction capacity, how many aircraft carriers built, and how long to build
This would be interesting to know.

The big mystery of Perl Harbour is why the Japanese did not wait until the four carriers were in port. They certainly had plenty of intelligence. If they had waited, and successfully sank them, then how long would it have taken the US to recover? I.e. to build enough carriers to out number the Japanese. (Certainly Midway would have been lost. Australia probably invaded.) Tuntable (talk) 02:55, 6 April 2017 (UTC)

US Navy Submarine Operations in WWII
I thought I read the USN in WWII article, but saw almost no mention of US submarine operations against the Japanese. US subs were sinking IJN warships and Japanese freighters from the early days of the war, and eventually separated the home islands from the sources of fuel and raw materials, impacting the Japanese war effort. I think this would be a good addition to this article. Fred4570 (talk) 14:50, 15 August 2019 (UTC)

Battle of Leyte Gulf
As of 2021-04 there is a glaring and major omission in the article. In the chronological accounting, there should be a subsection under the 1944 section for the Battle of Leyte Gulf. -- Roger Hui (talk) 03:00, 1 April 2021 (UTC)

article too narrow in scope
there should be sections on shipbuilding, destroyer development, weapon technology, sensors technology.

also something about the command structure of the navy and a trivia sextion about notable people, events, ships for cocktail party talk and deep background.

here is a draft: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=United_States_Navy_in_World_War_II&oldid=1098155830

i was told to get thumbs up first. 158.181.83.72 (talk) 19:11, 14 July 2022 (UTC)
 * As I had said previously, all of this content you dumped in (15Mb!) doesn't appear to have a single source. But even if you did go and find reliable sourcing for all of it, there is still an WP:ONUS on you to gain a consensus in support of exapanding the article with all this... random info. You've made your case, you didn't get a single response, (as you yourself pointed out) so that's that. There are other articles in need of improvement, perhaps start smaller, like fighting vandalism, fixing typos, etc. - w o lf  17:19, 16 July 2022 (UTC)
 * the main idea is here to see within 60 seconds where on the US coast the major shipbuilding operations were situation. as far as i know, there is no such overview on wikipedia. maybe you are looking at it the wrong way. you are not supposed to memorize the numbers or even the names of the companies. but some people will for whatever reason use that information at a greater level of detail. what am i supposed to do, write big, medium and small next to each location? 158.181.81.240 (talk) 22:39, 16 July 2022 (UTC)
 * It's not really all that clear what you are trying to say, but perhaps you should consider creating a new article. Your focus seems to be shipbuilding and WWII, so why not start with United States shipbuilding during World War II...? Make sure you have proper, aqequate sourcing, or else it will not pass WP:AFC. This is where you having an account would be of a benefit to you. You would have your own sandbox to build the article in. You could build it at your own pace, with no interruptions. Again, it's something you should consider. - w o lf  03:09, 17 July 2022 (UTC)