On January 9, 1945, General Douglas MacArthur’s Sixth Army waded ashore at Lingayen Gulf on the main Philippine island of Luzon, supported by the largest naval force assembled in the Pacific to that point. In the days before and after the landing, carrier aircraft of Task Force 38 swept the South China Sea and struck targets along the China coast—hitting Saigon, Hong Kong, Formosa, and shore installations—to prevent Japanese reinforcement of the Philippines and to destroy enemy air power that threatened the fleet. The February 1945 All Hands Bulletin reported the combined operations that carried American forces back to the main Philippine island and severed Japan’s sea lanes to Southeast Asia.
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