Great Battles of World War II -- Bob Feller

The War for the Pacific Ocean, during World War II was the largest naval conflict in history. It was fought all across the huge spaces of the Pacific. The U.S. Navy and the Japanese Navy, the two most powerful navies in the world found themselves locked into a mighty death struggle, for control over the world's largest and most vital waterway. They conducted this fight in every possible climate, from Arctic conditions off the Alaskan Aleutians, to the sweltering heat in the South Pacific. Every conceivable type of naval activity was represented -- carrier aviation battles, surface engagements, bitterly fought night fights, the greatest amphibious assaults ever made, and the stealthy attacks made by and against submarines.

For the United States part, this naval war was conducted by young men who but a short time before had been civilians -- men who had wanted nothing more than to pursue their dreams peacefully, but when the Japanese made their surprise attack on Pearl Harbor that fateful Dec. 7, 1941, people such as Bob Feller, a pitcher for the American League Cleveland Indians, just one of a large number of Major Leaguers, answered their country's call for help. A few of the major league players on that list would include Ted Williams, of the Boston Red Sox, Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra, New York Yankees, and Stan Musial, of the St. Louis Cardinals. It is interesting to imagine what sort of statistics these fellows might have achieved, had they not lost four years -- four of their best career years, in service to their country.

In 1936 Bob Feller burst upon the Major League baseball scene, as no one who had come before. The Cleveland Indians signed him to a major league contract, in 1935, when he was only 16 years old. They were interested in the way he could deliver a fastball pitch, said to be the fastest of any pitcher who had played the game. (It was estimated that Feller threw well over 100 mph, though without the radar gun, an important measuring tool development of World War II technology, in 1936 a really accurate measurement of pitches was not possible.

By the time World War II began Feller had been with the Indians for five seasons and was touted as one of the greatest pitchers of all time, though he was still only 23. But two days after Pearl Harbor was attacked, Feller, at the height of his career, hurried off to enlist in the Navy, despite the fact that as primary supporter of his dying father he could have been granted a deferment from the draft.

The Navy wanted to put Feller in a Special Forces unit, where he could work on a physical development program for the Navy, and play exhibition baseball for the troops. Feller would not hear of it and insisted on regular gunnery duty, aboard the battleship, USS Alabama. By the time the war was over Feller had collected five combat ribbons and eight battle stars. He saw action in the Atlantic, and in the Pacific, fighting from the Gilbert Islands and the Marshalls to Truk, New Guinea, Saipan, Guam, and the great sea battles off the Philippines.

Feller's first six months of naval duty aboard the Alabama consisted of escorting convoys of troop and supply ships across the North Atlantic, protecting them from the ever-marauding German U-Boats, furthering the Allied build-up against the Germans and Italians. This duty, Feller saw as important, but dull.

In 1943, and for the following two years, Feller got his wish for active participation in the war, when the Alabama was ordered to sail through the Panama Canal to join the US fleet for combat in the Pacific Theater of operation. One of the battles in which Feller and the Alabama participated, was a part of the amphibious invasions by American forces of the Mariana Islands, in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. This was one of the decisive battles of World War II, in that it marked the last and greatest "carrier vs carrier" battle ever. It involved the United States Navy Fifth Fleet fighting against carrier-based and land-based aircraft from the Japanese Mobile Fleet and nearby Japanese island garrisons.

The aerial portion of the battle, centered around the Mariana Islands invasion, was affectionately referred to by the Americans as the "Marianas Turkey Shoot." Said one of the aviators after the battle, "Why, hell, it was just like an old time turkey shoot back home." The American airmen had asserted their superiority that day, and delivered a blow to the Japanese Naval Air Force, from which it would never recover.

Coming just three and a half years after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, this must be considered nothing short of miraculous. December 7th, 1941 found the Americans to be more than a little complacent, and far from being prepared for a war. In this country we had been very happy to be separated from the war by the Atlantic Ocean in the east and the Pacific Ocean in the west. These seemed to be huge barriers, shielding us from the warring Japanese and the Germans. The American people did not have the temperament to prepare for another war.

America had become a mighty war power by the end of World War I. But our military might had been allowed to disappear and there was very little sentiment to rearm. For instance, Eddie Rickenbacker, the great Air Ace of World War I had taken a trip to Germany in the 1930s, where he had met with some of his old adversaries, now important men in the new Nazi Luftwaffe. They had been only too happy to show him through their factories, to see the wonderful advances they had made in aircraft. When Rickenbacker came home to share this information with representatives in Washington, he was treated as an alarmist and war monger.

To historians the Battle of Philippine Sea is an important milestone among the great battles of World War II. It marked the largest and last aircraft carrier vs. aircraft carrier battle in history. Not only did American aviators prove to be superior in that battle, American submarines sank two of the largest Japanese carriers that took part in the battle. Losses to the Japanese Navy were such that they never were able to recover their naval superiority. The decisive victory is generally attributed to the gradually increasing improvements in American pilot and anti-aircraft gunnery training and tactics, war changing technology (including the top secret new anti-aircraft proximity fuse), and new and improved ship and aircraft design and building practices in aircraft and ship building -- all of which had taken place in the forty months following Pearl Harbor.

And for Bob Feller personally: Feller worked hard to stay in shape while he was on active duty with the Navy. On the Alabama he had a rowing machine and a punching bag and diligently did his self-assigned number of push-ups and chin-ups each day. He was able to get in a good workout running around the ship and when the ship was in port he ran on the beaches.

When he was finally discharged from active duty in the Navy he was in good physical condition. In 1945 Feller returned to the Indians. His four-year absence had not diminished his skills and he resumed his stellar career, throwing as fast as ever. By the time Feller retired in 1956 he had recorded 266 victories, 2,581 strikeouts (in 1940 he pitched a personal high of 27 strikeouts in one game), pitched three no-hitters (including the only no-hitter pitched on an opening day), 12 one-hitters, and had won 20 plus victories 6 times. Feller was inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown in 1962. (Feller's career is remarkable for another reason that does not show up in the statistics. Feller regularly pitched the entire 9 innings of his games, unusual today, when a starting pitcher usually is counted on for only five or six innings.)