In June 1944, 24 aircraft carriers and over 1,350 carrier aircraft converged in the largest carrier-versus-carrier battle in history. This episode goes beyond the timeline to explain why the outcome was so lopsided. It starts with a briefcase: after Admiral Koga died in a typhoon, Vice Admiral Fukudome survived a crash carrying the Z Plan, which Filipino guerrillas recovered and smuggled by submarine to MacArthur's intelligence staff. Knowing the Japanese relied on decoys, Admiral Spruance refused to chase west and stayed tethered to the Saipan landings, forcing the enemy to attack a prepared defence.

On June 19, radar-directed Combat Information Centers vectored Hellcats onto Japanese formations 150 miles out, and proximity-fuse shells detonated within 70 feet of aircraft. Japan, cut off from refined fuel by American submarines, was burnin ...