page_title: Philippine Sea order of battle
section_title: Task Group 58.2
hierarchical_section_title: Philippine Sea order of battle / American order of battle / Task Force 58 / Task Group 58.2
caption_attribution_description: The U.S. light aircraft carrier USS Cabot (CVL-28) underway at sea, 26 July 1945. On deck are aircraft of Carrier Air Group 32 (CVG-32). Cabot had departed Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii (USA), on 24 July as part of Task Force 12.3. En route to Eniwetok, the carrier launched three strikes on Wake Island on 1 August, whereas the battleship USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) and destroyers bombarded the island.
context_page_description: The Battle of the Philippine Sea was fought 19-20 June 1944 in the waters west of the Mariana Islands by elements of the Imperial Japanese Navy's Combined Fleet and of the United States Navy's Pacific Fleet. The battle exacted a terrible toll from the Japanese naval air arm, costing them most of their few remaining experienced pilots. The Combined Fleet was no longer capable of serious offensive operations after this engagement. Historian Samuel Eliot Morison characterized it this way:
  This was the greatest carrier battle of the war. The forces engaged were three to four times those in preceding actions like Midway, and victory was so complete that the Japanese could never again engage on such a scale. ... above all the skill, initiative, and intrepid courage of the young aviators made this day one of the high points in the history of the American spirit.
  Since the Japanese assumed the tactical offensive, their forces are listed first.
  Japanese forces
  Combat ships: 3 fleet carriers, 2 old fleet carriers, 4 light carriers, 2 new battleships, 3 old battleships, 7 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers, 34 destroyers, 6 oilers, 7 1st-class submarines, 17 2nd-class submarines
context_section_description: Carrier Division 3 (Rear Admiral Alfred E. Montgomery)
  2 fleet carriers:
  Bunker Hill (Capt. T.P. Jeter)
  Air Group 8 (Cmdr. R.L. Shifley)
  37 F6F Hellcat fighters (Lt. Cmdr. W.M. Collins)
  33 SB2C Helldiver dive bombers (Lt. Cmdr. J.D. Arbes)
  13 TBF Avenger, 5 TBM Avenger torpedo bombers (Lt. Cmdr. K.F. Musick)
    4 F6F-xN Hellcat night fighters  (Lt. Cmdr. E.P. Aurand)
  Wasp (Capt. Clifton Sprague)
  Air Group 14 (Cmdr. W.C. Wingard)
  34 F6F Hellcat fighters (Lt. Cmdr. E.W. Biros, USNR)
  32 SB2C Helldiver dive bombers (Lt. Cmdr. J.D. Blitch)
  18 TBF Avenger torpedo bombers (Lt. Cmdr. H.S. Roberts, USNR)
    4 F6F-xN Hellcat night fighters  (Lt. J.H. Boyum)
  2 light carriers:
  Cabot (Capt. S.J. Michael)
  Air Group 31 (Lt. Cmdr. R.A. Winston)
  24 F6F Hellcat fighters (Lt. Cmdr. Winston)
    1 TBF Avenger, 8 TBM Avenger torpedo bombers (Lt. E.E. Wood, USNR)
  Monterey (Capt. Stuart H. Ingersoll)
  Air Group 28 (Lt. Cmdr. R.W. Mehle, USNR)
  21 F6F Hellcat fighters (Lt. Cmdr. Mehle)
    8 TBF Avenger torpedo bombers (Lt. Cmdr. R.P. Gift, USNR)
  Cruiser Division 13: 3 light cruisers (Rear Admiral Laurance T. DuBose):
  Santa Fe (Capt. Jerauld Wright)
  Mobile (Capt. Charles J. Wheeler)
  Biloxi (Capt. Daniel M. McGurl)
  12 destroyers:
  9 Fletcher class (5 x 5 in. main battery): Hickox, Hunt, Lewis Hancock, Marshall, Miller, Owen, Stephen Potter, The Sullivans, Tingey
  3 Farragut class (4 x 5 in. main battery): Dewey, Hull, MacDonough
caption: Light carrier Cabot in 1945
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