Awakening the Sleeping Giant, Pt. 5—"Finished With Engines" | Channel Markers

As we saw in Part 4, in early 1945 Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King commanded the greatest navy ever built. With the prospect of having to support an invasion of the Japanese home islands, which would extend the war into 1946 and possibly beyond, King continued his relentless push to build more and better ships, especially carriers and cruisers, incorporating as many of the the war's hard-earned lessons as possible. At the same time, the Navy didn’t ignore the prospect of demobilization, especially given it had some 3.4 million people in uniform, but its plans weren’t fully developed when the Pacific War ended abruptly in mid-August 1945. On 31 August, the US Navy had nearly 1,200 major combatants; an active force of nearly 6,800 ships; 44,000 landing craft; and a total of some 51,000 vessels and craft of all types in service.

With Part 5, we conclude our series about the US Navy’s wartime expansion, "Awakening the Sleeping Giant," by asking “How did the end of the war affect Fleet Admiral King’s Navy?"

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Additional reading, for starters:

Joel R. Davidson, The Unsinkable Fleet: The Politics of U.S. Navy Expansion in World War II (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1996).

Norman Friedman, U.S. Aircraft Carriers: An Illustrated History, rev. ed. (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2022) and U.S. Cruisers: An Illustrated Design History, rev. ed. (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2021).

Naval History and Heritage Command, "US Ship Force Levels: 1886-present" [online; retrieved 19-24 June 2025 from https://www.history.navy.mil/research...]

John C. Reilly, Jr., comp. and ed., Operational Experience of Fast Battleships: World War II, Korea, Vietnam (Washington, DC: Naval Historical Center, 1989).

Image & video Sources: US National Archives; US Naval Institute, Naval History & Heritage Command, World of Warships.

Channel Markers, Ep. 21 | Pt. 5, 1945-1950

Thumbnail: In 1967, three of the US Navy's four remaining battleships, units of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet, are shown moored at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. Left to right: USS Wisconsin (BB-64), USS New Jersey (BB-62) and USS Iowa (BB-61).