Due to public wish, I have decided to bring back the Updates Page that went out of use mid-1998. I will start anew to fill this page with a list of updates effected. Unless otherwise note, the author of the articles is me.

11/10/2003: Well, I'll face up to it: this site's not getting updated anything like regularly, and we'll call it "unupdated" of the last two years or so. Work's taking time, and interests have shifted slightly. Anyway, from a contributor, Irwin J. Kappes, comes a different, and "New Look at the Battle of Leyte Gulf". Thanks to him!

20/03/2003: Happy New Year! Ugh...anyway, after a five-month hiatus, here's a new upload: Gene Mazza contributes survivors accounts of the sinking of Shinyo Maru by USS Paddle -- Sinking American POWS in the process.

01/10/2002: I'm slowly getting ready to turn this whole site over to Jack McKillop, who is about the only contributor (myself included) who's still doing his work. Today, he contributes another excellent article on the "Bell XFL-1 Airabonita". Three cheers for Jack, and I'll be damned if this year closes without me putting another article up written by myself!!

02/08/2002: March brought nothing but further hiatus, but at least Jack McKillop is reliable: he brings a description of the "Naval Aircraft Factory N3N "Yellow Peril". With luck, Guadalcanal Campaign may be upcoming in time!

26/02/2002: Sorry, many times sorry, for the delays here! No Guadalcanal is not finished yet, but hopes are high that March will bring betterment. Other work kept me busy. On the good news side, we have a new contributor, CMDR John Kuehn, USN, who will hopefully bring a full annotated bibliography to this site, starting with The Imperial Army. More to come, I hope.

25/11/2001: Added yet another new plane description by Jack McKillop, on the "Vought TBY Seawolf". Still upcoming, but with delays: Guadalcanal campaign.

22/10/2001: Added a new plane description by Jack McKillop, on the "Lockheed PV Ventura / Harpoon", which I must say is an outstanding piece of work, and weighs in at 75kb of information, plus a photograph, so beware of loading times. In preparation: a description of the Guadalcanal campaign at sea.

30/9/2001: Added a new book review of "The Bode Testament, by Sandy Shanks" to the library section. Also uploaded a new contribution to the Personal History section, "Memories of a Mindanao Guerrilla" by Nick Minecci.

20/9/2001: Added the destroyer escorts and a new front page to the "Destroyers Section".

6/9/2001: Uploaded the completely rewritten "Destroyers Section", although right now only the fleet destroyers are described -- in detail, however! Also re-uploaded the "Battle of Savo Island". Forthcoming: two book reports, destroyer escorts, PV-1 Ventura, updated links.

1/7/2001: Uploaded a new essay on "The Route South: The Japanese Occupation of Southern Indo-China and the American Oil Embargo".

4/6/2001: Uploaded a "Special on the Pearl Harbor Attack", including articles by myself and Frank Pierce Young and many pictures. Also uploaded a raw version of the long-delayed "Links Page".

20/5/2001: From Craig Swain (and sorry again for the delay, Craig!) comes a description of "Gliders for the Navy Department". From a new contributor, Fred Taylor, comes a very interesting article opening a new section, "Warship Histories", dealing with the "Change of Command: U.S.S. Amberjack at War".

11/5/2001: Uploaded a collection of reminiscences of the "Sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse", courtesy Alan Matthews, to the Personal History section. Also did an update on the Sangamon class, thanks to Keith Allen.

29/4/2001: Uploaded five new escort carrier descriptions to the "Carriers Section", completing it. Also uploaded a new picture essay on the "Kamikaze Damage to Suwanee, October 25th 1944".

21/4/2001: Uploaded an illustration of the "OS2U Kingfisher" to the Aviation Section, courtesy of Craig Swain. Also uploaded to new carrier class descriptions, on the "Essex class" and the "Independence class".

16/4/2001: Uploaded a new article from Craig Swain, on "The Navy's Jets" to the Aviation Section.

1/4/2001: Uploaded a new description of "CV-7 Wasp" to the Ships Section.

10/3/2001: From a new contributor, Craig Swain, comes a description of the "OS2U Kingfisher" to the Aviation Section.

10/2/2001: Uploaded a new description of the "North American PBJ Mitchell" to the Aviation Section. In addition to that, a number of original documents has been uploaded to the "Road to War Section". And I took care that there is no confusion on the new discussion board by splitting it into a Guestbook and a Discussion Board, both accesible from the "Home Page".

2/2/2001: Uploaded an updated description of the "CV-5 Yorktown class" to the Ships Section. Also uploaded several new Destroyer Orders of Battle to the "Statistics Page".

6/1/2001: Happy New Year to all of you! I did only a few cosmetic changes to the site, but wanted to say that! Also, there's a new Contributors Wanted page up, for I'm still looking for anyone willing to submit articles.

17/11/2000: Going swiftly this time: from Jack McKillop comes the description of the "North American SNJ Texan". I have corrected several things in the Philippine Sea piece, including two errors pointed out by Mr. John O'Keefe. Thanks, John -- couldn't reach you by Email, your address was not accepted!

12/11/2000: Another update, once more delayed. Hopefully, it will be worthwhile nonetheless. I have finally written a description of CV-4 Ranger. Long delayed, I know, but here we are finally. Also, I have uploaded a description of the "Battle of the Philippine Sea", and of the "Final Strikes on Japan". Enjoy all of it.

10/7/2000: Once again, it took me some time to update this site, but here we finally go again. Next update won't take as long, I promise! Today, I have for you two new planes from Jack McKillop, the "North American NJ" and the "Vultee SNV Valiant". In addition, the detailed recollections of Bill Paull, a U.S. Marine, are now available in five chapters in the "Personal Memories" section.

18/5/2000: Now, there's some reason to say "sorry" now! To atone for my taking so embarrassingly long to update this site, I can at least present you with six new items: four come from Jack McKillop and add to his already magnificent aircraft display. They are the "Cessna JRC Bobcat", the "Ryan NR Recruit", the "Beech JRB Expedition/SNB Kansan and Navigator" and the "Beech GB/JB Traveler". From myself comes a review of Stephen D. Regan's "In Bitter Tempest: The Biography of Frank Jack Fletcher". And I give an updated description of the "CV-2 Lexington" class carriers. Finally, the "CV-1 Langley" description has been standardized with the Lexington description.

26/1/2000: Sorry for taking so long for the new installment. However, I was rather busy and could barely spare the time for the things to be done on the site. Thanks go to Vince O'Hara for helping out here: he has made available two more excellent battle histories: "The Battle of Empress Augusta Bay" and "The Battle of Cape St. George". With that, he concludes his contributions to this site, but he will remain available for your questions and comments. Also, we will try to begin to illustrate his series.

3/1/2000: Happy New Year, everyone! Now, I know it's not a real new millenium, but we'll pretend it is for the time being! We do have an excellent new contribution for you today: I am happy to have uploaded, to the Personal History section, the recollections "Pearl Harbor and World War II: Recollections of Hall Hancock, aboard Nevada and Hancock". In addition, I remedied some errors in the Armaments section pointed out by Brooks Rowlett.

25/12/99: Well, presumptions! It wasn't the last update, for I forgot to upload another one of Jack McKillop's brillant posts, this one on the "Piper NE/LNP" trainer and glider, respectively. Plus, Jack adds another photo to our collection, of the R4D, courtesy of William Larkin. And once more, A Happy New Year 2000 to you!

19/12/99: Presumably this will be the last installment for this millenium, so we wish you Merry Christmas *and* a most Happy New Year 2000! Beyond this intro, what we have for you today is quite remarkable: we are proud to be able to give you the first four chapters of Father Francis X. Murphy's "Fighting Admiral: A Biography of Dan Callaghan", which was OCRed by Richard Connors.
From Jack McKillop comes a new plane: "Piper AE-1/HE-1". In addition to that, I am putting up the first chapter of my own Road to War addition on the American colonial development, up to 1898, but not including the Spanish-American War: "Pacific Rivals: The United States' Pacific Expansion to 1898". And to the Ships Section, I have added a better description of "CV-1 Langley".
Plus: A new menu system involving color-coded icons. For their meaning, see "Tips & Tricks for the Site"

16/10/99: Has it really been THAT long since the last update? Oh well...still no news from myself, but the indomitable Jack McKillop has brought us pictures for most of his articles, already added there, and a new article: the "Lockheed R5O Lodestar".
From a new contributor, Richard Connors, comes a biography of "Rear-Admiral Daniel J. Callaghan". Richard's wife is one of the Admiral's relatives.
To give a little insight into what is coming up, time permitting: I am working on redoing the carrier and battleship class descriptions in the Ships section, as well as a complete overview over the political developments between 1853 and 1941 for the Road to War section. Keith E. Allen has been tasked with describing the Small Combattants etc. for the Ships section. Philip Jacobsen will contribute a bit on the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. Jack McKillop has more airplanes in store; and finally, Vince O'Hara has the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay forthcoming!

25/7/99: Jack McKillop contributes some fine articles on airplanes: the "Curtiss R5C Commando", "Douglas R4D 'Gooneybird'" and "Lockheed PBO Hudson / R4O Super Electra". Furthermore, Jim O'Neill provides some interesting insight into U.S. Navy fighting proceedures by adding scans of the United States Navy's Immunity Zone Slide Rules to all guns with armor-piercing ammunition. A short introduction on how to read them can be found here. From Keith E. Allen come five articles on the "Anti-Air Armament Development of U.S. Warships", to be found within the respective Ships under-section. Finally, a small update comes from perfectionist Philip Jacobsen, who still continues editing his Intelligence articles.

12/6/99: I uploaded a major new contribution by Jack McKillop: a whole bunch of transport aircraft..."Budd RB Conestoga", "Douglas RD", "R2D", "R3D", and "R5D Skymaster", as well as a Lockheed aircraft: the "Lockheed Electra". Whatsmore, Vincent P. O'Hara provides us with insight into the final Japanese surface victory of World War II, the "Battle of Vella Lavella".

22/5/99: Uploaded an entire new section: Philip H. Jacobsen's "Intelligence". He has done some magnificent work there! Oh, and I forgot to mention that I added a couple of graphics instead of the earlier textual links in the frame, courtesy Christoph Weigel.

16/5/99: Uploaded my own biography of "Admiral Thomas Charles Hart". Also fixed some bugs with this page.

9/5/99: Uploaded Vince O'Hara's addition "Battle of Vella Gulf". Also added an initial item to the Personal History section: Bill Farrell's "Recollections of Okinawa".

17/4/99: At this date I hope I have completed another change of looks. Sorry...I'm a bit sloppy in carrying through with thought-out schemes, especially if they're faulty. Hold your breath for the changes done with this update: The most important change is in philosophy and title. Though it is bad to change one's name just when people know who you are, I choose to shorten the title of my site to "The Pacific War: The U.S. Navy". I removed the Allied forces links from the site, and reinstituted the website motto that is very vital in understanding my motivation and has accidentally been lost with the last change of looks.
- Other changes are organizational: the old Armaments & Equipments section got ripped in two; for easier access and in hopes of improvement in the listing of Equipment, I now have the two sections divided.
- The Aviation section has become a prospect of fulfilling its name as it has been pointed out by a visitor: Aviation must include pilots and squadrons. This will likely be a hard task. Some related items will be posted there as well.
- Admiral's Biographies are now Officer's Biographies to include some Captains and other lower ranks, in the future.
- Website navigation is less difficult for the eye now, as I have removed the complex framework and just left one basic navigation bar.
- The short-lived Forthcoming page has been removed from the main links and rest within a new section devoted to some organizational pages on this site.
- As for looks changes. Most links now lack the underline commonly associated with links, and are denoted in flowing text and elsewhere by being bold 10-point arial in Navy Blue. That should be pretty obvious. Elsewhere, it should be clear what links are. Page headers are now in regular Variable type.
- On the top of each Admiral's biography, an Admiral's flag with the appropriate rank has been added.
And the content updates: from Jack McKillop comes a description of "U.S.N. Aircraft Designation Schemes", which do well explain you what the hell all those letters meant. From Ben Schapiro comes a very valuable addition, a "1944 edition of the Scouting Manual" as used by carrier air groups. He also contributes the "1944 edition of the Attack Manual". Both come with some fine drawings. From myself comes a renewed description of the "BB-61 Iowa class" battleships.

8/4/99: Uploaded Vince O'Hara's "The Battle off Horaniu", a description of one of the most indecisive and short engagements fought during the Pacific War. From Jack McKillop comes "Chance-Vought SB2U Vindicator", his second addition. It *does* seem he is addicted to the cripples. And I add my own "The Doolittle Raid".

1/4/99: Uploaded my own "The Battle of Leyte Gulf", finished with appreciated assistance from Keith E. Allen, who checked my facts! Also, the menu bar has received two additions, "Intelligence" and "Personal History", sections which will, hopefully, be filled in due course. "Intelligence" will be the domain of the resident intelligence expert Philip H. Jacobsen.

6/3/99: Uploaded the last part of Frank Pierce Young's Pearl Harbor history: "Building the Way to a Date of Infamy", covering the time from 1919 to Pearl Harbor. Also uploaded the first page from a new contributor, Jack McKillop, who will go at reworking the Aviation Section and starts by putting "Brewster's F2A Buffalo" online. And from Vince O'Hara come "First Battle of Kula Gulf", "Second Battle of Kula Gulf" and "Battle of Kolombangara" along with a "Short Introduction to 'Cartwheel'".

20/2/99: Did some smoothing at the edges by putting a "Sorry, under construction" sign behind every link that has no content behind it.
Also uploaded the first non-ABDA history by Vincent O'Hara: "Battle of Komandorski Island", the only Pacific War naval battle in which aircraft, mines and coastal batteries played no role at all. I updated the Bibliography section, and had to remove the short reviews to save space, since the Histories were already over 50KB large. Finally, a redone description of the "Wyoming class" of battleships has been uploaded. 

6/2/99: I have uploaded the completely rebuilt site, now featuring frames, an easy-to-use, always accessible direct connection to every page on the site, more eye-friendly link layout, and a nice gold-on-blue sidebar.

25/1/99: Uploaded the final addition of ABDA battles: "Other Engagements", dealing with forces fleeing Java. Also, uploaded "In the Wake of the Prophet", Frank Pierce Young's fine essay on Hector C. Bywater and his influence on Pacific War planning.

21/1/99: Loaded to the site Vincent P. O'Hara's "Action South of Borneo" and "Battle of the Java Sea" and my own "The Early Carrier Raids": all three to the Battles Section. Also, partially this update contains information integrated in a larger update to come in mid February or early March. At any rate, the links are being completely overhauled and will be much larger in number later on...now, they are unavailable.