The victorious closing phases of the Solomons campaign in the Southwest Pacific found naval sea and air might taking heavy toll of frustrated and out maneuvered Japanese forces. In the Battle of Santa Cruz, fought in the early summer of 1943, combat pilots of the Navy and Marine Corps hammered enemy surface forces seeking to strengthen a slipping hold upon the southern Solomon Islands. Pictured here, Navy dive bombers blast a Japanese battleship in the foreground while shipmates attack other enemy ships in the distance. At Midway, naval pilots severely mauled and crippled at least two Japanese heavies.