What is this shooting all about?

The Marianas Turkey Shoot occurred in 1944, shortly after the invasion of Saipan. The Japanese attacked the American Fleet offshore, and the result was a complete disaster for the Japanese. Most of the Japanese pilots were very inexperienced because the good ones had either been shot down when they made a simple mistake or they were seriously wounded. The majority of the U.S carrier pilots, however, were experienced, and if they were not, chances were their leader was. Approximately 600 Japanese planes were shot down, and many more were damaged. In return, the U.S suffered about 120 planes lost, and 80 of those aircraft's crews survived. A pilot watching the battle from the Lexington said "Hell, this is like an old time turkey shoot!". And so it became known as the Marianas Turkey Shoot.

Turgor got the high points...it was during the liberation of American Guam and the Mariana Islands during WW2; the US was getting too close to vital Japanese trade routes with their conquests in the Philippines and Indonesia ( the reason the Japs went to war in the first place) and so the Japanese fleet had to contest the advance.

Trouble was by 1944 the best Japanese fighter pilots were dead, shot down over 2 years of combat; Japanese industry hadn't turned out enough ships or planes to really replace war losses; the US fleet, which was down to ONE carrier in 1942 ( her name was Enterprise) now had 13....over three days of air attacks on the US fleet, as Turgor said, the Japs lost about 85% of their planes........and "Turkey Shoot" is an old time country phrase for a simple unchallenging shoot where turkeys are slaughtered

It happened June 19, 1944 during the invasion of the Marianas Islands. Task Force 58 Hellcat fighters destroyed over 300 Japanese planes.