The surprise aerial attack on Pearl Harbour by the Japanese in December 1941 was proof that the aircraft was now a potentially war-winning weapon. Once seemingly invincible battleships were exposed as terrifyingly vulnerable to the bomb-load from a single plane. The sea war in the Pacific would be decided by aircraft carrier task forces, launching waves of strike aircraft against each other. This episode covers the air war in the Pacific from Pearl Harbour to Ceylon and reveals how the Allies were almost completely unprepared to defend India and Burma from the air.
—W A Mckibben