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Template:Battlebox In World War II, Operation Hailstorm was a massive naval air attack launched on 16 & 17 February, 1944 against the Japanese naval and air base on Truk in the Caroline Islands. Truk was the main Japanese base in the Central Pacific and the only major airbase within range of the Marshall Islands. To ensure air and naval superiority for the invasion of Eniwetok Admiral Raymond Spruance ordered an attack on Truk.

Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher's Task Force 58 had five fleet carriers (Enterprise, Yorktown, Essex, Intrepid, and Bunker Hill) and four light carriers (Belleau Wood, Cabot, Monterey, and Cowpens), embarking more than 500 planes.

In two air strikes, American dive and torpedo bombers sank three Japanese cruisers (Agano, Katori, and Naka), six destroyers (Oite, Fumizuki, Maikaze, Hagio, Isogu, and Tachikaze), three other warships and 32 merchant ships. Over 250 aircraft were destroyed, mostly on the ground.

The attackers lost only twenty-five aircraft. The atttack has often been compared to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

• Naval battles of World War II
• World War II operations and battles of the Pacific Campaign