Leapfrogging

(noun)

A military strategy employed by the Allies in the Pacific War against the Axis powers (most notably Japan) during World War II. It entailed bypassing and isolating heavily fortified Japanese positions while preparing to take over strategically important islands.

Related Terms

Examples of Leapfrogging in the following topics:

  • Leapfrogging to Tokyo

    • Leapfrogging was the Allied strategy of bypassing and isolating  fortified positions by focusing on strategically important islands.
    • Leapfrogging was a military strategy employed by the Allies in the Pacific War against the Axis powers (most notably Japan) during World War II.
    • Leapfrogging originated from island hopping - a strategy, with which leapfrogging is sometimes misleadingly confused.
    • Both Nimitz and MacArthur, overseen by the US Joint Chiefs and the western Allies Combined Chiefs of Staff, applied leapfrogging and island hopping as major strategies.
    • Leapfrogging had a number of advantages.

  • MacArthur's Leapfrogging

  • The Western Lands

    • Lawrence river, building communities that remained stable for long stretches; they did not leapfrog west the way the British did.

  • Conclusion: Post-War America

    • The unexpected leapfrogging of American technology by the Soviets in 1957 with Sputnik, the first Earth satellite, began the Space Race, won by the Americans as Apollo 11 landed astronauts on the moon in 1969.