As USS Saratoga approached San Diego Harbor on December 7, 1941, to embark her air group, the Japanese launched an attack on Pearl Harbor. By the next morning, Saratoga had become the flagship of Carrier Division One, immediately departing for the Hawaiian port.

The Japanese had also launched a series of assaults throughout the Pacific, taking the United States forces by storm. Still, the handful of men stranded on the tiny atoll known as Wake Island miraculously repelled the initial strike, but they were now waiting for a final blow.

Saratoga and her fleet soon steamed towards Wake Island to relieve the few military elements and civilian workers there, needing to travel about half the immense ocean to get there on time.

However, the weather conditions, the need to refuel, and the intense enemy activities in the region kept delaying their advance, leaving the brave men on the island to fend off on their own…