New Guinea and Australia

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Japanese naval aircraft attack Darwin, Australia. Although a coastwatcher radios a warning, the RAAF control centre decides the aircraft are most likely American P-40s returning from Timor. This results in 189 planes from carriers Akagi, Kaga, Hiryū and Sōryū led by Colonel Mitsuo Fuchida, plus 54 land based bombers catching Darwin by surprise.

 

 

- The five P-40s on CAP down two Japanese for the loss of four P-40s. Anti-aircraft fire downs five more Japanese planes. Three P-40s, one B-24, and six Hudsons are destroyed on the ground.

 

P-40E downed at Darwin

 

- Aircraft sink destroyer American destroyer Peary, US Army Transport Miegs, freighter Mauna Loa, British tanker British Motorist and freighter Neptuna, Australian cargo-liner Zealandia, coal hulk Kelat, and freighter Barossa. Destroyer-seaplane tender USS William B. Preston and two more freighters are damaged. Extensive damage is done to the airbase and port facilities. 292 people are killed, and in the chaos which ensues, Australian troops partake in looting private property.

 

Japanese photograph of the raid

 

- The raid prompts the Allies to abandon using Darwin as a naval base, though the air base will be strengthened. The raid also leads to widespread invasion fears and people fleeing to the south.

 

Darwin oil storage tank explosion with corvette HMAS Deloraine in foreground

 

Explosion of British MV Neptuna at Darwin

 

A6M2 downed over Darwin with RAAF guard and aborigine men who captured the pilot."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Off western Australia, Japanese submarine I-1 sinks Dutch 8,800 ton steamer Siantar with 5.5” gunfire after missing with torpedoes.

 

• Broome, Australia, is attacked by nine A6M2 Zeroes and a C5M2 “Babs” command reconnaissance and navigational aircraft flying from Timor. The C5M and three of the A6Ms circle overhead while the rest conduct repeated strafing runs. Destroyed are eight American PBYs, two B-17s, and one B-24 that is attempting to take off, two Australian and one Dutch Hudson, six Dutch Do-24 flying boats, two Quantas Short Empires and one KLM DC-3 airliner. One Japanese fighter is shot down and another has to ditch on the way back to Timor.

 

IJN C5M2 (or IJA Ki-15)

 

B-24 downed while taking off at Broome. Over 70 people are killed, mostly Dutch refugees evacuated from the Netherlands East Indies."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "Japanese bombers raid Christmas Island, a British possession south of Java, at dawn on 31 March 1942. Then, a small Japanese invasion force approaches the island. Timing things to perfection, a group of Punjab soldiers in British service then mutinies, killing the island's commander, Captain L.W. Williams, and four British NCOs. The mutineers signal the Japanese that the coast is clear, and about 900 soldiers land without opposition, beginning a Japanese occupation of Christmas Island that turns out to be not very useful for them."

 

"Victorious Japanese troops cluster around a coastal defence 6-inch gun and shout 'Banzai' in celebration after the conquest of Christmas Island, off the southern coast Java, 31 March-1 April 1942. The island was taken without a fight, after Indian troops defected in support of the Japanese. Imperial War Museum HU-2782"

 

[from wikipedia] "Opposing this invasion force was a single 6 in (150 mm) gun that had been built in 1900 and had been mounted on Christmas Island in 1940. The British garrison—a detachment of the Hong Kong and Singapore Royal Artillery—numbered 32 troops. They were led by a British officer, Captain L. W. T. Williams. Williams' force consisted of an Indian officer, Subadar Muzaffar Khan; 27 Punjabi Indian gunners and non-commissioned officers (NCOs); and four British enlisted men.

 

A group of Punjabi troops, apparently believing Japanese propaganda concerning the liberation of India from British rule, and probably acting with the tacit support of some or all of the local Sikh police officers, mutinied. On 11 March, they shot and killed Williams and the four British enlisted men – Sergeants Giles and Cross and Gunners Thurgood and Tate – and tossed their bodies into the sea. They then locked up the district officer and the few other European inhabitants of the island pending an execution that apparently was thwarted by the Japanese occupation.

 

In the post war period, seven Punjabi mutineers were traced and court-martialled in Singapore. The first six to be identified and tried were convicted on 13 March 1947. Five were sentenced to death, and one was sentenced to two years' imprisonment and discharge with ignominy. King George VI confirmed the death sentences on 13 August 1947. British rule in India ended shortly afterward, with India gaining independence and Pakistan being created before the executions could be carried out, and thus diplomatic issues had to be taken into account. In October 1947, a seventh mutineer was identified. He was also court-martialled and sentenced to death. An eighth soldier was identified as a participant in the mutiny but was never caught. On 8 December 1947, the death sentences were commuted to penal servitude for life after the governments of India and Pakistan made representations. After further arguments between the UK and Pakistan over where the sentences should be served, with the British demanding they serve nine years, the six prisoners were transferred to Pakistan in June 1955, after which the British government ended its interest in the case"

 

"Submarine Seawolf noses into the harbor at Christmas Island and sees four Japanese light cruisers lined up at anchor. She fires four torpedoes and gets no hits. LCDR Frederick Warder reloads and re-attacks in the early morning [1-April] and will only damage light cruiser Naka, which will be under repair through July." [After torpedoing Naka, Seawolf will suffer a 9-hour depth charge attack, but will survive unscathed.]

 

 

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "B-26 Marauder bombers of US 5th Air Force attacked Simpson Harbor and Lakunai airfield at Rabaul, New Britain, Bismarck Archipelago at 1030 hours. Akomaki Maru was sunk (killing 11), as was Komaki Maru as her load of aviation fuel detonated. Lakunai airfield received light damage. After the attack, 80 Australian prisoners of war were executed by the Japanese for having cheered during the attack. ww2dbase

Komaki Maru settled on the harbor floor

 

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "The Japanese attempt to bomb Darwin in northern Australia again on 25 April 1942, but they get a hot reception. The 49th Pursuit Group (Interceptor) of Fifth Air Force is now at full strength there. Flying Curtiss P-40 Warhawks, the Group shoots down 10 Japanese bombers and 3 Zero fighters at no loss to themselves. Gradually, the Allied air defenses in the region are firming and are much more effective than just a few weeks earlier."

 

[From Wikipedia] "A line up of four U.S. Army Air Forec Curtiss P-40E Warhawk aircraft of the 8th Pursuit Squadron, 49th Pursuit Group at Darwin, Northern Territories (Australia) on 19 June 1942. The aircraft closest to the camera (No. "L Ace") was flown by Lieutenant James Bruce Morehead who shot down seven Japanese aircraft while flying out of Darwin. Captain W.J. Hennon, who has shot down at least five Japanese aircraft, is sitting in the cockpit of P-40 No. 36. Note the whitened former red circle of the US national insignia."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "At daybreak on 7 May 1942, Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher decides to split his forces. He sends Australian Rear Admiral John Crace and his Task Force 44 (now redesignated Task Group 17.3), led by Cruisers HMAS Australia, Hobart, and USS Chicago, to block the Jomard Passage. Fletcher knows that the Japanese invasion force would have to traverse this channel to invade Port Moresby. With this "back door" secured, Fletcher feels free to engage the Japanese carrier force.

 

Fletcher's problem, however, is that he doesn't know where Vice Admiral Takeo Takagi's two fleet carriers, Shōkaku and Zuikaku, are. He sends 10 Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers to look for the carriers to the north, but they find nothing. The Japanese, on the other hand, figure the US carriers are to the south. Takagi sends out a dozen Nakajima B5N "Kate" torpedo bombers and four Kawanishi E7K2 Type 94 floatplanes to find Fletcher's carriers.

 

Takagi gets good news first when his Kate bombers report, beginning at 07:22, that they have spotted a carrier to the southwest. Seizing the moment, Takagi orders a full-scale attack by 18 Zero fighters, 36 Aichi D3A dive bombers, and 24 Kate torpedo bombers. Altogether, 78 Japanese planes set out at 08:15 to destroy the sighted US carrier. It is an impressive feat of instantaneous reaction and leaping into action with a true warlike spirit.

 

There's only one problem: the Kate scout planes have misidentified the US oiler Neosho and destroyer Sims for much larger ships. At 8:20, with the attacking planes in the air, Takagi learns from headquarters at Rabaul that another scout, a floatplane from cruiser Kinugasa, has sighted the carriers to the west, not to the southwest.

 

Takagi thus must reconcile completely contradictory sightings. He decides to believe the first sighting, confirmed by two scout planes, rather than the second sighting by only one plane. He allows the 78 attacking planes led by Lieutenant Commander Kakuichi Takahashi to continue southward rather than turn west.

 

Meanwhile, on the American side, Fletcher receives word from one of Yorktown's SBD pilots, John L. Nielsen, that he has spotted advanced elements of the Japanese Port Moresby Invasion Force to the northwest. Due to errors in Nielsen's coded message, Fletcher concludes that he has located the Japanese carriers, not the invasion transports and escorts. He launches 93 planes - 53 Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers, 22 Douglas TBD Devastator torpedo bombers, and 18 Grumman F4F Wildcats. The planes are on their way by 10:13. Fletcher then gets another report of the carriers being 30 nautical miles (35 miles, 56 km) south of Nielsen's sighting, i.e., still to the west but not as much to the north.. Unlike Takagi, Fletcher decides to accept the second report and redirects his attackers.

 

When Takagi's planes reach their destination, all they find is the 7470-ton fleet tanker Neosho and its destroyer escort Sims. Unable to find the desired US carriers (which are far to the northwest), the Japanese pilots basically shrug and decide the targets they do have. This results in the cataclysmic obliteration of the Sims, which breaks in half and sinks immediately (177 dead, 15 survivors), and the Neosho.

 

At 10:40, Fletcher's planes also sight an unintended target, but it is more appetizing than a tanker and destroyer. It is Shōhō, a light aircraft carrier, not a large fleet carrier. Unfortunately for the Japanese carrier's crew, they only have a light combat air patrol aloft while they prepare other planes for a strike on the US carriers. The US planes score quick hits that disable the carrier, and after that, it is relatively easy to destroy the stationary ship. It sinks at 11:35 just northeast of Misma Island, with 631 deaths and 202 survivors.

 

Lieutenant Commander Robert Ellington Dixon, a Yorktown squadron commander, radios the news in eloquent fashion:

 

Scratch one flat top.

 

This prearranged signal (meaning, Dixon was told to send it) becomes a catchphrase for the war in the Pacific. Dixon wins his second Navy Cross for leading his squadron in one of the attacks that sank the Shoto.

 

Shoho burning during Battle of Coral Sea, photographed by a torpedo bomber pilot from Yorktown, 7 May 1942; note the faint outline of a TBD-1 in bottom half of photo ww2dbase

 

D3A Type 99 dive bomber of either Shokaku or Zuikaku in flight, either en route to attack Neosho and Sims in morning or returning from failed scouting mission in afternoon, Battle of Coral Sea, 7 May ww2dbase

 

US Fleet tanker Neosho on fire

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• With ULTRA pinpointing the departure time of the Japanese troop convoy heading for Lae, Fifth Air Force commander George Kenney ordered an all out attack on it at Rabaul at dawn with his heavy bombers before the convoy can depart. Brigadier General Kenneth Walker, head of V Bomber Command, protests, claiming that he will suffer more losses with night take-offs, aircraft losing touch, and subsequently attacking individually. When Kenney stands by his order, Walker disobeys and launches a strike timed to hit in daylight. He also accompanies the strike in violation of MacArthur’s order that generals not fly combat missions. Six B-17s and six B-24s arrive at Rabaul to find the convoy already departed. They attack shipping in the harbor anyway, sinking the 5,800 ton steamer Keifuku Maru. Two B-17Fs are shot down.

 

 

- Major General Kenney is furious when he discovers that Walker had not only changed the takeoff time without notice, but had also defied orders by accompanying the mission. He tells MacArthur that when Walker shows up he was going to give him a reprimand and send him back to Australia on leave for two weeks. “Alright George,” MacArthur replies, “but if he doesn't come back, I'm going to send his name in to Washington recommending him for a Congressional Medal of Honor.”

 

- When it is determined that Walker was on one of the downed bombers, all available aircraft are sent to search for him, preventing further American attacks on the Japanese convoy as it heads for Lae. They manage to locate and direct the rescue of the other downed B-17’s crew that had been downed, but not Walker's.  Walker will be awarded the Medal of Honor."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Okabe’s troop convoy reaches Lae and lands about 4,000 Japanese troops. American and Australian aircraft attack while they are offloading and an RAAF Kittyhawk hits 4,100 ton Myoko Maru with a bomb, destroying her engine. She completes offloading and is beached.

 

- One B-17F, one B-25D, and one B-26 are shot down. Future top-scoring USAAF ace Richard Bong downs two Ki-43s with his P-38."

 

Ship SS Myoko Maru, beached, near Malahang, Lae, New Guinea, September 1943, Australia. Dept. Of Information, gelatin silver print, State Library of New South Wales, PXA 644/648-662

 

[BlitzPig_EL]

Thanks for these posts sir.

 

I hope that someday we can fly in this theater in the sim.

[cardboard_killer]

I've got the vapors.

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• The airlift of the Australian 17th Brigade into Wau is continuing when an air raid by nine Ki-48 bombers and twenty-four Ki-43s comes in. Eight American P-39s are patrolling at 12,000 feet over Wau, having provided escort for a flight of C-47s, when they sight the Japanese planes. The Americans dive on the formation. Meanwhile, eight inbound P-40s also on an escort mission sight the ongoing battle. Their C-47s turn back while the fighters engage the Japanese. At this time, there are four Dakotas on the ground at Wau and another five circling, waiting to land. One loaded Dakota is shot down with the crew killed (fortunately it was carrying cargo and not troops), while two more C-47s are pursued and damaged but the meagre armament of two 7.7mm machine guns makes it difficult for a Hayabusa to take down a robust aircraft such as the C-47.

 

- A Dakota on the ground is damaged, and a CAC Wirraway is destroyed by a bomb blast seconds after its two crewmen leave the aircraft and throw themselves flat. One is wounded. One P-40E has to make an emergency landing with numerous 7.7mm holes in it.

 

- Of the thirty-three Japanese planes, the Allied fighters claim to have shot down forty-seven “Zeroes” and bombers while anti-aircraft batteries claim to have shot down another three. Actual losses are four Ki-43s and three Ki-48s.

 

Wrecked Wirraway Wau

 

Downed Ki-43 in New Guinea"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• American and Australian aircraft attack Japanese facilities at Lae and Salamaua, New Guinea. B-17s attack Rabaul.

 

• The American 8th Fighter Group, having been in continuous action during the Milne Bay, Kokoda Trail, and Buna-Gona campaigns, rotates back to Australia to reequip from worn out P-39s and P-400s to P-40s and P-38s. Some of the P-39s will be transferred to the RAAF.

 

C-47s and P-40s on a supply mission to Wau

 

P-39s taking off from Port Moresby

 

P-39s at Milne Bay"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Battle of the Bismarck Sea continues with Allied aircraft continuing to suppress Lae airfield while others attack the Japanese convoy in staggered waves from multiple directions at once. The fight starts with B-17s attacking from high altitude, drawing the Japanese CAP force which is engaged by P-38 escorts, while Beaufort torpedo bombers attack at low level but score no hits. One B-17 and three P-38s are downed while a dozen or so Japanese fighters are shot down during the day. The B-17/Beaufort attack is followed by a large coordinated strike of Australian and American low level aircraft converging from different directions. Australian Beaufighters precede most of the low level attacks, using their four 20mm cannons and six 7.7mm machine guns to suppress anti-aircraft fire on the Japanese destroyers.

 

- Japanese clocks read 0755 when the airstrike heads in. Kembu Maru explodes and sinks immediately. By 0805 Aiyo Maru, Oigawa Maru, and Nojima Maru have all been hit and stopped. A few minutes later Shinai Maru, Tamei Maru, and Teiyo Maru have also been hit. Deck-loads of soldiers -- those who had survived the carnage wrought by bomb explosions and cannon fire -- begin going overboard in a hurry.

 

Transports during the battle

 

- One B-25 pilot describes the ferocity of the strafing attacks and the transports, whose decks are packed with men:

 

“What I saw looked like little sticks, maybe a foot long or something like that, or splinters flying up off the deck of ship; they’d fly all around ... and twist crazily in the air and fall out in the water. Then I realized what I was watching were human beings. I was watching hundreds of those Japanese just blown off the deck by those machine guns. They just splintered around the air like sticks in a whirlwind and they’d fall in the water.”

 

- Flagship destroyer Shirayuki has her stern blown off, staying afloat only long enough for Shikanimi to come alongside and take off the crew including wounded Naval General Kimura.

 

- Arashio, hit by three bombs, loses rudder control and plows into crippled naval transport Nojima Maru, which is carrying the SNLF troops.

 

- Tokitsukaze, with a bomb detonating in her engineering spaces, is dead in the water.

 

- As the first waves of attackers withdrew, Kimura’s five operational destroyers begin dredging survivors out of the water by the hundreds. When the count reaches approximately 2,700 and the ships are dangerously overloaded, four of them retire at high speed up Vitiaz Strait to Rabaul.

 

- One of the Beaufighters carries cameraman Damien Parer who shoots dramatic footage of the attack, including the shooting of survivors in lifeboats.

 

 

- Asashio remains behind in an attempt to her sistership Arashio underway again, and both are quickly sunk when Australian Beaufighters and Bostons return along with B-25s. Additional hits are scored on abandoned Marus, sinking all but Oigawa Maru, which will be finished off after dark by PT-143 and PT-150.

 

- Over the next few days, Allied aircraft and PT boats follow orders to attack Japanese rescue vessels and lifeboats, and even survivors swimming or floating in the sea. This warcrime is rationalized on the grounds that the servicemen would have been rapidly landed at their military destination and promptly returned to active service.

 

- General MacArthur will issue a communiqué on 07 March claiming that twelve transports, three cruisers, and seven destroyers have been sunk along with 12,792 troops. Army Air Force HQ in Washington as well as his own cryptanalysts will advise him of the error, but he will stick with the claim, even post-war.

 

- Japanese losses total all eight transports, four destroyers, 15-20 aircraft, and close to 3,000 men, in exchange for two Allied bombers and three fighters shot down. Orders will go out that never again must large convoys be allowed within range of substantial enemy air power. “This defeat was the biggest cause of the loss of New Guinea” a Combined Fleet staff officer will relate after the war. “Your victory started from there.”

 

High level attack by B-25s at Bismarck Sea

 

Japanese destroyer Shirayuki taken from an RAAF aircraft

 

Japanese destroyer dead-in-water Bismarck Sea

 

Shinai Maru from a Beaufighter"

[TRRA15]

7 hours ago, cardboard_killer said:

- One B-25 pilot describes the ferocity of the strafing attacks and the transports, whose decks are packed with men:

 

“What I saw looked like little sticks, maybe a foot long or something like that, or splinters flying up off the deck of ship; they’d fly all around ... and twist crazily in the air and fall out in the water. Then I realized what I was watching were human beings. I was watching hundreds of those Japanese just blown off the deck by those machine guns. They just splintered around the air like sticks in a whirlwind and they’d fall in the water.”

I remember reading that account elsewhere sometime before. IIRC it was the version of the B-25 where the whole front nose glazing was faired over and instead contained something like a 12 M2 Browning .50 machine guns. Splinters indeed.

Edited March 4, 2023 by TRRA15

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• During construction of a seaplane base at Kairiru Island, Japanese destroyer Akikaze under Naval Major Sabe Tsurukichi evacuates about sixty civilians (Germans, Dutch, Malays, Americans, and Chinese) from there and from Wewak, including Roman Catholic nuns and children. They are told they are going into internment at Rabaul. While at sea, the adults are blindfolded and taken to the stern, then shot so that they fall into the water. The children are thrown alive into the sea to drown.

 

- Akikaze will be sunk with all hands by submarine USS Pintado in 1944.

 

[Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer Akikaze departing Yokosuka 1923]

 

• Having recently completed repairs from damage received in the Solomons, Japanese carrier Shōkaku is conducting training for her air group. Training will continue through May, interspersed with aircraft ferry missions.

 

Nakajima B5N landing on Shōkaku 18 March 1943"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Allied aircraft attack Hansa Bay on New Guinea, sinking 4,100 ton Army cargo-passenger ship Sydney Maru. One B-17E taking part in the raid crashes on take-off with her bombs exploding and killing the entire crew.

 

• Naval General Yamamoto personally observes the launch of the largest Japanese airstrike of the South Pacific campaign. 43 G4M bombers of the 705th and 751st Kōkūtai at Rabaul are escorted by 131 A6M fighters. The targets are the airfields around Port Moresby, New Guinea.

 

 

{much of the coverage is from 1942}

 

- According to General MacArthur’s SWPac Area reports, damage is negligible and Fifth Air Force fighters down seventeen bombers and ten fighters for the loss of two fighters.

 

- According to Japanese records, heavy damage is done to fuel stocks and moderate damage to airfields. Six Bettys and two Zeroes are lost.

G4M formation over Port Moresby Airfield

 

Fuel dump fire

 

- According to Australian and Fifth Air Force records, airfields take moderate damage with three American B-25Ds, one P-39 and one Australian Beaufighter destroyed on the ground with twenty-three more aircraft damaged. At least 5,000 drums of aviation gasoline are destroyed. American P-38s and P-39s plus Australian Kittyhawks intercept the Japanese, losing two P-38s and four P-39s in the air.

Australians saving fuel drums

 

Wrecked B-25D"

 

 

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Allied aircraft attack Hansa Bay on New Guinea, sinking 5,900 ton Army cargo ship India Maru.

 

• USS Pike torpedoes and damages the Japanese 3,800 ton transport Madras Maru north of the Admiralty Islands.

 

• A coastwatcher in the Trobriand Islands reports a large formation of Japanese aircraft apparently headed for Milne Bay. Radar picks up the first wave while Australian Kittyhawks and American P-38s scramble.

 

AA emplacement at Milne Bay with a Kittyhawk in the background

 

- The first wave consists of 45 G4M1 Bettys of 705 and 751 Kōkūtai armed with 250kg and 60kg bombs escorted by 54 A6M Zeros. They target shipping and airfields. Three G4Ms are shot down, with P-38 ace Richard Bong scoring his 10th victory.

P-38 at Milne Bay

 

- The second wave consists of 24 D3A2 Vals from Hiyō and Junyō, operating from land bases. The dive bombers are escorted by 75 A6M Zeros. Lost are two A6M Zeros from 253 Kōkūtai, both shot down by RAAF P-40Ks.

 

Aichi D3A2s

 

- Between the two waves, one Kittyhawk is lost while seven are damaged with one being written off, with one P-38F lost and another landing but being written off. Dutch steamer Van Heemskerk is bombed and set on fire, later sinking in shallow water. Australian motor vessel Gorgon sustains a bomb hit to the engine room and sinks but will be refloated. Two Australian minesweeping corvettes are lightly damaged, and several aircraft are damaged on the ground.

 

Pilot with his damaged P-38 at Milne Bay

 

Stoomschip Van Heemskerk 1910

 

- This is the last raid of Operation I-GO, intended to defeat Allied air forces in a battle of attrition. During the two week period, 25 Allied and 55 Japanese aircraft were lost."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• After radar picks up a Japanese air raid of about twenty bombers escorted by numerous fighters heading for Darwin, elements of three squadrons of RAAF Spitfires scramble to rendezvous for a coordinated attack.

 

 

Spitfires taking off from Darwin

 

- They are unable to get above the Japanese formation in time so cannot make the preferred dive and break attack. The Spitfires suffer from engine failures and gun jams, with four Spitfires aborting before engaging. During the air combat one bomber is shot down and apparently no fighters. Five Spitfires are shot down though three pilots are recovered.

 

- Minor damage is inflicted on the airfield and one soldier is killed. The RAAF privately refers to this as the “Darwin Debacle”.

 

- General MacArthur releases a communiqué stating that Austalian losses in the action were very heavy and the RAAF suffered a “serious reverse”.

 

- Prime Minister John Curtin later contacts MacArthur and notes that the Japanese made propaganda use of the communiqué. MacArthur responds that it is important to not paint “too rosy a picture by the communiqués.” Although Curtin makes no further comment, the Prime Minister’s staff contends that the communiqué gave information of value to the enemy, and notes that SWPac releases never mention American heavy losses.

 

- The RAAF retaliates with a Beaufighter attack against Penfui, Timor, from where the raid came, damaging several aircraft on the ground. There is a follow-up night raid by Dutch and Australian B-25 Mitchells.

 

Damaged Spitfire at Darwin

 

Strafing of Penfui by Beaufighters"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• B-25s bomb and strafe several occupied villages in the Sepu, New Guinea area.

 

• Australian aircraft continue to provide air support around the Wau-Mubo area.

 

An armourer of the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF) bombing up a Wirraway with 250lb bombs 25 June 43"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Japanese Army aircraft raid Fenton Field, Australia, wrecking three B-24s and a Curtiss-Wright CW-22 on the ground. One defending Spitfire is lost.

 

• 770 Americans and Australians are landed by small landing craft and PT boats at Nassau Bay, New Guinea. Australian commandoes set landing markers to guide the forces in.

 

- Several landing craft are swamped by heavy surf. To support the landing, elements of the Australian 15th Brigade forces assault Bobdubi Ridge while scouts of the Papuan Infantry Battalion block routes the Japanese would use to move against the landing.

 

- About a hundred Japanese of the 102nd Battalion and fifty men of a naval guard unit quietly withdraw after seeing a bulldozer being landed in the distance and thinking it a tank. There is no contact but two nervous American forces shoot at each other resulting in 28 friendly fire deaths. They will be reported by SWPac Area as being from a “heavy attack” by the Japanese.

 

- About this time the number of submarines the IJN allocates to supplying the IJA at Lae-Salamaua is cut from six to three.

 

• In Operation TOENAILS, Third Fleet Amphibious Force supported by land-based aircraft lands Marines and Army troops on several islands in the New Georgia area. Destroyer USS Gwin is damaged between Munda and Rendova by Japanese shore batteries.

 

- Distant cover is provided by Task Group 36.3 consisting of carriers USS Saratoga and HMS Victorious, the only Allied fleet carriers in the Pacific, with American battleships North Carolina, Massachusetts, and Indiana. American Rear Admiral Dewitt Clinton Ramsey’s orders are to remain well out to sea in order to respond to the expected Japanese fleet sortie and destroy it. Following two months of work-ups with the British during which he determined that British fighter direction is superior, Ramsey has Saratoga handle the USN and RN strike aircraft while Victorious handles the fighters of both carriers.

 

Fleet Air Arm Martlets and USN Wildcats aboard HMS Victorious

 

- Naval Lt-General Jinichi Kusaka declines to risk his four carriers while he has ample land bases, and Ramsey’s orders from Admiral Halsey to remain well out to sea in order to attack those carriers leaves him out of position to directly cover the landing forces. Large numbers of land based fighters from Guadalcanal are over the landing forces.

 

- Preceding the main landing, Onaiavisi is occupied by two companies of the 169th Infantry.

 

- Failing to receive the signal to land from marines of 4th Raider Battalion ashore, the Viru Occupation Force (a reinforced company of the 103rd Infantry) lands instead at Segi Point. The Marines, moving overland, reach Viru Harbor in evening.

 

- The 172nd Infantry Regiment lands on Rendova and pushes inland 1,000 yards to search for scattered Japanese forces.  105mm artillery is also landed.

 

- The Japanese respond with an airstrike of A6M, D3A, F1M, and G4M aircraft. 18 Japanese aircraft and 17 American fighters are downed. Rear Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner’s flagship, attack transport USS McCawley, is damaged by one aerial torpedo.

 

- During the night, McCawley will be torpedoed and sunk. In the morning, six American PT boats will triumphantly report sinking a Japanese transport in the area. After this incident, PT squadrons in the area are placed directly under Turner’s command with amphibious fleet liaison officers attached.

 

Troops landing on Rendova while a P-40 pulls up from a strafing run - 30 June 1943"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• A Japanese infiltration company gets behind Allied lines near Salamaua, and launches an attack on a troop of the Australian 2/6th Field Artillery Regiment. The gunners defend the gun position with small-arms. They lose three killed and seven wounded without inflicting any losses on the Japanese, but hold their position and defend the guns.

 

Gunners of the 2/6th in New Guinea, 1942

 

- The Japanese commander then draws his sword and stands up to urge his men forward. A nearby Australian gunner is an ex-infantryman with an Owen gun who riddles the officer with a full magazine. The Japanese raiding party withdraws.

 

• Australian troops open an attack on Momiatum Ridge after five hundred artillery shells have been fired at the Japanese positions and take the heights in half an hour. This surrounds the Japanese on Mount Tambu.

 

• The Japanese Army launches another air raid against Tsili Tsili with seven Ki-48 bombers escorted by thirty-three Ki-43 fighters. Meanwhile, twenty-four C-47s and C-53s take off from Port Moresby, moving aviation fuel and supplies to the new airbase. Following yesterdays loss of two transports, The Fifth Air Force provides a much stronger fighter escort of thirty-two P-47 Thunderbolts and an unknown number of P-38s. The Japanese strike is completely thwarted and twelve Japanese fighters claimed as shot down with one P-47 lost and one P-38 damaged.  All twenty-four transports land safely at Tsili Tsili Airfield.  This marks the first combat use of the P-47 in the Pacific Theater.

 

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• American and Australian aircraft bomb several airfields on New Britain. One RAAF Beaufort and one USAAF A-20 are lost. Overnight, eleven Australian Catalinas attack Vunakanau and Lakunai Airdromes at Rabaul.

 

• General Sir Thomas Blamey’s plan of feinting at Salamaua with the Australian 5th Division to draw off reserves from Lae has worked well, allowing the Australian 9th Division to land on the Huon peninsula east of Lae against light opposition on the ground. The 20th and 26th Brigades land on either side of the Bulu River after airstrikes on the beach and bombardment from five destroyers. The Australian 7th Division is advancing on Lae overland with two brigades while the 25th Brigade is preparing to fly in to Nadzab, west of Lae.

 

• The Japanese respond with separate Army and Navy airstrikes. American infantry landing craft LCI(L)-339 is wrecked on the beach by three D3A dive bombers, a total loss; destroyer USS Conyngham is damaged by another Val, and tank landing ships LST-471 and LST-473 are damaged by torpedo and dive bombers. Over a hundred US sailors and Australian soldiers are killed. P-38 and P-47 fighters claim to down twenty-three Japanese aircraft (the actual number is five). One P-38 is shot down.

 

- (LCI(L)-339 can be seen in the bottom photo flanked on either side by two LSTs prior to the airstrikes.)

 

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• With heavy losses of lone reconnaissance aircraft over Australia, the Japanese send two Ki-46s escorted by twenty fighters (identified as “Zekes” but possibly IJA fighters). Two groups of RAAF Spitfires take off to intercept. One is attacked by the Japanese before gaining an altitude advantage and three Spitfires are downed for one Japanese. The other group dives and breaks away, downing four Japanese fighters without loss. The Japanese claim downing eight Spitfires.

 

• Major General George Vasey and the headquarters for the Australian 7th Division plus elements of the 25th Brigade are flown into Nadzab.

 

• The Australian 2/33rd Infantry Battalion of the 7th Division is aboard trucks of the 158th General Transport Company heading for a Port Moresby airfield to be flown into Nadzab when an American B-24D that is taking off with a full load of fuel and bombs clips a tree and crashes into the truck column. All 11 of the air crewmen and 62 Australians are killed with 92 more injured.

 

- The 2/33rd has fought in the Middle-East, taking part in the seige of Tobruk and the invasion of Vichy Syria-Lebanon. Along with the rest of the 7th, they were shipped directly to Milne Bay to repel the Japanese offensive without stopping in Australia to visit family, fought their way over the Kokoda trail and took part in the bloody Buna-Gona campaign prior to making the assault on Lae-Salamaua.

 

- After this accident, the rest of the battalion flies out as scheduled. A bizarre statement is issued by US Fifth Air Force that “Mexican saboteurs” are suspected of being involved in the crash, but it is later retracted.

 

Men of the 7th Division leaving Tobruk in 1941

 

One of the trucks after the B-24 crash."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• In a heavy raid on Kavieng, five B-25s and two A-20s are shot down. Several of the crews are rescued by the PBY “Arkansas Traveller” piloted by Nathan Gordon, who will receive the following Medal of Honor citation:

 

For extraordinary heroism above and beyond the call of duty as commander of a Catalina patrol plane in rescuing personnel of the US Army 5th Air Force shot down in combat over Kavieng Harbor in the Bismarck Sea, February 15, 1944. On air alert in the vicinity of Vitu Islands, LT (then LTjg) Gordon unhesitatingly responded to a report of the crash and flew boldly into the harbor, defying close-range fire from enemy shore guns to make 3 separate landings in full view of the Japanese and pick up 9 men, several of them injured. With his cumbersome flying boat dangerously overloaded, he made a brilliant takeoff despite heavy swells and almost total absence of wind and set a course for base, only to receive the report of another group stranded in a rubber life raft 600 yards from the enemy shore. Promptly turning back, he again risked his life to set his plane down under direct fire of the heaviest defenses of Kavieng and take aboard 6 more survivors, coolly making his fourth dexterous takeoff with 15 rescued officers and men. By his exceptional daring, personal valor, and incomparable airmanship under most perilous conditions, Lieutenant Gordon prevented certain death or capture of our airmen by the Japanese.

 

Painting of the incident, dubbed 'The Flight out of Hell'."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• As mopping up on Los Negros and Manus continues, operations are begun against outlying islands. After preparatory bombardment of Pityilu, elements of the 7th Cavalry land without opposition and virtually destroy the small Japanese garrison while searching the rest of the island.

 

• USS Darter torpedoes and sinks 2,800 ton army cargo ship Fujikawa Maru north-west of Manokwari, New Guinea.

 

• Task Force 58 under Raymond Spruance launches Operation Desecrate, with intensive bombing of Japanese airfields, shipping, fleet servicing facilities, and other installations at Palau, Yap, Ulithi, and Woleai in the Carolines. The main purpose is to degrade Japanese ability to respond to the upcoming landings at Aitape and Hollandia on New Guinea. 

 

- The attacks will continue into 01 April and include dropping of extensive minefields in the various channels. Carrier aircraft sink destroyer Wakatake, repair ships Akashi and Kamikaze Maru, fleet tankers Ose, Sata, Irō, Akebono Maru, and Amatsu Maru, Army tanker Unyo Maru, five sub chasers, one patrol boat, six transports, two tankers, and eleven cargo ships.

 

- Akebono Maru was the oiler damaged by a PBY during Midway in the only successful American torpedo attack of the battle. She had earlier been hit with 100 lb bombs from B-17s from Java, and subsequently hit with torpedoes from four American submarines that either inflicted damage or were duds.

 

Palau under air attack 30 March 1944

 

Nagisan Maru at Palau 30 March 1944

 

Part of Palau achipelago

 

Japanese Patrol Boat No 1 under attack

 

VT-5 Avengers from USS Yorktown torpedo destroyer Wakatake"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• TF-58 concludes its strike against the Carolines with attacks on Woleai. Four F6Fs and one TBF are shot down. One of the Hellcat pilots is Ensign John Galvin who is wounded and stranded on the reef. Submarine USS Harder is on lifeguard duty and heads inshore. Galvin is too weak to swim out to the submarine, so three men volunteer to go in for him with a raft: LT Samuel Logan, ship’s cook J.W. Thomason, and Machinists Mate Francis Ryan.

 

- It takes the rescuers thirty minutes, under sniper fire, to reach Galvin. Harder is firing at the tree line and other carrier aircraft are strafing it. As they are being pulled back to Harder, an SOC Seagull lands in an attempt to reach them, but instead severs the towline. CDR Samuel Dealey drives Harder right to the edge of the reef while Gunners Mate Freeman Paquet volunteers to swim another line to the raft. The rescue is successful and Galvin is treated for his wounds aboard the sub.

 

- Galvin will be aboard USS Harder for 33 days, volunteer to stand watches and receive the Submarine Combat Patrol Pin. He will return to USS Bunker Hill and be credited with downing seven Japanese aircraft, receiving the DFC and Air Medal.

 

USS Harder off Woleai

 

Harder closeup off Woleai with SOC passing ahead"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Three hundred Allied aircraft attack Japanese airfields at Hollandia, New Guinea. Most of the Japanese airplanes there are destroyed. Two P-38s and one B-24 are lost.

 

Parafrag bombs descending towards IJA Ki-48 bombers Hollandia

 

Hollandia airfield April 1944"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• In what will be called “Black Sunday”, nearly two hundred American aircraft attack Hollandia. On the way back they encounter a solid wall of black thunderstorms and spend half an hour looking for holes of clearer weather. Several ditch at sea, others run out of fuel in Japanese controlled territory, while some crash trying to make it to Saidor in the storm. Of the aircraft that make it, many are damaged from gliding in with no fuel or colliding in the runway. Lost are:

 

• Sixteen A-20
• Seven B-25
• Six B-24
• Fouteen P-38
• One P-39
• One P-47
• One F-5 reconnaissance Lightning
• One F-7 reconnaissance Liberator

 

- This is the largest weather related loss of American aircraft of the war. General MacArthur will censor all mention of the losses and the number of casualties will remain unknown for decades. It's still difficult to find a reliable number.

 

- The below A-20 photo is taken the next day by an RAAF Boomerang searching for missing aircraft. Both crewmen survived with wounds but cannot be recovered until they construct a 125 foot long runway out of the kunai grass using hand tools dropped to them. On the 25th a Piper L-4 Grasshopper will recover them in two flights.

 

- In 1998 Michael Claringbould will publish “Black Sunday: When Weather Claimed the US Fifth Air Force” after eight years of researching the event, with a notable refusal of information from the MacArthur Memorial Museum in Norfolk, Virginia.

 

A-20G Bennys Baby 17 April 1944"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "Operation Cockpit

 

• As part of the cooperation between the RN and USN in Pacific Operations, the US Navy had requested a carrier strike on northern Sumatra to distract the Japanese prior to the upcoming landings at Hollandia. A multinational force under Admiral Sir James Somerville consisting of USS Saratoga and HMS Illustrious escorted by French battleship Richelieu and American, Australian, British, Dutch, and New Zealand escorts launches airstrikes at the port city of Sabang. 27 American F6Fs, 24 SBDs, and 18 TBFs as well as 13 British Corsairs and 17 Barracudas catch the Japanese by surprise encountering no air opposition. Fighters strafe Lho Nga airfield and claim two dozen aircraft destroyed on the ground. Port facilities and oil storage tanks are damaged, with one freighter sunk and several ships damaged.

 

 

- The only loss is one American Hellcat fighter that takes flak damage. British submarine Tactician heads inshore to pick up the pilot, racing a Japanese torpedo boat towards the position. Allied aircraft attack the Japanese vessel and it sheers off. Tactician then recovers the pilot, braving shore battery fire to do so.

 

- The Japanese attempt to attack the fleet with three G4Ms as it is withdrawing, but the CAP shoots down all three bombers. HMS Tactician reports the port burning fiercely for a long time after the raid. Admiral Somerville reports that the Japanese have been “caught with their kimonos up.”

 

Sabang under attack 19 April 1944 with airfield at left and port on the right

 

Fleet Air Arm Corsair returning to HMS Illustrious"

[cardboard_killer]

Note the clipped wings of the Corsair, for the smaller UK carriers.

[ST_Catchov]

Unsurprisingly, I find this a very interesting thread. Thanks for pointing out the clipped wing version of the Corsair. I wouldn't have noticed otherwise. She is a lovely bird, and as usual. they are the most dangerous.

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Covered by carrier aircraft of Task Force 58 and land based aircraft, Amphibious Task Force 77 lands four American regiments of I Corps either side of Hollandia in Dutch New Guinea and a fifth at Aitape, Papua New Guinea.

 

- Elements of the 24th Infantry Division land at Tanahmerah Bay, after bombardment by Australian heavy cruisers Australia and Shropshire plus Australian and American destroyers.

 

- Two regiments of the 41st Division land at Humboldt Bay, after bombardment by American light cruisers Boise and Phoenix plus American destroyers.

 

 

 

- Opposition is minimal with vast stores being accumulated on the beaches. A lone Japanese aircraft bombs a supply dump and sets off fires and explosions, killing twenty men and injuring over a hundred. Three Japanese torpedo planes attack and severely damage cargo ship USS Etamin, which has to be towed back to Finschhafen with half its cargo still on board.

 

- At Aitape, between Hollandia and Wewak, the 24th Division’s 163rd Regimental Combat Team lands along with the No. 62 Works Wing of the RAAF to secure Tadji Airfield. The small Japanese garrison, mostly ground crewmen and AA gunners, flee into the hills or surrender. Within 48 hours, twenty-five Australian Kittyhawks of No. 78 Wing will be operating from Tadji.

 

Douglas_SBD-5_Dauntless_covering_landings_at_Tanahmerah_Bay

 

Landings at Hollandia from USS Bunker Hill aircraft

 

American soldiers landing at Aitape

 

Questioning Japanese POW at Aitape the same day as the landing 22 April 1944"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Eight P-38s skip-bomb Japanese supply tunnels on New Britain island.

 

• Destroyer USS Taylor sinks Japanese submarine Ro-111 north-northwest of Kavieng, New Ireland.

 

• The US Eighth Army is activated in the United States under the command of Lieutenant General Robert Eichelberger. Its purpose is to free up units of Walter Krueger’s Sixth Army for the liberation of the Philippines.

 

• Battleships Yamato and Musashi depart Tawi Tawi along with light cruiser Noshiro and two destroyers, intending to relieve Biak. The force spots a periscope (probably USS Harder) and while maneuvering, the two battleships come very close to a collision.

 

- The sortie will be aborted in response to the US invasion of the Marianas. 

 

• Australian fighters shoot down a Japanese Ki-61 aircraft over New Guinea near Biak. This is the last Commonwealth Kittyhawk fighter victory of the war. RAAF squadrons in New Guinea are increasingly being relegated to rear areas.

 

• General MacArthur insists that the US 41st Infantry Division commander, Major General Horace Fuller, who had led the division at Salamaua and Hollandia, secure Biak and its airfields immediately. Advancing American troops are caught in crossfires from well prepared positions, and held back by Japanese defense of the Parai Defile.

 

- The Anti-Tank company of the 162nd Infantry and Company A, 186th fall back from ridges extending west from the trail inland, which they have been trying in vain to clear since June 7th.

 

The Parai defile and cave defenses on Biak"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Japanese tanker Ikuta Maru is mined and sunk off Sumatra.

 

• USS Cod torpedoes and sinks 260 ton coaster Shinsei Maru No.6 south of Celebes.

 

• Australian aircraft sink the 3,200 ton Shinyu Maru in Halmahera Bay.

 

• American aircraft hit shipping and facilities off Urarom, New Guinea, losing three A-20s to Japanese anti-aircraft fire.

 

A PBY following the strike is already approaching to land near downed A-20 off Urarom"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Australian Beaufighters and Australian and American A-20s bomb Japanese shipping off southeast coast of Ceram, sinking fishing vessels No.3 Hoyu Maru and No.4 Bonan Maru.

 

• The two great American military drives across the Pacific Ocean converge today as Nimitz’ Pacific Area invades Peleliu while MacArthur’s SouthWest Pacific Area invades Morotai. The islands are 430 miles apart and both are within striking distance of the Philippines.

 

- Peleliu is defended by 11,000 Japanese of the 14th Division, and invaded by the US 1st Marine Division on five separate beachheads. The Marines have support from battleships Pennsylvania, Maryland, Mississippi, Tennessee and Idaho, five heavy cruisers, three light cruisers, three fleet, five light, and eleven escort carriers. The Army’s 81st Infantry Division will begin landing to support the Marines within a week as amphibious forces are insufficient to land both.

 

- The Japanese catch the invading forces in a crossfire of mortar fire and 47mm and 20mm guns firing from bunkers, destroying sixty LVTs and DUKWs. As the 5th Marine Regiment moves off the beach towards the airfield it is attacked by infantry and light tanks, but naval gunfire and dive bombers quickly shatter the Japanese assault. By the end of the day the Marines hold the beaches and up to a mile inland, at the cost of 200 killed and 900 wounded.

 

- At the same time, landings on Morotai are made by the US 31st Infantry Division and one regiment of the 32nd. Morotai is defended only by four companies of Formosan soldiers with Japanese officers, plus several police and support units. Major Takenobu Kawashima had ordered his men to create dummy barracks and camps which successfully deceived SWPA intelligence.

 

- The Americans have support from land based air as well as two Australian heavy cruisers, three US light cruisers, two fleet carriers and two light carriers. The initial landings face almost no opposition and it will be determined that the rest of the 32nd Infantry Division and the 6th Infantry Division will not be needed.

 

LVTs move toward Peleliu passing through the inshore bombardment line of LCI gunboats - photo taken by USS Honolulu scoutplane

 

USS Honolulu providing gunfire support at Peleliu

 

Marines on Peleliu 15 Sept 44

 

American soldiers debarking from LCI(L)s at Morotai 15 Sept 44

 

PBY-5 waiting off Morotai to fly out SWPA approved press reports of the successful landings 15 September 1944"