Carrier Raids

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Task Force 16 under Vice Admiral Halsey in USS Enterprise raids Wake Island. Launching is beset with errors. One SBD crashes into the sea trying to take off with the radioman killed and pilot badly injured, and the strike takes thirty minutes to form up and proceed to the target. Six F4Fs detailed to provide CAP over the bombardment group (heavy cruisers Salt Lake City and Northampton plus destroyers Balch and Maury) also arrive late with the Japanese spotting the ships first and attacking with locally based Nakajima E8N floatplanes with light (30 kg) bombs. Fortunately for the Americans, no hits are obtained though the planned bombardment is shortened to 30 minutes, with concentration on the seaplane ramp and base.  They also sink patrol gunboats No.5 Fukyu Maru and No.1 Miho Maru. SBD, TBD, and SOC aircraft bomb installations and the airfield.

 

- One Dauntless is shot down and its crew captured. They will be shipped to Japan but killed when the transport is sunk by an American submarine.  While withdrawing, Enterprise CAP shoots down a Kawanishi H6K flying boat shadowing TF 16. One F4F runs out of fuel and ditches before it can return to the carrier but the pilot is rescued.

Nakajima E8N

 

TBD-1 Devastator over Wake Island 24 Feb 42"

 

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "The Easter Raid.

 

Major operations begin in the Japanese Indian Ocean Raid by the Kido Butai strike force. At dawn, Admiral Nagumo begins launching 127 planes (36 A6M2 fighters, 38 D3A1 bombers, and 53 B5N2 bombers) for a strike on Colombo, Ceylon (Sri Lanka). This becomes known as the "Easter Sunday Raid." The planes cause heavy damage to the port area and sink destroyer Tenedos (33 dead), passenger ship (requisitioned by the Royal Navy) Hector, and tanker Soli (only damaged and beached but declared a total loss).

 

A D3A1 taking off from Zuikaku on April 5, 1942.

 

Another taking off from Akagi

 

The Japanese lose 7 planes (1 A6M2 and 6 D3A1) to anti-aircraft fire and defending fire, while the defending RAF loses somewhat more than that, including an entire flight of six Swordfish of RAF No. 788 Squadron shot down by aircraft from Japanese carrier Hiryu. Just as during the Pearl Harbor attack, the force is commanded by Akagi flight leader Lt. Cdr Mitsuo Fuchida, who flies in an observation role.

 

The remains of one of five of Zuikaku's D3A1s shot down over Ratmalana airfield during the raid on Colombo, Ceylon, April 5, 1942.

 

After this successful strike, Nagumo heads southwest, apparently to avoid retaliation. This leads him directly toward the British fleet steaming toward him from the Maldives, of which he is unaware. At 10:00, a floatplane from cruiser Tone spots the British ships. Nagumo increases speed and launches another strike at 11:54, this time against the ships. The torpedo planes sink cruisers Cornwall and Dorsetshire (234 of 653 crew dead) about 200 miles (370 km) southwest of Ceylon at 14:00.

 

HMS Cornwall sinking after being attacked by Japanese D3A1 "Val" dive-bombers on 5 April 1942. All pictures of this encounter were filmed by circling Japanese aircrew.

 

HMS Dorsetshire sinks on 5 April 1942

 

 

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "The Japanese Indian Ocean Raid reaches its climax with renewed attacks against Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and British naval forces. At dawn, Admiral Nagumo sends over 100 planes to attack the port of Trincomalee. They are met by 22 defending RAF fighters that are brushed aside. The Japanese wreak devastation on the harbor facilities, including badly damaging/sinking 7953-ton British freighter Sagaing (3 deaths), but do not succeed in locating their real target, the Royal Navy Eastern Fleet. Incidentally, the Sagaing was raised and moved to a different location by the Sri Lanka navy in 2018 to open up the harbor.

 

 

However, the Japanese get lucky. Hearing about the Japanese raid, Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Hermes (Captain R.F.J. Onslow), which had left Trincomalee to avoid the raid, turns around to help out. This turns out to be a big mistake. Japanese scout planes quickly locate Hermes and vector in bombers from aircraft carriers Hiryū, Shōkaku, and Zuikaku. They arrive over Hermes quickly before the dwindling shore-based RAF fighters can arrive, and hit it with over 40 bombs in about ten minutes, sinking it. There are about 600 survivors of Hermes and over 307 deaths. The accompanying destroyer HMAS Vampire (nine dead) also is hit, breaks in half, and sinks. Not far away, Royal Navy corvette Hollyhock (49 dead) and tankers Athelstane (5571 tons) and British Sergeant (5868 tons) also are sunk, with Hollyhock sinking in less than a minute. Japanese bombers from Akagi sink 2924-ton Norwegian freighter Norviken (four dead, 42 survivors)."

 

Kates

 

Hermes sinking

 

 

 

Vampire under attack.

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "Japanese fleet radio intelligence begins picking up the radio traffic being made between Pearl Harbor, Admiral "Bull" Halsey's Task Force 16, and the Doolittle Raid ships heading toward Japan. Halsey has not yet caught up with USS Hornet but will within a few days. The Japanese correctly deduce that the Americans may try to raid Japan. However, the Japanese calculate, based on typical carrier operations, that the US Navy will have to get within 300 miles of Japan before there is any risk to the homeland. Thus, they put the Twenty-Sixth Air Flotilla with its 69 land-based planes on alert but wait for an alert from a picket line of trawlers maintained in a six-hundred-mile line east of Japan. The Japanese take no other precautions.

 

Wildcat of VF-6 on board USS Enterprise, which is in Admiral Halsey's Task Force 16 heading to join the Doolittle Raiders on the way to Japan. The crew is testing the machine guns. 10 April 1942" [Note that this is the recently issued F4F-4, with its 6x .50cal MG armament. Its greater weight and lower ammunition per gun made it initially unpopular with pilots.]

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today]

 

 

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Royal Navy Commander Michael Laing, liaison officer aboard Yorktown [previously commander of HMS Furious], took copious notes during the action and suggests to Admiral Fletcher:

 

1. Specific improvements to flag bridge layout on American carriers.
2. Improving contact tracking aboard American flagships, including adoption of the Royal Navy lettered grid system.
3. Adoption of RN practice of having designated salvage parties who will remain aboard if ordered when a ship is abandoned. The USN currently has no such system, it being an all or nothing affair.

 

- Admiral Fletcher endorses all of the suggestions, noting that #3 in particular may have saved Yorktown. Admiral Nimitz will order adoption of all three. Commander Laing’s direct report to the Admiralty on the Battle of Midway remains classified to this day."

 

 

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Captain Elliot Buckmaster of USS Yorktown recommends a medal for Machinist Oscar Myers who had observed the Lexington going up in flames and devised a method of purging aviation gasoline lines with carbon dioxide and filling the voids between fuel tanks with CO2. This system will eventually be used in all American carriers but will not be installed aboard USS Wasp before she is lost.

 

- Buckmaster is criticized by Admiral King for the loss of his ship despite making her arguably the most effective carrier in the fleet. He will be named Chief of Naval Air Primary Training, based in Kansas, and never have another sea command."

 

Admiral Buckmaster

 

"The Yorktown’s acting executive officer, Commander Irving D. Wiltsie, later reported one reason the carrier had escaped more extensive damage: Shortly before the dive bombers had attacked, “all gasoline in the topside gasoline lines was pumped back down to the gasoline tanks. . . . [A] CO₂ purging system for the topside gasoline lines and a CO₂ blanket for the gasoline tank compartments” prevented a serious conflagration. Machinist Oscar W. Myers, the air fuel officer, had developed the carbon-dioxide purging system to expel vapors." [Executive Officer to Commanding Officer USS Yorktown CV5, Subject: Executive Officer’s Report of Action for Period of June 4–7, 1942, 16 June 1942 (hereafter XO report), USS Yorktown, War Damage Report, 18 June 1942.]

 

 

 

 

 

[bamaackbar]

cardboard_killer,

 

In your post above you referenced a report by LCDR Michael Laing, Royal Navy, who was on observer on the Yorktown during the Battle of Midway. I am research British naval observers and liaison officers stationed with the U.S. Pacific Fleet in 1941 and 1942. Would you be willing to share where you got your information about Laing's report on Midway from? John Lundstrom's book references Laing's report but I have not been able to find a copy.