Island Hopping

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[80 years ago today] "• While USS Enterprise is conducting training for the upcoming Gilberts operation, an F6F piloted by Ensign Byron Johnson develops engine trouble and requests an emergency landing. He is waved off but catches the hook and his external fuel tank ruptures as the portside wheel drops off the deck. His canopy is jammed shut and he cannot exit the plane which is soon in flames.

 

- Catapult officer LT Walter Chewning climbs the burning plane and frees the pilot. Both suffer only minor injuries and Chewning is awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal.

 

- That night, air group commander “Butch” O’Hare recommends that no landings be made without first dropping the belly tank.

 

Chewning climbing the Hellcat"

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[80 years ago today] "• Admiral Nimitz has loaned Fifth Fleet’s Task Force 50, which has been working up for Operation Galvanic, to Admiral Halsey for a second strike on Rabaul. Carriers Essex and Bunker Hill plus light carrier Independence join Saratoga and Princeton.

 

- This is the combat debut of Bunker Hill and of the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver, 33 of which are aboard her. The two Task Forces’ strikes are not coordinated so the raids, including one by Australian Beauforts, are spread out over the day. Night attacks by RAAF Catalinas give the Japanese no rest.

 

- During the attack, light cruiser Agano is torpedoed aft by a TBF. After temporary repairs she will be underway for Japan on two shafts when she is torpedoed by USS Scamp. She will put in to Truk and remain there until sunk by another carrier strike.

 

- Destroyer Suzunami takes a bomb hit that detonates her torpedoes. She blows up and sinks with 148 killed.

 

- Destroyer Naganami is torpedoed and has her stern demolished. She will be under repair into July.

 

- Light cruiser Yubari and two other destroyers are lightly damaged by strafing and/or near misses.

 

- Task Force 38 retires southward to the Solomons while Task Force 50 retires southeastward to rejoin Fifth Fleet en route the Gilberts. The Japanese locate the latter and launch approximately 120 aircraft against the force. Despite several near misses, the American ships take no damage and between CAP and AA claim 129 aircraft down. Actual Japanese losses are 35 aircraft.

 

SB2Cs returning to Bunker Hill 11 Nov 43

 

Near miss on USS Bunker Hill 11 Nov 43"

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[80 years ago today] "• Battleships Yamato and Musashi had been heading for Biak to land reinforcements and attack Allied invasion shipping, but are now diverted towards the Marianas. USS Seahorse spots the battlegroup east of Mindanao but is unable to get into attack position.

 

• Japanese destroyer Shiratsuyu is sunk in collision with tanker Seiyo Maru west of Mindanao. 104 are killed, many due to the destroyer’s depth charges exploding among the survivors.

 

• As a diversion for the Marianas, American carrier aircraft strike Chichi Jima, Haha Jima, and Iwo Jima in the Bonins. Three USN aircraft are lost.

 

• USS Swordfish torpedoes and sinks 4,800 ton transport ship Kanseishi Maru about 150 nautical miles north-north-west of Chichi Jima.

 

• Amid extensive shore bombardment and airstrikes, TF-52 begins landing the 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions under Marine Lieutenant General Holland “Howlin’ Mad” Smith on Saipan in Operation Forager. Diversionary forces form up to feint at the northern end of the island but the Japanese remain convinced that the landings will be where they expect them, in the southwest.

 

• Battleship Tennessee and light cruiser St Louis are lightly damaged by shore batteries. Some twenty landing craft and LVTs are destroyed by Japanese mines, artillery and mortar fire. Destroyer USS Halsey Powell enters Tanapag Harbor and sinks netlayer Ma-101, the former HMS Barlight which had been captured at Hong Kong in 1941. Other small Japanese and local craft are sunk.

 

 

• The Marines take over two thousand casualties including all four of the leading battalion commanders. By the end of day the beachhead is about 10,000 yards long and over 1,000 yards deep in most places, but flanks are insecure and the Japanese hold Afetna Point. Good progress is made in unloading reserves and support weapons. Additional Marines and soldiers of the 27th Infantry Division will land tomorrow.

 

• Saipan is defended by approximately 25,000 IJA soldiers, coast artillerymen, and support troops under Lieutenant General Saito Yoshitsugu including the 43rd Division, 47th Independent Mixed Brigade, and the 9th Tank Regiment and 6,700 naval infantry of the 1st Yokosuka SNLF and 55th Guard Force under Naval General Nagumo Chuichi, who also has overall command of the island.

 

USS Indianapolis under coastal artillery fire off Saipan

 

Japanese seaplane base on Saipan under attack

 

Marines on the beach at Saipan

 

 

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• CinCPac Release No. 448:

 

“As the South Pacific has become relatively quiet, Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr., U.S. Navy, has been relieved of command of the South Pacific Area and the South Pacific Force. He will henceforth command the Third Fleet which will operate in the Pacific Ocean in the same way that the Fifth Fleet is operating under command of Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, USN.”

 

• West of Tinian, American destroyers Wadleigh and Melvin sink Japanese submarine Ro-114 with all hands.

 

• Land based IJN aircraft mount two waves of attacks against US shipping in the Marianas. In the first, five Nakajima B5Ns attack and torpedo LCI(G)-468 which sinks. Three “Kates” are shot down and LST-84 is damaged by friendly AA fire.

 

• In the second attack, seventeen Yokosuka D4Y dive bombers escorted by thirty-one A6Ms along with two P1Y patrol bombers attack the escort carriers of VADM Richmond Kelly Turner's Task Force 52. These launch forty-six FM Wildcats but give them the wrong vector taking them out of the action. AA fire downs several “Judys” and both “Frances”.

 

Yokosuka P1Y2 shot down near escort carrier Gambier Bay off Saipan, seen from USS Kitkun Bay.

 

- USS Fanshaw Bay is hit by a single bomb that penetrates the after elevator and explodes in midair above the hanger deck, killing 14 and wounding 23. Fire breaks out and the fire main is ruptured, flooding several compartments aft. In just under an hour, the damage is brought under control. Fanshaw Bay will return to Pearl Harbor and be under repair into August.

 

• The Yamato battleship group refuels from the 1st Supply Force and joins the Mobile Fleet.

 

• On Saipan, the Marines attack after an intensive preparatory bombardment, taking all of the day’s objectives except in the center, where heavy enemy fire is directed from difficult terrain around Lake Susupe. Because of the of impending naval battle, air support has been drastically curtailed."

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[80 years ago today] "• On Saipan, the Marines pivot northwards while the Army’s 27th Infantry Division clears the southern coast.

 

• Twenty miles off Saipan, a TBF from escort carrier USS Suwanee spots Japanese submarine I-184. As the Avenger dives on it, the Japanese crash dive but the depth charges sink her with all hands.

 

Battle of the Philippine Sea

 

- In what will become the largest carrier battle in history, each side is broken into task groups. The Japanese have:

 

Mobile Force: Light carriers Zuihō, Chitose, and Chiyoda, battleships Yamato, Musashi, Kongo, and Haruna with eight heavy cruisers plus escorts.

 

‘A’ Force: Carriers Taihō, Shōkaku, and Zuikaku, two heavy cruisers plus escorts.

 

‘B’ Force: Carriers Junyō, Hiyō, and Ryūhō, battleship Nagato, one heavy cruiser plus escorts.

 

- Escorts include six light cruisers and twenty-seven destroyers. The Americans have:

 

Task Group-58.1: Carriers Hornet, Yorktown, light carriers Belleau Wood, Bataan, three heavy cruisers plus escorts.

 

TG-58.2: Carriers Bunker Hill, Wasp, light carriers Cabot, Monterey, plus escorts.

 

TG-58.3: Carriers Enterprise, Lexington, light carriers San Jacinto, Princeton, plus escorts.

 

TG-58.4: Carrier Essex, light carriers Langley, Cowpens plus escorts.

 

TG-58.7: Fast battleships Iowa, New Jersey, Washington, Indiana, North Carolina, South Dakota, Alabama, four heavy cruisers plus escorts.

 

- Escorts include thirteen light cruisers and fifty-eight destroyers.

 

- TF-52: The amphibious force, is covered by seven older battleships and seven escort carriers.

 

- In the early morning, Naval General Jisaburō Ozawa’s carriers turn into the wind to launch airstrikes against Spruance’s fleet. Two years after Midway, the Japanese carriers are still organizationally unable to launch full strikes and they must go in separate waves. As the aircraft are taking off and forming up overhead, USS Albacore fires six torpedoes at the brand new fleet carrier Taihō, which is Ozawa’s flagship.

 

- One of Taihō's strike pilots, Warrant Officer Sakio Komatsu, sees the torpedo wakes, breaks formation and deliberately dives his plane into the path of one torpedo, detonating it short of its target. One torpedo strikes the carrier starboard just ahead of the island, fracturing aviation fuel tanks and dropping the forward elevator two meters.

 

Taihō with a Shōkaku class in the background

 

- As no fires have started and speed is not impaired, Ozawa orders the elevator planked over so that the rest of the airstrike can launch. This is done within two hours, but a mixture of seawater and gasoline is filling the lower spaces. The Japanese crew is inexperienced in damage control and efforts to pump out the damaged elevator well are bungled while no attempt is made to try and cover the increasingly lethal mixture with foam from the hangar's fire suppression system. In desperation, the crew begins knocking out the glass in portholes to try and increase ventilation.

 

- Approximately fifty Japanese aircraft take off from Guam to attack the American fleet. They are engaged by thirty F6Fs from USS Belleau Wood with thirty-five Japanese shot down for one Hellcat. This pattern will be repeated throughout the day.

 

- TF-58 picks up the first wave from the carriers (16 A6M5 Zero escorts, 45 Zeroes with bombs, and 8 Nakajima B6N "Jill" torpedo planes) on radar and Mitscher orders every fighter up while strike aircraft are sent to orbit east of the formation. While the American fighters are still climbing, the Japanese pause and orbit to redress their formation. This delay allows the Americans to get to altitude and engage successive waves of Japanese aircraft up to seventy miles away from the carriers.

 

- The aircraft are whittled down with minimal American losses far short of the American carriers. They manage to reach Vice Admiral Lee’s battleship support group and one A6M hits battleship South Dakota with a 250 kg bomb that blows a hole in the deck killing two dozen men, but doing little material damage.

 

- The second wave of what will be called “The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot” is the largest and contains the most experienced pilots. It consists of 48 Zeroes, 53 Yokosuka D4A "Judy" dive bombers, and 27 B6Ns.

 

- A few of these aircraft reach the carriers and USS Enterprise has a B6N torpedo detonate in her wake. A torpedo from another B6N hits battleship Indiana but fails to explode.

 

- Dive bombers and fighter bombers score near misses on carriers Bunker Hill and Wasp. Only ten Japanese aircraft from this wave survive.

 

- The third wave (15 Zero escorts, 25 Zeroes with bombs, and 7 Jills) is intercepted by 40 fighters. When seven Japanese aircraft have been shot down, most of the rest jettison ordnance and attempt to escape.

 

- The fourth wave (40 Zeroes, 27 Aichi D3A Vals, 9 Judys, and 6 Jills) is given an incorrect vector and is unable to locate the American ships. They jettison ordnance and are lowering landing gear to land on Guam when they are attacked by twenty-seven F6Fs from Cowpens, Essex, and Hornet with thirty shot down.

 

- Spruance then directs Mitscher to launch a strike with Avengers, Helldivers, and Dauntlesses against Guam to crater the airfield. Seven American aircraft are downed by the heaviest Japanese AA reported to date.

 

- Japanese aircraft losses on this first day are 301 (243 from carriers and 58 land based). American losses are 27.

 

- While this is going on, carrier Shōkaku is hit by three torpedoes from submarine USS Cavalla as she is in the process of refueling ten A6M fighters for CAP duty. Her main hangar is instantly engulfed in a fuel fire, to which is added exploding oxygen bottles and machine gun ammunition.

 

Shōkaku under air attack {…in 1942…}

 

- The survivors of the airstrikes are returning and Shōkaku’s aircraft are directed to land aboard Zuikaku and Taihō which has again planked over the forward elevator to allow aircraft to use the flight deck. Shōkaku lists to starboard and counterflooding overcompensates, causing her to heel over to port.  Naval Colonel Hiroshi Matsubara orders abandon ship but she quickly corkscrews under along with 1,272 men. 570 are picked up, including Colonel Matsubara.

 

- This leaves her sistership Zuikaku as the only surviving carrier of the Pearl Harbor strike force.

 

- In mid-afternoon, the air inside Taihō is saturated with gasoline fumes and she suffers a massive explosion, heaving up the armored flight deck and blowing out the sides. She is abandoned as the fires consume her and she sinks in less than two hours with 660 men lost. Naval General Ozawa takes the emperor’s portrait and transfers his flag to heavy cruiser Haguro.

 

- Counterattacks on the American submarines are severe. Albacore logs 75 depth charges while Cavalla records 106, but neither boat is damaged as the submarines are deep.

 

Sailors aboard USS Birmingham watching contrails of the great turkey shoot

 

USS Bunker Hill takes a near miss from a dive bomber 19 June 1944."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "

Battle of the Philippine Sea

 

• In the previous afternoon, Admiral Spruance gave Vice Admiral Mitscher permission to depart from covering the invasion forces and pursue the Japanese fleet. Naval General Ozawa is initially unaware of yesterday's aerial slaughter, believing that most of his aircraft have landed on Guam, and he stays within range to recover them.

 

- In the pre-dawn darkness, a detachment of F6F-3N night fighters from USS Essex find that the Japanese have turned the lights on at the Tiyan Airstrip on Guam. The Hellcats strafe the airstrip until the lights are turned off, destroying three aircraft on the ground.

 

- The Japanese fleet is finally located by American search planes in the late afternoon, and by now Ozawa is withdrawing. Mitscher launches a strike of 85 fighters, 77 dive bombers, and 54 torpedo bombers at extreme range. The strike reaches the Japanese as the sun is setting. They find Carrier Division 2 first, consisting of Hiyō, Junyō, and Ryūhō with battleship Nagato, heavy cruiser Mogami, and eight destroyers.

 

Hiyō and Junyō from heavy cruiser Maya in May, 1944

 

- Ozawa gets about 75 aircraft aloft, and they intercept the Americans very close to the fleet, disrupting the strikes somewhat but taking heavy losses.

 

- Hiyō is struck by two bombs from USS Enterprise’s air group, one on the flight deck and one on the island that wounds the commanding officer and kills nearly everyone else. Shortly afterward, six TBFs from Belleau Wood sweep in to point blank range with two being shot down. One puts a torpedo into Hiyō’s starboard engine room. At first it seems that Hiyō, although slowed, will survive, but as with the carriers yesterday, gasoline fumes build up and a fuel-air explosion turns her into an inferno. She sinks with the loss of 247 men.

 

- Junyō is attacked by dive bombers from several carriers with near misses buckling the flight deck and causing minor flooding in the engine room. She is struck on the smokestack by one or two 500 lb bombs from an SBD Dauntless that blows it overboard.

 

 

Junyō after the battle

 

- Ryūhō is attacked by four bomb-loaded TBFs from USS Enterprise and suffers slight damage from near-misses.

 

- Battleship Haruna and light carrier Chiyoda are attacked by planes from Bunker Hill, Cabot, and Monterey. Chiyoda is struck by one bomb on the flight deck aft that starts a moderate fire that is brought under control. The bomb kills twenty men and wounded thirty, and destroys two aircraft. Haruna is struck by bombs on the No.4 turret and quarterdeck and by several near misses. Fifteen crewmen are killed and a powder magazine is flooded, but the battleship is able to maintain 27 knots. Heavy cruiser Maya is also damaged by near misses. Battleship Kongō has near misses but no damage.

 

Battleship Kongō and light carrier Chiyoda under attack

 

- Fleet carrier Zuikaku is attacked by aircraft from Hornet, Yorktown, and Belleau Wood, but she evades numerous bombs and torpedoes due to her high speed and maneuverability. She receives a single 500 lb bomb hit aft of the island that explodes in the hangar, miraculously not harming an AA crew ten feet away due to the newly installed splinter shields. Zuikaku will spend several hours fighting the fire started but she will be saved.

 

- The replenishment group is attacked by aircraft from USS Wasp. TBF Avengers and SB2C Helldivers sink fleet oiler Seiyo Maru and bring oiler Gen’yo Maru to a halt with engines wrecked. The latter is scuttled by destroyer Uzuki.

 

 

- By the end of the day the Mobile Fleet has only 25 fighters and 10 bombers or torpedo planes, and 12 floatplanes operational. Ozawa briefly orders an attempt at surface engagement but Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet Soemu Toyoda orders him to disengage.

 

- American losses to fighters and AA during the attacks are unknown but more than eighty aircraft (more than a third) do not return in the gathering darkness. Many aircraft run out of fuel while searching for friendly carriers and Vice Admiral Mitscher orders the lights of his carriers turned on to guide the aviators home, accepting the risk of submarine attack. Admiral Spruance will order extraordinary rescue efforts and all but 49 of the missing aircrew will be rescued over the next several days.

 

- Total Japanese air casualties are about 476 aircraft and 445 aviators, versus 130 aircraft and 76 aviators for the Americans. The loss of Japanese carrier aircrew is so great that the battle spells the effective end of Japanese carrier power.

 

- Admiral Spruance will be heavily criticized by many officers including Admiral Halsey and Admiral John Towers (Nimitz’ deputy who demands that Spruance be relieved, preferably by himself) for not attacking earlier and destroying the entire Japanese fleet, especially since the position of single ship in the Mobile Fleet had been pinpointed earlier by radio direction finding.

 

- Admirals Nimitz, King, and Richmond Turner on the other hand support Spruance as he had held to his primary mission to protect the invasion forces and the Japanese have been known to use deception broadcasts in order to lure battle forces away from the battle area.

 

Zuikaku under attack 20 June 44"

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[80 years ago today] "• US Navy Commander Air Solomons (ComAirSols) is given a demonstration of the unmanned Interstate TDR drone by Special Air Task Group One. One fails on take-off, but three others successfully strike the beached freighter Yamazuki Maru on Guadalcanal.

 

 

- Nearly two hundred drones will be built and several used in combat, but the program will be cancelled later in the year with the remainder expended as AA targets.

 

• The Japanese Navy directs Mitsubishi to halt development of the A7M fighter design and instead concentrate on more A6M5 production. Mitsubishi will be able to secure permission to continue the A7M project using existing engines rather than developing a new one. The A7M production plant at Nagoya will be wrecked by an earthquake in December, 1944 and the aircraft will never see combat."

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[80 years ago today] "• A Navy PB4Y Liberator takes off from Stickell Field, Eniwetok at night with a strong crosswind and crashes with a full load of fuel and bombs (2,000 lbs over its recommended weight limit) amid 340 planes in the carrier aircraft replacement pool area; 16 Hellcats, 11 Wildcats, 15 Helldivers, and 42 Avengers are destroyed. Another 22 aircraft are damaged but repairable. Eight of the bomber crew are killed but due to the time of crash, no-one on the ground was hurt.

 

• B-29s begin flying missions from Saipan."

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I almost feel sorry for the Japanese.

 

F4Us and F6Fs being prepped for deployment to the Pacific 1944