Misplaced Pages

#435564

64-397: 1 minelayer 3 destroyers 2 kaibokan escort ships 1 minesweeper 2 subchasers 3 gunboats The Take-Ichi sendan ( Japanese : 竹一船団 , lit.   ' Bamboo Number One convoy ' ) was a Japanese naval convoy of World War II . The convoy left occupied Shanghai on 17 April 1944, carrying two infantry divisions to reinforce Japan's defensive positions in

128-641: A German aircraft in a campaign of mining the Thames Estuary in 1939 landed in a mudflat, where disposal experts determined how it worked, which allowed Britain to fashion appropriate mine countermeasures . The British Royal Air Force minelaying operations were codenamed "Gardening". As well as mining the North Sea and approaches to German ports, mines were laid in the Danube River near Belgrade , Yugoslavia , starting on 8 April 1944, to block

192-547: A Japanese officer in Manila accidentally divulging information and Allied spies working on the Manila waterfront radioing messages about the convoy's composition and departure. The meeting concluded that Allied spies were responsible for the convoy's detection, and the Japanese military's codes were not changed. Some of the surviving elements of the 32nd and 35th Divisions later saw action against American forces. The 35th Division

256-567: A half artillery battalions. Only four of the six 35th Division infantry battalions which sailed in the convoy reached Halmahera and much of the division's artillery was lost. The loss of the Take Ichi convoy greatly assisted U.S. Army general, Douglas MacArthur 's, double invasions of Hollandia and Aitape on 22 April 1944, hundreds of kilometers to the west of the previous battle line in eastern New Guinea . MacArthur's forces were able to rapidly advance westward with minimal casualties within

320-761: A large number of other vessels: USS  Midway , USS  Curts , USS  Rodney M. Davis , USS  Thach , USS  Arkansas , USS  McClusky , USS  St. Louis , USS  San Bernardino , MV  1st Lt Lummus , MV  American Condor , USS  Niagara Falls , USNS  Ponchatoula , USNS Passumpsic , USNS  Hassayampa , USS  Haleakala , USNS  Spica , USS  Cape Cod . (CNA, 1994, 113) Further operations included JTF Marianas (August–September 1992) and JTF Hawaii (September–October 1992). Other contingency operation after 1991 included Operation Sea Angel (Bangladesh relief) (led by Commander III Marine Expeditionary Force ), Operation Eastern Exit , and involvement in

384-613: A low priority on protecting merchant shipping from submarine attack before and during the early years of the war and convoys were not routinely assembled until 1943. The Grand Escort Headquarters was formed in late 1943 to coordinate convoys and implement a standard doctrine. The escort-of-convoy headquarters was also established in April 1944 to provide a pool of senior commanders who were available to command convoys, though none had any experience with convoy operations or anti-submarine warfare. Attacks on merchant shipping during February 1944 led

448-531: A mission to deliver aircraft to Wake Island , while Lexington had just departed on a similar mission to Midway . The Amphibious Force was formally known as Commander, Amphibious Forces, Pacific Fleet ( ComPhibPac ). On 7 December 1941 the Amphibious Force comprised the Army's 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Lewis, under Army operational control, the 2nd Marine Division , the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing ,

512-530: A submarine's torpedo tubes, such as the Stonefish , allow any submarine to be a minelayer. In modern times, few navies worldwide still possess minelaying vessels. The United States Navy , for example, uses aircraft to lay sea mines instead. Mines themselves have evolved from purely passive to active; for example the US CAPTOR (enCAPsulated TORpedo) that sits as a mine until detecting a target, then launches

576-419: A third transport. One of the Japanese destroyers counterattacked Gurnard and forced Andrews to break off his attack. The destroyer was traveling at too great a speed for her detection gear to function, however, and did not damage the submarine, despite dropping approximately 100 depth charges . Gurnard rose to periscope depth two hours later and found that a major effort to rescue troops and equipment from

640-424: A torpedo. A few navies still have dedicated minelayers in commission, including those of South Korea , Poland , Sweden and Finland ; countries with long, shallow coastlines where sea mines are most effective. Other navies have plans to create improvised minelayers in times of war, for example by rolling sea-mines into the sea from the vehicle deck through the open aft doors of a Roll-on/roll-off ferry. In 1984,

704-759: Is a theater-level component command of the United States Navy , located in the Pacific Ocean . It provides naval forces to the Indo-Pacific Command . Fleet headquarters is at Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam , Hawaii , with large secondary facilities at Naval Air Station North Island , California . A Pacific Fleet was created in 1907 when the Asiatic Squadron and the Pacific Squadron were combined. In 1910,

SECTION 10

#1732772303436

768-762: The Mayaguez Incident of 1975, as well as post-Vietnam related operations such as Operation New Arrivals . The RIMPAC exercise series began in 1971. On 7 March 1984, the Secretaries of Transportation and Navy signed a Memorandum of Agreement which created the Maritime Defense Zones (MDZ). The Pacific MDZ is an echelon three Navy command under the Commander U.S. Pacific Fleet. The Pacific MDZ has responsibility for coastal defense up to 200 nautical miles (370 km; 230 mi) around

832-674: The Battle of Dutch Harbor . The Submarine Force began a sustained campaign of commerce raiding against Japan's merchant marine , beginning the first day of the war, which ultimately claimed 1,314 ships totalling about 5.3 million tons (by the imperfect postwar reckoning of the Joint Army-Navy Assessment Committee , JANAC). The West Loch disaster occurred at Pearl Harbor on 21 May 1944. The Pacific Fleet took part in Operation Magic Carpet ,

896-912: The Battle of Guam , the Marshalls-Gilberts raids , the Doolittle Raid , the Solomon Islands campaign , the Battle of the Coral Sea , the Battle of Midway , the Battle of the Eastern Solomons , the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands , the Battle of the Philippine Sea , the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign , the Battle of Leyte Gulf , and the Battle of Okinawa . More minor battles included

960-970: The French battleship  Bouvet in the Dardanelles on 18 March 1915. In World War II, the British employed the Abdiel minelayers both as minelayers and as transports to isolated garrisons, such as Malta and Tobruk . Their combination of high speed (up to 40 knots) and carrying capacity was highly valued. The French used the same concept for the cruiser Pluton . A naval minelayer can vary considerably in size, from coastal boats of several hundred tonnes in displacement to destroyer -like ships of several thousand tonnes displacement. Apart from their loads of sea mines, most would also carry other weapons for self-defense, with some armed well enough to carry out other combat operations besides minelaying, such as

1024-825: The Libyan Navy was suspected of having mined the Red Sea a few nautical miles south of the Suez Canal using the Ro-Ro ferry Ghat , other nations suspected of having similar wartime plans include Iran and North Korea. Beginning in World War II , military aircraft were used to deliver naval mines by dropping them, attached to a parachute . Germany, Britain and the United States made significant use of aerial minelaying. A new type of magnetic mine dropped by

1088-485: The Long Beach Naval Shipyard . Light cruisers, destroyers and submarines were stationed at San Diego . During the summer of 1940, as part of the U.S. response to Japanese expansionism , the fleet was instructed to take an "advanced" position at Pearl Harbor , Hawaii. Admiral James O. Richardson , the fleet's commander, strongly opposed long-term basing at Pearl Harbor, feeling that it would leave

1152-596: The Pacific , the US dropped thousands of mines in Japanese home waters , contributing to that country's defeat. Aerial mining was also used in the Korean and Vietnam Wars . In Vietnam, rivers and coastal waters were extensively mined with a modified bomb called a destructor that proved very successful. Some examples of minelaying vehicles: United States Pacific Fleet The United States Pacific Fleet ( USPACFLT )

1216-461: The Philippines and western New Guinea . United States Navy (USN) submarines attacked the convoy on 26 April and 6 May, sinking four transports and killing more than 4,000 soldiers. These losses caused the convoy to be diverted to Halmahera , where the surviving soldiers and their equipment were unloaded. The Take Ichi convoy's losses had important strategic results. The failure to bring

1280-738: The Somali Civil War – 'Restore Hope'. During 'Restore Hope,' Navy command arrangements underwent a number of changes during the operation. At the start, the principal naval forces were the Ranger battle group (with Commander, Carrier Group One embarked on USS  Ranger as Commander, Naval Forces), the Kitty Hawk battle group, an amphibious task unit including USS  Tripoli , USS  Juneau , USS  Rushmore , and MV Lummus , and three ships from MPSRON TWO (MV Anderson , MV Bonnyman , and MV Phillips ). Other events led to

1344-470: The United States Navy ships of Mine Squadron One at Portland , England, Admiral Sims used the term "mine layer" while the introduction speaks of the men assembled from the "mine planters". During and after that war the term "mine planter" became particularly associated with defensive coastal fortifications. The term "minelayer" was applied to vessels deploying both defensive- and offensive mine barrages and large scale sea mining. "Minelayer" lasted well past

SECTION 20

#1732772303436

1408-484: The 2nd Defense Battalion (see Marine defense battalions ), and a depot. One of PhibPac's subordinate commands during World War II was Transports, Amphibious Force, Pacific Fleet, or TransPhibPac. The commander of TransPhibPac was known as ComTransPhibPac. In addition to the ships assigned directly to the Pacific Fleet, Destroyer Division 80, consisting of the destroyers Schley , Chew , Ward and Allen ,

1472-586: The 32nd Division and an unknown number of men from the 35th Division. Decoded Japanese Army Water Transport Code messages also provided the Allies with the convoy's route, speed, daily noon positions and destination. This "extraordinary intelligence coup" was passed to the relevant commands on 2 May and the USN positioned submarines to ambush the Japanese ships. The Take Ichi convoy suffered a devastating submarine attack on 6 May. On that day, USS  Gurnard intercepted

1536-444: The 5,425- ton freighter SS  Yoshida Maru No. 1 , which was carrying an entire regiment of the 32nd Division. All 3,000 soldiers onboard drowned when the ship sank quickly. The remaining Japanese ships continued to Manila, arriving there on 29 April. The 32nd Division's destination changed during the voyage from Shanghai to Manila. Imperial General Headquarters was concerned that the increasing difficulty of shipping units towards

1600-427: The 6th Escort Convoy Command. Seven of the transports were traveling to Manila only and the 32nd and 35th Divisions were each carried by four vessels. Allied code breakers decrypted radio signals relating to the convoy's departure and subsequent intercepts allowed radio traffic analysts to follow its progress south. Intelligence from the intercepted radio signals was used to guide the submarine USS  Jack toward

1664-720: The Fleet consisted of the Battle Force, Scouting Force , Base Force, Amphibious Force ( ComPhibPac ), Cruiser Force ( COMCRUPAC ), Destroyer Force ( COMDESPAC ), and the Submarine Force ( COMSUBPAC ). Also in Hawaii was the Fourteenth Naval District , commanded by Rear Admiral Claude C. Bloch . § = Divisional flagship These nine battleships were intended to counterbalance the ten battleships of

1728-552: The IJN to allocate more escort ships to each convoy and it was hoped that conducting fewer convoys would also reduce the number of targets available to submarines. While Japanese officers attributed a drop in sinkings during March to the changed tactics, this was actually due to the U.S. Pacific Fleet 's submarines being diverted to support raids conducted by the Fast Carrier Task Force that month. The Take Ichi convoy

1792-539: The Imperial Japanese Navy. At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor , Pennsylvania was in dry dock undergoing maintenance, and Colorado was in the midst of a refit at Bremerton Navy Yard , Washington . When the attack took place, all three carriers were absent – Saratoga was in San Diego collecting her air group following a major refit, Enterprise was en route back to Hawaii following

1856-631: The Japanese Combined Fleet carried out the attack on Pearl Harbor, drawing the United States into World War II in the Pacific. The Pacific Fleet's Battle Line took the brunt of the attack, with two battleships destroyed, two salvageable but requiring lengthy reconstruction, and four more lightly to moderately damaged, forcing the U.S. Navy to rely primarily on aircraft carriers and submarines for many months afterward. Subsequently, Pacific Fleet engagements during World War II included

1920-581: The Japanese ships in the Celebes Sea near the northeastern tip of Celebes . Gurnard ' s captain—Commander Herb Andrews—submerged his boat and made a cautious approach to avoid detection by aircraft. He reached a firing position four hours later and fired six torpedoes at two transports. Only one of these torpedoes struck its mark, and a second salvo missed its intended targets but hit another transport. Andrews then turned his boat and fired further torpedoes from Gurnard' s stern torpedo tubes which hit

1984-592: The Japanese to change the composition of their convoys. During this month, over ten percent of the Japanese merchant marine was sunk by Allied submarines and air attack. These losses included several transport ships carrying reinforcements for the Marianas and Carolines. In response, the Grand Escort Fleet Headquarters increased the average size of Japanese convoys from five ships to "large" convoys of ten to twenty vessels. This change allowed

Take Ichi convoy - Misplaced Pages Continue

2048-594: The Naval portion of the Joint and Combined Exercise Northern Edge , and coordinates high-visibility U.S. Navy ship visits throughout Alaska in support of public relations and recruiting initiatives. The very large PACEX 89 in the North Pacific involved the USN, Canadian Navy, Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force , and ROK Navy. At the end of Exercise PACEX '89 a 54-ship formation was assembled for photos. It included

2112-517: The Pacific Fleet, notably USS  Mobile Bay , a Ticonderoga -class cruiser , provided support to the entry of INTERFET in East Timor in 1999. Between 25 and 27 March 2006, Carrier Strike Group Nine participated in a series of anti-submarine warfare exercises (ASW) in Hawaiian waters while en route to the U.S. Seventh Fleet 's area of responsibility. In addition to the strike group,

2176-468: The Philippine Sea, chopped to JTF Philippines. During the operations, the carriers maintained deck alerts and 24-hour coverage of Manila with E-2C aircraft. Around 10 September 1990, USS  Princeton and USS  Reuben James visited Vladivostok . This marked the first United States Navy visit to the Soviet Union 's Pacific port of Vladivostok since before World War II. Before the visit

2240-491: The Take Ichi convoy was ordered to dock at Halmahera in the eastern NEI rather than continue to New Guinea. The surviving ships arrived there on 9 May. Both divisions and their equipment were unloaded and the convoy sailed for Manila on 13 May, arriving on 20 May without further loss. The attacks on the Take Ichi convoy blunted the 32nd and 35th Divisions' fighting power. The 32nd Division's combat elements were reduced from nine to five infantry battalions and from four to one and

2304-553: The U.S. Pacific Fleet's surface ships were to be reorganized into six core battle groups and eight destroyer squadrons. Permanent core battle groups were to include a battle group commander, aircraft carrier, carrier air wing and at least two cruisers. Commander, Naval Surface Forces Pacific : In 1996 two carrier battle groups were sent to the Taiwan area during the Third Taiwan Straits Crisis . Later ships of

2368-545: The U.S. West Coast, Aleutian Islands, and Hawaii during times of hostility. On 1 October 1990, Commander U.S. Naval Forces Alaska (COMUSNAVAK) was established as the Naval Component Commander to Commander, Alaskan Command (COMALCOM). Since its inception, COMUSNAVAK has grown to become responsible for coordinating all Navy activity in the Alaska and Aleutian area, for detailed planning and coordination for

2432-635: The World War II Romanian minelayer Amiral Murgescu , which was successfully employed as a convoy escort due to her armament (2 × 105 mm, 2 × 37 mm, 4 × 20 mm, 2 machine guns, 2 depth charge throwers). Submarines can also be minelayers. The first submarine to be designed as such was the Russian submarine  Krab . USS  Argonaut  (SM-1) was another such minelaying submarine. Although there are no modern dedicated submarine minelayers, mines sized to be deployed from

2496-551: The convoy, and she made contact with it off the northwest coast of Luzon on the morning of 26 April. The submarine's captain— Commander (later rear admiral) Tommy Dykers—attempted to maneuver into a position to attack the convoy but lost contact when he was forced to evade a Japanese submarine. An aircraft sighted and attacked Jack a few minutes later, but the convoy did not change course. Dykers regained contact at midday after sighting Shirataka' s heavy smoke exhaust and surfaced an hour before sunset to get into an attack position. He

2560-506: The departure of the carriers and, as a result, Commander, Naval Forces responsibilities devolved first to Commander, Carrier Group Three, on Kitty Hawk , and thence to Commander, Amphibious Group Three. Finally Commander, Amphibious Squadron 3 became COMNAVFOR on 15 January with the departure of COMPHIGRU THREE after the completion of the MPF offload. (CNA, 1994, 168) In 1995, Pacific Fleet surface ships were reshuffled. Effective 1 October 1995,

2624-520: The flagship, USS  Blue Ridge , the USS ; Enterprise Battle Group, the USS  Carl Vinson Battle Group, two battleship surface action groups formed around USS  New Jersey and USS  Missouri , and a Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force task force. Missouri and New Jersey performed a simultaneous gunfire demonstration for the aircraft carriers Enterprise and Nimitz during PACEX. The highlight of PacEx for Missouri

Take Ichi convoy - Misplaced Pages Continue

2688-589: The fleet vulnerable to Japanese attack, and personally protested the move in Washington, D.C. Political considerations were thought sufficiently important that he was relieved by Admiral Husband E. Kimmel , who was in command at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor . The Pacific Fleet was formally recreated on 1 February 1941, when General Order 143 split the United States Fleet into separate Atlantic, Pacific, and Asiatic Fleets . On 7 December,

2752-535: The front line meant that it would not be possible to complete the planned reinforcement of the "absolute zone of national defense" before Allied forces reached the area. As a result, it was decided to use the division to reinforce the Second Army in western New Guinea and the eastern Netherlands East Indies (NEI)—which were under direct threat of attack—rather than send it to Mindanao. The Take Ichi convoy resumed its journey to New Guinea on 1 May. Its composition

2816-477: The island. Much of the division later saw action on the neighboring island of Morotai , where it suffered heavy losses while trying to counterattack an Allied force which had established a base there during September and October 1944. Minelayer An army's special-purpose combat engineering vehicles used to lay landmines are sometimes called "minelayers". Before World War I, mine ships were termed mine planters generally. For example, in an address to

2880-650: The last common use of "mine planter" in the late 1940s. The most common use of the term "minelayer" is a naval ship used for deploying sea mines . Russian minelayers were highly efficient sinking the Japanese battleships Hatsuse and Yashima in 1904 in the Russo-Japanese War . In the Gallipoli Campaign of World War I , mines laid by the Ottoman Empire's Navy 's Nusret sank HMS  Irresistible , HMS  Ocean , and

2944-529: The next five months all the way to Morotai , just a short distance from Halmahera, partly as a result of the failure by these Japanese troops to be able to reach most of western New Guinea. The destruction of the Take Ichi convoy also forced the Japanese leadership to acknowledge that it was no longer possible to reinforce or defend most of western New Guinea. While the Second Area Army 's commander, Lieutenant General Korechika Anami , requested that

3008-512: The perimeter which had been planned in March. Japanese naval staff officers gathered in Manila in June to analyze the Take Ichi convoy. The officers believed that Japan's communication codes were secure and discussed alternative explanations for the convoy's detection. These explanations included the increase in radio signals at the time the convoy sailed being detected by Allied radio traffic analysts,

3072-778: The return of U.S. servicemen, after the end of the Second World War. The organization of the Pacific Fleet in January 1947 is shown in Hal M. Friedman's Arguing over the American Lake: Bureaucracy and Rivalry in the U.S. Pacific, 1945–1947. Since 1950, the Pacific Fleet has been involved in the Korean War , the Vietnam War , the two Taiwan Straits Crises , and a number of other operations including

3136-541: The shipments of petroleum products from the refineries at Ploiești , Romania. "Gardening" operations by the RAF were also sometimes used to assist in code breaking activities at Bletchley Park . Mines would be laid, at Bletchley Park's request, in specific locations. Resulting German radio transmissions were then monitored for clues which could help deciphering messages encoded by the Germans using Enigma machines . In

3200-654: The ships of the First Squadron were organized back into a separate Asiatic Fleet . The General Order 94 of 6 December 1922 organized the United States Fleet , with the Battle Force as the Pacific presence. Until May 1940, the Battle Force was stationed on the West Coast of the United States . Headquarters, battleships, aircraft carriers and heavy cruisers were stationed at San Pedro close to

3264-411: The surviving ships attempt to carry the 35th Division to New Guinea, this was rejected by Imperial General Headquarters. The losses inflicted on the convoy also contributed to the Imperial General Headquarters' decision to move the perimeter of the "absolute zone of national defense" back to a line extending from Sorong to Halmahera. This represented a 1,000 km (600 mi) strategic withdrawal from

SECTION 50

#1732772303436

3328-422: The torpedoed transports was under way. That night, the submarine torpedoed one of the crippled transports which was still afloat. Gurnard' s attack sank transports Aden Maru (5,825 tons) and Taijima Maru (6,995 tons) as well as the cargo ship Tenshinzan Marau (6,886 tons). While the rescue effort was relatively successful, 1,290 troops were killed and much of their equipment was lost. Due to its heavy losses,

3392-513: The two divisions to their destination without loss contributed to the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters ' decision to move Japan's defensive perimeter back by 1,000 km (600 mi). The divisions' combat power was also blunted by their losses, and while they both saw action against United States Army forces, they contributed little to Japan's war effort. In September 1943, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) agreed to establish defensive positions along what

3456-543: Was a port visit in Pusan , Republic of Korea . Other operations undertaken since include participation in the Alaskan Oil Spill Joint Task Force, including participation of Commander, Amphibious Group Three, as deputy CJTF. This was the defence response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill of March 1989. Also, the Pacific Fleet was involved in Joint Task Force Philippines during the December 1989 coup attempt there, which involved two carrier battle groups, USS Midway and USS Enterprise -with their associated air wings operating in

3520-632: Was a veteran of several previous operations, including the Battle of Wake Island —was appointed to command the convoy. The escort force was the newly-established 6th Escort Convoy Command and included Kajioka's flagship, the coal burning minelayer Shirataka , as well as destroyers Asakaze , Shiratsuyu and Fujinami , ocean escort ships ( kaibokan ) Kurahashi , CD-20 and CD-22 , minesweeper W-2 , subchasers CH-37 and CH-38 and gunboats Uji , Ataka and Tama Maru No. 7 . The Take Ichi convoy sailed from Shanghai bound for Manila on 17 April, and initially comprised 15 transports and

3584-596: Was assembled at Shanghai in April 1944. Its task was to carry the 32nd Division to Mindanao and the main body of the 35th Division to western New Guinea. Both divisions had been formed in 1939 and were veterans of fighting in China during the Second Sino-Japanese War . One of the 35th Division's three infantry regiments was detached from the division in early April and sent to the Palau islands , arriving there later that month without loss. The two divisions embarked on large transport ships protected by an unusually strong escort force. Rear Admiral Sadamichi Kajioka —who

3648-401: Was assigned directly to the Fourteenth Naval District for the defence of the base and the fleet. In December 1941, the fleet consisted of nine battleships , three aircraft carriers , 12 heavy cruisers , eight light cruisers , 50 destroyers , 33 submarines , and 100 patrol bombers . This was approximately the fleet's strength at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. That day,

3712-496: Was collected by intercepting and decrypting encoded radio transmissions. The IJN routinely broadcast the location and intended route of convoys under its protection and decrypting these messages allowed Allied naval commanders to alert submarines in the vicinity of convoys. The submarine commanders were free to plan their interception and attack where conditions were most favorable. The IJN's faulty anti-submarine doctrine also contributed to Japan's shipping losses. The Navy had placed

3776-714: Was completed, the crew received word that their Pacific cruise was canceled. They returned to Long Beach and joined the USS  Ranger Battle Group preparing to deploy to the Persian Gulf . During Operation Fiery Vigil in June 1991, the following vessels and groups participated in the sealift phase of the evacuation: the Abraham Lincoln battle group (COMCARGRU 3 embarked): USS  Abraham Lincoln , USS  Long Beach , USS  Lake Champlain , USS  Merrill , USS  Gary , USS  Ingraham , USS  Roanoke , Amphibious Ready Group Alpha (COMPHIBRON 3 embarked): USS  Peleliu , USS  Cleveland , USS  Comstock , USS  Bristol County , and

3840-442: Was delayed by shipping shortages, however. Efforts to reinforce the Marianas and Caroline islands were assigned the highest priority. The units selected for western New Guinea remained in China until April 1944 before ships became available to transport them. By early 1944, Allied submarines were sinking large numbers of Japanese ships. Their activities were frequently guided by " Magic " intelligence relating to ship movements which

3904-411: Was forced to submerge, however, when another aircraft attacked the submarine. Jack surfaced again after dark, and successfully attacked after the moon set. Dykers found that the Japanese escorts were alert, and was unable to penetrate the convoy. As a result, he attacked three times by firing a total of 19 torpedoes from long range into the mass of ships at the center of the convoy. These attacks sank

SECTION 60

#1732772303436

3968-432: Was moved forward from Halmahera to Sorong in small ships during May. The regiment which had been sent to the Palaus in April was also successfully transferred to New Guinea. Elements of the 35th Division subsequently fought in the battles of Biak and Sansapor , but most of the division was stationed on the Vogelkop Peninsula , where it was isolated from September 1944. The 32nd Division was retained at Halmahera to garrison

4032-495: Was now eight transports (one of the Manila-bound transports having replaced Yoshida Maru ) under the protection of Shirataka , Asakaze , Shiratsuyu , minesweeper W-22 , CH-37 and CH-38 . The convoy took a special route planned by the Third Southern Expeditionary Fleet to reduce the risk of submarine attack. U.S. signals intelligence operators again detected the convoy's departure. On 2 May, analysts estimated its size as nine transports and seven escorts carrying 12,784 troops of

4096-417: Was termed Japan's "absolute zone of national defense". The zone's perimeter reached from the Marianas Islands and Caroline Islands to western New Guinea and the Banda and Flores Seas . At this time there were few Army units in the area, and it was decided to move combat units from China and Manchuria to protect the airfields that were the basis of Japan's defensive plans. The movement of these troops

#435564