Naval Battles of the Second World War: Pacific and Far East

Introduction

This is the second of two volumes covering the major naval engagements of the Second World War. The first of these included actions which mainly involved the Royal Navy in the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, as well as the Mediterranean Sea. The United States Navy was also involved in the Atlantic and, later, in the Mediterranean. However, it was in the vast expanses of the Pacific, where for almost four years a great maritime campaign ebbed and flowed, that its greatest battles were fought and these are described in this volume. For convenience the battles are described in three sections. The first covers the period from Pearl Harbor to Midway during which the US Navy and Royal Navy attempted to stem the seemingly inexorable advance of Japanese forces throughout the Pacific region and in South East Asia. The second describes the long and bloody campaign in the South West Pacific where the US Navy honed its skills in numerous hard-fought engagements and eventually turned a bloody defeat into a hard-won victory. The final section covers the great advance across the Central Pacific leading up to the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the greatest naval battle ever fought. The latter was made up of four widely departed actions but the outcome was the virtual annihilation of the Imperial Japanese Navy as an effective fighting force. Also included in these sections are a few actions involving the Royal Navy, which, for the most part, played only a supporting role in this theatre of operations.

The initial Japanese advances in 1941 and early 1942, followed by those of the Allied forces as they gradually took the offensive, depended almost entirely on amphibious operations and assaults. These relied on naval and maritime forces to transport troops and put them ashore, often against determined opposition. However, such operations were not in themselves naval battles and are not therefore described here. In some cases, such as the Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies and the American assault on the Mariana Islands, the threat or landing of amphibious forces caused a reaction which resulted in an engagement of the opposing naval forces, and these battles are described.

The battle descriptions are intended as a basic guide to the main naval engagements in each theatre of operations covered. Each is accompanied by a map showing, in simplified form, the general movements of the forces involved in the action but are not intended to show the detailed track of individual ships. For more information there are numerous books that describe these actions in much greater detail and some of these are listed in the bibliography. The final section of this book records very brief details of most of the ships named in the battle accounts.

Part One

Pearl Harbor to Midway

The outbreak of war in Europe in 1939 produced mixed reactions in America. While President Roosevelt was sympathetic to Britain and France, he was not in a position to commit American forces to the struggle. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Japan’s military government was keen to take advantage of the European powers’ preoccupation with affairs at home. In reaction to Japan’s obvious intentions, the United States instituted an embargo on oil, iron, steel and other important commodities from 1940 onwards, and the British and Dutch governments introduced similar policies the following year. As these restrictions took effect, the flow of raw materials, particularly oil, was almost halted and by mid-1941 the Japanese government was faced with a clear decision – either they must renounce their plans of aggression and conquest or they must attack and seize oil-producing areas such as the Netherlands East Indies for their own use.

American plans in the event of hostilities centred on the strategically important Philippines. Codenamed Rainbow 5, the plan called for the occupation of the Japanese-mandated Marshall Islands and Caroline Islands while the Pacific fleet based at Pearl Harbor prepared to cross the Pacific to the Philippines, where national and US forces under General MacArthur would hold out until relieved. The key to this strategy was the powerful US Pacific Fleet, which comprised no less than eight battleships and three aircraft carriers, and its elimination was therefore a high priority as far as the Japanese were concerned. Thus it was, at dawn on the infamous 7 December 1941, that Japanese carrier-based aircraft launched their overwhelmingly successful surprise attack and most of the Pacific Fleet’s battleships were sunk or disabled. Elsewhere, Japan launched simultaneous attacks against the Philippines, Malay and Singapore, and in the process sank the two British capital ships sent out as a supposed deterrent. These moves were quickly followed up by the occupation of the Netherlands East Indies and most of New Guinea. A hastily set-up Allied joint command was powerless to prevent this and a mixed force under command of a Dutch admiral was decimated at the Battle of the Java Sea. In the Philippines, despite heroic stands at Bataan and Corregidor, all American resistance ended on 6 May 1942. As Admiral Yamamoto had predicted, for six months Japanese naval forces ranged almost unopposed across the Pacific and Indian oceans. After Pearl Harbor, Admiral Nagumo’s carrier task force played a vital part in the East Indies campaign and then roamed westwards towards Ceylon and the Bay of Bengal. This foray caused the British to withdraw their Far Eastern Fleet to Diego Suarez and left the Japanese as masters of both oceans.

In amongst all this bad news was one stroke of luck of which the Americans were eventually able to take advantage. When Pearl Harbor was attacked, all US aircraft carriers were absent and these ships were able to form the nucleus of attempts to halt the Japanese advance. The other priceless advantage held by the Allies was their ability to read the Japanese ‘Purple’ code so that to some extent they were able to anticipate enemy movements. This was one of the factors leading to the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942, which was significant as being the first naval battle fought entirely by aircraft in which the surface fleets never came in sight of each other and also because it was the first example of a Japanese invasion force being halted. Despite the loss of the Lexington, the US Navy was able to field three carriers only a few weeks later and, again warned by Purple decodes, was able to inflict a crushing defeat on the Japanese Combined Fleet at Midway. The following section describes these early battles of the Pacific War in which a period of almost endless Allied defeats and losses was eventually stemmed and the first hopes of victory began to emerge.

The Attack on Pearl Harbor

Date: 7 December 1941

Location: Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaiian Islands

Allied Forces

Commander: Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, C-in-C Pacific Fleet

Ships: Battleships: Arizona , Nevada , Tennessee , West Virginia , Maryland , Oklahoma , California , Pennsylvania . Cruisers: New Orleans , San Francisco , Helena , Honolulu , Detroit , Phoenix , St Louis , Raleigh . Over 30 destroyers together with submarines and auxiliaries

Axis Forces

Commander: Vice Admiral Chūichi Nagumo, Commander 1st Naval Air Fleet

Ships: Aircraft carriers: Akagi , Kaga , Hiryū , Sōryū , Shōkaku , Zuikaku . Battleships: Hiei , Kirishima . Cruisers: Chikuma , Tone , Abukuma . Destroyers: Tanikaze , Urakaze , Isokaze , Hamakaze , Kasumi , Arare , Kagerō , Shiranui , Akigumo , Akebono , Ushio . Submarines: I-19 , I-21 , I-23

BACKGROUND: If Japanese expansionist plans were to succeed, they would have to neutralise the US fleet. Admiral Yamamoto, Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet, therefore began to plan for a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Throughout the summer and autumn of 1941, Japanese naval aircrews practised their attack techniques at Kagoshima, chosen for its resemblance to Pearl Harbor. A full-scale rehearsal for Operation Z, as it was codenamed, took place on 7 November. The Pearl Harbor striking force then assembled at Tankan Bay in the Kurils, off the northern tip of the Japanese mainland, from whence it sortied on 26 November. No less than six aircraft carriers with a total of 423 aircraft were escorted by ten destroyers and a light cruiser, all under the command of Vice Admiral Chūichi Nagumo. Support forces included two battleships and two heavy cruisers as well as submarines, tankers and supply ships. Complete radio silence was maintained for the next eleven days and the fleet initially steered well north of the Pacific shipping lanes, hidden by mist, low cloud and rain. On 3 December, the force altered course to the south-east and on the evening of the 6th was just less than 500 miles north of Oahu. By 0600 on the fateful 7 December, Nagumo’s ships were at the planned flying-off position, 275 miles north of Pearl Harbor. As dawn broke, the first wave of 183 aircraft led by Commander Mitsuo Fuchida was launched. It comprised eighty-nine Kate torpedo and high-level bombers, fifty-one Val dive-bombers and an escort of fifty-one Zero fighters.

On that fateful Sunday morning, peacetime routines continued aboard the ships of the Pacific Fleet moored on battleship row, while ashore, aircraft on the various airfields were lined up in closely packed ranks so that they could be more easily guarded. The last chance of realising what was in store was lost when reports from trainee radar operators of large numbers of aircraft approaching from the north were discounted by an inexperienced officer and the station was ordered to close down. Thus the Japanese aircraft approached the northern coast of Oahu at 0740 unhindered and split up into smaller formations to begin their attacks, the first bombs falling at 0755 as the American sailors prepared for the traditional hoisting of the colours aboard their ships at 0800. In the history of warfare, there must be no clearer example of complete and absolute surprise being achieved. Within a couple of minutes, the dramatic signal was broadcast which told the world that America was at war: ‘AIR RAID PEARL HARBOR, THIS IS NO DRILL!’

THE ACTION: As Fuchida’s aircraft approached Pear Harbor they split up into subflights, each briefed to attack a specific target. The first bombs to be released fell on the naval air headquarters on Ford Island, where the main target was the rows of Catalina flying boats. Even as these explosions shattered the peaceful Sunday morning, a skilfully co-ordinated attack was developing against the battleships moored along the south-east shore of Ford Island. Kate torpedo bombers roared in low over the water, launching their loads at short range where they could hardly miss. At the same time, Val dive-bombers fell upon the helpless battleships, almost every bomb finding a mark. Within five minutes the once proud line of battleships was reduced to a flaming mass, individual ships fighting for survival. Arizona, smothered by bombs and torpedoes,